Twisting in the wind.

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Not a bad thing, less so when the twisting is sought and within control.  There is no such thing as complete control.  Much as with driving a vehicle.  You are in control, to a degree.  But if you want to stop instantly while driving 60 mph, you know you cant.  However, if you need to stop, over time and with experience, you do learn how to arrange that.  As well, while you control direction, that isn't perfect.  You realize a bump in the road, a curve, and some other things, along with the loose variability in the steering system, makes it so that you really only have a general, but good enough, control.  So it goes with my efforts.

I was able to stay awake until 16:00, give or take an half hour.  The sunshine was probably the single factor that allowed for it.  I didn't wake until around 2:00, also give or take an half hour.  While I woke easily, and well, for that initial part of getting out of bed, I have been only just this side of being awake.  Not a worrisome thing, given the extra long day yesterday and the extent of my physical efforts.  Just getting the snowblower to kick over was a serious effort.  I need to run it in the summer, from time to time, and probably find out where and how to grease it, and check the oil.  Then again, when it has been cold, sometimes it will just be a difficult task.  Running it was rather brutal, with the snow being so wet.  And the bit of sweeping, hitting certain areas a bit more closely, was also a rather heavy task.  My lungs are still burning.  Not from the cold, but from the push.  All good. 

I just wish I could keep on top of it, and expand my capacity a bit.  Too easy to just sit, with the condition.  But more, difficult to think through to effort.  Well, and kicking over my engine opens some doors that are brutal.  It's like releasing a beast.  This I know.  Letting the beast free, through excessive effort, was part of why I became what I did.  So some care must be given in opening that cage.  I'll figure it out, or not.

Breakfast was made not long ago.  I am trying to find just the right amount to eat so that I don't feel too full or remain too hungry.  Three small eggs, two pieces of bacon, and a potato this morning.  It's actually still a bit much, if the whole potato is a rare add.  Half the potato might be best, or the equivalent.  I am hoping to mess with making pancakes and eventually waffles.  Neither of the pans I have are quite the right size for a single omelet, so that is on a back burner.  Getting good at these things, then portion control, is a beginning.  Then to figure out how to keep a meal or three in the fridge, and a new one or two per day.  I need calories, and some of the other stuff, if I am going to more fully dig out.  But digging out I am.

Today?  A few calls, a letter, a few returns to UPS, a check to a farmer, grocery shopping, and visiting a friend.  As well, I may see how the driveway is, and perhaps tidy it.  I won't be heading out until late morning. so there will be some time for the sun to, maybe, ease my task by melting some of it away.  Other than that, probably not a lot.  Then again, that is a lot of work, concentration, and odd and new efforts.  It will probably take everything I have, and then some, to get these tasks done.  Hmm... and maybe a call, either today or tomorrow, about the faucet, and how to return it for work.  I really want a kitchen faucet, and this particular design.

Later.

To town is out, shower is out.

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I about blew a gasket just getting the machine started.  Then, running the machine was a bear.  Wet snow indeed.  Thankfully it had not frozen.  More, since I removed much of it, the sun looks to be attempting to finish the job.  Busted me down though.  I overdid by a lot.  Oh, and I am up three and an half hours beyond my best effort in weeks.  Sweating and huffing, but it was a lot of work.  But, that is it for today.  I might watch a couple episodes of the Bab 5 series, I am almost threw them, again.  Well, it's something to watch, do, while I limp back into my pole position. 

I love it when I work like that.  I just wish I could do it for more than an half hour to forty five minutes.  I liked when I could do this for hours.  Full throttle, bust a nut, jump until you fly, all out.  What I did today wouldn't have counted, and wouldn't have taken nearly that long.  But... given my condition, that I can push until I'm throwing off heat like a wood burning stove, sweating like onions in a hot pan, and thumping like bad weather was on the way... I'll take it.  Plus, the drive is done, mostly.  What remains is too thin for the snowblower, too wet for the broom, and too little for the scoop.  So... I just have to hope the sun will get it.  I have done what I can.

Tomorrow, hopefully, I'll be able to get out.  I have a bill to pay, some returns to make, some shopping to do, and perhaps a bit of business to attend.  Oh, but I might be able to make a few phone calls today.  Crap but it piles up when you are down for a while.  On the good side, I actually notice that there is a pile, and I am pretty sure I'll... get to it as quickly as I can.  Not bad.  Oh, well, might as well take a shower, once I cool down and stop burning.

Later.  Later?  Nah, good night.

Sunshine!

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Yeah, and I'm really liking it.  I am already still awake later than yesterday, and without dragging my butt over the time line.  Yesterday I was in a psychic wasteland by... 8:00, perhaps earlier.  I am pretty sure I can get to snow removal yet this morning.  Whether I can then get a shower and get to town is another question.  I won't know the answer to that until I finish the drive and spits of walkway.  At least I am sure I can hit the snow removal.  If the broom doesn't work, I may have to get the snowblower going.  I just hope it hasn't frozen up.  It seems that it was rather wet snow this time. 

If I can't get to town, I will at least get a shower in.  I love being healthier these last few months.  Even when I go down, I shower four to six times a week, mostly.  I've always got clean clothes, if I do push that just a bit from time to time.  And I have been getting better at not just eating, but beginning to lower per meal consumption.  Eating often enough means I can eat less, and my body doesn't drive me into... well... gorging.  Starve the body for a week or two, then tease it with a morsel, and you end up with an eating machine.  Not good, none of it, for any aspect.  This is changing.  That runaway horse is coming under control.  Plus, it's been fun to cook once in while... which also means dishes are being done enough to cook as well.  A different world, slowly improving, year over year, if sometimes with short to medium term falls.

Well, I suppose I ought to get out and see how much trouble snow removal will be.  I'll just listen to a few tunes while finishing coffee, then hit it.  Later.

Well but down.

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I feel good.  The headache left early on, if the strange sensation about the brain remains.  I don't think that has anything to do with anything else.  I simply can't get going.  I did make a couple of slices of bacon, two eggs, and fried potatoes.  Just enough to say I had a second meal.  I can't seem to get much coffee down.  Just a cup so far.  And I haven't found myself to clearing the driveway.  Not yet, that is.  I still hope to get to that.

I turned up the heat.  I can't get warm, if I don't feel cold either.  When that happens, I assume it is probably illness... the heart just isn't kicking over.  There isn't enough blood flow.  It happens from time to time.  The lack of sun is also a part of it.  I think those are the sole problems, at this point.

A man I have met, and a close relative of friends, is in very dire condition.  I keep thinking about what to say, how to say it.  I am sure he has tried to live life as correctly as he knows how.  He has many children, and his wife is there with him.  It is not easy.  I keep them in my prayers.  I try not to say the wrong things.  But you know me by now.  I say what I do.  His sons are building his coffin, the family has gathered, and nearly all have been able to see him, save one son.  The hope is that he will get that chance.  While a dark day is drawing near for the family, a good day is coming near for him.  And, as the darkness gathers, so too the light, even for the family.  Working together, seeing each other as well, paying respects and more.  It is difficult to not wish them joy even as they prepare to possibly mourn.  But I do, as I hope it is taken correctly.  Watching as a man prepares to leave this world, but become king again for a short time, is a wondrous thing.  I wonder if he realizes what he is seeing?  I am sure he will recognize it again, in his time, and their time.

I ought to... figure out how to get going.  Another cup of joe, but what else.  I simply can't seem to get going.  I don't know if a trip to town is possible either, even if I clear the snow.  I'll keep my focus on snow removal and a trip to town, and when it happens, it happens.  Later.

Snow removal?

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Yeah, well, we'll see.  There is a bit of snow.  I may try to sweep, if I can get to it.  I turned the heat up, took medicine, but I haven't had coffee yet today.  Yeah, a couple of loads of the dark brew might help.

It's just a rough day.  I don't feel bad, the headache is gone.  I procrastinated just long enough that I didn't end up taking painkillers while the pain has faded, mostly, and quickly enough that the need left before the task was done.  I just don't have much in me.  I need to figure something out, I need to get to town tomorrow.  Fresh onions, milk, and a few other things.  Plus, I ought to get my friend out.  If I have cabin fever, he might have it worse.  Dang kids!  :)

Yes, odd thoughts have been on my mind, haunting my dreams, and such.  Perhaps all just stories my mind is playing with.  Perhaps truths, pure and simple.  Perhaps something I am going through on my simple humble path toward heaven.  Things I must consider, a past life to be turned over to Another, thoughts and concerns being struggled with in an imaginative way.  Know?  I know nothing.  I suspect a few things, I wonder about some more, and I see shadowy things a bit farther out than those.  Dim is the glass through which we see.  We do know nothing.  Reason and faith, the pair of shoes that allow one to travel to where one will go.  One alone will make the trip far more perilous.

Why my mind drifts to where it slides, why at this time or that, I don't know.  I am barely conscious, sometimes, of what I have put out.  What I write is not exactly conscious thought.  It isn't something I time.  It just happens.  If I can restrain or loose with some small choice.  The first song in the most recent set I have known about for some time.  I buried it, hoping it would go away.  I didn't think some would understand.  It is quite convoluted.  I see, but some will not, cannot.  Still, all at once, a number of things came together, and it tumbled out.  Not a mere puppet, but... a tool, at times.  I pray that it is God's hands which control those strings.  While it might seem terrible, I think many have a very odd construction of what and who God really is.  Wrong, in both directions, at times.  I do not claim to know God, but I see that others have less of an understanding is all.  Hard, but completely forgiving.  Angry, but not as He is unchanging.  Loving to His death, and yet quite able to destroy.  And yet, in another way, none of that.  He just Is.  As I said, I don't completely understand, but I do contemplate.  As you are able to eliminate horror, want and lust, doubt, fear, you get closer to Him.  But you may need to crawl on hands and knees over broken glass to do so.  Never mind.

