Back To Real Life

Nothing like after the holidays, is there? Too much leftovers in the fridge, you keep finding stray decorations and pine needles when you thought you got it all, constant distraction because you know another day off is looming and you can't wait. David took down the Christmas tree (AKA The Tinder Tree) yesterday,  ugh - PILES of pine needles all over! I'm still amazed it was not down to branches and limbs. The front porch remains to be stripped of it's holiday gear but other than that, it's over. Work was one big distraction, a lot of people have taken days off so it was very quiet, I had to squeeze it into two days but just had no motivation. It feels like everything is suspended until after the new year. And during all the holidays we're playing House Shuffle, the house in WV finally sold and we are proud to say we are no longer Mortgage Holders, what a relief not to have money tied up in a house so far away. We are slated to close the foreclosure out here after the beginning of the year so that is still in progress - and then this house needs finished.......

I took Bob for her follow up appointment yesterday, once again hauling that small dog cage because she refuses to get in a cat carrier. It's not heavy, but it is bulky and our vet you have to go up a flight of stairs for the small animal clinic. Bob behaved, the fur on her tummy is coming back and we are to continue to rub lotion on her belly - oh joy. She got her vaccinations this time around, last visit she had a fever and infection so they put them off, but all in all it was an easy and quick visit. Then we headed out to Pier 39 in Astoria to meet up with Kim and Steve for a quick lunch out. The sea lions are still not in, they show up around January or February following the smelt migration. From what I understand the fishermen don't like them because, well, they eat all the smelt. But I like them! So after we got home not much went on, David has some sort of upper respiratory illness which also gave him laryngitis and sometimes when he speaks only the dogs can hear him.

Since he's not feeling well he's been reading alot - still stuck on the Spenser detective series, thank goodness for Overdrive. I started using Overdrive a couple of months ago, it's an app for your local libraries. If you have a library card you can download it and sign in - the audiobooks and ebooks work just like library books. You borrow them for 14 to 21 days, then either you can return it when you're done (which they encourage since there's a waiting list for the popular books) or it returns itself. The downside is if you're not done you have to borrow it again and of course the best sellers can have a wait time of up to 8 weeks.  But if I see something either David or I want to read I just put it on hold and read something else until it's ready.  And it gives you access to ALL the libraries in your area so most of the time the wait is only a week or less. I use the audiobooks in the car since I drive a lot still, it's really a lot of fun. I do still buy some books but I buy a lot less since we've been using the Overdrive - it's pretty easy to use and I love anything that saves me money. That's about all for now, the grocery store calls as we have a ton of cooked ham but not much else. 

One For The Record Books.

Since we had planned on having Brandi and the girls for Christmas, we'd been scrambling to not only get the house ready, but to get it death trap free since we would be hosting two very active 3 year olds. Brandi ended up driving around - the ferry was booked solid but it only took her a little over 4 hours and the girls did very well - this was their first big trip! They were a bit out of their element for about 60 seconds, then started exploring. Molly is not a kid friendly- dog so she ended up in the bedroom when we were home, we tried but realized that it would not be worth it if one of the kids got bit and we would have to put her down for something that was not her fault. We were out everyday and she was out after they went to bed so it was not awful. Plus she was on the bed all day.....anyhoo,enough of that. As you might have suspected our house was a HUGE hit - you can see the horses across the sluice from the upstairs balcony and you can yell to Papa from the inside balcony. They also found Papa's tape measures so we spent a few hours having them pulled and retracted. Bob the Cat was weirdly loving the girls, she was letting them pet her and snuggling - since they love cats it worked out in both directions, I wonder if there were children where Bob came from?

But at some point during the night Delilah's asthma got set off(possibly Bob), Brandi had not thought to bring the inhalers (it's pretty mild) so she and Delilah headed off to the emergency room at 2am for  a treatment and prescription. She didn't want to disturb us so they were there and back before we knew they were gone, I sent Brandi back to bed (Chloe slept through the whole thing) and we played with little Miss Jacked Up On Steroids while everyone slept.  One of  the things we had planned was going to the movies - and the matinee of Frozen 2 was at 11:30am, so after breakfast and getting some sort of organization going off we went. You would be surprised at how many people go to the movies late morning, the theater was about half full and it's never too early for popcorn, is it? If you're wondering how the girls did for their first movie, they did great. They love Frozen and aside from the occasional excited yelling when Elsa and Anna came on screen they made it through the whole movie. And of course we used the bathroom after - they LOVE any public bathroom and Chloe yelled down the hall to Papa that she had Peed in the potty! 

