Monday, January 13, 2014

Monday, Monday. Can't trust that day.

Unlike the rest of the country, we have had pretty much absolutely normal weather. For us, for this time of year. Which isn't to say it's been pleasant, but just that we always have crazy winter weather. Generally we have highs in the upper-20s to low-30s, with overnight lows into the teens. But then there will be storms and cold snaps and also chinook winds which warm things up into the 40s or even 50s and make you think spring is coming even in mid-January. So yeah. Around here, business as usual. But I know the rest of you aren't used to it, and I hope you're thawing out by now.

This past weekend was the designated time for finally getting all the way off caffeine. Having done both the cold turkey method and the weaning off method now, I can tell you for sure that it's better to wean off. The time I went cold turkey--four? five? years ago--was absolutely miserable for about ten days. Then it was moderately miserable for another couple of weeks. It wasn't until I'd been off for several months that I realized that I felt better and that it had been worth it.

This time has been entirely easier. I haven't had any caffeine since Thursday. Friday, I felt a little bit off, but not that bad. Saturday was pretty miserable, but by Sunday I was already better, and today I'm to the point that took three weeks that last time. So, if you have to do it, wean down first. With a couple of minor exceptions, I haven't had more than 40 mg of caffeine in any one day for a couple of months. As a side benefit, in the process of weaning down, I quit drinking Diet Dr. Pepper. I've had maybe three in the last two months. I'm so healthy I stun myself. ha.

Now we just have to see if all this makes a long-term difference in the number of headaches I'm having. It did last time, so I am optimistic.

Karen, intrepid commenter and blogger who doesn't blog enough, recommended Laurie R. King to me several years ago, but I never quite got around to reading them. King has two series going, one series of contemporary mysteries set in the Bay area, and one historical that is about Sherlock Holmes many years after the end of his Arthur Conan Doyle adventures and his new sidekick, Mary Russell. Mary is forty years his junior but it is still the first time he has met his intellectual match (well, I suppose other than Moriarty or Irene Adler).

So I've read the first of the Bay area series, and the first two of the Mary Russell series (because really, they are more about Mary than about Holmes). Definite thumbs up. I could quibble about certain things, but King's writing style is.... mesmerizing. Her books are very difficult to put down once you get into them--although two of the three I've read started slowly and took awhile to hook me in.  I had good excuses for sitting and reading the last couple of weeks, but time's up. My next class starts in three weeks and I have to get to work on it, plus I have a couple of other projects I've been putting off. So, back to work for me.

4 comments:

  1. Thank you, Karen & Aunt Bean - Always looking for a new author. Looking forward to Laurie King!

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    1. you're welcome, and see Karen's recommendation in the next comment. Wish I could get you two together, you'd enjoy each other.

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  2. Hah!! Snagged another reading into the Laurie King fan club! You really should read A Darker Place which is a stand alone of hers and join in the book club on Goodreads to discuss it this month. It's about cults. And redemption. And identity. And motherhood. sort of.

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    1. serendipity-- I picked up Darker Place on Christmas Eve at a used bookstore! Send me your Goodreads username by e-mail so I can find you.

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