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My thoughts released; a mind set free |
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These pages contain my thoughts, from meandering ideas and persuasions to deep cerebrations and serious mentations. Why, for what purpose? To release my mind and set creativity free. Somewhere inside the constraints of my mind dwells a writer, a poet, an artist who paints with words. In here I release those constraints and set the artist free. Perhaps, lost somewhere in the depths of thought, is a story or a poem, waiting to be written. 
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| Normally, Monday through Friday are my quiet days. Sure, I get things done around the place, but I also spend a bit of my time here; as much as I can get away with. Yea, I do spend some weekend time here as well, but it's usually inter-dependent on whatever else is going on. Even when there isn't much, I can't really just log in and chill out. The reason is, if anyone's home, they tend to interrupt and interfere whenever I get involved in something. During the week, my wife and two children are at work and school. That means I have time to spend without anyone putting in demands and requests for my attention. Once in a while, the neighbor comes over to chat and have coffee, which is always nice and never too often. But, once children are home, everything changes. Well, depending on what I attempt to do. If I try and read, write, or get involved with anything that requires my attention, it's like some kind of signal broadcasts outward and they tune into it. As soon as they tune in, they home in and invade my space, demanding some kind of attention be diverted towards them. The only exceptions are if I start to do some kind of work, then it has the opposite effect and they go further into hiding. It kind of makes me think of the song, Radar Love, only different motives. I'm serious! I can sit for an unlimited amount of time and do things that just burn up time and they are off in their rooms, content and happy. But if I pick up a book, start writing something, or log into WdC, they will arrive in my close periphery and want something. What makes things worse, my wife also has a tendency to start talking to herself, making a lot of noise, or asking me questions if I'm engulfed in some task. Being very introverted, I really need my alone time. I also have a difficult time tuning my brainwaves to just one channel. So, if I'm reading, writing, or trying to do something, I tend to focus heavily on the task. But, if there are interruptions, I feel like I'm getting pulled in numerous directions at the same time and soon can't get anything done. Last week was going well, I had planned things out that I wanted to get done, and everything was flowing like warm honey off a piece of toast. I was chugging away on a project in the garage after spending the morning in here and was just getting into it when I heard voices. Then the door burst open and two children entered, who should have been at school for another three hours. Yes, they shut down early because it was snowing! And they called school off Friday because it was blowing the snow from Thursday. Monday was Presidents Day, no school. Also, a major winter storm moved in and dumped over a foot of snow on us from Sunday to early Tuesday, with high winds, so no school on Tuesday. I was up early and ready to send them off on Wednesday, but because of the wind and drifting, they had a late start and didn't get out of here until 9:30. I got them out the door and on the bus, then went to see if my neighbor needed a ride to get his vehicle out of the shop. We talked for a bit, then headed into town. I dropped him off at the shop, went and grabbed a few groceries, then it was time to pick up my wife from work. Anyway, they are all off to work, to school, and I'm enjoying a quiet day; finally |
| I was just reading some news headlines and one particular, and I mean it in the sense that it's almost ludicrous, caught my eye. I opened the article and read it, and after, it was even crazier than the headlines. We have ex-military personnel living in the streets, families that cannot feed their children, and elderly people in nursing homes who do not get the care they deserve. What is being done to ease the problems in this country? Crack pipes! "The Biden administration will provide grant funding to pay for the distribution of safe smoking kits as part of efforts to reduce harm from substance abuse over the next three years." This is just a piece of the article, but it's enough to see that the priorities in this country have continuously slid into the crapper. So the idea is, to give out free crack pipes so addicts don't have to share and transmit disease between users. Sure it sounds good, but, if these addicts are so far down they are sharing paraphernalia, they are likely eating out of dumpsters and living in less than adequate shelters if any at all. So, after sleeping in an alley, eating breakfast out of someone's trash, and not having the means to wash, they can go pick up a free crack pipe and at least have a safe smoke? I don't know the real answers; if I did, I would be in politics. But, I do know enough to realize this is going to help about as much as giving out free contact lenses to blind people. |
| We've had a brutally cold winter so far, lots of snow, and frankly, I'm getting tired of it. My mind is racing ahead to thoughts of longer days, more sunshine, and warmer temperatures. But, it's still early February and we still have the rest of this month and all of March where we can still get cold temperatures and lots of snow. In despair, I look at the forecast hoping to see relief in the coming days and weeks. I know the days are already getting longer, and the people at the National Weather Service claim that it's supposed to warm up by tomorrow, with nice weather throughout the next week. Unfortunately, this has been the forecast since late fall when the snow and cold arrived. A false hope dangled like a carrot to lead me through the frigid temperatures and the days of snow. But, by the time we even get close to the dangling forecast, they change it; more cold, more snow, and the carrot is now next week. What's this got to do with furry mammals? Well, we just had our Groundhog Day, and that little critter also provides us with a forecast. I've read the chances of the groundhog being right range from thirty