Category Archives: Health

The House Husband

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Due to my recent medical emergency, I have been directed by my doctor to take off two months (FMLA) from work in order to rest, recover and do tests and treatments.  I am also supposed to avoid driving, if possible.  I have just started my second week and while I have gotten a lot better with more sleep and less stress, I still feel compelled to do something, anything! with my day besides watch daytime TV. So I have become a house-husband.

I have always been the tidier of the two of us and I don’t mind doing the dishes, mopping the floors, and cleaning the counters as well as taking on the “traditional” male activities of mowing the lawn and fixing stuff around the house. Yes, I know, Cassie is very lucky to have such a helpful husband! 🙂

So even though so far it’s only been a short time off, I have been able to get into some “deep cleaning” projects that we were planning on hiring a cleaning company to do when it came time to move to Puerto Rico. Things like cleaning behind the stove and the fridge. Washing the curtains. Cleaning out the cabinets. Washing the outside and inside of the windows. Some of these were LONG past due. I have also started to sort through  more of our stuff and look at what should be sold, given away or trashed.


Nastiness Hidden Behind the Wall

Nastiness Gone

Even got new drip pans

I have begun to have a routine where I read a Spanish-language instruction booklet in the morning, take a walk and start on a cleaning project or two. Cassie meets me for lunch at home when she can. If I need something Cassie can drive me there or I can walk or ride my bike to the store that is about 2 miles away.   It has been refreshingly simpler with more time to think and rest and no rush except for tasks that I choose for myself.


My new friend Perico

We are normally DINKs (Dual Income No Kids) and so our first priority is on work and second on our after work goals like our rentals and third on everything else, including housework and health. So this has been a nice shift to reshuffle priorities a little and get healthy, ready for Puerto Rico and back up to speed.


Moving out furniture.  The living room was packed!

It has also been a good experiment for what it will be like when we live in Puerto Rico. We will be in charge of the activities of our day, which is both exciting and intimidating.  Overall, I think it has taught us that we are just naturally “productive” and will feel compelled to do something with some sort of tangible result/improvement for our having been there. While lying on the beach is great, we crave that feeling of accomplishment and achievement. So, no matter what our “titles” or spheres of influence, this break has shown me that we are sure to stay busy.

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Gasland Weld County Colorado

Some of our friends had recently encouraged us to watch the documentary Gasland and so we decided to check it out. It really opened our eyes to how much oil and gas drilling and production really goes on in our community, especially in Weld County which is our county. Of course, we had seen the industry as a part of the background that you don’t really notice, but after watching the movie, we began seeing all the pads and rigs everywhere!


Local Drilling Rig a mile from our house

The most controversial part of this drilling is the hydrofracturing process also known as “fracking” where they shoot millions of gallons of our precious water and various chemicals into the ground as deep as 8000 feet or more until it creates a mini earthquake that releases the natural gas that is trapped below. The toxic water sludge that comes back and is unfit for anything is called “produced water”. The chemicals are then vented from this water mixture and results in major air emissions as well.  

This industry brings in a ton of money to our county and we just sort of assumed that everything about it was well-regulated and watched. However, what we learned from the movie was that this industry is exempted from the Clean Air and Water Acts and could be much less safe than we had ever imagined. This is especially a concern for people in rural areas who have water wells as we saw in 2009 when people in Fort Lupton were actually able to light their drinking water on fire! The movie even highlighted some of the local people.


The sheer number of drill permits in Weld County (the saturated northeast section) is astounding as of June 2012!

Then just this week we heard news that Josh Fox, the creator of Gasland was coming to the University of Northern Colorado to give a presentation about the movie, so we thought it would be really interesting to hear him speak. We learned that Greeley is one of the last oases in Weld County not to be hydrofractured but that was soon about to change as well. UNC and the school district both signed on to allow for directional drilling and fracking under their properties. About 500 people turned out and want to see fracking banned or at least better regulated. Recently Longmont has completely disallowed fracking and other areas are implementing moritoriums. But not in Weld County. Weld County is a free for all and it is concerning to us because we live right near many of the wells and pads.


Director Josh Fox at UNC


With friends and a pretty full crowd!


Josh Fox even played some banjo!

So we decided to go out near our house and see what we could find nearby. Within less than a mile this is what we found:

Houses in the Background are in our Neighborhood

Cassie at a pad site (“produced water sign” click to enlarge)


Venting / Flare


Diagram of Fracking Footprint

So while the movie Gasland definitely had an anti-fracking bent to it, it does make you wonder just how much is being done to make sure it is safe and with the health and wellbeing of the community in mind first and foremost. We would definitely support more regulation and transparency in this industry that is literally in our backyard.

