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(PERSONAL BLOG)

Hey all,  I should be laying there like a slug with a migraine today….and here I am…

I was feeling pretty puny yesterday, with a migraine coming on–generally feeling that awful headache in the morning.  I stayed in my jammies just laying low and waiting for the worse to come…

…and my headache went away in the evening!

I know this is probably pretty boring to you folks, but I feel like I’ve won the lottery!  The health lottery, that is!  ::does happy dance::

I just can’t get over that gluten was causing these awful headaches.  I feel so blessed to have found the cause and the recovery.

Because it’s better to be mean and slim…

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…than fat and…well, fat and anything else…

Seriously, if you can’t look beyond a person’s physical appearance to see their true nature and humanity, then there’s nothing I can say to help you…

A story on the heartless remarks.

I am soooo sick of the attack on women’s appearance.   I have a sibling who is big, and she suffers injustices all the time from people who don’t even know her.  She is the sweetest person who would give you the shirt off her back, and for people to judge her on her size alone is shallow and contemptible.

I was thinking about this and how it seems that it’s become part of the bullying culture that is now the U.S. and I was asking myself “why”?

Well, with judgment shows like “Survivor” and “Weakest Link” and other garbage masquerading as entertainment, one doesn’t have to look too far as to why we’re so much more judgmental of each other.  Anyone who doesn’t fit the “perfect” model is to be judged, scorned, ridiculed, and disposed of in short order.  Because the person’s value isn’t in their humanity, but in how much they can gain for themselves…..

It isn’t about seeing the positives a person has and what gifts they bring.  It’s not about how each person has a gift to give, but about picking the “perfect one” who we raise up above the rest…

…and life just isn’t like that.

And I love what Gov. Chris Christie did the other night on Letterman.  What a great way to put it back into Letterman’s lap–very funny.  (and this is coming from someone who doesn’t agree with Christie on public/private/charter schools).(Personally, I do think he should cut out the gluten–probably has gluten intolerance, too, but that’s just me.  Also, someone needs to tell him about the cholesterol myth–that the studies linking high cholesterol were flawed, because he believes the myth that if his cholesterol is okay, then he’s healthy.)

Also, nothing is stated about the effects on GMO’s and the obesity rise in the U.S.

This cannot be stated enough.  Being fat does not mean you’re automatically unhealthy.

If I could live to be 100 by not eating gluten-free donuts (or cakes or bacon or whatever treat they say is bad for you)….but I could only live to 70 eating those things, I’d take the 70 and call it a good life.  I mean, what’s the point if I’m going to live to be 100 but can’t enjoy food?? Screw that.

And, lastly, let’s remember Jim Fixx.  He’s the guy that was an avid jogger and he died of a heart attack while running.  And you know what?  That is how I want to go out–doing something besides rocking in a chair or lying in a hospital bed  or worse, a nursing home bed, waiting to die.  People say “oh my!” when they hear of someone who was skydiving and died, but that’s what I would want to be doing.  Criminy, it’s not life if you’re home sitting on your arse, watching the world go by.

And while I’m on the heart attack thing–for the longest time the medical profession ignored the symptoms of heart attack in women “because they just didn’t get them”.  Then they began to discover that women were having heart attacks, but were not diagnosed because of doctor’s ignorance and prejudice.  Some women were autopsied and it was discovered they had had several heart attacks in their lifetime.  Now I hear that things have changed, and women are being diagnosed now, as their symptoms are different.  The medical profession has hopefully realized that women are different than men!

First Impressions

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Utility companies are not known for being friendly towards environmentalists…

…so it was with some amusement this morning at the organic grocery that I noticed a couple of young guys in Carhart’s getting what appeared to be their lunch for the day–hummus and some other healthy stuff.

Obviously they were employed in a profession that required them to be outside. Farmers? Not likely to come all the way in town for just a few things. Street dept. workers?  Possibly.

I got my answer when I left the building and saw a utility company truck parked in the lot.

Yeah, so I’m not sure if these guys supported sustainable agriculture (which means a decrease in toxins in the environment if we’re to survive) or if there is a total disconnect and they’re buying organic/healthy food without a care of how it got there….

I’m left to ponder…

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One of our rightwing radio hosts was talking Friday about the return of the robins to the area soooo early.

He tried to say that these were Canadian robins, therefore they were *south* for the winter….

Um, yeah…

I’ve lived in Indiana all of my life, and it has always been a right of Spring for them to return.  We never saw them the entire winter. Never.  That’s why it didn’t make it for the state bird–because it didn’t stay here all winter.

We were always excited when the first robins returned–we’d “stamp” the first one we saw for *luck*.

Canadian robins….pshaw.

 

Whales

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So, I finally got around to turning my calendar over to the month of February this morning.  It’s a nature based one, and this month has a whale majestically propelling itself out of the deep blue, much like this one.

A cool event here with a whale.  Playing hide-and-seek…gotta love it.

This once again proves that we know very little about wildlife and how they can display compassion.

Greenpeace is still fighting the good fight. 

