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Monday, September 30, 2013

Bacon, Butter and Eggs! Did I mention BACON?


So after a rather lively debate on Facebook over who's Poop is going to hit which fan if the Government shuts down tonight, (I'm betting on the ReBoobicans and most of my friend are betting on the Damnocrats) I went into the kitchen to finish fixing (Yes I said fixing instead of making. Sue me. I'm from so far deep in the South that there may still be skirmishes going on between Union and Rebel troops.) my Wife's dinner which happens to be Chicken, Rice and Veggie Soup. As I was cutting up the chicken to go in the slow cooker, I was struck with how many of the things that we do to food today would have boggled the minds of my Mother and Grandmother.
We have been brainwashed by Big Business to believe that so much of what the previous generations did was dangerous, or unhealthy or downright stupid that we have truly started destroying many of aspects of food. I got this thought as I was taking the skin off the cooked chicken prior to putting in the pot. In this example, my Mother would have looked crazy at anyone who suggested she cut any edible piece of meat of any critter. Prolly would have beaned anyone with a frying pan if they tried to do it.
Of course, this is just what prompted the thoughts and not the best example. Since to much of the cholesterol stored in fatty tissue and skins can be bad for you, a little selective pruning is not such a bad idea. However it brings to mind a host of other sins that have been foisted off on us by Corporations in the guise of eating better.
Example the first is Margarine over Butter. Remember back when Margarine was first introduced as a healthy alternative to Butter. The argument was that the “Vegetable” oils were better for you than those mean old nasty cholesterol laden butter squares. People bought this line hook line and sinker so Margarine sales shot through the roof. Course many moons later, the general consensus among health care professionals is that Butter actually contains a whole bunch of healthy things in it and eating all of those heavily processed and adulterated oils is very bad for you. Who knew?
Example B is eggs. Yup for way to long everyone's favorite hen fruit was the bad guy. “Oh no don't eat that, it contains all sorts of bad cholesterol and other stuff.” That is how we got the heavily modified Egg Beaters type brands where they take the egg whites, mix them with god only knows what and process it till nothing really good remains. Now it turns out that eggs specifically the vilified yolks actually contains many beneficial elements especially the good cholesterol that is so important for our health. Again, eat a product that nature has been working on for millions of years or eat something that may have once seen the inside of a chicken, but has more to do with the lab. Seems like a no brainer huh?
Homesteading is making a rapid comeback in this country. People everywhere are bucking the propaganda and making and eating their own foods. From the backyards of the big cities to small farms back in my old stomping grounds, people are growing their own veggies, raising their own stock and eating all of the things that corporations have tried to turn us against. People aren't drinking milk drawn from heavily medicated cows, pasteurized to death with chemicals added to extend its shelf life and then shipped from God only knows where. Instead they are drinking milk produced right at home from cows and goats who are drug and chemical free. Big Agriculture has taken notice of this and is getting nervous. More and more “Health” codes are being passed to prevent Farmers from selling or trading their wares.
Have you noticed that the vast majority of health issues confronting the US have cropped up over the past few decades? Obesity is at ridiculous levels especially among children. High Cholesterol is at an all time high. Diabetes is at epidemic levels and so is heart disease. All of this directly corresponds to the introduction of all of the “better for you” processed foods. I always tell people that my family on both sides lived ridiculously long times with little to no real health care. They ate butter, eggs and meat with the skin on.
I would wager that almost every single health issue confronting us today can be traced to a combination of eating way to many processed foods and no where near enough exercise. Kids aren't fat because of some weird health bit. They are fat because they are fed foods with practically no nutritional value and they just sit around all day playing video games and talking on their phones. And these fat, unhealthy kids become fat unhealthy adults. Plain and simple.
Course you are welcome to believe and eat whatever you wish to. I cannot and would not stop you even if I could. I will just sit over here after riding my bike for four miles eating toast with Butter on it after enjoying a breakfast of bacon and eggs. Time will tell who lives longer.
Brew Long and Prosper

