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DECLUTTER: *Sorting *Health *Progress - 2025

Stilly River Sage 15 Feb 25 - 04:55 PM
Stilly River Sage 15 Feb 25 - 01:56 PM
pattyClink 15 Feb 25 - 09:03 AM
Stilly River Sage 14 Feb 25 - 04:59 PM
Charmion 14 Feb 25 - 04:36 PM
Stilly River Sage 14 Feb 25 - 03:55 PM
MaJoC the Filk 14 Feb 25 - 12:50 PM
Stilly River Sage 14 Feb 25 - 11:57 AM
Stilly River Sage 13 Feb 25 - 05:41 PM
MaJoC the Filk 13 Feb 25 - 04:18 PM
Stilly River Sage 13 Feb 25 - 02:10 PM
Stilly River Sage 13 Feb 25 - 01:22 PM
MaJoC the Filk 13 Feb 25 - 12:18 PM
Stilly River Sage 12 Feb 25 - 08:24 PM
Stilly River Sage 12 Feb 25 - 11:45 AM
pattyClink 12 Feb 25 - 09:13 AM
Charmion 12 Feb 25 - 08:34 AM
Charmion's brother Andrew 11 Feb 25 - 05:47 PM
Donuel 11 Feb 25 - 01:50 PM
Stilly River Sage 11 Feb 25 - 12:28 PM
pattyClink 11 Feb 25 - 10:57 AM
Stilly River Sage 10 Feb 25 - 03:48 PM
Charmion 10 Feb 25 - 08:24 AM
Dorothy Parshall 09 Feb 25 - 09:16 PM
Stilly River Sage 09 Feb 25 - 03:52 PM
Stilly River Sage 07 Feb 25 - 08:44 PM
Stilly River Sage 06 Feb 25 - 11:16 PM
Stilly River Sage 06 Feb 25 - 10:16 AM
Charmion 06 Feb 25 - 09:13 AM
Charmion's brother Andrew 05 Feb 25 - 06:08 PM
Charmion 05 Feb 25 - 12:54 PM
Charmion's brother Andrew 05 Feb 25 - 08:41 AM
Stilly River Sage 04 Feb 25 - 09:58 PM
Charmion 04 Feb 25 - 04:15 PM
Stilly River Sage 04 Feb 25 - 01:03 PM
Charmion 03 Feb 25 - 06:19 PM
Stilly River Sage 03 Feb 25 - 02:11 PM
Stilly River Sage 01 Feb 25 - 09:35 PM
Charmion 01 Feb 25 - 09:11 AM
Stilly River Sage 31 Jan 25 - 09:50 PM
keberoxu 31 Jan 25 - 02:57 PM
Stilly River Sage 31 Jan 25 - 12:39 PM
Stilly River Sage 30 Jan 25 - 02:34 PM
Charmion 30 Jan 25 - 12:00 PM
pattyClink 29 Jan 25 - 08:33 PM
Stilly River Sage 29 Jan 25 - 07:22 PM
MaJoC the Filk 29 Jan 25 - 12:21 PM
pattyClink 29 Jan 25 - 11:48 AM
Stilly River Sage 29 Jan 25 - 11:23 AM
Charmion 29 Jan 25 - 10:06 AM
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Subject: RE: DECLUTTER: *Sorting *Health *Progress - 2025
From: Stilly River Sage
Date: 15 Feb 25 - 04:55 PM

Virtual decluttering and some organizing. The Bluesky account started with a lot of people following and for efficiency at first I followed back, but then spent time looking into who those folks were. Not all there with good intentions in their hearts - so they were unfollowed. A few blocked. Today I created a "starter pack" of the accounts that I am always going to look at if they scroll across my feed. Friends who are there as followers are still following though many are quietly postless, and that starter pack is intended for them, if they're interested. I looked in on a couple of those friends and was pleased to see they've gotten a great start and are communicating well. I used Instagram for photos, and still do to a large part, but Bluesky is a replacement for the important political accounts I used to follow on that bird site that took a bullet to the heart (and brain) when the fElon took over.

Now for some me time, a shower, then get a bit of sewing in for a banner project I've wanted to do for ages. I've thought of a good way to use it (so I'll make an extra one.)


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Subject: RE: DECLUTTER: *Sorting *Health *Progress - 2025
From: Stilly River Sage
Date: 15 Feb 25 - 01:56 PM

Good news, Patty! Will you now tow the SUV behind the RV back to the house? I'm glad you are so experienced with trailers and towing!

It looks like snow here mid-week coming up so I'll finish my driving to shop this weekend. Unlike in Charmion's neighborhood, a little snow stops everything even when we have so little that there is a clear view all around.

Writing this weekend. Finished the complaint to the board of REI, now for the senators and rep, and then for the blog. Same song, different verses.


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Subject: RE: DECLUTTER: *Sorting *Health *Progress - 2025
From: pattyClink
Date: 15 Feb 25 - 09:03 AM

Yikes, snowbanks high enough to block visibility! I'll take my dusty but warmish skies more gratefully.

Camped between Phoenix and Tucson, having driven a long way yesterday to secure An SUV At Last. Was not about to have a 'just right' one slip through my fingers, so got on the road shortly after seeing the listing at breakfast. Long day getting the deal done, but cleared the Phx metro by 5, only to sit in a senseless jam for an hour on the interstate in the middle of nowhere. 's okay, I had found and booked a site along the route, with pool, and finally landed there as night fell, only to find my envelope for late check in locked in a guardless guard shack. Grrr... not in the bin where it should have been. Why? No explanation from the guard who bumbled along 15 minutes later and thinks that's a fine way to welcome weary guests, more convenient for him. I swear we are going to have to start teaching courses in hospitality, because all people are learning at home, school, and work is 'make it easy on yourself'.


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Subject: RE: DECLUTTER: *Sorting *Health *Progress - 2025
From: Stilly River Sage
Date: 14 Feb 25 - 04:59 PM

Charmion, given the alternative, that is a good plan. I've struggled today to get a scanning facility on the phone, but calls keep dropping. My doctor wants this test done even though it isn't covered so will cost me, the first time I've come across one of these in years. Working for the state meant lower income but great retirement benefits, including they pay for your insurance (combined with Medicare that I pay). I hope your back feels better soon.

Re: your snow, I shudder to think of the sledding we did on the hill where I grew up during middle and high school years. Two blocks long and while one street was a T into that slope, at the bottom you shot into the cross street. (The very long block above those two was so steep that no one would sled on it because of the speed and because there was a jog in the street at the bottom and chances were you'd hit a wall. So we lived dangerously but didn't have a death wish.)


