The Bird . . .

It has been cold recently, two cold snaps almost back to back.  The one last week lasted several days and we have just had a tough front come through where temperature 20 degrees during the day and plunge into freezing at night.

We have been dog sitting, our daughter-in-law had to come up from Austin to the D/FW area and there was no one to take care of the dog at their home.  Her husband, our son, was off to New Orleans so someone had to take care of the dog.  While we do not have any pets we have had dogs in the past so we decided to take care of Abbie, the black dog.

Abbie is a good guest but alas must visit outside from time to time to take of natures calls.  She is well house broken.  But going in and out raise a strange problem.  A small bird followed us into the house.  No one noticed for a while but then the bird got active with the warmth and started flitting around in the open living area.

We had to turn off all the lights and turn on the light on the back porch to attract the bird outside.  It took a while of chasing the bird around the room and it got tired of doing that.  So it took the option and flew out the door on to the patio.  Unfortunately for the bird, the back patio is now enclosed with screens.  So the bird spent the nigh on the porch in small corner.

This morning I got up to water the dog.  And the bird was still on the porch.  After the dog was taken care of I opened the back screened door and used the clip to hold it open. The bird noticed the open door and soon departed for the greater out doors.

But the point is that creatures will seek warmth and come into one's abode.  And we do need to take care and get them back out side where they belong.  This little Wren made it back into greater out doors again.  She had a respite of warmth, but had to helped out once again into its world away from our world.

It was strange but had a happy ending.

The Eyes Have It . . . Revisited

After many years of using our Ophthalmologist I have ceased our relationship.  The reason is that the Ophthalmologist himself no longer sees patients unless they are coming to him for surgery, he hands off his normal patients to his staff Optometrist for service.

And for a number of years this was okay, then he got a certain Optometrist who upon examining my eyes decided I had severe Ocular Hypertension.  All previous staff Optometrist had concluded my eye pressures were high but were normal for me.  I had seen at their request a Retina Ophthalmologist and he did not find any problems either.

Time passed and the staff changed, and I was left with the same Optometrist.  He immediately, had more tests done and set me up for another appointment in 30 days.  When I came in for the appointment, a technician greeted me as normal and then took me into a room I had be through before.  She was going to give a Goldman test. 

I stopped her, and said, "Why were we doing this test, I thought I had a special appointment with the Optometrist."

She said, "No, this was a normal annual test to determine if I had Glaucoma."

I replied. "I am not taking this test, it is a waste of time.  If this is what is going to happen, cancel the appointment."

She tried to convince me to see another different staff Optometrist.  By then I had become convinced the staff was just generating work that was unnecessary.  I had concluded that all the past history I had with the doctor was never looked at or just disregarded.   Each appointment was just a new appointment without any past consultation or review of history.  I was wasting my time and government resources to continue to use this doctor or this facility.

I contacted my normal personal physician and requested a referral to a local Ophthalmologist.  The old one was over 50 miles away and perhaps a local one would be better.  He gave me two references and I used one of them.

I had to wait about three months to see him, but just completed my initial visit with him.  His technician was excellent, thorough and fast.  We did a one additional test.

I saw the doctor, explained my concerns and why I was seeing him.  He examined me, looked at the test results and gave me a technical explanation regarding his examination.  He concluded my eye pressures were normal and my other special test said I was in the acceptable range.   His examination of my retinas was normal and I did not have any vision problems.  In fact, he said, "See me next year."

I feel vindicated and relieved.  I now know I was indeed being "worked" to keep the level of attendance up at my old eye doctors office.  They had a staff that they had to support and thus kept things going so to speak.  All unnecessary and at cost to my insurance carrier, the US Government.

As usual the adage comes to mine, Buyer Beware!

Thanksgiving Closing In On US . . .

In just a few days will be Thanksgiving celebration with big eats for all.  This year Jacob and his family are coming, Chris will be here and James and Joan will do the cooking at our house.  There will be grand kids and great grand kids running all over the place.  Sleep accommodations are stretched to the point we have to rent hotel rooms for some of the guests.  We will have between 18 or 19 guests.

