Drugs

I am currently on hold with Kaiser, my health insurance provider. I’m trying to reorder one of my prescriptions but they want to charge me $968.00 for a 90 day supply. I have met my deductible already, having paid that amount the last time I ordered this medication.

Now I’m on hold waiting in a 17 minute line. Waiting on hold is one of my new jobs. Oh, I just got an update. The line is now 7 minutes long.

The main thing I want to accomplish today is fixing the bad battery connection I have on the truck. I’m waiting for a call from the Auto Supply store telling me my part is in. 

Of course, I’m tied up on this call which means they won’t get through.

Update: two minutes remaining.

Update: I got through and they were no help. I shall continue my search.

Final Update: I went online to the Novartis website. That’s the thieving drug company that makes Entresto. I did find an offer for a free 30 day trial of Entresto.

I also printed out a $10 co-pay off for future purchases. I’m not yet convinced this is a long term solution. It seems odd that they charge such a varied range of prices. It’s like nobody on an airline pay the same price for a ticket.

I also called my Cardiologist to see if there was an alternative to Entresto. I expect I’ll hear back in a day or so.

January BP

I changed up the format of my Blood Pressure chart a little bit. I added a spot for special notes. The stars indicate low blood pressure days. I'm going to move them to the other side of the row. And for some reason, I'm still posting the sun rise-sun set info on Mondays. I just like to track it. You might have also noticed that it's not always a Monday. Sometimes I forget and sometimes I write it down in the wrong row.

I would also like to note that this is probably the first BP Chart I've done without missing a day. If that's not anal retentive, I don't know what is!
 

Weekly Weight Loss Goal

 I don’t even want to talk about it!

Ski Day #7

I started the morning in the Dentist's chair. That generally doesn't hold the promise of an excellent day to come. That was wrong in this case although I will admit that I endured the most painful tooth cleaning I can remember.

I had scheduled this appointment months ago for 8:30. When I realized I had scheduled this ski date with Rob and Mark, it was too late to cancel my dentist appointment. I decided to show up early in case they could get me in and send me on my way to a day of skiing.

No such luck.

So it was about 9:30 when Rob got to the house to pick me up.

When I get a late start, I'm always anxious about parking. The lot was pretty full when we arrived but Rob drove up to the front to see if there were any empty spots. It wasn't looking good for us when we saw a spot right next to the Ski Patrol Chalet. At that point, I knew it was going to be a good day.

And what a day it was. Clear blue skies and temperatures in the high 20's. Still no new snow in over a week but the main runs were well groomed and the snow softened up as the day went on.

We skied se7en runs before going in for lunch and skied three more before calling it a day.

 We were back in town and having beer at the Hub by 4:00.

Todays' 10 runs gets me up to 60 for the season at a cost per run of $6.67. The next time I go up I will hit the break even point where I would have spent as much on daily lift tickets as I paid for my season pass.   

Ski Day #6

It is official now. I have skied more this year than several of the past years. Sometimes I've only gotten up 2 or 3 times.

I went up today with my son, Scott. We got up about 9:30 and we were getting off the Number Three Lift for our first run right at 10:00.

It was sunny on most of the mountain. The fog held it's position on the lower third of the hill. When I skied into the fog, at times it looked like there was just a sheet of white in front of me with no definition.

The best runs were on Chair Six. The runs were nicely groomed and there was no fog.

My eight runs today gets me to a total of 50 runs for the year for a cost per run at an even $8.00.

It won't be long until the mountain owes me money!

Ski Day #5

 Everything came together for me today to allow me to take a ski day. I had everything ready to go at 8:00AM. I loaded into the truck, turned the key, and nothing happened. Not even a click.

I opened the garage and got out my battery charger. I hooked it up and plugged it in and wham-o, the truck started.

I let it run for a minute and then turned it off. It restarted.

I decided I would head for the mountain but first I needed to stop and buy some jumper cables.

While at the Auto Store, the guy came out to check the battery. It's only two years old and it looked like it was holding a charge. He noticed some corrosion around the battery post connections and suggested they needed cleaning. I shut it off and it would not restart. He put the charger back on and it fired right up. That reinforced his diagnosis.

I returned home and cleaned the posts and the connectors and she started right up.

By now, I'm 45 minutes behind my schedule. Getting up to the mountain early is important to me because I want a good spot in the parking lot. I have enough issues with my stamina, I don't need a long walk to get to the chairlift.

