GailV
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Posts posted by GailV
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8 hours ago, Alte Veste Academy said:
OK, I’m leaning toward this one. So glad they take Apple Pay!
Only one left! Better hop right on that!
Fair warning, though, I'm still shopping for dd who is obsessed with Oppenheimer, and that would certainly be a statement piece .....
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21 minutes ago, EKS said:
Perhaps birch trees are the only beings in heaven.
I'm now enamored of the idea that we all become birch trees in heaven.
Then again, I'm one of those people who thinks having tree-friends should be normalized. I spent way too much childhood worrying that if I kicked a rock it would be sad because it was no longer with its rock-friends ... or maybe it liked its new location more, and was grateful I moved it... oh, the quandary!
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17 hours ago, KungFuPanda said:
I forgot to mention, I grow comfrey specifically for breaking down my compost leaves faster.
Well well well, my composting and gardening is about to undergo a big change.
How did I miss this little gem of knowledge?
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2 hours ago, marbel said:
Similar story here. When we moved here, our elderly neighbor was friendly but in the fall, she made it clear that she didn't like leaves from our trees blowing into her yard. (If she actually paid attention she'd see that leaves blow both ways.) When we planted a maple tree she groaned "another tree? More leaves!" I should note here that one of the features of this neighborhood is the large number of beautiful mature trees. But a few people seem to hate them.
Anyway, the neighbor died and her grandson moved into her house and I guess her leaf hatred was genetic because he blows leaves darn near every day. I'm sure he hates us. We mow most of the leaves into the grass but where there are just too many we put them in our little silos for compost. We leave them in the planted areas (which are growing each year as we slowly remove more lawn) and sometimes they do blow out of our yard, stupid leaves don't obey property lines.
EXACTLY! My goodness, they could be sisters!
Huge trees lining the streets, plus two huge oaks in the back, and when dh planted a couple of maples in the back HEAVEN FORBID she complained that if he wanted that many trees he should've moved to the woods.
Her son has moved in with her as a caretaker - she's in her late 90s and determined to age in place, mostly so she can "garden" - he tends to be more environmentally aware, and has lowered the amount of pesticide she uses (her gardening mostly involves spraying Roundup on everything, and blowing leaves daily), but I think he's just going with her on the leaves to keep her from griping about it 24/7.
OTOH she wrote a cranky letter to a neighbor who cut down a tree on their property that she liked, so it appears to be mostly a control issue for her - like Yertle the Turtle she needs to control all she can see.
Edited to add an apology for this digression into crazy neighbors, but it's so affirming to hear we're not alone that I got all excited!
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Bright Lights, Big Christmas by Mary Kay Andrews. Yes, it's time to ditch all of those thought-provoking serious books that adults are supposed to read, and read some HOLIDAY FLUFF!!! YAY!!! I read this while drinking peppermint-vanilla tea. Highly recommend all parts of the experience.
My Big Ego: a Practical Guide to Shifting from Fear to Love by Vanessa Wideski. I think this was supposed to be a beginner's guide to Tom Campbell's Big Theory of Everything (which he calls My Big ToE; or MBT for even more brevity). I'm not sure it worked. It was sort of all over the place. But the author has led an interesting life. Overall, came across as another Women's Bible Study type of book, but about simulation hypothesis instead of the Bible.
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We have 2 large black plastic bins -- I think maybe 80 to 90 gallons. The first one was from a program our city got a grant for - providing nice, large bins plus accessories for about $35. The second is a cheapy I bought this fall when I decided I needed more room.
Bin one is currently full of leaf plus grass clippings from me mowing up the grass/leaves in the past month -- currently mostly sweet gum, plus some oak. I also throw in kitchen vegetable scraps, facial tissues, etc. "Watering" is leftover lemon water, tea grounds, pickle juice, etc. I stir at least once a week - I stopped using the aerator the city provided, and now use a pitchfork, often taking out a couple of bucketsful out of the bottom, stirring what's left, then throwing the buckets back in the top. When I did this last week I discovered that the center was anaerobic. I'll stop adding to this in the next month (it's already so full of leaves I can't add much more).
Bin 2 has everything composted from last April through October - mostly oak leaves cleaned out of the landscaping in the spring, which I then threw on the lawn and mowed up. Plus all the kitchen scraps, kleenex, tp roll cardboard, etc. It seems to have stopped cooking, but I'm waiting until spring to use it.
In late December I'll start using a trash can I've drilled holes in for whatever else we have for the winter -- kitchen scraps and paper products.
I also dump lawn-mower bags of leaf/grass clippings in the 35lb buckets from the kitty litter - I pry the lids off, stuff them full, pound the lids back on. I'll use those in late summer through early autumn to provide brown material.
I also put out several barrels of leaves per week for community pick up.
