"Carl's Lounge" (Off-Topic Discussion, Traditional Knife "Tales & Vignettes")

[Prester John]

This is my recipe for cold medicine, too. Easy on the water
Then a shot of Nyquil right before bed!

Done that many times!

 

[5K Qs]

Little pebbles sometimes cause avalanches....

It has been 4 months since Gev dropped this little pebble here in this thread. It started my avalanche. I am 50 pounds lighter (yes, fifty), exercising moderately but regularly, eating much more healthfully than I have in decades, and have significantly reduced my alcohol consumption. I've got a ways to go before I reach my ideal goal weight and fitness level, but the progress I have seen already is remarkable, especially considering I am over 60.

It is amazing how a commitment to change, followed by actual actions can create a virtuous circle of improvements - where a small success motivates the next one, and all it takes is consistency and the patience to stick with things until they generate results.

I know this is the time of year for "resolutions." I am passing on the pebble. Feel free to start your own avalanche. If you are still above ground, it's never too late.

Congrats, John, on your resolve and your very impressive results! The paragraph I bolded is an excellent observation or piece of advice, IMHO.
Applause to Gev for his "pebble", too!

Outstanding John! Congratulations on the "new" you

When you make lifestyle changes like that it is all about the "little victories" keeping your spirit and motivation positive Eventually all of those little victories add up and one day you wake up and realize you're winning the battle

More helpful advice from Kevin, at least in terms of any lifestyle changes I've been able to make!

Gev's inclusion of a video prompted me to do some reflection, reading and then I bought the book. I've not lost much weight and I'm still a heavyish drinker but I've found better sleep and energy levels which have made a considerable difference. My main problem is chronic stress and continual antagonisms at work which stimulates certain responses, drinking & eating amongst them. Much that ails people is simply habit, recognizing it is a step but tackling it is not easy.

Certainly, since abolishing bread (more or less) biscuits (cookies) I've felt far better inside, no bloating, stomach pains and other unpleasant aftereffects Time to redouble my efforts,

Will also makes an excellent observation here. Habits seem to be much easier to develop than to break. Christmas Eve 2018 marked 4 years free of tobacco use for me, after smoking for 45 years. The main reason I succeeded in quitting back then (after numerous brief temporary attempts) was that I had my last cigar before I got on the plane to visit my daughter in Spain for almost 3 weeks. I was so far from my normal habits and routines that served as triggers for smoking that quitting was WAY easier than I thought it would be. (I took vast amounts of nicotine gum with me, and used two pieces for the entire trip, both before I boarded the Madrid connection in Philadelphia.) I should also mention that for 2 or 3 years previous to that trip, the health insurance I had through my employer required me to do monthly smoking cessation counseling in order to pay lower insurance premiums. I didn't really enjoy talking to my coach each month, but the coach "forcing" me to set realistic monthly goals, and my meeting the goals so the coach would let me have some peace helped me to cut way back on the amount of tobacco I smoked leading up to my "master plan" of quitting "cold turkey" when I went to Spain.

Since we're talking about life changes I might as well share my story and maybe I will help someone out like Gevo did My Dad passed away in late 2010 and I got thrown into a whirlwind of stress and anxiety that I would not wish upon anybody. First and foremost was to take care of my Mom who lived a 4 hour drive away from me and on top of my own job, I was trying to run my Dad's business that was struggling financially. Eventually I had to let his company default on some loans which included the very real possibility that my Mom would lose her house and property. Everything took around 3-4 years before I finally got her moved to Wisconsin a stone's throw from my apartment at the time.

My Dad's company eventually dissolved and my Mom did lose her house but at least we had our health right? Well, the stress and anxiety over that time took a massive toll on me and I coped by drinking heavily. Similar to what Will Power alluded to, my mind's coping mechanism for stress was to drink some vodka It becomes a vicious cycle... wake up, add stress, add alcohol, sleep... repeat. They say alcohol takes like 16-24 hours to get out of your system so since I drank every day, alcohol was pretty much always in my system. I was rarely ever "drunk" but I drank every evening after work and all day on weekends. I was the epitome of the "functional alcoholic". One morning about 5 years ago I looked in the mirror and noticed the whites of my eyes were no longer white and that they were jaundiced, not to mention my skin tone showed it too. I went to my doctor and some tests showed that I had a severely damaged liver and I was only 39! One doctor was very blunt with me and said that if I did not quit drinking, I would die. In two days from today I will be 5 years completely sober... not even a cup of Nyquil It was difficult at first but I didn't really find it all that hard considering what the doctors told me the alternative would be

