The mind is willing, the flesh is sore AF

Two days now since I took a tumble down the stairs. Well, slipped on ice at the bottom of the stairs. I fell, that's the point. Some things no longer hurt. Some things hurt worse. This stopped being fun a while ago. The muscles between my hip bones and ribs do not want to support me properly. Looks funny when I move. Feels not-funny when I move. I have hope for tomorrow. In the meantime I believe I'll stay right here. 

WTF is going on with our government? Either I'm less ... what, patient?... with the DC shenanigans or it's gotten worse. Looking at Twitter last night (which is where I am more often than here or Facebork these days) I got fed up. As the kids say these days, I Can't Even. The ridiculous nature of our healthcare payment system started me off. Then the congressional lollygagging, sniping, and not-so-passive aggressiveness irked me further. Republicans and Democrats are acting not unlike my misbehaving bickering children used to. Grow up, assholes. And what's with the ever present pain in the everything that is our Leader who can't lead for shit? How did this happen? So I told Twitter I was gonna split for a while. Not sure I'll keep to that resolution, but it felt good saying it last night.

I joined a gym Monday. Planet Fitness. Should be good. Then Wednesday I fell and went boom. I'm sure I need to move these muscles, keep 'em from kinking up too much, but I also need to not overtax the damaged tissues. I don't know how to do that, so I'ma stay home for a couple more days.

With a positive turn here, I really like this cold weather. Here in South Carolina it isn't so brutal as it is, say, in the Northeast, Mid Atlantic, Midwest. We've had low temperatures in the single digits, but mostly mid teens. Nothing below zero Fahrenheit.* I strongly prefer this weather to the preposterous temperatures we'll experience in six months. My sympathies go out to the unfortunate souls in Australia right now.

Also also, I got the wrong kind of yogurt to go with my frozen berries. Too tart, and I think it isn't the Greek style stuff. Yeah, first world problems.

*OMG!! I just spelled Fahrenheit correctly on the first try!!

Aubergine

I have recently learned a few things about aubergine. I've known for years that it is a color.
and a nice one, at that.

But a recent Google exploration reveals that aubergine is also one of the names of the plant I know as eggplant. Who knew? Wikipedia has lots of interesting information about this plant. In addition to eggplant and aubergine, it is known in various parts of the world as brinjal eggplant, melongene, brinjal or guinea squash. Solanum melongena  is the botanical name. This information fascinates me.

For quite a while now I've wanted to get a purple PT Cruiser in order to call it The Eggplant, because that's what a purple PT Cruiser looks like to me.

Now, however, I want a PT Cruiser of this color in order to name her "Aubergine." I like that better.

And now, a bit about Spontaneous Generation. Do you remember learning about this in school, probably science class? Seems none other than Aristotle held this theory that some living things can come from inanimate stuff. My personal favorite example is that old rags and corn kernels can create mice. For the morbid among us: dead flesh gives rise to maggots.

I bring this up because we have in our house an unexpected congregation of flies. Houseflies, specifically. They've been flying around the kitchen window and the window in my office. My office is in what would be the formal dining room if this house were used as intended by the mid-20th century architects, and is adjacent to the kitchen. My office is on the east side, the kitchen on the west side of the house. Both windows are unobstructed and I think the flies suppose they can escape by heading toward the light. If I were to construct a spider web in the doorway between the two rooms I could probably catch them all. We don't know where the flies are coming from, or how they are getting into the house. Hence spontaneous generation.

These are the thoughts in my head that I've been eager to share with you. There are other things I feel I need to report on, such as the situation with Diva (she's been calmer, less likely to need law enforcement intervention since school started three weeks ago), our vehicle situation since I wrecked the car (haven't gotten another one, we're having my old truck fixed so I can use that for now), and I'm not sure what else. I still haven't even downloaded the pictures from my camera, the ones I took when I was on my adventure that eventually lead to me wrecking the car. I have pictures of the wreck (it's badly crinkled on the front driver's side), and pictures from the state park where I stayed in West Virginia. I was there a couple of weeks after that strange extreme storm that raked through from the Ohio Valley to the East Coast back in late June. The tree damage was amazing. I took pictures. Got a couple of shots of Sproing on the back of his Uncle M's motorcycle while we were still in Florida. All of that is still on my phone. I keep meaning to write up some details on my summertime drama with pictures, but I get distracted. I blame FaceBork. And my ADD.