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Subject: RE: DECLUTTER: *Sorting *Health *Progress - 2025
From: Charmion
Date: 14 Feb 25 - 04:36 PM

Heavy snow started falling on Wednesday and let up about noon yesterday, and yet more is due tonight and tomorrow. For the first time in years I put on my high boots yesterday; with the snow well up over my ankles, I’d get a soaker for sure digging out the front path in my normal Stratford boots.

The snowbanks are now both a menace to navigation and an attractive nuisance. They are so high that little kids climb on them to slide, running the risk of skidding into traffic, while drivers at intersections can’t see over them to spot on-coming vehicles. In Ottawa, city crews equipped with monster snowblowers and ten-ton dump trucks take down such snowbanks several times each winter, but Stratford apparently counts on Mother Nature for that service. I’m surprised by this laissez-faire policy because Perth County is the very buckle on the Ontario snow belt. Only six more weeks to go … unless it’s longer.

I haven’t done any more house-clearance this week while I’ve been nursing my sore back.

The visit to the plastic surgeon was a calm affair; she thinks the growth is a wart, so its removal would be “cosmetic” and therefore not covered by the provincial health plan. The tissue will be examined as a matter of routine, however, and if it turns out to be malignant I get my money back. The deed will be done next Wednesday afternoon. I will have a couple of stitches and probably a fat lip.


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Subject: RE: DECLUTTER: *Sorting *Health *Progress - 2025
From: Stilly River Sage
Date: 14 Feb 25 - 03:55 PM

Rearranging does come with the risk of forgetting where things were moved to. I've done that to myself in the past. And sometimes the process of rearranging brings about discoveries of items lost for a while.

Lots to do around here. Another cold clammy day, but I'm gearing up to head into the greenhouse and start some seeds. Must do laundry, I'm down to the last pair of undies, and I have a couple of t-shirt new arrivals to run through the wash before wearing. The ACLU shirt has a very large message, they don't want any ambiguity when supporters wear them. Today I'm wearing my ALT USFS shirt from the first 45 term. ("Only you can prevent forest fires! Seriously. We've been defunded. It's just you now.") Sewing. Listing. Writing. Everywhere I turn are chores waving "me, next!"


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Subject: RE: DECLUTTER: *Sorting *Health *Progress - 2025
From: MaJoC the Filk
Date: 14 Feb 25 - 12:50 PM

Apologies, Stilly: when I saw "rearranged", my mind autocompleted it with "and everything's been put Somewhere Safe". I suspect I've wittered on about that family phrase, at length, somewhere heareabouts.


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Subject: RE: DECLUTTER: *Sorting *Health *Progress - 2025
From: Stilly River Sage
Date: 14 Feb 25 - 11:57 AM

MaJoC: I'm looking at some of the supplement bottles on a small lazy susan on the tall table in the kitchen (a workspace that arrived in the form of a great table for $20 at Goodwill that I lugged into the kitchen when I got home. It immediately became a working space and was never moved farther.) This device was in the cupboard but put here I think this might work. There is a lot of veterinary stuff in another cupboard and the various cold and pain medications that now must be considered. (What I also need to do is find a way to store all of the lids for various Rubbermaid food containers. Now they're organized but not easy to reach in a lower cupboard, but I use them all of the time so they should be more front and center somehow.)

I am considering switching over to Firefox as my default browser and in a prelude to that imported all of the bookmarks, passwords, etc from the now-default browser. The bookmarks didn't land in a separate folder, they did a shotgun blast into the existing bookmarks. What a tangle.

I woke this morning thinking about what jobs I can do in the yard and garden. That's a good sign! Time for pots of soil and starting seeds. (Past time, actually, but it's a long growing season.) I have a sweet potato in the window to grow slips for planting later. This year I plan to use a large "Smart pot" (an unwoven sturdy pot) for sweet potatoes, and some in regular beds, to compare results.


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Subject: RE: DECLUTTER: *Sorting *Health *Progress - 2025
From: Stilly River Sage
Date: 13 Feb 25 - 05:41 PM

It's not the use of a mattock (I have two of them I use all of the time) it's the cold weather. I'm not fond of outdoor work at 36o. If it was just cold weather, not a problem, but working in that cold air makes my eyes water and I tend to end up with a chapped face.

Rearranging cotton balls and bandaids was a delaying tactic before I waded into the online Medicare/My Health insurance website to determine if there was a way to have a test that was ordered paid for (without the copay the provider said would be required). Before I got to that part I updated my beneficiary information and signed up for credit monitoring (all the more critical these days). It makes sense to take advantage of every benefit from my insurance coverage. But I finally got to the coverage pages and then called my doctor's office. It's now a question being put to the rep for the company that would do the scan. There is job security for people who know how to accurately use those Medicare codes.

eBay research this afternoon show me that I missed an opportunity as far as t-shirt yarn. Back when I was using it to make COVID masks it was all homemade and turned up online, but now there are companies that make big long uniform rolls of the jersey yarn and I don't see much of the homemade type offered. I was going to use the shirts I bought to make my own to use, but I don't need it now. I may go ahead and make the yarn and sell it as a lot, it will sell, it just won't go for a big price any more. It'll clear out the extra stuff in the sewing room and listen to an audiobook while I do the work.


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Subject: RE: DECLUTTER: *Sorting *Health *Progress - 2025
From: MaJoC the Filk
Date: 13 Feb 25 - 04:18 PM

> it is still freezing, so not a good day to start
> in the garden

Use a mattock :-) ?

> Today the cupboard where those things live was
> rearranged

As soon as I saw that, methunk "Oh Dear".


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Subject: RE: DECLUTTER: *Sorting *Health *Progress - 2025
From: Stilly River Sage
Date: 13 Feb 25 - 02:10 PM

Every so often the arrangement of prescriptions and supplements needs addressing, usually when I buy something then I discover I already had it, or when I'm sure I have more of something but can't find it. Today the cupboard where those things live was rearranged and the cotton balls, cotton swabs, bandaids and cough drops were evicted. The bottle of calamine lotion had a use-by date of 2011, evidence that I never use it, so it is also gone. There's another cupboard where a subset of this lives on a rotating double-decker lazy Susan with pain killers, Sudafed, etc. Time to get out the step stool and see what I can end up with.

Not sure where the cotton products and bandaids will live. Maybe in a basket in the pantry.


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Subject: RE: DECLUTTER: *Sorting *Health *Progress - 2025
From: Stilly River Sage
Date: 13 Feb 25 - 01:22 PM

Google reclassifies U.S. as ‘sensitive country’ alongside China, Russia after Trump’s ‘Gulf of America’ comments = "snowflake country." I'm trying not to pull politics into every thread where I participate, so I'll post that over on the Convicted Felon thread as well. But I've reported that error a couple of times and plan to keep on doing it.

