Tomorrow Is Only A Day Away

All day I have been feeling lazy and uninspired.  What a deadly combination.  Tomorrow will be a better day.

 

All I Need Is The Air That I Breathe

English: Tilia sp. buds opening in spring. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Suddenly, almost over night,  the leaves are appearing everywhere here.  It feels like I’ve been waiting forever to see them this year.  All that delicious green is exhilarating, almost breathtaking,

Would I know this if they were here year round?  Probably not.  This morning I looked out the kitchen window and this phrase popped into my head -  peace came upon me.  My brain has little storage areas for random song lyrics that zing themselves into my consciousness without warning.

This beautiful and timeless song was a big hit for the Hollies in 1974.  Alfalfa sings it to Darla in The Little Rascals movie.  It’s been covered by Phil Everly, Olivia Newton John, Julio Iglesias, Judi Collins and many others, including the Brazilian country group “Chitãozinho & Xororó” with Portuguese lyrics under the title “É Assim Que Eu Te Amo” (translated as “This is how I love you”).  That last bit is straight from Wikipedia, not some random trivia I had floating about in my head.  Yes, I’m relieved to hear that too.

Take a deep breath, have a listen. Realize you already have everything you need to be happy.  And then get yourself out there and have a fun green day.

If I could make a wish
I think I’d pass
Can’t think of anything I need
No cigarettes, no sleep, no light, no sound
Nothing to eat, no books to read

Making love with you
Has left me peaceful, warm and tired
What more could I ask
There’s nothing left to be desired
Peace came upon me and it leaves me weak
So sleep, silent angel, go to sleep

Sometimes, all I need is the air that I breathe
And to love you
All I need is the air that I breathe
Yes to love you
All I need is the air that I breathe

Peace came upon me and it leaves me weak
So sleep, silent angel, go to sleep

 

Dredging Up the Past

 

I clicked on the little button on the left that says Random Post and this is what popped up!  A day in my life from five years ago.  I found it interesting because I’d pretty much forgotten all about this funny little episode.  When there’s currently nothing I can think of to complain about, maybe I’ll just dredge up some random whiner of a post from the past.  And just for the record, my chronic fatigue had a lot to do with a too low dosage of thyroid meds and it took going to more than a few specialists in various fields before my doctor agreed that normal for other people was not necessarily normal for me, and to bump up the dosage.

 

Snoring Cat (Photo credit: Randi Deuro)

Apnea Schmapnea

 

April 29, 2008

To get to the bottom of my chronic tiredness I agreed to be tested for sleep apnea. What insanity. I realize the condition is a serious problem for a lot of people and that there are different kinds of sleep therapy that can often work wonders. I don’t think I have it, but to satisfy my curiosity I filled out the forms and answered all the questions. I have some of the symptoms, but definitely not all of them. I’ve never fallen asleep mid conversation with someone. I find myself infinitely too interesting for that to happen. Ha. And I’ve never fallen asleep at a red light or anywhere in traffic if I’m driving. (Being a passenger with W. at the wheel is a completely different story, and I can nod off before he puts the vehicle in drive.) My tiredness has not really affected my work, except for some extra crankiness. And the inability to concentrate combined with memory loss can be simply explained when you consider my life long state of being dazed and confused combined with advancing age. Right? I would say right. Yes, I snore, but no one has ever mentioned that I’ve stopped breathing in the middle of it, unless I get so loud that I startle myself awake wondering who the hell is making that godawful racket.

So I drove all the way to the west end of the city to pick up the equipment, got the in-office demo and brought home the instructions for hooking up the little black box that records sleep patterns.  I watched the little 8 minute video of someone with a severe case of sleep apnea happily strapping the CPAP (Continuous Positive Airway Pressure) machine on his head at night and the next day playing frisbee with his sons on the beach.  This kind of thing can actually happen, or so they would have you believe.

What a horrible night I had.  Getting myself all wired up and taped together was not the hard part – it was figuring out that if you do your finger first, the throat and the nose become much more complicated.  And once you’re attached in three different ways, you are pretty much committed to being trapped in bed – you should have made your last trip to the bathroom WAY before now, you moron.   How this whole procedure can end up with results that are anywhere near accurate is beyond me. The tape on the ‘microphone’ on my neck was gross and painful.  In my zeal to get it right I used enough to strangle myself.  The finger thing was annoying as hell, sort of like a weak clothes pin easily knocked off and able to make the box beep accusingly whenever that happened.  More tape needed, but careful not to cut off the circulation.  I used up a whole roll of tape already on my neck  Then there’s the oxygen-like tubing that left an indentation across one side of my face for almost four hours after I took it off.  Yes, I DID time it, making a mental note that an actual mask could conceivably disfigure my face permanently.   And those little probes stuck up my nose were fine as long as I didn’t move.  Otherwise they tickled and itched and no amount of tightening or loosening the strap under my chin made any difference.  I did discover that when it was too tight it made my ears hurt.  They really should put that bit of info in the book.

