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Author Archives: Pamela Rentz
Book Lists
I wanted to do a representation of my “to read pile” except I couldn’t figure out a good way to do this. My eReader doesn’t have any great way to show my list. This is not my complete paper book to read pile — it’s just a shelf area. There are other shelf areas and unread books mixed up with already read books. I don’t mind a little chaos with my books.
Someone should invent a way people can show their TBR piles of ebooks.
If someone has, and you think I would understand it, please forward the info.
The NYT did a list of 100 books of the century or something like that. Like many people, I had to go through and see how many I’ve read. Only 22. For example: Station Eleven by Emily St. John Mandel. I recommend! The HBO series, too.
There were about a half dozen that I tried and quit. For example, Austerlitz by W.G. Sebald. As I recall, I had something going on at the time and couldn’t get into it. But I also recall there were no paragraphs. The wall of text was overwhelming.
Most of the authors that had more than one book, I had read at least one.
And there are about a half dozen currently in the TBR pile.
I did a little better with the Reader Top 100. I read 33 of those.
I don’t care a lot about lists — it’s all arbitrary and a good way to get clicks. But it’s fun to see what makes the cut.
I am surprised by popularity of Elena Ferrante. I got the My Brilliant Friend series as ebooks and then could not make it through the first 50 pages. I hated the voice. I have been convinced to try again and it’s back in the TBR pile.
Posted in doing it wrong
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Sprechen Sie?
My dad gets a small German pension, or I should say he did get a small German pension. Every year they send a proof of life form and last year I did the form and called a mobile notary to come over and give it an official stamp and then I mailed it. Dad got one pension check and then they stopped.
I emailed all the documents again. I wrote a snail mail. I sent all the POA documents in case they needed power of attorney to deal with me. I emailed all the documents again. No response.
I had pretty much given up. What else could I do?
Then, I got a letter at my house addressed to me that said I need to do a proof of life form. While I was navigating this packet, I found a letter at Dad’s apartment from them explaining that they couldn’t mail him his pension checks because they had been returned as undeliverable.
Can we all just pause for a second on this? Let’s send a letter to the address where we’re telling you we can’t send things.
I filled out all the paperwork, got all the signatures, gathered all the things they wanted. I also took a picture of Dad holding their letter: that’s Proof of Life.
According to the instructions you can submit this all online but it’s not in English. FINE. I understand a little plus its 2024. We have Google Translate.
I commence with the website. There are lots of things to translate. It was a long and tedious process but also kind-of funny because it was like all the aggravation of doing a bureaucratic process via a confusing-to-navigate website, but also frantically cutting and pasting back and forth with Google Translate.
Inevitably, I got to the part where I had to “choose one” to tell them what form I was completing and you’ll never guess what happened? Mine wasn’t one of the choices. The form that I was filling was not there. But I had to translate about 16 choices to be sure. If you asked AI to go through every episode of I Love Lucy and then write an episode where Lucy needs to use Google Translate — this is what it would come up with.
I gave up for now. I’m going to try again after I’ve reviewed all the paperwork again and my brain is fresh.
Raccoon World!
I knew there had been activity out there because the water in the bucket was dirty and the pollinator water dish was nothing but dirt.
Look how many have been out there. I think this is a mom and her almost grown babies. I’m not an expert in raccoons so don’t quote me. They are cute but so destructive. All my pumpkins have been chewed on.
They even tried to steal the camera. I guess they don’t like being spied on. I need one of those signs to warn them they are on camera.
Just a Fraction of the Tater Situation
There are A LOT of potatoes in my yard.
This is because every time I have a yucky potato or a tiny potato from a previous crop that I deemed to small to cook, I bury it in the yard.
My yard loves to grow potatoes.
Since I took this photo, I cooked about 1/4 of these. I have given away several pounds. But still, lots of potatoes.
Somehow, I cut one of my toenails weird and then it grew and somehow I wasn’t paying attention and it was like a talon. My foot was dangerous. I scratched my own self with my pointy toe nail.
I know, this is a weak post. See the manager for a refund.
Posted in doing it wrong
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I Missed Having Back Teeth
I’ve had time to go back through some old non-priority projects at the office and I found this note to myself: a true classic. After reviewing the situation, I think I recall my thought process and I think it’s both incomplete and a duplicate. If we’ve lived without it since 2021, not sure it’s critical but I’m going to spend a little more time with it.
I had a tooth pulled last October (bottom of post). It was one of the very last ones in the back.
Initially, I decided I would not get the implant. At least one person advised I was unlikely to miss the tooth and I felt like I didn’t miss it.
Until,
on the other side of my mouth in the very back, the crown failed. That was a whole other not-wonderful dental adventure that I’m not going to detail here. But while I waited for the new crown I had only a nubbin for that tooth.
I missed having back teeth. Try eating a carrot without back teeth.
If you’ve ever read Joe Abercrombie, The Blade Itself there is a character San Glotka who was tortured and they pulled every other tooth so he can’t eat anything but soup and soft things. That’s not a spoiler. He’s in that condition when the story opens.
I had more appreciation for his problem and it was just two bottom back teeth.
I am getting an implant. Also, I’m not sure what dental insurance covers but so far it seems like nothing that I am doing with teeth.
Posted in doing it wrong
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We Went to the Port!
You can’t take pictures in the port. This is a free-to-use photo by donauwood. Pretend these are Subarus fresh off the ship. The ship holds 6000 in 13 stories. Only longshoremen are allowed to drive them off the ship.
We have been wanting to the Port of Vancouver, USA tour forever. But the tours fill up fast and we’ve never been able to get in.
