Hurricanes, puppies needing new homes and health updates

Ivan missed us and IF the high pressure ridge stays in place over South Carolina so will Hurricane Jeanne. If that does happen that means that FLORIDA or Georgia could get creamed. Once Jeanne does what she is going to do then we have Hurricane Carl who is going to probably be a hurricane as well. Sigh.... All I know is I will be HAPPY when Hurricane Season is OVER.


After driving around in circles the other night we found St Paul Episcopal church in Summerville and got in line with about 30 other folks to be seen by the physician who was on duty for that evening. Apparently they have three physicians and support staff that offer their services free of charge to the community every Thursday. What a blessing that is for folks like us that have no health insurance. Katy got the prescription she needed for her Rostacia medicine and I get the prescription I needed for hypertension medicine and cholesterol. I wont start taking Lipitor until after the free blood screening at Walmart today.

I am happy to report that my blood pressure is going down after being on this medicine for only one day. Wahoooooo! I actually even feel better because of that. I dont feel like I am taking speed anymore. What a nice feeling that is for a change. My last reading was 136/87 with a pulse of 79. We are not there YET but it is certainly much better than the average 151/95 (or higher) that I have been having over the last month or two. Well, shoot, probably longer than that since I have just begun to monitor it closely.

I got my A+ Examcram book in the mail the other day so while I was at work yesterday scanning folks for weapons I managed to study 6 chapters. I have 5 chapters to go and then chapter 12 is the practice test. I also have software that came with it that has more practice questions. Once I get to the point where I can pass all the practice tests with a 90% sucess rate then I will feel ready for the test. I am glad that most of this material is mostly an overview of what I already know and a refresher on those mundane detailed technical mumbo jumbo that I have long since forgotten.

I tried to upload pictures of these FIVE puppies to my blog via Hello but "HELLO PEOPLE" it did not work. Sigh.... I just hate it when things just dont work when you NEED for it to or expect it to. Oh well, you will just have to take my word for it, these boogers are just downright cute. LOL... These puppies are hopefully going to find a new home very soon!!
Ya KNOW you just WANT one, dont you?? LOL....

Hurricane Ivan and sick friends

Hurricane season is alive and well. Hurricane Ivan is hurricane number 6 that is pounding Alabama , Florida and getting ready to head for Georgia and South Carolina where we live. As I write this several people have died due to hurricane strength winds and tornados that have been spawned by this storm. I can not wait for hurricane season to end. As I write this we have Hurricane Jeanne that is taking aim directly at the East Coast of the US where I live. We will probably have to contend with that storm sometime early next week.

My thoughts and prayers this morning go out to my friends and associates who are all battling some type of cancer. Please join me in praying for Charlie, Carol and my friend Kimberly's husband who has cancer. Actually, all three of these folks are very sick. I am going to go visit Carol this morning for the first time since she has gotten sick. I have been very selfish in not going to see her because I am afraid of seeing her in her weakening condition. I have called her several times over the last several months knowing that I need to go see her. Carol warned me that she has lost her hair and a lot of weight which I am sure has affected her alot. I guess that one reason I have not gone to see her is because it will bring back memories of watching our Jessica decline as the affects of chemo and radiation treatments along with the cancer took its toll on her body.
I also have two friends who constantly battle with depression. My thoughts and prayers go out to them as well.

Today, Katy and I will be going to a local clinic to try and get some much needed medical help. What we face is no where near as life threatening as my friends listed above but they are needing attention nevertheless. Katy is trying to get her Rostacia medicine renewed and I have hypertension issues that if left unattended could have ugly consequences. Hopefully I can get a prescription for blood pressure medicine tonight to help me with lowering my blood pressure. In the last two weeks I have been counting calories and watching what I eat very closely. Thanks to Life Clinic Website I have been able to track blood pressure readings and diet intake. I have been learning a LOT about hypertension and what is required to lower it. Life changes must happen for me and now. Thanks to my poor diet and lack of exercise I am now in a position where I have to take some drastic measures. Longevity of life is requiring that I make those life changes. I have to eat less and better and I have to exercise moderately until I can get some medication to lower my blood pressure. Left untreated hypertension can kill. That is why it is called the silent killer folks. Average blood pressure for an adult is 120/80 and mine is running anywhere from 138/87 to sometimes 155/100. That means that I am at risk for those two types of events in my life. I have REALLY been paying attention to this fact and I am trying to do SOMETHING, ANYTHING to reduce my risk. unfortunately when you can not afford medical care or insurance you are behind the eight ball with regards to getting needed treatment.

