GREAT BALLS OF FIRE and other Random Thoughts

Well, more like Small Balls On Fire, but more on that later.
          Some prayers are repetitive. The Litany for example, and of course, the rosary. During confession, the priest gives you penance in which you usually have to recite so many Our Fathers, Hail Marys, and/or Act of Contritions to atone for your sins. My question is: is repeating the same prayer several times when you are more or less just murmuring the words, more effective than one fervent one where you put your whole heart into it? It seems like repetition is some sort of sacrifice that “makes you put in your time” so to speak.

          During my half marathon birthday walk, I contemplated my fear of offering one of my kidneys to my brother. I had been thinking about it for awhile and it has become more important now because he may have some donor compatibility issues (his blog about kidney disease). I wish I could be courageous and just do it because it's the right thing to do. Even if I was brave enough to do it, how do you coordinate the healthcare system of the U.S. with that in the Philippines as far as organ donations go? I emailed the National Kidney and Transplant Institute customer service in the Philippines but they haven’t responded.

          I used to do errand runs to squeeze in a workout where I ran to the bank, video store, grocery store, and/or pharmacy, but ever since my ankle tendon and myopathy problems, I have resorted to errand walks. One of last weeks’ workouts went like this: very brisk walk to the bank to withdraw money from the ATM, then proceed to the 99 Cent store to buy a couple of bottles of lemon pepper seasoning, then it was off to  Rite Aid Pharmacy (well I’ll be darned because I forgot what I bought there, old age, you know), and the last stop before home was Von's Grocery to buy some oatmeal raisin walnut cookies. Then I headed back home. How did I manage to carry all the things I bought. No I didn’t bring a reusable bag with me but brought a backpack instead. Total time = 55 minutes.

          And then there was The Pepper Incident. I’m addicted to hot stuff and nary a meal which doesn’t include hot sauce (Sriracha or Tapatio), raw jalapeno peppers microwaved for a minute or so, or pickled jalapeno peppers. Well, this one time, I sliced open a raw jalapeno pepper and took out the seeds with my fingers. Then I scratched or rubbed my forehead, after which I went to the bathroom to pee. All that without washing my hands first. Guess what happened? My forehead was burning, my eyes were burning, and worst of all, my cojones were burning. Despite repeated washings of the areas, they remained aflame for several hours. No, I didn’t have any milk which I hear relieves the burning better. The experience gave new meaning to the Jerry Lee Lewis song - Great Balls of Fire. Lesson learned. I now wash my hands right after handling peppers. Goodness Gracious, I hope you weren't expecting any pictures!

          I understand that sometimes workers have to listen to music or watch videos to relieve boredom during the night shift. What I don’t understand is why they have to use earphones in both ears so as not be able to hear patients knocking on the door or commotions on the unit. Just common sense -it is a safety issue.

          Flies, flies, and more flies, and not the dumbbell workout kind either. I began to have a gathering of flies inside my screen windows last week and they didn’t fly anywhere inside but rather just stuck themselves to the screen. My first thought was that – did anything die indoors? I didn’t smell anything rotten. Then I checked my pulse just to make sure. Turns out, one or two managed to sneak through tiny holes on the screen and invited their friends to the party. Only they couldn’t find the way back out. A little bug spray did the trick along with patching the holes. It seems to have worked. Now to deal with occasional spiders, ants, and cockroaches… Jeez, what’s next? Locusts and pestilence?

                And lastly the consequence of last year's traffic ticket. Remember my blog about being No Longer A Traffic Ticket Virgin? Well, that moving violation didn’t only cost me a $400+ fine but also a $200 increase in car insurance rate for at least the next three years! As if I didn’t have too many expenses already…

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Random Thoughts For Early 2012

Last week, while waiting for the last few minutes to tick by before we could clock out from work, one of the nurses challenged anybody to do a wall squat for one minute. He said he would give $100 to the person who could do it. I accepted the challenge and positioned my back against the wall then lowered myself down. The nurse wanted me to go lower so I obliged him. I checked my watch and watched the seconds go by. When I hit one minute, I stayed down until I reached two minutes and 15 seconds before standing up. I told the nurse to ''show me the money!''. I didn't really expect him to pay me but it would be good to rib him about it in the next few months. I bet he didn't expect a skinny looking older man to be able to meet his challenge. All that stationary cycling must have strengthened my quads. Frankly, I wasn't sure if I could last a whole minute because it's an exercise that I never do. It was purely mind over matter, I guess.  

