Tue 03 Mar 26: Today's a pretty busy day, but thankfully all piled into one part of the day -- so they're all over with at one time. Not frequent, but blissful when it happens Am better... but still not 100% Have congestion lingering, as well as coughing fits that last only a few seconds, drat. Was going to chance doing laps today but thought better as my schedule's going to be rather draining on the whole. Knee thankfully is the least of my concerns (again, doing the post-meal walking in place 10 mins, has been super-effective at preventing the usual stiffness prior to injury). Well enough to work and am not contagious, main thing Starbies has gone to plastic cups again, will small miracles never cease Am pretty much over leaky, lid-ejecting paper cups that soften to fruit leather if an iced drink's brimmed in it >10 mins. Do like the environmental responsibility of paper... but if the plastic has enough organic, compostable content to offset its environmental impact, please greenlight that sh*t yesterday Hate having no say in leaky cups because it's too expensive to mfr ones that don't, for a multinational One improvement over the older no-conscience-plastic ones: the lids are of a breakaway design -- so you can hold a full Trenta drink with fingers around the rim, as myself and obvi many others do on a daily basis to lift out of a car's drink wells... and the lid perimeter's designed so it non-destructively breaks away, rather than 'un-lid' -- dropping your $8 Venti 24oz of Java Chip Frap onto your kicks, or your white carpet. For liquid drinks it's again a sippy-cup design, which unsurprisingly I hate but isn't going away, also a breakaway design. The tradeoff (because there's always some), is once snapped on, the lids are quite difficult to get off, ime needing a special tq (take both thumbs about an inch apart, and watch the top of the cup rim through the lid -- wedge thumbtips under the lid and push inward / upward with both thumbs until it clears a few mil; only then can be lifted off. Doing it w/o this method ime, usually results in destructive modification So make sure when you order, to give the barista every optional ingredient -- because taking it off because you're helium-blonde today, will take a while Weather's all over the place here -- have seen cloud formations in shapes and sizes and altitudes I've never seen all my years being raised and living here, multiple times in life. Mornings are almost always 'red sky in morning, sailors take warning'... supposedly due to a wonked-out La Niña... who knows. But a much more dynamic and rainy Spring than last year (to my car's filthy detriment). Oh -- for those who do lots of hard exertion with the hands on a daily basis (radio antenna techs, pro rock climbers, bakers, pottery throwers or sculptors, massage therapists, bodyworkers) -- pulling the fingers and twisting them, staves off the encroachment of osteoarthritis, esp in those who used them hardest. My own fingers are beginning to show the effects of all this dead-weight-lifting of 230-lb men atop my palm-up hands, feeling for and treating TrPs in the back and shoulder girdle. But steady use of this tq when they bother me, defo keeps me working. Works for toes too, for those who depend on proper function and strength in the toes (comm'l painters, arborists, masons, trail guides, martial artists / grapplers)
Wed 04 Mar 26: Yep -- still have a cold Like junk mail, it's hovering somewhere between 'have a coughing fit every few hours' and 'man, walking to the car's never winded me before'. No fever, no sputum other than completely clear, and sleep thru the night fine. WTFITBS Anyhow... clients today were strangely light, and of those, wham-bam-ty-damn jobs Which is fine, yesterday was a somewhat exhausting day, esp for hands / fingers. Remember if you're male and into geezer years in 50s, joint pain in the fingers can be dealt with over the long-term, but simply pulling and twisting them regularly, esp after exertion. This both forces the articular surfaces apart so synovial fluid (the protein-rich lubricant and food source for each joint capsule's living articular surface cells) can get between them to lube, nourish, and heal... and breaks up encroaching formation of Ca deposits in the joint so it can be reabsorbed, from when you didn't do the pull / twist however many years / decades. 50s is when males typically develop arthritic problems bad enough to cause pain / debility... but WMMV depending on 'git'erdun, don't-eat-rabbit-food diets Done this since hearing of the tq as a fresh apprentice... and 15+ yrs later, hasn't let me down yet. Won't override ingrained-since-teens habits of too much processed red meat / sugar / salt / fried food in cheap-a$$ seed oils, too little water / EVOO / unprocessed greens-beans-veg, nor a drive-thru diet (all of the above ). But if that part of your life's dialed and still have joint pain using hands hard for work / hobby... this can stave off at least hand arthritis for decades. Mentor's over 80 and still works bodies w/ no hand osteoarthritis, been a bodyworker since '92 Looking at glyNAC -- a supp that combines glycine, an amino acid involved in cellular repair and liver function... and NAC (N-acetyl-cysteine) for cysteine, another amino known to boost immune response against viral infection -- to see if it does more than NAC alone. NAC works like a charm for certain viral infections (ime, viral styes which I used to get about every other winter since 40s, until finding NAC), but doesn't seem to do much against whatever viral squatter I currently have. This is what I've learnt about glycine, cysteine, and glutamine: all are conditionally-vital but not essential, amino acids all are needed to form glutathione, a tri-peptide used by the body to boost metabolism prevent oxidative damage detox metabolites of such damage (including xenobiotics) keeping vit C and E in their active states immune defense (esp viral infection) If you take NAC (cysteine) alone, you raise glutathione slightly. If you take glycine alone, same. Glutamine of the 3 is abundant in the human body w/o supplementation. Glycine is most rare of the 3 -- so makes logical sense to supplement glycine & NAC together, to raise glutathione highest. Cysteine is also a trigger and checksum on the other two to make glutathione... so supplementing glycine alone, despite the body initially making glutathione... will lead to rapid slowing of its formation, w/o cysteine (glycine's half-life in the body's already short, at half - 4 hrs -- if free glycine's instead used to make glutathione instead of being metabolised for excretion, more robust immune response and other glutathione functions towards vitality, seems logical). If my suspicions about this med I'm taking and its deleterious effect on immune response via liver stress are true (the podiatrist's canny evasion of questions about it, raised my hackles a bit)... then at least glyNAC will help improve liver function despite the med. But if it helps rid me of this goddamned cold too... can stop bitching about it on this journal
Thu 05 Mar 26: Nope, not a cold -- apparently, NoCA PCPs and DOH at public water waste facilities, have noted exploding levels of a virus implicated in a developing epidemic called HMPV, or human metapneumovirus. Exactly the same symptoms as I've endured 2wks, and the same reduced ability for the body to rid itself of the infection, settling in the lungs. Persistent cough and other slight cold-like symptoms dominate. Spread via both aerosol and fomite methods, so everyone will have it. Thank goodness both clients and myself are required to wear masks for my work, otherwise would've been much, much more a vector. Will default to the same methods that reduced spread during covid: myself dbl-masking, clients normally-masking, and strict hand and touch-point sanitation and sterilisation. Wonder if this'll become a thing: new viral epidemics evolving out of previous viral ones about every 5 - 6 yrs, given how extensive air travel is in 2020s. My case hasn't gotten any better past a certain point, so wonder when the hell this HMPV virus will let go. Time will tell... just started a regimen of glyNAC, so we'll see if that pushes my immune defense over the critical break point of recovery
