Oh my what a wonderful, glorious morning it is here in our back yard. I hope y’all get to experience the same! Ohana woke me up at a great time 0630! I have spent a couple of hours just enjoying the morning. I also chatted a bit with a person on Reddit about spoon carving and a recommendation of a book on green woodcarving that sounds like it’s also a bit of a self help book. The person is giving it a really strong positive recommendation so I am excited it’s supposed to be delivered today.
I saw the sun finish rising, heard the birds waking up, watched the squirrels chasing each other… all while drinking my cup of hot tea. Life is good! I needed to take this moment as I’ve been a bit flustered with myself this week.
Since I ruptured, things take longer a lot longer. BH always tells me “ it’s okay” But honestly it can get me flustered if I look back at how fast I used to be able to do things. Right now I am working on building a little cart for a toolbox. I tore apart an old work table that I happily acquired for free and they loaded it on my trailer. The table was used in a fiberglass boat and RV repair company that was shut down when the owner retired and sold his house and the large shop. James River Equipment bought it and remodeled the inside to suit their needs to sell tractors, attachments, lawnmowers etc.
Anyhow, I had no use for the table here, I had used it at the last house but this one came with a couple. So once we got the table here, I dismantled it. I discovered it was built no later than 1970 because that’s when the manufacturer of the plywood shut its doors out in California. Some of the 2x4’s are great having nice tight grain. On one cut off, I counted 32 years, another 27 and yet another not but 12 years it doesn’t have tight grain. Grain tells a story of environmental conditions like weather, where it grew, what it was experiencing around it like farming, tree thinning for selling lumber, etc. Much like our brains, grain tells the history.
Part of my history was being really good at math. It came easy until Geometry which was not my forte which is frustrating because we do use it quite often. I wish my high school teacher didn’t speak in a monotone and keep the classroom so hot as I came from P.E. I was always struggling to keep awake. He just wanted us to memorize theorems but never gave us information on how we could use it in the “real world”. I am absolutely no good at basic math now.
It took me a few hours of frustration and a bunch of needless measurements to figure out how tall I want the little cart for the tool box I picked up inexpensively at a yard sale. Since the top opens up, I need it short enough to see into. I’ve got another set that has a top and the bottom but I cannot see into the top section, just the top drawers. Currently the tool box is sitting on the hydraulic table we had to buy two or three years ago when I went and didn’t use a fulcrum correctly lifting the mower deck so it could attach to the PTO under the tractor. I need that table to help get the diesel into the tractor. Eventually it dawned on me to just lift the hydraulic table to the height I need. DUH!
Now I’m cutting the old 2x4’s to make the supporting frame which means I have to make a few carefully thought out cuts, which is how I came to find the number of rings in the cutoffs! It also taxes my brain with all the studying on how to get the most I can. It would have been much easier and faster to use new 2x4’s. I could have gone down to the box store and taken a few hours to go through the poor selection to bring enough back for the project. I could have also had them cut a sheet of plywood. The downfall is lumber is not as good as one could get decades ago for the most part. Tighter rings means stronger lumber. Cutting any lumber can result in it changing shape but the old table has acclimated to our climate. New lumber has to acclimate itself even if kiln dried.
Why am I telling you about lumber? I see myself and my brain as pretty much the same. Yes, I am odd, if you’ve been hanging around here, you already know that. LOL. Trees grow from seeds to saplings, each year building upon the last. It grows taller and wider over the decades. Then someone comes and cuts it down. The trunk gets cut up into boards, the boards have the stress released and sometimes depending on how and where it grew and how it was cut, boards can twist or cup, have too much wane, checks and cracks can appear. Lumber expands and contracts even when kiln dried which can also cause stress in the boards. There’s a whole science behind it all, much like our bodies have a whole science, even multiple sciences behind it all.
So I look at me as a tree that was cut down and processed into something new and different. Yes, I have some checks and cracks, twisting and cupping I suppose. Certainly my arteries are not true and straight. But I can be used and useful, it just takes me more time. Much like the song “The Soldier and the Oak”. So I breathe, recenter myself when frustrated and try to give myself time, as much as it takes. By the way, if you’re out shopping for lumber, avoid the pith. As Mr. Curley says, “It’ all good”. Now on to greet the newest members! Yippee!!!
@LandB4TimeMom is down in Florida who has a 22 year old daughter that has been going blind for a year. She’s been sent to several Ophthalmology surgeons and finally had a MRI with contrast last month. MRI showed an aneurysm in the ophthalmic region of the internal carotid artery. They are in the process of setting up appointments with surgeons to discuss diagnosis and treatment. Sarah shares she likes life, loves hiking and experiencing new places, people and things, new adventures, listening to the stories of others, watching sunsets, the ocean and listening to the environment around her.
@antdubb415 is out in California. Anthony had a ruptured aneurysm on 11/11/2025. He shares he loves to record music and is a studio engineer.
@TRJ is down in Louisiana. Tommy’s wife has a 3 mm unruptured left intra-cavernous aneurysm. He shares they are trying to learn more about a pipeline stent option.
A big welcome to all y’all! We are happy you have found us! Please start a new topic either under the Support or General tab by clicking on the “+Add New Topic” box and type away. Don’t forget to click again on the “+Create Topic” so it will be posted. Sharing more of your story and asking for help or jumping in and offering help is what we are all about. Don’t be shy, we will offer up our experiences and if we don’t have that exact experience, our members are great about offering support! In my experience, it definitely helps to talk about things. Many of our members may have a “workaround” much like using the hydraulic table to get a good measurement!
Now, have all y’all been doing your homework each and every day? Remember it? Acknowledge positives, breathe, hydrate, eat protein and rest as needed. Hoping you have a wonderful, beautiful week full of positives, love and hugs! Stay safe everyone!