Oddities, Profundities, Profanities and Dad Stuff

Category: Family (Page 11 of 21)

The Quest for Balance…

Jacques Callot Beggar
Image via Wikipedia

Guru’s talk about balance all of the time.  I for one am not very good at balance.  I have gone through periods where I have been OK at it, but most of the time I can balance about as good as a drunk, one legged beggar in an earthquake.  I am working on it though, but I seem to be much more of a planner than one who actually gets $#!^ done.
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A list of People to Kill…

Ok so this isn’t really a list of people to kill and I am probably on some CIA watch list now but you are here and reading arent you?  There is a special prize if you read until the end.

Today’s post was inspired by my wife’s OBGYN office.  Not the doctor, the receptionists, nurses and lab people all left me with a very bad vibe today.  If you didn’t know, My wife is pregnant.  She is due the first part of July and she had to have a test that would be considered cruel and unusual punishment in most countries around the world.  We had to go in for the wonderfully exciting 3 hour glucose tolerance test for gestational diabetes.  Without recapping the whole day time by time, here is what I observed.

1.  Glucose drink may as well be Karo syrup.

2. It says on the bottle may cause Nausea (check), cramping (check), Diarrhea (check).  And the lab techs are surprised at any of these symptoms.

3.  Certain 4 letter words that rhyme with “Truck” keep coming up in conjunction with this test.

4.  My poor wife, she is ready to puke, feeling terrible, cramping and ready to toss her cookies (she couldn’t really have cookies of course) and be done with the test.  The Nurse and the lab techs keep coming out and asking if she is ok and needing to get he blood drawn.

It was a long 3 hours.  There was a point where I really wanted to stand up and yell, “OK Somebody has to die now, You guys choose who it is!”

By the end of it, everything turned out fine and My wife is a trooper.  She made it through without killing anyone or puking on them.  It is funny to watch her argue with the nurses, she is a nurse too and can cut through the BS that the OBGYN nurse spouts like a hot hammer through butter.  Not even a knife stroke, smashed.  It makes me happy when she can put them in their places.  She has learned a lot of things being a trauma Nurse that a specialized nurse in a doctors office can’t even begin to understand.

They should outlaw this test.  This post may have been a better rant over at www.cantankerousoldcoots.com but I wrote it here first.  Take that and….I digress.

Ok you have read until the end so here is your prize.  You get tomorrow’s post for free!  Simply sign on to http://justinsbrainpan.com and read happily!  Sign up for my mailing list and you will get  an exclusive download released on Friday!!!  Thanks for reading

-Justin!

Headaches of Summer, First World Problems

A typical home air conditioning unit.

A typical home air conditioning unit. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Summer is finally hitting Utah.  Heat is on the way up and relief is not in site, at least from Mother Nature.  I finally broke down and turned on my air conditioner to cool the house down and, as a result, try and break my daughters fever.  Both seemed to work out.

The biggest issue was with the Air conditioner itself.  It didn’t cool very well.  It did ok, but not well.  Since I am renting this place I called up the rental company and they sent a guy out to look at it.  He told me that the condensate drain line was getting clogged.  Then he fixed it and I am sure he nailed the rental place with a tidy sum.

Now, you all know from this blog that I like to do things myself.  I fix what I can on the cars, what plumbing I can do, and whatever miscellaneous crap needs to be done.  So, knowing that this would probably happen again, I hit google to see what I could find.

I found what condensate drain lines did.  They drain off the water that the air conditioner gets from the condensation in the air.  They have water in them, they are always wet.  They grow algae.  They get clogged.  This is an issue with coolers, ice machines and other refrigeration devices.  They then need to be cleaned.  It is a pain in the butt to say the least.

There are many ways to clean these drains, including just replacing them.  Most methods use some form of bleach and or cleaners to get the algae out.  You have to disassemble some, you can sort of get into others.  You can call the HVAC guy but they are going to be super busy on the hot day when you need them.  I did find something cool though.  It is called the Clog Popper.  It goes into the drain line and sucks out the algae.  It fits all sorts of drains and is made in the good old USA.  You have to love products like that in these days of everything being made in freaking China.  Plus they will give you a lifetime warranty and money back guarantee.  Personally, I am going to buy one to have when I move into my own house.

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A 6 Point Plan to Happiness

I came up with this great title and then had to figure out how to fill it.  This is my list.  This is my 6 point plan for MY Happiness.  I think that anyone could benefit from it though.  They are in no specific order other than this is how they fell out of my head.

I would like to hear other thoughts on what makes you happy. If I get enough comments I will post a followup with plenty of links.

You have your assignment.  Go.  Read.  Comment.  Be Happy!

1. Be satisfied with yourself. I don’t know how many people actually strive for satisfied with themselves.  There is a huge push in the world to be better.  To be more.  To get into a better situation.  Why can’t we just be satisfied with ourselves?  For the most part I am satisfied with me.  There are things that I want to improve, but I could stay right where I am and be happy.

2.  Kids. I can’t imagine my life without my kids.  As frustrated and as mad as I can get at them, I wouldn’t trade them for anything on the planet.  There is such a content joy that can be had from seeing my kids ride their bikes outside, or play with the dog, or just run, laughing all of the time.  One of my all time favorite memories is of my son at 5 years old, running his heart out (by himself be it noted) pulling his red wagon and laughing like a madman.  I will never lose memories like that.  Knowing that he is that happy because I have given him the ability to run, the wagon to pull, and the house to run in front of , is happiness in itself.

3.  Hobbies Everyone needs something to do besides work.  I have a potload of interests and hobbies but my favorite is fishing.  I could fish all of the time.  Every day.  Most nights.  My wife is sick of me talking about fishing.  She forbade me from taking her fishing for her birthday yesterday.

4. Simplify There is great happiness that can be had from getting rid of the chaff that we accumulate in this life.  Philosophers have always talked about simplifying your life.  Buddhist monks teach themselves to let go of everything and become empty before they can be filled with enlightenment.   Being able to purge all of the crap we had saved over the years, all of the hand me downs for the house and all of the stuff we may “need” is wonderfully freeing.  Living without credit cards saved our butts during the recession of the past couple of years.  Didn’t really affect us at all, and good thing too, Dialysis and a kidney transplant are expensive enough without interest from a credit card.

5. Spouse/Significant Other I know this will be debated but one of the best things in my life is my wife.  I like to have her around, I like to be married.  In our religion we believe that we are forming eternal families here on Earth, and I have found the perfect person to do that with.  We get along well, we are not too hard on each other, and we work well together.  A cornerstone of my Happiness for sure.  We will have been married 12 years in May and dating for 17 in September!

6. Don’t miss the opportunity to teach others.    There is so much to give back that it is impossible to do so.  Take the opportunities as they come to teach others what you know.  Whether it be someone a world away over the internet being taught PHP code or your neighbor that you can teach to change the air filter on his lawn mower so it runs better.  If you can teach your kids to do something doesn’t it make you happy when they can repeat it?  Give as much as you can back to the universe.

This is not a complete and comprehensive post by any means.  Just go and be happy.

-Justin

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