Events of 10/10-10/13/08

The long Columbus Day weekend. I decided to take monday off this year since the company doesn't give it to us. Friday was 1/2 day work then lunch at The Edge Cafe and shopping at Whole Foods. Took it easy after that since saturday is going to be busy. Saturday started with service then we went to the RISD alumni art festival on Benefit St. Beautiful day, so it was packed there. Then it was off to Purgatory chasm for the congregation cookout. Large turnout, plenty of food. We were pretty spent after that, but it's off to Waterfire. Luke called so he met us at the house. We ended up at Trinity Brewhouse for snacks and beer, Olivia was falling asleep. Somewhere along the way back Lisa lost $50 from her pocket. What a busy day! Monday we took Olivia to United Skates which did not go well. After 20 minutes she'd had enough, so we headed over to the Edge for cupcakes to drown our sorrows. After the meeting Lisa made those delicious cole slaw & chicken tacos. Great way to end the weekend.

Events of 10/9/08

Another thursday, and I'm feeling a little wiped out. I have a talk tonight, so that's stressful. We went to El Azteca for supper since Lisa sold 4 bags to a person in Singapore. We had a family with 4 children show up at the meeting. I guess they're just starting up and they have twins and a baby. The twins were wild, Lisa got up to help but there was no conntrolling them so they sat downstairs and left before the meeting ended. Found out that the Selesky's are moving at the end of the month, guess it's a big secret that leaked , maybe they're trying to sneak away in the middle of some night. Got home and watched Earl and The Office and went to bed.

Events of 10/8/08

Had my bike today so I went to the river park at lunch. The weather was great, sunny, 70ish. The 3 of us went to Providence Place mall tonight to look for shoes and jackets- the quest continues. I had the tikka masala at the indian place at the food court, which is surprisingly good. Olivia had Johhny Rocket's chicken fingers (surprise) and Lisa had a bacon-onion ring burger. We shared 2 cones from Ben & Jerry's and got home a little after 7:00. It's nice to get out after work, change of scenery.

Events of 10/7/08

I thought I was due for a photo to be posted, so while I was sitting in my car at lunch with my burrito, carrot and coffee I noticed the beauty surrounding me here on O'Neill Blvd. so I snapped a picture. We have Supply New England on the right and Waste Sytems on the left. Adding to the natural beauty are the wires above and the radio tower. It's amazing what humans are capable of. I only wish I could have captured the odor of Waste Systems. After work I went to visit Aunt Irene at the nursing home. She seemed peaceful, but didn't utter a word. After supper Olivia and I played wiffle ball, she loves it. The rest of the evening was uneventful.

Events of 10/6/08

Back on the treadmill. Rode the bike today, not too bad but it is getting colder. No heat at work this morning. Studied with Luke at his apartment at lunch. Lisa went to the Foundry Artists meeting tonight, Luke came over and we watched the Red Sox playoff game among other things. Took my first hit of melatonin at 9:30 hoping that it will help me sleep better. I'll report on the outcome of that tomorrow.

Events of 10/4 & 10/5/08

Saturday I "dressed" the lawn with composted manure and it turned out to be alot of work. Then we went to hall cleaning at 12:30. Kind of brutal with one vacuum. We then headed over to look at a condo on the east side. Not good. No sun, small, bad schools, not many positives. Went shopping at Whole Foods and Lisa made some very good hamburgers with tater tots. Sunday was busy. Picked up Asia so Olivia had a little friend to raise you know what with, went out in service, came home for lunch, went back for the meeting, dropped off Asia and came home.

Events of 10/2 & 10/3/08

I've taken tomorrow off, off this is the thursday before which is always tough. Tired from the week and just want to get this day over with (how's that for appreciating every day). It's made worse by the fact that the 1st thursday meeting of the month involves turning in our time and doing the literature order. Also, I'll be swamped with people ordering annual items so I'll be late getting home. All that is exactly what happened. Friday Lisa and I went to breakfast, it started with an argument which we were able to weather and we had a nice breakfast at Meeting St. We checked some stores for coats for Lisa (came up empty), went to coffee exchange and came home. Spread some grass seed out front, and Lisa an Olivia drove to Swansea to drop off a purse.

