the fog

THE FOG
when we were growing up we were always outside
especially in the summer
we would stay out late into the evening after sunset


i can remember playing outside with friends and my siblings
when someone would yell
hey here it comes
the fog machine
we would watch it come up the street with its fog being
sprayed back behind it
as it would pass us we would take off running behind it
running in all that fog

it would eventually outrun us but we would catch it as
it went one block over and came back our way

we would repeat this until it got further then we were allowed
to go this late at night

running so hard
breathing so hard to keep up
we sucked in an awful lot of that fog into our lungs
and it seems now we sucked a lot in
that ended up in our brains

now possibly leaving some of us in a fog as we get older











the fog had stuff in it to kill mosquitoes
i dont know for sure
but that was the time that ddt was used to kill mosquitoes
so im presuming thats what it was or some other
bad chemical like that

it ddt has since been banned in the united states
thanks monsanto for designing such a deadly poison
that affects us still
and will for hundreds of years

researchers have found that those who were exposed to
ddt when they were younger
may have a higher incidence of alzheimers disease

in my immediate family of 10 people
that appears to be 40%
my mother
my father
my younger brother
and
probably me

did sucking in all that fog somehow speed up
the process for my younger brother
and maybe me

even though ddt was banned in the us in 1972
80% of the patients in this study who had alzheimers had ddt
still in their body

thats at least 40+ years ago this exposure could have happened
unless they were still exposed from contaminated areas and animals
and drinking water

wonder if those west virgina folks need to be worried about
something like this happening to them in their later years

then in those patients who have the apoe 4 double gene
(that would be me and i presume my younger brother
had that bad combo also)
had 4 times the level of dde the breakdown product of ddt that
persists in the body compared to those without that gene

this ddt and dde seems to cause an increase in the production of that
protein called beta amyloid that is associated with alzheimers disease

its that sticky gooey stuff that sticks in the brain
and starts that chain of reactions that
ends in alzheimers disease

what is bad is that its not banned in all countries
some of the fruits and vegetables we eat from those countries
may have the ddt and other chemicals on it

i guess if you are kin to me you shouldnt eat fruit and vegetables
from those countries

pesticides like ddt have been shown to cause parkinsonism
so the link to alzheimers is not surprising
and
as mentioned above
it may be inducing the body to make this beta amyloid

thanks again monsanto etc
you did it to us all again

so in my youth i entered into that fog in the summer
now in my later years
i again enter that fog
maybe caused by the same chemical
ddt

folks this is more reason why we and why i should stay organic
in what we eat and do in our landscapes

who know what else is out there

the organicgreen doctor

sagging

SAGGING
thats what happens as you get older
things start to sag some
some things more than others
it stops at the top with the eyes
the just moves south

it seems to start with the color change of your hair
it turns grey
then
things start to sag

since retired i have developed this slight
baby bump
no im not pregnant and due anytime

i have these old sweat pants i wear
that i tie up along the new baby bump
the string must be stretchy now
as
the day goes on the tightness of the string
like some of the body parts
get looser and looser
and
next thing i know
i start to sag
then sag more
and more

usually i just pull the sweat pants back up
and retie them
but the other day i decided to let them sag and sag
to see what sagging would feel like

they dropped down lower and lower
down to where a plumber might wear theirs when they
stoop over

i found as it got lower and lower
if i developed a wide based walk that by extending out
my upper legs i could keep the pants in place
but
eventually i lost the battle
as the pants slid up over the baby bump
down the peak of the hill
the fall just seem to pick up speed
my gait got wider
i wiggled more
you know like when you have to go real bad
all that seemed to help
until
bam they went down to my knees

i was outside going to my garden
i guess it was that down hill incline that did that final
push to get them on down to my ankles
good thing i live in the country huh

all this made me think
how can those guys those kids walk around sagging like this
all the time
heck ive seen kids playing basketball sagging way down
below their butts
i cant even walk well hardly walk when mine gets that low

