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--== ∞ Thursday Morning ∞ ==--
I didn't mention the poison ivy that fell off the pine during the winds this weekend, did i. I've seen dead vines fall out of trees before: there are several places just inside the woods' edge where i've turned the piles into brush piles, hoping wildlife will find the snarl a congenial shelter. This collapse, though, is not inside the woods but in the yard. I am going to throw money at the issue. Dad suggested he could come over with his little trailer and a pitchfork: wrong scale, Dad.
I had decided to throw money at two similar piles of debris, although those were dead some years and not completely poison ivy. For five years, i read, one can expect the irritant urushiol to persist in dead plants. While i have a cavalier attitude about the irritant on my skin (i itch anyhow), my lungs are a different concern.
I continue to mostly avoid the news. Dwelling on the divided country, the Flynn case, the Democratic party's candidate isn't going to make any of those issues resolve, and i can tell that my mental and physical health stand in the way of me being motivated into making some difference. Christine is strategizing for us how we might make contributions to senate campaigns. I glimpsed the news out of California about the special election there: i move to worry about the US Postal service and whether mail voting is possible.
Just in this paragraph i have pulled despair back across my mind, and i push it back. Maybe i am hiding from reality. Maybe i am neglecting ... but no. I know -- someone recently posted a study of how selfish people lie to themselves about their selfish actions. But i believe that small actions matter. And i commit to small actions in serving my Meeting, in healing the land, in looking for ways to live more lightly on the planet, in caring for family, in sharing with my community.
I told my therapist things are good for us right now. Stressful, yes, in the health vigilance and the sad state that one can't trust that others are trying also to help starve the virus of hosts. But in general we are in a place where we can give to others. While my employer will feel the financial hit in a year or so, when budgets have been slashed and higher ed and large public libraries, i am assured that i am a very valued member of the engineering staff.
--== ∞ ==--
Meanwhile, Christine and i both cough and feel unwell. COVID-19? Surely it's allergies and my asthma except Christine's allergies aren't cough triggers. I was utterly exhausted on Thursday, probably due to all the talking on Wednesday (dealing with a security issue) and took the afternoon off. I dozed Thursday afternoon and looked at flower seed... and just lost time this morning doing so. I continue to check for fever (none) and oxygen levels (99%). Ha, finally found something that looks definitive for the Samsung oxygen measurement - https://www.cebm.net/covid-19/question-should-smartphone-apps-be-used-as-oximeters-answer-no/ - so, it seems that in the normal range i can probably trust it, but once i start getting lower it becomes inaccurate. ("In other words, the readings become less accurate as the patient becomes more hypoxic.")
I am thinking about making rye crackers instead of rye bread. I think it's part of being tired. But also, i LIKE crackers and eat many saltines.
I made a fabulous potato salad Wednesday night with boiled eg, the preserved lemon and garden herbs. I'm getting sufficient leafy greens from the garden (including pea shoots and violet leaves) for dinner sized salads. Last night's salad included purple pea flowers and purple sage flowers. I carefully pulled the sage petals out of the calyx.
Oh dear, i really need to get to work....
I didn't mention the poison ivy that fell off the pine during the winds this weekend, did i. I've seen dead vines fall out of trees before: there are several places just inside the woods' edge where i've turned the piles into brush piles, hoping wildlife will find the snarl a congenial shelter. This collapse, though, is not inside the woods but in the yard. I am going to throw money at the issue. Dad suggested he could come over with his little trailer and a pitchfork: wrong scale, Dad.
I had decided to throw money at two similar piles of debris, although those were dead some years and not completely poison ivy. For five years, i read, one can expect the irritant urushiol to persist in dead plants. While i have a cavalier attitude about the irritant on my skin (i itch anyhow), my lungs are a different concern.
I continue to mostly avoid the news. Dwelling on the divided country, the Flynn case, the Democratic party's candidate isn't going to make any of those issues resolve, and i can tell that my mental and physical health stand in the way of me being motivated into making some difference. Christine is strategizing for us how we might make contributions to senate campaigns. I glimpsed the news out of California about the special election there: i move to worry about the US Postal service and whether mail voting is possible.
Just in this paragraph i have pulled despair back across my mind, and i push it back. Maybe i am hiding from reality. Maybe i am neglecting ... but no. I know -- someone recently posted a study of how selfish people lie to themselves about their selfish actions. But i believe that small actions matter. And i commit to small actions in serving my Meeting, in healing the land, in looking for ways to live more lightly on the planet, in caring for family, in sharing with my community.
I told my therapist things are good for us right now. Stressful, yes, in the health vigilance and the sad state that one can't trust that others are trying also to help starve the virus of hosts. But in general we are in a place where we can give to others. While my employer will feel the financial hit in a year or so, when budgets have been slashed and higher ed and large public libraries, i am assured that i am a very valued member of the engineering staff.
--== ∞ ==--
Meanwhile, Christine and i both cough and feel unwell. COVID-19? Surely it's allergies and my asthma except Christine's allergies aren't cough triggers. I was utterly exhausted on Thursday, probably due to all the talking on Wednesday (dealing with a security issue) and took the afternoon off. I dozed Thursday afternoon and looked at flower seed... and just lost time this morning doing so. I continue to check for fever (none) and oxygen levels (99%). Ha, finally found something that looks definitive for the Samsung oxygen measurement - https://www.cebm.net/covid-19/question-should-smartphone-apps-be-used-as-oximeters-answer-no/ - so, it seems that in the normal range i can probably trust it, but once i start getting lower it becomes inaccurate. ("In other words, the readings become less accurate as the patient becomes more hypoxic.")
I am thinking about making rye crackers instead of rye bread. I think it's part of being tired. But also, i LIKE crackers and eat many saltines.
I made a fabulous potato salad Wednesday night with boiled eg, the preserved lemon and garden herbs. I'm getting sufficient leafy greens from the garden (including pea shoots and violet leaves) for dinner sized salads. Last night's salad included purple pea flowers and purple sage flowers. I carefully pulled the sage petals out of the calyx.
Oh dear, i really need to get to work....
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What a veritable poison ivy vine any illness is now. :(