Living the life of me.

So what’s wrong with doing a 250km round trip journey for lunch?

2006-01-02T19:36:00.000-04:00

In my books there is nothing wrong with making a 250km drive to grab lunch if you want to do so. Last Wednesday a few friends and I drove from the Annapolis Valley to the South Shore Town of Lunenburg for lunch. It was not a long planned meal, just a “Hey, let’s go to lunch.” followed by the question as to where to go.
The winning choice was a diner in Lunenburg called Large Marge's Diner. They serve seafood, burgers and like fare. Since Lunenburg is a working fishing harbour, the fish is fresh and very well prepared and the service was friendly and nice.
Lunenburg is a UNESCO World Heritage sites. Plus it is the home port of the Bluenose II.

The funny thing about living with Wegener’s is that I always feel tired. I cover for it when with family and friends by consuming caffeine and sugary treats to get a rush on so to be able to just keep up with the activity. I’m not talking hiking or road racing, just simple things like shopping, following a conversation, or has been the past-time of late, playing Monopoly. There are times that I have problems focusing and have to force my attention and come out with some strange ideas. It is either that or, lay down for a brief a nap.

Following lunch in Lunenburg, a game of Monopoly, a shopping trip for maple syrup, and a late supper of donairs, I went home and slept for the better part of three and a half days. Before going out for the day I knew full well that I would most likely crash for a couple of days after our outing. It was well worth it and I would do it again if offered. You have to make memories when you can. I got up Saturday evening in time to watch the New Year start and back to bed after the NYC ball drop. I got up at 730 and went back to bed by 900 for a nap. Mid afternoon I got out of the house to fuel up my car, visit with friends. I return home following my three hour outing and took a nap.

To add to the fun of sleeping the week away, I developed a rash. I was able to put the rash out of my mind with a little hydrocortisone cream and a low dose of Benadryl. I felt that if I took a full dose I would miss the arrival of spring. Part of my Rx reserves include a supply of the OTC medications I may need, plus prescription strength creams, lotions and rinses.

The year 2005 was a restful time for me. I spent most of the months of February, April, May, July, September, October and November resting. If not sleeping, I would just veg in front of the computer, or TV. Even reading was not a possible activity as my eyes hurt too much to read more than a few minutes.

My mind pushes me to do lots of fun stuff and I try and sometimes do. Most of the time I play the price by having my body ache and I need to recover by taking it easy for a bit. But most times I have to modify my plans to meet my reality. More the case I did not have the energy to do more than basic personal care and light house work. If I over do it and fatigue myself, I have a hard time balancing the pain from joints and muscles and ongoing spasms, headaches and other ouches that are my normal world.

The truth about being ill is that everything you do has to center around your illness. For example diabetics need to balance sugar intake and insulin levels, people with mobility problems look for sturdy surfaces in washrooms and keep an eye out for their footing. In my case, I schedule activities around the side-effects of medication. Mostly I need to find a balance in sleep, activity, food and fluid intake and bathroom habits.
On some days, I have frequent bowel movements a bit more on the runny side than on the happy normal side that many of us received praise for during the toilet training phase of our childhood. Not that I wish to enter a dialogue about bowel movements. It is just part of my day and whether I’m able to go on a dash to the mall, drug store or visit friends. Other times I have to load up on high fiber foods, stool softeners and other advice my doctor has made for such events following a few days without bowel movements. Five days in my current record.
That raises an additional issue. I have observed that one of the diagnostic processes of medical professional is the description of wasted products emitted from the human body.
“What color was the stuff you coughed up?”
“Did it look like it contained blood?”
“What color is your urine? Has the color changed? Does it have an odor? What does it smell like? What is the volume? Let’s do a 24-hour urine study. Here is a jug for you to place your bladder output in for a 24 hours period. ”
“How much blood is coming out when you blow your nose?”
“How much ear wax are you producing and what color is it?”

One of the questions I get with each exam is about the visible appearance, the size, color, texture, volume and other descriptions of bowel movements. “Is there blood? How much? Is there mucus? How much?”
Since I own a digital camera I have been thinking about documenting the pre-flushed toilet and doing a Power Point presentation on my Palm T3 during medical visits.
I find it funny that a doctor spends long hours studying all aspects of the human body and one of the most valuable pieces of information comes from the description of body waste products.

