PNewL PNewS Vol. 31 Issue 3

     

PNewL PNewS

Volume 31 Issue 3                      All the pnews that phits.”                    November 2023

 

     It’s been a while. The thought of writing a PNewS didn’t even cross my mind til way past the date I shoulda woulda coulda written it. That always says something to me. I’m either busy or depressed. This time I think it was a little of both—busy summer, little lost coming into autumn…often a little lost that time of year. During my Medicare “Wellness Check” (seriously??), I said I was a little down, I said it might have to do with the change of seasons or that I’d had a big project that ended, she said so start a new project!!! Ah youth. In the should-we-be-concerned depression screening, she manipulated the answers so that I came out okay. I appreciate that. And so here we go…

 

The Buster Report

     I just re-read the last issue of the PNewS. It’s hard to believe that all that wildness (Bears and Deer and Snakes, oh my!) happened in June. Seems like things calmed down quite a bit over the next couple months though I was out of town a lot in August. We had several more run-ins with bears but nothing disastrous, and eventually, they ate all the fruit that was available and broke a lot of tree branches and moved on.

     I took Buster up to the (extended) family place in Ontario, aka Osawa, for the first time. He was not perfect, as one might have guessed. He didn’t mind the power boat which surprised me. He got pretty comfortable in a kayak as long as he could tap dance on my legs between strokes (the bruises really were impressive). But on land, he had his own agenda. He bullied sweet dogs on one meeting and played the next time. He took long romps into the wilds and came back a little banged up. This place being an island was helpful as I knew he would come back but still…it was not always restful.

     Like Roger, he loved the campgrounds on the way north and on the return trip. He could happily go for walks from the time we arrived til I insisted we call it a night. There are so many smells and curiosities. The appeal is endless.

 

 

Just a Teeny Bit about Travel

(I thought I’d put it here in case you don’t care, you can skip it!)

• While checking into the campground at Pymatuning State Park Campground in the middle of nowhere Pennsylvania, the young woman asked if I had any discounts. I said I was 66 years old—did that count for anything? And she gasped--audibly. That was unexpected!

• In August, I went to Montana to meet Felix and check in on his extended family. Felix was, of course, adorable. He is Sterling’s younger brother—he has to be! He was at the just slightly beyond the blob stage of infancy. Talking to him I felt like he was just about to become a conscious human, and by then I would be long gone. Sigh. Thankfully, his parents keep me up to date with his progress and it’s precious. I also got to see Peter who joined us from Oregon. Yay! A good time was had by all though the summer smoke season continues to be an issue.    

 

Things I am Learning

& Miscellaneous Observations 

• I took a class in “amigurumi” which is very tight crochet of little critters. The description made it sound like I knew just about enough to do it. Turns out I was wrong. About a half-hour into the class, I said to the teacher that I was going to watch and listen to the rest of the class because I was not able to do what she was doing. It was a combination of a couple things—my crochet skills are lacking and her project was complicated. She looked so disappointed (and I don’t like to disappoint). A few minutes later another student agreed. The third (and only other student) was an experienced amigurum-ist(?). We watched the two of them whizz through the project (a llama). I felt badly for the teacher though when she suggested that our “old hands” might be the reason it wasn’t working for us, I decided to worry about her feelings a little less.

• I have been working on an inbox emptying project and took the opportunity to say hello to some folks I hadn’t said hello to in a while as I found years-old emails in the inbox. It’s fun for me—during the pandemic I sent a lot of cards but emails are okay too. The inbox emptying project came up after two days of driving which I am finding is getting harder on the body as I age. To give myself credit, I am a pedal to the metal kinda gal—ten hours minimum is my usual jam. But I am finding that 10+ is beyond my comfort zone now, and the day after I need a nap though I usually “need” a nap—I am the napping sort. Emptying the inbox is a thing I can do on those days.

• Yesterday, I was dealing with a slow response on my computer and got overzealous and moved my entire inbox to the spam folder. Expletives were spat. It took some time to weed out the spam from Things I Thought I Needed…some messages dated back to pre-pandemic. It was interesting reading messages early on in the shutdown…we were so naïve. The Inbox emptying project needs to continue. (I remember when I thought I could keep my inbox to under 50 then under 100 now over 1800.)