I'd love to do huge piles that are just fenced in (we definitely have enough leaves for that!), but I have neighbors who apparently live to eradicate every leaf and generally subjugate nature. It drives the woman next door nuts that my back lawn is currently solidly covered with oak leaves (prevailing winds blow from her yard to mine, so it's just plain silly that she gets so wound up about this). And then she trucks in huge piles of bark mulch in the spring, after blowing away all the leaves in the fall ... sigh.
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Lately I've just been asking them if they've been trafficked into this job against their wills - a huge problem in some places.
One day a couple of years ago I was clapping back against a scam call and realized the guy making the call sounded so incredibly depressed, and I realized he absolutely did NOT want to be on the phone scamming people. Then I read an article on the cyber-scam human trafficking connection, and thought, wow, was I adding to these people's burden?
If I had info to give them about where they can get help I'd absolutely give that out on every scam call.
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49 minutes ago, 4kidlets4me said:
That show is so weird. My DH and I have watched several seasons of it and I just can't understand why anyone would do it. The prize money is not nearly enough for me to put myself through all that. I think most of them go into thinking it's about surviving the elements but it's really more of a test of your mental abilities. I've noticed most of them cannot handle the mental aspect of being alone.
Yeah, watching the show has been eye opening. In the book Woniya Thibeault seems pretty happy to just be hanging out by herself, talking to trees, generally having the vibe of a really long silent meditation retreat with some bonus starvation and other physical issues thrown in -- sort of like a monk going off to live in a cave. But the episodes show some of the people not having a clue what to do with themselves. Yikes.
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Never Alone: a Solo Arctic Survival Journey by Woniya Dawn Thibeault. I picked this up at the library because it was face out on the shelf and the cover looked interesting. I don't recall having heard of the show Alone before, but within hours of checking the book out a friend mentioned it in another context, so maybe everyone's been talking about it constantly and I just didn't notice.
I was absolutely ENTHRALLED with this book. Wow. I started reading it at the same time as that dharma book from a while back, and this is certainly about someone following their dharma.
I found myself becoming more productive during my non-reading hours due to the inspiration of the book ... sort of like when you're 6 years old and are playing in the back yard that you're in whatever storybook you just read. Plus I've been working on some knitting and sewing - OMG it's like she and I are practically the same person!! 😉
I'm watching season 6 of Alone as a followup.
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I'm so sorry.
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6 hours ago, ScoutTN said:
Dd is going to do a make-up makeover for me. She is knowledgeable about skin care and good at the artistic part. I love this gift!
Whoa whoa whoa, hold up there, I never thought of asking for this as a gift. It's going on the list!
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The Meaning of Mary Magdalene by Cynthia Bourgeault. This was a reread. After I read that novel about Mary Magdalene a few weeks back I noticed that Center for Action and Contemplation was re-running the Cynthia Bourgeault course on Mary Magdalene -- something I'd looked at years ago and thought "I'd like to do that someday." Reading the book isn't required for the course, but has added a lot of depth to it for me; the course has also added a lot to my comprehension of the book.
Everyday Dharma by Suneel Gupta. I picked this up at the library because I was intrigued that the dust jacket only covers the bottom 2/3 of the book, and figured there was no downside to checking it out. Mostly yet another self help book (yawn). But then it occurred to me that I seem to be reading several books on how people synthesize their religion into leading a better life - in the past few weeks I've hit up Islam and Hinduism. I certainly know more about dharma than I did before.
Also, I've realized that I tend to chose books by their covers a heck of a lot of the time. Cover artists of the world should rejoice - it's working.
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We live in a place where trash pickup is contracted to a certain company - we (town residents) all use the same company, but we all have individual accounts with that company (contrasted to if the municipality takes care of everyone; or one town we lived in where everyone contracted their own and there were about 5 different companies people used that came various days and had various containers - it was wild, trash trucks running every day).
I call the company that does the trash pickup to ask what we're allowed to do, and how they want it "packaged". They change the rules every couple of years, so this isn't a weird question to ask at all.
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9 hours ago, ScoutTN said:
Rereading Harry Potter.
One of my kids says that she always has an urge to read Harry Potter this time of year.
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I currently give my cat a pill pocket EVERY DAY. She isn't taking any pills at the moment, but she comes trotting into the kitchen every afternoon for her "treat".
Every once in a while I have to put an actual pill in the pill pocket, and she seems puzzled by the new taste.
I use Greenies brand. She gets 3 of the regular hard Greenies when we do her asthma inhaler twice a day, too. Occasionally I give her an additional half-Prednisolone in the pill pocket when her asthma starts to get out of control.
Other than that, I'd go for a shot whenever possible. Heck, now we're going in for monthly Solensia shots for her arthritis.
Once we had a cat's medication formulated into a transdermal cream I rubbed on the ears - that was for hyper-thyroid meds, and I had to wear gloves to touch it. Eventually that one segued into grinding up a pill and mixing it with a small ball of ground bison, which that cat adored (which always brought to mind the idea of her running down a bison out on the plains, just like her ancestors 😉). But apparently methimazole tastes better than a lot of meds so she didn't think the bison was unacceptable with the pill in it.
