Random Thoughts

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Medical Advice

Thank God Hazel and I woke early this morning. If we hadn't, we never would have seen the TV program. We brewed some coffee and sat up in bed to watch the morning news. Not easily done in this area as none of the local stations were broadcasting news.

But what we did find was paid programming on Colon Flow. Colon Flow! Wow, it was so informative. There were these two women discussing the seriousness of poor colon flow (you know, sort of interview style). Did you know you can accumulate up to 4.5 lbs of fecal waste per DAY! This was supported by a neat bar chart (the claim, not...)

Think about it, if you do not have a bowel movement for a month you could be a 135lbs heavier. Poor colon flow can lead to a bloated feeling. And, after a month, the gaseous discharge would certainly cause you to be seriously shunned, not to mention how upset people might be at your constant interruptions. Further, they told how you could develop a protruding stomach - you think?

Well there is good news. There is a remedy, but I missed that part due to contemplation of the serious consequences, I was overwhelmed. Whew!

Stolen Social Security Number

An article in the New York Times discusses how insecure your social security number is. That's no surprise, especially when states, even now send out letters with your number on the exterior of the envelope.

For my part, I've long resented the use of my number by colleges and others as a identification number. It was never intended for that use and too many institutions liked to automatically use it rather then assign their own number.

Anyway, in the NY Times article is reference to a website called stolenidsearch.com that will check your social security number to see if it is in a database of compromised numbers. You might want to check yours.

The website is trying to sell their service and it brought up another pet peeve I have. I've found websites now try to get you into the sign-up process before they reveal the cost. They must figure once you start you are likely to continue to sign-up regardless of cost. I resent that too. I'm pretty resentful aren't I?

Frankly, I think stolenID search is way too pricey at $49 (after a $20 discount). There are other ways to monitor your financial privacy.

Golf Sentiment

"Golf fairways should be made more narrow. Then everyone would have to play from the rough, not just me."
- Seve Ballesteros

My sentiments exactly.

Porch Remodel

Last year was devoted to getting Drambuie cruise ready and the townhouse remodeled. This year I will be devoting the bulk of my time to our house. One of the projects was to modify our porch so we could more easily see our yard and the pond.











Many of our neighbors have had their porchs enclosed with windows, making sun rooms. In my mind that tends to isolate them from the outside and more important, would drain our bank account. So, using Photoshop, I did a before and after image to see what it would look like if I increased the screen height. Not too bad, so the work commenced last week.


And here is the end result, nice huh?

Like Souls

I think the Internet is wonderful. It allows us to find those that have views like ours. No longer do we need to feel like lost souls.

And there is that nice republican in Cleveland.

Living With Ed

A new show premiered in January on HGTV, "Living With Ed." I think it is a gem with plenty of humor plus an environmental statement. Actor Ed Begley portrays himself and co-stars with his wife, Rachelle Carson. The show is set in their real life home in Hollywood and is based around Ed Begleys real passion for the environment.

The PR blurbs for the show describe it better then I, "Actress Rachelle Carson often sees red over living green with her quirky, eco-obsessed husband, the Emmy-nominated actor Ed Begley Jr. The result is HGTV’s hilarious and feisty new family docu-soap, Living with Ed."

The chemistry between the two is fantastic. Hazel and I thoroughly enjoy watching the show as well being environmentally inspired - I bought some low energy light bulbs yesterday. Now, I wonder if the property owners association would let me put solar panels on our roof?

"Ghost Town" of Chernobyl

I'll not post this today. Wait a few days because today is Valentines Day. But this travelogue on Chernobyl called Ghost Town and Land of the Wolves is too powerful and sobering not to see. I quickly gained immense respect for the author, Elena Filatova and recommend you visit her website where she has chronicled other places and events such as the Soviet Gulags.