I was checking my cupboards last week for expiration dates of canned goods, then moved the canned jalapeno peppers to a separate shelf. I was surprised to see that by buying a few here and there when there was a sale, I had already accumulated 18 cans of peppers! Seriously, how many cans of peppers do I really need?! Time to stop buying them for a few months.

Well, on one of my days off last week, I was able to do my federal and state taxes using Taxactonline.com's software which I have been using the last three years. Within about 30 minutes of e-filing, I received email notification that both federal and state returns were approved. Now, that was fast! 

What are the chances of getting a George Washington and Susan B. Anthony dollar coin as change in the same transaction? That's exactly what happened at 99 cent store last week. All that was missing was a Sacajawea dollar. 

Upon further review, I can now claim that I have watched all the best picture nominees for the Oscar's other than Hugo. This is the list of what I've watched: The Artist, The Descendants, Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close, The Help, Midnight in Paris, Moneyball, The Tree of Life, and War Horse. Looks like I have nothing else to do on my days off except watch movies. Well that, taxes, and counting cans of peppers.

On a final note, I thought I lost my keys at work Monday night. It turns out I lost my marbles temporarily instead. Misplacing keys = forgetfulness, not knowing the keys existed in the first place = Alzheimer’s disease.

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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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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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Random Thoughts For Late June 2011

After not having an entry for a couple of months, finally another edition of random thoughts.

I wanted to open a bottle of wine last week so I went to get my corkscrew from where I usually get it from – a drawer in the kitchen. Well, it wasn’t there and I searched high and low, even in unlikely places, but I couldn’t find it. I must be getting forgetful, having more senior moments, or worse, developing dementia or Alzheimer’s disease. I finally had to use a very old rudimentary cork screw, the one with a piece of steel attached to a piece of wood. I didn’t have to resort to my imitation Swiss Army knife with a corkscrew after all. The next day, I bought a new one at the 99 cent store but it wasn’t the same as the one I lost. I’ll probably find it one of these days when I’m looking for something else. Either I lost a corkscrew or lost my mind. You pick.

While at the 99 cent store I noticed a product called Sunny Acres Flavored syrup for coffee. Hmm ,no calories. Sounds like a retirement or nursing home doesn’t it? ! I have a couple of bottles at home now: French Vanilla and Hazelnut. Goes very well with my instant coffee.

Our condo association is making it more unaffordable to own and live here. They have been increasing our monthly dues 10% each year for the past three years. I can barely afford to pay the mortgage anymore. They work the same way as the government: tax and overspend.

Observations on store bought salads: Reser’s potato and macaroni salad taste like what my mom used to make while Kroger brand tastes like what grandma used to make. The first one is more tangy while the other sweeter.

This from a news item I read on the web: alcoholics in Australia confined in hospitals are drinking the alcohol based hand sanitizers which are available all over the building.

I finally retired the Sorbothane cycling gloves I’ve had since the early 80’s which I’ve been using to lift weights in recent years. The Sorbothane gel had disintegrated and was staining my palms.

Ever noticed in grocery ads that when they have a sale on hot dogs, there is usually no corresponding sale on hot dog buns? Goes the same for hamburger patties and buns. Unless of course it’s the Fourth of July, then all of those are on sale.

Noticed at the 99 Cent Store: 4 port USB hubs for what else? 99 cents. You can find Iphone and Blackberry skins there too.

I can’t decide whether to immobilize my left ankle or keep on doing flexibility exercises on it in an effort to promote the healing process.

The other night a patient came up to me asking for an extra pillow because her roommate was snoring. I asked her if she was planning on putting the pillow on her roommate’s face. (Similar to gallows humor, but in a psych unit.) Thankfully she said that she was just going to use the pillow to cover her own ears.

Last week, a psychiatrist was looking for a patient. The patient was taking a shower but since the doctor was in a hurry to leave, he conducted what I would call “shower therapy”. No, he didn’t join the patient in the shower. Rather, they talked through the shower door for a few minutes.

I just realized that when I turn 55 next year, I would qualify to be admitted to the geriatric psych unit if ever it came to that. I should bring my own earplugs so I don’t have to smother a snoring roommate. Don’t even think about doing shower therapy with me!

