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Originally posted by Brenda:
Out to do what I need to do today in spite of the smoke.

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Quote:

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Originally posted by SIGNYM:
SIX, I'm telling you, it's impossible to find decent handymen with your experience. At some point you should stop working for friends for food and furniture and branch out to earn actual cash. There can't be too many people around who have your skillset, and that money will come in handy some day (unless the banks just take it away, of course.)

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Originally posted by SIGNYM:

Quote:

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Originally posted by Brenda:
Out to do what I need to do today in spite of the smoke.

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Wow, I feel for you and everyone who's impacted by fire, BRENDA! Just stay safe and try not to breathe too deeply!

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"It may be dangerous to be America's enemy, but to be America's friend is fatal." - Henry Kissinger

Loving America is like loving an addicted spouse - SIGNYM

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Quote:

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Originally posted by 6ixStringJack:

Quote:

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Originally posted by SIGNYM:
SIX, I'm telling you, it's impossible to find decent handymen with your experience. At some point you should stop working for friends for food and furniture and branch out to earn actual cash. There can't be too many people around who have your skillset, and that money will come in handy some day (unless the banks just take it away, of course.)

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Yeah... I don't really need much money though. It would just be numbers added onto the pile since I refuse to spend it on anything that I don't require to live.

I like building up karma though. It feels nice to help other people out. Sure beats dopamine hits from virtue signalling meaninglessly online all day.



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How you do anything is how you do everything.

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Quote:

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Originally posted by Brenda:

Quote:

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Originally posted by SIGNYM:

Quote:

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Originally posted by Brenda:
Out to do what I need to do today in spite of the smoke.

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Wow, I feel for you and everyone who's impacted by fire, BRENDA! Just stay safe and try not to breathe too deeply!

-----------
"It may be dangerous to be America's enemy, but to be America's friend is fatal." - Henry Kissinger

Loving America is like loving an addicted spouse - SIGNYM

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Thanks. Today was the first time I got a whiff of smoke. I stay as safe as I can.

My brother who has asthma has been staying doors to keep away from the smoke. He lives in a different city from me and the air is worse there.

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Quote:

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Originally posted by SIGNYM:

Quote:

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Originally posted by Brenda:

Quote:

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Originally posted by SIGNYM:

Quote:

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Originally posted by Brenda:
Out to do what I need to do today in spite of the smoke.

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Wow, I feel for you and everyone who's impacted by fire, BRENDA! Just stay safe and try not to breathe too deeply!

-----------
"It may be dangerous to be America's enemy, but to be America's friend is fatal." - Henry Kissinger

Loving America is like loving an addicted spouse - SIGNYM

---

Thanks. Today was the first time I got a whiff of smoke. I stay as safe as I can.

My brother who has asthma has been staying doors to keep away from the smoke. He lives in a different city from me and the air is worse there.

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Among all of my other problems I have/had asthma, altho it's EXTREMELY well-controlled with a 10 mg montelukast (Advair) pill. I used to get attacks from perfume... smoke... cold,dry air... exercise... now it only acts up if I get an actual upper respiratory virus. If your brother hasn't tried it, he really might want to ask his doctor about it. If he has tried it and it doesn't work for him, he has my deepest sympathy.

-----------
"It may be dangerous to be America's enemy, but to be America's friend is fatal." - Henry Kissinger

Loving America is like loving an addicted spouse - SIGNYM

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Quote:

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Originally posted by SIGNYM:

Quote:

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Originally posted by 6ixStringJack:

Quote:

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Originally posted by SIGNYM:
SIX, I'm telling you, it's impossible to find decent handymen with your experience. At some point you should stop working for friends for food and furniture and branch out to earn actual cash. There can't be too many people around who have your skillset, and that money will come in handy some day (unless the banks just take it away, of course.)

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Yeah... I don't really need much money though. It would just be numbers added onto the pile since I refuse to spend it on anything that I don't require to live.

I like building up karma though. It feels nice to help other people out. Sure beats dopamine hits from virtue signalling meaninglessly online all day.



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How you do anything is how you do everything.

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Well SIX, as long as that account keeps decreasing it's heading in the wrong direction. Bc as long as it keeps going down instead of going up or at least holding steady, at some point it'll go to zero, and you might be in the same position - albeit farther out in time- as all of the people you laff at.

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Yeah. But like I mentioned before, inflation is always taking a bite even when we don't have idiots speedrunning the devaluation of the American Dollar like we've got now, so the way I look at it is anything I'm saving today that I don't need is just going to be worth half of what it's worth when I get around to spending it.

