Nine New* Things Learned in December

This is a reposting of the December Learned List, one that was still in draft form; the final version disappeared in The Great Website Splat.

Photos accompanying our monthly Learned List are very random this month, sprinkled in to prevent this from looking daunting and TLDR.

  1. Cursive writing is good for your brain, according to The Case for Cursive. (Thank you for the link, Reader Sharon!)
Jackson doesn’t write either cursive or printing.

2. COL might actually stand for “chuckle out loud”, although my friend wrote it as “chuckle out load”, which made me COL. (Thank you, Reader JC!)

3. “Cuco” is the common nickname for “Refugio”. Go figure. (How does “Billy” emerge from “William”, or even weirder, “Jack” from “John”, or perhaps weirdest of all, “Chewy” from “Jesus”?)

4. Dr. Victor Davis Hanson, a professor, historian, and farmer, is the most brilliant person I have ever encountered. I cannot keep up with his podcasts, articles, or books, and much is way over my head. Here is a recent article he wrote on the decline of Western civilization (and for the sake of honesty here, I don’t even know exactly what “Western civilization” means). Can the Dark Ages Return? is a sobering look at what is taking place in our time, and well worth laboring through. (He makes it a little easier by using far more paragraphs than were deemed necessary when we were all learning to write, because he understands that his material is a bit difficult for us lesser minds to digest with our current squirrely attention spans.)

5. I subscribed to something called Tangle, a daily email that breaks down the facts of one major news topic per day. This is what caught my attention from their website: “Most news outlets have biases that are obvious to every American, we are all living in self-curated “news bubbles” where we are spoon-fed beliefs we already have, and if we log onto social media the people we disagree with are caricatured into the worst people possible.” So far, I haven’t made it through a single article, but my intentions remain good. I think I am getting exhausted by current events.

6. After 2 weeks of inconvenience, I found the inner fortitude to stand my ground: when a customer wants a mural but will not provide access to the building, hold to common sense, which is that humans need facilities where they work. (Thus, I will only be painting in Ivanhoe on Fridays when the library is open.)

7. Eighty-Four is the actual name of an actual town in Pennsylvania. Something (a labor union? a lumberyard?) called “84 Lumber” originated there.

8. This large-ish wooden panel of a redwood tree was displayed at Stem & Stone. I stopped by to deliver more notecards and saw that it had developed a problem. Turns out that knotholes in wood contain substance that soaks through paint.

9. Have you ever heard of a Tule elk? I hadn’t, but there is one wandering around Three Rivers. They used to be plentiful in the Central Valley but were a nuisance to cattle ranchers, and the largest ranch in the valley, Miller Lux, may have had a role in mostly eradicating them. (Who knows for sure? I read it on the interwebs. . .)

This photo is an enlargement from my friend’s early morning phone photo.

*Of course they are “new” —otherwise would they be on a list of things learned? Supposedly the Search Engines bring more readers when one includes “new” in a post title. Why do I care? I know my readers, write for them (YOU!) and don’t need a pile of strangers “liking” me in order to feel validated.

Nine Things Learned in November

November means the end of colored leaves. The promise of spring in a few months will keep me from descending into the Slough of Despondence, as will the fun of learning new things, completing commissions, working on a mural, and resuming drawing lessons in January.

1. There is lots of disrespect on the road when driving an old vehicle. While I was on the freeway getting to the mechanic, people tailgated and roared past, without regard to the fact that I was keeping up with traffic. And yet, when I got to town, everyone I interacted with expressed great interest in and respect for the Botmobile. A bonus thing learned is that our Botmobile is the same model featured in the movie Back to the Future.

2. It matters who you get at the post office counter. It cost $4.50 to send 2 packages of notecards to Northern California, and then it cost $2.44 to send the same thing to Southern California. This is the result how the postal worker interprets the contents, and how he/she labels it – media mail? large envelope? small package? So, while I am always happy to see all the employees in my PO, I do tend to favor some over others.

