Health

Health

From Bathroom to Vest

start to finish drawing

tubdoodleI am making an effort to get on with doing stuff I have put off for too long.

Like cleaning the bathroom super good. The tile around the tub/shower now is as close to sparkle as it can be. Over time, the tile became water spotted. whatever you call it the usual wipe down was not getting it. We purchased some super duper cleaner that had me wishing I had put on a gas mask. UGH. A job that is much tougher to complete than it was a few years ago. It was a hold your breath, spray on, get out of the room, and breath affair. Rinse and repeat because I missed some sections while holding my breath LOL.

I purchased a new battery backup. I took the old one (ten years old) into the bedroom where I have my game consoles and hooked them up so the next power outage hopefully will not cause me to loose my save games. Last outage I lost my Assassins Creed Black flag saves. With over 65% completion of the game done, I was so not the happy camper. Now I have to start all over again.

The truth is I did not go out a purchase the backup because the old one was insufficient for the main computer and was so dang old that it did not work with my windows 7 or that it lacked features that I really needed. Nope – I bought it so I could use the old one for the game consoles. The surge protection stuff still works just not the auto shut down the computer features and it had no protection for the cable lines. So now, I can leave Darwin (main computer) on even when no one is home. Cool!

The Adaptive PE class I take started Monday. Our teacher is out again 🙁 so we have our teacher’s assistant and a woman that just graduated from college with a degree in physical education and adaptive PE. The dang classroom was to dang hot for me this week. We have been doing the basic testing we always do. Body measurements and how far, fast, or the number you can do something. Then those of us who have taken the class before and completed the day’s tests went off to exercise. The classroom was too hot.

A few of MS peeps were not doing so well with it so warm. I mentioned it to the teacher’s aide and he called the college maintenance department to see if anything could be done. Right before the end of class a person showed up and used one of those temperature gauge things. He set temperature as low as it is allowed to be set. Apparently, each room can only change the temperature by three degrees. Whoopee. After he set it as low as he could his gauge said 79. Ok 79 is pushing it for me without exercising.

I am very heat intolerant. I came home rather bummed out. The PE class forces me to get up and get going each day and I get the exercise I need. Exercise is good. Getting to hot is bad. Knowing the classroom will be 79 on warmer days not so great.

Those of us with Multiple sclerosis joked that we were melting but seriously, I cannot do it. I have to go out, crank the a/c up in the truck, and wait until I cool off and my vision returns. When exercising I want to crawl into a walk in freezer. However, my legs probably would not work well enough to get into one. Therefore, if they are only going to cool to 79 degrees unless I figure something out I am going to have to either suffer or drop out.

How silly is it really to keep an adaptive physical education classroom this warm? The teachers assist gets it but I do not think the new teacher really understands. I asked her if the classroom would be this hot all the time and she just said yes. I told her I could not exercise in that warm of a temperature because of my MS and would probably have to drop. Oh, she says and walks off.

I have researched cooling vests before and have never found one that looked like it would work for me. All the ones I have borrowed were too bulky, made me feel like a clown when wearing them, or did not cool for long. Neck type coolers only work so so. I put the look for cooling options off. I did not want to be stuck in a bulky piece of gear that screamed Hey look at me the older woman stumbling around in the dumb vest. I can do canes, hiking poles,   my scooter, but I have not found a vest that I could use without getting that feeling I get when stuck in a in an elevator.

I took the plunge this evening and ordered a vest.

It should be delivered tomorrow.

If it works out, I will have a topic for my next post.

Hot

1100899537Sorry I have not posted in awhile – again – life gets in the way sometimes.

It is gonna be hot around here. Much to hot. Very hot.  Freaking hot for us anyway.We do hot in the valley here but without the humidity.  Are air systems tend to freeze over if running on and on and on in the high moisture. Call me a wimp but high humidity and heat are not my thing.  Since MS came along I so do not do them well. Pre Ms I could handle the heat we get here once in a while but not the humidity. I  was born and raised here.  The area does not experience high humidity along with the heat very often. FREAK

The National Weather Service putting out heat advisories for the area is not rare in the summer but we now are under an Excessive Heat Warning  …DANGEROUS HEAT TODAY THROUGH THE MIDDLE OF NEXT WEEK… .  oh blah blah and more blah.

I have to shut the ole computer down soon as the upstairs room the computers are in will be too hot soon as we can not afford to keep the upstairs cool enough at this time. I sure hope to all heck that the power grid stays up or I and the dogs will be driving up and down the freeway to stay cool in the truck.

Till next time . …

 

I’d rather have Cool weather

f/5.6, 1/800 sec, at 400mm, 100 ISO, on a NIKON D80 Sunset

f/5.6, 1/800 sec, at 400mm, 100 ISO, on a NIKON D80 Sunset So, it is October 1st and the weather folks are telling us that it will bit over 100 today. Some heat records were broken around Calif and hopefully we will go back to the mid to upper 80’s by the end of the week. Last time we had these higher temps in Sept. was in 1973.