The other bathroom problem is the sometimes never ending pee trips. It is not unusual for me to stop four times during a trip to the city. I have discovered that my kidneys have are able to produce a bladder of urine in 20 minutes. Some days I can set my clock by it. When I go to the movies I miss a good chunk of a film making washroom trips. On that front, I think theaters should have more washrooms and have urinals with a viewing window to the movie screen. I guess if I didn’t want to miss the film I could refill the beverage cup. There has to be a reason why they make such large cups for people going to a two or three hour movie that is preceded by 20 to 30 minutes of movie ads and television commercials.

So that is what I call fun.

Happy 2006!!

2006-01-01T17:50:00.000-04:00

Every year I make the same New Years resolution and try as I might, I can not seem to make it through the year.
So here I go again:
I resolve to be more patient and tolerate in my dealings with the stupid, moronic, half-witted, idiotic, ignorant, simple-minded, weak-willed, narrow focused, well and not so well meaning individuals. However, I reserve the right to punch in the throat those who say, "God only gives you what you can handle."

So here’s hoping I can make it through the year and not have to punch someone in the throat.

Philips Deeper understanding is the mark of BrillianceTM

2005-12-23T22:43:00.000-04:00

This morning I spent the better part of 30 minutes or so in a CT scanner. It was not a full body scan, just head, neck, chest, abdomen, pelvic area and thighs. Just my arms and legs below the knees where scan free. Not sure why the doctor didn't want to look at my lower legs, they are my best feature.

The Valley Regional Hospital has a nice new CT scanner. A Philips Brilliance Computed Tomography machine that is. In appearance the machine is a very sporty and stylish model.

Unlike other CT machines I have been on, The Philips is much more user friendly, or should I say patient friendly. The machine appears to be smaller than some of the monsters that I have been on before. I’m guessing that hospital workers didn’t have to cut walls down to get the machine into place.

The biggest difference is the tabletop where the patient lies. It does not go four feet in the air so I was able to get on and off the tabletop without having to have the height adjusted. On other machines the patient gets on the tabletop and the table rises in the air to meet the opening of the scanner. I wonder how many people have fallen off the tabletop before it returned to the floor.

A couple of other things made me feel a bit at ease having my body sectioned and imaged on this machine. Since the machine is a bit newer than other CT machines that I have been in, it does not have the wear marks and cleaning residue older machines have. It is very quiet. Other then the hum of fans and sound a similar to the agitation phase of a small washing machine. Instead of a PA speaker crackling the voice of the operator, a recorded voice instructs the patient to, “Breathe in. Breathe out. Breathe in. Hold your breath. Breathe.”

One of the best parts of the day was that the nurse was able to find a viable vein to tap for the IV. As the intravenous contrast dye was given, there was a slight burning sensation in my arm and I could feel warmth flush over my body. The warmth lasted in the more blood rich areas of my body. The same areas of my body to have experienced vasculitis, had a warm feeling. I’m sure it was the dye and not love.

Gee, it has been a long time

2005-11-29T19:23:00.000-04:00

I have been a very bad person to allow a month to pass without posting an update on my blogg. I have been otherwise focused.

No, I have not been running marathons or hiking trails. I have been hit hard by Wegener’s and have been recovering. Lung, sinus, joint, muscular, gastrointestinal, swallowing, swelling, and a few other problems befell me this past month. What energy I have had I used to do the normal daily stuff that I once took for granted. When I have gone out, I usually had to take the next few days to rest and recover.

I find it funny saying that I was tired and needed to recover from a few hours of shopping, but that is the strange truth. Best of all it was not a power shopping event.

By this point in my illness, over a year and one half into it, one would think that I would know what I can and cannot do, however, my mind seems to forget that my body can currently not do what I want it to do. After hitting oneself in the head or on the foot with dumbbells when muscles give out, a sane person would not lift weight. This dumb-ass bought padded dumbbells. Sadly, they hurt just as much as the regular ones.

