Articles by rj5156

Back to the difficult people topic. Beyond just band aids of addressing the common types this round.

Bad behaviour, drama and acting out can sure cover a load of vulnerability, fear and mixed feelings underneath. Nothing can get better as long as someone feels like they are living in a double-bind I think, and perhaps many of us are, at various levels.

Years of therapy for antisocial issues and a lot of hard life hits left me looking at actions, beliefs, values, logic and feelings. These are all valid things. We act from different ones in different situations.

If someone is not being faithful and true to THEMSELVES that betrayal is perhaps the hardest to live with.

Once we feel very bad about our actions we are overwhelmed by the enormity of it all and cannot even think about how we will have to forgive ourselves to move on. So mostly it is a negative, downward spiral. It destroys self-esteem and without self-esteem we feel we deserve less and tend to become more destructive. This might describe where a difficult person lives inside?

And I have a very hard time getting past how I feel about violations of my values and boundaries to look at where someone else might actually be in all that. But if I do not try then I am surely one of the difficult people too;)

It might be worth considering exactly where our line in the sand is and what we are willing to do if it is crossed. Then if that line is crossed we do not have to try to decide what we will do when we are least able to make good choices.

Hope for the best and work hard for that! Plan for the worst and hope it is not needed.

Thing is once we are decided and prepared people can tell. Much less likely to have to follow through once we resolve that we can and will do something if need be. Strange but I have seen this over and over in my life.

I am trying to say that if we know the limit of abuse we can afford to take and what we can do when that limit is exceeded then WE GET PEACE! Mostly it is never about us anyhow. Just a reflection of a troubled soul’s life experiences.

Our self-respect is not just trampled forever – and it turns a tide. It becomes about boundaries and limits for our well-being because we deserve to be treated with respect and kindness.

And our peace helps everything else.

Should have put that first maybe? And if we can find a way to approach a difficult situation from the perspective of valuing ourselves and seeking what is good in a “difficult” person maybe we can get a more positive outcome?

I got all the last bit from my work at http://www.recoverynation.com/main/sa.php trying to get past a marriage to a child pornography addict. It may have saved me.

They have programs for sexual addicts and also for the people who have become involved with them. I think the program would help with ANY addiction and the underlying issues are likely universal across all addictions?

I cannot say enough good things about these folks. They are reaching out to those most in need when our culture ignores or throws them away and then pretends there are no victims.

Statistics: Posted by rj5156 — Thu Jun 01, 2017 8:33 am

In Wisconsin they are actually catching the most seriously troubled kids when they hit the system – and they are HELPING them.

That success is being studied and built on. Wonder if what they are learning would help the rest of the criminal population or even help us KEEP troubled kids from becoming criminals? It might still be a dim light of hope but there had been no hope at all before.

Punishment fails us and we just have not had any other answers. There is some frightening evidence that sociopaths have a different brain structure than the rest of the population and efforts are ongoing to understand this better. It is looking like we might be able to develop those structures related to our ability to know and care about right and wrong and they sure are trying.

It just occurred to me that some of the applications might just help others break bad cycles. Because it is about breaking cycles at the heart of it all.

The program:
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mendota … er_Program

The ongoing work:
http://modlab.yale.edu/news/can-psychopaths-be-cured

Statistics: Posted by rj5156 — Thu Jun 01, 2017 8:28 am

I’m all for voting with my consumer dollar. I suspect it is the only vote I can make that actually counts. It counts more when we all work together. It is not easy to know what we are supporting though. Now there is an app to help us see what we are supporting when we shop. How cool is that?!

This is why I buy lottery tickets now. The money goes to MY state. Odds are the winner will live in MY state and spend much of that money here too. Pretty cheap thrill to contribute at a meaningful level for the price of an occasional soda pop (which I do not normally drink anyhow). We all benefit. Where the lottery money goes with a link to find out about individual counties:

http://www.theindychannel.com/news/call … e-money-go

Article with links to the app for iphone and android:
http://www.forbes.com/sites/clareoconno … ping-cart/

Statistics: Posted by rj5156 — Thu Jun 01, 2017 8:21 am

I knew when I started volunteering with flood cleanup that I would be spending time with people who are in shock. I have spent plenty of time with folks who have more than they can deal with so I also knew about how that would feel. I thought it would be good for me and I was right. It is another way to peel the onion in this life.

There is only so much we can take in at once. We can do the work to process overwhelming things to the best of our ability but they do keep resurfacing over our lives, or at least mine have. Think something is all tidied up and tucked away and then something new happens and it is right back again, in new ways and on different levels we did not see the first trip through it. I figured I was in good enough shape to benefit from another round and I think it has been good.

It has not been easy. I’ve needed some down time and I’ll need to take a break to recover on the home front some too. Thankful to have Brian to talk with and I think it has been good for him too. I could not have done much without his full support and help at home and I sure do appreciate that.

Nothing happens in a vacuum. One person takes something on and it impacts those around them. He has been great with it of course. We signed on to face up to stuff squarely and keep working on it until we accomplish our best effort and we both get that recovery comes in waves and stages, back and forth, not in a straight line. So he benefits too.

I know it is kind of scary to let people in when we most need them. How it feels like we are “beholden” and the good things that happen with people reaching out are every bit as hard to deal with as the events that leave us needing their help. I know how it feels when everything is so overwhelming that simple decisions are a huge struggle, never mind priorities and progress.

I’ve tried to talk some about how I have been there and what it felt like for me. I have applied myself to saying helpful things like “I can just take care of this little part so you can do other things.” I have tried to offer helpful and specific input without steamrolling over where someone is at. It’s a pretty darned fine line to walk and I apologize if I’ve erred on the side of trying to make myself useful because the people and feelings level is still very hard for me. I’ve learned about that some too.

I actually saw me make someone a little bit uncomfortable and I was able to stop on the spot and I think I learned something pretty important and I also think I managed to undo the uncomfortable. Not going to get into a lot of specifics on this but I want to share. Ya’ll who have had me a long time know how excited I can get about things I really enjoy. Parents of autistic kids can probably relate to how their kids can get so focused on something they are oblivious to everything else and that would be us in a nutshell. Took me a very long time to realize everyone isn’t like that.

I was just starting to enthuse about finding someone to talk to who seemed to enjoy the kinds of things I do, mending things, and I do forget that our experiences over a lifetime are so far over the top compared to most folks that maybe it feels like we do not appreciate where they are or even are belittling what they have accomplished. On a professional level I am sorry if someone has insecurity issues but we have a job to do and my experience just IS. On a personal level I do not want others to feel I am putting them down in any way because that is not how I feel.

