What a dissapointment

 The nose job worked and now I am camping as much as I can.   With this new attitude and I have some plans to get my ranch ready for the winter.  The first thing on the list is to mow my weeds down and plant some winter rye grass.  I had horses two years ago and we had an interesting summer that year where we had a severe drought and my grass was taken to nothing.  The the past summer I was a little relaxed on the maintenance and weeds took over the back pasture area.  So I rented out something called a "billy goat" which is basically a large mower that is on two wheels and pivots like a pendulum thingie.  The front slides on bars and if the front hits something the whole thing just tips back.  This is not meant to do a pretty job of mowing but to chop down unwanted weeds.

The above picture is of us out shooting guns on Sunday evening and behind the everyone you can see my tall weeds in the background in the back pasture.  The Billy Goat was going to be such an awesome thing to help me get ready for the winter and be ready for the coming spring but after just four short passes the Billy Goat decided to stop cutting and I was dead in the water.  Now this did get me down since I planned to mow, and mow, and mow all weekend while the boys bow hunted for dear (they saw some just didn't shoot any).  Being a diabetic that I am and used to huge let downs in  life I got over this issue and worked on other projects around the land and had a good time.  The lesson here is even though life will almost always let you down with diabetes you need to look at the small victories we have everyday.  We shot guns, the boys worked on a deer blind thingie in a tree (more like a tree house), and I had a good weekend at the land being the diabetic camper that I am.  I also contacted the rental place as soon as I knew the Billy Goat was not going to work and let them know.  They were happy I contacted them and were willing to work it out with me.  Now they are getting a newer Billy Goat from another store by next weekend so I can try this all over again.

Should you do, or should you not do- do?

Sorry I have been absent the past two days, things always come up when I try to blog.  Last weekend I participated in an orienteering event and the picture above is of me at point 32.  You ask why am I taking a picture of myself at point 32?  It is because someone stole the puncher so to prove we made it to the point I took a picture of me there.  Anything for points.  The day was going good and we had a goal of making it to the furthest point on the map and also the most valuable point of all, point 75 which was worth 30 points.  On our way from 75 to 72 I get a phone call on my phone letting me know we had a youth at the health lodge that took a spill and had gashed his leg about four inches long.

Now I am one to always assume the best and brush off the worst.  The medical people were telling me the youth was OK but they thought that I might want to take him to town for a paid medical professional to look at it and see if it needed stitches.  I asked the medical person if they thought he needed stitches because I was a solid hour from him and a rush back for nothing was going to put my diabetes into a bad mood.  The medical professional kind of him-hawed around and I finally asked him if this was his youth would you take him to get a professional to look at it.  His response was "oh yeah I would for sure take my child in if they had this kind of cut."  Well that was all I needed to hear because I am a diabetic, an accountant, scout leader, but I am not a doctor so when he said he would take him in that was exactly what I was going to do. 

The medic sent a car for me and another leader and we took the youth into town where he received 10 solid stitches.  The physicians assistant let us know that it was a good thing we brought the youth in because this was a really nasty cut and they still had lots of gravel to clean out of the wound.  In the end this entire thing was no big deal to me and the youth was bandaged and we drove them to a meeting point for their parents to take them home.  There is no reason to stay in the woods when you have a freshly sewn up wound.  I am not sure if being diabetic so long that I pretty much knew what the medical professionals were going to do and needed to do but I guess having a disease can prepare you for other medical events.

One thing that this event brought to my mind is that my old scout leader always kept a suture kit on campouts just in case something happens like this even further in the back country.  What a coincidence this was because he was actually at this event with me and once I arrived back to camp I hung out with him and I told him the story.  Once I finished telling him all that happened he went to his tent and pulled out his old suture kit that even to this day he still keeps on campouts.  We looked it over and made sure it was still all there.

In the side pockets I pulled out several scalpels that were in sealed bags to keep them sanitary and then came across this polyester fiber suture thingie.  This thing must be 25 years old but just seeing how prepared my old scout leader is to this day made me think about going out and getting a suture kit for myself.

