Today marks the start of Daylight Savings Time, which is something that always fascinated and annoyed me throughout my childhood and into my formative years. After all, this time change involves pushing clocks an hour ahead, which causes the inclusion of a 23-hour day. I’ve had all the same complaints as most people have had regarding losing an hour’s sleep on that particular day.
It wasn’t until I reached the age of adulthood that I understood the concept of maintaining the longest period of natural daylight during waking hours, hence “Daylight Savings” but a part of me failed to see the use behind this since I could work whenever, go to school whenever and what did I care when the evening started?
There is some rationale behind it, including the practicality as[ect that if the sun rises too early it can interfere with proper sleep and the start of the actual day as well as reducing the overall use of candle light during waking hours, back before electricity was a common amenity of households. Interestingly enough, a city in Ontario was the first on in the world to use Daylight Savings Time. It didn’t take long for the majority of the world to follow, with only a few exceptions.
Some places are beginning to see the minimal use in Daylight Savings time and are looking at the prospect of discontinuing it. CTV News posted an article about six months ago about how Ontario is passing legislation that could effectively end Daylight Savings Time in the Province. The very Province where it all started may be the first to end it. I live in Saskatchewan where we’re located in a time zone that isn’t affected by time change. My clocks have remained the same for the past fifteen years.
If Canada as a whole decides to end Daylight Savings Time, I know that one person who will be overjoyed will be my mother. Since she can’t be bothered to change her clocks and her watch every six months, her time pieces are usually only accurate for six months out of the year. Part of that seems like comedy; the other part feels like laziness but hey! Who am I to argue with my mother? Hope y’all didn’t have to lose an hour’s sleep, last night… ☯️
A bit of a rough weekend. Early last week, I received word that a funeral service for my Uncle Richard would be held in Red Deer, Alberta last Friday (yesterday). Although they would be arranging for a Zoom viewing of the ceremony for east coast family members who couldn’t attend, my wife and I decided that we would travel out for the night to pay our respects and say our goodbyes. The trip involved driving to Kindersley and dropping off the boys. We were able to spend the night and get an early start from Kindersley to Red Deer. It was a good arrangement and the stop in Kindersley broke the trip in two, making for a less than exhausting drive.
When my grandfather passed away in 2014, I made a point of telling the entire family that the last act of a loved one is to bring the entire family together. Although a tragic and morbid way to do it, it almost always seems to bring distant family members together. This was no exception, with my aunt and cousins in attendance. Given that they’re the family members the farthest west in Canada, I haven’t had as much contact with them as I have with many others on my mother’s side. It was a sobering reminder to take the opportunities to spend time with family while you can. Life brings us all here, eventually.
Another benefit is my wife and I having had the opportunity to spend the evening alone together. This hasn’t happened often since becoming parents, as I’m sure many of you reading this can relate. This morning, we’ll be having some breakfast before hitting the road and stopping in to my wife’s parents’ home for the night. We’ll get to have dinner and spend the night before making our way back to Regina. Another unexpected benefit of losing a family member. I’m well over 700 posts consecutively posted without missing a day. The past few days have made me realize once again that life doesn’t care about one’s plan and that I haven’t had as much time to research and contemplate what to write about. Que sera… ☯️
Nathan often watches me as I work on my social media platforms. he’ll usually watch cartoons on his device while he does, especially since watching me write does nothing for him. But while doing some work on my YouTube channel (FYI, I have a YouTube channel, “The Blogging Buddhist.” GO SUBSCRIBE!!!), I usually take the time to watch a video or two afterward. You would think that my preference would be martial arts or fighting videos. And in truth, I DO watch some of those. But i also indulge in a lot of SNL and MadTV clips. Mostly because I enjoy laughing at stupid stuff.
One of the things I do enjoy watching is a channel with creepy stories called “Mr. Ballen.” He’s an ex-marine who tells creepy stories on a variety of topics. I’ve also been watching a variety of scary stories from a few different channels. It’s particularly entertaining late at night when it’s gotten dark out or the wind is blowing. Anyway, Nathan has creeped around a bit and has listened to some of the scary stories. You’d think that a 7-year old would be creeped out by scary stories. Not this kid; he’s become obsessed with them. I know some would probably argue the point that he’s a bit young to be watching scary videos… Actually, there’s never anything shown but a forest background or dim-lit house. It’s an oral telling of a scary story; no different than reading a book.
