Death on 380

It was not a pretty sight. In one of those moments you see happening in slow motion, it was happening to me. Three vehicles ahead of mine. Playing out for all drivers to see. Or at least those who were wide-eyed and bushy tailed. By almost eight in the morning, at least half a pot of coffee has been ingested by myself. The drivers on the other side, were they paying attention? That is my question. When I saw it happening I wanted to honk my horn and come to a screeching halt. But I knew the drivers behind me weren't paying attention. They were too close. So letting off the gas as the accident happened was all I could do. To my amazement they must have seen it happen as well.

Running as fast as it possibly could, a beautiful doe had decided it was time to cross the busy interstate before 8 o'clock. Thank God she didn't have her fawn following. She was alone. Probably chased by a sexually charged buck or blood-thirsty hunter. Either way it was the final curtain for our little lady. I was three automobiles back. She came running past on the western side of the interstate without getting hit. She was halfway through. But there were a line a traffic on both northbound lanes. A black SUV in the fast lane hit her with its left headlight. Bam! She went straight down in the median. Just as fast as she came out of the corn field did she fall to her death. Murder on the highway. There was nothing to do. Everyone kept going. No one stopped. No one pulled over. Not even the SUV. Everyone drove on by. I kept finding myself slowing down the rest of the commute. Looking and scanning the horizon for her family and friends. No deer anywhere. Guess they all are waiting for their turn to run across the deadly highway.

It is a sad day for the deer and the driver. Their insurance will probably go up. They will likely have thousands of dollars of repairs. I will have that vision of the deer's final seconds of life play over in my head. It's like a movie that you can't take your eyes off. Mesmerizing in a morbid way. Death on 380.

Bedtime Story

After a month of using the CPAP I can report – underwhelming effect!

It took a while, but I am finally becoming adjusted to wearing it. The hardest part was under my nose, where the mask presses my mustache hairs into my skin. That still hurts by morning.

The other main adjustment was in sleeping position. At first, I slept on my back, but that hurts my lower back. Eventually, I was able to sleep on my side facing the direction the hose went. It took about three weeks to finally get comfortable sleeping on the other side as well, when the hose has to come up over my neck. But it is the only way I can sleep, as I toss and turn and must sleep on both sides.

I am still learning about the humidity level. I do like having cool, moist air when it is hot. We’ve had some cool mornigs, so I am trying out various temperature settings, although th eaother morning, something was weird and I nearly drowned!

But, still no “amazing energy burts” that other users had promised me I would experience. I know my level of sleep apnea is not very high, and ther pressure setting is fairly low, but I still wish I could feel something! I now need to work on getting to bed earlier (thanks a lot, FaceBook!) but I’ve never really been able to sleep more than six or so hours.

So, my report is practically “no report”, at least as far as benefits go. The longer I wear it, the more I get used to it, but I sure hope to feel the effects kick in sometime!

Friday Night Music

With the change of the seasons come the change of our music format.  Or at least this time.  Instead of cranking up the stereo and playing everything loud, we went unplugged.  We didn't shake the house last night, but it was a rumbling good time had by all.

  Music night started out with a girl and her guitar and her man singing.  We had started playing together over the weekend and found out that we enjoyed playing together.  We started the evening with a Ryan Bingham tune "Hard Times" and I think this one is a keeper.  With Tim on the vocals doing a Dylan-style melody the followers the Looney's may find it entertaining.  However, having said that don't be mislead that we'll be fashioning any open mic soiree anytime soon.  Practice must come first.  After all we aren't just ammee's here.  

   Next on the set list, a stunning rendition of Moonshiner.  Or was it strumming?  This one gets the fingers fumbling and without being repetitive, with one word I can sum this up-practice.

   "Tear Stained Eyes"-Son Volt  what a great song.    It is one of those tunes that you can easily sing along with especially the chorus.  It feels simple but it is quite complex which makes it a brilliant piece of Americana.  Don't fall off your chairs but we added some harmonies to this one.  Another keeper for the Looney's.  The capo really helps on this one-Thank You Jeff Schmidt.  You rock.

   "Passenger Side"-Wilco.  God I love this song.  Yeah, we got some issues with the beat but it will come together.  It is fun to play and sing along with.  Another smart writer, a simple song that is complex.  Where do these guys get that I wonder? :)  

   Now the voice is going and the fingers are starting to not work as well.  Time for some easier strumming and we're getting ready to close the joint down.  Grab that dance partner and start your little jig to "New Madrid"-Uncle Tupelo.  A great little ditty-it's a keeper.