to forty percent probability of being correct. I, however, would guess it to be fifty percent; seriously, it's like tossing a coin, fifty-fifty. So, this far into the despair of a harsh winter, whom shall I trust, the groundhog, or the National Weather Service? That little furry mammal predicts once a year and has a fifty percent chance of being right. The weather people provide daily predictions and seem to be wrong a lot more than they are correct. Sure they get it right once in a while, but that's just a matter of averages; pull the slot handle enough times, and you are bound to win once in a while. I think I'll go with the groundhog, six more weeks of winter. At least it gives me some hope that I'll shovel my last scoop of snow for this winter and be out enjoying a warm sun in a month and a half. Besides, after dangling the weather carrot a week out in front since last fall, I'm finding it very hard to trust the people at the National Weather Service; they'll have to give some pretty accurate predictions for at least the next six weeks to move equal to the groundhog. |
| Wow! I can't believe six days have passed without an entry. Where does the time slip off too? I suppose somewhere in this vast universe is an entire world called, "The Land of Good Intentions". I really don't have much to write about here, since the last six days have been spent doing a lot of nothing. Well, not nothing, but nothing worth writing about. I did get in to see the Chiropractor last week; actually six days ago. That's also the day I woke up with my sinuses all plugged up. I felt pretty good, I just had a stuffed-up nose that would not clear. But, by Thursday, it was building up a lot of pressure in my sinuses, creating quite a lot of discomfort. No fever or anything, I felt fine except for being all stuffed up and having a lot of sinus pressure. By Friday, it had increased two-fold, both the stuffiness and the pressure; now it wasn't discomfort, it was a full sinus headache. I, of course, sought relief from over-the-counter remedies. They helped some, the pain was down to just being uncomfortable and I was able to get some clearing of my sinuses, but not much. I even added in the old stand-by, Vicks Vapor Rub. I was so stuffed up, I couldn't actually smell the stuff, but I could feel it burning in my sinuses. By Monday, I was starting to feel a little better. But, now that the pressure was subsiding, I had a burning sensation throughout my sinuses. I never had a fever or any other indications of being sick, except for being tired. I napped some, and with even the least exertion, I felt exhausted. Tuesday was quite a bit better, I wasn't as tired, had more energy, and could breathe again. Today has been even better, I'm still a little stuffed up, but the burning is gone, the sinuses are draining, and I'm too tired at all. I have more energy; I even ventured out and did some shoveling. It was crazy windy yesterday and snow had drifted in on the sidewalks, not a lot, but enough to need clearing. It's crazy, but one year ago, to the date, I had a terrible sinus infection. My wife had been exposed and came down with Covid, so I was her caregiver until she started feeling better. She didn't get really sick, more like a case of the seasonal flu, and within a week she was starting to feel better. This was good because just as she started to feel better, I started to get a serious sinus infection. I had a pretty high fever and my sinuses discharged nasty-looking gunk along with clots of blood. Yes, I did contact the clinic, but as long as it wasn't serious enough to need hospitalization, they recommended that I stay home, since I likely had contacted Covid as well. Unlike most others, however, I had the worst symptoms in my nose with little cough and chest problems. I ran a pretty high fever and remained sick for almost two weeks before the fever broke and things began to clear up. But, my sinuses never did recover completely. I spent the entire last year with a bit of a runny nose and some mild sinus congestion. Now, one year later and it flairs up again. Hopefully, this time, since I did not get as sick, it will clear up completely and I can finally be over my runny nose. |
| The past few days have been pretty unproductive, despite my muse, Menissa's return. Why? My nose! Not really just my nose, but it started there and spread quickly through my head. I'm talking about a tickle and some sneezing that soon became a running and irritated nose. Then it began to stuff up and build pressure in my sinuses. From the sinuses, it's moved into the ears a bit, mostly pressure to create a bit of vertigo. First Harley had it, all stuffed up and congested, then she was done and El had it. It's one of those colds that only hangs on until it's passed to another, it seems. El was plugged up for about three days before she started to get over it; I was starting to catch it. Now, I should be about over it; I'm going on day three of this. Will I pass it to Rhonda? I hope not. It's not a bad cold, nobody seems to get a fever with it, nor do they seem to have any other symptoms. El did have a touch of a sore throat, but only because of it being irritated by her sinuses draining. My only symptoms are stuffiness, sinus pressure, and being a bit tired. I tend to not get enough sleep, probably part of the reason I caught this. But this week, I"ve been getting to bed early as well as taking a morning nap after everyone's gone off to work and school. My muse is still hanging around. Menissa's eager to write a little something, but it's difficult to focus when my nose burns, I'm stuffed up, and I spend more time sleeping while everyone's gone. Maybe today, after my nap... |
