Apropos of Nothing v.11

Judi, so glad to hear your are solving your problem to your satisfaction!!!!!!! What a relief for you.

Guess Julie didn't consult the poultry catalog that I loaned her for the correct spelling of her Araucana chicken! I didn't THINK it looked right, but didn't bother to check it out till Jan brought thoughts of snakes to mind!

Her chicken was named "Grey Lady" and it was the kind that lays blue eggs.

I would never scold Julie for not checking the catalog for spelling! LOL! She is perfect the way she is, even with misspellings. I thought 'anaconda', too, but then realized that was just crazy, that it must be a chicken she was referring to. I would love to see blue chicken eggs. That is too cool.

My father used to have a pet chicken when he was a child in East Texas. He used to amuse us girls and make my mother mad by telling the story about how he used to let the chicken pick his teeth after meals. ROFLOL! You should have seen my mother's face when he would tell that one! The chicken lived under the front porch.

I wonder if there is a person who would let me dog sit their terrier, or maybe a 'rent a terrier' agency. After all, we have rental goats around here who come and clear brush for you. Why not a 'rent a terrier' place? I do not want another dog. I have two. I already have more animals than I feel competent to care for.

Portland, that is brilliant! I'm so glad you found a good solution, and shame on the pest control companies for not informing people about that. It figures. I will keep it in mind should I ever get squirrels in the attic. I wonder if it would also work with rats. I don't see why not, although it might take awhile. I know at one point we had them in the attic, as did our neighbors. I don't know what that's more gross than squirrels, but somehow, it is.

Oh, Apropos of nothing, Steve, when you visited a couple of years ago you brought me a Cardiocrinum giganteum. Guess what is going to bloom this year? It's putting up a huge stalk!

Apropos of nothing, I FORCED myself to vacuum and scrub the kitchen floor this morning. And NOW I have the whole weekend to myself. I am FREE FREE FREE.
Have lots of transplanting in mind and way too many winter sowing jugs to try to deal with. Onward!

That's where my transplanting thoughts are too, in my head. I did get my little tomato starts into 4" pots and they have grown a little. Think I will turn on the light and heat mat for them. Warm up their tootsies.

Jan - I read the same thing. I had a nice image of Julie sleeping with her anaconda, but finally reread it when I thought about the anaconda being with other chickens . . . I'm guessing, Sharon, that our ready "anaconda" says more about our internal psyches than Julie's spelling. LOL I shouldn't admit this in public, but I used to let my parrot try that. There was nothing to pick, but grooming is the way birds express affection, so who was I to thwart his affectionate bent?

Judi - I'm thrilled that you found a solution. I mean, it's the 21st century, for goodness sake. There had to be something. Kudos to you for continue to pursue a solution you could live with. Even if you did have to euthanize them, having them be terrified for 12 hours is ugly. I'm amazed that people can see that and not react the way you did.

But my perspective is, of course, mine. And I don't kill the slugs. :-)

This message was edited Apr 17, 2010 12:27 PM

Portland, well done. I wonder if the entire process of accepting, assessing, rejecting, and resolving was really necessary. I think sometimes we get complaisant in our thinking, and it takes getting back in touch with what we have to witness to get our creative thinking going again. I give you full marks - and especially since it seems you have launched a nice chippy into a whole new business. I think this is a win (the squirrels)/win (your new chippy)/win (and you) (and probably one more - but then I think we are getting into the cosmic, buddhist sort of terrain) - interesting to see what the squirrel catchers do now - if they are really smart they will add the door to their list of options.

Now, I think a caught/released squirrel needs to become friends with Persil - and tell a few close call stories - where upon Persil gets caught, thinks himself into the squirrel mind set and escapes (gets released), tells said squirrel and finds out the squirrels was really telling tales (after all, they are known for their embrodieries) and admires Persil enormously for having REALLY had an adventure. Persil is pretty chuffed too, but also reflective on just whose mind set he imagines himself into the next time - although he has heard about this doggie doctor called Sofer.

Melissa - I'll bring Spike to visit . . . he has recently decided that digging is the most heavenly occupation ever . . . and what a surprise - he doesn't listen to me when I say "no."

Judi, so very glad you found a good solution to the squirrel problem. And I would have been crying right along with you, believe me.

