PNewL PNewS 27.4

PNewL PNewS 

Volume 27 Issue 4              "All the pnews that phits.”                 December still 2019

An Almost Perfect Day: Friday 12/20/2019

Let me tell you about my day. It started just as the light was creeping in which is not always my favorite time of day but it was okay—it’s winter, these things happen, I had to leave the house early. I got Roger up and fed and we walked and I could see it was going to be a nice day and it was cold but not too and it was garbage day and I confess I like to see that stuff leave my house. I convinced Roger (bribed him with biscuits) that it was time to go home to my breakfast and preparation for departure. He likes the cold but he likes biscuits more. I had oatmeal and coconut milk and blueberries that Gini picked last June when I was in Norway.

When I got downtown, I found a parking space with a meter that wasn’t working so I left a note on the dashboard that said, I tried but it wasn’t working. I didn’t get a ticket. Free parking! Woo hoo.

When I walked into the Center for Craft, I was reminded that the theme for Creative Mornings was Silence. Perfect. On the nametags, it says something like... I am___Peggy. To me, Silence is___and I wrote ‘truly GOLDEN.’ As I hit the top of the stairs to the basement, there was a guy with a sign that said that the basement was a Silent Space (Confession: In being a “Break-down volunteer” I came home with one of those signs). For this event, the basement is often a raucous onslaught but I love the event so I persevere. This one was for me. For 10-15 minutes (I get there late), ~150 people were silent. It was exquisite to be in this usually crazy loud space in silence. I can’t explain it. It was magical and everyone was so darned respectful of what was requested of them. Yay team!

            I enjoyed the speaker, a self-described extrovert who had a problem with silence. It was an interesting choice (not a positive one for fellow introvert Heather, I learned later) but for me it was good and only ironic that the volume was too high. Anyway, this extrovert worked his way through having a problem with silence to learning lessons about it. I was still a wee bit high on all those people starting their day silently and the whole thing felt so good. Even part of the volunteer break down team time was silent.

            Sometimes, part of my volunteer gig involves delivering leftover food from the event to a local shelter and it is one of my favorite things to do—we are so glad to have someone eating the super good food and they are so grateful we donate it. From there, I delivered a bon voyage gift to a friend who is leaving town—a happy sad thing.

            On the way home, I kept looking at the clock, saying out loud, It’s 11:10 or 11:42 or 12:04 and still a perfect day. I really wanted to remind myself, remember, acknowledge. Meanwhile, I did everything on my list for today and finished everything from yesterday too. At home, it was sunny and chilly—warm sun, cool air. I got the bird feeders up which always feels good and the birds started coming before the sun set.

            At some point in the late afternoon, I lost the perfect day. I don’t know what happened but I know that part of it was I stopped reminding myself it was a Perfect Day. It wasn’t a bad day after that, just average. I had a brief visit with a friend and we ushered for a play. And that ended the day. I still had the warm fuzzy feeling of a perfect day but it made me realize how easy it is to miss that or to never see it in the first place.

Things I am Learning

& Miscellaneous Observations

• On one of our walks from downtown to North Beach, Sara and I stopped at Allbirds, a groovy shoe store in San Francisco. It was a weekday afternoon and the place was full of people. Sara says it usually is. When we got back to their flat, I found ads for Allbirds on my phone. I had not used my phone in the store…it was just in my purse. They know where I’ve been. Creepy.

• I am working on my issues with Procrastination: this year I cooked my Thanksgiving turkey a week early. I bought Christmas presents for myself in November and used them right away. Way to get it done!

• I have a tenant in the doublewide next door. Before she started to move in, I had my new favorite human being, a reliable handyman!!, do some fixes over there. One of the things I discovered was that someone (Previous tenant? Former owner??) had taped one of the tiles on the step down with a loop of masking tape--not duct tape, which I could almost understand--and it had held for a good amount of time. Really? Wow.

• On the Tuesday of Thanksgiving, I was volunteering at the Library. I was going through the DVDs to see what hadn’t gone out since May. I was amazed by how many went out in November. I knew that doing this job, I would come home with a stack…eleven to be precise. (Ten is the limit at my library but 11 years of volunteering has its privileges…) Don’t judge my choices.

… Get Smart. I loved this show. It turns out there was a second version with Max and Agent 99 and…Andy Dick, their son. I did not need to finish this disc. (Watched two episodes)

…A Christmas Story. Everyone but me loved this movie. I thought I should watch it again. It was filmed in Cleveland, the home of my birth. I still don’t care much. Sorry.

…Coyote Waits. Tony Hillerman. PBS Mystery. Mom loved the series (books) and it was one of the first when I stopped reading because I lost track of what I had read and what I hadn’t. Chee doesn’t look as I expected…

…Family TV Classics. Watched a couple episodes of Ozzie & Harriet, complete with Eastman Kodak ads with Ozzie doing the selling. They even tell you how much the cameras cost! An episode of The Dennis O’Keefe Show (not memorable), The Dick Van Dyke Show (1.5 episodes—bad scratches), The Ed Wynn Show (1949-50), and one episode each of Petticoat Junction, Sky King, Sea Hunt, The Edgar Bergen Show, The Milton Berle show, Lassie. Favorites were Sea Hunt and The Edgar Bergen Show.

…Darling. (Julie Christie). Painful. Didn’t finish it.

…Giant (Elizabeth Taylor and Rock Hudson) Good movie!

…84 Charing Cross Road (Anne Bancroft or as I knew her, Mrs Brooks, Anthony Hopkins and Judi Dench) fine…predictable.

There were four others I didn’t get to and I don’t remember what they were. Apparently not memorable.

• My new favorite book is Good and Mad: The Revolutionary Power of Women’s Anger by Rebecca Traister. I started reading it this summer and had to put it down because it made me so angry. Started over and got through most of it. Took the audiobook out of the library and listened to the whole thing. I felt like I had made a smart new best friend—listening to her was oddly comforting. She is so insightful and thoughtful and full of so much information. I will read it again.

