Oh, This and That

Happy Saturday. We have all made it through another week, and what a week it was! Ten years ago I was despondent over the defeat of Hillary Clinton, and I didn't even like Hillary. I have since apologized to her for all the terrible things I have ever said about her. Her account manager on Threads even acknowledged my apology. I was amazed at that. I knew way back in the 80's when the orange clown was parading around NYC with a half naked Marla Maples on his arm that he was no-good. I had no idea then that he would destroy the country, damage the world and bring us to the brink of WW3. Now it seems that the demise of his reign of terror is on the horizon. I know that the next two years are going to be a ride to remember as he claws the edge of the cliff. But it does appear that his time of reckoning has come. He thinks that he can protect Steven Miller and Peter Hegseth, but how about we send them to the Hague? Sorry, I don't mean this to be a political blog. I'm just feeling really hopeful for the first time in two years and it is spilling out.

It is three in the morning and I am wide awake. I didn't go to bed all that early last night, but my body has settled on a bifurcated sleeping pattern. After a lifetime of being told that I should sleep seven to eight hours a night, I have learned that the bifurcated pattern is the more natural pattern. I don't know why that surprises me. Why else would all those Victorians be wandering around the kitchen in the middle of the night for a midnight snack, or up to see all the ghosts of young women in white dresses floating through their walls?  Nevertheless, I am up and enjoying a nice cup of hot chocolate with a dab of whipped cream. It is delicious. 

I sat on the porch and watched the sunset last night. It was beautiful and peaceful. The temperature was in the mid-70's and the humidity was low. It would have been nice if the crickets and tree frogs were singing like they do in the summer. But today's high temperature won't get into the 70's and it will be cold at night from now on. The tree frogs and crickets have gone for the season. It is officially sweater weather. 

Speaking of sweater weather, I finished the hat and mitt set that I had been working on. I am happy with it for the most part. I did not have enough yarn after I finished the mitts to make a doubled brim on the hat. It makes for a more finished look, but the single brim is acceptable. With drawerfuls of yarn waiting to be knit, I ordered more yarn from KnitPicks and it came really fast. I have started another hat and mitt set with a skein of it. It is a lovely wool and acrylic blend. It knits well and is very soft to the touch. Some knitters don't like acrylic and won't use it. They turn up their noses at anything but natural fabrics. And it's all well and good. I do like the idea myself, but almost no one who isn't a knitter cares one iota what material their clothes are made of. They just want to be able to put them through the wash and have them coming out clean and in good shape. That won't happen with most natural fabrics. Wool shrinks and cotton gets misshaped. A wool and acrylic blend gives the ability to be casually laundered as long as they are washed in cool water and the dryer doesn't get too hot. Usually I give my pieces with instructions to machine wash in cold water and air dry it on a flat surface. But I doubt that anyone ever does that. 

Yesterday KnitPick announced a $2 sale on the exact same yarn that I just bought from them. I'm not upset. The price I paid for the yarn was fair, and considering all the colors that weren't available, I'm pretty sure they are just selling off the end of the season runs. I ordered another 20 skeins of the yarn to add to the greater than expected lifespan collection of yarn I already have. I have a lot of knitting to do. 

The sun has come up. I have replaced the nice cup of hot chocolate I enjoyed with my morning tea and have sausage and biscuits in the air fryer for breakfast. It is gloriously cold outside. And without my hearing aids in, it is quiet and peaceful. 

I hope your day goes well and your weekend is a good one. I should get a nap after I have my breakfast.

Blue Tsunami!

