Don't Have an Island? Well, Duh, Build Some!

I watched with true amazement the show about the Dubai guys who are building their country it's own islands apparently to raise revenue in the future after we have exhausted their oil reserves. These islands stick out from the present coast of the country a some distance and are shaped like palm trees. A circular "breakwater" protects the delicate branches of the palm! Would you believe Dutch engineers were involved in the studies and design? The Dubai guy ordered that their construction be of totally natural materials. They used primarily sand and rock only! The three palm islands and the group of islands alike a map of the worlds continents will, it is planned, provide by increasing its beach front a greatly improved tourist industry for the little country and provide revenues for its government and residents! These pictures are from the air and space.....he has his own satellite up there to help with the construction! http://www.fresh99.com/dubai-islands.htm

Which is Better?

Double Quarter Pounder® with Cheese++
9.8 oz (279 g)
740 calories. Have three and that's all you need for a day
42 grams of fat. Have another half and that's enough of that for a day
19 grams of saturated fat. Yummy!
1380 chunks of salt or 57% of ones daily need
40grams of carbos. Not bad.
48 grams of protein. Have two and you have more than enough protein for a day

OR

JT"S Special Tuna on Toast made with 2 slabs of 7 grain bread, one tbs real mayo, and one 6 oz can of Chicken of the Sea solid albacore tuna

420 calories
15 grams of fat
2 grams of saturated fat
1170 mg of sodium
37 carbos
30 grams of protein!

Walking Around

I can't leave out dieting around and infusing around and "biking" sitting still! There was no "horsing around" this week so I've been sitting around watching the weather for a good camping window. It was nice Thursday but I figured I had better stay home to wait for any reactions to my proteinase inhibitor infusion. None showed up. The phone, however, kept ringing with calls from the good folks at Baxter Heathcare Corporation developer and manufacturer of Aralast, the stuff the IV dribbled into my veins, and Accredo Health Group supplier of specialized biopharmaceuticals checking to see how I am feeling and of course hoping that I was still living so they could depend on me for bunch of profits spanning the course of whatever number of years they can prolong my life! Then on Friday I decided it was nicer to sit here on the patio and get a good dose of sun instead of fighting the hoards of campers out for the weekend! Upon taking a walk I decided this walking around the neighborhoods stuff is really hard on the local dog's naps so I decided to go to Kmart and get me a stationary bike! So now I can ride in peace in air conditioned comfort! As far as the dieting and finger pricking go I think I've managed a bunch of successes. Most days of the last three weeks I have managed to stay at 1500 or fewer calories, fewer than 200 carbos, and fewer than 60m grams of total fat. In the past couple of days I have started to boost protein consumption (for those abs) to about 100 grams a day. Look out Charlie! We all know scales can lie but belts can't. In May prior to departing for The Netherlands I was forced for the sake of comfort to make a last minute longer belt buy at the Big Lots near my motel in Green Bay. Now I have gone down to the third hole on the belt which was too short then! Congratulations to me! And then there is the finger pricking! Hey this blog sounds like a doctors daily journal! But anyway it answers the question everyone asks like "How are you doing?" I'm sure they aren't concerned about my checkbook or how badly the stock market recently insulted by investments or if I am succeeding at my retirement or whatever! When people ask an invalid, "How are you", I presume it to mean that they want a rundown on my health. Anyway, most of the finger pricking results are very low so either the $4 per month Metformin, the diet with absolutely no donuts, and the exercise is doing the trick or I was misdiagnosed. Oh, I almost forgot a few things. The heart is pumping with reasonable pressures, the cholesterol is under control and the foot tingles might be subsiding with the daily dose of Parkinson's pill (be sure to follow that link and hope I WIN BIG) and I've been a month on only one Albuteral inhaler! Let me know if I missed anything because its hard to remember it all! I started out talking about looking for a camping window and maybe one will develop by tomorrow! Want to come along?

Horsing Around Again!

The formal events at the Marquette County Fair's Draft Horse Show were over so we took time out for this formal photo shoot! Shown with the reins in hand is Barb, Head of Culinary Sciences and Housekeeping at Wilderness Ridge Farms! Barb is to be commended for her skills with the horses!

New Shirt Day Again?

Its going up and down like a .....well OK a yo yo. Last week I was down a couple shirts. Some expert claims it is working on a 10% "adjustment" again. If so its darn near done "adjusting" I hope!