Some good has come out of it, as well. He absolutely LOVES restoration videos. There’s a particular channel where the author buys rusted out antique toys or items, takes them apart and restores them to a new state. One of the last ones he watched a was a rusted, seized pocket watch. Watching the restoration process was fantastic. The amount of work and the steps involved in taking something old and turning it into something new, thereby proving that all things can still have use, if one is willing to work to make it happen, was wonderful to watch.
Although sitting one’s child in front of a screen is not the best way to occupy their time, I have to admit that it’s been a way for Nathan and I to share something specific. We shared a fascination with creepy stories as well as a love for restoration. There are worse ways for a father and son to spend an hour or two. Food for thought…☯️
My staff and I have a particular place where we like to spend our coffee breaks. Just a little spot that takes us completely out of the office and away from it for a distance, which allows us to take a walk, get some air and let our heads cool a bit. This location also happens to be surrounded by a number of eateries, many of which I take part of when I forget or neglect to bring lunch to work. In case the description is a bit too vague, I’m describing a food court. We take our coffee breaks at a food court.
A few days ago, we were enjoying a quiet afternoon coffee and chatting about some random things, when I looked up at one of the eateries and noticed a female employee, sitting on a chair near the till. It took me a brief minute and an awkward double take for me to acknowledge that she was picking her nose with the enthusiastic ferocity normally attributed to a seizure. Her index finger was basically buried almost to the second knuckle and I don’t know what she was looking at but she seemed transfixed as she dug for nose gold with a Zen kind of enthusiasm.
I went through the many stages of morbid comedy… Surprise, laughter, judgement and disgust followed by the sudden realization that i occasionally order food there. All of this went through my mind in under a minute and I pointed out the offending party to my colleague, who shared a laugh without any of the disgust that would follow, signalling that he never eats there. I don’t like being sued, so I won’t name the eatery or its exact location but it woke me up to the fact that as pleasant as occasionally eating take out food can be, one really never knows how clean the location one orders from really is.
I don’t really have a point to today’s post. It’s just something that happened that I decided to share. We often see documentaries about cleanliness behind a counter but this was one of the few instances in my life where I actually saw something happening, firsthand. The icing on the cake was when we got up to leave and walked past and the woman in question made eye contact with me and smiled because she recognized me. Awkward. ☯️
Ah, food… Never has there been something that elicits such a delicate balance of love and hate. Required for our continued survival, food plays an integral role by providing us with the fuel and nutrition we need to get through the day. It’s also somewhat responsible for weight gain and a variety of health issues if consumed improperly or in large amounts. The other side of the coin is that food can bring a significant amount of enjoyment to those who choose to experience their food as opposed to simply eating it.
For someone with Type-1 Diabetes, the consumption of food is a delicate dance of counting carbs, eating in appropriate portions an ensuring the appropriate amount of insulin is taken in proportion to what’s being eaten. It isn’t always easy and it’s made all the more difficult by the fact that every person is different their bodies may react to foods in different ways. For example, I know some people who can easily and quickly treat a low with a small glass of juice. If I tried that shit, I’d die long before the juice took effect.
For me, it’s a handful of jellybeans. Believe it or not, those bring my blood up far faster despite the fact that fluid will be absorbed quicker by the body. But some foods will be problematic, in general. Take chocolate as an example… I know a lot of people who will turn to chocolate in order to treat a low. The problem with that is that chocolate, in essence, is a solid block of fat mixed with sugar. When consuming chocolate, the body will usually break down the fat before getting to the carbohydrates. this can mean a significant delay in getting one’s blood sugars up, using chocolate. It’ll still get you there, it’ll just take forever doing it.
The same can be said of certain foods we consume at mealtime. For me, the guilty culprit is pizza. Anyone who knows me will tell you that gourmet burgers are my kryptonite and they would be right. But I definitely have a soft spot for stuffed-crust pizza. Especially on Friday nights when one can purchase a chicken Caesar stuff-crust pizza for only $10 online. It makes for a great end-of-week treat for the entire family and in fact, my son Nathan will only ever eat pizza from one specific restaurant. I recently tried to convince him to have a stuffed-crust pizza from the grocery store. It didn’t end well. But I digress…
Pizza poses a significant problem for me because it’s one of those foods without a happy medium. The contents of a pizza are unfortunately as such that i face the same conundrum as chocolate. The heavy amounts of cheese and fatty ingredients make it so that the pizza is processed differently than other foods. If I take an appropriate amount of insulin for the amount of carbs I’m eating, I’ll almost certainly bottom out within the hour. Why? Because those high-fat ingredients will get processed first and the insulin will continue to work BEFORE carbohydrates are introduced.