A diabetic running gel, is this possible?

 Friday I was shopping at my local Walmart (yes I am white trash and I enjoy Walmart) and was picking up a few items for the weekend that I was out of.  The list consisted of camping snacks such as granola bars, gummy worms, and Quick Sticks.  Saturday was one of my busiest days every because I am not smart and over booked myself.  The day was to start with an 8:00am run with my www.insulindependence group, then at 9:00am a  yoga-dog obedience-cross training class , then a run home to change clothes pack up for camping and head out to do an orienteering event from 1:00pm till 4:30pm.  When I shop for diabetes crap at the store I always look around and see if there is any new product on the market I am not aware of, this usually takes a solid one minute because nothing changes in the world of diabetes, but this time I saw these fast acting glucose gel's next to the Quick Sticks.

 I picked up a box and this did not look like some sort of faux-diabetes wanna be product like the "sugar-free" candy in the diabetes section that has 41g of "sugar alcohol" in them.  This looked to be a real deal running gel for diabetics so I grabbed a box along with my Quick Sticks and headed home.

Once I got home and was planning my run details which usually include three honey stingers and a couple of Quick Sticks, I replaced the stingers with these "level life" things, willing to risk my life for diabetes experiments with myself for myself.   On the run at like mile two-ish I had one of these gels and let me tell all you runners this, these things are freakin good.  I mean not just another hammer gel, GU, or honey stinger where they are all thick and weird and stuff but this thing was the consistency of a think watery fluid and the flavor was way freakin good.  The runners out there reading this know what I mean when you get "gel burnout" and just the thought of certain flavors and brand almost make you throw up from just thinking about them, for me it is GU vanilla flavor.  I have had about a gazillion of those things back when they used to be the only game in town for gels and now I cringe when I see them at the store.  These things list dextro something another as its main ingredient and I have not heard of these things but looks like a little research is in order to find out why I am just now trying these diabetes running gels.  If you have not tried them I would 100% give them a try.  They are not as carb filled as your typical gel but the flavor and consistency is worth the price of having to Carry twice the gels.

Good Customer Service

 So three days into owning my new CDM (continuous Dave monitor) the zipper broke on the holster thing, and the clip started to act funny.  No worries, I just called up old Dexcom where they were completely OK with shipping me what they had in stock.  I was worried when I started my CDM (continuous Dave monitor) because the accessories for the unit were slim to none, and slim just left town.

 I guess last weeks announcement of the new and improved Dexcom thing is the reason there are no accessories.  I asked the person on the other end of the phone how long they would be servicing the unit I had and she let me know for a few years but not for long.  Back to my holster case issue, the one they sent me was a neoprene "sport" model which meant that I guess you can sport it up with this case instead of the other case.  After using on a run a couple of times now I must say the non-sport model was much more sport prone than the neoprene sport model.  The top picture you can see the clip, which I love crap on my belt, maybe I want to be diabatman or something but if I have to have it on me I want it on my belt and I now wear a running money belt type thing that I found is use full to clip the CDM (continuous Dave monitor) to and this new unit has a clip and also a loop that keeps it from falling off.  Now the new cover is more snug and looks alot less 80's but the old leather case I am finding out is probably the better of the two but not by much.

 Here is the old unit which had a smaller window to see the CDM (continuous Dave monitor) through and you can see even in this picture how the zipper looks a bit off.

 The back of the leather case had this cool two part system that I could clip the CDM (continuous Dave monitor) to then the flap part would fold over the belt the other way and snap shut so to not allow the CDM (continuous Dave monitor) to fall off.  There is one huge thing I am going to have to fix on the new "sport" model that was also an issue with the leather one but not as bad and that is the stupid freakin zipper on it.  The zipper on the thing rattles around as you walk and sounds kind of like a muffled bells on a cats collar.  The first time I had the "sport" model on I thought our air conditioner was broke and walked around the house for half an hour trying to figure out what this metal clinging noise was till I discovered it was my CDM (continuous Dave monitor).  I am thinking of cutting off the metal pull and just replacing it with a string.

