Dr says "maybe well done"

5 weeks ago my blood pressure was hovering around 148/92 on the good days. The Doctor was a bit sceptical that I would be able to make some life changes and bring it down without medication.

This was the reading this morning and yes it was calibrated so it is accurrate.

This is the average of the last 2 weeks. The doctor now tells me I do not need blood pressure medicine. Was it easy to make life style changes? Not always but I had a goal. I also lost 12 pounds in the last month. No caffine, less meat and smaller meals do make a difference. Now I still have the extremely high cholesterol levels to deal with. That test was also a month ago and the doctors have been telling me it is hereditary. There is no way diet changes are going to bring the LDL levels down by 70%, which is what they want to see. They are also telling me medication will not bring it down 70%. I am told if the numbers improve it will be a combination of a couple of drugs and staying on my current diet, unless I am one of the 10% who are not impacted by high cholesterol. I am having a calcium score test run in January to see if I am one of those lucky 10%. Also rerunning the blood test in January to see if diet has lowered the LDL cholesterol. 

We are getting closer to finishing Wild Flower cottage. This was a bedroom when we purchased the house.

At noon today this was the same bedroom, cleaned out and fixed.

This was the 2nd bedroom upstairs when we purchased.

Same room this morning.

I would have to say we have made quite a difference.

The hallway upstairs look a thousand times better as well.

This was the tub and shower when we took possession.

We have put in a tile surround (by we, I do mean Matthew although I did grout the tile). We should be wrapping this project up in the next week.

Then it is on to the next house. This is a picture that was on the wall in that house. All the stuff inside the glass of Dad'a best friend are dead roaches. Who was dad's best friend the dog or the roaches?

In life there is almost always room for improvement. I thought it would be really hard to stop drinking coffee. It was a major part of my life. When Tony was living with us he once asked me, "do you drink any water or just coffee?" He had a point but, hey coffee is just water with caffine added right?

We were traveling down to Murray Iowa to see our grandkids in the Christmas program on Sunday morning. I thought I would stop and get a cup of decaffinated coffee on the way down. Wow, that was awful! After 5 weeks without coffee, I don't want it anymore. Same with most of what I was eating. 

It is possible to change and change can be good. look at how the house we are working on changed. A real mess with terrible wallls and filled with junk, to a house I am proud to be one of the owners.

Sometimes we need to have a life changing experience. The man who lived in the house we are going to start on next was trying to get rid of the roaches. I know that because there are a lot of insecticides in the house. But insecticides still in the containers don't kill roaches. Good intentions don't change lives. It takes work and commitment. 

 

Give away

We buy houses from estates. Sometimes the heirs don't want to remove the contents of the house, that's where our offer of "as is" buys the house. We take responsibility of getting rid of the contents.

I found one of these plugged into an outlet in every room of the house we took possession of this week. I read online that they will keep pests away including roaches. I think they might have some false advertising going there.  When the roaches are dunging on the Pest Reject, I think the roaches are making a statement of what they think of this little item. Good news for us is the weather had gotten cold and the furnace was shut off in the house so almost all the roaches are DEAD. That's right the miriad bug sprays and devices the poor man had purchased didn't kill the roaches but cold temperatures nailed em.

A rule of thumb of mine is the dirtier the house the more cleaners we will find in the house. We are to the place we can hardly store all the cleaners we have gathered up. That goes for houses tenants move out of as well. If they leave the house filthy, you will find the cuboards full of cleaners. Good intentions I suppose, just no actual work involved.

We find a lot of "valuable" stuff in these houses. Not quite sure what we are going to do with the drum set yet.

Sometimes the house are so full of stuff, it's hard to even navigate from one room to the next.

On a previous purchase, I was told there are valuable antiques in the house. My reply "good get them out and sell them because if you don't we will set them on the curb or send to the landfill. This piece was picked up by someone and delivered to a charity in Pella. I hope they get a high price for it and use the money to help someone in need.

I don't know antique values and have no desire to learn.

We did think that buggy had value. matthew was going to sell it for $50 when Bob offered him a "crisp twenty dollar bill". Matthew said SOLD.

Once in a while we do save a piece for ourselves. This dresser is now refinished and in our house.

Usually we just start setting stuff by the curb and let anyone who wants it have it.

