Found something interesting while using PCH's Search and Win. Yeah, I know I'm not likely to win any thing, but as with the lottery, you can't win if you don't play. I've forgotten what I searched for now, but it had something to do with writers or writing.
Of course I was inundated with a page full of sites dealing with just that. One of them that I decided to check out was http://www.thewriterssite.com/ ,and it had a lot of info that I found interesting. I especially liked the blogger section.
In that section I found a blog by a Nathan Bransford. He is doing something really great this Christmas season. He is donating a dollar per comment on his blog to Heifer International.
His blog can also be found at http://www.nathanbransford.com/ Go there, comment. Help out Heifer International.
For those who might read this and not know what Heifer International is, I'll tell you. It's an organization that backs the old saying: "Give a man a fish and you feed him for a day. Teach a man to fish and you feed him for life."
How dose it do this?
Simple it gives livestock of one sort or another, a heifer, a pig, chickens, sheep, or what ever would be most suitable to a poor family somewhere. (Yes, here in the good ol' USA, too!) The family is also given training on the care of the beast and then, when the critter reproduces they pass the off-spring on to another nearby poor family. Quite often the milk from the heifer or the eggs from the chickens help stave off starvation for the family and the extras are sold to ensure better housing or even education for the children.
So if you ask me this is one of the better charities around. It teaches folks to fish instead of teaching them to sit around waiting for someone to hand them a fish to eat.
Oh, those web sites I mentioned above also have a lot of information on the publishing side of writing. Well, at least they seem to have a lot to me.
On his site Nathan Bransford asked that those who commented give their name, location, and a Christmas wish, but with only 50 characters to work with and a long name I couldn't spell out my Christmas wish.
What is it?
Only to get up the nerve to start collecting rejection slips from publishers. I'm gonna havta start doing that someday.
Tuesday, December 21, 2010
Sunday, October 10, 2010
Willing Ignorance is Stupid
This blog may step on some toes. Then again, it may not. It depends entirely, I suppose, on who reads it.
I have noticed something recently while conversing with people younger than I and even with a few of my own generation and older. There seems to be a tendency now to see thinking as hard work best left to specialists.
Once, some time ago I admit, I happened to ask someone what they thought about some religious something or other. I’ve forgotten what the topic was now. I do remember her reply as it went something like: “Oh, I don’t think about such things. It’s too hard.” And this was someone who went to church, well, religiously. I left the conversation wondering, whose job it was to think of such matters? Preachers, philosophers, Popes?
I have had similar discussions with people about science, and unless we are talking about cars, computers, cell phones or televisions, I often get a similar reaction. “It’s too hard to think about!” This is true especially if you try to get into the basic science, the physics, of why the car, computer, cell phone or television work.
Now, I am the first to admit that I really don’t need to know everything about the science of a vehicle in order to drive it, or a computer, cell phone or television, in order to use them. But at least I do know a smidgen of the basic physics behind and involved in why and how they work.
I also fancy myself a writer and I happen to be a darn good reader. I should be able to communicate with others. However, I have found my self boggled by the blank looks I sometimes get when I use a phrase or quote that I considered to be old fashioned and so hackneyed that surely everyone knows it. The looks I get are often those of confusion, as if the other person was wondering what the heck I meant. They seem confused even after I explain myself. For example: surely everyone knows the quote “…The plans of mice and men, oft go astray…”, and what it means. After all it means just what it says: you can plan all you want but it won’t always work out. I used that as an excuse for not being able to go to an event when I called to make apologies for not being there. From the reaction I heard, I do not believe they understood what I was trying to say until I rephrased it. I was not talking to a child but to an adult. Okay, a young adult, but still one old enough to have run into this quote at least half a dozen times I am sure. If only in old movies shown on TV or such. Going through school she must have run across the quote, or even read it in books other than text books, in magazines or newspaper articles. Providing of course that she is not like many of her fellows, and that she actually does read something other than what she absolutely MUST read.
And that brings me, at last, to the reason for this blog. If you have read my earlier blogs you may have even waded through my rant on the economy and how it simply is not sustainable. A good part of the blame for that unsustainable economy lies with big business. No, it is not a conspiracy! Neither is the problem I am going to try to point out with the link between education and big business.
In both cases, the unsustainable economy and the dumbed down population that big business needs to survive, what has happened was not really planned. I believe it occurred as a kind of positive feed back loop like those that resulted in the Gaia principle.
It came about this way: Big business needed workers that would work long hours at simple, repetitive, jobs for little pay; sometimes in harsh conditions, without complaint or question. As schools got bigger and had more kids to educate they had to find a way to ‘make more product, more efficiently’(more graduates) and there was the answer right there in the thriving big businesses around them. Thus, “I’m not paying you to think, Jones! Shut up, and get back to work or get the hell out!” became, “Johnny! Sit down, shut up, and do your lessons! Stop asking silly questions or you‘ll be sent home with a note from the principle!” If Johnny did not comply he was a bad student, got bad grades and dropped out to become a burden on society, with some notable exceptions I’ll mention later.
The ‘good’ students did well, grew up, graduated and went to college and got degree’s. Then, most of them got jobs in big business, in industry, and earned the expected amount. A salary they then spent, through credit cards and such, buying all the stuff that the commercials on T.V. and the ads in magazines told them they had to have to be seen as the successful people they had to be. Even those who only got a high school degree went on into some business or other, though they got paid less and did even more ‘rote’ work than those who had gone to college to become their supervisors. Both groups married at some point, often several times, had kids and started the cycle all over again. Thus supplying big business and the modern economy with two of the three basic things it needs to survive: (1) an ever growing supply of obedient, easily manipulated workers and (2) an ever growing supply of easily manipulated, and obedient consumers. This also resulted in the schools having ever more ‘product’ to deal with, often with little funds, thus forcing educators to treat the little tykes even more like identical products on an assembly line.
Yes, I know. Far more than public education figures into this. Indeed, if you stand back and just observe, as I have the habit of doing, you can see how even religions have a part in this. Even the supposedly rebellious, and independent minded, protestant religions have begun to place more responsibility for what they believe on their leaders than on the individual believer. How can I say that? Simple. That discussion with a friend I mentioned above. The one who declared such thinking to be ‘to hard’. So hard that she had to leave it to her preacher who “knows so much more about such things.”
Sadly, I recently saw a report on the TV News about a survey that proves that woman’s point of view is still alive and well. It was done by asking various people questions about religion. Not what they believed, but about the known facts of their religion and others. The only group that seemed to really know facts about religion were the Atheists and the Agnostics. Oh, dear reader, if you don’t know; there is a difference between the two. Atheists say there is nothing there; no heaven, no hell, no God, Son, or Holy Ghost. Agnostics, on the other hand, say they just know there is Something there (Agnos is derived from ancient Greek and means ‘knowing’) they just don’t know what It is, exactly, and some believe It is simply unknowable, whatever It is.