3. Mystery writer Robert B. Parker died in 2010. His books had an appealing offbeat sense of humor, but I’ve long since stopped reading murder mysteries. I was puzzled to see three different authors’ books in the library titled “Robert B. Parker’s [title specific word]. Apparently Parker’s estate has granted permission to multiple authors to continue his various series. They even copy the same typestyle that Parker used on his books.

This photo is in a branch of my bank. I photographed the photo because it is Farewell Gap in Mineral King!

4. This Evergreen Home is a thoughtful blog that I’ve mentioned here before. A recent post, Save Your Money—26 things to stop buying in 2026, caused me to almost break my arm patting myself on the back. This is the way I have lived for decades. Gold star, please!

Making wreaths from pruning in my own yard, and enjoying my cats are definitely frugal activities.

5. I mowed the lawn. Well, I started with some careful instruction, but Trail Guy took over. I only allow one mowing on our little lawn per year in an ongoing attempt to get it fuller, via self-seeding and roots (no idea how it actually works) and transplanting clumps from the back of the house which was lawn a quarter of a century ago and still produces a few clumps a year. So, the annual mowing is a bit of a project.

Tucker loves the tall grass.

6. I learned (AGAIN!) that participation in small bazaars and arts/craft shows is probably more trouble than it is worth. However, with low attendance, there was abundant time to visit with each person who came into my space.

7. This personalized license plate caught my attention.

8. Through another blog (Hi Elisabeth!) I found a wonderful recipe for Lasagne Soup. As someone who views recipes as just suggestions and guidelines, this one seems to turn out great no matter how many things I just substituted or tossed in or did without.

9. Two great new words: pecksniffian and snollygoster. Look them up!

Okay, one last hurrah for fall color!

HURRAH!

Learned in October—or more accurately, Eight Messes

  1. Home Depot is a mess. In 2021 I bought a mini-refrigerator. It only worked for one year. In 2022 I bought another one, which wouldn’t fit in my car. They put it in their Will Call department (or something similar) and I returned with the pick-‘em-up truck to retrieve it the next week. They couldn’t find it. I chose another. Did I or didn’t I take it? I sort of remember canceling the entire transaction, and I think a friend got me one from Costco instead, but my memory is a mess. Home Depot sent me a refund check, which I returned to them. Two years later, I got another refund check from Home Depot. This time I decided that if they are dumb enough to keep giving money away, I’ll take it. In early October, I received a third check from Home Depot. After about 7 or 8 phone calls, I found a human who told me that I had purchased 3 refrigerators from Home Depot. Hunh? It took them three years to refund my money?? I cashed the check.
Hey there, Jackson.

2. I am a mess in my bookkeeping. Why do I not know if I got a refund or not for all those refrigerators? Ugh. I’d rather draw or paint or teach people to draw than fiddle with numbers, paperwork, phone trees, and records.

Finished and mailed 2 red scarves to Foster2Care in Cleveland. Now I have to figure out how to use the leftover red yarn.

3. Phone calls are a mess. For many years after Kodak croaked, I used Shutterfly to print my photos and to create photo books. Several months ago the site stopped working. My photos won’t load. I postponed calling them because those kinds of phone calls require much time and patience while listening to menus, terrible hold music, and people with difficult accents reading polite scripts. It took 45 minutes for Shutterfly to determine that the problem is DuckDuckGo. I told them that I will no longer be using Shutterfly because I am unwilling to download another browser.

Redbud trees become yellow-leaf trees.

4. Keeping life simple creates a mess. Well, not exactly a mess, but some sacrifices and some work. Since I insist on keeping life simple by not downloading another browser, I will not be able to print photos or photobooks unless I spend time looking for another company.

Hey Pippin, I’m tryna keep Mom’s car clean here. Do you mind??

5. Laura Ingalls Wilder’s life was a mess. My favorite blog, The Frugal Girl, posted What I’ve Read Lately. One of her books was Prairie Fires: the American Dreams of Laura Ingalls Wilder by Caroline Fraser. That book sparked more discussion than any of the others mentioned. It also led me to Wilder, a podcast by Glynnis MacNicol which completed and corrected (and stole some of the magic from) the Little House books. The impact and influence of those books is worldwide, transcending several generations, and now, sparking controversy. Warning: the final episode on the podcast was full of vitriol and cussing so I didn’t finish listening.

