Well, I think being alive causes cancer. This is where we are at now. Sigh. I mean, we cannot possibly avoid everything. So I tend to ignore some of these things. That said, I wear my garden gloves when I use the hose because I drag that thing all over this yard, and I have a dog. I am sure at one point or another it has been dragged through dog plops. So ya. When I am done gardening, the gloves come off and hands get washed. I would not get rid of perfectly good hose unless I was committed to getting a hand pump for my well and hauling water by the pail full Laura Ingalls style, and frankly, no just no. I am not enamored with nostalgia for the good ole days though maybe if I had to work that damn hard physically on such little food, I would not have the hips I currently possess.

Rah rah rah!!! I am cheering you on. I have really annoyed my physics and engineering classes. I wasn't degree seeking because I already have two bachelor's degrees. But I completed a general sciences major that I had started as a minor way back in the mists of time in college. It isn't enough to give me a BS (my degrees are BA's, so different gen eds), but if I needed to get into teaching, it makes me qualified for both music and science at the secondary level, and it makes me qualified to work a lot of STEM outreach programs. I have know idea if I will ever use it. But I am so happy I took the classes. When dd went into premature labor, I had to withdraw from classes and go take care of my grandsons. Yet, I was able to make it up this summer. So even when our hectic lives intrude, it is possible to find a way forwars. Happy studies!

I think the U.S. is in an educational state of existence that I call "circling the drain", a total crisis of earth rattling proportions. So many public schools are just babysitting. Literally. Changes in educational law here in Michigan, due to teacher shortages that will only get worse because with good reason no one wants to go into the profession, means that in many districts para-pros are now " faculty " as full time substitutes, anyone over 18 can apply. No joke. We have recent 18 year old high school graduates stepping into the classrooms to babysit their peers. Student to teacher ratios for classes with teachers at the middle and high school level who have actual subject matter expertise is now standing at 40:1 and climbing. No one seems to be learning anything except in wealthy suburbs of well off urban areas like Greater Ann Arbor, Traverse City, some of the other college towns like Lansing and Marquette, or in super wealthy burbs like West Bloomfield. The best school district to the west of here that a decade ago had a place in the top 400 high schools in the nation has dropped into oblivion. I don't know that Michiganders would stand for a wave of regulation when to be honest most of these kids really are not going to be better served, especially in rural areas, by spending all day in PS. Maybe they will have books and some sort of homeschool co-op classes because mostly they are going to end up being babysat while they watch videos at school all day long. The wealthy elites and federal government are fine with it. An uneducated electorate is one easily manipulated, coerced, oppressed. They are fine with education being in name only so long as someone is babysitting the non working youth. Meanwhile, they and theirs will have children who continue to graduated from the halls of private prep schools, matriculate the the ivies and near ivies, and inherit both money and positions of power from their parents, an aristocracy that unlike feudalism doesn't even bear any responsibility of any kind to its serfs. Ya. Wapro, we get it, the new wave of home schoolers appears to be taking shortcuts on the hard work of educating kids, and it isn't good. Well. Stuff it. Go take a look at the PS, especially in southern states, but basically all over this nation. The nutjobs have taken over. From book bans, content bans, weeks and weeks of bubble testing and preparing for bubble testing, no textbooks, teachers leaving in droves, chaos in the halls, catasteophic bullying, superintendents draining districts of their money while assuring everyone that its all good because the football team still plays, depressed kids, depressed faculty, not enough bus drivers, not enough anything, educational theory that doesn't match child development missing it by miles and miles, crap food, heavy metal poisoned water in the pipes even at the schools because city water supplies are so polluted, a list of horrors too long to print...public education is a wildfire raging without end in sight. The children in this nation really should be able to unionize and go on strike. Homeschooling failing is a drop in the educational bucket compared to the monsoon like failures of the last decade of public education. The nation's journalists really need to keep their eyes on that ball. I used to worry about homeschooling educational neglect. Not too much anymore. The big education train has gone so far off the rails, it has plummeted off the canyon.

Accurate!

Worthless. We don't use it. We have packages sent to our mother in law's house, all bills are electronic statements. The post office is open 10 am to noon, and 2-3 pm only, and no rural delivery in town so we have to have a PO box because the county refuses to send the property taxes to an address outside the township, ie. mother in law's address. Of course the township tax person is 83 and not computer proficient, might even have dementia so ya...a problem. Anything mailed in this town can take up to a week to be post marked and leave the office. The "postmaster" as a t.v. in the office, and watches t.v. while on the job. Those rare hours that the window is open, it is like pulling teeth to get her to wait on a customer. The number of formal co.plants to U.S.P. is OFF the charts for this office. Bottom line is she is the niece of someone elected to legislature in Lansing, and unless she sets the building on fire deliberately or cannibalize a human, she is basically unfireable and she knows it. Mother in law has absolutely wonderful mail service. The post office serving her area is top notch. When I have to mail something, I always drive there. We really like the postmaster. He is a great person.