This willful ignorance in both things private (like the various religions), in business and in politics gives those who are ‘in charge’ of any of these spheres great power. It gives them great power because they become the ‘authority’. In many cases they become the authority in both senses, in that they are the ones expected to know all about what they are ‘in charge’ of and the ones who make sure everyone toes the line and obeys orders.
This leads to workers believing that, because the boss said so, it is a good thing to have all of their retirement tied up in company stocks. Heck, they even feel lucky about it! At least they do until the company goes belly up and they go from having a multi-million dollar retirement fund to being paupers. It also lets priests of any religion tell certain followers that some of the little ‘favors’ they want them to do for them are commanded by God and if they don’t comply then they will have sinned. I don’t say that all priests do this, far from it. But the temptation is there and some will believe that as they are, after all, the ones carrying such responsibility; they should get at least some perks. The same temptation faces the various managers in big businesses. Though there and in politics it is even more evident and more expected, if just as fiercely hidden.
This same willing ignorance can lead to women getting completely unnecessary hysterectomies because some doctor said they needed one. For the same reason, I have known people to get sicker or even become psychotic because various doctors gave them different medicines and they blithely assumed that if the doctor prescribed it, it had to be okay. The just didn’t ask the different doctors or the pharmacist about the side effects or how the various meds might react with each other. After all, why ask? Doctors are all knowing and all wise just like the preacher in the pulpit, the boss at work, the teacher in the school or the politician in office. And like those authorities they are never to be questioned.
What can we do about this will-full ignorance?
First I think we must all admit that quite often it is the ’bad’, the troublesome, students that have the most smarts, the most to contribute. After all the guy’s who originated Apple© and Microsoft© never earned university degrees. They got sidetracked into building multimillion dollar, even billion dollar businesses. We also have to get ordinary folks to realize that lack of education does not have to equal ignorance. It should be also be made known far and wide that, unlike stupidity, ignorance is easily curable. All it takes is a trip to the local library or logging onto the computer and doing a search with your favorite search engine. There the difference between stupidity (a.k.a.: willing ignorance) and unwilling ignorance will become clear. One group will find out everything there is to know about their favorite model, movie, or rock star; down to what they are doing that very second; and the dust on the thinking machine in their head will just get deeper. The other will look for answers to some of the harder questions of life. They might look up their own religion and then wander on to read about others, and other topics. They might get a bit boggled by what they read on that or all the conflicting views on global warming. Then they will just naturally dust off that really fine computer inside their heads and start using it to think about what they have read. They might even find out that using that brain not only feels good, but it is also fun and rewarding.
Unfortunately, there is no real cure for this willing ignorance that we are faced with that so many prefer. That is because it is so much easier, it makes life so much simpler and worry free if you don’t have to think. Because, after all, if you think for yourself you will occasionally run across the thought that you just might be wrong. After all you are only human. Hold on to that thought, tight. Expand it. Those AUTHORITIES I mentioned above; the preacher, the teacher, the boss, and yes, even the politician or scientist? Guess what. They, too, are only human. They can be as wrong as anyone else. But believe me, of all of them, it is usually only the scientist who is willing to say, “Oopsy, I may have gotten the decimal point a little off there!”
And what, I ask you, is wrong with that? With admitting that you were wrong or made a mistake? Or even with changing your mind, especially if you base it on what you believe to be sound data?
That is a trap we often put our ‘authorities’ and ourselves in to. We don’t want them to change their minds or be swayed by some other ‘facts’ that may come along, even if they happen to be better, or more factual than any that came before. This kind of reaction, this refusal to allow for change of mind or anything else is tied back to the foolishness of willing ignorance. It is characterized by the old saying “ I know what I know and I don’t want to be confused by the facts!”
I say there is nothing wrong with changing your mind, your religion, your political party or your brand of toothpaste. Some are more serious changes than others, that’s all. All such changes should be well thought out, and considered before being acted on.
Except maybe the toothpaste. Toothpaste is just toothpaste, after all. Isn’t it?
I have noticed something recently while conversing with people younger than I and even with a few of my own generation and older. There seems to be a tendency now to see thinking as hard work best left to specialists.
Once, some time ago I admit, I happened to ask someone what they thought about some religious something or other. I’ve forgotten what the topic was now. I do remember her reply as it went something like: “Oh, I don’t think about such things. It’s too hard.” And this was someone who went to church, well, religiously. I left the conversation wondering, whose job it was to think of such matters? Preachers, philosophers, Popes?
I have had similar discussions with people about science, and unless we are talking about cars, computers, cell phones or televisions, I often get a similar reaction. “It’s too hard to think about!” This is true especially if you try to get into the basic science, the physics, of why the car, computer, cell phone or television work.
Now, I am the first to admit that I really don’t need to know everything about the science of a vehicle in order to drive it, or a computer, cell phone or television, in order to use them. But at least I do know a smidgen of the basic physics behind and involved in why and how they work.
I also fancy myself a writer and I happen to be a darn good reader. I should be able to communicate with others. However, I have found my self boggled by the blank looks I sometimes get when I use a phrase or quote that I considered to be old fashioned and so hackneyed that surely everyone knows it. The looks I get are often those of confusion, as if the other person was wondering what the heck I meant. They seem confused even after I explain myself. For example: surely everyone knows the quote “…The plans of mice and men, oft go astray…”, and what it means. After all it means just what it says: you can plan all you want but it won’t always work out. I used that as an excuse for not being able to go to an event when I called to make apologies for not being there. From the reaction I heard, I do not believe they understood what I was trying to say until I rephrased it. I was not talking to a child but to an adult. Okay, a young adult, but still one old enough to have run into this quote at least half a dozen times I am sure. If only in old movies shown on TV or such. Going through school she must have run across the quote, or even read it in books other than text books, in magazines or newspaper articles. Providing of course that she is not like many of her fellows, and that she actually does read something other than what she absolutely MUST read.
And that brings me, at last, to the reason for this blog. If you have read my earlier blogs you may have even waded through my rant on the economy and how it simply is not sustainable. A good part of the blame for that unsustainable economy lies with big business. No, it is not a conspiracy! Neither is the problem I am going to try to point out with the link between education and big business.
In both cases, the unsustainable economy and the dumbed down population that big business needs to survive, what has happened was not really planned. I believe it occurred as a kind of positive feed back loop like those that resulted in the Gaia principle.
It came about this way: Big business needed workers that would work long hours at simple, repetitive, jobs for little pay; sometimes in harsh conditions, without complaint or question. As schools got bigger and had more kids to educate they had to find a way to ‘make more product, more efficiently’(more graduates) and there was the answer right there in the thriving big businesses around them. Thus, “I’m not paying you to think, Jones! Shut up, and get back to work or get the hell out!” became, “Johnny! Sit down, shut up, and do your lessons! Stop asking silly questions or you‘ll be sent home with a note from the principle!” If Johnny did not comply he was a bad student, got bad grades and dropped out to become a burden on society, with some notable exceptions I’ll mention later.