Right now the only doubtful guest is Grandson James Dunn who is a student at University of Oklahoma and it is an iffy if he will attend.  I am pretty sure he will attend but you never know what a young adult may opt to do with his precious time off for the school grind.  Who can blame him for running off to South Padre Island or even Florida.

But there are issues more than hotel rooms.  About 10 days ago the main inside refrigerator died.  Well no problem, there are stores like Lowe's and Home Depot that sell refrigerators of all kinds.  We did a bit of shopping and did purchase a super duper refrigerator from Lowe's.  Now here's the rub.  They do not have it in stock so it must be shipped in.

Okay the shipped in deal takes three to five days.  And we got a call from Lowe's that the machine was indeed here.  But getting from "here" to the house is another matter.  It appears to me that here is a central location in the Dallas/Fort Worth complex that all the local Lowe's stores use and access.  So getting the refrigerator from "here" to the house is yet another scheduled event.  And it only occurs in our neighborhood twice a month even though the local Lowe's is only five miles away.

So now we have to wait for the refrigerator to be delivered.  The delivery is scheduled, and say scheduled because we have no idea what will really happen, for Tuesday, November 21 or just three days before Thanksgiving.

We take supposedly delivery of a smoked turkey on the 21st, deliver by lord who knows and must pick up a spiral sliced ham on the same day.  Got to put those suckers somewhere for a couple of days.  They are bulky and require cooled space.

We do have a spare refrigerator in the garage, an old Sears machine that just keeps on going.  It is maxed out already with cold drinks and its freezer is fully stocked.  In other words, space is limited and no turkey or ham will fit in the remaining space.  It is a fine old side by side machine we bought in Arizona back in 1997, we removed the ice maker for more space in the freezer portion but it is filled up with stuff, some of which came out of the inside dead refrigerator.  So current cooled space is at a premium for existing food stuffs and no room for a smoked turkey or a spiral sliced ham.

So that new super duper doozy of a refrigerator, ala LG brand, had damn well better show up or we are up the proverbial creek.  I am sure it will arrive.

It is black stainless steel finish (we could not find a just black refrigerator), has "French Doors," a pull out storage area that can be a crisper or a freezer by selection, a see-through right door, LCD lighting and a freezer on the bottom.  It is a counter depth unit as that is what our kitchen space allows. The ice maker/cold water dispenser is in the left door (and so is the filter).  The filter was a big deal to me as I had a lot of trouble with filter in the dead refrigerator located in the refrigerator section up in the top right corner.  Not a very convenient place nor easy to deal with.

The lighted door thing is a "tap on, tap off" rig.  A double tap on the right door of the new machine allows you to see what is on the door shelves inside the refrigerator.  On the left door is displayed the controls and the temperatures.  Kinda swanky-funky thing but meets our needs.

We saw the same machine at Home Depot as at Lowe's but Lowe's gave us an additional military discount.  Home Depot said that all their units were already deeply discounted.  We the same unit at Lowe's was 10% cheaper to us than at the Home Depot.  We also looked at Best Buy, and they had basically all the same units at slightly higher prices and no discounts.

Mean while we are keeping our fingers cross and hope it all works out.  Now I have to locate a heater for the back patio.  I'm hoping Harbor Freight is going to doing the trick for us.

Happy Thanksgiving to all.

Stimulator . . .

Judie had a back stimulator emplaced Friday (the 13th, I hope not a bad omen).  This device has two electrodes that run parallel to the spine in the lower back.  The stimulator also has a battery emplanted with the stimulating device and its electrodes.

The battery is charged through the skin by a remote device worn as a patch or on a belt.  It also comes with a control that changes the intensity of the charges emitted by the stimulator.  The charges mask or depress the pain signals to the brain.

She has a remote control that regulates the intensity of the charges that are emitted.  Right now it is set between 10 and 15%.  She sets the intensity by how she senses pain or feels the charges.  Over stimulation seems to be indicated by making the legs jitter.  No pun intended but she is feeling her way into how to set the device.

Her control is also recharged and goes with her every where.  She can even turn the stimulator off and must do so to drive a car.  But otherwise it will be own all the time.  She can ride in a car with it on, just not drive the car with it on.

