Journal Entries
Sunny 2, 2009 - Wimpy
Posted Jun 2, 2009
Gardening During A Drought:
Our water district imposed restrictions beginning on the first of last month (Florae), so we've had a whole month's practice capturing and re-using our grey water. Three sources of reusable water are the kitchen, the shower, and the laundry.
Watering with dish water is easy, just carry the dish pan outside. If one does this during the daylight hours, one has a chance to recover the odd fork or spoon attempting to escape into the wild.
Recovering water from the shower is a little more involved. We bought a trash bin and a small submersible pump from the hardware store. The pump sends used shower water from the bathtub through a hose leading out of the bathroom window and into the trash bin positioned outside.
Laundry water would ordinarily be pumped from the washing machine through a hose up to a drain just under the laundry room window. Now the hose goes out the window, into a piece of 2-inch pipe leading to the trash bin, cleverly repositioned from outside the bathroom window to outside the laundry window just in time to catch the wash water.
Once the water is outside the house and in the trash bin, it only remains to get it to the plants. Depending on the distance to the thirsty plant, my enthusiasm, and how fast I need to get the water out of the trash bin before the laundry's rinse cycle begins, I either use a bucket or the pump with a long garden hose.
Watering in this fashion has some interesting side effects, including weeding, dragging a trash bin around, insect bites, and chatting with the neighbors.
Note to any health authorities: The food plants are still being watered with fresh water.
Roller Derby:
Our roller derby league's first scrimmage match with another team is on the 11th of next month, and we are working like mad women honing our skills. We do drills and races and more drills and scrimmages amongst ourselves. We have also been promoting the sport and recruiting more skaters.
Employment or Not:
I haven't been going out of my way to find employment, I must admit. I have been making connections, making chocolates, making other things of value, and doing all those things around the house that haven't gotten done since we moved in, but not as yet making money. This means we are digging into savings a bit, but right now this is the most advantageous strategy. At least we hope so.
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Latest reply: Jun 2, 2009
Florae 2009
Posted May 12, 2009
My husband and I got back from a camping trip a bit earlier today. Apparently he was as confused as I was about 15th anniversary gifts, so he took me camping on the coast instead. Great fun. We camped the first night at the Van Damme State Park, and the second night at the Russian Gulch State Park. A great deal of tramping along forest trails, identifying wildflowers.
Recently I quit my job. I realize that the economy is tight and all; however my former manager was being excessively and pointlessly mean and nasty. I rarely complain about work, actually I enjoyed the work and was good at it, but her behavior became intolerable. Although one usually would prefer to line up new work before terminating a job, there comes a point.
Interestingly enough absolutely no one I work with, with perhaps the tiny exception of the owner, seems the least confused as to why I left. Even friends who had no idea about my work situation have commented how terrific I look lately, so relaxed, better color, healthier, et cetera. My husband says he is glad to have his wife back. What a wretched ball of stress I must have been!
In skating I just passed the basic skills for a one star, and am now ready for the two star class. Now I can skate with the big kids, most of them between the ages 8 to 12! 
Likewise, roller derby is going well. We are getting ready for a scrimmage with the B team from a city about an hour's drive south of here. Lot of hard skating, and very rewarding.
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Latest reply: May 12, 2009
Slog 2009
Posted Mar 22, 2009
If I post a journal entry only once every few months, things seem to change rather a lot.
Let's see, the biggest difference is that instead of trundling off to a voice class twice a week, I am now whirling around the skating rink up to five times a week.
Last summer I left my cell phone number at my local skating rink after watching a roller derby bout in Humboldt County. About nine weeks ago, I got a call from the owner of the skating rink telling me that a roller derby league was forming, and inviting me to show up to practice if I were still interested. So I did.
Of course, nine weeks ago, I could barely skate at all. I'm fairly sure I outgrew the little skates I had as a child before I reached the double digits. In any case they were the little metal skates that clipped on over the shoe and which practically assured that a child did not reach any great speed. It was great fun skating around the neighborhood, but as I recall, I clomped more than skated. Still some decades later, there was a little residual muscle memory that permitted me to stay upright, at least most of the time.
That was two months ago. Now I skate at a respectable clip, although I am still in the slower half of the team. Even better, I skate with about 2 dozen of the most outgoing, exuberant women in the county.
In other news, the economy turned south about a year ago, no news to anyone, but here in one of the poorer areas of our state, it hits pretty hard. With home foreclosures, layoffs and businesses closing all around us, it is easy to see the strain and despair written on people's faces. On a personal level, even though I have been working this past year in a more critical and responsible position than last year, I received a pay raise of only 50 cents per hour, nearly invisible after taxes. Special note for fairness sake: as far as I know, only one guy in the company did any better, and a few got no raises at all. Mr. Nerd also received a similarly small pay raise, but at least we are both still employed.
The area also has an impending drought, having received only half the normal rainfall. Since Mr. Nerd and I grow some of our own food, we've been approaching the planting season with some uncertainty, as water rationing this summer could be quite strict.
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Latest reply: Mar 22, 2009
Mayvembruary 2008
Posted Nov 14, 2008
It's been months since I posted a journal entry, so ...
Over the summer I took a beginning voice class at the local college, and I had so much fun that when the Fall semester started I took two (2) voices classes.
Basically I couldn't make up my mind which to take, so I took both. One class, taught by the same voice instructor who taught the summer session, was in her home. The other class was taught by another instructor was at the college.
I've been learning a lot from both instructors, and can sing in my head voice easily now. Well, not right now, because of this blasted head cold, but ordinarily. It is fun to perform songs and very different from being an instrumentalist. I can't hide behind my sax, you see. It's just me.
But two classes at once is a bit much with the job and other obligations and projects, so when Spring semester starts, I shall have to actually choose.
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Latest reply: Nov 14, 2008
Die Fledermaus, die
Posted Aug 6, 2008
My cat just caught a small bat and now I don't see it anymore. Did she eat it all, or do I find some fledermaus parts in a few days?
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Latest reply: Aug 6, 2008
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