Brain Dump

Photo by Markus Spiske on Unsplash

Today's post is going to have no real theme. I am just going to take a few minutes and talk about things bouncing around in my head. There is no rhyme nor reasonn so sit back and enjoy about 7 minutes of random things. Thank you and good luck.

The holidays were way more fun as children. The colors, the lights, the presents and the just the overall anticipation. As an adult, I feel more stress and pressure and not just due to monies spent. I feel like the time from last Christmas to next Christmas gets shorter and shorter and the expectations to run around get more and more.

The internet owns us all now. Good or bad everyone is connected to it. It is almost as important if not more so than electricity. That kind of scares me.

I do not like to read electronic books. However, I love audiobooks. Does that make me a hypocrite?

While folding socks and undies today I realized probably have more than 20 pairs for each. That's a lot, right? Also, why do I talk about underwear in as if it is a pair of underwear if it is clearly only one? Is it the two-leg holes that make it a pair?

In therapy, I am learning about feelings. I still do not understand them I still do not like them but I feel like I am getting a little bit better at actually identifying the feelings instead of just happy, mad and sad. Being able to do that really helps figure out the root issue. I think that is weird but fun.

I have also learned that your mind does crazy things to protect itself. I have no idea why it is even doing it. One of the big things I have learned is when you change statements from you to I can be huge. One example: You know how you feel like your friend relationships are changing and you don't know if you want them to or what to do with that information? Now try saying it like. I know that my relationships with my friends are changing and I don't know if I want them to change or how to handle the fact that they are. Profoundly different statements.

I still firmly feel that love is a verb and not an adjective. Every day I wake up and try my best to show my love and work for the love I have for my Husband, my family, and friends.

I love walking around with big fuzzy wool socks in the wintertime.

I think too much and it distracts me from being present.

Every day is a new opportunity to try again and try harder yet sometimes when I fail to meet my goals and expectations day after day I wonder what's the point? Then someone points out that my goals and expectations might be too high, unrealistic, and never achievable. Which boils down to I set myself up to fail. Isn't that insane?

I am not crazy.

I could become a crazy cat lady but not with Lock. He and I are not friends and I do not see that changing anytime soon. Honestly, I don't know why he doesn't like me. It bothers me some times but then I play with Teach and yell F. U. Cat!

My fingers are cold.

Running with Teach yesterday was good because he got exercise and I finished my mileage goal. Bad because I was frustrated several times. I hope I can get up earlier enough this week to try again with him in a different setting.

Okay, that's probably the top layer. I'm going to stop here to keep from going down any wormholes.

Thanks for reading maybe we'll do this again some time?

If you would also like to brain dump feel free with a comment below!

Weapon Wednesday - How to Make a Tourch

Sometimes Husband and I have what we like to call, Weapons Wednesday.

The activities we participate in can vary. On one occasion I learned about using a knife. On another, I learned a few self-defense moves on how to avoid/escape someone attaching from the front. One time I learned how to safely push my own car. You get the idea.

This Weapons Wednesday was learning about torches. How to make them and just experience a torch.

I asked Husband, did you learn about this in Boy Scouts? He looked at me funny and said no, I just like fire. Fair enough man, fair enough.

With just a little hesitation, we went downstairs to start our task.

Step one was to gather all of the supplies, socks, fuel, sticks, and some wire.

The next step was to roll up the socks, using the wire to securely attach the socks to the end of the sticks. Is there an exact reason for these steps? Honestly, probably. Do I know the reasons? Nope.

Once they were secure we took our fun outside. In this step, we carefully added the fuel. The fuel we used was lighter fluid, like the kind that would be added to charcoal before starting your gril. We slowly added the fluid to the socks and watching them absorb all the liquid. We didn't over saturate it so that they would drip because we were outside an there were many dry leaves on the ground. We wanted to learn about torches not how to put out fires.

Please note, we did do this right next to a garden hose so we were prepared.

Once both the socks were filled with liquid we lighted them.

Wow, they were bright, they were warm, and boy did they look cool!

