Feeling Great, Overcoming Hangups, Getting Things Done

I stopped taking all thyroid medicine, and now just use a little bit of hydrocortisone now and then. I think I've always run low on it, and a little bit helps with aches and pains I'm now incurring since I feel 45 again--back when I had the energy I should have had in my 20s.

I've been working on my garage, which needed so much work I asked a handyman what it would cost to replace it. (Too much--like what they wanted to re-side it). I decided to fix it myself. Work was slow-going at first since I didn't have any energy in the morning and afternoons were too hot to work. But last week I turned a corner. A boarded-up window was rotted and I thought that as long as I had to do repairs, I might as well put in a window. Browsing online, I fell in love with a small, inexpensive vinyl double-hung and had to have it.

You never know what will inspire you.

Most window installation videos show nice, neat jobs that don't require retrofitting, or unusual situations. I have a very old garage with a non-standard size window opening in a neighborhood that sees a lot of garage break-ins. I don't have the tools or skills to do special millwork. After much research, I decided to convert my window from an "innie" (set into the building) to an "outie" (flush with the exterior).

Rotten innie. The black part at the bottom left is a hole.

Innies tend to rot where there's a lot of moisture. Not only is Indiana moist, but the wall faces the prevailing wind. "Outie" it was--which meant everything that wasn't framing (and even the rotted framing) had to go. New framing and trim meant a lot of sawing--so much that I overcame my long-time fear of circular saws and bought one.

I watched more videos, read the manual, did some practice cuts and still made some mistakes (nothing that resulted in injury)--but I should have bought one of these years ago. I even discovered a little tool that came with it that helps you quickly line up a guide board to make straight cuts.

After I knocked and pried out the rotted parts of the window, there were nails I couldn't pull--but I needed them out of the way. The wire cutters didn't work, the jigsaw didn't work: this was a job for a sawzall. Could I handle one? I had to try. Everything was torn out and there was no going back.

The reciprocating saw I bought that morning didn't cut through the nails like butter, but it did cut them and it was oddly empowering. I liked the saw so well that on my next trip to the hardware store, I bought a pruning blade for it to cut off maple limbs that are always growing over the sidewalk.

I replaced one rotted piece of framing and repaired another with wood petrifier and epoxy (the white stuff at the bottom right). I built a frame, put it in the opening, and flashed it (the flashing is the silver tape that keeps out moisture). In went the window.

New frame and old repaired frame.

That was a day's work.

Today, I made the trim, installed it and caulked everything. It still needs spray-in foam, more rot fixed, and then more caulking. And painted. Obviously, I'm no carpenter, but the window is better than what I started with.

Even a month ago, I didn't have the physical or mental fortitude to do this. I have to give a lot of credit to Dr. William Davis--I really think his program helped me a lot. This isn't meant to be a plug for him, but I'm very happy I belong to his Inner Circle program. This project wasn't a slog, like other repairs have been--I was pumped up to do it. That's a big difference from the past few years!

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An Objective Book about Other Childhood Vaccines

Today's decision by the CDC to add COVID shots to the schedule of childhood vaccines has some people concerned about the rest of the vaccines on the schedule. Contrary to fact-checker claims, adding COVID shots to the schedule means children will be required in about a dozen states to get a COVID shot to attend public school. Indiana isn't one of them--our childhood vaccination law doesn't mention the CDC and such a requirement could run afoul of our ban on COVID vaccine passports. But even freewheeling Indiana has some vaccine requirements and this kerfuffle has people wondering how safe those vaccines are. There's a book called Vaccines: Truth, Lies and Controversy by Peter C. Gotzsche, DrMedSci and co-founder of the Cochrane Collaboration, about the safety and efficacy of all those vaccines, including COVID and others. Cochrane was founded to "to organise medical research findings to facilitate evidence-based choices about health interventions involving healt

Diabetes Down, COVID Curiosities, New Glasses after Accident

Diabetes Down Despite Dietitians' Directions Last Sunday when I wrote about the grifters over at EatThis.com, which calls itself "Eat This, Not That," I was worked up enough to tweet to their medical expert board members if they stood by the site's article flogging sugary drinks and fast food for St. Patrick's Day. The site has over 1,300 articles, mostly puff pieces, on McDonald's and a news feed full of "the most important breaking news" on Doritos, burger joints and Chips Ahoy! I asked a dietitian who responded to me what exactly the "not that" part was in "Eat This, Not That." Important news about what you should eat! I was worked up until I remembered the saying, "You can't cheat an honest man." Meaning that this con, like a lot of others, requires some dishonesty on the part of the mark. Every Joe Six-Pack knows that cookies, chips and coffee-flavored milkshakes from Starbucks aren't health food. It takes s

Battered Cod and my Eclipse Pictures of my Colander

If you miss battered cod on a low-carb, grain-free diet, here's a recipe that'll satisfy your craving. It's based on a Dr. Davis recipe. Battered cod and cole slaw Ingredients 1 pound cod fillets 2 eggs 2 tablespoons butter, melted 1/2 cup ground golden flaxseeds 1/2 cup grated cheddar cheese 1/2 teaspoon onion powder 1/2 teaspoon salt 1/4 teaspoon ground black pepper 1 teaspoon garlic powder Instructions Preheat the oven to 375°F. Line a rimmed baking sheet with parchment paper. Slice the cod into 1-1/2 to 2 inch pieces. In a small bowl, whisk the eggs and butter. Beat continuously--don't let the butter cook the eggs. In a shallow bowl, combine the flaxseeds, cheese, onion powder, garlic powder, salt, and pepper. Coat each piece of cod in the egg mixture and then roll in the in the flaxseed mixture. Place on the baking pan. Bake for 20 minutes, turning once. Eclipse Crescent Shadows Today was the total solar eclipse, and my house was in the "path of totality."

Eclipse Glasses, Probiotics for Heart, Muscle Recovery

Are your eclipse glasses fake? The total solar eclipse over North America is almost here, and Indianapolis is in the "path of totality," meaning the moon will completely block the sun here. A lot of people have gotten special glasses to safely look at the eclipse. But the American Astronomical Society says , "counterfeit and fake eclipse glasses are polluting the marketplace." Some of the counterfeit glasses appear to be safe, the society says, but others are fakes that are no more effective than sunglasses. One of the counterfeits they describe matches the glasses someone gave me. I don't know where she got them, and she's not someone I'd trust to perform adequate due diligence. I just got over an eye injury and I don't need another one--I'll try the pinhole method instead to see crescents during the eclipse if it's not too cloudy. Picture from Pexels . Heart Centered Probiotic I started getting scary heart palpitations several years ago

Blog Lineup Change

Bye-bye, Fathead. I've enjoyed the blog, but can't endorse the high-fat, high-carb Perfect Health Diet that somehow makes so much sense to some otherwise bright people. An astrophysicist makes some rookie mistakes on a LC diet, misdiagnoses them, makes up "glucose deficiency," and creates a diet that's been shown in intervention studies to increase small LDL, which can lead to heart disease. A computer programmer believes in the diet and doesn't seem eager to refute it because, perhaps, scientists are freakin' liars and while he's good at spotting logical inconsistencies, lacks some intermediate knowledge of human biology. To Tom's credit, he says it's not the right diet for everyone, but given the truckload of food that has to be prepared and eaten, impracticality of following it while traveling (or even not traveling), and unsuitability for FODMAPs sufferers, diabetics and anyone prone to heart disease (i.e., much of the population), I'm

Pain, Pain, Go Away!

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