Diabetes Blog – Happy-Medium.netI wasn’t going to post today (still feeling awful), but then I saw this. You may have seen this already, courtesy of BuzzFeed: “26 Moments That Restored Our Faith In Humanity This Year”.
Bella and Deidre of the AT1 JDRF Capitol and Maryland Chapters group on Facebook turned me on to this photo, number 8, yesterday:
Happy Hump Day!
I’ve got a new Twitter follower:
Since I’m the curious type, I clicked on the link to their site. What I found was no less than 43 different varieties of “Diabetic Socks”.
I’m not sure how I feel about that. For some reason, the term “diabetic socks” sounds bad to me. And weird. So weird that I have to use quotation marks every time I use the term “diabetic socks”. And shouldn’t they now be called “Socks With Diabetes” (or SWD)? Okay, I jest. But the term “diabetic socks” still gives me the creeps, no matter how many times I write it (with quotation marks) in my post.
I mean, I get the idea… helps wick away moisture, promote healthy circulation, et cetera. But really folks… I’ve been a PWD for over two decades, and I’ve never worn “diabetic socks”, and my feet are just fine.
Keep your feet clean. Wear clean, non-restricting footwear, whatever it is, every day. Rinse. Repeat. If you can do that, you stand a good chance of avoiding having to visit a site like that to get a pair of “diabetic socks”.
Fact is, I’m feeling pretty awful today. I’m still working, but I don’t really have the energy for much else. So I’m going to leave you with photos from our weekend, where The Great Spousal Unit, The Live-In Niece, and I made our annual excursion to cut down our Christmas tree, bring it home, string the lights, and hang the ornaments.
If you play Jingle Bells or O Christmas Tree in the background, you’ll almost have a Hallmark Channel movie. Photos courtesy of Maureen and myself. Enjoy your Monday.
I’m not a big Twitter guy.
I don’t have a smart phone. If you see a tweet from me, it means I’m on a PC or iPad somewhere, logging on and catching up with people maybe once per day. Twitter is another of those social media outlets that I have absolutely no access to from work.
I don’t have a lot of followers right now… right around 100, I think. FYI, I don’t follow people like crazy either. I think it’s my fear of being spammed to death with incessant chatter from people or companies I don’t really know. Of course, that’s what the Unfollow button is for, right? But I usually forget about that. Have you ever unfollowed someone?
Sometimes the old guy gene in my psyche makes me wonder what the stink is about, to borrow a Cheryl Crow lyric. I mean, couldn’t people just e-mail each other? Couldn’t they pick up the phone? I know, that’s so 1998.
But when I open my mind a little, I realize the benefit of Twitter, particularly for people in the Diabetes Online Community (DOC). Every day I see tweets from people I follow, offering words of encouragement and support to each other. And I have to admit to getting jazzed up by the advocacy that I see from time to time. People who are passionate about their cause (our cause), and share their passion 140 characters at a time. I’m also loving all the giveaways (giveaways!) I’m reading about.
I like the photos too, even if it’s your cat getting stuck in the Christmas tinsel again. So many of the bloggers I read seem unreal to me until I visually see something from their lives as it’s happening. Does this mean I’ve drunk the Twitteraid? Maybe so.
And I can’t talk about the DOC and Twitter without mentioning the weekly Diabetes Social Media Advocacy tweetchat. It’s hard to find a seat in that room on Wednesdays at 9:00 p.m. Eastern time here in the USA. But well worth the effort to squeeze in. For a laugh, for some provocative questions, for a new outlook on what someone else is going through. An incredible variety of people, many of whom I’m not following (and who are not following me) surprise me by their insights and their interesting views on dealing with everything diabetes. There really are a lot of different people who consider themselves part of the DOC. And DSMA does an amazing job of bringing us all together and keeping it interesting. There were a couple of times when I felt really down but I logged on anyway, and had my week turned around in the span of one hour. I’m not overstating that. It’s a small initiative that makes a big impact.
Listen… I’m at least a little tech-savvy. I realize I’m doing this in a most-unconventional way. I’m also smart enough to realize that Twitter will probably be replaced by something else in a couple of years. But for now, I’m enjoying the Twitter honeymoon, as long as it lasts.
What about you? Are you digging Twitter? Some other form of social media? Care to turn me on to the next great thing? Leave a comment below.
I had a day off yesterday, and I used some of my extra time to go to the gym and get in a decent workout for a change.
I guess you could say that my exercise routines go with the seasons, so to speak. Most years, I try to work hard in the spring, maintain in the summer, finish strong in the fall. Then I try to give myself a break in November and December, only going when it’s most convenient and I really feel like it. Of course, the November/December thing gives me an opportunity to really slack off if I’m not careful. And frankly, some years, I’m not careful.
But however my workout routines go this time of year, I always get the same feeling when I do go:
I feel great.
In fact, I feel better than great. I feel like I’m fighting back against the carbs that seem to appear out of thin air during the holidays. I feel like I’m already getting a head start on next year. In my head, I’m already planning out what events I’ll compete in and how I’ll improve my technique to be the best athlete that I can. I can actually feel myself adding days, months, years to the end of my life.
Of course, that’s over-the-top optimistic. If you saw me, you’d realize that I definitely don’t look like an athlete. But on days like yesterday, I feel invincible, capable of handling any athletic endeavor. Even if I still have some poundage to shed.
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