 I haven't watched the news since November 5th, 2024. I couldn't stand the everyday chaos being dumped into my psyche. So I've watched van lifers, renovators and cooking shows on YouTube. But still the chaos had a way of creeping in through the cracks. I saw reports on YouTube, Facebook and even opening up my web browser every day. The never-ending mountains of everyday chaos was designed to desensitize, dehumanize and overwhelm us. But it didn't work. We went into the streets with frog costumes and plastic whistles when they sent unidentified thugs with guns to our cities. We rallied, and we marched, and we knitted resistance hats, and we fought back. And then we voted. We went to the polls when they sent the unidentified thugs to be "poll monitors". When they moved our polling locations miles away, we marched and we caravanned, We knocked on doors to tell our neighbors that we needed them to vote too. 

I turned on MS Now on Tuesday night half expecting the same sickening disappointment that I felt two years earlier. I had a bag full of chocolate and a bowl of popcorn. As the evening wore on my hope surged again and again. Giants fell, and the wave got bigger. And by the end of the night I was fairly dancing in my living room. My neighbors were celebrating on the porch. The sour note for me is that we are stuck with Tommy Tuberville for the next four years. But I will rejoice in all of the victories of that night. 

But don't be fooled, don't think it's over. I thought MAGA was done in 2020, and then January 6th happened. I don't expect that they will fade gently into the shadow of disreputable history. I'm sure that they will put on their cult hats and drape themselves in American flags to fight it out. This time we need to stand up and yell back in their faces, "NEVER AGAIN!"

I had been waking up every morning with one prayer, "Please God, let him be dead." Now I don't. I want him to live out every minute of the next two years facing the tribunal of our wrath at what he had done to our country, what he has done to the world, what he has done to Iranian families. But dollars to doughnuts he will slink off to Mar-a-lago and try to hide behind his dementia. 

And still, it won't be over. There are a hundred million enablers who have to be dealt with. This can never happen again, not here. Not anywhere.

Good Bye October, Hello November

The calendar changed, Halloween became All Saints day, the clocks fell back an hour and as if on some hidden que the sky turned gray and the leaves began to change colors. 

The cooler weather has made my walks easier. But I was hoping to pop into the coffee shop for a nice hot chocolate and for some reason they were closed. They are usually open on Sunday afternoons, but not yesterday. I was disappointed by that. 

There were raptors circling the skies and I tried to get a photo of them in flight. But the pictures I was able to get were disappointing too. Some people can capture beautiful pictures of birds in flight and even the moon with their cell phone. There must be a trick to it that I do not know. The pictures I take are never even close to what I see. 

My brother called just as I was unlocking my door when I got home. There was no reason he called, he just wanted to talk. He seems settled in his retirement. Maybe not happy, but at peace with it. 

While I was talking to him, I got texts from a friend and from my kids as well. I wondered what it was that suddenly had me on everyone's mind. 

Three of my neighbors moved out this weekend. They all took advantage of the extra day supplied by the first day of the month falling on a Sunday and the office being closed. One of the U-Hauls didn't roll out of here until well after mid-night. The website has four apartments listed that will be ready for occupancy at the beginning of next month. Apartments never used to sit empty that long. I wonder if they are doing some level of renovation on them. Or maybe they are just holding off to see if they won't get another offer from a developer. Who knows? 

Instead of standing in front of my window and watching my neighbors load up their trucks, I decided to make my first batch of chili and cornbread for dinner. It turned out pretty well for a sauce pan full. I will be freezing half of it and the cornbread as well. But I am getting better at cooking for one. It distracted me from becoming Gladys Kravitz in my old age. It also distracted me from the urge to start hanging Christmas lights and putting up the trees. I'm not sure what it is that has me in a hurry to decorate this year, but I think about it a lot. I won't even let myself go get the Christmas box out of the closet for fear that I will be too tempted. I'm going to wait at least until the week of Thanksgiving before I declare it the holidays. But I have started watching the bake-off shows. It's a sick obsession, but not as bad as Hallmark Christmas movies. The poor single mom is just going to have to wait until December to meet the billionaire of her dreams. 

