Miller Genuine Draft Light, or more affectionately, "64"

I feel I must reply to Rex's question about the Miller Genuine Draft I am loading into the refrigerator of our RV in my recent blog. On the surface, this looks like a wanton abandonment of an old family tradition of drinking cheap watery beer, namely Milwaukee's Best Light. Wendy took the picture and accidentally cut off the labelling..........

......In actuality, this beer is a new product called Miller Genuine Draft Light, or more affectionately, "64". It has 2.8% alcohol and 64 calories. It is in "test-marketing" started in Madison and expanded to 4 states now. We find it very useful. You cannot get drunk on it, just get a nice buzz. It tastes only OK, kinda stale and empty, like they watered it down. Wendy alternates with Miller light (only because most bars don't stock Milwaukee's Best Light, remember, that is the same beer as Miller light according to some) It is kind to the waistline as well. It will be interesting to follow how it catches on and whether Bud creates something to compete with it, etc. More on this later, I am sure.......

Uncle Hans

The Ultimate Beer Lover's Cookbook

Peritoneal Dialysis

This post is written by my sister-in-law, Kitty. She married my brother when I was eight years old so I can honestly say, I have known her as long as I can remember. Kitty is one of my dearest friend and also one of the most creative and talented people I know.

In 2004, I was about to lose my kidney function, so the doctors at Mayo in Rochester, MN strongly suggested that I try to find a donor as well, I was put on the National Kidney Donation List. I was very lucky to have my sister-in-law, Mary (the writer of this blog) donate me a kidney. Unfortuneately, one and one-half years later, I had to start dialysis.

I would like to explain the two types of dialysis that I have done. I did Hemodialysis for one and one-half years. Hemodialysis is a process, which cleans your blood by tubes injected into a fistula, (a fistula is made by a surgeon, mine is in my upper arm by my left elbow. The first one I had put in was near my left wrist, but it quit working, so I had to have a second one put in). Three days a week; Monday, Wednesday, and Friday, I went to a dialysis center and a nurse injected the two tubes into the fistula in my arm. I sat in a recliner chair for four hours while my blood flowed through tubes into a filter (large machine) to clean out wastes and extra fluids. The newly cleaned blood flowed through another set of tubes back into my body. This treatment can also be done at home.

I decided a year ago that I didn't like the 45-minute drive to the dialysis center and with the cost of gas, I chose to take training to do my own dialysis. This type of dialysis is called peritoneal. First, I had to have a tube (catheter) surgically put into my abdomen for the solution (dialysate) to get in and out of the abdomen. There is no blood exchanged in this process. The dialysate solution draws the inpurities and fluids from blood veins in the abdomen. I have a machine, which is the size of a large typewriter, which holds the dialysate bag on, which keeps the solution warm. There are two other bags (storage bags), which are also connected to this machine. After I use the warmed dialysate, the machine pumps the dialysate from the storage bags into the bag on the machine to keep it warm.

My schedule:

I like to hook up to the machine early in the evening (I have to be on the machine for nine hours). It first drains out the dialysate, which I have in my abdomen (into a large container) and refills the abdomen. Every (approximate) two and one-half hours this process repeats (four times). It takes about 30 minutes each time. The first thing I do each morning is check my blood pressure, take the readings off the machine, weigh myself, and dump the used dialysate. This information is given to my dialysis nurse. My nurse and doctor keep very close tabs on me. I talk with my nurse at least once a week and I go in to see the doctor once a month and have blood work done.

After I get up in the morning, my husband helps me and we strip the machine of tubes, etc. and reset it for another day. My first exchange is between 7:30 a.m. and 8:30 a.m. I disconnect from the machine and I am free to go about my day. Between 1:30 p.m. and 3:30 p.m., I take another bag of dialysate, which is heated and do a manual exchange. I have an I.V. pole, which I hang the full bag on and there is an empty bag connected, which is laid on the floor. I use a clamp to shut on the full bag until I have emptied into the empty bag. Then I remove the clamp on the full bag and clamp the tube to the used dialysate bag until the dialysate bag is empty. I'm done now until I hook up for the night.

