Tom's Diary

Today’s Activities

• Shower. DONE.
• Cat duty.  DONE.  Cat duty involves cleaning the litter boxes, bagging the excess, feeding, and house cleaning cat dirt of all types.

Log

08:30 AM: I’m up.

08:45 AM: Facebooked for perhaps ten minutes. Friend count: 627 (unchanged). Fan count: 114 (unchanged).

10:30 AM: Leaving now to visit Mom at the nursing home.  Back later.

11:15 AM: I just arrived at the nursing home.  Mom is up already and in fact, greeted me at the elevator.  She wants to arrange flowers.  The local nurseries, funeral homes, churches, and such, donate their old stock flowers to the nursing homes in the area.  Some of the so-skilled residents (like Mom) then arrange them into pretty bouquets.  The staff then places them around the facility to make a more cheerful environment.  Nice.  Mom often mentions how she looks forward to the flowers shipments arriving.

12:30 PM: I got us both a cheese steak sub for lunch at Mom’s favorite Mexican restaurant, and we ate them while watching today’s episode of   The Young and the Restless.

01:30 PM: After that show, we went to the lobby to await my ride home, and just talked about this and that all the while.

02:30 PM: My ride home arrived.  I bade Mom good-bye and told her that I’d come back again to visit her later this week.

03:00 PM: I’m home, and it’s nap time.  Back later.

05:00 PM: I’m awake again.

08:00 PM: In an effort to more evenly distribute the electrical load here at home across all the available circuits as well as to replace the old cloth-style insulated wire, I moved the kitchen chandelier and south porch lights off of the old wiring over to some new circuits I ran upstairs ten years ago.  I actually want to run brand new circuits up there for the first floor overhead lights exclusively so that varying loads on the outlets cause less fluctuation in the brightness that said lights emit.  But temporarily, I’ve tied those lights in with the same circuit that feeds outlets on the 2nd floor.  I’ll move the lights to their final home-circuit whenever I run the new lights-only circuits from the basement up to the second floor.

09:00 PM: Talked with   [Emmy]   and we listened to tonight’s Penguins hockey game via Internet radio on her computer.

10:00 PM: Watched tonight’s edition of   NBC’s Nightly News   broadcast via the DVR.

11:00 PM: Talked with   [Emmy].  She filled me in on the rest of the hockey game.  The Pens beat the Maple Leafs in an overtime shoot-out, 5 to 4.

12:30 AM: Watched some Misc. TV.

12:35 AM: I’m heading to bed.  Good night and do stop back tomorrow for more content.     Good night.

Tom Hesley

Received Mail and Shipments

None today.

Related Posts and Links

• Today’s Diet: 2012-01-31

Today’s Activities

• Shower. DONE.
• Cat duty.  DONE.  Cat duty involves cleaning the litter boxes, bagging the excess, feeding, and house cleaning cat dirt of all types.
• Wash (2) loads of pending laundry.  DONE.

Log

09:00 AM: We’re up.

09:15 AM: Facebooked for several minutes. Friend count: 612 (up two). Fan count: 114 (unchanged).

10:20 AM: No treadmill workout today.

10:45 AM: Leaving now for some last-minute Christmas shopping at Logan Valley Mall.  Back later.

03:15 PM: I’m home.  The crowds at the mall were light but surprisingly robust given that today is a work-day.  However, no doubt, many took off to do their last-minute shopping as well.  I found everything that I hoped to find for   [Emmy],  including a Steelers scarf and matching hat, a Penguins scarf and matching hat, a talking watch, some batteries, and a Auntie Ann’s cinnamon pretzel for her.  She’ll like Christmas morning I hope.

04:00 PM: Watched today’s episode of   The Young and the Restless   via the DVR.

06:00 PM: [Emmy]   watched KDKA TV’s local news at 5:00 PM while I worked on today’s laundry for Mom.

07:00 PM: We watched tonight’s episode of   NBC’s Nightly News   via the DVR.

08:00 PM: [Emmy]   is listening to tonight’s Penguins hockey game against the Winnipeg Jets via my Internet radio.  I’m working the laundry and adding new music to my library in preps for this season’s New Year’s gig at sister Christine’s garage.

