I hadn't realized it had been quite a while since I last posted anything (blame it on DH bringing a cold home from his work and passing it on to me). I've been feeling under the weather, and that's what I get for congratulating myself that I hadn't gotten any colds/flu all winter long. So of course, now that winter is over, I have to have the cold from hell that is just kicking my ass and making me dopey as all get-out with medication.
I'm trying the no-shampoo route with my hair. It's so oily that I need to wash it every other day or it looks like I've dumped a bucket of cooking oil on it, no shampoo I've ever tried has ever worked to keep it clean, shiny, and grease-free for more than a day and a half. Today, I did the 1 tsp of baking soda in a cup of water to wash my hair (and I'm thinking I'm going to add a rinse of cider vinegar later on, I used to do that all the time and my hair looked pretty good).
I've been reading all the brouhaha about United Airlines' policy of charging fat people for two seats. Makes me damned glad I don't intend on going anywhere that I'll have to fly in order to get there in time. DH was in the Navy for 20 years, and had to be flown to a different ship a couple of times, when his assignments were changed, and he said even back then he didn't fit in the seats very well (he was 5' 10" and 210 lbs). He's been out of the Navy for 15 years (this July), so that's been anywhere from 20 to 30 years ago (so the airlines have had inadequate seating in their planes forever, seems to me). We have a ship's reunion to go to in 2010, and had thought about flying from MN to VA for that, but now, with all this bullshit going on with the airlines, I think we're going to rent a minivan and drive it instead. That will allow us time to sightsee along the way, and even stop to visit family and friends. We also won't have to worry about what we can and can't carry on the plane (try getting a letter from his doctor for anything, let alone his insulin and syringes), and we won't have to worry about luggage getting lost or damaged. Not to mention that minivan seats are a lot more comfortable than airline seats, you can stop at rest areas to use a roomy bathroom, and get out and walk around if you get tired of sitting and driving.
I've also been reading all the bullshit the media is putting out about how fat people are causing global warming (and this is the media that hypes all the nutcases who don't think global warming is even happening). So, yeah, MSM, you can't have it both ways. Either global warming is a fact, and everyone on this earth is contributing to it, or it isn't happening at all. Please make up your minds, will you? All those numbers those asshats put in their LETTER (not a study) were mostly guesses and estimates pulled out of their asses. There might have been a very small basis of fact behind those numbers, but they then exaggerated the hell out of everything to prove their hypothesis. All they did was convince me that they don't know what they're talking about and that I'm better off ignoring anything that has their names on it, since it probably won't be honest or factual.
Not much else is going on, at least not anything worth writing about. I haven't even felt good enough to read any more books (and if you want to know what I had been reading, take a gander at my library blog, linked in the sidebar over there somewhere).
Friday, April 24, 2009
10 comments:
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Sorry you are feeling so badly. Hope you feel better soon!
ReplyDeleteAs far as flying, I hate it. I only crawl onto a plane if I really, really want to go somewhere and there is no other way to get there. NO WAY am I going to pay double to go anywhere based upon my size. No way.
Wish we had a train system than ran near my neck of the woods. I'd do a LOT more traveling if we did.
Kat - It's been years since I've been on a train (about 50, and I don't remember any of it, I was only 5 at the time). But if the seating is roomier than on an airplane, I'd much rather go that route than fly, that's for sure. As it is, any trips we take will be done by automobile if taking a train isn't feasible.
ReplyDeleteYeah, and this is the same media which tells us fatasses we won't live to see 60 if we don't slim down while all the skinny people with good habits live to be 95. Which is it? Am I going to live long enough to destroy the earth, or aren't I?
ReplyDeleteAndee (Meowser)
Meowser - Good point. If our fat is going to kill us off at an early age, how much damage can we do?
ReplyDeleteI agree with Meowser. I have always said that obesity is a long term positive for society. It creates millions of people who pay into medicare and social security but will never live long enough to cash out, thus greatly increasing the solvency of the otherwise fatally flawed programs. Also the obese, like smokers, while costing more in health care on average, will never become elderly. Since most health care costs occur in the last few years of life in elderly, obesity will save us all this money as well.
ReplyDeleteWell, if you'd end up getting a rental car in Virginia anyway, and then when you add in all the airline hassles (what can you carry on, will your checked luggage actually make it to Virginia at the same time as you, will the gate agent decide at the last minute you or DH is too big for just one seat, etc) driving does seem to make more sense. The total cost in the end might not be much different than what you'd spend if you flew, you can have an enjoyable vacation along the way, and you'll have eliminated a whole lot of stress and hassle.
