Bogieblog

Weekend Update

We've had a good weekend so far. Saturday, WS spent most of the day (after doing the regular Saturday morning chores) riding his sled with some of his buddies. I got some housework done and also a great deal of reading (which is bliss). Last night, we attended the burning of Jim's shed (which WS had helped him dismantel and stack in a good burning spot last fall).

Today, WS shoveled off the lean-to that holds the fire wood along with the sheds (he had shoveled the roof to the house off on Thursday so it was all set). I filled the wood rack, which was almost empty even though I had filled it up last weekend. He just left to meet with Jim, riding the sled of course.

I did have a potentially bummer of a phone call from a customer, whose cat I had taken care of last week. The cat has quit eating since the owners got home and they wanted to make sure she had been alright while I was caring for her. She and I had kept a secret, in that I had actually fed her more canned food than they had said to feed her. They normally feed her 3 small cans a day (spaced out during the day, plus all the dry food she wants. I had been instructed to feed her 1 can per day because I only came in once a day. A couple of afternoons, she had almost finished her can of cat food before I left, so I added another 1/2 can to her bowl and she would eat it all.

Anyway, she has quit eating and the customer asked me if I had ever had that problem before. Several years ago, our 16 year old cat, New, (who was previously Cop Car's cat) quit eating and it was found that she was experiencing kidney failure. Sadly, New never recovered from that. I related our experiencing the kidney failure (sans the non-recovery) and suggested that he take her to one of the emergency clinics in either Manchester or Concord.

I'm hoping that whatever the problem, they can help her and send her home healthy!

I'm a SEDL

20 Questions to a Better Personality Quiz Results:

Wackiness: 36/100
Rationality: 30/100
Constructiveness: 40/100
Leadership: 64/100

You are a SEDL--Sober Emotional Destructive Leader. This makes you a Dictator.

You prefer to control situations, and lack of control makes you physically sick. You feel have responsibility for everyone's welfare, and that you will be blamed when things go wrong. Things do go wrong, and you take it harder than you should.

You rely on the validation and support of others, but you have a secret distrust for people and distaste for their habits and weaknesses that make you keep your distance from them. This makes you very difficult to be with romantically. Still, a level-headed peacemaker can keep you balanced.

Despite your fierce temper and general hot-bloodedness, you have a soft spot for animals and a surprising passion for the arts. Sometimes you would almost rather live by your wits in the wilderness somewhere, if you could bring your books and your sketchbook.

You also have a strange, undeniable sexiness to you. You may go insane.

Of the 82940 people who have taken this quiz since tracking began (8/17/2004), 5.4 % are this type.

Thanks to Dax Montana for providing me with some amusement for the day!

Clutching at Straws

Billy wrote about a problem that he has with his car and how he feels talking to the mechanic (or receptionist in this instance). Although I have had some good mechanics, one gargae-full was especially bad:

When my first Toyota 4-Runner hit about 180,000 miles, I started having problems getting it to shift into 1st gear. Now Reverse was always a slight hassle (that seemed to be normal for Toyotas of that year model), but for 1st gear, it wasn't normal. There were times that I would hit the "sweat spot" and it would shift into 1st gear smoothly - usually after putting it in reverse first, but most of the time I would have to fiddle around to get it to get into gear.

I made an appointment for a clutch replacement at a local shop that I had been told was very good. After I got there to have the clutch replaced, I had this conversation: (this is an approximation, but it is an incident I remember well - I did leave off a whole lot of swearing I did at the end though).

Busy Week

Sorry I haven't had time to post all week. In fact most days I've only checked my email. I've had pet-sitting and snow shoveling to contend with along with being the support for friends - both technically and emotionally (see next post).

Bad Medicine

Next week I have a doctor’s appointment for a routine check-up. I haven’t had a checkup for at least 5 years (and I think it was more like 7). I don’t go to doctors, not because I don’t like them, but because they don’t seem to be very effective for me.

I have had plenty of problems that either went undiagnosed or mis-diagnosed. The people that have made correct diagnosis are not what people consider true medical professionals; chiropractors and physical therapists. There is a lot that I could write that would make my position more clear, but I am not writing a post about myself, so will leave off.

Our fried Terri had a heart attack last weekend. She had more than 1, she had bunches of them over a 10 day period.

A little more than 2 weeks ago, she went to the doctor complaining of chest pains. He informed her that she had bronchitis and gave her antibiotics. She dutifully took the antibiotics and endured the chest pains for a little more than a week.

Saturday morning, she woke up early and couldn’t get back to sleep because of the pain. She waited several hours, until her husband woke up then asked him to take her to the hospital – maybe they could give her stronger antibiotics to get rid of the bronchitis.

At the hospital she told them her problem and that she needed something to make the bronchitis go away. They took her blood pressure and hooked her to a monitor. Blood pressure was down to 78/40 and the monitor showed worse.

She had a stint put in one artery that morning and will go back to have a stint put in another artery in a couple of weeks. Her heart is severely compromised because of the many heart attacks that she had over the course of the week. She tells us that the pain that woke her up Saturday morning was mild compared to what she had endured all week.

She is a couple months younger than I am. She works two jobs, takes care of her family, has taken her Mother-in-Law into the home and takes care of her. She is stress personified and her family history is one of heart problems developing in the early 40’s.

For whatever reason, her doctor couldn’t figure out she was having heart attacks. Instead, he made the decision that bronchitis was the probable cause since it has been very common in this area for the last couple of months.

I am bitter about her experience and with that, I don’t know why I am bothering to go in for a physical. I still have no reason to have confidence that they could ever diagnose an actual problem, much less find a potential problem

Not an Auspices Start

I think I didn't get enough sleep. I just put jello over the dogs's food (O'Hara, the lory, gets jello in her food - NOT the dogs). Missy didn't seem to notice, Prince was making strange faces every bite he took.

Too bad I can't go back to bed, sleep a while, and get up to try it again!

Bad Taste

I know this is bad taste, but do you think there will be those that refuse to believe that Johnny Carson died and will there be as many Carson sightings as Elvis sightings?

Just wondering.

It's Finally a Real Winter

I already wrote this post once, but apparently while TypePad was moving and when I tried to post it all I got was a whole lot of nothing! Oh well, at least I don't type with two fingers, so it could be worse!

Yesterday afternoon, the Weather Channel started scrolling a "heavy snow" warning for our area. We were supposed to get 12-18" of snow the wind was supposed to kick up sometime after midnight. Woopie! That meant it was time for a quick bonfire!

Congrats Are in Order

Go congratulate Jim and his wife on the new addition to their family!

Database Heaven

I have had fun working with MS Access databases this week at work. I have created an MRB database that is set up to print out the completed form (for placing with the Work Order being processed) and emailing the appropriate Engineer that there are new items to be dispositioned and an attached copy of the information - all at the touch of a button. Additionally, I have created the procedures on how to use the new MRB system. All I'm waiting for is the okey-dokey from 3 people to implement the new system.

While working on creating the MRB database, I got a call from Sales asking me to work on their database. It was just minor work, changing a C of C form that is sent to one customer. That database was created back in 1996 or so, and the person that built it is no longer available, so I got the honors.

Let's just say that the person that built the Sales database didn't do anyone any favors. Sure, it works okay, but she could have named forms, reports, queries and macros so that one has a clue as to what they are without opening them up. Other things were not done as I would have done them either, which made the job slightly more difficult, but I finally managed to do the deed.