The ‘good’ students did well, grew up, graduated and went to college and got degree’s. Then, most of them got jobs in big business, in industry, and earned the expected amount. A salary they then spent, through credit cards and such, buying all the stuff that the commercials on T.V. and the ads in magazines told them they had to have to be seen as the successful people they had to be. Even those who only got a high school degree went on into some business or other, though they got paid less and did even more ‘rote’ work than those who had gone to college to become their supervisors. Both groups married at some point, often several times, had kids and started the cycle all over again. Thus supplying big business and the modern economy with two of the three basic things it needs to survive: (1) an ever growing supply of obedient, easily manipulated workers and (2) an ever growing supply of easily manipulated, and obedient consumers. This also resulted in the schools having ever more ‘product’ to deal with, often with little funds, thus forcing educators to treat the little tykes even more like identical products on an assembly line.
Yes, I know. Far more than public education figures into this. Indeed, if you stand back and just observe, as I have the habit of doing, you can see how even religions have a part in this. Even the supposedly rebellious, and independent minded, protestant religions have begun to place more responsibility for what they believe on their leaders than on the individual believer. How can I say that? Simple. That discussion with a friend I mentioned above. The one who declared such thinking to be ‘to hard’. So hard that she had to leave it to her preacher who “knows so much more about such things.”
Sadly, I recently saw a report on the TV News about a survey that proves that woman’s point of view is still alive and well. It was done by asking various people questions about religion. Not what they believed, but about the known facts of their religion and others. The only group that seemed to really know facts about religion were the Atheists and the Agnostics. Oh, dear reader, if you don’t know; there is a difference between the two. Atheists say there is nothing there; no heaven, no hell, no God, Son, or Holy Ghost. Agnostics, on the other hand, say they just know there is Something there (Agnos is derived from ancient Greek and means ‘knowing’) they just don’t know what It is, exactly, and some believe It is simply unknowable, whatever It is.
This willful ignorance in both things private (like the various religions), in business and in politics gives those who are ‘in charge’ of any of these spheres great power. It gives them great power because they become the ‘authority’. In many cases they become the authority in both senses, in that they are the ones expected to know all about what they are ‘in charge’ of and the ones who make sure everyone toes the line and obeys orders.
This leads to workers believing that, because the boss said so, it is a good thing to have all of their retirement tied up in company stocks. Heck, they even feel lucky about it! At least they do until the company goes belly up and they go from having a multi-million dollar retirement fund to being paupers. It also lets priests of any religion tell certain followers that some of the little ‘favors’ they want them to do for them are commanded by God and if they don’t comply then they will have sinned. I don’t say that all priests do this, far from it. But the temptation is there and some will believe that as they are, after all, the ones carrying such responsibility; they should get at least some perks. The same temptation faces the various managers in big businesses. Though there and in politics it is even more evident and more expected, if just as fiercely hidden.
This same willing ignorance can lead to women getting completely unnecessary hysterectomies because some doctor said they needed one. For the same reason, I have known people to get sicker or even become psychotic because various doctors gave them different medicines and they blithely assumed that if the doctor prescribed it, it had to be okay. The just didn’t ask the different doctors or the pharmacist about the side effects or how the various meds might react with each other. After all, why ask? Doctors are all knowing and all wise just like the preacher in the pulpit, the boss at work, the teacher in the school or the politician in office. And like those authorities they are never to be questioned.
What can we do about this will-full ignorance?
First I think we must all admit that quite often it is the ’bad’, the troublesome, students that have the most smarts, the most to contribute. After all the guy’s who originated Apple© and Microsoft© never earned university degrees. They got sidetracked into building multimillion dollar, even billion dollar businesses. We also have to get ordinary folks to realize that lack of education does not have to equal ignorance. It should be also be made known far and wide that, unlike stupidity, ignorance is easily curable. All it takes is a trip to the local library or logging onto the computer and doing a search with your favorite search engine. There the difference between stupidity (a.k.a.: willing ignorance) and unwilling ignorance will become clear. One group will find out everything there is to know about their favorite model, movie, or rock star; down to what they are doing that very second; and the dust on the thinking machine in their head will just get deeper. The other will look for answers to some of the harder questions of life. They might look up their own religion and then wander on to read about others, and other topics. They might get a bit boggled by what they read on that or all the conflicting views on global warming. Then they will just naturally dust off that really fine computer inside their heads and start using it to think about what they have read. They might even find out that using that brain not only feels good, but it is also fun and rewarding.
Unfortunately, there is no real cure for this willing ignorance that we are faced with that so many prefer. That is because it is so much easier, it makes life so much simpler and worry free if you don’t have to think. Because, after all, if you think for yourself you will occasionally run across the thought that you just might be wrong. After all you are only human. Hold on to that thought, tight. Expand it. Those AUTHORITIES I mentioned above; the preacher, the teacher, the boss, and yes, even the politician or scientist? Guess what. They, too, are only human. They can be as wrong as anyone else. But believe me, of all of them, it is usually only the scientist who is willing to say, “Oopsy, I may have gotten the decimal point a little off there!”
And what, I ask you, is wrong with that? With admitting that you were wrong or made a mistake? Or even with changing your mind, especially if you base it on what you believe to be sound data?
That is a trap we often put our ‘authorities’ and ourselves in to. We don’t want them to change their minds or be swayed by some other ‘facts’ that may come along, even if they happen to be better, or more factual than any that came before. This kind of reaction, this refusal to allow for change of mind or anything else is tied back to the foolishness of willing ignorance. It is characterized by the old saying “ I know what I know and I don’t want to be confused by the facts!”
I say there is nothing wrong with changing your mind, your religion, your political party or your brand of toothpaste. Some are more serious changes than others, that’s all. All such changes should be well thought out, and considered before being acted on.
Except maybe the toothpaste. Toothpaste is just toothpaste, after all. Isn’t it?
Tuesday, August 10, 2010
Lamp Rant
(This was the first Alternative Opinion article that I turned in to be published the week of 8-13-10. The editor of that fine Newsletter -The Lone Oak Newsletter to be exact- refused it on the grounds that it was much more of a rant than an opinion. On rereading it I agreed and wrote another. Then as this is Betty's Rants and Maunderings I decided to 'publish' it here. Enjoy. Betty)
I am not aggravated, incensed, or even just a little miffed. I am not even pissed.
I am PISS-ED!
Why? Because five or ten, or more, years ago I went to the expense of buying a floor lamp.
