The Sky is Falling Complaint Thread

richardandtracy

LeatherGryphon said:

I missed it all.  Everything from Monday morning, through Halloween, to tonight (Sat. 11/2)  Emergency ambulance to local Jamestown hospital, then ambulance to "Buffalo General Medical Center/Gates Vascular Institute".  Congestive Heart Failure.  Grossly swollen legs, couldn't breathe, etc.   They drained the excess fluid from legs & lungs, did angiogram and found I have about 1/3 normal function.   Eventually decided to give me a stent to open a heart vessel that was about 98% blocked.  Forced me to eat liquids and bland food for too many days.  Gave me a raft load of new medicines ($$$), but they did ship me home, right to my door.   Yay!  Heart not all fixed, but at least I can breathe and sleep and walk.

Flip. Not nice at all. Be careful & coddle yourself. Hopes & prayers winging your way

Richard 

Edited to correct a tripe writing problem...

TJohn

Fed my Great Nephew (what's his name) some cheese.

LeatherGryphon

alan bard newcomer said:

 

 

 

The actual emergency experience was not pleasant.  I now have a healthy respect for asthma sufferers. 

 

 

Non-Complaint:  The stay in the hospital did help my weight control program though.  I had been "stabilized" around 200 pounds for years, but immediately prior to the emergency and the resulting fluid gain, I had zoomed up to 212.5 in 8 days.  But this morning when I weighed myself again (naked and empty) I was 194.3 Wheee...

an ER visit of 6 six hours is unpleasant... which is the worst I've had to do in years (and accompanyed/companioned by kids) so probably a cakewalk compared to what you went through). 
---
But it looks like you made some progress so don't be afraid to look for more. 
My old man was mid-70s when he on top of complaining about being short of breath he fainted walking up the basement steps. Ma made him go to his Doc,  sent to hospital for a stent to be put in. Good timing cause he was on the operating table when he had his major heart attack... and got a triple bypass right then and there. He made it to 86 and it was a couple of screwups by his Doctors that contributed to his only making it that far. 
I was 76 when my blood work came back with cholesterol at 115 ... first time ever over 100. Doc wanted to do statins but I said let me check. 
Okay, for a couple years I had been having Costco blueberry muffins for breakfast, blueberries are healthy, right. Right but in costco muffins at 600 calories and 40% of the days cholestrol not healthy at all. 
Dropped the muffins and looked at my diet for things with cholesterol. Without touching the two eggs a day within a year cholesteral down to 85 -- 15 under goal of 100. And because I was checking ingredients Calories sort of became obvious and I got myself down to about 2000 per day. 
When the cholestrol was at the 115 I'd been stablized at 225 for years even with less activity and quitting smoking. That was at 76 ... 18 months later besides the cholesterol down the weight is dropped to 195. The kids did stick me with a nagging apple watch which interupts my dazing out by saying "time to get up and move" and working on the steps which are up to 7000/9000 a day instead of 2000. I do feel a hell of lot better. Granted perhaps one of the most important health decisions in our lives is the one we have no control over the genetic combination that became us. But we can do a lot for ourselves now just by monitoring ourselves and yelling at the Docs when we sense something isn't quite right. 
Ma had no cholesterol issues or artery type problems although technically she had congestive heart failure she chugged on to 95. 
And was still sitting a desk for 3 to 5 hours a day painting small watercolors. 
---
Nothing wrong with setting your sights on getting a bunch more time to do art.

 

 

Good words, thank you. 

Sfariah D

I want to go back to bed.  I don't want to know anything new right now.

TJohn

I want to go back to bed too.

TJohn

(crickets)

Sfariah D

Ribbit!  Ribbit!

LeatherGryphon

(Bedbugs) *Slurp! Slurp!*

 

I only encountered bedbugs once.​  Cheap motel in Denver, Colorado.  Never again!  I'll pay the price of luxury, or at least clean comfort, or sleep in the car.  I was so naive that I had never even heard of bedbugs before that encounter.

NylonGirl

This is a typical day in the I Heard What Bit Me Complaint Thread.

richardandtracy

Mozzies, the size of Helicopters and need iron traps to catch them... Only in Alaska, where everything is bigger & better than anywhere else in the US or the rest of the planet (obviously), I was told by residents when I visited. 

The mozzies in Alaska were bad, but easily repelled by Jungle Formula. What I found bit & hurt were Black Fly in Ontario north of Lake Superior. A dose of Jungle formula that repelled mozzies for 8 hours worked for barely an hour on Black Fly. Evil little things, but because the bite hurt so much, you could usually notice and swat the perpertrator. 