I have been spending a bit more than the average in medical waiting rooms of late.

More funny observations to share at another time.

I got out of the house for more than 4 hours

2005-10-27T23:51:00.000-03:00

This evening I got out of the house for more than 4 hours. Best of all I didn’t have to nap in my car. Although, staying awake was not easy as I was at a public meeting at the Municipality of the County of Kings Council Chambers.

Funny how our local government does not seem to be concerned that they are holding safety of the ground water for Kings County in their hands. They seem to forget that well water is the only source of drinking water for the residents of Kings County, and that well water comes from the ground and that allowing environmentally unsound practices a few feet above the aquifer.

In Nova Scotia, Environmental Assessments are required prior to beginning of many construction projects. The property in question is on Bond Road in Waterville. Twin Mountain Construction has been mixing sewage sludge with sand and selling it as top soil and fill what must be close to ten years. Recently they had an Environmental Assessment completed. No concerns were raised by the whore who completed the study. Strange that the NS Department of Environment and Labour would accept an Environmental Assessments completed on a site that has been stripped of any natural state in the 90’s.

A public meeting may not be most people’s idea of a way to spend an evening. Nevertheless, I was out for more than 4 hours for the first time in over 4 weeks, without napping.

Visitors in my yard

2005-10-07T20:53:00.000-03:00

Fun at the ENT Clinic

2005-10-02T14:51:00.000-03:00

Last November my treating Rheumatologist referred me to an ENT specialist to investigate my sinus and ear problems, common predicaments of people with Wegener's granulomatosis. This week I had my otolaryngology appointment.

I parked my butt in the waiting area of the ENT Clinic and noticed that the other patients were going in and out of their appointments at a quick pace. I thought that this maybe a waste of time, ten months of waiting and less than 10 minutes to see the doctor.

This was not my first visit to the ENT clinic. When I was in hospital in March of 2003 one of my outings was to the ENT clinic. An Otolaryngologist Fellow who was overjoyed to examine a Wegener’s patient, checked me over in the clinic and confirmed that I had Wegener’s. With this experience in mind, I had an idea what was in store for me during this visit.

When my turn came, a nurse accompanied me to the examination room, adjusted the exam chair and departed. A few minutes past and in came the doctor. The visit started with introductions and a quick peek of my inner ears, nose and throat with an otoscope. A few shots of xylocaine a local anesthetic sprays in each nostril and a few minutes more of talking about Wagener’s and the fun began.

A visit to an ENT clinic offers a mix of experiences of taste, smell and sword swallowing. For starters, there is the taste of the xylocaine, the flavor of a tongue depressor, the taste of the gauze the doctor used to cover his fingers as he pulled on my tongue to get a better look of my throat. There is even a taste of metal from the exam tools and mirror. On a positive, the scar tissue left from the mouth sores has de-sensitized my gag response, so the doctor had to give that a test.

The sword swallowing skills came in the form of having an endoscope in my nose to look at the sinus cavities and down my throat to look at my larynx. At one point, I thought he was trying to see how much change I had in my pocket or was looking at changing specialties and wanted to see what my colon looked like from the top end.

As-a-result of his findings, I will be experiencing more procedures and seeing him on a regular basis. Next stop in the ENT journey is to have some hearing test completed and see him again next month and again a number or times annually..

As I exited the hospital complex, I noticed that the xylocaine was wearing off. I know this because my nose and throat tingled. With each inhale and exhale, my face and throat tickled and I did a mild giggle. It just happened that I was giggling as I walked past a few groups of smokers on the edge of the hospital parking lot.

Gray colored people, some bald, others wearing head coverings. A quick glance noticed most had IV shunts on they hands or forearms, along with hospital bracelets. I quickly realized that the groups were cancer patients taking a smoke break. I confirmed this assumption as I heard a woman begging an older woman to stop smoking. The older woman said something to the effect that she already had cancer, no point stopping now.

I felt bad about giggling as I passed this group. I have a general idea how they feel from my own experience over the past couple of years and from what my mother went through five years ago when she was undergoing Chemo and radiation therapy.

I could not help the fact that my face tickled.

