Potpourii

February 15, 2010 — Its been almost two weeks since I last blogged in this space. It hasn't been because I haven't wanted to write. Writing is good therapy I suppose. It affords the opportunity to coherently put one's thoughts down in a printed space...be that hard copy or online. It's also an opportunity to work on grammar and spelling skills, both of which I need much improvement on or so it seems.

So, what have I been doing with my time that has taken me away from Unc's What Really Matters? Here is the quick and well...dirty:

– I am working on a number of web sites. Two of these are live at http://www.vfwpost3377.org/ and http://www.texasvfw.org/. The other two are in the early design and setup stage. All of this is very time consuming. I really enjoy doing these web sites as sort of a hobby.

– Spending time with my family. I just can't get enough of this. Karen and I took care of two of our grandsons this past weekend. There ages being 2-mos and 4-yrs they are high maintenance, but great fun. Karen was in her element as Grammaw with the baby, but realized it was not as easy as it was with her own children. The 4-yr old was my charge and I set him up to play age appropriate games from nickjr.com on the computer. He had a great time. I am not a computer gamer, but I suppose this helps somewhat with eye-hand coordination and it does introduce him to the environment (have to be careful with that though).

– Spending time with MollyB our dog. Today is MollyB's birthday. What a joy she has been for Karen and I. She had been so sick just before we got her from the rescue group Gold Ribbon Rescue http://www.grr-tx.com/. These are fantastic people taking care of great dogs. She is full of life and loves people and other dogs. At her young age she still has much to learn about social behavior, but we work on that daily. MollyB is attentive and curious about her surroundings and a very intelligent dog. Playful and loving are two descriptors that best apply to her. We are so blessed to have her in our lives. If you have ever considered adopting a rescue dog, I strongly encourage you to follow through. It is a great experience!

– I am still trying to substitute teach a few times each week. It is getting harder to do though because of health issues. So far though it has been a very enlightening experience and one that I enjoy overall. These sub jobs do consume an entire day.

– Some things have changed health wise. I have more medical appts then I care to talk about and juggling those is a full time job sometimes. I am awaiting mods being done to a foot brace that the VA is providing me along with knee braces for each knee. Once I am wearing those, I expect I'll be "braced up" pretty well. I have a history of blood clots, so take the blood thinner Coumadin. In doing so my blood needs to be checked frequently for something called my International Normalized Ratio (INR)...a standard measurement for expressing blood clot times. Normal INR is between a value of 2-3. A high INR your blood is too thin and bleeding events can occur; a low INR your blood is too thick and clot events can occur; here is a good explanation http://www.clotcare.com/clotcare/ptinr.aspx.

I need to have my abdominal aortic aneurysm checked again via ultra-sound. Getting a timely appointment with my Vascular surgeon though is like trying to get in to see the Queen. I will be working in that issue this week.

Okay, that is the sick call report for this blog...GEESH!

In fact that's about it and as always... it's what really matters!