Things to Try

Meridians and Qi

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Meridian, Idaho

So yesterday was my first full day after my first acupuncture session.

I was amazed at how well my shoulder felt until late last night. Pain was significantly reduced.

A side benefit was that the whooshing noise my tinnitus makes was reduced by about 25% for one night, and a bit less the second night.

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The actual acupuncture went well. It was relaxing and I only felt a couple of the two dozen or so needless go in.

As Rachel put them in, she pops the top of the needle holder a bit. I think that makes them slide right in.

I laid on the table with the needles in place for twenty minutes. I was extremely relaxed and almost fell asleep because of the relaxing music playing and the warmth from a heat lamp.

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Acupuncture is based on using needles to stimulate qi (or chi) through your body along pathways called meridians.

The belief is that illness or pain occurs when those pathways are blocked. Acupuncture is a way to unblock or influence chi and help it flow back into balance.

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Most who practice and receive acupuncture say it takes a series of visits to reap benefits. And I get that. My situation didn’t arise overnight, and I don’t expect it to heal overnight.

I have a few more scheduled, but I’m sitting on the fence trying to decide if I want to go back.

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I just feel like finding the right Amma massage therapist might be better for me.

Amma provides both the qi stimulations with the muscle manipulations that my body seems to prefer.

Food, Things to Try

It’s Kind of Great

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Meridian, Idaho

I went to an acupuncturist yesterday (more about that in tomorrow’s post), and one of the first things she said to me after “Hello!” was, “You’re consuming too much sugar.”

And I was like, “Well, duh!” 🙂

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She’s right. I do eat too much sugar. So I’m going to cut back, but I won’t go cold turkey.

As I wean myself off of the hard stuff, I’ll have one of these now and then…

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They are quite yummy. I first found them at least 18 months ago at an Albertson’s here in Boise. But since then they are EVERYWHERE!

There are lots of different flavors, and some of them have only five grams of sugar! Woohoo!

5-grams-of-sugarIn comparison, two Oreo cookies have nearly three times that amount.

And the Kind bars are full of nuts with fiber and protein so they are actually even more filling than Oreos.

Oh, and you can even buy Kind bars on amazon.com with free shipping if you have a prime account.

There are a variety of flavors and sizes to suit most everyone’s taste buds.

Happy Snacking!

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Things to Try

Pins and Needles

4 Comments

Meridian, Idaho

As you read this Gentle Blog Reader, I will be getting my first acupuncture treatment.

I’m hoping to get relief from pain in my left shoulder blade.

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It’s a recurring problem that I’ve finally had enough of so I’m desperate to try something new.

Acupuncture has been around for centuries.

From the Mayo Clinic

Acupuncture involves the insertion of extremely thin needles through your skin at strategic points on your body. A key component of traditional Chinese medicine, acupuncture is most commonly used to treat pain.

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Traditional Chinese medicine explains acupuncture as a technique for balancing the flow of energy or life force — known as qi or chi (CHEE) — believed to flow through pathways (meridians) in your body. By inserting needles into specific points along these meridians, acupuncture practitioners believe that your energy flow will re-balance.

In contrast, many Western practitioners view the acupuncture points as places to stimulate nerves, muscles and connective tissue. Some believe that this stimulation boosts your body’s natural painkillers and increases blood flow.

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If it helps, I don’t really care how it works. I’ll just be glad it did.

I’ve talked with a few who have had it done. They report positive results. Not miracles, but improvements.

I’ve done a bit of research. Some people feel relaxed after treatment; some feel jazzed.

I will let you know how it goes…

Cerebrations, People

You Play Well — for a Guy

4 Comments

Meridian, Idaho

I had a fabulous time playing pickleball yesterday morning.

Even Henry couldn’t spoil my fun.

Henry, not his real name, is a great player and an interesting man. He used to be an accountant for a Fortune 500 company. He retired, grew bored, and started several businesses. Sold them and retired again.

Henry and his wife celebrated their 56th wedding anniversary yesterday.

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They spend their summers in Boise in their house on a golf course, and they spend their winters in their 50′ motor home on a golf course in Palm Springs.

I like Henry. He’s fun to play with. We’ve had some interesting discussions.

But Henry is a misogynist, and he doesn’t even know it. Nearly everything that comes out of his mouth is derogatory towards women.

For example, he asked Mary, his playing partner for one game,  the score. She told him. He then asked Bill, his opponent, across the court, “Is that REALLY the score, Bill?”