I feel much better with the peritoneal dialysis. When I was on hemodialysis, I would feel so punk after the treatment, that I usually just wanted to go home and lay down. Also with the peritoneal dialysis, I can eat and drink most whatever I want. There are a few restrictions, but I'm handling the diet pretty good.

There definitely are some pros and cons with the peritoneal dialysis. Perhaps one of the cons would be having mega boxes of dialysate to store. My last shipment, which is delivered to my home once a month, was a total of 54 boxes. This requires lots of storage room. I use seven different sizes and strengths of dialysate.

Dialysis kind of cramps my social life, but I try to make the most of the situation.

Kitty

I have one more comment to make. While the outcome of the transplant attempt for Kitty was not what we hoped it would be, I would like make people aware that there is such a thing as "living donors". There are many, many people on transplant waiting lists, and I can speak from experience that there are no adverse physical problems resulting from being a donor. It is something to think about...

Mary

Des Moines Flooding (Conclusion)

By Mark Hutchens


One other interesting story of what not to do during a flood and then I have to get going. On Thursday June 12th after we packed up to bug out of City Hall I was first sent out to the Birdland area to help direct the reinforcement of a levee that was falling into the river. About 1:00 my supervisor called and said he was sending another guy out to replace me and I was going to the MLK neighborhood to raise a levee. The new river forecast showed this levee would be over topped that night flooding the neighborhood. I mobilized a contractor and we all headed to the site. To raise the levee we had to back dump truck loads of dirt 2800 feet down a bike trail on top of the levee and place and compact the dirt with heavy equipment. When we started the river was less than a foot from going over the bike path.

There is a culvert that drains low ground between the street and the levee back into the river when the river is low. This culvert has a flap gate on it to keep the river out when it is high. The flap gate was leaking some so our Public Works Department has two 6 inch pumps set up pumping the water back over the levee. We could not back the trucks down the bike path with the pumps in place so I had Public Works come out to move them out of our way. The residents in the area all had water in their basements and came unglued when we removed the pumps. I explained to them that the river was going to go over the levee that night asked them if they want a little water or a lot of water. All they cared about was that the pumps were running and things started to get real ugly really fast. We had some cops up the street directing our trucks through traffic so I called one of them down and he got things under control. The natives still were not happy and called their City Councilman out to the location. I convinced the Councilman that we were doing all we could for these people.

After we built the levee up past the location of the pumps I had public works come back to reset them. One Public Works guy showed up first and the rest of the crew and the equipment were on the way. Mind you these pumps weigh more than my car. Two of the natives insisted that the Public works guy and myself get the pumps set and running. We explained to him that the rest of the crew and the equipment was on the way but they still were not happy. They wouldn’t let up and we were tired and fed up so another call to the cops. The cops showed up right away and these two idiots lit into them. Bad idea on their part. Click Click. You have the right to remain silent and so on. Charged them with disorderly conduct and interference with official acts, us trying to save their sorry houses, and hauled them away. Lesson learned - don’t piss of the Engineer’s trying to save your property. Any way we worked until after dark to raise the levee and when we returned on Friday morning the river was just 2 inches from going over the fill we had placed the night before. We finished raising it just as the river crested Friday afternoon so the neighborhood was saved.

Got to get back to the battle. Needless to say we have been working a lot of hours but things are starting to settle down some. One other thing for Rex, July 1st Iowa will start enforcing a no smoking ban in all public places. Damm Democrats.

Hope to see you guy’s this fall at Yellow River if you can fit it into your schedule.

