DECLUTTER: *Health *Progress - 2026**

Subject: RE: DECLUTTER: *Health *Progress - 2026**
From: Stilly River Sage
Date: 04 Aug 26 - 10:14 PM

The Welman folks will take single box walk-in donations; when you have more than that they want appointments booked. I'm going to put a couple of these filled boxes sorted by category in the car and if I'm in the area, drop off one at a time. This is because my sofa is filling up with boxes and the next appointment is three weeks off.

Big item checked off of the "to do" list - the round-trip to a historic town two counties SE of here to put miles on the car. Done. We stopped at a little barbecue place on the square, it wasn't anything to write home about but it was ok. I took the camera along in case we passed any pretty parks on the lake, but it's so hot still that we didn't stop anywhere to walk around. I guess if I want to photograph birds I should take the long lens to the back of my yard and check out the creek early in the morning.

The watering restrictions are posted for the village but the vegetable garden is watered according to the crop needs. Hence this evening's stealth watering in which I waited till after dark and turned off the motion detecting porch light that would pick up the passes of the oscillating sprinkler.

Subject: RE: DECLUTTER: *Health *Progress - 2026**
From: MaJoC the Filk
Date: 05 Aug 26 - 11:23 AM

Y'know when you first run the hot tap to do the washing-up, and it runs cold for half a minute or so? I've taken to capturing that runoff in one of our watering cans for later use on the garden, rather than let it help flush the drains. We're on a water meter.

Subject: RE: DECLUTTER: *Health *Progress - 2026**
From: Stilly River Sage
Date: 05 Aug 26 - 11:57 AM

That's why there is a bucket in the kitchen sink, and I make several trips a day out to water potted plants and the thirstiest of the garden crops. Right now the okra is appreciating the buckets most often.

So much stuff has been kept in the sewing studio because it might come in handy. It's time to open drawers and thin out what is out of sight and never going to actually get put to use (keep my favorites, donate the rest). And stuff in both kids' closets that was kept for when they have kids, and I am beginning to wonder if that will happen with either of them. Time for the big plastic toy bins to come out - they're probably full of toys that need to be donated or discarded. I think the heat of summer has worn down my willingness to list things on eBay or ship stuff to the kids. Someone else can use these items and the kids will buy their own if they start families. (The cost of shipping from Texas to Seattle makes it silly to try to send any of the bigger stuff, except the trunk full of Legos, that as an innovative toy has its own separate currency and he can deal with.)

Subject: RE: DECLUTTER: *Health *Progress - 2026**
From: Stilly River Sage
Date: 06 Aug 26 - 10:39 AM

Dr. Daniel Amen and other mental health gurus talk about how to start the day on a positive note. Last year I learned the hard way that reading the news was not a good start. This morning I mentally walked the yard figuring out where to put in the next shrub, a Mexican herb that has pretty tubular lavender colored flowers. That spot is going to be where currently the newest batch of cannas were heeled in to keep them alive until I made a bed for them. The new bed will be between two other canna beds, so this morning the physical me started the soaker hose through there to moisten soil for digging. The hose has sprung a squirt that will soon tear into a major leak, so before the project begins I'll lay a spare soaker. The leaker may have been trod on too often by painters this spring.

To get better feed any time of day on the social media sites I've worked on retraining the algorithm in Instagram and Facebook to have less news and more science and art and humor and lots of dance and music. (Did you know there are pages that play clips from opera, and others that play bits from Shakespeare?) I'm also seeing the message t-shirt ads a lot more. This morning there are four that, while I won't buy any, I appreciate. 1. Easily distracted by rocks. 2. Wait, I see a rock. 3. Off to cause a kerfuffle. 4. I'm sorry, I wasn't listening, I saw a bird.

I'm close to a paint choice for the hall bathroom, I need to pick up the larger paint samples to hold against the green shower tile to see which looks best. The booklets of color palettes are only a starting point in the process.

The donation stuff is piling high on the couch, so I think tomorrow after taking the ex to the dentist we'll swing by to drop off a box each at the Welman front office (and look around the gift shop). And if I can take him to the back to see what they accept as donations I think that will speed up the clearing out of his garage.

Subject: RE: DECLUTTER: *Health *Progress - 2026**
From: MaJoC the Filk
Date: 06 Aug 26 - 01:12 PM

Those T-shirts reminded me of an artic I saw while cycling to work in Nottingham. On the front, in addition to the official licence plate, was another one made up to read:

D
HILL

.... and at the back of the trailer:

R
SEND

Subject: RE: DECLUTTER: *Health *Progress - 2026**
From: pattyClink
Date: 06 Aug 26 - 03:11 PM

Well I can decode the rear plate but not sure about the front.

