Tuesday Open Thread ~ From All Directions
Stop trying to calm the storm. Calm yourself, the storm will pass.
Good Morning,
Welcome to Tuesday’s Open Thread. Watching the news unfold, day after day, I can't help but think of it in terms of weather related metaphors. From a distance, storms are a tempestuous part of nature. Up close they can be deadly. Measuring how much is too much can also be tricky. On the one hand, we want to be informed. On the other, we need to manage our stress before we end up in the ER hooked up to an EKG. Well, guess what? Last Thursday I found myself in exactly that situation. No, I wasn't having a heart attack, I was having a severe anxiety attack. But here's the thing, I honestly believed I was handling the stress right up until my body said otherwise. So, under the recommendation of my doctor, I am taking a step back and limiting my screen time. I'll still be posting every Tuesday, but will be spending a little less time here for the next few weeks. Hearts and Hugs to Everyone!
In the winter she curls up around a good book and dreams away the cold.”
~ Ben Aaronovitch
Portable Magic
Spending less time on-line has, not surprisingly, opened up a lot of my free time and given me an opportunity to catch up on my reading. Truth be told, it's been awhile since I've gotten lost in the pages of a good book, so I'm really enjoying the experience of transporting myself into the realm of someone else's imagination for a little while.
Recommended to me by a friend, I devoured this book in a matter of days. Touching on psychology, economics, evolution, and cognitive science, Jonathan Haidt explores our contemporary understanding of the human condition with clarity and sense.
"This is a book about ten Great Ideas. Each chapter is an attempt to savor one idea that has been discovered by several of the world’s civilizations - to question it in light of what we now know from scientific research, and to extract from it the lessons that still apply to our modern lives. It is a book about how to construct a life of virtue, happiness, fulfillment, and meaning."
Compiled from essays which appeared in The New Yorker, Joan Acocella observes the artist by first exploring a particular work of art, and then stepping back to take a wider view of the artist's life. While romantic notions of creativity and art still persist, what really stands out in these stories is the determination the artist maintains throughout their many disappointments.
"A collection of essays that consider the life and work of some of the most influential artists of our time. Acocella writes about Primo Levi, Holocaust survivor and chemist, who wrote the classic memoir, Survival in Auschwitz; M.F.K. Fisher who, numb with grief over her husband’s suicide, dictated the witty and classic How to Cook a Wolf; and many other subjects, including Dorothy Parker, Mikhail Baryshnikov, and Saul Bellow. Twenty-Eight Artists and Two Saints is indispensable reading on the making of art—and the courage, perseverance, and, sometimes, dumb luck that it requires"
Beginning with "A is for Alibi" and extending through the alphabet to "Y is for Yesterday", Sue Grafton's murder mysteries trailblazed their way into my heart like no other mystery writer had before. I will miss Grafton's wit and her clever plot twists, Henry's freshly baked cinnamon rolls, and the strangely awful dishes Rosie served in her diner. But most of all, I'll miss looking forward to another mystery for Kinsey to solve.
"The really sad part about Sue Grafton’s passing is that even at the tail end of the alphabet, she was still doing some of her best work. X is a complex book that slowly twists together three narrative arcs: the main mystery, in which Kinsey is hired by a woman to search for a recently released convict who might be her long-lost son; Kinsey’s kindhearted efforts to help a peer’s widow organize his case files, leading her into surprising danger; and the matter of a frightening man who might be a serial murderer—and who is definitely obsessed with Kinsey. It’s a tightly-written thriller that delivers on all three plot threads, and ends with a few details unresolved, leading us directly into Y is for Yesterday, the unintended final book."
Tea Time
And what better way to enjoy a good book than with a spot of tea? This ginger coconut tea is a great combination of creamy, sweet & spicy. Serve it in a tea pot, or a thermos while sitting under a persimmon tree in the garden. The choice is entirely yours.
Ingredients
- 1 cup TJ's reduced calorie organic coconut milk
- 4 ginger tumeric tea bags
- Honey, or Stevia to taste
Instructions
- In a large saucepan, steep tea bags in 6 cups of boiling water for 10 minutes
- While tea is steeping, heat up coconut milk in small saucepan
- Add honey, or stevia to taste
- When tea is done steeping, remove tea bags and pour hot coconut milk into large saucepan
- Mix well and pour into tea pot or thermos
- Enjoy!
