You're Doing It Wrong

I was inspired by my husband’s coffee system so I started a new tea system.

I make my tea in my cup. I use leaf yerba mate in a tea ball.

When the first cup is ready, I transfer the tea ball and boiling water into the travel mug. Then when I’m ready for more, it’s all ready to go.

I can’t believe it took me this long to try this amazing and life-changing approach to morning beverages.

Here is a view of the tea ball in the bottom of the travel mug but you can’t really tell. Trust me.

Last time I was in Orleans I left my travel mug so when I bring it home I’m going to adopt this new system at the office, too.

I bought another bird feeder — so now I have four.

The bird feeder store is a dangerous place. You go in with a thing in mind and end up with a nice man helping you load all your stuff into the car. I even bought “squirrel baffles” which the guy said would not keep squirrels out but would help with the rain.

Now my birds can stay dry while they snack.

See? It says Birds’ Choice. Is there a possessive apostrophe? I can’t tell. I hope there is.

I was disappointed that no birds showed up (while I was watching) for 2 days! But Bob said he saw Squirrel out there and the peanuts are gone.

Actually after I first put it out I was outside doing yard work and blue jay landed on top and checked things out but did not go for the peanuts. Is he really too big? The blue jays seem determined but maybe they don’t like this one. They still scare the other birds away when they pick up tidbits underneath.

They also appear almost instantly if I go outside. They know me as the lady who brings out the peanuts.

I have never attracted a hummingbird to a feeder. This is my third time trying over the past several years. I remain hopeful.

Progress report: project of forever, part 2 of 3:

9612 / 40000 words. 24% done!

I spotted one last scraggly daffodil out under the bird bath. I thought I took a photo of it but I don’t see it on my phone so I must have just thought about it. Here’s a tulip instead.

I dug up a bunch of irises because they mostly aren’t pretty and a pain to weed around and when the flowers finally show up they only last about a week. But here’s some blooming.

There are slowly more people coming back to work downtown.

We have been the only business on our floor for almost 2 years.

Our floor was only half full before the plague. The building used part of it for storage and a non-profit had just moved to another location.

The tulips nearing the end. They are pretty for so long. Even when they are blowing out they are kind-of pretty.

Then there were 2 businesses left besides us.

The insurance people went completely to work-from-home and the finance bros already had plans to move into a building they bought.

Then it was just colleague and I. Mostly I like it. It’s very quiet.

But if an ax murderer shows up, and colleague is on travel, I will be on my own for survival.

We almost have the restrooms to ourselves.

Except, I don’t know how it works but somehow the word is out so people come to our floor to use the restroom.

Workers in the building, the UPS guys, people with shy elimination systems (?). Sometimes it startles me to see someone on our floor and I usually say hello. But it seems like people sneaking to other floors to use the restroom don’t want to be seen. They don’t say hi back.

via GIPHY

I’m moving the camera around trying to get a close up but maybe they monitor the environment and if it looks weird they lay low?

I’m going to leave the camera by the apple tree for a week and see if we get anything exciting.

Here’s a picture of the setup with a helpful arrow so you can see the entrance of the critters’ den. My Photoshop skills have atrophied — it took me forever to remember how to make an arrow and get it pointed in the right place.

On my way home from the match last week I saw an opossum scurrying along the street. It was in our neighborhood but not near our house. “Don’t be afraid, I’m your friend!” I shouted out the window while it rushed for cover.

I still haven’t flipped my closet, partly because I haven’t felt like doing it but also I’ve been able to get away without it. I’m still wearing my warm stuff. Not complaining. I’d rather have a cool, rainy spring. Maybe this weekend.

I finished Sanditon which is a PBS show based on a partial Jane Austen manuscript. (Possible vague spoilers – but it’s a PBS romance based on Jane Austen, that’s 2/3rds of the story right there.)

I don’t don’t know how much manuscript there was. I’m sure this show has invented a lot since we just finished Season 2 (cliffhanger!) and there’s going to be another.

Also, I love it. It would be a fun experiment to see how long they could get away with coming up with new love interests season after season. I’m sure Charlotte has more sisters or cousins that could come in and there could be neighbor women or some device to have new romances all the time. But I love Charlotte so she’d always have to be in it.