It would take too much time and effort for the dollars return to sort and try to sell what I see as junk

Sometimes tenants move out and are not quite honest when they say, "House is empty." Then we start stacking the useful stuff by the curb.

and more to the curb

and more to the curb. Hmm, wonder why they were unable to pay the rent and the electric bill. Maybe too much stuff was purchased that wasn't needed??

So I have started moving some of the smaller stuff to the curb out of our last purchase. Sharon has been loading out to give to a thrift store.

It's part of the buisness we are in to have to dispose of other's stuff. Some tell us we should try to sell it. I'd rather just let someone have it for free if they could use it. I don't want to price it. I don't want to have to meet someone to make the deal and then have 70% fo the buyers not show up. It makes my life easier to just give it away and if it helps someone else, that's a bonus, although I sometimes wonder if we are just adding junk to hoarder houses.

We looked at a couple of houses this week and took a pass. The next day we found out the owner was angry at the neighbor for having a trailer parked partially on the lawn while he resided his house. So he left a note they owed him $300 per day as long as the trailer was partially on the lawn of a house that has been vacant for 14 years and then called the cops on the contractor for having it parked there.

I would have gone over and asked them not to pull the trailer out if it rained so they wouldn't leave ruts and been happy we could help at no cost to us.

I think if we all treated each other as we want to be treated it would make life a lot more pleasent. Especially for the person who able to be the one helping others out in small ways.

Give and it will be gievn to you. A good measure, pressed down, shaken together and running over, will be poured in your lap. For with the measure you use it will be measured to you

 

Doctor says

When I was about 45 years old, I was sent to a cardiologist because of PVCs. Basically that means your heart beats before it fills with blood. It's kind of a weird sensation and I was having a lot of them. The good doctor told me, there is medication for it, but PVCs won't shorten your life span. You can go on the meds but there are side effects. Having heard the side effects I decided the weird feeling was the better choice. They eventually went away and life continued on.

Then we were returning home from an 8 day vacation at the end of September. We got home early enough for me to make my appointment for blood donation. I just didn't feel right while sitting waiting for the tech to take my vitals. Yea, blood pressure was 196/98. I think that's close to the death by stroke zone. The tech waited 10 minutes and my blood pressure went down to a level they would take the donation. You have to ask is that a good idea? He has a heart problem lets take some of his blood. 

The next morning I had a revelation. the PVCs were back and with a vengence. Missing about every third heart beat. I have a blood pressure machine at home and was checking my pressure. It would quite often go above 160/90. Not good.

After 45 days I decided maybe it was time to see a doctor. Yea blood pressure was 160/90 still not good. I did explain that I had white coat syndrome and they could probably subtract 10 points just because we were in a doctor's office. Dr got out the old stethescope and was listening to my heart. She listened about 3 seconds and grabbed my wrist searching for a pulse. Hey I am still sitting upright, I do have a pulse, its there occasionally. Then the tests started: EKG, we'll take three vials of blood, here is a container and there is the bathroom give us a sample. 

We are going to stick this monitor to your chest for 48 hours. You will see a cardiologist in the next 2 weeks. We need to get your blood pressure down with medication. Then the tests started coming back. You have elevated cholesterol. Not just a little elevated but through the roof, you need to be on statins. You have a high risk of stroke and need to start taking aspirin every day and lose some weight.

Hold on, hold on here. I think maybe lets try a few life style changes first. The doctor said most people would rather take a pill than make lifestyle changes. Well, I am not most people and medications have side effects. I am a firm believer in pills when necessary but lets shock my system with some nutritional deprivation.

I know I was drinking way too much coffee. A pot and 2/3 was most likely way off the scale of normal. I think my Mr Coffee feels neglected and abandoned. I will have to say caffeine withdrawal is no fun at all. It didn't start till after 2 days caffine free and then boy it was like getting hit by a 2x4.

Oh and not just the coffe had to go. Those hand cut prime ribeyes I love. Maybe 2 ounces occasionally

BBQed pork rib meat. Yea, no more of that.

Those bacon slabs I slice thick, gone.

This meal no,no. Get the skin off the chicken and lose the chips.

I have 30 pounds of pork ribs in my deep freeze, I'm supposed to eat that, what sliced in small portions of 1 bone each meal??

3 years ago I switched out what I eat in the evening due to a health issue I don't remember now. This was one of my meals, well now the butter has to be gone from the bread and no CHEESE on the salad.

I don't know, do you live longer or does it just feel like it?