Regards,

Richard

NylonGirl

I have always assumed, if I go to Alaska, Kodiak bears would be the biggest concern with nippy weather being a distant second.

richardandtracy

I spent around 10 days in Alaska in a tent in 1987, moving around by motorcycle. I came across a bear while on one of the bus tours into the Denali National Park. Then I was in the bus, and the grizzly bear was outside looking for a Marmot. 5 days before that, before any of the decking was built, I visited here, where a black bear cub came within 15ft of me as I was standing at the edge of the stream and it caught a salmon - utterly sublime moment. Never saw a Kodiak bear.

Regards,

Richard

DanaTA

A few years ago, while vacationing in NH, I went out (from our timeshare unit) to the car to get something.  It was early evening.  I didn't bring my phone.  When I was about to come back from the car, there was a commontion.  There were black bears in and around a tree right next to the building.  People were all around, shining lights and making a commotion.  Two cubs and one big bear.  I figured it was a momma and her cubs.  I got back into the car and waited.  Couldn't call the frong desk, because I didn't bring my phone.  Finally, a park ranger came by and shued the people away and the bears left.  I didn't want to get mauled by a black bear mama thinking her cubs were in danger!  My wife wondered why I was gone for so long (it was about a half hour, I think).  In the woods, black bears normally keep away from people.  We've been going up there (the White Mountains area) for decades and never saw one during any of our hikes in the mountains.

LeatherGryphon

There are black bears around here (far Western NY State, in the boonies).  I've seen tracks in the snow down my driveway.  And a few years ago, when I still had my car,  I was driving the back roads, taking a shortcut, to home, and had to stop for a few minutes while a momma bear and three cubs crossed the road.  One of the cubs was being hesitant, and the momma had to come back and give him a swat to get him to cross.

Sfariah D

I want to go to bed!

DanaTA

LeatherGryphon said:

There are black bears around here (far Western NY State, in the boonies).  I've seen tracks in the snow down my driveway.  And a few years ago, when I still had my car,  I was driving the back roads, taking a shortcut, to home, and had to stop for a few minutes while a momma bear and three cubs crossed the road.  One of the cubs was being hesitant, and the momma had to come back and give him a swat to get him to cross.

Last year, on the news, I saw a story and video of a black bear in my city, on the other side.  I'm in East Taunton, MA (the bear was in Taunton).  No mountains here.  It was only a few blocks from the city's only hostpital, and the business center (downtown).   I was quite surprised.

TJohn

I live very near the Cherokee National Forest.

And the Great Smoky Mountains National Park.

So, black bears. Yup. Got 'em. They wander around some.

They taste good too. 

Sfariah D

4 minutes to finish my lunch?

LeatherGryphon

I've also had to stop my car near here, for pheasant and wild turkey crossing the road.  Probably for the same reason the chicken crosses the road.

Sfariah D

Sometimes there is a gaggle of Canadian geese visiting the mall I work at.

Charlie Judge

LeatherGryphon said:

I've also had to stop my car near here, for pheasant and wild turkey crossing the road.  Probably for the same reason the chicken crosses the road.

I thought you didn't drive. 

Anyway are they in season? Roast pheasent and turkey, yum ! 

LeatherGryphon

Charlie Judge said:

LeatherGryphon said:

I've also had to stop my car near here, for pheasant and wild turkey crossing the road.  Probably for the same reason the chicken crosses the road.

I thought you didn't drive. 

Anyway are they in season? Roast pheasent and turkey, yum ! 

Previous post about black bears, "back when I still had my car". 

Complaint:  I do not now have a car.

Non-complaint:  I do now not have car expenses, which permits me to survive without one, sort of.

Nostalgic memories:  Driving, long distance, Buffalo NY to Florida many times.  Driving to all points in Florida many times.  Washington DC to Florida & Buffalo many times.  Washington to NYC several times , Florida to Colorado once.  Also, riding motorcycle around the perimeter of the USA and up to northern British Columbia, Canada.  Love driving/riding.  But quoth the raven, "Never more".  (*Sigh*)

 

WinterMoon

LeatherGryphon said: a momma bear and three cubs crossed the road.  One of the cubs was being hesitant, and the momma had to come back and give him a swat to get him to cross.

Awwww! 

 

TJohn said: They taste good too. 

The local newspaper where I live once had an interview with a Canadian woman, who lived very close me, and who was actively trying to bring Canadian culture to southern Norway. She did mention that Canadians shoot more bear than moose - which is the oposite case from here - and do in fact eat them. I don't remember if she actually said they taste very good in sausages, or if that was just something I added to mess with my Mom when I showed her where the Canadian lady lived.

LeatherGryphon

DanaTA said:[ snip ...]

