June: Men's Health Month

June 1, 2025, is the start of Men's Health Awareness Month. This includes men's physical, mental, and emotional health.

May 31, 2025, at home

Men's Health Video

I created and uploaded a video onto my YouTube channel. (length 9'18")

May 31, 2025, at home

June: Men's Health Awareness Month (May 31, 2025)

June is Men's Health Awareness Month. This includes men's physical, mental, and emotional health.

https://youtu.be/G8ew3HYKcQA?si=datW8GGhwbrEc9f6

Wolf, Not Donkey

May 31, 2025, at home

0/100

May 31, 2025, at home

I do like macaroons, especially with chocolate on their bottoms.

May 31, 2025, at home

Please do this every day, especially in text messages and emails. Long ago, one of my teachers told his class: If you are going to protest, first know how to speak English. If you don't, no one will take you seriously.

May 31, 2025, at home

Yanks !!!

I'm listening to the New York Yankees playing the Los Angeles Dodgers in Los Angeles, California, at my home in southeastern Florida on a radio station from Albuquerque, New Mexico.

12:56 a.m., May 31, 2025, at home

R.I.P. Loretta Swit (November 4, 1937 – May 30, 2025)

May 30, 2025, at home

Ejection Fraction

At 2 p.m. (Eastern Time, U.S.) today (May 30, 2025), I have an appointment with my physician's assistant at my cardiologist's office for the results of my recent echocardiogram to determine the Ejection Fraction of my heart. A recent stress test determined my current Ejection Fraction to be 34.

"Ejection Fraction (EF) is a percentage that measures how much blood the left ventricle pumps out with each heartbeat. It's a key diagnostic tool in cardiology, used to assess heart function and remodeling. A normal EF is between 55–70%, and an EF below 50% can indicate a problem. EF below 35% significantly increases the risk of sudden cardiac arrest (SCA). EF can be affected by heart attacks, heart failure, or valve problems." - from Google

Many sources state that less than 40% is dangerous.

I have been dealing with Congestive Heart Failure (a low EF) for several years. If I can NOT get my EF into the normal range with the many heart medications I have been taking, I will need surgery to install a defibrillator.

In March 2022, I had Quadruple Coronary Artery Bypass Surgery, followed by two related chest surgeries in May 2022. My EF was 33 before the surgery. After my open-heart surgery, it was 37. My recent high was 43, but it since has dropped to 34, as per my recent stress test. I hope today's echocardiogram results will bring good news. I will let you know later.

I had two spine surgeries in 2023 (September and October) and one right-ankle surgery in 2024 (April), so that may have affected my EF level.

UPDATE: In regard to the results of my recent echocardiogram, my Ejection Fraction (EF) is 35 to 40. My recent stress test, which was slightly before this echocardiogram, showed my EF at 34. I was happy until my physician's assistant at my cardiologist's office told me that the result of my echocardiogram from last year (2024) had my EF at 55. She also mentioned that my heart looks mostly good, except for a very slight blockage; scar tissue; and a tiny leak. The Bottom Line: She increased the dosage of my blood pressure medication and one of my heart medications. My next appointment is in about four months.

Mint & Flowers

I have never had a Mint Julep. I don't think I would like it because I dislike the Mojito. I don't like coupling lime and mint.

May 30, 2025, at home

Chicken & Clips

Translation from French: chicken with wine ... I have eaten this before. It was OK.

May 29, 2025, at home

Good News !!!

GOOD NEWS !!!

May 28, 2025, at home

Today Is ...

How do you like your burgers?

I like medium-rare hamburgers with:
1. cheese (Swiss, Provolone or Blue) with mayonnaise and ketchup
2. a fried egg and ketchup (no mayo)
3. only peanut butter

*NEVER with lettuce, raw tomatoes, raw onions*
*sometimes with pickles*

May 28, 2025, at home

My dad called flip flops "go-aheads" because it is difficult to walk backwards while wearing them.

May 28, 2025, at home

R.I.P. Rick Derringer

R.I.P. Rick Derringer: born Richard Dean Zehringer (August 5, 1947 – May 26, 2025)

Today Is ...

May 27, 2025, at home

Who Won in 2020?

Did Trump really lose in 2020?

May 27, 2025, at home

R.I.P. Charlie

R.I.P. Charlie Rangel (June 11, 1930 – May 26, 2025) ... I was never a fan of his, but he did what he thought was best.

May 26, 2025, at home

Blueberry Cake & Planes

While I am not all that fond of cheesecake, I do like blueberries.

May 26, 2025, at home

F1 Rorschach Test

For fun, I looked at all 24 circuits of the 2025 season and did sort of an F1 Rorschach Test:

Australia looks like a crawling baby. China looks like a skier. Japan looks like a pruning saw. Bahrain looks like a bird flexing its wing. Saudi Arabia looks like a butter knife. Miami looks like an alligator. Emilia-Romagna looks like a dolphin. Monaco looks like a moray eel. Spain looks like a bodybuilder. Canada looks like a parrot. Austria looks like a whale. Great Britain looks like an elephant. Belgium looks like a flying pelican. Hungary looks like a sleigh. Netherlands looks like a duck. Italy looks like a shoe. Azerbaijan looks like a key. Singapore looks like a mermaid. United States looks like a hatchet. Mexico looks like a snowmobile. Brazil looks like a seal in a cave. Las Vegas looks like a pig or a sitting dog. Qatar looks like a dancing ghost. Abu Dhabi looks like a machine gun.

