Chlorosis, or the “disease of virgins” (also known as “green sickness”), was a historical, primarily 16th to early 20th-century diagnosis for adolescent girls characterized by paleness, faintness, amenorrhea (suppressed menstruation), and poor appetite. Often attributed to a lack of sexual activity or “retained blood,” it was viewed as a social and medical condition that could supposedly be cured by marriage.
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Oh, they weren’t kidding.
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I’m guessing the goat didn’t win that argument.
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And I didn’t even know prosthetic nipples were a thing.
The world is a strange place.
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For Pete’s sake, hurry up.
Our President is in dire need.
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Ah, the life of a wildlife photographer.
So glamorous.
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Clearly there weren’t enough diseases or climate change disasters to study.
When we put our new flooring down in February of 2024, I bought a little Dyson stick vacuum to help keep it clean.
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It beat the broom and dust pan…was small, cute, easy to use and sucked up crumbs on the bare floors admirably.
But when we laid our new carpet in the bedrooms last year it made me realize how useless my other vacuum… an old Hoover … had become. The carpet is luxurious and quite thick and my old machine simply wasn’t up to the task.
But I’m a New Englander so if it ain’t broke? We don’t fix it…. or replace it for that matter.
Until last week when my (15 year old? 20 year old?) Hoover breathed its last. She blew up in dramatic fashion with dust and sparks flying everywhere … so even I had to admit it was time for a new model.
Enter the new love of my life.
A full size cordless Dyson V 15 Detect.
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Easy to assemble, easy to use, easy to charge, easy to clean.
She’s easy.
But in a good way.
And may I just say, her suction power is beyond impressive. ( There are a plethora of off color jokes I could insert here, but our relationship is brand new and I don’t want to insult her.)
I’ve honestly never seen a vacuum remove so much dirt, cat hair, dust, crumbs, kitty litter stuff from a carpet before.
Are we really that dirty?
I had to empty the container three times by the time I’d done three rooms, so apparently the answer is yes.
For a relatively simple machine, Vera (yes, I named the vacuum) has a few interesting features.
The Dyson V15 Detect features an LCD screen that provides real-time, scientific proof of a deep clean by displaying the size and quantity of dust particles as you clean. A piezo sensor counts particles up to 15,000 times a second, with color-coded bars indicating sizes: Yellow (allergens/pollen), Orange (microscopic dust), Pink (dust mites/fine sand), and Purple (sugar-sized particles).
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Holy Macaroni Batman! That’s a lot of allergens and pollen… considering it’s winter in Maine and we’re not opening the windows. ( Makes me think I’d better add ‘clean furnace ducts’ to the to do list. )
No, Vera wasn’t cheap.
But I think we’ll be very happy together,
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And I’m looking forward to the day when our allergen particles fall to under a billion.
Warning – you will be required to count. If that’s too much math early in the morning, please return later this afternoon.
Today’s exercise will prove how old you are.
Out of the 20 things listed, how many have you personally experienced?
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Clearly I’m old as dirt because I’m 19 for 20… and the only reason it isn’t 20? I never owned a Walkman. Though the husband did and used it when jogging.
Talk about cumbersome tech!
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How about you?
What’s your outdated, no longer in existence number…
(Chilled with mayonnaise or warm with butter on a grilled hot dog bun are the only acceptable choices. No celery, no lettuce, and god forbid no garlic aioli. It’s simple and delicious the way it is, don’t mess with perfection.)
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A full lobster dinner with drawn butter, corn and steamed clams?
If you’ve followed my blog for a while, you know I blew my knee out in 2020. After staining our back deck on my hands and knees, I walked down a step and bam… it felt like a rubber band snapped. Excruciating pain made me scream and it’s been a five year nightmare ever since.
The diagnosis was a deep root radial meniscus tear (the kind that never heals) and damage to my ACL.
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Swollen? Just a bit.
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I saw a doctor. Who gave me an X-ray and sent me to an orthopedist. Who scheduled an MRI.
After reading the MRI the orthopedist told me, and I quote..
“It will either heal or it won’t” (which was very helpful, Not!) shot me full of cortisone and sent me on my way.
I iced, I elevated, I compressed and after a while my pain dropped to a manageable level. Never gone, but I sucked it up and carried on. I tried to stay active though there were times my knee screamed uncle.
In early 2023 the pain was becoming a problem again so I saw another doctor, who sent me to another orthopedist, who shot me full of more cortisone and scheduled 8 weeks of physical therapy.
The deep tissue massage felt great, the exercises helped stretch a tendon which had shrunk a bit from inactivity, but it didn’t address the underlying problem.
By late 2023 I still had considerable pain and decided to try acupuncture.
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It immediately reduced the swelling and dropped my pain level back to manageable. But it’s not covered by insurance and gets expensive quite quickly, so I took a few months of treatments and called it good.
2024 saw good knee days and bad knee days… with me never knowing what triggered increased pain.
By 2025 I had given up the treadmill, push mowing the lawn and started dreading stairs. At this point walking down a flight took twice as long as it should and made me feel 100 years old. Swelling had returned and I experienced serious stiffness whenever I got up after sitting. I moaned, I groaned, I limped.
Which sent me back to acupuncture a few months ago. Again, the swelling was quickly reduced, the stiffness was gone and pain returned to a manageable level.
But then, I went to sleep.
In case you were wondering? Yes… it’s entirely possible to tweak a torn meniscus when rolling over in bed because I did it and woke up gasping in pain.
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Now I can’t bend my knee without cringing. Walking hurts. Sleeping hurts. Stairs? No can do. So I made another appointment with my doctor who will no doubt send me to another orthopedist and I’m guessing the knee replacement surgery I’ve been dreading is in my future.
Has anyone out there had it?
And if so, what was your experience?
If you have any advice or suggestions… I think I’m ready to listen.
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Where there's only one step from the sublime to the ridiculous.
River's world..... 