Charter Communications Complaint (and solution)

(*note: I wrote the letter below on the UMatter2Charter Facebook Page.)

Charter Communications has done it to me again. Although I love the benefits Charter Internet has provided, they have given me several problems as well. I will only mention the latest one because it may be the last straw. A few days ago, I received my new billing statement and I was surprised at the amount. My usual monthly internet bill is $19.99 for 12 to 15 mbps service. The new bill showed more than double at 47.99. Last year, a door to door salesman came to my apartment offering a back to school special of 19.99 for 24 months. I still have the pink copy of that work order which clearly shows 24 months. My billing changed just after 12 months. I called customer service and they couldn’t help me, saying that the system only shows 12 months and there is no such thing as a 24 month contract. I went to the nearest Charter office, showed them the work order and they said they couldn’t do anything about it either even though it was a mistake on Charter’s part that they inputted 12 months into their computer system. I have no other recourse but to switch to another provider if Charter cannot honor what they offered me originally. It looks so much like false advertising and I wonder if this can be addressed with the FCC or the Better Business Bureau. Any ideas on which agency I should contact?

Noel,
This situation has to be frustrating. If my bill increases by one cent, I am making some phone calls myself! I would be happy to help you with this matter today! Can you please send a private message with your address, telephone number, full name, and four digit security code to my inbox? I cannot wait to hear from you!
Ashley Watson

Hi Ashley, thanks for your immediate response. My address is …

Noel,
Thank you for the information and your patience! I know understand your frustrations because you were promised something that you're clearly not getting. Can I make it up to you by offering you internet for the next 12 months at $29.99 per month? Please let me know if I have your permission to make these changes! 
Ashley Watson

Hi Ashley, happy to hear from you and I may be amenable to that arrangement. Is this the 30 mbps service that you have now? I already have the cable modem and router so I won't be needing any equipment. Will you also be able to adjust this months 47.99 bill down to 29.99?

Noel,
You betcha! Your next months billing statement will reflect the changes and you will also see a credit of $36.00. Do you have any other questions? You internet speed will be 30Mbps. Sorry!
Ashley Watson

No further questions Ashley. You have my permission to make the changes and send me an updated bill so I can turn automatic payments back on. Thanks for taking care of my concerns and keeping me as a Charter customer.

Noel,
You are welcome! Thank you for giving Charter a second chance! I will advise you to go by out local office and pickup your free internet modem. This will ensure that you are able to take advantage of your blazing new internet speed. Your modem has been updated to the newest internet speed. Do you have any questions for me today? If no, please feel free to visit the Umatter team athttp://www.facebook.com/umatter2charter and we will gladly help you!
Ashley Watson

Wow, you are good! Much obliged for your help and making the customers matter, and looking forward to the next 12 months of Charter Internet.

Noel,
Here's to a brand new start! Cheers ;D Have an awesome weekend and enjoy your internet! 
Ashley Watson

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Notes On My Recent Hospital Stay - Part 2

I forgot to mention that when I first got to the ER, they couldn’t find my previous medical records. The reason? They had my age as 75 years old. Damn! I look good for 75!

While wearing a hospital gown, one must be constantly aware about how one's legs are positioned. Well I lost that awareness while being pushed on a wheelchair from the telemetry unit to the cardiology department. I forgot to keep my legs together. Fortunately I was wearing shorts.

A woman was pushing me around at the hospital and I loved every minute of it. Oh, it was just a cute radiology tech transporting me on a wheelchair. The same wheelchair which I offered to two ladies in the elevator in my attempt to be a gentleman.

Before the treadmill stress test, I was hooked up to more electrodes. Thoughts of Steve Austin (the Six Million Dollar Man) ran through my head. Another echocardiogram was done prior to mounting the treadmill. Here is how the treadmill stress test went: it started with a very slow 3 MPH walk and every three minutes the speed would increase. The second 3 minute segment was also easy. On the third 3 minute segment, the speed increased significantly. I told the technologist that it felt like a 13:30 to 13:40 pace per mile. He was surprised how right I was and confirmed that the pace was indeed 13:30. I told him that was how fast I can walk on pavement for 6  to 8 miles. I anticipated that I would have to start running on the next segment because it would no longer be a walking pace and told the tech and cardiologist so. Um, did I mention that I was only wearing hospital supplied socks on my feet? Well, that’s akin to barefoot running which I’ve never done on the street or the treadmill. But run barefoot on the treadmill I did, knowing it would only last for 3 minutes and hoping I don’t tear my bad inner ankle tendons. The pace was probably only 6 MPH but it sure felt close to 6.5. Heck I haven’t run 10 minutes per miles since I don’t know when! At least I surprised the tech about my knowledge of pace based on my perceived effort J.  Before I could catch my breath, it was back on the bed for a post walk/run echocardiogram. I jokingly asked the tech if I could do another 18 minutes on the treadmill so I can put in my minimum workout for the day. It felt so good to walk fast then run on the treadmill even though it only lasted a few minutes.

My cardiologist cleared me for discharge after the treadmill stress test. I’m glad that my labs (other than the cholesterol level), cardiac ultrasound, and treadmill stress tests indicated that my heart is ok. However, I am still having some discomfort on my chest, neck and trapezius areas which might be muscular pain or stress. And darn, that nitroglycerine headache lasted for 3 days!

Someone from the hospital called at about 1 p.m. last Monday. I thought they were just calling to follow up and ask how I was doing. Well, she identified herself as a patient account representative. That didn’t sound good. That usually means that I owe them some money and how right I was. I was informed that I indeed owed $100 for the ER visit. What I understood from my insurance coverage was that if I was admitted, the ER fee is waived. Sylvia explained to me that if I was admitted, my co-pay would have been $250 but since the doctor only ordered an “observaton”, that counted as an ER visit. So the hospital was actually billing me for a lower rate. Just to make sure, I asked if the rest of my tests, meds and treatments were covered. She said yes. I told her that when I heard the words “patient account representative”, I started having chest pain again, then I laughed with her. Well, there goes my credit card getting another workout to pay for another ER visit. And I even haven’t paid off my Korean Airlines bill yet. Oh my…, I can hardly wait for the Long Beach Fire Department ambulance bill to arrive(yes, you have to pay for those too). I don’t even know if that’s covered by insurance. And what about my traffic ticket? Still waiting for that fine too, most likely about 500 dollars.