Add'm, Thu 05 Mar 26: Worked on a few clients today -- strange pattern of feast and famine this week. Luckily were a combo of easy and challenging, and felt pretty good on the backend of it all. Think the glyNAC's leveling me up a touch; two days ago a similar workload took a hour-long nap to recharge from -- today feel just fine. Past client to talk about, related to this week's... hmm. --- probably 5 yrs ago. Prior to studying nerve-adhesion tqs, but felt competent w/ tissue-to-tissue adhesion release. Was an older client, reasonably athletic in their 70s. Had to stop running due to an intractable pain their long-time doc had advised spinal surgery for (!!). Having a limited income and arguably overloaded healthcare resources in 2021... found their options led to me. Elderly people (defined at least to me, as GenX-era retirement age (65+). Your middle age energy, healing factor, resistance to muscle atrophy, and lack of developing chronic conditions in major organs, are now fading in the distance behind you. Grit and healthy self-BSing is what keeps you going; conditioned repetitive entrainment of good habits prevents the sort of complacency young people take for granted, that five years of your humbling 60s and stern-talking-tos by an array of PCPs, have aligned by force This client, I wanted to help. They'd obviously had made an array of not-insignificant, grownup moves properly many FAFO to their peril: vigorously exercised, kept a good but not overwhelming schedule of social engagement (which they made clear this session was to return them to), and coached an outrigger canoe team -- all good things. But was clear their feet, trusted under them thru decades of hard work as a mason and later general contractor... were past the point of diminishing returns ignoring their woes. Standing full days on ladder rungs and squatting on scaffolding planks building schools and warehouses, had taken their toll. Running was a good wrench in this necessary machine ruining their feet... but given how old and how aberrated the bones and joints of the feet had become... how they ran with these feet, was boggling to imagine. The bones of the feet have two arches: the familiar longitudinal arch which runs ball to front of heel, and the transverse arch, which forms across the toe knuckles (MCPs, or metatarsophalangeal joints). Each is not self-sustaining, and must be formed by a balanced tone in muscles w/ tendon attachments in a variety of places on / among the 26 bones and 33 joints of the foot. The arch is a strong load-bearing structure in architecture for a reason -- a minimal amt of material can bear many times the weight of the human above. But most tend to ignore or abuse the role of the transverse arch, but stuffing them into ill-fitting shoes / boots and forcing the foot to stop spreading the load of ambulating in the forefoot. By smashing together the MCPs and metatarsals they serve, the transverse arch cannot bear repeated and / or extended periods of constant load, and defers the job to the muscles crossing the ankle joint. I have a particular familiarity w/ the folly of pointy dress shoes, being forced to wear low quarters as Class-Bs (garrison) uniform in the military. My feet frequently ached to the point of needing NSAIDs to get thru the day, after needing to walk to and from work in them... which due to shared exp, a bowl of Advil were available on the filing cabinets outside our civvie director's office, taken by my bosses and their bosses. Oxfords look sharp in patent leather... but I frequently risked slipping them off my wide Asian feet at my desk, just to not wear them any longer than I had to (had very comfy jump boots when serving overseas in BDUs). Human beings for tens of thousands of millennia, didn't even need shoes. My father were raised in the camp era of Lahaina's sugar plantation past in '50s - '60s... and didn't wear shoes until freshman year in HS -- his feet are still healthy into his 80s and have never given him a problem, even thru jungle boots in Vietnam. Speaking of Vietnam, the Viet Cong wore sandals cut from the rubber of worn-out tires, fastened with twine straps -- the very definition of minimal footwear. The Tarahumara natives of Central Mexico are famous for running literally hundreds of miles at a time, also in not much more than a thin sole of tire rubber with cord straps. Your toes need room to spread out laterally, in order to work as evolved. Female fashion footwear, as a close inspection of any major runway exhibition will reveal (runway models themselves accept the pain of wearing these pompous, anti-ergonomic trinkets on their feet as a rite of passage) are a leading cause of permanent debility for women, later in life. Client's feet were narrow, tight as a drum... and barely functional. Even light pressure in the long'l arch would cause severe jump sign, nearly kicking me in the face. Tissues above the ankle, a glob of tight, shiny and long-glued toe extensors. The main fast-twitch large muscles of the calf, were cruelly-tight, full of TrPs, or both. Would not be pretty, and not be one session, I told them. They'd been thru worse, they said... and we proceeded. Fair to say this was one of the most unpleasant sessions I'd done up to that point. Not due to any inconvenience on my part -- was eager to dig into this fringe case to learn what I could from it. What bothered me, was knew each part of the lower leg -- arch, forefoot, ankle, toes, anterior lower leg, posterior lower leg -- just one of these would require an hour of slow, methodical, and eye-wateringly painful work. Which meant not one, not two... but at least three investments and three confrontations of some of the most painful procs I were competent doing. It's tough knowing you're going to be exp'g pain past 99.9% of your life's exp, again and again, and again. Breaking apart mature adhesions gluing the four muscles in the lateral anterior lower leg above the ankle -- tibiialis anterior, extensor hallucis, extensor digitorum, and peroneus tertius -- requires a lot of pressure using the blade of the forearm (ulna) in a shearing direction. When old, thick and dry connective tissue gloms these muscles together, the pain getting them to pull apart can be enormous; certainly true for Client. Took several passes, each beading sweat on their forehead. Lots of breaks to just pull together enough to endure it again. In the end... this Client gave a valid and worthy college try, but could not endure the pain... despite early indications the tqs were working. It's hard to put your trust in someone you've just met, who's putting you thru more pain than you've endured in decades. I didn't argue with them -- it's their decision to make, no judgement. But the work required to turn them around, ultimately required more commitment than they had to spare. Left after ~50 mins, with a partially-worked L foot, and comp'd them the cost of treatment. Pretty sure I wouldn't have done any better. Some, you can't help... and a bodyworker's career demands you accept this part of the job as normal, and expected. Doesn't make it feel any better in the moment, tho
Fri 06 Mar 26: First of all: glyNAC is go F***, finally. Should stress did not take a purpose-made glycine-NAC combo supplement, but separate glycine and NAC supps taken together (glycine 1000mg + NAC 600mg; both dosages single pills per day as recommended on label). As before, glycine is a simple amino acid so easily broken down... thus taking it on an empty stomach's highly desirable for best absorption. The NAC formulation has small amts of B2 (riboflavin), Ca (as carbonate) and moly (molybdenum aspartate) for support of cellular reducing activity (and thus use by the body). Woke up today with the first signs since getting this HMPV infection 3 wks ago (human metapneumovirus), it was fading into true non-significance; at last no grit required to do a day's work. No cough -- thank f***ing God -- but did have a bit of clear sputum, probably residual. No weakness, 0 sensitivity to cold as had been 2 wks. Strength and cognition were better (lack of wooden-headedness / forgetting simple things), and the heavy duty male client this morning didn't cause a full-body cold sweat, as had been the case since resuming work post-shedding phase. Normally sweat a little but nothing like the soaks w/ persistent symptoms of this HMPV infection -- and today were the first work day returning to a normal reaction. So, if conforming to label dosages, I'd endorse this as a way to get over either a persistent cold or HMPV infection... tho tbh as quickly as this epidemic's spread across the US let alone global cities... if it's been > 2 wks with a cold w/ no sign of letting up, you have HMPV. Any doubts of course, consult a trusted PCP, as I'm neither pharmacist nor general physician. But glyNAC dosing is the one and only thing I've done since being infected, that's done anything to address the source of the symptoms vs. damp them enough to work. Feel great -- actually, better than I have in a long time, including prior to getting the knee injury late last summer. Glycine's been touted as a youth serum... but of course, that's the unregulated supplement-industry-influencer internet for you -- still don't think it's as panacea-worthy as proponents claim. But my trusted sources do acknowledge glycine does have positive effects on metabolism, immune response, and liver health... and thankfully in much smaller doses than some of the more eye-opening claims. Given I've felt the delta with a simple on-label dosage... can claim glycine as something I can add to regular supplementation. Will experiment of course with smaller dosages at first apart from NAC, and see if rest from supplementation's required long-term (as in the case of milk thistle, which isn't safe for long-term use, so will stop after the med's refill is spent and doc consulted on the results). Have tried several aminos as supplements... and glycine's the first to show first-hand exp with any part of their proponent's restorative, cognitive, or immune response claims in my body. For now, can confirm glyNAC's not a hoax, esp re: dealing w/ HMPV infection recovery. --- Who did today's client remind of... When one exps heavy mental trauma in combat... those are the sorts of exp that PTSD burns into the psyche, past your conscious ability to access them. Those inputs serve as the strongest possible imprinting the mind can process... and in order for them to resist change, my thought is they're recorded away from the neuronal cortex of the brain, where conscious thought lives... deep in more primitive banks of storage in sub-cortical areas (amygdala is the most familiar, where fear is processed to supposedly 'protect' you... but in humans tends to hinder higher brain processing in favour of instinctive, knee-jerk reaction a la ancient ancestor animals you evolved from. Other areas are basal ganglia, and the vaunted cerebellum... where non-thought-required abilities familiar to martial artists, are imprinted and stored). The problem with surviving combat, esp if severely-injured w/ extended periods suffering immense pain before medical aid... is there's a piece