Archive for the ‘Sleep’ Category

Today’s Business: 2011-08-31

Wednesday, August 31st, 2011

Today’s Activities

  • Shower. DONE.
  • Cat duty.  DONE.

Log

08:00 AM: I’m up.  It’s mostly cloudy outside, and the temperature is a little warmer than yesterday morning, at 54 degrees.  I’ll be taking no walk this morning however; I’m rather tired.

12:00 PM: Continued working the Tommy’s Tunes software build issues on Windows 7.  Many of the components are no longer required, as I now do all music searching with Wimanp’s Media Library search function.  So I removed said components from the build, and this eliminated many of the errors.  Most of the other errors have been fixed as well.  I’ll continue working this project later today.

12:50 PM: Posted the   Solving Access Denied Errors in File Copying PERL Scripts in Windows 7   piece.

04:00 PM: Added capability to decend through sub directories to my music volume normalizer program.  Now, it will find files in the specified folder AS WELL AS in sub folders, and maximize their overall volume levels.  I’d like to add this feature to all my other batch music file processing programs, as this would reduce the amount of manual intervention required to normalize, tag, and convert new music files for addition to my Tommy’s Tunes music library.

06:10 PM: Watched today’s episode of   The Young and the Restless   via the DVR.

06:15 PM: Leaving now for walk 67 of 100 for 2011, to the south cemetery.  Back later.

07:15 PM: I’m back home.  A nice and warm yet crisp walk this evening.

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

11:00 PM: Talked with   [Emmy].

12:05 AM: Reviewed the daily traffic stats from yesterday for my blogs.  The monthly keyword hit count dropped again, and currently stands at 1284; down from 1308 the last time I checked.  The record high for this dimension remains at 1788.  The next goal: 2000.

12:10 AM: Bed time.  More tomorrow.  Good night.

03:30 AM: Woke up early.  The bedroom is too warm at 76 degrees and I probably ate too many calories yesterday.  I sleep best when I hold calorie intake below around 1500 calories currently.  But unfortunately at times, my appetite overpowers me and I end up going above that, as was the case yesterday.  So, I’ll putter here in the blog and listen to the iPod until I grow sleepy again, which usually takes about an hour or two.

05:30 AM: Heading back to bed.  Good night.

Tom Hesley

Received Mail and Shipments

  • Analog Science Fiction magazine; the 2011-10 edition.

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Common Cold: 2011-02

Tuesday, February 22nd, 2011

I’m feeling a cold coming on.  My nose, though not running is burning and my throat feels a bit dry and scratchy. 

This is my second cold of 2011.  The first one lasted several days, and I got that one in early January.  At that time, I was not getting as much sleep as I need, and with all the celebrating going on to ring in the new year, I probably wasn’t completely nourishing myself either.  But this cold, I’m at a loss to explain.  I have on the whole been eating better — lots more fruits, vegetables and lean meats.  Further, I’ve scaled back my intake of refined carbs with much less sugars in my diet.  But on the other hand, I’ve been spending time at Mom’s nursing facility, and the last time I visited, I heard numerous sniffles, coughs, nose-blowing toots, and hawking.  So it’s probably that I got it up there. 

But then, I’m one who believes that you cannot avoid a cold by applying all those hand sanitizers, masks, rubber gloves, smocks, and so on.  I mean, it will get you eventually because it’s impossible to create an environment that is totally free of the rhino-virus (the cause of the common cold).  Indeed, if you make your environment  too sterile, you may delay the onset of the cold for a time.  But by avoiding exposure, in my opinion, the immune system eventually forgets how to fight a cold.  So, when you finally do get the cold you’ve been attempting to outrun, it catches up with you, with a vengeance.  Its symptoms are nasty, it seems to last forever, and it takes longer to completely get back to full strength.  So, I don’t run away from colds.

But I do try to strengthen my immune system as much as I can.  Thus, my strategy to minimize the severity and duration of this cold is this: Drink lots of orange juice, eat beef, get lots of rest, avoid all possible stress, and try to remain at home until it’s all better.  By staying at home, my goal is not to avoid exposure to more germs, but rather to reduce the energy consumption of my body.  By utilizing the skeletal muscles less I theorize, the more energy there is for the immune system to fight off the illness.  Well, we’ll see how that works this time.  Look for comments below that will detail my progress through this cold. 

