Monthly Archives: April 2022

April 22, 2022 · 11:03 am

Text Messaging Ambiguity

When I decided to take my epic road adventure last summer I changed my pharmacy from CVS to Wally World. I used CVS when I was anchored off of Anna Maria Island. It was on the free trolley route directly across the street from my dcoctor and next to the Publix supermarket. One stop does it all. There are lots of CVS pharmacies around, but Wally is EVERYWHERE.

The Wally World pharmacy near where I’m moored in The Swamp off the Saint Johns River in Central Florida has been an excellent place to get my prescriptions taken care of. I have gotten nothing but excellent service from the people there and checking pricing on line they beat CVS and Walgreens on almost everything. Sometimes it’s only pennies. Other times there are significant savings.

One thing they’re excellent about is text messaging me when it’s time to get a refill. BUT the one I received today was a bit vague. It said that my prescription for “BRE” was about to be filled. Problem is I have TWO COPD prescriptions that have the letters “BRE”…Breo Ellipta and Breztri. While I used the Breo for several years the Breztri seems to do slightly better in treating my symptoms. But talk about EXPENSIVE. The list price is $783!!! With my insurance, though, I only have to shell out $43. It’s all a rip!

I called the pharmacy and they’re going to fill the Breztri.

Comments Off on Text Messaging Ambiguity

Filed under Uncategorized

Tagged as , ,

April 21, 2022 · 7:25 am

Sartorially Swave (sic) and Deboner (sic)

I think the last time I wore suspenders was in 1960 when I rented a tux for the senior prom. Since then it’s always been belts. But they’ve been a problem in the last few years.

Last week my most recent belt died. It was a nice, leather belt with dozens of holes along the center line so the size of my waist line wasn’t a problem. I could make it as tight as needed. After my bout in the hospital five years ago when I nearly expired because of complete renal shut down I lost a ton of weight. About 20 pounds. I’ve only regained about eight or nine of them in the past five years. As a result the waist bands of my pants don’t match the waist line of my svelte body. Yes, I STILL have a couple pair of jeans from back then. They were 34s. I’m now around a 32 on a fat day. The reason I still have those pants is because I absolutely detest clothes shopping and avoid it until I have nothing left to wear. So, when I cinch the belt all that extra material gets wadded under the belt. I wear my tees and guayaberas outside the trousers to hide that.

When I was at Wally World to get a new belt I saw a package of suspenders. Same price as the less expensive belts which is what I was going to buy and I thought, why not these, too, as well as the belt? I got the belt, but when back at the boat I attached the braces and…I like them. A LOT!

But they were just plain black and I wanted something a little nicer. I looked on line and ended up ordering something a little “showier” …

But I wish I’d seen these, first…

Since I rarely go out in the world these days even three pair of suspenders are probably two too many.

Comments Off on Sartorially Swave (sic) and Deboner (sic)

Filed under Uncategorized

Tagged as ,

April 15, 2022 · 10:43 am

Passover

Don’t want Jews to feel left out on this Holy Weekend…

Comments Off on Passover

Filed under Uncategorized

Tagged as

April 15, 2022 · 9:22 am

Good Friday’s Untold Story

It wasn’t such a “Good” Friday for Jesus, but for atheists like me EVERY Friday is a Good Friday.

Comments Off on Good Friday’s Untold Story

Filed under Uncategorized

Tagged as , ,

April 11, 2022 · 12:47 pm

Things I Think Of Saying…But Don’t

A lot of times there are things I’d like to say to people but they’re so inappropriate that I don’t.

Like there’s a cute older woman who works at the local Walmart neighborhood market where I do most of my grocery shopping. To me she falls into the category of “Once a hottie, still a hottie…” Helen Mirren and Jamie Lee Curtis fall in that category as clarification of what I mean. Anyway, sometimes when I see this lady at the store I’d like to say, “Listen, if I should collapse in some aisle here, I’d like you to be the one to give me mouth-to-mouth until the paramedics get here.” But I keep my mouth shut.

