Thursday, February 16, 2023

February River

 


20 comments:

  1. How can the issuer of symbols of value run out? It can't, but it can maintain the fiction that the supply is limited by rationing its distribution.
    Why would the Treasury do that? To please people who prefer buying bonds that accumulate interest to returning what they do not need to the federal government. Besides, it is a harmless fiction unless it is used as an excuse to deny other people access to currency.

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  2. Frost here this morning.
    ----Alan

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  3. (Susan) It was SEVENTY FREAKING DEGREES here yesterday on 2/15! This weather is not in any way normal and it makes me nervous.

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    1. I hear you! Vermont registered 60°F! The good news is that a cooler pattern is about to emerge. We’ll sort of have switched March and February, and early April could also be cooler than usual.

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    2. When I went out Tuesday I thoght it felt more like early spring than true winter. But I didn't check the temperature.

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    3. We're expecting freezing rain overnight.

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    4. Gosh, oopsy...that was me earlier with the "I hear you!" comment...but you probably guessed that.

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  4. The Good News is that I have been okay’d for a Cortisone shot!
    The Bad News is that I have to wait until April.

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    1. It takes that long to get an appointmetn?! Or is something else going on?

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    2. Yes, that IS a long time to wait. Maybe not enough staff?
      ---Alan

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    3. I guess I wasn't focused earlier when I wrote without indicating that was me. Ha!
      There is just a big backlog for getting in, as it's an appointment with the hand specialist. But, since it's my dominant hand, my PCP thinks that's best. I'm on the cancellation wait list, at least.
      If the cortisone shot doesn't do the deed, I'm open to trying acupuncture.

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  5. Visited the pulmonologist this morning. She thanked me for the rather detailed history I gave her, and seems to approve of my plan for increased/restored general exercise, also use of a respiratory muscle training device. (Being a cheapskate, I had ordered one from China through eBay rather than from Amazon, but it has been sitting in a distribution center in China for a week. I found what appears to be new old stock with a different brand name in Tulsa for even less and it arrived today.) There are some irregularities in my lungs that show up in the CAT scans, maybe some very slight changes, but nothing much. Also scarring from the pneumonias I had as a boy. She scheduled a third pulmonary function test for August. So, no bad news, a way forward, and probably a good prognosis.
    ----Alan

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    1. Respiratory muscle training device, “The Breather:”
      $55 from Amazon taxed and delivered quickly; direct from China by eBay $24 very slowly; from Tulsa by eBay $16 [named “The Piper”] delivered quickly by USPS.
      ---Alan

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    2. Wow, Alan. That sounds like a reasonably good outcome from a potentially debilitating issue. Good for you being pro-active! I hope the eBay item comes in good shape. It can be kind of hit or miss on eBay.

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    3. The $16 eBay one came quickly, and seems just fine. One reviewer cautioned to follow the instructions carefully--it seemed so easy to start with that he jumped ahead several steps and learned he definitely shouldn't have done so. I have the first several weeks marked on my office calendar. I think that by itself should do, without the other specific pulmonary rehabilitation exercises I found. The pulmonologist also noted that I had some edema in my lower legs--it seems more pronounced than I recall--and suggested compression stockings. (She showed me hers--not ugly, as I would have assumed.)
      ---Alan

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  6. Replies
    1. No kidding?! I sent that along to Stephen Colbert!

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    2. I understand that they haven't yet ruled out that it was carrying the Andromedan curling team.
      ---Alan

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