Oh My Gosh!

It has been a wild and woolly week of in the hospital and out of the hospital and in the emergency room and out of the emergency room ….wild and woolly week, folks!

It seems my afib has suddenly decided to cause frequent paroxysmal events that come without warning and last far too long for comfort so now I am on a new medicine designed to stabilize heart rhythm and…for the time being…. for the past couple of days, it seems to be doing what it was designed to do….but I am an emotional wreck (almost) trying to cope with the worries, fears and concerns that surround any such crappy happening. — However, I guess one could argue that I am doing well today—- I have a new medication that is supposed to do the job but it also has horrific side effects (potential side effects) that can affect liver and all kinds of things requiring regularly-scheduled blood tests for lung scarring or liver problems or what the hell ever.

O.K. enough of the pity party for now.

I know all my friends are rooting for me and that is very comforting and satisfying to my bedeviled soul and I am so grateful to you all for your good wishes, your kind words and your prayers.

I am especially grateful to The Holy Spirit for His continuing presence and his peace that passes all understanding that comes upon me regularly to ease the emotional burden… Thank You Jesus.

My friend Jimmy fixed sauerkraut and wieners, mashed potatoes and gravy, spinach and cheese, apple sauce and apple juice for lunch today. He was an institutional cook at a large university for many years. Great friendship, great food! So lucky to have Jimmy with me.

Soon I have to get out of there for a few minutes and drink some water and eat a banana for potassium levels….old farts like me often forget to drink enough water and we dehydrate easy. But right now I am very electrolyte conscious so I doubt if I will be low on electrolytes for a good spell now since it is a scary proposition for me.

I went to a sleep class at the VA Hospital yesterday and I guess I am going to go to their laboratory at a later date and get my head all wired up and spend a night in their bed having them monitor my brain waves while I sleep …so they can decide whether or not to put me on a cpap machine….something that I am dreading but something that other friends have told me is one of the best things that has every happened to them as far as getting a good night’s sleep is concerned.

New discovery: I recently discovered for the first time in my 88 years on earth that it is entirely possible to pick your nose with your thumb. Never thought of it until today — something new all the time, isn’t there? LOL.

For The Time Being

Just got back from another two days in the hospital getting my heart rhythm steadied– new medicine…a rhythm medicine — seems to be working for now– we shall see— I do not drive and these ambulance trips can get expensive …and uber is alright (I do not drive) ..but taxis around here suck– so independent and unreliable—but so far I got me another day in which I can breathe so that is a plus— more later….gotta go….watching television with my friend, jim….then bed….then off to sleep class in the morning to see if I am going to get a cpap ….shit shit shit— but in a way it is all a blessing of some kind from God I am sure of that.

Another Morning In America

I was working on my blog this morning when suddenly I was presented with a sign on my computer screen that said, “Your server is undergoing maintenance for the next few minutes so do not touch your browser for a few minutes.” Well, folks, I have never ever seen that notice in all the 12 years that I have been computing, but apparently it was harmless because it is now gone and everything is working normally again.

Somebody told me yesterday that the U.S. Treasury Department has officially announced— although the main stream media seems to be ignoring it — that the United States is now insolvent …bankrupt… broke financially. I am beginning to wonder if all the massive spending the “Fiscal Conservatives” in Washington have been doing have had anything to do with it or if it is all Biden’s fault by one hook or the other? Also, I cannot help but wonder if it is true at all.

Then there are the horror stories coming out all over the media now about how atrocious the living conditions aboard the American aircraft carrier, Abraham Lincoln have been during her more than two hundred day deployment (without a single port call) ….The Secretary of Defense apparently is telling the media that there is no truth to the stories about short rations and living conditions (to include plumbing that doesn’t work). I had a thought even though I have no idea of whether my thought has any merit to it at all ….. My thought was this: “I wonder if, when that ship eventually docks, all the sailors will be required to sign some kind of oath of silence and be forbidden to talk about their experiences aboard ship during this particular development?

I was pleased to hear, this morning, that President Trump has declared that The United States is now very close to the end of the war with Iran and that he is considering proclaiming the Hormuz Strait a territory of The United States. I am thinking that declaring the Hormuz area a territory of the United States would solve a whole host of problems including the ever increasing prices at the grocery store and the gas pump. I feel grateful and privileged to know that we have a president who is on top of everything and who is smart enough to come up with the very ideas that are needed to keep us all safe and on course in world affairs. Oh by the way, did you hear anything about Texas Governor Abbot “Reviewing” a proposition in his state government that would forbid installation of Islamic foot washing stations in Texas airport facilities? I don’t understand the need for foot washing stations in airports. The last time I had to wash my feet at an airport, I used the toilet in the bathroom. Of course I am lying right now because I rarely ever wash my feet and that is probably the reason that I am treating all my toenails for fungus right now. LOL.

Trump ⁠urged Americans to accept slightly higher gasoline prices while the conflict with Iran continues.

He told a political rally in Garden City, New York, on Friday that paying “a tiny little bit more for your gasoline” ​is worth the cost of ensuring “a very evil country” could not have a nuclear weapon, one of the president’s stated rationales for the war.