This lamp has since served me well. It has sat patiently beside whatever has been designated as my ‘reading chair’ for all those years. It has a nice heavy base that can keep it upright despite the occasional bumps and nudges or the rearranging of its multiple lamps. It has five lights in all, each with a different color of vaguely tulip shaped plastic shades. I liked the varied colors as my living room often runs, because of my lack of the ‘decorator’ gene, to a tendency to be drearily monochrome. Not only are these five individual lamps colorful but they are also on individual, bendable, arms. This means that if I had a picture on the wall behind my chair that I wished to highlight I could point one of the five lights at it and still have four to read by. I do admit, however, that my cheapness usually prevailed and I would only click the ‘on’ switch once to turn on only the first two lights. This usually gave me enough light to read by even on the darkest of nights with every other light in this or my old house turned off. Still I had three more lights to use and move about to light some other difficult or tedious task such as sewing or reading fine print if I needed them.
Now the thing has failed me! After so long a time it has had the audacity to fail me! I did not mind when a couple of bulbs went out. After all two of them were used rather regularly and for long periods at a time. They were eventually, and most importantly, easily replaced. I didn’t even mind (much) having to buy the new bulbs.
But this last failure really chaps my sit downer.
The heavy base will no longer screw into the upright of the lamp. I had noted it leaning of late and told myself to fix it. It had happened before and as before I expected to be able to fix the problem by simply twisting the lamps upright until it was once again tight against the base.
Just before writing this missive I was sitting down to relax after carefully placing my wet laundry into the care of my solar dryer when I realized my lamp was leaning far more than it had before. In fact it was leaning so far that as I sat down it brushed my head. Sighing, I saw that there was nothing to do but screw the sucker back onto the base, and proceeded to try to do so.
I turned, and turned and turned. The upright refused to catch. I moved my chair, I unplugged the lamp. I investigated. Then decided that dumb ol’ me was letting the thing get all crooked and it just couldn’t get a ‘start’ on tightening down. So I very carefully tried again. Still no luck. I exhausted my patience with the thing and realized that was indeed the whole point. I was supposed to get tired of it, toss it in the trash and go, happily, to the store; glad for the chance to buy myself a brand new lamp.
I growled, I grumbled. I examined the lamp more closely. Was there a way I could replace the part that would no longer screw in? A way to rearrange the pieces of the upright so that maybe a less worn section could get a better hold? Even a way to remove the medusa like head of the lamp so I could attach it to something else, maybe even the wall? I was getting desperate! The answer to all those questions was a stern ‘No’. The thing was simply not designed so that it could be fixed, especially by an amateur do it yourselfer.
And that is why I am piss-ed.
Royally, totally and completely enraged!
The lamp still works for heavens sakes! It makes light! It could brighten the night for me to read for many years to come but because this - this throw away society of ours dictates it - I must throw away a device that, while it still works, has a small defect that I can not fix or work around. That will make the economy happy because I will then join all the other happy consumers in consuming what is rapidly being used up and add to the pile of trash in the land fill.
Maybe I can still work around this. Move it to my bed room perhaps where the upright can be held up by my beds head board and maybe a decorative piece of rope. I’ll still have to get another lamp to stand by my reading chair but I will gain the lamp I have been beginning to think I need by my bed. At least then I will NOT be adding to the land fill.
I’m still pissed though.
I am not aggravated, incensed, or even just a little miffed. I am not even pissed.
I am PISS-ED!
Why? Because five or ten, or more, years ago I went to the expense of buying a floor lamp.
This lamp has since served me well. It has sat patiently beside whatever has been designated as my ‘reading chair’ for all those years. It has a nice heavy base that can keep it upright despite the occasional bumps and nudges or the rearranging of its multiple lamps. It has five lights in all, each with a different color of vaguely tulip shaped plastic shades. I liked the varied colors as my living room often runs, because of my lack of the ‘decorator’ gene, to a tendency to be drearily monochrome. Not only are these five individual lamps colorful but they are also on individual, bendable, arms. This means that if I had a picture on the wall behind my chair that I wished to highlight I could point one of the five lights at it and still have four to read by. I do admit, however, that my cheapness usually prevailed and I would only click the ‘on’ switch once to turn on only the first two lights. This usually gave me enough light to read by even on the darkest of nights with every other light in this or my old house turned off. Still I had three more lights to use and move about to light some other difficult or tedious task such as sewing or reading fine print if I needed them.
Now the thing has failed me! After so long a time it has had the audacity to fail me! I did not mind when a couple of bulbs went out. After all two of them were used rather regularly and for long periods at a time. They were eventually, and most importantly, easily replaced. I didn’t even mind (much) having to buy the new bulbs.
But this last failure really chaps my sit downer.
The heavy base will no longer screw into the upright of the lamp. I had noted it leaning of late and told myself to fix it. It had happened before and as before I expected to be able to fix the problem by simply twisting the lamps upright until it was once again tight against the base.
Just before writing this missive I was sitting down to relax after carefully placing my wet laundry into the care of my solar dryer when I realized my lamp was leaning far more than it had before. In fact it was leaning so far that as I sat down it brushed my head. Sighing, I saw that there was nothing to do but screw the sucker back onto the base, and proceeded to try to do so.
I turned, and turned and turned. The upright refused to catch. I moved my chair, I unplugged the lamp. I investigated. Then decided that dumb ol’ me was letting the thing get all crooked and it just couldn’t get a ‘start’ on tightening down. So I very carefully tried again. Still no luck. I exhausted my patience with the thing and realized that was indeed the whole point. I was supposed to get tired of it, toss it in the trash and go, happily, to the store; glad for the chance to buy myself a brand new lamp.
I growled, I grumbled. I examined the lamp more closely. Was there a way I could replace the part that would no longer screw in? A way to rearrange the pieces of the upright so that maybe a less worn section could get a better hold? Even a way to remove the medusa like head of the lamp so I could attach it to something else, maybe even the wall? I was getting desperate! The answer to all those questions was a stern ‘No’. The thing was simply not designed so that it could be fixed, especially by an amateur do it yourselfer.
And that is why I am piss-ed.
Royally, totally and completely enraged!
The lamp still works for heavens sakes! It makes light! It could brighten the night for me to read for many years to come but because this - this throw away society of ours dictates it - I must throw away a device that, while it still works, has a small defect that I can not fix or work around. That will make the economy happy because I will then join all the other happy consumers in consuming what is rapidly being used up and add to the pile of trash in the land fill.
Maybe I can still work around this. Move it to my bed room perhaps where the upright can be held up by my beds head board and maybe a decorative piece of rope. I’ll still have to get another lamp to stand by my reading chair but I will gain the lamp I have been beginning to think I need by my bed. At least then I will NOT be adding to the land fill.
I’m still pissed though.
Sunday, February 21, 2010
a modern fairy tale
Corrections made 8/21/10
This is what happens when I read a book on mythology and think about the evils of to days world.
Scary ain't it.
A Modern Fairy Tale
One day a young woman I'll call Aluvus was driving from the city where she had been born and raised to the town she planned to live in. Her parents were dead and she was alone in the world and perhaps feeling a bit sorry for herself for being so alone in the cold cruel world.
