Rantings Diversified

The National Institute of Arthritis and Musculoskeletal and Skin Diseases (NIAMS) say that gout is a form of arthritis found most commonly in men, beginning between 40 and 50 years old.  It is a (very freaking) painful condition that occurs when uric acid is deposited as needle-like crystals in the joints and/or soft tissues. In the joints, these uric acid crystals cause inflammatory arthritis, which in turn leads to swelling, redness, heat, pain, and stiffness in the joints.
In many people, gout initially affects the joints of the big toe (a condition called podagra). But many other joints and areas around the joints can be affected in addition to or instead of the big toe. These include the insteps (me), ankles, heels, knees, wrists, fingers, and elbows. Uric acid crystals can also collect in the kidneys and cause kidney stones.

Uric acid is a substance that results from the breakdown of purines. A normal part of all human tissue, purines are found in many foods. Normally, uric acid is dissolved in the blood and passed through the kidneys into the urine, where it is eliminated.
If there is an increase in the production of uric acid or if the kidneys do not eliminate enough uric acid from the body, levels of it build up in the blood ((a condition called hyperuricemia) Welcome to my world). Hyperuricemia also may result when a person eats too many high-purine foods, such as liver, dried beans and peas, anchovies, and gravies. Hyperuricemia is not a disease, and by itself it is not dangerous. However, if excess uric acid crystals form as a result of hyperuricemia, gout can develop. The crystals form and accumulate in the joint, causing inflammation and a hell of a lot of PAIN!

I have what they call acute gout, or acute gouty arthritis – In this stage, hyperuricemia has caused the deposit of uric acid crystals in joint spaces. This leads to a sudden onset of intense pain and swelling in the joints, which also may be warm and very tender. An acute attack commonly occurs at night and can be triggered by stressful events, alcohol or drugs, or the presence of another illness. Attacks usually subside within 3 to 10 days, even without treatment, and the next attack may not occur for months or even years. Over time, however, attacks can last longer and occur more frequently. Oh, yippy, freakin’, skippy!

I woke up last night at 0300 in intense pain.  I had gone to sleep an hour before.  When this happened the first time a few years ago I went to see my doctor and she told me to stop drinking soda and beer, eating rich food and shellfish.  Well, I pointed out to her that I am severely allergic to shellfish.  I also told her that whatever it takes to make this never happen again was something I would do.  So I have not had a single soda in about five years and I no longer go to Italian restaurants.  The other things I’m not suppose to eat anymore are anchovies, asparagus, beef kidneys, brains, dried beans and peas, game meats, gravy, herring, liver, mackerel, mushrooms, sardines, scallops and sweetbreads.
So to whoever may be reading this, my hope for you is that you never have to experience this.

Most of the information contained herein was stolen directly from the  NIAMS website.

Joost is a free online TV delivery service. If anyone would like an invite to be a beta tester please leave me a comment and your name and I’ll send it right off to you.

It’s pretty cool and it’s getting better each week.

Please remember to fill in your email address in the box when commenting (that way you don’t have to make it public) so the invite can be emailed to you.

A few weeks ago I told you about two blogs I had recently found. Today I have three more to tell you about.
Atyllah the Hen is a great writer that Jefferson Davis told me about. She is recuperating off the planet right now but is expected back soon.
Scribbles by Hanulf displays the writings and poems of a young lady named Hanulf. She comes to us from Oslo by way of Tulsa. I hope the bad storms they’re having don’t affect her.
Last but not least is my most favorite blog to read. The most intellegent and funniest web site on these here interwebs. She claims to be from the Island of Lewis but personally I think she’s from Lewes, Delaware, though she does know an awful lot about sheep.

Sam, Problem-Child-Bride

I have been stressing out over my front yard. It’s in pretty bad shape. You see when the family of the old lady I bought my house from moved her out, they backed a big-ass moving truck into the front yard and loaded out. Then a few weeks later I backed a big-ass moving truck into the front yard and moved in. This was all done in the fall when the ground was a bit squishy. The ground being soft would be a better way to describe it. I just wanted to use the word squishy and I’ve just done it twice.
Now my front yard is not that large. It’s about 15′ by 20′(4.572meters by 6.096 meters or 10 cubits by 13.334 cubits)
Needless to say there are some large divits in my front yard. See above pic of my neighbor literaly standing IN my yard.  One gouge is about 2 foot deep. (60.96 cm or 1.33 cubits).
There are four distinct tire tracks across my front yard diagonally from the entrance to my driveway across the entire breathe of my front yard to my front door.
So I got the brilliant idea of roto-tilling my front yard and then raking it flat and re-seeding it. Great idea!! Well,it was except I forgot to take into account the fact that the grass was planted in 1951. Now, I’ve done this before and yes the last time I turned a yard into a garden I cut the sod off then roto-tilled. I have no idea why I thought I didn’t need to do it this time. The garden tiller I used took quite awhile just to dig through the sod much less turning the ground underneath. I spent two hours running this roto-tiller and gererally wrecking about a quarter of my yard. So all I was able to do was to make my yard worse than it was before I took on the task of improving it. When I finally accepted the fact that I was not going to fix my yard on Friday, needless to say I was not what one might consider to be, in a good mood. I continued to be in a bad mood so I went for a ride on my bike. It didn’t help. I went for a longer ride. It still didn’t help. I stopped at the Legion(my local) and had a pint(.4731 liters or 3.3307 gill). A friend came over to me and asked how my day was. Major league mistake! I tore into him. I vented on my stupidity, my wasting of time and the fact my yard is in worse condition than when I started. Then I came to my senses and realized that being pissed off wasn’t going to fix my lawn. I apologized for bending his ear as I did and went home to plan the next assault on my lawn.
So the plan is to have two or so yards of clean and screened top soil delivered so I can just fill in the canyons and valleys to make the lawn flat. Then I will add seed and root-tone with a nice layer of straw over it.
Now let’s not even get started on my back yard! Does anyone want to come over and remove five 50′(15.24meters or 33.34cubits) pine trees for me, for free?