Oh, right... coffee.  I hated the stuff until I hit about 30 years of age.  Then I needed it.  Now?  It just... helps... a very little.  Take what you can get.  Hmm... that makes me think of another thing.  Perhaps a nap in a couple of hours, in the hopes that I can push through to getting to town and stretch my day further into, well, the day.  Later.

My timing often sucks.

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Well, and I can be blind to the left, right, sometimes from both eyes.

A recent post came together at the wrong time.  As I have suggested though, writing happens as it does.  One might as well be angry that the sun came up and woke you, before you were ready to wake.  While that may be true, it isn't even the fullness, or partial fullness, of truth, not even for the one who experiences it.

Further, as I suggested, I can be blind.  I don't see, hear, feel, or think, sometimes.  I have friends who are blind to the ways of the world, others who are blind to the ways of women, others who no nothing of war.  My blindness is to what humanity I might have.  I don't see, understand, that that trampling through delicate flowers, at times when those are most cherished, causes harm.

As each of you nears death, you will know this thing.  Often there is great forgiveness afforded those who are obviously at some points in their life.  My state is not obvious.  More, it comes and goes.  So I have learned forgiveness myself, and understanding, and regret.  I merely hope those who feel harmed may find a way to forgive my flailing blunders.  And... understand that the call to write, certain things, comes from something far stronger and well above my ability to resist.  As a cough, it happens because certain conditions exist which require the function.  The more one tries to tamp it down, the more certain and heavier the response may end up being.  I did try to hold off, then it blew threw me like wind through a shattered door.

I know, dark things.  Things you probably don't understand.  As I suggested in a comment, imagine a cosmic undercover cop.  But one plucked from among the crooks by conscience, then returned to do certain tasks.  No, you probably won't ever fully understand.  For what I came from is as much worse than criminal as angels are above cops, and of a different order and understand as that difference.  So many risks to putting on the old colors and riding the range with lost brothers, even for their sake and for the sake of righteousness.  So easy to forget, or be found out, or even hold true but fail.  These notions have little to do with anything in this life, mostly, or time.

I am finally at peace with the dreams, visions, notions, and such.  I do have faith that what must be, will be, and will succeed.  Not because of me.  Just a tool, if a redeemed one.  I suspect I will have a good little remainder of life, twenty, maybe forty years, unless it all falls.  Which is a possibility itself.  Then, for me as with all others, all bets are off.  Two different times, almost two different lives.  But... just dreams, stories, thoughts.  Pay no heed, and take no concern.  Do as you should and this will have little to do with you.  I am just... tinkering with some things... trying to see what the dimly seen shadows and writings mean.

Be well.  You know how.  Heal thyself until the greater Healer can make new.

I'll keep trying.

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It's still foggy.  Snowing, now, actually.  That might be a good sign.  It means weather has moved in, a new type.  Which could be the prelude to another change.  It reminds me of being on a submarine, lately.  Only, this one has a screen door and windows.  I tried to push this morning.  I had hoped to stay awake until noon or even early afternoon.  I only made it to between 10:00 and 11:00.  I crashed hard enough that I may have sprained my fall.  I cut insulin by 50%, after cutting it by 25% initially.  It is still much stronger than the vial I had been using.  So, again, when I woke, a headache.  Just a little one... comparatively.  A normal headache versus a migraine, in magnitude.  It does hurt, but usual headaches don't require intervention.  Besides, it is fading on it's own.  Sluggish, though, too.  Between the lack of sunshine, insulin, and even that mild attempt at pushing my schedule, I hit a wall.  I feel good otherwise.  The sun will eventually return.

Today?  I have no idea.  I am hoping to, possibly, hit the laundry, do a few more dishes, clean the kitchen a bit, and then hit the living room.  It sounds like a lot, but it really isn't.  The dishes, because of how I do them, and the laundry, would be the bigger chores.  The rest is just... bits and pieces.  I did remember to change out half of the cat litter, get the trash out, cook a meal last night.  But that was about it.  I am mostly bottom heavy and slow moving.  Anything I get done is almost a thing of luck.  Right place at the right time to see need enough to be fired up enough to get it done.  It bugs me when I can't just go looking for 'trouble'.  I like to work.

The shoes are in.  Right size too.  A bit narrow, but I think they will work their way out.  Comfortable, not too warm, I think they are exactly what I wanted.  A few purchases, every month.  Sometimes clothing, sometimes cookware, sometimes odd things like better flashlights, rechargeables and rechargers, or tools.  It doesn't, exactly, make perfect sense, always.  And yet, when I go to do a project now, I often have one or two different methods of doing the work.  Sometimes I need something special, so I go get it or order it.  It is beginning to make some sense, and come together.  Some for prep, some for work, some for domestic, some for attire.  I am not good at keeping up on things, I am improving.  It is odd to be back to some level of general life maintenance, with goals of various sorts in mind.

You know, I might tap the anacin bottle again anyway.  Not so much for the headache as a general sense of being ill at ease.  The headache from the other medicine isn't so bad as yesterday, but it is odd.  As with yesterday, it is like a sideways headache.  I can't really explain it, and it is common with this particular medicinal mistake.  It's a different sort of feel, along with the pain.  Rather than a spike through the skull sort of feel, it's as if the brain shifted to the right, then twisted a bit.  Nothing unusual, insulin seems to do that when I go from weaksauce to fresh.  Yes, anacin.  A bit of a surrender but it works.

Later.

Better.

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The pseudo-migraine has been tempered.  I fear calisthenics might undo any gains, so will be moving slowly and deliberately.  No need to stir the hive.  Sound and light were never a major problem, though too much sound, earlier on, was a bit of a tricky thing.  Too fast or too loud and it hurt.  Yeah, I test the edges of pains, to figure the limits, and the cost for exceeding them.  Hey, you lick sore teeth.  Perhaps you don't try to master all your pain, but then you probably see no reason for pain.  Trust me, you wouldn't want to live in a painless world, not as you are.  I have just had great need to taking that farther.  So very much farther.  I suspect those times are not yet over.  And, when they are, I will be in a place where the need is greater still.  I am not looking forward to that time.  A duty, one I will fulfill.  Some don't know what they have ahead of them, for a reason.  Others do know, also for a reason.  Odd, for some of the reasons, knowing and not knowing serve the same purpose.  It is the beings that are different?

A splendid headache.

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If you are going to go through the bother of having a headache, don't go small.  I try to keep up on insulin.  I am only supposed to use it for a month, as once unsealed it begins to degrade in potency.  One month extra and, just guessing, it might be from 10 to 25 percent degraded, depending on various factors.  Two or three months out and it is degraded by time, in some compound multiple, if I had to guess... again with variables affecting the gross effects.  I had used almost this whole vial, which means at least three months.  I usually cut dose when I go from an very old vial to a new one, but that is tricky math.  That is what is giving me this nigh on divine headache.  It is at migraine level without being a natural migraine.  I had a headache yesterday as well, but it wasn't this exquisite.  Neither did it last, sputtering out from the time I woke until an hour or two after, disappearing rather quickly, probably within the first hour though memory is not good with fog blotting out the sun and shine.  Anicin, today, as I realized the headache was not going to go away.

I hopped in the shower first thing.  Actually, I did a few dishes first thing, then the shower.  Always dishes, but in small enough piles, they are actually easy enough to kick out... if I remember.  I am not even going to consider making plans until I can painlessly hold my head in it's normal plane without excruciating pain.  At least light doesn't cause nausea, nausea hasn't quite crept in, and sounds aren't too terrible.  It really is a migraine, at pain level.  Just, so far, without most of the other side effects.  Yum!

Oh, I did grill one of the specialty steaks last night.  Just right, a low medium rare.  I let the grill warm while baking potatoes for an hour.  It all came out perfect.  Oh, it was a good steak.  Truly.  But I found it to be no different from when I buy fresh ribeyes at the stores, when I am picky.  The cut was pretty.  It looked like laser cuts.  The bone in part was perfect.  Not so much that it took away from the meat, but enough to gnaw upon, and with a part exposed so that got some char to it.  The pre-cook marbling was glorious.  But for pure flavor, it was just a steak.  I do live in ag-country.  I suppose in NYC, L.A., and other places, yeah... they probably don't have access to good meats.  At three to four times the cost, it just isn't there for me.  Oh, I'll eat the others, and with relish, I just won't buy myself. 

However, I would like to try the steaks Maddox offers.  I don't think they are quite so expensive, and yet may be more than typical store fair.  Just rare treats, even if they are a step up, even so.  If not, I will continue to buy at the stores.  Just look them over well, or even request thicker cuts if you want to be fancy, when prices are lower.  If I see ribeye at $6.99 a pound, I need to buy a couple of roasts, half cut to an inch and a quarter, a quarter of them to an inch and an half, and the last few cut to two inches.  Yeah... that's how I "do".  I should hand some of those out, from time to time, too.  Make fast friends faster, I'll tell ya.  Not buying friendship, merely sharing out some of the small joys one knows will do.  I remind, I don't see money as some do.  In that way, I am childlike, both for good and ill.  :p

I'm not up to much.  The darkness, and the change of insulin, are keeping me in a cage.  I'll work my way out of it, no worries.  Just a little downtime.  It is the weekend, too, mind you.  So, fair enough.  The only other thing I will push to do is to get the trash and recycling gathered and out.  Everything, or anything, else... will just happen or not.  Probably the same for a day or two.  Ugh.  Later.

Love the fog.

