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SoCS: Cookie Dough and NO Vertigo

 Today’s prompt for Stream of Consciousness Saturday is “batter/better/bitter/butter.” Use one, use all four (for bonus points), use ’em any way you’d like. Have fun!

I’ve always liked batter better than the cake or cookies. That’s why I’d like chocolate chip cookie dough, if I were to eat ice cream. My birthday cake had vegan cookie dough frosting, but it got to be too sweet after a while. Cookie and cake batter usually seem a little saltier than the cooked products. Salty and sweet combo is my favorite. Peanut butter is a good choice to add to ice cream, if I were to eat ice cream. There IS vegan ice cream, often made with coconut milk, so maybe I’ll look for some. Maybe they have Moose Tracks which is vanilla with peanut butter and dark chocolate.

The thing I like about chocolate chips is that they are “bittersweet,” which does not seem bitter to me, just not overly sweet. I can’t really taste the chocolate in milk chocolate.

When David goes to the gym, he says he’s going to burn some butter. We both need to go to the gym more often. I usually go on Mondays for my yoga class, and then do a little work on the treadmill with my dizziness exercises where I turn my head from side to side and then up and down while walking on the treadmill. I try to not hold on, but when I go to turning my head diagonally, I MUST hold on or I’ll fall. I’ve gotten over wondering if people think I’m crazy. Mostly.

Last Christmas, I had a terrible case of vertigo for several days and missed church and everything. That’s how I eventually learned some dizziness prevention exercises in physical therapy, starting with the one where you look at the letter X on a sticky note and turn your head from side to side without moving your eyes. The exercises all seem to be aimed at acclimating to things that might make you dizzy like your body doing something different from your eyes.

(I am in NO WAY recommending any of this, because everyone with vertigo issues needs their own health care provider and/or physical therapist.)

Hopefully I’ve built up some tolerance, reduced stress, and this Christmas will be way better than last. It’s all about balance!

May you have peace and balance over the holidays!

~~~

For more about Stream of Consciousness Saturday,

visit our host, Linda Hill

by clicking HERE.


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SoCS: Walking, Tolkien, Cooking and Art

Today’s prompt for #JusJoJan the 4th and Stream of Consciousness Saturday is: “in front/behind.” Use “in front,” use “behind,” or use them both in your post for bonus points! Enjoy!

There’s a quote that goes something like…. don’t walk in front of me, I may not follow. Don’t walk behind me, I may not lead. Walk beside me and be my friend.

Let’s see if I got it right.

Close enough.

When the path narrows, we might have to walk in front or behind. That’s okay. If we’re hiking, or walking in the woods, please don’t talk a lot. Talk a little, especially when we stop. I want to see the landscape or where we’re going if the path is tricky, like with roots or rocks. These days, I have to pay close attention.

In The Lord of the Rings, the fellowship often walked single file (maybe it was to hide their numbers, but more likely due to the rocky trails).

To be perfectly honest, I’d rather stay in Rivendell.

Yesterday was the birthday of JRR Tolkien, author of The Lord of the Rings. May he rest in peace or adventure. A little of each would be nice. Can you even rest in adventure? I’d go on an adventure if I could stay in a warm cabin every night with plenty of food and a full bathroom. Plus comfortable hiking boots….

In my first physical therapy session for the recent vertigo episode, there’s one exercise where I stand on a cushion with one foot behind the other, toe to heel, then the hard part: close my eyes for 60 seconds. Sheesh! Right now, I’m working on staggering the feet so that they are not completely one behind the other. I thought I had good balance from doing so much yoga, but with eyes closed, it’s a whole different game. The physical therapist explained that we often become too dependent on just our eyes for balance, and we are working on my body awareness more with this exercise. There was no evidence of crystal dislodgement at the time of the evaluation Thursday, and the therapist said I likely got a virus in the vestibular system which makes sense since I had a head cold the week before it started. Sigh. There’s always something to work on. I’m thankful to be feeling 95% better and for having help.

Back on the home front, I’ve started my goals to do more home cooking and art. Last night, I made a vegan chickpea sauce in the blender with nutritional yeast for a vegetable pie. It turned out pretty good.

vegan vegetable pie

This painting below is something I started a few years ago and just picked back up again with the new year. The three knot holes in the wood inspired faces for the three angels. There was originally a blue/red/purple thing going on, but the red got more covered up. Covering up the red was not consciously intentional. Go figure.

Three Angels by JoAnna of the Forest

~~~

For more info on Stream of Consciousness Saturday,

visit our wonderful host, Linda Hill

by clicking HERE.


