Five Answers (re:christyotwisty) 04/01/23
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christyotwisty dutifully posts her Five Questions each month, and I
stumble on answers around gopherspace. Usually there is some question
that hangs me up, or I lose track of time. In any case, I was browsing
gopherspace today and found that I was right on time, April 1st, so I
figured I had better have some fun immediately before something
happens and I get distracted.
Five Answers to the Five Questions of the month[1]:
1. What is your most memorable recent dream?
I dream almost every night. Last night, my dream had something to do
with shopping malls, and so my brain is pulling up shopping mall
dreams. In the most recent memorable one, I was a mall security guard.
It was after hours, and my family and I needed to get from one side of
the mall to the other side. I only had my security guard hat, not my
full uniform, but we went in anyway. There were some employee inside
that teased me about my lack of uniform. I replied by tipping my hat,
somehow indicating that with at least that, I was still official. It
was an amicable exchange.
At the other side, the exit was on a second floor, and there was a
large cement walkway going who-knows where. As I tried to exit, a
homeless man was barring the way, threatening me. As I felt protective
of my family, I pushed my way through, then proceeded to knock him
over the guard rails at the side of the walkway, and down to whatever
was below. Another homeless man had fashioned some sort of pike from a
piece of steel rail, and I somehow got this from him and impaled him
in the shoulder with it.
I'm not a violent guy, I promise, I was just defending my family from
a perceived threat. That was my most memorable recent dream, for
better or for worse.
2. What instantly improves a sub-par day?
Well there are donuts, but I feel like that's sort of a band-aid, and
a bad one at that.
Walking outside, especially when the seasons are shifting. That's
super pleasant.
Driving away, to nowhere in particular. That always helps. And it's
better than donuts...
Or, perhaps the key is to drive away to nowhere in particular. When
you get there, take a walk in the great outdoors, then have a donut.
3. Is there an uncommon, little-known, wellness or beauty hack you
use? For example, I feel about under my rib cage for 'hot spots', and
tap or massage them until either the sore feeling is gone, or I
forcibly exhale through the mouth.
OK, here's something: a few weeks ago, I told my wife that when I
oversleep, I get a headache. She replied that if I told my brain that,
then it would be so. So, I changed my story, and told myself that I
always wake refreshed, with just the right amount of sleep, and feel
wonderful. And you know something, it has worked. Even when I've had a
little too much sleep, I have told myself this, and no headache. I
mean, I still get headaches, but haven't had one in the morning in a
while.
4. What is something that feels embarrassing but shouldn't?
As I get older, this list gets smaller. Having to broach various
interesting subjects with my kids over the years has helped. The other
day, I thought my son said "my stool has been kind of weird lately,"
to which I replied, "have you been getting enough fiber?" He, and
everyone else in the room (the whole family was there) looked at me
funny, so I said, "What? he said he's having problems with his stool!"
My wife busted out laughing, then explained that he said "school", not
"stool".
I mean, a parent wants their kids stool to be in good shape, right? I
admit, he's a teen, and I haven't worried about that since he was a
baby really, but heck, it'd be a valid concern to share!
I guess this all means that I don't really have an answer... or that
I'm shameless?
5. If you live in a small space, how do you responsibly discard or
recycle excess items?
We live in a small-ish space. Somewhere between a Cité Soleil
dwelling and the Taj Mahal. Maybe that was uncalled for... should I
feel embarrassed?
Anyway, let's just say that my living space has limits. When I need to
discard things, I take them to a nearby thrift shop if they're
serviceable. Our city has bulk-pickup free twice yearly, we use that
as well. The interesting thing about that is, scavengers know when
those pickups are, and they'll drive around and take what they want
from the piles that people make. Mostly metal scrappers I think, but
there are other things, furniture, etc, that people put out. No one
seems to care that people do it (well, mostly; my neighbor refuses to
put stuff out until late the night before, because he doesn't want
people rummaging through his trash.) It's a sort of built-in donation
or recycling thing.
We also have curbside recycling here. It only costs $2 or something
like that (was $1, it went up). You get a giant blue bin, almost the
size of the trash bin. Single-sort, so you just fill it up.
*****
That wasn't so bad. In fact, it was fun. Thanks Christy!
[1]
gopher://sdf.org:70/0/users/christyotwisty/phlog/2023-April-Five-Questions.txt
