You're Doing It Wrong

Forty Years

Posted on October 28, 2026 by Pamela Rentz

This post has been partially written for days. Every time I sit down, I get interrupted.

I figured out that, as of this month, I have been in the full time workforce for 40 years. I finally went back and dug out my journal at the time to see if I could figure out the day. Best I can tell it was Monday October 6, 1986.

(Aside: before that I had jobs like fast food and babysitting. I’ve worked in one way or another since I was about 13. Here’s a short post about those jobs.)

My journals are a terrible read. I didn’t write much about what was going on and more about how I was feeling and my head was angsty and insecure and it makes for a torturous read. But I was amused (?) to read that as soon as I started that job, I knew it was terrible. I thought it took me awhile to figure it out. (Somewhere I wrote more about this job but can’t find it right now.)

But back to the 40 years — during that time I have had a few breaks but most of them were involuntary and stressful because I needed money to pay my bills.

When I moved from California to Oregon I think the chain of events was: (1) Quit job in December to go to paralegal school; (2) went to paralegal school from January to June; (3) Couldn’t find a job interview to save my life and spent the summer in Orleans doing odd jobs; (4) Moved to Oregon in September.

Then I did a bunch of temp office jobs until I started what I am doing now in February 1992. I had one 6-week break when I went to Clarion West in 2008.

I like what I do and I’m really good at it. I’d probably hang in a couple years longer but the commute and the long days have worn me down. I keep moving the target date but the plan is to retire next year.

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Scammy Scammers Scamming

Posted on October 11, 2026 by Pamela Rentz

More hilarious raccoon antics.

I have a note that says to write about the scam I am involved in but at this point, I don’t even know which scam that is.

One scam is that a culture reporter from the CBC contacted me for an interview about my book of short stories.

OMG! I thought. I am on fire! This was right after pen name did the book festival. All my hard work is finally paying off.

I did a search for the name and it was a real CBC reporter who covers Indigenous culture. Sure, the email sounded totally written by AI — but maybe the reporter has a busy assistant. Well yeah, the book is about 10 years old and sold maybe 100 copies. But maybe it’s a slow day and they want some lesser known names.

I answered right away. And then did more research.

This is a common scam. Once you agree to the interview they ask for money. Also the email address was a gmail, not CBC.

They responded agreeing to the first interview time I said I was available and said many writers like to make donations to their non-profit.

☹️ I did not follow through with the interview. I did not make a “donation.”

These are all the hangers from Dad’s apartment. Who wants them?

A different scam was when I was trying to sell my dad’s couch on NextDoor. I couldn’t believe it when 4 people (FOUR!) responded minutes after I posted the ad.

I started with the first person who was in a big hurry to pay so her cousin could rush over and pick it up. What luck!

Next was a bunch of back and forth with my paying app which I legit hardly ever use and don’t completely understand. I felt like a dummy so I let the person push me around. They told me that the payment was taken from them but there was a problem with my account that I needed to fix. They told me to check my email to see if there was a notice from the app.

Sure enough, there was an email “from the app” with a number to call.

I dialed, hit call … and immediately disconnected.

I did some research. This was not the support number of the app. This is a common scam. I blocked the person. I changed my password — just for overkill. The “support number” tried to call me. HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA. I blocked that.

I looked at the other people who contacted me and they were all scammers, too. None of them were even in my state.

I nuked my NextDoor account.

The final scam was for penname. Someone talking like AI contacted me 3 times about one of my romance novels to ask about introducing it to some kind of women’s reading group on Goodreads. Yes – this is a common scam. I don’t how they wanted to gank money out of me but this time I never even answered.

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Coyotes Looking for Trouble

Posted on October 4, 2026 by Pamela Rentz

The other night I woke up at around 4am and I couldn’t get back to sleep. Most of the time when that happens I stay in bed and pretend I’m on the verge of getting back to sleep. Sometimes I make it and sometimes I don’t.

This time I heard a strange noise. In the olden days I would have guessed it was the newspaper hitting the screendoor when it was delivered.

But there haven’t been newspaper deliveries in our area for quite some time.

I decided to sit up and open the shade.

There was nothing out there but dark and quiet.

Except. After a moment a coyote trotted by. They have such fluffy tails.

These two were in the backyard on a different night. I hope all the outdoor cats are vigilant.

Also in the clip — if you turn the sound on you can hear what sounds like Canada geese. I guess they like early morning flights.

Also in the clip — yes, that’s my lettuce gone to seed. I just leave it alone. The birds seems to like them and it doesn’t hurt anything. I find myself torn between making the garden look cleaned up and leaving some chaos for the wildlife. The raccoons also jump in the beds and fiddle with the stalks.

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Atlanta 2026

Posted on September 30, 2026 by Pamela Rentz

Here’s the quick run down of the Atlanta trip.

This adorable creature is Arky. He doesn’t love me and I am his 3rd favorite human so you can get an idea of what sort of dog he is. But when I am on the couch eating cashew chicken he is my very best friend. Look at that face. The dog behind him is Clover. Arky adores Clover.

