Update Season IX - "CAD, Kenya, CAD, Kenya, CAD, Kenya, CAD"

[Queen Mum Inks.LWC]

I think we should go back to the "God ended the teachers' strike" conversation.  How exactly is it that you know he ended the teachers' strike?

[Queen Mum Inks.LWC]

Walter, my mother gave me $20 to go out to eat last night as her and Dad were going to a dinner and theatrical show with their Sunday School class at church.  She told me to go out and enjoy myself, as well.  Of course, she didn't expect me to be so stupid as to get the monster cake as its called on the menu, but oh well.  That chocolate cake while part of her twenty was my responsibility.  Thankfully, it didn't hurt me as bad as I thought it would.  Normally, chocolate gives me migraine headaches instantly before I finish swallowing the cake.  This time the headache was a slow build up and it got marginally severe briefly, but stayed at a moderate level all evening.  I had to take some medicine before I went to bed for it, but not my migraine pills.  I would have been totally fine, and better off, had I just had the Bacon Cheeseburger and fries that preceded the cake.  Oh well.  You only live once, right?

My brother is a religious man, but not to the extent I am.

You eat chocolate knowing it's going to cause a headache, and then take pills to fix it?  Months ago you were complaining about your headaches like they were the worst thing in the world... that's not really a rational action.  And it's probably destroying your liver.

Major changes are about to come to this house.  We just found out some startling news this morning regarding Dad.  He went to take a physical this morning, and it turns out he has diabetes.  This makes both Mom and Dad diabetic.  So, I can probably expect major changes to come to this house in the short term.  Most of the sweet stuff in the house will probably not return once it is consumed.  Sugar free syrup may become a staple at breakfast.  We'll have to sit down as a family and discuss the changes.  Since Mom and Dad are both diabetic, I had better watch myself closely as it may become inevitable no matter what I do that I become a diabetic since I am, in effect, surrounded by it.  Dad's not near as big as I am, either.  He's about 70.5" tall and weighs in the very low 200's.  He is a lot more physically active than I am as he works out in the shop doing carpentry work and stuff like that whenever the weather will allow him.  On one hand, it is sad that he is now diabetic, but on the other hand the changes about to be made are long overdue.

You've been saying changes to how your family eats have been coming for years...

As far as our reaction to Dad's diagnosis.  We all were laughing when he got home.  You can either get really upset and distraught or you can take it in stride and laugh.  We chose the laughing route.  Dad joked that he is now "joining the medicine club."  Up until now, he has not had to take medicine on a daily basis.  He'll be fine.  We know where we need to cut down and we'll have further meetings as a family, but it doesn't mean we're going to stop enjoying ourselves  in the food department, especially on the weekends.  As a family we have a policy that diets are not allowed to begin on weekends.  Weekends are about having fun with what you're eating and enjoy yourself.  Healthy (or healthier) eating is for Monday-Thursday night.  When Dad has Friday off, Thursday night gets lumped in with the weekend enjoyment.  We will continue to enjoy ourselves.  Clearly there needs to be changes to what we are doing, and those changes will come, but we are not going to throw everything in the cupboard in the trash and start over just because of a diagnosis.  We'll make gradual changes.

Eating "healthy" (I'll believe it when I see it) 57% of the time isn't really what a diabetic needs.  You may be laughing now, but when you're in the hospital after an amputation for a gangrene problem, things won't be so funny.

[Queen Mum Inks.LWC]

As far as the meals Monday through Thursday, we're going to have meatloaf one night, slow cooked roast and potatoes one night, spaghetti, fish filets, and soft tacos.  Wednesday nights are generally another foraging night since Mom and I both have to leave for church at 1800.

That's 5 meals... or are you having two of those on one night?

Oh, and I know I'm next.  I know my time is coming, but I'm not going to stress over it.  I'll do what I need to and continue to live life.