Lastly, I don’t remember ever riding in an ambulance here in the U.S. before other than when my job requires me to escort a patient aboard. One time I was in an ambulance as a patient was in 1972 when I was being transported from the Manila domestic airport to Capitol Medical Center to have my fractured ankle treated. Ok, I just remembered something. I think it was 1983 when I got hit by a car coming out of a driveway while I was riding my bike. The paramedics might have transported me to the hospital in their ambulance at that time too.

Well, that’s it folks. I hope I don’t have to write about another hospital stay any time soon.

To read part 1 and the rest of this hospital visit click the links below:

http://aboutlifeandrunning.blogspot.com/2012/08/notes-on-my-recent-hospital-stay-part-1.html

http://aboutlifeandrunning.blogspot.com/2012/08/prior-to-911-call.html

http://aboutlifeandrunning.blogspot.com/2012/08/another-visit-to-emergency-room.html

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Notes On My Recent Hospital Stay - Part 1

If I didn't survive my recent hospital stay, my headstone might have said "Here Lies Noel. He died of boredom while in the hospital". Fortunately I was able to find things to occupy me. Finding out that wi-fi was available in the emergency room and throughout the hospital certainly helped, and to my surprise, Facebook wasn't blocked and the wi-fi didn't cut you off after a certain amount of time. At my job, a lot of websites are blocked including Facebook and the wi-fi cuts you off after half an hour. Posting on FB and getting responses certainly kept me occupied and entertained. Although being hospitalized is not an ideal bloggable moment, writing about it helped pass the time.
One of the blood tests that was done was the lipid panel. Although my triglycerides were low, my HDL cholesterol had gone down while the LDL had gone up. Total cholesterol had gone down 9 points from 229 to 220 since last February. Still, an LDL of 138 was worrisome so I asked the doctor if it was time for me to start taking a statin medication. Even modifying my diet since last February hasn't helped with the LDL. I’ve tried Niacin and Red Yeast Rice to lower my cholesterol in addition to not eating fried chicken, hamburgers and ice cream anymore, but they didn't seem to have much of an effect. Beans, barley, brown rice, and an increase in fiber intake hasn't helped either. I don't know if the decrease in my running and the subsequent increase in abdominal fat is related to the cholesterol problem. Well my cardiologist did prescribe generic Lipitor. I did some checking online about how much they cost. Generic Lipitor in the U.S. is about $130 for a month’s supply if you don’t have insurance. In the Philippines it’s about $11.25 (according to mom). Whoa! I thought that since the generic form became available late last year, the price would have dropped significantly compared to the real Lipitor. With insurance I would only have to pay $15 but that is still more than triple of what I pay for my blood pressure medications. A thought occurred to me: can an Atorvastatin pill be split? Well, it’s not scored (a line that sometimes is placed in the middle of a pill), but with a good tablet splitter, it can be done properly. I’ve been prescribed 40 mg. so next time I’m going to ask the doctor for 80 mg. pills.
When I was transferred from the  ER to the telemetry unit I noticed something that might have been a change in nursing policy. They used to automatically at least give you a pitcher of water and a glass so you can hydrate unless it’s contraindicated. I guess they don’t give those out anymore unless you ask for them. But then again I was NPO (no food or drink until after all tests are done) so that’s probably the reason. I did have to ask for a toothbrush and toothpaste. I was hooked up to a Holter monitor for the duration of my stay. I noticed that the monitor is now about 2/3rds of its previous size. From my experience of being hospitalized for a night more than 10 years ago, I vowed that next time that happens I’m going to bring earplugs. Well, I forgot to do so, thus I didn't get much sleep with all the beeping of machines and alarms on the unit.
There was a delay on my cardiac ultrasound (echocardiogram) and treadmill stress test. They were not done until mid afternoon. If they were done in the morning, I would have been discharged by noontime.
Part 2 to follow

Prior To The 911 Call

While I'm waiting for the radiology people to pick me up for my echocardiogram and stress test, I might as well tell you about how this hospitalization came to be. I wasn't doing anything strenuous, I was only watching a video (Bachelorettes, I think, with Kristen Dunst, et al). The pain was initially mild, like a slight burning sensation on my chest, which I hoped would disappear in a few minutes. I didn't know what was causing the pain and as time went on without relief and with the symptoms seemingly getting worst, plus my occasional dizziness striking at the same time, I started thinking about the possibility of calling 911. I live by myself and didn't want to be found much later possibly dead just because I was trying diagnose myself. It didn't help that I was becoming more anxious as time went on. First I took an aspirin, chewed it, then called 911. Then while waiting for the paramedics to show up, I gathered what I had to bring to the hospital because I was sure that with a complaint of chest pain, I would end up in the emergency room. I got my wallet, keys, and a Men's Health magazine. Can you consider that picking that last last item ironic? Anyway I traded the magazine for this Asus tablet I'm typing on, on my way out the door. Good thing too because that magazine would not have lasted very long in the ER. Besides I've been able to keep in touch with all of you on Facebook.
Well I hope the radiology people show up soon because I'm all tapped out of things to write about and I'm getting bored too. I'd rather have a very slow one hour run than an excruciating wait here in my hospital room. Thanks for all your well wishes my friends.

p.s. My room is located in 2 East Unit which is now a telemetry unit. I used to work in this unit 10 years ago when it was still a dual diagnosis psych unit called New Beginnings. I hope when I get discharged, I will have happy endings.

