Crusty's Travels

[Crusty]

Last night, Kristyn was passing through the living room and caught a picture of Santa taking a nap:

[Jcolleyoh]

John, sorry for your loss. On another note, if I may say, of all the things that you mention eating, that Vegemite would probably be healthier than any of them! I assume it's the low sodium type with Vit B added though. Btw, Gatorade and Powerade - NOT healthy.

[SonWon]

@Jcolleyoh, what is wrong with Gatorade and Powerade? I don't drink the stuff myself, just curious. I drink tea, no sugar.

[Jcolleyoh]

Originally Posted by SonWon

@Jcolleyoh, what is wrong with Gatorade and Powerade? I don't drink the stuff myself, just curious. I drink tea, no sugar.

I'm glad you asked... and good for you! HFCS - High Fructose Corn Syrup is the predominate ingredient and it is nasty stuff. Largely responsible for most of the obesity and it's related health issues like heart disease and diabetes, your body processes it much differently than glucose and it more easily ends up as fat. Read the ingredient labels on what you buy, even John's bbq sauce he loves is loaded with it - it's everywhere! When I was battling prostate cancer 5 years ago, it was caught early so my Urologist said I could take a few months to decide what to do. I decided to see if I could beat it nutritionally and tried to alkalize my body since cancer thrives in an acidic environment. I didn't get to an alkaline state (very difficult) but I lowered my PH quite a bit. I found the diet I was using - a lot more water, a fruit and veggie smoothie as one of my meals every day, eliminating sugar by substituting stevia and raw honey or agave nectar had me feeling awesome and more energetic than I had since College. I wasn't even trying to lose weight and I lost 15 pounds in less than a month!

Then I met Dr. Paul Baker, a Chiropractor from Cincinnati who came up to look at a Husaberg I was selling. He and his brother had written a book on diet and I saw that it recommended pretty much what I was doing! I highly recommend anyone reading this find a copy. It's 118 pages may be the most important thing you ever read in your lifetime! Titled "What Did I Just Eat?" by DRs. Paul and Peter Baker and Dr. Ryan Berlin. I find it on Betterworldbooks.com all the time for just a few bucks and buy them up to give my friends. I don't get anything out of it except knowing I'm helping inform my friends and family. Ok, sorry for taking up time on your thread John, but this is important. In fact, I'd bet $20 that if you looked up these doctors, they'd be able to cure your headaches! They are in your neck of the woods so what's to lose? I should add that the book is an easy read and super-informative which makes it hard to put down once you start reading it.

[Crusty]

Ocean Shores, NSW




I’m at Kristyn and Matt’s house this morning. With the projected high temp of 42 C (107.6 F) we all packed up and drove down here yesterday. Melia, Kala and I in the Swift and Kristyn, Tylana and Coby in Kristyn’s car. Melia was a little apprehensive about driving the Swift that far as it just came out of storage, but it ran just fine. The tank was about 2/3 full of old gas, so we filled it with 98 (Premium) and the little tuna can just hummed down the highway. It’s about 215 Km (135 miles) according to google and it took us about 3 hours. The Swift has an Outside air temp indicator, and it said it was 41. I had the window open and the air blowing past felt like an oven. I believe the reading was correct.



Australia along the coast is a whole different world. Everything here is green and lush. It doesn’t get as hot during the day and doesn’t get as cold at night. Also, the humidity is up around 50%. There are a lot of very different plants, though some are the same. There are Poincianas and Bronze Bromeliads here, but there are a whole lot of other magnificent flowering trees and plants.



Earlier, Melia, Tylana and I walked up to the local coffee shop. Most of the folks here stay up later and wake up later than the three of us, so we went for a walk to get out morning coffees. I’ve gotten used to the low humidity, so just walking a mile or so each way had me sweating heavily. It isn’t hot, but I sweat much more when it’s humid than when it’s dry. Even when the dry temperature is higher. Nevertheless, I thoroughly enjoyed the walk. The people at the coffee shop were very friendly and the Flat White was excellent. In fact, I had two because the first was so good. I love good coffee.



On the way back, Tylana took us on a different route that was a path along the edge of Protected Land. We got a picture of a Bush Turkey. They’re a protected species, and like many animals here are fairly colorful. They’re mostly dark bodied with a bright yellow and red neck and head. I asked Tylana if they taste good and she said she wouldn’t eat one if she knew what it was. I don’t want to eat one, but Turkey is the meal to have at Thanksgiving, back home. I was just curious if they are edible.



In a while, Tylana is going to lead me to the path that goes to the beach. I’m going to swim in the South Pacific again! That will be fun.



