Category: Thoughts

If you can’t see the photos, go here: cabinart.net/blog. In the last week and a half of July, I became aware of so many new pieces of knowledge, enlightenment, and information. Enjoy!

1. Mustang Mint appeared in my wildflower book as an unknown, or an unsure. This year I discovered it along the Mineral King Road, near Wolverton Point. It wasn’t in a good place for photos, so this is blurry. But I knew right away what it was—very fragrant.
2. Have you read the Declaration of Independence (since the 8th grade)? I didn’t remember that it is a list of grievances against King George III. It was also interesting to see that it was signed by 56 men. For fun, look at these first names: 6 Williams, 6 Georges, 6 Johns, 5 Thomases, 3 Samuels, 3 Benjamins along with one each of these unusual monikers: Carter, Button, Elbridge, and Step. (This doesn’t add up to 56—there were other names I didn’t mention.) All of them were putting their lives on the line FOR US!! I highly recommend listening to Mike Rowe’s podcast Episode #104, The One Percenters.
3. I learned that red, white and blue stand for valor, purity, justice.
4. What Makes This Song Great is a wonderful YouTube site (station? channel? series?) by Rick Beato. This is another great find from Mike Rowe who interviewed him on Episode #259. Rick is a music producer (I think that is what it is called) who is musically brilliant. He breaks down songs from different eras and explains why they are so endearing and enduring. His enthusiasm will make you smile, and if you are around his age (born in 1962), you will enjoy the songs he picks by groups you probably used to love. Chicago, Boston, Kansas, and Toto (what’s with the geographical group names? and then “Toto”, appropriately listed here after Kansas?) But where is the Little River Band, hunh?? And where are the Carpenters? How about Bread? (L.Mc., he has a video on Gordon Lightfoot!)
5. A friend told me about a daily 15 minute podcast for news, Morning Wire. So far it seems pretty straightforward, just the facts ma’am, but the reporters have that trendy youthful way of speaking. What I mean is that they talk fast, begin many sentences with “well”, “yeah”, or “so”, and when the anchor thanks them for reporting, they respond with either “my pleasure” or “anytime”. Those quirks are simply distractions, not a commentary on the quality of the reporting and at least they don’t talk through their noses with that dropped growl thing at the end.
6. If you catch a bushy-tailed wood rat in a Hav-A-Hart trap and release it far away, it will come back. We’ll have to release it even farther next time. No photos. Ick, rodents.
7. Sacrifice: A Gold Star Widow’s Fight for the Truth showed me that upper military personnel sometimes lie, file false reports, cover up mistakes, deny responsibility, and as a result, people die. Michelle Black wrote an engrossing book about losing her husband and uncovering the truth. Scary. What a brave and determined woman! (I met Michelle’s mom, who told me about the book.)
8. If you are bitten by one mosquito, others find you more easily. That’s why sometimes the mosquitoes go all nutso over one person and ignore the other people in the area. I don’t know specifics, and I didn’t verify this fact, but it makes sense to me. (This tool box has nothing to do with anything other than the light caught my fancy.)
9. Class Reunion: by the time 45 years since high school arrives, people have become comfortable in their own skin, everyone feels like a true friend, people are ready for real conversations, baldly honest and authentic. I had a wonderful time wandering around the room, reading name tags, getting reacquainted or making a new acquaintance. Out of a class of about 400, only about 80 were in attendance, there was no music (the voices alone were LOUD), and no one (that I could tell) got sloppy drunk. Initially I only signed up out of guilt, because some people travel great distances, so I should have the courtesy to drive 35 miles. I’m glad I went.
10. Over the last several decades (I don’t know the specifics), California farmers are using 14% less water and producing 31% more food! THANK YOU, FARMERS!! (Food comes from farms, not from grocery stores. And do NOT complain about farmers if you are wearing cotton, or eating food. Go ahead and complain if you are eating a Google, driving a Facebook, sleeping in a Twitter. Comfy?? Be warmed and filled.)

