i left here on thursday afternoon to get some things for the week - wood filler, glue & oil at the canadian tire, paprika at the bulk barn, juice (and, it turns out, tomatoes) at the food basics....and, then some roast beef at the far store, some guava at the walmart (because the two closer stores are no longer stocking it) and some blueberries at the freshco.
and, after all that running around and waiting in line, it was about 19:00 when i got home - and took my first c + roast beef. so, it took four hours to do what amounted to two shopping runs?
well, first i had to wait in line for about a half hour at the canadian tire, which was partly my own fault. you have to check your school bag, which is utterly paranoid and horribly frustrating when everybody is stuck in line for an extra twenty minutes. but, the line was otherwise not that bad at the canadian tire, in the early afternoon.
and, the bulk barn across the street was a fast transaction - as was the food basics. i was actually making good time...
...but, then i went for a second run to the superstore and found myself in the midst of a grocery run. unfortunately, the government of ontario has announced yet another month-long lockdown, and it's funny how these lockdowns coincide with muslim religious holidays, isn't it?
if the goal is to stop the spread of the virus, we've already proven repeatedly that these lockdowns don't work. so, if you want my honest take on it? this is the ramadan lockdown of 2021. and, unless we understand and react very quickly, we may need to get used to regular lockdowns during muslim holidays, as they take over the government and dictate terms around the economy.
listen - i can't prove anything. but, these coincidences keep building. and, these mask laws seem like they're going to outlive the pandemic, on top of it.
and, that's my hunch about what's actually happening - some powerful muslim financiers have decided that we can't have people out drinking during ramadan. so, they've shut everything down until it's done.
i was expecting something like this, and have resigned myself to it. if we remain passive and compliant, there's no end point. and, i'm not going to go out and get myself shot for no reason. all i can do is be subversive and hope it rubs off.
we have to understand what they're actually doing before we can generate a worthwhile response.
they didn't have my guava there, so i was actually going to bike out to the other superstore, but i stopped at walmart on a hunch and they had it. but, that meant standing in line for a half hour again, for a $4 purchase.
and, then i swung back to the freshco and had to do the same thing a third time, to get some blueberries...
somewhere along the way - i don't remember where - i made the conscious decision to purchase some salami for the eggs, as well. i decided that if this is to be done at all then it should be done comprehensively. that is, if i'm going to boost my heme then i should do it with all of the above - roast beef with my c, salami with my eggs and anchovies with my pasta. so, this will be a total heme onslaught for the next few weeks with the intent to get the stores up, up, up. then, once i've done that, if i can do that, i can go back and fuck around with interactions, and try to find some way to isolate the iron from this or that.
so, i went out for a last run to get some salami & take advantage of a coupon for a 2-for-1 whopper deal.
as i've stated a few times already, i don't imagine this is going to be dramatic. i have every reason to think that low iron runs in the family, and it's something i've been dealing with my whole life. but, i need to get it out of the critical stage it's in and build the stores up to something more reasonable. if my iron stores are really this low, i should be lapping up the heme as it comes in. and, if i can get those numbers up to 20,30,50 - that's what i want to see.
this is probably going to be a long term project and i'm probably going to need monthly tests for quite a while...
i didn't, however, make it much past the whoppers; i crashed before midnight, was up early in the morning and crashed again around 6:00. not what i want to see, right? but, i have to realize that i haven't had a burger in months, and my gut bacteria could very well be out of whack as a result of it. regardless, that was my initial reaction to the first shot of red meat i've had since the end of last year - i slept for hours, woke up for a few minutes, and slept for hours more.
i was finally up in the early afternoon and set about putting the groceries away and making myself a large bowl of fruit. as i skipped yesterday, this bowl of fruit was double what i would normally eat - and would have in the range of 35-40 mg of elemental iron in it, along with about 1500% of the rdi for vitamin c. if i can't absorb that, right?
and, i've been playing catch up on the various blog items, while cleaning, ever since.
i'm going to aim to get the aleph-0 disc up before i sleep next, and try to kick into the schedule properly on monday.