On a Warm Summer Night

It's a warm August night and our fan is running on high, as are the various ceiling fans throughout the house. Skittle is sleeping on the TV tray in front of Don's chair in the living room. Randy and I have both tired of scolding her and chasing her off. She's so much bigger now, almost Tyler-size and goes out without one of us chaperoning now, although she only stays out three hours or less at a time. She's our little Egyptian Mau/Bengal mix and is highly intelligent, plus she's very food-motivated. Randy has had some success at training her. Tyler has settled directly in front of the fan that is drawing the cooler air in from the outside. She's sad that Don, her MealMan, has banned her from the bedroom, but she'll repeatedly wake him during the night if he lets her in. Spats is deep in sleep on a carpet runner next to the music bookshelves.

Last night Randy and I went out to watch the lunar eclipse, the first time I've ever seen one, in spite of my nocturnal predilections! Tonight we've both mentioned going to the gym, but neither of us is making a move to get ready, so I don't think we'll make it. I am trying to do some gentle exercise again. A recent appt. with a nutritionist has reminded me how important it can be to help control my blood sugars. Most likely my weight gain is due to the fatigue and pain from fibro. I'm trying to eat as per the South Beach Diet, but it is hard to stay with high fiber carbohydrates all the time. A 'no sugar added' milkshake is very cooling in the summer heat. We buy Breyers brand and a store brand low carb ice cream sold by Vons. Sugar free Popsicles are great too. I snack on low fat string cheese or nuts. I also work at drinking a goodly amount of water, iced this time of year, everyday. We drink filtered water, the stuff you can get from a water bottle filling machine, like Glacier Water. The water in Escondido is fluoridated now and we prefer purer water. We even use filtered water to make our ice cubes.

When I look back, although I am still overweight, I realize that I eat so much healthier now and much smaller portions too. I used to make casseroles and Hamburger Helper when I lived alone and often I ate half or all of the recipe the first evening I cooked it. Although I switched to fresh fruits when I moved out of my parents' house, I still ate a lot of canned veggies. Over the past 10 years or so I've stopped eating hamburger, unless I get a burger at a restaurant. I much prefer the taste of ground turkey or chicken. My cholesterol is about 180 which is good for most people, but new guidelines for diabetics does now push for a 100 reading. I can't take statins and the alternative is Zetia, which upsets my stomach after a few weeks, so I'm looking at taking the new Promise Activ Yogurt Shots during the week that I have to forego taking the Rx, although I haven't found them yet. You know, if you go to a bookstore's site, like Barnes and Noble, you can find out if they have the book you're looking for, no problem. I've gone to the sites of 4 grocery stores, Trader Joe's, Albertsons, Vons and Stater Bros. and not a one allows you to search for a specific item! Now how dumb is that?

Is there a Carlton Sheppard in the House?

I just wanted to follow up on my bridge collapse worries. I did get in touch with both sides of my family in St. Paul, MN and everyone is accounted for, no one I know was on that bridge that day. Calling my cousin Cheryl may result in my setting her up a website, so that's good! But the Twin Cities Police Dept. has called me repeatedly, at least 3 times now, even though I have assured them that my family is all accounted for, because of a glitch, I guess you'd call it. They wanted all the names, but that would have been 7 or more names to go through. So I gave them last names: Carlton, Sheppard, MacDonald, and Neisch. Although I have explained that, they keep calling me to see if Carlton Sheppard has been accounted for yet! Maybe I should use that name in one of my novels, it seems very believable, LOL!

Finally, Some News That Would Make Robert Fulghum Proud and Some That is Making Catholics Cringe

Remember that great book, Everything I Needed to Know I Learned in Kindergarten? Well here is a medical blog entry that upholds one of its premises. Napping Makes You Smarter! Who knew? I do remember that when I was in 1st Grade a family friend took care of me after school and she wanted to do the right thing, so she would try and get me to practice my printing and spelling. It would just put me in the worst mood! I complained to my mom and she asked the sweet lady not to push me. See, if I'd just taken a nap, it would have been all better. I think I should write and tell her so. Yes, her name is Iris; she has outlived my mother by more that 20 years and I still write her when I can. So, she did get me to write, and spell well, after all!

A few years after that, while I was in 3rd grade, my mom came into possession of a 6th grade reader, because she worked for the church and, by extension, the parochial school I attended. I started reading it with perfect comprehension and my love for reading was born. Not much longer after that I began running out of reading materials, but not before I read all the way through the sex education book my mom had bought to read to me. She had paperclipped the more explicit pages together, but I read those too. Soon she had to declare even the Reader's Digest Condensed Books in our book cupboard okay for me to read. She would caution me, after a trip to the library, to ration my reading, but once I got started I couldn't stop.

Speaking of sex education at a young age, Fox 25 News in Boston announced that the city has a problem with a billboard too close to the Catholic School in Dorchester. You can see the piece they did on it here...Condom Billboard Placement Leaves Residents Shaking Heads. I have mixed thoughts on this one. For one thing, the last I heard the Catholic Church was still not condoning birth control, but these kids will have to face that reality sooner or later. With kids experimenting with sex earlier and earlier, maybe it's not such a bad idea. The lady who runs the nearby daycare center says she doesn't want to have to explain it to her 8 year old son, though. And, obviously the Church has some clout, because the last thing the reporter says is that the billboard will be gone by the time school starts!

Bridge Collapse

I have spent a few hours now, watching the Minneapolis bridge collapse coverage. I have a lot of relatives there, mostly in St. Paul, but they certainly might work in or have been on errands to their Twin City. I called the Red Cross number, but they don't have any names at this point. Scared me pretty bad, because I got a call back very shortly afterwards. They wanted to know first names, but we're talking whole families here! Anyway, they said to check on http://www.safeandwell.org/ tomorrow. By then I can call relatives, too. If they are safe and well, I don't want to disturb their rest. Good chance they have lost friends and maybe relatives on the other side of their respective families.

A few good things that may have saved people. Yes it was rush hour, but traffic on the bridge was down to 2 lanes on the collapsed side because of the roadwork. Also, as Randy pointed out, it was summer, so the river wasn't frozen, plus some people may have had their windows down, so if they hit the water they may have been able to get out the window. On the other hand, it may have been the jackhammer activity that caused the collapse and, we're thinking, the freight train below may also have contributed. We think it may have been harmonic resonance that caused it. I'm wondering how many went into the water and if they were on top of one another, that could have complicated getting out of cars. Some people were so in shock that they couldn't immediately understand what was happening to them. There'll be no more news until it's morning there, which would be around 4 or so our time. All I can do is leave the situation and the people in God's hands.