January 29, 2021 – Awakening at Dawn

          I don’t need an alarm clock, my body tells me when dawn has arrived. Even before my body wakes me up, my cat will move around on the foot of the bed and give me a testing, “MEOW” wake up call, more like a chirping cat yawn rousing from her sleep. 

          Sometimes I hear it, sometimes I imagine I’ve heard it, and a few times I don’t hear it and my cat, Jasmine will jump off the bed with a thud and wander into the hallway and say, “MEOW” louder, it is more effective from that vantage point, it sort of echoes.  

          Often, that is how I picture my cat, Jasmine, a long-haired calico, sauntering out from the stage curtain with the spotlight on her as she sashays to the front of the rounded stage and sits.  Her tail wraps so prettily around her front paws and then she pauses and lets out a magnificent “MEOW”. . . . you know, like a vacant theater and a person in a spot light whispering . . .

          Enough about my cat, she knows she has star quality.

          This morning I heard the driver’s car door shut of the house owner two houses down and across the way.  He starts his engine and probably has a sip of coffee from his travel cup waiting for his engine to warm. He has an hour and a half commute. I can hear the tires crunch on his gravel drive as he backs out and I open my eyes to see his headlights on the road first through one lace curtain, then through the second lace curtain and still watch as I raise up and fluff my pillow and watch as his red tail lights disappear as he leaves the development. 

          Good for him, he still has a job after this dreadful Covid19 lock-down.  What a long drive, but he is young, he is happy to be still employed. Nice couple, they always wave when I am out in the gardens.

          If I hadn’t been awaken by my cat, that car door slam would have roused me.  And, if I was deep in sleep, later the neighbor on the other side of me would come home from night shift and his pickup truck headlights would flash into my bedroom filing it with light and completely wake me up.

          It is still too dark to see the time on the alarm clock; I will linger awhile.  I can see the silhouette of my cat waiting patiently in the doorway.

         I see high beam headlights coming into the subdivision.  The lights pause at the corner of the road and the light fills my bedroom. This time I watch is swing over the walls slowly and watch it circle around as my neighbor slowly backs his red pickup truck up into his driveway. The lights now out of my bedroom I follow them along my front lawn, then along the neighbor’s lawn and probably right through their bedroom window on the end of their house. I may casually ask one day when they are out and about in the yard.

          The young man is coming home from night shift and I used to be able to set my watch by his coming and going, but due to the Covid19 he has had erratic hours.  He is home early from his 11 to 7 shift plus a 40 minute commute. Short hours, that doesn’t help his cash flow. I need to send up a prayer for him and his employment.

          I have always been curious. Why does he and his entire family back in their vehicles no matter when they come or go?  I chuckle to myself – always preparing for a fast get away? Get away from whom?

          I linger another half hour, the dawn is breaking, I hear the distant honking of the migrating Canadian geese coming from the lake up over the hill and they become louder as they drop in elevation.  Their glide path to the pond is directly over my rooftop.  What a lovely sound of Spring coming.

          Our heating system comes alive. Yes, isn’t there a cliché, “always coldest at dawn – or is it after dawn?” 

          Something to put on my to-do list today, research that! 

 

 

January 28, 2021 - Vacuuming the air

 

January 28, 2021 – Vacuuming the air

          Saturday’s Pickles comic strip by Brian Crane, https://www.arcamax.com/thefunnies/pickles/s-2466382

           Opal is dusting a lampshade while Nelson, her grandson, and Earl, her husband, are sitting in his big stuffed chair reading a book together.

          Opal says, “Look at this! I just dusted yesterday and now everything is all dusty again.”

          Opal complains, “Look it’s in the air, that darn dust is everywhere!” 

          The next strip, you see Opal's rump and her saying, “It’s time to get proactive.”

          The next two strips, “WHOOSH” and “WHOOSH” as Opal is vacuuming the air.

          The ending strip is Earl walking away with Nelson, saying, “I’m all for cleanliness, but when she starts vacuuming the air, it kind of scares me.”

