You're Doing It Wrong

Look at this cutiepie. This is Chinquapin.

Shortly after exiting the car upon arrival in Orleans, Chinquapin came over to visit our dog (Summer, the white and black dog.)

I had brought treats and was happy to see him. I pet him and scratched him all over.

AND. Woke up the next day with the first red dots of poison oak.

Over the next couple of days, the poison oak bloomed into big gross rashes all over my wrists and hands and even a little on my fingers.

It has not been pretty.

The photos are from early last week.

Today, it is just over a week since I was exposed. I’m sure it was the dog — I wasn’t hiking or gardening or anywhere around poison oak.

The rashes are still ugly although they are drying up and not quite as painful.

The last time I had terrible poison oak was in October 2019 and it was worse than this. I do not recommend.

I was gone to Orleans all last week for a family visit.

It was a nice trip. Lovely drives there and back. No news.

I am still recovering from being away for a week. Hopefully more news in the days to come.

This is from a neighbor’s house during covid.

This is an article about Marjorie Kinnan Rawlings who wrote The Yearling. which I haven’t read in probably 50 years.

I love the opening quote:

“If you like the book, I shall drink a quart of Bacardi in celebration,” Marjorie Kinnan Rawlings wrote to Maxwell Perkins before sending him her first novel, “South Moon Under,” in 1932. “If you don’t like it, I shall drink a quart of Bacardi.”

I can’t drink a quart of Bacaradi but I think I would have liked hanging out with her.

I don’t get cats. I also haven’t spend any time around a really cool cat.

This is Oaky. He lives at Mom’s.

Look at that face. He cracks me up.

But he’s also a giant pain in the butt and completely lawless.

I think everyone who knows me knows I am a big NCAA gymnastics fan. (Starts in January!!)

I did gymnastics from about 6th grade to maybe 11th. I was never very good.

It kills me to see all these drills and training support methods they use now. We would have this thin mats and you’d just watch someone do a skill and they try it.

I’m curious if I can still do a cartwheel. I feel like I could but I’m afraid to try.

I’m afraid my complete-opposite-of-bendy body would never be the same.

This is a funny little corner of our front yard at the end of the driveway.

It’s always been weeds. I had grand plans but as per always I ran out of time and energy and weather.

I did a really half assed “scrape up the grass” and then I put a bunch of native meadow type seeds along with some seeds I collected from my other plants. I sprinkled it all over here.

We’ll see what I get.

A situation has arisen and I will be out of town for a week.

Some of these posts have been pre-scheduled but I don’t see how I can keep it up every day. I’ll try but I may fail at my own random goal that now one cares about.

Being a penpal was my hobby for many years, mostly as a young person. If I met someone at camp or on vacation I would ask for an address and write letters.

I’m still pretty good about keeping in touch with people but sometimes it’s hard.

This was advertised in a catalog Bob got. I don’t have the book, though.

Image sourced from the Public Domain Image Archive / Biodiversity Heritage Library / MBLWHOI Library

I had a particular post in mind when I grabbed this image but now I can’t remember what it was.

Building on my music post from yesterday.

The first car I bought was a 1972 (?) Karmann Ghia and it had a cassette player. My friend’s boyfriend made me a cassette with a Rush album on each side. For sure one of them was Moving Pictures. I’ve heard Tom Sawyer about 10,000 times. The other one was Permanent Waves.

I was looking at song listings to try to figure it out and then I remembered that I have streaming music. A couple of clicks and all my questions were answered. It was like I was back in that car again, driving around the hills. VWs had a very distinct smell, didn’t they? Like burning seat rubber? I loved that car.

I still listen to the classic rock station in my (now modern suburban lady) car so I still hear Rush and recently I actually paid attention to the lyrics of Freewill which are about exactly what the song title says. “I will choose a path that’s clear, I will choose Freewill”

I rarely pay attention to song lyrics other than how they sound with the music. I couldn’t believe how many times I’ve heard this song and never paid attention to what it’s about.

This whole idea seemed revelatory but now that I’m typing it out, I seem like a dodo.

But that’s not going to stop me from telling you that I also paid attention to the lyrics from Come Sail Away by Styx which was one of my favorite songs.

It’s about aliens!