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The darkness is another thing.  Very foggy again.  For the second day in a row, with maybe five days to a week... last I heard... of fog possibly remaining.  I have been oversleeping several hours each day.  Then dragging through the days.  I suppose I needed some rest, true enough.  Not that I have been doing a lot, but enough, this last week, to need some rest.  I just can't seem to do much.  I blame it all on the darkness.  Though my sleep would normally be right through the hours of the sun, I still get it, through the curtains.  I must have a partial solar recharge system.

I do love the fog though.  How much of it is actual fog, and how much is inversion, is another thing altogether.  When the air stops moving here, every bad thing from every source becomes stuck in the air.  Automobiles, manufacturing, wood burning but also vented gasses from furnaces, even exhale.  I haven't checked air quality, but I have to guess it is questionable and getting worse.  Not so much of a problem unless you are physically weak, ill, old, young, and some other things.  As ill as I am, I don't think it affects me.  I've simply never had a problem with it.  While I don't get out in it all that often currently, when I first lived here I did.

Today?  I don't know.  IF I can get going, and that is a big if, I would like to do a few loads of laundry, sweep and mop, get the trash ready to be taken out, and recycling, prepare a few boxes for returns, get another return label ready to be printed and figure out how to print it, and do a final touchup in the kitchen, and maybe review a tutorial or three regarding the new photo editor so as to touch up the pictures I would like to import and post.  Nothing fancy, just... a little more on the hobby.

I received an email from what I had thought was a long lost friend.  The next door neighbor physics student, and fellow scotch enthusiast, from IC.  I don't know what he has been doing lately, though I am curious.  He has the brights to work in a number of areas, and a physics masters degree.  I was offering him the very notions I offer here, before I started putting them here.  If without music videos through which to drive home or sound out some ideas.  And, at that time, I was still at loss to some of my past, and didn't understand Game or my place in it.  I downplayed everything back then, hoping it would go away, or that what of my life I remembered would go away.  I had just become Catholic, or was about to do so.  He didn't get the full brunt of my notions.  He did get enough of it, though, to cause a devotee of academia, a modernist, and a delta, a serious psychic nosebleed.

While I cut myself in my search for some things, all around get at least a nick here or there.  When I go into full Ginsu mode, well...  Near death by a thousand cuts.  Being undying, myself, it's just a thing.  As I approached God, it became a necessity, initially.  Something about if an eye offends, pluck it.  Better to lose an eye than to burn with it.  Still, some seem to... be drawn to the expositions and floggings, in spite... perhaps because... of the collateral damage.  Humans do have a natural bloodlust, and a knowledge of their inequity so want of... right punishment.  Either that or it's the wrong side of things.  I like to think I do my best to do things as rightly as my nature allows though.  I just keep it in mind that I might be wrong and attempt due diligence.  God knows I do my best.  Probably thinks I'm a bit nuts, and sit and spin too often.  Though I hope He enjoys the fullness of my efforts.  Time will tell.

Anyway... it was good to hear from him.  I let him know a bit about life and health, and asked some questions.  And, I offered him a place to stay, should he ever end up out here.  While I think Utah would be an odd fit for him, in one sense, I actually think he could do well out here.  Getting in on, or near, the ground floor of some budding company, of which there are many now here.  He doesn't have completed skillsets, but has the skills and thinking that would be excellent for a startup which cannot quite afford various teams, needing jacks of all trades.  In doing that, he would be well set to find just what it is he does and actually slide into that role as the company grows.  Risks, of course.  But the opportunity is incredible here.  Dang kids gotta do what they gotta do though.  Oh, and I thought... he would be a perfect man to take to Burning Man.  He is like a younger Desert Cat.  My problem, if I took him, and Desert Cat was also there, would be to cut their nerd-fest and shove them out into the wide world.  But they would make a great pair of explorers.  Assuming they got along.  If they didn't, I'd enjoy that too.  I am a strange creature, yes, I know this thing.

Later.

Too foggy.

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Without a great true need, I won't bother driving in this.  Oh, it's beautiful.  For me, it is a favored weather.  As is rain and snow.  With fog, though, travel alone, in the dark, to some place, without being seen or heard, is a bit easier.  There are places where and when I have been where this wasn't so much an option as a necessity.  Obviously, at least at one time, I was good enough at it.  So... I favor such weather patterns.  Home and comfort become beautiful to eyes that have strayed far and had to make those things, and take them, when offered.  As much as I love fog, if I don't have to drive in it I won't.  I would love to hike in it, if I was up to that.  Alone, or in the right company so as to be alone together, such a trek would be good.

I called my friend.  Beside mentioning the fog as an impediment, he suggested that he had no immediate needs.  He just needed to talk a bit.  A very good friend of his has died.  Pneumonia, he was told.  He died from it in very short order, less than a week if I heard correctly.  Younger than me, we suspect.  His only problem, that I knew about, was a back injury.  So it was a surprise death.  This immigration is going to take many.  The illnesses coming across the border are revised old illnesses that a decent medical system and public education and practices, had eliminated here.  But they have festered in some places, getting dosed but not properly, and turned into untreatable or barely treatable diseases.  Polio, I have heard, is back.  A new form of it, that doesn't respond well.  Among others, some named, some not.  All, I suspect, part of the plan, or for the planners perhaps just an unintended consequence they might have hoped but not suspected.

With getting to town out of the picture, for tonight, I will just... when I wake a bit better, move on to a few chores.  Cat litter change, sweeping and mopping a few areas, perhaps working on a spot or two on the carpeting, and getting something to eat.  If the steak is thawed I may even light the grill.  I won't put such a dearly priced steak in for a potentially questionable pan fry.  Oh, sure, I can do that right... sometimes.  But I know I can grill a steak over coals just right almost every time.  After just going out for a ribeye, I might have held off.  But I am terribly curious about the gifted Omaha steaks.  It has been a while since I had a steak, too, so I suppose two in a row isn't a horrible thing.  Oh... the place we ate sells steaks too.  I ought to compare prices, and then compare grilled flavor.  Beside being a home state institution, I am curious if their sold steaks are, or can be, as good as their cooked steaks... for when I can't get out.

Another cup of joe and then to it.  Later.

Now THAT was some sleep.

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Doing good, taking medicine, picking back up.  I took pictures last night.  I think enough that I will be able to put up a few pictures.  Some didn't come out well at all, others were very good.  I will look through them again.  I may take a few more pictures of the trees with lights.  Those are the ones that are questionable.  They are really tricky.  Yeah, perhaps a bit more research on Christmas light photography, specifically.  The whole scene I was able to do, but just those not so much.  And I installed the new software on the laptop, then transferred the pictures easily enough.  I will have to learn more about the software.  Perhaps I can figure it out well enough to use the pictures I have.

I went to bed at a reasonable hour, given my current sleep cycle.  My cycle isn't perfectly round, shall we say.  But it is rather consistent, mostly.  It was foggy, and I assume overcast as well.  It was a pretty, but dark, day when I went to bed.  I ended up sleeping until about an hour ago.  I slept hard, a bit too hard.  It won't throw me.  It was simply a bit painful to wake.  That will pass quickly, is already going.  I suspect sleeping in the day, in such dark, was the culprit.  I overslept a bit.  I had hoped to be to town early in the afternoon.  My friend called twice.  I will call him back and check, shortly.

All good though.  I need to buy fresh onions, for menudo.  You really need onion on top, and cheese.  I have the cheese, but will need to grate that as well.  I may keep freshly grated cheese pretty much on standby, as I begin learning the fine art of the omelet, and begin trying to keep myself in more regular vittles.  As well as onion, and perhaps fresh garlic.  These three things work with much of what I enjoy, whether Mexican, Standard American, or European variant food.  To figure out how to add a few vegetables would be nice as well.  Spinach, kale, carrots, cabbage, potatoes, as well as fruit once in a while.  I need to increase my consumption while holding calories down, bumping how often I eat while decreasing portions.  It's a tricky thing, but I am beginning to get past feast and starve mode... or... at least the possibility is becoming a possibility itself.

If I take care of food a little better, I may be able to begin exercising a bit.  I know it will always be... variable.  But if I can make these things a more reasonable part of my day, I will improve.  It will be slow, stumbling, up, and down.  It is, though, finally... maybe... within my grasp.  Some dead don't stay dead.  All dead are not equal.  I have suggested that I do have some minor jealousy for those who see death once.  And yet, I can't deny some fancy, humor, and pride, in having lasted through my atomic winters.  Life can be such a gritty thing.  And it can be a joyous gift, a fabulous gift, even in the dark if you know there is light and can believe without seeing. 

Well, I best make that call.  Perhaps to town, and then some cleaning tonight.  Back to getting the cave sorted back out.  I never did steam vac the living room.  That is my next goal, after sweeping and mopping the kitchen and bathroom.  I'll tinker with things over the weekend, might even get to them, unless rest is needed.  If so, I will have things ready, and the little distractions tended, by early next week.  The vacuum and then steam vacuum will be used next week, probably by Wednesday at the latest, on Sunday at the earliest... assuming something doesn't throw everything off a bit.  Good day.

An hour late.

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So my friend said, again, again.  Again, again, I said, that being an hour late means I was exactly on time.  He still chuckles.  Pulls him right out of his grump.  On to Maddox.  He ordered the bison ribeye, I ordered the beef ribeye.  We were supposed to share fifty fifty, but he changed that, and just wanted to split a quarter out.  No sweat off my back, that.  I decided to eat the bison first.  I didn't think it would be as good, and is probably better hot. 

