Yes, a few years have passed... not sure if I'm smarter or just older. I'm thinking of maybe blogging some thoughts again, though I'm not sure if anyone is still following this. Nothing in my world is 'one thing', but it is an assortment of things and thoughts - of course! Ubuntu and the World Socialist Movement have crossed my path in the last few years, and daily activities frequently include 'weed salads' since most of my yard is 1) edible 2) un-mowed. I justify the second one by the first one... my neighbors love me? I'm curious as to what the purple-flowering weeds are now, and will have to research them. https://www.minnesotawildflowers.info/ is a good site to start with.
There is some irony (and possibly iron) in realizing the weeds of my yard are likely higher nutritionally than the lettuce and spinach at the store; they're also free, which is a price that's hard to beat. Dandelion, plantain, Lady's Thumb and lamb's quarters are growing thick and green; I chop them up as a bonus and add them to a regular salad. You can't buy these in a store, yet they've been a food source in salads or soups for generations. I should dry nettle and yarrow soon, and the raspberries are beginning to ripen. Smashed raspberries on toast... yum! I have been using the bread machine because it so easy: toss ingredients in, 3 hours later, take out the bread. I can handle that! I've had sourdough going since January, but I haven't made bread with it; I add flour and water, then use about 2 cups of it for pancakes. Now that I'm working overnights, I frequently take a peanut butter pancake, folded, as a breakfast snack until I'm home again. It's neat, filling, and not fussy.
That's just average stuff around here, while my mind tangents off on why we feel worse accidentally driving over a baby bird than a toad. The toad tends to gross us out more, speaking from a single female perspective, but the baby bird makes us sad. From the toad's point of view, we're a bit species-prejudiced. Talking of toads, I dreamed something either like a toad or slug was on my foot; I woke up frantically kicking my leg to shake the thing off, then realized it was just a dream. I have no idea why such a dream would occur, nor do I have any thoughts on analyzing it.
Irony... I'm eating weeds, but the stray cat has learned that if it can look in the window at me, I'll set out some store-bought cat food. It visits here, then wanders off; I have no idea if it has a home nearby or where it comes from. It's a regular visitor now, looking in the window to see if I'll get up...
If anyone reads this, drop a note to elainekain@gmail.com
I might just start blogging my thoughts again, if only to see where they lead!
Friday, July 8, 2016
Tuesday, April 3, 2012
Stray thoughts
Have a few stray thoughts on 2012 to share, though I'm not sure anyone is reading my blog much - at least, haven't had any complaints the last two unblogged months! On the other hand, folks might think I did accidentally blow something up or crossed a legal line somehow or was simply confined for my own good, but actually it's been fairly normal here. Maija's joined the family, cutest little newbie one could wish for.
Yet I'm not sure 2012 is all that stable. I expect anything, including sprouting wings and telepathy - which would make parenting interesting - or a universal bump into other dimensions. Since it's mostly targeted for December 21, 2012, I don't plan on Christmas shopping until 12-22-12. I also think the greatest prank would be "12-21-12" end-of-times to be a week late, just to annoy the smug told-you-so'ers. The old 'he who laughs last' gag, hmm?
My worst-case scenario for 2012 would be hitting another ice-age, too friggin' cold and never mind I have wool socks and long johns. I have 'em, but I don't like wearing them. Perish the thought, but if winter started creeping back in June, I may have to start walking south; it may be a good Doomsday Prep idea to start practicing my Spanish again so I can make friends.
So... if you think you know me, what might be one food supply I'd stock up on? Well, yeah, coffee, because if the world's ending there is no reason to compound one's misery with caffeine withdrawal. Actually, I tend to think if all the coffee disappeared, the world may end, because who'd get up to deal with it?
I'm also pretty sure that within 30 seconds of the world ending, no one will care. Whether it goes out with a bang (and probably not from anything I did) or we blip into 5-D, odds are my thoughts will be along the line of "Now what the hell? - Whoa, this is weird! - Huh, so this is how it's gonna be now - where's the coffee pot?" Eventually I suspect we will adapt, same as the 7 billion of us did when we were born into this world. Terribly shocking, wasn't it? Ironically, the kids will be the least surprised, since they believe anything is possible already (or "Why I tried to fly off the see-saw when I was 5").
As usual, I have no idea what may occur at any given time, but I don't think harboring fear and greed will be useful. Actually, I think these - fear and greed - may actually be what is 'doomed' and I'm all for it! Even though I watch "Doomsday Preppers", I dislike the weaponry and fear it too often portrays. But there a bits of 'shining humanity' in it too, like the statistic that 24% of those interviewed said they'd share resources. Of course, they didn't say whose resources they'd share, but it sounded good. A prudent person just gathers a few practical items, like coffee and wool socks, in case life has a rough spot. Tonight's episode pointed out that it could be a long walk home if the cars died from a solar flare - too true, it could be a 60 mile walk if I was in the wrong place at the wrong time!
I think I might prudently sling a pair of old-fashioned roller skates into the trunk. If chaos occurs, I'll be the one skating home in my wool socks clutching my instant coffee jar. Then I'm going to try flying off the see-saw again!
It's good to have a plan.
Yet I'm not sure 2012 is all that stable. I expect anything, including sprouting wings and telepathy - which would make parenting interesting - or a universal bump into other dimensions. Since it's mostly targeted for December 21, 2012, I don't plan on Christmas shopping until 12-22-12. I also think the greatest prank would be "12-21-12" end-of-times to be a week late, just to annoy the smug told-you-so'ers. The old 'he who laughs last' gag, hmm?
My worst-case scenario for 2012 would be hitting another ice-age, too friggin' cold and never mind I have wool socks and long johns. I have 'em, but I don't like wearing them. Perish the thought, but if winter started creeping back in June, I may have to start walking south; it may be a good Doomsday Prep idea to start practicing my Spanish again so I can make friends.
So... if you think you know me, what might be one food supply I'd stock up on? Well, yeah, coffee, because if the world's ending there is no reason to compound one's misery with caffeine withdrawal. Actually, I tend to think if all the coffee disappeared, the world may end, because who'd get up to deal with it?
I'm also pretty sure that within 30 seconds of the world ending, no one will care. Whether it goes out with a bang (and probably not from anything I did) or we blip into 5-D, odds are my thoughts will be along the line of "Now what the hell? - Whoa, this is weird! - Huh, so this is how it's gonna be now - where's the coffee pot?" Eventually I suspect we will adapt, same as the 7 billion of us did when we were born into this world. Terribly shocking, wasn't it? Ironically, the kids will be the least surprised, since they believe anything is possible already (or "Why I tried to fly off the see-saw when I was 5").
As usual, I have no idea what may occur at any given time, but I don't think harboring fear and greed will be useful. Actually, I think these - fear and greed - may actually be what is 'doomed' and I'm all for it! Even though I watch "Doomsday Preppers", I dislike the weaponry and fear it too often portrays. But there a bits of 'shining humanity' in it too, like the statistic that 24% of those interviewed said they'd share resources. Of course, they didn't say whose resources they'd share, but it sounded good. A prudent person just gathers a few practical items, like coffee and wool socks, in case life has a rough spot. Tonight's episode pointed out that it could be a long walk home if the cars died from a solar flare - too true, it could be a 60 mile walk if I was in the wrong place at the wrong time!
I think I might prudently sling a pair of old-fashioned roller skates into the trunk. If chaos occurs, I'll be the one skating home in my wool socks clutching my instant coffee jar. Then I'm going to try flying off the see-saw again!
It's good to have a plan.
Monday, January 30, 2012
Blue Balls of Fire... Or What NOT to Do, Again
Yoy. So how do I end up with a blue ball of fire in my life, you ask? Well, it all started when I was young...
Actually, it may be linked to my childhood, because I used to fingerpaint the tub walls with my dad's shaving cream, but I never told him this. In my current world, it was a $50 tub from Habitat that was permanently stained so I figured I may as well paint it. Couldn't hurt it, right?
I had a few days open before my schedule gets hectic, so I got on with this project. Life does stay normal here. The first day I was painting away when Sera yelled - the washing machine was leaking water out the bottom. It's a new machine and a quick look indicated the drain pipe had come loose, so I let her and Dennis fix it without my expertise. They crammed it back together and put a fan on the floor to dry things up.
The second day I was painting, Sera yelled again - the stove was on fire. One of the burners had oil spilled and burst into flames. It was extinguished with baking soda, and provided a great example of why I think someone ought to clean these occasionally. I'm not sure she took the hint.
After about 20 hours of painting, I was ready to...
Clear-coat it with spray paint. Right. Half-way through the first can, I realized it says 'flammable' on the front for a reason, so I turned the furnace thermostat to 40 since the furnace is two feet outside the bathroom door. I had the bathroom fan running, but it wasn't near adequate, so I let the vapor thin some while I caught up on breathing and did it in three rounds.
I also checked for excess fumes with my Bic lighter, which I realized wasn't terribly bright, but it 'didn't blow up' before I started another round. I'm not terribly sure how well the paint will hold up over time; I am hoping it works as well as it is on the car. If if chips off too quickly, I'll repaint it with just a swirl one fine summer day (i.e. with the door open and the furnace off).
So today I thought I best give it a second coat of clear spray paint, same method as yesterday when it seems I failed to learn anything from my own advice. Except today when I was gauging fumes with my lighter, I lowered it into the tub proper.
Interesting lesson here, because it seems the fumes settle. Blue flames filled the tub about two feet high and actually caught a small, brief fire (which I blew out when the blue flames dispersed).
No real damage occurred, but I am fully aware that it could have torched the bathroom in short order. My heart rate hit 600 beats per minute and I haven't yet turned the furnace back up today since I get twitchy whenever I walk by it.
It is much prettier but now I don't want to let anyone use it! The worst that will happen, now that the odds are I won't burn down the house (which I have never done - yet - in my life), is the paint won't last and it'll look like it did before I started.
Actually, it may be linked to my childhood, because I used to fingerpaint the tub walls with my dad's shaving cream, but I never told him this. In my current world, it was a $50 tub from Habitat that was permanently stained so I figured I may as well paint it. Couldn't hurt it, right?
I had a few days open before my schedule gets hectic, so I got on with this project. Life does stay normal here. The first day I was painting away when Sera yelled - the washing machine was leaking water out the bottom. It's a new machine and a quick look indicated the drain pipe had come loose, so I let her and Dennis fix it without my expertise. They crammed it back together and put a fan on the floor to dry things up.
The second day I was painting, Sera yelled again - the stove was on fire. One of the burners had oil spilled and burst into flames. It was extinguished with baking soda, and provided a great example of why I think someone ought to clean these occasionally. I'm not sure she took the hint.
After about 20 hours of painting, I was ready to...
Clear-coat it with spray paint. Right. Half-way through the first can, I realized it says 'flammable' on the front for a reason, so I turned the furnace thermostat to 40 since the furnace is two feet outside the bathroom door. I had the bathroom fan running, but it wasn't near adequate, so I let the vapor thin some while I caught up on breathing and did it in three rounds.
I also checked for excess fumes with my Bic lighter, which I realized wasn't terribly bright, but it 'didn't blow up' before I started another round. I'm not terribly sure how well the paint will hold up over time; I am hoping it works as well as it is on the car. If if chips off too quickly, I'll repaint it with just a swirl one fine summer day (i.e. with the door open and the furnace off).
So today I thought I best give it a second coat of clear spray paint, same method as yesterday when it seems I failed to learn anything from my own advice. Except today when I was gauging fumes with my lighter, I lowered it into the tub proper.
Interesting lesson here, because it seems the fumes settle. Blue flames filled the tub about two feet high and actually caught a small, brief fire (which I blew out when the blue flames dispersed).
No real damage occurred, but I am fully aware that it could have torched the bathroom in short order. My heart rate hit 600 beats per minute and I haven't yet turned the furnace back up today since I get twitchy whenever I walk by it.
It is much prettier but now I don't want to let anyone use it! The worst that will happen, now that the odds are I won't burn down the house (which I have never done - yet - in my life), is the paint won't last and it'll look like it did before I started.If anyone asks if this is a good idea, the answer is NO.
Monday, December 5, 2011
Out of 2011
I wrote this a few weeks ago, but in reading it now, it seems pretty accurate. This is a bit of a 'goodbye to 2011' before I contemplate 2012. Oh, lovely, not much humor in it, but possibly some mature wisdom? Experience is often the best teacher, if we pay attention!
Life just is. It's weirder than ever, and you may have noticed. Things are moving faster, kind of like an avalanche building up speed rolling downhill. I rather think I've heard less from others lately simply because they, too, are caught up in the movement. A rundown of topics pertaining to 2011, since we're into December:
Weather. It's wacky. We (Minnesotans) can't complain right now, but if we start freezing hard and don't get any snow cover, folks will be hurting. We also just had the driest autumn on record. However, winds blew through the west, drought and fires in the south, tornadoes rampant in the east, flooding in south central and northeast, and a major storm hit the Alaskan coast - I didn't forget the northern relatives. This was after the blizzards and ice storms of the first three months of 2011. The rest of the world had its own share of rocking and wild weather; it wasn't isolated to the U.S. of A.
Politics. It's not getting any better. More posturing going on with world leaders, sometimes I think they want a war. Of course, war is profitable and it is one way to reduce the population of now 7 billion while keeping folks distracted on what the global shadow powers are doing. The Occupiers are taking a stand, but they haven't figured out what the problem is or how to correct it. The irony is that it all stems from one fatal flaw and nothing can be fixed until this is: the debt-based system of borrowing money from the Federal Reserve banks. Think of it like a computer code where there's an error early on, and everything down the line will be screwed up. No matter how you try to correct the output end of things, until this 'original error' is resolved, the results will be scrambled. Trying to correct the end products by shuffling them around won't work. Borrowing our way out of debt is guaranteed to fail on the same principle.
Jobs. More flawed thinking, in that we don't need to 'create jobs'. Jobs should develop from the needs of society and be beneficial to it, not created to keep folks busy most of their lives. There is plenty of work to be done, but we don't need to create anything - we just have to realize what we're doing and the way we're divvying up the labor. If I had a say in it, we'd get rid of most of the paper-pushing jobs - insurance claims, medical billing, stock brokers, and so on that stem from the above monetary dynamic. These folks could join the other workers getting something sustainable done, and there is a lot of work we need doing. If we can run society smoothly with everyone working 20 hour weeks, then it'd be wiser to do so rather than 'creating jobs' for no good reason but to keep folks busy.
I will expand on that. If we're not ready for my extreme thinking on 'jobs', then I feel it'd be best to create jobs that do the least harm. Creating a manufacturing plant that takes more fuel and natural resources to produce more stuff no one needs or building in planned obsolescence to keep expanding is foolish. It's harming the planet and future generations just to give people paychecks. We should be honest about what we're doing and generate the least amount of harm in pursuit of job creation. Ergo, if we must 'create jobs' then I feel it'd be less harmful to have some folks dig holes and others fill them in. It's a self-sustaining system that will always keep them busy the required 40 hours, and someone can be in charge of counting shovels. My idea is no more bizarre than 'creating' a factory for one-time use CD's that are then disposed of in landfills; my suggestion is greener in every area and better for society overall.
Weather, politics, jobs, Occupiers. I won't start on pharmaceutical companies; profit, greed and corruption rule the world at this time, it's no surprise. That we don't even recognize it for what it is... First commercial, 'Pill X' for everything was followed by a second commercial on a class action lawsuit on 'Bad Pill'. Back-to-back within minutes, a display of what's running the country is presented and we're so desensitized to it, we don't even see it: "There's Money to be Made." Deja vu, we're at the original irony that our money is made by 'borrowing it into existence' - trying to keep up with the interest payments drives the economy and is killing us as long as we collectively buy into the system.
Personal lives. Life is nothing but change from the day we're born. Stability is in Spirit, the Higher Power within each of us. It's the only thing that'll get us through the muck of life and the consequences of living. I'm not saying there won't be hollering and tears and grief and pain - actually, I'm saying there will be. I'm saying the only thing that will see us through to the other side of it is gifted within each of us at birth. We just gotta find it. It's that bit that always loves and wants you, no matter how badly you screwed up or others screwed it up for you. It's being right between you and your god, however you define it. Definitions don't change things, just our perception of them; it's the same sky, whether we call it blue or azul or maple. Spirit's like that, and though I am quite nonreligious, I figured this out with Nature as one of my main teachers.
It's the only thing that will get us honestly through the muck, be with us every step of the way if we wish to acknowledge it or not, hang onto us because we're worthy, and never judges. Spirit doesn't need to judge us; we'll do that quite well ourselves and we know when we're out of line. I really have no use for a hell-condemning god; facing ourselves will be a tough enough challenge. (Been there, done that, repeat.) Thing is, we don't figure this out easily either; usually it has to be hammered into our thick skulls. Spirit goes with Power.
Claim your own Power. I'm thinking this is a good idea. Don't give anyone power over you; they can't take it unless you allow it. Okay, yes, I am talking relationships here, but it applies to anything - jobs, houses, pills, alcohol, etcetera. Relationships and our social concept have to be the work of the devil, because we hitch our lives on it even as the fail rate is extreme. Few couples are happily married long-term, and the best to those who have chosen this path together! But the statistics are in favor of failing: dating, broken relationships, divorce. If our cell phone service worked this well, we'd be p.o.'d. Yet we'll suffer another round of the Relationship Game.
Spin back to the first sentence on that paragraph: claim your own power. I don't want power over anyone, nor do I want anyone to have power over me. I'd rather have a lifelong friend than a commitment that has a good chance of failing and ties and insecurities under the guise of 'love'. Yep, I refused such advances recently, and someone may be blaming me for not playing the game right and breaking hearts and giving him reason to drink. Sigh, I'm too emotionally worn out to invest my time and energy on 'making someone happy'. I don't want this power over him and never did, nor will I be held responsible for his current misery. I gotta get along with me, and I won't do the 'all or nothing' with another. I said 'friend' from the beginning, but you know the old song, "A man hears what he wants to hear and disregards the rest." I finally had to hit him straight between the eyes to get him to hear me.
Take Two, Scene Two... Dennis is home, girlfriend told him to leave out of the blue end of October. He's emotionally invested in her, they planned on marrying - heard this story before, haven't you? He hasn't found his own power, and he's letting this jerk him around. Classic pattern, it's too much to deal with so you drink a little or smoke a little, self-medicated emotional avoidance. He's not drinking, which is good. But when you run out of ways to avoid yourself - bam, there you are, waiting to get through the pain. Some folks drink, some throw themselves into work, some pop pills or focus on dieting. It's all fine for the initial shock, but sooner or later you have to go through the muck if you want to come out the other side of it.
