What’s your anxiety level?
About The Author
BooMan
Martin Longman a contributing editor at the Washington Monthly. He is also the founder of Booman Tribune and Progress Pond. He has a degree in philosophy from Western Michigan University.
37 Comments
very low…and my blood pressure is normal.
We’re harvesting the garden after office hours and milking – canning and freezing veggies and root crops – potatoes and beets for winter. We’re a tad low on maple syrup…but we have a store from 2007 season. Our maple sugaring season this year was less than one week and that’s a bummer. Global warming. Soon we’ll planting palm and coconut trees.
I wish I knew more about canning and freezing veggies. My CSA share has been overwhelming this year, and it would be nice to put some of it away for later.
I’ve done a lot of canning this summer/fall. Four different types of jam – yum. I didn’t freeze nearly enough, though there is still time.
It was kind of funny yesterday I was making applesauce and mentioned it on one of the social network sites. A former student immediately sent me a message asking me how to make it.
I have a ton of apples, and know how to make applesauce (yum!) but don’t know anything about canning it.
Can you recommend a good website or book about it?
This is pretty good
http://www.pickyourown.org/applesauce.htm
Good luck!
honestly, I’m not sure anymore. It depends I guess.
Right now? Kinda elevated: i have to replace my gas furnace and that’s gonna require a loan from the bank? will I get it? who knows.
on the other hand I just saw the bags on Saturday and so I’m feeling pretty fuckin’ rocktacular right now.
Low, down from the high levels of yesterday. At some point the drama goes over the top to comedy. We’re there.
I alternate between numb with disbelief, and mad as hell.
I’ll add irritated that 4x% of the country think McCain should be President and/or Palin is qualified.
and that her tilting with Biden is going to be scripted.
Gee – ya THINK?!
She is the embodiment of the need to work “twice as hard to be just as good.” Period.
You tell me in what world would some person who went to 5 colleges in 6 yrs (and still not a lawyer) would even be in the same league as a magna cum laude Harvard Law graduate, who was also the editor of its law review?
And that’s just for starters.
The very thought of this woman is offensive to me.
Some people are simply…confused. Or, as Jonathan Haidt wrote, conservatives can be “cognitively inflexible.”
In a role as a Obama volunteer yesterday, had a discussion with a undecided voter self-identified as a Republican. At least he wasn’t a single-issue voter, but it was hard to identify what his issues were. He said he would never vote for a Democrat for national office. But he would have voted for Hillary because “we need a woman in the White House.” And he met “the peanut farmer” twice and really like him. But he would never vote for a Democrat. At the end, he said he might look at Obama because I wasn’t an obnoxious drug addict like all the other Democrats he’s known. I have a hunch he’ll vote on election day according to his most recent whim.
And you know that there are a million anecdotes like this one. I’ve been doing canvassing for a couple of decades and there are simply a lot of confused people.
WTF? Where do the Repugs dig these people up?
They didn’t dig them up. They created them, with Fox News and Newsmax and the Free Republic and Rush Limbaugh.
Not sure I know anymore. I’ve walked around with a knot in my stomach for so long it feels like normal.
very red! can’t get past the last 2 elections and my fear for this one. I won’t rest until Nov 5th.
I know how you feel. I don’t know if I even want to peek at the debate on Friday. I just want this whole Bush nightmare over.
I KNOW I couldn’t stand to watch the debate, especially when it comes around to foreign and military policy. I’d be screaming at both of them nonstop. They’re BOTH full of imperialist horses*** when it comes to foreign policy.
it’s not anxiety…it’s outrage
but at least I have an LTE job for the next three to six months. Don’t even ask where. I will say that Michael Moore would probably shake his head in disgust…
Case at hand, I saw this mess coming in 1999 when that bill was passed during the last gasps of Clinton’s administration to ‘release the hounds,’ so to speak, and rescind those Roosevelt-era regulations.
Back off topic: next week looks like the week I get Net access at home.
Ahhhhhhhh!
Been screaming at the abyss for a while now.
Anxious? Somewhat.
8 on a scale of 10 – but that’s primarily because I just saw a bit of Nazi Germany on the corner of the place where I work.
These blond, white, close-cropped boys were holding signs and red flags, and passing out literature saying that homosexuality was unnatural and that the Marriage law in CA amounted to treason, etc.
I am not gay, but I’ve never thought a god who would shun people he made was worth worshipping. I have a few gay friends and they are the most compassionate people I know. If anyone deserves to get to heaven, it’s them, not the people who try to stir hate in others towards them.
But it was the signs – seriously, they had these tall red banners like something out of V for Vendetta. I was upset my whole lunch hour and am still upset.
I meant to end with this question:
At what point does free speech become hate speech and inciting to riot? At what point did Nazi Germany tip from people talking like that to putting people in ovens?
SERENITY NOW! SERENITY NOW!
SERENITY NOW, INSANITY TOMORROW,
I’m just recalling all those analysis who said market fundamentals were the cause of HIGH OIL prices. I guess the 25$ dollar jump in price goes to show how speculation is causing the price to increase.
http://biz.yahoo.com/ap/080922/oil_prices.html
I have a Valium prescription. Until it runs out, what me worry?
on a 1-10 scale…about 6.5, down from almost 8 yesterday.
