binge-eating

Is It Just Me – Day 714

Posted on by Lisa Weikel 8 Comments
Friends – Photo: L. Weikel

Is It Just Me?

Is it just me, or does anyone else wonder how the candidates – but especially the two 70+-something men running at the top of their respective parties’ tickets – manage to campaign day in and day out, week after week, month after month?

Honestly, it just seems like campaigning is unbelievably intense work, and I question how any of the nominees are able to maintain their schedules over the insanely long period of time that campaigns encompass in our country. And that doesn’t even take into consideration recent illnesses (cough) or other infirmities. Or just plain being in their 70s, for heaven’s sake.

The whole process of running for office in our country seems out of balance.

Things Feel Really Weird

I feel like I’m in limbo. In some ways, I can’t believe we’ve had to endure the past four years. There’s a part of me that feels incredibly excited by the prospect that our country is now at the point where we can redeem ourselves, not only for ourselves but also in the eyes of the rest of the world. Of course, the flip side of that excitement is pit-in-my-stomach dread over what may unfold on November 3rd – and beyond.

I know I’m not expressing anything unique here. And I regret that I’m unable to muster a discussion of anything more interesting or entertaining. But I’m finding myself binge-eating comfort foods and having a hard time thinking about how things will be two weeks from now.

In some ways, it feels like everything is going to change on November 3rd. It’s hard for me to even contemplate plans for Thanksgiving. Given everything that’s happening not only across our country but apparently throughout Europe and beyond, planning on doing anything beyond hunkering down and playing it safe would be irresponsible to everyone we love.

Maybe it was watching 60 Minutes tonight that has me fried. I don’t know.

A Few Of My Friends

I’m going to sign off for this evening. Since there are precious few photos I could share that would have anything to do with what I’ve written above, I’m going to share a couple I took earlier today of some friends who ran up to me when I called to them on our walk.

Their friendliness made me happy. I’m going to try to remember a couple carrots tomorrow.

We have to take care of ourselves – and our friends – in these weird times.

Do You Have a Treat For Me? – Photo: L. Weikel

 

(T-397)

Peanut Gallery – Day 592

Posted on by Lisa Weikel Leave a comment
Peanuts with an olive oil chaser – yum! Photo: L. Weikel

Peanut Gallery

I’m definitely getting trained. While I can’t say that I’ve totally got this down yet, since I pretty much need to get harangued every morning before I spring into action, I feel I’m at least becoming a bit more responsive to the demands of my peanut gallery.

And I actually think they take turns. Some mornings it’s the blue jays who glare at me, issuing forth an ear piercing shriek is I manage to ignore their dirty looks as they hop from one branch to another.

Other days it’s my grackles. They snag my attention by visiting in groups of five or six at a time. They swoop in and land on the empty peanut coil causing it to clatter against the wrought iron post that also proffers two conventional feeders filled with sunflower seeds. Black oil, no less. Only the best for my buds.

While the grackles and blue jays will reluctantly consume sunflower seeds, it is quite obvious that their preference is peanuts. And it goes without saying that all the woodpeckers that hang around near our home also do their best to deplete the resources, including their cousins, the nuthatches.

For a couple weeks, the fish crows had moved back into the avian neighborhood. Their distinctive grokking voices could be heard taunting each other high in the ash and maple trees that were just beginning to leaf out. They, too, knew of the legendary Weikel peanut dispensary and would visit frequently.

Inspecting the coil – Photo: L. Weikel

Feeding My Face – and Theirs

As I wrote about a couple of times in April and May, I simply had to confess my utter helplessness to stop binge-eating peanuts in response to the stress of this pandemic and its effect on my emotions. But I promise you: I would not be compulsively feeding my face with peanuts if I didn’t have bags of them set aside for my birds (and yes, even the squirrels).

It’s because of my dedication to my creatures that I have these stupid peanuts around my house, tempting me. But I’ve discovered something else. If I went by the demand in my yard, I could literally blow through a three pound bag of roasted peanuts every single day. And that’s without my help anymore!

But come to find out: one person’s loss is another critter’s bonanza. Check this out.

I just might be doing my fellow (peanut planting) Americans a service. Apparently there’s a glut of the prized Virginia peanuts on the market due to the suspension of major and minor league baseball. I didn’t realize bagged peanuts in the shell are a huge source of munching pleasure enjoyed by baseball aficionados.

As a result of discovering the plight of peanut farmers due to the Coronavirus, I now have a newfound appreciation for just what my patriotic duty could entail. Three pounds a day. I can do it.

And I know I have a lot of support for that strategy in the yard as well.

Grackles cracking open peanuts on the driveway – Photo: L. Weikel

(T-519)

Lost Cause – Day 535

Posted on by Lisa Weikel Leave a comment
Waxing April Moon – Photo: L. Weikel

Lost Cause

Well, today was a lost cause. All I did was run around and feel thwarted at almost every turn.

