Beautifying a chain link fence

Years ago I found some ideas for making a chain link fence beautiful.  It was mainly photos on Pinterest.  And I was intrigued.

I looked and looked for directions and guidance on materials, etc.  Nothing.

I thought about it several times over the years. And yesterday (back on Pinterest, of course) I found some more ideas!!!

This first photo is what I was looking at originally.  But this is a much closer view and you can tell that this is not added to an ordinary chain link fence.  It was created from the chain link metal in the first place.  I have no idea what this product costs, but I am sure it's not cheap.  It's bound to be worth a lot of $$$ with all the engineering, planning, machinery to create such a thing.

Then I came across this one.  See, it's just cute little crocheted squares made to fit and then sewn on.  I have seen these in several different designs.  Like flowers or snowflakes.  Whatever you can think of, you can make it fit.

And THEN I found this!  Woo Hoo!  Take a look at this!  Cross Stitch over chainlink squares.  I love this idea.  Any needlepoint or cross stitch pattern you have can be transformed to a chain link fence. I have some thinking to do on this.  Materials, some kind of a large curved C-shaped needle, that sort of thing.  But this is do-able!!

Depression, Part Two

That rambling post from yesterday was not very well thought out, mostly stream of consciousness rambling, but necessary.  I just don't understand how everyone became so hateful and Us v. Them. Is it social media and all the fake news and Russian bots messing with every one's minds?  Who knows? How is it possible to prove or disprove any of these things?

I do know that when I bring up how I feel to anyone, especially people in my family, they immediately go on the defense and start the whole "Yeah, well what about Bill Clinton?" or even worse my own mother pulled this shit on me "We put up with 8 years of Obama, you can live through 4 years of Trump".

Why does talking about how awful one person is mean we have to compare and contrast to anyone else?  Just recognize that you have backed a losing horse and get off of it and start again with more knowledge and choose better.  I don't believe our country will be able to recover from much more of this administration. It is unbelievable the damage that has already been started, the relationships with other countries that have been eroded.  We have lost all credibility and no way are we considered the number one country in the world, a world power and all that. There is not one area of our lives that hasn't been negatively affected.  I am beyond scared and truly do not know where we can go from here.

In the good news column we have some good choices for the next election to put up as candidates to help right this ship.  We have Elizabeth Warren, Julian Castro (our former mayor and hometown favorite), possibly Beto O'Rourke (we should hear more about this in the coming weeks), and a host of others are still reviewing their options.  Surely, we can find 2 great, dynamic, strong candidates to get us back on track.  I would love to see Cory Booker and Kamala Harris get in this.

Today is the Women's March, the 3rd annual.  And sadly, I did not make it to ours.  Our local march turned into a rally and we had cold weather blow in overnight and I wasn't able to get there.  They changed it to a rally because the date fell 2 days before the Martin Luther King March on Monday. The MLK march here is usually the largest or one of the largest in the country.  They expect at least 300,000 participants.  So, the Women's March kind of got lost this year.

If you are experiencing these same emotions and feelings and have any words or advice to help, please share in the comments.  I need to find some healthy coping skills.  Thanks for coming by and reading.

The Reason for my Depression

Let's face it, I have been depressed and full of anxiety since the damn election 2 years ago. I am so bewildered that about half of the citizens of this country thought that Hillary was such a horrible choice they would rather elect and support the worst man alive. It baffles me.  Hillary was not my first choice. But she was the one the powers that be determined at the Democratic National Convention we were going to have.  I am still pissed about how all of that went down.  But that's not the issue here. In my head I kept thinking this must be like when Minnesota went and voted for Jesse Ventura for governor not realizing that he would REALLY THEN BE THEIR GOVERNOR.  Letting the general public vote is a crap shoot, that's the truth. But think of the alternatives.  This is still infinitely better than most.

When I was a girl I read Diary of Anne Frank and like most everyone I wondered how on earth could such a thing happen.  How could a country like Germany install a government that created such evil and everyone stood around and watched?  How could that happen?  Where were the good people who opposed this? And of course, it was not that simple. Things begin one way and present themselves as one thing and then the darker side emerges when enough people seem to be on board.  We all know this.

If you want to educate yourself about what is happening here and now in this country of ours, just Google comparisons of 1930s Germany to present-day USA and spend the next few weeks of your life reading how many leading scholars of the holocaust have already seen this and are frankly, worried and concerned about how we are ignoring the warnings.  For example: https://www.vox.com/policy-and-politics/2018/10/5/17940610/trump-hitler-history-historian

So, how do we navigate this?  How do we do our part to keep shining a light and holding up the mirror and maintain any sort of hopefulness?  This is something my friends and I discuss at length. We are not doing well.  I am participating at a much higher level than I previously did going to marches, protests, rallies, working on political campaigns, and pointing out when the emperor is going around naked.  And it takes it's toll on me.  I have to take days and weeks and not read the news and try to stay away from it to try and feel normal and not so depleted.

