Filling My Time

Me on the Saratoga Silver, just like the one I have at home now...

Right now the two things I really like yo do, and doing these two things really make feel good, I find challenging to do with regularity. The two things are pumping my Silver Saratoga hand cycle exerciser and blogging. The Saratoga Silver is great. I am so lucky and thankful to have direct access to my very own machine, a machine I can use anytime I stinking want. I now have the Active Hands gloves which assists me with the hand cycle. Yet I find myself challenged to pump at least three time a week, the amount of time I used the Saratoga at the Wellness program I have discontinued attending.

I think what I really liked or appreciated about Wellness was I was at a place, at a time where I was committed to work out and get it over with. Because I was on a schedule, I worked Wellness ( working out) into my daily schedule. Even though Wellness is entirely voluntary others were expecting me to be there and workout I showed up and worked out. Now, I find myself doing other things round the house and putting off my thirty minutes on the bike. If I put the Saratoga off too long I become tired, too tired to use the bike and not work out that day—this is not good.

What works best I have found is to pump the bike early in the day—if I can. Get on the machine do the time and get on with my day. I am still strong and enjoy my “ride”. Right now, I have a green elastic tub set up in the bathroom which I use on my “light” workout days. Have discussed the rickshaw I have buried in the garage that I plan to start using once I get some weights to put on the machine to lift—well guess what? I have or Dianne ordered me in a hundred pounds of weight to start working out with. The weights will greatly start me on my way of growing my home gym. The rickshaw is only one exercise targeting one set of muscles, biceps, I think and I have to use the machine in my weekly routine, at least three times a week. This will again, take a commitment.

The other challenge I have is spending more time writing, in my blog as well as other writing I need to be doing. When I was working I found I could work my daily blog submission into my work day, usually right after I got into the office. I gave myself a half hour to write and and have coffee and post. There it was done Bang! And I was done for the day. I do not have that time convenience any more. Now I have to be responsible and make myself fill the time I have and I have lots of time to write and write regularly. I am so surprised at how hard this is to do.

I spoke with my friend Mark, one of the folks I met at my Wellness experience. Mark is a great guy working through his rehabilitation challenges. He has been concerned about my absence from Wellness. I stopped going and did not tell anyone I had finished the program. I guess I could have done better at the separation piece. Mark texted me and followed up with him and he understood the issue I had. I have to get this physical piece done and then focus on the writing and art pieces and still work in my “doing good pieced”. This is going to be a busy Spring.

Rex The Rooster??

We have a chicken, more pointedly we have a rooster or should I say the rooster has us. The rooster in question showed in my yard a couple of weeks ago. One of the reasons this is unique if not bizarre is we are city dwellers, a small city but a city all the same more urban then rural. The rooster is a free ranger he wanders the neighborhood. He must have been domesticated somewhere, he does not seem to be frightened by my power chair or Dianne walking round the yard. In fact I swear he comes running when he sees me come out of the house to sit on the ramp. It not like he jumps on to my shoulder giving me the appearance of a barnyard pirate but he does hang near by.

I am not sure but I kind of think the rooster leaves nearby( or should I say roosts) a couple of house north of ours I refer to as the Cat women house. The lady who lives there takes in stray and feral felines . She leaves cans a food out on her drive way to bring the animals in. I think she is just crazy enough to add a rooster to the fold. I do not know for sure.

I talk to the beast when he shows up and to that end I named the rooster for my benefit, it is just easier in salutations and discussions to address a name rather then a specie. I chose “Rex”. Rex is a short, yet strong and masculine name I believe any bird would enjoy and as luck would have it, my last trip to the liquor store provided me with a box for Rex Goliath wine. I of course then did the research and found there was a “Rex Goliath” a huge fowl for which the wine is named. Here is a link.

The the other day as I was working in my garage I encounter a very strange thing. Bare in mind. There has been one and only chicken I have seen in our yard the past couple of weeks. No other free rangers. So imagine my shock and chagrin when I glanced into a pace behind our garbage cans and found a next filled with chicken eggs, large white eggs, maybe a dozen eggs or more, some broken some looking quite old.

Figuring a chicken lays one egg per day this operation has ben going on for sometime. The simple answer through laws of deduction is that Rex is the rightful owner of the eggs, that Rex in fact laid the eggs but then that would mean that Rex my not be so much a Rex but maybe a Rexine! This is more then difficult foe me to fathom. Perhaps if Rex did not so much look like a Rex with a fine stately comb and manly strut round our yard I would be more open that Rex was a cross clucker. I even heard him crowing, or trying to crow outside my door the other morning. However I am forced to admit Rex had a pretty weak crow.

The next in the corner of the house was fairly primitive and Dianne put together fine nest in side a box brought home from a shopping expedition big box store. So far the layer of the eggs has not returned and I doubt he/she will. I think once the “home” disturbed the bird moves on. So we'll do some more searching round the yards front and back and maybe just maybe we'll get lucky.

10 Ugly Blocks...

Last Thursday I traveled cross  town to visit my old colleague and friend Mack. Mack is a retired shrink/educator/writer and thinker. I'll bet Mack is ten years older then me which puts Mack up there. I like Mack, Like Mack a ot and I figured I better get y ass in gear and visit him before he “winks” out as I know he will sooner then later—which I don't like thinking about living in a world with out Dr Mack . I could easily jag off here and write a whole post on Mack. I am not going to do that. I will write more about Mack, our visit and our relationship soon but not now.

This post is about my trip over to Mack's part of town. To get over to Mack's I take the UTA 209( Ninth East) over to about 4800 South and 900 East. I have found if I go to the 6400 south Traxx station the 209 takes off from that station .I can get on the bus there and just wait for the bus to take off.

