On a personal note...

All work and no play

2006-12-29T08:06:00.000-08:00

I now work at SFGH on the fourth floor. My unit specializes in Traumatic Brain Injury, ICU step-down and acute alcohol withdrawal. All I can say is that if the Nursing School learning curve was a Sunday drive in the park, the curve I am on now is a demolition derby.

Several factors make this nursing very daunting: The sheer volume of documentation, the constant manual keeping up with ever changing Doctor’s orders; the clarification of said orders; the delivery of medications and procedures in a timely and accurate manner; the pressure to know what each of these meds do and whether or not the Doctor is wrong. All the while, since this is ICU step-down, knowing that my patient may head south and I may need to call a MERT (Medical Evaluation Response Team) or a CODE. In addition, because General hired me as a Per-Diem Nurse, I only get 14-days training and I am on day eleven. I have already challenged the logic of this with my manager and nurse educator however.

Presently I am handling three patients with my preceptor (the maximum for my unit) and I am learning team nursing, where I work with an LVN who has three patients also. This means though that I am ultimately responsible for all six patients and for the delivery of IV medication to my LVN’s patients. I also need to sign off on all my LVN’s massive documentation.

My brain is literally being rewired. I have the ‘overwhelm’ dreams typical of any new intense job; during my days off, my mind is constantly gravitating back to work.

Don’t get me wrong, I am okay with this. At this point in my life, perhaps because I realize there are fewer days ahead than there are behind, I don’t care about the stress. I have absolutely no interest any longer in finding what will ultimately make me ‘fulfilled’. I don’t care if I have mean coworkers or bosses. I obsessed about this ad nauseum in the past and no longer have any patience for it. Miraculously, I have learned to completely ignore insults, slights, and even outright aggression. There is even time to crack an inappropriate joke now and then.

I have found a good career; it will likely be my last, albeit with variation along the way. I will get through this learning curve. Four of the charge nurses on my unit are City College graduates who came to 4B between two and four years ago; they make it look easy. Eventually, so will I.

It's been awhile

2006-10-19T11:14:00.000-07:00

What’s new with me you ask? I am now a Registered Nurse. I am at the tale end of a three-month long vacation before I begin my new career at San Francisco General. I have had enough money saved to do this but the end is in sight.

To tell you the truth, that much leisure-time is too much. Of late I tend to be prone to boredom which can lead to lazy-hedonistic-fatness. However, I have rejoined the gym and have put in a few weeks of cardio time. I have also resumed the walks I was so fond of last year. In fact, I have bumped up the average walk mileage. Yesterday, I walked over the Golden Gate Bridge and back on an 18-mile circuitous route.

Eight years ago....

2006-05-06T11:14:00.000-07:00

Some of you remember this. I once had a Geocities website; wrote the code myself as an html exercise in anticipation of my glorious career in Web Design. This was and e-mail based collection of a journey around the country I took with a friend of mine; a journey that lead me to San Francisco. I have not left since.

The Journey

This is a rather lengthy e-mail account
of the journey around the U.S. that brought
me to San Francisco; a journey that lasted
a month and a half, and took
my friend Bryan Land and me across
8,000 miles of this beautiful country.

05.04.1998
Today I slept in. After playing a bit with the internet. I decided it was time to begin chonicling my adventure..Obviously there are so many of you e-mail friends, that a good portion of this adventure will be batched to all of you (much to my friend Kerri's chagrin ). However, that is not to say that I will not write to each of you individually as electricity and phone
lines are permitted.....

First of all I will be traveling with old buddy Bryan Land. In spite of my passive efforts
to make this a group trip, it boils down to us two [ha, ha your loss :P ].

Geographic Goals:

Mom and Dad's (New Jersey, I'm here now)
Daytona Beach (Bry's Dad)
Denver/ Boulder/ Estes Park, Colorado (Tami's)
Vegas
Lake Tahoe
San Francisco
All points in between, preferably off interstate (thanks Gwen)...need to talk to
Bry about this......

Personal Goals:

Write these chronicles.
I am taking along my notebook computer. Provided I have access to electricity, I will be able to journal. As I come across residential phone lines I will be able to send to you all..
Simplify my diet. I am too heavy for my own comfort; 181# ! That's ok when I have daily 1.5 hour workouts, but I have not! I have been very lazy lately. I have noticed that I feel healthiest at 155 to 160. Limited incomes go a long way to helping with this goal and so does vegetarianism. Yes, I am going to try being a vegetarian again, not with the fanaticism I had when did it before (let's face it, if someone goes all out to fix me a home cooked meal with meat...I'll eat it!)
More practice with living fully in the moment.
That's right, any and all plans are subject to instant change (particularly if my truck blows a head gasket!).

So there you have it...adventures are great!.............M

Hello everyone, what's new? What a gloomy day - several days. That's ok though. I have been involved in the huge project of condensing all my favorite music in the ongoing effort to compact myself for this trip (and this life).

I have always wanted to do this..that is create mood tapes. So far, I have created a super funky workout tape, a tape of just really good mixed genre songs, and I am in the process of making what I call, meditative/hypnotic. Later additions will be a celtic tape and then a latin/flamenco/caribbean tape (or tapes). That should hold me.....

The inspiration for my next grand adventure (after this one) occured in a camping store here in NJ. Over the years I have wanted to do this, but always had a reason not to. This day, while looking at all that cool camping gear with my Dad, the thought came to me, "now is the time." For what you ask?; to hike the Appalachian Trail.....all of it!...at once.!. After picking my dad's brain about it for awhile, I got on the web and found a 'mountain' (hee hee) of info on the trail especially a web site of personal observations of hikers.

Doing the trail all the way through is called, logically, 'through-hiking'. The trail is 2,160 miles long and takes from four(record) to seven months to hike; I can do it in five or six. It should cost me no more than three grand, especially since I have mort of the gear already. Most people hike south(Georgia) to north(Maine) starting in February, but apparently there are hoards of people. Since I am more into solitude, I will hike north to south. Southbounders, like me, should begin there descent of great Mt. Katahdin in June. PERFECT! that gives me exactly one year to acquire the cash and train! Stay tuned....6.1.99.......>>>M

05.06.98
Went for a bike ride today...When I tell people that I am from New Jersey, invariably they scowl. I can tell what they are thinking; factories, smoke urban-suburban sprawl...Au contrair. For those of you that have never been to south jersey, it is damned near primordial, no kidding. The large expanse of forest known as the 'Pine Barrens' is, according to Dad, the most thinly populated stretch of the east coast. Today, I rode along the edge of the Brigantine Wildlife Refuge, a vast expanse of marsh that is home to many things, among them, Canadian geese and lots of horseshoe crabs (primordial, remember).

05.07.98
Truck is ready. Hooked up the CB today. Would you believe they still make the things! This is a hand held unit running off the truck battery. Almost finished with the mood tapes.........

05.10.98
Happy Mother's Day everyone. I am packed and ready. Dinner at my folks is always something special, especially the 'good-bye' dinner, and last night was no exception. Chicken Rellenos and Risotto, the new southwestern plateware, a nice wine. For dessert (on the back porch of course, there was a nice warm breeze) french coffee, chocolate cake, endless shots of Irish Mist and strains of Leo Kottke on 12 string in the background.

This morning, mom, dad and I had a nice mothers day breakfast at the Sunryder Restaurant,an old country general store turned eatery. Even though the weather has been crappy, something about the cool grey overcast sky lends to the feeling of home...

Well dear ones, from here on my e-mails will be sporadic as I must depend upon the mercy of homeowners to lend me their phone lines, so do not despair.....M

05.13.98
I am an explorer. In the ever consuming quest for definition of what I am, I can say that I am an explorer. Exploring is the common element in all that I do, and my unrest clearly occurs when I am NOT in an exploration mode.(e.g. working in a dead end job like waiting tables or a job like the Heritage, where there is very little personal growth). I must include in the definition of explorer, inner exploration, the discovery of the soul, my latest quest....Maybe the longing for the unknown, is a kind of reflection of the explorers heart.

About this inner exploration.. I've been reading Autobiography of a Yogi, and reading this has resparked a journey that I have picked up and dropped off and on since I can remember. The inner quest. The results of disciplined meditation and introspection. I must confess that I loose interest because the path seems so renunciate. I am learning something though; this is not necessarily the case. It would seem that some of the great masters had and have very productive lives, jobs and families.

Let me describe the recipe for a most spiritual space. This is rather artificially created, yet it's effect, for me, is consistantly produced. Any of these ingredients of themselves, are great fun but it is the particular blend of which I speak. It involves a boat. In this boat, I am a passenger. I am in the front of the boat so that when it moves, much like the scene in Titanic, I see only the water ahead of me. The water is utterly calm so that there is no chop to disturb the peace. The sun is nearly straight overhead, so it is warm, nearly hot, except for the breeze created by the forward motion of the boat. Two beers. Yes, I know. But yes, two beers. Over the years, this blend has produced an effect in me that I can only describe as spiritual. Usually, boat rides like this follow the end of a job or living situation for me, so perhaps that free feeling is part of it all.

Today, Bryan's dad took us in his pontoon boat on a tributary of the St. John's river. All the aforementioned conditions were met. At one point, we came across a huge alligator called "Big Mama" who has apparently been known to attack boats. She (he?) did not do that today, however. We pushed the boat way down one branch of the river, observing the osprey, hawks, turtles, fern and the occasional alligator. Though it is not a very astounding observation, I realized that back when Jesus was doing his thing on Galilee, right here in this tributary, a day indistinguishable from today was going on.

Tomorrow I suspect we will visit Daytona beach and decide in what fashion we will head west. The tents have been tested, the trucks packed, CB's synchronized. We are ready...

05.14
After some final preparations Bryan and I did end up going to Daytona Beach. Bry just remarked that the women we have been running across have been in their teens. The only one's we have met that are our age have been in the various Wal-Marts. Wip-dee-doo! Daytona was nice, a good driving beach.

05.15
We decided to avoid interstates as much as possible (thank you Gwen). This first segment out to St. George Island out of the panhandle of Fla, is no exception. Lots of Florida ranches and toward the end, a great drive right along the gulf coast. The campsite is out on the dunes with a completely deserted beach right over the hill. The only downside is the bugs! Horseflys and no-see-ums! ouch!

05.16
Our set up and break down time is pretty fast from the start, and only getting faster. This days travel has only been 150 miles or so because the goal is the Florida caverns in Marianna. We're opting for the lantern tour which occurs at night. Quite amazing. We of course lead the group (or at least the guide lets us think we are!.)