I used to drink everyday so when I quit, instead of drinking, believe it or not I just started watching Star Trek The Next Generation on Netflix from Episode 1 to episode 200+... Thank God that series was so long LoL I think it took me the better part of two months to get through them all! By that time I had started to mend... like John mentioned above, little victories. Before I knew it I wasn't even thinking about alcohol... sort of how most of us never invest any time into thinking about buying a Lamborghini. I can't afford that car so why think about it? I can't afford alcohol so why think about it? Speaking of that, I save about $4,000 a year by not spending it on booze If you do the math that is only $80 week (I drank cheap vodka LoL) The hardest part about quitting drinking for me was dealing with people socially after you do it... you can't expect others around you to quit / not drink around you and they always feel awkward drinking around you. I still do not like going to large gatherings / parties because others look at me like "Is it OK if I drink?"

Fortunately for me, the liver is an amazing organ and within a year or two, my health had completely turned around... I did lose significant weight, my liver function is perfect (fingers crossed) and now I just have normal health issues like cholesterol of 205 and blood sugar of 110 After just a few months I felt so much more energetic and my mind felt more free and clear because I wasn't letting it convince me to drink. I really think there is something chemically in your body that convinces you that all of your problems will go away if you give in to that beer, glass of wine or whiskey coke. You see on TV the experts say addiction is an "illness" but I disagree and that word "illness" gives people with addiction a chance to justify it or use it as an excuse to continue. Illness implies there is a cure, something that your family doctor can fix if you want them to. In my opinion, drug/alcohol addiction is it's own category and can be defined as your body being convinced of a habit by your mind. The hard part is convincing your mind to change your body's habit after it has formed. For me it was simply being told ""you will die" and my mind told my body "can't do that anymore". If I had not been told that, I know I would've kept drinking and my life would have continued to spiral. The saying about hitting rock bottom is very very true, so what is the secret to stopping before you hit it?

I never realized how much time you consume while consuming so when I quit I had a large void of time to fill... I think it was a blessing to find BladeForums to not only reinforce my admiration for knives but also to give me a social outlet that is POSITIVE! The Porch is the place to be In addition to my time spent here and getting healthier, in the last 5 years I was able to turn my finances around, buy my first house, made ownership at my company (made Board of Directors as well) and married my loving wife Of course with time there are always new challenges and nothing is ever perfect but at least my outlets for dealing with daily stresses have become healthier for me So if your New Years resolution was to quit drinking or at least limit it... I for one can tell you that it can be done and you definitely will not be disappointed

Congrats, Kevin; that's quite a testimonial!! (Sounds like Star Trek TNG was the equivalent of my trip to Spain! )

- GT

 

[5K Qs]

Heroic story Kevin

I'm not sure what Nyquil is, but I don't think I'd want any of that

jack - easy recipe for making your own nyquil -- crush up 2 diphenhydramine tablets (Bendryl is a brand here) and dissolve them into a shot of jagermeister or cherry heering.

Hot tea + sugar + lemon + rum has the same effect, including weird dreams, all without chemistry.

honeyed whiskey is a thing over here -- we keep a bottle in the fridge as cough syrup.
put a shot in the microwave for 10 seconds to get it up to body temp and toss it back then take a deep breath.
cuts through all the nasty stuff at the back of your throat and the fumes open your lungs up.

Hot water, half a grated lime, grated fresh ginger, a teaspoon of cinnamon, and honey works pretty well for congestion and sore throat.

Of course rye whiskey over rock candy works too or crush up some peppermint candy sticks.

...
My cold toddy usually combines fresh ginger, lemon or lime juice, and finely chopped chilli and garlic. I make it into a tea, and drink plenty of it

Way I do it is put honey, fresh sqeezed lemon juice, bourbon, and boiling water together. I think it's called a "hot toddy". It helps.

Moonshine and Horehound Candy You break up the candy sticks and drop them in the white liquor and they will dissolve. My grandmother kept a jar in the cabinet and any time someone got sick she'd grab that nasty stuff but it worked. She was also a big fan of castor oil It's a wonder that I lived through childhood with all the "cures" my family used. Another was if you got into poison ivy or oak you would get painted with white shoe polish. If you got stung by a bee someone would chew up some tobacco right fast and stick on the bee sting. I could go on but I'll just say growing up in rural Appalachia was never dull.

