I decided to go back to the McLeod county fair today. The White Sidewalls were performing at 4:00 PM. I guess they close out every McLeod county fair. I forgot about the fair having a demolition derby at the same time, so I ended up parking about a half mile away in the back lot. I left a little after 5:00 PM and got some groceries. I wasn't far out of town when it started raining. I thought, at least I'm not walking the half mile to my car in the rain. I finely get home, and carry my groceries to the house in a slight mist. I empty the bag and decide to take the bag to the car and retrieve my water bottle. I open the house door and it is pouring outside.
Michelle
 

I am glad you were able to go to the fair.

Chrissy

I might have said this before. Being hearing impaired and analyzing my situation, I came to the conclusion that I would be better off with a higher quality sound system. A higher quality would give me a better chance of hearing the proper sounds. Thus I have a short sound bar under my computer monitor. At my tv I have a longer sound bar although it is still 3 channel (left, right, and center).

For the tv, the same thoughts apply to vision. A poor quality video becomes even poorer with cataracts. The cataracts have since been removed. The decision was helped along by accidentally buying a 4K video, and discovering I needed to buy a 4K player to view it. I don't recall if it refused to play unless I had the 4K tv. I ordered the smallest 4K tv that I could find, and it seems to be the proper size for playing video games.

I've got most of everything else for the autism written up and printed out. Now I'm working on hearing. Before, I would miss certain frequencies while listening to loud music, and then other frequencies would seem to spike causing distress. While listening to the White Sidewalls play, I seemed to be hearing more but at a comfortable level. Granted, I was 50 feet from where they were playing, But I kind of wondered if my hearing aids adjusted the sound level.
Michelle

Got an email from medicare. It was telling me I need to do less sitting and more exercise to lower my blood pressure. And then went on to tell me I should eat more lean chicken. I read this and I'm still feeling a little damp on my arms from just doing 10 miles on my exercise bike. Saying I need to get my blood pressure down to 120 is an insult to me, Part of the drinking more water is to raise my blood pressure from being too low.

Assuming that just because I am a senior citizen, I have a bag full of medications and am in poor health is wrong for me. Within the past five years, the only prescription I have gotten are the pain killers for my surgeries and the antibiotics to go with them. My only medication now is my flax seed oil for the omega 3. My blood tests, except for my LDL at 137, are all in the normal range. Quite likely my recent test will show my LDL back down in the normal range.

The email kind of upset me so that I forgot what I was going to originally write.
Michelle

Don't let it get to you, Michelle. It's likely that millions of people got that same email. No thought or effort were put into targeting it to people who needed to hear it. It's no different from any other spam email.

I did some direct access testing on Monday. The results were back today. I wanted to do testosterone and free testosterone. I got confused by free T4, which is thyroid. At least I know there is no problem with my thyroid. However, my testosterone is at 262, which is definitely below normal for a male. With all the water I'm drinking, I am getting up every couple hours to urinate, but that should not have that much effect on it.

Estrogen testing is not available with the direct access testing, so I am unable to find out how much testosterone is being converted to estrogen.

Just did some checking, that level of testosterone is normal for a male my age.
Michelle

I'm in the process of scanning more medical records into my old laptop. The direct access testing does not get put into MyChart. This way I am not shuffling through a pile of papers to find my test results from a couple years ago. I just need to find the right folder, and scan through the file names to find what I am looking for.

I did a direct access testing Of my PSA,Lipid panel, and comprehensive metabolic panel just a few day before my bladder stone surgery. The results were not in MyChart, so I took the sheets with me the day of the surgery. Without looking at my sheets, they seemed to know what my results were. I'm now thinking that the results were put into my medical records, just not into MyChart.
Michelle

Hi, Michelle.

A couple of weeks ago, you mentioned your home electrolysis:

Quote from: Michelle_K on August 08, 2025, 02:48:12 PMToday I would just have to be a woman with facial hair. I was letting it grow out for my home electrolysis. I was mainly getting black hairs yesterday. What left is mainly light colored fine hairs, mostly under my chin. I don't think anybody noticed that I have facial hair. Another day to do some electrolysis. Using the magnifying mirror, with the light just above, I will do a few, then turn off the light and rest my eyes.

I'm very interested in pursuing home electrolysis, but it's turning out to more difficult than I expected to find reliable sources of information for legitimate devices. It sounds like you've found something that works for you. Would you be willing to share some of the details?

Here are a few questions I have - if you're willing:

• What brand and model do you have?
• You're using it on your beard, right? Is it permanently removing the whiskers?
• How easy or difficult is it for you to use?
• What do you dislike about it?
• Do you recommend it, or is there a different one you wish you'd gotten instead?

Thank you for any additional information you can provide.

Pema

I'm not going to recommend any home electrolysis. My first one was bought 20 years ago. Doing facial hair is painful especially under the nose. I don't use any pain killers or cream. The pain will come from burning the root. I've had to open up my probe many times to reattach a broken wire. The tip has been modified to allow the needle to get to the proper depth. Then there is rubbing the skin to get my pores to open enough for the needle. There is also a dial to regulate the current. And guessing how long to keep the needle in.

