February 7 and 8:

Steps:

Feb 7: 6,171
Feb 8: 5,968

I am stuck in a pattern where I have too much work to do. Too much travel to do. Too much rain. And never enough time just to take a walk. The dogs are neglected. I am neglected. I don't like this.

February 6: Super 8

Mount Shasta over the bed in my room at the Super 8.

Steps: 6,814

Activity: None

Most Monday nights you can find me at a Super 8 motel room in Corning. Usually room 104. I started staying here because I have an early morning meeting every Tuesday and I found that I got overly tired when I got up early to drive the hour and fifteen minute it takes to get to Corning. Too much time in the car. It's how I take care of myself.

When you have Meniere's Disease, and you want to avoid a vertigo attack, you have to pay attention to what I call the Three S's: Sleep, Stress, Salt. Get sleep. Reduce stress. Reduce Salt. It seems to be working because I have gone a year now with just one vertigo attack: May 28, 2016 was my last one--and it was very mild. The last one before that was on January 28, 2016. Prior to that one, I would have them nearly weekly---and I strongly considered going on disability.

Today was a day where I felt like I could have a vertigo attack. I felt overly tired all day long----and it has been a long, long time since I last felt that way. So I took it easy, caught up on my charting, didn't see any clients, and drove to Corning to the motel in order to take a nap.

Now Corning isn't Napa Valley. There is an olive tasting room here (actually a couple of them)---and the town boasts an olive oil factory. I am ashamed to say that I've never tried any of the local olives. I need to remedy that. I will write a review. Olives generally are not a part of a low salt diet---but just like a diabetic has to live a little and not be totally pietistic, the same goes for a low salt diet.

I have lots to do over the next work week. Next week I will be on vacation.

February 5: Super Bowl and the Coyote Deity

Coyote as deity.

Steps: 9,508

Activity: Hike with dogs; clean up of yard.

The rain stopped just long enough for the dogs and I to steal a walk. Afterwards, some yard work and clean up---before I settled in to watch the Super Bowl. I wasn't going to because Tom Brady and the head coach of the Patriots are Trump supporters. But in the end, the TV won out and I had a better than expected time watching the game. The commercials were fun. Lady GaGa, despite my hatred of dance music and canned lip sync music, was entertaining. And even a little bit clandestinely political as she sang "America the Beautiful" followed by Woody Guthrie's "This Land Is Your Land". Protestors have been singing Woody Guthrie's classic at all the marches and rallies. LG gave those folks a nod.

And so a weekend closes where I didn't leave the property. It is hard to get in the car on my days off, spending so much time in the car during the week. This will be an intense week before I take some vacation time and travel to Sedona to meet L. It is supposed to rain until Friday. Rain the whole week with the worst of it coming in the next two days.

And from Dan Flores' Coyote America he asserts that the oldest deity in the world which actually has in tact stories connected to said Deity is the Coyote. Some of the American Coyote stories that so infuse Native American myth are 10,000 years old. The Coyote was a deity for them. Flores asserts that the Native Americans lifted the coyote to deity status due to its ability to survive a rapidly warming world after the close of the Ice Age. As the Natives killed off the mega fauna of the time (along with climate change) Flores states that they looked to, and admired, the coyote's ability to survive.

So roll over Jehovah, Yahweh, Shiva, Krishna, and all the other deities. The oldest god is Coyote  with an oral tradition attached to the clever canine that extends back to the end of the last Ice Age.

February 1 to 4: Rain and More Rain.

 

 

Steps:

February 1: 10,025
February 2:  6,700
February 3:  7,939
February 4:  3,342

Activity: Almost none.

Book: Coyote America

We are in February, in the midst of yet another rain storm, and all I do is work. The poor dogs haven't had a walk in days. On top of all of that, I managed to burn my arm pretty badly on the wood stove and I have "Dry Socket" from a tooth that was pulled.

Donald Trump is in a frenzy to try and undue almost everything decent that has been accomplished over the last 8 years.

And so today, Saturday, I haven't done a darned thing but look at old You Tube videos of Charles Bowden. Bowden was an amazing story teller who covered both nature and the horrible situation on the border of Mexico. He passed away a couple years ago and we lost an original voice of reason.

The only good news to report is that the squirrel in the photo finally found the squirrel feeder I set up for him. This squirrel has been raiding my bird feeder for years. He/She loves sunflower seeds. So I set up a feeder for him/her outside the fence so that he/she doesn't have to run the gauntlet of dogs anymore. I hope he grows fat and happy. Now I can watch a bird feeder from my desk and also the squirrel feeder.

At the bird feeder there has been a pair of Western Orioles. I've never seen them at the feeder before so it is nice to add a new bird to my "life list". The feeders are picking up; the lesser Goldfinches are back from wherever they ran off to when I ran out of thistle a month ago. Various other birds are back too: towhees, titmouse, nuthatches, and the ever present house finches.