Category: miscellaneous

Friedaz’s Theme Music

We’ve clocked into Friedaz, February 7, 2024. Snowfall greeted me when I checked the weather. A couple more inches had been added during night’s rule. Now 30 F, more was piling up.

Or was it? The temperature crept up to 31. 32. 32.3. 32.4.

Papi the ginger blade, aka, ginger butt, had a vet appointment. 10 AM. I’d made it three weeks ago. He was suffering fur loss, ravenous appetite and some weight loss. Hyperactive thyroid was suspected by us. We’d seen the same in Tucker (pronounced Tuck-ah). In fact, based on that, we’d started sharing Tucker’s medicine with Papi. Stopped it on Monday so we could get it out of his system and see the test results.

After strapping chains onto the tires and putting a complaining Papi into a kennel, I made the drive under heavy snowfall.

Turned out that chains were only needed for our driveway and street. The city’s main roads were plowed. As we traveled west and north, the temperature rose. Snow became rain. Precipitation ceased by the time we reached the vet.

That’s okay. Little inconvenienced. Important thing is to get Papi checked and healthy. Yeah, blood work shows hyperactive thyroid. Five hundred clams later, she prescribed the same med that Tucker is getting. Wants to check him in a month.

BTW, I researched why we call money ‘clams’. Turns out that it’s an old joke, based on settlers observing natives using clams for cash. Actually, I made that up. Figure that in this era of fake news, what’s a little more?

I have a 1974 Procol Harum song, “Pandora’s Box”, in the morning mental music stream. Procol Harum often brought interesting music to the scene. This is one I knew from their albums but I don’t believe I ever heard it played on the radio. Funny enough, Aerosmith had a song with the same title in the year before. That caused some confusion among some of us. The two songs sound nothing at all alike, with vastly different intentions presented by the lyrics. I later bet a friend about who performed the song, cleverly inserting the year as part of the bet. I won but he accused me of being underhanded and taking advantage of him. Guilty! But the bet was just a beer, come on. It was at the NCO club and was five dollars for a pitcher. Of course, it was American lager…Miller Lite, I think.

Coffee has resuscitated my energy levels again. Time to get on the day and ride. Hope your day fills your needs.

Hey, look, the snow has stopped and the sun is out.

By the way, I thought I’d utilize the original spelling used today, Friedaz. In doing research, I learned that ‘day’ was actually ‘daz’ almost universally until it became Anglicized. And the prefix, Fri, was originally Frig or Frigga, after a Nordic Goddess. Those rebelling against Nordic influence because they were chaffing from looting done during Viking raids in Europe, changed it to Frie. That spelling upset Christians, as Frigga day or Frieday was a day of fasting. People thought that calling it Friedaz gave them permission to eat fried food. Hence, they started eating fried fish on Friedaz, giving rise to the Catholic rule of eating fish on Friday. The spelling was changed to try to stop people from eating fried foods on Friedaz, but it had became too embedded. Even so, a last ditch attempt was made by religious authorities: they changed the spelling to Friday. And that’s why we have that spelling.

Naw, I made that up, too. Blame the coffee. It’s always forcing me to write and say crazy things.

Until another time, cheers

0

Oh, The Wonder

Daily writing prompt
How do significant life events or the passage of time influence your perspective on life?
View all responses

Time’s spend has changed since I was a child. Then I came to understand, oh, it’s not time that changed, it’s me. Time speeds up as we age. But with time passing, I also gain greater perspective. I can look back at certain events and interactions and comprehend them with better insights because my life’s experiences expanded my base of understanding.

And I have found that I can keep learning. But changing? Changing also becomes harder as I age. It seems like I’m like water. Like a stream, I was looking for my course to follow. Once finding it, I don’t want to leave it.

Time’s passing also changed perspectives on fashion. I’m less enthused about dressing to impress others these days and more focused on being comfortable. I can more easily shrug off others’ opinions of me because I know how transitory and incidental these things are.

My final observation was that I didn’t really fully appreciate my body when I was younger. As I aged, different alarms went off at specific times, triggering events and changes that I never expected. Like my metabolism jumping off a cliff. And my prostate en

2

Saturda’s Wandering Thoughts

My wife doesn’t want me to mop the hardwood floors. I asked for feedback: “Why?”

“You don’t do a good job.”

I was insulted. But, the craftiness in me decided, well, that means that she will always mop the floor.