I actually noticed that my enthusiasm was causing a little fidgeting. So I stopped and thought about it. Decided that asking more questions and volunteering less was as good as I could do. Saw the fidgeting stop. Listened to some enthusing and kept my trap shut. Asked more questions. And it was something of a revelation for me because I DO try to see how I impact others and have only fairly recently begun to understand just how very over the top our professional background really is. Thought that was important and maybe I can carry it along into other situations too.

I also tried to share enough about myself that others won’t feel like the relationship is out of balance. I had to be told that this matters, that when someone shares something it is best to share back, so they don’t feel embarrassed or like I know more about them than they do about me, and maybe I don’t just come to remind them of things they’d rather forget.

I had to be told lately that if I really appreciate something about someone in my life I need to say that TO them, not about them. I was enthusing some to Brian about how and why a longtime friend was important to me and Brian said “Sounds to me like you need to say that to THEM, not me.” So I did. And I thanked Brian. Because it still feels like living in a foreign country where I don’t even speak the language and I still have to be told. See if I can remember that one better.

Seems to take several eureka moments for me to retain a new thing. Been working on that particular thing for some time. Still got room for improvement. Maybe that’s just life as a human. Glad I have people who care enough about me to just tell me. As many times as I need to hear it to retain it.

It has been a lot more valuable for me to have the chance to be there and participate than it has for those I’ve been with during the cleanup. Feels like I should be thanking them. Think I will!

Like to say that we have laughed a lot as we cranked it through this round. It gets easier. It makes a huge difference to have a partner who laughs easily, looks for the bright side and never laughs AT us. I am thankful for many things in my life right now, and none of those are “things”.

Statistics: Posted by rj5156 — Thu Jun 01, 2017 8:16 am

I received a form for jury duty yesterday. If you’ve been with me over the long haul you know the background but a lot of folks don’t so I’m going to cover that first and then go into what I think is the right thing to do with it. As always I will follow my conscience and I think it is going to be pretty interesting for everyone if I am actually called in. Notice I did not say fun…

I will finish with what I know to be the law about a juror’s responsibilities and rights – and if you do NOT know about “jury nullification” and our constitutional obligations you really need to read that part because if you are called our system has degenerated to the point that great pains are taken to keep you from finding out about it.

I may post that again separately for those who are not interested in going through a long post to get to it. If you do not know the details of the Salem Bombing in 1988 it comes right up on internet searches and I have posted extensively about our unfortunate experience at the hands of our “justice system”. My Dad served 10 years for that despite the fact that we have proof the “experts” manufactured the evidence to convict him. See if I can find a link to that to share again at the end of this.

The background:

I was pretty much in shock when I was called in for jury duty some years ago because I had previously begged the judge, Frank Newkirk Jr. to do the right thing with evidence about the bombing in Salem that I KNEW he had because I and others had given it to him personally. This happened before he was a judge and I have come to believe he was threatened at that time – but…

At that time we desperately needed officers of the law to uphold the law and his failure to do so not only left our community vulnerable to some obviously dangerous people but also cost my family everything we own and put my Dad and another citizen in federal prison for ten years. I took it pretty badly when he denied even knowing what I was talking about and told me he would call the cops if I did not leave his office.

I did leave. I was hysterical and vomiting and in shock for days, but I left. That was the last time I saw him before I was called for jury duty last time and I did not do quite as well as I would have liked to when I faced him again because I had no idea he was a judge.

I did not name him personally when asked in his courtroom if I felt there were anything that might prevent me from doing jury duty but I certainly shared ALL the circumstances in a courtroom where everyone knew it was him anyhow. They just couldn’t get me out of that room fast enough. I didn’t get to say everything I wanted to. I will always wonder if our fire had anything to do with that and I do not know WHY I cannot just be quiet but I am not able to do that.

I should say here that if bad things happen to me or my family, information is going to be released that will satisfy my sense of justice and fairness and there will be further appropriate consequences. If you missed the background my entire family has been threatened and harassed and stalked and violated over many years any time I speak out and I am just entirely OVER that now.

I will add that I know exactly what it feels like to be threatened. I was afraid too. I am sure he had a lot to lose. He obviously had things to gain too. I do not bear grudges but I cannot be made to respect anyone who failed to uphold justice and the law when it was their duty to do so and accepted a position of further obligation and responsibility to the law, knowing this about themselves. I do pray for him. I cannot imagine… It is fair to add that I believe he tries to be a good judge and this counts as some meaningful restitution in my view.

So. Back to that jury duty form.

I am going to fill it out. I will most certainly go if I am called. I’ll dress the part of the conservative older business owner that should be a lawyers dream for a juror. And I will do my civic duty. I will practice this time and be ready to say that I have learned the hard way that evidence can be and is manufactured entirely because my family paid for an independent lab report to prove it, and our courts do not feel they need to hear evidence that might acquit an imprisoned man. The appeal courts can decline to see new evidence because it is not stapled. Knowing, no doubt, that prisoners might not have access to said staple.

I would have trouble accepting “evidence” as true because I have had the opportunity to learn that it can be made up and made to be quite convincing. Of course I can back ALL that up and I would just love to have the opportunity to do so. I would be fascinated to see if a judge would lie under oath if it came to a lawsuit, which I can see it might.

Because I think potential jurors need to know that. It is the right thing to do by my conscience. Despite the fact that my conscience causes me a great deal of trouble.

If they have not carried me out of the room when I get that out I will go on with everything I said last time… I will not stop talking until they shove me out the outer doors and I will project my voice like I am on stage. I am willing to do time for contempt of court for that. If I get any time at all for contempt I would also sue for damages and lost income and I might just file civil suits against individuals too. That adds up fast at shop rate. Pray for me? I might really need it. Apparently I have no sense at all. I do have Brian’s full support and that is a formidable thing at all levels.

If I am jailed for contempt of court, I’d want a jury trial. Not sure I could get it but I would sure give it my best effort. Because when asked if there were anything I wanted to say for my own defense I would say all of the above and the following – I feel it is my civic duty:

Jurors Handbook

http://fija.org
A link to the pdf file with the full handbook is posted on the page above. I have not been able to get a working link to just the file.

….. “the “judge” is there to conduct the proceedings in an orderly fashion and maintain the safety of all parties involved.”

….. “the jury has an “unreviewable and irreversible power… to acquit in disregard of the instructions on the law given by the trial judge…”

“….. If the jury feels that the law under which the defendant is accused, is unjust, or that exigent circumstances justified the actions of the accused, or for any reason which appeals to their logic of passion, the jury has the power to acquit, and the courts must abide by that decision.”

