It will take a lifetime to fix this mess we are in

I was having a thought process before coffee this morning. (I know, dangerous right?) It all started the other day when my daughter and I were discussing an injury she had at one of her million (exaggeration but it might as well be) athletic activities through the local high school. She was telling me how the trainer told her to do this exercise and that and then both hot and cold therapies. All I could do was sit there and listen to her recite the list of things she has to do to get "better." I was amazed at what she was telling me. Not because of what she had to do but because the injury was a twisted ankle. I don't want to negate that it could have been worse because the back-inside of her foot turned purple after about a week and it DID swell the first couple of days.  I am certain it was painful and a legitimate injury. I do believe that some of what the trainer told her helped it heal but lets be realistic here.


I remember being a kid, we fell down, "shook it off" and got back up. When I twisted my ankle as a track athlete in high school, the coach wrapped it up and told me to get back to running. My running may have been a bit slow during the first couple of days, but so long as I stayed off it as much as possible for the next week, I was fine. Mind you, this comes from someone who can fall off of something that is not there and nearly BREAK her ankle.  Anywhoo, the point is, they basically told her to baby the thing. Were it when I was an athlete, it would have turned purple within 24 hours and then began to heal and I would have been back to normal in a week. No hot and cold therapy, not exercises to ease back into using it. That stuff is for when you have surgery or a real break. Personally, I believe it delayed the healing process and it is nearly 2 weeks later and the purple is JUST starting to go away. Hrmm. Shaking it off made it heal faster folks. As Numba Ten would fondly blurt out "Jus Sayin!"


That led me to the next thing. The WHOLE reason the thought process occurred to me, in the kitchen, making coffee, at 5 a.m.  I began thinking about all of the people who have lawsuits against schools recently for the coaches and trainers not being sensitive to medical needs of their athletes. If you think about it, everyone has some sort of medical issue they are fighting these days. Is it all really necessary?  Yea, medical science is taking us into longer lives and such but at what cost?


It all starts with mother nature and this planet we live on. We have poisoned the very planet that is supposed to sustain us. Traditional methods of farming and growing food are not enough to sustain the insatiable (and wasteful) population that controls it. This means we have to grow more, faster, and bigger. Man has found that chemicals can do that. The food we grow is no longer "of the earth" the earth is just a petri dish where we grow the worlds largest squash to feed 100,000 people instead of a whole field of wholesome, flavorful, natural squash. No, we cant do the latter because it takes to long and we need to do this NOW. So, bring out the miracle grow and other chemicals and make it grow overnight. We fill our livestock with steroids and lock it up in tight little prisons so they cannot move and are destined a horrible death. Never mind that their life may be filled with pain and rage due to the chemicals we are forcing into it. This monster we are raising to eat is filled with chemicals that would kill a human being. We wear full body protective suits just to use the chemicals we are putting into our food. What happened to the habanero pepper being the only thing that would burn your skin when it came to food? Finally, let me get started on the water and sugars. We wastefully use so much water that we have to make it a chemical cocktail just so that we can drink it and hydrate our bodies. How much of that chemical remains when we ingest it is questionable at best. Sugar. Let me have the unrefined, nothing else added sugar. All this "high fructose corn syrup" is for the birds and it is FAKE PEOPLE!  If you want that, just eat the plastic container that your milk comes in. Its probably the same thing.


With all these chemicals and fake things we are putting into our bodies every day, (don't get me started on the highly processed stuff) it is no wonder there are so many people fighting illnesses and on medication for this or that every day. In another post, I talked about how the advent of electronics has created a whole generation of ADHD children (yea, small digression there, it was bound to happen.) This leads me to thinking about what it would take to eliminate society's need to rely so heavily on the pharmaceutical industry. A side note-pharmaceuticals are yet another round of chemicals we are putting into our bodies to fight the very chemicals that likely caused the issue in the first place. Ugh. Circular.


It would take a lifetime.