It's still going to be there, a sense of loss. Because it is a loss. The changes might be for the best, but there's still memories of shared times and we shouldn't lose these to bitterness. We just can't go back and have another day, we can't capture it and stay in it. We're not supposed to - we're supposed to grow through it. That's when we find what Spirit is and the gift of Higher Power within ourselves. Or we can try to avoid it with drugs and such; it doesn't go away, and it'll be waiting for you to deal with it sooner or later. This is actually what killed my sister, not alcoholism; the drinking started to avoid the amount of pain she perceived in her life, which grew more pain and created a deepening rut of self-misery she couldn't get out of. Oh, and that's why Spirit created others to help us up when we need it, when we're flat in the muck and need a hand. But then we're supposed to dust ourselves off and lend a hand to others as we get on down the road of Life.
Seems to me, that's the way Life Is. Mostly screwed up, and the human potential for this has not yet been realized; eventually it'll be Royally Messed Up and we'll have to collectively admit we're idiots. (Read this post again - we're not the brightest stars in the sky, hey?) That's okay, because despite being idiots, we're still loved and wanted and worthy. Just slow learners.
That's my take on 2011. It's been the Year of the Cars for me, and I do have two out of two with problems right now. I made the mistake of telling my friend 'he was a friend' before the car was repaired, which proves I have lousy timing but great integrity. Yay. And how far does integrity get anyone...? Hmm, JFK and Jesus came rapidly to mind, and we saw how that turned out! Total irony, in that they both messed with the money system. Still, integrity is honoring your own inner power and acting accordingly as you grow through life. The angels delight when we get it right, and know being human is no easy task. Now if they'd just lend a mechanical hand...
Going into 2012, and my best advice is 'Claim your own Power'. If you let anyone or anything knock you down, it's your own choice - but you don't have to. A friend going through diabetes has the choice to let it rule his life or disempower it, a bad relationship can rock your life if you allow it. We're all going to struggle through critical events in our lives, some are brutal. Some take a longer time to sort out and send us reeling. Hang on then to your own Power and accept the help the Universe provides. It could be in the form of a person or a dog or a sunset, just that boost to carry on another day. Sometimes it seems we're alone with it, but Spirit's with us and little gifts are offered. Sometimes we have to holler and wail and cuss to get the hurting out, and that's okay, too. Hollering 'dumps the junk' so we can rediscover who we really are, inside.
When it's all said and done, what do we really have left but ourselves? It's the only person you have to sleep with every night, everything else is temporary and prone to change. Headaches and heartaches, it's part of being Human. We learn the most through the hard lessons, and that's when we find ourselves. I was pondering the "moms of yesterday" where we were taught if we made the husband happy and the kids happy, then the house would be happy and we would be happy. Except, of course, no one can make another happy, and they will be as miserable or irritable or crabby or dissatisfied as they choose to be, no matter what you do, and losing yourself in this attempt to jolly them all up is damn near fatal. (Been there, done that.) The drug equivalent we were striving for would be to put them all on valium, live in a valium world of rosy pleasantries.
But I have to be completely honest with myself, and I realize I wouldn't gift this to others even if I could. If I wished everything to be pleasant and smooth and easy for everyone all the time, I'd be denying them the opportunities for personal growth. We've all gone through situations where we say, "I wouldn't wish it on my worst enemy" yet realize we learned something valuable from the experience that we wouldn't undo. Am I right?
2012 may be like this. A wonderful old tree falls, but within a few years a small shelter of wild roses and hummingbirds exists from the tree's fate. Then should we wish the tree to never fall? Or should we wish for strength and wisdom and the ability to adapt to Change, because Life never stands still for long?
Then may you find 2012 interesting and enlightening, may the rope you're swinging on be long enough to reach the next tree. Yee-ha, it is the time of your life, and the time is Now. Always.
Life just is. It's weirder than ever, and you may have noticed. Things are moving faster, kind of like an avalanche building up speed rolling downhill. I rather think I've heard less from others lately simply because they, too, are caught up in the movement. A rundown of topics pertaining to 2011, since we're into December:
Weather. It's wacky. We (Minnesotans) can't complain right now, but if we start freezing hard and don't get any snow cover, folks will be hurting. We also just had the driest autumn on record. However, winds blew through the west, drought and fires in the south, tornadoes rampant in the east, flooding in south central and northeast, and a major storm hit the Alaskan coast - I didn't forget the northern relatives. This was after the blizzards and ice storms of the first three months of 2011. The rest of the world had its own share of rocking and wild weather; it wasn't isolated to the U.S. of A.
Politics. It's not getting any better. More posturing going on with world leaders, sometimes I think they want a war. Of course, war is profitable and it is one way to reduce the population of now 7 billion while keeping folks distracted on what the global shadow powers are doing. The Occupiers are taking a stand, but they haven't figured out what the problem is or how to correct it. The irony is that it all stems from one fatal flaw and nothing can be fixed until this is: the debt-based system of borrowing money from the Federal Reserve banks. Think of it like a computer code where there's an error early on, and everything down the line will be screwed up. No matter how you try to correct the output end of things, until this 'original error' is resolved, the results will be scrambled. Trying to correct the end products by shuffling them around won't work. Borrowing our way out of debt is guaranteed to fail on the same principle.
Jobs. More flawed thinking, in that we don't need to 'create jobs'. Jobs should develop from the needs of society and be beneficial to it, not created to keep folks busy most of their lives. There is plenty of work to be done, but we don't need to create anything - we just have to realize what we're doing and the way we're divvying up the labor. If I had a say in it, we'd get rid of most of the paper-pushing jobs - insurance claims, medical billing, stock brokers, and so on that stem from the above monetary dynamic. These folks could join the other workers getting something sustainable done, and there is a lot of work we need doing. If we can run society smoothly with everyone working 20 hour weeks, then it'd be wiser to do so rather than 'creating jobs' for no good reason but to keep folks busy.
I will expand on that. If we're not ready for my extreme thinking on 'jobs', then I feel it'd be best to create jobs that do the least harm. Creating a manufacturing plant that takes more fuel and natural resources to produce more stuff no one needs or building in planned obsolescence to keep expanding is foolish. It's harming the planet and future generations just to give people paychecks. We should be honest about what we're doing and generate the least amount of harm in pursuit of job creation. Ergo, if we must 'create jobs' then I feel it'd be less harmful to have some folks dig holes and others fill them in. It's a self-sustaining system that will always keep them busy the required 40 hours, and someone can be in charge of counting shovels. My idea is no more bizarre than 'creating' a factory for one-time use CD's that are then disposed of in landfills; my suggestion is greener in every area and better for society overall.
Weather, politics, jobs, Occupiers. I won't start on pharmaceutical companies; profit, greed and corruption rule the world at this time, it's no surprise. That we don't even recognize it for what it is... First commercial, 'Pill X' for everything was followed by a second commercial on a class action lawsuit on 'Bad Pill'. Back-to-back within minutes, a display of what's running the country is presented and we're so desensitized to it, we don't even see it: "There's Money to be Made." Deja vu, we're at the original irony that our money is made by 'borrowing it into existence' - trying to keep up with the interest payments drives the economy and is killing us as long as we collectively buy into the system.
Personal lives. Life is nothing but change from the day we're born. Stability is in Spirit, the Higher Power within each of us. It's the only thing that'll get us through the muck of life and the consequences of living. I'm not saying there won't be hollering and tears and grief and pain - actually, I'm saying there will be. I'm saying the only thing that will see us through to the other side of it is gifted within each of us at birth. We just gotta find it. It's that bit that always loves and wants you, no matter how badly you screwed up or others screwed it up for you. It's being right between you and your god, however you define it. Definitions don't change things, just our perception of them; it's the same sky, whether we call it blue or azul or maple. Spirit's like that, and though I am quite nonreligious, I figured this out with Nature as one of my main teachers.
It's the only thing that will get us honestly through the muck, be with us every step of the way if we wish to acknowledge it or not, hang onto us because we're worthy, and never judges. Spirit doesn't need to judge us; we'll do that quite well ourselves and we know when we're out of line. I really have no use for a hell-condemning god; facing ourselves will be a tough enough challenge. (Been there, done that, repeat.) Thing is, we don't figure this out easily either; usually it has to be hammered into our thick skulls. Spirit goes with Power.
Claim your own Power. I'm thinking this is a good idea. Don't give anyone power over you; they can't take it unless you allow it. Okay, yes, I am talking relationships here, but it applies to anything - jobs, houses, pills, alcohol, etcetera. Relationships and our social concept have to be the work of the devil, because we hitch our lives on it even as the fail rate is extreme. Few couples are happily married long-term, and the best to those who have chosen this path together! But the statistics are in favor of failing: dating, broken relationships, divorce. If our cell phone service worked this well, we'd be p.o.'d. Yet we'll suffer another round of the Relationship Game.
Spin back to the first sentence on that paragraph: claim your own power. I don't want power over anyone, nor do I want anyone to have power over me. I'd rather have a lifelong friend than a commitment that has a good chance of failing and ties and insecurities under the guise of 'love'. Yep, I refused such advances recently, and someone may be blaming me for not playing the game right and breaking hearts and giving him reason to drink. Sigh, I'm too emotionally worn out to invest my time and energy on 'making someone happy'. I don't want this power over him and never did, nor will I be held responsible for his current misery. I gotta get along with me, and I won't do the 'all or nothing' with another. I said 'friend' from the beginning, but you know the old song, "A man hears what he wants to hear and disregards the rest." I finally had to hit him straight between the eyes to get him to hear me.
Take Two, Scene Two... Dennis is home, girlfriend told him to leave out of the blue end of October. He's emotionally invested in her, they planned on marrying - heard this story before, haven't you? He hasn't found his own power, and he's letting this jerk him around. Classic pattern, it's too much to deal with so you drink a little or smoke a little, self-medicated emotional avoidance. He's not drinking, which is good. But when you run out of ways to avoid yourself - bam, there you are, waiting to get through the pain. Some folks drink, some throw themselves into work, some pop pills or focus on dieting. It's all fine for the initial shock, but sooner or later you have to go through the muck if you want to come out the other side of it.
It's still going to be there, a sense of loss. Because it is a loss. The changes might be for the best, but there's still memories of shared times and we shouldn't lose these to bitterness. We just can't go back and have another day, we can't capture it and stay in it. We're not supposed to - we're supposed to grow through it. That's when we find what Spirit is and the gift of Higher Power within ourselves. Or we can try to avoid it with drugs and such; it doesn't go away, and it'll be waiting for you to deal with it sooner or later. This is actually what killed my sister, not alcoholism; the drinking started to avoid the amount of pain she perceived in her life, which grew more pain and created a deepening rut of self-misery she couldn't get out of. Oh, and that's why Spirit created others to help us up when we need it, when we're flat in the muck and need a hand. But then we're supposed to dust ourselves off and lend a hand to others as we get on down the road of Life.
Seems to me, that's the way Life Is. Mostly screwed up, and the human potential for this has not yet been realized; eventually it'll be Royally Messed Up and we'll have to collectively admit we're idiots. (Read this post again - we're not the brightest stars in the sky, hey?) That's okay, because despite being idiots, we're still loved and wanted and worthy. Just slow learners.
That's my take on 2011. It's been the Year of the Cars for me, and I do have two out of two with problems right now. I made the mistake of telling my friend 'he was a friend' before the car was repaired, which proves I have lousy timing but great integrity. Yay. And how far does integrity get anyone...? Hmm, JFK and Jesus came rapidly to mind, and we saw how that turned out! Total irony, in that they both messed with the money system. Still, integrity is honoring your own inner power and acting accordingly as you grow through life. The angels delight when we get it right, and know being human is no easy task. Now if they'd just lend a mechanical hand...
Going into 2012, and my best advice is 'Claim your own Power'. If you let anyone or anything knock you down, it's your own choice - but you don't have to. A friend going through diabetes has the choice to let it rule his life or disempower it, a bad relationship can rock your life if you allow it. We're all going to struggle through critical events in our lives, some are brutal. Some take a longer time to sort out and send us reeling. Hang on then to your own Power and accept the help the Universe provides. It could be in the form of a person or a dog or a sunset, just that boost to carry on another day. Sometimes it seems we're alone with it, but Spirit's with us and little gifts are offered. Sometimes we have to holler and wail and cuss to get the hurting out, and that's okay, too. Hollering 'dumps the junk' so we can rediscover who we really are, inside.
When it's all said and done, what do we really have left but ourselves? It's the only person you have to sleep with every night, everything else is temporary and prone to change. Headaches and heartaches, it's part of being Human. We learn the most through the hard lessons, and that's when we find ourselves. I was pondering the "moms of yesterday" where we were taught if we made the husband happy and the kids happy, then the house would be happy and we would be happy. Except, of course, no one can make another happy, and they will be as miserable or irritable or crabby or dissatisfied as they choose to be, no matter what you do, and losing yourself in this attempt to jolly them all up is damn near fatal. (Been there, done that.) The drug equivalent we were striving for would be to put them all on valium, live in a valium world of rosy pleasantries.
But I have to be completely honest with myself, and I realize I wouldn't gift this to others even if I could. If I wished everything to be pleasant and smooth and easy for everyone all the time, I'd be denying them the opportunities for personal growth. We've all gone through situations where we say, "I wouldn't wish it on my worst enemy" yet realize we learned something valuable from the experience that we wouldn't undo. Am I right?
2012 may be like this. A wonderful old tree falls, but within a few years a small shelter of wild roses and hummingbirds exists from the tree's fate. Then should we wish the tree to never fall? Or should we wish for strength and wisdom and the ability to adapt to Change, because Life never stands still for long?
Then may you find 2012 interesting and enlightening, may the rope you're swinging on be long enough to reach the next tree. Yee-ha, it is the time of your life, and the time is Now. Always.
Tuesday, October 4, 2011
Pumping Iron, or What Not To Do, Again
So... Someone, for a few years now, has thought it'd be slick to have a hand-pump as a secondary water source in case of power outages and similar events. Someone knew just how much water is used in this house, for flushing the toilet and watering dogs and washing up. This was highlighted awhile ago when we had to replace the well pump and bucketed home water for a week, gallons and gallons of it.
So someone thought it'd be a good idea to get on with this project...
Par for the course, I've never done this before. It didn't seem too complicated, you hammer in a pipe and add more pipe until you hit water; then you attach a hand pump. If you don't hit water, you try again elsewhere or give up for another year or so or talk to the 'well guys' about putting a second pipe inside your deep-well housing. (I hear the latter can be done, if you use check valves and such for the shallow pump to pull up from, but I'm not sure if it works - and I didn't want to mess with the wires in the well.)
Living on faith and intuition... Universe nudged me that way, and I had the opportunity to pursue it. Not sure if it was logic or divine guidance, but it seemed the place to set this up was outside 'where the back door used to be'. I can say, when they show the dudes on "Dual Survival" digging an eighteen-inch hole in the desert and finding water is not exactly how it worked here - and we're surrounded by water. (Go figure.)
I dug out an area for a foundation of sorts, since the shed itself will be freestanding (just next to the house with a doorway between) and then post-holed down a couple of feet. We have been terribly dry here and the clay was hard as stone, thought I'd mention this. Then I banged in the sandpoint for the first time.
I had about a 6-foot section of pipe, but the method of whacking that is not recommended stripped out the threads. Mendards thought I could whack a spare coupling as a drive cap in order to use a fence post pounder, since a regular drive cap wouldn't fit in it. Mendards was wrong. The bottom threads broke in the coupling to the sandpoint. I took the pipe to Ace Hardware so they could re-thread both ends, then I had to blast out the sandpoint (most of it was whacked in the bottom of the post hole) to pry the bad coupling off it. Spent a day undoing things; the hose in section of fence pipe blasted the soil loose around the sandpoint, then the shop vac sucked up and clogged on the dirt - repeated that about 100 times until I retrieved the sandpoint.
Friend Marvin then loaned me a 'real pipe pounder', about a 60-pound one, and I bought a drive cap. FYI, Mendards doesn't sell 'real pipe pounders' or I'd have bought one the first day. If you're counting, that is now two ruined couplings - the one I was using as a drive cap stripped threads and the other one had 'snapped pipe' jammed in it. I was beginning to wonder if the Universe really wanted me to do this, or if I should just go bake a cake or something. However, I persisted.
Then I actually got a couple of sections of pipe in! I didn't get any water, but I was feeling pretty confident that I was on the right track. Bought another 5-foot pipe to finish 'er up with, and...
Bent the durn thing trying to hoist off the pounder to make sure the drive cap was still tight and snapped off the 'pounded' pipe at the coupling - yee-ha! It was about a foot out of the hole yet. So I learned about re-threading pipe via renting a pipe threader from General Rental. Pete stopped to assist, but it was more than he had oomph for; he offered to try and find some Muscle to send over. Since I am a patient kind of person, I waited until he left (I think he was trying to run to his truck to get out of here, but he was still winded) and then I applied 'my muscle' - i.e. foot.
Sitting in the dirt, bottom wrench in both hands holding the pipe, foot forcing the pipe threader 'one more click'... and I managed to re-thread the pipe! (Another First in my life, yay.) Got the coupling on straight and the last section of pipe on, banged it down...
And the string with the washers on it came back up wet.
Shocking moment, almost surreal - maybe I'd actually done it?! Then I realized I had just filled in the hole around the pipe to add support, using the hose to wash the dirt down - could just be hose water in the sandpoint. Tricky, tricky... Universe could be spoofing me. I did have to get the pipe threader back to the shop, so called it another day.
If you're counting, that is three mangled couplings. I didn't know I could 'break pipe'.
It does seem we now have a secondary water source. The hand pump isn't installed yet, needs a shelf (and a floor and a few walls and a roof), but it's ready to be attached.
Hell of an exercise program.
Around Day #2 or #3, I started questioning this 'acting on faith and intuition' - I wanted the Universe to give me a reassuring sign that water would be forthcoming. Hmm. I realized if a person (me) wants the results guaranteed before acting, then it's hard to say it's 'faith and intuition'. I realized all I could do was proceed to the best of my ability, and if it failed, then at least I tried - and I'd have to suck it up. It did challenge me several times, wondering if I should just give up or holler for help; cussing and cross-eyed frustration - when you don't know if things are going to work out or if it's beyond your abilities no matter what you do. But you keep on tackling it 'one more time' until you prove it.
