A week ago today a terrible storm moved through the Memphis area. Shortly after noon, the storm system moved into our county. I immediately turned on my police scanner / weather storm spotter channels (I am a licensed HAM radio operator and monitor Ham channels listening to the weather service converse with storm spotters across the area) and listened for bulletins about the storm from the National Weather Service. Much to my dismay I heard of a funnel cloud moving in the direction of our subdivision. Here at my office, I was more concerned about getting people to safety as we could not hear the warning sirens due to the noise of the storm. After the weather had settled down, I began to hear reports of some damage in the area. My wife was traveling back from being out-of-town, so I could not phone her to check on our home. My website was down, a signal that power was out at our house since my website runs on a server at home. So, after getting more anxious about the situation I phoned our neighbor. He had also been in another part of town during the storm, however was back home. He indicated that there were trees down in numerous locations around our neighborhood but he had not looked at our home to see if there was any damage. He agreed to go across the street and inspect our home and call me back. When he called back he related that there were no broken windows or shingles missing, but that our north fence had been blown down and that everything in our back yard was "upside down". I decided to leave work and head home to check the damage. The drive home (8 miles) which usually takes about 25 minutes in moderate traffic took almost an hour due to non-functioning traffic lights along the way and the main thoroughfares were clogged with slow-moving traffic. I finally made it to our area and immediately noticed storm related damage. I arrived home about the time my wife drove in from out-of-town. Together, we assessed the damage.
Our back yard was a mess. Lawn furniture and large flower pots had literally been turned upside down. There was debris stuck to the siding on the back of our home. And, we did lose about 45 feet of fence. Thankfully our roof was not damaged. Obviously, something similar to a tornado had caused this damage. It was something more akin to a mild tornado rather than just straight-line winds. We were so thankful that this damage was limited.
So, I put my GERD and my aching joints to the test. I spent the remainder of the day with my chain saw cutting up the damaged fence, taking to the curb for sanitation pickup, and assisting neighbors cut up their downed trees and hauling to the curb for pickup. All the while it was raining lightly and cold. Finally, about 8 PM, cold, soaking wet, and exhausted, I finished and called it a day. Duly noted was that my GERD did not kick into overdrive as it usually does when I engage in physical labor, especially tasks that require alot of lifting and bending over.
Then, this Saturday, I began the task of rebuilding the fence (our dogs were already tired of staying inside). I went to Lowe's and got supplies for phase 1. Using the old fashion way, I dug 30 inch deep post holes for the posts using a posthole digger. I then aligned and set all the posts in concrete, a delicate and dirty process. This required several hours of bending, lifting, and being stooped over, which usually sends my GERD into overdrive.
However, I am please to say that after a day of hard labor, my GERD was fine but my muscles were aching. I was also anxious to see if the Glucosamine treatments had helped my elbow joints. I'm only 2/3 through the ramp-up of Glucosamine (90 days before seeing results). I DO think the Glucosamine is helping! Although my elbows (broken on left and chipped on right) were sore, they were better than would have been normal.
So, I am encouraged on two fronts:
1. The alkaline diet is definitely helping my GERD
2. The Glucosamine seems to be helping my joints
More to report as time goes along. BTW, I will finish the fence this weekend!!
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