7Wannabe5- Take 6

Where are you and where are you going?
7Wannabe5
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Re: 7Wannabe5- Take 6

Post by 7Wannabe5 »

I already made my attempt to live in a camper on the vacant lots I bought at auction in Hamtramck. I got kicked out by the code officer within just a few days :x

There are a lot of thoroughly decrepit houses available for extreme low price through the Detroit Land Bank, but danger is no joke in many/most neighborhoods, and the Land Bank demands proof of funds/ability to fix property up to full/pricy city code within 6 months. I couldn’t just podge along fixing things on the cheap like I did with my old decrepit house in rural area. I know how to do most basic work of that type, and would find it highly annoying to have to hire professionals simply due to time/energy constraints. I don’t think they would even let me camp-out occupy prior to completion of repairs. Also, I would definitely need some combination of dogs, alarms, burly 20 something year old housemates, because as noted above, no joke danger level and also tons of theft.

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Alphaville
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Re: 7Wannabe5- Take 6

Post by Alphaville »

ah, shit! sounds frustrating... :x

we need to find you a place to live within reach of decent gigs and good healthcare hahahaha

i wish you the best—and don’t stop looking!

7Wannabe5
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Re: 7Wannabe5- Take 6

Post by 7Wannabe5 »

I’m on the task. Considering woods and water semi-gentrified tourist area and/or one of very inexpensive outlying cities that combines both rural blight and urban flight. Just have to figure out whether that would constitute hazard or opportunity. Lol. I can get substitute teaching gigs literally anywhere, especially if I’m still running a car, so that piece is easy. There are also more employment opportunities in rural areas than you might think, because the rural population is aging.

7Wannabe5
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Re: 7Wannabe5- Take 6

Post by 7Wannabe5 »

Historical Analysis of My Problem with Asthma

1) Diagnosed with severe asthma and multitude of allergies including severe peanut allergy -Age 3- chubby

2) Visits to allergist for weekly desensitization shots. Hospitalizations in plastic oxygen tents whenever I came down with something like strep throat. Several near death bouts with anaphylactic shock. Intal inhaler, red “speed” syrup taken daily. Experienced difficulty with activities such as tap dancing -Age 3- approximately 12. - very skinny

3) Semi-rogue teen years- most allergy triggers persisted along with exercise induced asthma. Got by with albuterol inhalers, antihistamines, and primatene tablets. Even ran track one year, but had to use inhaler before and after every run. Several anaphylactic shock events. Fewer severe steroid requiring severe asthma incidents.- normal healthy weight

4) Adult years to approximately age 37. Much the same as teen years, but returned to medical supervision and started maintenance inhaled steroid protocol. Several anaphylactic shock events. Steroids only with respiratory infections. Frequent use of inhaler after vacuuming, sex, exposure to fresh grass, etc. -normal weight pre-pregnancy then intermittent overweight mostly lower body

5) Approximately age 37. MIRACLE! Somehow I magically lose my sensitivity to many/most of my previous triggers. I am able to greatly reduce my inhaler use, and eventually I even go off my maintenance drugs. The only correlation I can make is that I went through a very angry (for me) phase and took up strength training. Likely there was an underlying hormonal shift. -intermittent healthy/overweight mostly lower body

6) 38- 53. Allergies and asthma continue to be much improved. Still suffer from exercise induced asthma, but can often, for instance, take a couple mile hike without needing to use it. Allergen provoked asthma greatly reduced. The difference is so profound, I feel like my nose is coated with plastic because I’m not constantly reacting. Oral steroids only required for occasional respiratory infection.- intermittent healthy/overweight mostly lower body

7) Age 54/55. Finally complete late menopause. Asthma intermittently and slowly becomes worse again. Allergy triggers still reduced, but eyes frequently dry and itchy. Needful inhaler use creeps up. Find myself using it 5X/day over course of month. Make appointment with primary. He prescribes oral steroids, decides they aren’t working well enough, sees blob on my X-ray, sends me to hospital as Covid suspect. Covid test negative. Nothing else wrong with me. Three days in hospital. 4 days home. On oral steroids, inhaled steroids, albuterol, kombucha, chicken broth, coffee. Still break through wheezing. Increasingly Overweight, lower body with new additional blob of central body subcutaneous. No symptoms of metabolic disorder. Low normal blood pressure, blood glucose, ΑC1, etc.