05.17
Today. Quick break down. We do some interstate to make up for lost mileage. We are going so fast that we realize we can make it to Tupelo, the town Elvis was born in, on route to Memphis and St. Louis. And here we are sipping Rum and cokes about to go for a walkabout with the videocam.

05.18
ElvisPresleyLand was quite a sight. This man is Deified! While standing next to the wall in front of Graceland, a wall plastered with the scrawl of thousands of devotees, I remarked to Bryan that the two of us may be the only people, ever, to stand here and not give a shit about Elvis. Now I admire the man, but it stops there; admiration. We drove until tiring, just shy of St Louis. Don't forget that we have two little CB's tuned to channel 31. These have been great for communicating observations or just general plans. Unfortunately there were no state parks by this tiring point, but there was a KOA. I thought it might be a mistake but we found a site that when turned around, that is, facing the woods and away from endless winnebagos was splendid.

05.19
This morning, I awoke to the sight of hundreds of Cicadas in various stages of molt. I know that they only come out every 15 years, but if they were not cicaydas they were kissin cousins. A cicayda (If I even spelled it right) is a large, locust like insect about an inch and a half to two inches long. They are harmless, particularly while molting, where they become lethargic. I actually felt kind of attached to them after watching these creatures in various stages so I went around pulling them off the trucks and tent and set them in the woods. Leaving camp around 10:00am we went to the St. Louis Arch, a site I have zipped past before on my westward travels but never stopped to see; pretty amazing is all I can say. There is a museum undernieth the arch underground. After that we picked up I-70 west for a few hundred miles and found a neat little deserted campground situated near a lake just east of Kansas City.

05.20
Went for a jog this morning by the lake. Showers are immaculate here but they only have HOT! water.
Drove 300 miles today, which gives us about that much left to Denver. Because of the sparcity of state parks we again opt for a KOA in Wakeena, Kansas. And as we did last time, we found the best site. Right now, I am looking at what must be hundreds of acres of wheat. It is still green and only about two feet tall. The campsite sits right up against it. This KOA has a pool and hot tub which Bryan and I just took advantage of. One interesting feature about time zones I have observed. There is a drastic difference in the placement of the sun on one end of a time zone compared to the other end. For instance, here I am in central time 100 miles from the edge of the mountain time zone. It is 8:00 pm and the sun still has at least another 30 minutes before sunset! I'm still looking for shade. Yet, the 8:00 pm central time (same zone) back in Missouri - Indiana is in total darkness. Oh yes, a future side adventure: A mutual friend of both Bry and me, Jimbo (from Martha's), has land in Alaska, we've been invited. He's planning to homestead. I have always heard that money is good in Alaska, depending on what you do.

05.21
Made it to Denver! The only mishap (besides setting my hand on my open glasses and breaking the earpieces off), was that my truck cover began to rip. Once we got to camp though I stitched it up. We camped at a lame state park outside Denver - winnebago haven. Today was a combination of running errands and sightseeing. Since this is old stomping ground, I knew where to go. I paid a surprise visit to Cafe Paradiso where I was once a waiter (the only waiter). The owner said, "When's the last time you boys had a decent meal?" we both had to think. Next thing you know there are two glasses of Merlot, followed by Fresh Roma tomato soup and Chicken Francaise, on the house! They are trying to bribe me back. It rained tonight.

05.22
At this point we had visions of sleeping our cars. It is now friday of Memorial Day weekend, campsites are hard to find. On the way out of the Denver site though we found one available in the same campground, so we stayed another day. Saw the movie. Deep Impact; Pretty heavy. More errands.

05.23
Today we had to leave, which was fine with us. And so..... on through Boulder to Estes Park where we are to drop off my truck with my friend Tami. It is always mind blowing heading into the Rockies. We get so used to the flatness around us. Tami could not house us so we were on our own, in a tourist town, on memorial day weekend. As luck or destiny would have it, we found the most amazing campsight. Tall peaks all around, it is really too much to describe the beauty and rawness around this area. All of Estes Park is like this. No contact with Tami yet. That's alright, we sit around the campfire and sing girlscout songs.......just kidding.

05.24
What a beautiful morning, blue sky, large peaks, but rather cold. The good weather doesn't last long, however; scattered thunderstorms. Finally I reach Tami and the three of us have lunch. Estes Park is so beautiful that I begin seriously questioning her on the details of working this town as a waiter. Tami, a tall beautiful blonde who proudly just turned 40, is delighted to be a waitress. She has one of the most cheerful demeanors of anyone I've known. Waitressing, for her, is a passport to anywhere, and she is right; good waiter/waitress can have cash inside a day of finding a new job and there are jobs available all over the country. Tami engages in sport called 'trail running'. Sounds grueling doesn't it? It is!

05.25
The tent we are using sleeps potentially five. Inside, each end of the tent is divided into private zippered compartments with a common living area, front and back door and overhead storage. We can set this up in ten minutes, tops. Alas, we must leave our lovely site. On the way out, we have lunch at Tami's place and then take a back road to the interstate, I-70 and head west. I-70 through Colorado has some of the most beautiful canyons vistas; the Colorado River has done her work!

05.26
We left early today. The trip west was filled with canyons and endless mountains ranges. Most of Nevada on highway 50 is at 7000 feet which meant a lot of snow! We decided to drive all the way to the edge of Lake Tahoe (750miles) and motel it for a night, which means I have found the holy grail - a phone line...........to be continued..

05.27
Today after doing some much needed laundry (my first load yet!), we left for Lake Tahoe. As we descended into Tahoe Valley Bryan was getting giddy with excitement. He used to live here when he was little so we spent a little time looking around where he used to live and hang out. At one of these locations, a seven-11, Bryan found $30 on the floor which means, you guessed it, another night in a motel!. I only sound happy because it has been unseasonably cold here and there were actually a few flurries on the way in. We check into a nice little place (much better than the rat trap in Carson City) that has a year round hot tub outside. After a meal at the corner Irish Pub, Bryan and I check out this place called Eagle Falls, one of the most beautiful waterfalls I have ever seen. The Falls cascade at least a thousand feet from its apex, Eagle Lake high up in craggy cliffs, to its terminus in Emerald Bay. We hiked down a little way (which was more like rock climbing than hiking) and then on up to a point above where we parked. We vow to come back tomorrow as there is a mansion at the base of the falls built in 1920's. After the hike we meandered on to the hot tub and met Ann and Suzie from Maple Lake, Minnesota. Two very nice girls and, of course, we being two very nice guys, we hit it off well and ended up boring them with stories (and video) of the road. At around 1:00am Ann and Suzie said goodnight and the two of us went off to the casinos. We quickly figured that the waitresses give you comp drinks when you first arrive on the scene. Therefore, make short appearences in each casino. After five casinos we were fairly lit. Toward the end of the evening Bryan had hit one of the slots well; the pan was full of quarters. .......

05.28
After getting up pretty late and checking the weather channel, we opt for another motel night. They are predicting record lows and snow all over our target camp area. Without the campsite cooking facilities, my diet is crap; canned soup and bread, complementary donuts. But, true to my original goals, I have remained vegetarian and have had no caffiene since this all began weeks ago. Off to Eagle Falls again. It is snowing and the rocks are wet but we hike down anyway, all the way to the shore of Emerald Bay and the old Mansion at the bottom. The house was built with a viking motif and is rather haunting (if not haunted!). An inner court contains some of the ancient pines in the area. I counted 341 rings on one huge pine that had been sawed clean. We took the switchback trail out and met another group of women whom we shared wine with (Bryan snuck a bottle in his backpack). The weather is bad now, lots of snow. Back at the motel we hang out in the hot tub for at least three hours drinking beer and eventually bourbon and cokes. There are big flakes coming down now and accumulating! That's all right, it's 105 in the tub. No casino tonight.

05.29
Our plan was to leave today, but the forcast is for another cold crappy day. After some reluctance (worrying about the money) , Bryan convinces me we should stay one more time since he thinks we will be staying with friends from here on.
One more night then. This morning our objective is to hike around Fallen Leaf Lake, near Lake Tahoe. Driving around the lake road is something; a one lane road on a steep hillside, but there are beautiful houses built up and down the slope. We find the trailhead and begin. The hike is punctuated with heavy, windy snowfalls and periods of warm sunshine. There is appears to be an indian tipee farther down the shore of the lake. After sipping someTurning Leaf Merlot on a sunny boulder, we discovered we could not find the trailhead out. Eventually we did, went back to the room and then out to a Sizzler. Apparently this chain is alive and well out west. Later, we hit the hot tub and, yes, the casinos. This time while I regulated myself pretty well, Bryan did not. We survived though.

05.30
We are definitely leaving today! While Bryan gets ready I watch an old Eastwood movie. On the way out, we stop at a good photograph site in Tahoe and have one last snowball fight. We leave the Sierras behind and for the first time in over a week we see only hills. Many of these hills have windmills, hundreds of them. They actually look ugly. California! Suddenly everything is at least ten percent higher in price! So much for living here. We get to Lisa's place in Castro valley, one of the people we intend to sponge off of (just kidding mom). I am finding that this area looks like what I imagined California to be; palm trees, hills, varied architecture and police. We get a pizza and do some shots and beer. Tomorrow we intend to visit Napa Valley and camp out there overnight.

05.31
I don't know about you, but I get up with the sun. If there is just a little sun or a lightening of the ski with the morning, I am up; even if I have only had a few hours sleep. Needless to say I amd the first one up. This morning Lisa made french toast and it was great! We reduced some of the payload in the cab of the truck so three people could fit comfortably. That being done it is off to the Napa valley! An hour and a half later we are there. As we enter the valley I am reminded of pictures of Italy; Lush, steep, rolling hill dotted with cattel or sheep and strung, as if with a giants necklace, with rows of grapevines. Before finding a campground we have time for one winery; Robert Mondavi. An excellent choice because, we learn, that Robert Mondavi, after splitting with his family, has been responsible for most of the innovations in wine making since the sixties. The whole of Napa valley became 'discovered' soon after he started his production. The tour was great, I fleshed out much of my knowledge of wine production during this tour. At the end, under a lush grape arbor, our group sampled Mondavi's Chenin Blanc, Cabernet Sauvignon, and a delicious dessert wine, Moscato D'Oro. The Mondavi tour was the best we were to encounter, so I highly recommend it. We found the campground, and picked a site by a roaring stream. For dinner I usually have a salad, a BIG salad. I don't remember if I mentioned it but I brought a very large salad bowl. Later that night played a card game called Uno. Good night.

