Never talk to muffin trees!

Has been broiling here in Appalachia this last week. Brought the dogs in even when they wished to be out. Chickens seem ok. They’re under the shade of trees. Some digging out holes in their run to keep cool.

Last week our old girl got snakebit. We’d just spotted a copperhead the week prior -the first venomous snake we’d ever seen anywhere near our place. Relieved she bounced back quickly. Swelling down after a day. Glad to have had some leftover antibiotic that kept the nasty wound at the bite from getting worse.

Do make sure you’re on them long enough. I was inadequately treated and had complications for years and later developed a serious neuromuscular disorder. Recommend an infectious disease specialist. GP’s are out of their depth.

It’s shocking to see the assault on libraries across Appalachia. Sad to see it’s a broader problem. For as little finding as they require they provide critical services. So many nasty politicos trying to win some points with the lowest common denominators of humanity must see them as an easy target.

I’m ever astonished at the variety of deep fried stuff at Appalachian festivals and fairs. All these stalls trying to one-up the rest with the lengths they are willing to go into hot fat depravity. Grease-boiled confections and savories of every niche. A healthcare nightmare. But this is a region steeped in despair. It’s tough to heap blame on folks giving up.

Needs more grapefruit.

Clearly missing verses to Martha, My Dear.

There was a young man that said “damn”

For it certainly seems that I am

A creature that moves in determinate grooves

I’m not even a bus, I’m a tram

The Norwegian Blue prefers kipping on its back -and sometimes taking surveillance photos. Beautiful plumage.

Have sometimes heard Bradbury accused of purple prose. I never minded his detailed imagery one bit. Especially in the pre-digital age before everyone insisted on everything being so damned concise.

I like this interpretation. Also would note that for those with chronic illness debility can frequently wax and wane.

That sounds very cool. I’m totally ignorant of the hardware requirements. What sort of minimum setup would such an install take?

Do you mean a general calorie restriction to lose weight or compositional change in diet to maximize satiety? Either is difficult without a strong impetus. For me the latter is far easier than the former. It seems to me that both are made a lot more difficult now than 24 years ago by the level of distraction and focus disrupting technologies we have to use on the daily. Not to mention economic material conditions are broadly worse for most people than they were two decades ago. Folks seem more harried and stressed with less discretionary time. Additionally, to my eye, food culture is getting worse. What is regarded as staple food is junkier and seemingly designed to circumvent the “fixed stomach problem”.

I hit a wall with my health and felt I could either break my problem into manageable pieces I could maybe find a way to live with and possibly enjoy sustainably, or else suffer a declining quality of life that was already unacceptable. At that point it was worth it for me to do all kinds of trial and error about what worked personally. And it still is. I have no super willpower. Just an understanding of what is at stake. And a willingness to sorta game my drives.

I could never sustain a restriction like this without modifying what I ate. It would have a profound effect of how soon and how much I was compelled to eat next. Once this was very clear to me after dozens of attempts at weight loss, I began to cook and eat for satiety. A low-glycemic, minimally processed diet free of added sugar is what worked best for me long-term. I lost 115 lbs, resolved diabetes, hypertension and non alcoholic fatty liver disease. Also vastly improved some other chronic problems. I’ve remained at a healthy weight now for 23 years with little variation. A lot of effort really and likely not possible for everyone -especially now. I can say it was worthwhile for me.

The steely resolve of CICO will only take a person so far. In my view that’s why it’s so unsustainable for most.

It’s what stripped away any vestige of credibility I wished to grant NPR at the time. Was aghast at the coverage tilted to kneecap Sanders.

Some of both columns if I think about it. You go though enough that the volume on trivial crap gets turned way down and you don’t sweat so many of the things you really can’t affect substantively. While at the same time you’re likely to be dismissive and not wish to waste time on folks that have demonstrated they’re willfully ignorant dillweeds.

It’s also sometimes used as shorthand for crypto-orchidism -undescended testicles.

To me, it felt like there was some cultural turning point with the absurd denials of the GWB administration. It set some nasty precedents that have only escalated the scale of bad faith in politics and discourse. Now there seems to be positively no shame in having no shame at all.

Normally pretty much an anarchist in my policy predilections. But there are folks I went to school with that I wouldn’t trust with a power drill, much less a rifle. Seems they’re just the ones that make the biggest deal over having guns -and least likely to use them in any responsible way. The role these sorts of badass-looking firearms play now is to make powerless Americans feel like they have some agency. Likely dangerous when these misinformed, utterly propagandized serfs feel extra pressed and attribute their low quality of life to all the wrong reasons/people.

Maybe everyone should listen to the Jonestown tape at some point. It’s truly horrible, but may provide some inoculation against demagoguery.