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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.

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. 😈

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.

Good evening. Worked an overtime shift today and it was hell. A tech and I signed up to work extra because my unit was short and they pulled a nurse and a tech to work elsewhere and short staffed us anyway. I really need to shake that negativity off. Stars the senior low income housing here has waiting lists. The wealthy income continuing care communities also have waiting lists of many years. And the only way to get a spot is someone dies or goes to a nursing home. Just facts. Hope something reveals itself to you soon.

Good morning! Joe, hope you have a good day. I like going to museums and have visited all the big ones around here and we have some good ones. There are some smaller ones here but most don't interest me. The library sometimes gives away free passes and best friend snags those when he can. Off today for one day and back tomorrow. Got up at 6AM after sleeping pretty decently for a change. Have my 2nd load of wash in the washer and still need to wash the sheets. Scheduled a hot yoga class here in a few. I will take it easy as I haven't been in a couple of weeks and it's really humid this time of year. Otherwise not much going on. Will do some meal prep to make sure I have healthy food for work and dinner. Have a god day.

Good evening. Ado, condolences to your step children's mother passing young. Work was a little more hectic today but they let me keep all staff so that was nice for a change. Of course at 7pm after everyone's in report they decide to pull a night shift tech. Very annoying. My former doctor's office was terrible at responding to pharmacies. My doc just gave me his person cell phone and asked me to text him when I needed something. My current doc is great and her response time to my requests for refills has always been same day. Stars, I don't think I've had a provider tell me what "I must do", but tell me what they are recommending and I have the choice to take it or go against medical advice. I'm sure if I went the AMA route often they wouldn't like that. I have pretty much followed advice...taking the BP med was a big one for me, getting hernia surgery and what not. I sometimes have to get out of my own head and medical knowledge and listen. But I also expect to be listened to. I got put on Trazadone because I suggested it. Thankfully, I'm not a sickly person generally but the last two years have been a challenge. LOL. I fired a dentist once because I didn't like the way he did an implant and once made me wait an hour. I'm off tomorrow. Having my creole spaghetti (whole wheat noodles) and it's really good. I'm glad I can eat carbs without guilt. LOL

I will also had that may current doctor is very business like and not warm and fuzzy. She doesn't smile much. Our visits are very short and she doesn't small talk. My BP follow up was about 2 minutes, my 3 months visits for the benzo are less than five minutes, my annual visits are a bit longer. But my gut feeling is she cares and listens, follows good protocol and is smart and I like her well enough.

Good morning! We had a huge thunderstorm at 1:30 with lots of lightning and thunder and torrential rains. Woke me and Waffles right up and we had to wait for it to pass. Dianah that sounds frustrating. George is a member of Best's Buys Geek Squad if he can't get help over the phone he just takes his lap top in. Stars, eventually you have to trust your instincts if you want to keep this doc or not. It's a shame with so much substance abuse they have to be like that. When I switched doctors a couple of years ago, she without question renewed by benzo and has been doing so since. I never was asked to submit to a drug test. I would trust your gut instincts on this whether it's best to play the game or just get someone else. Work again today was fully staffed, but for being a tech short. Nurses are signing up for overtime bonuses and it's helping. Plus we have some nurses coming off of orientation. I'll be getting some of those bonuses to make up for the money I spent on flights, motel, rental car, air conditioner and dental work. I've taken a big hit lately.

Good evening. Joe, glad to hear the cat is settling in. Stars, I'm benzo dependent for sleeping. It is what it is. Here in Florida you have to see your doctors every three months to get it renewed, so if you're not used to that, make sure you have that arranged. I had a decent day at work and they left us fully staffed without floating anyone. Got to help the nurses and do patient rounding.

Good morning! Joe, hope you have a good day. I voted in the Democrat Primary here. There were a few candidates I preferred but I left most of the judges blank. I know judges are important, but I don't know enough about them. My district was zoned to dilute the heavy democrat part of the city to a republican district. It was deemed illegal years ago and was changed back but didn't stop them again this year. Last day off and will organize myself some. I have a PCP telehealth this afternoon and will go over to best friend's for fruit and coffee afterwards. I paid $35 copay for the phone call with my PCP which will probably last 2 to 5 minutes at the most. She just wants to follow up with my blood pressure. I've been faithful at taking it and it's rarely high anymore and will probably stay the course.