06.01
Today we broke camp after the usual breakfast of eggs and grits; and off to the wineries. Our first stop is Mumm's. Mumm's makes champagne, or rather, sparkling wine (champagne is French). That was delightful, sipping sparkling wine in the warm California sun while overlooking the lush hills of Napa valley. We visited many more wineries that day and sampled liberally. Eventually we headed back to Lisa's place.

06.02
Today we just hung around Lisa's place. As I may have mentioned before, Lisa lives outside the city in the east bay area. Our destination within the city is our friend Hope's place. Hope has been working a few doubles, so we'll see her tomorrow. The three of us went out to see Godzilla today and later ordered a pizza for dinner.

06.03
Today the plan is for all three of us to take Lisa's car into the city and bum around until Hope is available. The first site we see is the Golden Gate Bridge. Man is it big; and high up too! I threw a nickel over the edge and it took nine seconds to hit the water. We then drove on to the Fisherman's Wharf area. This is a big tourist area with lots of bars, food, scenic shots, (including Alcatraz) and seals, or sea Lions I should say. A whole pier is devoted to these animals and their antics and boy are they funny. On to Hope's place....

We find Hope's place after weaving through the city. I spot her right away looking for us out her second story apartment window, one of those corner windows that juts way out, with five or six panes, giving a panorama of 9th and Irving in the sunset district. Hope used to work with Bryan and me at Martha's, a fine dining restaurant in south Florida. How to describe Hope; tall, beautiful, long black trusses of braided hair; witty and one of the funniest women I have ever known. We get the tour of her place and it is the biggest apartment I have ever personally seen. Up the stairs from the street, one enters a long hallway of old dark wood floors and walls. There are four large bedrooms, a dining room, kitchen, laundry room and large living room area with that big bay window and a fireplace! $600 a month! That is just insane! She works half a block away, right next to her gym. Everything is there; who needs a car. The three of us, along with Hope and her friend Laura (another unbelievably funny woman) all go across the street to a swank restaurant to cap off the evening. Bryan and I stayed the night at Hopes and Lisa went back.

06.04
In the morning hours Hope wanted to see a movie at home so we all snuggled in bed (no not that way, more like a bunch of kids). After a nice lunch Hope had to go to work and we bid our goodbyes. Bryan and I toured the usual traps; the trolley, fisherman's wharf (again), several of the local bars on into evening. As we walked, seeing the beautiful city lights and thinking of Hope's open-ended invitation we decided to stay another day in the city. We got severely lost but did not care. Eventually we found Hope's place and crashed.

06.05
Hope is doing a double today, so Bryan and I bid our goodbyes again but not after having lunch at her restaurant Nine Avenue. After that we walked and walked; botanical gardens in Golden Gate Park and around the University (general girl watching). I wanted to see the "pyramid" building (Transmedia Tower) so we bussed down into the financial district bummed for awhile and eventually got on the BART (bay area rapid transit) back to Lisa's and called it a night.

06.06
Lisa is leaving for work early today. She does and I get involved with the e-mail thing while Bryan tries to reconfigure Lisa's incorrectly connected stereo system. Bryan also made her a video of our more recent adventures (you remember that we are videotaping much of this). That being done and a stop at the grocery store, we make a late start. I am driving and our objective is the Pacific Coast Highway (PCH). Soon we see it, and let me tell you, the Pacific is magnificent. Maybe it is the unusual calmness of the water today or the fact that we are a thousand feet above it, but it looks like a plane of glass stretching unguessable miles in every direction. The PCH winds its way along the cliff edges of the coast, sometimes dangerously. We stop to look maybe seven times. At one location closer to the water I spot what appear to be life forms on the beach. We pull off and find that they are Elephant Seals up on the sand. They are very tame and we could touch them but for all the signs promising jail time if we did. It is getting dark and way past time to find a campsite. With the weekend there are slim pickin's, but eventually we find one. Anyone watching us set up camp would consider us masters; it is night and we are able to set up camp with no light and not one word to each other, all within fifteen minutes!

06.07
Today we break camp very early and continue down the fabulous coast highway. We had been told by an enthusiastic ranger that the western side of this coastal mountain range is in perpetual air conditioning.....he's right! It is very cold this morning. Even more twisting and convoluted than the PCH is California road 58 west towards Las Vegas; a crazy road. We reach the Mojave Desert. It is quite beautiful in its desolation. Many species of sage and lovely rocks. Nine hours from camp we are in Las Vegas. Seems pretty glitzy, we'll find out tomorrow night. After some searching we find the home of Bryan's 'aunt' and 'uncle' Peg and Gene. They live in a lovely Spanish style home on the outskirts of Vegas. Peg and Gene are great hosts. We walk in to the smells of thanksgiving dinner and are soon enjoying just that; turkey and all the trimmings! Now this is why I will forever more be a 'situational vegetarian'. During the seven years when I was a strick vegetarian, I would actually turn down a meal like that which was before me. It was always embarrasing and immediately brought on the endless defensive questions and answers. My rule now is; Although I practice vegetarianism, should a well intentioned stranger prepare me a meal out of the kindness of their heart, not knowing my restrictions, I will eat of it with gusto, and without a word; even if it is a steak. Dinner, a shower and shave and I feel good. Time to e-mail again and sleep.

06.08
This morning Bryan and I awake to the smell of bacon. We laugh; "Gee Wally, should we make the beds before we go to breakfast?", "I dunno Beav, mom always does it for us." Sure enough, aunt Peg says, "Now you boys don't bother making the beds, I'll take care of that." We eat a huge breakfast of eggs, bacon, hashbrowns and toast. Did we help with the dishes. Nooooo, she wouldn't hear of it. After that they took us on a tour of the high points of downtown Las Vegas; Ceasar's Palace (it must be a mile long) and some of the notable manufacturing that goes on here such as Ocean Spray, and Ethyl M chocolates. Bryan and I eventually made our own way to the Strip. As with San Francisco, we walked forever. And as with Lake Tahoe, we took advantage of the free drinks! Because of the severe competition of casinos, the draws that have been created to attract the public go beyond amusement parks. Even I was impressed and that takes a lot! We made it back by 2:00 am.

06.09
This morning Peg and Gene took us to the breakfast buffet at the Sahara. Remember the customer draws I was mentioned?; food is one of them. All you can eat for $3.49! We came back home and that brings me up to the present moment.

anyway.....

I know I have said this before but it might be awhile again before I can e-mail. I don't anticipate another phone line. In fact it might be when I am working somewhere and have a phone of my own. So there will be one last adventure entry coming to you, probably way after the events therein. At that point, this batch of e-mail friends, you people that have been traveling with us on these adventures, will be disbanded. Don't worry, I'll write you individually (if you write back.)

Future Plans:
After this Vegas visit we will head down to the grand canyon. From there it's on to Albequerque and back to Denver. I will pick up my truck from Tami and then Bryan will make a decision about what he is doing. As for me...................I am drawn to San Francisco. I still want to check out Albequerque, however; I am drawn to the desert presently. I thought I would settle again in the Denver/ Boulder area, and that still is an option for me, but I have done this before and I'm not into repeating patterns. Whatever I do will only be for a year. Do not forget I will be hiking the Appalachian Trail in '99.......

Well tootles for now.............................Mike (and Bryan)

6.09
After leaving aunt Peg and uncle Gene's place
we went back into Las Vegas to get some of the
video footage we missed due to a dead battery.

up at Quark's bar (from the set of Star
Trek's Deep Space Nine), stayed much to long and
decided to stay just one more day in Las Vegas.
So we found a cheap room, a cheap buffet and called
it a night.

6.10
Of course we have a buffet breakfast! $3.49 a.y.c.e. Drive to Hoover
dam. Wow this thing is big! We happen to be there at the one day in
twenty years that the spillways have been opened. El Nino has given
Lake Mead a lot of water. The water gushing from the openings at the
base makes them look like a pair of rocket engines. Soon we head off
toward the Grand Canyon and stop at a KOA just outside of the park.

6.11
Today we drive into the G.C. park after a leisurely morning and pitch camp. We find the grocery store and load up. Since 7:45 is sunset here we decide to wait 'til then to real see the canyon. See the canyon we did, perched on a ledge thousands of feet off the ground, colors changing all around us. There are many people out here and there is an almost religious silence as the sun sets; people are actually whispering.

6.12
All over the place in the Grand Canyon are signs telling potential trail hikers that they may not survive. Helicopter evacuations will cost you $2100; mule evacs run around $150;The biggest factor is the heat. Up on the rim it is cool but 3000 to 5000 feet down it can reach 110 degrees. We chose a "strenuous" trail called the Angel Bright. From the rim it drops 3060 feet in 4.5 miles down to a little grove of trees which look so tiney from up here. Down we go. The trail is well maintained, very dusty and because of the mule trains that travel the trail, covered with mule shit in varying degrees of dryness. While the decent is steep. it is not straight down; there are many 'switch-backs' to make it manageable. I knew it was going to be rough getting back up though since after an hour and a half the descent is still steep. At the tree grove we opt to go another 1.5 miles to the "point" which hangs over the Colorado River another 1500 feet below. Magnificent views. We had been preped to bring lots of carbs and water. I take a nap on a ledge. There are many people hiking this trail, even out to the piont which makes it 12 miles round trip. Now the journey back. Until just past the grove of trees, it is pretty level but the incline is tough. I began timing the intervals of walk to break time. the best we can do is fifteen minutes hike to three minute break. It took us five hours to reach the rim! I am sobered by the fact that on the Appalachian trail I will often have altitude changes like that in addition to a 40 pound pack and another eight miles added each day ! After we hobbled back to the tent we met our two new female neighbors Shannon and Melissa, and helped them set up. Chivalry is not dead.

6.13
This morning after breakfast we chat with our neighbors some more, exchang e-mail addresses and say good-bye. The soreness created by the hike yesterday has firmly set in. On the way out we stop by Crater National Park, situated at the base of a very young dead (900 years) volcano. Seeing us just step out of the car must be hilarious; two little old men hobbling around. We are in no mood for a hike and soon leave. Drive all the way to Albuquerque. In our sore state relaxing in a hot tub sounds better than setting up a tent so we find a motel with one. I sleep very well this night.

