PNewL PNewS Volume 26 Issue 5

PNewL PNewS 

                                 Volume 26 Issue 5             “All the pnews that phits.”              December 2018

The Hamilton Edition

     I am going to write this now while it’s fresh in my mind and because I have 38% battery and the hotel I am staying in has no power so after that I will be sitting in a dark room with nothing to do and it will be, like, 5:30pm.

[Ed. Note: I have now been fiddling with this for a couple weeks + and I think I have to just say I am done. I am done.]

I saw Hamilton. (Big bucket list check.)

     In retrospect, I could have bought a $500 ticket a couple years ago and saved money and wear and tear, but since that seemed outrageous at the time, I guess it is appropriate that I did it my way.

     In March of this year, I heard that Hamilton was going to be part of the Broadway Series that comes to Greenville SC each year. I got on the “I want to buy a series of tickets” list because darn it, I was going to see Hamilton, and theatre tickets were things that grown ups buy and I am an honest to god grown up, though I don’t act like it much. In June, after trying to sign up online, I reserved on the phone because I could not figure out how to do it online—proving I am an old grown up. The nice man got me great seats—I got two because it’s a distance and I thought it would be more fun with two.

     The tickets arrived—except for the Hamilton tickets—in August and I wondered what I was thinking. What are these plays?...But I am going to see Hamilton! The first play was silly (The Play that Goes Wrong), the second was pretty (Anastasia). They were well done and well staged, just not my thing. And while it kinda is more fun with two, it can be complicated. I think this is an experiment that is a slight fail but there are still several to go so I shall reserve judgment, and by the way, did I mention I saw Hamilton?

     By the way, the actual Hamilton tickets arrived later, much later. Turns out there were some discrepancies (hacking?) and so those tickets didn’t arrive til about three weeks before the show. Security has been tight—recommend covering the bar code if taking a picture of tickets and posting them on social media. Wow.

     The week before My Hamilton—December 9—weather reports started ramping up for one of those Storms of the Century, which either will or won’t happen. As it got closer, the bulls eye of the storm was going to be My Hamilton Day—Sunday December 9^th. Kinda reminds me of the time I was coming home from Cuba right into the center of a triangle of a surprising storm that stretched from Atlanta to Charlotte to Knoxville while the rest of the country was quiet—welcome to my world. (I wound up in a motel far from home then too…) Anyway, yes, I am very lucky to have these opportunities but I sometimes find the circumstances, like…really? I love me a good storm but I prefer to be hunkered down and ready to play in the snow, not trying to drive somewhere I really need and want to be.

     After they started talking about Jim Cantore from the Weather Channel coming to town, I figured I needed to get prepared. Patsy and Ernie and I were planning to go grocery shopping and see Marnie and Stephen 2.5+ hours away each way on Friday so I decided to send Roger the Dog to Puppy Camp for the weekend. We had a great trip to Greensboro, shopping til we dropped whilst visiting. (I’m sure Roger’s time was equally great.) Meanwhile, I spent way too long trying to decide where to stay in Greenvillefor the show. Since I was beginning to question whether I was going to come out of the show and be able to pop onto the road and drive back home, I figured I was in it for two nights so I’d aim low and a little bit away from downtown. I went for a La Quinta, which on first look was walkable to downtown, but turns out was a lot of freeway away. 

     Driving down the mountain on Saturday morning to beat the storm, the snow started to fall but nothing was sticking and it wasn’t slippery. When I arrived at La Quinta, it seemed pretty calm—cold rainy but nothing ominous. I stocked up on snacks to supplement the supplies I had brought from home in case getting out for dinner wasn’t possible. When I got to my room, which was fine, I found the Internet wasn’t working. Bummer. 

     Oh and did I mention I was getting a cold? Friday morning, as we took off for our long distance grocery shopping extravaganza, my voice was getting rough and my throat was rougher. (Dr. Ernie recommended Motrin for a sore throat and, by jingo, it helped!) By Saturday, I had a cough and the start of laryngitis. By Sunday, I was pretty much silenced. This was just the latest in a series of illnesses that started in early November. I was whipped.

     Over night, the weather deteriorated. Glazed tree branches scraped against the windows throughout the night as high winds buffeted the building. When I woke up before dawn, I realized there was no power in the hotel.  “Emergency lighting” in the stairs were those green light sticks that were standing on the top of what should have been lit in an emergency. There was no warm breakfast but the cereal and yogurt were fine. The front desk was taking notes on clipboards. I can’t imagine how they deciphered what they had written. The phones were out.

