please disregard

Now that we've accomplished that, we will have to work on getting everyone else back here, too. Quadruple posts? Would they kick us out of TR and accuse us of spamming or maybe even something more drastic?

Besides .. It is a sure way to get the freakin' double posts noticed ;)

]:)

Hello all, did you all hear about those porr miners that got trapped under ground? What about the fact that the news first reported them alive then 3 hours later reported them dead. How do you feel about that?

My gosh, there's more activity in this discussion between midnight and 7 AM US Central time than any other part of the day. starg lives in Europe so she lives by some other out-of-sync time system. And The Old Guy, being an old guy, lives by the "early to bed, early rise" routine. And also, being an old guy, he has to wake up several times during the night. That was bad. Real bad. Hell, I'll be in that predicament some day, too. If I live that long. But I gotta live that long. I plan on skiing down Mount Everest when I'm 85, ya know. But I digress... So firestar, what about you? Are you in the U.S.?

It's a wacky world that we live in. There's always something to yack about. If not, we can make something up.

BTW, I bet you're excited to have your son move out. Now you finally have FREEDOM! No more loud, blaring music. No more MTV. No more dirty laundry scattered from wall to wall in his room. No more pimply faced kids coming to the house at all hours of the day and night. No more dirty dishes sitting in the sink. No more sharing the garage with his jalopy. What in the world did adults do to deserve the punishment of having teenagers in our lives?

Do we know a starg around here??

How dare this person have a username similar to me??

]:)

my sleep habits. Who u been talkin' to? I'll have you know I sleep straight through to 5 a.m., usually. I did wake up at 4:30 this morning and posted. Gee, can't do anything without being watched!

Oh, and I think stargazer likes her whole name. Whoooeee at her post!

By saving four strokes of the key, you have renamed Stargazer.
I am from the US., and I suppose I do appear to be nocturnal. I have trouble sleeping sometimes at night, thinking over the daily events and my to do list for the following day. I have heard many times to write down your planned activites, forget about them and go to sleep. Tried it, doesn't work for me. Also, I have trouble with letting go of responsability and allowing someone else to take care of some things, or so I'm told. We all have our faults though,I'm sure. I guess this is one of mine.

You know the NSA has been eavesdropping on everyone's electronic communications lately. If they can do that, then they can surely decipher your sleeping habits. I've noticed strange things since I heard about the NSA's little penchant for prying into our private lives. Now I walk backwards so no one can sneak up behind me and tail me. I vary the route that I drive to work. I've always cooked my own food so I'm not too concerned about being poisoned. But I change around the grocery stores where I buy my groceries. I watch over-the-air television instead of cable TV. I stopped using the Internet. Tread lightly. The spooks are watching. :O

Since I'm shortening people's names, your name is way too long. The Old Guy. Can we shorten it to your initials. TOG? :D

I've always heard that making lists is a good idea. Helps keep you organized and keep priorities. The simple process of writing anything down helps you think more clearly. Probably because of the thought process required to think about something before you write it. I know it's a good idea. But I'm too much of a procrastinator to do it. The end result is that I'm an even worse procrastinator. I can't ever stick to my priorities and am always getting sidetracked. Maybe I have ADD. ?:|

Look, the underscore king wants to shorten our names. Old Guy is sufficient. :) I don't like TOG--I'm not sure what a TOG is. I'm too old for changes. Let's see, hmmm, what other excuse can I think of???

My name is too long. You can shorten it from M_a_r_k to Mark. :D

I know this is cross threading but I didn't want to ask it in the other thread. What is WTF? Unless it's a bad phrase and then I don't need to know it.

Thanks,

That's why most people abbreviate it. WTH = What the hell? WTF is similar but worse. Hmmm.... I'm thinking that even using "WTF" in any post is inappropriate. Where did I write that? I'll edit it out. Thanks. :|

I kind of thought that's what it meant from my former life.

It was in https://www.techrepublic.com.com/5208-11179-0.html?forumID=7&threadID=187141&messageID=1917524

I wasn't trying to say anything I was just wondering. Ok?

I like Old Guy better than The Old Guy. The "The" made you seem like an exalted person. Like, "that new nightclub on 5th Street is THE place to go". I felt like I was supposed to salute whenever I posted a message to you. I'm glad you've regained some measure of humility and come back to the level of the rest of nondescript mortals. :D And it's easier to type. And OG are better initials than TOG. (j/k...I respect people's names most of the time. Unless they have hundred letters or a bunch of underscores. I won't refer to you as OG.)

Thanks for pointing out my grievous lack of judgment regarding the WTF acronym. My excuse is that I had a typo. I meant to type WTH... yeah right. Well, I edited it out.

And, if you believe that... At least I didn't tell you that you can call me Mr. The Old Guy, Sir. I thought about it. I do like Old Guy better anyway. That's more in keeping with what my son calls me. And, he sure wouldn't "exalt" me to anything that he could get away with. My son and I do have fun picking on each other.

I really wasn't trying to suggest anything about the initials in the other post.