….. “In its broadest form, “nullification” has often been used to describe the jury’s “raw power to set an accused free for any reason or for no reason,” even for reasons having nothing to do with justice or guilt.”

But it is NOT required that jurors be told this. A great deal of trouble has been taken to avoid letting jury members know about their duties, responsibilities and rights in our system today. I won’t quote the cases. You can see them in the document I linked to below if you’d like. One final consideration that seems to me the perversion of “justice” which should be taken up and thrashed.

….. “Before ascending to the bench to try his first case, every federal judge is required by law to swear or affirm to uphold the Constitution (which includes the Sixth Amendment), and “that I will administer justice without respect to persons.” That is a most peculiar-sounding oath for anyone who intends to browbeat jurors into putting aside any notions of “justice” that might stand in the way of their willingness to condemn a morally blameless man.

Beyond all this, perhaps the most blasphemous aspect of the invocation of the oath is the simple fact that we really do not expect jurors to refrain from nullifying in all circumstances. That being the case, it ill-behooves us to place jurors under an oath that they will not nullify (much less lie to them about whether they have taken such an oath).

At least for those jurors who take their oaths seriously, it places them in an intolerable and totally unnecessary conflict between deeply held moral scruples. It demeans the seriousness of the oath, which stands at the very bedrock of our system of justice.”

Statistics: Posted by rj5156 — Thu Jun 01, 2017 7:43 am

I’ve been running hard since my last post, gearing up to start work planting and trying to keep everything done up to the minute in case I am needed at Bohnert. Doing all the errands and household chores for both of us while Brian puts in very long days. Been on the go, hardly even been home this week but I was trying to be present with a friend whose child was having brain surgery last Thursday and a couple other friends who faced less dramatic but still upsetting health crisis in their families. (Everyone came out OK.) I was feeling on top of it all.

Then the flooding hit our town. We had a hundred year flood back in 04 I think. This one was far worse. Just devastating. Think the official word is we got 6 point some inches of rain in about two hours. Locals report 7 inches and they live here. At any rate it has been like watching a horror show as people started sharing pictures and we made the news and people we KNOW were rescued from their homes and businesses.

Pictures here:
http://www.wlky.com/article/photos-washington-county-flood/9886039

Video here:
http://www.wlky.com/article/raw-video-flooding-in-washington-county-1495245163/9886264

I have mostly been making myself useful since I have a public facebook page. I have shared all the information and helpful stuff I can find. Reaching out to folks we know, talking about how stress and grief are forces to be reckoned with. Doing my best to get information to those who need it. I am not sure power is yet restored to everyone? We have had the luxury of power and internet – thanks Kg! – so we’ve done our best to help.

My week is scheduled already. I will be shoveling mud, hauling it out, and trying to encourage our friends who are fighting for their small businesses. We figured the weekend would be busy with help but weekdays would be a lot slower for helping hands. I am very thankful to be in a position I can do this. Bohnert won’t even ask for me, knowing what is going on here. They are just glad we are OK.

I will try to check in as I can. Not planning to overextend myself, still have a home to run, critters to care for and our own stuff to do but most of that will wait. Be loading up a wet / dry shop vac, scoop shovel, gloves, buckets, and a dump bed wagon in the S-10 and spending a day with each small business owner in the order of how hard they were hit.

No one was seriously injured. It will be a lot of work and take a very long time but small communities are at their best in hard times and it will be fine. Prayers would sure be appreciated though.

Edit to add:
I have set my privacy to none on facebook. Our page should be accessible to everyone if I understand how it works. It is alternately kind of boring with public service announcements that don’t apply to anyone who doesn’t live in the area, hair-raising with pictures of the flooding and discussion with friends about losing a child and other hard things, and we try to post things for morale, pictures of Syd and stuff. I’ll get it caught up here in time but if you are interested much of our news is posted there too.

https://m.facebook.com/renee.clark.7771

Statistics: Posted by rj5156 — Sun May 21, 2017 7:17 pm

Thank you Handyman:) It was easily the best one in a very long time now. Feeling a lot more solid after the events of the past few years and we surely do appreciate so much more for all that.

Statistics: Posted by rj5156 — Sun May 21, 2017 7:16 pm

Things often do not go as planned. I was not even aware yesterday was my birthday when I made plans with my cousin’s Mom, and it turned out she had forgotten that she had promised a grandson the day quite some time ago so we will reschedule our visit. Instead I had a delicious lunch at Christie’s on the square with Mom and we walked around to Lincks to see about a birthday suit. More about that in another post, but as always it was wonderful.

There have been a few people who have just showed up and been there with us along the way during the past few years. Who called to be present with us in case we wanted to talk about it. Who had more time and more inner ability perhaps to be with us at a level we did not expect or even know we might need. We have not done very well returning their thoughtfullness. Heck we hardly went anyplace until the last year or so because we just were not functioning socially and have not done much better in the last year.

I have known that one of these people, a really dear friend was fighting her own battles and they were hard. I have stopped by and called some but felt I was neglecting my friend in hard times and this was a poor return for someone who has reached out, showed up, been there with us. I was worried about them too. So I just stopped by to check in and gave myself the gift of being with a friend who is facing hard things.

This friend has the gift of laughter. We talked frankly about everything we have both faced and we laughed and laughed and laughed some more. I only hope to learn to face hardship with such grace and dignity and – laughter. I remembered to tell the couple how nice it is to be with them because they are so very good together. I forgot to tell my friend, when she took her do-rag off her head to show me the result of her treatment that she is beautiful. I was pretty impressed and lost my words but that is what I was thinking and I wish it had made it out my mouth like the less helpful comments so often do… I will remember another time. It was a wonderful gift just to be there.

The phone charger I use in my vehicle declined to participate yesterday. So my phone was dead and I had absolutely no interruptions. I am afraid I enjoyed that very much.

This seems to bother a lot of people but Brian and I do not need phones to get the important stuff. Couple weeks ago I was out and left my phone in the vehicle. I’d stopped to pick up a couple things at Walmart, turned a corner and there was Brian. “I sent you a text but I hadn’t heard back.” He said, and added, “I thought about it and I just knew you were here so I stopped in to see if you wanted to go someplace for supper while we are both in town.”

This has always been normal in my family. Not an intrusive knowing others thoughts but a knowing about important stuff. We once found my sister in Ohio, just driving around thinking about her. We had a general place to start and loose plans to meet but lost her phone number but it did not take long, we thought about her and looked for her, and there she was.

