Just back from getting my flu shot. They were much more efficient about it this year than in previous years. I had an appointment for 11:45 AM. I went up at 11:40 with my check already made out. Filled out a form, sat down, got the shot, got a receipt and left. I was back in my office at 11:47. Not to bad. Possibly the quickest $23 I ever spent.
Tag: health
A rare pain in the…
I woke up with a bad stomach ache this morning, the first such one I’ve had in a considerable amount of time. Ever since I cut off caffeine over two years ago, the number and severity of my stomach aches has dropped precipitously. It is very rare when I have one now, but this morning’s was a doozy.
Fortunately, I am feeling much better now. Good enough, at any rate, to have some breakfast.
Blood pressure update
Exactly one month ago, I visited the doctor for a checkup and reported that I had “elevated” blood pressure. At the time, my blood pressure was 138/88 and I was told that for someone of my age/health, it should be around 115/75. I immediately cut my sodium intake somewhat and also have started to run again over the last 30 days.
Today, I had my follow up appointment and when my blood pressure was taken today, it was a cool 118/74. That’s not bad aim, considering I had no idea if I was running enough or cutting back on the sodium intake enough. As much as I’d like to say I planned it, it really was blind luck. In any event, my doctor was happy with the results and I am too, although I take it with a grain of salt (no pun intended). After all, last time could have been a fluke high, or today could have been a fluke low.
Home late this evening
It’s 9:30 and I just got home. I hung out after work and waited for Todd and Karl to finish up and then we headed over to Champs to have some beers, and eventually ended up eating dinner. Last night, I gave my story “Wake Me When We Get There” to Todd and he read it and had a lot of nice things to say about it. So did his friend Chris. So tonight I gave him “When I Kissed the Learned Astronomer” and he said he’d read it over the weekend.
I made more progress proofing “Graveyard Shift” today–I’m through about 30 pages. I’ve identified where I want to add the new sections (so far) and also what the key plot points of those sections are and how they fit into the overall plot to make it stronger. It is possible that these additions and changes will push the second draft in the neighborhood of 19,000 words, but I have tried to cut where I can, without sacrificing important elements to maintain pacing, so we’ll see. I’m hoping to get more done this weekend.
Got a call from the doctor today to tell me that all of my blood work came back normal. My cholesterol is a little higher than he’d like, but still on the edge of the normal range. Changes I’m making in diet (not so much in the last two days) should help with that too.
I’m pretty beat. I’m planning on getting into bed and reading myself to sleep.
I get to pay my Federal tax bill tomorrow. Lucky me!
Oatmeal
So this morning I had a bowl of plain oatmeal (from Au Bon Pan). I added some raisins and a little brown sugar for flavoring, but that didn’t really add much flavor. I think I’m going to buy some cinnamon and add that for flavoring instead. In any event, I ate the oatmeal, which should have no sodium in it whatsoever. First step in reducing my sodium intake. I imagine that stuff grows on you, but I had a bit of a hard time with it.