It has been 2 years now and I have tried so hard, feeling like I am bending over backwards to understand what is going on with the other half. Why do they feel this is their best option?  Why do they STILL support this horrible man and his policies?  Are they all the same as him?  Do I really want to believe that half of of this country's populace are racist, misogynistic assholes who only think of themselves?  That can't be right. If it is, then how did this come to pass?  How is it that people I know and love and have always thought of as intelligent, and reasonable are now championing the ideas and policies that are the opposite of that?  Does that mean I have been naive and never really knew any of them?

The point for me is that I now have no trust in people who continue to support this presidency. I am leery of things they tell me.  I don't believe they have my back, nor do they have my best interests at heart. So, what do I do with this?  Do I go around unfriending people left and right on social media and only see things I agree with?  If I unfriend people am I also unfriending them in real life? And is it really in my best interest to not see things from all perspectives?

I am in uncharted waters here.  I don't know what to do.  I do know that my feelings about all of this are overwhelming me and I need some resolution.

My voting and activism centers around 3 issues.  I support women's rights (and that includes women's right to choose safe, legal abortion), LGBTQ rights, and environmental issues.  I believe all humans should have the same rights no matter your gender and that we all have a responsibility to keep this planet clean and safe for future generations. I believe this to be the very basic tenets to operate from and everything else is secondary. And we all know that the current administration is chipping away at all 3 of these issues.  We had made good headway over the last 10 years or so but this won't be the case by the end of this presidency. Every time I look at my grandchildren I feel shame at what questions they will have for me in 20 years about what I did or didn't do to make things better and how I could have done better.

I have no answers, only more and more questions.  And more anxiety and more depression over the state of things.

Compact Follow Up

Okay, full disclosure here, I have lumped a WHOLE BUNCH of things in to this one idea for myself for the year and I am now completely overwhelmed.

1. Yes, I am committed to the Compact and reducing my purchasing of new items. Yes, I am staying within the guidelines as much as possible.

But I also said I would do a Freezer/Pantry challenge in which I am using up all the food in my freezer and pantry rather than buying something else to prepare for dinner. So there's that.

Then I agreed to a Savings Challenge of seeing how much I could put away in my savings account for the year.  My goal is $5000.  I think this is very conservative and do-able.  But I haven't been accountable in that I didn't write down my starting balance and make note of each deposit.  I think I need to get some of this written down so that I can track where my savings are coming from.

And on top of this!  I signed up on the cleaning-decluttering daily challenge.  Daily is just too much. I  have not been able to commit to this.  I would bet that I haven't even opened this week's daily emails due to the fact that I have been babysitting all week and this is the first time I have been on the computer since last week.  So, I can't very well do the challenge when I haven't even SEEN the challenge.  It's too much.

This is for my own accountability.  But I will try to keep regular updates to stay on track.

Recommitting to The Compact and to Decluttering

Here I am again!

I am going to post these thing separately for ease of searching them out later.  10 years ago in January of 2007 I heard about The Compact, a group of people in San Francisco who made a commitment to not buying anything new for the calendar year.  I signed up on the yahoo group (there are still about 10,000 people participating in that group) and started and education.  Boy, did I learn a LOT!  There are so many ways to look around and find a used item or make do or borrow or barter or any number of ways to do something other than just buy a new whatever-it-is.

What goes hand in hand with not buying new things is taking really good care of your old things. Also, I found a TON of ways to do the environmental thing rather than the easy things.  Such as:

*Use cloth napkins rather than buying and throwing away paper ones. I guarantee you have cloth napkins, or bandanas, or wash cloths or and old table cloth that has a hole/stain in it that you could cut up and hem and make napkins.  I have not bought a single paper napkin in 10 years.  I haven't bought any new cloth napkins either.  I already had some and I have found some in estate sales and added to the pile.  Just a few extra napkins added to a load of laundry will cost you no more in water, soap or electricity.  Plus they are much nicer.

*Recycle everything that you don't compost.  Buy foods with as little packaging as possible.  When you buy food with no packaging you are automatically buying your food as close to its natural form as you can get it.  That means you aren't buying crap for your body, either!  Yay!  I have been known to dig through the garbage and move things to the recycle bin or to the compost bucket.

Here's a short list of things that I throw in the compost bucket, things that no longer go in my trash:
Toilet paper cores, Paper towel cores, used tissues, shredded paper, dead plants, flowers, coffee grounds, tea bags, egg shells, tamale husks.

Now, picture your trash can and take all those items and compost them.  Then start looking for things to recycle, like oatmeal boxes, glass bottles, plastic bottles.  If you get those things out of the trash, look how small your trash pile is now!  It's awesome.

Anyhoo, I have back-slid quite a ways from my Compacty ways and I am now publicly making a recommitment to get back in to that.  I will post here regularly (not exactly sure how often) and see what I am adding to my list.