I have read that there is an aboriginese culture that thinks there is something wrong with us because we do NOT just know if our friend needs help carrying a deer home after a sucessful hunt, and exactly where to find them to help them. I was a little confused when I read that because of course we DO know and I figured everyone did and I was still not-talking about stuff like that. I did figure out it spooked people eventually and stopped talking about it altogether for a very long time. I think it is important so I have been talking about it again of late.

Anyway I knew too, when Brian sent me a text saying that he would be leaving work at 3pm and I knew when he was getting close to home so I asked the time and said I needed to head home. That I wouldn’t want to deprive Brian of the opportunity to spoil me on my birthday! He didn’t beat me home by much. It was not his usual time, he was running fairly late, likely due to traffic but we ended up with plenty of evening to enjoy and spectacular weather so we could be outside for most of it, where we both love it best.

We had tuna salad and corned beef out of the cans for supper. Veritable feast in the best of company!

I noticed that I am wishing I had been quick enough to get a picture of the cute baby snakes we saw, sitting outside and enjoying the evening. And realizing that I do not even have pictures of me with Mom in the past 20 years or more. That would be me…

If I hadn’t decided to try to “normalize” the public awareness of women doing non-traditional work in the fabrication fields there would be very few photos of me at all except for the annual pictures we try to get for our Moms. There aren’t any pictures of me with my friends, or even of my friends either. Huh. Maybe I can do a little better with that. I’d like to have some pictures of Mom and I would like more of us together too.

I learn a lot by sharing. Wish I had started sooner, and under much better conditions.

Statistics: Posted by rj5156 — Tue May 16, 2017 8:15 am

Tomorrow I get to spend a day with my cousin’s Mom. It has felt so dark, that whole deal with the horrific murder of my cousin and I have not been in a good place to reach out to my dear family. She reached out to me and I just grabbed that and I appreciate how we keep getting more chances. I am really looking forward to sharing a quiet day at our home with her. Just over a year since the trial. Nearly two years since the murder. Time marches on.

My sister found my childhood friend for me recently. Better yet my friend remembered me! We moved a lot when I was very young and while my friend was very important to me I did understand I just passed through her life back then. I was thrilled to find my friend well and happy and that was enough. It is a bonus that we can get to know each other in the now. I notice that who we are has not changed. We just need to catch up our news:)

I am connecting better than I ever did and with more people I have long valued. It feels sort of overwhelming but good overall. I need a lot of time to process new things. None of it seems especially news worthy either. Trying to share anyway. I seem to come and go on that…

Statistics: Posted by rj5156 — Sun May 14, 2017 10:37 am

Tomorrow I get to spend a day with my cousin’s Mom. It has felt so dark, that whole deal with the horrific murder of my cousin and I have not been in a good place to reach out to my dear family. She reached out to me and I just grabbed that and I appreciate how we keep getting more chances. I am really looking forward to sharing a quiet day at our home with her. Just over a year since the trial. Nearly two years since the murder. Time marches on.

My sister found my childhood friend for me recently. Better yet my friend remembered me! We moved a lot when I was very young and while my friend was very important to me I did understand I just passed through her life back then. I was thrilled to find my friend well and happy and that was enough. It is a bonus that we can get to know each other in the now. I notice that who we are has not changed. We just need to catch up our news:)

I am connecting better than I ever did and with more people I have long valued. It feels sort of overwhelming but good overall. I need a lot of time to process new things. None of it seems especially news worthy either. Trying to share anyway. I seem to come and go on that…

Statistics: Posted by rj5156 — Sun May 14, 2017 10:37 am

I don’t remember when I stopped talking or if I just never did ever talk to anyone about how I felt. The kind of sharing that everyone else seems to do so easily and used to make me physically uncomfortable. I think I learned way too young how much people I trusted could hurt me and after we learn that one we seem to have a hard time learning to avoid more people who will hurt us, like it gets to be “normal” and we do not know how to expect or hope for anything different?

I feel fortunate in that I did have a handful of people I could be as close as I knew how to be with, who are remarkably good people. I failed to appreciate them at the time of course. Mostly I chose not to participate with people for as long as I can remember. I read far more than anyone I ever knew and that would be a form of escape. I actually walked around school reading.

I always related to animals. They are honest maybe because they do not have words to use to hide behind? Except our cockatoo Syd does have some words and she cannot seem to use them to lie. She can withold words as in when I ask if she knows where my coffee cup is and she does not answer, though she DOES know because it is funny for her to see me look for it. Or that time I asked her if I had food on my face and she said no words but gave me a little half-rise of her feather crest like kind of yes and made me go look. And then she laughed and laughed but that is not a lie like I mean here. That is a cockatoo joke. Animals do not pretend about how they feel and people have always been confusing for me because they sometimes do.

Three years ago I started that thread about what it is like to have a house fire on a public forum and I promised me I would share about how it felt because I figured out pretty quick it was a fairly common and really traumatic life event. A lot happened very fast after that. Again it was mostly pretty common to the human experience but I have long noticed we tend to not talk about how we are dealing with them so I kept sharing. And when the horrors happened I kept right on talking out of habit maybe.

It looks like the habit stuck. From where I stand today I highly recommend it too. It might be hard to share and it might be harder to be fully honest to the best of our ability. It still feels scary sometimes. I think it helped though and I also think maybe it changed the world around me just a little bit. People who are not comfortable to confront what IS and willing to try to deal with it tend to slip back while those who are comfortable, or maybe want to be, start to open up more. I am SURE I have seen a growing level of sharing about the things that actually matter from the people in our lives and I try to be sure and thank them. Because I know how hard it is.

It is easier for me if I am not WITH others, to share. I never liked or really understood eye contact, and the whole body language thing is a language I still don’t understand very well though I have studied everything I can find about it. Or maybe I get it on the level it is spoken and I just short-circuit when it says different things than the words that come with it? I am not comfortable with it and used hand-work to avoid it most of my life. Yeah, I DO see the trend in avoidance over my life;) I am trying still to learn to use my body language and eye contact so others will be comfortable.

There are other hazards interacting not in person. I do try to give it more thought before interacting. What I think comes right out my mouth in person and that is not always helpful… I have to guess here if I might have said or done something that others are not comfortable with and I am still pretty likely to say what I really think. Often, proofing something before I post it gives me a chance to see if I might say it more diplomatically and that helps. I still mess up. I make mistakes. I try to see it when it happens and go back to make it right. No doubt I miss it sometimes.

