2026-06-28 12:00:00
Friday evening we were on the patio at our local brewery when my wife overheard a young person expounding to his two friends about how people wear CGMs to manage their sugar allergies. My wife wears a CGM because she has Type 1 diabetes.
Sugar allergies are not a thing. That would be like an oxygen or water allergy.
My wife was not drinking, which is probably the only thing that saved this kid from an unpleasant encounter with my wife.
Then this morning in the checkout line at Publix, the guy behind her in line, most likely in his 40s, asked her if she was allergic to sugar. When she explained to him she has Type 1 diabetes, he said, "Well, didn't you get that from eating too much sugar?" The store pharmacist, who knows her well, happened to be right there, and he stepped in to try to educate this ignoramus.
So that is two "sugar allergy" encounters in one weekend. I suspected social media, and Claude did confirm that there are a number of wellness influencers, most notably Brittney Bouchard, wearing CGMs and claiming they prove extreme sensitivity to glucose or sugar.
Please don't get your health info from TikTok, unless the influencer also happens to be a medical professional. And even then, be careful. There is a 50% chance the doctor on TikTok finished in the bottom half of their class in medical school.
2026-06-27 20:56:00
Just capturing this thought from an online friend.
You are not going to fix anything, until we find some other core principles to build on. Like cooperation and collaboration rather than competition. Like community rather than individualism. We are all in this together, and none of us is getting out of here alive; but some billionaires are going to get to live in a bunker on an island, or maybe on Mars, when the whole rotten edifice collapses under the weight of its falsehoods and misapprehensions.
2026-06-23 12:00:00
Trip: 58
Nights: 191-193
Last weekend was the annual Aliner Ascape rally, which has settled at Laurel Hill State Park near Somerset, PA. We missed last year when my career blew up 3 weeks before the camp out, so it was great to get back this year to see old friends and a make new ones.
The park is kind of in the middle of nowhere. We had to drive 40 minutes to find a brewery. The town of Somerset is about 20 minutes, and that is really the closet store or gas station. However, it is very worth the effort. It is an old CCC camp with a really nice lake, trails, streams stocked with trout, and picturesque mountain views. Also, there is a stand of hemlock that got missed when we clear cut SW PA (and the rest of the country) in the 1800s. So the trees are 250-300 years old. They were there when PA reported to the King.
We arrived on Thursday and quickly settled into catching up with friends. The campsites are levelish with power. Thursday night was a group campfire with about 25 friends. On Friday we went out birding in the AM and made the trek to the "local" brewery on Saturday afternoon. The weather was perfect all weekend, sunny and breezy with highs around 70F (20ish C) and lows in the 50s (13ish C). I may have logged some hammock time on Friday and Saturday afternoon. On Saturday we again went birding in the AM and in the afternoon I went to visit that stand of old hemlock.
The stand is only about 6 acres, and it's an easy 15 minute hike to get there. When I arrived I had the place to myself. I was standing and enjoying the magnificent trees when I realized I was alone. No people anywhere. There was a flat rock perfectly situated to meditate under one of the larger trees. The rock looked natural and not placed there. I accepted the invitation and took at a seat on the rock. I suck at meditation, so I mostly failed at clearing my mind. But I did greatly enjoy about 15 minutes of nothing but the wind rustling the leaves, the nearby stream, and one very chatty blue-headed vireo before anybody else showed up. However it was there that an idea popped into my head. (I know, like I said, I suck at meditating.) I've thought about an extended multi-week camping and working from the road trip for the last few summers, but for various reasons the timing was never right to do it. A lot can change in 12 months, but looking forward from now, we can do that trip next year. So I'm thinking of making this annual camp out the first stop on a 3 week camping tour of the NE US. I can work in some mooch docking with family, and my first camping in Vermont and NH before visiting more family in Boston before heading home.So it was at least a productive idea.
After communing with the large trees it was time for the group potluck dinner where I ate too much and also accepted the offer of moonshine. It would have been rude to refuse, right? By Saturday night we were peopled out so we retired to the camper early to play cards but actually ended up calling it a night early too.
Sunday was go home day.
2026-06-18 12:00:00
Teddy Ballgame, aka Ted, aka Teddy, aka Theodore J. Dog, crossed the rainbow bridge yesterday.