11:00 PM: [Emmy]   is heading to bed though the hockey game has not yet finished.

11:45 PM: The Pens beat the Jets, 4 to 1.

12:05 AM: The daily traffic stats from yesterday for my blogs.  The monthly keyword hit count for this run is 863, down from 866 at last check.  The record high for this dimension remains at 1788.  The next goal: 2000.

12:10 AM: Having trouble sleeping.  So I’ll stay up and blog and surf around on the Internet until I’m ready for bed.

02:00 AM: I’m heading to bed.  More tomorrow.  Good night.

Tom Hesley

Received Mail and Shipments

None today.

Related Posts and Links

• Today’s Diet: 2011-12-23

Today’s Activities

• Shower. DONE.
• Cat duty.  DONE.  Cat duty involves cleaning the litter boxes, bagging the excess, feeding, and house cleaning cat dirt of all types.
• Wash (4) loads of pending laundry.  DONE.

Log

10:00 AM: We’re up.  I’m feeling a litte sad that we didn’t go anywhere for my birthday yesterday.  But I was happy to hear from friend   [Jack],   who always remembers my b-day. 

10:15 AM: Facebooked for several minutes. Friend count: 609 (down one). Fan count: 114 (unchanged).

10:20 AM: No treadmill workout today.

02:15 PM: Watched today’s episode of   The Young and the Restless   via the DVR.

05:00 PM: Vacuumed and dusted the first floor; a touch-up this time, in preps for tomorrow’s diner guests.

06:00 PM: We watched KDKA TV’s local news at 5:00 PM.

10:00 PM: We listened to Penguins hockey on my Internet radio.  This time, the Pens beat the Blackhawks 3 to 2.

10:55 PM: Washed and put away all pending laundry today, and packed a bag of clean laundry to take up to Mom tomorrow.

11:00 PM: [Emmy]   is heading to bed.

11:30 PM: Tagged, normalized, added, and updated approximately 146 songs from this and previous years to my music library from Promo Only throughout today.  Additionally, I found and removed some duplicates.  I now have 4708 songs from 2011 cataloged, and 106 songs for the year 2012.

11:55 PM: Watched tonight’s episode of   NBC’s Nightly News   via the DVR.

12:05 AM: The daily traffic stats from yesterday for my blogs.  The monthly keyword hit count for this run is 857, down from 860 at last check.  The record high for this dimension remains at 1788.  The next goal: 2000.

12:10 AM: I’m heading to bed.  More tomorrow.

Tom Hesley

Received Mail and Shipments

None today.

Related Posts and Links

• Today’s Diet: 2011-12-20

Today’s Activities

• Shower. DONE.
• Cat duty.  DONE.  Cat duty involves cleaning the litter boxes, bagging the excess, feeding, and house cleaning cat dirt of all types.

Log

10:00AM: We’re up.

10:15 AM: Facebooked for several minutes. Friend count: 608 (up one). Fan count: 114 (unchanged).

11:30 AM: Worked out on the treadmill for 47 minutes, walking and jogging approximately 2.99 miles and burning off roughly 460 calories, for walk 108 in 2011. Walked for 13 minutes at 3.9 MPH with an incline of 7%.  I’m stopping the incline part when the heart rate reaches 160 rather than 163, as I felt a bit nauseous after the past couple workouts when I allowed it to reach 163; thus the drop from 21 to 13 minutes of medium-intensity.  After that, I lowered the slope (incline) to 0% and raised the speed to 4.2 MPH, and walked at this rate until the 43 minute mark.  This second phase constitutes the high-speed portion of my workout.

01:00 PM: Watched the 2011-12-11 episode of CBS’s   60 Minutes   weekly news broadcast via the DVR.

06:25 PM: Dusted and vacuumed the downstairs, and mopped the kitchen floor and cellar stairs too (those darn cats!).  [Emmy]   vacuumed the carpeted stairs up to the 2nd floor, and she thoroughly cleaned the bathroom.  She does pretty well with proper encouragement.  Once she came to trust that I would definitely NOT beat her if she made a mistake, she really went to town, worked very hard, and got a lot dome.

06:30 PM: [Emmy]   is listening to tonight’s Penguins hockey game via my Internet radio while I work on adding the remaining 2011 music to my media library.