Gettin' er Done

Here is a device which appears to be in further development which will help those who need to monitor blood glucose. Its called a glucowatch and is worn like a watch and sucks fluid from the tissue under it and measures glucose values. Maybe something like this is in my future. As for now I guess the conventional meters are still the style. For beginners, however, since the recent diagnosis of my extraordinary blood sweetness I have imposed upon myself the strictest of diets to effect glucose control and weight loss (Dr. B indicated that among other things, I need to be counseled about obesity). Thus the Coke Zero which adds not a calorie to my 1500 calorie daily intake! In addition I am counting carbohydrates and staying at between 150 and 175 grams per day. My diet consists of the finest selection of usual foods. For breakfast I like eggs (2 eggs but the yolk of only one), two slices of bacon instead of 4 or 5 and only one piece of toast with a bit of Parkay on it. This I do every other day alternating with cereal and a little turkey on a slice of toast. For lunch a variety of low fat meats or soups and salads fit into the plan nicely. For supper when I would in the past overload on pasta or potatoes and some real nice marbled steak I now start with a big salad with fat free ranch and then go on to a healthy supply of vegetables either cooked or fresh and then a small amount of pasta or potatoes and some meat. I still do like my share of the condemned "red meat" but in moderation my arteries should hold out and I am doing more turkey and some meat substitutes for protein. And believe it or not, I still can't, I did go to 1% milk. That was tough but I did it! I respect to proposed dietary guidelines I've studied the information from the diabetes association but find it contradictory in that they still push the carbohydrates as the bottom layer of their pyramid. I found another set of information which puts the carbos at the top of the pyramid so I am trying to make them both happy with my choices! They all preach "portion control" and that of course makes sense! Last, but not least, essential to my plan to get back into my 33 waist pants that I have stashed under the bed (about 5 years now) is exercise! For the ten years in the truck there wasn't much exercising taking place. But that is changing so for now its two or more walks a day of between 10 and 20 blocks each or as far as my legs and lungs will allow! And its working! Ten pounds disappeared in the last couple months and the rate will probably be better in the future because of the developing diet. As I said the target is a 33 inch waist and about 145 pounds. That means another 3 or 4 inches off the waist and about 25 pounds off wherever it is attached. Also in the meantime I need to do some abdominal muscle strengthening. They sort of fell to waste in the truck! Do you think a 64 year old can develop a six pack abdomen?

I Love These Silly Headlines

This is today's after closing headline on Yahoo's financial site


Dow Jumps 150 Pts in Late Rally AP -
Wall Street shot higher in a last-minute advance Wednesday after careening through a session made turbulent by ongoing concerns about U.S. home loans and the credit market.








The way it looked I thought I was going to lose another shirt off my back today. But for some reason the market rallied and the American Way is safe for another day!

Zero

Back few weeks ago I presented a piece about my Coke dilemma. I just want to say that I have adjusted very well to the new drink and would highly recommend its consumption to all who long for the taste but not the calories or the carbos or the sugar! Since it is totally sugar free I think it would even be fine to give the kids for breakfast before school! The only nutrition it has listed is 40 mg of salt! Try it, you'll like it!

My Great TV Show Ratings Gig

The Nielson lady called a few weeks ago and asked if I would help her out by participating in the TV ratings game going on this week! She asked a bunch of questions and said I would get the stuff to record my viewing habits in a few days. Well, its almost over now and I have faithfully kept my diary since Thursday morning at 5 am. Actually I was asleep then so I told the diary that I was not watching TV. Who in their right mind would be at 5 am? People are supposed to sleep until 8 or 9 or so or get up and go to work.. Anyway I show that I don't watch a lot of TV. I watched the Today show a little, then Regis and his girlfriend a little less. I caught a twenty year old Cosby show once. I spent a few hours watching Animal Planet and TLC and the History Channel. Ice Road Truckers is on the History Channel. What a bunch of wimps! Anyway pardon the swerve. If I remember and if I am not busy I watch the TV 6 local news but the Peterson lady half anchor drives me nuts with her speech and presentation. I often wonder where they find these people. Anyway, I didn't help the big time networks much because I didn't watch any of their garbage takeoffs of American Idol. So I did my share and I'm sure they will appreciate my efforts. They even paid me already! There was a one dollar bill stuck in with the paper work!