I got lucky - it worked. For all the people in the world everywhere digging and banging with the hope of finding water, I'm not that exceptional - and I wish them all the best. If we ever need this back-up here, it will make it all worthwhile. Somehow, I feel like I followed 'gut instinct' on this one, and that's what I was supposed to do.
My back-up plan, should water not be forthcoming and we had a power outage, was to hand everyone their own 'bathroom bucket' and let them manage on their own. Life just gets tougher when water isn't easily accessible - lived it a few times. That's why I did this.
So someone thought it'd be a good idea to get on with this project...
Par for the course, I've never done this before. It didn't seem too complicated, you hammer in a pipe and add more pipe until you hit water; then you attach a hand pump. If you don't hit water, you try again elsewhere or give up for another year or so or talk to the 'well guys' about putting a second pipe inside your deep-well housing. (I hear the latter can be done, if you use check valves and such for the shallow pump to pull up from, but I'm not sure if it works - and I didn't want to mess with the wires in the well.)
Living on faith and intuition... Universe nudged me that way, and I had the opportunity to pursue it. Not sure if it was logic or divine guidance, but it seemed the place to set this up was outside 'where the back door used to be'. I can say, when they show the dudes on "Dual Survival" digging an eighteen-inch hole in the desert and finding water is not exactly how it worked here - and we're surrounded by water. (Go figure.)
I dug out an area for a foundation of sorts, since the shed itself will be freestanding (just next to the house with a doorway between) and then post-holed down a couple of feet. We have been terribly dry here and the clay was hard as stone, thought I'd mention this. Then I banged in the sandpoint for the first time.
I had about a 6-foot section of pipe, but the method of whacking that is not recommended stripped out the threads. Mendards thought I could whack a spare coupling as a drive cap in order to use a fence post pounder, since a regular drive cap wouldn't fit in it. Mendards was wrong. The bottom threads broke in the coupling to the sandpoint. I took the pipe to Ace Hardware so they could re-thread both ends, then I had to blast out the sandpoint (most of it was whacked in the bottom of the post hole) to pry the bad coupling off it. Spent a day undoing things; the hose in section of fence pipe blasted the soil loose around the sandpoint, then the shop vac sucked up and clogged on the dirt - repeated that about 100 times until I retrieved the sandpoint.
Friend Marvin then loaned me a 'real pipe pounder', about a 60-pound one, and I bought a drive cap. FYI, Mendards doesn't sell 'real pipe pounders' or I'd have bought one the first day. If you're counting, that is now two ruined couplings - the one I was using as a drive cap stripped threads and the other one had 'snapped pipe' jammed in it. I was beginning to wonder if the Universe really wanted me to do this, or if I should just go bake a cake or something. However, I persisted.
Then I actually got a couple of sections of pipe in! I didn't get any water, but I was feeling pretty confident that I was on the right track. Bought another 5-foot pipe to finish 'er up with, and...
Bent the durn thing trying to hoist off the pounder to make sure the drive cap was still tight and snapped off the 'pounded' pipe at the coupling - yee-ha! It was about a foot out of the hole yet. So I learned about re-threading pipe via renting a pipe threader from General Rental. Pete stopped to assist, but it was more than he had oomph for; he offered to try and find some Muscle to send over. Since I am a patient kind of person, I waited until he left (I think he was trying to run to his truck to get out of here, but he was still winded) and then I applied 'my muscle' - i.e. foot.
Sitting in the dirt, bottom wrench in both hands holding the pipe, foot forcing the pipe threader 'one more click'... and I managed to re-thread the pipe! (Another First in my life, yay.) Got the coupling on straight and the last section of pipe on, banged it down...
And the string with the washers on it came back up wet.
Shocking moment, almost surreal - maybe I'd actually done it?! Then I realized I had just filled in the hole around the pipe to add support, using the hose to wash the dirt down - could just be hose water in the sandpoint. Tricky, tricky... Universe could be spoofing me. I did have to get the pipe threader back to the shop, so called it another day.
If you're counting, that is three mangled couplings. I didn't know I could 'break pipe'.
It does seem we now have a secondary water source. The hand pump isn't installed yet, needs a shelf (and a floor and a few walls and a roof), but it's ready to be attached.
Hell of an exercise program.
Around Day #2 or #3, I started questioning this 'acting on faith and intuition' - I wanted the Universe to give me a reassuring sign that water would be forthcoming. Hmm. I realized if a person (me) wants the results guaranteed before acting, then it's hard to say it's 'faith and intuition'. I realized all I could do was proceed to the best of my ability, and if it failed, then at least I tried - and I'd have to suck it up. It did challenge me several times, wondering if I should just give up or holler for help; cussing and cross-eyed frustration - when you don't know if things are going to work out or if it's beyond your abilities no matter what you do. But you keep on tackling it 'one more time' until you prove it.
I got lucky - it worked. For all the people in the world everywhere digging and banging with the hope of finding water, I'm not that exceptional - and I wish them all the best. If we ever need this back-up here, it will make it all worthwhile. Somehow, I feel like I followed 'gut instinct' on this one, and that's what I was supposed to do.
My back-up plan, should water not be forthcoming and we had a power outage, was to hand everyone their own 'bathroom bucket' and let them manage on their own. Life just gets tougher when water isn't easily accessible - lived it a few times. That's why I did this.
Friday, August 26, 2011
Pimpin' My Ride...
This is the $500 Saturn I picked up in June with front-end damage. Pete found me a hood and I replaced the passenger headlight. 'Red' seemed to be the theme of used parts, in that the only fender and bumper I found were red, too.
I did 'cripple it out' to my mechanic's, but something was 'acting weird' and I ended up letting Triple-A tow it for me. Shane thought it was potentially something serious in the wheels, but turned out to be.... mud in the wheels, caked up like concrete! Once it was cleaned out, it runs straight and tight at 70 mph! Current engine has 100,000 on it, and it's 5-speed stick, 4-cylinder.
Begging for paint, it was... Sure, Shane said he could match the tan, but $ wasn't lying around in great quantities. I optimistically thought I'd do a quick sanding and spray paint on it... Ha!! I couldn't find a used driver-side panel, either, so decided to patch up the old one. In hindsight, I probably could have patched the other panel and bumper, too.
Considering I've never bond-o'd anything or taken a bumper off intentionally... And of course the painting grew "because I didn't want it to be boring". I wasn't trying to make it look like new, it is 15 years old - just happy. :)
Right. It started out as a 'three day project', when will I ever learn? $10 of acrylic paints to add some color, figured I'd just sponge on some scenery... Friend Joe said, "Go for it, let the car tell you what it wants."
I didn't try to add animals. I haven't attempted 'artistic painting' since about grade school, which is the last time I recall any sort of art class. I really thought "I can't paint" but I didn't let it stop me. Sera refused to participate.
I did 'cripple it out' to my mechanic's, but something was 'acting weird' and I ended up letting Triple-A tow it for me. Shane thought it was potentially something serious in the wheels, but turned out to be.... mud in the wheels, caked up like concrete! Once it was cleaned out, it runs straight and tight at 70 mph! Current engine has 100,000 on it, and it's 5-speed stick, 4-cylinder.
Begging for paint, it was... Sure, Shane said he could match the tan, but $ wasn't lying around in great quantities. I optimistically thought I'd do a quick sanding and spray paint on it... Ha!! I couldn't find a used driver-side panel, either, so decided to patch up the old one. In hindsight, I probably could have patched the other panel and bumper, too.
Considering I've never bond-o'd anything or taken a bumper off intentionally... And of course the painting grew "because I didn't want it to be boring". I wasn't trying to make it look like new, it is 15 years old - just happy. :)
Right. It started out as a 'three day project', when will I ever learn? $10 of acrylic paints to add some color, figured I'd just sponge on some scenery... Friend Joe said, "Go for it, let the car tell you what it wants."
I wanted to portray what I see when I'm out on back roads driving census - swamps and lakes and trees and flowers and grass; cattails and sumac and goldenrod, birch and pine trees. The roof became clouds only because I tarped it from rain overnight and the paint got textured. Rather than try to smooth it out, I figured I'd cloud it.
I didn't try to add animals. I haven't attempted 'artistic painting' since about grade school, which is the last time I recall any sort of art class. I really thought "I can't paint" but I didn't let it stop me. Sera refused to participate.
The butterfly represents transformation. Life always is, and with 2012 around the corner and "things getting weirder" all the time... That, and it covers the hail-damaged dimples on the hood pretty well.
The final project, after tightening the bumper up and stuff like that. I started it August 13, and it's pretty much done! I won't mention the time crawling around it in the dirt with dabs of paint and mosquitoes; I won't mention working under the trees with debris falling (why I chose spray paint, fast drying) or leaping in and out with rain or painting over the back-up lights - oops, forgot they were there... But they cleaned up okay with nail polish remover.
The final project, after tightening the bumper up and stuff like that. I started it August 13, and it's pretty much done! I won't mention the time crawling around it in the dirt with dabs of paint and mosquitoes; I won't mention working under the trees with debris falling (why I chose spray paint, fast drying) or leaping in and out with rain or painting over the back-up lights - oops, forgot they were there... But they cleaned up okay with nail polish remover.
What worries me now is that Car-lita is jealous. My old Acura wants me to replace parts on it (the black one in the background is the donor car) and seems to have ideas on what kind of design it wants - yoiks!! I've already discarded my "major to-do list" for the last 2 weeks on home repairs; took on the offer to paint at Pete's to finance car repairs and dog neutering (fewer nuts around here?), so it's been busy. Whenever I could, I got back to painting this one...
NOW - I don't yet have a name picked out for this ride. Blue? Evermore? (There's a song, isn't there?) Eve? I'll have to listen and see what it prefers, Eve may be suitable, as in "eve of transformation" or something... Sirius? (The planet our supposed alien ancestors came from, and suitable as in, "Are you serious?") since it's a Saturn.
Well, yes, I do talk to my cars!
Friday, July 29, 2011
Examples Related to Yesterday's Vent
If we're not yet aware of the 'Scrabbling for Dollars' that's going on - and there's a name for the current financial woes that is adequate, hmm? - I thought I'd add a few quick examples.
One of the recent news-bites was on school buses opting to display advertising as a method to fund crippled budgets. I'm not sure if small, local businesses will be able to afford much space or if it will become corporate logos painted on the sides; is Coca-cola a suitable merchant for targeting youth? Or more stuff we can't live without, like iPods and iPads and name-brand jeans. This is just what the kids need!
The old standby, since few object to it: raise cigarette tax another dollar per pack. What they're missing is that if all of us gave up this 'evil habit', the economy would tank in short order. The states and federal government depend on the funds from tobacco sales, a large amount of revenue for them, and mass panic would ensue if everyone quit and these sales bottomed out. It'd be one time I'd consider quitting, just to push back on the holier-than-thou, tobacco-slamming folks; wreaking havoc on 'their' economy by giving them exactly what they ask for.
Oh, possibly their last drive to raise prices on smokes forced many to quit, which is why they need to increase the tax to keep their profit margin... which in turn may force more smokers to roll their own (I do) or quitting, because you can't bleed the same folks indefinitely.
Half of the 'legalize pot' campaign has nothing to do with personal freedom or health: it's about creating another tax revenue source. Once Monsanto can figure out how to genetically modify and control it, we'll have corporate pressure to legalize, too. (Just like corn.) This will, of course, shatter the income from the backyard growers that are depending on it for a livelihood and to keep their utilities paid when minimum-wage (Hello, Bachmann!) jobs don't make ends meet anymore. Anyone see consequences from these scenarios, when we outlaw a plant that grows wild, then legalize it for tax purposes? Do we all know that one of Grandma's favorite windowsill plants, sold everywhere, is a hallucinogenic? Anyone want to tell the little old ladies this multi-colored houseplant is illegal?
We can always have law enforcement raise fines and increase ticketing for income, if we need the money, but a more creative route in a Florida jail was to save $45,000 annually by no longer giving men free underwear. Since they don't house a huge population, they must be buying from Victoria's Secret to have this kind of savings. Some yelled it was sex discrimination to allow women free underwear, but I am of the opinion that all menstruating males should also be allowed their underwear quota.
As it is, the jails already make money by charging booking fees, selling necessities and snacks, and even charging 'for their stay' at the Grey Motel. I met a local man who came back into Minnesota after 5 years and was picked up on an old restraining order he didn't know about. Imagine his shock to be hauled 60 miles and locked up for two weeks, costing him his last $300 on a credit card, just to have the judge throw the case out since he'd never been served. The job he had lined up was gone and they put him out on the street - no return trip to where they picked him up - a free man once again. And folks wonder why the cops have a bad rap!
Is there any irony that property values are dropping, but the states are looking at increasing property taxes? To offset the reduction in sales tax because folks have less money to be spending, which seems brilliant then somehow - they don't have any money, but the state needs more, so - let's raise property taxes on these folks. Our rural county is seeing 7 - 8 foreclosures daily in the courthouse, and it's a lightly-populated area. Are we in trouble yet?
The larger corporations seem to be doing fine, record profits and CEO's don't seem to be taking pay cuts. The thought of taxing them closed down Minnesota for a few weeks, because some things ARE 'holier than thou' - i.e. Big Money. The talking heads called these folks 'job creators' though they're really investment opportunists and global vultures. They've started far fewer jobs in the USA than the number of jobs moving overseas. Where are 'the jobs they are creating?' I will assume they mean keeping lobbyists and attorneys employed.
OSHA is busy doing their part to keep revenue flowing, nailing small businesses with excessive fines for minor offenses. That this may destroy the smaller businesses is not taken into account; we all know that "a soap dispenser 3 inches too high might splash an eye" (it's been there for 20 years, but that's different) and is worth several $1000 in fines. A local shop that had an inspector come through 'to make sure they were OSHA compliant' a few years ago still got $15,000 in fines against it. This is a local shop that is decent, employs about 25 people, and has been here without incident for 30 years. "But we gotta grab the cash" and OSHA's just doing its part.
These are just normal headlines, like the local businesses that only hire part-time workers to avoid benefits (local newspaper, Kohl's, etc.). This has been going on for at least the last 10 years, it was one of the ways K-mart kept prices down before they moved out of our area. I'm sure Ms. Bachmann would approve - I just wish she'd try living off these wages before spouting her mouth off.
Post offices closing or reducing services is another example of trying to save; except this does mean less money for the employees to spend in the communities to generate sales tax for the states and Fed, not to mention income tax and paying property tax. This type of thinking is everywhere, and no one seems to realize it is all Dominoes. You can't topple one thing without affecting another.
There's a ton of examples on 'financial / budget fixes' invading our country, and if you simply look for them, they're everywhere. The investment / retirement plans the disappeared, social security cuts, etc... The highway departments are strapped, the cities are struggling, the states are in budget-ruins, and the Fed keeps telling us we're improving - while they raise the debt ceiling one more time. (I know, cut aid to the poor and increase taxes on everything, but leave the top level alone - thanks, GW!)
Truth of it, none of it matters in the long run - the ship will sink. It's going to get worse on all of us because we can't think of a healthy alternative.
I find it all completely irrational, and there's no sense in telling me how "we are of higher intelligence" when we continue to be this stupid.
One of the recent news-bites was on school buses opting to display advertising as a method to fund crippled budgets. I'm not sure if small, local businesses will be able to afford much space or if it will become corporate logos painted on the sides; is Coca-cola a suitable merchant for targeting youth? Or more stuff we can't live without, like iPods and iPads and name-brand jeans. This is just what the kids need!
The old standby, since few object to it: raise cigarette tax another dollar per pack. What they're missing is that if all of us gave up this 'evil habit', the economy would tank in short order. The states and federal government depend on the funds from tobacco sales, a large amount of revenue for them, and mass panic would ensue if everyone quit and these sales bottomed out. It'd be one time I'd consider quitting, just to push back on the holier-than-thou, tobacco-slamming folks; wreaking havoc on 'their' economy by giving them exactly what they ask for.
Oh, possibly their last drive to raise prices on smokes forced many to quit, which is why they need to increase the tax to keep their profit margin... which in turn may force more smokers to roll their own (I do) or quitting, because you can't bleed the same folks indefinitely.
Half of the 'legalize pot' campaign has nothing to do with personal freedom or health: it's about creating another tax revenue source. Once Monsanto can figure out how to genetically modify and control it, we'll have corporate pressure to legalize, too. (Just like corn.) This will, of course, shatter the income from the backyard growers that are depending on it for a livelihood and to keep their utilities paid when minimum-wage (Hello, Bachmann!) jobs don't make ends meet anymore. Anyone see consequences from these scenarios, when we outlaw a plant that grows wild, then legalize it for tax purposes? Do we all know that one of Grandma's favorite windowsill plants, sold everywhere, is a hallucinogenic? Anyone want to tell the little old ladies this multi-colored houseplant is illegal?
We can always have law enforcement raise fines and increase ticketing for income, if we need the money, but a more creative route in a Florida jail was to save $45,000 annually by no longer giving men free underwear. Since they don't house a huge population, they must be buying from Victoria's Secret to have this kind of savings. Some yelled it was sex discrimination to allow women free underwear, but I am of the opinion that all menstruating males should also be allowed their underwear quota.
As it is, the jails already make money by charging booking fees, selling necessities and snacks, and even charging 'for their stay' at the Grey Motel. I met a local man who came back into Minnesota after 5 years and was picked up on an old restraining order he didn't know about. Imagine his shock to be hauled 60 miles and locked up for two weeks, costing him his last $300 on a credit card, just to have the judge throw the case out since he'd never been served. The job he had lined up was gone and they put him out on the street - no return trip to where they picked him up - a free man once again. And folks wonder why the cops have a bad rap!
Is there any irony that property values are dropping, but the states are looking at increasing property taxes? To offset the reduction in sales tax because folks have less money to be spending, which seems brilliant then somehow - they don't have any money, but the state needs more, so - let's raise property taxes on these folks. Our rural county is seeing 7 - 8 foreclosures daily in the courthouse, and it's a lightly-populated area. Are we in trouble yet?
The larger corporations seem to be doing fine, record profits and CEO's don't seem to be taking pay cuts. The thought of taxing them closed down Minnesota for a few weeks, because some things ARE 'holier than thou' - i.e. Big Money. The talking heads called these folks 'job creators' though they're really investment opportunists and global vultures. They've started far fewer jobs in the USA than the number of jobs moving overseas. Where are 'the jobs they are creating?' I will assume they mean keeping lobbyists and attorneys employed.
