i worked hard at the street mission yesterday,
shovelling snow, hauling bags of donations up
from the basement, hauling heavy garbage bins
around, etc.

i would have wanted to have another power walk
on the mountain of love and do pushups routine,
but i knew that i need to cool it a bit. so i
came home and layed down for a while. i fell
deeply asleep for 2 hours. when i woke up i had
no idea where i was, what time or what year it was,
or who i was! deep, deep sleep!

so i was wondering how soon i would be ready for
bed last night, and how much beer i would need to
initiate sleep. i drank 250 ml of 10.5% beer at
11:20 pm, and slept like a rock at the bottom of
the sea for nearly 4.5 hours. at 4 a.m. i drank
just 160 ml beer and slept again until 8:30 a.m.
soon i will be able to drop that extra portion
of beer and be able to sleep peacefully.

what a treat to have the dendrobium orchid! as i
look at the herb again, i can see that it is more
like $60-$80 worth of herb, if i was to buy it
in smaller portions. me very happy cat! it goes
together so well with kirin ginseng, astragalus,
and deer antler.

last night i drank 500 ml of strong beer spaced out
over three portions. i fell deeply asleep on just
250 ml. that was very nice, indeed.

when my chinese herbalist saw the bottle of cognac
that i had brought for him, he clapped his hands
and disappeared into the back room. i knew that he
had some kind of surprise for me. sometimes he gives
me a high quality ginseng root, or some kind of special
treat like that, to celebrate our 18th anniversary.

he knows that i really, really like the effects of
a certain species of dendrobium orchid. in cantonese
it is called suk hok, among other names. but it has
been very hard to get lately, except at high over-
blown prices. one reason for this is that it has
made a big splash in athletic training formulae. it is
acquiring some prestige amongst power athletes and
bodybuilders, etc.

it is considered a yin tonic, but when it is added
to ginseng, astragalus, deer antler, etc. it has
a catalytic boost effect and smooths everything out.
i especially like it in the heat of the summer with yin
white american ginseng.

but, you know, i thought that he would open this new
bag of wholesale size, more than one pound of dried herb.
i was expecting maybe three ounces of it. instead he
pushed the whole bag into me and said, "this for you"!
it would be the equivalent of $50 at least if i was
to buy it at regular smaller portions. maybe more.

he also gave me a big discount on deer antler and
astragulus. i have a huge smile on my face now. he is
a very special friend to me.

i am looking forward to a good power walk in the
new deep snowfall on the mountain of love with the
big yang boost of good herbs.

i had a wonderful hard workout in the snowy woods
yesterday and then came home for pushups and abdos.
the toughest workout since finishing with flu.

last night i drank 275 ml of 10.5% beer at bedtime.
i woke at 1:30 a.m. to pee and drank 175 ml more.

slept in until 9:15 delicious deep, deep sleep.
so there is still 150 ml strong beer in the jar.
total 350 for the whole night.

and those doctors can take those anti-depressants
and shove them up their collective ass! ha! ha!

i feel good like i know i should.

christmas day done and gone, gone, gone.

today i am going to go out and find a bottle of cognac
for my chinese herbalist to give him for our 18th anni-
versary.

i had a very good night's sleep. i checked for updates
for software, then went to email to see what FB status
updates were directed my way. and once again i could see
that someone else had read my first email from FB before
me. isn't that special? what an expression of personal
power and dominance, eh? i am very impressed, to say the
least!

i think i know who it is, too. he has such a pathetic,
stupid little life that breaking into other peoples'
email is a big thrill. imagine that! he can see my FB
updates before me! wow!

as i said, i had a very good deep sleep. up to pee twice.
and i have to say that i managed that good sleep with
just 500 ml of strong beer, too! that is a good sign.

2.5 years ago i was prescribed a sleeping pill, called
zopiclone, because i had an attack of scabies parasites.
sleep was impossible while i was trying to treat my two
cats and myself for the invasion. when you are on welfare
and have a lot of laundry to do, there is not enough $$
to go around. it was pure hell.

anyway, i got hooked on the sleeping pill. as i was getting
a handle on the scabies, i had an attack from a different
arthropod - bedbugs! i stayed on the zopiclone for a few
more weeks than i should have.

i consulted with at least three different doctors, who all
told me emphatically - do not try to taper off zopiclone!
do not shave the pill down or try to go cold turkey. bad
things will happen if you do! you need to go on to an
anti-depressant for at least one year and then taper off
the anti-depressant over a few months.

so, anyway, i discovered that soaking myself with 10.5%
alcohol beer is a good way to compensate for the nasty
effects of the sleeping pill. so i got drunk with the
funky monk every night. at one point i was drinking close
to 2 litres of 10.5% beer in order to sleep for 7-8
hours.

last night i started with just 275 ml beer, smiling with
the monk, and then drank another 225 ml around 1:30 a.m.
and slept straight through to 7:30 a.m.

one night recently i drank only 300 ml for the entire night,
and i managed to get 6 hours of very deep sleep.

my chinese herbalist has been helping me as well, even
though i do not really have enough $$ to buy the herbs
that would help me the most. he has given me deep discounts
on my essential herbs, wonderful man.

so, my email is as secure as a broken screen door, my
eagerness for walking in the snowy woods is very much intact,
i am almost finished with the necessity of strong beer to
get to sleep, and i love to come to NN to look at all
the naked bums! onward and upward we go!

