Rainy Monday

Here’s a quick view of yesterday’s dim sum… a feast for the eyes and the stomach!  I’m happily reliving it, and I thought you’d enjoy a quick view.  Jerry has been extra bossy and has had me taking him out for more walks, regardless of my level of tiredness.  We just got back because he decided that he absolutely had to go out in the rain… he’s now letting me know that his paws got wet and he doesn’t like having wet feet.  Don is feeling a bit better again, which is good.  Have I mentioned that I really don’t like it when he’s unwell?  I have much less stress when he’s well, and less stress is good!

My sugar again dropped badly last night, around 8pm.  I honestly don’t understand why.  We’ve reassessed my insulin use and reduced it considerably, and I was advised to be sure to eat before bed — something with protein and carbohydrates— to stabilize my sugars.  I’ve also got an emergency stock of chocolate (Thanks to L for contributing some excellent bars to my stash!), honey and juice to jump start my sugar if it drops too low.  We’re monitoring closely, so I hope things improve before the end of the month!

I think that Uncle P will be happy to hear that I’ve been occupying myself by doing some math problems to hone my problem solving skills.  They’re mostly algebraic, and occasionally word problems which require the application of logic and critical thinking skills.  I’m definitely rusty in my recollection of several of the rules (mainly related to trigonometry) so I admit to being thankful for the internet and the ability to find answers to many questions.  I’ve been revising — or relearning — things like calculating sine/cosine; remembering how to calculate areas and volumes and all those things that I used to have at my fingertips in school.  Not having used those formulae in <mumble> years, they aren’t as rapidly recalled as they once were, but working to remember them is surprisingly fun!

I’m often dismayed at the number of people who seem to be dreadfully illiterate (innumerate?) when it comes to arithmetic!  I’m not talking about higher functions, or complex theorems, but basic addition/subtraction/multiplication/division.  It’s astounding how many people don’t seem to understand that anything multiplied by 0 is 0 (or if you divide 0 by any other number, the answer is 0)  Actually, someone argued that 10% of $100 varies depending on the currency — that 10% of US$100 is more than 10% of TT$100.  They refused to accept that it would be $10 regardless of the currency.  (We weren’t discussing the cost of currency conversion, just straight calculation of 10%)  I know that it’s popular to complain that math is difficult (I admit to struggling myself in my time) but honestly, the same people who complain about how hard/boring/pointless it is to do math will spend literally hours trying to beat a level in a video game (which is just one way of seeing math in action in the real world.)  I may decide to spend some time learning game theory and perhaps fractals, but that will be in a time when I’m in need of serious challenges to my brain.

OK, that’s tonight’s rambling.  I’m explaining to a small dog that it’s 9:00pm, it’s dark and raining and he’s NOT going out again tonight!  I’ve barely dried off from earlier this evening when he insisted that he had to go out!  Wish me luck!!  Good night.