Random unrelated bits and snippets...

[summer_jackel]

BIKES
...as I hop on the trainer for a couple hours. It's funny, but riding a bike does stuff to me. Makes me fitter and prettier, obviously, and is a great anti-depressant, which explains not so much why I pedal like I do, but how much. The more subtle, but pervasive, effect is that I feel normal-to-tired when I have ridden recently, but give me a few days off and suddenly I am as full of spazz and boundless energy as my conure when he hasn't been let out of his cage for too long. Sometimes it takes me a moment to remember why I'm behaving wierdly, eg. 'Why am I so conurey at the end of a work day? Oh yeah, I'm all rested. Go spin for an hour so ya sleep tonight, Jackel.'

It's a shame my balance and handling will never be what I'd need to maneuver in a race or century ride, because I'm getting strong. Anyone local need a tandem stoker? :P I took an actual road ride (gasp) this weekend, and I was tearin' it up, although because apparently Kestrel scavenged the magnet off my front wheel, disabling my bike computer, I have no idea how fast I was actually going. Frustrated kvetch gotta get a new one now, PITA. It felt fast, anyway. Grumble.

Incidentally, that ride was to Armstrong Redwoods SP. What a sweet ride. Nice enough roads, few/slow cars, old growth redwood trees, good distance from home. In the winter, when there are fewer tourists, it will be even nicer.

BIRDS
So some friends of mine are fostering a Nanday conure. I am so going over there to love on her and steal her and make her my very own NOT steal her because not only am I already one parrot over my ideal capacity, I have heard a Nanday vocalize. Thankfully, I still have my hearing after this experience. Still, Nandays are up there on my list of top four birds I love but can never, ever keep. The others, for the curious, are the sun conure, lovebird (I vacillate as to preferred species between black-masked and lutino peachfaced)) and B&G Macaw. All would make fantastic pets for deaf people. (I have sometimes wondered if parrots are statistically more popular pets among the deaf; it would make so much sense).

Going even farther afield, birds that are on the list of parrots I would love and can realistically see myself keeping, but almost certainly won't unless my situation were to change drastically, are white-eared and painted conures, Princess of Wales parakeet and the big one, African grey. I yearn for a grey and really love their neurotic little personalities, and I'm just arrogant enough to think I could do an adequate job of keeping one. I don't have the space, and I think it would decrease the quality and amount of time I could spend with other pets, so this will not happen.

On the other hand, I do think I need another laying hen; I am supplying enough eggs to friends to justify her. I may raise a couple of chicks this year after all.

MAPLE TREES
Only one certain loss so far, a cutting that was in one of my worst rockwool cubes. The cube split, and I think that exposed the wounded end of the cutting to air, dooming it. So, my fault. The other rockwool cuttings, those in perlite and the 3 in willow water have not wilted at all. Both potato grafts are still alive but look shocky and wilted; sadly, I give them a slim chance of rooting.

HOUSEFOX
Shameless little cur. I tossed my undies in the hamper---the one with the smaller slats that I hoped would deter dainty and unerringly accurate little muzzles, dammit!---and no less than a minute later emerged from my bedroom to see Coba trotting off with them. He dropped them immediately, and turned tail for the doggie door as quickly as decorum would allow. If I could have got that second on film, it would have made a hilarious LOLdog; fluffy little sheltie pup wearing an incredibly guilty look of GUILT on his face (the blue eyes are especially expressive on this) and a black thong in his mouth. Yeah, Coba. I saw you. Drop it, furball.

Comments

[leora.livejournal.com]

Exercise is known to help with depression for many people. It's one of the simplest things most people can do to help. Of course, if you're sufficiently depressing doing anything to become less depressed will not be easy, especially as depression saps energy. But if you're not in a serious depression and your body is mostly normal, then it can be a quite good thing to do for your mood.

[summer-jackel.livejournal.com]

Well, I'm not dealing with the clinical/chemical type of depression, just the unsurprising sorrow that's resulted from the last few years' worth of trying times. I am by no means an expert on these things, but it wouldn't surprise me if the first kind is sometimes triggered for the second. I might be handling this in other, far less healthy, ways if I wasn't already trained up so that my body craves exercise and seeks it as a coping mechanism.

My project is finding the balance between engaging enough coping mechanisms to dull the pain out to a manageable level, while still keeping close enough track on it that I'm actively healing and not stuffing the emotions. I get to do a fun psychology experiment on myself!

