I read a web site by Dr. Mercola who is an alternative medicine website. He has some guest authors or experts that come on his site. One of the writers that I noticed was Ori Hofmekler and I really liked what he said about insulin. I read a couple of books by him and he had some great information. Basically he believes that we have to eat like out ancestors which he believes walked around all day gathering and hunting and then at night would eat it all at once, so his idea is to not to eat during the day and to eat everything you want at night, or 20 hours of fasting and 4 hours of eating. I liked some of the things that he said but I just couldn't bring myself to say that I'm following the "Warrior Diet" that's just too stupid sounding. He also talks about a training regimen called "Anti Fatigue Training" that didn't sound like much fun.
After that I found a site called "Mark's Daily Apple" which talks about "Primal Living" with a "Primal Diet." This is site is by a guy called Mark Sisson who used to be a marathoner and then got injured around the time that triathlons started getting popular and he started competing in those and took 3rd in the Iron Man in Hawaii. Mark says that we over train and that was a problem that he had when he was an endurance athlete. He says that our ancestors would generally walk around all day lots of movement but only occasional bursts of activity or trying to lift something heavy like the animal you just killed. But basically we didn't try running around every day day in and day out. However, he really likes the barefoot movement. I started doing what Mark said when I was able to start exercising after my hernia surgery. I'd do the turbulence training and then on the off days I'd exercise pretty easy, then on Saturday I'd ride the exercise cycle at a fast, for me, cadence of 80 bpm. The first time I tried it I was able to do the ride, and I was able to do it. That surprised me because I've been able to do it before but only a few times. Anyway it seemed to be working. Then I got sick and stopped exercising, then my BG got high and I started exercising again, but only lightly like Mark says and my BG fell. Pretty amazing.
One last funny thing, or it's something that I thinks funny. Mark Sisson like going barefoot. I'd actually heard that going barefoot was a good thing because it helped to keep from getting things like plantar fasciitis and I've been exercising barefoot since then. So I start looking into it and the things that I find are fascinating. Turns out that around the same time that we started being told to stop eating fat we were also told to start aerobic exercising. That started a craze for running as an aerobic exercise. Shoe companies started producing running shoes that padded the heel so people started running slow with heel strikes. I've felt the shoes that feel like your feet are in pillows. They feel great, but the people that talk about barefoot running say these shoes keep our feet encased like a cast and are feet are not allowed to move the way they're designed to. And they say that heel striking cause more stress on the knees and what not. That got me a little excited because of me having the knee problem when I run. The thinking is that when you run barefoot you will run with a ball of the foot strike that reduces the stress on your knees. Here's the interesting thing that the barefoot running people say, that the human body is designed to do endurance running. I've heard this before as well, humans can't outrun hardly any animals but they can outlast almost all of them. For example we can breathe through our nose
Sunday, January 29, 2012
Saturday, January 14, 2012
A New Family Tradition
I'm sitting here pretending I'm sick. Actually I'm not pretending, I'm in the; "I'm not sick except for the cough." stage. This week I started the week talking in a whisper at work (for which I got a lot of grief for) and towards the middle of the week I was starting to feel better and was thinking about when I could start exercising again. Then yesterday I started coughing again so today I'm starting to act sick again so that I can maybe get better. This is the time when in the past I would start thinking; "I can just work through this." Maybe if I just keep acting sick I can get over it. Right now I'm at three weeks, well on Tuesday it will be three weeks, and if I can get over it in three weeks I'm still going to count it at as a win but it's not very much fun right now.
What is the new family tradition? Last week Brian said that he was going to fix Goosy's car brakes. Sometime during this week Goosy must have told Brian that Aaron had showed me how to fix the brakes on our car (as in Karen's car when we got married). So Brian texted me that I should teach him how to fix the brakes on Goosy's car.
Brian came over today for us to fix Goosy's car, after I went into Albuquerque to pick up my new spectacles and visit with my Mom. We got the tires off the car and had the car up on blocks. On the first side we were trying to pull the rotor off and it wouldn't come off. I remember one time when I was working on the back brakes on our Van. The rotor would not come off and I spent hours trying to get it off, and finally had to go get a slide hammer from Auto Zone to get it off. Anyway I couldn't figure out why this rotor won't come off and was starting to wonder what we might have to do. Remember I'd never fixed Goosy's car before so everything was new about this. We went in and googled how to fix the brakes and found a video about it and in the video the guy just reached up and grabbed the rotor and pulled it off. Brian and I just looked at each other in disbelief. We just laughed and went out and hit the rotor with a rubber hammer and it came off, and then the other side came off pretty easy because by then we knew how to do it.
Brian had gone to Auto Zone and gotten a set of brakes before we started. After we got the rotors off we took the rotors into Auto Zone to see if they could turn the rotors, but they couldn't. O'Rielly's, the other auto store in Bernalillo could turn them so we took the rotors there. (It seems weird to me that Benalillo has two auto part stores right next to each other in such a small town, but there it is.) The O'Rielly guy said that if we buy the pads there as well they would give us a break on the cost of turning the rotors and that they'd be ready in an hour. We went back on hour later and Brian returned the brake pads that he'd gotten from Auto Zone and then he was able to but new pads and have the rotors turned for the same price. I thought that was a pretty good result.