Glad you enjoyed it.

Stars, so sorry to hear what might have been a peaceful situation so disrupted like that. A friend of mine, may he rest in peace, got into a lower income senior housing here but there was a waiting list. I know another acquaintenace is in the same place. I'm sure Jacksonville as subsidized housing for the "elderly" as well. Some I think accept animal companions, this place advertises low income and has a pic of a woman with a dog https://towersofjacksonville.org Welcome back Dianah. The crown went well. I was feeling no pain and forgot about it and crunched down on some cold raw hard almonds (a no no) and thankfully while I caused some pain that took Tylenol to take care of, it didn't seem to disrupt the crown. Duh.

Good morning! Joe, hope you have a good day. It's already 86 year. No rain in the forecast which we really need. Having a rare 2nd cup of coffee. Did not sleep well. I had been sleeping rather well despite the stresses I've been under. But I got up early and hope to get to bed early and reverse my late night sleeping habits. The trick will be to avoid a nap. Have my appointment to get my crown started here soon. That will be the big event of the day. Have a good day.

I Love Boosters is a really good movie starring who is becoming one of my favorite actresses Keke Palmer, and a great cast to include Demi Moore. The underlying theme is worker exploitation by the rich capitalists, but it does so in a very bizarre manner. It is comedic, action packed and sci fi rolled into one story that works well. https://www.rogerebert.com/reviews/I-love-boosters-boots-riley-film-review-2026

Good morning! Hi Joe. Hope you have a nice day. Ado, hope the son lives up to keeping things cleaner. My default is sloppy, lazy and procrastination, but I find doing a little bit every day keeps the German half in my satisfied. I've been without electricity and it's miserable. Last time, I knew it was coming and froze a bunch of gallon baggies in the freezer and things actually stayed fresh but melted. The worst part was not having air conditioning. Mom's bad knee prevented her from wandering much but sometimes she would forget she couldn't walk and get up to go get something or to the bathroom and fall. I put my phone away and read last night but still stayed up later and slept later than I'd like. Yesterday, I made lentil tacos and home made pico de gallo to top them. They were good. I burned the first batch of taco shells. I rarely make tacos and have to learn to heat them up for just a minute in the toaster oven. I made some homemade jerk sauce and it was good on beans for lunch. With the overtime ending and the restrictive diet over, I'm going to diversify my cooking again. I've dusted off some cookbooks in my collection and will use them. There's of course a lot of free stuff online and some apps. I go to the store often. I keep a running list on my phone. I've been the last three days in a row because I've been cooking. I average about 3 times a week. Yesterday my Google Pay was rejected at Sprouts for some reason, but it was only $7 and I ten went to the regular store where it was accepted.

Tuner is a really good film about a gifted piano tuner that also has a gift for safecracking. He uses his skills to pay of his mentor's medical debt (played the Dustin Hoffman who has a supporting role in the movie). He subsequently falls in love and gets in over his head in crime. It's very well done and the soundtrack is really good.

Good morning! Safe travels J22. I'm sure Dianah is having a good time. Stars, hope you continue to feel better. Nothing to report here. My boss gave me the weekend off for bereavement. I think I technically get three days and should return Sunday but gave me tomorrow off as well. I'm glad because while I'm not in deep grief, I still am having trouble with motivation and focus. I need to take a look at the primary which is happening here on Tuesday. I know in November on the ballot is a measure to significantly decrease property taxes, which helps big home owners the most and shifts burden to local governments for services. I think people will vote for the cut but the downstream effect is we still have to pay for services somehow, about 33 million dollars the first year here and then upwards to 75 from there. An estimated shift of burn statewide of 12 billion. Otherwise I haven't decent who to vote for. I hate to say that during non-presidential elections I often skip the primaries. The last 20 years or so as we've become super red, about 99% of what and whom I vote for doesn't pass, but at least I vote. I doom scrolled late last night, a habit I was trying to break. Not that it's horrible to entertain myself that way, but I feel it would be better spent reading a book and I might not stay up so late. Waffles left me sleep two hours past her bedtime. Weird.