To be honest, I wasn't expecting much.  Don't get me wrong.  I truly enjoy venison.  Deer, elk, bison, probably others I haven't tasted.  If it were more readily available, of I could hunt, I would eat it often.  Make no mistake, however, for pure flavor, nothing... no thing... beats beef ribeye for me.  Lobster is probably the next best thing, to my tastes, if it is in good shape, fresh, and cooked live.  It's not a distant second, but it is second place.  I have seen other try to create cuts from venison, various steaks or roasts and ribs.  To me, venison is just venison.  Because of the lean, and usually smaller size, all cuts were just... venison.  Which I do enjoy, but not like ribeye of beef.  Okay, bison ribeye is good, and isn't just venison.  Live and learn.

The beef ribeye they put on the plate there, though...  That is better than bacon, better than anything else.  And they are, as far as my many travels and dining experiences, world class.  I have never tasted better, only once having comparable.  Meat candy.  Two of those, one put on to cook as the first comes out to be eaten, a half gallon of whole milk, and I would be good.  For a feast, I might be able to eat another one or two, but I would need more milk.  It's rich.  Hmm... next time I go, I may see if they will give me a meal price cut on just the steaks and milk, if they have whole... or allow me to bring in an half gallon.  It's got to be whole milk, the rest is wash water.  Love that beef ribeye.  The bison wasn't bad, and it truly is a different cut... not just venison.  But I go their for ribeye, and beef is simply better.  Now I know.

Right... tonight?  Probably not much.  I hope to take some pictures, then add the software to the laptop and process them.  I then have to figure out how to transfer... oh, right, I do have flash drives, extras.  I might even try to post a few snappies, even tonight, or not.  Maybe a load of laundry will go in before all that.  I'm not going to do a lot.  But I might get a couple of loads of laundry, pictures and an installation, and some other minor things. 

Tomorrow was going to be a day off.  I thought it was Friday, today.  Not so much.  I may try to get back into town.  My friend needed to do some shopping.  I want to return some packages.  And, if I can get in early, I would like to figure out his printer problem.  It works on everything but the one thing he really wants and sometimes needs.  So... I'd like to figure that out.  I'll call him.  He should still be awake.  He likes sooner rather than later.  These days, I am sometimes able to deliver just that.  Then... the weekend is pretty much downtime.  I might do a little cleaning and straightening.  Perhaps tinker with the camera.  And work on omelets, after practice flipping a towel, and maybe other things, in the frying pan, probably several pans of various sizes.  Hey... it's fun.  If it is more result oriented fun. 

Later.

Even as I was crashing I was plotting.

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I did the last bit of dishes, then put up the rest of the menudo.  Which, then reminded me, I still had the pressure cooker and cooking utensils (more than it would seem, as I tried different cooking and serving utensils because I wasn't paying attention, or thinking straight, or something).  So, I set those for a first soapy soak.  I cleaned the stovetop, but need to hit the counters a bit again, and will do that as I finish those last, last, last dishes (until I make more, bleh).  I did a couple of other things.  Too many things to do!  I did not get the program loaded onto the laptop.  Just ran out of gas and time.

It really is in my blood to work until I fall.  Most of my adult life, and usually even now, I don't have what it takes to do that.  It is becoming more common to get closer and closer to that goal.  A few times a decade became a few times a year, then, in the last few years, if not close to regularly, sometimes as often as a few days in a row, and a few times a month or more.  Sure, the output is quite weak.  What wears me out is minute by most people's measure.  Even that is improving.  I can't be sure how far that will, even can, improve.  My guess is I am already well outside of believed potential.  First, I am still alive.  Second, I am doing almost anything, not relegated to a nursing home or hospice.  So... I am writing the book, or at least my book.  I hope to write a whole new region, a merging of the story of the quick with the dead.  Perhaps in more ways than one, both here, and in my due time, there. 

Ah, right, dinner.  I reset the soak for the last of the dishes.  Shortly I will head in and give that another run, and wash the counters on either side of the stove.  Cooking menudo is a messy job and I am a cooking klutz after not practicing for so long.  Yes, you can learn the zen of cooking, so that you leave almost no trace, the fewest bowls and utensils, and clean all of that as you go, leaving a short-shrift detailing at the end.  I never perfected that as well as some I know.  And it is always give or take, and limited by some realities.  Never mind.  I will take care of those last things, then hit the shower.  I need a "cup" of coffee first, then on to it.

Oh, the shoes I ordered were way too small.  At first I thought, given the range of sizes, that they might not make a size that fits.  Then I took a closer look at various sizing charts.  Ah... I was reading that, being interpreted as this, when it had to be reinterpreted yet again, or could more directly be translated a whole other way.  After a bit more surety, and ordering 1/2 to a full size up as these may be just a bit small as a European make, I reordered in what I hope is the correct size.  My Birks are filling in, sometimes.  They were never comfortable, until I wore my feet to the raw.  Then they actually were quite comfortable.  Problem is, I hate shoes without a back heel... they are mules.  Getting something like them, with a heel back-plate.  I may have to tinker with size again.  Shoes are a pain to get just right.  We'll see.  But, yeah... a 10 1/2 SHOULD seem way too small, and by a lot.  I thought I had ordered a 12 or 13.  Bleh.  Wake me up when my brain works and people and companies even try to engage it?  *grins*

Later.

There is only so much time.

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My ambitions were sound, simply not practical.  Dishes, the kitchen, cleaned.  A few other things were also done.  The bulk of my time was consumed in making menudo.  Slicing tripe takes a bit of energy, and a bit of standing.  It was my back, actually, that proved the weak point.  When added to dishes and cleanup anyway.  I may yet install the new software.  The laptop should be fully powered by now.  And, yes, I kept up on the cleaning while making the menudo, so there is no extra due to that.  Hmm, actually, I cleaned the stovetop off well, then waxed it.  Glass tops work better, and look better, with the treatment.

The camera is set up.  There are a few dishes to be done tomorrow, first thing, but few enough that it will be a simple task.  As soon as the menudo cools, I will even put that away.  With the right bowls, storing foods more properly should be a snap.  I may see if that can be frozen.

As to flavor?  It was good.  I didn't have fresh onions, and haven't replenished my shredded cheese stocks, which do add a great deal to the meal.  I don't think it is as good as my moms, probably not as good as my brother makes it, and not as good as my aunts and great aunts used to make.  It sufficed, and not just barely.  I truly like this dish, once in a while.  It is from my childhood, and a rarity since then.  A treat.  I hope to figure out how to improve upon it.  Still, not bad for my first true solo run on it.  And I think the sauce will do quite well for other remembered but rarely had childhood foods.

Really, not bad.  The problem wasn't in work ethic, effort, or ability.  It was simply in having too much to do in a given amount of time.  Sure, you can multi-task, but only just so much.  I wove what I could into what I did.  I am pleased with the efforts and results.  I still need to do a bit more cleaning, and it is on the menu.  Now that I am doing better, it will get done, when is the question, not if.  I will get the picture tomorrow or the night after, then turn off the lights for the holiday.  If it stays clear, I may even bring them down this weekend.  It's been a very good day.  Now to rest, to be ready for dinner out.  Though, as I mentioned, I may attempt to install the photo editor... and maybe do the dishes as well. 

One last thing.  That "mouse trap" I constructed last year?  The one I thought was working, but couldn't prove, as I believe the 'girls' were eating the evidence?  I left it set up, for no particular reason.  It must have been working well enough to feed the girls and change.  I found a dead mouse in there, while checking the lower pantry for hominy.  All good, very good.  And, I think it's paying dividends in helping put mouse meat in the furry ladies' bellies.  A treat they quite enjoy.  Happy cats make for a happy home, too.

Good night.

I'm working on it.

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Dishes have been done, rinsed, dried, and put away.  I sacked up the trash but will wait until I head out in a bit to take pictures.  A dinner was made, though not menudo yet.  I need to clean the kitchen a bit first.  I went to install the new software but the machine was dead.  I don't really get that, I am sure I turned it off last time, at 40% energy.  It either leaks juice like a sieve, doesn't turn off as it is supposed to, or something else.  Never mind, for now, it is charging.  I also found the information I needed and wanted regarding shutter speed, adding that to some other information I already have.  Once I figured that out, the iso and aperture were fairly easy to set with what I had previously learned.  Yes, manual mode.  I may be tinkering with it all as I do sets of shots then figure out how well they turn out.  Yeah, I think that will be done tonight.

I am hoping to finish cleaning the kitchen, mostly.  Then hit the menudo.  I'll probably set up the tripe and pigs feed first, then hit the sauce.  Only after the kitchen is cleaned of course.  As things are set up, I can clean right in behind while I am prepping.  Once the tripe is going, and the sauce is ready, I will take the trash out and the camera, to figure out the best shooting spots.  Actually, I'll probably take a shower before any of that, and maybe throw a load of laundry in after the shower.  Yeah, yeah, but I think I can get it done.  Probably, mostly, most of it.  Hmm... I best see if I have hominy.  Gah!  Always something.

I'm back to it, I think.  I am enjoying it too.  In the next few days, I hope to begin practicing with the pan flip, then with omelets.  I think my problem, to date, with omelets, is too much of a load of eggs, the heat being too high, and general impatience and ignorance.  I do believe I can figure them out, after just a bit of research.  And I can do them with a mild flare, if I learn to flip it in the pan.  Omelets, at least, I know I like.  Makes for a good breakfast, too.  Or lunch, dinner, supper, or midrats.  Especially if I keep some cheese grated, a few odds and ends about such as onions, and maybe a few other items in the fridge or pantry.  Food isn't all fun and games, but it can be a part of it.

Dinner tomorrow.

