Author Archives: Pamela Rentz

I made some new friends in my neighborhood and joined the Tree Squad.

We have stickers.

I joined them in volunteering to plant trees in my neighborhood yesterday with Friends of Trees.

When we first pulled away from the staging area we were following a bunch of people toting their trees with their bikes and I thought: what a great photo! But I was driving and it never occurred to me to take photos again for the rest of the event. All the photos are from the FOT website and used without permission. (Sorry!)

We planted 141 trees! It was their biggest planting event of the year. My team planted 7 trees, all a very short walk from my house and part of one of my walking circuits. I can’t wait to visit them.

We planted a Bigleaf Maple (Not actual size):

And a Firestarter Black Tupelo (also, not actual tree. It didn’t have leaves yet) and a few others.

I learned a lot about trees including a lot of information that would have been helpful years ago. I’m so timid with my plants and afraid of damaging them. When they showed us how to break up the root balls on the container trees — they weren’t afraid to be rough.

When I woke up, I was bummed that I volunteered but once I got over there it ended up super fun. Amazing how many volunteers they had and how organized the event was. Turns out people who love trees are really cool. I am going to get some help and figure out a strategy for more trees in my yard.

Image generated by ai on February 14, 2024

It seems like at the grocery store that either they have a package with way more than you need or else too small for what you want.

Example 1 is that I used to buy kosher salt in a cardboard box roughly the size of a dictionary or a big fat book. Bob picked some up for me and he got it in a plastic (frownie face) bottle about the size of a 12 oz soda. It’s already almost gone so I went to pick some up and there were no cardboard boxes. Only the inadequate and environmentally stupid bottle.

Example 2 is that, long story, but my bones are already getting old and I am investigating the doctor report and trying to be more mindful of protein in my diet. This makes me mad because I am a poster elder for clean living and I am getting diagnosed with pre-everything. Back to my story, I thought I might try a protein powder to add to my morning yogurt, fruit, cereal and I looked at the store and they were all 2 lb tubs. What if I don’t like it?

And honestly, in my dream version of myself I would do this but in real life it seems like too much trouble. I don’t like smoothies. I don’t like washing the blender. I don’t have a lot of time to make things to bring for work. I don’t see how anyone gets enough protein looking at these amounts.

I also know if I make it too hard on myself then I don’t do anything and I eat cookies when I get to work and that doesn’t seem like the best outcome.

For now I am sticking to my regular breakfast foods and continuing my research.

It’s been so long since I posted a video, I forgot how to do it. I had to click around a bit until I remembered.

The strap on the camera broke so I’ve been propping it up and whatever I am doing is not conducive to good clips. Or even clips at all. Some foggy ones and sometimes a raccoon tail. I haven’t seen bunny, skunky, opossum, or, thankfully, any deer. I had some apple peels the other day and almost tossed them on the garden rather than tromp all the way to the compost bin but I remember what happened last time (deer came over) and put them in the bin.

It has been a long week. We finally were both recovered from Covid at the same time and then it snowed and then it iced. I worked from home all week which is not my favorite. We’re grateful we didn’t have any weather related problems, but we are happy that things are melting and we can get out. Lots of rain in the forecast so who knows what’s next. Sinkholes?

YIKES! This is not too far from us. As far as I’ve heard, no one was hurt. Photo used without permission, sorry! Screenshot from social media. Bob drove by after church to check it out and he said you couldn’t tell anything happened. Not even an orange cone.

I started out looking for a photo or two to post and then started organizing my photo folder (“organizing” — I use that term loosely) and then all this time passed and I was getting ready to turn off the computer and I realized I never posted.

Did I already post this photo?

This was when people were starting to go back to work after Covid. Honestly, the bus has never picked up. They’ve consolidated a bunch of buses (in my part of town) into 1 park-n-ride stop and a few stops downtown.

I took this because I have the habit of using the same spot which I became extremely possessive of during Covid when I was one of about 7 cars that even used the park-n-ride.

Whole lot is empty and this car parked in my spot.

Things have bounced back a lot since this photo. I don’t know what happened to this person but I always get to my spot first.

This morning the weather was decent enough for us to go on a long walk. We went to a coffee shop to meet some friends.

We saw this giant part of a windfarm machine (are they called windmills?) on its way from the port to wherever it’s going. It had 3 pilot cars! It had to take a wide swinging turn to get onto the freeway. I was like a child, standing on the sidewalk, enraptured by the whole thing. The truck driver waved to me!

I would love to talk to one of those truck drivers to learn what it’s like to drive one of those trucks. People seemed respectful and stayed out of the way, but I bet that’s not always true.