Another Visit To The Emergency Room

Well here I am in the Lakewood Regional Medical Center Emergency Department and a code blue has just been called. I jokingly asked the nurse if it was for me. It is 7:53 pm now and I've been here since about 4:30. At about 2:30 p.m. today I started feeling some chest discomfort at home. I was hoping it would resolve itself thinking it was just the heat getting to me. After an hour passed, I started thinking about calling 911. When the pain intensified and I started getting dizzy and anxious, I chewed an asprin tablet and finally dialed the number. I don't know how long it took for the paramedics to get to me but it must not have been more than 5 minutes. Update on the code blue which is in the bed next to mine. They just pronounced her death.
So about 6 firemen/paramedics showed up, asked me a few questions, hooked me up to the EKG machine, and evaluated me.They said just to make sure, they were going to take me to the emergency room. I told them that the hospital that my doctor sees me is Lakewood Regional. I was able to walk myself to the gurney downstairs where the medics strapped me in. My neighbors who saw me were probably wondering what happened to this guy who exercises every day? Oh, the medics were asking me about my marathon medals and my PR and the one who was in the ambulance said he ran his first marathon [L.A.] two years ago and finished in3:25. He was trying to qualify for Boston but his BQ time is 3:10. Before he left me in the ER, I suggested that he join Runner's High club if he lives in Long Beach and wants to get faster. He said he might consider it since he trained in his own to get that 3:25 first marathon.
Here in the ER they did the usual EKG, chest x-ray, and blood tests. To pass the time I read one of the free books I downloaded from Amazon Kindle. Oh I forgot, I still had the presence of mind to ask the medics if I could bring my tablet PC because being in an ER can be very boring and they said yes. What surprised me was that the hospital wi-fi extended to the ER. Imagine, Facebooking in ER. Almost ridiculous.
Four hours after admission, the doctor notified me that there was a mild abnormality with the EKG so they are going to admit me to the telemetry unit for observation. My cardiac enzymes were ok but my red blood cell count and hemoglobin was slightly low.
My best guess or hope anyway is that the combination of muscular chest pain from lifting weights plus the heat plus the anxiety they caused is the reason for this attack and not heart disease. It doesn't help that I haven't been sleeping too well lately either.
Well that's it for now and I'll update as time goes on.

No Longer a Traffic Ticket Virgin

Was it rotten luck or has the law of averages finally caught up with me? Well maybe it was just the law catching up with me. Last Monday morning as I was driving home from the store, I suddenly heard a siren and when I looked at my rear view mirror, a police car had followed me.  I pulled over right away, turned off the engine and radio and waited for the officer to approach. He motioned for me to lower my side window and I greeted him good morning. He said that I did not stop at the red light when I made a right turn at the major intersection I just came from. Here is my version of the circumstances: I was following a car ahead of me, paused briefly before making the right turn, and after seeing the north/south cars were making their left turns because they had the green left turn traffic lights, I figured it was safe to proceed. I didn’t argue this point with the officer of course. He asked me for my license and insurance card. I thought he was just going to check the information on his computer and was hoping that he was only going to give me a warning after finding out that I have no prior violations. No such luck. He came back and asked me if I had any recent tickets and I said I never had one. He then asked me to sign the ticket and gave me a copy. I said “wow, my first ticket ever!”. When I asked him if he knew how much the ticket would cost, he said he didn’t but that it shouldn’t take off points from my license and my insurance wouldn’t increase. When I got home, I looked up what violation I was ticketed for and it was indeed for not stopping at a red light which was an infraction under the California Vehicle Code. The base fine for the ticket is $100 but with court costs and other fees tacked on, the total would reach close to $500 if not more. Good heavens, that’s a 400 percent increase! With the money I need for my visit to the Philippines and what I can give to help supplement my mother’s care, I’m bleeding cash at the moment. Donations accepted here (just kidding). In the meantime, I’ve been gun shy about driving. I’ve been trying to drive the speed limit, stopping at red lights before making a right turn, and looking around to check for lurking police cars.

                I’ve been checking the Los Angeles Superior Court website and so far my citation number hasn’t been logged yet and I still haven’t received my courtesy letter from the court, therefore I still don’t know what the total fine will be. This violation has violated me – I’m no longer a traffic ticket virgin.

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Three Weeks Missing

Yipee! After a 32 minute hill walk on the treadmill at 10% incline, I ran for 18 minutes on 1% incline thus completing a 50 minute workout last Thursday morning. It has been about three weeks since I injured my left thigh while out for what was supposed to be 12 mile run (http://aboutlifeandrunning.blogspot.com/2012/07/arec-training-7-7-12-oops-something.html). My very conservative rehab plan was not to start running again until the pain was gone, but sometimes plans go awry. A week after the initial injury, I tweaked it while exercising on the recumbent bike when I tried pedaling on a heavy gear. A week later the thigh felt as if was healing pretty well until I did a weight training workout called the clean and press. Wait, is that weight training or dry cleaning? Anyway, on the fourth set of the clean and press lift which of course involves the legs too, I felt a violent spasm on the healing muscle and fell backwards because of the pain. Fortunately my bed was right behind me and it made for a soft landing. With that spasm, it brought me back to square one. I had my thigh wrapped at work all night and developed contact dermatitis from it. With luck, we didn't have to chase any psych patients around that night.

I started hill walking on the treadmill just a few days ago as part of my rehab.  Previously I could only do the recumbent and spinning bikes on light gears and couldn't even use the stairstepper because of the pain. Today the pain is almost gone but still lurking. I can now do slow non-jerky squats on body weight. I might try running on pavement in the next few days and see how it feels and hope I don’t aggravate the muscle again. For now, I’m still missing from AREC training. Darn, I couldn’t even chat with my newly met running buddies L.

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Clueless About The Logistics of Air Travel To The Philippines

Well, this is it. The flights have been reserved and tickets bought. All I have to do is pack my bags and go. Well, after I make an additional booking for the airport shuttle. Why do I have to make this trip? This is not a vacation and I’ll be in and out in less than a week not counting travel time. I’m going to be visiting my ailing mother in the Philippines (more on this later) whom I haven’t seen since my father’s funeral. Before all the airline bookings, I learned quite a few things.

 I don’t travel very much. In fact the last time was 11 years ago and before 9-11. Oh boy, have things changed and I’ve been struck clueless. First I discovered that there is hardly if any ticket price difference between using a travel agent, internet sites like Kayak or Expedia, or an airlines’ website. It used to be you could get the discounted bulk rates through a travel agent. Nowadays those prices are all over the web. In the U.S, the law now requires that all advertised prices must include taxes and fees, which I think is good so you know what your real total is. For example, the ticket I bought cost $630 before taxes and fees and $1070 after. That even includes a fuel surcharge fee. There is no similar law in the Philippines however. When I was researching prices, I was able to find a much reduced one way promo rate for one of the domestic airlines there. Much to my surprise, the taxes and fees cost more than the promo rate. We’re not even talking about the terminal fee that the airports require you to pay at the gate. You cannot prepay that one.

