Restful night, lazy day

I once told Marilyn that what I missed most about California, particularly the Bay Area, was thunder storms.  Last night all night, when I was awake to hear it, I was lulled back to sleep by the sound of rolling thunder and its accompanying rain.

It started with my listening repeatedly to a couple of guided meditations, one with a background of a babbling brook and the other with the sound of waves crashing onto the shore.  So, finally I went on iTunes and did a query on "nature sounds."  This led to the purchase of four items: a babbling brook, which must have been recorded at night for all of the chirping, croaking, and hooting; a rolling thunder with rain, which was exactly that; the sounds of a crashing surf; and a relaxing rain.

Rather than meditate with my guided meditations, I simply went to bed after Ohio State lost in the second overtime, and listened to my rolling thunder with rain one "song" playlist.  My iPod is set up to repeat a playlist so after a two-second, or so, period of silence, the six minutes of rolling thunder with rain repeated.  I must have listened to at least four or five rounds before I lost count or fell asleep.  I managed to turn the iPod off this morning before the battery was completely drained but after I came out and put together another batch of whole wheat sourdough bread, I went back to bed for another nap.

It was after ten when I finally got up and made my bed, although the latter was due more probably to discourage me from easily getting back into it than my daily aesthetics.  (I try to make my bed every day.  There is something about getting into a bed with sheets pulled straight that helps me sleep.)

Because of my poison oak outbreak and its treatment, I closed my bedroom door to the cats last night.  While this did not necessarily improve my sleeping, it certainly gave me more of the bed to do it in.  What it did do is make both cats a little more clingy today, which is how I ended up taking a nap this afternoon with one of them on my lap.

I do intend to go to bed early tonight, again without the cats.  I wonder how I'll sleep to the sound of relaxing rain all night?

Indoor Cats and Other Observations

A long time ago in my first life I was the provider/partner of a cat named Weldon that I called Butt.  Butt was definitely an indoor cat declawed and neutered as a relatively cheap service from the shelter.

(Humphrey is the cat looking at the camera and Napoleon is the cat still asleep.)  As in my previous relationship with a cat, I am thinking about nicknaming them Jackk and Asss or Andd and Orr.

Now that I am the temporary provider/partner to my youngest daughter's and husband's two cats, neither of which are declawed, I was hoping that they would avail themselves more of the outdoors once I made it available.  Indeed, they have gone out but with the drizzle and coolness, have often come right back in.  From the state of their litter box, they do at least go out to do some of their duty, although not all of it.  It is good that they aren't using the litter box as extensively as they did the first two weeks.  I need to get more litter.

Humphrey was asleep on my bed almost all of today.  While I was hoping that Napoleon was availing himself of the great outdoors after he demanded attention from me right when I was attempting to do my morning stretches/back exercises.  After my leg stretches, I gave up and gave him attention.  He enjoyed it so much he was kneading the thin pants I had on at the time with the net effect of partially kneading my skin.  Unfortunately or fortunately, this kneading did not scratch the patch of Poison Oak I discovered on my leg.  (I almost went out and bought some treatment potion but found a bottle of Caladryl last night and have used it repeatedly to good but not yet curing effect.)

However, they both did go out just before I was going to feed them and lock them in for the night.  The bike bell was effective in calling them in though.  They really love their meat in gravy.

Yesterday on my walking 10,000 aerobic steps, which I did not walk today, I happened to be doing some of it while the local high school was doing endurance or cross-country training.  (It may have been the wrestling team for all I know.)  Anyway, a couple of them were not running, which put me in mind of my high school running experience.  Then I did not exert myself to find my limits.  In other words, I never ran so hard that I puked.  I suppose this same lack of stretching myself was true in other areas as well.  School work was so easy that I averaged reading a fiction book a day.  Most of them were short but some of them were not.  I can now attest that some wisdom does come with age.  Now I am more willing to go to my limits but, at least in the physical side, my limits are much closer.

After an interlude of somewhat sporadic, even rare, meditation, I am once again stepping up to it daily.  I still cannot say that I am doing it right, or if right, well, but I am achieving a peace from it that encourages me to do it again.  I am also attempting to do it longer at least twice a day.  However, the best meditation sessions have been the third one done in the middle of one of my walks.  I have only done this two or three times so far but each has been very rewarding.  There is something about being in the great outdoors...