Three Things ~ 6.10.21

Goals set and met. Like most college freshman, Kelly’s first semester at college was a wake-up call. She did well, but not as well as she wanted to. She set a goal to make it on the Dean’s List in her second semester and she did it, finishing her first year at college (in the middle of a pandemic!) with a 3.8 GPA.

Dollar Store decor. My sister gave us these cute painted mason jars filled with fresh flowers for Mother’s Day. When the flowers died, I decided to pick up a couple of bunches of fake flowers from Dollar Tree and they look great sitting on our outdoor tables.

Mulched beds. My flower beds never look better than early June when they are freshly weeded and mulched (our Memorial Day weekend tradition) and the dianthus blooming all over.

Returning to the office. After working from home since March of 2020, I was kinda dreading returning to the office, but…it’s nice there. Quiet. Cool. Smells good. Nobody bothers me. And, there is no kitchen/pantry to raid all day long. I’m easing my way back in, working at home a couple days, and at the office the other days before returning full time in August. It’s not bad going back to the office when it kinda feels like home, too.

Summer ‘yakking. Finally got the boats in the water on Memorial Day and it was a perfect day to paddle around the lagoons at Presque Isle. We saw a muskrat, an eagle, a pike, a beaver, and tons of baby geese and ducks. The Lagoons tend to be very busy, but it’s easy to spread out and find your own space/peace. (I do find it annoying when people play music out loud….it’s just kinda rude in an environment like that when there are so many people there just trying to enjoy nature).

Things I’m not loving this week

Flats. We were 6 miles from our car at the lagoons at Presque Isle when the flat on Kelly’s bike because too low to ride. Fortunately, there is a bike pump at the ranger station and we weren’t far from there. We walked our bikes over, filled her tire and, thankfully, it held until we made it back to our cars to kayak.

Worth Reading ~ 6.9.21

A few articles, blog posts, and other things I think are worth your time.

The New York Times: Goodbye to a Yankee Farmer

Life Hacker: The Biggest Wastes Of Time We Regret When We Get Older

Slate: Running From the Pain: Exercise can be a very effective way to treat depression. So why don’t American doctors prescribe it?

Vox: Why it took 100 years for America to learn about the Tulsa massacre

Harvard Business Review: 8 Questions to Ask Someone Other Than “What Do You Do?”

Just Write #203 ~ Nature lessons

I took this photo in 2018, probably sometime in early spring, based on the bare trees and drab colors of the landscape. It borders the lot of a Harborcreek church we often park at to run, walk, or bike because we like the long, mostly-flat roads near it.

I remember smirking when I saw this little tree growing right out of the stump of the one they tried to kill, or maybe the parent tree was just old and dying. I don’t know, but I admire this little guy’s pluck.

And now, look, three years later:

You have to admire the tenacity and resilience of nature and if you don’t, you should. If you look, you’ll find it everywhere. In this tiny “weed” that grew a foot up to see the sun:

This hosta that used to be outside of our garage and is now inside the much larger garage and growing in what’s left of the dirt and a little bit of sunshine from the windows in the garage. By the way, we’ve already dug up and replanted three garage hosta, but the roots just keep sending up new shoots.

These flowers growing in sand and stone and blazing heat of which I have never felt until traveling through the southwestern U.S. with my family a couple years ago:

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This enormous rhododendron bush that my husband has wanted to cut down since the day we moved into the house 25 years ago because “it blocks your vision” when backing out of the driveway. I tell him to just nose out a little further because every spring this bush makes the hassle worth it.  (I’m certain it will outlive both of us.)

This tiny milk snake, sunning himself on a busy path, narrowly avoiding being squished by a lunchtime walker (me) and a young female runner who happened by at the same time. I was excited and i pointed to the snake and said….LOOK, how cool! I immediately worried she would shriek and run away faster. Instead, to my utter happiness, she squatted down next to me and we watched him slither along for a bit.

