Category Archives: Health

Great Work, Health, Politics, US History, Weather +Climate

Ogallala Blue

Leave a comment

Beltane                                                                                Early Growth Moon

A post written this time by Woolly Bill Schmidt.  My comment below.

From Bill:

We may be able to ignore the effect that humans have on global warming or even deny that it is happening.  It is difficult to explain away the effect that we humans (farmers in this case) are having on an important earth resource.  And the farmers are crying because they can no longer farm in ways that don’t make sense relative to what they are given.  Maybe it is time to pay attention to our local environments and live/farm within the limits of what is provided by earth environments.  Tapping the aquifers to irrigate farm land is like shooting yourself in the foot.  The aquifer is not infinite and pretty soon you don’t even have enough water to drink.

Here’s a link to a New York Times article about the plight of Kansas (Midwestern) farmers who have robbed the aquifer and now it is drying up.

“And when the groundwater runs out, it is gone for good. Refilling the aquifer would require hundreds, if not thousands, of years of rains.

The irony of using insane amounts of water for fracking to get more oil would be laughable if it were not so sad. Literally hundreds of millions of gallons of water per day are being used for this process, poisoned by who knows what chemicals and with a fraction, if any, of that water being recovered.”

 

This is the cost of pumping 1,600 gallons per minute to irrigate farm land.  And on page 2 of this article, the same farmer is continuing to drill more wells.  Reminds me of a song:  Pete Seeger “Where have all the flowers gone” —  “When will we ever learn.”

 

My Willa Cather Moment With This Problem

I’ve told this story to the Woollies and others many times, I imagine, a sort of recurring tale like so many offer to others, unaware of their repetitiveness.  But, it’s worth retelling.

Twice I’ve visited Red Cloud, Nebraska, a small town on the Kansas/Nebraska border, and home to Willa Cather, a favorite American regional author of mine:  Death Comes for the Archbishop, O’ Pioneers, The Professor and many others.

In the Willa Cather Center there I remember, back in 2005 or so, speaking with the folks behind the desk.  It was really hot, 107 or so, and we got to talking about climate change and agriculture.  Since I have a long standing interest in the Ogallala Aquifer, I asked about irrigation.

The conversation became animated because it turned out that in the spring, when the farmers began irrigating their fields, the towns wells would go dry.  It seems they’ve pumped the aquifer out enough that the volume of water available in their area can’t sustain the needs of both town and country.

Here’s a good resource on this issue, which nuances it:  Ogallala Blue.

Aging, Faith and Spirituality, Health

Walking Upright in the World

Leave a comment

Spring                                                                         Planting Moon

Let me describe, before it gets away from me, submerged in the always been, how exciting and uplifting it was to realize I was walking across the floor at Carlson Toyota.  Just walking.  Putting one foot in front of the other.  No flinching, no torquing to keep things stable.  Just. Walking.

When we return to normalcy after a period of illness or trauma, there is a transition period, a time of grace if we take it, which can offer us a reminder about the wonder of the every day.  To walk across a floor with no pain, to walk as one is used to doing.  So powerful.

In fact, I took as my motto Walking Upright in the World reflecting back on the fact that I had to relearn to walk at the age of 2 and honoring that 2 year old guy for the gift of a normal, usually unregarded capacity to do that.

So much of what we do is really a wonder.  Take grasping and holding.  Typing on a keyboard.  Lifting objects from the ground to over our heads.  Breathing.  Yes, think about breathing.  Only to inhale is not enough to sustain life.

Sitting.  Standing.  Eating.  All wonders, wonders often, perhaps usually, revealed only when they disappear from our repertoire either temporally or permanently.

So take a moment today and celebrate the walk.  The jump.  The high five.  The low bow.

Congratulations!

Garden, Health

And Now For Some Rain. Please.

Leave a comment

Spring                                                              Planting Moon

Thunder, a quick shower.  Rain tonight, I hope.  Back to wanting the weather to turn seasonal, open the spigots, irrigate the crops.  Our irrigation system is not turned on yet and we have no way to get water to the onion sets, leeks, beets, cucumbers and sugar snap peas we’ve placed in the soil.  They need it.

My mood has begun to rise.  As the back pain recedes (far from gone, but no longer the first thing I think about when I move) and my body returns to a rested state after the stress of the last week, my work begins to come to the fore.  I’ve set aside the Ovid, Missing, exercising, Reimagining for time and space to heal.  It was necessary and good.

Now though those higher level needs, self-actualization, begin to kick back in, assert their right to time and attention.  And I’m glad they do.  Tomorrow I should be back at it, and, in case you hadn’t already noticed this, being back at it is where I like to be.

We’re going to the production and broadcast of a radio drama at the Artist’s Quarter tonight:  Jazz Noir.  I mentioned it earlier in the week.  This is the first of 5. I’ll let you know how it goes.

Health, Weather +Climate

75!

Leave a comment

Spring                                                                              Planting Moon

 

75.  The temperature outside is 75.  Flick back to Monday and Tuesday.  Snow, blowing snow and hazardous driving conditions.  Minnesota has these occasions, these, oh let’s change seasons for good today moments.  Not my favorite part of Minnesota’s climate, but not a bad one either.

Seasonal whiplash.

The back has gotten better, ouching not quite so much, the trajectory seeming to have tilted in a favorable direction at last.  I miss exercising.

Still feeling a bit submerged since last Sunday when Kona had to go to the emergency vet, as if I’ve not swum quite all the way back to the top.   I can the green filtered light, shafts of yellow reaching me on my way up.

Soon now.  Soon.

 

Feelings, Friends, Health

In the Company of Old Men

Leave a comment

Spring                                                                            Planting Moon

A full moon tonight.  And good cards.  Fortuna walked with me throughout the evening, giving me winning hands including one lay down.

