Today's Feature

Annual City-Wide Cleanup.
News release

The City of Carthage, under contract with American Disposal Services, will conduct its’ Annual Residential City-Wide Spring Clean Up on Saturday, April 23, 2005.

Trash should not be put out until the Friday night before clean up day. Items to be picked up should be placed at the regular designated trash pick up location.

Appliances with compressors removed may be dropped off at the Carthage Recycling and Compost Center from April 16 through April 30. No containers weighing over 75 pounds, yard waste, paint, rocks, batteries, chemicals or hazardous household waste will be picked up.

Up to four tires per household will be allowed for drop off at the Carthage Recycling and Compost Center from April 16 through April 30. Tires with wheels or rims will not be accepted.

For more information about the City-Wide Cleanup, contact the Public Works Department 237-7010.

VFW Men’s Auxiliary.
News release

The Carthage Veterans of Foreign Wars Post 2590, at their regular meeting Monday April 11- voted to sponsor a Men’s Auxiliary.

Any male interested in joining the Men’s Auxiliary please attend the meeting for membership to be held Wednesday, April 20 7:30 p.m. at the Carthage VFW located at 16759 Inca Rd.

Requested is all eligibility papers for relatives that have served overseas and on foreign soils.

For more information call 358-1657. Applications for membership will be accepted at meeting.

The main purpose of the Men’s Auxiliary, as is the VFW and Ladies Auxiliary is to support veterans, widows and orphans.

I only got to a couple of the garage sales last weekend. Picked up a few of those "can’t live without" items. Nothin’ too elaborate.

I’ve heard tales though. Some real bargains out their accordin’ to some. Others just glad to be rid of all that stuff. ‘Course the real unloadin’ of stuff will come next weekend with the annual City wide cleanup. That’s when the real bargain hunters invade the streets.

I’ve often thought of puttin’ a mark of some kind on a discarded item and then seein’ if I could find in the next year in someone else’s pile by the curb. My guess is that there are many times when piles just move up and down the street from year to year. There is that one over-stuffed green chair I seem to keep seein’ each year. Look for it.

This is some fact, but mostly,

Just Jake Talkin’.

Check Your Pulse to Check Your Health

DEAR DR. DONOHUE: I ride my bike 5 miles every day and do so at a fairly good speed. In addition, I have begun weightlifting and follow that with treadmill running. What should my pulse be after I exercise? — Q.D.

ANSWER: The normal lower limit for the pulse when one is sitting is 50 to 60 beats a minute. (The heartbeat rate and pulse rate are one and the same. The pulse is the heartbeat felt in an artery.) The upper limit for the resting pulse is around 100.

Well-conditioned athletes have a pulse rate in the 40s and even lower. Their hearts pump more blood with each beat than the ordinary heart does. Therefore, they need fewer heartbeats.

If you want to gauge heart health, one way is to take your pulse at the end of exercise. One minute later it should be beating 12 fewer beats a minute than it was when you ended exercise.

There is an involved protocol that uses the drop in pulse rate after exercise as a health indicator in a very rigorous manner. It has an exerciser take his or her pulse, while still exercising at maximum intensity, for one full minute. Then it calls for a cessation of exercise with a full two-minute rest. According to this method, after two minutes of rest the pulse rate should drop by 42 or more beats.

This is not a test suitable for everyone. It should be done only by those who are positive their hearts are healthy. It’s a strenuous test that can put too much stress on a heart.