See, this is why I hate the part of Obamacare that made it so that companies have to ensure people with preexisting conditions.  You and your family are the type of people who cause insurance premiums for the rest of America to go up.

Oh, and I know I'm next.  I know my time is coming, but I'm not going to stress over it.  I'll do what I need to and continue to live life.

You say you're not resigned to diabetes, but then what on earth did you mean when you said this?

And increased doctor visits for your family = less money (unless your insurance is REALLY good and you don't have any copays).  How will you and your family afford all of this, plus double amounts of insulin?

I think I'm going to go ahead and wrap it up.  It is Saturday Morning at Midnight in Oklahoma and I need to get some sleep so I can get up at a decent time for breakfast.

Well, forget about going to bed right now.  I forgot my bed time medicine, so since I just took that at 0005, it will be 0050 before I can go to bed.  I don't like to go to bed right after I've taken my medicine.  I like to wait 45 minutes.

What medicine is that?  Again, all of this medicine can't be good for your liver.

[Queen Mum Inks.LWC]

You hate that people with serious illnesses will be able to see a doctor? And most likely will be able to manage these diseases instead of waiting for an acute emergency to go to the ER? What the hell is the matter with you?

No, I hate that people with serious illnesses can see a doctor that the rest of insurance holders subsidize, not because they actually need the medicine, but because they make poor life decisions, and as soon as they're done with their doctor visit, they go right back to making those poor life decisions.  In nature, animals like that don't exactly survive...

[Queen Mum Inks.LWC]

Inks, I've already said I was stupid for eating that chocolate cake. No need in beating a dead horse, though you like to do that quite often.

EVERYBODY is allowed to enjoy their weekend food times. EVERYBODY

5 meals, means one will be the next week.

So, you wish we would shrivel up and die?

Mom and I have Indian care.

The bed time medicine is my fish oil (cholesterol) and my Tourette's medicine.

I'm not beating a dead horse.  You have a habbit of saying, "I already said I know ____X____" was stupid, and I shouldn't have done it, yet 3 weeks later, you usually end up doing that thing again, and again, and again.  There's not much point acknowledging that what you did was stupid if you keep doing it.

You said your meals for Monday through Thursday were those 5... I just got confused.  So one is the Monday after... gotcha.

You can say that "EVERYBODY" is allowed to enjoy their weekend food times, but when you're morbidly obese on the verge of diabetes, enjoying weekend food times is going to end up shaving a lot of weekends off your life.  I never said you should shrivel up and die, and you know that.  The fact that you think there's no middle ground is the reason you're in the medical condition you're in right now.

[Queen Mum Inks.LWC]

I think what Inks means is this is the reason why our healthcare is so expensive - people like Bushie's family living recklessly and not caring when they get sick because they have insurance to cover it. I mean, they have diabetes and they are not sure whether to even consider changing their diet.

Exactly... I have no problem with people with preexisting conditions being insured, but don't take advantage of the system.

Does it sound harsh?  Sure.  But insurance doesn't work if everybody gets the maximum amount out of it... that's how insurance works.

[Queen Mum Inks.LWC]

Anyway, dinner is over.  Unless given specific orders to stop by a doctor, we're still going to enjoy our weekends and eat healthy through the week.

Your doctor probably doesn't know that that's how you live your life (or at least how your dad's doctor will think he lives his life with the new diagnosis... your eating choices are, no offense, fairly obvious).  Ask your doctor if this plan is good or if you should change it, and I'll give you 10:1 odds that he'll veto the Only Eat Healthy 4 Days a Week plan.

[Queen Mum Inks.LWC]

I know I need to cut down on the burgers and the pizza, and we will.

You've been saying that for years.  Promise me this: the next time you go to the dietitian, ask him/her, "Is it OK if I eat healthy for 57% of my meals, and for 43% continue my normal diet?"  I'm willing to bet she'll say, "No."

[Queen Mum Inks.LWC]

Ask your doctor if that's a good idea.

