UP THE LAZY RIVER BY THE OLD MILL RUN

Since the weather has been yucky, I haven’t gone to the neighborhood pool and done my thing often lately. So today I bought a monthly pass at the Lehi Legacy Center. I walked for an hour against the current in the “Lazy River”. What a workout. After twenty minutes I was tired. After thirty minutes it was worse but I had something to prove to myself and I pushed myself onward. When I finally dragged myself out of the water, my knees were very weak and my legs were wobbly and it was all I could do to stand up straight and drag myself to the hot tub where I sat in such a way that the jets hit my knees one at a time and then my ankles. That helped but I was still “hurting”. I bought a hotdog at the snack bar and sat and ate it, then lumbered to the car for the drive home. Hew; hopefully my body will adjust to the regimen as I was told at my diabetes training class it would do.

QUICK TRIP TO PHOENIX

Monday, January 26, 2009 There hasn’t been a lot to report though Friday, Judy left work early and she and I flew to Phoenix and spent two nights with Niki and her brood. Cute kids. Eight Month old Gavin sits up forever it seems and slowly — unperceivable so, inches himself forward. I don’t think he even knows he is doing it. He just sees something he wants and eventually finds himself there. Saturday night we ate at San Tan Flat and two and a half year old Alexa spent the whole time on the stage dancing with the other kids. She has quite the moves. I believe she thinks her middle name is Princess. She recognizes and can name all the Disney princesses and if she had her way she would have one of each of their dresses. She loves to shop at the Disney Store. Judy and I were up at 5:00 a.m. and Greg drove us to the airport for our return flight, so we were home in plenty of time for church. Thanks Greg.

"DOING THE JEPSON REVISITED" -- REVISITED

Friday, January 16, 2009 Several nights ago I went to the pool to do my “Jepson Revisited” (see previous entry). As I was about to walk into the pool, a lady, a total stranger who was in the pool with three or four other adults, called to me and said, “Don’t get in the hot tub. It’s down”, i.e. not working. I said ok and got in the pool. I wasn’t headed that way anyway. As I walked past the lady, she handed me her baby and said, “Here, take her. We’re going to the hot tub”. (It was working fine.) I said ok and started playing with the perhaps one year old girl. Maybe ten or fifteen seconds later the Mother reached for her and said, “Just kidding”. Hmm. I’m sure she just has a good sense of humor. I wonder if I give off an aura of humor and trust or something. (They did eventually get in the hot tub.)

Doing the Jepson - Revisited

Saturday, January 10, 2009 When I was at the doctor a week ago yesterday she said I needed to exercise. I told her I did the Jepson (jogged) in the pool for an hour quite often. She said that I didn’t have to go to that extreme and that if I were to get in chest-high water and walk back and forth across the pool for thirty minutes it would be good enough because of the resistance of the water pushing against my body (and arms and hands). I thought I would give it a try. Good grief it is harder than jogging. When I jog the bouncing up and down and pumping my arms causes much less drag and I zip back and forth across the pool. This walking thing takes real effort and works a different set of muscles. A good side benefit is that time seems to go by more than twice as fast as when I jog. Ya hoo. Thus thirty minutes doesn’t seem to be long enough. I have been doing forty or fifty minutes in stead. I hope she doesn’t spank me. Hmm, on the other hand that might be fun. He he. I read in a diabetes diet cookbook recently that weight training “…helps cells throughout your body become more sensitive to insulin. Plus, weight training increases a compound, called Glut-4, that binds to the cell membrane and then helps ease glucose into muscle cells…helping muscles absorb sugar and remove sugar from the blood.” so the last two days, before getting into the pool, I have gone in the weight room and done twenty reps of five or six routines. Though I can really feel it, in total it is less than ten minutes. I think it will make me feel better though my left shoulder hurts. It is the one I had operated on a few years back and I think re-pulled a year or so later. I am left handed but when lifting weights at least, my right arm is stronger than my left. Hmm.

Dust Cloud

Saturday, 09 Jan, 2009 Last week we signed up to have added insulation added to our attic. Questar, our natural gas provider is supposed to reimburse us the $541.00 cost. The insulation guys came yesterday. They had to drag their hose through our filthy/wet garage; (thanks to the snow and gunk we have been having), through the dining area, down the hall, through our bedroom, through the master bath and into our closet where the attic access is. They laid down plastic on the floor, hung sheets over the clothes in the closet, were extra careful and cleaned up after themselves including vacuuming. Then I vacuumed and cleaned up after them, but there was still a fine film over everything especially in our bathroom and closet. For whatever reason; I suppose because they were on the closest and lowest rack, my pullover shirts had enough insulation on them that I took them down and ran them through a laundry cycle. This morning I cleared everything off my counter and cleaned it. I cleaned the mirrors while I was at it. Yesterday after they left, I turned the furnace fan to the always on position hoping it would suck what was floating in the air down through its filter. Yuck! update: Later today I changed the furnace filter. It was totaly clogged. We have an air filterinf machine in our bedroom. I cleaned it too. Its filters too were clogged.

Medical update

Friday, January 02, 2009 I had a 9:40 appointment with Shelly Ebert LP to follow up on my lab work I had done last week (7 vials of blood). The news was not good, and to be honest I can’t remember half of what she said. Thank goodness she made me a copy of the results and added her notes which helps at least a little bit. Long story short, I am a heart attack waiting to happen. I am “two months” away from needing dialysis. I have a parasite in my blood; one of a number of thing making me lethargic. My testosterone level is low; another lethargic factor. I have a number of things affecting my memory. Though my bad cholesterol is good, my good cholesterol is way too low. Who knows what else! I got a shot of testosterone in my hip plus a prescription of testosterone to rub on my chest daily. I got a prescription of vitamin D, 50000 units; a huge amount. I am to take one pill, every other day. I am to take niacin at bedtime with one adult size aspirin. I need to increase my fish oil intake to four capsules a day. I have been taking one. I need to exercise every day for at least half an hour. She said walking back and fourth across the pool in chest high water is perfect. I don’t even have to jog which I have been doing when I do go. I have to admit that with the bad weather etc, I have not been doing it recently. I need to lose a lot of weight and; oops there goes that memory thing! I need to have more lab work done in three months; should I live that long, and see Shelly for the results. All I can say is, it is a good thing I have no fear of death, though going through the process of getting there disturbs me at least a little bit. I would like to live long enough that all my grandchildren are old enough to remember me.