          That is how I feel lately, you dust and ten minutes later, you could dust all over again.

          Opal might have a good idea.

          Couple weeks ago I even went to the trouble of dusting all the ceiling fans thinking that I wasn’t being thorough enough just dusting the furniture.  Did it help?  I didn’t see any difference.

          And, every day, it is winter time – I have sneezing fits. Not just one or two, but four or five in a row.  I have to stop what I am doing – for instance.  I must set down the cup of coffee I am carrying onto the nearest surface or the coffee explodes out of the cup like a volcano due to my sneezing convulsions.

          In the summer, I don’t have these sneezing fits.  I consider it cabin fever cooties.

          Now, that is a blast from the past.  Cooties, we screeched around as children in grammar school when I was a kid.  Back then, it was the boys who had cooties and we stayed away from them.  Just imagine half  a dozen little girls calling all at once “cooties, cooties, cooties.”  I wonder if that escaping cooties has helped us during this covid19 pandemic.  My, My, how my mind wanders.

          Back to the dust and the sneezing. Opal has given me an idea.  When I first bought my Rainbow vacuum cleaner, I used to vacuum the entire house, empty it, and then put fresh water in it with eucalyptus scent in it and then run for a few hours in the kitchen to remove the smells from the air.

         I know I am allergic to most scented oils, but maybe just running the Rainbow after I vacuum for an hour per each room, would take the dust out of the air?   Has Opal put me onto something?  Yes?  Maybe?  I will give it a try.

          Here is to vacuuming the air, “WHOOSH”, “WHOOSH”, “WHOOSH” and “WHOOSH”.

 

 

January 27, 2021 - The 1776 Report editorial

 

January 27, 2021 – The 1776 Report editorial

 

On January 18, 2021, The 1776 Report was issued by The President’s Advisory 1776 Commission, in response to President Trump’s executive order of September 2020 instituting a Commission to promote “patriotic education” in the United States in anticipation of the 250^th anniversary of our founding.

 

Newly inaugurated 46^th President Joseph Robinette Biden, Jr., rescinded the commission within hours of his taking office. What reprehensible narrative was included in The 1776 Report that President Biden had to eradicate it from the White house website yesterday?

 

The 1776 Report was in response to The New York Times’ 1619 project filled with malicious falsehoods being thrust down the throats of students across our country.

 

Approximately 81 million Americans voted to put Biden in office, leaving 74 million Trump voters in the minority represented by Congress, (211-R; 221-D) and the Senate (50-R, 50-D, with D-Vice President for tie vote).  It was a slim margin of merely 4.37% of the popular vote, and yes, I understand we have an Electoral College system for voting so that the rural areas can compete with the metropolitan areas’ ideology.

 

I anticipate the Democrats will pit the different parties against each other over a margin of approximately four percent.  We fundamentally disagree on how the government should run this country. 

 

In order to be fully informed I suggest you read The 1776 Report.

 

         An excerpt:

 

“The main causes of prior republican [government] failures were class conflict and tyranny of the majority. In the simplest terms, the largest single faction in any republic would tend to band together and unwisely wield their numerical strength, [in this case power] against unpopular minorities, leading to conflict and eventual collapse.” [ ] inserted by editorialist.

 

Is that where we are going in this country?  The Democrats with their radical liberal left, are attacking the nuclear family, freedom of speech, and freedom of religion. The Democrats now push for equity instead of equality, a type of social justice, being pushed under the guise of identity politics, sorting citizens into “protected classes”.  What happens when you are not in that protected class?  Will they forfeit your right to equality?

 

The United States of America is not a failure that needs to be radically changed.  Historical revisionism of the 1619 revisionist history tramples our historical truth, “shames Americans by highlighting only the sins of their ancestors and teaches claims of systemic racism that can only be eliminated by more discrimination.”

 

Enough of the radicals screaming systemic racism and white privilege from the roof tops using it to silence us.  Trump had 74 million votes because those citizens want to be heard, not ignored, or silenced. 