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Random Thoughts For Early March 2011

The original title of this post was Random Thoughts for February 2011 but I held off uploading it until it turned into March. Talk about procrastination… I haven’t posted anything in almost a week so I thought now would be a good time.
While I was doing laundry a couple of weeks back and left my clothes in the dryer, someone added their clothes to mine (it’s a community laundry room shared by the condo residents). When I went to pick up my clothes and after sorting them out at home, I saw a pair of girl’s jeans and a blouse. In the meantime I was missing a few items of mine. I went back to the laundry room downstairs and found the rest of my missing clothes on the table except for one sock. I left the blouse and jeans there since I had no intention of being a cross dresser. Maybe next time I’ll put a sign on my clothes saying that the owner of these  has a very communicable disease.
Gone are the days when I could eat anything (fried foods, ice cream, fast foods, etc.) at any quantity I wanted without worrying about gaining weight or increasing my cholesterol level. It’s not about running off the calories any more although that helps a lot with weight maintenance. I found out in the past decade that running doesn’t necessarily enable you to control your cholesterol level if you don’t follow a proper diet. Somehow when you are younger, cholesterol doesn’t stick as well to your arteries regardless of what you eat, but that stops working as you age.
More thoughts on frugality: why buy soda and snacks from overpriced vending machines when you can buy the same products for much lesser at the grocery store especially when they are on sale? For example our vending machine at work sells cup of noodles for $1.25 each, but when they are on sale they can go for as low as 4 to 6 for a dollar. A can of soda may sell for a 75 cents but you can buy a 12 pack for 2 dollars when on sale. Another thing is the ice cream truck that roams the neighborhood that sell overpriced products you can buy for a fraction of their cost at grocery stores. Most the people who buy from these ice cream trucks are the least who can afford them.
When the recession struck, I moved most of my investments to fixed income funds. I still have about 5% left in a balanced fund which because of the stock market comeback, is now earning more than all of the fixed income funds combined. Is it time to move more of the money to riskier investments? Hard to say at this time because the stock market has been having wide swings the past couple of weeks.
With the internet, a lot of people learn information about what to do and how to lose weight, or how to exercise, etc. This used to be the domain of fitness trainers who either learned about them via formal schooling or getting certified through various organizations by attending seminars or classes and being tested afterwards. With all the information available nowadays, you would think that the percentage of obese people would have gone down because I’m guessing that a lot of them would like to lose weight. Overweight people talk about those goals all the time but as far as applying the info they get from the internet, that is another matter. Sorry if that sounded too preachy.
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Odds and Ends – February 2011 Edition

I’m scheduled for electronic medical records computer class on Thursday, February 24^th which would take about 8 hours (actually as I post this, I may be getting ready to leave for class). Last Tuesday, I received mail from the electric company that they will be having a scheduled blackout for the same day as the computer class to upgrade their equipment in the area where I live. Good timing, huh? On the other hand, I’m expecting a delivery from UPS so I won’t be home. Darn! I have to wait another day.
Ok, I need to update the first paragraph above. The EMR computer class was cancelled because the program we were supposed to learn crashed yesterday. The blackout happened as expected and lasted about 4 hours: from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. so I was almost bored to death without TV or internet for at least a couple of hour,s since I couldn't leave in case UPS showed up. As I update this at 3 p.m., I'm still waiting for UPS.

Yippee! I finished doing my federal and state taxes last Thursday, February 17^th I’m and getting a little bit of money back. It seems like I’ve achieved balance in my taxes, meaning I’m not paying anymore at the end of the year and not getting too much of a refund because deductions from my bi-weekly paycheck are just the right amount. The refund is just enough to pay for the annual car insurance, maintenance, and registration payments so it’s practically a wash.

Here is one entry I found amusing on the California Tax Form:
Check the box below if all of the following are true for you (and your spouse/RDP) - - Are not deceased. That means I don’t have to check the box if I’m deceased, right?

While assembling forms to make charts at work last week, we ran out of paper clips so we had to check all the drawers in the nurse’s station. By the time we picked the drawers clean of all the paper clips we found, they would have been enough to fill about 4 or 5 boxes which meant we found 400 to 500 of them lying around. And we still had to untangle them  afterwards.

Ever noticed on the TV show House, how the doctors leave prescribed medications on the patient’s bedside? They take too much cinematic license when they do that because that will never happen in a hospital in real life.

