A husband took his wife dancing.  They saw a man out on the dance floor living it up – breakdancing, moonwalking, the works.

“See that guy?” the wife asked.  “He proposed to me 25 years ago, but I turned him down.”

The husband replied, “Looks like he is still celebrating!”

 

American Legion Magazine

Spinal Cord Stimulator (SCS)

I have lost another battle to my back pain.  The spinal cord stimulator was not good enough to warrant a permanent install.  We were able to get the foot and leg pain somewhat but the back pain was a miss.   It came up to the pain and stopped, it was like there was a magic line that the stimulator would stop working.  The tech (salesman) worked every angle he could but we couldn’t get it to the spot needed.

The side effects seemed minor but in the long term they would not have been pleasurable.

• Pins and needles in the feet – this is a pain that it is supposed to minimize not cause.
• Try sneezing with electricity hooked to your spinal cord!  WOW!
• Couple other spots (that I rather not share) in the midsection of my body that also hurt!

I haven’t lost hope, but I certainly sank really low when they took it out.  Today is a new day and somehow I feel better knowing that I have tried almost everything under the sun.  Weight loss however, keeps eluding me…  Its hard when the medicines have side effects of “weight gain”!

The Cabin Fever is breaking with the weather changing for the better. I will most certainly pick up my efforts of exercise.

Thank you to my family for supporting me with this pain in the back over the years.

New driver on the road.

Christine, my 16 year old daughter, received her driver license on Saturday.  What a mixed bag of emotions and thoughts to sort out.

I’m so proud of Christine at the same time hate that she has hit yet another milestone – she is growing up fast!  I know that she will be fine, she has shown skill and responsibility each time we went for practice.

I added her to my insurance, this added $50 a month and can get discounts for school grades and signing a piece of paper from State Farm.  Since she is on policy and I can’t drive 2 cars at the same time, I let her take the blazer with her when she went home (she lives with her mom).

I brought the truck in Sunday to have them check out the belt squeak.  They have replaced the belt couple times already.  They replaced again, Tim thinks it had some antifreeze on it.  Last work done was 2 radiator hoses, water pump and thermostat.  I would imagine that the leak hit the belt at some time.

The truck is running fine and I trust it to take care of Christine.  Of course, that idea was crap!  She got home and car sputtered when she tried to turn and there was no throttle.  She got scared but made it home safe.  Had a loose injector a couple months ago and apparently the harness is loose.

Tim will take care of his sister I told him to let me know what he needs and he will get it fixed.  He is a mechanic and going to school for it as well.  Pretty smart cookie he is.

Christine will be on the road soon!

Back again…

I haven’t blogged in a while, and I want to try make something habit!  So here we go…

Back – My back is taking one step forward and two steps back.  Just to get you up to speed, I have had issues with my lumbar for years with plenty of nerve pain to go around.

I had a micro-discectomy in 2011 and Jan 2013 had a double fusion with most of two discs removed.  They put in a bunch of shims, bolts and couple of rods, L4-S1.

I am seeing a pain management Dr, Dr Prunskis at Illinois Pain.  He is doing epidural injections, I have had 2 so far and they only last about 10 days.  Im scheduled for another.

In the mean time, my exercise has been consisting of walks to the pantry for snacks!  I am trying to get back on the walking each day and steam and sauna at the Y.  The weather change is giving me a smack down!

Today went to the dog park with Vegas and got my walking in.  Vegas is crashed out next to me from running his butt off and I’m pretty much done too.

 

Pictures of the week.

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Couple cool moon shots with new note 3.

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McBark Park visit this morning

Vegas and I made the trek to the park this morning (3 minute ride, quite the trek!).  

There was some digging on the perimeter of the outside of park.  Looks like they dug up some trees?  Not sure.

The Parks and Recreation Department of McHenry continues to do a good job keeping park nice and ready to use.  There is still some mesh sticking out of ground here and there.  This mesh was used for keeping new grass intact while it grows from seed.  Mesh is supposed to break down eventually, make sure you are watching your pets! 

It was misting and windy with a temp of 49.  We can certainly stand more trees to block the wind.  It blows through the parking lot and field and will prove nasty when gets colder out.  This also carries plenty of trash blown from strip mall and restaurants.  Thinking of purchasing a garbage picker.

 

Friend or Foe –

Friend or Foe?

Is a person a friend if you spend numerous nights over years playing poker together?  Is a person a friend if they confide in you about a cheating spouse with her boss?  Did you talk about your past to help a friend map out their future of possible divorce?  Time and time again talking about spouse cheating but a child was involved.

Does a friend invite you to a birthday drink with family and friends?  Have you met them on vacation and talked about future trips?  Do you feel comfortable talking to them about their career path and short comings?  How about advising how they could be successful.

If you can be the ear and sounding board to someone, don’t believe for a second that they wouldn’t take something completely out of context and ruin you for perceived gain on their part.

Its hard to be the bigger person – so thanks for letting me rant!

Smile at the birdy

Smile at the birdy.