Coffee or not? The choice to have coffee in the mornings is nigh

It's been nine days since my last operation and it is still a struggle to eat. My digestive system is working but not up to normal. My appetite has not really returned - I get hungry but feel full after very little food.

That's fine - I am using this opportunity to lose weight and stop some of my bad eating habits. So far I have lost about twelve pounds and if I keep this up I will be at a third of my total weight loss goal by the end of the year.

So far I have not gone back to having coffee in the mornings. Before the operation I HAD to have at least one fourteen ounce cup every morning. That was a cut back but gave me enough caffeine to get going.

It's been long enough that the caffeine withdrawal is over and done. I still crave that pick me up in the morning but don't have that addict's pull for it.

Maybe it is the time to cut my caffeine ties? I could still have the occasional coffee but it sure would save me a lot of time every morning to just not have that daily cup.

What do ya'll think?

Out of the hospital again - minus a kidney and a hernia!

Wednesday I had my second set of procedures - left kidney removed via hand assisted laparoscopic surgery and mid-line hernia repair. The healing from this compared to the TAVR (trans arterial valve repair) will be much slower. For one thing, I had my first solid food this morning, if half a cup of thin oatmeal counts as solid food.

I have two small incisions on my left and a 6" vertical incision right across my belly button. The big incision is a little sore, but not really painful.

The mass on my kidney was a stage 1 cancer - completely enclosed in the kidney with no signs of spreading. The five year survival rate is 81% and we will do follow up imaging to make sure there is not additional signs of cancer.

The hernia was worse than the doctor thought - couple of loops of intestine were pushed through. Eventually they could have become damaged and blocked which can be very serious. Now instead of my tummy pooching out, it goes way in. I'll have to get used to my new figure!

I came home today and have slept most of the day. Now eating my third meal since the surgery.

Now for the bad news - my sister called after I was out of surgery Wednesday. Mom was in so much pain Tuesday her caretaker took her to the emergency room. The pain was caused by three collapsed or shattered vertebrae. Along with the spine problem, on the X-ray they saw tumors scattered across her body, the worst in her liver. She is now in hospice at home. Since she is a 96 year old woman with worsening Alzheimers, any treatment other than palliative care would just be a cruelty.

How to download or record a Adobe Flash video from a website?

My Dad did a video recording in 2005 for the local history group. They were supposed to give us a DVD of the recording and never did - or if they gave one to Dad it is lost.

My sister asked them for a copy but apparently the only copy is online and uses Adobe Flash. Video Download Helper that will happily download YouTube videos does not even see this one. I've tried a couple of things, but have not been able to download his video.

The site is: Polk Pioneers.​ All the videos there seem to be in the same format.

THOSE WERE THE GOOD OLD DAYS: A Randy Rainbow Song Parody

Making the change to streaming!

I posted last month asking about Netflix. Now we have three TVs doing streaming.

I started with a Roku Express for the TV closest to the WiFi router. It's working great. So far I have subscribed to Netflix and Sling with the news add-on so I can get MSNBC. For free throughput I have added TubiTV and Crackle, Vudu (which I will never use for pay programming), and the Roku Channel (not much on there but it comes with the Roku).

My biggest complaint about the Roku Express is that it does not control the TV. So I found the Insignia multi function remote that can control the TV, the Roku, and the DVD. If I can figure out what kind of sound bar I have it might be able to control that, too, or it can control a receiver or other sound product.

Meanwhile we splurged and bought a 65" LG 4k Smart TV for the living room! It has built in streaming and the LG WebOS has Channel Plus which has a lot of content. Adding our existing streaming accounts to the TV was a breeze.

Now that we are near to cutting the cord, we needed another streaming device for the TV in the family room - another Roku - this one is the Roku Streaming Stick. The Stick is purported to have a stronger WiFi signal so I figured it would be good for the TV further away from the router. The hardest part about hooking up another Roku device is entering the ridiculous WiFi password. The remote with the stick has audio control built in so right now we don't need a multifunction remote for it.

We haven't yet disconnected our PrismTV - I'm giving it until Monday. When I do I will upgrade our DSL to 40 mbps, the fastest speed we can get at our location. With the DSL and landline our monthly bill will be $95 - plus $30 for Sling (with news), $14 for 4k Netflix (which gives us 4 channel throughput), and probably soon $6-8 for Hulu. Our current bill is over $250.

So far I am enjoying streaming - and I am finding shows I'd never heard of, shows I'd forgotten, and series I'd never finished. For the last week I have been binge watching Longmire. I just got to the episodes filmed for Netflix and will be caught up in time for the new season to start on November 17!

Seeing the Ice Age Wacissa Through Artifacts and Fossils (Florida)

Liberal Redneck - And Justice for Paul

Sweet Indictment - Randy Rainbow

Conspiracy Books

Manafort & Stone -- Tony Podesta -- John Podesta? Questions I have

From when I first read about Tony Podesta's firm getting caught up in the FARA investigations I wondered. His firm was brought into the Ukrainian situation by Manafort & Stone's firm. Apparently Tony Podesta's firm relied on information provided to them that the organization they were working for was not a governmental entity. It turns out that was a lie - who gave Podesta that info? Manafort & Stone?

Was Tony Podesta set up by Manafort & Stone?

Could Tony Podesta's email have been the conduit for hacking John Podesta's email account? After all brothers tend to communicate regularly and John Podesta may not have been as careful as usual with email contacts from his brother or from people that seemed to be connected to his brother.

Not pushing this as a serious theory, just questions that keep floating to the top of my head.