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Starter Villain by John Scalzi. Scalzi is one of my favorite authors, and this book did not disappoint. Wow wow wow. Sentient cats and dolphins! Sarcastic commentary on those who inherit wealth and power! Also, an absolutely awesome cover. I'd put a hold on the book at the library as soon as I heard about it months ago, but then I saw the U.S. cover and realized I needed to buy my own copy.
Now back to reading nonfiction, mostly because nothing fictional can successfully follow-up a Scalzi novel.
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Armada by Ernest Cline. YA sci fi by the author of Ready Player One. Lots of pop cultural references, plus video games. I wanted something light to read while I had a cold. About half way through I decided it was too dumb to complete, and returned it (Libby app).
The Universal Call: a Journey to Consciousness by Fatima El-Hindi. I have no clue how to describe this. At times it reminded me of a book you'd use for Women's Bible Study, except Islamic. Plus the author is from Algeria, taught engineering and math at the collegiate level in the U.S., and now has start her own school to teach Arabic and Qur'an to Muslim kids in NY ... so her way of presenting herself in written English is nothing like white U.S. Evangelical women. Much about her life story plus faith journey, and then about 80% of the way through we were discussing science.
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42 minutes ago, ScoutTN said:
My MIL can make good fried chicken. She brines it in salted buttermilk first, and uses an electric skillet. And cooks outside, so the grease and smell is not in her kitchen. Way too much work to do for something I do not love.
The one and only thing my mom made in the electric skillet was fried chicken. And it was the definitive way to make fried chicken - she never used anything else to make it. She didn't brine it, though. Oh my goodness, I loved Mom's fried chicken.
I had forgotten about that - thanks for bringing up that memory! Now I'm wondering what happened to that skillet. I have the little covered metal jar that was used to shake the flour and milk to make the gravy (I'd have to research to figure out what the measurements mean and how to use it) but I think the skillet is gone. (Gravy shaker)
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OMG I love gloves. I love seeing your gloves, and have huge glove-envy. If I ever see you in public and gawk, it will be about the gloves.
Also, I usually follow KSDK and didn't see this. Plus, frankly, I wouldn't have put it together with WTM. So, thanks for posting! I obviously need to follow your blog!
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A Midsummer Fang's Dream: Vampire Pet Boutique Mysteries no. 3 by Elle Wren Burke. I think I like these better if I let more time elapse between volumes. Or else I'm just over the entire vampire-land thing, and have vampire-pun-overload.
Wednesdays With Sadie: the Miracle Dog by Donna Rebadow. A very sweet book by a woman who trained a puppy to enter into guide dog training. However, the dog wasn't accepted into the final training/placement due to a diagnosis of canine degenerative myelopathy, so Donna, the author, became owner of the dog, Sadie. Next, Sadie suffered mesenteric root torsion and nearly died. After recovery from that, the Sadie and Donna started volunteering for weekly visits in the pediatric ward of a hospital. I know pretty much nothing about any of these subjects, so it was fascinating to read. Lots of teary moments, though.
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On 10/18/2023 at 11:55 AM, Pawz4me said:
I'm currently working on What the Buddha Taught, which I believe someone here mentioned -- @GailV, was it you? I'm liking it a lot so far.
Not me, but now I'm going to have to read it. So if that was your plan, it worked!
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Very cool!
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Lots of true crime podcasts exist. Is that what you're looking for? You can just type "true crime podcast" into a search engine and get links to articles giving you the "25 best" true crime podcasts. Then you can skim the descriptions and figure out which ones sound appropriate.
The first podcast I ever followed was Serial (from This American Life) when they did the story on Adnan Syed who was accused of murder.
Since then I've moved to other interests. I rarely listen to pundits. Honestly, I just pick a subject and start searching podcast players for what sounds interesting.
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Yoga, red light, Wim Hof breathing, meditation, low inflammatory foods for breakfast
Later I'll be out in the sun gardening and walking
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Resources for older teen with Downs in Queens, NY
in Special Needs Board
Posted · Edited by GailV
Dd, who apparently believes WTM boards can solve all problems**, is trying to help a friend (23yo) find after-school care for his 18yo DS brother. Her friend is currently caretaking 3x per week, and another girl who's younger does the other 2 days.
Both brothers live with their mother in Flushing. They are Catholic, and one of DS brother's main interests is church.
I have the impression that Friend tries to work some with his brother on speech and language, while the other caretaker doesn't really do any enrichment activities. Friend thinks more enrichment is important. Mom has possibly gotten burned out on trying to find more resources. My best guess is that Friend would like to present Mom with some alternative(s) that would be helpful for his brother.
Any thoughts on where they might start looking for more resources, more caretakers, more enrichment?
**Yes, dd specifically asked me to ask you all for resources or people in the general area.