LOL! Incredible Randy! Did you have an old uncle who slept in a coffin too?! My grandmother used to administer 'raspberry vinegar' in a similar fashion, and rub your chest with camphor and eucalyptus - her mother used to eat Vaseline to stave off colds!

Lots of interesting home remedies here!
But nobody to advocate homeopathic approaches?!?
My Dad claims that his mom used to administer a tablespoon of kerosene to him and his siblings with respiratory ailments!

- GT

 

[JB in SC]

Moonshine and Horehound Candy You break up the candy sticks and drop them in the white liquor and they will dissolve. My grandmother kept a jar in the cabinet and any time someone got sick she'd grab that nasty stuff but it worked. She was also a big fan of castor oil It's a wonder that I lived through childhood with all the "cures" my family used. Another was if you got into poison ivy or oak you would get painted with white shoe polish. If you got stung by a bee someone would chew up some tobacco right fast and stick on the bee sting. I could go on but I'll just say growing up in rural Appalachia was never dull.

I experienced all those "cures" with the exception of white shoe polish (calamine lotion), we didn't use moonshine when I was growing up, but I'm sure it was used during prohibition. My family Doc suggested whiskey and honey with lemon for my late mother when she was having a terrible time with congestion. Rick Bragg's article in Southern Living's Feb 2015 issue "Take your Medicine Boy" tells a great story about moonshine and candy. And Lordy my late mother used castor oil on everything including her knees.

 

[Jack Black]

My Dad claims that his mom used to administer a tablespoon of kerosene to him and his siblings with respiratory ailments!

POWs in the Far East in WW2 and Korea swallowed it to get rid of worms! Apparently it made you sick, but made the worms a lot sicker!

 

[r8shell]

I experienced all those "cures" with the exception of white shoe polish (calamine lotion), we didn't use moonshine when I was growing up, but I'm sure it was used during prohibition. My family Doc suggested whiskey and honey with lemon for my late mother when she was having a terrible time with congestion. Rick Bragg's article in Southern Living's Feb 2015 issue "Take your Medicine Boy" tells a great story about moonshine and candy. And Lordy my late mother used castor oil on everything including her knees.

My father was born during prohibition, in 1930. His mother's doctor prescribed medicinal whiskey for her (some sort of post-partum condition, I don't know) Grandma wouldn't touch the stuff, so my dad still has the whiskey bottle, sealed in a tin with a pharmacy label.

 

[JB in SC]

My father was born during prohibition, in 1930. His mother's doctor prescribed medicinal whiskey for her (some sort of post-partum condition, I don't know) Grandma wouldn't touch the stuff, so my dad still has the whiskey bottle, sealed in a tin with a pharmacy label.

The US Treasury issued watermarked certificates to pharmacists for dispensing whiskey (Spirits Frumenti). My wife's great uncle had several on display in his office, he was a pharmacist and had owned a pharmacy since the late 40's. I had never seen or heard of one until we visited him in the mid 70's. It was a very interesting piece of history.

 

[JohnDF]

And unlike the situation that obtained for most of my youth and early adulthood, I don't think it'll be 20 years before their next playoff win.

I remember those days well.

 

[Grateful]

My father was born during prohibition, in 1930. His mother's doctor prescribed medicinal whiskey for her (some sort of post-partum condition, I don't know) Grandma wouldn't touch the stuff, so my dad still has the whiskey bottle, sealed in a tin with a pharmacy label.

I don’t have a prescription but am convinced a little bourbon will cure what ails you.

 

[Misplaced Hillbilly]

My brother in laws grandmother dipped her finger in a jar of vic's salve and would eat it it, every morning for decades. She passed away 2 days after her 100th birthday. Also in her early 90's( still fairly spry and sharp of wit) one of her doctors advised her to give up cigarettes, saying she would live longer. She responded "HELL! I've already outlived most of my children"

 

[Misplaced Hillbilly]

Oh I've been fixed a many "hot toddy" growing up and sent to bed to sleep off a cold. A warm mixture of honey, raw ginseng, cinnamon with a decent pull of moonshine.

 

[Misplaced Hillbilly]

I could go on but I'll just say growing up in rural Appalachia was never dull.

Ain't THAT the truth
Ever had yellow root tea for a sore throat? It works, and works good but my God! That's the most bitter stuff known to mankind. A spoonful of sugar may help Mary Poppins's medicine go down, but SHE obviously never had to endure yellow root a spoonful wouldn't touch it

 

[Will Power]

I'm amused and interested by all these homely remedies I'd steer clear of the kerosene/paraffin stuff though, likely very carciogenic

Wonder if people still apply leeches In old fashioned public saunas here they used to cup blood using glass bottles .....

