My hiatus from BigBaldGuy, if anyone noticed, has been due to spending a lot of my time working on St. Mary’s website, as well as getting the site up for my new venture. Yes, I’ve been busy with other priorities but now I’m back. I thought the release of WordPress 3.0 would be as good a time as any to renew my commitment to posting regularly about my interests in all things geek, gadgets and social media.

The date of my last post on BigBaldGuy.com was February 17th, heralding the announcement of Google Buzz. At that time I was, and still am, excited about Buzz. It got a bad rap in the tech sector for the way it was rolled out within Gmail, but its features are awesome and getting even more awesome.

As you’ll see, I use Buzz primarily to share items of interest from Google Reader. I use a WordPress plugin called Google Buzz ER to share my latest Buzz in this blog. You’ll see the attractive widget in the sidebar, with its images and clear attribution with a link to the source.

Subscribe to my feed and come along for the ride. Feel free to share things you find interesting in your blog, and let me know when you do so I can be sure to follow you too. I’ll be spiffing up the site header with a nice image and I’ll be doing some design tweak over the next couple of weeks. I’ve learned a few tricks using my new theme of choice, Thesis 1.7. Highly recommended.

I’m very happy to be back!

There had been tornado warnings in the area yesterday with forecasted storms and strong wind. Up until mid-afternoon all we experienced was some light rain. Then it happened. The rain started to pour down and the wind was driving it through our valley diagonally. I grabbed the video camera and shot this video (watch to the end):

As I was returning the camera to it’s stand, I heard a loud crash. Turning around I saw one of our big oak trees down across the fence and on top of our little Boogey Lights trailer. I called Christine who was down at the barn throughout all of this. She said rain was actually blowing into the barn from underneath the sides. It was scary. When I told her about the oak tree she couldn’t believe it. We had recently had the tree guy here clearing that part of the property and he told us the tree was healthy. No one expected this to happen!

The Filas barked at the downed tree and then slowly ventured off the front porch to examine this giant intruder. They don’t like it one bit. The tree guy will be back soon to clear this one away and the firewood will go to a neighbor. Another $500 insurance deductible to pay to clear it, repair the fence and the trailer. Ouch!

Today I begin my preparations for tomorrow’s colonoscopy. It’s not a fun prep, but it’s absolutely necessary for the surgeon to get a good look at my inner plumbing. Nothing to eat today, other than clear liquids. The worst part is the solution I start to drink at noon that will keep me very close to the toilet for the rest of the day. It’s all part of the cleansing process for this important screening procedure that seeks to find any evidence of colon cancer or its humble beginnings in the form of polyps growing in your colon.

The Odds Are Awesome and In Your Favor
Statistics totally support this early detection method as the best way to identify colon cancer before it becomes fully developed and spreads throughout one’s body. In fact, according to About.com, “when diagnosed early, 90% of colorectal cancers are completely curable.” The really cool thing is that if they find no polyps during the procedure, you don’t need to do it again for another 10 years. That’s right, you’ll have peace of mind for the next 10 years that this form of cancer is not within you.

We Humans are Excellent Rationalizers
I’m sure there are many people who know they should get a colonscopy, but they rationalize reasons for not doing it. Why would smart people not embrace this medical procedure that’s widely available, relatively painless (they put you to sleep for the procedure) and every bit as important for both men and women as a mammogram is for the early detection of breast cancer?

I believe people avoid the procedure because they’re afraid of learning they have cancer or they just hate medical procedures. As a result, they prefer to believe that because they have no pain or other symptoms, they must be fine. Whatever the motivation, many people rationalize their avoidance behavior and put their proverbial head in the sand when it comes to a relatively simple screening procedure. In fact, some good friends told us last night at dinner that they’d been avoiding the procedure for years, and these are smart people. In spite of our urging them to do it, they basically said they would not.

Staying in Shape is Hard, This is Easy
Many of us, myself included, know that we should be getting more daily exercise, eating better and doing the other things that contribute to a healthier lifestyle. However, we often struggle with our fitness because it requires discipline and commitment. It’s hard to do!

Like diet and exercise, a colonoscopy is also something that many of us know we should do. The difference is that it’s EASY to do! Unlike keeping a healthy diet and regular exercise program, this is simple. Even if you struggle with your weight and exercise habits like I do, you can easily eliminate one major health risk through this simple procedure. Most of us will get peace of mind that you don’t have colon cancer, whereas others will catch it early enough to treat it.

Git ‘er Done!
If you’re 50 or over and haven’t had one, do yourself a big favor and schedule a colonoscopy. It’s one of the easiest things you can do to stay healthy and prevent the onset of one of the most dreaded diseases of our time. A half day on the toilet and another half day in the hospital is really a very small price to pay for the knowledge that you’re in good health. And if something is discovered, your odds of beating it are excellent. So pull your head out of the sand and get to it!

A *very* brief post to wish you a Happy New Year from East Tennessee. Wishing you a healthy and prosperous 2009!

Merry Christmas! Yes, it’s still Christmas for us Catholics. We celebrate the Christmas feast for a full 12 days, ending with the Epiphany of our Lord next Sunday. This is the period of time the well-known song, The Twelve Days of Christmas, celebrates.

We’re enjoying a lazy, relaxing day today having attended vigil Mass last night. I got my 2 miles in on the treadmill this morning, updated the web site and now I’m making one of my favorites, turkey soup! It’s finally the end of the line for our delicious Christmas turkey. The soup smells so good you might even be able to smell it in the video! (some day, I suspect). Watch below to catch a whiff!

Our neighbor gave Christine a personalized gift for Christmas that’s as creative and unique a gift as I’ve ever seen.

She took a picture of each of our male and female peacocks and placed them on the top of two small boxes. Inside each box was a pair of handmade earrings made from their feathers.  She found the feathers on our barn floor.

Are these cool, or what? Click on the picture for a larger image.

Yum! A 19-pounder for 5 of us. Should be enough, don’t you think?

The “after” picture coming in about 4.5 hours.

Merry Christmas

I’m downing my third Chimay Belgium Trappist Ale, a Christmas gift from our office manager Peter. I believe it’s only appropriate to drink an ale made by Trappist monks on Christmas eve, don’t you?

We attended the Christmas vigil Mass today and we’ll be cooking the turkey in the morning. Friends will be coming to share the day with us tomorrow and it’s going to be just perfect. The only thing missing is the kids and grandkids. Maybe next year.

Have a wonderful and blessed Christmas. I hope you and yours have an absolutely perfect day.

Peace of Christ,
Scott

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