Month: August 2023

Government, Health

Let Me Say It Louder

The administration is indicating that there’s an updated covid vaccine about to come out and we should all get boosted. Additionally, there’s lots of talk about mask mandates making a comeback. The appropriate answer to both of these is not just no, but HELL NO. We’re not going down that road again.

The vaccine/mask thing is one of the things I’m really angry at myself for. In the beginning I was all-in for the vaccine. I praised President Trump for finding a way to test in parallel to accelerate the release of the vaccine. I believed in our health agencies and in science. As an RN, I honestly believed the CDC, NIH, and WHO all had the best interests of public in mind. After all, they were scientists and healthcare professionals, right?

When the vaccine was just about to be released for frontline workers, I talked to one of our neurologists about it. He felt very confident in its safety and how they went about testing it. I was all in. I’d already been working the covid floors every week, so having an additional layer of protection seemed appropriate. I got the shot the first week it came out for healthcare workers.

When masks were mandated for workers in the hospital, we were in the midst of the supply chain crisis and zero masks were available. We were issued one mask every three days. Wearing the same mask for a 12+ hour shift was gross. It was downright nasty to wear it for two more days. It was quickly obvious that forcing us to wear masks was for show only. Most of us let them dangle around our ears or kept them pulled down to our chins and we’d quickly pull them up if hospital administrators walked around.

Note: working the covid floors was different – we wore proper fit-tested N95’s, face shield, and used good PPE don/doff procedures when in a room with a covid patient. After all, we’d been working in rooms with highly contagious and airborne diseases for years prior to covid. This was not new for us. I did not know of a single nurse that contracted covid from a patient.

Soon, the mask thing in the public got crazy. The administration and Fauci were pushing “masking” like it was the holy grail that was going to save us from the pandemic. It still boggles my mind that people actually thought wearing some sort of nasty bandana around their face was really doing anything. I’d go hiking and get yelled at because I wasn’t wearing a mask. As a society we collectively lost our minds.

Here’s the part that makes me mad at myself. I went along to get along. I was already being forced to wear a mask by my employer to keep my job. I wanted to go to the grocery store, Costco, get on an airplane, etc… it was easier to just wear the mask than make a big stink.

I called myself a Contrarian. I was sure I’d be the one to resist government overreach and public hysteria. Nope. I folded like a wet blanket. It was easier to just comply so I could participate in society. So much for principles.

Meanwhile, the vaccines weren’t working. In fact, we made things worse by forcing a non sterilizing vaccine on the public and thwarting any sort of herd immunity. And then the side effects and health problems started arising from the shot. My hospital was firing any RN’s who refused to take it. Many of the nurses let go were younger women concerned about long term, unknown reproductive health questions. Keep in mind, we were desperately in need of nurses. At the time we were surviving only with government FEMA nurses and travel RN’s. The hospital administration thought firing nurses who refused the vaccine was the right thing to do… forgetting that they had no problem sending us in to work the covid floors pre-vaccine and with reused PPE and masks.

The long term damage the federal and local administrations did to the reputations of the scientific and health communities is incalculable. I no longer have any faith in anything the CDC or NIH says about anything. Sadly, I will question the efficacy of most new medical/pharmacology “breakthroughs” moving forward. The profit over safety pipeline has become crystal clear.

But more than anything, I’m frightened how easily all of us just went along with something so we could fit in to society. I knew masks were stupid and pointless, yet I did it anyway so I could go to Starbucks. We are sheep. It shows how easily we’ll give up our freedoms for the illusion of a little safety. That scares me.

So, you can take your mask and shove it where the sun don’t shine. I will not comply.

Government, Politics

Same Story, Different Day

I’m pretty sure I write the same thing every four years. What happened last night was not a debate. A debate is someone putting forth their ideas/opinions and allowing others to present counter arguments in a way that allows the audience to judge who has the better argument. Last night was a real housewives screech-fest, where the goal is to be the best at shouting over everyone and having the best cutting one-liner moment.

According to Twitter/X, whoever your candidate is was the winner. Every pundit has declared that candidate X DESTROYED candidate Y. So the end result is that whoever you supported going in… is still who you support today. What a pointless waste of oxygen.