I love my early bedtime. Back when I first started going to Atlanta, my friend was a night owl and I would stay on my own time zone and we would stay up until midnight and then sleep until 8 or nine. But her sleeping has shifted and I am trapped in this hilarious cycle of waking up super early and then being tired so going to bed extra early which leads to waking up super early.

In Atlanta I could go to bed at 10:30 — 7:30 my time!! Which was amazing. I loved it. And then wake up at 7 which is 4am. It is almost sad how comfortable I am getting up that early.

We got an Air BnB for 2 night because we thought we’d be more comfortable with the extra room — we had more people visiting than usual. The Air BnB cancelled less than 2 hours before we were supposed to check in. So they tried to direct us to some different places that were nowhere near plus my friend had done all this homework finding us coffee shops and things to do right around where we were supposed to stay.

We found a last minute reasonably acceptable replacement and checked in.

This was the gap around the door. Also the oven didn’t work. Also there were no spoons. Also the photos made it look bigger than it was. We were good humored about the whole thing and sat on the floor around 2 small tables eating our snacks and heating up our dinner.

Then the power went out.

It wasn’t the host’s fault but by then we’d had enough. We left early, crammed into my friend’s house and it was all fine.

This little monster loves me even less than Arky. This is Luna. Luna doesn’t like walks or people or other dogs.

We went on a walk and I pushed her in the cart so that her person could manage another dog. I thought we’d thawed a bit but when we got home she bit me on the calf. I had on sweats so it was fine but there was a little dog shaped bruise.

Finally: we tried a self-driving car and I can’t make the video embed and I don’t want to keep trying so here is the link. It was interesting and hard to describe in a brief post. I didn’t feel unsafe but it did feel strange — like there was a ghost there that we weren’t acknowledging. I am happy about this development. When I’m too old to drive and I have to go to the doctor, this will be amazing.

Link to self-driving car clip

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Redwood Country

Posted on September 27, 2026 by Pamela Rentz

I’m not 100% sure but I think this is at Tishániik looking downriver.

Stop me if you’ve heard this before but I’m a little overwhelmed and feeling behind on almost everything.

I normally avoid going out of town 2 weekends in a row because my weekdays are so long and I need the weekend to keep up with everything.

But I had a family wedding in NW California and the following weekend I had the opportunity for a writing friends reunion in Atlanta so I did both. And I’m still trying to get my act together this weekend.

All of this was compounded by a major freeway construction project going on in downtown Portland where the SB interstate is closed 24/7 for up to 5 weeks. It hasn’t been as bad as expected but my commute schedule has been upended and I’m still adjusting.

This is the view from our window. We look out at the casino. It was actually a nice hotel. The staff was ridiculously nice and polite except for the $2 happy hour bartender.

It was a lovely wedding and nice to see all the family.

While in the area Bob and Mom went with the family to visit the Avenue of the Giants. I took the opportunity to visit with someone I worked for in the 80s. I think we’ve seen each other one time since then and it’s been at least 15 years.

It’s so much fun to catch up with friends from long ago. We talked nonstop. I hope it doesn’t take that long to see each other again.

This is deep fried avocado. The table was curious. I don’t know what I’d travel the ends of the earth for it — but it was fun to try.

I can’t come up with anything else.

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Flower, Bugs, Birds.

Posted on September 13, 2026 by Pamela Rentz

I have let my dahlia crop wane. I’m trying to use more native plants so haven’t bought new bulbs in quite some time. But honestly, the earwigs have ruined my enjoyment of the flowers. Most of them are fringed and raggedy because of earwig activity.

I haven’t done an intensive earwig eradication program because (1) not enough time and energy and (2) the instructions are like: put out some rolled newspaper overnight and in the morning shake it out in a bucket with soapy water. Or put out a low dish with oil in it. Or diatomaceous earth. Or get rid of mulch or loose leaves where they like to hide.

I have a giant yard, how many rolled up newspapers or dishes of oil should I put out there? I’m not convinced diatomaceous earth does anything. I’ve never seen evidence when I’ve used it. Get rid of mulch? Are these people serious?

But my original point was that I haven’t paid a lot of attention to the dahlias and was thrilled to see this giant pink dinner plate looking fabulous out there.

I have been enjoying the birds all weekend long. They have been brawling around the feeder. I can’t tell what they like. It seems like they pick all the little yellow seeds out and throw them on the ground. I scoop those up and sprinkle them around and them other birds eat them off the ground. At one point it seemed like all they liked was sunflower chips. I haven’t bought them in awhile because the squirrels hogged them up but then I bought those and for a while no one seemed interested.

Then they were out again, brawling. They’re so funny.

They line up on the wire like this and then one will come down and then all of them. An hour later there will be no birds anywhere. Then another hour later and the crowds have returned. I wish they would eat earwigs.

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So Many Things

Posted on September 7, 2026 by Pamela Rentz

My colleague’s ducklings. It looks like an awkward family photo. So adorable. Used without permission.

