It’s beginning to look and feel like Christmas around here. Yesterday we traveled over to my parents house to help decorate their tree. It was also my sister-in-laws birthday, so there was cake and presents. It was enjoyable to spend the afternoon and early evening with family. We played ‘Uno’ and laughed and visited and generally had a wonderful time.
Today Michele and I set up our tree, and decorated the living room. We have Santa as a theme, so there are several Santa’s big and small around the room. Each year after Christmas we visit our favorite interior store and collect new ornaments at reduced prices. So the first presents of the year are putting up the new pretties on the tree. In addition to some expensive and very “Currier and Ives” decorations, we also have some gaudy, cheap-o-depot stuff. Because it wouldn’t be Christmas without some trashy decorations.
We played Christmas music, drank egg nog, and had a thoroughly good time.
This week I finally got and installed an Apple Airport card. My Powerbook now sports 802.11b connectivity. Only I haven’t found any open access points. For that matter I haven’t found any access points at all.
My client site is part of the state government, and only in the past few years did they complete CAT-5 wiring in this agency. I wasn’t too surprised to find no base stations from my desk.
My neighbor has a wireless LAN in his home, but we live a good 100 feet apart and between walls, tress and other barriers I am not able to “see” his network.
At work one of the other consultants also has a laptop with built-in 802.11b and we are able to connect via a “computer to computer” network wirelessly. That’s pretty cool.
But on the whole it is something of a letdown to have this new functionality and not be able to readily use it. Both my brother and father have WAPs in their homes so when we visit them I’ll be able to connect, but the small city we live in has no published hot spots. The nearest ones listed are both inside Borders bookstores roughly 80 miles away.
I like having the functionality because I know that eventually I’ll be adding a wireless access point to our home, but right now it’s sort of like getting a really cool toy for Christmas and not having the right sized batteries on hand.
For the month of November I logged a total of 7,375 spams. This equates to 245 per day. For the year I now have received a total of 71,398 spam mails, making my monthly average 6,490.
For Christmas all I want is a $1 for each spam I’ve had to deal with this year.
{{ $image := .ResourceGetMatch “aidsdaylinkandthink.gif” }}
Five million people acquired HIV in 2003, bringing the world total to 40,000,000 people who are living with HIV today.
Of these 38,600,00 are adults, 19,200,000 are women, and 3,200,000 are children under the age of 15.
Three million people died from HIV/AIDS in 2003, making this most lethal year to date for this affliction.
It isn’t over.
Dean Announces HIV/AIDS Policy
This is new. I’ve been banned from Slashdot. I’ve been using NetNewsWire Lite for sometime now, and one of the feeds is Slashdot.
Today is the first day I’ve been back online after a 5-day vacation. When I first opened NNWL there were headlines from Slashdot there. Later I returned to see if there were any new postings, and there were new headlines. Four to be exact, repeated over and over.
“Your Headline Reader Has Been Banned” “You May Only Load Headlines Every 30 Minutes” “In 72 Hours Your Ban Will Be Lifted” “Do Not Bother Contacting Us For 72 Hours”
The default setting for downloading headlines in NNWL is 30 minutes. I haven’t changed this setting. Now I did re-boot once this morning, and I may have hit the refresh all button sooner than 30 minutes since the last download, but banning me for 72 hours seems rather extreme.
The messages all contain the same text, and a link to the /. FAQ. Looks like I have no recourse except to wait the 72 hours and then see if I can access the RSS.
Maybe next I can get myself banned from Amazon for accessing my Gold Box to often.
The following post was originally written January 13, 2002.
I have a shotski’s ring or esophageal stricture in my throat. This is a ring like structure that causes a narrowing of the passage between my mouth and stomach. I first started having difficulties about 8 or 9 years ago. Sometimes when I would eat my throat would spasm and I couldn’t swallow. It got to the point where I would have to go to the bathroom to throw up what I had just eaten. Usually this happened within one or two bites at the start of a meal.