sagging doesnt really bother me if the kids do it
as long as i dont see things i dont want to see
or
if they dont wear white tighty undies
and
if they wear a nonholey pair of boxer undies

i worry more about what kind of kid they are
do they do well in school
important things like that

of course
when i sagged
i didnt meet all that criteria

think ill just stick with the age related sagging from now on
it comes on naturally

the organicgreen doctor

theres no excuse

THERES NO EXCUSE
yesterday i was awoken at 3am as it sounded like
someone was throwing small tiny pebbles against
the window in our bedroom

as i got up and went downstairs i could hear the sound
on our metal roof
dang it i thought as i had planned a day of doing errands
that i had put off
some of which had deadlines attached to them

i knew that that sound on my roof meant that i wouldnt be able
to do all i had planned that day
also
my wife she has to drive 40 miles to work
so we have a country n rule
if it sleets or rains frozen rain
we dont even start our cars
thats a rule we have followed in the 14 years we have lived here

it has bode us well over the years

my theory is if you dont get in your car and drive in this icy
dangerous mess then no harm can come to you or your car
or to someone else you may crash into it

so theres no excuse i thought
as i watched the school closings start piling up starting at 4am

why does it seem that all the rural school districts always get it
right
maybe because so many of their kids have to be bused over
longer distances
or do they just think differently those rural districts
while the city one think another way

i think its because the rural ones go outside
look on their windshields
walk in their driveway
skate on the road
and
say
i dont want my kids out in this mess or yours

maybe the city ones dont do that part of the job
they rely on a phone call meeting early in the morning to
decide

just walk out your damn door and youll know all you need to know

just as the sun came up or should i say dawn since the sun
didnt come out until hours later
i watched our yellow cat peaches try to walk on our walkway
then cross over some large rocks
poor guy
hope he didnt hurt himself
(yes our male cat is named peaches thats another story)
wished i could have videoed him trying to slip and slide his
way around

that when i thought about all those kids in those cars and buses

one of the large districts near here
no mention of  the name to protect the non innocent
has 5 high schools with an average of 2000+ kids in each school
then add in all the middle schools and all the elementary schools
thats 30000+- kids and staff that are put at risk
by a decision that wasnt made
until most of them were out the door to school

thats just one of several schools who didnt shut the school
down until it was too late

luckily only one school bus wrecked with kids on board
pretty precious cargo i would say
luckily for them and the powers that be
that no one was injured

so there is really no excuse
for not having closed all the schools yesterday around here
this was not snow
which most can drive it
but this was sheets of ice
that had closed the highways and parts of the interstate near
those schools long before school opened

what were they thinking or not

theres no excuse
no apology accepted

the organicgreen doctor

no care i care

NO CARE I CARE
i care that some people will get no care under the
affordable care act or obamacare
no real fault of the act its self
but
because of  the way its being presented to us all
by the news media and those opposed to it

its now the law
there are a lot of protections stuck in the law
it
i will admit and most people no matter their political leanings
will admit
its not perfect and not the way they would have done it

well they we all had our chance to do something
and
as usual the law is what we are stuck with
so
lets try to make the best of it

because of states like texas and florida some of the people who
need the most help are getting left out

so i personally have helped people out by using the states or
the healthcare.gov websites to navigate for them
here is some of what i found

most of the platinum plans may not be good ones
as they are strict restrictive hmos

california there is a reason they have signed up so many people
they make it so easy to do
eg
my son went online once i figured out what policy he needed
he signed up in a matter of minutes on a silver plan

massuchusetts has figured this all out years ago
they cover close to 97% of its people
signing up there is fairly painless

in some states the major carriers are not participating so the choices
are companies i was less familiar with

if you smoke you will pay more
one young person in their twenties that will get subsidies will
pay $30 more a month since that person smokes

in many cases the plans you can buy on the government site
have better coverage than the ones you can buy from the
private insurance company sites

