Merry Christmas And...

 

 

 

 

 

Merry Christmas to all who celebrate it.

Happy Hanukkah to those who celebrate it.

Hope you had a happy Festivus for the rest of us.

All the best,

Glenn B

 

 

Well, It's Almost Christmas

I sit here wishing everyone the joy of this season while also thinking very sad that for some, instead of joy, there is horror and extreme grief. I am talking about those killed or injured in an evident terrorist attack in Magdeburg, Germany by another, by my guess, follower of the so called Religion of Peace - Islam. He reportedly plowed a rental car in a large crowd at a Christmas market, more at https://www.foxnews.com/world/car-drives-idyllic-germany-christmas-market-suspected-terrorist-attack-report. If it was up to me, then hypothetically, it would be quite possible the nukes would rain down on Mecca and several other choice locations in the Middle East. If this shit keeps up, they will win in their quest to take over the planet and rid it of infidels (that would be you and me) if only because one scumbag takes out scores of innocents with each such attack. If inclined to pray, pray for the victims of that truly abhorrent attack.

 

Anyway back to being joyful:

 

My Christmas shopping is done; that is except for whatever I do on Christmas Eve. Shopping on that last day before Christmas day is a tradition for me. One I love and hope to continue for my forever; heck I have been doing it since I was a pre-teenager. While I miss even the outside chance of snowfall on Christmas Eve and or Christmas day, I can live with the expected 65 degree temp expected that day in my current neck of the woods which will make shopping on Christmas a bit easier than if snowed in. Not having to shovel is also a plus, but to be truthful, I kind of liked that chore. Somehow my aching back almost always felt better after shoveling snow.

 

Speaking of shopping on Christmas Eve, I have everything I need for everyone on my gift list except my dog and my son's dogs. Oh yeah, I probably also will get my next door neighbor's three kids something and am likely to pick up something for her too. If I am home and not at my son's place on Christmas Eve, I may ask her to take the kids along and go shopping with me - for them. Nice lady with nice kids and she has done a few favors getting my mail and such when I have been traveling. Other than that - I am done shopping unless I get something for myself. Hopefully you my readers are done with it too; it can be a bit of a hassle but then you see the smile on the faces of those to whom you give gifts, it makes it all well worth the efforts. And what is Christmas all about except the giving of gifts; after all it is the day that God the father gave his only begotten son to humanity as the best gift ever. Then the three wise men and others brought gifts to the Christ child and the tradition has not ended in well over 2,000 years. It is all about gift giving and if everyone was of that mindset, we would be better off by giving to one another than by doing all the nasty shit we sometimes do to other people.

 

This year, I hope to go to Christmas mass, maybe even midnight mass if they hold one locally. I am not very religious but many Christian values were instilled deep within me when I was younger and midnight mass was a tradition I upheld for many years maybe even a couple of decades.

 

I have not sent out a single Christmas card this year. It is not like I cannot afford them, I have dozens from the last three years. The thing is that, it has been two weeks now after my gall bladder surgery and I still fell like I just drank a quart of rat piss or worse. I have been very fatigued and still have some abdominal pains and upset. That has put me in a mood to not do much of anything; although, I have been going to the local dog parks twice a day with my mongrel Skye and I started walking her again a few days ago besides just letting her walk herself in the dog parks. Mostly, she just lies there waiting for a squirrel to appear so she can stalk it but she is always eager for us to go for a walk even if the most I can accomplish with my bum hip now is about a mile at a time.

 

This year, instead of cards, I will just send out Merry Christmas or happy Hanukkah emails. I have a little ditty and a picture of Santa for the Christmas emails:

                                        

                                     Money is tight

Times are hard

 Here's your Bidenomics

  Christmas card! 

 

I guess that may get me a well deserved lump of coal in my stocking. Which, by the way, might not be too bad considering the nights here have been somewhat cold for an old geezer like me.

As for a happy Hanukkah email, it won't have Santa's pic nor my ditty. Just for your info, Hanukkah commences on Christmas night this year. So, if you are sending out Hanukkah wishes by email, I guess do it before or by then.

More about Hanukkah here. More about Christmas (and Advent) can be found here. For the rest of us, there is Festivus. I am certain I can air grievances but also just as certain I am in no shape for the feats of strength - at least not this year.

 

 

Party hearty for Christmas, Hanukkah, or Festivus - just not too much and please don't drive unless sober.

 

All the best,

Glenn B

Been Getting Caught Up For The Five Days Lost Due To My Surgery

 It has been a busy last few days. It was not until, I guess Friday that I really started to feel up to doing just about anything that took any effort. So for the past two days and part of today so far, I have been doing things like Christmas shopping, contacting my senators to ask them to pass HR82 which would eliminate the Windfall Elimination Provision that screws federal civil service retirement system retirees out of 2/3 of their social security, trying to get others to do likewise, bidding on a firearms auction during much of yesterday, catching up on household chores, and grocery shopping.

 

Oh, did I just mention a firearms auction? Why, yes I did. I picked up several items but only had the high bid on one gun. That was an Intratec TEC-9 mini. No magazine but after that auction, I went to GunBroker and hit the buy now option for an offering of two 36 round aftermarket mags and two 32 round OEM mags.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Those are my Christmas and get well presents from me to me. Sometimes I treat myself nicely. Should be loads of fun or so I hope.