This morning I have a list of grievances to call into my representatives, then I'll get moving on my other stuff to do around the house. It's a lovely sunny day but unfortunately it is still freezing, so not a good day to start in the garden.

No call back from the electronic device guy, and when I looked him up I found that three weeks ago he had started new accounts in several surrounding cities and sent the same post. I removed his post and put him on moderation, and need to alert those other cities to the problems with his listing. The member who complained about his not sharing with the poor made a complaint for the wrong reason but at least it got me looking at what he was doing. Disappointing as that is, the good news is that when on campus yesterday I stopped by the electronic waste bins (I used to be the library contact person for those) and see they're heavily in use. I plan a couple of trips over there to visit friends and drop off stuff each time. The company that collects it treats it the way I want (disassembles and recycles wire, components like chips, etc.)

The friend with the cats I periodically care for has rejoined Costco since I told her they have good prices for pet prescriptions, but as another person who lives alone, finds the volume of stuff in their packaging to be too much. I told her she can join my ex and I in dividing up some of those things, making it more practical for each of us.


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Subject: RE: DECLUTTER: *Sorting *Health *Progress - 2025
From: MaJoC the Filk
Date: 13 Feb 25 - 12:18 PM

I don't know if you've seen it, Stilly, but The Register did a little checking with a VPN, and the Gulf of Mexico's only misnamed for people with (apparent) locations in the USA; the proper name appears for those in Mexico, and both names for those elsewhere. Google Maps do have precedents for that sort of thing, of which the first that comes to my mind is the English inability to name La Manche properly.

Apologies if this should have been in the Manbaby thread, but it's Google's way of coping with the Unreasonable.


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Subject: RE: DECLUTTER: *Sorting *Health *Progress - 2025
From: Stilly River Sage
Date: 12 Feb 25 - 08:24 PM

It was one of those days that started with the chore (the study on campus) and ended with three excellent visits with friends who were my coworkers before retirement. It boosts one's spirits to have those kinds of conversations (and having good material to share forward with other of those co-worker friends).

How did your visit to the plastic surgeon go, Charmion? Uneventful, I hope! I had a mole on my jawline most of my life that always bugged me and a friend in my writing group was a plastic surgeon and invited me down one day to have it taken off for a modest co-pay. That was a gift - it always felt like the Wicked Witch of the West's bump (not that bad, but I always saw it that way.)

One of today's visits included helping that friend set up a Google Voice account with an extra phone number. I have one that I use for those stores that want a phone number to track purchases, etc. but I never want to hear from. It is tied to his regular cell phone, so any real calls that come in can be forwarded to it.

Sad news today, that Joann's (the fabric store) is closing many of its branches. So far it looks like my local store will stay open, but I dread the day when the only way to buy fabric is online. Time to find stores closing and buy up stuff on sale? But that will mean less business at the one that is still open. (I loaded up when Hancock went out of business, ended up sharing a lot of that stuff with my daughter.)

The curse "may you live in interesting times" is in full effect right now. Every day seems to last forever, and we are counting down the next four years one slow day at a time. This isn't the way I want to prolong my life. Now to send more messages to my representatives.


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Subject: RE: DECLUTTER: *Sorting *Health *Progress - 2025
From: Stilly River Sage
Date: 12 Feb 25 - 11:45 AM

Specular hematite is so much more attractive than plain old brown hematite! (I have a necklace or two with the beads). Chalcopyrite means you might indeed have a whole bunch more goodness in those samples! I used to hike up to the mine entrance on Vesper Peak in the Cascades to find all sorts of interesting stuff in the copper mine tailings. And there was a road cut up near Index, WA, with molybdenite. It was always a wonder that the geology professor I worked for knew where all of these great spots were for class field trips.

More rain overnight but the flood warning has passed. I've puttered around the house a bit, took time to complain on Google maps about the idiocy of renaming the Gulf of Mexico. It looks like most of today's rain is over so the drive is safe to visit with a couple of friends this afternoon. I haven't heard back from the electronics guy, so maybe I'll tell him I have a couple of VHS players needing repair (I do - I was going to sell them for parts or repair on eBay) to see if that gets an answer. And if nothing, I may kick his ad off of Freecycle for being bogus.


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Subject: RE: DECLUTTER: *Sorting *Health *Progress - 2025
From: pattyClink
Date: 12 Feb 25 - 09:13 AM

Another travel day, charging up devices this morning before another several days of boondocking. The knee is better, got a fresh bottle of Aleve in Gila Bend, got in a water workout. While in the small dollar store, marveled that they would stock 39 variations of ibuprofen. Another time I counted 17 mascaras, all black. You'd think they'd be a little more streamlined in order to carry more useful items.

We got some sparkly specular hematite the other day. There were glints of chalcopyrite but it was elusive when we returned. There will be various microminerals when I clean and split; probably some vanadinite, etc.


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Subject: RE: DECLUTTER: *Sorting *Health *Progress - 2025
From: Charmion
Date: 12 Feb 25 - 08:34 AM

Um, no, Andrew. The bobo (probably a wart) is a blob about the size of a lentil, located a couple of millimetres south of the outboard edge of my right nostril. The scar will look like a repaired puncture, and the classic Heidelberg effect was a slash on the cheek.

Unless the biopsy indicates malignancy, this little adventure will cost me $400.00 in teeny-tiny Canadian currency. Fortunately, Premier Doug Ford’s bribe cheque (the infamous $200.00 “taxpayer rebate”) arrived in the mail last week, so I’m subsidized.

Yet another major snowstorm is bearing down on us today, direct from Baffin Island by way of Lake Huron. I promised to drive a Syrian refugee (mother of six, won’t wear gloves) to a medical appointment tomorrow morning, so I devoutly hope that the worst will have blown through by then.


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Subject: RE: DECLUTTER: *Sorting *Health *Progress - 2025
From: Charmion's brother Andrew
Date: 11 Feb 25 - 05:47 PM

A "bobo on [your] face?" I have a vision of my sister the fencer with a scar worthy of Heidelberg on her clock. ;)


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Subject: RE: DECLUTTER: *Sorting *Health *Progress - 2025
From: Donuel
Date: 11 Feb 25 - 01:50 PM

Hello my name is Don and I am your personal hypnotherapist, now retired. I dealt with controlling performance anxiety among athletes, musicians, public speakers, and control the parasympathetic nervous system to enhance performance. I had much success in overcoming phobias or addictions.
Training the body to breathe at six times a minute is important. Getting the process down to one breath to initiate the mind and body into a relaxed hypnogogic state makes the process an on going hypnotic self-help day to day exercise. When your breathing is controlled so is your heart rate and pressure. It is a bit like using control knobs that you can dial up or down from a relaxed state.