This was developed as an age test by an R&D department at Harvard
University. Take your time and see if you can read each line aloud
without a mistake.

The average person over 30 years of age can’t do it!
1. This is this cat
2. This is is cat
3. This is how cat
4. This is to cat
5. This is keep cat
6. This is an cat
7. This is old cat
8. This is blogger cat
9. This is busy cat
10. This is for cat
11. This is forty cat
12. This is seconds cat

Now go back and read the third word in each line from the top down!

In a number of carefully controlled trials, scientists have demonstrated that if we drink 1 liter of water each day, at the end of the year we would have absorbed more than 1 kilo of Escherichia coli (E.  coli) bacteria found in feces. In other words, we are consuming 1 kilo of Poop.
However, we do not run that risk when drinking wine (or rum,whiskey, beer or other liquor) because alcohol has to go through a purification process of boiling, filtering and/or fermenting.
Remember:Water = Poop, Wine = Health.
Therefore, it would appear to be better to drink wine and talk stupid, than to drink water and be full of shit.
There’s no need to thank me for this valuable information; I’m doing it as a public service.

OTIS DAY AND THE KNIGHTS!!!!
are playing at Hershey Park this coming Friday night 5.5.7

Did I happen to mention it’s this coming Friday night!!!!!

Did I happen to mention it’s Otis Day and the Knights!!!!!!

Don’t bother calling me on Friday night, I’ll be jumping up
and down yelling something along the line of…….

Oh, weee, Oh, weee, oh!
UPDATE – $27.95 to enter the park and $10.00 to enter the Ampthitheater equals more than I’m going to pay to see them!!!

Instructions on how to skip out on writing a new blog post.

1. Find some silly test for your reader to take.
2. List your results
3. Give the URL so your reader can go check out their useless information

23 August, 1958

Your date of conception was on or about 30 November 1957 which was a Saturday.

You were born on a Saturday
under the astrological sign Leo.
Your Life path number is 9.

Life Path Compatibility:
You are most compatible with those with the Life Path numbers 3, 6 & 9.
You should get along well with those with the Life Path numbers 1 & 5.
You may or may not get along well with those with the Life Path numbers 2, 7 & 11.
You are least compatible with those with the Life Path numbers 4, 8 & 22.

The Julian calendar date of your birth is 2436438.5.
The golden number for 1958 is 2.
The epact number for 1958 is 10.
The year 1958 was not a leap year.

Your birthday falls into the Chinese year beginning 2/18/1958 and ending 2/7/1959.
You were born in the Chinese year of the Dog.

Your Native American Zodiac sign is Bear; your plant is Violets.

You were born in the Egyptian month of Paopy, the second month of the season of Poret (Emergence – Fertile soil).

Your date of birth on the Hebrew calendar is 7 Elul 5718.
Or if you were born after sundown then the date is 8 Elul 5718.

The Mayan Calendar long count date of your birthday is 12.17.4.15.14 which is
12 baktun 17 katun 4 tun 15 uinal 14 kin

The Hijra (Islamic Calendar) date of your birth is Saturday, 7 Safar 1378 (1378-2-7).

The date of Easter on your birth year was Sunday, 6 April 1958.
The date of Orthodox Easter on your birth year was Sunday, 13 April 1958.
The date of Ash Wednesday (the first day of Lent) on your birth year was Wednesday 19 February 1958.
The date of Whitsun (Pentecost Sunday) in the year of your birth was Sunday 25 May 1958.
The date of Whisuntide in the year of your birth was Sunday 1 June 1958.
The date of Rosh Hashanah in the year of your birth was Monday, 15 September 1958.
The date of Passover in the year of your birth was Saturday, 5 April 1958.
The date of Mardi Gras on your birth year was Tuesday 18 February 1958.

As of 5/2/2007 5:55:59 PM EDT
You are 48 years old.
You are 585 months old.
You are 2,541 weeks old.
You are 17,784 days old.
You are 426,833 hours old.
You are 25,610,035 minutes old.
You are 1,536,602,159 seconds old.

Celebrities who share your birthday:

Top songs of 1958

Your age is the equivalent of a dog that is 6.96046966731898 years old. (You’re still chasing cats!)

There are 113 days till your next birthday
on which your cake will have 49 candles.

Those 49 candles produce 49 BTUs,
or 12,348 calories of heat (that’s only 12.3480 food Calories!) .
You can boil 5.60 US ounces of water with that many candles.

In 1958 there were approximately 4.0 million births in the US.
In 1958 the US population was approximately 150,697,361 people, 50.7 persons per square mile.
In 1958 in the US there were approximately 1,667,231 marriages (11.1%) and 385,144 divorces (2.6%)
In 1958 in the US there were approximately 1,452,000 deaths (9.6 per 1000)
In the US a new person is born approximately every 8 seconds.
In the US one person dies approximately every 12 seconds.

In 1958 the population of Australia was approximately 9,947,358.
In 1958 there were approximately 222,504 births in Australia.
In 1958 in Australia there were approximately 74,001 marriages and 6,920 divorces.
In 1958 in Australia there were approximately 83,723 deaths.

Your birthstone is Peridot