Pentimento

Birthdays, Holidays and Still Mourning Diana

Has it really been ten years since Diana died? It seems like it was just yesterday. Her death came just a few days before I turned 47, and it seemed that the bulletin on TV that evening was totally unbelievable. Personally, being a professional skeptic, I have always believed that her death was no accident. But alas, I have no proof, and so the only lasting memories are of a woman who died too young and how terrible I felt for her boys.

She truly was like a "candle in the wind"....

Bush Threatens Iran And All You Hear About Is Craig

I realize that I am not a mainstream political writer, but maybe that is a good thing. Why? Because they seem to all be focused on whether or not the Senator from Idaho, John Craig, should be ousted or if he is or isn't gay. In the mean time, that moron we call our President is making threats again towards Iran! Heloooooo?? Is no one paying attention, or is this a deliberate fogging technique by the media so that no one notices when Bush makes more aggressive moves towards a country that already hates us and has between 700-1000 PT-like boats in the Persian Gulf ready to take out one of our Navy ships should they get any provocation?

I want you to think about this concept every time you hear some non-news item like this Craig scandal. No on cares about this crap. What you should be caring about is that our country not start any "new" wars, and when you go to the polls to elect a new President, you had better be voting as an "American" and not a Republican or Democrat. And somebody, tie up Ralph Nader if he even looks like he is going to run!

Jumping Off The Lyrica Bandwagon

As many of you probably know, I have fibromyalgia, a painful muscle disease that currently has no cure. There are days when I have trouble getting up out of a chair after sitting for a while, and muscle cramps in my legs or other parts of my body like my neck or back that can take my breath away in an instant. So, when my doctor suggested I take Lyrica (because the FDA had approved it for fibromyalgia) I jumped on that bandwagon in hopes that it would at least reduce some of the pain.

That doctor's appointment was on July 16th, and I began taking Lyrica the next day. The doctor had given me two weeks worth of samples to try, and then I asked for two more week's worth because I was going to be out of town for two weeks in August. So, from July 17th until August 26th I was on a constant dosage of Lyrica, with, from what I could determine, no pain relief and a many unwanted side-effects.

Prescription Lyrica is not for everyone. Some of the most common side effects of Lyrica are dizziness, sleepiness, dry mouth, and edema. Plus blurred vision, weight gain, constipation, euphoric mood, and loss of balance. Also, increased appetite and trouble concentrating.

Fibromyalgia robs me of restorative sleep that I could use to help my body fight off the pain. When I was taking Lyrica I had no trouble sleeping, but it wasn't restorative sleep either. In fact, I would doze off in my chair either at home, or while at my friend's house in Idaho. I take two Lyrica at 10 AM in the morning, and two more at 10 PM at night. Usually, two hours after taking the morning dose I couldn't keep my eyes open and would sometimes wake up a couple hours later. Not very conducive for being a scintillating house guest!

I had hoped that the side-effects of the Lyrica would wear off after I got used to taking it, but after a month or more they did not and it was time to make a decision about whether to continue using it or not. I chose to quit cold turkey, which may or may not have been a good idea. I imagine that since I had been taking it for over a month, that it will take a while to get out of my system too. Almost immediately though, the overwhelming sleepiness went away, as well as the very dry mouth and horrible taste in the morning. My ankles do not swell as much as they used to while taking Lyrica either.

Each person is different in how they react to medications. I just wanted to let everyone know what my experience with Lyrica was, and maybe it will help you decide whether you want to take it or not.

Big Macs and 40 Years of Heart Attacks Too!

As McDonald's celebrates 40 years of bringing you the Big Mac and other heart-stopping delicacies, should we really be celebrating this milestone quite so vigorously? I love Big Macs myself too, but I know they are very much bad for me and I try to not eat them very often. You want fries with that? Billions of humans can't be wrong...can they? 

A Visit to the Vegetarian

No, that isn't a typo. My recent visit to Idaho to stay with my friend Sheryl included almost all meals that were vegetarian. Not all, since I seem to have a need to eat meat now and then (I had a pattie melt, ok?), but it was nice to not have to cook and have organic cereal for breakfast, fresh homemade bread, and huge healthy salads made with organic vegetables for lunch and supper. Oh yeah, we had beans and rice and blue corn chips too. Yum!

She and I have been seeing eye to eye when it comes to improving our diets (forget that I mentioned eating meat), and she has invested in her own small breadmaker as well as her own ice cream maker. What a treat to have fresh ice cream with no extra ingredients in it to keep it from freezing! I am the proud owner of many happy memories from the 1950's of real milk shakes made with real ice cream. You don't get that today. Everything is made to sell fast at the lowest cost. Bleah!

Mark my words, you will be seeing more and more foods being pushed as organic. Some are, some are not. Read labels and make sure you know from which country all the ingredients came from (if you can) and if you can, make things from scratch. All that time you spend in the doctor's office might be reduced if you ate more healthy food.