#Harmless Amusement
This guy has just won the internet. pic.twitter.com/wQWvKw4jco
— Teeta (@anitamassey86) March 25, 2020
He does this every night pic.twitter.com/wqdUgCtKj2
— The Dodo (@dodo) March 24, 2020
#coronavirusrhapsody pic.twitter.com/5uRxdLWlwY
— Haroon Mughal (@IAmHaroonMughal) March 28, 2020
The Opposite of the Mile High Club
Okay, so imagine you've decided to jump out of an airplane for a bit of fun. Now imagine your parachute fails to open. What do you do? Well, with some quick thinking you might actually get out of this alive. Let's hope that also holds true for pandemics.
- As soon as you realize that your chute is bad, signal to a jumping companion whose chute has not yet opened that you are having a malfunction by waving your arms and pointing to your chute.
- When your companion (and new best friend) gets to you, hook arms.
- Once you are hooked together, the two of you will still be falling at terminal velocity, or about 130 miles per hour. When your friend opens his chute, there will be no way either of you will be able to hold on to one another normally, because the G-forces will triple or quadruple your body weight. To prepare for this problem, hook your arms into his chest strap, or through the two sides of the front of his harness, all the way up to your elbows, and grab hold of your own strap.
- Open the chute. The chute opening shock will be severe, probably enough to dislocate or break your arms.
- Steer the canopy. Your friend must now hold on to you with one arm while steering his canopy (the part of the chute that controls direction and speed). If your friend's canopy is slow and big, you may hit the grass or dirt slowly enough to break only a leg, and your chances of survival are high. If his canopy is a fast one, however, your friend will have to steer to avoid hitting the ground too fast.
- If there is a body of water nearby, head for that. Of course, once you hit the water, you will have to tread with just your legs and hope that your partner is able to pull you out before your chute takes water.
An Excerpt from "The Worst-Case Scenario Survival Handbook"
Three, Two, One: Breath
Very helpful for those of you who are having trouble calming the monkey mind right now. As you listen to the soothing sounds of the ocean, you are guided through several relaxation techiques.
Comments
probably your best bet at present
is to buy ginger tea and go with that. I suppose you could put all the other items on your shopping list, and wander around the supermarket until you found all of them. Generally, though, the less time you spend in public spaces like supermarkets, the safer you are.
The ruling classes need an extra party to make the rest of us feel as if we participate in democracy. That's what the Democrats are for. They make the US more durable than the Soviet Union was.
many supermarkets are now doing virtual shopping.
you submit your list online, and they'll pack it all up and carry it out to your car when you arrive. no wandering through the aisles necessary.
The earth is a multibillion-year-old sphere.
The Nazis killed millions of Jews.
On 9/11/01 a Boeing 757 (AA77) flew into the Pentagon.
AGCC is happening.
If you cannot accept these facts, I cannot fake an interest in any of your opinions.
Dear Anja,
I’ve just read your essay, and will read it again and absorb it in more depth tomorrow. For now, please accept my acknowledgement of the challenges you are facing, and the appreciation of your dedication to building greater resilience.
Right back 'atcha Janis
Doing the best we can, eh? Hope all is well with your family here in the States. Don't know much about the pandemic where you are in New Zealand. But I suspect you are probably in better shape than we are.
There is always Music amongst the trees in the Garden, but our hearts must be very quiet to hear it. ~ Minnie Aumonier
Thanks Anja
My family are okay so far, but are all living in high contagion areas. NZ has just completed its first week of nationwide lockdown, and is starting to get a clearer picture of the situation. Hopefully these strict restrictions will help contain the virus, but I fear the country will collapse economically. Time will tell.
I feel for you because of the exposure you face in the position you're in. You have considerable concern to overcome, but you are doing your best, and I'm sure that protects you to a large degree. And I am happy for you, that you have caring and supportive people in your life.
In one way or another
We all have our concerns to overcome. It is an unprecedented time for all of us right now and I think people in general are much more freaked out about this then they are admitting. One of my managers is going to see his doctor today because he is suffering from the same chest pains and anxiety I was experiencing. It's a curious phenomena. We try to hold everything in so we can function, but then our bodies remind us that we need an outlet.
I'm glad to hear your family is doing well.
There is always Music amongst the trees in the Garden, but our hearts must be very quiet to hear it. ~ Minnie Aumonier
Dinner distractions
Thanks Anja -- Joeseph's Machines gave me a chuckle.
Also, there is this -- gig workers unite
https://www.gigworkerscollective.org/
question everything
Glad you enjoyed that
I thought it was pretty fun to watch too. Hey, so if the apocalypse comes and completely dismantles our infrastructure, maybe we can load our supplies on your boat and get the hell outta dodge together!
