The Adventures of Me & My Shadow #67 in VA & MD
11/25/01
325 miles this trip, odometer now 12,655 total, miles this year
12,322
>From Delmar, MD, Hi Everyone!
I made the trip to Portsmouth Naval Hospital to get my defibrillator checked and was informed that everything looked good. The lab drew some blood to make some tests, the gal asked me if I had fasted. I told her I didn't recall being told to fast, she informed me there was only one test that required me to fast and I could come back after fasting and she would draw blood for it, In the meantime she would run the other tests. I spent the weekend with my sister-in-law, I took Virginia to work and used her car (there is no place to park a motorhome at the hospital) to go in on Monday morning after fasting and give blood for the other test. Monday afternoon while waiting for Virginia to get off work I went to the Grand opening of a new Sam's Club that had opened not too far from her house. At the club there was wall to wall people and they were offering a free cholesterol test. My cardiologist about a year ago, had put me on Zocor to lower my cholesterol (it was only 162) so I got in the line for the test. The lady before me had cholesterol reading 323 (it is not supposed to be over 200) she said that was her normal reading and she was on a drug that was supposed to lower it, she was told to see her Doctor. My cholesterol reading was under 100. The gal couldn't believe it and tested mine again and it again showed less than 100. She informed me that it shouldn't be under 100 and for me to see my Doctor. My Doctor called me just after he had read the lab results and he told me my cholesterol was right where it should be. He said that they used to say if the cholesterol reading went below 100 it could cause cancer but that had been proved to be false. He told me to keep taking Zocor to keep my cholesterol below 100.
While I was in VA Beach I made some calls to computer repair places to see if one of them would clean or replace the keyboard on my computer. I never was able to get my computer apart so I could try to clean the keyboard myself. The first two I called said they didn't work on Laptop computers and I was referred to a place that did work on them. I took it to them and they said it would be a couple days before they could start on it and they would call me after they checked it out. Cleaning didn't fix it so they replaced the keyboard and it cost me about half as much as I thought it would.
The old GMC has had some TLC so it looks like all three of us (me, my computer and the GMC) are ready for a few more miles. I hope to head for Pensacola, FL and go to work after I get this letter off.
This is also the month to remember things to be Thankful for. As I look at the world today I am very thankful to have been born in 1925. I feel sorry for anyone in the younger generations just starting their lifetimes. What I see in the future is not good. A lot has changed in my lifetime and most of it makes life as I see it very complicated and boring. I am also very thankful for the freedom from want, I have enjoyed it all my life, till now. I find that I now want a mechanical heart or a pump to supplement my heart. It is just not pumping enough blood. I don't understand why they insist on a person having one leg in the grave before they think about a mechanical heart. The younger generations as I see it are so engrossed in wanting material things that they have no time to enjoy life. The more they get, the more they want. They are never satisfied, they don't enjoy working as I did and I am thankful that I still can work. Oh, I have slowed down and I run out of steam real quick because of my inefficient heart but I still enjoy working. The reason I can still work is because I control my weight and as I study people in the Malls and everywhere I estimate that 50 to 75 percent of them are overweight. I assume they choose to be, as all they have to do is change their lifestyle. The same is true of those who prefer to smoke. Maybe I should be thankful for them as they are doing something to control the population by shortening their life spans. I see the overpopulation as the biggest problem in the world today.
I am thankful that sex in the old days was something married people did. There were a few people with no morals who had sex before marriage. This has been going on forever, in my genealogy files I see people in the 1600s and 1700s who got married in February and the first child was born in June or July. I wonder if this was a shotgun marriage? In the old days a few people lived together without getting married, we called it "shacking up" or "living in sin" if it lasted seven years they were called common law husband and wife and by law they were the same as married. Today they call it "having a relationship" it has just about replaced marriage. Sex starts in puberty and by the time they are in high school it is about like a sport. In a few years they may be able to letter in sex just like they do in basketball or football. In my lifetime I enjoyed having many female friends but I never looked at them as being sexual objects.
I am running behind schedule, The colonoscopy I was to get in the first part of Nov. was postponed when the Doc. was called to the hospital just before my appointment. It is now set for Dec. 3rd and I wanted to be in Pensacola by then going to work putting the same type of aircraft together that I had worked on 40+ years ago. And besides that, it is getting too damn cold up here.
I did get a double ration for Thanksgiving. On Thanksgiving Day I came down to Jenny's and enjoyed a feast that was something to behold. On the Saturday after Thanksgiving we all went down to John & Susie's for the annual Thanksgiving feast with the deep fat fried turkeys. Last year we consumed the first turkey for tasting while John was out in the back yard frying the second one for dinner. This is a little different than the first Thanksgiving when my 12 greats grandfather William Bradford (he is my ancestor on my mothers side) Governor of Plymouth Colony and the Indians had their feast. This year John & Susie fried four turkeys and feed the whole neighborhood. I don't think anyone got a count of all the people as they kept coming all afternoon. The picture shows Susie the RN with hypodermic needle injecting the goodies into the turkey. Then a turkey being cooked (45 minuets per bird). Finally a picture of one table (there were two) of the bird being consumed.
Till next time, Dallas or Dad if it fits.
Me & My Shadow & Gus on the road