     When I got to the section on what we call cussing here in the south, I felt right at home. I have always done my best to curb my language when I am around people who I know are offended by expletives. When I am around others who speak four letter words, I let ‘er rip. It is satisfying to me. There I said it. So here’s some good info: “The psychology professor Richard Stephens told the New York Times of a study he had done, in which he’d asked subjects to submerge their hands in ice water for as long as they could, repeating a word that was either a profanity or a neutral term. Those who swore were able to keep their hands in the ice water for fifty percent longer and reported that the pain had felt less intense. Cursing, the Times summed up, ‘can offer catharsis…[and] might help you tolerate the pain better.’” At some point, the author said she appreciated this because she liked swearing. (I can’t seem to find the quote. Read the book. Really.)

     Whilst reading it, I had the chance to hear Rebecca Traister in conversation with Alicia Garza, co-founder of the Black Lives Matter movement among other groups (and a member of a group I traveled to Brazil with, before she was the rockstar of social justice she is now). It was somehow musical. Their voices were so different but were equal in their passion—a dynamic duo. If you get a chance…hear them.

Things I am Thankful For

• The holiday season is almost over

• Travelling in the time between Thanksgiving and Christmas. Breaks up the endless holiday season.

• Perfect Days, or even Perfect Moments

• Roger the dog + other friends and family

• Opportunity

• There’s still so much to learn

New Year’s Resolutions

• Learn how to knit brioche

• Go to Oskar Blues

• Make it possible to eat at the dining table without spending hours clearing it.

• Destash yarn and fabric

• Deal with a very old computer (that hasn’t been used in 6 years)

• The usuals: Eat better, get more exercise, laugh more, have more fun, dance more.

“I envy words for doing what we can never do—how they can tell all of themselves simply by standing still, simply by being.” Ocean Vuong, On Earth We’re Briefly Gorgeous

 

PNewL PNewS Volume 27, Issue 3

PNewL PNewS

Volume 27 Issue 3                            All the pnews that phits.”                                   October 2019

Another Report Back

     It has been a(nother) year of travel. I think by the end of the year I will have been away from home a total of around three months. Didn’t plan it that way—it just happened. Opportunity dontcha know. Or maybe it was Sydney telling me that I am in the go-go 60s. I am not sure I want to continue at this pace but I do feel a sense of urgency (well, that might be overstating it) and I have over 25 items on the Bucket List. (I just added a couple more after removing Portugal where I will be in two months!)

     I just returned from the Galapagos, which has zoomed to the Top Five of my favorite places, and one I need to go back to. Besides the obvious charm of swimming with sea lions and sea turtles and wandering in fields with wise old Giant Tortoises and finally seeing for myself the remarkable Blue Footed Booby, the way that the Galapagos has managed to maintain itself is…awesome. Our group leader, a hero in my book and a native of the islands, said that he defends tourism to the locals, saying that the islands wouldn’t be in the shape they are if the restrictions and tourism weren’t part of the picture. The money that tourism brings in allows the islands to stay in their pretty much natural state. You may be able to argue this point but I am going to believe it because it means I can go back without too much guilt.

     We went with Intrepid Travel, which I believe is based in Australia so this was not a trip of just us US folks. I like that part. It’s at the lower end though in no way cheap. We were land based which didn’t really appeal to me early on but wound up being fine…even good. In off hours, we could wander independently. I went with Gini, which was fun. We bobbed around in plenty of boats—snorkeling or traveling between islands. The water, that bright Caribbean blue (yeah, I know, nowhere near the Caribbean, but a color popped into your head right? THAT color) is stunning and what lives beneath is very appealing. I could have spent much more time in the water but I admit—it was chilly. We wore wetsuits (humiliating outfits), but still, chilly.

     When Gini and I arrived in Quito late in the evening a few days before our trip started, the initial rumblings of “civil unrest” had occurred. Okay, so how often is Ecuador in the news? Never? Rarely? That’s what most people say…but lo and behold there we were driving through heaps of burning stuff in the streets. In the morning, the nice man at the hotel, Alejandro, suggested we head to the north of Old Town rather than into it. By the following morning, the problems were reported to be finished so we got some time to wander around. I suspect the barricades took away from the charm of this UNESCO World Heritage Site but it was a beautiful day and everything appeared calm (I’ll skip the part about the guys who sprayed us with salad dressing in hopes of getting our bags!). Then we met our group (or the ones who had been able to get in—some didn’t arrive til late because of airlines concern about landing in Quito).

     The following morning we were off to the Islands and the real fun began (see above comments about sea lions, sea turtles etc). Among the humans, it was a nice group of people. Mostly friendly, open, like-minded folks. A good time was had by most I believe. As I mentioned, we were led by a great guy named Cesar. He was a physical machine, unloading luggage from and to boats, herding us in a respectful way, an unending source of information in a very consumable way. He helped make the trip the success it was for me.

     Meanwhile back in Quito, things heated up and turned, well, violent. It was hard to get information but in the last few days Delta started communicating about changes in flights--the airport was shutdown completely for a day or so. We bounced around from a Monday night departure to Sunday to Tuesday and finally got out then. It was one of those rushed goodbyes at the airport as everyone went off in different directions. And the following day, Gini and I were picking up the hounds at puppy camp and another wonderful adventure had come to a close. Lucky me, lucky us.

Things I am Learning& Miscellaneous Observations

• I have been working on a project that involves spending someone else’s money. It doesn’t really matter the specifics as I have had this happen before. When I told the person how much I had to spend, she said I think this is your best choice—and it was $50 more than I had to spend. I spose this is good salesmanship, but really, I have $200 to spend and you think I should spend $250? Who taught you math? I am annoyed.