There is always Music amongst the trees in the Garden, but our hearts must be very quiet to hear it. ~ Minnie Aumonier
good morning
Liked your intro...calm yourself the storm will pass. I'm not sure when the pandemic will be over, but I'm sure there is an end point.
Glad you're able to take a break, read, and relax a bit. Sounds like you've found some good books. Hidden in the backwoods and working in the garden, taking walks, and cooking are my main activities.
When I do tune into the news I feel like I'm watching a sci fi film...some dystopian story. Not a bad strategy to just unplug from it at least for a while. Are you still going to work? You've been on my mind this week thinking about people like you on the front lines, and a panic attack seems more than justified. Please take care of yourself.
My partner has been on the ginger turmeric tea. Currently have a tomato based soup with coconut milk going. Added Thai pepper to zing it up, and using canned salmon to top it off when serving. Still have one last pack of tomato sauce left from last summer as the new plants get going in flats.
Try to stay in a peaceful mindset everyone. Eat well, sleep well, and be well!
“Until justice rolls down like water and righteousness like a mighty stream.”
Good Morning Lookout
Yes, I'm still working. But I'm actually not as freaked out about that as you might imagine. Trader Joes has implemented CDC protocols throughout the store in an effort to help mitigate the contagion, and is now allowing us to wear both gloves and masks. What tipped me over the edge were the stories coming out of New York hospitals, and the risks doctors and nurses were taking without proper protective equipment. It made me so angry and so fearful for them, I slid down a mental rabbit hole. It's also more about the relentlessness of the terrifying news that I can't handle right now. Thanks for asking.
There is always Music amongst the trees in the Garden, but our hearts must be very quiet to hear it. ~ Minnie Aumonier
Good morning, Anja ~~
It's not surprising you are reacting to our situation. You are not alone. People are stressed, people are in denial, people are scared. In my case, I'm not sleeping well. I awake with the virus on my mind, along with how many today? questions abound. We are all in this together. We must live in present times. The future is unknown, so we cannot project, which is really something to embrace for all of us. Worry is a product of a future we cannot predict.
I'm pretty much staying home. We went for a lovely drive on Sunday - we live in the country, so doing a circle drive in our large, less-populated county was an easy call. We stopped at a wide spot in the road to eat a sandwich and watch the few cars whiz by on their way somewhere.
Challenging situations call for all around support. I'm here, Anja. Contact me anytime.
Make it a pleasant day, folks!
"The “jumpers” reminded us that one day we will all face only one choice and that is how we will die, not how we will live." Chris Hedges on 9/11
I had a birthday yesterday
And while it wasn't the best birthday I've had in my life, it wasn't the worst. My Sister got into her car and drove to my house while I was still sleeping and left me a basket of presents and flowers at my doorstep. People called me throughout the day, or texted me happy birthday messages. In the evening two of my neighbors came over and we sat far away from each other in the garden, drinking our own wine and sharing a bit of gallows humor that actually had us laughing about our crazy new reality. I got pretty drunk and slept like a baby. No hangover this morning either. It was good to relax "with" other people.
There is always Music amongst the trees in the Garden, but our hearts must be very quiet to hear it. ~ Minnie Aumonier
Well Happy Belated Birthday, Anja!
So happy to hear you had a lovely day!
Take care!
"The “jumpers” reminded us that one day we will all face only one choice and that is how we will die, not how we will live." Chris Hedges on 9/11
To help celebrated your born date
Baking a bread and sipping a wine in your honor!
Pumpernickel...
water and flours: bread, whole wheat and rye
molasses, salt, olive oil and cornmeal
coffee, cocoa gluten and yeast
wearing the C99 hat
having fun!
question everything
I love pumpernickel!
They make an excellent vehicle for ham sandwiches. The important question is what wine would go well with that? EL, are you there???
There is always Music amongst the trees in the Garden, but our hearts must be very quiet to hear it. ~ Minnie Aumonier
the pinot noir works for the baking phase
how many candles do you want?
question everything
I've reached the age
Where I will be perpetually turning 49 again and again. That help?
There is always Music amongst the trees in the Garden, but our hearts must be very quiet to hear it. ~ Minnie Aumonier
Yeah, only have about 19 candles anyway
What else do you do to maintain sanity?
Have started a body swing.
Feet spread, arms out.
Twist at the hips side to side.
Eye focus ahead. Eventually a shift
develops as the view slides past.
A way to disconnect the inner from the outer.
Feels good on the lower back too!
question everything
Staying away from the news
Is the best thing I am doing for my sanity. And you'd be surprised what a drastic difference it makes in calming frayed nerves.