10:15 PM: The Penguins beat the Buffalo Sabres, 8 to 3, which is a stunning reversal from their loss last night to the Ottawa Senators.  The Pens lost that game 6 to 4.  So it was great to see them come back in such a fine fashion tonight.

10:50 PM: We watched some more episodes of   The Secrets of Isis   via the DVD player.

11:00 PM: [Emmy] is heading to bed.  I’m going to stay up for a bit, reading an article on the seven deadly sins of man from Wikipedia.  Read it   here.

12:00 AM: I was inspired to read about the   Seven Deadly Sins   because numerous references are made to them in the legacies of my favorite super heroes (Captain Marvel, Isis, Wonder Woman, et al).  I was curious about what inspired the creation of said heroes, and avoidance of committing these sins was indeed a driving force behind creating virtuousness in the heroes.

11:58 PM: Hmmm, I always wondered why I felt uncomfortable “tooting my own horn” in resumes, letters, performance evaluations, and so on.  This is not to say that I’ve never boasted about my achievements.  There was a time when making sure people in the workplace were keenly aware of my contributions was paramount.  While it’s indeed necessary to assure that the boss knows that you’re not simply sitting around and doing nothing in order to retain your job, still, I always felt uneasy about talking too much about my accomplishments.  I thought for so long that this timidity was a character flaw within me.  However, now that I more deeply understand the pitfalls of pride and greed (two of the seven sins of man), I gather now that there was nothing wrong with me for feeling uneasy about displaying these capital vices.  The more wisdom I come to understand, the less “defective” I perceive myself to be.  I felt insecure about elaborating too much on my achievements, not because I lacked courage, but rather, because it’s wrong to do so.  Perhaps one day, when I understand better these sins, I’ll take up the question of why it’s wrong to me in my   Tom’s Views   blog.  But for now, suffice it to say that I feared the boasting not because I possess any defect of insecurity, but rather, because though I could not verbalize my intuition in words on this topic, I nonetheless possessed the sense to know that such boasting violates numerous principles of harmonious human existence.  The discomfort with bragging was more about phenomena outside myself than any defect I had within myself.  Hey, I’m okay after all.

12:00 AM: I’m going to bed now.  So good night, and come back for more tomorrow.

12:05 AM: The daily traffic stats from yesterday for my blogs.  The monthly keyword hit count for this run is 852, up from 850 at last check.  The record high for this dimension remains at 1788.  The next goal: 2000.

Tom Hesley

Received Mail and Shipments

• Misc. junk mail.
• A couple Christmas cards.
• Misc. bank papers.
• Misc. Social Security papers.

Related Posts and Links

• Today’s Diet: 2011-12-17

References

• Seven Deadly Sins   on   Wikipedia.

Today’s Activities

• Shower. DONE.
• Cat duty.  DONE.  Cat duty involves cleaning the litter boxes, bagging the excess, feeding, and house cleaning cat dirt of all types.

Log

08:30 AM: I’m up.

08:40 AM: Facebooked for several minutes. Friend count: 607 (up one). Fan count: 114 (unchanged).

10:45 AM: Leaving now for some Christmas shopping at Logan Valley Mall.  Back later.

11:15 AM: We’ve arrived at the mall.

12:00 PM: We walked around through Sears, JC Penney, and Macey’s, looking for some solid, Christmas-sounding Christmas bells.  However, none of these places had any.  So, we looked around at sports team sweatshirts, hats, scarfs, and other outerwear, decorated after various teams.  We mainly focused on the Steelers and Penguins.

01:00 PM: We then ate lunch in the food court on the second level.  We had veggie pizza and water.

02:30 PM: Then, we continued our walking laps around the second level once or twice, then returned to the first level for a couple more rounds.  Of course, right about the time that our ride home was scheduled to arrive, we both got a hankering for an Auntie Ann’s pretzel.  But since there would not be enough time to go back up to the second floor to get one, we resisted our temptations, and stayed put at the Applebee’s entrance, awaiting our van.

02:40 PM: The van came.

03:00 PM: We’re home.

04:45 PM: Added six more strings of Christmas lights outside, to the lilac bush on the northwest side of the property.