We’ve all had days like this. You know…when nothing turns out the way you intended? When everything you attempt to do ends up not only not happening but turning into its own pile of mess?

I Should’ve Known

Sometimes you don’t need to pick a card to get a handle on how your day is going to unfold. Like when you step in a puddle of kitty barf as you head to the bathroom first thing in the morning. Not a good sign.

Or when you realize that the kitty barf is actually something that they were repeatedly trying to evacuate from their bodies in small, half dollar size puddles of saliva spread out in eerily perfect distances that mimic a footstep. Yes. So when you realize you’ve stepped in something wet and instinctively yet simultaneously recoil and lunge to put your weight on the other foot, you find that foot landing in a puddle of feline gastric-juicy wetness of its own.

I should’ve known, really.

Just One Of Those Days

Hey, I know. I’m sure many people feeling ill or working themselves to the bone caring for the sick, or the people called upon to stock our grocery stores and deal with our cranky, often selfish, asses would love to have the luxury of my lamentations.

Alas, we all have our crosses to bear. I’m in the midst of sorting out feelings that I’ll almost inevitably share here sooner or later. But until I do, I’ll probably persist in making the mistake of hitting up the cache of peanuts I stockpiled for the blue jays and fish crows.

Case in point: Tonight I made the mistake of ‘catching up’ on the news I’d deliberately not followed all day (you know, as I was agitated enough by other stuff going on in my life). Aided by the anonymity and deniability provided by Karl being asleep on the couch, I surreptitiously retrieved a fresh bag of peanuts from our ‘pandemic stash,’ having refilled the peanut feeder before we took a walk this evening. I knew I shouldn’t break it open. I knew it.. Especially after the crappy day I’d had today.

But I did. I planted myself in front of the tv and binged, mindlessly cracking open the shells and plopping the contents into my mouth. The only bright spot is that I think I may have cured myself of my recent peanut addiction because now I feel as decidedly barfy as the cat must have this morning.

Oh brother. And speak of the devil. Right on cue, Tigger just heaved. I kid you not. Crouched underneath the dining room table strategically positioned such that he’s unreachable, I’m subjected to the universally distinct sound of a cat working something up and out. Good grief; what a day.

Time for bed. Some days are a lost cause. Hopefully, tomorrow will not only be a better day, but also a better post.

“I don’t think I feel right, Mommy” – Photo: L. Weikel

(T-576)

Binge-Eating – Day 441

Posted on by Lisa Weikel Leave a comment
The evidence – Photo: L. Weikel

Binge-Eating

You caught me.

I don’t know what’s come over me as I sit here trying to think of something to write this evening. But yikes, it’s not pretty.

I’ve been sitting here on my couch, contemplating the thoughts parading through my head, writing a sentence here and a paragraph there. Then deleting them, one after another.

I’ve written about Kobe Bryant and his daughter, Gianna. I’ve written about a crucial fact that we all live with, but barely any of us acknowledge truthfully and head on: in spite of our best laid plans, it can all be over in the blink of an eye.

I’ve been sitting here thinking about Kobe’s wife and other daughters. How when they woke up this morning, none of them knew their lives would be changed irrevocably, forever.

True For All of Us

But let’s face it: that’s true for all of us. At any moment, everything could change for any one of us – or for all of us, for that matter.

And yes, many of us have already experienced nightmarish events in which everything has changed in the blink of an eye. But that fact doesn’t make it any easier to witness it happening to someone else. Just because I’ve felt the horror of receiving the phone call we all dread doesn’t mean I’d wish it on anyone else.

Indeed, it makes me grieve all the more for the survivors. It makes me think of the families of the people who were killed on that Ukrainian airliner that was shot down a few weeks ago. Those people have to deal with the utter senselessness of that tragedy.

It makes me wonder what we’re going to witness when our greatest hopes are challenged by our worst fears later this week, when weak-willed people potentially fail to heed the call of our future ancestors to do what’s right instead of what’s politically expedient for their own selfish ends.

So I Binge

I hold out hope that those representing us in Washington will seize this time of the new moon and think beyond themselves, beyond their fears of getting primaried, beyond their fear of being bullied and ridiculed by the least among us (who also happen to hold the most power at the moment).

And since I can only hold fast to my hope that the people who’ve been elected to the Senate have a deep and abiding love for our system and for the solemn responsibility they hold to all of us, I embody that hope by imagining them digging deep and holding strong to our collective core values.

I hold that vision. That, and binge-eat peanuts.

I don’t know about you, but I consider peanuts in the shell to be terribly addictive. Worse than potato chips.

And so I pound them down. (I should never succumb to that first one. Therein lies the key.)

Eating. It’s such an essential aspect of life and living; an affirmation that we’re still here. And as long as we’re here, we must hold fast to our hope. For ourselves and for each other.

New Moon and Venus – Photo: L. Weikel

(T-670)