This year, Bob was on it right away (in April). But when he went to get the tickets they were already half gone. He asked me if the July date would work.
Me: YES! Hurry!
I loved every minute of it. Top exports? Grain, corn, beans, scrap steel and other bulk materials. Top imports? Cars, Steel, windfarm parts. Do they call them wind mills?
The port imported almost 100k Subarus last year. When they come off the ship, they have little hooks in the back that are used to tie them down on the ship. When the cars are processed for you to buy, the hook comes off and they put this little patch on. Now you know.
The port also do environmental stuff including creating a purple martin colony.
“Purple martins are rare migratory birds that winter in South America and move north into the U.S. and Canada in the summer. The primary purple martin nesting and foraging habitat in Washington is open land near water.”
They have these plastic gourds for the birds to nest in. They even ended up modifying the “door” to make it too small for predator birds.
By the time we were done, I wanted to get a job at the port. A little late for a career change, but I would do the tour again.
The Good News Is
The good news is: I figured out how to upload pictures again. The bad news is that it took all the time I had set aside to write some catch-up posts. I have pictures and all kinds of notes sitting here.
Here’s a quickie:
This is one of my rhododendrons. It was looking kinda peaked in the spring but I thought it would bounce back. After those few days over 100 degrees it said good-bye and now looks sad and withered and brown. I am in the process of cutting it down and will plant a native tree in that general area.
A similar thing happened to the one if the front of the house. I asked the landscaper if he could help me get it out and he pushed it back and forth and it broke right off. It took some work but I dug out most of the stump. I hope this one is the same.
ALSO UPDATE: my story, Loss Prevention, is not available yet. It will come out on August 15th and I will remind you then.
Posted in doing it wrong
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Everything Is Stupid
As per every time, I have no time and no energy and I’m trying to quickly post and everything is broken and doesn’t work like it used to.
I would love to post a photo but my FTP is all messed up and I vaguely remember I have to do something different but I can’t remember and the things I tried didn’t work.
I would love to embed the video above but somehow I can’t find my DumbTube channel. I have been clicking and searching in a calm and sensible manner and all it does is give me Bridgerton clips which is great because I love Bridgerton clips but that is not what I am doing right now.
My story is that I went to Chicago back at the beginning of June. I thought I didn’t have anything to post because we didn’t do much except visit with friends.
Then I remembered DOH! We went to an all romance bookstore in Chicago called The Last Chapter Bookshop and for fun I went to see if they have pen name’s book. It’s a very tiny and well curated bookstore with very few self-published books. But they had three in my series!! I was very overwhelmed and happy and a little emotional to find a book I wrote at a real bookstore.
They encouraged me to sign my books and put them in the front on the signed books table. It was a huge day for me!
Meanwhile: I have so many things going on right now including but not limited to: giant garden bounty that needs attention daily, a possibly dying outdoor beer fridge, a neighborhood association situation, sports, dry hot weather, uneven public transportation and summer traffic meaning longer trips home.
I have a long list of things to catch up here but I need to figure out the photo situation and DumbTube situation and will try to update more later.
Also, I think my story comes out in Apex tomorrow. Here is the link to the main site. My story is called Loss Prevention and I hope to pimp it more later.
Posted in doing it wrong, garden, sleepless in Vancouver
Tagged everyone is stupid
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The Bounty is Upon Us
I was in a long line at the store and the guy next to me sighed and said, “June was a long month.”
I said, “For me it went by fast. Usually July is a long month. Then it’s August and then it’s Christmas.”
He sighed again. “That sounds about right.”
Meanwhile, the raspberry situation is out of control. We have been eating them for breakfast although Bob was mixing them with all the usual fruit. I said, “I don’t want to keep wasting my time with apples, I just want berries.”
I made jam and I made a tart. Actually, 2 tarts but the 2nd one has all the berries.
They are slowing down but the blueberries are coming in and the marionberries. Marionberries are super prickly so they are not super fun to pick. I want to ask the women at the farmer’s market who sell giant trays of berries if they feel like they toughen up after while. It seems like the first time I pick I am covered with scratches but now I dig around the middle of the patch and I feel it but my skin is fine.
We have company this week and I expect to make a berry pie or cobbler to keep ahead the deluge.
These are from heirloom seeds that my sister-in-law gave me from Fort Vancouver.
This is 2 weeks ago. I ended up leaving the peas on a little long so I didn’t get those sweet early peas. When I did finally harvest we had a ton of those, too. We are in the process of eating a big bowl and I blanched some and stuck in the freezer.
I’ve also dug some potatoes and we’ve had lots of lettuce. I’m keeping an eye on the bush beans next.
Deer are Jerks
Here is a giant deer helping itself to my peas.
Honestly, it can have the peas if it leaves the trees alone.
I didn’t even notice the deer had been out there at first. There no turds and I didn’t notice giant divots everywhere from their delicate yet lethal cloven hooves.
Then when I saw the clips, I thought: well, at least they got the memo about not turding all over the place.
But later when I was watering I found turds all around the dahlias.
I am not honored to be the safe place for the deer to poop.
Here are two of them fully enjoying my new plum tree! I can’t even watch the whole video. This was very upsetting. They chewed on the nectaplum, too and a little bit on the apple tree including knocking one of the 7 apples I have left after their apple blossom massacre.
What can you do! Nature! I have “learn about deer fencing” still on my list but it just seems like a pain in the butt. We have to move it to mow and do yard work. Or maybe there’s a way I can just protect the trees? The people at the garden store are incredibly nice so I will ask them but also this is one of the things on my list that I never seem to be in the mood to deal with. Watching the deer ruin the trees is the price I pay.