Last week I had two interviews with two local IT providers. Both of them told me emphatically that in todays current market that I MUST get my computer certifications and maybe even a degree in computer science to hope to gain a job in the IT industry. There are IT jobs available unfortunately there are more IT professionals to go around than there are jobs to fill. That means that employers are picking the cream of the crop (degreed and certified professionals over people like me) and they are able to pay minimal wages and get away with it. The supply and demand is way out of whack folks. As I look back into my past I continue to kick myself for NOT finishing RN school back when I was in my early 20's. Financially speaking I would be sitting in a much better situation. However who knows what could of or should of happened? If I had done that I might not have moved to Houston Texas and met Robbyn or Katy and my children today would not be a part of my life. Hindsight is 20/20 and even though I have regrets for not finishing my schooling and dropping out I have experienced some things in life that have enriched me greatly that I would not have experienced otherwise. I am constantly reminded that despite my plans or failures to execute and follow through successfully with some of the plans God is still in control. I have hope in that knowledge.

One employer has already hired someone (not me) and the other employer is apparently still interviewing folks. I should know something by the end of next week IF I am going to be picked. I am not holding my breath, that is for sure. LOL... On a brighter note my A+ ExamCram book has arrived and I can now begin to study for that certification. The WIA program here in SC is trying to obtain MCSE training materials for me through Specialized Solutions in Florida. I can get all the course work and study materials for MUCH less than trying to pay for it at Trident Tech. Its just a matter of me disciplining myself to sit down every day for 2 to 4 hours and study and apply myself. So, every day I will do just that. When I am working 3pm to 11 Pm 3 days per week down at the County Office building it will be easy for me to do that because I have tons of spare time in between rounds. The rest of the week will mean I have to find opportunities and places to go study. My goal is to be A+, Network + and MCSE certified by this time next year. That means I have a lot of studying to do and lots of tests to take. Once I accomplish this milestone I will be in a much better place to obtain gainful employment in a technology position.

My son Jeremy has settled into Wharton Junior College just outside of Sugarland Texas and will be there for the next year. In the mean time his step father and mother are soon to be snow birds. It is hard for me to imagine that Robbyn is going to move from her life time residence of Houston Texas area to move up north where it REALLY gets cold. We just think it gets cold during the winter here in the deep south but it is NOTHING like what it will be in Michigan during winter time. This will be a tough transition for Jeremy and his mom and step father. My thoughts and prayers go out to them as they make this huge life change.

I guess that is about it for now folks. I am going to try and stay dry and get ready to go visit my friend Carol this morning. Please pray for my sick friends that they will be at peace and receive spiritual, physical and emotional healing from our Father God who loves all of us.

God bless

Hurricane Ivan as of 8 am 9/15/04. Several deaths have been reported and lots of damage. Georgia and South Carolina should feel the affects sometime today and tomorrow as well. Tropical storm Jeanne appears to be taking aim at the East Coast sometime early next week as well.  

Here comes Hurricane Ivan. Lets remember to pray for the folks in the path of this Cat 4 Hurricane as it begins landfall. I have several freinds who are in the path of this storm. We should get a lot of rain out of this storm as well.  

Life Clinc Website is BACK!!!