be sure and check if your provider is on the plan thats chosen
as well as the hospitals you like to use

my son travels to two different states so we found a plan that
had providers in those states on his insurance he chose
eg
he chose a good blue cross ppo plan

then one thing i found out was that if you get a subsidy
and
eg a single person makes under $28000 a year
and
if they chose a silver plan the maximum amount of money they
will have to pay out for copays deductibles etc is $2250
which makes it like the gold or platinum plan
eg
one person got this plan with subsidies for $120 a month

another thing is that if you find a plan that pays well to use a
clinic-copays without having to pay the deductible for visits xray lab
er urgent care or scans
you may have higher costs for hospital care

i suggested to people they plug in what health care they had
last year and see what they might have to pay
and what health care they expect this year

also if you arent geting subsidies you dont have to use
the government sites at all
but
i recommend people who dont get subsidies to look at both sites
before making their choice

i also went on sites like www.ehealthinsurance.com and used it to
look at the plans as they like the insurance companies sites
but
unlike the government sites
allow you to sort out the different plans by things like copays
deductibles ppo hmo insurnace company maximum out of pocket
expenses etc
then i went to the government websites to look at the policies it
selected

so massachusetts has figured it all out already
thanks to mitt romney
california has made it easy
other states like yes texas florida utah etc has made it
difficult to do

its all too confusing to most folks
all of the people i helped were college educated
computer internet savvy folks
and
even i who has been in the medical field for a long time
had to work hard to get all the information to help
these folks make a decision

yes there has to be a better way
maybe a single system

we no matter our political beliefs lose in all this
we will pay one way or another for those not insured

so i care if you have no care

the organicgreen doctor

super bong bowl

SUPER BONG BOWL
sometimes the teams that play in the super bowl
just seem to be predetermined by fate

like when the new orleans saints made it to the super bowl
after the katrina disaster
and after the superdome was rebuilt
it was destined that the saints team and drew brees
to be in the super bowl
and to win it all

this year its seems the two teams were predetermined again
or predestined to be
yes
seattle and denver
why
because this is the year that the states of washington and
colorado legalized marijuana use

heck in the denver airport now
if you forget to dispose of your pot before you go
through the tsa line
that have a special container that you dump it in
with no penalties
hum wonder what they do with all that trash
but
get on that plane with it and  get caught
then the feds will hang your butt

seems strange doesnt it how our laws work
or should i say dont work sometimes

i think sometimes of all the kids and athletes lives that
have been ruined by having the weed in their possession
a entry level into the legal system
that at least in these two super bowl cities wont happen
anymore

all this for denver and colorado gives a new meaning
to rocky mountain high

according to reports over 50% of nfl players smoke the weed
the nfl apparently only test for it in the off season
all the players know when that it will be
get caught with a positive test then you are stupid

also apparently a lot of players use it for pain relief and
for stress relief during the season

some new reports are coming out that the weed can be used
in concussions and may speed the healing process in the brain
so in the future you may see the concussed player on the sidelines
eating a brownie smoking a joint or having a bud

in fact new studies in alzheimers disease shows that mild use of
weed may be helpful in improving short term memory loss
but of course like alcohol excessive use or stoners have a problem
that develops with their memory

i think if i lived in washington or colorado or if texas had medical weed
that i would take a brownie each night before i go to bed
to help to counteract the effects on my sleep of the aricept (donepezil)
that i take for possible alzheimers disease
and
to maybe improve my short term memory

so if you visit me be careful eating any of my brownies that are in
my cookie jar

its highly unlikely that the two star qbs in this game smoke the weed
or maybe ever did
peyton manning drinks beer i know he said so
thats the only bud he partakes of
russell wilson is so dang smart
he probably does little to harm himself or
his rep

what two great role models for our kids


then theres richard sherman
i know people says he is a thug
hes not
hes an honor student from high school who has his degree from stanford
with a high gpa
most of you/us cant even get into stanford much less have a high gpa if you
did
then hes a multimillionaire well set for life