This door was a mess until I painted it. It’s more interesting as a photo in its messy state.

6. Staying current with computers is a mess. While editing a new book, Word lagged. The spinning beachball of doom responded with rotations every time I did anything on the book. I went online to see if there was any help. The main information was that Word needed to be updated. In attempting to update, I learned that my laptop must first be updated. I called Apple and learned that my laptop is maxed out in terms of updates. (They think a 2015 is old?? Listen, punks, I have a NEW car that is a 2004, so what are you talking about??) So, wanna know what I did? (I figured this out all by my lonesome—please be impressed.) I divided the 187 page book into 2 documents, so there! Now I can keep my 2015 going, while all those know-it-all children keep buying new things (probably made by slave labor) and putting their old (probably functional) machines out there into landfills (or their mama’s basements.) But I’m perfectly reasonable and calm about it all.

7. AI is messing things up. But if you want to find things on the internet, information NOT created by Artificial Intelligence, type what you are seeking into the search bar, followed by a space and -ai. That’s a minus sign with the letters “a” and “i”. I haven’t tried it yet but learned about it on a non-AI using blog.

My herb garden is a mess, so I’m showing you this photo from a previous year.

8. AT&T is a mess, and they are messing with me. In 2023, I tried unsuccessfully to get a phone reconnected at the cabin. AT&T had no humans available who could handle landlines in California. They couldn’t understand how to flip a switch to activate the phone, which was already in place from previous years. They insisted that a tech guy needed to drive up the hill to do the job in spite of merely flipping a switch in the past. Alas, the road was unpassable for the AT&T giant truck. So, we decided to do without a phone and have managed without one for three summers now. A few months ago I got a letter from a collection agency that I owe AT&T $666. (evil number!) Au contraire, they provided no service, I had no phone, I never received a bill, I owe nothing. However, this crock of barnyard fertilizer has cost me several hours on the phone with the collection agency, and several dollars in mailing things in a manner that no one will be able to lie about receiving my documentation. They insist that I owe them, and I insist that I do not. I wonder if I can get through to Dave Ramsey so he can tell me how to deal with these stupid hon-yocks.

Why can’t I remember whose screen door this is?? Apparently my memory is a mess.

BONUS—This made me laugh: A dear friend recently said, “You can lead a man to knowledge but you can’t make him think.” Gotta be thankful for dear friends!

Perhaps November will be less of a mess and we can learn some good things together.

SIX More Learneds in September

Bonus Post

  1. Amazon is changing its terms. Now, if you want Prime, you cannot hitchhike on your sister’s account or your mom’s or your daughter’s or. . . but we are going to wait and see if this actually happens, because Amazon didn’t publicize the change. I heard it through the grapevine (Remember that song? The full-length version was 11 minutes.)

2. AT&T is so awful. I have known this for a long time, but it got driven home again when I got a letter from a collection agency saying I owe $666 for a phone number that they NEVER activated, I NEVER had or used (because how can you use something you don’t have?), and they NEVER billed me for it. I’ve wasted so much time on the phone and writing letters, and wasted money sending the letters in a manner that the collection agency cannot lie about receiving them.

3. Seeing the Supernatural by Lee Strobel is so fascinating and weirdly believable. The premise is that there is an unseen world that DOES exist and there are countless stories which are corroborated by evidence. It’s not about UFOs; it is about real miracles, dreams, angels, deathbed wishes, and near-death experiences.

4. Check out these pumpkin harvest photos: it’s like a grown-up Easter egg hunt. (I wonder if my painting needs revision again.)

5. Tony’s Taverna in Three Rivers is finally open!! It took four years to go from buying an old building to making a fabulous Greek restaurant. The food is so good that I wanted to lick the plate, but I found a little restraint and was able to maintain dignity.

