Patience, patients

I had a conversation a few days ago with a person who prides himself on taking care of his health.

He takes ibuprofen every day, to deal with or avoid muscle aches and pains. I suggested massage as an alternative. "I've never thought of it." And "it's too expensive."

Typical American approach: let's treat the symptoms and not the cause. Let's take a pill to fix the problem. It's true there are far worse drugs to take. There is, however, a limit to the number of ibuprofen one can take before permanent liver damage occurs. And I wonder how much of his discomfort could be changed by nutrition.

He went on to tell me that he eats a healthy diet. Chicken and vegetables. When I recommend kale chips, his response is 'I don't eat chips.'

The 'chips' part of kale chips is simply because they're baked. Apparently he couldn't get his head around the fact kale chips are home made, need a minimal amount of olive oil with which to prevent the chips from burning. They're an excellent, tasty way to get green leafy vegetables into your digestive system while enjoying a treat at the same time.

I didn't even broach the subject of his allegedly healthy diet. On the surface, it seems healthy. White meat, veg.

Is the chicken store-bought? If so, when you eat it - or beef, or pork, or turkey, not only are you supporting factory farms you're also bombarding your immune system with copious amounts of antibiotics, and your endocrine system copious amounts of steroid hormones.

Roughly half of the antibiotics used in the U.S. is fed to livestock to keep them healthy. Steroids pollute feeds -- in an effort to get livestock fatter more quickly.

In addition, factory farms feed their livestock corn. Chickens, cattle, pigs did not evolve eating corn. Corn was introduced to speed the growth and fattening of our livestock. It's also a (the?) major reason for cholesterol problems in store-bought eggs and beef.

Let's go back to that anti-biotic thing. Bacteria are increasing in their resistance to antibiotics, because of our over use of them. Antibiotic soaps, wipes, cleaners, and antibiotics in animal feed are breeding 'Super Bugs' -- bacteria which can live through megadoses of the most powerful antibiotics on the market.

Doubt me? Google 'antibiotic resistant bacteria.'

On educatin'

I teach an anatomy course at a local college. This year's class is huge -- the school opened another lab section, providing more slots for students. Between that and the uncertain economy, enrollment has more than doubled.

We're 4 weeks, one quiz, and one exam into the semester. It's kind of scary to look at the grades for these two assessments. It's particularly frustrating for me as an instructor as I can literally stand up in front of the class and tell them 'this material will be on the exam.' And they still get it wrong.

It's even more frustrating when students then blame the instructor. And I guarantee that many of the students that are struggling will be blaming this instructor.

I've given a similar exam every single of the 5 years I've taught this course. Some classes do better than others. My favorite A&P class ever had phenomenal students -- the core group that made it to the second semester all got A's on the first exam.

It mat be that the lousy economy, which is driving students to continue their educations, has spiked the number of weak students to struggle into and through health care curricula.

I don't want people who don't know the material in the field. They'd be working on me -- and you. No grade inflation or 'pass 'em through' attitude here!

Both extremes so very much alike

I came across a right wing blog accidentally. My knee jerk reaction was to instantly move to the next page, but then I went back. "Know your enemy!" Although I was raised in a Barry-Goldwater-conservative household, I have since fallen from conservative ideals, and have turned into (gasp! Horrors!) a leftie pinko.

Back to the blog. I was dumbfounded to find that the rhetoric of the far right sounds pretty much exactly like the rhetoric of the far left. Both sides claim the other is causing Americans to lose their freedom. Both sides say the other is too extreme. Both sides are actually bashing each other with many of the same idea and ideals, just a different interpretation of them.

Then, I scrolled down the page, and found ads for pro-life/anti-abortion links as well as websites that push for increased off-shore drilling and other environmental developmental catastrophes.

My interest waned. I went back to my original search.

Flattery....