If you are still interested, find a website and forum that will give instruction on how to do electrolysis.
Michelle

I think the autism makes me a bit different. I wondered why I didn't get hungry. I kind of watch the clock to know when to eat. I don't get cravings for between meal snacks. I can eat only 1 cookie from the box and then wait for the next day to eat another. I'm using my daily food diary for two reasons. one is to make sure I eat enough, the other to make sure I don't eat too much.

When I broke both my wrists, to rest while driving, I would stop at McDonald's. I did end up adding about 20 pounds to my weight. That's when I got my exercise bike and in a couple of months was back down to 170 pounds.

Today my scale showed 143 pounds. I'm thinking I need to increase my calories to stop my weight loss. At the moment I have loose skin around my belly, the skin that did not shrink with the fat loss. At times I wonder how feminine am I. I wonder if I do have the smaller internal organs of a female, allowing me to get more of an hourglass figure.

I'm back to riding my exercise bike, this time I plan to ride right after lunch to burn off the carbs I had for lunch. I think it has been long enough and my weight restriction is off. I checked the weight of my barbell. Being it is a solid bar, it weighs about 15 pounds without the weight discs.
Michelle

Quote from: Michelle_K on August 23, 2025, 07:52:53 PMI plan to ride right after lunch to burn off the carbs I had for lunch.

Give your gut time to digest before you work on burning it off. The stomach empties about every 30 minutes, then digestion starts as it enters the intestines. I would wait an hour or so before exercising. You may have lost some weight due to recovering from surgery. If you are healed up enough, the exercise will be good for you.

Quote from: Michelle_K on August 23, 2025, 07:52:53 PMWhen I broke both my wrists, to rest while driving, I would stop at McDonald's.

Hey Michelle,

How are those wrists doing?

I'm guessing better cause you haven't mentioned them in a little while. 


~ Lilis 🌷

I finally remembered what I was going to write a few days ago. I was considering putting my unit crest on my shirt, wearing as a pin, or using it as a lapel pin.



In the upper left corner is a dragoon. I'm not going to tell the history of the crest.
Michelle

One reason to use the exercise bike after lunch is so I don't forget to ride my exercise bike. I eat my desert mid meal, plus after the meal I take my dishes to the sink. I'm guessing that it is 15 minutes between eating the carbs and starting to ride the exercise bike. It takes me 40 minutes to do the 10 mile ride, so I'm already burning glucose by the time the carbs are converted, avoiding a glucose spike.

Riding the exercise bike, I thought about the bike underwear with the padding to avoid getting a sore rear. I began wondering if that would help while sitting on the wooden bench at the county fair. Probably not enough padding to even be noticed under a skirt.
Michelle

Quote from: Michelle_K on August 24, 2025, 12:34:01 PMI finally remembered what I was going to write a few days ago. I was considering putting my unit crest on my shirt, wearing as a pin, or using it as a lapel pin.



In the upper left corner is a dragoon. I'm not going to tell the history of the crest.
Michelle

Go, Redlegs! 

https://www.fieldartillery.org/the-story-of-the-redleg

I mentioned that I got my home electrolysis set about 20 years ago. The first couple I had bought were just junk. I didn't have much facial hair, and started with a tweezers, pulling every hair out. I probably spent about an hour daily doing that. I didn't know of any place that would do the electrolysis, and likely would need to drive at least 75 miles to get to someplace that did it.

My idea back then was to do my own removal, and maybe get a professional to do the sides around my ears that I couldn't get to. Having a physically abusive mother, getting my hair yanked for not being still enough while she cut my hair, I don't know if I can have trust enough to allow someone else to do my electrolysis.

My mother proved that she didn't care if I was 50 years old, she showed her displeasure by smacking me across the cheek, when I was wearing a woman's ring. She never said a word. Not wanting to risk getting my face slapped again, everything got put away, and I went back to male mode. I think what made it worse was there was somebody else there that witnessed the whole thing.

It was after I had moved off the family farm, and my mother had died, that I again started to use the tweezers on my facial hair. I do have problems with the weather. On a cool day, like today, I can't get the pores to open to use my home electrolysis. On warm days, with it warm enough in the room for me to need to remove my shirt, then my pores will open.
Michelle

Quote from: Michelle_K on Yesterday at 11:55:06 AMOn a cool day, like today, I can't get the pores to open to use my home electrolysis. On warm days, with it warm enough in the room for me to need to remove my shirt, then my pores will open.

In the movies, the guys in the barber shop get a hot, wet towel wrapped around their faces in preparation for a shave. That opens the pores and moisturizes the skin. Don't make your whole body uncomfortable to work on your face. 

Just now saw the quote. "When as a child, I thought as a child. When I became a man, I put away childish things."

The guy that quoted it to me then said that means child abuse no longer affects you as an adult. Get over it.
I should have told him, my mother still abuses me.
Michelle

Quote from: Michelle_K on Yesterday at 04:55:00 PMI should have told him, my mother still abuses me.

And we still enjoy playing with toys.

"The only difference between men and boys is the price of their toys." (Women and Girls too!)

Health tip as seen on 2 different TV shows, How to live longer and Healthy eating. Blueberries help your blood supply opening up the veins and arteries helping with improved blood flow to the brain . Tests show up to 10% memory improvement and better reaction times after 1 hr .