| I did set up another journal for my Keto journey, so I will continue to use this one for whatever else strikes my fancy. What a strange phrase, "strike one's fancy". First off, what is one's fancy? Secondly, why would you want anyone or anything to strike it? But, that's not what I came in here to write about. There are many strange sayings and we could ponder them through the day. I think, by the time we discovered the origin and true meaning of one, there would be two more. No, today I wanted to write a little welcome back entry for my muse. She has been missing for a few years now, and no matter where I looked, she was no place to be found. I thought, "She's left me for a younger writer." But that was not the case. We are still intimately close, now that she's back. Seriously, can one get more intimate than sharing our innermost thoughts? She guides me into the mystical worlds of my mind sharing her thoughts and emotions as we travel these strange and often wonderful worlds. It's funny, in a non-humorous sort of way. We are so close yet I do not know her name. I reckon we will have to take care of that problem forth-with! Anyway, I was reading through the Newsfeed a few days back and saw a contest for writing one, the first, chapter. Now, without my muse, I would ponder the idea of writing to a prompt and possibly spend a few days trying to find something worthy of writing, only to come up blank and frustrated. That's how it works when my muse is gone. But when I look at the prompt and pondered what I could write this time, her sweet, soothing voice began whispering in my mind's ear some ideas. I had to open my word processor as we discussed ideas, plots, and where this could go. Of course, weekends are not a good time for me to write, so many interruptions and things going on, so I decided to wait until today to process these thoughts and ideas further. Even though she agreed, she continued to whisper her excitement and joy that we would once again be creating yet another story together... Yes, when I settled down from my excitement of having her back by my side, I asked her why she had left; was it something I had done? She smiled, in a musing sort of way, and said no, you did not do anything. I have missed you as greatly as you have missed me. She blushed, in my mind, and said, "This is pretty embarrassing, but I need to tell you." She paused for a moment, then continued, "I had some ideas for some poems I wanted to share with you, but I needed to go for a bit of a journey to see those places again. I didn't figure I would be gone for very long, maybe a day or two, then I would be home again and we could take my ideas and write some beautiful poetry." I was going to ask her about those poem ideas, but she put her hand up, gently touching my lips, and hushed me. "I looked, I thought, and I was heading back to you. But, well this is where it gets embarrassing. I forgot where we lived. I remembered the place in South Dakota, but I never pay much attention to things like moving, work, or any of that reality crap. You know me, I live in fantasy and fiction and only deal with reality in poetry." She looked about ready to cry and I longed to hold her close to me, to comfort her, to tell her everything would be okay. But before I could, she rushed forwards to me, crashing into me and squeezing me in her embrace. Then she looked up into my eyes, her gold irises with the beautiful blue borders were big, shining, and wet with the tears she was no longer holding back. "I couldn't remember where to go, so I went to the house in South Dakota and waited for you to return. Then, I remembered, we don't live there anymore. In desperation, I searched in every direction but I could not find my way home. I had just about given up any hopes of us being together again. I sat down in a field of snow and cried out with my mind for you, and then, I heard your mind crying out to me. I locked on to your thoughts, your please for me to return, and they carried me over the miles of snow and ice, and then... And then we were together again." |
| I started the Keto diet on New Year's Day. Since I need to log calories and macro-nutrients, I also started using a fitness site to track my daily intakes. The site provides a blog for whatever I want to blog about, but since it's a diet/fitness site and I'm doing Keto for the first time, I decided it would be a great place to blog about my Keto adventure. No, a few hours later, I have to figure out where I left off and what I was going to say... Weekends! I tell you, it's almost impossible to do anything that requires concentration and no interruptions. If it's not the kids, it's my wife! So, as I was saying, I started a blog on the diet/fitness site to post my updates as well as to share with my friends and family who are also on that site. But, there is no way to share it with them unless they find it shortly after I post. There are no links on my profile for them to follow, and even when I try to post the link in my feed, it won't allow any links. The only way anyone can access my post is to look for recent forum posts and try and find mine. So, I decided it would be easier to blog about my journey here, in WdC, and let them know in my feed over there when I have updated it. Sure, they will have to save the link since they are not member's here, but that's easy enough to do after I send it to them. In fact, my wife often visits my port and has it saved in her browser. So, my question was, "Do I blog about my Keto journey here, in my blog, or do I start a separate journal just for Keto and my fitness journey?" With the interruptions this morning as soon as I settled in to write, and since I sometimes blog here to vent, the answer is clear, start a new journal just for that. Thanks for the help... |
| This is a continuation of the previous entry. I called the clinic, again. I talked to the same person who told me again that I couldn't get the prescription refilled until I scheduled an appointment. I told her I had one for next Monday. She then told me that the psychologist would call in a refill after the meeting. I explained that my granddaughter was out and needed it filled right away. She let out a loud sigh and explained in a frustrated voice that she cannot prescribe medications, only the doctor can, and that I needed to see him to get the prescriptions refilled. I asked how soon I could set up an appointment. She looked and replied she could get me in today. "What time?" I asked. "He's open right now, would you like to set up an appointment?" "Yes." "Okay, would you prefer to meet with him through Zoom or over the phone?" "Over the phone, please." "One minute and I'll transfer you." It was a couple of minutes, and he wanted to speak to my granddaughter. I explained she wasn't home, but I needed to get her medications refilled. I explained what had taken place and he checked his appointments. "So, you canceled the meeting next month and rescheduled it for Monday?" "Yes, but I need to get her medications refilled right away, she's out." He said he would get them sent in right away and see us next week for our appointment. He apologized for the confusion and asked if there was anything else. I couldn't resist asking him if the front office was staffed by morons. "Some days it seems like it. Let me know if you have any other problems getting the medications refilled." I bid him good day and hung up. I didn't even have my phone set down when the clinic called and told me that I needed to call my pharmacy and have them contact them to get these prescriptions refilled. I didn't even try to explain anything. I called the pharmacy, again. Explained that I had talked to the doctor and he was going to have the medications refilled. I explained that the receptionist had called me right after meeting with the doctor and informed me to have you (the pharmacist) call them to get the refills. I also explained that they were currently staffed by morons, so if there're any more problems, I apologize in advance. I have not heard anything back, so I'm hopeful that the refills were finally approved. |
