Hello everyone! I hope this post finds you well. The snow is finally almost gone and today was a lovely day. Couldn’t have been much better

Tuesday was not so good and ended with a trip to the ER. I had this weird pain in my lower left groin area off and on for several months. Tuesday I woke up with kind of a nauseous feeling on top of the pain. I tried this and that and nothing relieved the symptoms. I had two kidney stones back in the 1990’s but this didn’t seem like that. They pretty much hit me att at once. So, around 7:45 PM I decided I better go to the ER. It was an 18-mile trip and I drove myself. Luckily the ER wasn’t busy and I got right in. By the time I was finished talking with the doctor it seemed more like a kidney stone and we were in agreement… Even though it seemed like a long time, they hooked up a bag of fluid and gave me a dose of morphine. They no sooner got me hooked up when the guy came and took me for a scan. GEEZ! Then they finally took me back to the room and hooked me back up again. Even though that process took only maybe 15 minutes, it just as well have been hours.

When the results of the scan came back it was confirmed I had a 6 mm stone in my ureter. Ummm… That’s between the kidney and bladder.

My urine flow was perfectly fine STILL with no pain. But there was still pain in my left groin area and stomach plus nausea. SO, they gave me another dose of morphine and a pill for nausea. At about 12:30 there was hardly any pain but they wanted to give me another dose of pain reliever before they discharged me. The problem was they wouldn’t allow me to drive. I told them I could drive to a friend’s house and he could either let me spend the night or drive me home.

Well, they were very persistent that I not drive… So, I gave the nurse my friend’s number, who is also the minister at church. He came and took me home. It is seriously a good thing because about halfway home I could not keep my eyes open. By the time I was inside I could barely walk. I fumbled around a bit because I thought I had other things to do before I got in bed… I had never been in a situation where I could barely function and it was very weird…

The next morning I got up feeling like a new man. I had no pain and I was wide awake and full of energy. I was supposed to call the urologist and get three prescriptions filled. At that point, I was thinking I would be perfectly fine… Well, by about 10:15 I was getting nauseous again and somewhat uncomfortable. SO, I decided maybe I should go ahead and call the urologist. I have an appointment for Monday at 3:45.

Then I went to the pharmacy and got the prescriptions filled, came back home and took the drugs. One is hydrocodone for pain. One is a tiny pill for nausea. One is Tamsulosin (Flomax)… I am supposed to take the pain and nausea pills only of I need one but the Flomax I am supposed to take once per day. I haven’t taken a pain pill since noon on Wednesday. I took a Flomax and nausea pill at noon whch seems to be my regular schedule.

It is a little strange for me to go to the doctor and certainly not like me to take prescription drugs. If I had have known I had a kidney stone earlier I could have gotten rid of it myself. But, the symptoms I have been having for a while were not like before. So, I didn’t know.

When I had the kidney stones before I guess they were already in the urethra which was why it was a sudden thing. This one may be close to the bladder on the left side which is why there is pain there.

They always say a man having a kidney stone is like a woman going into labor. All I know is that I don’t want another ordeal with a kidney stone. If I were a woman and had a baby, the first would have been the last. LOL!

I have read this and that about what foods and beverages to avoid when it comes to kidney stones. Very seldom do I drink soft drinks anymore. I usually drink 1/2-1 cup of coffee in the morning and have a glass of green tea for dinner. I drink plenty of water the rest of the time. I pretty much eat a healthy diet, just in a weird way. I don’t eat until dinner and I eat a big meal. At almost 59, I think my diet needs to change somewhat and I have been saying that for a while…

I went to the chiropractor on Friday and he is pretty good when it comes to nutrition. He is an older man with a lot of experience and even used to train chiropractors. He asked me about my diet and I told him I ate one meal a day. He looked at me a bit strangely. But, you know, there is a diet plan called OMAD (one meal a day) that I found out about after I had been doing it. The benefits are good but you need to eat healthy all the same. It is kind of like fasting…

He asked if I cooked my own meals and I said yes. He said, “Ahhh, that’s why you only eat one meal a day.” Well, ummm… That may be partly true to some degree. I have never been a big fan of breakfast and it is easy to skip lunch when you get up at 9-10 AM. Just a little coffee and I am good to go. Then 6 PM comes around I am ready for dinner. The problem is not dinner, it is afterward. I snack from then until I go to bed. While do do snack on fruit, there is also the chips, popcorn, nuts, and of course ice cream… Don’t forget the cheese. I don’t think any one meal a day plan or fasting includes junk food eating for several hours before going to bed.