OSHA is busy doing their part to keep revenue flowing, nailing small businesses with excessive fines for minor offenses. That this may destroy the smaller businesses is not taken into account; we all know that "a soap dispenser 3 inches too high might splash an eye" (it's been there for 20 years, but that's different) and is worth several $1000 in fines. A local shop that had an inspector come through 'to make sure they were OSHA compliant' a few years ago still got $15,000 in fines against it. This is a local shop that is decent, employs about 25 people, and has been here without incident for 30 years. "But we gotta grab the cash" and OSHA's just doing its part.
These are just normal headlines, like the local businesses that only hire part-time workers to avoid benefits (local newspaper, Kohl's, etc.). This has been going on for at least the last 10 years, it was one of the ways K-mart kept prices down before they moved out of our area. I'm sure Ms. Bachmann would approve - I just wish she'd try living off these wages before spouting her mouth off.
Post offices closing or reducing services is another example of trying to save; except this does mean less money for the employees to spend in the communities to generate sales tax for the states and Fed, not to mention income tax and paying property tax. This type of thinking is everywhere, and no one seems to realize it is all Dominoes. You can't topple one thing without affecting another.
There's a ton of examples on 'financial / budget fixes' invading our country, and if you simply look for them, they're everywhere. The investment / retirement plans the disappeared, social security cuts, etc... The highway departments are strapped, the cities are struggling, the states are in budget-ruins, and the Fed keeps telling us we're improving - while they raise the debt ceiling one more time. (I know, cut aid to the poor and increase taxes on everything, but leave the top level alone - thanks, GW!)
Truth of it, none of it matters in the long run - the ship will sink. It's going to get worse on all of us because we can't think of a healthy alternative.
I find it all completely irrational, and there's no sense in telling me how "we are of higher intelligence" when we continue to be this stupid.
Thursday, July 28, 2011
My Take on the Economy and the Rest of Life
I find myself frustrated with all the jaw-ing on about the economy sinking and how to fix it while the same folks remain clueless on alternative solutions and the simple fact that THIS ECONOMIC SYSTEM CANNOT BE FIXED. Its own nature guarantees it will eventually collapse.
Rather than wasting time repeating what is wrong with this system, I thought I'd offer a comparison of what our current experts are suggesting through the model of 'a sinking ship'. The ship is slowly sinking, and there's no way to patch it because it was constructed of flawed material. Not only that, we've been at sea a long time, there's no land in sight, and we're running out of food.
Okay, we've been riding this ship so long we've forgotten there's any other means of transportation. We're hoarding our personal stashes and trying to grab whatever we can to secure our individual survival with the hope land will appear to save us. We're scared half out of our wits, and some are completely around the bend - we need the ship's crew on full alert with weapons drawn to protect us from them.
Just like real society, there's different races and cultures and levels of wealth, but we're all scared; the food supply is dwindling and the ship is springing leaks. We got folks on the oars being whipped to row harder, and we blame them for our predicament. We blame the poor and other races, we blame the wealthy, we blame the captain and the crew (some who are on the take, of course, being human).
We don't blame the ship, the ship builders, or ourselves. We're desperate to get to shore, but the waves keep crashing and we're in a panic. Small groups have banded together to ensure their own survival - we call them 'experts' and listen on edge to their advice.
What they're saying is that it's somebody else's fault and then point out scapegoats to throw overboard or sacrifice by stuffing them in the latest leaks. "It's the poor eating up our supplies, theirs ran out! Toss them off the boat!" (Never mind the poor are the ones working the oars and paddling harder because their lives depend on it.) "It's the whites / blacks / Christians / Muslims / gays / seniors / wealthy". The richest have prudently secured their place as long as the ship is afloat by paying off the captain and crew; it will difficult for the poorer levels to toss them off.
"Cut spending, increase revenue." Current talk is reducing social security, welfare, minimum wage (Bachmann to the rescue), raising taxes on everything - property, licenses, fuel, food, rich (who are still able to buy their way out of this for now). In other words, let's eat the old and poor and vulnerable or throw them overboard to see if the ship will ride higher in the water.
Problem is, we're on a ship, and it's sinking. The waves are like the weather, threatening whatever crops and supplies we do have while flooding our cabins and washing our own sewage into our drinking water. Folks are camped out in the hallways and fewer lights still burn at night, while the wealthiest dance in the ballroom dining on caviar and trying to pretend "we'll all get through this, somehow" - just toss off more of the poor and homeless. Even the recently homeless, those that lost their cabins and security in the last wave and didn't think it'd ever 'be me' they were talking about. (Hello, middle class, so eager to toss off the welfare bums just a few days earlier.)
The crew isn't safe, either, though 'job security' was the catch-phrase that got them to enlist. Those who are injured or unable to perform are getting their benefits slashed, questioned, or denied. The very folks they protected are now trying to pitch them overboard. They've become obsolete.
Who do we eat next, who do we shove into the next leak? These are the questions being asked today in our economic chaos.
The irony is that we have a massive blimp in the hold with room and supplies enough for all, and we don' t know what it is. The shipbuilders intentionally locked it up tight and deny it exists, because all it'd take is for every person to help inflate it and we'd be free of the 'economic ship'.
Instead we'll keep eating each other and warring and slashing budgets and sacrificing and squeezing what we can out of each other while the corporate players go another round of Monopoly, telling us the ship is the only game in town. And if we're smart, we can play too until we're One of Them. Never mind your soul, there is no afterlife in this world - anyway, it's legal.
Like I said, I'm totally annoyed, frustrated and fed up with the folks on the ship that won't listen about anything other than sacrificing each other. And we're on the ship.
But... In My World... I'm tearing apart cars, planting things, getting dogs, painting, and generally living busy. Those are different stories on life. Compared to the amount of misery going on in the world, I'm doing good! Dollar-wise I'm not, but Life-wise, it seems I do okay, somehow.
Best to all, please don't throw anyone overboard, just start inflating the blimp!
Rather than wasting time repeating what is wrong with this system, I thought I'd offer a comparison of what our current experts are suggesting through the model of 'a sinking ship'. The ship is slowly sinking, and there's no way to patch it because it was constructed of flawed material. Not only that, we've been at sea a long time, there's no land in sight, and we're running out of food.
Okay, we've been riding this ship so long we've forgotten there's any other means of transportation. We're hoarding our personal stashes and trying to grab whatever we can to secure our individual survival with the hope land will appear to save us. We're scared half out of our wits, and some are completely around the bend - we need the ship's crew on full alert with weapons drawn to protect us from them.
Just like real society, there's different races and cultures and levels of wealth, but we're all scared; the food supply is dwindling and the ship is springing leaks. We got folks on the oars being whipped to row harder, and we blame them for our predicament. We blame the poor and other races, we blame the wealthy, we blame the captain and the crew (some who are on the take, of course, being human).
We don't blame the ship, the ship builders, or ourselves. We're desperate to get to shore, but the waves keep crashing and we're in a panic. Small groups have banded together to ensure their own survival - we call them 'experts' and listen on edge to their advice.
What they're saying is that it's somebody else's fault and then point out scapegoats to throw overboard or sacrifice by stuffing them in the latest leaks. "It's the poor eating up our supplies, theirs ran out! Toss them off the boat!" (Never mind the poor are the ones working the oars and paddling harder because their lives depend on it.) "It's the whites / blacks / Christians / Muslims / gays / seniors / wealthy". The richest have prudently secured their place as long as the ship is afloat by paying off the captain and crew; it will difficult for the poorer levels to toss them off.
"Cut spending, increase revenue." Current talk is reducing social security, welfare, minimum wage (Bachmann to the rescue), raising taxes on everything - property, licenses, fuel, food, rich (who are still able to buy their way out of this for now). In other words, let's eat the old and poor and vulnerable or throw them overboard to see if the ship will ride higher in the water.
Problem is, we're on a ship, and it's sinking. The waves are like the weather, threatening whatever crops and supplies we do have while flooding our cabins and washing our own sewage into our drinking water. Folks are camped out in the hallways and fewer lights still burn at night, while the wealthiest dance in the ballroom dining on caviar and trying to pretend "we'll all get through this, somehow" - just toss off more of the poor and homeless. Even the recently homeless, those that lost their cabins and security in the last wave and didn't think it'd ever 'be me' they were talking about. (Hello, middle class, so eager to toss off the welfare bums just a few days earlier.)
The crew isn't safe, either, though 'job security' was the catch-phrase that got them to enlist. Those who are injured or unable to perform are getting their benefits slashed, questioned, or denied. The very folks they protected are now trying to pitch them overboard. They've become obsolete.
Who do we eat next, who do we shove into the next leak? These are the questions being asked today in our economic chaos.
The irony is that we have a massive blimp in the hold with room and supplies enough for all, and we don' t know what it is. The shipbuilders intentionally locked it up tight and deny it exists, because all it'd take is for every person to help inflate it and we'd be free of the 'economic ship'.
Instead we'll keep eating each other and warring and slashing budgets and sacrificing and squeezing what we can out of each other while the corporate players go another round of Monopoly, telling us the ship is the only game in town. And if we're smart, we can play too until we're One of Them. Never mind your soul, there is no afterlife in this world - anyway, it's legal.
Like I said, I'm totally annoyed, frustrated and fed up with the folks on the ship that won't listen about anything other than sacrificing each other. And we're on the ship.
But... In My World... I'm tearing apart cars, planting things, getting dogs, painting, and generally living busy. Those are different stories on life. Compared to the amount of misery going on in the world, I'm doing good! Dollar-wise I'm not, but Life-wise, it seems I do okay, somehow.
Best to all, please don't throw anyone overboard, just start inflating the blimp!
Wednesday, May 25, 2011
Car-lita Lives!!!
Well... I have the 'time' thing figured out, and I am 'right on time' with my blog posts. Just the world and events have sped up around me, which explains losing 2 months here.
So... I have the '91 Dodge Shadow, not a bad little car but not a great little car. It had its own issues, like idling high when the engine was hot. I paid $80 to the shop to diagnose it, then had my mechanic (Shane) install a new 'intake manifold gasket'. This was after 3 new belts, thermostat, and some sensor by the thermostat. It still has a mind of its own on this, so may need to investigate the air-hose thing.
Right. One person recommended I squirt something like Carburetor Cleaner while it was running under the hood - which is flammable. Talking with Shane, he'd just had an engine fire in one vehicle while he was working on it, so I decided it would NOT be wise for me to randomly squirt flammable products under the hood unless, of course, I was to the point of maniacal permanent mechanical repair (i.e. 'toast').
Considering the Dodge came into my life around March 10, I have 4000 miles on it - and I've been driving the Acura again for the last week (about 400 'new' miles on it now). It's easy to see why MPG factors into my life; I could get between 26 - 28 mpg with the Dodge, but I'm averaging 32 with the Acura without even trying. Thanks to the handy-dandy invention called Calculator, I can even give a ball-park estimate on gallons and dollars for 4000 miles ... 148 gallons (at 27 mpg) at $3.85 is $570. At 32 mpg, it's 125 gallons or $481.
It made sense to try and fix Car-lita's timing belt. I couldn't find anyone interested in doing it and the general opinion (95 - 98%) was 'catastrophic engine damage'. The only saving grace was it snapped just as I idled through a stop sign to park. One person said "50-50 chance it might work" and that was the only glimmer of hope - and optimism.
So I bought a book.
Like the Hayne's manual on 1990's Acuras. Bought it on Sunday, May 15, and decided Terry wouldn't have given me a socket set for my birthday if he didn't expect me to take things apart. It seemed a good omen when the first socket actually fit the first bolt I tried! (I needed encouragement.) Joe's a friend I haven't seen in 3 years, but he called this spring; then he said he was looking for some work $...
Joe has had so many surgeries and spent 2 years in hospitals and assisted living, I didn't want him doing the work as much as being part of the brains and 'tool man'. He's never worked on an Acura before or did a timing belt, but he has torn engines out and such over the years - and has a massive amount of tools! (Sans 3/4 air gun thing that was needed to remove the crankshaft pulley belt - I snagged one temporarily.)
My intent was to video-tape each step, so that I could keep track if I needed to on the 'putting it back together again' part. However, Joe had stuff flying out from under the hood faster than I could register it on my brain. Between working under the driver's wheel, jacking up the engine, taking off all kinds of parts, etc. ...
Had to pick the brains of others, in that the book wasn't totally clear, but from Monday afternoon starting to Wednesday evening, we got her done. AND IT RAN!!!!!
I was quite nervous trying to start it, expecting anything including shooting flames and exploding parts. But Car-lita just needed a little coaxing to pop right over. Now how lucky is that??
Sure, it was parked in March when we had had so much salt and ice and snow on the roads, so the brakes were rusted up and jagged. I called 1) my insurance company and 2) Shane on Thursday morning; Shane had an opening in his schedule "if I got it out there", which I immediately did. Four new rotors and front brake pads, and 400 miles on it to date.
I still need to change the oil and can only leave it to the Universe as to Life Expectancy, since I am not that confident in my own repairs. I never took off a valve cover before, so this was a pretty intense experience. I tackled it because it was already broke - figured I couldn't break it then - and proving it sooner than later would be just as well. Either I had a $150 salvage vehicle (actually two, in that the other Acura is a parts car parked at Tom's) or a repairable one.
There is a sense of Home-coming for me to be back in my Acura, especially since it's the twin of the one I ran the last 6 years. It's beat up and doesn't look like much, but "it feels right". This is pretty much what I flew on for this challenge - intuition and stubbornness. I might be wrong, I might be right, but I was following my own instincts, however crazy it seemed.
The rest of life just fit in kind of around this, which means I am behind on everything. I have plants to get outside, the grass is a foot tall, I can no longer get into my tool shed because of trashing it and a door waiting to be cut in... But the sun is shining and I'm feeling pretty grateful to the Universe.
Now all I really need to do is wish Jim the best. I haven't written his way, but I've been sending thoughts of rapid-healing and hugs. This is also true for a couple other friends that have been having some challenges - you know who you are! Sending a hug to all who can use one.
I don't expect things will slown down anytime soon, but I wouldn't mind if it did a little bit!
So... I have the '91 Dodge Shadow, not a bad little car but not a great little car. It had its own issues, like idling high when the engine was hot. I paid $80 to the shop to diagnose it, then had my mechanic (Shane) install a new 'intake manifold gasket'. This was after 3 new belts, thermostat, and some sensor by the thermostat. It still has a mind of its own on this, so may need to investigate the air-hose thing.
Right. One person recommended I squirt something like Carburetor Cleaner while it was running under the hood - which is flammable. Talking with Shane, he'd just had an engine fire in one vehicle while he was working on it, so I decided it would NOT be wise for me to randomly squirt flammable products under the hood unless, of course, I was to the point of maniacal permanent mechanical repair (i.e. 'toast').
Considering the Dodge came into my life around March 10, I have 4000 miles on it - and I've been driving the Acura again for the last week (about 400 'new' miles on it now). It's easy to see why MPG factors into my life; I could get between 26 - 28 mpg with the Dodge, but I'm averaging 32 with the Acura without even trying. Thanks to the handy-dandy invention called Calculator, I can even give a ball-park estimate on gallons and dollars for 4000 miles ... 148 gallons (at 27 mpg) at $3.85 is $570. At 32 mpg, it's 125 gallons or $481.
It made sense to try and fix Car-lita's timing belt. I couldn't find anyone interested in doing it and the general opinion (95 - 98%) was 'catastrophic engine damage'. The only saving grace was it snapped just as I idled through a stop sign to park. One person said "50-50 chance it might work" and that was the only glimmer of hope - and optimism.
So I bought a book.
Like the Hayne's manual on 1990's Acuras. Bought it on Sunday, May 15, and decided Terry wouldn't have given me a socket set for my birthday if he didn't expect me to take things apart. It seemed a good omen when the first socket actually fit the first bolt I tried! (I needed encouragement.) Joe's a friend I haven't seen in 3 years, but he called this spring; then he said he was looking for some work $...
Joe has had so many surgeries and spent 2 years in hospitals and assisted living, I didn't want him doing the work as much as being part of the brains and 'tool man'. He's never worked on an Acura before or did a timing belt, but he has torn engines out and such over the years - and has a massive amount of tools! (Sans 3/4 air gun thing that was needed to remove the crankshaft pulley belt - I snagged one temporarily.)
My intent was to video-tape each step, so that I could keep track if I needed to on the 'putting it back together again' part. However, Joe had stuff flying out from under the hood faster than I could register it on my brain. Between working under the driver's wheel, jacking up the engine, taking off all kinds of parts, etc. ...
Had to pick the brains of others, in that the book wasn't totally clear, but from Monday afternoon starting to Wednesday evening, we got her done. AND IT RAN!!!!!
I was quite nervous trying to start it, expecting anything including shooting flames and exploding parts. But Car-lita just needed a little coaxing to pop right over. Now how lucky is that??
Sure, it was parked in March when we had had so much salt and ice and snow on the roads, so the brakes were rusted up and jagged. I called 1) my insurance company and 2) Shane on Thursday morning; Shane had an opening in his schedule "if I got it out there", which I immediately did. Four new rotors and front brake pads, and 400 miles on it to date.
I still need to change the oil and can only leave it to the Universe as to Life Expectancy, since I am not that confident in my own repairs. I never took off a valve cover before, so this was a pretty intense experience. I tackled it because it was already broke - figured I couldn't break it then - and proving it sooner than later would be just as well. Either I had a $150 salvage vehicle (actually two, in that the other Acura is a parts car parked at Tom's) or a repairable one.
There is a sense of Home-coming for me to be back in my Acura, especially since it's the twin of the one I ran the last 6 years. It's beat up and doesn't look like much, but "it feels right". This is pretty much what I flew on for this challenge - intuition and stubbornness. I might be wrong, I might be right, but I was following my own instincts, however crazy it seemed.
The rest of life just fit in kind of around this, which means I am behind on everything. I have plants to get outside, the grass is a foot tall, I can no longer get into my tool shed because of trashing it and a door waiting to be cut in... But the sun is shining and I'm feeling pretty grateful to the Universe.
Now all I really need to do is wish Jim the best. I haven't written his way, but I've been sending thoughts of rapid-healing and hugs. This is also true for a couple other friends that have been having some challenges - you know who you are! Sending a hug to all who can use one.
I don't expect things will slown down anytime soon, but I wouldn't mind if it did a little bit!
Sunday, March 13, 2011
Things Speeding Up?
I'm behind on this blog, and the strange thing is that I don't remember February. Pretty sure I was here, but it flew by in a haze. The world itself seemed to be 'major eventing' everywhere, from political news to weather to gas concerns. Since February seems long-gone already, I'll just try to catch up to March.