You can read all about the quote I put above here if you want to:
https://www.reuters.com/world/us/trump-urges-americans-accept-higher-gas-prices-he-escalates-iran-rhetoric-2026-08-14/

Somehow I had begun to wonder what happened because as I recall, our president was going to bring all kinds of prices…at the pump and at the grocery store ..etc… down the first day or two in office ….maybe I remember that and maybe that is nothing but wet-dreaming on my part — besides, the president is only human…..possibly even a little bit super-human considering all the massively wonderful things he has already accomplished in his short time in office —- I am sure that a little higher price at the gas pump or a few more dollars for a loaf of bread at the grocery store is small enough price to pay to insure than an evil nation that apparently hates America does not get their hands on a functional nuclear weapon of some kind.

Sometimes it blows my mind when I hear people complaining about how high the prices of everything is becoming these days ….When I was a small child, more than 70 years ago now, my parents were trumpetiing the same complaint, “The poor man can’t make a living under these high prices.” But the fact is, we never went hungry, always had a roof over our heads and clothes on our bodies and we muddled through and made it alright and grew up and starting to trumpet the same complaints as our parents …”Things are getting so high anymore that a working man or woman can hardly make it.” This shit has been going on for as long as I can remember and even my Grandfather who lived and worked in the 1920s through to the 1940s remembered getting paid Fifty Cents for a day’s labor and still complaining because a cigar cost Five Cents.

I was entertained yesterday by finding an old menu from the Howard Johnson Restaurant chain of long long ago now….where you could get a complete dinner of Roast Prime Ribs of Beef, Pan Gravy, Potatoes and Green Beans for a total cost of $1.95 (One dollar and Ninety-Five cents.) — Today, a rather skimpy-looking New York Strip steak in the meat case at my local super market can cost as much as Thirty Dollars ….and you have to be very careful because many times the store has packaged the meat to show the fresh side to the customer while hiding any defects in the meat on the bottom, well out of view of the prospective purchaser. I am so sick and tired of going to the grocery store that guarantees freshness on everything they sell, buying a sack of onions, getting home to discover that half the onions at the bottom of the sack are half rotted. Or to buy a supposedly fresh pear from the fruit case that looks absolutely cosmetically perfect but when i cut it in half, the interior is solid black with rot of some kind rendering the pear inedible.

I could bitch all day long but writing a blog is work and I am sure there are not that many people interested in anything that I have to say. So I will cut it off for now and hope that something else interesting happens in the near future.

I Love Drumsticks Ice Cream Cones…

That is what I am going to do right now. Having had a great lunch of a chicken sandwich with some spinach and peaches and a little yogurt (Have to watch those electrolytes, you know), it is not time to retire to the kitchen, grab my friend Jim and drag him to the kitchen table so we can both eat a yummy “Drumstick ice cream cone, with vanilla ice cream dipped in melted chocolate and covered with crushed peanuts — nothing like it in the whole world and I have been eating them since I was just a kid…..almost back before civilization began.

Following that, if I am still here bodily, I will return to this keyboard to tantalize, amaze and entertain you all with more of my phantasmagoric intellectualism that sometimes rivals the flow of the fabled “Akashic” River….so be prepared to receive the indisputable wisdom, charm and what have you coming your way and it is all free of charge, my friend, it is all free of charge because I am probably one of the most generous human beings that has ever drawn the breath of life…..and one of the most humble also, I must add. Besides which, I have to take a break and wash my fungal infested toenails and apply the magic lacquer that is supposed to defeat this torment from hell in a couple of months from now.

It is now 4:51 pm and I am getting ready to go into the living room and watch Judge Judy with Jimmy— we watch her as often as we can ….My back was itching me his morning but after showering the itch stopped …that is something new for me …but I am not sweating it at this point…it seems like i have turned 88 years of age, I am experiencing a lot more interesting and new sensations that I ever did before…some strange…some expected ….most tolerable.

My arms are starting to look like a cartographic map of some kind because of all the bruises that I got when they were sticking me with intravenous needles and stuff at the hospital and, of course, since i am taking a blood thinner every time I brush too hard against an object, there is a bruise …but it only lasts for a few days and the the arm or hand or whatever returns more or less to normal….but I have to admit, I am not the freshly-minted-looking man that I once was ….but I do not seem to have facial wrinkles of any significance yet– is this too much information?

This afib thing has been a horror recently — I spent some time in intensive care (About two days) and then when I got released to go home, it wasn’t but a short while before I had to return to the emergency room twice on two different occasions so they could stabilize me and slow the heart down a bit …It was somewhat frightening, but right now all my activities, including my street ministry have been put on hold until I can get myself a little more stable. I even bought myself a personal portable heart monitor so I can watch the rate and be warned if another out of control afib attack happens. At this time, it is all going good but I sometimes feel like a ticking time bomb and while it is not a comfortable feeling, I do have The Peace of God that passes all understanding because of my Savior, Jesus Christ for which I am more grateful than I can ever explain.

I am hearing horror stories on the television set about conditions on the United States military ship named, “Abraham Lincoln”and that is giving me some pause…I will have to learn more about this before I can really leave a meaningful comment…I cannot imagine what might have happened aboard ship to garner media attention, so I will have to wait awhile and dig a little deeper. But I have to admit that I am somewhat disturbed by any possibility that conditions for our service men and women would be less than ideal because they have always had the best as I recall….I served for 7 years and 3 months active duty and I never had any complaints about food or conditions at all because back then the military took good care of us– I know nothing right