Cheerful way to start the day, you say? Dance and music, you say? May I present 'pizzica'.

Pizzica outdoor gathering

Subject: RE: DECLUTTER: *Health *Progress - 2026**
From: Stilly River Sage
Date: 06 Aug 26 - 07:33 PM

I didn't make out either of the plates.

Soaker hose swapped out and I was able to cut the old one at the break and move the female end to extend its life. Now attached to the new hose that replaced it, the whole thing is satisfactorily longer (and waters a corner that is often neglected.) The soakers come from Harbor Freight and are cloth-covered plastic line with plastic hardware, the same kind you buy to use for regular hose repair, so the fix was simple. I can do the same repair with the other part of the hose, simply cutting out the break in the middle, keeping most of it for other uses.

It took a couple of trips to finish the work because it's over 100 again. A bonus in the cannas, where this soaker hose runs: I found an Argiope spider, but her web is in a precarious setup, connected to several of the spindly plants.

Subject: RE: DECLUTTER: *Health *Progress - 2026**
From: MaJoC the Filk
Date: 07 Aug 26 - 12:54 PM

> I didn't make out either of the plates.

Try reading them out loud .... but put any cup or glass you may be holding down first.

Subject: RE: DECLUTTER: *Health *Progress - 2026**
From: Stilly River Sage
Date: 07 Aug 26 - 03:48 PM

So I can hear the back one, but still no clue to the front.

This evening I'll start canning whole tomatoes, starting with Roma/San Marzano, the ones that are good for sauce. Two or three pints at the most. And making more sauce to freeze.

The 10-day forecast is boringly consistent, no rain and highs ranging from 98 to 103. I continue to drink the large Stanley tumblers of iced tea and leave the house temperature set at 80 during the day. Two reasons for that - to save on the cost of air conditioning, but also so the contrast between inside and outside isn't huge, as a way to acclimate to the heat. Tap water is so warm that it's almost turned completely to cold for comfortable showers now. There are places in the desert Southwest where they turn off the hot water tank in summer so it stays at the house temperature and that is used to cool the super-heated water coming in from outside. Are you in that region, patty?

Donating a box of three-ring binders today and in my office I'm preparing to merge the contents of two into one very large binder. Additionally, in the category of no longer holding onto things to remember them - I'm tossing old projects that have no value to me now or the people I was working for, adding more binders to the donation box. It does mean some shredding. This might be familiar to Charmion - how long did you keep track of old editing projects, or keep a finished copy as a memento or record of the work.

Subject: RE: DECLUTTER: *Health *Progress - 2026**
From: pattyClink
Date: 07 Aug 26 - 04:18 PM

Your tomato harvest sounds wonderful, I have yet to see any 'home-growns' this year! But I did get black cherries and a couple of peaches, was afraid they would be the usual grocery store duds, but they were great. And the annual batch of rhubarb sauce got made, glad I did not realize the new price per pound til it was too late. It is superb. But again they were out of Blue Bell vanilla, and the substitute was that awful stuff that shouldn't even be labeled ice cream.

Hitting 100 daily between rain squalls, and I am trying to get things done more inside than out. Catching up on music projects and financial stuff, and lots of filing is about to get knocked out, and maybe some file re-organizing.

I don't do that hot-water switch in the summer. There is just a short run of pipe from the well, so the water goes from underground-cool to taps pretty quickly, though occasionally some water will sit and get hot late in the day. Doing a dance of running A/C only in rooms I am in during various parts of the day, so as not to waste power or overtax the units. Once cool, a room will stay that way for a while.

Subject: RE: DECLUTTER: *Health *Progress - 2026**
From: Stilly River Sage
Date: 07 Aug 26 - 10:14 PM

I work in the part of the house with the newer 2-ton heat pump unit during the day and at night sleep in the part of the house with the older system, so have the thermometers programmed accordingly. Lucky you to be getting those down-bursts of rain. There were interesting clouds here this afternoon, but the rain is all to the east: lucky them!

I made the rounds this afternoon, stopping first at Welman with binders to drop off (one box at a time is allowed for walk-in donations) and looked around the giftshop. So many possibilities! I've yet again expanded my list of things to take over.

This year for the first time ever I paid for my library card. One year at a time for non-resident, but I'm tired of jumping through hoops to take in the right documents without using the drivers license. $50 a year isn't bad and my account is the same as are the borrowing privileges.

After I wrote about how I use the Withings fitness tracker last week I did some looking into the app and realized I could set more than one alarm. I have one that vibrates in the morning at 6am and I've set another one at 9pm with the same vibration and scrolls the message "turn off media." It's so easy to forget to turn away from the screens unless I have a regular reminder. The jury now seems to be out about blue light, according to the author of Body Electric, but I find I sleep better by avoiding the screens before bed. I have lots of books to read.