I didn’t get the lowest possible plane fare because I had to consider the logistics of my travel. The cheapest fare required an overnight stay in Hawaii both coming and going and if you have to stay in a hotel, that expense eliminates what you save on the plane fare. Other lower fares involved long layovers – as much as 12 hours, between Manila and my destination which is Zamboanga. So I had to find something with a layover of about  4 hours. I’m just hoping none of the flights are delayed so I don’t miss my connections.

Then there are these other optional cost considerations: baggage fee other than what you carry on, seat choice fee, travel insurance fee, excess baggage fee. It’s almost like getting a mortgage with all these fees!

Buying the Los Angeles to Manila ticket was no problem. I booked directly through the Korean Airlines website which quoted the same price as Kayak.com and the travel agent I talked to. Booking the domestic flight via the Cebu Pacific website was more problematic. By the way, the reason why I did two separate bookings instead of having a travel website figure it all out is because you can find cheaper domestic fares that way and a flight time that may be more advantageous to your schedule. That all looks good on paper and in perfect world without flight delays. So back to the Cebu Pacific booking. I entered all the necessary information and everything was okay until I tried paying for it with my U.S. credit card. Their system was not able to process the transaction. I tried another credit card with the same result and even tried paying in pesos with the credit card company doing the conversion (the credit card company conversion was a few dollars lesser). No cigar on any of my attempts. Meanwhile  the credit card company alerted me for possible fraudulent activities via email and I had to call them to let them know that I indeed made those transactions. I really wanted to get that promo rate before it sold out and since my brother lives in the Philippines, I asked him a favor of booking the domestic flights for me.  He was able to take care of that easily since he was very familiar with the system there. Much thanks again Larry J. Oh, and he also alerted me to the fact that the Ninoy Aquino International Airport now has three terminals. I only knew of one last time I was there. Thanks to the internet, I found out the layout of the three terminals and how to get from one to the other. So that takes care of all the flying concerns. I haven’t even started yet and boy, do my arms already feel tired (old bad joke).

The last time I traveled to the Philippines, I didn’t have to concern myself about charging electronic items because I didn’t have any. With at least a cellphone and a netbook I plan to bring, and owing to my clueless nature, I thought I had to bring a transformer or power converter too. Wrong on that count. I checked with the president of our running club who travels a lot and he enlightened me to the fact that the chargers that come with electronic devices nowadays have built in converters. Indeed when I checked the very fine print on these chargers with a magnifying lens, I saw that they could be used between 100 to 240 volts. That’s one less thing to worry about and I don’t even have to bring plug adapters since the Philippines uses the same two prong plugs that the U.S. does.

I think I might still have a dollar’s worth in Philippine pesos lying around. And now it’s time to dig out my old suitcase, passport, and review the TSA guidelines…

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What Has Gotten Me Running Again

So what has been going on in the past two years as far as running is concerned? Since I reached 10 miles last Saturday, what had I done differently? This is a brief accounting of what has happened. It was just two years ago when I gave up running and I actually bought a road bike to try to make cycling my main aerobic workout. Now and then I would make a foray into running but inconsistently. I even joined a walking club but they walked too slowly and I couldn’t find someone with the same pace as mine. After a summer of cycling in 2010, I didn’t take the bike out again because I found spinning indoors or using the recumbent bike, and even just walking uphill on the treadmill made for a more efficient aerobic workout and didn’t take a lot of time like riding on the roads did. During the times I tried running again, I always felt that my fitness level for the activity was close to what it was before and I tended to push the pace to reach that level. The result of course is making the condition of my ankle tendons worse. It was a vicious cycle.

So what changed this year? Let me think… pace, that’s it! Letting go of the pressure of trying to run as hard as I can. Accepting that being slow is ok, that running slowly is better than none. That and decreasing the number of times I run per week to two so the ankle tendons can recovery over 3 or 4 days. An evolution in stride change also helps. After making a conscious effort to alter it, I can now sometimes subconsciously run with a new but slower stride. Whenever I find myself going back to my natural stride, I pull back because that is the one that causes my ankle tendons to overstretch. It’s the push off of the foot that does it. My new stride is shorter and pulls from the front. Those explanations may be simplistic but it took a long time realizing them and those are what work at the present time.

I can’t assume that everything is now hunky dory because I was able to complete 10 miles. There are no hard and fast answers. With stage II and III PTTD (posterior tibialis tendon dysfunction), disaster can strike at any time with a tendon rupture just by taking an unfortunate misstep. I’m only taking it one run at a time – a midweek short run and the AREC training run on the weekend. Not an ideal training schedule and not something you will find in any training program. Well, that’s okay because I’m not training for anything anyway. It’s just exercise.

Other notes on the past 6 or 7 weeks of being able to run: A happy consequence of this twice a week activity? I noticed in the shower that I was  getting my running tan lines again. Since I’ve had these injuries, I no longer have balance if I try to stand on one leg. Whenever I put pants on, I have to hold on to something or lean on a wall. My stride, if you can call it that, feels more like a quarter lunge.

So everything was going well from mid-May to the first week of July when this happened: Oops, Something Happened On The Way to 12 Miles

I’m off the roads again trying to make my left thigh muscle recover. So far I can only do light gears on the stationary bikes without pain. Well, it was a good 7 weeks while it lasted.

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AREC Training 7-7-12: Oops, Something Happened On The Way To 12 Miles

Still OK past 1 mile

Well, I was writing about how I got back on the road and started running again the last few weeks, eventually culminating with a 10 miler last weekend, then as suddenly as I seemed to be getting better, disaster struck on the way to 12 miles this week, perhaps jinxed by what I was writing about. So what happened? Did I tweak one or both of my perpetually injured ankles? Did that developing knee pain from last week get worse? No and no. I consider this more of a freak injury and the same type on the left leg that stopped my every day running streak of 21 years several years ago. It seems to be a deep tissue muscular strain on the outer left thigh just below the hip that happened for no apparent reason. I wasn’t pushing the pace, or pounding the ground too hard, or bounding up 6^th Street hill at about 3 ½ miles when I felt it. I was actually having a decent run up to that point. One moment I’m telling pregnant Ellen “walking pace, right?”, and urging the walking Kenny (or Tenny) to continue running up the hill, then the next moment pain struck. A normal or sane person would have stopped and walked at that point but since I’m neither, I continued running hoping to work the kink out. Based on previous experience though, I knew it wasn’t going to happen, but still I pressed on until the pain became too sharp and unbearable at about 6 ½ miles. So I sputtered and walked back to the finish using a short cut on the course.

