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Sunday, December 18, 2011

Sunday morning: relaxation cds, "Max's issue," and food

Some weeks ago I bought four or five relaxation cds to play next to my head for night-time going to sleep purposes. I don't need things like that in good weather when the windows are open and I can hear the crickets and the katydids and the owls and the wind sighs through the screens and slides its chiffon sleeves across my legs.
~image borrowed/stolen from One Man's Wonder

But now that the windows are closed and the only sounds I can hear are the snores and groans (and mutters and growls) of the poodles I'm finding these cds to be wonderfully soothing. I have quite a variety of sounds . . . windchimes, and one called "Sounds of Nature" that includes a disturbing sound of some insect that sounds like a buzz saw or an old-fashioned hand-cranked airplane propeller: click-click-click-click-wwwhhhhhiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiinnne, over and over again. My favorite has been the thunderstorm that moves in from the distance; thunderstorms always soothe me straight to sleep. Last night I tried a new one called "Golden Pond." Wonderful. Sounds of oars sloshing in the water, crickets, frogs. It was so comforting that I wanted to stay awake and listen to it, but it put me to sleep anyway. Somewhere I have a hypnosis tape . . . it might have been a stop-smoking hypnosis tape . . . that had new-agey music on it and was very relaxing. 

My hair appointment yesterday was at 10:00am. At 8:30am I left a voicemail for my hairdresser asking her to call and comfirm the time. She called at 9:50am to tell me I was due there in ten minutes, not forty, and could I come at 11:30 instead of coming late for the 10:00? I agreed to that change, and mentally reaadjusted the hair/shopping sequence, muttering to myself about how I could have been there had she called me back earlier. It was my fault, though, for having lost the appointment card. The new one is stuck into my car's dashboard where I will see it every time I check my vehicle's velocity. By the time January 21st comes around the card will have become invisible to me. I need a secretary. Or a parent.

I fear that thes Max Issue is going to become a minefield between Husband and me. He seems to feel that Max's increasing issues are no more objectionable than Angus' cavalier attitude toward similar issues. Max knows what to do and can't do it; Angus knows what to do and chooses not to do it. I know the whole issue is disgusting and in deference to your sensibilities I won't go into more detail. Husband removes himself from the problem, leaves the whole thing to me and then recoils from my scent of parfum d'urine de chien. I have a feeling of No-Can-Win.
The man has his redeeming qualities, however. Last night he prepared a delectable repast of fried shrimp. He made cocktail sauce for his dipping, mine was sour cream and salsa verde
To die for.
That's another difference between Husband and me. A small supper at my hands is leftover baked potato sliced and broiled with cheddar cheese on top; his is breaded shrimp. He's far more willing than I to go out and buy the shrimp and get his fingers all gicky with flour and egg and crumbs, and he makes shrimp dishes while I make peasanty potato-and-cheese dishes. It might have something to do with the cleaner-upper duties and the person responsible for same.

15 comments:

georgia little pea said...

I had to go back to read your last post, having missed it.

Poor Max. Poor humans Getting old is no fun for 2 or 4-leggeds. As everyone commented, and from my own recent experience with Rufus, you WILL know. My husband said something to me one of those days when I was hyperventilating over having to change the bedding yet again and mop the floor 5 times in one morning - you don't put someone down for having a weak bladder.

As for your hairdresser. You're obviously a much nicer person than me. I would have been very cross at the late response, to put it politely. Those relaxation CDs must be working :)

Wanda..... said...

I wouldn't part with my collection of NorthSound Music/Sounds of Nature...I keep The Natural Guitar II in my computer for daytime listening! Birds, owls, crickets, frogs, water sounds and distant fog horns and train whistles accompany lovely serene guitar music.

As for your needing a secretary or parent, I often tell my husband...that I need a wife.

SmitoniusAndSonata said...

i'm not sure my children would agree about needing a parent ... another parent , perhaps !
i've just realised that , in all the recent to-ing and fro-ing , i've missed a dental appointment and now i'm going to have to grovel ...
fried shrimp would make everything better immediately , though .

esbboston said...

I have been loving my potatoes with cheese lately, the last three months or so. I use Kraft's Mild Mexican Velveeta, and now I make ground sausage as a topping. Sausage was on sale yesterday, so I am feasting! Potato - it's what's for breakfast today.

Olga said...

My husband is not much of a cook--except for the grille, where he is master--but he does help with seafood preparations and clean-up, too. I think he realizes if he didn't stay somewhat involved, he'd be eating mostly vegetarian.

Tom said...

Whatever else happens in life, you know the cleaner-upper never gets enough credit.

DJan said...

I'm tempted to move into an iPhone. I will be the last holdout in my immediately family (other than my husband) to do so. Sis tells me how convenient the shopping list is, the to-do list, the calendar...

So sorry to hear about Max's continued decline. It's such a tough situation, especially now around the holidays when you've got other things to think about. I love the sounds you described on the water CD, it made me relax just to think of it! :-)

Lord Wellbourne said...

I listen to lute music of the Renaissance or Gregorian Chant at bedtime.

I have discovered that men don't like dealing with anything that hits too close to home on a personal level. Women on the other hand meet whatever hits home head-on.

Give me repurposed cheesey baked potatoes anytime! Anymore I'm built for comfort rather than speed.

Friko said...

Those sounds of whatever to relax by come in very handy when I go for a massage. They send me off into noddyland while I'm being pummelled mercilessly.

Poor Max, it's not his fault, is it. I'd clean up after him too. Until he is actually in pain or unable to walk or something, I'd let him live. And comfort him.

As for the hermitty thing: that's exactly why we are soul twins. Doing good, (not that I do a lot of it, actually) you can do at one remove. You don't actually have to spend much emotion while doing good.

I am a hermit by nature, how glad do you think I am that we will be a twosome at Christmas? Himself doesn't count, he is simply an extension of me and just as hermit-like as me.

Carolynn Anctil said...

Sounds like Husband is having more difficulty facing the reality of the situation and the accompanying pain that it brings. Can't say that I blame him. Max will let you know when he's had enough.

Linda Myers said...

There is nothing like a man who can cook! I have one of those too, fortunately. Makes it easier to overlook his differences.

Rubye Jack said...

I find there is nothing like a fan to lull me to sleep. As for thunderstorms, when they come roaring in here it scares me so much that I have to get up and stand guard. You know, just in case.

That's got to be so difficult with Max, cleaning up after him all the time, but if you love him what else can you do. It's sad.

English Rider said...

"When there are more bad days than good" is my guide for weighing the point of no return for an animal I love. You might never reach a consensus about this with your husband. Some of us are more pragmatic and some of us handle loss in different ways.

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