On the other hand, she admits that I do a much better job cleaning the stainless steel kitchen appliances. Although, she notes, she thinks that I’m “a little obsessive” about having it streak free.

It all works out. I do those items, and she does the floor, and we’re both happy.

2

Frieda’s Wandering Thoughts

As with many humans, I’m a fan of the look back. That’s the manuever engaged as you walk away from a chair or table: you look back to ensure you haven’t forgotten or dropped something.

I watch people conduct their look back and happen to see three women leave their table without doing the look back. As I thought that through, I saw a purse hanging over the back of a chair. As I rose to cross to get it and chase them down, the woman hustled back in with an alarmed expression. Hope she’s learned and plans to look back in the future.

BTW, would the look back be a good dance move? I could see it. You might be doing it on the dance floor.

1

Thursda’s Wandering Thoughts

It’s a potpourri of offerings and updates. Nothing important. Just sharing.

Tucker (pronounced Tuck-ah), my black and white wonder floof, had some issues this morning. I heard him in the litter box at a quarter to daylight this morning. The familar tones of him puking followed. I rose to check it out and soon learned that he was constipated. After comforting him, I warmed water and gave him a few CCs of that via syringe. Next, warmed water and made a slurry out of his kibble, which he eagerly took in. Finally, warmed water, mixed it with a Churro bisque and fed him a few CCs of that. Meanwhile, in his wanderings, three small, hard stools were released. After these treatments, he retired to his litter box and had a large bowel movement. Then he acted normal. But this is a warning shot; I need to shift his diet and ensure he’s eating more wet food. I’d noticed that since his teeth have been removed, that’s been a problem for him. I’m also picking up some cat laxative to keep on hand, just in case.

My healing continues, and my edema issues are improving. I’ve been experiencing bi-lateral edema. Started a few years ago, in conjunction with an obstructed bladder caused by an enlarged prostat. Ankle surgery last fall made it worse on my right leg and foot. I focus on reducing the swelling by day’s end every day. Here in general is what I’ve done.

  1. Increased hydration. I’m drinking a ton of water a day. Peeing a lot, too.
  2. Reduced alcohol and coffee.
  3. Reduced my sodium intake. Banished any lunch meat from my lips. Bacon and sausage, which I never consumed much in the first place. Breads were cut back. Swore off most sauces and all salad dressings. Almost completely cut out butter. Eating more raw fruits and veggies. I consult labels for sodium content before buying or consuming.
  4. Massage a CBD lotion into my legs, ankles, and feet each morning and evening. I follow the contours of my muscles, ligaments, tendons, and bones. This seems to help my blood and lymph flow.
  5. Wear compression socks during the day. I typically have them on for about ten hours.
  6. Elevate my feet. Each night I lie on my back with my feet up on the wall for 30 to 40 minutes. I exercise my legs, feet, and toes during this time. I then also elevate my right ankle further during the night.
  7. Exercise several times a day to raise my heartbeat. Significant emphasis is given to moving my legs and feet. Besides brisk walking, I stretch and flex, plank for a minute, wallsit three times a day for a minute at a time, run in place, and do some light free weights.
  8. Bought and wear orthopedic footwear.

This all seems to be paying off. My left limb and foot doesn’t swell much during the day at all. The swelling on my right foot, ankle, and leg is completely gone by each morning. Although it slowly swells during the day, the swelling isn’t as heavy. My mobility, strength, and flexibility have all improved, IMO, based on the exercises and my observations. I commence my lymph-edema massage therapy next week.

My wife and I both like to do word games like Connections, Spelling Bee, Wordle, and Hurdle. Each day, we talk about how easy or hard the games were for us. We also laugh about how we sometimes screw up. For example, with Wordle and Hurdle, you’re guessing a five letter word. You have six guesses. Correct letters show up in green. Letters which are in the word but in the wrong location are in gold or yellow. It’s humorous but irritating to realize after making some guesses that we’ve overlooked or have forgotten to use a letter in yellow in our guesses. It’s like, “OMG, I had a N in yellow that I forgot! What is wrong with me?”

It’s all fun and games.

0

WTF, America

It’s another WTF, America, January morning in 2025. Google brings us this one. Bending their knee to power, as greedy corporations do, they have decided to rename things in accordance with the wishes of the First Peckerhead. In case you’re unaware, I’m referring to the first felon elected as POTUS in the history of the United States, aka #47.