When you moved them around they sounded so awesome. Sort of like a whooshing sound. They actually produced more light than I thought they would. If you waved them fast enough you could get little puffs of fire to jump off of them.

Husband explained that if I held the torch more to the side I could see better than if it is was out front because it didn't cause my vision to get so distorted.

The sticks themselves didn't catch fire because the fire was just consuming all of the lighter fluid. Husband said that the sock was just acting like a wick. As the fire burned it just pulled out more of the fluid.

Did the sock eventually burn? Oh yes. Did the fire eventually get dim? For sure. Did our sicks get a little blackened? Yup. Did the part the socks covered stay get burnt? Nope!

While I was waving around my torch burning spider webs and just wandering around under my porch I thought about all of the movies where people use torches. Indiana Jones and The Mummy came to mind first. Their torches were way bigger but still, they did the same thing. I have to give people from the past credit they sure were clever and very ingenious.

Our fun lasted about 20 minutes and I would say of that 20 minutes the first 10 were for sure super bright and the flames were huge. In the end you could still see things but it would have defiantly caused some alarm and worry if you were in the middle of a dark cave or temple.

Has anyone else built a torch before? If so, what did you use for fuel? How long did yours last? Let me know with a comment below!

High Ropes Course Birthday

A few weeks ago my mother turned another milestone year. She was kind of bummed about it but let's be honest after you hit 26(can I say rent a car whenever I want without fees please?) birthdays can be less than enthusiastic.

Over the last few years, my brother and I have been getting together to give her some kind of adventure. She and my brother have taken some of these like champs!

This year instead of a surprise I actually asked her what she wanted to do between two options. The first being going to see the musical Hamilton or a high ropes course, she chose the high ropes course.

I have been a few times with Husband, but not to a Go Ape before. We picked a date, she picked the course, I bought the tickets for her, my brother, and my stepdad and it was a done deal,

I came into to town visit her for a few days and then it was TIME!

I had to laugh because of the 4 of us on this adventure I was the only one who had done this before. Also, I found out, or maybe for the first time paid attention, that my mom was afraid of heights. My brother jumps out of planes so he was a no issue. My stepdad seemed to do pretty well since he goes in trees for hunting all the time.

The experience went really well. We all signed in, went to the restroom, put on or pulled off layers, then once it was our time went over with the instructor to be put into a harness, taught how to use the equipment, read the signs, and how to properly navigate the course. They had a little demo area that you practiced and passed before going to the actual course and then we were off!

I have to even admit a few times my stomach clenched up with some fear as I did a Tarzan swing into a cargo net. Also, it's been a while since I've climbed in a cargo net, those are harder to do then I thought. Mom did amazing, along with my brother and stepdad. We waited and encouraged and laughed at each other the whole time. It was great!

The end result is that we all had a good time. My mom was able to cross of zip lining and high ropes course off her bucket list and she asked that we do this again next year for her birthday. I told her done!

During the course, my stepdad took a video of me on the zip line. I keep laughing at it each time because I was trying to go straight but quickly lost it and apparently my mind at the same time.

Please note Go Ape didn't ask me to write this review or talk about their services. It was just a good day and I wanted to share.

Has anyone else done a high ropes course? Did you enjoy it? What part did you like the least? What was your favorite? Leave a comment below and thanks!

E-mail Fun

Photo by Webaroo.com.au on Unsplash

I don't know what it is with my e-mail but I get random people's e-mail several times a year. I always politely reply to make sure they know they have the wrong address.

Well, I thought this was pretty funny so I wanted to share it. enjoy.

First e-mail:
Hi gorgeous one hope all is going well.  We had a little rain today so your plants would have had a bit of a drink which was perfect.  Love you xx

My reply:

Hi XXXX,

Thank you for the compliment it is a very nice way to start the day. However, since I don't have plants I assume you have the wrong email address. =/ Thanks for a bright way to start my day!

Shannon

Their Reply:
Too funny sorry Shannon thanks for replying. 

Does anyone else get random e-mails like this? If so please let me know