As she drove she found herself in a deep woods that she didn’t remember seeing on the map. She pulled over at a rest stop and decided that a quick walk in the woods would settle her mind and ease her heart. She saw no problem with this as it was a bright and sunny day with just a few puffy ‘fair weather’ clouds floating above in a bright blue sky. It was hot on the parking lot of the rest stop but as she entered the woods she found the mottled shade to be cool and comforting. So she wandered here and there in the woods looking at the bright flowers and listening to the singing birds. But in her wandering she lost track of exactly where the rest stop was. When she realized this she also noted that the day was darkening even though her watch said it was still early morning
With a sigh she decided to go back to the rest stop, get in her car and continue her journey. But as she turned back toward where she thought her car was parked she realized she’d wandered farther into the woods than she had planned and she could no longer see the rest stop through the tree’s or even hear the cars dashing by on the road beside it. This did not worry her at first.
However, as she started to retrace her steps the sky became darker and she remembered some old stories she had heard of two sisters who’d lived in a long ago wood near the town where she planed to live. According to the old tale one sister had welcomed change, the future and even growing old while the other had rejected any change at all. Both had mysteriously disappeared. Even their family mansion had never been found even though the wood where they were supposed to have lived had been logged and well surveyed for future use long ago. This memory made Aluvus shiver. It was then that she realized she had lost the path she had followed into the woods and that the temperature was suddenly dropping with the failing of the light.
She pulled out her cell phone meaning to use the GPS app to find her way back but the battery died even as she looked in horror at the lack of bars on the phone. She did not panic but carefully looked about her and decided on a direction that she believed would take her back to the road at least. She remembered that she had gone uphill as she wandered away from the rest area so she thought that going down hill should get her to the road.
That was when the cold steady drizzle started. Soon she was wet through and through and shivering. She gritted her teeth and continued downward to where she supposed the road was. Then the wind picked up and began to make the tree tops sway and dance menacingly as the drizzle became a hard rain.
Aluvus stopped below a tree that only stopped the rain a little and tried to think what to do.
Lightening suddenly flashed and blasted a tree nearby! This frightened Aluvus as it would anyone. She knew that under a tree was no place to be during a thunder storm so she moved away and didn’t even notice that all the trees no longer held the spring leaves she had seen and expected when she stopped but were instead winter bare as they thrashed in the wind that began to howl through them. Above in the sky lightening flashed and thunder roared. Sometimes the lightening flashed and the thunder crashed all at once so Aluvus knew it was directly above her. She was now so frightened she was just running to get out from under the trees for fear of the lightening. The under brush and brambles between the trees tore at her pant legs and tried to tangle her feet.
Ahead of her through the flailing trees and nearly blinding rain she thought she saw a dim light. She headed toward it, hoping it was the light of a house and not the embers of a lightening burnt tree. The trees and brush that had hindered her before no longer got in her way and she soon found herself in a clearing around an old fashioned farm house. There was an old kerosene type lamp swinging above the door in the wind.
Aluvus rushed up onto the porch that surrounded the old house and was grateful to put her back to the door and stand shivering and wet below the old lamp. She was at least out of the wind and the rain there. She looked out and it seemed the rain and wind had increased. Eddies of it began to curl around the house and bring rain with it to where she stood shivering. It was as if the storm was after her, she thought.
Then the door behind her opened and Aluvus turned with a gasp to beg for shelter from the storm.
“Ah, there! That’s the noise I heard on the porch!” The lean older woman said as if startled. “I feared the lamp had fallen before I could take it in.” She continued reaching for it as she spoke. “As for you, poor thing! Come in and get dry and warm!”
Of course Aluvus accepted gratefully. The inside of the house that she could see looked warm and welcoming; well lit by candles and a fire in a large fireplace.
“Thank you, kindly.” she said as she stepped over the large door jamb. Though she did wonder why the light inside the house did not shine out through it’s windows.
Once inside the house seemed to change. As her eye’s adjusted Aluvus realized that the light was not nearly as bright as it had seemed nor was it as warm as it had looked. All the glass and mirrors she had glimpsed were not clean but dusty and grimy. The old woman was indeed very old and lean as an ally cat. Aluvus started to be afraid but the woman offered her something to eat to warm her and, realizing suddenly how very hungry she was Aluvus ate what she was given.
The old woman began to chuckle. “I have you now,” she muttered to herself. Then she cackled aloud, "You have accepted shelter from the storm and food. Now you must serve me until the storm breaks.”
Aluvus wanted to shake her head, scream NO! and run out the door. But there was a sudden crack of loud thunder, almost as if the house itself had been struck.
“You don’t really want to go back out in that now do you, Deary?” The old woman smiled. “Stay here where it is safe. All I ask is that you help me keep my house while the storm lasts. You will be well cared for and fed while we wait. There is nothing to fear.”
So Aluvus reluctantly agreed to stay forgetting the evil she’d felt in the old woman’s laugh.
The old woman gave her dry cloths to change into and let her dry her hair by the fire. Then asked her to help fix dinner in the kitchen.
When they took the food into the dinning room Aluvus gasped as she saw another older woman sat there at the table with an empty plate and an empty glass before her.
“Who is that?!” She gulped noting that only the woman’s eye’s moved.
“That is my sister.” The lean old woman grumped. “We’ve had a argument some time ago. Do not trust her for she is a wicked witch. I was able to turn one of her spells back on her. As long as water never touches her she will remain as she is. But if it ever touches her lips the spell will slowly fade and a terrible curse will fall on all in this house, including you!”
Aluvus found this hard to believe but found she had trouble thinking of anything other than what the old lady told her to do or think.
“ Let us eat.” the old woman grinned, “Don’t mind my evil old sister and don’t forget to use this lovely condiment. It’s the same as what I used on the food I gave you when you came in.”
Aluvus thought, “Oh, so that was that harsh and stinging taste on the sandwich. I thought the meat had gone bad.” but she did not say it. Indeed, she could not say anything against the old woman who had saved her from the storm.
The storm went on and on. It seemed every time Aluvus though of leaving thunder would crash as if striking a tree just outside the house. Days seemed to pass much as the first night had for Aluvus. Except that the lean old woman began doing less and less of the house work and Aluvus started doing more and more. Soon it was as if she were a servant and the old woman a harsh and angry master. Aluvus did ask the old woman everyday as she woke her for her chores, “What is the weather like today? Has the storm broken yet?”
But the answer was always, “No, no. The rain still pounds, the wind still blows. Can’t you hear it howling in the eves, or the thunder crashing over head. If you were out there you’d be dead by now!”
Aluvus cleaned and dusted constantly, from the time the old woman told her to get up until she was at last allowed to fall exhausted onto a thin, hard cot covered by a thin, inadequate blanket. She was always cold and the house always felt damp despite the fire burning in the fireplace and the wood stove in the kitchen. Aluvus also eventually was doing all of the cooking but she could never experiment with making the food more interesting or tasty, if she did the old woman would yell at her, throw it out and tell her to do it over the right way.
