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…

PNewL PNewS 26.1

PNewL PNewS

Volume 26 Issue 1        “All the pnews that phits.”                        March 2018

Dreaming in Antarctica

     As I heard the first notes of this morning’s wake up song, I thought, It’s 7am already? But it wasn’t.  

     “Goooood morning…good morning everyone,” said the familiar wake up voice. From the lower bunk, I heard a groan. “Welcome to Antarctica! It’s 5:40 am [another louder groan from below]—it’s a beautiful day and we are surrounded by whales. I know this is a little earlier than scheduled…” The rest of it was lost in the scramble to get out on deck to catch our first view of “The Continent,” to see the beautiful day. And Whales!

     Stepping out onto the deck, the exceptionally fresh air was cool but not too cool, and frankly, who cares? It’s yet another exciting moment and I am here for it, no matter how low the temperature or how high the seas. The light is the kind that photographers have a name for that I can’t remember. I love it—all lemony and buttery. I call it the happy hour—everything and everyone looks better. There is an odd odor in the air that I learn is—honest to god—whale breath. I can hear them—and smell them—before I see them. They are surrounding us.  

    When the first mate alerted the expedition leader that “It’s a beautiful day. There are whales. We are stopped,” one of the first people on deck was “the whale guy.” Most of the expedition team had a specialty and Jimmy was the whale guy. When Jimmy hit the deck, the first mate asked how many whales he’d spotted, and Jimmy said around 30. The first mate said, “Find more.” He didn’t want anyone to think he’d understated it. He was right—there were plenty more. As we looked out on calm seas, something we hadn’t seen much of in the previous 10 days or so, there was evidence of many many whales: swirling waters, fins, tails flipping and spouts everywhere.

     Beyond was our first view of the Antarctic Continent and it was glorious. Bathed in soft light, the snow looked like meringue, the mountains like big frosted lusciousness. I confess to being glad I was wearing sunglasses as they hid the tears better. After waiting 18 months since we booked the trip and for decades planning to come—this was IT. And IT was big. The scale is off the charts. 

     Beyond the whales but before the Continent was an assortment of icebergs of varying sizes and shapes. They looked like something out of Dr. Seuss or Star Wars—never mind, Mother Nature beats the pants off all those creators. She is the ultimate ice sculptor. I took so many pictures because each one had a more brilliant blue or a fabulous angle or textures, shapes and colors that I wanted with me forever. 

     Some icebergs have names, like B15T, which we saw, sort of, in the distance, at 3 am the night before. They are measured in hundreds of square meters—massive sheets of ice just cruising around out there. This morning, these were more manageable in size though larger than the average home—I thought one looked like a football stadium. Stunning in their complex designs made them hard to leave behind, but little did I know, there were plenty of different and equally fabulous icebergs ahead. And I haven’t even touched on the stupendous awesomeness of penguins! 

     This was how just one of many remarkable days in the Southern Ocean began, as we bobbed around among the icebergs, seals and penguins, alongside the Continent. I could describe them all but I need to get a thesaurus, as my vocabulary doesn’t contain enough words to describe them. Welcome to the land of superlatives.

Things I am Learning

& Miscellaneous Observations

• En route to the Southern Hemisphere, I stopped at an outlet mall and bought a couple things including a pair of shoes I left in the car while I was gone. When I got home, I put them on. They are walking shoes and they are VERY BRIGHT. I think the store must have been darker than I realized. They will fade probably pretty quickly, but for now I have Bright New Shoes. Unintentionally.

• I went to Creative Mornings last week. If you don’t know about it and you live in a city of any size, there’s probably one near you—google it. A group in Asheville petitioned to be included because it’s a fraction of the size of most of the cities (I think the minimum is something like a population of 500,000 or more) and was accepted. It’s an early Friday morning lecture and social hour. Each member city gets a chance to pick the topic—there are something like 180 cities. This month the topic was Curiosity (chosen by the Malmo Sweden chapter) and the talk, which was great, was given by a professor at UNC Asheville. For the rest of the day, I thought about Curiosity and I realized that it is one of my motivating factors. It is probably why I haven’t jumped off the bridge (what if I missed something?) – it is why I have been to Antarctica and Namibia and why I do things so you don’t have to. It is why I go to things like Creative Mornings which is really outside of my comfort zone, sitting in a room of people I don’t know at 8:45am. Curiosity is my thing, and I guess I never put a name on it before.