After that  it was off to Joann's so Brandi could get some embroidery floss and the girls each got a doll from Frozen. Yes, we do spoil them - why wouldn't we? No, Target does not take Tricare but the pharmacy in town does so Brandi got that filled. Then it was home and a bath in the giant claw foot tub which is almost large enough for them to paddle around in. Sleeping was never a problem, they hit the rack each night like they'd been on maneuvers all day and we rarely heard a peep out of them

. The next day it was off to Aunt Kim's and Uncle Steve's in Seaside for Christmas Eve fun - Brandi loves to beach comb and the girls like to run around - the ocean here is so big, the driftwood is full logs you can sit on. We brought Kim's dog Piggles so the girls took turns walking him, we looked for sand dollars everyone chatting and taking pictures, it started to rain so we headed home. For lunch it was make your pizza, I think the adults enjoyed that as much as the kids, then presents. Kim made us a beautiful afghan for our home, it's so pretty! She also gave the girls each one of her daughter's dolls from her childhood, they are well loved already. Back home again, a few laps in the claw foot tub and passed out again for the night. We finished wrapping and charging the gifts - the Christmas tree was hanging in there. David bought it early for once and it dried out super fast so we had been limiting lighting it until the girls got here not wanting it to go out in a blaze of glory before Santa arrived. They ate breakfast before they noticed that Santa had been by - then it was on! They're old enough this year to understand it and they attacked the gift pile like a pair of honey badgers, it was a sea of paper and toys.

They loved all their gifts, they got a lot of princess gear, tool sets, books, blocks, games. My mother sent a frog game where you whack the frogs with rubber mallets, if you get annoyed with the other player you just give them a whack and you get the game all to yourself while they're busy tattling. It was so nice having everyone around the table, we had a real Christmas dinner which they pretty much hated, but they are three. I was back to work the next day so David took everyone to Astoria and they went to the Maritime museum and then out to lunch - the girls are so much fun now because you can really do things with them for longer than 11 minutes. They headed back home yesterday morning, I think they were ready to go back home as things have been pretty much nonstop since they arrived. But I have to say this was one of the best Christmases ever, it was a near to perfect as you could get - hopefully next year Jackson and Adam could be here too. I hope everyone else had a wonderful holiday too!

Breath In,Breath Out

Years ago I was having problems with what I thought was a blood pressure issue sending me to my Dr's walk in clinic early am, after work. One day Dr. Carey took my arm, did my blood pressure and said there is NOTHING wrong with you, but stress. You need to find something relaxing to do - at the time I worked across from a yoga studio and thought that was perfect. I got the schedule from them and they had a 5:30 class, I could just stroll across the parking lot and be all zen and stuff, even time to change. I arrived and changed, my future classmates started arriving in, well, not leggings and an old Eddie Bauer tee shirt. Matching yoga outfits with all sorts of yoga accessories - and they all brought their own mats. And Yoga Blocks. That matched. I marked myself as a newbie by using the off the rack stuff supplied by the studio.

 No matter, I was there to de-stress and other mystical stuff. And here was my problem - I cannot deal with doing things slow and methodical, I need to start at X time, run through it and have enough time left over to stop for gas on the way home. 

We started doing beginner poses, breathed through our Chakras, blah blah blah. The second class was worse - I busted out all the moves in under 5 minutes, ripped through all the chakras and was laying there thinking about how much longer it would be before we were done. The yoga instructor did talk to me, apparently there is no such thing as a Yoga Race or Competitive Yoga. I do disagree about the competition, I could tell those designer yoga people were laying there pretending to experience the 2nd chakra but were most likely planning out their grocery list like me. As you can tell I barely made it through the 3rd session before bidding my inner yogi goodbye. After that I bought a backpack for me and a harness for Pearl and took up hiking, much better decision. 

And here we are again, we have a LOT going on - we are selling one house, buying another, still have the lawsuit going on in PA with Mr. Jackass about the  telephone pole, Christmas, work, on and on. I have not been sleeping too great as you might imagine. Some nights I wake up every hour on the hour with some other real or more likely some made up, super blown out of proportion pretend problem which had me thinking about meditation, yoga stuff, etc... again. AND that stressed me out. But today a light bulb went on - I had to take the little ferry home and it runs every hour on the hour. I stopped for coffee, still had tons of time  to make it- then they were doing construction. Then a slow truck got in front of me and I missed it by about 15 minutes. Ugh, 45 minutes til the next one! I continued listening to my audio book (that's an obsession lately) and pulled out my knitting. I carry a plain sock to work on, it's what's referred to as "mindless knitting", the rain was beating on the roof of my car and my coffee had cooled to just the right temperature. And at some point I just relaxed -and I thought  that meditation does not have to be sitting cross legged and chanting, that it can sometimes be just stopping everything and quietly doing something simple that you enjoy. The only time I stopped knitting was to get on the ferry, so I had an entire hour of not really doing anything but something I enjoyed - maybe I just need to start making time - to do nothing. 