Saturday, September 28, 2013

Sugar Free and Living Free

For those who have just joined us, I am a Diabetic and have been for several years now. I became one out of a combination of genetic predisposition and outright stupidity. The genetic part comes from the fact that my Mother was a Diabetic and so were several people on both sides of my family so I was genetically predisposed towards contracting the disease to begin with. The stupid part comes in when I completely and utterly ignored this fact.
Before I got sick, I weighed 360 pounds (Maybe more, our scales didn't go any higher than 350.and ate pretty much everything I wanted to in insane amounts. My favorite snack was a two liter of Coca-Cola and one of those GIANT Hershey's with Almond Bars. Yeah, that was my snack. I drank at least 4 or more 16+ energy drinks a day and could easily snarf down a dozen donuts all by myself. Now all the experts will tell you that you cannot contract Diabetes from simply eating too much sugar and they are correct. (Of course they are correct, they are the experts after all.) However you sure can push your luck to the breaking point and that is what I did.
Now I am not doing this little piece to whinge about having to take pills and jab myself in da belly with a syringe every night. I am man enough to admit that I brought it on myself and strong enough to accept the consequences of my earlier choices. Truth be told, contracting Diabetes may have been the best thing that ever happened to me. Well, okay second best after meeting my amazing wife. Getting sick forced to me to make lifestyle choices that I would have never made if the threat of DYING hadn't been introduced.
A good read for a Great Cause.
http://www.amazon.com/dp/B007A53SC0
For those who haven't read it yet, this book describes my discovering I had the disease, my initial reactions to it and the journey I undertook to change my life. It talks about how my life has changed both physically and spiritually. All proceeds from the sales of this book go towards combating Juvenile Diabetes. Please buy and help us find a cure. (Reviews and star ratings would be great too.)

No, this little piece is talking about all of the amazing developments in science that have helped me live a somewhat healthy (Still backslide sometimes) life free of excessive carbs and loads of sugar. No, I am not talking about new advances in drug treatment even though those have been amazing. I am not talking about the astounding technological advances. (Artificial Pancreas anyone? Targeted Insulin Delivery Systems? How about growing brand new organs from stem cells? Geez Science Fiction 20 years ago anyone?) Nope, this talk is about sugar free food and drink products.
Now, when I was a kid, Diet Drinks might have just as well been Dying Drinks because only desperate people actually drank them. Early attempts at sugar free foods produced foods that might have been vaguely nutritious, but had the taste and texture of wood. Sugar free chocolates and other candies were still the pipe dreams of people everywhere and don't even get me started on cereals where even the Corn Flakes had added sugar. I always tell people, semi-jokingly, that if I had become a Diabetic twenty or thirty years ago, I would have either died of starvation or sugar overdose.
These days, I have found so many incredible foods, drinks and snacks that are not only Diabetic Friendly, but taste great. One of our favorite stops when we go back to see my In-laws is the Russel Stovers Factory Outlet where they have, literally, aisle after aisle of sugar free snacks. Diet Coke and Pepsi still taste pretty much the same way they did 20 years ago, but Coke Zero and Pepsi Maxx taste close enough to the original that it doesn't even matter. There is even a delicious Pasta that is Diabetic Friendly. Not to mention a bevy of Sugar-Free Energy Drinks.
http://www.buydreamfields.com/images/header2008_v01.jpg
Seriously folks, this stuff is awesome!

I can credit many things with my not only surviving Diabetes, but actually thriving. My Amazing Wife who supported me and cared for me all of this time. My incredible friends who never gave up on me. Even my sometimes spotty Faith helped keep me going and now that I have rediscovered my Path, keeps me strong and uplifted. However, I acknowledge that I am only human and beset with the same temptations that plague everyone every day and I am certain that I would have succumbed to those temptations far more than I have if it hadn't been for the relatively new dietary options available today.
In closing, I want to acknowledge all of the scientific research that indicates that many of the artificial sweeteners used in these products can be bad for you. (Seriously though folks, Aspartame is not the evil substance that all of the Facebook Posts make it out to be. That is a hoax perpetrated by parties unknown and continued by people who don't bother to do their own research and believe what they read on the Internet. ( http://www.snopes.com/medical/toxins/aspartame.asp) However, there are many natural Diabetes Friendly sweeteners out there now and many popular brands including Coca-Cola are starting to use them. In the end, I offer the same advice for non-sugar sweeteners as people off for sugar and high calorie foods. Everything is okay as long as you take it in moderation.
Brew Long and Prosper