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Do you know, on the average, what your yearly expenses are?

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Of course.

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Have you calculated how many years your savings will last, based on your current expenses? It might be a useful calculation. I know a lot of ppl who never pencil-whipped that including close family members, and they wound up in trouble. Good karma doesn't pay your bills.

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You should see my posts in the Cinema forums. I'm assuming that you haven't ever ventured that way before. I've got a rough idea, but some of that is just prediction based, since the current Administration has proven it's no skin off their nose if they let inflation get out of control to levels that a majority of people in the country living today have never experienced before.

I already know I don't have enough to last me until Social Security rolls in. Even without Bidenflation I wouldn't have had enough to make it that far. I'm not without options though. I do intend to sell this house at some point to move into something much smaller and easier to manage, long before I'm too old for the move and too old to rehab another house. My current home is not a starter home. It's large. It's no rediculous McMansion, but it's large enough where I've had plenty of neighbors comment about how big it is for just one person. I always tell them it's way too big for one person but nowhere near big enough for two.

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BTW, I don't know about Indiana but here in CA if you're being treated under your state's medical assistance plan for the indigent, they will recover their costs by taking your assets- especially your house - after you die.

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Are you referring to Medicare/Medicaid, or assisted living/nursing homes for the elderly?

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Make plans to protect your assets if you want to reap the rewards of all of that hard work you've been putting into it. Look into your state's medical assistance program and especially for all of those gotchas that are often built in

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Quote:

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Originally posted by Brenda:
Out to do what I need to do today in spite of the smoke.

SIGNY: Wow, I feel for you and everyone who's impacted by fire, BRENDA! Just stay safe and try not to breathe too deeply!

BRENDA: Thanks. Today was the first time I got a whiff of smoke. I stay as safe as I can. My brother who has asthma has been staying doors to keep away from the smoke. He lives in a different city from me and the air is worse there.

SIGNY: Among all of my other problems I have/had asthma, altho it's EXTREMELY well-controlled with a 10 mg montelukast (Advair) pill. I used to get attacks from perfume... smoke... cold,dry air... exercise... now it only acts up if I get an actual upper respiratory virus. If your brother hasn't tried it, he really might want to ask his doctor about it. If he has tried it and it doesn't work for him, he has my deepest sympathy.

BRENDA: Last meds I knew my brother was taking for his asthma were 2 different inhalers. Not sure if anything else has been added on. He reacts to smoke and perfumes as well. The cold gets to him too now. He needs the exercise for his leg after being hit by a car about 3 years ago now. He has had pneumonia in the past. And all this smoke almost sent him to the ER with his asthma.

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Quote:

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Originally posted by SIGNYM:

Quote:

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Originally posted by Brenda:
Out to do what I need to do today in spite of the smoke.

SIGNY: Wow, I feel for you and everyone who's impacted by fire, BRENDA! Just stay safe and try not to breathe too deeply!

BRENDA: Thanks. Today was the first time I got a whiff of smoke. I stay as safe as I can. My brother who has asthma has been staying doors to keep away from the smoke. He lives in a different city from me and the air is worse there.

SIGNY: Among all of my other problems I have/had asthma, altho it's EXTREMELY well-controlled with a 10 mg montelukast (Advair) pill. I used to get attacks from perfume... smoke... cold,dry air... exercise... now it only acts up if I get an actual upper respiratory virus. If your brother hasn't tried it, he really might want to ask his doctor about it. If he has tried it and it doesn't work for him, he has my deepest sympathy.

BRENDA: Last meds I knew my brother was taking for his asthma were 2 different inhalers. Not sure if anything else has been added on. He reacts to smoke and perfumes as well. The cold gets to him too now. He needs the exercise for his leg after being hit by a car about 3 years ago now. He has had pneumonia in the past. And all this smoke almost sent him to the ER with his asthma.

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Oh no!

There are a few different inhalers now so I don't know which ones he's taking. There was the old-fashioned epinephrine (like adrenaline) "rescue" inhaler that was basically to stop bronchospasm in emergencies. I used to carry one around. They make people feel a bit jittery when absorbed, a bit like being hypoglycemic but they work fast

Then there is/ was a steroid inhaler that is supposed to be longer-acting and used daily. Also a dry-powder inhaler, same med as I take orally , a leukotriene inhibitor (Advair/montelukast) but I found that the dry powder was irritating so I switched to oral. There are also all kinds of oral meds.

https://www.mayoclinic.org/diseases-conditions/asthma/in-depth/asthma-
medications/art-20045557

Maybe his doctors have tried a lot of things, but I feel he shouldn't have to suffer like that. I hope you can encourage him to seek out better treatment options so he can breathe more comfortably.


