On a diet, that is. (I could use a 10 pound loss around the middle, but who couldn’t? My jeans still fit, so I’m not real worried about it.)

Last night, Chris made me go out to dinner with him, & some of the group he’s been riding with. Someone else picked the place, a Mexican restaurant. (To the peanut gallery: Yes, I went to a restaurant. Yes, I ordered something that I knew what it was made from & what those items looked like. Nothing strange in that bowl was presented.) Lovely. I guess Chinese would have been worse in the sodium department, but not by much.

I told Chris before we went that I had to go to the doctor today, for a prescription refill visit. He (the doctor) won’t refill unless he knows what I’m taking is working. He’s a picky sort. I also attempted to explain the effect of sodium on a person’s blood pressure. He didn’t get it. So we go. I got the least offensive (I thought) item on the menu, a Taco Salad. It looked better in the sodium department than anything else on the menu because of the salsa that was on EVERYTHING. (I don’t do spicy either.) I didn’t even have any of the chips & salsa for that very reason. I tried to be good, I really did.  

I got up this morning & knew that Taco Salad was sodium laden & a killer. Hands swollen, feet swollen, & headache. And I had to be at the doctor’s office in less than 5 hours. Not near enough time to lose all the extra water. Not a happy camper, let me tell you.

We get there, I saw the 6 pound water weight increase, & the additional 7 points on the bottom number of the bp, & I was less happy. When I explained to the doctor that Chris made me do it (he looked suspicious) & it was all his fault, his advice was watch the sodium intake (DUH!), drink more water, & stay cool. How does a person stay cool in the summer? All in all, he was happy, gave me 6 months of refills on all 3 drugs, & I don’t have to go back until the refills are gone. I can do this.

Now if I don’t have to go back out with these people, I’ll be better. Some strange man put his hands on me! TWICE!! I couldn’t get away because I was stuck in between Chris & some lady while sitting at the table, & this stranger had his hand on my gut from behind. Chris was laughing, so he got pinched to make him do something, to get this person away from me. (He was busy telling me I must be a saint, being married to Chris as long as I have. I have news for him. I’m no saint, & I don’t like to be touched. Hands off. Only person touches me is Chris.)

I guess the caloric count of that salad was better than anything else, & water is easier to get rid of. Sort of.

Between the 3 of us, we all have cell phones that are used for business, & in 1 case, playing Chatty Kathy. The written rule is that NO WORK REQUESTS come in on any of them other than MY phone, because it’s the only one that will be answered all the time. Today that rule was broken, with bad results.

A work request was called in on Chris’ phone. It wouldn’t have been so bad, except for the location. We do work for a hotel chain that has several branches, with locations both here in Lakewood, & down south. When the call is taken, the name of the chain was given by a person who happens to have a very thick Spanish accent. Chris assumes (uh huh) it’s the south location, so Joe goes. He gets there, Room 202 has no stoppage. The chase is on to find the correct location. Joe has verified there’s nothing down there, so it has to be here. I called one location, they have no problems. I called the other & get sent to voice mail twice. (I hate voice mail.) I call back the 3rd time & explain to the man at the front desk who I am, & what I’m looking for. Sure enough, their Room 202 is stopped up. Joe’s on his way, & will be about 30-45 minutes getting there. He’s been instructed to give the Head of Maintenance one of his business cards & tell him the number on it (mine) is the number to call when they have an issue. This location is 5 miles from here, per MapQuest.

Then I call the guilty party. I let him know the cost of gas for a 50 mile (verified on MapQuest) round trip waste of time is on him, because he broke the cardinal rule about how work orders are received. I ought to charge him an hour for labor (at the billing rate, not the pay rate) for Joe to waste the time going south, & charge him for MY time, to find the actual location that needs work!  

Is the guilty party worried? I’m pretty sure he isn’t, since he’s busy picking up his new shoes from the brace shop. (Getting shoes for him isn’t anything like a “normal” person getting new shoes. His have to have sewn on soles, with a width of 3 & 3/4″ exactly, because of the stirrup that has to be put on for his brace. It’s a big deal for him.)

Is Chris retired? No, he has to work a job or 2 that I can bill for, to pay for his idiocy, then HE’S FIRED!

I keep fish. 3 aquariums, & only in the 210 do I have issues with a fish being picked on. It’s a juvenile pleco, that’s only about 7″ long. He’ll eventually get about 14″ total length, & 5″ or 6″ across, not counting his side fins. It’s name is “The Revenge”. He (we guess at the gender because the males & females are indistinguishable in looks) has a few chunks of hide taken off him, & we think it may be the Oscars that are doing it. He has a log in the tank, but the Oscars can swim through it.

So I have this bright idea. Chris had some 4″ PVC pipe just laying around that I had him cut & sand down to put in the tank for Revenge to hide in. This way, the Oscars couldn’t get to him while he sleeps. It worked well, except for the fact that PVC floats. Even with holes drilled in the top of it.