We found Teddy at Petsmart where the Orange County Humane Society was running an adoption event in 2017. One of our senior dogs had recently passed on and the other was really struggling without her partner. So we adopted Teddy. The shelter told us he was six. Our Vet at the time guessed 3.
Ted drew the short straw in the genetic lottery. He was likely the product of a puppy mill dachshund and a puppy mill Jack Russell. He struggled with bad skin allergies, more food and environment allergies than I can count, and he developed thyroid disease, pancreatitis, and Cushing’s disease while a member of our pack. Last week he started vomiting every day, and when we saw the vet last week, she determined he had added kidney disease to his collection of ailments. She also told us there was nothing more to do for him but take him home and spoil him for a few days while we decided. He was deteriorating every day, and getting him to eat was becoming a challenge, so we knew it was time.
The Vet administered a sedative a few minutes before the final shot. I picked him up after the sedetive injective, and he was snoring in my arms 3 minutes later. When the Vet came back in she said he looked so comfortable we were just going to do it right there. So she administered the injection with him sleeping in my arms, and then he just wasn’t breathing. His last memory will be of me picking him up to hold him as he drifted off.
I can only hope my time is that peaceful.
2026-06-14 12:00:00
I was supposed to get up and go birding this morning, but it was going to be 87F (28C) and very humid by the time we finished, so I'm here blogging from the comfort of my air-conditioned home instead. We planned on heading into Richmond for Sailfest today, but that same weather issue is making it increasingly likely that I'll spend the day on the couch. As I get older, the list of things I'm willing to suffer miserable weather for is getting shorter and shorter.
If you are wondering why I live in a hot and humid southern city with this attitude, welcome to the club.
This week is the one-year anniversary of me creating an LLC and going all-in on self-employment. I was going to congratulate myself on making it a year when over half of business startups fail in the first year, but it turns out that statistic is a myth. About 80% of businesses survive the first year, so I'm not that special. But overall, the business is going well. Health insurance continues to be a PITA, and presently I really don't know what we are doing next year. I've got a couple of options that I'm looking into and many more that I've written off as not helpful. Something has to give, though, as the current system in the US is failing in every possible way.
In other news, all the native plants I put in the ground this spring have doubled in size. I've noticed birds poking around the backyard bed, so I assume they are finding caterpillars on the plants. My backyard bed is all late summer and fall flowering, so I'm looking forward to all that color in the backyard in a couple of months.
I've had the new Red Clay Strays album (Grateful) on repeat play all week. This has to be a serious contender for record of the year. Their range from country to blues to Americana to southern rock is wonderful, and the songwriting is top-notch. I strongly recommend that you check it out if your musical tastes stray anywhere near the roots/Americana genre.
Robert Jon and the Wreck also have a new record, and we have tickets for their local show in July. Robert John is what you would get if Greg Allman had grown up in Southern California listening to the Eagles. It's a wonderful mashup of classic southern rock and California vibes a la late 70s Eagles.
Jesse Welles also has a new album, and we have tickets for his local show in July. If you are not familiar with Jesse, think Woody Guthrie with amplification. Jesse has a lot to say about the state of the world, and it's the kind of stuff that gets people disappeared living under totalitarian regimes.
For those of you in the Northern Hemisphere, try to stay cool. And stay warm for those of you on the other side of the planet?
2026-06-09 12:00:00
Trip: 57
Nights: 189-190
It was 92F (32C) in RVA. It was 75C (23C) and breezy two hours away in Shenandoah National Park. We chose wisely.
It was a very chill weekend. We arrived around 430 PM on Friday, and after setting up camp, we did some birding in the campground. Dinner was our traditional arrival night meal - sandwiches from WaWa. We had no cell service at the campsite (rejoice!). Friday night was consumed by card/board games and an early bedtime.
On Saturday morning we drove about 30 miles North to the Big Meadows area of the park and logged 30 bird species, including Cerulean and Blackburnian Warblers that I can only see at home when they are passing through during migration. After a picnic lunch at Big Meadows, we headed back to camp, where I spent the entire afternoon in a camp chair with a book and a couple of beers. A perfect afternoon. On Saturday night we hung out around the campfire before heading into the camper for board games.
Sunday was go-home day. Weekend trips never last long enough.
