That’s pretty much what I’ve been doing lately, sitting and knitting. It doesn’t help that when I stand, my left knee hurts, and when I sit in my wheelchair, my right hip hurts. I wish they would leave me one good side. *sigh*

Basketweave dishcloth

So, what have I knitted lately? Nothing too adventurous, unfortunately. I have done a couple of dishcloths. Why in this particular nauseating color, I don’t know. I use one, The Boyo asked for the other for his birthday. They really are nice for scrubbing dishes, or they make good shower poufs for body wash, too. I do them mostly to learn new patterns in cheap crappy cotton before I try to knit the good stuff.

And speaking of the good stuff, the best yarn I’ve got is some that is 18 % mohair. This is the first time I’ve had any yarn that wasn’t 100% dinosaur fiber (acrylic). I’ve done another scarf with it, and have one that is a work in progress. The scarf I adapted from the Lucky Thirteen pattern on Ravelry. With modifications. I never could get the holes right, so I only made them on the end of the scarf rather than the intricate pattern that was called for. I haz the L, as we

Lucky Me Scarf

say in my favorite Ravelry forum, Lazy, Stupid and Godless. And in this case I haz the S, too, because I couldn’t figure it out. Although it goes nicely with my coat, it is a wee bit too long for a 4′11″ woman sitting in a wheelchair. I do believe it is going to get washed, blocked, and given to someone taller for giftmas.

The work in progress is also going to be given for

Work in progress

giftmas, but I’m not telling to whom, because they sometimes read my blog. For this one, I don’t have a pattern, it is just seed or moss stitch all the way, which gives it this kind of nubby

Seed stitch

texture.  I hope to make a hat to go with it, but we will see if I’m too S to do some of the patterns.

The Boyo has requested a hat for giftmas, too, and that is in my queue after the other hat. He saw one at when we were at the mall the other day that he liked, and that I knew I could make. Except, again, I don’t have a pattern. I think I’m going to have to find hats that have the things I want and take “One from Column A, and one from Column B.” Which is pretty ambitious for somebody who just started knitting.

And I have a whole bunch more cotton yarn with which to make more dishcloths, so guess what a lot of folks are getting for giftmas this year? Well, we’ll see how long I can keep up this ambition. Usually, all my holiday ambition craps out about November 30th, so we’ll see.

So the ACAM system in our building is down for the second time in two weeks. This is the system that operates the proximity cards that unlock the front door. Which means we now have to carry a key to the front door.  And the “disabled” door buttons no longer work. You know, the ones you push to open the door when you are in a wheelchair.

What that means for me is that it is a pain in the tushy to leave or re-enter the building. I do it, I have to. Unless I want to get Friday a litter box. (NO, just NO.)

I fear this is the beginning of the end, and something will need to be replaced for the doors to work. I vividly remember the elevators continually failing before they were replaced. I also  remember the six months it took to replace them when only one worked at a time.  And then it was still an adventure to get in the elevator, you never knew if it would stall and trap you.

Oh, well, I guess I should quit bitching. It is less of a problem than being on the tenth floor without an elevator, and with bad knees.

P.S. I have no idea what the acronym ACAM stands for. Perhaps the engineering types have some idea.

My apologies to all of my (few) readers. I have been very depressed for the last few weeks and did not feel like posting. Because I don’t think you want to read whining all the time. I’m finally feeling better after an increase in my meds and some other things. And I want to thank the people who reached out to me during this time. It was much appreciated.

So what have I been doing all this time? The folks who are on Facebook know. You can check Cache of the Day for new finds. I knitted a scarf. This thing has only taken me about two years to do because I didn’t know how to knit. I finally learned. This thing came in a kit, and was really too small for anything when made according to directions. So I had to improvise, and ended up with a scarf that would fit a child. It found a new home in a charity knitting project. Right now I’m knitting the gauge swatch for a sweater.

I’m now taking a class in photography, to better use my camera. We aren’t allowed to just put it on Auto and go. I’m having to learn stuff like f-stops and shutter speed. And now it’s finally starting to make sense. But I’ve taken a lot of really lousy picture lately. The header is one that turned out OK.