| Yes, today's topic is morons. Sorry, this is kind of a rant, but I need to vent before I get back on the phone. A short history of the situation may be needed. We adopted our granddaughters and are trying to provide a stable and healthy home for them. One is on medication for anxiety, ADD, and sleep problems. Everything seems to be working well so there is no current need to change or alter her medications, which are prescribed through a psychologist who she meets with through Zoom. A few months ago she met with him, he asked how she was doing, if she needed anything changed, and a few other basic questions. Since everything was alright, he sent in her prescriptions and that was it. The whole meeting took about five minutes and she was done. The last thing he told us was that she should see him again in about three months unless anything changed. The pharmacy filled the prescriptions, and when they ran out, we had them refilled. Now she needs them refiled again, but the psychologist only set up two months. The pharmacy called the clinic and was told no refills until she meets with the doctor. Today I called the clinic and explained that she was out of medication and needed a refill and that she has an appointment with the psychologist next month, as he requested. I was told to have the pharmacy call them and they would refill our granddaughter's prescriptions. I did earlier this morning. About an hour ago, the pharmacy called me and informed me that the prescriptions cannot be refilled until I schedule an appointment. Since they don't have anything to do with any of it, I thanked them and told them I would try and get things straightened out. I called the clinic again, talked to the same person, who said I needed to schedule an appointment. I told her I have one set up. I explained that I had them set it up after our grandaughter had met with the doctor and that she would see him next month, as he requested. She said she would talk to the doctor and get back to me. About twenty minutes ago, the clinic called back and had me cancel the appointment for next month and set one up for next week. I did. I explained again that I needed refills on her prescriptions and was told that I should have seen on the bottles that there was only one refill and set up an appointment for the doctor before that ran out. I asked her if I was supposed to schedule by the refills or by the doctor's request. "Well, you should do what the doctor told you." I explained it all again, told her I have an appointment for next Monday and asked if they could please refill the prescriptions. She asked if my granddaughter was out. "Yes." "You need to call your pharmacy and have them call in the prescription so it can get filled right away." That was the reply. I have recalled the pharmacy, tried to explain the madness, and asked them if they could try and call it in again. The lady said that she would do that right away. Right before I started this post, she called me back and said that the clinic will refill the prescriptions as soon as I set up an appointment. Again, I explained it and told her I would call the psychologist again and try and get it figured out. |
| I updated my "handle" and found an interesting picture to adorn my port and go along with my new journey in Keto. If you're not familiar with the Keto diet, it's basically another low carb diet but it includes a higher fat intake. I know, how can you lose weight by eating more fat? It's kind of a difficult thing to explain in a short blog post, but there is a lot of information available online. My reasoning was a bit simpler, I have been having some problems with eating carbs. Simple carbs seem to upset my stomach, leave me feeling tired and run down, interfere with sleeping all night, inflammation, aching joints, and worsen an old back injury. It took quite a bit of time and food logging to find the problem, but after a few weeks on the Keto diet plan, I know now for sure it was the carbs. Of course, I could all but eliminate simple carbs and still eat healthier ones, but with six pounds down in just over two weeks, I have to say it's working. Also, I don't find myself hungry all the time, and I seldom have any cravings; what little craving I do experience is minimal and short-lived. I have tried off and on for years to take weight off, but instead, I have slowly gotten heavier. Quite some years back, my wife and I wanted to lose some excess weight. At that time I was looking to remove about twenty-five pounds, I was getting there with increased exercise and cutting back on how much I ate, but it was taking a long time. So, we decided to do the diet thing and speed it up. Of course, sweets had to go, except on our cheat day and then only in moderation. The biggest thing we did was to cut back on our fat intake as all the sources told us we needed to do to lose weight. Looking back, that's when we started to struggle with our weight loss and started having trouble sticking to our diets. The more we struggled, the leaner our cuts of meat, lower and no-fat foods replaced the ones we had been eating, and over the years our weight increased as our energy and feelings of well-being declined. In short, why blame the butter for what the bread did! That's what we were doing and it did not work, so now we are trying Keto. So far, six pounds down, I'm sleeping better, feeling better, and I have a lot more energy. I'm curious to see how things progress, but I'm hopeful and will continue to post my progress as the weeks go by. |
