Hesitantly returning

I haven’t written anything for months, mostly because of the nasty shoulder injuries that were keeping me from doing anything at all. I think I’m ready to write again, but I’m nervous and shy, have regained my blogging virginity, and have been wondering if I have a damn thing to say.

So, since it’s all about me and all, I thought I’d write about prolotherapy, which is the treatment I chose for my shoulders (yes, both of them).

Prolo therapy is a non-surgical intervention for torn ligaments and tendons. According to the prolo pros over at prolotherapy.com,

Prolotherapy uses a dextrose (sugar water) solution, which is injected into the ligament or tendon where it attaches to the bone. This causes a localized inflammation in these weak areas which then increases the blood supply and flow of nutrients and stimulates the tissue to repair itself.

Let me just say that, after I spent a couple of years skirting around the issue of living vs. dying and being repeatedly slit from my guzzle to my zatch, I came finally through that experience weaker and more wobbly than I knew was possible. Everything I did hurt, everything I did caused a new injury. In about 18 months, I sprained my ankles twice, got a hernia while on a tiny little super easy bike ride, and tore ligaments in both my shoulders. This sucked beyond my ability to convey, but was at least better than actually being dead.

I stopped sleeping, due to pain, started taking vicodin, due to pain, and slid into a vague, extended and tiresome period of being afraid to do anything. Let me say, this did not seem to be an actual depression, although it was depressing. More, it seemed like my body wasn’t willing to carry me anymore, and I was tired, and tired of pain. From some angles, I look like Frankenstein, a constructed being, scars shooting out in all directions, lit more by lightning than by nature.

So. That did sound a bit depressed, eh?

I am a bit driven, by temperament, and this sloshing around in a half stupid hydrocodone fog, alternating with bright and angry pain, did not suit me overmuch. Hence the prolotherapy, after assorted other modalities did not do the trick.

Here’s what they do, and let me tell you it hurts like holy hell:

The needles feel huge, no, enormous, and for about 30 days after the injections the pain was worse, massively and unbearably worse, which made me feel like a complete idjit. Pass the vicodin, please.

Then one day about a month after, it stopped. Not 100%, but about 80%, not bad, not bad at all. I stopped taking vicodin, and switched to ibuprofen with a very mild pain pill on the side. Stopped taking anything in the daytime, and now I’m taking the pain pill at night just two or three times a week.

As soon as the pain stopped, I started lifting weights and going to the gym (still working on frequency, but really I’ve always liked weights, so it feels good to be able to do it at all). I’m starting to sleep again, intermittently. My brain and body are starting to feel better, not well, quite, but better.

I’ve been driving my wife crazy with my bad sleep, chronic pain and forgetfulness (goes with the other two). And I’ve been driving myself crazy with the sensation that my body is the enemy, and that my brain has gone utterly to mush, never to be its own vigorous, adventurous and imaginative self ever again.

 I will let you know how this goes. It’s the old body-mind connection, can’t have the one without the other. I knew that. Wish me luck.

I’ll be back.

River bird hovers over changing season

Sandhill Cranes (via www.desertusa.com)

We’ve been watching the cranes, the turning of the year, the golding and dropping of leaves. Last night, the biggest harvest moon I’ve ever seen. Tomorrow, hang out the winter sheets to air, put away the light summer linens.Tonight, fresh roasted tomato soup with olive bread.

Caprese salad with goat cheese

Ingredients:

Fresh tomatoes
Fresh Basil
Olive Oil
Salt
Pepper
Fresh Goat Cheese

Preparation:

Wash and dry basil. Pluck into small leaves. Slice tomatoes, lay flat on a platter. Place basil leaves neatly and prettily on each tomato slice. top with a small bit of fresh goat cheese (feta, mozarella or chevre all work well). Drizzle with olive oil. Add salt and fresh ground pepper. Serve as an appetizer.

This recipe is a variation on the traditional caprese, which uses cow’s milk mozzarella. If you are a fan of goat cheese, you will find this variation absolutely delightful.

(Pictured is a mozzarella caprese from Wikipedia.)

Why it’s hard to post right now

It’s an election year. I’m getting excitable. I’m revolted by the politics of the so-called conservative “base”. Could there really be this many ignorant, mean-spirited people out there? Am I surrounded by people whose politics are driven by hate?

