All The Best

Recovery

Sleep and convalescence are today’s topics. If you feel the exploration of this lulling you into the first aforementioned, perhaps it’s my expository skill at ye olde bedtime story. This staple of the nursery is now recommended for adults!

Speaking of adults, my friend Bill W. (No not 12 step b.w.) shared a Karl Jung YouTube. Pertinent quote for us today: “life truly does begin at 40; everything up until then is research.” On the very plus side, this also makes us all much younger. At 41 you have only been an adult for one year as I see it.

Don’t cry yet but I am also going to have to introduce the onion in this health alert. It appears that it is full of natural antibiotics. Who (besides Nat Geo from whence I was schooled on all 3 subjects) knew?

If the health benefits of that extremely healthful vegetable have not had the full benefit, you may be obliged to recuperate. In the not so distant past, you might have benefited from a long slow recovery period known to all as convalescence. It is coming back in vogue among the medical professionals.

Don’t expect a longer welcome while in hospital. Beds and staff are still in short supply. But do lounge about at home, having spouse and friends do for you while you take the time to get better.

Oh, and have someone prepare a nice salad with clementines, kiwi, avocado and onions- lots of them. Bermuda is a favorite, but I hear tell that the Sunion is designed to not bring you to tears.

Woohoo!

There is something about a burger and fries that elicits hands-waving-in-the-air enthusiasm.

Pizza, as loved as it is, never quite calls for this grand a welcome. Your pepperoni pie is enjoyed more soberly than that.

The question becomes, as the hungry diner claims his prize hamburger platter, is it the meat or the potatoes that get such happy signs of approval?

Let’s face it, it’s a hard call whether the French fry or the American patty is the more popular.

Feathers

If it does come feathered
Will it fly only to rest on
An aerie, perching high
Above, beating its wings
Aspiring for the clear sky?
"That thing with feathers,"
As Ms. Dickinson calls it, 
What does hope expect?
Will wishes will it to soar?

Good morning

Finally! I’ve got a plant that thrives.

Sky aflame

The question in Sky Watch answered:

Sky watch

Will she ever tire of the sky?
The clouds just hanging there
Will they bore her, inactive as
They are. Floating as if the 
Sky was their backyard pool
Clouds have wispy outlines;
Their inner lives are nebulous.
She has to read into what she
Sees to find meaning in their
Station in the sky. Doesn't it
All look the same from day to
Day? So little movement to
Move her as she stares up!
Will she ever tire of the sky?

Morning light

The morning light exerts its power
There is magic in the colors it reflects 
It's as if a spell is cast over all that 
I see. Suddenly as those beams pull
Away, a new skyline emerges, more
Subdued, subtle as quiet as the dawn

Rainy days

After getting caught in a deluge just outside the reach of scaffolding, I had a chance to rethink my attitude towards rain.

I don’t want to undermine the effects of weather events that ruin communities, take lives, and devastate an entire region like Puerto Rico or Louisiana.

It’s just that on many occasions we let an ordinary rain ruin our mood. We let it drive us indoors when we’d rather be out.

It’s true that so often on those sultry days, it does nothing to relieve the heat.

Today it cooled the temperatures so they matched the feel of the steely skies.

Wheels

What a wonderful invention! It helps move things up hill and down dale while lightening the load.

Wheels give the bicycle impetus. Wheels make the bus go forward as they “go round and round.” Wheels power lots of helpful items both big and small in our lives.

As I recall, we credit the cavemen with inventing this and finding fire. Ah, just bring me a wheelbarrow full of chestnuts to roast.

Unload a truck full of furniture with the aid of the smallest board, as long as it has wheels.

Amazon delivery? Use a jerryrigged cart. Wheels, wheels and more wheels. The semi and the railroad train use wheels to get their locomotion going.

For me, laundry is a load with a challenge. A challenge that could be remedied with wheels. I admit to seriously envying the neighbor with a rolling hamper I met in our laundry room.

A search yielded a solution to both my envy and my laundry-carrying. My starter hamper was a plastic basket with wheels. It was tall but not very wide making it perfect for a NY bathroom.

Since plastic can be so flimsy, I went back to the old search engine. This time I landed on the item my neighbor had been wheeling into the laundry room.

This one was round and could be collapsed when not in use for storage. (Just writing that had me wondering.When would a hamper be put in storage?) It was also a bit tippy when full but for about 2 years it served valiantly.

Until its structural advantages started to become structural faults, I saw no reason for a change. Now that the flexible wire that held it up began peaking out the top, I did an old-fashioned look-in-a-store for something new and perhaps better.

My local Rainbow Ace had these rolling hampers in three sizes. Definitely better.

Shh

Apartment dwelling is hard to get used to, even with the centuries we’ve had to adjust. And who’s to say it wouldn’t be just as loud in your suburban enclave.

Our friend, Dr. Bronzaft, answers your concerns about noise. In this podcast, she addresses the thorny issue of noisy neighbors.

https://soundproofist.com/2022/09/16/ask-arline-podcast/

A neighbor’s insistingly loud midday music was charming when I rented my first apartment.

Today it’s just intrusive.

Noise, like everything else, is relative to how receptive we are and where life has taken us.