There is always Music amongst the trees in the Garden, but our hearts must be very quiet to hear it. ~ Minnie Aumonier
I'll take the 19 candles
And pretend I'm secretly turning 20 again. Just to make things interesting.
There is always Music amongst the trees in the Garden, but our hearts must be very quiet to hear it. ~ Minnie Aumonier
You can drink zin with damn near anything, but Grenache
is a fabulous pic-nick wine, so pumpernickel + corned beef or ham and swiss & Grenache.
That, in its essence, is fascism--ownership of government by an individual, by a group, or by any other controlling private power. -- Franklin D. Roosevelt --
Weird true pumpernickel story, from out of the
strange and remarkable thing that my memory used to be:
The first time I ever heard the word "pumpernickel," my dad, my sister and I were sleeping over at the home of some Jewish friends. Like most places in Canada and the US, Jews where I grew up were a very small minority -- for example, if there were any Jewish students at my high school, I never knew about it -- so at the very least there was something vaguely exotic about them to me.
So anyway, around bed-time their eldest son, who was in his mid to late teens, told my sister and me some sort of ridiculous "scary story" about some ridiculous scary guy named, I kid you not, "The Pumpernickel Man". I don't know whether he made the story up on the fly, or learned it at summer camp, or what. I remember nothing about the story. I had no idea what pumpernickel was, so it was just a wacky word that put in my head the image of some kind of bogey-man with a pumpkin head.
BTW, for those of you keeping score, several years ago I was googling around for something having nothing to do with either our hosts that night, nor abortion politics, and somehow stumbled on a link to a page about this (literal trigger warning). I was astonished that nobody back home had told me about it. The house in the story is not the one where we spent the night, but rather one to which Dr. and Mrs. Fainman moved when their nest emptied. I didn't realize they had moved there -- it happens to be a very unusual, kinda futuristic architecture, and is about 2 miles' bike ride from where I lived in high school. We used to ride our ten-speeds down that way all the time, because there's a beautiful park in a loop of the river, where we'd cruise around on long, dry, sunny, blue-sky Manitoba summer afternoons, hoping fruitlessly to meet pretty young Winnipeg girls, themselves out on the converse mission.
The earth is a multibillion-year-old sphere.
The Nazis killed millions of Jews.
On 9/11/01 a Boeing 757 (AA77) flew into the Pentagon.
AGCC is happening.
If you cannot accept these facts, I cannot fake an interest in any of your opinions.
love the segue from pumpernickel man
to a boy biking in a beautiful park along the river
on a sunny Manitoba summer day
thanks for the image
question everything
UntimelyRippd
Excels at randomly interesting segues. He can't help himself that way.
There is always Music amongst the trees in the Garden, but our hearts must be very quiet to hear it. ~ Minnie Aumonier
Sucks for you that you narrowly missed out on
being a pretty Winnipeg girl, in short shorts, halter top and blue eye shadow, riding a Sekine (pronounced: suh-keen-ee) ten-speed through St. Vital Park on a fine summer day. But I suppose So-Cal has its consolations.
Concert clip (sadly, video quality is poor) of pretty Canadian women and hunky Canadian guys enjoying a dry, sunny, blue-sky Manitoba afternoon, though not in St. Vital Park. (One of the horrors of my later life was discovering a few years ago that this song is not an April Wine original, but was written and recorded by the horrible British no-soul band, Hot Chocolate. Their version is, of course, soulless soul, nothing like the kick-out-the-jams rockarama that April Wine plays.)
[video:https://youtu.be/dwBkvYJu2aE]
The earth is a multibillion-year-old sphere.
The Nazis killed millions of Jews.
On 9/11/01 a Boeing 757 (AA77) flew into the Pentagon.
AGCC is happening.
If you cannot accept these facts, I cannot fake an interest in any of your opinions.
I'd say that sounds like it sucked more for the boys
In Winnipeg. For the boys in California, things were great because I was a pretty California girl roller skating in Venice Beach wearing a bath suit top and white and red striped dolphin shorts.
There is always Music amongst the trees in the Garden, but our hearts must be very quiet to hear it. ~ Minnie Aumonier
Then Skateaway, California Girl
(Warning: If extensive, perhaps exploitative, video of VERY scantily clad women offends your sensibilities -- and I'm not criticizing anyone if it does -- you should not click to view this. But I will say, that there is an awful lot of beautiful grace on display. Also, the music is brilliant, one of my Dire Straits faves.)
[video:https://youtu.be/9QKudDL-aLA]
The earth is a multibillion-year-old sphere.
The Nazis killed millions of Jews.
On 9/11/01 a Boeing 757 (AA77) flew into the Pentagon.