Tom Hesley

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Today’s Business: 2011-01-14

Friday, January 14th, 2011

Today’s Activities

  • Shower. DONE.
  • Cat duty. DONE.
  • Grocery shop.  DONE.

Log

07:00 AM: I’m up.  Today, I plan to grocery shop, continue clearing off more of the older TV shows on the DVR,, and continue working on figuring out how much Mom owes me.

08:00 AM: Leaving now for the weekly   shopping trip   with sister Jojo.  Back later. 

10:10 AM: We’re back from the   shopping trip   and groceries have been put away. 

10:50 AM: Posted the   Shopping Trip: 2011-01-14   piece.

11:05 AM: Added more information to the   Shopping Trip: 2010-12-17   piece.

11:20 AM: Posted the   Shopping Trip: 2010-10-01   piece.

11:50 AM: Posted the   Shopping Trip: 2011-01-02   piece.

12:05 PM: Added more information to the   Shopping Trip: 2010-11-19   piece.

12:40 PM: Watched the 2011-01-04, 2011-01-05, and 2011-01-06 episodes of   NBC’s Nightly News   on the DVR throughout the morning. 

12:53 PM: Posted the   Shopping Trip: 2010-10-29   piece.

01:00 PM: Added more information to the   Shopping Trip: 2010-11-21   piece.

01:13 PM: Posted the   Shopping Trip: 2010-09-25    piece.

01:27 PM: Posted the   Shopping Trip 1: 2010-11-24   piece.

01:47 PM: Added more information to the   Shopping Trip: 2010-11-12   piece.

02:20 PM: Sister Mary Ann called, wanting updates on Mom and sister Jojo.  We chatted for twenty minutes or so.

02:45 PM: Posted the   Shopping Trip: 2010-11-17   piece.

03:49 PM: Posted the   Shopping Trip: 2010-11-29   piece.

04:10 PM: Posted the   Shopping Trip: 2010-12-14   piece.

04:20 PM: Added more information to the   Shopping Trip: 2010-11-19   piece.

05:00 PM: I especially like Celestial Seasonings Mint Magic tea served in a Dunkin’ Donuts coffee mug. Makes it taste better. It really does. :-)

06:45 PM: Spent the past couple hours iPodding.  Didn’t think that I listened that long.  But I started with a nearly dead iPod Touch, and so, plugged it in.  When I finished iPodding, the battery had fully charged.  Hmmm.  It sure didn’t seem like two and a half hours.  I must really love my music. 

07:35 PM: Watched today’s episode of   The Young and the Restless   on the DVR.

07:55 PM: Watched the segment on today’s  The Talk  episode that featured soap star   Eric Braeden.  He plays Victor Newman on The Young and the Restless.  He appeared very thoughtful and measured; quite the wise and older man. 

08:55 PM: Gathered up two more bags of refuse in the cellar; much of that was my old electronics paraphernalia — parts, specialized hardware, tubes, dried out capacitors, inductors, and so on.  I’ll likely never use this stuff again.  But still, it’s hard to say goodbye to it.  However, it’s necessary if I’m to successfully “downsize” my life, and get leaner and meaner.  :-)

10:15 PM: Talked with   [Emmy]   on the phone.  We kept each other company tonight.

10:30 PM: Headed for bed.  Good night and I’ll say more tomorrow. 

03:00 AM: Woke up prematurely.  So I’ll blog a bit.

03:50 AM: Posted the   Tom’s Views –> My New Maytag Bravos Washing Machine   piece.

04:45 AM: Going back to bed to finish this night’s sleep allotment.  Good night. 

Tom Hesley

Received Mail and Shipments

  • Offer from our gas company for a water heater repair insurance.   I may do this in a few years.  But we just had ours replaced last summer.  So I think I’ll wait a while. 

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Today’s Business: 2011-01-03

Monday, January 3rd, 2011

Today’s Activities

  • Shower.  DONE.
  • Cat duty.  DONE.

Log

11:00 AM: We’re up.  Hmmm.  I’m getting used to these late mornings.  I should however be able to get back on a good sleep schedule once I recover from the effort for the past week or so, for the   DJ Gig: 2010-12-31   project.

05:00 PM: spent most of this afternoon taking down more of the outdoor Christmas lights, per the   Christmas Lighting: 2010   project.

06:00 PM: Watched today’s episode of   The Young and the Restless   on the DVR.