I feel a little hypocritical at times because I advocate health foods, natural supplements, no GMO’s, etc. while I occasionally revert back to my old habits… I really do prefer cooking my own meals, and I enjoy cooking. But sometimes, I do order Chinese, pizza, something from Subway, Sonic, and so on. There is a new cafe in town that makes a great Ruben. 🙂 When you are by yourself, it is very convenient to throw a frozen pizza into the oven or microwave Stauffer’s Lasagna, or even a potpie…

While eating bad foods may not affect you initially, like when you are young, it will catch up with you sooner or later.

So, while my spiritual life is getting better I also need to eat better… I need to commit to me, not just spiritually and emotionally, but also physically. Our cells can heal our bodies, but we need to feed them properly. We can listen to and repeat all kinds of positive affirmations, learn and practice the Law of Attraction, listen to music at certain levels of frequency for this and that… But, we STILL have to commit eating a healthy diet… We can reprogram our subconscious mind and accomplish amazing things but we are still in part what we eat not just what or how we think.

Part of being the amazing creatures we are and having so many abilities is also the ability to choose. To choose a diet for and of life.

Until next time, be safe, stay positive, and always be thankful.

Hello everyone! I hope this post finds you well. We had more snow yesterday which didn’t impress me that much. It was 21° F when I took these photos at about 11:30 AM but it is supposed to warm up to 32 by the afternoon.

That’s the forecast through Sunday…

The Junco’s and several sparrows were enjoying the birdseed on the ground.

While a female Cardinal and a sparrow were at the feeder. I put the feeder in the tree in the front yard to I can watch them from my bedroom window. They are always very alert and seem to spend more time flying off than eating. They are more content feeding in the back yard but I haven’t set up the trough feeder yet.

That’s all I have to say at the moment. The snow kind of leaves me at a loss for words…

Take care, be safe and stay positive!

Hello everyone! I hope this post finds you all well. This morning I had the alarm set for 9 AM so I could eventually get up and get to church by 10:40. I am not an early riser and it usually seems I have to have a good reason to get up by 10. On occasion, I have to get up much earlier which I don’t mind. I can easily get up at 6 or 7 AM if I need to.

So, this morning the alarm goes off at 9 and I let it beep for a few minutes before turning it off. Well, I went back to sleep and didn’t wake up until a little after 10.

I sprang into action after naming three things to be thankful for. Normally I mainly say thank you for good night sleep and for the day ahead. I then went in to get a cup of coffee and to feed the cats on the back porch. Even though the forecast said there was a chance of snow, I was surprised to see what was waiting outside. There wasn’t much, but it was still there.

I looked out the side door and saw the vehicle’s windows covered with snow. At that point, I may have easily closed the door and decided not to go to church. Except there was a problem… The minister’s grandson from Nebraska was here to be baptized. SO, I decided maybe I should go.

I had cleaned out the baptismal tank on Friday and a few of us guys met at the church on Saturday to start filling it. For a long time, one of the men from church had been doing it but he decided to show me how to do it a couple of years ago. This year he decided a few others needed to learn the tricks as well. It’s a process of turning a few valves on or off depending where they lead to. Then, once the water gets so high, it is recirculated from baptismal through the hot water heater. It’s not complicated and there are written instructions. You can see the pipes hanging from the ceiling in a hallway by the hot water heater and explain where every pipe goes and comes from. Like the wiring in the church, it makes one wonder how it ever works. But, it does work…

Oh, yeah. Lynn turned down the temperature on the water heater because the last time it became too hot in the baptismal. LOL! Luckily he was at church early enough that time to turn it down so the temp was a bit cooler for the baptism. That would have been a shock to step into hot water. Stepping into freezing cold water would also have been a shock.

SO, I went to church and made it on time. Our minister is a retired mortician and I will never forget his first baptism. A week or so after the baptism he presented the certificate of baptism to the girl that was baptized. He said, “I am pleased to present you with your certificate of death.” He was so embarrassed and everyone got a good laugh.

We have fond memories that we carry with us that we like to share with others along the way. Sometimes we have to share not so fond memories to let others know that they are not alone in a particular situation. Then sometimes we find out sharing the situation wasn’t a good idea because they tell others or our experience instead of theirs. We are human and we all do through a lot of different circumstances as we grow up. It is part of our learning process. But it isn’t just our learning process. The divine realm(s) also learn from our experiences…

I deleted MANY paragraphs… I started rambling about my opinion about religion. GEEZ! And to think I am now an elder.