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Blog Ideas That Come And Go

After being lazy about posting anything in this blog in the past month, I have now unleashed a flurry of posts which has so far run for five days in a row as of Thursday, the 17th of February. I usually stick a single post it sheet in my wallet in case any ideas come up. Unfortunately, I don’t bring a pen all the time so there have been a lot of instances when I forget about the idea. I suppose I could use my cell phone’s note pad but I hadn’t thought about that till now. Some of these thoughts are random in which there is really no way to write extensively about. Here are some of them:

I watched a World War II Australian movie last week titled Broken Sun in which the soldiers were wearing gas masks. It reminded me of the post 9/11 run on gas masks due to fear that terrorists might spread poison gas around the country. It never happened but military surplus stores and online stores ran out of masks and there was a waiting list until the stores were restocked. Did any of you buy or shop for one?

Another movie I watched was Burlesque. The plot was nothing to talk about, just a combination of old and recycled ones. Even the dancing was average, although the music was good. Cher’s song sounded like one of those power songs composed for the American Idol finale. What I didn’t expect was seeing Kristen Bell in it. What? Veronica Mars in a burlesque movie??

After being functional in the main hospital for months, they have finally enabled Wi-Fi in the building I work in. That’s even though no one is supposed to be surfing the internet while on duty. Well I found out that this was in preparation for our use of electronic medical records where certain personnel may be using computer tablets for documentation in a patient’s electronic chart. I hope this reduces our use of paper which in turn reduces the time I have to assemble charts for new admissions.

                Here’s an ongoing thing with a lot of people who work in the hospital wards: every time some of them come to work, they have to get a new pen from the hospital supply. I mean, what happened to the one they used yesterday or the other day? The unit secretary has to keep on ordering new pens each week. And the administration talks about how to save money? Me, I keep my pens until the ink runs dry.

                Speaking of work, there are some workers on the night shift who just overdo their break times. They have the official break time consisting of the 30 minute lunch break and two 15 minute coffee breaks. Then they do their unofficial breaks consisting of going out to buy food, eating the food, surfing the internet, hiding in the nooks and crannies of the building to cat nap, then taking an even prolonged nap break. That’s what I consider break abuse! In a lot of hospitals, taking a prolonged nap break is an open secret and for the most part unofficially tolerated by the powers that be. It’s just the abusers that rub me the wrong way but of which nothing I can do about.

                A few days ago, I espied a gas station that was selling regular unleaded gas 4 cents per gallon lesser than I usual place I go to. The next day while on my way home from work, I stopped by the station to fill up. Being unfamiliar with the setup, I pushed the wrong button so instead of pumping regular, I pumped premium instead, which was 10 cents per gallon more. Usually the buttons arranged from left to right would be: regular, premium, and super. In the unfamiliar station I went to, it was premium, regular, and super instead. It must have been my sleepiness from the previous night’s work that made me initially not notice the setup (maybe I should take extended breaks too). So, instead of saving a few cents, I spent more due to my mistake. Oh well, that’s life… I wonder how many people make that same mistake?

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Random Running Thoughts For Late January 2011

If you haven’t noticed, I have not been posting as often as I have in the past couple of years. It’s all because I had to stop running and had nothing new to pass along. As I try to run gingerly again, maybe I can find something to write about, even if it doesn’t involve marathon training or racing because putting one foot in front of the other while trying to avoid pain is an adventure in itself.

It’s going to be Groundhog Day soon and we will find out if the groundhog sees it’s shadow or not. As for me, I have seen my shadow while running this past week and it isn’t pretty. It looked like I was moving in slow motion, which I guess is better than glacial pace, but nevertheless, pathetically slow. No matter, at least it was a semblance of a jog.

I successfully completed an hour of non-stop running on pavement last Saturday morning. Well, mostly non-stop. I ducked into a Target store at the 25 minute mark to check out a product that I wanted to buy (a more comfortable replacement saddle for my spinning bike). They didn’t have it, so I resumed my run till I finished an hour without doing any walk breaks. Would you believe that there was only a difference of 9 seconds per mile between the run/walk technique and running non-stop? I might as well do the run/walk all the time because it causes less pain on my ankles.  Anyway, I added calf or heel raises to my workout regimen in an attempt to strengthen the muscles supporting the ankles. Maybe that added to the soreness I felt after running non-stop.

Hell on shoes. That’s what I am. No, nothing to do with speed a la hell on wheels but more to do with the damage done on the outsole of running shoes, you know – the rubber that hits the road? I’m such a severe overpronator and a heavy strider that the outsole of my shoes are worn out after just a few weeks of use.

Wow! Does this mean I’m writing about running again?