 At work we have this Halloween tradition of "booing" someone.  This is where you go to someones cube and decorate it for Halloween and leave them some gifts.  Thursday I was "booed" and I got this lovely argyle sock/skull and cross bone bag on my desk.

I opened the bag and it was full of all sorts of candy and treats.  Now don't get me wrong I have been chowing down on these things and enjoying every last fun size but, this is why I call Halloween the start of the diabetes depression season.  It starts with Halloween candy on the first of October and ends the weekend after the first of January.  The middle is filled with Thanksgiving glutton eating, then your Christmas eating out all the time and getting pies and cookies, then on New Years eve you finish it off with parties of random finger foods you couldn't possibly figure out the carb count if you had a degree in finger food carb counting and wild egg nog and frothy sweet drinks.  Then people tell me I am a "Grinch" during the holidays, which I am not.  The fact is having had several good years in this season and alot of bad years I have to be self aware, focused on the A1C prize in January, and dedicated to keeping ten fingers and ten toes by my 50th birthday or more.  More birthday's with 10 fingers and 10 toes, not more fingers and toes on my 50th birthday, like some sort of nuclear waste accident or something.  So happy holidays diabetics and may each and everyone of you have an A1C below eleven-teen or something come January.

Has Eddie Bower changed?

 The other day our mail person delivered the new Eddie Bower winter catalog and I have always considered Eddie Bower as a kind of north of Mason Dixon meets Connecticut kind of magazine that appeals to your 40 plus crowd and has some "adventuresome" clothes with the handy gadgets for all of us that need another gadget.  Then I noticed my son had not only read through the magazine once he was going through it for a second time and not just quickly thumbing through the pages but actually reading about the products and then he says to me: "Is Eddie Bower a good company, because they have some cool stuff in this catalog" and I had to look through it for myself to see what 40 plus year old people were wearing that would have a high school kid thinking "neat."

 The minute I open the magazine the feeling of "Columbia" brand came to my mind with new fancy words about techno-clothes and ways to make a ducks feather keep you warmer with NASA technology.  Like the "Accelerant Jacket" that is like goretex, down, and something else that will keep you safe on top of a mountain during a hail storm.  I was expecting the usual pictures of dudes raking leaves with his kids in a 100 dollar flannel or a mom and kids throwing snow balls at each other in ski pants and barn jackets but none of this was in the magazine so far.

 Deeper I go and come across "synthesis" and how the new Eddie Bower jackets work better to do more for you.  Then I started to notice the prices on these things and let me tell you if you are gearing up to go camping with all Eddies clothes you had better be bringing in some solid change because Eddie used to just be proud of his stuff and now he thinks you should consider him one of the prime providers of arctic wear.

 I like how they did the picture above, which is what a normal person does.  They buy one brand of jacket but get a certain brand of rope, boots, and snow skis.  This kind of helps you match your Eddie gear with other brands.  I still wonder when we moved from raking leaves and throwing snow balls at kids to traversing a mountain with your skis on your back?  Did I miss a few catalogs or something?  Where are the flannel lined denim jeans and fancy water bottles?

 Look here they got an award from my favorite magazine (yes that was a joke) Backpacker for their new rain jacket that is light, filled with down, and does something 2.0.  This now looks more like a winter Dallas jacket that I could wear (if money was no option).  With all the new diabetes gear we carry, zippers and pockets are my new obsession and having them in the right place at the right size matters.  have you seen the snow jackets that have a sun glasses pocket under your arm, I have one of these jackets and let me tell you the only thing that goes in the sun glasses pocket is my glucagon injection because anything else would be destroyed.

