Daily Pressure

So you go through 40+ years of life with blood pressure that ranges from just below normal to low. Then, your doctor mentions that your blood pressure is a little high and that it should be monitored “just to be on the safe side”.  One thing leads to another and then you are told that the old BP is a wee bit too high (If it’s a just a wee bit, can’t we just leave it be? It’s more than a wee bit…). Since there’s a family history, it’s off to the cardiologist for a complete work up, the indignity of having your chest shaved, and then the whole macho thing of actually finishing the treadmill test while claiming that it’s no big deal (when the most strenuous physical activity you’ve had in three years is chasing the wife around the bedroom). Nothing major to worry about, but you get slapped on BP meds and diuretics (BTW, diuretics suck canal water). The doc gets the combo right and the BP stabilizes, but he tells you to keep a regular eye on the BP just so that we know when/if things get out of whack. You take a break from watching a movie and take a quick reading and freak out when the display says 178 over 118. Yikes! An hour of wondering if you should call and make an appointment… You take the reading again and it’s only 136 over 75. Not perfect, but not horrible. And enough to have a nice *expensive* dram of single malt…

Latest Method To Curb Gang Violence

I’m sure that this is going to be very effective. It looks as if San Francisco and Fort Worth are going to start filing law suits against gangs and those who engage in gang activity. Now San Francisco is the place where one of the police commissioners is a transgender who also happens to own a sex toy enterprise. And Fort Worth is, well, in Texas. It strikes me that neither city is really going to be taken seriously in this effort.

Sheikh Your Money Maker

“A Qatar sheikh held up a British Airways Flight at Milan’s Linate airport for nearly three hours after discovering three of his female relatives had been seated next to men they did not know.When none of the other business class passengers agreed to swap seats, the sheikh, a member of Qatar’s ruling family, went to the pilot, who had already started the engine, to complain, an airport official said. But the pilot ordered him and his traveling companions, the three women, two men, a cook and a servant, off the plane.”

Mr. Money wound up causing a three hour delay with his stunt. He’s a member of the ruling family… Why not just fly on a private jet or buy up all of business class?