Iraqis Play Soccer and American Young Men Die

Unwilling participants Iraqi soccer players angered by Bush campaign ads

Sgt. James D. Priestap of Hardwood in the Upper Peninsula visits with Iraqi children while on patrol in Baghdad. This photo, submitted by his family, was taken just before he was shot. More photos are available at cu.ironmountaindailynews.com.
By BLAINE HYSKA,Managing Editor
IRON MOUNTAIN — Sgt. James D. Priestap was visiting with Iraqi children while on patrol in Baghdad when he was killed, photos taken just before his death show.Mark Balicki of Iron Mountain, brother-in-law of the late Sgt. James D. Priestap, submitted a photo, which was taken just before Sgt. Priestap died in Iraq on Thanksgiving Day 2006.“The pictures show the kindness that Jim always showed,” said Balicki, who is married to the former Lisa Priestap. “Everyone in our family has seen these pictures. I thought it would be nice to share them with others.”Sgt. Priestap, 39, of Hardwood was killed by enemy gunfire in Baghdad.A series of pictures were taken about 10 minutes before Sgt. Priestap was shot, added Lisa Balicki.“This was confirmed by soldiers who were in Iraq with him,” she said. “When we saved them on our computer, we could point the mouse on the pics and it would give the date and time the photo was taken.”“They were all taken on Nov. 23 between 11:10 and 11:19 a.m.,” she said. “Jim was killed on 11:29 a.m. that day.”“The pictures speak for themselves as to what kind of person Jim was,” she said.



Memorial to those who died in Operations Iraqi Freedom and Enduring Freedom.Most recent casualties
• Marine Cpl. Matthew R. Zindars July 24• Marine Cpl. James H. McRae July 24• Marine Lance Cpl. Robert A. Lynch July 24• Army Staff Sgt. Joshua P. Mattero July 24View all the casualties
Casualty countOfficial DoD totals. Released: July 24
Operation Iraqi Freedom
Killed: 3,626
In action:2,980
Non-Hostile:646
Wounded*: 26,953*
RTD:14,838
Not RTD12,115
Operation Enduring Freedom
Killed: 408
In action:227
Non-Hostile:181
Wounded*: 1,428
RTD:555
Not RTD873
*Wounded:RTD: Returned to duty within 72 hours. Not RTD: Did not return to duty within 72 hours.

Looking for a Cool Place

It would be nice to find a short drive travel destination for next week where the forecast is moderately cool! Guess there isn't such a place. Lake Superior's coastline looks about as hot as inland. Obviously Lake Michigan locations are equally warm or warmer! So I guess I'll camp right here in air conditioned comfort and venture out onto the streets only for my daily walks and shopping trips!

Camping and Fly Killing

This excursion into the hills of the wilderness of the Porkies gets a "D". Not so much for the campground but for the flies and the heat and the beach! Seldom have I seen the Lake Superior shoreline as hot as it was on Monday evening, Tuesday, and this morning! It was hot! And I suppose the heat brought out the flies who chewed on me temptingly! And then of course my enjoyment of the beach or should we say the rocks wasn't all that great given the heat and the flies!
It is very easy to find a rock to sit on at the beach. Actually it looks like one or two big rocks! Darn near should have rock walking boots, knee pads, and padded gloves and maybe even a helmet to walk this beach!
Then there is the view of Lake of the Clouds and its surrounding hills. This sight sort of makes up for the beach and the heat and the flies!

But can you believe I tended the campfire for a few hours. I guess I was trying for an outdoor sauna! It wasn't the only campfire either! I think the smoke helped chase the flies to wherever they went....like into car!

These folks woke up real early in the morning to claim their personal island! I don't know if the guy was banished from the island or what but he was standing out there in the water as if he was begging to be allowed back on rock! The Porcupine Mountains are home to the largest Hemlock forest in the United States and possibly the world. Huge Hemlock forests once dominated much of the Lake Superior region of the Western Upper Peninsula.

Horsing Around!

Yesterday we went horsing around at the Menominee County Fair. Bud drove the horses to many blues! Here are Bud with the reins of a four horse hitch and Matt is navigating!