It's been a heck of start so far, hmm? Earthquakes, floods, tsunamis, riots and Wisconsin. I had a feeling of unease coming into this month, thought I was just being irrational. But before the 1st, I received notice from the census bureau to try to run cases hard by March 5th in case the budget wasn't extended in D.C. ... So I hit the roads hard & long in a massive rush. Then we were told the "two week extension" would give us some buffer.
Luckily... my 2nd Acura didn't spew its timing belt while out on the back roads, and chose instead to collapse Monday evening in Towne. Terry was with me on a way to drop off posters with the peace coalition, ended up riding in the tow truck home. Talking to the driver, he said their shop has had 4 times as many calls in a month than usual (January) and it wasn't letting up - he was pushing a 14-hour day and couldn't wait to dump us off and head for home.
Val ended February by getting her leg brace off just in time to fall on the steps and jar it again, missing a few days of school, before surrendering to the flu. Some of her friends started to think she'd moved because of her absence. She did share The Bug with Sera, who was on-call for dog-sitting at Christine's in the cities. Me, I planned on not being sick until after the 5th due to census, and then figured out I still didn't have time for it. Sometimes I think my physical defenses are due to nettle tea (home-dried, good for you) and possibly a caffeine/tobacco habit creating an unfriendly Bug environment.
Sunday, to make sure it wasn't getting too complacent around here, Val leaned a little too hard on the kitchen cabinet doors. It'd been pulling loose some, but this added to it. Luckily, it didn't fall down completely. I put a brace under it for the duration and we unloaded the food into baskets.
Terry came over as planned on Monday; I'd volunteered to make dinner with some ham he provided. Par for the course, I got it in the oven late so it wasn't finished by the time we left for Towne. Before we had dinner, the car had died.
Tuesday Terry fixed the cabinets while I went over the website for Lynne with Pete before we got on with trouble-shooting the car. Wednesday we went hunting for an affordable car - the Acura may be repairable, but it's not the season to crawling about in the snow and mud trying to do a major fix. 'Affordable' in my world was a cheap runner that wasn't bad on gas and wouldn't eat my entire tax refund that was slated for bill- and loan- catch-up.
Sigh, there seriously aren't any of these cars? The only thing we found in a day of searching (thanks to borrowing Sera's car while she was at work) was 1993 Dodge Shadow for $1500, 100,000 miles on it. Not a terrible price, but it put me back in debt to friend Bill, and the emotional roller coaster of financial punch put me in tears. I wasn't too stable anyway, not feeling great possibly to the last week's bug, and this put me over the edge.
On a sadder note, Jake-dog had a seizure Monday evening. Usually he snapped back from these, but he grew worse all week. The vet could see him Friday afternoon, and I planned on driving him there myself. But... I couldn't get him in the car. He was too heavy, and his stomach seemed bloated so I didn't want to try lifting him around his belly; I couldn't get him back on his feet even. Sera came home and drove him up with me. There wasn't anything much the vet could do but put him down gently.
This was an absolutely horrible ordeal. He was down on the cold pavement in a puddle and all I could do was cover him with a blanket and wait for help. He's been my furry companion for almost 4 years, the one that slept in my room and shared meals with me - you know how this is.
In hindsight, I wonder if Jake didn't get into raisins when the cupboard was unloaded. The food was stacked on a table, and he'd eat about anything given half a chance. The cats could have knocked a baggie out or he could have snuck one while we weren't home. They are toxic to dogs and it doesn't take a huge amount to poison them. I don't know what else could have taken a lively dog on Monday to a critically ill one on Friday, though it could have been an intestinal or heart thing that finally gave out.
He just seriously was the gentlest dog I've ever had, big old teddy-bear scared of shadows, mice in the walls, loud noises, and even the refractions off prisms. I'm glad he found us?
So that week winds down around here. The world in general is in massive crisis mode, and it's hard to find a region that isn't under severe stress. Yet I'd add a little quiet wisdom about the value of good friends. Human or furry, this is what will get us through no matter what happens, and this may be the key to surviving 2011.
I have a feeling it's not gonna get better real soon and we're all in a state of change. For everyone absorbing their own shifts in Life, I wish you the best - you know who you are.
It's been a heck of start so far, hmm? Earthquakes, floods, tsunamis, riots and Wisconsin. I had a feeling of unease coming into this month, thought I was just being irrational. But before the 1st, I received notice from the census bureau to try to run cases hard by March 5th in case the budget wasn't extended in D.C. ... So I hit the roads hard & long in a massive rush. Then we were told the "two week extension" would give us some buffer.
Luckily... my 2nd Acura didn't spew its timing belt while out on the back roads, and chose instead to collapse Monday evening in Towne. Terry was with me on a way to drop off posters with the peace coalition, ended up riding in the tow truck home. Talking to the driver, he said their shop has had 4 times as many calls in a month than usual (January) and it wasn't letting up - he was pushing a 14-hour day and couldn't wait to dump us off and head for home.
Val ended February by getting her leg brace off just in time to fall on the steps and jar it again, missing a few days of school, before surrendering to the flu. Some of her friends started to think she'd moved because of her absence. She did share The Bug with Sera, who was on-call for dog-sitting at Christine's in the cities. Me, I planned on not being sick until after the 5th due to census, and then figured out I still didn't have time for it. Sometimes I think my physical defenses are due to nettle tea (home-dried, good for you) and possibly a caffeine/tobacco habit creating an unfriendly Bug environment.
Sunday, to make sure it wasn't getting too complacent around here, Val leaned a little too hard on the kitchen cabinet doors. It'd been pulling loose some, but this added to it. Luckily, it didn't fall down completely. I put a brace under it for the duration and we unloaded the food into baskets.
Terry came over as planned on Monday; I'd volunteered to make dinner with some ham he provided. Par for the course, I got it in the oven late so it wasn't finished by the time we left for Towne. Before we had dinner, the car had died.
Tuesday Terry fixed the cabinets while I went over the website for Lynne with Pete before we got on with trouble-shooting the car. Wednesday we went hunting for an affordable car - the Acura may be repairable, but it's not the season to crawling about in the snow and mud trying to do a major fix. 'Affordable' in my world was a cheap runner that wasn't bad on gas and wouldn't eat my entire tax refund that was slated for bill- and loan- catch-up.
Sigh, there seriously aren't any of these cars? The only thing we found in a day of searching (thanks to borrowing Sera's car while she was at work) was 1993 Dodge Shadow for $1500, 100,000 miles on it. Not a terrible price, but it put me back in debt to friend Bill, and the emotional roller coaster of financial punch put me in tears. I wasn't too stable anyway, not feeling great possibly to the last week's bug, and this put me over the edge.
On a sadder note, Jake-dog had a seizure Monday evening. Usually he snapped back from these, but he grew worse all week. The vet could see him Friday afternoon, and I planned on driving him there myself. But... I couldn't get him in the car. He was too heavy, and his stomach seemed bloated so I didn't want to try lifting him around his belly; I couldn't get him back on his feet even. Sera came home and drove him up with me. There wasn't anything much the vet could do but put him down gently.
This was an absolutely horrible ordeal. He was down on the cold pavement in a puddle and all I could do was cover him with a blanket and wait for help. He's been my furry companion for almost 4 years, the one that slept in my room and shared meals with me - you know how this is.
In hindsight, I wonder if Jake didn't get into raisins when the cupboard was unloaded. The food was stacked on a table, and he'd eat about anything given half a chance. The cats could have knocked a baggie out or he could have snuck one while we weren't home. They are toxic to dogs and it doesn't take a huge amount to poison them. I don't know what else could have taken a lively dog on Monday to a critically ill one on Friday, though it could have been an intestinal or heart thing that finally gave out.
He just seriously was the gentlest dog I've ever had, big old teddy-bear scared of shadows, mice in the walls, loud noises, and even the refractions off prisms. I'm glad he found us?
So that week winds down around here. The world in general is in massive crisis mode, and it's hard to find a region that isn't under severe stress. Yet I'd add a little quiet wisdom about the value of good friends. Human or furry, this is what will get us through no matter what happens, and this may be the key to surviving 2011.
I have a feeling it's not gonna get better real soon and we're all in a state of change. For everyone absorbing their own shifts in Life, I wish you the best - you know who you are.
Wednesday, February 2, 2011
Frost-Face Trumps Hat-Hair
Life Awareness, Winter 101: Provides hands-on experience with the varying levels of misery one may be exposed to in winter conditions.
This is not a course I'd sign up for, in that I've lived it with refresher classes once a year for half a decade; anyone that is eager to sign up - you may have a future as an on-the-scene weatherman / woman.
Hat-hair is annoying, especially when long hair tangles under your collar, the edges freeze, and it styles into a look similar to a tornado hit before packing down. It is a better alternative to Blue Ears, but it is still annoying. Usually by the time you take the hat off, you're sore and weary and trying to peel off layers of clinging clothes; the hat-hair just frosts the cake on the experience.
It's nice to know you can circumvent the distraction of hat-hair by experiencing a frost-face situation. This is when it's so darned cold that your face freezes within 5 minutes of exposure, thereby effectively making hat-hair less of a nuisance. This starts out as a stinging pins-n-needles sensation that reddens one's nose while killing air-borne germs by quick-freezing them. This does lead to the runny nose / frozen hair state, where body fluids begin to leak. This may be the body's attempt to keep your nose thawed so it doesn't fall off, but I'm not sure.
So now instead of hat-hair bugging a person, they have a dripping red nose, stung cheeks, and frosted hair that will turn wet once they get back inside. This does lead to my conclusion that Frost-face trumps Hat-hair, though they both can occur at the same time. In other words, misery has notched it up a level.
What is of greater concern is that so many people are learning these lessons right now. We're a month into 2011 and the weather channel lists 7 major storms in Dec / Jan already. I'm not sure if they included the west-coast flooding, which would equate "one a week" of seriously-severe weather, and that's just our country. Australia and many other parts of the planet are in dire straits, too - we're not alone. Not sure what this bodes for the summer, but it isn't looking good.
Watching the current weather pattern, the cold front that's freezing us is also keeping the whole mess south, which I can appreciate. Does mean David in Colorado feels like he's back in Minnesota, Chicago relatives have been weather-whalloped and ice storms are raging - all the fun we'd be having if the cold front wasn't holding it south of us. It seems weird to be grateful for the cold, but ice-storms are worse (still chipping here) and losing power during one is a higher misery level on the chart.
Now then, hat-hair seems to be quite the minor nuisance! Aren't you glad I put that in perspective for you? For those who refuse to wear hats, all I can say is Blue Ears are not attractive and even if they were, it'd be easier to use food coloring. (There's something for folks with cabin fever to do, hmm? I wonder what the schools would do if a kid showed up with a completely dyed face - doesn't wash off well, don't ask how I know.)
If anyone has thoughts on back-up power systems, please do share! I'm betting the summer has a 50-50 chance of being wild. These aren't great odds; if a pilot thought a plane had a 50-50 chance of a safe flight, I wouldn't get onboard if I didn't have to. And... just being able to turn on a light and coffee maker is huge when the power's out. Anyone making suggestions, remember you're talking to me - i.e. the odds of having several gallons of gas on hand for a generator is probably not high. Solar, wind, electro-magnetic, hamsters on wheels charging up batteries... those are more in my league. And I'm financially restricted on options.
Did you know hamsters can run 5 - 8 miles a night on their wheels?
Has anyone considered that every time we drive anywhere, we're creating a huge batch of wind that could be charging batteries in the trunk? This is easily proved by opening a car window on the highway. Add a DC / AC converter, and it's not so ridiculous. Just I don't know how to do this. I'm not looking at an electric car, but home power outage options; if a person knows how to add the car, it'd be a bonus! (I know, gas prices going up - we should all be recharging batteries as we drive.)
What if... trains on the track were charging capacitors as they flew by? Why not? And I'm not sure if that's the right technical term, but you get the drift. A lot of unused potential, my thinking! And while we're freezing or shoveling or suffering with cabin fever, we may as well 'have our thinking caps on' (gag if you remember the image of the old school marm tying on an invisible cap).
Hope Phil the Groundhog was right today - Spring is on the way. Of course, this can hit hard and fast, too, which will create swampy conditions - Jim, watch the rising waters, please! A gentle spring would be nice.
This is not a course I'd sign up for, in that I've lived it with refresher classes once a year for half a decade; anyone that is eager to sign up - you may have a future as an on-the-scene weatherman / woman.
Hat-hair is annoying, especially when long hair tangles under your collar, the edges freeze, and it styles into a look similar to a tornado hit before packing down. It is a better alternative to Blue Ears, but it is still annoying. Usually by the time you take the hat off, you're sore and weary and trying to peel off layers of clinging clothes; the hat-hair just frosts the cake on the experience.
It's nice to know you can circumvent the distraction of hat-hair by experiencing a frost-face situation. This is when it's so darned cold that your face freezes within 5 minutes of exposure, thereby effectively making hat-hair less of a nuisance. This starts out as a stinging pins-n-needles sensation that reddens one's nose while killing air-borne germs by quick-freezing them. This does lead to the runny nose / frozen hair state, where body fluids begin to leak. This may be the body's attempt to keep your nose thawed so it doesn't fall off, but I'm not sure.
So now instead of hat-hair bugging a person, they have a dripping red nose, stung cheeks, and frosted hair that will turn wet once they get back inside. This does lead to my conclusion that Frost-face trumps Hat-hair, though they both can occur at the same time. In other words, misery has notched it up a level.
What is of greater concern is that so many people are learning these lessons right now. We're a month into 2011 and the weather channel lists 7 major storms in Dec / Jan already. I'm not sure if they included the west-coast flooding, which would equate "one a week" of seriously-severe weather, and that's just our country. Australia and many other parts of the planet are in dire straits, too - we're not alone. Not sure what this bodes for the summer, but it isn't looking good.
Watching the current weather pattern, the cold front that's freezing us is also keeping the whole mess south, which I can appreciate. Does mean David in Colorado feels like he's back in Minnesota, Chicago relatives have been weather-whalloped and ice storms are raging - all the fun we'd be having if the cold front wasn't holding it south of us. It seems weird to be grateful for the cold, but ice-storms are worse (still chipping here) and losing power during one is a higher misery level on the chart.
Now then, hat-hair seems to be quite the minor nuisance! Aren't you glad I put that in perspective for you? For those who refuse to wear hats, all I can say is Blue Ears are not attractive and even if they were, it'd be easier to use food coloring. (There's something for folks with cabin fever to do, hmm? I wonder what the schools would do if a kid showed up with a completely dyed face - doesn't wash off well, don't ask how I know.)
If anyone has thoughts on back-up power systems, please do share! I'm betting the summer has a 50-50 chance of being wild. These aren't great odds; if a pilot thought a plane had a 50-50 chance of a safe flight, I wouldn't get onboard if I didn't have to. And... just being able to turn on a light and coffee maker is huge when the power's out. Anyone making suggestions, remember you're talking to me - i.e. the odds of having several gallons of gas on hand for a generator is probably not high. Solar, wind, electro-magnetic, hamsters on wheels charging up batteries... those are more in my league. And I'm financially restricted on options.
Did you know hamsters can run 5 - 8 miles a night on their wheels?
Has anyone considered that every time we drive anywhere, we're creating a huge batch of wind that could be charging batteries in the trunk? This is easily proved by opening a car window on the highway. Add a DC / AC converter, and it's not so ridiculous. Just I don't know how to do this. I'm not looking at an electric car, but home power outage options; if a person knows how to add the car, it'd be a bonus! (I know, gas prices going up - we should all be recharging batteries as we drive.)
What if... trains on the track were charging capacitors as they flew by? Why not? And I'm not sure if that's the right technical term, but you get the drift. A lot of unused potential, my thinking! And while we're freezing or shoveling or suffering with cabin fever, we may as well 'have our thinking caps on' (gag if you remember the image of the old school marm tying on an invisible cap).
Hope Phil the Groundhog was right today - Spring is on the way. Of course, this can hit hard and fast, too, which will create swampy conditions - Jim, watch the rising waters, please! A gentle spring would be nice.
Thursday, January 13, 2011
Committed in 2011...
So far, I've only committed to updating my blog more frequently this year... when I post this, I'll have succeeded! There is some logic in keeping expectations low so it's easier to meet them, hmm?
In my last post, I mentioned 'talking ourselves sick'. The roads here are nothing to brag about, and many of us have been saying, "I'm sick of it..." I've been trying to catch myself when this thought pops up, but it is a pretty accurate assessment of the road conditions over the past several weeks - ever since the freezing rain, followed by snow and a drop in temps.
Salt doesn't do much good, in that we haven't warmed up enough to make much difference. The main highways (i.e. 210 and 371) are better now, but all side roads, secondary pavement, and in-town streets continue to be challenging. (Nicely put, that.)
I called the plow-guys personally, and they kindly dropped off a 30-gallon can of sand at the end of our drive, which has trapped more than usual number of vehicles this year. I chiseled ice off for 4 hours yesterday, and it's still packed; if I can get a 'running start' out the drive, I can almost swim the car up to our back road and gingerly creep to one of the main highways.
It isn't just me, and I am trying to make a point - not just whining. 371 is a 4-lane road, and the 'fast lane' was scooting along at 45 mph earlier this week after the plows had been out. I heard the highway department finally 'spread some stuff on the road' after a lady crashed into a state trooper driving on it.
Now, we all know that feeling of driving 30 - 40 miles an hour on a road that should be good at twice the speed (okay, 60 mph then), clutching the steering wheel and scanning every few feet of road for 'complications' while bouncing in ruts and slipping around curves and aiming for every inch that appears 'clean', wondering if the oncoming vehicle will let us hog the inside lane where there's a bit more sand or if we might end up sliding into their lane...
These ARE 'the good roads' lately? The 'bad roads' slow me down to 10 - 20 mph, depending on if I'm going up a hill or around a corner, if I need to plow through several inches of snow or if it's packed glaze. Towne's about the same way, and has been for weeks. Yeah, I logged several hundred miles of these roads this month, earning a paycheck and just wishing the weather would break kindly here while gripping the wheel and staring fifteen feet in front of the car.
And... I was thinking, "I'm sick of it... sick, sick, sick..." I kept correcting my thinking, but my body said, "Hey, you need a time-out and you can't justify it unless you're 'sick' - so voila! - you're sick!" I did take a day of down-time, but realized 'getting sick' just makes life more difficult, so sweated it off by chiseling ice in three layers of clothes for many hours.