That's the new family tradition. If Brian and Goosy have a daughter Brian's going to have to teach the husband how to change the brakes on her car.
What is the new family tradition? Last week Brian said that he was going to fix Goosy's car brakes. Sometime during this week Goosy must have told Brian that Aaron had showed me how to fix the brakes on our car (as in Karen's car when we got married). So Brian texted me that I should teach him how to fix the brakes on Goosy's car.
Brian came over today for us to fix Goosy's car, after I went into Albuquerque to pick up my new spectacles and visit with my Mom. We got the tires off the car and had the car up on blocks. On the first side we were trying to pull the rotor off and it wouldn't come off. I remember one time when I was working on the back brakes on our Van. The rotor would not come off and I spent hours trying to get it off, and finally had to go get a slide hammer from Auto Zone to get it off. Anyway I couldn't figure out why this rotor won't come off and was starting to wonder what we might have to do. Remember I'd never fixed Goosy's car before so everything was new about this. We went in and googled how to fix the brakes and found a video about it and in the video the guy just reached up and grabbed the rotor and pulled it off. Brian and I just looked at each other in disbelief. We just laughed and went out and hit the rotor with a rubber hammer and it came off, and then the other side came off pretty easy because by then we knew how to do it.
Brian had gone to Auto Zone and gotten a set of brakes before we started. After we got the rotors off we took the rotors into Auto Zone to see if they could turn the rotors, but they couldn't. O'Rielly's, the other auto store in Bernalillo could turn them so we took the rotors there. (It seems weird to me that Benalillo has two auto part stores right next to each other in such a small town, but there it is.) The O'Rielly guy said that if we buy the pads there as well they would give us a break on the cost of turning the rotors and that they'd be ready in an hour. We went back on hour later and Brian returned the brake pads that he'd gotten from Auto Zone and then he was able to but new pads and have the rotors turned for the same price. I thought that was a pretty good result.
That's the new family tradition. If Brian and Goosy have a daughter Brian's going to have to teach the husband how to change the brakes on her car.
Friday, January 6, 2012
A New Son (in-law AS) and other Stories
My last blog told of the incredible events involving the wedding of my daughter Chantel to Brian and the whirl wind of events surrounding the events. There were some other stories that need to be told, as well as a need to introduce Brian. Heh heh.
Brian and Goose got endowed on November 3rd. Why do I remember that date? when I don't usually remember dates? Because we were looking forward to the weekend when Goose and Brian were getting endowed, which should have been the big event, when little Corry Nichols arrived the day before and the endowment suddenly became the second story. Kind of like when C. S. Lewis died on the same day Pres. Kennedy got assassinated. I know about those two events but only because the one story is so much greater than the other.
Brain asked me to be his escort which was an honor. Although I've never escorted a child through the temple I've been asked to escort my brother and Jeff Hargett, who was my home teaching partner from when he became a teacher to when he was set apart as an Elder. I'm only saying this because I know what I'm saying when I say that this felt different than other times. I guess it felt a little like taking a son through, but I don't have any experience with that.
OK now for the stories, not that I'm bitter. Why did I call Brian "AS"? It stands for Affection Stealer. Now I don't blame Brian for stealing Chantel's affection, after all she's married to him, however, should he be allowed to steal the affection of grand kids? We were at Kiora's house and Brian was sitting with Chantel on his lap and that's understandable, but then Chio when over and sat on his lap as well, and then Alex went over and climbed on to him. All this while I had a perfectly good lap that could have been utilized. Not that I'm jealous.
So during the trip to Dallas and back home (and at Thanksgiving) Chio got pretty well acquainted with Brian (see above), and the first thing she asks when she walks in our house is; "Where's Brian?" What! So then I got to explain to a 4 year old what a honeymoon was. That took about 10 minutes with multiple times of Chio checking with her mother to see if grandpa was telling the truth. Then about 15 minutes after we got that all settled a little while later Chantel and Brian came walking! They had to find something that Chantel had forgotten, but there went grandpa's credibility.
However, the real point is for everyone to see how Brian has stolen Chio's affection as well. I hope I've made my point. Not that I'm bitter.
Chio had a couple of other funny statements. I mentioned that Teandra, mostly but she was helped by her sisters, made and decorated some incredible cookies for the wedding. I, of course, didn't get to eat any of them, but they looked beautiful. Apparently everyone had been telling Chio and Alex not to bother the cookies or to eat any of them. At the wedding they were allowed to eat the cookies, so Chio was caught carrying around a handful of cookies, as many as she could carry and her Mom, I think, made her put a few back. The next day Kiora and Karen went shopping early and left Ryan with me. A little while later Teandra came out laughing and told me that Chio had came in while she was getting up and Teandra asked her where her Mom was, but Chio said that she didn't know where her Mom and Grandma had gone. Teandra then asked if she knew if they'd taken Ryan with her and she said that she didn't know if they'd taken Ryan but that they had left the cookies! Well at least she has her priorities straight.