07:00 PM: Marcella Detroit (Levy) accepted my friend request on Facebook.  She’s a popular hit singer who who helped define Eric Clapton’s mid and late 1970s sound, and then went on to record several albums with other bands and by herself.  She can be heard prominentlyin Clapton’s his:  Lay Down Sally, Promises, Wonderful Tonight, and his album track   Hello Old Friend.  She has quite the alluring voice in my opinion.  But darn.  She’s married.  :-)

07:30 PM: Posted the   Bandwidth Usage: 2010-11   piece.

10:30 PM: Watched the 2010-12-17 episode of   Dr. Phil,  which featured singing group   Wilson Philips,  who performed a couple Christmas songs and sounded every bit as good as when they occupied the pop charts in the early nineties.

10:45 PM: Skipped the 2010-12-23, 2010-12-24, 2010-12-30, and 2010-12-31 rerun episodes of    Dr. Phil.

Tom Hesley

Received Mail and Shipments

  • Back 2009 issues of Promo Only’s Dance Radio music series.  they had a sale on these for less than half off of the full subscription rate.

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Today’s Business: 2010-09-17

Friday, September 17th, 2010

Today’s Activities

  • Shower.  DONE.
  • Cat duty.  DONE.
  • Wash 3 loads of laundry.  IN PROGRESS.  The whites are done; now, just the colors and darks left.

Log

08:30 AM: I’m up.  Dark and gray this morning; but not rainy.   Yep, the days are getting noticably shorter, and to think that there are just over three months until they start growing longer again.  Ah well.  At least, there’s Christmas to look forward to amongst those mostly dark days.

09:00 AM: I’m sad because Mom is sad. I want to help her but know not what to do.  It’s been hard sleeping lately because I keep having these audio dreams.  Visually, everything about the dream makes me think that I’m fully awake and looking around at my bed, television, dressers, and DVD collection.  Murkiness shrouds everything like it normally does in the midst of night.  But then, I hear her voice.  She’s calling me in such a doleful way, and I get all happy for a moment when I hastily jump to the conclusion that she’s come home.  Soon though, I remember that she’s not here, and begin feeling as sad as she sounded in the dream.  Yes, her departure will devastate me when it comes.  But hopefully that won’t be for a good while yet.   The coming weeks hold little certainty for us on that score.  But I’m optimistic that she’ll recover most of her health.  I have to be.

11:00 AM: Watched The History Channel’s mini series:  America: The Story of Us; Part Five   on the DVR.  This one covered the growth of American war machine as we prepared to enter World War II, and how the further refinements of industrial practices like the assembly line and utilization of women in the war-time work force, not to mention the development of the atomic bomb, enabled us to win that war.  They illustrated work life and the dangers of it in ammunition factories; noting that it was about as dangerous to make a weapon as to use it. The role of boxer Joe Lewis, when he beat his German opponent, in revving up American morale during the depression, against Hitler’s “master race.”  They covered D-Day from June of 1944 and depicted graphically the monumental casualty rate there but how that was probably a big turning point in US favor in that global conflict.   They discussed how America pulled out of its great depression thanks to the war effort, and the resulting consumer and baby booms.  Again, a highly informative show.  In fact, I learned why they use “tracer bullets.”  These enable night-time battle because they make it much easier to aim your gun.  If you can see the target, you’re better able to guide the tracer stream to it; much like is done in shoot-em-up video games today.  There are two one-h0ur episodes left, and I’m so looking forward to viewing part six later.

12:00 PM: Watched a bit of KDKA TV’s   Pittsburgh Today Live   variety show with [Emmy].

02:00 PM: Watched today’s episode of   The Young and the Restless    on the DVR.  They revealed that Chance is not actually dead.  However, he said good-bye to Nina; saying that he’s going into the witness protection program.  The fact that he’s still alive made Nina’s day.  But she’s not allowed to tell anyone else about it.  He says she’ll probably never see him again.  Though a fiction, I’m actually relieved that they didn’t actually kill Chance off.  :-)

05:00 AM: Watched the final two hours of The History Channel’s mini series:  America: The Story of Us; Parts Six and Seven   on the DVR.  These covered the post World War II economic and baby booms, aong with the senses of achievement and optimism that pervaded the country well into the 1960s.  They discussed the cold war at length and the twenty-five year-long arms race with the Soviet Union.  Key defining moments such as the Civil Rights act, the first man on the moon, the Vietnam War, Woodstock, Kent State, Watergate, the Iran hostage standoff, the Challenger disaster, the end of the cold war, as well as the 9/11 attacks were illustrated and put into context of America’s narrative; all monumental hurdles that Americans grew from and because of which, we became a better nation.  The military may have been the first large-scale American institution to de-segregate.  But segregation still lived strong outside the disciplines of the armed services.

