Wednesday, July 23, 2008

Haiku of the Week

Going to the woods
Tomorrow morning, not one
Dang minute too soon!

Friday, July 18, 2008

A Good, Restful Friday

It was a restful day. And boy, did I need it! It was an ugly, awful week at work and I was very glad to see it end.

I had intended to do a lot of household things today, but didn't feel well when I got up this morning. My best guess is it was a combination of allergies and exhaustion. So, I decided to just do whatever I felt like doing and let the rest of it WAIT. I lazed about this morning, having a leisurely breakfast and playing a little Scrabble on Pogo.com. They are actually running tournament rated games there, and it's a lot of fun.

As it turned out, I did feel better this afternoon after spending the morning resting. So I managed to get several things accomplished. In addition to doing some household stuff, I got my sewing machine out and used an old pair of jeans to make storage bags for the tent poles and stakes for my new tent. The tent came with bags for them, but I decided that denim would probably hold up better than the nylon bags provided. Also, if the denim bags get muddy I can toss them in the washer. *G*

Next week is the first camping trip with the new tent, and I'm anxious to get it all set up and staked out for the first time. On the news this morning I noticed that they're predicting a 30% chance of rain during the trip, but I don't care. It'll give me a chance to be sure the new tent doesn't have any leaks. *LOL*

This afternoon I caved in on my resolution to go "shampoo-free". I'd cleansed my hair with the baking soda solution three times in the last week. It actually looked, smelled and felt clean, so there were no complaints from me there. My big problem was that my psoriasis kicked into high gear. The area where my psoriasis breaks out is on my scalp, right at my hairline above my forehead. This afternoon, the red patch was so sore I couldn't even touch it.

Admittedly, the outbreak may have been caused by the high-tension week I had at the office (my dermatologist says that my psoriasis is stress-induced). However, in any case, I needed to use my prescription shampoo to get the outbreak under control. So it looks like the baking soda hair cleansing routine isn't going to be possible for me. Oh well. It seemed like a good idea at the time.

Well, I'm a little tired so I think I'll call it a night. I'm sure Meg won't argue with that at all. *LOL*

Haiku of the Week

Very tired today.
Vitameatavegamin
Needed right away.

Wednesday, July 16, 2008

Is It Friday Yet? Not Hardly.

Dang, what a week it's been so far. I've put in three of my four 10-hour days, but I feel like I'm already on overtime!!

This has been one of those weeks of having to hound people to do what they should have done without being reminded. That's just a waste of time and energy as far as I'm concerned. If ONE MORE PERSON tells me how "busy" they've been, I might snap!!

Oh well. One more day and it's over for a few. And next week will be a short one for me because I'm taking an extra day off on Thursday to go to the woods again. *YAY!* I NEED IT.

A brief update on going shampoo-free. So far I've cleansed my hair twice with the baking soda solution, only using the vinegar solution rinse once. My hair actually looks as clean as it does when I use shampoo. Once really nice effect: even when my hair gets sweaty (which it tends to do just about every time I set foot outside), it doesn't have that icky sweaty smell. Interesting. We'll see how it goes.

Well, since I'm completely bushed, I'll cut this post a bit short. More later in the week.

Saturday, July 12, 2008

Shampoo Free? Honestly??

I just happened across a post on a blog that referred me to another blog entry from December 2004 about going shampoo-free: http://babyslime.livejournal.com/174054.html. Here's the gist of it:
  1. Commerical shampoo is harsh and costly
  2. It's a detergent which strips necessary natural oils from your hair, causing it to be brittle and damaged.
  3. It can contain potentially harmful stuff (granted, in very low levels that probably won't hurt you anyway)
So, how do you go shampoo free?

  1. Use one tablespooon of baking soda in a cup of warm or hot water. If you need to increase the amount because your hair is long or thick, be sure to increase it in the same ratio (2 tablespoons of baking soda in 2 cups of water, 3 tablespoons of baking soda in 3 cups of water, etc.)
  2. Put it in a recycled shampoo bottle and apply it to your hair with warm water.
  3. The mix should not be gritty and should be a liquid.
  4. Let the mix sit on your hair for about a minute, then rinse with warm water.
  5. Every 2 to 3 washes, follow the baking soda cleansing with an apple cider vinegar rinse as follows: Make up a solution of 2 to 3 tablespoons of apple cider vinegar in 1 cup of water. Apply to wet hair, massage into scalp, and rinse off with cold water.
So why am I even considering this? I have what my dermatologist refers to as "stress-induced psoriasis". This manifests as a red scaly patch on my hairline above my forehead. Not only is it unsightly, but during flare-ups it actually HURTS. There've been times (during unusually high-stress times at work) that my scalp has hurt so bad that I'd have to grit my teeth while brushing my hair. The dermatologist gave me a prescription for some really expensive prescription shampoo. It removed the scaling and relieves the inflammation for brief periods of time. Sometimes only a day or two.