Interesting factoid about the wrecked Aveo. I broke the transmission. Wish I could have seen it. It was discovered when those-people-who-do-these-things got the car to the dealership and up on the rack. I think that was the clincher that totaled the car. With all the body damage, the fools were saying they may repair it. That was before they got a good look at the underside. Also, it had way more miles on the odometer than they expected. I like to drive. The car is five years old and had 119K miles on it. I've been from Florida to Vermont in that thing, and not all in one trip. Back and forth from South Carolina to western Pennsylvania a few times. Four, maybe six? Not five, because that would leave me in Pennsylvania when I am obviously (to me) in South Carolina. Trust me.

Speaking of South Carolina, our weather has thankfully moderated. It is no longer beastly hot. Highs this week have been in the mid 80s (high 20s for the rest of the world) and our humidity is reasonable. I HATE walking out the door and into a blast furnace/sauna combo. It's still too warm for me (for me, mind you) to turn off the air conditioner. Ten degrees cooler and I'll open the windows.

Beginning with a quote

In everyone's life, at some time, our inner fire goes out. It is then burst into flame by an encounter with another human being. We should all be thankful for those people who rekindle the inner spirit. -Albert Schweitzer, philosopher, physician, musician, Nobel laureate (1875-1965) 
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So let's wrap up the camping trip. We planned to stay Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday nights. I posted about the trip last Tuesday. Tuesday evening it got uncomfortably cold and quite windy. Tuesday night in the tent was too cold, so we packed up Wednesday and came home. I read a book most of the afternoon Tuesday and into the evening as well. By the time I finished the book it was late and too cold and windy to stoke up the grill for hamburgers, so we went into Hendersonville to BK for a snack. 


Wednesday morning we did the breakfast thing. I taught Sproing how to make scrambled eggs. The way I do it when camping is to put the eggs and anything else I want to add into a quart size zip closure plastic bag. I seal the bag, then squish everything together through the bag. That's lots o' fun! I put the bag into boiling water, taking care not to let the plastic drape over the side of the pot, because the heat from the camp stove (or fire, if applicable) melts the bag. Yep, learned that the hard way. The eggs cook in the bag and comes out all fluffy and omelette-y. Take care that the eggs cook completely. It takes a while for the center of the stuff to cook. Personally, I like to wrap the scrambled egg into a flour tortilla shell for a breakfast burrito. Sproing likes his on a plate. 


We cleaned up after breakfast and began to break camp. That sounds so violent! We took down the tent, put stuff in boxes and whatnot, laid a tarp in the truck bed, and filled it up with all our stuff. Sproing tried to help me secure the tie-downs over the load, but got a bit of grit in his eye. Did I mention the wind was still strong? It was painful, and I didn't appreciate the gravity of the situation as much as he thought I should. We fussed at each other. He got in the truck and eventually napped on the way home. His eye and his attitude were much better when he woke up. 


The week before our camping trip the weather here in Greenwood was unseasonably warm. I was eager to get to the cooler temps of the mountains. Unfortunately for us, the temperature adjusted to seasonably appropriate in the entire Southeast, so it was too cool in the mountains and very comfortable here in the Piedmont. Perhaps when the kids are out for summer break we can try the camp thing again and get some relief from the heat without freezing our collective asses off. 
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To continue our weather discussion, this week is once again warmer here in Greenwood. It isn't too terribly bad, just in the high 70s, mid 80s (approx. 25-30C). The people who do these things are predicting rain later today and on for the next couple of days, and indeed the humidity is creeping up into the uncomfortable range. I bring this up specifically because our air conditioner isn't working. Again. This doesn't surprise me, necessarily. It's an older system and has caused us problems in the past. Irritates me, though. We've discussed here how I don't handle the heat well. 
.....................................
My darling Light was in state this past weekend!! She came down to attend the wedding of a school chum of hers. I was her "plus 1" for the wedding, as her girlfriend wasn't able to attend. It was a lovely event, held at a beautiful event location place in Asheville with lovely mountain views. The weather was perfect. The wedding was small and comfortable. The brother of the bride is a friend of mine from school, an art major at my most recent alma mater. He graduates next week himself. He's also cute, and funny, and he's my pretend boyfriend (one of many), though I don't think he knows it. The bride was beautiful, the groom looked shifty. I liked his best man, though. 