of you left at the site of trauma -- both in time and space -- that's left forever where the most painful exps happened irt. It's replaced with the compensatory self born from that suffering... which according to evolution, should then be able to avoid it later to survive to breed. But in the human mind with its complex, self-aware architecture... this fails to happen. What manifests instead is a hard, out-of-reach connection to that trauma, with triggers possible in perception that retrieve the exp in unsettling clarity, wherever you happen to be -- and elicits physical and mental reenactments of that trauma, to help you survive. But in modern human society, such reactions to stimuli can and have killed -- the murder of famous sniper Chris Kyle, by a PTSD-suffering ex-Marine he was trying to help, being an infamous example. The relevance to bodywork... is for those who've carried these exps many times over, for a period of many months / years... since there are a variety of exps recorded as trauma in the mind, thus they manifest in the physical tissues of the body, often in as many places. There's nowhere in the body trauma cannot be imprinted, as the body and mind are two aspects of the same thing: can be your muscles, fascia, tendons, nerves. Or the viscera, where they can detected as viscero-somatic referral in my lingo. If the viscera are damaged, diseased, or storing trauma... the connective tissues in the area around the core and / or torso will show signs of tension, TrP formation, or other sensitivity / pathology not explained by other factors. Using tqs trained into me by my mentor... there are ways, with the client's full commitment and participation, to allow them to face the trauma, stare it in the figurative face, accept that they actually exist here and now in a safe place... and let go of it. If done correctly in adherence to these tqs, the physical manifestation of the trauma, will also disappear. Have seen this once, as may've mentioned before... in a client I suspect may've been r*ped. Both the client's state of mind, along with the body's lack of the manifested trauma (as a non-resolving knot)... were indisputable to me in real time. The slightly chilling appearance of a rank odour from the client's breath and local area on the skin where the knot used to be... were startling but known phenomena (the release of long-lived trauma also causes physical release of old cellular debris and toxic metabolites trapped in the tensing tissues -- causing noxious substances to be released and perceived). Mentor has seen this many times as a far more exp'd prac in these situs w/ correct handling, under his belt... but my first tbh, shook me up a bit. Comic book sh*t... In the case of my veteran client from a few years back tho... they either lacked enough willingness and / or faith in my procs, to allow similar release -- and as stated repeatedly, 1) your client must be willing to do whatever it takes... as trauma requires teamwork and trust for resolution, and 2) to have the capacity, fully-immersed in the trauma playing back in your mind irt... to let go of it. As I've only had one successful resolution of stored trauma on the table (perhaps two if partial release can be counted)... obvi lack the exp to know how to guide fringe cases over the line into full release -- and that can only come from enough failures and learning from them, which I've not collected enough of as yet. Such is the world of deep-tissue bodywork. Maybe someday, with enough time-in-service similar to Mentor's... enough cases of stored trauma will come across my table, to gain the exp to grapple effectively w/ difficult cases. But like all my other tools, trial and error must be paid in full to gain mastery. Which is why I really like this gig -- if your tq is lacking, you get immediate feedback saying so, as failure to get results. Not so in other disciplines, what with fake-until-make allowed to graduate the unworthy into positions of authority
Sat 07 Mar 26: With the Maint and Service Required Soon msgs every time I start the car for a week... was time to swap the oil. 20K svc isn't until April (am already over 20K)... so since had skipped a mid-interval chg last go-around (and mpg were dropping tenths increasingly faster), decided couldn't let the ICE suffer more indignance, despite the new oil only lasting a little over a month, before being swapped again for the 20K. Worth it to me... 5G's going into the body shop this week... which whilst apart will have the most recent recall work done for the infamous perpetually-self-opening 5G rear doors. I swear the next fix they'll have when this one fails, will be a manual door release, like it should've been from the start Anyhow, digression... supposedly shop will have the car little over a week, during which time I'll be driving the rental 5G -- concerned how my car'll come back to me, as never had work with this shop (tho several who have, say they're the ones to get work from on Maui). Given my Honda came back to me with self-tapping screws replacing OEM fasteners... am hoping whomever's actually doing the work, is worth their salt -- thought was the case with the last shop tho Coupla notes from the oil swap, I'd forgotten (understandable since you'll be swapping oil typically less often in a Prius than ICE-only rides): the dipstick, as was on the Honda, is muy deceptive. Only thing to really keep from overfilling (much worse than underfilling) is to find somewhere very level to check it... then run the ICE at least 5 mins -- which after a swap may require: either driving around, or in my case (since all my stuff to do the swap were sitting out in the open)... stab the throttle after the normal 30-sec warmup sequence to get the ICE to light. This may take several tries, in R and D, 'rocking' the car into keeping the ICE on. allow ICE to turn off, then let the oil drain 5 more mins into the pan check level at your level spot what I've found, even w/ all the warming and waiting, your oil level will show below the full mark. This is fine. check the oil whenever you find a level spot later in normal dailies... and see if it's below half-full add oil until you register about 1/8" from full, waiting 30 - 60 secs for the added oil to make it to the pan. once filled to that point, leave it there... and only top off again, if at that same location, you find it back below half-full when you swap oil /filter, the oil will do some breaking down in the first few days / 75 - 100 mi -- which you'll see (if you've properly filled and not gone over) as a drop in mpg, in my case 2 tenths (one for the 'rocking' warmup, one due to this phenomena). Same thing with the Honda and all other vehicles I've owned... so don't look for gains over your best fresh-oil mpg, in the first few days have no idea why the f*** all mfrs don't setup their oil drain plug and filter access, like the 5G does (and assuming other recent Toyotas)... 4 x self-tapping 10mm hex head screws holding up an access cover about the size of a McD's tray. drain plug pointing almost straight down, at the back of the effing pan. next to it, spin-on filter that empties cleanly into your pan w/o spilling all over components under there Can break down to the swap stuff, put it all back together, put in fresh oil and clean up... in less time than it takes all the oil to drain. The way Toyotas used to be designed in simpler times -- to aid the home wrench in Brazil, having to swap their own oil. Obvi not a hard / fast rule anymore, depending on what era Toyota you own (my old Paseo was perfect for college student aptitude -- and despite being a factor mechanic for other marques... loved that about post-'89 / pre-'96 Toyotas)... Compare with the Civic: vertical-sliding-window-sized underchassis tray, dbl the size of a 5G's, easy hard-to-remove, hard to find / expensive to replace Dzus-like ¼-turn fasteners (why Honda didn't stock these early in the 10th-gen's MYs, is boggling (used to be sold only with the whole access cover) -- didn't start stocking them as individual parts until MY19, for a gen that started in '16). Also cannot be replaced w/ normal threaded fasteners if lost (and they f***ed off a lot), due to the ¼-turn design -- idiotic, but that's modern Honda for you drain plug in a non-reinforced aluminium pan, infamous for stripping out if not torqued with a competent torque wrench to exactly spec oil filter perched above the lip of the access opening, spilling used oil all over the inside of the remaining underbelly tray on that side -- requiring 15 mins to reach in and brake-clean / wipe dry that mess, so it didn't ape a leak when all back together Man am I glad that Civic's no longer in my life (w/ its now-infamous WET OIL PUMP BELT, Wth). Just saying, despite oil changes being much less a part of a 5G Prius owner's life... the factory still makes it one of the easiest vehicles to swap earl on. Right there in your driveway, 15 mins for the warm oil to drain, but 15 mins for everything else too --- Oh right -- this is a Bodywork thread. Hmm lessee... Well if yesterday's account sailed over your head... am now sold on the value of glycine in my life. I just feel different. Perhaps diet were deficient in proper levels of it... tasks seem, well... easier. Only negative I reckon, is my brain chemistry's been chugging along on a diet deficient in apparently a few things... so feels like my energy level's being down-regulated to compensate. In vain tho -- as this oil chg despite being criminally-easy... does require me to get ducks in a row to do it (out of my storage locker 12 mis from the house) as well as collect tools in one other place. This faff means waiting for an ideal time and place to do it... which in