So, here are some pictures. I didn’t take any of them. Melia and Tylana took them with their phones. Once again, I forgot to bring my camera. I think that when I get back home I’ll investigate that new cheap Google phone service. As much as I prefer my flip phone, it sure would be nice to have a phone that works world wide.



First, here's the Bottle Brush Plant:







Next is this tree that was all buds, but with one flower. I bet it'll be incredible when all the buds flower. The one flower isn't visible in the photo, but it was a wonderful shade of magenta:



And finally, here's the Bush Turkey:

[Davo_137]

Up north we call those birds scrub turkeys. We had a male build a mound out of leaves and grass and what ever else he could find right beside a fenced in pond where we kept ducks and geese. The male with the biggest mound gets all the females I guess. It must of taken him a month or two to build this mound and when he was finished this mound was almost as big as a small kitchen table, very impressive it was. But that’s when he started to get nasty, he didn’t like the ducks or geese anywhere near his magnificent mound and attacked them with so much force he was taking out eyes. So unfortunately he had to go.

[SonWon]

Great write up and pictures!

"High Fructose Corn Syrup" I eliminated that as much as possible 20 years ago, also did away with hydrolyzed fats as much as I could. Much of the food stuff in America have both, here in German it is much easier to avoid them. However unfortunately that is starting to change as the high fructose corn syrup is starting to show up in more and more products. And to be honest I think the health benefits are more to a reduction in sugars than the syrup being a problem. I suspect the syrup probably places a higher sugar load on the pancreas than glucose. So in my own search for better health I reduced as much sugar from my diet as reasonable. Now black tea for me.

My apologies to John for stepping in your forum. Back to lurking for me!

[Crusty]

A Brief Status Report


Today, I had two cups of Flat White Coffee for breakfast and I swam in the South Pacific Ocean. I also saw a real (?) Flame Tree. There are more colorful plants here than I could ever describe. The same can be said about the birds. I’m hooked on these Honey Soy Chicken flavored Potato Chips. My pants are fitting very loose. I think I’ve lost about 10 pounds. I’ve been walking a lot. It’s over a half mile to the coffee shop and it’s something like 800 Meters to the beach. I spent a short while in the ocean; the waves were kicking my butt. I spent over an hour in the pool swimming after we got back from the beach. My chest, stomach and back are getting pretty tanned. I tried Vegemite; it’s really salty. It’s a lot cooler here than up at Spring Creek. The time here is an hour later than the time in Queensland. I had my mental and emotional meltdown over Ron’s death the other evening. I hope I don’t have another. Melia and Kala went out to get Indian food for dinner. I hope I like what they bring back. Tomorrow, we head back up to Spring Creek.

[SonWon]

Our friends live on in our hearts. I still have memories of my childhood friend pop up at random moments. I hope to see him again when I go on that last ride. Cherish the memories!

[Crusty]

On Dealing With Death


It’s early morning and I’m sitting here eating cold pizza for breakfast. On one forum, I got a comment, “Glad you’re having a good time, despite losing your friend.” That line got me thinking.

Yes; we’re trying to enjoy life. We’re not really successful, but we’re trying. At first, it was just shock that Ron was gone. Then I started oscillating between periods of grief and memories that made me laugh. I’d be super pissed off for one minute, then I’d chuckle about something else. There’s an overall pall to everything, but it’s not a constant state of sorrow. I’m riding an emotional roller coaster.

I’m fairly certain that the family is also riding that same roller coaster. We all have our moments of laughter and our times of depression or anger. And we’re all dealing with it in different ways.

We have decided to have a Memorial Service for Ron after New Years. Roni Ann is not able to come up from Melbourne until then, though she was hit pretty hard by her father’s death. Melia, Kristyn and I discussed it and we feel that having a celebration of Ron’s life would be the kind of send off he would want, and Roni Ann agrees.

We all have stories about Ron that will either bring tears or laughs to us all. Those of us who drink will have their favorite drinks in hand, while I’ll have a can of Pepsi to toast Ron. I think the Service will bring closure to everybody. I hope it does for me.


Right now, I just want to be alone. I can think of the times we had fun and I can think of the times he pissed me off. I can chuckle about the morning I woke him up in Kenya when he wasn’t expecting me and I can still feel the burn of anger at the way he was acting when I saw him four years ago. Sometimes he could really piss me off, but sometimes we had great times together. He was my friend.

When I get home in late January, I’m going to grab my copy of Dark Side of the Moon and play Time. I played the beginning of that song countless times to wake Ron up. It was a standing joke. I think I’ll never be able to hear that again without thinking about him.

Just as I will always remember my Mom and Dad and my oldest friend Bill, I’ll never forget Ron. I hope Waif (my Pointer) was waiting for him so he could get Ron as drunk as Ron got him that time in Colorado Springs.

Losing friends sucks.