Plan shot? Oh, no. I come up with a better idea. 6″ PVC left whole, with rocks in the bottom of it to serve as weight, to keep it down. My challenge: Find 6″ PVC. 2′ of it. Not a whole stick.

I checked the site for Home Depot. They don’t carry 6″ pipe. They do some of the fittings (?) but not the pipe. I called Ferguson’s. When I explained to Bill what I needed, then I had to explain why. After he stopped laughing, he told me that he only has 6″ in 20′ lengths, & that he’s positive Chris won’t pay for a whole length of something he won’t use, just so I can have 2′ of it. I ask how much, he tells me $65.00 a stick. Yep, Bill’s right. Chris won’t buy it. I realize then that 6″ PVC is generally used only on new construction, it isn’t used in service. Bill said he would check around, to see if he could find 2′ of it for me. (This was after I had to explain the fin structure & placement on a pleco, so he would understand the need for the 6 inches. He actually paid attention, & understood.) Bill must be a fish lover. He even asked about the dimensions of the tank, that there would be room for a piece of pipe that large. He was surprised when I told him 7′ long, 26″ wide, & 2′ deep. Big sucker. Takes an hour to pull off 125 gallons of water & refill it. Since I wanted to know, I timed it yesterday when I did it.

Chris had an idea of going to new construction sites to see if they have any 6″ leftover they want to get rid of. Going where they are today, they should pass some. Hopefully, he’ll remember.

In the meantime, I’ll try to figure out something that will hold down the 4″ piece & give Revenge a place to hide during the day. And keep salt in the water, just in case.

Everyone from Bush on down is yelling about how drilling for off-shore oil, or destroying the ANWR to dig there is going to ease the prices at the pump we all pay for gas. People aren’t thinking. You don’t pull gasoline out of the ground. Crude that has to be converted to gas is pulled out, if they are lucky & hit the right spot.

With the refineries running at 100%, those that BIG OIL hasn’t closed to make a bigger profit, we could see some relief from the pain at the pump in how many years?

Yeah, I feel the pinch. Everyday. Because of the propensity of people to steal gas from a full tank, the tank in the van is not kept full. They put $30.00 a day in it. Into a service van that gets maybe 12 to 15 miles to the gallon. At least it can use regular gas. Unlike their motorcycles, that have to have “super” to run properly. There is the saving grace that we pay a little less than $4.00 a gallon. Not much, but it is less. And it isn’t a mini-van. You ever tried to put sewer equipment into a mini-van? Plus tools, shovels, ladders, pipe, & other bits of stock. It’s a big van, & comes complete with the obnoxious back-up warning noise.

Part of the pitch to open ANWR is the smaller footprint drilling leaves with today’s technology. Uh huh. How about the destruction to the wildlife that live there? I believe it would be indirect damage to them, direct damage to the habitat they live in. They wouldn’t be damaged by the trucks belching out diesel fumes, or the planes & their exhaust? How about the careless people who are everywhere?

Investing in solar or wind power is a preferable option, but that too is years away, thanks to the fossil fuel proponents that have inhabited Washington for so many years. Fuel cells could have been worked on, but the money that could have gone for that has gone into someones pocket instead. Or to fight a senseless war.

A comment was made to me yesterday that at least we have a business based on a “useful” trade, something that’s always needed. Plumbers. No, it isn’t glamorous, but they’re always needed. Too bad that between the jobs being sent overseas, the vehicle plants that are being closed because nobody can afford a new gas hog, & the rising of all other costs, they can’t afford anything but emergency services. So we’ve felt the loss of business too. Even some of the commercial work, as the big corporations are trying to save money.

I don’t know that there is an immediate solution to the pain at the pump. I seriously don’t think there is. We can send people to the OPEC nations with our collective hat in hand, & it won’t do any good. They (OPEC) like the money they are raking in. They will lower their price only when their product use has lessened. Given the industrial growth in China & India, I don’t see that happening. I even saw on the news somewhere that the Chinese government is subsidizing the cost of gas, so the end consumer pays only part of the cost. They aren’t paying full cost for what they use, hence they have no reason to slow down using it.

We need to invest in technology to lessen our use, once & for all, of fossil fuels, & end our dependence on them. Stop destroying the planet & all the inhabitants, just to use oil & coal.

It’s 6 minutes long, but it’s the best 6 minutes you’ll use today for one purpose.

http://dustytakle.com/2008/07/14/touching-them-all/#comment-498

Thanks, Dusty

Yesterday the new iPhone came out, & there were lines all over the news, people waiting to get one. Then they went over the costs of getting/owning one, & I had to wonder if it’s really worth it.

The phone that I have will dial & receive calls, will send/receive text messages, & I THINK it can connect to the Internet. I may have done it once to get the wallpaper that I wanted. It doesn’t take pictures. I don’t need one. I had a Razor phone once, but never took a picture with it, so what’s the point of getting something I won’t use? My daughter sends me text messages sometimes, & so will my son. I’ve never replied, because I don’t know how.