Elena may have a flair for the dramatic but is still a superb chronicler. Her references to Wormwood should be balanced against Wikipedia information. The entire chronicle may take an hour and a half to read. Each page is a "chapter" in her URL address so you can read a segment and return later to a new section by altering the chapter number in the URL to resume the narrative. Please take a look and then decide how much you want to read.

I also suggest reading more about the Chrnobyl disaster in Wikipedia.

We live about ten miles from a nuclear power plant. I told Hazel if we heard their siren that we would run for the car and drive like hell. On the other hand, there are always risks in our lives, I suspect we are safer living here then driving on the Bay Area freeways. (By the way, you can HEAR that siren!)

Restaurant Reviews for San Francisco

Probably the most popular is Yelp. But also check out the Gastronomy section of Adamcadre. I like Adam Cadre's unique approach to website design.

Foxmark

I now use Foxmark to keep my Firefox Bookmarks synchronized between the desktop and laptop. It's great!

Church Calisthenics

We were in church singing the processional hynm "Joyful, Joyful, We Adore Thee."

Now that is a good song to start the service as it is a fast and lively way to greet the day. As a matter of fact, it is anarerobic if you truly sing it per the notes.

Beethoven wrote the music and Henry J. vanDyke wrote the words:

"Joyful, joyful, we adore Thee,
God of glory, Lord of love;
Hearts unfold like flow’rs before Thee,
Op’ning to the sun above.
Melt the clouds of sin and sadness;
Drive the dark of doubt away;
Giver of immortal gladness,
Fill us with the light of day!

I wonder if Beethoven really expected his music would be put to words? In any case, as a good Episcopalian I got to feel righteous for getting in all that good exercise. Oh, and it was cheaper then the athletic club membership...what, 10%? You gotta be kidding!

New York Snow

When I was a boy the type of snowfall upstate New York is receiving was one of the more exciting events in my life. It meant eating breakfast and anxiously listening to the school closings on WBEN. When we heard "all Buffalo public and parochial schools are closed," we knew that our school district would soon be listed as well. Whee.

But watching homeowners shoveling snow off their roofs reminds me of one year when we lived in Chicago. We received over 90 inches and as is the case now, many people were clamoring onto the roof to shovel it off. In Chicago, this did not happen in very often so people were not experienced with rooftop snow removal. Many came off the roof much faster then they went on - and sometimes continued to the hospital.

What the news reports do not mention is that it is not only the snow weight that is a problem but freezing and thawing of the lower layers develops a solid layer of ice. Thus you have the weight plus the expansion of the ice creating crevices for water intrusion. I was on the roof with a garden hose run through a window to a hot water tap. The hot water melted the ice at the roof level and, using an axe, I chopped the ice into blocks and shoved them off the roof. If that had been a more common occurrence I'm sure we would have been pushing snow off the roof long before it caked into ice. Better insulation might have been a good idea as well but I had a better one, we moved to California.

Our Furry Grandchild

Last summer we got to see our grandchildren Tyler and Maya for the first time. Then when we returned to the Bay Area in September, Travis and Aki were married. The special event for our Januray 2007 trip was to meet our furry grandchild, Jax.

Jax is already into politics. We were sitting on the sofa, looking at the San Francisco Chrnonicle. It soon became apparent that Jax is a republican when he started to take issue with some of the newspaper comments. At first it was rather civilized and he simply pointed out liberal (bashing) comments about George W. Bush that he considered objectionable.

As he studied the paper he became more agitated and really began to get his teeth into the subject.


Before we were done it was a regular dogfight.

Superbowl

I feel some blogs coming on, sort of like a cold. Or maybe its a feeling of constipation...anyhow, got to "dump" this one to be timely.

The Bears are going to win tomorrow! The pundits are wrong. Not only that, Chicago will win decisively!

Posted so that Monday I can say "I told you so." Yes, I won't hesitate to tell you so - y'all should recognize my astuteness.

Postscript: The game is over and..uh oh, did I say Bears, gee I ment to say Colts, just can't keep my animals straight anymore.