This past Wednesday, youngest and I went out to our local zoo. We spent about 2 hours wandering around, looking at the exhibits and such. I ran into a former co-worker out there too. She was with her niece and nephews. It was a lovely day, warm, but not too hot with a gentle breeze blowing just enough to keep it from feeling humid.
Do any of you play Farmville 2? I used to play until recently. I decided to quit playing the game. That in itself is hard to do as it is a very addicting game. But I found that all it did was keep me in a state of frustration. Why? I’ll tell you.
Initially, when you start playing the creators of the game gently ease you into the planting, harvesting and selling of crops. When you reach a certain level, they begin adding “quests” for you to complete to get this or that animal or farm equipment piece. You are eased into buying Farm Bucks so that you can complete a certain quest or obtain a particular animal or piece of equipment.
Before you know it the “quests” become more and more difficult, urging you to buy more and more Farm Bucks just to skip the difficult parts of the quests or to complete one quest and move on to the next. If you do not pay attention to what is happening, you will spend hundreds of dollars on this game.
But this is the plan of its creators. They want your money, your hard earned money and they know all the tricks to getting it.
They are comparable to drug dealers or gambling houses. They suck you in gradually, until you are hooked. Then they offer more and more addictive items to suck you dry of your time and money.
My advice and I speak as one who knows is STOP!!!! Begin with just one day. Don’t visit FV2 for one day. Then try not visiting for another day. Continue doing this. Say to yourself, “I don’t need to play FV2 today.” Before you realize it, you will have broken the hold they have on you. And you will have extra money in YOUR pocket, not theirs.
Yesterday we went to the Pensacola Quilt Show at the Fairgrounds. It was in the Expo Hall, a rather large warehouse type building. We walked around and enjoyed all of the beautiful quilts on display. Some were large, some small, some grouped together in a theme such as Route 66 or Pensacola.
There were quite a few women there and some husbands, who, I am sure, were dragged there because of their wives.
I did talk to one lady, a member of the local guild. She had entered a Bargello style quilt. It was beautiful. I did get a pic of her with her entry.
Now for your enjoyment:
Recently, youngest was complaining of his heart pounding. This is odd, because he’s not overweight and he’s a runner.
I’m a retired nurse, so I asked him the usual questions: “Is it racing?” “Any chest pain?” “Any shortness of breath?” To which his answer was, “No, just pounding. I can feel it.” So I told him he should get it checked out. But in the meantime, maybe he should eliminate caffeine and nicotine from his daily routine.
He did that and things seemed to be better for awhile. Then one day at work, it started pounding again. So he went to Urgent Care where they did an EKG….Findings: normal rhythm and rate. He was somewhat relieved and so was I. But I kept searching the recesses of my brain trying to recall anything that might cause his heart to do this crazy pounding thing.
Then a couple of nights ago, we were all in the ER because he had an episode of tachycardia (rapid heart rate). Again they did an EKG with the same results. He did have evidence, so to speak, as the EMTs hooked him up to a monitor and ran a strip showing the rapid heart rate. Of course, by the time he got to the ER, it was slowing down.
After a few hours, we were sent home. In the meantime, I’m still racking my brain trying to come up with a possible cause for this cardiac anomaly. But exhaustion overcomes me and I fall asleep for a few hours.
The next day I wake up still thinking about this problem and rightly so. I’m his mom and no mom wants to think about losing their child regardless of the child’s age. So I continue to rack my brain and out of no where a single word pops up…potassium. So I did a little research.
I finally remembered that potassium has a lot to do with how one’s heart works and deficiencies can cause all kinds of problems. But most folks get enough potassium in the foods they eat daily.
Then I remembered youngest ate a lot of potassium rich foods when he lived at home, but he recently moved out (into an apartment with his older brother) and he was evidently not eating right. So I texted him about potassium, sent him several links, and told him to at least get some bananas and oranges. He did that and also checked his My Fitness Pal account, where he logs his food intake. He checked back for several weeks and found that he was getting less than 400mg of potassium daily and on some days none at all. The daily required amount, depending on what site you check, can be 2000mg to 3500mg.
So now he’s checking not only calories on the foods he eats, but also the amount of potassium that particular food has.
I am hoping this is all that is needed to set him right. He did say that he has had no more tachycardia episodes and the pounding episodes have lessened a great deal.
BTW, he does have an appointment to see his doctor on Tuesday. Keeping my fingers and toes crossed for a good outcome.
Big Lagoon State Park is an example of how Florida would look if no people had settled here. It is a natural habitat and supports numerous wildlife, which includes numerous birds, rodents and snakes.
For the most part, you won’t see the rodents or snakes, but you will see quite a few birds. Photographing them is something else. I was not able to get a photo of any birds this trip. But the scenery is still beautiful.
Just an FYI, I think the water is beautiful, but you won’t find me in it. There are some huge fish in that water and I am a coward at heart.
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