Idaho Vacation Musings

I have stayed at my friend Sheryl's place in Idaho several times in the last few years, but never really experienced it being smoky until this time. I should say, it was smoky outside, not inside. They are near-fanatical about clean air, and everything else in their lives! No, this smoke was from forest fires, and some days it could be downright hard to breathe.

In this picture of the horses being boarded on the property, if you look directly at the tops of the trees just to the right of the lead horse Fancy, you can see a big plume of smoke rising into the sky. It was to the east of us, and burning near Lewiston, but it was just one of the many fires whose smoke affected us and the horses.

Poor things, their eyes were really affected, and I am sure it was not too great to smell that stuff all day long, for a week or so. We were lucky enough to be inside with an air conditioner. We are such bleeding heart animal lovers though, we made sure the horses had treats and a little scritching on the forehead at least twice a day!

One day, when we were out visiting the horses, we were surprised to see this helicopter fly right over the pasture heading for a resupply of water somewhere in one of the many ponds on Weippe Prairie. My friend was rather alarmed and called her neighbor when we got back in the house, just to see where the fire was, and how close. We weren't just giving those horses treats to be nice to them, it was to get them used to us (her) so that if she had to lead all four of them to safety she could be sure they would follow here for a carrot or apple.

It was such fun when my friend would whistle for the horses each morning and they would come up from the pond over in the corner of the pasture. One day they all came flying up over the rise and I caught this photo as they came on a fast run. By the way, all four of these horses are 'rescue' horses and have had a pretty hard life up until recently. It was nice to see them in better times and much improved circumstances.

I am not a horse person, nor much of a dog person, but I hate to see or hear of animals being hurt by humans. For Wordless Wednesday today, I have a fitting cartoon on my other blog iPentimento that will give you my opinion of Michael Vick. Wordless Wednesday - Vick’s Jury As It Should Be

Off To Idaho...Be Back In A Couple Weeks...Maybe

My friend who lives in Idaho is here in western Washington for some medical appointments and some shopping, and when she heads home tomorrow I will be tagging along with her. I will have my camera with me and some books to read. She has a computer, and a dial up connection, but I am going to take a break from blogging and such during this vacation and actually think about other things.

She lives up on the Weippe Prairie, not too far from where Lewis and Clark first met the Nez Perce Indians. From where they live they can see the Bitterroot Mountains, and the area is semi-wilderness still. The Clearwater River shown on the map is about 3200 feet down in the valley below where our friends live. Lots and lots of steelhead come out of this cold and clear river. They should start biting right about...now!

*New* at my friend's place are 4 horses that are currently being boarded in their pasture, so no doubt they will provide a great source of entertainment and maybe some camera shots. Sheryl is not really a "horse person" per se, but she has been around horses and knows the things you have to do to keep them safe, etc. She recently started giving them "horse candy" (oat and molasses balls) along with carrots in order to make friends with them and get them to trust her in case she ever needs to move them in an emergency. Emergencies in Idaho include wildfires. Not good for horses or people!

While I am gone, why don't you visit these really nice blogs? Thanks for visiting my blog today!

The Art of Living and Dying - My friend blogs about life, death, thriving, alternative health, cats,resources, and much more.

Thermal Blog - A completely irreverent and funny blog. Make sure you visit Chris' very helpful Blog-Op too!

Eleanor Blog| Eleanor and I - Chris' sister Alison's blog. Stupendous photos and history lessons.

Untwisted Vortex - Living in a Different Land (you just have to go there...)

Surviving The Minneapolis Bridge Disaster By 15 Minutes

Our friend Lyn travels all over the US for John Deere, but yesterday she was driving from Moline, Illinois to her home near Minneapolis. Since we had just been to Iowa, naturally as she crossed over into that state and got on I-35 north, she thought of us and gave us a call on her cell phone.

Since she was driving and talking to me, every now and then we would lose a signal as a new tower picked up her phone. That happened several times while she was telling me about the new and wonderful things in her life. I don't know if those interruptions caused her to drive any slower, but near the end of our conversation it was 5 PM where we live, and as I looked at the news about the collapsed bridge I got right on the phone to call her so she would know about it.

She didn't answer, which of course was alarming, but I found out later it was because her dad had called her first and she had been talking to him. She did call me back and said she knew about the bridge, and that she was OK. She said she had been about 15 minutes south of the bridge when her dad called.

I called her today and left a message and told her that if my comments about losing her signal/call and her having to adjust her phone slowed her up any, I was so happy that it did so and that she was not on that bridge.

Why does this all matter so much? Other than the obvious joy that she was not one of the people killed, it would have been another crushing blow to her family because Lyn's older brother was killed in a car accident on the Tacoma Narrows bridge in 1995. Losing them both on bridges would have been a sad irony.

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