My Hammy

The other day, Nancy came by with her dog just as I was getting mine out of the garage for a walk.  Nancy is a great lady, very kind, and we bonded over Sparkle when she was the neighborhood stray. When I took the dog as my own, Nancy was invested in helping me with her as even then she was an exuberant big puppy and a handful. When Sparkle saw her friend Nancy in my driveway, she suddenly bolted to greet her and her dog -- but I was attached to the leash.  Long story short: Sparkle dragged me about 20 feet and I was helpless to do anything about it as her leash was around my hand and I was trapped.

Suddenly, there was a sharp, searing pain up my right leg and I almost went down, but I was still attached to Sparkle and well and truly caught in the middle between Nancy's dog and my leash. I was able to wriggle my hand out of the leash, setting Sparkle free to do whatever she was going to do, but I was deep into searing pain that kept me grounded in place.  Nancy quickly got Sparkle under control and then asked about my injury.  I told her I think I tore my hamstring as the pain was excruciating, radiating from my knee to my buttocks.  I couldn't put any weight on my leg without it starting to buckle, so I just stood in place and waited to see if the pain would lessen and I could get out of the middle of the street (where Sparkle had dragged me).

Nah, it was a hurt that wasn't just going to go away.  The rest of that day, I couldn't get off the couch except to go potty--and that was a painful undertaking.  The next day, it felt worse, so I stayed on the couch again.  The third day, the aspirin and heating pad regime seemed to have loosened the pain a bit, but I'm still limping and favoring the leg.  Today makes 5 days post-injury, and it's not a whole lot better, but it is improving slowly.

Nancy was pissed at Sparkle, but I told her it was just what Sparkle does: she sees another dog on the street and wants to bolt after it.  Usually, I can control her--but Nancy and her dog were right there and I was caught unprepared.  Nancy blames Sparkle--and me, because I can't control my dog--which is unfair because it was just a moment in time and Sparkle didn't mean to hurt me.  Anyway, Nancy has been coming over every morning to take Sparkle for "training," hooking her to a neck chain and walking her while giving commands.  I'm not saying anything as it's nice of her to care enough to try and change Sparkle's sudden impulses.  I am not to say "come, Sparkle," but "heel," and lead her firmly where I want her to go--which I've done all along, but Nancy is a woman on a mission and she is motivated by kindness.

We'll get past this and Nancy's training may change Sparkle's impulsiveness, so I'm going along with the program.  Meanwhile, I'm staying off my leg as much as possible, and doing stretches to see if I can work out of soreness.  These things just happen, often to me, so I go along to get along.  And it's nice of Nancy to take the time to work with Sparkle when I can't even walk to the corner!!

Malek is Magic

Is there anyone who hears a Freddie Mercury/Queen song and doesn't stand and sing along?  The music is so powerful and has not lost its attraction in the years since Freddie Mercury died and took the unfinished music with him.

Yesterday was a rainy day and perfect for seeing the bio-pic Bohemian Rhapsody.  I was a bit leery after going to A Star is Born and hating it, but the Queen music is so strong and powerful it can carry a concert like few other artists can.  When Rami Malek took the screen, he had the same commanding presence that Freddie Mercury had.  Malek's portrayal of the founder of Queen was spot on, and I believe that the performance at Live Aid was used in the film, rather than reshooting it with Malek in the role as Malek was that good.  That may not be factually accurate, but I'm a bit of a romantic and want to think that the filmmakers knew they couldn't redo that event and come close to doing it justice. But that scene was magic and commanding and just darned good.  Malek is Mercury.

The theatre was packed and the film earned a standing ovation at the end.  I left the theater vowing to go see the film again as I was totally into it and stunned with Malek's capture of Freddie Mercury.

Doggone Confusing

Headlines can be interesting to read, especially if the reader has no clue what the story is about.  Take this headline from a local newspaper:  LQ couple found dead ID’d; dog safe. What would a reader expect the content of the article to be?

