You're Doing It Wrong

Sad Day at the Watering Hole

Posted on May 16, 2021 by Pamela

Here is our friend Pogo the opossum in happier times.

I came home from work last week and found the bucket tipped over. I dashed out for the camera card, anxious to see who the rascal was and I was greeted with this sad sight.

I don’t know what happened. There were no obvious injuries but also I don’t think an opossum would drag itself to the waterhole and keel over next to it. Part of me is afraid that maybe the raccoons did something to it. But also maybe it was poisoned somewhere in the neighborhood and came to our yard for a nice place to die.

Is that plausible? I don’t know. I felt pretty bad. He was much cuter in person. His fur looked soft and his ears were adorable.

I brought the bucket inside for now. The trailcam is still set up and all the usual characters have been through since then including the other opossum, at least 3 different raccoons, skunky, and bunny:

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Running Journal Days 2 and 3

Posted on May 9, 2021 by Pamela

Day 2 wasn’t as terrible in the sense that I knew what to expect. I changed my route so that most of it was downhill and then crossed the park and walked home for the uphill. Day 3 went slightly better.

I’m never going to get much out of this only running once a week but my current schedule isn’t ideal for a more regular routine.

Last year colleague and I shifted our schedule to start at at 7 and leave by 3:30. There is supposed to be a bus at 3:30 and 3:50 so I would leave a few minutes early to catch the 3:30. This worked well for awhile and then the bus showed up intermittently and then it stopped showing up at all. So I would arrive at the stop at 3:25 and not get on a bus until after 4.

I can see it from the bus point of view since I was often the only person on the bus. If they had to cancel a run, the 3:30 would be a good choice. But as a passenger, standing around and two buses not showing up and never knowing when was not ideal. So I start at 7:30 and catch the 4:05. Getting home later makes it harder to exercise after work without feeling rushed.

The skunk is surprisingly cute.

I was doing my Alice Kravitz routine — I heard loud voices outside and wondered if there were people at the rental house next door. It’s still empty and we’ve been told that it will go up for sale and we’ve seen worker type people poking around there but we have no details.

I was kneeling on the bed, holding the shades aside to see out and also holding a cup of hot tea for extra difficulty. I didn’t see anyone but also I lost my balance. My hand went back to catch me but instead of landing on the bed it went out into space and I did a graceful tumble off the bed, tea sprayed everywhere and I whacked my knee against the dresser.

Once I was certain that I was okay, I was grateful because that could have been bad. I iced my knee and it was a little red and slightly sore and swollen and a great excuse to rest from running for a few days.

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Hey There, Stinker

Posted on May 2, 2021 by Pamela

This morning I got up and saw the bucket was turned over so I brought the camera card in to see who the mischief maker was. There is no clip of the bucket toss, instead there was this.

I have never seen any sign or hint of a skunk in our neighborhood.

What next!?! I can’t wait to be surprised. I hope it’s Bigfoot.

Did I ever write about my dilemma with old letters?

Hm, well I just did search and turned up a brief post from almost 20 years ago about this very same box of old letters.

I don’t hang on to a lot of stuff but I have a hat box of old cards and letters. Some from friends, old boyfriends, family.

I was looking at the old boyfriend letters and trying to decide what to do with them. I do not want them. I do not want to throw them away. I thought I might read them and then throw them away and after one paragraph I do not want to read them.

At some point in time they will be trash, why not now?

Maybe the next step to death cleaning is to hire people to throw away things you know you don’t want but don’t want to be responsible for trashing yourself. (See also: ancient stuffed animals.)

I tried an experimental exercise and chose a few letters from a guy I met in Cancun in 1989. The letters are HILARIOUS. Not in a cringey way but in a — this guy was clever and funny. I can’t throw them away. I don’t need to keep them.

I have no answers.

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April Night

Posted on April 28, 2021 by Pamela

I like the way he takes a long drink, starts to stick one foot in, pauses, changes his mind and puts the other food in.

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Running Journal Day 1

Posted on April 25, 2021 by Pamela

When I lived in Oregon I was a runner and by runner I mean a person who slogged slowly but without stopping for several miles on a regular basis.