Anyway, Saturday afternoon as I was cleaning the church, one of the minister’s son’s brought a pan of food and put it in the refrigerator. As I left, I saw the minister heading toward the church in his van with some of his family. Later I went back to the church to check the water in the baptismal and there was A LOT of food in the refrigerator. Then after the service, he told me that they were having lunch and invited me to stay. He said there were BBQ ribs. We also had a board meeting…

Well, who can resist BBQ ribs? There was also a pan of coleslaw and potatoes of some kind that was all delicious. Some of the ribs were from Bandanas! One of the furnaces wasn’t working so the fellowship hall was very cold. Then, they had ice cream and homemade cookies. By the time I left, I was stuffed and freezing!

When I left, it was snowing AGAIN. It looked like little styrofoam balls flying around in the air. When I arrived home I noticed a lot of birds looking for food under the feeders. The Juncos and migrating sparrows had finally arrived this past week. I went inside to warm up a bit then went outside to fill the feeders and sprinkle a little on the ground. I checked on the chickens and filled their feeders and made sure they had plenty of water. Even if it is very cold, the water in the chicken house doesn’t freeze unless it gets down to 20° F for several hours. Eventually, I took a little nap.

In all, it was a good day despite the snow and cold temperatures. It is going to be cold all week…

I forgot to post Six on Saturday yesterday because I was busy. Today I thought about taking a snow photo for Silent Sunday but then it became too dark to take a photo. So, I decided to just write a post without photos.

I had been doing good about reading your posts every day in the Reader then got busy updating pages on the blog. So, I became somewhat tardy in reading your posts.

Then one day I received a message on the Goeppertia ornata page. A man from Florida asked me how to pronounce Goeppertia. Normally, I include the pronunciation of the genus and species if it is available on Dave’s Garden. In this case, Geoppertia ornata had no pronunciation. The reason is that Geoppertia ornata became a synonym of Calathea ornata in 1858. At some point, maybe then, the entire Geoppertia genus became invalid. Well, truthfully the same guy published the description in 1858 and 1860 and iPNI has both. PREVIOUSLY, the 1860 date was accepted now the 1858 description is accepted. Hmmm… The reason I know is because my first notes say 1860 with the publication but my page says 1858 with the publication title. I thought I screwed up so I wasted 30 minutes or so to figure that out. Anyway, the latest version of The Plant List (2013) says Calathea ornata was the accepted name but when the NEW Plants of the World Online came out in 2018, the name had changed back to Geoppertia ornata. Apparently in 2012, after 154 years of not being a genus, a lady decided it needed to be resurrected. So, 254 species were moved back into the Goeppertia genus making it the largest in the family. I found that out from Phytotaxa via ResearchGate. So, the guy and I exchanged a few emails. (I first confused him by guessing the pronunciation for Geoppertia instead of Goeppertia). Then I find out this guy’s family owns a large wholesale nursery in Florida and one of their specialties is Calathea species and cultivars (A LOT). So, apparently, he is trying to figure out how to pronounce Goeppertia… Well, I certainly applaud him for that. It would be bad to change the names of plants and not being able to pronunce them. My only guess is that it is pronounced go-PER-tia but that really doesn’t sound right either… There are two P’s”. Maybe gop-PER-tia… I have studdied Latin in reference to plant names but it still is somewhat confusing. So, if you have any ideas, I would love to hear it. I hate to tell someone “I don’t know”. I wound up sending an email to Rafael Goverts from Kew to quiz him about the pronunciation. Then I noticed he didn’t approve the name change. Well, I am sure he will get a good laugh and I will be thankful for brightening up his day. It has been a while since I sent him an email asking how the Celosia argentea ‘Cramer’s Amazon’ was doing. I sent him seeds at his request and his reply then was that they were starting to flower. Of course, I am trying to get his approval to use Celosia argentea var. spicata name instead of merely Celosia argentea on Plants of the World Online. Doubt that will happen though. 🙂 Well, Celosia argentea is supposed to be, in part, native to Africa and ‘Cramer’s Amazon’ were discovered in Peru… Now I have to recheck where Celosia argentea were/are native. Celosia spicata became a synonym of Deeringia spicata which is a shrub in Australia. I don’t get the connection or even how an herbaceous plant was confused with a shrub in the first place.

I seemed to have gotten off subject while writing the above paragraph but decided not to delete it. I already deleted a half hour on pharagraphs earlier. What was the subject anyway? Oh yeah, my apology for not reading your posts this past week. Well, there was an attempt a couple of nights.

So, I guess I better stop writing this post and get to work. Either reading your posts or working on updates. Otherwise, by the time I am finished, it will be Monday already.

So, have a great week ahead! Be safe, well, and stay positive! Keep warm or cool depending on where you may be!