Overcoming Obstacles

Bag Balm

I have never heard of this stuff, but it sounds great!

The College Admissions Scandal

If you haven’t heard about this yet, where have you been?

For the record, I worked jobs to pay my own way through community college and university for my AA and BS degrees.  I did know classmates in high school, however, who were going to have it much easier in their college years because of the wealth of their parents.  My attitude is, however, that I left university with a much better education and a resume filled with various job experiences from a variety of industries to make me a viable candidate for jobs.

Here is some information on the scandal:

However, this is nothing new, as many have pointed out.

New To Me Channel I’m Loving

FlavCity With Bobby Parrish - healthy cooking, healthy ingredients.

Productive Day So Far

Fed the cats

Ate breakfast, took morning meds

Loaded the bag of cans and plastics into the car along with grocery bags

Picked up prescriptions

Took cans and plastics to recycling

Bought groceries and gardening supplies at Walmart

Came home and unloaded the car

Packed the car with containers of cardboard boxes

Took cardboard boxes to recycling

Came home.

By the way, I have been losing weight.  I’m thinking the changes from the meds have included an uptick in my metabolism.

January:  248 lbs

February: 238 lbs

March:  232 lbs

We’ll see where this ends up!

If Your YouTube Channel Is Dying...

A Very Productive Day!

This morning I had a doctor’s appointment in downtown Phoenix, so I took the light rail and was VERY thankful I did.  There is so much road construction going on right now, everything just seems to be getting torn up.  The light rail is unhindered in this, so there’s no detours it has to take.

I didn’t have time for breakfast before I left this morning, so after the appointment, I crossed the street to Park Central Mall and had breakfast for the first time at Daily Watch.  I’m usually one of the people who likes to try out everyone’s take on French Toast, theirs is delicious, rivalling my favorite at Cracker Barrel.

I’m thankful I filled up on French Toast and Orange Juice, I took the light rail back to 1st Ave and Jefferson so I could go to the County Records.  Since I was off this week, I thought I’d take advantage and finally jump through the hoops I knew was going to be needed to get a new passport.  My previous one was from 1996 - pre-Decker - and was still in my maiden name.  I already had my birth certificate, I needed a certified copy of my marriage record in order to legally show the name change.  I just forgot one thing:  the picture.  This meant I had to hike back 5 blocks to the CVS store to pay to have my photo taken for the passport.  Then, the hike back over to the office.  Once I got everything set up, it took over an hour wait to get everything done, and solemnly swear it was all correct.

YAY!  It’s done and on it’s way!

I made the hike back 5 blocks to the light rail station and rode the train back to my car at the park and ride.  

I then drove to Costco and gassed up the car.

Then I went to Walmart and made a BRIEF shopping trip, as my body is hurting from all of the walking.  I definitely reached whatever threshold there is on steps today.

I’m now home and at 6pm I am finally starting to get hungry again.

I guess it’s about time for dinner, meds and bed.

Non-Candy Easter Basket Ideas

Brought from a great YouTuber!

Movie Night

With all of the shenanigans in celebrity and political news, I’ve been reminded of this movie lately.

https://youtu.be/SBR9WYojYRU

A Cautionary Tale

I used to be a subscriber to Money Magazine.  In fact, I still buy digital issues, but not a subscription. The reason for this was simply that at the time I was not retiring anytime soon, I was already contributing to my 401K working in banking, and I was not married with kids.  There was a lot of their content that didn’t pertain to me, and for the most part, there still isn’t.  Maybe when I’m closer to retirement, I’ll take another look.

But here is a cautionary tale about the people writing for these magazines, because when you read their articles, you may not know what businesses or products they may be pushing because they are paid for it.

A very interesting article from The New York Times:

https://www.nytimes.com/2019/03/01/your-money/money-answers-man-jordan-goodman.html?utm_source=digg&utm_medium=email

After The Colonoscopy - Some Thoughts

First of all, I am VERY thankful to have such a great friend and ministering sister who did the driving and made sure I was going to be okay today.

I am also thankful that everything turned out as great as it did with the procedure itself.

Even though this was my first ever colonoscopy, there were some things I actually did right.  Get ready for some TMI.

1.  I took the prep day off at work.  This allowed for me to get some rest before having to pull an all nighter with the two doses of the laxative solution.

2.  I used two separate bottles for the water.  One bottle was my normal drinking water, the other bottle was the chilled water for the solution.  The nurse who called from the hospital was correct, the chilled water made it more palatable.

3.  I used a plastic bucket to throw up in while sitting on the toilet.  This was because, knowing I was taking a laxative, I knew that if I threw up, I was also going to have fluids coming out of the other end.  I was correct in this assumption.

4.  I brought entertainment and cell phone provisions to distract me and provide a sense of safety while I was in the bathroom, clearing out my internal plumbing.  As it turned out, I did a fantastic job of getting everything cleared out and there were no issues with the procedure as a result of what I did.  I also got caught up on a few YouTube channels while I was letting the laxative work.

5.  I planned for soft foods to eat and drink after coming home.  I had purchased one of those scrambled egg, sausage and potato frozen breakfasts to eat after coming home, knowing I was going to be hungry, but wanting to start off slow.  It also helped to replenish the salts I lost from the prep day.  I also had a strawberry and banana smoothie to go with it, to give some nutritional value to the meal as well as to get some fruit based vitamins into my body.

6.  I took both the Zyrtec and the Flonase for my sinus issues.  Last year, I had issues coming out of the anesthesia due to sinus drainage during the surgery.  This time I made the extra step of taking Flonase and a subsequent dose of saline nasal spray the morning of the proecdure in order to keep the sinus drainage controlled.  It worked and I came out of the anesthesia without a hitch.

I did end up forgetting to take my morning meds, but the dosage on the Prozac is so low it will be okay.  The other good news is that with my scheduling this at the start of my Spring Break, I will be home and not working as my body finishes recovery.  I’ve been told no heavy lifting or moving for the next few days.

Because there were a few polyps found and removed, I do have to do this again in 5 years, but at least I know what worked with the prep period this time to know how to handle it the next time, as well as to know what to expect with the procedure itself.

Colonoscopy Time!

It’s been put off for over a year, but it’s finally time to bite the bullet and get my first colonoscopy.

As of writing this, I’ve started my final fast after two doses of laxative solution.  It’s 3 am in the morning.

I took to heart my mother’s feelings and experiences in getting hers done and prepared, by staging the bathroom for taking the solutions as well as the two bottles of water.  The green bottle had the chilled water to mix into the solutions, the blue had the normal lukewarm water I normally drink.  That would take care of the additional 16 ozs of water you have to drink in addition to the solutions.

I also had the foresight to bring my cell phone, my iPad Pro, my charging block, and a pail for when I threw up the solution after about 15-30 minutes.  I still had enough in my system, plus the liquid diet from the prep day, to do the job.  

I used the iPad Pro to watch videos while I sat on the toilet.

I will be so glad I took the thoughtful provisions that I did!

I Love This Old House

This is one of my favorite projects from a great show.

For Those Looking To Get Out of Debt...

Here’s the thing:  If you already have a lot of debt, paying for an expensive planner system to create a video of your debt payoff plan is probably not a good start.

Go to Walmart and pick up a $1.00 college ruled note pad of paper.  It works just as well.

You’re welcome.

Long Term Vs Short Term Goals

It’s great to have goals, it’s even better to make the steps to get there into habits.