First, grooviness: Ended up giving my autoclave to the guy who is the founder of http://groupgrowing.com. He was very nice and appreciative. It’s an awesome project so that made me happy. He was kinda a cool hippy sort and gave me some candy and a handmade hemp bracelet and turns out he and his wife are near the Trail so he urged me to get in contact once I get up near this area and they’d get together with me on trail or off for food and a visit. Not on Trail yet and I’m making friends to visit on it (may or may not, but there it goes).
Inappropriate comes in two parts:
The nice guy who picked up the garage lighting system from me before came for my TV today and we chatted a bunch about the hike and his loving camping and a whole bunch of related stuff. He was cute and I figured, “what the hey?”. As we were saying goodbye for him to take the stuff out I told him, “Realize it’s may be totally inappropriate but what the hell?, I’m leaving here and won’t see you again… If your not attached to anyone or want to, I’d like to do dirty things with you”. He turned me down about having a chick he’s really liking right now and we laughed some at the new awkward as I think he might’ve been worried about offending me by telling me no. But it was smiles out the door and he was cool.
Second part is getting things out of my house. I said “fuck it” today when I decided I’m clearing the bedroom today totally and the things no one wanted or I couldn’t deal with sending or dropping off or just doing anything with whatsoever as I, again, am at “fuck it” stage with got put out in the recycle area for folks to grab. Mix of clothing, small weights, random stuffs were some surgical items that are safe (no sharps) but may freak people, and among the books was the Anne Rice Sleep Beauty series. Have fun kids.
Successful is that I’m currently taking a break but the bedroom is almost finished and *will* be finished tonight and closed off. Closets clear, bathroom and kitchen stripped to bare necessities, and livingroom is at the end of the evening going to be 100% computer, tea maker and things to do with finalizing my hike efforts.
To include a painting on the wall in here that I forgot when I took everything to Grant’s house and also the Mega Chunk of a Lush soap Chael got me back in Germany about 8 years ago when they were going to discontinue it (and did for a while til some legal stuff was worked out about the name) that I keep forgetting is in my refrigerator crisper drawer. 8 years and that thing travels with me as I go from apartment to apartment and it’s not even 1/4 gone as I keep cutting new pieces off. The started selling the “same” soap again with a new name but they changed it’s makeup somehow as the new stuff turns to useless mush really fast whereas the older stuff is Very Serious about lasting as you use it.
Crap part is I read my last lab results a while back and the platelet size and count with the vitamin D and iron levels indicates I’m probably losing bone mass due to calcium being removed to keep my blood levels correct. I have changed my vitamins and minerals to a different set by the same maker to capsule and tablets instead of chewable ones that can get crushed to powder easier and take up more space (this was after the labs but before I read results, so not the cause of deficiencies).
Checked into my secure Veteran’s medical mail and my doc sent me an email about her reading the results… sure enough she wants me to raise my vitamin D intake and my iron. I already was going to take more of my calcium with D so no biggy, can up it an extra amount than I’d planned if she wants. Or I can just do the extra I planned for calcium and take an additional D supplement. Easy fix really.
The tricky part comes into the iron. She wants me to raise or to start taking ferrous sulfate to a certain amount. I take vitamins made for gastric bypass patients and they use 2 different types of iron in them and neither are that one. So I had to tell her about these and ask her how they compared to her suggestion in amounts and absorption levels and if I should take the ferrous sulfate from her in place of my bypass made ones.
I’m pretty sure my email was confusing since the vitamins are so oddly describable even though looking at the bottles and reading it out they make easy sense. Plus, I don’t think she’ll be familiar with the other types of iron nor the value of them and amounts of them correct for a bypass patient. It’s not an area that even most dieticians are knowledgeable in. Many, seriously, tell their bypass and sleeve patients vitamins types and brands that are totally wrong. As in, “Oh, just take a couple of Flintstones each day”. Holy Fuck.
So I need to adjust my stuff some even if it’s on my own reading and decisions before I leave or hopefully she’ll know or have someone she can contact who knows about these special issues.
The changing some pills isn’t any biggy for me. It’s my poor doctor that is the problem – she’s doing great and trying to look out for me, it’s the unusual case I mean.
So, it’s dinner time and going to finish the movie I just barely started before the guy came and took the TV. Was Inglourious Basterds.
Oh, and bought some bag teas from the middle-good grocery near me and am testing them out to add to my trip food supplies. I ain’t living with just some warm broth or water in the morning every day. Fuck that, I’m keeping my tea. Nice mug of tea in the morning to wake up and take my meds, then later to go to bed, and maybe mid-day during a break. Whatevs. But need my daily tea for happy comfort food. Heck, have collapsible bottle I can make it in the morning and then drink it along the way sometimes.
Which reminds me. I did alterations on my pack and need to do some more, but also need to do some work on the inside of my coat to carry things easily in there that need to be near body heat some as I go. To include, if I can, rigging the back with a water bladder setup somehow that’ll comfortable if it’s cold enough at times I need to keep it next to me to keep it from freezing… and shit, I have to sleep with that thing. I’d rather it not be near ice cold to start my sleeping bag time at night (not that I won’t heat it with cycling hot water from my pot over and over as needed to get it body temp at least).
A lot of this, prepping for the hike life, is reminiscent of just growing up at home as a kid.