My Weblog

Flash flood.......

Yep, some parts of Vegas actually got rain. Not here, of course. I actually got a call from a ministry, to which I once contributed $5, checking to see if I was alright, or if I'd been washed away in the "flood". If you hear about a "flood" in Vegas, let me explain. This is not like one might experience on the east coast. Vegas sits in a pocket surrounded by "mountains" (about 9000 feet max). Water is subject to the force of gravity. It rolls downhill. More than that, our ground is hard-packed, sun-baked clay. Nothing sinks in. It flows across the surface on its race to the lowest elevation. That's what it did the other day. Mostly it was The Strip that had problems and that's nothing new. They've been working on "flood control" in this area for the 40 years I've lived here. Back in the mid-90's there was a flood, the water rolled down the hills, and the next thing we knew, the cars in the Caesar's Palace underground parking garage turned into bumper cars, floating around down there.  Apparently that happened again this week. So much for "flood control", No doubt, one day they'll figure out how to make the water flow uphill..........

Anyway. this fine Christian lady from a fine Christian ministry, called me in hopes I hadn't experienced some form of devastation from the flood. Nah, I'm uphill from The Strip. I'm in that area where the water just flows right on past. I am sure the lady was prepared to call down help for me from the angels, and from God himself, and I had to tell her I'm sitting here all safe and sound. Even worse, there was no evidence of rain here.........

 

Oh, darn, another sunny day.......

It started out overcast, which I celebrated. Not that I thought we had a chance of rain........ Rather, hoping that the overcast might keep the temperature below 100. But, no, we're at 102 (in the shade) already. It will probably get a little hotter before the sun sets. I'm very tired of feeling hot and sweaty. Yes, I have air conditioning. Yes, the air conditioner is running. Of course I have the temp set as high as I can stand it to save on the power bill. 

We are in what Nevada calls its "monsoon season". That generally lasts from mid July til the end of August, but rarely results in rain. Of the next 14 days, there are 6 that are marked "mostly sunny". The rest are marked "partly cloudy". I think it rained somewhere in the area one day last week. As usual, this place did not get enough to wet the visible area of concrete around the house (driveway, front porch, and patio). 

For a while now, I've been trying to figure out how I could put solar on this place. For various reasons, I've more or less abandoned that idea. I felt bad about that decision til I read an article from the UK the other day. It stated that in England's heatwave, where they are having temps up to 100 and are finding problems with their solar. Seems they've found that with every degree of heat over 77, the solar systems are less and less effective. Even more concerning, they are experiencing spontaneous combustion of the solar panels in extreme heat. I just checked and in the next 14 days, we do not expect to see 77 or below, not even at night. The thought of turning myself inside out to figure out how to get solar holds much less appeal that it did a few days ago...........

I was remembering something a few minutes ago. Sometime in the early 80's my parents came for their summer visit. My mother came armed with a bottle of nitro glycerin because she was experiencing a lot of pain and had been diagnosed with angina pectoris. It seemed that daily, by late afternoon or evening, we were all gathered around the couch, praying, while she lay there, putting nitro pills under her tongue. It was a very high-stress, fearful time. My kid may have been too young to realize what was happening, but, believe me, my father and I were on pins and needles. She went through this for a good 12-15 years. Then they removed her gall bladder which was full of large gall stones. Suddenly, no more "angina" pain. 

I wish I could tell you her angina was "healed". I DO believe in divine healing and have personally seen it and experienced it in my own life. Instead, it was a misdiagnosis which was not discovered for more than a decade. To think of the amount of pain she endured and the amount of stress, we, her family, experienced, really makes me angry. There are many reasons why I don't like doctors. This is one of them. Don't trust them, never will...........

Prime Day

So, around the 12th of this month we had Prime Day. That concerned me. You see, I'm a sucker for a bargain. I finally made some rules for Marci. I could only buy one thing. My one thing had to be on my list of saved items (my wished list). I had to justify the purchase as something needed, money saving, or beneficial for the future. And I had to save more than 10%. 

So, what was my one thing you ask. Well, I bought a peeler/corer. You all know I broke my wrist about 2 years ago. Reasons I bought this thing: peeling stuff (like apples or potatoes) causes a lot of pain in my wrists; 2) I'd really like to be able to make applesauce, apple butter, apple pie filling, dehydrated apple slices,etc without pain. 3) I keep buying potatoes and then throwing a bunch of them away; if I didn't have to peel them, I could can them, shred them, fry them, and so on. I hate throwing away food. 

So, I caught this thing on sale for 24% off, making it about $15, which put it within range of my teeny tiny budget. And I figure it will help me be more efficient with some of the food I buy, thus saving me money in the long run. Now I want to catch some apples on sale...........

Miracle?

Gasoline is horrendously expensive. Coal is "dirty". We can't have a pipeline for oil so we have to pay an inflated market price for something we used to produce for a much lower price. Nuclear might leak so it's unsafe. The drought is moving southern Nevada to reliance on a record low level of water for production of hydro-electricity. In short, producing anything that would feed a power plant is a highly questionable (and highly inflationary) enterprise. 

I am on the "equal pay" plan with our power company. Last year I paid $187 a month as an averaged payment. I was astonished but thrilled when this year's amount was reduced to $169. Today I received an e-mail from the power company. The ominous subject line quickly grabbed my attention: "Your equal-pay amount has changed". I'm telling you--I opened the e-mail with trepidation. I am flabbergasted.

My equal-pay monthly amount has been reduced from $169 to $148. I am tempted to call the power company just to confirm the e-mail. That's a $21 a month reduction! Does God work in mysterious ways or what?

I wasn't a believer..........

