Health

Health

Spaghetti Sauce A Cooking and Name the Dulcimer

Another week of PE over – yeah! Dang, I woke up rather sore in a few spots LOL.

The rain is back and the wind is blowing. Good afternoon the stay in. Making spaghetti sauce it is starting to smell good up here – it has been cooking in the crock pot since 1pm . …

Spent some time this afternoon playing the dulcimer with my faithful mutts at foot. Catfish usually just goes to sleep while Annie has this need to talk back at the noise. I end up putting her downstairs when I am trying to do the webcam thing.

Taking suggestions on names for my Blue Mountain dulcimer – I am playing her  in the video below so comment away with your ideas – oh – please no sissy name ok. I so can not hear myself talking to her and saying something like sweetie or honey pie LOL

Ok todays video:


PE Class, Wildwood Flower, and Buttons

Augh you might be asking what in the world do adaptive PE, flowers, and buttons have in common. The short answer is me LOL.

Hang on to the edge of your chairs now because this is going to be one of those real exciting blog posts that you surly spent hours awaiting!

First off I could take paragraphs to go into all the things I can no longer do. Or pontificating on all the stuff you can do and I can not or things I can do and you can not. Blah blah blah it is all lip service no? (in this case keyboard hitting).

Seriously, I can not be the only person with MS that finds it highly annoying to read about some great and wonderful accomplishment someone with MS has managed. That really does not cheer me up or make me strive to reach for the the stars. And it has the rebound effect (or is it affect?) of the inevitable comments from family – gee they climbed a mountain with MS so what is the big deal about not wanting to go camping where there is no running water and the closest restroom is 10 campsites down. Obviously you should be able to do that it is not like climbing a mountain you know!

Then again should I really feel bad and guilty or be berated because I can still drive, or make it up the stairs? Is not my personal perspective of suffering good enough. I somehow do not qualify? I have come around to the conclusion/belief that each and every person who overcomes any disability whether judged big or small is busy climbing their own mountains. And these mountains can be akin to pole vaulting over mouse turds to raising a truck over ones head. They all count.

And the above being the lead in to why I really like my adaptive PE class. It is a diverse group that gathers four days a week for an hour in the short bus trailer. I have yet to hear, see, or  sense from anyone in the class that someone is better or worse or crazier or sicker than someone else. It is what it is.  People who can’t talk use those boxes to communicate,  the blind, the wheelchair bound, the mentally disabled, the goofs like me – we all just – well are.

It is the first place I have been with people who are not close friends that when my brain has gone south and it appears I took a stupid pill where I did not feel stupid.

Moving on without a segway into the next topic – I have decided to learn to play wildwood flower on the dulcimer. I have listened to a few renditions of the song. My favorite is June Carters last recording of it. I think I have figured out the notes – well a few might be missing – but I will see.  It is not easy to find TAB notation for the old style noter and drone playing. The ones I have found on the net are for chording and finger picking.  Big attempt for me as I still have problems with Go Tell Aunt Rhodie LOL But I am gonna give it a try.

Rush hour traffic here in Sacramento is the pits. I really dislike driving in it anymore. But the shop where the Luthier can put the strap buttons on my dulcimers does not even get in till 4:30pm. I am getting smarter here now so give some credit, I know that it would be a bad idea for me to install them even though I have done many over the years on guitars. So I put on my brave face, kissed the dogs goodbye and ventured out onto the evil freeway – at the start of rush hour(s).

I did not get lost, I did not crash, and on the way back home in the peal of the rush I turned on my truck radio. Yes, I made it home and listened to some tunes on the way. Not really that distracting because top speed was about 20 for most of the trip.  The dogs were really impressed with the strap buttons and I suspect the fact that I made it home before doggy dinner time had a lot to do with that.

Now I can hold and play my dulcimers without them shooting out off my lap like rockets headed for a crash landing!

So today I just was, I made a goal, and I did something normal.

Made it to First PE Class

I attended the first PE class yesterday morning. We really did nothing much but hear all about the rules and regulations – most of them came under the DUH category. I think today will be more productive as the instructor will evaluate and set up a program to help reach my goals.

She passed out a sheet to feel out.  One of the fields is to define our goals. Gosh some people took up the whole paragraph. All I could come up with was “improve my mobility and endurance”.

The weather here is crazy windy and lots of rain. It was more of a challenge getting to the class than being in the class yesterday. Yikes! I found my way to the machine to purchase the parking pass and it was broken. I got out my map and headed for another machine only to find the whole parking area surrounded by a chain link fence. After 5 mins of being in a line of vehicles I found a third machine – it ate every other quarter so it took two dollars to get to the one dollar mark and get a freaking pass! Wrong is so many ways.

Once I found parking near the classroom area all was good – stressed out but I got there. I was planning on finding the admin building and purchasing a semester pass but the weather gave me an easy out on that one.

Today I am looking out the window and honestly it is one of those days weather wise that only a ding bat would go out in if they did not have to.  And, gosh I have to.

I do not drive a lot anymore because frankly I get lost and it is not a fun thing to do anymore. I used to love to drive drive drive but now I rather have  someone else do it. Geezz the wind and rain is crazy heck out there. Hope the machines work today.

So maybe more later if the power stays on.

The Evil Empire Strikes Again

If I could say something to KRP’s employer it would be a nastier version of you are ass hats!

We pay for health insurance – I am suppose to go have some lab tests done for kidney function, thyroid, liver . .. etc. BUT the “Evil Empire” decided for no particular reason to CANCEL my coverage!! Yes you read that right – several calls to their human resource center have resulted in no Joy. They will get it straightened out soon. ( I think they have 48 working hours to do so). Since it is their mistake not ours.

Do they give a rats ass that I have MS? Nope. Do they give a rats ass that I need my coverage? AUGH F’ing jerks. The lack of concern relayed via phone calls is amazing.

No reason for the boo boo, we found out only because Kaiser sent me a letter telling me I have been canceled as of the end of the year? Good thing I did not go in today for the test and decided to go in on Monday cause it would be less of a wait at the labs. LOL now that would have been embarrassing no?

Silly me thinking having the medical deducted for all these years meant that you like had medical coverage until you requested to drop it? These jerks have done so many things that are so wrong in so many ways . … I hate them – yes I do. But KRP has four more years till she can retire . … f f f f uck.

Hope they get it staightened out fast. Plus since this last pay stub shows they did not take the deduction for my coverage out it will probably take for ever to get that part fixed right too. Standard operating procedures for the Evil Empire also mean they will take the amount that was not taken out (why should they I could not use it for that period?) and then they will take out what they should BUT the next check they will probably once again take it out twice.

While ranting – KRP and I each have prescriptions for neurontin.  Everytime one of us tries to refill our prescription the Evil Empires computer refused to do so – the pharmacist can not override this, the company takes two weeks to over ride it, meanwhile whomevers prescription it is can not get it refilled. Nor are you allowed to fill it early. Evil Empire’s system is set up such that it is to stupid to figure out that two prescriptions with different numbers, two different people with two different names and birth-dates are not one person since the main policy for drug coverage is under one name.