When Everything Changes…

I find not only the Earth is changing, so am I.

Earth Changes/Climate Change
An excellent column in this morning’s Hartford Courant by Robert M. Thorson, “Climate Change Science Trumps Opinion” . Prof. Thorson put forth the clearest explanation of how global warming will/could bring on an ice age.

I quote directly from his article:
Counter-intuitively, small ice sheets are harder to get rid of than big ones because they can't produce enough meltwater to flip the toggle-switch of Earth's climate system into its interglacial mode. Only when ice sheets are huge, and when tickled by an extra tidbit of astronomically raised sunlight, can they flood the North Atlantic with enough meltwater to stop the persistent flow of north-flowing warm oceanic currents in the Gulf Stream. This permits the North Atlantic to glaze over with sea ice.
In consequence, and moving downwind on the prevailing westerlies, the chill from an ice-covered North Atlantic makes Europe very cold, the Middle East merely cold and mainland Asia cool enough to stop the Asian monsoon. Ventilation of carbon dioxide dissolved in Pacific waters to the atmosphere increases for unknown reasons, as does the release of methane stored in wet terrestrial soils. This warms the whole globe through the greenhouse effect, which melts more ice from mid-latitude ice sheets, maintaining the freshness of the North Atlantic and keeping the heat conveyor belt shut off until there's nothing left to melt. Only then can ice sheets begin anew with their oscillatory, grinding growth, a phase that lasts about 90,000 years.

Enough said for changes on Earth.

Personal Changes
It seems everything in my life is changing. My house is for sale; I’ve stopped coloring my hair (and if you don’t think that was a big change you’ve got another thing coming!); and my body is changing.

Lets talk about the body
Even though I have recently slacked off with my workouts, I feel pushed to resume and not stop. I am looking forward to being able to get out on my bike again.

Then there is my body itself. I have to go gluten free. Not thinking about it, but pushed to do it. Little by little I am replacing wheat/gluten-based foods with gluten free.

I have already stopped using bread. Until I can get to the store to buy gluten free bread, I will now go back to having a ‘sandwich in a bowl’ which is all the ingredients you would put in a sandwich (and more if you want), cut up, and mixed with mayo or whatever condiment you want. That eliminates the bread. For all I know there may be wheat products in mayo, but I'll take care of that once I use up what I have.

I already have quinoa for breakfast, so there is no change here. But, I have bought gluten-free cold cereal for before-bed snacks.

Next will be crackers once the one’s I have on hand are all used up.

My daughter, Anne, has been gluten-free for almost two years now, and has never felt better. She is my resource for how to do it right.

Surprisingly, I do not feel like I’m denying myself of my favorite foods. I’m excited to get on with it!

Workout

Hey! I worked out this morning. It is a momentous occasion because I haven’t worked out since January 26th. Ouch.

Actually ‘ouch’ will settle in on Friday! ☺

There was so much going on and I totally lost all motivation. The good news is my weight did not go up…back to where it was before I started my regular workouts.

If I can stay motivated, I should see more weight loss in the next few weeks.

Chipmunk in February?

Yesterday was February 23rd. I looked out my window and saw a CHIPMUNK running from the woodpile to the back of the house. What in the world was it doing out in February? All I can think of is it didn’t put away enough food to last the winter and had to make a run to the ‘drop zone’ beneath the bird feeder.

That ‘Let-Down’ Feeling

It’s snowing out. All the trees are frosted and when the sun comes out tomorrow it will be blindingly beautiful.

Because of the snow I can’t go anywhere. I won’t drive in this weather…one of the perks of being retired. BUT! I’m bored. I have nothing to do.

That’s not entirely true…I could fold that batch of laundry that’s sitting on the dryer; I could run the vacuum cleaner; I could clear some snow (but I’d have to do it all over again tomorrow). None of that interests me at the moment.

I spent the better part of the last week working on my second chap book, Tickle My Funny Bone. Now that it’s done and ready for my graphic design guru to do the cover, I have nothing to work on.

I even thought it might be fun if I had a sewing project to do. Now you know I’ve gone over the edge! I haven’t touched my sewing machine for at least 30 years. For all I know, it’s moving parts don’t move any more.

I will read. I’m always complaining that I don’t have enough time to sit down and read. It looks like today is that day. How soon before I’m napping? ☺☺☺

Mourning Dove

Yesterday’s mourning dove was looking for spring. This one is looking to get his tail feathers frozen into the birdbath. The sun was going down and the temperature was 32 degrees. Look at the water turning to ice!!!! After I took the picture I opened the door and scared them away. I was picturing what the problems would be if I let it stay there. Brainless bird!

It has long been my humble opinion that mourning doves have no brains. You just have to watch them for less than 5 minutes to know that’s true.

As for my humble opinion, you would have to go back to when I was 2 ½ when it was probably humble for the last time. ☺☺☺

Looking for Spring

Even this lone mourning dove wants Spring.

Sneezin’

I seem to be unable to stop sneezing this morning. I don’t usually have allergies this time of the year, but if past experience is any guideline, sneezing usually means a cold will follow.

I am visualizing NO COLD! I am also making sure I have enough Coldcalm®, a homeopathic medicine by Boiron. I swear by this stuff!

Update on My Mother

A week and a half ago, she lost her balance and luckily an aide was right there and caught her before she hit anything. She was all black and blue where the aide caught her, but none the worse for wear.

Two days ago she lost her balance again. This time she was not so lucky. The aide was right there but not able to catch her in time. The lift side of her body hit the edge of the trash can in the bathroom and she fractured ribs 4, 5, and 6. I found out later that she said she got dizzy.

When I saw her again yesterday she said she was not taking anything stronger than plain Tylenol. She claims that getting up and getting dressed was not bad.

Do we get less able to sense pain the older we get? I don’t know the answer to that, but I sure hope it’s true.

The biggest concern now is that she does not do the deep breathing and coughing in order to ward off pneumonia. That’s not easy to do with fractured ribs, but…

Posted on Another Blog

There is a new posting at http://averypersonaljourney.blogspot.com/. This blog is related to my spiritual journey.

Big Red Responds to Bad Press

We had a measly 1 inch of snow this morning…thank goodness. I was prepared to shovel the driveway, but I wanted to give Big Red another chance.

After the last debacle, I showed him my blog, and, if he wasn’t already bright red, you would have seen him blushing with embarrassment.

I could hear him mumbling to himself out in the garage: “Here I sit, a snow blower. Not just ANY snow blower. I’m a HONDA snow blower known for the quick start (just like my little brother, Little Red the lawn mower). To make matters worse, I occupy the garage with that cute Honda Fit. What must she think? How embarrassing!”

I wondered just how embarrassing.

Normally I would not bother using Big Red on just 1 inch of snow. I would let Mother Nature take care of that through melting. However, I had to know.

Check the gas tank…FULL. Throttle in CHOKE position. Gas lever ON. Transmission ENGAGED. Switch to ON position. Grab handle and pull. And pull x 5.

Big Red roared to life. How sweet it was. I gave him a couple minutes to make sure all systems were go and we were off slicing through barely enough snow to notice. But to us, Big Red and me, it was triumph over the forces of nature (or whatever it was that was bothering him last week)!

I have taken a big chance and cancelled the service call scheduled for Friday. There is a big storm that may or may not give us snow over the weekend and I am counting on Big Red to start.