Fubarcdn

I love your pictures Phal. It must be nice to have all of that beautiful scenery nearby.
I am thinking of taking up picture taking myself. I may turn in my Polaroid and get a digital camera. My picture collection pretty much stopped when my kids hit the teen years.

desertdonna

All of your pictures make me drool, Phal! Hope you have a great hike.

There's an SR photo thread down in the cafe. It'd be great if you posted some pics there, too. Spread the talent around!

Hugs,

Donna

jamdls

Great photo Phal! I'd have even more trouble getting up an going to work and sites like that were near me.
I'm having a lousy day/week all I've wanted to do all week is sleep most every part of my body aches and I've been to 2 doctors and had all kinds of tests run and they don't know what's wrong with me, didn't go to work at all yesterday and might as well not be here today because I can't concentrate on anything. I know I'll go home after work and most likely stay in bed all weekend. I swear I've had more health issues since I quit drinking than I ever did before and that is just wrong.

Judy

gneiss

It might be ok.

I have been feeling very depressed lately, obviously. Today I thought I might need a change of scenery so I headed to T-town. It was nice to be in a different place for a while. Really I just goofed around, went shopping at Whole Foods, played music way too loud on my stereo, and took a walk around the campus of my alma mater. I felt better, more relaxed. More at peace, sorta like I'd come home. I've never felt at home where I live now, it's always felt temporary... since 2003!! Tulsa's a great city though; I moved there knowing not a soul in the city and moved away with the best friends I've ever had.

I've continued my walking (did I mention that??). I finally stopped by the park office and got a map of the hiking trails at the lake. There are two 7.5 mile trails and two 6-mile trails. My walking buddy is gone tomorrow but I might try a 7.5 mile on my own anyway. I've walked almost 20 miles in the last week or so and I'm surprised at how exhausted I am... gawd I'm out of shape!! But got some cool photos that I will post after I sleep.

And... I don't really buy into the whole, "everything happens for a reason" thing, but last night a friend texted me. I was feeling really down and he was, too. He's been a 30-pack-a-night drinker for about 4 years now. And he told me he wasn't sure he could get clean. He thought it was impressive that I have done so well, and we talked for a while about his alcohol/drug problem. I came away with the feeling that he needs someone to believe in him, so I told him I believe he can do it. I know that really helped me, just having someone who thought I could be successful. The conversation made me feel like there was a bit of a point to all my drug b.s. Maybe if I could give him a little nudge in the right direction my own personal hell has a point. And that made me feel a lot better.

Here's my theme song for the last few days (youtube disabled embedding on this one so if you're curious you'll have to follow the link):
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=joT-B9apWQU

shockozulu

Just having trouble sleeping the last few weeks. Tonight is not exception. Off to sleep (I hope) now at 4 am. Wish me luck!

gneiss

Hope you got some sleep, Alera. I've been getting about 3 or 4 hours per night. I hate taking sleeping meds but sometimes it seems like the only way I will get to sleep. I take one instead of the recommended 2 and never more than one night at a time. Perhaps a bit overboard, but no way I am risking another drug addiction.

jamdls

This has been a good weekend for me. I took a step, what felt like a big step to me; I used to go to this little Italian restaurant a lot and get take out then I would go right across the street from the restaurant and get a bottle or 3 of wine to go with the food then go home and have my party for 1. I had not been back to this restaurant since I got sober 9-1-07, I couldn't imagine having a nice pasta dinner w/o the wine. Well Friday night I ordered my spaghetti dinner, pulled out of the parking lot facing the beer/wine store, drove right past it and came home and had a really nice party for 1 WITHOUT the wine! The food tasted just as good if not better! Yesterday I spent nearly 5 hours planting 52! flowers, cleaning up leaves in the yard, and putting down some more grass seed in the spots I missed a couple of weeks ago. I am soooooo sore from all the yard work but at least I understand these aches... I even got to babysit my grandson last night for a couple of hours. I'm happy today, cleaned the house this morning and I'm going to the grocery store and I'm going to fix myself a dinner later. It seems likely that my aches and pains are a vitamin D deficiency, I do not eat well at all and I'm changing that. I still appreciate that I get to spend weekend WITHOUT hangovers!

gneiss

Gawd, jamdls, isn't it great?!

I did a 7.5 mile walk yesterday (I think my poor dog wanted to murder me, I've never made her walk that far before... plus I doubt she appreciated the tick bath when we got home). Never could have done that with a hangover. Never would have crossed my mind to do it while I was drinking, actually. Walk? I'd walk from the apartment to my car. Or my car to the liquor store (and if I had to do 3 circuits of the parking lot to get a good spot, so be it). I had a great time yesterday, aside from pulling ticks off myself left, right, and center-- guess I'd better get some insect repellent before I go out today. Today I think I might try a shorter path. There are two 6-mile loops I have not tried yet. It's nice to go outside and do stuff. I feel human again.

gneiss

I like to think I'm an intelligent person but every once in a while something comes along to make me question that.