I might end up like the Beverly Hillbillies eating possum innerds. They're just as good the second day.

My plan is after this total shock to my system to start adding a few enjoyable foods and maybe some caffeine back into my routine. As of tonight my blood pressure has fallen and is in the normal range. Have no clue yet on the cholestrol and why after a week much smaller meals not one pound of weight  has been lost? Come on, I deserve to have lost at least 5 pounds with all the good food I have given up.

Problem is not falling back into really bad eating habits. Life is like that, we can make a decision to change and then just slide back to where we started.

Routines and habits are hard to break. That's why most people would rather take a pill than change their life style. I get that, it has been a tough week and will be several more tough weeks.

We all get comfortable not just with our diets but also with the sin in our lives. It's part of the comfort zone and it's easy to justify. It's not so bad, others are worse. Problem is, God calls us to be holy, not just better than how we see someone else. Being holy may mean kicking some things we enjoy out of our lives and leaving our comfort zone. Might have to ask God for help to change for the better because on our own we are bound to fail.

 

Left behind

We have climate controled storage units. If you want to store your very valuable things with us, like say old books you are never going to read or Christmas decorations you will want, maybe in 5 years, we will make sure they don't freeze or get damaged by our lovely Iowa high humidity. Because we have a furnace and an air conditioner and a dehumidifier in the building.

Of course, when I pull up in the morning and see that a tenant has blocked the door open overnight, it kinda defeats all our efforts. We have found we use our security cameras to police the tenants. Yea, you looked up at the camera when you loaded out the cart that belongs at the building. I am sure you made a mistake when you took it, so bring it BACK! Oh yea, we saw you block open the door and drive away, so don't do that again. No one seems to take it seriously that the sign says security cameras. These are not fake cameras, they are watching you. It's like the song. 

We see you when you're smoking. 

We see you when you steal. 

We know when you are bad or good, so be good for goodness sake.  

You better be nice

like sugar and spice

cause our cameras are watching you.

That my friends is a pile of dead roaches in an insecticide dust. We have a house that we are killing roaches in. One morning last week I counted 176 dead roaches. As of this morning in the last 24 hours only 86 died where I could find them. Progress is being made. I do wish the tenant had taken all his little friends with him when he moved becuase we have an empty house till we can be sure the roach count is zero, nada, nothing, all gone.

At the same house there was a jug of liquid left in the garage. No lid on it. I smelled it (I know that could have been dangerous. What if it was a chemical, Nah, couldn't be could it? It had no odor and the consistancy of water.) I poured it out. Strange how that water seems to have killed the grass. Hmm it must have been water so pure that it tied up all the nutrients and the grass died of starvation. yea that's it, I'm sure of it.

The house we are working on now had not had the yard cleaned up for, I am guessing here, 40 years. It was full of trees. The tree service came with those lovely machines and made the trees gone. I love how they grab the tree and it just cuts a chunk off. they have another machine that picks up the pieces and puts them in big trucks and away they go. Almost magical to watch. The trees all gone in a matter of a couple of hours.

So lets see, tenants leaving doors blocked open, roaches left in a house, an open jug of some chemical left, and trees left to grow till the yard was full. It was a week of things being left behind. There are people who say they are going to Heaven because they are good people. Well they are not going to heaven because they are good people. They will be left behind, like unwanted insects, chemicals and trees. The door is open only to sinners who know they are sinners. Jesus paid for them and has blocked the door open so they can go to Heaven.

 

fixing walls

We are working in wildflower cottage. The furnace quit working a year before the previous owner died. The house was sealed up tight and heated with space heaters.

That creates a moisture ploblem which damages old walls that have layers of wall paper. The paper releases and starts to fall.

That creates a real problem. Do you pull off all the paper you can and start repairing or remove the old plaster and start over.

We always try to salvage a plaster and lathe wall as long as the keys are still holding it to the lathe. If the keys are breaking the loose pieces have to come out. This house was well built and the keys are still in good shape, so patch and paint.

One bedroom and hallway is finished and only 4 rooms to go. I am impressed at how well the walls are cleaning up and looking after painting. The kitchen which is the 5th room still to be fixed was never papered but a sand texture was applied and it has failed. That room is more problematic.

I spent most of the week fixing walls in a house and trying to tear down walls in the rest of my life. I saw a car with a flat tire near a building we own. The couple in the car looked pretty sketchy. I walked over and asked them how they were doing. He said we have a flat tire, it was the spare small tire on the car that was flat. He needed a ride to a tire shop. I told him I could do that and he got a shredded tire out of the back seat.