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SoCS: An Unfortunate Accident, my Bathroom Window Challenge, and a Deer Sighting

Today’s prompt for Stream of Consciousness Saturday is “starts with ‘under.’” Find a word that starts with “under” and use it in your post. Enjoy!

Under Mama Cat’s window with the bird feeder is the AC unit. The bird feeder is attached to the back deck and the AC unit is maybe 9 feet below on the basement level. Marley and I were walking out on the deck heading for a potty break (his potty break, not mine) and I heard a banging sound in the AC unit. The fan was running. I thought, Damn, I hope that’s not a bird. After a few seconds the banging stopped. I went down the steps and saw a lot of little feathers on and around the AC unit. So, there’s probably a dead bird in there. I would not have imagined that a bird could fit through the little slits over the fan. Great, I thought, one more thing to feel bad about in addition to the election result and the multiple dead deer I saw on the highway earlier.

Sigh.

I looked online for AC unit covers and might order one. Wondering if they impair the AC unit function. There’s got to be a way to prevent more birds getting into the AC unit fan. We might have to move the birdfeeder.

Earlier in the afternoon (yesterday) I had another unusual event. I was going to take Marley to his first bath at the groomer 20 minutes away. (He’d rolled in wild animal poop the day before.) When I got to the car, I realized I’d left my keys in the house and locked the doors! Maybe I could call my daughter who has a key, but she was working, and my phone was in the house! Could I go use the neighbor’s phone? Maybe a window was unlocked, though not likely.

We went around to the back deck. Marley was confused but still hopeful for a car ride. It looked like the bathroom window might be unlocked. After a few minutes, I managed to get the screen off without tearing anything. I had to stand on a plastic chair and reach in and move my colored glass figurines, but it opened! Then I had to climb through the window. Thanks to yoga, I was able to climb through and get one foot on the toilet seat and got inside without breaking anything.

I had planned to get gas on the way, but thankfully, we had enough to make the round trip AND we were on time for Marley’s 1pm bath appointment. Marley did a great job for his first bath at this place.

After the bath and a little meditation/nap, we went outside and then there was the AC unit clanging incident with the feathers. So, I was bummed. My plan was to use mindfulness and distraction not to think about the bird, etc. After Marley and Mama Cat ate dinner, Marley and took our walk around our property. I hoped it would be an uneventful, peaceful walk.

We rounded the big mysterious mound of dirt overgrown with weeds and young trees. It’s like a small hill, probably man-made who knows why. Now it’s a wild space. I heard a noise and saw we had disturbed a deer resting at the top of the mound. Good thing I saw it first and was able to shorten the leash and get ready for Marley to go nuts. He gets very excited when he sees a deer and wants to chase it. Once I was sure he was under control, I tried to get a picture of the deer who had run into the woods and stopped to look back at us before running deeper. I got a picture of the white tail.

White tail in center. Side of the mound in foreground.

After that, I played with Marley in the fenced yard with his new good boy ball, then sat in the grass with him and looked at the dusky lavender sky with vague pink clouds. Then I made a stir-fry with pumpkin, broccoli, mushrooms, quinoa and some mixed nuts.

