Wednesday, April 15, 2015

checking in, catching up

image
Bingo and Pepper in the new office. © 2015 Stanley H. Thompson (click to see it big!)

Stanley set up our office in a room that is a converted porch. That was, gee, in 2002 or so? Something like that. Very comfortable, though sometimes really cold in the winter until this year, when he insulated the crawlspace underneath it. Changed it to just cold. But, with my heated throw and sometimes the space heater, it works, really well. I love my office.

However, this winter, there was an ice dam above the office, which is an add-on to the main house. And it rained in the office, so we had to move out. Fortunately, our parlor wasn’t used for anything but storage (I won’t get into it ... suffice to say it was not my choice). So Stanley was able to move the cable and phone connections to the parlor after we dug out the crap (almost finished). He rigged up two long tables for desks, and I love my desk and my new, temporary, office digs. He still has a few things to do so we’re completely comfortable in the new office, but it’s getting there.

But ... I want my office back! First, it has to dry out, and Stanley has to find the leaking points and seal it (it really looked like it was raining inside during the worst of it). And it needs to be painted—needed it before the leak since it had been so long and got such heavy use and abuse by, over time, three dogs and three cats plus two humans. I think what I miss the most is being able to watch the birds at the bird feeder, and the squirrel acrobatics to get at the birdseed. We’ll get there.

progress on the health front
I am no longer diabetic. Off all diabetes medication. I’ve been on a low carbohydrate high fat moderate protein ketogenic diet since July 2013. The blood sugar got under control fairly quickly, but my doctor is cautious and waited until December to discontinue the Metformin (though she did decrease it last August). Since I was diagnosed with diabetes, I’ve lost 86 pounds.

Sticking with a ketogenic diet was not and is not an ordeal—it’s just the way I eat. The only sweet stuff I eat are berries and, when my blood sugar drops too low (once in a while), a bar of Trader Joe’s dark chocolate with almond bits. I don’t eat grains of any kind ever, except once in a blue moon I’ll have sushi with rice. I’ll eat French fries once in a while, but not many. No pasta, ever—I like shirataki noodles (konjac) just fine and that’s what I use when I make spaghetti sauce in the slow cooker. (I make my own so I can keep sugar out of it.) I wish I could afford grass-fed, free-range meats, poultry, and fish, but this is rare. So I just eat what we can afford. When I’ve tried a bit of a dessert when we go out, it is always too sweet and I don’t care for it. I don’t miss bread. I have bulletproof coffee every day (about 15 ounces of good coffee with an ounce of Kerrygold unsalted butter, about 1.25 ounces of coconut oil, and heavy cream all blended with a shake machine) and lots of eggs. Unlike most paleo diets, I do eat dairy because I like it.

My psoriasis rarely bothers me, my arthritis is much, much better. I had three gout flares over the past 14 months and am now taking allopurinol to prevent them (and drinking a lot more water than I did before)—the last bout made me unable to walk for a solid week and I am still getting over it. Gout runs in my family, so I am not surprised I’ve had flares and I suspect the flares would’ve been a lot worse had I been eating grains and sugar since they both cause inflammation. I have some kidney problems of unknown origin (suspect the cause was the first gout flare where the hospital put me on heavy duty antibiotics and heavy pain meds that caused some damage), but it’s getting better—a lot better, quickly, since I no longer use aspirin or naproxen for pain.

I still have more weight to lose, because I want to, and plan to start working out with weights again soon (Fred Hahn’s Slow Burn program—which worked really well for me when I actually followed the program in 2007-2008), and maybe add The Five Tibetan Rites—because, why not?

There is a lot of work I need to catch up with—stuff I’m looking forward to doing. I want to update our company site—I’m tired of it being so old fashioned—and learn how to set up a Magento store for one client, and update a hyperlocal media site (which is giving me fits—the software isn’t working the way it should, at least not yet).

Spring is FINALLY getting here, so my mood is much better. I finished the taxes. Money is always a worry, but that’s the norm. I have some health worries about family members, but things are improving with them. No particular rants today about politics and world events—not quite ready to get back to actually paying close attention to that yet. Except I wish there were other Democrats running against Clinton for the primary (and I absolutely hate her campaign logo).

 

posted by lee on 04/15/15 at 11:48 AM
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