On the drive to the tire shop he told me they were homeless, yea, I had kinda figured that. I asked what their plan was. He has some plan from a charity in Des Moines. I have dealt with enough homeless people this year to know that is not going to happen. I had heard it all before. 

I started giving him ideas of where he could get help, and he said those won't work, I'm a felon. 

I happen to know the programs I was telling him about do help felons. I know that from others we work with. He wasn't listening anymore. I am sure I will meet them again, seems to work that way. Next time we meet they will know I care and want to help and might be willing to listen instead of shut down. It's a process to help others. I may fix walls in houses but I try to tear them down when dealing with others.

I have met several homeless people this year, Don't know that I was able to get a single one to change their lifestyle.

Sometimes it's even disgusting. I had to clean used adult diapers out of trees one day. Coulda lived with out that experience. 

Sometimes the change that you start isn't seen till a couple years later.

I would encourage tearing down walls between you and others that don't fit your idea of living right. The ones I have met have all been friendly even though sometimes I am the bearer of really bad news for them. 

If we listen to each other intead of creating walls, we might find we all really want much the same results, we just have different ideas of how to get there. Talk to someone you disagree with, find common cause, create a new relationship. 

God commands us to love.

 

Do it well

 

We bought a piano for Matthew many years ago. It has been stitting in our living room unused except by the garndchidren who find great joy in pounding on the keys. Oh, the lovely sound it makes to their ears. I know we are called to make a joyful noise but still, oh, the pain it brings to my ears.

Friday both Matthew and Micah were at our house for lunch. We loaded out the piano to go to Matthew's house where it will be played and used to make music, not just noise. When I was a boy many long years ago, my sisters and I took piano lessons. I did learn the basics, but I spent most of the practice time lying on the piano bench watching the clock slowly move till the half hour practice time was over.

My parents were adamant that every child needed to learn a musical instrument. I asked if I could learn to play the guitar instead. They bought me a guitar and a year later bought me an electric guitar with an amp. A few years back I looked up what it would cost to replace that guitar and amp I sold cheap in the 80s. Well, my parents bought me that set and it became known as a quality guitar and amp. I decided about $15,000 to buy the set back was out of my price range. I was injured in a farm accident when I was 15 years old and have permant nerve damage in my right hand. I had to relearn to play the guitar, but as with most damage we do to our bodies when we are young, it gets worse with age. I tried to pick up the guitar a couple years ago and I could not pluck the strings well anymore. I gave up instead of getting a pick and settling for just strumming the chords. I wanted to play well instead of just "strumming" the chords. That was probably a mistake, in a quest to do it well, I made my life smaller.

We are cleaning up a house now where it seems the tenant had no ability to do things well and he did not ask for help. We do not allow tenants to do electrical, plumbing repairs, or paint. It seldom turns out well. Just call us, we'll fix it. In the picture above we found he had removed an outlet and left the box open with small children in the house. That is a real danger of electrical shock and maybe even death. Do it well or don't do it is really important in electrical work.

Sometimes doing it well is in the eye of the beholder. He painted a couple of the rooms a very dark grey. It made the house seem so dark. I chose a much lighter grey and repainted the whole interior.

I realize there is a difference in brushes and I buy good cut brushes, but still wouldn't one know they are not doing the job well when you simply paint an inch in on the cupboards. Give me a break and don't paint our house if that is the best you can do.

In this picture I have the wall painted the new grey, because the blue he painted was full of holes and scratches. Once again, it's not that hard to cut in paint along a ceiling and do the job well. Either do it well or don't do it.

Another house we are working on, that we just purchased, is called Wildflower Cottage. Seems like a cute name until you find out the reason she named the house. Years ago the city officials were citing her for not mowing her lawn and keeping the broken tree branches cleaned up. She named the house "Wildflower Cottage" and offered to sue the city if they made her do upkeep on the lawn because it was wildflowers. No, it was just weeds and now there is no grass after we mowed off the weeds, just dirt which will be mud when it rains. She did not care for her lawn at all, let alone do it well.

Life is generally better if you do things well intead of just the minimum.People will respect you if you do things well. Your finances will be in better shape if you do things well. Your health will be better if you do things well. Serve God well and not just the minimum and you will live with joy.