Later, when I told my brother that I felt bad about giggling as I passed smoking cancer patients he jokingly ask if it was a case of too high of a setting used on the radiation machine if the cancer patients were smoking.

Making bad jokes runs in the family.

Health Care This Week

2005-09-30T21:04:00.000-03:00

Brother, can you spare a vein?

With a bottle of urine in hand, I went for lab work this week. A blood collection waiting area is a fun place to watch people. Everyone should give it a try. How’s that for making a positive out of waiting around for my turn to have someone I do not know stick a sharp, thin metal tube through my skin and if they got it right, into a vein to collect a blood sample?

And what a collection it was. My veins were hiding from the needle. They rolled away from the needle and if the needle was able to tap a vein, it collapsed before the collection tube filled. Inner left elbow, inner right elbow, inner left elbow again, back of right hand and back of left hand to get the required quantities.

A few years of interesting medications, and blood collecting appears to have an affect.

The Great Wait

Rich, poor, educated, uneducated, the pristine and the great unwashed, all have to wait in the large waiting area located in the main entrance of the hospital. Some people bring knitting, work on cross word puzzles, read the newspaper, grade papers, catch-up on the gossip with old friends they bumped in to in the waiting area or other ways to pass the hour or so it will. Others waiting fill the time bitching and complaining about having to wait.

There is the normal mix of senior citizens; for the most part the seniors seem to make a day of the event. Not only do they have blood test done during the trip, they also talk of their plans to go shopping, visit friends, or attend other appointments.

There are people who have to go to work following the collection. I like to go in after 9 to allow the workers to get through the process. People, mostly men for some reason, who are pissed off that they have to have blood collected before they go on to the cardiac testing lab. Most of these people pace back and forth while waiting for their number called to have a vein tapped. I’m a type A personality, but I know when to chill when things are out of my control.

I fully understand why some people are upset. Many haven’t eaten for 12-hours, as some test require to fast prior to the test. For some people, not having a coffee in hand and sucking on it every few seconds is a foreign experience. Likewise, some are smokers going without their morning dose of lung smoke. Maybe for these people hospitals should provide a bucket of pacifiers and a stack of blankets next to the “take a number” machine.

In the same area, there is the admitting department for day surgery and other non-emergency hospital services. The Valley Regional Hospital is part the Western Regional Health Care Unit and is the location that many medical specialist works from. The Unit covers health care services from Kings, Annapolis, Digby and Yarmouth Counties.

I should explain a cool effect of my current hearing problem. I have periods that sound is muffled and I need to focus to understand what is being said. Other times I have hyper-hearing, I joke that I can hear mice farting in the forest. On days when the hearing is ‘bionic,’ I enjoy the waiting areas.

During a morning wait this past August, I watched a group of eight people arrive in the waiting area. They carried pillows, blankets, a large duffle bag and stuffed toys in their hands. A young woman from the group went to the admitting desk as the rest of the party settled in the waiting area. From over hearing the admitting staff, the young woman and her delegation who were settling in across from me, I found out that she was from Yarmouth County. She was 23, Catholic, had no drug allergies, has had general anesthesia in the past without problems, has not eaten or drank anything since the evening before and was scheduled for Laparoscopic gallbladder surgery. I also found out that the group who arrived with her was comprised of her mother, father, two sisters, a sister’s boyfriend, a younger brother, her boyfriend, and her friend. As they were an hour early for the appointment I was able to get the lowdown on the who, what, where, and part of the why.

The part of the why I could not understand was why did she have seven people accompanying her for day surgery?

The day surgery waiting area is not large enough to accommodate a party of eight.

The major surgery waiting area is not that large.

This week a similar gaggle of family and friends accompanied a love one for day surgery. But I think this group all had Glaucoma. Or at least they all smelled like they were taking Glaucoma ‘medication.’

3-Day Dragon Salsa

2005-09-28T14:15:00.000-03:00

Living in the Annapolis Valley has some drawbacks, but this time of year, it has benefits.