When we have a computer emergency around here, it’s broken down into 2 different classes. Is it something I can fix or something I can be talked through to fix it, or is it time to call Skyler. Most of the time it’s the latter. There has been a time or 2 that Chris’ cronies have talked me through a problem, but those times are few & far between. Because of my general lack of technical knowledge & the fact that I don’t want to bother them with my ignorance. Thankfully it doesn’t happen frequently. I think both Chris’ & Joe’s computers need more memory, but that would be installing something, so it would be a Skyler call.

Given all that, why on earth would I want a phone that can check business email, get directions to somewhere, play music & videos, & who knows what else? $200.00 if you sign a 2 year contract with AT&T. If you aren’t eligible to sign a new contract, or to get a replacement phone, it’s $400.00. Then added are the monthly costs of the additional services. I really don’t see how it’s worth it. Not for me, or anyone in my household, anyway. Can you imagine the Skyler calls with something like that? The boy would be rich! Especially with Chris, who JUST LEARNED HOW to check his voice mail, & can’t send a picture anywhere to save his life?

I think we’ll leave owning something like that to the fortunate people God gave the technical genes to, who are willing to pay for it. Between the cost of the phone itself, the additional charges for services, & Skyler, I’d be broke.

I’ll stay with my non-camera phone that has the larger number buttons. I’m safer that way.

Some things some people shouldn’t do, but do them anyway. That’s what I did last night, so I pay for it today.

Yesterday was really hot, 99 (the only thing that makes it tolerable is 8% humidity with light wind blowing) so I wasn’t cooking inside. The only thing thawed out & ready to go on the grill was “Stadium” style bratwurst. Then on top of the bratwurst had to go sauerkraut. It was really good. I had 2 of them, when I should have had none.

I knew better before I did it, simply because of the sodium content. I really should keep it down to a dull roar, because of the effect on my blood pressure it has. Did I think about it then? Oh please, that would have been too easy.

So today I get up with the common effects of too much salt, & can only say I earned it. Am I whining because of it? A little. Can I continue whining about the headache? Nope. All I can do about it is hope for clouds to come over, & drink lots of water.

Bummer. I wanted to whine.

“DES MOINES, Iowa - Some wayward ticks delayed a United Airlines flight from Denver to Des Moines.

Flight 1178 was delayed for nearly six hours on Tuesday after a passenger informed a flight attendant that she found a tick in economy class during a flight from Washington, D.C., to Denver.

The airline decided it couldn’t fly the plane until it was cleaned of ticks, so passengers had to wait while another plane was flown from Colorado Springs to Denver. The flight was further delayed because of thunderstorms in the Denver area.”

I’m trying to ignore the obvious comment, given where the flight had just come from.

From MSNBC news.

At first we have this: (Notice the waist)

Then we find this:

(Notice the waist) The outcome

“SAN FRANCISCO - A California group submitted a proposal Monday to rename a sewage treatment plant after President Bush, calling the initiative a fitting tribute to the outgoing chief executive and the “mess” he’ll leave behind.

The Presidential Memorial Commission of San Francisco wants to switch the name of the Oceanside Water Pollution Control Plant to the George W. Bush Sewage Plant.

Supporters hoping to put the issue on the November ballot turned in more than 10,000 signatures to San Francisco election officials, organizer Brian McConnell said. The measure needs just over 7,000 valid names to qualify and McConnell expects to find out later this month whether they made it.

Proponents of the renaming plan see it as fitting tribute to a president they contend has plumbed the depths of incompetence.

“We think that it’s important to remember our leaders in the right historical context,” said McConnell, a member of the group that was formed after friends came up with the renaming idea.

“In President Bush’s case, we think that we will be cleaning up a substantial mess for the next 10 or 20 years,” he said. “The sewage treatment facility’s job is to clean up a mess, so we think it’s a fitting tribute.”

The “mess,” as supporters of the plan see it, includes the aftermath of the Iraq war and what they see as a neglect of domestic economic issues.

“What we’re really doing is symbolizing the fact that as he leaves office, we’ll begin the process of basically repairing damage and rebuilding our country’s reputation,” he said.”

Not everyone can see the humor in it.

“The chairman of the San Francisco Republican Party has promised to fight the measure if it does make the ballot.

A call by The Associated Press to White House press officials was not returned. But Patrick Dorinson, a former spokesman for the California Republican Party now running a communications firm in Sacramento, called the measure “a horrible idea” that is “childish and it’s stupid.”

“This is why San Francisco is considered wacky,” Dorinson said. “It makes me ashamed to be a San Franciscan if this is all they’ve got time to do.” “

And from the Utilities Commission:

“Still, he said, the commission is “trying to take it in stride and understand the humor behind it.”

I wonder where the Grandmother from San Francisco will fall in at?

From MSNBC Weird News