     When I determined I didn’t want to drive to the show—it was a skating rink out on the roads, I ordered a Lyft and got nervous as it took a while for a driver to agree to come. I waited up on the main road and shortly before the driver showed up, a large tree cracked and fell, breaking all the wires across the road and taking out a pole. Explosions and fireworks. I looked around and I was the only one witnessing this—it felt like the Twilight Zone. Not much hope for power ever returning to La Quinta! My Lyft arrived and he was a nice guy in 4wd and I felt very safe. I tipped him well.

     My second ticket was supposed to be taken by a friend who finally figured out she wasn’t going to make it and fortunately found someone who was not only thrilled to be going, she would also pay for it. Score. I met her out front of the theatre—we took pictures of each other in front of the Hamilton sign. She was darling—a 20-something med student. She was very excited. And she spent most of the time in anticipation of the show on her phone. She convinced her dad to take me back to the hotel after the show, where the power was still out but they had added more emergency light sticks! I was almost tearfully grateful—for the ride, not the light sticks.

     The show was great—energetic, inspiring, with fabulous music. There had been discussion prior whether we needed to study the story and learn the music. Most of it was familiar and I had only done a little of each. Aaron Burr was my favorite actor. Oh and King George. Totally worth it and I hope I don’t have to go to such extremes again. And I have seen Hamilton!!!

Things I am Learning

& Miscellaneous Observations

• There is much to be said for how you spin it. There was one woman at the front desk of the hotel (motel?) who responded to my questions—two on two separate days—by saying that what was happening (the internet being down on Day One and 27 hours of power outage as I was leaving) was not their fault. As I was checking out, I said to one of the guys, something like I’d like to say it was a pleasure staying here but well you know (haha), and again, the woman at the front desk who I was not talking to said, you know none of this is our fault while the guy said, this has not been the kind of service we like to and typically do provide our customers. I prefer the latter.

• Batteries and zippers – the weak links in my world.

• Alexa doesn’t do so well with a voice afflicted by laryngitis.

• For the 39 hours I was at La Quinta, the power was out for 27 and of the remaining 12, I was asleep for 8 of them. No internet, no phone, no refrigeration. No discount.

• If you are heading into a possibly incapacitating weather situation, bring snacks. On top of being inconvenienced, being hungry doesn’t help. And a battery phone charger is another good idea. Pretend you are going camping. Bring all that stuff.

•  I just received the request from La Quinta to evaluate my stay, The questions are hard to answer—how was the bathroom? Hard to tell, I couldn’t see it!  Breakfast? Hmm. Not worth discussion. [Note: I did fill out the form and mentioned the employee who kept saying it wasn’t their fault. I got a phone call from the manager, I think, wanting to follow up on my evaluation. I lost his number. Oops]

• I think the most frequent call I get on my cell phone is me trying to find it…

Things I am Thankful For

& New Years Resolutions

Thankful for…

• Cool smart people I have met this year or gotten to know better who inspire me.

• Roger the Dog

• Opportunity

• The van

• Sock darning videos (among others—youtube in general)

New Year’s Resolutions…

• Darn the socks

• Make more donation toys

• Learn more about the trees that live near me. (I don’t know why I can’t retain this information…)

• All the usual suspects continue to apply: Eat better, get more exercise, laugh more, have more fun, dance more. Figure out something to do at the holidays other than getting sick.

“Overcoming fear is first and foremost about having the courage to look under the bed.”Brittney Cooper, Eloquent Rage

Emergency Lighting at LaQuinta

PNewL PNewS Volume 26 Issue 4

PNewL PNewS 

      Volume 26 Issue 4             “All the pnews that phits.”           November 2018

We're so Eclectic

     The last couple of months have included a pretty interesting collection of events and things to do. I am grateful for all the things I am able to do and frustrated by the number of things I simply can’t find time for.

     It all started with the Asheville Van Life Rally at a new event venue in the hills to the west of town. It was a lovely setting in pristine condition, complete with retro Airstream trailers that had been refurbished and set permanently in place as accommodations. Very classy. The organization was soorganized. Van Lifers were permitted to arrive on Friday afternoon and when we got there, folks were already deploying their rigs. Gini and her dog Blaze had come in especially for the event. We, each in our van with each of our dogs, were directed to the end of the line, which wound up being perfect. We were up against the woods, which provided much needed shade and we were far from “downtown” camperville. 

      On Saturday, the van population was at the max and the event was opened to day-trippers only. Throughout, there were vendors and food and drinks and music and demonstrations. The atmosphere was truly wonderful—like-minded people wandering around chatting and comparing set-ups. I wound up learning a fair amount I hadn’t known about the company that created my converted van—folks had read about it but never seen one. It was fun. I wound u volunteering to help at the front gate for a bunch of hours and that was pretty fun too. The front gate was closed to anyone but vendors and volunteers—everyone else had to be directed to the lots where they could park and ride back in a shuttle. As I started to greet folks, I asked, What’s YOUR story? being a bit smart alecky and soon I learned, everyone did have a story. Through three plus hours of standing at the gate I would guess maybe four people were rude—mostly entitled people in expensive cars. Pretty good odds.

