Tag: homelife

Categories
Writing

Daily Outline (Revised)

Got out my Kenmore drip coffee maker and the brew is noticeably better.

47°F at winter solstice last night in Iowa. That’s very warm for the beginning of winter. Rain is forecast most of today so I began indoors exercises to compensate for not getting out on the trail: dumbbells, walking in place, calisthenics. Today, I need to revise the daily outline that drives my morning.

By daily outline I mean the 8-1/2 x 11 inch piece of paper on a clipboard next to my writing table. It contains the sequence of events for most days. It occurred to me, after reading how other writers work, that I should clear clutter from early morning activities and write while still rested. Revision of the outline was needed and straight forward.

There is getting up, which includes taking blood pressure, stepping on a scale, dressing, making coffee and taking my morning vitamins. Checking my mobile device is in there, yet I want to delay that until after a couple of things.

First is reading 25 pages or more each day. I take my coffee to the living room, grab a blanket from the rocking chair, and settle down with coffee to read. I am a slow reader, yet I want to get this done before the day gets away from me. Sometimes, if I can’t sleep, I’ll read in bed although that is never the plan. Depending on my level of interest in the current book, this takes about an hour.

Second, the big change is to record progress in Goodreads, refill my coffee, and walk immediately downstairs for a writing session. How long that will last depends on the day and what inspiration might be present.

The change is also delaying time with my social media, reading the newspaper, reviewing banking, paying bills, eating breakfast, exercise, and other daily chores until reading and writing are finished. I’m hoping this will provide a clearer mind and better focus on writing. Also, I hope to get more writing done.

I printed the new form. The new daily outline begins tomorrow.

Our holiday season begins Dec. 18 with our wedding anniversary and continues until January. I hope to plan a lot during this time. The daily outline, one more small thing, is done.

Categories
Home Life

Clothing and Me

Photo by Karolina Grabowska on Pexels.com

I basically wear a uniform: jeans, t-shirts, sweatshirts, socks, underwear, footwear, and that’s pretty much it. I own a couple of woven shirts with a collar, and I kept one blue blazer from when I worked in transportation and logistics ending in 2009. I am a plain dresser these days.

Among issues discovered during the year-end budget reconciliation was an unexpected $451.52 spent on clothing for me. I was stunned. Clothing. For me. I researched each transaction and purchases were my basic wardrobe: three pair of jeans, three pair of footwear, t-shirts and underwear. These were not designer items, although I bought them new. I’ll be getting the broad axe out for this budget item.

The single wardrobe change this year was buying longer t-shirts to cover my behind when bending over in the garden. It was with a sense of social responsibility that I now possess seven “tall sized” t-shirts with logos like The Legend of Zelda, NASA, Smokey the Bear and Star Wars. I bought the cheapest cotton ones available and they should last a long while unless I get into something while working in the garage or outdoors.

The problem with blue jeans began when I started buying inexpensive Lee jeans while working at the home, farm and auto supply store. They fit well but were poorly constructed and wore out quickly. Now I’m buying Levis which in their current iteration as a company are durable and should last. Levis cost double the price of Lee, yet represent the better value.

Footwear wears out. I bought a pair of rubberized boots to wear while removing snow from the driveway. The soles fell off my previous pair. I also got a new pair of slippers for $13.28 to wear in the lower level of the house where I do my writing. I don’t want to track things from the unfinished lower level to upstairs and the old ones wore out. I got an inexpensive pair of red Skechers for fancy when my walking shoes wore out and my “fancy” Nikes changed to walking shoes.

I continue to use my Army-issued combat boots when digging in the garden. I walked all over the Fulda Gap in Germany in them, and have run hundreds of miles in them while in the military. What should I say? They are well broken in and nowhere near end of life. They are good shoes to last almost 50 years.

I don’t do a lot of styling around here, not even with scarves. The outerwear is pretty old, and the caps I wear are mostly advertising for tires, farms, seed companies, a Twitch stream, and The Climate Reality Project. Some of the caps date back to the 20th Century. I get a lot of wear out of these items.

Though not really complaining, this post helped me calm down about the expense. Any more, peeling myself off the ceiling has become an important part of aging. Hopefully the four and a half c-notes was money well spent and the 2024 expense will be cut at least in half or completely eliminated.

Thanks for reading.

Categories
Home Life

Exercising Indoors

On the state park trail, Dec. 3, 2023

The challenge of winter is to continue exercising at least half an hour each day regardless of weather. Taking a shovel to a couple inches of snow on the driveway is a natural, yet as warm as it’s been, isn’t a consistent source of exercise. Walking the trail is out, although some neighbors do it. I don’t enjoy the slippery surface the snow and ice mixture creates. A few days ago, I was getting a bit panicky as I hadn’t found anything to do.