Subject: RE: DECLUTTER: *Health *Progress - 2026**
From: Stilly River Sage
Date: 09 Aug 26 - 11:46 AM

Yesterday I had a reminder that my phone is getting old and I should swap for a newer one. I never buy the newest expensive version, I review their features and usually get as much battery as possible and a good camera on last year's phone. The Ultra versions are lovely but I have a regular camera I use also, so stick with the FE or + versions of Samsung Galaxy S. What happened yesterday? A friend's phone died and she emailed to ask if I could take her over to the AT&T store. The gist of it was a morning of running around, from there to a sponsored repair shop and ultimately her insurance covered a replacement, shipped to arrive tomorrow. Her phone is the same make as mine and two years newer. Our lives are stored in these devices. The S25 way is more affordable than this year's S26 and the S24 is about the same price (if you can find any) so better to get the newer S25. It's new to me, and is always a pain in the backside to set up and then dumb down all of the "features" they bundle with it, but better that than trying to get data out of a dead one.

The lawn needs mowing, but it isn't growing much now so every day I can delay getting out there it doesn't look any worse and it might get cooler. Where I am proactive is with the garden produce, and have decided to go ahead with the large canner pot and do a batch of whole tomatoes in pint jars. You you can use that pot of water to blanch the tomatoes before ice water and peeling, saving an extra pot, and doing them all in one shot is good if I have more than two or three jars (at 35 minutes a jar one at a time in the asparagus pot it ends up taking a while.)

I emptied several small 3-ring binders and shredded logon information for a friend's website that I worked on at one time. It isn't my responsibility to keep track of that, it was his account and I'm no longer involved. And I don't need those notes to remember anything about the work. The process of letting go of stuff that seems interesting in case you ever write your memoirs - (like that is going to happen and anyone would read it?) Now to shred logon information for old accounts in my big binder and compress the pages to those I actually need to refer to.

When I get tired of looking at all of the stuff here it's tempting to tip the house on edge and send everything over to the teachers project. But I'll pace myself. It's possible to make real progress this summer and fall.

Subject: RE: DECLUTTER: *Health *Progress - 2026**
From: pattyClink
Date: 09 Aug 26 - 03:01 PM

Be careful shredding the 'old' passwords. If you ever need to revisit the places or re-activate old devices, your email can be locked out if you don't know the old corresponding usernames/passwords. It seems silly to keep those, but I've gotten stuck more than once. I found it easier to just label that stuff 'old' and squirrel it away by itself.

Temperatures are down a few degrees. A pile of stuff finally got filed and reorganized. On the third weekly goathead patrol, I could find NONE!! Of course there are new hassles around each corner, but one must count the victories!

Subject: RE: DECLUTTER: *Health *Progress - 2026**
From: Stilly River Sage
Date: 10 Aug 26 - 10:44 AM

patty, you're correct about that. There will be some sheets with lists of names of sites and the logon and password noted, but not the whole sheet just for that one site. I did research for eBay years ago that had me joining a lot of specialty groups to get details about items I was listing and those can all go on that list (I also check to see if these sites still exist.)

Bit the bullet and ordered a new phone, after research and then consulting the son and his partner. It turns out her phone research and information was more helpful, his phone is older than mine, in a similar make. This has no extra bells and whistles, just the more robust battery, 256GB memory, the usual three cameras (!) (they used to have one in front and a 3mp one in front - the three on the back are standard now and the front facing is 12mp. The high-end phones have five on the back). Headaches ahead, but hopefully a phone that will last for many more years. :)

Last night I planned to can the Roma tomatoes but they had too many marks and bug bites to be the perfect fruit you're supposed to use, it was the round Celebrity and Super-fantastic that were in shape to can. Not many, just four jars, my token canning for the summer. I have a half-gallon of peeled and chopped tomatoes (those Roma ones I mentioned) in a pot in the fridge and will make more marinara sauce to freeze. The kitchen is cleaned up and there was only one small fire on the front large burner I rarely use (grease under the coil). I ended up cooking on the back large burner instead.

I've chosen the paint color for the bathrooms, now to go ask questions. The walls in the hall bathroom are a vivid yellow and may require a primer coat, but some of the paints they make now have primer in them. Do they really work in one coat?

Subject: RE: DECLUTTER: *Health *Progress - 2026**
From: Charmion
Date: 10 Aug 26 - 10:44 AM

How long did I keep old editing projects? Years and years and YEARS. And then one day during the winter of ‘23-‘24 I realized that I’m done finishing other people’s half-baked projects and ditched the lot. That was the day I *really* retired. The decision reduced my document storage requirement from a four-drawer filing cabinet to a two-drawer unit. Now I’m down to two plastic file boxes.