May 25, 2025, at home

Happy Birthday To Pops

I am remembering and honoring my paternal grandfather ("Pops") today (May 25, 2025) on his birthday. He passed away in 1983, close to his 82nd birthday. 

On his birthday in 2020, I decided to search online, using his name and where he lived, to see if there was anything about him that I could find. I am still shocked by what I found, which I purchased back in 2020.

Someone on eBay was selling a matchbook (without matches) from the 1940s from the Texaco service station that Pops owned and operated from the 1940s until the late 1970s on Wellwood Avenue in Lindenhurst, Long Island, New York. My father had a bicycle repair business there when he was in his early teens.

Pops emigrated from Porto, Portugal, to the United States when he was a teenager. He was a construction worker who helped build many of the highways on Long Island. He was also in the Merchant Marines. I think it may have been before his construction work.

In the 1950s, Pops established a real estate and house appraisal business. I remember going on appraisals with him in the 1960s as his "helper" when my age was in single digits.

It's nice to have this Texaco memory and my many mental memories of Pops.

PHOTOS: 

1. the Texaco matchbook

2. his Texaco station and his real estate office right next to it on Memorial Day in 1959, which was 66 years ago today.

3rd of 3 Surgeries in 2022

May 25, 2025, at home

Third Anniversary of My Third of Three Heart-Related Surgeries in 2022

PHOTO: my chest four days after my third of three heart-related surgeries in 2022 on May 29, 2022

To see the photo below, just click/tap on the photo, then on "Learn more," then on "See photo," then on the photo, and you will be able to see it. If it doesn't work on the first try, it will on the second try.

1st Surgery (March 9, 2022): I had quadruple coronary artery bypass surgery. As usual, a section of a vein in my left thigh was removed to be used in my open-heart surgery. I had two drains installed in my belly. When I arrived home from the hospital, I engaged in physical therapy and occupational therapy (at home), followed by cardiac rehabilitation at a nearby facility.

2nd Surgery (May 19, 2022): A second surgeon removed the sternal plates from the first surgery that were holding my broken breastbone pieces together from within my chest. The screws became loose. He also cleaned out much of a staph infection also from within my chest. A wound vacuum was then attached to my chest, sucking out the remaining infection and discharge, running 24 hours per day. My chest remained open for a week with the wound vacuum constantly sucking.

3rd Surgery (May 25, 2022): A third surgeon closed my chest by attaching seven sutures, leaving me with eight holes in my body from my lower neck to my upper belly. The wound vacuum was reattached and continued to suck on my chest for many more weeks. The vacuum also served to pull the wounds together to increase the speed of my healing process.

I entered the emergency room of the hospital on May 13, 2022, with severe chest pain, and I would not return home until July 21, 2022, the day before my wife's birthday. I spent a total of seventy (70) days in the hospital and at a physical rehabilitation facility, the latter of which I entered on June 3, 2022.

I am currently dealing with continuing Congestive Heart Failure, which I am addressing with prescription medications. If this doesn't help me much, I may require surgery to install a defibrillator.

During the next two years, I would then have three more unrelated surgeries. I had two surgeries done on my spine: one to clean out an infected disk (September 2023), and one to attach a titanium metal rod to my spine that was "collapsing" due to a bone infection, as per my surgeon (October 2023). In April 2024, I had surgery on my right ankle due to a bone infection.

Today Is ...

I celebrate being a nerd, not a geek. Actually, Google has the exact same definition for geek and nerd, so I guess I am both: "a person who is extremely enthusiastic and knowledgeable about a particular subject, especially one of specialist or niche interest." I always thought nerds were smarter than geeks. I guess my particular subjects are Austrian pop music, men's rights activism, and chemistry. When I was in high school in the late 1970s, the girls hated nerds. These days, so I have been told, nerds are fashionable. (I have always been in the right place at the wrong time.)

May 25, 2025, at home

When I was very young, I used to take my lunch to school in a metal lunch box. I remember a barn box with a silo container for my drink. As I got a bit older, still young, I switched to a brown bag just as my classmates did. I don't remember any other metal box.

May 25, 2025, at home

I prefer Austrian (not Australian) white wine and Italian red wine, specifically Chianti Classico.

May 25, 2025, at home

Monaco Grand Prix

I am watching live coverage of the eighth race of the 2025 Formula 1 racing season on May 25, 2025. The Monaco Grand Prix is being broadcast on a feed from ESPN2 from a feed from Sky Sports F1. The 78-lap race started at 3 p.m. local time (9 a.m. Eastern Time in the United States).

(UPDATE: ESPN2 has kids calling the race, while ABC TV has the regular adult announcers announcing. I switched from the kids to the adults at lap 5. It's good that they are making an attempt to attract young kids to F1.)

