Jaci Dawn

It’s hard to come up with suitable subjects. I think of things during the day and trash them by the time I sit down to post. Today alone, I came up with these subjects:

1. Stopping for Pedestrians (from the POV of a sometimes Ped who APPRECIATES drivers that obey the law and stop and wait). Sadly, I flipped off the jerk who nearly ran over me today and that’s not a good commentary on my character. He was still a jerk.

2. Chanukah and Arwen. Chanukah starts tomorrow and I think I will save that post for tomorrow when I light the menorah. It’s a story about accepting other faiths and how I came to light a menorah before it was “trendy” in Christian circles.

3. My love of music, especially bluegrass and folk and 70’s rock.

Music won out because I found a nice download of Hoyt Axton songs on eMusic tonight. They could offer more Hoyt Axton, but since I own several LPs, I will forgive them.

I need a turntable. Ours died years ago and we have never replaced it. So my collection of Hoyt Axton languishes on vinyl. I once had a collection of Marty Robbins but I foolishly sold it all to a collector in 1977. His LP “Gunfighter Ballads” was my favorite.

The Internet has done wonders for my music collection and since I discovered eMusic and the ease of downloading… I have begun collecting music again. I can’t believe I let it lapse for so long.

First: a confession. I cannot sing. My voice is hopelessly flat. I can’t even follow someone who can sing. This handicap is not to be confused with “tone deaf”. I am not tone deaf. I most certainly can hear that my voice is flat. I can hear when someone else is off-tune or their instrument is off-key.

I cannot play an instrument. I played clarinet for four years in Middle School and High School. I was an acceptable player. My downfall was marching band. The high school I attended had an amazing marching band that was invited to the Rose Bowl several times before I was a member of the band. They were dedicated. The problem for me lay in the early morning practices on the streets of Ely, Nevada. It would be -10 degrees Fahrenheit and ones’ fingers froze to the metal. Reeds froze. We had to wear dorky uniforms with spats on our shoes.

I took to playing hooky from band (often with my older brother: we got in his Jeep and went exploring White Pine County). My sincerest apologies to William Krch, Band Teacher. Mr. Krch once told me I was a promising clarinet player. I think he was just being nice.

My children can sing and they can play instruments. Arwen has an untrained soprano voice that is quite beautiful to listen to. She picked up the saxophone her first year in band and quickly switched to the clarinet. She made me wish I had kept my clarinet. She was good. She also played percussion at college. Levi picked up the violin and never, ever made a screechy sound with it. Never. Listening to either of them practice was a pleasure.

Listening to me practice was torture.

My lack of talent has never hindered my love of music or my desire to collect music. I want to surround myself in music.

I cannot begin to list the music I love to listen to. I would do the genre a disservice by listing musicians. There are too many. They don’t get radio time, they don’t get Top Billboard press, they don’t get nominations to awards ceremonies. Gillian Welch is great but she isn’t Holly Near a capella (The Mountain Song). Some of the musicians I listen to are known in small circles. Some get air time on websites like http://www.folkalley.com. I sometimes tune in to the Facebook radio station called “Range Radio.” Most don’t make a lot of money. They just make my life enjoyable.

From Brian Grover to Jim Pipkin to Steeleye Span to Danu and Dave Stamey… They make my day. And, hey, throw in a little Jethro Tull and I’m good.

I just want to thank all of the musicians who work so hard. I really appreciate all of you! And trust me – I really can NOT sing but I am not tone- deaf despite what my children think.

(sidenote: when my oldest was 4 years old she declared that I was banned from singing. That is how awful my voice is. And how good her ear is…)

(sidenote #2: when at my family reunion this summer, all my female cousins broke out into spontaneous song. It was awful. It was flat. It was off-tune. I felt at home. It’s genetic…)

You know how sometimes you get into a conversation with someone and they state a “fact” that leaves you scratching your head? And, worse, when you point out their error, they cite some random television program they “learned” that “fact” from? And they’re over the age of 50?

Yeah. I had one of those conversations today.

It started with this brilliant pick sunrise this morning. The “Red sky at morning/Sailor take warning” kind of sunrise. The sun’s rays refracted over the Cascade Mountains and refracted against the low cloud front that was passing through. It was beautiful.

I mentioned it to a coworker. And her reply was nothing of the awe or beauty of the moment, but was simply, “It’s too bad we have so much pollution in our air.”

I had to think: was she talking about the same subject as I was? Pink sunrise, fluffy clouds, refracted light in the atmosphere? A sunrise similar to ones they had thousands of years before air pollution? The kind of sunrise sailors learned to forecast the weather from?

“Um, pollution doesn’t really have anything to do with the sunrise,” I said, confused.