-----------
"It may be dangerous to be America's enemy, but to be America's friend is fatal." - Henry Kissinger

Loving America is like loving an addicted spouse - SIGNYM

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Quote:

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Originally posted by SIGNYM:
I think you know a lot more about that than I do, by now! Medicaid is essentially money given to the states by the Federal government so each state can run its own medical assistance programs. But like most assistance-to-the-poor programs, there are strings attached.

I'm sure this is all very strange to BRENDA, where they have single payer and everyone is covered, and where medical expenditures per capita are about half that of the USA. But here, the medical sector is one big assistance program to pharma and hospital corporations.

-----------
"It may be dangerous to be America's enemy, but to be America's friend is fatal." - Henry Kissinger

Loving America is like loving an addicted spouse - SIGNYM

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Quote:

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Originally posted by Brenda:

Quote:

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Originally posted by SIGNYM:
I think you know a lot more about that than I do, by now! Medicaid is essentially money given to the states by the Federal government so each state can run its own medical assistance programs. But like most assistance-to-the-poor programs, there are strings attached.

I'm sure this is all very strange to BRENDA, where they have single payer and everyone is covered, and where medical expenditures per capita are about half that of the USA. But here, the medical sector is one big assistance program to pharma and hospital corporations.

-----------
"It may be dangerous to be America's enemy, but to be America's friend is fatal." - Henry Kissinger

Loving America is like loving an addicted spouse - SIGNYM

---

It is still a little strange too me SIG and I know medical care is big business down there.

What little I remember of talking about medical stuff with one of my aunts down there. She had medicare and then added insurance on top? I think. Too many years now since I talked to her about this stuff. This was the aunt in Washington state.

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Quote:

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Originally posted by SIGNYM:

Quote:

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Originally posted by Brenda:

Quote:

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Originally posted by SIGNYM:
I think you know a lot more about that than I do, by now! Medicaid is essentially money given to the states by the Federal government so each state can run its own medical assistance programs. But like most assistance-to-the-poor programs, there are strings attached.

I'm sure this is all very strange to BRENDA, where they have single payer and everyone is covered, and where medical expenditures per capita are about half that of the USA. But here, the medical sector is one big assistance program to pharma and hospital corporations.

-----------
"It may be dangerous to be America's enemy, but to be America's friend is fatal." - Henry Kissinger

Loving America is like loving an addicted spouse - SIGNYM

---

It is still a little strange too me SIG and I know medical care is big business down there.

What little I remember of talking about medical stuff with one of my aunts down there. She had medicare and then added insurance on top? I think. Too many years now since I talked to her about this stuff. This was the aunt in Washington state.

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You got that right. The thing about Medicare, tho, is that it's only available to those over 65 AND who've paid into the system for 10 years, or are married to to someone who's paid into the system for 10 years. There are a few other exceptions and loopholes, but EVEN THEN YOU STILL have to pay an insurance premium to maintain coverage.

And since Medicare doesn't cover the entire cost of a procedure, many people chose to buy additional insurance to pay for some of/most of the remainder.

And the billing? It's a nightmare! A hospital will charge different rates depending on which insurance a patient has, or whether they pay cash. So I've seen these "explanation of benefits" which go like...

Infusion with chemo agents (you have to realize this is in much more explicit detail, I'm sumplifying it to reduce the post!)
....$129,070.02
Medicare approves $6,750.27
Hospital accepts that amount, and I may be billed 20% of what Medicare allows...$1,330.01

WTF? Is that $129,070.02 a real charge, or not? (Not. They're just playing games with numbers.)

All that billing bullshit adds at least 20% to the actual cost.

Standard charges, posted, for each procedure and Medicare for all. That's a good start to fixing things!

Well, enuf griping for now. On with the day!

-----------
"It may be dangerous to be America's enemy, but to be America's friend is fatal." - Henry Kissinger

Loving America is like loving an addicted spouse - SIGNYM

---

Quote:

---

Originally posted by Brenda:
Out to do what I need to do today in spite of the smoke.

SIGNY: Wow, I feel for you and everyone who's impacted by fire, BRENDA! Just stay safe and try not to breathe too deeply!

