Class Of December 2013 - Part 9
Member
Join Date: May 2008
Location: Australia
Posts: 3,597
Re temps, in my area the annual average low is about 55 and the annual average high is about 75. It's been as hot as 120 in the past few weeks. I'm looking forward to autumn and our nice mild winter :-)
Member
Join Date: May 2008
Location: Australia
Posts: 3,597
Originally Posted by Vet69 
I just finished with the snow thrower while the wife and son shoveled. It's snowing 2 inches an hour. We could get up to 30inches.
This storm will kill people. I'm going bed and it's early. The snow blower awaits me in the morning.
This storm will kill people. I'm going bed and it's early. The snow blower awaits me in the morning.
Whaaaat! 30 inches of snow!! Geez. Hope you are all safe and don't get snowed in for too long.
Member
Join Date: May 2008
Location: Australia
Posts: 3,597
I'm having trouble managing the bunny space. I have the spare room cleared out and set up for the bunnies. I made a barricade across the door so the bunny mama can get in and out but the babies can't. Until yesterday! Pepper managed to escape! And today Ginger got out too. So I have to come up with a better bunny management system. The bathroom is next to the spare room, so I used a small exercise pen I got second hand for $20 to create a barricade so they can move between the bunny room and the bathroom. The pen is about waist height on me, so that should keep them in.
You can see the escapees here. I warn you though that you may die of cuteness.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AnkAyPVqOEo
You can see the escapees here. I warn you though that you may die of cuteness.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AnkAyPVqOEo
Member
Join Date: May 2008
Location: Australia
Posts: 3,597
I think it's just cultural. Rabbits are traditionally raised for meat and not regarded as pets. It's really only a recent development. And an even more recent development that they can be house pets like cats and dogs. They are smart, social, curious, friendly etc. They need things like toys and food puzzles to occupy them so they don't get bored. The bunny mama just follows me around and sits on my feet if I'm standing still for too long. They do like to chew so you have to bunny proof the rooms where the bunny will be. I don't have a lot of clutter so I only had to clear off the bottom shelf of a book shelf and block off access to behind the tv and places where there are cables. They are really sweet pets. Many of them like to sit on your lap and be petted just like a dog or cat.
Member
Join Date: May 2008
Location: Australia
Posts: 3,597
My dad is having surgery day after tomorrow on his right carotid artery. It's apparently 80-90% blocked. It was discovered during an examination for something else, so it was his lucky day I guess.
I have no particular feelings about it. We don't have much of a relationship. I will go to the hospital the day of the surgery to see him prior and to stay with my mum during the surgery. I don't know what happens with his recovery. I assume I'll need to stay there a few days when he comes home so I'll need to get a pet sitter.
I haven't had any income since the end of November. For some reason the person at the insurance company managing my case went on leave and no one picked up my case. It's taken ages to get anyone to answer my calls and emails but finally I got the forms sent to me, got my dr to fill them out and sent them back in so hopefully this week or next week I will get a big fat back payment. I am living off my salary continuance insurance while this neck thing gets sorted out.
I have no particular feelings about it. We don't have much of a relationship. I will go to the hospital the day of the surgery to see him prior and to stay with my mum during the surgery. I don't know what happens with his recovery. I assume I'll need to stay there a few days when he comes home so I'll need to get a pet sitter.
I haven't had any income since the end of November. For some reason the person at the insurance company managing my case went on leave and no one picked up my case. It's taken ages to get anyone to answer my calls and emails but finally I got the forms sent to me, got my dr to fill them out and sent them back in so hopefully this week or next week I will get a big fat back payment. I am living off my salary continuance insurance while this neck thing gets sorted out.
waking down
Join Date: Dec 2013
Posts: 4,641
Hope all's well with you and your dad, TL. Crazy snow in PA, no? My sister is in Arlington; she says they got two feet. They were wise enough to stock up on provisions before the storm hit. She says they ain't going nowhere.
I spent the weekend at a meditation retreat. The first night was just registration, and a couple of hours of meditation and talk/discussion. Saturday and Sunday were eight hours each of mostly sitting meditation broken up by walking meditation, some talks/discussion, a little light and much-needed yoga, and short visits with an instructor. I would say we spent at least ten or twelve hours in sitting meditation. Saturday morning was painful. Just cramping and couldn't get comfortable sitting. At home I start feeling pain after about 20 minutes, so you can imagine four hours. After lunch, though, I somehow worked through it, and Saturday afternoon and Sunday morning were awesome. Emotional but awesome. Sunday afternoon was weird because a bar across the street was rowdy during the Bronco/Patriots game, so it was hard not to wonder what the cheering was about. I learned later it was 20-18 Broncos. I'm kind of a fan but I had decided I wanted to do the retreat and I figured I definitely didn't want to see them lose to the Patriots, and if the Broncos won I'll get to see them in the Superbowl (in which my guess is they will be annihilated by Carolina).