Camping and Boat Riding

Well, I went camping! Haven't been camping in years and years! I think its been about 30 some years since I slept in a campground. I now have the feel for it and I think I'll go again. I camped at the Munising City Campgrounds among the big boys and the smaller boys and the even smaller boys and even close to some tents! My Grand Caravan is a bit tight but I lived in a Volvo cab for 10 years so I can make it in the minivan parked next to a picnic table and a fire pit. Parked is the word I like! I watched the kids playing, cooked over an open fire, read some of the current selection; yes, you read right, I read! Hadn't done that for a long time either!

The black in the middle is the Grand Caravan at our campsite! The Munising City Campgrounds comes highly recommended by me. It has lots of room, and its clean, and quiet and Munising Bay and a nice beach is only a few steps from any of the campsites.
First I played in the sand for awhile! It was fun! Actually that is not me! Fooled you though didn't I! I forgot my sand pail and shovel so I just watched the young man having fun with his!
Then I decided to take a boat ride to the Pictured Rocks. The east coast of Munising Bay and further north the coast of Lake Superior proper is a national park. It's the Pictured Rocks National Lake Shore and extends about 42 miles from Munising to Grand Marais. If you would like to hike there is a trail running the entire 42 miles for you to enjoy! Here is an example of the "pictured" rocks. The colors are caused by ground water seeping out of the cliffs which are about 200 or more feet high. Reds are caused by iron, greens by copper, white by limestone and black by manganese. The basic formations here are sandstone.

See the two eyes peering at you? Actually, if you look hard you should see two sets of eyes, one large set and one small set! Some folks have even seen Elvis! Julia would have a great time checking this out!

A couple of arches are major attractions. Here the story goes that an Indian maiden (poor Indians are in all the stories) jumped to her death from the arch after her hunter didn't return from a hunt! The boat captain narrating the tour wondered why any woman would do that for just a couple bucks!


Below is one of natures oddities and demonstrates the true grit of survival. You see the tree perched on top of the rock formation and wonder how it survives up there with little or no nourishment from the stone on which it lives. Look closely and you can see a series of roots extending from the rock the tree sits atop to the mainland! Many years ago the roots were actually in the ground but time has washed away that ground to leave the roots exposed.
Eventually the sun set over the water and the west shore of Munising Bay. As with any adventure it signaled that it was time to return home to toil again!

New Drink for My New Life

Its bearable. Today I did the taste test! I put some of the real stuff into a glass, then some of the new stuff into a cup. I closed my eyes and mixed them up real good. Then I took hold of one and sipped and knew without a doubt that it was the new stuff I was tasting! You know what? It wasn't all that bad even with the aspartame and acesulfame potassium rather than the saccharides! Do you need more information on why I switched? Look here!

Flower Gardens

In the Netherlands I enjoyed strolling (and strollering) through the neighborhoods and looking at the elaborate flower gardens which were totally the front yards of most of the homes in the newer single family residential areas. Each home had a unique garden of flowers or shrubs or a combination of them. Very little grass could be found! This pictured garden is not however a Dutch garden. It is here in Iron Mountain right next door to my building! Congratulations neighbor on the pretty sight here in our town!

Walking Day!

Somewhere I read that this tingling feet syndrome might be helped a bit by walking so that's what I've been doing in my spare time. Maybe the walking loosens up the plaque so blood can flow through again. (The plaque then is destroyed by the plaque grinder in the liver) The other day I had a test done in the doctors clinic and that apparently told of a problem for which we will have further tests done on the MRI machine at the hospital. The test is called an MRA (arteriogram done with magnetic resonance) and can locate clogged arteries which cause PAD. So I've walked the neighborhood a few times and enjoyed it. I should also go for a drive in the car since it might be one on the last times I can reach the pedals before the amputations begin! No just kidding. I guess they do some bypass, or roto rooter, or stint type stuff to get the blood flowing again.

Not Leftovers Again!

Yup, I have to eat this stew that I concocted and I blogged about a few days ago! I changed it to taste a bit different by adding some forbidden stuff today! It tasted just like new stew!

They Have it All Wrong Again!

