Too busy & too late to be blogging

But I wanted to share the news that the BSU is beginning to turn the corner. She's still shaky and easily confused but she's getting better. I know so because she is begining to complain about the food, the crazy people around her, and her need for toothpaste and deodorant.

We have had two very good visits in the past two nights. Last night she was able to clearly spell out to me the things that she felt needed to change in her very small environment of the hospital wing she is in. So we talked and came up with a plan that today she would express the same concerns and requests to the charge nurse. She got to see her social worker first though and she used the opportunity to make her request for toothpaste known as well as the other things discussed the night before.

And she got what she asked for!

Tonight's visit was a small celebration of this simple improvement in her health. We talked about lots of things including what name she wants to be called by the grandson who is due in January. She has put lots of thought into this question! we also discussed what I want to be called by a grandson, (Old grouchy bastard has been ruled out) and she expressed interest in a pastoral visit which I will arrange tomorrow.

And now I'm going to bed!

Go read this. Take your hanky

John Ross has a post that is a real tear-jerker but I think its worth a read. Sadly, it has become obvious that sometime in my own near future I will have to make a similar choice regarding our Dalmation, Abigail. She is healing up from the toe removal quite well it seems but her number of days is waning.

One more thing for me worry about.

Something I discovered- perfect driving food

Most of you know that I am commuting from Ogden to Salt Lake City nearly every evening to see my hospitalized spouse. Which means I've been eating too much junk food, or too late at night and drinking coffee in the hours I normally reserve for drinking beer.

One of the things that this routine of driving has taught me is that 7-Eleven offers the best cheap coffee readily available. Sure, Starbucks or Grounds For Coffee has real lattes and Grounds For Coffee even has the butterscotch syrup I like. But 7-Eleven has fresh coffee all the time, a tolerable steamed milk substitute in the cappuchino machine and decent, reusable cups.

But I just discovered last night the best thing at 7-Eleven- the Taquitos! I had two, for 2 bucks and they were quite tasty. I purchased one of the Jalapeno and Cream Cheese and one of the Monterey Jack cheese and chicken versions. One of the reasons I liked these tasty food sticks was because they are easily consumable using one hand, while driving and without making a mess all over my shirt.

So there it is- I admit I'm a 7-Eleven customer. And happy about it!

John F'n Kerry Flip-Flops Again

And this time its about guns and what he supposedly said in an interview with Outdoor Life magazine in which he claims to own a Chinese assault rifle, which of course, reminds him of his time in Vietnam.

But in Michele's reprinting of the NYT article from the weekend, we discover that John F'n Kerry didn't actually have an interview with Outdoor Life, rather he handed a written questionaire to an unnamed staff member who apparently made up the assault rifle ownership story!

What a load of crap! Either that staff member needs to be publicly fired for making the Kerry campaign look even more like a roving band of yokels, or Kerry does own the gun! And if he does, I think that matter needs to be explored much further because its either completely illegal or its simply part of that group of scary looking guns that John F'n Kerry repeatedly voted to remove from the hands of normal, citizen Americans.

So which is it? Is the Democratic candidate a lier or just two-faced on gun ownership issues?

Conan to replace Jay in 2009

Lucky for me I'll be too old and too tired for the Tonight Show by the time of the handover. I like Jay...

BSU's condition-

She has had a hard week overall. The bronchitus/pneumonia is under control and she's improving physically. She has had to skip two ECT treatments though to give her brain a rest. She has been really confused most of the week, not even able to stay in the moment when I've been visiting but rather lost and clouded in her thinking.

She's tried to walk out of the ward a couple times because she thinks its time for her shift to be over and for her to go home. Since she has worked in hospitals for many years and is used to the nursing station environment and the scrubs that she must wear to id her as a patient, she just gets to thinking that she works ther too. And when her shift is over, she wants to go home.

In other things she has been confused too. Her brain is seemingly bouncing around, trying to grasp onto something, anything that makes sense, that she can hold onto. But as soon as she has a thought firmly fixed, 4 minutes later its gone and we start all over again trying to anchor her thoughts.