6. Through an online friend I’ve never met (Hi WilliamB!), I learned about an organization called Foster Care to Success, which helps kids who have aged out of foster care. They have an annual red scarf project, which caused me to immediately abandon my severe ongoing yarn diet and order enough yarn to knit 2 scarves.

I know it’s not red. This was painted for a friend whose favorite color is orange.

Learned Much in September—9 Things

This month’s list is long, many thoughts, few photos. Settle in, and enjoy!

Food

1.Intermittent fasting for three months did not work to remove me from the category of pre-diabetes. I am discouraged, disappointed, disgusted. Dis, dis, dis. Maybe it is time to accept the reality. I hear over and over that “EVERYONE” is prediabetic, but that does not reassure me. I pursue removal from that category just in case it is the cause of peripheral neuropathy, as the neurologist is so confident about this.

2. When I was with Mrs. Texas, she did something so funny that I want to share it with you. Whenever we were eating something really extra good, she held up her hands, palms out, and said in a commanding voice, “NO TALKING.” (She said when you talk, you can’t taste things as well.)

On one occasion we decided to get ice cream. We stood there awhile, deciphering and considering the flavors, and then Mrs. Texas pointed to the price for small size dish with a single scoop—$6.75. EXCUSE ME?? Nope. We left without ice cream.

Still wanting a treat, we went to Starbuck’s because I had such curiosity about pumpkin spice lattes. I ordered a 12 oz. requesting only 2 pumps of the glorious flavored substance instead of the normal 3 pumps (the employee explained it to me—I didn’t know this from experience). Holy guacamole—I had to take it back to the house and dilute it with black coffee because it made my teeth hum. HOLY GUACAMOLE — it was $6.25!

No wonder I don’t go out to eat much. (at all)

3. Serious Eats is an interesting website with tips and information about food—articles about letting meat rest, how to really clean your kitchen sponge, never cry while cutting onions. . . and that was just the first time I went exploring on the site. (Already forgot most of what I read.)

4. Some friends said they like to drizzle olive oil and then sprinkle a little salt on vanilla ice cream. At first it sounds like ice cream abuse, but they said it was delicious.

Someone seems obsessed by food in this month’s learning. Is this a result of intermittent fasting??

Work

5. Sold five pencil drawings and no oils. WHAT IS THAT ABOUT?? I learned that I don’t know what I am doing when it comes to reading my customer base or understanding my market.

Since I didn’t sell any oil paintings, I will stop painting just for the fun of painting any particular subjects. Instead, I will accept commissions and paint sequoia trees or other subjects that stores sell for me.

Fun to learn

6. I finally toured the Point Pinos Lighthouse. (It ought to be Piños, but no one bothers with the tilde.) I learned so much about that lighthouse and lighthouses in general.

General Wisdom

7. Wisdom about anger from This Evergreen Home:

The late theologian and pastor Tim Keller once wrote that anger is energy spent defending what you love.. . .The next time you experience a bout of anger, be thankful that your brain has given you such a useful barometer into the things that you love. Take the opportunity to reflect on what makes you angry and whether those things accurately reflect the values you claim to treasure most. If not, it may be that the culture you live in has shaped you more than you realize, and that your loves have become misaligned.”

8. Getting older means loss. In the last year, I have sold my tennis racquet and my canoe, and this week I gave away my cross country skis. Tryna be realistic about my shrinking abilities to do stuff. The combination of a wrist problem and a foot problem have squeezed my limited activities even further. Never a fan of any sportsball*, the few activities I participated in didn’t require a great deal of athleticism. In actuality, I hadn’t used any of my gear for a long time. It just took awhile to face and accept this, and then figure out what to do with my unused stuff.

Maybe I should just join Pippin in the window, observing the outside world.

Wait a doggone minute here—why is that outdoor cat inside the house? Because Trail Guy is a pushover for this cat.

9. Clearly I need to face truth about my health, activity, business, and age. This wisdom is from M. Scott Peck. (When people use a first initial, does this mean they wish to be addressed by that initial? If not, then why even put it there?)