  And  ending our session, a fun song to play and sing along to, "Wagon Wheel" -Old Crow Medicine Show.  Now somewhere I had heard that Bob Dylan wrote that song.  Guess I should research it before posting but that would require work and time, so for the moment I will CYA with, we were performing OCMS rendition of said song.  It's a great song.  

   Next on the FNMN show we viewed on DVD the 100s from Java House.  Performing back in January for IPTV Radio, it was a great performance.  Unplugged but not undone.  I love these guys.  Great songs, simple but highly complicated.  Similar to those other guys we mentioned above.  Do you see the attraction?  I don't know if you can buy this, but I believe every now and again, the cable channel in Iowa City shows these past performances.  It was a great show-Vern McShane rocking the place on the pedal steel.  I especially loved the bass solo on the "Picture" song.  The only thing about that gig that I disliked was the small room and crowded stage.  Not anyone's fault, it just was tight.  Great night of music folks.  If you have never heard any of these tunes before look them up on google. It is worth the little bit of effort to find them.

Peace,

Ang

   

  

Friday Night Music Night: Back on the Air

After taking some needed creative time, Friday Night Music is back. Thanks in part to sister Jill for her awesome Christmas present. And another thanks to boss Bob Burns and his CD at work. I'll explain how those two brought us here.
As I was driving to work Friday, I like to jam out. So I looked in my CD lunch bucket case and pulled out a CD Jill made for me for Christmas. Remember those days of "Mixed" tapes? Yes, this was one of those. I remember the other one she gave me and with a slight hesitation I put it in, fearing the worst. (That's another story for a different day.) Heard some great tunes including a Kinks cut. So I wrote to Looney and told him about it and he wrote me back about going to a Kinks concert and the opening act blew him away-Cheap Trick. Well, Bob had a Best of Cheap Trick on his desk several weeks ago and I asked him if I could take it home and listen to it. So Tim had finished burning it that day and when we got home, there was the Cheap Trick CD. So there is the back story now here is how the night started.
Goth girl was looking great and I wanted her to listen to a Pat Benetar song that I thought Adam Lambert should have performed on Idol when doing songs from the 80's. "Hit me with your best shot." So we jammed to that, she knew the words and danced around the basement and air guitared the solos....Looney still has it. Next cut, and Goth girl was so excited...."Carry On My Way Word Son -Kansas....so turn the dial up some more! It was great. The three of us carrying on and such. Next cut (this is off the CD Jill had made it remember?) "Hair of the Dog" by Nazareth. Oh, the great times of high school that song is. Goth girl doesn't know it, asks what's this? and leaves. That means she will check it out later without the parental units watching. Meanwhile, we dig it. Next cut is the Kinks-"Captain America" which cut then leads us to Cheap Trick. Following us now? So we listen to a cut that has Chrissie Hynde "walk Away" which I had never heard before. I had wanted to hear some Pretenders stuff so this was a nice treat. Loon says the Pretenders have a country album out so we really need to check that out. After hearing "She's Tight" "Southern Girls" "If you want my Love" and "Dream Police" we moved on to a band that maybe listened to RUSH......The Police. Great times we listened by all. Played "Answering Machine" by the Replacements, who must have influenced Uncle Tupelo because I hear so many nuances in Jeff Tweedy's music. I hope he is ok with this. I think Paul Westerberg is a genius. Drugs and alcohol is the downfall of a lesser man no doubt. Paul is still doing so stuff out there so look him up readers. I will do more research and see what I find out and post at a later time.
Played "seven Chinese Brothers" -REM. We had a nice discussion about REM. I told Tim I liked them when they were a college band, before they hit it big. He said he thought they were a bit pretenses and too artsy fartsy....my words not his.
I think (a couple of beers and a nice glass of scotch tend to fog up the later part of the night) we ended on the Police's Message in a Bottle-but I can't remember. Oh wait we spun a U2 song (Tim picked-can't remember the name....oh the edge sorry. Wait, Tim is looking it up...."The Fly" off Achtung Baby. And I think I ended it with Sinead O'Connor-"I don't want what I haven't got."
A great night of some of the finer music of the late 70s and mid-80s and into very early 90s. Tune in for updates on our picks.

Bed Head

Snoring Cure Part 3

The journey continues!