05:00 PM: Watched yesterday’s and today’s episodes of   The Young and the Restless   via the DVR.

06:00 PM: Watched   KDKA TV’s Local News   broadcast with   [Emmy].

06:30 PM: [Emmy] is listening to tonight’s Penguins hockey game via my Internet radio, while I add more music from 2011 to my media library.

10:00 PM: The Pens lost to the Detroit Red Wings, 4 to 1.  Grrrr.

10:50 PM: Watched last night’s episode of   NBC’s Nightly News   via the DVR with   [Emmy].

11:00 PM: Tagged, normalized, added, and updated approximately 266 songs from this and previous years to my music library from Promo Only throughout today.  I now have 3897 songs from 2011 cataloged.

11:05 PM: We’re going to bed.   More on the morrow.  Good night.

12:05 AM: The daily traffic stats from yesterday for my blogs.  The monthly keyword hit count for this run is 844, up from 832 at last check.  The record high for this dimension remains at 1788.  The next goal: 2000.

Tom Hesley

Received Mail and Shipments

• A few Christmas cards.
• Bill for this month’s co-payment from Mom’s nursing home.
• Misc. medical bills for Mom.
• Information on the new Sony Vaio S Series laptop computer.
• A couple birthday cards.
• Misc. bank papers.
• Newspaper-style coupons and ads.
• State Farm’s Good Neighbor magazine.
• Solicitation for a donation from the PA Professional Firefighter’s Association.
• Bill for yearly CD subscription renewal from Promo Only.  I’m not going to renew this anymore since all the music is available via the POOL download service as far as I can tell.

Related Posts and Links

• Today’s Diet: 2011-12-13

Today’s Activities

• Shower. DONE.
• Cat duty.  DONE.  Cat duty involves cleaning the litter boxes, bagging the excess, feeding, and house cleaning cat dirt of all types.
• Wash (4) loads of pending laundry.  DONE.

Log

06:50 AM: I’m up.

07:10 AM: Facebooked for several minutes. Friend count: 606 (down one). Fan count: 114 (unchanged).

07:40 AM: Leaving now with sister Jojo for my semi-annual oral checkup and teeth cleaning.  Emmy is still sleeping.  Back later.

09:40 AM: I’m back home.  No cavities found, and Jojo says that the daily flossing I’ve been performing has made cleaning my teeth much easier and, pardon the graphics, less bloody.  Jojo also gave me some birthday cards to deliver to sister Mary Ann and her daughter during our upcoming NYC trip.  She also gave me a bag with a new Oral B toothbrush, Oral B floss, and two small tubes of Colgate Sensitive Pro-relief toothpaste.

10:30 AM: Worked out on the treadmill for a half hour, walking and jogging approximately 2.1 miles and burning off roughly 340 calories, for walk 102 in 2011.  [Emmy]   Kept me company while I exercised, and I was actually able to carry on a conversation with her without feeling too out-of-breath.  So, given how easy this workout was, I think I’ll bump up the speed from 3.7 to 3.8 miles-per-hour.  I’ve read that for the workout to be most effective, one should be winded enough that conversation is uncomfortable.  My heart rate peaked this time at 157, at 27 minutes into the walk; much better than last time a couple days ago, when it peaked at 165 at 25 minutes in.  So yes, it’s time for a slightly more taxing run.

12:00 PM: Rooted around in the attic to locate my favorite pair of long underwear for the upcoming New York City day-trip.  However, after a half-hour of freezing my baguettes,   [Emmy]   located them in one of the dressers in the upstairs bedroom.  I’m grateful to her.  But grrrrrrrrrr to me.

01:00 PM: Walked to Sheetz to get lunch some snacks to take with us on the upcoming bus trip to New York City.  We got some power protein bars, krimpets, and cinnamon danishes.

02:15 PM: Watched today’s episode of   The Young and the Restless   via the DVR.

03:55 PM: We continued packing for our upcoming New York City trip.

04:00 PM: Nap time.  Back later.

05:00 PM: I’m awake again.

06:55 PM: Made a big batch of buckwheat pancakes.  Mmmmmmmm!  We had enough for the meal tonight.  Plus, we froze a serving for each of us to eat later this month.