Hot Chocolate while Knitting

I have started knitting again. It's rather late in the year for me. My urge to knit usually wanes around the middle of May and I get the itch again when the weather starts to cool in September. But this year the weather didn't cool in September. It only confirms my long standing suspicions that my will to knit is tied to the weather. It also has a great deal to do with my stress levels, which have been over the roof with the thoughts of moving. But the weather has turned now, and my stress levels are lessened and I was fascinated by a picture I saw on FB. It had a fingerless mitt that was knit flat. I don't usually knit flat, but I thought that I would try it. I found a simple free pattern on Ravelry and gave it a go. I had the first mitt almost completely knit when I decided that I hated the yarn and knitting a mitt flat was just insane. So I grabbed a circular needle and different yarn and tried again. The circular needle reminded me of all the reasons I hate magic loop knitting, and once again I was not impressed with the yarn. Once more, I frogged the piece that I was knitting, chose different yarn and a set of double pointed needles and tried again. I was at the point where I took the thumb opening off the needles when I realized that the free Ravelry pattern that I had been using for dimensions had it all wrong. I frogged the mitt one last time and started over using what made sense to me. I am almost done with the first mitt and I am finally happy with the result. I think everyone may be getting a pair and maybe a matching hat in their stockings for Christmas.

Shaquan came with a moving truck on Friday and seems to have moved most of her things. But she left a pile of moving boxes and trash on the porch. I would prefer to not have it on the porch for Trick or Treat tonight, but I may not have a choice. She was a good neighbor, even if she was a mess. 

I sat in my reading chair yesterday without the television, music or other screens and contemplated where I want to be. I looked over my living room and my kitchen and I just feel at peace here. It took me a long time to warm up to this place. But it happened. This is my home now and I really just don't want to leave.  Sometime, and probably in the next year or so, I will need to move. But right now I don't have too. This apartment works for me. This community is open and friendly. I'm just not ready to leave. So I think I have made the decision for now at least to stay. I will sign short leases. They are offering 2, 4, 6 and 12 month leases to those of us who have been living here. I will probably go for the 4 month option to protect myself from being stuck here waiting out another long term lease if the situation should change. The cities that I have been looking at aren't going to go away. They have a lot to offer when I do need to move. But my heart is saying stay.

 

Do I Stay Or Do I Go

The weather has been beautiful lately. I feel that I must say that as I did so much pissing and moaning about the heat dome that lasted all summer long. But the heat dome broke, and the heat wave that followed it was not as intense, and has now moved out, We are having normal temperatures for the season and it is positively delicious. The mornings are cool, the days are pleasant and the evenings have a tinge of coldness to them. Standing on the porch tonight, I could smell the wood smoke from fireplaces in the nearby neighborhoods. 

I brought the caladium into the house for the winter. It was probably too soon, but I'd rather be too quick about it than let it die out because I left it out in the cold. Mums like cold, so it is outside with the pumpkin.  I'm still thinking about getting the yellow and purple mums to add to the arrangement.

My neighbors have started moving on. It was subtle at first. One morning I noticed that I had not heard the loud orange muscle car in a while. Sure enough, they are gone. I'm not sure how I missed them  moving. They usually parked right in front of my bedroom window. The old man from across the parking lot left a week or so ago. I heard his daughter came to take him to live with her in Texas. Gradually, about a third of the apartments have become vacant. Shequan started moving on Friday. She had a U-Haul then, but this evening tried to tie her couch to the top of her Kia. I don't know, but is seems chaotic to me. She did spill some interesting tea for me. Apparently she was offered the opportunity to renew her lease without an increase in the monthly rent. And they have begun allowing new leases too. Apparently the development company read the socio-financial tea leaves and decided that they don't want to proceed with the purchase of the apartments presently. So once again, I am thrown back into the dance of "Do I Stay or Do I Go?" There are good arguments for both. It cost me nearly two grand to move in here a year ago. I've hardly gotten my money's worth if I do decide to go. And it will cost me at least that much to go somewhere else. If I stay, I can save up for the move and be better prepared. But I'm not getting younger. Moving is getting exponentially harder with the passing of time. It isn't just the physical work of it, which is a major consideration. But I will have to learn a new oven, a new apartment, a new town... I will have to find a new church, create a new community... In the long run I will have to do all of that anyway. It will be harder a year from now, much more so if I stay longer. But the holidays add a time crunch to being able to look for an apartment and it will be better to not have to move in the dead of winter. Maybe I can extend the lease for just a few more months and move in April or May. 

