Electrolyte Imbalance - Me With Hyponatremia? No way!!

 I mentioned in a previous post that I have been having abdominal pain at the end of the December. It hadn’t subsided and not only that but my dizzy spells have come back. So I finally made an appointment with my doctor last Tuesday. The first thing I noticed upon entering the examination room was that the doctor was now using a laptop to access and document my medical records. Gone was my paper chart. I printed out my symptoms and medications I was taking prior to the visit so I just gave it to him to read. He palpated my abdomen and said he didn’t feel anything unusual, then did the semi-dreaded prostate exam. Afterwards he ordered some lab tests. Before leaving the office, I was given a couple of printouts. The first was about the visit, what the doctor ordered, and a list of my meds. The second had the lab test orders which I took to the lab across the street. Fortunately when I got there the crowd had thinned out. From previous experience, when you don’t have an appointment, you would have to wait awhile before you blood can be drawn. Since it was almost noon, most of the other patients were gone and I was seen in about 15 minutes.

The results were supposed to be out the next day and I had another doctor’s appointment for Thursday. On Wednesday, I was notified by the medical assistant by phone that my sodium level was low, my cholesterol and blood sugar levels were high. The surprising thing was not the cholesterol and blood sugar, it was the low sodium level because I’m such a high salt eater. When I went back to the clinic the next day, I was told to control my cholesterol, eat a little bit more salt, and have another blood test done the following week to check my sodium, a long term blood sugar test called Hgba1c (glycohemoglobin - it tracks sugar level over a length of time), and a stool test for occult blood. By the way, my chloride level was also low so that made both Na and Cl abnormal. More salt in my diet was the answer. The only possible explanations for these abnormalities would be because I take a diuretic for my high blood pressure, or that I’ve been drinking too much fluids. I believe it’s a combination of both because I do drink a lot of fluids during the day so I have to cut down on that plus eat more salt. We shall soon find out after my next blood test. As far as the high cholesterol, I could probably blame all the fatty holiday eating for that. All other tests – CBC, liver function, kidney function, and prostate specific antigen (PSA), were normal.

 I couldn’t believe that I had hyponatremia with all the salty food I eat! No wonder I was feeling sluggish and fatigued the past few weeks. As I write this, I feel slightly better. I still don’t know the source of the abdominal pain and I’m supposed to see the doctor in a month’s time. If the pain isn’t gone by then, he said was would order an ultrasound. In the meantime, I have to watch what I eat so I can get back to normal. I’m talking about the body here because the brain is a lost cause: still crazy after all these years. Frankly, with all my symptoms, I was expecting worse.

A few days ago I had my follow up tests and the doctor’s medical assistant notified me that my sodium level was back to normal, my glycohemoglobin likewise, and there was no blood detected in my poop. That was very reassuring. Now I have to work on getting my cholesterol level back down. There is no cure for my dizziness problems, they just come and go. Here is a link to my dizziness problems from last year: http://aboutlifeandrunning.blogspot.com/2010/04/dizziness-diagnosis.html and http://aboutlifeandrunning.blogspot.com/2010/10/my-first-mri-experience.html.

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My First Workout With The Asus Transformer

I’ve been trying to find reasons not to buy a tablet PC. After all, I can only think of one reason to get one and that is to read the news while working out on the stationary bike and treadmill, which I’ve blogged about before. So far I’ve managed to make do with my trusty old netbook, so why buy another device which would be used in a similar way?

Well, Tigerdirect.com has been tempting me for weeks with their post holiday specials. First they offered a refurbished Asus Tranformer 101 for $319 (regular price for a new one is $399). Then they slashed it down further to $299 and that finally broke my resolve. I absolutely had to have one!

 Wait a minute, so I wanted to buy this tablet PC so I can read the news while working out, because I didn’t want to continue my daily subscription to the local newspaper, because they increased their prices, right? Doesn’t that defeat the purpose of saving money since the price of the tablet PC is roughly 3 year’s worth of newspapers? Especially that I’m able to do the same thing on the netbook? I’m debating myself here regarding a want or a need and the want side won. Blame Steve Jobs for that because he came up with the Ipad.

Well UPS delivered the device last week and since I had a few days off, it gave me the opportunity to try to figure out how it works. After tinkering with it for several days, I still don’t fully get it. What can it do that a laptop or netbook can’t? I think I was able to adjust most of the settings to my liking and needs. Things like learning to open a link in a new browser tab, synching my contact list and my bookmarks, and downloading apps similar to the ones I use in my laptop.

After all that, I was finally able to test it out on the treadmill, twice already in fact.  Here are some findings.  While hill walking on the treadmill, I was able to read the digital edition of the local paper quite easily. The problem was the page didn’t fit in the whole screen so I had to swipe from left to right and back often. While turning a page, sometimes I would press the back button by mistake instead of the forward button(that was the only way to turn the newspaper page – you couldn’t swipe to the next page). When I scroll up or down, the page sometimes doesn’t go in a straight line because of my movements on the treadmill. Compare that to the netbook where I only press the up or down arrow button. I don’t think reading anything would work with either tablet or netbook if I run on the treadmill (which I could do with a real newspaper although it took some effort to turn a page). Wait, I think I just found one advantage and that it’s easier to turn a page. On the recumbent bike, the tablet and netbook worked similarly other than instead of looking up to the netbook screen, I can now look down on the tablet thereby lessening the discomfort on my neck. I still have to try the tablet on the spinning bike.

So, is this refurbished tablet a keeper? I can’t say I don’t like it. The learning curve is small if you already use laptops and smartphones. Oh well, because of the store policy, I can’t return it anyway unless it’s damaged and it would just be replaced with another refurbished one. So I get to keep it by default. Just as well I guess. After all I have to keep up with the technological times while I can still somewhat afford it. Ai, ai, ai, my poor credit card L.

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Tom Tom and Magellan Differences

Ok, this has been stored in my flash drive for almost two months now and I haven’t posted it because there were other things to talk about. Just keep in mind that these are older products and not even last year’s models.

I hinted at this purchase briefly in my post about Black Friday shopping. Well, I happened to order a refurbished Tom Tom XXL GPS which has a bigger screen than my old Magellan Roadmate (5 inches as opposed to 3.5 inches). Why I ordered it when I hardly used the old one, I can’t really justify other than wanting a bigger screen and the cost was too good to pass up. There was also no sales tax plus free shipping.