6.14
Exploring Albuquerque was one of my objectives for this trip because I have thought for quite awhile that I would like to live there. Although I like the desert and would like to experience more of it, Albuquerque is disappointing. This city seems to lack the energy that I like about cities. I interview, albeit briefly, some of the Wild Oats employees (had to visit these stores too). They seemed to concur; this town is dead. Northward ho! After passing through a quaint little Colorado town called Trinidad, the weather starts getting wicked. Then, passing by Pikes Peak, we get stuck in traffic from the Pikes Peak Speedway which is just letting out. We make it to a KOA outside Pueblo which, again, has a hot tub.

6.15
Today the drive takes us all the way to Estes Park, but not before pulling off to visit the Pearl Street Mall in Boulder. Here there are cafes, restaurants, book stores (small exotic ones), mountain gear shops and people playing guitars or violins or drums wherever you look! I
feel the old itch to live and work here but I resist. I've tried this before; many obsticles. My destiny is elsewhere, at least for now. We meet up with Tami and arrange to pick up my truck tomorrow. While we get the same campground in Estes, the site we had before is taken. No biggie, the view is still spectacular.

6.16
I am up early (as usual) and I spot an Elk not thirty feet from the campsite just nibbling away not caring about me. We have a BIG breakfast (our last in camp) and break camp. After picking up my truck and hooking up the CB's we head to Denver to find a cheap hotel; except there is no such thing. We drive around town for hours. Denver either has raosch infested crack motels of executive hotels. We opt for the cheapest of the latter catagory, a brand new Motel 6 which actually has modem ports for people like me with lap tops. Bryan's truck is begining to make some nasty noises, and with the trip ahead of him, it will have to be taken to a garage tomorrow. If you have not guessed by now, I have decide to move to San Francisco. Albuquerque was a dud; Tahoe - too small for me; Estes - too seasonal (I want to stay put for a year). It is more expensive but my needs are few and the jobs, plentiful.

6.17
Bryan's truck to the shop today. The mechanic seems to think it is just an unbalance drive shaft; nothing to worry about. We do laundry and I have a nice chat with my sister Lynne in NY. She and her husband Peter are about to embark on their own adventure by moving to England. You can guess where I will be visiting! Pizza and lots of HBO movies tonight!

6.18
Another one of my objectives for this trip has been to liquidate my storage unit in Denver. For over two years now I have been maintaining a small apartments worth of stuff in storage. Kitchen, bath, bedroom stuff, books; I have used them on occasion but I never seem to stay in Colorado very long. One option could be to actually use the the stuff; get a job and a place to live. But you know me, I need new horizons and I am not spending $500 + to move it all to San Francisco. Hello Disabled American Veterans Thrift Stores. It took twelve hours but I did it. What I am taking with me, some clothes and bedding, will actually only take up half my pickup. That and the four small boxes I will be mailing to mom and dad and you are looking at a man who has accomplished one of his goals; to have as close to no posessions as possible. I do not have a thing against owning stuff, that is if I have a place and use for all of it. As mobile as I am and want to be, as uncertain as my upcoming living situation is, and with the appalachian trail looming, I have no business owning so many things. I had anticipated being alone during this unloading process; doing this kind of thing requires much focus. When Bry decided that he wanted to help I didn't know how this would work out. But it works out great! Not only is he able to take some of my little stuff (you always feel good when you can give things to a friend rather than a semi-appreciative charity), but we are actually able to tie my ex-futon to his truck! At one point, while somberly looking through memorabilia, and looking at the second truckload of my things soon to be owned by anonymous people, Bryan comes over with a six pack. Breaktime! Discovering the dregs of a bottle of Ouzo that my friend Becky had brought me from Greece, we drink toasts to the adventure and to the unknown future. A salad bar for dinner and we cap off the last evening of this grand adventure by reviewing recent video of the trip. Tomorrow I will load up my truck, mail some boxes, Bryan will be off to Florida and I to the west....always the west.....Good bye my friends (for now).......Mike

UCSF library

2006-02-03T12:57:00.000-08:00

Here I am once again at the famous Kalmanovitz library. Nice computer access; big flat screens, lots of desk space, T1 speeds! Right now I am slapping a paper together on acute alcohol withdrawal syndrome and the use of the CIWA-Ar scale and Ativan drip in treatment. A presentation will accompany this paper.

This is a serious quarter. Advanced Med-Surg feels like med school. Rather than procrastinate, which I would much prefer, I feel compelled to dig into the books, for lives are now more in in my hands then ever.

Scary thought!

Update

2006-01-07T15:43:00.000-08:00

This little December-January break has been a bit rainy. I have not been able to walk as much as I would have liked. However, there were a few sunny days scattered throughout and I was able to do a little walking as can be seen here, here, here and here. I have been volunteering more in the SFGH Emergency Department for the extra clinical experience. Truthfully, I have no other desire than to work there.

I have absolutely no sense of urgency about getting a job as an RN. It is funny to see the artificial panic still present in the industry. I cannot figure out if it is a legacy of former times, when nurses were in surplus, or if it is the methodology of other industries, like graphic arts, where a million new-grads compete for ten jobs. I have enjoyed our recent job fairs, but they need to impress me, not me – them.

Okay, enough of the arrogance. While I have no angst about getting a nursing job, I think it might be difficult for me to get into SFGH ED. Call it intuition. I have now volunteered over 173 hours there, know most of the day staff by first name and have many staff advocating for me to be there, yet still I feel this way.

It could just be my innate paranoia and devout belief in the law of Murphy; who knows?

Tonight there will be a little birthday party for my two-year-old buddy, Travis. It should be fun and loud. I hope the tenants don’t complain too much.

Death

2005-12-17T17:33:00.000-08:00

[cross-posted at Nightingale]

I have experienced death in the Emergency Department before….

Things happen quickly in the E.D. and unfortunately, I was upstairs orienting a new volunteer when this patient arrived. My clinical instructor had apparently been calling me on the intercom to assist with chest compressions. By the time I returned, however, the patient was already in one of the little suture rooms, waiting to be bagged.

I entered the lonely room. The walls, the gurney, the sheet seemed so white, in retrospect. I pulled back the sheet.

…but not yet of someone younger then myself.

She is pretty, even with her cold grey skin and her drying half-opened eyes. It seems inappropriate that she not be breathing; that tube in her mouth does not belong there. She had died of a drug overdose but she does not have the look of the habitual user. I see no marks on her arms; she has all her teeth; her eyes do not have the look of one tired of life. This is a mistake. She is too young. She was not yet finished.

To think, just yesterday she had been walking, talking and maybe even laughing. Could she have known it was for the last time? Can any of us?

And how strange it feels to know of her demise before those that love her do. How lonely, lying here, no one yet aware of her absence. Imagining the faces of her family, standing where I am now, is difficult.

But her sweet face will stay with me for a while.

General

2005-11-11T23:17:00.000-08:00

[posted originally on Nightingale]

A Latino male in his twenties had been brought up the unit from PES (Psych emergency). I was standing at the nurse’s station going over a chart when I heard the nurse in front of me proclaim, “Yep, your tax dollars at work,” pointing to her chart and looked for a sign of commiseration from me. I didn’t know what she was talking about, so I followed her finger to the part of her patient’s chart that said “SSN: 888-88-8888.” “Gotta be illegal!” she said.

As I recall, my face was set for ‘yeah-and?,’ but she mistook it for ‘I-agree-sister!’ “Do you believe the nerve of these people,” she went on, “sponging off the system like this? We really need more border patrol!” I was picturing the band of rednecks currently patrolling the border between Arizona and Mexico while repressing the urge to roll my eyes. She actually waited for my reply.

Feeling non-confrontational, but ever a wee bit sarcastic, I said “But who would we get to do our dishes?” Again, she mistook, and must have heard: “Were you raped as a child?”

[With ever reddening face and pointing finger]: “They come here and take our…..!!”,” Those people using our….!!.”, "I have worked too long and hard for...", “They need to…!!”

Some part of me was using therapeutic technique with this wounded soul because I recall muttering, “Mm-Hmm” and “Hmm.” There was a long pause. Lots of downward looking; paper shuffling. I think I heard panting - then, “I do my OWN dishes, thank you!”

To my rescue, came the seasoned unit clerk, peering up from his paperwork and over a pair of glasses perched at the end of his nose. He said to her, over said glasses, and without any hesitation, "And what about, ‘Give me your tired, your poor, your huddled masses yearning to breathe free. The wretched refuse of your teeming shore. Send these, the homeless, tempest-tossed, to me: I lift my lamp beside the golden door,’" - the inscription at the base of the Statue of Liberty.

On my walk home that night, I thought of all the things I wish I had said. I thought about how I wish I had stood up for that Latino man. He will get the treatment he needs; I was not concerned about that. I was concerned about the attitude coming from the long time SFGH nurse, and this was not the first time I had heard such prejudice.

By the time I reached Valencia and 19^th, I was livid. The man was human; the sentiment of that nurse was not. Part of the mission statement of SFGH is, “…to deliver humanistic, cost-effective, and culturally competent health services to the residents of the City and County of San Francisco.” What is a resident? Does he live here? Legally? Does it matter? Do we accept everyone, or only those with papers?

Frankly, I am willing to let the care of that man be part of ‘my tax dollars at work.’

Kamala

2005-11-08T10:10:00.000-08:00

On my way to vote to neutralize Arnold's agenda, I shook this woman's hand. Needless to say I will never wash it again (sorry future patients).

I love it when women take on positions of power normally occupied by men. Here in San Francisco, Kamala Harris is our district attorney, Heather Fong is our police chief, and Joanne Hayes-White is our fire chief.

What a great town!

Psych Ward

2005-11-05T21:29:00.000-08:00

Psych nursing is an interesting animal. Unlike other types of nursing, you only wear street clothes, you do not have a stethoscope around your neck and the meds are almost exclusively pills and injections – rarely IV’s. It might seem easier than med-surg nursing but the challenge is in the interpersonal realm. The psych unit can be a violent place. There you are, locked in with paranoid schizophrenics and manic-depressives. Three seconds after talking nicely with a patient, you might find that they fancied your right ear with a left hook.

I witnessed a ‘take-down’ the other day involving two patients. The first, the instigator, I will call Amy. Amy has been a long time hooker and is frequently homeless. Currently she is in a manic phase, which means her emotional levels are at an extreme. Manic-depressives seem to have boundless energy, talk a mile a minute, have a million great ideas that will inevitably lead to vast riches, of which they will happily share. They can also have a dark paranoid side.

I stood at the nursing station, situated centrally between two hallways in one of SF General’s locked psych units. To either side, two large day rooms allow visibility of the patient’s daily activities; TV, puzzles, and meal times await in the day rooms.

