Posts in the “personal” category

To show how far my diet has come, on May 13, 2013 I wrote this on Facebook: “Huh, the doctor was right. They do have vegetables at my grocery store.”

These days (May, 2017), 80-90% of my diet is organic vegetables.

Wow, that’s a scary coincidence. (Image from this tweet.)

Tomasita’s is a decent restaurant in Santa Fe, New Mexico, and they have a good description of the history of the margarita.

I finally passed the necessary blood test, so next week I’ll be radioactive for a few days. Now I just need to find a spider. :)

Today (June 23, 2014) I take the pill and do the quarantine thing, staying away from all other living things for several days.

In daily life, each of us is a vehicle for something. Our choices of values determine the kinds of vehicles we are, the way we move in the world and relate to each other. All individuals (and organizations) are free to choose values that they feel are important, that express their vision.

(A quote from the book, Zen at Work.)

My oldest sister is five years older than I am, and when she was in high school she was involved in activities outside of school, like the foreign student exchange program. I was an extreme introvert and could never imagine myself doing those things, but she was very involved in making our community a better place, and I was proud of her.

Back then I didn’t know that I was free to choose my own vision ... the mental weight of being an extreme introvert kept me from seeing that. I may always struggle with being an introvert, but these days I understand that I can choose my own vision, and I do so consciously.

It seems like there still aren’t many women in computer programming, but twelve out of my last eighteen doctors have been women, so that’s cool.

FWIW, as we approach Mother’s Day, here’s some information on the cost of elder care, i.e., various types of assisted living, and living in nursing homes. Per this NPR article, these are “the national average annual costs and daily rates paid for various types of adult care.”

For seniors with Alzheimer’s or dementia, alz.org adds this: “$225 per day or $82,125 per year for a semi-private room in a nursing home; $253 per day or $92,378 per year for a private room in a nursing home; $3,628 per month or $43,539 per year for basic services in an assisted living facility.”

“We either make ourselves miserable, or we make ourselves strong. The amount of work is the same.”

~ Carlos Castaneda

Although I had already moved around quite a bit by then, living in Talkeetna, Alaska ten years ago had a big impact on my current vagabond lifestyle. I used to walk into town and sit on a bench and watch 10-20 tour buses roll in every day with people 70+ years old, and many of them would have canes, walkers, and wheelchairs.

While I felt great that those people were able to see a part of the town, I also knew that they couldn’t see all of the town. For instance, they couldn’t go down by the rivers because it was a bit of a walk, and there was no access for disabled people. Walking by the rivers is one of the great things about being in Talkeetna.

As I sat there I realized that when you get to that age that’s going to be the only way you can travel, and soon after that you won’t be able to travel at all. More recently, when I was pretty sick the last couple of years I became even more aware that the clock was ticking. So I plan to keep wandering around as long as I can.

After watching The Heartbreak Kid on Netflix last night (which I learned was R-rated as I was watching it), I was reminded of the song Rosalita, by Bruce Springsteen. Here’s a great performance of the song from 1988 on YouTube.

I made it eight minutes on the elliptical trainer yesterday. That’s pretty much a record since all of this mast cell disease stuff started becoming a problem in 2011/2012.

#The ComebackContinues

“Cookie dough is the sushi of desserts” ~ Cookie Monster. (As heard on this video.)

The Canadian Food Inspection Agency has found residual amounts of weed killer in 30% of the foods they tested. The story is here on HuffingtonPost.com.

I was driving in western Kentucky around four o’clock on Friday morning, and I was able to get in radio stations from Arkansas, Iowa, Chicago, Cleveland, and Atlanta. That was pretty cool.

As a nice Earth Day note, the Washington Post has this story, The U.S. wind industry now employs more than 100,000 people.

I have no statistical proof of it, but my eyes (and sinuses) tell me that a lot of people smoke in Virginia, many more than where I live in Colorado. I had forgotten how much I dislike the smell of cigarette smoke.

I don’t have a camera to do it justice, but the moonrise is pretty tonight.

Joey Votto is a terrific hitter on a horrible baseball team, and in this article he says, “I think if I let the team’s performance dictate how I behave,” says Votto, “or how I perceive my performance, or whether or not there’s value, or whether or not anyone even cares, it’s a dangerous and slippery slope.”

That reminds me of my brother-in-law, who is a tremendous chef currently working in a bad situation, and how you can’t let your current situation get you down.

This article on How to get out of a (mast cell disease) reaction cycle has good information on H1 and H2 antihistamines, mast cell stabilizers, and more.

(I already knew that the max dosage for Zyrtec for people like me is four pills a day, and on that page Lisa Klimas shares information on Benadryl, Zantac, Pepcid, and more.)