Tuesdays Air

[Joppette]

K, I'll start off. It's 4:54AM and a sore throat woke me up. Am thankful for the meds. The nasal spray is amazing in the relief it's given me! The cough med is helping. And the doc said I could use my Albuterol for cough relief, and that is helping too. But feeling very poorly, no matter what. Am going to head back to bed soon. I will go into volunteer work for a bit today, got some stuff that must be done.

25 years ago, a F5 tornado ripped through town. Killed a few folks. It was before we had the siren system warning us of the bad storms. Now they have radar down to the street level, so you know if the bad storm is near or far. Pretty cool technology.

Kitty cat is having a blast with bugs on the window outside. She is doing her best to destroy them but unfortunately just wreaking havoc on my screen. Need to go back to bed, turn the lights out, so the screens stay intact.

Weather supposed to get to 70 today! Hurray! Even though I may only experience it through my screens and open windows, it's still a wonderful thing.

Have a blessed day.

Judy in MI

[jaminkw]

Morning All! Look at me Judy, right behind you. It's still dark so beyond the 71 degree temp, the weather is iffy.

I went to be early last night and actually got up when I woke up at 6. Special occasion, my hubby who walks in the am and my massage therapist who bike have been bragging about all the marsh bunnies they are seeing. I used to be the bunny lady years ago when I walked on Boca Chica Road way before my husband walked for exercise. I saw the bunnies and birds and scouted the roadside for interesting tree saplings popped up from seeds. We had some bad hurricanes and the bunnies and birds were gone for a long time. I stopped walking. My incentive was gone. Walking clothes and sneaks are out and I'm ready to go see the bunnies again. Cross your fingers for me. If they are not out, I'm going to be really mad.

Eric, you're stories are so funny. But you have me so confused by the haggis that I'm going to look it up lol.

Judy in KW

[Joppette]

Hope your walk went well, and you saw lots of bunnies, Judy. We have tons of them here! They don't have much as far as a natural predator here so they flourish.

I agree about Eric's stories. I love reading them. And I too am confused by the Haggis. So I looked it up and here is what I found:

Haggis is a dish containing sheep's 'pluck' (heart, liver and lungs), minced with onion, oatmeal, suet, spices, and salt, mixed with stock, and traditionally simmered in the animal's stomach for approximately three hours. Most modern commercial haggis is prepared in a casing rather than an actual stomach. There are also meat-free recipes for vegetarians.

Haggis is a kind of sausage, or savory pudding cooked in a casing of sheep's intestine, as sausages are. As the 2001 English edition of the Larousse Gastronomique puts it, "Although its description is not immediately appealing, haggis has an excellent nutty texture and delicious savory flavor".[1]

The haggis is a traditional Scottish dish memorialized as the national dish of Scotland by Robert Burns' poem Address to a Haggis in 1787. Haggis is traditionally served with "neeps and tatties" (Scots: swede, yellow turnip or rutabaga and potatoes, boiled and mashed separately) and a "dram" (i.e. a glass of Scotch whiskey), especially as the main course of a Burns supper. However it is also often eaten with other accompaniments, or served with a whiskey-based sauce.

So this explains it! Now I don't know about the rest of you, but I despise rutabaga. Despise it! LOL! Maybe I'd like yellow turnip, don't know, never had it. But these Scottish terms like haggis, neeps and tatties (here in the USA tatties have a whole other meaning LOL) are so interesting. I love learning different cultures.

Judy in MI

[Joppette]

had to add....simmered in an animals stomach? Really?????

[Bud Baker]

Good morning, everyone!

It was 59 degrees as I rode to work this morning. The forecast high for today is 85 degrees.

Ned, the CT results sound very promising. I'll join you in hoping the doctors don't find anything else. Judy, I hope you enjoyed your walk. I hope you're feeling better by now, Judy in MI, and you too, Stephanie.

Wouldn't you know it that yesterday, the day the weatherman forecast sunny and dry ended up being the commute day that got me the wettest? I got within three miles of home, then the downpour hit. Twice, when wind gusts reached 50 to 60 mph, I stopped and took refuge for a few minutes. A mile from home, I was coming down a hill to a stop sign. I was watching the intersection, rather than the road in front of me, and forgot how deep the water can get at the low spot in the road just before the intersection.

I hit the water too fast, then hit my brakes too hard, and was down on my right side instantly. Thankfully, skidding on concrete that has 11 inches of water on it removes a lot less skin than skidding on dry concrete, and I only suffered a minor scrape on my right arm.

As I stood in the garage, wringing the water from my skullcap, Rose stepped out of the house, took one look at me, and said, "Oh well, it's not like you haven't gotten wet before." (If you missed the humor in that, go back and read my post in Saturday's Air.)

Have a great day, all!

[Joppette]

Bud! Glad you fell in that water and not on cement! Wow, that could have been nasty. First thing I thought of was you hitting the pavement where your shingles are. Ouch! You don't need that. I admire you for your biking. I get winded so easily, I don't think I could do that. Was curious if you had breathing issues when you first started and if your hard work helped the breathing improve?

Judy in MI

[jaminkw]

O.k. Eric, now Judy in MI has let the haggis out of the bag--no that's the animal's stomach right! Judy the funniest story I heard about differences in language was more than 40 years ago. Our American friend was married to an English lady. They were fond of telling the story of when they first met and the lady told Ernie to "knock me up sometime." Imagine his surprise. It means call me on the phone where she comes from.

Bud, so sorry for your spill but I have to admit I love Rose's sense of humor. Glad you didn't get hurt to badly but I'll bet you ache in the morning.

Oh, forgot to brag--that walk this morning was about a mile and a half.

Got to go hunt down that post by Ned.

Judy in KW

[Bud Baker]

I admire you for your biking. I get winded so easily, I don't think I could do that. Was curious if you had breathing issues when you first started and if your hard work helped the breathing improve?

Judy, I've always had lung issues. When I was a child, I always seemed to be getting bronchitis, and I had pneumonia at 15 and again at 21.

But, having started cycling three years before I was diagnosed with lung cancer, I was already very fit, and hadn't had any lung issues at all until the months just before my diagnosis.

I tested high-normal at my pre-surgery pulmonary function test, and the tech seemed very surprised that I had been diagnosed with lung cancer. After surgery, I had terrible shortness of breath when I climbed hills on the bike, but I think it was just a case of having a body that was better trained than my lungs could keep up with (my lungs were the weak link, so to speak).

That improved a lot with time, but I also developed exercise induced asthma after the surgery. I still use inhalers to keep it from being too big of a problem. I'm not sure if it's because I was already close to being asthmatic and my remaining lung tissue having to work harder triggered it (that seemed to be Dr. West's theory), or if it's just because of scarring and damage from the surgery. I really think that some kind of aerobic exercise after cancer and surgery will go a long ways toward preserving what lung function you have and very likely improve it, even.

Riding a bike is a mixed bag for lungs, though. On one hand, with hours of elevated breathing on the bike, I can't imagine a better therapy for the lungs. But, all that elevated breathing means you will be breathing in more allergens, pollution, and everything else that's in the air. I'm convinced, though, that all my riding is the secret of my strong recovery and continued good health (of course, anyone who loves to ride would probably say that).