When the product arrived, I set it up, downloaded the latest updates, then tried it on my way to work. The first thing I noticed was that it wasn’t announcing the street names the way the old Magellan did. It was actually better to read the text directions because you can see which street is the next turn. The problem with that is you have to divert your eyes off the road briefly to read the directions. Of course, the device would still say turn left or right at the next street and announces how many yards to go before the turn. The Magellan would give a 2 mile and 1 mile warning, announce the upcoming street name at which to turn, then makes dinging sound when you reach it. Well, at first try, I was disappointed with the Tom Tom because of this lack of street name announcements. Wow, did I make a mistake in buying this? Maybe I’ll discover better functions later.

Upon further review and after fiddling around with the settings, I found out that I had programmed the device to use human voice for directions rather than a computer voice. That was the difference, the human voice only gave turn by turn directions without announcing the street names while the computer voice, which was a bigger file, announced the street names. That takes care of that problem.

One difference I noticed is that the keypad for the Tom Tom is in QWERTY format while the Magellan is A to Z format. Maybe the newer Magellans are now QWERTY, I don’t know. Another difference between the two: when I divert from the suggested route, the Magellan announces “recalculating route” while the Tom Tom just shows this in text on the screen. There is another advantage that the Tom Tom has. It doesn’t need a separate mounting bracket because it already has a foldable one at the back. You just unfold it then attach it to the mounting disk on the dashboard. I still have to take it through its paces of course but as far as first impressions, I think it was a good buy. Anyone wanna buy the Magellan Roadmate? 

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Free Car Inspection

Several times a year, AAA has a special offer for a free 40 point car inspection at any of their approved auto repair shops and I finally made use of the service last Thursday.  I took the car to the nearest shop at 8 in the morning and the service person said it should be done by 11:30 a.m. Since I was off from work that day, I had no problem being carless for a few hours. In the meantime, I did my run/walk workout around the area which lasted for an hour which also brought be back home. 11:30 passed and no call from the mechanic, so I had lunch and watched a movie. The call came at about 1:30 p.m.  and I was given a breakdown of needed repairs: oil leak in the engine, hoses and belts replacement, window adjustment, resurface rotors and new brake pads. Well, they weren’t so much repairs but more like maintenance work. After the mechanic enumerated everything, the total quoted to me was an astounding $2574.63! I tried to stay calm over the phone and told the guy that I would have to save some money before I could have the work done, and to please let me know when I can pick up my car. He said that he would call again when it’s ready. While waiting for that next call, my uncle called for computer technical support. A few days prior, I had installed Teamviewer on his computer just so it would make it easier for me to assist him with his computer problems. Anyway, that’s another story for some other time. I’m just showing how much time I had to kill while my car was being inspected.

         After assisting my uncle, but not yet getting the second call from the mechanic, I started walking and hoped that by the time I got there, my car was ready. I guesstimated that it would take me about 25 minutes of easy walking to cover the mile and a half distance. It was 15 minutes into the walk when I got the call. The inspection was finally finished at 3 p.m. When I got there, the mechanic reassured me that my car was basically in good working order other than the maintenance work. But $2574.63 for a 14 year old car?! Um, I’ll have to think long and hard about that. Wait…thanks, but no, thanks. It may make more sense to sell it and buy a second hand or new economy car. Not that I have that kind of cash lying around to get another car. But anyhow, just a thought.

          Wait, did I mention a run at the start of this post? Hey! I did manage another run so that means another pair of running shorts in my laundry basket. I ran/walked for an hour at a pace of 11:03 per mile.

          By the way, thanks for the free car inspection AAA and Orozco’s Auto Repair. I have to commend Orozco’s for their excellent customer service even though I didn’t have my car repaired there. I’m glad I was able to avail of the AAA offer because by next month I won’t be renewing my membership due to a similar service offered by my car insurance company for a cheaper price.

          Has anyone used this free inspection offer before? What was your experience like?

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Random Happenings Between Thanksgiving and New Year’s Day

          Over the Christmas holidays  my abs hurt so much I almost went to the doctor. It was a combination of muscle strain from exercise, straining, and irregularity (for lack of a better word). I must be getting old because I now have to eat Activia and take probiotic supplements to regulate myself.

I installed 8 gigabytes of memory on my laptop and it now works blazingly fast. I remember my first laptop with 640k of memory and two floppy disk drives, and what about my first desktop which was an IBM PC jr. with 128 kb?

Some people don’t like laptops because they don’t have expansion slots and others just because they want a bigger screen. I hazard to guess that the ones who mostly just use a computer to surf the internet fall in the latter category. My solution: just connect a bigger monitor to the laptop and use that at home while you still have the option of using the laptop on the road too. You can buy an 18 to 20 inch monitor for less than a $100 nowadays. That is exactly what I did and for some reason, my browser is more responsive with the external monitor. When I was just using the laptop screen, sometimes the browser would lag.

Speaking of monitors, if you want to shop for a new computer, monitor, or tablet in California, you might as well do it over the internet from an out of state store. There are too many fees and taxes  in CA. Consider this: as of the end of last year, if you bought a 15 to 35 inch TV or monitor, you would have had to pay an extra $16.00  for the electronic waste recycling fee on top of the 9. 75% sales tax.

I haven’t had a thick jacket since the 1980’s when I bought a Windbreaker brand jacket which I think was made in the Philippines. I always wanted a puffer jacket since they first came out about 10 years ago, I just don’t have a reason why I didn’t get one earlier. Basically it’s a sleeping bag in jacket form. With the attached hood, it becomes a mummy type sleeping bag. So in December I finally bought one from Walmart (wait for it…)  from the children’s department. Children’s size XL fits me just nicely. I now look like poppin fresh dough or the Michelin man when I wear the jacket.

I haven’t checked my blood pressure at home in a month and I was surprised that not only my reading was normal but that my resting pulse rate hasn’t changed from my hard running days. It was 45 beats per minute which has been ongoing for the last 30 years, plus or minus a couple of beats.

My mother had an opportunity to visit my brother in Quezon City, Philippines, thanks to my cousin Rica who gave her a plane ticket. With that, mom finally experienced video chat via Skype, first with just me, then with a few of our relatives during our Christmas Eve dinner party.

This one is a subject of another blog – I got a refurbished TomTom GPS after Thanksgiving Day and will be writing my comparison between that and my equally refurbished Magellan from two years ago.