Brian and Goose got endowed on November 3rd. Why do I remember that date? when I don't usually remember dates? Because we were looking forward to the weekend when Goose and Brian were getting endowed, which should have been the big event, when little Corry Nichols arrived the day before and the endowment suddenly became the second story. Kind of like when C. S. Lewis died on the same day Pres. Kennedy got assassinated. I know about those two events but only because the one story is so much greater than the other.
Brain asked me to be his escort which was an honor. Although I've never escorted a child through the temple I've been asked to escort my brother and Jeff Hargett, who was my home teaching partner from when he became a teacher to when he was set apart as an Elder. I'm only saying this because I know what I'm saying when I say that this felt different than other times. I guess it felt a little like taking a son through, but I don't have any experience with that.
OK now for the stories, not that I'm bitter. Why did I call Brian "AS"? It stands for Affection Stealer. Now I don't blame Brian for stealing Chantel's affection, after all she's married to him, however, should he be allowed to steal the affection of grand kids? We were at Kiora's house and Brian was sitting with Chantel on his lap and that's understandable, but then Chio when over and sat on his lap as well, and then Alex went over and climbed on to him. All this while I had a perfectly good lap that could have been utilized. Not that I'm jealous.
So during the trip to Dallas and back home (and at Thanksgiving) Chio got pretty well acquainted with Brian (see above), and the first thing she asks when she walks in our house is; "Where's Brian?" What! So then I got to explain to a 4 year old what a honeymoon was. That took about 10 minutes with multiple times of Chio checking with her mother to see if grandpa was telling the truth. Then about 15 minutes after we got that all settled a little while later Chantel and Brian came walking! They had to find something that Chantel had forgotten, but there went grandpa's credibility.
However, the real point is for everyone to see how Brian has stolen Chio's affection as well. I hope I've made my point. Not that I'm bitter.
Chio had a couple of other funny statements. I mentioned that Teandra, mostly but she was helped by her sisters, made and decorated some incredible cookies for the wedding. I, of course, didn't get to eat any of them, but they looked beautiful. Apparently everyone had been telling Chio and Alex not to bother the cookies or to eat any of them. At the wedding they were allowed to eat the cookies, so Chio was caught carrying around a handful of cookies, as many as she could carry and her Mom, I think, made her put a few back. The next day Kiora and Karen went shopping early and left Ryan with me. A little while later Teandra came out laughing and told me that Chio had came in while she was getting up and Teandra asked her where her Mom was, but Chio said that she didn't know where her Mom and Grandma had gone. Teandra then asked if she knew if they'd taken Ryan with her and she said that she didn't know if they'd taken Ryan but that they had left the cookies! Well at least she has her priorities straight.
Thursday, January 5, 2012
One Week 2 Weddings 1800 Mile Round Trip (and other amzing feats)
I saw this title from Aunt Donna on Facebook and thought it was cool so I stole it (and because I can't think of anything original either) but it captures our Holidays pretty well.
Last year we got the wonderful news that Kristan Bond our niece was getting married on the 22 of December and made plans to attend. After that Chantel decided to change her name to Nowlen (that's pronounced KnowLan for anyone who doesn't know Brian yet, which means that pretty much all of my daughters have changed their last names to names that prove that spelling in English makes no sense at all). We told her that she needed to plan her wedding in a way that wouldn't mess up Kristan's wedding.
So here was our schedule. Karen, Linda, Brian and Chantel all left for Lake Jackson to arrive on Monday January 19th to help with Kristan's wedding. I stayed home because I didn't have enough time off to take off the whole week so I flew to Houston on Wednesday morning. The ironic thing was that I was planning to drive to work on Tuesday so that I could get home early enough to visit with my mother Tuesday night before someone drove me to the airport Wednesday morning. Monday that week work was canceled because of snow but usually the roads after a snow are terrible in Santa Fe and I didn't want to deal with the stress of driving up and I was feeling pretty cocky about silver water keeping me healthy so I took two days off sick leave which meant that I didn't go to work that week at all, but spent the first two day's at home. (What does it say in Bible about pride? Oh yeah pride goeth before the fall, but that's a story for later. I'd planned to take a day of sick leave anyway but decided to take another because of the roads.) Kiora was supposed to drive up for the wedding as well, but she and her kids were sick so she didn't come. Karen and Chantel and it seemed like everyone wasa sick.
Karen, Chantel and Brian picked me up at the Houston Airport. It was the smaller airport. I was late getting off the plane because we were parked on the tarmac for half an hour while our slot was cleared out. I was standing on the curb waiting for them to pick me up and Chantel called me to ask where I was and I said I was standing on the curb right as the van they were in drove up and Chantel and I were looking at each other about ten feet away. The wonders of technology. So I jumped in the van with Karen, Chantel and Brian and we drove about 100 miles to pick up Teda and Mark who had come and visited Mark's brother then we drove back to Lake Jackson. The next day was Kristan and Zach's sealing and it was wonderful to see a new eternal family created. Then we all went to lunch at a barbecue place and then we went back to Lake Jackson for the reception.