In addition to getting Compacty, I found a decluttering challenge called JanuaryCure 2018. Go here to see what is happening with that one.  I signed up for it and today's challenge is to clean out a drawer.  Any drawer.  Freezer drawer, desk drawer, junk drawer, dresser drawer, any drawer. Dump it out, see what you can throw away, recycle, put in its rightful place, clean the drawer inside and then neatly put in the contents that need to live there.  I will be doing that here in just a bit as soon as I select which of my cluttered drawers deserves the honor of being the first one decluttered!

Let me know if you are interested in either getting Compacty in your ways or in decluttering your way through 2018.  I would love to hear from you.

I said I wouldn't do it, and then I couldn't help myself

You know those people who carefully analyze and then really think out their decisions based on facts and information BEFORE they figure out which candidate and which issues to support?

Yeah, me neither.

That's because people tend to get all emotional and stupid when it comes to political issues.  Much like religious ones.  Funny how that happens here in the U.S. of A. since we are suppoed to have this big separation of church and state.

I have plenty of friends who say things like "Oh, I know so-and-so and I are at polar opposites on such-and-such issue, but we just agree to disagree."

Really?  How the hell does that work?  I am having a really hard time doing this.  I don't want to just be all amicable and sweet about people who have their heads up their asses.  Get your head out of your ass!  Then we can just agree!!!!  No need for any disagreement at all.

The upcoming presidential elections (which, by the by, seem to have been going on for the last 100 years.  Good Lord, why do they start so soon after the LAST one???) are driving me nuts.

For me, I have narrowed it down to a couple of key issues.

1. Women's rights

2. LGBTQ rights

3. Health care

4. Environment

I have found that I can't care about every. single. thing. they bring up.   It just makes my life unmanageable when I have way too many things to deal with.  These are my top 4 that I can NOT stand idly by and let these things get trampled.  It would just be unacceptable for these top 4 to go by the wayside.

So, this being said, if you and I are at those polar opposites on these issues, I don't think I can talk to you any more.  If you, deep in your heart, believe that women are not equal to men and deserving of equal rights, pay and benefits.  I, as a woman, don't need you in my life.  How could you possibly have my best interest at heart if you don't think I am equal and worthy?

Same goes for the LGBTQ stance.  If you don't believe that all of us, and I mean all, not just the hetero ones of us, are entitled to the same bill of rights.  I don't need you in my life.  If you are supporting candidates, political parties, ideals and platforms that will take away the few hard-won rights that affect the gay community, then why on earth would I want to have this kind of less-than thinking around me?  If you can look at my beautiful, caring, precious daughter and see a person who is not-quite-as-deserving as the next person, well then, not only don't I need you, but I won't be missing your bigoted small-minded ass.

I am choosing to surround myself with positivity and people who are loving, kind and generous.  Truth be told, since I am on the other side of 50 now, I don't see any reason to have intolerant bullies and bigots in my life.  I am suffering no fools, as they say.

I will be living my life in a way that I think God intended, doing for others, loving people less fortunate, and helping where I can.  I will be offering money, food, and whatever I can to help the homeless be they people or animals.  I am trying to be a living example of a loving, caring extension of my beliefs.

What I won't be doing is trying to take something away from others, I won't be trying to trample your rights and judging you to be less-than.  My heart aches at all the meanness and bullshit that has been going on and people getting caught up in the rhetoric and refusing to look at the underlying truths.

I will be cleaning out my actual and virtual friend lists.  I just can't read the non-sensical crap coming out on a daily, no, an almost hourly basis any more.  And then I will get back to trying to be clever tomorrow.

Book Review

I am reviewing a book I only started last night!!!


I am barely into this and am imagining the possiblilities for my own self.

Believe it or don't, this book has it's own trailer on youtube.  Am I the last person on earth to know that this happens?

Now that you have watched it and have an inkling of what this book is about, let me move on with my own thoughts about what I am reading.

Jen Hatmaker makes the choice to do this project and document what she finds in order to remove clutter from her mind and her life in order to make room for God and his message.  I think this is awesome. She is on the path to discovering that things, possessions, filling your life and your mind with all this crap only slows you down and impedes you finding your purpose.  Finding why you were born.  You and your own set of talents and gifts were born to do something, to be the best you there is.  To possibly teach or be a lesson for someone else.

But living our lives the way we do with so much STUFF doesn't help us achieve our purpose.  All it does is cloud things over and distract us.

I love how she lays out how each month will work and has her group of women she calls her Council to help her find what the boundaries of each should be.  They also hold her accountable and go on the journey with her each in their own way.

I love how she allows herself the freedom to complain and bend the rules or break them when necessary. And then spend some time reflecting over each decision and find the lesson.

The first month is food.  She did not force her kids to do the first couple of months but then the rest were all done as a whole family.  For the food she worked out a nutritious gang of 7 foods and stuck to it and tried to find recipes to incorporate as many as possible.  The only seasonings, condiments allowed were salt and pepper.  And so Jen opted to make those 7 foods as healthy as possible and bought local, organic and high quality foods.  Her findings over this month were really inspiring.