07:00 PM: [Emmy]  is listening to the Penguins Vs. the Flyers hockey game on my Internet radio.

07:05 PM: Gripe: One way they definitely could improve this technology is to significantly shorten the time it takes to connect to each station.  With this Sangean Internet radio, it takes close to a minute.

08:00 PM: All laundry folded and put away.

10:15 PM: The Pens lost to the Flyers tonight, 3 to 2.

10:30 PM: Watched tonight’s episode of   NBC’s Nightly News   via the DVR.

11:00 PM: Tagged, normalized, added, and updated approximately 313 songs from this and previous years to my music library from Promo Only throughout today.  I now have 2931 songs from 2011 cataloged.

11:10 PM: We’re heading to bed.  Good night.  Come back to read more tomorrow.

11:30PM: Watched the second half of the Steelers Vs. the Browns game.  The Steelers won after some doubtful moments, 14 to 3.

11:35 PM: We’re going to bed.  Good night.  Come back to read more tomorrow.

12:05 AM: The daily traffic stats from yesterday for my blogs.  The monthly keyword hit count for this run is 810, up from 801 at last check.  The record high for this dimension remains at 1788.  The next goal: 2000.

Tom Hesley

Received Mail and Shipments

• Natural gas bill.
• Misc. bank papers.
• A Christmas card from   [Ron].
• Ad from Fiore Toyota.
• Catalogs from PowerSource and InterPower.

Related Posts and Links

• Today’s Diet: 2011-12-08

Today’s Activities

• Shower. DONE.
• Cat duty.  DONE.  Cat duty involves cleaning the litter boxes, bagging the excess, feeding, and house cleaning cat dirt of all types.

Log

09:30 AM: We’re up.

09:40 AM: Facebooked for several minutes. Friend count: 603 (up two). Fan count: 114 (unchanged).

02:15 PM: Watched today’s episode of   The Young and the Restless   via the DVR.

03:30 PM: Heated up some left-overs for lunch for the two of us, and we spent the past hour or so talking lightly and saying good-bye.

03:45 PM: Leaving now to accompany   [Emmy]   to the train, for her return trip to Pittsburgh.  Two new friends are driving us.

05:10 PM: [Emmy's]   train was on time and just left, and we’re now driving home.

05:30 PM: I’m home, all by myself.  Our friends commented in a complimentary fashion on my Christmas lights.  They like all that blue.

07:30 PM: Watched today’s episode of   Dr. Phil   via the DVR,   called   Marriage Meltdown, Part 3.

07:50 PM: Watched tonight’s episode of   NBC’s Nightly News   via the DVR.

08:30 PM: Set up my artificial holiday tree in the living room on the west wall, right beside the television.  I’ve got the lights on it working and have placed a few decorations (ribbons, bells, and balls)  on it.

10:30 PM: Recorded tonight’s hockey game on the Victor Reader Stream for   [Emmy],   as she was unable to listen to the game while traveling.  I just sat the Stream next to my Internet radio in a quiet room, using its built-in microphone.  The recording came out surprisingly good for this sort of equipment configuration.

11:00 PM: Talked with   [Emmy].  She made it home, safe and sound, and has unpacked.  She has a sleep study appointment tomorrow, which is why she had to return to Pittsburgh today.  Hopefully, they’ll approve her for the third phase of this study, where she actually begins to receive, for certain, the drug that they’re studying.

11:15 PM: Uploaded the recording of the game and sent an URL to it to   [Emmy].  I put it into a zip file first and uploaded that, as doing this with audio file as the original .3gp format caused download problems for Internet Explorer.  Internet Explorer would attempt to play the .3gp file when following the URL to this file (undesirable behavior), while zipping the file caused the file download window to pop up (preferred behavior).  At any rate, once I determined this, I zipped up the file and uploaded it to my public storage site and sent an URL to it to   [Emmy].  All done.

11:20 PM: I’m heading to bed.  More tomorrow.

12:05 AM: The daily traffic stats from yesterday for my blogs.  The monthly keyword hit count for this run is 791, down from 792 at last check.  The record high for this dimension remains at 1788.  The next goal: 2000.

