brian's daily rant

Thursday, June 27, 2002

I'm Going Bye-Bye!

Starting tomorrow after work we head out on a mini-vacation in Chattanooga. This is a replacement for the 2 week vacation we had planned for going to Canada to attend a Miata gathering, but cancelled when I got sick. Going away for 5 days, but I'm taking a little notebook to write stuff down so I can fill in the missing days when we get back next Wednesday, mark your calendars.

Damon's

Went out to dinner this evening after running the Miata Club newsletter through the postage meter at Rader. Damon's is right accross the street and we love ribs, so over we went. It was early, the place was pretty empty so when we and asked for a booth in the No Smoking section, we figured that would be no problem. When the hostess turned right instead of the usual left we questioned her. She said, "This is no smoking." We said, "But it is right near the bar/smoking section. Could we sit over there instead?" She said, "That section is closed, besides there isn't any one here yet, so..." That is when we stopped listening, turned around and left. There is a Tony Roma's a couple of miles away. We have been in too many, there is no one here situations before. Invariably just as we are eating our salads, everyone in the booth on the other side of the little wall will light up. No thanks, there are just too many places to eat out to have to gamble on having our meal spoiled by the stench of cigarettes.

Wednesday, June 26, 2002

Ninety Nine Cents

5 or so years ago when color copiers started to make their way into the copy & printing places it cost a dollar to make one 8-1/2 x 11 color copy. I have never wanted the services of a color copier until now. I print out the Master's Miata Club newsletter at work. Always used the laser printer in my area for it, until a year ago. They company bought a color laser printer. I started doing the newsletter on it after hours. I didn't think the folks at the company minded me running 25 or newsletters off a month, after all the Miata Club is a non-profit organization, so it is kinda like a community service. Well fast forward to now. Business is bad, sales are down, production is down, etc. I'm starting to feel a little like they might not take kindly to me "stealing" there paper, toner, time anymore. For the heck of it I called my friends at the Mail Boxes Etc. and asked how much for a color copy. 99¢. Big price drop!?! I guess no one else has made enough copies to bring the price down any, huh? I now print 50 newsletters with just the front page in color. I would need 100 copies, fortunately there is price break at 100, times 78¢ equals $78. Some how I don't think the club will want tospend that much on printing every month. August I go back to black & white.

Monday, June 24, 2002

Nothing

Today was a nothing day, but I still feel the need to write something here, so this is it. Please deal with it kindly, 'cause I can't.

Sunday, June 23, 2002

Boston Red Sox

My prediciton of about a month ago came true today, pretty much right on schedule. Sox lost to LA and the Yanks beat San Diego to move a 1/2 game ahead in the American League East. I can now breath a sight of relief and stop reading the box scores. But I'll still check the standings every few weeks just to see how far down they have fallen and if Baltimore passes them to get into second place.

Saturday, June 22, 2002

24 Hour Urine Test

Going to start the big 24 hour sample thing tomorrow so I can take it to the lab first thing on Monday morning. I thought for sure I was going to get like 10 little jars and have to pee in a different one each instance and mark the time on it. Nope, I got one big ol' brown jug to go in for 24 hours. It is supposed to be refrigerated so it doesn't ferment or something. For some reason my wife won't let me keep it in the refrigerator. She is going to make me keep it in a cooler, I wonder why? Maybe tomorrow, seeing as I'll be home every time I have to go, maybe I'll jump on the PC afterwards and give a running blog progress report on how far up the gradients on the side of the jug I've gotten filled. Then again, maybe not.

Friday, June 21, 2002

Attack of the Clones

Monumental day for the us in Brian's world. Went to the movies, in a real theater. It only happens around every 3 years, the last movie we saw in a theater was Phntom Menace. And the time before that was for the re-release of the original 3 Star Wars movies. The next time we go will probably be in three years to see Natalie Portman give birth to twins. But I will go only because of the same reason I watched the X-files after season 7: loyalty, habit and the hope for a return to the magic that once was. Entertaining movie, and maybe it is just me, but the special effects have gotten so good, they can do so much, that it seems like they feel they have to do too much. Kinda like Microsoft operating systems, computers have gotten faster so the OSes have gotten bigger and I sit here blogging at the same rate I would have if I was sitting in front of a 8086 running DOS with a 8Kbus speed.....George it's the story stupid.