I’m sorry that we’ve reached the end of this series.  I’ll definitely check out other shows on the History Channel.  Really good stuff.

06:15 PM: We fixed sloppy Joes for supper on whole-grain white flat bread.   Hmmm.  I wonder how you can have white bread that can still legitimately be called   white   bread.  As I understand it, the very nature of    white bread    precludes any    wholeness    of the grain; since they must bleach the grain and so, remove its natural nutrients and other compounds, just to get it to appear white.    Perhaps they died wheat bread white.  I dunno.  :-)

06:20 PM: Nap time.  Back later.

07:35 PM: I’m back up again, blogging and Facebooking.

09:00 PM: Posted the   Mom’s Status: 2010-09-16   piece.

09:40 PM: Recorded audio journal episode   AJE-2010-09-17-21-17.

11:00 PM: Facebooked, and watched CNN’s   AC 360   news show.

11:35 PM: Folded and put away laundry while watching    KDKA TV’s Local News At 11:00 PM.

11:50 PM: Watched David Letterman’s monologue; a humorous way to end the day.  Good night.  More tomorrow.  Take care.

Tom Hesley

Received Mail and Shipments

  • Monthly sewage bill ($40).
  • Misc. bank papers.
  • Pamphlet of Penn State’s continuing adult education course: Retirement Planning Today.  Not at this time, thanks.
  • Note from   Hammer Chiropractic   to   Altoona Spine and Injury Center.   Okay.

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Today’s Business: 2010-09-02

Thursday, September 2nd, 2010

Today’s Activities

  • Shower.  DONE.
  • Cat duty.  DONE.

Log

03:50 AM: I’m up. Not able to sleep very well tonight — perhaps I went to bed too early.  Now I know what will happen.  Long about 5:30 this morning, I’ll grow very sleepy again.  But since I have to be up at 6:30 AM, I’ll not be able to sleep as long as I must in order to overcome the sleepiness.  So, I’ll be yawning all morning.  Oh well, at least I won’t be in a class or any activity that requires consistent attention.  :-)

05:40 AM: Spent the past hour or so going through all  the US mail that arrived while I was away in Pittsburgh caring for Mom.  It’s all done!  Well, at least, I threw out all the junk mail anyhow.  But there are still the bills to pay.  I’ll get to that sometime in the next couple days. 

05:45 AM: {Emmy] just came over to say good morning; though a bit groggy.  We’re hoping this orthopedist will give provide a solution to [Emmy's] wrist problem today.  We’re excited at the prospect, and perhaps this is why both of us had so much trouble sleeping overnight.  Our anticipation over what he might say is like that experienced on Christmas eve as children, when we wondered what Santa Claus might have placed under the tree for us.  I sure hope he has some good news, now that he’s had a chance to review [Emmy's] nerve tests done last month.  She’s really had a tough go with her hands, for years, and it’s about time she get relief. 

06:40 AM: Posted the    Tom’s Views –> Thoughts on Bigotry   piece, which was inspired by all the hubbub about the mosque at ground zero, gays in the military, and other oppressive situations of late. 

08:00 AM: My driver arrived, to take [Emmy] and me to her orthopedist appointment. Back later.

08:40 AM: Arrived at [Emmy's] orthopedist’s office.  But her appointment isn’t until 9:50 AM.  So we’re going over to McDonald’s nearby for breakfast.

09:20 AM: We’re back at the doctor’s office, waiting on him to see us.

10:05 AM: We saw the orthopedist.  He says that [Emmy] still has carpel tunnel but that it’s not severe enough to risk surgery.  He recommends anti-inflammatory medicines, splints, exercises, and limited usage of her wrists to deal with the problem.   Unfortunately, she’ll likely always have tender wrists.  Many women do in fact.  But he seemed confident that she could minimize the difficulty with the aforementioned techniques. 

