Mistr takes it on the road

[Mistr]

Mistr takes it on the road - August 2021

 

This challenge is starting and ending with trips. I will have two and a half weeks at home in the middle of the challenge. I'm going to have to stay on my toes to keep on top of everything.

 

Right now I am at my family's lake place with Dumbledore. We spent a lovely day exploring Duluth on the way here. After that I took some much needed down time. Dumbledore is under deadline for an academic paper, so he has mostly been working. Today is our last full day here. I am doing all the housecleaning and he is writing. I'm a little salty about that, but I am also proud of him and want to support him. I am planning on asking him to do housecleaning at home to even the score.

 

This weekend I will be in the Twin Cities visiting people. I'm spending most of Friday with my mom. I have lunch plans for Thursday and Saturday with close friends who I have not seen in person in years. I'm also hoping to see my brother. I may run into other friends, but at this point I feel like my dance card is full.

 

The last week of the challenge I will be on an Alaskan cruise with my mom (crosses fingers). We were planning a trip through the Canadian Rockies, but between the fires and COVID she decided it was too risky. The cruise is all technically in the country and requires all passengers to be vaccinated. She went on a similar trip 25 years ago with my dad, but I have never been to Alaska. It should be fun.

 

To add to the fun, I'm hosting my spinning group on Monday, August 23. I need to get my family room/work area cleaned up to host guests. The rest of the upstairs is not bad right now, but not at a party level of neat either.

 

I've done pretty well on sitting zen and doing hip exercises from my PT while traveling. My main goal is to keep both those up. This challenge is going to be a whirlwind for me.

[RES]

On 8/4/2021 at 7:11 PM, Mistr said:

This challenge is going to be a whirlwind for me.

So business as usual?  

 

[Scaly Freak]

I hope you realize that by telling us you are going on a cruise to Alaska, you have committed to providing lots of photos.  

[Harriet]

I hope your trips go swimmingly!

[Kishi]

Ooh, an Alaska cruise! That sounds like it'll be fun.

[Treva]

I love that the cruise is requiring  vaccinations.  That is so great.  Just, just so great.  I hope you enjoy all your travels! Looking forward to hearing about them!

[Mistr]

On 8/7/2021 at 5:42 PM, Treva said:

I love that the cruise is requiring  vaccinations.  That is so great.  Just, just so great.  I hope you enjoy all your travels! Looking forward to hearing about them!

 

They are also requiring all passengers to have a negative COVID test within 72 hours of departure. I get the feeling that they know their main demographic is 55+ and leery of risk.

[Mistr]

Back at home. I was at an SF con over the weekend, but the highlight was having lunches with two old friends who I have not seen in person for years. I also spent most of a day with my mom. That was nice, but I talk to her every week and will be spending a whole week with her at the end of the month.

 

By Sunday morning, both Dumbledore and I were ready to head home. He had breakfast with a friend while I hung out in a coffeeshop nearby. We got on the road and got home by 6pm. That allowed just enough time for me to unpack, look at the garden, water the plants and sit zen.

 

Two happy things today:

• My weight is the same in spite of all the treats I ate on vacation. Major win.
• My physical therapist is pleased with my progress over the last month. My left leg is stronger than it was. Still not even with the right, but much better. I was supposed to do PT every day. In reality, I did every other day. I am going to continue for at least another month with the addition of other exercises. I plan to do core and bodyweight strength on alternate days.

Challenge for this week:

1. No dairy at all (except butter). No cheese, milk or ice cream. Monitor how much gas and joint pain I have by the end of the week.
2. Exercise every day. PT at least every other day.
3. Zen every day.
4. Clean something every day. It can be a small thing on work days.
5. Take time to do things I like. I am putting a lot of pressure on myself, I need to be nice to myself too.