I ended up searching the internet for ideas and came up with walking in place. I tried it a few days last week and based on how I felt after my half hour sessions, it is a better form of exercise than trail walking. Going forward, when I can get outside, I will. When I can’t, I’ll put on a CD and listen to music while stepping in place for a half hour. It’s something I can do until it’s time to begin working in the garden.

The message of this post is pretty simple. Unless we stick to the idea we need exercise in addition to what we get on an average day, our health will suffer for it. I’ve come to believe keeping at it — doing a set amount of daily exercise — is as important as the exercise we do. So, problem solved — for now.

Categories
Living in Society

Changing My Socials

Geese hanging around, waiting to fly south, Nov. 22, 2023.

Stars were bright at 4:45 a.m. despite a neighbor’s holiday lights interfering with the darkened sky. Orion and Ursa Major were easily evident, as were outdoors lights in the yards of distant neighbors. Points of light all jumbled together to create a personal galaxy. So began a day of cooking for us and countless others scattered across the landscape. It is American Thanksgiving and eating well is a main part of the holiday.

Shortly after Threads launched on July 5, 2023, I signed up for an account. I deactivated my Twitter account yesterday after giving Threads a thorough test drive, investigating the consequences of switching, and saying my goodbyes to those left on the decimated platform who still followed me. I’ll be fine. It was time to choose and I could not adapt to the social media platform Twitter became after its acquisition by Elon Musk.

I tried out all the social media groups to which I belong. Everything I don’t use is tucked in a bookmarks folder. Threads will be my main microblogging site. It’s different going from 1,348 followers to 100, yet I’m committed to change and already am getting to know people behind accounts on the new platform. Friends from other platforms are joining us.

This week, Joe Biden, Kamala Harris and others in the administration joined Threads. Secretary of Transportation Pete Buttigieg has been on the platform as long as I have. I suspect these new presences will release a number of people who have been holding back in making a change. News media and corporate accounts may be the last to arrive because they continue to prefer to present breaking news on X. They will come around, I predict, because the eyeballs will increasingly be on Threads.

So, that’s that. I’ll say no more about social media for a while.

Yesterday marked 60 years since the JFK assassination. I have living memory of that day, which means I see my former self in those moments related to the news spreading to Iowa. I am still standing with the crossing guard at Fillmore and Locust Streets when she tells me the news. I am still walking south on Fillmore toward the school. I am still sitting in the darkened classroom waiting for news as to whether the president would live. These memories seem likely to stick with me as long as I am sentient. They say the book Case Closed: Lee Harvey Oswald and the Assassination of JFK by Gerald Posner is the final word on who killed JFK. When I get time and resources to buy a copy, I will. I know how the book turns out.

I’m going outdoors to do some star gazing before heading to the kitchen. The world remains full of wonder and with our engagement, decisions can be made. We pick our battles, hopefully decide well, and move on.

Categories
Living in Society

Final Thanksgiving Post (I Hope)

The author’s first Thanksgiving in 1952 with Father and my maternal grandmother. Photo by Mother.

It would be great to write just one more post about Thanksgiving and be done with the holiday. Aside from the fact certain relatives get time off because of it, Turkey Day serves no useful purpose.

Politicians make hay over the cost of Thanksgiving dinner. The American Farm Bureau Association reported a 4.5 percent drop in price for the meal this year compared to last. The average cost of a dinner for ten people was $61.17, they said, although the longer term trend is an increase since 2019. Democrats focus on the price decrease, Republicans nit pick the data and find incremental increases, regardless of AFBA reporting. For example, the price of sauces and gravies is up 7.5 percent, reported my congresswoman. I think the purpose of the holiday is to be thankful for what we have and make sure everyone eats this day regardless of means. That gets lost in our politics.

There is social pressure to develop a narrative in response to the question, “How was your Thanksgiving?” Times I responded with “we didn’t do anything special,” killed the conversation. Years we prepared a special meal were at home, my spouse and myself. Because our child works in the entertainment industry, they usually had to work Thanksgiving. Who needs such social pressure? I’d rather discuss more important matters.

Thanksgiving is a boon to retailers and if one ventures out during the days before the holiday, a well-curated shopping list combined with excellent knowledge of store layouts is essential to maintaining good mental health. I went out on Monday and the stores were already crowded. Our specialty items for the big meal — sweet potatoes and wild rice — were already in the pantry so I stocked up with a 20-pound bag of organic rice, salt for the water softener, items for the freezer, and plant-based beverages. We were almost out of some items, otherwise I would have avoided shopping completely.

