I Am Getting Old – Part Seventeen

I am getting old because… I cannot hear the television unless the volume is on as high as it will go and I only sit about 5 feet from the set. Never fear though when the commercial comes on, it can be heard for blocks away. We bought one of those televisions that is supposed to deal with the “loud” commercials, but doesn’t work as advertised. Either that or the people who make commercials have figured out a way to override that feature.

Things I wonder about – How does a washing machine and/or dryer manage to turn articles of clothing inside out? Does the light in the refrigerator/car trunk really go out when the door/trunk is closed? Who decided how words are spelled and pronounced? When you ask someone how they are, do you really want an answer? Does your stomach really “stretch” when you gain weight? Is the earth really round (I know the surface has mountains, trees, buildings, etc.)? If the earth is round, why don’t we fall off or feel upside down as it turns on its axis? How does the brain accumulate and store so much information? How does your memory work? How do birds fly?

Results of Nerve Test

I had the dreaded nerve test on Thursday of last week. The good news is that the doctor did not use needles, only electrodes and a “stun gun”. At least it looked like a stun gun to me. He used that device to “shoot” electrical current through the nerves to see if there was any interruption in the nerve. The bad news is that the ulnar nerve in my left arm is pinched/compressed at the elbow. The first course of treatment is therapy which begins June 5th. If the nerve cannot be decompressed with therapy, the next course of treatment will be surgery so that the nerve will not be permanently damaged. In the meantime, I am not supposed to use the left arm any more than necessary and to keep it straight as much as possible. If you have never tried to do that, take it from me, it is next to impossible to do. To make it even worse, I am left-handed.

After reading the news this morning, I can say that I am thankful that I have my arms even with the pinched nerve. I read a story about a young mother who contracted a flesh eating bacteria immediately after giving birth and lost both arms and legs in order to live. So no matter how bad a situation you are in seems to be, there is always someone in a worse situation.

I Am Getting Old – Part Sixteen

(I managed to fix the problem on my own this morning. Somehow, the compose mode for my blogs had been turned off and I know for sure that I did not do that. I may be getting really old because there is now an icon for spell check and I do not remember it being there before. This post was written before the one titled help.)

I am getting old because…well, just because. If you remember, I got a new computer and downloaded a trial version of the Microsoft Office Suite. I use Word to write my posts and then copy and paste them to blogger. Something has to change. Either I need to find another word processor; use blogger to write (no spell checker so that is not a real option) or blogger has to do something about their formatting. I do not use any special formatting in Word so I do not understand what is happening when the post is pasted to blogger. Something happens to the spacing, the font and the justification. Heaven forbid if I use any of blogger’s formatting, which is limited at best. I do not want to do anything “fancy” but would like to be able to change the format at times without having to spend hours to undo or fix whatever goes wrong. It is almost enough to make me quit using blogger, (not really). I have used a few of the other “blog” sites and blogger works better than they do if you can believe that.

I do not understand what happens to posts days after they were posted. Case in point, I posted an item and viewed the blog and the post looked like I had intended it to look. Imagine my surprise when I viewed the blog this morning (a week later) and that one post had “changed”. Most of it had adopted the use of Italics that was intended for one line and the color I used for that one line. Makes you wonder, if someone or something at blogger has the job of “messing” up the posts so you will spend more time on the site “fixing” things. Maybe I just forgot and I am the one who posted it that way.

Help

Does anyone use a blog service other that blogger? This morning the formatting options in blogger post have changed and most of them are missing. According to the Blogger Help Group, there are many other people who have reported this issue and others, like comments disappearing, posts being changed after the fact. So far I cannot find any response from Blogger as to what the problem is or when it will be fixed. I am about ready to find another blogging service to use. Does anyone have any they can recommend?

I Am Getting Old - Part Fifteen

I am getting old because…it is 2007 and I was born in 1943. Okay, I think you get the point.

I have been wearing my hair really short for the last twelve or thirteen years for several reasons. It is easier to take care of and I have never been one to “fuss” with hair styles. My hair has never looked like the hair you see in commercials. It has always been “lifeless” and dull. Never “swinging” to and fro nor shining. I have tried every shampoo and conditioner on the market and nothing has ever given me that kind of hair. I sort of resigned myself to the fact that my hair is what it is. Anyway, I think short hair looks better on me that hair with any length. Now to the thing that is really bothering me about my short hair. You would not believe how many times I am called “SIR” by salespersons or for that matter other people. I give them the benefit of doubt by thinking they have only seen me from the rear and cannot tell. If that is the case then, WHY DON’T YOU WAIT UNTIL YOU SEE THE FRONT OF ME TO DECIDE IF I AM MALE OR FEMALE? I know I am not one of the “beautiful people” but I am reasonably attractive (at least my husband thinks so) and I do not look like a male. On the other hand, my husband has the same problem. His hair is somewhat curly and he wears it a little longer and he gets called “MAAM” all the time. I suppose we will have to “swap” hair styles if we expect to be referred to properly. But then again, we are not the confused ones, so to heck with the people who cannot tell the difference.