Today I was his playing partner for one game, and we played against Jim and Judy. Jim and Judy beat us by a couple of points. As we all walked off the court, Henry told Judy and me, “You know, you both play very well, for girls.”

In his mid-seventies, Henry grew up in another time.

But unlike most people his age, part of Henry didn’t change with time.

Part of the reason I like Henry is because I’m not around him for long periods of time. If I had to work with or for Henry, there would be problems…

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Part of me is really thinking about telling Henry, “You know, you play really well for a man.”

Henry won’t get it, but Judy and I will. 🙂

Music

It’s the Boz!

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Meridian, Idaho

My favorite musical artist ever is Boz Scaggs.

bozI think I’ve been to less than a dozen concerts in my life, and over half of those were his. Amazing concerts. No chit chat, just song after song after song…

Carol and I even went to see him at The Mountain Winery (formerly Paul Masson) in Saratoga, California–the most scenic backdrop I’ve ever been to for a concert.

mountain-winery-headerRecently, Boz came out with a new CD: A Fool to Care. I was surprised because his most recent CD, Memphis, came out only two years ago.  (He once went nearly ten years between CDs. Painful for his fans…)

A Fool to Care is similar to Memphis in that the music is very different from his previous work. Very smooth jazz with a twang that’s hard to describe–part country, part Cajun, part ???

My favorite song of his from all time is Harbor Lights, but there’s a cover of a Rick Danko and Bobby Charles song, Small Town Talk, written in the early 1970’s on this new album that moving up close to number one.

Here’s an unplugged version for you to enjoy…

Small Town Talk

It’s all small town talk, you know how people are
They can’t stand to see, someone else doing what they like to
It’s all small town talk, you mustn’t pay no mind
Don’t believe a word, they try to do it everytime

You can’t believe everything you hear
And only half of what you see
And if you’re gonna believe in anyone
You gotta believe in me

It’s all small town talk, it’s well known fact
You don’t ever know, how one might react to what you’re thinking
And it’s small town talk, they tell alot of lies
Make some people crazy never realize that they’re sinking

We’re only two people, trying to live together
Trying to make something work
Who are we to judge one another?
That could cause alot of hurt

It’s all small town talk, you know how people are
They can’t stand to see, someone else doing what they want to
It’s all small town talk, you mustn’t pay no mind
Don’t believe a word, they try to do it everytime

Things to Try

Oh My Gourd!

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Meridian, Idaho

Last week I had a wonderful visit with my great friend Sharon. First we chatted and chatted, solving all the world’s problems.

Then she taught me how to carve gourds. Well, actually she gave me an introductory lesson. I need to practice, a lot, before I move on to more difficult gourd patterns.

And I don’t think if I practice 40 hours a week, I’ll ever do work as beautiful as Sharon does. Here are a few of her pieces.

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The detail on all of her work is stunning.

I’m a sucker for leaves, and I would steal the leaf globe if I thought I could get away with it.  🙂

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Sharon also makes the most amazing thunder gourds. Here’s hers. 
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And here’s the one she gave us that I just LOVE.

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And here’s what thunder gourds sound like:

So here are the basics on how to carve gourds. Sharon has a special wood working tool that is basically like a dentist’s drill–high speed and with a foot pedal to make it go super, super fast.

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She holds the drill like a pencil and creates shapes. Oh, and she makes it look really easy, but it’s not. 🙂

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Once a hole is cut into the gourd, all the innards are pulled out. It’s a bit tricky because you have to stir inside the gourd to loosen the fibers and then use tweezers to pull those fibers out the hole.

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Sharon then let me take a turn on the drill. 0529151416

I tried to guide it, but like a Ouija Board pointer the drill had a mind of its own. 0529151415c

At this point of my tutorial, I figured it knew better than I did. 0529151415b


Tom and Martha, our wonderful friends in Fallon, gave us a bunch of gourds. I was supposed to give them to one of my sisters who does gourd work, but I kept them for us to experiment on. (She needs bigger gourds for her pieces. More about her work in another post.)

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My hope is to make light covers for some solar lights that I recently bought.

Here’s the first prototype…

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Cerebrations, Places, Wow!

40! FORTY! XL! 40!

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Barcelona, Spain by way of Meridian, Idaho

Our son, Rich, is in Barcelona, Spain, watching a football game. Not American football, but European football–soccer!

