Random 5 for May 3, 2026 – Reactions, preferences, labels, smartphones, school bus

They said it could happen! – I had a medical procedure this week. “They said” there could be a reaction. I’m one of those people who don’t think that pertains to them. Of course I wouldn’t get one! Yes, I did. About 2 a.m. on Friday morning I got sick, really sick. When you are in the middle of a sick episode, you are reminded how precious health is. It was very humbling. I recovered. I’m back to my normal cranky self.

Speaking of sick – I was told to take acetaminophen instead of ibuprofen which I prefer. It’s a kidney thing. Well, the former barely touched the pain. I have put this on the discussion list for my next doc appointment.

Then again – My acetaminophen was out of date by a year. The beloved husband picked up a new bottle. The print on it was so tiny I couldn’t read the directions. When you read the cautions, every medication can cause anything including death. All those “cover your ass” cautions take up all the room on the label. I typically put a label over it with the dosage, max dosage and expiration date. When I don’t feel good the last thing I want to do is rummage around looking for a magnifying glass. I can see how an overdose can happen.

Keeping up – This week a friend that I consider “current on life” told me she didn’t have a smartphone. I was surprised. I dragged my feet on it but once I got one, I was very happy with it. I can do a lot of things on my phone that I used to do on my computer. Some things I can do on it that I can’t do on my computer. I have (successfully and safely) done my banking by phone for most things (including check deposits which used to require a bank visit) for years. When I didn’t have one, I didn’t see the need for it. Now that I have one, it’s made a big difference. My basic fear is that if I don’t keep up with technology, I will be left hopelessly behind as businesses keep eliminating alternatives.

Taking the school bus – When I was a kid, there was one school bus stop in our cluster of homes. Some kids had to walk a distance. I was lucky. It was across the street from me. This week I was behind a school bus that stopped at every other house. Really? Not only that but the kids weren’t out and ready. When the bus stopped, the child came out of the house and (slowly) climbed onto the bus. When I was a kid, if you weren’t there when the bus stopped, you missed it. Times have changed! (If my mom was alive, she would tell you that she didn’t have a bus, she had to walk to school which was over a mile in all sorts of weather!)

So how was your week?

73 thoughts on “Random 5 for May 3, 2026 – Reactions, preferences, labels, smartphones, school bus

  1. Ugh about you getting so sick. Sorry!
    For me.if a rare reaction can happen medically speaking, It usually does!
    Wow on the school bus stopping at every house! They were not allowed to do that here when my kids were in school and the bus didn’t wait!

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  2. Smartphones are definitely a game changer in these modern times. I think we will be forced to use them…it’s kinda like use of AI but I’m avoiding. I recently found I can customized the size of font on it (I only had the box marked large checked but discovered I could bigify it even more)-a real bonus as my eyes need all the help they can get.

    It’s funny how easy it is for kids these days. I walked 2 miles to school uphill both ways. 😉

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  3. Thank goodness you’ve recovered. I know what you mean, we don’t have enough gratitude for good health/lack of pain until we’re smack dab in the middle of sickness and pain. This happened to me last year and every day I now give a nod of gratefulness.

    I DID walk two + miles to school every day. No school buses in our little town. I happened to love those walks. And they began a good habit of walking when I can, instead of driving.

    It’s easy to say no to technology, but it’s not smart to do that. We don’t want to be left behind, so we stay up front!

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  4. I’m glad you’re feeling better. I completely understand being the 1% of people who will get a reaction.

    My young co-worker purchased a home on her phone. Yes, she filled out the thousand forms required to apply for a mortgage ON HER PHONE. It was like watching an episode of the Jetsons.