1. I learned about a Redbud booth location that was new to me: a. the patio is very convenient for set-up and breakdown; b. that location would be too hot if it was a warm weekend; c. sharing a booth is an excellent idea; d. my screens can blow over.
2. Selling a home without an experienced and organized realtor is UNTHINKABLE. (Nope, not my home; I’m still here). I highly recommend Diana Jules of Sierra Real Estate if you live in my neck of the woods. (Woods have necks??) She made it stress-free and is a joy to be around.
3. It is very complicated to be simple. Setting up a new landline at our cabin has taken 4 very lengthy phone calls with Huge&Rude, the dominant (and only) communications company for Mineral King. I could fill a page with the things they promised and did not deliver, along with all the lies I was told (probably by accident of ignorance, due to the complicated nature of simple things). 
4. Look what happens when you neglect to pay attention while baking; let’s call it Flour Deficit Disorder. I kept ignoring the little voice in my head that said, “Not enough flour—the dough is too thin”. (It sounds an awful lot like the voice that tells me that a knitting project is going the wrong direction).
5. Iron-on patches don’t work. (And isn’t it interesting that my jeans wore out above the knees rather than on the knees?)
6. I learned that there is a Murphy bed with an attached desk that keeps its load when you lower the bed. See that desk/tray piece beneath the mattress? It stays in a horizontal position even when the bed is down.
7. Precis is a real word. It is pronounced “PRAY-seez” and it means a concise summary. 
8. Have you ever bought or seen squished pennies at a tourist site? They were introduced to the USA in 1892, although begun in Austria in 1818. The elongation machines cost $4-5000, and and it usually costs .51 to squish a penny. Even if a single transaction costs $1, it seems like a pretty long shot to make one’s money back. The coins are called “elongated coins” and collecting these souvenirs is a popular hobby. Souvenir collection itself goes back to the early history of humans when one needed to bring home something foreign from travels to prove one had been somewhere. The Three Rivers Historical Museum plans to get a machine, and one of the designs will be the logo I made for the Mineral King Preservation Society. There are maps online for the dedicated collectors which show where the machines can be found throughout the USA. When I was first asked about the use of my design, I had my usual response:
9. A friend showed me an app for the phone called Picture This. If you take a photo of a plant using their camera, it tells you the Latin name, common name, and characteristics of the plant. To keep the app free, you have to hit “cancel” a few times each time you use it. Otherwise, after 7 free days, it will cost you $29.99 for a year. I wonder if the subscription comes with benefits other than just not having as many interruptions to sell you things. . . see? My mind is flooded with questions. (Discovered the name of a terrible smelling weed in our yard is “stink grass”!)
10. For several years I have used DuckDuckGo as my search engine. I didn’t like the sense of being stalked by Google. Now I have learned of a new search engine called Ecosia It plants trees when you use it a certain number of times or something like that. I just like the idea that it isn’t trying to make a gazillion dollars by selling ads instead of helping me find stuff on the World Wide Web. We’ll see if it works. I learned about it from Seth Godin’s blog. He is a little bit too smart for me, but I do trust him when he tells about a good product that I can actually use. Not sure how, not sure if it will work, but I will try it.

1. Converting a print book to an ebook is a bit of a slog. The type cannot be justified but has to be “ragged right/justified left”; text cannot wrap around photos; all blank pages (the left side or “verso” page that forces chapters to begin on the right or “recto” page) need to be deleted. Boring, perhaps, but I did learn this in April while converting Adventures in Boy Scouting: Tales by the Old Scoutmaster to an eBook. (print book available here)
2. The correct term for the little card that allows you to drive legally is DRIVER license, not DRIVER’S license. (I know—nobody cares, anymore than they care that it is Daylight SAVING Time rather than “Savings”)
3. Electric bicycles! My friend bought a pair and invited me on the maiden voyage. What a hoot! They weighed a ton and there were many little buttons and levers, so we stood in the parking lot for awhile trying to understand what was what. Then we made some circles around the lot before heading out. It was definitely not a workout, it was definitely fun (everything I do with her is fun), and I definitely don’t want to own one. She decided that they are just a moped with the option for a little exercise. 
4. These are Phacelia campanularia, AKA desert bluebells, native to Southern California. Deer don’t seem to like them, but the gophers did.
5. I lent my piano to the annual Jazz Affair here in Three Rivers for a session called “Dueling Pianos”. I learned that mine is called a “spinet”, the other was an “upright”, and they were closer to dancing than to dueling.I learned that there are people who can play in perfect synchronization without ever looking at music, discussing what key or tempo, who will begin, when to end, or even practicing together. Blew my mind. My piano has never ever sounded like that before, and unless the High Sierra Jazz Club needs to borrow it next year, it never will again. 
6. Here is a matter of consequence to contemplate: “Over the past few centuries, we’ve traded speed for rigor; innovation for wisdom; achievement for sanity; technology for connection; and disconnection for immediate comfort. And we’re all paying the price.” Excerpt from Dr. John Delony, Own Your Past, Change Your Future. This book became available at the end of the month, but because I preordered it, I got an e-book to read before the real one arrived. I haven’t finished it yet, because I’d rather read a paper book than a screen one.
7. I tried to make a stepping stone with poured cement instead of a preformed one. That is because I had some chunky items that needed to be tapped down into the wet cement. Instead of wasting the items that I have been collecting for several years, I used some tiles to make an experimental one. Good thing, because it crumbled. An experienced friend helped me make a second one, and his experience made all the difference. He built a mold, brought the right tools to mix the cement correctly, knew the right consistency, and even helped arrange the items. Here it is while still wet.
8. If a plant in my yard survives the deer, chances are that a turkey will smash it. After planting 12 foxgloves last year, 5 survived a week in the summer without water. Those five promised blooms, and then those stupid wild turkeys broke the stalk of at least one. So, planting 12 and getting 4 blooms means I only have a 25% ROI on my planting. (Haha, clumsy turkeys – all the daffodils survived)
9. The past participle of “prove” is “proved”, not “proven”. “Proven” is reserved for use as an adjective, such as “It is a proven principle that one should consult the Chicago Manual of Style when deciding the correct participle of ‘prove'”.