Friday, April 21, 2023
Wednesday, August 10, 2022
Schedule
😀 You sent all of the Birthday Cards out in August to people with birthdays in September. 😀😀
Monday, August 29th
Hair cut in Beaver Dam. Ralph and Jean will pick you up in the morning.
Thursday, June 30, 2022
Thursday, February 20, 2020
Driver's license
You may be happy to know that I shut down a computer system. I can do this while not even working. I guess it is a rare talent.
My wife, Jean, and I drove to the DOT DMV facility on the west side of Madison for driver’s license renewals on January 22, 2020. I need to get a renewed license by May 2020. She had a renewed license from last year, but it did not have a sticker showing she was not a security risk for airport security. She decided she wanted the sticker and so she needed a new, amended driver’s license.
Everything went well, up to a point. We stopped at the DOT informational booth, received a tracking number, had our picture taken, and waited for our tracking number to be called before we could obtain the new driver’s licenses. We were both called up at about the same time. She went to Window 5 and I went to Window 12. The clerks at each window entered our driver’s license information and then our passport information. (You needed the passport information to acquire the driver license’s security sticker. ) The computer system stopped for both clerks. We managed to crash our little portion of the world. Both clerks did everything they possibly could to bring the system back on-line. It would not comply. Both clerks requested we sit down in the waiting area, and they would attempt to clear up the problem.
We sat down and waited and waited. Twenty minutes later Jean walked back to Window 5 and somehow the supervisor made the computer at Window 5 work and so Jean was supplied a temporary driver’s license with the real one coming in the mail in the next two weeks. I waited another 10 minutes and I walked up to Window 12. The woman clerk smiled at me and said it still was not working. I told her the woman clerk at Window 5 was successful in getting Jean’s driver’s license record to work in the computer system by having the supervisor do it. The supervisor happened be taking information from people at Window 11. She tried to make it work for my record. No success. The computer file was still locked up. The woman supervisor said, “They have been updating the computer system and I guess this does not work. They know about it. They are working on it.” She had no idea if or when it would be fixed. I was told to come back the next day. They supplied me a priority number so I would be the first in line when I came back.
I arrived the next day, obtained my priority number, and was promptly called to Window 5. The clerk again tried to enter the information into the system. It did not work. She kept on clicking and clicking. The computer still would not accept the information. She continued clicking. No sale. She then went to another computer and scanned my passport information into that computer. She then returned. She began clicking keys on her computer again. She looked at me, “It’s not working!”. She looked down at the computer screen again. “It worked!”, she exclaimed. She was extremely happy and let out a big sigh.
I received my new driver’s license with the security sticker a week later.
So you see I can crash a computer system without even trying.
I think people should offer me a job of crashing computer systems. I accomplish that feat just by walking through the door.
Thursday, December 19, 2019
Continuous Positive Airway Pressure (CPAP)
Five years ago a doctor asked if I was sleeping well. I thought so. My wife did not think so.
I never knew this could be a problem. I was told diplomatically by my wife, Jean, I snored when I slept. I never heard it. I never knew I did it. But I guess I did. I always assumed I snored less than my brother-in-law. My brother-in-law could be heard when we camped with him and his wife a substantial distance from their tent. I thought the snoring range of my brother-in-law could not be eclipsed by someone like me. Jean acknowledged a number of times my snoring may not be as loud as my brother-in-law's but it was substantial nonetheless.
I never thought anything about snoring until I had a doctor's visit in spring 2014. I had some ailment which led me and Jean to our urgent care clinic. I was examined by a woman doctor who asked an interesting question, "Do you sleep well?"
I responded to her query with, "I think so." She suggested part of the reason I was in urgent care was due to a problem with my sleeping. Her initial diagnosis from her was sleep apnea. She suggested I talk to my primary physician.
Taking her advice, I contacted my primary physician who agreed it was worth determining whether the urgent care doctor's hunch was correct. I was then referred to University of Wisconsin Sleep Clinic. Until we heard from the clinic, Jean and I did not know it existed.
The Sleep Clinic started with a preliminary study. I was hooked up to a monitor for a night at home. I was to sleep the whole night with the monitor, return the monitor, and await for the results. Jean hooked me up to sleep monitor.
After I was hooked to the monitor I felt as if I were a trussed turkey waiting for Thanksgiving. I certainly looked like it as shown in the picture above.
I went to bed with this apparatus on and an hour later we had a tornado warning. I had to unhook much of the apparatus and head down into our basement. After we had an all clear, I then trudged back to bed and re-attached the monitor and all of its accouterments. I then had a fitful night of sleep.
Madison had a tornado but not where we live and so the monitor had data when I woke up the next morning. We took the monitor back to the sleep folks and awaited the results.
The results from the one-night monitor demonstrated I had a sleep problem The sleep people did not know how bad the problem was until they told me to come back a week later for another sleep study.
This time the sleep study occurred in the basement of the Wisconsin Sleep Center building which is located about two miles from our house. Me and three other sleep study people were ushered into the building, given a synopsis of what would occur, watched a fifteen minute movie, and then were escorted to a waiting area.