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Cold November Updates

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We took off about a week from blogging! I think that may be the new record! Anyhow, we have been staying busy, but we also caught some sort of weird bug that put us out for a while. Britton and I both had a fever of about 102 for two or three days in a row. Britton had it first and shared it with me (thanks honey 🙂 ) We had headache, body aches and the general fatigue made it so that neither of us wanted to do much more than sleep and watch movies. (On the positive side, I’ve lost another 4 lbs thanks to no appetite!)

We also got hit with another pretty fast snowstorm and cold weather in general that also made us just want to stay inside and do nothing interesting.


Brrr

We do still continue on with some of our goals to clean out the house and prepare to move. We gave our nice big extra HD TV that had been in the basement guest bedroom to Britton’s sister and we are preparing to install a new sink in one of the bathrooms because the enamel coating has worn off and it is starting to leak a little.

We’ve also looked into the details of taking Kitty with us to Puerto Rico and found out that it will cost $125 (one way) to take him with in the airplane cabin. He requires a really small kennel that can go under the seat, so we will will have to find one. A hard shelled kennel must measure no more than 17.5″ long, 12″ wide and 7.5″ high (doesn’t that seem super short?!). For a soft sided carrier it can be 18″ long, 11″ wide and 11″ high. Anyone know of an airline approved one? We also found out there is no vaccination or vet check requirements, which surprised us.

Another medical student is living with us for the month which has been fun. And we are looking forward to the holidays. This cold weather has us thinking a LOT about PR.
That’s about it in terms of updates. Hope to post again soon!

 

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What We’ve Been Up To

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Not a whole lot to talk about right now, but I thought I could at least give a little update. Britton and I continue to work and work, saving up and planning our escape. It’s also fall, so we’ve felt the transition in our bodies. And we wonder if we will get that seasonal mood change in Puerto Rico? Or maybe just ever so slightly? Hmm. Here we definitely have been getting the pull to move less, and eat more which is exactly the opposite of what we love to do in the summer. We did take part in our first 5K that was sponsored by my work. You can read about it here at  The Rad Dish. And speaking of…I continue to write health education tips and recipes for that site which has been a lot of fun.


At the 5K race

Britton has had to work some pretty crazy hours with his on-call schedule and its really burning him out. Some days he’s been putting in 15 hour days and having to wake up at 2am for some upgrade or another. And then Schnoodle wakes him up just as he’s falling asleep at 3am. Brutal schedule. I am enjoying my work and like that I can get out of the office about half the time to do my inspections. My other position coordinating the health disparities grant working with the health promotoras is going well. And we are hiring for our division director and two new health educators as well. So lots of change and movement in my office.


I recently gave a presentation to the Colorado Minority Health Commission

I’m working on another  personal project with a group of women to interview inspiring women. That should be interesting. I’m also hoping to attend a seminar series with Britton that my friend recommended. Britton, Kelly, Todd and I have also signed up for a basic yoga class at the Greeley Fun Plex. It should be worth the laugh if nothing more! 🙂

We are loving our choice to move to a property management company for our rentals. We will still need to move one more as well as our personal house when we move, but so far, it has been great. Worry-free! The first of the month comes around and we don’t fret like we used to.

We are trying to decide if we want to go down to Puerto Rico this November or January. I think Britton at least wants to go down there and fix things up a little. I’m not sure if I want to go or instead save up my energy and anticipation for the big move. The 12 hours worth of red-eye traveling there and 12 hours back just drains me. I’d much rather wait for the one-way ticket. But we’ll see. The sleepless, insomniac traveling doesn’t seem to bother Britton as much as me.

We have a few other things going on with friends and family such as the transformation of the tree stump at my mom’s house that should be pretty cool. Britton and I are also continuing with our weight loss goals through Weigh and Win (check that link to see my then and now -in August- weight loss). We’ve both lost 10 lbs so far and should be receiving our $15 incentive card any day now.

The house is currently empty (besides us) as our last medical student left at the end of August, but we usually get a new student about every other month or so. It’s a nice balance.

All in all everything is still chugging away. Keeping busy, seeing friends and family, starting and finishing new projects at work and home. Now that I’ve written it all down, I guess we have been up to quite a bit! 🙂


And King Kitty and the other animals are doing just fine! 🙂

 

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