The second month was clothes.  Holy moly!  I am sure a lot of people are like me and have a huge closet full of things and yet only wear a tiny fraction of what is there.  Jen went through all the closets in her home and guesstimated the amount of items and multiplied that by $20 for each and got a staggering figure of how much money is just hanging there in the closet, unloved, and unneeded.  That's a sobering idea, isn't it?

And let me tell you, I have waaaaay more hanging in my closet than she did!

Right now I am most of the way through her Month 3 of no media, meaning no t.v., no facebook, no texting, no Wii, no screentime except for work and school.  So the family are forced to deal with each other face to face.  They go find things to do, like bike riding, playing ball outside, really good intereactions with each other rather than mindlessly staring at a screen.

I am wondering as I think about the first 3 chapters how this is going to manifest itself in my life.  Am I willing to be this drastic in any area of my life, much less 7 different ones?

I don't know.  I will continue mulling it over and let you know as things unfold.

New Product!!

Girls, you are going to be so excited (and Up-cited too!) when you hear what I have to tell you.

You know how we all love Girl Scout cookies?  We all have our favorites.  And you can only get them once a year.  And then those darn cookies are glued to your ass for the next 12 months?  You know what I am talking about.


Look at this!!

Those are Girl Scout Cookie Lip Smackers!   Mmmmmm.

All the goodness of the cookies, none of the calories.

Stocking Stuffers!

Available at Claire's and at the Evil Empire Sprawl-Mart.  But please, go buy yours at Claire's.

I will be heading out there today.

Oh, and before I do head out I had something to tell you.  I bought the Market Pantry (Target brand) of Ro-Tel to put in a dish since I don't buy Ro-Tel any longer and guess what?

NO WHITE BPA CARCINOGENS!!!

Hooray for Target!

Guess who will be getting a glowing atta-boy from me today?

Also, I have had such wonderful experiences lately shopping in Lowe's doing all these home projects that I went to their website to see if I could let them know.  And right there under customer service is a little link to click on for "Employee Compliments".  They made the shopping experience pleasant and then they made it really easy to let them know.  Win, Win on that one.

And this is why I heart the Lowe's.

Plastic Ban Day 9

I feel like I am being thwarted at every turn.  Honestly, you can't pick up one damn thing without plastic being a part of it.  I got so damn grumpy at the store yesterday that I barely bought anything on my list.

First off, they didn't have the Nido powdered milk that I was going to get.  And I was not going to be forced to buy an inferior product that I don't know.  So no milk at all.

Then I went down the laundry soap aisle trying to decide what to get.  I had made up my mind to just get the Tide in a box that only has the plastic scoop rather than other options that had more plastic.  And do you know what?  They were totally out of Tide for the HE washers.  Out.  None.  Not one flipping box!  So I was forced to look at the liquids in the PLASTIC bottles.  The usual Tide or Cheer come in a giant bottle where as I could get the Method brand that is highly concentrated and comes in a much tinier plastic bottle (that has refills) for the same number of loads.  And I caved and bought that one.

Further down the aisle is the dish soap.  In this store there is no such thing as dish soap in anything other than plastic.  It was all plastic, plastic and more plastic.

I got so disgusted by the whole process that I grabbed some kitty treats and left.

I am going to have to re-address this issue tomorrow.  I don't know what my options are going to be. If you have any suggestions, please feel free, I can certainly use some encouragement.

Plastic Ban Day 8

I was traveling for 3 days and let me just say that road trips are NOT conducive to reducing plastic.  The very first thing that happened was filling up the car with gas and picking up a glass bottle of Mocha Frappuchino to drink on the road.  While it is a glass bottle with a metal top it was COVERED in plastic wrap that had to come off.  Then I had a straw.

2 pieces of plastic for one drink.

First stop of the trip was at Buc-ees which is my favorite place to stop on any road trip!  Love the Buc-ees! They have reasonably priced gas, they have the cleanest restrooms with 72 stalls and the store goes on forever!  Miles and miles of the best tasting stuff and also the cutest stuff with Buc-ee beaver on it.  It is just too much fun to go to Buc-ees.

And my favorite thing there is the Beaver Nuggets.  It's a junk food item they make that tastes like a cross between Cap'n Crunch, Corn Pops and Poppycock.  You just know this stuff is waaaaay bad for you, and yet?  you can't stop eating it!

Beaver Nuggets?  They come in a damn plastic bag.  Plus I got a fountain drink of iced tea with a splash of lemonade.  This was in a tall styrofoam cup with a plastic top and a straw.  What's my plastic total for the day?  4 plastics and 1 styrofoam.  And I have only been gone from the house a little over an hour!

That was it for that day. But the return trip home was much the same, a couple of road trip cups with plastic tops and straws.

I was saving all my plastic stuff in a container to photograph and show you at the end of the month, but I did not save the stuff from the beginning of the trip and keep it in the car for 3 days to bring home and photograph.  So my pile will look smaller than it actually is.

Today I will hit the grocery store and have to make the hard decisions on some items.  I am 99% sure that I will be bringing home the Nido brand powdered milk that has zero plastic, but I don't know about the laundry soap.  I will have to check out all the packaging when I get there.