AGCC is happening.
If you cannot accept these facts, I cannot fake an interest in any of your opinions.
I just want to watch that April Wine video over and over.
It's exactly the kind of day I had in mind when I wrote my earlier comment.
And it's such spirit-lifting contrast to the cold, grey day, shrouded in Covid-19, lumbering along outside my dining room window this afternoon.
The earth is a multibillion-year-old sphere.
The Nazis killed millions of Jews.
On 9/11/01 a Boeing 757 (AA77) flew into the Pentagon.
AGCC is happening.
If you cannot accept these facts, I cannot fake an interest in any of your opinions.
At what point did you figure out
Pumpernickel had nothing to do with pumpkins?
There is always Music amongst the trees in the Garden, but our hearts must be very quiet to hear it. ~ Minnie Aumonier
I'm sure my dad brought some home at some point,
to eat with one of the various cheeses that I, at the time, considered too damned weird to be real food. Brie, camembert, gouda. The usual suspects.
The earth is a multibillion-year-old sphere.
The Nazis killed millions of Jews.
On 9/11/01 a Boeing 757 (AA77) flew into the Pentagon.
AGCC is happening.
If you cannot accept these facts, I cannot fake an interest in any of your opinions.
Sounds like a good fit
Weird cheese to go with weird bread.
There is always Music amongst the trees in the Garden, but our hearts must be very quiet to hear it. ~ Minnie Aumonier
About that link ... and a literal trigger warning.
Hey everyone, Anja G just told me that she couldn't read the article I linked to, because it demanded some personal info from her. Not sure why it didn't pester me, but the page is an excerpt from a memoir written by a Winnipeg obstetrician name Jack Fainman (and co-written by Roland Penner, a former attorney general of Manitoba). What happened to Jack was this: On the evening of Remembrance Day, 1997 -- Remembrance Day, the most solemn of Canadian holidays -- a lunatic fanatic anti-lifer (almost certainly an American named James Kopp) slipped into the woods behind Jack's house, and as Jack was sitting watching TV, shot him with a high-powered rifle.
The shot missed Jack's head, barely, but shattered his shoulder and ended his medical practice. The shooter was never caught, but plenty of circumstantial evidence points to Kopp, who was convicted of a similar anti-life murder in the US.
The earth is a multibillion-year-old sphere.
The Nazis killed millions of Jews.
On 9/11/01 a Boeing 757 (AA77) flew into the Pentagon.
AGCC is happening.
If you cannot accept these facts, I cannot fake an interest in any of your opinions.
Good morning Anja
It's very understandable that you have so much anxiety. I would be more worried if you had no anxiety at all. I come very close to a full-blown panic attack every time I go somewhere. I just try to get in and out as fast as possible. I could not do what you do without medicating myself to the point that I did not feel anything at all.
The last thing I read was "Lord of Mountains" which is book 9 in "The Emberverse series".
By the same author and about the same event is another series of just 3 books - The Nantucket series.
I've only read the first 2 books in the Nantucket series. I have the third and if can ever get in the mood to read a book again it will be the first one I pick up. I also want to read the rest of the Emberverse series, but I will have to find them first.
Anyway, I just wanted to share some books that I liked in case you or anyone else is looking for something new to read. Hope you have a good day!
Thanks Jen
How are your daughter and granddaughter doing?
There is always Music amongst the trees in the Garden, but our hearts must be very quiet to hear it. ~ Minnie Aumonier
Thank you for asking
They are doing as well as can be expected. My daughter said they are now taking temperatures of anyone that goes outside for any reason when they come back in. Last night they sent a mother home because she had a low fever.
"Little Bit" was able to start wearing clothes 2 days ago and they have completely removed the oxygen so she's breathing all on her own without any help whatsoever. She should hit 4 lbs today or tomorrow and is having her first eye exam right now.
I'm so envious of grandmothers that have held their grandbabies. I miss her so much. She will be over 2 months old before I see her again and who knows what the world will be like by then.
"little bit"
I think my heart just melted.
Can't tell you how good it is to hear of your granddaughters progress! I imagine babies, as well as animals, are the antidote right now for everything that isn't. Keep focusing on your beautiful granddaughter and the life that's bursting inside her. She will be the source of joy and hope you and your daughter need right now.
There is always Music amongst the trees in the Garden, but our hearts must be very quiet to hear it. ~ Minnie Aumonier
Is "Little Bit" a deliberate nod to Fried Green Tomatoes,
or did y'all come by it on your own personal path?
The earth is a multibillion-year-old sphere.
The Nazis killed millions of Jews.
