More Blizzards
 

OK, so we had the after Ground Hog Day Blizzard....I admit, I gloated that we didn't get anything....OK, so now round two...the Pre-Valentine's Day Blizzard...we are anticipating 7 to 14 inches, which isn't much, granted. Just another midwest snowfall, pain in the behind, takes 3 hours to drive 30 miles kind of snow.

Oh, and you poor folks out East....well, this is coming your way too!

I am crawling back into my Ground Hog burrow.

Oh, Happy Valentines Day! I am sooooo not into romance right now.

Actually, I just thought of it....This is OUR Mardi Gras Blizzard....East Cost, maybe Valentine's Day. How could I miss Mardi Gras!

How 'bout dem Saints!

Dem Saints came marchin' in....yestiddy!
Good for them . I hate the Colts
I'm from Baltimore, ya know.... & they snuck out of
here in the dead of nite.......and cashed in ...where thy now wallow.
Saints not only won, but they beat them dead-on, in the last quarter.
The first half was close, but it didn't look too good for the Saints.
Couldn't stop the Colts offensive drives.
I turned it off after halftime and was surprised when I heard
about the win, on the late news.

I cheered for the Saints because they pummeled Favre, lol. (Gosh, did I say that?)

Eh, I ended up watching the Ghost Hunters Marathon...they didn't find much.

I found more when I stayed at several haunted hotels hubby MADE me go to.

Hubby watched the game and kept me posted....he likes Payton Manning. I put a lot of extra butter on hubby's popcorn, lol.

My son and I, we went for the Saints. NOLA needed some good vibes....and besides, they pummeled Favre. I hear he is thinking of retiring, lol.

I think he has a career in commercials.

Cr@p. I need to bake so I have lots of sweet gooey stuff to eat to make me forget there are 12 more weeks of winter....I have to have chocolate during the snowstorm.

Yeah, yeah, yeah....I know ALL about the blood sugar thing...sorry....this is how I survive the winter....eat sweet gooey stuff. Chocolate covered brocolli anyone? (Get my point?)

It would take motiviation to bake. I think I will just stick my head in the bag of semi sweet chocolate chips....mmmm

I have the worst case of inertia I have ever had. Maybe all I need is a kick in the pants, but, man, nothing seems to make me want to move....not even sweet gooey stuff.

Oh my lord....I can feel this front bearing down on our area....my joints are swelling up, and I feel like a fossil. It is worse than this map shows....ugh.

http://www.intellicast.com/Health/AchesPains.aspx

Yes, even though it is still sunny here, I can feel it coming!
Tomorrow we have 100% chance of precip.

Had to take an Aleve Liquigel today.... I almost went back to bed.

I did lie down for a bit, and did a CE lesson instead.

Eh, I got vertical and did some 'altitude training', for an hour, painting some interior trim that has been languishing with blue tape for 2 weeks now. I have learned to walk around the ladder, and it is getting time to get it out of the hallway one of these days. I remember when it took me a day to paint a room, not two weeks, and more tylenol and celebrex than I care to recall. (No, none of it helped, but I hoped for placebo effect.) What a bummer, I am short of breath!! I am so paaaaaathetically out of shape! I need a drill sargeant. "Yes sir, drill sargeant, sir!" Gosh, if I hired a coach I would have to pay him/her double! I am now twice as hard to move!

Out here in Montana Bitteroot Bill predicted that winter was over, he might be right! I would have to go back about 25 years to see a lean snow winter such as we are having here. I would guess it is hitting the other side of the country with a vengance. My wish for today is for you all to get a huge and lovely chinook wind, but not too fast for I don't wish flooding on any of you. Hang tight my friends.....it has to end sometime, the up side is less pain this winter for me, only twice have my bones and pain level told me something is about to change...I feel blessed!

The HIGH is moving off... and there are FOUR LOWS all over the weather map.

Hang on all you guys with pain issues! The next few days are going to hurt!

