DECLUTTER *hoards *bad habits *toxic stuff - 2024

Subject: RE: DECLUTTER *hoards *bad habits *toxic stuff - 2024
From: Dorothy Parshall
Date: 27 Oct 24 - 06:07 PM

Dupont:

Cool cloudy, grey, damp but no precipitation! I managed to get most of the firewood organized to be undercover. Rescued another large plastic bin to be filled.

Weather going below freezing tonight - just a bit. I have not yet dealt with the Canna but covered them. Less and less is getting done; Getting things done one day means nothing the next day.

Tomorrow will be "do nothing" as Tuesday I must go deal with govt re driver's license, car registration. I have a total neurosis about dealing with govt in Quebec - the contempt for my lack of French is nerve wracking. At least the hearing aids will help! And the nice man at the auto insurance company assured me that I was in their computer from my previous time in QC and also assured me I should not have any trouble. Well, he was nice and assuring! It does help!

Robin has been away - in the city and the country and the USA on business. I had a weird day when I wondered what was going on - for weeks I have heard my pulse strongly ALL the time, with or without hearing aids. Then on Sat at 9 am, it Stopped! I stayed in bed for quite a while - wondering... Later it started in again. I find it quite strange when it does it (all the time now) and disconcerting that it quit! I really want him to be here if
I need him. There is NO ONE else. No friends anywhere nearby and those at a not too far distance have their own serious concerns.

OOPS, that reminds me that I told a new friend that I would try to come to the church concert tonight! It is just about a block away but I shall have to drive - for safety and energy sake.

I am living with a strong feeling that "nothing matters anymore". I shall have to do some cleaning as son in coming around 8 November - for a week.

YES, my ballot went in weeks ago!! With the help of nice folks at the library!

If these pills are helping...I feel pretty lousy But then, I did get the wood mostly covered.

OK, remember to take pills to concert in case I am not home by correct time. Go get decent clothes on and go get a place to park...

Subject: RE: DECLUTTER *hoards *bad habits *toxic stuff - 2024
From: Stilly River Sage
Date: 28 Oct 24 - 12:54 PM

Dorothy, does the Canadian health system cover things like home helpers going to patient homes for a few hours a day or week to take care of some of the basic care and cleaning? It sounds like something to get set up with if Robin is going to be simply away at work or out of town for days at a time.

Spent an hour on Malwarebytes chat last night again sorting out my account. I use them for real-time browser security and VPN. The last configuration (in May this year) ended up with four devices but scattered between two accounts. Now it is one account with four devices. And since we were reworking the account he sent a link to a discount (35%) so I'm set for two years. VPN on the phone and tablet are good for when I'm out on public WiFi but want security. VPN at home is most often used to view videos in other places that are otherwise blocked to US viewers. The guy's name showed up as "Michael Jordan" and the mature me resisted asking any basketball questions.

There is a hint of skunk in the house and yard this morning, but there are no bodies in the yard or direct hits on dogs so I'm not sure what the story is. At breakfast this morning I decided to go back to basics as far as fussy Pepper is concerned. A bowl of dry food and nothing else, and after that I broke up and handed each their share of a banana. For some reason mixing it together is beginning to mess with an OCD part of Pepper's head.

When the trash went out today (small grocery bag) I decided to drop it in the large bin and then top it off with the pruned limbs off of the huge Maximillian sunflowers along the driveway. Now that they're dry they're dropping seeds everywhere, so I'll send a few of those to the dump. Most yard waste goes in the compost, but these are woody and tough to break down. I also toss them over the back fence to add to the branch debris discouraging trespassers from strolling through that back part of the yard.

Subject: RE: DECLUTTER *hoards *bad habits *toxic stuff - 2024
From: Dorothy Parshall
Date: 28 Oct 24 - 09:50 PM

Dupont:

Beautiful Cold day!

Yesterday's wood moving earning me a day in bed - on computer mainly and some reading time. So, eyes burning, remembering what SRS said recently about eyes and computer... And so to sleep!

Oh, nice thought about home help, I shall check into that. Have already heard they are hard to come by...