Travel well our friends,

Mark Hutchens, P.E.
Civil Engineer II
City of Des Moines
Engineering Department

Des Moines Flooding

By Mark Hutchens

Looks like you had a fun vacation this spring, I really enjoyed the pictures and the blogs. Jayne and I are suppose to be on vacation at Yellow River this week but as you have seen in the news we had a pretty good flood here in Des Moines. With me being employed as a Civil Engineer for the City of Des Moines and needed to help in the flood fighting and now recovery efforts the City has postponed our vacation until July 11th – 20th. More on the flood in a bit, but first an update on Yellow River. I have been talking to people up there and the park has been spared the worst of the flooding and everything is pretty much normal. Apparently all the trout hatcheries were hit hard by the floods so the fishing is not going to be very good this year. We were up there for mother’s day weekend and it was good to see everyone and get into the mushrooms. Grace and Charlie were not camping up there yet but did drive up for a visit. They are up there now and plan to stay the rest of the summer.

That brings me to our fall plans and from what I remember of your BB08 schedule I think you might be in the Yellow River area when we are up there in September. We plan on going up September 5th for two weeks, coming back home on September 21st. I have talked to Charlie and we plan on having his birthday turkey and potluck dinner on September 12th. Rex helped me cook a 20 pounder over the camp fire two years ago and I could use the help again this year. Rex and I had plan for cooking the turkey, the bird would be done when Rex and I were close to being done with the beer. The plan worked out well. Anyway let me know if you guys think you can make it this year to help with the bird and of course the beer.

Now for an update on the flood. Des Moines faired far better than the poor sons of bitches in Cedar Rapids and the rest of SE Iowa. Every flood is different, our flood of record was the 1993 flood and this time around we exceeded those levels in some areas and were slightly below them in other parts of the City. At the height of the flood the rivers were up to 25 feet above their normal elevations and we had more water flowing through downtown Des Moines than flows down the Mississippi at Marquette when that river is at normal elevation. Since the 1993 flood we have made huge improvements to our levee and pumping systems and we only saw only about 5% of the property damage this time around when compared to 1993. We had one levee breach in the Birdland neighborhood that flood 60-70 some homes and business and North High School. We also had inland flooding from our sewer system that flooded the Court Avenue Area.

Here is a picture of City Hall, my office is on the third floor. We had water in the basement and the sewer backed up on June 11th so they moved us out to the Airport on the 12th. Other City offices moved to the new library downtown. We are still out at the Airport but hope to get back to City Hall this weekend. The plants you see in the foreground are the top side of the Civic Gardens. The gardens actually extend about 100 feet from the building and there is a walking path leading down to the wall along the river but the area was completely under water.

This is looking west from City Hall across the river into downtown.

The YMCA is across the river from City Hall and the Grand Avenue bridge is in the foreground. We had to close all the downtown bridges over the river and place closures on the approaches to keep the river out of the City.

The old library is on the west side of the river. The rusty stuff you see right above the water is some sheet piling that I installed two years ago to increase the height of the levee. If we had not placed the sheet piling the river would have overtopped the old levee flooding most of downtown.

This is the Ampatheater just south of City Hall. There is a stage below the arch that is about 15’ under water. They usually have concerts here in the summer, postponed for a while.

This is Robert D. Ray Drive on the opposite side of City Hall from the river. As you can see the fishing in the street might be better than it is up at Yellow River.

Our sewer system was overwhelmed and basically blew itself apart. This is a sink hole in a church parking lot at SE 6th Ave. The sewer failures are causing the material to be sucked down the sewers creating the sink holes. This one eventually grew even more and swallowed the street. We have been chasing hundreds of sinkholes throughout the City and trying to repair them.

(ANOTHER STORY FROM MARK TOMORROW)

RV SET-UP PROCEDURES

A FEW COMMENTS ON UNCLE HANS' BLOG YESTERDAY.

* FIRST POINT, WHAT'S THIS?

AS A LONG TIME LOVER OF THE "BEAST", I'M SHOOCKED TO SEE YOU STOCKING REAL BEER? IN YOUR RV FRIDGE.

