Start of Summer

I’ve haven’t blogged in forever. Here’s what’s been going on.

The Wings Didn’t Win the Stanley Cup

Life will be meaningless for the next fourteen weeks until football starts. Of course, Brett Favre will probably be a Viking by then. I want to see the motherfucker ripped apart by our new-fangled defense. Of course, if Sidney Crosby died in a freak motorcycle accident over the summer, I wouldn’t lose any sleep.

The trend has always been that when my teams suck, my life improves. When my teams dominate, my life falls apart. The great news is that I’m going to have an awesome year. As if on cue…

I’ve Just Had A Serious Boost in My Health

There are several anecdotal accounts that suggest MS patients may, for reasons passing understanding, suffer from a serious vitamin B-12 deficiency. I’ve tried supplementing with B-12 before, but I wound up getting the sort of flu-like achiness I associate with the activation of my immune system. As MS is basically caused by a seriously overactive immune system that eviscerates the nervous system for kicks, a more active immune system is something I want no part of it. Besides, Avonex already gives me flu-like symptoms once a week. I don’t want more.

About a month ago, Craig started taking 5-Hour Energy Shots in the morning. While it does contain some caffeine, a good part of the jolt comes from 500 mcg of vitamin B-12. I tried them out for a few days, and enjoyed the extra kick they provided, but eventually the flu-like systems started to kick in. But of course, like most commercial vitamin B-12, the drink contains 40 mg of vitamin B-6. I remembered that I had once read that vitamin B-6 supported the immune system. So I wondered what would happen if I found some B-12 that was just B-12.

I went to Sam’s Club and bought the lozenges pictured above. 2500 mcg of B-12, worth a whopping 41,667 percent of your recommended daily allowance. What happened was after two weeks, I experienced an upsurge in energy. Indeed, I decided last Wednesday to go to the gym. Then I went on Thursday, Friday and today. I did a very light free weights workout that covered every muscle set at pathetic weights. I have learned the hard way that if I don’t take it hyper easy on the first day back, I’ll be miserably sore for days. All the other days, I burned 400 calories on an ellipsis machine. No way I could have worked out that many days in a row before. I feel fuckin’ amazing. Craig and I went to Sam’s Club today. I chopped all the week’s vegetables (eight snack packs—each contains 10 oz celery, 10 oz carrots and an apple) and the peppers, cucumbers and onions for the week’s salads and prepped the ribs and the salmon (lots of slicing, spicing, wrapping in foil and freezing) for the week ('tis the season to start grilling). I couldn't have done all that work in one session two weeks ago. The shopping and the salad prep would have finished me off. I was a little tired afterward today, but not very tired. Hell, I’m blogging tonight.

I’m so pumped that I’ve been able to workout. I’m beginning to feel like a queer ought to feel. Who knows? Give me a while longer if this keeps working and I may work that all-important 3:33-4:10 pm slot back into my homosexual agenda. Gotta admit I’m aiming for more playtime for Craig and me first, though…

Craig and I Are Going to Tel Aviv

Mom and Dad offered, and I accepted. I am very deeply grateful. We’ll be there for the whole month of September. I will spend most of this time in the Arab Press Archive at the Moshe Dayan Center at Tel Aviv University, photographing newspapers from Jordan and Lebanon.