I Have Not Been Kind To Myself

      My mental health took a nosedive this week. Even though, I still pushed myself to get out of bed and walk the lake trail. It felt like I was just going through the movements from memory though. I was so distant from myself. Depression and loneliness set in and took hold of me, and it was even compounded while out on the trail. The trail became a living metaphor for my sense of being. This week was the loneliest week on the trail. I only saw 3 people the entire week and it was always near the end of the walk. I've been feeling like I'm going through this life alone and that has always been the case and always will be. The feeling of loneliness intensified the depression and then brought on my anxiety. The anxiety is increasing because I want to go to a gym and the thought of going and being around people isn't not something that is soothing and comforting. That's the catch 22 in my loneliness. I want to see people, but only my people. With the exception of maybe a half hour a few weeks ago, I haven't seen any of my friends since I think December, and before that it was last September when I got together with a friend and their family for a cookout. 

     Despite all that, I still managed to hit goal on Saturday which left me today to sleep in. This, even though planned was something that brought me anxiety and depression. My thinking was that I should be out there putting in the kilometers. Hitting goal isn't really good enough, I should be improving. In my mind I know this isn't exactly necessary or healthy thinking, but also in my head I think I should be increasing my distance each week by 1 1/2 times my normal amount. See, not healthy thinking. This has also led me to not being very kind to myself. Constant mentally telling of myself to do better, you look terrible, you blew it. These are the thoughts going through my head, and this caused me to basically give up on myself this week. Friday and Saturday I caved in and just let it all go. I went and got chips, soda and fast food. I did have enough self control to only by the convenient store size bags of chips and single sodas, so that I wouldn't have giant family size bags in the house. I'm trying to be better today, and will continue on a one day at a time view of things for a while. I want to do another 8 weeks of clean eating, but with my mental state right now, I really don't believe I can do that, so one day at a time is how I'll take it. I did take a photo today to show you what 2 weeks on carbs and a reckless weekend can do.

     I have a lot of work to do, and I need to get my mind on the same page, but I'm not going to force it, because, based on experience with myself, that will only make things worse.

     Oh, back to the gym. I did check out a gym that is very close to my house, and it's awesome, but that whole anxiety thing is getting in the way. I can schedule to be there by skipping some days walking. The whole idea of the walking is to get some physical exercise outside of the house, so that may keep me from hitting goal with distance, but it might improve my mental state through building my body. I just have to push my anxiety to the side and get it done.

     Not to continue being a Gloomy Gus, there were some positive things that happened this week. For one, it didn't rain on my out on the trail. That's a good thing. I did however rain before I went one day which brought the critters out. I usually see rabbits, cardinals (the coolest of small birds), osprey and red shouldered hawks, but on this occasion I saw a baby soft shell turtle, a crazy black caterpillar, and this somewhat little dude.

     I probably should have cropped that so it's easier to see, but that is a small gator, probably around 5 feet or so. I know they are out there, cause I've seen and heard them before, but they are a rare sight to see. They stay to the reeds and waterline plants in the morning. The coolest thing about gators is that they leave no wake. Just look at the photo, the water is completely still around it, and I can tell you that it was moving in a forward motion, not just sitting there. They are remarkable creatures.

     For the first time in over a year, I took my mom to a movie. We masked up and I took the wheelchair so that she wouldn't have to walk and hit the theater.

     We went to see the new Cruella movie. It was really good, but it didn't go as well as I hoped it would. Half way through my mom got antsy and began talking and asking to go home. I managed to talk her down and she made it through the movie, but I'm going to have to choose movies with more color and less loudness from now on. I thought that would be a good choice since it's Disney, but the was rather dark, and there were lots of crashes. Fun for anyone who doesn't have dementia. I will say this, the soundtrack was outstanding. It was set in the 60's and 70's so lots of that era rock. For me the one iconic moment in the film was when Cruella ( Emma Watson) crashed a party for the Baroness (Emma Thomson, who I believe truly stole the film) came out in a punk rock outfit with her make up done as a mask that was like graffiti art of black spray paint with the words. "The Future" in the negative space. Just found a picture so you can see.

     I honestly expect to see more of that make up look in fashion for the next year, or at least I hope to. It's simple but profound and makes a statement.

     There is one other character that truly stands out in the movie. Now, Morty and the Schnug are the two greatest dogs to ever live (don't argue with me on this) but, there is another that has won my heart, and that is Wink the little chihuahua in the movie that wears a leather eye patch. If you are on the fence about seeing this movie, go for Wink. I'm telling you, that little dog will make it all worth it. I know the film is getting trashed because it doesn't really lead to the canon of 101 Dalmatians, but I enjoyed it.