No mater how much Aluvus cleaned, dusted or cooked the house remained dusty and grimy and the old woman stayed skinny. Even Aluvus was starting to loose weight. She had begun to ignore the silent sister at the table even though that sister’s face seemed more kindly and gentler than her lean sister. Then one night the lean sister got very angry!
“Where is the condiment! You know we can not eat without it! We must have the condiment!!”
Aluvus shrank from the old woman’s anger and said subserviently, “But Grandmother, (that is what the old woman told her she must call her) the condiment jar is empty and you never told me where more was kept or even how to make more.”
And then for the first time the lean old woman left Aluvus alone at the table with her sister. Aluvus had gotten used to not eating until the old woman had taken a bite and took a sip to approve of the food and drink. Now as she sat waiting she looked around at the dingy dinning room and frowned. “Where does all this dust come from anyway?” she thought. “In fact, where does all the wood for the fireplace and the kitchen stove come from and the ingredients for these dull and boring meals?” Her eyes fell on the other, silent sister and she saw her smile at her. Then this other sister looked meaningfully at the glass of cold water beside Aluvus’ plate and then with undisguised longing into her face.
Many other questions began to boil into Aluvus’ mind and she acted on one. She picked up her water glass and went to the still, silent old woman at the far end of the table.
The second the glass touched the woman’s lips her silence was broken and she whispered urgent instructions to Aluvus.
As the old woman stopped speaking her lean sister hobbled into the dinning room.
“What are you doing! Don’t give her any water!” she screamed fearfully.
“Of course not Grandmother!” Aluvus stood up and returned to her seat. “But I noticed that her eye’s were closed for a change and I could not see her breath so I held my cold glass in front of her face to see if she were dead.”
“Oh, she lives, alright! She lives. The spell sees to that! Never fear. Now, here is the condiment,” she went on setting it before Aluvus, “Be sure you use it, now that I’ve gone to the trouble of getting it for you.”
But Aluvus obeyed the sister who still sat quietly smiling at the other end of the table instead and only seemed to eat the condiment on her food that night.
When she woke the next day, questions still filled her head. Above them all was, “How long have I been trapped here!” And this morning she did not wait for the lean old woman to tell her to get up. Instead she got up on her own, dressed in her old cloths, strode to the window in her room and flung the curtain back only to learn that the windows she’d never been ordered to clean were painted black. So then she walked briskly to the front door and jerked it open.
Aluvus smiled then. For outside the sun was shining on a lovely new day. There was only a light dusting of dew on the grass as birds flitted from tree to spring green tree in the surrounding forest. She walked out onto the porch and noted that it was much older and more dilapidated than she remembered it being when she ran up onto it during the storm. Then the quiet sister joined her and they both took a deep breath of the warm, clean spring air.
“Now, where is this town you are going to, my dear?” She asked in a warm, interested and lively voice. A voice not at all like the cold, demanding and demeaning voice of her sister. “Do you think I can find a place to stay there too? I think I’m ready to make a change myself?”
As they walked down the path from the old house the lean old sister dashed out onto the porch and screamed after them in her scratchy, whinny voice, “What are you doing you fool! I warned you not to give her water, now all is ruined and you’ll die out there in the storm! Don’t you see the lightening? Hear the thunder! Feel the icy wind as it lashes you? Come back! Come back! Stay here, safe, with me, where nothing changes! Where everything stays the same!”
Aluvus paused and looked back. The old house’s roof was nearly without shingles and it leaned alarmingly to one side. Brick was missing from the chimney’s top and some of the windows seemed to be covered with tarpaper and old boards and Aluvus supposed that those had no glass in them at all. No wonder the old place was always drafty, cold and damp.
“Almost less than a tent, isn’t it.” Sighed the old woman with her. “Thank you for breaking my sisters spell. Now, come.” She smiled brightly, “Let’s go on and see what the universe has in store for us! This will be so much fun!” and the old woman practically skipped ahead. Aluvus laughed and followed her. She found the way back to the rest stop easily and as she did the cell phone in her pocket rang.
When Aluvus answered it she found that it was the man she was on the way to the new town to talk to about renting a house while she searched for one to buy. “I’m just calling to tell you there’s no hurry getting here.” He told her. “So take your time and enjoy the drive. I’ll meet you for lunch at the local grocery store if that’s all right and we talk it over there.”
Aluvus realized that it was still the same day as she began to wander in the woods. She looked at the kindly old sister that was with her and laughed, “I’m bringing an old friend with me, do you mind?”
The realtor didn’t mind at all of course and eventually the kindly sister had a nice little apartment in a near by town while Aluvus eventually had the house with land she’d always dreamed of having. Though the old woman, Aluvus gladly called Grandma, seldom stayed in her apartment, as she was eager to travel and see the world.
Long years later as Aluvus reached the age of dear old Grandma, who had eventually passed on to her reward, she insisted on passing on to other young people the main part of the advise Grandma had given her to finely break her evil sisters spell.
For the last thing the kindly Grandma had whispered into Aluvus’ ear that night was, “And tomorrow do not wait for her to wake you, dress in your own cloths and even if she catches you do not ask her what the weather is like outside! Open the door and look for yourself!”
This is what happens when I read a book on mythology and think about the evils of to days world.
Scary ain't it.
A Modern Fairy Tale
One day a young woman I'll call Aluvus was driving from the city where she had been born and raised to the town she planned to live in. Her parents were dead and she was alone in the world and perhaps feeling a bit sorry for herself for being so alone in the cold cruel world.
As she drove she found herself in a deep woods that she didn’t remember seeing on the map. She pulled over at a rest stop and decided that a quick walk in the woods would settle her mind and ease her heart. She saw no problem with this as it was a bright and sunny day with just a few puffy ‘fair weather’ clouds floating above in a bright blue sky. It was hot on the parking lot of the rest stop but as she entered the woods she found the mottled shade to be cool and comforting. So she wandered here and there in the woods looking at the bright flowers and listening to the singing birds. But in her wandering she lost track of exactly where the rest stop was. When she realized this she also noted that the day was darkening even though her watch said it was still early morning
With a sigh she decided to go back to the rest stop, get in her car and continue her journey. But as she turned back toward where she thought her car was parked she realized she’d wandered farther into the woods than she had planned and she could no longer see the rest stop through the tree’s or even hear the cars dashing by on the road beside it. This did not worry her at first.
However, as she started to retrace her steps the sky became darker and she remembered some old stories she had heard of two sisters who’d lived in a long ago wood near the town where she planed to live. According to the old tale one sister had welcomed change, the future and even growing old while the other had rejected any change at all. Both had mysteriously disappeared. Even their family mansion had never been found even though the wood where they were supposed to have lived had been logged and well surveyed for future use long ago. This memory made Aluvus shiver. It was then that she realized she had lost the path she had followed into the woods and that the temperature was suddenly dropping with the failing of the light.
