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Posts Tagged ‘#365Ways’

This pandemic just keeps on keeping on, and while we are in a much better place than we were last year we’re not back to normal yet.

I watch my neighbors walk by, the teenager who gets off the school bus alone every day at 3:45, the man who drives a cab that may or may not be in demand, the new father who strolls up and down the street every afternoon, the older couple who always hold hands as they walk their dog, and the orange cat we are (almost) certain has a home.

I wave and say hello but mostly I want to ask, “Are you ok? Are your homes warm, your pantries full, your hearts whole?”

I know that in my neighborhood and others, the answers will not always be what I hope. And so I smile and wave and when I can, I help food pantries, animal rescues and other groups who do their best to keep our community strong. 

And that helps me be ok, too.

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Photo by Sonika Agarwal on Unsplash

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The other day I found myself wondering, “Why does Venus spin in a different direction than most other planets?”

Short answer: Something Big Happened. We don’t know what but There Are Theories.

Longer answer, in case you need all the exciting details for trivia night: 

Why does Venus spin the ‘wrong’ way round? – 2 Sisters In STEM

Venus – NASA Solar System Exploration

Bonus fact: The average surface temperature of Venus is 864°, perfect for baking pizza.

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Thanks, but I ordered Canadian bacon. NASA

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I wrote a thing, didn’t like it. Wrote another thing, didn’t like that either. Thought for a bit. Went off and made a mini version of this cool anti-gravity tensegriity thing. Came back and wrote a couple of new bits but nothing feels right. 

Some days are just like that. Must be time for a quote and a picture.

“So many things are possible just as long as you don’t know they’re impossible.” 

― Norton Juster, The Phantom Tollbooth

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“Now and then it’s good to pause in our pursuit of happiness and just be happy.” 

― Guillaume Apollinaire

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I may have mentioned our adventures in kitten trapping over the past couple of years (short version: hard but rewarding, remote cameras for the win).

Here are two organizations that were great as we tried to keep the neighborhood from being overrun by adorable, yet vulnerable, kittens:

The good people in these groups have done an amazing job even under the stresses of the pandemic, which has increased demand for pets but also restricted a lot of shelters and the vet services they need.

Fortunately, we were able to help our local cat rescue groups get a lot of kittens off the street before winter. Just as an example, take a look at two of the kittens we saved: Comet and Dasher. So cute!

If you’re in the market for an adorable fur friend, check out the adoption pages at these or your local rescue groups. We’re not ready for a new cat just yet but when we are we’ll go through a group like this.

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Cuteness is our superpower. Photo by Ilse Orsel on Unsplash

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Some days you take a break from the avalanche of news and realize you’ve got Joni Mitchell’s Big Yellow Taxi stuck in your head. The chorus can feel too true to remember that there are reasons to be cheerful and the world is not, in fact, on a one way trip to Ugh Town. 

But other days? Like today days? With heartfelt respect to Ms. Mitchell,* you realize that the final lines of the song could be rewritten:

“They saved Paradise,

and took out the parking lot.”

And we’re just the people to do it.

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Photo by Bernard Hermant on Unsplash
  • How does one address someone with this level of accomplishment? Award-winner? Multi-Hall of Famer? Fellow Canadian? Doctor (she has three honorary doctorates)? I went with the title that, I hope, conveys fundamental respect across all arenas.

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Here’s a memory that would have been perfect for Halloween or Thanksgiving, but just came to me when I ran across the video below.

The first thing I planted in a garden (aside from myself) was okra. I’d never eaten it but knew that it was a staple in the South by way of some African food traditions. Once grown, I didn’t know how to cook it. The resulting dish was… ok. (If you’re wondering, I recommend using okra in stew or breading and frying the bejeezus out of it. Very good.)

The first thing I grew that I was really proud of was a pumpkin. This was a year or two later and I was still vertically challenged. That may explain why the pumpkin remains a giant in my mind, but maybe not. I’d read Laura Ingalls Wilder’s books and somewhere in there, probably Farmer Boy, they discuss milk-fed pumpkins. Well, who wouldn’t want to try that?

And it worked. Huge, that’s how I remember this pumpkin. Between the vines and the body the plant took up a whole section of the garden. I would ease down the little hill, through the tall grass and into the tilled area, basking in the hot summer sun while hoping to raise a monster.

A strong, bright, delicious monster, of course. A girl’s got to have standards.

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Fun at Work

One weird thing about working alone? You tend not to smile as much because there’s no one to smile at. To avoid muscle atrophy (and general Tuesday-ness), I try to think about fun things like cookies or double rainbows or a good book.

Cat videos work too;)

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Tuesdays, amirite? Photo by Juan Gomez on Unsplash

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“It’s the job that’s never started as takes longest to finish.”

― J.R.R. Tolkien, The Fellowship of the Ring

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Photo by Angelina Litvin on Unsplash

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Did I make any progress on writing projects today? I did not. Today was about baking and Formula One (Team Hamilton!).

I tested the first of several batches of sugar cookies. Today, brown-edge cookies. Very good, especially with cinnamon on top. Up tomorrow, my sister-in-law’s favorite sugar cookie recipe. The dough is chilling in the fridge now, and I hope for great things!

In completely unrelated news, I learned a new word today: procrastibake. 🙂

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Photo by Tijana Drndarski on Unsplash

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