Blanket apology officially offered here and now if I have stepped on your toes and I have to be told most of the time so if I have been inadvertently unkind to you, you can just tell me. I will feel terrible about it and I will apologize, do what I can to set it right and not do it again. Lot of folks don’t give others that opportunity even in person. Some folks just stop speaking to someone and never let on why. I suppose everyone gets to decide for themselves on that one.

I was going to share publicly for a year. That was the deal I made with me. So many traumatic things kept happening and I did choose to keep sharing at the year mark because we had so many followers we could not believe it. We came to think this meant our experiences might be meaningful to others and we found so much comfort in that. If you have been through the whole journey with us, we appreciate your presence and we treasure you for not turning away when it got REALLY hard. Thank you again and again.

I am thinking after all we shared maybe people were waiting to see if we would be ok again. We tried to be as ok as we could all along and the point of it all was about choosing how to think about what we experience. What we think often determines how we feel and mostly people don’t seem to notice this so we wanted to talk about it. We learned that there are some things we just get to feel too. Well, we can choose to feel them so we are not crippled by choosing to try to not feel them. That one has been the hardest part for me.

I see I have continued to distract myself from it all some. I think that is why I am sometimes absent online for fairly long periods of time. Not avoiding, just trying to balance living in the now with working through it all. I need a lot of alone time. I need some “normal” to have solid ground to stand on to do the work dealing with it all. Sometimes I just need a break. I keep coming back and I mean to keep doing that. I want to reach a point where we can just share about life now but we are still not quite done dealing with then and it is still a fair amount of work. Looks like our lives are now forever divided into “before” and “after” on a number of really hard life event hits and maybe that is just a thing that is, not something we can work through?

Kind of rambling along here. It has felt like a long journey in a foreign land and it still does to some extent. But it is starting to feel like I am learning the language a little bit. I am not feeling like I am very good at it and I am still not entirely comfortable with it. Most of my life I have experienced things other people do not seem to be comfortable to hear about. And I could not read their “I am uncomfortable” signs. That seems to alienate people. I might be a little better at that. Or I might be choosing people who are more comfortable with my directness?

I shared that we were not able to get excited for a long time, like our get excited chemicals in our brains were all cooked out. And the was no joy either for what felt like forever. We worked hard to be satisfied with being gratified in having done our best but that was not the same. I shared recently that I noticed it scares me a little bit to feel joy because we were so very happy and hopeful and had so many good things happening right before it all came crashing down and life as we knew and loved it was just gone. Seeing that it scares me frees me to choose to feel that fear. Because the joy is right on the other side of my fear and I want ALL of my joy back. Not just the smaller amount that feels safer.

We think we are pretty much ok now. Been a lot to process and we are learning that does not seem to have an end, it just keeps getting a little bit easier. The thing about life altering events is that it will never be the same. We are working with that. Maybe we can just make what we can as much better as we are able to and go on to find a new kind of happiness? We do seem to be well on the way. That might be as close to ok as it gets? It is enough. We are thankful.

Statistics: Posted by rj5156 — Sun May 14, 2017 10:30 am

I don’t remember when I stopped talking or if I just never did ever talk to anyone about how I felt. The kind of sharing that everyone else seems to do so easily and used to make me physically uncomfortable. I think I learned way too young how much people I trusted could hurt me and after we learn that one we seem to have a hard time learning to avoid more people who will hurt us, like it gets to be “normal” and we do not know how to expect or hope for anything different?

I feel fortunate in that I did have a handful of people I could be as close as I knew how to be with, who are remarkably good people. I failed to appreciate them at the time of course. Mostly I chose not to participate with people for as long as I can remember. I read far more than anyone I ever knew and that would be a form of escape. I actually walked around school reading.

I always related to animals. They are honest maybe because they do not have words to use to hide behind? Except our cockatoo Syd does have some words and she cannot seem to use them to lie. She can withold words as in when I ask if she knows where my coffee cup is and she does not answer, though she DOES know because it is funny for her to see me look for it. Or that time I asked her if I had food on my face and she said no words but gave me a little half-rise of her feather crest like kind of yes and made me go look. And then she laughed and laughed but that is not a lie like I mean here. That is a cockatoo joke. Animals do not pretend about how they feel and people have always been confusing for me because they sometimes do.

Three years ago I started that thread about what it is like to have a house fire on a public forum and I promised me I would share about how it felt because I figured out pretty quick it was a fairly common and really traumatic life event. A lot happened very fast after that. Again it was mostly pretty common to the human experience but I have long noticed we tend to not talk about how we are dealing with them so I kept sharing. And when the horrors happened I kept right on talking out of habit maybe.

It looks like the habit stuck. From where I stand today I highly recommend it too. It might be hard to share and it might be harder to be fully honest to the best of our ability. It still feels scary sometimes. I think it helped though and I also think maybe it changed the world around me just a little bit. People who are not comfortable to confront what IS and willing to try to deal with it tend to slip back while those who are comfortable, or maybe want to be, start to open up more. I am SURE I have seen a growing level of sharing about the things that actually matter from the people in our lives and I try to be sure and thank them. Because I know how hard it is.

It is easier for me if I am not WITH others, to share. I never liked or really understood eye contact, and the whole body language thing is a language I still don’t understand very well though I have studied everything I can find about it. Or maybe I get it on the level it is spoken and I just short-circuit when it says different things than the words that come with it? I am not comfortable with it and used hand-work to avoid it most of my life. Yeah, I DO see the trend in avoidance over my life;) I am trying still to learn to use my body language and eye contact so others will be comfortable.

There are other hazards interacting not in person. I do try to give it more thought before interacting. What I think comes right out my mouth in person and that is not always helpful… I have to guess here if I might have said or done something that others are not comfortable with and I am still pretty likely to say what I really think. Often, proofing something before I post it gives me a chance to see if I might say it more diplomatically and that helps. I still mess up. I make mistakes. I try to see it when it happens and go back to make it right. No doubt I miss it sometimes.

Blanket apology officially offered here and now if I have stepped on your toes and I have to be told most of the time so if I have been inadvertently unkind to you, you can just tell me. I will feel terrible about it and I will apologize, do what I can to set it right and not do it again. Lot of folks don’t give others that opportunity even in person. Some folks just stop speaking to someone and never let on why. I suppose everyone gets to decide for themselves on that one.

I was going to share publicly for a year. That was the deal I made with me. So many traumatic things kept happening and I did choose to keep sharing at the year mark because we had so many followers we could not believe it. We came to think this meant our experiences might be meaningful to others and we found so much comfort in that. If you have been through the whole journey with us, we appreciate your presence and we treasure you for not turning away when it got REALLY hard. Thank you again and again.