Good morning! Joe, hope you have a good day and a good time tonight. j22, that's ridiculous your son can't get the CPAP fixed. I'm doing what I tend to do when not working in that I stay up late and get up late. I have to switch that around. 8:30 is late for me. But Waffles does wake me up to be fed by 6AM. Nothing much going on today. It's "wash the sheets Friday" so I'll get that done.

Blue Film is an indie film about a sex worker who encourters a former teacher that hires him for one night for $50,000. It got relatively good reviews and holds a decent 92 score on Rotten Tomatoes. I thought it a very original story that didn't follow any formula that you see so often in movies in the mainstream. I found the opening sequence of the main character performing on cam a bit cringe but otherwise the film really held my attention. Lead actor Kieron Moore does an excellent job conveying complex and changing emotions throughout the movie. It definitely is an adult film with explicit language around sex and profanity. https://www.rogerebert.com/reviews/blue-film-queer-movie-review-2026

Good morning! Joe, glad you day yesterday seemed a bit better. Hope today is the same. I like not having a check register where I have to write down what I spend and make sure I don't forget and make sure my math is right. This is helpful when I sometimes make three or four stops to spend money. I can do that but the I'd rather not. The last hold out was my bug guy wanted a check every three months and this last time they had an online payment option. I pay it and it instantly is taken out of my account for me to see. I check my bank account almost daily, same as I would a check register. My dad is mostly a cash person. I took him on some errands the other day and we got gas and he toddled his nearly 93 year old self inside and left $60 in cash and toddled back in to collect the change. He apparently saves his change and has hundreds of dollars in coins. We picked up some take out Italian. He said the fast food hot dog place he likes no longer takes cash. Nothing much going on today. Best friend has a cold and I was going to make lunch but he had to cancel. My latest in my string of bad luck after the flight, jamming my finger is that my glasses broke. Somehow I dropped them from my night stand and I can't fix them. The place I bought them is closed. I do have an old pair and the prescription isn't that different so I'll use them. The optometrist I used to go to no longer takes my vision insurance and the doc I see is opening a new practice in October so I'll just wait. I guess I could go anywhere to get them fixed but I think they are permanently broke. It's frustrating to have practices that take this and that insurance. When one of my docs moved to Michigan, I wanted another doctor I like but he didn't take my insurance. Apparently since we've changed owners and got new insurance, he does now. My last doctor moved twice and the 2nd time was to a practice that didn't take my insurance. The days of doctors starting a practice and staying there for life is long gone. It's corporate now. My current doctor is a salaried employee of the same organization I work for. I guess there are pros in that she makes the same no matter how many patients she sees so they don't overbook, and a lot of the office and financial administration is taken care of by someone else.

Thanks for your review. Unfortunately there is no US release date set but I'll keep it on my Rotten Tomatoes watchlist in case it does get a release here. Sounds great.

Good morning! Joe, seems like work has been tough for you lately. When is the "side project" done? Stars, when you get that room finally cleaned I would stick to a schedule. "Monday I dust", "Tuesday I vacuum" "Wendy I clean the bathroom" "Thursday I wash sheets", etc. Doing a little bit every day keeps things clean and organized. Yeah right. Not sure where you live stars but the drought map does say that part of the state is in a drought either moderate or severe. Even though it rains we are still behind. My county remains split in two with the half I live in "extreme drought". The weather man swears the drought will end this fall and Winter due to El Niño. Hope he's correct. It took many hours for the house to cool down. Like 10 hours. I left the house at 85 degrees and went to have lunch and watch some TV at best friends and come home it was still 85. It wasn't until after sunset it started to cool off. Sometime through the night it reached 78 which is what I had it set on and it shut off. I moved it to 80 which is where I keep it and I'm waiting to see if it cuts back on. There was a moment I turned it off to change the filter and it took what I thought was an unusual time to turn back on. So we'll see. Oh wait, it just came on. I guess I can relax that it's fixed. For a while I when it stayed 85 all day I wondered. Yesterday later afternoon I mowed the grass just to work off some tension. Even at 6:00 it was 93 with "feels like" 108. Good thing I'm hardy when it comes to heat. My favorite doctor went to another practice that takes Humana medicare patients and it's a busy practice. Our hospital case managers don't like Humana much for various reasons, probably because the doc is the gatekeeper and a lot of things much go through them. By the time I retire at the end of next year, I probably will get a supplement that my current doctor takes if I'm still with her, if not I'll consider Humana and see if he's still in practice. I had a good experience with Nationwide pet insurance. When SlowBro needed a $1500 dental procedure for an abscess they paid in full. The only thing is you pay it first and they pay you back. My employer has pet insurance through MetLife but with Waffles being so old, I decided not to get it as they charge more as they age. There is also "care credit" that the emergency vet uses which is a credit card for pet emergencies. I talked to my father yesterday. He took care of the final arrangements with the funeral home on Monday and mom will be cremated and sent to her final resting place at a military cemetery later this week. He and my sister will go see it on Friday. I'll go next time I'm up. Mom specifically said no funeral. I think when dad is laid to rest bedside her because he's a military war vet there will be a standard ceremony if we want.