Just smiling for the camera at about 5 1/2 miles but I was already in excruciating pain

Since AREC training started this year, I’ve been running with other people, but last Saturday I did not.  In retrospect, I should have stayed back and ran with someone rather than going on my own. There was just too much separation between me and the next runner ahead that I should have pulled back and made the pace a lot more conservative.

So how bad is it? The thigh hurts even just pressing on the clutch while driving and it’s going to hurt like the dickens when I do my cycling workouts. Certainly it will keep me off the roads for at least 2 to 6 weeks. It almost never surprises me any more when I get injured because that’s been my history in at least the last 5 years. It surprised me more that I ran 10 miles last week.

The Aftermath: Thigh bound in elastic bandage and ankles braced.

 Despite the protracted run and the weeks of rehab ahead, I’m still I’m grateful to have had 6 or 7 good weeks of running and met new people in the process. Old and new running buddies, please forgive me if I’ve gone missing and you don’t see me on the roads any time soon, but like a bad rash, I’ll be back.

p.s. I’ll post the blog about my running comeback (the one that caused the jinx) after this one.

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AREC Training 6-30-12 : Elation At 10 Miles

I’m Sexy Happy and I Know It - LMFAO

Can I run 10 miles? Should I be running 10 miles? I don’t need to run 10 miles.  I just ran 10 miles. For long distance runners, 10 miles is just a medium distance run. For a perpetually injured former long distance runner, 10 miles is more than what I can imagine being able to do. Heck, I’m not even training for any long distance race. So why did I run 10 miles? For the simple reason of being with people who enjoy the same thing I do.

I  was  very wary going out on Saturday’s run. Two years ago, the last time I ran 10 miles, I injured my right calf and was laid off from running for weeks. Last year, I didn’t even make it to 10. After running 9 miles, my ankles were shot and didn’t recover for awhile. After last week’s 9 miler, I felt some pain behind my left knee which migrated to the front a couple of days afterwards. It felt as if my knee had gone off track. Although I didn’t feel any pain during my sole mid-week short run, it still felt wobbly all week. Saturday’s run was going to be another test of my new strategy of not pushing the pace with my altered stride.

 I wore the singlet (tanktop) that I bought last week and ran in it for the first time. There were seams in the chest area and I was hoping that once the sweat starts flowing, it would lubricate the area and not cause chafing. It did not. That was one less thing to worry about. Before we started, I told Jennifer that we should pace with Bhavanna but she took off at the start and by the first mile Jen and I were already at least 45 seconds off her pace. We didn’t catch her until mile two and that was not because we picked up the pace but because she slowed down. Perhaps she just started out too fast. Ah, these young'uns are gonna learn pacing soon enough.

I hadn’t eaten anything substantial since 4 p.m. the day before so I felt I was not fueled adequately for the run, so I resolved to at least take some energy drinks at the water stations. Meanwhile, Jen was training herself in consuming energy gels while on the run. She is training for her first half marathon but she is already following the full marathon training distance (half marathoners were only supposed to do 6 miles). Her husband Mike who is supposed to have arthroscopic knee surgery in a month’s time had to make do with a 6 mile run/walk. Jen told me he usually runs around 8:40 pace. So we chatted about running, work, mom, life in general, while I gasped for breath after every other sentence. Oh, I shouldn’t forget to thank Tam P. and Jaymi C. for doling out water and Powerade at the 7 mile water station. I partook of their offerings coming and going. That helped a lot in refueling me. I don’t know the name of the lady at the 3 mile water station, but thanks to her too. It was about 7 miles that I felt my left knee hurting a little (the one that was not tracking properly all week), and a mile thereafter I started feeling the strain of the extra distance on my bad ankle tendons. I began to question my sanity for even thinking of attempting to cover 10 miles. With Jen providing a steady pace, I pressed on somewhat comforted with the fact that in slightly over 20 minutes, we would be done. I’ve done this course countless times in the past and I know for a fact that it’s slightly short of 10 miles. We had to rely on Jen’s new GPS watch at the end and ran another 2/10^th’s of a mile past the finish line to complete the full 10 miles. On one hand it’s exciting to be able to run that far, on the other, a concern arises on what further damage it may have done on the ankle tendons and the left knee. We shall find out how I recover in the next few days. In the mean time, please allow me to revel in my unforeseen achievement. Next week it’s supposed to be 12 miles. Oh my…

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Random Thoughts for Spring 2012 - Ticks, C rings, Axles

No, not these kind of ticks

When I used to have the newspaper delivered at home, it would be late occasionally. To my surprise this happens with electronic delivery too. I received an email notifying me that the electronic version was ready to read at 12:35 p.m. when I usually get that email at about 6 a.m. Even though the email came late though, the electronic paper was already available at 5 a.m. I was just surprised at how late the email notification came.

Southern California Edison gave me an Amazon gift card for participating in a remote monitoring system for electricity use. What was required was to remain in the program for 3 months. Just as I was about to contact them about it when the 3 month period passed, the gift card came in the mail. It was only for $10 but hey, I’ll take a free 10 bucks any day. So what did I use it for? I’ve always had this tick problem at home and I needed something with no ticks so I could sleep better. So I bought a quiet sweep clock with the Amazon gift card. Now I have a clock that’s quiet and doesn’t tick. Ha! I bet you thought I had bugs in my house!

As part of our admission process in the hospital, we inventory the belongings of patients when they come in. This includes clothing, money, credit cards, and other paraphernalia. Not seeing him wearing a watch, ring, necklace or bracelet, I asked a male patient if he was wearing any jewelry or piercings underneath his clothes. He mentioned that he had a ring in his private area but he was not going to show it to me. I said “It’s okay, I’ll take your word for it”. I didn’t even use the metal detector wand that we have for fear that the magnet would make the ring rise. Does that count as a jewel in his family jewels?

