DECLUTTER: *Sorting *Health *Progress - 2025

Subject: RE: DECLUTTER: *Sorting *Health *Progress - 2025
From: MaJoC the Filk
Date: 21 Feb 25 - 11:57 AM

> (sharpie at the ready)

Have you been deflecting any hurricanes recently, Stilly .... ?

Subject: RE: DECLUTTER: *Sorting *Health *Progress - 2025
From: Charmion
Date: 20 Feb 25 - 04:56 PM

I have a discreet bandage under my nose like an off-centre Hitler moustache. It feels strange but does not hurt. But I have to stay out of the Y pool until 48 hours after the stitches are out, and I have to figure out how to take a shower without getting my face wet.

Subject: RE: DECLUTTER: *Sorting *Health *Progress - 2025
From: Stilly River Sage
Date: 20 Feb 25 - 12:52 PM

Patty, I don't have an ice cream maker (but I take your general point) but I've been considering long items like baking sheets, though they're doing ok in the pantry now. It should be something that isn't harmed if there is a messy spill that splashes into the cupboard. I have some of those rarely used items in the bottom shelf of a different cupboard already. :)

To have a clear picture of your vehicles, you have an RV and the Subaru? It sounds like a great vehicle you found.

I've been looking at stuff in the freezer and am going to try an experiment. There are YouTube videos that show how to use commercial freezer zip bags in the FoodSaver machine, but what I observe in the freezer is after a while many of the regular plastic bags have puffed out and the contents rattle around. Were they just regular bags I used (non-freezer?) that must be somewhat air permeable? So the idea of using zipper bags instead of the expensive sealer branded bags may be good as long as I use freezer-weight bags. There are a couple of techniques and I'll try both and label the bags (sharpie at the ready) and see how they work.

I also have quart canning jars full of frozen wild grape juice and I'm considering offering them if people who get them bring me quart canning jars in exchange. I have about a dozen jars in there and don't want to give away a case of them if I can avoid it, I use them a lot.

A phone call with my sister last night showed that even a thousand miles apart and not talking very often we still think alike. We've both been organizing accounts and trying to streamline but also protect finances from possible bank or credit card nonsense in this era of 47. We each had good suggestions for the other so I'll be considering some of that.

Still very cold today, but sunny and dry. It was so cold that last night the programmable thermostat showed the house was pretty darned chilly at bedtime. I pushed it up a couple of degrees for the dogs. I did manage to surprise Cookie and put her jacket on, and she's ok with it. That boxer/pit coat just isn't meant for really cold weather.

Subject: RE: DECLUTTER: *Sorting *Health *Progress - 2025
From: pattyClink
Date: 20 Feb 25 - 09:53 AM

SRS, that deep cabinet would be good for anything only used rarely; ice cream maker, Thanksgiving or Easter stuff, beach gear.

Got home last night after a 660 mile round trip to pick up the car, a very long day. It is a Subaru Crosstrek Wilderness, low mileage 2024. Way too many bells and whistles, but it was the best way to get 4x4, high clearance, and towing capability. It was strange to be able to pull in anywhere, and I wound up stopping for food at a place with truck parking anyway.

Exhausted, I'll spend time unloading new rocks and minerals and books, tidy the place a bit, and then get started on a houswarming/St. Pat's party plans. Lots to do to make that happen, but I am anxious to have friends and neighbors over, and looking forward to a proper celebration of St. Patrick's Day.

Subject: RE: DECLUTTER: *Sorting *Health *Progress - 2025
From: Charmion
Date: 19 Feb 25 - 12:18 PM

Stilly, I’m totally low-tech with frozen fruit. No fancy weskits; I let the blueberries thaw in a glass cocotte, add a little cinnamon and some fake sugar, and eat them with a spoon.

My back still hurts. Floundering about in the snow yesterday was not good for it — not to speak of digging out my front path every day, sometimes twice a day. At least it’s no worse.

In about an hour I’m off to see the surgeon, MasterCard at the ready. It’s a good thing I pay it off every month so I don’t have to worry about the extra expense.