Ed, a regular, came in tonight and said he’d made driving mistakes twice, once on his way to his house and once on his way back and wasn’t sure he would make it through the evening.  He did, but I thought it was brave of him to acknowledge his anxiety, sharing it rather than fussing about it the whole evening.

Dick’s PSA, after 37 radiation treatments, is 0.0.  A good report at the same time his wife, on a recheck for a nodule on her thyroid, was told it was no longer there.  A good day all round.

(trump in sheepshead)

Bill continues to walk straight in his life after Regina’s death, acknowledging her absence and the profound effect it has had on his life, yet he reports gratitude as his constant companion.  He waits for a clear signal as to what comes next in this changed life situation.  He says, like Ram Dass, Still Here.

Aging, Health, Third Phase

Ah. He said.

Leave a comment

Spring                                                                       Planting Moon

I apologize for the long series of posts on my back and my shoulder and my angst.  In part they come because this blog has replaced my long habit of keeping written journals, so you get what happens, if you’re a reader here.

In part they come because they track my progress (regress?  slide?  decline?) into the later years when the body repairs itself less quickly.  In part they come, mostly they come, because they are what is foremost to me at the moment.

Still, I know such posts can turn off readers who also suffer from their aches and pains, their own flurries of difficult to handle matters, their own angst.  All I can say is that this an ancientrail, too, one followed by so many, most, maybe, probably by all.  So it is not about me I write, but us inflected at the moment by an Oklahoma born, Indiana raised, Minnesota preferred man and his 66 year old body.

Though my back feels somewhat better I am now weary, tired from the last week plus, probably allowing myself to be tired because Kate’s on her way home.  Now I will be able to  focus on recovering, not recovering, reinjuring and managing.  Looking forward to it.

Aging, Dogs, Health

In Other Medical News

Leave a comment

Spring                                                                                   Planting Moon

Knobby is now knobless.  She ate well last night and this morning. went outside on the leash, front and back, has a spark in her eye.  All good to see, especially the day after a significant procedure.

In other medical news I feel small signs of improvement in the back.  Not enough to hop back on the treadmill, but some.  My in house doc prescribed prednisone for four days, a course I started yesterday.  And, of course, the tincture of time.

I feel less woozy today, less out of it.  That feels really good.  Along with the sun, Kona’s improvement and my back’s, that’s enough to push the needle back into the good headed toward joyful segment of the dial.

A fun trip into the ophthalmologist, then a quiet afternoon and evening.  Sounds perfect to me.

 

Bees, Dogs, Health

Kona. No longer lopsided.

Leave a comment

Spring                                                                              Planting Moon

The tumor removal went well; it came off easily.  Kona was sitting up after the procedure, probably wondering if she’d have to go back to the vet tomorrow.  In 20 minutes I’ll find out when she can come home.  It will be today.

(Kona, Vega and Gertie wanting to be on the other side of the fence.)

I took a long nap aided by Mr. Tramadol and Ms. Oxycodone.  Though both of them have worn off by now my lower back and right hip feel better, not well, but better, which is a victory.

Enough that I went out and gingerly moved the remaining frames of honey from the hive boxes where I’ll put the package later this afternoon.  Just lifting two hive boxes with four frames of honey each did challenge the back though I tried to make my form a perfect 10.  Finding these ordinary, common chores painful does not make me happy.

Getting the bees hived is important and the weather is nice, sunny and no precip.  Have to wait until later this evening so the temps will be cooler and night will be coming, both induce the bees to remain at home for the first day.

 

Dogs, Health, Weather +Climate

Woozy

Leave a comment

Spring (so they say)                                                      Planting Moon

Kona’s at the vets getting her tumor removed.  Gertie’s down here in the study, lying down close to the desk.  Rigel has begun to worry about her mama, looking through the gate in the morning toward the bedroom.  Where could she be?

Kona will come home today, probably late in the afternoon.  She’s been to the vet three days in a row and is not a particularly happy dog at this time.

The meds I’ve been taking for this damned back make me a bit woozy, between that and the pain, my capacity to get things done has diminished quite a bit.  I’ll be glad when the back decides to calm down and I can resume exercising.  It’s also effecting my sleep.  Considerably off.

We did not get 8 inches of snow here.  More like 2 or 3.  Now the forecast has 76 for Sunday.  76.  Maybe some 80’s next week.  No spring this year.  Winter into summer.

Aging, Dogs, Health, Third Phase

Help!

Leave a comment

Spring                                                                             Planting Moon

Kona will have her tumor removed tomorrow.  Roger Barr, our vet, says it is cancerous, which surprised me because she’s been so sturdy and active in spite of the tumor.  A chest x-ray though showed no metastases, a good thing.  We’ve opted to remove though the emergency vet bill and the removal costs will debulk our capital reserves.  Which means we’ll have to find a way to build them back up again.

After our appointment with Dr. Barr, I tried to lift Kona up into the Rav4.  Usually, no problem.  I can lift her 40 pounds. However.  Last week I wrenched my back cleaning out the bee hives in readiness for the new package, which I will pick up today.  As I struggled with what would have been an easy task, a woman came along and asked me if I needed help, “Yes.  I do.”

Between us we got Kona up on the blanket in the back.

“Her and me, we’re doing it together.” I said, nodding toward Kona, “Thanks.”

“Bless you,” she said.

I recount this conversation because it reminded me of a third phase thought.  A thought important for an all men’s group like the Woollies.  We must learn how to recognize when we need help, how to ask for it and how to graciously receive it.  It’s not easy for me to ask for help and I imagine many of us are the same.  As we age, infirmity and illness will increase the probability, the likelihood that we will need the help of others.  Fellow Woollies.  Family.  Other friends.  Medical professionals and home health care assistants.