Kyle Schmyle

Before I went to bed, around 11:00 PM Atlantic Time, (12:30 Eastern) Kyle was at hurricane strength in the Atlantic just off New York. It was still tracking to hit New Brunswick around midnight. Locally we were warned to have flashlights, batteries and fresh water stored up and prepare for flooding, downed trees, damaged roofs etc.

As a last minute precaution I ran out to double check the tarp covering the makeshift tent/carport we store our wood in (for winter heating). A fine rain was falling but was it ever coming down. In the 90 seconds I was outside I was drenched. It wasn't a driving rain but it was wetter than your average rain.

As I write at 4:30 AM, my normal rise and shine time, I Googled Hurricane Kyle. The latest news result, 48 minutes ago, gives me a report from the Hurricane Center in Miami. Kyle has made landfall, and has been downgraded from a Tropical Storm. I guess this makes Kyle sad in a near Equator way. He is or is in a Tropical Depression. Poor Kyle. Maybe that accounts for all the rain, he's sad. Anyway TDK, as those most familiar with him will now refer to him has slowed his progress down to a crawl but apparently is still providing 60 mph winds with gusts up to 70 or 80. (120 kph). Sounds more fierce in metric doesn't it?

From this Bloggers seat there's no wind right now just the same misty rain. There's lots of it though. The low areas in the back yard are under water, a little more than normal in torrential downpour, like the ones we've grown accustomed to this year.

Anyway, Pilgrim and family are dry and secure with lights and a roof overhead. Nothings blown away and all the trees are where we left them before the Sandman hearkened. I'm grateful that Kyle gave me enough material to fill two posts.

Until next time I remain,

Pilgrim.

Hatches are Batented?

The last I checked, Hurricane Kyle, a category 1 hurricane, was creeping up the Atlantic coast of the US. The eye was targeted to hit Saint John, New Brunswick, about 90 km (50 miles) south of here. The experts expect Kyle will lose steam though when it gets into the northern waters and downgrade to a tropical storm. Nonetheless, deck furniture, toys, gardening implements and whatever else isn't nailed down has been stowed.

Now we sit and wait for more rain. Mama Mia. Precipitation has drowned us the past few months. Over the winter over 13 feet of snow fell in our area. A little north of us they had almost 20 feet of snow. One person I talked to in April told me the snow leading to her pasture was over her head!

Then the rain fell.

We actually had two weeks of summer in July. It was hotter than, well, July. Enough time to bring the coming years hay in. Then the rain really came. We may have had a day or two of sun in August but I'd be hard pressed to swear to it. While much of New Brunswick flooded we were spared though glory be to God. .

Now Kyle or whatever is left of him is blowing in. Rain until the end of the week. And the good ole Farmer's Almanac is calling for a very cold winter with lots of snow starting in early December.

Oh well. Someone once said, "Everyone complains about the weather but nobody does anything about it." That being said I'm going to make sure my car windows are rolled up, there's lots of fresh water stored up in the event of a power outage and hunker down.

Bring 'er on Kyle, I'm ready for ya.

Pilgrim

Where's Pilgrim?

The better question is, where's Pilgrim been? Not so far really, just been busier than a one armed paper hanger. That and submitting the keyboard to my DW for a couple of reasons. Maybe three.

One, I love her and would do anything for her, including giving up the seat I'm currently in.

Two, because it's a break for her from a harried day looking after the boys, keeping the house in order, baking fresh bread, gardening, making meals for everyone and generally being a Proverbs 31 woman.

And last but certainly not least. She gets paid to blog and I don't. Here you go Honey, the Dell's all warmed up for you....

Besides that, work (paid and unpaid) is keeping me hopping I just finished up the second round of a Hebrew perspective Bible course. tons of yard work, barn chores, the Summer Olympics, a reintroduction to camping and generally trying to be a decent dad. There wasn't a lot of time left over. Did I mention I'm trying to learn the guitar again. It's about my 152nd attempt but I'm thinking I may stick with it this time.

The good news is that over the past 6 months I've stowed away lots of material for some posts. I have to build the habit again though so don't get too excited yet. Wait until I have a few dozen consecutive posts under my belt before you blow up any balloons.

Here's to getting back into an old familiar routine with some cherished friends. I've really missed this part of my life and am looking forward to sitting down to coffee with you all again.

Pilgrim

Rumplestiltskin

Wow!  My User ID and password still work.  Imagine that?   Maybe I'll dust off the keyboard of the old Sony and start blogging agian.   

Pilgrim

Friday Night Videos - Just Say No!

Detox (Part Deux)

So I kick sugar. This is a huge feat gentle readers. I am a sugar addict. Cravings will hit at work or home and I'll stop at nothing for a fix. A Coffee Crisp or Coke from the vending machine at work. A brownie from the cafe in the mall at work. Robbing the last cookie from the jar on the courtier at home. Imagine, I was such a hopeless user I'd take the last cookie while my children weren't looking. What kind of father am I? Shameful.

Sugar in the morning, sugar at lurch, break time, after supper, before bed. Relentless.

After discovering how much it was affecting me I decided it was time to quit. And I did.

Then things started to happen and really quickly. I stopped crashing at work. Dozing of in meetings and in front of my PC. I always blamed my crazy schedule. Up at 4:30 in the morning, off to the gym or onto the laptop to work. To work by 8:00 where I'd work straight through eating at my desk. Taking breaks for necessaries and eh hem,, sugar fixes. Home by 6:00 or thereafter Play with the kid's them send them off to bed. Do some more work, do some work on the Torah study then off to bed by 11:00. After kicking sugar, the schedule hasn't changed much other than I'm not sleepy anymore. I'm actually quite alert and firing on all cylinders. I feel like a million bucks when I get home from the gym.