Last year, on the news, I saw a story and video of a black bear in my city, on the other side.  I'm in East Taunton, MA (the bear was in Taunton).  No mountains here.  It was only a few blocks from the city's only hostpital, and the business center (downtown).   I was quite surprised.

Ah, critters near hospitals...,   Back in the early 00's I lived in Melbourne, Florida along with my elderly aunt and her disabled daugher.  The daughter needed dialysis and I would take her several times a week.  The dialysis center was next to the main hospital.  Once while waiting in my car for her to come out after a session, I happened to notice a Great Horned Owl sitting high on the top corner of the hospital.  Obvious because of the large tuffted "ears".  I first thought that it was one of those dummy models to scare off pidgeons, but when it moved, and especially when it flew down and grabbed a mouse in a vacant lot, and flew back to its perch to viciously tear it's screaming catch apart, I was convinced that, yes indeedy, it was a Great Horned Owl.  Coincidentally, there were no pidgeons in the area.

WinterMoon

Complaint: I listen to spooky novels or long compilations of horror stories when I go to sleep, and it's really hard to find the point where I fell asleep sometimes.

For peeps who like horror with little to no gore, HorrorBabble (Ian Gordon) and Classic Ghost Stories (Tony Walker) are good places to start. There's also Bitesized Audio Books (Simon Stanhope), which isn't exclusively spooky tales. If you like your narrators a cut above the average LibriVox recording, all three serve.

Sfariah D

I am at a charity to get some food and stuff.  I hope they have fresh meats!

 

I also hope I can get done before I my ride comes.  I haven't started getting my free stuff yet.

LeatherGryphon

Charlie Judge said:

LeatherGryphon said:

I've also had to stop my car near here, for pheasant and wild turkey crossing the road.  Probably for the same reason the chicken crosses the road.

I thought you didn't drive. 

Anyway are they in season? Roast pheasent and turkey, yum ! 

Wild ducks are around here too.  Mmmm..., Turphesaducken. 

Kinich

Now over here in the UK we don’t have that many big scary animals, not unless you wander into the wrong pub on Saturday night but that’s another matter altogether, anyway back to the plot. back in the last century I was working in Cambridge and whilst making my way home one evening, a journey of some 25 miles or so I had a somewhat disturbing encounter with a pheasant.

Now you’re thinking, pheasant? A pheasant isn’t a particularity scary bird in anybody’s book, but this particular pheasant launched itself from the grass verge at the side of the road just as I came out of a corner doing 50mph or so and the pheasant is coming for me at head height, again not that scary you might think, but the thing was I was on a motorbike at the time and a pheasant in the face at those sort of speeds is not something to take lightly, luckily despite the panic I managed to duck down just far enough so that the kamikaze game bird bounced off the top of my helmet rather than me taking it straight to the face, I managed to stay upright and on the bike (quite a feat for me, I’ve fallen off a few), somewhat shaken I pulled over a bit further down the road to take a few deep breaths before continuing on my way.

I am actually quite partial to a bit of peasant, sorry I mean pheasant, now and again but interesting fact for those not from the British Isles picking up any roadkill you are responsible for killing is classed as poaching, however the next person along can happily and quite legally help themselves to a free lunch.

TJohn

Kinich said:

Now over here in the UK we don’t have that many big scary animals, not unless you wander into the wrong pub on Saturday night but that’s another matter altogether, anyway back to the plot. back in the last century I was working in Cambridge and whilst making my way home one evening, a journey of some 25 miles or so I had a somewhat disturbing encounter with a pheasant.

Now you’re thinking, pheasant? A pheasant isn’t a particularity scary bird in anybody’s book, but this particular pheasant launched itself from the grass verge at the side of the road just as I came out of a corner doing 50mph or so and the pheasant is coming for me at head height, again not that scary you might think, but the thing was I was on a motorbike at the time and a pheasant in the face at those sort of speeds is not something to take lightly, luckily despite the panic I managed to duck down just far enough so that the kamikaze game bird bounced off the top of my helmet rather than me taking it straight to the face, I managed to stay upright and on the bike (quite a feat for me, I’ve fallen off a few), somewhat shaken I pulled over a bit further down the road to take a few deep breaths before continuing on my way.

I am actually quite partial to a bit of peasant, sorry I mean pheasant, now and again but interesting fact for those not from the British Isles picking up any roadkill you are responsible for killing is classed as poaching, however the next person along can happily and quite legally help themselves to a free lunch.

That's probably a law designed to discourage motorcyclists from intentionally killing birds by driving into them at dangerous speeds.

Sfariah D

It is either my late lunch or early dinner?