He was scheduled to be in Germany for work meetings, so why not schedule in a visit to some friends in Finland before and a soccer match in Spain after and somehow only take one day of vacation leave…

You can follow along on his travels if you want by taking a look at his blog:  http://gettoyouthcrew.blogspot.com/

Here is one of my favorite pictures of him traveling while hiking the Annapurna Circuit in Nepal:

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Yesterday’s post listed highlights of each visit to 39 different countries in a little over 14 years. When he landed in Spain yesterday, it became his 40th country!

I’m biased because I’m his mother, but I love yesterday’s post and copied it here…

40! FORTY! XL! 40!

14 years, 2 months, and just about 2 weeks ago I set foot in a foreign country for the first time when I went to Jamaica for spring break. Today, I’m visiting my 40th country.

It is mind boggling to me that I’ve now been to 40 different countries. It’s almost unbelievable to me that I have been to 40 different countries in just over 14 years.

Over the last ~5192 days, I have been to a new country every ~130 days. That’s…huh. Wow.

I’ve been thinking back to some memories from my travels…

Jamaica – a foam party on the beach is just gross

Canada – watching Rob get pulled out of the bathroom at the border for using the facilities without permission

Australia – didn’t get punched by the guard at the American embassy for acting out a scene from the Simpsons

New Zealand – still not sure how I convinced myself to go bungee jumping

Germany – the feeling of “what do I do with this information?” when the guy making my döner kebab told me that Mohammed Atta was a regular in his shop

Czech Republic – the shockingly violent religious art everywhere…so many beheading statues

Switzerland – Zurich is the closest I’ve felt to home outside of Seattle

Austria – renting an apartment for Xmas and cooking Xmas dinner with some fellow grad school students

The Netherlands – “and we shall enter the night”

Poland – Lela probably coming closer to murdering Rob, Ben, and I for speaking in whisper voices the entire weekend than we knew

Italy – deep fried calzones

Vatican City – did you know there’s such a thing as purple marble?

Greece – “and then you just drive to the Meteora”

The UK – torturing my mom with 5 goodbyes as we dealt with constantly re-scheduled flights due to an air traffic control system failure

Ireland – the picture I have of my mom smiling at me while biking up a hill (and I’m pretty sure cursing me for taking her picture at that time)

France – I walked across the border from Germany and they didn’t hand the country over to me, did I do something wrong?

Iceland – Megan finding a natural hot spring on the northern coast where it was possible to be both in the hot spring and the Arctic Sea/northern Atlantic at the same time

Belize – exploring the ATM cave and in the process destroying a pair of socks

Guatemala – being inside a 19 seat minibus with 25 other people (though traveling with 26 others because 1 guy was on the roof) and riding that minibus on a ferry across a very large river that was powered by 4 outboard motors attached to 55 gallon barrels welded to the side of the barge with “pilots” inside  of them

Ethiopia – I saw the building the Ark of the Covenant is in (according to the guy who runs the church who is the only guy allowed to see the Ark)

Kenya – hot air balloon ride over the Maasai Mara that finished with a champagne breakfast

Egypt – the air inside the pyramids is very ammonia-y

Norway – trying to hike through a snowstorm and eventually being smrt enough to give up and go back when the snow got to be over a foot deep (in August!)

Slovenia – getting lost while hiking to Bobotov Kuk and as a result having a much longer and much more rewarding hike with even better views…and still ending up at the top of Bobotov Kuk

Croatia – the guy walking the city walls who had an Adele song as his ringtone on the loudest setting ever…and also had zero fucks to give about it

Bosnia-Hercegovina – everyone in the stores was buying cigarettes. Everyone. Didn’t see a single person ever NOT buy cigarettes

Montenegro –  in the Prokletije mountains, one of the most remote mountain ranges in Europe…on the last day of my trip I run into a person with an Amgen backpack

Argentina – on a trip where I’d be spending 1/3 of the trip in my tent, and on the first day of summer in Patagonia, my first night in the tent…there’s a blizzard

Chile – returning from a brutal hike over slippery rocks in the pouring rain to find that a fox had ripped into all of our tents

(Antarctica) – penguins smell like shit

Uruguay – the sad horse that stared at the horse racing track 10 ft beyond his fence

Finland – eating sausages that were cooked in the sauna right next to a couple of naked bodies

Estonia – I ate bear. Do not eat bear.

Nepal – the best $160 I will ever spend in my life. Everest brought me to tears.

