Eat More Salt
I fed the black squirrel today. Last week I put a little bag of cashews in my jacket pocket for the next time I saw him, and today was the day. It was pouring down rain, and his hair was all wet and fuzzy on his head (looked like one of the punky Asian teenage guys that hang around the door of Shabusen on Burrard on the weekends), but that didn't stop him from running up to me when he saw me.
I dug out the little bag of nuts, and he took them one at a time from my hand. After he'd eaten three or four, I figured that was enough to cause squirrel indigestion, so I put the nuts away, said goodbye, and headed on toward work. A little further through the park, though, I got a funny feeling and turned around, and sure enough, there he was standing behind me again (whistling, once more, assuming squirrels could whistle).
For that he got one more cashew, but I really had to go after that — I was running late.
Today was also monumental because, after it had been routed practically all over town it seems, a courier envelope finally arrived at my desk at work, and inside was nothing less than a check from my moving company for US$750! And 40 cents! I've been trying to squeeze the blood from this turnip since early December, when my stuff first arrived here, so it's a bit of a personal victory that it's finally here. Silly movers, promising me a refund that they don't deliver. At least now I'll leave them alone.
I'm iodine deficient! Yeah, that's the other thing. In my newly (and MSP card inspired) renewed effort at trying to sort out some of my health issues, one of the things that had come up was possible thyroid dysfunction. I'd had the blood test for hypothyroidism several times, and it always came out negative, but apparently the blood test for the condition is not very accurate (yes, I was skeptical at first). Anyway, I've walked around with a henna-like spot of iodine solution painted on me each day for the last several days, and it still never survives for even near the 24 hour minimum that adequate iodine amounts are supposed to indicate.
It's interesting that there's an assumption these days that people get plenty of iodine, given the whole iodized salt thing, but with all the high blood pressure and other heart health anti-salt propaganda, even a fairly regular salt eater like myself still doesn't get enough to do the trick, apparently. Perhaps something to check out yourself, if you're feeling a bit run down all the time.
So, overall, this is actually a good thing. Iodine supplementation is very cheap. And the symptoms that deprivation causes are pretty bad (fatigue, depression, short term memory loss, etc), and this is like a free gift certificate to improve all that stuff. I'm curious to see how much better I'm doing after I take care of this.
There was also a dog in the liquor store (I stopped in there for some celebratory party material after depositing my mover check and getting a bite to eat at the Swagat Indian restaurant). It was a big Springer Spaniel sort of dog, and very friendly, but when I got home, Ivan the cat could smell the dog on my pants (which had been consummately slobbered upon) and looked at me as if I'd been cheating on him.
Ah, feline ethics.
I dug out the little bag of nuts, and he took them one at a time from my hand. After he'd eaten three or four, I figured that was enough to cause squirrel indigestion, so I put the nuts away, said goodbye, and headed on toward work. A little further through the park, though, I got a funny feeling and turned around, and sure enough, there he was standing behind me again (whistling, once more, assuming squirrels could whistle).
For that he got one more cashew, but I really had to go after that — I was running late.
Today was also monumental because, after it had been routed practically all over town it seems, a courier envelope finally arrived at my desk at work, and inside was nothing less than a check from my moving company for US$750! And 40 cents! I've been trying to squeeze the blood from this turnip since early December, when my stuff first arrived here, so it's a bit of a personal victory that it's finally here. Silly movers, promising me a refund that they don't deliver. At least now I'll leave them alone.
I'm iodine deficient! Yeah, that's the other thing. In my newly (and MSP card inspired) renewed effort at trying to sort out some of my health issues, one of the things that had come up was possible thyroid dysfunction. I'd had the blood test for hypothyroidism several times, and it always came out negative, but apparently the blood test for the condition is not very accurate (yes, I was skeptical at first). Anyway, I've walked around with a henna-like spot of iodine solution painted on me each day for the last several days, and it still never survives for even near the 24 hour minimum that adequate iodine amounts are supposed to indicate.
It's interesting that there's an assumption these days that people get plenty of iodine, given the whole iodized salt thing, but with all the high blood pressure and other heart health anti-salt propaganda, even a fairly regular salt eater like myself still doesn't get enough to do the trick, apparently. Perhaps something to check out yourself, if you're feeling a bit run down all the time.
So, overall, this is actually a good thing. Iodine supplementation is very cheap. And the symptoms that deprivation causes are pretty bad (fatigue, depression, short term memory loss, etc), and this is like a free gift certificate to improve all that stuff. I'm curious to see how much better I'm doing after I take care of this.
There was also a dog in the liquor store (I stopped in there for some celebratory party material after depositing my mover check and getting a bite to eat at the Swagat Indian restaurant). It was a big Springer Spaniel sort of dog, and very friendly, but when I got home, Ivan the cat could smell the dog on my pants (which had been consummately slobbered upon) and looked at me as if I'd been cheating on him.
Ah, feline ethics.