Tom's Diary

Today’s Activities

• Cat duty. DONE.
• Dispense Mom’s meds. DONE.
• Shower. DONE.
• Pay all pending bills (7).  DONE.

Log

07:45 AM: I’m up. My weight is the same as yesterday; 174.0 Lbs.

08:10 AM: Started a battery-duration test on my new iPod Touch.  Click   here   for details.

10:00 AM: Started a pork roast cooking in the crock pot, and in eight hours, …, well, I can’t think about it.  I’ll get hungry if I do and raid the refrigerator before it’s done.    But it will be very good, as they always are, and even if I do say so myself.

11:00 AM: Talked with sister Jojo.  We’re going to skip our weekly shopping trip this time, since I just went with Debbie on Wednesday, and since Jojo can’t go today anyhow due to car problems. 

12:10 PM: Created audio journal episode:   AJE-2010-02-12-10-20   on the Victor Reader Stream.  There, I discussed the (rather surprising) drawbacks and limits of a goal-oriented approach to life and success.   

12:50 PM: Mailed out payments for all seven pending bills. 

02:20 PM: Just hung up with [Jack].  He called to check in and to see if the list of girls working this weekend’s foot party has been published.  Actually, they published it while he and I were on the phone.  So I read it to him on his voice mail. 

03:00 PM: Watched today’s episode of   The Young and the Restless on the DVR.  Gosh, that pork roast cooking in the crock pot smells really good up here in the office. 

06:05 PM: Watched the 2010-01-08, 2010-01-21, & 2010-01-22 episodes of Dr. Phil   on the DVR. 

09:30 PM: Watched the 2010-01-10, 2010-01-17, 2010-01-24, 2010-01-31, and 2010-02-07  episodes of CBS’s   Face The Nation  news show on the DVR.

11:00 PM: Talked with  [Emmy].  She was listening to the opening ceremonies of the winter Olympics in her left ear, and the Penguins hockey game in her right.  Not sure which ear she had me in.    But however she managed it, I seemed to have her full attention. 

11:15 PM: I’m off to bed, so take care and I’ll write more, right here, tomorrow.  Good night.

Received Mail and Shipments

•  Last shipment of Biddeford and Sun Beam electric blanket control boxes.
• Notice that my credit card company will begin assessing a $60 annual fee in April, unless I spend $2400 per year or more on the card.  I think I’ll opt out of this and close the account; especially since I have no balance on that card anyway. 
• A hospital bill for Mom’s ex-live-in friend.  I’ll have to call them and let them know that he no longer lives here.
• Mom’s checking account monthly statement.
• Homeowners annual premiums bill.
• Co-payment bill for the last order of diabetic test strips for Mom.
• A dental insurance bill for me.  I’ve decided to let this laps. 
• Lower auto insurance rates offer for Mom.
• Newspaper-style coupon mailer.

Tom

Related Posts

• Diary Revisions: 2010-02-12
• iPod Touch Battery Life Test #1
• Mom’s Status: 2010-02-12
• Today’s Diet: 2010-02-12

Today, I either added or modified the following posts in  the   Tom’s Diary   blog for improved brevity, clarity, categorization, decreased spelling errors, appearance,  and search-ability:

Tom

Today, I consumed the following items:

• Peppermint tea and diet caffeine-free Pepsi throughout the day.  0 calories.
• 02:00 PM: 4 slices of Muenster cheese.  320 calories.
• 02:05 PM: 1/4 cup raisins.  130 calories.
• 06:00 PM: Pork roast and vegetables.  800 calories.
• 07:00 PM: 2 dozen sugar-free vanilla wafers.  780 calories.
• 07:05 PM: Multivitamin.  0 calories.
• 09:00 PM: 1 cup apple cider.  200 calories.

Total calories: 2230.

Tom

Related Posts

• Today’s Business: 2010-02-12
• Weight Loss: 2010

Pending Appointments And Issues

1. 2010-02-19 @ 11:00 AM:  Friday: Appointment with her eye doctor to check the progress of the clearing up of the blood in her right eye.
2. 2010-03-12 @ 1:15 PM: Friday: PCP appointment to see if the edema has gone down. 
3. 2010-04-14 @ 11:10 AM: Wednesday: Appointment with orthopedist for the next quarterly checkup on the progress of healing of her charcot foot. 

Log

08:05 AM: Blood sugar: 168.  Covered this with 12 units of log insulin.