Ok, Life Clinic is back online and I am SO HAPPY!! :)

Web blues

Well , I am NOT too happy about the fact that Lifeclinic.com is DEAD.... The website has been down since yesterday afternoon. SHOOT..... That is really not the word that I was thinking about BUT you get the point. Imagine me hopping up and down for a few moments... LOL... Anyway, I had not realized it until NOW but I had become VERY comfortable with keeping track of my Blood Pressure and Calories on this website every day. I sometimes will visit multiple times per day to track what I am eating etc. I did a traceroute on the domain today and my results were UNKNOWN HOST. That means that not only the server is DOWN but the DNS servers don't even recognize the domain name which is NOT good. Sigh.... Hopefully it will come back to life in the next 24 to 48 hours. If not I will be forced to purchase tracking software that is not dependent upon Internet connectivity. I have been researching some products this morning and have found some pretty good ones. Of course, none of them are FREE. There are some WEB based sites that give you a FREE basic tracking functionality but NOTHING like what Lifeclinic.com gave me. SHOOTSKIE.....

The weather here has been overcast and drizzling on and off all day. What a dreary looking mess we live in here in Duck Ditch USA. Actually, the weather is so ugly looking I think the ducks have migrated to Hawaii or some other location South that is NOT in the direct line of Hurricane Ivan who has killed 50+ people thus far as it has tracked across the Carribean. Sigh... The forecast thus far is that Ivan is going to turn North around Monday and plow into the Florida Pan Handle and track up through Georgia , Upstate SC and then up into the Eastern Coast by Wed or Thursday which means at very least we will get a LOT of rain. Can you say FLOODING in Charleston SC? All we need is a thunderstorm to dump 2 inches of water and downtown Charleston is in knee deep water. JOY....

Well, time to go to church so I need to yank myself off this keyboard and get ready.

Peace be with you!!

Visit Jesus Connect on the Web

Once upon a time Jesus Connect Ministries had a vibrant and dynamic ministry website.
What happened you say? The server that it ran on was taken away from us due to the ISP we were co locating it at went into sudden financial problems and the management company where the ISP was located took possession of everything without any warning to us. POOF. Server was confiscated and we found out too late that we did not have good backups of all our data and configurations. That was 10 years worth of work down the tubes. So, in the background Jesus Connect ministry has been reborn and a new administration program that fully automates how it is administered and recreates what users see on the front end is finally done. There are still some bugs that need to be worked out but all in all it is ready to be taken out for a serious test drive.

That is where YOU come in. Go to Jesus Connect Ministries and poke around. Prod here and there and see what you can get into. If you see something that you would like to be added just let us know. :) Add links to our Linkbase and within 24 hours I will approve them. Check out the Jesus Connect Message bases and see if there is anything there of interest.

Well, that is about it for my Jesus Connect Service Announcement. :)

Here comes Ivan the terrible

Can we say it did but then it did not? Can we pretend Ivan is just not out there and that the storm will not kill anymore people than it already has. Sigh... I guess that works only if you are a scientologist. Did I spell that right?? Did you know that Tom Cruise is a scientologist?? I did not know until just recently... I know, more worthless trivia to forget...

My son Jeremy wrote friends and family an e-mail telling us his new phone number , e-mail and blog. I am so proud of Jeremy! Go Jeremy GO!! You have a LOT of people praying and pulling for you so you go get em son!!

I had my second interview today in two days. I think that sets some sort of job search record for yours truly. I wonder if the newly recreated resume that my friend Kimberly did for me has anything to do with it? I am sure that it had some bearing on the initial interest anyway. I interviewed for about 60 minutes and I think that the conversation went pretty nicely. This particular company is a family owned computer consulting firm and they are looking to fill one position to help out the owner with his client needs. We shall see if they pick me or not pretty soon.

Jay Leno has the worlds oldest chicken on his show tonight. What is up with THAT? How do you tell the age of a chicken anyway? Who CARES how old the silly chicken is.... Please no show of hands here ok ? LOL...