The behaviour is typical of the ECT and exaggerateed by the antibiotics that she was getting for the bronchitus. Hopefully this week coming will be better for her.

As for my bug that kept me on the recliner all day Saturday- its not gone but I've beat it into submission with some extra sleep and that Sav-On brand NyQuil. I'm going to have a shower and another dose in just a couple minutes...

Abigail our aged dalmation seems to be improving from her toe amputation surgery last Friday as well. You might remember that she had surgery to fix a broken toenail a month ago, it didn't work and so she had to have one entire toe removed. She's been mighty miserable in pain and she has a huge bandage covering her foot that makes it hard for her to get around. But tonight she even managed up the stairs while I made dinner and back down again on her own. I keep feeding her the pain meds and she doesn't seem to mind taking them.

so that's it then. Bed time right after a shower. And 90 miles to a gallon of gas; isn't that cool?

90 miles today, 1.03 gallons!

I took the scooter on its first real ride today, into SLC to see the BSU. I took the back roads, except that I forgot that highway 89 actually joins up with the interstate 15 for several miles. Oops! 52 mph isn't enough when its posted for 65 mph! Anyway, I got back onto secondary roads for the remainder of the trip with no difficulties and it turned out to be a perfect day for a ride.

And it really did take 1.03 gallons to refuel when I got home with 90 miles traveled! I fueled up before leaving at the station at the bottom of the hill from the house and refueled again upon my return. That's incredible mileage considering that most of the trip I was running at wide open throttle.

Top speed does seem to be about 53 mph on flat roads. There are a couple hills that reduced me to below 40. For those hills, more power would be a really good thing! Overall though, its a very good ride, stable and pretty smooth. The step in the seat is just about 1 inch too close for comfort really, if it was further back there would be a bit more room to stretch out.

But its not designed or intended for multi-hour extended trips but for short hops and commuting and I'll start doing that tomorrow. I have an appointment for my driving test in the morning and after that I'll be able to get my license updated and my base pass stickers. With those, I'll be completely legal.

I've already figured out where there might be a few more horsepower hiding in my scooter but first I've got to get a few more break-in miles on it!

Still doing my part to support Scootersdirect2U...

Somebody Googled his trade name today. I hope they found what they were looking for!

Note to Googlers searching to buy a scooter- skip this rude bastard and buy from Jim at JJ's Sport & Electric Cruisers. Or call Guy at XtremeMotorToys. Either way you will find someone that is there to help and is interested in your business.

More NyQuil with your coffee?

Yes please. Make it a double. Man I am sick! I've got the achy head, sniffling, sneezing, couphing and fever bug. This bug started creeping up on me earlier this week with just an annoying tickele in the back of my throat. Yesterday it grabbed me by the throat and shoved me down to the mat.

I went to visit the BSU last evening but I felt too bad to stay but just a little while and then returned home with just one stop at Labertson's for that large bottle of generic brand NyQuil. I was in bed by 8:30 last night and I ntend to make sleeping a big part of today's plan.

Yuck!

Election Counter Update

Today's numbers are the numbers I hope to see in November, Kerry-217, Bush- 311! That is the kind of blow out that I expect to see BTW.

If it wasn't already 10:56 PM

I'd tell you all about riding my new scooter for the first time this afternoon. But its too late and the telling will have to wait.

But I like it. I really like it!

That Electoral Counter over on the right

I think its pretty interesting and worthy of taking up space in my little space. If you've looked at it, the numbers have changed every day and today it even shows John F'n Kerry in the lead. If you want to learn how the results are figured, you can click the counter and it will take you to Electoral Vote.com. There's a map of each state, the number of electoral votes they support and a description of how the different polls are figured in to the equations used on the website. Its worth a look if you're interested at all in our election process.

I'll be happier when the big numbers get back into the red box though!

Tuesdays...

You know, somehow Tuesday’s have really turned into lousy days to get real work accomplished. Right in the middle of the morning is staff meeting, at 9:00. Only trouble with that is I’ve got to get to the staff meeting, which is in another building about 400 yards from my own. The building’s inside a security fence. I have to change my badge to one I have exclusively for that building. It takes pin numbers to get into the stairwells.