Mongo

Hmm..

Another one of them five dollar words.

From Wiki

The concept of a homunculus (Latin for "little human", plural "homunculi"; the diminutive of homo, "human") is, most generally, any representation of a human being. It is often used to illustrate the functioning of a system. In the scientific sense of an unknowable prime actor, it can be viewed as an entity or agent.

Uh Huh

Anyway, haven't posted in a while but doing great.

Keep well

Ron

Sorry 'bout the finger, Phal

gneiss

So that's a five-dollar word to describe the concept of the angel and the demon sitting on your shoulders.



"Whoa. My shoulder angel."

paulmh

The definition of alcoholic -

You've got a devil sitting on your shoulder saying "**** it, lets just get drunk. You don't want to worry about all that ****. Get one down your neck and we'll worry about all that other stuff some other time!"

On the other shoulder is your angel. It says -

"I'd have to agree".

gneiss

I like that, but I'm not sure I agree. It actually works pretty well for my alcohol use: I'd happily drink whatever was available without any conflicting emotion. But I can't extrapolate it to other drug use. I recall exactly one time that I did not feel conflicted about doing meth. The first time I didn't *want* to do it but I thought I'd see what it was like, mostly I was curious. A couple weeks later I tried it again because I was having a pretty major personal crisis and I thought it would keep my mind off of it for a little while, and for a few weeks after that I kept using even though I knew it was a bad idea. And then one evening, after using for about 3 weeks, I realized I couldn't stop. With the exception of that one night when I just wanted to get high and forget the world, I always had my shoulder angel telling me not to do it. But gawd the shoulder devil was a handsome and persuasive fellow.

lunarise

hey peeps~

Yeah its active again...I think everyone was napping there for a while. lol

HUGE :ghug

Things on this end are good....did a day at the coast...a day at home...

I am so excited...we are remodeling our bathroom! Well we are gonna anyway! The stand up shower is so small you wouldnt even believe it! YEAH!

Hope everyone is having a fab day! Mucho :ghug3 s

gneiss

Posting some pics I promised. Not much of a photographer but I had fun anyway.


My puppy


Welcome to Oklahoma


Random snake that I almost stepped on

gneiss

A few more pics...


King Snake


Random lakiness


Tarantula

gneiss

Last ones...


Copperhead


Storm rolling in

gneiss

It's ok Phal. The tarantula is completely harmless, they'll crawl on you if you let them and they're friendly. The king snake is harmless, I don't know what the unnamed snake was but he wasn't venemous. Copperhead though... that was cool. My dog scared him out, and he struck at me a couple times while I was trying to get that photo. And they're venomous. It was cool.

gneiss

No, I don't catch snakes. First of all, I am afraid I'd hurt the snake because I'd be worried about it getting away so it could bite me so I might hold its throat too tight or something. Snakes have delicate bones. Second, occasionally you get a snake that does not have the pronounced triangular head so it can be hard to tell if they are venomous... not a mistake I care to make!

Tarantulas don't generally hurt people, the ones we have here aren't even dangerous to humans so no worries there. And snakes are defensive biters. They'd rather just slither off than fight, they will only bite if you mess with them too much. Ticks though... ticks. Yuck. They bite you and suck your blood out. And they can carry Lyme disease, among other unpleasantries.

Snakes are pretty. That copperhead in particular would make a nice wallet.

Oh. Sorry. I really like snakes, I think they're cool critters. Much more concerning to me was that a thunderstorm was rolling in and it was getting dark, I was on a new trail at the 6 mile marker--car nowhere in sight-- and my trail map said it was only 6 miles long. So I had an unknown amount of time before that storm arrived to travel an unknown distance (which turned out to be another mile... the trail guide was off by a full mile). The last almost half mile wound in and out of the woods and across fairly long distances of open grasslands, there was lightning all around, my dog was scared of the thunder, it was raining like crazy with a green sky (an indication of an approaching tornado), and to complete this rather ridiculous situation the girl I was walking with picked that moment to inform me that thunderstorms give her panic attacks. I actually started laughing. I was covering ground FAST to get to my car and I could hear her praying LOUDLY behind me. And instead of feeling bad for her, no offense to anyone's beliefs, I thought, "Gawd I can't stand religious people sometimes." The lightning was amazing, and I could actually feel it a little bit. If you have ever been shocked you know you get a little lightweight feeling from it. I could feel that walking across that field, so I could tell an electric field was building. I've been close to a lightning strike before-- close enough for my hair to stand on end-- and it is a feeling I recognized immediately. By then I could see my car and it was the closest cover, thankfully. What a crazy night.

allport

Wow those pictures are amazing, I cant imagine having that kind of wildlife outside my door.

And Phal you are a wuss :P