Last Commented Health Blogs (955)

Although I'd promised myself to do more walking, this morning found me out on my bike again. As it wasn't raining or windy, I chose to hop on my bike and do my usual 9 mile circuit. As usual, the not raining lasted only until it started getting lighter, which, today, was about half a block.

I thought of turning around and putting the bike away and then thought, to heck with it, I'll ride anyway. At first it was only a light sprinkling, hardly requiring a hood, so off I went, enjoying the feel of the rain on my cheeks. The rain was intermittently heavier at times, requiring me to put my hood up and down like a cheap hooker's drawers. (That's a joke, so for those who want to be offended, you might want to stop reading here).

I haven't been on my bike all week, and I've really missed my 'route'. The mama cow and calf are not in the pasture anymore, so I'm guessing they're either inside, or perhaps they're in a different field. Riding down the gravel road near the reservation, brilliant red blueberry bushes stretch for acres on my right, while the scent of the recently harvested Brussel sprouts fills the air on my left.

Down the tree lined dirt road towards the old ferry landing, yellow leaves still cling to bare branches, predecessors covering the road in a thick, glossy brown carpet. No crunching through leaves today. Instead, the soft whir of tires over soggy leaves. Clouds hang low over the surrounding mountains, sucking the brilliant colour from the landscape, wisps floating low over farmlands.

Rain has started in earnest by now, soaking my bike seat every time I dismount for a photo. Embers of an untended fire burn hot and low, smoke drifting west with the wind. A stack of pallets awaits their turn next to the glowing fire.

Returning home, my wet clothes go into the dryer while I pull on a warm pair of fleece pants and sweatshirt. I really needed the bike ride after a super stressful three weeks. I had transferred a significant amount of money from my PayPal account to my bank account on Oct 9 - and it never showed up in my bank account. When it didn't show up, I contacted them every single day, and received no satisfactory answer at all. In fact, I got told to go to my bank, which is 4 hours drive away (there and back), and find out what happened to it.

So I did. When I get there, my banks says, not our problem. We don't have it - it originated with PayPal and they're the ones that have to look for it. So time wasted along with gas, and I return home, still without my $$ and still no answer as to where it is.

Phoning every single day and ranting at them about my money, and two weeks later they finally tell me it's their issue, and there was a 'bug' in the system and the engineers are working on it. They tell me the money will be in my account Nov 1 - three weeks later. So come Nov 1, nope, no money. By this time, I'm furious. So more phone calls, and they finally tell me, no they can't tell me when the money will be in my account. They can't tell me whether 50 or 500 people were affected.

This morning, the money finally shows up - over three weeks later! I demanded compensation and they have ponied up with it, but it doesn't make up for the stress and time spent having to deal with their bs. Although, I'm relieved to have it in my account.

On a more positive note, I'm receiving more and more requests for my calendar. So my initial forecast is going to be totally off. I'm in a Christmas Craft Fair on Nov 16-18 and have requested and been granted permission to sell my calendars at the craft fair. Yes!!!

Now that I can focus on the calendar again, instead of PayPal, I have to choose and get the photos laid out this weekend and get a webpage up for the calendar pre-orders, then get enough product made for the craft show.

Amazing how lackadaisical PayPal was with MY money. If the tables had been reversed, we all know it would have been a different story.

As rain becomes our weather forecast du jour, I've traded in my bike for my hiking boots. Not that I'm hiking, per se, just out walking, but they're comfortable and relatively waterproof.

The other day, I walked the entire dike and back, not knowing how far it was from beginning to end. Well, finding out the hard way, by walking it with 'map my ride' keeping track on my phone, it turns out it's 3.31km round trip. I know that's not very far, but due to really painful knees, it can seem like forever. It certainly did on the return.

I thought about turning the map my ride app on to find out where 1km was then turn around at that point. This morning, heading out early as usual, I decided that rather than walk the entire dike and be exhausted and in agony for the rest of that day and the next, I'd walk out for 20 minutes, then turn around and come back. Was it 1km? I have no idea as my phone was dead this morning.

