The Big Chill

The other day I decided to inventory frozen foodstuffs. We’ve been stocking up on sale items, especially buy-one-get-one-free (!) deals, which I often proceed to repackage in vacuum sealed bags. Yet regardless of packaging I like to rotate items from the cellar to the kitchen, putting newer stuff in the deep freezer.

I decided utilizing a portable cooler would aid my efforts and thus toted fresh purchases down the stairs. Then I went further, stashing newer pork items at the bottom, older ones atop, and putting the entire cooler inside. Before finishing up I heard my phone announce a text message.

But where was it? I looked on the main floor all the while knowing it to be futile. Finally, I remembered. That wheeled cooler has outside pockets to hold shelf stable items like my smart phone. ~shakes head~ I’m also grateful for not having buried the cooler under a whole lot.

Whew! My husband would’ve put me in the deep freeze if my awesome cellular phone became damaged. I promptly disassembled the Otterbox brand case and thoroughly dried all three pieces. By the way, there is still another unused layer; I don’t like carrying it on my waist and the part with the clip is too big for my everyday fanny pack and most purses.

Have you ever seen the 1983 flick “The Big Chill”? And can you recommend another protective phone case brand?

What a great cast...

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Another Duh Moment

I’m having fun with a plant identification app on my phone. It’s called PlantNet and seems to be extremely accurate. Just this morning I decided to take an image of one of my shade tree’s fruits and realized a very silly mistake. It’s not a buckeye tree at all but a common horse chestnut. ~shakes head~ Somehow my memory got twisted around over the decades.

To my surprise, PlantNet also identified this
as the peculiar squirting cucumber...

Then again, I feel somewhat vindicated after stumbling upon this article. Horse chestnut and buckeye trees resemble one another as they’re in the same genus. And there is so much more I’m learning!

Fun facts:

My tree is the red variety, meaning it has rosy flowers versus white. A woman who saw it in the spring of 2023 not only pulled over to inquire about it, she brought her mother over this past April.

And it’s a hybrid between the red buckeye (!) and white chestnut.

The English call the nuts ‘conkers’. And I understand why after being pelted during that very windy day. lol Thank heaven they’re small and quite soft.

A tasty fall treat for deer, the seeds are toxic to most mammals, including horses. Thanks to this article from the UK I learned two things about the name.

One, a fallen leaf creates a horseshoe shaped scar on the twig, complete with what look like nail holes. I’ll have to look for this come autumn.

And before modern veterinary medicine, crushing conkers released a medicinal compound that, while toxic to smaller animals, helped relieve horses suffering a cough.

Last but not least, harvested seeds are supposedly easy to cultivate over winter. I may have to try this if only for fun.

The entire tree gets covered by these...

Weren’t so-called primitive peoples incredibly inventive? Do you think a horse chestnut sapling would make a nice gift?

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Creep

Reading the kind comments on my November 29th post, I feel like a creep for whining over minor discomforts. My little pains have subsided with tiny adjustments, such as using my keyboard’s touch pad to solve online puzzles. I deemed it too slow versus the mouse, a silly thing considering it’s not a competition.

Meanwhile, the YMCA lifeguard might consider me a creepy old lady now. For the first time, he stopped his incessant walk halfway across the natatorium when I emerged from my latest swim, before our paths coincided. We had experienced yet another shared musical interest that day and I suppose he did not want another high five.

Thank you fellow bloggers at Laws of Gravity and Snowbrush for pointing out how my post initially seemed like the lifeguard stopped to talk with me. I can be such a goofball.

I had recognized the group called VoicePlay from his playlist. They’re amazing. My husband stumbled upon some videos just days ago. And to keep with my theme, here is one awesome Radiohead cover.


Is it creepy to wax enthusiastic with a stranger? Or was the physical contact with a palm slap a step too far?

Meanwhile, thanks to Liz and Snowbrush for pointing out my original post made it sound like the lifeguard stopped to talk with me.