And nothing, nothing applies to me. The meeting eats up an hour of my life every week and I get nothing from it except a walk.

This afternoon is going to be clogged with some equally boring training. Ugh.

ECT- What it's all about

The XSU kindly left this link in the comments today and it has some very good explanation about what ECT is and isn't. From my experience with the BSU, this is a very accurate description and may be informative to anyone that wants to know more about it.

On the second page there is a description of Vagus Nerve Stimulation as another treatment recently approved by the FDA. I actually posted about this treatment in the past and have asked the spouse's docs about the procedure. Apparently, locally it is being tested but is not in regular use.

I did ask the doc to just Sharpie the spots on the BSU's neck where the implants need to go before she leaves the hospital. On the way home I'll take her to a 'tat & piercing parlor to have some studs installed then hook her up to the battery charger at home to keep her peaked up...

Thanks for the link, and I'm buying that book. Maybe two copies, one for home and one for our very helpful therapist.

Scooter purchase is Imminent!

UPDATE TO THE UPDATE: I've changed my mind. In response to an email exchange that I had with Jim at SECruisers overnight, he suggested that if the deal I was offered for a Vento Phantom for under 2000 bucks was legit, I probably should take it. I've scratched my head and compared final delivered prices, delivery time and warranty lengths and I have to agree, buying the Phantom semi-locally makes sense.

The owner of Xtreme Motor Toys, Guy Standing has really done his best to earn my business and he seems to have a thriving shop with some quality help, so I'm comfortable spending my money with him. And I can get the scoot hauled home as soon as I can get the tonneau cover off my truck!

UPDATE: Here's a picture of the scooter that I'm waiting on.

That's the good news today. I've got some money in my pocket, more in the credit union and even more in my PayPal account from the sale of the bike. I've got an agreement on a price and the money will transfer to Jim at JJ's Sport & Electric Cruisers later today.

The bad news is, Jim is waiting on the arrival of a fresh container load of scooters to arrive before he can deliver mine. Bummer. It looks like two weeks will pass while the container gets off loaded in Portland, the container gets unloaded in the warehouse, my box and my scooter gets pulled out, checked for damages, and then, finally sent on to me.

Lastly for now, I can't even link to a picture for you to see what my shiny new scoot is going to look like. Secruisers doesn't have a link to it from their main website and the link that I might be able to show you has the dreaded EBay word in it and so the base network server guards won't let me access it to add the hyperlink.

Hey Jim, throw us a link that everybody can see, would you please?

BSU Update- in case you're keeping up

Its been a busy week for her actually. First she was moved out of the first unit into a quieter unit with an older, depressed population instead of the crashing, shrieking drug and alchohol addicts. That's good because that first hall she was in was stressful just because of the tempo and noise level.

She had a CT scan because the Doc's thought she might have or be susceptible to pulmonary embolisms due to her exaggerated idleness. That test resolved that she did not have any embolisms but that she did have a partially collapsed lung due to her inactivity. And she apparently has some underlying pneumonia that has been affecting her health without making itself evident so it could be treated.

She also had a visit with a public defender and today another trip to a conference room in the main hospital to see a judge, making it official that she is now a non-volunteer patient. All that really means is that she will have to make steady progress in her health to be released from the hospital in a few more weeks.

I did visit her this afternoon for about an hour but I had to jet out to get back for one of my classes that was meeting tonight so that we could skip two nights week after next. Once I woke her from a nap she actually seemed more relaxed and animated than she has been in the past few weeks so that seemed to be a good thing. She's had 2 ECTs and is on the schedule for 3AM tomorrow morning for her third treatment.

Remind me to find and post a link to just what this treatment is all about for those of you that might want or need some of your own. Tomorrow.

Anyway, much of her distress and panic and danger is reduced and that's a good thing. I'll be visiting her again tomorrow and I must remember a People magazine for her!