Oh, but the point is that Light was here! She stayed with her girlfriend in Spartanburg. The family went to visit her on Sunday, had a wonderful time. She drove back up to Pennsylvania yesterday, arriving shortly after midnight according to the text she sent me. I haven't heard from her yet today. Hope she's resting. Her car was giving her a bit of trouble. Most immediately he needs new brakes: pads and rotors and a fluid change. She got the oil changed and went back home with her fingers crossed. Her Daddy is going to send her some money to help with the car repair expenses. Her Daddy is a Super Man, imho. 
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Let's discuss today's quote. To review: In everyone's life, at some time, our inner fire goes out. It is then burst into flame by an encounter with another human being. We should all be thankful for those people who rekindle the inner spirit. -Albert Schweitzer, philosopher, physician, musician, Nobel laureate (1875-1965) 
My "inner flame" has a tendency to flicker out sometimes. I am an introvert, I keep to myself a lot. In doing so, I focus on the negative and lose touch with the more vibrant aspects of my personality. I don't like people, and want them to leave me alone. However, there are persons who inspire me to do my best, who "rekindle the inner spirit" as Dr. Schweitzer says. You know that line in "Men In Black" where K says "A person is smart. People are dumb, panicky dangerous animals and you know it." It's those "people" I don't like. I do like many individual persons, but tend to keep myself secluded and end up avoiding the ones who will do me good. This quote reminds me to reach out, make contact with the world, find people who are good for me. 


That is all. 

It's Wednesday

Interesting quote of the day:

The art of medicine consists in amusing the patient while nature cures the disease. -Voltaire, philosopher (1694-1778)

The weather has finally gotten nice. The sky was partly cloudy today and temps were only in the 70s (24 C, + or - about 3 degrees). If we have a few more of these days in a row perhaps our "cold" water will get cold. For months now the water running from the cold water tap has been tepid. It's a bit too cool for a bath, definitely too warm to cool anything off (like my hot hands).

So the day is beautiful but I'm depressed. I dunno why. I don't care about much, and have been tired all day. I only took one nap, though, so that's good. I wanted to take another one this afternoon, but the kids got home from school and started fighting with each other so that kinda nixed my nap idea. They got into a shouting/shoving match, then Diva and I argued with each other for a while. Sounds like fun, no? I sent them both to their rooms, and Sproing came out 15 minutes later with a decent attitude. She had a pissy attitude the rest of the afternoon. She's gone to church (it's a social thing, I seriously doubt there's any spirituality involved) but will no doubt still be pissy when she gets home. Hell, I'm still pissy, so that won't help matters, will it? Perhaps Superman can run interference so she and I won't have to interact.

Superman bought a truck, as I may have mentioned. We went to Charlotte last evening to get it. It's a champagne color, extended cab F-250. I haven't driven it yet. Frankly I'm not in the mood to. Superman said last night that now we need to sell Manny, "of course" he says. He wants to transfer the license plate from Manny to his new truck, meaning of course that Manny is dead to him. He'll also drop Manny's coverage when he insures his new truck.

I don't know why I am so in love with that truck. It's a piece of junk, seriously, and not very safe to drive anymore. Lots of stuff doesn't work. I suppose it represents something to me. Too tired and depressed (or perhaps afraid) to figure out what.

My Mama had a heart catheterization today. She's been very tired and short of breath recently. The doctor found a very small blockage in a small branch of an artery, the same he saw when they did this a year or two ago. It hasn't changed, and the surgery to correct it is more risky than leaving it alone. She's also retaining fluid, and has been on diuretics for many moons. The fluid retention is better than it has been, but she'll continue with the diuretics. All in all things are fine. Doc says he would like her to get more exercise, but she's got some nasty arthritis in her back that is causing lots of pain. So, obviously, water aerobics! My dear brother, the Favorite Uncle with the motorcycle, is staying with her tonight to make sure she's OK. He spent the day with her, too. I'm glad he lives close enough to be able to do that. He's in the Daytona Beach area, less than an hour (if traffic isn't too bad on I-4) from Mama in NE Orlando area.

