I kept searching my brain what to write about and there really is no pressing singular subject on my mind worth waxing and waning about in a blog post, yet I have a hankering to write something, so I’ll just start randomly talking about a variety of things.
Did you know 1/5 Americans deals with heartburn, that 1/10 in their life will get a peptic ulcer, and most usually it’s somebody already dealing with acid reflux, aka GERD? As I do.
That calculates roughly to 50% with heart burn will get this condition. If you do too (odds are 1/5 of you readers do), be warned. A peptic ulcer isn’t just occasional stomach pain, no sir.
It sneaks up on you like a devil in the night and takes you by surprise, sucking the life out of you until it heals, which means an endoscope to confirm it, then antibiotics. In addition to a lot of rest, an ultra strict diet of small bland meals (adhering to this strictly determines speed of recovery), and a regimen of medication and supplements.
The contributing causes are: H. Pylori infection, stress, high amounts of caffeine, nicotine, and anything in your diet that increases stomach acid like fat or spice.
Let’s put it this way, I don’t wish the signs and symptoms on my worst enemy. Prayer request. Please pray for me I recover soon, and tests come back ok, it taking forever to be seen by a GI doc and get the required exam to officially confirm what my doc is already treating me for.
It’s definitely been a trial the last couple months dealing with it, but one of personal growth. Is what it is. All for the glory of God, and in reparation for my sins. Interesting God let this coincide with Lent.
Spring is here. Taking daily walks, I can definitely feel the relatively melancholic winter mood lifting. Visions of swimming outings to Blue Hole Spring near Salinas, OK dance in my head.
But as I’ve talked about in past years’ posts about ole Blue Hole, the key is avoiding the exponentially growing huge crowds that make the experience less than pleasant. I recommend going from 10 am until 1 pm Saturdays, or later Sunday afternoons, both times there being small crowds. The owner, Wanda, who must now be in her 80’s, runs the place and can be seen most days sitting on the front porch of the main building visiting with families.
When my ulcer has subsided to trace levels if not totally healed up, God willing, I’ve promised myself the reward of our first Blue Hole outing.
Let’s talk about Oklahoma. I am at heart an Okie, but I diverge from the Okie mainstream in so far as I don’t have an evangelical personality. I’m more formal and serious than your average Okie, with my Catholic upbringing and influence of a German mother. It’s odd, because I think and talk like an Okie, often in a casual, folksy sort of way, in some environments I can be full throttle country red neck; yet many times fellow Okies have told me I don’t sound like I’m from Oklahoma but more like from the Midwest.
But as strange as Oklahomans have at times appeared to me over my life, with their Protestant, often loosie-goosie, wearing PJs into Walmart attitude, I am 100% glad to live here. And not in a liberal state, or on the East or West coast. Or in Afghanistan. Scratching the roughneck surface of Oklahoma, you get the charm and wholesomeness of the Heartland. If you’re living in a blue state looking to move, check out Oklahoma. It doesn’t get much more conservative Christian anywhere else in the US, relative to the other states that is.
I’m still scanning the daily headlines about the impending World War III situation, economic crisis, and Trump battle. It is as if we are in the eye of the tornado. Praying nightly for peace but also to be prepared for a great chastisement from heaven.
That’s all for now.