Alex Dunne

Just saw this interview of Sara Palin by Katie Couric.  She makes Bush look like Einstein. Please America, consider the future.

Check this out, a burger from McDonalds that’s 12 years old, and looks like it hasn’t aged a day:

Why anyone would want to eat this shit is beyond me.  Eat chemicals much? Here’s the story behind it…

I decided to cancel my overnight “sleep study” this week because for the past few weeks I’ve been sleeping better (including on my side, which I haven’t been able to do for almost 2 years).  Linda has said she hasn’t heard me gasping for breath in the middle of the night.  And after doing some Googling on the subject, I have been trying to avoid many of the apnea triggers, like drinking wine in the late evening. I’m not sure my precautions have made a difference, or if it’s just that sleeping less on my back (another trigger) is the key.

Whenever I think about sleep apnea, this cartoon comes to mind.

“Breathe, stupid, breathe! You forgot to breathe again!”

I am pretty nutso when it comes to to-do lists.  I always have several going at work.  One thing I didn’t think I’d have to remind myself to do was breathe.  But apparently I’m not always remembering.  At night Linda says she can hear me stop breathing for long stretches of time, and then I’ll suddenly gasp for air. It’s apparently worse when I sleep on my back (which I have to do most of the time, because of shoulder injuries), and worse when I’m at altitude in Tahoe. For the most part, I’m oblivious to my problem, which I am assuming is sleep apnea.

I know the problem is getting worse because the quality of sleep I’m getting is far worse than just 5 years ago.  Over the weekend while we were in Tahoe I woke myself up, gasping for air. My heart was racing.  It was unnerving.

So I’m off to see the doc on Friday.  I’ve heard that common practice is to give people with sleep apnea an overnight test to measure blood oxygen levels, and based on the results, I might get a little box that pumps air into my nose or mouth all night.  Yeah, I may need to wear a mask to bed for the rest of my life.  Pretty depressing. But I guess the alternative is worse, as I’ve read that people with untreated apnea have far greater incidences of heart attacks, high blood pressure, and of course are more zonked out during the day because they don’t usually hit the REM sleep stage very much.

For Cindee and Vicki’s benefit. Let me know if you guys like any of the transitions between photos.

We just got back from an excellent week in Tahoe. The smoke up there from the wildfires was pretty bad, but hey, it’s a vacation and we were in the mountains - how bad could it really be?

Here are pics from our trip.

Flickr balks at vids that are more than 90 seconds long, so here is a vid that didn’t make it through to the end. It’s the Brown/Donat trio, singing at the “Blue Review” (the talent show put on by Lair of the Bear campers each year).

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We just finished another fun week at the Lair. It was so nice to unwind, see our friends, let the kids run amok, and hang out in the mountains. Here are some pics, and click thru for a special vid…

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