- Recently I've been coming across more and more blog posts that contain only links to other posts (sometimes there's a little added explanation or comment). Sometimes it's about the blogger's earlier posts ("One year ago today on [name of blog]...", etc.) and sometimes it's links to other blogs.
- While it can be useful to see links to other people's posts (and it's definitely one of the ways bloggers keep their networks going), sometimes I think it's a bit of a cop-out to do this too often. As far as the blogger's own posts is concerned, sometimes a link to an earlier post is integrated into the text ("As I mentioned earlier [link], I think..."). That's useful, because you can refer to the earlier information if necessary. But those "One year ago today" links without any further content annoy me sometimes.
- What do you think? Are these "link posts useful?" Do you read them? Do you skip them? I'd love to know. Drop me a line!
"Non-posts"
Starting up again after turbulent times
- I read a post by Esther van der Wal on Henri Junttila's blog. Esther writes about re-becoming a socially functioning member of society (my own words) after a major trauma in her personal life. You can read my comment there, but her story got me thinking about getting back on track.
I posted last week about the huge fear I had that my beloved Border Collie had a tumor (luckily, it's not one, but the fear hasn't totally left my body yet). At the same time, I had a "light" case of pneumonia. Joint problems are acting up. Mom fell again. Money questions. Questions about moving house. The husband of a friend of mine died rather suddenly. Lots of other stuff happened right in the same couple of weeks.
What happened? I was paralyzed. Overwhelmed. Cried a lot. Had no idea how to do anything but the most essential things. The house was a mess. I wouldn't have eaten anything remotely healthy if Man hadn't been here more than usual to help out. I let my e-mail inbox grow to 200+ messages. Didn't pay bills.
The thing is, it was OK. Sure, it would have been great to have my fear under control. (Really, really great.) And the messy house didn't help me feel any better. But that's just the way it was. And I knew it. I knew that at some point the fog in my head would lift and that I would gradually get going again. My own tried and true first sign of the fog lifting is that I want to clean something up. This time, it was doing the dishes. I hate doing grocery shopping, so that was an especially tough thing to get on track again, but I managed it. One day I suddenly decided to run the Roomba. And things snowballed after that. - I think we have to be able to accept the times that things just aren't working. If getting some practical help is possible, these are the times to do that. (I felt like I was hiding behind Mommy's skirts when I asked Man to do the grocery shopping, but it helped.) Accepting that it's OK to be like this temporarily makes it easier to notice the signs we're starting to come out of it, and to act on them. Then we can feel the relief of doing something "normal" and trusting that things will work out somehow. That's the beginning of recovery.
Good news!
- The vet called and it's not a tumor, but an infection in the bone! Still work to do, but what I was so afraid of turns out not to be happening. Bottoms up!
Terrified
- BC had a biopsy today of a bump on his right front leg. The vet is thinking bacterial infection in the bone, or tumor. I'm terrified.
Sheepish
- Haven't posted for several days; my life was temporarily revolving around sheep! We were going to participate in a sheep herding trial the day before yesterday, and because BC is visually impaired I decided to take a lesson on the trial field, so he'd at least see it beforehand. So last Tuesday we drove 2-1/2 hours there, had a lesson and drove back.On Thursday we had a lesson somewhere else ("only" an hour away), with a possible new instructor. (Our regular instructor is out of commission for a while for health reasons.) And Sunday we had the trial. The first lesson was kind of wild, since BC hadn't seen a sheep close up for three months. And I had to get into it again as well.The lesson on Thursday was somewhat better. Interesting to take a lesson from someone who isn't primarily into trialling. She actually herds, well, a huge herd of sheep, about 350 animals.And Sunday was the trial. Decided to go there Saturday evening and stay in a B&B so I wouldn't have to get up at five on Sunday morning. Sunday turned out to be a lovely day. The trial didn't really go as planned (the sheep high-tailed it back to their starting pen twice), but I noticed the commands were going much better and I was happy about that. Even though we exceeded the time limit we ended up being tied for 5th place out of 19. Not bad!
- Now getting back in gear with the rest of life, like continuing with getting rid of stuff, getting the repair work done on the kitchen etc. I picked out a really nice countertop; here's a pic. (And now to bed!)
There's something I just don't get
- Why, oh why, are there so many "leaked" sex tapes and nude photos? I'm talking about actual leaks here, not stuff people put out there themselves and then pretend it's leaked. If it floats your boat to make them during the act, why not delete them afterwards (and format the memory card)? If you want to look at them again, why do you store them where someone obviously can get to them? And...on your cell phone? What's up with that? The easiest thing in the world to lose besides your house key? Not a shining example of a good place to store sensitive information. I just don't get it.
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