I finally had the broken front axles on my car replaced at a greater than expected reduced cost by going to my neighborhood mechanic which was recommended by my neighborhood smog check station. Thank goodness because other mechanics were quoting me hundreds more. The wobble in my brakes have even subsided significantly after the axle replacement. I asked if they also do ankle replacements. They don’t, so I’ll have to wobble on mine for the rest of my life.

Would you believe that since I turned 55 a few weeks ago I started looking at what Leisure World and Laguna Woods have to offer? Just in case you don’t know, those are retirement communities near Long Beach for people over 55.

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AREC Training - June 23, 2012 : Arthroscopy, Pregnancy, Euthanasia, etc.

With a heavy heart due to hearing about my mother’s health, I left home to join AREC for a run that I hoped would lighten my spirits and relieve my angst. If you told me 6 weeks ago that I will be running 9 miles by today, I’d would have told you that you’re nuts. Then I’ll tell you that I would be nuts to try doing it. Well it turns out you are not crazy after all but I may be.

Before the run, one of the AREC members was selling new blue AREC team tank tops. I tried the men’s small size over my t-shirt but it felt tight. Before trying the medium, I asked Kevin if I could try on the small without the shirt underneath and he agreed. Voila! The tank top fit perfectly so I bought it. Really, I don’t know why I would buy one. I have a yellow one from years past that I rarely wear because as you know I don’t participate in races any more. I guess I’ll have to wear them on my rare routine runs instead.

I encountered Mike and Jennifer on my warm up jog to the rest room and found out the unfortunate news that Mike would need arthroscopic knee surgery to repair a torn meniscus. He will miss the Long Beach half marathon but it will still be a go for his wife Jennifer whom I ran with the previous week. After I took that short warm up jog to and from the bathroom, I felt that it might be a good day for running.

At the start of the run, I stuck behind Dona and Bhavana (the nurse whose name I forgot two weeks ago). We hit the first mile at almost exactly 10 minute pace which may have been a little too fast for my comfort. Fortunately they seemed to have eased it shortly thereafter. At two miles I took a little hop on my right foot because I felt a twinge in my left ankle. I thought I had tweaked it, but luckily it was just a misstep and didn’t get any worse. When we hit the water station at about three miles, I saw Jennifer and Ellen just a few steps behind so I joined them after the water break. I ran with Ellen once two years ago and she had gotten married since then. It was during last Saturday’s run that I heard the joyous news that she was expecting a baby. I hardly noticed the slight baby bump. Her doctor gave her permission to run as long as she did it at a pace that she can talk without being breathless. Well, that does it! I can never get pregnant because I need the breathless experience that working out gives me. Well, being the wrong gender helps. With Ellen’s non breathless running, the topics of conversation between her, Jennifer, and I ranged from their birthdays, their significant others’ birthdays, and mine which I announced that I was now officially a senior citizen, to learning that Ellen worked in the fashion industry (something that didn’t come up two years ago). Other things discussed were eye doctors, dermatologists, primary care physicians, death and dying. On that last topic, we talked about end of life care and euthanasia. I won’t expound on that because we touched on some personal matters and preferences.

 All that talking took us to just short of the last mile where Ellen had to walk briefly to catch her breath. I don’t think it was the running that caused her to be briefly breathless, but the talking. So Jennifer and I went ahead. When I turned my head around to check on Ellen, I saw that Dona and Bhavana had caught up with her and she resumed running. The course was slightly short of 9 miles so I asked Jennifer if she wanted to turn around and join the pack of three who were only slightly behind us. We did that for a couple of hundred meters until we reached that last hill (2^nd Street Bridge). Jennifer started picking up the pace going up and I tucked behind her before launching a counter attack. I risked life and limb (well, not life) attacking that last hill. That unwise move could have overstretched my ankle tendons again and I would have been out of running for months again. When I peaked the bridge, I eased up and didn’t attempt to roll down the other side like I used to in the past. With about 200 meters to go, Jennifer said let’s pick up the pace and finish strong. In years past, I may have taken up her challenge but this time I declined. I already took a big risk attacking that last hill hoping my ankles would hold up, so that was enough pushing for the day for me. I then returned to Dona, Bhavana, and Ellen, and finished the run with them.

                There should be no more surprises about running for me since I’ve been doing it for more than 30 years, however nowadays, every running step I make surprises me. In this case, 9 miles of steps.

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Trickle Down Technical Running Clothes Update

Legacy Running Company (photo courtesy of Tam P. Thanks again Tam :)

          I mentioned the Legacy Running Company in my last post where after our run last Saturday, the owner did a presentation on choosing the proper running shoes. This is a relatively new store which used to be a Taco Bell years ago and incidentally is just steps away from where Runner's High store used to be. The owner, Tom has a long history of owning running shoe stores so he definitely knows what he's talking about. This post has nothing to do with shoes however. A couple of weeks ago, there was a sale on C9 (by Champion) technical running tank tops at Target in the boy’s department. I first tried the medium, then large and after finding those a little too binding, the extra large. The final choice fit me just about right so I bought two of them. Cost = $9.00 each. I stopped by Walmart afterwards to buy some deodorant and noticed their Starter brand (did you know that this company is owned by Nike?) technical t-shirts and tank tops but this time in the adult section. The adult small size fit me just right. Prices? $5.47 for the t-shirt and $8.47 for the tank top. There are slight differences between the C9 and Starter tank tops though. The C9 feels a little tight on the neck while the Starter has a skosh more room in the neck and armpit areas and seemed to dry a little bit faster after being hand washed, wrung, and put on a hanger indoors. The neck tightness of the C9 could possibly be attributed to them being children’s sizes.

Men's Starter muscle tee from Walmart =  $8.47

Boy's C9 muscle tee from Target = $9.00


          A couple of years ago, I blogged about my trickle-down theory regarding technical running wear. In it I mentioned that a couple of years after the major brands come up with the latest technical products, stores like Target and Walmart come up with very similar ones for much less cost. Case in point: while browsing the tank tops at the Legacy Running Company last Saturday, I saw that the Nike tank tops were being sold for $33 while the t-shirts went for $30 (!!!). When I bought those similar products a couple of weeks prior, I thought maybe the major brands were selling them for around $20. That just shows you how long it’s been since I’ve visited a specialty running shoe store. Can you say sticker shock? For someone who is on a very tight budget like me, those prices are just not an option. Another thing I noticed is that there seems to be a trend back to traditional cut tank tops instead of the muscle type singlets of recent years. You may have to wait another couple of years for this style to trickle down to department stores. Or if you are inclined, you can find similar cuts in the female sections of Target and Walmart, if males are brave enough to wear the feminine colors. Isn't it amazing, or perhaps sobering that the cost of technical shirts are now approaching of what running shoes in the early 80's used to cost?

