Happy Holiday

HAPPY FOUR-TWENTY 42042042042042042042042042042042042042042042042042042042042042042042042042042042042042042042042042042042042042042042042042042042042042 42042042042042042042042042042042042042042042042042042042042042042042042042042042042042042042042042042042042042042042042042042042042042 42042042042042042042042042042042042042042042042042042042042042042042042042042042042042042042042042042042042042042042042042042042042042 42042042042042042042042042042042042042042042042042042042042042042042042042042042042042042042042042042042042042042042042042042042042042

Is It Now Safe To Emerge?

During one of my rare treks into our living room over the weekend I saw that the Holidays are now past us. Whew! So many things to do, so many things to buy, so many people to...aukkkk! So many people. Almost all have eyes and are looking furtively to the right, then to the left, then right at me. I don't like it. I like my family, family friends, work friends, and lots of other people, but the others, ahhhhh..................

So I should get out more often, Meemers said. Over the weekend I decided to take her advice and accompany her grocery shopping. We get bundled up against the mild cold weather. It's not really cold, but Meemers says it is. Just a little extra layering takes care of it. Of course Meemers is still cold - she won't wear gloves or mittens and often refuses to zip her coat. I think it's her way of defying Old Man Winter. Next summer I think I'm going to adopt, and adapt, her philosophy. In the heat of summer I am going to bundle up as if it's winter, then dare the sun to make me hot and sweaty...just ignore the heat...zip up my coat (it's really just a wind-block jacket), don long-johns, gloves, cap, and just ignore how miserable I am. I think it'll work. But back to getting out; we get our coat and jacket on, I don my gloves, and Meemers puts her mittens in her unzipped coat's pocket (defiance). She starts the car, I hit the button to raise the garage door, and we back out.

MY GOD IN HEAVEN, CREATOR OF HEAVEN AND EARTH

AND ALL LIVING THINGS!!!!!

MY EYES!!!

WHAT IN THE WORLD IS MAKING ALL THAT LIGHT!!

IT IS BEAMING DIRECTLY INTO MY EYES FROM A

GIGANTIC ORB IN THE SKY!!!

ANOTHER REASON I DON'T GET OUT OFTEN.

DAMN THE VITAMIN D, I'LL DRINK MORE MILK.

WHAT IS A DUMBASS?

For years I've wondered what it is exactly that make a person a dumbass. I admit that I don't know what small bit of DNA contributes to it. I don't even need to know. But I know one when I see one. To wit:

A. The woman who used to be my demonic neighbor

B. The kid who drives slowly waiting for me to pass, then does anything to prevent my passing, or even getting back into the right lane (two times, weeks apart)

C. The stopped driver who waits and waits for me so he can pull out, then pulls out in front of me just before I get to him

D. The high-school teenager who does what driver C. does as she coaxes her little 4-cylinder up the hill that I'd already sped up for, then flips me off because I only had choices to pass her or take the ditch

E. Drivers who roll through a 4-way stop....because I'm already stopped

F. Slow, inattentive drivers who wake up when I pass, then are hell bent to stay on my back bumper

G. The driver who's in such a hurry to pull out in front of me to do 35 in a 55

H. The ignorant driver suicidally pulling into 60 mph traffic and thinking they can get to 60 in 2 seconds, but it takes them a minute and a half

I. The cell phoner who knows they have to stop at the light - but it's green

J. The so very cautious driver who waits and waits and waits for the oncoming car to pass by, the oncoming car that is 3/4 of a mile away and obviously doing 30

K. The "look at me" driver who just installed illegal bright-as-the-sun, purple HD headlights......aimmed higher than everyone else's, then gets road raged because you flashed him

L. The "pet lover" who lets her cute Fifi drive while she's on her cell phone

M. The "empathetic" driver who wants to let someone out of the parking lot, but it's just us two in line

N. The person who puts out garbage on Monday for it to blow into my yard before Friday pickup

O. The rocker down the street who wants to entertain the entire neighborhood with his new stereo

P. The payables clerk who relies too much on her out of date 'database' that didn't post my payment

Q. The banker who want ME to pay for doing my banking with him

R. The grocery sacker who put my chips in the bottom of the bag, under the gallon of milk

S. The chump who panhandles for chump change, then drives home in his new Caddie (maybe this one's not a dumbass)

T. The cop who assumes everyone's got a bale of cannabis in their trunk

U. The Democratic Party

V. The Nobel prize panel that chose the Democrat's 'change' president

W. The University of Colorado's Ward Churchill

X. The "global warming" chickens

Y. Anyone who characterizes a person attending a "tea party" as a communist

Z. Anyone who voted for 'change'

I'm out of letters, but I'm not out of dumbasses. Please Comment with your own list.