[Queen Mum Inks.LWC]

You hate that people with serious illnesses will be able to see a doctor? And most likely will be able to manage these diseases instead of waiting for an acute emergency to go to the ER? What the hell is the matter with you?

One more thing... it's the same principle as mandating helmets for motorcycle riders.  If motorcyclists don't like that, then they should have to pay higher premiums if they don't wear a helmet.  That's not really enforceable, so the next best option is to mandate them by law.  Mandating healthy eating isn't going to happen, so the only other option is to force unhealthy people to have higher premiums or not be able to be insured.  The last option is to require insurance companies to insure everybody, but this still doesn't fix the problem of unhealthy people continuing to live unhealthily and then drive up costs for everyone else.

[Queen Mum Inks.LWC]

ive met plenty of alcoholics who only drink on the weekends!


guess what happens?

weekends start getting longer and longer.

Yeah, I had a family member who was like that.  He's finally doing better with recovery, but guess what... it was when he stopped drinking altogether.

[Queen Mum Inks.LWC]

Again 'enjoy' comes up - as in if its not loaded with meat, fat and carbs you can't enjoy it.

This the f'd mindset you and your family has - how the hell do you expect to make any changes if you regard those changes as punishment? It's childish "noooo I don't want vegetables ..." ... actually that's being unfair, to children, as I think I and a lot of children had a better relationship with food at 4 than you do at 31.

Its not punishment. I never said that.  I just don't think I should totally get rid of hamburgers, pizza, and the like.  I don't think that's what anybody is saying, but I'm just throwing it out there.  Yes, I am a picky eater, but that's not childish.  Many adults are picky eaters.

Nobody is saying you should "totally get rid of" them.  You frequently engage in making these false dilemmas and then choose the extreme that you prefer.  There's middle ground, man...

[Queen Mum Inks.LWC]

How soon will bushie have diabetes? 2 years? He already said he was getting close. We know their diets won't change so all this talk of it changing is wasting our time.

I plan to continue to lose weight, and in doing so I hope to prolong it as long as I can.

Are you actually still losing weight, or have you plateaued?

[Queen Mum Inks.LWC]

How soon will bushie have diabetes? 2 years? He already said he was getting close. We know their diets won't change so all this talk of it changing is wasting our time.

I plan to continue to lose weight, and in doing so I hope to prolong it as long as I can.

Are you actually still losing weight, or have you plateaued?

I've slowed down on the weight loss, but I am sitting at 259 which is 16 pounds down from where I was in mid May.  That's down about 2 pounds from early July.

But it's true that you've essentially stopped losing weight, correct?  That's what you said a couple days ago.

[Queen Mum Inks.LWC]

Again 'enjoy' comes up - as in if its not loaded with meat, fat and carbs you can't enjoy it.

This the f'd mindset you and your family has - how the hell do you expect to make any changes if you regard those changes as punishment? It's childish "noooo I don't want vegetables ..." ... actually that's being unfair, to children, as I think I and a lot of children had a better relationship with food at 4 than you do at 31.

Its not punishment. I never said that.  I just don't think I should totally get rid of hamburgers, pizza, and the like.  I don't think that's what anybody is saying, but I'm just throwing it out there.  Yes, I am a picky eater, but that's not childish.  Many adults are picky eaters.

Nobody is saying you should "totally get rid of" them.  You frequently engage in making these false dilemmas and then choose the extreme that you prefer.  There's middle ground, man...

I know that's not what everybody is saying, I even said as much.  I just wanted to eliminate variables.

Yes, you said that we didn't say it, but it seems like you treat it that way in your mind.  Why would you even bring up the elimination of a variable that nobody has argued for?

[Queen Mum Inks.LWC]

No one is saying never have a junk food meal. Just don't have it once a week or every day like you do. Try eating salad or something, anything, that's green. Try eating grilled chicken or fish instead. It seems like all your mom knows how to cook is pot roast, enchilada casserole, pizza, burgers, and fish sticks, and that's all you eat when you eat out too.