Duped

I noticed that my teeth were getting really sensitive lately. The ad on the television said that the really expensive toothpaste was clinically proven to rebuild the enamel on teeth, so I purchased a tube. I've been using it for a while. Then one evening while I was brushing my teeth I decided to see what was in it that was rebuilding the enamel. The only active ingredient is stannous fluoride 0.454%, the same as in the Colgate Total that I usually choose, the same as is in the regular Colgate that I could go to the Dollar Tree and buy six tubes of for the same price I paid for the expensive "special enamel rebuilding" toothpaste. Okay, I was duped. I should have read the label before I bought into the hype. I worked in marketing, I should know better. The lies aren't in what we are told, they are in what we aren't told.

The apartment that I had been looking at has been leased by someone else. I was sad to see that I had missed that opportunity. I was actually upset enough by the loss that I had even started to look at other communities in other states. And I started to see a pattern. All of the renter sites have the same four or five reasonably priced apartments, usually not in the most sought after neighborhoods, and usually not very well maintained complexes. Then the prices all start rising substantially for more sought after apartments. And this would be a normal practice if all the apartments in all the different areas didn't all have the same price ranges. The less sought after units range from $750-$950, the mid-range from $1200 to $1600 and high end rising into the $2000's no matter if you are near a larger town with a higher earning potential or if you are a small cross-road in the depths of the booney woods. It reeks of price fixing. 

So I tried a different tactic, I went on to sites like FB marketplace and Craigs List and got addresses for the town I want to live in. It was an eye-opening experience. There were some probably real listings that aren't on the renter sites. But then there are a whole slew of listings like a four bedroom, three bath house with a bonus room and a garage for $450, all utilities included. Do people fall for that? That rent won't cover the utilities for a house that size. Anyway, I got a few addresses that I was interested in and plugged them into the renter sites. And behold, a whole world of rental units that the sites weren't showing me appeared. And some of the rents are substantially less, not $450 for a McMansion, but we are talking serious money here. There is a two bedroom house in the same neighborhood that the apartment I wanted going for $150 less a month. And I think I might know the house. If I'm not mistaken, it's one that my aunt and uncle lived in when I was a child. It's older, small, doesn't have a dishwasher and the closets are miniscule. But if it is the house I think it is, it has a lot of character and my aunt loved that house for the rest of her life. There were a lot of other possibilities that the renter sites didn't seem to want to tell me about. I also found out that while the apartment that I was eyeing was leased, there are three others in that complex that are still available. 

I couldn't just give up there. I decided to give it another try using a different tactic. I went on Google Maps and started roaming through the area looking around. There were loads of apartment complexes. I got the addresses and searched them too. And I found out that there is a whole world of apartments that aren't even listed on the renter sites. And those rents are extremely reasonable. I can be in the same neighborhood and save a lot of money from the units that are listed on the renter sites. It really feels like those sites are attempting to price fix the housing markets. If we don't know that there are better values out there, they don't exist. The lie isn't in what you are told, it's in what you aren't told.

I began to think that I might be better off hiring a realtor. But they are only going to show me their listings, and probably only the ones they want me to see. Those renter sites are fueled by the same realtors. I have cousins who live in the area and I decided to reach out to them and see if they knew of any options. I haven't wanted to do this because I don't want to feel beholden to their suggestions, but seriously, I don't know what else to do. I don't want to be duped into paying a price for an apartment that is only building a neighborhood price fixing scheme. A couple of my cousins got back to me and said that they will ask around. I am grateful for that, but I still want to make my own decision.

