Not Tired of Being Retired

Retired, kicked back, and likin' everyday...  although, I am different than many people because I don't need nor do I want a lot of money...  it is nice to travel and my wife and I enjoyed traveling and did a lot of it during the first 3 years of our retirement since we both retired at the same time...  but now...  we are not that interested in traveling to all these places that speak different languages, dress differently, and have food prepared in such a way that we don't know what it is or what we are eating...

Many might say that we are NARROW MINDED about this and to them I would reply...  "yes, I suppose you are correct."  But, I do believe that I have a right to be narrow minded if I choose to be that way...  and, that your opinion is about as significant as a fart in a swimming pool.

My wife and I both worked about 45 years in low wage earning jobs, spent what we needed to spend and saved what we could save, and did only that which we thought that we should do...

Our home is modest and paid for and even now, we are saying that we need to downsize since this space is more than we really need...  and, the only reason we are still here aside from the fact that our home is paid for is the fact that we have storage space that a smaller space would not offer unless a storage building was built or purchased.

Our healthcare is above average and while that may not seem like what we should accept, we do know that our physicians are using the latest information that has been created by the top notch healthcare facilities...  so, all that remains is the skill level of the doctor in question...  and, this can be debated and more than likely in some cases, would be critical.

We've been retired since 2015 and my father lived over 25 years after he retired, so if there is anything here to being his son, then I have another good 20 years to go.  And, a lot of shit can happen in 20 years.

But, the best "thing" about being retired is that I have retired in EAST TN...  and because of that location, I am far removed from all the crazy shit that is going on the cities throughout our country.  I watch it on the Tele and all I can think of is that it is not happening here.  TN is a conservative state and a state that likes its guns as well as its faith, although, I have no intentions of becoming a SOUTHERN BAPTIST and get really annoyed when some of these self-ordained preachers get WOUND UP...  but even that is tolerable...  in that I can just walk away from the conversation.

AND...  whenever I take a notion to exercise, I can walk around the community, or I can use the treadmill and stationary bike we have downstairs, or I can go to the local gym free-of-charge because my health insurance provider has a SILVER SNEAKER program...

As my dad used to say...  he was in hog heaven...

AND like I am fond of saying...  everyday above ground is a good day.

Another Weekend in East TN

My neighbor was taken to the hospital in Knoxville last week by ambulence because she had a heart attack but was aware enough to call 911 herself.  Her heart issues were on the right side and even though she had 19 stents, she still suffered a powerful enough attack, to cause her to undergo a quardruple bypass operation.  She was released this morning and I talked with her son after helping her inside her home.

One of the issues that we talked about was the fact that east tn, at least where we were living was, for the most part, isolated away from all the garbage that was happening in the big cities.

While we were experiencing higher prices, our increase in prices were not as high as those increases up north.  We were not seeing an increase in illegal immigrants being flown to our location, nor did we have the crime and violence that we had been reading about or watching on the news.  No one in our area was ambushing police in an effort to try and wound or kill them.

• No one in our area wanted to defund the police.
• No one in our area wanted to teach critical race theory.
• No one in our area was concerned about black lives matter.
• No one in our area want to remove monuments or rename buildings.
• No one in our area wanted to wear or mandate facemasks except hospitals and healthcare facilities.
• No one in our area wanted to ban conservative thoughts, comments, or actions.
• No one in our area supported abortion
• No one in our area wanted to do away with the 2nd Amendment.

BTW...  did I mention that my neighbor is BLACK???

AND...  did I mention that on the other side of my neighbor's house lives a mexican immigrant that neither of us knew whether he and his family were legal or not and neither of us really gave a shit either way.

Oh yes...  I am white...  and, interestingly enough, I have been white all my life...  and, the only living beings that were ever opposed by me because of my white supremacy attitude ghaniswere my CATS...  because I refused to let them go outsde...  inside cats actually live longer on average than outside cats.

Neither of us voted for TRUMP but both of us feel that our current President...  What's His Name...  is doing a horrible job and we are both tired of him lying to the public about what he supposedly believes...  we are also tired of the mainstream media covering his ass all the time pretending like he is doing a great job.

Neither my black neighbor nor I care about which political party controls the politics of the county because we have the same problems today that we had back in the 1960's which means both Democrats and Republicans are responsible for maintaining the status quo.