I eat healthy most of the time, but I still eat pizza sometimes and a burger. Usually once a month. It's about moderation and you haven't shown any ever.

Aside from not liking salad, we have green beans quite often, English peas quite a bit.

A junk meal once a week is absolutely not wrong.  Once a month is not enough.

Get down to truly one junk meal once a week, and we'll cross that bridge when we get there.

[Queen Mum Inks.LWC]

Inks, people like Bushie's family save the rest of us tons of money. They drop dead frequently without taking a penny in Social Security or needing super expensive care for dementia. I guarantee that you will cost the nation far more in upkeep over your lifetime than Bushie will in his.

Your argument here doesn't really mesh with your stance on helmet laws.  You advocated for helmet use because those who don't use helmets and get hurt end up costing the taxpayers by being on the government dime.  Surely the percentage of people in motorcycle crashes without helmets and survive with disabilities is lower than the percentage of people who get diabetes and end up living to be somewhere between 40-70 and cost the government money.

[Queen Mum Inks.LWC]

As far as the pot roast.  It's southern cooking.  It's how we were raised.  We are from the SOUTH.  Nothing wrong with the cuisine of the south.

I will throw in one caveat, though.  Most of my family's food is not fried.

Lol bro, I live in the south. You live in the midwest. Don't lecture me on what is and is not southern.

But yes, it's childish not to like salad or anything healthy. I think of little kids when I read your posts about eating, whining about not being able to enjoy their weekend because you can't have pizza every night and burgers for lunch before.

I like healthy items, but I just don't care for salad.  I really don't see the big deal about salad.  Most people like it with dressing, which to me defeats the purpose of the salad.  If I eat a salad, I prefer it dry, and it has to be sans tomato and sans onion.  Carrots, cucumber, celery, lettuce are fine in the salad.  I know there are other foods to enjoy a weekend with, and we do experiment every now and then, but then again Mom and I are picky eaters, which we don't like, but is the way it is.

As far as the region goes.  Oklahoma is in the south, the midwest, and the southwest all at the same time.

I've gotta agree with Bushie on this one.  I'd call OK the South; if it's not that, it's the Southwest, but I don't think I've ever considered it the Midwest.

[Queen Mum Inks.LWC]

Inks, people like Bushie's family save the rest of us tons of money. They drop dead frequently without taking a penny in Social Security or needing super expensive care for dementia. I guarantee that you will cost the nation far more in upkeep over your lifetime than Bushie will in his.

Your argument here doesn't really mesh with your stance on helmet laws.  You advocated for helmet use because those who don't use helmets and get hurt end up costing the taxpayers by being on the government dime.  Surely the percentage of people in motorcycle crashes without helmets and survive with disabilities is lower than the percentage of people who get diabetes and end up living to be somewhere between 40-70 and cost the government money.

People with traumatic brain injuries are, far and away, the most expensive to care for. Nursing homes can cost $100,000/year, and these folks can live for decades.

But how many people driver motorcycles to begin with?  At that point, how many don't wear helmets?  At that point, how many are in an accident AND survive but have brain injuries?  I don't know the statistics on this, but it just seems like that number would have to be so small compared to the number of people who live costly lives with diabetes.  I guess it'd be interesting to do a comparison, but my mind seems to tell me that diabetics have to cost society more than they end up saving, but I could be wrong.

[Queen Mum Inks.LWC]

Blaming every person with a pre-existing condition for his illness isn't just stupendously ignorant. It's also incredibly callous. I sincerely hope you never experience the indignity of living with a chronic condition and being unable to afford medical care, either because of insurance costs or more direct expenses. Nobody in the United States deserves that kind of indignity.

When the hell did I do this?  At no point did I ever say that every person with a pre-existing condition is to blame for his/her pre-existing condition.  I haven't even said that every diabetic is to blame for his/her diabetes.  What's stupendously ignorant is the fact that you've seemed to infer that from thin air.