Thursday, June 20, 2002

Stress Test

For those of you keeping track today was my big stress/echo test. In a quest to figure out why my BP went way high (for me) and is now pretty much in line from medication. Well as expected I passed with flying colors, at least preliminarily. The Cardiologist is in the room when you are actually taking the test and he looked at the various EKG readouts and watched my sonogram and said, "Looks OK so far." Worst part of it was them sandpapering my skin to remove any dead stuff, quickly followed by an alcohol wipe to remove any oils!

I seem like a perfectly healthy person, but once every 3 or 4 days my body freaks or something and I get that hazy feeling and warm and I bet my pressure and pulse rate go up. It happened this afternoon while waiting for the doctor, I was hooked up too the electrodes and I could see my heart rate hit like 90 for a few seconds. Next up is a 24 hour urine sample test to check for something the doctor called "exotic" abnormalities, AKA hormonal imbalances. Don't know what that entails just yet, I have to go pick my kit at the lab tomorrow....

Wednesday, June 19, 2002

Where Was I?

Dang I know I missed last night. I didn't write in any on my blogs. I was too busy updating the Barndoor Fan Club web site. Got my new version shirts in and had to add them to the store. Lost the javascript floating home link on the pages and added a regular text navigation thing on the bottom. Readied the Summer Photo Contest page for when I announce the start on Friday.

But what happend to Monday?

Sunday, June 16, 2002

Ofoto

After Photopoint started charging a few years back I went looking for another site to host my online photos for free. A brief stop was made at Club Photo. They turned to pay as you go about 6 months later. The hunt resumed. This time I ended up at Ofoto (a Kodak company) I figured the had the bucks to keep it free. It is still free but I noticed they have raken the first step down that slippery slope. Used to be you could share your pictures with anyone. Now, for people to view your pictures, they have to become Ofoto members. It is still free for me to keep pictures there and still free for others to view them. I hasn't happen yet but I think it is only a matter of time before we see something about Ofoto in The End of Free. I've no one to blame but myself, all these sites make money by selling reprints of the digital images and I've never done it.

Saturday, June 15, 2002

High Blood Pressure

Yesterday when I said, "I may have to stop writing about this problem." I may have spoken too soon. Today was not a good day. Felt weak and tired in the morning, warm and icky in the afternoon and now tonight I feel like I've got some chest congestion. Had a few good hours this afternoon that happily coincided with the Miata Club's MMM...Time.

Friday, June 14, 2002

High Blood Pressure

I may have to stop writing about this "problem." Seems as witht the medication my BP is going to be right around the "Gold" standard for BP's 120/80. Was at the doctor's office this AM to get the script for the drug whose samples they gave me that seems to be working well (after a couple of week adjustment period.) The nurse took my BP and it was 118/74. Later that day I had the company nurse at work take it and she got 122/84. When I asked the P.A. why do I have HBP all of a sudden. She looked back in my chart and started reading off numbers:
10/10/94 120/72
5/17/95 130/70
8/15/95 150/84
9/25/97 120/80
9/22/98 154/82
12/15/98 156/84
10/11/99 146/90
5/24/00 142/80
4/8/02 146/82
Looks like the upper number has been high already for the last 4 years. Hmmmm. As to what caused the spike? Who knows, doesn't seem to be anything major.....

Thursday, June 13, 2002

High Blood Pressure & Room Thermoter Updates

HPB : Felt crappy last night, didn't sleep well and still felt crappy in the AM. My BP was 130/84, up a notch. Missed the afternoon measurement, too bad as I felt better and the pressure probably would have been normal.
RT : Staples let me down. I was sure the would have indoor thermometers, looked around and even asked somebody, but they don't carry them. I guess it is time to hit the web....

Wednesday, June 12, 2002

High Blood Pressure

The medicine I'm taking is doing its job. Yesterday I was 120/80 and today it read 120/82. This afternoon after walking around the work parking lot, once by myself and then again with my wife for a total of 1/2 mile, nearly right afterwards it measured 118/78. Go figure, it should have been higher.

Still no clue as to why it went higher all of a sudden. All that is really left is the stress/echo test next week and then it will have to be chalked up to a mystery of life. This is apparently the rule though as only approximately 5% of high blood pressure can the cause actually be found. This is called secondary hypertension. Here is a good article I found on the web about the causes. It seems like my doctor has taken the right steps, I've had the blood work to test if something bad is happening, I've had a CT Scan so they can look for the other stuff and the cardiologist to look for circulartory issues.