Affordable, fresh and flavorful produce. Apples of all commercial and vintage varieties, pears, green peppers, red peppers, yellow peppers, yellow onions, red onions, white onions, carrots, cabbage, plums, squash, pumpkins, tomatoes, and more tomatoes. For anyone who loves good food, it is a great place to cook fresh foods and all-the better, to eat.

The air is filled with the scent of the farm crops.

I finished making salsa today. This year it was a 3-day event. Our garden produced a great crop of tomatoes, hundreds of pounds in fact. On Monday, I went shopping at a local farm market, a real farm market, not a convenience store with a produce section, to buy the ingredients I could not find in the garden. Tuesday I peeled the tomatoes, chopped the ingredients, seasoned the vegetables and reduced the tomatoes juice I drained off from the fresh tomatoes.

This morning I combined the chopped vegetables with the reduced juice and cooked the salsa, did a tease test and adjusted the spices, bottled and canned the beautiful salsa. All the bottles sealed.

I’m looking forwards to having a taste of September in the Valley all winter long.

Due to the three day prep and prepare method, I thought I would label the salsa as “Dragon Salsa’ as calling it “dragged my ass to make this salsa,” but I think calling it Dragon Salsa would be better.

Question

2005-09-25T02:15:00.000-03:00

Why does peanut butter, even ‘natural peanut butter,’ taste different then a mouth full of peanuts?

Dirty Little Secret

2005-09-22T10:56:00.000-03:00

Following a conversation with a woman at a local bookstore, I felt a bit guilty. I was browsing the bookstore shelves looking for something different then my normal selection of reading material. No, it was not an adult bookstore, just a regular ‘try to be all to all” bookstore in the mall.

The woman asked me if I had read The Da Vinci Code. I told her that I had last winter and thought it was a very good story and well written. She asked about other books I had read in the past few months and I started to list a couple dozen or so books. She was impressed with the volume of my reading. I told her that I have a lot of time to read and left it at that.

I have a four-foot bookshelf that I have filled with books that I have read over the past couple of years. Most I have bought and paid the full cover price. Some I have bought from the discount tables of many bookstores. Other books were gifts from family and friends. Regardless of how I got them, they have been stacking up in a few places around the house. Books are space hogs.

Now for the dirty little secret that made me feel a bit guilty. Since January, I have, in deed covered every word of the following books:

The DaVinci Code (Unabridged), Dan Brown
I Am Charlotte Simmons (Unabridged), Tom Wolfe
Lord of the Flies (Unabridged) William Golding
Angels and Demons (Unabridged), Dan Brown
America's Secret War (Unabridged), George Friedman
Holes (Unabridged) Louis Sachar
George Carlin Reads to You, George Carlin
Winning (Unabridged), Jack Welch with Suzy Welch
Kitchen Confidential (Unabridged), Anthony Bourdain
The Romanov Prophecy, Steve Berry

Now these titles make up about a third of the titles I have read in the past nine months. Unlike the books taking up floor and shelf space around my home, these books are stored on my computer hard drive. I bought these books through the online service called Audible.com.

Yes, the dirty little secret is that they are Talking Books/Books-On-Tape, and I did not read them but listened to someone read them to me. I did listen to every word and my imagination brought the story to life. On the days that my eyes are too sore to read or nights that I cannot fall asleep or while waiting for appointments, or out for a walk I listen to Audible.com programs. Not just the books listed above but on a daily basis listening to The Morning Read from The Wall Street Journal, and Wall Street Journal Weekend Journal which are daily digests of about a hour in length of selected stories from the WSJ.

Audible.com is a monthly subscription service that you can download audiobooks, including fiction, business, politics, science and technology and more. Radio and TV programs, newspapers, magazines, comedy recordings, special events performances and more are available on Audible. The best part you can transfer the Audible.com files to MP3 players or in my case to Palm handhelds, burn to CD or listen on your computer.

Pros

No giant stacks of books taking up space.
You can have a variety of books on your portable device.
You can listen while in transit or walking or even while exercising.
Easy to bookmark your reading, just push play.
Easy to review and replay the programs.
Your arms do not get tired holding up large unabridged books.
In some cases, the author reads the book.
Wide selection of programs available.