8) My thoughts moving forward. Should have gone back on maintenance inhaled steroids sooner. May have to be on them the rest of my life at something like $130/month. Try to figure out hormonal link/influence. Maybe male hormones went up relative to female hormones around age 37, but now the ratio has hard-flipped due to menopause. This only makes sense if relative levels matter more than absolute levels. Environmental factors do not seem very much in play. Maybe try strength training combined with a wee bit of testosterone cream once I am under control. Diet has not seemed to be a relevant factor. I am already eating approximately 30 different species of plants each week for gut health with little sign of any sensitivity. Possibility that I did contract Covid even though nasal test was negative, but that doesn’t speak to fact that asthma was already ramping up prior.

zarathustra
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Re: 7Wannabe5- Take 6

Post by zarathustra »

Did you ever notice anything change during your cycle? If so, that might add some credence to your hormone theory.

For example, estrogen helps break down histamine, so right before ovulation, for example, my systemic nickel allergy is the least problematic.

Were there any other big changes during the 37-53 years like moving to a new area, new house, less stress, more sex, new job?

The weight lifting thing is very interesting and likely relevant because strength training triggers a lot of metabolic changes, beneficial epigenetic changes, and therefore gene expression changes that are likely to have played a role.

7Wannabe5
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Re: 7Wannabe5- Take 6

Post by 7Wannabe5 »

@zarathustra:

Yeah, I was usually somewhat worse right before period. The literature indicates clear correlation between female hormones and asthma, but it is quite complex. For instance, women who were not previously asthmatic may become asthmatic on HRT, but women who were previously asthmatic may find relieve from menopausal asthma through HRT. Apparently, it’s the variation/cycling that matters most.

My history is further complicated by the fact that I also inherited mild tendency towards hormonal influenced cyclothymia from my bi-polar mother who herself first developed asthma at midlife. My youngest sister is also mildly cyclothymic and midlife onset moderately asthmatic. During my reproductive years, I always tested as very high normal levels of estrogen and testosterone. My mild tendency towards mania also correlated with my tendency towards a bit of hyper sexuality.

So, when my allergies/asthma improved in my late 30s, and I was engaged in regular strength training, my sex drive was also very high. This year my sex drive has been quite low for me. Granted Covid is going on and I also ripped my anal sphincter earlier this year, and my stomach is blobby, but 8 months is the longest I’ve gone without actively seeking out sex in like 40 years.

Anyways, I am mostly just putting down a note for myself here because I’ve done better preserving this journal than the ones on my laptop. But $130/month represents a huge portion of my semi-retirement budget, so trying to figure out alternate to inhaled steroids would be huge.

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Alphaville
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Re: 7Wannabe5- Take 6

Post by Alphaville »

isn’t pms correlated with prostaglandin increase or something?

7Wannabe5
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Re: 7Wannabe5- Take 6

Post by 7Wannabe5 »

Yes, but my PMS correlation wasn’t huge. Just kind of went along with feeling a bit puffy/bloated. The change at 37 and the change this year much more dramatic.

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Alphaville
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Re: 7Wannabe5- Take 6

Post by Alphaville »

interesting.

so— back to strength training, then?

and in a non-universal healthcare environment, looks like you might need more money 🤔

i’ve been rethinking resilience since taleb, and too-thin supply lines are bad, money supply included. redundant money is good!

wait, you read antifragile, yes? (i haven’t yet. just the black swan postscripts on robustness, etc)

7Wannabe5
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Re: 7Wannabe5- Take 6

Post by 7Wannabe5 »

Yeah, I’m thinking strength training and swimming, so that also adds some kind of local fitness center bill to my budget. However, I’ve already got the meds down to $35/month if I buy a nebulizer.

I loved “Anti-Fragile.” I don’t know why I haven’t finished anything else by Taleb since. He makes a point of noting that anti-fragility does not equal resilient does not equal robust. Resilient and robust are both ways of avoiding fail due to change. An anti-fragile strategy is one meant to directly thrive on change/chaos.

So, “every single girl should date a pair and a spare” is an example of resilient strategy. And, “marry an accountant, take rock star as lover.” is an example of robust/anti-fragile “barbell” suggested by Taleb. My joke is that I usually mess it up and do “marry the rockstar/take accountant as lover” instead.

Taleb also repeated note that there are three Fs you should always rent rather than buy. Anything that flies, floats, or fucks.