Just after dinner, I looked over as Amy was arguing with another patient, Cathy. Cathy began walking away from Amy and, of course, that would not do. Amy screamed, “Fuck you, Bitch!” Cathy stopped in her tracks and shook her head as if saying, “Oh, no you didn’t!” She then picked up a relatively full trashcan and hurled it at Amy. Picture it: trash flying everywhere; eight or nine patients with a multitude of fragile psyches up and out of chairs hooting or cowering as the case may be.

David is a nurse on the unit. A burly Bostonian, complete with the accent, David spent the better part of his career as a charge nurse over in the unit where they keep the prisoners. He was taking a break from all that now though and working on this milder unit. He has a hawk-like face and a the normally sunglasses-concealed piercing gaze of an on-the-ball secret service agent. Earlier in the day after I had interviewed a young man who was hearing voices, all David said to me by way of feedback was, “The next time you do that, I want your back to the wall. You were right out in the middle of the room,” nothing about the theraputic communication skills I was employing and of which I was so proud.

David sprinted into the midst of the fray barking, “Get me a rolling bed and four points!” I said, “OK” as I ran aimlessly down a hall of a hundred doors thinking, “What the hell are ‘four-points?’” and “where do I get a rolling bed?” Fortunately, there were other nurses there and they all knew where these things were.

David had Cathy safely pinned against a wall in the hallway, though she could not have weighed more than 100 pounds. The bed came down the hall and the four-points, I discovered, were restraints. Cathy was soon tied to the bed and had actually requested sedation, which she was given.

One of my reasons for becoming a nurse has been to reawaken the compassion somewhere inside me that I have for others, but of late has become faded and tarnished compared to the shiny days of my idealistic youth. As I watched skinny little Cathy tied down to that big bed, now crying softly to herself, I felt it. There it was - not so far away after all.

¡Empujé!

2005-10-03T19:42:00.000-07:00

Today I helped a little Nicaraguan mother birth her baby. It is the third vaginal birth I have witnessed, but the first in which I was able to really participate. “¡Empujé Mami!” (push mama!) I kept insisting as I cradled her left heel and bent knee. I have to say it is easy to get choked up watching that little tuft of hair pop out. It is easy to get choked up watching papa sob, as he sees his son emerge into the world. So proud he is as he cuts his son's cord. So relieved mama is as her boy, wrapped tight, is brought close and they see each other for the first time.

Labor and Delivery is beautiful medicine.

Cassandra

2005-10-02T11:11:00.000-07:00

I have often fallen into, perhaps even enjoyed being in, the roll of the Cassandra. For those of you that are unaware of the myth, Cassandra was the daughter of King Priam and Queen Hecuba of Troy. As with all the Greek gods and goddesses, she was blessed and cursed at the same time. She had a little tryst with Apollo, so he blessed her with the gift of prophesy. Then when things went south, he cursed her by having no one believe her.

While I continue to follow the Peak Oil phenomenon, and you should too, it has become mainstream. I feel less compelled to be a Cassandra in that, finally, this is becoming a topic of broader discussion. There is some good research being done out there. As for myself, I have become more resigned to it; we are either going to make a difficult transition to alternative fuels or we are not. I guess all the blathering I did helped me come to terms with it, like a person coming to accept terminal cancer. I am as prepared for Peak Oil as I am willing to be.

There are legion of Cassandra on the political front. Except for the occasional spasm (see archives), I have been refraining from regular political commentary – I would be consumed. We are alive and witnessing the most corrupt presidency in the 229-year history of this country; sometimes the urge to explode is overwhelming. Finally, maybe, just now, this too is becoming part of mainstream discussion.

The question then becomes what to do with Gone to Croatoan. The mission statement has been “My impressions about the imminent loss of our petroleum way of life, what can be done to cope during the transition and what it means to recover from it.” The imagery that inspired the blog title was one of walking away from it all. Many myths surround the Lost Colony (see blog footnote below). The one I like is that the settlers, having a rough time imposing their European ways on the wild mid-Atlantic coast, simply gave up and threw in their lot with the natives; they went Paleolithic and thrived.

I want to keep that image. I like it. It describes me fairly well. However, I want to expand the range from solely Peak Oil to other topics as well. I have been inspired recently by Viggo Mortensen’s website Perceval Press. It is left-leaning, like me and encompasses a variety of topics and features artwork and articles, intermixed with commentary. In a recent Charlie Rose interview I watched, he said that he has no other agenda than to put up topics he, and other posters in his group, think might be interesting.

My other blogsites, "on-a-personal- note” and “post-petroleum-clearinghouse” were the result of trying to keep GTC on topic. With the first, I felt that my family and friends might want something less controversial and the second evolved out of the shear volume of links to other great, similarly themed sites.

Instead of starting a fourth blog, I think I will just merge back to one, after all, I am a rather busy student. Henceforth, a new Mission Statement: “Gone to Croatoan; impressions on living in the world while striving not to be too much of the world.”

Speaking of school, soon the Labor and Delivery rotation will end for me here at SFGH. Psych will be next.

(from "One flew over the Cuckoo's Nest")

Update 1:30pm - On second thought, as I sit here at UCSF library scanning all the links at post petroleum (at T1 speeds!), I see that most of the blogs I linked to have linked to GTC as well. It would be unfair to them for me to change the GTC theme. Also, all those cool links here on the front page would no longer be appropriate. Folks with real (for $) web domains do not have this dilemma in that each new blog would just be another page within their domain.
Maybe a fourth blog is in order. It could be called "The Fourth Blog."

D'oh!

2005-08-20T16:25:00.000-07:00

My computer is down. Will post soon.

Biomarkers - the end of the experiment

2005-08-16T21:12:00.000-07:00

Well, it is time to wrap up the Paleolithic Experiment, the origins of which came out of the Peak Oil phenomenon we are beginning to experience. As I wrote a few months ago:

My studies In the Peak Oil phenomenon, like many of us willing to think about it, have lead me to contemplate what it would be like to experience a complete collapse of everything; economic, societal, food distribution etc. What would it be like to suddenly find ourselves existing, in not only a pre-industrial world, but even a pre-agricultural world. This is how we lived, anthropologists and others, say for 99% of our existence as a species.

This curiosity, combined with the end of semester/vacation excesses, weight gain, lethargy etc are compelling me to find out the effects of applying a Paleolithic diet and activity level.

With that in mind, 67 days ago I started a Paleolithic experiment. Along with diet, there was a certain exercise portion to this experiment as well. As I wrote on June 19^th :

Evidence gained by observation of these modern hunter-gatherers, suggests that we were meant to walk as much as nine miles a day. Along with the fairly strenuous daily activities of the community. This is significant. For millions of years our closely related families of primates and even modern hunter-gatherers have had to walk a long way nearly every day to get something to eat. We are programmed to burn off far more calories each day then any of us in the west would ever dream of burning, even the athletes among us.

And so, I walked – a lot. I just broke the 300-mile mark today, in fact. San Francisco is a lovely city to walk in, so it was not exactly a chore. Some of the walks were only for 3 to four miles. The walks to the beach and back ran about 10 miles each. I even made it to the Sausalito – 18 miles round trip; all that has been blogged about here already.

Along with tracking the miles, I also tracked certain biomarkers. It was my expectation that there would be changes to my body over this time. This past semester, overall weight gain unnervingly easy. What with all the sitting around, reading, and occasional boozing we nursing students do, I suppose it is not surprising. When I started the experiment, my weight was 210 pounds. I have had a history of weight training, so much of that weight on my 5’8” frame is been muscle, as well as fat.

Fat is not necessarily a bad thing. Fat provides insulation from heat loss as well as impact. In fact the latest research about obesity and the elderly is showing that being a little overweight helps protect against the bone breaking falls they are prone to getting. Obviously, fat’s value as a stored fuel served our distant ancestors well as a calorie storage medium, but at the present time it is a trait that is getting the better of us. Food is far too easy to come by and life too sedentary, in our western world at least.

I have noticed an interesting thing in regards to weight gain in men and myself in particular; weight gain is concentrated in the gut area more than anywhere else. More than that, it is mostly under the abdominal muscle rather than over the top. Fat becomes marbled throughout the gut. Because of this, I have found the biomarker of the waistline measurement to be the best indicator of increase in fat store. If I work out a lot, I might gain weight yet show no change in the waistline. This indicates that the weight gain was muscle mass and therefore okay. If I have a corresponding girth increase, it indicates that I am eating too much, or not exercising enough (or both!)

In addition, how do you measure the waistline, with the belly distended or sucked in? I have found that the best thing is to measure and track both: belly fully distended and fully sucked in (the ‘vacuum’ as body builders call it.)

Now for some pictures. The befores and afters are 70 days apart.

In the first set, my belly is shown before and after fully distended. Visually, they are not much different, but the measure decreased from 42 to 36 inches – 8 inches total.

The second set is with a vacuum.

The visual is more dramatic, ranging from 38 inches to 31 – 7 inches total. (Isn't it amazing that I am really trying to suck it in in the first frame of the above picture?) It is fair to say I lost 7 to 8 inches from my waistline, a good indication that the Paleolithic diet does promote fat loss.

It also promotes weight loss in general. As I mentioned, when I started, I weighed 210 pounds. Right now, I weigh 192; a loss of 18 pounds, or a quarter pound a day. Now it gets a little tricky. Could some of that weight loss have been muscle? It likely was. The body will cannibalize its own protein for fuel if it is needed. I decided that measuring flexed bicep girth ought to provide a decent measure of muscle mass; it is easy to measure and, on me, unencumbered with fat, which could potentially give false readings. When I started, my bicep girth was 15.75 inches, right now it is 15 inches even. So I lost muscle on my arms and likely throughout my body. Damn. I was not as diligent about upper body training as I wanted to be. I wonder if training my upper body with weights during this time would have lead to some form of protein sparing effect.

Could it be that by walking around and eating paleolithically, my body has been drifting towards some genetically pre-determined and leaner shape; a shape unenhanced by heavy lifting and protein powders, or by lying around while eating pizza and drinking martinis?

My fourth biomarker was blood pressure, which has historically been high for me. I found that my blood pressure was within normal limits (120/80) throughout the first month, likely due to all the exercise as well as the lack of booze so I stopped tracking it.

I also took some side shots of my face.

It is hard to say but my skin looks a little clearer in the after shot but not much different in terms of fat loss.