ive watched him on interviews multiple times
what an intelligent person he is
thug he is not

it was his final play that put the seahawks in the super bowl
heck i would have been excited too

so this super bong bowl will take place on sunday
it will be cold but not as bad as what was expected
no snow or rain as of now

heres hoping it will be a smoking good game

the organicgreen doctor

i had a dream

I HAD A DREAM
these are famous words
mlk spoke them years ago
we celebrated his holiday earlier this month
 
im using these words today since i had a dream this week
it wasnt one of vast importance that dr king had
but for me it made me think and wonder a lot

as many of you know who have read this blog some
i have mild cognitive impairment amnestic type that is
thought to probably be due to alzheimers disease
if my dream is true i may have it

i take aricept (donepezil) for this hoping to slow down the
symptoms for a period of time
i dont know if it works but things havent gotten worse in
3 years
it the donepezil makes me have these real vivid dreams

ive been thinking a lot about whether i have the disease or not
as i notice some memory issues that i wonder if its due to
my age since my hair is now full grey or if its the disease
sneaking its head more into my life

however my neurologist thinks i might
my long term disability insurance agrees since they are paying
me my physician salary every year
now the federal government agrees with them
so i must have a problem right
and
of course i feel like thats what i have

the other night now this is in my dream
i was in college in my last year at the university where i
graduated from in california

during the dream i kept getting lost trying to find my classes
to take my final exams
some i even showed up late for
some professors allowed me to go ahead and take the exams

as i was testing i had difficulty taking the exams because i
couldnt remember the material
because i had just been diagnosed with possible alzheimers
and was seeing the effect on my memory
showing up as failing to remember the material i heard
in class studied and tested for

i finished the exams
but i felt like i didnt do well on them
but i never got the scores
so i dont really know how i did
i woke up and when i tried to go back to sleep
i couldnt get back into my dream

it felt strange to be a college student who couldnt remember the
material i had tried to retain
it felt very surreal

so i had a dream the other night
unlike dr king i hope mine
doesnt come true

the organicgreen doctor

whered it go

WHERED IT GO
thats what everyone is asking about all that money
whered it go

vince made 56 million bucks from his football contract and his
endorsements
how do you spend all that money
thats what all of us are saying

for those who dont know
vince young was the star of the university of texas football
a few years ago
he won the national championship his last year
then he went pro

he was drafted by the tennessee titans and made all that money
on his contract
its been downhill for him since

so you figure he paid 50%+ to taxes
that would leave 23 million dollars left
put that in mutual funds based on his age and risk tolerance
ok so his risk tolerance was high
but lets say what he should be invested in
then take 4% out a year

thats a million bucks a year

that would leave him if hes invested right with about
23+million balance left each year

i would think maybe most of us could live off that much right

he should have turned his money over to a good financial
adviser
wait he did have a good one that helped him spend all his
money
its a sad story that hits a lot of high paid professional players
and also a lot of those big lottery winners
you know the ones that we all buy a ticket for when the
pot gets so big

of course vince did spend 100000 big ones on a birthday party
the amount going out needs to be less than the amount coming in
thats true of all of us no matter what our income is

his case is really a larger scale of what many americans are doing now
living way above their means
getting deeper into debt especially credit card debt
some to the point where you cant recover
thats what happened to vince

ive worked with and have known physicians who lived that way
spending all the money they made
then nearing the end of their careers reality sets in
they realize sadly for some that they cant retire and have to keep working

what i did was several years ago
thanks to a rainwater brother who is a financial planner and from my
personal observations of cases like those above
we downsized some
cut our expenses
paid off our cars and house
maxed out not our credit cards but our retirement plans
note our credit card we use requires that we pay the balance off
within thirty days
began living like we were retired before we were retired
and
now in retirement and beyond
we are able to live comfortable not exorbitant just comfortable
and are able to do those things we like to do
and travel as much as we want to travel
and still have money left over hopefully when retirement is all over