This bears repeating:  the sad story of seagulls attacking the whales. Argentina has this plan to thwart them, but I think it’s not really addressing the reason behind the gulls’ attacks.  Something has caused them to begin attacking eight years ago…I hope that they’re going to test the dead gulls for mercury and other toxins, since it’s been documented that the birds are pretty messed up with mercury.  This would explain why they suddenly began this eight years ago–the rubbish aspect doesn’t really make sense to me because we’ve had garbage around for decades…why now?

Finally, a wonderful story here. The will to survive never ceases to amaze me…no matter how we screw up, nature still tries to come back.  Awesome.

The winter scene

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I was watching TV in our community room, when I see a motion out of the corner of my eye.  I look to see a border collie mix running and jumping in the snow, grabbing at an object and throwing it up in the air with his teeth.  The owner is shoveling snow and throwing the play toy to the dog’s delight.  As the owner walks along, pushing the shovel, the dog puts the toy next to her, but she’s busy and keeps moving.  The dog looks for a second at her, and then picks up the toy and places it even closer to her than before.

I love seeing the simple delight in dogs when they’re at play.  They’re just playing…freely enjoying the moment without thinking about the next moment….

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So, yeah, we have the normal winter weather that’s to be expected in Indiana….

…and I notice that a flock of birds are perched in the tree outside my apartment.  I do a double take when it looks like….no, it can’t be…yes, it is…a robin!  NO!!! They are not supposed to be here for another month!

Nope, there’s no climate change…

As a side note~ back in the day when Indiana was deciding what it’s state bird was going to be, the robin was up for it, but they decided against it because the robin flew away for the winter.  They wanted a bird that stayed here all winter and the beautiful cardinal won out.

If the climate change isn’t arrested, the robin will once again be back in the running for the state bird because it will be so warm that it will just stay here all winter…

…well, that’s if there are any robins or birds once we get done poisoning them in their (and our) environment…

<sigh>

Gluten Free Watchdog

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…because companies will label their products “Gluten-Free” when they’re really not.  It’s either conscious deception so they can get the $$$ gluten free market dollars, or they’re not really testing their product to be sure that it is gluten free.  As I’ve posted before,  even a little gluten for someone who is Celiac can mean a serious reaction. (hat tip to this blog.)

Watchdog mentions this organization that helps certify food.   This makes food shopping sooo much easier–all you have to do is look for the logo and you are reasonably comfortable buying the product.   There is this, too, which also has a logo to help shoppers identify gluten free food.  There is a link to GF recipes on the main page.

Here is a webpage of the National Foundation for Celiac Awareness.  They, too, help to certify GF foods.  They use a third party to help certify products, which is a bonus. Here is a list of GF manufacturers.  I always want to add a caution that everything can change in a moment’s notice and if a food affects one, whether it’s labeled GF or not, one should be cautious about eating it again.  As they say on the support group–something may be gluten free, but it perhaps is an allergen for a particular person.  Allergies can show up with the typical runny nose, or rash or headache or someone may just feel extra tired after eating a particular food.  Your body will tell you what it needs and doesn’t need–one just has to pay attention.

 

Inquiry into Swartz case

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Two members of Congress have asked what reasons the DOJ had for so zealously going after Aaron Swartz.  (Be sure to click on the link to Wired).  I hope this isn’t just a we’ll pretend to be interested in fairness and justice...

I checked at Marcy Wheeler’s site, but nothing up about this.

There’s no climate change…

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Well, I shouldn’t be surprised, but yet, I still am about the gushing by the nooz broadcasters on the spring weather…

They were just all over the “nice” weather we’ve had the past few days—-50-and 60-degree days.  They even went out “on the street” to ask the public their opinion about the great weather we’re having….and they were all positive comments on how great it was to wear a light jacket or no jacket at all in January in Indiana…and they even mentioned that all the comments were positive, except one…guess which one didn’t make it to the broadcast?  This was a deliberate choice, folks.  Newsroom editors wield huge power in what gets on the air and what doesn’t.  And what does get on the air has an enormous impact–they know this.

So…I was a little beside myself with this broadcast.  I mean, are people really that dense?  Do they not know what is happening?  Do they even think about how this summer is going to be if we’re having 60-degree weather in January?  Good Grief, how soon they forget when we had 90 degree heat throughout the summer, with a drought, last year, and how dangerously low the rivers were.  Thankfully, we’ve had some good rain and that good snow in December, and the rivers are now up to level.  A small victory, but it won’t last if we start having 80-degree heat in March like we did last year.

But there’s no Climate Change.  These people will just go on their merry way until the last drop of water comes out of the tap…

I mean, seriously, doesn’t anyone think beyond their nose?

What about the too warm water that is a threat to nuclear power plant ability to cool the nuclear core?  If the warming trends continue, we will lose the ability to cool the core….can anyone say meltdown?  I hate to even think of a worse case scenario of a plant in a scramble that cannot be cooled because the water is too warm to cool it.

Another scenario is this.  Discharging hotter water into the already warm water, leading to fish kills and other destruction of the carefully constructed eco system is not a good, well thought out plan.

Speaking of the effects of the warmer weather, the plants are also being affected, as my Sedum Autumn Joy is starting to pop up from the soil.  (I brought it here with me–it’s a plant that I’ve had since my son was a baby.  I dug it up when I lost my house.)

This weather is not normal and not something to be celebrated.

Earth will survive.  We won’t.