Animals. And sugar.

This Christmas card from a dear friend shows most* of the critters that roam through our property. From left: tufted titmouse (I think), cardinal, chipmunk, fawn (deer), squirrel, blue jay, raccoon, snail, fox, and another cardinal.

Speaking of deer, the Park Service is holding another hunt, or managed kill, in the park next door. The hunt happened last year too and we saw a difference -- the number of deer that sleep, roam, and give birth in our neighborhood went way down. They're still around but not nearly as many of them. Which makes you wonder why they're having the hunt again. Maybe on the theory that they must stay one step ahead of the deer because they are nearly impossible to control around here.

The article under the card about sugar was good too.

*To be complete the picture would need a groundhog, a rabbit, a cat, and a opossum. We got 'em all in our deep suburban abode.

A very small rant.

The Washington Post recently ran a short news item about the health benefits of fidgeting. This subject always interests me because I am, or at least I was, a very fidgety person. The headline ("Fidgeting might be good for your health, new study suggests") didn't exactly match the conclusions of the study; that didn't surprise me -- news, especially online news, frequently has bait-and-switch headlines. What did surprise and irritate me a bit was that the quote from the co-lead author of the study makes absolutely no sense to me. Maybe one of my readers can explain it to me. Here's the quote:

"While further research is needed, the findings raise questions about whether the negative associations with fidgeting, such as rudeness or lack of concentration, should persist if such simple movements are beneficial for our health," study co-lead Janet Cade of the University of Leeds said in a statement. 

What? I get the part about "negative associations," and it's probably true that all these years while I've been fidgeting I've been distracted and, more important, I've been rude to anyone nearby (sorry). But what does "...raise questions about whether the negative associations...should persist if such simple movements are beneficial for our health" mean? Is Dr. Cade saying that if fidgeting leads to better health, and therefore longer life, it should also lead to reduced rudeness and better concentration? That's the best I can do. Opinions?

Oh, one more thing. The Post article links to the study and gets the name of the journal wrong. They call it the American Journal of Preventative Medicine while the real name is the American Journal of Preventive Medicine. I've long hated the word "preventative" and I always edit out that errant "ta."

I guess I'm done. I'm going to stand up now and go fidget since that seems to be the only exercise I get these days. Unless complaining counts as exercise.

"Better Call Saul"

Michael McKean in the new HBO series Better Call Saul is adorable. On the show, he suffers from “idiopathic environmental intolerance attributed to electromagnetic fields" or I.E.I.-E.M.F., which you can read about here and here. I didn't watch Breaking Bad; too many guns, smashed faces, and spurts of blood for my taste. [I'm assuming that's the kind of violence present in BB.] The spin-off, BCSaul, stands alone I think. Very black humor. Very enjoyable. Not too much violence so far.

The New Yorker article on IEI-EMF includes the intriguing info below. I'll spend some time today -- while watching yet another big snow fall -- trying to figure out exactly where this area is.

A handful of others [who suffer from IEI-EMF] have moved to homes within the United States National Radio Quiet Zone, a vast area of mountainous terrain on the Virginia-West Virginia border, where Wi-Fi, cell phones, and other technologies are severely limited to protect a nearby radio telescope.

It looks funny but I think it works for Glue Ear.

                                    

 

In mid-June I got a head cold, just a routine head cold, but it caused both of my ears to become blocked up. So much so that I couldn't hear much of anything for a week or more. I finally broke down (relatives and friends hounded me into it) and saw my doctor. She prescribed antibiotics (grrrr -- I knew she'd do it even though I'm in that club that thinks we take far too many unnecessary antibiotics). But, it turns out to have been a good thing because at this same time I'd been bitten by a tiny tick and within a few days after starting the antibiotics for the ears I noticed  the classic bull's eye around the site of the bite. The doctor extended the Rx for the anti's and said they would do double-duty: combat the nasty Lyme spirochete and any bacterial opportunists in my ears. She said I could also take standard OTC antihistamines (over the pharmacist's counter that is, since you now have to register with the Drug Enforcement Agency to score pseudoephedrine -- thanks methheads).
 

Two weeks of antihistamines and three weeks of antibiotics later one ear was still annoyingly blocked up. So I saw an ENT specialist, reluctantly. I was pleasantly surprised when he sent me home with this little balloon device. Nothing pharmaceutical, nothing invasive -- unless you count blowing air up your nose invasive.
 

I think it helped! I used it for a week, felt that my ear was gradually clearing up, then stopped for a few days. The blockage started creeping back so I resumed using it, and now my ears feel fine. As with many medical treatments, I'll never know if the ears were going to clear up anyway so I don't know for a fact that the balloon worked, but I'll use it again if this should happen again.
 

Otovent seems to be big in the UK. People there use it for what they call "glue ear." I've been telling people that I had "blockage of the Eustachian tubes" which everyone seemed to immediately understand. But if I was in London I could have just said "glue ear" -- a vaguely disgusting term although it is succinct and descriptive.
 

I loved telling people that I was treating my blocked Eustachian tubes by blowing up a balloon with my nose.

 

Ganoderma Tsugae Tincture, for what ails you.

My clever sister (center of group picture, behind bearded young man--Jake--Rebecca's first sort-of boyfriend from high school) sent me this concoction. She harvested the Reishi mushrooms, top, and turned them into the tincture, middle. She and my brother-in-law (first bearded man on right, behind Rebecca's right shoulder) have been taking it for a year and haven't had a cold since. After I developed a whopping big head cold complete with two infected ears just hours after the wedding, my sis sent me a bottle of the stuff with instructions on how to take it. I'll report back next summer on its effectiveness. Meanwhile I'm taking nasty antibiotics (boo hiss) to clear up my ears and allow me to hear all the scintillating conversations I'm missing. [My niece is the dark-haired, tallish young lady in the back row towards the left, and the tallest man in the back is her husband.]