10:20 AM: After the appointment concluded, we headed for McDonald’s again; this time, for some hot chocolate; delicious but a bit thin (not enough fat) for my taste.

10:25 AM: We’ve walked back to the front of the University Orthopedics building.  Now, we’re waiting on the Blair Senior Services van to take us home.

11:30 AM: Received a voice mail from Mom, saying that she found her cell phone this morning, in her bed.  Well, I’m glad that the battery I purchased for that phone won’t go to waste now. 

11:50 PM: The van arrived slightly ahead of schedule, and good thing too, because the sun outside today is brutally hot.

12:30 PM: We’re home.  Nap time. 

01:00 PM: Mom called to say that she needs some pants and shorts.  We’ll probably take them up tonight or tomorrow. 

03:05 PM: I’m back up. 

04:30 PM: Cooking t-bone steaks, and fried vegetables for supper.  [Emmy] is making a salad of fresh vegetables from sister Diane’s garden, and we have peaches for dessert.  Hmmm.  I think the hardest part of this meal will be the cleanup, but only because I’m using the George Foreman grill for the steaks.  I do wish mine had the removable plates that you can submerse to clean. 

06:00 PM: Sister Christine just arrived.  We’re visiting Mom at the nursing home tonight.  [Emmy] is staying here, as she’s not feeling well.  Back later.

07:40 PM: I’m back home.  Now, we’re going through the DVR and deleting all the Y&R episodes that we saw while in Pittsburgh during August.  Need to clear some space on it, as it’s 75% full at the moment. 

10:45 PM: We finished cleaning out the DVR and we now have 50% available space on the hard drive for more shows!  :-)

10:50 PM: Off to bed now.  Must get up early again for shopping tomorrow.  So good night and take care.  I’ll have more to write in less than twelve hours. 

Tom Hesley

Received Mail and Shipments

  • Weekly coupon mailer.
  • Ambulance bill (Mom).
  • Promo Only’s Country Radio music series; the 2010-10 issue.
  • Medicare payment to Mom to help defray some of her ”donut hole” medicine costs in 2010.
  • Natural gas sale notice.  I can keep receiving my natural gas at this summer’s prices for a whole year.  As they’re pretty low at present, I think I’ll opt in for this.  Of course, there’s the risk that prices will fall lower next summer than what I’m paying.  But I feel that the risk is low enough to justify taking it. 
  • Offer from DirecTV.  Not at this time, thanks. 

Related Posts

Today’s Business: 2010-08-06

Friday, August 6th, 2010

Today’s Activities

  • Shower.  DONE.
  • Cat duty.  DONE.

Log

09:15 AM: We’re all up.  

12:00 PM: [Mentat], [Emmy], and I hung out at her apartment listening to music on her computer, eating breakfast, and getting ready for the big weekend at the   WPSBC Alumni Association   convention.  We’re heading to our favorite Indian restaurant shortly for lunch, before going on to the school. 

01:00 PM: Circled around to CVS Pharmacy for a   mini shopping trip.

01:45 PM: Lunch is done and we’re all pleasantly full.  This meal should last us until the cook-out at WPSBC tonight. 

02:15 PM: We’ve arrived at WPSBC.  I’ve been asked to work the registration desk; greeting members and guests as they arrive, and telling them their dorm room assignments. 

06:00 PM: The registration phase of the convention is now complete.  So, we’re going to the next part; the orientation meeting.  You’d think that as former students, we’d not require orientation.  However, the school has undergone so many changes over the years, and continues to do so at this very moment.  So in this gathering, the staff informs us of the alterations in building layout, campus rules, and such, who to contact in case of emergencies, where the emergency phones are located, and so on.  Unfortunately, access to the basement, second, and third floors is denied this weekend, as almost all areas in the Mary Schenley building are being renovated; heating and air conditioning upgrades. 

The school’s superintendent addressed us as well and discussed the renovations also going on in the old lower school.  They’ve removed the tiles from the walls and floors in order to “tone down” the “institutional” look, to favor a more “family room at home” appearance.  This is an effort, as he explained, to make the parents who must send their special needs children to the school for a time, perceive the school as more of a home-style environment; one that more closely resembles their own family rooms at home. 

Finally, our president supplied the schedule of activities for the weekend and bade us all to have a great time. 

06:45 PM: The orientation meeting is now complete, and we’re heading for what used to be the boys side playground area for the cook-out meal.