I slept until 11:30 am yesterday morning so I got a late start on my day. That means that since I am used to staying awake from 6:30 am until 1 am the next day that I am wide eyed and bushy tailed at 12:22 am.... Go figure. I have to be at work at 7:30 am which is ONLY 6 hours away. Sigh.... Anyone have some extra tooth picks? I am going to need them. LOL

Hey, I know what I could wake up all the puppies and take digital pictures of them for the blog.... What an AWESOME idea... NOT. I do NOT want to hear them yammering for the rest of the night because I was desperate for something else to do at 12:30 am. LOL... I will take the pictures later. Hey Jeremy, speaking of taking pictures dude, how about a webcam for my favorite son? That would be cool, if you had a webcam in your dorm room.
Be sure to throw all the junk in the closet before your mom views the webcam though. LOL

The OLDEST chicken in the world is 14 years old and has a birth certificate. The average age of a chicken is supposed to be 7 to 8 years. The owners were looking for a chicken for their magic show in Alabama. I am going to spare you with the rest of this mindless drivel... LOL

I have to say this , the chicken, Matilda, is put in a parrot cage and has toys. Sound familiar Patty? This is a Bantee chicken?? Oh my goodness.

My mood matched the weather this morning. When I got up I suppose it was cloudy but I really dont know because I was still in CHUD mode trying to wake up. I did the usual routine as I always do and settled down in front of the 21" NEC CRT to warm up to my E-mail inbox. Before I know it the rain starts to come down. Luckily for me there was no thunderstorm just more liquid falling out of the sky. When the rain came down this morning I found myself feeling depressed. How irritating is that I asked myself as I stared into the monitor reading this and that. Why in the world do I feel depressed after getting out of bed? Well anyway, who knows, I don't have any magical answers other than I was just down in the dumps. I picked up the phone to call a friend of mine but the answering machine greeted me instead of my friend so I just hung up the phone. I really wanted to talk to a human being in the flesh. Do not get me wrong, I am an Internet junkie and cyber citizen from way back but there are times when talking to someone in IM when you need to really talk and make a connection verbally that is when cyberspace just does not cut it. Justin got up around 3:30 am with a hacking cough, sniffles, runny nose and sore throat so Katy wound up staying awake for most of the night and was asleep at this time. There was no way I was going to wake her up over this especially when I knew that this would pass eventually. I suppose depression is not something that most folks want to talk about or even admit to experiencing it. I guess it is sort of like admitting that we have a weight problem or some sort of addiction. We don't want to say those things to our families or friends because we are admitting that we have a weakness or character flaw or problem. Well, anyway, depression sucks anyway you cut it. Oh yeah, before I get away from this thought one of the reasons I knew I was depressed this morning is because my motivation level was at subterranean levels. I was barely motivated to breathe much less do anything else like get out of my chair and take a shower and get ready for my day.

When I could not think of anyone to talk to in real life (on the telephone) I reverted back to the computer monitor and noticed that one of my friends in Oklahoma was online in Yahoo IM. I wound up talking to my friend for about 15 minutes or so until he had to log off and tend to his wife this morning. One of the things that I did other than talk to my friend and admit that I was down in the dumps was to fire up Launchcast on Yahoo IM and listen to my favorite Christian Contemporary Music channel. Talking about things (banging thoughts into words on the keyboard) and listening to some upbeat music helped to quench the feelings of despair, gloominess and depression.
I finally got to the point where I needed to change my environment in hopes that doing so would help me to get a new perspective on things and shake off the dumps. After running myself through the upright water sprinkler device in the bathroom I felt better and decided that my hair DOO needed some improvement. It is amazing to me how Katy could use the clippers to snatch me almost bald you would think that the hair would grow back evenly. That is not my luck however so off to Wallyworld for a hair cut. After the hair cut I went to lunch with a friend of mine and we got caught up on life and ate some wonderful home style cooking. After lunch was over I received a phone call from an employer who wants to interview me. Actually, this is the second employer in the last two days that has responded to my sending them a resume. I am thinking that the resume that my case worker at WIA did for me is really getting me some serious results. Way to go Kimberly!!!!

The next step of the process is to sell yourself to the employer in person. That is the hardest part of the whole process in my mind. You are always faced with the questions like "why would we hire you over the other five million applicants who also responded to this job ad??" or " tell us one quality that you poses that would make you different and more suited for this position than the five million OTHER applicants for this job". Well anyway, hopefully I can make a decent impression on an employer in the VERY near future so that our deflated budget can find new LIFE. LOL....