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Puzzling & Reprogramming

I recently got addicted to on-line puzzles thanks to talented creators like our friends at Eastside Cats and 15 and Meowing. Yesterday I even submitted a few like the one below. The only problem is that manipulating the mouse with my right thumb tensed nonstop resulted in minor pain.
120One of Nature's Cutest Killers
So I’ve loosened my hold which, of course, seems to have triggered discomfort around my shoulder blade. * ~sigh~ I’ll find the right balance between technique and limiting my time on Jigsawplanet. Meanwhile, I’ve started using my left thumb to hit the space bar. Reprogramming how I type takes effort.

Isn’t it annoying when favoring one body part causes issues elsewhere? Can you believe that my hobbling around on a mildly sprained ankle resulted in injuring the other?

* Update and duh moment: The back/neck discomfort is not from changing my grip. ~shakes head~ It is due to the fact I am using the mouse for unprecedent periods.

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Mindfulness

Mindfulness is a Zen philosophy I (obviously) never mastered. Take for example this morning's 'duh' moment. Sweet kitty Jezebel received her final dose of eye and ear drops yesterday morning. Never one to appreciate being picked up, she is tolerant on occasion if I carry her to my husband or we look out windows together.

Since the photo of my scratch came out looking so ugly,
here instead is a view from my writing table
on the back deck this lovely day.

Guess who didn't want to be picked up today, so soon after being traumatized? And how could I do anything but apologize to her after acting so thoughtless?

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More Duh Moments, & Wait... What? Why?

After I blogged about the snafu with our census paperwork my husband admitted that he found the paper on his desk yesterday morning. ~sigh~ That had crossed my mind, but it seemed like one of my bizarrely lifelike dreams of late. Seems like someone has been staying up too late and all but sleepwalking to bed.

What can I say? I feel more stressed by world events in the mornings and stay up in order to sleep in. ~shakes head~ It's lucky I don't have to earn a living because avoidance is a lame but rather effective coping mechanism.

Listening to music is another. Right now I'm playing the score to the movie "Army of Darkness". It's good stuff, before Sam Raimi stuck to directing all this 'cape crap', as I've taken to calling these endless comic book movies/CGI fests. Well, insert a more offensive 's' word other than crap.

Heh...

Don't blame me. I learned it from my husband's addiction to following /pol/ on 4chan. This political meme image board is not for thin-skinned people, but anonymous (mostly young) guys trading absurd insults seems a reasonable outlet for their stress and aggression.

As for my little outburst in the title, I learned that Gmail is marking blog comment notifications as Spam. You'd think that after having discovered Yahoo dumping (very important!) documents I would know better than to trust Google.

Nope.

Only today did I think to check the spam folder. But why it should suddenly start happening after several years of blogging, I have no idea. Grrr... Oh, well, it's just another first world problem I can live with.
 
Have you seen "Army of Darkness"? Did you know Bruce Campbell of that film's fame portrayed Elvis Presley in the quirky flick "Bubba Ho-Tep"?

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Dumb Luck, ‘Duh’ Moments, & a Few Food Related Tips

Following my health examination yesterday I discovered that I presented the wrong insurance card. The new card was in my wallet the whole time, just a different spot.

~shakes head~

Everything including the insurer remains the same but for the date, of course, and an agent with the hospital billing department assured me no further action is required. Whew. I sure hope she’s right and our insurance company doesn’t try to wriggle out of paying. I’m hopefully probably just being paranoid following last year’s multiple unexpected payouts.

As for food, if you’re like me you might cram something down for breakfast without even bothering to sit. The faster I can eat and move on with my day the happier I often am.

That said, peanut butter is a darn near perfect food. It’s not likely to spoil, contains a fair amount of dietary fiber and protein for the amount of carbohydrates and fat, and is now available as ‘natural’, meaning there are no ingredients other than roasted peanuts and salt. This morning I ate some with a banana. If I skip a proper lunch, PB with celery is a great afternoon filler.

Another go-to favorite is 2% reduced fat cow’s milk. I find it refreshing first thing in the morning and will wash down almost anything with a glassful. My only gripe is the yucky flakes of dried milk that form after the first pour. That led to another recent ‘duh’ moment.

Just wipe off the jug’s rim before screwing the cap back on, silly. ~sigh~ If my hands are clean I don’t even bother with a cloth or paper towel, just rinsing my fingers afterward.

Are breakfast and lunch grab-and-dash meals for you? What is your favorite breakfast food?

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