Whew, what an ordeal with the squirrel trapping. You are clearly one persistent woman with a goal in mind not to give up and give in to the less-than-upfront pest control people. Kudos to you for finding a humane solution. The one way door is really the better long term solution anyway, since eventually, given enough time, more squirrels will find their way in to the attics of the neighborhood. However, if everybody wises up and has the special doors installed, they can go ahead and fix the point of break-in knowing the wildlife has a way back out into the wild (if you can call it that in the city).

Yes, the atmosphere here is so much better now. I can't adequately describe what doom settled over my house, and the way my pets were feeling it also. It was very agitating. A big black cloud hanging overhead. I'm sure the euthanizing is done in a humane way, but the time the poor creatures spend in the traps is absolutely horrific. It just didn't feel right, that was my gut feeling. And now everything feels in sync and restful.

Laurie I will email you about Persil.

My raised beds are being built tomorrow - yeah!

My cell phone finally collapsed and died today, so now I have succumbed to the allure of a sexy iphone. Now if I can only figure out all it's lovely features...

Yeah. You will have so much fun with raised beds!! Did you get an iPhone?

I'm glad that all worked out for you Judi.

Ohhhhh, the allure of iphone - even I lust after one - all those apps that are so deliciously useless! WHO NEEDS to have a starbucks locator? (I want one, please, even though it just means glancing up and spotting that I am standing in front of one). Just can't rationalize it - a) we have no mobile coverage out here, and b) I rarely make/take calls - my server keeps offering me smaller and smaller packages - I think they are embarassed by my non-useage. BUT - you can have allllllllll thossssssseeeee apps, and a slidey screen! Yeahhh.

:-)

I toyed with getting a cell phone a few years ago but thought they were too expensive. Now I watch all the people around me constantly checking theirs & think, "Never."

I'm with Summer on the cell phone thing. I do have one, but never come close to using my minimal minutes. I thought it would make sense to use as my business phone (home based) but instead find that people have no boundaries with them. I just had a call from a prior client at 8:30 on a Sunday morning with an idiotic and non-time sensitive question - what was she thinking??? More importantly, why did I pick up??? It's now on "off mode" until Monday at 9 am.

I draw the line at texting. I find texting to be extremely annoying and a very poor form of communication. I think it gives people an 'instant' feeling of staying connected while they are actually distracted by other things. It's also so intrusive that I resent it. When people are texting during a movie or having a conversation with someone while checking their most recent text message, they are just using poor manners, in my opinion. since I use my cell phone as both business and personal phone, I've found that I have to be the one to set the boundaries with it by either ignoring it or turning it off. Back when we had only land lines at the office, people could call any time of day or night and leave a message, knowing full well no one would be there to pick up. They called because they thought of it just then and wanted to get the phonecall done in the moment. No harm in that. It's when people start 'picking up', as bonehead says, that it gets to be an issue.

Oh, the other line I draw is the use of a bluetooth wireless device. Never! It makes people look like cyborgs and act like schizophrenics. Don't they know how they look and sound walking down the aisle at the grocery store, apparently talking to themselves? Soooo many times I've felt like saying ,'Are you talking to me?'. If I tried to have a conversation with others everywhere I went, I would stay lost all the time.

I'm yet another who first thought of snake! Esp since I had boas.

Judi, glad you are getting the one-way doors. How very annoying no one told you about them earlier. Sooooo typical!

I'm just back from WSU where I took Jesse to check out the campus yet one more time to be sure he wanted to go there. I was entertained with tours thru frat houses. Very long drive back and forth. sigh. Looks like that will be my life for the next 4 years. I do really love both Pullman and Moscow. (I really wanted him to pick U of I but he wasn't interested.)

Pixy, your story of the chicken picking teeth reminded me of another. Jim had a friend and they told him that they had some rather snobbish types over for dinner. At the end of the meal, they put the dinner plates down on the floor and let the dog lick them clean. Then they casually put them back into the cupboard. LOL I have so wanted to try this. The one couple I wanted to try it on have never been to visit since we moved here. Alas.

Trying to decide with of the many many garden chores I should go do before heading down to our movie theater for the Jackson Hole Wildlife Film Festival showings...