08:00 PM: The weather cooperated during the picnic style meal which consisted of hamburgers, hot dogs, watermelon, and brownies.  The temperatures were slightly warmer this time than what I remember them being in past conventions; though I still had to don my sweatshirt as the meal progressed as the temperatures fell to the low seventies as the evening progressed.   

After my big Indian lunch earlier, I limited myself to two hamburgers and no hot dogs.  But that was still enough to capture the cook out picnic essence which has come to define Friday nights at these get-togethers. 

09:00 PM: During the meal and for a few hours afterwards (until 11:15 or so), a Karaoke DJ entertained us.  Several of the more gutsy members sang their favorite songs to us all.  I was not so fearless however; as I declined an invitation to sing Jim Croce’s hit  Bad Bad Leroy Brown.  Hey, I know my limits.  :-)

09:30 PM: I paid the DJ, then return to my table with [Ron], [Emmy]. and others, while [Mentat] played darts inside. 

02:00 AM: Well, I couldn’t tear myself away from the good conversation and fellowship until now.  As we must be up again by 8:00 AM for breakfast, I’m certainly going to pay for staying up so late tomorrow.  I may have to rely on diet Pepsi with caffeine intact to get me through the upcoming business meeting and the Saturday afternoon social hours.  But as hard as I try, it’s nearly impossible to maintain a healthful sleeping schedule with all this wonderful reminiscing and debating current affairs going on. 

02:15 AM: I just entered the dorm and, well, it looks like I might not sleep very well.  A roommate is snoring, lumbering,  and growling like Sasquatch.  He appears to suffer from severe sleep apnea; going through cycles of slow, deep breathing that gradually increase in volume and breaths per minute until a loud cresendo occurs, when he stops breathing altogether for ten to fifteen seconds, wakes up, noisily shifts position in his bed, then breathes deeply again as the whole process begins anew.  But hopefully these foam earplugs I borrowed from [Emmy] will attenuate that racket enough to allow me to doze off and acquire at least a few hours of undisturbed shuteye.  Good night. 

Tom Hesley

Received Mail and Shipments

None today.

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Today’s Business: 2010-03-09

Tuesday, March 9th, 2010

Today’s Activities

  • Shower.  DONE.
  • Cat duty. DONE.
  • Pay all (8) pending bills. DONE.
  • Balance all checking accounts.  IN PROGRESS.
  • Schedule appointment for Mom with the retina specialists in Johnstown for sometime in April, 2010. 

 

Log

09:10 AM: I’m up. My weight is unchanged from yesterday.  It’s still  177.0 Lbs.    

09:50 AM: Resubmitted my application to gain access to the Braille and Audio Reading Download (BARD) web site.  This is the third try.  The other two times, done last week, they rejected because they said that the mailing address I provided does not match the one that the library in Pittsburgh has on file.  I’ve been working with personnel at the Pittsburgh library for the blind to resolve.  We think we have it now.  We’ll see over the next day or two.

11:25 AM: Read chapter twelve of the   Team of Rivals   book.

12:30 PM: Mailed out all pending bills as of today.

01:00 PM: [Emmy]  called to say that she finished off all the dark chocolate I left there from our early Easter celebration.  :-)

01:50 PM: Filed roughly 20 pieces of received email from the last two weeks.  I also applied all Internet shopping charges to my checking account. 

02:00 PM: I’ve been approved to access the BARD web site and download talking books.  Yes!   I’ll check out the site later today.

03:00 PM: Watched today’s episode of   The Young and the Restless   on the DVR.  Now, it’s nap time.

04:00 PM: I’m back up again.

05:00 PM: Balanced two of the three checking accounts that I manage.  I’ll get to the most difficult of these (Mom’s) later.  Hers is hard because she has many transactions to reconcile, and since I’m not the one who originally created each of these, I must investigate each a little to be sure it’s  legitimate. 

06:55 PM: Created audio journal episode   AJE-2010-03-09-18-40, where I discuss why I read so many books that bore me.  This current one, Team of Rivals, while I would not characterize as  a boring book, I would say that much of the time spent reading it, I am in fact, bored.  However, it’s nonetheless a spectacular work; it’s quite heavily larded with facts about Lincoln and the Civil War, and I find keeping it all straight and maintaining an accurate picture of how all the pieces fit together a bit challenging.  But if the book is boring to me, this is not due to any lacking quality on the book’s part; it’s just me, not used to reading much of this sort of material.  :-)  

08:45 PM: Successfully completed my debut log in to the BARD web site, and downloaded my first book: To Kill a Mockingbird.  I’ll read that next. 