 

Educate yourself so that your next vote really counts in 2022.

 

Meanwhile, you can include me in the deplorable and irredeemable group who can’t be “re-programmed”.

 

Note: You can view or print a copy of The 1776 Report, at the Trump Whitehouse archives:

 

https://trumpwhitehouse.archives.gov/briefings-statements/1776-commission-takes-historic-scholarly-step-restore-understanding-greatness-american-founding/

 

 This was published in The Daily Courier on January 23, 2021.

 

 

January 26, 2021 - What is Success?

 

What is Success?

 

         Success is fickle, unfair, and most of all is fleeting. Success cannot be bought or sold, yet it can be squandered or thrown away.  It cannot be given, but it cannot always be earned either. Success cannot be measured exactly, but it can be scrutinized by each and everyone.  Sometimes success is instantaneous; other times it is a long journey.  Some people do not know they have it when they’ve got it; other people know exactly what it is but never attain it. Success is like an exclusive butterfly to some and a heavy yoke of burden to others.  For some people, success is as simple as meeting the rent or having food to feed their children.  For others, it is the fifth Lear jet for their personal fleet.  Success is simply having a choice when before you had none.  It is the first time you do not allow fate to wash you along its waves of life at its discretion.

 

         Success is not making a living off the backs of others.  Success is being able to hold your head up and look a person squarely in the eye, knowing you have nothing to be ashamed of.  Success is knowing  you have earned every penny of a paycheck with diligent hard work.  Success is being strong enough to say “NO” to an immoral business practice and smile when you lose your job because of it.

 

         Success can be a rude awakening when you find yourself where you thought success would be and say, “Is this it?”  It is the empty echo bouncing back on you as you realize that the struggle to succeed was more enjoyable than the climax. Success is when you do not buy the best anymore or the “IN” things.  It is when less is more because it is truly what you like.  Success is knowing there is more to life than money, material things, and position.  Success is an anonymous donation to a worthwhile charity.

 

         Success is the time in your life when you stop and take a deep breath of fresh air and discover how deliciously sweet it is; a time when you look around and suddenly see for the first time the incredible beauty that has always been there, but you were too busy to notice before. Success is the time in your life when your troubles are shamefully trivial compared to those of the rest of the world.  It is a time when you pause to give encouragement because you see some of your former self in another person; when you reach out and squeeze a person’s hand, knowing they are going through the death of a loved one or through a separation or divorce and honestly say, “I don’t know how to help you, but tell me and I will try.”  Success is when things that cost little, like sharing, caring and friendship, are suddenly very important to you. Success is remembering with a smile when two steamed hot dogs and a shared beer was a big night out.

 

         I penned this in 1987.

Not so quick, Chic!

 January 19, 2021 – Not so quick, Chic!

 

         I have a honey-do list in my monthly planner as well as a “project” box in the guest room tucked in the corner.  I now do these things myself when I can.

 

         You’ve never heard of a project box?  Well, it is where you have already bought the incidentals you intend to install, paint, or fix something that needs the parts, tools, and project materials.  I park them in my project box or they will disappear. [My husband will pick something up and wander out to his workbench and it will disappear among the detritus.]

 

         I have been doing little projects for the last few weeks.  Cleaning a drawer here, a closet there and have done well getting a few things accomplished and crossed of my honey-do list.

 

         We have had two sticky closet doors for several years and I read an article last fall about how to “senior-ize” a home.  They suggested you switch your round doorknobs to those lever handles to make it easier on arthritic hands.  Maybe that was what was happening, my hand grip wasn’t as strong.  All I knew was that those two closet doors were a hassle every time I wanted to open them.

 

         I immediately ordered two lever door sets and stashed them in my project box. Last week I pulled those lever door sets out of my project box and after reading the instructions I felt a little intimidated.  I parked them on the double sink vanity and eyed them every time I brushed my teeth during this last week.