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I may not be doing perfectly well, but I do feel good.  Good enough to plan, plot, toil, and tinker.  That, by the way, is what passes for fun.  And I really like having fun.

I called my friend.  I suggested a time frame.  He decided that tomorrow sounds better.  Plus he wants me to work on his machine... computer.  I can do that too, after dinner.  The drive should settle the meal by the time we return.  I need to use his computer, for a second... more his printer, but his computer will be needed as well, as I don't know how to figure out another way to use his printer otherwise... no way that I would trust.  Yes, yes, there are ways, but I have no faith in security.  Not needed in this case, but that isn't the point.  Plus, just being associated with some programs opens up doors for the corrupt and idiotic, who just by their nature are political and religious enemies.

All good.  That means, besides just washing the dishes a final time, showering, then putting those to rinse, I can finish them.  Then hit the kitchen at least with a once-over.  As well, I can set up the camera and take some pictures.  I'll wait on that until traffic cools off.  I will get in a shower, too, and tomorrow.  I love showers, by the way.  I love baths more, but those are a lot of work before and after.  I received the second photo editing program today as well.  I hope to load that up tonight, and see about it.  Is it better?  I don't know.  It is much better at storing and managing large numbers of photos, beyond any doubt.  And, from what I have seen and read, it probably is a good deal better at editing, touching up, and rendering RAW.  Time will tell.

I won't swear I am back in the saddle.  I do have a leg up, a hand on the horn, and am kicking like heck.  I think I'll slide back in and get back on the trail easily at this point.  It just always takes longer to do things than I thought, there is often a hitch that wasn't and possibly couldn't have been foreseen, and I always have far more to do than I can possibly get done.  Those are, quite often, the things I like.  The only bad thing is falling off.  If just as often the fall comes from trying to ride that old broken down horse a mile too far.  Thankfully the "horse" holds up better than I!  *grins*  Yeah, I'm getting back too it.  Oh... and tonight, menudo.  Yes, I think I can do most, perhaps all, of that.  Maybe.

Later.

A small start.

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I got nowhere near my goal.  I did do a load of dishes, set up and washed that once, and set it back to soak for a second wash... which I reset this morning.  A bit of cleaning, a bit of this, a later meal (but not menudo) was made.  Oh, and I realized medicine had slipped through the cracks.  It's been a few days.  So I reset and started that.  It wasn't an awful start.  It wasn't as much as I had hoped, no fireworks of effort.  But it will suffice.  I am pleased to be back at the helm, even at quarter speed.

While resetting medicine, I realized I was out of some things, and would be out of other things rather soon.  I had meant to call about that yesterday afternoon, since I realized I needed one thing for certain, so probably needed more.  I couldn't quite pull it together for a call.  I did make that call today, an item needs my primary's permission, and a request to get my main medicine will need approval from the heart specialist.  And one item is shipped in such a way that they will play phone tag trying to make sure I am here when the package arrives.  Bleh.  Start from the start, play phone tag as you can.  Sometimes phone tag is horrible. 

When I am feeling weak, if they call from an unlisted number, or from a number I don't know... when I am really sick... I don't/won't, perhaps can't, answer.  When danger is near, in certain very specific cases, don't run, don't scream, don't make a sound or even move.  Stay... absolutely... quiet... and... still.  It's in my blood.  If some aspect of it gets too close, deal with it quietly.  In some instances, the best way to flee is to stand absolutely stone still.  Most people can't.  Hunters have an idea, but what they hunt has never hunted them, certainly not in a coordinated manner. 

I am hoping to wake a little more before making a choice.  My friend called Monday, but I was in seclusion.  Then he called yesterday, but while I was asleep.  When I realized he had called, I did call him back.  I told him it would be today or tomorrow, but that I would be out and we could go to dinner.  I told him I would call sometime this afternoon.  I need a bit to wake.  And, if I decide to go today, I will first have to redo the dishes so as to be able to get in and take a shower.  While I can pull as many eggs as you wish out of boiling water, hot water is still hot water.  And, for a bunch of work with dishes, my hot water is too hot for comfort and will be for at least another hour.  So, it would be two hours before I am able to get out.  So... I have an hour to slog coffee, wake enough to consider, make up my mind, then give him a call. 

Huh?  I don't know!  I just woke up.  Mostly.

Well... I can do one little thing before anything else.  A return must be made, and so it will be.  Sizes are so screwy sometimes, European can be the worst, but not always all.  I just hope it is easy enough.  Later.

Rested well, perhaps enough.

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My feet are feeling better.  I am feeling pretty good.  I've got my eyes on a couple of little projects.  I will take pictures of the Christmas lights.  They are still up.  It will just take some work.  I know the settings I want, I just don't know, exactly, what the display is indicating.  I know how to change some of them, but not all of them, exactly.  I will have to experiment, and see how the pictures turn out.  I just have to look up a few things, then set the camera, find the angles I want, and... *snap*

As well, I need to set up medicine, do some dishes and set up a last load, then clean the kitchen.  Taking the trash out while I am at it.  More, I have the ingredients for menudo thawing.  It's a Mexican tripe soup.  It requires making a chili roux, slicing then cooking the tripe in the pressure cooker along with pigs feet, then mixing it all and letting it simmer until of the correct consistency.  An easy meal, mostly.  But it is of several stages, takes time, and with the roux a bit of very specific attention.  I haven't mastered this yet, but I have done it before, and relatively recently.

I will try to knock things out in an order that makes sense.  Doing the dishes that are in a rinse first will allow me to clear the dishes from the kitchen, and clean the kitchen a bit, then I can start on menudo.  Once I have the roux done, I will have to wait on the pressure cooker, so can either set the camera up, or perhaps even get it set up and take some pictures, the first batch.  When the pressure cooker is done, I can then stir the roux, or enchilada sauce really, right in and then let that simmer together.  Depending on how the camera setup and/or picture taking went, I can then decide my next step with that.  Finally, for desert, a second meal for today.  Sure liked the first one.  Squash lasagne, and a very tasty one.  I can keep the menudo for a good three days, to week, of some of my favorite eats... if it turns out well.

A very good sleep.

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I am beginning to feel better.  Actually, I didn't feel bad, my sleep was merely off kilter and my feet hurt.  Sleep seems to be coming back around.  My feet are slowly improving.  I can't seem to find my foot stool, but I have been able to stay off my feet and just relax.  Ah, there it is.  Never mind.  I may use it for the next few days.

As I said, I tried to make an omelet the other day.  It didn't work.  I have since reviewed how to do omelets.  It's all in the heat, low medium, it seems.  All else I did will work.  Two or probably three eggs, some fixings already made if I think I need to grate another batch of cheese, maybe drain some of the now thawed spinach, and later tonight I may take a shot at it.  Oh... during the evening, I may experiment with flipping pan contents.  How do you learn?  Try this video.

I don't have cheeseballs, but I have other stuff and an imagination.  I can probably figure something out.  Actually, a simple folded kitchen towel might work, and better, as my goal for the moment isn't saute matter, but flipping a whole omelet.  Yes, that should do nicely.  If it's too fly-away, I could just pin it into a single mass.  Told you I could figure this out.

I best get a shower, and then reset medicines.  And, tomorrow, probably call for refills.  I've been doing fairly well on the doses, so I might, next week, increase the main problem medicine, but for the last time.  That will put me on half... perhaps actually a quarter, of the dose they had me on.  It will have to do, assuming I can handle the increase.

Hmm... One other thing... it is getting near the time to shut the Christmas lights down, so I will try to get out and take some pictures tonight.  I have a pretty good idea of what settings to use.  My real problem, currently, is knowing what I am seeing on the displays.  Where the iso, shutter speed, and such are displayed in the display, and how they are expressed.  It should be easy enough to figure it out.  But they are printed very oddly.  That's all I am saying.  Why they have to do it that way, I don't know.  Tradition, stylistic, limits to the displays with all they try to use it to express, to try to keep photography out of the hands of peons and in the hands of pros, or just because it is an area they really haven't given much thought.  Mix, match, scramble, and voila!  Gives me something to grump about, and it is a minor impediment, probably easily remedied.  So, there is that.  You know I love my grumpage, far better than my roughage (preferring fatty meat to greens, mostly).  Ha!

Later.

Strange notions.

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Just thinking.  Some possibilities, seemingly new.  After a bit of a review, I see the possibilities have always been there, running just under my ability to see.  Included as a subtext.  I may have thought one thing, while it was actually another.  Some perhaps even those like me, who can't hear otherwise, can be called, taught.  It will take one who is a firstborn.  Someone they... understand, can even hear.

A more solid sleep.

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I think it was about ten hours.  That's a good thing.  For the last half week, I have only been getting two to four hours of sleep at a time, usually on the lower end of that scale.  Sleeping when I could, and when I wasn't baking, prepping, cleaning, or whatever else I had to do.  Reminds me a lot of sub duty.  You slept when you could, never sleeping enough, never quite awake, always busy.  Sometimes you got a good shot of sleep, but very rarely.  This long sleep broke the cycle.  But things haven't settled out.  It will take a while for my body and mind to settle out and find a return to normalcy.  But this is a major break in getting to that, a first step.  And, yes, sleep was delicious.  My throat isn't sore from snoring, I didn't wake up in a fog that I had to fight through, and I know I can just rest even though wide awake.  That is the only real rest.  If fog bound, and barely awake, that is more recovery than rest... two very different things.  Really, this effort was perfect, other than that slight tick in the last quiche delivery.