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Digital Newsreading on the Stationary Bike and Treadmill

Extra! Extra! Read all about it! Remember when newspaperboys used to yell those words in the movies? Nowadays newspaperboys or girls or men or women, just toss the paper in your front yard or gate. They don’t even print extra editions anymore when there is breaking news. And when I read all about it, it’s now done in a different way. I’ve written about cutting back on my newspaper subscription and getting the Sunday edition only. That means less tossing for my newspaper delivery person. So how was the transition from hardcopy to digital? Believe it or not, easier than I thought. It has helped that I’m still getting the digital edition, because it is arranged exactly like the hardcopy. It actually might be more convenient to read the news now because a whole article appears on one page rather than continuing on another page (mostly the front page news). I mentioned before that I might miss the comics section. Well, I’m still getting that with the digital version. What I don’t miss is dressing up for the early morning cold so I can limp my way to the front gate to pick up the newspaper. My ankles don’t work very well upon waking up. All I have to do now is boot up the computer and open a browser in the indoor warmth. Cold weather boots not required.

Now, about using the netbook to read the news while indoor cycling. One time last week while on the spinning bike, I almost knocked the netbook off the bookrack  when I bumped it after wiping sweat off my brow and returning my hand to the handlebar. It feels easier to use it on the recumbent bike since it’s positioned in front of my face thus making it easier to read. I’m also getting used to manipulating the touchpad and using the arrow keys to scroll up and down (I’ve hardly used those keys in the past because the mouse has spoiled me). I haven’t tried using the netbook on the treadmill yet. If I walk, it might not be much of a problem but bouncing up and down while jogging might make it impossible to use the touchpad. Either the computer would fall off the treadmill, or I would. I’ve been considering buying a tablet PC but in spite of the touch screen, I don’t think that ‘s going to help if I use the treadmill for running either. I’ve read suggestions on the web about attaching Velcro strips to the tablet case and a bookrack, and there are also dedicated tablet holders which you can clamp on the treadmill. I’m going to try running while netbooking or vice versa soon and I’ll let you know how that turns out.

For now, I may be able to hold off buying a tablet PC because I can make do with the netbook while stationary biking. It’s hard to justify the expense since I only ride the stationary bikes an hour or less a day. When I got last Sunday’s newspaper and started reading it, I actually missed reading the news on the computer. Well, that was a quick transition!

Quick update: I used the netbook on the spinning bike for an hour and five minutes on Tuesday afternoon and did a few stand ups during the workout. The computer remained steady on the bookrack, and I almost finished reading all the news for that issue.

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Running Shorts in my Laundry - Part 2

*The Old and The New (running shorts buried underneath)*

Months of hardly running meant my bi-weekly laundry most likely did not include running shorts. However in the last week of 2011 and first week of 2012, I counted four running shorts in the laundry basket. Whoa! That could only mean I was pounding the pavement again though few and far between in a two week period. From zero to four runs in two weeks is an accomplishment for me nowadays and I’ll take it. At least it breaks the sometime monotony of indoor cycling (that didn’t sound quite right, but WTH).

 So how has running been like lately. Well, to give the ankle tendons a break on the road, I keep the jogging part to four minutes and walk for one minute. That is nothing new of course except nowadays, I keep the total minutes to about 50. Anything more than that and my form deteriorates. I try to use my quads more to absorb the shock but those muscles tire more easily (believe me, it's not an efficient way to run but it protects my ankles to a certain extent) than when I run in my normal stride in which I use the lower leg muscles more. I’ve also tried experimenting by skipping some of the walk breaks. Also in the past, I would stretch my hamstrings and calf muscles before and after running. This time I just stretch the hamstrings after running. I’ve always known that you are not supposed to stretch an injured muscle or joint but out of habit, I kept doing it until two weeks ago when I decided that it was time to try something else. The wobble board doesn’t work well for me either because the movement irritates the fragile posterior tibialis tendon. So far, not stretching before the run has worked except I feel very stiff at the start and it’s hard to get going. Before my ailments started I used to do plyometrics to get a bounce on my stride at the start of a run. I can’t do that anymore.

On my run last Sunday morning, I passed by my former training partner’s house and saw her on her way to her first hash run. We exchanged pleasantries and she asked how I was doing with my injuries. I told her what has been going on and she said “that’s the Noel I know”. I think she meant that I was hard headed, which I took as a compliment. Oh by the way, it used to take me about 20 minutes to run to her house but now it takes me 25. Did it matter? Not really. That day I made another contribution to my laundry basket in the form of running shorts, which is more than I can ask for. It was a joy to be running outdoors again and absorb some vitamin D from the sun.

Speaking of laundry, I finally replaced my mid 1980’s era laundry basket. I can’t believe that darn thing lasted about 25 years! If only there was a way to replace ankle tendons…

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Long Beach Press Telegram’s Stealthy Price Increase

I found an unusual transaction billed to my credit card. It was from the Long Beach Press Telegram newspaper. Since I was signed up for automatic payments, the newspaper would just send the charge to my credit card whenever my subscription term is up. Unbeknownst to me and maybe other customers, the Press Telegram had increased their subscription rates without notification. I would never miss anything like that. People who buy their paper from a vending machine might have noticed the change. Because of the automatic billing, I had already paid the new higher rate for 16 weeks. It was only when I called customer service and questioned the bill that I learned the daily paper was now 50 cents instead of 25 cents, and the Sunday paper which used to be 50 cents was now $1.50. This has been going on since October. I told customer service to stop automatic billing and payment via credit card and to send me a bill next time I had to renew my subscription.

                Upon thinking about it further and after studying the Press Telegram’s promotional rates, I decided that I might try to get by without getting the daily newspaper and just have it delivered on Sundays, and only because of the store sale ads. I called customer service again and was told that the promotional rate for 52 weeks of Sunday delivery is only $26. I’ve been relying on the newspaper to distract me while I do my workouts on the stationary bike so I was a little bit concerned about what I’m going to read while cycling. I have not been too happy with their recent change in delivery system which has been very inconsistent, so that helped make up my mind about giving up getting it daily. I might end up reading the news on the netbook more often now. I mentioned in a blogpost how that turned out when I tried it last week. I found it difficult to move the mouse pointer around with the touch pad and wondered if a tablet pc would work better. So if any of you have tried working out while reading on a tablet pc, please let me know what the experience was like.

                What I can’t understand is how the Long Beach Press Telegram could stealthily increase their rates without notifying their customers first. If I knew about it earlier, I might have modified my subscription sooner. I’m going to miss having a daily hardcopy of the paper but I feel that the higher rate is just too much for a newspaper that has too many advertisements already and has an inconsistent delivery service. If I need to find local news, I’ll just read their free internet edition even if the news is a day late. The thing I’m going to miss most is the comics.