Below is a diagram of the Circuit de Monaco (capacity: 37,000) is a street circuit laid out on the city streets of Monte Carlo and La Condamine around the harbour of the Principality of Monaco. While this race is typically the most boring race of the season, it is quite famous. The lanes are so narrow that overtaking is incredibly difficult. The Monaco Grand Prix was a race during F1's first season in 1950.

(UPDATE: In an attempt to make this race less boring, this is the first season that two pit stops are mandatory for this race.)

Each circuit (track) around the world has a different configuration, therefore a different dynamic, regarding turns and elevation fluctuations.

This season's 24-race schedule is as follows: Australia, China, Japan, Bahrain, Saudi Arabia, Miami (U.S.), Italy, Monaco, Spain, Canada, Austria, Great Britain, Belgium, Hungary, The Netherlands, Italy (different circuit), Azerbaijan, Singapore, Austin (U.S.), Mexico, Brazil, Las Vegas (U.S.), Qatar, and Abu Dhabi. 

Before each race, there are two or three days of practice/qualifying. The races run every week or every other week from March into December, with a month-long summer break.

In Formula 1 racing, there are 20 (male) drivers, with ZERO drivers from the United States.

There are 10 teams (with two drivers on each team), so not only do drivers compete against their rivals, but they also compete against their teammates. There are two championships: one for the drivers and one for the constructor teams.

The 10 constructors are Alpine, Aston Martin, Ferrari, Haas, Kick Sauber, McClaren, Mercedes, Racing Bulls, Red Bull Racing, and Williams.

This season, as with last season, there are three races in the United States. In fairly recent years, there were no drivers from the United States and no races in the United States.

Formula 1 racing is the only sport that I actively follow. I have been a fan for decades. I watched my first F1 race decades ago on television at the home of one of my many Austrian cousins while on vacation in Austria.

Truth

May 24, 2025, at home

Just The Facts

May 24, 2025, at home

Today Is ...

I was quite close to moving to Wyoming from Florida many years ago, well, after 1998 when I first moved to Florida. I had a telephone interview several hours long for a job as a top editor for a chain of newspapers. I didn't get the job because I screwed up the answer to one question. I am sure that's what knocked me out of contention. The interviewer asked me what makes me laugh. My answer was "hypocritical people." Wrong answer. She seemed horrified by my answer. I then tried to salvage this mishap by frantically saying "The Simpsons, The Simpsons," but it was too late. LOL ... I am happy that I didn't get this job because it would have meant leaving my then-girlfriend and future wife. (funny, but true)

May 24, 2025, at home

I have a stepsister, but no brothers ... except ... for ... my fraternity brothers. Here's a tribute to the brothers of the Gamma Zeta chapter (Villanova University) of Alpha Phi Delta fraternity. ... love you guys !!!

May 24, 2025, at home

I never liked escargot. I only tried it once. When I was very young at restaurants with my parents in the 1960s and 1970s, Dad would order escargot, and Mom and I would enjoy eating bread dipped in the garlic sauce.

May 24, 2025, at home

I never ate it, but I would like to try it.

May 24, 2025, at home

I hope there isn't any DEI hiring in this profession like there is with pilots.

May 24, 2025, at home

Never Give Up

Between women and job searches, I have been rejected at least 1,000 times. I always try again. One must have many things going at the same time because that will lead to success. Donald Trump knows this, which is why he is massively successful despite his few failures. The liberals say Trump is a business failure because these people don't understand how business works.

When I was trying to get my first job in my profession in the late 1980s, I sent my résumé/CV to more than 400 newspapers, which was every daily newspaper in the four states where I wanted to live. Almost all were rejections, but I did get a job.

I have been rejected many hundreds of times by women, including 414 rejections by women in 18 months with a video dating service in the mid-1990s, when I was in my mid-30s. I did go on a few dates, but nothing materialized. Almost all of the hundreds of women who rejected me described me as "unattractive." I was without female companionship from age 20 to age 40 (1980s and 1990s), and not by choice. I was finally able to get married for the first and only time 22 days before my 45th birthday in February 2006. We are still together.

My point is to never give up.

May 23, 2025, at home

TRiUMPh

May 23, 2025, at home

Men Support Trump More

Trump gaining even more support from men is absolutely wonderful. I voted for Trump for president three times. This is quite good news. I have been a Men's Rights Activist since the early 1990s, when I was in my early 30s. Trump has definitely made it easier for men to procure justice and to grab success in this gynocentric matriarchy that is the United States (and the world). I am just a man trying to survive in a woman's world.

https://www.newsweek.com/donald-trump-approval-rating-gains-key-group-polls-2075504

May 23, 2025, at home

Taffy & Cents

I grew up eating saltwater taffy on the beaches of south-central Long Island, New York, in the 1960s and 1970s.

May 23, 2025, at home

The U.S. Mint will cease minting the one-cent coin in 2026, according to the U.S. Treasury Department.

www.bbc.com/news/articles/cx2j07858lno.amp

May 23, 2025, at home