It’s been a hot August so far, with occasional thunderstorms — always entertaining — and not much happening.

Yesterday I crossed the big river and drove up into the Gatineau hills to sing at a tiny country church used mostly these days by summer people. (Most of my voice is back, if weak.) I had two passengers, the first a sturdy woman my age (she was in my class in Grade Nine) who is recovering from knee surgery, and the other a frankly frail old lady whose mobility problems well outstrip her own energy reserves. Katharine’s bum knee made a trial of getting into and out of the car, but she maintained a firm grip on her stuff. Janice, on the other hand, comes with a great clunky walker — thank God I keep the boot of the car clear and clean — plus three (count ‘em, three!) large, overflowing bags and a water bottle.

Of course, Janice can’t fold, stow, or set up the walker herself. Neither can she organize the collection of possessions she apparently needs at hand wherever she goes. And she talks relentlessly, easily drowning out the voice of the GPS. By the time I finally delivered her to her door, I was ready to chew nails and spit rust. So was Katharine, who nobly kept Janice engaged while I negotiated the narrow, twisty country roads in the gathering dark.

Once in I the comfy chair with the cat and a large whisky, I concluded that I need some younger people to sing with. Folks who don’t complain about the “new people” who make everything “so different” from what they remember of their far-distant youth — by which they usually mean the Black (both African and Caribbean), Arab and Indian families filling the suburbs nowadays.

Ottawa as I remember it in the 1960s was just as full of “new people”, many of them immigrants from various theatres of the Second World War. Today’s corner stores and gas stations are run by Somalis, Indians and Syrians; back in the day, the guy behind the counter at the corner store (called a “confectionary” in Ottawa) was usually Lebanese. Auto-body workers and mechanics back then were often Poles and Italians if they weren’t French-speaking Canadians; now, they’re Afghans, Armenians, Kurds and Syrians. Come to think of it, I’m one of maybe five white-bread Canadians on Inverkip Avenue; my neighbours are Philippine, Haitian, Syrian, and Jamaican. The game of choice in the park is soccer; if anyone plays baseball, I haven’t caught them at it. Signs in the independent local shops are in Arabic script with English as a definite after-thought and very little, if any, French.

Ah, well, I’m ranting. Must stop, finish my coffee, and find something useful to do.

Subject: RE: DECLUTTER: *Health *Progress - 2026**
From: Stilly River Sage
Date: 10 Aug 26 - 11:16 AM

Your neighborhood sounds wonderful, and your description of the evolution of immigrant businesses is classic. When I worked at Ellis Island part of the discussion had to do with where people went when they first arrived. They settled near the ports in cities in groups of other immigrants like themselves (look up Jacob Riis, How the Other Half Lives, but with each generation they prospered and built businesses larger and away from the city, with new immigrants filling the void. It's as organic as human growth. We also have Somalis in gas stations, non-white neighborhoods all through the city, and lots of ethnic food trucks that set up on evenings and weekends in parking lots along major thoroughfares.

Subject: RE: DECLUTTER: *Health *Progress - 2026**
From: pattyClink
Date: 10 Aug 26 - 12:38 PM

Yes, it's sad how people can be their own worst enemies sometimes. You offer them a lift and instead of cheerful fellowship you get hassles and crankiness! Then they wonder why more people don't visit or dote on them.

I don't believe the primer-one-coat claims, call me cynical. Even a deep yellow is not like you are covering navy blue. I'd be tempted to just plan for 2 coats of normal paint because 1 just never looks as good, but you know best how your favorite paints behave.

Subject: RE: DECLUTTER: *Health *Progress - 2026**
From: Stilly River Sage
Date: 10 Aug 26 - 04:06 PM

I know that Murphy must have a law that says even if you put on two coats you're always going to notice spots you missed both times. I'll compare primer and paint prices and choose. I need a good roller and tray, I have the brushes for cutting in edges and lots of tape. First I have to wash the walls and as I get to the lower two feet give it a good scrub because of all of the dog oils that have probably rubbed off on the surface.

Google maps just took me on a roundabout tour of the south part of the county because the damn map decided to put South on the top of the map. The grid that is a mental map is no longer accurate with so many new housing developments going in. Grrr. I had plenty of time for driving from one appointment to another but was 20 minutes late, just lucky it was a quiet afternoon for them and I got in.

Subject: RE: DECLUTTER: *Health *Progress - 2026**
From: Charmion's brother Andrew
Date: 10 Aug 26 - 05:57 PM

In Manotick, where Charmion and I started life, Roman Catholics were exotic and regarded with suspicion. Those conditions no longer obtain in that dormitory suburb/village. Money changed it, in some ways not for the better. High school in Ottawa introduced us to a more varied and delightful variety of kids.