today at the street mission where i volunteer
we will give out the big xmas hampers to poor
people here in our neighbourhood.

we have 132 boxes prepared, but we may also
put together more for those who show up but not
registered. each box weighs between 60-75 lbs.
people have to improvise to get the food back home.

i am gonna be going around in the van taking boxes
to those people who are not capable of taking their
boxes home by themselves. shutins, a few handicapped
folks, you know.

it is gonna be a long, tough day. and we got snow
and rain coming down all the livelong day. one last
big push and it will all be quiet for the holidays.

sometimes in traditonal chinese martial arts they
use the question "can you drink bitter?" for the
person doing the hard training. in that sense,
the physical pain is bitter, hard to swallow.

in the beginning, when you switch your metabolic
fundamentals over the 5-element way, you have to
drink a lot of packages of very bitter herbs.
according to chinese medicine, almost all westerners
have a metabolism that is hot internally and cold
externally. the bitter herbs will help to achieve
better balance of inner-outer chi circulation.

so i did that transition many years ago. it is not
very often that my packages of dried herbs that i
take home to cook are too bitter to swallow. sometimes
my herbalists would give me some candied plums or
something else to hold in the mouth while sipping
the bitter herb brews. sometimes i would puke right
after swallowing. i remember that clearly.

this formula that i am now drinking as i type is
only slightly bitter. but it is quite over-whelmingly
pungent. there are two subspecies of horsemint that
are extremely hard to swallow. i can feel the effects
in my lungs and sinuses and ears immediately. i am
sweating and throwing off the deep stagnation, moment
by moment. i have extra clothes on, and a scarf
around my neck.

also, i can feel big relief in my face. when i was
coughing so hard, i could feel pain around my eye
sockets and cheekbones. it is very good to get some
release of tension there as well.

my herbalist always puts some haw flake candies in
my bag of packages, just out of habit. i do not need
to use them in this case. i enjoy sucking on them,
though. they are very tasty.

coughing has subsided, everything is relaxing. when
i do cough, i am much more successful in bringing
up the yuck to get rid of.

doing so much better. i slept very well last
night. maybe nine hours of sleep all told.
the herbs helped to release all the congestion.
i am just now starting to cook up the second
package of herbs, according to his instructions.

it is a mild bronchitis. but we also have a lot
of smog today, so i am feeling kinda down about
that. i will go out for a short walk later on.

my herbalist is about 84 years old, very tiny
man, but i am so impressed with his strength
and vitality. i have seen him just recently
bend and pick up huge heavy boxes right off the
floor. i would not try to fight with him. i am
pretty sure that he could throw me across the
room if he really wanted to.

i am feeling bad about not being available for
my food bank chores today, but on the phone
i was reassured that there are enough volunteers
around today to get everything done.

in the summer, my herbalist will close his shop
for good. the building has been sold, and he
will not try to reopen somewhere else. i am a
bit worried about that. i want to be sure that
he will not degenerate into sadness and fade away.
he has said that he will continue to see me for
consultations in his own home. and that he will
still come to chinatown to hang out with his
friends for coffee here and there.

just after xmas i will take him a bottle of cognac
to say thanks for all the good care he has given
me over the past eighteen years. he was the very
first person that i met here in montreal when i
first came here to visit.

i have been fighting a respiratory flu bug since sunday.
now it is thursday. i made it much worse for myself
with a stupid mistake.

i have continued to work out, stay really active and
continued to take the yang power tonics, just trying
to blast my way through the congestion. this is a
big mistake.

when i go see my herbalist in chinatown in a couple
hours, he is gonna shake his head and give me that
look of disbelief, and ask me if i have rocks in
my head. he will make up the packages of herbs for
me to clear out the heat stagnation, and give me
a stern warning about the yang tonics.

he has done this for me so many times. i have been
using chinese herbs for more than twenty years now.
i would think that i should know better.

i hardly slept a wink last night. i fell asleep in
my rocking chair all covered up, cuz if i laid down
in bed i just kept coughing and coughing and coughing.
feel like hell, but soon be feeling better when i get
back to the shack and cook the herbs that i need.

today would ordinarily be a workout day. the core
of it would be a run of 60-90 minutes, followed by
pushups, abdominals and some weights back at the shack.

but the smog has been so bad today that i decided to just
take it real easy. if i work out hard in weather like
this i get sore lungs and sinuses. get a big stinkin head-
ache.

i think we got up to 7 degrees on the centipede scale,
hazy sunshine. real ugly air.

so i walked on the mountain of love for almost 2 hours.
there is no photosynthesis happening here any more, so
you cannot get any relief in the woods. you cannot go
the oxygen factory and breathe it into yr lungs.

we are relying on the oxygen being produced elsewhere.

i have a big 6x6 window in my shack that faces northwest. this is an old building, and not well-insulated, so that window absolutely must be caulked and taped and fitted with a plastic film bubble.

i am not good at carpenter or handyman work, but i managed to get it done, nun the less.

and yes, i am blogging again about the unhappy little monster in the next building who plays his bass super loud. he thinks that we should appreciate the concert for free. unhappy little shit is so needy and so useless. he played for about 7 minutes super loud on his bass.

now i am getting dressed for a run on the mountain of love. there might not be many more running days left, so i am going to enjoy it as well as i can. i think it is about 2 degrees on the centipede scale.