Wednesday, September 25, 2013

Of Winter, Snow and Doggies


Trina and yes she does have one brown eye and one blue eye
As we slowly creep towards Winter in our new home in Virginia, I am eagerly looking forward to real snow for the first time in well over a decade. Yes that is right, you heard me correctly. I am looking forward to the fluffy white stuff (Preferably a lot of it) falling from the sky. Sue me, I like cold weather and I LOVE snow. Which is kind of weird since I come from the very Deep South where snow was mostly a myth or something that fell but never stuck around.
A funny story dealing with my love of snow comes from when my wife and I moved to Omaha, NE for her first job after college. The first snow we had was an extremely heavy one and we only possessed one vehicle at the time which my wife had to use to drive the 20 or so miles to her job. I worked within two miles of the house so I walked every day. So needless to say, I bundled up and took off for work that morning on foot. One of my wife's coworkers asked if she had driven me to work that morning and my wife calmly told him that I had walked. When the man expressed concern over me walking through snow drifts in near freezing temps, she just shook her head and said I was probably having the time of my life walking and throwing snowballs at trees. (She was partially wrong, I was throwing them at signs.) I love the snow!
Okay funny story over with. So now that I am once again able to look forward to snowball fights and snowpeople populating my front lawn, I am also looking forward to something a little more important. As I have mentioned in previous blogs, I own two wonderful big goofy Labrador Mixes named Trina and Trellis. We adopted them after a friend told us that they were going to be put to sleep because they were simply too terrified of everything to be the friendly interactive dogs everyone wants. Because they had been horrible abused as puppies (Trellis was beaten regularly and Trina was locked in cages so small she could never even stand up or turn around.), they rightfully didn't trust people. I had a huge fenced in back yard at the time and said they could stay there for as long as they lived.

Trellis and yes she is as goofy as she looks.
Over the years since then, I have worked very hard to earn their trust, but never achieved a lot of success. Generally, if I came into the yard, they would run and hide in the bushes along the fence or in our very bushy dog run. Over time, I got Trina to the point where she would actually come up to me and let me pet her, but there still wasn't a lot of trust. Sometimes I despaired of ever earning their trust and actually interacting with them like other dog owners do. Because of their fear, it was literally impossible to get them inside in bad weather. Rain or shine, hot or cold, I couldn't bring them out of the weather. If I tried, they would just run down into the dog run and hunker down in the heavy brush. Let me tell you that until you try to haul 80 pounds of uncooperative dog out of bushes, over a fence and uphill, you haven't understood the definition of impossible.
For a long time, all I could do was make sure that they had warm, dry shelter and warm bedding to sleep on in the winter and cool places to sleep with tons of water to drink during the summer time. It was frustrating and frightening at times. Some people might argue that I should have done more or tried harder and they may be right. I don't really know if there is more I could have done, but I can honestly say I did everything I could.
Now fast forward to modern day and our new home in VA. Thanks to a much smaller yard and a lot of effort on the part of me and my wife, the Dogs have come to trust us a lot more. Because of this, they are now spending most of their time indoors sleeping on Serta Comfort Doggie Beds in their own room with a padded cover on the floor. They can go out whenever they wish but usually they are very content to sleep in their room out of the heat/cold/rain. I finally can hug them and pet them. I can make sure they get their medicines when they need it and care for them when they are sick/injured without traumatizing either of us.
So now, I can look forward to a nice cold winter with TONS of snow without being worried sick that my dogs are out the cold, freezing and afraid. I will walk out into the fluffy white stuff confident that Trina and Trellis are curled up on their warm beds in their dry room safe and sound. Needless to say this is going to be an AWESOME winter.
Brew Long and Prosper

