I have heard about this happening to others, but for some misguided reason I didn't think it would happen to me.  The bailout bank, Citibank, tried to raise the interest rate on my credit card by more than 7% even though I have never been late with a payment and more than 15 years of usage.  In fact, unless there is an emergency I pay the entire amount of my bill every month.

While they did give me the ability to opt out, they didn't tell me that if I did so they would no longer renew my card.  So today I called up the find out why I haven't received my renewed Citibank card and was told that my account was closed because I didn't want to submit to their usury tactics.

I wouldn't normally involve my congresswoman in a dispute between me and a business, but given the amount of bail out money this particular corporation took, I think it's incumbent on me to let my representative know how this particular company is treating their valued customers.  What's ironic is that I have supported the bailout to little bit, but I think that there should have been extraordinary strings attached to the money, not to mention significant changes in the regulations which have permitted this unbelievable collapse.  We need to reinstall all of the regulations which were in place before President Clinton and President Bush allowed our financial system to be deregulated to the point where banks and corporations can practically defraud their stockholders and customers without any consequences.

I guess I'll have to look for a more reasonable card.  The only reason I need the card is to maintain my good credit rating.  It's very important to maintain a good debt to credit ratio.  Now that my credit has been lowered significantly, this definitely affects my credit rating.

  Take care everyone.  I should be back online in a few weeks.
You can always drop me a line to let me know how things are going.

I had a nice non-eventful weekend and unfortunately the weather didn't cooperate with my plans to go to the races on Saturday night.  It was rained out, but we really need the rain.  In fact, I'm a little distressed that my front yard as began to look like it's seriously distressed.  I didn't notice it there in the middle of the week, but today it looks like I might have some problems on my hands if I don't get someone to put some small amounts of sod in pretty quickly.

The Confederations Cup didn't turn out as I would have liked, but at least our US Men's National Team played with all their heart and were pretty close to pulling off another huge upset.

I'm going to be taking a respite from blogging for a large part of the month of July, but it won't be for another couple days.  In the meantime, I am planning on going around tomorrow and seeing what is going on in your world.  Right now I'm going to be taking it a little easy.  Didn't get much sleep last night and it is definitely taking its toll on me today.

It's a wonderful day and all I have to share is good news.  The remedies we we took last Saturday have completely returned my blood pressure to its normal low state.  Ironically yesterday I had trouble getting used to my lower blood pressure and had to switch back to my brand-new abdominal binder (this is basically a woman's corset which helps me keep my blood pressure elevated to a normal level and enables me to breathe much better).  When I was having a lot of difficulties with the high blood pressure I started using some of the worn out binders and while they helped me keep my BP down in a wheelchair, they didn't provide me the abdominal support to which I am accustomed.

The final bit of good news is that our US men's national soccer team defeated the number one ranked team in the world, Spain, in the FIFA Confederations Cup semi final match today.  I was optimistic that they would play a good match, but I really didn't believe they had much of a chance of defeating such a powerhouse.  We won 2-0 and will play again Sunday afternoon against Brazil or South Africa.  I'm really psyched and as you can probably imagine, it will be difficult for me to be dragged away from the television while that game is going on.

If the weather holds up and I feel good, I'm going to go to the races on Saturday.  If so, I'll try to have someone take more pictures.
Take care,
BP

I usually try to update this every week, but I don't have too much to say this week.  So, I'll be back next week, however, I am going to try to get around tomorrow to see what's going on in everyone else's life.  It appears the summer is really at hand.  People don't seem to be blogging very much or it could just be their tired of Windows Live.

Have a wonderful weekend.

It's been awhile since I posted anything, so this will have to do.  I rested for a couple of days last week and after feeling better over the weekend I decided to go, with my brother and my nephew, to the local dirt track races.  It was an absolute blast and I do have a couple of pictures, but the pictures don't really tell the tale of what transpired that night.

The first couple of heat races were fun, but it became a little tedious when the less apt continued to spin the other opponents and a 10 lap race, which should have only taken about 10 minutes, was drawn out for 25 to 30 minutes.  The atmosphere more than made up for the boredom of the initial races and we eagerly awaited the future events.  The wheelchair accessible seats were only available in turn four and turn one, so I knew there was a pretty good chance we might get dirty, but we weren't prepared for the dirt shower we given.