We hope that with the stimulator she can get of Tramadol, an opiate, and perhaps Lyrica also.  We know at least the Tramadol can be stopped or used in frequently with the stimulator in operation.

The procedure is arduous as both its battery and the device with its electrodes are inside the body, not unlike a pace maker for some heart patients.  The life of the device is as much as 12 years but must be charged weekly.  So the operation while simple takes a lot of time and a lot stitches to deal with.  So there is local pain for a while.  So there is a healing time with it all.

But already she stands taller.  So I can see it is a positive step forward.  Unfortunately, the stimulator only takes care of about 60% of the pain from the spine.  But that may be enough to grant significant relief for her.

This particular type of stimulator permits the MRI process to be done.  We know that some time in the future she will yet have more MRI's done on her back.  The other brand limited the area of the MRI examinations.  We did not want that for obvious reasons.

And as usual whether we like it or not, life goes on.

Samsung Galaxy 8 plus . . .

Judie got a new cellphone today.  It has been a struggle.  Passwords that don't agree, new passwords, use of secondary EMail, setting up Primary EMail, lost apps, failure of transfer of specific data.  In a word, frustrating.

The clerking helping us reset passwords to get into Kindle.  Kindle is an Amazon product, so that password was reset.  Well it was not reset, a new Amazon account was set up and Judie lost all her previous books, references, etc. from the old Kindle account.  Good news is the new Kindle account results in 30 days of free stuff (books?).  Is that good or bad.

We finally got AOL back as an EMail service.  Except it is buried under a G Mail account.
Got to open G Mail, and then scroll down to AOL and open the EMail account.  Sort of circle around and get issue.  Disliked, why can't it just pull up AOL with  out a ton of going around in circles.  It simply means Samsung wants you to go to their preferred mail service and makes it harder to get to the mail service you want.

Good news is the new phone is taller and is all screen format.  No buttons on the surface, just on/off on the side like always.

Sneaky way to pay for the phone now.  One must lease the phone for 18 months and then buy the phone.  Yes, you can buy it outright but it costs more that way.  Means more cash flow for the leaser,
Sprint.  Also means they got you for 18 months for sure.  And probably at the end of 18 months there will be a Galaxy XX.

The memory chip for the old cellphone was moved over to the new phone.  No charge for that.  Oh, yeah, there was a charge for the screen cover and case.  That is a must requirement as the Galaxy 8 has glass on the front and back.  No dropping this phone.

Well, Judie does not like change but she will gradually adapt the new cellphone and then will not be able to live without it.  But there will be some frustration until she gets it all down.

Life goes on . . .

The Eyes Have it . . .

We drove 50 some odd miles to Grapevine, TX for my eye appointment.  We waited in the waiting room for about 45 minutes and then I was called by the eye technician.   Nice young lady and was ushered into the room with the Goldman test apparatus.  I asked what that was for and she said it was an annual test for me.

I said, "Excuse me, I am here only 30 days from my last appointment and this was not an annual requirement that I know of."

She said, "My records showed it was due.  That as a candidate for Glaucoma you get this test annually."

I said, "I was here for a 30 day follow up not any testing for Glaucoma."

We then had a long discussion and it seems the Optometrist is off on a wild goose chase because I have high pressures in my eyes.  That is referred to as "Ocular Hypertension"  and can lead to Glaucoma.  However, my mother had the same problem for years as I do and died at 78 without any Glaucoma developing.

I said I have previously been diagnosed by this office as having high eye pressure as a normal occurrence.  The staff had rolled over and the relatively new Optometrist wanted me to have all this rigormaroll all over again.  I requested that I see the primary, Dr. Labor, an Ophthalmologist, and MD.  She said the doctor only dealt with surgery cases now days.  She could get me another Optometrist and I said no, that was the issue.

I had even been to a Retina Specialist, another Ophthalmologist some five years back.  He proclaimed at the end of the examination I had 20% chance of having a detached Retina in five years.  Five years have passed and no detached Retina, indeed not Retina problems.

So we stopped all activity and I walked out of the office.  She later chased me down in the parking lot and gave me the name of the records person so that my charts could be transferred.  I thanked her.  Like I said, she was a nice technician.