Subject: RE: DECLUTTER: *Sorting *Health *Progress - 2025
From: Stilly River Sage
Date: 19 Feb 25 - 11:49 AM

Last night I cleared out several containers in the fridge and freezer by making a batch of my "nacho mix" - can be used for tacos, burritos, nachos, etc. and it absorbed the several containers of aging but still edible cherry tomatoes, a partial can of tomato paste, the last 1/4 of a jar of chipotle salsa, finished the frozen Hatch chilis from 2021, and used up two pounds of beef chuck (the oldest vacuum sealed in 2021).

The house is dark because the insulating curtains are pulled across the back, over the sliding glass door and windows in the dining area. A few flakes are falling but no buildup. It's 14 so the faucets in the bathroom and kitchen are set to drip water all day—I put a container under each drip so if I need water I scoop it out with a cup instead of turning the faucet on and forgetting to set it back to dripping. It's a day spent in fleece pants and layers. The point is to not strain the power grid by turning up the heat. We're all a bit trepidatious after this same week in February 2021.

The dogs are back in the cave of bedding built in the kennel and the bed in my office closet. If I feel ambitious later I'll isolate Cookie in the bathroom and see if I can put her dog jacket on; once in place she likes it, but you'd think I'm trying to torture her for the reaction when I approach (and if Pepper is in the room all hell breaks loose for some reason).

How's your back doing today, Charmion? And have you used any of those blueberries? Have you found a way to use them that isn't high carb? I sometimes put them in a bowl of yogurt. I put my homemade granola on top (it's mostly nuts now, only a little bit of oatmeal in it, and I measure it out so I don't get too many carbs in a day.)

Subject: RE: DECLUTTER: *Sorting *Health *Progress - 2025
From: MaJoC the Filk
Date: 18 Feb 25 - 11:40 AM

Verily re crumbling plastic. We obtained a considerable amount of well-rotted farmyard manure a decade or more ago, which came in plastic farm-feed bags; now we find we have to dig in plastic shrapnel along with the muck. So much for improving the solid clay masquerading as soil in our garden.

Subject: RE: DECLUTTER: *Sorting *Health *Progress - 2025
From: Stilly River Sage
Date: 18 Feb 25 - 11:16 AM

In spring 1978 I drove across the US and in Wyoming encountered a snowy day on a straight highway with those snow fences. They kept snow from the roadway but the wind was blowing north to south with the constant movement of a small amount of snow scuttling across the road, making it visually very difficult driving. (Plastic sheeting is such a bad choice, to crumble on the landscape as it breaks down.)

Still fussing about that peninsula cupboard in the kitchen and where to relocate food containers. If I moved food storage out then what would I put in there? Stuff that doesn't matter if I lose track or forget it altogether? I suppose the extra tiles from floor and shower projects and paint cans with current room colors could be parked there. The stuff that you leave for the next homeowner (I have no plans to move, but I appreciated finding some spare kitchen floor tiles when I moved in.) There's only so much of that, it's a very deep cupboard with a lot more space. What else?

Subject: RE: DECLUTTER: *Sorting *Health *Progress - 2025
From: Charmion's brother Andrew
Date: 18 Feb 25 - 09:24 AM

Wood lath snow fencing was wired to 6-foot steel T-sectioned pickets set 2 feet into the ground. If the pickets were set on the recommended 8-foot centres, cattle could be restrained by the fencing.

Wood lath has largely been replaced in North America by heavy-gauge polyethylene sheeting with lozenge-shaped holes in it. As it does not involve the multiple double strands of wire that were used to hold the wood laths together, I would not vouch for its ability to hold back cattle.

Subject: RE: DECLUTTER: *Sorting *Health *Progress - 2025
From: Stilly River Sage
Date: 17 Feb 25 - 11:35 PM

Congratulations on your papers and cardboard clearing, Keb. Some days it feels like an accomplishment to run a load of dishes in the dishwasher. This was one of those. I also went shopping, but didn't do much else.