BRENDA: Thanks. Today was the first time I got a whiff of smoke. I stay as safe as I can. My brother who has asthma has been staying doors to keep away from the smoke. He lives in a different city from me and the air is worse there.

SIGNY: Among all of my other problems I have/had asthma, altho it's EXTREMELY well-controlled with a 10 mg montelukast (Advair) pill. I used to get attacks from perfume... smoke... cold,dry air... exercise... now it only acts up if I get an actual upper respiratory virus. If your brother hasn't tried it, he really might want to ask his doctor about it. If he has tried it and it doesn't work for him, he has my deepest sympathy.

BRENDA: Last meds I knew my brother was taking for his asthma were 2 different inhalers. Not sure if anything else has been added on. He reacts to smoke and perfumes as well. The cold gets to him too now. He needs the exercise for his leg after being hit by a car about 3 years ago now. He has had pneumonia in the past. And all this smoke almost sent him to the ER with his asthma.

SIGNY Oh no!
There are a few different inhalers now so I don't know which ones he's taking. There was the old-fashioned epinephrine (like adrenaline) "rescue" inhaler that was basically to stop bronchospasm in emergencies. I used to carry one around. They make people feel a bit jittery when absorbed, a bit like being hypoglycemic but they work fast

Then there is/ was a steroid inhaler that is supposed to be longer-acting and used daily. Also a dry-powder inhaler, same med as I take orally , a leukotriene inhibitor (Advair/montelukast) but I found that the dry powder was irritating so I switched to oral. There are also all kinds of oral meds.

https://www.mayoclinic.org/diseases-conditions/asthma/in-depth/asthma-
medications/art-20045557

Maybe his doctors have tried a lot of things, but I feel he shouldn't have to suffer like that. I hope you can encourage him to seek out better treatment options so he can breathe more comfortably.


BRENDA: He's been on all sorts of things for his asthma since he was a child. When my dad was a live, he was in and out of hospital for asthma attacks. I think in high school he was taking oral meds for it. I don't remember any more. As he got to adult hood he was flipped over to inhalers. He told me the colours of the inhalers just before I moved to where I am now. One was yellow and the other purple. One would have been fast acting, like a rescue inhaler and the other long lasting. He does have to carry them with him as he never knows.

I am long past looking after his medical issues. That is his wife's business. And he won't listen to me anyways.

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Quote:

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Originally posted by SIGNYM:

Quote:

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Originally posted by Brenda:
Out to do what I need to do today in spite of the smoke.

SIGNY: Wow, I feel for you and everyone who's impacted by fire, BRENDA! Just stay safe and try not to breathe too deeply!

BRENDA: Thanks. Today was the first time I got a whiff of smoke. I stay as safe as I can. My brother who has asthma has been staying doors to keep away from the smoke. He lives in a different city from me and the air is worse there.

SIGNY: Among all of my other problems I have/had asthma, altho it's EXTREMELY well-controlled with a 10 mg montelukast (Advair) pill. I used to get attacks from perfume... smoke... cold,dry air... exercise... now it only acts up if I get an actual upper respiratory virus. If your brother hasn't tried it, he really might want to ask his doctor about it. If he has tried it and it doesn't work for him, he has my deepest sympathy.

BRENDA: Last meds I knew my brother was taking for his asthma were 2 different inhalers. Not sure if anything else has been added on. He reacts to smoke and perfumes as well. The cold gets to him too now. He needs the exercise for his leg after being hit by a car about 3 years ago now. He has had pneumonia in the past. And all this smoke almost sent him to the ER with his asthma.

SIGNY Oh no!
There are a few different inhalers now so I don't know which ones he's taking. There was the old-fashioned epinephrine (like adrenaline) "rescue" inhaler that was basically to stop bronchospasm in emergencies. I used to carry one around. They make people feel a bit jittery when absorbed, a bit like being hypoglycemic but they work fast

Then there is/ was a steroid inhaler that is supposed to be longer-acting and used daily. Also a dry-powder inhaler, same med as I take orally , a leukotriene inhibitor (Advair/montelukast) but I found that the dry powder was irritating so I switched to oral. There are also all kinds of oral meds.

https://www.mayoclinic.org/diseases-conditions/asthma/in-depth/asthma-
medications/art-20045557

Maybe his doctors have tried a lot of things, but I feel he shouldn't have to suffer like that. I hope you can encourage him to seek out better treatment options so he can breathe more comfortably.