Someone tried to harm a couple’s dog, but the criminal was halted in his/her efforts to kill the dog by the couple, who then died from injuries inflicted during the fight over the dog's life.   Or, a couple was accosted by a criminal, who killed them but left the dog to survive the crime. Or, the couple committed suicide/murder, but didn't kill their beloved dog.   We'll never know what happened, but we know for certain that the dog is safe.

Of course I can fill in the blanks and feel reasonably comfortable with thinking that a couple was killed—somehow, and the dog, which was in the house, was not involved in the … murder, murder/suicide … , and the couple has now been identified by the process that is used to determine who the victims of a violent crime are. It just tickles me not only that the dog became part of the story, but it shares the headline with a double-death report.

Not to mention the "LQ couple" teaser.  Any ideas what that could be?

Back in the day, a good copy editor would rewrite the headline to focus on the death of the victims and omit the dog as not really relevant. What is a copy editor, you may ask?  One who has a reasonable command of the language in which the newspaper is written so s/he can read what is in the paper before it is published, thus avoiding embarrassing and/or confusing and/or just plain incorrect content (copy).

UPDATE: the couple, who lived in La Quinta, were victims of a murder/suicide and the dog was not killed in the commission of the crime.

I Hereby Resolve

Okay, so here’s the deal:  I’m fat and I don’t seem to be able to lose weight like I used to do with little effort.  I’ve tried eating only 3 times a day, and I’ve been careful what I eat (although I admit to a fondness for sweets at 10 o’clock each day with my mid-morning coffee), cutting back to about half of what I was eating.  I’m not a stress eater, nor am I a snacker of the salty-fat variety, but I have really bad food habits as I live alone and don’t like the effort involved in fixing a good (healthy) meal for myself three times a day.  I’ve tried protein shakes, healthy-eating diets, upped my exercise, and generally given it the old college try, but my belly is huge and my face is big and round where it used to be lean and narrow.

So, it’s time to do something again and, after thinking about it far too much, I decided to try something I’ve never tried before and see if something new and different works for me this time. I did some searching of the internet and ran across a Dr. “Rans” (phonetic spelling of his name as I don’t recall seeing it written anywhere). I listened to his lecture about “activating the AMPK gene and losing weight.” Didn’t sound any worse than other options I researched so I took a few notes and got this:

To lose weight, one must attack fat on a cellular level, particularly in deep belly fat situations. AMPK is the “master switch” of the body, so if one activates the AMPK gene, s/he can lose weight and live longer. Everyone has the number of fat cells they had from conception, so there’s no gaining/losing weight based on the amount of food one consumes, but on the number of calories and how they are stored.  Fat cells can expand and contract, and if cells are overfed, they lose function. AMPK is the “master switch” of the body, so if one activates the AMPK gene, one can lose weight and live longer.

All right, that’s a brief overview.  I listened for the full 45 minutes and the whole presentation made sense to me, so I decided I’m going to try this approach this year as what I’ve done in the past hasn’t seemed to help. According to this information, exercise improves health, reduces disease, and helps memory, but doesn’t help one lose weight.  I want to continue with my exercise routine, and may even up that a bit, but I also want to lose weight, and that happens on a cellular level. Hence the AMPK.

There are three keystones to this method, focusing on naturally occurring compounds that are available: berberine, which is the roots of plants and usually used as a diabetes treatment; gynostemona, an extract from plants that is an AMPK stimulator; and quercetin, which activates AMPK and reduces general sickness. This can’t be any worse than any of the other dozens of products and methods I’ve used to try to control my weight, so I’ll give it a go and see what happens.  I ordered enough for several months, and once I’ve put my money into something, I see it through.

My ultimate goal: not to stand on a scale and see that I’m down a pound or two, but to stand up tall and straight and be able to look down and see my shoes!  Surely that isn’t asking too much … .