The company took us to a trip to Malaga and Morocco ... Wah hey hey ... !! (and no, it is not boring at all). I am sitting (draped over the couch actually) in a luxurius 5 star hotel in Morocco .. (waiting for the workshop to start ..) . Havent had time to read the posts though ..

I can see the ocean outta my window and we have a swimming pool right next to the beach ... Going to go swimming today (whether or not it stops raining)

We went partying last night ... I danced for 4 hours before i remembered that I am sporting a cracked rib ... Ahh well ... (whats done is done) ;)

See ya soon .. will drop by if i get time ..

]:)

P.S .. To those who are new to this ... My company takes us somewhere every year ...

Sounds like you had a fun working vacation. The only exciting thing going on around here is that The Old Guy changed his name to Old Guy.

And it was definately Morocco ... The God awful english ... !!

]:)

Now maybe we can start having a little more fun in here :P. We have missed you. Wow! I'm still on the Farenheit reading but 5C sounds pretty cold.

As for the name change I had to shorten my name to Old Guy so M_A_R_K wouldn't have to type in a couple of extra characters :). Also because he threatened to shorten to TOG and I found out I didn't want to be a TOG. Now that you're back I'm going to take out the formerly stuff.

Cold water sucks the heat out of you much faster than cold air. I'm not sure why. You can live forever in 60 deg F (14 deg C) ambient air but only a few minutes in 60 deg water. A few degrees makes a huge difference in water. Tropical ocean water temperature (Gulf of Mexico, Carribean Sea) is typically around 77 deg F (24 deg C) on the surface (and down to around 40 feet deep). That feels nice. 72 deg F (22 deg C) is very chilly and very uncomfortable. (A typical bath/shower is around 78 F). I bet your 82 F therapy water temp feels like a jacuzzi. Bad thing about that is that warm water dries out your skin and causes aging of the skin. Douse yourself in cool water and use plenty of skin lotion after you get out of the water.

BTW, what happened to your back? Maybe you weren't joking about walking with a cane. ?:|

That's pretty informative. I keep telling you guys I'm old. (not quit to the cane part yet but between my back and my knees sometimes it looks like I should have a cane. :)

Actually, I do have some degeneration of two of my lumbar vertabraes but the worse problem is getting a little older, heavier, and out of shape. They are having me work on my abdominal muscles to control the stability in my back. The pool therapy makes it easier on the rest of the body and allows you to more pinpoint different muscle groups. The water feels incredibly good. I work out at 6 a.m. because I know I wouldn't do it after work. Of course, I take a shower after exercise and the PT is in the same building I'm in so that helps a lot on timing.

I used to have problems with my lower back also. My back would frequently tighten up with severe spasms and I could hardly move. Even on good days, I could only bend over far enough to touch my hands to my knees. MRIs found a few injured discs. I had a couple of rounds of physical therapy. Didn't help much. I finally accidentally discovered the cause on my own. I started to stretch the muscles in back of my legs because I found out that made my back feel better. I kept that up and lo and behold within a few weeks I was limber enough to touch my hands to the floor. Haven't had any of those awful spasms since. The problem was caused by tight muscles in back of my legs. Those muscles attach to lower back. The leg muscles are bigger and stronger than the lower back muscles. The back muscles tried to compensate for being pulled by the leg muscles so they'd have to pull like crazy the other way. It's always going to be a losing battle for weaker muscles. Consequently they'd occasionally scream and throw a fit and cause those immobilizing spasms.

What you are doing in your therapy is correct. Strong core muscles (abs and lower back) are more important than bulging biceps or any of the other strong muscles that most people build up for vanity purposes. They are important for posture (which is good for your spine) and when your core muscles get tired, the rest of your body follows suit. You can still do most everyday activities with tired arms or tired legs but not with a tired back. You might have learned all of this already through your PT.

Bad knees, age and extra weight all contribute to an ailing back. Do a variety of core strengthening for abs and back. Not the old-fashioned situps. Those are bad for your back and don't even do much for your abs. I do 10 or 15 mins of core exercises almost every day. A long brisk walk (at least 30 minutes, 15 minutes per mile pace, at least four days per week) is also good for overall health (even better than jogging as you get older and esp if you have bad knees) and will allow you to lose extra weight if you avoid fatty and high-sugar foods. You'd be surprised how easy it is do lose weight. Just get your heart rate up to about 110 beats per minute for at least 30 consecutive minutes. Low intensity exercise like walking burns fat calories. High intensity exercise like jogging burns sugar calories. When I jog my heart rate goes way up to about 160. It stays around 120 during a brisk walk.

Check out a book called [i]Younger Next Year[/i]. It's pretty good and will tell you how to eat right and exercise right to stay young and fit as a fiddle.

That's your physiology lesson for today.

Mark, thanks for the info you are absolutely correct. Actually, I've worked in Orthopaedics for the past 19 years as surgical assistant and now as IT. We have a Spine specialty department with our own PT department in that. They keep getting me straighened out every so often.

For several years I would come in early and work out on the machines they have here. Actually because of my knees I was using a recumbant bike which is the best for knees.

My problem, which is a lot of people's problem is staying with it. We moved all of our offices into on location back in August and I got out of the routine. I'm trying to get back into it once I get a handle on the back thing. Again you are completely correct on the hamstrings being tight. That is another of my back problems that we are trying to get stretched out.