 

[Mistr]

Monday:

- PT and a little walking

- 17 minutes zazen

- scrubbed bathtub, swept laundry room

 

Tuesday:

- yoga

- 30 minutes zazen

- washed dishes

- started rereading Fire Logic by Laurie Marks

 

I also made cucumber salad yesterday. The garden is doing well right now. Elf was good about picking tomatoes and cucumbers while we were gone, but could not keep up with eating them. I gave a bunch of tomatoes to friends. Unfortunately, they grow their own cucumbers and did not need more.  I think I'm going to need to eat cucumber salad every day through August.

 

Tuesday I worked from home and was scheduled to start late. That gave me plenty of time for exercise and zen before work. Today I drove to the office. I had time to shower, pack food and get on the road on time. I will go to aikido this evening, but fitting in zen will be hard. Probably a short sit before bed. I might have time between work and aikido if I go straight to the dojo and get there before everyone else.

 

Elf seems to be adapting to their new job. They knew there would be overtime involved. This is one of the busy stretches. They are working 10 hour days all week and 8 hour days over the weekend. They might get Sunday off, but probably not since they had last Sunday off.  I am not expecting them to contribute to chores at all this week.

 

Dumbledore will have the house to himself all day today and tomorrow. He promised to clean all the floors in the upstairs. This is him making up for me doing all the cleaning at the cabin last week.

 

I decided that my big project for this weekend is going to be cleaning the mold from the bathroom ceiling and replacing the grout around the tub and shower. I've been watching it get worse for months and not wanting to deal with it. I already bought grout remover and new grout. The joys of home ownership.  

 

[Scaly Freak]

54 minutes ago, Mistr said:

I also made cucumber salad yesterday. The garden is doing well right now. Elf was good about picking tomatoes and cucumbers while we were gone, but could not keep up with eating them. I gave a bunch of tomatoes to friends. Unfortunately, they grow their own cucumbers and did not need more.  I think I'm going to need to eat cucumber salad every day through August.

 

I don't remember if you're back in the office now or not, but if you are, can you talk your office mates into adopting some of your cucumbers?

[Mistr]

25 minutes ago, Scaly Freak said:

I don't remember if you're back in the office now or not, but if you are, can you talk your office mates into adopting some of your cucumbers?

 

My company asked people to work remotely again if possible. I'm in the office today and tomorrow, but there is hardly anyone here. I can leave cucumbers in the kitchen area with a "Free" sign. Hopefully someone will take them.

[Scaly Freak]

49 minutes ago, Mistr said:

 

My company asked people to work remotely again if possible. I'm in the office today and tomorrow, but there is hardly anyone here. I can leave cucumbers in the kitchen area with a "Free" sign. Hopefully someone will take them.

 

My company has done something similar... while no one who has returned to in-office work has been sent home, on-site precautions have become considerably stricter, and those of us who were supposed to return to site by end of August have been told a corporate-speak version of, "never mind that for now, we'll get back to you when we have a new return date".

[Treva]

On 8/11/2021 at 10:04 AM, Mistr said:

Tuesday I worked from home and was scheduled to start late. That gave me plenty of time for exercise and zen before work. Today I drove to the office. I had time to shower, pack food and get on the road on time. I will go to aikido this evening, but fitting in zen will be hard. Probably a short sit before bed. I might have time between work and aikido if I go straight to the dojo and get there before everyone else.

That seems like a very efficient morning.  Goals.  

 

On 8/11/2021 at 10:04 AM, Mistr said:

 

I decided that my big project for this weekend is going to be cleaning the mold from the bathroom ceiling and replacing the grout around the tub and shower. I've been watching it get worse for months and not wanting to deal with it. I already bought grout remover and new grout. The joys of home ownership.  

oh boy.  Good luck tackling the mold!  Are you expecting any help from other household members?

[Mistr]

4 minutes ago, Treva said:

oh boy.  Good luck tackling the mold!  Are you expecting any help from other household members?