Truth or reality is avoided when it is painful. We can revise our maps only when we have the discipline to overcome that pain. To have such discipline, we must be totally dedicated to truth. That is to say we must always hold truth, as best we can determine it, to be more important, more vital to our self-interest, than our comfort. Conversely, we must always consider our personal discomfort relatively unimportant and, indeed, even welcome it in the service of the search for truth. Mental health is an ongoing process of dedication to reality at all costs. (M. Scott Peck, The Road Less Traveled)

*team sports

Ten Things Learned in August (Plus What I Did on my “Vacation”)

Because we don’t have drawing lessons in July or August, sometimes my students say, “Have a nice vacation!” (One sings to me, “See you, in September. . .”)

“Vacation”? Fall down laughing. This is what I did workwise in July and August:

  • Framed (or repaired) all the pencil drawings in Around Here (my solo art show in Tulare)
  • Framed almost all the plein air paintings done on panels
  • Finished a colored pencil drawing of a stellar jay, because I wanted to try out a new brand of colored pencils.
  • Went through an old box of photos from an artist friend who assumed room temperature about 10 years ago. They were at the gallery in case my students needed reference material, but no one has looked at them for many years. So, they got redistributed, mostly into the round file.
  • Finished all the pieces for the 2026 calendar and got it ordered in time to receive a large enough discount that the price doesn’t need to increase over the 2025 calendar.
  • Got ready for the solo show, including delivering, hanging (I helped the director and her granddaughter), attending the reception, returning to visit the show with a couple of special friends, and finally, returning to retrieve the unsold pieces.
  1. I continued learning to be comfortable driving an automatic. Sort of. I am comfortable with a 6 cylinder engine, the car has a cool built-in spot for sunglasses, a button that opens my gate (but won’t open the garage), and the CD player holds SIX CDs!

2. The library’s card catalog stopped working online after the last “maintenance” session. I spent awhile on the phone with a librarian, who told me how to email the IT department directly. Then he talked me through downloading the library’s app on my phone. Ugh. I don’t want more apps. It is much more convenient to order books on the laptop, but this is better than not being able to order books at all.

3. I visited the Santa Cruz Boardwalk for the first time in my life.

4. I saw my first skate, which I’d never heard of before.

5. I tried to solve Super Sudoku—guess I’m not as analytical as I thought. These things are impossible.

6. The SS Palo Alto was completely new to me—a ship used solely for entertainment, attached to the pier at Rio Del Mar California State Beach—fascinating!

7. I don’t really enjoy playing games, but it was fun with Mrs. Texas and her family. We played two games I’d never heard of before: Code Names, and Shut the Box. (Nope, I don’t want to own either one; don’t put those on a list for me, okay?)

8. How did I not know that Reba McEntire’s entire band died in a plane crash in 1991? I thoroughly enjoy country music, but until Trail Guy and I discovered a new station called The Legend (105.5 in Fresno), I hadn’t listened for a couple of decades, so this tragedy was new information to me.

9. A pattern is emerging that has taken me awhile to become aware of: I love to read books based on island or ocean locales. Most recently finished Alexander McCall Smith’s The Winds from Further West, Elizabeth Strout’s Lucy by the Sea, currently reading The Boy from the Sea by Garrett Carr. Anything based in Ireland—I’m on it!

“Salt and Light” or “Reading Rabbit”, 11×14” oil painting by Jana Botkin

10. In a random conversation with someone, I learned that non-compete contracts are not legal in California because they interfere with people’s ability to earn a living. So you can work for two competing print shops at the same time, or medical clinics, or restaurants, for example. But I still think that you can’t sell a business and then open one just like it across the street! This is what I found online:

California has banned non-compete agreements in employment contracts, making them generally unenforceable. This law, effective from January 1, 2024, requires employers to notify employees that any existing non-compete clauses are void.

Ten New Things Learned in July

Happy Birthday, Melissa!

1.Tales of TB, available at the BookBaby Bookshop, got a publicity boost by one of the few remaining newspapers in the area. OF COURSE I THINK YOU SHOULD BUY A COPY! (But go to the BookBaby link because Amazon always says “temporarily out of stock”.)

