Chuck's Ruminations: There Must Be a Better Way

What an action packed few days.

I missed posting on Valentine and Presidents' Day but saw that Steve the Cat left you a Facebook greeting last Friday.

No candy, flowers, or fancy meal for me and Wanda. We went to Costco for new glasses. She ordered sunglasses and me? I will soon be wearing a pair of Converse (and I thought they only made shoes) plastic round blue frames with bi-focal, Transition, anti glare lenses for under $200.00.

And isn't that a great deal.

They were $199.97

As a money saver Bob suggested using my current frames and getting new nose pads or just new lenses in an older pair of plastic frames but for once in my life I wanted to buy glasses first and look at price second.

The first thing I checked was the price of the frame.

Old habits die hard.

She said. "I beat her."

He heard. Gardinia

She said. "I should strip the bed."

He heard. I should take some Sudafed.

She said. "William Powell."

He heard. What a bowel.

I was born and raised in Detroit so I know what kind of weather the months of February and March can bring to the Midwest. It seems like the cold and snow will never lift.

I feel for all of you dealing with the grey, depressing bone chilling environment.

Yes, we need the rain but I have to say this, we had a beautiful four day week end. The sun was shinning, the sky was blue and the temps were in the 70's. Wanda and I took full advantage of the gorgeous weather and accomplished a lot of work in our yard.

I stayed away from the computer.

I truly felt disconnected.

I like the idea of being in touch with friends.

Markets have price stickers with a per unit breakdown so math challenged people like me can decide what to buy but sometimes these helpful hints are missing.

Last week we went to Safeway and I had to contend with ounces and liters and grams and pints.

All I wanted was a container of $5 Friday blueberries.

I know 28.5 is an ounce but 510 grams is too much for me to try and compute before several cups of coffee. I just realized, several days after the fact, I can use the calculator on the phone, that is, when I remember to put the damn thing in my pocket. As many of you know, I have enough trouble trying to remember to zip my fly when I leave the house.

Is it too much to ask for uniform packaging?

Or I could just learn the fucking metric system.

They tried to teach it when I was a kid. I can't remember who gave up first. I did learn some metric when I was in nursing school, mostly liters and cc's.

"Give Mrs. Fishstairus a liter of lactated ringer's," the doc would say.

People often confuse normal saline with lactated ringer's. Both are hydrating fluids but in addition to salt water, ringer's contains electrolytes, like potassium and calcium.

Ringer's saline solution was invented by Sydney Ringer, a British physiologist who was born in 1835 in Norwich, England and died October 14, 1910, in Lastingham, Yorkshire, England.

The solution was further modified by Alexis Hartmann, for the purpose of treating acidosis in children. Hartmann modified the solution by adding lactate, which while undergoing reactions in Liver, kidney and muscle cells to either produce glucose or be metabolized to water and carbon dioxide, consumes H+ ions thus acting as a base.

Good stuff and a life saver to be sure.

When I heard lactated Ringer's I always thought of a group of tired breast feeding women.

CC: A unit of volume equal to one thousandth (10-3) of a liter or to one milliliter.

As of 2011 the United States, Burma and Liberia used units of measure other than metric.

The rest of the WORLD uses it which may be one of reasons it is referred to as a system.

It may be time to board that train.

I love and often use the word conundrum. I was recently challenged with one.

I was day dreaming while gazing out the front window when I saw the people across the street arrive home. They pulled into the drive and when their daughter got out of the car she appeared to drop a folder. I thought I should run to the door and yell at her but I didn't want to seem like a creepy, nosy neighbor.

I can't hear the words on the television six feet in front of me but if a grade school kid squeals while getting off his or her school bus a city block away it sets my teeth on edge.

When you were growing up did you have a crazy old witch lady on your block? One who would chase you away from the front of her house or glare out a window at you?

I think I may be turning into her.

It seems I have the perpetual condition of always feeling cold. So I drink more hot beverages and pee twenty times a day. I'm now at the point where I'll stop and deposit donations in public toilets just because I pass one. I'm very fond of the Costco bathrooms.

When is the last time, if ever, you took a bath, or for that matter, a rest in a public room when you go to wash your hands of eliminate bodily waste?

And if I don't know where they are I still politely ask for The Bathroom or The Restroom.

From now on I am going to ask for The Washroom, The Toilet, The Lav or The Loo.

And what is with these cans?