Okay, so what I didn't say about our trip was that I noticed an increase in "episodes" with my heart while in the mountains. I didn't tell anybody because I knew if I did, they wouldn't let me do what I wanted to do. I had my one year checkup with my heart doctor on Tuesday. I did tell him about the symptoms I had been having soooo. Friday morning I went into the hospital for a heart catherization. My heart is fine. The stents are holding well & there is only one small place where there is a tiny bit of plaque buildup. Not even enough to to do anything about. Now I just have this hole in my leg where he went throught the main artery in my groin to get to my heart. The worst part is the soreness and the bruising on my leg from a hematoma.
I got to the hospital at straight up 7:00 a.m. like I was told. They rushed me through admissions, lab work and chest xray. Then up to the Cath Lab to wait. I was the second one there so by 9:00 I was wheeled into surgery. The procedure was total about 45 minutes. By 10:30 I was back in my room waiting for the doctor to come in and release me. He came in about 3:30, but I didn't really care that it took so long because I slept most of the time. After he came and left though, I was ready to go home. We waited and waited. Finally about 6:15 an orderly came in with a wheelchair to get me. He apologized for taking so long but he couldn't find the room! I was in 146. In the hospital side the rooms go to 145 so he didn't know where the room was. He asked a couple of people and nobody else seemed to know either! Finally somebody said they thought that must be in the Cath Lab. He called it "a blonde moment", I called it incompetent!!! We got home a little after 7:00 p.m. more than 12 hours after I had left. I sincerely hope I don't have to do that again but I guess it was worth it to know that my heart is strong and healthy.
Now I just have to get over this soreness so I can start walking and drop some of this weight. I have got to get in good shape before the cruise. We leave in 47 days! There is so much to do and we are running out of time! I can really start planning excursions now that I know I'm healthy enough to do what I want to do.
Sunday, October 31, 2010
Saturday, October 23, 2010
My trip through history and other exciting adventures
We went to visit Robyn & Andrew over a long weekend. We left after school last Friday & drove to Nashville. After a few hours sleep & a not so good Contential breakfast with coffee that tasted a lot like hot water, we drove on to Radford. We had not made reservations but knew that rooms were available for Sunday & Monday nights. There were no rooms within 100 miles except a Super 8 for $175 a night! No way was I going to pay that for a super 8! The reason....Virginia Tech (about 15 miles away) had a home game this weekend. Just our luck! The one weekend we could actually go, VA Tech had to have a home game! We stopped at the hotel to make reservations for Sun & Mon with plans to stay with Robyn & Andrew Sat night. They had a last minute cancellation so we checked in & stayed all three nights. (I'm sure Robyn & Andrew were glad since they were going to give up their room to us.)
Sunday, Robyn & I went shopping while Terry & Andrew took a walking tour of the Radford University campus then settled in to watch football. We had a very successful shopping trip & a very nice visit. I really enjoy spending time with Robyn. Not just because she is my baby girl, but because I like her! I would like her even if she wasn't my daughter. We don't always agree, but we do respect each other's opinions and can just agree to disagree. Mostly we disagree on politics. She is ultra liberal and I am moderately conservative, but I love her even when she's wrong! lol
Monday was a full day. Poor Terry! He is not as "into" all of this as I am, but he was very patient and went along willingly. We first went to the Wilderness Road Regional Museum. In case you don't know, the Wilderness Road was one of the first public roads in the U.S. Davey Crocket carved it out (over 100 miles) from Tennessee through North Carolina and Virginia, to Kentucky. The museum is on the Wilderness Road, part of the first housing development in the country. Cabins built here had to conform to certain guidelines as to size, etc.and there are several original buildings on this road. This is in a very small town. We got there a little after 9:30 only to find out that the museum didn't open until 10:30! We walked around the outside & took pictures of the original log cabins and farm equipment. As I said, this is a VERY small town. We were there about 15 or 20 minutes and the curator showed up. I could just imagine the phone lines singing! "You had better get down there, there are PEOPLE there". He was so helpful & opened up early for us. There are usually two people on duty but one had a dentist appointment so he was alone and couldn't leave the front office. He turned on the lights all over the old house & told us to just look around all we wanted. Usually one person escorts the visitors but we had the run of the house on our own! I took pictures of everything. Tricorner hats, spinning wheels, weaving looms, beautiful old dresses!