Here are my takeaways from the little bit I watched last night, combined with reading the “news/analysis” this morning:

  • Everyone except Vivek and DeSantis are Bush era neocon clones who will bumble us into WWIII.
  • Vivek is a Trump clone desperately trying to capture the Trump base.
  • DeSantis seemed the most “presidential”, but had a bad moment with the hand raising thing.
  • Christy is an unlikable anti-trump plant who needs to give up and go back to the buffet.
  • Pence loves the baby Jesus. Did I mention that he really really likes Jesus?
  • Haley is Jeb! Bush reincarnated.
  • I think there were two other guys there, who’s names I don’t know.
  • Trump is still the nominee.

It’s a sad state of affairs. We are at the end stage of the republic, given our current trajectory. And what is the focus the GOP thinks we need to hear about? Some viral song, abortion, and loyalty pledges to Trump. It’s not a winning combination.

The republican house will continue writing sternly worded letters. The senate is already a complete uni-party. The GOP will put forth a nominee who has zero chance of winning. President Newsom will transform this country in eight years to something truly unrecognizable.

All empires eventually come to an end. Fingers crossed ours simply slowly fades away rather than a more violent undoing. I still have some travel plans and landscaping to finish.

Daily Life, Health, Motivation

That’s Going To Leave A Mark

I remember the days when you never had to think about doing things. Jumping over fences, climbing trees, picking things up, and running were all activities you took for granted. You just did them. You didn’t worry about stretching beforehand, ensuring you’d eaten enough protein, or if you were using proper form. I think in my head I still feel like that person much of the time. Reality has a way of reminding you those days are gone.

I did what every old man should avoid. I spent a day picking up and moving heavy furniture. I actually felt pretty good doing it. I never felt like I strained terribly hard or had to struggle to lift something. I was tired at the end of the day, but was pleased with myself for the effort I put in. I went to bed satisfied with a good day’s work.

The next morning I did a sit up to get out of bed and a huge alien looking thing popped straight out of my abdomen. I immediately laid back down. Holy shit, what was that? I slowly sat back up and my abdomen had that same big bulge projecting out in an unnatural way. I gingerly pushed and prodded a bit to see if it would go away. I laid back down and closed my eyes for a few minutes. I had a pretty good idea of what happened.

I was in such denial that I ignored it for most of the morning and went about my business. It was approaching lunch time and I snuck back into the bedroom to lay down and see if it was still there. Crap. I knew I was going to need to see a doctor. I reluctantly called in Mrs Troutdog and showed her. She was understandably alarmed. “Oh my god, what is that?”, she exclaimed. That sealed the deal. Off to the walk-in clinic I went.

Long story short I’ve either torn or separated the linea alba. That’s the connective tissue that holds the abdominal muscles together. Sigh.

I don’t know what it means yet. I have a surgical consult next week to see what, if anything, needs to be done about it. The initial doctor said twisting motions should be fine, but don’t be lifting anything. I’m unclear if I can ride a bike, motorcycle, etc…

My prediction is that the answer will be lose weight, strengthen the transverse abdominals, don’t do crunches, sit ups, or deadlifts, and work with physical therapy for some number of weeks. But who knows? Maybe it will require a surgical repair.

My fear is that my new reality will be a long-term limitation to activities in some fashion regardless of the answer. It also means that getting serious about the weight loss, and proper strength training, are no longer optional. Will I have the discipline to actually follow through with it? It’s ironic – as an RN I lectured countless post operative patients that their quality of life will now be dependent upon how dedicated were towards rehab and PT. I’d give a judgmental look at a patient and just know that they won’t do anything to help themselves, and will show up with the same problem a few years down the road.

Looks like I’m finally going to have to eat my own words.

As Dirty Harry said in the movie Magnum Force, “A man’s got to know his limitations.” Clearly, I didn’t know mine.

Daily Life, Health

Hiring Movers

We recently had to move a bunch of furniture several hours south. Logistically it was going to be complicated. We were going to have to get it offloaded from a semi-truck to one location, and then figure out how to get it all to a different location. Some of this stuff was really heavy and plenty of stairs would come into play. At this stage in my life, my first reaction was that we needed to hire a moving company.

