Gray Wolf Productions

Category: Musings

  • The Last Tomato Of Summer

    yellow-roseThere is a poem that starts:

    ‘Tis the last rose of summer,

    It has been written about, sung about and sticks in my mind every summer – but this is Portland and roses are still most everywhere come Fall.

    [The one shown here is the last one of mine but my neighbors still have roses blooming.]

    This year my lament is for the last tomato of summer.

    I started seeds earlier this year and shared them with my neighbor. It seems every seed germinated! We have had fresh vine-ripened tomatoes all summer.

    • Breakfast with tomatoestomatoes
    • Lunch with tomatoes
    • Dinner with tomatoes

    I love the taste of REAL tomatoes!

    Recently, my neighbor was ditching his plants and brought me lots of red tomatoes so I can savor them for a bit. And green ones to make something with.

    And I am left to wonder if my own green, but still growing, tomatoes can last and ripen. But it may not be sunny enough…..

    So for me – soon – one tomato ’twill be the last one of summer.

     

  • Tova Goes To School

    Yellow Lab puppy

    Tova and I started the first of six weeks of doggy class the other day.

    We were the only ones in the class and that was nice for the start, but next week there will be other people and dogs which will be better.

    I have taken dog classes with other dogs but Tova had never been to one and I needed a refresher too.

    We had to wait until it wasn’t so hot out because hot is not to my liking. Turned out, it was not to her liking either.

    The instructor is a good trainer and Tova responded well. So well that there was an immediate major difference in her behavior at class and at home. She seems to know that we’re learning and working – and she loves to do her “work.” She IS a lab and labs are working dogs.

    And before the class began, we had been working at home where I say to her: “let’s go to work” and she goes into her “I know we’re going to do sit, down, and stay.” And I’ll get treats of course….for a while.

    Updates as we progress….

     

  • Puppies, Exercise, and Eating

    walkingSome self reflections…

    When I let my hair grow, I decided that long hair went with better health [less weight, more flexibility, etc.]

    Why? Just one of my quirks.

    I’ve always exercised but not always that regularly…it’s been a stop and go thing for me… little moderation…

    Then I got my puppy and that was after two years of not having a dog – so there was a lot of walking once she got all her grown-up shots.

    But given my knowledge of exercise and bodies I knew that walking tightens muscles.

    Most exercise tightens muscles.

    So I started doing yoga again but like usual –  sporadically. I have some old tapes I put in my VCR player and do different yoga programs.

    I started off with two or three times a week and then it was every other day and I felt good.  Along with the longer dog walks this was feeling healthy.

    But there was still the weight issue. I was not at a weight that I thought I needed to be at for no other reason just that as I’ve gotten older I’ve shrunk and I figured you know carrying the same weight around on the shorter body was not good – and then there was the long hair.

    So for some reason I decided to pay attention to some of the things I write about nutrition and realized I had to stop eating bread and drinking milk.

    So – I cut out most wheat and I started using to almond milk for my coffee. I didn’t stop eating cheese or yogurt but I cut back on those as well.

    And upped the yoga to at least 15-20 minutes A DAY – every day!

    Guess what?

    The weight and the inches went off! And went off quickly.

    My guess is that “modern” wheat has stuff in it that keeps bodies from losing weight and inches. Ditto milk.

    I’m not sure of my science on this, but as I’ve said – food is no longer food and maybe we do have to stop and take a serious look at what we put in our bodies.

    I am also working on a nutrition course for Udemy and if you sign up below, I will send you a major discount coupon for the course once it is done…






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  • Waking Up To No Electricity

    power_lines

    No electricity?

    Uh oh!

     

    As I pondered an unknown time with no electricity – here are some thoughts I had

    Things to be grateful for

    • A French press for my coffee
    • Gas stove and hot water heater
    • Matches to ignite gas stove
    • Summer and DST
    • Good neighbors

    Things to remember [there is always the “next” time]

    • Grind sufficient coffee beans the night before
    • Fully charge computer and cell phone every night

    PS

    I don’t use a lot of electricity, but when it goes out, I get to think about all the things I have that require electricity.

    So I will be very thankful when the electricity comes back on…

    And remember that the estimated time for restoration is a moving target

    PPS – It finally came back and I am able to post this – phew

     

    Comments? Thank you

     

     

  • 6 Down; 6 To Go

    6It is the 1st day of the last 6 months of the year.

     

    What have you gotten done?

    What will you do with the next 6 months?

     

    it is hot

     

    In North America we are into summer and for many of us it is stifling hot….

    But don’t let the weather determine your goals – summer is a good time to keep working on whatever you were working on…refine it, add to it, finish it. Sell it! Make money for your business!!

    If, like me, you are a daylight person, the added hours of sunshine mean added hours to get things done….

    Stay cool! Stay focused! 

    Are you more [or less] productive in the summer?

     Comments? 

  • Technology, Stress, and Backup Plans

    OY OY OY

    • My computer stopped working.
    • The hard drive crashed.
    • I have all my work on it.
    • I am totally stressed out.

    What do I do to survive all this stress?

     ###########

    We now live in a high-tech culture.

    Technology is part of our everyday lives.

     our worl is technology

    • We use computers.
    • We have Wi-Fi all over the place!
    • We have iPads and tablets.
    • We have iPhones and smart phones.

    Many of us work online, bank and pay bills online, communicate online, and generally love the technology available to us.

    That is until it does not work.

    ISPs stop working, or work so slowly that they are useless.

    Programs don’t do what we thought they should do.

    And then there is the:

    “OMG – my hard drive crashed!”

    Any of the above issues, especially the last one, can lead to stress – so we have to figure out how to cope with that stress – preferably planning for it ahead of time.

    Why? Because technology issues are a part of our lives.

    Having had many hard drives crash over the years, you’d think I’d have learned to back up but I never did. I only made copies of some of my writings.

    But the last time I bought a computer, I bought a Mac laptop. Laptops are more prone to issues because they can get dropped, they can get stolen and they can get things bumped into them, etc.

    Especially if you have pets.

    When I got the new computer, I actually bought a years worth of a backup plan called Crashplan. When you buy such a plan, it is with the hope that you never ever have to use it and see if it really works.

    So when my “OMG the hard drive crashed” happened, I was sort of stress-ready.

    Having read good things about Crashplan, a bulk of my stress was alleviated because I knew that all of what had been on my computer was somewhere up there in the “cloud.” [Fingers crossed.]

    yoga

     

    But a dead hard drive is still stressful. So to get more calmed down, I did some yoga and meditating. I also took my puppy on a few walks and talked to my son and a friend…. And vocalizing the stress helped.

    It all came down to this…I kept telling myself that there really was nothing else for me to do…the worst-case scenario was that I’d have to start all that work all over again.

    The ending?

    I picked up the computer and started the restore process.

    A few glitches and errors on my part and it was working – slowly [ISP issues] – but working.

    Then many [many, many] hours later, the message was on my screen that my restore was done.

    Everything was restored to where it had been…amazing technology!

    All in the clouds……cloud storage

    That I was tired for a few days after this was a signal that I had been more stressed than I thought….so more yoga, more puppy walks, and more relaxing in the sun was called for….

    Lessons learned…you need:

    • back up plans
    • yoga
    • healthy eating
    • great tech support
    • great customer service
    • patience

     

    Thoughts? Comments?

     

    Thank you…

     

     

     

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