So I'd love to find a natural approach to cleansing my hair and scalp and reducing the scaling and inflammation of the psoriasis.

I'm off to the shower now to try it out. I'll keep you posted.

Thursday, July 10, 2008

Haiku of the Week

Work week is over.
Ready for relaxation.
Don't care if it rains.

Saturday, July 05, 2008

Grindstone in June


Home Away From Home
June 2008


Mom, Dad, Meggie and I toddled off to Grindstone again during the last week of June. Mom & Dad went up on Wednesday, and Meg and I went on Thursday. We had another trip of scattered showers, but all-in-all a very good, relaxing long weekend!

My site was just across the road from Mom & Dad. Daddy helped me set up, then he grilled pork steaks (yum!) which Mom served with baked beans, potato salad, coleslaw and rolls. I ate too much, but it was really good. Soon afterward, our friends Beth, Joey, and Amy came to visit with their cute little Yorkies, O'Reilly and Heidi. They were camped on another circle in the campground, but it was close enough to walk and visit comfortably.

The Yorkies were so cute....MeggieDog doesn't quite know what to think of them, being so tiny and so full of life! At one point, Beth and I were sitting on the same bench of the picnic table. Meggie was on my lap, and Heidi was on Beth's. Beth put Heidi down on the bench. She didn't make a sound, but bared her teeth at Meggie as if to say, "This is MY bench, and don't you dare move a muscle in my direction!" Meg moved further up on top of me with a "SAVE ME!!" look on her face. It was so funny to see that tiny little Yorkie staking out her territory!

We had rain off and on all weekend....one rainstorm would pass through, the sun would come out for a bit, then another storm would pass through. One day (Friday, I think?) Mom and Dad took me to a neat old antiques store over in Mouth of Wilson. I saw all KINDS of goodies I wouldn't have minded having, but restricted myself to buying a couple of very old (1920's) geography books and some 50-cent copies of Lewis Grizzard books. I also bought a couple of aluminum lids for saucepans for a quarter each. I have a 1-quart saucepan I take camping that didn't have a lid. All the lids I can find now are GLASS, which I don't want to take camping. Too easy to destroy! So that problem was easily (and cheaply!) solved.

Joey and Beth provided us with plenty of great campfire wood, so we were able to enjoy cozy fires on the cool damp days. I'd never have believed it, but there we were in late June wearing jeans....and occasionally sweatshirts! We're going back the end of July. I don't really expect to need a sweatshirt then, but will take one all the same. Just in case. You never know!

I always say that I really don't mind rain on a camping trip, because it gives me a good excuse to curl up with a big ol' book and listen to the rain falling on the tent. The only thing I don't really like to do is set up in the rain or break camp in the rain. Sure enough, Sunday morning when I was trying to get my camping gear all broken down and packed up, it rained off and on all morning. Daddy tried to dry things off as best he could with a leaf blower he gave me to carry with my camping gear. But everytime he seemed to be making a little headway, the wind would rustle the trees and dump rain all over everything all over again!

So, I finally just wrapped the canopy and tent up in a plastic tablecloth and stuffed it in the trunk. When I got it home, I spread it all out over the shower rod in my spare bathroom and over a folding drying rack to get it all dried out good before putting it away. I certainly don't want to risk any mold or mildew!! There's just no getting rid of that once it takes hold.

Driving home that afternoon, I ran through four different rainstorms, all really hard ones. People were pulled off on the side of the road waiting for the rain to let up. It was just awful. When I got back into Bristol, water was running down the streets, gushing up out of storm sewers. Terrible, terrible storms! We still need rain, but DANG, not all at once!

When I got home, I wrapped Meg in one of her baby blankets and carried her in so she wouldn't get drenched. I got the food and cooler out of the car, but waited a while to unload more to give the rain a chance to let up. I unloaded some more later in the afternoon, but got rained on again. I finally gave up and unloaded the rest of it a few items at a time in the afternoons after work!

Even with the downpours at the end, though, it was a fun trip. I always enjoy my camping trips. I'm already looking forward to the next one!

By the way, check out my Flickr site (there's a link to it over on the right) to see photos of the most recent camping excursion.

Haiku of the Week

Hope all my readers
Had a safe and happy Fourth!
Mine was damp, but great.

Haiku of Last Week

Couldn't post last week;
Was out in the great outdoors
Sleeping in a tent.

*big happy smile*