Kim’s Comments (group member since Sep 17, 2008)

Kim’s comments from the Runs with scissors group.

O.K. my head has been up my hindend for a few days. Narzain is just fine and recovering nicely. His surgeon said that he may be home by Wednesday or Thursday, and that Narz looks really good. Buddy boy took his first walk in the hall yesterday and spent most of the day in a chair, and by last night, was reading a book, which he has not done since being admitted.

Yesterday, Narzain had a heart cath and they found 2 blocked arteries, one major one (70%) and one minor (not sure just how blocked) Today, we met with the surgeon who was very nice and he said they will bypass both arteries while they are in there. Narzain's age (just turned 40 in February) is in his favor as well as the fact that his over all health is excellent. The procedure will be 5 hours and we will not know until next Wednesday evening which of the 2 surgery groups he will be in, 5:15 a.m. arrival or 10:00 a.m. arrival.

I will not be near a computer until May 6, but I will let all of you know what is going on.

Happy Earth Day!

Sort of. We as a society are making an more concentrated effort to "GO GREEN!" to save the planet and all that. So, is this a good thing? Yes, to a point. Some of you are probably scratching your heads saying "Is she NOT for the Earth?" Yes, I am. I was recycling long before it was the socially responsible thing to do. I was all about saving the planet long before it became the cause du jour.

What I am going for is this. Every time we as consumers try to go green, it costs us more money than the old way of doing things. Low flow toilets require more flushes, low flow shower heads mean longer showers, and low energy use light bulbs end up costing us more due to higher bills because the utility is losing money from you trying to save money.

That seems to be the new trend. Less packaging, but what is used is harder to open and is not recycleable.
You recycle on your end, but then find out later that much of what you do put in the bins, gets put into landfills anyway because only the plastic bottle is recycleable and not the caps, which if they are left on the item, they get chunked.

You take your electronics to "round ups" for recycling, to have them end up in a land fill in China, because it's cheaper to that than actually pull the stuff apart and actually recycle it.

Reduce, reuse, recycle. Use CFL/LED/Halogen bulbs and save money on your bills! It all sounds so easy, but we are left with a BIG price tag. CFL contain mercury and are VERY dangerous if they break. (THIS IS BETTER?) They say that the more green technology we buy, the lower the prices will be. but how long will that take?

I say recycle what you can and when you can and buy responsible products when you can, but protest to congress and to the company that you are doing this for the right reasons and not to be taken to the cleaners every time you try to do said right thing!

Utilities need to be made more responsible to their customers and to the Earth as well. Companies need to start charging less for less packaging, not more.

Maybe I'm just cranky, but this seems like a really lame way to save the Earth. If they more you try, the more you're punished, then what is the motivation to do anything?

For the second time in my life, I swam a continuous mile yesterday (4/20/11).

At the time, I was not proud of myself because my motivation was stress, but now I am proud. Who cares why I did it? I DID IT! WHEEEEE!

I love the playing with words and phrases that Juster did. It was like Seuss for older kids.

I have some good news. Rose Mary Wenning is my newest cousin. She entered the world on April 8, 2011 at 7 lbs. and 4 oz. All are well.

At Narzain's request, here's your folder.

In light of what is happening in May (read joys and concerns for details) I will not be participating in a group read. If you all would like to have one, please do so. I don't think I will have time to concentrate.

We have a date.

May 5.

He will have a full sternal procedure, which means that they will open his breast bone. There may also be a repair done too if they find it necessary. He will be in ICU the first night and in a step down room 4-5 days. He will have a 6 week recovery and may be cleared to return to work after 4 weeks for light duty. He will not be allowed to drive during this time.

He will have to go under another chest x-ray and EKG (which he just had on March 28, but it will be more that 30 days....) and a heart cath which was already ordered by his cardiologist (which is why he was sent to the specialist in the first place!)

That indeed I will. I will remind all of you when we get closer to the time what is what and whom to contact if there are any problems.

Last week, I only did a 3/4 mile is total again. On Friday, I took Narzain to work due his car having to go to he shop. I only swam a 1/4 mile, because,and I do not know why, I became exhausted at length 23. I just couldn't work past it.

Yesterday, I took a spill. I fell in the street while walking to Narzain's car (all fixed. It was a cheap and quick fix of a brake line clip). It was very windy and rainy yesterday and I was busy looking at a branch that was in my path and did not see a ping-pong ball sized piece of same branch also in my way. Down I went. My right leg is sore and bruised. I am generally fine today. I fell on my leg so no hitting of the head or anything like that, no blood either.

I do not know what this will do to my swimming tomorrow.

I remember reading a book about Lois Braille when I was younger and found what he had to overcome inspiring. I will have to remember this one for the older kids when I go back to work.

I discovered the Ramona books when I was about 8. We had a few of them in the school library and I fell in love. This is the first book, published in 1955, and they are still being published as recently as 1999. Cleary based Ramona on a girl in her neighborhood where she grew up. I was dismayed to see modern drawings in the book since the language was not updated (which I was grateful for). It was still as good as I remembered and just as funny.

I kinda want to re-read all of them now.

Well, this week marked 1 year since I started this journey. I began on March 24, 2010 with 8 1/2 minutes on an elliptical that got away from me. Sunday will mark my first time taking the water class that lead me to the pool and swimming.

It is hard to believe that I have gotten this far. When I started, I figured that I would barely last 1 month, let alone the 3 the program was offered. I never thought that I would want to stay when it was all over. I have learned so much about myself in this last year and I keep learning even more.

This week, I did a respectable 3/4 mile in total, which I feel was truly well done on my part since I am still recovering from the shoulder injury and I do use that quite a lot in the pool.

Next week, I go back to working on 3/4 mile at a time.

The electric company is at it again! Now, with the permission of the PUCO which is SUPPOSED to protect consumers from the utilities, they are going offer the light bulbs but EVERYONE is going to pay for the bulbs even if you don't opt into the program. The average customer will see an increase of $1.50/month for 36 months which averages out to $54 for at total.

Here's the kicker: If you use the bulbs, it will save $49,but you will be paying $54 for the privilege.

I read this years ago too, and I agree with how hard it is to read at times. A couple of years ago, Crawfords' other children denied everything in this book. Made me wonder if they were in denial or if Christina took the brunt.

I had a very nice phone call yesterday. It was the kind of phone call that makes you feel good. Due to the shoulder wrench I managed, I did not go swimming last week on Wednesday or Friday, and due the funeral, the Friday before that. So, I have missed 3 days of swimming, and I feel like I can handle this week so I am planning on going Wednesday.

O.K. so here comes the phone part. I was out doing errands with the boyfriend since it was his day off, and we go back to my house to find a message on the answering machine from my life guard at the Y. (Now mind you, she also works at the front desk when her shift as guard is over to balance her hours). She was calling to check on me to make sure I was alright because she hadn't seen me for a few sessions and had missed me. (It was one of those moments where you get an answer to the question we all think "If anything happened to me, would anyone notice before the funny smell?" )

I called right away and spoke to her and assured her that I am indeed fine and why I wasn't there and she said that Barb, the other regular swimmer had even asked where I was.

That phone call made my day.

Then it's settled. April is choose a child-hood favorite book.

I like it. Anyone else have an other idea or is this good?

That's what they keep telling me....