Current Faves

Posted on March 20, 2022 by Pamela

Oakie letting me know he’s ready to help by sitting on my laptop.

Damn! The times gets away. This weekend I did a bunch of chores and got out in the yard. I did my first pass on the taxes. I finished a little project for a friend. And I watched NCAA gymnastics conference finals. I’m still watching that. 5 more hours to go.

Morning Tishaniik walk with dogs and elders.

I’m not totally sure how music gets on my phone. Last time I drove to Orleans my podcasts wouldn’t work and I can’t fiddle with the phone while I drive so I asked Siri to play music.

And all these songs I like played. It was a miracle.

So for this trip I added a playlist called “current faves” and listened to that for another part of the drive when my podcasts weren’t working. I did ask Siri to play podcasts but she didn’t do it. I don’t know why.

Apparently I created “current faves” about 15 minutes after Apple invented playlists (the early 00s?) because it was a bunch of old songs from bands I haven’t thought of in ages.

Stroke Nine? Vertical Horizon? Snow Patrol?

I don’t listen to music enough to remedy this situation

On the way home I listened to a big section of Braiding Sweetgrass which I am enjoying but it’s super long and feels long.

Mom and Oakie cleaning up the asparagus patch.

I don’t have any big stories from my trip. The drive down and back went smoothly. We had some rain but nothing terrible which is actually bad because they are hurting for rain/snowpack down there. We went on some nice walks and did some visiting.

I will be back in June.

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Fat Squirrel and The Spool of Destiny

Posted on March 6, 2022 by Pamela

This is Fat Squirrel. There are actually 2 fat squirrels and the way they’ve been running around here, I bet there are more squirrels on the way soon.

I put peanuts out on that little table for the blue jays and sometimes the blue jays don’t come along or leave one and Fat Squirrel gets his chubby mitts on them.

Sometimes he just sits out there, his little hands folded in front of him, and he looks at the window as if to say: hey lady, bring me some peanuts.

The spool was here when we moved in and we use it to hold our drinks when we sit outside. (There’s a swinging seat out there in the summer.) It’s also proven handy for the trail cam and I can easily move it around.

I think at some point Fat Squirrel found a peanut inside that middle hole (you can see in top photo) but his brain is so small, he thinks the peanuts come from a magical place and he has really ripped up the inside of the spool looking for peanuts.

I cleverly covered that hole so now he’s been trying to get in another way.

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First Flower

Posted on March 4, 2022 by Pamela

This post and the next are being scheduled. I am going to Orleans to hang out with Mom for a week. Hopefully I will have some fun photos when I return.

Someday I would like to go through our entire house and get out every towel, washcloth, dish cloth, rag, mop towel, and anything else like a towel and put them all in a pile.

We need to sort through and make a “GET RID OF ALREADY” pile, a mop pile, and then the ones we use for bathing.

Every little cupboard and cranny has some towels stashed in it. Some of them so ancient you can see through them.

But it seems like whenever I’m looking for hand towels, or the bath towels that I like, I can’t find them.

See also: containers for leftovers. We have lids. We have containers. But sometimes none match the others.

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We Lost

Posted on February 26, 2022 by Pamela

Before the match when I was filled with joy.

I have had this post partially written since way back in December when it happened.

We went to our first preseason match last weekend and the new season starts tonight so it was time to finish it up.

My team made it to the championship and about 10 major things had to fall our way for us to get the match at home.

And we did.

This has been my dream to see my team play a championship match in my home stadium.

These are our seats. I don’t know what this setting is on my phone but it looks magical so I’m using it.

But the club doesn’t run the championship match, the league does and the first thing the league does is scrape a whole bunch of seats off the top for all their corporate cronies.

There weren’t even enough seats left for all the season ticket holders.

Twelve years of loyalty, good years and bad, rain or sizzle, US Open Cup, pre-season, friendlies — showing up for the team.

And we had to sit there in front of the computer clicking refresh to try to get tickets.

I will never be over this.

This was our view. Like it?

The only thing available, when we finally got through, were general admission. We both balked and then decided we’d rather be there in shitty seats than not at all.

We couldn’t even see the entire field. You can’t see in the photo but we could see a video screen. So, yay.

And even worse I spent the whole match looking across the field at my seats.

We made the best of it. We always wanted to see a match sitting in the Army section, so crossed that off our list. And at least we didn’t get rained on.

The seats we had were so bad, they aren’t usually even available.

It’s hard to say if I would feel differently if we’d won. I’m not sure. I think I might be less salty, but still salty.

I wouldn’t want to go through that again. What is the point of doing all this if getting to see a championship game is out of reach unless you can pay $1000 a seat or you’re special friends with crony?

I was happy to be back at the park. I hugged my seat.

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The Odd Couple

Posted on February 22, 2022 by Pamela

Here is a clip of Opossum, slipping under the shed.

I have the whole shed blocked off except that one spot because I don’t want to seem welcoming but I also don’t want anything to die under there. The motion light was supposed to discourage wildlife but apparently they think it’s a handy porch light.

For the record I have seen other animals sniffing around that spot: cats, raccoons.

There’s a lot going on here and I’ll get back to it in a second. Don’t let it distract you from watching the porch light come on and a grand entrance from Skunky.

So, do they live together under there? Are they like The Odd Couple? Do they divide the under shed area into “skunk side” and “opossum side.” Are they friends?

I have so many questions.

