Eating a snow mobile, one drop of oil at a time

In my quest for good health and not to be a burden on my family, I have been looking at oddball research. Well not really oddball, but definitely different ideas. I found that type 2 Diabetes can lead to Alzheimer's disease because of insulin resistance. Well that just will not do. I have type 2 Diabetes and there is no freaking way I want to lose my marbles more than I already have. More research and I found that carbohydrates are the fuel for our bodily engines ... but it is a bit like diesel and causes lots of toxic waste, which gums up our insulin production etc and leads to disease and diabetes etc. Apparently fat is a far better 'fuel'. All these years of thinking that oil was bad for me turns out to be fake news. Who knew? I don't eat much in the way of carbs anyway, but this just made me more convinced to go fully carb free. Fat burns at a cleaner rate with no toxic waste and so I now make coconut cream mixed with chia seeds and a bit of cocoa .. and viola a lovely dessert for when I feel like a sweet treat. I can see Barry spinning in his grave at that idea. He was never a sugar fiend, but his idea of a balanced diet was to have carbs at each meal. When Barry was diagnosed with cancer all those years ago, a family member told him it was his own fault that he had cancer because he should have been eating a vegan diet. And he said 'I would rather die than give up my sandwiches.'

Well in my health quest I watched the story of Steve Jobs and his cancer battle. Did you know he was a vegan and even when he was told he would die if he didn't eat proteins, he refused to eat meat of any sort? He died of pancreatic cancer. So there you go. Being vegan would not have saved Barry. But maybe I should have done this research a few years back and tried to wean Barry off the bread? No, that would have just caused stress and no one needs that.

I went to meet an author at our local library this week. She was fascinating. A story teller par excellence. Just a handful of us sat on chairs around the room and she started telling us about her life in Alaska. Not somewhere I have on my bucket list to visit. She was a teacher and taught in rural areas where life was extremely difficult. Her students didn't talk much because they had been told by their elders to stay silent in case they scared away the caribou. And without food from the hunt, they would all starve to death. So the children would answer with a raised eyebrow. She would ask a question and twenty kids would raise their eyebrows in unison. She was given the class from Hell as she called it. Children with fetal alcohol syndrome. At the end of term one, the kids all had to put on a play for the village to show them what they had learnt. So here were these kids who didn't speak and were severely disadvantaged ... and a room full of spectators. She wrote a play that they could all participate in without saying a word. But the main actor suddenly threw a tantrum. He was supposed to be hunting caribou and he threw a wobbly because she refused to allow him to use a real gun. He had been given a stick to hunt with and he didn't feel it was right. He was seven years old and a bit of a loose cannon not the ideal candidate for a gun licence. Well it all worked out in the end and was well received ... even if the hunter was not permitted to bring a live weapon onto the stage.

The elders of the tribe would often walk into a room and sit quietly for a few minutes or even an hour without saying a word. They felt that the wisdom of their years needed to be shared. This included them walking into private homes at odd times. Well sometimes I need a wise man or two to show up at my house too. This particular wise man said to the young students who loved their snow mobiles and had stopped using Malamud dogs because of the cost of feeding them in times of poverty. He said, 'Snow mobile cannot find its way home in a blizzard.' Silence for a few seconds then, 'You cannot eat a snow mobile if you are stranded.' Wise, wise words. the Inuit feel that we are reaching the end of the 'modern' times and will soon return to a more basic era. Interesting, very interesting and thought provoking.

The author is Emma Stevens and her books are 'Walking on Ice', 'Nesting on the Nushagak' and 'Dancing on the Tundra'.No, I am not getting a kick back from her book sales. But if you enjoy a good yarn???

My own journey with writing has be fraught with problems. My almost completed novel that I mentioned last time ... vanished into cyberspace. Pouf. Gone. I Googled how to recover a document. Yes, I had saved it, but apparently in the wrong place and yes, it was gone for ever and ever. Peggy said that I should take my computer into the police because they had forensic computer specialists that could recover things that had been deleted. But realistically, well I will just start from the beginning. Which is a very good place to start. Barry never read any of my books and I do wonder if he has stuck his hand through the veil of death and finagled the computer so that I will need to start again? How rude. Not amused in any way, shape or form. I do suffer from FOMU ..'Fear of Mucking Up'. But I have made a commitment to stop negative self speak, so no, I am not going to muck up. I am going to succeed.

Do you know which bird is the most productive bird in the world? The parrot because it succeeds (sucks seeds). Grandma humour. I haven't had too much time to worry about writing lately. We have welcomed a niece and her family to our part of the world and I have been busy doing family stuff more than arty and writing stuff. I have decided not to beat myself up about not writing my book just yet ... or doing some designs that really really need to be done and dusted soon. No. I will take a deep breath and enjoy the rain and the thunder and lighting outside my window. I will take pleasure in watching the raindrops drip down the window panes and splash in the puddles. I will not complain about wet cats climbing into bed with me at two o'clock in the morning. I will sit with a hot cup of herbal tea and think good thoughts and wish my enemies happiness. Oh wow, did I just say enemies? Well I don't actually have too many of those. My worst enemy is myself. I sabotage myself in so many ways that I really should give myself a good smack or at least a stern talking to. If someone else said the things that I do in my self talk, I would unfriend them from my Facebook page and never talk to them again. Or at least take them off my Christmas card list. Oh, that is right, Christmas cards are not really on my list of things to do this year. I am not a fan of e-cards either.

I am off to make a nice meal of meat and mushrooms on a bed of lettuce for dinner ... and then watch a movie or read a book and maybe eat a bowl of chia seeds and coconut milk. Yes, my life is exciting in the extreme. I am sure you yearn to be in my shoes. Yeah nah. Not really. But I like it and that is what is important.