Monday August 24th 2026

Good morning!

Joe, hope you have a good day. I have read that it's recommended to eat lighter for the evening meal and not too late. I don't do that and eat a hefty dinner, and sometimes if it's been a 12 hour shift, I eat and go to bed. Not sure if that's a culprit in my insomnia or not.

Dinah, sorry to hear about your ongoing problem with the computer. Hope it can be worked out. Hope you sleep better as well.

Out of exhaustion probably since I stayed up a little late I slept a solid seven hours without waking up (medicated of course). Surprised Waffles let me sleep an hour past her breakfast but she got fed late after I worked. Good thing, as I return to work for a four hour skills day. I need to study telemetry before I go. If you fail that test there's a three-hour remedial class you have to take and I do not want to do that. Usually I pass but I don't want to be too confident and jinx myself.

The Odyssey is getting rave reviews and one I want to see on the big screen but I can't seem to carve out the time lately. Hope to see it though. It's presumed to get a lot of Oscar nominations.

Hello. I'm back after a week of camping on the Oregon coast. The weather was decent, although a little cool at times, and not as much sun as I would have liked, but it was still nice. I got in some beach time, which I love, just watching and listening to the big waves, and reading my book. We also visited Seaside, which is what I call an old-fashioned resort town, with lots of little shops, a carousel, arcade, and a big sandy beach. Another day we drove into Astoria, which is near the mouth of the Columbia river. We visited a maritime museum, the old jail that had displays from the Goonies movie, and a historic mansion.

We got home so late last night, that I didn't completely unload the travel trailer, so that is on today's to-do list. I will leave the non-perishable food out there, as we are going for the weekend to a bike event to support eldest ds and his wife. But there is a mountain of laundry that is calling.

Condolences, Annie, on the loss to your family.

Stars, I understand your feelings about the provider. When I had to consult a neurosurgeon about a bulging disc I had to sign a pain contract, even though I wasn't even asking for a pain med. And when I pressed him for a better explanation, he prescribed a muscle relaxant. I didn't want a pill, I wanted answers. I didn't go back. I figured out the issue and took care of it.

Dianah, that is rough about your computer. My sis had update problems. Now when she has a video appointment, I come over with my Mac so she can do them.

Joe, it sounds like Bleu is fitting it nicely.

Hi Tweety!

I was told to 'pay attention to your dreams this week' .... 🤣And all I can remember was that Groucho Marx was briefly in it, and later on I was also specifying that I did not want to live on the top floors of a high-rise, nor the lowest ones. My request was that I live no lower than the 4th floor and no higher than the 6th floor. Never did specify whether I wanted to be facing the street and the tall building across from it, or facing the water views. So there I am with my dreams: "You Bet Your Life" and "Say the Secret Word and Win" ... what was it? $100? ("Lydia, oh Lydia, that encyclopydia; it's Lydia the tatooed lady" .... That was one of Groucho's songs, y'know)

Anyway I am going to eat something, then go with my friends (their treat) to see Matt Damon's three hour movie, then to one of their relatives houses to have a home-cooked meal. I agreed to it just to get out of my own head for a while.

Like Linda Ellerbe used to say at the end of her show: "And so it goes."

While Tweety is glad he can eat carbs without guilt, I was thinking this weekend how it is nice to eat bacon-wrapped jalapenos stuffed with cream cheese -- without guilt! Doesn't mean I don't crave cookies, cake, and brownies, though. I tried a low-carb "brownies" recipe that used avocado for the fat and ... it was really, really bad.

Let us know what you think of the long movie, Stars. I'd like to see that one in the theater but not sure I can talk anyone into going with me. Ah, yes, I do remember Hawkeye Pierce singing about Lydia the Tattooed Lady -- wasn't Hawkeye always doing Groucho imitations?

J22, the beach sounds lovely. Even with cooler weather. Glad it was a good trip. The laundry can be worked through ... hopefully with no rush.

dianah, sorry about the computer woes. How annoying.

All food is guilt free. Guilt is attached to food because we attach it ourselves. If I thought about the saturated fat, sodium, and carcinogens in bacon and cheese, I would never enjoy a good bacon cheeseburger. Eating what I want to eat and eating predominantly plant forward healthy food is enough for me. I don't want to be restrictive.

Did you read about the multi millionaire that spent millions on longevity and now realizes his body is human and he has an autoimmune disease he's dealing with. Then on the other end there's the people dying from chronic illness that could be prevented through diet. Finding peace with food took me some effort but I'm in the middle. We're all human.

https://www.healthline.com/health-news/longevity-guru-bryan-johnson-diagnosed-autoimmune-gastritis#What-is-autoimmune-gastritis

Anyway, I made a 96% on my telemetry test, missing one strip out of 25 and am very pleased with myself. I may order delivery of a bacon cheeseburger to celebrate. 😈

It was absolutely AIRLESS when I took Tinker out this morning.