Other than that, I’ve pretty much just been hanging out and reading murder mysteries. After you haven’t blogged for so long it’s easy to put it off. I’ll try not to do that anymore.

T-shirt Friday

Well, what did you expect?

Silverstar is not the only one who likes tye-dye T-shirts.

Of course, you should check in with Nurse Myra to see who else is playing.

I am morbidly obese, according to the latest guidelines. My BMI is an astounding 48. I am 130-150 lbs overweight, depending on whose chart you use. It’s one of the reasons I didn’t put a picture of myself up on the website for a long time. I know how people judge you if you are obese. So I have been around the Fat Acceptance websites for years. And I believe in Fat Acceptance.

For me, Fat Acceptance has to do with not being discriminated against. In these United States, you can’t discriminate in hiring against a dwarf, or a one-legged person, but you can discriminate against a fat person. To me discrimination against fat people is just as unacceptable as discrimination against a person of color. But, you say, a person of color, or a dwarf, or a one-legged person can’t change, but a fat person just needs to change their eating habits and start exercising. Were it really so easy. Studies have shown that for the most part, people tend to have a set point, and to return to that set point again and again. Thus the stories of the people who have lost the same 50 lbs over and over. This is due to a mechanism that sets your weight higher after every period of low food intake. Originally a mechanism to protect people from famine, and prepare them for more years of lean during years of good crops, one thing that can set it off is dieting. Think about that for a minute. Every time you lower your calorie intake, the next time you go back to eating normally, or even at a higher rate than what you were taking in on the diet, you gain weight. I have seen patients in a nursing home gain weight on 800 calories a day. Which also explains why every time we regain the weight, we gain a little more.

If dieting is a risk factor for obesity, I have my mother to thank for starting

Me at 16

me on that road at the age of 13. She decided I was too fat, and put me on a 1200 calorie diet, about half what I needed at that age. But looking at the pictures from then, I wasn’t fat. I just had boobs and an ass, attributes my mother lacked.

Part of the reason that fat people can be discriminated against is our stupid healthcare system, that puts the burden of providing healthcare coverage on employers. Employers fear, because of all the hype about the health problems of the overweight and obese, that their insurance premiums will rise. And they will, because the insurance industry is not out there to help us get healthy, it’s out there to help Wall Street get healthy.

But how much real evidence is there that obesity really causes or contributes to increased health care costs or premature death or disability? Not much, as it happens. Yesterday’s edition of Junk Food Science looked at the importance of null studies, studies that find no correspondence between supposed risk factors and poor outcomes. The particular factor in play here was the role of belly fat in the supposed increase in rates of diabetes. None was found. Was that reported in the news? Hell no! Why not? Why, we might quit worrying about our belly fat and buying nostrums to get rid of it.

Even that gold standard of treatment for we who are morbidly obese, the gastric bypass, has not really demonstrated that it can improve health outcomes for the morbidly obese. As a matter of fact, because it induces malabsorption syndrome, many of the “survivors” have considerably more hospitalizations and poor health after the surgery. Even then, they usually regain the weight after 6-7 years, if they survive in the first place. Death rates post op are 3% in the first year and 6.4% in the first four years. Compare this to a death rate of  0.44-0.66% among “morbidly obese” adults overall.

If the norm is to regain the weight, even after this drastic surgery, why all the recrimination of fat people here* and here, even by those who have been or are, by their own admission,  overweight or obese? Why the “disgust” at someone who has to use a scooter in the grocery store, and whose belly hangs down to their knees? When I see that person, and I think there is one in every town, I think “God, they must have lost a lot of weight to have all that loose skin.”  I can’t look at them with disgust, or I would have to look at myself with disgust. And I gave that up a long time ago.

As to sitting next to us in an airline seat, and us encroaching on your space, I can only say that the most miserable trip I ever had was sitting next to a normal weight guy with extremely wide shoulders. I felt I had to bend myself in half vertically to accommodate him. We would all be better off if airline seats weren’t on the average, 17.2 inches wide. Compare this with theater seats that average 2o inches and compact car seats that average 22 inches.

