Zencat

Covid is still a threat altho I have little contact with people, I still get out.

I remember you said "Holdfast" in an old Class we were in together here at SR. I think I have the idea now. Stick and stay and weather the urges.

Charon

Zencat - yes indeed. "H O L D F A S T" It's an old sailor's tradition; it meant both to hang on tight (which was life and death on an old ship, in a storm), but meant to be strong, be brave. Hold to our honor in the face of fear and temptation; strength, stubbornness, resistance to the storms and the attacks. Hang on, batten down, stand strong. Hold Fast.

I will need to keep that in mind as yesterday I lost one of my mooring lines. I went to a local lake and did some snorkeling and a very short shallow dive. Evaluating my condition once I got home I decided that I no longer have the stamina to go on a dive vacation. I can still snorkel and my wife has decided that she wants to go on a snorkeling trip with me. During that trip I may be able to do morning boat dives on one day. But gone are the days of going to Bonaire, diving from shore 3-5 dives a day six days in a row. If I work hard at fitness I might be able to squeeze in one more trip and do limited diving from boats and snorkeling from shore. But I will soon need to start selling all my dive equipment and accept that I have to give it up.

Zencat

Buddhism speaks of 'impermanence' as a reminder all things can end. Having things, abilities, and, people that we lose is not the cause of any suffering. It's wanting to hang onto (cling to) what we can no longer have. There is where I would suffer. The universe is in perfect balance when life and death play out. It is me that gets out of wack with the natural harmony of things.

Any ideas for a new adventure in life after scuba?
You have been underwater with the fishes, why not take to the sky a fly with the brides

Charon

[QUOTE=Any ideas for a new adventure in life after scuba?
You have been underwater with the fishes, why not take to the sky a fly with the brides [/QUOTE]

I'm afraid of heights. LOL I might not be able to dive but I can still snorkel. For quite some time now, I've not done any woodworking. I used to turn on a lathe and make small flatwork (jewelry boxes, etc.). I would like to get back to that. I have quite a bit of exotic lumber to use up before I croak. I'll get one more dive in with the two 19 cf tanks to do a clean up dive on the swim area and below the docks at the Pyramid Life Center later this fall..Then in spring I can either sell off or donate everything I don't need for snorkeling.

I'm going to ride my scooter over to the dive shop and drop off the tank that needs filled. Then I have a bunch of errands to run. Once I get back I want to call my primary doc and get an appointment. I need to find out if this weakness & exhaustion are just old age or if something is wrong.

Oh, and re. letting things go that I can no longer do - some time back I had to give up playing soccer. That was a very tough one, but I got through it.

Charon

Going to see my primary physician tomorrow morning. These are the symptoms - Severe Weakness & Exhaustion & Excessive sweating & Out of Breath with Minor Exertion. Dizziness (blowing whistle). Sporadic Noncardiac Chest Pain, Sporadic Cramps - hands, legs, sometimes very severe and persistent, Continual Tingling & numbness in toes, both feet, has progressed almost to middle of foot (arch). Weird feeling in legs while sitting with feet up in recliner for a time. Need to shake, rotate, move, and stretch them for 5-10 minutes to get rid of feeling.

I figured I was going to have to give up almost everything, and then realized that I've experienced this a number of times before. Every cholesterol med that I've been on has done this to me. My guess is that's what it is. If the doc can't offer an alternative explaination I am done taking anything for cholesterol. Once this crap clears out of my system I should be able to dive and do most anything else I want. Hope I'm right.

Dee74

Sounds like visiting the Doc is a good thing Charon.
I hope you and he can work out what’s going on without you having to sacrifice cholesterol meds.

D

Charon

Blood results look normal. Some time has passed since my last shot. I'm feeling some better. I'm due for my next shot this friday. I'm going to take it and if I get sick again I've (most likely) discovered the cause and I can quit the med. If I take the shot and don't get sick then I have to keep searching for the cause. Simple experiment.

Charon

SInce health is one of my important mooring lines I need to figure this out. Taking the shot doesn't seem to have made symptoms worse. I am finding that, though my O2 stays in the 90's, my pulse rate stays much lower than I would expect while exercising on the MagnaTrainer. So blood is getting to my lungs, but maybe not to my muscles. I need to start monitoring my BP too. Since I quit drinking I'm betting that I don't need as much of the antidepressant. I'm cutting the dosage in half (with physicians OK) since some of the side effects include some of my symptoms. Experiment 2.

Charon

Weird. working legs on the Magnatrainer for 30 minutes and without a rest 5 minutes on my arms and my BP was 115 over 62 and my pulse was 50 with 97% O2. Felt light headed and a bit wobbly. Going to convey results to my primary. The numbers just don't seem right.

ManInTheArena

Good luck with this, too, Charon. The BP and pulse numbers do seem low, especially with exercise, but everyone is different and certain anxiety and BP meds can impact them. Reporting to your doc is the right thing, as you know.