Other more bizarre applications were too remarkable to mention here but what I found quite satisfying was learning from thousands of people their unique personal stories. A priest might feel the same.
Post hypnotic suggestions have a shelf life but are highly useful.
They can be self aware reminders or unconscious reactions.

Be it forms of Yoga or guided imagery the quality of self control mechanisms are within your grasp whether its called therapeutic hypnosis or prayer.

btw I never believed in past life memories. I considered that stuff paranormal BS however I believe we had pre natal dreams. It is clear to me that we know far more than our conscious mind thinks it knows.


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Subject: RE: DECLUTTER: *Sorting *Health *Progress - 2025
From: Stilly River Sage
Date: 11 Feb 25 - 12:28 PM

Good luck with the car hunt. The last three I've purchased I found online via Edmunds Car Guide. Since the reports are online I would never go through an entire sale without test driving and getting a good look and smell in the inside (I am so averse to cigarette smoke, especially the stale smoke smell in vehicles). But it's a starting place.

What kind of "glints" did you find? I've spent time poking around road cuts and mine tailings picking up interesting minerals that are exposed from the activity.

I made the calls to my elected officials this morning; two went to voicemail, but the representative's office had a real live person. With notes I made my points and thanked the man for making note of my concerns. It is harder to call than to email, and having written it out ahead made it easier in a nervous situation. I'll alternate writing and calling from now on.

When making the bed this weekend I took off the top wool blanket but left it folded nearby, and last night put it on again. We had a noisy thunderstorm pass through at about 4am, accompanied by dog complaints in the hall. This morning I moved one of the dog beds into the hall bathtub, because that seems to be her shelter choice if I'm not around so she can hunker by my feet and trip me up. They have various types of beds for warm and cold weather just like me. This time of year I use layers instead of the down cover for that reason; there might be a week or two when down is ok, but it's not worth the trouble to unpack it for that short a time.


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Subject: RE: DECLUTTER: *Sorting *Health *Progress - 2025
From: pattyClink
Date: 11 Feb 25 - 10:57 AM

Spent the week back in Quartzsite after the Anza-Borrego stay, boondocking with old friends. Nothing more pressing than a campfire. My hiking buddies found some interesting glints in a nearby mining area, so we did an expedition up there, collected some great stuff.

This week I will head east, attempt to find a car in Tucson, go to a couple of rock and gem shows, catch a short symposium at the main show. If my knee allows, it is suddenly angry about something.


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Subject: RE: DECLUTTER: *Sorting *Health *Progress - 2025
From: Stilly River Sage
Date: 10 Feb 25 - 03:48 PM

This week I'm participating in a study at my university. It took two phone calls from them to finally understand that I'm capable of finding their building and my parking permit is in good standing. My regular campus lot is literally beside their new building, so please don't fuss at me if I don't want to park in the old funky parking garage that is actually farther away. They've set this study up for people who aren't part of the campus community. (I am not claustrophobic, but every time I drive in one of those concrete buildings I have images of the pancaked freeway lanes of a California earthquake flash through my mind, and a childhood of driving in the Alaskan Way Viaduct in Seattle that always felt like it could fall down. They finally tore it down before it could fall down.)

A bag of cleaning supplies has been offered on the Buy Nothing page, and I am awaiting a reply from the electronics donations guy. I sent a note clarifying why I'd like to know what he does for recycling, because I still have that dead UPS (explosion & fire) and would like to see the components get recycled.


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Subject: RE: DECLUTTER: *Sorting *Health *Progress - 2025
From: Charmion
Date: 10 Feb 25 - 08:24 AM

Yes, Stilly, I still need Marco, but for a much smaller job — the eggplant-purple bathroom, which has nasty holes in the drywall as well as the, um, purple. Two boxes and a bag of clothes, shoes and household linen are sat on the cedar chest waiting for the next run to Goodwill, which will be today or tomorrow. The collection of bakeware on the basement worktable has been joined by a whole whack of cutting boards and sheet pans of varying sizes, all ready for me to find some larger boxes so they, too, can leave the building.

As winter wanes, I will attack the garage, where I must have at least four folding chairs I will never use again as well as accumulated car stuff and garden tools. If my house-hunt goes according to plan, my next abode will be a condo where I don’t have to till the soil if I don’t want to. As I nurse my strained-yet-again lower back, I so don’t want to.

Today, I have a date with a plastic surgeon about the bobo on my face, which is still larger than it was when I last mentioned it. I can’t believe my luck — Stratford has a plastic surgery practice! And still no walk-in clinic for people who don’t have a family doctor. Hmmm. Priorities, people!


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Subject: RE: DECLUTTER: *Sorting *Health *Progress - 2025
From: Dorothy Parshall
Date: 09 Feb 25 - 09:16 PM

Dupont:

Today was a VGday! I went to the library and used both our cards to take out a few interesting new books. Then spent all day on the computer looking at what is going on down below. Posting good stuff for others to see. I am not as overwrought as two weeks ago. No surprise.....But - maybe I need to look for a thread on the subject. That has basically occupied me for most of the last two weeks.

I have had mostly not so bad days. Glad to see that Charmion is making some real progress on her moving project. SO glad it is not me!! But I am 88 now and others are going to have to pick up my pieces. Some of the posts help me realize - Oh yeah, I could get rid of....

There is, however, plenty of room in this house. No real need to get rid of stuff. I managed to give my son an interesting small frying pan with a wood under-piece. Special when I bought it but I forget why! I try to give him stuff when he is here but he refuses - He wants my stuff to still be here; I want to see treasures safely re-homed.

Thinking of SRS in Staples today when I saw an interesting puzzle; took a pic and will post it when I figure out how.

R's most recent crisis was having a bailiff serve a man who had moved into an expensive rental and paid no rent for a few months! ("You did not get a security deposit?? You did not talk to previous landlord???") He assaulted the bailiff and was hauled off to jail - briefly - but could not return to house. His wife (divorced) picked up the kids clothes and will probably have full custody after this! So R was up in the snowy Laurentians for a couple days, showing it to a woman who WILL pay security,etc!

Here,at home, I noticed a piece of the lower facade - just above the ground - gave up - fell off. Will it get repaired? Waiting two years now for a roof repair. ---So he came home and I ranted about deferred maintenance... He always has moderately valid reasons.

Ok- goal for tomorrow is to print out a calendar so I can try to keep track of how I feel/weatherconditions/food eaten.


