4 days without having to replace the blinds!!

I have made it through another week, and 4 days without surprises from the canine wonder. I think he is settling in. Of course it helps that I am now getting up at 6 to walk him to the dog park and let him run around before I go to work, and do the same after work. And I have been feeding him home made grub. I think of his problem was an upset tummy. So I went to Walmart and loaded up on chicken, lean ground beef, and rice to make for him. Suggested by some online site. What was sad was that what I had in my cart was far superior, nutritionally speaking, to the contents of any other cart in line. It seems that everyone lives on white bread, bologna, hot dogs, chips, twinkies and Coke, cuz that was what virtually every cart was filled with.

Another plus to the night time routine is that we have taken to walking from the park to the downtown area where they have Native dancing every night. Last night we saw some Zuni dancers performing the deer dance and the buffalo dance. Plus they usually perform some music. And I didn't realize it until I looked up the web site (nightlyindiandance.com) but the dancing area looks like a Papago basket from above.

I haven't hit it up yet, but when Rich comes to visit next week we are going to do a family outing to the dog park, then to the dances, and then to the food cart. Portland, eat your heart out. We are going to have mutton sandwiches on fry bread. Or maybe a Navajo burger (burger on fry bread). Or a Navajo taco(taco fixings on fry bread).

From the above paragraphs it should be obvious what kind of medical problems I have been treating. Diabetes and High blood pressure. Everyone has it. I really wish I knew where this diet came from. I mean, an occasional fry bread something is okay, but some of these guys have fry bread with every meal. I am relatively certain it was not a part of the ancestral food fare.

Until today I was seeing patients with chronic illnesses that were being followed at the clinic. I was amazed at how well spoken they were, how well dressed all were, most knew at least some of their meds, and were interested in learning about their disease processes and were willing to make some changes to get better. Today I started doing the walk in clinic. Now I am getting introduced to the seedier side of the res. All of a sudden I am seeing the consequences of fights under the influence of alcohol, drug seekers, and folks just wanting the magic pill. I think life is going to get more interesting. And sad.