My Very Own Luddite

Lud·dite

/ˈlədˌīt/

noun

1. 1.

   DEROGATORY

   a person opposed to new technology or ways of working.

   "a small-minded Luddite resisting progress"
2. 2.

   HISTORICAL

   a member of any of the bands of English workers who destroyed machinery, especially in cotton and woolen mills, that they believed was threatening their jobs (1811–16).

David and I have been battling for awhile over this subject of technology - he announces on a regular basis he does not have time to figure this stuff out, that he is too busy with the house, etc..... not the first person who has handed me this argument and will not be the last. Now let me make this clear - it has nothing to do with intelligence, David  can calculate square footage in his head, he often tangles with real estate agents and lawyers as he pushes our buys and sells through. If you ask him about real estate law or how to close a sale he can sing that to you chapter and verse. So it's not a matter of not being able to do so much as a matter of not WANTING to do it. That normally turns into a round robin of an argument - he will say "It's not a big deal" , so  I'll retort " Then you should have no problem doing it!". It's more annoying than anything to tell you the truth. 

A couple of weeks ago he called me at work to tell me he needed to send a signed copy of some paperwork to the RE and he said "Can I email it to you, then you can email it to your work address, download it, sign it for me, scan it and then email it back to the RE?". Um. No. I pointed out I was at work which has nothing to do with real estate and I doubted my boss would be on board with it, but also we HAVE a printer, multiple laptops and tablets at home, not to mention he has a smart phone.He huffed and decided we could sign a hard copy when we met with the RE out at the house. He has also done things like be working upstairs but will come down and look for me to go upstairs to take a picture, then put it on his Face book. 

No. 

He has gotten a little better lately, more from the fact I'm quite prickly when he asks rather than from any sort of desire to learn how to do it.And he uses the Alexa quite often, to spell words, play music, call our kids, etc.. There are some things I don't mind doing, we both read a lot so since I hold the the account I'll add the books to his ereader. I also have an Overdrive account which I can find books for him too. I love Overdrive by the way - you have to have a library card to use the app and if it's something popular you have to wait ( just like a physical book). You borrow the book for up to 3 weeks and at the end it just returns itself to the library! And better yet, you can borrow audio books which I use when I drive all the time. If you don't like the book or you finish early you can just return it and find something else. The down side is they don't have everything but that's fine - if it's something I can't wait for or they don't have, I buy it - otherwise I wait and it's free!! And it accesses all the local libraries so you can always find something to read or listen to. But I digress. David has taken some little steps and he is getting better but he's being dragged kicking into the 21st century. 

Mice.

With what passes as winter around here the field mice have started coming in, not a lot of them but enough to be annoying. I've found holes in avocados and bananas in the morning from them on the counter. Most annoying is they've found my bucket of walnuts in the closet I've been drying, I cannot begin to tell you the racket a mouse  makes chewing through the shells, I've tried to launch surprise attacks but when I whip open the door there's no one there. I'm sure it's sitting behind the vacuum cleaner happily munching my walnut while holds back little mouse giggles about how upset I'm getting. Before anyone gets all crazy about mice in the house you need to remember this is not our first rodeo. We moved into a house once so infested with mice they didn't even bother to hide most of the time - one night we were sitting in the living room and the cat was crouched in front of my stereo speaker. David picked it up, shook it hard and a mouse came tumbling out looking offended at it's unexpected ejection, it took off with the cat hot on it's heels. The cats got so tired of mouse catching David would point at the mouse - Vincent would look at him like he was not sure who's turn it was to get it. 