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Subject: RE: DECLUTTER: *Sorting *Health *Progress - 2025
From: Stilly River Sage
Date: 09 Feb 25 - 03:52 PM

Hoping to hear back from the guy who wants electronic devices, but I won't start filling a box until he responds with information about what he takes and how he disposes of things if he can't use them.

Charmion, is there still some work for the painter Marco to do, or is that job completely off? Does he do other contractor work that you will be utilizing? Have you been up to your eyebrows in stuff you're sorting to pack or give away?

Is Patty out wandering the Sonoran or Chihuahuan Desert picking up rocks these days, or back home checking on the progress of the carpentry work?

Dorothy, are you snowed in but staying warm by the fire? Any new interesting projects you and R starting on or finishing? Are you still feeling better?

Keb, how is the clearing of your apartment going? Have you been back there to work lately?

Any lurkers want to report in?


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Subject: RE: DECLUTTER: *Sorting *Health *Progress - 2025
From: Stilly River Sage
Date: 07 Feb 25 - 08:44 PM

I'm a moderator on a local Freecycle page, and today someone complained that another person's post asking for old electronics (working, not working but repairable, or for recycling) is inappropriate because the request "is intended for the purpose of making a profit and not repairing to donate onwards to those in need." I answered politely and quoted the group's mission statement that is to keep things out of landfills and in circulation. There is nothing about donating to the needy or that you can't repair and sell what you get on the site.

But I have been thinking about that request for stuff; I have things I picked up to put on eBay and some of them are probably not going to sell (at the time they might have, but I've been slow to list them). So I'm thinking I should load up a box that he can do something with (supposedly he will recycle electronics).

I've spent the day playing with the blog, trying to create a new set of posts by adding a new page, but it isn't working the way I wanted. I moved a lot of pixels around today but don't have a lot to show for it.


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Subject: RE: DECLUTTER: *Sorting *Health *Progress - 2025
From: Stilly River Sage
Date: 06 Feb 25 - 11:16 PM

Shopping was successful: that early on a weekday there weren't many people yet and there was a good selection. Considering the amount of produce I bought plus chicken breasts, three free-range organic pork sirloins (no brine added), several high-end quarts of yogurt, and some gluten free bread and crackers, my entire bill was $52. If I'd shopped at one of the big name stores the meat alone would have cost that much. I bought four beautiful large cauliflower for $3. I really love this place.

I await more message t-shirts and have culled some that are too large. I have two to send over to a friend to find new homes for, from the Black Lives Matter protests. Today I wore my new Internet Archive shirt ("Universal Access to All Knowledge.")

In a note to those who pay attention to supplements, I'm finding that the L-Theanine and GABA are very helpful, particularly in the evening. The anxiety of the news lately is difficult to deal with, but these two products are enough. No shot glass of Scotch needed to in its own not-so-healthy way blur the rough edges.

Mary, it has been a while since you dropped in. Have you had any luck with the online job search?


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Subject: RE: DECLUTTER: *Sorting *Health *Progress - 2025
From: Stilly River Sage
Date: 06 Feb 25 - 10:16 AM

Charmion, I remember when you were doing all of the renovations - that was a gift to your modern-day self. You're going to be busy for a while this year, sounds like!

The large 3-ring binder with printouts from various accounts (in the book of things that are paid for) is now minus about 30+ pages. I went through and removed those so old they no longer work, those that have gone away (I tested), and I revised only a couple. Then they all went through the cross-cut shredder for today's trash. It wasn't enough to bother with the burning barrel. The second binder, with all of the free sites, needs the same attention.

We're testing a theory about the Town Talk shopping hours during the week, and this morning are going to see if we can get most of the produce instead of waiting for the huge Saturday market that fills the parking lot, and has every shopping cart in service (so you have to get carts from people who finished with them in the parking lot). Costco yesterday was more expensive (e.g. avocados up to $10 for six instead of $7 for six, and that tariff didn't kick in yet) and the clerk at the self-checkout said she'd never seen lines form to get in there (they have a new expanded setup). I coughed up $10 for a large rubber-backed doormat, to see if can catch more mud on dog feet. The existing mat has moved to a less-trafficked doorway. I can't grow avocados here, but I'll be growing other stuff to lessen the shopping runs this spring and summer.


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Subject: RE: DECLUTTER: *Sorting *Health *Progress - 2025
From: Charmion
Date: 06 Feb 25 - 09:13 AM

The real estate agent visited yesterday, and I feel relieved.

First, she told me not to paint the library/music room. Too much hassle and expense, and not necessary. (I hate the colours but others don’t.) Then she said that she believes the house will sell for enough to finance the entire move, including the land-transfer tax and professional fees.

The renovations Edmund and I did drastically improved the house, removing the problems that made it a slug in a seller’s market in 2017. So all that hassle and expense was most likely not in vain.

We will aim for late March to mid-April to list the house for sale. By then, I should have finished disposing of the stuff that I won’t use in my next life and don’t want to pay for moving. (I won’t wear Edmund’s mess dress uniform or gardening hat, but I’m not ready to part with them yet.)

Other than all of that, life continues in Stratford with a freezing rain warning today with yet more snow in the forecast, and work on the choir library this afternoon. Sur avec la guerre, as they don’t say in France.


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Subject: RE: DECLUTTER: *Sorting *Health *Progress - 2025
From: Charmion's brother Andrew
Date: 05 Feb 25 - 06:08 PM

Looks for when neighbours are intending to have theirs, like the Great Glebe Garage Sale.


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Subject: RE: DECLUTTER: *Sorting *Health *Progress - 2025
From: Charmion
Date: 05 Feb 25 - 12:54 PM

Good point, Andrew. The gun goes off a little earlier here, so early May would be about as late as I can leave it.


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Subject: RE: DECLUTTER: *Sorting *Health *Progress - 2025
From: Charmion's brother Andrew
Date: 05 Feb 25 - 08:41 AM

Does Stratford do neighbourhood spring yard sales? That would seem an opportune time to relieve oneself of the contents of a garage or garden shed. I would say early May before the starting gun goes off in the run-up to Victoria Day.


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Subject: RE: DECLUTTER: *Sorting *Health *Progress - 2025
From: Stilly River Sage
Date: 04 Feb 25 - 09:58 PM

Thanks! I subscribe to the Times and have seen some articles, though they still seem to be glossing over the rough edges of what Trump is doing. Finding reports that aren't pulling the punches in mainstream news is the goal. I think they'll be outside our borders to start with. The local independent reporters are doing the lion's share of the reporting right now. (At the moment Rachel Maddow is giving us updates on progress - the protests and complaints and lawsuits are beginning to have effect.)

