Category Archives: Random

The stars align in the right order, then it snows!

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Yep, I’m frustrated. Here goes my little traction rant and this happened the other day and I’m still ticked…….So I have my traction gig and sometimes when I’m finished, well, let’s just say, you know I dislike traction, but my back hates traction, it puts me out of life for days on end. Depending on its’ mood it really, really hates traction. But let’s say it’s in an ok mood today which is huge and it’s one of your off days from traction and the rest of you that feels like it’s falling apart is in a good place too. You’re excited you might actually get some things accomplished. Hands and fingers are working, check, neck not throbbing, check, back there but tolerable, check, numb foot, normal, check, numb leg, normal, check, a night’s sleep, unbelievable, yes, it’s true, check, numbness in face, none, check, wow, hurry, get out while you can, double-check list, oh yeah, dizziness from meds, nope, yipee, this really is a good day, triple check! And we’re off, showered, dressed, excited to feel “normal,” be like the folks that get up and go, ok, so let’s open that door, ooooh…the hand is cooperating so nicely today, wow, this is great……….now what is it that my eyes are seeing outside, closer look, it can’t be, not again, not on a day when I feel well enough to go out, NO………..SNOW………SH……………really, I mean REALLY, it’s all aligned for me today, I feel well enough to leave the house and it’s snowing, AGAIN! Jeez……

Life, see you in the Spring when all I have to worry about falling from the sky is rain and bird poop, can’t wait!

Nincompoop

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I’ve been thinking about that word and then it recently showed up in one of my favorite television shows, The Office. Dwight called a co-worker “Princess Nincompoop” but then, that’s Dwight. When I was a kid and my Mom suggested I “stop behaving like a nincompoop” I knew that I best get my act together. My favorite definition of the word is, “one lacking in judgement and good sense.” I think we all have the capacity to behave like a nincompoop on occasion and although most of us grow out of our nincompoop-ness, sometimes it takes a while. Sometimes it’s painful, we put our families thru a lot, sometimes parents can claim gray hair as a casuality of dealing with their beloved nincompoops.

It’s just a good old fashion word for a common condition and with so much in this life that’s been updated it’s comforting to know not only there still are nincompoops out there deserving the title, more importantly there are those that are trying to grow out of it and maybe at this time failing miserably. We come in all ages and stages and there’s always hope, it just seems to me the only way to survive an encounter with one is to exhibit plenty of patience and love.

Life is just funny enough that someday a nincompoop can “grow up” just in time to become the parent of one. You gotta love that.

Chew on that

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When you’re a kid gum is a big deal, you think about when you’ll be allowed to have it, how much will you get, what flavor will it be. At some point an adult tells you to close your mouth as you chew your long-awaited treat and it’s your first hint that maybe gum is not as exciting for everyone as you thought. When it gets stuck to your school uniform and your Mom is taking an ice-cube to your hideous plaid skirt you start to get a new look at gum. When a giant bubble bursts all over your face and tangles in your hair you can’t believe that gum can hurt. On a dare when you reach under the cafeteria table at lunch you have your first realization of the sheer horror of dead gum left behind. Somewhere over time you too begin to develop rules about gum.

I don’t care deeply about a lot of things. I save my energy and passion for what I believe are the big issues, anything else just doesn’t garner much of a fight from me or for that matter, even a strong opinion. I am the kind of person that picks their battles carefully, I don’t go out on a limb or strongly commit unless it’s huge for me. So where does the earth shattering topic of gum fall in all of this…..I think there should be a couple basic rules, when finished with your chewing sensation properly dispose of said gum, if you don’t know what that means, you probably shouldn’t be chewing it. No chewing in church, and that includes all funerals and weddings, no matter their location. Recently after watching the news the other day I’m now willing to add another location to the list. I have to admit it’s one that I never thought about before I saw it. I don’t think you should chew gum if you are on trial for murder. Or I guess maybe on trial for anything, but definitely not murder. For me, it’s hard to take a person seriously when they are chewing gum. I mean why bother to have a nice hair cut or a new outfit to impress the jury if you are chomping on gum. I’m not saying you’re a killer but it just isn’t right. Same as my feelings for just as you are about to say ‘I do,” I’d prefer you not be chewing gum or blowing a bubble. So on further close consideration I now think it’s best to keep gum out of the court room. In fact I’m willing to say, chew away in the class room, you’re a kid, but when or if you are ever on trial, NO CHEWING. I know I’m going out on a limb here, but I just thought this was worthy of amending my rules.

