I have put off writing this entry because frankly despite a great beginning to last weekend, the rest of the time turned out to be pretty much worthless.  I did get an opportunity to see a few of my friends at their annual Halloween party, but by the time the party got going in full swing, I had to leave.  For some reason I remembered last year's party going full tilt at 8:00 p.m., that wasn't the case this year, however.

I know my face looks like a balloon, but it really doesn't look that bad in real life.  If you don't believe me, just ask me.
I still haven't seen the soccer game I was trying to watch due to technical difficulties with the streaming.  From what I've heard, it's better that I don't watch the game now.  When are they going to get more talent?  It's painful for a big fan to continue to watch a team flounder between the first division and the second division of professional German soccer.

Even my brother and my sister-in-law had a pretty rotten time at Guavaween.  I was absolutely shocked when my sister-in-law told me it was pretty boring.  The next day I heard the attendance was down to only 15,000 people, three times lower than the previous four years.  Yikes!  The sponsors must have taken the killing on that one.

So far this entire week has not really been too eventful.  I did, however, manage to get out of the house today, but only made it to the VA hospital to see a friend of mine who is there for caregiver respite.  I did manage to talk to some of my nurse friends and we were comparing notes on what were going to be doing for Thanksgiving.  My taste buds are already watering in anticipation.  Oh yeah, I also met with Voc Rehab (vocational rehabilitation) today about going back to school.  I'm supposed to be getting off my butt, metaphorically speaking of course, to get down to the University to enroll so I can take some writing courses.  Maybe then I'll be a little more proficient at conveying my thoughts effectively.

It's a shame, but I really don't have anything planned for this weekend.  Maybe a movie, but during this trying time I am attempting to only go to the movie theaters when there aren't that many people there.  I still haven't had my swine flu shot, so I need to take all precautions.  Speaking of flu shot, my Frau told me a couple of weeks ago she wasn't going to get the swine flu shot.  I talk to her yesterday and I guess my fallout temper tantrum did some good, because she waited in line for two hours and manage to get one a couple of days ago.  According to her, the outbreak in Germany is pretty bad.  Let's all hope this thing passes without taking too many of us.

Well, I'm going to go for now.

Have a wonderful weekend and hopefully I will see more activity on here in the future.

BP

I am hoping that on Monday I will have quite a bit to share with you all.  Last night was a wonderful night out watching South Florida beat West Virginia.  The worst part was I didn't get home until 1:30 a.m. and didn't manage to get to sleep until 3:30 a.m.  Today I'm watching my German soccer team, 1.  FC Nürnberg, who so far have managed to stink up the Bundesliga even more than the Buccaneers have the NFL.  Later tonight I'm supposed to be attending a large Halloween party at my old neighborhood, but my caregivers, my brother and sister-in-law, are not feeling too well.  Of course if they feel well enough to attend their beloved Guavaween later tonight, then they can take me to my party for a few hours.  So, I'll let you know Monday what happened.  I might even have some pictures.  I know one thing though, I am just too old to be attending Guavaween myself.  If I weren't in the chair might think otherwise.  Maybe next year.  :-)


I guess my plans of watching the soccer game on my computer out of the question.  Furby has decided he really likes to sleep next to my keyboard and he is blocking my view of the monitor.  I would move him by poking them with the mouthstick, but he thinks that is fun and ends up causing more havoc.  I could always go get a full mouth of water and spray him with a little bit, however, that would probably put water on my keyboard.  So, I guess I'll just resort to reading today and possibly looking at a few of your websites.

Since it's been a little while, I thought I would update you on how I'm doing.  It seems as if I have managed to successfully negotiate this UTI and that is absolutely wonderful news.  All the other problems I have been experiencing over the past couple of months are slowly but surely getting themselves resolved.  So, all in all, I am doing pretty darn well.

I just went in to see the allergist yesterday and he seems to think that I might be able to overcome a lot of my "food allergies" (this is in quotations because he says it's not a food allergy, but the result of my histamine levels being out of whack) if I continue taking the Claritin AD.  It did take me about a week of drowsiness to get used to it, but I am feeling considerably better now.  In fact, I have managed to get more done in the last two days than I have in the last three weeks.  Let's hope this trend continues.

Now it looks like I'm running out of excuses for not writing entries about what things look like from my point of view.

I felt they a sense of accomplishment the other day when I was able to finish one of my "popcorn" novels in relatively short order.  I guess I'll start reading Darkly Dreaming Dexter and let you know how that book turns out.  I know I loved the series, so I'm really excited to see if the book is better.

For those of you who have wondered what a popcorn novel is, it's those type of books that you curl up with on the couch with a bag of potato chips or a bowl of popcorn and read at leisure.  They're definitely not books from which you gain a tremendous amount of insight.  Then again, there are a few that are able to be really entertaining and informative at the same time.