My insulin pump has an interesting function called “dual wave” and “square wave” bolusing. The former involves providing a specific amount of insulin up front with the remainder being dosed out over a period of time. The latter involves the entire amount being dosed out over a period of time. Why is this important? Because it allows for the appropriate dosing of insulin for the amount of carbohydrate I’m consuming while still giving the body time to process the other food aspects, such as fat, without causing me to go into hypoglycemia.
As wonderful as this sounds, the odd thing is that those wave functions aren’t available when using SmartGuard in conjunction with a CGM. This seems like a design flaw to me and I’m not clear as to why the puppy manufacturer would have done it this way. I didn’t build the thing, so maybe there’s a reason behind why it’s not permitted with SmartGuard but it rather feels like driving a car with heated seats that won’t work if you’re wearing specific pants.
It kinda sucks because it leaves me in a position where I either have to forego eating pizza altogether or I’m back to the good ol’ days of “guess-timating” how to bolus… The usual practice right now is that I’ll put off taking any insulin until I’ve actually completed eating my slice and even then, I’ll only bolus for half of the required dose at a time. This effectively mimics the square bolus effect as much as possible without disabling the extremely effective SmartGuard system that I’ve come to love.
I’ve always said that having Diabetes shouldn’t prevent a person from enjoying anything that a non-Diabetic would. After all, it’s 2022, we’ve put people on the moon, for light’s sake! Given all the advancements in medicine in the past decades, enjoying a pizza with my family on Friday night shouldn’t be such a convoluted ordeal. But it is. It usually ends up that no matter what preventative measures I take or how I adjust my bolusing, I either spend the evening trying to bring my blood sugars back up or I spend the night slowly trying to bolus to bring myself back down.
So there you have it… I know I often bring up how I’m aware that I complain about Diabetes a lot, but this is an example of how even having pizza on Friday night can be complicated. Which sucks. A lot. But such is the burden carried on the shoulders of anyone living with T1D. It can be tedious and exhausting but there are always ways to work through it. Food for thought (pun intended) Great, now I want pizza…☯️
All the way back in 1910, a German socialist champion of women’s rights proposed that March 8th be set aside every year as International Women’s Day. It eventually became recognized as a globally observed holiday by the United Nations in the late 1970’s. Through the years I’ve had the pleasure and benefit of being surrounded by many strong, wonderful women. From my mother, who has spent her life caring for her family and children and still does, the women who have carried a badge to help protect the public, all the way to my lovely wife, whom we can all agree needs to be tough as nails in order to put with me after all these years. Here’s to all the women out there! ☯️
Sometimes it can be ridiculously unbelievable how easy it is to get all up inside one’s own head. This can happen a lot, especially if one has something on one’s mind. take work for example… I think we can all agree that working is one of life’s unwanted necessities. After all, a household needs income in order to provide food, clothing, amenities and shelter for the average family. For about 99% of the population, that means leaving the house and going to work in order to earn that income. If you’re lucky, you have a job that not only serves you well and provides said income but that you actually ENJOY. That can make a world of difference in the dynamic of one’s life.
Whether you enjoy your job or not, it can often be hard to keep oneself from dwelling about work at the most inappropriate times. Maybe you’re spending time with your children and your mind is focused on the project you need to complete by deadline or the files you’ll have to complete the following week. Maybe you’re dealing with a situation at work that you have no control over and it’s keeping you awake at night instead of allowing you the rest you need and deserve. This is what I mean by getting into one’s own head. It can be disruptive and damaging, especially since it keeps you from being present in the moment.
There are a lot of things one can do to get past this. Obviously, some people will tend to dwell on things more than others. There are some things that can’t be “fixed,” nor should they be as they constitute who one becomes as a person. But if you find yourself staring at the ceiling in the middle of the night when you should be sleeping because you’re dwelling on something you can’t help in the moment, that’s no good for anyone. Especially if that lack of rest will only work to damage your effectiveness at dealing with the issue that’s on your mind.
It can be difficult and it isn’t without some effort on one’s part but it IS possible to overcome this effect. Making a conscious effort to be present in the moment and focus on what you’re doing outside of the situation on your mind, is the first step. Being involved in various activities and interests during your down time is the follow-up step. For example, I’m a big fan of meditation (if you haven’t guessed). Spending time with one’s children and spouse and investing in that time, as well as getting out of the house and doing something for yourself, are all important parts in keeping focused on the better aspects of life.
