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Sunday, November 19, 2017

Sunday Sermon, Nearly December, Windsprint, Self-Assessment

Let us begin with a recent Normaphoto this month.

Compared to a Normaphoto from a year ago...(to see year-ago post, click within parenthesis)
...I'd say some progress has been made. I spent a winter on oxygen therapy, feeling my thoughts wander farther and farther away from my brain. 

I read news. I got hooked on trending topics: "Man turns $20 into $20,000,000 by adding lots of zeroes with a Sharpie then used it to pay supermarket self-checkout and got nearly $2 million change."

Then I read Cicero:"We are obliged to respect, defend and maintain the common bonds of union that exist among all members of the human race."

One of my happiest and least certain moments was when I piled all those O2 canisters and O2 concentrator into the car and returned them to the medical supply co. 

Now I cannot remember where I was going with this post. Probably something about experience and aging. I shall be 68 next month and have certainly achieved an early childhood ambition: to be more vigorous than kids twice my age. I had not envisioned  my nether-regions making noises indistinguishable from my Mr. Coffee Espresso Machine, but that is a minor detail.

Your regular pastor will be back next week if he finds God is not on the FBI's list of subversives. 

Go in peace.


25 comments:

  1. I would say excellent progress. And am very, very happy for you and Norma.
    Returning unused stoma supplies we were very happy. And uncertain. The happiness remains.

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    1. Kind EC, thank you. I know the uncertainty and look forward to the happiness. It's been a rough year, but fortunately I had enough bad habits to give up and make a recovery. Stable now!

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  2. There is definitely a marked visible difference when you are oxygen-free. Congratulations!

    Striving to be "more vigorous than kids twice my age" is a noble aspiration. I find it to be more difficult with every passing year - but I keep trying....
    and trying...

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    1. Dear Jon, I dunno. Kids twice my age are 136 years old now. Maybe we're looking in the wrong direction. However, it sure feels good to get enough O2 from ambient air again. It's like Twain said, many have succumbed to illness because they neglected their bad habits and hadn't enough of them to give up.

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  3. It is so good to see you in better health than you were last year. You can celebrate Thanksgiving and count your blessings for the gift of breathing without apparatus. Stay well, dear Geo.

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  4. Enjoy your oxygen while being careful too. As M Barrie said, “There is a saying in the Neverland that,every time you breathe, a grown-up dies.”

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    1. Sounds like very severe pediatric halitosis. I can understand why the pirates were upset with Peter Pan's gang.

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    2. One of your funniest replies ever, Geo. :)

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  5. I got rid of an oxygen concentrator awhile back, too. I only used it at night but my doctor said he didn't know why I was using it since my oxygen level without it was in the mid 90's. It's good not to have it huffing and puffing while I try to sleep.

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    1. Glad you were able to get off the O2 concentrator, Bruce. I wonder if my attachment to mine was mostly emotional. Didn't sleep with it but got it after my scare last Nov. and used it a couple times per day. By and by I noticed my pulse-oximeter reading going back to normal and decided to return the O2 machine and tanks. Pulmonologist got me a course of antibiotics and prednisone to keep on hand --it's still in the medicine cabinet in case of cold weather problems. None so far. Here's hoping we can both breathe easier now.

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  6. Sounds and looks like wonderful progress and such a good report for this time of Thanksgiving and gratitude.
    No doubt God is on someone's list-that's what happens to great artists with radical and norm breaking creativity.
    Be well and Cheers to you and yours this Thanksgiving.

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    1. Tom, there is indeed something to be thankful for in improved health. Thanks also for your encouraging comments --and please accept reciprocal good wishes and cheer to you and yours.

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  7. You look a good ten years younger in the more recent photo, Geo. Illness is hard on a person in every way. I'm so glad you are breathing well enough to get rid of the oxygen machines. Long may that be the case! I really think your brain and your thoughts were in closer contact than you thought, though . . . you've always made sense even when it took several readings to find it. That's a comment on my brain, not yours :)

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    1. All our brains are linked in electronic seance now, Jenny. It sure is a stabilizing influence too. Identities in healthy cahoots. I like it. Let's do our best to keep healthy.

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  8. Much better, Geo. Happy Thanksgiving to you and Norma.

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    1. Indeed, much better and much to be thankful for. Best wishes to you too.

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  9. Well done! I count my blessings...

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    1. An excellent method for lifting mood and quieting anxiety. I do it too.

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  10. The hubs and I both cheered when those oxygen pumps and tanks and hoses et al were 'returned to sender'. I hope you never need them again.

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    1. As you and husband know, that return "to sender" is a momentous event. I share in your hope, Delores.

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  11. Breathing unaided is most joyful. I am cheered by your progress, but also busy looking for a Sharpie and hoping that trick works with noughts and pounds sterling.
    Not greedy, just want to buy a field :-)

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    1. Beautiful Lisa, to my measureless embarrassment I just made that item up --fake news in an attempt to approximate extremes of real trending news. Your pound notes and all your paper money is so much prettier and more colorful than ours, it would be a pity to deface it (however, if it works in self-checkout at the market, let me know!).

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  12. Hi it's me, I am also visiting this web page regularly, this web page is actually
    pleasant and the visitors are in fact sharing nice thoughts.

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    1. Hi, Anon., Thanks for visiting. Would you be the same Anon. who visits "Invalid's Workshop" and writes to me in Portuguese? Not that I mind Portuguese --my people came here from the Azores.

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