Now we are getting some cool things I that I truly have to agree with my son that are cool.  Those gloves are definitely on my gotta get list.  Then I saw the boots and those were on my must try on list then I noticed the pants and I just bought last spring a similar style and cut pair of nylon pants that look just like those and they are great outdoors jeans and fit like you were made to camp forever in them with all my diabetes pockets in the right places.

Don't ask me how I put the same picture on here twice but I did and I am a moron and don't know how to remove it so enjoy this one more time.  Why is the WD-40 can in the picture, like anyone that is buying this stuff needs to know about WD-40.  We do get our first glimpse of flannel and a snow shovel so there is a tie in to the old magazines.

This is the bold claim of the year: Gear of the year, I don't think so.  Not saying this is not good stuff or is not worthy of gear of the year award but give us some time to adjust to your new ways Eddie before telling us you now have moved your tents and backpacks from the camping isle of Target to above and beyond everyone else.  Maybe two or three years and we will give you this award but let it sink in first.  The tent also has me as not being gear of the year because any tent that is dogie door enter and leave is not engineered right.  The new best in tents always have a side door so you can roll out of the tent instead of crawling on your hands and knees like a dog (get it that is why I call them dogie door tents with a head or foot entrance).

The back of the magazine finally is pure Eddie that we all know and love, flannel, flannel, and more flannel.  I just wonder where are the blue jeans and barn jackets?  Eddie does make the best flannel on the planet.

Back to those boots I saw earlier and I read how they have all sorts of this and that in them but most important is they are a three season boot which is what we know and love in the great state of Texas.  A four season boot would cause you to get blisters in the summer from all the insulation.  The bad thing though is they have my kryptonite of a soul the Vibram soles.  I am working on getting over my issues I have with them from 14 years ago but it is hard and these boots look sweet, don't they have diabetes written all over them.

In the end Eddie is not the same Eddie I used to know just a short time ago with a wife and kids, a house and pets, but is now younger and more adventuresome.  I don't know if the new Eddie will be touching my skin any time soon but I do have some items on my want list, do he does have my attention.

Hoarding Part 2

 OK, so yesterday was part one of hoarding and the theme was "insulin pumps from days gone by" and today we get to the bottom of the madness.  The biggest problem for me is changing out my finger pricker thingie.  I hate to do it, and yes I know that using dirty finger prickers can cause loss of fingers, toes, arms, eyes, and maybe internal organs but I hate changing my pricker.  We all get scripts for prickers and I of course love my doctor because she writes my script for testing 10 times a day, but the consequence is whenever I refill my pricker order I get 900 prickers and I hate to admit this but that would last me about a lifetime or two.  So you get what we have here which is 700 prickers that expired probably five years ago.

 Then there are the betes bags you get with your meter.  I used to use the bag that came with the meter but now the first I do when I get a new meter is chunk the bag.  These bags are crappy, odd sized, and cheap.  Why is it to Carry something to help us live better lives they wrap it in the worst possible container?  Now I am a smarter betic from my years of learned-ing so I use my set bags and look for third party vendors whenever I need to update one.

 What do they call these disks, something like a 3.5 floppy?  I have been holding onto this disk for like 15 years now and for the life of me can't remember what it had on it.  Now it is gone and I feel better about not having it.

 These silhouette infusion sets were the greatest thing when they started updating infusion sets a good 15 years ago.  Remember the little dangle part on the old infusion sets where the disconnect was about 4 inches from your site.  The looks I used to get at the pool, and not for my looks because who has a 4 inch tube sticking out of their stomach?  Oh yeah the diabetic does, silhouettes were and probably still one of my favorite updates that came to the diabetes world of pumps.

 More freakin lancets, and BD lancets at that.  You know how many times I have ever used a BD lancet in the past 10 years?  Lets put the number at less than 10 and I had alot more of these boxes that hit the trash.

