Gimme Gimme

Posted on November 25, 2025 by Pamela Rentz

Industrial Vancouver Washington at sunset.

I’m running out of steam on these daily posts but we are so close to the end.

How are you doing on your requests for donations?

Giving Tuesday came early this year! I actually had emails about donations last month.

I have a spreadsheet with the dates so I can see when I last gave and how much. I give 1x a year at the time I want to give. No one gets monthly access to my bank account.

If the organization has a complex online donation system — if I have to create an account, if there are popups trying to squeeze a little more out of me, or extra amounts tacked on at the end — this is cause for termination.

I love supporting organizations that are meaningful to me but if the process is a turnoff, I can always find someplace else that needs it.

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Neighborhood Street Mural

Posted on November 24, 2025 by Pamela Rentz

Image sourced from the Public Domain Image Archive / The Cleveland Museum of Art

Title: Notre-Dame de Paris. Artist Luc-Olivier Merson (ca. 1881)

I can’t remember if I ever wrote about getting involved in my neighborhood association. As part of that I attend additional meetings that are an association of neighborhood associations. (Seriously!) During one meeting earlier in the year, someone mentioned their neighborhood street mural.

Street mural?

I immediately investigated to learn more — I talked to our neighborhood coordinator to get resources about how to work with the city on such a project. I talked to a couple of close-by neighborhoods about their street murals. I did a class with an organization that helps with street murals. There’s a lot of support for it.

But also a lot of moving parts. When I did the class, the instructor answered about 50 questions I didn’t know to ask.

It’s a lot more complicated than coming up with a design and getting a permit. It was funny how many people wanted to talk about the design before I even knew any of the rules or processes.

In the end, I balked. It would be a lot of work and I’m sure I could find a bunch of volunteers to help. But the thing about volunteers is that everyone is helpful as long as it’s convenient for them. I’m not in a position to fill in if people flake. And I don’t have the extra time or energy to deal with extra problem solving right now.

It’s on my long list for neighborhood association projects and a possibility after retirement.

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I Miss Print Magazines

Posted on November 23, 2025 by Pamela Rentz

This dahlia is in a corner at the front of the house. During the summer it gets overheated and the flowers are all fried. But at the end of the season it always has the most beautiful blooms, even after the backyard dahlias are all cold and shriveled.

I was a real magazine junkie back in the day.

Not anymore. There is a lot of good journalism online and we pay for a ton of it. It’s frustrating to click on an article with a paywall since we already pay for so many things. I’m not saying I don’t get it — but we can’t support everything.

But I used to love magazines. It was a treat when you went to the airport and you bought things you normally wouldn’t get so you could read on the plane.

We used to get big fat issues of fashion magazines before school started to look at the new styles. This is funny to me now because we weren’t especially stylish but it was fun to look.

After college I lived a couple blocks away from a giant newsstand in Sherman Oaks, CA. I loved going there. I bought so many rock magazines.

With print there was no algorithm feeding you what it thought you wanted so you’d find things you didn’t expect. I read music, health and wellness stuff, some literary magazines. What would you call Harper’s? For quite a few years around the time I went to Clarion I subscribed to F&SF and Asimov’s. Also so many magazines had short fiction. The dwindling markets for short fiction is a bummer.

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The Uniform

Posted on November 22, 2025 by Pamela Rentz

Image sourced from the Public Domain Image Archive / Universitätsbibliothek Heidelberg

I grabbed this image because it’s with crayon and reminded me of an art project we did when we were kids. (Except ours looked like it had been done by kids.) Artist: Hans Prinzhorn (1922) from Bildnerei der Geisteskranken.

—

I remember a few years ago I read a column by some young people talking about a work “uniform” like Steve Jobs always wore a black turtleneck and jeans. The idea was that you had the same general clothes and it reduced decision making plus you found something you liked and it fit so it was an easy wardrobe.