• I am hoping I live in a more innocent time. In the last couple weeks, I have dropped a piece of luggage and a lawn mower each off at a stranger’s place for repair, hoping everything goes okay and that somehow they come back. The luggage was at an actual business but the employee was gone and her friend was covering things. He didn’t know what he was doing but he was so earnest, I had to trust him. My receipt is one of those shiny computerized ones that will eventually go blank. I took the mower to the end of the dirt road, so rutted I only got to 5 MPH for a little bit, past not one not two but three trailers with confederate flags. I was worried. I won’t go back. He will come to me. Heck, if he met me at the gas station a couple miles down the road I would be happy. Though really, if I get my lawnmower back, I will be happy.

Follow up: The mower was eventually retrieved by Jeff—I had kinda worn out my welcome by repeated queries on when I could get it back. The luggage is still unaccounted for. Well that is not true. Turns out the place I took it to did not send it to the warranty place but some goofball who takes three months to get to it and charges $75 to replace a wheel. I am still sad about it—the woman at the local store got into a yes I did no you didn’t with me (if she really called three times while I was out of town wouldn’t it have shown up somewhere on caller ID?). I suggested this didn’t really matter but I want my bag back. This all started on July 22^nd. Some-times living in a small area with limited services sucks.

• Laurie asked me what I planned to do when I couldn’t do things for myself any more as a single person living out a ways. In some ways, I am already there but I choose to think of it as things I am choosing not to do any more. Maybe I am practicing.

• I think I must enjoy in some deep-seated way the panic before leaving on a trip because I do everything I can to make it a mad dash will-she-complete-everything-that-seems-necessary-to-complete to departure.

• [Note to reader: read this slowly. There are long rambling convoluted sentences that might seem to go nowhere but it eventually makes sense. I promise.] As I was terrifying my dog, bumping down Shawanaga Bay on a blustery afternoon at the end of August, I thought of what Val had said when I told her I was going to bring everything I need to feed myself over ten days on Osawa, using nothing from the communal pantry. She said she would be afraid she’d forget something. I thought—at a very odd time, since the boat really was slamming into the waves, I was having a hard time getting it to plane at a speed that might calm the hound, and, the hound, Roger, looked like I was torturing him and he didn’t know why—we historically eat very differently. When I am on the island, I do sit down and eat which I don’t usually do at home. (That, in and of itself, is interesting to me, though part of it may be that I don’t really have a clear horizontal surface all the time at home.) But I do not have meat + three or even two and most times I don’t eat meat—I eat that when I eat out where someone else does the dishes. I have long training for making do. I can work around things that are missing (though ironically, I left the TP in the van on the mainland and that’s a tough work-around). Last night I had a quesadilla and sliced tomato which was delicious. I can have that nine more times as there are nine tortillas left in the bag and 11 tomatoes (yay). When I was at Sobey’s, I bought an odd item—pancake mix…just in case. I could eat pancakes if everything went south. Reminds me of a time when I asked my neighbor Chris early on in our friendship if she and her husband sat down to dinner every night. She looked at me like I was crazy—“Of course!” So there’s one way to do it…and another, mine.

• There may be as many bugs on Georgian Bay as there are in Western North Carolina in the summer-- they are just different bugs. And how is that so many small bugs can find their way into my nose?

• As we were walking along the path I recently heard called the Power Line Path, I was spacing out, enjoying the soft moss beneath my feet, the irregular up and down, and keeping an eye on Roger. Then I heard a loud booming, “Girl(s?), you are going the wrong way.” I thought…no I am not. I think I would have known if I’d passed the main path…I think…oh wait…it’s not me…as two very busy dogs came around the corner with Roger in their sights. Aha! It was Terry walking his dogs, a longer timer, and a new pup who came to them from China, en route to her demise rescued by a Canadian do-gooder. I was still a bit confused as we rounded the path. I was not expecting to see them, much less be told I was going the wrong way, and I don’t think he expected me. Onward.

• I hit 11,381 steps on a day when all I did was drive, grocery shop at three different places (okay one was a liquor store and one was a vegetable stand), unload the stuff from the van into the boat, and drag it all up the stairs to the cabins. Yay for me!

• I have a very vivid memory of standing on the rocks in a strong wind, shivering, naked, with a storm approaching and knowing that I was going to take my morning dip or disappoint the memory of my grandmother. I was 9 or 10.  This went on into my 50s. Not that long ago, I thought I will take my morning dip but it might not always be in the morning. Then I learned about Denis—there’s a new sheriff in town and he’s not even a lineal descendent and he’s French, though I am not sure that has anything to do with anything but it is true. He has been coming up to Osawa for years and when he first started, he was introduced to the morning dip tradition and he took it to heart. He is the Dip Master for this millennium. And I did my best to be in the water in the morning, except when the temperature was 43F…he and Bill went in, but I did not.

• I read this on the internet so it must be true. It was called “(something about how to throw a) Crappy Dinner Party.” It was about how people don’t get together because no one has the time and energy to fix up the house to have people over. I thought the solution was something I could adopt. Here are the rules. You are welcome to have me over any time as long as these rules apply.

1.     No housework is to be done prior to a guest’s arrival.

2.     The menu must be simple and not involve a special grocery shop.

3.     You must wear whatever you happen to have on.

4.     No hostess gifts allowed.

5.     You must act like you’re surprised when your friend and her family just happen to show up at your door (optional).

"It is not how far we go in miles that counts, but how deeply we allow the world to enter us." Richard Schiffman

PNewL PNewS Vol 27 Issue 2

PNewL PNewS 

Volume 27 Issue 2              "All the pnews that phits.”                  July  2019

Planes, Trains and the High Seas

     The latest adventure was completed in late June: a ferry ride up the coast of Norway (south to north) and a ship trip called “Circumnavigating Svalbard.” Tucked in among these rides was time in Oslo and Bergen. It was good and weird and fun and wow! Norway is gorgeous andexpensive!