Take care and have a truly extraordinary weekend.
BP

The rest of the country is experiencing weird weather phenomenon, so why should we be any different.  It went from record highs to record lows within 36 hours.  Today I'm riding around wearing my turtleneck shirts and trousers in an effort to stay warm.  By everybody else's standards, this whether I am talking about would still be early or late summer weather, but for Florida it's more like the middle of winter.  Thankfully it's going to warm up again later in the week and then I'll be able to go back to my shorts and T-shirts.

I definitely don't want to jinx myself, but the battle with my bowels has been at a lull for the better part of a week now.  It appears that the majority of my debilitating problem was caused by some bad bread.  Right now I'm just a normal precautions and unable to function much like I used to be able to.  The ongoing difficulties with my bladder are still a constant struggle, but so far I'm not to the point were I need to go in to get a prescription.  Hopefully be able to keep it that way.

My latest difficulty has been trying to adjust to new allergy medication.  I know Claritin A/D is not supposed to make you drowsy, but almost every time I sit back and watch something or relax I fall asleep.

Well, hope everyone else is doing okay.

I know I haven't written anything in quite awhile and in reality I haven't been doing much of anything over the last week.  Well, I have been doing one thing, now that I think about it.  I've been feeling sorry for myself.

I had vacillated between bowel cramps and bladder difficulties.  Every time I write or say that I have everything under control, the very next day something comes up to bite me.  I know this is just an ephemeral cycle that I am experiencing and it will eventually go away, but it's more difficult to deal with emotionally and physically.  It's just downright upsetting to be aware that almost everything I eat gives me intestinal discomfort.

It's sometimes difficult for other people to understand, but quadriplegics, who have an indwelling catheter, always have some sort of bacteria in their bladder.  The trick is to get your body used to living with that bacteria instead of trying to fight it with antibiotics.  Normally I'm able to do so, but over the last couple of months I've had one UTI they got me really sick and one in which the doctor decided to treat even though my inclination was to wait.  In that particular case I should've went with everything my training had taught me and my gut instinct was telling me.

The good news is I'm not really ill, I'm just not feeling like I should.

In an effort to pick up my sagging emotions I have started reading a popcorn novel and watching even more television than normal.  Lately I have been engrossed in the first two seasons of The West Wing.  Although my parents continued to profess that this show was one of the best on television at the time it was running, I chose to watch it later and I am glad I have done so.  I understand so much more about politics and therefore a lot of the little things that would probably get by me before are now at least somewhat comprehendible.  I love the show that gives me a range of emotions while I watch it.

Well, I'm going to go for now.  I hope everyone has a wonderful week and don't forget to stop by and wish Amy good health.
BP

Based on the level of inactivity, I am starting to believe there has been a mass migration over to the Twitter Book area of the Internet.  Why is it everyone's consumed with saying things within a few small sentences?  Are we really incapable of writing any longer 140 characters?  It seems even the most loquacious of our lot, the politicians, have adopted this notion.  Just look at how many of them are on Twitter now.

Sure I have a Face Book page, but I really don't get over there too often.  I guess I'm stuck here in the ever decreasing realm of Spaces.

 

I'm sure you can see my smile from there.  I had a really good feeling about this game, but I didn't want to jinx it by putting up some sort of prediction.  I'm glad I didn't.

I really wish I had a camera right now.

 

As I was in the middle of attempting to write one of my first entries in quite awhile, Furby, my cat, decided I needed to pay more attention to him than I have been.  Right now he is lying on my desk playing with everything, including my keyboard.  Whenever I unsheathe my mousestick (no that's not a metaphor) he goes crazy attacking it.  He has now decided to sit up in front of my monitor in an effort to get to stop dictating and pay more attention to him.  If it weren't for voice activation, I wouldn't be able to get anything done right now.  Crap, I think he's getting ready to attack my trackball as I am writing this right now.

 

 

 

After hitting my enter key or five times and moving my mouse all over the place, the little shit decided one of my remote controls needed to be relocated.  Yikes, the remote which controls my fan and light is now sitting in my lap and therefore I'm incapable of controlling the environment in my office.  I guess I'm going to have to call it quits for a little while.  I'll talk to you all later.

I know I haven't been around in quite some time and I have been even more remiss about checking out what's going on in your world's, but I do have an excuse.  The day I wrote my last entry on here was the last day I felt well at all.  I don't want to go into all the details, but the problems I was having with my bladder ended up developing into a full-blown urinary tract infection.  Normally this wouldn't hold me back more than 24 to 36 hours, but I believe that while I was waiting for the lab technicians, that I came into contact with some sort of virus.  I felt like crap for 12 to 13 days and I have waited for a couple of days just to make sure I am completely back to normal.  Of course normalcy in my case is a bit of a curve.

I have an appointment with the allergist tomorrow in an effort to find out what the heck it is that keeps giving me the hives whenever I eat out, but I should be able to get by and check on everyone by tomorrow evening.  Then again, the last time I said that I ended up having an uncontrollable shiver attack during the night.

I'll keep my fingers crossed.

Take care and have a wonderful weekend.