I love that when I sit down in a restraunt and a person comes up and asks that. On one hand it makes me a little uncomfortable, because I see MYSELF as the servant, so how is it that this fellow servant is offering to serve me? But on the other, I see a young person who..even if it is just for the job's sake...is learning a valuable phrase.
This morning in just a few quick paragraphs I'm going to reveal a secret about life that though I learned it early...I've tested it and observed it for decades and it is true. Ready? In general...show me a person unhappy with life, and you'll be showing me a person who is not very involved in sacrificing themselves for the building up or helping of others.
What!? Well, weve gone thru cycles in this world, there was a day where the common motivation/mindset within a person involved being a good neighbor, a helpful citizen, an encouraging friend to others....from this we've gone to being a neighbor to none, helping only ourselves, backstabbing others if we need to. Now the trend is even more radical...expecting others to be a good neighbor to us, expecting others to help us, serve us, encourage us, feed us, entertain us.
And ya know what...the corresponding level of satisfaction with life has plummeted. Its abysmal today. People are bored and miserable and mad at anybody whose life is in anyway inconveniencing them...ie..How dare they pull out in front of me! How annoying these handicap parking spaces are! Look at that guys yard with the tall grass and the broken mower...someone should call the city thats an eyesore...the list goes on. Its not pretty.
So all i've got to say about this is ...if you want to improve the quality of your life, improve the quality of someone else's instead...yours only gets filled up by overflow. Think being kind to all is easy? It takes years of practice to get even halfway decent at it. Opening doors for people, saying please , thank you, excuse me , and I'm sorry and "no, you go ahead, I know i got here first but you've got your hands full" and "can i get that for you?"...those are the amateur stages but they are a start.
Saturday, August 05, 2006
WHERE ARE MY GLASSES?
Now some of the youngsters out there may not relate to this, but I'm afraid if you're old enough not to be carded for id...you probably can tell when this has happened to you. Marbella was telling about the time she was having trouble filling out a form and she had the young man over the counter help her with it since she "couldn't find her glasses". He wasn't very far into that when someone standing by Marbella helped her locate her missing glasses...it wasn't like he went thru her purse though, they were on her head.
I have lost many pair of sunglasses in my hair. More than once I have placed a hat on my head and spent quite a few minutes of my life looking for it. Or searched and searched for a set of car keys, sometimes having to reach into a place to check, but had to lay the keys down so my hand would be empty.
This all makes me think of K's blog about what you're looking for . Could it be that people spend hours yearning for something else...when in reality what they are wanting satisfied is already there "on their head" so to speak? Now if what you are wanting is "solitude"...don't be ticked at people ignoring you. "the glasses are on your head". Thats just one example...but take a look at what you're wanting, you may not have to spend much effort or money to get it, you may already have it and just can't see it.
Then there is the other side of that too. You may be spending your life looking for it in the wrong place. Sheesh i hate when that happens, hours upon hours knowing what you need and where you thought it was...only to find out it isn't there.
Well folks...its almost 2am so you can apply this where ever you can find a place to fit it. I'm going looking for my pillow, and I've got a pretty good idea that it isn't in this laptop.
I have lost many pair of sunglasses in my hair. More than once I have placed a hat on my head and spent quite a few minutes of my life looking for it. Or searched and searched for a set of car keys, sometimes having to reach into a place to check, but had to lay the keys down so my hand would be empty.
This all makes me think of K's blog about what you're looking for . Could it be that people spend hours yearning for something else...when in reality what they are wanting satisfied is already there "on their head" so to speak? Now if what you are wanting is "solitude"...don't be ticked at people ignoring you. "the glasses are on your head". Thats just one example...but take a look at what you're wanting, you may not have to spend much effort or money to get it, you may already have it and just can't see it.
Then there is the other side of that too. You may be spending your life looking for it in the wrong place. Sheesh i hate when that happens, hours upon hours knowing what you need and where you thought it was...only to find out it isn't there.