     Oslo is a very manageable city. We, Betsy and I, walked (close to 20,000 steps each day) and took public transportation and a very small ferry to get around. The architecture is varied and intriguing and creative and sometimes old, the open spaces are frequent, and being on the water is always a plus. The development along the water is relatively recent and there is still plenty of work going on. Norway is under construction. One of my favorite things in Oslo is the Vigeland sculpture collection in Frogner Park. Wikipedia says there are 212 bronze and granite sculptures—it also says he was given a place to live and work and in exchange he gave his work to the city. Lucky them. It is a wonderful collection of statues of humans at various stages of their lives. In the guidebooks I had, it got short mentions. Among the people I talked to who had been there before, it was the first thing I HAD to see. I agree.

     One of my other favorite things about the town is the number of outdoor eating-places—in a country where the weather is often not good for eating outside. Most of these places had piles of blankets either as you walked in or at individual seats. I love that. I saw a fair number of things that made me curious about how different it would be in winter. I may have to go back.

     Bergen is also very manageable. We took the train from Oslo to Bergen and it was lovely. Great scenery. My motto when traveling is “When in doubt, get on a boat.” I may amend it to add “or a train.” Bergen is a fun place to land. You walk out of the train station into this charming village of colorful buildings and beautiful scenery—mountains, and water, oh and tourists. There is a great market at the waterfront with stalls that sell prepared foods, mostly seafood, and they even provide seating. It was reasonably priced and the people watching was fab. Oh and the funicular that goes up the mountain behind town and the walk down was a good way to pass some town time. Oh and I bought some yarn, just because.

     From Bergen, we got on the ferry, which is a hybrid cruise/ferry/cargo delivery ship. First let me say, the food on both ships was fabulous. There were plenty of things I didn’t like but the food was nowhere on that list. Plenty of choices for meat eaters and vegetarians alike. 

     When they said they would stop in some towns for 5 or 10 minutes they weren’t kidding. With around 35 stops along the way, some in the middle of the night, it was impressive how fast they got things done with no bumping or jerking. I was rarely aware we were on the water—we were only on open water a few times and so there was little rocking and rolling. And the scenery was fabulous. On our first day, we went into the UNESCO listed Geiranger fjord. It was stunning. (There was much jockeying for position to take pictures. There were many people on this ship—too many for my taste.) I heard someone say that they’d heard that after this, the scenery would disappoint. I don’t agree. It got better as we headed north. On Day 4, we crossed the Arctic Circle. The days are long up there just shy of the summer solstice. It was almost hard to remember to go to bed.

     I had a cold so hanging out on the ship and watching the world go by was just my speed. I did wander around the towns we stopped in for more than 45 minutes (and bought some more yarn—and a few knitting needles when I discovered a needle tragedy—a kinda fun way to bond with shopkeepers along the route was showing them my sad broken needle). Betsy participated in several “expeditions,” including things like walking tours, bus tours and reindeer broth tasting adventures (cultural stops). 

     We got off this ship in Kirkennes, near the Russian border and the town where the ship turns around and returns south. We flew back to Oslo only to get on another plane the next day to fly north to Svalbard (a group of islands hanging out NE of Greenland). We went in search of polar bears. Flying in at midnight was incredible—the light was soft, the mountains were pointy and covered in snow, and as we got closer to landing, it looked like art—a woodcut print, I think. Anyway, we were in bed by 2:30 or 3am and the blockout curtains just about did the job. Up for breakfast, we discovered that more than half of our shipmates (and the majority of the English speakers) were part of a tour group. It made for an awkward trip in some respects. Most of these folks had bonded and preferred to hang out with each other. As the trip progressed, we found that folks were almost cult-like about their guides. Now that I think about it, I think awkward kinda sums up my feelings about the trip—the landings were sometimes a little forced and often a little short. Not all of it was anyone’s fault. Mother Nature had her hand in it too.

     We spent most of the first day hanging out in Longyearbyen, the major town of 2700 or so in the Svalbard archipelago, and going out to visit some sled dogs and a few other sights. It reminded me a little of the town in the TV show Northern Exposure Oh and there were reindeer!

     Once on the ship, we got into the routine of eating and wandering and lectures and sleeping. We went ashore in sweet little red motorboats (not the zodiacs of Antarctica) and we stood on deck and admired the views. The first morning we saw our first, and only, it turned out, polar bear. I thought it was a pretty good sighting. The bear was out on the ice eating. While we watched, s/he caught another seal. I was glad I had binoculars and a relatively good camera, but I was pleased. When I met up with people who had missed the whole thing, I was really grateful I hadn’t.

     There was an interesting phenomena that occurred which caused us to miss “Circumnavigate-ing Svalbard,” and to miss some more chances for polar bear sightings. Ice. This is not because it was a late thaw but that the ice in the other part of the world (Alaska, Siberia, etc.) had broken up and come, blocking our way. The Norwegian Meteorological Institute produces an ice map five days a week (“No one works on the weekends in Norway”), which showed us where the ice was, and it was in our way. (Looks better now http://polarview.met.no/highres/svalbard_20190711.png). That was probably part of the reason the trip’s overall feel was a little awkward and that our route kinda zigged and zagged and felt like we’d been places before. 

     One of my favorite stops was to see a bunch of walruses. (Or is walrus the plural of walrus??) It was a breath takingly beautiful spot. Water, snow-covered mountains everywhere. And a pile of the most ridiculous animals ever at the end of the point. They are right up there with giraffes on the “How the heck did they survive?” list. Pointy tusks, 4000 lbs of blubber, no limbs to speak of. Watching them move around was exhausting. And those tusks look like they would just get in the way. Meanwhile, they were enjoying a bit of a snooze all in a pile with the occasional swim. It looked like a pretty nice way to pass the time.

     At the end of trip, it was all about logistics as it usually is when a large group needs to go somewhere else.  We were asked to have our luggage by the elevators at 10pm for a midnight departure to the airport. As we arrived at the airport, it started to snow…hard. (June 28^th) And here’s how the next 45 hours played out for me:

Longyearbyen to Oslo 02:25 to 05:20

Oslo to Iceland 13:40-15 something 

Reykjavik to JFK: can’t remember but landed after 7pm local time

Sky train to Jamaica station to LIRR to Penn Station to Newark Airport to hotel shuttle to mediocre Ramada (7 hours of glorious sleep). 

