My apologies to anyone who has placed book or data file orders during the past two months. I know some of you don't appreciate excuses, and I really don't have any. Even with all that has been going on, I should have been able to maintain the sending out of orders on time. But I haven't. For that, I apologize.
Two major personal things have been occupying a lot of my time.
First, I was diagnosed with Type II diabetes two months ago. For those of you in a high risk category as I was (family history, overweight, too many late night snacks), I encourage you to check your blood sugar levels regularly. You can buy an inexpensive kit at any drugstore. I may do a blog on all the things I've learned about diabetes since being diagnosed. While diabetes can be controlled, it's not something you want to have. Trust me on this. Out of control blood sugar affects every system of the body — and, in at least two instances, knocked me out of working order for half a day each when I ended up with too low blood sugar.
Second, my wife and I have been seeking and (we hope) finding a new home because we are being smoked out of our current house by neighbors on both sides who insist on burning wood fires. Now, they insist that they are being environmentally conscious by using a renewable resource, but they are not.
If everyone in our neighborhood burned wood, the air outside would be nauseous. That's why most cities ban wood stoves. Wood burning, for those of you who are naive, is incredibly toxic, certainly more toxic than second-hand cigarette smoke. Amazingly, the people who designed wood stoves and chimneys created a wonderful ecological nightmare: They designed the systems to take the smoke away from the offender and deposit it next door. A neat trick. We've tried to seal up our house to keep the smoke out of our house, but it seeps in everywhere. With my wife's chemical sensitivity, she can't sleep at night because of the smoke and often has to leave our home to get fresh air out in the country.
We'd move out to the country, but the farmers in this neck of the woods spray all sorts of chemicals on their fields — all of which migrate to people living next door.
Some day, I hope, people will actually learn how their actions affect others. Right now, everyone is in denial. The farmers insist that using chemicals is the only way to make a living (they are being sold a bill of goods by the seed manufacturers and chemical companies). My neighbors insist on burning wood. Etc. Eyes closed. Denial full bore. And yet both of my neighbors are ardent Democrats and environmentalists. They know how the smoke affects us. We've tried to work with them. No sale. They want to burn. By the way, wood smoke contributes heavily to air pollution, atmospheric warming, and deforestation.
So, we're moving to a new home, but that's taking up a lot of my time. Doing due diligence, inspections, etc. Plus, now packing, etc.
Sorry for the rant, but I really don't understand people who know they are hurting their neighbors but will not do anything to change. It makes me sad. Our new neighbors don't burn, and don't plan to burn anytime soon.