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2011 - A Year of Acceptance

2011 was probably the least number of posts I had since I started blogging and all because there was nothing much to write about running. Well, 2012 is here and looking back to what I wrote on January 2, 2010, I mentioned that I had to stop running four times that year because of my worsening ankle tendon problems (Reflections in the Past Year of Not Running). In 2011, it was not about stopping but rather finally learning to accept that running is no longer a regular or routine part of my life. It only took more than two years for my brain to get rewired to realize this. The pleasure I experienced from running can never be duplicated by cycling but if I think about it as just another workout then it feels like a good enough substitute. Heck I didn’t even do any outdoor cycling last year because I figured I got a better workout on the recumbent or spinning bike in lesser time. I also did a lot of brisk walking in the spring and summer, but just like road cycling, that took too much time. It was more efficient to walk at a constant uphill on a treadmill. Sure I’ve tried running a few times but only short distances and they were few and far between. To celebrate the last day of my mostly non-running 2011, I managed to shuffle/walk for a whole hour. I don’t know how many times I was able to run last year. If I am to guess and say 20, that may be too much (this from someone who used to run 365 day a year for 21 plus years). Of course I keep a log, but I don’t look at the whole picture any more. I just take it one workout a day at a time. Being able to maintain an acceptable weight played a  major part of being able to live without running. I was relying too much on running to keep my weight down in spite of overeating. Since I’ve mostly stopped running, I’m learning to eat lesser.

A few months ago, I partially disassembled my elliptical machine and placed it in a corner of my living room. The movements of the workout further irritated my ankles. For those without problems like mine, I’m sure the machine is still a good running substitute.

So what does 2012 look like in terms of working out? I don’t see myself signing up for any more races including my annual visit to the Long Beach Marathon. An occasional short run will have to do, with the majority of my workouts consisting of stationary cycling. In short, more of the same as last year. This is what my body allows and so be it.

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The Case For Tray Tables

Tray tables or overbed tables are those rolling things used in hospitals for patients to eat on while confined in bed. We mental health workers on the other hand have different uses for them which I’m going to enumerate here shortly. Why am I talking about this in the first place? Well, our Nurse Manager, out of the blue, sent out an email last week that we should not be using those tables anymore other than on the geriatric psych unit. The reason given was that they shouldn’t be used for passing medications, for staff to eat on, or to lay our clipboards on (these are clipboards with a sheet for each patient where we mark their location and behaviors). Okay, I can understand the reason regarding medications, and eating, but there are a lot of other legitimate uses for the table:

*When the staff takes patient vital signs in the hallway, they need something to lay the clipboard to write on.

*On the night shift, we often cannot find another staff member to monitor the hallway when we are doing admissions, thus, we have to cover the hallway at the same time we are asking the new patient to sign papers and inspect their belongings. We use the tray table to lay the papers which the new patient has to sign. Without the table, we have to pull one staff member off the floor and go inside a consult room. God forbid if we get two admissions at the same time which does happen!

*For the same multitasking reason, we monitor the hallway at the same time we are charting on the work supplied laptop. And where do you think we put the laptop on? Yep, you are right – the tray table.

*Frequent items asked for by patients are paper and pencil. The tray table has a small drawer where we can keep those, thus preventing the patients from having to go to the nurse’s station every time they need those items.

*When I make new admission chart packs, I lay paper clips and assemble the necessary sheets on the table. I mean, really, I cannot make those packs without a table!

I implore the powers that be to return the tray tables because they make us more productive with our job. Working without them is like losing a limb. By the way, this was the same Nurse Manager who approved the purchase of four of these tables when we asked for them several years ago. I don’t know what changed between then and now.

Our nurse manager is never going to see this blog so what’s the point of writing it? Just airing my frustration over the seemingly unjustified removal of a very important equipment. That’s all.

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Spinning With A Netbook

I arrived home late from work last Monday morning (I work nights) at about 9:00 a.m. By the time I went to the front gate to pick up the newspaper, it was gone and most likely stolen. I requested a replacement but it never arrived. Since I also get the online version of the paper (the pages are arranged exactly like the hardcopy), I had no choice but to read the news on my computer.

                If you have read this blog before, you know I like reading the newspaper while riding the stationary bike, using the elliptical machine, or walking on the treadmill. Well, I’ve never tried doing that with a computer so this was going to be a first. Monday was a spinning bike day, so I fired up my netbook, logged on to the Press Telegram website, mounted the wide open netbook on the book rack of the bike, then started pedaling. I wasn’t sure how this was going to go. For sure I wouldn’t be able to do stand ups or the computer might fall over. That was fine with me because I like to do high cadence spinning anyway which simulates breathing like running. Reading the print wasn’t a problem even with darkening skies outside because of the computer backlight. If I was reading the paper version, I might have had to turn on the lights in my living room.

                So anyway, reading was not a problem. The difficult part was using the touchpad to turn the pages because of the movement of my body and the pedals. It took several tries to smoothen the movements of my fingers before I could turn a page. I never liked touchpads in the first place and I always use a mouse. That wouldn’t have worked on a book rack mounted netbook. You know what? I think coordinating the page turning with pedaling actually made the workout a wee bit more challenging. I was able to do 40 minutes on the spinning bike and did 10 minutes on the recumbent bike just to see if it was easier to turn the page while semi-reclined. It wasn’t. This is probably better done with a  table PC which I don’t have. It would have been easier turning pages with a swipe of a finger.

                If I don’t receive the newspaper next time, I may have to try this netbook technique again on the treadmill. Not only will I wish that the computer doesn’t fall off, but that I wouldn’t either. Oh, boy, what I have to do just to satisfy my endorphin cravings!