That's all I got, folks.

More randomosity, as my brain seems incapable of focusing on any one task for a significant amount of time

• I am disillusioned with my old brand of dish washing liquid, so I got a couple of different brands. The first bottle advertises a light citrus scent. To me it smells like fresh fish guts. Fresh fish guts smell better than old fish guts, nevertheless it isn't an odor I want to endure as I wash my dishes. The second bottle says something about "free and clear." I promise you it wasn't free, but it is clear. I haven't used it yet, as I want to finish the first bottle before opening the second. I'll let you know my impressions of that one when I get to it. 
• I registered for classes at Lander yesterday. I will post a separate entry detailing that excitement.
• The kitten acts much like a kitten. She is very playful when she isn't sleeping. It has been a very long time since I had a kitten (or since a kitten owned me). I'm more of a dog person. I didn't remember how much like puppies these cats are in their desire to chew stuff. Stuff like my fingers, for instance. And my toes. While I'm trying to sleep. I was sitting peacefully at my computer on Sunday with my ear-bud headphones on, listening to pretty music while trying to ignore the annoying screech from my children. Scher was on my lap underneath the desk. All of a sudden my music went from stereo to mono, then to barely an echo. The little sneak chewed into my headphone wire severing the connections. It wasn't a little cheap $5 set, either. Perhaps that's what I need to get, though, until her need to chew abates. 
• Our weather has been decidedly spring-like. We're getting a lot of rain, and temperatures this week are in the mid to upper 60s F (18-20 C). My Bradford Pear tree is once more threatening to bloom. We had some freezing temps last week for a couple of nights, but nothing extremely cold. The buds are still small and tight enough that I think they survived last week. But the forecast this week is for this warmer wet weather, our lowest low for the foreseeable future being 30F (-1). It will be interesting to see what the pear tree does. 
• 'Tis time to take down our Christmas decorations. Since we didn't put up the not-a-tree until Christmas Eve, I am not finished enjoying it. I don't really want to take it down yet. But it is time. 
• I went to bed at 6:00 last night. It started as a post coital nap, but extended until 4:30 this morning. I felt great when I woke up! I got up, took Scher with me into the kitchen. (She was being very playful and bite-ish, and I wanted to let Superman sleep. She didn't.) I used the 5 over-ripe bananas we had on the table to make two small loaves of banana bread. Twitch, the silly boy, doesn't like pecans. I made one loaf without pecans and used the full recipe allotment of pecans in the second loaf. That's some good banana bread!! I sliced the fresh hot banana nut loaf, buttered a couple of pieces, and took those and a pot of fresh coffee to Superman who was still in bed. By this time it was 6:45, way past time for him to be awake. He makes breakfast and coffee for me almost every day, and it was fun to return the favor.
• Scher had a wonderful time in the kitchen this morning. I had to shoo her off the table a couple of times, but there is so much junk on the floor she was plenty entertained down there. She found a small paper sack. OMG cute!! She kept running from one side of the kitchen near the refrigerator all the way across the room and into the utility room at the other end. She was pouncing at everything from paper towels that had been dropped and not picked up, to the bags of garbage waiting by the back door, to my feet. Totally adorable.
• I walked and stood a lot yesterday morning. It took all morning to get all the loose ends tied up so I could register for classes. I had to go from the psychology department to the registrar's office, to admissions, to financial aid, to the English department, back to psychology, back to admissions, back to the registrar. It's a small school, and all these offices are in the same building. I made use of the elevator. Nevertheless that's a lot more activity than I am used to. (Sedentary describes my normal activity level) All I carried was my purse and a clipboard. Plus the extra weight I'm wearing, which is considerable. I am 100-150 lbs heavier than I want to/should be. The sedentary lifestyle isn't helping. Yesterday afternoon and this morning I notice that my hips and pelvic area are sore. Most of my weight is around the abdomen (the most dangerous for heart attack risk, they tell me). My pelvic girdle holds a lot of weight, and that's where it hurts today. I hope I can build up strength and stamina, and perhaps lose some weight before I injure myself walking around campus carrying heavy books. Oy. 
• Light and Superman have pretty much finished preparing the other bedroom for her occupancy. It needs a bit of touch up painting in a couple of places where she did a sloppy masking job. I can do that pretty easily. I need to move all of her stuff and my sewing stuff out of her former bedroom that Sproing is now sleeping in. That, and taking down the Christmas decorations are my tasks for today. Right now I'm sitting here playing on my blog instead of moving things around. Hmmm. Time to get off my ample ass and get to work! 
• Happy Tuesday everyone!

