Backpacking food from your pantry

 My friend Paul sent me some pictures from one of our recent backpacking trips and he had the above picture of our food for the weekend.  I really liked this picture because lots of people (including me at times) think that backpacking food has to be something you buy from REI, RichMoor, or Mountain House.  Those are nice and easy ways to have fast freeze dried food but, take a look in your pantry or ask a friend that is handy in the kitchen  to get creative and you can have your meals from what you already have in the house.

Notice the Ramon noodles, we made the noodles without the "sauce" and my friend Gary brought us some home made pesto to mix in it with a tuna packet as well.  Lunch was a bagel, sliced meet (peperoni and salami) that was stable at room temp, and room temp safe cheese.  We also took oranges and trail mix as snacks for the hike and our Sunday breakfast was plain oatmeal, three mini-moos, two honey packets, and dried fruit.

I think even when doing what is known as "trunk camping" which is where you are walking distance from your car to not go over board with the food.  Sometimes chicken and rice is good or a vegetable stir fry.  With diabetes it can be hard when the meal planner buys only BBQ, smoked pork butts, or breakfast burritos all the time.  I really have to count the carbs twice and deduct a little of insulin just to be safe for these weekends.  Now, I am not saying I don't enjoy that stuff, it is just good sometimes to have a lighter meal.

So everyone knows first that I am a fool, and yes I love to pose for any picture.  Well Paul pulled out his camera and I did what I do and then you wind up with the goofy picture above.  That is my patented Diabetic Camper pointing with authority pose.  I like to think of it as I am showing where to go by propping my leg on a stump, putting my hand on my hip, arching my back, puffing my chest out, and pointing the way with a wise stern look on my face.  Then it usually turns out like this where I realize I dress like a weirdo and do stupid things but, hey with diabetes can't we get away with doing dumb stuff?  Maybe I was a little low, who knows?

Can you dangle your diabetes off the side of a cliff?

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I have been rappelling and boulder hopping since I was eleven.  Back in my day a bowline knot and a couple of trees was all you needed to rappel.  So when my son kept getting more and more interested in rock climbing and rappelling I decided he should first know how to do it safely and I also needed to update my knowledge on modern knots and gear.

Last Saturday was our first of three training classes on getting our "climbing and rappelling instructor certification."  My son is getting his "climbing and rappelling instructor in training" certification since he is under the age of 21.  He does the same classes just he has to be with an official "instructor" to rock climb and rappel in certain places. 

The first photo above you see is me in the middle looking over the edge of the tower.  I set the knots for our rappel down with a top belay.  Then the two photos below that are of me going down on a double fireman's rappel.  The really neat thing about this class is how hands on it all is and how the instructors teach the modern knots and allow the participants to design how the gear and everything should be.  The teachers do check everything before we dangle each other off the side of the wall.  The first thing the lead instructor asked in the class was "Are there any people here that have any medical issues the class needs to be aware of."  That was music to my ears to hear how the lead instructor wanted to know of any issues before we got going.  I of course mentioned I was diabetic and the instructor asked me where my backup candy was and I pulled out my glucose tablets from my pocket and showed him.  He then told the class to watch where I put them.  Then I always make sure someone has my glucagon pen on them.  My buddy Paul was gracious enough to carry it for me.  Sometimes don't you wish everything started that way?  Getting all the FYI stuff out in the open for everyone to know and participate in.  I am very open about my diabetes but it sometimes is hard to stop people and make them aware so for the head of a class to stop everything and get it out was great.

To be honest I was nervous to be grumpy old school person but with all the positive instructors and great students it turned out to be a real fun day and I did learn alot of good new things.  The first thing was to see what is known as an "ATC" which literally means Air Traffic Controller as a belay and rappel device.  When I was growing up we had the choice of a "figure 8" or a "rescue 8" which just meant the rescue 8 was larger and had dog ears on it so you could tie off.  In my college days we used to always have to use a rescue 8 to repell down to cut the hair of one of the ladies that came with us.  We always told them to put their hair into a pony tail but it never failed that someone would not listen or wear a baggy shirt and have to get it cut out.

Back to friends and support.  Everyone was so nice to me about asking me if I felt OK once the heat picked up in the evening and Paul brought my favorite sour gummy worms to snack on whenever we had a break.  If you never get outside with diabetes you don't understand how much energy you burn by just moving aroundtrying to scale the side of a wall or dangling your diabetes over the edge.  My numbers were around 150 most of the morning and when the sun came out they came down to 100 and a 58 thrown in there when I pushed it hard up one of the walls (OK so I did not go far but I tried hard).  Now we have two more classes left, one on Texas limestone climbing and another on lead climbing.  Should be lots of fun!  I am now thinking of getting my own rope and gear so we can ride off into the sunset and dangle over a cliff.

My son learned alot and payed attention.  When it came to clean up time he was chosen to lead the rope, gear, and tower cleanup and inspection.  He showed true leadership and had everyone do a specific job and we finished in no time.

What is your stress test?

 Last week we had a pretty bad rain/wind storm in town.  I know it was pretty bad when my wife woke me up and asked if I could hear something dripping in our attic.  I lied in bad and listened to the rain outside and also the drops of rain inside my attic.

 My wife quickly called her parents and they suggested she poke holes in the ceiling to let the water drain, instead of pooling in the attic and having a large amount of drywall fall later down the road.  Of course my wife decided to poke these holes above my side of our bed.  With her second stab into the ceiling water started to come down onto my side of the bed.  That is when my wife told me to call the insurance company to see how to get our roof repaired.

 Once I woke up and put a bucket under the dripping hole above my side of the bed and got to work I made the call.  Now I don't know about you but for me certain things are just stress for my diabetes.  This whole roof leak was a huge stress situation.  I was stressing out about the cost, how to find a quality roofer, and what if we get more rain before the repairs are done.  Would I have to hug a bucket while sleeping at night?

 The insurance adjuster came out on Friday to assess the damage and that was the cherry on the top for my diabetes stress.  I kept thinking, what if he gets on the roof and says I am crazy and we just have like a few hundred dollars of work but our insurance will now go up for him having to climb my roof for no reason.  The other situation was like he says the house is non-livable until the roof is fixed and we have to live in a van down by the river or something.  My BG numbers were all over the place, I couldn't sleep, and why do I know nothing about roof repair.  These sound like nothing to the likes of most of you but for me this was my stress button being turned to 11.

The agent took these pictures and was real nice.  He of course broke his camera and had to borrow my phone (umm we all know what happened to my camera) to snap some pictures.  In about three hours he came to the door and let me know the roof was needing a complete replacement and that he was also putting in some hail repair to the vents, drywall replacement, and paint in our bedroom.  He then talked to me about how the process works going forward and that I should have just called a roofer and had them put a tarp on it until he could come out and assess the situation. 

This just goes to show that no matter how big or how little things are they constantly put pressure on the diabetes.  I was relieved and still stressed once he told me the damage (now I have to find a roofer) report.  Then after he hands me his card with his email address to send the pictures he heads off into the sunlight.  I then take my phone and look at the pictures and see all the writing on my roof.  Some of this does look like he was taking notes on my roof or something.  maybe he was going to do that google earth and see if he can read his notes online later or something.