Habits that have changed: I like going to bed hungry now rather than eating right before bed. It is nuts to eat anything within three hours of bedtime; that is just an invitation to GERD (heartburn). Eating to fullness is another habit I have broken. I am uncomfortable now eating more than a single plate of food. The after effect of eating too much is very much like a bad hangover; I just want to lay around until the pain goes away. No more, I say!

I will likely continue to eat paleolithically, but the walking will cease I am afraid. Walking for hours on end is very time consuming, and time is about to become compressed for me; school starts tomorrow morning.

Mr. Mike goes to Washington

2005-08-09T19:44:00.000-07:00

(sigh,.. if only our soldiers in Iraq were half as well equipped)

Wow, I need to update over here. DC was interesting. I have been here a few times before, but I never recall it being so hot. My friend Lily lives only a mile and a half from the Capital, and with her work schedule, I had plenty of time to continue the walking. Capital security was intense. On one of my walks, I absentmindedly wandered to close to the Capital building. A heavily armed officer (soldier?) exclaimed in a rather sharp tone, “Sir, without proper ID you are going to have to go back out to the main side walk.” I said, “Okay” trying to look as meek and unterrorist-like as I could. As I veered to the right to head to the sidewalk bordering Constitution Ave, three more heavily armed officers blended out of the woodwork to point the way; where did they come from?

All the while I was thinking, “As if there is even ONE terrorist plot penciled on a napkin to take on this place. Meanwhile, hundreds of thousands of everyday main street towns are wide-open and likely terrorist targets.” Whatever. I walked by the Capital three times in three days. I got a kick out of what the people operating the cameras, or on roof security detail, with binoculars might be thinking. “Hey, haven’t we seen this character with the red backpack three times already? He must be casing the joint.” Imagine me at Gitmo, then shipped off to one of those countries were torture is part of the college curriculum. (I know they are working on getting it here on U.S campuses, but it so hard to get accreditation).

As I said, it was very hot! I found something interesting and survival-worthy though. Even on the days when it was 105 to 110 degrees, drinking lots of water and sweating profusely made it bearable. I walked 12 miles on the hottest day and it was not that bad. Of course, the occasional museum visit helped. On one day, I visited every room in the National Gallery of Art, 136 rooms or so! I also made it to the new WWII memorial (see pic below). Actually, I think I may have seen everything.

I have been keeping up with the Paleolithic experiment; I suppose that sometime next week will be a good time to finalize it, at least officially. Truthfully, this high protein grazing way of eating is not so bad, I might just keep it up.

Washington, D.C.

2005-07-29T06:24:00.000-07:00

Sorry folks, I've been here for the past week. I will post soon.

PS - It was hot!

Still walking..

2005-07-18T20:12:00.000-07:00

Yesterday, I took one of my neighbors and one of the building dogs, Grekko, out for a six-mile walk. The poor boy was rather tired towards the end. In the mean time, I have been building my TEOTWAWKI closet. I have a storage closet out in the hall that I think will hold the rations I purchased at Walton Feed. It is going to take some carpentry but that’s okay, since I’m the building manager and I am giving myself permission.

Keeping the numbers low

2005-07-13T19:32:00.000-07:00

I paid my doctor a visit this past week. She is apprised of my experimentation, and is supportive so long as my blood pressure and cholesterol do not go too far out of wack. I was once a victim of high cholesterol and high blood pressure but am no longer. It is probably more accurate to say I was a victim of myself and my dietary habits which naturally gravitate to average American fare.

As recently as last year, I had a total cholesterol level of 280! (200 is considered to be borderline). I was obviously shocked, so before I let my doctor write me a prescription for something like Lipitor, I tried some natural remedies. Oat bran, flax seed oil and soy products like tofu all have LDL (bad cholesterol) lowering effects while at the same time promoting HDL cholesterol, which has a protective effect. I also reduced my consumption of red meat and tried Red Yeast Rice, which I was reading about on the net as an herbal remedy for reducing cholesterol. I got another blood test in two months and the results were nothing short of astounding: total cholesterol 180! My LDL had come down 100 points and HDL had gone up – exactly what you would want to happen.

So, to what single item do I attribute this? I do not know. It would be a good bet that it was the combination of all those dietary changes. My exercise level is generally moderate to non-existant when I am busy at school, unlike now in which it is more elevated.

That was all back last August. The results from the most recent visit show that I am holding steady at the good levels, in spite of slipping on the discipline and eating red meat as per this Paleolithic plan. One more experiment then. In order to determine how much of an effect the Red Yeast Rice is having, for the next four to five weeks or so, before school starts and the Paleolithic experiment ends, I am going to drop the red yeast rice. I will follow up with one more blood test and we shall see.

The walking is going well. Due to 21^st century life stuff, and staying abreast of the White House shenanigans, I skipped a few days. I made one trip to the archery range with my new archery equipment. Yes, Paleolithic man must keep hunting skills sharp. Ung!

Today I took a crazy little route from Glen Canyon Park up over Twin Peaks and Sutro hill and then wound my way down the hill into the sunset. Here is map of the route courtesy of Google Earth, not to be confused with Google maps. I could write a blog just about this new Google venture but I will not, and simply say that if you download it and begin playing with it, you will be calling in sick the next day just to play with it some more.

Here's some thumbnails of the walk today; click for the large version.

Sausalito (and day 25)

2005-07-04T16:27:00.000-07:00

The Golden Gate Bridge today...

(© Paramount Pictures)
...and 370 years from now, after being destroyed by the Breen.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------

That wasn’t so bad - 18.2 miles today. As usual, I went over the Golden Gate Bridge, but I wanted to climb down to Fort Baker, where I took the above shot; that added two miles to the trip. Just as I arrived on the edge of Sausalito, a parade was starting, which slowed my pace measurably (how annoying). I made my way around the parade by way of the Marina and arrived at the goal for today, Café Trieste, home of the world’s most expensive double espresso ($2.50!), and we are talkin’ a very short double. I had to buy it anyway as I used to frequent the San Francisco Café Trieste every day when I lived in North Beach. It’s tradition.

I am noticing that the things I thought of as milestones to be proud of, like making it to the north end of the bridge, or walking to the beach and back, now seem a bit ho-hum. People ask me how far I have been walking and when I tell them, they are a little surprised or think I have lost my mind. However, walking tens of miles is less about physical exertion and more about how much time you have on your hands.

Climbing through the holiday crowds on the bridge was a little annoying. I try to remember what it was like the first time I stood under those huge spans. The bridge really is a marvel, especially when you consider that it was built during the Great Depression. Instead of endure the crowds at the gift center, I climbed down to Fort Point and walked over to the beach at Crissy field where I stretched out on the sand for a while –very nice.

The diet portion of this Paleolithic experiment is going well. It is simple and I never feel deprived. What’s more, my body is changing. Today, for instance, my pants were tending to slide down a bit. When I went to cinch up the belt, I realized that I was on the last hole.

Here’s a funny picture my old college roommate found of me, circa 1985. Nice glasses.

Our aching backs!

2005-07-03T21:03:00.000-07:00

A few days ago, during a gym workout I pulled a neck muscle, so I have been laying low at least as far as physical exercise goes. (Don’t worry mom, this was minor).

More updates:

I spent some time with Travis and his mom yesterday. The day before that, I had my semi annual doctor visit and everything seems to be functioning fine; she was very pleased to see how low my blood pressure was.

I received an e-mail from my good friend and ex-wife who is presently in China writing a book. The Chinese government has commissioned her to put together a manual to be used as the standard for esthetology in China – pretty impressive - and she takes it very seriously.

She is also hard at work helping her twin sister run her esthetology school in Chongqing, China. In her e-mail she told me that she had injured her back recently from working all the time and it was forcing her to take it easy, something she never does.

I wrote her back and told her about what one of my naturopathic teachers had said to me. She told me that whenever she became ill or injured herself, she would really get into the sickness; she would call in sick, wrap up in blankets, break out a bunch of good books, lay around in a hot bubble bath all day, and never do anything on the to-do list. It was her philosophy that illness is your body’s way of telling you to slow down.

Speaking of slowing down, tomorrow, July 4, I will make my first expedition into that strange land called Sausalito. I think I will walk all the way there (9.2 miles per Google maps) and walk back five miles to the gift center on the south side of the Golden Gate Bridge. From there I can take a variety of buses back home. Later I can add more and more distance to the return leg, until I am all the way up to the 18.5 miles round trip.

Tatanka

2005-06-29T19:13:00.000-07:00

Q: What is the spiritual relationship between the bison and the American Indian culture?
A: It varies from tribe to tribe. However, many of the tribes relied on bison not just for meat, but for shelter, clothing, and a source of utensils, tools, etc. The bison naturally became a spiritual focus for many American Indian tribes. Often, the creation legends of the tribes included the bison. (from Buffalo Nation, by Valerius Geist.)

On my walk today, I stopped by to pay the herd a visit. They were closer to the road today. Apparently, there are eleven of them here in the park and they are all females. Reading from this site, it is probably just as well; while the females weigh a hefty 1,100 pounds, the males weigh in at 2,000 pounds! I have been thinking about this paleolithically. If there was no refrigeration or substantial amounts of salt for curing, then how did a tribe eat all the edible portions before they began rotting? Even if half of a male was considered inedible, that means there was 1,000 pounds of meat on the dinner table that night. I wonder if they dried it?

I made it to the all the way to the Zoo and back – 15.5 miles. It was a gloomy day.

I eat 15 miles for breakfast

2005-06-27T15:46:00.000-07:00

This morning I broke all my records and walked all the way from here to Vista Point on the other side of the Golden Gate Bridge; and then I walked back. Starting at 7:00am, I walked to the bridge as I did the other day, through National Cemetery. It took about five hours to get there and back; fifteen miles. It was a rather gloomy day as you can see, but that is often the best walking weather. I found this cool new thing called Google Maps, and plotted the route I took on it below. The graphics are amazing aren’t they?

(just joking, here's the real google maps)

Noticeable changes

2005-06-26T12:45:00.000-07:00

My consistency with the diet has been due, largely to the fact that it is convenient. There is not much cooking; I have even eaten a bit of the red-meat portions raw. I do not think I could ever eat poultry raw as I have seen people who have been infected with salmonella, it is not pretty. Fish could arguably be eaten raw, but for some reason, I feel like it takes specialized Sushi chef training to do so. I generally cook with a Teflon pan (I know, how very Paleolithic of me), slice meat thin, sauté with little or no olive oil and it is done in a few minutes. Fruits nuts, seeds and veggies, I tend to eat raw. Very simple, very easy.