Seasons confused

I had to put up a new post. The look that cat was giving me is starting to creep me out. So of course to replace that mad cat I present Scheherazade looking adorable. It's what she does best. Her second best is digging her claws into my flesh. Kittens are like that. My toes may never recover.So, about the seasons. I mentioned last week that our temperatures have been unseasonably warm. My fears are realized: our Bradford Pear has started to set buds. It's not in full bloom or anything, and only a few of the buds are in the large pre-bloom stage. I fear that they are large enough to be damaged by a hard freeze, however, and predicted low temperature tonight is 22F. Recently our temps have been 22C. Big difference! 
Looking at the tree from the driveway it is obviously starting to bud. I'm not sure if this picture really shows it well, though. Perhaps embiggened it would. 
I tried to take some close ups of the buds but all I got was out-of focus closeness with detailed branches beyond. I also took some nifty trunk shots, but I'm to impatient to wait for more pictures to upload. 

I find it interesing that on the shortest day of the year my pear tree wants to bloom. 

The debriefing

Well, we seem to have survived the camping trip.

Actually, for the most part it was quite wonderful. The weather was fantastic. Oh, and my tooth stopped hurting. I don't know what the deal was with that tooth, but it seems to be fine now.

We didn't arrive at camp until after dark on Wednesday. It's kinda tricky finding a spot to camp in the dark. This was not a commercial camp ground. No, it was a large field on the side of a mountain, surrounded by woods with sparse clumps of trees here and there. Shade was abundant and there were lovely open areas of meadow where one could bask in the warm sunshine. Except at night. At night it was just dark. It was dark the way nature is supposed to be dark. You know, with very little light pollution so watching the night sky was pleasant. I could see the thicker star clusters of the Milky Way. On Friday night I was outside for a while and saw a few meteors as well.


(These photos of the Conestoga on the truck are from my camping trip a couple of months ago. I didn't take any pictures this trip.)
When we arrived Wednesday night around 9:30-10:00 the sky was clear and the air was comfortably cool and dry. One of Superman's friends had arrived the day before, so knowing the lay of the land he helped us find a good spot to set up. We got the Conestoga assembled with a canvas drop cloth over it and one blue plastic tarp covering part of the canvas. I asked two of the fellow campers if they knew whether it was supposed to rain. Both of them looked up at the stars, looked back at us, and said "No." So of course it rained that night.

Yes, we got wet, but only our feet. Thursday morning we got up early and spread out another couple of tarps to keep our camper dry. It rained off and on most of Thursday. That was a bummer, but by the end of the day it cleared up, cooled off, and was beautiful the rest of the week. Thursday night was so much cooler that we were shivering under our sheet and thin blanket. On subsequent nights we used the canvas drop cloth folded in fourths as an additional blanket. That was warm enough.

There were a lot of people there!! This is an annual camp-out for this group, and our second year attending. This year attendance was up from last year.

The food was excellent! We provided our own breakfast and lunch, but dinner was prepared for us Thursday through Saturday. We had hamburgers and hot dogs, beans, chips, etc. on Thursday. It was good in the way hamburgers and hot dogs are good. Nothing spectacular. Until Friday night. The cook, a HUGE mountain of man-flesh*, slow roasted pork all day for some truly excellent pulled pork barbecue. It was roll-your-eyes, stand-in-line-for-seconds good. He roasted chicken quarters for Saturday's dinner. There were sides and such, too, for a complete meal each night. The evening meals were excellent.