2. A gift shop at Hume Lake had some marvelous little workbooks for learning pretty lettering. Have you noticed in the last ten years or so that “everyone” seems to know how to make very attractive signs for coffee shops, weddings, and restaurant menus? Apparently you can learn to do this by following a workbook. If my life wasn’t full of painting and drawing already, I’d be tempted to take this up.

3. How does one NOT get attached to a car after driving it 24 years? Especially if it is a body shape, color, and transmission that one loves to drive, has a leather interior, sunroof, Yakima rack, very cool tail lights, and a spoiler… Pete, the new owner, said I can borrow it any time I like. I’ll be seeing it around town. It was a real blessing to have Pete want the car—no advertising, no dickering over price, no fuss over the things that no longer work (he already has the same year/model except that his is automatic and really really worn out.)

4. People die. Often. When I received 25 postcards to mail to people about my upcoming art show, first I sent an email newsletter. Next I had to decide who to mail real postcards, so as I compared the email list to the postal list, I was sadly surprised by all the names and emails I had to delete. STOP IT!

5. The older I get, the less inclined or able I am to tolerate or ignore listening to people who pepper their sentences with unnecessary “like”. Podcasts that might have interesting content get shut off after about the tenth “like”; interviewees who cannot speak without “like” “like” “like” —Nope. Not listening. Don’t have to. Also, if they end every other sentence or interrupt sentences with “right?”, then I am gone-zo. Buh-bye.

Me too.

6. June in the Garden by Eleanor Wilde is an excellent novel about an autistic woman named June who gets into awkward and difficult situations because of her literal interpretation of almost everything. It got so uncomfortable that I had to stop reading at times, but then I gave it 5 stars on GoodReads because it was that good! (5 stars is the highest rating).

7. “Ninety years ago, the Forest Service decided to “improve” the watershed by installing forty-one dams and deflectors in the valley on both the East Fork and some of the tributaries. Some of the structures were dry stacked rock, some were masonry with cement, some were dirt, some were logs, and one was a board. The apparent goal was to create deeper pools. The river and creek channels have shifted considerably since then, and I suspect you found the remains of one of the log dams.” (From Laile Di Silvestro)

8. Have you ever heard of The Jesus Prayer? I hadn’t, but stumbled across this on the World Wide Web (The Brighton Jotter) and looked it up. Here is what I learned: “The Jesus Prayer is a simple, easy prayer to recite and remember: “Lord Jesus Christ Son of God, have mercy on me, a sinner.” It is also sometimes abbreviated to “Lord Have Mercy” as is used in liturgical services of Orthodox Christianity.” It is supposed to be helpful if you find your mind wandering while you are praying (You mean some people DON’T find their minds wandering??)

9. A friend gave me a copy of a new book, The Mules of Mineral King, by Kevin Alltucker. Why had I never heard of this?? Why have I never met Kevin, a cabin neighbor? What a great book! Here is the link to Amazon for you. (K&TC do NOT buy a copy because I won a copy for you on Saturday!)

10. A friend told me about a thing that makes bug bites stop itching. Because we have mosquitos at home and up the hill, and Horrible Biting Flies up the hill, I bought one. It is a battery-operated gizmo that applies heat directly to a bite, and WHAM, just like that, it stops itching. Here is the link to the big A: Beuer Insect Bite Relief Pen.

And that’s all. There will be more posts about Mineral King this week, which is also the week of the reception for my art show, August 7, 5-7 PM, Tulare’s Heritage Gallery (in the museum, 444 W. Tulare Avenue).

Six Things I Learned in June

  1. Three Rivers will be getting a pharmacy again! Maybe, if governmental regulations and insurance companies don’t block progress. We are supposedly getting the golf course back, along with 2 restaurants in town, but between the Keyboard Warriors and the county regulators, the delays are legion. The French bakery and a high-end hotel gave up because of these hateful people who block progress, who don’t accept the precept that “a rising tide lifts all boats”. STOP IT!!