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  5. how good that you are back to yourself… we took a school bus once… it needed 45 minutes for a distance of 11 kilometers… we laughed the whole time about our silly idea, but we never take this prairie express LOL

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  6. I’m glad you’re feeling better and what is with the small print on everything anymore? I’ve not taken Tylenol in a long time, but I always like to have the smallest bottle around in case I need it. The radio commercials for some medications and their side effects are amazing … 3/4s of the commercial is for how easy and breezy your life will be if you use this medicine and the last 1/4 is the dire side effects, where each new side effect is worse than the previous one. We never had school buses in Canada or here, but in Canada it wasn’t a long walk to elementary school and all the neighborhood kids walked together and we held hands to cross the street where the school was, so it was safe. Our high school and junior high were next to each other, so for six years, I walked that same three-mile round trip daily. Mom didn’t drive and my father left for work at dark o’clock. No wonder I could eat all Mom’s baking, especially cookies, but I never gained an ounce!

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  7. Sorry about the reaction from your procedure. I can so see you saying “nope, not going to happen to me” and oops it happened. I am glad you are almost 100 % recovered. Thank you, Sasha the Magnificent and Gus. I am a Tylenol user but only one time a year when I get my Covid jab. A lot of great tech is lost on me with my 16 Pro Max but what little I know what the h e double L to do with it is happiness for me. I always have my laptop to straighten me out.

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  8. Sorry you had trouble with a procedure. I am glad you are OK. Same here with the bus. If there are no sidewalks then they have to go house to house but parents should be sure their kids are out there.

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  9. I never had to take a bus to school but we (a posse of boomer kids) walked nearly a mile each way… fortunately, flat and no snow… and somehow survived. Stopping at each house seems silly.

    I use my smart phone for a lot of things, the least of which is as a phone. I’ve now gotten in the habit of using it instead of a credit card… so much easier. I agree that it’s important to keep up with technology.

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  10. To get a free bus pass, you had to live 5 miles from the school. We lived 8, but still had to walk a mile to the bus stop. There were two regular buses that went close to the school that we were not supposed to use, but sometimes they came before the school bus, so we’d get on that rather than be late and a black mark on the register.

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  11. Glad you’re feeling good now. It’s better to be the person who thinks “that doesn’t pertain to me” than the one who worries that everything does.

    I don’t know how many times my sister and I had to run down the road to the corner to catch the bus. The gruff old man who drove it was a friend of my grandpa, but that didn’t mean he was about to wait for us. Did we learn our lesson? More or less.

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  12. Glad you’re feeling better. Tylenol is a better choice if there is a risk of bleeding during and after surgery.

    In the past, I popped Tylenol and/or Advil at the drop of a hat. Now, I think twice about taking either since they can wreak havoc on our internal organs.

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    • No risk of bleeding and no surgery. I’m not sure why they wanted one over the other. I thought for kidney function reasons but that’s a guess. No drug is good for your kidneys!

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  13. Acetaminophen is useless for everything but a fever (at least according to my body). And it’s terrible for your liver. Advil is my wonder drug, but I have been very strictly warned about taking no more than 2 pills three times a week with food and a liter of water.

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  14. Well I’m sure you’re happy to be on the other side of your procedure! I have the same memories you do of snow days and waiting for the bus (which reminds me – we went to school AND rode the bus on days when there was 2-3 feet of snow! Nowadays they call school closed if there are 10 flakes on the ground). The school bus stopped twice in our very big community so you walked to the closest stop and that was that. I am like your friend who doesn’t have a Smartphone. Neither my husband nor I have one. We each have a cheapie cell phone in our car that has no apps on it – just gives us a way to call AAA if we need it! Yes we’re behind the times but we really don’t need to be with the times like when we were younger……..

    Hugs, Pam

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    • We have the same snow experience. I have found with the smartphone, I can keep in contact with my friends and relatives easier. Then again, I hate making an actual phone call, preferring to text or email.

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  15. Glad you’re feeling better. The school buses here stop at nearly every house too….crazy. And I actually did have to walk a mile to school in all kinds of weather, including winter weather in upstate NY near the Canadian border!

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