F.o.r.f.r.e.a.k.i.n.g.e.v.e.r. Says the woman 55 years old and still get two or three periods per year. Knock on wood it has been 7 months since the last one, and probably just saying that jinxed it! 😠😠😠😠😠😠😠😠😠😠😠😠😠😈😠😈😈😠😈😠😈😠😈👹💀💀💀😱

Yes. Not so much within our marriage, but definitely within other family relationships. My feelings towards a certain niece are very positive. It breaks my heart that we have to distance ourselves because of choices she is making. We tried so hard to figure out how to have a relationship with her, but we can't fix anything until she makes some different choices. As a result, we love her very much from afar and are not hard hearted at all towards her, but at the same time acknowledge that a relationship is not possible at this time. I have friends who opted to divorce who felt very similarly. They loved each other very much, and yet couldn't seem to fix the things that would have made married life possible. There were a LOT of incompatibilities, and love + positive feelings still didn't make living together feasible. So I can definitely see how it is possible to be in such a position.

Saw this and thought of everyone here. I saw four bumblebees and one honeybee in the garden today. I also canned six pints of taco sauce/salsa today. It has been cool and raining, so now it is going to be a while before I have more ripe tomatoes, but I still have a whole bunch of jalapenos and red chillies, so I am going to freeze them so they do not become over ripe.

I know people who are bankrupt from health shares. They are not legally obligated to pay squat. It isn't insurance. Numerous folks, I clouding my parents, paid into these things for years only to have an emergency and get dumped. No one should sign up for these things. Insurance is crap, but at least there are legal ways to address the craptasticness.

When Mark retires if he retired before 65 and eligibility for Medicare, he can use cobra at a discount through his current employer to keep his insurance. It would be the best thing for him. But after the usual six months thing, the policy will drop spouse and other dependents and is only available for the former employee. My assumption is because the company wants to OFFER the option as a PR stunt, but prefers to try hard to get retirees and their families off of it. I am four years younger than he is so I will be in a major bind. So he is not retiring until I have found a job that comes with benefits. I am almost accepted a job last week. It comes with medical insurance, paid vacation, a basic package. However it is 2.5 hrs away from here. I would have had to find a studio/efficiency apartment or room to rent by Sept. 1st, and I was not certain I could find a place that fast. In addition, I am not convinced that Mark handle both elderly mothers alone - my brother lives two blocks away from our mother but is utterly worthless and does nothing, not sure he even gives a care about her at all - and I wasn't convinced I was emotionally and mentally ready to live away from Mark for an entire decade before I could retire with Medicare or watch his stress levels go up so high dealing with the moms alone. He would not have been able to just retire and then move to be with me because the mothers have no finances with which to move and afford a higher cost of living. So I am looking closer to home. That job posting is still open, and probably will be for a while. They are really going to have a hard time because they need a music director with also educational background for ages 3-adult, plus piano pedagogy degree (one of the three degrees I hold), plus instrumental and vocal experience, plus extensive performance experience, plus public event planning experience (also have that in spades), plus experience with other fine arts (yup), plus a STEM background to oversee a much desired STEM outreach/activity and summer camp program they want to begin, and I have that too. Not many performance plus music education plus event planning plus STEM educator all inclusive people are out there! Maybe I should go back and try to advocate for some work remote so I could be here part of the week, and in the office part of the week. I don't know. My gut is on the fence.

I wish you many many more of these moments. Hugs and love from me to you. 💓

I feel called out.

I know many that this will deter because they are very expensive here without insurance coverage. The estimate in our area is $260+ once the stockpile runs out because Moderna and Pfizer are going to charge $130 a dose to do new manufacturing runs. Our insurance is still going to cover in-network at 100%, but only 70% out of net-work. We have an inner work pharmacy within 13 miles that is fairly easy to schedule to vaccine appointments with so we will be able to stay up to date without feeling the pinch or like a lot of my neighbors choosing groceries or vaccine that week but not both. My brother in law dropped the bombshell on us that it was very good that we chose not to attend his son's wedding this past December. 250 person event in Chicago. As near as they can tell, there was a super spreader at the event, and this particular family, especially the bride's side, are anti-covid vax. He said he got it, for the 2nd time, all of his adult kids, the bride, etc. He said they estimated over 150 people got it. Two of the bride's relatives died despite paxlovid. Sigh...... We knew it was going to be an epic nightmare of an event, covid being only one of the several reasons for this, and sent a gift and our regrets. Phew. Dodged that bullet. His one daughter, married two years before her brother, though she and new hubby were vaxed, got it on their honeymoon. She is pretty certain it was on the plane. They opted to go overseas for their moon, and it was way too long of a flight to go without food and drink, so they removed their masks for a meal. She said there was someone doing a lot of coughing a few rows back. They were on a three week honeymoon, and spent most of it fairly miserable once symptoms hit. We still have super low transmission in our county. This is still the time of year when everyone is outside, camping, boating, fishing, hiking, doing yardwork, church attendance is way down, and most of the weddings in the county have been advertised as outdoor events. So we are naturally socially distanced, not shopping much at all, and don masks for the supermarket and pharmacy. But, once the weather gets bad, school is in session, and church attendance goes up, events move inside it is probably going to bad again. The vax rate for this county is only 54%. I am prepared to be wearing kn95 inside public places again, religiously. Right now I have just been wearing the more comfortable homemade cloth masks. Thankfully, the one last wedding we have this year is mid-September, small, and still an outside event. I may help Dd put on a Halloween party for my grandsons, but that one will also be outdoors or if it rains, in the garage with the doors and windows open. Her friends and their kids have all vaxed, so we hope that means we can fairly safely hold the party. Dd does not need to be sick again. But the grands desperately want to have a party. I feel like kids these days are just living through one epic nightmare after another. I know it has always been this way throughout history, and yet, I still feel like they have it way worse than my generation ever did!