The exercise I was getting during the school year was baseline; a little weight training and at least four days of cardio workout. It was enough so that I felt at least like a couch carrot rather than a couch potato. The rest of the days involved sitting, reading, writing, eating and frequent boozing – truly a recipe for ever tightening jeans.

The combination of the more protein based diet and hours-long bouts of exercise, what with all the walking combined with the workouts, have had a noticeable effect:

In 18 days, my waistline has decreased from between 3 and five inches, depending on how you measure.
Weight is down from 209# to 201#.
Measured muscle mass has remained stable, which is good to know as often muscle mass is sacrificed over fat by the body. Maybe it is because I am not putting my body into starvation mode; I never let myself get too hungry.
There has been a definite change in my normally prehypertensive blood pressure. At this point, my daytime highs are running 122/74 and morning lows are 108/62! I have never measured blood pressures so low on myself.

I have just broken the hundred-mile mark with the walking. However, I have only been counting intentional walking. Last Friday I worked my E.R. volunteer shift and I was noticing that for at least 60% of my five hour shift, I was walking as briskly as when I am outside. That means, I could have easily walked ten to 12 miles just within San Francisco General! Maybe I should get a pedometer and monitor passive walking as well.

On the docket today, put away the Walton feed order that arrived the other day, write an article on biodiesel for Gone to Croatoan (which is up to 2,440 hits as of today) and of course, the dishes; always the dishes.

(GARY BLACKMAN Dirty Dishes)

PS.. No that's not me in the top photo.

Marching on - days 12, 13 &14

2005-06-23T17:20:00.000-07:00

Yesterday I awoke exhausted from the previous days hike. I spent most of the day reading and planning some more TEOTWAWKI strategy. It was a good recovery day, by this morning I had as much energy as a puppy.

Today some of my fellow nursing students and I went out to a quaint little restaurant for lunch called the Crêpevine, where they feature,..... you guessed it, crepes. It has been awhile since I allowed myself restaurant food, so I was looking forward to it. That meant though, that I had to bust-a-move and complete my walk before 10:00am when we were to meet. Normally, it seems that I do not get started until 11:00 or noon. So, with only three hours to spare after a good gym workout, I walked straight though, all the way to the beach and back to 9^th and Irving. That is the first time I walked nine miles without a break.

After lunch and catching up on gossip, I walked the last two miles home – 11 today. I am finding that the beach via Golden Gate Park walk is becoming hypnotic; I am not observing the nature around me. It is just too easy to stay on the asphalt sidewalk bordering JFK and MLK drives and get lost in thought. To remedy that, I thought (while lost therein) today, why not walk the park via the side trails and lakes paths of which the must be many miles worth?

I could also walk through the maze of cute S.F. streets. Years ago, I wanted to do a website where I featured one amazing San Francisco house per day, week or outing. This might be a good time to incorporate that idea over here on my 'non' end-of-the-world blogsite. The only issue would be that of breaking my stride, what with all the traffic and intersections. Hmmm, come to think of it though, I am sure Paleolithic humans stopped on their long walks to admire beautiful scenery.

A walk in the park (days 8,9,10 & 11)

2005-06-20T21:18:00.000-07:00

I built an Excel sheet to track the various body changes resulting from this half-assed but earnest attempt at a Paleolithic diet/exercise regime. There are also some before/after photos but you will not be seeing them until the end. Realize that when one is coming down from an extreme, as I am, changes are bound to be more dramatic at first. Well, in ten days, I have walked 66 miles and have lost five pounds, and two inches off my waistline. Blood pressure has remained normal though I am noticing a gradual drop in diastolic blood pressure. There has been no measurable increase in muscle mass. At no point have I felt ravenous as is often true of restrictive diets. Dietary discipline has been limited to food choices, not how much and when to eat; I just eat when I am hungry. I have not felt fatigued, but I have been sleeping like a rock for the full eight hours. This might also have to do with the fact that stopped drinking alcohol, and drinking always seemed to give me insomnia. So far, so good.

I will be modifying the routine a bit based on the study I mentioned in the prior post. I am going to try four days of more extreme exercise, interweaving days of rest or less exercise, rather than moderate exercise everyday. This seems to fit the Paleolithic pattern better. It will take a little while; we are talking fifteen-mile hikes here - five hours at the pace I go.

Today I walked down the street with Travis, his mom and his dog Grekko to Duboce Park. There we ate fresh, sweet, ripe plums from a tree in the middle of the park; urban foraging at its finest. .

On the Beach.

2005-06-19T21:59:00.000-07:00

My walk today took me thorough the park to the beach, but this time I walked south another few miles. I climbed up and nestled in on the top of the dunes that run along the beach. Here’s a satellite image of the area. Further south, these dunes grow to veritable cliffs from which people hang glide. I picked up an L-Taraval bus in front of the S.F. Zoo that took me all the way home. In all I walked seven miles. Tomorrow I may stay closer to home as I promised this little boy (actually, both little boys in the picture) some of my time.

The reason I walk

2005-06-19T11:46:00.000-07:00

This is a nice summation of the premise behind the Paleolithic diet.

“From the emergence of the genus Homo, over 2 million years ago (MYA), until the agricultural revolution of roughly 10000 years ago our ancestors were hunter-gatherers, so the adaptive pressures inherent in that environmental niche have exerted defining influence on human genetic makeup. The portion of our genome that determines basic anatomy and physiology has remained relatively unchanged over the past 40 000 years. Thus, the complex interrelationship between energy intake, energy expenditure and specific physical activity requirements for current humans remains very similar to that originally selected for Stone Age men and women who lived by gathering and hunting.”

[From the abstract : Cordain, L., Gotshall, R.W. and Eaton, S.B. Physical activity, energy expenditure and fitness: an evolutionary perspective. International Journal of Sports Medicine 1998; 19:328-335] [PDF to entire study]

Over the millennia, our crafty little monkey ways have lead to more and more inventions, techniques and access to resources which have made our lives “easier.” The authors of this article, renowned for their work in this field, do not go into the reasons that food became ever more abundant for us with little personal effort to produce it. However, it is my contention (and that of others) that the advent of cheap and easily transmuted fossil fuels have allowed us to achieve this state. My primary motivation for exploring these primitive ways, the ways we designed to live, is my lack of trust in the sustainability of this ‘way of life’; these fuels are running out.

But on the subject of walking, and Paleolithic exercise in general, the authors point out, “Overall, the Paleolithic rhythm involves days of fairly intense physical exertion which alternate with days of rest and light activity..” But how much physical exertion? In our modern world, “… physical activity for most people has become an extraordinary activity largely separate from other daily tasks and engaged in specifically to improve fitness variable such as endurance, strength and or flexibility.”

The activity per day guidelines recommended by the American College of Sports Medicine are, “participating in physical activity 3-5 days/week, at 50-85% maximum intensity, continuously for 20-60 minutes” along with “accumulating 30 minutes of physical activity over most days of the week…” However, when compared with the activity levels of the modern day hunter-gatherers, the Ache, !Kung, Agta, Hadza and Inuit, these guidelines fall far short, for their daily activity levels are much higher.

The difficulty with fitting this level of activity into our lives is not in retraining ourselves. In fact, what I have noticed is that one can quickly become conditioned to walking. After two weeks, eight miles does not strain me any more than three. What can become problematic is the amount of time it takes to do this. Three and a half hours of walking, the equivalent of ten miles at three miles an hour, is not a lot of time, unless you are committing yourself to doing it every day. Three and a half miles, six days a week, is 21 hours; that is a part time job. If it were not for my being marginally employed this summer, I do not know if I would have had the energy to do all this.

Nevertheless, I will continue at least until the new semester begins. The answer to regaining the balance may lie in increasing activity level in combination with intentional calorie reduction. Hmm, that sounds like most modern diet plans.

If planes are still flying,

2005-06-16T18:27:00.000-07:00

I am so HERE next year.

Paleo Experiment - Day 6 and 7

2005-06-16T15:15:00.000-07:00

Yesterday I hiked north to the Golden Gate Bridge. This time, with the help of Google Maps, I plotted a route that took me through the northeastern tip of Golden Gate Park and then due North through the Presidio golf course and into San Francisco National Cemetery. From this little portion of the Bay Area Ridge Trail, I came to the cemetery rather dramatically as it appeared suddenly over the crest of a hill. At the same time, a piece of somber cello music by David Darling called “Children” (click for free mp3 download), was coming up on my mp3 player. The timing for such a piece could not have been more perfect. I had to stop and take note of some of the forgotten that had gone before me.

Who were these people? What were their hopes, their dreams? Whom did they love? Some had such short lives. There was an area dedicated to nurses who served in WW I. Who were you my brave sistren? I have never found the thought of death something to be avoided. In fact, it is something to contemplate often. It is hard to explain, but seeing all these thousands of stones and knowing that I will find myself in such a place (if I am not eaten by wolves), is somehow reassuring.

I managed to find my way to the southern visitors center of the G.G. Bridge all on back roads and trails. One goal this summer is to hike all the way over the bridge into Sausalito, which will be a 19 mile round trip.

Today I stayed in. It was a rainy day in the City and I had many ADL’s (nursespeak for ‘activities of daily living’) to attend to. Below is what I had for dinner. I have yet to figure out how Paleolithic people cooked. Many meats can be eaten raw. Eskimo eat raw fermented fish all the time. For now, I am sautéing lightly in my stone aged Teflon pan. The red meat was cooked a total of 20 seconds, rather tar-tar. The salmon I caught by hand in the stream out behind the building. Seasoning for the fish: wild dill, from the banks of the stream behind the building. Apricot for garnish. (P.S. the only stream behind the building is from the parking lot rain runoff).

Merlin Farms

2005-06-16T10:52:00.000-07:00

(from the movie Excalibur)

[cross posted from Gone to Croatoan]
Well, it is done. I placed my order with Walton Feed today for the basic one person- one year supply of emergency food and two empty 55-gallon water drums. So am I turning into some loony Ted Kaczynski type? Maybe. Somehow, though, I feel a bit liberated. I feel like I took a stand and put my money where my mouth is (literally). I feel like I would have made my grandparents proud. I feel like, in my own small way, I am beginning to return to what was a way of life only just a few generations back. Sadly, at this point two full generations of us have only heard of the Great Depression, so stable have our lives been. A line from the movie Excalibur, spoken by Merlin the Magician, always comes back to me - “…it is the doom of man that they forget.”

