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Unplugged and Reconnected. A Day of Rest.

By October 15, 2023February 3rd, 2024ePatient, Family man, Podcasts, Video
Man with crutch canes and dog in woods
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Day starts with angst, leading to screen-free day, reservoir walk, visit to farm stand, reading real book. Revived with renewed sense of gratitude & well-being.

We respect Listeners, Watchers, and Readers. Show Notes at the end.

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The same content as the podcast, but not a verbatim transcript. Could be a book chapter with images. download the printable transcript here

Contents

Episode

Proem

A person sitting in a chair with a dog

JoJo and Danny selfie

Good morning. I’m sitting on my porch with my dog, Jojo, who’s now coming up to sit on my lap. The sun is shining. We live on a busy street, so you’ll hear many of those noises. I didn’t sleep that well last night. I had more angst than I’ve had in a long time. And my angst was about, oh, I’m doing so much, oh goodness, what is that, a cardinal, that I’m doing so much, I’m so busy, I’m trying so many new things, why can’t I settle, do I have ADHD, just worry, worry, worry, worry. I haven’t had this kind of worry in a long time, not since I’ve been working or…

Podcast intro

Welcome to Health Hats, the Podcast. I’m Danny van Leeuwen, a two-legged cisgender old white man of privilege who knows a little bit about a lot of healthcare and a lot about very little. We will listen and learn about what it takes to adjust to life’s realities in the awesome circus of healthcare. Let’s make some sense of all of this.

Screen-free day

I finally got some sleep, woke up, and decided that everything I was doing was fun, that I was my master, and that I would have a screen-free day. So… It’s already been a little bit of a challenge. I had to text my sister. She wanted to have dinner tonight. I guess that was just a second, and I listened to music on my phone, but I don’t think that counts. My wife, the dog, and I will take a walk. I’m going to read an actual book instead of a Kindle. So, I’ll check in as the day goes on and let you know how it’s going.

Walking a mile around the Res

image of blue body of water and blue sky

Arlington Reservoir image by Danny

Hear that sound? That’s the sound of the water going out of the Arlington Reservoir. The Arlington Reservoir is the secondary water source for where we

Man with crutch canes and dog in woods

Image of Danny and JoJo by Danny

live in case our primary water source goes bad. I love that we have this. We’re walking around it. It’s about not quite a mile. See how I do.

Arlington Reservoir image by Danny. Okay, I’m about three-quarters of the way around the reservation. It’s really low. I wonder why because we’ve had a lot of rain. I’m still plugging away, going kind of slow. We’ve seen some bird watchers who identified some yellow bottom warblers, and then I saw a woodpecker on my own, and of course, there’s a ton of squirrels, which the dog sees. There are a lot of dogs. So far, I’ve been okay. I think I will be thoroughly exhausted when we get back to the car, but we’re three-quarters of the way there. So that’s good. It’s a good day. It’s a good day to be able to walk that far. The leaves are beginning to change. But not too much. Hello. Okay. I see a gate here. It’s open. I was thinking. I don’t know if I could go around the gate. There’s a beach path, but it looks narrow.

What a beautiful day. It’s so sunny. God! It’s supposed to be that eclipse, but I’m not here, so I won’t see it. But since I’m not doing screen time today, I have to wait till tomorrow to go on YouTube and see it. Anyway… Ooh, I’m fading. I can just feel it. Oh, my goodness. I’m going to have to sit at the next place to sit. Unless I’m, I don’t think I can see our car, so I guess I can keep walking.

Farm stand

We stopped at a farm stand to see what good stuff we could find. I’m roaming around the farm store. Anne’s looking at the vegetables. I pick out some garlic. I used it on some fish stew I made while she was in Santa Fe with her sisters. Also, get some pretzels, fresh pasta, and spices. Ann does most all the shopping. I go to the weekly farmer’s market whenever I can. I also order and cook all the meat from our meat share collective. Ann eats little meat but does eat fish, cheese, eggs, and butter, which I get from the Walden Farm Collective. I sure do appreciate all she does for us.

Yeah, thank you. It’s from Mahogany Mamas receiving a complement on my T-shirt. Just there, it’s, it’s an online store. Yeah, I have another one. I have a couple of them. They’re soft, and I get a lot of comments. My shirt says, Drink water, Love hard, Fight racism—many people like that.

How’s our popcorn supply? Is that what it is? Okay, well. Funny. These pretzels. Alright, here. Get one of these too. I’m really… It shouldn’t take me anywhere what I do. Like you. Alright. I’m stopping now. I’m buying too much stuff. You shouldn’t have brought me. Oh, those are pretty the potatoes. There you go. Wow. And it’s a good shirt, so we’re aligned, Okay.