Subject: RE: DECLUTTER: *Sorting *Health *Progress - 2025
From: keberoxu
Date: 17 Feb 25 - 01:30 PM

On my latest visit back to my apartment,
I sorted and trashed some more papers, several bags of them to the dumpster,
as well as some unusable cardboard boxes.
And I donated a small manual typewriter to Goodwill.

Subject: RE: DECLUTTER: *Sorting *Health *Progress - 2025
From: Stilly River Sage
Date: 17 Feb 25 - 01:10 PM

MaJoC I grew up in the Pacific NW where it was easy to find wild blueberries and huckleberries, but the commercial ones are huge in comparison. Not as flavorful, but ok. The organic ones are much better for you, as with most produce.

The first summer I worked for the Forest Service I was also getting credit toward a forestry degree and the afternoon my partner and I watched a VW beetle drive up a logging road was memorable. Not a usual sight in a world of pickups and logging and gravel trucks. When it parked nearby and a 6'5" guy unrolled himself from the front seat I recognized my friend and professor. We were surveying new tree growth in a clear cut area that was a few years out from harvest, and it was also full of successional blueberry bushes and other plants that come back after logging or a forest fire. He was most impressed that as we worked we kept picking berries for ourselves but were also keeping an eye on a black bear on the other side of the unit who had no intention of giving up the blueberries to the two people out there walking around. When bears eat they use their front feet like hands and rake the berries off of the branches running between the fingers and straight into their mouths. He told me later that was the most entertaining of all of the internship visits he did that summer (I think he also took home a bag full of blueberries.)

I'll do one more shopping trip this afternoon and called the neighbor getting over flu, asking if she needs anything. It's a rough week coming up and I've moved the potted shrubs and small trees into the garage again.

Subject: RE: DECLUTTER: *Sorting *Health *Progress - 2025
From: MaJoC the Filk
Date: 17 Feb 25 - 11:50 AM

> wild blueberries

Do they taste better than tame ones? The ones on the shelves in the UK are cheating to my mind: basically super-sized blackcurrants that have had all the flavour leached out of them. I like fruit that bites back.

Subject: RE: DECLUTTER: *Sorting *Health *Progress - 2025
From: Charmion
Date: 17 Feb 25 - 11:21 AM

When the roads are a bit more passable, I also want to declutter my freezer of comestibles I will not eat — specifically two one-kilo packets of stuffed tortellini and three bags of cranberries. (I love cranberry sauce, but I know exactly how much sugar it involves.) I’ll hang onto the frozen wild blueberries.

Today began with blowing-snow warnings on the radio. In my far-distant youth, every country road was lined by snow fences that halted the movement of blowing snow before it could cover the pavement. A snow fence was a flimsy thing of cheap wooden slats wired together and anchored to four-foot posts made of angle-iron. It could not restrain even the most docile dairy cow, but it admirably did the job for which it was designed. The winter landscape was marked by windrows of snow pocked with the tops of the iron posts, and the roads were somewhat less dangerous. A good thing as the cell phone had yet to be invented and one hit the ditch in the certainty of a very long, cold, wait for help.

Southwestern Ontario is apparently innocent of snow-fencing, and so we have blowing-snow alerts.

Subject: RE: DECLUTTER: *Sorting *Health *Progress - 2025
From: Stilly River Sage
Date: 16 Feb 25 - 10:15 PM

An afternoon repeat of the purging printed records of old online accounts, this time through the "Free accounts" book; I must have removed 50 pages, checking half of them online to see if the sites still existed then closed several that were viable but no longer of interest. Each book is still too full for them to be combined into one, but the contents of each might go into smaller binders.

Did some shopping today and will finish the rest of my list tomorrow ahead of the freezing and possible snow midweek. I emptied dessert stuff from the freezer and took it in a care package to the next door neighbors (who have had a couple of rough weeks, surgery followed by the flu).

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.)

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.

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'.

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.)

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.

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!"

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.

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.

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 36^o. 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.

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".

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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. ;)

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.

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.

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.

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.

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!

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.

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?

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.

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?

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.