winter and ad hoc passing showers, doesn't happen on schedule. (oh get this: Zoomer at my storage facility, which I'd been swapping oil only on weekends and only around the back of the lot, w/ 3 vehicles, as often as 4x a year... walked up to me today and said w/ a straight, I couldn't do it anymore, this is a storage facility. Oh yeah? Watch me. You've seen me do this literally 10 yrs and not once have I spilt a drop of oil or left one piece of trash when I do it... so don't stand their in your f***ing new-owner khakis and embriodered golf shirt and tell it's all of a sudden not allowed, son -- there aren't any facilities to self-swap oil on this island... so until there are, as long as I'm a customer of your facility, get the f*** out of my face or call the police, fine w/ either one. Pls waste their time, because you wanna front today ). Aaanyhow energy levels were great thru the tough client yesterday... but didn't feel as quite energetic today after waking up. But doing this swap, disproved that energy had gone / was no longer accessible. This down-regulation into worse performance, has long been a thing in other aspects of my health (often feel better with less sleep than a full 8 hrs -- and have been since mil days, when genuine 4-hr-sleep-or-less weeks were a miserable reality. Muscles get too stiff, sleeping soundly 8 hrs... because the std's been 5 - 6 literally 35 yrs. But I don't honestly think this effect using glycine's the same thing, despite the body doing what it's long-used to doing (probably thru 30y of garbage diet too), before accepting and making some use of extra glycine. Theory, but does seem to check all the boxes, at least for my body and my life exp
Sun *Wash Day*, 08 Mar 26: -- finally got the car washed, 4 wks later Bit of anxiety about how much work would need to go into cleaning that off... but turned out rather light (which is weird since all 4 Sundays were rained out, lots of driving in it too). Should've been caked-on filth and salt... but my guess is what did pound down, did so hard enough to wash off some of what stuck (and those storms were pretty epic for around here -- Phoenix 'monsoon season' cloudburst-style, or DC / Seattle Mar-Apr dogs & cats, almond-sized drops splashing up so high cars disappear in it). Have washed off far more, doing weekly details -- always come back to certain movies, years from last viewing... and today's was Cast Away. This was made of course during Tom Hanks' golden era, the '90s. A League of Their Own, Sleepless in Seattle, Philadelphia, Forrest Gump, Apollo 13, Saving Private Ryan, You've Got Mail, The Green Mile. And with the new millennium (and loss of a massive chunk of our collective innocencem in Millennium of the Dragon)... Cast Away. Directed by Robert Zemeckis... whilst not one-to-one w/ Hanks' career, was also at his peak of powers -- made an old-fashioned-feeling drama rewatched in 2026, yet this feeling wasn't present in the slightest seeing this in a Phoenix cinema circa Y2K. I say old-fashioned, because decisions made by all characters involved, feel very much like those in movies I grew up with -- '80s movies. It's fair to say I'm a completely different person in 2026 vs. 2000 (effing hope 25y made it thru this hard head)... and what stood out now, wasn't possible for Y2K Me -- which is a strange feeling. In 2000, what hit me was Chuck losing Kelly, twice. The four years marooned felt authentic and harrowing then, make no mistake... but had just left the military. In 2026, 28y after ETS... the impact was all Chuck's exps on the island. How many of us can say they've lived even one night outdoors in the open making / finding your own shelter, without any artificial sources of light at night? Have you ever seen what night looks like in nature w/o a pocket EDC LED light? How many have felt so thirsty due to lack of safe fresh water, were convinced you were g o n n a die? When's the last time any of you went w/o food a week? These are the kinds of mortal things that struck me, were I thrust into this situation myself. And given how often airliners are falling out of the sky these days (esp Boeing and old triple-fan cargoliners)... catastrophic water ditch in a plane that size, creepily-plausible nightmare fuel. Rewatch these movies about every five years since they've debuted: Blade Runner, Saving Private Ryan, The Fifth Element, Minority Report, The Princess Bride, Dune, Seven Samurai, The Outlaw Josey Wales, Crouching Tiger Hidden Dragon, Hero, Inception, Good Will Hunting... and probably few more I've missed. Some, like Blade Runner, have almost ten revisits
Mon 09 Mar 26: Nice morning -- traffic were light despite the Mon bum rush phenom, must've been my timing. Two things to do: get fed, and get errands done. First matter of biz after getting the usual giant AM salad... was to drop by the Prius rental place, and see about getting ducks in formation. Making a reservation w/ taken deposit, normally behooves a business to have everything ready for you on agreed date/time, no matter the lead.. but since late '90s (esp on Maui), need to give said businessed a kick, in the form of showing up and reminding them hey, you owe me a service. Politely of course... but this rather cynical strategy's saved my third point many times (well, when the employee in charge of handling the biz front end a. doesn't want to be there, b. is underpaid, c. is hungover / high / both, d. all three -- thank you, Puget Sound carnie-helmed storage facilities -- you fail to lower expectations into the gutter, entirely at your peril No one were there. Okay, time to get some pink coolant from the Toy Store... Tangent: had been noticing tenths were getting increasingly difficult to achieve, despite the car being only 2 MY old and sub-25K. Only things logically deduced to possibly cause this -- bad alignment from the crash damage, spent oil, loose bougies, and low coolant -- could only do anything about 3 of them. Plugs were properly torqued (did this right after taking delivery -- and lo, #3 did not conform to torque spec. Why you check even brand-new cars, as prep techs are human too). Just changed the oil to proper level (maybe even a touch low re: previous post's reasons) and have gone just under 100 mis, so that can't be it. Only thing left, was coolant level Hybrid system coolant and ICE coolant levels in their respective overflow bottles, weren't criminally-low (hybrid was midway betw. MAX and MIN, and ICE's was about a third low betw. same. Didn't have Toyota coolant on-hand, so bought a gallon and topped them both to MAX. Wasn't expecting much... but man, there were defo perceptible change. Better feel in the steering, stronger return to center. More punchy off-line launch, even in ECO mode. Quieter cruise from ICE. And the cherry on top... were short trips (I stress, w/ ICE properly warm) for weeks getting max 50 - 65 mpg, now topped 70, even getting an 89 w/o trying -- which is what the car got just after being broken-in, and since Feb could not match it. Only thing that makes any sense for why... is thermal mass. Since coolant distributes the high heat of internal combustion throughout its volume (when circulated properly), if the heat source doesn't change and you reduce volume of coolant circulating, you also reduce the amt of heat the system can contain. Takes massive amts of energy to boil 3L of water and even more when turned to fresh coolant... so adding even a half-pint into an ICE's overflow / draw bottle, will increase thermal mass of the cooling system. Have no exp with one, but makes sense a hybrid cooling system's thermal mass is even more crucial. Battery life and performance is more directly related to what temp you can maintain operation... so if you reduce that cooling system's thermal mass... its performance will suffer more. Just like dirty ICE oil in an ICE-only vehicle will affect non-intuitive systems depending on strong ICE -- power steering, charging, power-assisted brakes -- since a 5G's steering is all-electric, of course it'll feel better. If you've made an adjustment to owner-serviceable things that conform closer to engineering parameters, the car will perform closer to that ideal. Since the perf was bleeding off gradually, didn't realise how much difference just adding a half-pint and 3/4 pint of coolant could unlock. It's a lot Back to today... after topping up returned to the hybrid rental, to find a couple getting into their rental EV to start their vacation. Didn't see the biz owner tho, so stood and waited. We have to leave and lock the gate behind us, they called out their window. Hmm, okay. Didn't see the owner around (was 0800, their usual opening time)... so had to concede will probably have to ask the questions I had, when dropping my Prius off at the body shop. Nah -- gave them a call. Yup, you're a go for tmw, said the owner. Do you not open at 0800, like last time I came by to make the deposit? No, just dropping off a car at the hotels, so won't be back for an hour or so. Wasn't expecting you until tmw, just that couple... so didn't need to be there. Reasonable, and reassuring, tbh. Reminding front ends hey I'm a customer, take care of me pls... has been so ingrained into this ex-mil brain used to (and weary of) ate-up subordinates who think effing up's funny and you should too -- what are you, a jerk? That I mis-called this one. After explaining myself (owner and I are the same age within a few weeks, apparently) he laughed and said no worries, I know where you'll be tmw. Great, thanks, see you tmw. And scene... Still think dropping this habit unwise, given it defo applies on a tropical island destination where much of the population younger than 30 walks around high on their own time... and the more FAFO getting tokes at work too (w/ their bosses, in many cases). But guess always gonna be case-by-case, innit