Malaysia – seeing a peacock mantis shrimp while diving in Borneo

Indonesia – nearly stepping on a spitting cobra while walking around looking at Komodo dragons

Singapore – black pepper crab

Panama – having a cop stop me on the street, point in the direction I was walking, say “no,” and put me in a cab because the neighborhood was too dangerous at 10:30 AM for a white person

Costa Rica – after the horribly long day of crossing the border from Panama and getting caught in some amazing  rain…getting to town and finding out the hostel we were trying to book didn’t actually exist

Luxembourg – the care that went into making sure the American memorial cemetery was the cleanest place I’ve ever seen

Spain…

People Are Good

Come From Away

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Meridian, Idaho

Thanks to my sister Joanne for alerting me to this story!

There’s a play that has been touring around the U.S. that sounds very interesting and is a testament to how people are so good.

Read about the play.

comefromawayCome From Away tells the true story of when seven thousand people landed on the doorstep of Gander, Newfoundland, because planes were diverted immediately after the 9/11 terrorist attacks.

Thirty eight planes from around the world landed there and nearly doubled the population from about 10,000 to nearly 17,000.

The people of Gander “put the kettle on.” While the world witnessed the worst acts of humankind, the stranded passengers in Gander had their faith in humanity restored by the spirited people who comforted those who had come from away.

There have been books written about all that happened in Gander, including The Day the World Came to Town. (Which I just ordered! 🙂 )

Gander

The play is a musical written by Irene Sankoff and her husband, David Hein. They interviewed thousands of people all over the world over the course of a year before they wrote the play.

While the idea of writing a play about giving others sandwiches and a place to stay might not seem like a good idea, the authors drill down to the stories behind the story.

For example, the chairman of Hugo Boss, a German luxury fashion and style house, went to Walmart to buy underwear.

And Oz Fudge, the town constable, searched all over Gander for a flight-crew member so that he could give her a hug as a favor to her sister, a fellow law enforcement officer who managed to reach him by phone.

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If the play comes here, I will definitely see it.

In the meantime, I can’t wait to start reading the book, loving every minute of affirming that People are Good!

Cerebrations, People Are Good

What Would You Do with What’s in the Briefcase?

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Meridian, Idaho

Last night we watched the premiere episode of CBS’s The Briefcase.

Two hard working lower-middle class American families are given a briefcase containing $101,000 and are told they can keep all the money or give all or some of it to another family in need. What neither family knows is that the other family is going through the same decision about giving money to them!

Actually they only need to decide about $100,000 because they are told that they have to spend $1000 right away.  🙂

Spending $1000 right away wouldn’t be hard.

Deciding to GIVE total strangers all, part, or none of $100,000 that someone just GAVE you would be very hard!

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The Bergin and the Bronson families surprised us with their decisions.

Joe Bergin, 49, and his wife, Kim, 43, and their three teenage daughters from Matthews, North Carolina, were facing financial struggles. Joe had a heart attack over ten years ago, was laid off his salesman job soon after that, and had to put his ice-cream truck business on hold due to medical issues from a car crash. They have no health insurance.
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 The Bronson family were also facing financial struggles. Dave, 32, is an Iraq war hero who lost his leg in combat. He has had over 30 surgeries to date and will likely need more. He is unable to work at this time. His wife, Cara, 30, works full time as a nurse and was a month away from delivering their second child at the time the couple faced their decision about the money.
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Can you imagine if someone showed up on your doorstep with a briefcase full of one hundred dollar bills?
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I’m not going to spoil the outcome for you in case you decide to watch the show yourself.

I will say that the dialogues between the couples and  between Rich and I were fascinating. There was some (what I thought was) gender role reversal. And both couples surprised their spouses many times throughout the 72 hour decision-making process.

According to People magazine:

The families have stayed in contact since the taping and say they’ve even become friends: “We talk to them a couple times a week,” says Kim, who adds that she and Joe planed a big viewing party for the series premiere.

“I would do the show again in a heartbeat,” Cara says. “We don’t regret our decision at all.”

I’m not sure I’m going to watch any more episodes, but I am glad I watched this first one.

Memories

A Picture is Worth…

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Meridian, Idaho

I’m sure y’all have heard the saying, “A picture is worth a thousand words.”

A_picture_is_worth_a_thousand_wordsI’ve seen some amazing images lately, so I thought I’d post a few of them here today instead of typing a couple thousand words. 🙂

These pictures were all taken from Huffington Post’s article on a Hawaiian celebration of Memorial Day. 

As Memorial Day turned to dusk, more than 42,000 people gathered in Honolulu to send 6,000 floating, candlelit lanterns out into the ocean. Each one contained a handwritten note, prayer or photo and was dedicated to a loved one who has passed away.

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