 This to me is the part of diabetes that we all know and hate, the used test strip laying around.  I think they have some sort of electrical polarity that makes them stick to floors, drawers, boxes, and anything besides a trash can.  The good old comfort curve is probably another great diabetes invention that I loved.  That little curve on the strip and being able to add more blood while it was reading changed my life about testing my BG's.  I almost wanted to keep this nasty thing to remind me of how freakin big test strips used to be and how awesome the comfort curve was.  I need to do a list of diabetes advancements that I personally feel have made my life better, and another list of diabetes updates that are or were just dumb.

 More prickers and yes this was another 5 unopened boxes of 100 pricks.  The softclix was a pretty good pricker, I liked how it was more defined where it would stick you so you could like slowly do a circle around your favorite spot on your finger and make it last longer before you got the over-used pains.  See, another advancement in diabetes care that changed my life an accurate pricker that allowed you to abuse smaller parts of your fingers for longer.

Here is a small snapshot of what I kept and yes the boxes behind the onetouch ultra strips are 7 boxes of Accu-check mulitclix prickers.  Now this is the best pricker invention of all because it is like 7 prickers in one pricker so now I actually rotate the drum every month or so to get a new pricker and maybe now my spleen will not explode because I use dirty prickers.  There are 800 Accu-check complete strips back there as well.  The complete was the Swiss army knife for diabetes and still is to this day.  It had your meter, test strips, and pricker all in one unit that you could read in daylight or at night.  The only issues with the meter were drums getting stuck, cold or hot weather made the thing not work, the sheer size of it and a few other misc. items but I keep these strips around and a good five or six complete meters as a backup.  Oh yeah they also use regular batteries so you don't have to buy those overpriced hearing aid batteries.  This adventure into cleaning out my diabetes hoard was alot of fun and really an eye opening experience into myself and what features I have enjoyed or changed my life in the short 25 years since I became a sugar diabetic.  Who knows what the next clean out will look like.

Diabetes Hording part 1

 This weekend was horrible for me and diabetes.  I had all sorts of plans come and go, then I came down with a nasty cold that put the old blood sugars on a fun roller coaster.  If I wasn't 300 I was 40 and there was nothing in between.  So when I had a few moments of energy I decided to try and clean out my closet.  Now just think about this, my closet is almost the size of a bedroom.  Our house is a three bedroom but it is supposed to be a four bedroom and when you choose the three bedroom option they give you 90% of the fourth bedroom as a walk in closet.   So I keep all my random diabetes crap in this room and after Sunday I realized how much diabetes hording I do.  From the picture above is of a Minimed 507c pump, yeah I said Minimed not Medtronic, I received this pump before the buy out and have been holding onto the box ever since.

 Just to show you how old this pump box is, they gave me a VHS cassette instruction manual.  When was the last time any of us had a VHS cassette?  OK, I know we are all holding onto our old home movies but an instruction video on VHS.

 Then the PC connection cable looked like something you plug into your printer port onto the back of your PC.  I never even took it out of the package.  I must say though the best pump I have had so far was my MiniMed 507c.  That sucker was indestructible and never stopped working.

 The next pump box of forever and a day ago was my Animas IR1200 box.  Now I was wearing this pump up to about a month ago but still this is hording if you keep the box six years after it is out of warranty.  What good is the box if the pump is out of warranty?

At least the IR1200 came with a CD-ROM disk as an instruction manual.  Now I do have an Omnipod pump with the box that I plan to see if someone needs it, like they broke their PDM or something.  The PDM costs like 500 bucks and if someone can use mine then that makes the little diabetes Dave inside me feel better.  Now just for me to find someone who can use it.  Then I have the box from my latest pump, the Animas Ping.  The Ping is kind of cool since they have not changed anything on the pump in a solid 10 years from my old IR1200.  Just a different screen and a meter that communicates with the pump.  Tomorrow I will show you the other side of my diabetes hording.  Let me know if you have an issue with old diabetes crap you hoard.

What do you do when small things break?