I am thinking after all we shared maybe people were waiting to see if we would be ok again. We tried to be as ok as we could all along and the point of it all was about choosing how to think about what we experience. What we think often determines how we feel and mostly people don’t seem to notice this so we wanted to talk about it. We learned that there are some things we just get to feel too. Well, we can choose to feel them so we are not crippled by choosing to try to not feel them. That one has been the hardest part for me.

I see I have continued to distract myself from it all some. I think that is why I am sometimes absent online for fairly long periods of time. Not avoiding, just trying to balance living in the now with working through it all. I need a lot of alone time. I need some “normal” to have solid ground to stand on to do the work dealing with it all. Sometimes I just need a break. I keep coming back and I mean to keep doing that. I want to reach a point where we can just share about life now but we are still not quite done dealing with then and it is still a fair amount of work. Looks like our lives are now forever divided into “before” and “after” on a number of really hard life event hits and maybe that is just a thing that is, not something we can work through?

Kind of rambling along here. It has felt like a long journey in a foreign land and it still does to some extent. But it is starting to feel like I am learning the language a little bit. I am not feeling like I am very good at it and I am still not entirely comfortable with it. Most of my life I have experienced things other people do not seem to be comfortable to hear about. And I could not read their “I am uncomfortable” signs. That seems to alienate people. I might be a little better at that. Or I might be choosing people who are more comfortable with my directness?

I shared that we were not able to get excited for a long time, like our get excited chemicals in our brains were all cooked out. And the was no joy either for what felt like forever. We worked hard to be satisfied with being gratified in having done our best but that was not the same. I shared recently that I noticed it scares me a little bit to feel joy because we were so very happy and hopeful and had so many good things happening right before it all came crashing down and life as we knew and loved it was just gone. Seeing that it scares me frees me to choose to feel that fear. Because the joy is right on the other side of my fear and I want ALL of my joy back. Not just the smaller amount that feels safer.

We think we are pretty much ok now. Been a lot to process and we are learning that does not seem to have an end, it just keeps getting a little bit easier. The thing about life altering events is that it will never be the same. We are working with that. Maybe we can just make what we can as much better as we are able to and go on to find a new kind of happiness? We do seem to be well on the way. That might be as close to ok as it gets? It is enough. We are thankful.

Statistics: Posted by rj5156 — Sun May 14, 2017 10:30 am

My routine changes with the seasons of course. Not done very well remembering to schedule in time for keeping our posts updated. I HAVE done a good job of getting pictures resized and uploaded as I take them so I do not feel overwhelmed like I have, when I have not kept up as regularly as I might like to. Usually I have a couple days running the generator a week doing laundry and such, and I tend to use that time to post online. Lately I have been running the vacuum sealer instead and it sure keeps me hopping! I can just about keep it going full speed if I apply myself. Fortunately that’s done now, until we see something on sale that is;) Be biting that off in reasonable size jobs from here out. Might do some deeper pantry storage in bigger containers but we are hopefully done with the marathon project. It was worth it by the way.

The medicinal herb project is ongoing and I’ll have more to share about that. We’re still learning and work continues on food storage, keeping a year supply of food on hand for two hard working adults is no small task and our next project after we finish the herbs will be a hard look at how much of that food we can reasonably produce ourselves. May be next year before we get very far with that but more time planning and researching often pays out. So we’re back on track on most fronts now.

Three years. We notice a lot of it it is not very clear in our memories now, and figure that might be a kindness. Guess we started here a few months after the fact, and I would have to look to see just what month the fire happened. Seems to me it was June. Coming right up. We might still be a little bit anxious about leaving the place but we figure that has more to do with the overall stress than just the fire. We’re sleeping well. I am READING!!! Enjoying Catherine Ryan Hyde a lot right now. Having a little bit of a social life. Getting out with Mom. Got projects planned at her place. I am holding around 130 pretty consistently. See how long that lasts when I dig into the summertime work here but my clothes fit again. My hair grew back as thick as it was before. Haven’t had that painful tic under my eye in a very long time. We do not levitate when the phone rings any more. We just see who it is and hope it isn’t a trash call.

Not doing as well with some long-term projects as we’d like but that’s probably pretty normal. We are all individuals but I do not think we have taken “too long” to climb back up. I expect we’ve thought we were doing better than we actually were all along. We did make ourselves a fair amount of work through being stressed and stupid or under a gun to deal with something we were NOT prepared to do in our usual fashion. Some we knew we were doing and some we just did not have the resources or ability to think through at the time. Think we’ve mostly gotten through that now.

I do not think there is a right or wrong with stress and pressure and loss. We all do the best we can and whoever we are and however we manage is just good enough. I feel pretty blessed that we had that moment when we thought to think and talk about how we would behave and choose to think and feel after the fire – before the worst of it all hit our lives. I believe that has helped us more than we can even suspect. I hope our sharing has helped others who struggle.

Laundry calls, left the loads with lots of small stuff to fold for last. Hung some out and it’s clouding up, might have to run out and collect it off the line. Not heard from Brian yet. If he has a very long day I might carry on catching up our news for a while today. Been making it a habit to keep the evening free and have all the day’s projects put away so we can really enjoy the time we do get. Took longer to get some things done but it has sure been worth it.

Statistics: Posted by rj5156 — Wed May 10, 2017 3:04 pm

I do not seem to have sense enough to stop lately. Soon be time to start work in the herb and vegetable garden and I am so close to finished with the pantry project that I may actually finish the closet too if I keep moving.

It is interesting and a little frightening to see how badly we dealt with our normally well-organized food storage in the past couple years. We had never lost any food to expiration but I have found a fair amount of stuff we moved in when the house was mostly habitable after the fire. Toted out a couple good-size boxes of badly expired canned goods and condiments just now. Depressing. Given the circumstances it is hardly surprising though.

It turned out to be a MUCH bigger job than I anticipated. I hate chaos. I have planned ahead and worked to keep the place as tidy as possible through the project. Drag out all the stuff after Brian leaves and try to have it all stowed when he gets home. Plenty going on otherwise too so I hit a lick whenever I can. The organization is the hardest part and I have at least a full day sorting when I am done packaging.

I had been avoiding thinking about where to put it all when I got it done. Been searching some online and looking at pictures of other people’s pantrys! I happened to look up in discouragement one day, and noticed those 2 X 6 joists in the ceiling where the loft is. EUREKA moment! Since we have realized that dry goods in jars store fine on their side and started looking for smaller plastic totes to put vacuum bagged dry goods in the space between those joists looks a lot more interesting. Be next winter before that project goes very far but we have a solid plan for cabinets and dry goods storage at this point.