10:10 PM: Talked with [Emmy].  Both of her hands were hurting this evening.  Her carpul tunnel surgery back in 2007 on the right hand has provided only marginal improvement.  She still suffers lots of pain; particularly when she uses her hand too much.  She has an appointment scheduled for early April with the surgeon who treated her before.  Hopefully, he’ll have some definite answers; he was a bit evasive and non committal when last I attended his office with [Emmy] for a checkup over a year ago.  But I supposed this hardship is to be expected.  Carpel tunnel surgery, as I’ve read on the Internet, has the highest rates of dissatisfaction of all surgeries.  This surprised me because I know of many folks whose hands were restored to full and painless operation by this treatment.  But there are many others for whom it does not work, and sadly, it appears that this time around, [Emmy] is in that latter group.

11:40 PM: Read chapters thirteen and fourteen of the   Team of Rivals   book.

11:45 PM: To bed with me now.  Good night, and I’ll catch you here again in the morning.  Take care.

Tom Hesley

Received Mail and Shipments

  • Co payment bill for last set of diabetic test strips (ordered on 2010-01-21).
  • Credit card privacy statement.
  • Offer for insurance against in-home gas leaks; they repair any failed internal lines at no cost; except for the $2.50 per month premium.  Hmmm.  This might be a pretty good deal, although we’ve never had a gas leak.  Even if we did, I could probably repair it myself.  But still …  

 

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Common Cold: 2010-02

Friday, February 26th, 2010

Yep.  I got another cold;  third one in the past twelve months! It’s hard to fathom that I used to go for two years without contracting one.  Maybe I haven’t been eating enough vegetables or getting enough undisturbed sleep. 

Then too, these colds often settle in my throat two to three days after riding the train or plane.  So far, all I have is a runny nose and scratchy throat; no fever so far.  This one matches that pattern as I did just travel here to [Emmy]‘s this past Sunday, and began noticing symptoms yesterday.   In fact, I believe I get more colds when traveling, but admittedly, not every time I travel.  This would be expected as traveling brings me very close to many people; any one of which could have a cold that they’re spreading around.  The train was quite crowded for some reason this time.

Oh well, hopefully, this one won’t last very long.  But while it remains, I’ll track its progress in the comments below.

This cold lasted eight days; short as colds go.  But I’m immensely pleased. 

Tom Hesley

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Today’s Business: 2010-01-20

Wednesday, January 20th, 2010

Today’s Planned Activities

  • Cat duty. DONE.
  • Dispense Mom’s meds. DONE.
  • Shower. DONE.
  • Check grocery and meds inventory and make list of needed items for the upcoming shopping trips this week.  DONE.
  • Fill out and Return all requested forms to the financial planner.

 

Log 

08:30 AM: I’m up.  My weight dropped another 1.5 pounds over the past 24 hours, and it now stands at 175.5 pounds.  Wonderful!

11:10 AM: Completed the   WordPress 2.9.1 Upgrade   project.

01:05 PM: Parcels received today include:

  • The Marpac SleepMates (I’ve got them running now.  Nice!).
  • Weekly coupon mailer.
  • Bishop Guilfoyle winter magazine.
  • Mom’s interest income statement from her bank.

 

02:25 PM: Posted the   Excess Refined Sugar When…   piece.

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

04:45 PM: Nap time.

05:45 PM: Debbie just arrived for her traditional Wednesday night visit.  We have no shopping to do this evening.  So we thought we’d go and see a movie.  I haven’t been to a theater in several years.  The movie we’re seeing is:  It’s Complicated,  starring Alec Baldwin, Meryl Streep, and Steve Martin.  The previews looked funny, so we’ll see how it actually is.  I’ll be back later.

10:05 PM: Just got home from the movie.  Click   here   for details.

11:25 PM: Talked with   [Emmy]   for the past hour and fifteen minutes.

11:35 PM: Posted today’s list of added and / or revised posts    here,   for this blog.

11:40 PM: Bedtime.  See you tomorrow, and do take care.  I’m gone.

Tom Hesley

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