Saw this research done by some young ones testing how young vs old respond to jokes and other funnies. They found that young ones responded 6% better than the old folks. Well the research which was conducted by graduate student Wingyun Mak and psychology professor Brian Carpenter probably didn't take into consideration that old folks really don't think that everything that is so darn funny to the young ones is not funny to the old folks. All you have to do is watch a bit of TV aimed at the teens through the 30's or 40's and you find out what I mean. Its trash to me but highly rated "comedy" for the young ones. The other thing they didn't consider was one's reaction to hearing the same joke for the 23Th time. Hey, after the 13Th time it isn't funny anymore to us old folks.

What DidYou Eat Two Months Ago?

I just found out that I did bloodletting for an A1C test which can show the average glucose in my blood for the last two months and maybe even three! What's next? Soon the doctor will be able to give me a test to see if I've recommended him to anyone in the last two months or if I have spoken well about his healing powers. Oh, Oh!

A Hot One!

It was sizzling today as the Sun beat down on us in the Upper Peninsula! I was watching as the needle turned toward 90 and then to 95 with a "Real Feel" of 102! (The thermometer in the picture above was not quite accurate.) In the sun it was as good as a good old sauna! We'll have to check later to see what today's official high really was! Now after an hour or so of thunder and light rain the temperature has dropped to 77. What a relief it is/wasfor those outdoors or those without air conditioning!

New Diet for My New Life

Since the Dr's Office called the other day to let me know that I am now officially a diabetic and will tomorrow see the doctor concerning that discovery, I now need to revise my diet accordingly so I'm making a diabetics moijaka! It has stew meat, only two potatoes (they are starchy) but lots of carrots, onions, cabbage, and brassica oleracea var gemmifera. It will feed me for a few days! In my salad tonight will be lettuce, cucumbers, radish, tomato, cauliflower and Hidden Valley Ranch Free! Dr. B would be proud of me! I figure about 50 carbos at the most in the stew! But what about that Coke in the fridge? The one I snuck today tasted really good! I figure that if I have no other sugar and very few carbo laden foods I can stay under 250 grams of carbohydrates today even with the Coke! Living without Coke would be like Romeo living without Juliet! (Or was it Juliet living without Romeo?) We will talk about the Jif and Nabisco Saltines, and the Schawn's Ice Cream and Nesquick Chocolate Syrup, and the Oreos delima later! Right now I have to eat!

Duty Calls

The other day I was at the old Gunville office getting some paper work done when along came the trucking boss/horse collector and talked me into dragging the horse wagon to the local fairs and then perhaps to Ohio and Lansing and a real big one in Denver! At my age I should be able to say no but who can refuse the man who so rationally explained why I should be there. His reason for wanting me to be there was as he said, "We have no one else who can do it unless we take someone off the road"! OK, Bob, I think that is what we did last year!

After Four Days There were Still Leftovers!

I counted at least 7 hot dishes on the above table! In the little swim pool to the right were the cold foods including the dish to which this blog is dedicated. The other table shown below was laden with the cool meat and cheese trays, salads, deserts and that kind of stuff. The red table was covered with a near a dozen or so types of homemade cookies and bars.

When Bliss and Larry throw a Graduation party they make sure no one goes away hungry......even four days later! In the days after the party we managed to get most of the large catering size dishes down to nothing or nearly so but not so for the potato salad! The potato salad was too far down the line to attract much attention from the party people. Most of them had their plates heaped with turkey and mashed potatoes and green salad and sausage or whatever and simply had to leave the poor potato salad sit. Well, on Sunday we 7 or so adults who were staying at the farm vowed to take on the potato salad so we slightly enlarged the hole in the corner of the tray. On Monday at lunch time we decided to open a pit in another corner of the tray to make it seem like we were getting fresh potato salad. Well along came Monday at 6:30 pm and the potato salad was at the table again so we opened another corner, the third corner! Guess what, on Tuesday the potato salad was at the table again so we opened the 4th corner! Now all four corners had been sampled! Do you think we got rid of the potato salad now? Oh no, not on Bliss's dead body in the Christmas Tree Patch would anything be thrown out. It had to be eaten so there it appeared at the July 4th picnic! And where did we serve from then? Well, how about making a hole in the center of the tray! Just like fresh we enjoyed potato salad with our brats and other picnic fixings! But I would guess that Bliss and Marv, the only folks left there on the farm, will be eating potato salad till nearly Labor Day! Maybe I'll stop in for some next month!

Two-thirds Complete!

Over my 6 day weekend in Ironwood the only thing missing was the watermelon wine! The old dogs and children were ever present!