I've never had much respect for "natural" cures. My personal opinion was that naturopaths and such were more like snake oil salesmen. And to a large extent I still believe one has to view such people with a bit of skepticism. And I had faith in the pharmaceutical companies. My faith in the pharmaceutical companies has been significantly reduced over the last few years. However, I will talk out of the other side of my mouth for a minute or two if you'll let me.

There is this woman, last name Nicole Apelian, who advertises on Youtube extensively. What she is advertising is a book on herbal medicine. I saw her talk about "Mullein" numerous times. Then a youtube personality for whom I have respect spoke about this same stuff. Okay, worth a try.

The word was this substance was great for breathing problems. Okay, I went looking and found it at Amazon. For quite a while, I've been using a steroid inhaler which is supposed to open up the bronchial tubes and allow release of a phlegm-like substance. Well, yeah--through my insurance company a 3 month supply is $147. I got the idea maybe there was a generic I could get for less. With the doctor's blessing, I spoke to my pharmacy about it. They came back with the news that a 3-month supply of the generic would cost $885 because the generic was not covered under my insurance. No, don't think so........ But with everything going up in price that $147 is pretty hard to come up with.

So, I ordered 90 capsules of mullein for $9.xx. That works out to about a 1.5 month supply, taken 2 per day. Or, less than $20 for a 3-month supply. And, the stuff works! It has actually taken me by surprise. I didn't really expect much from the stuff, but a $9 experiment seemed an okay risk. But I more or less started taking it and forgot about it. A few days later I seemed to be coughing up mountains of phlegm. I was actually coughing up so much I got kinda worried. I was concerned maybe I had some sort of respiratory problem. I've been keeping a close eye on my pulse oximeter and I'm getting good readings. So, that kind of rules out a respiratory problem. I think I am just experiencing respiratory relief from the mullein. I've checked out several sources and I've found no drug interactions or noted adverse effects. 

It is also believed that mullein may be effective against UTI's. Those are always a problem particularly in older adults, so I am hoping not to have that problem ever again, LOL. Well, I'm no doctor, but that's my story and I'm sticking to it. Maybe it'll help someone.........

 

inflation takes a bite.........

For years, I have ordered coffee pods through Amazon. It's been so long, I can't even estimate how many years. It was always $33.24 for 100. The last 2 months it went down to $30.xx. I shoulda known.....It was the wrong time for anything to go down in this inflationary economy. 

Well, there was an explanation--which I discovered after the fact. I'm pretty sure I could have figured it out if I'd just taken the time to think about it. But, hey, who wants to question a $3 price reduction, right? 

Well, the other shoe dropped this month. There's redesigned packaging and my subscribe and save pricing has gone up to $43.59. I don't have an extra $10 a month I want to spend on coffee pods. I've tried alternatives to the Keurig. I have failed at every one of them. There was the percolator. There was the electrical drip pot. There was the French press. There was even an espresso pot. No matter what, I cannot seem to make a decent cup of coffee. I could pick a method and experiment with it til I got to something decent. But, that entails issues. What do I do with a full pot of French press coffee if I hate the first cup? Will God forgive me if I pour the excess out? 

Well, anyway what I finally decided to do was to order some of those fill-'em-yourself little coffee pod thingies. They're in my Amazon shopping cart now. Now I just need to push the button and stock some Yuban or Maxwell House...........

What'd I do?

I did something that has aggravated some demonic being and he's making me pay for it. I've had severe stomach cramps since around 5:30PM. These are the kind of stomach cramps that make you double over and hold your middle real tight. I tried to tough it out but I couldn't, so at 10PM I took a gas-x. It helped some, but not enough. So, at 11PM I took another. It's better now, but, based on prior experience, I am expecting the godmother of all cases of diarrhea to begin any time now. Which, of course, means I'll be up for hours.

I've thought back over everything that's entered my mouth in the last 48 hours. Nothing weird, nothing scary, nothing unusual. I just can't figure it. Woe is me...........

Rough start to the day..........

I was in bed for hours but I have yet to get any sleep. I hate it. I want to be the person who is up no later than 8AM and ready to face the day. I am having problems getting to sleep. Big problems. It's typically hours of flipping and flopping from the left side to the right side, with brief periods flat on my back, and, still, sleep does not come. And almost every morning, I find myself awake at sunrise. Yes, it's a beautiful time of day, but it tarnishes rather quickly when you haven't been to sleep yet at sunrise.

To add to the rough start of my day, I'm hurting. My left knee is a real booger with the right knee close behind. And, the right wrist is so painful at times as to be undependable. I was trying to empty the dishwasher, and feeling concerned as to whether I'd be able to hang onto those dishes that need to go into the cupboard. I just couldn't count on my grip. This does not bode well for the day. I have finally given in and taken a couple of ibuprofen. I knew if I didn't, I'd likely just sit in this chair all day when I really have a lot to do. I hope my liver knows I tried hard not to reach for that bottle of NSAIDs. 

Taking a victory lap

It may not sound like much to you, but it means a lot to me. I've been doing some extra leg exercises for a while now. Last night, I put them to use. I decided to reorganize the bottom shelf of the hole the builder of this house called a "pantry". I was up and down off the floor multiple times--4 that I can remember. A few weeks I'd have wanted to avoid trying it even once. I won't say last night was easy, but it certainly was easier than I thought it would be.

Oh no! Not yet!

It's only the second of July and some darn fool is setting off fireworks close by. I'd guess it's happening in the condo area behind my house. And, Ms. Alissa is mighty unhappy about it. She's as close to my chair as it's possible to be and she's shaking. I'm not thinking nice things about the next two days.......I wish people would give up doin' fireworks. 

And that was about 3 hours ago. Quiet ever since. Ms. Alissa is now a good 6 feet away. I guess it coulda been worse. I've had dogs that practically crawled up my nose when the fireworks started. I'm just grateful they let up quickly.