Heart pain?

For the last hour, or so I’ve been having little, sharp pains mostly underneath my left breast.  My first thought minor heart attack.  I don’t think so, but I don’t know.  I went to bed with them, but got back up.  Pains have disappeared right now.  If they start again I think we’ll go to the emergency room.  As you age it seem you get pain in different areas and then it goes away.  ■ ■ ■  Ok, I went back to bed with no pains and slept until 10:45 am.  Now I’ve got to go and try and get blood drawn for my appointment with my endcrinologist  next week. ■

Cubs win and fall is here . . . . . .

 

That’s Abby deciding if she should come in from the outside.  Looks like she’s giving it a second thought.  The other picture is the view from our patio.  Those couple of trees are some of the first to start turning.  Very pretty.  ■  Bought a 12 watt charger for my iphone.  It’s purported to charge the iphone/ipad much faster than their normal charger.  I tried it last night and it did seem much quicker.  My iphone’s battery is down to 58% at 7:27 pm.  I’ll check it in a bit to see how it’s doing.  Patience.  ■  The Cubs won tonight so now they advance towards the World Series.  Could this be the year?  ■ 

iPhone charging:

58% @ 7:27 pm    ---    84% @ 7:55pm    ---    94% @ 8:14 pm

Went downstairs for awhile and when I came back up it was 100% charged, but I don’t know when it actually hit 100%.  Not exactly scientific, but I think it’s definitely faster that the old charger.  ■   TFB.  ‘Night.  ■

A quick neighborhood pic . . .

Just a quick pic for Roxanne and Bob.  I’ll try and remember to take more neighborhood pictures in the next few weeks.  ■  TFB. ■

Turkey breast . . . can’t be beat . . .

Delicious.  6.7 lbs done on a Weber charcoal grill in indirect heat; smoked with hickory wood chips.  Tender and moist and most definitely delicious.  ■  Tomorrow (Sunday) is supposed to be a nice day.  A Warm and sunny 78°.  Got to get the hose disconnected and the grass cut.  ■  I should take some pictures of the neighborhood before the leaves turn (some have started turning) and then when they’ve turned.  Gotta remember to do that.  ■

Recent visitors to my Pen & Ink website

Always fun to see where people live that look at my Pen & Ink website.  Most of them are in the US, but there are a few from different places in the world.

Update . . .

My fingers/hands are definitely shaking.  Went to the cardiologist’s office today to have my pacemaker/defibrillator checked.  The doctor had prescribed a new blood  pressure med for me a couple of weeks ago.  I thought that it replaced the current blood pressure med I had been taking for quite some time  - so I stopped taking that one.  It turns out that it was a blood pressure med that I should take in-addition-to my regular blood pressure med.  By stopped that med I probably sent my blood pressure up and that’s when the defibrillator kicked in.  I’m now easing back into the old med.  Let’s hope that’s the cause of the shaking.  ■

The Fire is On . . . . .

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It’s officially fall – the fireplace is on.  That’s Holly sitting in her chair watching the Notre Dame/Clemson game.  ■  Did some pork on the grill.  Slowly smoked it, and it was delicious.  As usual.  ■  Went to the guitar store that I used to work at to add some more weeks to a spreadsheet that the owner uses to track his daily sales.  He used to use Excel, but now has a Mac and uses Apple’s Numbers spreadsheet to track the information.  I started using spreadsheets back when Visicalc came out.  Then onto Appleworks; a DEC Vax spreadsheet; then Lotus 1-2-3; Javelin; and finally Excel as Excel pretty much became the industry standard.  Apple’s spreadsheet doesn’t seem to follow any of the common spreadsheet conventions.  Ok, that’s not true, but it seems Apple had to simply do something different so differentiate their product from standards.  What a mess.  ■■  In adding rows to the spreadsheet and trying to format dates correctly I saw that my hands weren’t steady.  My fingers now have movements of their own.  Just holding up my hands I can see my fingers move – without me moving them.  Just one more thing to add to health issues.  ■  Ok, it’s time for bed.  ‘Night.  ■

Shocking ….. defibrillator went off

Got out of the shower today and toweling off my defibrillator went off.  They told me that if it ever went off I’d know it.  Believe me I knew it.  It was as if someone hit me in the upper chest and the lights flashed.  I hope I don’t go thru that again.  Got an appointment next week to interrogate the device (pacemaker/defribillator) to see what happened.  ■  Other than that I’ve got a drawing I’m working on and I’ve got a heck of a cold.  I haven’t had a cold in years.  ■  Got a doctor’s appointment this afternoon -  not with the cardiologist, but with my GP.  ■

On our way to Louisille

Steve Randahl
www.shrandahl.com
847-769-6285

Sent from my iPhone

Beautiful weather and flowers . . . . .