 

[Prester John]

Oh I've been fixed a many "hot toddy" growing up and sent to bed to sleep off a cold. A warm mixture of honey, raw ginseng, cinnamon with a decent pull of moonshine.

I'm going to have to save all these recipes being posted!

 

[DelOro]

Chicago Bears FG Kicker!

It's hysterical watching the *Bears Mascot* fall over!

[video added]

 

[r redden]

we didn't use moonshine when I was growing up

My Grandfather had a still so there was always moonshine in my family they used it for everything and when anyone had a shot of it they called it
having a "snort of shine".

 

[Gevonovich]

Gevonovich Thanks for your kind words & thoughts Gev my friend Right ribs are OK but one on the left which must've been fractured is still painful when sleeping but it's improving greatly. What is a danger though is that the temps are around freezing here and paths & pavement like shiny glass Really slippery I have to put these crampon type things on over the heels when going out as I fear falling.

At least there are TWO knives in the post for me, they MIGHT arrive next week but sooner or later Nothing like having a knife on its way to you

Regards, Will

Good to hear the ribs are healing ! Crampons to go outside...omg ! I wonder how many wear golf shoes Stay safe and I look forward to seeing whats in the package too

 

[veitsi_poika]

I'm going to have to save all these recipes being posted!

Since we're talking about it, my favorite home remedy WAS:

In a 16oz mug add 12oz of hot water and add a bag of regular Lipton lemon tea... let it steep for a couple minutes. Then add 1 tablespoon of honey, 1 pat of salted butter and 2 shots of Seagram's 7 Dark Honey whiskey. Stir and enjoy. Most people that have tried it absolutely love it

 

[veitsi_poika]

Chicago Bears FG Kicker!

It's hysterical watching the *Bears Mascot* fall over!

[video added]

I did not care either way who won this game, but, am I the only person that thinks it is incredibly unsportsmanlike to call timeouts a split second before the guy kicks the field goal the first time? This never used to happen when I watch games as a kid and I think coaches started doing it about 10-15 years ago. Coaches used to call timeout well before the play started just to make the Kicker think about it more "or ice him" which I thought was great, let him deal with any demons in his head and then let him kick it. But nowadays Kickers are being forced to kick the game winning field goal TWICE and I think that is unsportsmanlike. This quote is from an article from 2007 and pretty much sums up how I feel about it:

"There's nothing inherently wrong with icing the kicker, a practice that has been employed, sometimes successfully and sometimes not, in many of the biggest games in NFL history. But it's usually been done simply to give the kicker more time to stew over the task ahead of him, as it was when the Giants called timeout before Bills kicker Scott Norwood missed a field goal at the end of Super Bowl XXV.

Calling timeout just as the ball is about to be snapped is a different matter.

For fans, the end of a game becomes less fun if they don't know whether the field goal they're watching is real, or whether a coach on the sideline has rendered it moot. The NFL needs to stop forcing kickers to make two game-winning field goals."

 

[Prester John]

I did not care either way who won this game, but, am I the only person that thinks it is incredibly unsportsmanlike to call timeouts a split second before the guy kicks the field goal the first time? This never used to happen when I watch games as a kid and I think coaches started doing it about 10-15 years ago. Coaches used to call timeout well before the play started just to make the Kicker think about it more "or ice him" which I thought was great, let him deal with any demons in his head and then let him kick it. But nowadays Kickers are being forced to kick the game winning field goal TWICE and I think that is unsportsmanlike. This quote is from an article from 2007 and pretty much sums up how I feel about it:

"There's nothing inherently wrong with icing the kicker, a practice that has been employed, sometimes successfully and sometimes not, in many of the biggest games in NFL history. But it's usually been done simply to give the kicker more time to stew over the task ahead of him, as it was when the Giants called timeout before Bills kicker Scott Norwood missed a field goal at the end of Super Bowl XXV.

Calling timeout just as the ball is about to be snapped is a different matter.

For fans, the end of a game becomes less fun if they don't know whether the field goal they're watching is real, or whether a coach on the sideline has rendered it moot. The NFL needs to stop forcing kickers to make two game-winning field goals."

I agree: unsportsmanlike. I also think dancing in the endzone is unsportsmanlike. What would Johnny Unitas say?