Well folks...its almost 2am so you can apply this where ever you can find a place to fit it. I'm going looking for my pillow, and I've got a pretty good idea that it isn't in this laptop.
Wednesday, August 02, 2006
A BEGINNING OF THE MONTH UPDATE
Negotiations are still underway with the electric company, a workable solution may be reached soon. On one hand we really don't have any desire to sell off 6.5 acres out of our 13...but we would still have land and pond, with no powerlines this time, and we'd be able to finish paying the place off by next Christmas with any diligence. This wouldn't change any of the useful features enjoyed by the visiting youngen's except a loss of alot of the blackberries. Fishing, shooting, etc would all still be fine.
Mrs. Bean's seems to be entering the recovery phase of the whooping cough, as the coughing fits are getting further apart...still definitely a part of her days and nights but noticeably fewer of them.
Sam is now working full time and this week moved into a house with a co-renter. He seems to be managing much better with the val poric acid. It seems he still has highs and lows but on a much more manageable scale. The hard part for people his age struggling with bipolar swings is usually staying away from the local unauthorized pharmacist...the temptation is strong, and if the battle is lost, the results are disastrous. He'll have to continue to learn his mood and what triggers what and deal with them.
At last report Wolf is still not doing well fighting against the call of the spirit water. I can not say I've given up on him...because I have realized and accepted that it just isn't up to me. Its not my fight. The choices he will make come from someplace within that I don't have access to or I'd have fixed him long ago, in fact in this family...if that access panel were reachable, a bunch of us wouldve teamed up and fixed it whether he wanted it fixed or not.
In the morning we make a run to Mrs. Beans folks to hopefully build a fence before the sun gets too hot. Which means we better be done by noon. This has definitely been a hot hot summer. Not the hottest I've endured...but I'm not as young as I use to be. Then again, I'm younger now than I'll ever be again.
I still haven't finished the strawberry shortcake mural i've been painting on Grace Kelly's wall, and the box of computer parts to rebuild Mrs. Beans computer is still unopened for 3 days now...so its not like I don't have anything to do...especially with my work schedule going back to normal within a few weeks. Maybe I'll get my hearing aid dropped off for repair of that little battery door Friday. And then there are cars to get in the shop, and people to visit, and further negotiations to make with the power company, and that dang laptop still needs a new power jack, which means taking it apart all the way down to the motherboard, and all kinds of stuff I'm going to have to get on top of...but thats life isn't it...at least its always been that way for me...way more fun stuff to do than I'll ever get worked in before I die. (I've fought against sleep for many years desperate to squeeze a little more "living time" out of each day).
Mrs. Bean's seems to be entering the recovery phase of the whooping cough, as the coughing fits are getting further apart...still definitely a part of her days and nights but noticeably fewer of them.
Sam is now working full time and this week moved into a house with a co-renter. He seems to be managing much better with the val poric acid. It seems he still has highs and lows but on a much more manageable scale. The hard part for people his age struggling with bipolar swings is usually staying away from the local unauthorized pharmacist...the temptation is strong, and if the battle is lost, the results are disastrous. He'll have to continue to learn his mood and what triggers what and deal with them.
At last report Wolf is still not doing well fighting against the call of the spirit water. I can not say I've given up on him...because I have realized and accepted that it just isn't up to me. Its not my fight. The choices he will make come from someplace within that I don't have access to or I'd have fixed him long ago, in fact in this family...if that access panel were reachable, a bunch of us wouldve teamed up and fixed it whether he wanted it fixed or not.
In the morning we make a run to Mrs. Beans folks to hopefully build a fence before the sun gets too hot. Which means we better be done by noon. This has definitely been a hot hot summer. Not the hottest I've endured...but I'm not as young as I use to be. Then again, I'm younger now than I'll ever be again.