Subject: RE: DECLUTTER: *Health *Progress - 2026**
From: Charmion's brother Andrew
Date: 10 Aug 26 - 05:59 PM

We've a tornado warning. Flash to bang is getting shorter. Closing down. Out.

Subject: RE: DECLUTTER: *Health *Progress - 2026**
From: Stilly River Sage
Date: 10 Aug 26 - 07:38 PM

Wow - reporting about tornado watches and warnings is something that I usually do, they happen here regularly. Hopefully your irregular event is a non-starter and everyone and everything is fine. (When to be really careful with or without the warnings - the yellow sky is a clue, as are the green flashes when transformers are blown up.)

A friend may have appendicitis, so I may be doing some extra running for a few days to help out.

Subject: RE: DECLUTTER: *Health *Progress - 2026**
From: Charmion's brother Andrew
Date: 11 Aug 26 - 08:35 AM

Stilly, tornados were foreign to these parts when I was a boy. I had not heard of one in Ontario until 1985 or '86 when one tore through Barrie. Now, warnings in the Ottawa Valley are an annual event, with at least one touching down every couple of years. Yesterday's did not touch us. We should be in the clear by the end of September.

We do, however, get lashed with the leftovers of Atlantic hurricanes. My basement flooded twice in the late '90s and early 2000s as a result of heavy rains from tropical storm systems. (It didn't help that the backflow preventer in our floor drain had been installed backwards when our condo was built. The condo corporation eventually clued in and sorted it out. Our cellar floor bears the scars as a result.)

Subject: RE: DECLUTTER: *Health *Progress - 2026**
From: Stilly River Sage
Date: 11 Aug 26 - 12:46 PM

So the backflow preventer kept the water in your basement? Ugg!

In order to not load all of the unneeded photos and such from the current phone into the new one I'm decluttering a lot of files. I've worked on the phone screen for a while but plugging it by cable into the computer will speed the operation.

Delivering an eBay sale box to FedEx this morning then running a couple of other errands, including a stop at the paint store. I'm toning down the yellow in the hall bathroom and the same choice paint will brighten what is in the master bath. I'll take a photo of the bright yellow to show the tech at the store so he knows what I'm trying to paint over.

Subject: RE: DECLUTTER: *Health *Progress - 2026**
From: MaJoC the Filk
Date: 11 Aug 26 - 01:49 PM

> I'll take a photo of the bright yellow

Methinks you should check the photo against the original before going to the store: it's possible you'll be surprised.

Subject: RE: DECLUTTER: *Health *Progress - 2026**
From: Stilly River Sage
Date: 11 Aug 26 - 02:26 PM

I'm good at the photos. They simply need to see the intensity of the yellow, because yellow doesn't act like a light color even though in our brains we think of it as a light color. In grayscale it will show up as a darker value. And I may have the original color chip in the binder where I keep track of the work I do in the house.

My neighbor across the street called to say his wife is in the hospital and he was driving over to get a hamburger. He shouldn't be driving, they both need to be in an assisted living situation. We're going to have to work out a way to keep him fed so he doesn't drive anywhere (and have his daughter-in-law take the car keys away from him.)

The friend has a fibroid, not appendicitis. Still could end up with a surgical solution, but not right away.

Subject: RE: DECLUTTER: *Health *Progress - 2026**
From: Stilly River Sage
Date: 11 Aug 26 - 06:35 PM

The tech at the paint store was helpful. I'll use primer in the hall bathroom and think about it in the master bath. The paint is Butter up and I have a complementary Nebulous white trim. And since my house was painted by a contractor they work with they gave me his discount on the paint for considerable savings. I did that years ago with the contractor who built my garage, he gave me his business card and said to use it at the places where he had accounts for floor and wall tile.

A lovely pair of flats was returned to DSW and I found a slip on pair of Sketchers that has a sandal look. Now I have three pair of their "vegan" shoes that are machine washable. Talking with a woman on the size 8½ - 9 clearance aisle who was getting ready for a bachelorette party and bought a clunky high heel sandal; I realized there is absolutely nothing I have to do these days that doesn't allow for comfortable shoes that I already own. That's partly because in my 70s I'm invisible to many people, and those my age are probably also wearing comfortable shoes.

Did a bit of a dresser clear out this week tossing a couple of old bras. I waited till I had an Amazon return to take to Kohl's because they always give a dollars-off coupon to encourage you to shop so I have new bras.