     The next weekend was the Asheville Quilt Show, which we describe as a regional show with a national reputation. Because we offer some pretty nice prize money, we get some pretty nice quilts to exhibit. This year was no exception. It’s a well-done event, which, to my mind, requires a ridiculous amount of work. Fortunately, there is an army of worker bees and Type A-s to coordinate all of the bits and pieces that add up to a successful show. Year after year.

     Meanwhile, I started taking a class called Building Bridges, which is offered by yet another dedicated troop of volunteers. BB is a nine-week course aimed at providing a safe space to look at racism, historically, big picture and here in Asheville. I believe it has changed my life. While it is easy to think we have a handle on this in our own minds, trust me, we don’t. It wasn’t always fun but it wasalways enlightening. Through readings and large group presentations and small group discussions, we explored some pretty sensitive issues. One of the evenings started with a slide show of pictures of the Jews killed at the temple in Pittsburgh and the two African Americans killed at the Kroger in Kentucky--all victims of white supremacy. We were asked to take a few moments of silence. I cannot tell you how emotional this was to me. It is easy--well I am not sure easy is the right word--but it is a bit of a remove to talk with friends about how depressing and crazy and messed up this world is and not necessarily really feel it but to sit in a room that used to be a place of worship--a room that has to be locked once we are inside...just in case--with a group of people who are trying to better understand this crazy world...to be quiet and watch the names, ages and faces of the people who were now gone: It was incredibly powerful. (Later in the small groups, the facilitators said there has had to be one of these altered programs in something like three out of the last six sessions because of the frequency of episodes of violence in our country.)

     Did you know there is actual research that racism is having a huge health impact on people's lives--the stress causes cancer, strokes, heart disease, premature babies etc. in higher numbers among people of color? Did you know that the African American population in Asheville has gone from 19% to less than 10% in a decade? If young people can get out, they do not come back—I think this may be true of young white people too but have no data. 

Have you taken these tests? Highly recommend

https://implicit.harvard.edu/implicit/takeatest.html
http://www.antiracistalliance.com/Unpacking.html#top

Have you read these books? (Highly Recommend)

The Warmth of Other Suns: The Epic Story of America's Great Migrationby Isabel Wilkerson (I didn’t even know about the Great Migration.)

The Hate U Give, Angie Thomas

I'm Still Here: Black Dignity in a World Made forWhiteness, Austin Channing Brown

When They Call You a Terrorist: A Black Lives Matter Memoir,Patrisse Khan-Cullors

     In our final small group, we agreed that we had only just begun. The youngest member among us said she wished she knew 10 years ago what she knows now--one of the oldest members said she wished she'd known it 55 years ago. Several of us mentioned conversations we'd had with friends--some who didn't believe in white privilege, some who we felt we'd made to think. I said I had found a great deal of comfort in being part of it because while the worldiscrazy, I at least felt like I am making an effort to understand some of it better and to be hopefully better prepared to be part of the change that is coming. 

     And finally, during October, I took at class on Smartphone Photography. It wound up being very helpful. I learned some about photography, some about my phone and some about apps—there are tons—for free or for a buck or so. Seems there was something else I was going to say, but I s’pose that’ll do for now.

Things I am Learning

& Miscellaneous Observations

• I am going to a conference in a few days and I need to sort out my knitting projects. Conferences tend to mean I need mindless projects—those where it’s pretty much straight knitting, very little pattern to follow. I started one project that had a lacy edge followed by solid knitting for miles. It’s a new pattern that hadn’t been debugged. I was stumped. The creator finally wrote back with the fixes but I had, meanwhile, started several other projects…just in case. One I started has a pattern that seemed memorize-able. Just in case that doesn’t work, I have a piece that has a lot of boring with a little something here and there that can be worked around. It’s a good thing I am taking a big suitcase.

• I just realized I have lived in NC almost twice as long as I lived in Florida. That’s weird.

• It seems to be the season of burned out headlights. I thought it was just out here in the boonies, which is a scary place to be driving towards a Cyclops vehicle but in town it is the same scenario. I wonder why—change of temperature kills a headlight? [Ed. Note: There seem to be a lot of burned out headlights here in Portland as well.]

• My neighborhood has been sounding like a kennel lately—large numbers of barking dogs. For a while I thought it might be coyotes but I have been told it’s bear season so the dogs are on the hunt.

• I thought I was kind of unusual because I have a very narrow range of temperatures that are perfect to me—and wind and humidity have an impact as well. Recent conversations prove it’s common. My favorite temperatures used to be higher but I’m close to dipping into the 60s. 