My black neighbor like to fish in one of our two man made Public Works lakes...  but, I do not...  So...  I suppose that we are different in that regard...  but, we don't fight about it nor do we get upset because we like to do different things...

I also have no idea if he sees me as white or just as his neighbor....  it never much mattered to me...

Camels

 

Oversupply of PIGS

The UK's pig producers are warning that a shortage of workers is causing a surplus of pigs to be stuck at farms.

Trade body the National Pig Association (NPA) said some abattoirs were running 25% below usual capacity.  "If the government doesn't do something soon there will be a lot of perfectly healthy pigs on farms that will have to be destroyed," said Zoe Davies, chief executive of the NPA.

Each week, the number of excess pigs is growing by 15,000, the NPA said.

The shortage of workers in processing plants means they are unable to take in as many pigs to process as they normally would - resulting in too many pigs on farms.  Having to house the pigs for longer, while they grow at a rate of a kilo each day, is having a severe impact on the profitability of the farms, according to the NPA.

The industry body said extra costs of feed and abattoir charges for overweight pigs means many farms are operating at a loss.  READ MORE

Hungry Dog

 

A Four Legged Whale

Scientists in Egypt have identified a new species of four-legged whale that lived around 43 million years ago.

The fossil of the amphibious Phiomicetus anubis was originally discovered in Egypt's Western Desert.  Its skull resembles that of Anubis, the ancient Egyptian jackal-headed god of the dead after which it was named.

The ancestors of modern whales developed from deer-like mammals that lived on land over the course of 10 million years.

Weighing an estimated 600kg and three metres (10ft) in length, the Phiomicetus anubis had strong jaws to catch prey, according to the study published by the Proceedings of the Royal Society B on Wednesday. The whale was able to walk on land and swim in water.

The partial skeleton was found in Egypt's Fayum Depression and analysed by scientists at Mansoura University. Although the area is now desert, it was once covered by sea and is a rich source of fossils.

"Phiomicetus anubis is a key new whale species, and a critical discovery for Egyptian and African palaeontology," the study's lead author, Abdullah Gohar, told Reuters news agency.  READ MORE

Walrus

 

Understanding Doodles

For Queen Victoria, it was donkeys. For Winston Churchill, it was airplanes. For Leonardo da Vinci, it was everything from crude drawings to the first workings of his groundbreaking laws of frictions. 

Throughout history, humans – whether royalty or a bored office worker – have doodled.

Usually relegated to the margins of notebooks or the back of envelopes, the doodle is often considered something messy, throwaway and unconsidered. 

If life is what happens when you're making other plans, then doodles are the result of your mind being somewhere else – a phone call, a meeting, a daydream. 

Yet in those scrawls – be it shapes, animals, lines, names – can be something powerful, with what they reveal and how they allow us to express our creativity. Hence why a new art project is taking doodles out of the margins and placing them centre-stage.

Frequencies, by Turner Prize-winning artist Oscar Murillo, collects together 40,000 canvases that have been marked, scribbled and drawn on by more than 100,000 children from around the world. 

Since 2013 Murillo has sent blank canvases to over 300 schools in more than 30 countries. The aim is to capture "the conscious and unconscious energy of young minds at their most absorbent, optimistic and conflicted" and the results are currently on show for the first time in their entirety in Murillo's former school in Hackney, east London. 

"The blank canvas is like a recording device," he tells BBC Culture. "You leave it there for six months at a minimum and then you simply allow for an individual to interact with that, however they wish. ​​

They are my collaborators, these almost 100,000 children."  READ MORE

Take My Hand

 

Under Control

 

The New Biden

 

Understanding America Through Musical Lyrics - part 2

 

Understanding America Through Musical Lyrics - part 1

 

Populist Press

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A Few Funnies

 

Visit with Cardiologist

Yesterday, I had my 6 month visit with my cardiologist and these visits are not just contingent upon my age but because in 2009/2010, I had 5 stents put into my heart arteries on the left side (3 in the LAD) to avoid having a triple bypass performed.

My Cardiologist suggested that I have a STRESS TEST to ascertain if my stents were still doing their job and/or if other blockages had formed that may be hindering my ability to perform physical tasks that I had previously attributed to my sedentary lifestyle resulting from constant fatigue as a result of my 13 year battle with cancer and on-going cancer treatments.

