More Flowers, Less Withdrawal

On the flower front, I put out part of the mulch the other night, before the bugs and the sweat sent me running into the AC. We’ll try for the rest tonight before dark…if I get home before dark. The mulch I laid down the other night looks fabulous. When I’m done, I’ll take a picture or two and post them up.

On the Pepsi withdrawal front, the jitters have departed, but the headaches remain, even though they are somewhat less severe. The tailbone is improving, but it will be weeks before I get back to 100%. I can tell you from first-hand experience that spreading mulch, digging dirt, and planting lilies are no picnic with a broken bum!

Last night, I took Mom and met my cousins Betsi and Suzie at Bass Lake Tavern in Chardon for dinner. It was tasty fare! Betsi and Suzie had sea scallops with berry-rum sauce over a bed of rice. I had a pan-seared tilapia with asparagus and other veggies over rice. Mom opted for even lighter fare, a bowl of tomato basil soup and a side of butternut squash with maple butter. Betsi and Suzie split a decadent chocolate brownie desert with Bailey’s Irish Cream Ice Cream and Mom had a yummy bread pudding. I opted for liquid calories and by-passed the desert menu for a second glass of a tasty Piesporter Reisling.

All in all, not bad!

As the World Watches Lost...

I have to admit, I too was fascinated with Lost, at least during Season 1. I watched during Season 2, but only half-heartedly, and only about half the time. After that, I have no clue, and I’m not particularly interested in knowing what happened or how it ends. I’m not a fan of tying myself to the television so I can watch a show. It reminds me of women I used to know who just couldn’t miss their soaps. I actually know some who record the soaps every day, because heaven knows it might kill them to miss an episode.

I’m here to say that any addiction is incapacitating, whether it’s crack, alcohol, food, sex, soap operas, or prime time shows. If you HAVE to do it, you’ve got a problem.

We all have our little addictions, whether we want to admit it or not. My worst food addiction is Craisins. Yup, Craisins. I admit freely that I can’t stop eating Ocean Spray dried cranberries. If they are in my house, I will eat them until they are gone. If I manage to pass by the section of the grocery store where the Craisin’s are displayed and manage to get out of the store with no Craisins in my shopping cart, I congratulate myself heartily.

Worse than Craisins is my Diet Pepsi addiction. I actually panic if I don’t think I have enough in the house to last until I can get to a store. But unlike Craisins, the Pepsi is physically addictive because of the caffeine it contains. If you’ve never suffered caffeine withdrawal, trust me when I say it’s not pleasant!

I consider both of these addictions to be personally unacceptable. I regularly make attempts at defeating them. But neither of them interferes with my use of my time. TV addiction prevents you from living your life while you’re glued to some fantasy on the tube. It stops being an entertaining interlude and becomes centric to your life. You don’t have to think, or move. You just sit there and let a form of broadcasting permeate your brain with bizarre thoughts, violence, and anything else it throws at you.

I’m not saying that it’s bad to be exposed to those things, or to other ideas and unknowns. Exposure to new and different things generally causes growth, fosters creativity and encourages us to question what we know and what is good. What I’m saying is that addiction “saturates” the brain with that stuff, the same way brainwashing techniques imbue someone’s psyche with information they would otherwise not believe or would at least think about or question.

The platitude “All things in moderation” seems most appropriate, doesn’t it? Don't you wonder how many Lost fans will be absolutely lost without their weekly fix?