Subject: RE: DECLUTTER: *Health *Progress - 2026**
From: Charmion
Date: 12 Aug 26 - 10:31 AM

Today, I have landscapers in the back yard. The objectives of this project are to build a little retaining wall at the edge of the easement swale and level the ground, and to lay permeable pavers around the deck step and between the east end of the deck and the neighbours’ fence. The pavers will provide firm footing onto and off the deck, and eliminate an unsightly patch of mud. There will also be flower beds along my fence and the east wall of the house.

Yes, it will be expensive. All house projects are expensive; you can pay in time, labour, materials, inconvenience and back pain, or you can pay in coin of the realm. At my age and state of sacro-iliac joints, cash is the wiser choice.

I recently found a YouTube channel about “the masculine home”. Highly entertaining. The presenter has the same mission and method as any other décor influencer, but uses a vocabulary chosen to take the girliness out of housekeeping. His visuals show deep colours, leather-covered furniture, and wall art of ships and landscapes instead of massive flower arrangements, random bowls of lemons, and sofas with too many cushions on them. He describes a “respectable” home as one with reading lights beside the guest bed and safe places to put your drink within easy reach of every chair and sofa. It is also reasonably clean and adequately maintained.

Sounds like baseline grown-up living to me.

Subject: RE: DECLUTTER: *Health *Progress - 2026**
From: Stilly River Sage
Date: 12 Aug 26 - 11:13 AM

In a world where many women are protesting that they're single because they don't want to "raise boys to be men," that sounds like a good self-help start. Perhaps the algorithm will send general home repairs, doing laundry, dating tips, and cooking videos alongside.

My backyard has workers also, the local avian variety. This morning I saw a juvenile red-tailed hawk fly to the top of the utility pole and proceed to eat something it had caught. I hope it was a mouse but this time of day I fear it caught one of the garden anoles. I ran to get the long lens for the camera but wasn't fast enough before it flew off. I'm going to take this lens to the creek this evening and see what's moving around. (Middle of the day is too hot and the warm evening light is better for photos.)

I debated about meeting my daughter with the frozen fruit juice today but FedEx texted that my parcel will arrive anytime today up to 8pm. Not something to leave unattended on the porch, so the grape juice transfer will be tomorrow. I'll pack another box for Welman in the car because I can swing by there in my coming and going. It turns out they like the cornstarch packing "peanuts" that I have several cases of in the garage (tile was shipped in them and I'm slowly drawing them down for my eBay work, enough for several more years of shipping.)

Subject: RE: DECLUTTER: *Health *Progress - 2026**
From: MaJoC the Filk
Date: 12 Aug 26 - 12:29 PM

> sofas with too many cushions on them

We've got one of those. My theory is that the cushions breed like tribbles in the space between the chair back and the back of the person sitting down.

Subject: RE: DECLUTTER: *Health *Progress - 2026**
From: Stilly River Sage
Date: 12 Aug 26 - 01:55 PM

I made a pass through the first of two binders to merge into one and the result is an almost 1/2" stack of papers to test - see if the free sites are still there or the account and then either close them or put each one on a single printout to add to the notebook. Quite a few were just shredded because things like lists of email addresses from 2005 are not helpful or accurate. The next one will take more time, it's the "fee" accounts or those related to fee accounts.

Last night I pulled out some scraps and a short zipper from my mother's stash and made a little lined zipper pouch for my daughter. The outer fabric is yellow with chickens (I lined it with dinosaur fabric). I did some trupunto to a chicken on each side of the bag (stitched around and added a little polyfill). Last week they think it was a raccoon that killed one of her chickens, harder to deal with when there are only a few and they're really all pets. A little token to show I'm sorry.

This morning I was thinking over the number of projects I've initiated this summer and realized that after paying off the house I seem to be in a "refresh" mode, working on things that needed attention to keep rooms functional and looking good. Donating stuff to the teachers helps me clear spaces I can use for other things (or just have less clutter in rooms.) I've also done a bit of refreshing for myself with the phone and shoes and underwear and a new pair of glasses is on the way. (My favorite pair is almost falling off these days, the hinges aren't as springy as they used to be.)

Subject: RE: DECLUTTER: *Health *Progress - 2026**
From: Stilly River Sage
Date: 13 Aug 26 - 09:34 AM

The stealthiness with which device manufacturers and software engineers try to push their products into your daily lives is appalling. I realize that every time I set up a new device. The most common buttons for me to touch during setup are "skip" and "no" and "off." And even then I'll set the new and old phones side by side and go through the directories and mirror the old settings, based upon what I've learned about device security and intrusiveness but don't always remember months later when going through the list of things the phone wants to monitor or participate in. And if you wait five years or more to change devices, the sneakiness increases.

