Just an Update.

 So, what's been going on lately? Let's see, after about three months and seeing five different doctors and about seven different antibiotics, my ear infection finally seems to be clearing up. First it was a regular ear infection, then it turned into a fungus infection which I was told one of the other antibiotics probably caused, then it turned into a staph infection (MERSA).

Turns out what is clearing it up is eye drops! Of course I seen my regular doctor about three times, then I had to make about a 30-mile trip to see two different doctors, then had to make an 80-mile trip twice to see an ENT. So, yea, I'm finally glad this thing is clearing up! It didn't hurt, but it sure got itchy at times!

On top of that, three weeks ago I was going off the deck down the steps (four steps), it was dark with very dim lighting and my feet went out from under me and feel on my side, more towards my back and hit the steps very hard. It was one of those hurts that you had to walk it off.

I really hit hard with my full weight landing on the steps on my side. After about a half hour I figured I better go to the hospital and get checked. At the hospital, they thought I either cracked or broke some ribs but were more concerned I might have damaged my spleen. 

They took Xray's and did a CT scan and told me there was no cracked or broken ribs and my spleen looked ok, but I was really in pain. They gave me pain meds and sent me home. The next day I really, really hurt! I hurt so bad I could sleep in the bed because it hurt so much, plus when I laid down, I couldn't get back up! Had to kind of roll out of bed. So, I ended up sleeping on the recliner a few nights which again I had a lot of trouble getting out of. 

At this point I went to see my regular doctor who gave me a shot that really helped a lot but it only lasted for one day, after that, the pain was back. They did give me a muscle relaxer, but I only took them a few times because they made me feel like crap. I got Oxy twice, once at the hospital, then once from my doctor but they didn't seem to help any either.

So, here it is around three weeks later, and I still hurt. It's not to bad during the day, but in the evening or while in bed watching TV it starts to hurt pretty good. For the past week or so I've been taking 1000mg of Tylenol, then three hours later 1000mg of Ibuprofen switching every three hours as told to do so by my doctor. Never really did follow that. I ended up taking 1000mg of Tylenol at some point in the day, and way later in the day, like in the evening, I take three Ibuprofen instead of four. Seems the combination of the two work pretty good, or at least helps to a point.

The worst part is if I sneeze or cough. It still hurts pretty good but not like it did. There for the first and second week, if I sneezed or coughed, it was like I just fell on the steps all over again... really a lot of pain!

As a final note, I started posting on Facebook, this is about the third or fourth time I joined Facebook. As of now, I've only been moving posts from here to there, so nothing new posted on Facebook yet.

Video For Today:  Dave Clark Five - Glad All Over (1963)   

A note about the lead singer: This guy pretty much died broke. Turns out he was climbing over a fence and fell off and broke his neck (think it was his neck), and ended up in a bed the rest of his life.

I'm done... I think.

 Hooked up the new fogger the other day so I think I'm pretty much done with the Halloween display. Here's a video of it below. The only thing about the video I don't like was when I took the video it was a little breezy, so the fog didn't hang around too long

MY HALLOWEEN DISPLAY

Song For Today:  Gary Numan - Cars (1979) 

New Fogger Tomorrow.

 Tomorrow I'll be going over the mountain to pick up a new fogger as shown below.

This is a 1000-watt fogger compared to my old 400-watt fogger. The price wasn't too bad, plus I can use the on/off timer switch from my 400-watt fogger. I usually have the Halloween display lit up from about 8 p.m. till 12:00 a.m., which is four hours. I figure no use wasting electric after 12:00 a.m. being after that time there isn't much traffic. We get a good bit of traffic on this road, which is a back road, but after midnight traffic is nothing more than a car now and then.

Depending on how fast this new fogger goes through a tank of fog juice, I might have it operate from 7pm. to 12am. With the old fogger I'd have it fog for around 5 seconds around every 100 seconds. That seemed like about the best times for the fogger to operate between 8-12 without running out of fog juice. Of course, every day I have to go up and fill it back up for fog juice for that evening.

Some foggers have an automatic shut off if it runs out of fog juice but I'm pretty sure this one doesn't have that feature.

I'm also going to order a new heater for my 400-watt fogger shown below.

The old 400-watt fogger has a new pump in it now which it didn't really need, so now it has a new pump in it and the old one for maybe a backup. The heater doesn't cost that much and isn't that hard to replace that I can see. See that long tube going into the heater and a short part of the tube coming out of the front of the heater? Thats what's clogged in the 400-watt fogger, but the clog is somewhere inside of the heater core.

I'm just hoping I can make it over the mountain and back to get the new fogger, meaning because of my back still hurting from my fall on the steps the other week. My back is getting better, but it seems like a very slow process. It still hurts like hell on my left side from about my hip to almost my shoulder on that side. Laying down, getting up, coughing or sneezing is really painful, but not as bad as it was the other week.

Song For Today: Freda Pyne-Band Of Gold (1970)  

That Was a Total Waste of Time and Money

 I think I did mention that my fogger for Halloween wasn't working, right? Well, I ordered a new pump for it, installed it and I have the same problem, very little fog coming out of it. At this point I think there is a clog in the line that's inside of the heater. It's a new pump, and the heater gets really hot, but not much fog is coming out.