This means I have improved a great deal.  This is how I used to operate, on subs or not.  That is how I lived, most of the time.  Oh, once in a while I would take some downtime.  A week, or even a few days, sleeping and eating and otherwise taking care.  Then back to working out, chasing tail, fighting and working.  Never had time to think, just "do".  Go, go, go.  It was how I was built.  It was how I got through the rough stuff.  I'm not sure it was the best way, it was simply the only way I knew how.  A fog of a different sort.  I would like to get back to that a bit more, just not full-stop.  Then again, I know a number of men, locally, who live quite the same way.  And, I suspect, their wives live just so as well.  Not quite to that level, but my memories were from when I was in my late teens to early twenties... I am sure I would have naturally slowed down some.  It's about doing what you have to, then carving out just enough time and money to do what you want, and then toss work, romance, family, and God into that caldron of want, need, and finance.  All good.  Smelling of roses is a moment, and perhaps reserved for a time in the future. 

I am, now, hoping for a little valley floor snow, to begin working with snowshoes.  I want to do flat country before hitting the "hills".  And, hopefully, if probably more next year, hitting the hills with a pack so as to camp out in the cold.  When I do so, it will be fairly well geared.  But when I begin, it will be to explore various methods of no-tent winter camping.  How to set up safe outdoor survival, staying warm and keeping fed, learning to counter effort with calories, how to dress, the rest.  Just hobby level, mostly, with an eye on some potential future necessity.  Crazy, but... it's part of my programming.  Oh, well, and learning the local area well enough.  You should know your back yard in a big way, or I feel I should.  I don't, not yet.

On to my day.  Just resting, with feet up, watching Babylon 5.  Oh, and researching omelet making.  I gave it an unresearched effort yesterday.  Yeah... a little research is needed.  Bleh.  Oh, it was a good meal.  Just turned into a scramble rather than anything remotely resembling an omelet.  Later.

Sleep, rest, rinse, repeat.

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Something is just a bit off.  I went to bed sometime after 18:00.  I was in such a level of exhaustion that I can't remember the exact time.  It might have been right near that time, or several hours later.  I woke at midnight and it's now just about 6:00.  Back to bed.  I can't really organize while awake, stay asleep for long, or sort things out.  I can never be sure how long any particular type of tail spin will last.  I ended up pushing things a bit, there is always a price.  I am sleeping for about three to six hours, then staying awake for six to ten hours at a time.  Definitely spinning.  As I said though, I'm not worried about it.  I did what I intended to do and I don't have much else on the calendar.

I did find a type of shoe that might work.  It's odd looking, and I'll have to check fit, but I went ahead and ordered it.  When I get back on my feet, I will probably do more tinkering with the camera and software editing, and other low impact efforts.  At least for a bit.  Until then, a bit more sitting with my feet up.  Yeah, I had thought about it already.  But until foam told me to do it, I am not sure I would have.  Just because a guy knows it's probably the best idea, doesn't mean he will always do it.  Women know their own side of that too.  We are stubborn creatures, male and female, if in slightly varied ways. 

Tired.  Too tired.  I am keeping up on the little things, medicine, the cats, and soon enough I will clean up the kitchen.  Most of the dishes have been washed, twice, and rinsed.  Yeah, I like very clean dishes.  I'm even showering often, sometimes daily.  Overkill, but a pleasure when I can do it.  Hmm, I need to find the moisturizer and begin hitting the feet with it.  Well... on to bed.  Good night and good day. 

A stumble across the finish line.

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While I woke at 2:00, by 6:00 I was back in bed.  I set the alarm for 9:15, I think.  A nap, I thought.  *ring*  Hrm?  11:0something!  I hurried from bed and to the door.  I had this strange feeling that something wasn't right.  It hit me, just as I was answering the door.  I was supposed to have the quiche ready!  Nothing to do now, save answer the door and face the consequences.  "Good morning!", I heard.  Ah, about that, I might have mumbled, or something to that effect.  Late was the hour, and late was the chef, I suggested.  "No worries."  Can we do a rematch, I asked?  I was given a reprieve.  I had until 13:00 to kick out a quiche.  I, initially, though this would be... well... cake... pie cake.  Still, I didn't want to leave them with nothing.  I had the fruit pies to hand out.

On to the kitchen, in a dragging motion, since I believed this would be easy.  All I had to do was a little prep of materials, then baking the quiche.  Oh, but then it hit me!  I had to bake the crust first.  That takes between 40 and fifty minutes, as does the quiche (at least).  This was going to be a race, and my head was still in bed!

On to rolling out the dough.  Every second counts, this was another time consumer.  You don't just spit out a round.  It takes time.  Still, gotta go or it won't get done.  Finished rolling, into the round... which I had soaking but not washed, another time eater.  Argh!  But in it went, as well as the foil and baking beads.  I use that for the first half of baking.  Actually I think I will go to pennies from now on.  Baking beads aren't really heavy enough.  I rested until the crust was at the half way mark, at which time I remove the foil and beads.  I needed to wake up, so a bit of coffee was consumed, and a new pot made.

After the foil and beads were removed, and the crust put back in to finish, I began prep.  I had bacon, but wanted it diced more finely.  I also needed to crumble the feta cheese.  I ran out of luck with spinach.  I had used all that was thawed and there simply wasn't time to thaw another bag.  Then again, I hadn't thought the spinach added all that much, if I might have used too little in my practice egg pie.  I also had to halve the olives and slice the tomatoes.  I was still easily finished with prep before the crust was ready, so another "cup" of coffee and some sit time.  My dogs are barking at me... they will get at least a few days to cool their heels.

Running a race against time and the realities that cooking can't be rushed, and all else.  Still, it was coming along fairly well.  I wasn't sure if the quiche would be ready.  The only thing to do is to keep at it.  Finally, the crust was ready, but needed just a little time to cool some.  I didn't want the cheese to turn into water and globs.  Then, when cooled enough, it all went in.  I attempt to evenly distribute the goodies.  You can only do just so much.  Then the egg mixture goes in, which doesn't seem to mess up my arrangement.  I'll take what I can get.  Into the oven and... waiting.  It takes about 40 minutes, here, at 400F, for the pie to set up.  I still couldn't be sure it would be done on time, as sometimes five to fifteen minutes of variance, due I suppose to variances in ingredients, makes sure bets impossible.  Though the pies have never taken less than 40 minutes at that temp, and more like 60 minutes minimum at 350F.  Done, and no doorbell yet.  Ah, but asiago must be shredded on top!  Done.  Further, I considered that these ladies would not have a means of transporting the pie.  So I got one of my very large mixing bowls out, and a placemat for under the pie.  A perfect fit.  A kitchen towel over that, and then on to near the door for when they arrived.  Another cup of coffee, and I just waited a few minutes.  Perfect timing.  I hope they enjoy.

The devil might be in the details, but Doom is always riding the devil hard.  *grins*  I may, or may not, crash.  My schedule is shot, but it was when I started.  It's just, for now, I have no clue where it is going to land.  It's like playing spin the bottle with a cheating woman named Sleep, who may kiss me off my feet before the bottle even gives her warrant!  Dames, I'm telling you!  Later.  Or... much later.

If I'm not back in a few hours?  Wait longer.  :p

Woke at 2:00.

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Give or take.  I don't know why, either.  I was pretty tired when I went to bed.  I've been chasing the clock, sleeping very short amounts, and doing a lot.  My clock spring is simply sprung, most likely.  My feet are pretty beat up too.  I've been on them an awfully lot lately.  Cooking, cleaning, prep work.  The bottoms of them feel more like a bloody stumps than feet.  Pretty harsh.  I may end up taking a little more time down than I had anticipated.  I gobbled another of the fruit pockets when I woke.  Really, not too bad at all.  With a glass of milk, it's rather good. I may end up trying to sleep again, before long.  If I can.  The body, and mind, want to sleep, it just isn't there. 

The bad thing about being awake in the wee hours is, even if nothing quite shuts down these days, blogging and news cycles do.  Scant as they have been lately.  I have to wonder if .gov boots are on the throats of conservative news outlets and big bloggers.  Though big "conservative" bloggers are mostly just Republican(tm).  It's always been that way to a small degree, it's just tightened.  The one exception is Vox.  His allegiances are personal, some of them big, some of them mainstream, some of them not so much.  But they are based on his beliefs, which if I disagree at times, is fair game.  Most others get their marching orders from someone else.  We all have allegiances.  We all have tribes, groups, political groups, religious authorities, and such, that we prefer.  The question is, when we disagree with those, will we question them.  That is what separates the tribal from the individual... the bought and sold versus the reasoned.  In my understanding, God expects us to choose rightly over choosing communally.  Though, again, there is choosing battles.  I won't cast an allegiance down for the little things, unless the numbers of them reaches some level.  Quite a balancing act.  I do see why many choose to blindly follow, if I might warn against it.

Grumbling through the night?  Not really.  Just... passing on notes.

Oh, right...  I was dreaming in there.  Can't remember almost any of it.  The thing that woke me was the feeling that I was being poked by a needle.  Sure, the chest, but also the legs, and arms.  It was like a little poke here, then there, then on.  When I woke, it was still happening.  It wasn't a rush of needles, mind you.  Imagine, over say a minute or two, getting a shot in the arm, leg, chest, back, the other leg then arm.  Not quick, not many, just one now and then.  As I said, it continued when I woke.  It is part of what woke me, if not part of why I couldn't continue to sleep.  I think, as I suggested, the reason is that my internal clock has been pushed past it's ability to make sense of physical and mental exhaustion with regards to real daily hour time.  This would, normally be awake time.  I'm probably lucky to have been able to grab a few hours of shuteye.

One thing that pleases me, though, is that... even as mild as this might be to some... when push comes to shove, and need demanded, I was able to push through.  With all things considered, that was actually quite a little push.  Days of effort, lots of shopping, planning and timing, up and down, dishes and cleaning, and staying with it.  What I produced, at least to my tastes and understandings, was good.  I am very pleased, so far.  If I will need a little down time, just for my feet to ease away from the pancake feel. 