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Random Thoughts for December 2010

          

            Ever since I injured my left index finger due to the garage door accident, touch typing on the computer keyboard has been a hit and miss exercise. I can’t feel the bump of the F key and I keep hitting the R and T keys together when I type one of those letters.

            When you blog and share it on social networking sites, are you considered a bloggart?

Last week, before I did my gift card shopping, I wrote notes, addressed and stamped Christmas cards while watching a TV program called The Sing Off (acapella competition between singing groups). After I bought the gift cards days later, I stuffed them with the Christmas cards in envelopes, ran to the post office, dropped everything in the mailbox then continued my run. Another one of my errand runs. On a similar note, I ran to a friend’s apartment to update her computer then ran back home, achieving another negative split in the process.

Last weekend I watched what I consider a powerful movie called For Colored Girls. I’m just wondering why it had a poor box office result and a low IMDB rating.

                 You’ve heard of the Clydesdales division in road races? If I remember correctly, if you are a runner who is 200 pounds or more, you are considered a Clydesdale (like the Budweiser horses). Even though I’m almost half that weight I run like a Clydesdale because my stride is so heavy. A lot of those heavy runners are probably much lighter on their feet than I am.

My netbook battery is not holding a full 9 hour charge any more. At best it gives me 6 hours, and even lesser if I’m connected to the internet. The hospital I work in now has Wi-Fi in the main building. Unfortunately not in the building I work in. How can they give us Wi-Fi and we are not supposed to surf the internet at work? Go figure. I guess the restriction only goes for direct patient care staff, while office personnel and visitors are allowed to do it.

I love pumpkin pie because it reminds me of when my mother used to bake them at home in the Philippines. I had four store-bought pies in the fridge and I overdosed on one of them one night because I didn’t want it to spoil. I was hoping that the pumpkin had a good dose of fiber but it was only 1 percent per serving. Oh, well. 

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November 2010 Randomness

Why do I blog? I thought of this question and I couldn’t come up with a reasonable answer (yet). First of all, I don’t fancy myself as a writer nor ever aspired to be one. I don’t even have a clue as to what writing guidelines are. I have enough trouble whether to write it’s or its, to mention one problem. Journaling was never my thing either. If ever there was something I put on paper, it was in my running logbooks, and even that wasn’t a detailed description of the workouts I did. My previous forays at writing was an article on fitness in a company newsletter in the Philippines way back when, and running experiences for the AREC club newsletter here in Long Beach (which I stopped contributing to since I started blogging).

For some people exercising is a chore that has to be done even if they don’t like doing it. They may do it to lose weight or maybe a minimum amount to keep their heart healthy. Although some days, it can feel like a chore for me, finishing a workout still feels better than not doing one (of course I don’t know how that feels because I do it every day).

Pull ups (no, not the diapers) with weights. I have a pull up/chin up bar in one of my doorways at home and I use it for my upper back workout. Since I’m latissimus dorsi challenged, I don’t have a well developed back so to increase the effort and reduce the repetitions, I found an old backpack, inserted 15 pounds of free weights it, then did the pull up exercise. I used to run a belt in the hole of the weight then tie the belt around my waist but the felt too uncomfortable. My other upper back exercise is the bent over row. I alternate between the two exercises for variety.

I’m contemplating on using the above backpack with weights for walking workouts. Did you know that they sell weight vests nowadays? Up to 10 pounds for women and up to 20 pounds for men. My home made contraption should work as well and I could add more weight if needed – more than the store bought 20 pound limit.

                Our health insurance premiums from work are increasing by $30.00 a month, in large part due to the health care reform law that was passed last year. Other companies have to do the same thing. Darn! No raises for the last three years and lesser income to boot.

                A strange thing happened to my Windows Media Center DVR. It recorded two shows what it indicated was Do You Think You Can Dance, which usually occurs during the summer. When I played the recordings, they were Spanish language shows instead. The switch to standard time must have messed something up.

                I found the original 1987 Wall Street because I wanted to watch it again after watching the recent Wall Street – Money Never Sleeps. Charlie Sheen, who was one of the main characters in the first installment, had a cameo in the second one. He couldn’t act in the former, and still couldn’t act in the latter.

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Random Running Thoughts For Early October

On one hand I haven’t turned on the air conditioner all summer even during the late summer/early fall heat wave last week. On the other, I’m thankful that the pilot light on my heater didn’t turn off all summer so when I tried to raise the temperature during the recent cold spell, the heater sprang back to life quickly. I still had to wear jammies and a long sleeved shirt when I went to bed Wednesday night. Would you believe I had to run with a jacket on Tuesday afternoon because it was about 60 degrees a week after having to run indoors because it was 110 degrees hot outside? That’s a 50 degree swing!