After a 15 minute wait I was summoned by a young, female sleep researcher. Besides sleep research, she was a waitress at a nearby restaurant. She told me I would be placed in a room with telemetry, some of it hooked to me, some of it watching me, as I slept. She and the telemetry would watch me all night. After the data from the sleep study was analyzed my primary physician would be contacted. After that contact then something may or may not be done.
She left and told me to change to pajamas I was told to bring to the sleep study. After I changed, she hooked me up to all of the instruments and then wished me a good night. She turned off the lights and told me to get some sleep. All of this happened around 8 pm and because I do not normally go to bed until 10 pm, I sat in the darkened room staring at the ceiling for a long time.
The next morning my sleep researcher came in and said they had all of the data they needed for the sleep study. I was told to change, sign some papers, and then I was released.
My primary physician was contacted at the end of the next week. As it turned out, I came in second place regarding the overall results of the sleep study. I had stopped breathing and then started breathing again, 70 times in an hour. The 70 times an hour was only good for second place because someone had stopped breathing and resumed breathing 84 times in an hour during a sleep study. Nonetheless, the people at the sleep study were impressed at my 70 times an hour no breathing sequences. I found out I was good at something I should not do, interrupted sleeping.
After these results, I was immediately paired with a CPAP machine. What does a CPAP machine do? According to the literature:
"the soft, steady jet of air from the CPAP machine creates enough pressure to keep the airway open."
I have to admit the CPAP machine is responsible for a better night of sleep. In fact, I take it with me wherever I go, it helps that much.
The CPAP machine is a burden. It is not light and does add considerable weight to your luggage. It also likes distilled water which it consumes at an amazing rate each night.
But, I should expect it to be a burden. What else do you expect when you finish in second place?
My wrong analysis resulted in Continuous Positive Airway Pressure (CPAP).
I never knew this could be a problem. I was told diplomatically by my wife, Jean, I snored when I slept. I never heard it. I never knew I did it. But I guess I did. I always assumed I snored less than my brother-in-law. My brother-in-law could be heard when we camped with him and his wife a substantial distance from their tent. I thought the snoring range of my brother-in-law could not be eclipsed by someone like me. Jean acknowledged a number of times my snoring may not be as loud as my brother-in-law's but it was substantial nonetheless.
I never thought anything about snoring until I had a doctor's visit in spring 2014. I had some ailment which led me and Jean to our urgent care clinic. I was examined by a woman doctor who asked an interesting question, "Do you sleep well?"
I responded to her query with, "I think so." She suggested part of the reason I was in urgent care was due to a problem with my sleeping. Her initial diagnosis from her was sleep apnea. She suggested I talk to my primary physician.
Taking her advice, I contacted my primary physician who agreed it was worth determining whether the urgent care doctor's hunch was correct. I was then referred to University of Wisconsin Sleep Clinic. Until we heard from the clinic, Jean and I did not know it existed.
The Sleep Clinic started with a preliminary study. I was hooked up to a monitor for a night at home. I was to sleep the whole night with the monitor, return the monitor, and await for the results. Jean hooked me up to sleep monitor.
I went to bed with this apparatus on and an hour later we had a tornado warning. I had to unhook much of the apparatus and head down into our basement. After we had an all clear, I then trudged back to bed and re-attached the monitor and all of its accouterments. I then had a fitful night of sleep.
Madison had a tornado but not where we live and so the monitor had data when I woke up the next morning. We took the monitor back to the sleep folks and awaited the results.
The results from the one-night monitor demonstrated I had a sleep problem The sleep people did not know how bad the problem was until they told me to come back a week later for another sleep study.
This time the sleep study occurred in the basement of the Wisconsin Sleep Center building which is located about two miles from our house. Me and three other sleep study people were ushered into the building, given a synopsis of what would occur, watched a fifteen minute movie, and then were escorted to a waiting area.
After a 15 minute wait I was summoned by a young, female sleep researcher. Besides sleep research, she was a waitress at a nearby restaurant. She told me I would be placed in a room with telemetry, some of it hooked to me, some of it watching me, as I slept. She and the telemetry would watch me all night. After the data from the sleep study was analyzed my primary physician would be contacted. After that contact then something may or may not be done.The next morning my sleep researcher came in and said they had all of the data they needed for the sleep study. I was told to change, sign some papers, and then I was released.
My primary physician was contacted at the end of the next week. As it turned out, I came in second place regarding the overall results of the sleep study. I had stopped breathing and then started breathing again, 70 times in an hour. The 70 times an hour was only good for second place because someone had stopped breathing and resumed breathing 84 times in an hour during a sleep study. Nonetheless, the people at the sleep study were impressed at my 70 times an hour no breathing sequences. I found out I was good at something I should not do, interrupted sleeping.
After these results, I was immediately paired with a CPAP machine. What does a CPAP machine do? According to the literature:
"the soft, steady jet of air from the CPAP machine creates enough pressure to keep the airway open."
I have to admit the CPAP machine is responsible for a better night of sleep. In fact, I take it with me wherever I go, it helps that much.
The CPAP machine is a burden. It is not light and does add considerable weight to your luggage. It also likes distilled water which it consumes at an amazing rate each night.
But, I should expect it to be a burden. What else do you expect when you finish in second place?
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