I can’t remember if I ever ran when I moved to Washington. Maybe a little? Or maybe I took walks by myself?

I do remember that I was bitten by a dog in Dec 2002 while on a walk by myself and after that I didn’t like to go around the neighborhood by myself. For a long time I was nervous walking with Bob, too, but at least I would have someone who could help me if a strange dog bit me. [Aside: the dog bite thing was majorly traumatizing. I even did hypnosis to try to get over it. At this point, it’s far enough in the past that I’m not afraid of every strange dog I see.]

Long story omitted but recently more than one doctor has strongly encouraged me to get more cardio into my life. One doctor suggested that once fitness is gone, it’s hard to get back so better hop to it now.

I’ve been walking more and thought it would be fun (and to be completely honest, more time efficient) to try running again. Not train for 5 or 10k or anything like that. Just try to get enough fitness to wobble along for 20-30 minutes a few days a week.

Yesterday my industrial strength fitness bra and running capris with sweat-resistant pocket arrived.

Today was my first run.

For the first minute I galloped down the street in the spring sunshine. Running is amazing! Look at the birds and the flowering trees! Why haven’t I been doing this?

This was quickly replaced maybe thirty seconds later by, wow, already my legs feel heavy.

I couldn’t quit that easily. It’s beautiful out! Fitness is fun!

Legs only got heavier. Breath a little short.

But there’s a family with kids and dogs and bikes. Me and my sweat-resistant pocket can’t stop where they can see.

I had a simple goal in mind that seemed attainable so I kept pushing but was astonished by how gruesome it was.

Then I had to poo.

I pushed a little further before I gave up. I was going to cut across to do part of my normal walk because it has a big hill but #2 was calling so I walked home very quickly.

Estimated mileage: 1

Posted in doing it wrong | Tagged running | 1 Comment

Bad Attitude about Email

Posted on April 21, 2021 by Pamela

A few more from my limited tulip photo collection.

I’m on a work related mailing list and they send out a notice to a large group of people, not “bcc” so you know what happened next. People replied to the whole list which created a ton of extra email that I did not need. They said they were open to suggestions so I suggested they use “bcc” so everyone doesn’t get inundated with email they don’t want.

Then someone on the list announced their retirement which set off another flurry of unneeded email.

Is there some official name of the syndrome where the moment you need to rely on your phone — for a ticket, to pick up something you bought, for some critical piece of information that you specifically saved so you could reference it — that your can’t make your phone work right?

It is astonishing how often this happens to me. I stand in line with my ticket app showing and then I get to the front and I can’t pull up the app. I stand in line with an email receipt that I need to pick up something and the minute I get to the front of the line, the email disappears.

I feel like this should be named and recognized so when it happens you can say: oh, I suffer from technological failure disease. And they will have a method for dealing with you kindly and patiently.

More than one of my doctors was on my case about my exercise and cardio so I just clicked a button and bought a heavy duty sports bra and I’m going to try running — well, jogging, again. Very short routes. We’ll see how that goes since right now walking uphill seems to be sufficient cardio.

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Keeping You Well Informed

Posted on April 18, 2021 by Pamela

After joking about accidentally erasing some of my zillions of photos, I accidentally erased a bunch of tulip photos. The tulips are looking a little grim at this point so this may be it for tulip photos. Which is hilarious because how many tulip photos doI need?

Normally this tree looks pretty for about 30 minutes and then it rains and the wind blows and that’s that. This year it looked lovely for days. We both commented we couldn’t remember when it looked so pretty. It still looks nice as the flowers fade.

I bought a gadget online and they sent me a total of 10 emails for the transaction starting when they got my order and finishing when it was delivered. I’m surprised it’s only ten because it felt like a lot more. Still, 10 is at least 7 more than I need. I don’t need to know when it’s out for delivery especially since that seems to be a meaningless phrase.

Sometimes they tell you it’s out for delivery and you don’t get it for days.

