A Sprouting Seed Store

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The trip to the VA Hospital in Durham was turned into an exploration of some health food type places. I was looking for some seed to sprout. The first place I went to was named Trader Joe's. It turned out to be a grocery store for singles, couples, and small families. It had a lotta knick knacks and a fairly large selection of wines, but it didn't have what I was looking for. It'd be great to have a store like that here, but they probably wouldn't be able to take that much business away from Wal-Mart Supercenter. Too many families around here trying to save a buck to indulge in the kind of niceties Trader Joe's carry.

Next two places were both Whole Food Stores. One was a few miles down the road from Trader Joe's in Raleigh, and the second was in Durham about two miles from the VA Hospital. This store did have some sprouting seeds. They were high priced to me, but another shopper said the prices there was lower than most similar stores.

The Whole Food Stores are apparently a big nation-wide franchise and been around for a while. They don't do small towns so I've only read some mentions about them online. They're not really a health food store either, but an even higher toned grocery store than Trader Joe's. I don't think they attract a lotta family business either, but they're not so expensive that just about anybody could buy a little something they couldn't get anywhere else.

If the seeds I bought will germinate and grow into sprouts I'll have bought enough to last me for months for less than $30. It makes me somehow feel secure that I have a couple of months food supply in the house. That is if I do what it takes to grow them regularly enough to have some ready to eat constantly.

The proviso about about "if the seeds will germinate" has become real to me in a short amount of time. Currently I'm trying to sprout some flax seeds along with some sesame seeds that don't seem to be sprouting. I put them in a jar and soaked them for at least twelve hours, and then rinsed and wetted them at least twice a day for three days, and they ain't doing squat.

Simultaneously I soaked some more alfalfa and radish seeds that are sprouting away, But, the hulled pumpkin seeds haven't germinated at all. This sprouting business all seems to depend on the quality of the seeds you use to do it.

After I'd soaked all these seeds and waited for something to happen, with some success and some not, I read flax seed don't sprout, and the sesame seeds have to have the hulls removed to sprout, and the sunflower seed also need to be without hulls to sprout, but not to plant for greens. It might have helped if I had read about what to expect first, before I soaked the seed, but it didn't cost me much to find out the hard way.

I bought two pounds of mung bean seeds in the Raleigh store. It's at least 20-30 miles closer than the Durham store. I've read just enough about sprouting mung beans for it to get me cautious, and read some more before I try sprouting them. I think what I read said that mung beans need to be sprouted in the dark or they get bitter.

The Asian cooks use mung bean sprouts a lot. They're very crunchy, but the reason they're so popular for sprouting is that they have lots of vitamins and minerals and especially trace minerals. That's a little boggling to my mind because they're practically translucent. They're supposed to be loaded with dietary fiber, but I can see through them. Where's the beef?

I've read about juices like wheatgrass juice and carrot juice and apple juice also have more dietary fiber in the juice than other sources like bran flakes. I would have guessed that the "fiber" would be in the pulp I throw away for composting. I guess I have to learn to rethink the properties of dietary fiber.

The documentation that came with my juicer stated that it would grind coffee beans. I've put off giving it a whirl until a couple of days ago. The machine did a great job until I overfed it, and it came to a grinding stop (pun intended). Tonight I was more careful as I poured the beans into the juice, and it ground up the rest of the bean bag, but I don't think I'll be grinding my own coffee beans very often. Too tedious, and the results aren't that much better.

I've been waiting for this appointment to get my medications straightened out. It's been a real drag for four months. I was obsessed about how I was going to address this situation not only with the doctor, but with the staff that humiliated me with apathy. I went through every scenario I could think of to get it right every day and every night. That's just how it goes with me. I'd rather get obsessed than have sex.

In the end, as I entered the hospital to keep my appointment I decided to forget all the stuff I'd planned and just go with the gut reaction that grabbed me in real time. The first person I had to confront was the nurse who shined me on and out and out lied about how he would contact the doctor for me about changing my prescriptions. I didn't volunteer one word of information that wasn't required by his job. He didn't say anything about our last encounter either.

When I saw the doctor I told him as truthfully as I could what happened and how I'd written him two e-mails to the address he provided me with, and that he hadn't answered them. I told him about how the medicine he prescribed didn't address the pain symptoms and caused sores to appear on my body.

He seemed genuinely sorry he hadn't been on top of it, admitted he hates e-mail, and insisted on giving me the number to his cell phone along with instructions to call him personally instead of going through the hospital. He took me off the old medication and started me on one that will probably be the death of me too, but at least I can call him to say goodbye just before I croak.

I had these sorts of problems with my regular doctor at the Fayetteville VA Hospital. She was new to the system just like this guy. Since she's been on the job for a couple of years now she has turned out to be a really swell doctor. I hope the Rheumatologist-in-training will be too. I have him for four years, so I'm not giving him a choice.
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