We will seek out an Ophthalmologist locally as recommended by our local physician.  And I will write a letter to our former Ophthalmologist, Dr. Kirk Labor explaining why I am leaving his service.

The problem being I went through all this testing and the former Optometrist on Dr. Labor's staff concluded that my Ocular Hypertension was normal for me.  It was readily apparent the current Optometrist had not read my past charts and if he did, he did not agree with them.  We have a term in the  USAF called "Heads up and locked."  It means a fighter pilot is not watching behind him, around him in all directions.   That is he is locked in on something and is not doing due diligence.  That gets you killed in the USAF.  It gets you more appointments from this person and I was not having it.

The thing is it has become readily apparent that as patients with solid insurance (Medicare and TRICARE for Life) we are golden in paying for services.  So they find more and more reasons to see us often when it is not really needed or required.  Judie has 14 different doctors now, I have three and the third one, the eye doctor,  has shuffled us off to his minions.

I think the young lady, the technician, got the drift of what was going on.  She was nice too.  She offered to get another Optometrist but that is the issue.  I wanted to see an Ophthalmologist, not another eye mechanic who is trained to sell glasses.

We drove home, a hundred mile round trip that was a total waste.

Annual Trip . . . .

Our annual trip to New Orleans is over.  Well, it is not always annual, sometimes other things get in the way but not this year.  Harvey sounded like it was going to interrupt us but no, it pushed on through Louisiana with out much trouble to anyone.

As we left the Dallas area I say gasoline price posted as $2.99 a gallon.  By the time we reached Tyler, TX is was down to $2.52  a gallon.  We finally tanked up in Natchitoches at $2,34 per gallon.
Surprise, surprise, gas was $2.28 in New Roads.  It was down to $2.25 in Baton Rouge.

We spent the night at the camp.  It was all quite, all things were functional and a quite stay.  That was Labor Day night.  We got up and packed the car and departed for New Orleans.  We went via the Audubon  bridge as we filled up with gas at Walmart in New Roads.  Drove very leisurely down to New Orleans and the Monteleone Hotel.  The navigation system got screwed up since the streets it wanted us to travel were being blocked and worked on.  So we trolled around and the system picked up again and took us to the front of the hotel.

We were a bit early but checked in and they gave us a room on the 14th floor.  As usual it was small but very nicely appointed and spotlessly clean,  The bathrooms at the hotel are tremendous and well appointed.

We got cleaned up and took off for Galitoire's.   Bourbon Street was torn up, no car traffic at all.  The middle of the street was all dug up and we could see that they were putting down new and better pavement.  But no problem, we skirted around and got into Galitoire's.  Our waitress of choice, Amber was there and took care of us.

In spite of Judie's poor mobility we still got around, Café DuMonde for Beignets the next morning.  On down to the French Market and poked around a bit.  Then back to the hotel.  We had lunch on the way back and joint called the Chartres House.   Just a bar with food on the corner of Chartres behind the Royal Orleans Hotel.  But the oyster po-boy was outstanding.

That night we ate at a restaurant located just off from the hotel, in an alley.  The food was excellent though pricey.  I enjoyed duck and Judie dined on various appetizers.  Then a short walk back to the hotel and in for the night.

Next day we left, drove up to Opelousas and ate at Kelly's Diner.  I had gumbo and Judie had the plate lunch of beef and on a bed of rice.  I suppose it was roast beef but she said some pieces were tender and others were not.  Not quite what I would call hash but close. '

From there we drove up to Washington to see the antiques place located in the old school house.  It was, alas, closed.  But it was a recent high school, looked like it had been closed 10 or 15 years, complete with a gym.  Totally abandoned to become a building of antique vendors.  Heavily advertised but it too was in decline, and not open except on week ends.

We press on back to New Roads.  We late in the new restaurant that is ocated in the old Popeyes place.  We both had salads, I enjoyed mine a, a Ceasar with grilled shrimp on top.

And odd day, breakfast at Café DuMonde in New Orleans, lunch in Opelousas and dinner in New Roads.  A culinary trip.

We rose Friday and charged back to Weatherford.  It felt good to be home again.  We had a good time and enjoyed ourselves.