Tuesday, July 13, 2010

Mid-Summer Night's Blog

Can summer be halfway over already? Seems so by the calendar. I haven't even dabbled in the usual summer activities---no swimming, no hiking, no weekends at the cabin up north, no canoeing. I need to get going.

My wife and I do have tickets to the Ypsilanti summer beer festival in a week. I think that counts for something.

Save the Earth. It's the only planet with beer.

And tonight we did see one of the summer's hit movies, Despicable Me. I thought it clever enough but there was no reason for Wendy to shed a tear or two at the end. It wasn't that kind of movie.

Tomorrow I go to the doctor again as he wants to discuss the results of my lab tests back in May. When I informed my boss of this, I told him maybe the doc wants to congratulate me on how well I'm doing.

"Right, Dave," my supervisor replied, with more than a hint of sarcasm.

Well, I did do fine on my EKG stress test I took a week ago. I took a peek at the results and the report predicted that I had a 96 percent chance of living another five years. Woo-hoo!

I think. Hmmmm, are those good odds? So I have a 1 in 25 chance of not making it five years. Just for fun(?), I Googled odds of 1 in 25. Here's some results I found:

--a Presbyterian's chance of finding and marrying another Presbyterian.
--a person over 70 will have Glaucoma.
--the chances that authorities will remove a child, at least temporarily, from the custody of his/her parents in this county.
--historically, the chances of an astronaut or cosmonaut dying while in space.

Hmmmmph. Still not sure what kind of odds we're talking about. Well, it's not worth worrying about. Everyone should live life like they have a one in twenty five chance, or worse, of not being around in five years.

Today, I took a small step towards making a small mark in the world, even if it is just the internet world. I successfully uploaded a home movie clip to YouTube. I'd publish it here to prove it but I have to be discreet. My family members aren't always happy about my blogging about them. Can you imagine how they'd react if I published home movies here too?

12 Comments:

Blogger Lynilu said...

Well, you've reminded me that I haven't going to the wilderness this summer for my gentle hikes. I gotta get crackin', too! I've been so busy with my yard that I honestly haven't thought of it, but next week my son and his family will be here and that's a great activity for us to do.

7:48 PM  
Blogger CiCi said...

We haven't been to a movie in about a year. There just are not many movies we would be interested in. I will check out Despicable Me online. I will be interested in hearing how your doctor meeting goes. If I have a 25% chance to live another 5 years, I still would take it one day at a time and keep working on being a better person just like now. I am a lot older than you are so at this point in my life I am grateful for getting here and learning so much along the way. It is funny that you say you put some movies on YouTube which gets more viewing than our blogs do. Take care, Dave, let us know how you are doing.

4:24 AM  
Blogger Big Dave T said...

LYNILU--I think you hit on a reason there why we, or at least I, don't get to participate in some of these summer activities. Too many family obligations--birthdays, picnics, graduations, barbecues, etc.

TECHNOBABE--Please, just for the record, it's a one in 25 chance of not making it five years. So I have a 96 percent chance of survival, not 25 percent.

My tests all came out okay, some better than others. Of course, as usual, his prescription for a more clean bill of health was to lose some weight. Like I haven't heard that one before.

9:31 AM  
Blogger Carine-what's cooking? said...

a movie? wow! we've seen 2-free of charge, thanks to a newspaper promotion. we were supposed to go to see the socerer's apprentice on Monday-again, free. but pet parenthood came first.

talk about doctors-our vet helped us with a bad, bad, illness w/ Sunshine-our old lab. Poor dear is really sick.

so it's not just us in a muddle over our health-you can read all about it on Friday.

Here's hoping your tests are leaning more toward being fantastic than towards the sarcastic!

11:44 AM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

"I successfully uploaded a home movie clip to YouTube"......Oh S*&T!

11:54 AM  
Blogger Big Dave T said...

CARINE--Movies are expensive, aren't they. You're so lucky to be able to go free. We went on discount Tuesday and still paid $6.25 each. Normal price is $9.50 a ticket. And everything is in 3d now which costs $2.50 a ticket more (we went to the 2D version of Despicable Me).

ANONYMOUS--I'm thinking that those old family skits might be entertaining. Not the one with Dr. Moody and me singing though.

3:49 AM  
Blogger CAROLDEE said...

Glad to know you are gonna be around a long time Dave.. hehehhe
playing with the cat here..
Yes indeed when July ends we have a month or so to go and back to the cold.. YUCKO... Dang home movies and we are banned.. RATS!
I can sympathasize though.. I sure wouldn't want my mug posted to youtube..yikes! Have a nice weekend
:)

6:00 AM  
Blogger Merle said...

Hi Dave ~~ I do hope you get a good report from your Dr. and I hope you will be well and with us for many many more years. I am so sorry that your wife has difficulty walking and
hope the swimming therapy helps.
Has she tried Joint Flex cream, a friend suggested to me and said it's a miracle. Worth a try. Glad you liked the story of Lucky. Better than your in-laws dog who chews things up. Take good care, my friend, Stay well, Regards,
Merle.

12:58 AM  
Blogger Big Dave T said...

CAROLDEE--We need to get my cat and your dog together and see what happens. I don't like my mug on YouTube either, but if nobody knows it's me . . .

MERLE--That Joint Flex cream is available at our local Meijer's. I get some for the missus. Thanks.

10:50 AM  
Blogger CAROLDEE said...

Dave did you see that Kris left an update awhile back on BOB's blog page? As of 4 months ago Trucker Bob is still around although sick.
I always wondered about him. :)

10:31 AM  
Anonymous betty said...

I would think that a Presbyterian would have an excellent chance of finding and marrying another one. Don't they often meet in church, for heaven's sake?? Yet removing a child from custody seems rare in my experience. I'm baffled.

Sounds like a good title for your next book: "Everyone Should Live Life Like They Have One in Twenty-five Chance of not being Around in Five Years." Then you can use your blog posts as chapters, eh?

Hugs,
Betty

6:39 AM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

gonna steal your quote: Save the Earth. It's the only planet with beer.--dawn, came thru carine's blog

12:57 PM  

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