The Fix: How to Reattach A Pack Strap

Repair a busted backpack with this simple sewing technique

by: The Backpacker Editors

Tags:
• Gear
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• Backpacks
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• Skills
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Pop! The shoulder strap on your backpack just divorced itself from the packbag--and it wasn't an amicable split. You have three choices: 1) Slog back to the car cradling that 40-pound load; 2) sit and wait for a Sherpa to amble past; or 3) bust out the sewing kit. Assuming you'll choose the latter, here's how to proceed.

©Illustration by Supercorn Backstitch: Reinforce each stitch by doubling back over it.

[step 1]
Empty the packbag and turn it inside out (remove any stays or the framesheet if necessary). Using scissors or the tip of your knife, carefully cut away the protective seam tape to reveal the strap opening.
[step 2]
Poke the strap back through the opening where it was originally anchored. It should lay flat, sandwiched between the two layers of the pack's side seam.
[step 3]
Using your strongest needle and thread, sew three parallel lines of short, tight backstitching across the sandwiched strap. If you're carrying SeamGrip, apply a layer for added strength.
[step 4]
Check your warranty when you get home; most manufacturers will do a permanent repair for free.


OK, so I told you last week or so how backpacker magazine is not worth the ten bucks but, what is worth its weight in the inter-web gold is the daily backpacker email.  If they mad the magazine half as good as the daily email it would be the best magazine on the planet (or at least good).  Yesterday as I was perusing through the daily email I came across this article I posted above (is it copyright issues if it was in my email?) about how to re-attach a shoulder strap on a backpack when it breaks while on the trail.  This totally reminds me of when my brother and I were in New Mexico doing a week long backpacking trip and his waist belt clip lost one of its side thingies.  You know what I am talking about how you push in each side and the other side slips on and the two things hold it all together.  Well that one little piece on each side has to be there for the thing to work and his broke off halfway through the trip.  These plastic belt clips cost about three bucks or so but there are no walmarts on the trail so my brother had to improvise and what he did was tie one strap to the other the step into the circle, pull his pack up and I would hold it while he tied the other side in sort of a truckers knot.  I know what you are all saying is: why didn't he use a square knot, well webbing does not tie well using the square knot system so you have to do something like a truckers knot or a fisherman's to get the webbing not to slip.  After that trip I went out and bought a replacement buckle for my pack and ever since then have carried a sewing kit with me on trip.  Now I have lost the replacement buckle but I now use my dads full metal buckle from 1983 that he took from his job at the FAA.  I think it is some sort of jet buckle so if it can hold a man in a chair breaking the sound barrier it will hold my pack on.  This article was real neat how it talks about how a strap works and what to cut away and how to sew it back together.  They even discuss about how you should look into getting the manufacturer to repair it for you.  In life knowing stupid stuff like this will help you be able to logically think your way out of a situation and critical thinking is what put America here in the first place.

What does wind do to diabetes?

This weekend we were out camping at beautiful lake Texoma (yes, you guessed right it is on the Oklahoma and Texas border) where we had a campsite right on the water.  This would have been the perfect spot one weekend ago but instead that northern cold front had made its way to us and we had a solid 20mph wind on us the entire weekend.  Wind is something your diabetes educator, endo, or anyone besides myself will not discuss because lets face it how often are you just hanging outside in the wind but for athletes and campers.  We need to consult our diabetes almanac when it comes to breezy days.  The temperature for the weekend was also lower than normal, something like a solid 60 degrees average temp and add that to the wind I personally get low BG's constantly.  I was low so often my CDM (continuous Dave monitor) for several three hour periods would not go above 90, even as I was drowning myself in every sort of glucose pill, gummy worm, or sandwich there was little to combat the environment.  So this reminded me about how much energy our bodies use to keep ourselves normal in windy days.  Look at what it is trying to do with the heat loss, the moisture evaporation, and trying not to get sick.  Your body is in overtime burning sugars on its own much less me with my pump putting more insulin on top.  In the end we had a great weekend and I had a good reminder course on odd weather that makes your diabetes just that much more fun.

