The Happy Valley of Cholesterol

WebMD, Cholesterol Slideshow: What Your Levels Mean

Though today's weather is damp and overcast, it is actually a good day in other ways, perhaps unexpectedly. At the doctor's office this morning, I was told that my cholesterol count was excellent and spectacular. In comparing the numbers with last year's lab work, the overall cholesterol lowered by 23 points (it is now 180). The LDL (lazy, bad cholesterol) was lowered by 22 points. The good cholesterol, HDL (or, as my physician's assistant called it, "happy" cholesterol) was up 2 points to 68. I was told the HDL eats the LDL cholesterol, which might explain why it's happy. Numbers aren't my strong suit, but these numbers were amazing to me because a little while ago the doctor's office was starting to watch my cholesterol count because it had crossed the dangerous border past 200 milligrams.

While we typically look at travel and destinations on this blog, we might interpret the numbers presented above through that lens. My new residence in Florence has promoted a happier, healthier lifestyle that has encouraged better habits to flourish, thereby lowering my blood cholesterol count significantly. My family medical history keeps me checking such numbers every year, and this is the first year the numbers have shown a remarkable positive change. Even eating oatmeal for breakfast one year (yes, nearly the WHOLE year) did nothing to make this happen as much as this overall lifestyle change. In fact, the medical news I received today might technically put me in the category of travelers who goes someplace for health reasons. I think I'll talk a little more about those characters in upcoming blogs, since I'm feeling a kinship with them right now.

1976 edition. (Wikipedia)

The amazement I felt caused me to think about the idyllic Happy Valley in The History of Rasselas (1751) by Samuel Johnson. Rasselas is a Prince of Abyssinia who seeks to leave the Happy Valley in order to satisfy his deep curiosity about the ways of man. Rasselas leaves with one of his sisters, Princess Nekayah, and his learned manservant, Imlac. They eventually make their way to Egypt, where they learn astronomy and engage in abstruse debates with other learned men. They also rescue a woman kidnapped by Arabs, Princess Pekuah. Together they resolve to set up various altruistic schemes, but at the novel's end the narrator tells us that when the yearly flooding of the Nile River plain is finished, these schemes are destined to fall away for the return to the Happy Valley. We are told that "Of these wishes that they had formed, they well knew none could be obtained." Returning to the Happy Valley fulfills the idea put forward earlier by the Prince's tutor, as he declares that "if you had seen the miseries of the world, you would know how to value your present state."

While I did not start out in the Happy Valley or in Florence, it appears that some of its cares slough off when you enter. In this case, I am enjoying one of the more material benefits of living in the happy valley with its outdoors lifestyle, and athletic interests. Moreover, eating out in Northampton and Florence offers more healthy alternatives overall, compared to where I had been living before. I'm more than happy to leave behind the miseries of the world, or at least most of the miseries from my previous world.

Rasselas Valley, Tasmania (State Library of Tasmania Catalog)

Though Rasselas found the Happy Valley enervating, he needed to experience the harder edges of life to better see what made the Happy Valley the haven it was. The problem with this allegorical travel narrative is that we know the return home can never happen. Even if his dad's palace and servants all remained in place, with the same abundance of food and comfort, we can be sure Rasselas and Nekayah will never be able to lie around in the same degree of ease and ignorance.

I used to wonder why travel narratives never talked about the return trip towards home, but when we think about Rasselas giving us the figurative motivations and lessons about travel, we can see how the disillusionment and the resignation can become problematic in keeping up the narrative's earlier tone of excited anticipation. However, in this case, I am more than happy to avoid returning to Mount Cholesterol, preferring to stay in the Valley. I am especially pleased with the six-pack of cider donuts I bought right after leaving the doctor's office.

Napping Through the Apocalypse (almost)

Depending on where you turn for news, the East Coast had a 5.8 or 5.9 earthquake this afternoon just past 2pm EST. It was rather inconvenient, as I was in the middle of a nap. I really don't take naps because whenever I have to take them, I'm really worn out from things so that my regular nighttime sleep isn't doing the job, and then waking up from a nap REALLY messes me up because I'm always disoriented. Well, I might never take a nap again after today, since I woke up to the sound of Joey barking, and my apartment shaking. I live in a converted carriage house, so my whole little late nineteenth-century building rocked like a boat.