It doesn't really matter whether it was 1km or not. I figure if I walk out for 20 min, next week maybe I'll find that 20 minutes takes me a little bit further. Today it took me to the first grove of trees, so next week, maybe to the end of the grove of trees, or perhaps the second grove of trees.

As long as I keep walking on a consistent basis, I should be able to do the entire dike and back by the end of November. Granted, it will probably take me longer than 20 minutes, but I'm hoping by then that my knees won't be protesting so much.

No wonder I prefer biking. It takes me just as long to ride my bike 9 miles as it does to walk 2km. However, I need to use other muscle groups, and I've always loved walking. Besides, I'm not crazy about riding my bike in the rain - only because I don't think it's good for it's working parts. Me? I don't care if I get wet, as there's nothing better than a hot shower and warm fleece when I get home.

Onward with my fitness goals. Not having done a lot of walking this summer, walking along the dike sure felt like a long haul. Looking forward to the day when it seems easy!

Have to admit, this latest in the long string of well overdue and awesome ideas/accomplishments may be too intelligent even for our dear leader and wise hero. But I'll also take the wisdom of listening to wise advisors. A challenge to the much abused highly anachronistic 14th amendment will be an uphill battle. The issue hinges on the allegedly vague legitimacy of parental citizen status. Not too vague for any patriot who loves the USA, and can see, hear and read. Here criminally as an illegal alien, and have an anchor offspring? Next case. There's y'all's bus/flight back. Hand over whatever money you have to help with the costs. But also, on the fact that the SC has never evaluated the amendment, not unreasonable for many valid reasons, not the least of which revolves around original intent, and current use, etc. Not to mention the two phrases, "subject to the jurisdiction thereof", and " the constitution does not (automatically)confer citizenship". I wonder how the new SC will view this, no? But not yet being an attorney, I only may play one on TV someday. Our hero's phraseology in the announcement was a Godsend. To paraphrase---"We are sending our troops to the southern border to keep it secure. Among the thousands of illegals attempting illegal entry are many criminals and other potentially harmful people. We must protect our dear USA from such illegal and criminal unauthorized entry. The troops' presence will expire on December 15, 2018, unless there is a further crisis. " Oh yeah, just doing one of his most important duties is somehow racist, or xenophobic, or pick another marginally educated moonbat's, inappropriate reflexively rendered, hate word. Just saying saying, pebbles. No more sanctuary municipalities. Less of a drain on the SS "fund". Delicious.

I went shopping at the Sears in North Hollywood last week and I'm not sure why. I hadn't shopped at a Sears in years (yes, I know that rhymes) but something drew me in. Maybe it was nostalgia or maybe it was an act of defiance in this age of 'techonomics'. A flip-off to Jeff Bezos from a soon-to-be fossil...for whatever that's worth. Then again, maybe it's because the clothing shelves and racks were teeming with stuff I needed and in sizes that fit...go figure. Or maybe I was trying to ease the old girl's pain amid the inevitable death throes? Anyway, I spent about $160 which, and as it pertains to resuscitating the floundering behemoth, felt a bit like spitting on a beached whale.

It's been a while since I had a doctor older than me. The guy I used to go to for 20 years was a pain sometimes. Every year was a physical that included the reflex mallet and pressing around my abdomen. Once, the blood work came back with some abnormal reading and I had to go for an ultrasound of my gallbladder. It turned out the error was in the test. But that didn't stop my doctor from checking. He also pressed around my kidneys asking "Does this hurt?" Glands in my neck and throat, stethoscope to the heart, lungs, neck. Turn my head and cough? Yeah, I got that examination too!

Blood work had a test called PSA for Prostate-Specific Antigen. That's the one physical test my family doctor didn't do. Regardless what the PSA numbers showed my insurance required a yearly visit to a urologist to 'check my oil' and perform a prostrate examination.



