Meditation for today

Dolphins

Whale and calf

Filmed by drones

Who is the Mug in this house?

Bass, our dog, has habits. He is by far the most interesting dog we have ever owned.

Mr Furlong loves him.

They make a real pair.

I must mention here that Mr Furlong is the most obliging chap. He helps. He is by nature, a helper.

Bass figured this out very early on in his life with us,

Mr Furlong is his chef, meals and snacks server, his butler, his doorman, his guardian, his comfort arranger, his playmate. To keep his servant in order, Bass uses “The Stare”.

If aught is required, he sits down erect, ears pricked, directly in front of Mr Furlong and stares at him expecting Mr Furlong to interpet the desire he is communicating. This can be difficult and involves checking the time, or whether there is a toy in an irretrievable place, or if his cushion on the couch is correctly positioned, or he wants to go out. NB the door has a perfectly working dog flap. Or he’d like his water bowl refreshed, or Mr Furlong closed the door to his bedroom, an action meeting strong disapproval. Or any other thing

Occasionally he summons Mr Furlong with a forlorn “where are you?” bark. This sometimes happens after a sun nap in the garden and Bass wishes to enter the house, but the door is closed – NB (again) the door has a perfectly working dog flap. Or at night, on last call, when Bass goes out to do his business but the garden light is not on. Or when he would like Mr Furlong to be in the lounge instead of somewhere else.

Bass knows exactly how to push Mr Furlongs buttons.

So

I ask you.

Who is the Mug in this house?

Churning Love

We live in a soup of information coming to us from The News, Media, Social Media, Films, Public Health, The Government, World Wide News that’s always negative.

All of it seeds fear, alarm, doom, and gloom. There is no escaping.

In all of the stuff flowing over us, there is never Love. Sometimes there are hysterical responses to what has happened to victims or tragic deaths, and above all what is happening to the children, the animals, and how we are destroying the world and our planet.

When it gets too much, I have a surefire remedy for shriveled hearts.

I call it Churning Love.

Step one. Find a picture of something or someone you loved in your own life. (substitute if necessary)

Step two. Gaze at it remembering the Love, awe, and admiration you felt.

Step three. Pay attention to the Love ‘feeling’ welling within you, the emotion.

Step four. Churn the Love until you feel less shriveled, frightened, or depressed.

Animals you loved are good Love Churners. They reciprocate, even from paintings and photos.

This was my lovely Gracie who I nursed for seven years. Her suffering made me love her more.

They make your love flow, even when its only a backview!

Out of the Woodwork

Mr Furlong does woodwork.

He has two, repeat TWO sheds. When we arrived here in our little flat from a big house, we consciously downsized. Us old Furlongs gave tons of stuff away to the younger Furlongs, or simply Freegled things. Well, I did. But Mr Furlong had to build a second shed to fit all his stuff in.

Even now, with TWO sheds he complains of lack of space. Whilst I am in my ‘office’ (aka bedroom) in the mornings doing stuff on my computer, Mr Furlong is out ‘shedding’ as he calls it.

He has made fascinating stuff, wooden toys, tables, supports for all his tools or special shelves to hoard, no, ” store” his tools, equipment etc, during the last few years. Our grandchildren love his Tsumiki pieces.

He is especially fussy that there are no knots in them.

Our flat has only wooden doors and skirtings. Previously, I have only lived in houses with white painted wood. But I like the wood. The knots and whorls are beautiful to my eyes. They support little creatures that watch me, or allow my imagination to wander. Knots are beautiful I think.

Still, no couple can agree on everything I suppose.

The Pink Spot

Mr Furlong did the plant based diet for some years. We Read Dr McDougal’s book.

I did it religiously for six months and ended up in trouble.

My hair fell out. My nails broke and my skin simply dried up.

I found out I had a B12 deficiency which occurs on a vegan diet. But of course I didn’t know that,

Hair falling out is NOT acceptable. I have for some years had to check my ‘pink spot’ which appears at the top and back of my head. I thought it was my personal fetish to worry about a ‘pink spot’, but I find out no one likes their pink spots and go to great lengths to hide them like applying spray-on hair and doing comb overs

As a vegan, my pink spot grew as my hair fell out.