The next day we took off for Dallas, all 7 of us, Karen, me, Chantel, Brian, Teandra, Mark and Linda. We were supposed to have two vans at this point but since Kiora didn't come we had only one van. I was thinking that we needed to ask Donna and Greg to bring some of our stuff with them but Karen said that she could load everything. Have I ever mentioned that Karen is the greatest packer in the world? Now I think she she's a wizard like in Harry Potter with a tent that has an extra dimension. She was able to pack everything and we were able to drive 6 hours to Sherman without killing each other. This in itself is a testimony of the Gospel and that family's are forever.
We spent Christmas with Kiora's family over Christmas and it was a lot of fun. It's always nice to have Christmas fall on a Sunday. This year I thought was especially special that Pres. Monson said that we only needed to go to Sacrament Meeting. It was very nice to take the Sacrament and remember the Savior in a special way on the day we celebrate His birth.
The next day, Monday, we drove back to Rio Rancho in two vans. This time we had Kiora, Alex, Chio, Ryan, Karen, me, Brian, Chantel, Mark and Teda and the Gospel's still true. Tuesday we had the Sealing of Brian and Chantel as an Eternal Family. By this time Greg and Donna had made the trip from Lake Jackson to witness the sealing and help with the wedding (thus the stealing of the title for this blog), Shawn and Barry had come from Utah to witness the Sealing, Lisa, my sister had come from Arizona to witness the sealing.
It was a wonderful ceremony and Chantel and Brian were ecstatic. However, I came down with a cold. Remember the pride thing.
Then we had to prepare for the Friday reception. Teandra did an amazingly miraculous job decorating the cookies and the cake for the wedding. She was wonderful. And she did an amazing hulu during the wedding for Chantel and Brian. All the family gathered Friday for the decoration of the cultural hall at 9:30 AM. We were extremely grateful for all the help from our friends and family in getting everything arranged. (I'll get some pictures up. I sorta promise. This web stuff is not that hard but it can be confusing to figure it out.)
The Ring Ceremony and Reception was pretty awesome. All of Chantel's sisters were there, and their friends. Brian's brother was there and Brian's mother, friends and family. There are always a lot of family and friends at these things but at this one there were more than usual because it was Christmas. Also, Kristan and Zach showed up for the reception which was cool. I told them that they had to hurry and tell Chantel and Brian all their marriage experience because they were married twice as long as Brian and Chantel were but they would never be in that position again. It just seemed like everything aligned just right and it was a wonderful party. Brian actually had to tell everyone to go home at 8:00. It was kind of funny because I was talking to someone, who I was pretty sure was non-LDS, and I said it looked like the party wasn't dying and he said I would find out at 1:00 when I was trying to get people to go home, and I was thinking that he obviously didn't know about LDS receptions. Iwalani even said that it was her favorite reception, even better than hers. That's a pretty high recommendation.
That Sunday, Jan 1, 2012 everyone got to bless little Corry. That Sunday night we'd invited the missionaries over for dinner and it was the first Sunday of the month so it was the night that we have our family over for dinner. Brian still had his brother visiting and his mother came by and we invited her as well and we ended up having 15 people over for dinner that Sunday night. Then we played "Catch Phrase" and that was a ton of fun.
The only problem was that the cold that I'd caught on Tuesday hung on and I almost totally lost my voice on Friday, the day of the reception, then the cough started. I'd hoped that I'd dodged getting sick this year but I got sick after hanging out with sick people for a whole week. You know, sick people like my grand kids that I hold on my lap and play with (at least that's my excuse). Saturday I tried to stop talking to everyone to handle the coughing then I didn't go to anything but Sacrament Meeting on Sunday so that I wouldn't have to talk to anyone, and that didn't work really well Sunday night during all the family game fun.
The long and short of the story is that we had a Holiday filled with family, friend and lots of traveling and everyone came through it sane and happy. We went from a home filled with 15 people Sunday night to just me tonight. Sadly one of Karen Aunts died over the holidays so Karen and Linda left to Utah for the funeral. I'm home alone tonight with that crappy cold that I get every year, but I went to the doctor today and he said it hasn't gotten into my lungs yet, so it's not bronchitis but sinusitis or something like that. That's good. If I can get over the cold this week and only be sick for a couple of weeks I'm going to count this as a win for the silver water even though I did get sick.
Last year we got the wonderful news that Kristan Bond our niece was getting married on the 22 of December and made plans to attend. After that Chantel decided to change her name to Nowlen (that's pronounced KnowLan for anyone who doesn't know Brian yet, which means that pretty much all of my daughters have changed their last names to names that prove that spelling in English makes no sense at all). We told her that she needed to plan her wedding in a way that wouldn't mess up Kristan's wedding.