That said, thank dog for the Samsung and Google phone backups. Always use backup if you have the option, it puts things back that you didn't know you need until you're looking at a blank slate and wondering where your contacts or calendar items are and why there seems to be a gap in the pattern you're accustomed to seeing. (I even got my custom night sky stars background to load, removing their swirly chartreuse screen.)

In the physical office domain I completed transferring or discarding the accounts and password information from one of the two binders and ended up with a full page printed out of minor accounts that I may never need to use again but kept for just in case. The cross-cut shredder had to be emptied once during the shredding when the low capacity bin met a lot of pages.

Out in the wasteland that is the yard in August I'm managing to keep the small transplanted trees alive, but a lot of other stuff is turning crispy. The birdbaths are filled every day and I find colorful feathers on the ground as calling cards. A look at the 10-day forecast shows a sine wave of day and night dry temperatures 102/77 100/78 100/77 102/77 104/79 104/78 103/77 102/78 102/77. The calendar forecast (based only on historic readings) says in two weeks it might drop down to 93 for a daytime high.

Dogs have been fed, now to take care of myself.

Subject: RE: DECLUTTER: *Health *Progress - 2026**
From: pattyClink
Date: 13 Aug 26 - 11:23 AM

Yes, 'enshittification' of software and apps continues, and seems to get worse all the time. It puts such a time and anxiety burden on people, no wonder some are starting to withdraw from any tech that is not absolutely necessary, or keeping old gear as long as possible.

My favorite tool back in the day was Ninite, which would let you quickly load a new machine with software with all the bloatware and gotchas already set up to not be installed. But it's no help with linux or phones.

Wow what a tough hot summer in central Texas! Sorry to hear that it is stressing out your yard so much.

This week's weird challenge is putting little screens on the end of 4 drip pipes from the mini-splits, because clay dust keeps finding its way into two of the units.   

Two of the pipes are odd size, and two already have elbows clinging to accordion 'pipe' that can't bear the further weight of a proper screened cap. So it looks like the solution is to get a packet of smoker's tobacco pipe stainless steel screens and find rubber furniture leg caps, and cobble together something that will stay on as long as the rubber can hold out, by which time it might be time for a cleaning anyway.

Subject: RE: DECLUTTER: *Health *Progress - 2026**
From: Charmion
Date: 13 Aug 26 - 02:39 PM

The back yard looks like the world’s biggest mud pie today, with three men and rather a lot of tracked equipment hauling quantities of dirt back and forth.

This is, of course, a tract house built on spec for a clientèle frankly delighted to find a house — any house — they could afford. The original site preparation done 25 years ago consisted of scraping the trees and brush off the land, and landscaping after construction was limited to whacking down a blanket of sod on top of clay subsoil and builders’ rubble. Roll the calendar forward to 2026 and the result wouldn’t support any plant more demanding than hosta. Not that previous occupants had exerted themselves to do anything much in the way of gardening, especially after the trees grew bigger than the houses. So the landscape designer I hired decided to start again from first principles — i.e., dirt.

I was shocked when the tracked machinery arrived yesterday but, when they started excavating the flower beds, I could see that the only alternative would be a gang of navvies armed with picks and mattocks. Today they’re laying actual arable soil, reducing the slope while they’re at it. After the dirt is levelled and tamped, they will build a low (six to eight inches max) retaining wall along the swale and pavers in the high-traffic areas.

Acupuncture, hot and ice packs, and Nisha’s weird exercises have improved my stiff neck to the point where I can apparently get by on fortnightly treatments. That problem is so old that I had actually forgotten what it was to crank my head around, owlishly, to the left to check the blind spot without hesitation. Looking forward to freedom!

Subject: RE: DECLUTTER: *Health *Progress - 2026**
From: Stilly River Sage
Date: 13 Aug 26 - 03:43 PM

Your yard will be lovely and thriving when they finish, Charmion. My front yard was leveled with some combination of topsoil and builder's sand on top of limestone and clay. The back is as it always was, clay, though I'm sure they had to cut out a lot of hackberry and mesquite to make it into a "yard." My garden areas get amendments every year and at one time had some extra topsoil added, so they are where the weeds grow happiest and the Bermuda grass the tallest amongst the crops.

patti, 'enshittification' is the proper term, even for an unbranded (unlocked) phone and touches on the reason I avoid AI in browser searches by using https://udm14.com/. When not in grocery stores it sounds like you do most of your shopping in hardware stores. You know the screened washers they make for sprinklers and hoses - would any of those be the right size for what you need? I had to demolish the screen on the Dramm nozzle at the cat sitting job - it was so crusty from limestone buildup that a lot of water shot back out and down the hose instead of out the nozzle, but if she'd actually needed it I would have soaked it in vinegar for a few minutes. Anyway, they come with various gauge screens.