High Fructose Corn Syrup: Getting the Black Eye it Deserves

This is neither my first post about High Fructose Corn Syrup (HFCS), nor is it likely to be the last. I have been lay researching anecdotal stories and information about HFCS for the past few years, especially since I discovered that I am the first in my non-diabetic family to be diagnosed with the disease. THIS IS NOT ABOUT THE BOTTLED CORN SYRUP YOU BOUGHT AT THE STORE TO MAKE YOUR PECAN PIE.

Something besides fast food is making people the planet over gain weight in great numbers, along with an unimaginable rise in diabetes. I'm not a food scientist or chemist, but many of those who are have been telling us that HFCS is the primary culprit, although the makers of HFCS disagree. Personally, I don't believe the latter group.

A recent article in the U.K.'s The Sunday Times even said that a study found that Fructose syrup (HFCS), a sweetener derived from corn, can cause dangerous growths of fat cells around vital organs and is able to trigger the early stages of diabetes and heart disease. It has increasingly been used as a substitute for more expensive types of sugar in sodas, yogurts, cakes, salad dressings, cereals, and, well, just about any food that was once sweetened with sugar. Even some fruit drinks that should be healthy contain fructose. Experts now believe that the sweetener HFCS — which is found naturally in small, benign amounts in fruits — could be a factor in the emergence of diabetes among children. HFCS is increasingly being used as a substitute for more expensive types of sugar - the real sugars like cane, beet, and maple sugar. The article went on to claim that volunteers on a strictly controlled diet, including high levels of fructose, produced new fat cells around their heart, liver and other digestive organs. They also showed signs of food-processing abnormalities linked to diabetes and heart disease. Another group of volunteers on the same diet, but with glucose sugar - table sugar - replacing fructose, did not have these problems. I don't think it takes a PhD to make the connection. The study said that people in both groups put on a similar amount of weight. However, researchers said the levels of weight gain among the fructose consumers would be greater over the long haul because of what HFCS does to the body. Look, the body recognizes and knows what to do with sugar. It is a simple metabolic process to convert sugar to energy and fat. Conversely, the body doesn't know what HFCS even is and doesn't know how to metabolize it, so it just beats up on the body. And the companies that make it know it. They've always known it. Don't think for one minute that food chemists are smart enough to bastardize our food, but not smart enough to know the effects of doing so. And the FDA just let 'em pollute our foods. Fructose bypasses the digestive process that breaks down other forms of sugar, the study said. It arrives intact in the liver where it causes a variety of abnormal reactions, including the disruption of mechanisms that instruct the body whether to burn or store fat. And HFCS manufacturers were allowed to assault the consuming public all for money. Asshats.

Now that HFCS is getting the black eye it deserves, how are HFCS makers going to get theirs?

Is It a Hat or a Cap?

I have been fascinated by headwear since childhood. Recollections of my dad seem to always have him wearing a brown or gray Fedora. That was during a time that most men, and women, wore hats. Although now most men wear caps. Another early memory is of the traditional headgear worn by firemen, and what little boy doesn't want to be a fireman with a cool head covering like this one?

Unless you really have been living in a cave you know that a hat or cap is a garment worn on the head. They, the hats, caps and heads, come in all shapes and sizes. Headwear is worn for protection against the elements, for religious reasons, for safety, or as a fashion accessory or statement. In the forces of the world's militaries they may denote the rank or position of the wearer. Headwear is seen in various cultures and is as varied as are cultures themselves.

Hat or Cap?

A hat consists of a CROWN; the portion of a hat that actually covers the top of the head. The VISOR; also called the bill, the visor is the stiff projection at the front to protect the eyes from the sun or rain. The BRIM; an important distinction from a cap, the brim is the projection of stiff material around the circumference of the hat; and the SWEATBAND inside the hat that touches the skin.

A cap also has a CROWN which usually fits very close to the head. A cap has no brim and may have a visor. Typically, the best style of cap in our country is the ubiquitous baseball cap. There are literally hundreds and hundreds of styles of caps and hats around the world.

One of my favorite styles is the newsboy cap or flat cap. The newsboy cap has a bit more fabric and could be described by some as being slouchy. My granddaughter, Kaydence, says that it looks silly. In this genre, a FLAT cap is also a favorite and it being worn more and more often by men and women of all ages.

Regardless of whether you call it a hat or a cap, it helps to have an outspoken granddaughter, who has probably only seen baseball caps, put in all in the proper perspective. Grandpa, one looks silly and the other looks funny.

Bronchitis: It Came, It Conquered, It Left

This time I didn't think I was dying like I have felt before. But I didn't feel good at all, and had to burn up vacation time resting at home.