Received an email from one of my oldest friends here:


A woman who is a good friend and classmate of mine from my undergrad days at Cornell ran into me on Saturday at the Farmer's Market. She said she was at New Park for that Burn's Sisters event and saw me there with my arm around some twenty-something babe, and her thought was how lucky men are because they don't get old like women do. I was frankly baffled over who she could have seen me with, tried to remember if any of my friend's daughters were there, but I just realized that the twenty-something babe was you.

An excellent dog

TG posted this on my Facebook wall today: Until one has loved an animal, a part of one's soul remains unawakened --Anatole France

I was having a good day until I read it.

My tri training partner & closest friend said yesterday 'Kuro was the love of your life.' Yes. I suppose he was. It feels as if he was - is - part of me on a cellular level. His persona, his energy, his spirit, his essence is still in me. An acquaintance said 'he's your heart dog.'

That he is.

Grief is like guerrilla warfare, complete with unexpected raids, ambushes and elements of surprise. It attacks with extraordinary mobility, striking this vulnerable target. The difference: guerrilla fighters can withdraw with astonishing speed. My grief about losing Kuro lasts, a slowly receding tide.

The four year old in me wants to kick and scream and throw a tantrum until I get what I want. Damnable that I can't have it (either the tantrum or, especially, my beloved boy)

I miss you, K.

2010 SkinnyMan

Competed in my 10th sprint triathlon of the season today. Two more on the schedule.

Local hero and tri-store owner Nick Lehecka took 1st place overall, beating out last year's winner by 2 seconds. Nick trains 20-25 hours a week, and often leads lake swims or group bikes for the 'Big Dog' triathletes, particularly the young bucks in the area.

I missed last year's Skinny. I'd registered, though I felt lousy the morning of the event. Got into town, where I was picking up a friend to spectate. By the time I arrived at his place, I was feeling really queasy. I sent him in, turned around, and made it home. Walking into the house food poisoning caught up with me. I spent the day alternately sleeping and vomiting.

Today's results were much better. I actually made it to the race and competed. While my own finish is no where near Nick's stellar performance, I was happy: I knocked over a minute off my '08 swim time and about a minute and a half off the bike. The run - as usual - slow. I've got to fix this hip problem! And train for running!

So I'm pretty happy. One irritation: I came into T2 to find someone had racked their bike where mine was supposed to go. I had to yank the usurper out of my spot and leave it on the grass. The bikes were not well numbered. Had they been, I'd have mentioned it to an official.

The food was pretty lousy, too -- stale bagels and dried out fruit that had been left out for flies to land. While a local restaurant was supplying pizza, there were insufficient amounts for the hordes of starving athletes.

The weather held! Hurricane Earl is galloping up the east coast, so the day, which started out clear and cool, turned windy and overcast. It didn't start to rain until the run, however. There was another shower as I was leaving transition, which soaked all of us -- next time, pack a slicker.

Beloved

I emailed my sister about a time, last fall, when Kuro and I had a wrangle about whether he was coming inside or not. It was cooler out, and I wanted him to come in, concerned about his comfort and health. He clearly did *not* want to be in the house.

"You're coming inside."
'No, I'm not.'
"Kuro, you need to come in NOW!"
'I want to stay OUTSIDE!'

I could see him thinking. He was quite clever with his compromise. He walked over and stood by our station wagon, parked under the trees in front of the house.

I swear, he said just by his look 'Ill stay in here but I'm NOT coming inside.' He even put one paw up on the bumper.

I opened the tailgate,boosted him into the car, & watched as he settled down on the dog bed in the back. He stayed in the Volvo over 3 hours, tailgate open, enjoying 'being outside' yet sheltered and comfortable.

Had he been a younger, more robust dog, I'd have made him listen to me. At that point, he was so old I was indulging him shamelessly. I was just happy to be able to help him find contentment.

The same sister emailed me 'you'd live in a shack if you could still have Kuro man with you.' As long as it was weatherproof and safe for dogs, she's right.