sweeter than sugar

I saw this one coming a couple of years ago but remained in denial about the whole thing. Convinced that my superior body, determination to exercise and control my diet would overcome any and all attackers. Duh.
While out visiting garage sales last weekend we found a cool one at a newly opened church near home. Since we'd been wanting to check it out anyway this seemed the perfect opportunity. It's St. Basil the Great Antiochian Orthodox Church. A nice young man escorted me around the grounds and into the public portion of the church where he tried valiantly to answer my questions and palm me off on the church secretary who was giving the official tour. It didn't work, I liked getting his youthful interpretation of the church. He showed me to a table where they were doing free blood pressure and blood sugar checks.
Now I've known for years that I have high blood pressure. Anger really does corelate to BP and I was sure mad the first time I got it checked out. This particular test put me well into the safe range, almost a little too low actually. The finger poke gave a reading of 167 I think. I wasn't alarmed as I'd just come from a harvest festival where I'd eaten BBQ ribs, potato chips and diet coke. I figured it was in response to that.
Alice sat down and told me it had been almost 2 hours since we had eaten and she wanted her numbers too. Her BP was high although for her it was lower than it's been in a while. I don't remember those numbers cause the next ones shocked me. Her blood sugar was 255 which alarmed everyone. They gave us both FREE blood meter test things and told us to call our doctors. I needed to get my annual check up so called right away. Alice waited a few days thinking her's was a fluke too. Ultimately we both went to the lab and had the usual blood work up.
I learned how to do the test and Alice let's me poke her finger occasionally. We time it between meals and hers has remained over 200, even when she has slept all night with nothing to eat or drink. Mine returned to a safe 105.
Now here comes the freaky part. Today I get one of those automated phone calls from my insurance provider. Thinking it is a reminder I have an appointment with my doctor tomorrow. I listen to the voice instructing me to answer a few questions. It quickly became obvious this was not the usual reminder. All of the questions were about diabetes and when had I last had a dilated eye exam, and a note about the dawn phenonomen. Doesn't take a genius to figure this one out. The results of my blood work are in. Bummer.
A bit later the phone rings when I can't answer it. There is a frantic sounding message from Alice's doctors office to call them immediately. Not a reminder about her appointment tomorrow, just a call us as soon as possible type thing. Bummer.
I hate to be a pessimist but this isn't looking good for either of us. At least she didn't get notified by an automated voice lecture. I will go in tomorrow and hear the news I already know is coming. So will she, unless she gets home from those blasted river boats in time to call.
I am hugely grateful to the Family Practice and Associates that offered the free test and the free meters and supplies. Despite this being remarkedly bad news it could have been a lot worse had they not made it available to us. How do you write a thank you note to someone who just slam dunked your life? One last time. Bummer.

Florida is scary #10

Thanks to Amanda for making this one possible. Throwing Jellyfish. Only in florida
MADEIRA BEACH — A 41-year-old man who witnesses said had been drinking since 9 a.m. was arrested Monday afternoon after authorities say he created a disturbance by pretending to drown and throw jellyfish on teenagers.

Keith Edward Marriott, of 100 154th Ave. in Madeira Beach, faces charges of disorderly intoxication and carrying a concealed weapon after a pocketknife was found in his shorts, Pinellas County sheriff's deputies said. Marriott repeatedly submerged himself and floated to the surface, "causing concern for his safety," and was "loud and disruptive," according to a sheriff's report.

Then he started throwing sea creatures.

Marriott, who is listed on arrest reports as working for a brokerage company, was being held at Pinellas County Jail in lieu of $250 bail.

Florida is scary #9

Since so much of this post requires photo's I'm going to put the link in. As long as TSG keeps their files you can still see it.

http://www.thesmokinggun.com/archive/years/2009/0723091naked1.html

Looks like Daddy dearest connected with that head a few times before he took off on his bike.

Kansas is Scary

Okay, I forgot about Fred Phelps. Florida is scary it's true but Kansas is called home by Fred Phelps who is...what....how do you label these people? Nuts doesn't really cover it. Evil, hatemongers, scary, subspecies. There doesn't seem to be a word for it. You better believe the Devil knows the bible inside and out and can use it to his advantage. I'm not saying Phelps and his crew are the devil. I'm just saying Gods loves the sinner, not the sin. Phelps hates everyone who isn't in his special church. He isn't Baptist by the way, they made that part up too. So, yes Florida is Scary, but Kansas has our homegrown loonies too.

I have grey hair

I was looking at my hair in the mirror tonight and realized I have grey hair. I've always thought of myself more in the "greying" category. I did not grey prettily like my cousin Kathleen. I got what would be called distinguished temples on a man. So I started coloring it years ago. I went from my own dark dark brown to blonde overnight. That was quite fun. I tried about a hundred shades of red. I streaked, I curled, I crimped and metallic'ed my hair. Honestly it usually ended up looking rather silly but at least it wasn't "greying".
So a couple of months ago I decided to let my hair grow out so I could see what color it is. Not an easy thing to do when you have to make your peace with brown roots and red tips. Eventually it grew enough I was able to cut the color off. I don't know what I think of it. I still have distinguished temples. They're white now instead of silver. The dark brown has enough white mixed in to qualify as grey. I don't like it and want to color it again. Something dramatic like Cruella DeVille. The problem is how much other people seem to like this hair on me. They pull at my curls that showed up with age. They ruffle the white parts and say how beautiful my hair is. Maybe I'm not seeing it right so I spent about 10 whole minutes staring at it in the mirror from all sides. Well, I think I can learn to live with it but it's going to be awfully hard to convince people I'm 29 with all this silver. I will have to start working the prematurely grey angle soon.

Florida is Scary #8

This one is to much for me to even write about. So I'll post the link here and you can read on your own. There are several articles in this section and some of them are gruesome. Florida is not where I'd want to go to raise a family.

http://www.justnews.com/news/19653921/detail.html

You might have to copy and paste that one. I don't think Blogspot links these things.

Playing for Change

I don't know if y'all have heard about this, but if you live in USA I'd be surprised if you have'nt. I've been listening to them for a while now and loving every minute of it. It's a group of non professional singers from all over the planet singing the same song. Somebody does a mix on it and the end result leaves you breathless. Bono did a song with them...not sure how I feel about that. I liked the idea that it was a group of unknowns, but it wasn't my decision to make. Anyway, I don't know if it's legal to post a link or not but here is http://www.playingforchange.com/ The first song I heard on here was "lean on me" not normally a fave of mine, but I'll never get tired of it again. I don't think it's possible for anyone to do "bring it on home to me" better than this. Schweeeeeet.

Enjoy