Addendum, Mon 09 Mar 26: Think have cornered a downside to glycine supplementation, no one seems to talk about (or I belong to some minority pop): revving your metabolism to the moon. Ever since starting glycine supp-ing, have noticed a need for a cooler room whilst asleep, and slightly cooler during the day. This is similar to what happened during my idiotic foray into using raw garlic as a weight-loss method living in WA: two normal meals, then a dinner of just toast w/ cold-cut turkey... topped w/ fresh chopped cilantro, and a freshly-minced clove of garlic per sandwich, two in total. Nights were sweat-soaked (and of course, imparting that human-body-filth-filtered odour into my bedding linens, which had to be discarded after a month or so). But eyes on prize, I countered, that being losing 30 lbs in seven weeks, no exercise. Seeing my relatively-slim self vs. roly-poly, was shocking to everyone around me (past the stench of course). Dropped the garlic promptly after reaching goal weight (220 lard-arse lbs --> 190), and thought I were some kind of genius. The truth of course... is the effects of this mad vain road to ruin, would stay with me, probably for life. Garlic, and its active compound allicin which bestows its health properties (and its dry-hurling body stench, esp after eating 2 raw cloves a day for almost 2 mos), gifted this stark weight loss by causing the body to stop throttling down metabolism during sleep, instead keeping my body in sympathetic nervous system, rather than the rest-&-digest parasympathetic. As your body constantly seeks homeostatis w/ environmental and dietary factors... my body began to learn to expect this metab-revving food to be a constant -- meaning it'd countered the rev-up, by down-regulating endogenous processes that raised metabolism. Some of my problems w/ sleep (long before needing CPAP) stemmed from this lock of energy-burning during sleep, if I could achieve it -- four-hour nights were routine. This was poor, but not even the worst result of this ill-conceived attempt to subvert nature. Allicin is also a potent antioxidant, antifungal, antiviral, and antibacterial compound -- which when the target's pathological, is great (eat garlic sometimes in very much smaller quantities, and notice a day or so later, developing cold sores, esp around lips and nose. This is pathogens proll-y viral, responding to allicin and its metabolites in the bloodstream, 'cower' -- and get pushed to these cliff edges. Their weaker populations perish in the bloodstream and are swept up by the immune system, which leaves only the strongest mutants to continue propagating until cornered where they have their little Waterloos -- as tiny blisters around that area. Usually feel great past that. But if you constantly shove 2 cloves of raw mince garlic in your gob for weeks, never mind the other two meals you thought were balancing or giving rest to the gut... you will steadily and relentlessly kill off your beneficial gut bugs... which will be replaced by whatever's strongest / most numerous, most likely pathogenic (thus why fecal transplants are so successful -- it's a nuclear solution). After my 7 wks I tried to continue eating those toasted turkey sandwiches sans garlic... but couldn't hold much down or properly digest it. Even my formerly-beloved Wendy's and Starbies Fraps were suddenly warm water. That was the first inkling something important was effed. Thus in intervening years have had to eat lots of fermented food (not all bad news ) and in beginning of recovery, took Pearls, the only probiotic supp that does anything ime. Whilst they improved gut behaviour and tolerance... it's never been the same. 30 yrs of fast food, 7 wks of raw garlic plus other iniquities... yeah, wholly deserved what I got. So that year of misery plays front and center under my eyelids, as I soak bath towels w/ sweat after taking glycine 2 wks. Luckily not affected digestion / absorption or modded gut fauna -- just the opposite, as intimated last post. Gut feels like it's finally received what it lacked to work properly, the last puzzle piece. But the revved metab and uncomfortable sweating (as distinguished from the viral cold sweats I were having pre-glycine), are still there. Am a bit overweight, so not sure if the glycine is enabling the body to burn stored fat, which as we know has much more energy / gram than protein or carbs. That would explain feeling like I need bedroom A/C turned down to 60 now, when 90d ago felt like I needed a blanket this winter. If it's that, all go. But if just taking digested food and 1) making it easier to absorb, which is dangerous during sleep when muscle contraction can't absorb extra blood sugar as glycogen, or 2) increasing gut function, so more of the gut is doing its job now... may need to cut down the dosage below recommended. It's like taking your Karmann Ghia, and putting a Ferrari F40 motor in it -- if you don't have the capacity to use the performance gains from glycine supp-ing... ignoring what it's doing can lead to more problems down the line -- including for me, the 'Beetus. Blood draws from Feb showed normal blood sugar... so curious what the next one on glycine (if I'm still on it) will reveal. May just be a fix for acute problems, like bad digestion, vs. a daily supp. But for now, it's not HMPV sweats... and that's all I know applicable to me and my burnt-up gut individually. Still believe glycine helps more than hurts... but need to see how that'll apply safely to my use case... so stay tuned
Tue 10 Mar 26: Car is now in the hands of the body shop. Have a nearly identical 5G in the driveway, with actually half the mileage but as expected for a rental... multiple signs why you should be a mechanic to buy used rental fleet Am grateful to get the 5G at all -- after the flub with the body shop over when to drop the car off, lost locking out days with few other customers -- it's Spring now and lots of tourists are coming to either take advantage of the swell or get their cheaper fares before the rush of Summer season. And looks as if word's finally getting out to the mainstream about the 5G's performance -- the rental has less than EPA Monroney mpg recorded on the dash. Other than that... blissfully similar performance, and a few reminders why my car feels twice the miles underfoot as this one. Tires -- was reminded why I like the stock Toyos (a minority opinion, I realise... but don't and won't ever drive in 4 seasons whilst living here). The car felt much more like extra tread depth were working hard to keep things civil at the wheel and seat, despite running quite high tire pressure (which I intend to lower to what gave mine best mpg, right at 37 / 39 psi for my climate). Whilst there's a concerning whine coming from the front right side whenever in EV mode off-throttle... the rest of the car feels reassuringly well-bolted together. And the expected luggage scrapes & front clip rock bashes a tourist vehicle will suffer, all present. Jesus, in 10K miles... don't buy a rental The readout of 56.6 mpg were dismal and depressing, so reset it. On the first leg home from the rental (dropping off the owner first)... got 64 mpg, so nothing wrong with fluid levels yet. Did pop by Wally's to get some air fresheners tho... as whilst the rental owner's a nice guy... Jesus f*** he stinks, reminds me of the guy everyone were giving a truckload of shite to in boot camp, for smelling like a NYC subway men's room. Once on the proper meds, totally odourless. This guy needs that, as his sitting in the car 20 mins meeting me at the body shop, left a stench in it right on the verge ot dry heaving. Chemical Brothers dangles and Febreze New Car Smell vent clips, to the effing rescue Noticed the fob were bare... and wrote a note to myself to remind the owner to wrap that shite. In silicone, as have done w/ mine. Dropping this on a hard surface (and having served tourists many years growing up and post-mil -- if they can break something, they'll find a way soon if you're careless). The silicone wrap halves the possibility of breaking these ~$300 'smart' fobs if simply dropped from waist height on a concrete floor... so for $6, a no-brainer. Used my spare to wrap this one, as breaking a fob and not being able to get into my rental, will ruin my day for sure. Welp, hope this 8 days is sufficient to get the car fixed... do like the non-marred driver's rear door, and look forward to getting my own property identical to that --- Work today was pretty cool. Three clients, all benefitting from some rarely-used tqs in the toolbox... There's a modality I tend to use on the upper back, called AMR (Advanced Muscle Reconditioning). Its tqs are deceptively gentle... but when moving post-session, most struggle to grasp how much more freely they can move and breathe, esp in the muscles that attach to the ribcage. As before, when muscles are either underused or overused into excess tension, whether thru abnormally-high tone or pathologies like TrPs or adhesions... still structures in the body, tend to stick to neighboring ones. So the four overlapping muscles of the region just above and to the outside of your shin, glom together, and can no longer perform their individual tasks w/o affecting other muscles / tendons / fascia. This causes weakness in the overworking muscles, in the lower leg esp leading to falls, trips, and eventually back and neck pain. Same happens in a body whose flexor muscles of the anterior (front) upper half, have been allowed to become dominant and bully the extensors of the back and neck... leading to these victimised muscles being 80 - 100% tight at all times, even in sleep. This of course leads to adhesions... which limit vitality thru simple waste of metabolic resources. Remember, muscles serve as a reservoir of glycogen in the body... but if those muscles aren't allowed to contract and extend normally, they can't absorb blood sugar. Thus the epidemic of The Beetus, in younger and younger bodies (esp males)... AMR's tqs use zones in the body to apply a certain type of stroking pressure to muscles at every depth, feeling for a tell that betrays the existence of adhesions. Whilst mechanical force can be used to separate good tissue from pathological glue / straps (and must be, in the case of nerve adhesion release)... when it comes to flat muscles glued to layers above and below, I've found few tqs to equal AMR. The client feels little pain, but the tell happening where I do my thing. As opposed to TPT and my base modality... AMR produces very little irt pain, more like a warmth in the worked tissues... and in some, the sensation of the area inflating like a balloon. When the adhesion's advanced and mature however, there's usually a feeling akin to the skin on your forearm getting a firm twisting rub, what we GenXes called an 'Indian burn'. This tends to feel tender about an hour, but fades quickly, leaving no marks on the skin. A definite puffing up of the affected tissue, now no longer stuck and tight... persists despite the pain fading to nothing. Feels light, almost marshmallow-like... which the client tends to feel as just that -- movement no longer feels like they're wearing a net of lead fishing weights. Standing them up... the look on their face says it all. For those a bit more used to subterfuge and coyness, conservative reaction (esp if they secretly were convinced this massaging farce won't do anything for Me). But the way they move and walk around, unmistakable. Always preach that walking's done from the ribcage down, evolution whilst never perfecting a thing, gets very good at advancing to breed the designs that solve problems. So releasing these quite debilitating adhesions in the flat muscles of the back grants a lot of freedom back, often unexpected (try attaching two opposing strips of velcro, then peel one off the other. Now try to separate the halves by pulling laterally -- same thing happens w/ adhesions between flat muscles -- the body can never peel them apart, can only pull laterally -- meaning less adhesion can have the same effect on flat muscle, as much more along the long axis of a round muscle). Clients today were familiarly impressed with AMR -- and whilst I don't volunteer too much about how it works, I do educate about the persistence of flat muscle adhesion in the thoracic back... and how to prevent it forming: move around. Dancing's a fun way to do this... but start small and work your way to natural improvements in ROM. Stop eating so much inflammatory food -- eat more what your pre-Industrial ancestors ate -- organic, farm-to-table, made by skilled wise hands not soulless blister-packing machines. Even the things your doctor tends to poo-poo: if your pre-Industrial ancestors ate cheese in their diet, eat the same kinds, in the same quantities, after doing similar physical exertion. Can't do the exertion? Then you must eat less what they did. Simple... but lots of pundits fail miserably at this, full of excuses and stuck together
Wed 11 Mar 26: Jesus, what a storm -- nothing windy, thank god... but did last from 0100 last night to 1300 just a bit ago. Propa sheets of heavy rain; muddy-roostertail-out-muni-sewers sort. Luckily didn't have to travel in the worst of it... but waves of almond drops every 25 - 30 mins betw. drizzle were the rule all AM. And got more inklings of how this 5G differs from mine, telling me its doors are open whilst being repaired... Think the rental owner (let's call him Bill, since that's what he does) fills up w/ 87 oct... which would explain why it gets so near EPA Monroney in rental duty. But 10K on that fuel, and the smoothness is identical to mine -- opposite which was a reason I began to use 89 instead. Stabs of throttle which produce immediate forward progress w/ mine, takes a second for the rental to deliver. Am defo concerned about that whine at the FR corner on decel, tho. Same corner the minor bash is on... so not sure if either a CV joint or perhaps something in the hybrid system's rubbing on something else. Doesn't seem to affect mpg (got another 65 mpg sortie on the same route back home)... And total mpg since yesterday: Not too worried about it, but does remind me of its presence more often than not. In a 5G w/ straight body panels... can feel the difference (mostly buffeting) over 50 mph. And why not, the bash is a giant driver's-side air brake I can't turn off. Wasn't too concerned until comparing one after the other More about work when the day's over -- Back -- clients today reminded me of these cases from past... Had a pretty cantankerous client, given the amt of pain they were in. Was accompanied by a spouse with that look on their face, 'pls help them, their not normally this much a jerk'. Terse replies to my probing questions about their condition. Mentor taught me, if they're willing to stay and not leave immediately, what they say due to how much pain they're in's a front, nothing more. Okay -- we can do this the hard way, then. Had them lie on the table, teething the whole, easy-does-it minute it took. Could straighten neither hip nor knee joints, and muscle tone were causing esp lower legs to assume this grayish-purple, shiny appearance. Not good -- this was going to hurt. Turns out they hunt boar in the valleys here, and made the mistake of carrying one all the way to camp rather than butcher it and have the party carry it down in pieces. That's for sissies, they said. Was only 200 lbs, would be like carrying a fellow hunter, they reasoned. Without drinking enough water several hours, then carrying a 200-lb boar down perilous, boar-cut trails that often exceeded 50º of red dirt and crumbling lava rock... they overexerted themselves far past the point of trauma... and whilst felt fine at camp, once a rocky night of sleep had passed... their legs visited some revenge on his meatsac arse... Hunters here are used to these tusked monsters (nothing near the 1100-lb record mainland-US boars due to island dimorphism -- typically ~150 - 300 lbs on Maui), charging at them on 4000-ft ridges that jut into the sky like towers... so not afraid of a little pain / exhaustion (much like high-altitude deer and elk hunters in the Rockies... which many of these knife hunters pivot to, when season revs up on mainland -- then the 300 WinMags and 7mm-PRCs get dusted off). But that's pain they buy into, for either themselves or showing off / conforming to role. Normally the type tends to find the limits of this behaviour, by being right where they are now, needing fixed Despite the casual verbal abuse and veiled threats of violence to me... wasn't hard to tell who wore the pants here Spouse needed one word, 'Ay...' and they conceded to my hands. Mostly my forearms and elbows -- which elicited some feral, child-like screams -- which I encouraged along with swearing, as it does help manage pain. The quads and gastrocs of the human male, are deep reservoirs of Stasi-level pain when run hot and put away wet. So to test their mettle, went in as deep and fast as possible, but only what they could handle safely. Which were far less than their self-image, of course. But despite this humbling ordeal... when finished, was able to stand up arrow straight, no bend to the core, no hunch to the shoulders and no stoop in the legs. Legs feel like they weigh nothing, they said quietly, avoiding my gaze. Maybe they thought bodyworkers were all gay. Maybe they thought educated people kept their noses in books and didn't do real work. Whatever the pathology, got their tissues released and body aligned. Spouse shook my hand and thanked me... client didn't even look back at me as spouse paid. All fine and good -- better than proving his least-effort, low-hanging view of people right Clients today were nothing like this piece of work, of course... but did see where severe overuse was accumulated probably 20y or more -- and since were rather humble and just wanted to work to support their family -- a pattern I've seen paired w/ often shocking feats of work ethic -- endured the growing discomfort, until it began to affect their sleep. Lots of crying out in pain as the manual pressure forced the spinal cord to rethink the tone it were enforcing... but in the end, light, functional, debris-shedding muscle groups were re-learning how to act normal again... ready to tackle another 20y. Don't see this resolution part very often -- most who have this condition, don't have what it takes to fully release it... instead relying on numbing pharm, which doesn't require facing anything. But looking pain in its ugly little coward face, in the correct way with a competent prac... is the only way to permanently release trauma stuck in the body's soft tissues