We left the museum & headed to the Natural Bridge. This was awesome! Again, I took lots of pictures, but no picture could ever do it justice! We toured the wax museum, the toy museum, then ate lunch a the little cafe on the grounds. The Narural Bridge is only a short walk from the cafe, but the entire trail is ove a mile long. We hiked the entire thing. It was beautiful. The leaves were just beginning to turn and the weather was great. We saw eagles soaring overhead as we walked up the trail to the replicated Indian village. It was complete with work stations for tanning hides, a community cooking area, and a typical round house. The trail ended at a waterfall. It was all wonderfully beautiful, but the bridge itself is the highlight of the hike. The thought that you are standing on the same spot that a young George Washington had stood to survey the bridge (carving his initials in the rock) and that it had later on belonged to Thomas Jefferson who first opened it up to the public, is humbling. It truly brought a tear to my eye. I guess that's why I love teaching history.
We (I) reluctantly left the bridge & headed to the caverns. Only a couple of miles from the bridge, these are the deepest caverns in the eastern U.S. going 43 stories below the earth's surface. Amazing rock formations, stalagtites, staligmites, pools of water, bats, and a constant temperature of 54 degrees. I thought I would be cold, but after the 2 mile hike up the Natural Bridge trail and back, it was quite comfortable! We got to one point in the caverns and our tour guide asked if we were ready to "see nothing at all". She turned out the lights and there was TOTAL darkness! I now know exactly what it is like to be completely blind. Luckily it only lasted less than a minute.
We went to the apartment to say our goodbyes to Robyn & Andrew Tuesday morning. Robyn went to work, Andrew to class and we headed for our last adventure before heading home. I wanted to take a short drive on the Blue Ridge Parkway before heading home. Just a short drive... I am very familiar with the Natchez Trace and there are a handful of places you can get on and off arouond Tupelo so I figured we would get on the parkway, drive for maybe a few miles, take some pictures, get off & head home. Boy was I wrong! First of all, we had to drive almost an hour just to get to the Parkway. Then we started up the parkway. It was beautiful! Terry was very understanding and although he really didn't care about it one way or the other, he stopped at every lookout point so I could take pictures. Well after a while we started looking for an exit from the parkway so we could start the ten hour drive home. Much to our dismay, the first exit was 40 miles from where we got on! We made the best of our long drive though, and continued to stop & take pictures. We headed for the Parkway at 9:00 A.M. and got off at 1:00 P.M.!!! Somewhere along the drive the theme song from Gilligan's Island started going through my head..."a three hour tour, a three hour tour..."
We got home a little after midnight, very tired but I am so glad we did everything we did, including the four hour trip on the Blue Ridge Parkway. Words can't describe how it felt seeing history first hand. Walking where the founders of our great country walked! I can't wait to go back & do it again! Well, some of it anyway!
Sunday, Robyn & I went shopping while Terry & Andrew took a walking tour of the Radford University campus then settled in to watch football. We had a very successful shopping trip & a very nice visit. I really enjoy spending time with Robyn. Not just because she is my baby girl, but because I like her! I would like her even if she wasn't my daughter. We don't always agree, but we do respect each other's opinions and can just agree to disagree. Mostly we disagree on politics. She is ultra liberal and I am moderately conservative, but I love her even when she's wrong! lol
Monday was a full day. Poor Terry! He is not as "into" all of this as I am, but he was very patient and went along willingly. We first went to the Wilderness Road Regional Museum. In case you don't know, the Wilderness Road was one of the first public roads in the U.S. Davey Crocket carved it out (over 100 miles) from Tennessee through North Carolina and Virginia, to Kentucky. The museum is on the Wilderness Road, part of the first housing development in the country. Cabins built here had to conform to certain guidelines as to size, etc.and there are several original buildings on this road. This is in a very small town. We got there a little after 9:30 only to find out that the museum didn't open until 10:30! We walked around the outside & took pictures of the original log cabins and farm equipment. As I said, this is a VERY small town. We were there about 15 or 20 minutes and the curator showed up. I could just imagine the phone lines singing! "You had better get down there, there are PEOPLE there". He was so helpful & opened up early for us. There are usually two people on duty but one had a dentist appointment so he was alone and couldn't leave the front office. He turned on the lights all over the old house & told us to just look around all we wanted. Usually one person escorts the visitors but we had the run of the house on our own! I took pictures of everything. Tricorner hats, spinning wheels, weaving looms, beautiful old dresses!