I want to attack, I want to hide, I want to believe that this ugliness will go away. Do they really hate us for who we love? Do they hate us for the reproductive choices we make? Do they hate us for our belief in education, in serving our community, in peaceful negotiation? Do we really have to fight back in the same hateful ugly ways? Do they really believe the lies? Are they really proud of their intolerance? Do they really believe that my life and my marriage are less sanctified, less meaningful than theirs? Do they really think they are pro-life when the support ends at birth, when war is seen as a god-driven destiny? Do they really think an overworked, undereducated, uninsured population is the American dream? What exactly are they aiming for?

My grandfather referred to anyone with differing political views as “those people”. And to me as “you people” (until he finally came to respect me and our differences of opinion). Sadly, thanks to the nasty machinery of Rove or Rovians, I now think the same way. You people (you know who you are) are sick and I wish I could pity you but frankly I wish you would just all go away. Please get on the rapture bus and go far far away. Maybe then we can get back to taking care of our people, our cities, our schools, our planet. Maybe then I can write what I like and marry whom I love and worship where I choose without fear of attack by the hate mongers who are once again ascending by appealing to the lowest common denominator.

Guess I’d better file this under “uncategorized” and disappear it as soon as the fear hits.

Lost my compass. Anyone seen it?

Drat.

My brain’s gone walkabout again.

Don’t know where, exactly. When I look inside my own head, I see mostly fog.

Maybe it’s the new year making me fuzzy (August is my new year).

The chickens, geese and keets seem more important than writing.

I can’t seem to get enough sleep.

 

Maybe it’s the weather.

 

Maybe it’s my disorganized office.

Maybe it’s my hormones.

 Maybe it’s astrological.

 

Maybe it’s nothing at all.

I’ll be back when I’ve got something to say. Or when my office is clean.

Whichever comes first.

 

(Cross-posted from Cuentos - at Laurie’s suggestion.)

Can guinea hens eat watermelon?

One search term that brought a reader to this site.

Answer: Yes.

Guineas eat grass, sweet peas, vines, grasshoppers, lizards, lettuce, chicken scratch, corn, zucchini, etc.  Their preference is for fresh green things. They are not all that crazy about fruit, from what I’m seeing, but they did pretty well with a chunk of watermelon last week. The banties, on the other hand, polished the watermelon rinds clean.

New Job Haiku

time bandit

 

 

Swipe in, sign here please.
Tomorrow do it again.
Goodbye says hello.

 

 

 

 

Cross posted in Cuentos:

 http://mothergoose.wordpress.com/2008/07/22/new-job-haiku/

Derailed – the embarassing update

Thai style hot sauce

Leaving my private practice and going back to full-time-with-benefits is a great decision, a very interesting new opportunity, and a little stressful (nightmare! What was I thinking! Why oh why did I not check their references? I know they checked mine!) 

My leave-taking was emotional for me and my families; I’ve had several in tears this week. This is good work I do: meaningful, personal, heart work. I see the results of my clinical and personal skills and really, how could I ask for much more?

Well, I have asked for more. I’ve asked for a job with health insurance and paid holidays and less driving around. And I’ve gotten that, and delighted to have it, in this unstable economy.  (But in retrospect, having work that I enjoy and doing it for as long as my beautiful and incredibly supportive wife has health insurance that covers me too — well, there is just more than one way to do things, isn’t there?)

So I’m saying goodbye (so I said goodbye to some and said hello to some new kids just yesterday ) to my current families (with the little ones, I sometimes work with them weekly for as much as two years), and it’s stressy and exciting, and that’s made me tired and the long and short of it is now I’ve got strep throat (babies = germ vectors). Derailed my Nablopomo commitment to post every day for the month of July (topic of the month is food).

Oh well. Maybe next month I’ll earn my merit badge.

I’ll be back after the cold medicine kicks in and try again.

Recipe:

Hot and sour soup is a terrific remedy for sore throats. I make it like this:

Chicken or vegetable broth
Lemon juice
Sriracha
Lemon grass

Heat it up. Drink it hot. Kills germs or at least stuns them.