Cons

Very hard to reference an Audible Program
No way to highlight or underline passages.
No giant stacks of books to impress people
I have no idea how an audible.com cookbook would work.
In some cases, the author reads the book.

I have exercised my guilt and I feel better having it out in the open.

-------------

Now for the challenge, I have downloaded History of the World, Updated (Unabridged), by J.M. Roberts, a 55 hour program.

A few quotes from Emo Philips

2005-09-19T21:13:00.000-03:00

Sometimes, a good laugh is the best way to walk through life with a smile. Here are a few lines from Emo Philips.

"A computer once beat me at chess, but it was no match for me at kick boxing."

“I wouldn’t say my sister is a whore, I think the more political correct term is that she is user friendly”

I discovered my wife in bed with another man, and I was crushed. So I said, 'Get off me, you two!'

I once heard two ladies going on and on about the pains of childbirth and how men don't seem to know what real pain is. I asked if either of them ever got themselves caught in a zipper.

Some mornings, it's just not worth chewing through the leather straps.

The way I understand it, the Russians are sort of a combination of evil and incompetence... sort of like the Post Office with tanks.

I used to think that the human brain was the most fascinating part of the body. Then I thought, "What part of my body is telling me that?"

I saw a woman wearing a sweatshirt with 'Guess' on it. I said, 'Thyroid problem?'

I miss New York so much that I fill my vaporizer with urine.

I was about to send a cheque to UNICEF and it dawned on me why should I send money half-way around the world when I have to look at people who are starving in my own backyard. So I used the money to buy fencing.

"Well, my brother says Hello. So, hooray for speech therapy."

"Probably the toughest time in anyone's life is when you have to murder a loved one because they're the devil."

"I got in a fight one time with a really big guy, and he said, "I'm going to mop the floor with your face."

I said, "You'll be sorry."

He said, "Oh, yeah? Why?"

I said, "Well, you won't be able to get into the corners very well."

Words of Advice: Part 2

2005-09-17T02:32:00.000-03:00

While shaking someone’s hand, ask yourself, “Where has this person’s hand been.” Then go wash your hands.

Act normal, whatever the Hell normal is.

Beware of the Professional Naked Twister Champion

Smile, life can’t be as bad as the sour look on your face suggest.

Look left, then right and left again. Then cross the street.

Sleep is for the weak.

Solitude is for the lonely.

Lather, rinse, and repeat.

If shampoo has instructions, than why doesn’t toothpaste?

Slogans may seem enduring but they become dated, you dig?

Never name your pets after your favorite fictional characters; you look like an emotionally needy nerd.

It is nice that you found meaning in a movie, television, song or book, but for the love of looking sane, share the message not an abridgement.

On life: be kind to the people who will approve the writing of your obituary and the selection of the clothing you will be laid out in.

Think with your brain not your penis.

When hiking a mountain trail, don't fall off the mountain

Never play ‘hide the marshmallows’ with tigers or bears.

Don't go along with the crowd just to fit in especially if the crowd is into mass suicide and wants you to drink the special Kool-aid.

So, what to eat?

2005-09-16T00:50:00.000-03:00

I have never been a fan of breakfast foods. Bacon, eggs and fried potatoes have never been my idea of how to start my day. Not being a milk drinker, I have not fallen into the cereal eater mode many take as being the normal start of the day. As close to a normal breakfast food I get is toast and jam, but I have that anytime of the day or night. The ‘Cig and coffee’ breakfast crowd seem to make a poor start on the day, although they seem to be hyper aware of what’s going on. Cold pizza or any leftover seems okay with me. I do love a good granola, fresh fruit and yogurt breakfast. When awaken by the smell of bacon, and coffee I want to throw-up. I’m not a coffee fan.

The reason I’m bringing up breakfast is simple. I watch Coronation Street. I like to watch the longest running and most watched English language drama on TV. The drama takes place on a working class street in North England. From time-to-time, the characters of the show will have a hot-pot and a pint at the pub. Go to the ‘chippy’ for fish ‘n chips with mushy peas and a pickled egg. However, the menu item that caught my attention is the Full English Breakfast.