| "How's it going?" You ask. Well, it's been a lot nicer most of the week. We've had bitter cold with very little relief since Christmas; it would warm up a little above zero just to snow, then back down again. But, this week has seen us above zero until today; it snowed yesterday and is cold today, but sunny, calm, and it should be warmer again by tomorrow. With it being so cold, I've been seeking refuge in the garage to smoke, but it's too cold out there to do any of the projects I'd like to be working on. I do have a torpedo heater out there that warms it up, but it takes a while, it's noisy, and when too cold, it won't run. I'm talking 20 degrees is about it, anything colder and the heater won't work unless I warm it up. Yes, that's funny; I need a heater on my heater. Well, it's funny, but at the same time, it's a pain in my backside. See, when it's below zero and I need to warm up the garage, I have to set up a propane heater to warm up the torpedo heater to warm up the garage. It's a lot of fuss and not very efficient. So, I purchased a bigger torpedo heater that will warm the garage up faster, better, and it's a lot less noisy. I just unboxed it yesterday, put on the handles and wheels, and tried it out. In about ten minutes, maybe fifteen it was over 70 degrees in the garage! With the old heater that needed a heater, I would be lucky to get it up to 50. And, that was by letting it run for about an hour. Since it's below zero today, I'm going to head out to the garage pretty soon to see it start up without having to heat it up first, and I want to see how well it heats when it's this cold. Then, I have to shovel a bit more snow and do a bit of shopping. So, that's how it's going for me. "How are you doing?" |
| Yes, teased! In my opinion, it's not very nice to tease someone like this and then not follow through. I'm talking about the weather, just in case you're wondering. We have been plunged into an arctic deep freeze since Christmas. But, we do see the thermometer (Fahrenheit) read positive numbers once in a while. I mean, it will, for about one day, rise into the single digits above zero, but only to snow and blow, and hit us with yet another winter storm. But, the weatherman told us that by this weekend we would actually get a nice break from the cold. Yes, he told us that. He said in the forecast that it would be in the twenties on Saturday and then stay about that warm most of this week... He lied! But, he did tease us first, before we discovered he was lying. See, yesterday was just as he said it would be. The sun was out, the temp was up, and it was a beautiful day. So nice that we, my family, drove over to my elderly mother-in-law's to take down holiday decorations and clean ut her driveway from all the snow. By mid-afternoon, the wind had come up and the sun had receded into a sky of gray. Then, even as I was finishing up the big job of shoveling all the snow from her rather large drive, it began to lightly snow. After a nice break inside, I went out to move vehicles; I had moved them to shovel more snow. It was still snowing, but just lightly. However, the air was now very cold and the wind was blowing rather hard. By the time we drove home early yesterday evening, it was very cold, just below zero, windy, and blowing snow. The weatherman had changed the forecast, I found out, now it was supposed to drop to about eight below and barely get above zero today. However, it didn't get down to eight below, it dropped to eighteen below and our high for today is maybe going to hit eight below. Then back down tonight; we may see thirty below, and maybe a high of ten below tomorrow. But, the weatherman says it should get warmer on Tuesday, up into the twenties with lots of sunshine, and he says, it should stay that way for the rest of the week. But, I've heard these lies before... |
| The weekend is here, I finally feel like I've had a full night's sleep, the sun is shining, and it's twenty degrees above zero; it's a beautiful day. I should be out shoveling snow and cleaning up from our last snow storm since it dropped to bitterly cold temperatures and I haven't done any of it yet, but instead of getting all the things done here that need doing, I'm getting ready to head over to my elderly mother-in-law's and shoveling out her snow while my wife and the kids take down her holiday decorations and put them back in the garage. Tomorrow it's back down below zero, so today is the best day to work outside, but unfortunately, I won't have time to do any of my outdoor work since I'll be over there. I also need to get a new torpedo heater for the garage, and since my wife is home today we could take the car over and get one, but it's over thirty miles in the opposite direction from my mother-in-law's. Also, with the arctic cold we have had for two weeks now, most places are out of stock on heaters, so by the time I can go get one, they likely won't have one. I know, I should just do what needs to be done here, but at the same time, none of the lady's other children or grandchildren that live close by, seem to be able to help her out, so I'll drive for an hour to go over there and help her out. |
| Yes, we are still having frigid weather. In my last post, I explained how cold and it hasn't changed much. It did climb above zero for about twenty-four hours, not a lot above, but still above. Of course, we also had another winter storm pass over at the same time, and then it's back down. It's forecast to drop to a shivering -27 degrees by morning with winds in the teens. That means the wind chill factor, or as it's called no, the feel like temperature is close to -40. I'm talking degrees Fahrenheit here! It's going to be like this until the weekend, then it's forecast to warm up into the teens and twenties. After this arctic freeze, that's going to feel almost tropical. Seriously; I'm talking about close to a 50-degree temperature change. Two days ago, before the wind picked up and the snow started dropping, I was standing outside in my t-shirt while I smoked -- today I'm hunkered down in the garage with a torpedo heater going and dressed like an Arctic explorer. Other than being cold, not a lot is going on right now. Of course, Christmas break is over and the kids are back in school, even though it was two hours late starting today because of the snow. Oh, and my older daughter joined WdC and has a poem in her port that she needed to write for school. Of course, I'm going to be biased, but in all honesty, I think she did pretty damn well. Who knows, maybe she will motivate me to start writing again... |