These “weeds” that bring color and life to our ditches, fields, roadsides, and really anywhere cause…..dammit, they bloom where they are planted (by the wind, birds, insects):

This nest of tiny baby birds tucked into a hanging potted fern on my front porch where a dog and two (killer) cats routinely lounge. I fear the day the babies fledge. My entire family is on alert to protect them while they learn to fly and keep the killers cats inside, no matter how much they cry, pout, or box each other (they beat up on each other when you don’t let them out — like bored kids picking on each other):

This sun that comes up and goes down day after day after day after day after day. Most days the vast majority of us don’t even notice it coming and going, but there are some days (and nights) that it demands our attention:

I’m so inspired by nature. In awe of the miracles around us every day that go unnoticed by many. And, I assume, we go mostly unnoticed by them as they just do what they do — grow, shine, multiply, live.

One of my favorite things to think about is what would happened in this world if all the humans left. What will be come of our shopping malls and concrete bridges and paved roads when we finally destroy ourselves? Save for our domestic animals, I’m guessing most of the natural world would be better off with out us.

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About Just Write: Just Write is my adaptation of free writing, a technique in which a person writes continuously and quickly without little regard for spelling, grammar, or topic. It helps writers overcome blocks of apathy and explore everything from meaningful topics to mundane observations with the same effort and without the pressure of crafting perfect prose. I just start writing.

Three things ~ 6.3.21

Things I’m loving

Star Wars stamps. Did you know there are Star Wars droid stamps currently available? Yep…and they are pretty awesome and are the stamps of choice for Lauren’s graduation invitations, which I need to get in the mail very soon.

We’re expecting! Triplets! I bought my hanging ferns early this year and they’ve been hanging on the front porch for a couple weeks now. I’ve seen a bird going back and forth out of one and couldn’t figure out whether he was stealing fronds to build a nest or nesting in the fern. I dug around a little recently and held up my cell phone to take a photo and see if there are eggs and — it’s triplets! Now the mission will be to protect the fledglings from my killer cats. Sigh.

Bamboo sheets. I bought these bamboo sheets after reading that they helped keep you cool at night without being cold (like satin), and OMG….I will never buy anything else. I LOVE them. They are so soft and….yes, cooler than regular sheets. I will say they are a little “slippy” — like I have to yank them all back in place in the a.m., but….worth the extra 3 seconds it takes to make the bed.

Things I’m not loving

Price gouging on wood. This …right  here….this is $1,500 worth of roofing material for a 10×12 foot gazebo next to our pool. The 2x4s were $25 a piece. I do not understand how a supposed shut down for….what…a month a YEAR AGO continues to be their excuse for these insane prices on building materials.

Brick workouts. If you’re unfamiliar with brick workouts, they are hell on earth. For those training for a triathlon, though, they are vital to get your body/legs/mind accustomed to transitioning from the bike to the run. When you first start the run, your legs feel wobbly, like jelly or…bricks. Hence the name. Lauren recently survived her first brick — a 13+ mile bike ride followed by a 1 mile run. It wasn’t without a fair amount of whining, but she got a real taste for what to expect on June 19. Now…to get her out for a swim in open water (that is a whole different experience than lap swimming).

Worth Reading ~ 6.2.21

A few articles, blog posts, and other things I think are worth your time.

The Guardian: Parent trap: why the cult of the perfect mother has to end

“Motherhood is one of our modern, enlightened society’s awkward little secrets. Here we are with more than 100 years of feminism under our belts, including 50 years of second-wave feminism, during which many consciousness-raising hours were spent unpicking domestic enslavement. Yet mothers are still underpaid, overworked, exploited, overlooked, frazzled, isolated and perpetually guilty.”

Politico: How the Culture Wars Could Break Democracy

“Culture wars always precede shooting wars. They don’t necessarily lead to a shooting war, but you never have a shooting war without a culture war prior to it, because culture provides the justifications for violence. And I think that’s where we are. .”

