Little Changes
Hey boys and girls! Time for some sort of update so here it is. With all that's going on it's going to be tough NOT to mention things political... but I'll give it a shot. For those who DO want some political commentary there is always my other blog... http://moveondotblog.blogspot.com/ on this same system. (cut and paste to your browser)
Around the house we've made no progress of note. Furniture in the living room still consists mostly of building material and assorted tools. Most living rooms have coffee tables... we have a table saw. Granted it's different... but it is a conversation starter.
Outside is a different story. I've been working on landscape lighting for the back yard this past week. The first plan seemed okay in my head but didn't pan out all that well once the sun went down. More wattage on several of the lights might have made that turn out differently though.
SO! I added one 50 watt flood to up light the canopy of the huge Ash tree in the yard. Several smaller spots were moved to shine light up the trunks of the crepe myrtle trees. One was repositioned to shine across a lattice fence panel and another moved to illuminate part of a building wall. Not bad overall but I suspect that the transformer is having difficulty pushing power through 200 feet of wire.
You might think that last sentence is lame.... BUT you have to remember that you are used to dealing with 120 volt alternating current. Most landscape lighting is low voltage (12 to 14 volts) and DIRECT current. Do some historical research and you'll discover why we use 120 volt AC and not DC electricity. Hint... Westinghouse and Tesla won out over General Electric and Edison.
Fact is that DC current doesn't cover distances well... massive voltage drops occur. Thus even feeding the wire from both ends of the loop at the mutual midpoint of the loop I'm down from 12 volts to less than 8. My solution may have to be the addition of a second transformer. We'll see.
Elsewhere on the home front the little printer I used in my truck when I was driving stopped working. I tracked that down to a shot power supply. The HP web site, oddly enough, didn't even list the part. Couldn't even find it by part number. So I just did a routine Google search and found it almost instantly. $12 plus shipping and the printer is back on line and working fine.
I had a couple of appointments at the VA today. Both involved the recent diagnosis of diabetes. One with with a nutritionist and the other with someone to discuss the medical aspects. Food wise I'm trying to eat less but more regularly. Previously one meal a day might be just fine some days. Most days I typically ate only twice. Now it's three times a day PLUS a snack of some kind. I'll likely NOT give up anything.... but rather elect to limit those items to "special treat" status. (Donuts for example) (smile)
As for the clinician I had to voice my mistrust of the glucose meter. This morning I took a reading after I woke up. It was 358! I've never seen one that high before so I immediately took another reading. Using the SAME little dot of blood from the first test I now get a reading of 239. 119 points lower roughly 30 seconds later using the same blood from the same stick.
Come to find out that the meter has a built in margin of error of 90 points.... and yet a Dr. is going to make decisions about my diet and medication based on the numbers he sees! As I told the clinician.... it's like her asking me what time it is because she has an appointment at 4pm... and my reply to her question is Wednesday. While it IS an answer and does convey some information about time in general... it's not specific enough to do her any good.
Pretty much the same situation with the glucose meter. I wake up and have a reading of 126. Okay.... well... my blood sugar *might* be 126.... but it could also be 171 or it could be 81. (a range which represents a 90 point spread or the margin of error for the meter) If I elect to arbitrarily deduct 45 points from every reading then well over 90% of the time it indicates I'm not diabetic at all and don't need any medications. If I add 45 points then 100% of the time I am diabetic... and need more medication. And I'm supposed to trust my life to this thing? Not freaking likely.
What I suspect is that like with the skin problem the VA "treated" for over 20 years... to no real effect... I'll most likely research some form of alternative treatment. There are several natural substances which affect blood sugar levels and how the body metabolizes sugars. Since mainstream medicine typically ignores alternative medicine the VA won't cover any of that.... which is okay. Better to go ahead and pay for something that works naturally with the body than to not pay and continue to take man made drugs which likely do more harm than good.
Well kids... I seem to have managed to avoid politics. (YAWN!) Tough to do these days... especially when our lives and the lives of our children and grand children will all be affected by what the folks in DC are doing to our country these days. Oh well....