     I don't have a favorite song or anything this week (yeah, kind of ties in with the whole beating myself up over and over again). I can say that it does feel like the new TØP album is saving my life right now, something they did before with Vessel. I had the chance to get a message of thanks to them (remember I met Josh Dun's mom) but again, by anxiety wouldn't let me ask her to pass the message on. I owe them a great deal of thanks, maybe one day I'll get the chance to pass that gratitude on.

    Although I don't foresee this week being any different than last week, I do hope that yours is much better than mine. Oh, I almost forgot to mention this. There is a reason why I was trying to force myself to remember this and I'll get to that. The book I've been listening to on my walks is by famed writer Ayn Rand. I've never read Mrs. Rand before. I've heard mixed reviews, but I finally added a book on Audible to give it a chance thanks to Steven Chbosky mentioning her and this book in The Perks of Being a Wallflower. The book is entitled The Fountainhead. No it's not that best known Atlas Shrugged, so I can't speak on that one, but I can speak on this one. It is dreadfully forgettable, which is why it has been so hard to remember to tell you about this experience. I'm only a third of the way through it since it's 37 hours long. With the exception of one character so far ( and I expect that to change to no character in the future of this book) everyone is morally bankrupt. They are truly awful characters with no redeeming qualities. I'm truly expecting the one innocent character to turn the leaf soon and show what makes them awful as well. The writing is pretentious to the highest order. Ayn is truly one of those people that believe they are better than everyone else and will prove it to you by using the word superfluous as many times as humanly possible. I know what you are thinking, how can you come to that conclusion from her book? Well, she wrote the forward which was over a half hour long and used the work superfluous 2 times in that alone. She also makes the note of how the book is about those people that create progress in the world with exceptionalism. It's all about the capital growth and not really human growth. I am going to finish this book, so as to remind me to never ever become a person that would be in that book. Peace in and goodnight.

I Failed Myself

      I feel like I've completely failed myself this week. I didn't reach goal this week and it's simply because I couldn't get out of bed. Friday I said it was much needed rest, Saturday I was trying to continue that justification, but it was pure laziness. This morning I overslept but still made it out to the lake for one lap. I was feeling pretty ragged, so 1 lap was all I could muster in the time I had. I also weighed in on Friday (only doing it once a week now) and was up to 165.2 lbs. I of course knew that is what would happen coming off of two weeks of eating moderate carbs. I also know that it's mostly water weight and fiber that's built up in my system, but being who I am, I see that number and it's a disappointment. I'm going to try my best to chalk this week up to just a small step backwards that will lead to many steps forward, but once again, I am who I am, and that's going to be the most difficult thing in the world for me to do right now.

 

     I did at least get this view one morning while walking, and I should have read the warning that it was, but I took a chance. The old saying is red sky at night fisherman's delight, red sky in the morning fisherman's warning. That saying is as true as true can be. What it means is that if you see a red sky in the morning you are in for a stormy or at the very least a rainy day. The later was the case. I was 1 mile in to my second lap which puts me at the furthest point away from anything when the rain began, and it didn't let up until I was walking out the gate to leave the trail. I didn't mind getting soaked so much, but since I didn't wear a hat, I was getting raindrops in my eyes, which sucked. This just adds to my failure of a week.

     Ok, the week wasn't all bad, they seldom ever are. Twenty One Pilots released their new album and did a live stream concert that since it's the pandemic wasn't exactly a concert. It was unique and really fun. The performed mostly songs from the new album, but they did it in a giant arena with stage sets all over the place. They moved from set to set telling the story behind their last few albums. For those that don't know, starting with Blurryface, they started a back story for their music, about a cabal that is trying to take away their creativity and capture them for their own gain, and to assimilate them into the world of Dema. Where this album takes place is right after Tyler (the singer) is captured by the Bishops and is being forced to write musical propaganda for Dema. It's a real fun concept and you can get little messages in each song about what is happening and what is coming. If you get the chance go listen to Blurryface, then Trench, and now Scaled and Icy. It tells a story within a story.

     We will get back to TØP in a second but first one more picture. I'm doing my best to end this week of with a good note, so I dyed the beard again, and I think I've improved my hair dying skills. I went back to purple again, but by not waiting for all the red to fade out, it's creating a pretty cool effect. Once again I'm digging.