“Oh, yes it does. It makes the sky red.”

OK: smoke from forest fires can make the sun and moon appear red. A smog inversion can create added color to an already vivid sunrise or sunset. But smog is not the cause of pink sunrises or pink sunsets.

She saw it on some television show. No doubt, they explained the whole cause and effect but the show had a slant: air pollution. Therefore, brilliant sunrises and sunsets are the direct result of air pollution.

Even when there’s a front moving through and the sunlight refracts off of the moisture barrier of the clouds. This article from NOAA explains the phenomenon the best. While pollution can play a role, it is most certainly not the cause of a colorful sunrise or sunset. The cause is the angle of the light, the reflection from the clouds, and what color in the prism becomes visible to the human eye (that is to say, what color is reflected off of the cloud and not absorbed).

I walked away from the conversation. I just couldn’t deal with it. But I got to thinking about it on my drive home and I came to the realization that my misinformed friend would love the Rainbow Conspiracy Woman. And I knew that I would have to repost this video.

I wonder if the Rainbow Conspiracy Lady ever watched a beautiful sunrise or sunset and got to thinking about the pollution conspiracy behind those events…??

It only took me a week to get some ornaments on the tree. I decided to leave most of the Christmas boxes unopened this year; I haven’t the energy for it.

No, I am not depressed. I really had hoped to end 2011 with a blaze of Christmas Spirit, more in honor of my mother who passed in 1995 than my dad (who never put up a tree after 1995 and who let the mice eat the rest of Mom’s Christmas stuff in the garage), but I got side-swiped by the flu.

I’m pretty sure it is/was the flu. The doctor’s office refused to set an appointment for me and told me to keep on doing what I have been doing for a week: plenty of fluids, rest, Vitamin C, steam… Ah, yes. I’ve only missed four full days of work and part of one day when I tried to go back to work too soon. But I am going back to work tomorrow. I simply have no more time off left. And I am bored out of my head.

Because my head felt like it was split in two, I have not wrapped my mind around Christmas gifts or cards (I did purchase cards to mail – woo hoo!), and am now in danger of being late for Christmas. Do you realize there are only two weeks left? I feel a certain urgency at hand, like where am I going to get Don’s present (and what am I going to get him)? And will I have time to ship?

And is it important?

No, when I think about it – it is not important. Just like the ornaments and decorations I left in the boxes in the attic, it makes no difference to the season or the celebration. I can be just as happy with little as I can be with much (it’s just that I like the MUCH part of Christmas so). No, what is important is family and friends and health.

Which brings me to the bestest Christmas present I will be getting this year.

It’s grainy, but that is a color sonogram of Baby Girl Presley due sometime next spring. She will be my sixth grandchild.

Excited, we are.  Happy Christmas!

Just to follow up yesterday’s post:

I stayed home from work today. It was a difficult decision to make because I knew I had a lot of work on my desk (all of my work is dead-line related and so needed to be dealt with today) but my doctor is here and my place of employment is 30-40 minutes away. I decided the odds were in favor of being able to get in to see the doctor today and I didn’t want to get to work, call and find out I could get in and then have to drive back home.

I decided it wouldn’t help my blood pressure any.

It turned out to be a good call: I got a morning appointment.

After a brief consult and verification that my home Omron Blood Pressure monitor is, indeed, reading the same as the doctor’s cuff, we discussed my options. My options were: go back on Lisinopril or wait to have a stroke.

Didn’t think too hard on that one!

Looking over my data, the doctor noticed the same thing I did (which is why I printed it out for him): low in the morning, high in the midday, lower in the evening. Most of my doctor appointments over the past 3 years have been in the morning and my blood pressure has always looked pretty normal. The one or two that were in the afternoon showed the same pattern: high.

Conclusion: I need to check my BP in the midday, not in the AM.

My doctor is a pretty cool guy. Unless I notice something else, I won’t have to stop in to see him until late January when I have my annual check-up and renewal of prescriptions for asthma. I am to keep an eye on my BP with my monitor every afternoon.

I picked up my prescription and took my first dose. Already I am feeling better. And my blood pressure has dropped to within the normal range.

Hopefully, it is a crisis averted.

Oh, and in reply to the comments on my first post:

I love Pinterest but I never remember to pin things. It’s one of the few Internet Sites where I do not have to resort to my first/middle name combination for a user ID, so if you want to follow me (like I am so inspiring: NOT): Jaci is my name.

And I will take a flight to Pern after I finish The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo, which is an intense book.

Right now, I am going to do something I love and which totally relaxes me: I am going to go paint.

Meanwhile, check out this guy’s blog: http://blognostifier.blogspot.com

When I grow up, I want to be as funny as he is.

