Category Archives: doing it wrong

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.

Have I posted a picture of my square bread yet?

I feel like I’ve told this story but don’t see it in any past posts.

Colleague was asking me about a Pullman bread pan and describing what it was. I rolled my eyes. Who needs a bread pan like that? Then I researched it for myself and somehow decided that I had to have one.

This was my first loaf made using a Cook’s Illustrated easy sandwich bread recipe.

I also made a loaf using a whole wheat bread and the pan was overfull and not a true disaster but not pretty. More loaves to come.

This is from Christmas Day — we opened our Christmas fruit spread. It was both super delicious and also not quite like any flavor found in nature. The label on the jar says 50% fruit which is a pretty ominous percentage. It tasted like apples, strawberries, cinnamon, and a little bit of Christmas.

Best wishes for the new year.

Before, with my chubby pumpkin face:

After:

Bob wanted me to do a duplicate pose. I said, “I can’t fit in it now.”

Bob tested positive for Covid on 12/24 so the plan for today is sit around the house, do puzzles, read books, and watch movies. Steak dinner to be rescheduled.

Previous posts on this topic: 2003 and 2013.

I lost my watch. I don’t know if it would properly be called a smart watch. Maybe a fitness watch? It’s not the fanciest kind and I’ve had it at least a couple of years. I bought it to try to be more mindful of how much I walk after getting an earful at the doctor’s office.

Last week I was getting ready to jump in the shower and I realized I had it on. I yanked it off, tossed it on the bed, and never found it again.

Obviously it had to be tangled up in the bedding.

The next day Bob washed the sheets and no watch. I went through everything in the laundry room and no watch.

Over the weekend I deconstructed the entire bed area and moved everything. While I was back there I vacuumed and mopped up 20 years of flannel bedding lint. I crawled around with a flashlight. I moved everything from under the bed.

No watch.

Where on earth could it be? I figured the only explanation was it became tangled up in some clothes and dropped somewhere that we didn’t think to look.

Then came the night where I was awake at 3am and engaging in some light fretting. I had the idea that maybe it was caught up in my workout clothes.

The next day I opened the drawer and dug around and: yay! I found my watch.

It wasn’t the end of the world and I had resigned myself to just buying a new one but it was still exhilarating to find it.

I’m not retiring yet and I can’t actually see it on the horizon, but I know it is coming up.

Every month I try to purge or archive things a few things at the office. We have been in this office in 2008 and I have worked with colleague since 1999.

According to my little “this is your life” cheatsheet – I did my paralegal training in 1991 and started my first legal job in 1992. I’m overwhelmed by how much time has gone but but I guess the real attitude should be proud of all the things I’ve worked on in the last 30+ years.

I found that I have saved all my calendars going back to 1995. 1995!

My calendars are older than our law clerk. My relationship with my colleague is as old as our law clerk. She found a photo of herself as a baby on Halloween 1999 being bounced around by our boss. We started working together the next day.

Sometimes we lament getting old but it’s also fun to have all these experiences to look back on.

But back to the calendars that I forgot were even there: there’s no need to keep them but it feels weird to throw them away.

There must be a word for this is some other culture: not wanting to throw away old things even though they don’t do anything. Or maybe there is a word in our language: hoarding?

But it’s not really hoarding because I get rid of tons of stuff. I had the honor of showing our law clerk what a zip drive disk is because I found one in an ancient file. Then I tossed it.