Events of 10/1/08

Drove in to work again due to the threat of rain. Pretty well caught up at work. Went to lunch at El Azteca with Sam, he seems to be doing ok. Supper was Papa Gino's. They sent us a buffalo chicken pizza instead of Rustic, which was disappointing to us all but especially to Olivia who brokedown in tears as if someone died. The problem is her addiction to parmesan cheese for which she gets nicotine-like cravings. We had to let her dump some on the regular cheese pizza we got. That calmed her down. Had a glass of white wine and watched Madmen.

Events of 9/30/08

It's the last day of September. A pretty uneventful day even by my standards. I'm really liking the dried figs. I have 7 per day. I don't know why I chose 7, it just seemed like the right amount. 6 is not enough, 8 is too much. They're like eating a fig newton without the newton. I might not go back to prunes, at least for the foreseeable future. Been drinking alot of coffee since it seems to really improve my mood. Lisa went to her Arts in RI meeting tonight, leaving me to my own devices. Not much else to say, hopefully things calm down a little tomorrow, I can't take all this exitement.

Events of 9/29/08

Rode in with Jim today because Kelly Bates and her vipir radar told me that it was going to rain all day, but of course it didn't. Started my new low carb breakfast routine of 2 fried eggs and 1/2 slice of toast and 1/2 banana as opposed to 2 slices of bread every morning. I was feeling quite good about myself until I got to work and there were pumpkin muffins. I ended up having 1/2 in the a.m. and 1/2 in the p.m. Got home at 5:15 and Lisa had made that great mexican soup with the crispy tortilla strips, shredded cheese and cilantro. Olivia was at Matt's so we picked her up on the way to the meeting. After the meeting we went to Wendy's for frosties, Lisa and Olivia tried the new coffee shake which was sickeningly sweet. I stuck with the tried and true chocolate frosty.

Events of 9/27 & 9/28/08

Woke up saturday to more torrential rain which will continue through tomorrow. Nana called and asked if Olivia could come over to Uncle Bob's where she's housesitting. We dropped her off at noon and went to the N. Smithfield Barnes & Noble. Lisa tried some stores looking for coats but couldn't find anything. We had a relaxing time at the book store and headed back to get Olivia at 3:30. It was raining so hard that I could only do 40 in rt95. Visited for a while with Uncle Bob and headed home for the evening. When we hit Newport Ave., Lisa wanted to treat us to Uncle Tony's (lots of uncles today). I stayed under control and had a grilled chicken salad, Olivia had a plumpy and Lisa had eggplant parm. Sunday morning, still raining. Luke came over around 10:00 for the study and laundry and lunch. Went to meeting, visited gramps and got home around 5:00. Went to Stop & shop for some italian bread that Lisa ended up turning into these delicious cheesy croutons that went on top of tomato bisque soup. As usual, it's all about food.

Events of 9/26/08

Today was Cirque du Soliel day, Kooza. It was at the Bayside Expo center in Boston, a brutal location to get in and out of. It was also pouring rain all day. Anyway, we started the day by cleaning the house (fun!), then we decided to try Angelos' on Federal Hill for lunch. We were pleasantly surprised. Lisa had linguine and clam sauce, I had the meatball sub and a beer and Olivia had the chicken fingers as usual. Well, it was all quite good and the atmosphere was great, but the surprise was that the kids' chicken fingers seemed to be made from the same recipe they must use for the chicken parm, and they give you this delicious tomato sauce to dip it in. I would order it for myself. The breading they use is unbelievable. After lunch we decided to go around the corner to Pastiche, our favorite desert place. We got 2 wonderful desserts, Lisa got an espresso and I got the moccachino (probably spelled wrong). Then off to the Cirque, which if you've ever been is quite an experience. Human beings performing things that seem humanly impossible to do. After an hour traffic jam in the parking lot, we drove down to Meeting St. cafe for supper, a Greek salad and grilled ham and cheese for Olivia. A very fun, busy day.