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On The Run, The Shyness Is Gone

A Running Experience Club Training - June 9, 2012 (photo courtesy of club president Dave K.)

By nature I’m an introvert. Grade school and high school parties? Wallflower. Senior prom? Didn’t attend and even forgot that there was one. Partying and clubbing? Not for me. I have a hard time approaching , introducing myself, and talking to people. That is until I’m out running with them. What alcohol does to loosen other people’s tongues, running does to me. Running with others exhilarates me.

I didn’t get a chance to blog about last week’s AREC training run. I guess I was too exhilarated to compose it. Besides, I got invited by my cousin to watch the Pacquiao/Bradley fight at her house so I was gone for most of the day. Anyway, it was a 7 mile run and I finally got a chance to talk briefly with one of the runners from Train4autism. I asked her how the program worked and she said she just signed up but hasn’t had the opportunity to raise any funds yet. She even wasn’t sure what the requirements were. I also got to talk with someone named Aileen who joined the 12 minutes per mile pace group and found out she does boot camp fitness training every Monday, Wednesday, and Friday in addition to running on those days. Sounds like a hard core fitness enthusiast to me. I ran with her until the three mile mark and when we reached the water station there, I went ahead on my own. About a mile later I caught up with an old friend, Dona who was supposed to be pacing the 10 minutes per mile group, however there were only two of them. Since I have long lost my sense of pace, I’m not sure anymore if they were really doing 10 minutes per mile. Nevertheless it was nice to hang with them for the last three miles. Dona’s companion was a young lady of Indian descent whose name escapes me now (I’m so poor at remembering names). I mistook her for one of the Train4autism runners because she was wearing a baby blue shirt. It turns out she was a nurse who works at UCLA Medical Center so we talked about nursing stuff. So these two ladies led me to finish the 7 miler, then I ran back about a hundred yards to pick up Aileen and bring her to the finish.

Flash forward to this week’s AREC run. We met at a different location close to a relatively new running shoe store – Legacy Running Company, which was about 4 miles from where I live. The owner was going to give some running shoe advice after the run which we have been doing every year but at a different store. The run course were just a simple 2 loops around the park for the 6 milers and 2 ½ loops for the 8 milers (this was to minimize crossing too many traffic lights). Well darn, I couldn’t find the pace leaders I usually run with at the start because some people were running on the grass while others followed the bike/pedestrian path, and I got concerned that I may have to run by myself. No chance of that happening of course with all the people running. It was just a matter of finding someone with a similar pace. The problem was I was running faster than 12 minute pace and I was either going to be in oxygen debt soon or tweak my ankles. I managed to draft behind a couple of baby blue shirted Train4autism runners and we chatted briefly, then at about the 1 mile mark I caught up with a lady who had passed me earlier so I ran with her the rest of the way. Her name was Jennifer and she and her husband Mike were training with us. Unfortunately Mike had injured his knee and wasn’t running that day. He was scheduled for an MRI at noon. Jennifer was in pharmaceuticals (the legal kind), so just like the previous week with the nurse, we talked about medical stuff. All that chatting helped a lot though because some of the streets were angled so much not to mention that the pace was much faster than what I’ve been running the past several weeks, that my left ankle started to hurt. The last mile tested the limits of my cardiovascular and tendon endurance. Thanks to this lady, I finished an almost 8 mile tempo pace run J.

So there it is. Pre-run and post run, I’m mostly quiet as a dormouse, but once my legs get moving my lips start flapping. I may not be able to run as much as before but I’m still able to run my mouth when I’m running.

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Reasons Why Manny Pacquiao Lost

Inadequate warm up due to watching the Miami/Boston basketball game.

Should have asked WGWG Phillip(ines) Phillips to sing the Star Spangled Banner instead of Jessica Sanchez.

The judges were pissed off for having to wait for him to start the fight so he could watch the NBA.

After being awarded the win against Marquez in a bout many agree he lost (including Flips), karma happened.

The Tiger Woods effect: all downhill after being discovered by wife that he was having extracurricular or extramarital activities. He was lucky that Jinkee didn’t clobber him with one of her hundreds of Louis Vuitton bags a la golf club by Elin on Tiger.

As you can see, I’m no boxing expert so that’s all I have to say about that.

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National Running Day and the IRS

Unbelievable, I went to bed at 11 p.m. Friday and was already awake at 2:30 a.m. Saturday.  After lying in bed for another half hour and unable to fall back to sleep, I thought I might as well get up and finish this post which I started writing last Wednesday.

Wednesday, June 6^th was National Running Day but running was not even on my schedule that day because I decided to take a few extra days off since my ankles were still hurting from the three hour birthday walk the previous week. That all changed after I opened my mailbox and found a letter from the almighty IRS. So on National Running Day I dealt with an audit notice from the Internal Revenue Service. How did you spend yours? What does one have to do with the other? Well, other than most people trying to run as far away as possible from the IRS, nothing whatsoever.

Basically, this is what the letter said: please send us a check for $32,800 if you agree with this audit for tax year 2010. Good heavens, I don’t even make that much in a year! So I kept on reading and saw what they said was additional income I had in 2010. Due to the recession which started in 2008, I lost a lot of money in the stock market and moved my regular IRA and Roth IRA to safer bank CD’s which were still earning a decent yield at that time. Well, those retirement CD’s matured in 2010 so I closed my account from this particular bank and immediately brought the checks to another bank with a not so decent interest rate (but slightly better than the previous bank). I opened the same type of retirement accounts – regular and Roth IRA’s so I would not be penalized by the IRS. Their rules state that you have to rollover these types of accounts within 60 days or you would be taxed for the extra income and given an additional penalty of 10% for early withdrawal of a retirement plan. The earliest you can withdraw without being charged the 10% penalty is when you turn 59 ½ years old. I certainly met the 60 day rule since I rolled over the money within 30 minutes of getting the checks.