Current total: 6 plastics and 2 styrofoams.

Day 3 Plastic No More

Here it is Day 3 of the Plastic No More Challenge.  I have done a really good job of limiting or eliminating plastic coming in to my home so far.  Here's the lowdown on how I have fared.

1. I haven't had to grocery shop yet.  So that is good.

2. I have dedicated a small bucket to collect any plastic that I do end up with and will take pics of it so you can see what I am dealing with.  For example, the first thing to go in the bucket is the plastic pull strip from around the top of the frozen juice concentrate paper can thing.  The paper gets composted, leaving just the tear strip and the two metal ends to dispose of.

3. When we run out of frozen juice to use, I am buying a bag of oranges and setting them and the juicer out on the counter.  You want juice?  Cut yourself 2 oranges and squeeze them.  Now, wasn't that fast and easy!  Not to mention, good tasting and better for you.

4. I am going to have to go back to making my own laundry detergent when I run out of the liquid we currently have.  The borax and the washing soda are in paper board cartons but the soap to grate is in a clear plastic wrapper.  Alternatively, I can buy a box of Tide powder, but it comes with a plastic scoop inside.  Either way, there will be a bit of plastic to go in the bucket.

5. When we run out of milk, I will have to decide which is the lesser of the evils.
     A. Gallon of milk in a plastic jug, cheaper cost-wise.
     B. Half gallons in the waxed paper cartons, but they have a plastic spigot and cap.
     C. Tetra-pak liters that are completely non-recyclable and still have a plastic top.
     D. Can of evaporated milk and dilute it.  Cost-wise this isn't bad, but taste-wise?  Gaaahhgg!
     E. Box of powdered milk.  I like the Nido milk from Mexico that is whole milk rather than the non-fat kind they sell here in the U.S.  It comes in a metal can with a metal top.  So this might be the way to go. I am the only one who drinks milk or puts it on cereal, so I am just pleasing myself anyway.

****Ding ding ding!!! We might have a winner on this deal!

6. Yesterday I bought 6 books in Japanese from my local used book store to gift my nephew who is studying Japanese in college.  And before my brain had kicked into gear I was out the door with all those books in a damn plastic bag.  Grrrrr.

I am blaming the lady who was in line behind me.  She distracted me by being a wiener and being wrong.  Here's what happened:  She walked in whilst I was at the check-out counter having the guy look up the ISBN number of all these Japanese books to make sure they were in fact Japanese and not Chinese.  Also to make sure they weren't porn or something I didn't want to be gifting my nephew.  So the lady walks in and looks all impatient and stands there with a paper.  The dude working there  looks up from the computer and says to her, "I'll be right with you."

She says "I am looking for books by (consults her paper) Maud Lucy Montgomery"

He says "Who????"

I butt in and said "She wrote the Anne of Green Gable series. They should be in young teenager section back there" and pointed in the right direction.

Then I said "I believe her name is Lucy Maud Montgomery, in case you can't find it the way you have it".

She looked me straight in the eye and said "No.  Her name was Maud.  She just went by LUCY!"

Okaay.

Which is what I said to her. And then went back to my business of making sure I had Japanese and not Chinese and not porn.

So see what I mean about being flustered when I grabbed my bag and left?

Anyhoo, get this.  I went next door to the Bubble Tea place and met up with the rest of my group and we decided to head over to Goodwill.  So I go and put my books in the car and backed out of my parking space and was headed up the aisle of the parking lot when the same lady was coming towards me in her car waved me down.  I rolled down my window and she said, "I found what I was looking for. And I wanted to apologize for correcting you.  You were right."

Awwww.  Wasn't that nice?  Most people would never bother to do that.  Afterwards I said to myself, I should have apologized to her for butting my fat nose into her business in the first place.

I get to Goodwill and what did I find?  A 20th Anniversary edition of Trivial Pursuit in very good, damn near brand-new condition.  That's what I found!

In case you don't know this about me, I love games.  And I love, love, love Trivial Pursuit games.  And I don't have this edition.  And it was marked 1.99.

Who do you think got herself a new Trivial Pursuit game?  And who do you think played the game with Sparky last night and WON?

And who do you think remembered to tell the GW clerk to keep her plastic bag and carried her own game out in her own little hands?

Have a great plastic-free day!

Count so far:
Plastic - 2 items

Plastic No More

My compact/blog friend Julia Park Tracey has created a challenge for herself and her family for the month of June. Go here to read about it.  I am going to step out and say that I too will try to do this as well.

In a nutshell, it is don't bring anything plastic into your house for one month.  Nothing.  No plastic of any kind.  No tags, no wrappers, nothing. Zip, nada, zilch.

No plastic.

That's the rules.  This is going to be one touch challenge, my friends.  Be aware of every single thing you touch.  Everything you pick up.  Tough.

And you know what they say; When the going gets tough, the tough stick it out and don't bring home any plastic!