I'm trying to not let outrage build over what I feel I have discovered. The housing market in this country is driving people to homelessness. I saw it in the Pacific North West and I saw it as I was on the train travelling through West Virginia. I see it when I visit my daughter in Chicago. On one side you have employers refusing to pay living wages to their employees and then you have corporate greed circumventing laws to rig the housing markets. There seems that there should be some kind of equalizer, but there isn't. How many people will be living on park benches before we as a society demands better? I can't see the answer to that.
 

Pumpkin

I waited until yesterday to walk into town and get the pumpkin, mostly because I knew I'd be curious about the storm damage after the hurricane passed through. While I was out I bought a mum to go with the pumpkin. I got a red one because it caught my eye. I wonder if it wouldn't have been better to get a yellow one, though, they were kind of sickly looking. With both the caladium and the mum being red, the mum almost goes unnoticed.

I think the arrangement is a bit awkward. If I had to make my living as a landscaper, I would have starved. It's just not my talent, but my neighbor likes my attempts to dress up our shared porch. The caladium will need to come in next week as it will be too cold for it to be outdoors. I'm thinking of getting yellow and purple mums to replace it. That may even out the asymmetry and give me the look that I was hoping for.  

Most of the damage that I saw while I was out walking was just small twigs and leaves. I did see a fence that had been damaged by some kind of limb fall, but the limb had already been cleared away. 

My door is the most fall like thing around here right now. The trees have not begun to change. The birds have not even started flocking yet. Tomorrow the temperatures will go back up to the high 80's and stay that way all week. Then they are supposed to fall into the 60's and not see the 80's again for the rest of the year. 

While I was out, I bought the candy for Halloween. I have no idea if the kids who live here Trick-or-Treat or not. I assume that at least the latch key kids will. I was shocked at the price of candy these days. It has been a while since I have bought any and in the mean time, high fructose corn syrup seems to have become gold. Halloween only happens once a year, so I shouldn't mind so much, especially considering the amount of joy the day gave me when I was a kid.  

Dodged

Isaias came aground near Destin, then headed up through central Alabama. As expected, we were just to the east of the majority of the storm. We had a lot of wind, and I'm sure when the sun comes up, we will all be out looking at the damage. I would be shocked if there aren't downed trees. I will be more shocked if there is not a lot of damage to the facade to the apartments. It was already in bad shape. 

I brought the caladium inside. I had not appreciated how big it had grown over the summer. I made sure that I had flashlights, batteries, candles, cooked food that could be eaten cold and candles enough to last a few days if the storm was worse than it actually was. I am glad that I did not need the things that I prepared. 

The electricity flickered a few times, not enough to affect the internet router. And it went out for about 10 seconds. As far as I know, the water has not been affected. It is still raining. There is minor flooding, but not enough to reach the doors to the apartments. 

The storm is like so many of the hurricanes that come through here, a bad storm, but not much real damage. Still, it doesn't hurt to be prepared. 
 

Isaias

We've been hearing about it for a few days now. At first it was a minor disturbance that might become a tropical storm, but probably not. It has progressed to a category 2 or maybe 3 that is heading toward us. Yesterday the weather stations were saying not to panic. Today they are essentially telling people to panic...not in so many words of course, but be prepared, know your evacuation routes, know where your emergency shelters are. 

Actually, the town I live in is just a hair to the left of the cone, and a couple hundred miles away from the coast. Hurricanes blow through here, quite regularly. And until Helene hit Asheville, I would say that being inland protects us from the worst of it. Now I'm giving that thing the side eye. I will bake a couple of loaves of bread, boil some eggs, have the water pitchers filled, bring my plant in off the porch, If it looks like it will move to the east a bit, I might fill the bath tub with water. I will probably sleep in the back bedroom, as it is a safe spot in the apartment from tornados. My neighbors have all been hitting the grocery stores. They say that Walmart is an insane asylum. 