On 9/11/01 a Boeing 757 (AA77) flew into the Pentagon.
AGCC is happening.
If you cannot accept these facts, I cannot fake an interest in any of your opinions.
My mother
My mother started calling her that and it fits so well because she is so little bitty. I think my mother just wanted to call her something besides her name (Zahra) because she doesn't like it and she knows better than to just say "the baby" because she called my daughter the baby until I told her the baby has a name. But, I like "little bit" and my daughter likes it too so it stuck.
I think I saw Fried Green Tomatoes many years ago, but I don't really remember anything about it.
I also saw Fried Green Tomatoes once, a long long time
ago, and few things stuck in my mind about it, but I've never forgotten that "Little Bit" was the nickname given by the super-hunky dude to his wee sis.
The earth is a multibillion-year-old sphere.
The Nazis killed millions of Jews.
On 9/11/01 a Boeing 757 (AA77) flew into the Pentagon.
AGCC is happening.
If you cannot accept these facts, I cannot fake an interest in any of your opinions.
That super hunky dude
Was Chris O'Donnell. And I've always had an affinity for characters who relate to kids on a very individual basis. In that particular story line, Buddy Threadgoode understood "Little Bit" better than everyone else did, and let her be who she really was, and not the feminine version she was expected to be.
There is always Music amongst the trees in the Garden, but our hearts must be very quiet to hear it. ~ Minnie Aumonier
Seems to me you also have something of an affinity
for super-hunky dudes.
The earth is a multibillion-year-old sphere.
The Nazis killed millions of Jews.
On 9/11/01 a Boeing 757 (AA77) flew into the Pentagon.
AGCC is happening.
If you cannot accept these facts, I cannot fake an interest in any of your opinions.
Are you
Flirting with me?
There is always Music amongst the trees in the Garden, but our hearts must be very quiet to hear it. ~ Minnie Aumonier
Thank you for the guided meditation, AG. It will come
come in handy!
I know what you mean about your body telling you you aren’t calm when your mind thinks you are. Mine comes in the form of an IBS attack though that hasn’t happened yet.
I got two cute pix of my granddaughter this morning by message. Then my daughter called on FaceTime to explain that my granddaughter heard the ant-creeper sound go off accidentally on my daughter’s phone and demanded to “cheese.” So I got to see them do a little morning lesson about the months of the year, the days of the week and the weather. It’s partly cloudy in Houston.
Here it’s raining with a tornado watch, as if things needed to be more exciting. At least the rain will keep people indoors for a while.
A TCBY truck was in the neighborhood yesterday evening with folk gathered all around. Plague knows human weakness and exploits it to deadly effect.
I haven’t been able to get in touch with my doctor for a prescription refill. I was due a visit, but cancelled it so that I could drive my husband to his cancer treatments. I figured to see the doctor when he was done, but then all this happened just as his treatment is coming to an end. Maybe he’ll give me a telemedicine appointment. If I can get him at all.
I’m hearing a severe thunderstorm warning on the TV right now. I hope things are calmer where you are! Have a good day.
"The object of persecution is persecution. The object of torture is torture. The object of power is power. Now do you begin to understand me?" ~Orwell, "1984"
Weather wise things are calmer here
It was in the mid 70's yesterday, and when I woke up this morning and went out into the garden, the chill in the air was gone. It was just beautifully mild. Last night I even spent some time stargazing. What with the curtailed driving in the last week, the sky is clearer then I've ever seen it.
Sending my best thought to you and your husband.
There is always Music amongst the trees in the Garden, but our hearts must be very quiet to hear it. ~ Minnie Aumonier
It sounds like you had a lovely birthday
yesterday, AG. I’m glad it helped you depressurize. As to panic attacks, I’ve learned to listen to my gut—literally. When I notice my abdomen tightening up, I try to do things to relax it so that I don’t have to take my anti-spasmodic. It usually happens when I think I’m really coping well, like you.
Maybe if you just do a body check for tension when things are tough and you are being tough. Maybe just tense different parts of your body and relax them to e difference, if there is one.
Thank you for your good wishes for my husband and myself. We have our 31 yr. old son living at home with us, too, to help us. It’s a shame that your birthday had to come at such a bad time. Your job puts you t risk but at least TJ’s is allowing masks and gloves. Stay healthy and strong!
"The object of persecution is persecution. The object of torture is torture. The object of power is power. Now do you begin to understand me?" ~Orwell, "1984"
Good morning Anja. Sorry about your anxiety attack, they
are insidious and a bummer. There should be a symptom tipping one off in advance that it is time to get mellow lest one occur. There probably is, but nobody recognizes it. Your opening line is wonderful advice for all persons and for all times. The trick is to practice it to the point that it is not advice or even some sort of program or project but simply descriptive of your everyday normal state.
