An Excursion & A New Light

Wanna guess who woke up covered in itchy hives the last two mornings? This girl. And no, it wasn’t Splenda. That is gone for good. But I am clearly reacting to something else—some supplement that I am taking. I had no reaction Sunday night because I don’t take supplements on Sundays—just my prescriptions. So now comes the fun process of stopping all of them and then adding just one thing at a time until I figure out what it is. *deep sigh* I am so tired of this situation.

Yesterday started with itching, obviously, but I still had plenty to do. I had to go buy a couple of grocery items and put gas in the car because we were going to need it.

I couldn’t do many of the things I wanted to do because we had no internet. Jasper saw some guys out working so we all assumed they were working on our line or something. But when I inquired online (via my phone), right before we left for Dallas, it turns out that it was all my fault. My debit card renewed in June, and I thought I’d updated my information with all the stuff that is automatically billed, but turns out I missed the internet provider. So they cut us off. Fortunately, I was able to pay over the phone and get service reinstated. Not thrilled about the late payment penalty, however.

We left for the Dallas area shortly after 2:00. This is something my husband did to please me, but I know he didn’t want to go. I had gotten us tickets to see a documentary I’ve been waiting to see for almost two years—Healing Humanity: The Power of a Proper Human Diet. This movie is the brainchild of Kerry Mann, whom I’ve been following on social media for two years. He is the one, more than any other online influencer, who inspired me to move from keto to carnivore, because he, like me, was also diagnosed with congestive heart failure.

So, I was willing to drive 150 miles to see the movie in a theater. They are hoping to release it on a streaming service soon. I had followed the making of the movie and seen many clips from it. I couldn’t wait to see the finished product.

The theater was in Grapevine, so we drove there and had an early supper first. We had left early intentionally in hopes of escaping the worst of the DFW rush hour—and we did. We tried to linger over our supper, but I hated to keep taking up a table when the supper rush was about to start. So we continued on to downtown Grapevine and found a parking spot near the theater.

My thought was that maybe we should try to take a little nap in the car, because we had almost an hour and a half to kill before the doors opened, and I knew we’d be up very late. Walter thought it would be more fun to walk around Grapevine in 100-degree heat, so that’s what we did. Here are a few of the things we saw:

I caught a glimpse of myself in a mirror in one store we walked through, and my whole face was bright red from the heat. I really don’t handle it well.

We headed back to the car to get our water bottles and wraps when we saw a line forming outside the theater.

This is the first carnivore event I’ve ever been to, after two years of this lifestyle. I was pretty jazzed about seeing Kerry Mann in person. I had never before met someone I follow on YouTube.

Instead of popcorn, they were selling jerky and sparkling water—and Healing Humanity merchandise.

It was an interesting experience in so many ways. I don’t think I’d ever been to a movie where the entire audience was likeminded. I think Kerry said there were 237 of us. There should have been more! We could easily have fit another 50 people in there.

Kerry introduced the movie and then it started. I was so glad I’d brought my alpaca wrap because I needed it. The AC made the theater quite chilly, especially after having been out in the heat for more than an hour. The documentary follows the stories of several people with different issues—extreme obesity, autoimmune disease, cancer, psoriasis, and mental health disorders. Their stories are intercut with interviews with experts (mostly doctors), all of whom I am very familiar with by this stage of the game.

I found it very inspiring. And since I saw it with a large group of fellow carnivores, there were many points in the movie where a familiar face came on the screen or someone said something very relevant, and we all clapped. Afterward, there was a Q&A session which I also found interesting. When that ended, I had a chance to get a selfie with Kerry:

And also to plug the movie on camera. I don’t know if they’ll use it, but I was tickled to get to do it.

It was close to 10:30 by the time we returned to the car and headed for home. I had hoped that Walter would find the movie inspiring or at least thought provoking, but he had nothing to say. You win some, you lose some. We drove home while watching a huge orange half-moon rising in front of us.

Jasper contacted me when we were almost home. He was still up, trying to locate all our water toys—pool noodles, inflatables, etc. And he hadn’t been able to find the pump for pumping stuff up. Fortunately, I remembered exactly where it was, and by the time we arrived home a little after 12:30, he had successfully inflated a couple of different things.

You’d think I would have slept in this morning after not getting to bed until 1:00, but remember: painful itchy hives. I got up at my normal time. Jasper was already up and gathering up everything he’d need for a fun day at the lake with his friends.

I delayed my shower and breakfast in order to let Walter sleep in until 8:00, then rushed through my morning routine so I could be ready for my Wednesday morning Zoom at 9:00.

I started working on Sunday’s presentation, and realized it would be nice to have a photo of Walter’s family when he was growing up on the mission field (just by way of introduction), so I asked him to find one. One thing led to another. And another. Before long I was scanning a large number of old photos that have now joined the “to be restored” file on my computer. It was a bit of a rabbit trail, but a fun one.

Meanwhile, Walter was out working in the heat again. He has started painting the back side of the screen door, which is poorly designed. There is no way it will look as good as it should, but we made the best choice we could. I mean, for $16 what did we expect? Then he went to work on the light over the side door. This was my request. The old light by the side door is so far away from the door it’s not useful except to light your way up the ramp. Then you reach the top and you’re basically in a dark cave and can’t see the door lock. So we picked out a new light and today he installed it. The old one is still there, and the same switch turns them both on. It’s awesome. I’ll show you a photo when the whole thing is done—lights, painting, and screen door.

This afternoon I got back to work on the presentation. I am really out of practice. It will probably take me right up till Saturday night to get it done.

Jasper returned home from the lake before supper, waterlogged and tired from swimming. He had a great time with his buddies. I’m so glad he made the effort to put that excursion together.

Joy Spark: Yesterday’s was meeting Kerry after watching him on YouTube for at least two years! Today’s was a surprise rain shower in the middle of the afternoon. In August! And it wasn’t on the forecast at all.

Wednesday Word of the Day:

quisquous—hard to deal with; dubious, perplexing. I’ve received several quisquous emails lately from people who claim they want to help me promote my books.

Parting Shot:

Another recently restored wayback photo. This is me and my brothers Jon and Matt with my friend Janis and her brother Jonathan, posing with the plane before flying off to boarding school (Sakeji). You know, at the time I don’t remember realizing how tall I was compared to everyone else! I think I was in fourth grade here.