BRENDA: He's been on all sorts of things for his asthma since he was a child. When my dad was a live, he was in and out of hospital for asthma attacks. I think in high school he was taking oral meds for it. I don't remember any more. As he got to adult hood he was flipped over to inhalers. He told me the colours of the inhalers just before I moved to where I am now. One was yellow and the other purple. One would have been fast acting, like a rescue inhaler and the other long lasting. He does have to carry them with him as he never knows.

I am long past looking after his medical issues. That is his wife's business. And he won't listen to me anyways.

---

What kind of brother won't give his sister a hearing???

And I know men can be kind of careless about their health and don't like seeing doctors, but I feel his wife should at least try to catch up to the latest developments so maybe he wouldn't be so limited.

Ah, well. They're both adults and you can't make their decisions for them.

-----------
"It may be dangerous to be America's enemy, but to be America's friend is fatal." - Henry Kissinger

Loving America is like loving an addicted spouse - SIGNYM

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Quote:

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Originally posted by 6ixStringJack:
It's the strangest thing...

I literally haven't done anything physical all day, but I've NEEDED to eat around 170+ grams of carbs in the last 24 hours. I was LOW for 13% of the day yesterday, and VERY LOW for 2%. My "worst" day on the low end before might have been 6 or 7%?

I know I had a few busy days before today, but all I did yesterday was my my buddy's lawn and edge the pavers and fences. I sweat a lot because of the heat, but it wasn't exactly back breaking work.

I'm almost afraid to go to sleep right now. The last few times I ate didn't really raise me all that high for all that long. My average glucose yesterday was only 93mg/dL even though I ate 170+ grams of carbs and took no rapid insulin.

I did do a finger prick the last time it went down to 45. Finger prick said 68. So yeah... Still LOW on the finger prick test, but not dangerously low like the CGM was saying. But still... With two separate meters and +/-15%, they're within range of each other.

I mean... this would be great news if I can replicate it. But I don't expect tomorrow to go like today went.

--------------------------------------------------

How you do anything is how you do everything.

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Quote:

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Originally posted by SIGNYM:
Congrats on the mahjong, and good job on the errands!

Didn't do a whole lot of yardwork today, but I went a bought "builder's paper" to cover the remaining part of the veggies garden (cardboard, tarp, and builder's paper) so I get to see which one keeps the weeds down the best.

It rained on Sunday and Monday and by today, Thursday, the little buggers are already 1/4" tall! I was hoping to have a couple more months to get ready to smother weeds seeds (no rain = no weed sprouts). The untimely rain - welcome as it was in the wildlands- really put a kink in my plans! So now I have to play catch-up, again.

-----------
"It may be dangerous to be America's enemy, but to be America's friend is fatal." - Henry Kissinger

Loving America is like loving an addicted spouse - SIGNYM

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Quote:

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Originally posted by SIGNYM:
I would seriously doubt your CGM, and take more than one fiinger-stick through the entire range of readings before I assumed my body suddenly changed.

I have to refer back to my labwork. If I've run hundreds of samples from the same source (and in this case you prolly have thousands if not tens of thousands of readings from your CGM) and they always fall in a certain range under the same conditions, and I suddenly get a series of readings that's out of whack, historically, the FIRST thing is supect is the instrument, because instruments DO go out of whack (That's the reason why they need intelligent, insightful analysts) and my first step would be to do a calibration check. The second thing I would do is use a second method to confirm the readings.

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Quote:

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Originally posted by SIGNYM:
SIX, if there is a "next time" when your body or your CGM - or both- may be acting strangely, I suggest that you take seven finger stick readings in parallel with some CGM readings. Why "7"? Well, for example, both the CGM and the finger stick could have been abberantly low at the same time. Unlikely, but it HAS happened. With eough numbers you can compare the pairs of readings and see if there's a trend (eg one always reading 25 points lower than the other) or not.

*****

Glad you're getting some rain, BRENDA. I hope the rain goddess sends some rain to your interior, too!

*****

Well, I did everything I planned on doing, but I WAS busting butt the whole day! I can sleep righteously tired.


Our heatwave starts tomorrow at 87F (about 30.5C) and climbs to 97F (36C) by Tuesday, then climbs down to more tolerable by Thursday, they say. But these heat waves .... they have a habit of lingering longer and being hotter than originally predicted, so I hope this one behaves itself. The southwest is once aain under and "excessive heat watch". So strange, after such an unusual rain.

Better line up my indoor projects!



-----------
"It may be dangerous to be America's enemy, but to be America's friend is fatal." - Henry Kissinger

Loving America is like loving an addicted spouse - SIGNYM

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