Martin Deanda

Wednesday, June 19, 2024

Sickness and Health

I was at work. Things were going well until about 2 in the morning; suddenly my stomach began to feel tight and uncomfortable. It felt like I needed to take a giant shit and or let out a giant fart. But, nothing. At the same time nausea began to set in. Lovely, nausea and constipation, what a wonderful combination. As the morning went on, it got worse. By the end of my shift, the nausea and pain in my stomach was bad. All I wanted to do was to get home and lie down. I did make one stop at a convenience store to pick up one of my grandmother's home remedies for nausea, a 7UP.

I got home, stripped all my clothes off and got in to bed. I thought this would make me feel, at least, a little bit better. It didn't. The pain in my stomach felt like my intestines were being twisted and turned. Despite my nausea getting better (thanks grandma), I could not relax and rest, the pain was too much. So, I just tossed and turn and got a few winks here and there. I couldn't eat because just the thought of food would make me feel sick. To add icing to the cake, I also had heartburn. But, two Tums took care of that, thank God.

A little more than 24 hours later, with little sleep and nothing to eat I woke up. I HAD to get my car's registration sticker that morning. I was dreading having to get up, shower, get dressed and go out in public. All I wanted to do was sleep and rest. But, not having anyone to rely on, I had to get up and go. I felt really sick. I thought about it and came to the conclusion that part of the reason was that I hadn't eaten anything in more than 24 hour. So, I eat a soup and almost instantly felt a whole lot better.

What a nightmare. As the days went by I felt better and better. That was one of the worst feelings I have ever had. It felt so good the have my apatite back and my bowls back in order.

Tuesday, February 20, 2024

Frustration Day

Have you ever had "one of those days" where frustration is the emotion of the day? I had one today. First of all, it was one of those days that all I wanted to do was to sit and be a couch potato. I did not want to venture outside, I didn't want to interact with people in any shape or form. However, I had to go to the gym and to the grocery store. The frustration stared because of the fact that I HAD to go to the gym. That's a bad sign to begin with. For me, I should not have the feeling of frustration when I have to go to the gym. I should be looking forward to it. I should be excited about working out. So, having those feeling towards working out, made me feel disgusting about myself. Made me feel ashamed of my self for feeling like that.

So, here I go getting my gym bag ready. Out the door I went; frustration in tow. Got in my car, hooking up my phone to the car, waiting for my car to warm up (yes, because I'm old school). I tapped on my fitness club's app to, #1, check the Crowd Meter, #2 to generate a check-in code. Well, the app would not load. It said, "no connection - try again." I, tried again and again and again, nothing. I killed the app and tried again, nothing. I re-started my phone, still the app would not load and continued to say "no connection." I restarted my phone tapped the app, still nothing. I uninstalled the app, redownloaded and installed the app, nothing. Frustration level at a high point now. I loaded other apps with no problem. Streamed content with no issues. Ah Ha, it's the app and or their servers, not me. I call the gym and asked if they were having problems with there servers. The Attendant tried his app and it worked with no issues. Frustration level in the red now. Finally, after about 30 minutes, hooray!!! The app loaded!!! Forget the crowd meter, I generated the QR code and screen shot the code and proceeded to have a pretty good workout.

After the gym I unfortunately had to stop by the grocery store. The frustration with the app was gone, but I was just felling irritated. Don't know why, just did. I quickly got the things I needed and out the door I went. Got home, put the groceries up, got my snacks and flopped on the couch. Oh, the bliss. Home at last.

Sunday, March 20, 2022

It's the 20th of March. And, for me, it was supposed to be a time of celebration. The first day of Spring and I was looking forward to hot weather ahead. Happy day! Not!!!

My cell phone was stolen at work. At first, of course, I thought it was me. Where did I put my phone? I know it was here. "Has anyone seen my cell phone?" I looked in my car and everywhere else I could think of. I tore apart my back pack, nothing. So, slowly the sinking feeling when you realize, my phone got stolen sets in. I had trouble concentrating the rest of the shift. Luckily, the phone was encrypted except for my SD card. I logged on to my Google account and tracked the phone. It was not near by. It was stolen.

The next thing I did was to call security and see if they had videos footage of the area I was sitting at and on the time in question. They did. One of the officers came up to the floor and asked me a few questions. He told me he would be back after searching and looking at the footage. He came back after a while and told me he saw a person walk past my work station, looked over at my work station then walked back and reach into where I had my things and pulled back out. Unfortunately, due to regulations, the officer could not tell me very much. I was told that I needed to request the footage and determine what to do from there. I was very thankful of the help by the officer in helping me and informing me who I need to contact to get the footage.

