Author Archives: tbavendam

At Nashville Tools for Schools, one of the least favorite tasks is to manually clean the metal that is used to make the metal support for rectangular tables. The metal comes from source coated in oil which must be removed with solvent before it can be welded and/or painted. This requires meticulously wiping down everyContinue reading “My amazing man”

As you may recall, Craig and I built this barrier to keep water running from the adjacent pasture onto our yard and it has been quite effective for that particular spot. Later in the year we added some tree trunks along another fence line using the tractor. With a couple of winter rain storms weContinue reading “Doing what I can to save our soil with tree debris”

This is how spokesperson for Musk’s Starship launch described last Wednesday’s post launch explosion. I registered to the end of a couple of Rachel’s podcasts to find the terminology. When I heard it, I thought I would not forget it, but I did. Great term for what is happening with our federal government. A newContinue reading ““Rapid, unscheduled disassembly””

Due to my cooking, Craig has put on about 15 pounds. Over the past several months I have worked pretty hard to help him not gain more – I think successfully. Today he announced that he was going to lose 5 pounds by next Sunday. My response to him is Good for you!!! I willContinue reading “Oh to be male!!”

At some point in the past 10 years, I realized that this simple drawing was helpful to the understanding of most things in health and perhaps life. When you measure any characteristic in a population, for example weight and then plot it on a graph, it will be a bell-shaped curve. The peak of theContinue reading “The Bell shaped curve”

You may be wondering how happy I am to no longer be working at the NIH. I had intended to work until I was 70. If my position had not gotten so “toxic” for my mental and physical health, I would likely still be there until November of this year when I turn 70 However,Continue reading “I would likely have been purged by DOGE”

Prior to starting the Wegovy I committed to truly starting behaviors in a consistent way that would help me keep the weight off once I get to my goal. I have been eating smaller portions, trying not to snack and really exercising every day. Today will be day 14 of consistent exercise – weight training,Continue reading “First data point on the Wegovy journey”

Clinical trials for drugs have two basic goals – to determine whether the drug works for a specific indication and what adverse effects it has. I can’t think of any drug that has only one effect in the body. The goal is that advantage of the desired effect far outweighs any adverse (unwanted) effects thatContinue reading “Clinical drug trials – the value of patient observations”

This is what it looks like when you drop an open can of ebony stain and it lands on the bottom – it turns into a fountain. Interestingly, it didn’t stick to my glasses or my Baggallini front pack that I had not taken time to remove after dashing to Walgrens to get wound closureContinue reading “Yesterday’s misadventure – you have to laugh”

GLP-1 receptor agonists were initially studied and approved for the treatment of diabetes. As often happens with treatments, once they are used in humans, people start to experience adverse events and benefits that were not previously known about. Pharma companies do extensive research on new drugs before (Phases 1, 2 and 3) and AFTER (PhaseContinue reading “My experiment with GLP-1 receptor agonists “