A (not so) Hot Early Arizona Summer

I have gone on at length in past blogs on the deleterious effect of heat on the multipli-scleritic backpacker, particularly me. It is enervating and downright exhausting. It is the reason why, over the last five years or so, I have fled my home ground each Summer and have sought solace in the cool glades and hills of the Pacific Northwest.

This is not to say Oregon cannot be hot. Growing up in Portland, we could expect a week or so of blistering temps in August and many long, cloudless days as we sat smelling the National Forests burn down. Portland is very provincial and the populace, in my experience, staunchly denies Summer Heat. Winter Rain? Oh, yes... However, over the last ten years or so I have seen more and longer-lasting snow cover on Mount Hood, visible from Council Crest, near my family home. From Healy Heights, near the television tower, Mts Hood, Adams, the remaining half of St Helens and a whisper of Ranier, far to the North, can be seen and all were heavily covered with snow in August of 2011.

This is predicted in Robert Felix's website dealing with a next Ice Age. According to Felix and fellow Believers, the recent warming trend is transitory and is met by cyclic drops in temperature, each lasting 27 years. We are supposedly in a cooling phase lasting from 2000 to 2030. I guess we'll see but It is true that the last few winters have been cold and snowy in Oregon. I love it.

So, are we supposed to expect major perturbations in the climate? Runaway heat or killing cold? How do I know? Enjoy the entertainment as 12/21/12 approaches with the end of the Mayan Long Calendar but Keep Your Day Job.

From an MS standpoint, some cooling over the next thirty years would be appreciated. What about CO2 levels increasing due to industry? This is politically-motivated nonsense. There is no major Polluter like a good volcano and we may expect a few of those in the short term. Volcanoes, earthquakes and concomitant tsunamis, meterorites: these are Acts of God and there ain't much we can do about them at this point, though maybe in the future, who knows? So, I am enjoying the cooler late Spring/ early Summer we are seeing here in the Southwest this year and observing the unfolding of Climate without getting my feathers ruffled.

As a final note, there was still snow falling in the Cascade Range in late April and my weather apps show freezing precipitation in the Rockies up to last week. Oregon should be fun this year.

'Slothful' is a rather aggressive way to call yourself when 'lazy' might be more honest. Maybe, though, it is better in the short term to overemphasize a problem so as to highlight it and force the attention it deserves.

MS is a condition which demands vigilance of its' Affecteds. The great problem I have always had is the risk of Accumulated Weight.

I was able to get an accurate measure on my electric scale this morning. 245 lb. Wow. Now, before the weigh-in this morning, I had finished off about four cups of coffee I'd percolated last eve. Four cups equals 32 ounces (liquid) equals 1 Quart equals 2 pounds of weight. Equals a 'real' weight of 243 lb. One pound higher than my heaviest weight in medical school. MS will only improve with lower weight and the resolution of Type II diabetes, which I have also developed...

A previous blog discussed the Paleolithic Diet, a topic I'd be wise to review myself. Free-range meat, fish, fruit, vegetables, water, nuts, and no complex carbohydrates. Impossible for me but necessary. The only good thing the Nazis ever did was to force the Dutch and Norwegians to give up their oh-so-good fattened meat, butter and dairy and subsist for a few years on road-kill, fish and root crops, with a few home-grown fruits and nuts thrown in. Forced Paleolysis! Of course, it all reversed after the Americans saved them...

Even now, after three bananas, two apples and a bowl of Romaine and baby tomatoes I realize I've also enjoyed Mozzarella and Gouda cheese and have looked wistfully at selected seeded breads. Even the fish fillets I have waiting patiently in the freezer are breaded. I finished a package of Mothers Chocolate Creme cookies last evening. Good God. And I cannot walk anymore I have been ambulating and going through my PT routines fairly well. I can see a little more leg definition which is all to the good. I am doing an hundred standing pushups at the kitchen island, which has helped to redefine my chest and trapezei.Only a few days of careful attention will equal a five pound weight loss. Do as I say, not as I do...

I will be leaving for the Northwest in a few months. My leaving-date will be 8/10, a week after my 58th birthday. I look forward to it and hope to enjoy another Summer with late snow. I will be talking with my brother about an overnight somewhere, even a brief walk, if I'm up to it.

I have been trying in recent days to find the formula by which to get a better Hubscore for my writing. I'm not trying to win accolades, just a reader or two...

I would like to take some fresh photos of the desert Spring/Summer, which is worth it, especially if I can get some of the unearthly blue desert sky into the shots. I tried recent shots of a conjunction of a crescent moon with Venus or the recent 'supermoon' but alas my gear did not give me usable results, though my mind enjoys reviewing the evenings spent

It turns out the score seems to increase with photos and tag lines. My photos are appropriate and I will check that the tags are serviceable...