Monday, September 16, 2013

Circles of friends

So I seem to be continuously mentioning a dear young friend of mine that has come to be lovingly known as MacT© by her gaggle of constantly amazed friends. She has a tendency to ask questions or make statements that prove to be both entertaining and informative. She is constantly making us older folks scratch our collective chins and go, “Huh.” She definitely keeps us on our toes and never ceases to amaze us. She and a few other younger people (One of which I am proud to call my Niece. Waves at Susan!) are what gives me hope that the future of mankind might just be bright after all.
The only “problems” I find with MacT© is her inability to see just how amazing she is and how much her brilliance and love of life effect everyone around her. Modesty is all well and good (Me personally I never touch the stuff, but hey...) but you should also recognize your talents and skills and embrace them. MacT© is a highly intelligent student and a truly gifted poet. Her insights have often made me go “Wow” and feel a little bit silly. Of course, her main “problem” is her inability to truly Grok (Hah, Paul Hodges didn't know what RAH was! Neener neener neener!) what real friendship means. Especially in the case of me and my friends.
Friend and Friendship are two words that I think have been horribly abused these days especially with the advent of Social Sites like Facebook. People seem to associate casual acquaintances with friends just because they read their FB page every day or spend a few hour a week with them drinking a beer. (As an aside here let me state that I have several people I have met through FB that I consider true friends even though I never actually physically met them. Tina, Karen, Becca and many more are my friends for the exact reasons I am about to list.)
Anyone who has read any of my blogs knows that during my stint in college, I met many amazing people who became fast friends. You know the kind. You call them in the middle of the night and say you just killed someone and all they say is “Do you need help hiding the body?” You are out in the middle of BFE with a flat tire and dead battery and you call them for help and they are out of the house in their PeeJays coming to help you? It is the Zombie Apocalypse and they are side by side with you playing whack a mole in the graveyard? That is the kind of friends I made during that time.
Sadly, we all lost contact with each other afterward and didn't hear or see each other in over 20 years. It was only through the miracle of social networking that we reconnected after so long. It was only through the miracle of our friendship that we simply picked up where we had left off without a hiccup. Ben, Mary, Tom, Thomas, Phil, Margaret, Tracy and so many others returned to my life like they had never left.
MacT© seems fascinated by the fact that I can disagree with my friends, sometimes very vehemently and “loudly” over various subjects and not have it affect (effect? Darn it I keep forgetting that one!) our friendships in any way. Fer instample, my dear friend TC. Gods knows how many times we have disagreed on, well pretty much everything. I have “insulted” him. He has questioned my mental faculties and the Snarkiness has ran deep many times. I occasionally disagree with others too. TM and MA come to mind, but usually its me and TC trading figurative blows. I love the witty and not so witty banter and challenges thrown back and forth during these exchanges, but MacT© cannot fathom how we can disagree and still remain fast friends. And we are fast friends. We can fight all day about our philosophical differences but we are still there for each other when the chips are down.
Put simply, if you have friends that you are afraid to discuss certain subjects with or are afraid to disagree with them because you don't want to hurt their feelings, then your friendship is not as solid or as deep as it could be. It is also the type of friendship that I have observed most people have. This isn't necessarily a bad thing, but it pales in comparison with real friends.
I am proud to say that I have friends that I would literally kill or die for and I am 200% certain that the feeling is mutual. I have disagreed with some of them and most certainly will disagree with them in the future. I look forward to it, because those disagreements often force me to look at my own beliefs and attitudes. I just hope that MacT© comes to understand that, through fate or accident or act of God, she has been inducted into that same amazing circle of friends. May all of you out there someday be so lucky as to have friends like mine.
Brew Long and Prosper!

Wednesday, September 11, 2013

NOBODY PANIC!!!!!!

     Okay so I was given this information by my secret government informant code named, "The Wife" today and it is easily the most terrifying news I have heard since the Pumpkin Shortage of '09.  Read this carefully and try not to panic too badly.
     "
U.S. DEPARTMENT OF STATE
Office of the Spokesperson
For Immediate Release                                                                               September 10, 2013
2013/2100

Fact Sheet

U.S. Assistance to Coffee Rust Affected Countries

Central America, southern Mexico, South America, and the Caribbean are experiencing one of the worst recorded outbreaks of coffee rust, a devastating disease for coffee plants, threatening the livelihoods and food security of smallholder coffee farmers.  The U.S. Department of Agriculture estimates that coffee production in Mexico and Central America will decline by seven percent this year and may fall even further next year.  The United States is working closely with affected governments, international organizations, civil society, coffee associations, and the private sector to combat coffee rust and mitigate its impacts in the following ways:

  • Through development diplomacy, the United States is raising the concern of coffee rust with senior government officials in affected countries and encouraging them to provide assistance to their producers.