In the mean time, I have been told I have a “beautiful heart” by an echocardiographer, I haven’t developed Type 2 diabetes, despite the dire predictions, and neither did my grandmother who was my height and weight. She lived to be 89, BTW. I take a minimal dose of diuretic to control my blood pressure, which has never been over 140/90. Most of my “health problems” are minor inconveniences, not life-threatening.

The only thing that might be improved by weight loss is my knees, and since they are already bone on bone, even that is doubtful. Of course, if I lost about 75-100 lbs, then they might do the knee replacements they refuse me now. On the other hand, the surgeries would run about $30,000, and for that they could buy me a new power chair every five years until I’m the age my morbidly obese grandmother died at. And I wouldn’t have to have revision surgery for them either. Another example of how the US healthcare system wastes money.

But my knees are bad from my obesity, right? Well, maybe. On the other hand, perhaps I have Ehlers-Danlos syndrome, of which I have many symptoms, and which causes early arthritis in hyperextensive joints. Which my knees have always been hyperextensive. Or maybe it has to do with spending 30 years on my feet, often on concrete floors, 8-16 hours a day as a nurse.

So, yes, I’m trying to lose some weight. Most people who lose weight lose about 10% of their weight before the body’s survival mechanisms kick in. In my case, that would be about 25 lbs. I might be able to get into my skinny jeans. But get down to my normal weight and stay there? According to the studies, not bloody likely. And I accept that.

*BTW, fat people who accept themselves are more fun because they’re not worrying about their weight, and bitchy from being on a diet.

The heat wave is over. The last couple of days have had autumnish temperatures. As is usual in the Puget Sound region, when the natural air-conditioning finally kicks in, somebody turns the thermostat too low. I have hopes for a “normal” week next week. I hope. I still have a lot of “summer” stuff to do.

The most obnoxious of the medical testing is over.  So far, nothing dire has been found, just stuff that when you look it up online, under causes says “age over 50.” *sigh* They forgot to install the age reverse switch when they made me.

Between the heat wave and some general malaise, all my housekeeping accomplishments seem to have flown out the window. But then again, Flylady  always says “You are not behind, just jump in where you are.” So I guess I will. What else is there to do?

I have learned not to buy a lot of produce at a time. It becomes compost in my refrigerator. Which would be wasteful but OK if apartment building were included in the city’s food waste composting program. Which they are not. I’ve decided to be more like my ancestors, and go to Pike Place Market several times a week to get what I need, and make myself eat it right away. My super-frugal grandmother is probably spinning like a rotisserie in her grave, seeing what ends up in my rotter.

I’ve read a ton of books in the last couple of weeks. More than I’ve read the rest of the year put together. But now is the time to get out and do some  active stuff. Winter will be time enough for that, heaven knows. Besides, I’m really behind in my geocaching. I’ll try to get ahold of the geocacher I met at knitting, and she if she and her friend want to go caching with me. There’s a bunch of caches on the waterfront I’ve tried to find several times without success, and I think three heads might be better than one.

Which reminds me. When I was heading out to get a sandwich with The Boyo the other day, I ran into a whole herd of geocachers, all dressed in the same T-shirts. It was apparent from where they were going they were looking for my nano. It seems they didn’t find it, because they didn’t log it. They also didn’t log a “did not find.” So I feel pretty good about finding that one all by myself. Nano, nano, nano.

No, it’s not really. A couple times in the last year, I’ve managed to swallow wrong and get something lodged in my right bronchus. It hurts like hell, makes you cough and puke, and should never happen. It is also potentially life-threatening if you can’t cough and puke it up. I’ve been lucky so far, especially since I live alone, and haven’t taught Friday to dial 911 yet. Well, actually you need a special phone for that. A very expensive special phone.

