12 - All's Well That Ends Well ...

I had hoped to post last weekend but time didn't allow me to do so. Now I give you a couple of weeks worth of nothing.

Last weekend went pretty well with my list of chores. I made the list smaller than normal and I got almost everything done. Those that I didn't do were replaced by a couple of things not on the list so all in all, I would say it was a successful weekend.

I was sort of anonymously introduced to somebody last weekend and in an exchange of a few e-mails decided to meet for dinner on Monday. She had described herself as average (in size). I guess the word average is open to all kinds of interpretations because this chick was not what I consider average. My view of average is probably a smaller, lighter person than perhaps the North American version of average is nowadays. This woman was a bit taller than average at about 5'6" but she must have weighed over 250#!!!

Being the gentleman that I am, I did not show how repulsed I was by her average, and let the evening continue. In hindsight I should have returned to the car and beat it down the highway as fast as I could because it only got worse from there.

I sat there with this average woman for over 2 hours and it's damn good the meal was decent. Whenever I started a topic of conversation, she would take it over and apply the subject to herself and keep going for 10 minutes or more. This happened each and every time and it didn't take too long to get very annoyed. Another thing that she did was constantly bring up her recently deceased husband (4 months ago).

I can understand why people do this ... she has nothing else to relate to other than her x number of years spent with him. I will have to say that I knew more about him by the time I managed to escape than I did about her! I tell you, talking about the dead husband, the daughter you gave up for adoption when you were 14 and the dysfunctional family that you now have is just not the way to impress me on a date.

When she wasn't talking about the dead husband she was saying shit like ... I am so looking forward to spending at weekend at your house. I already feel that I like your dogs and we'll be best friends. Etc., etc., etc..

Finally the night ended and I guess she knew that there was nothing going to happen because all I did, or tried to do, was give her a hug. I say tried to because my arms could barely fit around her. The following day I sent her an e-mail. She had regularly made statements (in previous e-mails and at a couple of points during dinner) about "clicking". I opened the e-mail by asking her if anything had clicked for her the night before because it didn't quite click for me. It was more like a thump and thud. I went on to tell her that I could not see any future with somebody who hijacked every conversation and kept bringing up her late husband. I wished her good luck (because I think she'll really need it, in abundance) and said don't call me, I'll call you.

Work has been stupid for the last few weeks, even worse than it usually is. So many projects, so little time and so many of them get finished and submit only to be told that's not quite what they wanted. Well you should have stated a little more clearly in your e-mail what you wanted because (and here I take out a printed copy of their request) you said this, this, this and this and nothing about that, that and that that you say you now want. So, I'll do it over but it goes to the bottom of the pile.

Last week I had a couple of doctor appointments. The one on Wednesday was the usual blah, blah, blah and the one on Thursday was a disaster I think. It was a MIBI stress test. They inject some radioactive something or other in order to see all the layers of the heart and how it and the circulation system is working. No big deal, right?

I arrive at 7:30AM and register then sit and wait. At 8AM I am brought into the nuclear medicine clinic and have to answer a bunch of questions, sign some forms and an intravenous is inserted in my right arm. There is nothing attached to it (like a bad of something), just the part that sticks in your arm and the tiny tube with the stopper to do the injections. I get the radioactive injection and have to return to the waiting room for a while. They call me into another room that has a machine that looks a little like an MRI machine but no tube that you have to enter. There are a couple of large boxes that rotate around your body for 20 minutes, taking pictures of what is going on in the heart and circulation system.

Next follows another wait time and then it's on to the treadmill. Up to this point the day has been a piece of cake but the day was quickly going to go stale. I go into a room that has a treadmill and computer attached to it. I get wired up with a bunch of electrodes stuck to me and then we wait so more. They aren't allowed to run this test without a doctor present or at least in the department. My cardiologist show up and it's test time.

I have always been proud of the fact that I look much younger than my physical age and have always believed that I am in decent shape for my age. I have always believed that I could still do a lot of physical stuff that I could do 15 years earlier too.

I get on the treadmill and there is a nurse standing on each side. One of them is running the computer and the other hooks up a glucose drip in the intravenous. The test requires you to walk on the treadmill until you reach your maximum heart rate. The normal way you determine this is to take 220 subtract your age and then take 85% of that number. Using that method, my max heart rate is 136 bpm. My cardiologist uses some other method and says that my max heart rate for this test is 153 bpm.

The treadmill starts and it is quite slow but the speed increases every minute and the angle of elevation also increases every minute.

I am uncomfortable for the first minute because it is too slow. The second minute is comfortable, the third minute is getting difficult. Then we get to minute number 4. After about 30 seconds I am asking them to slow it down because my legs were like stone, I was exhausted, weak and about to fall down. One of the nurses said that I had turned white. They tried to coax me along but I could not go any further and I was at 136 bpm (funny that I would be having trouble at my theoretical max heart rate). The nurse yelled out to the doctor the heart rate and he said it was OK, so they start to decrease the speed and angle. OH, but wait, I almost forgot to mention that once you reach the heart rate they want (or reach the point where you are about to fall unconscious) they have to give you another injection of radioactive something or other AND you have to keep on walking for another full minute (otherwise known as 60 seconds of hell and pain).