For the first time in about 5 days the sun peeked out from amongst the clouds and began the process of turning our soggy mosquito filled tundra into a large greenhouse. Speaking of mosquito's I find that I miss this one thing about Texas. The mosquitos in Texas are so large that when they fly you can hear their wings. It sounds like a helicopter coming in and atleast you have time to move out of the way or grab a base ball bat and take a swing. The mosquitos we have here are as bad as the flying teeth (noseebums). They are all flying around in stealth mode. The only way you know you have a bug sucking you dry is the tiny prick you feel when they first bite you. If you don't feel that you are in trouble. I walked outside the other day to put Angel (our lab) on her chain and 20 of the bothersome blood sucking pests decending upon me. I could not get back inside fast enough.

Speaking of Angel that reminds me of PUPPIES. I am off tomorrow and one of my tasks will be to utilize the technology at hand to MARKET my puppies to you and everyone I know locally that has an E-mail address. These puppies are loveable, cute and are BEGGING for a NEW home. Could you imagine having to wake up and have to see the likes of me every day? Please, find it within your heart to either SAVE THE PUPPIES by giving them a new home or help me spread the word to your friends and families to see if THEY might NEED, WANT a new puppy. LOL....
That means that I will post some new PUPPY pictures for all to see sometime tomorrow so stay tuned.

I am currently in a holding pattern with regards to what method of study that I am going to undertake with regards to going back to school Twenty years ago the only method of going back to school was to do just that, go back to school and sit in a classroom with a teacher and take notes , do homework and take tests. Now that is not the case. I can either attend class at Trident Tech OR I can obtain CBT materials and do what is called SELF STUDY. There is a company out of Florida (I wonder if they are still around after this storm) who is attempting to become a verified school source for the state of SC so that they can provide me with all the curriculum on CBT and books for my MCSE certs. If I go to Trident Tech I will have to pay almost 7.000.00 for all 7 courses and exams. If we go the CBT route I can get the entire taco (minus the cost of the 7 exams) for less than 2500.00. I am also entertaining the idea of getting an associates degree in Information Technology and I am sure that within those two years that I will also gain some Microsoft Certifications also which will be nice. That of course requires grants and student loans and attending class on campus. No matter what I will eventually do I am ready to get the show on the road while I have the motivation to do something.

Well, it is time for me to get off of my behind, get out of this chair and wander out into the sauna and race the mosquitos up into the parking garage so I can make sure that all is safe and secure for our customers. OH JOY!! Talk about motivation to GET OUT of this dead end job folks. LOL...

What a mess we have on the East Coast. Frances is headed into the Gulf and we have showers and tornado watch in affect until 8pm EST today. JOY 

Hurricane Frances as of 9/2/04. At this point in time Charleston SC will not take a direct hit but we will still get some ugly weather out of Frances. Just what we need, more water... 

Hurricane Party anyone?? Well actually Gaston was only a Tropical Storm but the only thing that seperated this storm from being a full fledged hurricane was 4 MPH worth of sustained winds. Luckily for us here in the Lowcountry this baby did not develop into a beast. We managed to weather this storm without any major problems. The wind howled and blew tree limbs off but the only thing that those damaged was Justin's bycycle and it needed help anyway so no big loss. One limb that took out Justin's bike would have taken out most of the porch had it been another foot to the right. I am glad it missed.

Power went out around 11 am and stayed out until approximately 5:30 Pm. Yeah, we get to keep our food in the fridge and sleep with some cool air on us tonight. What a treat that will be!! DSL died before the lights did so hopefully that will be back online soon. I know that I know that it is possible to live without high speed Internet but I would rather not.