I don't have to 'be sick' and I don't really have the patience for it, but I can readily admit I have a whopping case of Spring Fever that won't be cured soon. Weather predictions continue to be 'cold / snow' and I am now avoiding the Weather Channel. If anyone mentions the word 'green' to me, I become delusional and start fantasizing about trees and birds and sunshine on bare arms.
Yeah, and I bet you could take this mental break too, so... picture a spring day in a field, with daisies and tulips and violets, apple trees blooming profusely in pink and white, blue sky with small clouds gliding across it, a brook softly gurgling nearby; watch a bumble bee flitting in amongst the apple blossoms, darting from tree to tree... kick off your shoes and dabble your feet in the water, rolling up your pant legs even as you know they'll still get damp... feel the sun on your arms and face while you listen to the bird songs... kick back, watch the bee, and take a trip on me...
In my last post, I mentioned 'talking ourselves sick'. The roads here are nothing to brag about, and many of us have been saying, "I'm sick of it..." I've been trying to catch myself when this thought pops up, but it is a pretty accurate assessment of the road conditions over the past several weeks - ever since the freezing rain, followed by snow and a drop in temps.
Salt doesn't do much good, in that we haven't warmed up enough to make much difference. The main highways (i.e. 210 and 371) are better now, but all side roads, secondary pavement, and in-town streets continue to be challenging. (Nicely put, that.)
I called the plow-guys personally, and they kindly dropped off a 30-gallon can of sand at the end of our drive, which has trapped more than usual number of vehicles this year. I chiseled ice off for 4 hours yesterday, and it's still packed; if I can get a 'running start' out the drive, I can almost swim the car up to our back road and gingerly creep to one of the main highways.
It isn't just me, and I am trying to make a point - not just whining. 371 is a 4-lane road, and the 'fast lane' was scooting along at 45 mph earlier this week after the plows had been out. I heard the highway department finally 'spread some stuff on the road' after a lady crashed into a state trooper driving on it.
Now, we all know that feeling of driving 30 - 40 miles an hour on a road that should be good at twice the speed (okay, 60 mph then), clutching the steering wheel and scanning every few feet of road for 'complications' while bouncing in ruts and slipping around curves and aiming for every inch that appears 'clean', wondering if the oncoming vehicle will let us hog the inside lane where there's a bit more sand or if we might end up sliding into their lane...
These ARE 'the good roads' lately? The 'bad roads' slow me down to 10 - 20 mph, depending on if I'm going up a hill or around a corner, if I need to plow through several inches of snow or if it's packed glaze. Towne's about the same way, and has been for weeks. Yeah, I logged several hundred miles of these roads this month, earning a paycheck and just wishing the weather would break kindly here while gripping the wheel and staring fifteen feet in front of the car.
And... I was thinking, "I'm sick of it... sick, sick, sick..." I kept correcting my thinking, but my body said, "Hey, you need a time-out and you can't justify it unless you're 'sick' - so voila! - you're sick!" I did take a day of down-time, but realized 'getting sick' just makes life more difficult, so sweated it off by chiseling ice in three layers of clothes for many hours.
I don't have to 'be sick' and I don't really have the patience for it, but I can readily admit I have a whopping case of Spring Fever that won't be cured soon. Weather predictions continue to be 'cold / snow' and I am now avoiding the Weather Channel. If anyone mentions the word 'green' to me, I become delusional and start fantasizing about trees and birds and sunshine on bare arms.
Yeah, and I bet you could take this mental break too, so... picture a spring day in a field, with daisies and tulips and violets, apple trees blooming profusely in pink and white, blue sky with small clouds gliding across it, a brook softly gurgling nearby; watch a bumble bee flitting in amongst the apple blossoms, darting from tree to tree... kick off your shoes and dabble your feet in the water, rolling up your pant legs even as you know they'll still get damp... feel the sun on your arms and face while you listen to the bird songs... kick back, watch the bee, and take a trip on me...
Friday, December 31, 2010
Wrapping Up 2010
There's been a blog delay while I got a few gifts together and did some baking this month. One of the major items was getting a dozen of my short stories online for folks to read if they wished; a couple friends and relatives have ereaders, so I was on a learning curve to set these up in downloadable formats. Anyway... (The Crazy Dozen @ http://pickledtales.com - one of my favorites is 'The Survey Taker Rides Again' and I think Jim will enjoy it.)
So - thoughts on 2010. A year ago in January I wood-burned a sign "It's Getting Weirder". I was right, and it still is. Between weather and Wikileaks, seems everything is more agitated. People's lives are fairly disturbed, too - finances are challenged, folks are moving around, and a bit of Active Instability occurring. This explains Matt getting divorced and married in the same month, a friend going through 4-5 jobs that didn't pan out, cars going ka-blooey, a close friend reappearing temporarily and disappearing thoroughly, a new friend stepping in that is seriously trying to take care of me ---- 4 kinds of chocolate and a back massage for Christmas... AND he read my short stories!
Just proves we're not immune to 'the weirdness' here, but learning to flow with it or stay centered (in the eye of the hurricane it's calm) is challenging - and no, I'm no good at this, either. That we're not battling severe floods or house collapsing or power outages or total chaos makes it easier. So much of the world is getting clobbered by extreme weather and it isn't letting up. We have a predicted 7 - 11 more inches of snow coming through New Year's Day, which makes me glad I put "the snow support" over my room - amen!
I know - a touch of spring fever already, looking forward to shoveling off the 'snow support' and sitting coatless in the sun. I shoveled the first round yesterday, so I'm thinking the current batch is Dennis's and Sera's to deal with. I've learned to drape a tarp over my car when the forecast suggests it; makes it a lot easier to clear the car when I'm ready. We're at the bottom of a lovely little hill that likes to challenge vehicles. I thought the plow-guy was being nice dumping sand, and then I realized he was stuck for 10 minutes and was dumping it to get himself out.
Now... did you know Coca-Cola owns Minute Maid? I just found out, though I am aware of these 'companies within companies'. I wonder how many of various products actually end up owned by very few companies, which do control our lives to some extent. Aren't we all glad Wall Street bankers had a banner year while minimum wage in some areas went up a dime? Folks are starting to clue in "there's something sour in our monetary system" but it's a tangled web intended to deceive. That Wall Street rakes in profits while states are going bankrupt is a symptom of the insanity. I doubt Wikileaks can share much on it that would surprise me.
This seems like a rather boring post, and I apologize if it seems so to you, too. I will share a little news blip: gent was 106 years old and gave up smoking. Hello, if he's made it 106 years without smoking killing him, then maybe it's not a good idea to switch now! Odds are his system will get confused and viruses will have a field day setting up shop, leading to his demise. This is an untested personal observation, but I've seen a few middle-agers quit smoking only to die within a few years from unrelated causes. Folks will suggest they should have quit sooner, but another possible conclusion is 'upsetting the apple cart' - a body is used to operating under set chemical conditions - habituated, if you wish - and a radical change could leave an opening for anything to develop. It's a bit like turning the soil in a field and leaving it for any opportunistic seed to grow.
I'm curious if Attitude doesn't affect one's health more in the long run; guilt and shame (socially levied) could wear a person into cancer, while 'a death wish' could strangle a person with alcohol or prescription meds (don't get me started on that one!) or suicidal driving. Stress eats people, regardless of personal habits. Case in point, my dad told me of a health guru on TV, wonderful gent in his late forties, looked like he was in his mid-twenties. 'Live' TV back then, and the guy had a heart attack and died on-air - go figure! Dad was about to change his evil ways but decided all that health-living wasn't all it was cracked up to be, lit up his pipe, filled his coffee cup and had a piece of chocolate. I suggest stressing over anything, including health, is BAD for you!
Now all I need to do is past this invaluable advice on to my supervisor and children and bill collectors... BTW, my supervisor quit smoking, has a good deal of stress related to this situation; I wonder how her health will be in a year (I know, blame the smoking, not the stress or attitude). If there's a healthy way to quit smoking, then it doesn't include Chantix - potentially deadly side affects and increased suicidal thoughts - or eating oneself into a grave. Well, how do you apply a negative and expect things to turn out positive?
That's a conversation I had with my sister. She's been 'fighting to quit' for some time - note the term, 'fighting'. Inner battle then, part of her seriously doesn't want to quit or she wouldn't be battling it continuously. I suggest folks don't beat themselves up over it because this is not a healthy approach! Your body and mind will hear your angst, and produce conditions to reflect it if you repeat it often enough. Ever wonder what the benefits are of getting sick?
A person doesn't think this way normally, but there are situations that 'generate ill health' - sometimes just so you'll take a break and not 'do what you didn't want to do in the first place' like burning yourself out on a job or holidays. Kid on crutches here has figured out, despite her ability to do pretty much anything she wants and hop around in all directions, that she can get folks to do it for her if she hangs a sad face on. I don't claim this is the only reason for ill health and I'd be absolutely wrong to do so; too many other influences, including possible past-life issues, to be this glib.
It just seems wise to ask yourself when a bug strikes, "What's the potential benefits of me being sick right now?" and answering honestly. Sometimes we all need a break but won't allow it until we're knocked flat and we can justify it. Sometimes we wear ourselves this thin with pressure before we'll surrender.
Sure, and there's a scene in The Celestine Prophecy series where he sprains his ankle; they ask him what the benefit is, and he indignantly denies any until he thinks about it some. It ties to a past situation in his youth and gives him time to think more thoroughly before proceeding in a given direction. He couldn't have done this without 'spraining his ankle', so he did. It could have been a fluke accident, but it was what he needed at the time.
Gads, reminds me of the lady that became fully paralyzed for no apparent reason, spent about a year 'doing nothing'... but thinking. Hard lesson, but what a change this must have brought into her life, hmm? Talk about losing control, letting others serve you, pondering this thing called Life in a way none of us would ever wish for! Considering I don't even sit still well, I'd have gone stark raving mad.
Personally, I'm wondering if my glasses are helping or hurting me. They keep upping the strength; I imagine this just encourages weaker vision in the long run, kind of like a cast on a leg weakens muscles. Actually, just high-top boots continously will weaken ankles, making it difficult to wear 'regular shoes' any length of time (happened with an ex-). In some possible universe, reducing the strength of glasses may help eyes 'get back to seeing', much like the boots above. I'm my own worst enemy on this; too much computer and tend to leave 'reading' glasses on while roaming the house. I'll have to give myself a stern lecture. I also think sometimes "we've seen too much" and our bodies adjust to serve this. A few interesting reports on hypnotism showed folks could read fine without glasses while 'under the influence' -- how can that be??
Great. I hope whatever 2011 dishes up, it's wonderful and enchanting and glorious. A piece of wisdom (from Celestine Prophecies, again) is: See Beauty. I try to remember this, but sometimes I have to stretch for it, like on a slick road on a grey day where the planet seems to be weary. I do know it does help relieve stress whenever a person can achieve this state. I bet it helps eyes see better, too!
I plan on writing this blog a bit more frequently in 2011, barring crises, major crisis, solar flares or other phenomenon. It's a little gift to those who read it. :)
I'd love to hear from others how they think 2011 will develop, because I have a feeling it's gonna get wilder. Wondering what others' gut impressions are and any suggestions for staying sane...
'Hugs as big as the blizzard' going out to all of you.
So - thoughts on 2010. A year ago in January I wood-burned a sign "It's Getting Weirder". I was right, and it still is. Between weather and Wikileaks, seems everything is more agitated. People's lives are fairly disturbed, too - finances are challenged, folks are moving around, and a bit of Active Instability occurring. This explains Matt getting divorced and married in the same month, a friend going through 4-5 jobs that didn't pan out, cars going ka-blooey, a close friend reappearing temporarily and disappearing thoroughly, a new friend stepping in that is seriously trying to take care of me ---- 4 kinds of chocolate and a back massage for Christmas... AND he read my short stories!
Just proves we're not immune to 'the weirdness' here, but learning to flow with it or stay centered (in the eye of the hurricane it's calm) is challenging - and no, I'm no good at this, either. That we're not battling severe floods or house collapsing or power outages or total chaos makes it easier. So much of the world is getting clobbered by extreme weather and it isn't letting up. We have a predicted 7 - 11 more inches of snow coming through New Year's Day, which makes me glad I put "the snow support" over my room - amen!
I know - a touch of spring fever already, looking forward to shoveling off the 'snow support' and sitting coatless in the sun. I shoveled the first round yesterday, so I'm thinking the current batch is Dennis's and Sera's to deal with. I've learned to drape a tarp over my car when the forecast suggests it; makes it a lot easier to clear the car when I'm ready. We're at the bottom of a lovely little hill that likes to challenge vehicles. I thought the plow-guy was being nice dumping sand, and then I realized he was stuck for 10 minutes and was dumping it to get himself out.
Now... did you know Coca-Cola owns Minute Maid? I just found out, though I am aware of these 'companies within companies'. I wonder how many of various products actually end up owned by very few companies, which do control our lives to some extent. Aren't we all glad Wall Street bankers had a banner year while minimum wage in some areas went up a dime? Folks are starting to clue in "there's something sour in our monetary system" but it's a tangled web intended to deceive. That Wall Street rakes in profits while states are going bankrupt is a symptom of the insanity. I doubt Wikileaks can share much on it that would surprise me.
This seems like a rather boring post, and I apologize if it seems so to you, too. I will share a little news blip: gent was 106 years old and gave up smoking. Hello, if he's made it 106 years without smoking killing him, then maybe it's not a good idea to switch now! Odds are his system will get confused and viruses will have a field day setting up shop, leading to his demise. This is an untested personal observation, but I've seen a few middle-agers quit smoking only to die within a few years from unrelated causes. Folks will suggest they should have quit sooner, but another possible conclusion is 'upsetting the apple cart' - a body is used to operating under set chemical conditions - habituated, if you wish - and a radical change could leave an opening for anything to develop. It's a bit like turning the soil in a field and leaving it for any opportunistic seed to grow.
I'm curious if Attitude doesn't affect one's health more in the long run; guilt and shame (socially levied) could wear a person into cancer, while 'a death wish' could strangle a person with alcohol or prescription meds (don't get me started on that one!) or suicidal driving. Stress eats people, regardless of personal habits. Case in point, my dad told me of a health guru on TV, wonderful gent in his late forties, looked like he was in his mid-twenties. 'Live' TV back then, and the guy had a heart attack and died on-air - go figure! Dad was about to change his evil ways but decided all that health-living wasn't all it was cracked up to be, lit up his pipe, filled his coffee cup and had a piece of chocolate. I suggest stressing over anything, including health, is BAD for you!
Now all I need to do is past this invaluable advice on to my supervisor and children and bill collectors... BTW, my supervisor quit smoking, has a good deal of stress related to this situation; I wonder how her health will be in a year (I know, blame the smoking, not the stress or attitude). If there's a healthy way to quit smoking, then it doesn't include Chantix - potentially deadly side affects and increased suicidal thoughts - or eating oneself into a grave. Well, how do you apply a negative and expect things to turn out positive?
That's a conversation I had with my sister. She's been 'fighting to quit' for some time - note the term, 'fighting'. Inner battle then, part of her seriously doesn't want to quit or she wouldn't be battling it continuously. I suggest folks don't beat themselves up over it because this is not a healthy approach! Your body and mind will hear your angst, and produce conditions to reflect it if you repeat it often enough. Ever wonder what the benefits are of getting sick?
A person doesn't think this way normally, but there are situations that 'generate ill health' - sometimes just so you'll take a break and not 'do what you didn't want to do in the first place' like burning yourself out on a job or holidays. Kid on crutches here has figured out, despite her ability to do pretty much anything she wants and hop around in all directions, that she can get folks to do it for her if she hangs a sad face on. I don't claim this is the only reason for ill health and I'd be absolutely wrong to do so; too many other influences, including possible past-life issues, to be this glib.
It just seems wise to ask yourself when a bug strikes, "What's the potential benefits of me being sick right now?" and answering honestly. Sometimes we all need a break but won't allow it until we're knocked flat and we can justify it. Sometimes we wear ourselves this thin with pressure before we'll surrender.
Sure, and there's a scene in The Celestine Prophecy series where he sprains his ankle; they ask him what the benefit is, and he indignantly denies any until he thinks about it some. It ties to a past situation in his youth and gives him time to think more thoroughly before proceeding in a given direction. He couldn't have done this without 'spraining his ankle', so he did. It could have been a fluke accident, but it was what he needed at the time.
Gads, reminds me of the lady that became fully paralyzed for no apparent reason, spent about a year 'doing nothing'... but thinking. Hard lesson, but what a change this must have brought into her life, hmm? Talk about losing control, letting others serve you, pondering this thing called Life in a way none of us would ever wish for! Considering I don't even sit still well, I'd have gone stark raving mad.
Personally, I'm wondering if my glasses are helping or hurting me. They keep upping the strength; I imagine this just encourages weaker vision in the long run, kind of like a cast on a leg weakens muscles. Actually, just high-top boots continously will weaken ankles, making it difficult to wear 'regular shoes' any length of time (happened with an ex-). In some possible universe, reducing the strength of glasses may help eyes 'get back to seeing', much like the boots above. I'm my own worst enemy on this; too much computer and tend to leave 'reading' glasses on while roaming the house. I'll have to give myself a stern lecture. I also think sometimes "we've seen too much" and our bodies adjust to serve this. A few interesting reports on hypnotism showed folks could read fine without glasses while 'under the influence' -- how can that be??
Great. I hope whatever 2011 dishes up, it's wonderful and enchanting and glorious. A piece of wisdom (from Celestine Prophecies, again) is: See Beauty. I try to remember this, but sometimes I have to stretch for it, like on a slick road on a grey day where the planet seems to be weary. I do know it does help relieve stress whenever a person can achieve this state. I bet it helps eyes see better, too!
I plan on writing this blog a bit more frequently in 2011, barring crises, major crisis, solar flares or other phenomenon. It's a little gift to those who read it. :)
I'd love to hear from others how they think 2011 will develop, because I have a feeling it's gonna get wilder. Wondering what others' gut impressions are and any suggestions for staying sane...
'Hugs as big as the blizzard' going out to all of you.
Sunday, November 14, 2010
Mental Wandering
Thought I'd let my mind roam and see where it ended up. Jim's responses to my last post added to the mix - I'm starting to think there are vast dimensions and wildernesses inside our heads if we but wander the trails. With all the new virtual-reality devices, can you imagine if they were linked to what's in our heads?
Does a bigger maze exist?
