Froggy Went a Courtin'

Sons of the Pioneers

 

Axel & Raymond

(Gammon & Spinach)

She Flew Back

Over the years we talked about going hither & yon always limited by our aversion to flight. Lo & behold she had her nose glued to the window both coming and going. No problem! 

Somewhere West of Albuquerque

I get claustrophobic.

Pre Ceremony Session

Women have been pivotal. And this time is no different. 

Psilocybin became legal in New Mexico three days ago, on the 20th. The bureaucracy still needs to be created but we are proceeding. After more than three years of searching she has, as did all the others, shown up in the nick o'time.

The "ceremony" will be in a couple of weeks.

The Mimosa

Thirty some-odd years old in the shade of a large elm and two substantial cottonwoods. It's blossoms are a deep fuchsia, not the insipid, pale yellows some put out.

El Farolito

 It's open a few hours every now & then. It's in El Rito, a hamlet a few miles from Abiquiu.

Kristen on the left, Rachel, Laura then Ryan, the painting workshop leader, and Diane.

Today was a good day. I got the security cameras configured to the new router and was able to get on the roof and reinstall them.

I got the new - non-prostate-urethra aggravating - bike seat installed on the iron horse. I was only able to ride it about 150 feet but it shifts like a dream. 

I'm hoping I'll have another good day in the not too distant future when I can take it for a longer ride.

Steve, brother-in-law, bought me the bike almost a year ago. My health took a sharp nose-dive and never, until today, came back up. I keep modifying in hopes that I'll be able to use it....someday

How Long Before It's Too Much

When I asked my nurse how people decide when to use the MAID, she said when it gets to be too much; when it gets too hard to breath, or they're in a lot of pain.

The fentanyl patch gets changed every third day. It's a thin film about the size of a nickel. It goes on at a different spot each time. It suppresses most of the pain of the angina. I still take isosorbide dinitrate, PRN. My guess is that someday the combination won't work and the angina'll take over.

Fentanyl causes constipation. I have a choice of several laxatives. The trick is figuring out how much of what to take. So far I'm either on the toilet or thinking about having to get on the toilet.

Combined with the urinary urgency: the feeling that I suddenly have to pee, which arises every 20 minutes or so, I'm kept hopping.

It's discouraging when I don't make it to the pot in time. Sometimes it gets contained in the diaper sometimes it slips out.

I'd hoped the fentanyl would give me more energy but as it is, it's all I can do to get to and from the bathroom.

Maybe it'll change but it's been like this now for two weeks.

Hangnail

Fixing Up Phoebe

It was the minimalist "style" of the Bavarian personnel carriers, the Pinzgauers used at Canyon de Chelly to take tourists into the canyon that I wanted Phoebe to emulate. Any extraneous plastic got stripped off and tossed. It made working on her easier but not very salable. I mean, there just aren't that many Pinzgauer-wannabe enthusiasts looking to buy a '96 Tracker that looks (at least on the inside) sortof like a personnel carrier. 

Lucky Herrmann was checking Craigslist and found a guy in Los Angeles who has recently made himself a business selling Tracker & Samurai parts. And on top of it, he has a friend, also named Mike, in Las Cruces who may help put the pieces back together. (The door latch mechanisms are real booger-bears.)

So, we're on the way to getting Phoebe ready for her next adventure.

NO KINGS

Commemorating.

NEW YORK

State of Things - Apnea & Angina

I have to take my time turning over .... to get to meds ... as turning causes nausea. 

The sleep apnea causes angina so they gave me an oxygen concentrator (oxygenator) with a mask. At some point during the night I took it off - the mask gets sweaty - and with the apnea having full rein, the angina builds. It affects my chest, shoulders and biceps and makes turning over painful.

One might think I'm complaining; certainly that's what it sounds like. But I'm not. I chose this route over the SUPPOSEDLY easier route of $1,000,000.00 open heart bypass surgery. Yes, MEDICARE would've paid 80%. Any fool can see that that leaves you with a debt of over $20,000. 

A year and a half after coming to Albuquerque I still owe $4,000.00 on my Visa for repairs to Phoebe. I hope to pay it off by this October, but my commitment to that means that we do without many other things. (my monthly visit with an escort being of chief concern.)

Actually, I'm really grateful I haven't had to undergo the pain of having my sternum sawed open, my rib cage spread apart by a tool similar to the Jaws of Life, undergone urinary catheterization with a #16 catheter.

Lemme tell yuh 'bout my visit with a urologist about my urinary difficulties; she suggested catheterization. The deal involved a "training" (by a male tech 🤨) on how to insert the catheter. The tech brought a number 16 and showed how to lubricate it and insert it into the opening of my penis. I got it in about an eigth of an inch before the pain made me stop. It took several days to recover from that. My guess is I'd *never* recover from the full monty.

It's at LEAST 6 inches from the tip of my penis to my bladder. The catheter is bendy but all things being relative, it's like threading a worm on a hook. My guess is the leading tip doesn't stay lubed much beyond an inch. This means withdrawing it and re-lubing. Think about it.

Maybe you haven't been to the doctor lately, but I've not gotten the impression they're gonna take the time to withdraw re-lube, reinsert, withdraw, re-lube, reinsert. 

The doctor said the number 16 was what they use -- standard issue. She allowed as how #14s exist (smaller) but they didn't have one.

I looked online and urinary catheters go down to a #8 for children.

Standard protocol disregards the pain induced and any post pain is completely ignored....never mentioned.

Five years after my trans-radial catheterization where they went in through my right wrist to try and stent my arteries the pain is STILL such that I cannot open a jar.

I've made it to the bathroom w/o pooping in my pants. As much as I don't enjoy running to the komode -- sometimes every 20 minutes -- I'm *still* happy with my decision. (I take anti-constipation to counter the side-effects of the fentanyl.)

https://youtu.be/ZbpqW_org3s

This is a pretty good likeness. It's what happens when the only exercise is the hike to the bathroom or the refrigerator. I shave, though. My escorts have said they don't appreciate having a brillo pad between their legs.

Psilocybin Guide

She agrees that LSD has a clarity that psilocybin lacks, but the State of New Mexico's law authorizes the use of psilocybin, not LSD....so there we go.

As a D.O., Doctor of Osteopathy, she played a major role in getting the law passed and is representing the State of New Mexico at the Psychedelic Science Conference (June 16 - 20) in Denver. 

Men & Emotions

 

Office of Gun Violence Prevention

Gone - hours after inauguration.

About Greg Jackson

Interview with Rob Wilcox February, 2025