DECLUTTER: *Sorting *Health *Progress - 2025

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.

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

No word from Marco about painting. Grrr.

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.

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.

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!

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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?).

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.

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.

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.

Subject: RE: DECLUTTER: *Sorting *Health *Progress - 2025
From: MaJoC the Filk
Date: 29 Jan 25 - 09:30 AM

--- Ah: "composing". My eyes did a mischievous tyop and rendered it as "composting" (presumably because of the context).

Subject: RE: DECLUTTER: *Sorting *Health *Progress - 2025
From: Stilly River Sage
Date: 28 Jan 25 - 06:50 PM

The afternoon went to composing a letter to both US Senators and the US Representative of my district. A folder is set up with templates for future letters and printed mailing labels along with brightly colored envelopes. I mailed the first batch, and will see about the online message system for each of these folks later. When I tried in the past they didn't let formatting or even paragraph breaks show up so reading a message isn't easy, hence the printed mailed letters. I also mailed my request for all of this year's absentee ballots. Addressing the impulsive illegal acts of 47 is going to waste a lot of time, but we can't ignore this crap.

Other things this week: the potted plants put in the garage for the week of hard freezes are out now and will get rained on tomorrow. I need to set up pots with soil and start veggie seeds for the garden this spring. Doctor and dentist check-ups this week. And soon I'll go back to the friend's house and dig up the almond verbena to transplant here (they're a glorious smelling shrub and attract loads of bees).

Subject: RE: DECLUTTER: *Sorting *Health *Progress - 2025
From: Dorothy Parshall
Date: 27 Jan 25 - 08:56 PM

Dupont:

The bros do very little self care. R has me kicking and screaming - take your supplements; Did you drink water today? clean clothes would help! -Bro, I ignore; only see him on rare family occasions. He actually behaves reasonably at the cousin's home. They are the "headquarters". I will not have him in our house; R agrees. He is over 80 now but he has always been a horror.   

The bit of wood I moved yesterday was enough! Back is complaining slightly but I dredged up enough energy to make a pot of chick/veggie stew for a couple days. Later in the week, I will go to the bakery and Little Green Library (books due), visit Geri, maybe a couple other friends down near the border. Between snows!

Signed up for friend Jessie's farm thingie for this summer. I do not envision being able to spend much time at Beaver (sadly).

Subject: RE: DECLUTTER: *Sorting *Health *Progress - 2025
From: Stilly River Sage
Date: 27 Jan 25 - 04:28 PM

I pulled up a draft blog essay from last fall and after editing I dropped it into my Wordpress account, just to see how it works now. I think a lot of people will be going back to blogs instead of sharing everything on Facebook. The place I used to host photos messed up a lot of my images so if I want to revive this seriously I need to restore what went missing. And probably pay for the blog to have more functionality.

Still kind of feeling the effects of lifting heavy boxes on Saturday. To save your back when lifting it helps to clench the abs, but I seem to have been over-exuberant with the compensation.   

The den is back to full-strength forest floor after mud, hair, and chewed sticks have built up in the last couple of weeks. The kitchen was looking great for guests yesterday, but I left the lights off and the curtains closed in the den.

Keeping track of simple things (harking back to the essay I linked to on the 24th) I find will be helpful in improving my mood. I subscribed to Snopes.com yesterday after being a user for years. And I used it in one of the fact check activities I pledged to do more of. For today I will remind friends around Texas who like to vote absentee that they need to send in the request form every year now (because the GOP Lege wants to make it more difficult to vote.) These are things I can do.

Subject: RE: DECLUTTER: *Sorting *Health *Progress - 2025
From: Stilly River Sage
Date: 27 Jan 25 - 01:09 AM

Funny you should notice that folding bookshelf, Dorothy (I had looked at the whisky wistfully, I'm off of it for at least January, but didn't look at the room). I have several of those collapsible bookshelves around here. They're practical.

I'm glad to read R's brother is better. Those brothers do seem to neglect their health at times, don't they?

Lunch with friends today was great. A lot of pent-up stuff added to the animated conversations. (Lunch was homemade mac and cheese, fruit, and chocolate. Hot tea to wash it down.) One had a signal on the dash that a tire was low so I got out the portable compressor from the car and added air. I could have used the fancy Stanley one I keep inside the sunroom door but realized I didn't know how to run the compressor part of it (power supply, car battery cables/jumper, and compressor). Must get out the instructions.

Subject: RE: DECLUTTER: *Sorting *Health *Progress - 2025
From: Dorothy Parshall
Date: 26 Jan 25 - 08:34 PM

Dupont:

Charmion! The path ahead is fraught with many mini-obstacles. You have made the big decision and made yourself and others happy! When I think of all the stuff you have moved in the last few years - this looks like a piece of cake! Of course the impending election is ... interesting? I hope we can get someone who is not a DT clone this time. Moving books one more time is a big job but not insurmountable.

