I took yesterday off from blogging. My wife never worked that day, so she was home until late into the afternoon, and thus my available time for blogging was heavily eroded until it had basically become extinct.
I had risen before 3:00 a.m., and then at 5:17 a.m. I was standing outside the locked front door and about to set off afoot to hike the near-mile to the outdoor ATM at the Coast Capital Savings building over by the King George SkyTrain Station in Whalley.
I had a cheque to deposit that contained my younger brother's monthly expenses reconciliation payment (for the household's monthly utilities, plus a contribution to the monthly mortgage), as well as a payment to me of half of the annual City of Surrey utilities billing ─ the annual utilities payment was due that same day, and I had written a cheque out for the full amount (I am on the books as the homeowner).
I felt oddly robust during that outing, yet two days before I had gone on a shopping expedition into Whalley and found that walking almost felt unnatural.
Yesterday's ATM hike even witnessed me breaking into a decent bit of running ─ sufficiently so, that I became convinced that if ever I am able to live where I could practice running again in private, I would be able to reclaim the powerful stride that once was mine.
However, I become winded heavily in short order ─ that condition would also require considerable attention if ever such a paradisiacal situation became mine where once more I would be able to train outdoors whenever the mood struck.
As matters are, my debt and reclusivity make me a prisoner here within my own home, for there is no privacy in my immediate world outside of our property.
I made such good time that I was back home and able to return to bed barely after 6:00 a.m.
I was to later learn that my wife was not working that day because she was spending it preparing for her trip ─ at some point this evening, she is scheduled to be on a flight from the Vancouver International Airport to go back to her home village in Thailand to visit her somewhat ailing mother.
The duration of the holiday is to be a minimum of six weeks if all goes as she plans.
This leaves me in a most tricky plight insofar as meeting the many payments that are going to become due in the meantime. Without me being able to have any reliance now upon her salary from the Thai restaurant she normally works at, my two stepsons are going to have to 'take up the slack,' for my monthly pension income cannot come anywhere near sustaining what is ahead.
When she finally left us late last afternoon, she gave me a good and long hug, and joked, "Don't cry!"
And she promised a couple of times that she would phone me after she is in Thailand.
As I said, her flight is sometime this evening or maybe even after midnight. However, she left last afternoon to return to wherever it is that she tends to stay in Vancouver.
I am not going to elucidate.
I believe that last night's bedtime slightly surpassed 1:00 a.m., and the evidence was there overnight that I had slept inadequately prior to then.
Nevertheless, I rose once to turn on and log into my computer, and also disconnect its mouse to help avoid any freezing; and then I returned to bed for some further sleep. It was raining outside, and did so throughout the morning.
I finally rose in the neighbourhood of 4:45 a.m. at latest and was soon at work on the new post I am building at one of my six hosted websites.
My youngest stepson was still up, and his older brother was to soon enough rise to ready himself for work.
I discharged the day's website post content assignment before returning to bed after 8:00 a.m.
I did nap, but only about an hour had passed when I was again awake enough to care to check the time. After a few minutes I reluctantly rose.
My younger brother was downstairs watching T.V., and I joined him at 10:00 a.m. and put our T9 Android 8.1 TV Box into operation to call up a few episodes of T.V. series we follow.
It was deep into the noon-hour when he was ready to return to his bedroom for a rest, and I returned to my own bed very shortly after 1:00 p.m.
My eldest stepson had come home from work during the noon-hour ─ a short workday, for whatever reason.
Again, I was only abed for about an hour before checking the time and then getting back up. My brother had not yet left for the afternoon ─ he was reading at the dining table.
Apparently my youngest stepson has his car back 'on the road.' It was gone ─ he had probably driven it to work (he has a job entailing 24-hour shift work).
His car must have been sitting in the open-sided carport for as many as six months, its licence plates removed. I expect that now that our weather is again liveable, he wants the luxury back of getting about on four wheels and under his own steam.
My brother soon enough left ─ he would be catching a bus in order to hook up with his friend Greg somewhere. Greg also would be busing from his home in Langley for that hook-up.
It is quite possible that I will be getting to bed early this evening, for I will not allow myself to be drawn into sitting up and operating our Android TV Box if my brother is not home before 9:30 p.m. (he doesn't know how to operate the device).
After he had left and I was then home alone (both of my stepsons were gone when I rose from that afternoon nap), I eventually got around to having some exercise out in the backyard tool-shed.
The afternoon had some sunny breaks despite the cloud-cover, but it was still rather chilly out there. And for the first time in a handful of days, I was not to be basking in some backyard afternoon sunshine.