We had access to fresh pancakes every morning. We were camped next to a family from Oklahoma. The man had a super sweet kitchen set-up with a large propane griddle. (similar to the one pictured here) He had a huge bag of pancake mix and fixed pancakes for everyone in camp who wanted some. Being right next to him, we had access to the hot pancakes and an opportunity to meet with the people who came for breakfast. It was fun!


This organization holds meetings and informational gatherings at these camp-outs. Friday night was a fireside chat moderated by one of the members. We discussed world events, specifically economics and the decline of the value of a dollar. 'Twas intellectually stimulating!! And you know how rarely that happens for me outside the blog world! I got in on the end of a demonstration of alternative medicine one afternoon and met a fascinating older woman who practices some of this. She's very sensible about it; doesn't avoid traditional medicine when that is appropriate, but tries to maintain general good health, physical and emotional, through healthy diet and vitamin combinations. She and her husband are interested and somewhat knowledgeable about healing touch/massage.

A friend of ours gave a demonstration on bee keeping that I wanted to go to, but I slept through it. I took a nap every afternoon we were there. It was wonderful!

Check this out, y'all. I made a new friend on Saturday. A real life, face to face, not virtual friend. A friend I first met in person, not someone I've ever communicated with online (yet). She (yes, a woman friend!! I don't have many of those) is a year younger than I am, never married single**, works in a college library in the same town (but not the same school) where Light attends college. She's a strong, independent, intelligent woman, a rare find in my experience. Her name is TC. She lives in a small town on the outskirts of Greenville, which is a little less than an hour from here (I think).

There were a few campers from Canada. I spent an hour or more Saturday morning talking to a really nice guy from Owen Sound, Ontario. He's a nurse there, and has done some work in the hospital psych ward, though he's typically on the medical ward. The conversation turned to lgbt and he told me about a good friend of his who is a lesbian. He sounded so much like me in a lot of ways. He loves hanging out with his lesbian friend because they enjoy the same kinds of things, and like to check out the sexy ladies together. He really enjoys watching her cruise the girls. But, like a typical guy, he was quick to point out that he is straight and is dating a really hot girl. Straight guys are so funny.

This is a fairly conservative group of people. Many of them observe Christian religious traditions. However, these folks are mostly gay friendly, at least the ones I've talked to. If not enthusiastically gay friendly, they are accepting and tolerant. For a bunch of conservatives they are really quite nice. Unlike the religious right fundie wackos around here.

*The guy is really big. He must be at least 6 feet tall, and I don't know where he finds clothes that fit. I'd guess he weighs probably 400 lbs. He could only sit on one of those really big 3' wide coolers. All camp chairs tremble with fright at his approach.

**I didn't get a lesbian vibe from her. Not real sure, especially since my lesbian gaydar isn't as reliable (except in obvious cases) as my m2m gaydar.

Miscellany

The word verification security that Blogger uses frustrates me sometimes. I've got it activated on my comments and run into it on lots of other sites, too. It is a good idea, I understand the need. But I've got the slightest touch of dyslexia or some such, and there are times when it is tricky to get all those letters typed out in the proper order. When the string of letters is really long I feel as though the blogging gods are laughing at me.

This weather is driving me nuts. We'll have a couple days of good cold weather (lows in the mid 20s F) and later in the week it's almost 70F outside! The predicted lows for later this week are in the 50s! Just give me some good consistent cold, appropriate for this latitude (South Carolina, upstate) and wait until March for the spring-like temps!

My beloved truck, Manny, is having some trouble again. He's been running rough, idling too low or something, ever since he came back from his month + in the shop. Yesterday morning as I was leaving for church he almost wouldn't start. The starter is fine (that's one if his new parts) but his engine wouldn't catch. There was a clunk, vroom, chug of the engine starting to turn over, then pathud, rattle, gasp, die. Yes, he's a piece of junk. I know this. But I love him dearly and wish he wasn't so bedraggled.

Diva told me before she went to bed on Christmas Eve that she was going to ride the Polar Express. She was totally convinced the Polar Express train would stop for her!