     Now that's purple. One of theses days soon, I'll be able to show off the color to everyone, but for the time being, even though I'm fully vaccinated, I'll be wearing a mask when I go out.

     Back to TØP, Of course I'm choosing one of the new songs from the album for Favorite Song of the Week. You had to see that coming. The song I chose is the last song on the album. I have my own interpretation of the song, but I'll save that for me, and let you come up with your own. It's easier if you've listened to the other albums, but you can get meaning from it without all the other music. I chose this song also because it's my favorite song on the album. It sounds like nothing they've ever done before, but it is still very much them. I know that probably doesn't make sense, but if you know them, you know. I present to you Twenty One Pilots with the last song on Scaled and Icy, "Redecorate". 

     I've pretty much been listening to the new album non stop since Friday, and I don't plan on stopping any time soon. I started out liking it before even hearing it, because it's TØP, but with each listen I like it more and more. I also pick up new things every time I hear it. It's a sonic rollercoaster with little hidden sounds that are in the background. Listen with headphones if you want the full effect.

     I'm going to make this week better than last, that's all I can hope for. I'm going to put my anxiety to the side and move forward. Peace in and goodnight.

That's How I Start My Day

      That was from my morning walk on Saturday. I really enjoy getting to see sights like this on my morning walks. I did real goal that day, but I had a separate goal that I wanted to hit, so I couldn't sleep in this morning and I had to hit the trail. The second goal, like the first was because of Pokemon GO. From time to time you get research tasks that you have to do. There are daily tasks when you spin a Pokestop (I won't get into the minutia of Pokestops), then there are timed, which take place during a certain period of time, and lastly there are special tasks. This is a special one and one of the tasks to complete the research is to walk 151 km. My overall goal is to finish this task in 3 weeks, but by hitting a certain number today I will finish it slightly before 3 weeks. That goal that I had to hit was the 100 km mark. I blew past that today taking it up to 105 km. That put me at 65 km for the week, which didn't allow me any rest, but it did get me ahead of the game.

     Got these this morning. Ok, what that is, is an Azhinga or jesus bird sitting on top of a fake goose. Why they have that fake goose in the lake, I don't know. It seems to mark a drain pipes end, but I really don't know what the pipe is draining.

     I played around a bit and did a fade on the ol' beard. It goes from purple to red, and I think I did a decent job for my first time taking a shot at it.

     One more picture. This was my meal on Friday. Oh, I did stick with the moderate carbs for one more week. My original plan was to go high carb for 2 weeks to get the benefits of loading up my muscles with glucose and also developing some insulin resistance. That way when I go back to keto, starting tomorrow, I can take advantage of that resistance. It will be kind of like a super charger for my body. Basically when you do keto for a long time you build up insulin sensitivity, which is why your progress slows, by carb cycling you get some of that resistance back again and start, not over but, you begin again from a higher point in the game. It's like taking one step back to move 3 steps forward. Anyway, this meal although low in carbs, was just a work of art, so I had to share.

     That's roast with baked broccoli and cauliflower lightly parmesan crusted. It was just as good as it looked too.

     Before I get to Favorite Song of the Week, I wanted to mention my Favorite Thing of the Week, and that is the new series on Netflix called Halston. It is about famed designer Roy Halston and it stars Ewen McGregor. I'm about half way through it right now and it is really good and Ewen is fantastic in the lead role. It tells the story of his life and part of that is his time at Studio 54. Studio 54 is one place that I truly wish I could have visited in its prime. It seemed like such a magical place, despite the disturbing underbelly of drugs and prostitution that were involved there. Back to the show. One other stand out character is Krysta Rodriguez she plays Halston's best friend Liza Minnelli. If you took my recommendation and watched the zombie show Daybreak, which Netflix didn't renew and I'm still sore over that, you saw her play the role of teacher Mrs, Crumble. Her transformation from that character to Liza is amazing. One last person involved in the show is Bill Pullman, and lets face it, he is good in anything, so give Halston a try, it really is fantastic.

     Ok, now for FSOTW. This one goes with the photo above. I was listening to this song when I turned the corner and was looking directly at that sunrise and the moment was just so perfect, so when you listen to this song, please take a look at that photo at the top. It just fits. This is from Myles Kennedy's new album The Ides of March. Myles Kennedy is the lead singer of the band Alter Bridge so this is a side project for him, although he records his own albums all the time. Anyway this is Myles Kennedy with "Love Rain Down".