so i think about vince and others
and think
whered it all go

dont let this happen to you

the organicgreen doctor

dirty dozen

DIRTY DOZEN

remember that movie about those ww2 guys
this isnt about them but its about the foods we eat

for us here at the country n
we do not worry about the dirty dozen at all
since we only grow our foods organically
with no pesticides

if we have pests
we pick them off and throw them in a bucket of
soapy water
when they quit swimming we compost them
my wife she is the best bug grabber ive ever seen
she seems to get some pleasure in disposing of them

we also spray some of them off with rainwater
we may sprinkle bacillus thuringenesis or use a product
called spinosid if caterpillars are involved
if ground based like pill bugs we use diatamaceous earth
sometimes we even sick our chickens and guinea on them

our garden as mentioned before is surrounded about 80%
by our chicken run so that those ladies can eat bugs
as they travel across to the garden

we also introduce ladybugs every year to our garden
they love aphids

then we cover the crops with light row cover to keep some
of those varmints out

all organic of course

we now make our own compost so know that no pesticides etc
are in it or if we buy compost we only use the ladybug composts
from the natural gardener

so at this site www.ewg.org/foodnews/summary.php
they list the dirty dozen plus and the clean fifteen

here are the bad guys listed in order of most contaminated

apples celery cherry tomatoes cucumbers grapes hot peppers
imported nectarines peaches potatoes spinach strawberries
sweet bell peppers
then the plus summer squash kale/collard greens
hate to see them mess up such a good nutritious veggie like kale

then the clean or should we say cleaner veggies fruits
asparagus avocado cabbage cantaloupe sweet corn egg plant
grape fruit kiwi mangoes mushrooms papaya onions pineapple
frozen sweet peas
and lastly

the sweet potato thats the one
that the little girl used in her science experiment where the
nonorganic one wouldnt grow but the organic one did and
the one grown organically at her house really grew well

zucchini hawaiian papaya and sweet corn and soybeans are
the most likely ones to be sold as gmo genetically madified
plants

so i looked at this list
at our grocery store some things are not all available organically
or if they do they may have shelved them too long
we have bought from the bad list
apples celery cherry tomatoes cucumbers potatoes sweet bell peppers
me bad

luckily at the country n we are growing all our lettuce spinach kale
swiss chard broccoli cabbage asian greens carrots beets onions
spinach ourselves so we know they are clean

some veggies that have been grown in fields contaminated by
pesticides even those that havent been available for years still
show up in some veggies as there are still residues left in
some farmers fields
not here at the country n though

i wonder what effect this has on our health
especially to those rapidly growing folks like babies toddlers
and teenagers as these pesticides get deposited in their tissues
it cant be healthy
look what it does to all those rapidly growing insects

we are what we eat you know

the organicgreen gardener

the wrench

THE WRENCH

those of you who read my blog regularly know that
my younger brother died last summer in the final stages
of alzheimers disease

a disease that i may have based on all the testing that
i have had done
time will tell on this

my younger brother was a fireman then later a
deputy sheriff who also had the drug dogs for
the department

he was also quite talented doing things
that many of us never learned to do
built his own house could take a car apart and fix it
clean a deer weld and fix most anything

he and i when we were younger always seemed to share
a motorcycle a bike a motorped a car a truck
but he was always the one that fixed it

he also ran the local water system for the area where he lived

he never liked the idea of my collecting rainwater and drinking it
he was always worried about it being clean enough
since he was particular about the water system he worked with

after his death i told my sister in law
that i wanted one of his tools
a wrench a screwdriver a hammer a chisel whatever
that i could have and use
and
when i used it i would always think of him

so in the mail this last week came a package from
my sister in law
what the  heck was this
when i unwrapped it there was that wrench shown
in the picture above

she said in her letter
this is a wrench he always had in his pocket

so this last week i took this wrench
its worn some
and it should last me through the next several years while
i am still able to figure out how to use it