So here was our schedule. Karen, Linda, Brian and Chantel all left for Lake Jackson to arrive on Monday January 19th to help with Kristan's wedding. I stayed home because I didn't have enough time off to take off the whole week so I flew to Houston on Wednesday morning. The ironic thing was that I was planning to drive to work on Tuesday so that I could get home early enough to visit with my mother Tuesday night before someone drove me to the airport Wednesday morning. Monday that week work was canceled because of snow but usually the roads after a snow are terrible in Santa Fe and I didn't want to deal with the stress of driving up and I was feeling pretty cocky about silver water keeping me healthy so I took two days off sick leave which meant that I didn't go to work that week at all, but spent the first two day's at home. (What does it say in Bible about pride? Oh yeah pride goeth before the fall, but that's a story for later. I'd planned to take a day of sick leave anyway but decided to take another because of the roads.) Kiora was supposed to drive up for the wedding as well, but she and her kids were sick so she didn't come. Karen and Chantel and it seemed like everyone wasa sick.
Karen, Chantel and Brian picked me up at the Houston Airport. It was the smaller airport. I was late getting off the plane because we were parked on the tarmac for half an hour while our slot was cleared out. I was standing on the curb waiting for them to pick me up and Chantel called me to ask where I was and I said I was standing on the curb right as the van they were in drove up and Chantel and I were looking at each other about ten feet away. The wonders of technology. So I jumped in the van with Karen, Chantel and Brian and we drove about 100 miles to pick up Teda and Mark who had come and visited Mark's brother then we drove back to Lake Jackson. The next day was Kristan and Zach's sealing and it was wonderful to see a new eternal family created. Then we all went to lunch at a barbecue place and then we went back to Lake Jackson for the reception.
The next day we took off for Dallas, all 7 of us, Karen, me, Chantel, Brian, Teandra, Mark and Linda. We were supposed to have two vans at this point but since Kiora didn't come we had only one van. I was thinking that we needed to ask Donna and Greg to bring some of our stuff with them but Karen said that she could load everything. Have I ever mentioned that Karen is the greatest packer in the world? Now I think she she's a wizard like in Harry Potter with a tent that has an extra dimension. She was able to pack everything and we were able to drive 6 hours to Sherman without killing each other. This in itself is a testimony of the Gospel and that family's are forever.
We spent Christmas with Kiora's family over Christmas and it was a lot of fun. It's always nice to have Christmas fall on a Sunday. This year I thought was especially special that Pres. Monson said that we only needed to go to Sacrament Meeting. It was very nice to take the Sacrament and remember the Savior in a special way on the day we celebrate His birth.
The next day, Monday, we drove back to Rio Rancho in two vans. This time we had Kiora, Alex, Chio, Ryan, Karen, me, Brian, Chantel, Mark and Teda and the Gospel's still true. Tuesday we had the Sealing of Brian and Chantel as an Eternal Family. By this time Greg and Donna had made the trip from Lake Jackson to witness the sealing and help with the wedding (thus the stealing of the title for this blog), Shawn and Barry had come from Utah to witness the Sealing, Lisa, my sister had come from Arizona to witness the sealing.
It was a wonderful ceremony and Chantel and Brian were ecstatic. However, I came down with a cold. Remember the pride thing.
Then we had to prepare for the Friday reception. Teandra did an amazingly miraculous job decorating the cookies and the cake for the wedding. She was wonderful. And she did an amazing hulu during the wedding for Chantel and Brian. All the family gathered Friday for the decoration of the cultural hall at 9:30 AM. We were extremely grateful for all the help from our friends and family in getting everything arranged. (I'll get some pictures up. I sorta promise. This web stuff is not that hard but it can be confusing to figure it out.)
The Ring Ceremony and Reception was pretty awesome. All of Chantel's sisters were there, and their friends. Brian's brother was there and Brian's mother, friends and family. There are always a lot of family and friends at these things but at this one there were more than usual because it was Christmas. Also, Kristan and Zach showed up for the reception which was cool. I told them that they had to hurry and tell Chantel and Brian all their marriage experience because they were married twice as long as Brian and Chantel were but they would never be in that position again. It just seemed like everything aligned just right and it was a wonderful party. Brian actually had to tell everyone to go home at 8:00. It was kind of funny because I was talking to someone, who I was pretty sure was non-LDS, and I said it looked like the party wasn't dying and he said I would find out at 1:00 when I was trying to get people to go home, and I was thinking that he obviously didn't know about LDS receptions. Iwalani even said that it was her favorite reception, even better than hers. That's a pretty high recommendation.
That Sunday, Jan 1, 2012 everyone got to bless little Corry. That Sunday night we'd invited the missionaries over for dinner and it was the first Sunday of the month so it was the night that we have our family over for dinner. Brian still had his brother visiting and his mother came by and we invited her as well and we ended up having 15 people over for dinner that Sunday night. Then we played "Catch Phrase" and that was a ton of fun.
The only problem was that the cold that I'd caught on Tuesday hung on and I almost totally lost my voice on Friday, the day of the reception, then the cough started. I'd hoped that I'd dodged getting sick this year but I got sick after hanging out with sick people for a whole week. You know, sick people like my grand kids that I hold on my lap and play with (at least that's my excuse). Saturday I tried to stop talking to everyone to handle the coughing then I didn't go to anything but Sacrament Meeting on Sunday so that I wouldn't have to talk to anyone, and that didn't work really well Sunday night during all the family game fun.