[summer-jackel.livejournal.com]

Incidentally, it may be illogical and childish, but I totally feel smug about figuring out the usefulness of exercise in these situations independently of psychologist-types who have studied it. Really is a fantastic mood-elevator, though.

[leora.livejournal.com]

As well you should. Besides, what really matters is what works for you, not what works in general.

My point was more that while it is often helpful, it won't work for everyone or every case of depression. I hate when people overgeneralize such things because that's a short step to blaming the victim where you start thinking people who are depressed and don't manage to deal with it well ought to be able to. Or you start saying, why aren't you doing this? When they may have very good reasons, but they shouldn't have to justify it to everyone around them.

I get too many people trying to apply general rules to me that don't work because my case is unusual. So, while you may be functioning fairly normally, I don't want to imply everyone will.

[summer-jackel.livejournal.com]

Yeah, I can see where overgeneralizations would be both easy to make and really harmful in such situations. On the other hand, learning about how minds tend to work in general is very neat and interesting.

I figure that since I am both pretty weird and reasonably disciplined, I'm probably the one best-equipped to manage my own trauma. I've been trying to do some research, though, as it's a really good area for me to be learning about right now.

[kynekh-amagire.livejournal.com]

HAHAHAHAHA. I'll post about her tomorrow, but here's a sneak preview.



I've handled her a bit, and she's a sweet bird, considering. Sounds as though we'll be calling her Matcha, by the way.

[summer-jackel.livejournal.com]

squeeee!! //steals the conure//

She's such a beauty. Look at that mischievous face! It's the face and that gorgeous black-velvet head that gets me.

I definitely approve of the name. Although beware of giving temporary pets cool names. I totally think 'Osbick Bird' is eleven shades of clever, but then it's also from a story about a bird who shows up randomly and stays for the rest of a person's life. (It's also one of Gorey's sweeter uninvited-creature stories, lacking some of the creepiness of, for instance, 'the Doubtful Guest', at least for me. It kind of accurately describes parrot-partnership, too). Not the best thing to name your temporary pet, dummy. ;)

[troubleagain.livejournal.com]

Oh, my, she's pretty! How loud is she compared to the other conure species you've experienced?

[kynekh-amagire.livejournal.com]

It's hard to say, but I'm already convinced that even a Nanday being quiet (and Matcha has been very very quiet so far) is noticeably louder than a greencheek.

[a-rowan-dryad.livejournal.com]

*hugs* I know just how you feel! I have only been behaving myself and working out the way I *should* for a week now but having to skip today (due to giving blood = no raised blood pressure for the rest of the day) has left me feeling... off. Tired and MUNCHY. HOLY CRAP do I have the munchies. I have not had it this bad since literally day one. But then my hormones have always been HIGHLY senesative to any changes so one single endorphin rush was all it took to get me to fall for working out.

[summer-jackel.livejournal.com]

Well, to gain fitness what you need to do, ideally, is work out a few days in a row and then give yourself a day or two of recovery. For me the first day I feel normal, then I get the energy-spike. It's in the recovery period that your body is actually building muscle/increasing stamina and cardio/getting stronger, so it's very important, as is the sequence and ratio of training to recovery.

I eat amazingly more when I am working out regularly, even more when training/gaining as opposed to maintenance. I eat like a horse. Train for long enough (I don't know enough of the science of this off the top of my head, I'm sorry, I'll try to look it up later) and your body makes a metabolic shift, burning fuel more quickly and efficiently and being less inclined to turn food into fat. The longer you train, the more permanent the shift becomes, but it's hard to get there initially.

Training will make you need to eat more, especially carbs right after a cardio-vascular workout like riding. If you don't eat enough at that time, your body can start feeding on muscle and you can actually decrease fitness, so munchies at that time are good. ;) Beware, though: If you stay with the training diet after you stop working out as much (which your body will want for a little while) you will gain weight and lose fitness quickly.

I studied all this stuff when I was racing.

[troubleagain.livejournal.com]

YMMV, of course, but I don't find Sunshine's volume/frequency of sounds to be too disturbing.

[summer-jackel.livejournal.com]

Oh, I know that lovies are nowhere near the noise range of aratinga conures and macaws, and it totally isn't fair to group them together by noise. But the frequent, high-pitched cheeping is just annoying enough to me that I know I wouldn't be a good home for one no matter how much I adore them. I do adore them, though.