Down in Panama where I lived for eight years breast feeding openly is simply normal. Nobody thinks a thing about it unlike here in the Puritanical Great White North. The women of the Ngäbe-Buglé, the largest of the indigenous tribes, and who flourish in Bocas del Toro and Chiriqui provinces, wear a traditional dress called an “enagua” (pronounced nah wa).

Breastfeeding is so common that these dresses often have slits in the bodice which the women use to expose the breast for the child to suckle. Non-indigenous women in western clothes would simply unbutton their blouses to give the baby access to the breasts.

The buses in Panama are generally nice, air-conditioned, 30-seat Toyota Coasters instead of discarded U.S. school buses, though there are still a few of those around.

I used to ride this bus into David (dah VEED) all the time.

There was a narrow aisle down the center of the bus and seats on either side. These seats, of necessity, weren’t very wide and could barely hold two normally-sized people. No such thing as “social distancing” when you were riding on these buses. In the years that I rode them there were many times when a pretty, young mommy would board with her infant and sit in the empty spot beside me. Probably a half-dozen times when the infant got restless the girl would unbutton herself, whip out a boob and stick it in the kid’s mouth to calm it down. Well, naturally, we’re sitting there literally rubbing shoulders and it’s totally impossible NOT to see what’s going on. That’s when I sometimes thought of saying, “Listen, if you’re not using the OTHER ONE right now…” But I kept my mouth shut.

1 Comment

Filed under Uncategorized

Tagged as , ,

April 9, 2022 · 8:28 am

Catching My Breath

At my last visit to the pulmonologist I wasn’t able to complete the 6-minute walking test to check how my blood/oxygen level held up. I made it about half way through and I was gasping for breath. Of course, having to wear a mask wasn’t helping the situation at all. On top of that my nearly 80 year old hips were starting to hurt. So I stopped. My 02 level had dropped from 96% to 91%.

So, what should one’s blood oxygen level be? Official Answer. Between 88% and 92% is considered safe for someone with moderate to severe COPD. Oxygen levels below 88% become dangerous. If oxygen levels dip to 84% or below, go to the hospital. These readings are for a person at rest.

I’m bumbling along through life at 21% of lung capacity according to a recent full-function test. Curious about how my lungs are functioning with assimilating the oxygen I bought one of those meters the nurse puts on your finger when you check in at the doctor’s office.

I then made up a spreadsheet to keep track of things.

As you can see my levels drop into the 80% range when I do anything in the least bit strenuous. My heart rate jumps and I gasp for breath. But the oxygen levels rise back into the upper 90s generally in less than 30 seconds and my heart rate drops as well. But the gasping often takes several minutes to get back to what passes for “normal” these days. This isn’t a whole lot of fun. One of these days I’m sure I’m going to have to consider the whole oxygen concentrator equipment issue. Not looking forward to that at all.

In other health-related thoughts.

The other day I learned that a person I’ve known since they were about 10 years old when I was in college in the late 60s has brain cancer. The prognosis is he’s got 6 to 9 months left. That’s sad. What I find mystifying, though, is that he’s going to start radiation treatments. Why in the world would someone do that? Why would someone subject themselves to the pain and sickness and endless hours of vomiting when they’re going to cash it in in less than a year? I don’t understand. Nobody’s getting out of this thing alive. Are they so frightened of the inevitable that they’ll do anything for another day or two? Not me. That’s why I wear a medic alert tag around my neck saying “Do Not Resuscitate.” When it’s time to go it’s time to go. There’s no bargaining to be done. It’s over!

2 Comments

Filed under Uncategorized

Tagged as

April 7, 2022 · 12:37 pm

Critical Timing

The phrase “Timing is everything” sums up the essence of good comedy. It’s that way, too, in life in general. Take today, for instance (April 7, 2022).

The weather sooth sayers sooth there’s an 80% chance of rain for the day. It was dark and gloomy when I got out of bed at quarter past seven this morning and it hadn’t brightened up a whole lot over the next couple of hours. I keep the 11-pound propane tank out in the cockpit with the hose leading inside to the stove. For safety reasons I always shut the feed off at the tank after finishing with the stove until the next time I need to use it. I noticed that the gauge on the tank had dipped down into the yellow, “Low” zone.