My favorite place.
Angel wings?

~~~

For more streams of consciousness and rules,

visit our host, Linda Hill

by clicking HERE.


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SoCS: Anne Lamott is Better for my Health than Star Trek Battle Scenes

Today’s prompt for Stream of Consciousness Saturday is “i before e.” Find a word that has an “i” before an “e” even if there’s a letter between them, and use it for your prompt word. Have fun!

I’m looking forward to relief from my back pain. Got a massage Wednesday which helped a little. The pain moved from the left to the right side and at least it’s not spasming on the right like it was on the left. The spasms are the worst. They’re like waves cresting with a knife twist. Mindfulness of the present moment, like in between the spasms, helps along with knowing that this too shall pass. I promise not to whine much more about it. I know from experience it will have run its course soon. Physical therapy has helped a lot in the past and I’ve been doing some of those PT exercises, but more stretching than the strength building. I went to yoga on Monday, a relatively easy class, and the spasms started Tuesday. Other than that, and not doing enough strengthening exercises, I don’t know what triggered this episode.

What we put into our minds can add stress to our bodies. As you may know, I’m a big fan of Star Trek and have been really enjoying a long ST novel Destiny that contains characters from Next Generation, Enterprise, Voyager, and Deep Space 9. I’m about halfway through and have especially enjoyed some of the metaphysical and philosophical parts of the storyline. But recently, two ships led by Picard and Dax (who is a captain in this novel) while looking for ways to stop the borg, were attacked by the huge, ruthless Hirogen. In the following clip, Chakotay explains Hirogen culture is all about hunting prey. You can skip the clip and take my word for it, that Hirogen are big bullies. But it you like Chakotay, who is easy on the eyes, here he is:

Anyway, the novel has turned quite violent in the battle scenes with the Hirogen bullies and is graphically violent in my brain’s images of what I have been reading. It’s very tense. Makes me wonder if reading a novel can be more intense than watching it on TV. I’ve wondered if reading these violent battle scenes involving blades, impalement, and blood, has contributed somehow to my back pain.

Somehow is the title of the other book I’m reading. It’s nonfiction by one of my favorite authors, Anne Lamott. It’s much easier to read and has little if any violence. Anne writes about love and relationships with a quirky kind of humor. So, I’m reading more Anne Lamott than the Star Trek novel and skipping or skimming the violent parts in ST. I’ve set a rule for now not to read this particular ST novel in bed, at least until my back is better, and I don’t have to read every single word of the up close and personal battle scenes. It’s easier to tolerate battle scenes between ships with phasers firing into space and not seeing the bloody gore. STOP!

I have too much imagination for my own good sometimes.

Well, the wind is howling here Friday morning in the NC foothills where we might possibly lose electricity from what is now Tropical Storm Helene. So, I’m going to stop and breathe and be thankful that I have more Anne Lamott books I can re-read.

(Update: We lost electricity from 11 am till 5pm. The repair guys worked hard for a couple hours cutting up a fallen tree and restoring cables to the transformer.)

Speaking of imagination, do you ever see dragons in the sky? These photos are from a couple weeks ago.

This photo has at least four faces

~~~

For more streams of consciousness and rules,

visit our host, Linda Hill

by clicking HERE.


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SoCS: Consistency is the Key

Today’s prompt for Stream of Consciousness Saturday is “move.” Use it as a verb or a noun; write the first thing that comes to mind. Have fun!

Before I even saw the prompt, I thought to myself, okay, don’t write about your big move to the hills. That’s got to be getting old. And then the prompt is, “move.” But there’s another kind of move I need to be doing.

Having learned the hard way (again) I promise to be more consistent with my back exercises. I’d had no serious back spasms for several months – since I went to physical therapy and kept up, at least a little, with the exercises they taught me plus yoga. But being focused on the move, I sort of slacked off going to yoga since we were out of town and slacked off on the back exercises from PT doing only a minimal token stretch occasionally. And then BAM! A little yard work brought the back spasms back with a vengeance, reaching 9 or 10 at the spasm peak and reviving distantly recalled Lamaze breathing.

In the past, this condition would last 3 or 4 days, but these spasms seemed to stay around longer. I kept moving with gentle stretches and took ibuprofen as needed. The heating pad became my best friend. Thankfully the spasms are now gone leaving me with “normal” soreness that comes from reasonable exercise which I promise to continue at least three times per week for the rest of my life, God willing. Yardwork and packing do not count. The PT exercises and stretches will strengthen me as long I don’t overdo it. Consistency is the key.

I had my trainer take motivation pictures

No doubt I’ve shared this TobyMac song here before and sent it back in time to myself during the hardest times. Here it is again. Hold on, hold on. It aint over yet!

~~~

For more about Stream of Consciousness Saturday,

visit our host, Linda Hill

by clicking HERE.


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SoCS: Bound for a New Adventure

Today’s prompt for Stream of Consciousness Saturday is: ends with “ound.” Find a word (or words) that ends with “ound” and use it any way you’d like. Have fun!

Well, I guess I better pound out something for SoCS, but it might not be profound. I’m behind on responding to comments and reading other blogs, but there’s no rule about that I know of. We found a house, and our offer was accepted. Now we are in the thick of the process of inspections, blah, blah, blah. Not to be disrespectful, (inspections are very important) but I don’t like paperwork/bureaucracy/red tape as it used to be called. Why red? I don’t know. It’s late, Friday night, so I probably won’t look it up. But the paperless paperwork does sometimes threaten to overshadow the excitement and nervousness of a new adventure.

Still, I am grateful for the opportunity, for the possibility of a new adventure.

Anything can be an adventure if we frame it that way.

I might have lost a single pound and would like to lose about 9 more. It is definitely harder to lose weight when we get older. I imagine myself doing yoga out on my new deck in a couple of months. It’s not a done deal but imagining is okay. It’s like manifesting which I believe was helped by certain getting ready actions – painting an old window in my kitchen, getting rid of the rusty flat-tired bike I haven’t ridden in years, picking out books to donate…. the decluttering continues.

Now lots of ound words are running around in my head. The sound of music when our old hound Doodle used to bay when I tuned my guitar. I miss that girl. Maybe one day, Marley will sing with me. I’d like the sound of that.