Y'all take care of each other out there.
Around the house we've made no progress of note. Furniture in the living room still consists mostly of building material and assorted tools. Most living rooms have coffee tables... we have a table saw. Granted it's different... but it is a conversation starter.
Outside is a different story. I've been working on landscape lighting for the back yard this past week. The first plan seemed okay in my head but didn't pan out all that well once the sun went down. More wattage on several of the lights might have made that turn out differently though.
SO! I added one 50 watt flood to up light the canopy of the huge Ash tree in the yard. Several smaller spots were moved to shine light up the trunks of the crepe myrtle trees. One was repositioned to shine across a lattice fence panel and another moved to illuminate part of a building wall. Not bad overall but I suspect that the transformer is having difficulty pushing power through 200 feet of wire.
You might think that last sentence is lame.... BUT you have to remember that you are used to dealing with 120 volt alternating current. Most landscape lighting is low voltage (12 to 14 volts) and DIRECT current. Do some historical research and you'll discover why we use 120 volt AC and not DC electricity. Hint... Westinghouse and Tesla won out over General Electric and Edison.
Fact is that DC current doesn't cover distances well... massive voltage drops occur. Thus even feeding the wire from both ends of the loop at the mutual midpoint of the loop I'm down from 12 volts to less than 8. My solution may have to be the addition of a second transformer. We'll see.
Elsewhere on the home front the little printer I used in my truck when I was driving stopped working. I tracked that down to a shot power supply. The HP web site, oddly enough, didn't even list the part. Couldn't even find it by part number. So I just did a routine Google search and found it almost instantly. $12 plus shipping and the printer is back on line and working fine.
I had a couple of appointments at the VA today. Both involved the recent diagnosis of diabetes. One with with a nutritionist and the other with someone to discuss the medical aspects. Food wise I'm trying to eat less but more regularly. Previously one meal a day might be just fine some days. Most days I typically ate only twice. Now it's three times a day PLUS a snack of some kind. I'll likely NOT give up anything.... but rather elect to limit those items to "special treat" status. (Donuts for example) (smile)
As for the clinician I had to voice my mistrust of the glucose meter. This morning I took a reading after I woke up. It was 358! I've never seen one that high before so I immediately took another reading. Using the SAME little dot of blood from the first test I now get a reading of 239. 119 points lower roughly 30 seconds later using the same blood from the same stick.
Come to find out that the meter has a built in margin of error of 90 points.... and yet a Dr. is going to make decisions about my diet and medication based on the numbers he sees! As I told the clinician.... it's like her asking me what time it is because she has an appointment at 4pm... and my reply to her question is Wednesday. While it IS an answer and does convey some information about time in general... it's not specific enough to do her any good.
Pretty much the same situation with the glucose meter. I wake up and have a reading of 126. Okay.... well... my blood sugar *might* be 126.... but it could also be 171 or it could be 81. (a range which represents a 90 point spread or the margin of error for the meter) If I elect to arbitrarily deduct 45 points from every reading then well over 90% of the time it indicates I'm not diabetic at all and don't need any medications. If I add 45 points then 100% of the time I am diabetic... and need more medication. And I'm supposed to trust my life to this thing? Not freaking likely.
What I suspect is that like with the skin problem the VA "treated" for over 20 years... to no real effect... I'll most likely research some form of alternative treatment. There are several natural substances which affect blood sugar levels and how the body metabolizes sugars. Since mainstream medicine typically ignores alternative medicine the VA won't cover any of that.... which is okay. Better to go ahead and pay for something that works naturally with the body than to not pay and continue to take man made drugs which likely do more harm than good.
Well kids... I seem to have managed to avoid politics. (YAWN!) Tough to do these days... especially when our lives and the lives of our children and grand children will all be affected by what the folks in DC are doing to our country these days. Oh well....
Y'all take care of each other out there.
posted by Rev. Joe Ruyle | 7:27 PM
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