Hotel shuttle to EWR 06:30. Allegiant flight to AVL delayed because of emergency landing from Laguardia

Arrived home around 15:30 ET

Trip Wrap-up…It was a good trip, not a great trip—a solid B, though through no fault of Norway. It is a beautiful country with nice people and cool things to see and do. I was sleep deprived and so not very pleasant to be around. And one of the ever-present kinda nagging concerns was my stewing on the future of travel, the future of mytravel. My travel to fragile destinations that are being trampled by us, visited by ships that are apparently the worst possible way to get around—the most destructive, gigantic carbon footprints-spewing vessels bobbing around in delicate ecosystems. Yeah, I am ranting and mixing rants a bit but it’s all spilling out of my head, like sewage. Travel: this has been my thing for many years and now I am not sure I feel okay about it. Walking around international airports, everybody from 2-80 are wearing t-shirts announcing exotic locations they’ve visited (I’m not judging—I have two drawers full of those shirts). It tells me this is not going to stop any time soon. And we are loving this planet to death. I struggle. I saw an ad in the Oslo train station—an SAS airlines ad (complete with a picture of a handsome rugged greying man who I wouldn’t mind traveling with). The tagline was “Your reason for travel is our reason for making travelling more sustainable.” Thank heavens there are others, that have a bigger impact than I do, struggling with this too! (though I wouldn’t have said “making travelling”—awkward.)

Things I am Learning

& Miscellaneous Observations

• On the list of things I’ve learned or in this case was reminded of in weird columns in newspapers or on the internet: clean the filter on the dishwasher. As I have mentioned, I’m not a cleaner (but I did vacuum this week!) so the idea that a cleaning machine needs cleaning really irritates me, but I did take a look at the filter and all I can say is E-U.

• I was recently reminded of my love of ground chicken. Somehow it fell out of rotation and I was practically giddy when I remembered to get some boneless/skinless chicken thighs, throw em in the Cuisinart (onion, garlic, S&P, egg) and boom, chicken balls or burgers. Love it when I remember a recipe I like that had briefly left the fold.

• The other day I looked down and noticed I was drinking water out of a plastic cottage cheese container (or something like that)—it was clean and convenient but I then made myself go over and look at the glass cupboard which for a single person contains a ridiculous number of glasses. (I stopped counting at 40.) I love glassware and some of my glasses are very precious to me. Note to self? Use the glasses, girl! 

• Shortly before I left on the adventure mentioned over there, I took two falls. The first one, I actually had that moment of this-would-be-a-really-inconvenient-time-to-get-hurt before I hit the ground. I was pulling up the vines that were strangling the blueberries and had my arms full and got all tangled. I was fine, unsettled but fine. The second one was the result of dog rough housing—Roger’s girlfriend Meeka, a rambunctious beauty, came at me from behind and lo and behold, I found myself flat on my back. (Clipping!?!) After assessing the situation, it seemed that everything was close to okay and I was able to continue on and most importantly go on the trip. My physical therapist said I had whiplash but it was not too bad. This country living is dangerous. (Note post trip: there was an NPR story about the number of elderly who are dying of falls. Oh fer crying out loud, at least I am not elderly! ha)

• An interesting part about living in a place which still feels kinda new since I have no lengthy history here (11 years ain’t much in the south) is how when I move on to different projects, I lose the people I knew on the old ones. I was in a book club and when I decided to leave, a woman I considered a friend said it would be too bad not to see each other any more. Same thing happened when I left Women Build, a group I had worked with for nine years! Who knew? We can only be friends if we go to meetings together? Huh.

• “On average, women do seven years more unpaid work than men over their lifetime. That is about the same amount of time it takes to complete Bachelor and Masters degrees.” From Melinda Gates’ book, The Moment of Lift: How Empowering Women Changes the World.

• It was nice to be in a country that is not always front and center on the international stage.

• The aftermath of a cold is often the same: leftover cough drops and OTC meds, wads of tissues. Coming back from travel with a cold means there are Kleenex in every pocket of clothes, backpack and coat.

• While it was hot in Oslo one day, it was mostly pretty pleasant and in the Arctic, pleasantly cold—we were dressed for it. Coming back to hot and soupy WNC has been a bit of an adjustment. 

Things I didn’t say over there. 

Because polar bears are dangerous and fast, everyone carries a gun. It’s amazing how fast I got used to it.        

More about the trip home…Remember, this was all happening in the middle of the night with little sleep: Sitting next to me on the first flight of the epic return trip was a strange young woman. She boarded last, sat down without taking off her backpack, and brought food on board (hamburger and fries and a coke), wiping her hands on her pants after each bite. She fell asleep almost immediately hanging over the armrest, with a full open coke in her hand. Fortunately, it didn’t spill. I kept thinking this was the outfit I was going to be in for the foreseeable future and it didn’t need to be covered in coke. At some point, she put the coke on my tray table. Upon arrival, I had trouble convincing her to get off the plane. I’m thinking there were drugs involved. From here, we had to go through passport control despite flying from Norway to Norway (something about Russia). When I finally got to a bathroom, it was full of a group of Asian women who had all brought their luggage carts in. Half of the bathroom was cordoned off with other Asian women washing their faces on the other side—very odd. A woman I did not know looked at my face and probably saw the same look of disbelief she had on hers and said, “This is full of s**t.” She went under the rope and one of the women washing her face got all perplexed and was literally fanning herself like she had the vapors or something. The trip from then on was uneventful. Well, except for the weird kinda sleep deprived warbly parts and dragging luggage across Manhattan on a Friday night. [I am including this here for my own record. It felt cinematic…surreal. I have such vivid images of all of this in my head. Guess you had to be there.]