• I think shoelace designers (there has to be that job, don’t you think??) should be ashamed of themselves. For years, laces have been so long I have wondered where all that lace is supposed to go. Recently I bought a pair of shoes with laces of a reasonable length but they don’t stay tied. People! This shouldn’t be that hard!

• A few days ago, I took what might be one of the last outdoor showers of the season. I waited until the sun was on the shower and it was over 60 degrees outside. It was hard to get started and then I found, once the water was hot and the breeze was cool and the sun was bright and shiny, it was hard to get out. Delicious.

     This morning, I brought the soap and shampoo in from the outdoor shower because the temps were in the 30s. This afternoon, I took a shower in the outdoor shower because it was warmer outside than in. My furnace has been out for 11 days—the joy of living in a small town is that furnace fix-it people get backed up and just can’t make any more appointments. I have learned how depressing being cold is. I feel for people for whom there are no choices. [Ed. Note: The furnace fix-it man showed up within the window promised (score!). He was way nicer—and more sympathetic--than the person who made the appointment, thankfully. He disappeared into the bowels of my house and came up with success…the problem was bees. BEES. They had set up shop in the…exhaust pipe?...of my furnace which was somehow preventing the blower from going on. I don’t know—I can’t hold this info in my head…anyway, it’s fixed and it was relatively inexpensive! Yay. And now when I come inside, it’s warm…almost hot because I am not used to any heat. Yay again.]

• I know I am sick…when all of my cordless technology batteries die and I don’t care; …when I realize I actually have a whole bunch of food in the freezer that can sustain me without having to go to the store (a gallon of homemade chicken broth= score!);…when I am willing to accept help.;…when reading the newspaper in bed is hard.;…when I stay in the same clothes for several days at a time;…when I walk in from a trip and can’t unpack my luggage or unload the dishwasher;…when the thought of red wine upsets my stomach;…when I am so close to finishing the PNewSand I just can’t get the middle part right…for days;…when I can’t do anything other than pet Roger and sleep—no mindless knitting, cooking or quilting;…when I actually think to take my temperature and it’s 102.

• On a related topic, please get a flu shot (Yes I usually get a flu shot, no I hadn’t made the time for it yet, yes I learned my lesson.) Feel free to think you never get the flu, you do other things to avoid it, and you are not the flu type. But should it hit you—it takes way longer than you think. And according to Ernie, it kills more people annually than car accidents. Plus it makes you feel very weak and old, which is sad.

✔    ✔    ✔     ✔    ✔    ✔    ✔    ✔    ✔    ✔ 

PNewL PNewS 26.3

PNewL PNewS 

      Volume 26 Issue 3                                            “All the pnews that phits.”                                                      September 2018

Queen of Good Enough

     While mowing the other day, I wrote a brilliant version of the PNewS. ‘Course, whilst perched upon my riding mower, I could not write anything down or even record it so it’s all lost but the gist of it is…I am a perfectionist wanna be, but truly, I am the Queen of Good Enough.

     As I was taking fast turns and avoiding roots and rocks, I kept thinking I would go back and weed whack those parts I skipped but chances are not good that this will happen. I have other stuff to do, it’s bleeping hot, I can catch it next time around and (my favorite because this is how I got here), it’s all going to grow right back. I am trying to eliminate lawn and every time I tend to mow less and then it looks like hell and well, that’s just the way it is. But it looks better than before I mowed so generally I’m happy.

     Today the nice man from down the road came by. He’s a stone wizard. I am hoping he will make some order out of at least some of this madness. As we were talking about “next steps,” he said, well first we need to be able to see what’s here. Good point—the weeds have the upper hand…for now. He said he’d be willing to help. The lawnmower fix-it man said the same thing. It must be bad that people who barely know me take pity on me and offer to help, but to me, in some ways, it’s good enough.

     But it’s not just the yard where I tend to think I can live with Good Enough. Cleaning? You betcha. Following a recipe? Yep. That applies to pretty much anything with instructions. I have a quilt that used to live on my bed, then moved to the guest room and is now in the closet til winter. When sewing on the binding, I ran out of thread about two inches from the end and I figured I’d get to it one day. That day has apparently not happened yet. I am in a couple knitting Facebook groups and people are often mentioning how many rows they had to “tink “ (Knitting backwards aka frogging “ripit ripit”—aren’t knitters funny?) to get to a mistake they had made. Seriously? Who is going to notice it? Well, okay someone might and I might even, but can I live with it? Indeed!

     I truly wish I were burdened with perfectionism. It seems so…admirable and unattainable and thus so human to want it. Alas, I have decided that Good Enough works for me. And so it shall be.

