My body is trying to kill me.

In diverse ways. For years. Sometimes the world really is trying to kill me -- like in a near-miss traffic situation. What happens is, once I am well and truly out of that situation, the stress-response hormone (adrenalin?) kicks in, and the brain and gland chemical firehose starts going full blast, with all the secondary symptoms of pulse and blood pressure and probably a headache. Not fun. I would much rather the world just left me alone. 

I'm Retired, Don't Bug Me

When I don't feel up to anything else, I play. On my phone. 

Spider Solitaire (one suit).

Or Freecell (I'm getting better at that one).

Or crossword puzzles.

I guess we'll see, won't we, whether this activity helps keep my brain from aging. Or whether this activity is a sign that it's already too late!  😅

Manual Transmission

I took my driving test in 1974 in my Dad's V8 Fordamatic, but truly I learned how to drive in my Mom's 1972 Toyota Corolla rear wheel drive with the long shift knob that went down to the drive shaft hump between the bucket seats. 

I have a preference for manual transmissions that was only strengthened by some years driving a Ford LTD company car station wagon that had a vacuum-advance carburetor spark adlustment and a slow responding automatic transmission. When you tromped down on the gas pedal because you needed to get out of a tight driving situation, you could count on several long seconds before it downshifted. 

The Wall Street Journal (link) says that right now in the USA only a dwindling fraction of drivers can drive a car with a clutch. To make matters worse, the WSJ article says, "In 1980, some 35% of cars produced in the U.S. were manuals. Today that figure is closer to 1%..." 

Yikes! When it comes to that, maybe putting an unreasonable amount of money into auto repair on my stick shift 2007 Mazda3 will be a good investment. ...Assuming there will be any mechanics left that can work on it!

(Ichi, ni, san, shi, go!  -- my Japanese shift knob!)

Lucky Cat Dish

Sometimes Neko-san holds my teabag. These days I use more loose leaf tea than teabags.

But lucky cat is not unemployed. Most evenings he holds my dinnertime medications and supplements. Having a happy friend hand me my pills makes me happy.

Also I have it on good authority that the cuter the food, the better it is for you. That *must* be true for the health benefits of medication, right? 

Thank you, Neko-san. 

           ☺️

Autumn brings baking weather

Banana muffins happened.

Mashing together the bananas and sugar is avery good excuse to use the immersion blender.

No pumpkin spice is used. Cinnamon and allspice, as the Creator intended.  Mmmm!

Hospital Tanka

You are prepped and tubed,

Waiting for the surgery.

I should be thankful

That the minutes feel so long.

At our age clock hands move fast. 

Will there always be an Ireland?

"For where there are Irish there’s bound to be fighting,

And when there’s no fighting, it’s Ireland no more!

Ireland no more!" 

-- Rudyard Kipling, "The Irish Guards" 

Overrun by Mohammedan hordes? Want to take your country back?

It's hard effectively to "speak truth to power" with words or deeds once you've been censored and disarmed by some species of totalitarianism. Just ask the people of Iran.