My resting HR is pretty low - consistently around 56 - but climbs easily with even moderate exertion. I’m 62yo.

Best wishes.

Charon

One a heart monitor for a week. Off the med that might be causing the symptoms for a month. See the doc after that. My guess at this point is that the metoprolol (drops heart rate) is too high a dose after totally quitting alcohol and the Praluent just compounds the effect. We'll see.

Charon

Started thinking about another article for the American Orchid Society journal. Took some additional pictures of my fern stands and planted area. Also a better one of the cleaned and ready to use Osmunda root.

I also started wotking on refining Pink Floyd's "The Wall". I've done a bunch of their othr albums. Doing the wall will be the toughest.

Once the dive shop opens I'm going to make a run over to pick up my tank. More an excuse to ride than any need. LOL

Dee74

What do you mean by 'refining' The Wall Charon?

D

Charon

It started with Meddle. There were some parts I find annoying - either too long, too abrasive, etc. I got some editing software and removed those segments and merged the remaining so there was no gap or noticable abrupt transition. I took Echos as a stand alone and sliced & diced it as well. I took Dark Side of the Moon and removed a couple of cuts that likewise annoyed me (actually hated some of it) and made a smooth cohesive bit of music. Refined Wish You were here a wee bit and moved Money from Dark SIde to Wish. Took Momentary Lapse of Reason and removed Dogs of War (which I hate) and moved Learning to Fly to the end (much more cohesive). Didn't do much at all to Division Bell and only removed a wee bit of Endless River - a drum riff that just ran a wee bit too long. I also made a second version of Endless RIver by adding a track that runs the whole time and continues beyond for a couple hours of a gurgling stream. Quite nice to fall asleep to. All of my revisions are in seperate folders with another sound track of sleep sounds that continue the rest of the night. One is the gurgling straem, one is thunder and rain, and one is ocean waves. Makes much better listening to fall asleep to than the news.

Now I'm working on The Wall.It's harder because Roger Waters' influence and the abrupt changes (can't say transitions) make it hard to disect out the annoying parts and find a smooth transition. SO far I've got the first half dissected and now will dissect the second half (comes on 2 CD's) then add them together. Once that's done I'll do a final edit and decide on a following sleep sound and done.

Dee74

Ah, I understand, now.
I make playlists on Spotify that cut out some songs add others or move them around too.

Thanks Charon

D

ManInTheArena

Very cool - what software do you use?

Charon

I use the free version of WavePad to do the cutting, deleting, joining and moving. To make a file with multiple tracks (like The Endless River with moving water in the background) I use the free version of MixPad. Both are free for personan, non-comercial use. I find they have way more features than I will probably ever use so no need to upgrade for the full packages.

My latest atrocity is to add "A Great Day For Freedom (from "The Division Bell" to the end of "The Wall". I think Division Bell is about the split between Gillmore and Waters and Great Day starts "On the Day the Wall Came Down. Fits so well that I couldn't resist. I still have some meddling to do with Wall so I haven't listened to the extended version yet. Planning on that at bedtime tonight.

Zencat

Charon, You are making incredible progress with your sobriety and finding a way to engage in life with satisfaction.
Keep on keeping on dude. Ride the rough seas out before going on shore leave to mix some wicked tunes. Good going, don't ever for even one second quit on your dreams. I promise you I will do the same brother. 350 days of living the sober dream. Got to tell you it is good despite the occasional up and downs.

Song editing playlist freeware project sounds (pun) engaging and very interesting to do.

I'm going to figure out Linux on my Acer Chromebook. Have the program/app installed, looking at some tutorials to find one(s) I like.

Sobriety is more than putting down the drink/drug. I believe sobriety is filling all the holes within me that drink carved out. Replace all the voids with, fulfillment, purpose, direction, learning, discovery...add your own hole patches. I fell in a pit, crawled out, got sober, now I look for the pits I carry inside.

Charon

Zen, one of the most important parts of SMART is Point 4 - finding lifestyle ballance. The first three points are just sets of tools, methods, and perspectives to get you to the point where you can begin to bring things into your life that kepp you balanced and centered. I use the tools a lot. Quite a few are useful for general life challenges.and decisions. I frequently find myself using CBA (cost benifit analysis), disputing irrational beliefs, and I depend a lot on mooring lines.SMART has helped me where nothing else I've tried (and I've tried almost everything else) has worked.

Charon

One of my mooring lines isn't exactly breaking but it is becoming less important. Scuba is becoming more difficult for me - both the travel to get somewhere it's worth diving (certanly not locally) and the exertion necessary to get all that equipment on and into the water. I'm finding the Honda Super Cub a fine replacement. I find myself using it for both running errands and just taking rides for the sake of the ride. Once winter comes that will stop, but for now ...