That was the Lexington Farm Stand.

 Call to action

I need help to keep creating without impacting our retirement funds. I’ve expanded my Podcast this year to include video, and the costs and time needed have surged. Although my queue of episodes ready to produce grows, I can only manage monthly episodes. I need to further build my production team. You can help.

Visit health-hats.com/support for ways to contribute. Choose monthly subscription with bonus content, Zoom meetings with me and others, personal Bari Sax MP3s, coaching sessions, and more.

Occasional donations are also welcome, and you can still subscribe for free to enjoy bonus episodes. You can also recommend us through email, social media, or postcard – postage on us! Visit health-hats.com/support. Your support is deeply appreciated. Thank you.

Back home

Man and woman posing on patio

Image taken by Jacky

I made a nice omelet for my wife for lunch. I don’t usually cook. I certainly don’t cook my wife breakfast very often. I mean lunch very often. But this time, I did it with sharp cheddar and spinach. Nice omelet. And I’m reading a book. I’m not reading a book on Kindle, which I have been. By Kerry Washington, I can’t remember the name of it. But, um, I am reading a paper book: Swoosh, the unauthorized story of Nike and the men who played there.

Day’s end

Okay, it’s six in the evening. We went out to dinner with my sister, which we usually do on Saturday nights. I feel like reading a whodunit. I haven’t enjoyed all the books I have, the physical books, so far. Or, no, I can’t read all day. That’s the difference. I can’t read them all day. So, how has it been different today? With no screen. Well, what I would be doing on a Saturday night is watching and catching up on college football.

Reflection

So, no screen time. I’m not going to do that. Or I would be catching up on social media.

It has been good. It has been good. It’s been very restful. I’m tired, and I took a nap and, you know, could have taken a couple more. Which, you know. Nothing is wrong with that, but my eyes are not as fatigued, which is good. My eyes, oh, by the way, I’m thinking about having the eye surgery again. We’ll see. I’m going back to the surgeon next week, and I’ll talk to him.

So, this has been different. Occasionally, I chat with you guys. And, uh, no script. I am not connected to the computer. I’m with my fancy-dancy  little, very fancy little Recorder. I have two of these lapel recorders. So, it’s fun. Anyway, I highly recommend taking breaks when you can take breaks and having a screen-free day.

It’s sure strange. My sister asked me, if I was, how many days I would do it. And I could not imagine more than one day. Oh my god, I’d be behind on so many things. I already have 110 emails to go through tomorrow. But anyway, it’s been fun and good. It’s the right thing to do. Maybe I’ll sleep better tonight. That’d be good. All right. Take care. Bye.

Podcast Outro

I host, write, edit, engineer, and produce Health Hats, the Podcast with assistance from Kayla Nelson and three van Leeuwen’s, Joey, Leon, and Oscar. I play bari sax on some episodes alone or with the Lechuga Fresca Latin Band. I buy my hats at Salmagundi Boston. I’m grateful to you, who have the most critical roles as listeners, readers, and watchers. See the show notes, previous podcasts, and other resources through my website, www.health-hats.com, and YouTube channel. Please subscribe and contribute. If you like it, share it. See you around the block.

Episode Notes

Please comment and ask questions

Production Team

Web and Social Media Coach, Dissemination Kayla Nelson @lifeoflesion

Leon and Oscar van Leeuwen edit 

Music on intro and outro by permission from Joey van Leeuwen, Drummer, Composer, and Arranger including Moe’s Blues for Proem and Reflection

Other Credits

T shirt by Mahogany Mommies  check them out

Images

Vulture Couple by Rich Rieger used with permission

Woman and clown by Diana Feil on Unsplash

Thumbnail created by Kayla Nelson

Image of Danny and Ann by Jacky

Selfie of Danny and JoJo

Image of Arlington Reservoir by Danny

Disclaimer

The views and opinions presented in this podcast and publication are solely my responsibility and do not necessarily represent the views of the Patient-Centered Outcomes Research Institute®  (PCORI®), its Board of Governors, or Methodology Committee. Danny van Leeuwen (Health Hats)

Inspired by and grateful to Ame Sanders, Kayla Nelson, Ann Boland, and JoJo

Creative Commons Licensing

The material found on this website created by me is Open Source and licensed under Creative Commons Attribution. Anyone may use the material (written, audio, or video) freely at no charge.  Please cite the source as: ‘From Danny van Leeuwen, Health Hats. (including the link to my website). I welcome edits and improvements.  Please let me know. danny@health-hats.com. The material on this site created by others is theirs, and use follows their guidelines.

Danny van Leeuwen

Patient/Caregiver activist: learn on the journey toward best health

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