 

I knew from the beginning that this would be all my task. Dumbledore will take on the occasional disgusting household chore, so I don't feel bad about it. I scrubbed the bathtub last week and told him that the shower walls were his task. He just did that today. Ideally, it would have been better if he had cleaned the walls before I replaced the caulk, but it was not a big deal.

 

Getting the mold off the ceiling went smoothly. The hard part was reaching it. Turns out it is difficult to scrub the ceiling when reaching out from a step ladder. Spraying the moldy areas with a mix of bleach and dish detergent in water worked well to kill it, but getting the stains off took more work.

 

Replacing the caulk took a LOT more time than I planned. The areas that were already pulling loose came off fairly easily after exposure to caulk remover. The areas that were still okay were tough to get out. Much work with a utility knife and painting tool. Multiple applications of caulk remover. The instructional videos I watched said that new caulk would not adhere to old caulk. I hope that is actually true, because I spent hours digging out old caulk. I figured that having some caulk in the back would not hurt if the joint had clean shower panel edges on both sides.

 

Doing the caulking was harder than I expected. How anyone pushes a caulk gun and gets smooth delivery of goo is a mystery to me. I decided to use the same strategy I use for applying eyeliner. Put on a lot, then get rid of the extra. Even with that approach, some spots seemed to end up a bit thin. If I was fast I could add more. Unfortunately, the caulk I was using sets quickly. I could smooth it with a wet (gloved) finger for the first pass just fine. When I went back to fix the thin spots, the rest was already starting to set. Smoothing it in just led to more lumps. I was hoping to do a nice smooth application that would not catch soap and let things grow. I'm afraid that is not what I got.

 

We had a contractor replace the bathroom caulk when we bought this house nine years ago. He did a beautiful job. I'm not looking forward to doing this again when this new caulk gives up, probably sooner than nine years from now.

 

------------------------------

I did pretty well on my challenge for last week.

On 8/9/2021 at 6:26 PM, Mistr said:

 

1. No dairy at all (except butter). No cheese, milk or ice cream. Monitor how much gas and joint pain I have by the end of the week. - DONE. No gas, almost no pain.
2. Exercise every day. PT at least every other day. - Some movement every day. PT every third day.
3. Zen every day.  Missed Friday. Did very short sits a couple days.
4. Clean something every day. It can be a small thing on work days.  DONE. Bathroom counts extra for this.
5. Take time to do things I like. I am putting a lot of pressure on myself, I need to be nice to myself too.  A little. All my weekend free time went into the bathroom project.

 

This week I will just play it by ear. I sent an email to my spinning group asking if they feel comfortable getting together inside or would prefer to be outside. If they want to be outside, putting new cutting line in my weedeater becomes a high priority. My patio is a jungle. If they want to be inside or on the porch, cleaning those rooms goes to the top. I still need to clean the bathroom floor too.

 

Tonight I am doing cooking because I bought veggies and no one else is going to do it. Elf is working 12 hour days this week. Dumbledore is gaming tonight and tomorrow night and has meetings all day. He is doing the laundry this week and taking care of some smaller tasks. If I don't cook, I have a choice between frozen food and take-out.  

[Harriet]

13 hours ago, Mistr said:

I did pretty well on my challenge for last week.

 

Seems decent, with some initial positive evidence on the milklessness.

 

13 hours ago, Mistr said:

This week I will just play it by ear. I sent an email to my spinning group asking if they feel comfortable getting together inside or would prefer to be outside. If they want to be outside, putting new cutting line in my weedeater becomes a high priority. My patio is a jungle. If they want to be inside or on the porch, cleaning those rooms goes to the top. I still need to clean the bathroom floor too.

I like this. Collecting data to find out which cleaning is a priority. You wouldn't want to do any unnecessary cleaning 😛

[Mistr]

My area is going back to an indoor mask mandate for the next month. Not a surprise, but more evidence of how bad things are getting.

