Pretty sure I do not need to talk about the high cost of going ANYWHERE, but an article I read around the time the stupidity started and the gas started to get more expensive talked about getting cheap(er) gas on a tribal reservation if you have one close. Might as well grab you some cheap smokes when you are there.

I have been trying to more closely look at the prices to see a difference and I am not finding much, if any, price difference. Yesterday I paid $4.50/gallon on the reservation, and filled up on the way out of Missoula for $4.45/gallon.

I do not look at saving a few pennies a gallon worth the effort to drive around wasting fuel to do. If you look online or an app you can find deals and that is the best way. I won’t go out of my way for less than ten to fifteen cents minimum per gallon – it is not worth it.

My Avalanche was a 31 gallon tank. Five cents per gallon is only $1.50. My Tacoma is about 17 gallons so the same price saves me about eighty-five cents. I do have to stop quite a bit more often when towing, but when I am not I am getting 24-25 MPG even at 70 MPH. But, the tank is still nearly half the Avalanche tank so I STILL need to get gas more often.

I think the thing is you gotta be smart. If you gotta try to game things, prepay a set amount and let the pump kick off before the next penny you get that full amount you prepaid. I have done it and still do.

I know it is a bad situation for those of us who like to travel, but it is even worse for those working. There are things to do that we have all heard ad nauseam so I do not need to repeat. The one about unnecessary trips? That also means to not drive all over to save three pennies.

I know driving up here was expensive, and it has gotten much worse since then. I had to go to South Dakota to get my truck registered and drove so I could haul a load back from storage. I still have more load to get hauled up here (plus stuff in Kansas), but damn…it is going to cost me a fortune at this rate.

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Yesterday morning I woke up in terrible pain from my kidney stone. I have never had pain that bad. Even my shoulder surgery did not hurt to the point of tears – that did hurt badly but lasted for a month that was lost to dilaudid and at least I had some relief. (As s sidenote, the autocorrect wants to change “dilaudid” to “deluded”…pretty spot-on!)

I will spare the gruesome details of my morning, but I ended up in the ER and later on in surgery.

They put a stent around the stone to remove it but the pathway from kidney to bladder was too swollen to let it come out. They did not want to cause any damage to that area so they put a drain tube from my kidney to bladder around the stone so as to not have a backup of fluids. In a few weeks they will go back in and take the stone out with the stent if possible or if it has not left on its own accord.

But with everything going on from this kidney stone, I have all sorts of problems and symptoms to deal with until the stone comes out. The pain is absolutely excruciating.

But one of the cooler aspects about the one of the prescriptions I have got was that it makes your pee bright orange or red. If it is in your mouth too long it will give you those colors on your teeth, and it can also change the color of your contact lenses. Yeah…gimme as many of those that you can…

Overall, the surgery went as planned and I go back in two weeks to get the stent out. I am hoping they knock me again for the procedure…the details of which I will not speak. It will all be fine and it happens to many people. It can always be worse…

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…like five years ago today – that is when I had my open-heart surgery.

Hard to believe that still, but I feel great and stay on top of my health thanks to a great team of professionals and friends who took excellent care of me. I have started working on getting some doctors lined up to get care around here.

I will not settle for bad doctors when it comes to my health. I am VERY active and involved in my healthcare decisions and I will immediately find another doctor if the one I have been seeing thinks otherwise. Who knows our own bodies better than us who are inside of it 24/7/365 or (366)?

Five years later, with a healthier lifestyle and being more active, I am doing really good. Doctors are very happy and I am happy. When we are both happy it means it is a good partnership.

Gonna sign off for now so I can get some rest – it was a tiring turn of events yesterday followed by an exhausting night.

Until then, take care and see you next time – unless you just keep of looking at my blog. You know you wanna…

Shawn