Scarecrow in my garage trying to warn me about Crohn’s disease tests.
Before the doctors can increase my Remicade infusion frequency the insurance needs to be sure it will help me. Insurance companies don’t like to spend $17,000 – $23,000 every six weeks for my remicade infusions. I sympathize with the insurance company because I don’t like going to infusions for the next twenty years even if they do seem to help my symptoms. I have mentally adapted to infusions because the procedure is starting to become almost routine to me. There is no way I could pay for these infusions if the insurance didn’t take care of the bill.
In order to justify increased infusion frequency, it is necessary for me to take tests that make me want to vomit. I have found out by recent experience that my mental threshold for causing vomiting is not that high. It was necessary for me to get some help with the home tests because I simply couldn’t comply with the repulsive procedure for the home test without making mistakes and a gruesome mess. I am sure other people can handle it but I just simply can’t do it no matter how hard I try.
The tests rule out any other condition that may be causing any symptom. So far they are all negative which is a very good thing. I already have sufficient pills, treatments and procedures for a fun time without adding anything new.
Maybe all Preppers aren’t totally screwy. I think some preparation for the possibility of certain types of natural or man made disaster scenarios are somewhat reasonable. Weather such as hurricanes have recently devastated significant amounts of our country. Some people that ignored the hurricane warnings had hurricane parties instead of evacuating from the area. Those people are now dead. Even FEMA’s website has prepping instructions for various potential disasters so the government apparently takes prepping seriously.
It is entirely possible in my opinion that larger areas of our country could be affected for longer periods by similar disruption within my lifetime. For example a simple electromagnetic pulse from a solar storm or from a North Korean nuclear bomb could shut down all of our technology instantly. The solar storm of 1859 was a recorded event and it is almost certain to happen again. Life without electricity would be different from the life we now enjoy. It could take many years for our country to regain electrical power everywhere and that is only one example.
I think everyone should at least take a look at government recommendations for short term disaster prepping. Most people are psychologically incapable of any type of prepping because they don’t want to admit to themselves that something seriously bad will probably happen. Even if there is a disaster the government will always save you. Right?
Some major religious groups have organized prepping activities for all scenarios up to doomsday. The Mormons have a lot of prepping information on the internet and they actively teach prepping for all types of disasters. I don’t believe in Mormon theology but if there is a country-wide disaster for several years their emphasis on prepping may help the Mormon religion survive. Religious survivalist’s don’t seem to be entirely self consistent. Money and time spent on prepping can’t be spent on converting other people to your religion during good times. On the other hand if doomsday happens on schedule your religion would pick up converts.
Most individual non-religious preppers don’t really want to pick up converts after doomsday. Your chances of survival in a doomsday scenario would go down if you had to take care of unprepared people. There seems to be a fairly large pre-doomsday prepper industry on the web consisting of books, special food, weapons and other survival gear. I have seen what is on the web and some of it is kind of entertaining. It is possible to incorporate some of these items into more common activities such as camping, hunting, or even my favorite gardening. Personally I’m not a big prepper because fear of the collapse of society doesn’t worry me. I do kind of get a kick out of some of the items being sold online but I just can’t afford to buy the stuff for my own entertainment.
Ryobi makes a good work/home flashlight at a reasonable price. Collecting tools is a minor hobby of mine. I have some old tools left over from the farm and some from my engineering days of long ago. I would have had a lot more beautiful old tools from my grandfather Marsh except my parents sold them to a scrap metal dealer while I was at high school for the day. That was a sad event in my life.
I may not actually use all the old tools I own but this flashlight I use all the time. It’s part of their 18 volt rechargeable battery system which I like primarily because I can actually afford these tools and they seem to last just about forever. Ryobi is sold only at Home Depot.
The physical configuration of this flashlight allows it to snap onto a 2 x4 easily which is handy. The end of the light can be swiveled to aim at your work when you set it down. The detachable battery allows it to run basically forever on a project. It is very bright and focused. I dropped the thing from about 10 feet in the air onto a floor by accident and it actually survived although the battery was dented so I don’t use that battery anymore. The run time per battery is many hours and depends on the size of battery that you use. I typically buy the small compact lithium ion batteries because they cost less, weigh less, fit in spaces better and run long enough for any project I will ever do.
Flashlights are simple and common but this one is definitely a cut above the rest in my opinion. You can see it is designed well when you use it.
Manchurian Apricot Fruit Tree in My Wisconsin Garden.
I planted two of these Manchurian Apricot trees at our old house in Illinois eons ago and despite my best efforts at neglect, I was unable to kill them. I actually got an apricot before someone accidentally trimmed them severely into a small bush form.
I planted two of these Apricot trees here in my Wisconsin garden as soon as we got our latest house. Any plant that I can’t kill and that produces free food is my kind of plant. The squirrels and rabbits never bothered the Apricot trees in Illinois but I put the plastic mesh around them here just in case. I have found that a two foot high plastic mesh attached loosely to a stake seems to stop trees from being eaten to the ground by wonderful little woodland creatures.
Garage door with broken spring that will not open.
It’s not real inexpensive to fix an old garage door with a broken spring. We finally got the car out by doing a double lift on the heavy door then having one of us hold it in place. Plan to lock the thing in place and let it sit until I can scrape up the cash to fix it. The garage door opener itself also looks fairly ancient and will probably go next.
Would like to get a Ryobi garage door opener with some of the extra features. It has a bunch of great accessories including fans, laser parking assist, bluetooth speaker and camera security system. Yes, I know I’m dreaming because my wife would never let me use that much cash on a garage door opener. It’s OK to dream. Maybe one of my readers could buy one and let me know about their experience.
Cats have to do their business someplace. Cut a hole in a rubbermaid container with high sides and set it in half a cardboard box. The hole should face the interior of the cardboard box.
This arrangement is cheap and works far better than anything I have ever seen. It works well for even giant size cats if you get a big enough container with high sides. The cat is forced to walk on the cardboard which tends to get rid of any litter before he gets on your floor. Accidents are almost totally eliminated. I am sure the idea is not original to me because it just works too good and is too obvious. Expensive cat litter boxes are just not worth the money.
HGTV – Urban Oasis sweepstakes has a grand prize of a house, furnishings and cash worth $646,749 . There is also a cash only option of $350,000 .
I would take the cash only option because the house is in Knoxville, TN and I don’t want to live there. I could definitely spruce up my Wisconsin backyard with part of the $350,000 .
The sweepstakes ends November 22, 2017 and has an easy entry. The link below will take you to the entry page.