OH, me achin' bursitis....(I sound like my grandma....what am I saying??? I am a grandma!!) How did that happen so fast!?! :confused:

I am ignoring this storm....it isn't coming, nope....isn't coming.:mad:

Hang on Sloopy! Hang ON!
 

Just keep 'imagining' yourself here: :sunchair:
Ideally with that forbidden drink that has an umbrella in it? At hand, of course.
I suspect a severe case of cabin fever is happening here! What to do? Besides all of us?
When I get this way? I relive those most delightful and also most 'dramatic' of lifes moments. Snorkeling in the tropics w/a school of tropical [really] fish nibbleing at me and deciding I'm not food? In warm bathtub-like waters that are clear and pristeen...
Or Walking along a Georgia coastal island [later to become a park] down a road flanked by live oak trees with spanish moss draped over them to go to a beach to see a pod of whales that'd gotten beached. An impressive and sad sight both. Then? Find a perfect sand dollar!
Or being a passenger in a small 4 seater plane, flying over mountains that suddenly become small. It was the prelude to the current Google Earth?
Those are big things? But re-learning how to walk [again] ranks high among the smaller things. Having your cat or dog curl up near you JUST when you need it? Or just having your S.O. do something small that is perfect for your state of mind at that time.
Please don't trip over that ladder? And, Do keep your mind and heart warm for the duration! - :hug::hug::hug:'s - j

I am way past cabin fever. I have crossed into a new realm.

I have decided to make soap....despite not being able to hold onto pots and pans. I have endeavored to invade hubby's personal space, like a zombie...I can use his body to do my 'dirty work'. He agreed to lift the heavy pots. He agrees to everything. I have no idea why.

I haven't told him this involves lye yet.:p I will tell him later.

I dunno?
 

This all seems sorta scary to me! Making soap can be a HOT and truly burning process? Remember you burn already...believe me, if you get burned this way? It'll be much worse!
Let me know you get outta this alive, please? - j

you guys in washington DC, Baltimore and Virginia did a great job saturday of keeping that snow south of here. See what you can do on Wednesday. Much appreciated.

I love gooey chocolate desserts too. Couldn't go to sleep last night until I drank hot chocolate.

I am keeping cabin fever at bay (along with my seasonal depressive tendencies) with Vit D. Now that I have increased to 5000 IU daily, I feel so much better cognitively! I have not needed my light visor this winter at all!

Also I am doing my seedlings for the summer gardening plans I have this year, and many have sprouted already (perennials are going first). Today I am transplanting the first variety, which surprisingly sprouted after only 2 days! I expected 3 week wait on these and all of them are going faster than that.

I have portable grow lights that I use indoors. And a cool temp room for them.

Baltimore expecting 1" snow before 10pm tomite,
then 12"-18" by tomorrow afternoon. I've walked to work for 2 days
and shoveled cars, home and work areas in 2 days.
I'm sore and hurt all over. Woke up this a.m. and as I rose to get out of bed,
exclaimed '...ouch !, so sore !, oh, my back, my neck !!..."
Sidewalks are difficult to maneuver, side and cross streets are impossible.
Walking is a balancing act (and I don't have any sense of balance)
Falling is a given. I went down (gently..... kinda) 3 times,
getting here this a.m.
I'm pooped-out !

I have a bad headache. It is snowing here, the Low is in Iowa. Ugh.

Well, I will be a rookie at soapmaking....my goal is not to spill or blow anything up, lol...including myself. And lye does give off a fume....I have a gas mask...lol. We will see how it goes.

That is sweet, keeping a bar of soap to remember your mom. Scent is very powerful at provoking memories. Smell is our first sense to develop.

Glad to hear that you are doing all that you can to keep the winter blahhs at bay... My neurologist just prescribed 50,000 U of Vitamin D - once a week for ? I have a six months prescription. I don't know what my level is but I have been deficient before. Perhaps, this is not such an unusual condition. I have always protected my skin because I am fair and I have the connective tissue disease.