Tom Hesley

Received Mail and Shipments

None today.

Related Posts and Links

• Today’s Diet: 2011-11-29

Today’s Activities

• Shower. DONE.
• Cat duty.  DONE.  Cat duty involves cleaning the litter boxes, bagging the excess, feeding, and house cleaning cat dirt of all types.

Log

10:00 AM: We’re up.

10:10 AM: Facebooked for several minutes. Friend count: 601 (unchanged). Fan count: 114 (unchanged).

10:45 AM: Heated some left-over pancakes from yesterday’s breakfast for today’s breakfast.

01:00 PM: Watched the 2011-11-14 and 2011-11-21 episodes of NBC’s   Rock Center   weekly news show via the DVR.

07:00 PM: Conducted my nightly inspection of the Christmas lights outside.  Found one string with ten burned-out LED lights.  So, rather than hot-repairing it on-location, I replaced it with a spare, fully-functioning string I have in stock, and then replaced the bad bulbs at my work bench in the basement.  This particular string is one of the first ones I purchased back in 2008, and so it’s got a lot of hours on it. Thus, the numerous failed bulbs.  Still however, i have yet to see an LED last for the entire rated time of 50,000 hours.  Indeed, many don’t even last as long as their incandescent predecessors.

10:00 PM: Listened to the Penguins hockey game with   [Emmy].  The Pens beat the Montreal Canadiens, 4 to 3.

10:30 PM: Watched tonight’s episode of   NBC’s Nightly News   via the DVR.

11:15 PM: We’re headed to bed.  Good night.  Come back for more tomorrow.

12:05 AM: The daily traffic stats from yesterday for my blogs.  The monthly keyword hit count fell this time, and currently stands at ???, down from 791 at last check.  The record high for this dimension remains at 1788.  The next goal: 2000.

Tom Hesley

Received Mail and Shipments

• Another offer of extended warranty service for my Maytag Bravos washing machine.  No thanks.
• Annual funding notice for one of Mom’s pension funds.

Related Posts and Links

• Today’s Diet: 2011-11-26

Today’s Activities

• Shower. DONE.
• Cat duty.  DONE.  Cat duty involves cleaning the litter boxes, bagging the excess, feeding, and house cleaning cat dirt of all types.
• Wash (5) loads of pending laundry.  DONE.

Log

09:30 AM: We’re up.

09:40 AM: Facebooked for several minutes. Friend count: 601 (unchanged). Fan count: 114 (unchanged).

12:00 PM: I cooked us a couple of batches of pancakes for breakfast; this time, served with strawberry and blueberry syrups.  Yummy was this meal!

01:00 PM: [Emmy]   finished watching all of the 900 news shows I recorded on the DVR for her.  I watched along with her some of them, as I’d not seen them before.

07:00 PM: Spent much of today cleaning the kitchen after Thanksgiving meal preparations and washing laundry for Mom, [Emmy], and myself.  All that work is complete now.

08:00 PM: Went to Sheetz to pick up some Reese’s peanut butter cups for me, and some Breyer’s ice cream for   [Emmy].

10:00 PM: We listened to the Penguins hockey game via the Internet radio.  They played the Ottawa Senators, and beat them, 6 to 3.

10:30 PM: Watched tonight’s episode of   NBC’s Nightly News   via the DVR.

11:10 PM: Replaced several defective light bulbs in the Christmas lights outside.

11:15 PM: We’re headed to bed.  Good night.  Come back for more tomorrow.

12:05 AM: The daily traffic stats from yesterday for my blogs.  The monthly keyword hit count fell this time, and currently stands at 791, down from 798 at last check.  The record high for this dimension remains at 1788.  The next goal: 2000.

Tom Hesley

Received Mail and Shipments

• Misc. invitations from various medical insurance companies to sign with them.  Not at this time, thanks.
• Cable TV, telephone, and Internet bill.
• Offer to join AARP for Mom.
• Independent Living Aids catalog.
• New medical insurance cards.
• Promo Only’s Urban Radio music series; the 2011-12 edition.

Related Posts and Links

• Today’s Diet: 2011-11-25

Today’s Activities

• Shower. DONE.
• Cat duty.  DONE.  Cat duty involves cleaning the litter boxes, bagging the excess, feeding, and house cleaning cat dirt of all types.

