Posts in the “personal” category

bbc.com has an interesting story about How meal timings affect your waistline.

Last year Friend #1 died, so I ended up staying at Friend #2’s house. When I woke up she was already out of the house, so I started to walk to the coffee maker to make some coffee. At that moment Friend #3 called. I looked at the coffee maker for a moment, then thought, “It will wait a few moments,” so I turned around, picked up the phone, and found a quiet spot to sit down.

At one point I started talking about something and #3 said, “I’m sorry, I can’t hear you.” I didn’t have the heart to tell her that I just woke up, so I kinda cleared my throat and started talking louder. We had a good, honest conversation, the kind you only have when it’s late at night and people are tired and maybe have a little liquid courage and speak from the heart, or in this case that raw time right after someone has died.

When I was watching a show just now with two dead guys talking to each other I remembered that conversation, and also remembered that I never did get that cup of coffee.

I recently had my blood drawn by a man with a lot of tattoos and piercings, and while we were talking he asked what my favorite band was. I answered Guns n' Roses, and then asked what his was, and he said, Tool.

I totally forgot about that band. I think back in the day (the 1990s), Schism was my favorite song from them, but I’m still trying to recall them all. I had never seen that video before, but parts of it reminded me of Justin Kamerer and AngryBlue.com.

It’s funny, I never expected that I’d ever write about the tv series, The Greatest American Hero, but I watched an episode last night that was pretty good, especially when you consider it was made in 1981.

Season 1, Episode 6 of The Greatest American Hero is titled, “My Heroes Have Always Been Cowboys,” and for me it’s the most touching episode yet. Bill (the FBI agent) learns that his personal hero is involved in something illegal, and it’s a real blow to him. He’s hurt, and then down in the dumps.

Meanwhile, Ralph, The Greatest American Hero, has two incidents where innocent bystanders are almost hurt while he’s attempting to go after the bad guys. One group is a busload of tourists, and the second one is an elderly woman. This affects him to the point that he doesn’t want to put the suit on any more, because he’s afraid he’ll hurt innocent people.

The Native American woman I met last week had an aneurysm and brain surgery last year. (She showed me the scar, and she’s fine now.) Before the aneurysm was discovered, she went to a shaman who’s well-known among Natives here. He lit something, made some smoke, did whatever else he does, then looked at her, put his finger on her forehead and said, “You are blocked here.”

Unfortunately she assumed he was referring to a mental blockage, and thought, “No, I’m an open person, he’s wrong.” Shortly after this, doctors discovered the aneurysm right where he pointed.

This is the story she told me.

(A Facebook entry from March 25, 2014)

March 24, 2014: Woo-hoo, I got my cool see-thru Japanese highlighter today. It's like Christmas for a highlighter nerd.

When I was in New Mexico a few years ago I met a woman who suggested that I needed to quit fighting a particular feeling I have been experiencing. She said that it was my heart chakra attempting to open, but each time it started to open, my Little Ego wouldn’t surrender, it held on to things as they are for dear life. She said that if I would just let go, I’d be on the path to loving all humans unconditionally.

On the drive home I was rudely cut off by a woman in a Mercedes, who was quite literally driving in my lane. As I moved out of her way and we passed each other, she glared at me like I was doing something ridiculously wrong by driving in my own lane. “Humans are a hard species to love,” I thought.

After that experience I decided to start counting all of the people I love or have loved, and if you include Neil Diamond – I threw him in there because my mom liked him so much – I got up to 49.

Somehow I have to find a way to get from 49 to several billion, including the glaring woman in the Mercedes. I think I’m going to have to work on my technique, or perhaps on my definition of “love.”

“The harder you work, the harder it is to surrender.”

~ Vince Lombardi

Sorry I haven’t written much this week, I’ve been working on designs for the cover of a new book. But I can share one thing, my favorite song of the week, We Said Hello, Goodbye (Don’t Look Back), by Phil Collins. Some of the lyrics:

Well it really don’t matter much where you are
’cause home is in your heart
It’s a feeling that you wake with one day
Some people keep running all of their life
And still find they haven’t gone too far
They don’t see it's the feeling inside
The feeling inside.

