29 December 2005

How long?

I stopped at a local store on my way home from work today.

I wished the young cashier a merry new year.

She said: “Ya. It’s right around the corner. And I been thinkin’. It’s kinda weird, you know, that the world has been here for 2000 years.”

I swear on cuneiform writing or the pyramids or on geometry, that is what she said.



Olmec head carving from East Mexico lowlands

Olmec Civilization: 1200 BC

28 December 2005

Jala neti

I have, thankfully, never had problems with my sinuses. Ever.

However, the last 4 days I feel like I have had big, hard boogers and bloody scabs in my nose. (Hey, if this grosses you out, turn the channel.) My snot is dark yellow. A sign of infection. Not good. I do not have a cold. I feel fine. Except for the hard booger thing. And the sensation of burning in my nose and behind my eyes.

So, today I began doing jala neti. I haven’t done it since last winter. Moments afterwards I feel better.


I will be bringing my neti pot to work tomorrow so I can use it several times during the day.

Here is the basic process of Jala Neti:
  1. Use a Neti pot or container that has a thin spout
  2. Mix 1/4 t. salt to 1 cup of warm water
  3. Bend forward over sink, tilt head slightly to one side
  4. Slowly pour salt water mix in upper nostril
  5. The water should come out of the opposite nostril
  6. Again, mix 1/4 t. of salt with 1 cup warm water
  7. Tilt head to other side
  8. Pour salt water mixture into other nostril
I sometimes add GSE (grapefruit seed extract) or xylitol to the water.

I also had to talk to my colleagues about the horrible, toxic bathroom spray they all use. It is killing me! I can always tell when someone uses it. My eyes burn, my throat burns and today: my sinuses were freaking! Burning, aching.

This has got to stop! I’d rather smell the gaseous exhaust of my colleagues all day than breathe that poisonous “air freshener.” Air fresheners and deodorizers in aerosol form frequently contain petrochemical propellants such as butane, isobutane and propane—all of which are neurotoxic at high concentrations.

What is wrong with people? Air freshener!?
  • ethyl or isopropyl alcohol
  • glycol ethers
  • surfactant (quaternary ammonium salts)
  • perfume
  • water
  • propellants
  • metazene (4.0%)
  • petroleum distillates (6.0%)
  • aluminum chlorhydrol
  • bromsalicylanilide 2,3,4,5-BIS(2-butylene) tetrahydrofural
  • cellosolve acetate
  • dichlorodifluoromethanol
  • ethanol
  • fatty esters
  • lauryl methacrylate
  • methoxychlor
  • methylene chloride
  • o-phenylphenol
  • p-dichlorobenzene
  • pine oil (toxicity like turpentine)
  • piperonyl butoxide
  • pyrethrin
  • synthetic surfactants
  • trichloromonofluoromethane
  • wax
  • zinc phenolsulfonate
I think not!

How about opening a window or lighting a match? Jeez!

By the way, I’ve often thought if I ever get another pussy cat I’d name it Neti Potts.

And I did, sort of. A while ago a friend, RS, had a kitty knock on her door. She already had a bunch o’ kitties and after finding out he was Feline leukemia virus (FeLV) positive she knew she couldn’t risk his being around the others, especially the one who kind of beat him up.

We called him: Matilde Tuesday Netti Pots. She found him a good home, in a big house on a hill in Connecticut.


Here he is back when he first showed up.

26 December 2005

Day after Mas

As Lee points out the “Christ” seems to have been taken out of “Christmas.”

I don’t mind or care very much.

It is raining today. A lot. But seems it will turn to sleet soon. Then snow.

I am dozing, reading and watching movies on Turner Classic Movie channel. It is a perfect day for it and a perfect day to follow the ’oliday.

I have misplaced my camera so didn’t get any shots of the bon fire we danced around Friday night, or the candles glowing on the balsam tree top we cut (no trees were actually killed in the making of this holiday) on Mas day, or the friends I love so much, with whom I spent the day.

The images are in me ’eart.

16 December 2005

Blog blahs

Wx report: Today: Snow likely before noon, then periods of snow, freezing rain and sleet between noon and 2pm, then periods of rain, snow and sleet between 2pm and 5pm, then periods of rain and sleet after 5pm. High around 36. East wind between 15 and 20 mph. Chance of precipitation is 100%. New snow accumulation of less than one inch possible.

My jeffe gave us the day off in anticipation of bad weather for the travel home. Very nice.

I feel sluggish and sort of sad today. No energy. Can’t seem to motivate. I called a friend, RS to help motivate me. I am checking in with her after every “task” I choose to accomplish. So far I have fed the turkeys and hauled in two loads of wood.

I think I might go up to my neighbor PS, (I am house sitting) and take a shower. Why? Because I have lousy water pressure and don't feel like taking a bath. Hopefully, I can get in and out in only a few minutes and be all clean for the weekend. Then I can fill my tub in preperation for the likley power outage. We often get them when we have weather.

I keep hearing footsteps and freeze silent to try to figure out who-what-where, etc. I realized they are coming from my crawl space. It is the resident red-squirrel. I have thick plastic sheeting on the ground under there and I can hear the squirrel trotting around under the house.

Well, that shower was a bust! His pressure is worse than mine and the regulator is about as useless as well. I was alternately running well-cold freezing and then scalding water down my back!

I spotted several turkeys in the woods up there. Must have been the 3 toms as the intrepid 11 are still down here.

12 December 2005

Four for dinner

Waiting for the water to boil for my dinner, I found more four. I also spontaneously decided on some guidelines for my finding four: I can’t take one away to make four. And the four can’t be a “staged” shot. I can move stuff out of the way to make the 4 more visible but I can’t set it up. As in the case of the answering machine, I couldn’t delete messages just to get to 4. I looked, and 4 was there.