Fast Company: Five Questions to Ask When You Need Help Finding Your Purpose

Five Thirty Eight: Why Militias Are So Hard to Stop

“Private militias want us to think the Second Amendment protects them, and they’re just wrong,” said Mary McCord, the executive director of Georgetown University Law Center’s Institute for Constitutional Advocacy and Protection. “‘Well regulated’ has always meant ‘regulated by the state.’”

Not all militias are extremist, and not all extremist groups are militias. But sometimes the two overlap, and that’s where you can end up with a dangerous combination of armed, organized individuals with violent tendencies and extremist views.

Three things ~ 5.27.21

Things I’m loving this week

Revamped corner bed. This is probably one of the first flowerbeds I put in when we moved into our house nearly 25 years ago. It had become completely overrun with a bunch of perennials that spread WAY more than I intended them to. Then, last year’s sewer project went through a portion of the bed and I just sort of gave up on it. I told Kelly I was just going to rip everything out, throw down some grass seed and be done with it. But, she decided she’d fix the bed and make it into a pollinator garden. She bought a bunch of plants and tore out all the old perennials (or most of them). Sunday, I put down landscape fabric and bark and now it’s looks great again. Hopefully I can keep up with it this time.

Pergola underway. You might remember that we decided to DIY a pool-side pergola after the one we ordered from Home Depot was missing parts. It’s coming along and is going to be really cool. Now…..to hit Pinterest for decorating and decor ideas.

Lauren’s new lap suit. I was waiting …and waiting….and waiting….for Q Swimwear to have a sale and my patience finally paid off a few weeks ago when they had a great sale. I got myself two lap suits and Lauren this super cool Lionfish suit.

Prom. I’m so grateful Lauren got to have a senior prom this year, and even more grateful that she was kind enough to take her big sister who did not get a prom last year because of COVID-19.

Things I’m not loving this week

$270 gas bills in May. I have no idea what is going on with our National Fuel Gas bills, but they make no sense — one month it’s $120, the next it’s $345 — and cannot be related to the actual gas we are using. I haven’t even had the furnaces on for over a month. FFS.

Bucket List scratch off poster. I bought this poster for Lauren for Christmas and she loved it. She’s already scratched off a few things, but when she went to scratch one off this weekend, it wouldn’t scratch off (see above).  I tried a couple other squares and they don’t seem to want to scratch off either. 😦

Living on Lauren’s schedule. If I had a dollar for every time a lack of planning on Lauren’s part let to an emergency on my part, I wouldn’t need to work.

 

 

Worth Reading ~ 5.26.21

A few articles, blog posts, and other things I think are worth your time.

NY Times: Claiming the Summit without Reaching the Top

BuzzFeed News: Why are Crocs a thing Again? (You’re probably not cool enough to wear them, though)

Apartment Therapy: 10 Clever Ways to Organize Your Food Containers

LifeHacker: How to Finally Go Paperless at Home, Because It’s Past Time  (I keep very little paper in our files anymore….why? Almost everything is available online somewhere….it only come back to bite me when we’re dealing with a bank/loans, etc.)

Just Write #202 ~ Art matters

Kelly and I were driving up the Bayfront Connector highway, returning home from a quick run to the Blasco Library on the bayfront to pick up a book that I had reserved, when we passed something I’d seen many times before that struck me completely different that day.

There’s a company on one of the side streets (10th, i think) called Lighthouse Construction. Several years ago, probably after the connector went in and they realized the back of their building faced the road, they build a faux “lighthouse” out of wood jutting a few feet out of the back wall of the building. More recently, they added a colorful sunset and some water and waves.

