Day of Rest: Doggie Acupuncture

Millie falls asleep during acupuncture.

If you look closely, you'll see acupuncture needles around Millie's hip area. I have a WONDERFUL book, Four Paws, Five Directions that is all about acupuncture for dogs (and cats, too). May today be a healing day of rest. :-)

Off to bed

So tired, but am slapping up a post because I don't think I'll get to it tomorrow. And my Dr. Lee Report will have to wait. So today . . .

XM Radio Guy taught me how to activate my webcam & I had my first webcam chat. It was lots of fun because SIL & M were with me. XM Radio Guy has a thing where he can have a sock puppet talk instead of his picture. So he did that for a while & then switched to a jowly dog. M was thrilled!

After the kiddliewinks were in bed, Brother D & I played with the webcam--and this is where I'm disappointed--I took pictures of us but left the cable at home so I can't upload to my laptop. But it's been super-fun & can't wait to post the pix.

So the reason I'm onto the webcam thing is that I have my first personal training session on Wednesday, and I need to learn how to use it for that. I'm on a quest to get healthy and strong. I'm at the age now where gravity will win if I don't DO something. Consistently. I was looking for a book to read before bed and this jumped off my shelf:

I know I've had several this-book-will-change-your-life book reports recently. And now I'm adding this one to The List. These exercises go beyond losing weight and getting strong. They really focus on health. There are compelling before & after photos, but there are also some amazing stories of people going off blood pressure meds, regulating their menstrual cycles, and getting a handle on diabetes. The exercises are simple and don't require any extra equipment or a tremendous amount of time.

I was really inspired by this book and wanted to start exercising right away. But I also want to make sure I'm doing the exercises correctly. I looked for local T-Tapp classes. Nothing. But I did find Lani Muelrath, who does training online. Enter the webcam. So I'm looking FW to learning the routine. I'll have a full report of course. In the meantime, really . . . Zzzzzzzz . . . nite-nite.

Day of Rest

Even when the sky is heavily overcast, the sun hasn't disappeared. It's still there on the other side of the the clouds. ~Eckhart Tolle

It's a good day to curl up with a cup of tea and a book. I'm reading my Xmas gift from John, The Power of NOW, by Eckhart Tolle. I've joked about what a snooze-fest listening to the audio book was, but the book is pretty good. For an enlightened guy.

First Morning Thought

You know when you wake up in that first-morning winter coziness? Before the need to brush your teeth overides the desire to stay wrapped up in the duvet cacoon? I awoke with the thought of my cells. Doesn't everyone have these Bruce Lipton-ish thoughts first thing?

Our bodies are made up of trillions of cells that make up a community, and we are the leaders. And I was wondering if I was being a "benevolent dictator" as Bruce says, or if I needed to change something for the health of my cells. Drink more water, was the message. Really? You need more water? Wow. I consider myself the Water Queen--especially since I've been living here with the Most-Delicious-Tap-Water-Ever. I could bottle this stuff--it's so deliciously nothing-tasting, with a hallucination of sweetness. Mmmm...but back to my cells. More water, perhaps less tea.

Here's the formula Dr. Brett taught me:

Divide your body weight in half, convert to ounces.

That's how much water you should drink. WATER, not tea or anything else. Just water. There's an awesome book called Your Body's Many Cries for Water, which essentially boils down to this: there are a lot of illnesses related to dehydration. So drink more water. Dr. Lee says to drink 2 ounces of neutral pH water every hour (that you're awake) for 2 days to get your body back in balance.

I would write more, but I need to go hydrate.

Update, Guests, & Flying Squirrels

I'm going to take a break from blogging. It's not that I don't have anything to say--lots going on. However, I'm working on a new labyrinth script, I've got some art things that have a dead-line AND I've taken a job with John Morgan, "America's most FAMOUS hypnotist." The latter of which requires a lot of phone time. So here's a lengthy update and then I'll send an email out when I start posting again.