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Alphaville
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Re: 7Wannabe5- Take 6

Post by Alphaville »

hahahahaha! im going to read that next. just finished black swan (i’m a slow reader. when i was a kid i was a champion speed reader, and voracious. now i reject most books, but mull over forever)

anyway re: ere, money, etc.

using money is a failure of skills, but failure is to be expected, so money is always required. and big failures require big money. SO: MO’ MONEY.

i realize now that ere skills can be used to save money, but little money is always too fragile. ere works best while stitting on a big pile of cash :lol:

nice job figuring out the discounts though!

Toska2
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Re: 7Wannabe5- Take 6

Post by Toska2 »

My asthma, adult acne and mild weight gain is caused by a gluten allergy. All these symptoms take a few days to develop and a few weeks to leave, thus making a correlation/diagnosis difficult. I haven't done a scratch test but if its a result of a metabolite then it wouldnt show. Good luck with everything.

7Wannabe5
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Re: 7Wannabe5- Take 6

Post by 7Wannabe5 »

@Αlphaville:

Yeah, but how’s my pile of cash going to get any bigger given that I am more likely ( in the scheme of things maybe I should but really do not want to do) to “go on a big diet” than “get a full-time job? “It’s just not gonna happen.

@Toska2:

Thanks for the note. Possible food sensitivity could be involved, but my usual quite varied, lots of veggies, too many cookies, diet hasn’t altered in alignment with asthma. Peanuts will kill me, and Lima beans make me pukey, but nothing else seems to be an issue.

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Alphaville
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Re: 7Wannabe5- Take 6

Post by Alphaville »

7Wannabe5 wrote:
Thu Nov 12, 2020 1:23 pm
Yeah, but how’s my pile of cash going to get any bigger
that’s the crucial puzzle i guess. i’m facing that very situation because, historically, i’m more of a “retire first, work later” person :lol:. so i did it earlier and more extremely than most :mrgreen:. but now i wanna retire... again, for good :)

-

eta: “how to make money without working” i guess :lol:
or “how to work more with minimal suffering” :lol:

i know i’m laughing but i’m dead serious... fun business >> boring employment.

Riggerjack
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Re: 7Wannabe5- Take 6

Post by Riggerjack »

Yeah, but how’s my pile of cash going to get any bigger given that I am more likely ( in the scheme of things maybe I should but really do not want to do) to “go on a big diet” than “get a full-time job? “It’s just not gonna happen.
I'm with Alphaville on this. Go start another G2.25 business.

You are shopping for land w/ your sisters. What opportunities would that rural property open up in your ideal city life?

And why haven't you dropped an ISO shipping container on one of your city lots for workshop/storage?

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Alphaville
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Re: 7Wannabe5- Take 6

Post by Alphaville »

Riggerjack wrote:
Fri Nov 13, 2020 8:59 am
And why haven't you dropped an ISO shipping container on one of your city lots for workshop/storage?
i think it’s the {crime rates + code} combo she mentioned above

basically her lots have to be occupied in full compliance or not at all? plus security issues?

making it work seems quite a puzzle.

7Wannabe5
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Re: 7Wannabe5- Take 6

Post by 7Wannabe5 »

Yeah, I am bummed that 2020 will likely be the first year since 2002 in which I will not be filing any sort of business/SE income. Definite fail.

Prior to my recent physical collapse, I was attempting to sort through my notes and spreadsheets in an effort to return to prior junction from which I might see my way clear to fresh take. I read some book which suggested that rationals usually see the shape of their life as linear. My vision is that I am on a rolling wooded range which comprises my possible experiences. There are main trails through the range which generally head up/North/towards shoreline/horizon. There are also a great multitude of secondary paths which loop and wind off of the main paths, with even greater further division/options, and I frequently, impulsively choose to go off on these detours in order to expand my sense of range, or just maybe in search of some sweet berries or a fabled waterfall.

But, as I meander, the part of me which I describe as either Adult Masculine Rational Quadrant or The Snowy Owl, probably Si, keeps notes and marks path so that I can eventually return to core paths/tasks. I am almost always reading, so most of my ideas, most of my life have been sparked by books, but sometimes other people either spark or hustle me up a new path.

So, I unknitted back to about where I was on my reading list just prior to joining this forum. Rough memory and notes indicate that I was making my way forward with Getting Things Done, The Art of Nonconformity, and several essential works on permaculture at that junction. I was concerned with the fact that I had let my book business go largely passive, because increased competition and changing technology was greatly reducing profits, and I had allowed myself to become too financially dependent on my relationship with my affluent early retired Iranian-American “husband.”