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A Displeased and Unappreciative Worker

When I showed up for work last Saturday evening, I already knew that one of my regular coworkers was taking the weekend off. This was a very reliable guy whom I work with very well because we knew each other’s work habits. Despite him being off, I knew I could rely on my other coworker who even though a little lacking in initiative, can pull his weight when asked to. To my disappointment, he had called in sick (or cancelled himself – how does one do that?!). I didn’t even know whom I was going to work with on the floor. A licensed vocational nurse (LVN) showed up shortly and she was assigned to work with me. Well, she didn’t like that idea because she was expecting to work in the medication room. Not even concealing her displeasure, she asked the charge nurse right away if she could go home instead. That wasn’t really an option so she made it plain that she didn’t really want to work in the position assigned to her that night. You would think that what she was going to ask next was what she had to do, but noooo. She asked when she can take a break. Oh my goodness! All she had to do was check on her assigned patients to make sure they were present, alive, and not having sex with each other. On the other hand, I had to do that same job plus the rest of the night shift paperwork, making new charts, doing vital signs, and charting, because she didn’t know the routine and how to do them. I was quite content on doing all of them, which I eventually finished in a slightly longer time than usual. I was just very surprised and disappointed at the way she reacted when asked to work on the floor as a mental health worker. She was still getting her LVN salary after all. She also said she didn’t like that there were cameras all over the place watching our every move (oh well, welcome to my world).  We had to be very nice to her despite that because we needed her. If not, she would have been reported to the supervisor already for such terrible attitude. Some people just don’t appreciate having a job and if she didn’t need it, why even bother to apply?

We were lucky somehow because we didn’t have difficult-to-deal-with patients that night. I couldn’t say the same for a certain LVN.

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My Surprise Social Media Exposure

What a strange day Thursday was. First I was contacted by a Senior Social Media Specialist from Charter Communications who found my blog about her company. She commented on my post about the Christmas gift from Charter regarding the increase in upload and download speeds (http://aboutlifeandrunning.blogspot.com/2011/12/surprise-gift-from-charter-internet.html). Here is what she said in brief: “I came across your blog and am happy to see you enjoying the free boost in your download and upload speeds! Also, if you ever need some help with service, our Social Media team is always happy to help.”

Next, the hailstorm happened and a couple of hours after I posted my videos of it on You Tube (http://www.youtube.com/user/noelotp/videos), an associate producer from WeatherNationTV sent me a You Tube email saying: “My name is (name removed for privacy reasons) and I'm a producer at WeatherNationTV, a new all weather cable company broadcast in several cities around the United States. Just watched your Long Beach hail video. Nice footage that you captured! We would love to share your video with our audience. Please let us know if you would like to be credited and if so by what name. Thank you again for your consideration. We look forward to showcasing your work in our broadcasts.” I gave him my permission and will be checking WeatherNationTV later to see if they posted the videos.

On a slightly related note, I went back to the store to return something defective that I bought before the hailstorm and a woman in a car parked next to mine asked me if that was ice on the windshield of my car. Almost three hours after I was caught in the storm, the ice had not fully melted. The woman said on her part of the city, they only had rain. This was face to face socialization for a change.

Don’t you just love social media? For someone private and reserved, it’s my only way to gain some exposure. Thanks folks!

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A White California Christmas?

As I was driving home from the store Thursday afternoon, the ominous clouds in the horizon towards the north didn’t take long to unleash something totally unexpected. The initial drops of rain were quickly followed by thick torrents of ice. A hailstorm in Long Beach!? It has happened before though rarely, but not in my part of town. While at a stop light, I feared that the heavy drops would crack my windshield. Already the driver of the car beside me was taking a video with his cell phone. Turning into my block, I had to stop to car to take out my cell phone to take my own video. The street was blanketed with ice by this time and with the thickness of the ice droplets, it was difficult to drive because you can barely see anything ahead of you in addition to the slipping and sliding. A truck ahead of me had to stop completely so I had to drive around him to get to the alley where my garage was. I took a second video showing the ice on my car and on the street, including thunder and lightning. When I tried driving the car into the garage, all it did was spin it’s wheels on the icy pavement and I had to back up a couple of times before I was finally able to get in the garage. As I walked the few short steps back home, I had to tread very, very slowly to keep myself from slipping (me with the bad ankles, bad balance, and poor proprioception). In the meantime I saw my neighbor going towards the parking lot to take his own video of the spectacle. Now, I’ve been caught in a hailstorm while running years ago, but nothing of the magnitude that happened in the late afternoon of December 15^th. The sky had fallen and heavily. It wouldn’t surprise me if the snowflakes come soon.

Here's an update to last night's hail storm. The morning after, the ice on the ground still hasn't melted.

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Catching Up With Runner’s World, etc.

Oh boy, am I delayed in my magazine reading! The January issue of Runner’s World magazine had already arrived even before I could finish the December issue. I decided that if it was a quiet night at work, I would try to catch up. Having finished my routine work early last Monday night, (doing rounds, taking vital signs, charting, and making new chart packs) instead of grabbing my netbook, I took out the two issues of RW and started reading. I was already at the last article of December about why you don’t see too many African American runners, so I was able to finish that issue rather quickly. Then I started on the January issue. Ever noticed how much thinner this magazine is now? It’s becoming more like my local newspaper – filled with advertisements. The magazine was so thin that I was able read it halfway before stopping to save some for the next day. I have a three year subscription and  am only being charged less than a dollar each issue so I have no complaints about the thinness and the ads. They have to make a living after all.

I don’t know why I’m still subscribed though, because training hasn’t changed much through the years and they are practically saying the same things over and over. However there are human interest stories that are nice to read. It’s just disappointing that I am no longer able to try some of the workouts that the magazine suggests. One of the best ones I’ve tried before all my ankle problems started was the 3/2/1 intervals which I’ve mentioned in previous posts. After a 10 minute warm up, run 3 minutes at about a 10k pace, recover by jogging for 1 minute, then for 2 minutes pick up to a 5k pace, then 1 minute recovery, then 1 minute at a 400 meter pace, then 2 minutes of recovery jogging. One set of that gives you 10 minutes and do 3 to 4 sets of that plus a 10 minute cool down at the end. It’s a tough road interval workout that can take the place of a track workout. Better to do if you have a variable interval timer watch. You’d be very thankful when you reach that 2 minute recovery jog at the end of each interval because by then you would have gone anaerobic.

Speaking of recent running, my ankles were hurting for several days after last Tuesday morning’s (not yesterday, but last week) treadmill run because I wore thinner soled shoes. They were still motion control shoes but the soles were slightly thinner than the one’s I usually wear. Not only that, but I tried increasing the pace slightly and that increased my pounding against the surface. Say what you may about the advantages of barefoot running but that just doesn’t work for collapsed ankles like mine. I need the thickest ,most supportive motion control shoes plus orthotics to minimize the side to side movement. Enough said about running for today. I probably spent more time reading Runner’s World than actually running this past week. At least I’m caught up with that part of life.