Later.  Perhaps good night, again.

A note and a tune.

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The pastry pie was actually rather good.  Not too sweet, with a tasty crust.  I really doubted the filling, tasting remnants after filling the pies.  I didn't think baking it would change that impression.  It actually did.  One thing I did with the pastries that I should have done with the pie, was brushed egg on top, then sugared that just a bit.  I suppose it would be fine without that.  I was just rather pleased with the added detail.  I have four remaining.  I believe I can send two out tomorrow.  I may simply have to force myself to eat the remaining two.  *le sighe*  Ha!

I'll work on my first omelet in the morning.  Might do just a bit of digging tonight, on various advice as to cooking those.  I've made them before, but long ago.  I'll know which of the recipes I prefer pretty much right away.

Just a bit more.

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I've got most of the dishes either rinsing or soaking is soap water.  The kitchen needs to be hit, but not until I finish the last quiche.  I did go ahead and make some fruit hot-pocket type pies.  They are just about done.  I'll have one to see how they turned out, and as a treat.  Store-bought canned fruit is... not my favorite.  Sure, it'll work.  But it's nothing to right home about.  Still, with these, I can hand out desert along with the last quiche.  Urhm, it might cause overload, but... once in a while that isn't a terrible thing.  I finished the last of the experimental quiche, so desert, a rarity, will probably see me into slight overload.  All good.

Now, I still have quite a few ingredients left over.  While quiche isn't my favorite, omelets are.  I may have to practice with those over the next few days.  I truly love omelets, if they are made just right.  Not too oily, not too crisp, done through and through, with a nice mix of meats and vegetables.  Onion, mushroom, sausage which I will have to cook up separately, and various cheeses all with which to experiment.  I don't like green peppers, but since I have them, might as well through them into one of the omelets.  And I have hash browns for on the side.  Sounds good to me.

I've done a lot of new and different cooking lately.  French toast, quiche, fruit pies, and now I'll be working on omelets.  I think the next thing I'll be experimenting with are french fries.  I've found a couple of recipes for McDonalds-like fries.  I like theirs the best.  I may try to make them in batches, and after the first deep frying, try to figure out how to freeze them for an easy last frying at my leisure.  Yeah, that is a little spooky.  Frozen foods and deep friers... I'll be doing a bit of research before going there.  Even then, I will have a back up layer of plans for worst case scenarios.  Right up my alley.  Oh, and a bit of advice... when cooking a number of pies or other things that steam... remember not to go in face first up front and right away.  Thankfully, I can tolerate a steam facial, mostly. 

Good night.

Two quiches and a cherry pie.

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The lunch didn't work out.  The ladies were elsewhere and otherwise.  Tomorrow, for them.  The two that went out were just cutting time.  They forgot to call, giving me the two hour heads up.  I woke, though, after a long nap/short sleep, and... figured it was about time.  As it turns out, I had just enough time to bake them both, the last was taken out of the oven just as it was finished.  How is that for timing?  It wasn't exact, in one sense.  They were getting home right as the first was finishing, but wanted an hour to do some business.  Imperfect perfection.  When it doesn't work as planned, and probably shouldn't, but ends up being right on time?  All good.

I may yet make some fruit pockets tonight, with the left-over dough.  Though I actually have several extra crust doughs, since I didn't have enough time or pie rounds for another practice.  Oh, and I used some of the extra crust to make a minor lattice on the cherry pie, rather than covering it whole.  What can I say, I are an artiste!  Well, it just looked more fun.

I was going to ask for something, regarding the presentation.  But was reminded of another thing.  Yes, actually, I suppose I do want the pie rounds back.  True enough.  What I really want, however, is a solid assessment of the food.  Is it good?  Don't hold back.  I am looking for a reasonable critique.  Not a compendium, mind you, just a notion regarding the spices, whether the flavor profiles fit, whether it was enjoyed.and tasty, or whether it was a bit too much, or flat, or such.  Not as worried about the cherry pie.  That was just canned cherries, so...  I couldn't do much else with that.

Oh, and tomorrow, I will be making another Greek style quiche.  I will have to finish the last of the quiche I have, then wash that pie round.  I did wash most of the the other dishes, twice already, and will be rinsing those shortly.  I wanted to get a shower in before handing out the dinner.  All of that last minute stuff didn't quite leave room to start a soak.  Not bad, not bad at all.  Yes, pushing things, if more by incident and intention.  Still, it worked, so far.  I'm good with it.  Later.

Yeah, well...

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Not enough pie rounds for everything, unless I wash the one I used.  No extra experimental quiche either.  All good.  I'm baking the crust for the, as it turns out, single Greek quiche.  Actually, I may make one in the afternoon as well, just no practice on that particular type.  The other one will be a simple cheddar, bacon, mushroom, and onion quiche.  I have everything ready to go for those.  As to a fruit pie, that depends on if I have the gumption to wash the currently used, if nearly empty, pie round.  I can still, if there is extra filling, make a treat or two for myself.  Fruit pockets, with the extra dough.  Hmm, though I probably have more than enough dough either way.

I have to admit, I'm running on fumes.  The goal is to finish the crust, then a couple of hours before 11:00, put the thing together.  I may call and make sure it is a good day for it though.  If it's a go, then I'll put it all together, pop it in the oven, and let it run it's course.  Two hours should be enough time to cook it thoroughly while still leaving time for it to cool enough to travel.  Actually, I'll probably bake the other pie crusts while I am at it.

I've got another load of dishes going.  I think I'll skip the laundry.  I'm pretty much just going to be able to hang on.  After I get the first quiche out, I should have time to take a nap before doing the last two, or three, pies.  Hmm... might have to make the cherry pie early.  It'll be a bit of a mess trying to push three, even two, items through the oven at once.  I suppose it is doable, for two.  But not for three.  Not with the time constraints.  This is getting a bit tight.  Ah well.  It'll work out.

After these are done, I'm going to finish cleaning up, then take the weekend off.  I told my friend I would be in Monday.  If we get a heavy snow Sunday night, it's off.  Other than that I mean to make it in.  But my back is aching, I need more flour, but other than that it really is all good.  If I can just make it through the day.  Later.

A little at a time.

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I made three more crusts.  They aren't difficult to make, but the processor I have just really isn't up to the task.  So after three, I give it a break.  After that, I started on sauteing the mushrooms.  It's not a huge job, but somewhat time and attention intensive.  You want, especially when they are going into something like a custard, to cook the water out of them.  Then an onion was diced and sauteed.  Yeah, I snagged a small portion of the mushrooms for a snack.  I thought about making bacon, but what I have is still good and there is plenty of it.  I might break it down a bit more, though. 

I need three more crusts, to allow me to make a pie, plus the four quiches.  I thought about making a few more crusts, for fruit pockets but I think I can just use the leftovers for those.  I have three types of fruit filling, in the can.  They aren't preferred, but with other limitations they will do.  Apple, blackberry, and cherry are available.  Since I wanted to make cherry pie, I think that is what I am going with.  But the can is rather large.  If there is too much for the pie, I would gladly make myself a fruit pie pocket or two.  If not, I may use the blackberry.  I'm not sure why I purchased apple filling in a can.  Mulberry, or other berries that are difficult to otherwise find, sure.  But apple?  I can't remember, it was six months ago or so.  Perhaps just convenience, as during that time everything was a difficulty.

After a break, I'll get at least one pie crust going.  This time I am going to track how long it takes as exactly as possible.  Same when I bake the first quiche.  That will change a bit, season to season, cold spell versus warm spell.  But a general idea is better than having to babysit the oven.  And, yeah, I've been keeping up fairly well on cleaning and dishes.  I may even put a load of laundry in after I get the first quiche going.  My goal is to be able to offer warm quiches, out of the oven but cooled just enough to be edible.  I won't know how the tomatoes are until I slice into one while making the first Greek quiche.  If they are too wet, they'll need to either be salted and drained, or just baked on top.  Yeah, I'll add spinach with the rest of the Greek recipe I sort of devised.  Oh, right, I'll crumble the feta before setting up at least one of the crusts, then making more crust dough.

Hey, it's doing something.  And not just for myself.  Hmm, I haven't taken pictures of working the dough, or rolling it.  Yes, it's just another thing to do.  Mostly just a hobby, but with some practice, having a photographer around can be handy.  Later.

Good sleep.

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I can't be sure the exact time I went down, or woke.  It was after 18:00, but not quite 19:00... at least when I first looked at my watch.  I have been up two or three hours, probably.  While not a rough "morning", it wasn't a wakeful one.  I am just starting to wake now.  I heated a couple of slices of quiche pretty early on, using the oven this time.  A much better, if slower, way to bring some life back to the quiche.

I will be trying to make three or four more pie crusts tonight.  Hmm, better add flour and butter to my shopping list.  Yes, salt free butter for baking, this time.  Sometimes I grab the wrong kind, or just use what I have.  This was actually a bit of forethought and luck rolled into the draw of having salt free butter.  Beside that, I will make another quiche, and bake a crust for prepping a lunch for others.  When I am making that quiche, after, I will bake a couple more crusts for a family's supper.  I'll have to figure out exactly how many pie crusts I need, too.  Let me see... one more for practice, one for lunch, two for supper, and two or four for a desert pie.  I figure, for the supper I am making, I might as well make a desert pie to go with it.

Not cherry pie this time.  I want to look up a recipe for that.  I don't have time, with what else I have planned.  But I do have some canned pie filling.  I meant to make some folks fruit pot pies, but I never quite made it.  So... I will one of those.  Some sorts of berries, but I can't remember which.  I'll note it later.