After a week and a half the spare tire around my midsection is also deflating! Oh, you ask my DW about the weight I've lost and her cute little nose wrinkles up and a "WTH" look crosses her face. I know that my pants are just that much looser trust me. The once former six pack still may be a bag of milk but it's going down and I'm not backing down.

Then I fell. Monday night DW breaks out a chocolate cake from the freezer. A home made delight she made for Little Pilgrim's birthday. I decide to have resolve and not indulge. Then I cave when I see the thick layer of home made icing screaming at me. Two larger than normal pieces later and the guilt and shame I'm expecting, stay at bay. No balling up into the fetal position and crying at the remorse of failing. Instead I feel like a bag of crap and get a headache.

Then it strikes me. That's the first headache I've had since putting a lid on the sugar bowl. I feel better.

Today the doughnuts came out at work and I resisted. It was a pivotal moment. I turned down a Tim Horton's Dutchie! Success!

Kicking sugar hasn't been as difficult as quiting smoking (11 years since my fingers lost their yellow smelly tinge). It has had much quicker results.

Next battle is to kick the excess fat in my diet. I'll let you all know how that works out when living without sugar levels out.

Kicking the habit wasn't that hard my friends and the benefits have been quick and welcome.

Pilgrim

Detox (Thank You)

Blessings can be found in the most unsuspecting places. The purpose of the first part of this thread was to inspire others to stop eating junk. It's more than junk it's poison. I'll continue on in a moment. When I checked comments I was blown away to see comments offering prayers for me. It was very moving and and very appreciated. Although my mom is praying for healing like only a mother can, I never really thought of it as a prayer request. I just accepted that I was in this situation and that my sight won't be taken from me without a fight.

Thanks to you all for your kindness, you are all very kind and it is appreciated.

Time to start praying for healing.

Pilgrim

Detox

"By law I have to report you to the Province to revoke your license," the Opthamalagist said, "however you have learned how to compensate very well so I'm not going to report you yet...." LOSE MY LICENSE! Mama Mia, when I was a kid all I lived for was getting my driver's license now I could potentially lose it for life!?! I love driving.

Needless to say I was a wee bit shaken when DW and I walked out of the office a few weeks ago. I knew my eyesight was bad, I've been told that for the past 20 years but lose my license? What's worse, there's no corrective lenses, it is what it is.

When I saw my MD a few days later I asked him what the what what was. Turns out the condition that is robbing my sight is related to the arthritis that affects me from head to toe and both are stemming from an under active thyroid problem that plagues me. Drat that little metabolism controlling gland!

The macula;r degeneration, can't be cured. I can possibly slow down it's progression maybe even stop it from getting worse by taking mineral supplements and Omega 3. The mineral supplements are deadly at first, I was driving the porcelain bus for a few days trying to get used to them.

Then it gets interesting. Mom sends me some pages ripped out of a medical journal she has. I'm supposed to eat lots of spinach and dark greens and reds. Ingest flax seed oil, yummy. Then I pick up an old Prevention magazine for some light reading. DW buys the little health periodicals at the thrift store for a dime. There are articles on macular degeneration and under active thyroid. Both talk about diet. This months Reader's Digest comes in. A piece on macular degeneration and how diet can help. Another article on good cholesterol and how flax seed oil, yummy, is good for arthritis. All articles point to cutting out refined sugar. I read another article in Prevention on the evils of carbonated soft drinks. Sugar, is once again picked out.

Pilgrim goes cold turkey off of sugar and starts adrinking two glases of OJ with flax seed oil, yummy, every day. It wasnt easy to kick the sugar, I'm an addict. I started to get used to the flax sed oil, yummy. You wouldn't believe what happens next.

Pilgrim

New Kid on the Blog

Today marks the launch of my DW's professional blog career. Two and half months after writing her first post on Blogger, DW launches into the majors. Please drop by Organizing Connections and drop a note on the blog. You might as well add it to your link list whle your on-line because both of her blogs are some of the best reading you will ever find.

Pilgrim

Not So Scared After All (Sky Is Falling Part 2)

OK so maybe the sky's not falling. I don't believe we'll be living in cardboard boxes any time soon. It's too cold up here for that. I don't think the world economy is going to collapse either, that's a wee bit dramatic. The paranoia of a pending doom is benefiting me though. As Mrs. Pilgrim and I move to live a simpler life I'm finding I'm much happier. The less TV I watch, limited to a few dozen laps of NA(p)SCAR and coming to a TV near you in April.....BASE-A-BALL.... the more time I have for other things. The more I try to live with what I have, the less preoccupied I am with getting more stuff. Cutting down on tube time and techno lust frees up more space in my head and calendar for nicer things, like playing with cars on the floor with the wee ones or siting in a cafe for a couple of hours with my oldest getting caught up and planning a book about some pretty exciting events and lessons that the young fella has learned.

No I don't think the sky is falling. I think that maybe the world, like water, is seeking it's own level. The balance is off and the free market is seeking to right itself. The only thing that can come of that Hobbesian phenomena is good.

The only thing falling from the sky right now is snow and plenty of it, over 13 feet since December 1. I'm good with that because it's going to be April soon and that means new birth is around the corner. Blossoms and beautiful green grass. Young deer running through the pastures and trees full of leaves. Gray and white will turn to green and blue.

Life is grand.

Pilgrim