I still haven't finished the strawberry shortcake mural i've been painting on Grace Kelly's wall, and the box of computer parts to rebuild Mrs. Beans computer is still unopened for 3 days now...so its not like I don't have anything to do...especially with my work schedule going back to normal within a few weeks. Maybe I'll get my hearing aid dropped off for repair of that little battery door Friday. And then there are cars to get in the shop, and people to visit, and further negotiations to make with the power company, and that dang laptop still needs a new power jack, which means taking it apart all the way down to the motherboard, and all kinds of stuff I'm going to have to get on top of...but thats life isn't it...at least its always been that way for me...way more fun stuff to do than I'll ever get worked in before I die. (I've fought against sleep for many years desperate to squeeze a little more "living time" out of each day).
Attacks of Severe Choking Cough ?
If you know someone suffering from a SEVERE choking coughing fit several times a day and its been going on for several weeks and still going on but they feel fine in between the fits...you probably want to read this, because it is commonly misdiagnosed.
When Mrs. Beans started really having some hard severe coughing attacks we thought it was allergies, then a cold, then maybe bronchitis, eventually thoughts of pneumonia began to seem validated...finally when we came to the doctor he could hear nothing asthmatic or abnormal thru the stethoscope, nor in the breathing machine, nor did anything show up in a chest x-ray, and the blood test seemed fine.
We had to figure up how long its been going on, and realized probably close to 2 months now with seemingly increasing severity. With the medicine she took that supressed the immune system (part of the treatment for R.A. ) the doctor supposed maybe it was a bronchitis that kept reinfecting...since even a run of the mill bronchial infection wouldn't have lasted that long. So a course of antibiotics was run to no avail, and a bit of cough syrup to help with the cough...and a trip to a pulmonary specialist was set up.
After an involved visit with the specialist wherein he listened thru a stethoscope..nothing, ran a new chest xray..nothing, had her breathe in a bit more sophisticated machine...nothing. He started her on a treatment for whooping cough (which he said he did any patient that had an unexplained cough lasting over a few weeks). And prescribed some inhalers for asthma just in case, and some allergy/asthma medicine (singulair).
If we had researched this we probably would have immediately suspected whooping cough. But there was no "whooping" sound...turns out in at least half the cases there is no such sound. But here is what we did learn and if you happen to have a new unexplained severe cough that fits this, you might save yourself alot of grief and just get the treatment for whooping cough, because it may be ancient history..but its going around again big time these days...and that shot you had when you were a kid is only good for 5-10 years...its not a lifetime like thing like many believe.
First 2 weeks...may start with a sore throat, mild fever, feeling tired/unwell, may even be a runny nose like a cold...and a dry , ordinary cough every now and then...over the next 7-10 days the fever (mild if any) goes away but the cough gets a little more persistent and may even produce small amounts of clear sticky phlegm...and occasional INTENSE bouts of choking coughing start to happen.
Next 2 weeks onward...(it is said to be the 100day cough in China)...these choking cough attacks get SEVERE (people have been known to actually turn blue)..lasting 1-2 minutes, can even cause vomiting and the feeling of suffocation...THEN, till the next episode its likely you won't cough at all and will feel fine...till the next episode hits. May be twice in one day, maybe 50 x but the crucial point for clinical diagnosis is attacks of severe choking cough separated by long intervals of NO COUGHING AT ALL.
Towards the end of what ranges from 3 weeks to 3 months...the time between episodes increases as fewer and fewer attacks come on. The slow down can continue for the last few weeks, or all of the last couple months.
The bacteria can't live in the air long so it does not pass so easily between adults, who tend to cough away from people rather than directly over them. (be sure to cover your mouth when you cough as mom always said). It is most infectious in the first 2 weeks when it seems no different from an ordinary cough and cold. Generally after 3 weeks it is very unlikely to spread. So by the time you really realize something has a lasting hold on you, you're getting nearly out of the infectious stage.
Once you've got it..just hang on for the ride usually around 6weeks but severe cases can run closer to 12. Good old cough medicine? Won't really help. Antibiotics? If during the incubation stage (before you know you've got it , it might kill it out), during the infectious stage it will shorten the length of time you're infectious, but after that? At best might help prevent against secondary infections which don't usually happen anyway. Steroid inhalers? Might ease the burden abit but not of any real germ fighting value. Not really much you can do about it treatment wise after you realize you've got it. Cough medicine with codeine seems to help the rest period, which is helpful since its pretty exhausting, but it won't "stop" the cough.