The only way I made it through that final minute was with a nurse supporting me on each side. Once the treadmill had stopped they helped me backward to a chair they had placed at the end of the treadmill and sat me down. I was dizzy, weak, exhausted and ready to fall over. They unplugged me and gave me some water. It was at least 10 minutes before I felt like I was strong enough to stand up and return to the waiting room to ... wait.

Almost an hour later they put me on the MRI like camera unit and took another 20 minutes of pictures then they told me to go home.

It was very, very sobering to find out that I cannot do the things that I thought I could do, the 40 something things, and that I am as old as dirt. My world came crashing down I tell you.

I have thought that when I go I would like it to be in bed with a 20 year old blond ... having her have to spoon feed me, wipe drool from my lips and change my diaper was not part of the dream.

This weekend was pretty good (at least I don't have a dinner date with an average woman to look forward to). I didn't even make a list and I got all that I wanted to do, done.

Job well done.

11 - The Weekend ...

It wasn't a lovely day in paradise this past Saturday and Sunday. For whatever reason, getting up on both Saturday and Sunday was next to impossible. I had to force myself up to let the dogs put a 7AM then went straight back to bed where I slept until 9AM. Once again, I forced myself to get up, let the dogs in, had a bite to eat and then back into bed where I slept until almost 1PM. I didn;t want to move then had to urge myself to take a shower otherwise I was heading right back to sleep.

The same thing happened on Sunday except I finally got out of bed at noon. The rest of the day was very slow and uninspired. My to do list this weekend was pretty short and I only managed to complete a couple of things.

The respirologist (sleep doctor) that I have been seeing has told me that it's just one of those things so if anybody ever asks me what is wrong, I can say that it's just one of those things. According to her, it happens to quite a number of people and the medical profession has no explanation as the sleep process is not well understood.

If I didn't take the Ritalin during the week I would be zonked out at my desk for much of the day. I am certain that some of you may be asking yourselves ... why doesn't he just take the Ritalin on the weekends as well?. It's because I am so damn medicated that any time I can get away with not taking a med I do so. After all, it's not that important when I fall asleep in the morning, afternoon and evening on the weekend.

I have asked her a couple of times to give me a reason for my extreme sleepiness and she can't. I am thinking very seriously about getting a second opinion because I look at it this way ... if something is happening there must be a reason for it and it's not just one of those things.

10 ... World's Wildest Drummer ...

I just have to post this video. You'll laugh (maybe) and you'll be amazed. The band is called Rick K. and the Allnighters and the drummer is Steve Moore. Watch and be amazed.

9 - Success, Success ...

It was a grueling 5 days but I did everything that I had planned ... YAY for me. I don't think I would have been able to accomplish all of the painting if I didn't have a plan that I pretty well stuck to, but I did and did it all.

Summarizing from last post, On Saturday I scraped (and scraped and scraped) old paint from the window trim and door and I sanded what I had scraped. On Sunday I taped windows and had to tape using the rocks and mortar for the outside of the trim. Sandy mortar is not the easiest thing to get tape to stick to. I also applied window putty where it was required.

On Monday I did the prime coat and just as I was finishing up it started to rain. Fortunately the prime dries fast and it pretty well stood up to the rain. The forecast called for nice on Tuesday and rain for Wednesday. My plan was to apply the first cost on Tuesday and the second Wednesday. the front door and 2 large windows are inside a sun porch so I decided to apply 2 coats on Tuesday and do the painting in the sun porch on Wednesday when the rain wouldn't bother me.

Tuesday was absolutely gorgeous and I did what was laid out in the altered plan and even managed to get a bit of a sunburn. Then on Wednesday it was grey and ugly in the morning but still hot and now it was humid as well. I had to run a quick errand before I started so the dogs got in the car with me and I got what I had to get. When all the dogs are in the car, I open all the windows so they car get some breeze. When I got home I parked in the driveway rather than the garage and went to work on the paint job.

It took a long time but I got it all done. In the middle of the afternoon it started raining and didn't let up for a few hours. Meanwhile I had forgotten all about the car windows being wide open. Later that night when I went outside and saw the car I remembered. The seats were soaked so I parked the car in the garage and left the windows open all the time hoping the seats would be dry the following morning as I was back to work on Thursday.

They were dried enough to not wet my pants.

So, all in all, a successful week (even the 2 days at work weren't so bad) and to celebrate I bought myself a large bag of potato chips today ... sour cream and dill. I am such a pig.

The dogs and I took a walk to the arts festival happening in the downtown core today. It's only a 20 minute walk so we hoofed it over and was rather disappointed. There were lots, and I mean LOTS, of vendors selling art, photographs, carvings, hand made jewelery, pottery, etc. Some was OK but most was uninspiring. There was a 6 piece rock band playing while I was there and they weren't bad. There were a couple of food stall vendors plying their wares at very inflated prices. The big disappointment was the crowds, or lack thereof. In previous years there were more displays of folklore art, readings and other things that weren't there today. Last year the area used by the festival was roughly 2/3 what it was last year.

It is not my place to try and understand why the size of the festival and crowds were smaller because I really don't care.

Have a weekend