High Blood Pressure

If there is one thing I learned while I was taking care of my dad, it is that it is important to know what high blood pressure symptoms are and now to know when you have high blood pressure.

High blood pressure is caused by poor diet, obesity, inactivity, and stress ~ which makes me four times susceptible to having high blood pressure. It can be battled by exercise, proper diet and medications.

Keep alert to the warning signs of high blood pressure. High blood pressure symptoms include: headache, fatigue or confusion, chest pain, pounding in chest neck or ears, and difficulty breathing.

If you suspect you might have high blood pressure, consult your doctor to find out and what your treatment options are.

Hard Candy Christmas and a Better Class of Losers

I went in the other room for a few minutes after posting that last post, came back and put radio headphones back on to find Dolly Parton singing Hard Candy Christmas. Seems to me a very fitting song. Have to wonder if there was some kind of hint from mom and dad that I should decorate for the holidays even if no one else will see the tree and decorations.

Although, as I write this, I am listening to Randy Travis sing "Better Class of Losers"... hmmm.... hint to screw the snobby family types and go hang with my own better class of losers?


Hard Candy Christmas
Dolly Parton
[Lyrics from Cowboy Lyrics]

Hey, maybe I'll dye my hair
Maybe I'll move somewhere
Maybe I'll get a car
Maybe I'll drive so far
They'll all lose track
Me, I'll bounce right back

Maybe I'll sleep real late
Maybe I'll lose some weight
Maybe I'll clear my junk
Maybe I'll just get drunk on apple wine
Me, I'll be just

Fine and Dandy
Lord it's like a hard candy Christmas
I'm barely getting through tomorrow
But still I won't let
Sorrow bring me way down

I'll be fine and dandy
Lord it's like a hard candy Christmas
I'm barely getting through tomorrow
But still I won't let
Sorrow get me way down

Hey, maybe I'll learn to sew
Maybe I'll just lie low
Maybe I'll hit the bars
Maybe I'll count the stars until dawn
Me, I will go on

Maybe I'll settle down
Maybe I'll just leave town
Maybe I'll have some fun
Maybe I'll meet someone
And make him mine
Me, I'll be just

Fine and dandy
Lord it's like a hard candy Christmas
I'm barely getting through tomorrow
But still I won't let
Sorrow bring me way down

I'll be fine and dandy
Lord it's like a hard candy Christmas
I'm barely getting through tomorrow
But still I won't let
Sorrow bring me way down

I'll be fine and dandy
Lord it's like a hard candy Christmas
I'm barely getting through tomorrow
But still I won't let
Sorrow bring me way down

'Cause I'll be fine
(I'll be fine)
Oh, I'll be fine



Better Class of Losers
Randy Travis
[Lyrics from Cowboy Lyrics]

I'm getting out of this high-rise penthouse suite
Where we pretend life's rosy and sweet
I'm going back to the folks that I used to know
Where everyone is what they seems to be

And these high-class friends that you like to hang around
When they look my way they're always looking down
I'm tired of spending every dime I make
To finance this way of life I've learned to hate

I'm going back to a better class of loser
This up-town living's really got me down
I need friends who don't pay their bills on home computers
And who buy their coffee beans already ground
You think it's disgraceful that they drink three-dollar wine
But a better class of loser suits me fine

You say the grass is greener on the other side
From where I stand I can't see grass at all
And the concrete and the steel won't change the way you feel
It takes more than caviar to have a ball

I'm going back to a better class of loser
This up-town living's really got me down
I need friends who don't pay their bills on home computers
And who buy their coffee beans already ground
You think it's disgraceful that they drink three-dollar wine
But a better class of loser suits me fine

You think it's disgraceful that they drink three-dollar wine
But a better class of loser suits me fine

Home for the holidays is not the same

I had always loved the holidays. From Halloween through to New Years was the happiest time of the year for me. I collected decorations and decorated the house and porch and out into the yard.

I don't live in an area where anyone actually sees the decorations, it has always been for my parents. This year, with both my mom and my dad passed away, the winter time is just cold. I look around and think about decorating the house, but... it really does not make much sense anymore. I can't get up the desire to decorate when no one else is around to enjoy the decorations.

I'm not sure yet if I should force myself to decorate as usual and make the traditional candies and cookies that me and mom always made, or if I should just leave the house undecorated and not make anything.

Halloween and Thanksgiving both passed mostly unnoticed. My nephew brought me over a plate of dinner from my brother's house, and my oldest sister invited me to drive down to her place, but I declined to go out in lousy weather to visit with people that never have any interest in spending any time with me or helping me when I ask for a little help.

This year, for the first time ever, as I think of a perfect Christmas it is not one where I am with my family. I find that as Christmas approaches I think more of being able to share the season with my friends. They say that home is where the heart is, and for me, I am starting to think it is no longer here with people that do not care about me unless they have something to gain from it, my home feels more and more like it is thousands of miles away with people that ask me how I am doing and call me if they have not been in touch with me for a few days to a week.

I was raised to believe that family is all that matters. I watched my mom struggle to ensure that my older brothers and sisters each had a home to live in and raise their families. Now it hurts that two out of four of my siblings refuse to help me try to save my parents' house, have gone so far as to tell me to just give up because they would work against me if they did anything, and one of the other two is simply not taking a position on anything to do with it.

Yeah... Christmas is quickly replacing Valentine's Day as my least favorite holiday. At least at Valentine's Day I am only reminded that I do not have a man to hold me, for Christmas I am reminded that I have barely any family that cares and all my friends are too far away.... and I don't have a man that can hold me.

Yeah. Christmas time sucks.