Pondering the economy

Last weekend, we drove to Chicago for a family get-together. On the way, we drove past the office building where the partner used to work: it had a "for lease" sign on it. Apparently the company went bankrupt over a year ago, a victim of the housing market turmoil.

We moved here for my job, something I've had mixed emotions about. It turns out our move was good for the partner's career as well.

It's nice to have the additional confirmation that we made the right decision. But discovering that a job we thought was secure has disappeared makes me wonder about our current positions, too.

Fall colors

My community has a lot of burning bushes - shrubs with leaves that turn red in the fall. This year I keep seeing bushes all over with this beautiful dark hue on their leaves. They've held the leaves for many weeks after they turned color, too; I've been just amazed as how great they look.

I commented on this to a member in the Bible study I go to. He said it was appropriate: after finishing our reading of Genesis, we've just started studying the book of Exodus.

Wheat awareness

I'm beginning to suspect that my illness the past several weeks is a manifestation of Celiac disease - where eating wheat makes a person's immune system go haywire. It's a genetic disease, and my sister has it, which puts me at high risk.

The test would be to see if I get better when I stop eating wheat. This experiment has been complicated by a few recent incidents:

Fixing myself peanut butter toast with flax seeds for breakfast (mmm). Sitting down to eat it and realizing toast has wheat in it. I need to eat something in time to leave for work, so I eat the toast anyway.

Coming home from work and cutting myself a big piece of the brownies my partner baked. Eating three quarters of the brownie, then realizing brownies have wheat in them. I put the unfinished bit back into the pan; when the partner got home he asked if mice had been after the brownies.

Grabbing a handful of Reese's miniature cups and Kit-Kats for dessert after dinner. Eating the Reese's first because I like the Kit-Kats better and want to savor them. Reach for the Kit-Kat, and notice the wrapper says, "Contains wheat, milk, and soy ingredients." Put it down in grave disappointment.

I think I'm making progress in wheat awareness, though.

My plan is to have minimal wheat intake for two weeks; then, if I'm better, eat a bunch of wheat-containing products and see if I get sick again. I hope it works so that my symptoms go away. I hope it doesn't work because I would really, really miss crackers and sandwiches and spaghetti and everything else I'll have to forego forever if this turns out to be the culprit.

Internet and DST

This summer, I decided to try making sundown Friday to sundown Saturday a time to take a break from internet. I have been pleased with how this has helped my weekend routine (which was what I was hoping for) and surprised at how it has helped keep me going to bed at a reasonable hour on Friday nights.

On summer Fridays, the sun was up when we went to synagogue, and when we came home it had set. Worship services were a very clear dividing line for when I was going to stay off my computer. Just recently, though, the sun has been going down slightly before services. Now with Daylight Saving Time over, it will be down significantly before we head out of the house on Friday nights.

(As an unrelated aside, in my campaign against DST, a report came out a few days ago that DST causes heart attacks in the spring. It lowers the risk in the fall, but not nearly enough to make up for the spring deaths.)

It will be more of a challenge to stick to my "internet fast" with the loss of my bright dividing line. And my Saturday routine will be a little different too, with less "no internet" time. I look forward to seeing how my experiment works out over this dark time of year.

A long fall

We had two nights last week where the temperature dropped below freezing. But it has warmed up, and today's weather was beautiful for working outside. Further, when I opened my garlic package, the planting instructions said it was actually best to plant after a light frost. I don't feel so bad for procrastinating now.

In between my two naps, I helped the partner clear our lawn of leaves (into the ravine at the back of our property) and of a small truckload of brush (to the yard waste facility). In the evening, I dug a garden plot: about four feet by four feet. It rained last week but not recently, and the dirt was the perfect consistency for digging. This spring, my mother in law had accidentally bought some compost, and gave it to me; I worked that into the plot. I planted my garlic. I put mulch (leaves) over the plot like the planting instructions said to.

I'm bothered that I felt so tired that I took two ninety-minute naps today; this three weeks plus is the longest I ever remember feeling under the weather. But I'm happy that I felt just fine doing yardwork, which would not have been the case even last week. And excited that I got the garlic planted, and that the instructions even say November is still a good time to plant. So overall, a very good fall day.

Procrastinating past first frost

Tonight is forecast to be the first frost of the season. This is a few weeks later than average, which should have helped my fall gardening plans work out.

But, I haven't planted any of my bulbs. Not the new garlic that I bought after being encouraged by this summer's harvest. Not the tiger lily bulbs or daffodils that I dug up planning on moving to a new location.

Partly from having my weekends and my last few days of vacation more scheduled up than I expected. Partly from this bug that hit me two weeks ago. Partly because I kinda expected to plant the garlic in September, but the weird weather this year pushed back the harvest and the company didn't mail it until the first part of October.

This coming weekend is looking good, though. Hopefully being planted November first will still work out for my bulbs.

One less... or one more?

A member of our Bible study group is now deceased. We had actually had the study group at the hospital last week so she could participate; she seemed tired, and we knew her prognosis was very poor. But it was still a shock to have her actively participating in the group one day, and the next day pass away.

The partner and I talked about how she was one of just a few people either of us has had a relationship with that died. I don't know if that's fortunate that we have had so little of that pain, or unfortunate that we didn't have meaningful relationships with our relatives that passed away. Perhaps a little of both.