The Wrack Line Blog: Oregon Beach Info, along with Unique, Informative, and Often Philosophical, Articles
Wrack Line Blog "About", "Contact", and "AD/Cookie policy" can be found below, underneath our weekly Scenic Image.
HINT: NO ads, NO subscriptions, and NO cookies! However I might note that, as an "Amazon Associate" I earn a small amount from qualifying purchases - also explained below.
What's a "Wrack Line"To my readers: I am on my way to Texas to do some House Repair for one of my daughters. Be back in three weeks. In the mean time, you are welcome to check out my two recent articles on the amazing iPhone 15 camera and on significantly optimizing iPhone battery life.
What's NEW in the Wrackline blog?
NEW: Jimmie's iPhone Battery Tips As promised, I have created a comprehensive article on optimizing the iPhone battery life (and simultaneously reducing Cellular Data and significantly enhancing Privacy).
NEW: Jimmie's iPhone Camera Tips I have rewritten my previous article "iPhone Camera Tips" to include the remarkable camera in the iPhone 15. Example: You can use "Live Photo" to create a Long Exposure effect. Another example: You can edit camera settings just like you would do on a pro SLR camera. And one more: You can "Digital" zoom to 10x, and the results are almost identical to "Optical Zoom"!!
NEW: Schizophrenia is not a disease. For many years, I have wanted to write this very personal essay. It represents a unique and different take on schizophrenia, depresssion, and other "mental" issues, based on a lifetime of personal observations and journal entries. You won't find standard medical definitions here!
Also, Check Out a related article: "Medical Science and Worry". Here I discuss Health and Spiritual trust vs Medical Science and measurement (and worry). It's under "Health and Nutrition".
UPDATED: "Home Theater Made Simple" Added new information to handle recent changes and improvements in Home Theater equipment. Added a link to improved HDMI cables. Described my AV Receiver upgrade.
UPDATED: The four articles on Vegetarian nutrition and breakfast/lunch "recipes", for more readable layout, and some extra information. They're under "Health and Nutrition"
Check Out "An Assortment of Useful Items". Over the years I have discovered many useful items (or useful amounts for ordinary items).
Bangages in packages of 100 of the same size
Mechanical pencils (pkg of 12), pencil leads (pkg of 144, "2B" rather than "HB")
Pencil erasers that you can cut to size
And many more!
RECENT (and just updated): Creating Graphics with Powerpoint. Want to create your own graphics for a class book, a technical article, or for your blog? You can create virtually everything you might need with Microsoft Powerpoint.
RECENT: Amazon is Actually Indispensible Some (perhaps well-meaning) regulators want to break Amazon. I would assert that this would actually hurt many consumers, particularly those who live in rural areas. An article on this is under the link "Essays".
Check out "Jimmie's Top 500 Ambients". This is a list of some of the finest QUIET music on the planet.
Check out "Our 'Negative Pension' " This is an article on the Subscription Pandemic. It was written in 2018, and by 2023, just about every entity wants a subscription. Subscriptions have become so common that we now face a substantial and recurring payout of cash - a reverse pension.
Check out "Using a D.I.Y. site to Create a Will". Been putting off creating your Last Will? Here is an article describing my experience using a well-known D.I.Y. provider.
Check out "Replacing NOISY bathroom fans". Replace your noisy "builder grade" bathroom exhaust fan with a QUIET one
Check out "How to Rebuild Toilets". Shows how to completely renew most toilets (fill and flush valves, tank-to-bowl seals), for about $40 instead of $200-$300
Check out "Install Full Length Drawer Slides". Replace those irritating drawer slides that only come out 2/3 of the way.
Check out "Transforming the 'Builder White' Door". Tired of the standard issue "4 Panel Composite Door" - in Builder White? Try staining it. I show how in this article
Check out "Piping Terms Demystified". Do you find it unusually hard to find the right faucet or toilet flexible line? That's because acronyms like "IPS", "MIP", and "MPT" all mean the same thing!
Check out "Growing Hebe Plants". This article shows many varieties of Hebe Plants, which grow well on the West Coast.
Check out "Change Your Assumptions". Interesting idea about problem solving.
Check out "Quick Luches from Scratch". Among other things, it has Instant Pot times for beans, rices, lentils, and others.