I was expecting the movie theater to be freezing today, but it wasn't. Odesyess (sp again) was pretty fantastic. No wonder Matt Damon said it was the hardest movie he had ever made. The actors had to live where they filmed, without any A/C relief or make-up trailers. There was no relief from the real-life conditions under which the people of those times lived. All I could think of was how they used no special effects or any CGI's to make the effects look real. A slow, painstaking process. I would've been so seasick and sweaty; I'll just bet those actors REEKED of real true funky-as-hell body odors by the time they got to go home. Matt Damon really had to put himself through some kind of body-hell training to get the body he had in that movie. I mean, he looked really fabulous but at the same time very un-natural. And anybody who gets motion-sickness ought not to go see it because of the fast action and hand-held cameras. Plus it gets extremely LOUD at times, though that was part of what made it so impressive. I confess I jumped and cussed (quietly) at certain points, from being suddenly startled. And I would see it again, though maybe on a smaller screen so as not to feel so overwhelmed.

Now I want to go get the book and read it, because when it was assigned in high school it meant absolutely nothing to me.

It's 10:30 and I am really exhausted, so I'll put the laptop down and crawl under the covers and read for a while.

I put in a request for an office and provider (PCP) associated with the Baptist Hospital organization and should get a call back within the next day or two. I decided I didn't want to waste my time going back to who I saw previously. They were very efficient and professional but not very interested in the patient so much as they were of getting the patient to totally succumb to their methods. And though I don't have any problems with abusing any drugs, I think their first 4 pages about the twenty-four commandments of their substance abuse drug policies isn't the best start of a relationship. Like they are trying to eliminate any question at all about anything having to do with prescriptions, and that the patient would respect the providers orders and obey them.... well, what about that respect being a two way street? I felt absolutely no interest in them projecting any kind of human warmth or caring or getting to know the patient, and therefore assuming the worst even before the very beginning of the doctor/nurse relationship. Don't like feeling I am being put under a microscope searching for even a hint of 'the worst"..... Ef that excrement!

Dianah, best friend is the same way. He gains weight very fast if he eats too many carbs. The unfortunate side effect is osteoporosis and over 200 cholesterol but he's generally heathy and eats plenty of vegetables and fruit. I think too many people go low carb and over eat meant, cheese and eggs and forget the vegetables. Everyone is different and for some low carb is the way to go.

For me my relationship with food was complicated when I used to be a strict vegan wanting to eat only healthy food. The result was a stable weight, cholesterol in the 110's and generally excellent health, but a lot of guilt if I ate a bag of chips and I engaged in a lot of self-sabotage. Couldn't live like that so quit being vegan and started being more relaxed.

While I didn't have that bacon cheeseburger, I did order delivery of a cheeseburger and fries last night and completely enjoyed it. Didn't feel like cooking and wanted to celebrate getting the skills days being complete.

Florida used to be grown zero for the opioid epidemic. North Florida was worst because they had fly by night doctors that would prescribe Oxycontin in "pain management clinics" and people from out of state could come down easily and gets lots of narcotics by simply filling out a form and saying they were in pain.

There was a big crackdown and now we are seeing the results through a lot of regulation. Now doctors can only prescribe three days worth of narcotics. After my hernia surgery I only got a few oxycodone and handouts on addiction, narcotic use and alternatives. My GI doc provided a hand out "we will not be prescribing you any narcotics" and another lecture on alternatives and that any narcs will come from the PCP not them.

Also beore electronic checks people would go from doctor to doctor. Now there's an electronic check that a doctor is required to use to see your pattern of narcotic use and if you've recently got a narcotic prescription they can't prescribe more.

Anytime someone gets a narcotic inpatient it automatically populates a teaching sheet about narcotics and appropriate use on their discharge even if they aren't getting any when they go home.

Docs do their best and have the portrayed as the bad guys and get the blame of people that become addicted to narcs. They are sued for not controlling pain adequately and sued for creating addicts. Rock and a hard place.

That's probably TMI, but it's not personal when a doctor does a CYA over narcs. Although someone with chronic pain issues can sometimes run into problems or someone that has an issue that might need pain medication more than three days.

But we all are treated with suspect. Some PCP's don't prescribe narcotics at all. Although my doc had handouts they didn't drug screen me. Meh. Thankfully I'm not an addict. I still have 8 of the 12 oxycodone tabs from my hernia surgery last December. I have 99 problems but opioids aren't one but don't blame them for being suspicious.