It’s great to work hard, have goals and strive for them. But not at the cost of your mind being constantly wrapped around everything NOT happening in the moment. Stop. Take a breath. Do something for yourself. It’s one thing to notice the roses but their beauty is lost if you don’t stop to smell them, every once in a while. Such is the importance of life and will go a long way towards lessening the suffering in one’s life. Food for thought…☯️
There’s no question that death is a part of life. One of the things that allow us to survive as people is the fact that we’re not wired to contemplate death and what comes next, on a minute to minute basis. If we did, we’d accomplish nothing in life as we’d succumb to the feeling that there’s no point. Considering everything happening in the world right now, fate occasionally reminds us that the typical come and go of life is still ongoing; including the passing of lives. I found out yesterday that my Uncle Richard passed away from cancer.
My mother was born as the second of seven children. Richard was not the oldest; in fact, he was among the youngest. Father, grandfather and husband, he was diagnosed with cancer quite some time ago. In recent decades, cancer has practically become the new “natural death,” with so many people developing one type or another. Most members of my family on my mother’s side have overcome cancer at some point, including my grandfather with prostate cancer, my mother with skin cancer and her older sibling who survived what was referred to as terminal.
You could say that the genes on my mother’s side seem to have a way of kicking cancer’s ass. That’s why it came as a surprise when my mother recently told me that Richard was on the final leg of his journey in this life, succumbing to the ravages that cancer brings. It came as a surprise for me since, last I’d heard, he was in remission and was overcoming it. Some weeks had passed before my mother phoned me yesterday afternoon to deliver the bad news. With both of my grandparents already gone, my mother is the de facto matriarch and was busy contacting all the members of the family. I don’t envy her that responsibility.
Richard’s passing has brought a strange shift in dynamic in the family. I’ve recognized for years that I’ve reached a point in my existence where life has started taking away at LEAST as much as it has given. But Richard finds himself as the first one in my family of his generation to pass; a sobering reminder that they’ve potentially reached the point in life where death has become an inevitable consideration. Don’t get me wrong; adults in general have an awareness of death and acknowledge its existence and possibility. But my mother and her siblings are now aware that death has touched them. And as the old saying suggests, the only thing one can’t avoid in life are taxes and death.
Considered to have been a bit of a rebel within the family, he’s always had a soft spot for his family and cared for all of us. I’ve tried my best since yesterday to try and find a photograph of him. No luck. Oh, I’m sure I have a photo of him in a dusty album in my barrack boxes. But nothing in recent years. This is a wake up call for me. Especially since I’ve lived in Saskatchewan for the past fifteen years and he lived in Alberta. We totally would have been in a position to see each other more. Although I make my best to live life without regrets, I can say with firm honesty that realizing I’ll never have the opportunity or took it when I had the chance, is one of them.
Hug your family close and appreciate the time you have with them. Life is short and there’s no guarantee that you’ll know them in the next life. With all the chaos currently happening in the world, more people are losing loved ones than should be. Rest in peace, Uncle Richard. I’ve known pain and sickness all my life but I’m sure yours was worse. Peace and rest are yours, now. I’m sure my brother will greet you at the door. ❤️🙏☯️
I know that it seems as though I’m often posting about negative shit but trust me when I say, it’s about the journey and the pitfalls we face, not the negative aspect. That being said, it can be easy to fill an entire book with the negative aspects of Diabetes, considering the side effects and secondary issues it causes within the human body. One of them happens to be that wounds are much more difficult to heal for someone with type-1 Diabetes. This if for a variety of reasons including but not limited to, poor blood circulation and nerve damage.
One of the nastiest and most annoying wounds that one can get, is when a toe splits open. Believe it or not, this can happen a great deal when doing karate by virtue of some of the stepping, stomping and movement performed repetitively on a hard floor over hours of class time. I recently discovered this when I noticed last Thursday night after class that my right foot stung every time I took a step. When I got my phone out to snap a pic of what was happening underneath (I’m sure as hell not flexible enough anymore to bring my foot up to my face) I found a fine cut, right the seam where the toe meets the foot.
Calloused but clean…
These types of wounds are worse than paper cuts, because they continue to constantly move and flex with every step one takes. This means that it’s all the more difficult for these kinds of cuts to heal in a timely manner because the wound can’t sit long enough for it to close up quickly (or as quickly as a Diabetic foot will permit). And of course, all the usual Diabetes-related issues will apply; poor circulation in the extremities and neurological damage will contribute to the overall length of time it takes to heal.