While growing up, Thanksgiving was a big deal and a living celebration. After Father died in 1969, the holidays weren’t as much fun any more. Eventually my side of the family just stopped celebrating Thanksgiving. In retrospect, my maternal grandmother was the person who held this tradition together. She died in 1991.

I no longer feel particularly alone on Thanksgiving, even if my spouse is away from home. With telephones and video conferencing, they day is highlighted by such contact and the opportunity to get caught up with each other. Anymore, contact doesn’t always happen on that Thursday, but during the days before and after.

Below is a Thanksgiving dinner we prepared for the two of us in 2013. We had leftovers for a week. We no longer prepare such massive feasts. Rice and beans makes a complete meal. Throw in a sweet potato and a relish tray and we are good to go.

Thanksgiving dinner in 2013.

I wish readers a happy holiday season. Hopefully we each have plenty for which to be thankful. Thanks for reading.

Categories
Writing

It’s Freezing Out Here

One last shot before the deciduous tree leaves have fallen. Oct. 27, 2023.

The first hard frost is a couple weeks late. The forecast is Sunday night with ambient temperatures in the 20s. I’m ready. Perishables are harvested from the garden, the garden hose rolled up in the garage. I plan to mow one more time. With any luck it will be before the Trick or Treaters come Tuesday evening.

Kale harvest before the first hard frost, Oct. 27, 2023.

The wheat straw covering my garlic patch sprouted. I assume frost will kill it. I’ve never had that much seed in my straw. Buying it from a different vendor makes a difference. If wheat survives the cold, I’ll have to turn the straw and kill it myself. I am reluctant to add the descriptor “wheat murderer” to my resume. Garlic takes precedence over making a few wheat biscuits.

Golf carts of Halloween.

Halloween trick or treat night is an occasion for parents of young children to get out the golf cart and run with their neighborhood peers. I get around the neighborhood by walking, but I’m old school.

Short post today. It’s turning out to be a busy Sunday. Thanks for reading.

Categories
Living in Society

Mid-October in Iowa

Trees growing above the state park trail.

The election is three weeks away and it will be anti-climactic in Big Grove Township. There are two candidates for two open school board seats and that’s it. The incumbents are competent people and they earned my support this election. We haven’t decided when and where we will vote, yet in all likelihood it will be at our regular polling place on election day.

Our household is following the news and we’re looking for some positive light. It has been in short supply. It seems the Middle East War will expand beyond Hamas and Israel despite President Joe Biden’s competent management of American support for Israel and the Palestinian people. Expansion of the conflict is not certain, yet there are so many players and so many years of hostilities and conflict, dodging a broader war seems impossible. It is not a good, short-term sign that Israelis are turning against Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s right wing divisiveness at this moment.

In the U.S. House of Representatives, Republicans have yet to elect a speaker after removing Kevin McCarthy on Oct. 5. We have until Nov. 17 to pass a budget or the government will face another cliff and need to pass a second continuing resolution. I’m okay with the Republican plan to pass individual spending bills instead of an omnibus or minibus bill. The clock is running out on their ability to do so and gain U.S. Senate agreement.

Iowa is literally turning into a sick place to live. Our leading causes of death (2021 data) are heart disease and cancer. Iowa is ranked 16th among the states in deaths from heart disease and 24th from cancer. Since 2021, data from the Iowa Cancer Registry indicates Iowa has the second highest incidence rate of cancer in the country. With harvest in full swing, particulate matter in the air is at high levels, afflicting people with respiratory diseases. A report released yesterday indicated Iowans’ incidence of COPD is higher than the national average. Rates of chronic lower respiratory diseases in Iowa are the fifth leading cause of death.

It is important to keep hope alive, despite the challenges of doing so.

Categories
Home Life

Fiona Ritchie Gets Axed

Compost Bin with Solar/Spring Powered Radio

While in the kitchen making soup this week, Iowa Public Radio announced new weekend news programming. Someone had to be removed to make room in the lineup. It was sad when they announced it was Fiona Ritchie whose Thistle and Shamrock I’ve been following for many years. She has been a mainstay of my weekend radio listening. The only remaining folk music program will be The Folk Tree with local host Karen Impola who arrived in Iowa from the East Coast in 1990.

Since Garrison Keillor’s A Prairie Home Companion transitioned and then ended, the statewide public radio station had been cutting purchases of outside programming for weekend listening. Today much of the afternoon lineup is locally produced. Some of the replacement programming is good, others not so much.