The long and short of the story is that we had a Holiday filled with family, friend and lots of traveling and everyone came through it sane and happy. We went from a home filled with 15 people Sunday night to just me tonight. Sadly one of Karen Aunts died over the holidays so Karen and Linda left to Utah for the funeral. I'm home alone tonight with that crappy cold that I get every year, but I went to the doctor today and he said it hasn't gotten into my lungs yet, so it's not bronchitis but sinusitis or something like that. That's good. If I can get over the cold this week and only be sick for a couple of weeks I'm going to count this as a win for the silver water even though I did get sick.
Wednesday, December 21, 2011
Am I a Cultural Mormon?
I've wondered about this pretty much my whole life. While I don't doubt my testimony and I've felt that it was a marvelously great blessing to be born into a family where the gospel was taught, I've always wondered if I would have joined the Church if I hadn't been born into it.
Recently as I was reading the Book of Mormon one day I was thinking about how I seem to always believe in things that are a little on the edge. Tell me about the Electrical Universe and let me do a little reading about it and I become convinced that the Sun is not a nuclear furnace but a ball of plasma that is part of a great web of electrical energy that drives the cosmos. Tell me about eating low carb to control diabetes and I'll read tens of books about it and start doing it no matter what people tell me about how it's impossible to stay on the diet or is bad for me. Same with colloidal silver (silver water). As I was thinking about this it occurred to me that if I hadn't been born in the Church and someone gave me a Book of Mormon to read and some tracts, what would I do with them? Of course I'd have read them, I read everything someone gives me, and then the Spirit would have had a chance to work on me. Of course this would have depended on someone wanting to give me a Book of Mormon which might not have happened, but I'm sure now that I would have read the book.
It's funny the thoughts that you have answered while you read the Book of Mormon. I'm not sure that I've ever formally prayed about would I have joined the Church, but it's been in the back of my mind for ages and now it's not.
Recently as I was reading the Book of Mormon one day I was thinking about how I seem to always believe in things that are a little on the edge. Tell me about the Electrical Universe and let me do a little reading about it and I become convinced that the Sun is not a nuclear furnace but a ball of plasma that is part of a great web of electrical energy that drives the cosmos. Tell me about eating low carb to control diabetes and I'll read tens of books about it and start doing it no matter what people tell me about how it's impossible to stay on the diet or is bad for me. Same with colloidal silver (silver water). As I was thinking about this it occurred to me that if I hadn't been born in the Church and someone gave me a Book of Mormon to read and some tracts, what would I do with them? Of course I'd have read them, I read everything someone gives me, and then the Spirit would have had a chance to work on me. Of course this would have depended on someone wanting to give me a Book of Mormon which might not have happened, but I'm sure now that I would have read the book.
It's funny the thoughts that you have answered while you read the Book of Mormon. I'm not sure that I've ever formally prayed about would I have joined the Church, but it's been in the back of my mind for ages and now it's not.
Monday, December 19, 2011
Another Grandbaby and no Jury Duty
Well this blog has a new look, and the last post was obviously about some things that happened a while ago. I'd written that post and then when I got ready to post everything on the Google Blogging site had changed and it took me a while to get a chance to figure out what had happened. Actually the changes were not that great but it took a while to figure things out. Anyway when I went back I found that I had already written that last post and forgotten about it and just got around to posting it.
We've been blessed with another grand baby. This one is Corry Arron Nichols. He was born 12/2/11 exactly one month after his cousin Jonathan Ryan Nield. I think that's pretty cool.
Here's is the account of Corry's birth. He was supposed to be induced the day that he came in to the world naturally. However, that day the hospital was so full that they couldn't induce and Iwalani was very upset, but later that day she went into labor naturally and I was glad because that meant that I was able to go to the hospital and be there when Corry was born. Brian was there with Chantel and he asked me something and I said that I wasn't that experienced with babies being born, and he said that I'd been there when my kids were born and I said that the last time that happened was 20 years ago when Chantel was born.
Anyway it was a super cool I thought. There was one funny thing that happened. Right after he was born I was talking to the other Grandfather and some how we decided that his name was supposed to be Corry Ryan. I thought it was a little weird that he had the same middle name as his cousin. It didn't occur to me I was full of smelly stuff and I sent out a text message to my family with the wrong name. I didn't realize what I'd done until the next morning when Kiki called and asked if kidding about the name, or if I'm just really dumb. I had to admit that I'm just dumb, and then tell all my sisters and brother that I'd screwed up.
Here's a health report, that deals with silver water somewhat. So far this winter I haven't caught my annual bout with bronchitis/pneumonia and that's great. That's also meant that I've been exercising regularly since after the surgery, and I was riding my stationary bike up until just a week before the surgery but I had to stop the body weight exercises sometime before that. I'm thinking that this is good and I was thinking that my Phase 1 physical (which is the physical I get every year with my job that proves how reliable of a person I am). So I'm having my EKG and then the nurse calls in a "Truck on 115653." I'm thinking 115653! That's my Z number, what the heck is a truck? Are they calling an ambulance on me? Then the nurse tells me that my EKG is abnormal and I can't leave until a doctor (or PA) looks at my EKG. Then the nurse tells me that it's probably not a problem because my heart beat was low and that sometimes causes a low voltage which is what the EKG said. So this is the second abnormal EKG I've had in 4 months. No one told me anything about why I had an abnormal EKG last time so hopefully it was the same thing and there's nothing wrong with my ticker.