I drove my chair to the station, which worried me a bit because I knew the trip would eat a lot of power

yet I was not too concerned I would plug my charger at Mack's place talk for a couple hours and be good to go. The early afternoon was far from hot but at the same time not too cold. Had there not been a breeze, the afternoon would of been perfect. The bus was turned off not even idling as the many buses do. The driver had wandered off to find a bathroom. I sat there and dozed for a few minutes in the added heat from the sun reflecting of the buses flank—a 2-fer, direct sunshine and the reflected heat. This wonderful heat was dashed a few minutes later when the driver returned and started the diesel and immediately the air conditioner came on and made the space/time miserable, for,me.

We had just turned North on Ninth East when at the first stop a severely over weight young man climbed onto /the bus and of course took the directly in front of me and carefully looked over the passengers. This kid was obviously a regular and acknowledged the bus driver and several of the other riders. I could tell immediately the kid was developmentally disabled. I sat still as I could hoping he would look past me and engage one of the other riders. Didn't work. “ What's your name​​?”

“ I'm Mark” I tried to insert a “verbal stop sign”,which worked for a couple of blocks. The questions kept coming and I resigned myself to their answers. I tried to answer on auto pilot but suddenly focused when I got the question “ God won't like me if I kill myself.”I groaned I did not want to have this conversation. I dd not want to be the transit shrink of the hour. The kid wanted brown hair not red, the kid id not like is low-end service job and clearly would be interested in “checking out” if doing so would not bring on God's wrath. He got off a couple blocks later, unresolved. I doubt he did anything morbid but I had to wonder and I had to wonder again what is/was my obligation. One can only do so much in 10 blocks, but still one has to wonder.

Options

I am struggling, there I've said it, I cannot believe how long it's been since I have dated blog I don't really have an excuse maybe I'm lazy I do not but it's been almost a week since I've updated the document. In that time I've made a decision however I have decided to discontinue my involvement in the Wellness program which I've been going to for about a year. There's been a number of issues that has driven me to this decision primarily the clear discrimination against folks attending wellness and specified our wellness begins. If you really are chastised greatly and somewhat humiliated. It's not a big deal but big enough to drive me to stop. There's also the last move back Wellness did from the rehab floor of the first floor in the clinic area of the sugarhouse facility. The Wellness area is dark and cramped and really makes getting something positive from my workout experience at this facility difficult at best.

Not going into Wellness has certainly opened up a great deal more time in my schedule that I think I am looking forward to filling if not just enjoying. You may consider renewing my interest in applying for a volunteer position at the IHC medical facility in my neighborhood. Or I may reevaluate my attendance at the Murray Heritage Senior Center at least from the stand point of using their weight room. If I were to use the weight room at the Murray Center I would certainly expect some work to be done so that I could use the equipment or fully. This brings me back to my cessation of attendance at Wellness. I have greatly enjoyed my Silver Saratoga. My Active Hands arrived from England couple weeks ago and they're working out just fine. I actually think these gloves fit better than the active hands I use at the wellness program. There've been challenging to use especially if I have to put them on myself but I get the job done, I continue to work out on the crank In our session. I still have a little concerned about some slippage at the crankshaft but not the point where I really taken action to see about what can be done to stop slippage. I have contacted the company that makes the machine but not yet been able to make contact with the real person who could have some impact on telling me what can be done to fix the issue.

In the same token I have actively increased my quest to get some free weights or flat weights that I can use on the rickshaw I purchased will number months ago and has been in the garage all winter. I need to have some weight resistance immediately, I'm afraid I'm losing any positive steps I have gained with Wellness. So I've been searching on classified sites in hopes of finding a pile of free weights that I can start pushing as soon as possible.

I spent a good part of yesterday visiting my friend Greg, Greg has landed in a long-term care facility which is totally weird. I intend to visit him more is also the friends that I have in the community. Perhaps, this is what I need to be doing with my new found time.

Feeling Much Better

Finally Friday arrived and I was excited to return to the oral surgeon's and be OKed to return to my life style, which is not really a big deal , but its my lifestyle and I missed it if only for a week. It was nothing like having to wear the heart monitor for 30 days was like and how that event hanged my daily life. I am such a boob.

I make the week sound like it has bee a tough one actually the week has been great considering I have experienced little to no pain following the extractions and that is without the use of any kind of painkillers. My mouth has bee a bit sore and tender but nothing to the level I was expected. What I did not expect was the amount of restrictions placed on me due to the extraction to prevent the dreaded dry socket. I was surprised to see how much of my life is centered round some form of physical activity I am really involved with and committed to the Wellness program—I mean not necessary Wellness per se but the activity of physically working out, raising my heart rate and pushing myself to be better physically then I was.

One of the conditions of the extraction healing process is to involve myself in nothing which would produce tress to the would site. Wellness would be one of those activities, pressing weights, and pumping the SS would be such activities. Luckily Wellness moved this week from the second floor to the first at the Sugar House facility. They would be open only Friday of last week. So, I did not miss anything especially since I m planning to take more and more of my Wellness activities at home. Last week my Active Hands finally arrived from England. I was concerned the gloves would be too small they are perfect.

So Friday DeeDee took me to the oral surgeon for the follow-up and everything looks good. There was some post operative counseling with was a bit uncomfortable involving irrigating the extraction site with this little nozzled water bottle shooting a stream of water into the socket to remove debris, food matter which may accumulate and rot and infect the healing process it all sounded really spooky and painful. I have been fairly compliant but have not pushed the irrigating process too much—the socket feels good and I have been washing the mouth fairly regular with the saline wash—I think I a m OK. So, double extraction, little or no pain and back to regular food and a life free of the worry of a tooth going nova anytime soon. This could be the start of a beautiful summer.