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A Surprise Gift From Charter Internet

Here's a short and sweet post: I’ve been getting calls from Charter Communications (my internet provider) in the past week and since I’ve been at work when they called I couldn’t answer. They finally got hold of me Tuesday night and I told the agent on the other line that I’ve missed a few of their calls. Anticipating an offer for bundled services and before he could start his spiel however, I told him that first, I don’t need cable TV or telephone service over the internet, but to go ahead and tell me what special offers they have so I can say no thanks to him afterwards. We had a quick laugh at that. Well, he bypassed the specials that I told him I didn’t need but let me know that they are upgrading my internet speed from 12 megabits per second to 15 megabits per second at no extra charge. Who could refuse such an offer or did I even have that option? I thanked him and his company. What he didn’t mention is the upload speed was increased also to almost double the 1.7 mbps I originally had. I only found this out when I tested the speed the next day. Once again, thanks, Charter Communications! I forgive you for charging me a couple of week’s worth of extra fees for renting your modem < http://aboutlifeandrunning.blogspot.com/2011/09/tricks-of-cable-tvinternet-trade.html> when I didn’t have to. Ho, Ho, Ho, Merry Christmas Charter Communications!

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Virgin Immobile Follow Up

After having used the LG Optimus V for several months on a prepaid plan this is what I can say about it. Even though it’s an Android phone, I hardly use the apps. There are a lot of preloaded apps that don’t apply to me and I’m pretty sure other people with smart phones hardly use a lot of the preloads and downloads with regularity. You know, download a free app, try it once or twice, then forget about it. By the way, for some reason some of the preloaded apps cannot be deleted.

When I bought this phone, the manual said I had to subscribe to a monthly plan. At that time their lowest tier plan was $25.00 a month for unlimited internet and 300 minutes of talk time. They have since then increased it to $35.00. I found that subscribing was not necessary if I wanted to stay with the prepaid service. After all, I only occasionally check email or browse the web via wi-fi. One problem I have now is that I can’t top-up my minutes online anymore because Virgin Mobile blocked all my credit cards. So I have to buy top-up cards or load up the minutes at a store like Radio Shack – a minor inconvenience when you’re used to topping up online. I don’t know if this is because of the supposed monthly subscription requirement or my previous dispute with Virgin Mobile (http://aboutlifeandrunning.blogspot.com/2011/01/continuing-problems-with-virgin-mobile.html). Nowadays, I only top-up every 90 days as required by the company to keep their service. I stopped using my cell phone for international calls and use MagicJack instead because it’s way cheaper. So what do I do now with all those accumulated minutes? Maybe I’ll sign up for Facebook text message updates.

Another problem I’m having has something to do with MMS (multi media messaging service). I couldn’t send or receive them. I mistakenly thought that the person I was sending a picture to did not receive it because the file was too big and she didn’t have a smart phone. Don’t worry, I wasn’t sexting and never have. I also tried to send a picture to my Facebook wall to no avail. Then I asked one of my coworkers to try to send me a picture from her phone. Still no dice. I finally emailed Virgin Mobile and they said they will forward the issue to their technicians. They just sent me a text message telling me to try using MMS again. As of this writing, it’s still not working. I’ve checked message boards and read that this is a common problem with the Virgin Mobile network. Darn! If only the price wasn’t right for my budget, I would have left this company a long time ago. The closest alternative is the AT&T Go Phone but that costs slightly more every three months and their international long distance rates are sky high. So, I can’t use my smart phone to its full capabilities. Smart phone, but dumb system.

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Replacing My Old PDA

Did you ever use a PDA (no, not public displays of affection but personal digital assistant) before smart phones came out? I’ve never used the device. What I consider my PDA is more old fashioned, something  descended from papyrus, if you get my drift. We’re not even talking about a Filofax here. Remember those?

Kids nowadays probably don’t know what I’m talking about. What I have is not something I need to turn on, boot up, or recharge, and I use my own moistened digits to turn the pages. Well my old 1980’s era PDA was falling apart – tattered, dog eared, cover torn off, held together by rubber bands, etc. After using it to look up addresses for this year’s Christmas card list, I decided it had taken too much abuse, served me past it’s lifetime, and time to get a replacement.

First, I went to the 99 Cent store but didn’t find one. Then I visited the websites of Walmart, Target, Staples, OfficeMax and Office Depot. There were all sorts but the simplest one I found with the right price was at Target. It was made from recycled paper so there, I’m being environmentally friendly, okay?

I copied the names and addresses from the old PDA to the new one, left out the ones I haven’t been in touch with for several years (old gf’s, distant relatives, etc.), then shredded the pages that have been written on before throwing away the blank ones in the trash. Parting with the broken down PDA was such sweet sorrow and I wish the new one will last just as long. If it does, this world will have gone paperless by then. On a second thought, what would we use for toilet paper?!

 My Old Address Book and the Replacement

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Multi City Run

It was time to send off my mom’s Christmas card via the LBC courier service in Norwalk. Like last year, it gave me an opportunity to run elsewhere other than from home. This reminded me of a 20 miler a lot of years ago when I tried to set foot on as many cities that I could on the way and ended up at a family picnic at the end. This long run started from home in Long Beach and went through Lakewood, Cerritos, Norwalk, Bellflower, Downey, then back to the Lakewood/Long Beach border for the picnic. This is what I call my 6 city run which was never repeated. I don’t even remember anymore what marathon I was training for that year but I’m sure it’s in one of my three decades long logbooks.

 Last Friday’s run was on a much lesser scale which consisted of only 2 cities. Starting off from Norwalk, I headed to Cerritos about a mile away and ran on the streets surrounding Cerritos Town Center, then proceeded  to my Uncle’s house. Seeing that everything was quiet from outside, I didn’t bother to ring their doorbell because I didn’t want to be an unexpected guest. I meandered through their housing tract then turned around at the 25 minute point. This part of Los Angeles county is pancake flat other than freeway bridges, two of which I happened to cross. Both were over the 91/Riverside Freeway. That was the extent of my hillwork that day.

 The only significant thing about this short run was that it was non-stop. Instead of doing the one minute walk between four minute runs, I kept on skipping the walk breaks until I reached 50 minutes. Last year when I ran in that area, I went out and back from L.A. County to Orange County and that was a three city run: Norwalk, Cerritos, and Cypress. As my ankle tendons have deteriorated, so have the number of cities I could connect together during the times that I could run. Nevertheless, I appreciate those times that I am able to. Fifty freaking good minutes of slow and steady non-stop running! Short but sweet.