That nice pic on FB, depicts - a foldable bookcase over by the window? I have the twin next to my chair! And that rocking chair! - mine is a memory. Too many moves...too much panic of divesting too much stuff!

Bro is a bit better; he did one of those incredibly stupid things - ignoring a pain in his toe, resulting in a day or two in hospital as the swelling was reduced so he can stand. Walking is still almost impossible. It seems that friends are taking turns helping out but R was not home for two days.

But, today, he brought in the rest of the winter's wood after I moved the dry wood from hallway into Den, near wood stove - which was pouring out welcome heat while the outside door was open to bring in cold wood! The temp was just about freezing and the sun bright!   

Hoping for a bit more energy tomorrow. Going to be about freezing - with light snow - yuck!

Subject: RE: DECLUTTER: *Sorting *Health *Progress - 2025
From: Stilly River Sage
Date: 26 Jan 25 - 11:19 AM

Yesterday I bought three cases of sparkling water at Costco, and was careful as I loaded them into the cart, into the SUV, and then into the garage. They're heavy enough that I was feeling it this morning in the abdominal muscles. Tylenol to the rescue. I'm preparing for friends over for lunch so don't need to be struggling with everything I need to do.

One of the eBay items listed on Friday sold on Saturday so will leave the house on Monday. Nice!

Last week was freeze, this week is rain, so more indoor activities.

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

Charmion, you made a big decision that isn't set in stone yet, and I imagine you're viewing a bunch of related parts of the move as one whole huge task. There is a drill - start making lists and put the discrete parts of it in such a way that you don't have to do all of it at once. Feel good about each accomplishment. So what is the first step? Getting this house ready? Starting the house search in Ottawa or nearby? I imagine your family is going to be a big help during the relocation.

Meanwhile, lift with your legs and get a good workout moving all of those books. Bonus - squats are good for the pelvic floor.

Anxiety here in the US is through the roof - it's dry January and probably needs to stay a dry four years because it would be too tempting to self-medicate the entire time. Better to let the anxiety push us toward resistance. I found Dr. Amen's chapter 10 (Happy Nutraceuticals) in You, Happier to be helpful, and have added GABA and L-Tyrosine to my supplements, as needed. L-Tyrosine is found in green tea, so simply drinking more of that can help your mood. I heard this morning that there is an early election of some sort scheduled in Ontario because of the tariff issues threatened by Trump. Green tea for everyone.

Subject: RE: DECLUTTER: *Sorting *Health *Progress - 2025
From: Charmion
Date: 25 Jan 25 - 11:27 AM

Sitting here in snowy Stratford, doing my best to stop stressing and get on with life.

Marco the painter will start work next week, so I have been preoccupied with planning his access to the walls of the music room. I have to shift six full-height bookcases — and their contents — into the middle of the room. I think the neatest way to accomplish this task is to unload each bookcase onto the work table, move the empty bookcase, then load the books back in. When Marco has finished, I will simply — but not without considerable effort! — reverse the process.

Yes, labour-intensive. But that’s what I have to do if I am to get that room redecorated without spreading stacks of books all over the house, which would take just as much work and make the place unlivable for a week. And no, I’m not prepared to “just get rid of” the books, as many people would advise. Not people who hang out here, I hasten to add.

Barbara the real estate agent will return from her holiday next week. She suggested looking at the house in the first week of February. With any luck, I’ll have the music room back to rights by then.

Meanwhile, my level of anxiety bobs about the threshold of intolerable, which is very distracting.

Subject: RE: DECLUTTER: *Sorting *Health *Progress - 2025
From: pattyClink
Date: 25 Jan 25 - 09:51 AM

Keb, I am so glad there was a way to slide over to a new firm.

My fervent hope is that some day a lot of business will move over from the giant chains back to real people running small businesses. We can't afford the overhead and excessive profits of these big chains. Only reason they can often charge less is they are allowed to bully suppliers into sweetheart deals. That policy, once illegal, was up for review by the government recently, I forget if it's FTC or Justice.

Subject: RE: DECLUTTER: *Sorting *Health *Progress - 2025
From: Stilly River Sage
Date: 24 Jan 25 - 11:13 PM

Keb, that worked out rather well! I've only had my taxes prepared professionally a couple of times, when estates were involved. I still manage to make a few mistakes and it gets rejected by the IRS free file software until I fix it. I never use the commercial products; those companies use well-paid lobbyists to pester the government to keep the income tax code so complicated that no one can do them easily so they can stay in business.