I'm finishing this up this Monday morning. It's snowing pretty hard here and the Lab closed. It's pretty funny what happened. I drove to the train station this morning and before I left I checked to see if the Lab was on a delay or closed and nothing so I drove to the train station. Right before I got out of the truck I checked again and they had put the Lab on a delay. I came home and went to back to bed. I got up and it was really snowing and I thought the roads would really be sucky to drive on so I called the Lab and they were still on a delay. So I drove to the train station again and right before I got out I called again and the Lab had been closed for the day. So I drove home again. Then Goose called me and I told her the story and she said; "Wouldn't it be ironic if I had both these days off?" That's what I was thinking as well, but the thing about this type of a day off is that if you had already scheduled the day off you can't change it to "Report Pay" (which is how we report the day on our pay report) so I had to have been planning to go to work to get the day off. Unfortunately with my hernia operation and Aaron's funeral and everything else I've barely go enough vacation time to cover going to Kristen's wedding and the time between Christmas and New Years when the lab closes. Anyway I thought it was pretty serendipitous that each time I got out of the car the message for the day had changed.
We've been blessed with another grand baby. This one is Corry Arron Nichols. He was born 12/2/11 exactly one month after his cousin Jonathan Ryan Nield. I think that's pretty cool.
Here's is the account of Corry's birth. He was supposed to be induced the day that he came in to the world naturally. However, that day the hospital was so full that they couldn't induce and Iwalani was very upset, but later that day she went into labor naturally and I was glad because that meant that I was able to go to the hospital and be there when Corry was born. Brian was there with Chantel and he asked me something and I said that I wasn't that experienced with babies being born, and he said that I'd been there when my kids were born and I said that the last time that happened was 20 years ago when Chantel was born.
Anyway it was a super cool I thought. There was one funny thing that happened. Right after he was born I was talking to the other Grandfather and some how we decided that his name was supposed to be Corry Ryan. I thought it was a little weird that he had the same middle name as his cousin. It didn't occur to me I was full of smelly stuff and I sent out a text message to my family with the wrong name. I didn't realize what I'd done until the next morning when Kiki called and asked if kidding about the name, or if I'm just really dumb. I had to admit that I'm just dumb, and then tell all my sisters and brother that I'd screwed up.
Here's a health report, that deals with silver water somewhat. So far this winter I haven't caught my annual bout with bronchitis/pneumonia and that's great. That's also meant that I've been exercising regularly since after the surgery, and I was riding my stationary bike up until just a week before the surgery but I had to stop the body weight exercises sometime before that. I'm thinking that this is good and I was thinking that my Phase 1 physical (which is the physical I get every year with my job that proves how reliable of a person I am). So I'm having my EKG and then the nurse calls in a "Truck on 115653." I'm thinking 115653! That's my Z number, what the heck is a truck? Are they calling an ambulance on me? Then the nurse tells me that my EKG is abnormal and I can't leave until a doctor (or PA) looks at my EKG. Then the nurse tells me that it's probably not a problem because my heart beat was low and that sometimes causes a low voltage which is what the EKG said. So this is the second abnormal EKG I've had in 4 months. No one told me anything about why I had an abnormal EKG last time so hopefully it was the same thing and there's nothing wrong with my ticker.
I'm finishing this up this Monday morning. It's snowing pretty hard here and the Lab closed. It's pretty funny what happened. I drove to the train station this morning and before I left I checked to see if the Lab was on a delay or closed and nothing so I drove to the train station. Right before I got out of the truck I checked again and they had put the Lab on a delay. I came home and went to back to bed. I got up and it was really snowing and I thought the roads would really be sucky to drive on so I called the Lab and they were still on a delay. So I drove to the train station again and right before I got out I called again and the Lab had been closed for the day. So I drove home again. Then Goose called me and I told her the story and she said; "Wouldn't it be ironic if I had both these days off?" That's what I was thinking as well, but the thing about this type of a day off is that if you had already scheduled the day off you can't change it to "Report Pay" (which is how we report the day on our pay report) so I had to have been planning to go to work to get the day off. Unfortunately with my hernia operation and Aaron's funeral and everything else I've barely go enough vacation time to cover going to Kristen's wedding and the time between Christmas and New Years when the lab closes. Anyway I thought it was pretty serendipitous that each time I got out of the car the message for the day had changed.
Friday, December 16, 2011
Jury Duty and a Grandbaby
A few months ago I got a letter in the mail that said that I was called to federal jury duty. Well after I got that letter I filled out everything online, then I got a hernia. Then I got a summons about two weeks before my hernia surgery, and on the day I was supposed to get a colonoscopy. So I freaked out and left them a message that I needed to have these medical procedures taken care of and when I called back they said that I didn't need to show up. That was nice of them.
However, I got another summons on 10/31. That's right Halloween and the last day of my jury duty, but this time I got picked for jury duty, federal jury duty. Actually it was not that bad of an experience and it was pretty enlightening but the situation at work was pretty tense so I was hoping that I wouldn't have to serve. But I did get picked.