At least, that's what they could say!

I will post a weekly update here to let you know how things are going.  Are you willing to take this challenge?  If so, let me know how it goes.

Good luck everyone!

What's on my nightstand, so to speak

Y'all remember that I was sick with the head, chest, coughing virus thing for damn near FOUR WEEKS? Do you further remember that the meds and the coughing made it impossible to sleep?  How to while away the hours while the rest of the house slept was my dilemma.

Kindle to the rescue!


Oh, how I love my Kindle.  I love me some regular hardbound books, don't get me wrong.  I hold the written word in very high esteem.

So, I have been reading.  A lot.  I finally forced myself to read the Girl with the Dragon Tattoo trilogy.  I had tried and tried to start the first one, but it just wasn't striking my fancy.  Then finally, it did.

It's a crying shame that they were published posthumously.  I am sure he might have had a couple more good books in him.

Then I read this:

I can't remember who recommended this book to me, but thank you to whomever it was.  This was a really interesting read.  And then . . . .  at the end?

There's a conversation with the author and he goes into great detail about how this was one of those novels based on his very own personal family tree.  I really enjoy those historically accurate novels where you start out based in truth and then fill in the blanks with what you think would make a great story.

After that came this one:

Ok, now this book was recommended to me twice.  And when I read the little synopsis, I was immediately leary.  I thought it would be different than what it turned out to be.  So I did what any good Kindle owner would do, I got the free sample chapters to try it out.

Yea for the sample chapters!!

If they can hook you in the first couple of chapters, you are good.  If not, you've only wasted a little time and no money.

Back to Room.  This book was so clever, so intriguing and so gripping I don't even know how the author came up with this.  It does come to some good resolutions, but not so cute and "happily ever after" in a smarmy non-realistic way.

These were both really good books and I can recommend them.  After the dark subject matter of these I decided to go with a more light-hearted read and am currently reading a new Maeve Binchy.  More on it when I finish.

Oh!!  And totally off the subject of books, I got myself a new phone this weekend.  Yea!  I still like my old phone, but it was dying.  Is anyone else irritate that phones seem to be made to last 12 to 18 months while your contract is designed for 24 months?  And then you have to baby your phone along to get to the 24 month?  I am trying to get the hang of the new phone and find all new ringtones and Caller Tunes (as T-Mobile calls them).

In a couple of days it will be April Fools Day.  And that signals the beginning of all sorts of festivities around here!  Spring, wildflower sightings, Fiesta , Poteet Strawberry Festival , Easter, Earth Day , not to mention the NBA PLAYOFFS!!!  Time for our beloved Spurs to rally.  Yea!

Yep, April is a great month.  I swear to you there are at least 2 or 3 things you can find here to do every single day.  Most of them free.  If you are bored, it's because you want to be.

Every few years I update my inventory.  I do a complete inventory of everything in the house.  We have had to do this in the past because of all the international moving we did and keeping the inventory was a chore I took on and if we made a big purchase I would try to take care of entering the item right away from the invoice.  But sadly, since we have been planted for almost 6 years I have neglected my inventory.  So along with the spring cleaning mentality I get the "let's clean up the inventory list" fever. And that is my goal for the rest of this week, to work on the inventory.  Isn't that exciting?  Don't you wish you led the glamourous life I lead?  Real Housewives of SA, here I come!  Heh.

Enjoy your day.  

Front Porch Sittin'

Who sings that country song "Where I come from, lots of front porch sittin'"?  Isn't it Alan Jackson?  He is one handsome, tall drink of water, as people say.  Let's have a look, shall we?

Yep, it's five o'clock somewhere.

Anyhoo . . . .   Back to the front porck sittin' issue.  My house doesn't have a front porch, which saddens me greatly.  I love a porch.  Or a veranda.  Or a patio.  Or a lanai.  Or a courtyard.  Whatever you want to call an outdoor house-adjacent sitting and rocking spot.  I like 'em.

We have a huge backyard with a nice table, chairs and a shade umbrella.  But there's something about sitting out front and waving and saying Hey to the neighbors that is appealing.

Our front yard is also huge.  It might be huger than the backyard, but I have no way of knowing that because I am the world's worst person at spacial perception.  Never let me try to pack your leftovers away in Tupperware, because I will pick the wrong size 48 times and we will have to wash out those other 47 containers.

So back to the huge front yard.  It is bisected by a large semi-circular driveway.  So there is a part that is next to the street that has a stand of live oak trees in the middle.  And there is the section from the driveway up to the house.  That section is cut down the middle by the sidewalk steps that lead up to the house.  This means that there are basically 3 sections to the front yard.  Y'all still with me here?

There are a couple of spots that I have been looking at for possibilities for front yard sitting.  One down in the middle of the stand of trees.  But this is where we hang the hammock so maybe not the best choice.  Then there is a nice flat area under a couple of trees over on the right.  That is the spot I have chosen.

We went down and bought this patio table and chair set that I had been watching in the circulars for some time.  It is a really nice set and seems very sturdy and comfortable.  I will get outside and take some pics of it so you can see what I am talking about.