After a deep dive into the accounts in the notebooks (free and fee) they're combined into one, resulting in at least an inch stack of pages fed through the shredder and two typed pages with all of those contents in a one or two line entry in case I need to refer back to it for some reason. (Good suggestion, patty). Three large binders moved into the Welman donation box and more space on the office shelf.

Subject: RE: DECLUTTER: *Health *Progress - 2026**
From: Charmion
Date: 14 Aug 26 - 09:17 AM

A mason’s level was on the porch this morning, a sign that site prep is almost finished in my back yard. The landscapers also brought the components of the new drain that will take water from the back downspout under the permeable paving to an outlet at the property line, whence it will trickle (or more likely gush) to the storm sewer in the easement.

According to Environment Canada, Ottawa is having its wettest summer on record — and the records date back to 1870. People in the west end of town are bailing out their basements yet again, and today’s Ottawa Citizen featured pix of utility poles literally blown over beside a suburban arterial road in Tuesday night’s ferocious storm. The wildfires are worse but, of the two, I’d rather have neither.

Despite air conditioning, humidity in the house is running well above 70 percent. As a result, parts of the house smell very slightly of cat — although my feline housemates have never pissed in those areas or anywhere near them. I assume the offence was committed by a previous occupant. On Wednesday morning, after the latest deluge, I found a damp patch no bigger than a man’s hand in the middle of the concrete floor of the cellar storage. That means the clay soil under the house is completely saturated.

Oh, boy. Mother Nature is evidently in a bit of a mood.

Subject: RE: DECLUTTER: *Health *Progress - 2026**
From: Sandra in Sydney
Date: 14 Aug 26 - 09:59 AM

"The wildfires are worse but, of the two, I’d rather have neither"

beautifully said!

Subject: RE: DECLUTTER: *Health *Progress - 2026**
From: Stilly River Sage
Date: 14 Aug 26 - 11:15 AM

I third that - I live in a wooded part of town next to a creek. I can live with calm waters and intact forests.

The binder work this week left me with a kitchen trash bag 2/3 full of paper shreds so I used that to soak up grease when emptying containers from the fridge. It absorbs the oil but also renders the paper useless if someone wanted to piece together those puzzles.

Unlike your sodden soil, mine is so dry that yesterday I found a new large break in the concrete driveway. I suppose between our houses we're helping North America establish isostatic equilibrium. ;-)

patty, did you find the ferrules you need for your drain pipes?

In the Dogs will be Dogs department, Mango has discovered the squirrels' buried bounty around the yard - pecans they stashed and forgot. Often they're rotten, but that doesn't stop her looking for them with that sensitive nose. I've found several she bit open and left because they weren't edible (even by dog standards). I suspect she'll be busy once the fall crop starts to be stashed in the yard.

Subject: RE: DECLUTTER: *Health *Progress - 2026**
From: Donuel
Date: 14 Aug 26 - 04:48 PM

I fourth that - I live in a wooded part of town next to a creek.

This has been a wet verdant summer.

Subject: RE: DECLUTTER: *Health *Progress - 2026**
From: pattyClink
Date: 14 Aug 26 - 10:12 PM

Up to my elbows in unexpected should-do and gotta-dos over here, none of which are too fit for public discussion. SRS, great idea about the hose screens, I will pursue that. Stay safe from nasty weather, all!

Subject: RE: DECLUTTER: *Health *Progress - 2026**
From: Stilly River Sage
Date: 15 Aug 26 - 11:19 AM

Not so much a declutter as a swap: I picked up two cases of wide-mouth pint canning jars (always most reasonably priced from the canning section in grocery stores - never buy those online - Amazon charges three times as much). I've gotten away with freezing standard mouth jars but these are intended for both canning and freezing. The swap is that I already have a lot of standard mouth pints and offered a case to my daughter's household and they've been accepted. A roommate made a batch of pickles and used a lot of their jars. To finesse one of the jars of pickles from her when I hand over the empties will be a win, since I didn't do cucumbers this year and I adore pickles. (Our transfer of frozen grape juice from here to her house went smoothly even in 102^o weather and five quarts are now in her deep freeze and I can put my pint jars on that shelf in my freezer.)

Yesterday I pulled a 45-year-old sturdy cotton t-shirt out of the sewing rag bin and mended the back neckline and under the arms and put a complementary open blouse over the top so just the Statue of Liberty face silkscreened on the front would be in view. The event my friend and I attended has to do with a related exhibit and I got away with it. I'd say that 99% of my shirts from that era are long gone, but this was special so sometimes holding onto things isn't so bad. Perhaps I should turn the front of that shirt into a panel and attach it to something else at this point.