This evening listing easy to describe and ship eBay things. Small and non-breakable like Tupperware and sewing stuff, to build up the inventory. The weekend is fully subscribed; cat sitting will finish Saturday evening and I need to clear the kitchen counters and table for our university group lunch on Sunday.

Subject: RE: DECLUTTER: *Sorting *Health *Progress - 2025
From: keberoxu
Date: 24 Jan 25 - 06:44 PM

A most unexpected form of de-clutter in the last day or two.
My taxes are prepared by an accountant, a very nice one, who is part of a large nationwide firm.
The firm in question just informed its people that all accounts below a certain dollar figure are going to be terminated.
That includes me, and according to the accountant, about fourteen clients of hers.
She fortunately thought of a remedy.
I've been with this firm long enough to have gone through a series of accountants there.
One of them left the firm to become a partner in a smaller business,
and he is accepting clients as lowly as myself.
So today he and I agreed to resume our accountant/client relationship at his newer, smaller firm.

Subject: RE: DECLUTTER: *Sorting *Health *Progress - 2025
From: Stilly River Sage
Date: 24 Jan 25 - 12:30 AM

That's a nice looking little park, Patty. I've been through the area a number of times but never made it to that one.

A recommendation came through on a good tutoring program so I'll investigate their options. This is will build on the number of things I'm doing to help others but also make myself feel better. It's clear that federal money to schools is probably going to drop, and in this state the legislature plans to divert dollars to vouchers, further harming public schools. This is my small thing to help. There was an essay published that is making the rounds on Facebook (lots of copy paste, but here is the original: Do I Dare Disturb My Doomscrolling?)
"You can’t identify what needs to be done next if you aren’t doing the simple things that can be done now."

Subject: RE: DECLUTTER: *Sorting *Health *Progress - 2025
From: pattyClink
Date: 23 Jan 25 - 09:45 PM

Hi from the road, wishing everyone well with their changes and upheavals. SRS, glad your devotion to the friend's cat had a happy ending!

Worked very hard to get everything loaded for travel, and still managed to pack 5 hairbrushes but no hand lenses, but whaddya gonna do. Did use several well-thought-out lists but just too many moving pieces to juggle. Drained all the pipes, winterized, with questionable help from a well guy. I gotta find a decent water well driller, maybe there's one in Silver City.

Had a great visit with the micro collectors in ABQ, then pressed on, stopping overnight at Homolovi State Park, which was a serene little place not far from the interstate. Got in a hike and learned a few things from the ruins and exhibits.

Stopped a night in the wide spot in the road called Wikieup, Arizona, at a true oasis of an rv park-cum-pie-cafe. Lovely, and much warmer than the high country was, while hitting 8-10 at night.

Subject: RE: DECLUTTER: *Sorting *Health *Progress - 2025
From: Stilly River Sage
Date: 23 Jan 25 - 01:02 PM

Dorothy, I hope Robin's brother recovers quickly. And it sounds like the "treatise" you sent the sons needed writing. Getting it out of your system, making clear to others who needed to know your side of the story, that lets it be set aside. (I had a particularly toxic friend like that once - I wrote it out then burned the pages and buried them in the garden, and remarkably, that let me put it behind me.)

Still darned cold here, and the faucets have been dripping every night for a week. Tomorrow it looks like things finally warm, and then we're into a rainy spell. All week has been one for layers and chapstick.

I am working to maintain forward momentum these days despite retrograde developments in the US. Progress on eBay listings, and setting aside more household craft things for the next donation for city teachers. I'm also getting back to after-school tutoring; I tutored for a couple of years in the town where I was working until I retired (it was long drive for a couple of hours a week.) I'll find a program here; I sent a note to the friend at the university who works with groups that do tutoring and teacher service-learning to get a recommendation of where to start.

Subject: RE: DECLUTTER: *Sorting *Health *Progress - 2025
From: Dorothy Parshall
Date: 22 Jan 25 - 10:00 PM

Dupont:

Finally back to feeling reasonably good. Whatever that was, was a doozy! At least R did not need to deal with it or with me having it; I just mostly stayed in bed with book and computer.

Now R's bro (80) was in hospital yesterday with something nasty wrong. I am hoping R will be home tonight or let me know. They are partners in the business and the load is already too much for R; if bro cannot help, I fear for R's mental health.

I sent off a treatise of the 66 years of my so called "marriage" to #2 son. Sent it to #1 a few months ago after he browbeat me and triggered PTSD. I decided they are old enough to have a clue what I have been through with their "DT clone" of a father. DTclone is the most polite way I can refer to him.

Had a wonderful visit this week with a woman I met at the grief group. My first friend in this burg!

Charmion! Sounds like a great decision! Wonderful to have family happy to have you back!