Ok, just some more thoughts while in traction that I know you can’t live without, carry on.

Ok, what’s going on?

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Yes, it is the first day of a new month, but I shouldn’t be fooling myself or anyone else, its February, not April. Instead, I’ve just been fast forwarding a bit today, trying to make it beach weather. WOW, doesn’t that just sound so great? Really, even sand stuck to my sunscreen covered legs sounds appealing right now. Drinking beyond tepid water out of a plastic bottle could taste refreshing and welcomed. Sitting on missing glasses and trying to read sun faded magazines seems exciting and creative, eating melted chocolate along with soggy snacks could be fun and edgy. Goodness, I’m completely daydreaming of a blinding blue sky reflecting onto a shimmering sea. Where are you and when will I see you again?!

It’s days like today when the trees glisten, not with Christmas lights but rather with ice and brown leaves left there from the drought, where it all seems worthy of causing a Doctor Quinn Medicine Woman case of delirium. I’m so ready for spring, I’m sorry, I know I’m whining and somehow think I have a hall pass when I’m strapped in traction, but gosh, doesn’t a day at the beach right now sound a little like some glorious life that isn’t yours….so, for the next 20 minutes I’ll make it mine and dream away……….holy cow, I just felt a splash on my face.

It’s the little things

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Postage stamps have so much power, with them you can mail anything, anywhere. Well, almost anything, excluding the list of stuff that hangs on the wall of most post offices that are big no nos, but it’s still a cool idea to me to think that with just a few stamps you can mail something pretty much anywhere. One of my first “jobs” as a child was to go into the post office and buy a “book of stamps please.” I learned at an early age that stamps are powerful, you can mail a letter or a birthday card, pay a bill, send a package, exciting things can happen when you have plenty of stamps. I know the world is quite a different place than when I first learned how much could happen when you licked the back of a tiny stamp, attached it to an envelope and threw it in a mail box, and then of course, double checked that it slide in there, it’s all exciting stuff. But now a days when you can pay bills on-line and send an e card around the world it seems stamps are less and less popular. Yet it’s still true when you need a stamp you can not find a substitute to place on that mail, even gluing your money to it is meaningless. If you need a stamp you still have to get a stamp and there lies the power. Yesterday I was waiting in line at the post office to buy several books of stamps because I was completely without stamps for days and therefore felt out of sorts, powerless. As the little girl in front of me counted to her surprise, ten people in line I was oddly comforted that some things don’t change as much as we think. We still need stamps, some folks still mail packages, some people still pay their bills the old-fashioned way, some of us still wait in line and some little girls have it as their chore to buy stamps.
I know there are plenty of ways to deal with mail these days and stamps are nearly out of vogue but I’m sentimental when it comes to some things and today as I’m making my list of things I’ll do when I finish traction I feel powerful because I now have in my possession three books of “forever” stamps.

Molder, and I don’t mean as in Scully and Mulder……

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I’m working on a jigsaw puzzle, haven’t done one in a long time. It’s good practice for my hands. When I was a child I enjoyed them and often received one every year for Christmas. My siblings used to tease me that I “molded” the pieces to fit. I always disagreed but I found myself last night trying extra hard, “molding” a piece to see if it would work where I needed it to, I guess old habits die-hard. Puzzles are one of those things that when you don’t do them or think you are beyond interested in them have the power to pull you in. Everyone that passes by a puzzle on the table has a comment or a suggestion. It’s fun to see someone with initial disinterest so pleased with themselves as they immediately find a fit and walk away. They are simple things that are good for many things. I find that when I’m working on one I’m either immersed in only thoughts of the puzzle or my mind is relaxed and wandering as it often does here in traction or I’m single-handedly solving some of life’s big problems! Puzzles have power and I like them. They seem old-fashioned and dated and I like that about them too. They are easy-going and stress free and good for fingers that sometimes are numb. I may be a “molder” from way back but that’s how I roll in the puzzle world.