Now, I’m into my seventh month of Carnivore. My skin is wrinkled because I’m old but it’s not dry. My nails would grow long and strong if I let them. But apart from seeing many small problems like easy bruising, old age spots fading, and lady problems vanishing, the biggest alteration I can see is that my hair seems thicker, and my ‘pink spot’ is disappearing.

I am well pleased!

High Diving (prepare to be revolted)

These old Furlongs had a terrible shock the other day.

Facts to note before I tell you a horrible story…

1. We have a very large swing top rubbish bin in our kitchen that we have always used, even in a family of seven. Now we are two and one small dog.
2. The swing top has a very small triangular hole at its base.
3. Because of fact one, our kitchen bin is not regularly emptied unless it is full.
4. Our kitchen bin takes a long time to fill.

So, now to my story. Mr Furlong called to me to come and look at the dog’s water bowl which he religiously fills with clean water every morning. I looked. In it were floating some worms that looked like maggots to me. They must have come from the dog.

So after researching on the Internet, I discovered images of Tapeworm eggs that looked white and small, floating in dog bowls. Not quite the same, but hey, I educated myself on tapeworms. They life cycle with fleas. I have never seen a flea, flea egg or tapeworm section anywhere in our house, nor on the dog. I should know, because Bass, the dog, is regularly flea-combed by me. It’s his ‘treat’.

Nevertheless, Mr Furlong raced down to the vet and collected Tape Worm treatment.

Meanwhile I researched more on what white worms could come out of a dogs mouth. I discovered that, in hot weather, Bluebottle flies and other fly relations, lay their eggs around rabbit burrows where they await for an unsuspecting bunny to pass by. They can cling on and enter through bunny body apertures , where they feast and grow, selfishly killing their host if necessary.

Dogs who chase rabbits can get maggot infestations too. There is a warning not to let dogs hunt in the Summer.

Bass is a rabbit hunter, though he never catches one. But I imagine he sticks his snout down a hole and pants with disappointment when he misses, which is always.

Could Bass be infected with bunny burrow maggots that are in his mouth? It can be fatal for dogs. Mr Furlong and I were horrified.

Within seconds of changing the maggoty water in Bass’s bowl, Mr Fulong discovers another three white maggots in the new water. (note the change to the present tense which implies stress and tension).

Mrs Furlong enters the kitchen and confirms Mr Furlong’s dreadful discovery.

These things in the bowl, look like maggots to Mrs Furlong. Mrs Furlong is highly intelligent. She notes three things.

1. The kitchen bin is full.
2. The kitchen bin has a small triangular hole where the swing lid meets the rim.
3. The dog’s bowl is directly under the bin and the hole.

Mrs Furlong puts on rubber gloves and she and her husband unpack the bin, piece by piece. It is a horrible job. But LOOK!, right near the bottom, they find a seething mass of maggots. Some have obviously crawled up, and up, over and out. And done a high dive into the water bowl below!

Are you revolted?

Maybe.

Were we revolted?

NO!

We were ecstatic!

The Angel of Light

I had a visitation.

It happened like this.

Remember “Bells and Whistles? Bells and Whistles is the laptop computer I swapped for my very nice 14” Chromebook. It has everything about it that is sleek and beautiful, and completely impracticle. I’ve had to stick stickers on the keys so that I can actually see them. The screen is like a mirror. I don’t like it.

So I rarely use it.

It has sat in a corner for weeks.

Last night I thought I’d resurrect it and watch a movie on it for that is what it doeas the best. But, no matter how I opened and closed it, it would not start.

Well, not working computers are my source of pleasureable self torture. I HAVE to fix them. Or at least find a reason for their problem. So I spent all last night researching why this particular Asus would not wake up. Chromebooks start immediately as you open the clamshell.

It was late, but I saw a possible solution, which I noted mentally, and decided to try in the morning. I had to hold a button down for at least a full minute and then re attatch the power cable. But I went to sleep instead.

In the middle of the dark night, I shuffled to the loo.