 

This is the first gun I have ever bought based largely on the fact it is tacticalcool. I turned down an offer to buy one back around 1980 when I was in the Border Patrol. The gun counter clerk at Yellowmart in El Centro, CA tried to talk me into it as a fun gun and one that could be easily altered to make it full auto (could have been a different version of the TEC-9). By the way, converting a firearm from semi-auto to full auto is not anything I recommend doing, in fact I strongly recommend you do not do so as that could wind up with you getting prison time unless Biden pardons you or commutes your sentence before he is out).) I declined because back then, like now, I prefer my pistols to have practical applications and that one does not, at least for me, as far as I can see (unless of course the Zombie Apocalypse befalls us). Thus this one is the exception.

 

 

All the best,

Glenn B

This Just Felt Wonderfully Appropriate After My Previous Post

 

All the best,

Glenn B

Oh My Terribly Aching Back & Belly!

 This past Tuesday morning 0415, I was awakened by severe back pain across the bottom of my rib cage. Took two Alleve and two Oxycodone thinking it was muscular. In about 45 minutes I had chest pains across my chest from one side to the other, about 5 minutes later at most, I had a gripping pain in the center of my abdomen just under my sternum. The pain was excruciating, a seven or eight out of ten sort of a thing and the pain pills did nothing. I headed to the local ER. After several hours there and at least a few tests like an EKG, the ER staff told me they only test for "important things" and then assured me they had done all the "importing testing". The woman then told me to see my regular doctor for further testing because the staff in the ER could not find anything wrong. I was in agony although I do think they gave me a pain medication Toradol or something along those lines and maybe a shot of morphine. They sent me on my way.

 

On Wednesday the pain was still there but had subsided much. I had a previous appointment to see my regular doc that day. I went in and explained to her nurse what took place the day  before. The doc asked me again what was up, then she asked did they do a CT scan while I was at the ER. Maybe they had done one on somebody else but most certainly not on me! She had one done at the clinic in which she works. The result was that she had her nurse wheel me right back to the ER (her office and the ER are in adjacent buildings). I was there quite a while before they ran an Ultra Sound on my abdomen. The result was negative! Yet, the bottom line of one paragraph said they suspected the same disease as noted in the CT scan (cannot think of the name in essence an infected gall bladder). The ER staff said I needed an MRI but it was too late to do one so they would do it on Thursday morning. I was admitted to the hospital. Next day they did and MRI, it agreed with the CT scan my doc had ordered. I was told I needed emergency surgery, then after more hours of waiting in pain, they told me surgery would be on Friday, two days after admission. On Friday, I was none too sure they would operate that day but they said they would at ten AM. They got me to surgery after 1030 AM.

 

All of the rest of Friday, I was in agony. The surgeon spoke to me and told me my gall bladder was "really messy" and quite deteriorated. They gave me repeated pain killers, both Morphine and hydrocodone. The pain meds did a little to alleviate the pain. They had told me chances were I'd be in surgery and on my way home hours later. That did not happen; my white blood cell count was very high and my bilirubin level was also high among other abnormal readings. Saturday was not much better, had a good amount of pain all day and night but it was getting better. By Sunday morning, I had been passing wind and that relieved lots of the pain, apparently caused by air they had pumped into my abdomen to keep it spread wide for the surgery as I understand it. I was feeling miserable but a doc told me my levels were pretty normal so I could go home, where I am right now.

 

During my whole stay and at the ER, I told several medical personnel that I had recently been diagnosed with a low level of diabetes and that I was being treated with fluconozole for a gastrointestinal fungal infection. In addition, I informed several medical personnel of the medicines I take regularly. They refused to give me Synthroid until less than an hour before they brought me to the operating room, then they gave me 25 mcg. less than normal. They never gave me Irebesartan, one of my BP meds but only gave me three of the four BP meds that I take regularly, and I guess that is the reason many if not most of my BP readings were high while in hospital. They also refused to give my fluconozole which I was taking for a gastric fungal infection. Of course, they said it was next to impossible for the fungal infection to be the cause of my gall bladder issues; my gastroenterologist had told me it was outright "impossible" that was a week or to ago. I'd love to see the results if they culture the slop that was my gall bladder. Hopefully benign as for cancer but wondering if it as due to the fungus Candida glabrata. When I told a nurse today that I had diabetes, she said there was nothing in my record about that and all along they had me on a regular diet. Luckily they told me most of my blood sugar readings were normal or close to it.

 

For well over a year now, more likely two years, as best I can recall; I have been complaining of abdominal pain, back pain, yellow or yellowish poops, an huge increase from virtually zero to lots of reflux (that a gastroenterologist recently had agreed with me was probably bile reflux). Damn these doctors. When I had told the surgeon how long I suspected I had gall bladder problems, he told me he believed that was quite likely my gall bladder was infected or otherwise deteriorating for that long due to how bad it as when he took it out. Both the surgeon and another doc told me irritation from it had started to spread to other organs.

Feeling much better now but still pretty miserable. Still have pain at two of three incision sites, one of those apparently right through or next to a hiatel hernia I have and that one hurts a lot.Very hard to fall asleep, having hot flashes or long periods of feeling heated, then cold sweats but not feverish. Also feel very restless, and cannot get to sleep although I am exhausted. Feel sort of nervous or anxious as well. I wonder if I have become addicted to the pain meds after only a few days; I hope not but I am not taking any more as the Vicodin made me hallucinate some or so the doc said that is what did it while I was in hospital last night and early today.

I have half a mind to contact a lawyer who can subpoena my medical records and then possibly file a lawsuit over my repeated and numerous complaints of the same symptoms for so long with no one discovering the problem but I hate dealing with lawyers, even ones on my side.,

 

Oh well, at least they got the diseased blob out of me and life goes on for now. Hope to feel better sooner than later. Have never felt this bad after surgery before and have had several in the past. 

That is all.

All  the best,

Glenn B