Last year I had bought Mr. Big Ed a couple of the coolest solar lanterns to hang in the trees you have ever seen.  And he has let those boxes just sit there for months!  Hasn't done a damn thing with them.  So I got them out and hung them in the tree right by the new table and chairs.

Here is a pic of the new lanterns

This photo is from the website of the company that makes these gorgeous things, but these are exactly the two I bought.  And let me tell you how fabulous those silk lanterns look all on their own without the light shining through them.  They are gorgeous!

And since I am bragging on this company, here is a link to their site.  They have all sorts of beautiful solar lanterns.  I think I need about 4 more of them.  They really are spectacular.  Check them out, I think you will like their goods.

Now that I am getting my little front porch sittin' area together, we are using it every single day.  Mr. Big Ed and I have been taking our giant mugs o'tea out there and sitting with the newspaper on Sunday mornings.  And now you know where I am when I am reading the obits!  (It always comes back to the obit reading, doesn't it?)

Questions, queries, things to ponder

I have had to go out shopping recently.  In the old days, that would not even be news-worthy but 4 years ago I started The Compact which I have discussed ad nauseum and which also means I don't shop recreationally any more.  It's a waste of time, $$, resources, etc.  And the truth is . . . I don't need  a damn thing.  How many of us really and truly need anything?  So, shopping is off my list of hobbies.  But I have this nephew who is getting married and this weekend we have a full schedule of festivities. Friday night there are showers followed up by bachelor and bachelorette parties, Bridesmaid luncheon, another shower (hosted by moi, Queen B and my sister Bertha), Sunday is the rehearsal dinner and Monday is the Big Event.  As you can see this will require a lot of clothes.  A lot of different clothes. You can't wear the same damn thing over again to each event and look like a schmuck in all the photos.  And I tried to shop at vintage and thrift stores first before I headed to the mall.

Shopping used to be fun.  It used to be exhilarating.  All those brand new things just waiting to go home with you!  Now?  Not so much.  The store lighting is bad.  You can't match colors worth a damn in those lights and you can't take things outside to check them in the natural sunlight.   The new clothes smell is not the same as it used to be.  Now it is too "chemical-y" and sometimes I have bought things in the last 5 years or so and that strong chemical-y smell never goes away.  Wash all you will, it won't go.  So those things are a HUGE waste of money and an even huger disappointment.  What is that smell?  It can't possibly be good for you to wear it against your skin and breathe it in, whatever it is.

And!  In case that wasn't bad enough, most everything is made in China.  I am trying so hard to live a good life and do the right thing.  Buying Made-in-China crap is definitely NOT doing the right thing.  You don't need me to tell you all the gazillion reasons why we shouldn't do that.  So now try going shopping in a light-hearted mood and think about the fun times you are going to have in the lovely outfits you are trying to buy and then to be assaulted by this smell, bad lighting, salespeople who bathe in cheap perfume and find that 1 out of 10 items is NOT made in China.  That one item?  It was made in Taiwan.  See?  It gets depressing.

Are you depressed yet from just reading this?  I am sorry about that.  I guess my questions here are these:

1. What is that smell?  Is it something sprayed on the clothes?  Is it in the cloth before it is cut and sewn?
2. Do you like to shop?
3. Do you have certain criteria?  Such as no Made-in-China?  Or no man-made fabrics? Or only from Vintage and Thrift stores?
4. How about hand-made items?  Do you sew?  Do you knit?
5. And that brings me to this.  What do you do with your old clothes?  Do you pass them on, like hand-me-downs for kids?  Do you take them to a consignment store?  How about thrift stores?  Or do you cut them up to go into a quilt or a braided rug?

I get really curious to know how other people do things.  Lemme hear from you!  And I will post some pics after the wedding so you can see all the lovely non-smelly, non-made-in-China clothes I ended up wearing!

You want to help? Here is a specific way to make your mark!

I am so excited about this project!  I don't even know what to do with myself.  Rather than trying to explain it all myself, I want you to go HERE.

Please read all the way through and do what you can to help.  I will be cleaning out my bathroom cabinets and sending all that I have.  All the cotton towels anyway.  I had never realized that possibly towels might be made with anything else.  But I will check all the labels before I box them up.

Hurray!  My heart was lifted when I found there is a way, even this small way, that I can contribute to the clean up.

What are you doing for Mother Earth?

It's that time of year again, folks. Yep, a week from today is Earth Day. Do you have plans? Does this day even appear on your radar? Typically, Earth Day falls in the middle of Fiesta. What is Fiesta, you ask? http://www.fiesta-sa.org/ is the link to the Official Goings-On here for the next 2 weeks or so. There is more to do here than you can shake a stick at! Honestly, you can't do 1/4th of all there is fun to do. Loads of parades, contests, concerts, beads, etc. Think of it as a Mexican Mardi Gras that lasts a fortnight!