 

         This weekend, I pondered those instructions a second time and brought them back to the top of my honey-do for Monday morning.

 

         Feeling I could knock this project off in half an hour, I confidently made myself a fresh cup of coffee, located my trusty Phillip’s screw driver – the old one that we have carried around for the last 42+ years, and headed to the master bathroom where the first sticky door knob lives.  I pulled up a chair, and perused the instructions again.

 

 

         This should be quick, Chic, I said to myself,  just unscrew the old door knobs and put these in their place.

 

        

         The old doorknobs came off easily, but putting the new door levers on – AHA – I can’t install them with the levers in that direction as the door does not close.  So, yes, I will have to change the levers and the instructions indicated how.

 

         I will do that before I install them on . . .

 

         I unscrew the set key on the lever handles and darn if I can’t get off the levers while I almost lose the tiny set key screw.  Then I look at the instructions and they have it diagramed that the lever handles are installed on the door as they are describing how it is done.  Maybe that is for torque or some other reason?

 

         Holding the parts in my lap certainly doesn’t make it happen.

 

         I will install them – which are ass backwards from the way I need them, as in the door does not shut and then take off the lever handles and switch them around.  I mentally question is this how it is done?  My half hour project is now coming up on an hour.  I’ll try that.

 

         My coffee is cold.

 

         Oh, how interesting . . . I can pop off the lever handles easily when the door lever unit is installed in the door, but couldn’t before?   That was a waste of an hour of valuable time.  I learned my lesson, now didn’t I, Chic?

 

         The lever handles now switched, closet door shuts and opens easily . . . oh how lovely.  I have been fighting with that sticky door for years.

 

         Aren’t I a smart Chic? – on to the next one, now that I’ve done one, I am confident this one will take just a few minutes.

 

         I move my chair and take the items out of the second box.  I unscrew the existing door handles and I pull them out.

 

         I put the new ones in place and the giggling of the center mechanism makes the latch metal button fall out on the floor.

 

         WHAT?

 

         Obviously, not so quick, Chic!

 

         I investigate, it is broken, doesn’t snap or pop back in – I need the latch to keep the door closed, this is the master closet that is cold and I don’t want a draft.

 

         AHA – there is more in the box, I investigate and they have the insides of the door.  It doesn’t fit with the plastic sleeve, but it does fit without the plastic sleeve.

 

         Okay, this should work.  I give it a test drive and new latch button and brass plate is a quarter inch too wide and won’t slide into the door jamb side of the latch.

 

         HMMMMM,  should be easy to fix; just take a hammer and chisel to the door jamb side of the latch and indent it a fourth of an inch.

 

         I take off the doorjamb brass plate and proceed to use chisel and hammer – nothing happening – is this jamb made of cement?  The pounding brings my husband to investigate.

 

         “I was wondering what the noise was,” he said.

 

         I told him what I was doing and he went back to the news letting me have my fun.

 

         I pounded some more . . . Not so quick, Chic . . . recalculating . . .

 

         Oh, I have one of those Sonic-crafters that I used to cut out doorjambs near the floor when I installed the lament flooring years ago, that will be easier.

 

         I drag out several equipment pouches and the third one is my Sonic-crafter.

 

         I attempt to cut the doorjamb down and nothing – won’t budge.  Too darn hard.

 

         Not so quick, Chic . . .recalculating . . .

 

         I only need the little inside gizmo that is broken.  Must have been a cheap door and this replacement is better quality, and larger than life when it comes to the jamb hardware on the door.

 

         This Chic will go to Lowe’s and see if I can get the inside guts, what is actually broken.

 

         At Lowes I park on the end of the building where the new doors are and locate the doors, but nowhere near the doors are door handles.  I ask an associate.

 

         “Door handle replacement sets?”

 

         “They are on aisle two, three.”

 

         I mishear as he is talking through a mask.  “I am here at aisle 23 and I find doors, common sense would tell me they should be close by.”

 

         “They are on Aisle two or Aisle three,” The masked man indicates.