Tonight, a Greek quiche.  I figured out which type of olives I was using... kalamata.  Which, by the way, is actually Greek.  Who knew!  It's my basic fancy black olive, when I choose to not buy them canned.  Has been for decades.  Anyway, so that fits with the rest.  Only tomatoes are suspicious to the recipe, being an Americas fruit.  Yes, the tomato is a fruit, by science (produced from the ovary, with seed in soft parts).  While, in culinary circles, it is generally considered a vegetable, since it is usually reserved for savory dishes.  Or, something like that.  I love controversy though, and consider them all wrong.  It's just food.  Call it anything, behind my back.

Between making extra crust doughs, baking one quiche and one extra crust, I will also be frying mushrooms ahead of time, more bacon, and perhaps crumbling some of the feta and putting that in containers for easy use.  Hmm, for the practice quiche, I may add fresh diced onion as well.  I won't add that in the one to go.  It's a bit strong, can be objectionable to some appetites.  Later.

Crap.

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Woke up too early.  Back to bed.  And with the main part of a head cold.  I'll turn the furnace down this time, but keep the door open.  It's still witch tit cold out there.  Not that that is always bad.  They can all be witches, and right definite cues for stomach turning are preferable.  Never... mind.  Yeah, yeah, but I don't have a choice.  Sleep isn't calling, it is commanding.  As two cold bumps might.  Can't keep my eyes open.  I have had worse.  I've also had better. 

I have a bit of a sense of humor about it though.  Later.

Crash!

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No, I imbibed nothing last evening.  Well, water, coffee, milk?  Some of that for sure.  I was trying to stay awake in order to do some things this morning.  Nope.  I didn't even see it sneaking up on me.  I remember becoming really tired, then "bedtime" clicked into my mind.  Without thinking, or worrying about what I wanted to do, or plans, or anything else, I up and got ready for bed.  I don't think, at the point I went on auto-pilot on until I blanked into sleep, I thought about anything but going to bed.  Some part of my body put psychic blinders on the 'doer' part of my mind.  Kidnapped.  Sleep was wonderful.  No complaints.  I don't like when I can't do what I had planned, but... there just wasn't a way.  I'll figure something out.  And, no, I wasn't able to mess with any cooking or baking last night.  The cold that ripped through here recently might have had a part to roll in it, but the work I have been doing recently is another part of it.

I thought about writing about an event at the time, but decided not to do so.  I will now.  Have you ever been stalked?  I, at least used to be, a hunter... of sorts.  Sometimes the hunted, too.  Not so much a hunter of game, mind you.  I learned to turn on the blinkers and ears, keep the neck moving but in such a manner as to draw as little attention as possible, and to see what I wasn't looking at, sometimes what I wasn't looking for specifically, and using various means of keeping an eye on the what I was seeking in many and varied ways.  Even now I am probably not the easiest of prey.  Most hunters give off a psychic signature that makes all of their other efforts at masking useless, to another hunter.  The best, and I would like to think myself, learned to mask that.  But in masking it, a huge hole remains.  Where a man should be standing, I will sense nothing with such men.  And, yes, I see it.  I see it, sometimes, while looking at myself in the mirror.  Spooked me the first few times, until I understood.  In any case, I can virtually smell a hunter.

Not so long ago, I was being hunted.  She was a rank amateur.  She wasn't hunting for the reasons I ever hunted, I don't think.  She seemed... pleasant.  I don't think it was romance, if there might have been a small, more innocent, nature of that, inciting more hunt than was intended.  I can't know for sure.  It was... different.  A mother type, with young children, one of them still in diapers, and they were with her.  Very strange doings these days.  Oh, no offense, or great flattery, on my part.  I don't know what it was about.  Just odd.  Perhaps the photos that are out are less flattering, and she wanted to make sure it was me before reporting to the anti-man sisterhood.  Or maybe she liked something I wrote, or music writing mix.  I get it a lot, usually in smaller doses.  Something I am just trying to sort out in my mind.  It seemed positive, often does.  But no one ever approaches, just hunts a bit from their version of the shadows.  Real life story peoples.

Today?  I don't know.  More crusts need to be made, for sure.  A few more practice pies, perhaps.  And I need to figure out how to get a quiche out earlier in the day.  I woke at almost 10:00, which would be just enough time to put a pie in the oven and have it ready at the time I would like to send it out.  But everything would have to be pretty much ready to go.  The custard is easy to make in minutes, but anything cooked such as bacon would have to be done, any cheese or vegetables would have to be ready to go, and the crust would have to have been pre-baked.  That I woke at 10:00 was an oddball thing.  Gah!  Trapped in a cycle loop, needing to be in a part of the cycle with which I have almost no definite access.  I'm working on it.

Oh, and dreams, last night.  The vagaries of life, war, love, God... it all... hmm... came into view.  The music last night was a more fanciful, and only partial, version of what I saw in the dreams.  So many things I see, and "know".  I do have visions, dreams, and waking dreams.  I do sense things in a very particular way.  It's not always easy to translate, much as a child, or even mathematician or physicist, might have difficulty encapsulating the particular design of a snowflake.  If what I see is even true, or even true for me, is another thing.  Can't really tackle one until the other is fleshed out then checked for veracity itself.  A story teller.  No doubt. 

But the stories, often, come from somewhere.  Sometimes they go off track, sometimes they go too far, sometimes much of what is seen is not shown.  Story telling is an art, not a science.  More so when it comes from a pool of what is potentially a foreign truth to many.  Yes, and sometimes I purposefully misguide.  I need to spit something out but many have shown that they are not ready for all that I see.  Some things damage nerves and upset applecarts.  Not a problem, for me.  I sleep well with what I do.  I suggested, before, several times, that I am indeed a seer.  Or believe that.  But also that I am a seer for what it is I, or something else, am, and am here to do.  I see what it, or I, know, have learned, have reasoned, and believe about things to come.  That aspect, knowledge, and focus, is not necessarily for you.  I only write here to kick it out of my head, or put it on paper and tinker with it until what I sensed makes a more perfect sense to the rest of the "story", but it is all more for me.  You just get cheap comic book entertainments.  Cheap?  I mean free, save for the time you invest.  I do bleed for you, you know.

And, yes... women were in some dreams.  No sex, though these various women and notions of women, were vaguely sexually intriguing.  It was more the softer side of women that was viewed.  The promise but not act of sex.  When all is arranged but the time is not right.  Decisions have been made.  A look at them in that soft dewy place when little else matters and the hope of love, at least for moments, is tended.  Women are very different from men.  Some women can live in this place, without taking another step and happily, somehow.  I suppose some men go through this stage.  I, for my part, have never known it.  But I have seen it from the outside, as I did in my dream.

Beastly cold last night.  I had to open my bedroom door.  The precipitous drop in temps made my room, usually frigid as I like it, too cold for even me.  Not so much the body, as the nasal passages.  They are still blocked up from having tried to ignore having my room go from refrigerator to freezer.  I think I woke early because the temp was all the up on 70.  Too warm to sleep, even with only the partial backfill an open door from the stone part to the wood part of my house allows.  I will be keeping the door open for a while, but turning the temp down to the low 60's.  Need my cool to sleep.

Later.

New Years thoughts and concerns.

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Once it was thought that when, or if, some things were to happen was the way of things.  As time seems to have happened, I realized it isn't a matter of if or when, simply when.  It has clarified, if not perfectly.  Yeah, it is a bit more clear.  The stars will align.

Pretty much as hoped.

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Sure, there was a plan as well.  But plans often aren't fulfilled.  This was a hope described as a plan.  Dishes, the kitchen, a shower, and a trip to town.  Not bad.  My friend had already eaten but I ate.  He got out of the house, which if not super beats staying in.  It was a might crisp out there.  Even for me.  It reminded me of Iowa.  The difference is that Iowa is like that during the day, all day, then gets cold at night.  Iowa also has wind, lots of it.  While chilly, this is as good as Iowa seemed to get between October 31st and April, sometimes May.  I liked it, mostly.  I've become a bit soft living out here.  A pleasant memory in any case.

I plan on making another quiche yet tonight, then one for someone's lunch tomorrow.  I think I can prebake both crusts tonight.  Fresh mushrooms, a block of feta, and vine ripened tomatoes that smelled right.  I sniffed a number of tomatoes and groups of tomatoes before I found one group that smelled alive.  I don't know if they will be all that tasty, time will tell.  I am thinking cheddar, feta, bacon, olives, and tomatoes for the one to be gifted.  I might even have enough ingredients to do a trial run.

I may need a nap in there.  I don't know if I can get one though.  If I can't sleep at the right time, I'll have to stay up or I will miss the target.  Yeah, this could mess up my sleep cycle, but it's not exactly on target anyway, so I don't care.  Hmm, I might call that a Greek quiche?  Yeah, the olives are the Mediterranean type.  Feta and tomato, only one of which is truly Greek, seem to bring the notion to mind as well.  Eggs?  Pie pastry?  I don't know Greek food well enough to be sure.  Hmm, I could add spinach as well.

Oh, I did find frozen cherries, no sugar added, for a pie.  I will have to make more pie dough, though, for that.  Yes, yes, a bit of cooking.  But it's entertaining for the moment.  Yes, I am taking snappies, which I will eventually render and deposit for perusal.  Perhaps over the weekend.  No real photographic 'how too', just some of the results, perhaps various stages of the setup and work.  We'll see.  Hmm, I also bought frozen pizza.  I had a small dinner, and thought that would be good.  I was already hungry by the time I got home, so...  Later.