Yesterday we had temps around 99 – 100 depending on what monitoring station readings you read.  Seriously, I am really, really tired of the heat.  Usually by this time of the year I expect a few cooler days to get out and about . … the cranes have arrived and it is still way to hot to go take a look at them.  I still turn off the computer up here because the room temps hit over 85 and well that is just to hot really to take the chance of an electronic meltdown.

I have been dealing with a stupid ear infection for a month now. I unfortunately was seen by a ENT that was one of those docs that do not listen. Thank goodness when KRP called back the other morning to get yet another appointment and request a new doc (not always easy when they are a specialist) we found out that the doc is no longer there – can you say YIPPEE!!! The new doc was very nice and he listened and explained in terms even I could comprehend LOL. Another round of antibiotics – bleh. I have to time this set out. I take thyroid meds that you have to not eat so many hours before and after and this new  med is to be taken four times a day with food. I have so many reminders and alarms (hard to hear) to remind me to take the new  additional pill. Ummm.

I am going to adaptive PE three times a week and taking part in a Mock PT clinic on Thursdays at the state university. The PT students get practical on hands experience and we MS peeps get free PT – works for me. My friend Toni picks me up and we go together. At least there are two of us in the car as we circle and circle the parking area near where we all meet.  We lucked out last time and found a space right out in front of the hall. the time before we ended up in no mans land. Now if we end up way out there one of the students will park and retrieve her car – nice.

I am noticing that many of same group people show up to the adaptive PE classes at the community college and programs like the one at the university.  I am not sure if it is because they are aware of the programs via word of mouth or if we are a group that is determined to do all that we can do to help ourselves?

Oh yeah, I was kinda bummed about the death of Andy Williams but he sure had one heck of a ride on this earth.  Here is a past post about  our trip to Branson.

That is all I have for now.

 

Another Fix – Xbox

Light Yeah

Light YeahOne of the biggest things I about having MS that is really, really getting on my nerves is being broke all the time. Anyone reading this that is fortunate enough not to have a freaking chronic illness – no life on disability is not grand.

I know I post a lot about this broke or fixing something but what the heck else can one do? Stuff breaks and wears out (not talking about our aging bodies here) it just does.  I modern piece of electronics only last so long. Furniture is not built as sturdy and cars – I swear my old 65 Chevy is still on the road (I know who owns it now)  but newer cars just wear the heck out and they rattle a whole lot more as they age.

When things cease to function I used to be able to just pay someone to fix it or go buy a new one. Now that is no longer an option.  It takes money.  Those of you no longer able to work and have to rely on disability insurance probably know what I mean.  So here I am broken stuff and if I want to have it I have to fix it – oh gasp.

I have always been pretty good at figuring mechanical things out. I figure take it apart and see what makes what do whatever it does. When I was a kid I dismantled my clock radio and wired it up to some speakers and then my tape deck.   I remember taking my parents console stereo apart and trying to wire my tape recorder up to it so I could hear my music I recorded off the clock radio – ugh you know I sort of remember it really worked well but my parents did not see it the same way I did – opps.  My brother did not like the alarm I made for my bedroom door with a health kit.

Now I have a hard time taking stuff apart with all the tiny screws and my numb arse hands. Then my pea brain forgets what I was doing so I have to draw little pictures and label all the screws. Very annoying.

So today I was playing my new Xbox game and the dang machine made some funny noises and then the message on the screen read – disc unreadable – well all be &**)&^%%^$^ . I ejected the disc to find it all scratched up. This is not a good thing. One I really get into my games and now I can not play it wah wah and two my xbox is broken.   So after pouting about I called around and found out the cheapest one was 199.00 – OH NO!

And this brings me to the point of this post : while MS has led to my being  broke and my little fingers and brain don’t works so hot at times – I found something out – if I thing real hard about it I could say the MS has made me a better tear it apart and fix er up gal :). I would never have bothered to even attempt to take a stupid xbox  apart if it were not for MS. I mean really? why would I when I could buy a spiffy newer one. The new xbox 360’s have built in wi fi even!

Ok after all the bitching and moaning – yeah pouting did not garner any sympathy on the monetary front – Catfish and I went about tearing the thing apart. I now am very aware that I should have cleaned out the fuzz bunnies at least once or twice in the five years I have the thing.  Did you know that fuzz bunnies can kind of cling together and form hard little dust balls?

How do you take the cover off an xbox to get to the insides well it is not easy but youtube and all the nice kids on there were nice enough to show me how.  To really get to things you have to unclasp the top from the bottom, remove the sides and unscrew the inside from the bottom outside. Fuzz removed before photos taken as well I would not want the silly thing to be embarrassed or something.

xbox with cover off

Then there I was staring at the DVD drive ummm ok there it be. Turns out it just pulls up out of there.

My helper by the xbox

the drive out of the xbox     cover off the xbox drive     cleaning the dvd optic of xbox

the xbox case back together              playing a game disc

And yeah that is a Indiana Jones Lego game playing but hey when testing why toast a good game when you can chance it with the kids game! It works!  Now I  just need to find another copy of my Mass Effects.

Well there you have it my big attempt and crediting Multiple Sclerosis for something good.