Tell you what. I’m not caterng to this damn whim. It’s still the Gulf of Mexica and Denali to me. I’m not going to help the right-wing machine rewrite history, culture, or facts.

End of.

0

Munda’s Wandering Thoughts

It’s funny, sometimes.

My wife picked up a skillet the other day. Washed and dried, she was putting it away. When she turned, the skillet nailed her glass of water on the counter. Put the glass airborne and shattered it into sixteen zillion pieces of glass. Water, Everywhere.

We have hardwood floors in that part of the house — kitchen, foyer, dining room, halls. The glass was cleaned up as best as we could. But. It’s glass.

A few days after the incident, a piece of glass found my heel. Bleeding and pain followed. As the situation unfolded, after almost fifty years of marriage and three more years of being together, my wife asked me, “Why aren’t you wearing shoes?”

I replied, “I don’t wear shoes in the house.”

Yep, it’s funny, sometimes.

0

Sunda’s Wandering Thoughts

My wife has a new laptop ‘puter. “How should I keep it clean?” she asked me. “What should I use? I want to keep it clean. I was terrible about that with my last one and I don’t want to be like that this time.”

“I don’t know how to keep it clean,” I replied, although I had some ideas like, don’t eat while you’re using it.

“But I thought you were a tech guy and knows all this stuff.”

“You’ve mistaken me for someone else. Why don’t you research how to keep it clean? You know, search the net.”

“I am researching. I’m asking you.”

I laughed. “Okay, I’ll do a quick search.”

“See?” my wife exclaimed with a grin. “It worked.”

We both laughed.

0

More DIY Braggin’

Yes, I have two more DIY successes to brag about. Hope you’ll indulge me in this. I celebrate the little victories because there just ain’t that many big ones. Don’t wanna dwell any more on that.

First one was actually a DIY for friends. They have a Roku television. Bought it about eight years ago for their bedroom. Asked me to set it up for them. Which I did.

Said TV started malfunctioning a few weeks ago, showing them a ‘No Signal!’ error message on startup. Naturally, they called Spectrum because Spectrum is their Internet/Phone/Cable provider. Spectrum sent out a tech. That tech replaced all the Spectrum pieces. That didn’t resolve the issue.

Another Spectrum tech was sent in and basically did the same. Didn’t fix the problem.

Third Spectrum tech was deployed. This one told them it was their television. “You bought a cheap one,” he claimed. “And it’s failing.” He couldn’t fix the problem but suggested that they could hire him on the side and he could probably fix it then. He also complained that techs had to keep coming out to fix their television when they had other issues to address.

What wonderful customer service!

So, I received word through my wife, would I mind coming out and taking a look?

Well, I was dubious. If the pros couldn’t fix it, what could I do? But I went. I studied the cables. The Spectrum setup didn’t make sense to me. So, being me, I just changed them to what I thought would work.

And it did.

I suspect that Spectrum actually had a failing piece, which they replaced, but then screwed up the connections. That’s my theory and I’m stickin’ to it.

Second DIY success came yesterday. I’m a little embarassed about it even as I’m bragging. See, we didn’t have a blower in our gas fireplace. I’d looked at it before but…well, it was a different area for me. I didn’t have experience with gas fireplaces and blowers. I let myself be intimidated.

Beginning of January, I basically declared, screw this, I’m not acceptin’ that no more. I researched and studied and measured and ordered. The Infinity blower kit arrived yesterday. Including opening the box, reading the instructions, familiarizing myself with the pieces, and disassembling some of the Heatilator gas fireplace for access, the installation job to put in the blower and put the furnace back together took less than fifteen minutes. Full credit for that goes to the involved manufacturers. Everything was set up for a blower to be installed, and the blower manufacturer made it super easy as well, providing absolutely everything needed. So while I’m crowing about my victory, I’m eating crow that it took me so long to do such a simple thing.

Hopefully, my ‘tale of success’ will encourage others.

0

Wezda’s Wandering Thoughts

My new shoes have steeply curved soles. They honestly remind me of a bentwood rocker’s curved bands. Grinning, I asked my wife, “Know what I call my new shoes?”

“Your rock ‘n rollers?”

“No, they’re just my rockers.”

She’s such a smart ass sometimes.

0

Blog at WordPress.com.

Up ↑