More dust and dog hair cleared out today, and organizing the fridge makes room for more produce. We're planning to head to the favorite store on Saturday. Ex was over here this evening and suggests we should go earlier in the day. That is a change for him, because he used to hate earlier shopping because the lines are so long. Now as prices are going up he's willing to wait in line to check out if it means they won't have run out of things we want to buy. At Goodwill this week I found another of the Rubbermaid bins that work well when storing produce; it keeps longer than in the crisper drawers. So much of our produce here in Texas comes from Mexico.

I have an appointment and volunteering to do this week, but I've otherwise spent most of my time working on daily complaints to senators and government leaders and updating some of my materials that can be helpful to others. We live in interesting times.


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Subject: RE: DECLUTTER: *Sorting *Health *Progress - 2025
From: Charmion
Date: 04 Feb 25 - 04:15 PM

Hey, Stilly: I looked on the Globe website for Musk antics and found little; on this side of the border, we’re preoccupied with all the tariff nonsense.

Then I checked the NYT and read Michelle Goldberg’s latest piece. Maybe you’ve already seen it, but, if you haven’t, you should.

On the home front, five more cubic feet of books went down the road this morning and the bookcases now look decidedly light on content. Next is another cut at kitchen stuff, targeting items that survived previous purges.

We had so. much. stuff.

I haven’t even started on the garage and the garden shed. Hoo, boy.


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Subject: RE: DECLUTTER: *Sorting *Health *Progress - 2025
From: Stilly River Sage
Date: 04 Feb 25 - 01:03 PM

I spent yesterday working on a portable web page (it's a simple text file that when saved with the ending .htm becomes something that automatically opens in your default browser). It has all sorts of government links and reliable news sources. Next, to share it. I have lots of calls and emails to send today. I know the assignment.

Sweeping, cleaning, dusting, and pacing myself as I work on projects around here. I'm wondering about the wisdom of trying to file my income taxes today, if they'll just slide into a black hole somewhere. Life right now is measured by whether the federal checks arrive as scheduled and guaranteed by law and past administrations. So far Musk has gone after contractors (any that aren't his personal business) and the poor around the world. Federal agencies. The third rail that will rise up en masse are those receiving pension and medicaid type payments, so I suspect he would go for that group last.

Sorry about the politics here, but right now I am busy trying to declutter the US government of a coup.


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Subject: RE: DECLUTTER: *Sorting *Health *Progress - 2025
From: Charmion
Date: 03 Feb 25 - 06:19 PM

No word from Marco about painting. Grrr.


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Subject: RE: DECLUTTER: *Sorting *Health *Progress - 2025
From: Stilly River Sage
Date: 03 Feb 25 - 02:11 PM

The dogs are clean and sweet smelling and the bathroom is cleaned up of all of the water and dog hair.

My refurbished antique sewing machine for sale on eBay had some interest yesterday. Several questions about "does it work" - it says so right in the description. What color - again, right there in the description with all of the photos (does it matter?) and then finally "this is what I want but out of my price range, will you drop your price by $50 and pay the $50 shipping and sell it to me that way?" Geez. I set it up so I wouldn't receive offers from people, but that's what they were leading up to. No. It can ride the sales page a while longer.

Busy week ahead, writing to, calling, and this time also visiting the offices of our federal elected officials.


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Subject: RE: DECLUTTER: *Sorting *Health *Progress - 2025
From: Stilly River Sage
Date: 01 Feb 25 - 09:35 PM

Someone has already claimed the large old Foreman grill, picking it up tomorrow. Some Tupperware containers are cleaned, my daughter doesn't need them (she took one to use for chicken feed at her property, but no interest in these) and I have one of the VHS players cleaned and tested and ready to list on eBay. Got the remote control working (the batteries had crusted up in one spot) and it's ready to go. (This was a Goodwill purchase a while back.)

The dogs are in need of baths so I'm thinking tomorrow might be a good time for that. It'll be in the mid-70s.


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Subject: RE: DECLUTTER: *Sorting *Health *Progress - 2025
From: Charmion
Date: 01 Feb 25 - 09:11 AM

Sorry, keb, it’s not the church choir but the community chorus that’s in financial melt-down. But the same conductor was also the organist and choirmaster at my church, and abruptly now he’s not. With the community chorus gig collapsing around him, something happened with the rector and wardens of the church and that gig has now been yanked out from under him as well.

I have no idea what happened at the church except that it’s neither creepy nor criminal. The rector would say only “not a good fit”.

So that’s the last prop knocked out from under my life in Stratford.

The Brothers have agreed to help with the one part of the move that I have to handle myself and can’t do alone: moving the cats. The trip from Stratford to Ottawa takes at least seven hours by road (six hours of actual driving), and the cats can’t be left alone in the car while their human visits the loo. There’s an excellent “cat resort” near Ottawa where I intend to board them during the packing and the move, damn the expense.

Meanwhile, Marco the painter is still set to start work next week, which means it’s time for me to roll up the big rug and start shifting the furniture into the middle of that enormous room.

Stilly, you’re right about gut problems and low-carb eating. I have diverticulosis, a problem of 20 years’ standing, so I have to be very careful to eat enough but not too much of the right stuff, such as broccoli and red sweet peppers, while sternly avoiding the wrong stuff, such as beans. I’m just emerging from another seven-day belly-ache, this one caused by eating cheese without enough veg to help it along.

The fancy new electronic scale I got for Christmas tells me that excess body fat is not my problem these days, but my “bone mass” is verging on way too low. Better not fall down this winter, then!


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Subject: RE: DECLUTTER: *Sorting *Health *Progress - 2025
From: Stilly River Sage
Date: 31 Jan 25 - 09:50 PM

That's a tough one, Keb. Will he do the work to learn to at least lip sync if he doesn't know all of the words but is standing there?

I changed my mind about the restaurant supply store and used one of my smaller acrylic jars with a gasketed lid for the flour and what didn't fit in it is bagged in the freezer. I went to Goodwill and stumbled upon a small George Foreman grill - the one I use is larger and hard to clean because of the spacing on the ridges on the grills. This is sized for one and the metal cook plates, while ridged, are better spaced and easier to clean. I don't think it had ever been used. I'll offer my old grill on the Freecycle page. While at Goodwill I was astonished at the number of high-end printers, coffee makers, computer monitors, televisions, and other devices in the housewares department.

Recycling dropped off this afternoon, laundry in, dishwasher will run next. I have my tablet charging and just added a couple of my gmail accounts to it (the ones that receive messages with links to podcasts and newsletters that are so important these days now that some of the big social media sites are less than reliable).