So, on to 4.



acidophilus



range grate



answering machine



garlic



tractor tread


The tractor tread was not shot during my wait for the water. It was shot yesterday and I didn’t even notice the 4 until looking through my dinner shots. So, I am noticing that I am learning to notice four more.

Oy! Such a day I had.

I spent most of it with several kidlets, so traumatized they were barely verbal. I put them in office chairs and spun them until I was sure (and afraid) they would puke. They never did. Just beamed at me through dark rimmed eyes and said: Moah! Moah!

So, I spun 'em over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and...

And the next time you watch a movie (westerns are great at this) where some guy beats up another guy and they are throwing each other into walls and kicking each other in the ribs and punching each other in the face and then one or both of them walk away and maybe groan a little. I'm telling you, it is bogus bullsh*t. Being beat up and kicked and punched hurts. And leaves you very, very sore and bruised and sometimes broken and dead. I am telling you this. Believe me.

OK

Back by popular demand. More 4:




On my desk



In my charger



In my yard



In my bathroom



What I am noticing about “four” is how infrequently I notice fours (which, by the way is the only number that has the same number of letters in its name as the value of the number itself).

As I no longer live with any four-leggeds I have no current photos of hairy legs.

It is 2 times four of the clock and I am hungry for dinner...

11 December 2005

Turkey Life

What do I know about it?

After spooking and running off (two flew in a rush to the tops of the popples) because I went out to the dooryard to get my car to go look for the missing male, the birds have returned.

This time the 11 hens/jakes have come to the seed on their own and the 3 males are hanging out near the spruce trees of my Zen grove.

So, there are 14 turkeys again!

13 turkeys

I am very distressed. I have had 14 turkeys coming to feed in my yard. This morning as they all ran in like long-necked dogs, I noticed one of the 3 males is missing. I just took a ride down the road to see if he might have been a casualty of traffic (even though, for all intents and purposes I live on a dirt road).

Did not spot him.

13: The sum of 14 minus 1.

More Four

I woke up at 4:00 am this morning to the familiar sound of a deer mouse (Peromyscus maniculatus) running about. I perched on one elbow and in the red glow of my flashlight (I have the lenses covered with red lighting gel to preserve my night vision) watched as one ran across my pillow and startled as it saw me. It lept from the bed and disappeared under my dresser only to reappear moments later, hopping down the stairs like a tiny puppy: plop, plop, plop.

These little critters always enter the house as winter comes on. Winter is coming on.

Some photos of “4” I found around the house:










This is the image I saw when I looked out my window at 4:00 am:


It is still so dark out that only a reflection was visible on the window glass. That’s a cup of Sharpie Fine Point markers that lives on the window sill near my desk, in the foreground.

I’m in my Isaac Mizrahi look. Actually, I was wearing a bandana like this long before he was born but Isaac stole my bandana thunder.

I'm listening to Jack Carson "Willie and Hannibal in Mouseland: Side 1" from: Willie and Hannibal in Mouseland

10 December 2005

Four for some reason

Four cardinal directions: north, south, east, west
Four fundamental forces of nature: gravity, the strong nuclear force, the weak nuclear force, and the electromagnetic force
Four giant gas planets in the Solar system: Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, Neptune
Four Greek classical elements: fire, air, water, earth
Four horsemen of the Apocalypse: war, famine, plague, death
Four human blood groups: A, B, O, AB
Four parts of a day: morning, afternoon, evening, night
Four rules: addition, subtraction, multiplication, division
Four seasons: spring, summer, autumn, winter
Four suits of playing cards: hearts, diamonds, clubs, spades
Four terrestrial planets in the Solar system: Mercury, Venus, Earth, Mars.


I'm listening to Joan Baez "Love Is Just A Four-Letter Word" from: The First 10 Years

Four Tags while listening to Four Sticks

Most people I know are very surprised to learn I am a Led Zeppelin fan or that I loved the movies The Terminator and Terminator 2: Judgment Day.

But there you have it.

I am a complicated woman; equally at home with Led Zeppelin or Enoch Light and The Terminator or The Birth of a Nation.

I made these tags recently.


I would like to figure out a way to cut the holes around the tag hole reinforcers (another favorite film of mine was The Enforcer [1976]. And so began my appreciation of Tyne Daly [Insp. Kate Moore], whose personal, handwritten letter to me is framed and hanging on my wall.) without getting all the raggedy-ness. I know I could use a hole punch but how do I line it up so the hole falls right where I need it?

I'm listening to Jimmy Page & Robert Plant "Four Sticks" from: No Quarter

01 December 2005

Uses for a pencil

I decided to try to come up with as many as I can. I invite you to help me out...
  1. drawing
  2. sketching
  3. writing
  4. erasing
  5. tracing
  6. graphite transfer
  7. clean ears
  8. laundry line (little laundry)
  9. chop stick
  10. worm grave marker
  11. kindling
  12. sliced: coaster
  13. drink stirrer
  14. barette
  15. to chew on
  16. hole punch
  17. cuticle stick
  18. lubricant (the graphite)
  19. fix a hole in a dike
  20. English muffin opener
  21. earrings
  22. plant stake
  23. shoe scraper
  24. glove finger poker-outer
  25. button pusher
  26. puppet
  27. roller
  28. backscratcher
  29. window tapper
  30. bookmark
  31. your answer here


For a friend who, everyday, inspires me to create, even when I don’t do so.

6:13 pm

Did I mention that it is raining?