And in the middle of all the hullaballoo there is an Earth Day celebration at one of the small lakes in town. It is a really nice event. They usually give away small trees till they run out. There is a bunch of booths of people with information about the environment, lots of vegetarian food vendors, music, games and things for the kidlets, gardening (free seeds), water conservation, electricity, pretty much all the stuff you might imagine at an Earth Day event. It is a nice counter-point to all the other Fiesta party things.

Earth Day for me is a good time to take stock of what I am doing, what I could be doing and what things I need to strive to get to in my quest to have a lighter footprint and leave this planet a tid bit better than I found it. I have done a really good job at getting my paper and disposables down to a minimum. My big focus this year is water. There is a show on PBS I have caught a couple of times called State of Tomorrow that addresses all sorts of state-wide issues and one thing I paid particular attention to last week was this: In the coming years we are not going to be experiencing a big decrease in rainfall, HOWEVER we are definitely going to have an increase in temperatures. So the rain we get is going to evaporate more and at a faster pace. Essentially, that means less water overall going into our rivers, lakes, aquifers, yards, rain barrels, everything. Every drop has to count. If it can be saved and used again as gray water, it should be.

I called our local water company and asked about getting the water from my washing machine to my rain barrels instead of in the sewage pipes and they were no help at all. None. First I had to call 3 times to get an actual person. Then the person I got was not the right person. The right person I had left messages for and still to this day have never gotten a call back. I know that this can be done and probably easily, I just can't get from the planning stage to the execution stage. I need to go hang out at a hardware store in the plumbing dept. to find out the names of things so that I can draw up a plan of what I need. I have the Kenmore HE 3t washer and dryer set that are the most awesome machines on the planet. I love my washer and dryer so much!!! I know that I have sold 4 or 5 sets of these and Sears should love me and my efforts on their behalf. And the point of that is that I know my washer uses a paltry 15 gallons of water per wash load. This is opposed to the giant Maytag top loader types that use 45 - 50 gallons!!! Is that insane? I probably do 4 or 5 loads a week. Which in my head translates to 5 x 15 = 75 gallons a week that could be going on my flower beds, lawn, and garden. Did you know or am I the last person on the planet to know that you get billed by the water company for how many gallons come into your house AND for how many leave via sewer pipes? You are paying for water TWICE that you use ONCE. That is why I am trying to find ways to use it twice and not have it go into the sewer where I will get billed for it again. Makes sense to do this, right?

My other little contribution to this is to find some rubbermaid tubs the size of my kitchen sinks to run wash and rinse water in and then dump them on the lawn rather than down the drain. I haven't measured my water usage in the kitchen sink but I am sure it is astronomical. Especially since I am a "water runner". When I get the water to just the right temp I like to leave it on when I am using it because it is such a pain in the ass to get it just right again. This is a really bad habit that drives Rachel Pie up the walls and I am trying to find new ways, so hopefully this will be a thing of the past.

One of my friends told me she is getting married next week on Earth Day and I am now picturing her planting a tree on each of her anniversaries. Isn't that a great idea?

Have a wonderful Earth Day and find a new, small way or a big way to make a better impact on our Mother. I like the idea that we didn't inherit the Earth from our grandparents; we are borrowing it from our grandchildren. Let's keep it clean!

How are you helping the environment? Post some ideas in the comments and let's share new things we can all do.

Random Weekend Stuff

I was quite surprised to see that Paul Harvey of radio fame had died. He was 90 years old, so I am not sure why I would be surprised at his death. But he was an icon and I guess I never thought of him aging. I hope that there will be someone who puts his commentaries online or compiles them on cd or mp3 format for future generations. He will be greatly missed and his passing leaves a great hole that can't be filled.

Saturday Mr. Big Ed and I went to a symposium on environmental issues, energy saving, housing and business and such at the Esperanza Peace and Justice Center: http://www.esperanzacenter.org/
I attend many functions, speaker events, music, plays and things at the Esperanza and I think they are one of the most worthy non-profits in this city. The Peace Market they sponsor on the Friday and Saturday after Thanksgiving is the only place I will go on Black Friday that is shopping related.
Anyhoo, this particular event opened up a lot of food for thought and hopefully that gets translated into action.

Sunday we drove up to Kerrville to see Sparky and spend the afternoon with him. It is so dry and everything is still dead and brown. No green tips of anything sprouting. This drought is serious. It has been close to 18 months or more with no rain to speak of and they are now saying that soon we will go to Stage 4 restrictions. I don't know what that means, but it does sound ominous doesn't it? It is now March and we should have had enough precipitation to see the beginnings of all the lovely Texas wildflowers, but no. If you believe in rain dances, please do one for us.

This means that I have to get busy with my gray water recycling. I have been picturing and trying to work this out in my head for a long time now, and now it is time to implement and take action. There has to be an easy way to get the water from my washing machine out to my rain barrel. I will be getting more information on how to do this. I also want to start pumping the shower and bath water out to the garden. That should be easier to do. I will be sure to post how these projects end up and I hope to remember to start photographing these things as they develop.