  • Through the Unidad Regional de Asistencia Technica (RUTA), the United States hired a regional coordinator housed at the regional coffee association, PROMECAFÉ, in Guatemala to provide regional emergency coordination and disseminate best practices to combat rust. 

  • The United States is providing field-based technical assistance to coffee farmers in El Salvador and Guatemala through the Food for Progress program to assist them to diversify and manage risk.

  • Through Feed the Future, the President’s food security initiative, the United States is working closely with the coffee industry and other stakeholders to provide training, resources and livelihoods support to affected communities and small scale farmers in Guatemala and Honduras.  

  • The United States is working with national organizations and civil societies to support research on rust-resistant coffee varieties and address the shortage of appropriate coffee seedlings. 

  • The United States is working through the Global Agriculture and Food Security Program (GAFSP) in coordination with the International Financial Corporation (IFC) to provide a regional financing facility that would offer farmers medium and long term loans for plantation improvements and renovation.


     That's right folks!  An insidious disease is threatening the very bean that makes modern life possible.  The provider of the precious nectar that keeps a huge number of people from going bezerk and killing everyone that annoys them.  If this horrific plague is not stopped it could very well mean the end of life as we know it.
     So I am hereby forming a Special Actions Committee to deal with this earth threatening problem.  As of now SCOFF is active and ongoing.  (Save Coffee, Our Finest Friend)  SCOFF is dedicated to preserving our precious beans and keeping them available to Caffiends for years to come.  (Caffeine Fiends, get it?)
     Join my dedicated core of SCOFFers (well okay right now it is just me) so we can help keep the world a safer place for idiots, annoyances and other problem types.  Donations can be sent via Paypal or Snail Mail so that I can purchase as much of the Coffee supply as I can to...(ahem) preserve it for everyone.  So give till it hurts folks cause we cannot let this disaster happen.
Brew Long and Prosper. 

Buy my books, I'm hungry

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Wednesday, September 4, 2013

A doorway into summer

Affectionately known as Doggy.  Don't ask why.



If you have never read this little gem by the late and very RAH, you should. It is a product of some of his softer, gentler fiction where the good guy gets the girl, saves his cat and lives happily ever after at the end. I enjoyed reading it as a kid and still love this book many many moons later in my middle years.
The reason this book came to mind this morning was because of the aforementioned cat in the book. The cat has a habit in the middle of winter of wandering to each door leading outside and demanding it be opened. The Cat is convinced that if enough doors are open, he will find a door back to the bright warm sunshine of summer. No matter how many times those doors are opened, he remains convinced that he will find what he loves.
Above is a picture of one of my five cats whose name is Ferrari. (BTW he is named for a cactus not the car. All but one of our 7 pets have plant based names. Didn't start out that way, but that is how it wound up.) He and his brother were “gifts” to us from a small feral Calico we rescued from outside. My wife always says she never wanted pets and certainly never wanted 5 cats and two dogs. “Those are your animals” is what she would always tell me. The only problem with her statement is no one told Ferrari. Since the time this bright orange tabby could see and walk, he decided that my wife was HIS person and has been absolutely devoted to her since.
We have recently moved across the country (Okay Eastern Seaboard) to a brand new house that is three levels of awesome. The Master Bedroom is on the top floor and we keep it closed up most of the time because one of our cats does not like the others so the top floor is hers exclusively. The only time the doors are open upstairs is when the other five cats are shut up in the lowest level for the night.
Ferrari is well aware that his Momma sleeps up there and spends a lot of time up there on her laptop. So he is convinced that she is behind those closed doors even when she is away at work. Every single morning after I let the Basement cats out to be in the rest of the house, he will trot up the stairs to the top floor and spend at least an hour or so Meowing at the top of his lungs for Momma to come out and play. Now I know the cat is bright enough to have learned her routine since he sees her come through the front door every afternoon, but deep down he is hopeful that if he sits and waits patiently at the door, she will miraculously appear to play and scratch him. I doubt that anything will ever change tha.
Sometimes I think the whole world would be better off if we all learned to have even a fraction of the hope, love and devotion of our dogs and cats. Ferrari keeps hoping for that “Door into Summer” and as the hero of the book ponders at the end, maybe one day he might just find it.
Brew Long and Prosper