Claus gets infected

Yep who knew.  Can happen to anyone. Only in my case it hasn't been any of our computer systems, it has been my own "personal" system.

Episode One

About three weeks ago my upper right arm--and to a lessor degree my forearm--began to be "hypersensitive."  Shirts rubbing on my arm felt like someone was tickling me.  A few days later I noticed a "rash" on my lower bicep. Eguhh. It spread to about the size of a silver-dollar and then started to fade away.  About the time it was hardly noticeable, about one week later, I noticed four little blisters appear.  They started out looking like little fire-ant bite blisters, which I though they were.  Mid-way through the second week I knew I wasn't dealing with any fire-ant bites. Things started to get a bit "icky."  Eventually they cleared and I was left with two nice deep scabs.  They have just dropped off and now I have one big chunk and a small dot chunk of skin missing.

Weird.

It looks very similar to what I encountered when i got stung by a hornet a few years ago. Only I don't recall ever being stung by anything during this period. If it was anything close to a hornet, I'm sure I would remember it.  I'm not allergic to insect bites.

Only thing I can figure is when I was cleaning out the weeds from the backyard and side garden (one week before I noticed these symptoms) something got up my shirt-sleeve and envenomed me.  Don't think it was a bee, as I had four clear "hit" points.  Could have been a smaller wasp, although I've been stung by those in the past and remember it pretty clearly.  Lavie says it could have been a spider.  Possibly, but obviously not one of the really venomous kind.

I say "venom"  as the damage looks pretty cool.  This wasn't a poison-ivy reaction.  The symptoms were just weird.  I was never in any pain or discomfort, just the hypersensitivity.

Yes, I should have seen our doctor as things were getting cooking, but as the wound didn't seem to "serious" or exhibited any outward signs of infection, I wasn't too concerned.at the time.

So now I've got these cool little depressions in my arm and another scar-story to tell.

Episode Two

Seems like when I got back from Austin, I ended up coming back with a viral cold. 

It onset mid-day Monday.  Body aches, coughing, irritated throat.  I made it through Tues. because of the work on my plate, but by Wed. and Thurs. I had to stay home to get some bed-rest in.

Yes, this time I did see our Doctor on Wed.  Told me to take lots of fluids and keep up with the decongestants and Alieve.  Which I have done.

I'm still coughing just a bit, but my energy level is getting better now.

This "Texas-Crud" as we call it in our home, seems to hang around for about two weeks before finally clearing all the way out, so I think I have one more week of lightening symptoms to plow through.

Episode Three

Yesterday I spent six-hours at our local Nissan service department waiting room.  We had a lot of service repairs done about a month and a half ago on Lavie's 2001 Altima.  Engine stuff.  Nothing "bad" but lots of maintenance work.

So I noticed that ever since it was returned, there was a very small fluid leak spot on the driveway under where Lavie parked.  I eventually traced it to power-steering hose area.  I was pretty sure that a clamp on the bottom of the reservoir was loose and tried tightening it to no success.  I didn't want to replace it as I knew that if I over-tightened it I might cut the hose or break the plastic nipple it attached to.  Also, it was "possible" that the power-steering pump was over-pressurizing the system and forcing the fluid out.  The fluid level in there was still in the "safe-zone" and the drip volume seemed to be light.  I told Lavie to keep an eye on things while I was gone and when I got back I would run it into the shop for a good once-over.

The Nissan service shop opens up at 8:00 am on Saturdays, so as I got there at 8:05 AM it meant that there were about ten customers already ahead of me. The wait began.

When I finally left they had replaced the clamp (yep, it looked tight but wasn't putting any pressure on the hose, even at full clamp) and cleaned the engine belt from the fluid splash-over.  I also had the front brake-pads and the fuel filter replaced (first time in almost 50,000 miles) and the rotors turned.  They wanted to replace the battery as well (I've been having to clean the terminal posts of the coral-like buildup every six-months or so), but the prices on Nissan batteries are pretty steep.

I passed and picked one up at half the price at our auto-parts store.  I swapped them out after getting back home.  The old battery terminal posts had a lot of corrosion buildup that I had to clean off first.  I wire-brushed and blew them clean, swapped batteries, and returned the old one to the store for the "refund".

Lavie's car seems to be running much better now. Starts great.

Only when I woke up this morning, my left eye was almost stuck shut and red as a raspberry.

Seems that while I was cleaning the old battery, a bit of corrosion debris got into my eye and irritated it.  I was wearing glasses, but not full-coverage safety glasses I have and should have been wearing.

