The Upside of Distraction in Everyday Ramblings

Even with my Imperfect Produce box every two weeks, which is such a great deal, fresh tomatoes are an issue for me this time of year. I love them but the ones from the store and that are commercially produced don’t taste like tomatoes to me.

Mrs. Sherlock left yesterday for an 11 day trip (that involves some bike riding) to the east coast so I was on my own. I went to the Farmer’s Market, the big one near me. This was my haul. I have a box coming tomorrow with chard and cantaloupe, grapes and more blueberries so I needed to be selective.

Afterwards I went to the grocery and got basil and fresh mozzarella so there is little doubt about what I will be eating today.

Everybody relatively sane that lives here was staying in the better part of the day yesterday because of the planned protests. Everybody else relatively sane was staying away. Oh the taxpayer money that was spent to keep the two groups apart…

I went down to Salem on Friday and the bus driver who let us off at the Portland train station in the early evening cautioned everyone getting off to be careful and safe.

It was a nice day away made all that much better by it being a work day.

Finally I seem to be getting back into the groove I was in earlier in the year planning for my retirement and working on upper body strength and deepening my understanding of yoga and the various meditation practices.

…and preparing for a complete overhaul of my closet when I get a free block of time. I splurged and ordered 40 thin strong steel hangers to replace the cheap plastic kind that one gets at the grocery. The great thing about the steel hangers is that they take up less space and are recyclable unlike the end of life story of the plastic ones ending up in the belly of a whale in little micro pieces.

If our planet survives and there are archeologists in the future as they dig down they will hit “The Plastocine” era in the sediment. I spend time practically everyday taking plastic wrapping off things.

I realized that all my scissors were dull a few weeks ago mainly from opening plastic packaging. Most Honorable spent a good deal of last year becoming a knife sharpening expert and so I asked him about scissors recently. He took a couple of pairs, the dullest two with him when he was up on his birthday.

With the help of a gift card I got him for said birthday he bought a scissor sharpening attachment to his knife sharpening apparatus. There is much nuance to scissors it turns out: serrated edges and bevels oh my. Oh and various tip configurations. The things we take for granted.

I haven’t been out of the track in two months but this morning my inner pony was back in business. I finally am fully recovered from the morning grogginess I was experiencing with the little tiny dose of Elavil I was taking for my migraines.

The cool thing is (and I so hope it lasts) is that I stopped having migraines when I started the Elavil and I haven’t had one since I stopped taking it. So the stress and angina had a silver lining in terms of the treatment also making these awful headaches I have been living with my whole adult life go away!

I was expecting one after the travel Friday but I was spared.

Not drinking diet soda has to be good for that too. It has been 4 weeks today. I still crave it occasionally but cravings come and go. The trick is not to give in to them.

And lord knows there is enough distraction out there in distressing news land to knock a craving right out of one’s head.

Okay, now back to learning about trees. I had no idea how Banyan trees worked and that they are figs.

Last updated August 18, 2019