I always worry about hurting my back when lifting heavy things. I worry about damaging stuff because, well, we’re not professionals. I didn’t want to deal with renting a U-Haul trailer. I hate asking for help just in general… asking friends to help move is the worst. It was one thing when we were twenty and people were happy to come over just for the pizza and beer. At this age I’d feel awful if a friend got hurt as we tried to carry something heavy up a flight of stairs.

In summary, I was grumpy about the whole thing before we even started. When the quote came back for a moving company in the several thousand-dollar range, that guaranteed we’d be doing it ourselves. My outlook was not improved.

Despite my sour mood and general grumpiness, somehow things just seemed to work out. The semi-truck driver was a really nice guy and agreed to come directly to our house to offload. We ended up with free use of a nice 16-foot enclosed trailer. A friend called and offered to help without my having to ask. Everything just lined up perfectly.

All this drove home a couple of life lessons:

  • You’re always better off just diving into a project and getting it done. Things are rarely as hard and unpleasant as you make them out to be in your head.
  • Once I embraced the task and broke a sweat, I actually enjoyed getting stuff moved, unpacking, and cleaning up. It felt good to have worked hard and accomplished something.
  • Parents, find a way to teach your kids how to back up a trailer. It’s something I rarely do. It’s embarrassing as an adult male to struggle with this and have lots of people directing and “helping” you in real-time.
  • Don’t let yourself become so deconditioned that you can’t move furniture around.

And last, but not least… strive to maintain a can-do and get shit done attitude. It’ll make you happier and the people around you happier. I’ve certainly lost that lately. Working on it. Recognizing issues is half the battle, right?

Government, Politics

Shoot At The King

As the old saying goes – if you take a shot at the king, you better not miss. Trump took his shot at the deep state and the DNC and missed badly. He thought his name, self-declared fame, and his money would protect him. He was wrong. Trump is done. This is not some MAGA rally where he can throw out pithy statements to thousands of fawning fans. There is a very real possibility he sees prison time. At the very least he’s tied up in very expensive legal quicksand for the next decade.

For all the Trump fanboys who disagree… where’s the judge who’s going to dismiss the indictments? Where’s the RNC who’s going to go to the mattresses to fight this? Trump has burned every bridge possible. What politician or businessman is going to commit their future to the Trump train at this point?

No, the sad reality is that Trump will spend whatever remains of his campaign time fundraising and then siphoning off most of that to his legal defense (he’s already doing that if you haven’t been paying attention. He has the money to repaint his private jet but not for legal fees apparently). He’s too much of a narcissist to admit he can’t win. He’d rather torpedo the rest of the party and play the martyr when Gov Newsom takes the oath of office.

Normally this would be a who cares moment. A politician overplayed his hand and is regulated to the ash heap of history. Happens all the time. But this feels different. This feels dangerous.

The near unchecked power of the deep state and the DNC is frightening. The RNC continues to demonstrate we have a Defacto uni-party. Oh sure, there’s a few republicans that write sternly worded letters but that’s simply throwing spitballs at the castle walls. Currently the power of the federal government is unchecked and is being wielded to fundamentally alter this country.

When this election is over, there will be millions of very angry voters. A MAGA crowd that will feel disenfranchised and betrayed by their country. And that anger is going to be stoked by quite a few people looking to use that anger to their advantage. Odds are that most of that anger will be shouted into the Twitter (sorry, X) void. But… if the right personality comes along… someone with charisma and persuasion ability… someone who can organize and channel that anger into action – bad things could happen.

And President Newsom has already demonstrated as governor that he does not tolerate dissent. Lockdowns and curbing of rights in the name of safety are a given. And that my friends, is a recipe for a real coup. Not a silly J6 coup, but actual violent attempts to overthrow the government. Who knows what happens at that point?

Maybe I’m wrong. Perhaps the angry right is all bark and no bite. Generally speaking, Americans have been turned into herd animals. All we want to do is chew our cud and watch TV. Odds are that we wake up a decade from now and wonder where our country went.

We’ll have given up our freedom and national identity for the promise of safety from mean words, climate change, and science deniers.

Maybe. Who knows? The future is hard to predict. Besides, there’s that minor little WWIII thing developing that could alter everything. Regardless, the next few years are going to be an interesting soap opera to watch.