For more information and even sound files that you can hear what its like, visit this link or type in www.whoopingcough.net .
When Mrs. Beans started really having some hard severe coughing attacks we thought it was allergies, then a cold, then maybe bronchitis, eventually thoughts of pneumonia began to seem validated...finally when we came to the doctor he could hear nothing asthmatic or abnormal thru the stethoscope, nor in the breathing machine, nor did anything show up in a chest x-ray, and the blood test seemed fine.
We had to figure up how long its been going on, and realized probably close to 2 months now with seemingly increasing severity. With the medicine she took that supressed the immune system (part of the treatment for R.A. ) the doctor supposed maybe it was a bronchitis that kept reinfecting...since even a run of the mill bronchial infection wouldn't have lasted that long. So a course of antibiotics was run to no avail, and a bit of cough syrup to help with the cough...and a trip to a pulmonary specialist was set up.
After an involved visit with the specialist wherein he listened thru a stethoscope..nothing, ran a new chest xray..nothing, had her breathe in a bit more sophisticated machine...nothing. He started her on a treatment for whooping cough (which he said he did any patient that had an unexplained cough lasting over a few weeks). And prescribed some inhalers for asthma just in case, and some allergy/asthma medicine (singulair).
If we had researched this we probably would have immediately suspected whooping cough. But there was no "whooping" sound...turns out in at least half the cases there is no such sound. But here is what we did learn and if you happen to have a new unexplained severe cough that fits this, you might save yourself alot of grief and just get the treatment for whooping cough, because it may be ancient history..but its going around again big time these days...and that shot you had when you were a kid is only good for 5-10 years...its not a lifetime like thing like many believe.
First 2 weeks...may start with a sore throat, mild fever, feeling tired/unwell, may even be a runny nose like a cold...and a dry , ordinary cough every now and then...over the next 7-10 days the fever (mild if any) goes away but the cough gets a little more persistent and may even produce small amounts of clear sticky phlegm...and occasional INTENSE bouts of choking coughing start to happen.
Next 2 weeks onward...(it is said to be the 100day cough in China)...these choking cough attacks get SEVERE (people have been known to actually turn blue)..lasting 1-2 minutes, can even cause vomiting and the feeling of suffocation...THEN, till the next episode its likely you won't cough at all and will feel fine...till the next episode hits. May be twice in one day, maybe 50 x but the crucial point for clinical diagnosis is attacks of severe choking cough separated by long intervals of NO COUGHING AT ALL.
Towards the end of what ranges from 3 weeks to 3 months...the time between episodes increases as fewer and fewer attacks come on. The slow down can continue for the last few weeks, or all of the last couple months.
The bacteria can't live in the air long so it does not pass so easily between adults, who tend to cough away from people rather than directly over them. (be sure to cover your mouth when you cough as mom always said). It is most infectious in the first 2 weeks when it seems no different from an ordinary cough and cold. Generally after 3 weeks it is very unlikely to spread. So by the time you really realize something has a lasting hold on you, you're getting nearly out of the infectious stage.
Once you've got it..just hang on for the ride usually around 6weeks but severe cases can run closer to 12. Good old cough medicine? Won't really help. Antibiotics? If during the incubation stage (before you know you've got it , it might kill it out), during the infectious stage it will shorten the length of time you're infectious, but after that? At best might help prevent against secondary infections which don't usually happen anyway. Steroid inhalers? Might ease the burden abit but not of any real germ fighting value. Not really much you can do about it treatment wise after you realize you've got it. Cough medicine with codeine seems to help the rest period, which is helpful since its pretty exhausting, but it won't "stop" the cough.
For more information and even sound files that you can hear what its like, visit this link or type in www.whoopingcough.net .
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