Kind of frustrated about the whole computer setup thing...

So our new computer is great. My frustrations have nothing to do with the actual machine. I lost our address book for MS Outlook, but some tinkering, renaming and creative filing with the multiple backups I made from the old machine were very helpful in resolving this. I thought that now I would get the appearance looking the way we like. Colours, menu items, preferences. It was going well. One thing I can't remember how to change.

My biggest concern at this moment, is that my MS Office XP did NOT contain FrontPage (the program I use to build my website). Now, I know I had it on the last computer and that it worked well. But it did not come with my $400 version of Office XP. I finally decided over 3 years ago to purchase the software (Office XP) and I come up short of what I thought it included. Where did I get it from? I was certain I had an original copy. I guess it's back to my pirated software because I refuse to use Word as a web builder. It's just that I was so certain that I had an original copy because the one I used on the old machine was XP... the only pirated copy of software I have is Office 2000 Pro edition.

I'm really not sure, after the dozen or more hours I've pumped into making this thing work at peak efficiency, how computer challenged people can buy one & seem content without personalization and some tweaking to their likes. I guess because I know of the greater capabilities I demand them.

So I guess my page is even further on hold until I find some answers... Oh & I miss my wife already & she has only been gone 2 hours... it'll be a long few days.

So I bought the components for our new system. It should be finished aybe Wednesday or Thursday for certain. So until I get it properly configured and ready to go both Angie & I will be scarce. I'm not doing a thing on it until full firewall settings are good to go & until the anti-virus software is humming. Angie is off to Calgary to visit her grandparents this weekend so I'll be spending time getting our new machine going. Anyway, you'll hear from me next when I'm grinning ear to ear because of the new toy... including the neon lighted interior. :)

My Home

I've always enjoyed Ebenezer Baptist Church. From the first day I went I felt very welcomed. Lately, with summer activities and people being away, it has had the summer feel & I haven't felt as much desire to be involved. I think as I see leaves change colours and life returning to the non-summer cycle, I feel more returning desire to do more. I'm getting excited about our small group Bible study beginning again and the good things that come in the fall.

Today I felt even more joyful to be a member at Ebenezer when one of our longer term members came over for a chat before the service began, and one of the ushers gave my shoulder a friendly squeeze as he was doing his work passing the offering plate and the friendship folders out. Just made me glad to be there worshipping God and fellowshipping with my brothers and sisters in Christ. It is a good place to spend Sunday mornings and a privilege to be a member there.

Cheap Entertainment

Step 1: Unbeknownst to others, change the office coffee to decaf for three weeks until people have eliminated their caffeine addiction.
Step 2: Change to espresso after the three weeks.
Step 3: Enjoy the results.

I read that while waiting at the chiropractor's office. It was my first time going, but with one adjustment it feels so good! I've been told they can work wonders. This guy certainly has made me feel much better. I know I'll need repeated visits, but as long as this adjustment is lasting, I might be a quicker fix than some. I say "as long as this adjustment is lasting" because I've heard from Angie and my mom that the bone can pop back out in minutes or hours. So far it is feeling great. Maybe my shoulder aches are nearing their end.

I just had my bi-annual McDonalds and as I suspected I hurt and really didn't enjoy it. I guess that is why only about every two years I have a Big M(aximum)A(rtery)C(logger). I'd say live and learn, but I never do when it comes to Rotten Ronald's. :)

Don’t read on a full stomach…

I’ve made two observations about illness that I thought I might share.

1. Very early in elementary school we learned colour combinations that create new colours. Red and blue makes purple, etc. The colour I’m thinking of though is the colour of green as made by blue and yellow. Sometimes green is produced in my throat when I’m ill. Now, I’ve seen my body produce yellow before but never blue. I hope I never see blue from my body except veins. I’ve heard of the effects of blue slurpees but that’s another blog…

2. With this illness I’m experiencing, my left ear is swollen shut to a degree. Now, to feel better and hear again, I just need my ear canal to be opened up a bit by stretching the flesh in the area. No worries about me asking you to pull my finger, but I may ask you to pull my ear.

Seriously though, both Angie & I are almost better. For myself, I suspect tomorrow will be the last day of lingering symptoms. Angie just has a sore throat that seems better each day but gets sore again by night. This has been the most unusual progression of symptoms I’ve ever seen.

Ok, I’ve had my rant…

I’m still going to get some answers on Monday, but my cold or whatever it is feels like it’s on the mend. I hope the same for Angie too. But I’ve added more pictures to my site of our August long weekend in & around Swift Current. They are grouped under the long weekend picture link/thumbnail. Enjoy! :)

I need to express my irritation - I'll say sorry ahead of time for the length of this post.

