50K Dead - Damn!

The death toll in both Turkey & Syria has reached 50 thousand. According to an article at Reuters, there were over 160 thousand buildings that were destroyed and 520,000 apartments. Some arrests, less than 200, have been made to date of people suspected in some way of being responsible for the structural collapses. (More at the source.) I think it will be a miracle if the death toll does not at least double with that many apartments involved.

 

If folks had heard trumpets before the quake, many would be preparing for the Apocalypse or swearing it was here already. As it is, the Apocalypse commencing or purely a destructive force of Nature, of course, it is terrible nonetheless. 

 

I do not do this often but as I did in my previous post on this quake, I urge folks to be charitable toward earthquake relief for this one.

All the best,

Glenn B

The Hunt Is On

o , o , RHINEBECK, NEW YORK Astronomical Applications Dept.Location: W073 55, N41 56 Rise and Set for the Sun for 2008 U. S. Naval Observatory Washington, DC 20392-5420 Eastern Standard Time
Day Nov.
15 0646 1634
16 0647 1633
17 0648 1633

All that the above gobbly-goop means is that the days are getting shorter; and that where Brendan and I will be hunting on opening day of the firearms season for deer the sun will be up at 0646 and set at 1634 or 4:34 PM. That means we will have to be up well before, maybe by 0400 and at our stand by about 0500 to 0530 at the latest. Hopefully there will not be so many other hunters in the area as for us to be stumbling over them, or them over us. Then again, since it was a full moon on the 13, the moon light on the early morning of the 15th will probably be sufficient to see without artificial light while making our way to our stand. The moon will still be up, it will not set until about 0900.

As for those other hunters, anyone want to take bets on how many shots we hear before sunup and the official beginning of the season on Saturday morning. Brendan and I will await the legal shooting time no matter how tempting a shot may present itself before then, but I am pretty sure someone else in the area will not, happens every year.

We leave for the hunting grounds early this morning - one day in advance of the season opener. Who knows, maybe we will get lucky and bag a turkey on the last day of the turkey season later today. Heck, I just realized it is this morning already, I need to hit the hay.

All the best,
Glenn B

A Day Of Fasting...

...is not something I do very often; but I did it today. No solid food at all since about 10PM last night, so I am just passed 24 hours now. I have had 2 glasses of apple juice, a glass or two of water, and two cups of green tea, but that has been it besides some Movi-Prep. Now despite what it may sound like to a connoisseur of old films, Movie-Prep is not something you eat while getting in the mood for the movies, although I guess a video might be made because I used it. You see it helps clear out a certain bodily area, and the video would be made by my gastroenterologist while doing my colonoscopy tomorrow. Pretty much just a check-up sort of thing, and I do not want to dwell on that subject all that much.

What I do want to talk about is the fasting thing. It has always amazed me that people fast for various reasons be they for: weight loss, religion, political statement making, because they are nuts, or whatever. It amazes me even more that it is pretty easy to do - especially for me, but only under certain conditions like the upcoming test tomorrow! It simply has befuddled me, now for the fourth time in my life (once before for a similar test, and twice before for operations), that I can just turn off eating like that. Yet, I am at least 50 pounds overweight at about 218 lbs and 5'11". Why can't I just turn off the desire to eat, or at least turn off the desire to eat junk food more often? If I knew the answer to that, then I might be able to either fast once a week, or at least cut back on the junk food, and really lose some weight.

Today though, yes this day in particular made this all the harder for me to understand. If you like Thanksgiving spreads, with almost all the fixings, and love the smell of roasting turkey, then maybe you can understand what I mean when I say: 'The relative ease at which I avoided food today was mind boggling'. You see, today my wife decided to cook a fresh turkey. Yes of all days, she chose today when I had to fast. Does that mean she hates me even more than I had thought. Well maybe so, and maybe not. She was almost as surprised as me to find out I could avoid eating any of it. Apparently, I had forgotten to tell her about the test tomorrow, and my need to fast today. The smell of that roasting turkey was about the only thing that really made it at all tough, just a bit though, for me to hold off on eating today. Well the smell of it roasting, and then me actually carving it for everyone else. I cannot explain it, I may never understand it, but if I could turn on the appetite suppressant and turn off the appetite, like I did today, at least once weekly, well - I would be a slimmer guy.

Of course I would make certain never to turn on the appetite suppressant when there was a turkey roasting in the oven, and I can assure you that the leftovers will be severely depleted once I get to them tomorrow; but I still wish I could figure out how to do this fasting thing more often - without extremist religion, without making a political statement, without becoming more of a nut job than I am already, just doing it by will power I guess. I had it today, that is will power, now how do I exhibit it on a weekly or daily basis when it comes to junk food and overeating in general???

Please, if you know the answer to my conundrum, don't tell me until after about 3PM EST tomorrow. I want to pig out on the turkey leftovers before I find out.

All the best,
Glenn B