Have a Heart

In a room not far from where Dick Cheney got his new heart this week;  Joe Plummer had a heart transplant operation as well.  Mr. Plummer, a resident of Bavaria, Kansas had been waiting almost two years.  When the news came, he and his family flew to Falls Church, Va. Overnight. 

Mr. Plummer is the first beneficiary of the “Used Hearts for Underprivileged Americans” program.  This new lottery based program gives folks who can’t afford the operation a fighting chance to live just a little while longer with a used heart.  Joe is a special patient, though.  He has received Mr. Cheney’s old heart.

“Yeah, I’m real glad to get this thing,”  Joe remarked.  “Hell, I was gonna die before June anyway.  Now maybe I can see the fireworks show one more time in Junction City.”  Joe will reuse Mr. Cheney’s heart pump, wired too his chest.  It’s not known how long the used heart will keep ticking.  Surgeon Rich Cutter said, “We don’t know how long this thing will work, but the price is right.”

Some complications, which are normal, have set in.  “After 2 days with this contraption I’ve been having these weird, dark thoughts and desires to take over the hospital and just go on down there and run the place my own way.”  Said Plummer.  “Damnedest thing too.  I’ve never wanted to secretly run things.”

Joe also asked for his shotgun and wanted to “blast a few things ta’ hell”.  With this new ticker, he just might have that chance.  Lookout, central Kansas.

My God, it’s always something…….

Quieting your inflammation

This is the end of my first week on the “Abascal Way” diet.  “What the hell is that?” you ask.  And, I have to say, I’m really not sure I can explain it.  Being from Kansas I can’t say I’m one to be up on my diets.  One goes on a diet in Kansas only when the front bench seat of your ’87 Buick cannot be further moved back to accommodate your girth.  Oh, there are other ways to get to the grocery store, I mean you can always have uncle Ernie come over with his flatbed, but It’s nice to maintain your independence.

This “Abascal Way” diet is quite fascinating really.  Better to look at the web site than to have me try to explain it.

http://www.toquietinflammation.com/

It’s about “quieting inflammation”, whatever that is.  I still don’t understand it.  I DO know that after an initial struggle I am beginning to feel better.  The point of this diet is to eliminate foods that are typically not good for your system and therefore ‘inflame’ you, such as whole milk, bread, corn, fatty stuff, sugary stuff, you know, stuff you really like.  There is really a better way to eat, with high protein foods, fruits and vegetables.  I’ve been doing this, and have found that I didn’t really have a craving for Crosby Stills Nash & Young. 

So, yeah, ok, I have been feeling better.  Lost some weight, all that.  I’m still in the process of eliminating foods that maybe, perhaps, just possibly have been causing my body to rebel, feel bad and just generally be out of sync.  Like that total crap feeling I always used to get pulling out of a McDonalds or KFC.  I’m sure you can think of something that does you in as well.

I was thinking today, this is fine for my body, but what about my mind?  Could one eliminate bad information that comes into it and thus force it to function out of sync?  Could what I have been listening to on a constant basis, all the bad things barraging my mind …… - then it dawned on me.  Politics, Current news events,  World news - on and on with all the vitriolic bombast from every cretin on Facebook for instance.  FB is chocked full of vitriolic cretins.  What yammer!!  Just shut it off!

I long to stay connected, however.  Shutting yourself off from this, yet staying connected is a bit of a conundrum.  I have decided that it is about choice.  MY choice.  A choice to not internalize the bemoaning’s of the cretins and letting it eat at you.  It will be challenging, but I have decided to choose to filter it out.  Easier said than done, however, I think I’m on to something. 

What was that you just said about Obama?  Sorry, I wasn’t listening.  

It's always something

Trash truck pac man

I spend more time in my art studio these days.  It's in back of the house, by the alley.  Retirement of sorts is one reason for this.  Having no work is the other.  It's a blended combination caused by old age and The Great Recession.  I'm so glad this now has a name.  I preferred The Great Depression II, but it didn't catch on.  

You're wondering "what the hell has this got to do with a trash truck?"  

Waste Management has a schedule.  They pick our trash up on Tuesdays.  All morning.  I noticed this since I too have been here all morning.  First pass - about 8 AM.  But it's just a fly-by.  Just a go-through, as if to see if trash is still here.  It is.  The truck rumbles through at a pretty good clip for a Tyrannosaurus Rex, not picking anything up, but disturbing the gaggle of crows smorgas-boarding on my neighbors overflowing trash.  I wonder if this maybe is a time trial run.  You know, just to get the 'feel' of the track conditions or something.  Or to lay claim to indeed having the 'baddest truck on the circuit'.

Time trial is over and 15 minutes later the truck comes down from the other direction, picking up my other neighbor's trash, and disturbing the crows again to the south.  10 more minutes and the truck speeds down the street, not turning down our alley.  Then moments later, the other direction down the street.  I'm wondering if Rex has found some prey and is perhaps chasing it down before feasting on the caged meals awaiting in their green bins.

Silence.

Then Rex comes stealthily from the other alley's direction.  The crows scatter and Rex devours their meal, leaving few remnants as he leaves the alley - and, MY trash.

Then, Rex returns from the street this time down my alley and stops at our bins.  "Aha!  thought you would be spared, eh?"  He devours our bin of sacrifice.

Then up and down the alley twice more, and the street.  I can hear Rex in the distance now, feasting on neighbors south.  It remains a mystery.  I have to take out more trash...talk later.

It's always something