Geesh...Todd..sorry to hear this...what are the doctors saying about it?

Hi Luna,

DS1's best friend since childhood is a chiropractor. He has been adjusted a million times but still has a recurring problem. He hurt it a few years ago. He had been on a photo shoot on a deep sea fishing trip and when he stepped from the boat onto the dock, he had equipment in both hands and hanging all over him and his foot slipped as he stepped and his legs came out from under him. I saw the xray. His lower spine literally had a "C" curve in it.

He refuses to see an orthopedic surgeon because he will not have surgery. Maybe he will one day, but his friend has convinced him that he can fix his back.

Todd...How long is your DS1 willing to wait for his 'friend' to fix him, before getting a 'second opinion'?

....you know how 'timelines' are important around here...LOL! <img src="/ubbt/images/graemlins/grin.gif" alt="" /> <img src="/ubbt/images/graemlins/grin.gif" alt="" />

Luna,

I really don't know. He hurt his back approximately 18 months ago and it gets better then bad again. I think it will take a lot of pain for him to finally agree to see an orthopedic. I work on him at least once a week.

Todd....why do you think he doesn't want a 'second' opinion? ...or he has had one...involving surgery....and it's just not an option for him... I can see why it would be 'scary'...I am also one for trying 'everything' before going under the knife!

I can see how this could be worrisome for you as a parent <img src="/ubbt/images/graemlins/rolleyes.gif" alt="" /> <img src="/ubbt/images/graemlins/rolleyes.gif" alt="" />...but like we do here, the best we can do is offer suggestions... and as adults ...leave it up to them to choose and decide!

Hi Luna,

I don't think he has any fear of going under the knife at all. Chiropractors are into natural, holistic healing and they believe that any problem can be cured with proper manipulation of the spine. In fact, his friend wanted to adjust me to help with the tumor. I said, err, no thanks. So, until my sons's back gets so painful and does not get better, I don't see him changing course.

LOL....don't blame you, Todd...for not taking up his offer! <img src="/ubbt/images/graemlins/grin.gif" alt="" /> <img src="/ubbt/images/graemlins/grin.gif" alt="" />

Hey All, kinda slow here. I guess people are resting after yesterday's food glut. I just had what is about the last of the "good" leftovers. They can't be gone soon enough. Too much!

Just thought I'd pop in & say hi. I think I'll watch a little t.v. then go to bed & read.

Hi Nams...ditto for me... <img src="/ubbt/images/graemlins/cool.gif" alt="" /> <img src="/ubbt/images/graemlins/cool.gif" alt="" />

Since you live in Mexico, in your case, the safest metal to wear would be something like tin. The others you mentioned are likely to get you murdered - very bad for the health. Steel might be okay - as long as it doesn't "appear" to be silver. Thieves don't usually do an assay before killing you. They test it later.

Wearing no jewelry at all is probably the safest.

Thanksgiving went very well. We had a Colombian family and a Venezuelan family over. Just not quite the same. Dinner turned out very well. Being an international family, I had to allow for frijoles to be party of traditional TG fare. I had everything worked out and planned well. After dinner we sat down to watch the Dallas Cowboys. Unfortunately I forgot to factor in time zone difference because I always thought the games were "live" and they have always been on right after TG dinner. Still scratching my head on where my calculations went wrong.

Speaking of chiropractors, one day I was walking around Raffle's mall in Singapore on a weekend with too much free time. I walked by am store (Osram?) that sells Japanese health things like massagers, etc. Osram isn't exactly right but it is something like that. Anyway this girl is out front and askes me if I want to try an electronic massager. I say okay. She places the electrodes on my back and neck, turns it on and it is simply wonderful. I hadn't been that relaxed in years. Naturally I buy it. I take it back to my room and try it. The bad news is that the thing didn't come with the girl operator because no matter how hard I tried, I could never get the electrodes placed the way she had. It wasn't relaxing at all. So I decided to up the voltage thinking maybe that was the problem. I had it so high, my arm would jerk up and bang me in the nose. While that hurt, it took my mind off the pain in my shoulder. My shoulder/neck just kept getting worse and worse so I just kept zapping myself with more voltage. After a few weeks, I was in such pain that I couldn't even turn my head. It was unsafe even to drive because I couldn't look in the side mirrors.

Finally I went to a chiropractor for the first time in my life. He took an X-ray and asked me if I had been in an accident. He showed me a "normal" X-ray for comparison. I had a double bend in my neck! He worked on my twice a day for two weeks and then I had to go twice a weeks for months. I now no longer need a chiropractor because there has been so much connective tissue destroyed in my neck that all I have to do is sneeze and it all pops back into place.

It was the most expensive massager I have ever bought. It ended up costing me several thousand dollars. Now if I had asked for the version with the girl operator,I might have saved a lot of money.

Todd,

I was surfing the BBC news. Do you own a gun? If so, it might be wise not to shoot at the Atlanta police if they knock on your door. They apparently don't show much mercy - gunning down 92 year old ladies. Those guys are tough!

Too funny.

I was never that interested in jewellery until I visited Prague. There is a jewlery tradition of almost 1000 years, even jewlery museum. There is another side to jewlery, the physical expoliation of the miners. Have any of you seen Sebastiao Salgado pics? I think he was a metalurgic engineer before going into photography.