Back on top of the rotation again. I read someplace about learning to eat and enjoy what can be stored, rather than trying to store the sad stuff most folks eat. Thinking about what we can most easily grow from that perspective too. We’ve used a lot of convenience foods through the past few years and that is not normal for us. Some folks seem to think we have a lot of food. We know that one adult eats roughly a ton of food a year and we know we do not have a year supply on hand yet. Starting the rotaton over from scratch really set us back. We can see it from where we are now and we are adding interesting foods instead of just loading up on corn, pasta, beans and rice.

We had just started getting serious exploring South American traditional foods and started looking at traditional Asian food when we had the fire. Makes beans and rice and corn a lot more fun to eat. Went to the Patel Brothers Indian grocery recently. Found a whole new world of spices, lentils, pulses, grains and vegetables! Ordered “India The Cookbook” and we are off and running making our own healthy Indian food from scratch! Naturally we will try the junk food too;) Saving seeds from vegetables as we try them. See what will grow here. The prices for bulk dry goods are quite reasonable and we have added a sampling to our pantry. Be going back for more!

The workload for builds has hit high gear. Living on standby is nothing new for me but it makes everything more interesting!! I’ll be putting in some quality time in there but everything else will stop when I get my medicinal herb order. It has to go in the ground as soon as I can get it there! Brian had a few days off before this round hit and managed to get the heavier yard work done for his Mom. He even got our grass mowed! I will be putting in some time with my Mom, getting her yard work done in the next week or so. Think I will volunteer to do some for Brian’s Mom too. We all enjoy it and it is more fun working together.

Brian reminded me yesterday that I need to take a break sometimes, said he needs me in good shape. I agreed and here it is 4 o’clock and I have not had lunch yet… Sure did get a lot done today though;)

Statistics: Posted by rj5156 — Tue Apr 25, 2017 3:19 pm

Got all my technical problems taken care of. I am totally portable and fully functional – and running on almost nothing for power!!! Doesn’t get much better in my world:) Had to accept the cloud storage to get there. The tablet does not support a flash drive. I looked pretty hard at “rooting” it, which would allow me to use the external storage but also void my warrenty. If I had understood all that BEFORE I picked up the tablet for cheap I might have shopped harder and paid more for it but this is working for me. All I do is photos and text for the most part. I synced a gamail account and installed the photobucket app on the android devices. Off and running!

I even installed the kindle and nook apps in the end. No info on this device and it is about the size of a book. Not used it much yet but I am seeing I will love it! I’ve resisted the ebook thing for a long time but I am there now.

I think it was worth it. I can keep email up for Mom, it’s her preferred communication. She never learned to love texting or chatting. She can sure enjoy a few hours on the phone too, and I think we’ve got that in good working order at last.

Statistics: Posted by rj5156 — Fri Apr 21, 2017 8:09 am

The dry goods business is not very interesting… When I got started on the spices I got a nasty surprise. Brand new bottle of mace I found on sale, never been used. The new cardboard seals on the new and improved flip-top jars have not been sealed very well. I am underwhelmed and irritated. We have just about finished replacing our spice collection and to have something go bad before we can even use it is a major bummer!

Tried to get a shot showing the clumped mess in the bottle. Very sad.

This arrangement is not going to work. We do fight some with humidity and I am not planning to lose any more spices. Individually they may not cost much (though some sure do!) but the collection is pretty expensive overall!

It took me another day but I got them ALL sealed in jars under just light vacuum. Won’t be finding rocks of tomato powder, garlic powder, etc. now! We might not own every spice and herb known yet, but we are closing in on it. We really love to use them too.

Statistics: Posted by rj5156 — Wed Apr 19, 2017 2:20 pm

It took Gabby a couple weeks to get back up to speed. She was not even interested in food at first. Tom does not especially like dogfood but he is helping Gabby be interested here.

And being company with her while she eats it. He has come a long ways since he arrived here. He is not just tolerating the dogs, now they are friends. I was thankful. We had not been able to coax her to eat anything ourselves.

She finally tucked in like she liked it, and Tom left her to it.

Everyone was worried about Gabby. Rambo is just touching her with his paw here, that’s about as much as she can stand. They would all love to get her down and wallow her but she does NOT think that is fun!

Statistics: Posted by rj5156 — Wed Apr 19, 2017 2:19 pm

Thought we were losing our Gabby dog a couple weeks ago. She slept for days, we actually had to pick her up to move her and she slept through it. We thought she was just shutting down. She IS ancient. She got back up. Tom was an unexpected ally and helped coax her to eat. Now she is back to her usual self! Amazing.

Hanging out with her friends.

Statistics: Posted by rj5156 — Wed Apr 19, 2017 2:17 pm

What’s up at our place.

Squaw root
Conopholis americana
Orobanchaceae (Broomrape Family)

Mushroom hunters probably recognize this one. It grows as a parasite on oak roots, does not photosynthesize. It is reported to be edible, and used for women’s troubles, hence the common name.

Lots more info here:

http://www.psu.edu/dept/nkbiology/natur … wroot.html

Statistics: Posted by rj5156 — Wed Apr 12, 2017 8:37 am

Feverfew
Tanacetum parthenium L.
Asteraceae

Feverfew is already getting big!

It is a member of the aster family and allergies are fairly common. It should not be used by those taking aspirin or blood thinners. I took this, dried in capsules, three each day, for many years. I never had a migraine while taking it and had them often without it. Doesn’t seem to work for everyone. As a bonus it helped my arthritis and PMS. I finally outgrew migraines, mostly. I may have one once or twice a year now. I did stop taking it daily some years ago. It is said to help with migraines even in the acute phase. Next time I have one I will try that and let you know how it works for me. Number of other uses listed on this site:

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3210009/

I will save seeds to share this year. Post about what I get collected when I get it done.

Statistics: Posted by rj5156 — Wed Apr 12, 2017 8:35 am

I am closing in on the techie stuff. Got all our devices talking bluetooth except the iphone, which will not do that. At least I can get the photos off the phone and onto a computer. Got most of the accounts I need for all the google play and istore and so on set up. Not managed to get an itunes account set up yet and we probably need to set up a shared account at some point.

Think I have all my usual sites with login and password info going again. Not gotten the cloud stuff going but I think it’s on the list. I DO have google drive, we’ve got some dropbox and airdrop stuff that would help us share data and info between our phones and computers that neither of us has set up yet but it’s on the list. Still trying to get processed to go ad-free with photobucket. Hacking up hairballs over that one but surely if I persist I can get there.