Things I am Learning

& Miscellaneous Observations

• A friend of mine, whose counsel I value told me recently that her mother’s words to live by were, "Don't be a pain in the ass." It’s a good reminder that I don’t need to make anyone’s day worse. I am trying so hard—and I find it is hard work. I don’t send emails as quickly (or I wind up sending an apologetic one later), I haven’t screamed too loudly at anyone in traffic. This morning I was so darn friendly when the nice person at the tire store told me my van has snow tires on it which turn out are softer than regular tires which makes them wear faster. I said, “Weeeee! New Tires. Bring em on!” I did. And the woman at the front desk who was having a bad day actually smiled at my enthusiasm and maybe I made the last several pains in her behind a distant memory…at least for a moment. But as I said, this is hard work. I am not accustomed to cutting people slack--mostly I want them to get out of my way and let me be. 

     And when I got home with my beautiful new Made in America tires, I had to deal with a project that sometimes feels endless because of people who only answer one of the four questions I ask in an email, or who charge my credit card twice (“Oops! Not sure how that happened!”), or who just generally take five extra steps to do something that should only take a few. I am trying to not be a pain, but perhaps I should share this mantra with them so they could stop being a pain in my…neck. (One of my friend’s mother’s other quotable quotes/mantras: when asked what her charitable giving strategy was: “Write more zeroes.” Please feel free to borrow either. They are free…and challenging!)

• One of the many things that is a trigger for my being-a-pain behavior is having my credit card declined. I do all the right things, set up the travel notice, write down every flippin state and province I am going to be in and the third time I use it to get gas just minutes from the Canadian border, I get declined. I should have taken a deep breath and thought of Becky’s mom being all calm cool and collected, but no, I dialed that number and got kinda hysterical on this poor woman at the credit card company, and she kept saying “No problem” and I explained to her that it was no problem to herbecause she wasn’t about to be miles from anywhere with no access to credit or a phone. Sigh. It wasn’t pretty. I would like to explain to her that this is an issue for me and it had nothing to do with her but she is in some far away country and I don’t remember her name, so to you whoever and wherever you are, I shouldn’t have taken it out on you. My apologies.

• I am among the many who have been lured into the deep dark web of Amazon Prime. I like fast “free” shipping and no I don’t want credit on something to wait five days, and I don’t like those “Oops it’s going to be late, but it’s on its way” emails on the day something is supposed to arrive because a) I like practically instant gratification—which by the way you enabled by offering it, and b) you knew before today that it was going to be late so ‘fess up and don’t mess with me. Recently I ordered some fabric and a fascinator online. (The latter because Ann has two and I wanted one, and who knows when I might be invited to a Royal wedding?) One came from San Diego, the other from Paducah. I believe they came by stagecoach. Epically slow service and shipping. The funny thing was that it was such a mystery when or if they were going to show up, I was tickled when they finally arrived. Maybe there’s something to slowing expectations down a bit.

• Does it ever make you wonder who decided where the boundaries are when it comes to autocorrect? Sometimes I get close to a word which my phone autocorrect would fix, but it doesn’t on my laptop and it may or may not on an iPad…another first world problem.

• I am at the stage in trip planning/prep when I feel like it would be easier to stay home. I’m almost a little afraid. This too shall pass…it always does and it is, 99% of the time, the right thing to do—to go.

• My lawn, which is partly grass and mostly weeds but they are green and cover dirt, looks fabulous this year. Relatedly, we have had record-breaking rain. Twenty inches in 15 days in May. July was the second rainiest month in history. This is proof that lawns are not a sustainable thing.

• I got an invitation to a Country Club…in Asheville! Who knew such a thing existed? Who knew that I knew anyone who belonged? I was honored to be among a small group of people at a very nice lunch, but I am jumping ahead. As I drove there, I got a little anxious. I have not been to a Country Club since most of my friends of the older generation died. While those places are not unfamiliar to me, I never belonged to one and while many of my friend’s families belonged when I was growing up, I never felt like I belonged there. I always felt like I was going to do something wrong and get in trouble. As I walked in to this one—through the wrong door of course, it was so familiar—the deep carpet, the hushed tones, the dark wood, and silver winner’s cups. Very tasteful, nothing over the top, but comfortable luxury. A bit awkward in anticipation, but I was fine once I sat down to lunch and we got into the conversations of how to improve the world. 

• I am a late adopter of emojis. I always thought they were kind of hokey, but like a lot of things I feel that way about, eventually I’m using them too. I like the crazy one, and the green barf one, but that giant green check when I type “done”? A bit much—overstating, in my humble opinion.

• It is always surprising to me when friends pay attention to the Perseid meteor shower. To me, it is an Osawa family thing, lying on the dock, watching shooting stars. I didn’t know it was a thing for other people!?! Osawa is not the center of the universe???