First of all it was a civil case not a criminal case so there were only 8 jurors. It was a skiing accident where someone uphill hit someone who had stopped downhill and broke his hip so that he had to have a hip replacement. The first thing we wondered about was why it was a federal case at all. I asked and it was because the plaintiff and the defendant were in different states that it was a federal case. So when someone says don't make a federal case of it they're being realistic you really can make a federal case of something and this is what happened.
We decided that it was an accident and that no one had been negligent. At the end of the trial the judge invited us up to her chambers and we all went up, the jurors that is. This was probably the most enlightening part of the whole experience.
Actually it worked pretty much the way that I thought that it would with the information that I picked up from TV and John Grisham novels. A jury pool is called, there was 28 of us, and they put everyone in random order. I was 12th which is not a very good position to be in. The lawyers ask us questions which is a process called "voir dire" which is a French term meaning "to tell the truth" at least that's what they told us. After they ask us questions the judge and lawyers go in and decide which jurors they will use. They lawyers get to challenge a certain number of jurors for whatever reason they want, and the judge said that the lawyers always challenge lawyers in the jury pool because no one wants a lawyer on the jury. After that they dismiss jurors for cause. After that they take jurors numerically. However, when they called us they again called us randomly so I didn't know it until the judge told us.
We don't really know how they picked us. There was one juror who said that he owned his own business and that if he wasn't there he didn't earn an income. However, during the trial we learned that he had family that was visiting from Germany. When the judge learned about that she said that she would have dismissed him for that but that she couldn't dismiss him for financial reasons. I admitted that I'd tried snowboarding once and hurt myself in the first 1/2 hour. I was trying to be honest, but I was kind of hoping that they would thing that I would be biased against snowboarding, but apparently that didn't work. Turns out that 5 of the jurors said something, 3 didn't, and we were a cross section of society; young, old, middle age, and seemed like a cross section of economic means as well.
I did find one thing interesting about being a juror. In the movies everyone stands for the judge. We stood for the judge at the beginning, but after we were called as jurors everyone stood for us when we entered or exited the court room. I thought it was pretty cool. On a personal level I didn't have to commute to Los Alamos so that's always a plus, and I got to go see Halloween and Trisha's house. Trish said that they didn't even put that much stuff out for this Halloween.
Thennnnnn. Kiki brought little Jonathan Ryan Nield into the world Wednesday. Yeah.
However, I got another summons on 10/31. That's right Halloween and the last day of my jury duty, but this time I got picked for jury duty, federal jury duty. Actually it was not that bad of an experience and it was pretty enlightening but the situation at work was pretty tense so I was hoping that I wouldn't have to serve. But I did get picked.
First of all it was a civil case not a criminal case so there were only 8 jurors. It was a skiing accident where someone uphill hit someone who had stopped downhill and broke his hip so that he had to have a hip replacement. The first thing we wondered about was why it was a federal case at all. I asked and it was because the plaintiff and the defendant were in different states that it was a federal case. So when someone says don't make a federal case of it they're being realistic you really can make a federal case of something and this is what happened.
We decided that it was an accident and that no one had been negligent. At the end of the trial the judge invited us up to her chambers and we all went up, the jurors that is. This was probably the most enlightening part of the whole experience.
Actually it worked pretty much the way that I thought that it would with the information that I picked up from TV and John Grisham novels. A jury pool is called, there was 28 of us, and they put everyone in random order. I was 12th which is not a very good position to be in. The lawyers ask us questions which is a process called "voir dire" which is a French term meaning "to tell the truth" at least that's what they told us. After they ask us questions the judge and lawyers go in and decide which jurors they will use. They lawyers get to challenge a certain number of jurors for whatever reason they want, and the judge said that the lawyers always challenge lawyers in the jury pool because no one wants a lawyer on the jury. After that they dismiss jurors for cause. After that they take jurors numerically. However, when they called us they again called us randomly so I didn't know it until the judge told us.
We don't really know how they picked us. There was one juror who said that he owned his own business and that if he wasn't there he didn't earn an income. However, during the trial we learned that he had family that was visiting from Germany. When the judge learned about that she said that she would have dismissed him for that but that she couldn't dismiss him for financial reasons. I admitted that I'd tried snowboarding once and hurt myself in the first 1/2 hour. I was trying to be honest, but I was kind of hoping that they would thing that I would be biased against snowboarding, but apparently that didn't work. Turns out that 5 of the jurors said something, 3 didn't, and we were a cross section of society; young, old, middle age, and seemed like a cross section of economic means as well.
I did find one thing interesting about being a juror. In the movies everyone stands for the judge. We stood for the judge at the beginning, but after we were called as jurors everyone stood for us when we entered or exited the court room. I thought it was pretty cool. On a personal level I didn't have to commute to Los Alamos so that's always a plus, and I got to go see Halloween and Trisha's house. Trish said that they didn't even put that much stuff out for this Halloween.
Thennnnnn. Kiki brought little Jonathan Ryan Nield into the world Wednesday. Yeah.
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