Events of 9/24/08

Another uneventful work day. Fairly mind numbing. Went to lunch with Luke at the Hong Kong in Attleboro. Pretty good. Another case of a chinese waitress who looks befuddled when you place your order, writes nothing down, and you have absolutely no confidence that your order will be correct, yet it arrives perfect. Went up to see Luke's apartment and it's pretty nice. Lots of cats and very tidy. Came home, mowed the grass, had another one of Lisa's great dinners (some chicken dish who's name escapes me and polenta). Had some manly white wine and retired having conquered another day.

Events of 9/23/08

Rode the bike to the bus and it's getting down into the 40's so I broke out the head wrap for the first time. It warmed up by lunch so I went outside to the picnic table and sat in the sun. It was such a nice day I rode the bike all the way home. Felt like I needed to get out so Olivia and I went to Meeting Street Cafe for desert, excellent chocolate cake and ice cream.

Events of 9/22/08

Monday again. Conducting the book study tonight so worked on that at lunch. Went to Mom's for supper, very good eggplant parmesan. Thought I did mediocre on the book study. Today was the day Lisa unveiled her latest creation, a purse made out of 2 of my old suits. I was blown away as was everyone at the hall. She's a force of nature.

Events of 9/19-9/21/08

Friday was 1/2 day of work. Lisa and I then headed over to Tokyo on Wickendon St. for sushi for lunch. On the way there we get a call from the school nurse telling us that Olivia's "sad" and won't eat her lunch and wants us to come get her. We turn around and go get her then all 3 of us head to Tokyo. Olivia perks up (surprise). After that we visit 7 stars for coffee and pastry, of course too much pastry, chocolate almond croissant and lemon cake. When we get home I paint some window trim and later we have a fire in the chiminea since I promised Olivia we would do that. Saturday was AM service, followed by food shopping. The neighbors were having a yardsale and Olivia spent quite a while in the middle of that. We ended up with a very large brightly colored blow-up basketball hoop, a ring for Olivia, a shower caddy, a toy motorcycle and a beer glass for the grand total of $1.00. Sunday we went to breakfast at Modern diner with nana and Luke. Very good. Studied with Luke, went to the meeting where Chris gave the talk and did a nice job. Went to gramps after and had supper. I tried to show him the new procedure for calling in to the meetings but had to abandon that. Too much for him. We'll revisit it.

Events of 9/18/08

Had the opportunity for an extra hours' sleep, but set the alarm an hour too early by mistake. Very busy with all the price increasing going in, what a world. Got a haircut at the place at the Seabra's plaza. The annoying young girl with the tatoos chirping in my left ear with the other girl about taking her daughter to Chuck-e-Cheeses'. I wanted to slap her. I hate getting a haircut. Had another HVAC meeting in the PM, and rode the bike all the way since I want to get home earlier. When I arrived home I was reminded about Olivia's open house at 6:00. She has a very nice teacher and she seems to like school, she's doing quite well. Went to the meeting and that was it. Made it through another Thursday.

Events of 9/17/08

Drove in today. We're having HVAC classes at work, today I think was the next to last one. Tommorrow I think is the final episode. It's a big chunk of time taken out of the day. Had a delicious roast chicken for supper with mashed potatoes and salad. Lisa made a wonderful lemon flavored au jus. You forget how good roast chicken is, and how satisfying mashed potatoes are. Simple. After we went to visit Paul and I had brought a DVD with Olivia's 1st talk and her dance on it. Sadly it didn't play. I told Paul about vitamin B2 for Parkinsons', maybe he'll decide to try it. I tried the epoxy repair on the storm door window, we'll see if it works. I'll be shocked if it does. Yet another Mickey Mouse home repair job.