2. In just one Canadian province (Nova Scotia—Hi Elisabeth!), there are 2 time zones, one of them only 30 minutes later. That would be highly annoying! From Elisabeth: “. . . there is actually only one time in Nova Scotia (AST) which is 1 hour ahead of E.T. But in Newfoundland (a nearby province) it is AST + 0.5 hours. So if it’s 12:00 pm in New York City, it’s 1:00 pm in Nova Scotia, but it’s 1:30 pm in Newfoundland.” You probably already know that there are 4 times zones in the contiguous 48 states, and Hawaii and Alaska add 2 more.

Screenshot

3. Intermittent Fasting is an eating fad that is supposed to slow aging and keep blood glucose lower. I’ve been trying this, nay, doing this for a month. The idea is that you only eat within an 8 hour window, and fast in the remaining 16 hours. It is sort of hard, but I am learning how to manage, hoping that “closies count”. I won’t know if it is worth it for another 2 months. Oy vey.

4. The week before I acquired a new-to-me car, a friend (Hi again, Elisabeth!) posted a link to a post on this website about life lessons from driving a manual transmission car. I learned that driving a manual transmission is more automatic to me than driving an automatic. I am in mourning, while at the same time feeling very grateful for a newer car.

5. Did you know that the second ingredient in seasoned salt is SUGAR??! Boy am I mad.

6. A site called BookCrossing is a worldwide community of readers who share books and then track where they are. If I had nothing else to do, this might be fun. However, I have more than enough just keeping up with the people I know in real life, along with a handful of not-yet-met friends, so keeping up with my books after I read them isn’t going to make The List.

Why was there a pickleball on my morning walk in a neighborhood without a court?

Nine Things Learned in May

In the lengthy month of May (why does 31 days feel so much longer than 30?) I spent time finding interesting things to ponder on the interwebs along with painting, planting native plants at my church, drawing a map, and getting used to the two-home rhythms of summer. I also took in the last wildflowers of spring in my neighborhood of Three Rivers.

    1. Have you heard of the Scottish term “hurkle durkle”? It is explained here in this blog post on Optimistic Musings of a Pessimist. (Hi, Elisabeth!) It’s a verb that means to lie in bed in the morning until you feel like getting up.

    2. My internet friend Elisabeth posted a list of the Five Best Beaches in Nova Scotia. Holy guacamole, good thing it is far away or the entire world would want to live there. Her photos! The beaches! (Thou shalt not covet, thou shalt not covet, thou shalt not covet…)

    3. A friend offered use of his car when he learned of Fernando’s terminal diagnosis. LOOK AT THIS BABY!! (I know it’s not a Honda Accord.) I declined, because Fernando is still running just fine for the shortish distances in my life. What a generous and fabulous friend. . . who gets to have people like this in their lives??

    4. Doing hard things and all the varieties of ways to incorporate this into everyday life, along with the reasons for doing these—great food for thought from the blog This Evergreen Home. It follows the same line of thinking as the book The Comfort Crisis, which I bought and read a year or two ago (and promptly gave away or lost). Still not interested in jumping into cold water or taking cold showers.

    5. While we are talking about websites, there is an enormous quantity of wisdom on This Evergreen Life. Great fodder for introspection and conversation. . . shhhh, I need to think. Here is an example: “[Minimalism] insists that the cheapest item is the one you never purchase, the most efficient storage system is deletion, and the best bargain is time reclaimed when you no longer have to manage mountains of things.”

    6. A dear friend has been diagnosed with Parkinson’s Disease (Who was Parkinson? Poor guy. . .) Her Movement Specialist Neurologist (that’s a medical specialty?) told her, “exercise is your medicine.” People with PD who exercise daily for 30 minutes at 80% of their maximum heart rate have significantly fewer symptoms and thus need less pharmaceuticals.

    7. Ever heard of “money dials”? Ramit Sethi is a money guy who has coined this term. He lists the 10 most common “money dials” to help you find where you are most likely to spend any extra money; when you figure it out, you can turn the dial all the way up. (Why??)