I'm sure your thoughts are now straying to Bob the Cat who is the worst stray cat in the universe. She barfs up anything that costs less than a dollar a can - at this point in time her diet consists of Fancy Feast Dry food ($9 for 3 pounds) and Sheba wet food which comes in a divided plastic container so when the cat gets fed half the can for breakfast and dinner it never has to deal with "old food". Bob's definition of Old Food is anything that has been in her bowl for over 10 minutes. And now she's having some sort of weird hair loss issue so she has to go to the vet. I called them and made her an appointment, they seemed to be delighted I have yet another little money maker for them. David will have to see if he can get her records from PA too and then I'll have to bring her in the big dog cage because she will not get into a cat carrier. I'm annoyed already and her appointment is not til next week. You probably think she earns her keep by catching mice, don't you?

Yeah, about that......

Bob could only catch a mouse if it was drunk and in a wheel chair and even then I'd only give her a 50% chance of success. We've caught them all with traps which kill them instantly but the other night......

I heard it snap about midnight, Bob was actually in the bed next to me snuggled under the covers cat snoring. Then I heard the trap shaking around, they're plastic so they make a lot of noise and they're very loud when it goes off. I looked at Bob to see if she was going to get that, but she continued snoring, the dogs and David slumbering and that stupid trap frantically banging on the counter. Ugh. When I got up Bob was accidentally woken so she padded into the kitchen with me and jumped up on the counter. I snapped on the light and there, with it's little hand stuck in the trap was a mouse trying to look invisible while giving tiny tugs to free itself. What was Bob doing - was she sizing up the situation? Dispatching the mouse for me? Nope. She was sitting about 4 inches away from the mouse eating her Fancy Feast Dry food since she needed a little nosh before making any decisions. The mouse boggled it's eyes back and forth while continuing to wiggle it's hand, by then David got up because every time I  got near the trap it would panic. I HAD TO PICK UP BOB TO MAKE HER STOP EATING SO DAVID COULD GET THE MOUSE. David threw a towel over the whole business, carried the mouse and trap outside and released it, it scampered off all four limbs intact. Bob finished her kibble and came back to bed since she was full and David reset the trap. We're guessing Mouse Catching is just not in Bob's job description. 

Regrouping

A couple of months ago I was lamenting that there was no knitting groups here I could get to. I'd looked around and the only ones I found were either at times I couldn't attend or just too far. My mother suggested I start my own knitting group and I had to think about it. It's always more fun to be an attendee than the one in charge of attendance, isn't it? But after consideration I realized that would be my only alternative - it's been way harder than I thought it would be. I don't really know anyone here aside from my co-workers, all of whom don't knit and none of which live in Clatskanie. And then the bigger problem - where? When we lived in WV I was in the one that met at the Morgantown Hotel run by Dottie for years and when I moved to PA and started working up in Monroeville I found a group halfway between work and home in Bridgeville. We started off in the LYS Kid Ewe Knot until she rather unceremoniously decided to shut it down with no warning, that was a bit of a panic. But it worked out - we moved to Bridgeville Library who welcomed us with open arms and we grew the group. It turned out be a very good thing, not only for the group, but for our pocketbooks! But here the LYS is only open for a few hours a week and doesn't have a group and I didn't know any of the local community buildings.

So, my first issue was where? I found the local library and it is very small - there's no meeting room but they do have a large table. I planned on having it late afternoon so people that work could attend(like the person starting it!) and also I was pretty sure the library would not be busy between 5 and 7 pm which is important since there is only one table to sit at. I talked to the  woman at the desk and she was fine with me starting a group. I posted on the Clatskanie Community Board which gets a lot of traffic! When I first started posting I got a ton of likes and enthusiasm....which petered out and I spent two late afternoons knitting my little pathetic sock by myself at the big table in the library while the librarians peeked over at the weirdie. The 3rd week it was thankfully me and Kelly, two of us knitting and talking. But then Thanksgiving hit and still nothing. I put the new date up and once again got liked, but no one seemed interested. I had one woman who repeatedly kept suggesting after announcing she was not joining that it would be more cozy if it was at "someones' house". She did not volunteer her own house.  I had actually mulled that one over but the logistics of it are daunting and then we have the dogs, insurance worries, etc.... and my other reason for the library is it's in the middle of town and easy to get to. Our house is down a long raised gravel road with no guard rails and steep drop offs on sides. I have great parking at my house but then you have to pick your way through my pitch dark yard - there's a sidewalk but it tilts rather drunkenly at points, you get the idea. 

My last post I had asked if anyone was really interested at all or should I just bag it entirely? Because there are only so many times you can sad sit at the library in your Group Of One knitting. And you know what? Success! We were a group of four, five if you include Hannah but she's only 5 months old and her only knitting participation was being unwound from her mother's yarn, but we were a group! The library director even came over to welcome us, she said we only had to be quiet if someone was trying to read but otherwise we were free to talk. She was glad we were there - she was very nice. And the two hours passed quickly, it's always fun when you have a group of people you're getting to know, it's a very eclectic group. We are planning on meeting again next week and hopefully can keep it together through the holidays. But I do have to say I'm hoping my little group stays together and grows, it would be nice to have a group of knitting friends again.