The little four bangers, or as they call them boomers, barely tickled the dirt, however, the sprint cars were another story.  Dust began settling all over us and even a few pieces of well formed mud struck me in the chest, but I assured my brother and my nephew that that was probably the worst.  I had no way of knowing the late-model feature event would kick up about five to six times as much dirt.  The earlier heat matches didn't take any up.  As the cars continue to pick up speed during the first couple of laps, what began as a gentle sprinkling of dust particles quickly turned into wave after wave of dirt interspersed with the occasional mud splatter.

Sprint cars
It's difficult to explain, but I had bug repellent sprayed on my arms, face and neck.  While this is a good thing to do, especially during the summer in Florida, bug spray and dirt don't mix too well.  When I left the track the bug spray had turned into mud and it was all over my arms and hands.  It was a blast to watch, but when we arrived home it was no fun trying to clean me. 

Look at my headrest as I watch the blurring speed of the late models.
My brother had to take the whisk broom to my chair and me in order to get off the majority of the dirt and mud off me so that I wouldn't track up the house too much.  We then proceeded into the bathroom to wash my arms, face and neck.  Next we had to drag out the vacuum cleaner to suction as much of the dirt off of me as possible so that when I transferred into my bed I wouldn't have a gritty mess underneath my body.  Even the vacuum cleaner couldn't get all of the dirt and we ended up having to put a sheet over the bed to catch the dirt and then take it off after I was in bed.  That's not even the worst of it.

This was the first time I had been to the dirt track races since I have been wheelchair-bound, but I used to be an avid fan long before, so there really isn't any excuse for me for getting my hat.  As I was talking to my Frau on Friday she reminded me of how dirty it gets that those tracks and I assured her that I would wear a hat so I wouldn't get dirt in my hair.  As I was trying to remember all of the other things I need to take, the hat tragically didn't make the list.  I always have a visor on my wheelchair, but this did nothing but keep the dirt off of my face.  It took about 30 plus minutes to rinse all of the dirt out of my hair.  Thankfully we have an inflatable device which allows me to wash my hair in bed.  In case you're wondering why didn't take a shower, it really doesn't make much difference.  I still have to get into bed, undress, then put another sling under my body and transfer over to a shower chair.  From there I go into the shower, get cleaned up and put back into bed later.  It's really quite a process.

The only pic of me.

We really had a good time, but next time, and I am sure there will be, I'm going to take a sheet, a full hat, and I'm going to make sure that I'm properly attired whenever I'm sitting in a spot where the dirt is going to fly.

One of the main things I have learned in life is don't make the same mistake twice.  This doesn't always work when it comes to women, but it definitely rings true when it takes an hour to clean up just to go to bed.

Well, I hope your weekend went well and this entry was at least somewhat understandable.  I really do need to start working on my writing skills once again.  I used to be able to rattle off a concise entry with little or no difficulty.  Now I'm constantly searching for the correct word and often not finding it. 
Take care and I hope everyone has a wonderful week.
BP
I almost forgot the best part, I had the best American meatloaf meal I have ever eaten at the track diner.  The cook, an older lady was only about 10 extant teeth, might not be able to take care of her dental care, but she sure can make that meatloaf.

Update June 5, 2009.
I did pretty well yesterday and today has been a pretty decent day, but I made the mistake of drinking a little bit of tea.  My bladder started aching and then I started to get fatigued once again.

I thought I was battling a UTI, but I'm not quite sure whether I have bladder stones or am just a little deficient in the B-12 department.

I should be back at this Monday or Tuesday.  I tried to get around to everyone on Wednesday, but I only made it around to half the people I usually check on.

Normally I would be partying because my favorite soccer/football team, 1.  FC Nürnberg, was promoted into the first division of the German soccer league (Bundesliga), but this lethargic problem has put a little damper on that.


I will attempt to write more when I feel up to it.  Right now I seem to be getting fatigued anytime I try to dictate something on the computer.  So, I'm going to pay attention to my body and relax as much as possible.

I'll be back shortly.  Hopefully you guys will have a wonderful weekend.

My has it been quiet around here lately.  Perhaps I need to do more blog walking, but that's not high on my priorities right now.

Eureka!  That's probably what's going on with everyone else.  People are too busy on the Tweety Bird machine or booking face time on those social network websites.  Wait a minute!  Isn't that what this is?

Darn, I'm just as guilty as everyone else, except that I don't jump boat at the next new shiny thing that comes my way.

Now I'm off to watch the UEFA Champions League finale between Manchester United and Barcelona.