08:05 AM: Dispensed Mom’s morning meds, including the increased dose of N insulin (now 45 units, twice each day).

12:00 PM: Blood sugar: 61.  She drank orange juice and ate crackers to bring up her sugar to healthy levels.

01:10 PM: Dispensed Mom’s after-lunch meds. 

03:17 PM: Blood sugar: 183.  Covered this and a cracker snack with 15 units of log insulin.

05:00 PM: Dispensed Mom’s evening meds.

10:35 PM: Blood sugar: 254.  Covered this and a late-night snack with 22 units of log insulin.

10:40 PM: Dispensed Mom’s night-time meds.

Tom

Related Posts

• Today’s Business: 2010-02-12

2010-02-12: Day One

08:07 AM: So, I’ve completely recharged my 1 week-old iPod Touch, 64 GB portable player, and I want to see how long it will play an Internet radio station through wifi on a single battery charge. 

08:08 AM: During the test, I will not activate the screen more than absolutely necessary to keep it playing; it will just sit here on the counter, playing in screen-lock mode.  Thus, the play time we get on the Touch  might be longer in this “bench test” than one would get under actual usage conditions. 

08:10 AM: On your mark, get set, go!  I just started the iPod Touch  playing KYW News Radio, and we’ll see how long it runs before going dead.  KYW is a 64 kbps AAC stream, and I’m running the Touch in the same room as my wifi access point for the most reliable wifi connection. Stand by…

08:40 AM: The Touch just stopped playing, apparently due to a small interruption in the Internet connection between it, and KYW.  So I had to activate the screen to press the play button again.  It’s playing once again without difficulty.  The test continues…

09:13 AM: Another momentary interruption that required manual intervention to correct.  I noticed that the battery indicator still says that it’s fully charged.  An hour and three minutes into the test now…

09:50 AM: Another interruption.  Restarted.  Battery indicator still says FULL.

10:25 AM: Another drop-out.  Restarted.  Battery indicator still says FULL.

10:25 AM: Another drop-out.  Restarted the KYW station play.  Battery indicator has started to drop; there’s now a thin black line at the right edge of the picture of a battery at the top right corner of the screen.  Looks though like it’s still around 90 percent full. 

11:55 AM: Another drop-out.  Restarted.  Battery indicator still says roughly 80 percent.

12:30 PM: Another drop-out.  Restarted.  Battery indicator still says roughly 80 percent.

12:30 PM: Another drop-out.  Restarted.  Battery indicator still says roughly 70 percent.

02:25 PM: Several stoppages occurred over the past couple hours and I restarted play, probably within ten minutes of each incident.  But the iPod Touch is still playing and the battery still has approximately 60 percent charge left. 

04:10 PM: Well, the iPod Touch is still going.  Batttery level is now around 40 percent, and we’ve been running this test for eight hours now. 

08:10 PM: It’s still playing.  The battery looks to still have around 30 percent charge.  However, over the past four hours, I’ve had to restart play numerous times.  Not sure if it’s that station, the Internet, my network components here, the software, or the iPod Touch itself.  These all-too-frequent cut-outs surprised me.  Perhaps I’ll try the all-day-play test from a laptop running Winamp and see if it stops at all like the iPod Touch did today. 

09:44 PM: A low-battery warning dialog box just appeared on the iPod Touch screen.  The battery is now at 20 percent.

11:10 PM: The iPod Touch is still playing and the battery indicator shows about 20 percent charge still left.  So far on the current charge, it’s played for 15 hours.  However, I’ve run out of steam before the iPod did to night.  So I’m turning it off now and I’ll run it out the rest of the way tomorrow.  See those details below, in this same post.  I’ll add them as they become available. 

2010-02-13: Day Two

10:00 AM: Turned the iPod Touch back on again and resumed play of KYW News Radio.  I did not charge the battery overnight.  So far on this charge, the Touch has played for fifteen hours and zero minutes.  We’ll add to that today. 

11:00 AM: Well, the iPod Touch finally went dead.  Thus, the battery lasted 16.0 hours on a charge.  Pretty good, particularly since I ran wifi on it, which consumes extra energy above what’s used when just playing local music files.  I’ll add a summary of the test to this post a little later.

11:05 AM: Now, I’m plugging the iPod Touch into the charger; I’m curious how long it will take to completely recharge this dead battery.  Stand by…

Tom Hesley

Related Posts

• iPod Touch Play Time Per Charge Time
• iPod Touch Recharge Times
• Today’s Business: 2010-02-12