She pulled out her cell phone meaning to use the GPS app to find her way back but the battery died even as she looked in horror at the lack of bars on the phone. She did not panic but carefully looked about her and decided on a direction that she believed would take her back to the road at least. She remembered that she had gone uphill as she wandered away from the rest area so she thought that going down hill should get her to the road.
That was when the cold steady drizzle started. Soon she was wet through and through and shivering. She gritted her teeth and continued downward to where she supposed the road was. Then the wind picked up and began to make the tree tops sway and dance menacingly as the drizzle became a hard rain.
Aluvus stopped below a tree that only stopped the rain a little and tried to think what to do.
Lightening suddenly flashed and blasted a tree nearby! This frightened Aluvus as it would anyone. She knew that under a tree was no place to be during a thunder storm so she moved away and didn’t even notice that all the trees no longer held the spring leaves she had seen and expected when she stopped but were instead winter bare as they thrashed in the wind that began to howl through them. Above in the sky lightening flashed and thunder roared. Sometimes the lightening flashed and the thunder crashed all at once so Aluvus knew it was directly above her. She was now so frightened she was just running to get out from under the trees for fear of the lightening. The under brush and brambles between the trees tore at her pant legs and tried to tangle her feet.
Ahead of her through the flailing trees and nearly blinding rain she thought she saw a dim light. She headed toward it, hoping it was the light of a house and not the embers of a lightening burnt tree. The trees and brush that had hindered her before no longer got in her way and she soon found herself in a clearing around an old fashioned farm house. There was an old kerosene type lamp swinging above the door in the wind.
Aluvus rushed up onto the porch that surrounded the old house and was grateful to put her back to the door and stand shivering and wet below the old lamp. She was at least out of the wind and the rain there. She looked out and it seemed the rain and wind had increased. Eddies of it began to curl around the house and bring rain with it to where she stood shivering. It was as if the storm was after her, she thought.
Then the door behind her opened and Aluvus turned with a gasp to beg for shelter from the storm.
“Ah, there! That’s the noise I heard on the porch!” The lean older woman said as if startled. “I feared the lamp had fallen before I could take it in.” She continued reaching for it as she spoke. “As for you, poor thing! Come in and get dry and warm!”
Of course Aluvus accepted gratefully. The inside of the house that she could see looked warm and welcoming; well lit by candles and a fire in a large fireplace.
“Thank you, kindly.” she said as she stepped over the large door jamb. Though she did wonder why the light inside the house did not shine out through it’s windows.
Once inside the house seemed to change. As her eye’s adjusted Aluvus realized that the light was not nearly as bright as it had seemed nor was it as warm as it had looked. All the glass and mirrors she had glimpsed were not clean but dusty and grimy. The old woman was indeed very old and lean as an ally cat. Aluvus started to be afraid but the woman offered her something to eat to warm her and, realizing suddenly how very hungry she was Aluvus ate what she was given.
The old woman began to chuckle. “I have you now,” she muttered to herself. Then she cackled aloud, "You have accepted shelter from the storm and food. Now you must serve me until the storm breaks.”
Aluvus wanted to shake her head, scream NO! and run out the door. But there was a sudden crack of loud thunder, almost as if the house itself had been struck.
“You don’t really want to go back out in that now do you, Deary?” The old woman smiled. “Stay here where it is safe. All I ask is that you help me keep my house while the storm lasts. You will be well cared for and fed while we wait. There is nothing to fear.”
So Aluvus reluctantly agreed to stay forgetting the evil she’d felt in the old woman’s laugh.
The old woman gave her dry cloths to change into and let her dry her hair by the fire. Then asked her to help fix dinner in the kitchen.
When they took the food into the dinning room Aluvus gasped as she saw another older woman sat there at the table with an empty plate and an empty glass before her.
“Who is that?!” She gulped noting that only the woman’s eye’s moved.
“That is my sister.” The lean old woman grumped. “We’ve had a argument some time ago. Do not trust her for she is a wicked witch. I was able to turn one of her spells back on her. As long as water never touches her she will remain as she is. But if it ever touches her lips the spell will slowly fade and a terrible curse will fall on all in this house, including you!”
Aluvus found this hard to believe but found she had trouble thinking of anything other than what the old lady told her to do or think.
“ Let us eat.” the old woman grinned, “Don’t mind my evil old sister and don’t forget to use this lovely condiment. It’s the same as what I used on the food I gave you when you came in.”
Aluvus thought, “Oh, so that was that harsh and stinging taste on the sandwich. I thought the meat had gone bad.” but she did not say it. Indeed, she could not say anything against the old woman who had saved her from the storm.
The storm went on and on. It seemed every time Aluvus though of leaving thunder would crash as if striking a tree just outside the house. Days seemed to pass much as the first night had for Aluvus. Except that the lean old woman began doing less and less of the house work and Aluvus started doing more and more. Soon it was as if she were a servant and the old woman a harsh and angry master. Aluvus did ask the old woman everyday as she woke her for her chores, “What is the weather like today? Has the storm broken yet?”
But the answer was always, “No, no. The rain still pounds, the wind still blows. Can’t you hear it howling in the eves, or the thunder crashing over head. If you were out there you’d be dead by now!”
Aluvus cleaned and dusted constantly, from the time the old woman told her to get up until she was at last allowed to fall exhausted onto a thin, hard cot covered by a thin, inadequate blanket. She was always cold and the house always felt damp despite the fire burning in the fireplace and the wood stove in the kitchen. Aluvus also eventually was doing all of the cooking but she could never experiment with making the food more interesting or tasty, if she did the old woman would yell at her, throw it out and tell her to do it over the right way.
No mater how much Aluvus cleaned, dusted or cooked the house remained dusty and grimy and the old woman stayed skinny. Even Aluvus was starting to loose weight. She had begun to ignore the silent sister at the table even though that sister’s face seemed more kindly and gentler than her lean sister. Then one night the lean sister got very angry!
“Where is the condiment! You know we can not eat without it! We must have the condiment!!”
Aluvus shrank from the old woman’s anger and said subserviently, “But Grandmother, (that is what the old woman told her she must call her) the condiment jar is empty and you never told me where more was kept or even how to make more.”
And then for the first time the lean old woman left Aluvus alone at the table with her sister. Aluvus had gotten used to not eating until the old woman had taken a bite and took a sip to approve of the food and drink. Now as she sat waiting she looked around at the dingy dinning room and frowned. “Where does all this dust come from anyway?” she thought. “In fact, where does all the wood for the fireplace and the kitchen stove come from and the ingredients for these dull and boring meals?” Her eyes fell on the other, silent sister and she saw her smile at her. Then this other sister looked meaningfully at the glass of cold water beside Aluvus’ plate and then with undisguised longing into her face.
Many other questions began to boil into Aluvus’ mind and she acted on one. She picked up her water glass and went to the still, silent old woman at the far end of the table.
The second the glass touched the woman’s lips her silence was broken and she whispered urgent instructions to Aluvus.