Did I ever write about my kickstarter I did? It was advertised as perfume that smells like space. Here’s a story about it. It was only like, $30, and some of the money was supposed to be donated to stem programs.

It never arrived. If you go to the kickstarter page you can still buy it, the price has gone up and there are thousands of furious comments from people who never got their eau de space. I thought the comments were sort of hilarious – “I hope these scumbags rot in hell.” Someone else suggested a class action suit.

I can’t believe they can still collect money for this. What a great scam. It’s not worth my energy and aggravation to pursue any further. I paid $30 for nothing. How many lessons do we learn in this life that cost more than that?

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Twenty-Five Years

Posted on April 14, 2021 by Pamela

I was unexpectedly reminded that 25 years ago yesterday I started blogging. I was ahead of my time and now I’m behind it. I have grown less interested in the digital world now that it’s so terrible.

Last weekend I said to Bob, remember when we looked forward to email?

I’m still going to slog along here at least once a week until I don’t want to any longer. It’s not that I don’t want to but more like once I get around to it, I don’t have much energy to put into it.

Last week I went to the eye doctor including the part where they dilate your eyes. It was a bright day and the light so painfully sparkly it was like living inside of a diamond.

I just bought a new phone and I picked it up. They told me when I turned the phone on, it would be on, so I decided to charge it so it would be ready when I was ready to turn it on. Except when I plugged it in, it was on.

This led to a bunch of panicked phone maneuvers with my eyes scrunched half-shut and the phone screen a blur in my hands. I won’t elaborate except to say the transition did not go smoothly and there were customer service calls involved including one where I had to find the serial number, written in .0005 sized type on the side of the box, with a magnifying glass.

But the fun wasn’t over.

Our soccer team opened the stadium to partial capacity and we had a time and a code to login and try for tickets. Ticket partner was traveling at our appointed time and I was at the doctor but the minute I got in, I booted up colleague’s computer and attempted to get into his email. His office was as bright as the surface of the sun and I was closing shades and shielding my eyes while whimpering.

From what I could tell, I was getting an error message that either said, it was too early to get tickets or there weren’t tickets available. But I could not troubleshoot while half-blind.

Ticket partner tried to log in when he had a chance and also had no luck. We did not get tickets so it was really interesting to see so many tickets available online yesterday before the match. By then, we had other plans.

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Surprise New Visitor

Posted on April 11, 2021 by Pamela

Check this out — a coyote in the backyard. I know we have them in the neighborhood but never thought we would have one in the yard.

I worried about bunny but he showed up the last two nights so he’s okay for now.

There are additional clips here. You can see him check out that hole in the hedge — I’ve seen all the critters: raccoons, oppossum, bunny, and cats disappear in there.

Gorgeous day out. I am going to do yard work.

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Knives Out

Posted on April 4, 2021 by Pamela

I’ve let my pictures fall into complete disorganization with repeated pictures and raccoon videos in a bunch of different folders helpfully named “iphone feb” and “videos.” Like I’m afraid I might accidentally delete a critical clip of a raccoon wandering through the yard.

I don’t have the juice to go through them tonight.

I have been wanting a block to stick some knives on the wall. With our kitchen configuration we don’t have an ideal spot but I bought this short block and had a spot picked out. I reorganized a few things and went to put it up and it’s about 1/2 inch too long for the spot.

I remained determined and kept holding it up there but it was still too long. Bob suggested we put it diagonally but I said we’re not doing that. I have identified another not optimal place we could put it but that involves changing things around into one of those cascading projects where you need to remodel your house do you can hang a little magnetic knife block.

I am not sure how to proceed but probably in some half-assed fashion. Or maybe just do the diagonal thing.

These are my tomato starts from seeds. They are bigger now and the blue pot has one for a total of 4.

I also ordered some bigger ones from a nursery that will arrive around Memorial Day.

These are all cherry tomatoes. The last few years I haven’t had the greatest luck with tomatoes so I figure it will be just my luck that all of these will thrive and I will have so many cherry tomatoes I will be leaving them on stranger’s porches. Great problem to have. Fingers crossed.