Events of 9/16/08

Another nice morning riding to the bus. An uneventful morning at work, went to El Azteca with Lisa for lunch. That was a nice surprise. The afternoon was a groggy one for some reason (too many chips & salsa?). When I got home Olivia was in the tub. I asked her, "what are you doing in there?" she answers with an expressionless face "taking a bath". It was a stupid question. We had a very typical evening, beddyda went well but there was a begging jag at the tucking in stage, so I had to speak sternly to her. Hated to end things on a bad note, but I'm sure she'll recover and do the exact same thing tomorrow.

Events of 9/15/08

Monday again. Rode the bike to the early bus and it was a beautiful morning. 70ish, breezy and best of all a full moon. The beauty of it helps temper my re-entry into the working world. Mondays are a difficult transition from 2-1/2 days where I almost never think of work to 4-1/2 days of my mind and body being owned by work. To think of another 20 years or more of it and it's almost unimaginable. I'm glad that I have a job that I mostly like. Anyway, went to gramps' at lunch. Got home at 4:30, Luke called and came over for supper and we went to the meeting. Went to bed at 9:30.

Events of 9/12 - 9/14/08

Friday the 12th was a typical friday. Left work at noon, went to lunch with Lisa. Today it was the Edge Cafe. Had one of those great (cappucino?) muffins. Went to Whole Foods shopping then went to pick up Olivia at school. I had promised Olivia that we could have a fire in the chiminea in the evening but it was raining, not a good sign for Saturday and the Pawtucket Arts Festival, but we get up the next morning and it's only overcast thank goodness. Setting up the canopy goes well, we get the bags all displayed and we're ready to sell. I get to meet Lisa's Arts in RI people who are all quite nice and very talented. Lisa has a great day and sells alot. The weekend proves to be one of indulgence in the cuisine of Slater park- hot weiners, fries, dough boys, fish and chips, sausage sandwiches, frozen lemonade and as if that wasn't enough we added some Dunkin Donuts. For half of Sunday it rained quite hard. We got there in the morning to find that our booth was now in a puddle, so we had to move. We huddled under the canopy until noon, soaked. Very little business, but it picked up somewhat in the afternoon and she sold 4 or 5 bags. A nice feature of the weekend is the Stone Soup Folk festival. Sunday two groups stood out to me, Low Anthem and the Bluegrass group Northern Lights. Both were really good, too bad there weren't more people there. After we packed up our damp stuff (the hanging paper globes were soaked so we chucked them) we went to East Side Pockets for greek salads and went home to watch the Pats-Jets game won 19-10 by the Pats. All in all a very nice weekend, if only the weather had been better.

Events of 9/11 (no, not that one)

Breakfast was different today, which was really exiting. Stole some almond butter for my toast, truthfully I prefer peanut butter. Foot burns are ghastly looking but the pain is better. Took the 7:00 bus, and really applied myself at work on a large price update. Went to the river park for lunch. Heated up my buritto and thank goodness that my lunch bag kept it warm on the ride over. I love that lime green lunch bag, it's been one of my best. Some kids were skateboarding (skipping school I guess). It was a beautiful day so I laid down on the grassy knoll and as I thought about the Kennedy asassination, I noticed the clouds. Saw a baby elephant, a chipmunk that slowly transformed into a poodle, and a roast turkey. It was really plump and tasty looking. I think we need to roast a turkey soon. Came home, and went to half the meeting (Lisa headache). Went to Luke's football game which they lost, came home and wasn't tired, probably because of the coffee I had at 9:00. Went to bed at 12:30, slept fitfully.