 

         Under my breath, in my mask I mutter, “That is logical – doors on one end of the store and door hardware on the other end, who would have used such reverse common sense – Lowes!”

 

         Searching the aisles, and I wonder, why is it so dank in these stores?  Next time I swear I will bring a flashlight with me.

 

         I see handles, but all the boxes are those plastic packaging that you can’t open and peer inside to see if they have what you want.  Maybe they have replacement parts somewhere.  I am prowling both aisles now, back and forth and I am close to a new idea. 

 

         If I have to buy a cheap doorknob set, I will buy it and then immediately get it opened at the service desk and see if the part I need is the same as the broken part I have in my pocket.  If it isn’t in the package, then I will return it – one less trip to the store.

 

         Just then, an unmasked shopper with a cart is saying, “Excuse me,” and I step aside averting my face and what is an inch from my nose? The exact thing I need, a replacement interior bolt-action thing. About six packages of them hanging on an upright metal beam opposite the doorknobs.  I pull the broken one out of my pocket and rest it aside the one in the package – Exact!

 

         If it hadn’t been for the Covid19 epidemic, I would never have found them as they were in the wrong spot.

 

         Okay Chic, yes, snag it and run for the cash register.  I might actually get this project done by lunchtime.

 

         Arriving home, I immediately open the package and proceed to push it into the door orifice, screw on the new lever door handles.  Unscrew the set pins on the levers, and switch the levers from side to side and re-screw the set pins.

 

         With great satisfaction, I shut the master closet with a soft “click”.



Moral of story?

 

At least I didn’t have to write a check to a handy man.

 

        

 

January 16, 2021 – My dream has come to fruition

 

         My email box has been inundated with “Follow your dream. What is your dream? Put your dream into action,” comments from writing blogs and coaches.

 

         Well, I constructed my lifelong dream last fall – I erected a pair of 6 x 8 foot greenhouses.  My entire gardening life I have wanted a greenhouse and I have drooled over them in every gardening magazine I have read for the last 40+ years. 

        

         My dream is now a reality – Oh, I just have to pinch myself every once in a while to believe it.

 

         Right now, I have a nice trough of spinach growing, as they are unheated greenhouses [pictured above]. I will be moving some potted bulbs that I am forcing out to the greenhouses in early February as things warm up. 

 

         Meanwhile, I am still hopeful that the two pots of gladiolas I planted last fall will eventually give me blossoms when the days start to lengthen.  Their leaves still look nice and healthy even though they are withstanding the  coldness of an unheated greenhouse.  But, that is what this dream is all about – experimentation – fun – challenges - surprises!

 

         So, I am living my dream, it has come to fruition, it is real and yesterday I finished ordering all the special seeds I am going to grow in my greenhouse to get a jump on spring.

 

         I ordered seed for Box Car Willie tomatoes only because I loved the name and the description sounded splendid.  I’ve ordered seedling trays and humidity domes and in the trunk of my car I have two forty-pound bags of professional seed starting mix.  I am going bigtime as they say.

 

         In December, when the seed catalogs came in, I took my pen and marked everything I wanted to grow and then I set them aside.  It is like a fabulous buffet when you load up your plate and then can’t eat half of it.  I know that is what would have happened if I actually ordered everything I marked back in December.

 

         First, I would have gone broke and second, I would have needed twenty green houses to accomplish that wish list. Attempting too much would have only been a failure.  I must use restraint. I must use good sense. I am sure I will have extra of everything I grow for lucky friends or neighbors. 

 

         So, I made a list of what I was actually going to eat out of a vegetable garden this year and I weeded my wish list down to the basics with a couple of premium items.

 

         I’ve ordered Shallot bulbs for spring planting, and pelleted celeriac seed, a couple of things I have tried before, and intend on mastering their growing this year. 

 

         Then for the exotic, I’ve ordered Big Kahuna Blue Ring Ginger roots and Petit Gris De Rennes Melon seed – a cantaloupe grown predominately in France.