New-friend Terry came to visit Friday evening, stayed the night to help me out on Saturday. In a 24 hour period, he was exposed to 'old Neil Young' while I meandered paths associated to Eric and the upcoming 10-year anniversary of his passing. Awfully busy 10 years it's been, keeping a grip on this world while bumping into Spirits - some in flesh, some 'just hanging out with me' in an unseen way.
Roaming around in my head and past, Neil Young and John Lennon at age 16, getting stoned so Life wasn't so sharp. Changes in the home, Vietnam raging, Social Security failing, Silent Spring and toxic waste, nuclear weapons and humanity's ability to wipe out all life '10 times over'. It seemed redundant to me at the time, because if we could wipe out life just once or twice we could put our energy into something more life-supporting. I figured living was a daily crap-shoot, as individuals and as a species. Pondered religion and reincarnation, stared into the swamp at another world of insects and plants, concluded I was 'about like a bug' from a larger perspective.
This wasn't a negative thought to me. Being just a little piece of Life in a great big cosmos was reassuring, and everything was okay then. Decades later, I'm still a little piece of Life in a great big cosmos, pondering religion and reincarnation, watching Social Security squirm and toxic waste and humanity's inhumanity... and listening again to Neil. His music was a constant while I worked at the plastics plant and Eric was spiraling towards his departure. Driving to Duluth to pick up Eric, Neil kept me company. "Old Man" is as connected to my dad now as it was then, and as the song says, "I'm a lot like you."
Dad had his tobacco and coffee and chocolate. He was stubborn, independent, mostly a loner and loved his land. He told me he felt God a lot more out in the fields than he did in church. Sometimes he'd get going on a project and 'couldn't stop' until three or four in the morning. He roamed cross-country as a young adult for ten years, having Adventures and sometimes doing not-so-bright stuff. Yeah, Dad - I'm a lot like you.
Wherever Neil Young is, I hope he keeps on singing for a couple more decades.
What I'm also noticing is that there is a shift in human consciousness occurring, and it seems to be in all areas. Heading towards a Convergence? I can hope! Started another IT class online this week, and in the postings, one student had been part of a paranormal research group and the instructor responded with a comment on 'energy weirdness' occasionally hitting computer systems. This is not a dialogue that would have occurred a few decades ago - are we catching up to ourselves? Youtube has a good video trying to explain a 'Salvia experience' and the concept of losing "I" - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V1gfezZIO1o - jump over to Terrence McKenna's "The Singularity" - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b8v8mgwuubU - and perception on "Time Acceleration" - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MLc6i29yhDM&feature=related -you're about on track with friend Terry's last 24 hours with me.
I previously subjected him to Walt Disney's "It's a Small World After All" and Alice in Wonderland tune and the sound of pulsars drumming http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uHEVo-LkDrQ Last night I 'needed cartoons' and ended up watching Johnny Bravo three times - gotta love the pyscho-squirrel in this one http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k83lg34Z-FU&feature=related
Betwixt and between, it seemed on Saturday it'd be wise to finally get the tarp over the 'snow support'... since it was snowing. I thought "10 minutes - stretch it out, hammer in a few staples" - I was wrong. Terry tends to have a little less optimism in things staying put, so nailed in some boards and such. This little project took a few hours in the wet slush after I did some house-cleaning and then fetched Dennis home. In other words, I finally made some omelets about three in the afternoon, thereby pushing breakfast to a new level.
Life being Real, Sera came home with the little grandkids for the night, and they proceeded to glue up styrofoam balls and popsicle sticks and beans into odd snow-creatures. "Happy mess" I guess is the best way to describe it.
So if we are finally collectively moving forward, or maybe out of our swamp into a larger world, then maybe Universal Design is stirring up the mud on us. From a bigger perspective than me, this too may just be a "happy mess" - one we're participating in, losing tadpole tails and growing wings for the next leap forward. Seems to me, if bugs can do it, there's a good chance we can, too.
The question is, can we stay sane through it, or do we really need to lose our minds? I can say, if Terrence is right, tripping back and forth between salvia-reality and earth is a quite shocking experience, one that brings discomfort as perceptions blur. A lot of folks don't like the affects, much the same I would think a swamp-bug would enjoy being scooped out of the water. If the New Reality is pyschadelic and we're part of it... yeah, no wonder we can't conceive it properly and we're all going a little nuts.
With another 'time jump' slated for February 2011 (Mayan Calendar Comes North, Lungold), we may all be a little nuttier soon. Hopefully, all the good stuff of humanity leaps with us. Truth of it, most of my friends seem capable of recognizing this shift, each in his or her own way. Especially 'the '70's kids', growing through that decade (1960's-'70's) of radical change. Maybe we made a few jumps out of the water then that will serve us well now... Jim, David, Rich and others should understand this.
We might be running out of 'Time', but we're running into Something. Anyone have a clue where we'll end up?
It seems to be holding pretty accurate; my supervisor, regional office and headquarters all are scrambling for a more reassuring solidity - now we're getting GPS and wireless transmissions. That might help a little bit on the planet, but where the hell are we in the cosmos? This level doesn't 'do pyschadelics well' - how do you count Spirits in multi-dimensions and keep track of hours if there is no Time? Some things we'll just have to let go of.
Here's a possible clue: when time seems to slow down or speed up, we get dizzy during the shift. Watch a cartoon in fast-forward or listen to a tune in the dark on super-slow - you're not 'moving' per se, but your perception gets a bit warped. I wonder what would happen if a person was subjected to these conditions steadily for a week or two and then 'brought back to normal'. I bet they'd be a bit unhinged. NO - I'm not going to try this! But it's easy to see where we'd all be a bit dizzy during perception shifts. Does it help to know why you're dizzy?
Yup, and the calm place to be in a hurricane is in the eye of the storm. Yup, another Neil Young tune... If you stir up this posting, you have a glimpse of 'me' in a 24-hour period. Now I'm going to go 'feel outside' for a few minutes and make a tobacco offering to the earth spirits. About the same thing I did when I was 15, and it's weird to see most of what I thought back then I still think now. Really weird - I thought I might outgrow it, but never did. I think you all can relate!
Does a bigger maze exist?
New-friend Terry came to visit Friday evening, stayed the night to help me out on Saturday. In a 24 hour period, he was exposed to 'old Neil Young' while I meandered paths associated to Eric and the upcoming 10-year anniversary of his passing. Awfully busy 10 years it's been, keeping a grip on this world while bumping into Spirits - some in flesh, some 'just hanging out with me' in an unseen way.
Roaming around in my head and past, Neil Young and John Lennon at age 16, getting stoned so Life wasn't so sharp. Changes in the home, Vietnam raging, Social Security failing, Silent Spring and toxic waste, nuclear weapons and humanity's ability to wipe out all life '10 times over'. It seemed redundant to me at the time, because if we could wipe out life just once or twice we could put our energy into something more life-supporting. I figured living was a daily crap-shoot, as individuals and as a species. Pondered religion and reincarnation, stared into the swamp at another world of insects and plants, concluded I was 'about like a bug' from a larger perspective.
This wasn't a negative thought to me. Being just a little piece of Life in a great big cosmos was reassuring, and everything was okay then. Decades later, I'm still a little piece of Life in a great big cosmos, pondering religion and reincarnation, watching Social Security squirm and toxic waste and humanity's inhumanity... and listening again to Neil. His music was a constant while I worked at the plastics plant and Eric was spiraling towards his departure. Driving to Duluth to pick up Eric, Neil kept me company. "Old Man" is as connected to my dad now as it was then, and as the song says, "I'm a lot like you."
Dad had his tobacco and coffee and chocolate. He was stubborn, independent, mostly a loner and loved his land. He told me he felt God a lot more out in the fields than he did in church. Sometimes he'd get going on a project and 'couldn't stop' until three or four in the morning. He roamed cross-country as a young adult for ten years, having Adventures and sometimes doing not-so-bright stuff. Yeah, Dad - I'm a lot like you.
Wherever Neil Young is, I hope he keeps on singing for a couple more decades.
What I'm also noticing is that there is a shift in human consciousness occurring, and it seems to be in all areas. Heading towards a Convergence? I can hope! Started another IT class online this week, and in the postings, one student had been part of a paranormal research group and the instructor responded with a comment on 'energy weirdness' occasionally hitting computer systems. This is not a dialogue that would have occurred a few decades ago - are we catching up to ourselves? Youtube has a good video trying to explain a 'Salvia experience' and the concept of losing "I" - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V1gfezZIO1o - jump over to Terrence McKenna's "The Singularity" - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b8v8mgwuubU - and perception on "Time Acceleration" - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MLc6i29yhDM&feature=related -you're about on track with friend Terry's last 24 hours with me.
I previously subjected him to Walt Disney's "It's a Small World After All" and Alice in Wonderland tune and the sound of pulsars drumming http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uHEVo-LkDrQ Last night I 'needed cartoons' and ended up watching Johnny Bravo three times - gotta love the pyscho-squirrel in this one http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k83lg34Z-FU&feature=related
Betwixt and between, it seemed on Saturday it'd be wise to finally get the tarp over the 'snow support'... since it was snowing. I thought "10 minutes - stretch it out, hammer in a few staples" - I was wrong. Terry tends to have a little less optimism in things staying put, so nailed in some boards and such. This little project took a few hours in the wet slush after I did some house-cleaning and then fetched Dennis home. In other words, I finally made some omelets about three in the afternoon, thereby pushing breakfast to a new level.
Life being Real, Sera came home with the little grandkids for the night, and they proceeded to glue up styrofoam balls and popsicle sticks and beans into odd snow-creatures. "Happy mess" I guess is the best way to describe it.
So if we are finally collectively moving forward, or maybe out of our swamp into a larger world, then maybe Universal Design is stirring up the mud on us. From a bigger perspective than me, this too may just be a "happy mess" - one we're participating in, losing tadpole tails and growing wings for the next leap forward. Seems to me, if bugs can do it, there's a good chance we can, too.
The question is, can we stay sane through it, or do we really need to lose our minds? I can say, if Terrence is right, tripping back and forth between salvia-reality and earth is a quite shocking experience, one that brings discomfort as perceptions blur. A lot of folks don't like the affects, much the same I would think a swamp-bug would enjoy being scooped out of the water. If the New Reality is pyschadelic and we're part of it... yeah, no wonder we can't conceive it properly and we're all going a little nuts.
With another 'time jump' slated for February 2011 (Mayan Calendar Comes North, Lungold), we may all be a little nuttier soon. Hopefully, all the good stuff of humanity leaps with us. Truth of it, most of my friends seem capable of recognizing this shift, each in his or her own way. Especially 'the '70's kids', growing through that decade (1960's-'70's) of radical change. Maybe we made a few jumps out of the water then that will serve us well now... Jim, David, Rich and others should understand this.
We might be running out of 'Time', but we're running into Something. Anyone have a clue where we'll end up?
It seems to be holding pretty accurate; my supervisor, regional office and headquarters all are scrambling for a more reassuring solidity - now we're getting GPS and wireless transmissions. That might help a little bit on the planet, but where the hell are we in the cosmos? This level doesn't 'do pyschadelics well' - how do you count Spirits in multi-dimensions and keep track of hours if there is no Time? Some things we'll just have to let go of.
Here's a possible clue: when time seems to slow down or speed up, we get dizzy during the shift. Watch a cartoon in fast-forward or listen to a tune in the dark on super-slow - you're not 'moving' per se, but your perception gets a bit warped. I wonder what would happen if a person was subjected to these conditions steadily for a week or two and then 'brought back to normal'. I bet they'd be a bit unhinged. NO - I'm not going to try this! But it's easy to see where we'd all be a bit dizzy during perception shifts. Does it help to know why you're dizzy?
Yup, and the calm place to be in a hurricane is in the eye of the storm. Yup, another Neil Young tune... If you stir up this posting, you have a glimpse of 'me' in a 24-hour period. Now I'm going to go 'feel outside' for a few minutes and make a tobacco offering to the earth spirits. About the same thing I did when I was 15, and it's weird to see most of what I thought back then I still think now. Really weird - I thought I might outgrow it, but never did. I think you all can relate!
Thursday, October 21, 2010
Buddha and my Car
I was a'drivin' and a'thinkin' and a'drivin' and a'thinkin'... I realized Buddha had his tree, I have my car. Both vehicles of meditation, except it's best I don't get too zoned out behind the wheel and I am much more attached to my car than Buddha was his tree. I expect he would have just found another tree if the original fell over, but cars aren't that easy -- especially cars that fit right and are good for meditating in.
On a sad note, my old Acura of 5 years (saw me through Elise's passing and a relationship start to finish, along with massive hours of thinkin' time) died beginning of this month. Engine seized up, though I did have the timing belt changed when it was due. Death of a mechanical friend. Double-hit, in that I didn't have back-up funds for another (thought it'd run through the winter fine, barring deer and accidents) and it really was an emotional loss (I know - I need more friends).
Frantic searching led me to the only aged Acura that was compatible with the original (now a parts car, kind of like an organ donor) in Minnesota. Had to wipe out a paycheck - so much for bills - and borrow to get it, but... It's 99.9% identical to Old Faithful! Same interior, knew right my coffee cup went; programmed the radio with barely a glance; switched glove box stuff and all personal items to their proper places, no confusion necessary. My mechanic exchanged a wheel bearing between them, and I rapidly put 2000 miles on it (2 weeks). We had to switch the thermostat this week, but I'd replaced OF's this spring, so it was only a few months used.
Car-lita (seemed suitable) has already had the 'hatch of Jaws' open for hauling home 2 large wood dog houses (thought the cats would like a spot for dry paws), I've already done a bunch of thinkin' in it, and now that some of the original parts are in it... If cars have spirit, then maybe the old one came along for the ride. (More hours alone in that car than I've spent with most people, I'm willing to admit it was a bit of a relationship - I talked, it listened; I daresay Something was listening!)
That's when I realized Buddha had his tree. Nowadays, he'd have to own it and pay property taxes on it and trim it off his neighbor's fence and cut it down if the city found it bugged, because if he just went out to sit under a tree, the DNR or someone would come along and order him off or haul him in as a loony-tune. Today's society would try to analyze him and test him for normalcy and try some med's on him or charge him for vagrancy (gotta love it when they fine you for not having money, hmm?). THIS is why I don't sit under a tree for a few weeks!
No one knows you're really thinking about big things when you're driving. Of course, getting to the big things usually means wading through a lot of little things, like losing one's car or what the devil to do about the furnace. If there really was a fiery hell below, it might not be a bad idea to tap into it about now; my luck, it's froze over. Sigh, will have to call the Furnace Doctor.
So what other small things might be going on in my small life, you ask? Will you never learn? There was a chance friend David might stop by, and since he's been going through chemo- and his immune system is none too strong, I figured I'd best gut the bathroom ceiling and its mold before he stopped by. Since the bathroom project has been planned some time, I did happen to have a spare tub in the yard and a cabinet-sink on the porch; made sense to do it all, then.
New tub (used from Habitat, $50 a year ago, been in the yard awhile) was a corner tub, of a size to barely fit. Managed to jam 'er in, barely, but the built-in step was inches away from 'the throne'. Awkward, in other words. Now, it wasn't a tub I could return and it seemed Val might object if I knocked her wall out and stuck a tub into her room, so it seemed to me removing the step was logical - and I had a jig-saw. Terry was trying to help with this project, and tends to do things a bit more professionally, but he's in My World now. While he hesitated, I figured couldn't do no harm and ripped off the step - the other option being put back the old tub, which we'd just taken out.
Ta-da! It fit. I will put some nice little woodwork across the gap, but it's in and working. Almost had to grease the sides, but one can usually coax a half-inch here or there if necessary - right?
And friend David couldn't stop by after all, due to bus schedules being weird; it's seven hours from Brainerd to Duluth by bus, but only three hours from Minneapolis to Duluth. This is because they route you back through Minneapolis to get to Duluth. And y'all were thinkin' I wasn't too logical!
On the slightly weird side, and yes - I know, Jim, LEAVE THE SUPERGLUE ALONE - but I'd bought a 3-pack. The one tube was a bit crushed and dry looking, so I stuck an oversized tack in it to prove it, and it was pretty much not-dry. Since I was holding it, I turned it upside down, then realized I had my good jeans on, so wisely held it away from me, which is when I superglued my toes together. Of course I reacted rapidly to a puddle of superglue running off my foot and peeled my digits apart before they stuck together in one big blob. Which is when I realized I best remove my fingers from my toes before I was glued in this position...
And I can say, I've never done that before!
On a sad note, my old Acura of 5 years (saw me through Elise's passing and a relationship start to finish, along with massive hours of thinkin' time) died beginning of this month. Engine seized up, though I did have the timing belt changed when it was due. Death of a mechanical friend. Double-hit, in that I didn't have back-up funds for another (thought it'd run through the winter fine, barring deer and accidents) and it really was an emotional loss (I know - I need more friends).
Frantic searching led me to the only aged Acura that was compatible with the original (now a parts car, kind of like an organ donor) in Minnesota. Had to wipe out a paycheck - so much for bills - and borrow to get it, but... It's 99.9% identical to Old Faithful! Same interior, knew right my coffee cup went; programmed the radio with barely a glance; switched glove box stuff and all personal items to their proper places, no confusion necessary. My mechanic exchanged a wheel bearing between them, and I rapidly put 2000 miles on it (2 weeks). We had to switch the thermostat this week, but I'd replaced OF's this spring, so it was only a few months used.
Car-lita (seemed suitable) has already had the 'hatch of Jaws' open for hauling home 2 large wood dog houses (thought the cats would like a spot for dry paws), I've already done a bunch of thinkin' in it, and now that some of the original parts are in it... If cars have spirit, then maybe the old one came along for the ride. (More hours alone in that car than I've spent with most people, I'm willing to admit it was a bit of a relationship - I talked, it listened; I daresay Something was listening!)
That's when I realized Buddha had his tree. Nowadays, he'd have to own it and pay property taxes on it and trim it off his neighbor's fence and cut it down if the city found it bugged, because if he just went out to sit under a tree, the DNR or someone would come along and order him off or haul him in as a loony-tune. Today's society would try to analyze him and test him for normalcy and try some med's on him or charge him for vagrancy (gotta love it when they fine you for not having money, hmm?). THIS is why I don't sit under a tree for a few weeks!
No one knows you're really thinking about big things when you're driving. Of course, getting to the big things usually means wading through a lot of little things, like losing one's car or what the devil to do about the furnace. If there really was a fiery hell below, it might not be a bad idea to tap into it about now; my luck, it's froze over. Sigh, will have to call the Furnace Doctor.