A mysterious wound appeared on my right inner ankle Thursday morning. Well actually it was just a small scratch, but I don’t know where it came from. My shoe and sock were rubbing against it while I ran to my doctor’s office. When I took off my shoe to get weighed, there was a spot of blood on my sock even though I didn’t feel any pain on the wound. By the way, I ran a negative split when I ran to and from the doctor’s office. For non-runners who read this, that means I ran the second half of the course faster than the first half.

Regarding the doctor’s visit, it was just my regular 6 month follow up. The doc asked me if I wanted a flu shot and I said yes. He said they have to check with the insurance company first if I had to pay for it because some insurance companies pay for it and some don’t. Isn’t getting the flu shot a preventive measure? You’d think the insurance company would rather pay for the shot rather than pay much more later if the patient gets sick! That’s the healthcare system in the U.S. for you. I decided to get the flu shot for free from my job instead.

I just noticed that this year’s Long Beach Marathon switched weekends. The event usually happens on the weekend that I work, thus, I have had to request a couple of days off and use vacation time so I can participate. This year, the marathon happens on a weekend that I’m off from work. Unfortunately, I am unable to run it. I hope they keep the same weekend next year. This is the first time I’m going to miss running the full or the half since they revived the race in 1999. I still have the poster of that year’s race on my fridge.

Running nowadays consists of when my joints allow me to do it and not based on a schedule. It used to be on certain days of the week the last three years (prior to that, it was a no brainer because I ran every day. See: The End of the Streak and What It Took To Run Every Day For 21 Years ). I may plan on running tomorrow for example, but when tomorrow comes and my joints are complaining, then I do something else instead.

There is a certain feeling about running hard that I find difficult to duplicate while riding a bike. If I tried to do a very hard effort on the bike as I do while running, I’d probably fall off.

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Random Thoughts For Early September 2010

My Proctor-Silex toaster, circa 1981, obtained when I moved in my first apartment months after arriving in the United States, finally died on Thursday. Despite heroic attempts at reviving it by shaking out the crumbs and readjusting the electrical plug, the long serving and loyal device finally met its demise due to old age. Viewing of the departed will be at my nearest trash bin for the next two days and its eternal rest will be somewhere in a California landfill. Farewell dear friend, you will be sorely missed.

I received a 2 dollar bill as change from the grocery store last week. You don’t see 2 dollar bills very often anymore. There have been instances where some people think its fake money (http://www.snopes.com/business/money/tacobell.asp). One of the reasons why there are not many in circulations is because people keep them instead of spending them, thus an already rarely seen denomination becomes rarer. Should I spend mine, or should I save it? I also happen to have a few half dollar, dollar,  and Susan B. Antony dollar coins stored around here somewhere.

Shenanigans at work regarding stray cats – The head of the Security Department in my workplace is trying to get one of the nurses in trouble for feeding stray cats in the parking lot so much so that he reported it to the police even though there is no law against it. Believe me, the neighborhood where my job is has more problems with gangs, shooting, vagrancy and other serious crimes than a woman feeding a couple of cats. By the way, it’s the same head of security that reported me for blogging after notifying him of problems during a fire drill (http://noeldlp.blogspot.com/2010/03/fire-drill-that-didnt-work-so-well.html).

I wrote this about a week and a half ago when I restarted running but I never finished the thought - Now that I’m back running a little bit and appreciating it especially when I was 100% sure that I wasn’t going to run again two months ago. How 100% sure was I? Well, that was the reason I bought a bike which I wouldn’t have done if I felt there was a wee bit of a chance that I would run again. Oops, spoke too soon. I can’t run again due to a new calf injury (http://noeldlp.blogspot.com/2010/09/little-bit-up-lot-more-down.html).

Death, change, food, cats, and not running. How much more random can you get?

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Random Thoughts For August

After skipping the month of July, here are more uncategorized ideas filed under random thoughts.