Out For A Troll

So, I accidentally trolled a Michael Vick's face book page which turned out to be an interesting experience. He was recently named as one of four captains for the 2020 Pro Ball -  astonishing given he's a convicted felon and has an extensive history of animal abuse of epic proportions. The dog fighting charges happened back in 2007 so when he was named of course the Internet has been flooded with articles, etc. about his crimes. I was curious to see if he had a face book page and he does - there were all sorts of congratulations so I just added that we should all pray no one gives him a puppy for Christmas. It was off the cuff, yes I was mad and yes, it was snarky. The first thing I noticed was I got about 40 likes within a few hours so I'm not the only person taking a Sunday Troll through the park. But then his supporters chimed in - and I do find it's interesting that no one  addressed what I said but focused on hurling insults.  Two of them said I looked like some obscure secondary actor (??) and I was impressed that anyone would spend that much time working trying to find someone to insult me with so I can't look too bad. Then they started fighting amongst themselves and got so caught up in calling each other names what I said was relegated to the back burner - I haven't checked back but I'm sure by now they don't even know what they're arguing about. 

They didn't know what they were talking about - but then again, did I? I was basing my opinion on what I read and like the Trumpeteers it depends on who wrote it. So I started to research Michael Vicks. 

All You Ever Needed To Know About Michael Vicks

In 2007  during the time Michael Vicks was the quarterback for the Atlantic Falcons it was discovered he was the co-owner of a property named the BadNewz Kennel. The reason it was being investigated was due to reports of dog fighting.  Purnell Peace, Quanis Philips and Tony Taylor were also indited for dog fighting, animal cruelty and illegal gambling. 70 dogs were seized of which 53 survived, bodies of the dogs that had been killed were also found on the property. The manner that  the dogs that did not perform up to standard were killed was horrifying - some were hosed down and then electrocuted, they were shot and hung, drowned in a 5 gallon bucket of water, one dog died by being repeatedly slammed to the ground. Vicks himself was aware of what was going on and eventually admitted to killing two of the dogs himself. They strung up clothesline between two trees and hung multiple dogs at once - look at your own dog and think about that.  He was convicted on two counts - promoting dog fighting and engaging in the torture, ill treatment, beating, maiming, mutilation and killing of animals.

 He DID serve time(I've read in several places he didn't, not true) - he ended up serving 18 months of a 23 month sentence which was more than his co-conspirators served due to his deliberate, false statements. He served out the remainder of his sentence under house arrest. He had 3 years of supervised probation that he was not allowed to own any dogs, fined $5,000, ordered drug and alcohol treatment which he had to pay for, $928,073 restitution for the 53 surviving dogs from his property - one dog in particular Georgia had all of her teeth extracted with no medication so she could not fight back from forcible breeding. He went bankrupt in prison, lost multiple endorsements and was suspended from the NFL

In 2009 after his release from prison he started working with the humane society speaking out against animal cruelty, he spoke at schools and events saying he wanted to be a positive change and help break the cycle of cruelty. This was not due to his remorse but his manager's suggestion that it would help his public image.He became the quarterback  for the Philadelphia Eagles in 2010 and was reinstated to the NFL.

In 2012 he got a dog. 

So, did any of this change my mind? A little I suppose - although to this day he has never expressed remorse or regret for what he did to those poor animals he did make an effort(regardless of sincerity) and since his conviction he hasn't participated in dogfighting. The only good thing was the whole nightmare shone the light hard on illegal dog fighting and started helping get better protection for animals. If this happened this year I can pretty much guarentee he would not be the quarterback of anything and he certainly would not be a dog owner (and I hope his current dog sleeps with one eye open, just saying..) And I guess the NFL's concern is with making bank, not employing good people. My biggest objections have more to do with him being a role model - there are so many other players that should have been put in that position that ARE worthy of the admiration and accolades. On his facebook page there's a parent standing next to him with his 3 kids smiling proudly and all I can think is...why are you smiling?? And I'm not the only one, there was a petition with thousands of people that feel the same as I do - yes he paid for his crime but no, he does not deserve to be a captain. Brock Turner did his sentence too, but doesn't mean we should forget.