Category: health & fitness

Switching to Shoppers Drug Mart

On By Rick McIn health & fitness, product endorsements, travelLeave a comment

Shoppers Drug Mart is Canada’s largest pharmacy chain with over 1000 stores.

As I hope to become — yet again — a traveller, I’m thinking it might be better (in future) to have in-person access to all these stores.

Since I went on blood pressure medications a few years ago, I’ve been dealing with local, independent pharmacies. Good service, but they rarely have what I need in stock.

So … I’ve made a second trip back in person to pick up my DRUGS.

That’s been a hassle a few times over the years, as I travel so much.

The independents and Shoppers both now ship for free — but I have more faith in the big company.

Actually, I would have gone with Amazon Canada Pharmacy — but they haven’t launched that service yet.

ESSENTIAL Travel to Banff

On By Rick McIn ethics, health & fitness, travel1 Comment

I flew for the first time in a year — Vancouver Island to Calgary.

Essential travel to get my first vaccine March 18th.

Essential Doctor’s appointment next day. I hadn’t had an annual medical in over 15 months.

LAB TESTS Calgary are run by a monopoly ~ Alberta Precision Laboratories. Not enough capacity — obviously — as my first available slot was April 12th.

Happily, I could get lab tests in Banff March 23rd.

Travel out of Banff is non-essential, … so I better stay until my vaccine starts to kick in. 😀

Lounging-in-place in my US $60+ / night private hostel room. Only departing for essential food and drink.

And EXERCISE, of course. That’s essential too.

The Midnight Library by Matt Haig

On By Rick McIn books, health & fitness, philosophyLeave a comment

Nora Seed decides to commit suicide.

And finds herself offered a chance to reinvent her life by going back and making different major life decisions.

Some include Nora becoming a glaciologist, Olympic swimmer, and rock star.

Haig put together this construct to talk philosophically about regret, hope and second chances. The author is a a champion of mental health causes. Instead of preaching medical science, he puts the same messages across in an entertaining narrative.

I found the book very uplifting.

Between life and death there is a library, and within that library, the shelves go on forever.

Every book provides a chance to try another life you could have lived. To see how things would be if you had made other choices

. . . Would you have done anything different, if you had the chance to undo your regrets?”

MattHaig.com

Click PLAY or meet Matt on YouTube.

$5 trillion COVID relief mostly gone to the RICH

On By Rick McIn ethics, GOP USA, government, health & fitness, things getting worseLeave a comment

American taxpayers are throwing around money like drunken sailers.

WHY have the outcomes been so lousy?

Just 400 wealthy families provide about half the funding for presidential campaigns, and they speedball their influence through think tanks, legal advocacy groups, and friendly media.

Rupert Murdoch, the Mercer family, Michael Bloomberg, Mark Zuckerberg, and Jeff Bezos all shape our views and influence national policy.  …

… $3 trillion in new money and historically low interest rates have been the nitro and the glycerin, respectively, of the stock market’s ascent.

The dirty secret is that there are two pandemics. While a quarter of America is food insecure and behind on rent, the shareholder class has experienced an explosion in net worth …

Professor Galloway

Excellent Video on Climate Change

On By Rick McIn bad news, clean water, climate change, economics, ethics, government, health & fitness, things getting worseLeave a comment

The best resource I’ve seen so far on the very alarming and complicated topic.

Click PLAY or watch it on YouTube.

My ONLINE doctor – Babylon by TELUS

On By Rick McIn health & fitness, product endorsementsLeave a comment

Babylon by TELUS Health lets you see a doctor* or mental health counsellor from your phone, where and when it’s convenient for you.

Works well. Covered by Alberta Health Care.

TELUS Canada partnered with the UK-based company Babylon

I downloaded the IOS app. Got an appointment quickly. No hassle. Very efficient use of my time.

Video conferenced with two different doctors via my phone. Both excellent.

In my case I merely needed to renew prescriptions. But if it had been something more complicated they’d refer me to a real life specialist.

Click PLAY or watch it on YouTube.

Click PLAY or watch it on YouTube.

CANCELLED my 1st flight since March

On By Rick McIn health & fitness, humour, McCharles family, travelLeave a comment

To Calgary.

… Or was it Chernobyl? 😀

I was prepared. With a POINT 1 NANO mask. Supposedly N97.

Shield. And Shadyrays.

But Alberta is suffering badly from COVID. 1,828 new cases Friday and 15 additional deaths.

So I decided to stay on Vancouver Island at least through New Years.

The Barkley Marathons

On By Rick McIn anti-smoking, health & fitnessLeave a comment

Hardest and dumbest race in the world.

The Barkley Marathons is an ultramarathon trail race held in Frozen Head State Park near Wartburg, Tennessee.

If runners complete 60 miles (97 km) this is known as a “fun run.”

The full course is 100+ miles (160 km) (distances are approximate). The race is limited to a 60-hour period, and takes place in late March or early April of each year. …

The full, five-loop race has been completed 18 times by 15 runners as of the 2019 event. …

Jared Campbell finished 3 times. #respect

Click PLAY or watch Gary Robbins‘ – 2016 & 2017 races on YouTube. What a man!

I’m happy for John Kelly too, a 2017 finisher.

Post Corona optimism

On By Rick McIn economics, health & fitnessLeave a comment

Over the past year my main economics / tech guru has been Professor Scott Galloway.

He summarized his thinking in a new book:

Post Corona: From Crisis to Opportunity

I’ve not been so optimistic about the future since February 2020.

IF we can survive another 6 months or so — psychologically, financially — we could see another boom like the Roaring Twenties.

A new Roaring Twenties.

… a period of economic prosperity … Everything seemed possible through modern technology …

That’s how people reacted after the pandemic of 1918.

We got lucky this time. Vaccine technology has improved so quickly that I’m likely to get the Oxford before having to join the herd immunity segment of the population.

IF the majority of the population has either had the virus or taken one of the vaccines, I might be able to avoid it myself.

IF only 5% of those who were infected have lifelong problems — and most of those not too serious — …

OK. This is the most optimistic scenario.

Hope for the best. Plan for the worst.