~~~

It’s now Saturday morning and a group workday at the Farm Animal Sanctuary, so I’ll be back to WP later this evening. Thank you for your patience. I’ll catch up on comments eventually.

May peace and blessings abound to you and your loved ones.

~~~

For more streams and rules for SoCS,

visit out host, Linda Hill,

by clicking HERE.


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SoCS: It’s Okay to Start Over

Feeling overwhelmed is something I try to avoid. When you’ve lived 67 years, you start to learn what overwhelms you, like too many social events in one week, too many appointments, a crowded room where a lot of people are talking and not being able to hear the person next to you.

Thankfully, I’m not overwhelmed as often as I used to be before I retired. I just have to learn to not take on too much, as in volunteer work, community activism, and damn social events since I have embraced my inner introvert. It’s not that I’m anti-social, but I don’t do well at events that are purely social. Just the thought makes me cringe. So ENOUGH OF THAT!

I’m starting this post over.

But first, here’s my plan:

It might not always happen, but peace is a priority in my life. Do you hear that, mind? Step away from the drama and go to the light.

One of the things I learned in recovery meetings for codependency, overeating, or other side doors to recovery, is this:

“You can start your day over at any time.”

You can start your day over at 11pm if you want to. The past can’t change and maybe I messed up earlier in the day, but nothing can ruin my entire day, because there can be good moments mixed in among the bad ones. But those are judgements. As many of us have learned, something “bad” can eventually turn into something “good.”

In starting the day over, a deep breath can help. In my yoga class, we do this thing where we open our arms wide, raise our hands overhead so that our fingers touch in an overhead arch, then bring our hands straight down in front of our body as we makes a shhhhhhhsh sound. Sometimes I wiggle my fingers like rain is washing away the tension. We so it three times. It’s pretty simple, and I should/will use it more often at home…. or at social events when I retreat to the bathroom.

Starting over. What a good thing to be able to do.

After looking up songs about starting over, this cover was my favorite:

Are we ever too old to start over?

I don’t think so. What I really mean is, hell no!

Happy Mother’s Day to ALL Mothers,

including dog mothers, cat mothers, horse mothers…..

Peace and blessings to all.

~~~

For details on SoCS,

head on over to Linda’s blog

by clicking HERE.


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SoCS: Mats, Mutts, and Mosaics

Today’s prompt for Stream of Consciousness Saturday is “mat/met/mitt/mot/mutt.” Choose one or use them all, any way you’d like in your post. Have fun!

I’m not planning a bit, even a minimal as the rules allow if I recall. Not to say I plan a lot or at all on other weeks, but sometimes I mull over the prompt before I start writing the stream. Today, I’m just writing.

No idea what to do with mot. Mottled? Is mot a word? should I look it up? Na. Not right now. I’ll go to the mat. I got a really thick yoga mat for my feet and knees, but it’s harder to balance on, so I went back to the regular yoga mat that lives in my car waiting to go to yoga class. The thick mat might come in handy if I ever go camping again or want to lie out on the deck.

We’ve used an old yoga mat for Marley to practice staying in “PLACE.” We should practice that more and not just use it when we practice being calm and lying down when Mama Cat is on the other side of the gate. The command comes in handy, and Marley’s pretty good at it in situations where there is control and Mama Cat stays behind the gate. We would not try it otherwise. Maybe one day….

Marley’s still a bit fixated

David has been getting Marley to lie down when they see a cat on walks – just until he is calmer, though Marley is on high alert when there’s a cat around outside. He’s become less reactive to squirrels, but when the squirrels get close to taunt my mutt, he gets excited.

Mutts are great dogs. I’ve read that they are often healthier with a diverse mix of genes. I don’t know if I like the word mutt as it’s got a sort of negative connotation. Mixed breed might be better. Heinze 57 is okay, I guess, but could there really be a dog with 57 different breeds all mixed together like a melting pot? Who knows? I know there are plenty of mutts and mixed breeds who need homes.