After suffering in quiet embarrassment for a couple of years with this I finally went to a doctor. A friend was having allergic reactions to food and I thought that this must be one as well. I had one series of prick tests where upon the doctor told me I was allergic to eggs, wheat flour, rye flour, milk, cheese, and a variety of other things. It turns out that there isn’t anything they can do for food allergies. You simple don’t eat the foods that cause allergic reactions. With eggs, flour and milk on the list I wasn’t going to be eating much. I left her office very disgusted and no closer to a solution than before.
My episodes continued and I relented and went to an internist. He ran some tests and put me on a slightly restricted diet. It turns out that caffeine is damaging to the valve at the top of your stomach. I eliminated it from my diet and did get some relief from my indigestion and reflux, but I was still throwing up. He referred me to a specialist who suspected I had this narrowing in my throat. They performed a video upper GI series and could see the stricture in my throat. Finally I knew for certain what I had.
The only treatment is to stretch the ring until it tears, allowing the throat to approach its normal diameter. The ring will grow back, sometimes very quickly, requiring another stretching procedure. The procedure is done on an outpatient basis and involves endoscopes. They run this metal tube down your throat and then insert a balloon through the tube. The balloon is inflated until the ring gives. In my case the procedure was repeated about every 5 months.
At first I got a great deal of relief from this procedure. I could eat “fear free” for several weeks before my symptoms returned. I had the stretching procedure 6 times between February 1995 and September 1997. By the end I was only getting a couple, maybe three weeks relief from the throwing up. Through out this time period I was still having tremendous difficulties with acid reflux and indigestion. My throat doctor prescribed Pepcid AC to control this.
Not satisfied with having to take pills twice a day to be comfortable, and even less comfortable with having to have surgery every 4 or 5 months I set out in search of a better solution. With my wife’s assistance I began looking for alternative ways to beat this thing. I have eliminated my reflux and indigestion. I did this by taking an enzyme re-builder that is readily available in any decent health food store. Since my normal diet has never included vegetables I lacked the enzymes needed to breakdown some of the foods I was eating. These tablets, taken once a day over a two-year period, have re-built my digestive tract to where I rarely ever have indigestion. And acid reflux is a distant bad memory. Until the enzyme re-builder I hadn’t had ice cream or milk in ten years. Now I have cereal several times a week, and ice cream whenever I desire.
I still am having throat episodes. I believe that they are caused by stress or tension. I am able to eat many meals each week with absolutely no difficulty. I rarely ever have trouble eating first thing in the morning. Obviously I am relaxed and rested then so my throat is relaxed as well. During the week I have my lunches out in a variety of fast food style restaurants. Some days I have reactions and some days I don’t. I eat the same meals from week to week and I don’t always have the same reaction. I believe that if my throat were really too narrow to swallow that it would be so for all my meals, not just some of them. Therefore some outside factor is contributing to my episodes. Most of my evening meals are eaten at home. As with lunch some nights are episode free and others are an adventure.
As I have learned to manage my emotions more honestly the severity and occurrence of my throat episodes have decreased. If you are reading this and you believe you suffer from a shotski’s ring I urge you to consider your entire life in addition to whatever surgical or medical treatment you feel necessary. I know that I am happy, and just as healthy without having my throat stretched as I was when I submitted to the procedure.
Life is about choices, and I choose to be in control of my own life without intervention of medical procedures. Especially those that result in no significant improvement in my overall quality of life.
Michele and I have returned from our Thanksgiving trip to the Outer Banks. We had a good visit with her mom, Virginia, and a good trip overall. Driving 2200 miles in less than 5 days is not a treat, but we took good care of ourselves by forcing an overnight stay mid-way through rather than doing a forced march to complete the drive all at once.
I kept notes of my thoughts and have posted them as entries, dated roughly at the times I had them. Traveling with a Powerbook is wonderful. Traveling to the ends of the Earth in OBX (Outer Banks) means no easy connection. So I resorted to notes.
We are getting geared up for the major holiday of the year, Christmas. Which means there will be lots of fodder for entries. Occasions of high drama and emotion and my family do not mix well. Stay tuned.