Log

08:30 AM: We’re up.

08:45 AM: Facebooked for several minutes. Friend count: 602 (unchanged). Fan count: 114 (unchanged).

10:30 AM: Leaving now to visit Mom.  [Emmy]   is staying home today, as we’ll be out and about tomorrow, giving blood.  She says that she’ll read her talking books and take a long bath while I’m gone.  Back later.

11:30 AM: Mom was up and at ‘em when I arrived, and was already working out in the gym.

12:30 PM: After she finished with the hand pedals, I fetched her a Texas hot dog and some French fries.  Good thing I brought my umbrella.  It’s been raining lightly outside all day so far.

01:30 PM: We watched   The Young and the Restless   together in the first floor TV room, and then went to the lobby to await my ride home.

01:45 PM: However, Mom was quite sad and sleepy, and soon said that she wanted to go up to bed.  Her exercising earlier may have played her out as well.  So, I bade her good-bye, and she went on up to her bedroom by herself, and I continued my wait in the lobby for my van ride.

03:00 PM: The van arrived.

03:30 PM: I’m home.  Visited Mom today.  She appears seriously sad.  So much so, that the nursing home wants to again send her to the hospital.  They’ve noticed a decline in her overall mood and ability to sleep over the past few weeks, and they’re concerned that the latest adjustments to her meds haven’t improved her disposition.  In fact, she was on the verge of tears during much of our visit today, and was disengaged for the rest of it.  Then, about an hour before I departed, she went up to bed.  She wants to wait until her primary care physician visits her this Wednesday, before deciding whether or not to be hospitalized.  Not good at the moment.

05:00 PM: Prepared my treasurer’s report for tonight’s board meeting of the   WPSBC Alumni Association.

07:45 PM: Attended the board meeting of the   WPSBC Alumni Association   via telephone conference call.  I gave my treasurer’s report, which was unanimously approved.  We almost did not have enough board members present for a valid board meeting to take place.  However, as we were just about to call it quits, one of the missing members called in, and allowed us to make the meeting official.  Primarily, we discussed the upcoming 125th anniversary of the school, and how we’ll celebrate it at the next convention (which will occur in August of 2012).  So far, the thrust of these discussions centered around extending the duration of the convention from the usual two to three days, and hold it from Thursday through Sunday.  We’re soliciting ideas about what sorts of activities the membership would like to experience in that extra day.  Please forward any ideas to me or the club president or any other board member.

08:20 PM: Watched tonight’s episode of   NBC’s Nightly News   via the DVR.

10:00 PM: Listened via Internet radio to the remainder of the Penguins hockey game.  Tonight, they shut out the Islanders, 5 to 0.

11:00 PM: Watched tonight’s episode of   Hawaii Five-0.

11:00 PM: We’re headed to bed.  Good night.  Come back for more tomorrow.

12:05 AM: The daily traffic stats from yesterday for my blogs.  The monthly keyword hit count rose this time, and currently stands at 806, up from 798 at last check.  The record high for this dimension remains at 1788.  The next goal: 2000.

Tom Hesley

Received Mail and Shipments

• An advertisement from ATV Research company.  I purchased some RF amplifiers and some other video items from them years ago.  Haven’t heard from them in quite a while.  I’m glad to see that they’re still around.  They sell mostly CCTV, MATV, and SMATV equipment at what I recall were pretty decent prices.  Wholesale video distributors.
• Notice from Mom’s medical insurance carrier about improvements they’ve made to their insurance cards that customers present to medical providers.
• Address labels from Mom’s auto insurance company.
• JC Penney catalog coupon for savings of 15 to 25 percent.
• Invitation to a member forum meeting for my medical insurance plan for 2012.
• Invitation for Mom for a consultation with UPMC ‘s Adult Congenital Heart Disease Center.  Not at this time, thanks.
• Mom’s monthly prescription drug summary from her medical insurance carrier.
• A W-9 form from the bank who hosts the checking accounts for the   WPSBC Alumni Association.  I have to complete this form to get the correct EIN on file with the bank.

Related Posts and Links

• Today’s Diet: 2011-11-21