Tuesday, June 11, 2002

Room Thermometer

The "computer" room in the house is right off our bedroom and because it also ajoins the garage, always seems warmer than the other rooms in the house. We thought maybe we would go get a wall thermometer and put in there just to see. Started at Lowes as we had to go there for something else anyway. No dice. Could buy an electronic thermostat for $25 that would do it, but nothing else in the store. Next stop, Kmart. Up and down all the aisles in the whole store (excluding clothing) and nothing. Asked an employee, who called somebody and then asked somebody and they only had outdoor ones. Tried Dollar General, nothing. Drove to another strip shopping center where we tried an Eckerd Drug store and they only had human thermometers. Next door to Eckerds was a Staples. They probably have them, lots of people have them on their desks or in their cubicals so they can complain about their co-workers wanting the tempurature 2 degrees warmer or cooler than they want it. But they closed at 8:00.

Monday, June 10, 2002

Target Card

Got our Target card in the mail today. When we went out last week to replace some of the lightning damaged electronics we went shopping at Target. While checking out with our TV, VCR and DVD player the cashier asked if we wanted to take 10% off our purchases, all we had to do was fill out an application for a Target Charge Card. What the heck, I'll use it this once pay off the total when the bill comes and never use it again. Well I thought it was a charge card for use in Target stores, nope, it is a regular Visa card with pretty targets all over it. Don't need another Visa card. That is OK, the plan is still in place, never use it again. Tomorrow the card goes to work and takes a trip through the industrial powered shredder to be reduced to confetti.

Sunday, June 09, 2002

Smart Ass Hotel Guests

Spent last night at the Holiday Inn Express right around the corner because of the insecticide spraying to kill fleas. We normally don't watch much TV on a Friday night, but we figured, Woohoo! HBO!" Big disappointment, "Young Guns" was the Friday night movie at 8. Channel surfed for a while, read some, showered and went to bed early, around 10. The alarm jangled us awake at 5:15 AM. We of course had never set the alarm, the chuckleheads who spent the night before had and either accidentally or on purpose set it to go off the next night. We rolled over and went back to sleep. Woke again, on our own, a 7:30. Seeing as we went to bed early enough we got up and headed down to the lobby for our "free" continental breakfast. After eating we went back to the room, packed our stuff and walked the mile to home leaving Donna's mom to take her time and enjoy the breakfast. We got home and the clock read 8:15! When we left the motel, the clock in the room read 9:00. So, not only had they set an early alarm, but had turned the clock back an hour to make it even earlier. I am sure there are a few possible innocent explanations for the clock SNAFU, but having been a smart ass when I was younger, I doubt it.

Saturday, June 08, 2002

Catch Up

Missed a couple of evenings posting, so let's catch up. When we last saw our hero he was hoping for a good night's sleep,,,

Thursday

We have a programable thermostat to regulate the house temp and for the last couple of days the central A/C has kicked on fine, but had to be manually shut off in the morning. A minor inconveinence and it has happened a few times before and always self corrected. Tonigh was the Miata Club meeting in Augusta and when we got home we realized we hadn't flipped the thermostat back to on, it was 78 in the house (for the recond we are shameless energy wasters, we like it set to 75 during the day and 70 at night.) Turned the switch to cool and WTF, nothing. I checked the themostat and noticed it wasn't on the right day nor was it showing the correct program number. After some furious button pushing it still didn't work. A trip to Wally World was in order as it was after 10:00 PM and nothing else was open. $40 for a new programable thermostat and some flea killer. Went home and in 20 minutes had the new thermostat installed, but the A/C still wouldn't come on. It was a hot and restless night. The old thermostat was bad though, you could smell that tel-tale fried electronic order as soon as I opened the cover to take out the screws (add another receipt to the insurance company pile....

Friday

The first heating contractor I called couldn't promise that they could make it that today. I said please try and hung up. Imagining spending my weekend in a motel, I tried another. They said they could make it that morning, praise be. It cost $148 but man the cool is worth it. The repair guy said it was my start-up capicitor. I asked could that have been caused by lightning, he said no. Dang. I bet it could have been caused by a faulty thermostat constantly sending signals to turn the unit on, but forgot to ask that question. Last night we had bought some flea killer. It is not for a pet, as we don't have any, but the pesky little buggers were getting into the bathrooms some how and making Donna's life miserable (they go for her and leave me alone.) Tonight they were back with a vengence, even after last nights spraying. When she went onto our screen porch on the back of the house there were 12 of them on her socks before she could take the 3rd step. Back to the yellow pages. The third place she called said the could come out tonight, but it would be an hour or so. We ate dinner and packed an overnight bag. You are told to stay out of the house for at least 2 hours, but there was no way we were spending the night at home (others have said 4 hours, but Donna is sensative to chemical smells, so...) In the morning I was worried about spending the weekend in a motel, didn't happen, but I did end up in a motel room for one night for a completely different reason.