We left the museum & headed to the Natural Bridge. This was awesome! Again, I took lots of pictures, but no picture could ever do it justice! We toured the wax museum, the toy museum, then ate lunch a the little cafe on the grounds. The Narural Bridge is only a short walk from the cafe, but the entire trail is ove a mile long. We hiked the entire thing. It was beautiful. The leaves were just beginning to turn and the weather was great. We saw eagles soaring overhead as we walked up the trail to the replicated Indian village. It was complete with work stations for tanning hides, a community cooking area, and a typical round house. The trail ended at a waterfall. It was all wonderfully beautiful, but the bridge itself is the highlight of the hike. The thought that you are standing on the same spot that a young George Washington had stood to survey the bridge (carving his initials in the rock) and that it had later on belonged to Thomas Jefferson who first opened it up to the public, is humbling. It truly brought a tear to my eye. I guess that's why I love teaching history.
We (I) reluctantly left the bridge & headed to the caverns. Only a couple of miles from the bridge, these are the deepest caverns in the eastern U.S. going 43 stories below the earth's surface. Amazing rock formations, stalagtites, staligmites, pools of water, bats, and a constant temperature of 54 degrees. I thought I would be cold, but after the 2 mile hike up the Natural Bridge trail and back, it was quite comfortable! We got to one point in the caverns and our tour guide asked if we were ready to "see nothing at all". She turned out the lights and there was TOTAL darkness! I now know exactly what it is like to be completely blind. Luckily it only lasted less than a minute.
We went to the apartment to say our goodbyes to Robyn & Andrew Tuesday morning. Robyn went to work, Andrew to class and we headed for our last adventure before heading home. I wanted to take a short drive on the Blue Ridge Parkway before heading home. Just a short drive... I am very familiar with the Natchez Trace and there are a handful of places you can get on and off arouond Tupelo so I figured we would get on the parkway, drive for maybe a few miles, take some pictures, get off & head home. Boy was I wrong! First of all, we had to drive almost an hour just to get to the Parkway. Then we started up the parkway. It was beautiful! Terry was very understanding and although he really didn't care about it one way or the other, he stopped at every lookout point so I could take pictures. Well after a while we started looking for an exit from the parkway so we could start the ten hour drive home. Much to our dismay, the first exit was 40 miles from where we got on! We made the best of our long drive though, and continued to stop & take pictures. We headed for the Parkway at 9:00 A.M. and got off at 1:00 P.M.!!! Somewhere along the drive the theme song from Gilligan's Island started going through my head..."a three hour tour, a three hour tour..."
We got home a little after midnight, very tired but I am so glad we did everything we did, including the four hour trip on the Blue Ridge Parkway. Words can't describe how it felt seeing history first hand. Walking where the founders of our great country walked! I can't wait to go back & do it again! Well, some of it anyway!
Sunday, October 10, 2010
Security vs Convenience & miscellaneous other "stuff"
Sitting here wondering what we should do about the limit on our debit card. I know it is there for a good reason, but it is REALLY embarrassing when your debit card is denied. You can tell the clerk a million times that it is because of a limit that you forgot about, but you know she is thinking "yeah, right, you're broke & we both know it, but I'll pretend that I believe you". That has happened to us a couple of times. If we increase our limit that problem would be solved, but it would leave us more vulnerable to someone hacking our account. Hence the dilemma. How much are we willing to risk for the convenience of being able to walk into a store & drop $1,000.00 without a problem? On the other hand, how many times would we actually DO that?! Oh well, I will ponder that for a while before I make a decision.
I had my "formal evaluation" on Wednesday. Everything went well.... or so I thought! I got my paperwork back on Friday & now I'm thinking that my evaluator and I were in two different classes!
1. He said that I didn't have my objectives posted... I did.
2. He said I gave them a "word hunt"... It's called using context clues to identify vocabulary words.
3. He said that I used an "overhead"... it was a powerpoint presentation.
4. He said that I didn't assign specific duties to each member of my small groups... they had been in these groups for three days and already knew what they were supposed to do.