Now, we can look forward to Hurricane Frances who is predicted to get close to us by the end of next week. Yipes, I hope it just misses us altogether and goes somewhere else. How about going back out into the Atlantic and just spinning itself out?? That might not be a realistic wish but I will wish it for all of us. I spent most of the morning online with my friend Patty who was also online in Mt Pleasant where she weathered the worse of tropical storm Gaston. Patty told me that the wind was blowing water through the door knob where the screws hold it onto the door. The wind must have been blowing pretty hard to do that Patty. I asked Patty if she had put floaties on her three birds just in case the water starting to rise and she laughed. Now that this mess is over and to the north of us we can begin the clean up efforts and watch the waters begin to recede.

Reporting to you live from downtown Charleston South Carolina.

Unwanted wet visitor - Tropical Storm Gaston

Well, whether we like it or not our wet and windy tropical storm Gaton is almost upon us.
As you can see I have been able to post some radar and satellite images for you compliments of Intellicast.com and Counton2.com. It is currently raining on and off and the winds are gusting at 15 to 20 MPH as of 6 am this morning. The good thing is thus far we have not had any bad thunderstorms or lightning or tornados spawning off of the rain bands thus far. Hopefully this is the worst that it will get but I am sure as the storm advances onto the coast that the action will pick up some. I am supposed to work down at the Charleston County Office building today at 3 Pm until 11 Pm but I doubt that it will be open. The last time we were threatened by a hurricane the County Management boarded up things and sent everyone home. I called down to the security desk at 5:30 am and no one answered the telephone so hopefully that means they were sent home. Dowtown Charleston floods at the drop of a few inches of rain and we are going to get more than that before the day is out. I will take some digital pictures as the day progresses so you can see whatever happens.

Katy's long term substitute teaching position lasted all of two weeks and one day. I cant tell you how badly that went for Katy. Katy was so excited to be in her own classroom and poured her heart and soul into what she was doing. Just as she was getting ramped up to do some real teaching when the books FINALLY arrived the principal pulled her into his office and told her that a permanent teacher had been found. Needless to say this upset Katy and apparently took the staff by surprise that the school district was able to find someone so quickly. Nevertheless no matter what the school principal thought or did not think about how quickly a teacher would be found he had to find someone immediately to fill the role of a teacher for that classroom because school was opening for the 2004/2005 school year.

The puppies are getting larger and LARGER as the days go by. My goodness how they have grown in just a couple of days. Well , I guess it has been more like a week or so since they were born. Their eyes are now open and each one has a name thanks to Kristina and Justin overlooking their care.

Last week I found out that I did qualify and was registered for the Workforce Initiative Assistance program. My WIA case worker is very familiar to me in that Kim and her husband used to come visit me on Saturday at Goodwill when I used to work in the service center. Apparently they have been shopping around for a bargain computer and wound up talking to me on several occasions. My oh my, it is a small world after all. :)

I had a meeting with one of the program leaders at Trident Technical College and learned several things. The program leader told me that he is willing to start a class for me and one other person who works at Deyten Shipyard on Monday and Thursday evenings from 6 Pm to 9:30 Pm. The MCP courses would be the modules on installing and implementing Windows 2003 desktop operating system and server. I am not sure WHY they are not offering Windows 2000 though since 2003 gold code has not even been released to the public yet.
From what I can tell they are not even offering 2000 classes. Anyway, the state is picking up the tab for the first two courses and exams to the tune of 999.00 per course so I am going to try and knock these two courses out and then worry about what I will do for the other 5 courses and exams to get my MCSE. Once I pass 4 exams I will have my MCP and MCSA certs which will look nice on my resume. That will hopefully be a good thing as it will make me much more marketable in this very tough IT industry. I also found out that professional certifications are considered continuing education and you can not get student loans or grants to pay for it. That really bites. How can they consider an MCSE certification continuing education when I dont have a college degree yet? Go figure....