The entire premise of the 20,000-year Agricultural age was to grow things during the season and put them in storage for the off-season or for hard times. We have lost that way of thinking. We have allowed the perpetual abundance of the grocery shelves to lull us into complacency. Grocery stores only have about three days to one week of food inventory on their shelves if they are run well. In fact, all the way up the line, through distributors, warehouses and manufacturers it makes sound fiscal sense to let the next person up the line hold most of the inventory while you carry as little as possible.

Today I have broken that rule, and honored those that lived through the Great Depression by ‘putting up’ one years worth of food for one person, or three months for three or four people. (Sorry, San Franciscans, I already have these folks picked out and they have never heard of an ‘internet’). What did I get for my money? Just the basics; 600 pounds of wheat berries, beans, rice, powdered milk, corn, sugar, yeast and salt, all packed in 13-six gallon buckets with oxygen absorbers inside; oh yes, and a manual grain grinder. The life expectancy on this food is between ten and fifteen years and I hope I never have to crack a lid. I hope I wasted my money. We will see.

I have nothing on many of those out there already living the alternative back to the land life. Near to where my folks live, near the ocean in Southern New Jersey, there is a little organic farm. On this farm is a large electricity generating wind mill, big water storage containers out back, and solar heating panels on the south side of an old house. The sign out front says, “Organic Produce for sale.” That is the goal; my goal at least.

For now, I live in a studio apartment in San Francisco only a few miles from downtown, and for the next few years, it will be here that I make my stand. I will buy my emergency rations from wherever I can, rather than grow, can/dehydrate and store them. That will suffice. Being the building manager here, I have access to a few storage areas, but even if I were not, it would all fit in this studio, including the water drums. They would make for great conversation pieces don’t you think?

Paleolithic Nursing Student (dia cinco)

2005-06-14T19:56:00.000-07:00

(S.F.G.H)
Today I had my secondary training for an E.R. volunteer position at San Francisco General Hospital. I feel privileged to be there and it was not easy to get in. The letter of recommendation from the volunteer department along with the “R.N.” after my name should make me a shoe in for real job there sometime next year. Not that an RN would have a hard time getting a job anywhere, it’s just that I want to work there.

The General is an interesting hospital. I get a real sense of idealism and a “can do” spirit there. The typical stratification of Dr. to RN to LVN is absent and so is the elitism. In the ED, the doctors, nurses, techs and some volunteers all wear the same burgundy scrubs; you can’t tell who’s your boss or who’s your subordinate. Granted, it’s not like I have worked there long enough to really know if this spirit is consistent throughout the system, but I am betting it is. I guess I’ll find out.

Of course I walked there and back; it took fourty minutes each way - about four miles round trip. On the way back, I did some produce shopping in the Mission. I love the Mission. I am already a Latinophil, but the colors, the music, the produce spilling out to the street, the Spanish spoken everywhere, the wall murals (did you know that there are over 445 of them in this town?) all make me feel that I am in another country. And, dios mio, the prices! I walked out of there with a big bag of produce for only $3.43, choosing items that Paleolithic humans might have yanked off a tree.

Years ago, I learned a simple salsa recipe that I imagine could have been made easily millions of years ago. In fact, I bet our distant ancestors must have eaten well. When people think of primitives they often conjure images of dirt caked people struggling for every meal, which often involved a stick with some bland meat on the end of it roasting over a fire. For all we know they had figured out nature’s spice rack hundreds of generations prior and ate dishes with flavors we could not imagine. Anyway - the salsa. Dice up a medium red onion and two medium tomatoes and toss it in a bowl. Chop up three fingers width of cilantro and toss it in with the juice of two whole limes. Now the secret: let it sit overnight. It will be too potent if you eat it too soon. Patience.

(image courtesy: www.abekleinfeld.com)

Paleo Biomechanics (and day 4)

2005-06-13T17:37:00.000-07:00

Today I stayed home, I decided to give my legs a rest and the dishes a clean. I did make it to the gym however. This brings up an interesting point. We can imagine that Paleolithic humans walked a lot, but what about running? They probably did not run much. Think about it. Is there a single predator of that era or today that we can outrun? Is there an animal (besides a turtle) that we can chase down? To be sure, running had its place but not for any real length, what would be the point of running five or ten miles? If I were to intuit how to incorporate running into my Paleo plan, I would think that some short bursts or uphill sprints would be in order. Short spurts would have pracical merit. Further searching and a hint from Ran lead me to the website of Frank Forencich, the author Play As If Your Life Depended On It. The author has apparently done much of the intuiting already on how our ancestors went to the gym; the list of exercises he has invented is extensive and most can be done at home.

Since I have a gym membership and my home based routines usually fail in the end, I think I might try incorporating some of the more savannah like exercises into my gym routine. I know this may not appeal to a purist but it ought to be simple enough to create pushing, pulling and balancing type exercises that mimic our Paleolithic ancestors in their daily quest for food and shelter.

Paleo Experiment - Day 3

2005-06-12T20:38:00.000-07:00

It was very difficult to wake up this morning. It almost felt like cold and flu fatigue and then I remembered that I have not been eating much in the way of carbs. That is not part of the methodology in the Paleolithic diet, mind you, I just have not been selecting many starchy foods when I shop.

On that theme, in a nutshell, these are the dietary guidelines I am following.

Do eat:

Meat (and fat, fish, eggs)
Vegetables (and berries)
Fruit (and nuts)
Dairy (milk, cheese, butter, etc) (*)

Do not eat:

Dairy (milk, cheese, butter, etc) (*)
Grains or corn (maize, wheat, barley, rice, etc.)
Starchy vegetables (potatoes, yams, jerusalem artichokes, etc.)
Sugar (refined)
Legumes (beans, soy products, peanuts, cashew, lentils, etc.)
Chemical food additives

Go easy on:

Salt (can cause overeating and hypertension and dull the senses)
Processing of foods (nut flours/butters, pork rind flour, etc.) Eat simple foods instead
Artificial sweeteners (don't dull your senses, and they cause insulin responses simply by being sweet on the tastebuds)

This list was taken from this the Paleo Diet webpage, which goes into much more detail. I am sure I will be revisiting this information as the weeks progress. The above list allows dairy conditionally, but I am going to eliminate it entirely. Dairy products seem too much a part of the Agricultural era, when our hunter-gatherer ways began to go awry.

I got ready anyway and walked to the beach again this time taking the southern Martin Luther King drive stopping by Java Beach Café where friend and fellow nursing student Stacy works. In spite of the fact that I have been using factor 30 protection on my exposed skin surfaces, I am getting nice and red about the face and arms. The color contrast between my face and pasty white chest is quite humorous. So I decided to lay out in the sun a bit, seeing as it was a warm, windless day and there were miles of beach calling me. Afterwards, I walked back home. So there it is – my first round trip to the beach and back - 10.5 miles today.

By the way, the fish I bought came out pretty good. All I did was steam them. After ten minutes, I pulled them out and poked around. It turns out that the skin comes off very easily allowing one to tease the meat out using a fork. I did saute some onions as a side dish - simple and nice.

Paleo Experiment - Day 2

2005-06-11T19:40:00.000-07:00

I decided to walk over to this place.....

today after my Escrima Serrada class; gorgeous day, as you can see. Breakfast consisted of pine nits and raisins. It’s funny, but by 4:00pm, I still was not very hungry. I stopped by the traditional American hunting ground called Safeway, and bought some lean read meat, some almonds and peaches and two whole fish.

Don’t ask me how to prepare them, I always bought the prefileted kind. It will be fun. Maybe in a month or so I will walk to Chinatown and get a live fish. Imagine that, me carrying a live fish on a crowded bus. My calculations indicate that I walked nine miles today before I cashed in and found a bus home.

Paleolithic diet

2005-06-10T09:40:00.000-07:00

[repost from Gone to Croatoan]

I am going to begin an experiment. My studies In the Peak Oil phenomenon, like many of us willing to think about it, have lead me to contemplate what it would be like to experience a complete collapse of everything; economic, societal, food distribution etc. What would it be like to suddenly find ourselves existing, in not only a pre-industrial world, but even a pre-agricultural world. This is how we lived, anthropologists and others, say for 99% of our existence as a species.

This curiosity, combined with the end of semester/vacation excesses, weight gain, lethargy etc are compelling me to find out the effects of applying a Paleolithic diet and activity level.

I know I am being extremely vague, but I am figuring this out as I go along. I have taken the before photos and will be tracking various biomarkers over the next ten weeks before the new semester begins.

Today I will eat what you see in the above photo and will walk about five miles. On the theory that Paleolithic people walked a lot, my daily walking goal will eventually be ten miles, with spurts of upwards of twenty. If I need it, I am also going to allow myself one day a week to follow the ‘normal-early 21^st century-urban-American-male' diet (minus the booze).

BON APPÉTIT

[UPDATE: 4:30 PM]
I chose a route from my neighborhood, the Castro, through the Haight and into Golden Gate Park. Actually, I skirted Haight St. When you are a tourist, of course you must stand on the corner of Haight and Ashbury. If you live here however, and have passed through the neighborhood enough, the panhandling can be annoying. I have seen homeless people get hit up for money. There are other roads into the park. Once inside, I walked down JFK Drive, which runs east to west along the north side of the park. It is amazing to me that such raw nature exists so close to a big city. Did you know that there are Bison in G.G. Park?

And how about this little fellow, trotting across the golf course.

I made it to the archery range, one of my goals today, in two hours. Why the archery range, you ask? Why, did not Paleolithic man use a bow and arrow with which to hunt? Yes, this summer, I will be buying a bow and learning how to use it. I then took a long walk, with pants legs rolled up in the cold Pacific surf.

I figure, based on the amount of time walked and an average speed of 2.5 miles an hour, that I walked 8.25 miles today; pretty good for a 43-year old out of shape cave man.

The Lake Isle of Innisfree

2005-05-31T12:04:00.000-07:00

I will arise and go now, and go to Innisfree,
And a small cabin build there, of clay and wattles made;
Nine bean rows will I have there, a hive for the honey bee,
And live alone in the bee-loud glade.

And I shall have some peace there, for peace comes dropping slow,
Dropping from the veils of the morning to where the cricket sings;
There midnight's all a glimmer, and noon a purple glow,
And evening full of the linnet's wings.

I will arise and go now, for always night and day
I hear lake water lapping with low sounds by the shore;
While I stand on the roadway, or on the pavements gray,
I hear it in the deep heart's core.

W.B. Yeats

Somewhere in the Adirondacks...

2005-05-31T08:01:00.000-07:00

I'm taking a break.