Don’t Be Still, This Heart of Mine

I’ve been going back and forth to the VA Hospital(s) for tests for several months now, and I still have at least three more to go. At least I finally know the source of most of my problems now. Turns out I have an enlarged heart chamber. (I don’t know which one.) It accounts for all my symptoms—extreme fatigue at odd times for no apparent reason, chronic cough, shortness of breath, swelling of lower extremities (but not the happy zone dang it!)

 

The treatment is as simple as taking blood pressure medicine and water pills to push out the excess fluid buildup. Unfortunately, the doctor put me on atenolol, a common blood pressure medicine. It normally works pretty well for most people, but it swelled me up even more and I put on 25 pounds in about 6 weeks. My feet looked like something floating over a Thanksgiving day parade. I was swollen all the way up through my thighs it was so bad.

 

So she took me off atenolol and put me on a water pill. I didn’t know this, but not only will a water pill help to eject the fluid build-up from edema, but they also make a pretty good blood pressure pill substitute. They take out excess fluid from around the heart too. I lost the 25 pounds (though not overnight), and my feet look like feet again. I still have some swelling in my legs which you can easily see when I take my socks off. There’s that telltale ring-around-the-ankles look. But overall I’ve been feeling much better.

 

I still get tired some days, but not like I used to. I think a lot of this may be tied into diet. I used to eat a ton of lunchmeat sandwiches and fast foods. I started eating more fresh meat, mostly pork steaks and chops along with baked potatoes, egg beater, oranges, apples, green beans, peas & carrots, and corn. Yes, there are leaner cuts than chops and pork steaks, but I like them, and pork cooks easily in the microwave. This past week I went back to my old lunchmeat and fast food ways and started feeling very tired right away. I mean REAL tired just like before. A lot of it may have to do with all the salt they put in lunchmeats. Well, no more of that.

 

Some of my tiredness may be the result of working too hard also. I can put in a hard day, but then I’m dead for the next two or three. The doctor says that I also cannot exercise strenuously. Absolutely no weight lifting or hard basketball playing until my heart gets back to normal—if it gets back to normal. Even if the enlarged chamber doesn’t shrink all the way down, I may still live to be ninety. However, I may never be able to play sports again. It’s true what the say—it’s hell getting old.

 

The good news is that my eBook formatting business is doing well. I’ve been able to cut down on my other job and sit at home one or two days per week working on books. I hope to do it full-time one day, or something like it. What I should really do is write the great American novel and never work again!

 

I'll leave you with my masterpiece (perhaps one day I'll say it and mean it!), Eleanor Rigby played on acoustic guitar with a Boomerang looper pedal. You can see I had already gained a lot of weight a couple of years ago in this video. My face is like a giant walnut. But I get more response from this video than any other I've ever upload. 229 thumbs up and counting! Perhaps I should don some fat man attire and take my act on the road....

 

When Franco American Was the King of Gravies

I could take it no longer and recently wrote an email to Campbell’s (owners of Franco American)

Dear Sirs, I have enjoyed your many products since I was a little boy in the 1960s. You had one particular gravy back then that was head and shoulders above any other gravy I have ever had. You still carry the Franco American chicken gravy, but it is simply not the same. I talked with my older sister about this the other day and she concurred. It was just an extraordinary gravy you had in the 60s. In the early 70s it changed. I don’t know if something was left out or added or both, but it changed. It was still good, but not AS good as it had once been. And now, sadly, I can seldom find it at all. The few times I’ve run into it at a market, it’s usually the fat-free chicken gravy, and frankly, THAT is inedible it taste so bad. The chicken gravy you had in the 60s was so good we used to crumple up bread in it and eat it like soup! We poured it over mashed potatoes, steaks, even spinach and broccoli wasn’t terrible when it had Franco American chicken gravy on it! There have been a half dozen or so food products that I’ve missed over the years because they’re either no longer made, or not made the same. I have lamented the loss of none of them half so much as your gravy when it was still the king of gravies. Please consider tracking down the recipe from the 1960s and re-establishing this wonderful gravy. I don’t want my children (if I ever have any) to grow-up in a world without the gravy that ruined me for all others. Sincerely, ____(me)

This is coupon circa 1960 for an actual can of the best gravy ever made.

This is how it looks now on the rare occasion that you can find it, but it’s not nearly as good as it used to be.

 

 

While we’re on the subject, here are a couple of other items that just aren’t as good as they used to be. Anyone remember the original Doritos Nacho Cheese from the 1980s?

They were unbelievably good! Now I simply cannot eat them. The Cool Ranch actually taste a little closer to the original Nacho Cheese, but still aren’t as good.

And how about those Pillsbury Blueberry Turnovers are moms taught us to make when we were kids? Man those were delicious! Sadly, Pillsbury quit making the best product they ever had.

And something a little more recent, if you have a Rally’s in your area then you probably know that they had a big drawing card in their Double Mushroom & Swiss Burger.

 

It wasn’t about the mushrooms. Mushrooms don’t really have much taste. It was about the gravy! In fact, they would have probably sold more if they had left out the mushrooms and just called it a gravy burger! Then a couple of years ago they quit making the double and sold only singles. Somehow, they just weren’t the same. Then people quit buying them, so they dropped the Mushroom & Swiss altogether. I have no more reason to go to Rally’s. Yes, Hardees and a couple of others make Mushroom and Swiss burgers, but they don’t have nearly enough gravy to make them enticing. Life is all about the gravy!

Lastly we have good old Lucky Whip! The last, and only great, whip cream ever made! There will never be another whip cream that can hold a candle to Lucky Whip.

Billy Joel Gets a Piano Lesson From a Kid in the Audience

This was great. Joel was giving a concert at Vanderbilt University when some student asks to play a song with him. The kid tears it up on the piano!

Microwave Pork Steaks et al

This is just a short post to say that, once again, you can't believe at least 50% of what people say in this world. I've heard for many years that meat cooked in a microwave would come out rubbery and taste terrible. Today I cooked two pork steaks and two hamburgers. I just laid them on the glass rotating tray with a paper towel over them. I cooked each pork steak for 5-minutes and then turned it over for another 5. (I didn't cook them both at once because they were each huge 1-pounders.) I think I cooked the hamburgers for a little less time. I left the microwave set on high the whole time. I was quite surprised to find that everything came out nice and tender and tasted just as good as if I had put them in the oven. So now you know. You can microwave just about anything. Raw meat is no problem. Don't listen to the naysayers. They probably never even tried it.

Junior Brown (The Jimi Hendrix of Country)

Doing "409" with the Beach Boys Backing Him


"Freeborn Man" (Live)

"Wondering Where the Lions Are" (Live)

Bruce Cockburn - Wondering Where The Lions Are (Live)

The Making Of A Classical Guitar

Here is a very nice video of a classical guitar being handmade in Yamaha's Custom Shop in Japan. Here they make guitars in the $9,000 price range. Absolute top-o-the-line in classical guitars in my opinion. I wish I could do this!