Life is a Zoo!!

Welcome back to The Zoo!! Things have been a bit wild around here again lately. For example: I got an email one evening from my eldest sister, it had been sent to all my siblings and a few of their children. It said that she, Anne, had taken Mom to the hospital and that her heart rate was very erratic with her blood pressure being extremely high. The doctor had given her meds and she was being kept in hospital for observation. The next day another email, the doctor decided that, since the blood tests showed a certain chemical in Mom's blood, it meant she had experienced a mild heart attack. At age 88 years, there is no such thing as a minor heart attack so we were all worried. Mom was in hospital 4 days, then when she went home all she did was lay on the couch with her children, at least the ones that live close enough, taking turns looking after her and spending the night at her place. Even my younger came out from northern Alberta to visit and look after Mom for about 6 days. Then we got another email. Mom had been to see her own doctor and had gotten the results of some more tests that had been done while she was in the hospital. It turns out that there was not enough of the chemical in her blood stream to actually indicate a heart attack, and her heart is still in very good shape, so there was no heart attack. So why did she have such crazy out of whack heart rate and blood pressure?? We'd like to know that too, but there is nothing to indicate the cause of that. We are left wondering.... and we are very grateful that Mom still has a good heart!! Mom's mother died of a heart attack and I think Mom was probably thinking a lot about that until she got her results. I haven't seen Mom since she got the last results, though I was one that went and looked after her. I have heard she is getting out for short walks and working at rebuilding her strength. She was very week after all of this, but I think she will not remain so for long.

Speakers

The volume on this computer really leaves a lot to be desired. I have a hard time hearing a lot of what I want to listen to. I do have some speakers from my old desktop computer and I used to use those with the laptop, but I had a young dog here for a few months and he chewed up to cord to the speakers, among other various items. My friend Dan bought me an MP3 player for Christmas this year, he bought it off eBay apparently. So far as I can tell it doesn't actually work, but I will take it with me next time I go to visit my Mom, and I will take it over to my nephew's place so he or his kids can figure it all out. In the meantime, I just tried the earbuds from the MP3 player in the laptop and they work well. Mind you, I'm not fond of earbuds, so I think it would be nice to buy myself some akg headphones. Headphones are way more comfortable than earbuds are and better than external speakers would be as they are much more portable, thereby going better with the portability of the laptop.

Chiropractic Keeps Me Going

My neck is hurting, my head is aching. I have been doing some neck stretching exercises and this is helping quite a bit. I have an appointment to go to my chiropractor again on Monday, so this is good. I went to see him on Wednesday and while there getting the 'usual' work done, I asked him if acid reflux could have anything to do with my back. You see, I have acid reflux problems and the medical doctors can't figure out what causes it, they just know how to prescribe drugs that did work but don't any more. The chiropractor said yes, there could be a connection, and adjusted that area of my spine. I still do have a bit of acid reflux but not as much as I did before the adjustment. My sore left foot has also improved a lot with chiropractor adjustments. for the last 30 years, chiropractic treatments have kept me going.

Random Thoughts

- I just changed some of the things on this blog, so while it is still the same template, the look has been changed by choosing different fonts, different shades of white/grey/black, different size of fonts, etc. I also widened the center and both side bars. The changes are subtle, yet I like this look better.
- I love the smell of hay drying in the fields, the smell of bread baking in the oven. I love the smell of leather and the smell of the air after a good rain. I love the smell of freshly dried laundry, and even the smell of horse stalls and of a cattle feedlot in winter. Yes, smells are important to me. I wonder what arturo fuente cigars smell like.
- I am blessed to be sitting here on my couch, watching my 51" TV, my cat cuddled up beside me, my cop of tea on the other side, the birds asleep in their cages across the room. Yes, my life is very blessed.

More of Life's Ups and Downs

I told you about a man friend of mine in my previous post: Life's Ups and Downs. Well, as time progresses, I am feeling more and more like he is not the right man for me. In fact, it is starting to feel like he may not even be such a good friend. For some time now, we have been friends, seeing each other every weekend when he was working, then when he went off work due to back back issues, we started seeing more and more of each other. Every day he phones and or we get together, usually me going to his home to watch movies or meeting downtown for coffee & tea. Lately he's even come to my home a few times, though that's not something he does often. He so often says how bored he is and sometimes when we part he says something about if he's bored he'll call tomorrow. The other day I was fed up with this "if I'm bored" he'll call or we'll get together, like if he has anything better to do I won't hear from him. So I got assertive and told him if he wants to call to share something, call... or if he wants to call to talk to a friend, do it... etc... but if he is going to call just because he's bored and has nothing better to do, then don't bother. The next day he didn't call all day until about 6pm. Still, I hear from him every day. Today he bought some blank DVDs and came out as I had told him I had downloaded a bunch of movies and would burn him some. He was obviously antsy and wanting to get his movies and get out of here, go home and watch them. I ran into issues burning and told him it will take a day or two to get it done, so he left. I'm feeling like it's maybe time to cut him loose... or even to kick him to the curb. This makes me sad as I do care a lot about this man, but I care more about me!!

Quotes

"A man's life is what his thoughts make of it."

~ Marcus Aurelius ~

"The positive thinker sees the invisible, feels the intangible, and achieves the impossible." 

 
~ Author Unknown ~

Life's Ups and Downs

All my life I have felt like, while my sister's life is on a Merry-Go-Round, mine is on a great big old Roller Coaster. All the wild ups and downs that I have experienced, wow. Wome have been so awesome and exciting, then of course they were followed by the fast trip down to bummed out. Mostly these involved men, the wild excitement of love followed by the pain of the end of the relationships. Finally I just quit taking the chances, just quit going out with guys. Oh, I still have lots of men friends, but they are just that... friends, not love relationships. Life is good.

Lately it seems like my life is something of a yo-yo and maybe I need to go hang out at yoyoplay.com for yoyos,lol. One of my friends might, just might, be becoming more. He said he doesn't want a relationship and I said good, I don't either. We have been just friends. And I have 'more than friendly' feelings starting to raise their heads... sigh. Twice now when he was drunk, no he doesn't get that way all the time, but when he did, he talked about me becoming his ol' lady. Biker talk for girlfriend. The first time, when he was sober he claimed to not remember, the second time he said he had just been joking, just having fun. So each time the ups, then the downs of the yo-yo. Today he was sober when he told me he's getting tired of being on his own, something about when we get older we start to want companionship. I am trying not to read something into this than there really is, but I can't help but think "maybe, just maybe". He's not "perfect", not quite everything I want, everything I had on "my list", yet I like him a lot. I feel safer with him than I do with most men, more comfortable, and I trust him more than I have trusted anyone in a very long time. Somehow, even though he isn't all I had in mind, something about this just feels really right.