 

I was discussing upcoming events with Dumbledore and decided not to go to a work picnic tomorrow. It will be outdoors, but there will be a lot of people there. I was really looking forward to seeing people. Now I'm thinking that it is just too much risk. The evidence shows that vaccinated people can be contagious for several days without showing symptoms. I need to have a negative Covid test next week, so I'm going to stay home.

 

Using the same criteria, I am not going to aikido. That will free up several hours for me to get ready for the spinning meeting and my trip. I feel bad about not practicing after just getting back to it. I will just have to do more exercise at home to get in better shape.

 

On a happier note, I now have three hummingbirds coming to my feeder. Two are females with muted coloring. The new one has a brilliant ruby ring around his throat and iridescent green on his back. 🦚

[RES]

4 hours ago, Mistr said:

My area is going back to an indoor mask mandate for the next month. Not a surprise, but more evidence of how bad things are getting.

 

Being in FL, I only wish we would...fortunately my job has implemented one.

[Kishi]

As for the no dairy thing, ghee might be an option. It's apparently a go-to in the Paleo circles for flavor minus the problematic stuff. Either way, glad to hear it's going well.

 

Also, smart to avoid crowds and such. It's looking like my office plans are still going on, but how they can say that when our case numbers are as bad as they are is just... mind blowing to me.

[Scaly Freak]

55 minutes ago, Kishi said:

Also, smart to avoid crowds and such. It's looking like my office plans are still going on, but how they can say that when our case numbers are as bad as they are is just... mind blowing to me.

 

Can you weasel out of the office return somehow by claiming a medical condition they're not allowed to ask you about? Or something?

 

The daily case numbers in some states, and the way those states refuse to acknowledge that rising case numbers are a sign of a problem, is just mind boggling.

[Kishi]

3 minutes ago, Scaly Freak said:

Can you weasel out of the office return somehow by claiming a medical condition they're not allowed to ask you about? Or something?

 

I can't. Maybe if I wasn't under sentence for work infractions almost a year ago, I could work something out, but as it stands, they won't take it.

 

9 minutes ago, Scaly Freak said:

The daily case numbers in some states, and the way those states refuse to acknowledge that rising case numbers are a sign of a problem, is just mind boggling.

 

Yeah. I really don't understand it myself. Like. We're averaging about 30k deaths a month, which is like more in a month than some country's entire death toll throughout this thing. And we just accept it. Like. What???

[Harriet]

On 8/19/2021 at 12:03 AM, Mistr said:

My area is going back to an indoor mask mandate for the next month. Not a surprise, but more evidence of how bad things are getting.

 

I was discussing upcoming events with Dumbledore and decided not to go to a work picnic tomorrow. It will be outdoors, but there will be a lot of people there. I was really looking forward to seeing people. Now I'm thinking that it is just too much risk. The evidence shows that vaccinated people can be contagious for several days without showing symptoms. I need to have a negative Covid test next week, so I'm going to stay home.

 

Using the same criteria, I am not going to aikido. That will free up several hours for me to get ready for the spinning meeting and my trip. I feel bad about not practicing after just getting back to it. I will just have to do more exercise at home to get in better shape.

 

On a happier note, I now have three hummingbirds coming to my feeder. Two are females with muted coloring. The new one has a brilliant ruby ring around his throat and iridescent green on his back. 🦚

 

 

I'm sorry Covid is keeping you away from aikido and the picnic

 

Ooh, the hummingbirds sound lovely!

[Mistr]

Last night my brain weasels had a party and took a long time to calm down. It did not help that I realized I forgot to do something I promised to do yesterday at work. I did it today and still have to send a "I'm sorry, I slipped up" note. This morning I made a list of all the things I want to get done this weekend. It is a long list, but lots of the things are small.

 

I have only heard back from a few spinners so far. The weather is supposed to be hot on Monday. My back yard will be in the shade, but it will still be uncomfortable. I am leaning towards asking for a zoom meeting.

