Wednesday, December 7, 2022

Marie Callender! I Am Talking To You!


 My life became even smaller today as I've felt quite poorly after my vaccine. I always react strongly to these things which I take as a sign that my immune system is absolutely hopping to do its job as soon as it recognizes the invader. 

I'm reading a book right now that I may or may not have read before. 


I think I did. But it is the sort of book that holds within it so many facts and figures that eventually, the aging brain must delete most of them. Or so I tell myself. Whatever, it is a book worth reading as many times as one wants. I think this is Vergil's copy of the book and I may have given it to him. Or lent it to him. Or something. 
I am quite vague about all of this, am I not?
Anyway, the part I was reading today concerned immunity and how there is more than one system in the body involved in immunity beyond the one we always think of which is that if we are exposed to certain diseases and get them and live, we will never get those specific diseases again. And of course this is how immunizations work- we are given a version of the bacteria or virus that will not make us very ill but will cause the same reaction in our bodies so that we will be...immune. 
Of course this was all involved in a chapter on the diseases that spread through the indigenous populations of the Americas when the European disease spreaders got here. But that is only one piece of the problem. I don't exactly understand it but the way our bodies's cells deal with everything they come across is part of the process of healing with the aid of our white blood cells. This is vastly simplified for my sake, not yours. 
And our genetics determine how many white blood cells are able to get to the bad boys that cause disease and the native American populations from south to north come from a relatively small gene pool which did not have the resources to identify a great number of diseases. 
So not only did the native people have no natural immunity due to never having been exposed to things like small pox and measles, they did not have the other defenses they needed to battle them. They did however, have defenses against things the Europeans did not. 
I never learned about any of this in nursing school (that I can recall!) and history certainly does not always (ever?) truthfully relate actual causes for events. Sometimes we just don't know. But we do know of course, that many native people died from being exposed to diseases that they had no immunity to and some of that was done purposefully. 

Which of course brings us back to the bivalent covid vaccine and the reactions we have to it. 
And I've had a sort-of shitty one. 

So I've not done much and not even been outside. I did decide to do a light dusting and sweeping of our bedroom because I could no longer tolerate the condition it was in. This led to me being down on my hands and knees, trying to remove eighteen years of dust from the gas log heater in the fireplace there. OH MY GOD, Y'ALL! That shit was as furry as a dog. Every one of the five fireplaces in this house have those heaters inserted in them and although we do use them occasionally, it's more for esthetic enjoyment than heat. And the one in our bedroom has certainly not been used in eons. 
But after that effort, I decided to let the the rest of the dust and dirt and the crumbs on floors and surfaces just carry on their merry way, undisturbed by me. 
One of these days I'll post pictures of all the different fireplaces. They are all different and all interesting. 
And probably all as dusty as the one in our bedroom was. 

Mr. Moon has gone off to some fund-raising event for something hunting-related like Ducks, Unlimited. Oh, who knows? But he won't be home for supper. A few weeks ago I bought two chicken pot pies and put them in the freezer for just such occasions as tonight when cooking is out of the question. I offered my husband the option of staying home and eating one of those pot pies and although he was tempted (or so he said), he decided that he would go on and have his steak dinner with an open bar. 
Harumph. 
Not really. I hope he has a good time. 

Here's a maidenhair fern. 


I have brought that little darlin' back from the brink of death caused by both chickens and improper care which mainly involved putting it where chickens could get to it. I do love a maidenhair fern. Not only because of its sweet delicacy with its stems as thin as strong thread, but because of its name. 
I mean- maidenhair! 

Guess I better go preheat the oven for my gourmet Marie Callender's chicken pot pie. I wish that Marie would note my product placement and send me a whole bunch of them for free. 



Probably not going to happen, right? 

Love...Ms. Moon

33 comments:

  1. Sorry you're struggling with the booster. I did too, and, like you, figured my powerful system was in battle.
    The time you're offered more of something is usually when you write to complain it's inedible. Then they write back, thank you for letting us know about your unhappiness with our product. Here's a voucher to redeem at your store for more of them.

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    1. Yes! Once we found a piece of glass in a Mrs. Paul's fish fillet and when I wrote to the company, they sent me coupons for MORE Mrs. Paul's fish fillets. Really? I probably used them.
      As to the reaction to the booster- as I have said before, medically induced laziness. Not so bad, really. I am grateful that I don't have to make a decision whether to go to work or not. I have been able to take it easy and have a two-hour nap.

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  2. sorry your immune system is reacting......but no doubt, after getting bombarded by pathogens (good for us, right?). Hope you are mending as I type this. And interesting looking book that I have not read (that I can recall ROFL). One little microbe can dessimate an entire culture, as history shows. Maidenhairs....lovely, but never been able to keep one for long. MC chicken pot pie.....oh, kill me. SO comfort food! Are the carnation slips I sent you showing any signs of life yet? Feel better soon!
    Susan M

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    1. Funnily enough, the pot right next to the maidenhair holds your slips. So far, they still appear to be alive so I am hopeful!