Ordered a micro USB to standard USB adapter. Should let me use a thumb drive in almost all our devices. I am learning to save things to the thumb dive each time for backup. Lot faster than trying to remember which device I used to do something and find a file on it later. Saves time doing backups too.

Got a bluetooth keyboard. Works great. Happy with that. Evaluating book readers. Kindle is pretty darned nosy about what it wants access to. Of course I have NO data on the device I want to put the reader on so it’s only a matter of principle. Still.

Brian has discovered itunes and apps. Think he finally got the topographical map of the ENTIRE United States downloaded. He’s getting quite an eclectic music selection too. He sent the Syd bird into dancing and singing transports of joy with his new bluetooth speaker Sunday. Don’t think he’d ever experienced the sing-along cockatoo. He’s running on the three month free trial and didn’t think to set it up for the family sharing. He gets frustrated with it fairly quickly too…

I am trying to warm up to the iphone. I may have figured out how to send a text to my Mother on my iphone without having to set up an email address today. THAT has been driving me nuts.

Found the iHandy Carpenter apps and now own the set, ruler, protractor, carpenter’s level, surface level and plum bob. Brian will be jealous. Syd is right. That DOES make it better! Starting to shop me some tunes for the first time since DRM started. I used to buy music online.

See if I can get a propitiatory cords and for jacking the audio out. Looking more seriously at bluetooth speakers myself because the small one Brian got so he can hear his phone for GPS directions and such really impressed me a lot. Like some BIG ones, at least a pair of them. And some mid-size and some smaller ones, and high shelves around the house to put them on. I grew up with a real house-shaking, neighbor irritating sound system and I can sure enjoy me some LOUD!!!

Wondering if anything I’ve got will talk with the new gadgets.
I’ve been right there on computer sound for a lot of years and only lost track of that in recent years when the music industry started with that Digital Rights Management nonsense and I could not transfer my music between devices without downgrading it.

Kicking and screaming into the modern day technology.

Statistics: Posted by rj5156 — Tue Apr 11, 2017 4:07 pm

It is officially spring!!! We do spoil our toads. Most of them like to be held and petted. Especially when it’s still cool out! All the creatures love Brian. He reported that these guys didn’t even pee on him!

Wondering if this is a Solomon’s Seal, or a false one? Watch it and see.

Close-up of the blooms. Pretty!

Applemint we planted in a big pot last year. It’s the first one up and if I remember to cut it I may get several harvests from it this year.

Statistics: Posted by rj5156 — Tue Apr 11, 2017 2:19 pm

We found asparagus cheap, cheap. Got two pounds. Steamed one and ate it right away! Found a recipe to ferment the rest. Tips down, 1 tablespoon of non-iodized salt per quart of filtered water, think we used 10 or 12 cloves of smashed garlic and an entire pack of fresh dill from walmart. Added the dill several days into it, put it in a piece of cheesecloth and shoved it in the top, covered it all back up and let it run another week.

Here it is a couple days ago. Just about suits us. Let it go a couple more days, I’ll take the weight bag out, remove the dill and tuck it in the fridge today or tomorrow. Wonderful crunch! Classic garlic / dill flavor! Gotta get an asparagus bed in for sure!

This is why stetting up a desktop computer is a problem right now. I have pretty much filled the prep table in front of the windows with the desktop and accessories today and there just has not been room for that with what I’ve been doing. I work in stages, rotate around through the day. Asking a lot of my poor, sore hands, with prepping the ground for the Richter’s herb order and hand-sealing jars with the brake bleeder. Our chamber type sealer doesn’t really adjust for lower vacuums. It has not done anything pretty with powdered stuff either, no matter what I try.

I am only pulling maybe 8 inches of mercury on the small jars and I increase it as the jar size goes up but for short-term I’m not going for anything over 20. The vacuum sealer pulls 28. I cannot remove the lids reasonably at that and do not think it is necessary for what I’m doing now. I want something that is easy to use and reseal. Once this is done it will be a walk in the park to keep it up. Meantime, it is an unbelievable mess! Closing in on it. Once I see how big the pile is in various categories we’ll be on our way to figuring out what we need for a place to put it!

Here I’m working on our bulk herbs. Most of those came double bagged, clear plastic inside mylar. Very durable storage but not very usable. I am filling quarter pint jars of things we’ll use everyday, quarts and half gallons for things like herb teas and longer-term storage of bulk herbs.

It takes a while. Some fun and games with “will it fit?” entertain the cockatoo.

I am decent at the game but still lose sometimes. Object is to get the jars as full as possible – without having anything left over. I already sealed a quarter pint jar of white pepper and the rest of the pack went into a pint and a half jar. Just.

Buying herbs by the pound and storing them by volume has been a crapshoot. A pound of ground pepper is not nearly so much volume as a pound of whole peppercorns. We do try to shop accordingly but when it is only a couple dollars more to get a pound than a smaller amount, we tend to cave and get the better value.

We are using half-gallon, quart, pint and a half, half pint and quarter pint jar sizes. All of them in other words. Half-gallon is quite big enough. We can use bags and buckets for larger volumes. Looking at that but we are not ready for that phase yet.

I am starting to think about inventorying it. We never got that collected before but it is looking like it might help us buy in bulk, much less often.

Thinking three jars on their side is a good use of a cabinet division. We can slot the cabinets so we can move shelves and dividers of course, and it will be a lot easier to do from the start than it would have to go back and change it later.

Recall we were just about ready to take on some finish work in our home, including building kitchen cabinets, when we had the fire. Perhaps it is better we did not get that done. Think we’ll be happier with what we get in the end? We will just live with what we have for a while and see how it shakes out. Get an idea for what we use most often and how much of it we go through.

Statistics: Posted by rj5156 — Tue Apr 11, 2017 2:12 pm

Rambo is the beloved kitty dog. We have no idea why. Cleo crept up on him when he was sleeping soundly. She wriggled in and got all comfy between his legs with her furry little butt tucked snugly against his chest.

Rambo does not love quite that much closeness which is why Cleo just waits until he is asleep. I thought I was going to get a picture but Rambo heard me and woke up. He lifted one leg off Cleo and scooted away some. Cleo wasn’t giving it up easily. She scooted right along with him!

Still working on pictures with Syd bird. Gave her a piece of chicken to keep her busy, thought I’d snap a quick picture.

Syd has not dropped the chicken, but she’s moving in on the camera.

She’s still got the chicken. And she is licking the camera. Sigh.

Statistics: Posted by rj5156 — Tue Apr 11, 2017 1:50 pm