he must have used it a lot on his rounds checking and working
on the water meters

so this last  week here at the country n it was in my back pocket
all the time
i realized after a couple of days why he chose this one
i opened water valves with it
opened a can of pipe glue with it
took off and replaced a dripper for my chicken waterer with it
opened the top off a bottle of liquid fertilizer
used it to disconnect my battery in my old truck that had died
then used it to replace the battery

so now i know why he had that tool in his  pocket all the time

now i have my cellphone in my front pocket
my costanza billfold in my left back pocket

wonder if thats why my disk ruptured from all
that pressure on that side

my brothers wrench in my right back pocket
as i wonder around my country n place

always thinking of him as i use that wrench
thanks bro

the organicgreen doctor

the red eye

THE RED EYE
this is not about that flight that some people take to las vegas
its well about a red eye

red eyes have multiple causes
allergies infection irritants the weed iritis

bet the cops around here are wanting to test people for the weed
when they get pulled over for traffic stops

in fact right now in the central texas area if your eyes are red
and itching and watering like crazy
then its that cedar pollen in the air that has reached record levels
ok its really mountain juniper but we all in this area
call it cedar fever

its all caused by last few years drought
then a wet fall
then a cold real cold winter days
followed by real warm windy winter days

the trifecta final event for that explosion of pollen that
caused a lot of people to call 911 that a fire was burning nearby

but its was only that explosion that can happen together to
make that cloud a red cloud that looks like smoke

people are a little jumpy around here about fires you know
after the fires weve had the last two years

there really is no good treatment if you are one of the unlucky ones
who are highly allergic to this stuff
despite all the claims of treatments from doctors pharmacists
homopathic folks
except
maybe
to take the red eye to vegas

the organicgreen doctor

canine howling

CANINE HOWLING
if we didnt live at the country n with neighbors a half a mile away
in one direction and further in the other directions
im sure we would be turned over to the bark police
if we lived in town

you know we would be that neighbor whose dogs bark in
the middle of the night
when you get into that deep deep sleep that you need to feel
rested

then add to that a rooster starts crowing about 400 in the morning

these are sounds that if you are not use to them might be
annoying

but here at the country n we live in a country hoa that allows
barking dogs and crowing roosters
no one cares
i guess cause they cant hear them

yes if we live in town we would probably be ousted by now
from living within the city limits by those ordinances
they have

people who come to visit us unannounced dont come knock
on our door
instead they drive up to our gate and honk or yell real loud
they know better to go farther

well the new ups guy didnt know the country rules
as one day while i was napping after lunch i heard those
dogs abarking
for those who are hunters and have used dogs to squirrel hunt
or hog hunt its the sound when they have the quarry pinned down

i got up and there was the ups guy pinned up against the wall
keeping our watch dogs at bay with the package he had to
deliver
thank goodness it was a long narrow package
i started to wait awhile to retrieve him but didnt have the heart
to let it go on so long

the dogs had done their jobs well

we have two dogs


one is a licker he would lick you to death
but with his bark a deep sounding one you wouldnt know that









the other one if when you look at him and see his eyes
theres no way you would ever cross through that gate
then he does have a nasty bark also

ok so hes proven himself a few times when someone did that
ill withhold the details

but he is what you want in a watchdog in a rural area

we always keep him locked up when visitors are around
to be safe

as im writing this the two dogs are barking because someone
drove into our driveway which is 2 acres long
we are on a curve so our drive seems to be a common spot
that people pull off the road
what they do i dont know
maybe talk on their cellphones

im sure there is no way anyone would even think of coming
onto or property though

so this canine howling that goes on we tolerate here at the
country n
since each bark reminds us they are just doing their job
protecting us here at the country n

well sometimes its the coyotes howling that triggers it or
a nearby siren which the dogs hate or a herd of deer that
get too close to our property line

just doing their job they are

the organicgreen doctor