* SECOND POINT, ALONG WITH THE ASIAN BEETLES, I'M CERTAIN THAT THE WISCONSIN DNR ALSO HAS SOME RULES ON SANITARY SEWER DISPOSAL, AND I DOUBT IF DUCT TAPE IS IN THE RULE BOOK.

WHILE WE'RE ON THIS TOPIC LET ME MAKE TWO RECCOMENDATIONS, FIRST YOU NEED TO GET AND USE A PRODUCT LIKE THIS:

AND SECOND BE SURE TO KEEP THE BLACK WATER TANK CLOSED, OR THE SOLIDS WILL REMAIN IN THE TANK TURNING TO CONCRETE IN THE SUMMER SUN. CLICK HERE FOR MORE INSTRUCTIONS.

* THIRD POINT:

YUP HANS, THAT'S THE AWNING TOOL. MUSTA BEEN VISITING WITH THE "BEAST" WHEN I GAVE YOU THAT LECTURE AND DEMONSTRATION. SO FOR YOU, AND OUR READERS I'LL REVIEW:

FIRST LOCATE A SWITCH LIKE THIS ON YOUR AWNING....

THEN TAKE THE TOOL AND INSERT IT INTO THE BLACK LOOP IN THE MIDDLE OF THE AWNING.....

THEN PULL DOWN THE AWNING........

I DON'T REALLY HAVE ANY COMMENTS ON YOUR STERO SYSTEM, OTHER THAN I'M SURE IT'S A PICE OF JUNK. I TOOK MINE OUT AND PUT IN A WINE RACK........

WELCOME TO THE WORLD OF RV'ING AND I CAN'T WAIT FOR THE NEXT STORY, AND YOUR UP COMING STURGIS ADVENTURES. TO AVOID SOME MORE BUMPS IN THE ROAD, Click Here!

RV The Movie?

It was almost three years ago we became RV'ers with the purchase of our"Toybox". Last week we got around to our "Shakedown Cruise". We spent the better part of yesterday getting the thing clean and ready to occupy....for the night. First things first..the beer.

Wendy spent about 4 hours cleaning, starting in the front to the back. She then loaded all the camper gear and accessories including coffee maker and blender, and, oh yeah, the George Forman grill...

Rena and I cleaned up outside...

Things got serious when I offered to clean out the "loft". The DNR in Wisconsin introduced (according to rumor) a small bug called the Asian beetle to our area to help control some other pest. They got out of hand and now are a pest themselves. In the fall they all find a protected spot to crawl in. Fortunately, they all die. The spots they chose however, are everywhere. The camper, which was very clean last fall, was full of these bug carcasses....

a close-up of the mass funeral........

I spent twenty minutes trying to get the stereo to make a noise......nothing.....

an hour later I found this speaker switch which was in the off position. Why would there even be an "off" position? I mean, for when you were sick of the stereo making a noise? Why not use the "power" switch in that case?

I then found this long hook thingie, but it did not make the stereo work. I think it is somehow connected to the awning. I know Rex taught me what it was for a couple of years ago, but that was a long time for an old person to remember. Any clue. Rex?...

I hooked up the water and sewer and did a bang-up job..........

Especially the sewer connection, which is duct tape (what else?).......

Meanwhile, Wendy installed the new bedding in the loft, kinda cramped up there even for her...

pushing the bedspread to the far side requires some special skill, and some odd positioning.......

Wendy admired the finished inside and then asked the dreaded question I had been hoping she would forget, "why don't we have hot water?" Shit. She noticed. I got out the manuals (all 14 lbs) and went to work. An hour later. Presto! We had no hot water. A friend visited us later and started the pilot in 20 seconds. I get along with fixing things like Rex does.......

Having had great fun with the hot water question, she then asked why the thing wobbled so much. That's when I remembered the jack thingies. The jack handle lives in the generator bay, along with 41,000,000 dead Asian beetles. Wendy cleaned that out while I worked the jacks.....