In spite of huge detours taken since I joined this forum with my permaculture project, learning about climate change/peak oil and related issues, and adventures in polyamory post-break-up with 2nd “husband”, and the fact that my sister/housemate/business-partner literally went violent psychotic break insane (always mentally fragile,had cancer, given bad meds) simultaneous with my sometime arch-nemesis J.Bozo issuing edict which immediately caused me to lose approximately $300/month in passive income from ongoing inventory sales, I have finally managed to accomplish one of the primary tasks with which I hoped ERE (the book) would help me, and I now have the biggest emergency/roll/nest/egg since prior to my terribly costly divorce from my first husband around 14 years ago (he took off and left me with big old house/mortgage/two kids approaching college age, I did not chase him down for support because I was afraid he might do something dire and I was worried about the effect on my kids.) I have also managed to accumulate new experience and credentials in the field of education. I am 6/7 years older and in somewhat worse physical shape than when I first joined this forum. My current barely remaining sexual relationship is absolutely inadequate.

So, first order of business hiking forward again from prior to ERE junction would be getting back in better physical shape, second order of business will likely be getting well laid again, third order of business might be starting something like a new business/finishing my novel/similar, fourth order of business will be rebooting a permaculture “cottage” project in alignment with further reducing spending/burning to 1 Jacob, fifth order of business will be integration of my extended family with other projects, sixth order of business would be adding more fun tinkering/invention and zany arts and crafts into the mix. THEREFORE, straightforward effort to increase size of my nest egg would only be 7th order of business at best. Actually, simply learning more about finance and the markets would likely trump this too, and highly likely other stuff will come up, so probably 10th order concern is more like it.

Anyways, I picked up a copy of a book on side hustles by the author of The Art of Nonconformity, who I consider to be very good ENTP entrepreneur guru, so I am already looping out to 3 from forced focus on 1(health) and 2(sex.)
Unfortunately, most of the ideas in the book so far strike me as way too much selling of junk people don’t need to be consuming in the twilight of the Anthropocene, but I am pretty sure something will click for me eventually. Selling rare books was fulfilling because I believed that providing particular people on the planet with the very particular books they wanted or needed for their worthwhile projects was a good thing to do. Plus I was dealing in used goods on the discard market rather than causing new shit to be produced from core resource base.

7Wannabe5
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Re: 7Wannabe5- Take 6

Post by 7Wannabe5 »

@Riggerjack:

Code does not allow for any auxiliary structures without primary residence on lot. Maddening. Also I agreed to sell my urban project to my Permaculture Partner since he has been mostly minding it ever since my sister went unhinged. I’ve spent more time on The Cowboy’s northern acreage project the last couple years. In theory, a quarter acre is mine to manage. In reality, he is way too bossy for that to be true. So, I need a new project space or two-lol.

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Alphaville
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Re: 7Wannabe5- Take 6

Post by Alphaville »

7Wannabe5 wrote:
Fri Nov 13, 2020 10:19 am
So, first order of business hiking forward again from prior to ERE junction would be getting back in better physical shape, second order of business will likely be getting well laid again, third order of business might be starting something like a new business/finishing my novel/similar, fourth order of business will be rebooting a permaculture “cottage” project in alignment with further reducing spending/burning to 1 Jacob, fifth order of business will be integration of my extended family with other projects, sixth order of business would be adding more fun tinkering/invention and zany arts and crafts into the mix. THEREFORE, straightforward effort to increase size of my nest egg would only be 7th order of business at best. Actually, simply learning more about finance and the markets would likely 🤬 this too, and highly likely other stuff will come up, so probably 10th order concern is more like it.
that sounds like a plan! i hope you have enough amperage to power up all those new circuits (and ftfy, lol)

i read guillebeau and didn’t like him for many reasons. now in further retrospect i’ll add that he ignores silent evidence (the great mass of all those businesses that failed).

the rare book business sound like a blast and a good fit for you and i think there might be ways to revamp/refine the model for a solo practitioner rather than start from scratch elsewhere?

and who was he of the hilarous name? (j. bozo, lmao).

7Wannabe5
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Re: 7Wannabe5- Take 6

Post by 7Wannabe5 »

That’s my code name for Jeff Bezos. I am sometimes afraid to type his real name. For years, Amazon offered special rate for storage of unique inventory, but then suddenly cancelled forcing me to ship back to myself or dump to fire sale auction the remnant of my inventory. I likely should have seen this coming, but was devoting most of my attention to urban permaculture project at that juncture.

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