So now I am flushing my eye every few hours and putting eye-drops in.

Can't win for trying.

The Cure

Once my energy level nears 95% in the next week, I've decided to kick it into gear and begin my weight / jump-rope exercise routine again.  Also going to go back and start adding in more fresh vegetables and fruit into the Valca meals. 

We don't eat much red-meat; we do eat pork and chicken quite a bit. I must find an area grocery store with a decent selection of fresh fish.  The frozen kinds are icky (flashbacks to parochial-school Friday meals) and our regular grocery store selection just isn't worth considering.  I know we have some fish-markets around here, just got to find them.

I've been under a lot of time-constraints with this project at work, so I've been cutting some corners in the "healthy-living" area.  Looks like it is time to get back on track.

Got to cut the stress, exercise more, eat healthy, and get more rest.

That's the best "personal" anti-virus protection I know of.

Top 42 Exercise Hacks - ZenHabits Blog

4 Simple Steps to Start the Exercise Habit - ZenHabits Blog

A 12-Step Program to Eating Healthier Than Ever Before - ZenHabits Blog

10 Tips To Take Back Control Of Your Health And Get On The Path To Wellness - ZenHabits Blog

Summer Express: 101 Simple Meals Ready in 10 Minutes or Less - New York Times

--Claus

Finding Balance

cc image credit: Noah Bulgaria, flickr

Worn out.

Bone tired.

Steamrolled.

It has been a very long week at the Valca home. I've been in the middle of a very large telecom system deployment.

Need to finish out the "punch-list" but we made our target.

Whew.

Lavie has been under the weather in a bad way.

Fibromyalgia sucks.

But that's a rant for another day.

So we have been rallying our wagons and trying to re-discover and master finding some emotional, spiritual, and physical balance in our family for the last few weeks; and turbo-charging it over the weekend.

Eating and Exercise

I've tossed out my usual rotation of dinner menu items and have increased the protein (white meat). I've been creating lighter and more oriental-like plates. While I haven't cut all the carbs, I have moved away from potatoes and big-bowls of white rice.

Lots, lots more fruit and vegetables.

Lavie has almost entirely cut of the caffeinated soft-drinks from her morning routine and is now enjoying low-acid orange juice. I usually am making everyone eggs for breakfast.

Even Alvis has abandoned the Eggo's and french-toast sticks for English muffins with a slice of cheese and fruit.

I've been hitting some heavy hand-weights every other day (or so) and using some of those elastic resistance bands you can stand on to do upper body work. As the weather cools I hope to move outside on alternate days and start my jump-rope work again for cardio-work.

Lavie is doing good walking around our small block once or twice on a really good day. I picked up a dance-tape workout to do with her as well, but Alvis screams when we mention getting ready to use it together.

Alvis walks with us and is getting where she wants to start jogging now. I used to run cross-country in high-school (well, I ran with the cross-country team in high-school...but that's another story...) and once my cardio and legwork improves, I really hope to join her slow jogging.

I've been fortunate to not really need to pay too much care on my diet. I metabolize pretty well. But the IT support lifestyle means one of moments of heavy lifting and movement followed by long periods of sedentary desk sitting. Couple that with lots of fast-food and it's a danger I have to be aware of. Luckily, while I like burgers and tacos, I am pretty self disciplined and have gotten to eating one fast food meal a week.

This renewed health-awareness has really made me more attentive to posts and articles regarding healthy cooking and foods.

I found these helpful food/nutrition pages recently.

• The 10 Best Foods You Aren't Eating - Men's Health. And no, burgers aren't to be found here!

• Top 10 Foods for a Good Night's Sleep - Including bananas. Who knew?

• 6 Superfoods That Prevent Disease - Health - RedOrbit - I knew of two on this list.

All via Lifehacker

Home and Spirit

Of course, just caring for the body isn't enough. Health also comprises mental and spiritual components.

Lavie and I try hard to live a simpler lifestyle. We don't tend to accumulate "stuff" though we still have more clutter than I am comfortable with.

I will go on quarterly "purges" and sweep the house looking for things that we haven't used or needed in the past six months, and they go into the donation bin, the "maybe another family member could use this" pile, or sometimes just the trash bin.

We don't buy very many "luxury" items. Lavie and I love books and movies. So we still tend to pick up manga, novels, and DVDs (mainstream/anime) but have really slowed down the pace of these purchases. I don't even pick up many technology toys anymore. Last thing I can think of was the new hard-drive when the old one failed.