Subject: RE: DECLUTTER *hoards *bad habits *toxic stuff - 2024
From: Stilly River Sage
Date: 28 Oct 24 - 09:52 PM

Tonight's dinner confirmed it for blue heeler Pepper - she simply doesn't want her carrots or broccoli touching her dry food. She happily gobbled down everything in two stages. When they can't tell you in words they tell you by refusing the food offered and hope you'll figure it out. It was her refusing to eat that had me thinking her teeth might be bothering her, and is the reason she has stitches in her belly now. The fatty tumor that had formed was removed while she was under for teeth cleaning and exam. So I guess something helpful came out of all of this. $500 later. . .

I'm starting a new box of items to take to the group that collects art supplies for area teachers. A friend who taught art in middle school used to send home small samples of paints in Rx bottles when her students were finishing work at home; I'm setting aside those bottles (sans labels) and a few other things that would serve the art classroom. This reminds me that I should see if I can reconnect and see how she's doing these days. She, like me, moved out of the old neighborhood (probably also giving a huge sigh of relief - there were some real busybodies over there) and I'd love to catch up. This reminds me of a couple of other people I should look up . . .

Dorothy, do you use any readers when you work on the computer or read books? You can easily find them made with Blue Blocker lenses and they aren't any more expensive than regular readers. That might help as far as sleep after reading a screen.

Subject: RE: DECLUTTER *hoards *bad habits *toxic stuff - 2024
From: Charmion
Date: 29 Oct 24 - 06:12 PM

I may never eat beans again.

On Sunday I indulged in my favourite diner dish: huevos rancheros. In Ontario, at least in Stratford, they are served with traditional Canadian-style baked beans. The only consequence I expected from that choice was a sharp up-tick in weight, but what I got was a nasty visit from the Diverticulitis Fairy.

The belly-ache struck about suppertime on Sunday, worsened steadily over night, and by dawn I had decided to call a stand-down until I could dare leave the house. Monday was unpleasant, but I slept through the night (tired out, I guess). Today, the lower gut still hurts but at least I can do stuff -- a good thing, because the car was due at the dealer's in Kitchener at 10:00 am for its semi-annual spa day with the mechanics.

The trip to town featured a rainstorm of biblical proportions, like driving through a car wash but with heavy traffic and bolts of lightning. Visibility was dreadful. Nothing bad happened to me, but I saw several vehicles evidently in distress at the side of the road. Once at home, I took to the comfy chair and stayed there until even the cat got bored.

Time to recombobulate has gotta be one of the greatest privileges of all.

Subject: RE: DECLUTTER *hoards *bad habits *toxic stuff - 2024
From: Stilly River Sage
Date: 30 Oct 24 - 12:29 AM

Baked beans? Not refried beans or a side of black beans? Were they mashed up? (Just curious - I'm sorry they seem to have spoiled the effect of what should have otherwise been a nice farewell dinner.)

This evening I cut a boneless leg of lamb into personal-sized portions and they're all wrapped and in the freezer. Fresh fruit has been cleaned and frozen, and I am organizing the fridge as we are now one month out from the US Thanksgiving. I need to figure out what I'm going to cook and if I need to load up on anything. It may well be lamb this year - my D-I-L is vegetarian except she will eat lamb (and suffer after, apparently, but she loves it). A turkey breast has less leftover, so some of each of those two would work. Family will be expecting my homemade dinner rolls, and I'll make a batch, but I'm also going to try making a batch using the gluten-free baking flour from Bob's Red Mill (so if I do a turkey breast I can have a sandwich.)

I have some recipes they like that could work for Thanksgiving, such as cranberry duff that is like a thin cranberry upside down cake with non-wheat flour. Of the two things I'm avoiding, wheat and sugar, I'll err on the side of sugar for that recipe.

In dog world, the tummy stitches come out tomorrow morning. Not a visit I look forward to; but it's the last appointment in this sequence. Meanwhile, this morning I found out one reason why breakfast isn't always as popular with this dog - the neighbor had upped the number of biscuits he was giving them in the morning and those things are large. I asked him to keep it to them sharing - break one in half for the two of them once in the morning. No wonder she's gaining weight even as I reduce the food in her bowl!