So this is how my National Running Day started – by digging out my 2010 income tax return, bank statements from that year, copies of the check stubs from the bank I withdrew the money from, and printouts showing me opening accounts of the same type in the new bank. In my 2010 tax return, I indicated this amount in line 11a as a rollover. Apparently this was not enough for the IRS since the previous bank sent them a notice required by law that I withdrew that amount. To the IRS auditors, this just came out as extra income which brought my tax bracket to what for me was the stratosphere. For what they are trying to collect from me, I can’t even imagine what kind of annual income I would have to make. I was given approximately a month to respond to the audit and if I was not a meticulous record keeper, I might have been up sh*t creek trying to contact a couple of banks to get copies of the paperwork because that would have taken time and money. Believe me, they charge you fees for just about everything nowadays. Well, to make a long story short, I found all the supporting paperwork, made copies of them, called the IRS to verify that those were adequate, and typed up a letter of explanation for the discrepancy.

I can see how this happens though. The bank you close your account from is required to report the withdrawal to the IRS while the next bank where you deposit the check doesn’t have to. You will have to do it yourself which I did on line 11a and marked it as a rollover, but apparently, the humans and computers of the IRS missed it. This is apparently the peril of using tax software and electronic filing. Not all the supporting documents are sent to the IRS so they have to question where some inputted numbers come from.

I had to spend several hours dealing with the above situation instead of working out on what was supposed to be a relaxing day off from work. Afterwards, I had to find a compacted stress relieving workout to decompress. So despite not planning on it, I went out for a run on National Running Day to work off the IRS caused stress. Because of the problems with the ankles, I thought I’d just do a 1 minute run with 1 minute walk recovery for 30 minutes so as not to aggravate the injury.  After the first minute and feeling not much discomfort, I kept going to the next minute then the next until I finished a loop back home with my watch indicating that I had run non-stop for 32 minutes. Well that certainly helped a lot with the stress J. At least I was able to contribute to National Running Day even though it wasn’t planned.

Finding the supporting paperwork and running = great stress relievers. Now let’s just hope the IRS agrees with me.

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A New Stair Stepper and Other Random Thoughts

I’ve had this exercise machine for more than an month now and you are  probably scratching your head and thinking “What? He got another exercise machine?! Doesn’t he have everything already? Is he nuts?” My answers are: yes, no, and probably. Here are what I have: a treadmill, elliptical machine, recumbent bike, spinning bike, stair stepper, weight bench with barbells, dumbbells, resistance bands (rubber tubings), and a chin up/pull up bar. In the last 30 years, I’ve had 3 stair stepping machines. The first two were utilized until they finally broke down. When I bought the elliptical machine, I thought it would take the place of the stair stepper but after just a few uses, I found out that even though it was low impact, the forward and backward motion of the pedals irritated my bad ankle tendons, so I used it infrequently. The up and down motion of the stair stepper does not. When I first looked for stair steppers online, the cheapest one I found was $128. A few weeks after, I found the same product at Overstock.com for $108 with just 2.95 shipping and no tax. When it arrived, assembling it was pretty easy. My concern when I first saw the photo online was if my book rack would be stable on the machine’s handle. I found out after assembling the machine that it would not, because of the curvature of the handle. I tried to think of a remedy and I finally came up with one. I wrapped a bungee cord at the base of the book rack and around the handlebars of the machine. At least even if I bumped the book rack accidentally, it would hold steady and not drop my Asus Transformer, which I use to read while working out.

So what to do with the now unused elliptical machine? Maybe I’ll put it up for sale on Craigslist. Anyone reading this wanna buy it? I bought it for about $500 and am willing to part with it for half that, or best offer.

And then there is this matter of my Nike Velo cycling/touring shoes. I’ve had them since the 80’s and they have served me well. I’ve patched them up so many times that the tops look like they have more Shoo Goo than leather. Well, the glue had become so stiff that they were beginning to hurt my feet. Since I’ve been using the two year old Louis Garneau shoes the last couple of months (even though they are not as comfortable), I finally parted with the Nikes.

          We have a couple of swimming pools in our condo complex but the human occupants haven’t used them yet this year because of the cool spring climate. However this hasn’t stopped some visitors from a nearby park from cavorting in the water and leaving their droppings. I’m talking about ducks who usually come in pairs. Maybe they found our pools to be a nice place to bring a date. I'm not sure if they are the same two every time though.

          And finally - I was going to post some photos here of my face unshaven for 8 days (I don’t shave on my days off from work) and after shaving, but they are too dorky and ugly so I’ll spare you. Thanks for reading y’all J.

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A Visit To DD’s

What, you might ask, is DD’s? This one has nothing to do with being developmentally disabled or the preferred term nowadays, developmentally delayed. This is merely an outlet store.

A few weeks ago, a nurse I work with mentioned that the pants she was wearing came from a store called DD’s which I’ve never heard of before. She bought a couple of pairs for $6.00 dollars each. She mentioned that the store sold men’s clothes as well and told me where the stores were located. The nearest one I found on the internet was in the city of Carson. I found out on the web that DD’s was owned by Ross Stores, only the clothes were cheaper than at Ross. On one of my days off, I drove down to the store which was past the Carson Towne Center, Cal State Dominguez Hills, and the Home Depot Center (where the L.A. Galaxy and Chivas soccer teams are based). When I arrived at the store, I went directly to the men’s department to look for pants. Not just any pants, but ones that would match my scrubs because I don’t like wearing scrub pants due to the thin material. I found a couple of pants but before I tried them on, I went to the area where they sell nursing uniforms. Unfortunately all of them were for females. Would you believe that the pants I tried on cost $5.99 and $6.99? They were slightly big at the waist at size 30 (I’m a 29) but the length was just right without further alterations, and the loose waist can be taken cared of with a little belt tightening. Believe me, you can hardly find size 29’s now. Some stores even start at 32 or what should be 32 without vanity sizing. Even though the pants I got were supposed to be irregulars, I couldn’t seen anything irregular about them. One of the workpants even had removable kneepads. These pants make my skinny butt look even smaller though, but that can easily by remedied with a well positioned wallet… or two, to balance things out.

So was DD’s worth the drive to Carson? Yes indeed and it looks like a good place to buy cheap luggage too. Maybe next time, because I only had 20 dollars in my wallet that day, but with two pairs of pants, I even had change left!

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