Is Vit. D deficiency known to cause cognitive difficulties? I am so frustrated about my cognitive dysfunction. And, hoping that the therapeutic dosage will help ;)...

Mere

Cyclelops, I completely understand your not feeling well. This damn weather does not help one bit. On Saturday when the storm was coming through, I had a whopper of a migraine and my joints all hurt... Now, we are having another storm. :holysheep: Enough, is enough!

Mere

I don't know if I can blame this on the weather, but for lack of a better target....let's do just that. We did not get as much snow as predicted which is usual...we only got around 6", but more is coming overnight. I think it will be light tho.

Now out east, looks like they will get more due to picking up moisture from the Atlantic.

We got some lake effect, but normally it doesn't get to us here very often....we got some, but not like along the 'coast' of the lake...

The East Coast is going to get nailed again!

I am going to go stick my head back under the covers.....ugh...all I can say is ugh.

My husband has been home for the past two days because his company follows the Federal Govt. rule (no work because of snow).

Today, we drove into Washington DC (to my husbands office) for a couple of hours to take care of something and you would not believe how quiet it was. Kind of like Armageddon. Very strange.

Mere

What I love is the QUIET!
 

No planes flying overhead...buzzing and sounding as if they'll crash into my roof. Thank you very much!. It's also soo quiet! Peacefully so. We get so used to such noises that we tune them out...until they aren't there.

Got about an inch so far outside the beltway.... more to come...SIGH or :eek: Take your pick... WEATHER HAPPENS! Not much I can say or do about it?

Except hibernate until.... Hugs to all and hope!:hug::hug:'s - j

Here n NYC--
 

--looks like we are going to get blasted this time; a foot or more of snow. The mayor closed the schools today--actually, he closed them for today yesterday (the worry was the kids could get to school but not get home later, when the storm deepened).

Not much snow on the ground at 7AM--but it was up to 40 degrees here yesterday, and it's not that cold now--in fact, on the radar the rain/snow line is really close to NYC (Jersey shore is getting rain right now) but as the low pressure system moves it's supposed to drag in a lot of cold air and turn all to snow.

Really looking forward to digging the car out later--at least 11-year-old is home to help (if he can be persuaded).

And Mere--
 

--yes, I've seen more and more physcians prescribing that megadose of D to people, especially in the winter. Make sure it's Vitamin D3--the more absorable, usable form.

There's been a lot of research on Vitamin D coming out lately--NY Times just ran a big series on it. Mrs. D has posted a lot about it, and there's a guy named Ted Hutchinson who has compiled a database on it (at Braintalk mostly) that rivals what JCC has done with Gluten and Rose has done with B12. Some of the reseach has been equivocal--for instance, there's no consensus yet whether a huge once a week dose works better at raising levels better than large dialy doses (Vitamin D is fat soluble, and can be stored)--but it seems a majority of us have been "deficient" for a long time and the daily minimum requirements for dietary sources had been set way too low--of course, they were set when many more people were out in the sun more often.

My wife and I currently take 2000IU a day (the original daily requirement was set at 400UIU/day). She's waiting back on a Vitamin D serum test-she had a ton of lab work done with her annual physical (many of the tests I wrote down for her her primary care doc, who I'm not sure has much of a clue about what to check for in a melanoma/thyroid papillary carcinoma survivor with intermittent iron-deficiency, congenital large/low count platelets who is a serious ultramarathoner, but it's better this way than going to four specialists just to get blood drawn).

Let's clear something up "again"....

Seems I post this over and over here and "there".

The 50,000 IU doctors give on RX is D2. This is the inferior form of D. It is about 1/2 as potent as D3.