Now it's wait and see. I'll take a look at the footage and probably file a report.

Totally sucks. Luckily I had an older phone that I can use for the mean time until I get another phone.

My advice:

Newer Android phones and iPhone are encrypted from the factory. HOWEVER,!!! (on Android) the SD card is not. The data can still be read if the thief takes it out of the phone and reads it from a PC.

To encrypt the SC card you have to "format as internal." If you do this, the card will be recognized as internal. And, the phone being encrypted, the data on the card will not be able to be read on any other device but the encrypted phone.

Here is a link for a step by step process to encrypt your SD card.

How to Encrypt an Android Device and Its SD Card to Protect Your Data

Sunday, October 31, 2021

I'm done moving, for a while I hope.

It's been hell. Between the packing, the loading, cleaning, the unloading and the unpacking I'm fucking so tired. Oh, and not to mention the emotional side. Yes, I'm a very sentimental type of person; as I finished up cleaning my old apartment, it was sad to leave for the last time. But, I just closed the door and didn't look back. I guess the end of my stay there had other symbolism attached to it. I had what I thought was a "good friend" living near by. Someone who I've known for a long time and had actually dated. Without going in to details, this person, in my view, turned their back on me by making ridiculous stipulations on me in order to keep her as a friend. So it was "do this or you're not aloud in my house" and "I don't want to come near you unless..." What a friend, not!

So, my leaving that apartment, was also the end of that "relationship" as well. Which is sad, but it wasn't my decision. I wish that person well.

At the moment, I'm loving my new home. At the other apartment, I was next to an interstate highway and the noise level was horrible. The air-condition blower was in the bedroom and it sounded like a fright train. And, the parking in the evening was terrible. Here, it's like night and day. It's very quiet, the blower is in the bathroom and it's quite. The parking here is great. There is plenty of parking day or night. Time will tell the whole story. But, right now I'm very happy.

Tuesday, October 5, 2021

The camping bug

A few weeks before my trip to Big Bend National Park, I started to get the camping bug. That is, I really got the yearning to go camping again. The last time I had gone camping before Big Bend was decades ago. I started getting the itch after watching camping videos on YouTube. Once that started, it was full speed ahead. Every paycheck I would purchase a little bit of camping gear. A few weeks later I had enough to were I could go do a trail run. I chose the beach at Port Aransas. There I evaluated what I had and what I still needed. What worked and what didn't.

Then, it was on to Big Bend. That had to be one of the best; most awesome time in my life.

After that trip, a week later I camped at Corpus Christi Lake State Park. A short time after that it was on to Goliad State Park. And, a couple of weeks ago it was Choke Canyon State Park. The burning to go out camping again is back again. I'm fit to be tied. However, I have a move coming up soon so I have to shelve the camping thing for another few weeks. Shit! Well, it'll be great when I do go out there again.

I have whittled it down to 2 Parks for the next sojourn. Guadalupe State Park or Palmetto State Park. Both are wonderful and I can't wait to go to either one.

Here are some pictures from my camping trips to Goliad State Park and Choke Canyon State Park.

Friday, August 20, 2021

My trip to Big Bend National Park. Mountains!!!!!

There are certain things that move me, that awe me, that leave me amazed in wonderment. One of those things are, mountains. I see them all the time in pictures and movies. But never in real life. In 1984, I took a trip to Mexico City and Taxco Mexico. To say I was in a dream is a tremendous understatement. That was the very first time in my life I set my eyes on real mountains. In 1996, I retuned to Mexico City and again marveled at the creation of the Sierra Madre orogeny and geologic time.

A few days ago I went on a trip to Big Bend National Park. And once again I gazed in amazement at the mountain range there. Driving just a few miles outside of Del Rio Texas, I started to make out the outline of the mountain range far in the distance. At that site my adrenalin started pumping and the excitement began to build. Finally, after so many years, I was getting close to - mountains.

Needless to say, as I drove into the midst of the mountain range I was experiencing data overload. With mountains all around me, I felt like I was in heaven. It was a great feeling, but a strange feeling. Absorbing all the majesty of the mountains, it felt at times like I was in a dream. I see them, but I can't believe their there. I don't think I ever came off that high; but I soaked it all in as much as I could.

I'm already planning a trip back next year. The only regret I have is that I couldn't spend more time at Big Bend. Next time, I'm staying for three or four days, minimum.

Here are some photographs I took on my hike on The Window Tail. I have many more photos I have yet to process. I will be posting more as I go through and edit more photos. There is also I link to my Flickr Big Bend album.

Click here for more photos