How to eat like a millionaire

Wow, I love this headline.

I’ll interview all my millionaire friends and let you know. Back soon.

Well, first of all, they tell me billionaire is the new millionaire, so I’m going to raise the bar.

Second — I was thinking it must be all about eco-friendly, sustainable, local food. Rich folk are locavores this week, right? Here’s the food-for-the-rich scenario as I had imagined it (turns out to have been entirely wrong):

“I’ll have my au pair drive to the farmer’s market to buy all the freshest just picked vegetables – the lettuces, the leeks and onions, the rainbow chard, the homemade pies, the early baby creamer potatoes, the hand-salted goat cheese. It can be a lesson in sustainable farming for my seven-year-old. Truffles dug up by my yard man’s farmer friend Joe. Corn and raspberries are hand-picked and delivered to my home weekly.”

As I looked into it, I realized actually that’s how I eat, and I am not a millionaire. Or billionaire. Plus, I don’t have kids, an au pair or a yard man. Wish I did - at least a concierge or something.

How do the very wealthy eat? I did some light reading, and this is what I found. Let’s go look at some of the finest restaurants in the most expensive cities in the world:

According to selected menu items listed in the SPellegrino 50 Best Restaurants in the World, the very wealthy might be eating at this very moment:

Snail Porridge
Bacon and Egg Ice Cream
Warm lettuce hearts soaked in vanilla brine
Sheep’s milk curd seasoned with hay and toasted fern
Beef roasted with the embers of vine cuttings
“Macaroni and Cheese” (butter-poached Maine lobster with mascarpone-enriched Orzo Pasta)
“Oyster and pearls” (a sabayon of tapioca with Island Creek Oysters and White Sturgeon Caviar)

This convinces me that I am not a billionaire. However, thanks to the beautiful farmer’s market in the small village where I live, I do eat like a millionaire of home-grown tastes. Very sensible of me. Only without the yard guy or the au pair.

With that in mind, here is a recipe for your basic pasta primavera:

Pasta Primavera

Ingredients:
Pasta
assorted fresh spring vegetables
goat cheese 
herbs de provence:

Preparation:
Set your pasta water on to boil. Prep your vegetables – chunky or thin sliced, as you prefer.

This is what we had yesterday:

• Onion
  Garlic
  Yellow bell pepper
  Yellow squash
  Zucchini
  Fresh oregano
  Herbs de provence - chervil, rosemary, savory, lavendar, tarragon, marjoram, mint (variations are common)
  Goat cheese

Sautee onions and garlic in olive oil at a medium-high temperature. When these are soft and clear, add each vegetable in turn. Denser vegetables first. Don’t abuse your vegetables by mashing them about with a spatula or boiling them to death. Add a generous splash of vermouth or white wine. 

Drain your pasta and dress lightly with oil or butter.

Plate the pasta, sprinkle an ounce or slightly more of goat cheese on it. Spoon the sauteed vegetables on top of all that. Add salt and pepper.

Serve hot, with a glass of chilled white wine. Have some while you are cooking, too, if it seems advisable.
Light mixed green salad on the side.

Life can be relatively easy, can’t it?

Summer smoothies

Ingredients:

1 pt. fresh raspberries
4 oz. fresh unsweetened goat yogurt
1 C ice
4 oz. juice (apple or other clear juice, not sweetened or artificial)

Put all of the ingredients in your blender. Put the ice on top, unless your blender is turbo powered. Blend away. Add water or juice (sparingly) as needed to achieve your desired texture.

Makes two 16 oz. servings.

Serve with a little protein on the side to help regulate blood sugar (soy sausage, a hard-boiled egg, a bite of ham, whatever you’ve got that is relatively high in protein but doesn’t add more sugar to this breakfast recipe.

Substitute mango, peach, or any other berry as you wish. Citrus fruits curdle in yogurt, so they don’t really work. Substitute cow yogurt if you must, but goat yogurt is truly excellent in smoothies. Bananas are such a dominant flavor that I do not use them in summer smoothies. In the summer when so many fruits are available fresh and full of their own flavors, choose a fruit that is light and balanced and seasonal.

Fresh foods, prepared simply, simply taste best.