First, we have to get back to basics. Pay attention to the people who say grow your own food. Grow it with love and time. Use that garden to spend time with your family and get off the electronics. Sun is good for you. Work at home people will heartily agree. Use it to learn patience and caring and it will taste sooo good! No chemicals, just unadulterated (albeit a little smaller than the trend) wholesome FLAVORFUL goodness. You can garden year round. This will start something. You will spend less money at the store. The stores will rely less and less on the farmers and the farmers can go back to being what they should be. Farmers. They wont have to have a PHD in chemistry to poison the land with chemicals and sprays and will be able to grow a whole field of the good stuff and not the worlds largest squash. This will also prevent the farmer from feeding his livestock chemical ridden foods that ultimately end up on your table.


Next, livestock producers should raise their livestock the way it should be raised. Because their crops will be better and they wont have to spend so much on chemicals for their crops, they will not have to sell off their land and will be able to sustain their livestock on larger pieces of land and can sell the good stuff like they were supposed to do. Its all about give and take. This puts less chemicals in the meat that ends up on your table and the earth is beginning to heal. It is going to take a lifetime for the poisons we have put into this planet for food purposes to go away. It will reduce the freaks we see...two headed snakes, unusually HUGE bugs. Plants and trees will begin to grow again. Another thing that would help this planet heal is to use the land that already has development on it and relief it. Stop building on the farmers land and clear off that old building further into the city and build the same thing. Leave the farmer to what he should be doing well in the first place.


Another thing that you can do is build your own water filtration system. Honestly you only need 1x1 posts, plastic, buckets, rocks and soil. You filter your own water. So much better than the stuff coming out of your tap water. Getting used to non chemical water can take a couple of weeks of getting used to but with all these chemicals removed from your body, you will likely find that the medicines you are taking are no longer needed. You are eating, drinking and living healthier and due to the fact that you are spending less at the grocery store and less at the water payment center and less at the pharmacy, you find you have money for other things and can create memories instead of less gratifying images or words on a screen. You are LIVING.


So go forth. Live life. Do things the way mother nature has wanted us to do all along. Be tired of seeing "mother sick in bed." Help her heal. Be HUMAN. LIVE!


What do YOU think?


...And yes, my coffee is almost done.....**Micaa walks off to grab that first glorious cup.**

My Hot Beverage Part Deux

Those of you who are my dear readers know my affinity for coffee first thing in the morning. I made a discovery regarding my morning ritual. 

I have discovered that while I am a morning person, I am not so much without the warm mug I carry through the house as I get my morning routine going.  This morning, I thought it would be nice to do my morning chores (feed the dog, chickens, fish, scrub the dishes left from the midnight marauders, sweep out the barn, etc.) WITHOUT my tasty hot beverage.  The whole intent there, was to enjoy the coffee while I was sitting at my desk ranting about other things that I have had bouncing around in my head for a couple of days. (Sorry, this is a digression I don't want to take right now because it will go off on a tangent I am not ready for yet.) Boy was that a big mistake. I even reached the point where I forewarned my dear Calvin that I would bite as I had not had coffee yet.  What a brave man he is, however, he still approached me with a warm hug and kisses even though his life was in danger.  This is why I married him! (Ok, there is the digression! Hehe.)

Point being, my discovery is that I am NOT a morning person at all. Well, without coffee I am not one. I am a vicious, snarling, black widow who has been backed into a corner and is ready to strike when you get too close. In reflection, I was not very nice this morning. However, I have calmed a great deal as I have to reheat the second portion of my preferred hot beverage.  Yes, reheat.  Go ahead and get the ews and yucks out of the way. Part of my coffee routine.  I do the same to those of you with the foam and the double mocha lattee with just a splash of some other black oily substance.  I get about as fancy as putting flavored cream in mine and call it a day. Yea, I have tried that other crap but to tell you the truth, why am I going to get up, get dressed, fight the stupid drivers, stand in a long line and spend eight dollars on a cup of coffee that is truly crap once it becomes cold. Those things are not reheatable and I can take my eight dollars and drink coffee for the whole damn month and never have to deal with stupid people before I even get my caffiene injection in the morning. 