I tried running white distilled vinegar through it to clean it out, tried compressed air in it, even tried running a small wire through it but no luck. At the one end where the pump connects to the line I got a good bit of wire in the line before it would stop. Going in the line from the front of the machine, it didn't go in very far, maybe an inch or two. At this point I gave up on it, at least for now. So, I wasted time taking the fogger apart and trying to get it unclogged, wasted $$$ on a new pump and four gallons of fog juice. 

Yesterday I wanted to fire up the new chainsaw, so I put oil in it for the bar, and a mixture of gas and oil for fuel. Guess what? Didn't get it started. I thought I followed the directions for starting it, push the primer bulb until you see gas in it, turn the choke on, move the chain break forward, then pull the cord.

Well, it didn't start. I take it either I flooded it, the gas didn't get to the carb, else it could be I just didn't pull the rope hard/fast enough for it to start because of my bruised ribs. So, I didn't pull the cord real hard nor that many times and I can tell it today in my ribs. I might try it later on today if my ribs are up to it.

Song For Today: Four Tops - Reach Out (I'll Be There) (1967)   

Pain Sucks!!!

Here it is, a week and two days and still can't do anything other than slowly walk around in the house. Sitting or getting up is hard to do, while laying down and getting up is a killer! This morning about 1:00 a.m. I woke up from the pain and it kept getting worse and worse, from my hip up to my shoulder! I was about ready to go back to the hospital but really didn't feel like dealing with them either. About an hour or more of trying to walk around the house, it finally did go down some where I could go back to sleep. I'm hoping this clears up some because I have a lot to do outside. Grass really needs mowed, the pool is going to soon need to be covered for winter, I need to change the oil filter on the oil tank and the nozzle on the furnace before it gets too cold out.

I got my new chainsaw but didn't get to try it out yet, didn't even get to put gas and oil in it yet! I also got four gallons of fog juice for the fogger, but guess what? After one night the fogger quit working. I tore it apart cleaned everything up, including the pump motor but it does the same thing, it's not really pumping juice to the heater. So, I did order a new pump which should be here Wednesday. Maybe next year I'm going to get a bigger fog machine. The one I'm using now is only a 400-watt machine but would like to go with a 1200–1500-watt machine.

Well, guess I get out of here and suffer some more....

Song For Today: Extreme - Rise

Still Dealing with the Pain!

 Talk about hurt! Must be a better word then hurt... I made yet another trip out to the hospital yesterday because of the pain I'm in, like sever pain. Can hardly walk, can't sit very good, laying down is a job I can't get in a position as to where it doesn't hurt. Getting up from laying down is almost impossible! Coughing almost kills you too.

Going back out to the hospital was like torture, hitting every bump in the road was like getting hit with a baseball bat. So let me see, I tried Oxy with Tylenol, Oxy without Tylenol, Morphine, and Valium, but nothing really seemed to work, what the hell?  

Probably a part of the reason I hurt so much is by not taking it easy for a few days. I wasn't feeling too bad a day or two after the fall, so I ended up cutting logs with the chainsaw and splitting them with the wood splitter. Well, that night I paid for that!

I haven't had a good night's sleep, or rest sense the day I fell. Just can't lay in a position to where the pain is at a min. I did finally get a half decent sleep last night. After not being able to lay in bed, I went through the process of trying to get out of bed then went in the living room and tried out the recliner. Wouldn't you know, that was actually a big improvement! So, I finally did get a few hours of much needed sleep and rest! 

In other news... the fog juice for the fogger came yesterday. I looked on the tracking of it and it said it was delivered, but it wasn't here. Turned out it was at someone else's house even n another street! How can they screw up deliveries like that? Chainsaw is to arrive today, I take it, it too will be delivered at a different house. I never seen such screw ups. UPS, USPS, and FedEx all end up delivering to the wrong house. Can't they read street signs or what?

Well, guess I won't be doing much today, or maybe for the next few days. The grass really needs mowed but guess that will have to wait until I feel at least a little better. Can't imagine hitting all those bumps in the yard right now.

Song For Today: Love Affair - Everlasting Love (1968)  

Broken/Cracked Ribs?

 Bad Fall! 

 Not much fun last evening. Came down from the firepit for another beer, and in the dark going down the steps from the deck to the yard, slipped on the wet step and went down on my side on the step! OUCH!!! Thought I cracked or broke a few ribs. Went to the hospital and they to thought I broke a few ribs and was concerned I hurt my spleen. So, they took some X-rays and a CT scan and after five hours turned out everything was fine! Well, that was great news, but I really hurt like hell when I move, take deep breath or cough.  I know I'm going to be pretty sore for a number of days.

Wanted to mow the grass today as well as some other things but they will all be put on hold except for cooking hamburgers and hotdogs.... at least I hope I can manage that!

That fall was a really bad fall. My feet went out from under me and the whole weight of my body fell on the back of my left side.  I think there is only 4-5 steps, but in the dark, well pretty dark, I stepped on the outer part of the step (in the front of the step), and my foot slipped of and down I went hitting the round part of the front of the step.

At the time I was carrying a tripod, a can of beer, and two bottles of beer. After I was able to get up and walk off the pain somewhat, I found the tripod and the can of beer, the two bottle of beer took some time to find but finally did after doing a lot of looking, of course one bottle broke, but the other one was ok.

That's pretty bad falling twice in one month!

Song For Today: Episode Six(Deep Puple) Mozart Versus The Rest  

This isn't really a song but an instrumental (I guess). The only reason I'm posting this is because of the fast guitar playing. Of course, there have been a lot of fast guitar players in past few years, but keep in mind, this was in the 60's, pretty impressive for the time!