Good morning! Congrats on deciding to keep the cat. I always a trial weekend with my dogs and I always kept them. Dinah, safe travels and enjoy yourself when you get there. Leaving tomorrow? Seems like you got this trip packing and van prep down to a science. The guy is here fixing the air conditioner. Thankfully he came on the 10:00 side of 10:00 to 12:00 and looks like things will be working unless there's a snag which given my luck lately I wouldn't bet surprised at all. I heard from my sister and the movement of mom to her final resting place will occur this week after cremation. Dad and her will go see her Friday. Sad to see my 92 year old father go through this after nearly 70 years of marriage, but he's hold up. Her ex-husband is still there helping. I didn't realize how close he was to my father during the years he was married to my sister. They have a lot in common like military service, sports and what not and I'm glad here's there. He's been through this with both his parents and is helpful navigating the terrain such as social security, etc. I was getting off a leg machine at the gym, which was crowded and took a tumble to the floor and made a scene. I jammed my middle finger and the pain was excruciating for a bit. But while it's bruised some it's definitely not broken. I'll see if it will heal itself the next couple of days. If not I work with a good hand specialist. It's my left hand and being left handed it hurts whatever I do because I'm extremely left handed. My ego is bruised always. LOL Made some appointments that I missed such as Waffles ophthalmology appointment and the will stuff. I was able to leave my televisit to follow up with the BP made and the GI appointment as it was. BP has been good. My BP on my dad's machine was 110's but here it's always 130s. Either way the med is effective. We'll see what going off the steroids in a couple of weeks does. The guy prounounced the air conditioner working! I'll give it a chance to cool off then go get Waffles and my stuff at best friends.. We'll have lunch and watch TV. We are watching "100 Years of Solitude" Part 2 on Netflix. We watched part 1 in 2024. It's interesting. It has some religious, political and supernatural elements to it.

The Christophers is a British movie that received good reviews. It's about a dying artist who left a series of paintings of a young man that he fell in love with unfinished and his children want to forge a completion them and sell them after he dies as the artist is famous. Several twists and turns occur and it's very well written. It stars the great Ian McKellen who does a really good job. Great movie. https://www.rogerebert.com/reviews/the-christophers-steven-soderbergh-ian-mckellen-film-review-2026

Good morning! Thanks for the condolences everyone. I'm still staying at best friends while the air conditioning is out. My flight home was delayed a bit because the toilet wasn't working. Easy fix. Then after landing we sat an hour waiting on a gate. A really bad storm shut the airport down causing the airport to temporarily close. It was opened when we landed but there was a back log. My niece who wanted to leave earlier, was actually in the air when the shutdown occurred and circled Tampa many times before being able to land. They came close to diverting her to Orlando. Florida storms past quickly but sometimes can be at the wrong place at the wrong time. This makes 100% of my many travel experiences with some kind of snag. Every. Damn. Time. I came home to check on things and to get an Amazon package that was delivered while I was gone. It's 87 degrees inside. Ugh. I decided to make some oatmeal and a green smoothie since I haven't been eating the best. Otherwise I'm going to to gym and keeping myself occupied best I can. Life goes on.