One of the judges on SYTYCD (So You Think You Can Dance) last week mentioned that a performance reminded him of the movie Last Tango in Paris because it was so sexy. I have never watched that movie because at the time they showed it in our town, I was still underage. It was such a big deal at the time because of the sex scenes which was supposed to be very explicit. Out of curiosity, I found it on the web and got the opportunity to watch it. It had an interesting storyline to say the least and I didn’t know that Marlon Brando spoke French. Bernardo Bertolucci delivered his usual excellent direction. What didn’t really shock me were the nudity and sex scenes. Maybe it would have if I watched it in 1972, but compared to today’s overexposure to more explicit scenes, I found it rather mild.

What a summer we’ve been having so far. Most days have been cool and overcast in the mornings. Thursday night, I even had to use a regular blanket at night instead of the usual sheet I use in the summer. Friday morning, I went out for a bike ride in a long sleeved shirt and jacket and still felt chilly. Pardon me as I update this. The whole weekend I had to use a thermal blanket to sleep because of the cool nights.

Running is no longer in my vocabulary because it has disappeared from the repertoire of my physical activities. I seem to hear about a few injured runners lately and one of them whose friends are probably non-runners suggested that he buy an elliptical trainer to save his knees. Well speaking from experience, you may find other exercises that can mimic the energy expenditure of running by working out at the same intensity, but the heady feeling that you get from running will never be duplicated. I saw a picture of him running last weekend contrary to his doctors’ and friends’ advice.

The hits on the blog post about the evolution of Virgin Mobile Phones have kept coming and I reached a new high on Monday of 135 hits which is 105 more than usual. Whoever you are out there who made this possible, thank you very much.

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Random Thoughts For June

And now, another episode of random thoughts for those uncategorized topics that come up once in awhile.

As a little boy, I remember getting woken up early Sunday mornings to get ready for mass and having to drink a glass of Ovaltine or Milo at least an hour before communion to satisfy the one hour fasting requirement. Breakfast came only after getting home from mass. I’m wondering now if that was actually a Catholic church regulation.

Eating a plain ham and cheese sandwich nowadays reminds me of the snacks they used to serve on the Philippine Airlines DC-3 flights from Jolo to Zamboanga. What did they serve my Muslim townmates, I wonder? I don’t remember the airline serving peanuts...

In elementary school, I remember the boys having to wear shorts as part of the uniform. We couldn’t wait to get to high school so we could wear grown up long pants. I don’t know how we survived wearing khakis from kindergarten through high school in the tropical heat of the Philippines.

Psych patients are like needy babies sometimes. All they care about is instant gratification. All a baby does is eat, sleep, and poop, or in some Philippine dialects “papa, meme, oo”. In the case of patients, in addition to eat, sleep, and poop, all they like to do is take the most medications and smoke the most cigarettes they can possibly have. Like babies, they also throw tantrums when they don’t get what they want right away.

There used to be 2 or 3 wireless networks within range of my home 2 years ago, some of which were not secure. Today there are 11 and all secure. People have finally learned about keeping their networks safe.

I went to Target last week to buy a one terabyte hard drive for $69, which was the cheapest I’ve seen for that size. What surprised me at the store was not finding that there was any left for that price, but rather seeing for the first time Target’s waterless urinals. There was no water used for flushing and a sensor simply emptied your pee by use of gravity (I think).

My computer crashed while I was trying to do too many things at once on it (watching a movie, downloading a huge file, moving files from one drive to another). When Windows Explorer restarted, there was no audio in the video files I had saved. I thought they were permanently damaged. I shut it down and rebooted, Thank God and Microsoft Windows 7 which did a self diagnosis, I didn’t lose any files and the system repaired itself.

                When I had a day off several weeks ago, I closed a Roth IRA CD that matured from a bank and transferred it to another bank down the street which offered a slightly higher rate. CD rates are so low nowadays that you can’t get a decent interest rate unless you sign up for a longer termL.  Then I went home and exercised, did my laundry, updated my computers, burned video files on DVD’s for friend, caught up with DVR’d American Idol and watched the finale of Dancing With The Stars online. Later that evening, I watched the American Idol finale and blogged about it afterwards, which I never thought I would have ever done. It was a pretty productive day off.

                One my way home from the Wrigley River Run last week, I saw two motorized wheelchairs create a traffic jam between themselves on a sidewalk. They were facing each other and there was not enough space on either side for them to pass by each other. I thought that was a little amusing.

                I wrote these random thoughts a few weeks back but never got to post it. Well, better late than never, and it’s still June after all. Happy Father’s Day to all the Dads out there!