Joey: Bark! Bark! (What is going on? Wake up!)
Florentina: [eyes closed, ignoring the rocking of the loveseat sofa she's napping on, and the construction vehicles at the nearby building]
Joey: Bark!!! Barkbarkbark!! (Mom! We have to get out of here!! How can you sleep through this?)
Florentina: [noticing the rocking is quite pleasant] Joey, it's just the workers outside. [Tries to go back to sleep.]
Joey: Bark! Bark! [You don't get it, do you, Mom?]
Florentina: [finally awake, and sitting up in her boat, er, loveseat sofa] Wow, those construction vehicles really make the building shake. Workers, Joey, nothing to worry about.

Boy was I wrong. When it all stopped, I could hear my neighbors outside, and at the same time, Joey's dad called to let me know they had just had an earthquake in New York City. He was astounded to hear that we could feel it all the way in Florence. I think he was even more astonished that I sounded sleepy.

Unfortunately, I have been known to sleep through other earthquakes. Once when I was younger, an minor earthquake hit Connecticut, and I didn't feel a thing. But I learned to fear the moving earth later on. When I moved to San Francisco, I was woken up one night out of a sound sleep by a tremor. Those were frequent enough and scary enough because of the collective memory out in earthquake country. But who expected one to hit Florence, and that it would make such a pleasant rocking motion of my loveseat sofa?

555 California Street, the former BofA Building. (Wikipedia)

I know it's terrible of me to say that, knowing as I do how much scarier it is when I've felt the shaking in tall buildings. A long time ago, when I worked in the Bank of America Building in downtown San Francisco, the building's earthquake rollers would cause swaying in the floors above. Working on the twenty-fifth floor meant that we would feel a little motion sick sometimes on windy days. Pencils were said to roll on desks, and people nervously watched the weather for dry, sunny days that they called "earthquake weather."

Best wishes to everyone out there who felt this earthquake, and hope everyone is safe this afternoon.

Guilt and Tomatoes

New York Times, Sun. 8/21/11

The New York Times came to Florence last Wednesday and I missed it! The Sunday edition has an article about farmers' markets and how they are suffering from a drop in sales.

http://www.nytimes.com/2011/08/21/us/21farmers.html?_r=1&ref=us

This change comes less from the recession, which makes no mention in this aspect of consumerism, but in the glut of farmers' markets, according to reporter Katie Zezima. She does a good job with her feature articles about New England. But I wonder if Ms. Zezima has overlooked a growing factor in changing consumer patterns, one that I have already blogged about earlier this month. The Community Supported Agriculture phenomenon has much support, and from my own experience, the quantity of produce provided by the share portion that comes to me is large enough to make me hesitate whenever I see a produce section in a market.

It may be useful to consider how the recession has played a role in this consumer change. How many folks have taken the plunge and started a vegetable plot in their backyard, or joined a Community Garden to start their new gardening lives? How many have also had to cut back on certain items and must make do with home gardens and whatever is on sale at the local supermarket? The farmers' markets frequently accept SNAP benefits as a way to help those who are on assistance and are working to maintain good eating habits. While the farmers are engaged in entrepreneurism, they are also interested in feeding communities well in many ways, and we all benefit from participating in this connection.

Mea Culpa! I may be going to pick up the farm share tomorrow at Mountain View Farm. 

According to the New York Times, there are now twenty-three different farmers' markets right here in the Pioneer Valley. I'm ashamed to say that I only know of three of them, and I have not yet supported them. In fact, the CISA website listing local farmers and markets goes farther than Katie Zezima, presenting lots of other providers and markets, making twenty-three seem small in number.  I aim to visit the Florence Farmers' Market this Wednesday. It's right next to the Library and the Civic Center. You can see the Library in the first shot of the NYT slideshow.
http://www.nytimes.com/slideshow/2011/08/20/us/20110821-FARMER.html

Thank Goodness for Florence Hardware

You may notice the images and photos so far are borrowed from other sites. I happen to own a camera, though I didn't have enough batteries. The things in my house that need batteries are getting rechargeable ones as I go through their replacements, leaving my camera without juice. So I knew I had to visit the local store for more rechargeable batteries to get photos going. After all, what kind of traveler goes without taking photos these days?

Here is the amazing Florence Hardware, located on Maple Street in Florence:

Lori and Todd, with their children and colleagues, run this terrific store. They have everything you need, and then some. They also have some cute pets to keep customers entertained if the local gossip isn't quite flowing... (I have never participated in the gossip sessions, but I hear about them all the time from my future father-in-law, a regular visitor.)