Thu 12 Mar 26: Rather strange one today -- not clients, the weather... Rained the recent habit of waves of sheet almond drops enough to hide traffic, then flip-flopping to literal sunny patches all morning (may as well be -- gasp -- FL weather here). Had to carry an umbrella to Target, drive in the dry the 5 mins to the health food store, then need opened again there. A definite pattern of dumping hard enough in the arsecrack of dawn, to wake me from a dead sleep pounding on the roof and making flooded-gutter waterfall racket falling 2 stories onto concrete, from at least 1am to tapering off leaving for breakfast 0730. Dies down into those aforementioned waves... then wind and rain in the afternoon (both client and I were remarking about how distracting the crescendos of dump --> die --> dump were outside. And apparently this is the mild stuff, vs. what's coming over the state next 2d. Very glad my Prius is now indoors being worked on (replacing a door means it can't be left outside at the body shop, not if they don't want to pay for a ruined interior too). Rental 5G, despite driving its ICE in biblical sheet nonsense... has been doing well at the mpg game: lowest it got was 58.6, highest 79.1... and average dropped a bit to 63.2. My Prius punishes driving in much less rain by taking many more tenths. Only 2d since resetting the dash readout so gonna call it healthy and not anything to be concerned about. Still doesn't respond to throttle like mine, so do miss that. Boy was getting 'new car smell' danglies for the rental a good call. Sh*tcanned one of the Febreze clipons, tho -- in 1d half its perfume was already used up, plus the Chemical Guys danglies give less of a headache. I'd say half a clipon of perfume in 1d, to rid the interior of that rank body odour, was par for task tho --- Nothing of note for client stories, as they have to be inspired by what I work on the table; all pretty easy and routine. Maybe to offset the wild stuff happening a few thousand feet up
Fri 13 Mar 26: Yup -- the weather's defo gotten worse... Cognisant my bitching bounces right off those of you not out of the 40s yet... but there's a sizeable system bearing down on the 8 main islands today, and will continue to through next Wed -- we're all leery about what 'high wind' means these days; as few as 10y ago, meant generally nothing to those of us living in rain shadows. Post-Lahaina-incineration, tho... paying att'n. Oddly... no almond rain at all this breakfast run. More drizzle one min / legit rain the next. But the wind, much more concerning -- can topple trees, down power lines, and cut internet access for days. Rain all you want, culverts and drains under bridges were finally rebuilt after years of constant lahar-like mud flooding pre-covid. But this County doesn't and will never have the funds to bury the most vulnerable power lines (esp not after HECO pays up for its role in the fires). Much less cash to keep them on matchsticks and blow down every storm, cutting power to tens of thousands. Theor prevailing attitude is 'eh, not my house getting power cut... plus keeps our workers employed' Not surprisingly... work is light today. First inkling of 'high wind' in the forecast, and clients esp from West Side, would cancel and stay home, if they knew better. Had one client, and nothing exotic. Do feel rather weighed down today due to a restless night of relative warmth and super-high humidity being pushed ahead of this front, making sleep miserably sweaty. Also forgot to take my med last night... so waking up 3am, took it then. Take the med before bed, expressly to avoid its initial effects on liver function whilst awake and needing energy to move about. Had to exp 5h more of that than usual today being forgetful -- which is how it feels now. Like punishment
Sat 14 Mar 26: Have a theory: Fri the 13th shouldn't be feared as much as generations have reinforced -- it's Sat the 14th that's the gotcha (and the name of a ridiculously funny B-horror spoof from my yutes): Yesterday was quite mild vs. earlier in the week -- pleasant, even. But when I began to struggle for CPAP air ~3am... knew the circus was finally in town... Good thing about storm warnings bad enough to elicit alerts on your phone: all gov't employees will be told to stay home until further notice... so the roads were ADspie-lovely and barren of the usual morning traffic. The unrelenting rain however, had defo delivered on the week's threats -- the usual spots where inches of mud and gravel and branches and rocks wash over and drift, had done so. Despite being in a rental I just don't see a perfectly-good 5G deserving anything like off-roading in 8" of flood moraine... so turned around for another way to the highway... Zoinks -- nada. Okay then -- gotta go between the road 'horses' (with blinking lights on them) and make my own way, as the signals were out. Quarter-mile towards town a few LEOs and what looked like HECO employees were trying to fiddle with the big green boxes on the corner. Well if the mfr of these attractively-featured traffic control computers wanted a litmus test for water resistance, it certainly has it now. Pulling past to the highway... noticed something from deep in the archives of Seattle days commuting by moto: the surface of the dual-carriageway, was mirror-smooth. That means, there's water covering all the surface imperfections in the road -- and it were probably an inch deep or more. Confirmed when rolling past a spot where the ruts were particularly deep, being where dump trucks and 18-wheelers brake to pull off the hwy -- that delta was at least 3" deep... and the high spots barely poked over the water. Credit where due, it was and is pounding down. Luckily the rental's Toyos aren't as worn as mine, so that and their normally-nerdy narrow width, knives through even that much water. Full disclosure tho... am in a 5G at 50 - 60 mph -- so not really challenging hydroplane yet. But was reassuring despite all this liquid drama, this 5G's barely fazed. At the speed limit, of course Is funny to watch drivers in lo-profile, ridiculous-diameter lifted-brodozers get all out of shape, visibly hydroplaning whilst I zip past. Obvi have never ridden a moto 25 mph faster than this, in 60 mph crosswind gusts crossing the swaying Lake Washington floating bridge everyday to work in ~35F -- the entertaining range when water can't decide to be liquid or black ice. Actually better to ride when it's 20F than 35 - 40F, which IYKYK, can also become snow. Am super-grateful for the craziness faced on motos and my little penalty box; teaches you there's a lot further skill and exp can go, w/ even OEM equipment. Granted WA wasn't my first home address w/ 4 seasons (and shens done in it)... but my Toyota were FWD & ASR-shod only; moto wore sport-touring Metzeler Z6es F/R, but had race-prepped brakes, suspension, and motor. $80K Q7s and M-B ML500s were in the ditch every winter, me hopping merrily past in my 2K-lb-soaking-wet FWD sh*tbox. Prefer 'Mr. Sh*tbox', ma'am Getting to town... yep, the usual spots had 4 - 8" of water, either pooling into a lake to persist half a week easy w/ bonus mosquitos... or flowing fast enough that I'd rather turn right and find another way around, than have a roofing nail or shard of bottle glass shoved w/ hydraulic pressure into my brake hdwr, waiting in the roostertail for the light. Some places, pristine clean pools clear enough to see the road markings even 5" deep... others, more lahar-like batter, and avoided like the plague. But unlike the rest of the week, there were no waves of sun and soak -- came down the entire 2h I ran errands looking for storm rations, clouds low and surprisingly bright, reminding of snow clouds. Normally buy provisions early, but the lead time for this storm was such that most supermarkets'd be packed w/ people, empty of stock, or both. Luckily my chosen market had planned for this and actually had something to buy, popping by for food. And whilst picking up these things... noticed something about how people here react to 1 - 2" of rain / hr and subsequent storm warnings, vs how people back in WA would do: here, you must consistently and genuinely endeavor to make service job people feel like they've got a handle on all this, which I didn't need to do so much in WA. Why? Because when you live in a place where 3" of rain falls per hour, a metre of snow in an afternoon, and 60 mph gusts across your commute floating bridge, roostertailing ocean water onto your hood, are all routine... you interpret such focused efforts to placate as taking the mick -- usually responded to w/ abject silence. What else is new, transplant -- welcome to WA West of the Cascades, don't need your contrived compliment -- see you around. There were situations when appealing to human decency did resonate there, mostly in the crack of winter... like helping a guy out of the ditch, or someone who slipped and fell hard on their third point on ice, cause that always hurts and rarely doesn't suck, esp over 60. Still routine I grant, but in these cases coming to your fellow's aid is appreciated more, at least in that comm'y (reminds a bit of people in DC, who also have genuine, icicle-enema winters). Even then the WA helper'll usually just make sure everyone's in good kit and okay, but sneak off before anyone can praise or reward them. Liked that, and did so myself, in solidarity -- reminds of how JDM / UK natives handle similar such situs -- just make sure they can get on with their lives, then f*** off -- what are you, fishing for compliments? Here tho... seems much the opposite -- in general, and only during times of slight crisis like this, I should add. But did notice the level of service jump up quite a ways, with a little praise and eye contact, and f***ing off rather than lingering to do the aforementioned, esp w/ a line behind you. Maybe it's the legacy of my generation's Japanese Nisei-comm'y upbringing... which doesn't exist on Maui anymore, and hasn't in 2 gens. Maybe it's my military background, where those who were too saccharine / naïve / manipulative were dunked in negatively-reinforced, DI-approved military bearing, until they conformed. But the mere recognition of this, seems to mean another micro-level matured (ugh) in however long my life will be. Great -- so here's to seeing the sun today. And not minding if it doesn't, seen worse.