Check out "Vertigo Notes". It shows how to handle vertigo and to to even turn it into a positive condition: improved balance.
Check out Our two articles on Music Theory. The will provide a good introduction to the origin of musical scales, "major" and "minor" triads, and chords.
Check out "The Standard Superhero Plot"! It's a spoof on Superhero movies, since every superhero movie has essentially the SAME plot! Look in "Essays".
Updated every 2 or 3 weeks: "Entries from Jimmie's Journal." The home
page will feature a quote from my journals, which span from 1975 to the present. It is hoped that these little quotes
may lead to a little extra depth of feeling for you, and that some of them might even lead to a greater understanding
of our relationship to the Universal Consciousness. And also, some of 'em are for just for the sake of humor! There's also
a "Previous Journal Entries" link (on the right) for past quotes. This is also updated every 2 or 3 weeks (unless, of course,
yours truly is busy fiddling with music, or home improvement/landscaping projects!)
Click the audio player below for some quiet music to accompany your reading, if you want to.
4/2/2024 My Experience with the Coronavirus
I have managed to dodge the Coronavirus ever since its origins back in 2019. But it caught up
with me while I was visiting my daughter in Austin during late March.
The initial symptoms gave no hint at all.that I was about to experience an episode with the Big Bad Coronavirus. I was actually doing
some fairly hard work removing parts of my daughter's deck – she wanted to eliminate an 8 foot extension on one side and about 6
feet overhang in the front of the deck. This was one of my usual "Hey dad, wanna do some remodeling work on my house." projects - which
I actually enjoy. So I went about all this with my usual relatively limitless energy, during three cool spring days
(cool for Austin, TX).
However I could tell right away that something was amiss, because by the second day I could tell that there was somehow more inflammation
than I'm used to. Had to take a couple aspirin each day on the second and third day. I usually take a couple of aspirin every year.
On the fourth day I began to re-stain the deck in the morning. This was when I began to notice that I had run out of energy – I found
myself keeping track of how much I had finished, like you might do when you're tapped out: "Well, I'm a quarter finished. . .half finished. . .
3 quarters – well amost 3 quarters." I was pretty beat and I knew it. My daughter began to help with the staining and I found myself
glad that she did. When I finished mid-day I promptly went to bed and slept about 3 hours that afternoon. I just figured that the energy
level was low due to doing all this nonstop work while breathing big city air pollution. with a stiff dose of South Texas pollen.
But I could tell something unusual was going on, when I developed some "flu-like" symptoms.
Extreme fatigue.
An unusually intense sore throat.
Accompaning the sore throat, I developed a pretty debilitating cough.
Chills. During the nights I became chilled and found myself putting on a thermal shirt under my pajamas and using more covers.
By this time it was Wednesday - I had started the work on Monday.
On Friday my daughter announced that she had the Coronavirus. My wife and I tested positive. It was almost a relief, since the
symptoms I was experiencing were just too strong for ordinary allergic reaction to high pollen. (It had been a mild winter and
the Austin air was full of pollen – in addition to all the big city pollutants.)
We all did a lot of resting/sleeping during the next few days.
On Saturday or Sunday morning I awoke with the sore throat almost gone, with the cough more managable.
I recovered to decent energy levels by Monday. I could do some small tasks around her house - refinishing the front wooden door,
doing some repairs on a toilet, and the like. I felt mostly fine except that I would describe my energy level as about equal to what
I oould normally feel just before going to bed in the evening on a normal day.
So, apart from the persistent and debilitating cough, I would rate my experience with the Big Bad
Coronavirus as relatively mild. I would put the acute part at about 5 days. I have had much longer and much more uncomfortable
colds in the past.There wasn't the initial two or three day period of endlessly runny nose requiring kleenix every few minutes,
nor was there the suffocating congestion throughout the rest of the cold.
I will note that I did experience one of the hallmark effects of the Coronavirus: one or more things might linger for a week,
perhaps longer. In my case it was the ongoing cough, which stayed with me for another week and a half - along with less than
optimum energy levels. For my wife, it was an ongoing earache and compromised hearing for two weeks longer.