I didn’t connect to Bridgerton in the first couple of episodes but I plan to go back and try again. It seems absurd that I wouldn’t love this show.

This week in the backyard we had zero visits from raccoons. It was all opossums and cats. We had an opossum with a heavy pouch a week or two ago so I’ve been keeping an eye on that but then this week we had an opossum and no heavy pouch. I need to read up on my opossum habits.

My plan is to move the camera out into the garden to see if I can gather more information. I am also thinking about buying a second camera — more coverage!

If I don’t get around to posting on the weekend don’t get to it all. I don’t know why I am still constantly surprised by my schedule.

I always start out Monday and Tuesday with so much energy and optimism. My work day is extra productive and when I get home I exercise and maybe get some chores done.

Wednesday I start drooping. It’s not that I have no time, it’s that I have no brain juice. I come home and sometimes rally to go for a short walk or take care of something but more often it’s sit down and read before dinner.

By the time I get on the bus on Thursdays, I am beat. Especially if anything extra has happened during the week like a soccer match or insomnia. This week was a soccer match but it was super fun and hopefully I will post about it later this weekend.

Then Friday is often running around doing errands and chores I don’t have time for on work days and trying to collect enough brain juice to work on writing or administrivia. (I am planning to buckle and get Part 2 of the forever project going. I will put the writing meter on the bottom of this post but it’s not completely accurate because I have some chapters done but out of order so I’m not organized yet.)

But then another good night of sleep and by Saturday and Sunday I’m feeling rested and up for doing stuff.

Then Monday we start all over again and by Wednesday I surprised by how droopy I’m getting. That’s just how it is right now.

Part 2, Project of Forever, To be updated more accurately soon.

1000 / 40000 words. 3% done!

I am enjoying my flowers but I keep forgetting to take photos of them. I ran out there this morning. Sorry about the less than artful light.

I thought the snow on Monday was going to smush them but not at all.

One thing I forgot to mention about my urgent care visit was that we probably spent more time talking about how I was going to pay than we did in the examination.

This particular place does everything over the Internet so I had to create an account and then scroll through endless long “read this and click agree” things that had to do with paying. Then input information about how I would pay. Then understand that no matter what, I had to pay.

Do you go to the grocery store, load up your cart, and then think: but do I have to pay? Why do we treat people seeking medical care like this? Keep in mind that my face is blown up, my eyes swollen almost shut, and everything itches.

Of course then after all that the final screen wouldn’t complete to make the appointment. I tried to log in with a different browser and that wouldn’t work either. So then Bob and both searched for a phone number.

We finally find a phone number and the whole thing starts all over again with me having to agree to pay and also give insurance information and also give a credit card and also agree to pay.

By this time, the appointment that I made was 15 minutes away and part of the routine was that if we were more than 5 minutes late the appointment would be cancelled and guess what?

We still had to pay.

I was not confident we could get there in 15 minutes so we had to reschedule.

We got in the car and got over there and of course there were no other patients there. It was first thing in the morning. When I checked in? Yup — insurance, credit card, agree to pay, agree to pay.

It makes me feel terrible for people to don’t have many resources for health care.

I paid. I am marginally better but still look frightful especially with my glasses off.

Bob read the weather forecast on Sunday night saying we could get a few inches of snow. We laughed. I woke up Monday morning and couldn’t believe it. It was a thrilling drive to the park-n-ride but so pretty. Long gone now. I’m not sure what set off the camera for this clip but I like the falling snow, especially in the background under the streetlight.

I thought I wrote about this before but can’t find it in the archive. Around the holidays I began having a mild rash on my face — around my mouth and eyes, and itchy hives on my neck.

In the last couple of years I have noticed my skin is more sensitive and every so often I have identified new products that gave me a little bit of itch. It always cleared up quickly.

I thought I’d identified the holiday problem, eliminated it and had no issues since.

Until this week. I used an old product I haven’t used in awhile. I don’t know what magical perfect storm transpired but I woke up Thursday with a rash and puffy eyes and it got worse as the day went on. When I woke up yesterday my eyes were almost swollen shut and my undereye bags are so puffy it looks dangerous.

Off we went to urgent care. I got some drugs and I’m trying to have a positive attitude but I woke up pretty much the same as yesterday and I’m uncomfortable and cranky. Sitting at the computer doesn’t feel great. Poo.