This being the case, the last time I was at the doctor, I mentioned it to her. And she referred me to the Otolaryngology department at the University. My appointment was today. I figured they’d just talk to me, and then if they thought I needed it, would order some tests. Wrong.

They decided to stick a camera up my nose and watch me swallow. This is not fun. First they numb your nose with some stuff that tastes horrible when you sniff it back. Then they stick the camera, which is about the size of thick spaghetti in your nose. Then the speech pathologist makes you do a lot of things like say eeeeeeee, and other things. Then they give you some water with blue dye in it, and watch while you swallow that. Then some bread with blue dye on it, and make you swallow that while they watch. And of course the camera is tickling your uvula, and making you want to gag the whole time. Lovely stuff.

So you walk out of the office with your mouth all blue, and your tongue all blue. But they forget to tell you it will turn your poop all blue, too.  So now I’m going to be scheduled for an xray where I will swallow yucky, chalky stuff, and they will do probably a lot of the same exercises while they watch me swallow different textures of stuff. I can hardly wait. I hope they put some flavoring in it.

As if that isn’t bad enough, I’m scheduled for a routine colonoscopy on Friday, too. Not looking forward to the gallon of  guck. I should have asked them to send a nasogastric tube with it, because I think that may be the only way I’ll get it down without puking about half of it back up. I hope whoever invented that stuff has to take a gallon of it every day in hell. I’ll be busy on Thursday, don’t expect to hear from me.

There is a story behind this T-shirt. Three years ago my brother celebrated his 50th birthday and his 30th anniversary with his partner. He invited the whole fam damily to St. Louis for the festivities. One of the things we did while we were out there is go to the St. Louis Zoo. I wish I could tell you a lot about it, but I didn’t have my scooter, and so I only saw the part that the little train went past. And since I came with others who had small children, they left sooner than I would have. But I went to get some money from the ATM, and found that some of my “crazy money” had come in, so I bought this T-shirt, some toys for the kids, and had a good time at the Dale Chihuly show at the Missouri Botanical Gardens next day. Thought I would wear it for all you cat lovers. Be sure to go by Nurse Myra’s and see who else is  playing this month.

As most of you know, I’m sure, Seattle is in the middle of a record breaking heat wave. So far, we’ve broken the record for daily maximum by posting 103° F at the airport Wednesday. We also broke the record for highest daily minimum, since it only cooled off to 71° F last night. I about died. Those of you on Twitter or Facebook know I spent most of yesterday Tweeting the Heat, and sitting naked in front of the air conditioner. I couldn’t eat or sleep, and the poor air-conditioner, once I got it running has been going 24 hours since Monday. In case I don’t think it’s doing much, (it only got the temperature in my apartment down to 89 ° F at one point yesterday), all I have to do is step out into the hallway to verify that it’s working.

Poor Friday, with her fur coat, had it rough. I finally gave her a bath yesterday as much to provide some cooling as to get her clean. I even put ice cubes in her water bowl for her. She is much more comfy now.

Yesterday was cooler at “only” 90° F, but still well above our average of 75° for this time of year. Today it’s supposed to be 85° F, but a marine push came in about midnight, and has dropped the temperature considerably.  It may not get that high today.

Meanwhile, my sister in Denver has been suffering from record low temperatures  in the 60s, which is very cool for this time of year there. They are usually the ones running in the 100° range. She said the dog was too cold to get off the couch. Poor baby.

So I’m hoping the jet stream gets back to where it usually is so temperatures moderate here, and it quits raining in New York where Rambling Woods lives. Neither extreme is fun. But at least I might be able to sleep tonight.

Silverstar sends her apologies. She is in a black hole at the moment. It’s too hot in Seattle, and since the air conditioner interface hasn’t arrived yet,  she has melted into a big silver blob. When the weather cools off, we may hope she resumes her normal shape. In the meanwhile, the mystery section of the Seattle Public Library has been ravaged. It’s too hot to do much else.

