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About this blog

Life is an adventure

Entries in this blog

I'm really back!

It has been very long since I entered a blog, so now is the time.   After 3+ years in a wheelchair or using a walker, I am now on my feet and operating fairly normally, if that is what you call it. My movement started coming back about 4 months ago, and though it was surprising, I feel it was truly from God. What a blessing. I still have a little bit of tendinitis from lack of use over the past several years, my CPS still flares up, a little spasticity in my affected hand and I have had a cou

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General Ramblin'

This last month has been a period of ups and downs. In general, I've been OK, but there seems to be a bit of lethargy creeping into my life. I'm tiring easier again, like right after my stroke. I have my days when I feel great though, and they are good days! Maybe my energy level will get better as summer approaches. I always like sunshine and warmer weather, as most of us do. I noticed last winter I went through the blahs too, so I'm pinning my hope on warmer weather.   I'm still keeping bus

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I'm baack!

Wow, it has been a long time since I've blogged. Well, time flies when you're having fun!   I've been busy with my radio station and my voice talent business. I've been adding new equipment as money allows and upgrading the software. The station is much more stable now, and for that I am very happy. I'm still trying to build clientele for the voice talent business. This is going to take some time, as all new businesses do. I am going to persevere though. When I'm feeling poorly, I can always

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rdittman

Various Ramblin's from a Ramblin' Guy

Well, this is the month I get my first SSDI check. Yea! It has been a long and painful process, but I am starting to breathe easier knowing I'll have some income coming in soon. I have been living on the generosity of my church and friends for several months now, and I'm feeling like I'm a bit of a burden to them. I will be eternally grateful to all that have helped me during this time.   I went to the doctor a few weeks back because my blood pressure was shooting up and I got concerned. I th

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My goings on

My how time flies when you're having fun!   I actually have been fighting with various state and federal agencies for some time now trying to acquire benefits that are due me. I guess if that's supposed to be fun, well then that's what's been occupying my time.   I am now approved to receive SSDI benefits. It only took 10 months. I think at times they like to drag their feet to see if you give up on the process. I have prevailed though. Yea! I had to go to a couple of exams they required;

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It's Well Past Time

My goodness. I haven't updated my blog since the end of May! Time flies when you're having fun, so they say.   I've had my share of up's and down's since my last posting. I'm still struggling with the government over SSDI. It seems the medical portion of my claim is holding things up. I went to a supposed neurological exam this week. It turns out it was really with a rehabilitation specialist who didn't seem too familar with stroke patients. I knew more of the medical terminology than he did.

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Welcome Back Bob

It's only been a gazillion years since I blogged last, but here I am today, feeling pretty good after a bowl of Chili-Chicken Soup. Very tasty, indeed.   I feel I have been neglecting my duties here on StrokeNet the past month. Honestly, I have been very busy with a myriad of things, but I promised myself today that I would make a better effort to be on the boards more, sharing my vast expanse of knowledge. :big_grin:   My radio station has been the most time intensive project recently. I

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rdittman

One year anniversary!

It's been a year since I was admitted to the hospital with a stroke. It now seems so long ago. Time flies when you are having fun, or so they say. It has been a difficult year, no doubt, but one with new challenges to conquer and opportunities to grow. That is what made this last year special. You might say to yourself; special? Yes. In many ways this last year has been special.   First of all, though the stroke is not something I would wish on anyone, it afforded me time to stop and smell th

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The Month Of March

The month of March was particularly difficult for me. I'm not sure why now, but I guess it's all a part of "The Plan."   CPS was the major factor for most of the month. I am finding that flareups occur with changing weather, and there is usually much of that in the spring. Though it kept me aware that I have this issue, I didn't slow down too much from my normal post-stroke life.   Then I started feeling poorly a little over a week ago. I was at church when I realized something happened. I

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Been too long

I haven't blogged in a while, and since we are in the middle of a thunderstorm, and I am stupid enough to have my computer up in the middle of this, I thought it appropriate to blog here right now, being as the lightning bolt is a symbol we use for stroke.   My latest blog was about my Internet radio station, which has been running since the beginning of March. I had so much fun putting it together, but once it has been running, I have put much less time into it. This is what I needed to do t

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Full Court Press

Well, I was pushing to get my Internet radio station up and running before March 1st, and I did it. What a project this has been.   I didn't know that I would have to learn so much. I couldn't spend the money for professional web design, so I learned to code web pages. Then getting it to work with the station was a chore in itself, with too many late nights figuring it out. Since I have previous broadcasting experience, setting up the music within the system wasn't too hard, but the software

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rdittman

Been a while

It's been a couple of weeks since I have blogged. It has been a very busy couple of weeks.   First, I was asked to become a chat host here on StrokeNet, which I have accepted. I host chat now on Wednesday nights (USA time) and am looking forward to the opportunity. Bonnie has been very helpful in getting me acclimated to the process, and though still a bit rusty at this, I am sure all the particulars will come in time. Also, thanks to all the others who got this up and running so quickly; Ste

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A New Adventure

I haven't posted in over a week, so thought I would see what's going on here tonight.   I decided that I need to have something else to keep my mind busy, so I started loading music onto my hard drive and cataloging it, as I did old pictures and slides a few weeks back. While doing so, I wandered the web and stumbled onto something that I thought might be entertaining for a ministry. I have begun making plans to get an Internet webcast going. I was an announcer/DJ for several years; my first

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A Painful Weekend

Since Friday, I've been going through severe bouts of burning pain from my CPS. Rest has been fleeting, and the pain much worse than what has been usual. Today it is somewhat better, however, it never goes away. I find that keeping my mind active on reading, or here on the computer, seems to help some, so here I am.   The standard fare from friends always seems to be that I look good. I usually say to them; "Thank you. I think I look pretty good too." Looking good and feeling good are two dif

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Three in a row!