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So Why Didn't I Get a Raise?!?

I started writing this last week upon finding out that all my coworkers had gotten a salary increase in their last paycheck while I did not. Three years ago, our employer gave us a raise and a month later when the recession struck, they not only laid people off, they also took away three percent from the remaining employees’ hourly pay. At the time, most employees got a three percent raise but when the employer took three percent off the new hourly rate, the workers actually got lesser money than before the raise took effect.

 So back to my problem. What I wrote below was in preparation for me to plead my case to my supervisor and human resources, because my annual review was quite good. Well, practically everyone gets good reviews anyway based on past evaluations and if so, why did my coworkers get a raise and I did not. Here is what I wrote last week:

Reasons Why I Deserve a Raise:

*Mentored coworkers when Electronic Medical Records system started.

*Keeps unit stocked with admission chart packs by streamlining the way they are assembled.

*I’m the only one who makes chart packs in our unit on South Campus.

*Does the most frequent rounds of any night shift Mental Health Worker.

*Does not fall asleep while monitoring the hallways at night.

*Developed a list of Mental Health Worker duties and responsibilities and revised them as the job evolved.

**Has been  proactive with having the Registered Nurse sign the back part of the rounds sheet because often times they forget that it needs to be done.

*Does most of the heavy lifting during the works shift (I usually do more work than my coworkers).

*I often go the extra mile by doing work I’m not required to do like filing the rounds sheets before I clock out in the morning.

*When admitting a patient, I’m the only one who automatically gives them gowns, pajama bottoms, and towels (extra blanket too if the room they are going to is cold).

*Cut down a patient from the ceiling who trying to hang herself in the shower.

*I’m very organized and work is done in the most efficient way possible.

These may appear like inconsequential things and they go unnoticed and probably taken for granted because it’s work that I do on a consistent basis. I have never wavered in this work ethic since I started working here, unlike others who become too comfortable and show apathy after just the first few weeks of being on the job.

I’m not the type to toot my own horn but I felt slighted when my paycheck didn’t reflect a raise a couple of weeks ago. I haven't gotten complacent either. That’s why I wrote those reasons above. I started to think that all that hard work doesn’t pay off since the slackers got a raise while I did not. Holding out hope that there must have been a mistake, I decided to wait for the next paycheck to see if there were any changes before calling my supervisor and presenting my reasons. Hallelujah! When I checked my paystub online last Thursday night (we don’t get paper stubs any more, money is directly deposited in the bank and stubs are in pdf), I saw that I was getting two paychecks: one for the a correction of the previous paycheck and the regular check showing that I had indeed received a fair increase for all the hard work I have been doing. Will that raise enable me to retire in a couple of years? Well, it was only a few cents per hour. I don't know how many percent my coworkers got, but I'm happy with mine. Let’s just hope they don’t take that away again in the near future.

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Post Thanksgiving Day Happenings

That means Black Friday sales of course! I hadn’t planned on any major purchases for Black Friday other than some DVD disks at Radio Shack and perhaps a wireless printer. But first, let me tell you about how I was rear ended by a truck. As I was driving to the store and while stopped at a red light, I suddenly felt something hit my car from behind. It was a huge moving truck whose driver probably underestimated the braking distance. I pulled over at the next turn to check the damage thinking the truck driver would do the same. He kinda did but continued to drive away slowly. I checked my rear bumper and only saw a few light scratches. The bumper itself was intact so I gave the truck driver a thumb up sign that everything was A-ok. I hope he didn’t perceive it to be the middle finger. That truck was so high that the bottom of its front bumper hit the top of my rear bumper, thus the scratches.

 So I got rear ended on the way to a Black Friday special at 8 a.m. To make matter slightly worse, the Radio Shack half a mile away from home was out of the DVD disks that were on sale. Off I go to the one two miles away and in the store I saw a guy picking up the last two packs of the disks, or so I thought. When he saw that I was envious of him getting the remaining disks, he kindly gave me a pack. Turns out he was a Filipino and he told me he had just driven from Fry’s Electronics but the lines were too long. As he paid for his DVD disks, I asked a salesperson if there were any more. He went back to the shelf and showed me that there were a few packs left that were covered by some other products. Well, the ones that the Filipino guy gave me were DVD-R while the salesperson gave me DVD+R. They made no difference to me since both work with my computer and DVD player. The Filipino guy said DVD-R’s work better in all machines. As I approached the cashier, some HP printers on half price sale was blocking my way. I read the features and decided to get one of those too. $76 for 2 packs of 75 DVD disks and a wireless/internet printer. Not a bad deal. That was the extent of my Black Friday purchase, and done at a store that was not crowded.

On Saturday morning, I had goal oriented run/walk. It consisted of running to Winco Grocery store, checking out any green tag deals that I would find appealing, then running back home. I managed all of those other than finding anything I might want to buy later. Too bad they haven’t had a repeat of the pre Halloween special of hard candy for 99 cents a pound. On my way out, one of the cashiers and the security guard were eyeing my suspiciously. They were probably thinking “what is this sweaty man doing in the store without buying anything? Was he obtaining a five finger discount?” Well, at least I got a 50 minute run in (4 minutes of running and 1 minute walking then repeat). For a cool down, I walked half a mile back home.

When Cyber Monday arrived, I checked out the Tigerdirect.com website and saw that there was a special on laptop memory: $14.99 for 4 gigabytes (with a $10 rebate). I wanted to buy two of those but kept putting it off until the sale expired. Thank goodness! I felt I already spent too much on Black Friday. After all, my laptop was already fast enough and didn’t need the extra memory. On Cyber Monday, I didn’t fall into the category of buying a product just because it was such a good deal to pass up. I skipped the small business Saturday sales. Oh, I didn't get pepper sprayed either.

What about you? Did you do any Black Friday and/or Cyber Monday shopping? Actually there was some other thing I bought online last Saturday but I’ll have to tell you about it some other time.

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Thanksgiving 2011 Happenings

So I bought this precooked 10 pound turkey a week before Thanksgiving and I had to thaw it in the fridge for a few days. Last year I blogged about roasting my first turkey using a countertop roaster I just bought < http://aboutlifeandrunning.blogspot.com/2010/11/great-turkey-roasting-experiment.html>. I didn’t want to go through the hassle of brining, buttering, seasoning, cooking, and washing this year so I took the easy way out. Well it turned out the turkey I cooked last year tasted better than the store bought one probably because of the brining. I’ve been eating turkey for the last few days now and will be doing so for a few more days.