 It turned out not to be an issue on this Monday morning. I got up there close to ten o'clock and there was plenty of great parking.

There was a high overcast and about 28°, with some low lying fog in the valleys. The mountain looked clear.

I skied 6 runs and then took a break in the lodge where I enjoyed the burger and brew special.

Afterwards, I returned to the hill and skied four more runs. That has my total runs for the year up to 42 runs which gets me to $9.53 per run. Three more times to the mountain gets me to the break even point with my season pass. 

I had some definite communing with nature thoughts up there today. It was really good to be up there.

It is now bed time and I'm feeling it.

Horrible Will Power

I have done a piss poor job with my weight loss goal this week. I'm 226.4 pounds this morning, which is about where I was last week. I'm resetting the goal and will try again.

I am not optimistic about my chances. I cave to tasty, fatty food so easily.

I'm a disgrace.

Ski Day #4

Another good day of skiing! 

There was a high overcast and some small bursts of low lying fog passing across the mountain. It was foggy about half way down the NW Passage and it made the light really flat and hard to see. It doesn't help that the cataract in my right eye is getting worse. I'm still a month out before an eye doctor sees me.

The good skiing was on Chair Sex...uh six. Mt Spokane is renaming stuff so Chair 6 and all the runs off of it are referred to as Northwood.

You traverse Yellowbrick Road until you come to Gary's Glory which merges into Big Timber and takes you down to the base of Chair 6.

The mountain is in need of snow. The surface is hard. In spite of that, it was still fun skiing. The runs were well groomed and the snow softened up. The forecast for tomorrow indicates rain in Spokane. Hopefully it will mean snow on Mt Spokane.

I got in eight runs. Added to my previous run total of 24, I have skied 32 runs, which has brought my per run costs down to $12.50 per run.

Add $20.00 for gas.  

Goal FAIL!

 The goal was to get down to 215 pounds. It was only five pounds I needed to lose.

I weighed in this morning at 224.4 lbs. In the weight loss game, we call that a FAIL.

So now, I have to lose nine pounds for my next goal.

Well, that’s why I’m setting goals. To set new goals.

Ski Day?

When I was driving down the mountain yesterday, I had ever intension of going back up today. My body decided I was being stupid. 

I slept in until 8:30 this morning and I am feeling sluggish. 

I got on line to look at the Mt Spokane Webcams and saw that my body made the right decision for me. It's very foggy up there today and it doesn't show signs of lifting.

I have done a horrible job on my weight loss goal this week. I'm back to 226 pounds, which means I need to lose eleven pounds by tomorrow to make my goal.

Not this week!    

Ski Day #3

I had what I consider to be an ideal ski day.

The drive up was easy and smooth. I had nobody in front of me and nobody behind me all the up the mountain. A slow driver in front of you is annoying.

I got up to the mountain at 8:50 and took about a half an hour to get myself dressed, boots on and up to the lift. The weather was clear and sunny, high above the fog I left in Spokane

The first couple of runs were kind of tough. The snow was hard, like a 70 year old Prostitute on Saturday night. About half way down the Northwest Passage Run, the snow started to soften up.

I found a good run off of chair three that I skied several times.

I ended up with 11 runs for the day. I was going to stop at ten but that last run was so good I decided to go for one more.

That gets my total runs for the year up to 24 which means I am at $16.67 per run. It's starting to get affordable.

I went up the chair with a woman named R.D. At first, it sounded like Arty but we got it nailed down. She was from California and had skied at Mammoth for $267.00 for a day pass.

That leads me to believe that Californians are stupid. They have much more money than sense.

I am a bit frustrated with the Mt Spokane's Web Site at the moment. While skiing today, I made a conscience effort to pose myself in front of a couple of the cameras and note the time. That way, I could go to the web site upon my return home and see myself on the webcams.

Unfortunately, all the webcams are currently off line. Perhaps my wonderful posing was too much for them and knocked the damn thing off the Interwebs.

So for now, I just have the pictures I took with my cell phone.

Rain Delay

Today was going to be a Ski Day. I got up early this morning and immediately checked Mt Spokane.com to check on the conditions.

The snow stake had a little build up of snow on it, about 3 inches. But when I checked it last night before going to bed, it was almost 4 inches.

In their description of the conditions, the mountain intimated that it was raining.

So, no ski day. I guess I better figure out my day and do something productive.

Ski Day tomorrow.

11:55 PM: I just talked to Scott who went unto the mountain today. He confirmed my concerns. It was a horrible day for skiing. That saved me about $20 in gas.