We’ve been having some beautiful weather for the past few days.  Hope it continues.  ■ This picture is of some of the flowers on our neighbor’s deck.  Very nice.  ■  Abby got a car ride to the bank and then Jewel today.  She loves going to the bank because they always give her dog treats.  Mmmm . .. .  let’s go to the bank.  ■  Off to see the grandchildren this weekend.  Should be a good time.  ■  Got to go and mow the lawn.  ■

Chili Fest, Venice . . . . .

Had another good Chili Fest this year.  It was the 22nd one we’ve had.  Lots of good food, cold beverages, warm friends, and fun music.  ■  Venice – our drummer’s daughter has written a book that let’s you choose your own path thru the story.  I’ve ordered 3 copies from Amazon and she’s going to autograph them for me.  The author’s name is Michelle Novak.  I’m really excited to get the books.  They should arrive tomorrow.  ■  Oh, here’s a link to the book on Amazon:  .http://www.amazon.com/s/ref=nb_sb_noss_2?url=search-alias%3Dstripbooks&field-keywords=Venice+by+Michelle+Novak&rh=n%3A283155%2Ck%3AVenice+by+Michelle+Novak

I’ve got a basement full of musical equipment to organize as well as a garage full the has to go down the basement.  Time to get to work.

Makin’ Chili . . . . . 2015

Yup, makin’ chili .  . . .. Had my son, Aaron, helping me cut multiple tons of meat for the chili.  I think we have a total of approximately 24 lbs of meat.  Only 4 of beef and venison burger – the rest of beef and pork that had to be smoked and cut into  bite-sized pieces.  Believe me, that’s a lot of cutting!  Smoked 20lbs of beef and pork on Friday night.  Took 6 hours to do it.  Had there been some wind it might have taken a little less time.  No wind, but we did have rain and some doosies of lightning.  I was outside grabbing some wood chips to throw on the fire when a lightning bolt struck pretty close – close enough that I actually jumped.  Seemed like it was next door, although I’m sure it was a bit further away.  I thought that I’d get struck, but I still had to get the wood chips on the fire – so I didn’t panic.  I do wonder if my pacemaker kicked in.  ■  Made 2 batches of chili.  Aaron made the 2nd one and it’s gooooood!  I need to adjust the flavors of the first one to match the second.  ■  Zoe and I are in my office having out “quality time” – that’s where she sleeps for awhile and then starts her whining to get a biscuit. Then back to sleep.  ■  Cheryl and Bill are in for Chili Fest – the XXII one.  Bill is making a batch of his chili.  He makes the best.  It’s the one I always shoot to beat.  He’s the master.  ■  So now I’m up in the middle of the night – it’s about 2:00 am, posting to my blog.  I should be sleeping.  What’s the matter with me?  ■  I’m on new heart medication.  Was taking  Carvedilol twice a day – now taking Cartia Xt once a day.  Looking to see if I notice any changes.  So far I don’t.  Is that good, or bad?  Don’t know.  Maybe it’s good ‘cause I’m still standing upright (ok sitting at this moment).  ■  Jac, my across-the-street neighbor, made some great mole from a Rick Bayless recipe.  it’s great!  I’ve got to get the recipe.  ■  The weather looks promising for today – it’s already Saturday.  Hopefully no rain and cooler temperatures – perfect for Chili Fest.  ■  This is the XXII Chili Fest.  22 years of bringing good chili, friends, and cold beverages together in the fall.  Lovin’ it.  ■ 

Fall is coming . . . . .

Yup, fall is coming.  I’ve got one picture of the leaves just starting to turn on one tree just to the northeast of us.  I know  I took a picture.  Let me find it.

Here it is.  The leaves are starting to turn.  I think that tree starts early every year. 

Chili Fest is coming up.  This will be the last one.  I don’t think I have the energy for it anymore.  Someone else has to start throwing the parties.

Tomorrow we’re off to the Cribbage Club get-together.  Should be a lot of fun. 

Zoe is starting to have more physical problems.   Her back legs will splay on the hard floors and then she can’t get up.  Just happened with her coming up the stairs a few minutes ago.  She got her front lets on the first step and her back legs splayed on the wooden floor.  Poor baby.  She’s 16 years old.  Most likely doing better than I’ll be at the same relative age.

Yes, it’s time for bed.  ‘Night.’

ASCII Art . . . . .

Beautiful photo of me.  All put together with ascii characters.  What is/are ascii?  ASCII stands for American Standard Code for Information Interchange – a different code (numeric) for each character, letter, number, etc.  So, my picture is printed out using letters, upper and lower case, numbers, punctuation marks etc.  ■  It was Father’s Day yesterday.  Did steak on the grill, mushrooms and onions, played a bit of lap steel out on the patio.  A nice day.  ■ 

Drawing completed . . . . .

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Completed a drawing yesterday.  The drawing is of my customer’s friend’s home.  The friend is moving away and she thought that a pen and ink drawing of her home would be a great gift.  I think she’s right.  ■  Blackhawks lost tonight.  Bummer.   Time for bed.  ■  Night.