Charley Horses, Dogs, Chickens, and Bananas

December 2, 2017 by JoAnna 32 Comments

Today’s Stream of Consciousness prompt is “cramp.”

Do you even get a cramp in your foot, or your leg at night? They are the worst. I’ve heard some people, really old people, call them a Charley Horse. I wonder where that comes from? Should I look it up? Sometimes streams of consciousness get detoured for a look up…. Well, that took longer than I planned. There was a lame horse named Charley which I don’t want to think about, and the term was used a lot in baseball in the 1800s. Now, lets get back to the main stream of my consciousness.

Where was I?  Charley horses are muscle spasms or cramps. I’ve had some doozies and you probably have too. Mine are at night, not that often, but when they come, you lay there and think, can I just relax my leg/foot and it will go away. That would be nice, but then, Aaaagh! You have to get up and walk it out. For me, that often means pacing because my house is little. Some might say cramped. It’s not a tiny house, but two bedrooms and one bath is small. I prefer to think of it as cozy. My cozy urban cottage with the big back yard.

Having a big fenced in back yard has always been important to me, mostly for the dogs, and also, now, for the trees. Dogs should have room to run. Trees, not so much. All animals should have room to run if they want to. Or waddle, or scratch, or fly. That’s why when I buy eggs, which is not often as I inch toward veganism (often with three inches forward and two inches back) I buy free-range eggs. But free-range doesn’t always mean happy chickens if they are in a crowded area. Granted, it’s better not to be in a cage, but it can get cramped if you have to share your space with a lot of other chickens, standing wing to wing because you can’t fly…. Yeah, so I don’t buy eggs often. What did I just buy eggs for? I don’t even remember! Well, that’s nothing new. It was some kind of cake mix that required two eggs. The rest are now hard boiled.

I’d rather buy bananas and put them in my oatmeal. Aren’t bananas good for cramps? Potassium? Water is supposed to be good for muscle cramps. Water is good for just about everything. As long as it’s safe water without a bunch of bad chemicals in it. Water is life. Water flows though many paths in the stream of consciousness. If you’d like to travel along more of those streams, eat bananas so you don’t get cramps and visit our SOCS promptress, Linda Hill, at this blog post:

https://lindaghill.com/2017/12/01/the-friday-reminder-and-prompt-for-socs-dec-2-17/

Here are the SOCS rules:

1. Your post must be stream of consciousness writing, meaning no editing, (typos can be fixed) and minimal planning on what you’re going to write.

2. Your post can be as long or as short as you want it to be. One sentence – one thousand words. Fact, fiction, poetry – it doesn’t matter. Just let the words carry you along until you’re ready to stop.

3. There will be a prompt every week. I will post the prompt here on my blog on Friday, along with a reminder for you to join in. The prompt will be one random thing, but it will not be a subject. For instance, I will not say “Write about dogs”; the prompt will be more like, “Make your first sentence a question,” “Begin with the word ‘The’,” or simply a single word to get your started.

4. Ping back! It’s important, so that I and other people can come and read your post! For example, in your post you can write “This post is part of SoCS:” and then copy and paste the URL found in your address bar at the top of this post into yours. Your link will show up in my comments for everyone to see. The most recent pingbacks will be found at the top. NOTE: Pingbacks only work from WordPress sites. If you’re self-hosted or are participating from another host, such as Blogger, please leave a link to your post in the comments below.

5. Read at least one other person’s blog who has linked back their post. Even better, read everyone’s! If you’re the first person to link back, you can check back later, or go to the previous week, by following my category, “Stream of Consciousness Saturday,” which you’ll find right below the “Like” button on my post.

6. Copy and paste the rules (if you’d like to) in your post. The more people who join in, the more new bloggers you’ll meet and the bigger your community will get!

7. As a suggestion, tag your post “SoCS” and/or “#SoCS” for more exposure and more views.

8. Have fun!