I have to wrap a hot towel around the feeder in the morning to thaw it enough for the hummingbirds to eat. They do not like the necter crunchy.
For the Ragtag Daily Prompt: crunch.


I have to wrap a hot towel around the feeder in the morning to thaw it enough for the hummingbirds to eat. They do not like the necter crunchy.
For the Ragtag Daily Prompt: crunch.
I’ve been reading journal articles about Long Covid. The three primary symptoms are fatigue, shortness of breath and brain symptoms. Mostly brain fog. Then there is a long long list of other symptoms.
For the fatigue, the journals are recommended graded increase in activity “without triggering a fatigue crash”.
Now, that is all well and good, except it’s a moving target. The amount of activity one can do is NOT static.
I have something that caused CFS-ME. My fast twitch muscles came back on line sometime between Christmas and New Years. GREAT! Then I was helping a sick friend until January ninth. I flew home and then there is all the unpacking and bills and catching up and sweeping up catfur dust elephants. Finally I got to exercise. I walked a couple miles on the beach one day and then around town with a friend the next.
Which crashed me. The third day I spent lying on the couch. My muscles basically were ALL hurting and saying, “We hate you.”
The fast twitch are back on line but they are weak as newborn kittens. For the first two days I felt strong and normal. The third day I felt like a steamroller had gone over me.
So did I do the wrong thing? Well, no. I won’t know what I can and can’t do it unless I do it, right? After four rounds (or more) of pneumonia with muscle weirdness, I can tell when it’s improving. Then I have to rebuild the working muscles. Also my slow twitch posture muscles are frankly pissed off and have been doing all the work and are not very interested in working with the fast twitch when they first come on line. “Where have YOU been? We’ve been doing YOUR work AND OURS.” I have to learn to walk again.
I was doing well with pulmonary rehab in the fall, building up on the treadmill twice a week, until I got my flu shot and then my Covid booster. Well, they are supposed to raise antibodies. Unfortunately they raised the ones that make my fast twitch muscles not work. Muscle blocker antibodies. I am just glad that my slow twitch work, because I sympathize hugely with the people who end up lying in bed. It’s still inconvenient, difficult to explain and annoying.
At any rate, gentle graded increase in activity is all very well as advice. But do you control everything that happens in your life? I don’t. Someone gets sick, the mail goes awry, a billing company changed their address and I didn’t get the memo. It all takes energy. Some days I am going to overdo, especially when I feel better. And it rather sucks to lie around the next day, but it is ok.
Over the last week I had a friend up from Portland. We walked three days running. On the third day we walked paths from my house to the lighthouse and back. About 5-6 miles. I was not quite limping when I got home, but I knew I could rest the next day. My muscles got HUNGRY and are continuing to improve.
So when your doctor tells you “graded activity to avoid fatigue crashes”, remember that it is not wholly controllable because life is not wholly controllable. Some days you will do great and others, well, hmmm. That was too much.
Blessings.
https://www.aafp.org/pubs/afp/issues/2022/1100/long-covid.html
https://www.cdc.gov/coronavirus/2019-ncov/long-term-effects/index.html
They always look unlikely in trees, though they are comfortable.
For the Ragtag Daily Prompt: Sol.
“Hey Martha! Look, she’s got a real camera! Serious zoom lens on that baby!”
“Ralph, look dignified!”
“Dignified! Are you kidding?”
“Ralph, we are the National Bird! Bald Eagles! Look proud! Like me!”
“Nah, Martha, I’m crossing my eyes. She’ll get a surprise when she downloads THESE photos! Come on, Martha, mug for once!”
“Ralph, you are impossible!”
For the Ragtag Daily Prompt: mischief.
The latest spam email I have gotten is “to order Covid-19 tests”. WATCH OUT FOR THAT ONE! I am sending hate thoughts to whoever sent that one out, predators trying to get information or lock up the computers of vulnerable people.
The clue for me is the email address of the sender. If I hover over the address and get a string of weird things, it is spam. I am fast at deleting it now.
Old fashioned and very strong curses against the people sending out this spam.
Here is the correct link for ordering tests: https://special.usps.com/testkits
Or if you would prefer, search (or google) USPS covid test kits. Make sure you do not click on advertisements but go to the real site!
Blessings all.
I took this in my front yard two days ago. They are called swamp robins here, but another name is varied thrush. I have never seen one in my yard before and there was a pair! I think I saw a fox sparrow as well, who are large, red brown and have lots of spots on the breast.
If it was a sunny day, the colors would be brighter, but you can see the blue and orange and black! Very dramatic! I need my kodachrome! It would also help to not be shooting through a window, a storm, in clouds. Oh, well.
For the Ragtag Daily Prompt: chrome.
My hummingbirds can fly even in hellacious weather.
I hope the tornadoes have stopped.
For the Ragtag Daily Prompt hellacious.
The chances of you changing are quite small.
I know from very early in our time.
Why God makes angels that will one day fall.
We could be sent to teach each other rhymes
or something else. I wonder at it daily.
My heart opens like a flower even so.
The candle just at dusk burns quite palely.
I wonder what excuse you’ll use to go.
It’s a comic denouement I see at last.
You denigrate my knowledge and my skill.
After exposure you refuse to wear a mask
or test. I rise in anger at ill will.
It’s comic that I’ve liked your busy mind.
Respect for mine is nil: you elk’s behind.
I walked at Irondale beach yesterday. The wigeons were out in force.
Maybe it was a wigeon field day.
For the Ragtag Daily Prompt: field day.
This is Tiktok. In 2019 he overwintered at my house. We had snow and it got very cold at night and I worried. But every morning, he’d appear near the feeder when it got light. Then he would throw a mild conniption at me when I went outside with a hot towel to try to thaw the feeder. “Hurry up, hurry up, I am hungry!” He certainly figured out that I was the person who dealt with the feeder. He would buzz me if the feeder was empty, too. He makes a ticking sound, so that’s where the name is from. One of those old things called clocks, with hands, that ticked.
Right now I have two feeders up. I am seeing a female Anna’s hummingbird in the front, chasing others away, and a male at the kitchen feeder. It may be Tiktok still! I have named the female Emerald. I have seen them together in the top of the plum tree, but this is after Emerald chased Tiktok away from her feeder. It’s a bit unclear if they are friends or not.
Meanwhile, Elwha has the opposite of a conniption.
For the Ragtag Daily Prompt: conniption.
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