First was the breathing doctor who sent me to the sleep center - see: http://looneytalk.blogspot.com/2009/06/sleepless-in-cr.html

The diagnosis: Sleep Apnea. It turns out I stopped breathing 14 times an hour!

Then the really bad news: I can't be fitted for a C-PAP breathing device because I don't move enough air through my nose. Surgery will repair a deviated septum and reduce my turbinates. "Hopefully" that solves the air-flow problem and I can get a C-PAP. Otherwise, the next thing we'd be looking at would be to remove my tonsils. While that is a relatively safe and easy procedure in children, it is one of the most painful and hard to recover from surgery for adults! As in, "Most people schedule it for the day before Thanksgiving so they can save on the sick leave." Yikes! Don't want that!

So, after a full physical and more blood tests, off to the hospital. What typically is an out-patient procedure will require an overnight stay for me - since I stop breathing so often.
Relaxing in the prep room as the drugs kicked in - and a thunder storm hit outside! Hope they don't lose power while I'm under the knife!

Next thing I know, I'm waking up in recovery! Then off to my room. I feel like I have the worlds worst head cold - perhaps due to the miles of gauze shoved up my nose? My nose is tender, but the drugs are preventing much pain. My biggest complaint is my neck - I think they broke it during surgery!

So, after an un-restful night, I can finally go home. Sounds good, right?

Well, the pain killers were strong, but not enough to eliminate all of my nose pain. My neck still was the worst, plus I have to sleep upright on several pillows, killing my back as well.

I've had surgery before, I thought that staying home for a week would be fun - movies, TV, internet - I thought I'd clean some files off an old computer. Boy was I wrong! The drugs made me brain-dead! I couldn't concentrate on anything. I couldn't follow a movie or even get into a televisions show. All I could watch was HGTV - I could wake out of a daze, say, "That's a nice kitchen" then doze back off.

So, it's gotten better since then. Flushing the nasal passages feels better than it sounds!

Finally, it was time to head back to the sleep center.

I scheduled it for a Friday night so I wouldn't have to deal with it at work the next day. I was pretty tired going in, and the Ambient kicked in fairly quick. I got wired up and had the C-PAP strapped to my head. Nice, cool air gently blowing into my nose. (When I opened my mouth, the air blew out lol!) With stuff between my eyes, I couldn't focus on the TV, but it didn't take long and I was out. She woke me up once to have me roll back onto my back, but otherwise, I slept the whole night - from about 9:30pm until 4:30am. I won't say I woke up refreshed, and honestly, I think I had a hangover from the Ambient, but it wasn't bad sleeping with the mask on. Other than the headpiece was too tight and gave me a headache. In fact, getting ready for bed Saturday night I kind of wished I had the nice, cool, gentle air forced up my nose!

But I could still get the report that it was ineffective and I need tonsil surgery, so I'm not going to rest until I know for sure.

To be continued...

Alice, Nicky & Mom

Iowa Sunrise

 The old saying, it's darkest right before dawn could be changed to this:  The best light is right before dawn.

  The rays of the sun being bounced to our view, the reds vibrant and sure making the green of the grass an emerald color waiting to be selected in an old woman's jeweled ring.  The blue tint of the sky, sharper in focus than any fool photographer could ever be.   The description of my morning sunrise.

    What started out as a sudden attempt by a higher calling to get on an exercise morning, turned out to be one of the most gorgeous skies of the summer.  As I woke, I decided I would listen to that voice in my mind who said, WALK NOW.  I did.  Accompanied by Biscuit leash-free we started walking down the gravel road.  The sun was not yet up, but its light was bouncing on the eastern horizon.  Fire red at the horizon.  It fuel my walk up to the mile corner.  Living out in the country they old timers tell me every corner (generally speaking) is approximately a mile.  So I take their word, and Biscuit and I walked for a mile then turned around to walk home.  The walk back we were looking directly at the sunrise.  It was now getting brighter, the dark-vibrant red was replace with a yellow glowing ball, Father Sun.  I looked at my cellphone to check for the time.  Always curious and for some odd reason like it really matters about the time, but it was 5:52 (am for you who may not be following along closely or for you others that are seriously-educated public-criticiser's.   The bottom line is this, Iowa has great sunrises.  Every morning.  Tuesday Father Sun "winked" at me.  No kidding.  He was starting to rise over the big hill that I call mountain just to the east about a mile or two from the Looney farm.  It was a loving gesture to say "Good Mornin' Mrs. Looney!"