I could get my Fiona Ritchie fix by streaming her content, yet that’s not the same as live radio: turning on the radio and accepting what is programmed while preparing dinner or doing dishes. To make streaming work, I’d need a device that connects to the internet with me in the kitchen. We have Wi-Fi, yet I’m not ready to give up radio just yet. It means something for the broadcast to be received live while I’m working.

Most public radio news programs are intolerable. While they mastered a format, the content has been less than engaging. The reporters are too familiar with themselves and less focused on listeners. We did donate our last two used automobiles to Iowa Public Radio, so I feel a sense of investment in what they do. It has not been a happy experience of late.

I can live without Fiona Ritchie like I live without Keillor and the rest of the former weekend lineup. Living today isn’t what it was when we moved to Big Grove Township in 1993. It stabilized, yet I can’t say it’s better. Thistle and Shamrock is one more piece of a past life receding into memory. It’s the part of aging I don’t enjoy. Thanks for the time together, Fiona Ritchie. Best wishes for a bright future.

Categories
Writing

Dreaming into Autumn

From the Lake Macbride trail on Sept. 27, 2023.

I’ve been sleeping in fits: lucky to get five straight hours, I’d rather have, and need seven or eight. This morning I woke after five, couldn’t sleep, read 50 pages of poetry, and still couldn’t get back to sleep. I got up and worked my daily routine, made breakfast, and laid down and slept for another two straight hours. It’s no way to live.

During those two hours I returned to a dream from another sleep. I dreamed I was in Germany with one of my farm buddies and other people who weren’t alive yet when I was last there. I returned for a lost item from the previous dream and found it. Then I returned it to my farm friend and woke up.

Details are already sketchy. In typical fashion, I’ll forget about it quickly. For a little while, I wondered what the hell that meant. Then I decided to accept it and get on with my day.

Today is about care packages. I will finish assembling the one to go to our child with garden produce. I’ll also make soup and chili to take to my spouse and her sister the next trip to the state capitol. I don’t know if I’m finished dreaming, yet I hope not.

Will see what today brings.

Categories
Kitchen Garden Writing

Apple Rush

Apple time 2023. Red Delicious.

My focus in the garden turned to apples. By weight, it is the biggest crop I grow. Doing something useful with them drives me to spend much kitchen time processing them. Zestar! and Earliblaze are finished with Red Delicious remaining to close out the garden season.

Of the four varieties I grow, Red Delicious hang the longest on the tree. When they produce, there are many, many of of them. Our needs for juice, applesauce, apple butter, dried apples, and fresh eating are modest compared to the quantity on the tree. I’m already looking for placement of most of them in a Community Supported Agriculture project.

Tomatoes are finishing and it has been a good season. Because of spring trouble getting seedlings to take, there weren’t as many, or as many different varieties, as I had hoped. The difference this year compared to last is that we used most garden tomatoes in our kitchen instead of giving them away. Tomatoes are a brief delight of summer. Once ours are gone, I expect to buy very few tomatoes at the grocer.

I took down the portable greenhouse and noticed a problem with the zipper at the access point. I don’t know if it will be usable next year but I folded it up and put away the frame. Replacing it will be a spring decision, although I likely will. The portable greenhouses are good for a couple of seasons.

I need to figure out fall garden plot preparation. Where will the burn pile be? Where will the garlic go next month? Where will tomatoes go next year?

The burn pile is important because I move it around to deposit minerals throughout the garden. Because we are in a drought I won’t actually burn anything until rain comes. There needs to be plenty of space to pile it high while we wait.

I plan to plant 100 garlic seeds and it will likely be in the plot where the garden composter currently lives. The pallets used to make the composter are getting old and deteriorated. I will likely move the composter to the west side of the garden. I hang my Practical Farmers of Iowa sign on it, so on that side, it may be more visible from the street.

Finally, there are tomatoes, likely the most important crop I grow. This year, deer were able to jump the fence and eat many small tomato plants. Next year I plan to return to a crowding method of tomato planting. By giving deer no place to land inside the fence, they can’t jump in, and the plants grow better. The issue is it crowds me as well. I liked having four-foot rows between the tomatoes this year. It made it easier for me to get among the plants to weed and harvest. It made it easier for the deer as well. I may have enough fencing to install eight-foot tall chicken wire around them next year. This may be the compromise I choose to keep four foot rows. Which plot will tomatoes go? I’m not sure yet, although I favor following the garlic.

As home life turns to apple processing, I enjoy the sense of closure it brings. In years when there are few apples, gardening doesn’t seem the same. In the coming days I’ll embrace the apple rush. Who knows how many more there will be?