The old family doctor doctor didn't have a chance to bring in a partner, retire and fade away, instead he died in his sleep forcing me to find another doctor. I went through many in less than 10 years and all were younger than me.

Knowing my fiance (at the time) was awaiting a visa, I selected a Chinese born doctor schooled in America. That's when I realized they really don't train them the same way anymore. She's lost without her iPhone and all the doctor's I've seen since then have the same protocol. They look a test results and prescribe medicines not from memory, but from their phones.

Currently, I'm assigned to a clinic with 20 doctors. If I cannot wait for my primary care physician (PCP) any doctor on staff is available. Convenient, but I'm thinking they are all newbies.

What happened to the old school?

I saw this in my newsfeed today, just thought to share with you guys...

Cancer has several causes. One is radiation, including sunlight.
It causes crosslinking of molecules, such as proteins, RNA & DNA.

However, it is not the only root of cancer. What we breathe and eat are likely more contributory.
Some items are directly mutagenic and others are activated to be so by our liver, in an attempt
to break down the offensive molecule.
We did not evolve to deal with safely breaking down artificial ingredients.
Some, like sodium nitrite are intentionally added to foods and others accidently find their way into food.

Microplastics are the structurally tiny aftermath of plastics fracturing into smaller & smaller pieces.
These pollutants have shown up in our food. Indeed, a recent study looked at the content of microplastics in salt around the world, and while the content varied from country to country, 92% were found to contain microplastics. Yum !



Obviously, there is a great need to recycle a higher percentage of plastics and use a lot less in manufacturing.

Sometimes I sneeze so hard I get whiplash!
After lunch I decided to get out of the office for a few minutes. Sitting in my car with the temperature around 90 degrees farenheit listening to music. That was enough to blast a neck breaking sneeze.

Share examples of folks so afflicted, y'all...
The poor devils desperately need our understanding & compassion


Raising awareness of this scourge of humanity is the first step to eradicating it!
Denial is not a river in Egypt, yall!

...

Well, that was a waste of time and gas this morning. I was up at 5:15am, made my lunch, heated up some soup, filled my thermos, made breakfast and had a quick cuppa before heading out at 6:45am.

It was clear here, with high clouds and sunny patches, a promise of a sunny fall day. As I drove west, the weather got worse and worse, driving into heavy rain, and clouds that seem to meld with the pavement. Everything was grey, making it hard to see the road and other cars.

Arriving at the turnoff towards the market, I pulled into a store on a side street, and looked up the weather for that area today. Rain. Not rain with sunny periods. Not showers. Not rain and clearing in the afternoon. Just rain. All. Day. Long.

So I turned around and headed home. I've been at the markets when it's raining, and it sucks. People are there to buy their vegetables and they aren't looking to buy anything else. And they sure aren't 'shopping' to see what else is there. Especially if it's raining heavily.

Besides, I figure with my iron count so low, I just can't afford to get chilled and get a cold as I don't have the resources to fight it. I can think of all kinds of excuses. The bottom line, I'm not sitting in the pouring rain for four hours, being bored.

Two and a half hours later, I'm home, back in the nice, dry weather. I think I'll load my bike onto the back of my car and go somewhere today to take some photos. There are two places I know of that have cool old cars and trucks that I want to photograph again.

Guaranteed I won't be heading into the rain though. And yeah, I should have checked the weather forecast for that area yesterday. I checked the forecast for my area, and it was correct - cloudy with sunny periods. Silly me, not checking that area, as it's the reason I haven't lived in that area - it rains too much!

Ah yes, getting my pensions is awesome! Before, I'd have to go to work, whether it was raining or not. Now, as my expenses are all covered, if I don't want to work in the rain, I don't have to. If it had shown signs of clearing up at all today, I would have stayed. But, as it didn't, I now have a day to myself to do as I wish.