Thursday, February 23, 2017

Not Dead... Just Whelmed

Well, it appears a few of you have noticed my absence, so I decided perhaps I should write and let you all know that I'm alive and well. I'm fine... really. Just in a funk of sorts. I keep trying to write posts, but I can't seem to get beyond the first few sentences before I give up. Not sure what's up with that.

So perhaps instead if trying to craft something coherent, I'll just blather incoherently about what's on my mind and what I've been up to.


First off... a dear friend of mine from college died suddenly. Apparently he was diagnosed with some sort of horrible aggressive cancer a few months back, and went downhill really quickly. He kept it quiet so it came as a total shock when FaceBook suddenly erupted with RIP messages.


So that sorta threw me for a loop, but it did put me back in touch with some old friends, and I've been busy catching up and reminiscing.

Then there's the tummy stuff. This is a really long story that I tried to write a post about. Basically, I'd been having all sorts of problems with heartburn and acid reflux. I'm doing much better now, and I'm a bit unsure about how I got there.

I tried all of the normal stuff - cutting out foods that are supposed to trigger attacks, smaller meals, no food before bedtime... and honestly, nothing seemed to help much. But along the way I kept running into testimonials about people treating heartburn with apple cider vinegar.


I know, I know... it sounds completely ridiculous, but one night when I couldn't sleep because of the reflux I decided that I really didn't have that much to lose. I figured if it made it lots worse I could always just take more Tums. So I got out the ACV, mixed a spoonful in a glass of water and to my complete and utter amazement, before I'd even downed half of the glass the heartburn and reflux disappeared.

At first I thought it must just be a coincidence, but each time I'd get the heartburn I tried it again, and each time it worked.


Long story short, my working theory is that the tummy troubles were being caused by some sort of imbalance in intestinal flora, which the ACV apparently helps to rectify. I've been using both the ACV and also some oil of oregano, along with eating enormous quantities of yogurt & kefir, and the tummy troubles are almost completely gone.

As a bonus, my chronically stuffy sinuses have also cleared up - I'm even off of my nasal steroid!

So I dunno.


It's completely plausible that my problems were all psychosomatic to begin with and what I'm experiencing is nothing more than the placebo effect, but even if that's all it is, I'm quite pleased with the results.

Speaking of pleased. We've had incredibly warm weather here in the Mile High City - seriously, we're talking 60s, 70s, and even one day when we hit 80 degrees (around 27C) - in FEBRUARY! So this has meant that I've spent a lot of time on my bike, which is great...

It's also meant that I've been freaking out just a tad bit about climate change. I know, I know... weather is not climate, but still. This is NOT NORMAL.


And speaking of not normal... well, I'm still having a bit of a hard time adjusting to the new political reality here. My 77 year old stepmother has become a protesting & rallying queen - seriously, she's attending several per week. She's quite an inspiration to me, but for some reason I haven't been able to get up the gumption to join in. I've been more focused on my own survival...

Which has meant that I'm trying to bump up my income in case my health care costs skyrocket (which seems inevitable.) It hasn't exactly been going smoothly - I've destroyed 4 virtual servers in my efforts to cut my business costs... I really HATE Linux.


But I think I'm finally... almost... maybe there... this time for reals. Just a few more tests before I can switch the DNS and move to a server that will cost $10/month rather than $110.

In other news, I've gone completely off the deep end.


I know this all is gonna sound absolutely, totally, 100 percent nuts, but I really feel like with the political situation here, anything could happen. I'm not entirely sure what "anything" would look like - war? revolution? death camps? Russian invasion? totalitarian rule? Honestly, every day you turn on the news and it's sorta like getting hit in the face with a bunch of barbed wire.

So I decided that instead of just worrying myself into oblivion I'd try to at least get a few ducks in a row.


So I am now the proud owner of a new passport, and I've pretty much memorized which countries you can travel to without a visa and how long you can stay.

And I've also decided that it would be prudent to have some emergency food on hand just in case. In case of what, I don't really know - but with both the climate and the country in crisis it doesn't seem beyond the scope of possibility that we could see disruptions in the food supply sometime in the next who knows how many years.

But since I've been down this road before with spectacularly horrible results, I decided that I needed to do it in a more organized fashion this time. So I've basically re-organized (and expanded) my entire pantry - creating a system to more effectively rotate my stock. I've also bought some "long-term" stuff that's designed to be stored for 20-30 years. CatMan thinks we should have enough food for a year... which is a LOT of food! I'm not anywhere close yet, but I'm working up to it and have spent lots of free time researching shelf lives of various products. Perhaps I'm just channeling my Mormon ancestors.


And... I've also decided to try some new things gardening-wise. I've pretty much given up on growing greens because they always just get hopelessly infested with bugs, so I'm trying something new and I'm gonna see if I can grow them indoors. I bought some really cheap LED grow lights that only use about 12 watts, and I'm giving it a go. We shall see...

OK! So that's about all of the news from the funny farm. If you didn't think I was crazy before, you surely do now!



But hey, you should always go with your strengths, right?

So there you have it... long, rambling, incoherent and... well, at least you know I'm not dead!



So how are things in your neck of the woods?