In her absence, she has been gifted with a couple of awards. From people she admires. Both Healing Magic Hands and Archie presented her with this award. She is grateful for the awards, but doesn’t know if  there are 15 people who need another one of these things. But she will try. Oh, here’s the rules for this thing. They are not my rules. My rules are the same as the next award I’m presenting.
1. Accept the award, post it on your blog together with the name of the person who has granted the award, and his or her blog link.

2. Pass the award to 15 other blogs that you love and/or have newly discovered.

3. Remember to contact the bloggers to let them know they have been chosen for this award.

4. Use the One Lovely Blog award picture from my blog, on your blog to let everyone know that you have one lovely Blog!

This award is hereby presented to Rambling Woods, Red Headed Blackbelt, La Dolce Vita, The Show Must Go On, Cuckoo’s Nest, Tigereyes Sallies, Anniegirl 1138, Gaian Tarot Artist’s Journal, and Owl’s Wings. These are very lovely blogs, all of them. But don’t get your knickers in a twist if you are not on the list. Silverstar agrees with Archie that not all blogs are lovely. Entertaining, insightful, etc. etc., but not lovely.

And thus, Silverstar has taken time out of her busy funk to create an award for all of you who she doesn’t think are lovely, or who have already received one or more of the Lovely Blog awards. Because all my blog friends are stars! The rules for this award are: take it, smile, enjoy. If you want to pass it on to another star, go ahead, but no obligation.  This award is given to Archies Archives, Trailer Park Refugee, Gimcrack Hospital, The Wilds of Ohio, Tome of the Unknown Blogger, The Havens, Casa Az, and especially to Raincoaster, who did 51 posts in 24 hours to raise money for the BC Federation of Writers. And like I said, Rain, next time schedule it when I have money.

And now back to Silverstar’s regularly scheduled book. Maybe someday when it’s not 90° F out, she’ll go geocaching again.

Despite what some might say, it’s not always about geocaching. OK, the truth is the only reason I didn’t geocache to day is I was going somewhere that there are no geocaches. The Parks Department has made geocachers remove all caches from Discovery Park.

The Boyo and I met for lunch at Discovery Park once again, this time by design. We had a co-op lunch where he brought the can of chicken, the mayonnaise and the bread, and I brought the salad greens, the curry powder and the raisins, and we made lunch.

We met at Third Pond again, but only saw one mallard hen the whole time we were there. The action today was a Belted Kingfisher who was having a hey-day in the pond, diving down, catching a fish, and then sitting on a limb eating it. The first I knew about it was hearing a loud splash across the pond, and then seeing him take off out of the water and have his dinner. He moved several places on the pond. I guess when the fish would get spooked one place, he would move to another. Sorry, I didn’t bring my big camera with me, and the tripod, which is the only way I would have caught him. My small camera just won’t do the job.

We were talking after lunch, and I decided to look at something on my phone, and realized it was missing. I knew I’d had it on the trail down to the pond, so I hurried back over my trail, and fortunately found it. Scary there for a while. I have it insured up the ying-yang, but at this point it would like cutting off one of my arms.

After lunch I headed for the bus stop, only to find that I had just missed the bus, and the next one was an hour away. The Boyo had brought his bike and planned to ride over to the Ballard Locks, not all that far away. After twiddling my thumbs for a bit (the phone had lost most of it’s power while it was lost) Friday and I decided to venture over there, too. Besides, the bathrooms are better over there. So off we went, and of course when we got to the locks, we had to see if there were any salmon in the fish ladder. I will post this picture, but thick glass and murky water do not make for great shots. This is the best one, but I think you’ll have a heck of a time finding the fish that I swear is in there. It’s the peak of the season for Sockeye Salmon.

The Boyo had stopped to tour the visitors center over there, and so even though wheelchairs and old dogs are slower than bikes, we caught up with him. Grabbed a cheap iced coffee at 7-11, and then I really did get on the bus for home.

While I was over at Discovery Park, I noticed that they were setting up for the Seafair Indian Days PowWow this weekend. In the time it took us to eat lunch, a flat field turned into an arena with stands, and another field began to fill with campers. I will be out there this weekend for sure. I love watching the fancy dancers and eating salmon.