• I need to be more careful in my language because I tend to exaggerate or there is a story behind why I feel some way that most of the world doesn't know. That thinking before you speak advice is something I need to hear. I suspect I have said or at least thought this before.

• I am taking a memoir writing class. So far it has been very helpful. Tomorrow night I am making my presentation and in sending out the piece I will read from (OMG – this is so far beyond my comfort zone, I can’t even tell you…), I said I realized that the PNewS is not true memoir which I kinda knew before I signed up, but the class was the closest to what I wanted so I thought I could fudge it. Based on two responses to my submission, I am thinking they agree with me but are not totally on board with the fudge factor. Fingers crossed. (Later: This was another example of the downside of email. The emails I felt were critical were not, after all. I am allowed to stay in the class. Most of the responses were positive though they wanted each of the PNewS pieces expanded. Looks like I have some work to do.)

• When did “No problem” become a response to “Thank you?” I don’t get it.

• I have so much more to say about the Argentina/Antarctica trip that I didn’t say above. We were gone about a month so you can imagine, a lot happened. Sara and I started with a stop in Buenos Aires and Iguazu Falls, which were both very good places to go and are very different from each other. Betsy joined us before we headed even further south, to the end of the world—we were a good team. Adding Falkland Islands and South Georgia to the Antarctica trip was beyond brilliant. South Georgia is up there on my top five. Bouncing around in a ship for 21 days with 132 paying guests, 18 expedition members and ~60 crew and “hotel staff” is an interesting sociological study, but not one that made me a total convert to the lifestyle. 

     There were a lot of things to think about while we were aboard: we were still eating fresh lettuce after 20 days in the middle of icebergs—how’d they do that? We could order just about anything and Edwardo, our man in the dining room, would find it—where does he find all those things? We got chocolate on our pillows every single night. How many chocolates do they have on every sailing? How do they not run out of things because there are no stores anywhere once we left the Falklands! And where did they put it all??? The Upstairs/Downstairs aspect to traveling like this made me think a lot. I want to know where and how they live, or maybe I don’t.

     One of the expedition team had worked at Palmer Station in Antarctica and showed a documentary about that experience. In it, someone said it takes longer to get to Palmer than it does to fly to the moon. Think of that! (I just googled it and apparently it takes three days to get to the moon.) I am not sure we were three days from an airport or hospital but we may have been at some point. I know that Dr. Christy was relieved once we crossed the Antarctic Circle and turned back because then if there were an accident that turned the ship around, at least we were already heading in the right direction. We were encouraged regularly to stay safe as one wrong move would mean we would all be headed back to the nearest hospital.

     With as many people on the ship as we had, there were several we never talked to and some of them were the more …well, flamboyant may be overstating it but the more noticeable. And so of course, we named them. There was Frenchy the Vomit Man (who was French and threw up twice on the first day at sea…in the main lounge during a Briefing with everyone in attendance). Then there were:

Double Pom Pom Girl—almost always wearing that hat and her yellow coat…indoors and out.

Stone Face—this woman sat with us for one of the last meals. I was horrified—why now? Why us? She was very stern, and, we believe, a Trump supporter.

Smiling Man—always. Great smile

Whack-a-Doodle—we nailed this one on Day 1. She was yelling at the woman who cleaned the rooms, telling her to keep her hands off her stuff. Dodged her at every opportunity.

Tripod Guy—always with tripod, usually in the way

There were others but you get the picture. Sara wrote the list down thankfully because I had forgotten some of them

     And then there were plenty of people we did meet and chat with and they were, as you might imagine, like-minded and interesting.

• I did a small study of hair goop usage before I left to make sure I had enough. A month is longer for some products than the travel-sized contains. I determined that my small hair goop container would cover the trip. Shortly after boarding the ship, I looked at my bag of bathroom stuff and the entire bottle was empty and now my other items were swimming in it. So much for the best-laid plans.

• I just found dad's king penguin pin. For now, I carry it in my pocket. It is fun to think we might have seen some of the same mountains of ice and snow 27 years apart.

• I use almond oil on my skin and have developed a habit of changing the essential oils seasonally. Clove for winter and usually lemon eucalyptus or lavender in the warmer months. March makes things complicated. One bathtime it’s 70 degrees outside and the next it’s 27. Keeping all scents on hand.

• The PNewS is now 26, including over 130 issues, proving I can stick with at least one thing for a while. 

No person who has not spent a period of his life in those 'stark and sullen solitudes that sentinel the Pole' will understand fully what trees and flowers, sun-flecked turf and running streams mean to the soul of a man.  Ernest Shackleton