I hit a personal best for me this week; three good days in a row. From Sunday through Tuesday, I felt pretty good, with energy and zest for life. I decided to get started cleaning up old junk that was taking up space in my apartment. Good that the dumpster is just across the drive; very close for me to navigate to. I was cleaning in the kitchen as well, realizing that my white cabinets really were white, under the dirt and grease that has accumulated on them in the past 9 months.   Wednesday,

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A sun shining winter day!

It was one of those picture perfect, sun shining winter days here today. There was a little crispness to the air, bearable of course, and in the big blue skies, you could see for miles and miles. Heading out for church, I could see the snowcapped Sierras off in the distance; the mountains making beaconing calls to the myriad of skiing enthusiasts who were no doubt on the slopes, or were about to embark on a day of snowy frivolity. I chose the safer route for me, which was fellowship in a slightl

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Old Pictures

I am sitting here, checking out the latest posts, chiming in on some, listening to talk radio and having a cup of coffee. I guess you might call it multi-tasking, but on a fun level.   I find that listening to streaming audio on the web is enjoyable. You get to hear about what is happening in other areas of the country or the world. I am currently listening to radio out of Minneapolis. Living in a somewhat progressive state, California, the program that I am now listening to and the host, are

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My Friend Linda

I have to remember my family and friends care about me, and when they can't reach me, they get worried. I have a friend, Linda, who lives in Minnesota, that got concerned this week when I didn't respond quickly enough to a phone message and an email she sent. Being that I live in California, she just couldn't pop over.   As I mentioned in my previous blog, I kind of took a two day nap after Christmas. My body needed the rest, and so I wasn't online and I turned off my phone. Everybody reache

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After Christmas Letdown

I have a genuine affinity for the Holiday Season. I enjoy the spending of time with friends, the good food and conversation around the table, and the activity and gyrations of children playing with all their new stuff. It is, for me, a truly precious time of year.   This year's festivities were a bit different; my first Christmas post-stroke. I spent part of Christmas day with good friends, had the conversation and tasty food, kids running around like chickens with their heads cut off, and al

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Thankfulness and frustrations

I think I will start with the frustrations first, because if I don't, it will ruin the end of this blog entry. Maybe I should have split this off into two entries; oh well...   I spent most of yesterday trying to figure out why my main email program wasn't working properly. I can connect to my ISP, but accessing my email and my account information generally causes a page display problem, or with Firefox, a timed out error. There is self help from the ISP online, which didn't work, and free em

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My week in a nutshell!

It was a beautiful day here, a little crispness to the air, but lots of sunshine. Days like this, during the winter, always lift my spirits. So today, I was out and about more than I have been in months. I may regret it tomorrow, but I'm living for today at the moment.   I had nothing but computer problems all week. :throw: This was good and bad. I hate having to deal with the frustration of it all, but it kept my mind active, which is a good thing, and to what was wrong with it, and ways

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Social Security

I was kind of dreading today. I had to go to the Social Security office to drop off some paperwork for SSDI. I would have never thought a year ago that I would be doing such a thing, but here I am filing for permanent disability.   I have been on my state disability plan since April this year. It is only good for one year though. I thought that during this time, I would get enough ability back to get back to work. In some ways, I have progressed, but in ways I have regressed too. My doctor s

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The Sunday Chronicles

I woke up feeling pretty good today. I kind of had to rush to get ready for church, and managed to get ready in time for my ride to pick me up. I got a call about 8:15am from Kathleen, my ride, that the power went out at their place overnight, and the alarm didn't go off. They wanted to know if I wanted to go to just the church service. We usually go to a class first and then to service. I said sure, and she said that they would be by to pick me up at 10:20.   So I had some time to kill. I tu

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Friday Ramblin'

Well, today started off strange. I decided to change ISP's due to a bit of a conflict. The main problem was I cancelled my service, before getting the other up and running. So, while it wasn't impossible to change this way, it made things harder. So I got on my desktop to take care of the switch, as it is a bit faster than my laptop.   I haven't used my desktop in a while, so it required a few updates to software and some Windows updates, which all took time. So while updates and downloads w

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Rumplestiltskin

Well, I did it again. I overdid it on Sunday, and it took two days to recover.   I never have been one to sleep much, but a two day nap was definately not something I had ever expected. Sunday was a church day for me. I struggled to get going, but managed to get it together. Getting ready, going, getting lunch afterward, and then home was about an 8 hour time frame. I felt pretty good late Sunday, so I thought it would all be fine.   Was I wrong. I was up and down all night that night, bec

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