After many years of “coloring” my hair, I made a decision to go natural which meant that my hair is gray (salt and pepper ugly gray). My husband’s hair is black with touches of gray at the temple. Imagine my despair when he is asked if I am his mother. This has actually happened and is a real boost to his ego as you can imagine. We are the same age and I do not look that old. Once again, why don’t people just keep quite? Needless to say, in February of this year, I had my hair “colored” again to a warm blonde and now I look ten years younger and have not been mistaken for his mother lately.

When I was thirteen or fourteen, I decided that I wanted blonde hair and knew that my mother would never let me change the color. Since I was just an unsophisticated teenager at the time, I thought I knew how to “bleach” my hair blonde. I reasoned that if Clorox Bleach whitened clothes, that it should work on my hair as well. Yep, you guessed it. I poured Clorox Bleach on my head to “bleach my hair”. Needless to say, it did not work and I smelled funny for a while and mother wondered what had happened to her bleach. Another thing I did regarding hair was that when my soon was five and since he wore a “burr” haircut, I decided I would buy a hair cutting set and save money by cutting his hair. No wonder my son has a problem with me. lol After the first haircut I gave him, I gave the hair cutting set to the girl who did my hair at the time. You might wonder how you can mess up a “burr” haircut, well I managed to do it.

I Am Getting Old - Part Fourteen

I am getting old because…I really am. I went to the doctor Thursday, May 3rd and he confirmed that I have a pinched nerve in my left arm or somewhere on the left side. (WebMD was right.) I go back this coming Thursday, May 17th for an EMG to see where and which nerve is “pinched” so it can be treated. This brings me to the topic for today. WHEN SOMEONE HAS A PROBLEM, WHY IS IT ALWAYS 2 or 3 WEEKS BEFORE THE TEST CAN BE DONE? Now I know why people go to the emergency room rather than to their doctor. They can get an answer in a few hours versus a few weeks. I had an EMG several years ago and do not relish the thought of having needles stuck in my arm and neck again. The same doctor is also treating the arthritis in my knee and wants to use a new medication which is INJECTED into the knee once a week for three or four weeks. NOT! He led me to believe there was only one injection but the brochure he gave me to read says it has to be done for three or four weeks. I do not trust anyone to stick a needle in my knee or anywhere else for that matter so I have decided I will live with the pain in the knee for the time being and just get the “sleeping fingers” taken care of for now. That is way more needles than I can take for a while.

It is a good thing that I really like this doctor and do not want to go to anyone else because on the third, I had to wait over an hour to see him. His daughter was graduating the next day from nursing school and they had doubled up on appointments on Thursday so he could take Friday off to attend the graduation. Plus someone had x-rays taken of their back and needed to see a surgeon right away which was called a “patient emergency” and delayed the remainder of the appointments for Thursday. I know I am retired and most of the time do not have anything pressing to do but my time is just as valuable as anyone else’s. I think I should charge the doctor for the time I waited. I have always felt this way. I am not a very patient person and when I have an appointment, I am always on time and expect to be seen at the appointed time.

One last thing for today, the weather is finally warming up and with the good weather comes the flowers, grass, POLLEN and allergies. I have sneezed and blown my nose so much it is getting to be a nuisance. I think I could qualify for the Guinness World record for sneezing. This is the worst year I can remember for allergies. When we go to the store or out shopping everyone is sniffling and wiping their noses. (Makes me want to buy stock in Kleenex.) The pollen is so bad this year that our black car now looks sort of yellowish or greenish with all the pollen on it.

I Am Getting Old – Part Thirteen

I am getting old because…today I have nothing to say and haven’t for a few days. Just kidding. For some reason, I have been at a loss for words, if you can believe that. I am going to the doctor today, hurrah. There is something wrong with the nerves in my left arm and two of my fingers are not “awake”. You know the feeling you get when circulation has been restricted in a body part and it starts to come back (wake up). I do not have a medical degree but WebMD has me convinced it is the nerves. Today will tell me for sure if I can trust the site.

I just remember something to write about. Every time I “reboot” my computer, Vista, the super duper new operating system from Microsoft attempts to install a printer driver for my printer even though it is not compatible with Vista. Even though I click on cancel when the install starts, it does something to the driver I downloaded for the printer to work. Needless to say, I spend a lot of time reinstalling the correct driver so I can print. If you haven’t used or seen Vista you are in for a surprise. Vista sort of has the look of Windows but is really different and things are hard to find. I am beginning to learn my way around and still find new things each day. I downloaded a trial version of MS Office and that is really different. It seems Microsoft has revamped all their software to “make things easier” but they should warn the user how much different things are.

Since my cat Morris has decided he is going to sit in my lap while I type, I will close this for today and see what I can find for another time.