Events of 9/10/08

On Wednesday September 10th 2008 I awoke at 5:25am to a nice sunny day and had the usual peanut butter and banana on toast with orange juice. Running low on peanut butter, so tomorrow I'll probably use Lisa's almond butter, or maybe something cheaper like caviar. Drove the car today so I can bring the bike home on the rack. Decided to start staring at the sun in the morning and evening for 1 minute based on what Earthclinic recommended. Thankfully it didn't burn my retinas so I think I will continue and see what happens. Studied with Luke at lunch on the picnic table at work. Came home and became irritated at the storm door window breaking which made for an unpleasant situation. Was able to somewhat compartmentalize that for now. Had a bowl of leftover dry stew meat (better than it sounds) for supper and pulled out the mower to do the lawn, but decided to go with Olivia and Matt to walk the dogs. Tossed several large branches in the truck to dispose of illegally at the nature trail. Strange that it's illegal to put branches on the forest floor, I guess I see their point, it would be like littering a plate with delicious food items, wouldn't make sense. The dogs got wet in the pond, so the ride home was quite stinky. Mowed the lawn, Lisa hypermiled to Joanne fabric and I put Olivia to bed. Had a couple of cocktails and decided to make a fire in the chiminea. Lisa joined me and after an hour or so an ember flew out into my shoe. In trying to remove it it somehow got underneath a fingernail burning the delicate pink skin under there to go along with the melted skin on the top of my foot. Decided it was time to go inside, took my vitamins, watched a little tv and went to bed. All in all, a roller coaster of a day filled with the usual monotony, frustration, lawbreaking, nice things, and physical discomfort.

Events of 9/9/08

Woke up at 4:55am, rode the bike to the bus. Picked up the usual suspects along the way. There's two mentally challenged people other than me who ride the bus nearly every day and it's quite an interesting dynamic. The older lady gets on first at Hebron Village, Joe gets on in Dodgeville. She speaks to me a little and I respond, but when Joe gets on she wants to engage him in conversation, but he wants to talk to me. Now she's slower than him and he's trying to avoid talking to her and I'm trying to limit my conversation with him. All way too much thinking and talking nonsense so early in the morning. I had the usual burrito/prunes/carrot lunch and managed a 5 minute nap. Rainy and windy all day. Mom picked me up at 3:30 to get the car at Saturn. Olivia was with her since she had no school. We had Lisa's delicious chili for supper, I went to Matt's to watch baseball and drink beer. All in all a day I won't soon forget, it will probably take at least 24 hours.

Birds Hate Me

Not all birds, I'm sure, but many. Since I'm probably the only person who reads this nonsense anyway, I will now start mixing in some things that I would like to remember, kind of a journal of events and thoughts. Yesterday I was attacked by a bird yet again. I've had several "avian events" over the years. Once while driving a bird, obviously trying to kill me by forcing me to drive off the road into a tree, smashed into the drivers' side window which was open 1" and exploded spreading bird entrails into my hair. Obviously the rare Japanese kamikaze bird. Another persistent bird succeeded in knocking me to the ground by dive bombing me. I attempted to bash his bird brains in with a briefcase, was able to make contact, but was unable to maintain my balance doing a complete mid-air somersault with the contents of the briefcase being scattered all of which caused my wife to laugh so hard she wet herself. There have been other less harrowing events, like birds flying into me, which is so unnerving since you see them coming and assume that they will avoid you. I feel that in those instances they're just sending me a message "we can hurt you anytime we want, watch your step". Last year in the park there were two hawks, one eating a squirrel, one acting as lookout. He looked me in the eye. I got the message, "keep moving, nothing to see here. If I wasn't involved with this squirrel I'd come over and peck your eyes out." Last week biking to work through the park one of them dropped a load on me, forcing me to go home and change. I bet they had a good laugh over that. This most recent attack occurred where I get the bus home at night. I always stand under the same tree, which now apparently has become this particular birds' turf. I was checking an oozing wound on my shin (sustained when a very heavy folding camping table I was carrying through Wal-mart came unhinged and whacked my shin with great force) when the bird flew down and hit me in the back. I thought, okay- here we go again, bring it on, let's settle this once and for all. Maybe if I can manage to kill one of them they'll think twice in the future. I think they sensed I was wounded, oozing pus from my leg and this is their best chance to take me down. I readied myself with my lunch bag. I found that if I kept my eye on him he wouldn't attack, but if I looked away for a moment, down he came. He hit me four times. Thankfully the bus came. I enjoy birds, I really do. Why do they hate me? Then I remembered. I was 10 years old and had made a slingshot out of a coat hanger and a rubber band. I never thought it would work, the BB sailed through the air and hit it's mark, the little sparrow. I picked it up, it's heart was pounding. I made a little bed near the railroad tracks. When I came back the next day it was dead. I think maybe I need to put up a bird feeder.