Back in the dinosaur age when I was a newly married woman (girl?), I invited my in-laws over for their first dinner at our house. My brother was living with us at the time and left his breakfast/lunch dishes in the sink, knowing full well that I was stressing over this dinner. I angrily plopped them in a bucket and stuck them under the sink for him to do later. Of course, after dinner, my mother-in-law promptly marchs over to the sink and opens the cupboard to help with dishes. Yikes. I'm sure she did not buy my insistence that those were not in fact my dirty dishes...

Your mistake was in not putting that bucket on your brother's bed...

And then kicking him out of the house...

As I recall, the kicking out part came shortly after he declined to give me a ride to my own wedding being held about 2 miles away -- apparently he had other plans and I ended up driving myself to the church. Came extremely close to just not showing up - this was back in the early cohabitation days when the primary reason for weddings was to keep the parents happy, rather than the grand productions they have now evolved into. It wasn't important for me to be princess for the day, but was very important to my mother to have that ring on my finger.

I'm wondering why your 'handle' is bonehead - sounds like that should be your brother's name!!!!

We have cell phones but they stay in the car and truck. They are for necessities. And off most of the time. Jitterbug!

Pix, I'm am constantly amazed at the strength of your feelings about things and situations. Well done you. I would be utterly exhausted by having to come up with such well defined feelings on something like a phone or text message. I think I will stick to hating forsythia yellow. But as far as texting, I quite like it. I am quite good at it, never use abbreviations or sloppy grammar, don't do it during meetings, driving, or crossing the road, and write as if it is a postcard - if someone picks it up when they feel it is an inappropriate time, I don't really carry a very strong sense of responsibility for that. And as far as any phone being intrusive, I only find that so if I answer it - so I often don't. Sadly, I missed a call this morning from a friend stuck in Istanbul - they were due to fly out tomorrow a.m, but with the airspace closed clear across Europe it looks as though they might not be home for a while. They are hoping to get on a train instead - now there is a journey worth thinking about - Istanbul to London via rail - how romantic.

Laurie, perhaps people in England do not abuse their cell phones as people do here. Kids are growing up with cell phones as an extension of their hands. They don't know how to carry on conversations. It would not be unusual to have a bunch of kids in the car and instead of talking amongst themselves, they text each other, even tho they are sitting right next to each other!

Adults, esp men, like to walk around with headphones on talking on the phone 24/7. People here are so important they feel the need to be reachable constantly and cannot even grocery shop or get coffee without having a loud important conversation while they do so. The airports are just hilarious - that's where all the really important people hang out.

Adults I just ignore. Except I get really annoyed when cell phones ring in the middle of a meeting. Even my old lady garden clubs, someone will not turn off their cell phone almost every meeting. It's just downright rude and selfish.

But what really concerns me is to see the younger generation growing up lacking communication and social interaction skills.

And back in the old days, men would rather be caught dead than sitting around jabbering on the telephone; that was for women.

But once the phone turned into a cool electronic gadget, their lips haven't stopped flapping.

I much prefer the strong silent type, or at least the ones that let me do most of the jabbering. Well, except for my brother -- thank goodness for his cell, because he slips out of the house in the evenings once in awhile (5 kids & a high-maintenance wife) for some peace & quiet and then calls me, and then we both yammer on about minutiae of the stock market & modern mores.

Well I like cell phones. What I don't like is the way people use them - in the store, on the sidewalk, in the car, in meetings, etc. I also text and I think it is a handy tool, but then my job demanded a cell phone and a blackberry so they became a part of my life. If I don't want to answer I don't, and if I don't even want to hear the ring I turn the phone off. I like having it when I travel alone, walking the dog alone, etc. I don't as yet have any useless apps or games on my iphone and I have no desire for that. I was able to use it to connect to the internet and find a restaurant that has gluten-free food when I was in an unfamiliar part of town, and that was pretty handy. I like technology!

By the way, my kids all had cell phones when they were teenagers and they can all carry on an interesting conversation and write intelligently. And they are polite and social. And I could reach them whenever I wanted because they knew that if they didn't take my call there would be no cell phone!

Technology is great. Without it, I couldn't be sitting here with my hiking boots up on the desk, making a pretty good living.

It's just telephones I don't like. Probably ties in with my absolute feral fear of being subjected to other people's expectations, i.e., just because THEY want to bother me I have to let them if not in the mood. I always pick up for Wade & for Lisa, and usually for Jack & my dad. Everyone else, leave a message.