If the Atlanta police knock on my door, I promise not to shoot them. I know their tactics.

Hola Todd,

Don't shoot, it's bad for your health.


Hey Stph,

Good to see you.

<img src="/ubbt/images/graemlins/pfft.gif" alt="" />


<img src="/ubbt/images/graemlins/smile.gif" alt="" />


Good night everybody.

Luna,

nice lyrics but I want the music. Buaaaaahhhhhhhhhhhhhhh.

Nams,

seems you got leftovers for a month.

<img src="/ubbt/images/graemlins/grin.gif" alt="" />

Hi everyone,

What a wonderful day Thanksgiving was. We had such a great day. Our tradition has always been to go surfing as a family early in the morning and this year I was once again healthy enough to surf too. It is so glorious out there on the water when the sun is rising with dolphins catching the waves alongside of you. It is a feeling I wish everyone could experience. We then go home and cook up monsterous amounts of food for breakfast.

The smell of the turkey etc.cooking fills the house and friends and family start arriving each of them bringing their own good cheer. It was a very long day and went on way into the early hours of the morning. The boys friends all come over, more surfing if anyone has the energy, games of volleyball on the beach etc. and the weather was perfect.

So, we had a wonderful Thanksgiving and my H and I acted as adults and carried the day off happily.

Today, my stores are open till midnight. It is one of our biggest days of the year. We started a new tradition when I was diagnosed and our profit from today goes to our favorite charities. It has become a well known event in the area. Local merchants donate wine, cheese etc. and it is given out to the customers while they shop. Some customers didn't leave! We had another highly successful day and I'm so happy to be able to once again help local charities. Other than Christmas day these two days are my favorite days of the year.

I hope everyone else had a good couple of days too. I am thrilled to see Steph back with us. Todd, I would have roped you in to serve the wine and chat to the ladies if I had of known you were available.

Heading to bed exhausted but happy. Tomorrow it is back to reality. Beth.

I'm a little disappointed and undecided as to what to do. I have said here on many occasions how much I like Twix. I was at the commisary over the weekend and, while standing in the checkout line, I saw the Twix. It made me a little hungry. When I looked at the Twix, I noticed that they weren't just any old Twix - they were Limited Edition Twix - with extra chocolate! I got really excited. First I considered myself very fortunate to have even found them. I was very surprised that they hadn't already sold out being a Limited Edition and all. There were several boxes so I bought them all. I was convinced that my LE Twix are going to be worth some serious money in the very near future - especially since I think I have cornered the local market. I was getting all prepared to sell these on Ebay when I tried one. To be honest, they aren't nearly as good as a standard edition Twix. So now I am afraid I have spent money on 3 boxes of LE Twix that I will never be able to recover. It also proved to me that it is possible that a Twix can actually have too much chocolate. Anyway, If I can find some way to sell mt Twix on Ebay and I just happen to make a profit, is that taxable under IRS guidelines and what happens if I don't declare it?

If you sell on eBay and it is considered to be a hobby, and you don't derive substantial income from it, it is not taxable. If you turn this into a Ponzi scheme, then you will owe taxes. What will they do? They will hunt you do, peel your skin off with needle nose pliers and bake you for twelve days. Then they will get very mean. In the final act of humiliating and punishing you, they will throw your Snap-on tools in the trash. Now, that is low.

Do not despair my friend. What you need to do is to corner the market on the Ltd. Edition Twix before anyone has a chance to learn how lousy it is. Rent a 15 passenger van, hire 15 locals to go to stores and buy all the Twix they can find. Give them a prepaid cell phone and instruct them to call you when they have the Twix in hand. Then start listing the Twix on eBay. With any luck, you can sell every last case before 2055.

What does Henry Winkler have to do with any of this? <img src="/ubbt/images/graemlins/confused.gif" alt="" />

Does anyone ever wonder why I am running for President? Here is a sample.

The US Tax Code is 16,845 pages. Every time the Congress "simplifies" the code, it grows by 2,000 pages. Can you fathom that? 16,845 pages. We regard "War and Peace" as being a very very long book. The hardback version is a mere 1,408 pages. Hence, the tax code spans the equivalent of nearly 12 "War and Peace"s. Does that blow anyone's mind besides mine?

Is anyone aware that the US Government pays people to be poor? It is called the Earned Income Tax Credit. It was a creation of the radical sixties when it was dubbed "a negative income tax". It is means tested and qualified "taxpayers" must meet other qualifications. I have a niece who collects this check every year. She has two kids, never been married but has shacked up with various guys since before the birth of her first child. One day, I was telling her my plan to fundamentally do away with income taxes. Her response: no you don't, you are not taking away my income tax! So, you see, the federal governemnt has convinced a subset of our population that their annual check in reward of being poor is income tax. I could never get her to understand. I asked her if she voted. She said yes. Regardless of what the government and my niece call it, it is income redistribution. Marxism. Socialism. And for those of us who regard the income tax and somethng we pay, we have to slog through almost 17,000 pages of legalese.

If I am elected, the tax code will easily fit on one page, with 18 pt font, doulble spaced. Meanwhile, I am on page 843 of War and Peace. As complicated as the Russian masters can get, Tolstoy pales by comparison.