"Finished" Basement

Finished is a strong word, but for $300.00 whad'ya want? I took a 19' x 12' space in my basement and made it into a family/play room. Sure, you can get into carpentry, but that's not my bag. It's amazing what paint can do. The walls I first cleaned with TSP then applied one coat of masonry paint (tinted light blue) with a heavy nap roller. Then I cleaned the floor and applied Rustoleum 2 part epoxy basement floor paint. It's been 3 years and both walls and floor have held up perfectly. The next problem was the ceiling and the one open wall. I have open rafters and first I tried painting the ceiling flat black. Too much work, so I purchased some painters drop cloths and several hundred thumb tacks. I stuck the fabric up on the ceiling and hung them from ceiling to floor on the open wall. When I require thumb joint replacement surgery I might develop second thoughts about the thumb tack method. I used velcro to fix the bottom and end of the wall to the floor and cement wall. I bought a rug and a room divider to hide my water meter and tubing, and moved the old sectional sofa down there. I found a 3 light track light at Home Depot for $20 and ran an extension cord. It's a very quiet space, cool in the summer, a great place to read. One thing in my favor was that I have a very dry basement. Like I said, it cost around $300 and has added much needed living space to my tiny house, and as an added bonus it acts as a repository for piles of laundry that come out of the dryer.

Organic Backyard Lawn

In this part of the world, having a lawn that looks like a golf course is an obsession with some people. In order to get that look they dump chemical fertilizers on their lawns which pollute ground water and are generally harmful to health. What we all should really be doing is growing vegetables instead of grass, especially if you're like me and have a tiny, postage stamp front yard. How many vegetable gardens do you see in front yards? Not many. How many people actually step foot on their front yards other than to mow or fertilize it? I've seen in my area some chinese people who have beautiful front yard gardens. They're usually quite small but overflowing with produce. They must look at Americans and think what idiots we are for not taking advantage of this opportunity to have grow free food. I have to admit that I'm not much of a gardener, someday I would like to plant vegetables in my front yard. All I have right now is is a small raised bed garden that is 3 cedar boxes stacked at different angles and filled with soil. I got the idea from a gardening book, and we get a surprising amount from it. As far as my lawn goes, we don't use chemicals- we use W.O.W. from Gardens Alive. It's a corn by-product, is safe to let children play on and id non-polluting. The lawn isn't perfect but it's not bad and it improves every year.

Earth Sheltered Houses

Here are some earth sheltered houses I've come across. It's a great idea, big energy savings, low maintenance. The wood one is from http://www.undergroundhousing.com/ and the concrete ones are from http://www.earthshelteredhousing.com/. I once toured an earth sheltered house and it was quite nice. It was the concrete type, very bright, quiet and warm. Many earth sheltered houses

will save 80% on heating and cooling costs since ground temperature is a constant 50-55 degrees year-round. You're fighting against outdoor temperature with a conventional home, trying to keep the heat either in or out. Another nice thing about them is that the roof being green adds space for wildlife and helps the house blend in with nature instead of destroying and intruding on it. Imagine what an earth sheltered housing development would look like. Seems like a great solution to the rising energy costs and the destruction of the environment.