     See what I mean now. I'm hoping to have some pretty big news for you soon. I'm still waiting on a few things, and it could take several weeks, but hopefully some fun will be had soon. Peace in and goodnight.

I'm Working On It

      Not accountability photos, but every now and then, I need to see how I look, not in a mirror, but how others may see me. I have long suffered from body dismorphia, which is to say that I see all the flaws, even in places where they may not exist. This was part of why it took me so long to get into shape, and is now why I'm never satisfied truly with how I look. I am getting better about it though. I do understand that a lot of men my age would like to have a body like mine, but  (yeah, here comes the flaws) I'm not where I want to be. I may never be where I want to be. It's entirely possible that I set unattainable goals for myself. I am 50 after all. That in itself makes it harder to attain a low percent of body fat. The body doesn't process food as easily as it once did. Important nutrients are as easily absorbed, and the body is in a constant of breaking down. That is all part of getting older.

      I have accepted that I do look pretty good for a 50 year old. Listen I don't think I'm a heartthrob, or even someone that anyone would find attractive (my online dating profile proves that). I need to speak more kindly about myself, to myself. I am always talking to myself about how I can get better, and not really acknowledging my accomplishments. I'm lost a lot of weight and kept it off. Even when I went off the rails, it really wasn't obscene. Even now, I'm working towards bettering my physical appearance to my liking.  I won't give up this fight even though I know that most of my problem with my appearance is how I perceive it. 

     This post is about me working on being nicer to myself, and hopefully passing on that you need to do that for yourself as well. Self care takes many different forms, but what I'm learning is that the most important one is actually liking yourself. I'm not there yet, but I'm on my way. Peace in and goodnight.

The Gods Are Watching

      I managed to hit goal early this week, thanks to a few early morning extra laps of the lake, so I was able to take this morning off. I still woke up at 4:30, but I just sat back and enjoyed the silence of very early morning. As much as the walking is for my body, that golden silence is good for my brain. I can't adequately describe how truly wonderful it was. I'm going to try to make goal early every week, so that I can do that.

     One of my favorite Youtubers had their account hacked this week. Whoever did it, took all his videos down and put up some bitcoin thing up. Fortunately he was on top of it and had YouTube shut the channel down to end the hack, but while he is waiting for recovery, there is a chance that all his videos were erased. This is his way of making a living and they may have deleted all of his potential income earning power from those old videos. I'm pretty sure I posted on of his older videos on here. He is a guitarist of exceptional skill, and he does his videos with that skill and a lot of comedy. He puts a lot of work into each video with editing of not only the videos, but of the songs that he creates for the videos. If you want to check him out, well, you're going to have to wait a little while until he gets the channel back up and running, but his name is Stevie T. I'll let you know when he is back so you can check him out.

     I dyed the beard again this week, and gave it the new color treatment. I chose this color because I thought it would look odd, but it ended up looking pretty good. This is a new brand (new for me) called Manic Panic, and the color is called Vampire Red.

     This was right after rinsing it out, so it's the brightest it's going to be. Right now it's a bit duller in color and some of the gray is coming through which gives it this weird natural look despite it being completely unnatural. I like it, but now that I have multiple colors, it's time to mix it up and try doing some patterns or something. I'll of course get pictures of whatever I do.

     Just wanted to share this picture of The Schnuggie. That's my pretty girl right there.

     On my walks this week I started listening to a new book called City of the Plaque God. This is a Rick Riordan Presents book. Rick Riordan is the author of the successful Percy Jackson series as well as other series that are fictional takes on the old gods. Percy Jackson covers the Greek Gods, then he goes for the Romans, Egyptian and Norse gods as well. This book is written by an author I never heard of named Sarwat Chadda. This book is in the same vain as Percy Jackson ( present day, a bit humorous, retelling of the gods as they might be today) but it is about the Mesopotamian gods. I've always had a passion for the old gods, especially Greek and Egyptian, not so much Roman since they really just co-opted the Greek gods and gave them new names and personality quirks. Anyway, it's very refreshing to hear tales of gods I didn't know about. I of course have heard the names Istar and Gilgamesh, but had no idea of the legends behind them. I'm sorry I've missed out on them, and I will be looking up more information on these long distant gods. 