2010 with a slash thru it

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It’s still that time into the new year when I write the date and realize it’s no longer the past year, remembering after the fact that this year I’m living in is no longer 2010. After I realize my error I have some options as to what to do. I usually just put a slash thru the old year or it’s easy enough this year to just try to write over the old number, just make a 0 into a 1, it’s trickier than making 09 into a 10. I’ll have to do this well into the new year and then weeks from now I’ll finally remember and accept that we are indeed living in 2011. Then some random time later, like March 14 or July 27th I’ll do it again and I won’t have the excuse of just having a few days into a new year under my belt. The older I get the more the days and weeks and years are blending together. But maybe it’s more than that, maybe I have trouble with change. I’m not sure it’s anything that deep or complicated, maybe I just don’t concentrate too well. Anyhoo, it’s a new year and I’m in traction and I’m working on two years into this gig. Some day maybe I’ll quit counting how long I’ve been at it and just truly accept that it is what it is and even though it’s a new year traction is coming along with me.

Well, nothing too exciting here but I’m hanging in and trying to remember what year it is……have a good one, no matter what year it is for you.

Fa la la la la traction

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Merry Christmas! Here I am all strapped in on Christmas eve, working traction into my day. Should have gotten one of those reindeer headbands with antlers, would have been very festive and a nice compliment to the strap around my head and neck. Seriously though, much to be happy about these days. Thanks for reading and all the best to you and yours!

Overloaded with good cheer.

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I saw this Dad in the grocery store holding what appeared to be his four-year old daughter and at the same time he was trying to push a cart built for children which was stacked full of very real food. I just pictured her insistence at using that particular cart when they arrived at the store and he agreed, in addition to making her happy it would avoid any immediate hassle. Yet in reality five minutes into the shopping experience it was clear that cart size wasn’t cutting it. She had bailed on walking but he was still hanging in there with pushing the thing. Every so often he’d reach down from his tall frame to tap the cart, giving it a push so it would go gliding forward. He’d then take three paces to catch up with it before he had a chance to trip over it. It was all in the timing, his speed was impressive and as he listened intently to the little girl ramble on, you’d never guess he really could benefit from a bigger cart. He may have been overloaded but he was going with the flow. I think that’s a real skill, to just go with things when they aren’t necessarily easy, when there very well may be a better way, but you do it for the good, you do it because it makes someone else happy.

Maybe that’s what this time of the year is all about, putting ourselves out, going the extra mile for someone else’s happiness, maybe even for a stranger’s, all the better. It’s a very cool thing to see love in action. So as I’m doing my traction today I hope to bring you some good cheer and glad tidings with this post.

Distraction, concentration, procrastination all in one little day.

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Did you ever impatiently wait for something to bake in the oven only to then realize you hadn’t turned it on? Did you ever take your recipe with you to the grocery store and be so intent on making sure you bought every ingredient that you spent ten minutes looking for sour milk before you realized it was SOUR MILK?! Well, that’s been my attempt to be productive, what a nut I am. It has been a snowy couple of days and maybe the barometric pressure is throwing me off, who knows but I should definitely not be operating heavy machinery today so it’s good that traction is on the light side when it comes to mechanical things. I have a list of things to do a mile long like many do this time of year and I’m pretty much only thinking about the fun stuff. I’m going to make an old recipe of my Mom’s and Grandmother’s that I’ve never made before, I’m hoping it will be a success if I remember to pre heat the oven or at the least turn it on. So wish me luck or maybe considering everything I should wait until tomorrow.