Michele’s mom is obviously aging quickly now. We saw her last in February and she seemed vital and capable then. Spending time with her yesterday afternoon and evening was difficult as her health has suffered in just 9 months.
For some time now she has complained about difficulty breathing, she wants to place the blame on her apartment. But we have suspected that she is starting to suffer from emphysema. Watching her pant and blow yesterday just trying to eat dinner we had that fear confirmed.
Knowing that she is now eighty years old we can intellectually reason what is happening to her. Seeing her health in person is emotionally and spiritually draining. My mother-in-law is a fiercely independent woman who asks for no quarter and expects none in return. She has lived through extremes of hardship and poverty that I can only imagine, and would never be able to survive myself. She gracefully turns down offers to assist or help, leaving us feeling even more helpless.
Some would have us take away her independence and force a solution upon her in order to make us feel better. Neither Michele or I are willing to take away her rights as a human being in order to salve our wounds or hurts over her choices. So we visit and offer support and love, keeping our deepest fears to our own council.
Our thoughts about the purpose of this trip have shifted away from trying to have a Normal Rockwell Thanksgiving with all the trimmings towards spending time with Virginia. We want to let her know that she cannot do any wrong here, and that we support her totally in any decision she makes about her life. We will step up to the task by taking care of ourselves, saying what we feel without expecting her to change.
A relationship is a responsibility, not just to the other but to yourself. Only by being open and honest in all things, intellectual, emotional, and spiritual, can we have a truly meaningful connection. Part of that responsibility is recognizing when you are wanting to control the other person to assuage your feelings. Michele and I are very fortunate that in each other, we have a safe, secure place to say all the things that need to be said in order to take care of our feelings of loss and pain over Virginia’s remaining time here with us. Only by doing that can we be truly supportive and respectful of her and her wishes.
And if we don’t respect her and her wishes how can we expect our family and friends to be respectful of ours when it is our time to leave this mortal coil?
We are in the midst of that most American of traditions, traveling to be with family for a major holiday. The has brought us into contact with several other major American traditions, some good and others not so good.
Topping the not so good list is that affront we call the public restroom. In our trip from Illinois to North Carolina we saw the complete spectrum of public restrooms. One instance was so bad that I wanted to clean the bottoms of my shoes before getting back into the car afterwards. Another was so clean and well kept that we wanted to schedule a stop there on the return visit because it was such a pleasant experience.
Being male I get to experience the restroom leavings all all those barely civilized creatures with whom I share common plumbing. It’s almost as if they are in a contest to see how badly they can treat this shared public space. One wonders how they manage to alter their piss-poor habits while at home. And then one feels sorry for the partner left to clean up their rudeness.
I suspect that more men are like me than not, but traveling along our interstate highway system exposes you to a breed of male that is determined to make us all look like mouth-breathing, knuckle-dragging louts.
Another bathroom related failing is the advent of the single huge roll of toilet paper. I suppose this reduces the number of re-stocking visits required by the maintenance staff, but that only leads to the problem discussed above. I find these huge roll dispensers a pain for two reasons. One, it is impossible to remove the paper you want to use without turning it into a long rope of paper rather then getting normal tissue width. Having to spend time unfurling the tissue before using it irks me.
The second problem is how these dispensers are mounted on the stalls. Usually the are so low as to require I bend and contort myself over my knees to get at the end, hidden somewhere inside the opening of the dispenser. And I get to scrape my hands on the metal teeth designed to tear this industrial strength paper trying to get the roll started again. Of course these same teeth are incapable of tearing the paper itself, as it is really some form of high tensile fabric better suited for polishing rough metal than acting as toilet paper.
Americans are so hypocritical about their bathroom experiences. We profess to be the nation with the highest standard of living and yet we force ourselves to suffer the ignominy of public restrooms.
There will be a short hiatus on zanshin.net while we celebrate Thanksgiving this week. We are traveling to be with Michele’s mom this week. We are excited about traveling for Thanksgiving, it seems so, American.
We are going “internet-less” for the duration so no updates until we return.
We hope that you are safe and happy over the holiday. Enjoy the people you are with and be thankful.