Having a simplified home lifestyle (I believe) contributes to a more simplified mind. We don't have to keep our thoughts full of all the stuff we have to keep track of. It is easier to be appreciative and responsible for what we have with fewer things.

Sure, if we had a bazillion dollars I'm sure our choices in some purchase areas and style would change a bit, but I don't think it would do so too radically.

We are working harder on spending more family time as well together.

I've promised Lavie that I would work off the laptop more in the family room (using a nice simple TV-tray) so I can spend time interacting with her while she watches her TV shows. In fact, we've starting to find new series on TV that appeal to both of us to bring some fresh material to discuss together, and that is more positive in its content.

Alvis and I are getting back into playing our video games together. At bed-time I turn off the TV for the extra hour or two I am up past Lavie and Alvis's bed time, and just lay in bed listing to iPod tunes and podcasts.

We've started to work harder at bringing back the spiritual element to our lives as well. We spend more time as a family in meditation and prayer than we have for many, many years. It's a nice feeling to be coming together again this way.

Refreshing.

It is very easy to take your spouse and children, heck even your own health, for granted in the rush and pressure of today's world. The "outside" seems so pressing and important and demanding for our limited attention. It is all to easy to fall into the trap of taking care of ourselves and our family with "stuff" and not really give them the thing most precious...our time, our thoughts, our presence, our attention.

I've got a long way to go, and even more mountains to conquer, but hopefully, together, we are on a good path.

Here are some inspirational posts from Zen Habits that have really encouraged me in this outer/inner refocusing:

• Why Living a Life of Gratitude Can Make You Happy | zen habits

• Key Question: How Much Is Enough? | zen habits

• Haiku Productivity: The Fine Art of Limiting Yourself to the Essential | zen habits

• Simple Living Manifesto: 72 Ideas to Simplify Your Life | zen habits

Be balanced, be graceful.

--Claus

A portable Medical Information Management solution

Lavie has a larger than normal number of prescriptions and doctors due to her Fibromyalgia.

We've been dealing with it for a number of years now and I'm so proud of Lavie's courage and tenacity in living life. It's meant some adjustments in our relationship and routines, but for the most part she is able to hold down a full-time job and get out and about with minimal disruption.

She is so fantastic.

She seems to have at least one specialist visit every other month to keep track of, and all those aforementioned prescriptions.

Lavie asked me if I could find her a way to keep all her medical information organized for her.

Anything for my Girl.

Prescription Keeper

It took me a long time, but I did track down a $ application called The Prescription Keeper.

But it had some issues:

It wouldn't install on my XP systems, (had to "hack" the setup file to get it going) and the interface left a lot to be desired--it looked like a Windows98 program or an Access database with custom Form views. It did have a lot of the features she was looking for; prescription tracking with detailed drug information fields, refill reminder notifications, doctor/pharmacy contact management, website URL tracking, and report generation. I couldn't tell if the file was encrypted either...don't want the medical info getting loose!

All in all, not a bad little application...but not quite was Lavie felt comfortable using in her XP interface world

Back to searching...and I didn't find any other alternatives.

So I began to rethink her problem and came up with a new plan.

Lavie's Portable Medical File

1) USB Stick based

I figured that Lavie would really benefit from having a set of applications that she could keep on a USB memory stick. This way she could always have them at hand; at work, at home, on vacation, at her parent's house, at the doctor's offices.

2) Encryption Mandatory

Because a USB stick could walk-off easily, and her medical information is highly confidential, using an encryption solution was a no-brainer.

So set up a portable TrueCrypt file on her USB stick and showed her how to use it to mount the encrypted portion.

3) Information Management

Lavie and I discussed what information she needed to keep track off. She will have notes from doctor visits to record, doctor and pharmacy contact information, appointment scheduling, refill notification tracking, etc. Sounds like Lavie could use a good portable personal information manager (PIM).

Here were the candidates I selected:

• Exstora - (freeware) Day planner, note manager, organizer.

• NeoMem - (freeware) Information/database manager

• Total Organizer - (freeware) Calendar, organizer, to-dos, contacts and notes.

• Chaos Manager - (freeware) Contacts, notes, appointments, to-dos, and more keeper.

• EssentialPIM Free - (freeware) Scheduler, to-dos, tree-based note manager, contacts.

Lavie and I looked at all of them and here were our impressions.

Exstora was a very fast running and light application. It has a very nice looking columnar appearance. It contains a calendar, note manager, scheduling feature. The free version lacks easy printing support and exportation ($-Pro version does). Overall it was a very nice program, but just a bit light for Lavie's needs.