• I like technology though I am beginning to think I am not very good at it. This year, I brought all my gizmos to the wilds of Ontario far from connectivity and found that the Kindle I got at the Unclaimed Baggage Store* has lots of books on it but they are archived which means I can’t access them unless there is wifi, which I did not have. And I downloaded half of several audiobooks before the Travel Pass said I hit my limit for the day and would need to wait til tomorrow or pay them more money today. (Either way, it costs…) Oh and en route with the Travel Pass, I ran out of data midway through my drive and the map on the van GPS had no idea where I was. Lesson learned. Bring hard copy books and maps.

• My friend Joseph, sent me a link to an online collection of writing called Bitter Southerner and I have become a bit of a fan (check it out). He was researching the South as he was going to be doing some work there and he wanted to be prepared. As a relatively new resident (TEN years, surprisingly, but that’s not long for the South), I didn’t feel like an expert but I said, “It’s possible you will assume some are stupid because of how they sound...sometimes you are right, sometimes not. I am in northern GA/near TN now and we went to the Unclaimed Baggage Center in Scottsboro AL* yesterday and in some of these places, it’s hard to understand folks their accents are so strong. When we stopped for a side of the road hot dog, Gini asked me if I noticed the woman at the stand and I said no because I couldn’t stop focusing on the man's teeth (or lack thereof). It is in some ways a different world. But I think you might find people friendlier (helps being white). Parts, like where we are now, are lovely. Parts are unspeakably poor. Hard to imagine it’s considered a First World country. It’s ‘good for you’ (and all of us) to see this stuff...after I drove thru small roads of western Kentucky and Southern Illinois, I understood why some folks vote the way they do.”

• It is a season of non-profit events which involves standing around chatting. When I excused myself this evening, I said to one of the organizers that these were just not my thing—loud rooms of a lot of people chatting. There were lots of familiar nods: hard of hearing old person. Nope, not my issue yet. I just would rather hang out with a few than try to have a conversation of any depth standing around with a beverage and a nosh.

• On a similar topic: From an online article on introverts and socializing: “Literally anything is better than small talk.”

• I went to the doctor last month, which I describe as a less than positive experience. The one thing she said which has stuck with me was that something she was offering provided accountability. I think as a privileged person with adult onset ADD, I have a lot of opportunity not to stay on tracks that matter to me so my challenge is finding people who want to stay on some track or other and support each other.

• Why is it that the Roger Dog is so good at knowing when I am actually focused on something? He goes to his ottoman (which I learned in a mystery audiobook is something only affluent people have and it’s for my dog…) and sits at the window and barks until I come to find out what’s the matter and he looks at me like, “What? That wasn’t me.”

• Is 5000 staples a lifetime supply for a home stapler? I borrowed this stapler from a company I worked for in southern CA and apparently either borrowed the staples or bought a box at that time (early ‘80s) and I still have half left…

* In May, Gini and I met up in Chattanooga and on Lookout Mountain for our annual retreat. We had our usual fun with dogs in, this time, VRBO houses. Two different ones, to be specific. Chattanooga is an up and coming place—construction going on everywhere—with a fab aquarium. Highly recommend. Lookout Mountain is lovely and peaceful and includes Cloudland Canyon State Park, which is also very nice, and my blacksmithing/welding teacher Julie and her husband Bruz, also very nice. Whilst there, we went to the Unclaimed Baggage Center in Scottsboro, Alabama. This has been a dream of mine for years. It’s the only one in the country. And it’s not on the beaten track. This is another “I did it so you don’t have to.” You are welcome.

     It is the place that things that get left on the plane and baggage that gets lost and just can’t find its people go as well as things that fall off trucks and stuff like that (seems there was another category but it’s been too long and that info didn’t make the transfer from short to long term memory). There are deals to be had. I have a nice Kindle for $15 + $1.50 for the cord. (There were PILES of Kindles.) There was, oddly, very little luggage. But sporting goods, bathing suits, jeans, gowns? Plenty. 

   I have been to better consignment/thrift shops—matter of fact, the Goodwill in Scottsboro is right down the street and it is awesome. I bought the skirt I am wearing right now there—for $3. I got a nice pair of jeans at Unclaimed Baggage for $4.50 I think and a pair of earrings (new) for $12 or $15. I wouldn’t go out of my way to go back, but it’s a check off on the bucket list, which made it worth the trip.

✔ ✔ ✔ ✔ ✔ ✔ ✔ ✔ ✔ ✔ 

 “Travel isn’t always pretty. It isn’t always comfortable. Sometimes it hurts, it even breaks your heart. But that’s okay. The journey changes you; it should change you. It leaves marks on your memory, on your consciousness, on your heart, and on your body. You take something with you. Hopefully, you leave something good behind.” – Anthony Bourdain

Asheville Van Life

So Gini and I are signing up to go camping at Van Life in September. We have to have pictures of your "rigs" online. This seemed like a likely place. In all their glory, here they are "fully deployed."