There’s a quote by Jimmy Carter about how we’re not a melting pot, but something better. I’ll go fetch it.

We become not a melting pot

but a beautiful mosaic.

Different people, different beliefs,

different yearnings,

different hopes, different dreams.

Jimmy Carter

A woman at my church, Alice, is a kitchen designer. For fun she makes mosaics from tiles, broken glass, found objects, and melted marbles. She’s donated several to our church. Here are some of her creations:

Doves over a wave
random close up
Tree
Weave Us Together

Mother Nature also makes mosaics:

Maybe one day I’ll make a mosaic out of my big bottle cap collection.

~~~

For more streams of consciousness and the rules,

visit out host, Linda Hill

By clicking HERE.


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Tree Love: A Network of Energy Above and Below Ground

“Messages hum from out of the bark she leans against. Chemical semaphores home in over the air. Currents rise from the soil-gripping roots, relayed over great distances through fungal synapses linked up in a network the size of the planet.” Richard Powers, The Overstory

This could be a doorway to the secret underground network:

Look closely. See the door?
Doorway Tree
Trees with moss
Spanish Moss

Before yoga class at the senior center, I’m just looking for tree shade to park under. After yoga class, I am more aware of the trees themselves. They call to me with an energy stronger than the noise of highway traffic. Their energy is always there, of course. When we pay close attention, we feel the trees hum and allow ourselves to be entranced.

Spanish Moss Swaying in the Breeze

~~~

Thursday Tree Love is hosted by Parul Thakur on the second and fourth Thursday of each month.
For more Tree Love, visit Parul at Happiness and Food.


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SoCS: The Conservation Kid, Osteoporosis, and Forward Bends

 Today’s Stream of Consciousness prompt is: “the first 2-5 words at the top of the closest printed matter.” 

There’s a Goodnewsletter open on my coffee table with a story I was thinking about including in my Good News Tuesday post but have not used in the month it’s been sitting there. Now I can use it and move it. Here’s the title on the open page: “Meet the Kid on a Mission to Pick up One Million Pounds of Litter in 2022.” Twelve-year-old Cash Daniels is known as “The Conservation Kid.” Cash and his friends spend “several hours each week picking up trash along the Tennessee River.” Kids like cash give me hope for our future.

(The above is all that would save Friday night when I normally write my SoCs post. The auto-save seemed to be circling, so I had a feeling…. This morning, I’m going back to try to re-create the second part but will try to stay in SoC mode.)

The other printed material nearby is from my medical folder and includes reports on previous bone density tests showing I have osteoporosis. This has not been addressed in a couple of years since my beloved gynecologist who was treating me went and retired. Like my beloved dentist retired. The nerve! Now all my doctors are clearly younger than me. Maybe it’s because I’m retired. (Yay!)

Anyway, I waited 18 months for an appointment with a rheumatologist. 18 months to get in! It gave me time to look up, rheumatologist. They deal with muscular-skeletal stuff and immune system issues, chronic pain, etc. Okay, good.

This rheumatologist said to me, “You’re pretty young to have osteoporosis.”

“Oh, really?”

“Did you ever smoke cigarettes?”

“Yes, in my twenties, for about ten years. A pack or two a day.” (Mostly a pack.)

“That could do it,” he said.

Sigh. “I thought I was over that. I thought my body had overcome that.” I don’t remember my exact words. I felt a bit deflated. He said something about smoking taking years from my bones or adding years. I looked it up. Smoking cigarettes decreases bone density. It just took a long time to catch up with me.

We can’t change the past, but we can do what we can now. (If anyone needs help quitting smoking, I have good experience.) I can look up exercise for bone density on YouTube as the doc suggested. I didn’t find anything that would be good to post here, but what I did find out (from multiple youtube sources) is that people with osteoporosis should NOT do crunches or forward bends. WT? We do forward bends regularly in my senior yoga class “Gentle Yoga for Back and Bones.” It’s not always gentle by the way. I’m good at forward bends. This needs more research and maybe I won’t push the forward bends. Maybe I’ll be more relaxed about them. This needs more research. Has anyone ever heard about this?

Maybe I’ll leave most (not all) of the trash picking up to the young conservation kids, or I’ll get one of those picking up sticks.

Below is one of the roosters at the sanctuary doing a forward bend in front a mirror.

~~~

For more about Stream of Consciousness Saturday, visit our wonderful host,

Linda Hill by clicking HERE.