My blood pressure has been high for years so I finally started on some meds about a month ago. I go to the fire station a couple times a week to get it checked. After a few weeks it hadn’t gone down so my dosage was doubled. This morning my blood pressure was 186/116. I don’t think they’re working.
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Lose Ten Pounds in One Week with These Fat-Busting Diets!
The Domestic Dispute Diet • The Sick Pet Diet • The Unemployment Diet
The Anger and Frustration Diet • The Guilt Diet
The General Malaise Diet
They work!
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White Picket Fences
White picket fences were once iconic of the American dream…now they are merely metaphors. I think I know why.
White picket fences don’t accomplish much security-wise, but you can still get impaled on one because you think you can climb over it. If you buy a house with a white picket fence, the next thing you know you’re fertilizing your lawn and fretting over dandelions.
After a while white picket fences don’t look so good and need repair and painting. I once took a job painting one. As usual, I underestimated the job and languished for days in impossible positions. I recommend doing just about anything else—schedule that colonoscopy or pap smear. Get that dental work you’ve been putting off.
Chain link fences don’t look so good either, but at least they’re ugly from the day you put them up and you accept this. People don’t try to climb over chain link fences, especially if there are dogs. Yards with white picket fences don’t contain dogs that discourage intruders. Are you going to let a schnauzer scare you off? No self-respecting pit bull would stay in a yard with a white picket fence, he would be too embarrassed and leave immediately by simply jumping over it.
White picket fences are in far too many kitschy paintings. They symbolize happy families with children who are good students and parents who aren’t drunks. They don’t work.
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Lust
I worked for a obsessed born-again Christian back in Connecticut who loved plants. One day she pointed out a bush in the next yard and told me how much she wanted it. I said, well you know what they say, thou shalt not covet thy neighbor’s bush. She wasn’t amused, but I giggled for the rest of the day.
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These puppies are being fostered by Dee from Border Animal Rescue. I took this picture May 10th.
Taken today, 25 days later, about 8 weeks old.
The mama, a Jack Russel mix. The pups don't look anything like her!
Red yucca, doing well all over southern Arizona.
Wild sweet pea, growing along roadside.
Most of the huge old pine trees around town are dead, a surprising result of the February freeze. We expect pines to be hardier, and we hate to see them go.
Car of the week: '56 Jaguar XKE with modifications, seen around town. The guys told me it would do 190 mph...don't know if that's true, but even if it is, where you gonna do that?
Find an Outlet 
You need different meds, there are many kinds. Also, invest in a home BP tester when you can, theyre digital now and a zip to use. With those numbers, you should be checking daily. Does the firehouse offer this daily?
Thanks Ann, I know I need to try another med. I have an appointment at the clinic June 20.
Yes, that’s where folks go to have their BP checked, at any time, day or night. You just walk in and ask one of the cute firefighters. They’re happy to help.
If the firefighters are cute you could actually check it twice a day. that’s even better, medically of course (tee hee).
Ann, you should try it. Pretend you don’t have a tester. The guys are SO nice. I think they enjoy it, as they’re waiting around for calls.
Cute firefighters could be the cause of your high bp. Just sayin.’
Ha ha Patti, I wish I still cared.
GRUNT!
Oh that mind of yours!…..I’ve done those diets, though at that time I didn’t know I was dieting. I must admit, in the end I fell off them. Not sure where I went wrong . Not enough balance – too much anger not enough frustration. Perhaps I mixed guilt with malaise?
Puppies!…..I like the pup with white on forehead and leaning against the door. Got that brooding James Dean ‘look’ work’n for him (if female I apologize to her ….hmmm who would be the female equivalent to James Dean). Think he is eying the car at the bottom.
A ‘dead’ tree is sad, but that’s Momma doing her t’ing. We think of her with ‘cold heart’ but she knows whats best.
Thanks for this. It went along nicely with my first coffee of the morn’n.
Ha ha ha Hudson! You fell off your Life Sucks diet! Good for you!
The puppies are adorable and all so different. Not sure what the father is but some kind of spaniel looks evident.
I know Mother Nature is doing her thing, but chopping down a 50-year-old pine tree is not only sad but expensive, or if you do it yourself, a hell of a lot of work. Jeez you’d think they’d be a little tougher. I never saw a pine tree die from freezing before.
Question: What type of pine tree do you know? Not all species of pine are suited to cold weather. Not a important question, but am curious none the less.
As for chopping down a dead pine -all you need is a Canadian with a chainsaw. It would be history in a hour, cut into cord and in a nice neat pile. Plus it would only cost ya 2 F’r
Hudson, I don’t know what kind of pine trees they are, but I’m going to find out. Pine trees grow in places that freeze a lot worse than here, so I don’t get it. Doesn’t look like any of them made it. The picture I took above is one in a friend’s yard who has been babying it for 20 years with water and Miracle Grow. It was a beauty.