  

Covid Booster Boy

 I'm just like the Army. I do more before 9 AM than most people do all day.

I had an appointment at Spokane Cardiology for an ultra sound echogram on my heart. That was at 6:45. It took about an hour and everything went smoothly. I was back in the truck before 8 and had a 9:00 appointment to get my Covid booster shot. I decided to show up early and see what kind of monkeywrench that would throw in their system.

It turns out that it was no problem at all. I got in, got called, got the shot (which I did not feel at all) and I'm back at home in front of the computer at 8:55AM.

I have an appointment at 11:00 to get myself all registered with Medicare. It's a pretty convoluted procedure to go through and I'm being helped by Susan's friend, Ellen.

I'll update the process in a future post and describe what I have gone through.

Goal Achieved

I made my weight loss goal. I weighed in at 220.4 pounds this morning. It doesn't feel like I made a lot of sacrifices over the week to get here. I just cut my beer intake waaaay down and stopped eating everything that I know is bad. Chips, cookies, chocolate, you know, everything that makes life worth living.

I'm setting a more modest goal for the next week. I will lose five pounds by next Saturday.

I know I'm going to be bad tonight because we are going to the Illinois Avenue Bar to watch Gonzaga play Pepperdine. I will be drinking beer and eating something good, which means it's bad.

I shall attempt to moderate knowing I have a goal to meet.   

Plastic Sheets?

 I woke up in the middle of the night...about 1:00. That's not unusual for me. I wake up a lot during the night. I seem to sleep fitfully but always get up feeling rested.

I was lying there, wondering if the forecasted snow had started to fall. Then I wondered why my butt felt all sweaty. I soon realized that my sweaty butt left a nice wet spot.

I laid there for a bit longer and soon began to awaken to the fact that perhaps my butt was not sweaty.

I got up and went to the bathroom and discovered I had some cleaning to do. I cleaned up as best I could without jumping in the shower, grabbed a towel to lay over the wet spot, and went back to sleep.

It had started snowing, by the way.

When I rolled out of bed at 6:00 AM, I ascertained the problem. I had shit the bed.

Actually, that's too harsh. I had had a Wendy's fart. You know, hot and juicy.

So the sheets and the bed pad are in the wash and I am feeling like the old doddering man that I am becoming.

I think this is a first time occurrence for me since I was in diapers. Good to know I'll soon be back in them.

SKI DAY # TWO

I have just returned from my second ski day. It went pretty much like the first. It started great with a lot of energy which quickly ran out. 

I went up with Ski Buddy Robba and we skied seven runs. It wasn't a great day as far as the weather goes. It was kind of foggy and the light was very flat, which made it hard to see the snow in front of me.

I fell again and had a hell of a time getting back up even with Rob's help. That really wore me out...again.

We skied three runs and went in for lunch. We each had a burger and a couple of beers and then went out and skied four more runs.

I'm definitely feeling the burn from the skiing.

But a bad day on the ski hill is better than a good day at work.

Todays runs got my total per run cost down to $30.76. I'm well on the way to getting my per run costs below $5.00. 

NSNG Me

I think my plan is going to work.

I have already lost three of the eight pounds I want to lose by next Saturday. My strategy is to knock off the beer and stop eating sugar.

Both of those things are going to be difficult. I can eliminate a lot of the beer but not all of it. I do want to enjoy my life.

Sugar is going to be tougher because I have such a sweet tooth. But I know I can discipline myself and cut waaaaay back.

It's essentially the No Sugar No Grain diet. I'm just going to let some carbs sneak in occasionally.

I've got to get to work on taking down Christmas lights. I'm taking it in slow measures. I'll do the upstairs balcony today and we will take down the tree. I think I'll leave the train set for a couple of days.    

First Post of the New Year

I only posted 100 times to this blog in 2021. I suppose that is probably good because the majority of my post are stupid, self serving wastes of time.

So what better way to start of the new year than with a stupid, self serving waste of time but contained in a new year with all the hope and promise that a new year brings, blah blah blah.

I weighed in at 228.2 pounds this morning. That is going to drop as I really feel the weight on me this time. I need to get back to the low 200's that I enjoyed after my extended hospital visit last July.

I'm a pound down from yesterday and I'm going to continue this trend.

It's a chilly day in Spokaloo with the temperature reading 14°. Susan and I are going to go to the mall and get some walking mileage in.

Then I have to start thinking about getting the house de-Christmased.