| It's been a long time since I've made any entries here, but after answering Question Of The Day with my plans on clearing snow and staying inside where it's warm, I had a request made to do a blog entry about it. Snow fun is something I could write about, but clearing snow isn't snow fun, in fact, it's actually no fun. Thankfully I did purchase a small, single-stage snowblower last year. I used it a couple of times, but we really didn't get much snow. Over Christmas weekend, however, we got close to a foot and it was nice having a snowblower instead of trying to shovel and move that much snow. Yesterday we had another six to nine inches come down, but I didn't clean up much of it, yet. I did clear the steps and made a path to the garage with the snow shovel, but shortly after I finished it snowed more and left another four inches to clean up. I should be outside cleaning up from this last snowfall, but I'm having difficulties motivating myself. First of all, my back still aches a bit from my last snow removal ordeal; even with a small snowblower, there was plenty of shoveling. Also, it is a small snowblower and not quite big enough for the amount of snow we have. See, I should have gotten a bigger, two-stage, self-propelled machine to tackle as much snow clearing as I need. But, when I purchased this one, I thought all I would need is something to clear the patio and the sidewalks. Our landlord hires someone to plow the driveway and keep it cleared. But, I learned that even though he has a truck with a plow, he either doesn't know how to plow or he just doesn't care that he does a horse-s*** job. Therefore, I fid myself needing to clean up in front of the garage and around my pickup, as well as make a path to the dumpster. Yes, I did mention to the landlord that he does a terrible job, and so have the other tenants. In fact, I even took pictures of the job he did after Christmas and showed him how bad it was. He called and talked to the snow remover guy so now he left even a bigger mess. Sometimes it's better not to complain, you see. But, it all works out and I know this will too. In the meantime, however, I need to go move some more snow. This brings me to the second part of my demotivation, it's cold out. Sure, it must be cold if we get snow, right? No, I mean it's arctic cold out. We had a low of negative twenty-six this morning and it still has not reached our forecasted high of negative six; I don't think we will get out of the negative teens myself. Tonight it's back down in the negative twenties and it's not looking like we will see it above zero until next week. So, to do much outdoors, I need to put on a lot of warm clothing. The problem with this is two-fold. One, with so many layers of clothing, it begins to get difficult to move freely. All those clothes tend to restrict movement, as well as just being uncomfortable. The other problem is, with all those layers of clothing to keep the cold out, they also keep the heat in. I know, that's the idea. But, what I mean is, they hold too much heat in so that when a person is working, they sweat. The sweat makes the clothing damp and then it's back to getting cold. |
| Where does time go? I understand its passing is in proportion to our actions, pleasant time passes quickly, unpleasant time moves slowly. Mr. Einstein stated it the best, "Put your hand on a hot stove for a minute, and it seems like an hour. Sit with a pretty girl for an hour, and it seems like a minute. That's relativity." That sums up how quickly time passes, but what about time vanishing? For example, there are still four days left to the week, so plenty of time to log in and write. But I'm busy, I'm tired, so I don't get in for a couple of days. That's alright, I'll catch up on the weekend. Those were my thoughts around March eighteenth. Now it's March twenty-ninth and my thoughts are, "Where the hell did last week go?" Sure, I've been busy and there's a lot going on, but still, a whole week missing. Yet, I can look back at various tasks for any of the missing days. I could recount each and every one of the days but yet they still managed to slip past as if they weren't days but mere hours. I could understand it if I had been spending those days with a pretty girl, as Mr. Einstein stated, but there were also a lot of tasks that were unpleasant. Not as bad as holding y hand on a hot stove, but still not enjoyable things; still, the days vanished rapidly. Perhaps time is speeding up? I mean, look at the global warming thing and how drastic the weather and climates are supposedly changing. Mind you, I'm not taking a side on this, not one way or the other. That our climate is changing, I believe it is. Why it's changing, I have my thoughts and opinions, but that's not the discussion here. The discussion here is time, not climate. However, it seems to me that time is also changing, going faster and faster. I'm not talking about measurements done with clocks and timekeeping devices; an hour is still sixty seconds. I'm talking about how much can be done in the time we have. And, since we measure time the same, even though it's passing faster, we cannot see it; not until it's changed a lot. For example, think of a candy bar that costs a dollar. As inflation grows, the price must either increase or the size decrease. But, imagine if you will, they don't make a big change. Instead, they shave off just a minute amount each week! The price still remains constant, but the candy bar decreases. However, since they are only shaving off an amount as thick as a hair each month, nobody notices how the bar is decreasing in size. That's my theory, and that's where I'm at right now. I'm looking at it and thinking, "Wasn't this candy bar a lot bigger a couple of years ago?" But, with nothing to compare it too, I can't be sure... |