Anyway, I had a kind of vision or analogy some of you mindful recovery types might find interesting. I started meditating mostly to try to deal with anxiety and to stabilize my moods. My monkey mind was manic, not unlike a rapid film montage (think Koyaanisqatsi in fast motion: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QSTTOO5-xSI). Meditation helped me slow the film and create spaces between the cuts, but then I started to realize the screen was transparent, and behind that screen hangs another screen, laden with more imagery, darker imagery, shadow self mixed with traumatic images from my past that had been buried behind the surface monkey mind. In other words, as I slowed the surface activity of my mind, that which I had been so busy trying not to remember and not to face kept emerging with increasing vividness and power.
Without alcohol or other drugs, and by slowing down my mind through meditation, I had to confront that darker, long hidden screen. That's where I am today. That's my challenge.
I spent the weekend at a meditation retreat. The first night was just registration, and a couple of hours of meditation and talk/discussion. Saturday and Sunday were eight hours each of mostly sitting meditation broken up by walking meditation, some talks/discussion, a little light and much-needed yoga, and short visits with an instructor. I would say we spent at least ten or twelve hours in sitting meditation. Saturday morning was painful. Just cramping and couldn't get comfortable sitting. At home I start feeling pain after about 20 minutes, so you can imagine four hours. After lunch, though, I somehow worked through it, and Saturday afternoon and Sunday morning were awesome. Emotional but awesome. Sunday afternoon was weird because a bar across the street was rowdy during the Bronco/Patriots game, so it was hard not to wonder what the cheering was about. I learned later it was 20-18 Broncos. I'm kind of a fan but I had decided I wanted to do the retreat and I figured I definitely didn't want to see them lose to the Patriots, and if the Broncos won I'll get to see them in the Superbowl (in which my guess is they will be annihilated by Carolina).
Anyway, I had a kind of vision or analogy some of you mindful recovery types might find interesting. I started meditating mostly to try to deal with anxiety and to stabilize my moods. My monkey mind was manic, not unlike a rapid film montage (think Koyaanisqatsi in fast motion: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QSTTOO5-xSI). Meditation helped me slow the film and create spaces between the cuts, but then I started to realize the screen was transparent, and behind that screen hangs another screen, laden with more imagery, darker imagery, shadow self mixed with traumatic images from my past that had been buried behind the surface monkey mind. In other words, as I slowed the surface activity of my mind, that which I had been so busy trying not to remember and not to face kept emerging with increasing vividness and power.
Without alcohol or other drugs, and by slowing down my mind through meditation, I had to confront that darker, long hidden screen. That's where I am today. That's my challenge.
waking down
Join Date: Dec 2013
Posts: 4,641
I got interrupted. So here's the thing: The instructor at this retreat spoke of the meditation process as a kind of peeling the onion. As the layers get peeled away, eventually we come to the center, which is basic goodness. In my analogy above I think about peeling the rapid montage and finding the horror show behind it. As I peel away that horror show - the trauma - the wrongs I've done and those done to me - I'm finding that basic goodness.
Another thing I really liked in the class was the idea of feeling the breath during meditation massaging the heart. There was a quote from Chogyam Trungpa about taking fear and placing it in the cradle of loving kindness. I liked that a lot. I envisioned embracing my fear and placing it in my heart, which is the cradle of loving kindness, and then rocking it to sleep with a sweet lullaby, each breath bringing more calm, more rest.
We also discussed Trungpa's analogy of the cocoon - that we tend to wrap ourselves in cocoons to protect us from the world. A warrior, he says, breaks out of the cocoon and faces life as it is with fearlessness. Alcohol makes a nice fuzzy cocoon, but a cocoon is not much protection. We can hide, but in the long run we must emerge or we starve in there. And we are transformed from the worm that created the cocoon into the brilliance of a monarch. And yes, we take flight, fully vulnerable and certainly heading toward eventual destruction, but the flight is well worth it.
Yes, I'm a nut.
Another thing I really liked in the class was the idea of feeling the breath during meditation massaging the heart. There was a quote from Chogyam Trungpa about taking fear and placing it in the cradle of loving kindness. I liked that a lot. I envisioned embracing my fear and placing it in my heart, which is the cradle of loving kindness, and then rocking it to sleep with a sweet lullaby, each breath bringing more calm, more rest.
We also discussed Trungpa's analogy of the cocoon - that we tend to wrap ourselves in cocoons to protect us from the world. A warrior, he says, breaks out of the cocoon and faces life as it is with fearlessness. Alcohol makes a nice fuzzy cocoon, but a cocoon is not much protection. We can hide, but in the long run we must emerge or we starve in there. And we are transformed from the worm that created the cocoon into the brilliance of a monarch. And yes, we take flight, fully vulnerable and certainly heading toward eventual destruction, but the flight is well worth it.
Yes, I'm a nut.
Member
Join Date: Feb 2014
Location: kingston ontario canada
Posts: 656
Definitely a nut, Zero.
But actually a pretty insightful nut. My experience is that the nuts really have their fingers on the pulse. On many pulses, I think. On too many pulses, I think: thus the nuttiness.
You're a pretty grounded nut, though.
And I thank you for the story of your weekend, and what came out of it for you. Very interesting stuff. The curtains, the screens, the fear guided to the heart. hmmm. Keep it up!
