7-8-26. Soooo very memish.

 W: 321.0        BS: NA

Down at 9, up at 12.  Usual causes I suppose.  Today will be quiet I think. Or busy. Whatev.  I'll do some stuff, if I feel like it.

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Huh. Walmart stopped delivering groceries to our area. Delivered one day, lost that option the next day. Same stunt Pizza Hut pulled... just changed their map and suddenly we are a few hundred feet out of their delivery area.

Family of four buying groceries weekly... and that's money they won't see again. On the other hand, I had to buy a one year 'Walmart +' membership to get the free shipping and delivery. Considering I usually buy groceries weekly, that seemed to make sense. Now they are not delivering weekly groceries? Not so much sense.

So, I'll use up that years membership having Walmart ship things to my house for 'free'. All the heavy things I don't want to carry. Cat litter, critter feed, bottled water, softener salt, bulk paper goods; They can bring all that to my front porch where I shall be relaxing with a cigar, smiling.

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It begins.  German lunchbox.

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Semi-fake, but very accurate.

Q: Do I believe I have the right to control other people's lives?

A: No, I don't. When I was young I thought I knew best and everyone should just listen to me, but I matured. I grew up, and the day I realized other people's lives were just that was the day I became an adult.

Q: Do I believe other people are required to listen to my opinions?

A: See the above answer. I used to, but then I was not a child anymore.

Q: Do I believe other people are required to care if I'm offended, and do something about it?

A: Sounds pretty asinine and immature, doesn't it? I'll go with 'No'. I'm not three years old anymore.

Q: Do I believe there should be one set of rules that everyone must be held to?

A: I used to, but then again I used to believe a lot of silly crap. Rules are rules for people who are willing to, or can be forced to, abide by them. It's 100% a risk Vs. reward judgement every time and every day for every person. No, obeying rules without question is not a virtue, it's a copout. Rules work if and when they are well designed for everyone's benefit and more people agree than not. If that fails, it falls to the rifleman's quarter mile to resolve the issue.

7-7-26

 W: 321.4            BS: 64            BP: 140/78

Woke at 4am.  Blood sugar in the low 50's and my monkey brain decided I needed to deal with.... something.  A banana and a mug of coffee later, and all is well, except I was not in bed asleep where I wanted to be.  Oh well, 6 hours is enough for any man.

I'm eating differently.  Less food, smaller portions, and different foods.  I'm even eating... shudder... vegetables.   All this has thrown my once fairly stable blood sugar into a tizzy.  From 38 units a day of insulin I am now doing 20 and still watching for lows carefully.

It will all work out in the end, and if it's not working out that just means it's not the end.

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I don't even recall planting some of this basil!  Time to pick some and load up the dehydrator.

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7-6-26

 W: 319.4            BS: 98            BP: 157/89

Too hot to bake bread, but not too hot for flatbread from a skillet.

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At first blush, that looks to be pushing $100,000 in weapons.

Now, I know some trans people and know 'of' more.  Almost all of them have difficulty providing for themselves day to day, let alone having big sums to blow.  That said, I think if/when the ATF starts running numbers on these weapons this story will vanish so hard heads will spin.  The money came from someplace.

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7-5-26

 W: 323            BS: 87            BP: 141/79

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7-4-26

 W: 323.0            BS: 67            BP: 139/78

Weight gain = PROBLEM.  That is all fluid, and I can feel it.

On top of simple tracking, yesterday I began using a weight loss app called 'FoodVisor'.  We shall see if it's worth the time and money.  I figure anything that helps me focus...

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"All I see is not me in power and the free money is drying up".

7-2-26

 W: 322.0   320.2     BS: 78        BP: 152/87

We cool the house with window AC units.  It works well until it gets really hot, and then an electrical issue pops up.  One AC downstairs does fine.  One unit in our bedroom and another in the kids hallway takes care of their rooms.  The problem is... in this very old house both upstairs AC units are on the same electrical circuit, and there is no way around that.

The circuit can handle the two units coming on sporadically to keep things cool, but when it gets above 90 or so the AC units want to run full time... and the circuit breaker will heat up and trip.

Our solution this week;  Kids AC stays on, ours in our bedroom is unplugged, and we adults are sleeping in the living room.

Hey, not the best of all possibilities, but at least we have the option to sleep comfortable. Thank God we are not French or English.

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7-1-26

 W: 320.4        BS: 114

My weight is up a bunch in just a day or so.  Sodium, 'easy' food choices, and heat.  This will be interesting.  Balancing my bodies need for sodium against the fluid buildup that sodium causes.  Especially with the coming weather.

I think today will be very light on food, but heavy on liquids.  Of sodium, I'll shoot for bare minimum to sustain.

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Hard water issues. Not frugal... smart.

The well water here at Castle Welling is hard.  How hard?  When I had it tested years ago, the technician whistled as he saw the results.  All he had to report was 'higher than'.  Higher than his test materials could show.

We live with it.  Water softener, as painful as they are. It occasionally moderates the problem, but never all the way to zero.

So, we live with it.  Many cases of bottled water to drink, and sometimes for coffee when I feel bougie.   Keep the softener filled, with my back aching as much as my wallet, and we learn some tricks.

#1 on the trick parade is vinegar.  It's cheap, safe, plentiful, and melts away mineral scale buildup, given time.

Here we see an outside hose nozzle getting it's bi-monthly treatment in vinegar. It will soak for roughly two hours, which will clear the scale from the tiny holes in it's selecta-spray device.  It will once again flow as designed.  Our only choice to fix the blockage is replacing it at $15 a pop.  I'm going with 'No', one of my favorite words.

Once that quart of vinegar is done at the hose nozzle, it will find the kitchen sink nozzle thrust into it overnight.  Once that is done, it will service the shower nozzle (on a hose).  Once done that chore, it gets saved for the dishwasher as a cleaning agent mid-cycle.

If the coffee maker is due a cleanse, it is the first patient before even the hose or sink nozzles.  Coffee is important. Still ends up in the dishwasher though.

$3.94 in vinegar can keep all these things functional for months on end.   That makes sense.

6-30-26

 W: 318.4        BS: 118

90 today, 90's and 100's for the foreseeable forecast.  So.... what better time to wake up and have no water?

A guy more adulty than me is on the way to see what's what.  Greatest fear is an issue with a well pump 200-300 feet down in the well.

(Update).  We now have a new well pump, and water.

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