Also, I never even said that people with pre-existing conditions should be allowed to be denied health care.  In fact I said the complete opposite ("Exactly... I have no problem with people with preexisting conditions being insured, but don't take advantage of the system.").  I said that it's one of the best options, but then you need to mandate that everyone has insurance.  Yes, requiring people with preexisting conditions to be able to get insured is a good thing, but people like Jeff throw a wrench in the system working.  They are to healthcare what irrational consumers are to economic systems.  The system can't work properly when people act irrationally.

[Queen Mum Inks.LWC]

Inks' America: If you don't eat enough vegetables, then you don't get to have healthcare.

That's not what I said, and you know it.  Don't be a mindless hack.

[Queen Mum Inks.LWC]

I hate the part of Obamacare that made it so that companies have to ensure people with preexisting conditions.

Also, a major lol@ his dislike for the consumer who act irrationally. That's all of them. Every day. People are wildly emotional creatures.

For the most part, consumers act rationally.

[Queen Mum Inks.LWC]

I think what Inks means if he hates people who abuse the system. I am fine with preexisting conditions and I think it is a change we needed, but that doesn't mean it doesn't annoy the crap out of me when someone like Bushie, who has no self control and on the verge of diabetes, eats monster cake and develops migraines only to simply get the medicine afterwards to stop them so he can eat monster cake once again. Or his dad getting diabetes and then laughing about it while "considering" changing their horrendous diet when they will likely simply shoot up insulin till they all die while eating the same things.

I am fine with people who genuinely need healthcare getting it. No one should be blocked from having their cancer treated or whatever else, but Bushie and his family just irk me to no end the way they approach life. It's truly selfish.

Exactly.  Apparently in the mind of Memphis, that means that I think all people with preexisting conditions are to blame for their conditions.

[Queen Mum Inks.LWC]

Yeah, the ridiculous thing about Inks' position is that he wants to punish people for making a choice that they don't have.

What punishment have I advocated?

[Queen Mum Inks.LWC]

I think what Inks means if he hates people who abuse the system. I am fine with preexisting conditions and I think it is a change we needed, but that doesn't mean it doesn't annoy the crap out of me when someone like Bushie, who has no self control and on the verge of diabetes, eats monster cake and develops migraines only to simply get the medicine afterwards to stop them so he can eat monster cake once again. Or his dad getting diabetes and then laughing about it while "considering" changing their horrendous diet when they will likely simply shoot up insulin till they all die while eating the same things.

I am fine with people who genuinely need healthcare getting it. No one should be blocked from having their cancer treated or whatever else, but Bushie and his family just irk me to no end the way they approach life. It's truly selfish.

Getting diabetes and making poor food choices is not selfish. It's foolish. Advocating large tax cuts for yourself while demonizing people on food stamps is selfish. See the distinction?

Oh Memphis, you seem to have this habit of insinuating things like Bushie does that simply are not there.

Where have I advocated large tax cuts for myself? I firmly believe in a progressive system. If you make more, you should pay more. But this isn't about my personal tax beliefs.

Bushie and his family's behavior is selfish. It's all about them because they know they can just take meds until they die and continue eating what they want. It's selfish because they cost others money which they use Indian medicine, etc. It's their right to do it, but it's still selfish all the same.

You're right. This isn't about your personal tax beliefs. I don't know why you assumed I was talking about you. It was merely a counter example.
Being selfish suggests improving your own position at the expense others. I don't see their lifestyle as an improvement over eating better and being more active. I wouldn't want to sit on front of a tv, eating Enchilada Casserole and chocolate cake all day, while trying, if only half-heartedly, to summon the energy to walk for 15 minutes. Would you?
There are countless examples of Bushie acting selfishly throughout the Update. I don't see this as one of them.

He probably assumed you were talking about him because you used the word "yourself" in your post, which would make that an assumption that most other people would probably make as well.