Yea, yea, it is trendy to put a second mortgage on your house to visit your favorite barista first thing in the morning. Go be trendy.  When my house is paid for, and your doctor tells you no more caffiene, you will think again about that 8 dollar mug of YOUR steamy goodness in a different light huh?  By that time, I will be paying only taxes and insurance on my home and sitting on my porch relatively stress free with my preferred hot beverage (likely decaffinated....**shudder**) watching the grand children play in front of the house smiling. I will be retired and you will still be trudging away AND, likely still at the local coffee shop every morning.

Ah yes, me and my tasty hot beverage. Friends for LIFE!

What do YOU think?

I love my hot beverage.

Every morning, without fail, I wake up and am unable to officially start my day without my first hot beverage. Coffee. Similar to many people in this world, coffe is a staple in my home and life is simply not plesant with out it. I absolutely love it with my 8T of french vanilla, irish cream, or caramel creamer. (Preferenced in listed order.) After the first sip, I can face the world and life is good. **Excuse me while I go put my fathers "tea pot" on with some water to boil.** Now, I have come to the conclusion that life is just as good ending the day with a different hot beverage. I prefer hot chocolate. In the past, I was not hip to hot chocolate in the winter. While I enjoyed them then, I prefer to have a cup o' cocoa on a nice summer evening as a perfect end to a summer day. While most people have tea or a drink, I prefer the old stand by. I have discovered that it has become more of a habit this summer and it is a great way to relax for the evening. I love it almost as much as I love my morning coffee, actually. I guess it was a given since I don't mind my sodas warm and can drink on a 20 oz soda for the better part of my work day. Normally that starts out ice cold, right out of the cabinator, it is not necessary for it to remain ice cold. Are there benefits to drinking hot beverages? I would certainly like to think so. However, I put enough fattening junk in mine to warrant any healthy promotion off of such a waste of time. If I am out of creamer (or marshmallows) I will simply have my beverages just as they were conceived for. Plain, and black. I have even become accostomed to having my cocoa made with plain water. While the watery variety of even the top shelf cocoa varieties is less than brain sparkly, it will suffice just the same. I guess you can say it is the experience. (Yes, you can say the morning is more of necessity but the evening is truly the experience.) Conversely, I prefer my water to be ICE cold. I find water that is anything warmer than just below freezing to be absolutely awful. Not sure where that came from. I am VERY picky about where my ice comes from. So picky, in fact, that I refuse to take ice in my drinks at any restauraunt or fast food establishment. There is a story behind that. Let me explain. My first job that was working for corporate America was in one of the more popular fast food chains of the time. It was with in walking distance of my home and it was the perfect job. I was used to working for family and was exposed to so much more of what the very fabric of this country was made up of in the REAL working world. During my first few months of working at this wonderful establishment (at $4.25 an hours, seriously! A servers wage by today's standards,) I noted that the icebin that normally hangs on the side of the ice machine had a slanted flat bottom and would stand on its own were it left on the floor. (UCK!) One day, during a particularly busy Saturday afternoon, I noted that the ice bin was not hanging on the side of the ice machine but, on the floor. I then watched a co worker (who had worked there for at least 2 years) pick up the ice bin, scoop it into the ice and then proceed to walk it to the front counter and fill the ice pockets at the cash registers. Absolutely beside myself, I then looked at the floor which was slimy with grime and stamped gook from the grill area. I about croaked! I vowed from then on NEVER to get ice from a restauraunt. If I "accidentally" get ice, I will refuse it and make the person fix me another in a different cup. Mind you, I worked in food service and I know some things. If you allow the person to take the cup back, they will dump it out in the drain and use the same cup to fix your beverage with no ice. NOT GONNA HAPPEN. Ah, but I digress.... Back to my hot beverage. I now hear the water boiling happy in the tea pot. In reality that is simply a small sauce pan. Nothing bigger than to hold a standard can of green beans. Just small enough for an amount of water for an evening beverage. As I sit here and watch the steam come out the rim of my mug, my mouth anticipates the hot chocolatey goodness it contains. I fancy grabbing my mug, my King novel, and a blanket. I will curl up on the couch and wrap up another day. All with my hot beverage. Yes it is made with water today and yes, it is truly an experience... What do YOU think?