 

Everything I have read about visiting costal Alaska says to dress in layers and plan for rain. That means I need to climb up in the attic and get out some cool weather clothes to take with. Based on previous vacation experience, I have a hard time planning for cold weather when it is hot out. Sheesh, I struggle to pick out clothes a week ahead even when I know it can be all summer stuff. To deal with that, I am going to go up in the attic first thing on Sunday, which is predicted to be the coolest point in the next week. 

 

18 hours ago, Kishi said:

As for the no dairy thing, ghee might be an option. It's apparently a go-to in the Paleo circles for flavor minus the problematic stuff. Either way, glad to hear it's going well.

 

So far, butter does not seem to be a problem. At least a slice of toast here and there is okay. I tried whey powder in my coconut "yogurt" the other day to give it some protein. That gave me gas later in the day.

 

I think I'm okay with a slice of cheese on a burger or some shredded cheese in my eggs. Sour cream on a burrito or cream in coffee has clear and unpleasant consequences. I am not planning on trying regular milk or yogurt anytime soon. We have lactose-free milk in the house if I need to use milk in cooking. For now, I can make sauces with chicken stock or coconut milk instead.

 

Not having pain in my joints is really nice for a change.  

 

18 hours ago, Kishi said:

Also, smart to avoid crowds and such. It's looking like my office plans are still going on, but how they can say that when our case numbers are as bad as they are is just... mind blowing to me.

 

Things are crazy enough that I am not looking at the news at all. I look at the CDC numbers to find out what is actually going on in my area and other places of concern. I hope that my friends in Florida and Texas are taking all precautions they can.

 

I am taking both KN95 and cloth masks for my trip. I am planning on wearing the KN95 masks when I am on planes and mass transit. The cloth masks are more comfortable and likely less effective. I plan on wearing those when I am in towns sightseeing and shopping. I will keep an extra KN95 mask in my pocket just in case there is a crowded situation. My main concern is not catching anything and giving it to my mom. She has COPD and a respiratory infection would be a serious threat for her. She already has to use oxygen for minor exertion.

[Scaly Freak]

44 minutes ago, Mistr said:

So far, butter does not seem to be a problem. At least a slice of toast here and there is okay. I tried whey powder in my coconut "yogurt" the other day to give it some protein. That gave me gas later in the day.

 

Could you be lactose intolerant?

 

Butter doesn't really have lactose, the chemical changes as the cream turns into butter removes the lactose somehow. Whey on the other hand, is lactose's favorite molecule to bind to. That's why whey protein is a big no-no for lactose intolerant individuals, while whey isolate works fine, because the isolation process removes the lactose. Cooking with your lactose free milk will probably help you make some kind of determination on this. And no, joint pain is not a symptom of lactose intolerance. I'm wondering if there is more than one thing going on? 

 

I cook with Ripple's vegan half-n-half alternative, and it works very well and tastes good, if you are looking for an alternative to the lactose free milk.  

[RES]

On 8/20/2021 at 5:50 PM, Mistr said:

I hope that my friends in Florida and Texas are taking all precautions they can.

This friend in Florida is...looking forward to hearing about the trip!

[Kishi]

On 8/20/2021 at 5:50 PM, Mistr said:

So far, butter does not seem to be a problem. At least a slice of toast here and there is okay. I tried whey powder in my coconut "yogurt" the other day to give it some protein. That gave me gas later in the day.

 

Uh, good science, then! I'm actually trying to figure this out since my Hashimoto's doesn't really let me do much with dairy. I've heard via casual research online that the problematic aspect of dairy is casein, as it apparently is similar to the protein found in gluten which causes the immune response. So I've heard that whey protein isolate, which apparently denatures it further from casein, can be a viable alternative. Maybe. I dunno if that would be a possible avenue for you and your issues.

 

Then again, hey, you can eat butter and cheese and all the good things without gas and joint pain, so I guess it all works out!