I must say that I’ve been pretty down lately. It just seems that things never slow down & I cannot get properly into the routine that I need to ensure my best possible health. I expected the summer to be busy but so many things are forever arising. Nothing I couldn’t handle under normal circumstances but you tack on the frustrations with our health system & an ordeal that I’m having with SGI & I feel near the edge of something bad happening to me mentally. More than a few times I’ve been feeling like just giving up because my best efforts are once again futile. I think I vented to the proper person (one causing some of the grief) and I maintained a professional attitude and language. I meet with him on Monday and I will perform a lie test on him. Just signs I’ve learned & studied to watch for when someone is lying. I'll find out if he has my health in mind or if he is a narc for SGI, just trying to impress them. I had one of those businesses jerk me around in 1997-98. They impressed SGI & are "frequently used by us" now, but they poorly oversaw the rennovations of my parents' home before I was discharged from rehab.

But I think the greatest cause of stress is our health system. One of my regular homecare people is off on holidays. Holidays booked in March. It came as no surprise to me when I phoned the homecare office yesterday to make sure someone qualified was scheduled for here that they had someone unqualified scheduled… because you know over four months isn’t enough time to get things right. It’s so much easier to do it in a panic at the last second. I’m not the only one complaining about these issues. The homecare staff gets frustrated with it because they get overworked and the clients get poor care. Next on my list is Dr. Bodenstab at the Lakeside Medical clinic. Every time I’ve gone to see him he has over reacted and pushed pills on me. He did the same to Angie today when she went back to the walk-in clinic to check out getting cough syrup for her very trying illness. As I have experienced, Dr. Bodenstab made her feel rushed, interrupted her, prescribed pills without explanation, responded sharply to her when she asked what the prescription was for, and interrupted her when she was trying to ask questions. All that after she waited two hours after being told to expect a half hour wait & after Angela was called and the wrong Angela accepted first. Because you know it would be too difficult to call last names. For all we know, they treated some woman and added the result to my wife’s file.

But those concerns are nothing. Perhaps over reacting is okay compared to this story. My aunt, who has had & beaten lung cancer began having problems with vision, balance and nausea. To her fault, she denied it for awhile until it got pretty bad. The first trip to the hospital resulted in the diagnosis of vertigo which failed to meet some of her symptoms. Regardless of the accuracy of that last sentence because I may be missing a few details, her condition got worse. Subsequent trips to the hospital resulted in the administration of pain killers. This was at a point where she could barely function at home. The request & concern about hospital admission had been expressed by this point but the doctors did not admit her. It wasn’t until Monday, August 1, when Angie & I came back to Saskatoon that my aunt could not even sit up because of the severe nausea and dizziness. My mom went over to try and help, but there was only one course of action because she needed medical assistance. Laying on the couch was not going to fix this. So by ambulance (in hopes that this course of action would give better hope of being admitted) she was taken to the hospital. They were again going to release her, but my mom got cross and stated the obvious that her sister was unable to care for herself. The CT scan a few days later resulted in the detection of a tumor in the back of her brain. Vertigo my butt! The golf ball sized tumor was removed this past Monday and my aunt is feeling much better. There is a chance that it is not cancerous which we are all praying for. But the point is that our health care system doesn’t work properly. Besides that, my parents’ two weeks of holidays were plagued by their concern for my aunt.

Finally, one thing I was going to blog about awhile ago, but just had too much on my mind, was my observation of the greed of those of this world. I’m not always as generous as I could be, but lately I’ve noticed more frequently the greed of a number of people. Nothing surprising, just an observation I’ve made more often lately that has me in thought.

It was a great weekend…

Blog
As usual, my bad mood as seen in the last post, was unfounded. It was a most excellent weekend! The wedding was nice, the cabin time was great. Angie got to go for a tube ride, I went for a big swim and am prepared for the sit ski including being able to turn over from being in the water face first. As usual, my parents fed us plenty and the weather was awesome. The funniest story of the trip can be read about on Angie’s blog as seen on the link to the right. And what most excellent storms last evening! I got about 5 minutes of great footage!
I'm Still frustrated about the lack of accessible housing in the city and the useless letters my friend gets but there really is little I can do. I would like to take Lyn’s comment from the last post & write a letter, but I just want my buddy to have a suitable place to live, not start some project or ordeal that I have no desire to undertake or have any tension over. I still need to finish my Credit Union letter… just proofreading to make sure it has no hint of anger, just information for a CEO.

News
Momentarily I’m going to upload pictures from our July long weekend trip & I’ll get on some from this weekend. I will immediately put up the very short video Angie took of me swimming. The video was only at shore, but I went out to about 5’6” of water to make sure my feet were not dragging on the bottom and affecting my performance in the water. It sure was strange to be floating next to my wife at the same height. Felt great to be vertically hugging her as if I were my full 6’2”.
I got rid of the annoying tune on the index page. I like it, but it gets annoying fast. They should have never made it possible to embed midis. :P There is also a new story under “fun and games.” If you’re wondering what I’m talking about, don’t forget to access this page from the index, not the blog. Infact, for any who still have http://kerhst.blogspot.com/ as the link in your blog template, please change it to my page index: http://www.angelfire.com/cantina/cka/index.html Thanks!