The first one is my baby. She is, to date, only named the Rogermobile but I don't use that name often

Below is Gini's Ruby Jo. This is her everyday car. She turns it into her home on wheels each summer. She's a veteran of this life.

PNewL PNewS Volume 26 Issue 2

PNewL PNewS

Volume 26 Issue 2                          “All the pnews that phits.”                                  May 2018

April 14, 2018: Getting stuff done

• Checked email while still in bed

• Morning ablutions

• Fed and walked Roger, gave neighbor horses carrots.

• Breakfast

• Loaded recyclables in the car

• Drove to town

• Picked up repaired vacuum

• Dropped hard 2 recycle stuff at the drop off place on Tunnel Rd.

• Bought Necco wafers at Joann’s as I read on Facebook the company was going under.

• Spent a ridiculous amount at Whole Foods which I justified because it saved me a trip elsewhere.

• Drove home on the Parkway (a good thing)

• Went next door to the doublewide

• The truck was dead and the riding mower had three flat tires.

• Went home and had lunch while calling AAA to jump-start the truck battery.

• Walked to Loveeta’s to borrow a bike pump b/c, after hours of looking, I couldn’t find mine.

• While walking to Loveeta’s, I was called by AAA twice – they wanted to be sure I was okay with a jump start and not the option of a replacement battery, and was told the driver would arrive at 1:27 which I thought was funny. Dispatcher didn’t.

• As I walked back (~1:04pm), the driver called and said he was at my house.

• After much misremembering how to drive the truck I have owned for 26 years, it was charged. (Will not elaborate to protect my reputation for being at least mildly intelligent)

• Drove the truck to make sure the battery was charged—AAA dude said I should drive for 30 minutes. I had about 10 minutes of gas.

• Poured in gas from the lawnmower can to make sure the truck didn’t run out

• Used the rest of the lawnmower gas for the riding mower. It all spilled out on the floor. (Broken fuel line?)

• Mowed the doublewide yard with the push mower

• Couldn’t figure out Loveeta’s pump. Finally found mine--on my bike (see “hours of looking” above. Not kidding)

• Pumped up two of the mower’s flat tires

• Neighbor Jeff arrived (my hero). He pumped up the third.

• From crap in Ray’s garage, he fashioned ramps into the back of my truck

• We (mostly he) pushed (I steered) the riding mower into the back of my itty-bitty old pick up

(I was a little nervous—this is how people get hurt.)

• I produced a bunch of different rope that came from I know not where.

• He complained about all of the knots.

• We tied the mower in.

• He went home and filled tanks from his air compressor because the truck tires were frighteningly low. (Maintenance is not my strong suit over the winter.)

• Filled tires. (“Have a tire gauge?” he asked. “I did once,” I said, rummaging.)

• We drove 1.1 miles, mostly downhill thankfully, to the nice man who is renowned in our neighborhood for mower repair. (When Roger and I were driving by earlier, I noticed one mower ready to go in his driveway as another was delivered.) His name is Zane Justice. He should be a sheriff in the Wild West or he should write country western songs. He has an almost cherubic face and smile. He was sitting in a camp chair in his front yard waiting for us. I cannot make this stuff up.

• We introduced ourselves, shook hands.

• Jeff was charming.

• I commented on Zane’s name.

• He acted like no one had ever commented on it before.

• I listed the issues with the mower. He smiled and nodded.

• I asked if he knew Ray Dillingham and he smiled and nodded.

• I said this was Ray’s mower. He thought that made sense – “I worked with him a lot over the years.” I told him I have lots of other mower looking items Ray left for me and he smiled and nodded. “Sounds like Ray,” he said. I could bring them by and he’d see what they were and if they were worth fixing.

• Uneventful drive home.

I thought I was going to cry.

> Ray died 3+ years ago leaving me a houseful of stuff I didn’t know what to do with.

> Wesley gave me the mower repairman’s name almost a year ago.

> Jeff had made things that are hard for me happen.

• Stuff got done. This was a long time coming.

Update May 18, 2018: The truck battery is dead. In trying to be prepared for a helper, I thought I would push the dead truck out of the garage into the driveway. Mid-push, I knocked the door open and it flattened the track of the garage door. I thought maybe I had hurt the car door as well. I put a call out to favorite helpers. David bit first (bless his heart). We freed the truck door and found it was only minorly bent and still closed. Watching him straighten out the track was art. Meanwhile, the gas leaked out of a crack in the tank of the lawn mower. David asked if there was anything else he could do. Nah. Just slam the garage doors and walk away. There’s always a chance lightning will strike.

Update May 28, 2018: Truck is still dead but I think I’m going to sell it. I own too many things that break. Mr Justice appeared unannounced and took the mower away along with an unidentified mower-type thing. I’m good with it all.