I have to finish the fence back there, with a gate, and then he can step through and hand each dog the biscuit without having to toss and hope one doesn't steal from the other. They can't go right up to the fence because of their Invisible Fence collars, and that is intentional. But he is welcome to come into the yard and if we have a gate it will only be between our yards, no one else would have access to it. I've been talking about that darned thing for ages - it's time to finish it. We're still in the high 80s but tomorrow should see a shift and rain for several days after before staying the 70s. Then I can work out there comfortably.

Subject: RE: DECLUTTER *hoards *bad habits *toxic stuff - 2024
From: Charmion
Date: 30 Oct 24 - 12:33 PM

Yup, baked beans — like Heinz, but with onion, garlic, thyme, and a touch of vinegar as well as molasses, mustard and tomato. And not mashed.

I first encountered huevos rancheros in a US Army hospital in Landstuhl, Germany, which is also the first place I saw widespread use of hot sauce. Without the hot sauce, the food there was essentially tasteless.

Subject: RE: DECLUTTER *hoards *bad habits *toxic stuff - 2024
From: Stilly River Sage
Date: 30 Oct 24 - 02:23 PM

There are stories and a couple of photos of Hillary Clinton pulling a small bottle of hot sauce out of her handbag when she was eating out or at various functions. It's standard in several forms here. My favorite general one is called Tapatio, particularly good over scrambled eggs, omelettes, on anything like tacos, burritos, etc. Hot salsa is another category, used in large amounts, a juicy kind of tomato pepper vinegar relish (plus spices) also very good over eggs. Kamala also apparently favors hot sauce, and since she grew up with an Indian mother and it is my experience that Indian food is often hot and there is hot sauce everywhere. (I had to use my "Just Read" browser extension after turning off my ad blocker to read this Houston Chronicle story.)

Say what you will about the trustworthiness of Hillary Clinton. The candidate who could make history as the first female U.S. president has been nothing but transparent about the fact that she's a hothead.

"Sriracha, Tabasco, tomatillo or what?" a participant of a town hall hosted by "Good Morning America" asked Clinton in April.

"I have a collection of all that and many more," she told the fellow fire-breather. "I started using hot sauce back in 1992 because I read an article that said it would help my immune system stay healthy." Ever since her husband's debut presidential campaign, she's stayed on message. "So far, so good!"

Clinton's liquid fire of choice is Ninja Squirrel, a brand of sriracha available at Whole Foods Market. But she also relies on a fresh hot pepper every day, she told National Public Radio, crediting the ingredient for "one of the reasons I'm so healthy, and I have so much stamina and endurance." (Science backs her up. Chilies are rich in folic acid and vitamins A, C and E; eating hot sauce also triggers the release of stress-lowering endorphins.)

Meanwhile, in the Pepper department at my house, the t-shirt she wore for the last couple of days was attractive but is now so torn up that it went into the trash. She had stitches removed (and ointment over the little holes) so needs a shirt for two more days they said. I took a shirt recently culled from the closet and stitched a three-inch dart on the back of the neck so she can't walk out of the neckhole. It looks good on her.

Yesterday a box of Gibraltar Duratuff glasses were listed on eBay, today I have a dozen Pilsner beer glasses (came from a friend's estate, but I never did get around to using.) They will go through the dishwasher, get polished for photos, and probably listed a few at a time. Packing a dozen or more is difficult and heavy and riskier that they arrive all intact. They took up a fair amount of space on the built-in shelves in the den, so I can spread things out (and consider if there is more on those shelves to move to the eBay list).

Subject: RE: DECLUTTER *hoards *bad habits *toxic stuff - 2024
From: Thompson
Date: 30 Oct 24 - 04:45 PM

Charmion, if you eat a little seaweed - nori, dillisk, whatever you're having yourself - with beans it tends to lessen their dramatic effects.

Subject: RE: DECLUTTER *hoards *bad habits *toxic stuff - 2024
From: Charmion
Date: 30 Oct 24 - 07:55 PM

Thompson, I think that ship has sailed for me. The problem is that my lower gut is already significantly compromised by diverticulosis, so high-fibre foods are too challenging. If the problem was farts alone I would go out and buy dulse tomorrow, but a severe belly-ache that isn’t over three days later is a whole different matter.