Addendum, Sat 14 Mar 26: Oh -- this is a bodywork thread after all. Weren't you satisfied with the novel above? Fine... Let's see... power was out from 3am to 9am today... got it. This was just after moving back and committing to being here by having all my junk WA (and the week that ordeal took, deserves an entry of its own. Just need to dovetail it w/ bodywork ). Were just settling into the routine of being an apprentice, and going over the basics of the modality with Mentor. FF to ~ 6 mos later... Power goes out on this island a lot. Some years, you wonder if a new class of line dogs have graduated and get hired by HECO... because the same outages happen repeatedly for no reason at all. That's the thing tho, about being male and working in a meatsac-ish vocation like utility electric tech: it's an island, everyone knows everyone and everyone's in your f***ing business. Even more so, now that we have transplants moving here from places where that's far more the rule, to get what you want and eliminate competition. So firing someone, plainly and obviously incompetent and not ready to be depended on in clutch, is just as tricky as anywhere else this situation exists (not even considering local laws protecting these ne'er-do-wells). It's corrosive and toxic but soaked into the very mgmt structure that holds sway over how things are done and when. Saw it bald-faced in some units I were assigned to, even as temp help, in mil. Man there are places where you have to do that to even keep your position in this place? Yep -- and be grateful you aren't bottom of pole here. So the power's out a lot, and stays out a while. Was expecting 5 hrs for this outage to be mended, took 6... tbf, when it's dark and 30 mph gusting w/ pounding rain, you aren't going to be wanting to ride in a chery picker either. But problem w/ this place... is it's literally 2 mis from the f***ing power station. Why the eff is Wailea getting their internet and daiquiri blenders spinning, and this place isn't...? Well, you know why, Fyooch -- and it's isn't gonna change, not on Maui. 5 - 6 hrs is typical... but not at all rule: have thrown out a hundred dollars of food a few times, due to power being out 9 - 12 hrs. That this happens often enough the times come from memory, means it too probably won't change. Were working on someone in freshman apprentice days... and they said Mentor knew their grandmother. Young kid -- if they were 20, would ask for a pube to prove it Got to the table, and began the protocol Mentor'd taught me. By 6 mos, felt I knew enough about how to do it, to satisfy most clients. Where I would fail... is not knowing enough about what to do, when adversity happens... At this time, hadn't worn watches decades. Less my phone, every home & office has a clock, can just check then. And wearing a watch isn't recommended doing bodywork for obvious reasons. So depended on the clock radio across the room to track the session. Client, as typical for kids that age and male had a problem with me touching them. sigh okay, adjusted the pressure so as not to trigger a child's jump sign (involuntary hard muscle contraction pulling away from me, a defensive posture they can't control, like being tickled). Males are by far, the worst clients for this on the table -- leaving aside the 1950s ideas about men touching men still being perpetuated in the 2010s... men are just absolute f***ing babies on the table -- less of course, those who have menial labour jobs and know hard work. Even so, vs. women of all ages (esp grandmas w/ 5 kids all natural-birthed), these poseurs are promptly put to shame, when it comes to someone they barely know getting into deep core and leg muscle pathologies -- which are no joke to either sex. There's an antiquated notion girls don't have the hand-eye coordination of boys, because they don't play sports as much. Well there's an obverse notion, that men don't know how to handle another man touching places full of repressed pain within them, without either shrinking away like a schoolgirl, or threatening violence. Both are quite inaccurate and thank god no longer contain as much truth as during my own childhood... but the stereotypes about men, are less inaccurate This kid had a knot (much later I'd learn it was a TrP) that wouldn't respond to what Mentor had taught me, so decided w/ the kid's consent, to go after it. But it were in the psoas, and that requires a lot of muscles atop it (oblique layers), not to be in full contraction, blocking my progress. But such was his jump sign that would be dangerous to be jerking around whilst that deep near the lumbar spine. How to handle this, wasn't in Mentor's rulebook... so had to improvise, whilst conforming to all I knew about safety re: massage therapy (had graduated from a WA school before Mentor would take me as a pupil). Looking over at the clock radio... was blank. How long had the power been out? There was a nice cross-breeze thru Mentor's place, so rarely used the A/C... and the big picture window also let in enough light w/ even curtains pulled, so no overhead light needed. No idea how long I'd been struggling... so took a break and checked my phone: 1 hr, 24 mins... Client, who did have a watch on, jumped up and said he'd had enough. The issue wasn't solved, I reasoned weakly, which didn't deter Client from wanting to get out of there. Paid tersely and stomped out the door. Looking down at the bills... he'd stiffed me $20. Whilst Mentor talked to the kid's mother and they got a dressing-down... couldn't help but acknowledge my role in why the session ended that way. Stay aware of time... and get Mentor a clock radio that had a battery backup in case of blackout. Better yet, keep phone in arm's reach and check often. My career was fledgling at the time and many, many more mistakes would be made (luckily, am grateful none were life-threatening... which remains always in back-of-mind, even as an exp'd bodyworker). When Mentor minted me exp'd enough to leave the nest... my setup included a battery-failsafe clock w/ massive digital numbers, an anatomy app my my laptop (Elsevier's Complete Anatomy later became my de facto reference when any question arose to where risk areas / structures were, before proceeding, full consent of the client), and all my books on bodywork / modalities less than a yard from the table. When I lived in Phoenix... lived in 5 different addresses in 10y... and never once, did my power go out. In WA, every Thanksgiving during the Dark Days eve, when the wind used to pick up and topple trees the state couldn't preemptively cull, right onto power lines... sending us into sometimes 3 - 5 days of 43F indoors if you don't own a generator (as nearly everyone on Kitsap Peninsula did). But there much like here, more random when it goes out now, esp in 2020s as storm-related wind speeds have crept up to 2x since the mid-'90s. As a bodyworker like a mechanic... your two goals are simple: 1) do competent work 2) in allotted time. Having failed the latter for this kid... was a lasting lesson that informed useful growth. Keep your eyes on the prize, don't get distracted
