Wisdom Gained the Hard Way

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For two seniors living the retired life we seem to never have a dull moment. Gary's desire every morning is to "do nuthin'!" but he rarely achieves that goal. 🤭🙄 With this post I'm expanding on that as I respond to Joyce's Hodgepodge questions for this week. 

1. What's your favorite fall scent? Would we find this in or around your home right now? 

I prefer Vanilla at any time of the year. A lot of other scents give me a headache. 

2. October is Country Music Month...are you a fan of country music? Do you have a favorite country artist? Ever been to Nashville? In terms of lifestyle are you more country mouse or city mouse? 

Country music doesn't appeal to me much (it's too much "cryin' in my beer"); but I can take it in small doses if people are country line dancing. THAT is fun to watch.

I have been through Nashville's freeway traffic many times and stayed overnight at the Gaylord Opryland Resort & Convention Center, which was an absolute delight (thanks to the generosity of my eldest son a few months after his dad died). To reach our family members up north, driving through Nashville is our usual route. 

Gaylord Opryland Resort & Convention Center

Never a 'country mouse,' I've lived in cities and suburbs all of my life. My father was an airline pilot for a few years and then transitioned to corporate aviation. Much of that time my family had only one car, so we usually lived pretty close to the airport.

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Sister and I were in grade school (and younger) when Daddy was flying with American Airlines, so of course we gave thought to becoming stewardesses (now called 'flight attendants) when we grew up. One time when the girls' uniforms changed, Daddy gave us a couple of their older caps for playing dress-up! We used to play "airplane," lining up all our dolls and stuffed animals in rows with a single aisle in the middle. If I remember correctly, I served the passengers while Sister sat in the cockpit.

Interestingly enough, while I have always been a 'city mouse,' Sister married a farmer! They lived on their family farm for many years before moving to a small town nearby.

3. How about 'country cooking'? (loosely defined as rich flavors, familiar foods, large portions, often fried, and often associated with the southern region of the US of A)? 

Of these foods, listed, which is your favorite? Are there any on the list you haven't tried or would say a firm no thank you to if offered? 

chicken and dumplings - soggy dough not my favorite

fried chicken - as long as it's not too greasy

shrimp and grits - shrimp yes, grits seem kinda tasteless to me

biscuits and gravy - yes; but I prefer butter and jam

mac and cheese - yes

fried green tomatoes - yes

cornbread - I love to bake cornbread in cast iron

collard or turnip greens - yes, and here in the South, especially

deviled eggs - oh yes!

'barbecue'- yes, but that's very high in sodium (more on that to come)

gumbo - haven't had it much, too spicy for me

banana pudding - absolutely!!!

4. What's something that always had a positive impact on your mood? Well.... eating BBQ used to have a positive impact on my mood, as well as on my taste buds. However, referencing my experiences over the past month with the diagnoses of high blood pressure (hypertension) and nose bleeds that took me to the ER, I'm having to distance myself from this flavor-laden pleasure. 

After the first serious nose bleed was packed, unpacked, and seemed to be all healed up, I did research on the connection between nose bleeds and hypertension and diet. It was all very interesting. I took my newly-acquired blood pressure prescription faithfully and resumed my near-daily bike rides with Gary but didn't take seriously the advice to eat a low salt diet.

Then several weeks later, we went to a well-known restaurant chain to enjoy BBQ ribs. Yes, they were literally lip-smakin' good. But about 5 hours later a nose bleed started up again from the same place as the serious one before. By then I had become a pro at responding quickly and was able to get it stopped in about 20 minutes, so a trip to the ER was not necessary. We were disheartened this had happened again. I did some research and this is what AI had to say:

A very high-sodium meal can cause a temporary increase in blood pressure, which may contribute to a nosebleed by increasing pressure on fragile blood vessels in the nose. While high blood pressure is more commonly linked to nosebleeds, a rapid, high sodium intake can induce this effect by causing the blood vessels' ability to dilate to be impaired.

I strongly suspected the BBQ lunch had a lot to do with the nose bleed. Over the course of the next couple of days, I had 3 more nosebleeds. As reported in my last blog post, I saw my ENT doctor, got the affected area cauterized, and have been doing well ever since. 

While I'm not saying I'll never touch BBQ again, I do realize some dietary changes seem prudent (eating smaller amounts of the very high-sodium BBQ).

snapshot taken at Chicago's O'Hare airport
October 2013

The other day I shopped at Barnes and Noble for books on the subject. Yesterday I bought this book and made a wonderful meatloaf from page 136. 

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5. As we say so long to September share a noun, a verb, and an adjective that tells us something about how that month looked for you.

Glad September's gone

6. Insert your own random thought here. Other things going on around here: it was time to pass Edith's Yamaha keyboard on to those who know how to play it. When the men came to get it, I asked if they could play "Amazing Grace," and of course they did, following that with the newer lyrics, "My sins are gone; I've been set free..." That has been a highlight of my week.

In it's place, we have put a hall table, which created more space in another part of the house that was a little crowded. We've been married well over 3 years but are still making the necessary adjustments when two households are combined into one.

Speaking of the length of time we've been married, the romance is more alive with every passing day. When the ENT cauterized my nose last week, she told me to refrain from heavy lifting and a lot of exertion for a couple of weeks to not upset the healing process. That meant I'd not be riding bikes with Gary every day, so he's been going out on his own. I sit on the porch reading while awaiting his return. 

Gary coming home

People probably don't know what a flirt he is with me. One morning as he approached our driveway, he called out (and I'm quoting exactly what he said): "Hey! Is your old man gone? I wanna talk to you! You're the cutest thing I've seen all morning!"

Yeah, this is not unusual for him. I love it!

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In closing, I want to share this piece of jewelry I bought for myself earlier this year. It's not costly but the value of how it's helped me through some tough times is great. Do you recognize what it is?

Here's a hint:

[Jesus] replied, "Because you have so little faith. Truly I tell you, if you have faith as small as a mustard seed, you can say to this mountain, 'Move from here to there,' and it will move. Nothing will be impossible for you." Matthew 17:20-21

It is a tiny mustard seed encased in a clear acrylic pendant. What this seed says to me is that we either have faith or we don't. It's not so much how much (or how large) our faith is but simply that we have faith at all! 

My trust in the Lord has been tested of late with these physical things. We all are challenged about something just about every single day. Although it's not been especially fun, the Lord has come through for me and I'm here today, able to write about His faithfulness to me and to thank Him for bringing me through. 

Until next time, grace and peace. 

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With thanks to Joyce for giving us good questions on the Hodgepodge, if you want to connect (link up) with other bloggers responding to these questions, click here.