Of course, the upside of this is that people are thrilled if I DO pick up & then we have a lengthy, leisurely, meaningful conversation.

I'm sure your kids are beyond stellar, Judi. But you're not convincing me of the value of being reachable at all times; even teenagers might deserve their uninterrupted moments.

Here is a picture of my cat Shadow with the deer following her. I saw both deer looking intently into the yellow barberry bush so I call the cat and sure enough she came out from under the bush. Walked over slowly and the deer came right behind her. She turned around and looked at them with no fear at all. While I went to get the camera, she strolled off toward the pond, but she didn't want to come in the window at all.

Oh, I love confident, charismatic cats!

I think that deer and Shadow are friends. They are clearly comfortable in each other's presence!

OK just in from AK. I have had cell phones for 20 years and have used them BUT I got an Iphone and am totally thrilled with them! I used mine to check the tides so I could paddle my kayak up a creek where I was working and with the sattelite locator I was automatically connected to local tidal info. Then I could call clients with followups and be located if I get trapped by a bear and look up a special knot for tidal ties that won't slip plus take the highest qualit photos that any phone ever does also I can text my daughter if I am injured and have last wishes etc. Oh yes and I can look up the fish types in the river I see in the water below me oh yes and the shore birds on the beach.........

This message was edited Apr 18, 2010 10:03 PM

I would say you are a person who needs the best phone you can buy.

Heads up to everyone in King and Snohomish Counties who has a dog: There have been two confirmed cases of Distemper in raccoons - one in Redmond and one in Bellevue. We have a raccoon out here now who has been acting strangely for over a week. Three of my neighbors have remarked on it. I'm guessing that he's another case.

Cats don't get distemper.

So don't feed your dogs outside and make sure that they're up to date on their vaccinations!!

Yes Sofer, I am liking my new iphone as well but I am not as sophisticated a user as you are! I need time to explore all it can do.

Oh no Katie - be careful! Also don't leave water for your dogs outside overnight because the raccoons could use it to wash their food. If I leave Koka's water dish outside overnight the next morning it is full of dirt and raccoon prints.

Gwen - perhaps we just have to adjust to how another generation communicates - a bunch of kids sitting next to each other texting is still a social communication, we adults just don't get to easedrop - well done them.

I remember sitting behind the curtain talking on the only phone in the house thinking I had privacy - um, no, mum was right there in earshot, wigging the whole thing. Rats. Illusion is so much part of life, sad when it crashes. We took to writing reams of 'private' notes passed 'secretly' in the hall between classes at school - but to make it really private we actually used the Tolkein alphabet - amazing how dexterous our minds were then, I couldn't come up with that text now for anything - then it was just an alternative. How different is that from texting? I love the fact that kids communicate, how they do it is up to them.

And I am not convinced men talk anymore now then before - some do some don't - my DH gets given his iphone. It is rarely switched on or charged up. It just rides around in his briefcase. It is well travelled - it almost got him barred from a flight - the security guy wouldn't believe he would carry it without it being useful! Goodness knows how he convinced them otherwise.

I can't imagine you ever writing or texting without using proper spelling and grammar, Laurie! That makes complete sense to me. I know lots of adults who text, but I just cannot get into it. I see people trying to carry on two conversations at once, not paying attention to either one, really, and both then take twice the amount of time. Sending a text message that people can read anytime they want to and that is written with decent grammar and spelling is about the same as sending an email, I think. Again, it's not the tool, it's the user and the boundaries around the use of the tool that matter.

It's true that I have well defined thoughts and feelings about certain things. Probably I think too much but that's what happens when one has bad hearing! LOL! One tends to spend too much time inside one's own head.

Both my kids got a cell phone when they started highschool. It made our lives much more convenient. My son didn't even want text messaging until this year, so I consider myself lucky. He does a good job of conversing, but I admit the constant texting was a bit annoying at times when we were on our trip. My daughter just got a Blackberry with internet access and she absolutely loves it.

Obviously there are no good or bad tools. It's all in the user. The cell phone is just another technical invention and has loads of benefits, obviously, or I wouldn't rely on one. It took me awhile, but I finally learned to turn it off when I don't want to be disturbed.

That's quite a phone you have there, Soferdig! It would take me a long time to learn to use a tool that complex, but I understand people love them. We're looking at ways to get internet access for the boat, so we might have a look at those.