NeoMem was a step up and step down in some ways. Lavie didn't quite care for the Windows98ish interface. It did have a very powerful, almost database like, organizational ability. It allows for quick searching and the wizard was quite useful. It would allow her to keep and organize detailed notes and categories...but it was clearly designed more for information and note management and not task and calendaring events. So we took a pass.

Total Organizer - This is getting closer to what Lavie was looking for. The interface was simple but well organized. It allows for easily organizing of the items--and they can be "tagged" for easy searching. However, Lavie needed a bit more "meat" based on how she was intending to use it.

Chaos Manager was quite impressive. Lavie loved the skinabilty of the program with the large selection of color and image schemes it can use. The interface was very simple, but highly functional. It would allow her to manage a calendar, events, notes, contacts and could even be encrypted. Definitely worth considering.

EssentialPIM Lavie was in love! Upon launching it the first thing she said was, "Wow! This looks just like Outlook and my Lotus Notes!" The schedule view was large and easy to see the events. The note field supported HTML formatting and attachments. The calendar and clock were always clearly displayed on all pages. Contacts, to-do and the today view were all intuitively organized and well designed. (Screenshots) The EssentialPIM Pro ($) has a number of additional features as well. Cost for the Pro version is currently $29.95 for the standard version and $39.95 for the "portable" version. Lavie's going to spend some time with the free one for now, but we will seriously consider buying a portable Pro version. This was the winner.

4) Prescription Management - Portable Spreadsheet!

While any of the PIM's noted above could be used to help manage her prescriptions, none but NeoMem would be able to provide the detailed category and element management she is wanting. We really did like the detail in Prescription Keeper. And the interface inspired us to arrive at a solution: create our own spreadsheet for managing the prescription information.

We could have just downloaded PortableOpenOffice and been done with it. However, it is a massive application and Lavie really didn't feel she needed to go with the "suite" approach.

I did some more looking and found Spread32. It was a very tiny "portable" spreadsheet program. The last freeware version can be found in the pretty cool on its own package "Floppy Office". Just download that and extract just the Spread32 folder. However, upon trying to use it, it just was too clunky to maneuver and didn't seem to support multiple spreadsheet pages. Not quite the solution Lavie, who is a power Excel user, was looking for.

More searching and I discovered the amazing Gnumeric Portable (Gnome Office Spreadsheet) program. It supports all the worksheet functions that Excel has, and has all the sorting and filtering features. It can also export/import from Excel as well. And it supports multiple spreadsheet pages in a workbook file. Lavie took a look at it and, while it has a Gnu Linux look to it, she felt right at home planning out her prescription column categories and was clicking away. It was truly amazing to me.

5) Web and Bookmarks

Lastly we needed to address the number of website bookmarks Lavie uses to track medical information sites and the like.

No brainer! I downloaded and installed Portable Firefox to the USB stick, then copied her bookmarks.html file from her desktop profile over into it. Added a cute theme and she is set!

Lavie is working diligently on getting all her information put into the systems now.

The Girl is happy and so am I.

--Claus

Texas Links and Miscellany

Taking a breather from my series of security stuff.

Here is a linkage path I recently went down while surfing the net before Meerkat Manor came on...

So I was thinking about how I used to run cross-country in high-school and how I probably couldn't make it more than a mile before my entire body shut down in protest. Then I came across this link: The Couch-to-5K Running Plan. A wonderfully attainable plan to go from zero to 3-miles in just two months of training. Now if I could just surf the net while I ran--Motoko style, I'd be set.

Since I was thinking athletics. I haven't mentioned World Cup 2006. I was disappointed to see Germany and Brazil get knocked out. Then again, watching France's Zinedine Zidane try to knock out Italy's Marco Materazzi certainly was surprising. I actually enjoyed the final and as an American, don't really mind games ending in a penalty kickoff. Seems very Clint Eastwood, American Western to me. For wonderful amusement, I offer you the following video: Zidane World Cup Headbutt Animation Festival. This is great stuff.

I then stumbled across a web link to NavSource Naval History: Photographic History Of The U.S. Navy. It's got pictures of almost every US Naval vessel ever commissioned. Really great stuff.

That led me to look for vessels named after Texas. Turns out there were several:

Second Class Battleship Texas (Fate: Sunk as target off Maryland by US Navy in 1911.)
New York Class Battleship Texas (BB-35) (Fate: Memorial in our back-yard in La Porte, Texas.)
Destroyer Leader DLGN/CGN-39 TEXAS (Fate: Disposed and hulk recycled in 2001.)
Virginia Class Submarine SSN-775 Texas (In active service.)