Do take care of yourself, at all times, but especially now. Compassion and empathy are important parts of our life and existence, but being awash in news and others' opinions of this and that "problem" really aren't. You needn't really pursue or indulge in them, and don't forget that the future will, of course, come, but by the time it does it will be today, so it will be enough of a concern for you when it is today that you needn't conceren yourself overmuch with it now. Some advice I saw, probably relating to the process of calming ones self.
Of course, trite though it is, remember to Be Here Now, after all, you can't really do otherwise.
be well and have a good one.
That, in its essence, is fascism--ownership of government by an individual, by a group, or by any other controlling private power. -- Franklin D. Roosevelt --
If I could give you a hug
I would. Thanks for your kind words. It helps. What also helps is staying off Twitter. Puttering around in the garden. And cooking.
As far as taking care of myself, please see my comment above to Lookout about Trader Joes changing protocols. In addition to that, I have implemented my own protocols with regard to my personal safety by basically following the same regimen hospital workers use when they come home from work and prepare to enter their house. Nothing potentially contaminated gets further than the doorstep. Shoes stay out side. I completely undress in the doorway and bag up my clothes. Then I go into the bathroom and take a shower. After I'm clean, I take whatever items I have purchased, or brought into the house from outside, and wipe them down with rubbing alcohol. I'm also gargling with warm water and apple cider vinegar a few times a day, and drinking hot tea all during the day.
I am focusing on what I can control as opposed to what I can't. It's all I can do. And for now, it'll have to be enough.
There is always Music amongst the trees in the Garden, but our hearts must be very quiet to hear it. ~ Minnie Aumonier
It is good to know that both TJs and you are taking precautions
FWIW, I keep a clipboard full of scrap (one side used) paper in the office and will often just doodle, or write whatever just to write stuff, it is a calming simple pastime that I can also drag out into the yard when I feel like it. Like all other forms of "wasting time" it is a nice recharge.
That, in its essence, is fascism--ownership of government by an individual, by a group, or by any other controlling private power. -- Franklin D. Roosevelt --
Wasting Time
I watched my cat sit in the sun and clean himself for five minutes this morning.
There is always Music amongst the trees in the Garden, but our hearts must be very quiet to hear it. ~ Minnie Aumonier
Good.
That, in its essence, is fascism--ownership of government by an individual, by a group, or by any other controlling private power. -- Franklin D. Roosevelt --
good regime anja
doing all you can to minimize risk
a way of working it out
question everything
The media keeps announcing my death sentence
I am in what would be the highest risk group--a male over 65 with "underlying conditions". Many announcements of my pending death in the media. And today I need to go to pick up a bunch of meds. Oh great. I thought "hey, a lot of people who are sick go the pharmacy." But I do what I can to remain safe.
My wife unfortunately, is in denial. She came back from a trip and found that I had stocked up (not hoarded) to get through a few weeks eating basically one meal a day. And oh, extra dog and cat food and she was angry about it.
I appreciate the focus on individual spiritual and physical help in this essay. Had an idea to find my copy of Hesse's Siddhartha for a read. Maybe not the best story to re-read but what the hey.
I took care of my cats needs first
By making sure they had their check ups, and by stocking up on food and litter. It's not like they aren't going to eat the food, right?
Stay safe and self care as much as you can.
There is always Music amongst the trees in the Garden, but our hearts must be very quiet to hear it. ~ Minnie Aumonier
Not to be a dick, but there's a new paper out reporting
a new hypothesis about the origin of SARS-Cov-2. I have two observations to make:
A. This is a hypothesis. It is only a hypothesis. Some scientists did some analysis. They published it. Some other scientists will likely agree with them. Some other other scientists will likely disagree. More data will be published, and more analysis done, and eventually, a consensus might emerge. Alternatively, two or more opposing camps may continue to debate the matter for decades.
B. There are at most three regular contributors to this website who are sufficiently knowledgeable to say anything useful about this new hypothesis. I'm one of them, and I have no intention of saying anything else at all about it, with one particular exception: I will, with ever-decreasing patience, rebut and/or refute commentary from contributors who don't know what they're talking about -- not because I want to, not because I enjoy the required effort of the research and/or writing, but because I feel an odious fucking obligation to do so.
One of my all-time favorite movie lines is uttered by Clint Eastwood, as Harry Callahan in the final scene of Magnum Force:
I believe we should all take that advice to heart.