• In the time since I got home, a friend was hit by a car and killed. The first few times I mentioned it, I said my friend’s husband was killed but then I thought, wait, he was my friend too. Chris was coming home from work, stopped to get the mail, boom. He was married for a good long time to Laurie, one of my best friends from high school. We have enjoyed time in Key West and Maine and even Western North Carolina. He was a gatherer of people and an avid volleyball player and musician. Most importantly to me he has been best friend and supporter of my dear friend. And over the years we had some pretty intimate conversations about how one manages the world. He is one of those people I figured would always be there. And now he isn’t. Be careful out there. The world can be a fragile place. RIP Chris.

Service is the rent we pay for being. It is the very purpose of life, and not something you do in your spare time. Marian Wright Edelman 

PNewL PNewS Volume 27! Issue 1!

PNewL PNewS 

Volume 27 Issue 1              "All the pnews that phits.”                  April…er…May 2019

More than You Need to Know

    My favorite yarn store went out of business about a year ago, which broke my heart and saved me a lot of money. This past week the owner had a pop up shop to sell off everything, including fixtures. Prior to the sale, I inventoried my yarn stash, which was humbling—I have accumulated a lot of yarn. The number of times I picked up or rather fondled a skein and said out loud, wow, this is pretty, would have been embarrassing had anyone other than Roger been a witness. 

    Let me say again, I have a lot of yarn. It will turn out to not always be the right yarn...for instance, I just saw a pattern I really want to make which requires a sweater quantity of fingering weight yarn—also known as sock yarn—which I don’t have. A shame really—there will have to be more yarn purchases in my future. Meanwhile, I can go to my yarn room, also known as the guest room (which reminds me, I need to straighten it for guests) to be inspired to make something out of already bought stuff. (I should mention in my defense that I have not purchased all this yarn—I have been given a fair amount as people have moved on from knitting.)
     In the course of this inventorying project, I have been adding the yarn to my Stash list on Ravelry. For those of you don’t know and more likely don’t care, Ravelry is a remarkable website where yarn people go to waste/blow through a lot of time: inventorying yarn, listing projects complete with photographs, and looking at patterns, endlessly looking at patterns and pictures of other people’s completed versions and comments on those patterns. We can buy patterns—there are almost 400,000 available now, communicate with others who share this relatively healthy obsession, and participate in KAL (knit-a-longs). I just finished my first MKAL (mystery knit-a-long), in which the designer releases patterns in little bits. This pattern was for a stuffed gnome. There were close to 800 people from all over the world participating. Who knew?

    Some interesting (to me) statistics from my Ravelry account: I have over 700 patterns in my “queue” and another bunch in my “Library.” By my figuring, I have to live another 37 years to finish all of the projects I want to make at this moment. [Ed.’s note: Since I started writing this I think I may be up to 38 years worth of patterns.] By the way, I do not have 700+ projects worth of yarn—in case you were wondering.
     Meanwhile, back at the pop up shop event, the owner of the closed knitting shop did a good job of advertising so the crowds were thick on the morning of the first day and the lines were long. I went with ideas and lists…but it became immediately apparent that the inventory was going to dictate the purchases—that and being able to get anywhere close to the goods. Lively conversation was everywhere—this was, after all, a room full of mostly women who share a passion. It was oddly fun…even for an introvert.

Things I am Learning

& Miscellaneous Observations

• All the clocks in my life seem to be on a different time. The one in the bathroom is pretty good but it’s battery-powered and I use rechargeables, which are sadly unreliable. The one in the bedroom and kitchen are electric and my power goes out a lot so they are sadly different. In the car, the clock picks up a minute every 4 or 5 weeks. It was okay when it was ten minutes fast but now it’s 12 and that’s kinda bugging me and is also just sad. It also makes me question which clock is right and wrong and oh the one on the thermometer is okay half the year and off an hour when the time is changed. In other words, I have no idea what time it is.

• Spring has finally committed itself. The weather is volatile, the greens are fresh and vibrant, and there are flowers everywhere. And stuff is growing like gangbusters. I love Spring for all of those reasons and also hate it for some of those reasons plus a few others. Grass is growing so fast it’s hard to keep up. The vines have grown into the blueberries and the bushes want to be free. The vines mat the ground around the bushes. Pathetic I am in being able to combat this. They took over the back fence as well. When I finally pulled them off most of the fence, I realized that the split rails are starting to rot. Okay, they started to rot last year, but I don’t think I can avoid dealing with them much longer. The other day we had the rainiest day in 101 years. It was epic—my road, which is gravel and dirt, was badly damaged. My gutters were gushing and I was out there plunging them until the thunder and lightning started. I find the sound of water gurgling into the downspout very satisfying.  Couple days later I had my first outdoor shower of the season. It was not perfect. Afterwards, I pulled off the showerhead and found there was some gunk in the pipes. It is always something. The upside to the lousy grey winter is I am inside and not looking at all the work there is to do outside…

• I was driving down Reems Creek Road the other day and thought, everything is popping up this season… including new houses. I know that 14 or so years ago, my house was the new house on the block and some people didn’t like that very much, but it is startling to see where they can tuck a house now. I remember when I moved here Gini said the problem with empty land is you never know what someone’s going to do with it. I am learning about that here in the ‘hood. 

• Mail recently received:

>From the Republican National Committee confirming that I am a registered Republican (I’m not.)

>An ad for a luxury Volvo SUV (not from the local dealer but from Illinois.) I can lease one for $549/month. Such a deal!

>Chewy.com pet food ad addressed to my sister Evie who has never lived here and does not have a pet, that I know of. 

>Letter from Mike Pence. nuff said

>Dartmouth professors asking me to respond to a survey on politics. 

>And the usual old people mailings about audiologists, long term care insurance and other cheery I’m-not-that-old stuff.

• In March, Gini and I had our annual retreat, this time in Lakeland FL which is somewhere Gini is considering as a place to land some time in the future. It is conveniently located between Orlando and Tampa (two good airport towns which is important to me). It is small but not too small and there are breweries, a farmer’s market, and some good coffee shops. There’s also Florida Southern College, which is home to a large collection of Frank Lloyd Wright buildings. Surprise! Seems one can find treasures everywhere. Oh yeah, and there are a lot of lakes in Lakeland. It’s lovely and a good time was had by all.

