20140728 – Leisurely week; Yeah it’s raining.

 

 

Yet another day volunteering on the mountain for me. Wendy’s still not so good so she’s relaxing at home. Not quite as hot today and I’m on with the easy crew. No hassle. No timetabled move arounds. Everyone just works together and moves around, takes breaks when they need to and it all just works. Definitely the best crew to work with.

In the evening Lynda comes round for dinner and we have a pleasant evening, good company and good food. In typical American fashion Lynda brings a desert – lime pie, delicious. It seems to be the American norm that you always take a desert, or starter, or something for the meal. We’re starting to get the hang of it.

 

 
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Never thought I’d say it but the cool, clouds and even the rain are such a welcome change after weeks of sun and heat.

Try a new ride today. Down to Round Vally and then follow the motorway / auto-route / inter-state down to Kimbal Junction. Stop for a nerdy browse in Best Buy followed by a leisurely Starbucks. Finally manage to identify that beautiful but elusive bird – see last weeks blog. It’s not a new species after al but a Black Headed Grosbeak. Then it’s the long uphill haul back to the Racquet club.

Wendy’s still not right and the UTI seems to be back so it’s a walk round to the sawbones.

The interesting, and what would appear common sense approach, to American doctors surgeries is that a nurse alway, ALWAYS, takes you temperature, blood pressure, weight and height. The vital signs. Seems to make sense to me. What do they take in the UK? A receptionist, who usually seems to think she has the wisdom of 6 years at med school despite not even a GCSE to her name, takes your name if you’re lucky and usually wants to know what the problem is in such a way that everyone in the waiting room can hear – best answer seems to be a few coughs and splutters followed by “A highly contagious form of the the Ebola virus.” That sure helps get you to the front of the queue as everyone flees for the exit.

 

Putting that lunacy aside I have to say the sawbones talked a lot of common sense. Gave her some antibiotics that should do the trick. It turns out the antibiotics our UK Quack had given her contained Septrin. So what you may say. Well, Wendy’s allergic to Septrin. It’s in her notes if anyone troubled to look. She’s had nearly a week of feeling crook due to our quack’s ineptitude.

Anyway back to the common sense sawbones gems of pithy country style wisdom:

1 Don’t take Cranberry tablets they’ve scientifically proven that only Cranberry Juice is effective for reducing UTI. Make sure it’s natural cranberry juice and not some cocktail of whatever slush was cheap when they bottled it.

2 Don’t bother taking pro-biotic tablets. There’s no scientific evidence that they help with IBS. They’re probably made in some filthy cowshed in China, where a guy with a pair of tweezers pops some gunge and probably some sawdust into a capsule. If you read the packets it right, well not about the guy, lunge and sawdust, but they’ve never been FDA tested. Instead try some natural yoghurt.

Listening to him reminded us both of our old family doctor, Dr Masters, she used to talk such natural common sense.

Now he also predicted that he was pretty certain this antibiotic was mild with no side effects and Wendy should be feeling 90% better within 24 hours. We’ll see!

 

 

For the first time since we’ve been here we can’t see the mountains for clouds. What a pleasant change it makes. Looks like we might get a relaxing day in. Who knows may even get to read a book. I’m still on the same book I had when we got her 8 weeks ago. Just don’t get the time somehow.

Great start to the day with fluffy buttermilk pancakes, maple syrup or blueberry sauce and fresh mixed berries. Another great American junk food. Puts hairs on your chest and cholesterol in your blood.

Well Wendy’s starting her glass of Cranberry Juice a day regime. It’s more sour than “Toxic Waste” – another American candy (sweets) delicacy. Probably needs a 2lb bag of sugar in it to make it drinkable. Goodbye UTI; hello obesity and tooth decay. Perhaps she could mix it with a yoghurt.

What is it with American salt? It’s just so much more salty, potent and virulent. A bigger bang for your bucks. Even I have to take care I don’t put too much on.

It’s our first day, in all day, hunkered down – dare I say a pleasant change. Sat like a couple of kids in a caravan at Skeggy / Blackpool watching the rain come persist it down. And of course like everything American it is so much bigger and wetter. If you’re out in it I’m sure you’d drown.

 

The obsession and lunacy continues. I can’t see common sense ever creeping in, sadly it’s so ingrained in their culture and psyche.

Laughable. Unbelievable. Here’s why I’ll not be going to Turkey:

 

 

Well we’re both supposed to be on duty on the mountain for 3 hours. Get there and rains stopped play so we’re sent home. Whopee!

Call at he bank for some money. American banks are just like UK banks. One employee serving, three stood around doing nothing and customers queuing up.

Then it’s Fresh market for some “incremental shopping”. Oh blessed are the poor with their shopping bags full waiting in the rain for the bus home – how un-American can you get.

It’s another day hunkered down. Today it’s just that very wet drizzle.

Chance to read a book at last and update the blog. Hopefully I might get the book I started at the beginning of June finished and my American History book.

Got quite a few books lined up, including the bible, having read the koran I thought it only fair and balanced to read the other best seller. Also got a Life of Mo to read; another American history book; along with two Pat Condell irreverent rant books; a Jeremy Clarkson rant; a Bill Maher irreverent rant; two physics books; a nerdy book on PHP and Javascript, looking forward to that one; a HTML5 and CSS3 book, nerdy again; along with Gigabytes of novels. Thank Chione for the Kindle. Yes, I know there’s something about a real book but at £50 per extra suitcase, per flight, the Kindle and iBooks save a fortune. That lot should keep me busy for the next year. Really must find more time to read.

Started doing the blog in raw HTML on WordPress. All the so called WYSIWYG blog editors I’ve used are more flaky than a pack of Jus-Rol puff pastry. Gives you so much more control, none of the problems and not really that much more difficult. Plus a real plus is that you can easily add captions to your photos.

For now that’s enough poking fun at Islam, they provide a rich source of fundamentalist lunatics, and we all know they need to get a sense of humour. I do my bit to improve their sense of humour with some desensitising therapy. Probably already have a few fatwas against me, so let’s turn to another organisation that will probably put a contract out on me. Yes, it’s the turn of the NRA and the gun lobby:

One Million Moms is a christian morality campaign. The group writes in a ‘call to action’:

Yet again the blasphemy card is played. For a change it’s the Christian religion. Do they really believe that a supreme being, or a son of a supreme being, needs defending against such things. Simple, if you don’t like it don’t watch it, and if enough people ignore it they’ll take it off the air. But I owe 1MM a debt of thanks for making me aware of what may be an entertaining programme – apparently first screens on 7th August.

Who knows perhaps we may even get a Mo version.