The USS Texas's webpage.

I used to build model-kits as a kid and I remember building one of a battleship with Dad in particular. I don't remember which one it was, maybe the Bismark? I've kept an eye out over the years hoping to find a local kit of the USS Texas but never have found one. I have found some nice ones on the net:

A nice hand-built one on the net.
USS Texas BB35 1/350 scale full-hull kit
Samek’s 1:700th USS Texas (waterline kit)

And then all this reminiscing on the Texas stirred loose a bit of sci-fi reading from my high-school years. While working at our city library back in my youth, I came across a paperback titled "The Ayes of Texas." I hadn't thought about that book until just now. It was actually the first in the Republic of Texas trilogy by Daniel da Cruz. Somehow world events conspire Texas to declare her independence (again), fight the Russians who are invading the US and re-fit the hulk of our locally beloved USS Texas (BB-35) into a high-tech ass-kicking machine again. It's kinda dated now, but at the time it stirred this young Texan's heartstrings something special.

Wonder if local sci-fi reading fan Jim Thompson ever heard of it?

Wrapping up the night in a WWII machine mode, I came across the history of The Lost Bomber. In 1956, a B-25 bomber crashed into the Monongahela river near Homestead, Pennsylvania.

Funny thing is, even though they knew where it crashed, it hasn't been found since.

See you in the skies,
--Claus

Stung, then stung again...darn it!

Saturday, Lavie, Alvis and I went up to Lavie's parent's home to help them clean up their backyard from the damage Rita did a few weeks ago. I was able to get the big oak limbs off the wellhouse roof. A branch knocked a small hole in the roof of it, as well as broke a few rafters loose, but patchwork should be quick and easy. After much work, Lavie's dad got the John Deere tractor working and we were able to haul off about 8 very large oak-tree branches that came down.

Alvis rode around on the riding lawnmower--hauling a trailer of smaller twigs and branches to the dump-pile.

On the last oak-branch pull I was walking back across the back yard and felt a tickle in my glove by my wrist. I looked down and saw a yellow-jacket crawling around inside it.

It's funny how the brain works for different people in certain situations. Very clinically I looked at it crawling around in there and thought, "Gee, it sure is pretty, but shouldn't be there." I flicked it out and it swung back and landed on the back of my leather work-gloved left hand and began to sting it. One part of my mind is thinking "I don't feel any stings inside the glove where it was." The other part was thinking, "it can't sting through the leather--isn't it neat watching it try, but I better get it off". So I pulled it off with my free hand (still gloved) and flicked it to the ground.

I still hadn't moved yet. I was standing still, facinated with these beautiful insects. Then my exposed calf caught fire.

I looked down and there was another one. This one had gotten a good sting into the flesh of my calf muscle. So it is burning and I reach down and flick it off. Now I begin to walk back to Lavie's dad on the tractor--so I can warn him. I get about half-way to the tractor and feel a slight prick just above the high-top work-boots. There is a third yell0w-jacket attempting to sting me through my bunched up sock. He gets pulled off and flicked away. So now both my legs are on fire.

I hobble inside the house and Lavie's dad puts a poultice of snuff on both the bites. They are like hot pokers. Lavie looks at me and asks if I am alergic to insect stings. Good question. I wrack my brain and eventually remember getting stung by a wasp as a kid several times when I was playing inside some stacked concrete drainage pipes awaiting burial in our neighborhood. "Nope!" I say with reasonable confidence.

Luckily I have a pretty high tolerance for pain so in another 15 minutes I was bummed, but otherwise ok. Later than night I found a third sting on my bum--so I guess I really was bummed! These appear to be the same ones that stung the dog during "Rita Watch--Day 7". Lavie's dad vows to get-em!

Hornet resources:

• Venomous Insect Allergy information
• Eliminating Wasp and Hornet Nest information
• Folk-medicinal cures

Shortbreak tech cookies:

• Microsoft's MSCONFIG utility got an update for Windows XP SP2 systems.
• Firefox has released Deer Park RC 1.5 Beta 2.
• Runtime Software has a free Backup and Drive Image tool
• Info about the Gimp 2.4 update features (coming soon!)
• PBS's NOVA series to run a special about Albert Einstein and his impact on science this Tuesday.

My gasoline bill was up an extra $100 last month. Bummer. Stung yet again! No more anime/manga for the month--darn it!

See you in the skies.
--Claus