     En route, Roger and I made several stops in the van. Our first night was in a campground not far from I-95 in Georgia. When I pulled in, the nice man said they were full but when he looked at my itty-bitty van and the honking big RVs surrounding us, he figured he could find a patch of grass where I would fit. He said he didn’t want to send me back out on the road at this hour. You gotta love the South. The next day we drove down to the Hanna Campground, which is in a city park in Jacksonville. It was FAB! The park is on the ocean and the St. Johns River. Both the park and the campground are huge, and lush and ever so pleasant. I got to spend some time with cousins Lucy Lee, Jack, Shannon and Kelsey and their gangs. It was great to catch up. 

     From there, we headed a bit south to Port Canaveral. It’s past the space part to the cruise part. There were huge areas for cruise ships to arrive and depart…and it was pretty much deserted. There was a HUGE ship in port but no people around. Eerie. The campground is just past all that and near the water but it was surprisingly soulless.  I had a reservation and had even made it over the phone with the woman I talked to at the front desk whose voice was memorable as it was similar to nails on a chalkboard. I was told on the phone that I could park in the tent area and sleep in my van but to do so, I had to put up a tent. Mm-hmm. Instead I booked a more expensive space where I could park my van and presumably sleep in it. Au contraire! When I went to check in, I was asked if I had an RV sticker on my van. I am assuming this is something RV makers put on RVs so people will know they are RVs—she could not give me any better description other than everyone else had one. I am not saying I understand any of this nor that it makes any sense whatsoever, I am just trying to tell this incredibly frustrating story. She said it wasn’t me—they were just trying to prevent the sort of people who wanted to sleep in their cars from staying there. (This is a $50 a night campground—it is not the sort of place people who want to save money by camping in their cars would choose.) I said this was not a car—it was a van, with a bed, a pop-up, a sink, stove, refrigerator--it just wasn’t 30 feet long and burning 4 miles a gallon. Finally she got permission to let me stay—ONE NIGHT ONLY. Then, she said—you don’t have a dog or anything right? Why, yes I do. Do you have its rabies certificate? No I don’t. She literally threw up her hands and said, Well, that’s it. You can’t stay here. I was relieved…after the frustration wore off. 

     I pulled out, parked near the huge empty cruise ship parking lot and wondered about Plan B. I texted Carla, who was heading north to meet me, that I was heading south. A1A was hectic. We finally united in a Walgreen’s parking lot and then found a recently robbed Chinese restaurant (they were trying to put together their clipped wires so they could take orders) to get some to-go food and sat in that parking lot and ate it. You can’t make this stuff up—it was an oddly awkward day—and did I mention it was St. Patrick’s Day? But Carla and Allen and Roger and I wound up having a good visit and some good meals and a nice beach walk and alls-well-that-ended-well sleep in the parking lot of Carla and Allen’s condo (don’t tell the neighbors!).

• Yesterday, I was at a local event celebrating 25 years of work to dismantle racism here in Asheville (still working...obviously). The keynote speaker was Dr. Jacqueline Battalora—her book is Birth of a White Nation: The Invention of White People and Its Relevance Today. Did you know there was no such thing as White prior to the mid-1600s and it was in 1681 that the first law in the world that differentiated between “whites” and everyone else was put on the books, sending us on this 330 plus year history of White Supremacy? Dr Battalora reminded us that from the moment we are born (on our birth certificates), race, something that didn’t exist but was created to form this divide, is part of our lives....!!! I am clueless.

• Oh yeah, and the PNewS is in its 27^thseason. Ta-dum.

“Cranky old rich people: now there’s a demographic that’s a menace to society.”Barbara Ehrenreich, This Land is Their Land 

(A quote I love though it is taken out of context and there is sarcasm there…)

PNewL PNewS Volume 26 Issue 6

PNewL PNewS 

                                 Volume 26 Issue 6             “All the pnews that phits.”              February 2019

In Search of a Title

     Next winter, I am not making plans to leave the house between November and March. It’s too stressful to watch the weather reports and experience the heartbreak of bad weather on the few days I really want to do something.

     One day that didn’t mess me up this winter started at 3am. A successful before dawn drive to Greenville resulted in a slow but successful trip to Puerto Vallarta. En route, I met up with other members of the class I would be attending and the transfer to Hacienda Mosaico was painless.

     I have taken classes with Molly, a talented metalsmith and supportive teacher (even for those of us with Itty Bitty Skills), before and I knew jewelry was not my strong suit (and come to think of it, I have an even weaker skillset with clay). The class is called Silveramics, the setting a lovely super-artistically decorated hacienda in warm weather in the dead of winter. The draw of travel and artful crafting was irresistible.

     Silveramics is the creation of Molly, the silver part, and David, the porcelain guy, First we learned to layer colored porcelain to make cool patterns. Then we formed them into something hopefully useable, and then we waited…for the kiln to tell us if we’d done it right. Then we started playing with jewelry designs. It was exciting and inspiring to see the results and to see how each student used what they had made. (Shameless plug: https://mollysharpmetalsmith.com/silveramics/)

      We ate well, we worked hard, and we had a congenial group. Oh and we could swim after lunch. Lunch? Oh my. The food was incredible and beautifully presented. Jorge, the chef, was a magician.

     Then, not with a bang but a whimper, I was off to the next phase. A taxi to a bus to a meet up with Doug and Barbra and a taxi to a beach town that will remain nameless to protect its simplicity and charming atmosphere ended with an icy beverage and perhaps a sunset—the sunsets were stunning.

     When I first arrived, the silence caused my ears to ring—it was so different from the hustle and bustle of PV. Our accommodations provided a great outdoor space to decompress after a lot of people time. (My fellow students were good talkers!) Doug and Barbra have an impressive community they’ve created over the 12 years they’ve been going so mostly, I hung by another pool and watched them come and go on their adventures.