Actually, I'm really impressed you have so much accurate knowledge on this. That's pretty cool!

who has spent most of his life in the hospital ... sure its cool and accurate advice ...

Hmmm ... what can be my intake on this?? Damn .. I cant participate in this discussion ... my back is perfectly fine .. I am not old .. :p :D

]:)

You may be a girl and I can't take my cane to you but I can give you a good talking to you young whipper snapper!

It's a good thing I like girls so much.

The phrase "a good talking to" is actually, "a good dressing down" here in the south. However, I couldn't use that because I'm sure SOMEONE here would exploit that and make me turn red again. :)

No, Mark, don't do it!!!

is to start a healthy and fit way of life now while you're young and spry and nimble. Otherwise you'll end up like Old Guy. Or end up as a bunch of titanium parts like me.

Old Guy, I've always been interested in this sort of thing. It took me a long time to learn what's right and what's wrong, though. And I'm still learning. I'm a typical wannabe jock. Bigger, better, stronger, faster and all that macho stuff. All it ever got me when I was young and foolish was careless injuries. Now I'm a bit older and a bit wiser but I'm sure I haven't seen the end of my careless injuries.

stargazer, not being from the U.S., might have misinterpreted that phrase. And watch out how you brandish that cane. You don't want to throw your back out again.

What do you mean like the OLD Guy? You just try to keep up with me, Sparky! On the short run it's not hard to keep up with me but on the long run a lot of people would have trouble. (I don't mean an actual run but just in all the stuff I do with my kids (Youth Group), my family, and everything else we do. It's one of those things that I wonder how am I going to get all this done but we do. And, it's fun.

is easy ... since I do all of that stuff too ... ;)

Now doing the old guy stuff is going to be difficult :D .. you know like ... lying in bed all day and groaning :p

]:)

P.s Aaaahhh ... so good being young and kidding old guys :D

You better slide down to the Ok post. It's just for you!!!!

Since when do I fall in the category of being an old guy? Old Guy (formerly The Old Guy), I need to borrow your cane. And I don't need it for walking. Someone here needs a good thrashing. haha

My Manager just made me very very angry again ...

By the way old guy ... you said that you like girls .. you wouldn't want poor ol' defenseless me hurt ... would you?? :x

]:)

Time to get the light saber back out, Stargazer.

Naw, I couldn't let anyone hurt you. My guys in Youth group don't stand a chance because I always take up for the girls.

BTW, have you read the posts below here? I was just going to give you a talking to or something. :)

because the alternative means he likes guys. If that were the case, I'd have my pal Guido run him out of town. :D

I have been reading each and every post ...

Whereever is firestar do u know?? Rearranging again, I presume !!

]:)

I am cold shouldering my Boss ... Dont think he notices though :(

I have even lost the will to hang around TR ... GOD HELP !!!

Anyone have any Vitamin tablets??

]:)

]:)

But mainly because I didn't want to include it here. It was impertinent. Sorry.

Thanks. He's fired you again? Fickle, isn't he? Maybe we should just, when he gets ready to go snowboarding down the mountain, we could just give him a little push, ... accidentally though. I'll bring the video cam, and a snow suit in case he does lose his clothes. Wouldn't want him to catch a cold, now would we? :)

And who wanted me to shorten my name??? Stargazer, it sounds like we have an instigator amongst us.

Firestar, glad you're back. Yeah, hang with us--we're the fun guys. By the way, if you happen to see an instigator on the mountain just push real hard. We'll alibi for you. :)

:D Are you still busy rearranging your house? You should rearrange your priorities and drop by TR every now and then. Just kidding... I know that we're not nearly as exciting as a good old-fashioned house rearrangement. OK, well I was trying to be humble for once. I know that we are more exciting than a house rearrangment. But maybe not nearly as important. Oh, to hell with this humility crap. I know that we are also more important than a house rearrangment.

BTW, don't hesitate to bounce into some of the other discussions going on around TR. You've probably dipped your toe into a few of those already and found that some get a bit interesting on occasion, especially the ones under the Miscellaneous topic.

My comment about suddenly disappearing applies to more than one situation. You haven't heard from me b/c I haven't heard from you. (Say that too many times too quickly and you'll get dizzy.) < thundering yawn > You and Mr. Bollywood do have at least one thing in common. haha The ex-wife always told me that I'm crazy. If I keep talking to myself, it will prove her to be correct. Can't have that happen.

Did I first suggest that you change your name? Gosh, I don't remember that. And I haven't even been to Moscow. But hell, how did we end up with so many people named fire-something? I have been wanting to change my name. Maybe I'll change it to Fireman. Every young boy wants to grow up to be a fireman.

Did he dig us a ditch and leave us to die?? ;)

]:)

Its a who??

I cant even joke properly through a blockd nose ... Damn .. Anyone seen the fire poker??

]:)

A pandemic is an epidemic. Only worse. Have you forgotten about my handy online dictionary?
http://dictionary.reference.com/search?q=pandemic

Does anyone ever come here still?