Posts Tagged ‘random thoughts’
Thinking Things
I hope you don’t mind that I haven’t asked you, dear readers, for money, and I haven’t splashed advertisements all over this virtual space, either. It’s not what I do. I consider myself lucky that I can get away with that. Obviously, asking for money is a reasonable thing to do when you have no other source of funding.
These thoughts have been triggered by two things. First, the multitude of activist organizations that are bombarding my inbox with messages emphatically spelling out all the atrocities occurring in our country that need to be stopped.
“Send us $9 monthly.”
“Donate now.”
It’s hard to argue with the craftily written paragraphs that imply the money I give will stymie all the threats to our democratic freedoms unfolding over the last three months. Alas, they are undone by the repetition of requests and the absolute nothing that happens to stop the horrors piling up by the day.
The second thing that has been irking me is the massively intrusive advertisements that a certain weekly documentary series mashes into its podcast format with overdone hype. I am grateful that this person is traveling far and wide to gather stories and employing a crew of staff to record sound and video, which costs a lot of money, I’m certain, but there must be other ways to finance the project.
The current method they use is making it hard to listen to their otherwise very interesting story.
I had a very interesting –read that “chilly”– bike ride yesterday afternoon. When I finished mucking about with various small projects, I was warm, and the air temperature was almost 60°F. I figured the exercise of cycling would naturally heat me up, so I didn’t put on long sleeves.
From our wonderfully nestled property, I did not perceive much in the way of wind. I also didn’t notice that the brief clearing in the sky we had been enjoying was over, and thick clouds were blocking the warm sunshine.
I soon discovered it was closer to 50 than 60°F and felt more like 30 when creating my own wind chill effect during rapid spurts down hills.
The route I selected was a short square that ended up putting me into a stiff headwind for the last miles to our driveway at a time when my arms were already uncomfortably cold.
Checking the wind speed when I got home verified why the neighbor’s flag was stiffly blowing straight at me as I passed. My weather app indicated a steady 15mph directly out of the north. Yeah, brrr.
I’m thinking I should have worn long sleeves.
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Driveway Series
Imagine if Thursday the 13th was a thing. Today would be that day. Maybe it would have a good connotation, leading to “Happy Thursday the 13th” salutations! Maybe not. Just a random thought.
Walking back from the barn Tuesday afternoon, I spotted some things that prompted me to pull out my phone camera.
The first was the way icicles from a drip off the corner of the shop garage were forming on the branch of the pine tree there. There was just enough wind blowing around that corner that it caused the icicles to spread at a variety of sideways angles.
As long as I had the phone out, I saw a series of interesting shapes and designs as I walked toward the house. They have become my “Driveway Series.” It’s always difficult for me to single out one image, and in this case, I think they all belong together, to be viewed like links on a chain.
There is a story I remembered that I wasn’t able to tell before yesterday’s interview ended. I’ve hesitated to share it because it is really Cyndie’s to tell, but we have continued to laugh about it long enough that I think you all will get a chuckle out of it, too.
While in California last week, she and her friends visited a Korean spa for special salt-scrub massages. Cyndie and one of the friends had experienced a luxuriously dreamy steam and body exfoliation treatment on gold marble at a Middle Eastern spa in Vancouver years back and had visions of reliving that experience. However, this traditional Korean sauna did things differently.
Some highlights that Cyndie pointed out include the mandatory absence of any covering on their bodies to keep the water clean for all customers. After showering, they soaked in a hot tub that was so hot, Cyndie needed to sit up. She was instructed to get back down all the way into the water. When it came time for exfoliation, Cyndie said it felt like the tiny Korean masseuse put on gloves with 60 grit sandpaper and proceeded to “sand” Cyndie’s flesh from top to bottom, front to back. No time for tears, as the scalding hot coconut milk was poured over her and she was told to wash her face with it.
Then Cyndie was sent to the showers to wash it all off. Upon returning, it was time for the hot oil massage. She was ready for the soothing and relaxing massage, but received a bruising, sharp-elbow deep muscle massage.
Now, the part that we’ve been laughing about since. While massaging her, the masseuse finally commented, “Must been bad car accident, eh?”
Cyndie chose not to explain all her scars from joint replacements and other surgeries and simply agreed. Then, while her eyes were closed, she received an unexpected slap of a freezing cold seaweed facial.
The wonderfully sincere Korean woman then commented as she peeled back the seaweed mask, “You must have been very pretty when you were young.” She meant it in the nicest possible way, which makes it all the funnier to us.
The whole experience sounded like a rare massage where Cyndie came out a little tighter than when she went in. At least she came home with a memory to laugh about.
I must say, her back did eventually feel really soft after all the tiny scabs had flaked off.
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Arbitrary Thinking
For no particular reason on a Monday morning, my attention sometimes bounces in many directions.
- Weekend spectator sports were entertaining but the Achilles injury to Minnesota Vikings Quarterback, Kirk Cousins, looms large on prospects for our future.
- I stayed up late on Saturday night and found myself laughing a couple of times at scenes on Saturday Night Live.
- Despite media outlets marketing it as a feature, no part of me wishes to receive “real-time updates” on news feeds covering wars.
- I could listen to some foreign accents forever while I find others deeply irritating, but I don’t know why.
- I will admit to an attraction to streaming series that have actors with superb accents.
- Last week, Cyndie and I went out to dinner to celebrate 49 years since we started dating. For dessert, we ordered her favorite salted caramel chocolate tart.
- Last night, after dinner of a deep-dish pizza from the freezer, Cyndie served her homemade version of the same salted caramel chocolate tart, along with a bite of dark chocolate pecan toffee she also made.
- The quality of both treats was so impressive, they matched anything I’ve tasted at high-end shops or restaurants.
- Last week we bought tickets to fly with friends to visit Iceland next year.
- None of my awake dreams come close to the realism I experience in my sleeping dreams. Why is that?
- Sometimes when I see someone near my age with features that trigger memories of a grade-school crush, I wonder what that person looks like now.
- Is it possible that dogma is the root of all evil?
- I love that animals can tell when we love them.
- Imagine if we bathed our brains with healthy healing thoughts that primed our cerebrospinal fluid to facilitate our synapse-firing pathways for goodness.
- What if we always offered others the slices of life we would want for ourselves?
- Even though I am no longer employed during a workweek, Mondays still retain a residual stigma for me.
- Yesterday, I contemplated what cover design would appeal to me if Relative Something were a book. (I find it hard to compete with an animated GIF that has the word “LOVE” blowing in the wind.)
- Did you know I don’t drink coffee?
- No matter what variety of distractions I think about, it doesn’t change that I will be driving Cyndie to a hospital for another surgery this week. For some reason, I keep finding myself thinking about that.
Happy Monday, everyone. Unless you are reading this in Australia today. Happy Tuesday to any readers down under
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Relative Something 