Nonetheless I think it is of interest to take note of my age:
I am 78 years old, and my wife is 73.
By definition, I am supposed to be dragged to death's portal by the Coronavirus at my age. By definition I am hopelessly immune
compromised at my age. I believe it would be well to dismiss these societal beliefs, for they do nothing but create debilitating fear.
They should be stored off along with the almost universal perception that we do nothing but decline as we get older and inevitably end up
in some assisted living facility until the end.
I would amend these fears with the idea that if we take care of ourselves and eat a life-giving diet instead of the usual inflammatory
"Standard American Diet" of mainly meat, refined white flour, and prepared foods, all washed down with sugary soft drinks, we can
beat that dismal outlook, and beat it with ease.
In other words. if your idea of a hamburger is eating low-quality beef on a white bread bun with perhaps a token tomato slice and some
iceberg lettuce, you then might have to take some serious flack from the Coronavirus. But if your idea of a hamburger is eating a
vegetable or bean patty on a whole wheat bun with spinach, tomato, maybe some sprouts, and perhaps some sauteed red onion, then you can
confidently expect to have a relatively benign session with the Coronavirus - or perhaps no session at all.
Frozen backyard walkway, March 2024
And here's my composition "Ambient 9", the first version
Ambient 9 original
Copyright © 2024 J.A.
And here's my latest rework of "Ambient 9". I trust you will find it much more interesting!
Ambient 9 REWORK
Copyright © 2024 J.A.
Wrackline "about":
In a world where you can't read much of anything without a subscription, and/or you must try to read while
pestered by increasingly intrusive and insistent advertizing, the Wracklineblog remains freely given
for your enjoyment, education, and in some cases healing.
It started with the "Hwy 101 Beaches" links. These lead to individual pages covering more than 70 beaches from
Astoria, Oregon down to Brookings, Oregon. Each page has beach/park information, usually a picture of the entrance sign,
and one or more scenic pictures taken by the author.
Here's an illustrated sample
Over the years, the Wracklineblog has expanded!
Check out all the red links on the right side, including:
"Jimmie's Top 500 Ambients", an exhaustive list of the most moving ambient music.
Photography explained and simplified (for SLR cameras and iPhones).
Very comprehensive articles on Home Improvement, each having unusual and practical tips. Build your own fence, Reface your cabinets, Transform those Builder White doors by staining. Put together a boss Home Theater.
How to successfully grow berries and ornamental shrubs.
A substantial health/nutrition section. Learn how to stay young! Learn how to eliminate muscle pain!
Engaging essays, especially in the "Previous Journal Entries" link. Learn how to create ease in living, and perhaps to release "dis-ease" in mental health.
"HTML coding" references and a cool HTML color tool.
NOTE: The Wracklineblog may not be exactly "mobile-friendly" (except for the Oregon Beach information!) The term "mobile-friendly" simply means the web designer has excluded content and/or functionality in order to get the site to look good on a tiny screen! The articles here present a great deal of information, and are accompanied with numerous graphics and/or photographs. I highly recommend a tablet, laptop, or desktop in order to get the best experience for this site.
Wrackline "Contact":
(I figured that there should be at least some facility to contact me!) Please do note that I keep myself busy during
my retirement years, and may not be able to reply to all comments, however. Thank you for your interest in The
Wracklineblog.
I'm Jim Adams (graduate from University of Dallas in 1973). I can be reached at wracklineblog(at)gmail.com
Wrackline "AD Policy":
NO ads! NOTHING that moves! Period.
And NO Cookies, either.
However some of the sections have links that will allow you to purchase books and/or other items. For example,
the "Deciphering Light Bulbs" article has a link to purchase a 6 pack of "Cool White" LED lights - hard to find in stores.
And the "New Home Wishlist" article has a link to buy a special Night Light to use for stair lighting. So, if you have an interest
for any of these items, purchasing them by way of these links will provide a little extra income for the author, who is retired.
NOTE: Clicking on these Amazon links takes you to the same location that you would get if you searched for
the item and clicked on it yourself. The security level is the same, and you should find that the price is the same
whether you use the links provided by this blog or go to Amazon directly.
Amazon has an "Associates" package, in which Amazon itself pays a small percentage to the referring web site,
for qualifying purchases.