I use D3. I buy it over the counter for pennies a day at iherb.com

I tend to think that daily intake is better. This is the way we evolved with food/ sun exposure. Massive doses of vits, given in one bolus infrequently tends to get stored, or eliminated. For fat soluble things like D....the body would want to store it. Water soluble vits tend to be eliminated via the urine quickly.
Some more quickly than others. Some B6 is stored in the muscles as pyridoxal, and B12 is stored in the liver. Benfotiamine is stored in fat, whereas thiamine is not.
So giving the D2 in a bolus...seems foolish to me. But then the doctors are having problems with understanding the treatment of low D status. They have been told to test for it...so far in CMEs but they are not on the ball yet with other aspects of this new development.
So I would suggest you take daily D3 you purchase yourself. Choose a liquigel, not a dry formulation tablet. I use NOW brand. The basic dose ratio is to raise blood work 10ng you need 1000IU of D3. So 5000 IUs would hopefully give 50ng which is the lower end of the normal range.

I started with 1000IU daily 5 yrs ago, then raised to 2000IU, last year 4000IU and this year 5000IU. I tend to have chronic pain issues (obviously) and seasonal affective disorder which slows my mental functioning makes me sleep too much in winter. I have NOT had either problem this winter. I have used a light visor in the past for the SAD, but I have not needed it since raising to 5000IU.

I go outside alot when the weather is warmer, and then I do not take the D supplement at all. I start it up in late Sept.

I take 1000-2000 IU of D3 liquigels (Now - iHerb) but they are so small I have trouble not dropping them. and my Beagle rushes to gobble anything that is dropped. Can D3 hurt dogs? She has colitis and a delicate stomach.

2" of snow when I woke up. Rain, freezing rain, & snow last nite.
Its wet and heavy.
I'm so depressed about not being able to go in to work.
This weather has caused me a zero income lately.
I'll be lucky to make the rent this month.
Feb is always slow, but this is drastically so. I'm scheduled to go on vacation for 4 nites/ 5 days 2-27 thru 3-4 and the whole amount is pre-paid, but I'll surely be 'in-the-hole' when I get back. This is terrible, not to mention that I'm sitting here with a heat-wrap around my neck and have hardly slept last night being uncomfortable and with neck & back pains.
12"-18" of snow with blizzard winds predicted for today & tonite, by the time its over.
Dig out again? Not today ..... or even tomorrow !!
I don't have the energy, or the strength.

Yuck I heard about all the snow many of you are getting. I am sending warm and safe thoughts to you all.

I think the East is getting it much, much worse than we did.

We didn't even miss a beat. We got around 6", not too bad, near the lake, they got a lot more. Most schools did not even close. Other than slippery roads, things are fine today....and my horrible headache is gone....go figure. I guess it must be low barometric pressure. Today, sun is shining!

Batten down the hatches out East! YOU guys have a blizzard.

On that Vitamin D thing....I am outside hours on end in the spring, summer and fall, minimum 6 hours, often 10 hours, and I am not into sunblock. I wear sunblocking clothing, hats, etc...sunblock if out in midday.

Isn't that enough to carry me? My D levels get very high in summer.

Now with the autoimmune thing, I am reading a lot of conflicting data...I honestly don't know what to do, take supplements or not. I am really high risk for osteoporosis, and really fear this condition. Now to make matters worse, I am getting 'odd' things with my skin, pink to red rashes, similar to Lupus rashes, and goofy finger issues. I am afraid of fueling the fire here.

Vit. D research is done either by the Marshall people or the Vit. D council....neither of them, exactly neutral. What is your thought?

No, if you block the sun with clothing...you are not getting enough.

The only contraindication at this time is for people with Sarcoidiosis, and even that should be monitored by the doctor.
The Vit D sarcoid connection is mostly advertised by the Marshall Protocol people...and that is still controversial. The recommendations coming out of San Diego Medical School, do mention Sarcoid however.

There is also the thought now that taking statins to lower cholesterol will impact D manufacture in the skin. Also as we age this may fail to be optimum as well. That area is still fuzzy in the research.

You should get tested... to see what your levels are. Then you would know how much to take.