Ludlow's Place - The Latest Shtuff 2002

I've had a little change of plans. Until the cough clears up I will do all of my whining on separate page. So CLICK HERE if you are a glutton for punishment.

3-20-02

I had planned to update this page a couple of days ago, but I've been up and around the past couple of days and just haven't had a chance to do it yet. It would appear that the past 13 months of hell have been one long asthma attack. We don't know this for a fact, but this certainly appears to be the case. I was born with asthma, which as a parent I have the greatest respect for my mom for being able to raise a child with asthma, especially a baby with asthma. I don't think I could have handled it. I've commented many times in the past year that if I were wheezing I would feel like I was reliving my childhood. The only wheezing I've done has been so light that I can only feel it, it's not audible. None of the tests I've been through have indicated that my asthma had returned, in fact if anything they've indicated that it hasn't, or that it is at the very borderline. But in a nutshell, I went to a lung specialist who is leaning towards this being asthma. He gave me an inhaler. In three days time I've started to regain my life. I've been getting some cleaning done, I did two haircuts today, I've been able to drive, to stand up, which I haven't been able to do in weeks without doubling over in a coughing fit... It's an amazing difference. I am scheduled for an in depth breathing test on the 26th to determine more of what's going on. The last breathing test I had done measured only what I was able to blow out, not how much air I was able to draw in, so wish me luck. I'd be upset if I wasn't so relieved. I know asthma can be quite serious, but it's second nature to me and although an asthma attack can be a scary thing, it's something that I can understand and deal with. And I can tell that my family is as relieved as I am. My dad even asked me what I was barking at yesterday :) Naturally I told him it was just a passing car.

David says it's alright for me to talk about his newly emptied mouth. He had all of his teeth pulled last week. Was it just a week ago??? Yeah, a week ago today come to think of it. He heals so remarkably fast, if they could bottle his ability to heal we'd be billionaires. He's even able to eat with his teeth in or out. The swelling was down by Friday, but they won't put the soft liners in for two weeks, so he just has to live with the lowers sliding around. He tried some Perma-Bond, but accidentally glued his lip to his nose. Nah... I'm just making that up. But he can glue them in for a little while, you know, with denture adhesive. He has his purdy smile back now, and shaved his facial hair for the occasion, so now he looks so young. His supervisor at work didn't know who he was at first. He sounds like Gabby Hayes when he takes them out though, and you'd have to know Dave to know how much fun he's had with that. Naturally the first thing he had to do when he was allowed to remove them was try out "bitter beer face". Then of course there was the "see how far you can touch your tongue on your nose", followed closely by "blowing on the window". OK, so we encouraged the last one, but we were curious...

I had some other things on my mind, but Steve Irwin's on Jay Leno and after watching him with that King Cobra a minute ago, I've completely forgotten anything else I was thinking. Commercial's almost over. LOL

Later

3-17-02

Just thought I'd say Happy St. Patrick's Day. I'm sure I'll update tomorrow.

3-11-02

The sale of Raytheon to L-3 Communications became official on the 8th. We can use all of the hopes and prayers that anyone wants to send to Waco that they keep on all of the employees. Raytheon was Waco's largest employer, not to mention David's employer. We cannot afford to lose our health insurance right now, obviously. We have gone out of our way to get as much medical taken care of as possible before the take over, and were hoping this cough would be dealt with in time. It's not something I can live with, but I'm sure if worse comes to worse I can always go through the public health clinic, and fill them in on what's already been done beforehand. It won't be the first time. I won't say that David is having ALL of his teeth pulled the day after tomorrow, but I'm sure glad that the insurance has already paid for it. Scott & I were able to get eye exams last week, I'll be getting my first bifocals, but Craig was at a church camp out so his appointment isn't until the day after tomorrow. If we can just squeeze that one in there too.

I know, I know, think positive!

I'll try, I promise.

3-6-02

Just because I'm sick of my whining, cough updates and the whole run down about that problem will be HERE.

I got the graphics uploaded for the birthday pages. You can get to them from our main page, click on Misc.

I'm working on new page sets for Rhonda's Originals. It will be slow going, but check in now and then.

3-3-02

I've got to give the guys credit. I've been coughing since Feb. of 2001, and have been being treated for this cough since July of 2001, and they finally noticed that they need to help out around the house. Okay, that's not really fair. The boys have known.

Spring break is officially under way. You can tell because of the frigid weather. Craig is supposed to have a church camp out this week, but I'm not going to cancel his appointment with the eye doctor yet. We've had lows in the teens for days now.

I finally grew a brain and realized that I won't need to post the URL's for my birthday pages on here when I finally get them moved to my server. DUH... that's the reason that I made a Misc. page in the first place, to add links to everything else that gets added to my site along the way. I haven't been putting in any computer time lately so I haven't gotten any of the graphics uploaded yet. I may see about doing some of it tonight. On the rare occasion that I try to upload, someone always manages to come in griping that they are expecting a call. Craig got a couple of free games in the mail the other day. One is the same flight simulation game that the JROTC uses at school and the other is a fishing game, so the computer is logging a lot more gaming time lately too.

Otherwise it's just more of the same here today.

3-1-02

I don't know where my mind is. Adnoids Rhonda... But anyway, I had the CT scan done on my neck yesterday, I don't know when the results will be in. The doc said the whatever-it-is looked like it was on or near the eustacian tube, so if I'm facing surgery I sure hope it's the kind that you don't have to be awake for. I'm the kind of person who would get sick just listening to the sounds of surgery. I can read about and watch forensic type stuff all day long, but cut into live tissue and that's more than I can handle.

So I don't think I ever got around to mentioning the problems with our Explorer. And if I did, then I repeat myself. We bought the thing in August, or maybe it was late July. Either way, we started having trouble with it just as the 30 day warranty ran out. The used car lot where we bought it agreed to honor the warranty, halfway. They paid half, we paid half. So we took it to their mechanic and they put new head gaskets on it. This was in Sept., just a couple of days before we left for Phoenix for Josh's graduation, and to move him back home. We also had a wheel alignment done at another place before the trip. The alignment had been getting gradually worse, as had the gas consumption. David took it in a couple of weeks ago to have it re-aligned and it turned out that they had not replaced the tie rod end nuts when they did the alignment in September!! So then David notices that the thing is leaking oil from not one, but three separate places, from when they replaced the head gasket! So while he had the day off to go to the dentist and eye doc, we dropped the Explorer off with instructions to call us when they found the problem, but to not work on it. Four o'clock rolls around and still no call, so David calls them. They tell him they are just finishing up the head gasket, and also that there was a vaccuum leak, and something about replacing an O-ring. David decided to visit them in person. To make an even longer story short, the Explorer is running pretty good at no cost to us.

Today is the last day of school before spring break starts here. Sleeping in sounds good...