For those who do not know what makes up a ‘Full English’ let me educate you. To my understanding, it is a single pan dish, a fry pan, but a single pan dish just the same.

To make a ‘full English’ you start by frying Cumberland sausages in a bit of oil, add smoked bacon, a sausage made with pig’s blood called black pudding. You then fry eggs, mushrooms, tomatoes, using the fat from the meat. Once the eggs and vegs are done, you fry the bread in the pan. You assemble the Full English on a large plate with baked beans, hash browns and salt it to taste. Top off the plate with a healthy amount of brown sauce (HP sauce) and you have a ‘full English.’

United Kingdom: Life expectancy at birth:

total population: 78.38 years -male: 75.94 years, female: 80.96 years (2005 est.)

United States: Life expectancy at birth:

total population: 77.71 years -male: 74.89 years, female: 80.67 years (2005 est.)

Canada: Life expectancy at birth:

total population: 80.1 years -male: 76.73 years, female: 83.63 years (2005 est.)

France: Life expectancy at birth:

total population: 79.6 years -male: 75.96 years, female: 83.42 years (2005 est.)

Germany: Life expectancy at birth:

total population: 78.65 years -male: 75.66 years, female: 81.81 years (2005 est.)

Italy Life expectancy at birth:

total population: 79.68 years -male: 76.75 years, female: 82.81 years (2005 est.)

Japan: Life expectancy at birth:

total population: 81.15 years -male: 77.86 years, female: 84.61 years (2005 est.)

Russia: Life expectancy at birth:

total population: 67.1 years -male: 60.55 years, female: 74.04 years (2005 est.)

www.cia.gov/cia/publications/factbook/

Or http://www.nationmaster.com/graph-T/hea_lif_exp_at_bir_tot_pop

Words of Advice

2005-09-14T19:48:00.000-03:00

Words of advice: Part 1.

Be thankful for what you have because it is yours.

We do not have the power to will events to happen. We are not the blame for wishing bad things to happen.

Maybe it wasn’t suppose to be like this, but it is, so deal with it.

Don’t get a hair cut from a barber with a comb-over.

Never take diet advice from a fat man to heart.

Never turn your back to a wild animal, a dog, a stranger or a friend.

Never eat at a restaurant that allows the kitchen staff to wear sleeveless shirts. Sweat and loose arm pit hair has to go somewhere, if not in a shirt then in your food.

If you are scratching it all the time, get a medicated cream or just stop playing with yourself in pubic.

Have an idea where you are going and how to get there before you start out.

Never ask for driving directions from the friendly ladies on the corner. They are not tour guides in the conventional sense of guides. If you get arrested no one will believe you were asking for driving directions.

Although a very cool effect in the dark, don’t light your farts on fire, the folks at the Emergency Unit see enough assholes.

Always use a new condom when having sex, especially if you are having sex with another person.

Never hitchhike while only wearing a Speedo.

If you drop the soap in a communal shower, let it go.

As you settle in to you hotel bed to sleep remember, the most sickening, depraved, disgusting, bazaar, acts you can imagine have been preformed in your hotel room and most likely on the bed spread you are laying under. Sleep well.

We all know what you do when you are alone. It is the same thing we all do.

Shopping by lowest price only, is fine for oven mitts, but not for plastic surgery.

Double wipe to be sure.

If you fish in the same watering hole, using the same bait, at the same time of day, don’t be surprised if you catch the same kind of fish. The same holds true for hooking up in bars.

Do not leave you bag unattended, keep it in your pants

My first post.

2005-09-14T17:04:00.000-03:00

Yeah, I can blog.

Just like for pre-school children, as adults it is nice to put your homework up for all to see.

At the urging of a number of friends, those tired of hearing me share my view as to what is wrong with society, people and the world that I encounter; I have started my own Blog. I hope to be able to pose a few solutions to the quandaries I come across in my daily world.

After reading a bunch of blogs I have I better idea of what I want to do on my little spot on the Internet. I hope that I will be able to have the prerequisite number of spelling errors and typos that seems to be the norm. Post crappy photos and a link or two connecting to video I plan to make.

I will warn that I'm a real bore.

So, this is my first blog