Let's Do Lunch

If you're fortunate enough to have a job, no doubt you look forward to lunch like a first grader looks forward to recess. It seems like so many people spend their lunches during the week in airless lunchrooms, running errands or in fast food lines. I would rather find some nature and spend my lunch time there. Not much nature left, but I've located a couple of places within 5-10 minutes by bike (not motor, pedal- more on that some other time). One thing I look for is a river. Dragon flies, birds, an occasional heavy metal laden fish, a little white water provided by a protruding tire or shopping cart. Peace. Today, lunch was spent at the Attleboro (Ma.) River Park. The L.G Balfour Co. used to be on this spot and I worked there when I was in high school. The red brick buildings on the rivers' edge were part of their complex. Balfour made class rings, trophies, and diplomas among other things. The river wasn't exactly pristine back then. I rememember men in hip waders scraping the bottom of it for rings that fell out of windows since the building was right on the river. Rumor has it that more than a few flew out on purpose, disgruntled employees "stickin' it to the man." On my favorite bench I indulged in a bag of Doritos and an organic carrot (a perfect example of the internal struggle we fight between good and evil, today they fought to a draw), closed my eyes and enjoyed the sun. You may be wondering about that expanse of concrete. That's skating pond that I've been told gets filled with water and frozen for skating. Anyway, my plan is to bring a blanket and place it under the tree on the little hill a few feet from my bench. A couple of weeks ago a guy was playing guitar (quite well) under that tree on a beautiful day. It was very hard to return to the job I'm fortunate to have.

Vitamin C

I'm certainly no expert on vitamin C, but I believe that it's very important to good health. We need to be taking far more than the RDA, which is less than 100mg per day. Probably 3000-6000mg if we're feeling well, triple or more if sick, is what's needed. Just recently I've had two situations where we used vitamin C with excellent results. I've have seasonal allergies (hay fever) for 30 years. I've used the usual over the counter medications and natural cures like local honey, and drinking large amounts of water, with limited benefit. I did some research and decided to try vitamin C. Now you can't take small amounts if you have an acute situation like hay fever, a cold, or flu- you need to take alot. I worked my way up to a peak of 25,000mg one day, but most days I've been around 9,000-15,000. Incredibly, even with that amount I had no adverse reactions. From what I've learned, if you're sick your system needs large doses to fight it and will use it all. What a difference. Along with a lot of water which has an anti-histimine effect, the allergies are basically gone. If I feel them coming on, I'll take 1000-2000mg and it's like taking a benadryl without the drowsiness. You have to keep your blood saturated with C, so I spread out the doses throughout the day. If I wake up at night I'll take one. If you try this, you'll need to take as much as you can to get rid of the symptoms. If you get diarreah, cutback. The other situation was with my daughter. She's had a urinary tract infection (we're sure because we went to the emergency room and the test was positive), so we started giving her 1000mg every hour or so. In one day the pain was gone. We kept giving her 3000-4000mg per day for several days afterward just to be sure. She's seven and takes 1000-2000mg per day as a maintenance dose. Vitamin C has strong anti-bacterial and anti-viral properties. If you're interested in learning more about it go online and research Linus Pauling, 2 time nobel prize winner, and Dr. Fred Klenner. Klenner wrote dozens of papers on how he cured polio, carbon monoxide poisoning, burns, mononucleosis, hepatitis, snake bites and many more ailments with large doses of vitamin C given intravenously. Also check out http://www.cforyourself.com/. Of course the medical establishment will try to discredit most all natural cures and vitamin C is no exception. Personal experience and observation is meaningless to them, they've got to have double blind placebo controlled studies. All I can say is it works for me. Hopefully I'll get a real bad flu next winter and be able to see if C cures it. (kidding).

The Beginning

Well, here's my first post. There are a few things that I find interesting and maybe there are people out there who will find them interesting too. Things like alternative housing (earth-sheltered, earth bag, small house etc.), bicycle commuting, natural cures, nutrition, vitamins and herbs, history, and assorted stuff. Maybe some family stuff that will have to be either very amusing or very interesting, so there probably won't be too much of that. If it interests me I'll probably write about it eventually. That's about it. Thanks for taking the time.