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  3. I absolutely hate dust especially touching it and disturbing it which makes my eyes red and immediately so I choose to live peacefully with it in its dormant state. Wise choice MM. xoRebecca

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    1. And our dust in Lloyd is so...black and greasy? I think it's from the trains that pass by directly behind the house and which have been passing by for at least a hundred years. I didn't even have to sweep the dust up. I just shoveled it up with the dustpan. Almost made me want to get a vacuum cleaner but probably not. Maybe one of those powerful handheld things but frankly, I'd rather buy a new pair of overalls.

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  4. I will see your fuzzy fireplace and raise with propane furnace and wood smoke. A combo that cannot be beat.
    Funny thing about borrowing an audio book from the library. If you've had it before it will still be at the place you left it.

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    1. You know, I think I've experienced that library audio book phenomena. Weird, huh?
      I bet that propane and wood smoke can made a mess.

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  5. I have found ole Marie C. is too heavy-handed with the sodium in everything she sells.
    When I got the booster, me arm was sore for 2-3 days and that was that!

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    1. I believe most commercially prepared foods rely on salt for flavor. Even restaurants do it.
      It's so funny how everyone reacts differently to these vaccines.

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  6. Every single flu shot and covid shot (5 and counting) has drug me to my knees. I figured I really needed them.

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    1. Well I must too! And yes, I've had five now.

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  7. I've always enjoyed the cheapo Banquet pot pies! The filling isn't as good as the Marie Callander's, but the crust is tastier. And the crust is my favorite part!

    Sorry you felt bad today after your booster. I hope it's all over by tomorrow.

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    1. Of course the crust is the best part! Absolutely. We don't eat those things for the carrots.
      I have felt better today. Thank you.

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  8. At least you are home and dusting and not in a hospital...I hope you feel better soon.

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  9. That sucks that you feel rotten after doing a good thing. I don't think I had any reaction to the last covid vaccination I had, probably not a good sign:)

    I got Katie's quilt back from the quilter and she did a beautiful job on it. I have to put binding on it before it's finished but hopefully that won't take long. I've started on a new quilt, just using up my scrap and it was so hard for me to just let go and stop worrying about how it will look, but I finally did.

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    1. It is so hard sometimes to just let go. I always envy people who really believe in "Let go and let god!" But things do not have to be perfect. That picture of Katie's quilt you posted is amazing.

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  10. I love maidenhair ferns too but have never even tried to grow one. I know my limits. I'd love to see your fireplaces, I love fireplaces and wish I had some for our winters. I'm glad you cleaned the dust off one, even though you may never use it, because dust smells so bad when it gets singed by a heat source and I think it is flammable too, but I could be wrong about that.

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    1. I was thinking the same thing! That if we ever light that burner again we need to clean it a lot better!

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  11. I trust you'll feel fit as a fiddle tomorrow. 1491 taught me a whole lot of history that high school classes did not. Great book, and well worth reading more than once.

    Chris from Boise

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  12. I love maidenhairs but they don't love me.
    I am sorry you are feeling under the weather but am still wondering at the need to shift 18 years of dust as part of a quick going over.

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    1. Well, I did not mean to get into the cleaning that deeply. I just started sweeping out the fireplace of the dust on the floor in it and then I realized that it looked like a furry animal and then...well, you know. One thing led to another.

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  13. When I was in Peru we visited the floating Islands of the Uros on Lake Titicaca. While they did use boats to go to the mainland, they mostly lived on their man-made islands and survived on fishing (although with pollution that was getting harder and harder). Apparently they put their dead into the lake and goodness knows what else, but despite all that they were still able to drink the lake water and not get sick. Can you imagine if we'd tried that! It was quite an experience, I can tell you. So all that to say, of course we have different capacities to fight off disease depending on so many factors I guess. I hope you feel better soon though, and to hell with the dust!

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    1. Yes- we do all have different capacities to fight off disease. You put it perfectly! I think that Peru must be an amazing country. I'd love to see it.

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  14. Well, who knows? I'm sure Marie Callender has a Google bot out there keeping track of her mentions on social media, so maybe she'll respond to your free-pie plea?

    Sorry about the vaccine kickback. I'm impressed you cleaned a fireplace despite not feeling all that great. That doesn't sound like an easy job!

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    1. No word from Marie yet. Dang.
      I didn't mean to clean the fireplace and trust me- there's plenty more to clean in there. I just got the top coat off.

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  15. So I would not be cleaning anything if I felt bad from the booster. You need a little shopvac that will suck up that dust/dirt for you.
    The pot pies always look better on the photo than they are in real life. Of course, we can say that about a lot of stuff... ;)

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    1. I really do need a little vacuum cleaner. That is the truth!
      And it's also true that many things look better in the picture than they do in real life!

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  16. The shingles part 2 injection was the worst!~!! In bed for two days and a fever for three! Awful!!

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    1. That's what I've heard! Not looking forward to that but I sure as shit don't want shingles.

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  17. Vaccine reactions can be miserable, but far better than getting the actual Illness for sure. Shingles Vax was a hard one for me, but I remember my Nanna having Shingles and it was excruciating for her, far worse than my minor suffering from being Vaccinated to protect myself from getting it. I'm thinking of getting the new COVID Booster, which is very effective, since people are beginning to get the new Variant now, along with a Bad Flu racing thru the Country that has higher casualties than usual. I got the Flu Vax early, no problems from it. Sorry to hear you're having some side effects, Be Well, hopefully 100% by Christmas...

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