     I have wanted to visit them for a while. As one who doesn’t usually return to places (except for a few islands that come to mind), I was curious. Now I get it—it’s an easy place to be with nice people to be with. And there’s good food available and things to do and plenty of opportunity to just hang out.

     I am beginning to see the appeal of going some place warm and sunny in the winter. Perhaps it’s aging or maybe I am just getting smarter.

Things I am Learning

& Miscellaneous Observations

• I went to a volunteer gig last week and my “boss” wasn’t there so I left…and suddenly, I had FREE time. I have a lot of free time actually but this was unexpected and somehow really special—and Roger the dog wasn’t expecting me! I didn’t go on some grand adventure, but I did stop at the grocery store on the way home. It was 10:15-ish and apparently that is when people like me and older go to the grocery store. It made me laugh. (Coincidentally, I have wound up at Trader Joe’s and another grocery store since then and have found the same scene…few people, all with grey hair.)

• I couldn’t fall asleep last night so I was thinking about visiting different states in this country. I have been to all of em but have not slept in all of them. So then I went across the country in my mind to figure out which I haven’t slept in. I am pretty sure I haven’t slept in Delaware or Rhode Island. On the other hand, I don’t remember why/when I would have slept in Wisconsin, Indiana, Mississippi, Alabama or Maryland. Several I would rather not sleep in again (probably don’t want to even visit—see notes on visiting Kansas a couple years back), but I haven’t made that list yet.

• I know I have said this before but it’s happened again—I am wasting time on a website for tools wondering what I would need these things for. Then I have to remind myself, if I don’t know what it’s for, I don’t need it. Move on.

• Based on the crap that has been done to my teeth during my life—starting with a sadistic dentist who drilled massive holes for the bad brownies (cavities) without Novocain, through braces and an orthodontist who refused to complete the process after I broke my front teeth, through a bajillioncrowns on the front teeth, through the resulting trashed teeth because of the sadist’s massive holes—one would think that I would be used to dental disasters. Last night when the crack the dentists were watching caused half the tooth to fall off, I was once again startled. It’s like vertigo I think. Unsettling. By 3pm the next day I had a temporary crown and the worst…for now…is over.

• Wash your sweaters!! It makes a difference.

• Also, send some hot water down your plumbing every once in a while. I dropped an earring down my bathroom sink and spent a couple days trying to get the pipe off. Finally, I sat in front of it and thought, “What would Jeff do?” and I tapped all around it and it finally unscrewed. What a scary mess. I found the earring but it was like the Creature from the Black Lagoon in there. Very satisfying to clean it up but it made me wonder about other fixtures. I remember when the nice man spent hours trying to clean out some pipes in the Florida house—he said houses need people to live in them, run water through the pipes regularly. Huh. Good advice. (To clarify: I do live here, I just don’t always run as much water as most people do. Comes from living in the land of drought during my formative years.)

• Sometimes I get good information from seemingly goofy places…like articles titled 5 Things that Tidy People Do That You Don’t or something like that. Tidy people pick up as they go. I do not. But I am going to try. They also don’t store stuff on the floor, which is like a WOW moment to me. I thought that was what the floor was for…What does one do when all the horizontal surfaces are already covered? Okay, will work on that too.

• There was a nametag for Diane in my bathroom garbage. Who is Diane and where’d that come from?

• I told my doctor that I didn’t like to visit her because it was in her office that I had to face aging—that I was told that what was happening was age-related. I told her she needed to be a cheerleader: You’re aging beautifully! Go girl go! This annual “wellness check” seemed especially short. Didn’t take off my clothes, just lungs heart (listen)  ears and mouth (look). That’s not how I remember annual check ups before. Perhaps she didn’t appreciate my comments. 

• Speaking of aging, I think it was at about my age that my mother was diagnosed with emphysema. Humbling.

• I am thinking of dropping my landline. Then I thought, I’ll send out an email saying delete my landline number, and since most people’s records are not perfect, I figured no one would know which was which, and then I thought, it doesn’t really matter--I don’t answer either of em! 

     Speaking of dropping the landline, it is interesting. I have had one since…well…forever, and it feels odd to drop it. How will I find my cellphone? How can I multi-task with a cellphone? It doesn’t fit in the crook (?) of my shoulder as well as my cordless does. For instance, I finished cleaning the refrigerator (OMG, what a nightmare—I thought at one point perhaps I should just buy a new one!) while talking to Peter on the landline—I couldn’t do that on my cellphone (and I am not so good at speaker phones.) And I love my phone number. But…well, stay tuned.

• I told a friend that I was feeling kind of obsessive about travel this year—more than average, and she said her husband put it this way: It’s the go-go 60s, the slow-go 70s, and the no-go 80s. I’m going with that—only aren’t the 70s the new 60s or something like that?

• I’ve read many good books since last I listed them so I thought I’d make another list. I’m an audiobook junkie so most of these I “read” with my ears.

*Waking up White and Finding Myself in the Story of Race/Debby Irving. Ignore the part about journaling and answering her questions—I did.

* Tears We Cannot Stop: A Sermon to White America/Michael Eric Dyson. A little dry but good and he lists a ton of authors and books to read towards the end.

* We’re Going to Need More Wine/Gabrielle Union. Funny, honest essays.

* Eloquent Rage: A Black Feminist Discovers her Superpower/ Brittney Cooper. Fast sharp great audiobook. I’ll listen again because there is so much in it. (I’ve started buying some of these and donating to the library so they’ll be there—kinda like a public storage unit.)

* Becoming/Michelle Obama. Listen to her read it…she’s awesome and honest.

* You’ve Been So Lucky Already/Althea Black. Good frantic honest and not race related!

Plus a John Grisham, a James Patterson or three, a few Michael Connellys, etc.

Re-reading this, I suppose I should be embarrassed by my horrifying cleaning experience, but I’m not.

“There is no social change fairy. There’s only the change made by the hands of individuals.”Winona LaDuke