I think this post could be filed under “So what did you do over Thanksgiving weekend?”

On Wednesday, I had a complete melt-down. I think it just really hit me that I was not going to be able to call my dad and yak at him about nothing.

On Thursday, dinner was going to be for three of us: Don & I and a friend Don invited. The friend, as always, was a no-show. He’s been a no-show for years. But we still invite him.

My blood pressure edged into Hypertension on Thursday and I was very thankful I did not have any one else here at home. It hit 167/101. I told Don that if I could not bring it down in a few hours, I wanted to go to the ER. I got it down to something manageable, around 144/98. But I was still pretty scared.

It was 114/70 on Friday morning.

Friday, we were going to go cut down our tree but given the snow levels have fallen below 3,000′ elevation and the type of tree we want grows above 3,000’… We bought a skinny one at a tree lot as they were getting set up.

We braved one store for Black Friday and that was because I needed to use the bathroom. Right. Now. But it was a good thing we did because we found presents for two grandsons. And I didn’t pee my pants.

My blood pressure soared again and I had to rest and bring it down. I’m taking hawthorne berries, living on high potassium and low sodium diet – I haven’t changed anything. I didn’t call my doctor only because I was able to bring it back down.

Saturday, Don left to go on a hike with Murphy. Harvey and I took a long walk in town. I bought groceries and started the process of taking down Thanksgiving decorations. I was tired a lot, so things moved pretty slowly.

I finished the last book in Suzanne Collins’ YA Sci-fi trilogy the Hunger Games series, Mockingjay. It was excellent.

I started reading The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo by Stieg Larsson. It is better than excellent.

My blood pressure continued to go up and down: high in the afternoon, normal in the morning.

Around 5PM yesterday, I received a message from Don that he was stuck in the mountains and wouldn’t be home. Don’t worry: he made it to a cabin with friends, he just wasn’t going to make the 90-minute drive down. So I hijacked his computer and posted some of his photos.

This morning, I decided I wasn’t motivated enough to start decorating the tree even though I had hauled out all the decorations the night before. I wanted to read another chapter in my new book. So I was curled up in the chair when Don came walking in with Murphy.

Walking. Key word.

He made it almost home this morning. The alternator started dying on him before he got to town. He got up the steepest hill, but before he could make the final climb to our house, the Explorer sputtered to a standstill.

I spent my morning waiting for AAA to come tow it home.

At least Don picked the historical section of town to have car troubles in.

He broke down in front of two homes on the National Register of Historical Places.

I say hysterical, you say historical. We used to make our oldest furious with us by deliberately saying hysterical. She’s mellowed with age.

We’re thankful Don spent the night in the mountains instead of trying to drive home in the dark with a dying alternator. We’re also thankful for AAA.

After we towed the rig home, Don removed the serpentine belt and the alternator, and then I took him to Napa Auto Parts. Then home. And while he replaced the alternator and serpentine belt and set the battery up to charge, I actually put out the first round of Christmas lights.

Then it started raining.

Then the boys came over to pick up Roxy.

Do all kids do this? I want to take photos of grandsons, but they have to hold up their toys.

“Take a pitcher of Tomater, Gamma.” Tomater is a word all little boys can say.

“No, I want a photo of you.”

“Oh. OK.” And then he wants me to take a photo of his hat, too. Seriously, Javan?

We were right back to taking pictures of their toys.

Candids work. Here Woody and Buzz Lightyear are having a very serious conversation.

No wonder his kid is chubby! He devours toys, too! Here we see the ‘other’ Woody going feet first to his demise.

I’m thankful for grandchildren.

And that, aside from several loads of dishes and laundry through the respective time-saving devices (dishwasher and clothes washer), was my weekend. (And, boy, howdy! Am I ever thankful for those machines!!)

Tomorrow I go back to work. And I call my doctor to confess my weekend.

(My brother thinks it is residual grief. I’m hoping he’s right, but I think I still need to see the doctor.)

I am sitting at my husband’s computer this evening.

It is always different trying to blog from Don’s computer. None of my photos are stored here. Yes, I could bring a disk down but it really is more fun to look through Don’s photos and post them.

So here are a few of Don’s photos from the past year.

A view of Steens Mountain in October. This is from the French Glen side.

In the middle of a storm, sunlight.

After the storm, a double rainbow over the desert.

Full Hunter’s Moon over the Alvord Desert.

Murphy at the helm.

Not sure if Murphy is just one very tired bird dog or if he’s just ready to drive home.

Closer to home: the Cascades.

Ridge upon ridge rising to Mount Hood.

And on a lighter note, Don likes to take strange photos.

Like this one of me pruning the underside of the rhododendron out front.

<sigh>

This is the mind of my husband.

I love him anyway.