| As I wrote yesterday, I do not like Daylight Savings Time, I don't adjust to it, and it makes no sense, there are still just as many hours of light each day, we save nothing. Sure, it gets dark an hour later, according to the clock, but it also gets light an hour later. All winter long, I wake up to darkness. But, by March, we finally get to wake up to the light of the sun. For me, it makes a big difference in my energy, how fast I wake up, and really boosts my mood. I mean, after four months of waking up before the sun comes up gets old and kind of gloomy. Then March arrives, with the sun slipping over the horizon, and by the Ide's of March, it's streaming in through the bedroom windows when the alarm goes off. So, what do we do? We set the clocks ahead an hour so I can once again get up before the sun rises. It's like getting a small taste of something scrumptious when your super hungry, but not getting to eat any. So it is with the morning sun; it will be close to another month before I gain back my morning sunshine! Now, to make it even worse, we have colder weather and precipitation for the next few days. It's below freezing once again, so it snows and seems like we lost a whole month with the time change. All in all, it's a bit depressing. And, why do we do it? I mean, for those who like the extra hour of light at the end of the day instead of at the start, let them get up an hour earlier, it's the same damn thing. Besides, the days are getting longer without any help from us; the sun rises earlier and sets later right up to summer. Anyway, enough griping about the time change. I'm not going to let it get me down, even though I have a long and difficult time adjusting to it. I'm staying positive and thinking spring. In fact, while out picking up a few things at the home store today, I saw they had bicycles on display. I looked at a few and decided to get one. It's a nice way to start getting a bit more exercise and it's fun. I even took it for a short spin around the parking lot before trying to fit it into the car to bring it home. The parking lot was clear, but it felt kind of weird riding a bike with the snow falling around me. It wasn't anything fancy, just a cheap hybrid with a bit wider tires. I liked it because it's good for riding on gravel as well as on pavement, so I can ride it almost anywhere. Of course, until the frost is out and the mud dries up I'll likely stick to riding on pavement, but once it's nicer, I'll explore some back roads and trails as well. |
| The little calendar states it's been three days but that isn't right. I suppose it's technically correct, but since I haven't gone to bed yet and it's still my Sunday night, I say it's two days since my last entry. Not that it really matters, but it's a matter of principle; especially today when they went and messed with time again. I know, there are quite a few people who actually enjoy Daylight Savings Time. I respect your choice and if this crap is your thing, then more power to you; seriously, if you can enjoy and look forward to people messing with time, I can honestly say, I wish I was among you. I, however, take the opposite side of the fence and say, "Bull!" Maybe, in the past, under the right circumstances, Daylight Savings Time may have served a purpose. Even so, it did not accomplish that purpose. No matter how you look at it, there is no changing time! I state this in fact. Throughout the year, the days either get longer or shorter, and there isn't squat we can do about it. Yesterday, we had 11 hours, 47 minutes, and 26 seconds between sunrise and sunset. Today we had 11 hours, 50 minutes, and 45 seconds despite the start of Daylight Savings Time. The increase is only minutes, the same as every year and it will continue until the equinox when the days begin to grow shorter. I repeat, we did not gain an extra hour of daylight! We had three more, naturally occurring minutes of daylight only because the days are getting longer in our location on the globe. Think about it, set the clock ahead one hour and you gain an hour? How? If that actually worked, we would constantly be setting our clocks ahead to gain more time to do the things we never have time for. In reality, I didn't get as much done today as I should have, I ran out of time sooner. For example, even though it was only seven o'clock and I had another hour before we settled in to watch our television show together, the change made it eight o'clock so I lost that hour. In fact, I've lost an hour all day! I actually got up earlier today, but thanks to the time change it was still an hour later. I went to bed at one-thirty, but when I got up, the time had changed so it was now an hour later and I had an hour less sleep. At seven I went out to close up the chicken, but it was now eight; she doesn't acknowledge the time change. Even now, it's my bedtime, by the display on the clock, but by my internal clock, I still have an hour left! It will take me a week or more to adjust, but in truth, I will be off until we return to real-time. I will adjust, but it won't feel right. Why? Because last night I lost an hour and I can not gain it back until October. Maybe I'm weird, but my internal clock cannot be reset. I can adjust to different hours of wake and sleep with some time, but the internal clock continues to tick by at the same time throughout the year; I cannot alter it. I can argue this is normal, however, because animals also cannot reset their clocks. I worked in the dairy industry for a time and the cows need to be milked morning and evening at the same time, changing the clock does not increase production, it would decrease it! The same holds true for poultry and egg production. I say, "It's time for this to end!" You may disagree, but I have known this for years and I argue, I am right in this. Don't believe me, look at the internet information, you will see the same, no argument for Daylight Savings Time but plenty against it. It's clearly shown that we gain nothing, but we lose a lot. For those who say, "Now it's light when I get home from work." I hear you! But, it's now dark when you go to work. And, in another month, it would have been light when you get off from work anyway. If you cant handle the shorter days we have this far north, move south, but leave that damn clock alone! |