I made it to Jan. 31 in dry January, but the Friday night massacre at the FBI is just one too many assaults on my brain. I have a glass of red wine to help the supplements L-Tyrosine and GABA do their work.


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Subject: RE: DECLUTTER: *Sorting *Health *Progress - 2025
From: keberoxu
Date: 31 Jan 25 - 02:57 PM

I sympathize with Charmion's difficult decision to de-clutter her life of the church choir.
It's hard when being a member of such a group determines whether one will stay or go.
I may be faced someday with a similar decision, for now I'm staying with my community chorus.

Charmion and I commiserated some time ago about the bass section in choirs and choruses.
I am putting up with a particularly noticeable bass singer in our chorus.
He is a holdover from when the chorus was with its previous director.
He has a big imposing bass voice and is a big imposing man.
And he admits, when pressed, that he cannot read a note of music.
What he does with the chorus, he does by reading the words, learning the music by ear, and following the other big imposing bass voice who IS a skilled and professional musician.
This was very difficult for him to do when faced with the Bruckner Mass in f minor, a work of symphonic complexity and length.
One time, during a rehearsal break when the director was out of the room, the illiterate bass sat down at the piano, stomping his big foot, and improvised something he called "the Bruckner blues," which sounded nothing like Bruckner.
We now are preparing a program of Beethoven, Haydn, and Mozart in which the texts are entirely in German, not one of this bass's languages.
The director is pragmatic about the fact that this is a community chorus and it takes all kinds to build one of such.
I am not pragmatic, but I am resigned.


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Subject: RE: DECLUTTER: *Sorting *Health *Progress - 2025
From: Stilly River Sage
Date: 31 Jan 25 - 12:39 PM

As a gift to myself this morning I finished all of the dishes in the sink last night and ran the dishwasher. Some days I'm so easy to please.

The weekend temperatures will be into the 70s and I plan to do some yard work. The garage needs tidying, easier to do in warm weather with the big door open. There is a long list of other things needing doing in the yard and I won't elaborate here but I've put them all down on the task list in my bullet journal for February.

I had a newer restaurant-quality plastic bin that I moved my regular flour into (I still use some of it for baking for other people, at least until I use this up). That empties a large round Tupperware bin. There is a smaller (nesting) Tupperware bin for my whole wheat flour, and that should also be moved. I've had the Tupperware for so long I have no idea how that plastic was made but it's time to stop using it for food. I'll look at the restaurant supply place and see what other options for food storage. They do sell some glass things, lots of stainless steel, and lots of acrylic.

I nearly dropped my salmon filet out of the skillet last night when transferring to the plate when the little silicone spatula sagged at the edge. The old hard black plastic wouldn't have done that. Neither would metal, and I think the answer is to use the metal utensils and not use non-stick pans so it doesn't matter that they're metal.


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Subject: RE: DECLUTTER: *Sorting *Health *Progress - 2025
From: Stilly River Sage
Date: 30 Jan 25 - 02:34 PM

Congratulations, Charmion! I'm pretty sure things like the chicken skin contribute to the levels my doctor was looking at, so we agreed I'll remove that to adjust the protein amount upward and see if readings are closer to what she wants in three months. Too much protein can cause issues with the gut. (The Atkins diet is notorious for causing constipation.) Today was the dentist, and when scheduling my next six months check it bumped up against my (now) annual dermatologist check. In all I'm doing pretty well at this age with only three prescriptions; it could be two if I decided to not treat the ADHD.

On the way back from the dentist I passed one of my regular feed stores that had seed potatoes and onion sets in stock so I'm set to start work in the garden. It needs a couple of days to dry after last night's heavy rain. I may need to get a new spark plug for the tiller; it wouldn't start the last time I tried it.


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Subject: RE: DECLUTTER: *Sorting *Health *Progress - 2025
From: Charmion
Date: 30 Jan 25 - 12:00 PM

I saw my doc last week to get a referral to a surgeon to remove a growth on my face. (No, it doesn't hurt, and it's most unlikely to be cancer but let's not take a chances.)

She looked me over and asked, "Are you still on that keto diet?" I said, "Sorta -- with a bit of a net carb boost to accommodate enough milk to deal with that osteopaenia you warned me about." She pages through a bunch of lab results on her computer. "Why do you have absolutely perfect blood lipid levels?" "I dunno. Just lucky I guess."

This may be the first time in my life I've ever been perfect at anything.


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Subject: RE: DECLUTTER: *Sorting *Health *Progress - 2025
From: pattyClink
Date: 29 Jan 25 - 08:33 PM

Thanks, I'm sure I will find what I need over time here in our thrifts. I was just making the point that tossing lots of kitchen stuff might not be desirable in the long run. Everything is 'always available cheap'; right up until it isn't.


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Subject: RE: DECLUTTER: *Sorting *Health *Progress - 2025
From: Stilly River Sage
Date: 29 Jan 25 - 07:22 PM

Patty, if you have a list of things you need send me an email or PM here and I can look for them at Goodwill. You would be astonished the number of things people donate because they now have the newest device and discard all of the others (I see this because this is a huge urban area where so much more is donated). I always test electrical appliances and only buy those in mint condition. Things I see regularly include Pyrex and Anchor Hocking glass baking pans (various sizes), cast iron skillets, glass storage containers, stainless steel stock pots, and appliances like crock pots, George Foreman grills, toaster ovens (I also see glass bowl convection ovens as well as the metal oven ones; there was a great glass one at Goodwill last week I couldn't think of anyone who needed one or I'd have picked it up.) Shipping a few of these things will still come out less than trying to buy them new. I can also send photos to your cell phone via text if that is convenient when shopping. I think a lot of these things end up at Goodwill after they don't sell at estate sales.

A long and productive discussion with my GP today resulted in a plan that for the next three months I'll follow - the diet I'm on now, but higher protein, less fat. Otherwise the same, and we'll see if the cholesterol lowers. The HDL is at a great level but she doesn't like the LDL (this was expected). Triglycerides are great as is everything else, and I was most interested in that marker. She says there is an expensive medication for people who don't tolerate statins, but I'm not considering it unless I learn a lot more about it and am convinced it won't mess up my brain or anything else. And after three months to see where the levels are. There are also a couple of scans that can be done to see where some levels are as we move forward. She could see I am feeling much better. Family health history would be excellent except two of the three sisters in Mom's family were heavy smokers and that messed up their health. The one who didn't smoke passed away at 95.

The friend with the sick kitty says he's back to eating and is much better. She's now injecting him with insulin every morning and is learning how much testing will be required. She had never seen him in the state that I described when I took him over to the vet, so is glad the old common sense kicked in and I got him to a vet that afternoon instead of waiting till the next morning.

