Author Archives: Pamela Rentz

This is a tree in Olympia that has a major support system holding it up. There is an interpretive sign about it being the site of a schoolhouse but no details on the tree.

I bought some shoes online recently.

I found what I wanted and put in my order and almost instantly I got a note back that my order had been cancelled and if I thought it had been cancelled in error, I should call them.

I called them and they said it’s been 5 years since I made an order so my account had been flagged inactive.

I think of my shoes as some of my newer wardrobe. I was certain they were wrong.

They were not.

We fixed it and I have the shoes but also: my wardrobe is ancient.

You have to wonder how far shrinkflation and all its variations can go on? At some point things hit the limit of how much crappier they can be.

Like soap. This foam stuff. Maybe it’s less wasteful. I’m not an expert.

And cereal. The boxes are so narrow now, they barely stand up.

Cereal is not my favorite but I’m old and I need more protein and fiber. Insert 10 million crying emojis.

When I was at the market I compared the regular size to the large size.

I guess that is just referring to the box.

Sourdough low-knead I made over the weekend.

For a long time, I was of the mind that we should just subscribe to all the streaming services that we use. How much does it cost to go to the movies? We might as well have everything available so we could watch whatever we wanted when we wanted.

This year, prices finally hit the level where we decided to limit our services and then turn them on and off and watch more specifically. We also limited our cable package.

We were getting ready to dump Paramount so I was zooming my way through Star Trek Discovery — 65 episodes. I had to rush the last few and then somehow we ended up having another month.

The minute we trimmed back our subscriptions, everyone released something I want to see. I have a list in my phone. I didn’t open Apple+ for months and now I have at least 7 shows on my list.

The next consideration is ad-free. Right now we have the cheaper versions but it’s not like the old days where the show act breaks were written with TV commercial breaks in mind. You’re just watching the show and suddenly there’s a commercial. I feel like it’s worth it to pay more. Bob isn’t there yet.

Here’s what the raised beds look like filled with leaves. There’s also pulled tomato plants and some bits of wood and other stuff I had around the yard.

I feel like I just filled it with bugs and seeds so I’ve created a whole set of problems for myself in this fresh planting environment.

But also: nature, baby.

This is my neighbor’s yard where I raked yesterday. Can you tell where I raked?

You can see the tree is still really heavy with leaves. It’s just funny that yesterday a big swath of lawn was visible and now you can’t tell.

This is Dad’s fridge.

At dinner they often offer cookies and Dad takes one but doesn’t always eat it. So then he stashes it in the fridge. You can see the upper level areas for saved cookies and the lower level areas for saved cookies.

He also had a bunch on his counter but I finally threw a bunch away because they were hard as a rock and I didn’t think he’d notice. (He didn’t.)

Also in his fridge — grapes. That is his favorite snack and we makes sure he always has some washed and ready. In season, he loves cherries, too.

Also: Smart Water. At one point one of his medical staff wanted him to drink more water and he said he didn’t like to drink water so she suggested we try the Smart Water.

She knows her business because he will drink it regularly. The lemon and the orange.

This was from summer.

We were on a walk and crossed through the park and found this little shoe sitting on the picnic bench hoping to be found again.

This is the same park where I saw a pair of sunglasses propped up on a tree hoping to be found.

Let’s call this park the Lost and Found.

October was so crazy busy it took awhile until I had time to flip my closet. I was making do with just a couple of cold weather items.

Then we had a day that was supposed to be 37 degrees in the morning. I take the bus. I need my layers.

I keep my winter clothes mostly in underbed bags or those bags where you can suck out all the air. When I packed them for the season it started to be an organized system but ultimately I was just throwing things anywhere they fit so I could get them stashed away.

When I wanted to find something for the cold day — I ended up throwing everything in the living room and pulling them open and frantically searched around until I found the stuff I need.

There was week of chaos before I got it all cleaned up.

The big fig belongs to my neighbor’s tree and the smaller fig is from Percy, my fig tree.

I felt that Percy’s figs were beautiful and more than adequate but it’s hard to ignore how giant the next door figs are. Also the neighbor tree had so many figs it was almost a national emergency.

I froze a bunch. We’ll see how that works out this winter.

So, what’s going on in the upper left corner of this photo? There was a note that I wanted out of the picture. I rarely use photoshop for anything except cropping and super light photo editing. I couldn’t find the clone tool and couldn’t remember the name of it. I finally figured it out and what happened to it? I didn’t understand how it worked or what I was supposed to do with the window that popped up. I used the brush tool. hehe.

If I have to start all over to learn Photoshop, then I’m getting one of those cheap knock off programs.