ReplyDeleteI've done Amtrak cross country a few times. Coach seating is pretty comfortable, but when it comes to cost, it's not much different from flying and can actually be more.
FA - I really hope you're saying that with tongue firmly in cheek. Because if you're not, and you seriously believe what you're saying, you haven't read Junkfood Science and the Obesity Paradoxes on that site. It's the fatties who live the longest, and have the best chances of surviving those heart attacks/strokes/cancers that kill off thinner people. I know this from first-hand family experiences. I had 2 grandmothers who lived well into their 80s, one with heart/blood pressure problems, one who lost a lung to cancer, had a stroke right after her lung surgery (while she was in the hospital, in fact), and both of them would have been considered "obese". The one grandfather that I personally knew (I'm not counting my mom's stepdad here because he wasn't related by blood, even though he was my grandfather in every way that mattered) lived to be 90 years old, and would have been considered "overweight" by the BMI. So I wouldn't count on fatties dying off in their younger years (and both of my parents are either overweight or obese by the BMI also, and they're both still alive and kicking at 75 and 76 years of age). You really can't believe what the media says about all those studies that say fat is killing people at younger and younger ages. The media doesn't read the studies, they don't do any research, they go with whatever is handed to them as a press release, which is usually what the study authors wanted the study to say, but if you actually read the study, you'll find out it was either poorly designed and has null results or it gives just the opposite results of what is claimed. If the study does have the results the press release claims, it's because participants in the study who would have disproved the study were eliminated, and only the ones who gave them the results they wanted were kept (and this is usually done because the study is funded by a pharmaceutical company with an eye towards diagnosing more people with more diseases so they can sell more pills to more people and make more megatons of money).
ReplyDeleteOOooo ooooo! You're doing the no-shampoo thing! I have to say that I tried it and gave up 5 days later... though, I didn't try baking soda. I tried by just washing with conditioner. I think I'll try the baking soda/vinegar bit. Do you have a sensitive scalp in any sense? I do... and that is why I didn't do the baking soda. I read something that said the baking soda can be harsh... but just cuz it is written somewhere doesn't mean it is true or that it is true for me, so maybe it is time I give it a try, eh?
ReplyDeleteI agree with you on the bit about the media not reading the studies. This kinda thing gets me thinking that I wish media got it's revenues from the public as opposed to big, GREEDY companies such as pharmaceutical companies that are obliged to their stock holders to have profit growth year over year over year. Infinite growth isn't healthy and it throws even more pressure on companies that are otherwise greedy to be even more unethical than they should be otherwise... oooo... grrr...
AGR - I don't know if my scalp is sensitive or not, but I do know it always itches, and always has, when I use any kind of shampoo to wash my hair. I've only done the baking soda/water wash once, and my scalp didn't itch nearly as much. I'm washing it that way again today because it's getting oily again, which is an improvement. Washed it Friday and normally would have had to have done it again on Sunday because of excess oil, but didn't get the excess until today. I'm hoping that eventually I'll be able to get down to once or twice a week shampooing instead of every other day. I do know that my hair was really soft and had better body (didn't lay flat to my head). And it's much cheaper than shampoo and conditioner, to boot.
ReplyDeleteYeah, the greed thing with companies just drives me nuts. It's like George Carlin used to say, "you buy a bigger house because you have too much stuff for the house you're in, and then you buy more stuff to fill up the bigger house and then you need an even bigger house because you've got too much stuff." And that applies, in a roundabout way, to big pharma, they need to sell more pills to make more money, so they lobby to bring diagnostic standards down, they make more people think they're in need of those pills, then they have to lobby again to sell more pills to more people, and on and on and on. Pretty soon, everyone, from cradle to grave, is going to be taking some kind of pill for disease management, whether they actually have the disease or not (unless we get smart and them to take a flying fuck at a rolling doughnut).
The Mister and I are going on a trip next week and I'm a bit put off by all of this hullabalo. We're flying on US Airways though and I had alright luck with them last time. Not the greatest seats, but good response when asking for an extender, etc.
ReplyDeleteThe airplane seats fit like 10% of the population--and most of those are under age 12. Anyone who thinks otherwise is an idiot or hasn't been on a plane recently.