I guess it wouldn’t matter to an experienced Canadian with a chainsaw if the tree was in an inconvenient place? Like on a mountainside with houses all around and no space to let it fall?
Be interesting to know, whether they are all from one species or related or completely different. Are they indigenous or imports. From the pic I have not a clue as am not familiar with southern pine families. Am sure there is something of interest to all this.
In northern climates, babying a pine or evergreen can lead to more probs in the long run and means a shorter life than a long one. It’s survival of the fittest.
The ‘car pic’ has clicked the playlist for today’s songs in my head. Ah the power of image to evoke. Thanks again.
The Eagles, ‘Take it Easy”
“Take it easy, take it easy
Don’t let the sound of your own wheels
Drive you crazy
Lighten up while you still can
Don’t even try to understand
Just find a place to make your stand
And take it easy”
AND
Gino Vannelli’s, ‘Black Cars Look Better in The Shade’
“The night exposes the cracks
She wears her makeup like wax
To hide every scratch
’cause she a dark angel riding dark horses
Sitting pretty in her dim lit covers … I say
Black cars look better in the shade
She smears her lipstick on right before she sleeps
For all those phantom lovers in her dreams”
I covet the Jag and the puppies. I’d find a place to do 190 and the puppies would love it.
I hope that medicine starts to work. I never know what helps mine, but I imagine that meditation and consistent deep and slow breathing helps.
Thanks Carl. I remember your fondness of car racing! I think most dogs enjoy it too, either watching it or better yet, being in the car with their head out the window. My dogs would say, only 190?
I’m a firm believer in meditation and have used it many times in my life. I just can’t do it right now, when I really need it. Can’t shut off and end up feeling worse.
Just great Debra.
Love the Coveting thy neighbor. I am still giggling.
Fences are interesting. My idea of a Pickett Fence is 6 feet high where I live. I really need one.
The weather has wreaked havoc everywhere. Is it too much to ask for Normal?
And yes, I have been on all those diets sad to say! Those that have not, will never understand. Good thing I don’t like to drink much.
Barbara
Hi Barbara, thank you! I like those tall wood privacy fences too. But chain link really works here because you want to be able to see out. But if I lived in a neighborhood where the houses were packed close together, I’d want a privacy fence too.
I’m trying to keep weather problems in perspective because so many people have lost so much. My partner’s parents live in Springfield, Mass, and just watched a tornado flatten their neighbor’s house. It’s awful.
I tell ya there’s nothing like a shitstorm to drop poundage!
OH MY — That is way too high. Are you going to the doc?
REST – Calm – Rest – Calm—– Get it down – please!!!!
HUGS to you …
Forgot to tell you that the ‘rest’ of your post I liked! So concerned about the BP – that nothing else mattered!
{{{hugs}}}
Thank you Mother…thanks for your concern. I’ll be prescribed some different meds I’m sure when I go back to clinic. I know it’s way too high, it scares me too. Can’t sleep, mind races, then bad dreams. I need an overhaul. Or a lobotomy. Or a big fat check. Hugs to you too.
Those puppies will probably be in a new home soon, thanks to your pic! Good luck on the BP meds, it can take a while for them to dial those in, but once they do you’ll feel a lot better!
Hi Harry, thanks. It’s weird how one BP med works on some but not on others. I always thought I could handle this on my own but apparently not.
Lust – I laughed my ass off.
Thanks JR, some people have no sense of humor!
It occurred to me that your blood pressure is going up because its not coming down. Meds are frustrating, sounds like you have a genetic predisposition to high BP, so trying to find something that works sounds like a good idea. Stick with it, we all want to have you around for a long, long time so that you can keep us honest and keep us laughing.
Laughed out loud, literally, at the picket fences piece. Great visual images, and so true about painting them (way too many hard to reach surfaces). Who the hell thought these were a good idea. Got stabbed on one when I was a kid trying to make a quick exit to avoid a girl friends father. Carried the wound in a private area for quite some time.
And shouldn’t covet they neighbor’s bush? Priceless!
Hi Bill, thank you! And yes I think it is genetic. I believe we can beat genetic faults but I just can’t right now. So I’ll try more pills.
Ha ha your picket fence story is funny, and exactly what I mean! They’re deceiving. I’ve been wounded on them myself.