The first such flare-up hit me about 20 years ago, and I’ve had them two to three times a year ever since. (There were plenty of doctor visits and fancy imaging adventures — X-rays, CAT scans, gastroscopies — along the way.) Until Sunday, I hadn’t had one since just before Easter, coincidentally about 10 days before I started down the keto trail.

As soon as I stopped eating high-fibre foods, most of which are high in carbohydrates — the less-threatening symptoms of diverticulosis (notably the constant flatulence) just up and vanished, and until Sunday I didn’t have so much as a twinge of discomfort, let alone a full-blown diverticulitis flare complete with sleepless nights and low-grade fever. But within a few hours of eating a single flipping serving of beans I was squirming in pain.

I’m bright enough to take the hint without letters of fire on the wall.

Meanwhile, normal life goes on. Today was spent taking a fellow chorister up the road to Clinton for cataract surgery, waiting (and waiting, and waiting) for her to emerge from recovery, driving her home, and then hanging around for a couple of hours to ensure that she continues to recover properly from the anaesthetic. We aging ladies have to hang together!

Subject: RE: DECLUTTER *hoards *bad habits *toxic stuff - 2024
From: Dorothy Parshall
Date: 30 Oct 24 - 08:09 PM

Dupont:

Re Beans: I believe in ACV [Apple Cider Vinegar -- added by mudelf] for gut stuff. Still have my copy of Vermont Folk Medicine. Took a bottle to Mexico in the 80s for possible problems - a little in my water at each meal. Doing that today and it is solving a gut problem.

Got Drivers License yesterday. Left here early enough that it didn't matter that I was lost in Valleyfield and had to stop for directions - nice man at a tire place printed them out for me! I was forever at the kiosk, leaning on the counter and hoping the incipient vertigo (a new nuisance) would not get worse before I could get out of there! Was still with me today.But I have gotten rid of it- ACV.

Checked possible side effects of Ibrance last night. Made a list and sent in email to pharmacy in Ottawa. Good response we agreed to take a week off. My med stuff is readily available in both provinces but they have not gotten the idea of switching me totally to QC! They were (ON) however, kindly helpful! But they keep telling me to see my doctor - getting a doctor in QC ????? or ON where it took a few years - to get a darn fool.

Friend Rita texted me this am before 9 am! I was non-functional! But got back to her. Did I get my wood stacked yet? "No" but it is not a hurry and I want to do it myself in bits - something physical to do!

Enjoyed the day in bed because tomorrow I need to take the car back to V for its safety inspection. The trip down is 39 min when you know how! Neighbours were doing yard work on the warm day!

There seem to be a bunch of neighbours across the street. If they are out tomorrow, and I feel well enough, I may walk over to see if I can hire someone to clean the house.

And if I have the energy to stop at a pharmacy, I will look for those glasses - and more batteries for hearing aids which are behaving nicely this week. Now, have to wait until 9:30 to take pills.

Subject: RE: DECLUTTER *hoards *bad habits *toxic stuff - 2024
From: Stilly River Sage
Date: 30 Oct 24 - 09:06 PM

Dorothy, trying to avoid vertigo and stacking firewood don't seem to be compatible activities. Maybe the neighbors across the street can help with that also when you ask about someone to help clean.

Charmion, I will perform a similar escort to and from a surgery event for a friend in the first full week of November. I did this about three months ago (she needs a surgery on each arm) and will be better prepared for how to help her out, knowing what to expect. (I'll pick up a rotisserie chicken at Costco instead of paying a small fortune for tiny birds at Tom Thumb, like I did last time. Having food ready-to-eat when you're recovering is a nice touch.)

Dishwasher has run its course and the glasses are cool. Time to find the packing materials and decide which boxes to use. I'll list them tomorrow, and it will be two or three new listings instead of one. When I do it this way if someone wants more glasses at a time they can indicate they want combined shipping; it means I have to repack, but usually ends up costing them a bit less in the end. (Just so they don't buy all three - then I'm back to the original problem of safely packing that many glasses in a large box.)