I must have wakened up a dozen times during the night tangled up in wires. Although I really wanted to just say “F THIS” and rip everything off I did persevere until 7:00 a.m.  At which point I actually did say something similar.  And not using my inside voice.  Then I made the drive all the way back across town to return all the rigmarole and have the information I recorded under great duress fed into a computer for a preliminary analysis by my sleep specialist.  That might not be her exact title, but at that moment I didn’t give a flying fig how her damned business card describes her.  She told me I was the second person that morning to tell her they’d just spent the worst night of their lives, sleep-wise.  You’d think she’d be used to hearing that.  Then I got to sit and yawn a lot and wait to be ushered into her office to sit down once again, this time in the big blue lazy boy chair.  I’m not seeing the use of that particular chair as a good business practice for these people.  But I did manage to stay alert while she explained to me that the results show I’m borderline for needing one of those sleep apnea machines.  She would still like me to try one, but it might not make a significant difference in the long run.  Normal times to stop breathing in the space of a minute are five and under.  I’m at 6.8.  My blood oxygen level during sleep was 8.9 and I believe she said that’s low but not excessively so.  She now sends this incredibly interesting information off to a doctor for further interpretation.  And we both presumably wait with bated breath to see what he has to say.

Oh yeah, and she begs to differ with W., my snoring is NOT off the wall.  It’s MODERATE.  Jerk.  Snort.  Etcetera.

Our session did end on an extremely pleasant note.  She asked me to verify my birthdate, since she thought she must have made a typing error when she entered it into the computer.  Then she did a really believable version of looking shocked, saying she simply could NOT believe I was that old.  I have now forgiven her everything.  My crankiness level shot down to about half in a matter of seconds.  Now an afternoon nap (a lovely wireless one) should get it right back down to normal.

 

When W is Away I Eat Zucchini

After three months of preparation (no exaggeration) W left this morning for his island in the east.  The river ice was probably a month later than normal breaking up so he had to wait around impatiently for better weather.  I just got a text from him saying he’s in Brandon, so tomorrow he’ll do the last leg of the drive to northern Ontario.

At last we’re getting some lovely sunny warm days here too.  The lawn people have already done most of the spring clean up, except for where the last of our snow mountain was stubbornly refusing to melt.  The last time I mentioned something about green grass we had a snow storm, so I’m not doing that again.

I have lots of plans to keep myself busy in the next several months while I’m on my own.  I would mention them all here, but then I’d be embarrassed when none of them happen.  However, there is one I can tell you about since I’ve done it already.  I bought a bunch of vegetables that W doesn’t like and that I miss cooking for myself.  I don’t understand how someone can not like the taste of zucchini – it doesn’t even have a taste.  Tonight I tried a new recipe with results that even W might have been able to choke down.

What can you do with two zucchini and a sweet potato?

I even took pictures to prove that I’m not completely useless in the kitchen.  Especially when I’m really hungry.

Slice the zucchini in half lengthwise and place cut side up on a pan.  I’m crazy about my Epicure pan which works great for oven roasted potato wedges.  I’m trying to broaden my horizons by cooking other stuff on it too.  Cut the sweet potato into french fry shapes.  Or not, depending on how clueless you are when it comes to chopping things up.

randomly shaped sweet potato chunks

I put a tablespoon of oil and some spices on the sweet potato and tossed them around in a red bowl.  I like Club House garlic plus, epicure seasoning for rosemary garlic oven fries, and salt and pepper.  And I love my red bowl.

Brush the zucchini with olive oil, sprinkle with garlic plus, salt and pepper and lots of parmesan cheese.  Cut up tomatoes and layer on top.  Add salt and pepper and/or bruschetta spices.  Seriously, the zucchini is so bland, you can go a little nuts with the spices.

Grate some mozzarella cheese for the last layer.

Practically naked zucchini.

Zucchini all dressed.

 

 

 

TAH DAH!

There it is all oven ready (375 F for 20 – 30 minutes) and here it is out of the oven.  And shortly after that most of it disappeared.

This was really simple to put together, and incredibly good.  Hope you get a chance to try it.  And I hope you enjoyed this random recipe blog.  I promise it won’t be a regular feature, and I can hear your sigh of relief from here.  I’m sure I didn’t teach anyone anything that they couldn’t have googled and figured out on their own, and yes I will admit that it was just a shameless way for me to boast about something turning out well in my kitchen.  That’s a random thing too.

See what you’re missing W??  Turnips tomorrow!  HAHAHA!  Now he’ll probably stay away for an extra month.

 

Thirty Days Hath September

…..April, June, and November.  Except in 2013 when Mother Nature decided to skip the month of April altogether and put a super long extension on to the end of March instead.  By my calculations it is now March 61st.  We had a lovely little blizzard on Monday.  I have a funny feeling March may continue to hold on for another couple of weeks.  I don’t know what month it’s going to be next.  Hope we don’t jump straight into October.

This is the scene that greeted us from our kitchen window on Monday morning.  Where has all the green grass gone?  Ah well, no point in obsessing about the weather, right?  Might as well make a pretty picture and carry on.