Like one Kos poster, my butt was bothering me yesterday from the monkeys flying out, but today’s looking a little better.
This little item actually brought things down a notch or 2, just reading….. 🙂
My anxiety level is at Blue
…my threat level is Oscar.
We are in mortal danger until the election is won and serious reforms are put into well-functioning operation on every level.
Economic reforms, international policy reforms, energy and conservation reforms, social reforms…the most important being a guarantee of personal privacy…and perhaps most importantly, media and cultural reforms.
AND, just because the Dems may win in November…if indeed that is what happens…does not guarantee that these reforems will actually take place.
Any of them.
Red alert until it happens, Booman.
BRIGHT red!!!
Later…
AG
My anxiety level was “10” before I decided to retreat to the bunker, crack open a cold one and make a list of those who will be frogmarched to the guillotine when the revolution hits. It’s a pretty bi-partisan list.
I’m much better now.
Us civil servants are stereotypically low on anxiety.
I’m disabled with a constant migraine (yes, due to stress: I burned out on the job and never recovered.) I can sometimes afford ONE of the 4 prescriptions that I should be taking. (So much for Medicare Part D) My neurologist said that I can take meds 3 days a week. Half-time human. Yippee.
Today was a medicine day. Excedrin and Zomig? Nope. Still felt like steamrolled shit. Protein and coffee? Nope. Still wanted to just crawl into the dark. Ice cream? Nope. Even a treat full of fat and sugar isn’t enough to dispel the bleakness of living with half a brain. I spent almost the entire day under the blankets with a headache that refused to budge despite everything that I could throw at it. Wasted.
I doubt that even if I could afford my Effexor prescription that it would help much given the realities of life. I’m an artist, but with this economy, can’t sell anything to supplement the disability payment. A friend dragged me outside Sunday, and the trees are ALREADY turning color in the foothills. It’s going to be a cold winter with rocketing fuel costs. Grocery prices are hopping up week by week. Health care is primed for yet another double digit increase in cost. Where is the money for necessities going to come from?
Yet those greedy speculators with their credit swaps and select repackaging of pieces of debt and leveraged instruments are going to hand Paulson their keys and walk away with billions of dollars in bonuses. Not one of them is standing on the ledge of despair.
America takes care of the rich and makes them richer. And they sneer at those of us who got sick and can no longer run with the rats.
I’m going back to bed.
So sorry to hear about your migraine troubles – I can relate! I used to get horrible disabling migraines that would go on for days, and end with attacks of vomiting (vomiting more than once was my criterion for finally dragging myself to the emergency room for a shot of relief). The ONLY thing that ever helped was to take a drug consisting of ergotamine and caffeine, and that ALWAYS worked within 30-60 minutes, and allowed me to get on with my life. Fortunately, after many years the migraines just stopped coming, and I have not had a headache of any kind since.
I don’t know about Zomig, but I DO know that often the form in which you take the drug can make a huge difference. Have you tried the nasal spray or just the oral forms? If you have not tried the nasal spray, do so. It might make a difference. You might also try to find out whether that old drug – sorry, I don’t recall the name, but it is a combination of ergotamine amd caffeine – or some equivalent is still around. If so, the oral delivery might not work for you, and you should try another form of delivery.
One way or another I really hope things will improve for you!
Thank you for kind thoughts! {hug}
Caffeine raises the pain threshold so things don’t hurt as much. It also makes pain killers work a little faster. That’s why it is usually combined with NSAIDs such as aspirin or acetaminophen. But caffeine, like everything else, can be overdone. We have to watch out for rebound symptoms as well.
The triptans, Imitrex and a half dozen cousins, are almost miracle drugs. They’ll usually work, but it takes a couple of hours. They can be taken after the migraine starts (the older preventives need to be taken while in aura stage, and if you wake up with the migraine, it is too late). Would you pay $20 to go from vomiting-because-of-the-pain to being a functional, thinking human? Sure! But daily? No health care plan will cover it, even with 3 doctors’ letters. They tried.
I’d hoped that menopause with all the hormonal realignments would help, but no. Not yet.
The worst part of all isn’t the pain, but losing my ability to think creatively. There’s a story called “Flowers for Algernon”, where the protagonist is aware of his own mental diminishment as it happens. 🙁
All we can do is try to get through each day. If we can teach or help someone, even a little bit, it isn’t a bad day. We also find out who our friends are.
I’m glad that you got through the headachy phase of your life. No one should have to suffer with half a head. This has been 8 years, but I haven’t quite given up hope. Migraines do reportedly go away.
And then we can be human again. And walk in sunshine.
You know what’s the joke of it? They call guys like Bush, Cheney, Paulson, “conservatives.” When they’ve spent every day of the last eight years turning America upside down.
I understand most people can’t deal with constant stress and anxiety. They say that’s why they are conservative, why they turn to conservativism. Actually, except for the extreme cases, it’s normal.
But folks, if you want some semblance of stability, something resembling the America we all know and love, you ain’t gonna get it from the Republicans. If you couldn’t see that before, can’t you see it now?