I remember finding it funny in a mocking way except I realized I have pretty much created a uniform for myself. My general work outfit is: Ann Taylor slacks (all ancient. They fit. I hate shopping. I’m going to retire soon. Why buy new work clothes?) Together with a long-sleeved Eddie Bauer t-shirt and a cardigan. In winter I wear a long-sleeved Uniqlo heattech under my tee. Closed toe shoes with wool socks in winter. Open toed shoes in summer.

I do have some dresses to throw in the mix. And for the coldest winter days I have some lined pants. But mostly I wear the same thing.

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More Vacuum Cleaner Bags of Doom

Posted on November 21, 2025 by Pamela Rentz

I could swear I already posted about this but I can’t find it.

Back in 2021, I took a photo of the world’s fullest vacuum cleaner bag. Just a skosh short of 2 lbs!

Having learned nothing, I recently had another overfull bag that I could barely yank out of the machine. This one looks fuller but weighs less. What a disappointment.

Do you think this is the bag I replaced in 2021? I wonder. The vacuum cleaner isn’t insistent enough in telling the user how full it is.

It sucked great once I changed the bag!

Meanwhile, I was at my mom’s and guess what?!? I didn’t have my scale so I couldn’t weigh it.

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It’s a Trap

Posted on November 20, 2025 by Pamela Rentz

Sorry animal lovers. I use a legit mousetrap in the shop.

There was a time when I was willing to let the mice run around out there but then I could hear something in the walls by the kitchen and saw some mouse poop in the kitchen so I had to revise my peaceful ways.

I set this trap and placed some delicious peanuts out and if you look carefully: you will see zero peanuts, the trap is not sprung, and there is no mouse.

The mouse out-smarted me. But also probably that’s a cheap trap. Right now I have sunflower seeds on there (not pictured) that would really need to be dug out but no one is touching it.

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NO GO

Posted on November 19, 2025 by Pamela Rentz

One afternoon I took Mom out the G-O Road to see the scenery.

I don’t have the heart to tell the story of the GO Road right now. You can inform yourself here.

A very short version is that the Forest Service wanted to build a logging road through an area sacred to local Tribes. The Tribes lost the Supreme Court case but everything went on so long they never finished the road.

We had a picnic and sat and enjoyed the beautiful view. This picture isn’t the best representation of the beautiful view. More than one fire has gone through and this shot shows some fire areas.

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Every Persimmon Has A Sun Inside

Posted on November 18, 2025 by Pamela Rentz

I did a quick search to see if there were any poems about persimmons and turns out: there is.

The poet is responsible for the title of this post.

Above is a giant persimmon tree next to the chickens at my cousin’s house. I didn’t even ask so technically we stole them.

My neighbhor across the street also has persimmons and welcomed me to take some.

The light is weird in this picture. The little more orange ones in the back are from my cousin’s and the lighter ones are from across the street.

Mostly I just eat them with my breakfast but I also pulp a few and use them to make persimmon cookies for my husband. It is a nostalgia favorite for him.

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And Such a Sweet Face

Posted on November 17, 2025 by Pamela Rentz

Look at this cutiepie. This is Chinquapin.

Shortly after exiting the car upon arrival in Orleans, Chinquapin came over to visit our dog (Summer, the white and black dog.)

I had brought treats and was happy to see him. I pet him and scratched him all over.

AND. Woke up the next day with the first red dots of poison oak.

Over the next couple of days, the poison oak bloomed into big gross rashes all over my wrists and hands and even a little on my fingers.

It has not been pretty.

The photos are from early last week.

Today, it is just over a week since I was exposed. I’m sure it was the dog — I wasn’t hiking or gardening or anywhere around poison oak.

The rashes are still ugly although they are drying up and not quite as painful.

The last time I had terrible poison oak was in October 2019 and it was worse than this. I do not recommend.

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Road Trip

Posted on November 16, 2025 by Pamela Rentz

I was gone to Orleans all last week for a family visit.

It was a nice trip. Lovely drives there and back. No news.

I am still recovering from being away for a week. Hopefully more news in the days to come.

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