And so much for my day. I will just add that I find myself missing my wife, so it was nice to get a last call from her just after 4:00 p.m. She was about to go out to do some sort of shopping with a couple of her gorgeous Thai friends.
As far as I know, I do not have cancer of any sort. However, the odds are that in this day and age with all of the toxins and pollutants we are inundated with, we all do have unknown cancers that develop and then come to nothing, or else that just lie dormant.
The following article speaks of the cancer-defeating properties of a plant variously called mayapple:
HSIonline.com
The North American mayapple (or American mandrake) is identified in the article as being known botanically as Podophyllum peltatum, whereas the nearly extinct Asian variety is cited in the article as Podophyllum emodi.
However, that Wikipedia article on the North American version claims that the proper botanical name for the near-extinct Asian species is Sinopodophyllum hexandrum, and Podophyllum emodi is somehow a "synonym" ─ I don't exactly understand how a plant species can have more than one correct scientific name.
Anyway, the HSI.online article finishes up by saying that "Mayapple is so toxic, you won’t find it in supplement form. It’s just too dangerous to do treat yourself with it."
Yet if you refer to an Amazon search that I did at the top of this page using the North American plant's botanical name Podophyllum peltatum, there do seem to be supplemental products available that can be purchased.
So how much would be safe as a dose if a person did have some type of cancer?
That's a whole new topic, isn't it?
Here are further past articles on the plant's cancer-fighting potential, if anyone has any interest:
- ScienceDaily.com: Anticancer Compound Found In Common Plant: American Mayapple
- AtlasOfScience.org: May apple inspires new anti-tumour compounds that trigger preferential death of cancer cells
- ScienceMag.org: Genetic engineering turns a common plant into a cancer fighter
- ARS.USDA.gov: American Mayapple Yields Anti-Cancer Extract
- Drugs.com: Mayapple Uses, Benefits & Dosage
- VirtualMuseum.ca: The Healing Power of Plants - May-apple (Podophyllum peltatum)
And here is a .pdf of a U.S. Forest Service document that was first published in 1973 that gives some horticultural details about the plant:
- FS.Fed.us: MAYAPPLE (Podophyllum peltaturn L.)
Even though I am 69 years old, I don't get any regular medical check-ups. I only visit a doctor if something goes very wrong.
Consequently, I have no idea what my blood pressure may read as, nor what my cholesterol levels are.
But for anyone who has been told that they have problematic cholesterol levels, the study being reported on in the two articles that follow should matter:
JacksDailyDose.com
Nutraingredients-USA.com
An Amazon search I performed using the phrase "berberine and silymarin" is at the bottom of this post.
I suppose anyone who might consider buying some of each substance should ensure that what they are purchasing can match the sort of dosages that the second article quoted from the study.
And did you notice that the study even found that blood glucose levels were reduced by these two substances in combination?
I will leave you with one final article ─ a report about a U.S. study that has found disturbing levels of glyphosate in both beer and wine:
DrMicozzi.com
Here are a couple of other articles about that alarming piece of research:
- Fortune.com: Weed Killer Chemical Found in Beer and Wine, Report Says
- FoodDive.com: Glyphosate is in most beer and wine, study says
I wish I could know how Canadian beer and wine stacked up! Obviously, heavy drinkers will be paying a far greater toll than the abuse they are inflicting upon their livers and brains.
Returning to the topic of my wife, early last year she was back at the family home in Thailand and attended the marriage of her niece on February 25, 2018 ─ the following three photos of the bride and groom were likely taken in the city of Udon Thani:
I know that I should not have, but I alerted my wife's youngest son late this afternoon to just how much debt his mother has brought upon us over a five-month period spanning roughly mid-October 2018 through to mid-March 2019.
He was so aghast that he has since texted her. I also texted her to warn her that he is now privy:
While [your son] and I were looking at our Rogers and banks accounts, he found out about your mortgage line of credit withdrawals ─ poor mum is in trouble with her little boy!
He is 21 years old. His mother had wanted him to set up an automatic withdrawal of her cellular billing from her credit card, so I got involved with him about it.
I suggested that he should perhaps wait until she was over in Thailand before sending his censorious text, for his criticism would likely be burdensome for her on her long, long flight with its layover in Asia that will also involve a few hours.
She is flying by herself, so she will have only her thoughts for company.
I should have at least waited until she was already gone before making him privy to our financial woes, but they affect him and his brother now too.
By the way, he had not gone to work this afternoon as I had thought ─ he seems to have the day off. Also, he reported that he is trying to sell his car.
By the way, he had not gone to work this afternoon as I had thought ─ he seems to have the day off. Also, he reported that he is trying to sell his car.
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