Today is beautiful. I got out and walked for a long time. The fall colors have not started here yet, but it won't be long. Tomorrow will be as nice as today, but the weekend will be interesting;

I have tickets to see "Imagine a Dragon" at the community theater tomorrow night. I'm looking forward to it, as I enjoyed "Spitfire Grille" done by the adult theater of the same company. I don't think I should have any worries that I will be walking in the rain to get there. Nothing is supposed to start happening until the next evening. 

The storm should herald the final change into fall. The temperatures have been much cooler, bearable, but still above average. The storm will push them down into seasonal norms. 

I might walk into town tomorrow and buy a pumpkin.

Barriers: Poking the Bear

I made a pound cake last night. It was a feat for me because in my mind pound cakes were expensive, complicated and infinitely touchy. I think the perception comes from the fact that I had grown up hearing my grandmother say things like "I spent the whole afternoon baking a pound cake for the church supper tomorrow." or "Don't y'all run through the kitchen. You'll make my pound cake fall." Or my favorite, "Don't you be opening my oven door. You'll make my pound cake fall." even though the possibility that someone would open the oven door didn't really exist until she suggested that it might happen. My mother's special Christmas Eve cake was a seven flavor pound cake. She divided the batter, flavored each of them with a different flavor from a bottle and then put the batter section by section into a tube pan. The problem was that there was no way of knowing until you bit into the cake which flavor you got. You could be hoping for lemon and end up with butter rum. It all seemed so complicated. So for me there has always been a mental barrier to baking one. 

It turns out that a pound cake might just possibly be the simplest cake to bake. Just cream the butter, egss, sugar, flavor and cream together, then slowly add the flour. Put it in the oven to bake and take it out when it is finished baking. 

I think my cake turned out kind of pretty. I had a piece of it last night while it was still warm and thought that I really need to do some work on the recipe. It just didn't seem quite right to me. But today when I ate a piece of it cold, it was more like I remember my grandmother and mother baking. Mine wasn't quite as good as theirs, but definitely worth doing again, somewhat regularly. It was good enough that I had a second piece with some ice cream.  I enjoyed it immensely. 

It's funny how things throw up mental barriers isn't it? Like if you live with someone and they always leave their clothes in the washer and dryer, it puts a mental barrier to you being able to get your clothes washed. Or if you have to clean up their coffee mess and fight their cats off to enjoy a fried egg for breakfast, you might just give up and eat peanut butter toast all the time,  And if you have to transverse through someone's bedroom to get to he vacuum cleaner, it is a discouragement to using it. All of those things are just minor things to overcome. But they do throw up motivational barriers that become a drag on effort. 

My son gave me a nice board that is meant to sit over the top of the stove. It's been in a few of my posts like the one about baking bread. The intention is that it will be added counter space in a small kitchen. It can be placed across the sink when the stove is being used. But when I'm cooking I use both the stove and the sinks. The board was just in the way. It was becoming a barrier to me using the stove. I was opting for the peanut butter toast again. 

My oven is a Hot Point; the back right hand burner has an opening that lets heat from the oven warm a pan that is set on top of the burner without turning it on. If you are roasting a chicken in the oven, you can set your pan of potatoes on the burner and the heat from the oven will cook the potatoes, or green beans or whatever side you have. It's a nice feature if you cook that way, but I don't. So I didn't think about it when I was drying the salt dough beads I made the other day. I left the board covering the stove, and the heat dried the board out and it started to crack. I noticed it when I picked it up to heat something. I was able to apply some wax and restore the board, but it gave me the reason I need to expel the board from the kitchen. It is now making a nice tray on my couch. I am enjoying it so much more there than I ever did while it was in the kitchen. Of course when guests come over, it will be in the way again. But for now, the barrier is removed.