That means there’s roughly 1/4 of the tank capacity left. Since I cook on the stove every day I thought it would be a good idea to get the tank topped off. There were also a couple of other things I could get done while I was out of The Swamp here off the Saint Johns River in Central Florida…Refill the empty 5 gallon water bottle and do some grocery shopping to hold me over into early next week.

Did all those thing I needed to do and JUST AFTER getting everything from the SUV to the boat cockpit raindrops started dimpling the surface of the canal. Right now as I’m writing thunder is rolling all around.

“Timing is everything.”

Comments Off on Critical Timing

Filed under Uncategorized

Tagged as , ,

April 6, 2022 · 3:02 pm

NEVER Vote for a Conservative

Why? Because they’re just too effin’ STUPID, that’s why!

Example:
Comparing former Supreme Court Justice Robert Jackson to Ketanji Brown Jackson, Sen. Tom Cotton (R-AR) says: “The last Judge Jackson left the Supreme Court to go to Nuremberg and prosecute the case against the Nazis. This Judge Jackson might have gone there to defend them.”

This idiot obviously doesn’t know how things work. She was a “Public Defender” and they don’t get to choose who they defend. And he obviously knows nothing about American history. You know who defended the British Soldier who participated in the Boston Massacre? It was John Adams who would end up being the country’s second president. Why did he defend them? Because he believed EVERYONE deserves to be represented in a court of law…

1 Comment

Filed under Uncategorized

Tagged as

April 6, 2022 · 10:56 am

TDS (Trump Derangement Syndrome)

Someone recently accused me of having TDS (Trump Derangement Syndrome). As if reminding people of what a totally despicable, worthless, dangerous, traitorous, piece of human garbage the giant orange pus ball is, is a bad thing.

The person who said that thinks “Derangement” only means you hate something. In some cases that may be true, but derangement is: – “a state of mental disturbance and disorientation. mental unsoundness, unbalance. insanity – relatively permanent disorder of the mind.”

My reply is that the REAL person suffering from TDS is the one who still has his “Trump 2020” sign on his front lawn. Alternatively it’s the person who has a “Trump 2024” sign on their lawn. It’s also someone who believes that a person who NEVER won the popular vote in any election they ran in or who, in their 4 years in office because of a quirk in our electoral process, NEVER hit a 50% approval rating in any poll conducted, INCLUDING Fox Noise, suddenly won the 2020 election in a “landslide.” THAT’S who has TDS!

Comments Off on TDS (Trump Derangement Syndrome)

Filed under Uncategorized

Tagged as , ,

April 5, 2022 · 8:37 am

Auto Insurance Bullshit!

My last moving traffic violation was in 1971! It’s not that I haven’t deserved citations since then, I just haven’t gotten caught. On the whole, though, I’m a cautious and safe driver even as I approach the 80th anniversary of transiting the center of our solar system. I’ve always kinda looked at auto insurance as betting against myself. And since I live deep in the swamp off the Saint Johns River in Central Florida and only venture outside its precincts a couple of times a week I HATE paying what I view as extortionate rates for coverage.

But, carrying auto insurance is mandated by the state so I have it. Recently I got a billing notice from my carrier. It costs me roughly $12 for insurance every time I go shopping. Thinking that’s ridiculous I decided to see if I could get a better deal somewhere else. I went on line and went through some absolutely ridiculous bullshit trying to gather quotes. Page after online page of info and end up with NO ONE just giving you a fucking number without talking to a human being.

I finally did talk to two agents and got one quote that was slightly lower than what I have now. And my coverage is the BARE MINIMUM!!! I have a 22-year old beater of an SUV. Last summer’s voyage to New Jersey and back saw me having to get my alternator replaces THREE TIMES! So I don’t carry comprehensive or collision coverage. Minimum liability and it costs me over $100 each month. Well, the best alternative I got would save me just over $4 a week. I’m poor, but saving $4 a week just isn’t enough incentive to go through with changing carriers. I’ll stick with what I have.

1 Comment

Filed under Uncategorized

Tagged as