     All of these books follow a similar concept that Neil Gaiman uses which is that gods are powerful as long as they have believers. He goes into this with American Gods. This brought me to a bit of an epiphany last night. Stay with me on this, I know how pretentious it sounds. I'll start by saying that as you may know, I don't believe in a god or gods, I also don't deny anyone their belief. I'm of the mind that you should feel and find your faith as you chose, and I'm not here to try and talk you out of it, unless you take a shot at me and then I'm going to take a swipe back at you. Anyway, if I were to believe, it would more than likely be in the Greek or Egyptian gods, more likely the Greek. I just feel that if gods existed, they of course would be using humankind as chess pieces for their folly. As you know that all deity stories begin with the beginning, with the Greeks, it's the Titans. They were the forbearers of the heaven and earth, which were born from Gaia and Uranos, or as we know it, Earth and the Sky. In essence, they are the Greeks big bang theory. The Titans held power for centuries until they gave birth to the Olympians. The Olympians gained popularity due to their exploits with humankind. They crossed over with the Roman Olympians, cause the Romans had to have their own thing. Now the Olympians began to lose their popularity when christianity came into existence. Christianity of course spread throughout the world and took down the Olympians, the Egyptians, the Mesopotamians, the Norse and then the Aztec and Native American gods. Yes, there are Native American gods, and they are still somewhat worshipped to this very day. I don't believe they hold the same value and it's more of a paying respect to ancestral past, but they are still there.

     Here is my epiphany. If the beginning was Gaia and Uranos, and they are the earth and the sky, and since all religion is basically built off other religions (Christmas being the winter solstice and what not), then maybe the mythos is true and Gaia and Uranos are still the only gods that have remained through all this time, since they are ever present, and they created christianity to rid the world of their ungrateful children.  Listen this the stuff I think about, because I have no life and spend a lot, and I mean a lot of time alone.

     I've always toyed with the idea of writing a story about the old gods, but I haven't since I think Rick Riordan has done such a wonderful job with them, and now Sarwat Chadda is taking over the mantel with the Mesopotamians. 

      Before I get to Favorite Song of the Week, I must mention that I attempted to go high carb for the week. I say attempted because I ended up stopping after 4 days. On day 2 I began feeling pain in my body. Old pain that had gone away, but seemed to return as soon as I spent a few days on high carb. I couldn't take it, so by Thursday I was back to eating a slightly higher carb version of Keto. I wanted to come down from the carbs slowly so as not to shock my system. The idea about this was to get the benefits from carb cycling and creating a level of insulin resistance, so that when I went back to keto I would get even more of a benefit from ketones. Lesson learned, high carbs are not my friend anymore and probably never were, so when I carb cycle I will not go so high. It will be more moderate carbs and low fat as opposed to high carb low fat. I'll just add in some potatoes and sweet potatoes, which is basically what I did this time, but I also had a few more high glycemic carbs like corn and carrots as well. I'll leave those two out from now on.

      Favorite Song of the Week is from one of my all time favorite bands, so I'm sure you know by know who it is, or at least have an idea. Twenty One Pilots have a new album on the way, and they released their second song from the album two weeks ago. Yeah, this was supposed to be up last week, but was postponed due to another song. Anyway, here is Twenty One Pilots with their new song "Choker". 

     If you are a fan, their are a lot of clues to what's to come in that video. I'm a big fan, but I'm terrible with the clues, so don't look for answers from me. Two small things about the video that I do know. That little shop is real, and is open to the public. The golden retriever is Jim Dunn, and belongs to Josh, the drummer. Did I ever mention that I met his mom and little sister at a concert in Orlando? Of course I did. Anyway, that's all I have for this week. Peace in and goodnight.

Two Weeks Away.

 

