Monday, February 25, 2008

Monday, February 25th

Okay, I got slack again.
Sorry about this, Andrea - I had a number of things going on, and blogging wasn't high on the list of "must do today" 's.
On the bright side, I did manage to send up a number of outfits for you - not that at your current age (you're a month old today - Happy Birthday!!) you're going to know or care about fashion - which believe me, is my saving grace - when you get older, if I think about sending up clothing, it's going to be in the way of a gift card - I won't embarrass you with my fashion choices.
Toys are also going to end up being your choice via gift card - no offense, but you're going to know what you want more than I will, and rather than incur your wrath I think it's easier to just send you a gift card. Unless of course, I'm sending you another bear.
Those, you're going to have to deal with.
Anyway, in the time since the last post, I've turned 47, gotten my hair highlighted, gotten talked into playing Bingo at the American Legion with Grandpa Don (and won $100), ordered a MONSTER elephant ear plant (that's going to drive the HOA up a wall), gotten involved in the Paranormal States message boards, and lost more weight.
Elaborations are forthcoming, right now I just thought I'd throw up a quick fill in.
Anyway, I have to get ready for work now...
More later.

Wednesday, February 6, 2008

Paranormal State on A&E

There's a program on A&E called "Paranormal State" - the premise is simple, it involves a team of college students investigating paranormal phenomenon and reporting on their findings, including trying to resolve issues with the phenomenon. They actually go so far as to include a hereditary Pagan (they don't go so far as to call her Wiccan) on their team, so that does win some cudos from me.
Now, I realize that with my background and experience, I have a better perspective than most on things like this; however I really take issue with what seems to be a recurring theme - that almost all the phenomenon they are dealing with is demonic in nature. Based strictly on what this show presents, you'd expect a demon under every rock. While I appreciate the fact that sensationalism sells, crap like this does nothing but bring ridicule and misinformation to something that should be studied and dealt with on an individual basis rather than putting it in one box marked DEMONIC.

It appears that the primary reason for this is due to their use of Lorraine Warren as an "expert", (to see why I put expert in quotes, check her and her late husband's work on the "Amityville Horror" case, a phenomenon itself at the time, later proven to be a fraud, to cite just one example.)

Quite frankly, I find it hard to believe that Lorraine Warren hasn't taken issue with the Pagan in the group, calling her a "Devil worshipper" or other similar stereotype.

Andrea, with any luck, this show won't be on by the time you're old enough to understand what I'm writing, and your own opinions on phenomenon like this will continue to be educated (believe me, I'm going to work damn hard on that one. According to your chart, you have great potential and I for one won't see it wasted or warped.) I've already warned your mother about this, so when the weirdness starts happening, we can always cite it as an "I told you so" event. I do have the feeling that your father's going to be a different story, however. Just don't scare him too badly.

Monday, February 4, 2008

February 4th

Sorry, I got a little slack about the posting - but I'll fill you in on last week - it started with a diabetes class on Monday and Tuesday, during which they started with what to expect in the way of complications in case you don't manage the disease on day one and then moved to how to manage blood sugar by label reading and portion control on day two.
All of that made sense to me, however I wasn't happy about learning that I now would essentially be required to eat 3 meals and a snack daily; in addition, the schedule they were proposing was designed with someone who works day shift in mind, not some schlub like me who works 2nd shift.
With a little tweaking, I did manage to get it worked out, however I'm still having problems with the whole "eating at least 3 times a day" thing. I've gotten by for over 30 years on coffee in the morning with my single main meal late in the day. Only rarely did I actually eat breakfast, and that was closer to brunch than breakfast.
Honestly, I am finding it the hardest thing in the world to eat after I get up. My concession to this has been to do yogurt and toast or a biscuit in the morning, since it's light and still fits into the meal plan I was given.
On the other hand, I did get some things done around the house, putting two shelves up in the kitchen to increase my storage space (wonder of wonders, I now have 2 free shelves in the pantry, in addition to increased storage under the kitchen sink for larger pots and pans)
Friday, I went to see the Dr about the results of the MRI of my shoulder - let me tell you, that was an interesting discussion, because when he opened with "I'm not sure how to tell you this..." I was honestly expecting to hear the worst - but then he followed with "nothing showed up...minor degeneration in the shoulder joint, but that wasn't near enough to cause my issues, no bone spur, nothing else out of place...so I'm at a loss to explain why it's happened"
Thankfully, he decided that the best course of action will be to start with a physical therapist, so that's next on that agenda. My insurance is just going to love me.
Then, we got to discussing my diabetes, and based on the average of my blood sugar readings according to the glucometer, he decided to increase my insulin from 10 units to 15, with the goal of getting it to 20 units to see if that will bring my readings into more of a "normal" range. (That being around 100, I'm currently averaging around 150)
I'm sure my insurance is just loving me right now...I've had a sleep study ($2500) that discovered that I sleep on my side and therefore have no problems with sleep apnea, an MRI, (another couple thousand) that discovered nothing wrong, diabetes classes ($2000), and now a physical therapist.
I hate getting old.