Back to the clip, we have Raccy getting a little sip and then when Skunky comes out, it looks like something leaps across the lawn and I kind of think it’s Bunny. But it might be another Raccy.

There were several days where I didn’t get very many clips and I thought things had calmed down. No way. Bunny spent several hours one evening tripping off the camera and Opossum did the same thing the night before last.

Edited to add: according to my dashboard — this is post #3000.

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Oops. Time Stamp

Posted on February 19, 2022 by Pamela

I forgot that when you change the batteries in the trail cam, you have to reset the clock.

The camera went off during the day and took close to 500 clips of squirrels with some birds at the feeders mixed in. That’s not an exaggeration. There were almost 500 clips on the camera card. I went out and made the bed and folded a basket of clothes while they were downloading.

We don’t get a lot of crows in the backyard. I want to be a friend of crows but I don’t want to scare off my blue jay friends so I don’t encourage it.

This is a screenshot sampling of the thumbnails from my 500 clips. I deleted about 492 of them.

I haven’t seen a peep from the blue jays in days. Bob said one dive-bombed his head when he was taking out the compost.

I know they nest in the hedge next to the compost so I bet I know what they’re up to.

What an eco-system we have in that hedge.

via GIPHY

I always say whenever I get a cold, I always get a cough that lasts a month. It feels like I’m exaggerating but it was 4 weeks from the day I went down sick, that I got through my first day without a cough drop. My body just loves to hang on to a cough.

All good for now. But I’m paranoid that my Fisherman’s Friend supply is so low. Only 2 1/2 bags. I need to stock up. Just in case.

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Bring Your Milk Jug To Work Day

Posted on February 16, 2022 by Pamela

Beautiful winter day in Van Wa

This morning, at one of the bus stops downtown, out of the corner of my eye, I saw a guy holding a gallon milk jug as he waited for the bus. The jug was about half full.

I had a whole flash of thought process wondering if he had a place to keep his milk cold during the day? Was this a health thing and he needed to drink almost a whole gallon of milk? He was dressed for a construction type job. Perhaps he needed milk to keep his energy up. Mostly I was hung up on the refrigeration issue.

What a clever thing to do with found glasses. I hope the owner spotted them.

When I got off at my stop as I walked up the hill to my office building, a guy was crossing the street in front of me carrying two jugs of milk in each hand.

Again, a whole flash thought process: is there some sort of bring your jug of milk to work day? Is there a prank or flash mob thing? Will I be spotting people running around with jugs of milk today?

I bet construction guy was transporting his powershake for breakfast and I’m pretty sure the other guy was carrying them to the local coffee kiosk for the day’s lattes.

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Back to the Grind

Posted on February 6, 2022 by Pamela

What is this picture? I’m guessing I did this somehow while I was carrying the phone. It looks like the area where the big food cart used to be and is now going to be a luxury hotel/condo tower and an awning? I have no idea.

Our office technology is mostly fixed and we are back at it, in the office, full time. January was super busy with all kinds of things that need to happen at the beginning of the year.

Since the pandemic the bus ridership dwindled so much that they combined 4 routes into one and reduced service. More stops, fewer options.

So I’m back to super long days. I don’t hate it but it means I don’t get anything done around the house on work days. It’s a different rhythm to get back to.

This is my Indigenous bookshelf. It’s not complete because I have books stashed all over the place plus digital books. I only pulled out the ones with an Indigenous author and that I could find right away. If you count books with an Indigenous topic, I have at least 3x this many.

I participated in an Indigenous romance author QnA with Erin and Dani of Indigenous reading circle. Here is the URL (When I look on my browser, the URL is crossed out but if you click it, it works fine.) I’m not sure if you can watch it without an Instagram account. Give it a try. It was super fun and I am so impressed with the work these two are doing to promote Indigenous authors.

Here I am represented at the Thai food cart.

Out of time. Pressing publish without proofreading. I love the danger!

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Like the Drivin’ Rain

Posted on January 30, 2022 by Pamela

After some technology issues and then the crud and more of the crud, I am back in the office full time again. For extra credit: there is a new bus schedule which has more stops and fewer options so I am back to my long days again.

At least I get a nice stretch for reading.

I saw both Stinky and the raccoon trio in real time during the week but different nights. The motion lights were going off and I could see them running around, Stinky at 8:30p and the raccoons at 7:45p.

Yesterday we went to see the Pedro Almodovar film: Parallel Mothers. We loved it. Then we went out to dinner and talked about it and tried to remember the last time the two of us have been out together. We’ve gotten a lot of take out the past 2 years but we’ve only been out once or twice.

The restaurant has an item on the menu that’s a 22 oz. Bloody Mary and the garnish is brisket, a rib, and a sausage. All your hangover needs taken care of.

Bunny visited last night. He was out there for almost two hours, set off both the motion lights and had a good time.

That funny round thing in the lower left is what’s left of the ice I pulled out of the bucket a couple of days ago.

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Recovery

Posted on January 23, 2022 by Pamela

Here’s an older clip of no tail taking a little drink in the snow.

And here’s another in the serious of that mean ol’ raccoon beating up on anyone who tries to drink when he’s there.

No big news. We are both mostly recovered but still scattered coughing and we’re usually pretty pooped by the end of the day.

Yesterday was the first day I was pretty close to “normal” whatever that is, and even did a little bit of exercise.

I’m catching up on projects and chores. I’m hoping to get to the office on Monday. Who knows what is waiting for me after I’ve been home so long?

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