As I drove, I glanced over and admired the mural and I started to think about who commissioned it. Who paid for it? Who painted it? Why was it important to them to do that? Who said to themselves (or someone else): “you know what would look really nice?…”

It’s the back of their building. No customers or vendors enter that way. And, yet, they had someone paint this lovely scene just to brighten up the lives of people just driving by. They spent hard-earned money on a piece of art for no other reason than to put something beautiful into the world.

That is something to appreciate in this world where humans are growing increasingly ugly to one another.

Things like that restore my faith in humanity and remind me that public art really matters. It makes our world brighter, more interesting, and — hopefully — gives us a few minutes of pause in contemplating the complexities of the human life.

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About Just Write: Just Write is my adaptation of free writing, a technique in which a person writes continuously and quickly without little regard for spelling, grammar, or topic. It helps writers overcome blocks of apathy and explore everything from meaningful topics to mundane observations with the same effort and without the pressure of crafting perfect prose. I just start writing.

Three things ~ 5.20.21

Things I’m loving this week

Biking at PISP. I mean…if you’re going to suffer through bike rides (I don’t love cycling), the best place to do so is Presque Isle State Park with a nice, flat 13-mile loop. The only thing about flat courses, is that you can never stop pedaling. That’s annoying. I wish I loved cycling. I keep trying, but….   Maybe I need a new bike.

Etsy for unique gifts. I’ll admit I didn’t think to shop Etsy too often until Kelly started selling there (and, yes, her shop is still doing well, and she recently expanded into wooden chew toys for small animals), but….you can really find the most unique gifts there and you can always find something in your price range. The cool thing is that these are small business owners/crafters who put a lot of special touches into their products. I ordered a personalized bottle opener and a personalized bookmark and both came wrapped in adorable packaging and cost me about $20 for each (personalized and shipped).

Friend gatherings without fear. It’s been a long time since we could all gather together and hang without fear of unwitting getting or passing a virus to our friends. It was nice this weekend to gather with all our fully vaccinated friends and just hang out. Life feels like it’s returning to normal….finally.

Porch sitting on a Sunday morning. I could sit on my front porch on a Sunday for hours. Usually I’m running, but this week I had run and biked Saturday and decided to just relax in the cool morning with a blanket, some hot coffee, a newspaper, and Sammy snoozing at my feet. There was almost no traffic and the only real noise/activity was from the very, very busy birds in the trees and bushes around me.

Goslings. I know Canadian Geese are, in general, huge assholes who just crap all over everything, but those goslings…man, they are the cutest things on earth. I LOVE May when all the babies are born and you frequently happen upon a harried looking mother and father goose trying to keep track of their brood. (P.S. if you live in this area, drive carefully near Erie Brewing/Knowledge Park as there is a goose family with new babies in the retention pond that frequently cross to the median to eat the grass).

Things I’m not loving this week

Georgia on my mind. Georgia was one of my favorite (ok, definitely my fav) YMCA instructors. For many years, when I worked at the newspaper, I took her lunchtime core class (using stability balls) at the downtown Y. I was so sad to see her obit this week. She is a woman who deserved a long, happy retirement, and I’m sorry it was cut short by cancer.

The lack of civility in Congress. My God, how far we have fallen. This is disgusting. This woman is a cancer on our country and representative of the worst of humanity. I’m ashamed that grown adults are behaving this way and that there are so many who support this. We used to be better than this. Now, we are a nation with lawmakers who shout shit at each other? She’s a gross attention hog. I cannot wait till she is gone.

Worth Reading ~ 5.19.21

A few articles, blog posts, and other things I think are worth your time.

The Atlantic: Stop Spending Time on Things You Hate

Fast Company: Why The “Velvet Hammer” Is a Better Way to Give Constructive Criticism (Food for thought. I’m not sure it would work in all situations. I can think of some where it would just sound disingenuous, but it could work in other situations or people, like Lauren).

Quartz: An Oxford Researcher Says There Are Seven Moral Rules That Unite Humanity

The Atlantic: The Vindication of Cheese, Butter, and Full-Fat Milk