On the way back, I held the designated button down on Bells and Whistles as I passed it parked at the foot of my bed waiting for the morning. A full minute. Thats a long time in the middle of the night.I timed a minute. I re attached power. And leapt back into bed.

Some time later, I woke with a start.

The Angel of Light had entered my bedroom!

I thought Mr Furlong had turned on my light, but no!

There in all her glory, was Bells and Whistles alive and well, and working.

I shut her down and we both slept soundly for the rest of the night.

Blood Sugar on Carnivore

Very shortly, I will have been on the carnivore diet for six months.

Six months!

Am I bored with it?

No.

There are many different animal products to eat – mussells, prawns, fish, steak, roasts, eggs, and all that. Every meal is different for me. I cook for myself. Mr Furlong cooks his own meals.

Mr Furlong is on a low carb diet. The change in him is remarkable! His weight is normal, his blood sugar is almost normal (well pre-diabetic). And he is shortly going to stop his insulin injections which he has had to do for many years. Over the months he has reduced his insulin to a miniscule level.

His food looks more interesting than mine and his blood sugars are better.

My blood sugar fell from “diabetic” to “pre-diabetic” according to my hba1c test recently done and the Nurse was ‘pleased’ with me. She is the diabetic nurse that told me to go home and “do a low carb diet”. So I did. Carnivore is a “no carb diet”.

I have followed Carnivore religiously – never slipped once. My pain levels are greatly improved, my mood is noticeably more optimistic, I feel great!

Except my blood sugar tests high constanly. Night, day, morning, evening, before and after meals it measures 8.00 mmol or round about. I can’t be bothered to test anymore.

THAT is boring.

I have searched for an answer on the Internet, but, it seems there is none. The WHY it happens on Carnivore is not known. But it does. The HOW, is pretty clear. My body is making its own blood sugar – its called gluconeogenesis.

I’d like it to stop.

Getting comfortable

Some days settling down for bed is easy peasy. I simply jump into my bed pull the covers over my head, adjust my position hugging my huggy pillow and I’m asleep.

But now and again I hit a bad night. I cannot seem to get comfortable. It goes like this.

There is something tickling my nose, so I have to scratch that. I just settle again, but I can feel a hair across my eyelashes, so I have to find it and remove it. I just settle after having done both those things, and I have an itch at the back of my knee, which needs scratching. That means I have got to sort out the huggy pillow, which has moved position and is now not comfortable.

So I start again – I pull thecovers over my head, adjust my position hugging my huggy pillow, and find the head pillow has moved and is not tucked into my neck. So I adjust. Something is tickling my nose, a hair? I have to find it. Now the thickness of the duvet is blocking my breathing, or rather, I can feel my breath being reflected back at me. I hate that. So I adjust the covers.

That moves the huggy pillow, or it has fallen out of bed.

As soon as I think I am comfortable, my wrist aches, or my shoulder feels wrong, so I ajust. Sleep might come.

But no! I seem to have that damn hair stuck on my lip. I have to find it. Light on, sit up. Search. Found it!

I lie down again, turn off the lamp, pull covers over my head, adjust my position hugging my huggy pillow and get ready to asleep.

But

there is something tickling my nose, so I have to scratch that. I just settle again, but I can feel a hair across my eyelashes again, so I have to find it and remove it. I just settle after having done both those things, and I have an itch at the back of my elbow, that needs scratching. Now I have got to sort out the huggy pillow, which has moved position and is not comfortable. Or missing.

The huggy pillow often leaps of of bed and lands on the floor, where it hides in the dark until I sit up, turn on the bedside lamp and look for it. It has a silk cover which is deliciously delightful to hug, but somewhat slithery.

I try again having retrieved huggy pillow, pull the covers over my head, adjust my position hugging my huggy pillow again and wait for sleep.

Repeat.

Repeat

Repeat.

We are wise to each have our own bedrooms to avoid divorce,

or

murder.

Mr Furlong has no idea of the night activity he is missing. Mr Furlong always falls asleep in an instant, immediately, forthwith, on demand, tout suite. He has no idea how lucky he is.