The bionic-diabetic in the woods

 This is my first weekend camping with my new Animas pingy pump and also a CDM (continuous Dave monitor).  I have had every issue on the planet with electronics and the wilderness but this is a new realm for me.  So far in like three weeks I love this CDM thingy and love to show everyone at work my roller coaster, flat-line, or rolling hills of my blood sugars.

 Now the CDM is absolutely quality so far and the glue they put on the sensor is out of this world, I think it is better than duct tape.  My first sensor lasted 15 days without even really trying to get it to last that long.  The one downside to this Dexcom system is their holster/clip thing.  I am a batman type of diabetic where I put all sorts of crap on my belt and now the CDM  goes there as well, just that the case Dexcom gives you is cheaper than dirt and in the three or so weeks the clip is already starting to look bad and wiggle.  I am worried that one day CDM will just fall off into nowhere and I will be left with nothing monitoring the inside of me like CDM does.

The zipper broke on day 5 and I have had several zippers brake on me in the past so I got it to work but it is nothing to feel safe about while being in the woods.  You can see in the photo above how the teeth just don't want to be together.  I am going to call Dexcom next week and see what I can do to get another clip (under warranty of course) but this makes me feel like camping is now at a new level of expensive diabetes crap to break.  I will let you know how it goes, wish CDM the best of luck!

The Doctor is in!

So next Wednesday our work has some people coming out to give us the flu shot.  A friend of mine came by my desk today to let me know that a flyer had not been distributed and wanted to give me a copy of it.  I looked it over real quick and said to him that it had been distributed early in the week in an email.  He then told me to take another look at the updates to this flyer from the past flyer.

Not sure if you can tell but the doctor in the top flyer is my head pasted onto the flyer and the bottom picture is the real doctor.  Once I noticed this it cracked me up and had to put the flyer on my cube wall.  Sometimes people do the funniest things, and don't I look good as a fake doctor?

 



Survive!

 This months "Backpacker" magazine is all about surviving, OK except for the over the top amazing trips that would cost you and me a years salary to do but mostly it is about surviving.  Now being a diabetic that we all are, our lives are permanently in survival mode.  Look, we carry extra batteries, supplies, food, and all sorts of weird crap just to drive to the store much less take a short trip anywhere.  I must tell you that for me getting a 10 dollar subscription to "Backpacker" magazine was about 10 dollars thrown down the drain.  I just freakin want their annual gear issue and pretty much the rest is junk.  Face it if you live in the middle of America below the mason-Dixon line you are not going to be able to drive to much of any of the places they feature in this magazine.  Since I am the diabetic camper though I thought to spend 10 dollars wisely so I could let the rest of you know to not get this subscription.

 OK so less ranting and more good, the magazine is doing a good job by focusing on more "every day" issues that are covered in this issue.  My son was reading it the other day and found out you can use a feminine napkin to purify water.  How many of you knew that (OK, or would even try it in the first place)?  Hopefully this is a sign that the magazine needs to look more into the every day lifestyle of a backpacker and less of a "hey lets take a month and backpack Nepal" or something.  I want to see these pros in more every man's clothes and not wearing 120 dollar under wear or 500 dollar boots with 200 dollar virgin wool socks that were made for that exact trail they are hiking.  This issue did a great job on talking about what to do if you are out and trip on a rock and are not able to walk back to camp or when animals attack.  Now I do need to go back and read how my diabetes socks are going to save my life, that article sounds delish!

 I like the setup in the picture above, like any common sense human is going to fall of a cliff like that but it gets your attention and the article goes into neat ways to survive gravity issues.  That reminds me of the joke about something like someone is vertically challenged or something?

Here is the quote of a lifetime, "Gravity wants you dead" and how true that is.  Just look at how it ruins our bodies from birth with all the falling we do as children to things in the sky trying to come down on us.  I think if I had to put one piece of known but un-thought knowledge into this world is this quote.  The more you obey gravity the better in life you will be, and also keeping your diabetes sugars between the lines.