Tuesday, March 25, 2014

FOR MY AGE? REALLY?

Weather - we are going to get a LOT of rain Thursday/Friday. This will bring a lot of frost out of the ground and turn the grass green-er. We also have a huge system heading our way for NEXT Wednesday - this looks major but it's a week off. A mostly rain event but we will be close, 40s?

Unless you have been living under a rock you know these two dudes as the Irianians who had stolen passports.

Well . . . . HAS ANYONE LOOKED AT THEIR SHOES???   See anything wrong??

There is certainly a disconnect when it comes to the Chinese families of the loved ones that were on Flight 370.

You have photos like the one above which is just weird. You can't watch CNN for 4 hours a night as talking heads dissect every possibility because China does not believe in the "information age" and you must rely on the Malaysian officials who at first I thought were doing the best they can but now I believe they are just incompetent.

I mean really?  Texting families that they are calling the time of death?  And then for what reason??  OH - no real reason, it was just time I guess. Then they retract all of the hard evidence they have been spewing out?

On a different note.  This whole tragedy is increasing our knowledge base for satellite technology 10-fold I bet!  The science world is being allowed to spend ten of billions of dollars researching things that they could never look for before.         
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With last nights snow squall I thought I had better post a photo of our patio.  This is from July 8th 2014.  

Hopefully most of the snow will be gone by then.



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Yesterday I spent 6 hours at the UW Sleep Cohort Study for Cardio tests!    NOT STRESS tests (whew).

It was fascinating really.

First they wanted to see my reaction time so I had a box with a button and a red 5 digit LED opening, like old calculators had.  My job was, for 10 minutes, watch the number thing.  When anything appeared press the button as fast as you can.  The numbers would zoom in milliseconds!! so you can see how fast I am and the numbers would come at random intervals.

Easy right?

Well, yea but we're talking milliseconds.  My AVERAGE was probably in the 210 range.  But I swear, if your brain wanders on ANYTHING else - BAM  275 the next one.

Or when I had a good run  195, 201, 200, 165 and at 165 I'm congratulating myself,  410   DAMN IT.

10 minutes is a long time to focus.

Then they took me down to the bowels of UW-Hospital and hooked me up to computers and so forth.  One technician is doing one thing with different pulse areas and another is Doppler radaring my heart.    

I found out my blood flows at 8.2 yards per second!  Seems fast!  But the technician said it was perfect for my age. (WTF!).  Too fast means arteries are not flexible.

FOR MY AGE?  When did this vernacular start to rear it's head.  It's one thing when I get a call asking for my opinions and then when asked my age they hang-up.  But now I have the "for your age" when if comes to health.  sigh!   

But the technician probing my heart had my attention. First of all she lives two blocks from me and her husband is a fire fighter, but watching her do her magic inside my heart was awesome.

I got to see my valves working and commented they look rather frail and flimsy which she said was a good thing.  You don't want stiff valves. Those suckers really work a hard.  I got to look at all the openings and coming and going and valves and directions of blood  inside my heart.  Hearts are even more amazing to me now!  I'm glad I have a working heart. And get this, it never gets a break.  No vacation time.

And who knew your heart is NOT on the left side.  Pretty much in the middle of you chest!  And your body holds 6 quarts of blood and it makes a circuit, three times a minute!  ZOOM!!!!  Your heart beats 35 million times a year, but MORE if you ever need to be on a candidate forum!

Then we measured the arteries going to my brain and face to see how they were functioning (I didn't hear any groans to sad "I'm sorry" looks.

Back up stairs for more cool tests and a good one you can do yourself.

This test took blood pressure readings but only looking at Systolic.  This is the 1st number and when  pressure is highest in the arteries and occurs when the lower part of the heart contracts.

If you go to a pharmacy, take your blood pressure and remember that first number, mine was 118 (my typical BP is 120 over 75.  Then put your ankle through the pressure gizmo and take your blood pressure on your ankle.  You SHOULD have a number that is 20 above the arm number if you are healthy and not about to die.

If you do do this can you take a photo of that last part. A video would be even better.

Then a 200 question questionnaire (seems redundant) in which I said roads were the biggest problem (but then again roads are the biggest problem in 99% of all communities)  and do I feel happy?  friendly?  run down?  wish I was dead? somewhat?  all the time? never?

BUT - finally the true test.  Getting up from a chair test.

Sit in a chair, stand up, walk to a spot on the floor, turn around and walk back and sit down.   Seemed easy.

Next - same thing HOWEVER, this time count backward BY THREE. starting with . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .   125  GO!   LOL  I actually messed up!   125  122  118  115  112.  It's probably good FOR MY AGE!!

Next - same thing HOWEVER - she but a shoe box on the floor and I have to walk over it.  Start counting backward by 3 starting with . . . . . . . . . 90  GO!    Well, all was fine until that blasted shoe box was right in the perfect spot, do I take a small step? large step, trip and sprawl on the floor thrashing wildly spewing random numbers?

I got the numbers correctly and did not fall.  And I'm done!   OH - balance tests!

Stand next to a railing. Both feet forward, like you are  . . standing.  Let go of the railing and stand as long as you can.   ummmmmmm  I said this could take a while as I'm a pretty good stander.  She stopped around 10 seconds as I did not looked like I would fall soon.

Couple more like that and I was done.

Had a NYStrip Steak and baked potato lunch and drove home and a nice check in my pocket looking 4 years down the road IF they get funding from the government.

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Remember - next Tuesday is Reaping Day when Columbus will have their Choosing Ceremony and I must decide what faction I will be in, the Dark Side, (Government) or the Uninformed side (Public).

No no the test will be non conclusive but, I don't want to be only Government or only Uninformed, I want to be BOTH! 

I'm Sorry Rod, you are . . . . . . .CONFLICTED!

Have a day
RM





  

   

1 comment:

  1. With those results it sounds like you will live a very long time. Are you at all concerned that you will run out of hobbies?

    ReplyDelete

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