5. He didn't understand what the purpose of the lesson was.... see #1
I will try to explain all of this to him on Monday, but whether I will be able to change his mind or not.... who knows! I just think it is a real shame that what will go into my file will be written by somebody who doesn't know the difference between an overhead projector and a computer!
We made another payment on our cruise this morning after a few glitches (see first paragraph). Will make another payment tomorrow and the final payment on Tuesday. Everytime I log into Carnival Cruise Lines web site it gives me a count down.... We cruise in 68 days!
I had my "formal evaluation" on Wednesday. Everything went well.... or so I thought! I got my paperwork back on Friday & now I'm thinking that my evaluator and I were in two different classes!
1. He said that I didn't have my objectives posted... I did.
2. He said I gave them a "word hunt"... It's called using context clues to identify vocabulary words.
3. He said that I used an "overhead"... it was a powerpoint presentation.
4. He said that I didn't assign specific duties to each member of my small groups... they had been in these groups for three days and already knew what they were supposed to do.
5. He didn't understand what the purpose of the lesson was.... see #1
I will try to explain all of this to him on Monday, but whether I will be able to change his mind or not.... who knows! I just think it is a real shame that what will go into my file will be written by somebody who doesn't know the difference between an overhead projector and a computer!
We made another payment on our cruise this morning after a few glitches (see first paragraph). Will make another payment tomorrow and the final payment on Tuesday. Everytime I log into Carnival Cruise Lines web site it gives me a count down.... We cruise in 68 days!
Saturday, October 2, 2010
Hotty Toddy
We just got back from the game. They still are having problems with the 4th quarter but a win is a win & we'll take it! Hung out in the Grove with family & friends. We haven't done that in a long time. I had forgotten how much I enjoyed the atmosphere... & the smell of barbecue, Jim Beam & perfume/cologne all mixed together is the best fragrance on earth. I "dressed up" this time. I usually wear jeans & tennis shoes but Robyn convinced me that I should wear something "Grove worthy". I'm glad I did. I may do it again! Thanks Robyn.
Every time we get the suitcases out Jenna goes nuts! She loves to ride & she associates suitcases with her getting to go in the car. Every time we leave, she gets boarded so it makes sense I guess. Today when Terry got out all the stuff to take to the Grove, she got all excited, I guess to a nearly blind 13-14 year old Cocker Spaniel a cooler looks like a suitcase! Anyway, when we opened the door to leave she shot out the door like a bullet! I'm yelling for her to come back & Terry says, "you know she can't hear a word you're saying right?" It was true. She didn't hear me. It didn't matter though because the only place she was going was to the car. Terry pretended like he was going to open the door & when she got ready to jump in, he picked her up & took her in the house. I kind of felt sorry for her. She just wanted to go for a ride & it seemed a little bit cruel to trick her like that. I may take her for a ride tomorrow just to make up to her for tricking her today.
Only 76 days until we cruise! The time is going by FAST! I am ready to pack. As soon as the weather gets cool enough that I don't need my summer clothes anymore I AM going to pack! I will just have to hide it from Jenna.
Every time we get the suitcases out Jenna goes nuts! She loves to ride & she associates suitcases with her getting to go in the car. Every time we leave, she gets boarded so it makes sense I guess. Today when Terry got out all the stuff to take to the Grove, she got all excited, I guess to a nearly blind 13-14 year old Cocker Spaniel a cooler looks like a suitcase! Anyway, when we opened the door to leave she shot out the door like a bullet! I'm yelling for her to come back & Terry says, "you know she can't hear a word you're saying right?" It was true. She didn't hear me. It didn't matter though because the only place she was going was to the car. Terry pretended like he was going to open the door & when she got ready to jump in, he picked her up & took her in the house. I kind of felt sorry for her. She just wanted to go for a ride & it seemed a little bit cruel to trick her like that. I may take her for a ride tomorrow just to make up to her for tricking her today.
Only 76 days until we cruise! The time is going by FAST! I am ready to pack. As soon as the weather gets cool enough that I don't need my summer clothes anymore I AM going to pack! I will just have to hide it from Jenna.
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