Gout is gone

It took almost three weeks with several days of Colchicine and Advil to make the gout go away. I will try to adhere to a better diet to minimize flare ups.
...

I saw a Joan Baez special on PBS yesterday evening and was quite impressed.
She has been a courageous woman with a very strong sense of social
justice. She also was a very attractive lady with beautiful voice and a talented guitar player. Her romantic songs of a bygone past brought me joyful sadness. Old pictures of the Vietnam war, marches in the South with Martin Luther King, Sarajevo, ... and Joan Baez's songs brought me the melancholy nostalgia of a time, place I thought has long forgotten.

Gout

Gout has flared up the last several days. It started on the left toe joint and later around ankle. I've been taking Advil to reduce the pain and swelling. I have a low fever, headache and feel a sense of helplessness walking with severe pain around the house on crutches. It has not been fun.

Happiness

Yesterday evening we saw “Happiness”, an excellent PBS special.

Dr. Tal Ben Shabar is a Harvard professor teaching class about happiness. His thesis of ingredients for a happy life includes:

1. Simplification of life. The many choices that we have bring confusion and chaos. He proposes that we ought to simplify our life with simple pleasures; perform less multi-tasking activities; take time out to recover from stress.

2. Positive acceptance. This is not passivity. Positive acceptance means to make choice based upon available information; learning from mistakes and move on.

3. Exercise. Referenced many medical studies, Tal Ben Shabar posits that regular physical exercise reduces stress, disease risks, … which will lead to a happier, healthier life.

4. Happiness can be learned.

5. Mindful meditation. The simplest daily exercise is the deep breathing method. More advanced mindful meditation will further relaxation, stress-reduction and many other benefits.

6. Focus on the positives. An attitude of gratitude concentrating upon all the good things in our life is an important element for a happy life.

Tal Ben Shabar has written several best-sellers including “Happier” and “Pursuit of Perfect”.

Pan's Labyrinth - the Movie

We saw it yesterday eve. I was absolutely mesmerized and amazed
by the many layers of interpretation of reality and un-reality, fantasy and religiosity,
dream vs. life, good vs evil... Especially, when all these layers are seamlessly interwoven into great story-telling with many subplots.
The last scene when Ofelia was killed is the most astounding: it brings up the historical context of the Spanish Civil War, the alliance of General F. Franco's dictatorship and the Catholic Church against the International Brigades. Her death and the afterlife sequence is the memorial of the deaths of many innocents during the War and the implication of martyrdom which ironically is on the side of the Church opponents; at the same time the evil of the Captain is explainable: he had a job to do and he could not see the faun Ofelia conversing with and I am sure that he believes that she was possessed and worse.

It was an incredible movie.

It's always something...

The hired help has done their job and are gone. We spent quite a bit of time and labor to work along side with them. I had to be watchful so that the work got done correctly. It was physically hard. I discovered today that the underground electrical wiring to the low-voltage outdoors lighting system was cut accidentally. I wish that the worker had noticed it and made the cut location known. Now I have to dig up the finished yard to locate the damage section of the wiring to fix it. The workers were good but still not as careful as I would like. I am glad that I did some measurement to prevent the installation of flagstone slabs outside the basement windows; if it was done we may not be able to open the windows [especially when it snows] since the slabs would have blocked them. Some sprinkler heads were caked with cement which was used by the workers to fix the front steps. I will have to drill a couple of holes on the bottom of the drain since its shallow bottom does not empty all rain water which can be a mosquito breeding ground. Oh, well. We still have to spend quite a bit of time this and next several weeks to clean up the yard and add shrubs.

Quotable quotes

"It's like playing chess with a monkey. You get them to checkmate, and then they swallow the king [piece]."
An unnamed diplomat, on the difficulty of nuclear talks with Iran.

"Why do you have to be a nonconformist like everybody else?"
James Thurber.

"What has always confused me is the fact that some folks are more than willing to legislate the most intimate and private part of a woman's life [re. abortion rights] but are indignant over any limits on the Second Amendment right to bear [deadly, killing] arms." A. Loberg.

"Talent is cheaper than table salt. What separates the talented individual from the successful one is a lot of hard work." Stephen King

"Draw, Antonio, draw, Antonio, draw and do not waste time."
Note scribbled by the elderly Michelangelo to an apprentice.
Found in Michelango's studio after his death.

If you would be a real seeker after truth, it is necessary that at least once in your life you doubt, as far as possible, all things.
- Rene Descartes

Car accident

This afternoon I've visited a car accident victim, a young woman
engineer working with me for several years. She was driving normally on highway in late afternoon and a car illegally turned and hit her on the driver's side. Her spine was crushed. The other driver does not have insurance and State of Colorado refused to prosecute him and just deported him.

It is shocking and heart-breaking to see such a vital, smart young lady in pain,
in hospital bed, cannot move and possibly will be paralyzed for life. I was quite emotional visiting with her and some of her siblings. Her life has changed for ever.