So what other small things might be going on in my small life, you ask? Will you never learn? There was a chance friend David might stop by, and since he's been going through chemo- and his immune system is none too strong, I figured I'd best gut the bathroom ceiling and its mold before he stopped by. Since the bathroom project has been planned some time, I did happen to have a spare tub in the yard and a cabinet-sink on the porch; made sense to do it all, then.
New tub (used from Habitat, $50 a year ago, been in the yard awhile) was a corner tub, of a size to barely fit. Managed to jam 'er in, barely, but the built-in step was inches away from 'the throne'. Awkward, in other words. Now, it wasn't a tub I could return and it seemed Val might object if I knocked her wall out and stuck a tub into her room, so it seemed to me removing the step was logical - and I had a jig-saw. Terry was trying to help with this project, and tends to do things a bit more professionally, but he's in My World now. While he hesitated, I figured couldn't do no harm and ripped off the step - the other option being put back the old tub, which we'd just taken out.
Ta-da! It fit. I will put some nice little woodwork across the gap, but it's in and working. Almost had to grease the sides, but one can usually coax a half-inch here or there if necessary - right?
And friend David couldn't stop by after all, due to bus schedules being weird; it's seven hours from Brainerd to Duluth by bus, but only three hours from Minneapolis to Duluth. This is because they route you back through Minneapolis to get to Duluth. And y'all were thinkin' I wasn't too logical!
On the slightly weird side, and yes - I know, Jim, LEAVE THE SUPERGLUE ALONE - but I'd bought a 3-pack. The one tube was a bit crushed and dry looking, so I stuck an oversized tack in it to prove it, and it was pretty much not-dry. Since I was holding it, I turned it upside down, then realized I had my good jeans on, so wisely held it away from me, which is when I superglued my toes together. Of course I reacted rapidly to a puddle of superglue running off my foot and peeled my digits apart before they stuck together in one big blob. Which is when I realized I best remove my fingers from my toes before I was glued in this position...
And I can say, I've never done that before!
Sunday, September 26, 2010
I have an entourage...
Okay, so my entourage is only 4 and they all have fur, but when I'm working outside, they trail me back and forth. If I break for lunch or a snack, they're right there; if I walk around a building, they're on my heels (just in case it's interesting, I guess). Not exactly rock-star status, but I do have a following?
So what's up in my world, you ask... Well, I'm up on the roof again. It just happened that the Universe (via Bill) donated a few carloads of 2x4's and deck boards and 2x6's. Since my finances went out the door when I paid back property taxes (had house refinance this summer, they always wrapped the back taxes into it, but they didn't this time; Sera handled the refinance, so I wasn't aware of this until August) and house insurance went up (August surprise, again) and I actually had a licensed carpenter (!! who, me? - older friend my sons hung out with) 'pitch off' 1/2 the main house (where the leaking redeveloped, and these folks like to use new materials) --- suffice it to say, I couldn't scare up another $500 to finish pitching the roof across the addition.
But there... growing in the yard... was a perfectly good pile of wood. It all seemed to fit together just fine to whack a 'snow support' over the addition - I empathetically refuse to consider this a deck. It happens to look like a deck just because that's the wood I had available to use, but I wouldn't have put out this energy now for a deck if this roof wasn't a continual winter hazard -- I would work hard though for a 'snow support' protecting the old roof.
No one thought this was the best plan, but it was do-able. I had enough 2x4's to double them as framing supports, under 7 feet long, so these became cross-beams between 2x6's. Three sets of them spanned a major portion of the addition, under which is my room. I had 3 main goals to accomplish with this: keep snow weight off the old roof, which is weak and a bit warped; prevent ice berms along the edge that back up water and create leaks at -20 temps (requiring chiseling and shoveling, which tears up the rolled roofing); create an air space, which is mostly missing in the 2x4 original roof design (which I didn't do!) during the worst of the cold.
Everytime I checked the winter forecast and it said, "cold and snow," I'd get jittery about what to do with this portion of the roof. I had a stack of used deck boards but not much else until Bill volunteered some of the wood stacked about his place "enough to get the job done". If the Universe is going to provide the materials, I'm going to put them where I think they'll do the most good; being on the ground doesn't accomplish much, so figured I'd put them on the roof.
Depending on what comes first, this is either a "2012 observation platform" or a temporary fix until we have a spare $500 to complete the pitch-roof Tom started, at which time I can pull this down in an afternoon and put a deck somewhere else. Odds of us having a few spare $500's around here doesn't look likely, and the other 1/2 of the main structure would benefit from continuing Tom's design - but that section isn't critical or leaking.
I'm thinking I'll cover this platform with a few tarps when the snow flies to prevent icing on 'the real roof'. I'm totally expecting this to be a huge bonus in the next few months when I'm not mucking around on the ##@! (gol-darned) roof at subzero temps. I'll post a picture when I take one, and I did meet a man who refused to let me tackle this project on my own, so I've had some back-up and experienced help (i.e. I'm not winging it totally on my own).
Whew. Getting this roof secured is a huge relief.
I do have a picture to share, but it's plants. I found something I can grow? Tobacco... Sure, my cantelope are only slightly larger than baseballs, but check this out:
So what's up in my world, you ask... Well, I'm up on the roof again. It just happened that the Universe (via Bill) donated a few carloads of 2x4's and deck boards and 2x6's. Since my finances went out the door when I paid back property taxes (had house refinance this summer, they always wrapped the back taxes into it, but they didn't this time; Sera handled the refinance, so I wasn't aware of this until August) and house insurance went up (August surprise, again) and I actually had a licensed carpenter (!! who, me? - older friend my sons hung out with) 'pitch off' 1/2 the main house (where the leaking redeveloped, and these folks like to use new materials) --- suffice it to say, I couldn't scare up another $500 to finish pitching the roof across the addition.
But there... growing in the yard... was a perfectly good pile of wood. It all seemed to fit together just fine to whack a 'snow support' over the addition - I empathetically refuse to consider this a deck. It happens to look like a deck just because that's the wood I had available to use, but I wouldn't have put out this energy now for a deck if this roof wasn't a continual winter hazard -- I would work hard though for a 'snow support' protecting the old roof.
No one thought this was the best plan, but it was do-able. I had enough 2x4's to double them as framing supports, under 7 feet long, so these became cross-beams between 2x6's. Three sets of them spanned a major portion of the addition, under which is my room. I had 3 main goals to accomplish with this: keep snow weight off the old roof, which is weak and a bit warped; prevent ice berms along the edge that back up water and create leaks at -20 temps (requiring chiseling and shoveling, which tears up the rolled roofing); create an air space, which is mostly missing in the 2x4 original roof design (which I didn't do!) during the worst of the cold.
Everytime I checked the winter forecast and it said, "cold and snow," I'd get jittery about what to do with this portion of the roof. I had a stack of used deck boards but not much else until Bill volunteered some of the wood stacked about his place "enough to get the job done". If the Universe is going to provide the materials, I'm going to put them where I think they'll do the most good; being on the ground doesn't accomplish much, so figured I'd put them on the roof.
Depending on what comes first, this is either a "2012 observation platform" or a temporary fix until we have a spare $500 to complete the pitch-roof Tom started, at which time I can pull this down in an afternoon and put a deck somewhere else. Odds of us having a few spare $500's around here doesn't look likely, and the other 1/2 of the main structure would benefit from continuing Tom's design - but that section isn't critical or leaking.
I'm thinking I'll cover this platform with a few tarps when the snow flies to prevent icing on 'the real roof'. I'm totally expecting this to be a huge bonus in the next few months when I'm not mucking around on the ##@! (gol-darned) roof at subzero temps. I'll post a picture when I take one, and I did meet a man who refused to let me tackle this project on my own, so I've had some back-up and experienced help (i.e. I'm not winging it totally on my own).
Whew. Getting this roof secured is a huge relief.
I do have a picture to share, but it's plants. I found something I can grow? Tobacco... Sure, my cantelope are only slightly larger than baseballs, but check this out:
Not a great picture, but the only one my son was willing to take when I interrupted his football game or such - does show how happy these plants seem to be, despite late planting and shade. I know, there are other tobacco-type products in greater demand, but I have my own lifetime habits - two in the picture, if you spotted the coffee cup. I won't get into health issues, since it seems everything Big Money touches is corrupted - chemicals in cigarettes, meats, veggies, shampoos and deodorants. And most the folks that scowl at my smoking happily toss back alcoholic beverages, so...
I won't mention the economy; I think we all know we're screwed until major changes occur (like reclaiming true US currency). I compared it to an elephant in the room, and all the professional economists are busy dealing with the crap but never realizing the elephant's there. Once the elephant is removed, the rest can be cleaned up. Shoveling it from one side of the room to the other is an exercise in futility - does make my 'snow support' seem downright logical in comparison.
If a person thinks we're in for a rough ride, then battening down the hatches is simply wise. I think they're b.s.'ing when they declared "the recession's over" - the same day Sera's work laid off another person. The good news is, folks are starting to be aware of the true problem, folks I meet on the street or at my job. Five years ago, I'd get a blank look if I mentioned some simple monetary facts, now others are aware and agreeing. This is a step in the right direction, unless you happen to be part of the elite monetary powers. I don't know anyone that qualifies, but someone's making a profit off the interest generated by the Federal Reserve - money won't be worth much, but asset ownership is going into the hands of the 'paper holders'. Ungodly suggestion off the internet, wherein the Federal Reserve (remember, private bankers) may buy up housing from banks "to help the economy" and just hold for resale... or creating serfs living on the master's property again?
Does anyone else realize how easily we could 'declare US of A bankrupt', close it down and reopen the next morning as 'the Collective States of America'? Old debts die with the old country, and nothing anyone could do about it. Clean slate, issue proper currency and take back our country. Does this make more sense than having so many foreign and international corporations 'owning' us? It seems logical to me, but then I built a 'snow support' against the advice of pretty much everybody because 'it felt right'.
For me, the next few months will prove if I'm weather-wise or not. For the country, the next few years will prove if we've got the brains to survive. In the meantime, I'll stock up on coffee and tobaccy and nettle for tea. Haven't tried growing coffee beans yet.
Thursday, August 26, 2010
Life... Playing Dodgeball with the Universe
I was recalling days past and the game of Dodgeball in gym; I hated being a target and knowing the goal was to smack me as hard as possible from multiple directions and put me out. The way life's going, I realized this is a bit like the Universe, lobbing balls at folks and everyone trying to dodge 'em as best they can... And knowing full well one day "we'll all be out".
You're knowing what I'm talking about, I bet. Start feeling a little good about where you are in life, even if it's a bit patched up with hot dogs and beans, and then "never saw that one coming - whack!" Sometimes they're just small fluffy balls and don't sting too much, sometimes it's like a rubber-coated bowling ball plowing into you. Usually they're just 'life balls' one deals with, like suddenly discovering a piece of glass on the ground when you're barefoot.
Sometimes it seems you've attracted the attention of the Universe, and in Dodgeball, this is really not a good thing! As a kid, I'd try to keep a low profile in the back, but as fewer players were left standing, I knew I was going to attract attention -- really now, I had no desire to get hit!
Some would say, "It's just a game" referring to gym class, yet others would say the same thing about Life. From my perspective, all I saw were balls comin' at me.
A few unexpected balls landed lately, from a vet ER on Saturday and dog with a shunt in her leg for infection to Sera's car 'kind of requiring immediate mechanical attention'. Luckily a few 'happy balls' landed and made it possible to slog our way through a house-loan refinance (I won't mention daughter lost track of a few payments and went into a spiral catching up to appease the bank). Whappity-whappity-whappity-whap. Three Big Ones mostly targeting her, and she had the dubious honor of assisting the vet while the dog was being cut, cleaned, and stitched.
I caught the balls labeled "so the roof hasn't leaked until now, but with the really heavy rain, pieces of the bathroom ceiling will be plopping down" and "brake caliper time" and "strange lights on the dash". Truth of it, strange lights in the sky don't bother me as much as the ones on the dash do - luckily, this one was self-healing, car was just 'having a moment'.
So... 4500 miles spun in two months, two tires replaced and rotated to resolve a 60-mile an hour wobble, and The Day of the Corn. Oh, yes - that day. We'd finally switched the kitchen counters out, had the 'new-used' on the porch since December; we all know the fun of old copper water lines and moving sinks, I think. This did entail a bit of kitchen rearranging and building a 'jar shelf' while tearing out a cupboard, but that's... how it fit. Needed a new faucet, anyway, so did this while we were at it.
Everyone thinks I'm nuts when I bring home 10 dozen ears of corn to freeze up, but I've noticed they enjoy eating it (actually, Val's been eating it already 'as a snack' and I'm not too fond of this - she didn't help, and it's 'for winter'). Straight from the farmer's garden to the house, shuck it, blanch it, cut it, freeze it. That was the plan. Except there was a major puddle under the sink where a connection had got bent and failed.
Of course the kids were gone, unless one counts a 12-year old as a potential assistant, which made it My Problem. Unloading under-sink stuff, mopping, shutting off water to the house and flipping off the pump switch, finding various wrenches, towels, light source, plumber's tape; twisting into a pretzel to fit under the sink mildly cussing and filled with trepidation. Been there, haven't you? There's always the thought that you might really screw something up and the ensuing flood waters will engulf your house like quicksand.
The whole time I was mucking with this, I knew I had 10 dozen ears of corn waiting to be processed. Good news is, a few hours later I was able to get back to the corn, which took me into the later hours of the day.
While back on the roof... a family friend - also a carpenter - had the time right now to take on 'a real fix', so he's working with Dennis to build a proper slant over half of the house, i.e. the half that has all the fittings coming out over the bathroom. His way will also create a slant over the addition I'm in, taking the snow-weight off the shoddy flat roof (2x4 construction with 2-foot spacing) and adding an air gap. He'll frame it up, and we can take it from there, meaning once this is done, I can get on with the bathroom repairs and get the other tub in that's been sitting in the yard for a year.
See - 'living' is the stuff you do between balls, 'Life' is how you handle them. "That's life" - right, easier to say when it's not you behind the ball, hmm?
Oh, yeah, I also found out, while pulling the dryer and washer and wall out to get to the water heater for the vent pipe, that there is a faint whiff of foul stench, reminiscent of Decaying Rodent. This is quite possible, but it's one of those things if you ignore it long enough, it goes away; the only other option is to squiggle under the crawl space and try to locate the culprit, which is its own nightmare. We all know that smell, too, don't we?
Now then, hope the balls heading at you are all fluffy happy ones. :)
You're knowing what I'm talking about, I bet. Start feeling a little good about where you are in life, even if it's a bit patched up with hot dogs and beans, and then "never saw that one coming - whack!" Sometimes they're just small fluffy balls and don't sting too much, sometimes it's like a rubber-coated bowling ball plowing into you. Usually they're just 'life balls' one deals with, like suddenly discovering a piece of glass on the ground when you're barefoot.
Sometimes it seems you've attracted the attention of the Universe, and in Dodgeball, this is really not a good thing! As a kid, I'd try to keep a low profile in the back, but as fewer players were left standing, I knew I was going to attract attention -- really now, I had no desire to get hit!
Some would say, "It's just a game" referring to gym class, yet others would say the same thing about Life. From my perspective, all I saw were balls comin' at me.
A few unexpected balls landed lately, from a vet ER on Saturday and dog with a shunt in her leg for infection to Sera's car 'kind of requiring immediate mechanical attention'. Luckily a few 'happy balls' landed and made it possible to slog our way through a house-loan refinance (I won't mention daughter lost track of a few payments and went into a spiral catching up to appease the bank). Whappity-whappity-whappity-whap. Three Big Ones mostly targeting her, and she had the dubious honor of assisting the vet while the dog was being cut, cleaned, and stitched.
I caught the balls labeled "so the roof hasn't leaked until now, but with the really heavy rain, pieces of the bathroom ceiling will be plopping down" and "brake caliper time" and "strange lights on the dash". Truth of it, strange lights in the sky don't bother me as much as the ones on the dash do - luckily, this one was self-healing, car was just 'having a moment'.
So... 4500 miles spun in two months, two tires replaced and rotated to resolve a 60-mile an hour wobble, and The Day of the Corn. Oh, yes - that day. We'd finally switched the kitchen counters out, had the 'new-used' on the porch since December; we all know the fun of old copper water lines and moving sinks, I think. This did entail a bit of kitchen rearranging and building a 'jar shelf' while tearing out a cupboard, but that's... how it fit. Needed a new faucet, anyway, so did this while we were at it.
Everyone thinks I'm nuts when I bring home 10 dozen ears of corn to freeze up, but I've noticed they enjoy eating it (actually, Val's been eating it already 'as a snack' and I'm not too fond of this - she didn't help, and it's 'for winter'). Straight from the farmer's garden to the house, shuck it, blanch it, cut it, freeze it. That was the plan. Except there was a major puddle under the sink where a connection had got bent and failed.
Of course the kids were gone, unless one counts a 12-year old as a potential assistant, which made it My Problem. Unloading under-sink stuff, mopping, shutting off water to the house and flipping off the pump switch, finding various wrenches, towels, light source, plumber's tape; twisting into a pretzel to fit under the sink mildly cussing and filled with trepidation. Been there, haven't you? There's always the thought that you might really screw something up and the ensuing flood waters will engulf your house like quicksand.
The whole time I was mucking with this, I knew I had 10 dozen ears of corn waiting to be processed. Good news is, a few hours later I was able to get back to the corn, which took me into the later hours of the day.
While back on the roof... a family friend - also a carpenter - had the time right now to take on 'a real fix', so he's working with Dennis to build a proper slant over half of the house, i.e. the half that has all the fittings coming out over the bathroom. His way will also create a slant over the addition I'm in, taking the snow-weight off the shoddy flat roof (2x4 construction with 2-foot spacing) and adding an air gap. He'll frame it up, and we can take it from there, meaning once this is done, I can get on with the bathroom repairs and get the other tub in that's been sitting in the yard for a year.
See - 'living' is the stuff you do between balls, 'Life' is how you handle them. "That's life" - right, easier to say when it's not you behind the ball, hmm?
Oh, yeah, I also found out, while pulling the dryer and washer and wall out to get to the water heater for the vent pipe, that there is a faint whiff of foul stench, reminiscent of Decaying Rodent. This is quite possible, but it's one of those things if you ignore it long enough, it goes away; the only other option is to squiggle under the crawl space and try to locate the culprit, which is its own nightmare. We all know that smell, too, don't we?
Now then, hope the balls heading at you are all fluffy happy ones. :)
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