So...  I have 20 days to prepare my body for this physical test that only lasts 6 minutes.  But, since I have been sitting around for the last 6 months, I am not sure if I will have the physical strength to complete this test...  so, a gradual build-up my my endurance will give me a slight advantage...  at least I am hoping.

What saved my life in 2008 was the fact that I was healthy and tiny vessels to carry blood had been created by my own body to compensate for the blockages.  For the last 13 years, I have continued with my healthy eating so I am hopeful that those tiny vessels are still there and are still operating effectively.

If my stress test shows no additional blockages, my Cardiologist only wanted to see me once a year, but I objected to that because of my ongoing battle with cancer and the fact that cancer treatments can impact the functionality of the heart...  so, we agreed to continue our 6 month visits.

You have to take charge of your own healthcare sometimes and not always listen to these doctors...

Norway

 

Increase in Diabetes

Diabetes surged among American children, teens and adolescents to 2017, according to new federally-funded research spanning nearly 20 years finding a 45% increase in type 1 diagnoses, and a 95% growth in type 2 diagnoses.

"Increases in diabetes are always troubling – especially in youth. Rising rates of diabetes, particularly type 2 diabetes, which is preventable, has the potential to create a cascade of poor health outcomes," Dr. Giuseppina Imperatore, chief of the Surveillance,

Epidemiology, Economics, and Statistics Branch in CDC’s Division of Diabetes Translation, said in a statement issued Tuesday. "Compared to people who develop diabetes in adulthood, youth are more likely to develop diabetes complications at an earlier age and are at higher risk of premature death."

Findings published in JAMA on Tuesday indicated that Type 1 diabetes persists as the most common type of diabetes among U.S. youth. Results stemmed from an average of 3.5 million Americans under age 20 studied on a yearly basis from 2001 to 2017 across areas of California, Colorado, Ohio, South Carolina, Washington State, Arizona and Mexico. 

Results indicated significant increases in type 1 diabetes among Americans 19 years or younger, from 1.48 per 1,000 young people to 2.15 per 1,000 by 2017, or a 45% increase over 16 years, whereas the prevalence of type 2 diabetes among kids aged 10-19 increased from 0.34 per 1,000 youths to 0.67 per 1,000 youths, or a 95.3% increase over 16 years.

Study authors noted no significant differences in the increases in diabetes prevalence across sexes.

The study found the largest increases in type 2 diabetes were among Black and Hispanic youth, with increases in the estimated prevalence of type 1 diabetes greatest among Black and White youths. Kids under age 9 with type 2 diabetes were excluded from the study due to small sample sizes.

Diabetes is a chronic health condition impacting how the body converts food into energy. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), "If you have diabetes, your body either doesn’t make enough insulin or can’t use the insulin it makes as well as it should. When there isn’t enough insulin or cells stop responding to insulin, too much blood sugar stays in your bloodstream. Over time, that can cause serious health problems, such as heart disease, vision loss, and kidney disease."  READ MORE

Hurts So Good

 

Shorter Work Week

More than ever, workers want to work fewer hours, saying they can be just as effective in less time – and happier, too. They may be on to something.

We’re living in an age of radical transformation in the workplace. Options like all-remote or hybrid – which were completely unthinkable for most people just two years ago – are now becoming part of work mainstream. 

The idea of shrinking the workweek is also gaining traction, particularly in light of recent examples of workforces who have successfully trialed a reduced-hours’ week.

A shorter workweek could take various forms. There’s the four-day week, where you reduce your working hours by 20%. There are different models; everyone at a company might take the same day off, or people chose the structure that works for them, like taking two afternoons off. 

Or you might just reduce the workweek by a certain number of hours, from 40 down to 36, for example. A commonality across all models is that you’re not cramming your previous work span into a shorter timeframe, like working 40 hours in four days; you are removing a portion of your total work time for the week. Most importantly, salaries remain the same.

Experts and workers alike are debating the idea, because the pandemic has forced us to take a long, hard look at the modern workplace, and associated themes like work-life balance, mental health and worker flexibility. 

Proponents argue that a reduced-hours working model can help address many current work negatives, making employees more productive, healthier and happier.  READ MORE