The earth is a multibillion-year-old sphere.
The Nazis killed millions of Jews.
On 9/11/01 a Boeing 757 (AA77) flew into the Pentagon.
AGCC is happening.
If you cannot accept these facts, I cannot fake an interest in any of your opinions.
our responsibility to refute illogic
is becoming more important in these times
fear and misinformation would prevail
were it not for those willing to challenge
accepted mis-understandings
question everything
At the moment, what mostly concerns me is that there
is a lot of information flying around, and most people have no way of knowing which of it is good and which is bad, much less how to subject it to logical analysis.
In the spirit of Anja's essay, I honestly feel that participating in that circulation -- reporting, whether calmly or breathlessly, on the latest bit of news (which likely contradicts some other bit of news, but perhaps shores up some other other bit of news), without having a really solid grasp of the foundational knowledge, and without going directly to the primary sources, only contributes to the kind of panic that AG and others are experiencing.
Early on in this crisis, I found myself talking to colleagues at work, relaying to each other the latest news from whatever sources. And as I've noted elsewhere, my colleagues and I know about this stuff. I used to design molecular diagnostics like those being applied to SARS-Cov-2 testing. As the pandemic progressed, I found, more and more often, that when compelled to check some fact (perhaps after having asserted it in conversation) by going to the primary sources, those sources did not support the narrative that the infosphere was trying to build on them. And by infosphere, I don't just mean MSM, I mean everything out there.
We need to calm the fuck down, and stop acting like we know things we don't, or we are doing our fellows no service of any kind -- we're only making each other crazy and anxious.
The earth is a multibillion-year-old sphere.
The Nazis killed millions of Jews.
On 9/11/01 a Boeing 757 (AA77) flew into the Pentagon.
AGCC is happening.
If you cannot accept these facts, I cannot fake an interest in any of your opinions.
perhaps pretend knowledge
helps people understand better pretend information
minds are stuck between too much info and not enough
depth background to sort out the noise
the treating the mass 'as uninformed' routine started
long ago, it's easy to see.. treating like dummies
feeding those mental gummy bears
twisting taffy
sweet enveloping
question everything
Perhaps.
But I kinda doubt it.
The earth is a multibillion-year-old sphere.
The Nazis killed millions of Jews.
On 9/11/01 a Boeing 757 (AA77) flew into the Pentagon.
AGCC is happening.
If you cannot accept these facts, I cannot fake an interest in any of your opinions.
We fear ignorance and uncertainty, especially as to the
future. As a result we grasp at any semblance of certainty, usually some twaddle pronounced by somebody speaking or writing authoritatively. Then cognitive biases and social biases take over. I think I know a bit of what UR is alluding to, and there is too much noise and craziness surrounding the whole topic arena to try to "refute illogic" across the board under current conditions. It is best for everybody to just recall that we are immersed in a sea of FUD, and it is not imperative for us to understand much beyond the basics at this point. Act on the basis of that knowledge and withhold judgement on all the rest and the likelihood that one is contributing to the FUD ones self is negligible. That, IMO is the best course of action. As an epistemologist, I hold that it is always better to not stir the waters without a very high degree of certainty, we can each and every one of us survive uncertainty as to vast realms of stuff with relative ease; the future will arrive when it does, and with it, perhaps greater knowledge, or perhaps not. Maybe we'll never know, and if that turns out to be the case, so what?
That, in its essence, is fascism--ownership of government by an individual, by a group, or by any other controlling private power. -- Franklin D. Roosevelt --
Happy birthday, Anja,
sending hugs, balloons, champagne and gin; the combination can reduce your age to 39, you know?
Late to the party, but i'm wearing a funny hat.
Holding hands, my friend, be safe.
Thank you Smiley
Holding hands with you too, my friend.
There is always Music amongst the trees in the Garden, but our hearts must be very quiet to hear it. ~ Minnie Aumonier
Belated Happy Birthday.
I have one coming in a month that is embarrassing at the social level, an amazing feat of "I showed YOU, fucking plasma cell hepatitis!"
With luck, no more than a couple of people will say a word about it.
I will maybe drink an extra beer.
Since I am sorta off work at the moment, I will celebrate your birthday by...having an extra beer tonight!!!
"We'll know our disinformation program is complete when everything the American public believes is false." ---- William Casey, CIA Director, 1981
Roaring like a lion
That's you, my friend.
I so admire your courage and determination. Enjoy the beer and thanks for the well wishes.
There is always Music amongst the trees in the Garden, but our hearts must be very quiet to hear it. ~ Minnie Aumonier