Today, the horizon was blood red and clouds above.  Clouds everywhere, except along the horizon.  Just enough for me to say "Hey Father Sun, how ya' doin' this morning?"   And what would you think he said back?  He caught me between walking by the tall corn, and being ever so polite because that is his nature, he says to me, "Glad to see you are getting those dogs back on the exercise plan."  

   Sometimes, it is so hard to get out of bed, the body just wants an extra minute of rest.  The body is lazy.  It doesn't want to work it wants to lie awhile and  "dream," dream about things that don't really matter and  flying.  Flying around the earth to see the sunrise.  Then the mind has to wake itself up.  C'mon, get up silly.  Time to get to work.  The mind is willing but the flesh is exhausted.  So walking the dogs at sunrise is a great way for me to get some exercise, have the dogs get some exercise, and see Father Sun.  How about that!  I can do it every morning, view an Iowa Sunrise.  Right in here.  

Eight Heads in a Perfect (Gale) Storm

Just heard Gale Storm died, so that's now 5 celebrity deaths - one to go? Ed McMahnon, Farrah, King 'O Pop, Billy Mays, Gail.

Our movie viewing got a little better, as we watched a movie off of Frankie's fav list: 1997's "8 Heads in a Duffle Bag". Joe Pesci, David Spade, Kristy Swanson, great roles by George Hamilton and Dyan Cannon. Madcap comedy. Falls in to the "Plot A" category: Miserable loser overcomes odds to win in the end. (We'll be exploring the basic plot themes as time goes on.) Great writing, funny situations, good time.

Later, we watched 2000's "The Perfect Storm". Good cast, with George Clooney, John C. Reilly and Marky-Mark Wahlberg (better actor than singer!). Had this NOT been "based on a true story", then it probably would have been Plot A, and they would have come home succesful.
However, too much Hollywood drama added to "spice up" the story, I'm sure all of the marital and personal subplots were added. This was probably better on a theatre, with the huge waves crashing. Too predictable, such as the subplot of John and his nemisis fighting but then of course making up. Yuck! The stupid and unexplained scenes with a wasted casting of Karen Allen were presumably added becasue it really happened, but made no sense and were just a waste of time.
I like George, but to quote Angie, "Where's Mark Greene?"

The lame won this round. Let's hope we get another chance at the movies!

Movie Review-The Governess

Absolutely one of the worst movies made in this decade.  Actually, think it was produced in the 1990's but will look it up for sure.

Tom Wilkinson and Minnie Driver star is this slightly erotica but based upon one guy's dream of teen Jewish sister's talking about semen in their bed at night.  Let's make our heroine the Governess one of the first female bootie photographers.  Every scene, either Tim or I were knocking out each line spoken, what the action was to be.  The only thing I predicted that didn't happen was a pregnancy, which should have because it would have put an natural twist on an extremely stupid movie plot.  Fact is, Tim was awaken in the middle of the night with yet another problem in the movie.  The Governess, who is Jewish, pretends to be a Christian to accept a job as a Governess with a Scottish family.  This could have been slightly funny, or it could have been dramatic but the dialogue, the motion of the characters were not thought out.  

Sorry folks, it looks like we wasted our time watching this movie-I want my money back.  Alas, it gave me a chance to at writing a writhing review.  

Now, what to watch next?

FUNKY Friday Night Music Night?

What I really wanted was some great 80's rock music but what turned out was a lot of funky tunes from that decade.

I wish we had a turntable, and I know the Loon does too.  But with his nose recovering from surgery there was no way it was going to get hooked up.  So this is what happened.

I put on Talking Heads, "NAKED" cd.  Why did I buy this 20 years ago?  Beats me.  I looked for the "hit" and couldn't find it.  Damn.  I know I used to crank this mother as loud as possible, but with my memory so to is it....gone.

Living Color-again, another problem with too much funk and not enough rock.  Gone, with my memory.  So at this point I am not impressing Loon.

He puts on Nels Lofgren....Primus and Rush.  Ok.  Pretty good actually.

And we played a couple of cuts off the Outfield, 1985.  Now, we are talking about great 80s rock.

So we put in an Eric Johnson DVD-killer.  That guy is one of the greatest guitar players I have ever watched.  Watched Alejandro and Alice in Chains.  So, we went from some why did we ever listen to this music to finish it off with great stuff.  To sum it up, sometimes the funk leads us to ...fill in the blank readers!