 

 

Something in the Air

Woman sneezing (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

I have good news and bad news.  The good news is:

1.  There’s green grass here.  Really!  I saw some.

2.  The snow has all but disappeared where I live.  All that’s left is what remains of our backyard snow mountain.  And it’s looking pretty pathetic.

3.  Today it rained!  You might even say poured!  For roughly  45 seconds.  Hey, it’s a start.

4.  The wind picked up and blew stuff everywhere.  Sorry,  I can’t remember why I think that’s good news.

5. I now have two days off in a row.  Be still my heart.

Spring-ing (Photo credit: mountain_doo2)

 

 

The bad news is:

1.  My eyes are itchy and weepy.

2.  My sinuses are giving me grief and we will soon be out of kleenex if this keeps up.

3.  I am trying to sneeze my face off.

4.  My throat feels all scratchy.

5.  Snow mold is brutal.

It seems like such a shame to have to close all the windows when the weather is finally getting nice.  I go through this to some degree every spring.  I look a mess for several days and then suddenly, as fast as it comes, it goes.

Allergic rhinitis – harbinger of spring.  I would prefer birds, actually.  But whatever heralds spring this year is fine with me - I’ll take it and be glad.

 

 

 

April Friday

In my mind, April is my brothers month, just like May is mine, and June and November belong to  my sisters.  He was born on the 19th, a Good Friday in 1946.  It’s been half a year already since he was ‘stolen’ from us, no longer a child of course, but still a child of the earth and the universe and lost to us much too soon.

So here’s a rather melancholy tune for our last April Friday.  Poetry set to music.  I guess I’m still in my saudade mood.  Bring on the rain.

A fairy offering wishes, illustration by John Bauer to Alfred Smedberg’s The seven wishes (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

The Stolen Child

(Words by W.B.Yeats-Music by Loreena McKennitt)

Where dips the rocky highland
Of Sleuth Wood in the lake
There lies a leafy island
Where flapping herons wake
The drowsy water-rats
There we’ve hid our faery vats
Full of berries
And of reddest stolen cherries

Come away, O human child
To the waters and the wild
With a faery, hand in hand
For the world’s more full of weeping
Than you can understand.

 

Where the wave of moonlight glosses
The dim grey sands with light
By far off furthest Rosses
We foot it all the night
Weaving olden dances
Mingling hands and mingling glances
Till the moon has taken flight
To and fro we leap
And chase the frothy bubbles
Whilst the world is full of troubles
And is anxious in its sleep.

Dream Fairy (Photo credit: Alexandria LaNier)

Come away, O human child
To the waters and the wild
With a faery, hand in hand
For the world’s more full of weeping
Than you can understand.

 

 

 

Where the wandering water gushes
From the hills above Glen-Car
In pools among the rushes
That scarce could bathe a star
We seek for slumbering trout
And whispering in their ears
Give them unquiet dreams
Leaning softly out
From ferns that drop their tears
Over the young streams

The Visit (Loreena McKennitt album) (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Come away, O human child
To the waters and the wild
With a faery, hand in hand
For the world’s more full of weeping
Than you can understand.

 

 

 

 

Away with us he’s going
The solemn-eyed
He’ll hear no more the lowing
Of the calves on the warm hillside
Or the kettle on the hob
Sing peace into his breast
Or see the brown mice bob
Round and round the oatmeal chest.

For he comes, the human child
To the waters and the wild
With a faery, hand in hand
For the world’s more full of weeping
Than you can understand.

 

Setting The World On Fire

When there’s all kinds of things I should be getting done on a Sunday afternoon, I like to go to YouTube and listen to music from my youth (and even more ancient times than that).  I’m not saying this is a good plan to have, but it’s a lovely open-ended one.  If you don’t like a lot of discipline and structure in your life, I suggest you try it.

The worst case scenario is that you end up with some strange tune in your head for about three days.  But there’s also definite perks involved.  Like discovering a cover of a song that you like just as much, if not better, than the original.  Sorry to all you Peach Stealing Monkey fans out there, but I’d never heard of them until today.  “I Don’t Want to Set the World on Fire” was, is, and ever shall be an Ink Spots hit from the 1940′s.  It lives on in a video game called Fallout.  Another new thing I learned today.  Proving one is never too old to learn something, no matter how irrelevant or useless the information might seem to be at the exact moment in which it is duly noted.  These random facts could pop up in a trivia game at some point in the future making you look brilliant, you just never know.

So here’s the version I like enough to share on this sunny cold Sunday in our non existent Spring.  The one in which we couldn’t set the world on fire if we tried because of all the stubborn snow still hanging about.  Hope you’re having a lovely lazy Sunday doing whatever it is you love to do.

 

Just Jazzy 94

I’m still waiting for the wisdom that’s supposed to come with age.

Life is full of questions. Fools are full of answers. Red wine bottles are full of poetry.

 

Just Jazzy 93

It’s a good day to count your blessings and to be grateful and happy for what you have and who you are.

You can collect every little thing in the world that you want and still have nothing; or you can be satisfied with very little and still have it all.