THANK YOU, Ruthie :-)
My sister Ruth came for a visit a couple weekends ago, read my blog post "Labyrinth Mourning," and said, "I think it's clear what we need to do this weekend." So we gathered river rocks and built a new labyrinth. It's half the size of my one in WV, but since I don't know how long I'll be here, I didn't want anything too permanent. I have pictures--but of course they won't upload. Stupid dial-up.

The piece of junk mail worth $19!
Friends Bess-from-massage-school & husband Val-who-did-my-website came for a few days. We went to Luray Caverns and I got in because I could show a Page County address. Yey, me! The caverns are AWESOME! And here's my Seinfeld/Larry David episode: A tour guide who yaks the entire time and manages to say NOTHING. "These formations are called the drapes. As you can see, [indicates with flashlight] the curves of the rock here resemble drapes." And then later, "These formations are called 'the fried eggs.' " Let me guess...because they look like fried eggs? And then! She's quizzing people! [Points with flashlight to rock formation] "What do you think this formation is called?" And she's not asking for anything scientific. There were lots of guesses, all WRONG, of course. What's wrong with silence? What is this obsession in our culture to fill up every empty space? As my old director Ed Steele at Wayside Theatre used to say, "LESS IS MORE."

Red raspberry season!!!
YUM! Bess & Val & I went hiking & berry picking. We also found some wild blueberries. In fact, I'll be picking some more today....

Squirrels can fly?
I have little bird houses on trees around the house from the previous owner. I was sitting in my chair near the telephone pole reading my book, and I heard a rustling in the box above and out pokes a furry little head. Too small to be a squirrel, and it didn't look like a chipmunk. Some sort of rodent, but not pointy enough to be a rat...mystery solved when Val, who's v. tall, tapped on the box with his water bottle and out scampered a little squirrely thing up to the top of the pole. There it turned to face us, unbushy tail twitching at us. And then--THEN! It leapt from the top of the pole into a nearby tree a good 2o feet. It was the most amazing thing to see, right before our eyes. It happened so fast. And there is such a thing as flying squirrels, I remember seeing something on Discovery, or TLC or National Geographic back in my TV-watching days.

Another Seinfeld episode:
As I may have mentioned, I have dial-up. Hehhh.... So I got a package with Embarq (AWESOME customer service!!!) who has a deal with Earthlink (CRAP customer service). Now that I have Embarq, I can cancel my Earthlink account and it will be handled by Embarq. Except I can't. Earthlink cut off my service because I didn't pay the bill--which I didn't because now I have Embarq. 4 live chats, and countless transfers to India and back to Embarq--4 HOURS of life force sucked out of me that I will never get back. My mother was with me for the first 2 of it, and it just became a joke: No! Don't transfer me! And then it was back to India to the v. polite person who would then transfer me to Embarq. So I just went ahead and paid Earthlink. I just got an email notification from Earthlink that my bill is due. Hehhh...stupid dial-up.

4th of July Celebration
Went to Mum's annual concert followed by fireworks. I recorded the fireworks because my nephew Ian was SO EXCITED that it made the experience that much more special. I have him on tape saying, "WOW! This is better than Christmas!" I LOVE fireworks, so it was really great to be able to share it with such an enthusiastic audience. For Ian's birthday on the 11th, I printed out one of the fireworks photos and glued it on top of a Christmas card. I love that he was born on the 11th...because it's one more, innit?

And for Entertainment
No TV, but I have DVD's, so I have had a Christopher Guest Fest. Favourites: Spinal Tap, Best in Show, and Waiting for Guffman. All including with commentary.

Books: I rarely read fiction, but re-read Clan of the Cave Bear. It's different reading a book again 20 years later. It's not even the same book. Right now I'm reading Animals in Translation by Temple Grandin. It's a fascinating account of her work with animals. She's autistic and has an uncanny ability to see as animals see and understand their behaviour. It makes me think of Dave Dobson who says that we are "herd animals."
A friend lent me Labyrinth by Kate Mosse, which I've not read yet. You know what's funny? That's not a labyrinth on the cover, it's a maze.

Well, that's the update. If I find myself feeling chatty, I may post again. For the most part tho, I think I'll take the rest of the summer off. :-) H.