Thanksgiving

Here is America we celebrate Thanksgiving, a time of giving thanks. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thanksgiving_(United_States)

Over the years I have been invited to a couple of neighbors homes for great Thanksgiving dinners. Also a local farm where I help a bit is scheduling a dinner too. I may have to do a bit of driving around that day to celebrate with everyone. When I grew up my holiday was the same as many others; family enjoying a get-together. Here in Hawaii many of us have family too far away to visit, so neighbors become family. The only difference is that we probably don’t fight with them as much as we would with actual family 🙂

Now some updates.

The past week I spent days investigating an issue with a WordPress site I manage for a local non-profit. We added a couple Admins to be able to perform some specific functions and they were never able to get logged in. I searched the Internet many, many times and read hundreds of postings of issues, never really finding anything that helped. I created a completely new site from scratch and started configuring all the addons we have on the regular site. I also picked apart the account capabilities and file permissions.

Finally I loaded an addon which displayed some hidden fields for the users and sure enough, one permission was missing from the people having problems. I set that bit and everything worked. Because there had been some other changes to the site (some users had created accounts), I decided not to go back to the original installation but rather to use the regenerated one I created as it is working.

My Yellow Female Labrador was diagnosed with a bladder tumor and is on meds. I decided not to have a biopsy performed as according to the Vet it is not in the dogs best interest. That is the same with chemo drugs. They are expensive and don’t extend the dogs life much. She is on a NSAID called Piroxicam (a non-steroidal pain med similar to Ibuprofin) which is actually seen to  extend the life of the dog with cancer.

Without going into details, my younger Sister had a health scare but the prognosis is a lot better than we expected.

As for me? Well I have had two main operations a number of years ago, the biggest being a quadruple heart bypass. I am on statins, aspirin and blood pressure Medicine. I also have changed my diet, although not quite as much as I probably should have. I eat less fatty foods. If I make bacon I put it on one of those microwave trays which let the fat drain off. I eat more salad and vegetables. Currently I am eating lost of carrots and cucumbers, which I have plenty of (I shop at Costco!). I also buy frozen fruit which I like containing strawberries, pineapple and mango. Because of a higher than normal blood sugar level I eat sweet potatoes (which are allowed) and have switched to imitation sugars.

I have tried a number of sugar substitutes over the years. I didn’t like saccharine, aspartame can give me a headache, I am not much for honey and it can effect blood sugar levels anyway. I tried Wholesome Organic Zero Sugar but it did not taste sweet to me. I’ll use it up but I still have 2 pounds of it left (it was on sale at… Costco!). I tried Truvia in powdered form and Stevia in liquid form but found it had a fairly pronounced aftertaste, almost like licorice.

The substitute I love is called ‘Stevia In The Raw’ and seems to be sweet enough for me without that aftertaste. If you are wanting a sugar substitute, try different ones at restaurants (because they are free on the table). Alternatively buy a small supply to try at the store. When you find one you like you can order or buy a larger supply. That Truvia I bought was also at Costco and I finally gave away hundreds of packets.

I continue to play with my InstantPot. It is a steamer and cooker. I bought some inserts to make other things. Now I can make hard-boiled eggs that are easy to peel, I make my world-famous (someone from Canada tried them) ribs in the pot. I also have made one-pot spaghetti with meat sauce, which turned out pretty good.

I got my mower fixed after having to re-order drive belts and have the rows between the coffee pretty clear. The weds and grass were taller than the coffee trees. Now I just need to find people to weed whack.

Last Tuesday I was heading out for a meeting and someone I used to work with many decades ago recognized me. Seems I have not changed much I guess.