Things I am Learning

& Miscellaneous Observations

• Happiness can sometimes be as simple as a strong internet connection.

• Last month, I spent the better part of the early morning (4-6am) watching a bear in my backyard. He (let’s pretend it was a he) was on my back porch, dragged the large plastic file box of birdseed over near the shed deck and ate... actually not as much of it as I thought as he spilled a fair amount en route. I couldn’t stop watching though most of the time all I could see was his mouth when he was chewing—he’d lean into the box and fill his mouth up and lean back and chew. Finally at 6 as it was getting light, I opened the back door and said, “OKAY, it's time for you to go home”...and he left.

• Spring is when Mother Nature does some of her best work, in my humble opinion. The unfurling of all that green. The blooming of all those blossoms. Sigh. She also gets a bit reckless with wild and wonderful…and not so wonderful…weather. But it’s rarely dull. When Roger and I were walking, I noticed a post in the fence across the way that had been uprooted by a honeysuckle. Just grew up taking the post up with it. Then I happened on—and wound up helping—Jeff and Susan fixing the roof of the goat shed. The wind had lifted the sheet metal off the structure and it took three of us to get it back in place. Impressive. And now the rain. 20 inches in 15 days. And it’s not over yet.

• I have a debit card that expired which has a chip and I thought there must be something different about disposing of it. I googled it and there was a six step process. How (or why) we made life so complicated, I don’t know. I like the advice that you don’t have to put each piece into a separate garbage bag, but almost….

• I have made some new discoveries in this year’s season of outdoor showers: My shower, lovingly built by neighbor David out of corrugated metal, has remarkably good acoustics. I’m not suggesting I sound good but I sound better singing in that shower than in the one inside. AND, it is a wonderful bird blind! When I come out onto the deck, the birds fly away. Whilst in the shower, my feathered friends will hang out. Bonus!

• We have some folks who wander around this countryside seemingly randomly trashing the place. This spring, either the energy company or the DOT cut everything to shreds around any power line. You can drive two trucks along the powerline at the bottom of my road. And then in some places there are piles of slash. Super attractive. Then someone came along and cleared the ditches along the side of the road and dumped all the leftovers near a little bridge across the creek my neighbor uses. Unsightly! The gasman gouges the hillside along my driveway every single time he comes out. But Mother Nature will do her thing and heal these wounds. Meanwhile, aesthetically unpleasing.

 • I don’t know how people live without lists or calendars. I get frustrated when I find a stack of lists but I just noticed that if I don’t grab a piece of paper and write it down, it’s gone, and so the stack grows. I now know how to tell Siri to make me lists and soon Alexa might be called into action, bu I’m not sure a stack of digital lists will be as satisfying as the paper ones.

     Calendars? I have friends who always seem amazed when something we have talked about for a while is finally happening. Do you not write these things down? We are all different.

• This morning was Creative Mornings and the speaker was local restaurateur Meherwan Irani. His talk was on commitment and he talked about commitment vs obligation. Perhaps not versus but more are you committed to something or obligated?  I have been chewing on this all morning.

• We have had a lot of rain lately. Three times the normal amount in one week and now Alberto is bearing down and there are flood warnings all around. The creek behind my house has been incredibly active. I keep thinking I hear voices and then have to remind myself: this is where the term babbling brook comes from.

• Ah, I remember the days when I could only handle 25 emails in my inbox, then I upped it to 100. Now I have two email addresses with 389 in my main one (ouch) and hundreds in each of three different categories in the other. This is how things get lost in the shuffle.

• So I was sitting in the lounge on the good ship Ocean Adventurer, bobbing around the Southern Ocean when the speaker asked us to call out the name of our happy place and before I even had a chance, the nice man behind me said, Pointe au Baril. My jaw dropped. Pointe au Baril??? A small town along the shores of  Georgian Bay in what used to be the remote land of northern Ontario. It is hardly a wide spot in the road but it is the gateway to a paradise I have been visiting all my life. And this guy has been too??? Turns out he has. And he’s working to help the Great Lakes gain the respect they deserve. And he had a fabulous time in Antarctica too! Check out his work at http://greatnessglp.com

• The Reluctant Gardener has been relegated to a mere endnote in Things I am Learning & Miscellaneous Observations because I am sooo aggravated and frustrated by the fact that plants can grow while it's raining but I can't mow while it's raining. So in the brief moments of sun (with humidity above 80% (it’s 32% in Weaverville CA by the way)), it is too wet to mow. Meanwhile, everything is growing at an overwhelming rate and all I can do is whimper. Well, that’s not quite true…I swear a lot. Between politics and gardening, I am developing quite the potty mouth. And between singing in the shower and my potty mouth, perhaps it’s best to call ahead before coming over…

Onward my friends…