 

         Both of my exotics will start out in the greenhouse to get an early jump on the season.  Hopefully, I can construct some sort of netting or caging to keep the raccoons from poking their claws into the melons or the deer from munching the melons as I have experienced in the past.

 

         And, then the ginger roots will continue to grow into the fall in the greenhouse.  They will be in giant pots that I can move.

 

         Instead of buying flats of annuals this year, I will be growing my own transplants.  I will be trying easy ones – cosmos, marigolds, zinnia, and nasturtiums to name a few.  I decided to go with easy ones so that I could devote a bit more attention to a few specialty flowers from seed.

 

         The specialty flowers are red geranium and dragon wing begonia from seed.  I found the seed available, let me just try them and see where we get.

 

         Then, I have rounded out the field of flowers with a couple of perennials from seed not certain how difficult they will be, but Chinese foxglove, Ruby port Columbine, and Sunrise coreopsis were ordered.

 

         Lastly, this year will be the year of the decorative grasses.  Black tail wheat, Silver wheat, Bunny tail grass and Feather top grass – all for cutting and drying for arrangements and or making wheat-weaving decorations.

         In the next several weeks, you will hear more about my greenhouse experimentation and growing.         

 

         Circle back to visit me and see what is growing.

 



 

Seeds are to gardeners what

words are to writers.

They hold within an entire story

waiting to unfold.

 

- LeAura Alderson

 



 

        

 

 

January 15, 2021 – A bright spot in a dull day

 

         Two days ago, a normal day, no big plans, house cleaning, run to the pharmacy later, low caliber stuff; that was all that was planned.  One of those cold sunny days in January when going out to work in the gardens was a non-starter due to the wetness mixed with cold wind.

 

         The telephone rings and I answer.

 

         “Hello?”

 

         “This is Wayne, what are you bringing me for lunch?”

 

         I hesitate - a serious pregnant pause trying to collect my wits. Do I even know a Wayne? Possibly wrong number? My mind is clicking into overdrive going back to searching on Wayne as he sure sounded like he knew me.

 

          To buy time I say, “Excuse me, you are?”

 

         The man guffaws into the phone making me smile wide.

 

         “This is Wayne at Oakland Feed that seed starting medium has arrived.”

 

         I laugh.  “Well, that got my attention . . .”

 

         He laughed again, “We got to have a few laughs around here once in a while to liven things up.”

 

         At that moment, I wondered if I was on the speakerphone and all the fellas at the feed and seed store were lounging around listening as Wayne called each person on the special order list to see if he could get a rise out of them.

 

         “I will pick it up this afternoon.” I answered.

 



 

         That was memorable . . . that was carnival-ish.  That reminder would easily stamp on anyone’s memory to get on down to the feed & seed and pick up their order.  I think that was the idea, the country way of making a memory impression that suddenly moved going to the feed store to the top of their customer’s to-do list.

 

         In a flash, I was ready to go out the door and in my mind was planning my route – which to go to first – prescription or feed store; which was the quickest way, which was the right turn off the road instead of crossing traffic.

 

         I do that now more often, plan my trip, decide if I will take the car that is easy to park or the truck which needs more room and I park in a drive-through-to-pull-out slot to make my life easier – well also, make everyone else’s vehicles dent free.

 

         When I arrived at the feed & seed store, Wayne opened the door with a big grin on his face.  I popped the trunk before I even got out of the car.

          He even offered me more than one bag of special seed starting soil by putting up one finger or two.

 

         “If you don’t think I am a glut face, I will gladly take two.”

 

         He beamed and hollered out the back, “Hey, the lady will take two.”  He immediately turned to attend to another lady and tossed over his shoulder, “you can pay him,” glancing at the cashier and moving away to his next efficient sale.

 

         Yup, living in the country, shopping at local stores that are individually owned, you get the best service in the world.  You might have to order things special at times, but, if it is worth havin’, it is worth orderin’, and you just be patient about it.