The woman who coveted the bush was enormously fat. She went on to have that lap band surgery thing and lost a bunch of weight. She constantly thanked God instead of the doctor.
there’s so much to respond to in your blogs, Debra , so I’m going to be selective. I too have high blood pressure or rather I did have it but it’s been controlled for years through a mixture of meds, exercise and diet.I loved your disquisition on white picket fences which reminded me of that tv series which I loved. and that car: it’s magnificent
Thanks JLeo. I do get exercise and don’t eat much junk, so it’s a matter of finding the right meds. My problems are in my genes and my head. I never heard of that TV show but I’m assuming it’s about happy families who aren’t so happy, am I right?
Is there anywhere in Australia where you could drive that fast without going to jail?
Regarding the diets – they may work, but your adherence to them doesnt show up in your art work. something else entirely comes across there.
hmmmm…….
Never saw a red yucca, pretty!
Thanks Patti. It’s those adorable little pods that are so appealing.
Now regarding red pods are we talking yucca or Firefighters.
Hudson! Whatever do you mean? Someday firefighters really might respond in fire-engine-red pods, ascending straight up and flying to the scene in seconds.
You forgot to mention fire-retardant form-fitting spandex fireman suits.
Laughed my ass off at the coveting bush and picket fences! I confess to never having seen an actual picket fence other than the “Americana” images. When I was growing up in New York the tendency tended towards chain link with these strange plastic strips woven in for privacy. Usually the strips were faux garden green but after a while it just became a rainbow cacophony. Hideous.
The puppies are growing so fast and are even more adorable, if that is possible.
I have developed high blood pressure as well. Not as high as yours though! I’ve taken various different types to no avail. My doctor thinks I’m not taking them but they just aren’t working.
THAT CAR! Oh, I am in love. I would just take my chances at arrest to test out the 190 limit. Nothing more glorious than a beautiful, fast car racing at maximum speed down the roadway, breeze blowing, music blaring… if heaven existed that would be it for me.
The tree, that is strange, I have never seen a pine tree die from a freeze like that. So sad.
Finally, the diet, I have been on all those diets throughout my life, sometimes all at the same time, and still gained weight. Obviously I am doing something wrong.
Indigo, I can’t believe you’ve never seen a picket fence! I guess New York is not exactly the place for them. Oh they still have them though in tree-lined suburbs in America, and they’re as shabby as only broken dreams can be.
You wild girl, I would be terrified to go 190!
That’s funny, well not really, that you’ve been on those diets all at once. I usually combine at least two, plus the high blood pressure and headaches.
Okay. “Thou shalt not covet they neighbor’s bush”…that’s a scream. I’m still laughing.
Took me three meds to get to the right one for my blood pressure, but now it seems to be normal. I’m going to side with pattij….it could be the fireman. LOL
Hi Leonard, I guess they do have to experiment a bit, I always thought BP meds were one size fits all!
The high blood pressure has only been a recent diet add-on, one I don’t recall purchasing when I signed up for the others, but so far it isn’t helping to lose weight. I’m trying to see if I can get a refund. I did return the headaches years ago, definitely not worth it.
As for the driving, yes, well, I suppose I should be sheepish and hang my head in admitting this but — HELL YEA! I used to joke that I moved out of NY state in order to get a drivers license again. Back before all the states were easily connected by computers, I had my license revoked in NY (twice), CT (twice), FL and Washington, and suspensions in a couple other states I lived in along the way. The very first ticket I got, I was traveling down the 684, from CT into New York, and the cop clocked me going 125. I was slowing down because I saw him. At the time, David Letterman used to commute down that same road, early mornings, and I am sure I raced him down the highway once or twice.
I have never had an accident. I never do it with anyone else in the car. I only speed on long stretches of lonely highway with no one else around. Well, OK, I only go at those high speeds on lonely stretches. I do go over the speed limit pretty much all the time though, but not at those excessive speeds. Terrible, terrible habit and I deserved every one of the revocations.
I dream of driving down the Autobahn in a Gallardo or some other fast, beautiful race car. I don’t want to race, I just want to go fast, as fast as fucking possible! Even just writing about it here makes my foot twitch to hit the gas peddle 🙂
Indigo, your insurance must be insane! I loved to go fast when I was a teenager and in my twenties, but slowed down after that. I even had a motorcycle. When we first moved here my partner got a $300 ticket so now there is no more speeding.
Nowadays, I don’t know what the limit is, but if it’s too fast they’ll arrest you on the spot and tow your car away. You’d fit right in here, people drive SO fast because the state is so big. But there’re a lot of accidents too. You be careful of those twitching toes!
Oh…Indigo and Outlet…your conversations make me SMILE. Thanks, Marita and Debra! In my two week ‘too busy to blog’ time, I missed both you most!
Hi Char, glad you’re back, and thank you!