I love this!

We can hunt them. I just do not enjoy rabbit meat. I generally do not have to worry about it. We have bunny foo foos every spring, but because there are a couple feral cats in this tiny town of mine, they usually feast on them. Ground hogs are a much bigger problem. Those things.....I wish death and destruction on them despite their awesome cuteness because they are wickedly destructive.

I totally understand. Gardening is tough enough without wrestling human food from critters. Mostly I adore wildlife, just not in the garden. It is slowly turning into a serious feed my pursuit, so squirrels, bunnies, and ground hogs simply need to go back to the woods!

Maybe a small gallery or historical society with a beautiful building and gardens would host it for less? Just spitballing possibilities.

Some of my canning jars are 30 years old. If the glass is pristine, then they would be fine with new lids. But yikes about the old pickles! That might really smell when you go dump them. Good luck!

Beautiful! Congratulations and best wishes to the happy couple. And I think an art museum sounds absolutely lovely.

The bunnies are epic! I have a hard time with it. I love bunnies. Really love those balls of fluff. My mil has one in her yard, a young one, and it is getting REALLY tame. It is also eating her landscape plants and creating all kinds of carnage. Some of the plants do not look like they will come back from this. So she is starting to get pretty amd, and probably wants Mark to shoot it. But he doesn't want to do it, and I will bawl. Stupid rabbits! We have a fluffy foo foo in our yard, but my raised beds are up high. When Mark made them out of the pallets, he made them 30" tall x 36-42-48" wide depending on the dimensions of the pallet, and then string them together to form 12'-16' long beds. So the foos eat on the lawn and the wilding areas which are for pollinators, but do not get into the gardens. I am very grateful for this. The Golden seems to have a serious vendetta with the squirrels, yay for us, but is not perturbed by the bunny. I do not get it. What goes on in dog brains? Those dogs need a talking to!

Agreed. I have a cocker spaniel and all he has ever been interested in was birds. Sigh. Something about those goldens! Good dogs.

I get that. But we will not use glyphosphate. There are ethical issues here because everyone is on well water, and some of our neighbors have shallow wells that can't filter it. We also have numerous organic dairy farmers in the area, and over spray is a serious issue, with wind carrying it over. Two miles from here a farmer sprayed it on a day when it was windy because apparently he didn't give a crap. It destroyed the crops of a family growing a two acre organic garden for their family, and the mom was already fighting cancer which had been caused by chemical agents she was exposed to at work. The court threw out their lawsuit against that farmer. The spraying farmer offered them $500 for the loss of their organic vegetables and fruits. This was three years ago. Their well water still registers 97 times the EPA maximum ppm. So I will continue to do battle with the invasive in other ways. And I am not committed to entirely erradicating it since it is all over the county and nearby state land. It will keep coming back. I just want to keep it under control and away from my raised beds, fruit trees, and berry bushes. So burning it and whatever is good enough.

Cjzimmer, I am glad your dogs are taking care of those critters. What gets me is that my county is heavily wooded. More than 50% of former agricultural land has gone fallow, returned to the wild in the last 40 years as farmers have gone out of business. There is ridiculous amount of habitat for the stupid rodents, and no lack of squirrel food. They aren't over populated either since we have a healthy fox population and several packs of wild wild dogs to say nothing of a large pack of coyotes. These rotten beasts are not hungry and can eat like kings without attacking gardens! So aggravating!! I don't have them on our property thank goodness. Our neighbor has a lovely golden retriever that never met a human he didn't like nor a squirrel he did like. So we let him wander around the yard. He has cleaned the neighborhood out of squirrels.

We have an invasive coming from an abandoned lot behind us. It puts out runners which goes underneath the stone fence and comes up in the backyard. We have tried just about everything except Monsanto - and I have NO intention of spraying that - including going out when the soil is wet and flame throwing which is hypothetically supposed to burn the roots as they uptake water, but it keeps coming back. It is now moving into the main yard. I am at my wits end. We are going to burn it again this fall, and I am considering salting the whole area, just a total Roman scorched earth policy on Cathage kind of thing! I don't care if anything else grows there. I just want this to stop without spreading cancer chemicals here.

The only thing I know that stops squirrels is them being on the wrong end of Mark's pellet gun or a watch dog tied out at the garden. It really is ridiculous those stupid creatures!