It’s a long weekend and I had a lot of plans for projects and while I did some stuff — everything takes so much longer than you think.

When we packed Dad’s apartment we were pretty good about tossing stuff we knew wasn’t needed or of use to anyone. The movers took a load to the dump. We took a carload to a donation place. But we still had several boxes of what you would call personal effects.

I have left them sitting here for the past 6 weeks or whatever. I would keep vowing to deal with them and then pat myself on the back for figuring out what to do with 1 or two items.

I took a bunch of photos of questionable products at the grocery store but somehow deleted all of them but this and the one below. It’s like a bunch of Monty Burns types sit in a room and figure out the cheapest way to repurpose products they already make only with more sugar or weird flavors that would be hard to resist. I also found pretzel chips that were iced with either pumpkin spice or apple spice and some trail mix that was donut flavored.

I’m going to see my mom and sister next weekend so I promised myself I would finish going through it. I’m making a Mom pile and a Sister pile and a Me pile plus a pile to go through to gift to others or put on the free table.

It is surprisingly exhausting and overwhelming and unsurprisingly sad. I was really wiped out when I gave up for the day yesterday. Today I mostly just have to get things ready to be safely transported.

I opened the last box and there was the last bottle of Tanquerey. Dad enjoyed his gin — right up until the very end. He said it helped take the edge off and I appreciate that but also because of his cognitive issues, he didn’t always remember how much he drank. So we started monitoring it. We had a little piece of blue tape on the bottle.

Bob and I laughed and cried when we saw that on the bottle.

It’s so hard because there are things that you can’t possibly throw away but that you don’t want either. Things that were sentimental to him but not to us.

It’s been a strange emotional state this weekend. I don’t want to use the word stressed. Or anxious. Maybe just sensitive.

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Ode to Tomatoes

Posted on August 30, 2026 by Pamela Rentz

They may not look like much but I haven’t had a decent home-grown tomato crop in years. I’ve been planting the cherry tomatoes in the hopes of at least getting something to add to our salads.

I haven’t had a big tomato since I don’t know when.

This is from August 23, 2026 and doesn’t include a big orange one that I am currently eating.

I wasn’t even going to plant tomatoes this year but I was gifted a bunch of plants (thank you Michael and partner who I have never met!) and they are doing amazing. I have two of them extra-staked up because they are so heavy with big tomatoes.

One thing I did different was put the soaker hose on them so they get slow watered a couple of times a week. But otherwise, not sure why this year was better for us but I am pleased.

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Animal Cam Update

Posted on August 26, 2026 by Pamela Rentz

I caught this skunk-opossum fight. The opossums always move so slow and seem so mellow but here it seems like its the one with the problem. Doesn’t look (and don’t recall smelling) like Skunky cut loose on him.

Also, come on animals. Get along. There’s room for everyone. Don’t make me come out there.

Here is another late night skunk visit. Look how active it is. It really wants to get up there and into the bolting lettuce. It’s so cute.

These three are regular visitors. A mama and 2 babies, who are actually pretty big now.

Earlier in the summer I opened the back window just in time to see a little one scoot across the deck. It was like a fuzzy football and made the most adorable squeaky sound.

I have caught the coyotes twice this summer. I haven’t seen the deer since that time I caught one back there at 5am. That was over a month ago.

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The Big Puddle Solution

Posted on August 23, 2026 by Pamela Rentz

I like to keep some emergency drinking water in the house. I’ve never gotten carried away but usually kept about 10 gallons for two people. I just bought regular bottled water jugs from the grocery store and kept rotating them.

During the ongoing enshittification of everything, the plastic used for these bottles became crapified meaning if you looked at it for too long, it would crack and leak.

One day I walked into my laundry room and sloshed through a giant puddle. Panic ensued.

It was kind-of a relief to see the problem was just from the emergency water.

This all happened a while ago. I asked my AI expert, what to do about emergency water and it told me that the consumer plastic jugs were not reliable enough. It suggested a water storage product that is often used for camping and I found a place close by where I could pick some up.

Except that the store was across the river in a shopping area that has traffic patterns so terrible I think they should raze the whole thing and start over. So I never want to go over there and put it off for months and months.

Finally, I had a day off and made myself go over there and of course they didn’t have any in stock and suggested I could go to a store across town about 30 miles away.

“I didn’t even want to come to this store,” I told them.

When I got home I asked my new AI expert for ideas (I fired my first AI expert) and it said the other product was very popular but, actually, if you looked at the reviews they had a lot of unhappy customers. It suggested a different product.

I found myself at a prepper store site buying the 4-jugs-that-hold-5-gallons kit and I kept my cart open for another month or so before I got around to pressing the purchase button.

As an aside, I will say that I have lot more sympathy for people who don’t have their shit together because during the more intensive Dad-care times we did not have our shit together.

I goofed off for another couple weeks after they arrived and this weekend I finally got my emergency water system all set up. A full container is pretty heavy for me so they aren’t completely filled. I need to add daily water lifts to get stronger. They fit nicely in this little nook and fingers-crossed they don’t leak and we never need them for an emergency.