When I arrived at the family Thanksgiving party last Thursday afternoon, the first person I saw was my cousin and her 2 year old daughter. I brought a gift for my niece because we were also celebrating her birthday. My cousin brought to my attention the shirt my niece was wearing. It said “big sis”. I didn’t get it right away until I noticed my cousin’s slightly rounded belly. Perfect! My birthday present happened to be a doll which laughed, cried, and said mama. My niece can practice on it while waiting for her new brother or sister. I’m happily looking forward to having a new niece or nephew come May of next year.

The hostess, another cousin, is a cooking show fan and she frequently applies what she learns, and dinner was wonderfully tasty as usual. That’s why I always go to her parties when I’m not working. While the Thanksgiving and birthday celebration was going on, singing broke out in the form of karaoke. I even managed to record a video of my uncle singing a duet with his brother in law. You can always tell it’s a Filipino party because inevitably, karaoke breaks out. You can watch the video here: http://youtu.be/hGojd3TIBS4 . Just prepare your ears for semi sweet sounds of the duo.
A lot more pictures than usual were taken due to the proliferation of digital cameras from young and old folks alike. A celebrity was even present – the girlfriend of my nephew was a finalist in this year’s edition of So You Think You Can Dance TV show. She just came back from their post competition tour of the country.

The best part of dinner aside from the company? Dessert, of course. I couldn’t get enough of the pumpkin cobbler and pecan pie bites. So scrumptious that I just had to take some home. Thanks cuz, for a wonderful Thanksgiving Day party. As you can imagine, it wasn’t only the turkey that was stuffed.

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Random Thoughts From Summer to Early Winter 2011

From this turkey of a blogger to you: Happy Thanksgiving! Here are some random thoughts and observations over the last three months.

After retitling this blog a few month ago, it took a while before it started getting hits again. Under the previous title the most hits were on the topic of Virgin Mobile phones. Nowadays, most visited topics are about free laundry, wired on Starbucks, and tricks of the cable internet trade.

One night at work, an ambulance brought in a patient from another hospital but they forgot to bring the legal and medical papers with them. We could not legally admit the patient under those circumstances so the ambulance had to take the patient back to the previous hospital to pick up what they missed. They were back a couple of hours later with the patient and all the necessary papers but they forgot to bring the patients’ belongings. So now we have to wait till the morning before the belongings could be forwarded to us by the other hospital. I’m surprised those ambulance drivers didn’t forget to bring the patient himself! In the meantime, the insurance company is being billed for the three back and forth trips. I don’t know whose fault it is: the ambulance EMT’s or the staff at the other hospital.

During the summer, a car alarm kept blaring every few minutes in the parking lot where I live. It took me awhile to find it and when I did, I left a note on the windshield to please decrease the sensitivity of the alarm because even  just a minimum of shaking or a mild gust of wind set it off. Heck, it would even go off when  plane flies overhead! It took a couple of notes before the alarms sensitivity was adjusted to the desired level.

I don’t know if this applies to you, but I find it easier and faster to type in English than other languages.

It appears that I’ve developed a mild lisp due to the partial dentures that I acquired a few months ago.

I was rummaging through my cabinets awhile ago and finally got rid of mid thigh shorts that were still fashionable for running not more than five years go before long shorts became more the accepted norm for men.

Cats have been spraying on my door again. If only they could read, I’d put a sign on the door saying “stop spraying, I don’t have a cat any more”. I could never catch them in the act.

I had to renew my CPR training last month and there are some changes in technique.  Faster compressions is the key and you can do without the mouth to mouth breathing. However using the AED (automated external defibrillator) with chest compressions seems like a very frantic exercise. What happens when you forget how many sequences you’ve done? The idea is to keep going  non-stop until the paramedics with advanced life support takes over.

Life’s little inconvenience – my 30 year old microwave oven gave up the ghost just in time for Halloween. Not even CPR or and AED could have brought it back to life. I previously wrote about that oven here: http://aboutlifeandrunning.blogspot.com/2011/04/older-and-trustier-microwave-oven.html.

 Here is an extra exercise I do once in awhile -  dancing to the end of a song while watching a singing or dancing competition on TV in the privacy of my living room. Well, some semblance of dancing anyway. Closer to what Elaine used to do on Seinfeld.

When I strain my muscles or joints lifting free weights (which happens so frequently now), I turn to body weight exercises like pushups and pull ups or use rubber tubing which is gentler to my connective tissues.

Do your Facebook friends post a lot of religious stuff? Friends from the Philippines certainly do regardless of whether they are Catholic, Muslim, or Mormon. In the U.S., hardly any other than the Flips who live here. That just shows that the Filipino people are religious regardless of where they live on this earth.

Really?! Queso de Bola is edam cheese? Queso de Bola is often given as a family Christmas gift in the Philippines. I just recently discovered that it is a type of stinky edam cheese. I thought my only encounter with edam cheese was through crossword puzzles. Well if durian isn’t stinky to me, then neither is queso de bola.

Do you Facebook with your next door neighbor?

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Bathroom Mirror, Flat Tire, Surrogates

This is a short follow up to my previous post (http://aboutlifeandrunning.blogspot.com/2011/11/long-delayed-meeting-courtesy-of-gps.html). I forgot to tell you about the bathroom (or as they say in the Philippines - CR) in my friend’s hotel room where I visited her last week . It is similar to the picture above. This may not make too much difference for women, but for men it might feel strange. I’ve used bathrooms with a newspaper, cartoon, or painting on the wall behind the urinal or toilet bowl is but in this hotel room the vanity mirror extends from the sink to the area of the toilet bowl. So, as a man pees, he could see himself in all of his glory with liquid coming out of his nether regions. I found that very, very strange indeed. I’ve seen myself undressed in front of the mirror of course, but never while whizzing.

There was an unfortunate incident after the visit. I discovered the next day when I was about to leave for work that I had gotten a flat tire. There were a lot of potholes on Century Boulevard but I think I got the flat about a mile away from home on Del Amo Boulevard, otherwise I wouldn’t have made it back home if it was farther. A piece of metal had sliced through the tire and inner tube. Unfortunately the GPS doesn’t detect dangerous road debris. I ended up being late for work but only by 22 minutes because AAA was quick to the rescue.

After getting a chance to babysit the two year old boy with my visiting friend, our other friends from the Philippines chided me that it was about time that I had my own children. I asked them if they wanted to volunteer their wombs. I guess they would have to ask their husbands about that first.

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