Pull up a chair, have a cup of coffee, or tea. I’m having PG Tips right now and will be examining my caffeine intake. More on the reasons for that below.

If we were having coffee, you’d hear the rain. It’s pouring the stuff of cats and dogs. I’ve always loved the sound of rain, heavy or soft, regardless, it’s a soothing sound. We’ve needed a good rain for weeks and finally it’s here so I don’t have to run around watering plants today (and if you remember recent coffee shares, you know that running around right now is out for me. At best, I do a fast hobble. 🙂 ) Short rumbles of thunder sound at a distance. Scout has scurried to his bed upstairs.

If we were having coffee, I’d tell you it’s been a week of ups and downs. Or perhaps downs and ups and downs. And then up.

Part of it I shared in a haibun I wrote earlier this week and I won’t go into detail here except to say that I wonder how people can blithely spray chemicals without considering the impact, especially when those people have children and futures should be considered but aren’t. As I was exploring the topics of pesticides this week, I did encounter an individual who claimed that banning DDT or using it as a last resort was genocide against certain populations and that any presumed deleterious effects were actually hoaxes.

Ah, hoaxes and conspiracy theorists.

Have you heard the theory that Chris Cornell and Chester Bennington were actually murdered because they were going to uncover a pedophile ring?

Which brings me to Chris Cornell and Chester Bennington and I suppose Robin Williams has been thrown into the loop this week as well. I have known three people who suffered from depression and chose to take their lives; one was very close to me and I lost her last year. And I’ve heard others, who evidently have never been around anyone suffering from depression, talk about cowardice and make blanket judgments. Unless it’s a struggle for you to find a good reason to get up in the morning or sad news reports (or any news reports) make you cry buckets or all of the things that once meant something to you, including people, no longer do, you won’t understand–not unless you really try. These aren’t people seeking attention. They are overwhelmed and are seeking relief in the only way they believe is possible.

To be on the outside, watching someone suffer is not easy. You want to do everything you can to give them hope that tomorrow will be better. You want to help. You want to get them on medications that will improve their quality of life. Depression is a disease. It’s not the mean reds. It’s a disease that is sometimes fatal. Awareness rather than condemnation would be a lovely path for all of us to walk along not only with regard to depression, but for so many other things we are so quick to judge other people on.

If we were having coffee, I’d talk to you about the other downer. In December of last year, I was diagnosed with early onset glaucoma. Some damage had already been done to my right eye, but not enough that I have blind spots. Glaucoma is incurable, but there are ways to minimize pressure to ward off further damage. I started taking prescription eyedrops (which have the side effect of increasing my eyelash length so that I can now flutter my eyelashes with abandon 😉 ) and they lowered the pressure. This past week the pressure was up a bit. While it’s nothing to get upset about, yet, it was discouraging.

When I go to the eye docs, I’m generally the youngest person there except for the doc (who looks like he should still be in school) and the staff. Yes, I had a few whinging moments of why me, why now? But you deal and move on.

Now I’m looking into some lifestyle changes and hope that they can help in lowering the pressure as well. In future coffee sessions, I might be talking about changing my eating habits and getting back into a serious exercise regime. I’m pescetarian (which means I sometimes eat fish, but am mostly vegetarian), but that may change to being completely vegetarian as it’s getting harder to justify in my brain eating any creature.

Also, another lifestyle change will be checking out what excessive caffeine means. I drink one-two cups of coffee on regular days, but I drink tons of tea. I really have no idea how much caffeine is in tea, but it never rattles my brain the way coffee does, so I’ve always presumed it wasn’t much.

After the visit to the eye docs, I went out to lunch, which is always a nice occasion as I rarely “do” lunches out.  I went to Sweetwater Tavern and had a lovely salad (and a side of fries, because that was my last splurge for a while) ;). This place rocks lunch and is always packed.

On the “up” part of the week. I received my second cruelty free beauty box from Vegan Cuts. Now, I have to

admit that I’ve been tempted by subscription boxes, especially book-related ones, but when I’ve calculated the prices involved have found them to be a luxury rather than useful. This beauty box from Vegan Cuts is different because you actually get full-size samples and then a discount if you want to order any of the products. This works for me because I’m not always confident about some of the reviews I read online regarding cruelty free products. Everyone has their own opinions about things (I’ve certainly learned that as a book reviewer.). So now I get to try different products and form my own opinion about what works and am not breaking the bank. Win-win!

 

And finally it’s been a great week of reading and writing. I’ve lost my “reader’s block” thanks to reading some great books by Sharla Lovelace, Ilona Andrews, and Jenny Colgan. I have reviews for all of them coming up this week. And, I just started Lauren Layne’s Ready to Run, which has already proven hard to put down.

As for writing, this week I’ve written poetry, flash fiction and the return of Mouse, one of my favorite characters from a serial I started earlier this year. Mouse lets me say outrageous and hopefully funny things. She’s a hacker with a covert ops group who’s smitten by an English dude. This installment is her third adventure.

And, sadly, I’ve let all of July go without participating in Camp Nanowrimo. I need to organize my time better. Maybe then I’ll be able to write THAT novel. Or ANY novel. 🙂

Did you know that parts of the US have a full solar eclipse next month? I’m making plans (late, late, late) to be part of it. Is anyone else going to do eclipsing?

Wow, this has been much longer than I expected and I’m on my second cup of tea. It’s stopped raining and a catbird is serenading me. Thanks for joining me for coffee and tea. I hope you all have a great week and we can sit down to another caffeinated beverage next weekend.

 

7/23/2017