    8. I had a one-year follow-up appointment in Santa Barbara for this dadgum peripheral neuropathy. After some thought, I realized that the doc would confirm that yes, I still have it (well, duh, that is why my feet are still numb, I can’t comfortably wear any shoes except Crocs, and they really start hurting if I walk farther than 4 miles), and she’d remind me that there is no cure but to watch the prediabetes, which she says can cause neuropathy (to which my local doc says baloney). I emailed the SB doc to see if an appointment was necessary, she confirmed my line of thinking. and I cancelled the appointment. (SHE REPLIED TO THE MESSAGE!!) The learning there is to THINK and ASK.

    9. One final realization came to me in May: people begin a physical decline in their 60s. Look at the list of things happening to my friends in first decade of the esses: cancer, diabetes, prediabetes, prolapsed body parts, prostate cancer, Parkinson’s Disease, early onset Alzheimer’s, bad knees, ruined shoulders, DeQuervain’s tenosynovitis, and yes, peripheral neuropathy. On top of that, we all have friends in their 70s, 80s, and 90s who need help but often won’t admit it. The ones that do admit it make it easier on those around them and have an easier time themselves.

    Well. That was fun.

    Seven, no, Eight Things Learned in April

    1. Here is a fun list of 100 ways to live better: Less Wrong (Warning: needless occasional vulgar language and some controversial suggestions with an occasional gem.)

    2. The “platform” where my blog lives did a tech update again. This time it actually improved things. Now when you are a subscriber, you can see photos in your email from the blog. I wasted countless hours trying to figure out why this stopped working for some people about a year ago. Apparently it was caused by the “platform”. (It surprises me how many of my subscribers don’t know how to click on the title of the blog post in the email and go to my website to read the blog and see the photos.)

    3. Sometimes I don’t want to paint*. I had a week like that in April, and it coincided with the need to pull weeds at one vacation rental and do some planting at another. It wasn’t hot, the mosquitos weren’t out, the satisfaction level was very high, and I got paid. With art, one produces without any guarantee of an income, so instant gratification is an occasional threat to the production of art.

    4. Have you wondered why we are assaulted by teevee ads for prescription medicine? We aren’t doctors and can’t prescribe, so why are they telling us about this stuff? I learned that the reason is if we tell our doctor to prescribe something and (s)he doesn’t comply (imagine telling THE DOCTOR WHO KNOWS ABOUT MEDICINE what to prescribe!), then something goes wrong in our bodies which we blame on not getting that medicine, we can sue the doctor for not following our recommendation. As usual, follow the money. (Why would anyone want to be a doctor these days??)

    5. It’s extra hard to find a good used car right now. Did you know that if an old car is running at all, it will probably sell for $1500? I’ve learned this because Fernando has cancer. He’ll be okay for a little while, but it is (past) time to find a car. It must be Honda or Toyota. Since I’ve owned nothing but three-pedal Honda Accords since 1981, I may need to do some mental readjusting and accept whatever I can find. (Please please, not red or black…)

    6. Holland Mountain is a new name to me. It is close to my house. Why have I never heard of this before? I can’t find it on a map. Who names these places? Why do people know about this but not me when it is in my backyard??

    7. Anne Lamott says “All truth is paradox.” I’m not sure what she means by this, but I think it might be similar to something I am noticing more and more. “Bury coffee grounds to enrich your soil”; “coffee grounds have caffeine which is an herbicide”. “Put crushed eggshells in the dirt beneath your tomatoes”; “Eggshells do nothing in the soil for tomatoes.“ Thus and such is likely causing your problem,” says one doctor; “Poppycock,” says another. “First prize!” declares an art contest judge; “The emperor has no clothes,” says a regular person.

    8. The website called “Bookpecker” which summarized books has gone the way of all flesh. Phooey. That was helpful site, but it probably got shut down by booksellers. Or maybe there were too many people like me with a giant list of books to be read (called the TBR list) who were looking for a shortcut, and the site couldn’t make money.

    Thus we conclude another month of living and learning. Thank you for joining me in a month of semi-retired life, with more soaking up spring than producing art.

    *A friend said to me, “Yesterday I did nothing all day and today I realized I wasn’t finished yet.”