Now, I'm going to bed. No alarm clock but hungry dogs in the morning!

Frank is still singing

Yesterday I received a link from a friend to his latest song Strangers on my Flight You'll need speakers for this one.

Something's on their minds.
I saw them mutter.
What that in their hands?
Looks like box cutters,

Go listen to the whole thing, its good.

U R Stupid Dumbass If U Pay Retail Pri-cee

Is Teresa Heinz Kerry writing spam emails these days? That header was in my email a few minutes ago. I was so encouraged to read the entire email and see what's available-

- What you bought previously was go to shop & buuyy a WIND0WS XP Pro that comes with a BOX & serial number & the manual cosst 299.00

- What you will get from us is The full W1ND0WS XP Pro sofftwaree & serial number. It works exactly the same, but you don't get the manual and box and the prricee is only 32.00 . That is a savviing of 254.00

Why, why, why does anyone in the world think that I would be encouraged to do business, to spend my money, with a person as dumbass as this? Come on folks, isn't there anything else that these idjits could be doing than insulting me into buying their pirated software? Maybe Mr. Algore who invented the internet and is now unemployed could figure out a way to take away the internet connection forever to stupid people like the ones that sent me this email. Good Grief!

My Scooter Choices- Feedback Wanted

Please click the link to JJ's Sports and Electric Cruisers and then take a look at the pictures of the EC-150 scooter and the RC-150 scooter. I'd like some feedback on which one I should buy. If I buy the EC, I think I like the blue color as shown, the RC would have to be that bright red as shown in its pictures.

If I buy the retro RC, I think I would have to find an artist to do some fancy pinstriping and perhaps a reproduction of some WW2 airplane nose art on the rear fender. But the EC has dual headlights and weighs 60+ pounds less which is a significant amount when its only 150cc doing the work of hauling the scooter and my portly carcass around.

So what do you think? Feedback in the comments please.

BSU had her first ECT today- bad day

Its been a long day for both of us but its probably been harder on her than me. She will be receiving 8 planned treatments of ECT, that's Electro Convulsive Therapy. Yeah, that. She actually had it two years ago when she was last hospitalized and it seemed to do her some good, so expectations of a good outcome this time are high.

But she didn't have a good day today. Had a very bad headache that they wre treating with something with codeine in it, which she doesn't tolerate well. She also had two blood thinner shots and tomorrow she must go have a CT scan for possible pulmonary embolisms! Yikes! Her O2 level was running low all day just to make matters worse and so they had her breathing some oxygen from a tube until that improves.

The ECT is a really effective treatment for lots of extreme circumstances of mental illness. It doesn't look anything at all like the scary movies might make it look. The patient gets knocked out, paralyzed and shocked all in a matter of minutes and then after recovery they are often feeling well enough to want breakfast. It is done very early in the morning for some reason that deals with serotonin levels or something like that.

Anyway, I hope tomorrow is a better day for her.

As for me, well I sold the CETME to Bob the religious artifacts (gun) dealer, took a test in my computer class that required me to explain to the instructor why a couple of true-false questions were so ambiguous as to be answerable either way, took in a very short review in Purchasing class and made the round trip to Salt Lake City to see the spouse and return. Its not quite 90 miles round trip.

And tomorrow promises to be another day of chasing in circles with precious little real work getting done... But there is a trade show to attend, with food, and a meeting and then getting the sold gun and ammo into Bob's hands, and another trip to SLC to see the BSU before studying 7 chapters worth of notes for Thursday night's mid-term in Purchasing. No problem.

One problem, perhaps. The winner of the EBay auction for my mountain bike requested a week to get his money together. Which I agreed to. But now he's gone silent for two nights and is not answering his emails. If I don't hear from him by tomorrow night, I'll be relisting the bike and filing a complaint against him as a deadbeat bidder.

That's it. Bedtime!

UPDATE: The bike buyer responded overnight with email from a different address. He is promising the money by Thursday. If that pans out, I'll be shipping the bike by Saturday and ordering my scooter.

Just as soon as I decide on a color and model!