I knew the day before the bronchitis really made its presence known that something was up. I generally felt a bit weak, feverish, and I had a metallic taste in my mouth - not a good sign when you don't have anything metallic in your mouth. It got worse from there.

I didn't go to my doctor right away because the medical community says about all one can do is, well, not a whole lot. And since it's viral, antibiotics won't help...they say. Mine turned into an infection which meant YOO-HOO, I was prescribed a Z-Pak antibiotic.

By the next morning I felt much better and by the time I finished off the other four pills I was almost my regular self.

And so I grabbed my smokes, which started the whole thing, and decided that it was time to quit 'em. I have not been able to quit completely just yet, but I smoke from NONE to maybe one or two a day vs. a pack or more a day at $5.00 each. Fifty years is long enough.

Maybe bronchitis will no longer come to conquer me.

SUNSHINE: Necessary, or a Necessary Evil?

Woody Allen squints into the bright sunshine that is bathing London in a rare, warm glow and shakes his head in irritation. “I hate sunshine,” he mutters. “It should be raining.”

The 73-year-old film maker is currently making his fourth film in London and rather than the grey skies and rain that he loves, and that have roles in the movie, he has endured days of sunshine and blue skies. “The sun is a very, very big problem,” he says gloomily.

I agree with you, Mr. Allen, and I don't make movies. I simply like cloudy days.

On any given clear summer day at the beach, just look around at all of the sun worshipers; there are many. They're also getting a tan in the backyard, and at the pool. I know more people who enjoy the sun than ones who enjoy cloudy days, as I do.

I didn't always feel this way. Maybe the moderation that has come with age has been a contributing factor, but for me, it's really more pharmacological and physiological than philosophical. And while enjoying cloudy days is a conscious decision, my body has also had a heavy hand in my decision; it doesn't tolerate the sun very well.

In all fairness, though, my body had help in its decision. For more than half of my adult life I have been prescribed long-term medications that have rendered my body highly susceptible to the sun's effects, such as getting a memorable sunburn in about 10 minutes, an inflamatory response in my skin known as dyshydrotic seborrhea with results that last about 2 weeks, burning itching eyes, headache, and more. This is in addition to an instance of either near heat stroke or heat exhaustion a few years ago that seems to have made me even more susceptible since then to heat problems.

Also in all fairness, the sun has its benefits. Researchers have started recognizing the importance of sunlight for a healthy lifestyle, recent studies reveal that sunlight renders many health benefits. Apart from sunlight maintaining temperature and humidity, sunlight plays a significant role in nourishing and energizing the human body. It is also vital in order to get the full nutritional value from food that we consume and it has been proven that getting sufficient sunlight aids in preventing chronic ailments such as seasonal affective disorder (SAD), osteoporosis, mental depression, type 2 diabetes, and cancers affecting the bladder, breasts, cervix, colon, ovaries, prostate, and the stomach. To put it more succinctly, sunlight serves as the perfect medicinal pill in promoting a healthy lifestyle. One of the prime benefits of sunlight is that it supplies the body with Vitamin D, which not only promotes the absorption of calcium in the gut but also transfers calcium across the cell membranes. Yeah. This in turn provides strength to the bones as well as contributes for a healthy nervous system by increasing the production of endorphins (Mmm, endorphins) in the brain. Usually, deposits of cholesterol-like substances known as ergosterol can be found beneath the skin, which gets converted into Vitamin D hormones when the sunlight penetrates the skin. However, an average of only 10 minutes of sunlight per day all year round will make sure that we reap the benefits of sunlight and make enough vitamin D. A lack of Vitamin D is associated with a host of autoimmune ailments such as Crohn’s disease, multiple sclerosis, rheumatoid arthritis, and thyroditis, I've read.

Sunlight can also harm the human body. Excessive exposure of the unprotected skin results in erythema (sunburn). As I mentioned certain medications, including tetracyclines, estrogens, antidepressants, and many others increase the skin's susceptibility to sunburn. The body has ways to protect itself from skin damage from sunlight. However, after only 2-3 minutes of exposure to the sun, skin damage begins. Two main structural proteins of the skin, collagen and elastin, begin to break down, ultimately resulting in wrinkles. The skin has the ability to repair itself, but repeated and prolonged exposure to the sun damages the skin permanently. Prolonged exposure to the hot sun or any other heat source may cause heat exhaustion or the more serious heatstroke or sunstroke. By far the most serious ill effect of the sun is skin cancer. It's been said that even one or two blistering sunburns as a child have been associated with an increase in skin cancers.

So, I still enjoy cloudy days most. And if it is also raining I like it even more.

So does Woody Allen, as he had to bring out the artificial rain during filming of his movie. "Ah, that's better," said Mr. Allen with a very rare smile.