Kim at WIA has me set up to take another Keypress basic english and math skills test on this coming up Wed at 8:20 am. I took prep exams two weeks ago that proved I can pass the exams and now they want me to take three modules that last approximately 45 min.. apiece to prove further that I am no dummy. LOL... I suppose if the state is going to pay for my "continuing education" the least I can do is jump through all of the ridiculously tedious process and take their exams. Atleast I have a goal and I am working towards it.
Hopefully I will be able to start taking the first course in September. I believe it is 2 days per week for 5 weeks or something like that. A friend of mine in Atlanta told me that I need to get the TestKing modules for the track that I am on and that this will help me to pass the Microsoft tests since their tests are almost word for word of the actual exams. So, I guess I will do that as well. Anything I can do to get an edge to pass the exams is what I need to do.

On the school front Justin auditioned and got accepted into the Dolphin group at school at Sedgefield Intermediate. Last year when Kristina was there it was called Super Stars but I guess since that music teacher left to pursue her Masters degree that there is a new teacher and they decided to rename the program. Okie dokie smokey, whatever floats yer boat is fine with me. How much is it going to COST me is the million dollar question. LOL Whoever said that public education is FREE was smoking MAJOR drugs and ought to get years of therapy because they are WRONG. School has only begun this year and the kids are already bringing home pieces of paper with notices about this program and that program and how much it will cost us for our children to participate.

Kristina joined the band and is practicing learning how to play the clarinet AND has signed up for Chorus. Kristina found out the other day that even though she signed up for both she is only showing up on the Band List. Kristina loves to sing and I must say she does have a LOT of potential if she will only develop what natural talent she has in that area. So, hopefully the 35.00 monthly clarinet rental will magically disappear and she will devote her energies into voice lessons and chorus. :) Speaking of the clarinet have you EVER tried to push wind through one of those things? Good grief grady how hard can it be? Trust me when I tell you that I almost busted a lung trying to get some air to go through this thing. It was like putting your lips to the tail pipe of your car and huffing and puffing and nothing happening other than your almost having a myocardial infarction. Of course I stopped short of that after managing to get one tiny squeal through that thing.

On the health front here on the home front I have been a bit concerned about my blood pressure spiking on me from time to time. It feels as if I am on speed when this happens and I just hate how that feels. If you ever took no doze to stay awake when you were younger so you could go to school and work two jobs then you remember that feeling. Hopefully none of us took speed for the kick of it..... LOL.... Experiment with drugs?? NOT US.... Why we would NEVER do that would we... hahahahahahah Eh hemmmmmm...
Anyway back at the ranch and my blood pressure and weight problem. My friend Patty was gracious enough to help me purchase a blood pressure machine since ours seems to have started to malfunction and keeps coming up with error codes instead of working. We bought the thing 3 years ago and now it no longer works. Go figure. Anyway I got the blood pressure machine last night at Wallyworld and I have been taking readings about once every two or three hours. I am using Life Clinic Website as a place to record all sorts of health related information. You can record your exercise schedule, blood pressure, glucose, blood sugar levels and much much more. This website is a plethora of information for those of us that are having health problems due to OBESITY. Being over weight is just not good any way you cut it. My doctor friend sent me several documents last night that basically told me that if I want to live long enough to see my kids graduate college that I had better get REAL serious about losing some of this blubber. Sigh and double sigh... This is no surprise to me folks, I know that I know that I need to cut back on the grub intake and get some exercise. In the last year or so I have gotten much better at eating less and exercising more. However that has only enabled me to NOT gain anymore and just maintain my current weight. That means that I need to cut back even more on my calorie intake and exercise more so I can start to burn those unwanted pounds of cellulite. That my friend is easier said than done. KWIM??

IR shot of Gaston at 6:23 am 8/29/04 compliments of Counton2.com. Winds are up to about 15 to 20 mph gusting here in Goose Creek with some rain on and off. Nothing major yet 

Radar image compliments of Counton2.com, as you can see we are in the soup now... This was taken around 5:30 am 

Radar and Satellite image compliments of Intellicast. I woke up at 5:23 am with debris hitting the roof of our trailer. Winds have picked up substantially over night.  

Local Doppler radar at 11:30 pm as we watch the outer bands of TS Gaston coming inland.  

August 28, 2004 11:30pm EST. Tropical Storm Gaston bearing down on the barrier islands of South Carolina between Charleston and Georgetown.