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May’s Random Thoughts

Did I already write about this? Maybe not, but it reminded me of comment thread on Facebook a few weeks back about reusable bags. This is an experience that I had the other weekend. Although I have a lot of canvas reusable bags, I brought one of the few plastic bags I have left at home to a store to use for whatever I bought. When I presented it to the cashier at the checkstand, she threw it in the trash. I asked her why she did that and she said because it didn’t come from their store. It was hard to believe her reasoning. So I told her I was recycling it and she relented by taking my bag out of the trash and using it for the products I bought. Wow! Have you ever had a similar experience where a store wouldn’t use your bag because it didn’t have their logo?

            I was reading a magazine review of running shorts the other day and it surprised me to see shorts that cost as much as running shoes used to. Speaking of technical running clothes, remember the “wet look” fashion of the 60’s? The fabric is basically the same as today’s technical wear. The only difference is how they weave it.

Growing up in a small town, I had a somewhat sheltered life. Meaning, I wasn’t exposed to too many social activities other than those with close relatives. To add to that, I was and still am an introvert, so that didn’t help. So even though I remember a lot of my classmates in elementary and high school, there are others whom I don’t remember well or at all. Then Facebook came along and reintroduced me to them. Some connections were made through memories but some never connected at all. Sorry about that.

             Being horizontally challenged, I sometimes have difficulty getting blankets for patients when the housekeepers put them on the topmost shelf of the linen room. A few nights back, I summoned the help of the tallest nurse I could find and had to “borrow” her height to get a blanket for me. She was over 6 feet tall.

I’ve always wondered why one of the fingers on my left hand was slightly bent and it has been hurting when I try to straighten it out. That reminded me that it was a volleyball injury in my younger years when I hyperextended it and it’s now giving me pain 30 years later. Little things you used to ignore eventually catch up with you. Damn age! I couldn’t help but laugh quietly about it.

I passed by a doughnut shop on the way home from work last week and the apple fritter aromas were like siren songs beckoning my name to come closer. I covered my ears and nose and fled the scene of temptation.

Craving something salty then wanting to even it out with something sweet afterwards, I think, is the bane of people who try to watch their diet.

This is what happens when you find a topic and can’t stretch it out. You categorize them under random thoughts. Oh, well…

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Random Thoughts For Early 2010

     After several months of avoiding it, I finally did karaoke again at home because I saw Manny Pacquiao singing on the Jimmy Kimmel Live show last week. You can check out my karaoke experiences here: http://noeldlp.blogspot.com/2009/06/dabbling-in-closet-karaoke.html

     One thing I don’t like about writing these blogs: I tend to sit too long and not move around. The only movement happening is when my fingers start typing. How many calories do you think that burns?

     So what’s with all these Nerf products? I went to the store to buy my nephew a birthday present a few weeks ago and the shelves were stacked with Nerf toys. I bought one for him and he got Nerf toys from two other guests also.

     Just when I thought I was doing okay with my expenses, my mortgage payment got higher due to an increase in property taxes. As if that wasn’t bad enough, the homeowners association raised our monthly dues. So much for trying to save.

     I received my federal income tax refund on February 26^th. Basically, the federal government gave me back my deposit in the form of withholding taxes. At least I have something to pay for the increase in my mortgage and homeowner’s association dues and also the new elliptical machine.

     One of the runners from our running club recently ran a 50 kilometer race on trails and finished in 7 hours and 55 minutes. That’s about the same amount of time I engage in aerobic exercise for a whole week, sometimes lesser.

     Remember when I blogged about giving computer and internet tech support to my uncle and auntie a few months ago?  You can find that entry here: http://noeldlp.blogspot.com/2009/12/computer-frustration.html  . They still call me once in awhile but I found a function in Skype that allows them to share what’s on their screen to me. So now, if they have a question, we connect on Skype and they can point out to me what the problem is or ask me how to do things while I tell them where to point their cursor or where to type certain things to get the results they want. Microsoft Windows Live Messenger has a remote assistance function to it but I’ve never tried it and my Uncle and Auntie don’t have Messenger.

     Last week, I resisted the urge to use the internet so I could catch up on my reading. My reading nowadays is severely limited to Runner’s World, Westways, Competitor, and the USA Today magazine that comes with the Sunday newspaper.

     It’s funny to be remembered by former classmates or townmates not necessarily by my name but by a nickname a girl gave me in high school. Back in the day, I was nicknamed Renault. I heard that girl has been widowed, married a second time, has about four kids and still lives in the same town. I’m not in touch with her. Searching Google or Facebook has not yielded any results.

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