BS: stay afloat while others don't

Subject: RE: BS: stay afloat while others don't
From: keberoxu
Date: 23 Feb 25 - 03:37 PM

My cold has gotten to the point where
I feel better and sound worse;
the cough is loosening things up at last. It was tight for a while.
I don't have much of an appetite,
but I'm drinking water like crazy.

Subject: RE: BS: stay afloat while others don't
From: keberoxu
Date: 27 Feb 25 - 06:18 PM

This virus has gotten hold of my sinuses and won't let go.
The cough is nearly gone, apart from post-nasal drip.
I just wish I could breathe freely through my nose.

Subject: RE: BS: stay afloat while others don't
From: Mrrzy
Date: 27 Feb 25 - 06:54 PM

Ginger in your tea, keb!

Subject: RE: BS: stay afloat while others don't
From: Stilly River Sage
Date: 27 Feb 25 - 07:43 PM

I use a neti pot to soothe and clear sinuses. The warm water with a blend of table salt and baking soda (never do just water, it really hurts) works well.

Subject: RE: BS: stay afloat while others don't
From: MaJoC the Filk
Date: 01 Mar 25 - 06:57 AM

I found myself nurdling around the house this morning, unable to do anything much. Then I realised: I'm in shock from last night's shitfest in the White House. *Then* my mind changed up a gear, and I could get on with what I was supposed to be doing.

It was the realisation that I was in shock, and that this was a waste of time, that helped me get past the shock and reboot my mind. Hope this helps, folks.

Subject: RE: BS: stay afloat while others don't
From: Stilly River Sage
Date: 01 Mar 25 - 01:09 PM

Deer in the headlights here.

Subject: RE: BS: stay afloat while others don't
From: keberoxu
Date: 01 Mar 25 - 02:51 PM

I'm not happy, but I'm not surprised either.
I keep thinking of Gibbon's
HIstory of the Rise and Fall of the Roman Empire.
We have a president who has a Caesar complex.

Subject: RE: BS: stay afloat while others don't
From: MaJoC the Filk
Date: 01 Mar 25 - 03:50 PM

--- Rats: When we helped clear out my late father's house, I clean forgot to bag his copy of The Rise and Fall of the Third Reich. That (had it not been ditched along the way) would be pertinent reading today, for the same reason as Gibbon's Decline and Fall.

Subject: RE: BS: stay afloat while others don't
From: Stilly River Sage
Date: 01 Mar 25 - 04:57 PM

The Rise and Fall of the Third Reich. The Seattle Public Library has it as an audiobook, so a lot of others probably do also.

Subject: RE: BS: stay afloat while others don't
From: keberoxu
Date: 03 Mar 25 - 07:58 PM

I have reached a compromise with the chorus director.
I'm going to drop out of the concerts that happen in less than two weeks
and feature Broadway musicals.
My cold symptoms have kept me away from three rehearsals.
I'll attend as a member of the audience, with cough drops.

And I will plan on singing in the concerts at the beginning of June,
which we will rehearse following the Broadway concerts.
This takes a little pressure off of me
and gives me more time to recover.

Subject: RE: BS: stay afloat while others don't
From: MaJoC the Filk
Date: 04 Mar 25 - 09:03 AM

>> So very not watching any news.
>
> I wish I could persuade Herself that watching the TV news while
> eating is bad for the digestion, especially these days.

Herself turned on the news today,* saw five seconds of the current blethers, said "I can't bear to watch," and turned off the TV. *Result*.

* Oh boy.

Subject: RE: BS: stay afloat while others don't
From: keberoxu
Date: 07 Mar 25 - 06:15 PM

My sinuses and nose are free at last,
it's been two and a half weeks of this infection.

This just as March winds are blowing at high speeds
and the nights are gradually getting warmer.
All that ice has nearly melted.

Subject: RE: BS: stay afloat while others don't
From: Mrrzy
Date: 08 Mar 25 - 01:25 PM

There is a chest cold/flu thing running around my area, that is dropping people for weeks at a time. I have dodged it so far.

Weather warming, we change our clocks tonight.

Some creeping anxiety is also being kept at bay...

Subject: RE: BS: stay afloat while others don't
From: keberoxu
Date: 14 Mar 25 - 07:04 PM

Well, there is a rainstorm forecast to come this way soon,
so it will be "mud season" in earnest.
But until the storms come,
we are enjoying the light in the evenings from daylight saving time,
and the temperate clear weather in which to enjoy the evenings.

And it's going to be rain, not freezing rain or snow anymore.

Subject: RE: BS: stay afloat while others don't
From: keberoxu
Date: 18 Mar 25 - 11:54 AM

Recently I have been on a nostalgia kick of sorts.
I've been looking up, online, the people with whom I associated
some thirty years ago, in a different part of the country.
During that time I was giving up music as a livelihood
after having studied nothing else for years, and
I felt lost and adrift much of the time.
I looked outside myself a lot for strength and positivity.

I looked up both people whom I shied away from and people whom I felt safe with, and learned a few things.
Thirty years ago the internet was not what it is now, for one thing.
People have websites now who didn't have them then.

My baptismal sponsor -- I entered the church as an adult --
died at the age of eighty-seven; I had lost contact with her.
The performance troupe leader whose group I quit, because the leader had such a toxic attitude,
is still out there, although no longer touring.
Then there is the theatre person who let me live in her house
after I rejected an offer to tour with an opera company;
this latter is still around, and responded positively to my e-mail.

These people provided examples, positive or negative, of how to blaze one's own trail and go outside conventional livelihoods.
And in their own way they were generous to me
and acted as mentor figures.
Today I do not mentor others as I was mentored,
although when I was young I had that ambition, to teach others.

But I can reflect today on what I was taught and how I learned.
And it is pleasant to remember that part of the country,
where I had some happy years
and a big change from where I grew up or went to school.

Subject: RE: BS: stay afloat while others don't
From: Stilly River Sage
Date: 18 Mar 25 - 01:21 PM

Interesting post, Keb. And it is never too late to do that mentoring, should you choose.

Sharing your experiences here, and in particular, your participation in musical performances in your area have been very interesting, and might just encourage someone to go try out to join a chorus or choir in their area.