A funny thing about mast cell disease is when a 60+ year old doctor who is considered one of the best in his profession says to you, “I’ve only seen that once before in my life.” With MCAS, you get used to statements like that.

(This happened in 2016, but I was reminded of it again today.)

“They don’t wash off easily, do they?”

“What’s that?”

“The sins of the father.”

~ from The Good Cop

Lesley Stahl, a 60 Minutes news correspondent, once had this interaction with Donald Trump:

“I said, you know that it’s getting tired, why are you doing this (discrediting the media) — you’re doing it over and over and it’s boring,” Stahl said. “He said you know why I do it? I do it to discredit you all and demean you all, so when you write negative stories about me no one will believe you.”

I read that in this Washington Post story, and it’s also available from many other news sources.

I recently went through a period where my blood pressure (BP) went up to 150/100 and stayed there. My normal BP is ~115/70, so I monitored it for a few days, and when it stayed there I made an appointment with my primary care physician (PCP). I explained everything to her, how I eat almost exclusively organic foods that I prepare at home, and I exercise harder than I have since 2011. I told her that I started feeling a little sick about two weeks ago, and that I was now feeling worse. I suggested that I probably had an infection, because that had been a recurring problem before we knew about the mast cell disease, and I had also just had a surgery in December. To me there was no logical reason that my BP should be that high unless I’m having an infection or some sort of heart issue.

Nonetheless, without doing any tests, her recommendation was that I should increase my Lisinopril dosage from 20mg to 40mg — which is the max you can take, and also has potentially severe side effects. My response was along the lines of, “Okay, whatev,” and after I left her office I made an appointment to see a specialist. I felt like she was just medicating the effect, and had little interest in understanding the cause.

“Keep it small, but keep it going.”

~ a good quote from Pete Seeger, via John Mellencamp (from the IndyStar)

My college admission story is that my dad said, “Son, go to college, I’ll figure out a way to pay for it.” Then after my freshman year he said, “Sorry, it turns out I can’t really afford to pay for it. Go get yourself some more grants and loans, and keep up the good work. May the Force be with you.”

“If you’re best player has an unhappy attitude when he shows up to work, there’s no joy, there’s no passion to what he brings, that affects the team, it affects the locker room, it’s huge. Teams need leaders, teams need passion, teams need energy, they need positiveness, they need joy.”

~ Chad Brown, about thirteen minutes into this 104.3 The Fan recording, in a discussion about star player Kyrie Irving of the Celtics constantly appearing unhappy, and the team being 10-2 without him.

On March 4, 1993, Jim Valvano gave a very emotional and inspirational video. “Time is very precious to me, and I don’t know how much I have left, and I have some things I would like to say.”

A terrific quote from Kareem Abdul-Jabbar about auctioning off his memorabilia and giving the $3M+ proceeds to his Skyhook Foundation charity that helps kids learn about science, technology, engineering and math:

“When it comes to choosing between storing a championship ring or trophy in a room or providing kids with an opportunity to change their lives, the choice is pretty simple: Sell it all. Looking back on what I have done with my life, instead of gazing at the sparkle of jewels or gold plating celebrating something I did a long time ago, I’d rather look into the delighted face of a child holding their first caterpillar and think about what I might be doing for their future. That’s a history that has no price.”

From 2015-17 I spent most of my time in hospitals and in bed, and went unconscious seven times. Today I can bench 210 (all the weight on the machine), work the elliptical thirty minutes, and practice yoga every night. Never give up.

Happy Rare Disease Day!

(If you’d like to donate to people working to cure my disease, please visit The Mastocytosis Society website.)

One woman can make you fly like an eagle, another can give you the strength of a lion, but only one in the Cycle Of Life can fill your heart with wonder and the wisdom that you have known a singular joy.

~ Twin Peaks