Day 1233

Whenever I bent down to work with the dogs at training class tonight, I felt light-headed when I stood up again. Since feeling faint when standing is a known side effect of two medications I take, I think it might be time to reevaluate my meds. Carvedilol slows down the heart rate and Metformin lowers blood sugar levels. With the radical changes I've made in my diet, I may not need these medications anymore. Getting a doctor to agree with this assessment might be difficult though. Once doctors starting seeing positive results from the pills they prescribe, they are loathe to discontinue them. I wish I could find someone with a comprehensive knowledge of both nutrition and medicine. It would be nice to know with some degree of certainty how diet, exercise, and medicine interact but I have yet to find a doctor who truly respects the opinions of a nutritionist. When you give a medical doctor a list of the medications you take, they don't even know what to do with the herbal supplements. It's frustrating to say the least. I really think the side effects of some of the medications I take are actually mimicking the symptioms of the diseases they are meant to treat.

Unexplained light-headedness wasn't my only frustration today. I was totally confused by my U-verse bill. It was supposed to go down this month, but it actually went up. When I called customer service to see if I could figure out what my bill was actually supposed to be, the customer service representative became equally confused. There are so many weird state and local taxes added to your phone bill every month that I'm not sure anyone knows what's going on. Phone companies continually offer incentives to keep you as a subscriber. Municipalities keep changing the tax rates. And as a result, your bill never seems to be the same. When I finally figured out what was going on, I was disappointed. Although my bill was higher than I thought it would be, it was lower than it could have been. Phone and Internet bills are kind of like the national deficit. They always keep going up.

One of the articles I wrote today was about the possibility of an Internet sales tax. I'd hate to see this happen, but it probably will. One of the main reasons I buy so much stuff online now is to avoid the sales tax. States and municipalities are hungry for additional revenue though and they see online retailers as a good place to find it. An Internet sales tax is coming, so if you've got your heart set on a new camera or computer, you'd better buy it now.

Dot was really peppy today. I'd like to think her surprising burst of energy was the result of her new heartworm medication. It's probably too early to tell though, since the dogs just got their monthly heartworm pills this morning. I'll hope for the best though, just like I do with my own condition.

Betsy is today's Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day

Day 1138

I went to see a nutritionist today. I've got to get beyond feeling good about myself for having a nutritious Kale salad one day and then going out and having a humongous bacon and chorizo omelet the next day. Consistency and discipline have never been my strong points. I need to clean up my act though. The team of hepatologists I saw earlier this week has put the fear of god in me. I definitely don't want to wind up on a transplant list.

It's too bad that eating unsalted nuts and fresh fruit isn't as appealing to me as a cheeseburger and a beer. Some people I know love to eat raw, unprocessed foods. Personally, I'd much rather have a pizza, or barbecued ribs. I have a feeling that those days are gone though. I'm going to have to learn to love something new.

This is the longest string of foggy days I can remember. One foggy day is a photo opportunity. A whole week of foggy days is just lousy weather. Although I have professed my love of fog many times on this blog, I'll have to admit I'm getting tired of it this week. I'm ready for a little sunshine.

I keep hearing on the news that stores are going to start adding and additional 4% to your bill for credit card transactions starting tomorrow. That sucks. I hate carrying cash around and use credit cards for virtually everything. I wonder if stores will actually try to pass on their transaction charges to customers, now that they're allowed to by law. It could go either way. Competition could keep prices the way are are currently. Or, the stores might get together just like the airlines have and try to stick their customers with every additional charge they can get away with.

I can't find anything on TV tonight. Sometimes I wonder why I even bothered to get U-Verse. There are dozens of channels filled with dumb shows like Storage Wars and Duck Dynasty. There's absolutely nothing that I want to watch though. You'd think with 500 channels, there would be at least five good ones. I find myself still watching old Seinfeld episodes because the new shows are so terrible. Sometimes I just stare at the NASA channel, watching astronauts floating around in the space station. It's not very dramatic, but at least it's not irritating.

Jazz is today's Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day