     Ok, let's get into it. That picture was from Thursday when I got my second vaccination shot. I can't tell you how good it felt to get a needle jabbed into my arm. Now for the aftermath. As was told, the second shot packs a bit of a punch, and it lived up to the hype. Thursday night by the time I went to bed around 9 or 10 I started feeling the pain in my arm. This time the pain was much different. Where the last one was really focused on the smallest area around the injection site, this spread over the entire head of my medial deltoid, or the very side of the shoulder. It wasn't as painful either, it was more of a normal bruise feeling, even like a hard workout feeling. About noon on Friday I began experiencing some very minor flu like symptoms. I got freezing cold, which really wasn't such a bad thing, because it has been in the 90s here in Florida, so freezing cold was just fine with me. Later on in the evening I began feeling some minor body aches in the upper shoulder area and lower back (very much like flu aches), a very strange headache began around that time as well. The headache wasn't your normal sinus headache, the only way I can explain it is, that it felt like a pillow stuffed behind my forehead. That headache persisted until noon on Saturday. It lessened as the day went on and just drifted away. After that I've felt completely normal. I've heard of much worse cases, and I've also heard of people that had no side effects what so ever. I've also heard that how you react to the vaccine is proportionally how you would act if you caught the full virus. If you get hit hard with the vaccine, it's likely that you would have died with the virus. A case like I had would have probably got me that two week flu version of it. That's just a belief though and I would much rather take my chance with the vaccine than the virus, so go out and get vaccinated if you haven't yet. Most areas have opened up to all ages and no appointment necessary. I know that is the case here, because people that are willing to get the vaccine is down to a very low number. In two weeks, I will be fully vaccinated and I can go about life like I did 2 years ago, to an extent. Oh, I'm still going to wear a mask when I go out, because I can still contract the virus, which means I could pass it on to someone else without even knowing, because chances are very high now that I would be asymptomatic. The CDC has said that once my two weeks are up, I can hang with other people that are fully vaccinated and no masks are needed. I can travel now (if I could travel). The world will be open to me once again, and it can be for you as well, you just need to little shots.

     I got this recently in an effort to drink more water. This made me very aware that I don't need to drink more water, I just need to want to drink more water. Proof, that picture was taken at 7 in the morning. I've been finishing either half of that by 9 am at the latest and then putting it back in the fridge to finish it up are 5 pm, or like today, I finish it all by 9 am. I'm going to keep going with this, because even after going through that 100 days of just water or tea, I fell back into a habit of drinking diet sodas all day. It was never as much as before, but I would have 2 maybe 3 a day, and then barely anything else. I guess that begs the question of, does water really quench your thirst? Alone, I don't think it does, but when you add lemon or salt to put some electrolytes in there, you get more of that thirst quenching experience. 

     Oh, because of the injection, I did miss two days of walking, so I'm probably not going to make goal this week. I could theoretically run out and walk the extra 5km to hit 50, but there really isn't any point in doing it tonight. I'm ok with 45km in just 4 days worth of walking. Every once in a while you need a break from the norm, so that is how I'm looking at it. I was out there today, which is where I made an Instastory post about the second dose of the vaccine, if you want to go check it out, you have to do it today, cause it will be gone my 6:30 in the morning on May 3rd. Here is the link to my Insta if you want to click on my avatar and check it out https://www.instagram.com/counterfeitsquirrel/  It's a summarized version of what I wrote up at the top, but you will get to see that most of the blue is out of my beard. I do have another color I want to try out, which I was planning on doing today, but since there is still a very light shade of blue, I'm going to wait a little longer. 

     Back to walking. I did reach one milestone this week in Pokemon GO, and that was hitting 1000km traveled

     That's a pretty cool achievement, and one I'm actually proud of. The last 400 kilometers were done mostly on that lake trail, so I'm getting the work done when I'm out there. 

     Thought I'd give you a mom update, since I haven't done one in a long time. This week has been tough. She is going through her not wanting to eat phase. I know this usually lasts a few days and then she will eat everything I give her, but it's still incredibly frustrating. It is very hard to watch someone wither a way to their death right in front of you very slowly. You want to do everything for them, but there really isn't much you can do, this is the nature of dementia. You just try your best to convince them to eat anything on days like that. If I can get one peanut butter and jelly sandwich and a shake in her, I'm happy, because I know she isn't going to eat much more on those days. I always leave snacks for her so that she can nosh whenever she wants to, but she rarely goes for those when she is in this state. The dogs are happy when she is like this though, cause they get a lot of peanut butter toast and berries. She normally skips out on breakfast on these days, and that is the normal menu item, since it's usually the only thing she will eat. I keep trying other things, hoping that I'll find that one extra item that can make it into her diet plan, but 99% of the time it's for naught.

     Time for Favorite Song of the Week. I had one all picked out but then I saw that it was James Brown appreciation day, so why not go with my all time favorite funky groove from Mr. Brown. Here is the Godfather of Soul with his song "Give It Up Or Turnit A Loose".

     Now that's what I call funky. Remember, get vaccinated if you haven't. If you have any question about the effects feel free to reach out to me. I'm here to help you out and do what I can to get things back to a normal state. That being said, I'm wearing a mask from now one when flu season is in full effect or anything like that is going on. It's going to be part of my wardrobe even when this is all over, and I'm hearing quite a few people saying the same thing. Up until Friday I've had no illness since having to start wearing masks, and I rather enjoy that. Peace in and goodnight.