Wednesday, June 05, 2002

Micardis Part2

Yesterday afternoon my BP spiked up a bit - 146/92 - which Iguess pyched me in to mentally raising more or something, because I didn't sleep too well last night. Nurse took the BP this AM at work and it was 142/94. Called the doctor's office and they said I could get in to see the PA at 11:15. Off I went, with intentions of going home and crashing in the afternoon. When the PA took my pressure it was 150/90. She gave me some samples of the Micardis HCT, same as before, but this has a diuretic included in the multiple warhead pill, supposed to knock the pressure down more. Felt marginally better afterwards so I went back to work, which means I am runing out steam as I write this, gonna sleep good tonight.

Tuesday, June 04, 2002

Insurance Company

If you read last night's rant you know that we lost a bunch of stuff to a lightning storm. Called my insurance company today and they bounced the ball right back into my court. I have to get a repair person to come look at the damaged goods and give an estimate on repair or replacement cost. Got in line for a garage door repair person, might get squeezed in tomorrow or might be next week. I am about 20 down the list for the sprinkler repair person. TVs, VCR & DVD are another story, nobody makes house calls anymore. Have to get it to the shop or they will come get it for $20. Gonna take the second option. It will be worth the money not having to try and get that big tube somewhere.

Monday, June 03, 2002

Lightning!

Big ass thunderstorm rolled through Aiken tonight about dinner time. I yanked the the plug on the computer, both power and phone line and it may have been a good thing I did. While eating dinner a really close lightning strike! seemed like right in the front yard, eveyone jumped. The TV in the livingroom went silent. Uh-oh. Went over and tried to turn it back on and nothing. So I started checking the other stuff in the entertainment center. VCR - dead. Receiver - works. DVD - dead. Pulled the DVD player out and opened the cover to see if a fuse had blown. The fuse was fine, but power wouldn't come back on. The same was true for the VCR, fuse good, but it wouldn't come on. Didn't try the TV, it is a 32" and weighs about a 120 lbs and I figured I would get the same thing. Must have been like a nuclear explosion, no power surge, just a kick-butt Electro-Magnetic Pulse.

For the heck of it tried some other stuff around the house. Donna's mom's 3-way touch lamp as on and that is all it do, no changing levels or even turning it off. The 19" TV in our bedroom (it was off) is dead. But the 13"TV/VCR combo her mom watches works fine. No TV so we were bored, Donna suggested we head out to Wally World and shop some prices. Guess what? The garage door opener got fried too, we had to go out the front door!

The damages are adding up. I wonder how State Farm deals with this, we have a $500 deductable....

Sunday, June 02, 2002

Micartis

This is the stuff that the doctor has me on to lower my BP. One site I found that talks of the drug says that the normal dosage is one 40mg tablet a day. I am taking two 80mg tablets and that sounds like a lot to me, but what do I know. I do know that I am feeling normal more often now. I still seem to tire easy and I have had a heck of a upset stomach for most of today. I need to go back and check to see if that is a side effect or what. It also seems like I can hear my knee and hips when I walk, weird huh?

Saturday, June 01, 2002

X-Files Movie

Sometime last week "Fight the Fututre" premired on FX and has been shown about 12 times already. Came in part way today and watched all the way until Mulder's little trip to the Antarctic to save Scully. The middle part of the movie plays like a TV episode, which is fine. The last hour is like Hollywood blockbuster/action pic with big special effects, yeck. When Mulder climbs around inside this supposedly cavernous alien spacecraft it never seems big due to the crappy lighting and the hanging by his fingers thing just seemed so tossed in.

The TV show ended a few weeks back and of course coincidently there was an article in that week's TV Guide about the show. Somewhere in the article someone mentioned that they were thinking of doing another movie - please spare us.

Thank's Lewis for explaining yesterdays question of the day, "What's the half circle mean under the basket?" It's an offensive foul amnesty zone. They can't call an offensive player for a charge in that circle, it is always going to be the defensive player's foul no matter if he has been standing there for weeks.