Rena and I took a walk and some pictures of the beautiful lake shore at the RV park..........

.....while Wendy whipped up this gorgeous four course Chinese dinner...........(actually, this photo is from a nearby Chinese restaurant)

When we got home, we found these two beautiful eyes staring out at us from inside. She seems to enjoy the place. We went to bed exhausted. We never dreamed RVing was so much fun .........




Uncle Hans

ANGORA FIRE

A YEAR AGO TODAY WAS DAY ONE OF THE ANGORA FIRE. THIS HAS TO BE ONE OF OUR SCARIEST CAMPING EXPERIENCES. AS I RECALL WE WERE BLOGGING ABOUT TWICE A DAY.

WHEN IT WAS ALL OVER WE TOOK A FEW PICTURES OF THE DEVASTATION.

>

IN THE END 254 HOMES WERE LOST AND 31,100 ACRES BURNED. SOUTH LAKE TAHOE WAS LUCKY TO SAVE THE HIGH SCHOOL.

THE CAUSE OF THE FIRE WAS AN ABANDONED CAMPFIRE AT A POPULAR PARTY SPOT.

WHAT ABOUT A YEAR LATER? 161 BUILDING PERMITS HAVE BEEN ISSUED IN THE FIRE ZONE OUT OF 254 HOMES LOST.

I CAN SEE BOTH SIDES OF THIS, PROPERTY OWNERS WHO ARE REBUILDING AND PROPERTY OWNERS THAT HAVE WALKED AWAY. IT'S GOING TO BE DECADES BEFORE THE AREA LOOKS ANYTHING LIKE IT USED TO. WHERE THERE WAS ONCE A BEAUTIFUL MOUNTAIN HOME SURROUNDED BY TREES WITHOUT A NEIGHBOR IN SITE IS NOW BLACK DEAD TREES, NOT EXACTLY PICTURE WINDOW PRETTY.

WE TOOK A DRIVE BACK THRU THE AREA TO GIVE YOU THE BEFORE AND AFTER EFFECT.

IT'S ALL TREE STUMPS, DIRT, AND CONSTRUCTION CREWS. NOT EXACTLY A MILLION DOLLAR NEIGHBORHOOD..........

Thermage Chicago

Thermage Chicago dermatology, Chicago, Illinois. They are specializing in laser acne treatment, hair removal treatment, Restylane treatment and other skin care treatments.

The Thermage procedure reduces the signs of aging skin, giving you a more youthful appearance. It's technical, but basically the procedure stretches the skin eliminating those wrinkles associated with age, especially around the eyes.

Normally I wouldn't be interested in this subject, but as I approach my 60th birthday next winter, I'm starting to pay attention.

OPENING DAYS LAKE TAHOE

TODAY WE WERE OFF TO "OPENING DAYS LAKE TAHOE". THIS IS THE FOURTH YEAR OF THIS ANNUAL EVENT. THEY ACTUALLY CLOSE OFF HWY 50 THROUGH THE CASINO CORRIDOR FOR ABOUT 10 BLOCKS AND SET UP THE PARTY !!!

IT WAS A GREAT AFTERNOON WITH THREE STAGES FOR LIVE MUSIC, VENDORS, FOOD, AND FUN.

..............AND THE SKY DIVERS, ZIPPED RIGHT DOWN TO THEIR LANDING SPOT JUST OFF THE STREET AND STAGE. THEY JUMPED IN TWO GROUPS OF FIVE. THE MUSIC WAS LOUD AND THE ACTION COULDN'T BE ANY BETTER......

THE FESTIVITIES CONTINUE WITH A CONCERT BY SMOKEY ROBINSON, AND TOMORROW THE RACING OF THE BIG BOATS ON THE LAKE AND A BOAT PARADE. A GREAT WAY TO WELCOME SUMMER ON THE LONGEST DAY OF THE YEAR......