• I spend summer mornings sitting on the front porch and doing what Peter calls “paperwork.” Often, as I have mentioned before, my internet SUCKS. Today I had all my electronic toys out with me and when one said it couldn’t refresh my feed, I picked up another and asked it to do email. Sorry hon—when the internet ain’t working one, it ain’t working on any of em. Surprise.

     Today I brought a bunch of stuff out on to the porch—magazines I needed to decide if I’d read enough to recycle, lists, papers to organize, and a bag of stitching supplies to go through. Guess which one I did first?

• I just found a list…there are so many floating around…This one said

…Blueberries

…Toilet

And I knew when that was and why those were on a list. And I knew I could throw it away.

• There was a poison ivy report on NPR. It included the fact that rising temps are good for poison ivy, improving the environment for it to grow. I can vouch for this. My neighbor wants me to spray, which is so hard, but there is a quality of my life issue (and hers) now. Ugh.

• I went to an inspiring Open House at The Industrial Commons in Morganton NC. It is an incubator for employee-owned businesses. I was wowed. Some of the businesses are textile related and a couple are textile recycling related, marrying two of my favorite subjects.     

     For example, Material Returns recycles socks. Smart Wool has receptacles all over the country for Smart Wool socks. You can get a bag, put all your worn-out socks in it, Smart Wool and others, and they send the bags to Morganton where they are separated (I watched the kid who does it) and the Smart Wool is ground up and made into new Smart Wool yarn and socks (“Second Cut”) which are at least as strong as Smart Wool if not stronger, and the other socks are ground up into “shoddy” which becomes among other things, car seats. They recently received their millionth sock. I love all of this.

     These businesses are housed in a reconfigured manufacturing plant. My tour guide through the facility was the guy who works with the businesses to improve their administration. I think it was called Workplace Development. In describing what he does, he said “People don’t leave jobs, they leave bosses. And I want to help people become better bosses.” (The first part of that quote is word for word, the second sentence might have been the gist of it.) I loved that too.

     They are in the process of creating a downtown campus for these businesses as well as housing for their employees on what appears to be property that is an eyesore in the middle of town. Another win-win. These folks are on fire! [A month or more later: they really are on fire…they are getting funding from everywhere. Truly inspirational.]

Bon Voyage Jimmy Buffett

     I first heard "Come Monday," still my favorite Jimmy Buffett song, when I was working as the assistant cook at Montana Outdoor Leadership Expedition in West Yellowstone in the summer of 1975. It played on the local country-western radio station--which had an active request line. I called in daily...as I recall.

     In college, Monica and I took one of the administrators, Andy Key, to a Jimmy Buffett concert since we were always saying we'd be Jimmy Buffett groupies when we grew up--he was curious. I remember stopping at some place like Denny's on the way home, where Andy and Monica smoked cigarettes (maybe I did too?) and we drank coffee and ate midnight breakfast, to compare notes after the concert. Andy wasn't impressed.

     Monica died not long ago and I can't commiserate with her about Jimmy's death though we gave up our interests in being JB groupies around the same time our paths went separate ways.

     When I was at Saturday Night Live in 1977, John Belushi invited me to go to the After Party for the Hotel California show (The Eagles with Jimmy Buffett opening) at Madison Square Garden. I told him I couldn’t. (I was young and not very savvy and didn’t have money for cab fare home after.) I asked him if he would get me Jimmy Buffett’s autograph. He did. The next morning, he summoned me to his dressing room to deliver the autograph and tell the story—meeting Jimmy Buffett for the first time, saying before we get into it, I have to ask you this favor, etc etc. He was so proud of himself and I am grateful for the memories.

 

Things I am Thankful for

Well, lookie here…I waited a few extra days to get this out and it’s November and time to be thankful (I am thankful other times of year, but this is the Official Thankful Month of the year, eh?).

     I am thankful for people who actually read this and even for those who mean to read it but never do…and for the change of seasons here in Western North Carolina…and for family and friends that feel like family…and I am thankful for all my privilege (I admit it, no matter how guilty it can make me feel) and I wish I could spread it out further. I am thankful for black coffee. I am thankful for being able to travel and hope that continues for the foreseeable future. I am thankful for people who do the hard work of trying to keep our world going in the right direction even when it feels like we are so far off the path. And I’m grateful for the wackadoo little dog who gets me out of bed and moving every single morning.

            Here’s to you all.💖

 

“Do the best you can until you know better. Then when you know better, do better.”  Maya Angelou