Another set of messages sent to the senators from my state. Don't vote for JFK, Jr., he's a menace (phrased more politely). I told my GP about dry January and realizing that it might have to last for the next four years; the thought of self-medicating to reduce the stress of Trump is otherwise a real but unhealthy possibility until 2029.


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Subject: RE: DECLUTTER: *Sorting *Health *Progress - 2025
From: MaJoC the Filk
Date: 29 Jan 25 - 12:21 PM

> I have a reporters notepad next to the desk

Ooooh, that takes me back, Stilly .... I used to carry a reporter's notebook with me everywhere in my coat pocket, since I got fed up with myself for thinking of fragments of filk which evaporated before I could write them down. Over the years, at least one coat pocket got all but torn off by the weight (of responsibility?).


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Subject: RE: DECLUTTER: *Sorting *Health *Progress - 2025
From: pattyClink
Date: 29 Jan 25 - 11:48 AM

In the Anza-Borrego desert now, enjoying a bit of electricity and Starlink before going back to dry camping for the weekend.

While we're on the subject of ditching pans, I started looking at getting a few baking pans for the house, and it's not cheap, and they are not the quality they used to be. And there are cheap versions the mart sells, guaranteed to not last, and now they have warnings on knives and peelers "Hand Wash Only", lol. If I had a cupboard full of baking pans I didn't use often, but were long since paid for, I'd be very slow to get rid of them.

Because they are going to make everything worse before it gets better. Every necessity of life is under the microscope for the greedy rentier class to squeeze us. I have no desire to grow and make all my own stuff. But I am fearful of deliberate or climate induced shortages, and prices being jacked up on everything. I don't bake much now, but I can foresee a time when the weight is off and I don't need to exclude carbs as much, and commercial breads are all manufactured by some hedge fund, full of garbage, and $10 a loaf. Maybe I can teach friends the mysteries of bread baking, or swap loaves for their tomatoes.

We have all been exhorted to declutter as much as possible in the past few decades, and yes, we need to have less crap in our homes. But I'm starting to have to rebuy stuff I should have kept, at ridiculous prices, and I'm starting to wonder how much of the declutter movement was just a way to get us all to buy again further down the line. I'm not ditching stuff just to have a clean-looking living room, or to delete anything that isn't tied to my immediate areas of interest.


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Subject: RE: DECLUTTER: *Sorting *Health *Progress - 2025
From: Stilly River Sage
Date: 29 Jan 25 - 11:23 AM

Changing the diet does affect the use of cooking equipment. I've collected lots of small baking pans for fancy bread but I still bake at the holidays so I haven't thinned them (they go as gifts to people who still eat flour - a move I am considering changing - can soda breads work with gluten free?) It is apparently possible to make yeast bread with non-wheat flour, but again, it's the carbs not just the wheat. I'm at that target weight I registered in MyFitnessPal and need to get enough carbs to stay here, I drifted down 10 pounds since last summer because of the diet change but don't want to keep losing. It's about staying healthy. (Also headed for the shower, then the doctor's office to discuss this big change seven months out from stopping statins, now that she will have blood work in hand.)

Between Charmion painting and an old high school friend putting new windows in his house I see, through others' eyes, a lot of work that should be done so this place is ready if I decide the time has come. At this point in time, there is probably no place safe from the current administration and I at least have a lot of room for a garden here.

MaJoC, I have a reporters notepad next to the desk (long narrow thing that easily slips into a shirt or back pants pocket), a remnant of my old days as a journalist. It seems the most appropriate reminder of what I need to do now - write. Today's task for myself is to write to Cruz and Cornyn to oppose Kennedy. "Would you want him dictating your family's health routine?" I think after the attempted Federal employee masacre that Musk has fingerprints all over they see this clown car is off the rails. Even the GOP senators have to get serious and block his choices. Impeach Hegseth while they're at it.

The friend with the plants I've been digging posted a request on the Freecycle group for an embroidery hoop. I just sent a dozen in various sizes to my son's partner but still have several and will take her one next week when I go to dig again. It was purchased years ago, and has the price written on the side - 69¢ - not a huge giveaway.

Back to scanning this afternoon, and maybe the gym.


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Subject: RE: DECLUTTER: *Sorting *Health *Progress - 2025
From: Charmion
Date: 29 Jan 25 - 10:06 AM

I find that I am, indeed, weeding the books again, though I'm not yet sure exactly what I'll do with this batch of cast-aways. Of all my possessions, it's the books that Marie Kondo's approach works best on, though it's not a spark of joy I'm looking for but a pique of renewed interest. Since the pandemic, I have lost any inclination to read military history, especially the conventional accounts of policy, campaigns and battles. I'm even ready to part with my copy of Clausewitz.

On the music front, the Stratford Concert Choir is in the process of self-destruction. Three weeks ago, the Board voted to dismiss our conductor, an excellent musician and choir trainer, because the choir is losing money. There were two dissenting votes on the motion: mine, and one other that I assume came from the Alto section leader, a serious musician. The conductor has seen this coming for months because the board executive have fought him on every suggestion he has made to improve the financial picture. Now the other shoe -- the announcement to the membership -- has dropped and the fall-out is beginning.

This whole business is a major component of my decision to move back to Ottawa. The choir was the main anchor keeping me here, and now it's failing. I'm just tired of the resistance to change and the refusal to work toward improvement. So I resigned from the Board at its last meeting. I wasn't the first rat overboard; our lead bass, a Lutheran pastor with decades or experience in non-profit organizations, beat me to it by 24 hours.

On the home front, Marco the painter can't start this week and proposed next week. Okay, especially as the scope of work is changing -- now I want him to paint the bathroom, not the box room, because the bathroom is butt-ugly and must look as attractive as possible when the house goes public, and the box room is just kinda tired. And I won't take the curtain rods down. Changing the curtains would cost a bomb, and I'm not doing it since I won't be here to enjoy the result.

I still feel very stressed, but I'm managing it better. One task at a time, baby steps. The basement work table is again covered with kitchen stuff to go to Goodwill -- muffins are permanently off the home menu, so why do I have two muffin pans? Likewise loaf pans, of which I have six. If I ever make bread again, I have some round earthenware cocottes that do the job just fine.

It snowed yet again overnight, and the wind is blowing it all over the place. At noon I will pick up my friend Ruth to take her to Woodstock (40 km to the south on narrow county roads) to see the opthalmologist who did her cataract surgery, so I'm watching the weather radar map with intense interest. One of its screens shows wind direction -- very important in these parts.

Time to take a shower. My hair looks like a barley-stack bewitched.


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