My weekend was considerably more mundane. House cleaning. Reading another Harry Bosch mystery, which taught me a little about the risks of cesium being used in a dirty bomb. Got a facetime call from my son, who'd slipped down to the Bahamas for a weekend with some friends. Nothing like a real time view of a warm ocean lapping waves onto a sunny beach when the view out your actual window is largely white and windblown. Small world.
Hope all goes well with your father's surgery, TL. Those parental ties are deeper than we know.
But actually a pretty insightful nut. My experience is that the nuts really have their fingers on the pulse. On many pulses, I think. On too many pulses, I think: thus the nuttiness.
You're a pretty grounded nut, though.
And I thank you for the story of your weekend, and what came out of it for you. Very interesting stuff. The curtains, the screens, the fear guided to the heart. hmmm. Keep it up!
My weekend was considerably more mundane. House cleaning. Reading another Harry Bosch mystery, which taught me a little about the risks of cesium being used in a dirty bomb. Got a facetime call from my son, who'd slipped down to the Bahamas for a weekend with some friends. Nothing like a real time view of a warm ocean lapping waves onto a sunny beach when the view out your actual window is largely white and windblown. Small world.
Hope all goes well with your father's surgery, TL. Those parental ties are deeper than we know.
Member
Join Date: May 2008
Location: Australia
Posts: 3,597
sounds like a transformative experience zero.
spent the day at the hospital. took my mum in early enough to see dad before they took him in for surgery. we waited until he was done to make sure he was ok and then I took her home. he is in ICU so they wouldn't let us stay for any length of time. he's fine, despite his grumpy old man gloom and doom and funeral planning.
spent the day at the hospital. took my mum in early enough to see dad before they took him in for surgery. we waited until he was done to make sure he was ok and then I took her home. he is in ICU so they wouldn't let us stay for any length of time. he's fine, despite his grumpy old man gloom and doom and funeral planning.
Member
Join Date: May 2008
Location: Australia
Posts: 3,597
Yup. Every day of his life. Mum is even worse.
Dad is very confused and having hallucinations. We visited with him twice today. He is still in ICU and is confused about where he is. The dr said he is fine. The nurses in ICU said the confusion is normal in elderly people who have had deep anesthetic and should clear up in a day or two, but he's also had sedatives as he is very agitated. So basically he is high. He's not making much sense and it's hard to understand what he is saying. He seemed to recognise me but either doesn't recognise mum or is ignoring her.
I thought we were going to sit with him through visiting hours but mum wanted to leave "because we aren't doing much good" so I took her home. I think it was just upsetting to her that he didn't recognise or acknowledge her. She's pretty self-obsessed and was taking it personally. I couldn't get it thorugh to her that he was affected by the anaesthetic and sedatives. She has decided he's now senile or has dementia or something and that's all there is to it. She called my brother and told him not to visit tonight. She said "well he'll be glad he doesn't have to go now." I was like why would he be glad? You think he doesn't want to see his father? She makes me nuts. Everything is about her, how it affects her etc. She doesn't have much empathy. She also doesn't like it when other people are ill as it takes the attention away from her. She has several chronic illnesses. Even when the nurse came to take dad's blood pressure, she started telling him about her blood pressure issues. She didn't even ask what the results were. She kept badgering him and asking him questions and getting upset because he wouldn't speak to her or be able to answer the question. I just wanted to tell her to STFU for pity's sake. Let the man RECOVER from his surgery before you have to be the centre of his attention again. jebus.
Dad is very confused and having hallucinations. We visited with him twice today. He is still in ICU and is confused about where he is. The dr said he is fine. The nurses in ICU said the confusion is normal in elderly people who have had deep anesthetic and should clear up in a day or two, but he's also had sedatives as he is very agitated. So basically he is high. He's not making much sense and it's hard to understand what he is saying. He seemed to recognise me but either doesn't recognise mum or is ignoring her.
I thought we were going to sit with him through visiting hours but mum wanted to leave "because we aren't doing much good" so I took her home. I think it was just upsetting to her that he didn't recognise or acknowledge her. She's pretty self-obsessed and was taking it personally. I couldn't get it thorugh to her that he was affected by the anaesthetic and sedatives. She has decided he's now senile or has dementia or something and that's all there is to it. She called my brother and told him not to visit tonight. She said "well he'll be glad he doesn't have to go now." I was like why would he be glad? You think he doesn't want to see his father? She makes me nuts. Everything is about her, how it affects her etc. She doesn't have much empathy. She also doesn't like it when other people are ill as it takes the attention away from her. She has several chronic illnesses. Even when the nurse came to take dad's blood pressure, she started telling him about her blood pressure issues. She didn't even ask what the results were. She kept badgering him and asking him questions and getting upset because he wouldn't speak to her or be able to answer the question. I just wanted to tell her to STFU for pity's sake. Let the man RECOVER from his surgery before you have to be the centre of his attention again. jebus.
Currently Active Users Viewing this Thread: 1 (0 members and 1 guests)