More sewing this evening to modify a couple of more shirts for the dogs. Pepper can test another one tomorrow, and then she's finished with canine couture for now. There is at least one more of the previous shirts that needs to be tossed (just as well because when they're dropped in the trash can the shirts block the smell of the wrapper from the lamb I cut up yesterday). Trash day tomorrow so I need to go out in the morning to cut more sunflower limbs to add to the trash can full of lamb drippings and dog shirts.

The beer glasses are out of the dishwasher and look good.

Subject: RE: DECLUTTER *hoards *bad habits *toxic stuff - 2024
From: Charmion
Date: 30 Oct 24 - 09:53 PM

Apple cider vinegar might have helped when I was forty. At this point, I’d rather follow the indication I already have — stay low-carb, and no beans.

Subject: RE: DECLUTTER *hoards *bad habits *toxic stuff - 2024
From: Stilly River Sage
Date: 31 Oct 24 - 12:34 PM

November is one of those months when a number of annual bills automatically renew, causing an automated sticker shock. Good thing the heat pump is paid off, because those plus the vet bill are looming large this month. Some of it can be shifted over time to other months, but it takes planning.

More sunflower branches went in the trash this morning, along with a couple of items I hadn't planned on until I read an article in The Atlantic. Here are the first two paragraphs:

For the past several years, I’ve been telling my friends what I’m going to tell you: Throw out your black plastic spatula. In a world of plastic consumer goods, avoiding the material entirely requires the fervor of a religious conversion. But getting rid of black plastic kitchen utensils is a low-stakes move, and worth it. Cooking with any plastic is a dubious enterprise, because heat encourages potentially harmful plastic compounds to migrate out of the polymers and potentially into the food. But, as Andrew Turner, a biochemist at the University of Plymouth recently told me, black plastic is particularly crucial to avoid.

In 2018, Turner published one of the earliest papers positing that black plastic products were likely regularly being made from recycled electronic waste. The clue was the plastic’s concerning levels of flame retardants. In some cases, the mix of chemicals matched the profile of those commonly found in computer and television housing, many of which are treated with flame retardants to prevent them from catching fire.

Apparently black plastic that is otherwise ok is ejected in regular waste-stream recycling plants because the optical sensors can't see the black color. So there is a shortage of good black plastic, and that's where e-waste steps in to fill the demand for recycled black plastic. They tend to be treated with flame retardants and "another paper from 2018 found that flame retardants in black kitchen utensils readily migrate into hot cooking oil."

The other things that need to go are the most of the non-stick cookware. In one of my two free reads at America's Test Kitchen this month, they say that

As Dan Jones, associate director at the MSU Center for PFAS Research, told us, different PFAS chemicals may have different levels of toxicity too. The problem is, we don’t know as much as we’d like to about all the different chemicals. The two best-studied PFAS, PFOA and PFOS, have been phased out of use, at least in the United States, but many others exist and remain in use, and their health effects are less well known.

That "remain in use" part would be me and all of my thrift store non-stick bread pans, a large skillet (to make lefse), and probably more.

The article says "it's not clear that the PFAS in your nonstick cookware actually migrate into your food when you cook" - but we can see all of these coatings gradually scratched or peeling off.

It's always something.

Subject: RE: DECLUTTER *hoards *bad habits *toxic stuff - 2024
From: Dorothy Parshall
Date: 31 Oct 24 - 11:19 PM

Dupont:

with a few loose ends yet to go, I am legal in QC - health, auto, driving. Need to tell auto ins company of move and change address on myriad other items - is there a list on line? I keep thinking: Oh! and...

I keep being told to stay active - the firewood was my activity!

With the nasty side effects intruding, I read more about this med and am informed that 30% of women may last 53 months. At 87, I am surprised they are giving me this expensive stuff; I suppose it is the experimental aspect. That's OK. My body is happy to have a week's break. No vertigo today. Just itching and some sporadic discomforts.

Negotiating with a fav musician to obtain the actual words to his songs I love - I love hearing the feeling in them but would like to know the words. They will be an important part of what sustains me through whatever piece of "53 months" I last. This is not gloomy; this is OK.