That being said, there are things you can do to ensure this type of wound DOES heal up, whether it takes a bit longer or not. Keeping your feet warm and dry are the first lines of defence. Moist feet will breed bacteria (yes, I used the word “moist,” get over it), which is the last thing you want when you have an open wound in an enclosed area like the bottom of a toe. Although most and covered wounds may be more likely to let regeneration happen faster in most wounds, you need to consider the totality of where the injury is, coupled with the fact that the cut I’m showing you in the photo above won’t scab. No one likes scabs, but they do serve an important role in the healing process.
Since a cut like this won’t easily accommodate a band-aid or bandages, keeping the wound site clean can be problematic, especially if you’re stubborn and will keep going to class and training with bare feet. As much as it pains me to recommend it, taking the next class or two off, to allow the cut to heal is preferable to walking and training on a floor where several parties are all bare-footed as well. Luckily, I discovered this cut on Thursday night and no longer have class until Monday night, so I should be able to let it heal.
When you’ve showered/bathed, be sure to dry the area properly and don’t be afraid to let your feet air out well before slipping on socks. If you wear slippers, remember that those bastards contain everything your feet come into contact with. So if you’ve got a pair of old faithfuls that you’ve been wearing for years and you slip them on your freshly-showered feet, you’re mashing light-knows-what into your wound that’s been collected inside them bastards when your feet maybe weren’t as clean as you’d like to think. Moving on…
Antibiotic creams or gels CAN be helpful, although the jury is out on whether they genuinely provide faster healing or not. The consensus I’ve found is that they can help to reduce the risk of infection in simple cuts and wounds but may not do a great deal for the length of time it takes to heal. The other thing to consider is if you smear antibiotic cream into the crook of your toe, as with the cut in the picture above, you’re likely going to rub it all off as soon as you start walking, barefooted or not.
This is the part where I explain that proper diet and exercise and strict management of your blood sugars level will all help with the proper healing of cuts and wounds on your feet. As with any injury, you should seek medical attention if you start to notice that it’s becoming red and angry, turning strange colours, spreading or oozing pus or fluid. Or if it’s been an extended period of time without healing. That’s kind of important, as well.
Limb amputation is the last point I’ll touch on in this post, as morbid as it may be. It’s a harsh reality that’s people will Diabetes often need to face, especially in cases where their condition is poorly controlled and monitored. When a wound in the extremities becomes aggravated or infected, there’s a greater chance that it can lead to amputation, which is why it’s so important to take good care of your feet. You only get one set, so you need to pay attention. Check your feet for wounds and sores you may not feel or be aware you have. Keep that circulation going and keep your blood sugars controlled. ☯️
“Empty Your Mind, Be Formless, Shapeless, Like Water. Put Water Into A Cup, It Becomes The Cup. Put Water Into A Bottle, It Becomes The Bottle. Put Water Into A Teapot, it Becomes The Teapot. Water Can Flow, Or It Can Crash. Be Water, My Friend.”
– Bruce Lee
I usually take “famous” quotes with grain of salt. In these modern days of the internet and misinformation, you never know when someone may be misquoting. But the above quote from Bruce Lee is Pretty safe, considering I recently acquired his daughter’s book that basically focuses on Bruce Lee’s concepts behind being like water. It’s a pretty decent read, although i haven’t quite finished it yet. But it got me to thinking… One of the bigger obstacles one faces when practicing the martial arts, is the tension people hold in their bodies while training.
In some ways, many ways, one can’t be blamed for tensing up when training in a fighting art. Regardless of one’s experience level, knowing that someone is coming at you with a fist or a foot usually has that effect. But in order to learn properly and develop one’s technique, it’s important to remain flexible and relaxed as you learn. The dojo and/or class environment is a safe space where you can take advantage of developing that POSITIVE muscle memory in a controlled environment. This is hard to achieve when one is all tensed up and inhibiting one’s movements.
Lee’s quote is basically telling you that you need to maintain the flexibility to ensure adaptability in any situation. Issues you can face from this lack of flexibility can include a number of nasty results that you really don’t want to experience in a real-fight scenario. For example, tension may cause one to hesitate. You hesitate in a true fight, you get hit. Period. Tension will aggravate and worsen your “tells,” or your telegraphing. Lack of fluidity and flexibility will cause a hindrance to the free-flow of one’s movement. this isn’t just bad in the dojo; it can be dangerous on the street.
I guess there may be some styles that differ in this view but I haven’t encountered one yet that encourages being tight and tense when training or even fighting. Unlike the rattlesnake that tenses before striking, a karateka must remain fluid and relaxed, allowing muscle memory and skill to take control as opposed to getting into one’s own head. Food for thought… ☯️
The Blogging Buddhist 