| I reckon I better write this now or it's going to turn to five days again. Two days ago, when I wrote in here last, our snow was almost gone, I had most of the ice chipped away and the sidewalks were almost all dry. Even the driveway was drying out nice, but still pretty soft. We had a few places where the snow was piled that hadn't melted completely, and of course, in the thicker trees where the sun doesn't hit, there was still some snow, but the yard was all grass. Yesterday about noon, a storm system moved in. The prediction was for a few inches to a few feet of snow, depending on where the heaviest band of the storm was going to hit. "This is a real downer, man!" I thought as I read the forecast. But, we have had a pretty mild winter and in this part of the country, March is often our most snow month. So, I moved some items inside and put others in the garage before the snow hit. I made sure there was gas for the snow-blower and prepared for the worst, hoping for the best. By noon the snow had started, but it wasn't coming down hard at all. A few times during the afternoon it did get worse, but not for long and by four yesterday afternoon the snow had stopped. There was about an inch on the sidewalks that I shoveled off, and there was a light cover of snow on the driveway and yard, but most of it had melted as soon as it landed. "Not too shabby." I thought as I relaxed on the deck with a smoke. By six it was snowing again, but like before, hardly any was building up. With it cooler now, however, it was sticking around and things were getting white. By seven, when I had gone out to smoke after dinner, there was about an inch where I had shoveled earlier, and maybe a couple of inches total. I didn't foresee getting much more since the storm was forecast to be out of the area by midnight. With the sun out today and temperatures at least ten degrees above freezing, both my wife and I thought the snow would be gone again by the end of the day. However, when I went out at nine, it was snowing hard, there was at least another two inches of the stuff, and the wind was blowing it sideways. I looked at the weather app on my phone and it had not changed, so I looked at the radar and there it was, the system was rotating right above us instead of moving along its way. When I got up this morning there was at least six inches of the wet, heavy, and unwanted stuff to shovel. Everything is under a blanket of snow again, and it's looking like I'm back to ground zero for water and ice build-up on the sidewalks. I went out around nine and cleared the worst of it from between the house and the garage, then cleared the sidewalks and the patio. It's melting, but not as fast as I'd like. I don't mind snow, it's part of the winter season, but by this time of the year, I'm always glad to see it go. The part I really don't like is the season of wet, muddy thawing between winter and spring. |
| How does it happen? I just don't get it, there has to be some kind of time loop or something... I wrote in here on March forth, yet I thought I had only missed a couple of days? Let's see where the days went, shall we? Friday I was pretty busy working out in the garage and in the yard. We have a terrible ice build-up and with the warm temperatures, the snow and ice are melting fast. That's great, except we live on a hill and most of the melt-off is running down the sidewalk where it refreezes at night and makes a treacherous walk in the forenoons. Friday I chipped a trench so that most of the water would flow to on point and not all over the sidewalks. I also had to do some cleaning in the garage and organize things and discovered that the water was also seeping into the garage under the overhead door. This froze and when I hit the opener, it bent the support that attaches the chain to the door. So, I trenched a bit in the frozen gravel so most of the water could drain away from the garage door. Then I pulled the support off and tried to straighten it. Of course, it wouldn't ever be perfect again, but it did straighten pretty well. I also fabricated a bit of a brace to put inside of the brace to help keep it from bending again. Finally, I sprayed some oil, cooking oil to be precise, on the rubber seal of the door so if it did get wet and freeze, it likely wouldn't freeze down tight. By this time, it was getting late and I called it a day. I made dinner, relaxed, and was planning on logging in here later in the evening. But, I was tired and sore from all the chipping and shoveling ice chunks, so I ended up going to bed and left my blog for Saturday. Saturday we headed over to my mother-in-law's for the day and helped her out with some stuff. We had planned to be home by late afternoon, but we had a late start, and then she insisted we stay for dinner. My sister-in-law was also there and also wanted us to stay. In fact, she tried her best to convince us to stay the night. But, we had things to get done and had to be home. Even so, we didn't get home until almost ten and I was again tired and ready for bed. Sunday was spent getting more work done outside, busting up some ice, and trying to get more water away from the sidewalks. We also did a bit of shopping, made a nice dinner, and then just relaxed for the evening. I was still pretty sore from all the ice chipping and working out in the mud and slop, so I ended up tired and ready for bed about the time I should have been logging in here. Yesterday I moved some furniture and shampooed half the living room so we could put down the area rug my mother-in-law gave us. She had purchased it for her living room, but once it was down it was too small and didn't go with her decore very well. So, she had purchased a bigger one and had no use for the other one. She needed to get rid of it and insisted we take it home and enjoy it. It's nice, fits in the side of the room we have the desk and goes well with our miss-matched style. But, before putting it down, I wanted to get the carpet cleaned. But, it will take two of us to move the bigger furniture so I settled on doing this half since I could manage moving everything on this side by myself. After, I put fans on and set about getting it dried. Meanwhile, I worked on getting rid of some more ice and putting my ice fishing stuff away for the season. I didn't have any way of drying my pop-up fish shelter, but with the patio cleared and dry, I was able to set it up for a few hours in the sunshine while I waited for the carpet to dry. While that dried out, I took my wife's new bike out of the garage and set about putting the lights, mirror, and speedometer on it. By the time I finished, the girls were home from school and it was getting on to be time to start dinner. But, the house was a disaster with everything moved, so I had to put the area rug down and move things back to get the kitchen empty. Then dinner, after which, I put the pop-up shelter away, put the bike back in the garage, and then came in and relaxed for a while in front of the television. I fell asleep in my chair... Now, it's been a pretty easy day so far, but I'm not chancing it, I'll write this now just in case I can't stay awake later. |
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