Steve and Judy's Travels!

  “To reduce the incidence of kidney stones, drink plenty of water and pay attention to salt intake.”  After study and evaluation, that’s what the specialists advise.  In other words, continue what I’m doing.  That by itself doesn’t suggest any change in my incidence of kidney stones.   Of course, I have more information than the specialists do; I have more than just a couple studies at a particular point in time.  I’ve been paying attention to this issue for years.  I got my first (identified) kidney stone when I was in my mid-twenties.  (In retrospect, I think I had one once in my teens and once in the army, both undiagnosed, now that I know for sure what they feel like.)  For the identified stone in my twenties, the doctor asked me how much milk I drank.  I told him a quart a day.  Kidney stones tend to be calcium compounds, mine are calcium oxalate, and milk has a lot of calcium.  He suggested I stop drinking milk.   When I had my second kidney stone a year later, I decided maybe I should listen to the doctor’s advice and I quit drinking milk.  I didn’t have another stone for years.  Ever since then, every time I have a recurrence of kidney stones, I can trace them back to an unintentional intake of excessive calcium.  In my forties I got on a dietary supplement regimen.  A year later, when I had a kidney stone, I read the supplement ingredients carefully and found every one of them had calcium in it.  I quit taking those supplements and the kidney stones quit.   More recently when I started having kidney stones again, I searched for a calcium source and realized that my daily dose of Pepcid to combat indigestion at night was loaded with calcium and I had been overdosing myself for a year.  I changed when and how I ate so I wouldn’t have heartburn at night and never took another Pepcid.  Following that realization, last year, we were stopped in Glenwood Springs, Colorado for some emergency room attention and drugs for a kidney stone I was having.  The urologist there told us I was doing fine with the one I was working on and it should finish passing in another couple months.  She also alerted us that there were still half a dozen small ones that we would end up dealing with later when they got bigger.  I think the five kidney stones we just went through were the last of the Pepcid generation of stones.  My kidneys now look clear; no stones of any size.  I’ll go back to my operating theory that as long as I avoid any new massive calcium intake, I should remain, mostly, kidney stone free.  (I’ll also check back with the Colorado urologist annually as an early warning device)   I’ll report back on how that works out…  

  When I was young, driving a ’55 Chevy, I thought of motors as moving objects.  How fast could they change speeds; can they rev high and get there fast?   Now, driving the motorhome, I think of the motor more as a static object.  Set it at 1,600 rpm rolling down the highway.  The load varies with the terrain, but the engine holds steady.  Now it’s more about how constant a speed the engine can hold than about how fast it can change speeds.    

  I’m confused by speed bumps.   If a neighborhood wants you to drive 15 or 20 miles an hour down their street, why put in speed bumps that can only be negotiated at 5 miles per hour?  That guarantees braking, bouncing, and accelerating for every bump!  Why not put in speed bumps that are comfortable at 15 miles per hour, but uncomfortable above?  That would accomplish what they’re after; reduced speed, and also reduce noise, and pollution from acceleration.    

  Let’s say you have a tax base of 1,000 people and the city provides a service for those people at a cost of $1 per person.  They tax each person $1 and that covers the cost.  Years go by and the city grows to 10,000.  Now they have a tax base of $10,000 to provide the same service to each constituent, so even though there are more people there are more tax dollars to provide the service.  So far so good.   When we were young, and it was time to get a driver’s license, we went to the Department of Motor Vehicles, stood in line, and took our driver’s test.  Same day.  No problem.  Now in 2018, our granddaughter is ready to take her driver’s test, but the Department of Motor Vehicles is too busy to administer the driving test until mid-September, a month later!  What just happened?  We paid our taxes in 1961 and got a service.  Now in 2018, we’re still paying taxes and they can’t provide the service for a month?  Sure, there are more people now than there were then, but if there are 10 times as many people that means the local government is collecting 10 times as much money.  No matter the population, they have the same amount of money per person to provide the service.  Why would the service change?    

  2018 May Colorado Trip   A quick stop at the Falfurrias Rest Area and magical fractured light through the oaks.   And a nice sign over the door for our return.   What was to be a six week trip turned into three and a half months.  There were some things we did on purpose, and there were some unexpected challenges along the way, but the challenges were overwhelmed by love and support (and great medical care).  We had times with friends and family we wouldn’t have otherwise had.   Life on the road.  It’s just like life, only with wheels.