As the old woman stopped speaking her lean sister hobbled into the dinning room.
“What are you doing! Don’t give her any water!” she screamed fearfully.
“Of course not Grandmother!” Aluvus stood up and returned to her seat. “But I noticed that her eye’s were closed for a change and I could not see her breath so I held my cold glass in front of her face to see if she were dead.”
“Oh, she lives, alright! She lives. The spell sees to that! Never fear. Now, here is the condiment,” she went on setting it before Aluvus, “Be sure you use it, now that I’ve gone to the trouble of getting it for you.”
But Aluvus obeyed the sister who still sat quietly smiling at the other end of the table instead and only seemed to eat the condiment on her food that night.
When she woke the next day, questions still filled her head. Above them all was, “How long have I been trapped here!” And this morning she did not wait for the lean old woman to tell her to get up. Instead she got up on her own, dressed in her old cloths, strode to the window in her room and flung the curtain back only to learn that the windows she’d never been ordered to clean were painted black. So then she walked briskly to the front door and jerked it open.
Aluvus smiled then. For outside the sun was shining on a lovely new day. There was only a light dusting of dew on the grass as birds flitted from tree to spring green tree in the surrounding forest. She walked out onto the porch and noted that it was much older and more dilapidated than she remembered it being when she ran up onto it during the storm. Then the quiet sister joined her and they both took a deep breath of the warm, clean spring air.
“Now, where is this town you are going to, my dear?” She asked in a warm, interested and lively voice. A voice not at all like the cold, demanding and demeaning voice of her sister. “Do you think I can find a place to stay there too? I think I’m ready to make a change myself?”
As they walked down the path from the old house the lean old sister dashed out onto the porch and screamed after them in her scratchy, whinny voice, “What are you doing you fool! I warned you not to give her water, now all is ruined and you’ll die out there in the storm! Don’t you see the lightening? Hear the thunder! Feel the icy wind as it lashes you? Come back! Come back! Stay here, safe, with me, where nothing changes! Where everything stays the same!”
Aluvus paused and looked back. The old house’s roof was nearly without shingles and it leaned alarmingly to one side. Brick was missing from the chimney’s top and some of the windows seemed to be covered with tarpaper and old boards and Aluvus supposed that those had no glass in them at all. No wonder the old place was always drafty, cold and damp.
“Almost less than a tent, isn’t it.” Sighed the old woman with her. “Thank you for breaking my sisters spell. Now, come.” She smiled brightly, “Let’s go on and see what the universe has in store for us! This will be so much fun!” and the old woman practically skipped ahead. Aluvus laughed and followed her. She found the way back to the rest stop easily and as she did the cell phone in her pocket rang.
When Aluvus answered it she found that it was the man she was on the way to the new town to talk to about renting a house while she searched for one to buy. “I’m just calling to tell you there’s no hurry getting here.” He told her. “So take your time and enjoy the drive. I’ll meet you for lunch at the local grocery store if that’s all right and we talk it over there.”
Aluvus realized that it was still the same day as she began to wander in the woods. She looked at the kindly old sister that was with her and laughed, “I’m bringing an old friend with me, do you mind?”
The realtor didn’t mind at all of course and eventually the kindly sister had a nice little apartment in a near by town while Aluvus eventually had the house with land she’d always dreamed of having. Though the old woman, Aluvus gladly called Grandma, seldom stayed in her apartment, as she was eager to travel and see the world.
Long years later as Aluvus reached the age of dear old Grandma, who had eventually passed on to her reward, she insisted on passing on to other young people the main part of the advise Grandma had given her to finely break her evil sisters spell.
For the last thing the kindly Grandma had whispered into Aluvus’ ear that night was, “And tomorrow do not wait for her to wake you, dress in your own cloths and even if she catches you do not ask her what the weather is like outside! Open the door and look for yourself!”
Wednesday, February 17, 2010
Goats and more goats!
Well, at the end of January I had three very pregnant nanny goats. Momma Goat, Star and Baby.
It is now the middle of February and I have eight goats. Momma Goat is now Granny goat, and her daughters, Star and Baby have a half sister I'm calling Cookie and a half brother I'm calling Cream. Cookie is mostly black with a little white stripe and very few other spots of white. Cream is mostly a tannish grey with a narrow white stripe around his middle, a white face and black points here and there. Oh, he will be a handsome devil!
Star had two little boys that are half siblings of Granny Goat's kids. (everyone had the same daddy) Both are a light brown with white. The one with the big white spot on one side I am calling Cocoa. The other, who has a white star, a white tip on his tail and a scattering of other white on him is being called Latte'. (extra cream, get it. His brother, with just that one white spot has the marshmallow in the cocoa....dumb, I know but it works for me)
Baby had only one kid. This cute little gal is black on both ends with a wide white stripe around her middle. Couldn't help it. Her name is Oreo. Might nick name her Double Stuff because the white stripe is so wide.
Little Oreo arrived first early on Saturday morning. Before noon Cocoa and Latte' were here. Mean while Granny Goat was trying to take over poor Oreo from her Mom and Baby, as a first time mom was as confused as Oreo.
With the help of some friends we moved the interfering old Granny Goat over to my Dogs kennel. I was keeping him in because of the cold and wet anyway. I stuffed some hay into the dog house in the kennel and spread some around as well as making sure Granny had plenty of water.
Sunday morning I was greeted by tiny little baas from the dog kennel when I went out to feed every one and found Granny Goat busy with Cookie and Cream.
Friends helped out once more by moving Granny and her kids back to the main pen. Granny was no longer interested in 'stealing' Oreo.
These same good friends brought over an old rug, some wood and nails and together we used them to make the old chicken coop a little snugger for the mommas and the new kids.
And then it snowed. And snowed, and snowed.
Now the snow has all melted but all five kids are still here and I'm wondering what to do with all those little boy goats! I don't want to keep them until they grow into big smelly boys. So I guess I'll just have to sell at least two of them. Either Cocoa or Latte' will have to stay to keep Star's bag from getting too full. But then, whoever stays will be going bye bye as soon as he is weaned.
I have considered just trading that last young buck for another buck that isn't related but then I looked around and unless I put the critter right next to my house the only other spot for him would be way out in the pasture. That, what with the feral dogs, coyotes and bobcats would not be a good idea. Not if I wanted a live billy goat anyway. But he darn sure couldn't be right next to my house because it wouldn't be just the neighbors that would be complaining! I would be to when he started to, well, 'smell like a real ram.' So he will have to go as soon as he is weaned.
I guess when the time comes I'll just do as I did this time and find the girls a willing man. One who isn't related, of course.
For anyone who is interested none of these critters have any 'papers' as they were given to me. I have been told that Granny Goat is a full pygmy goat and that her two girls are only half. What the other half is...I don't know. As for the buck that was the Daddy of all my kids, I was told he was a full pygmy. I do know that he was shorter at the shoulder than any of my girls. He was a handsome fellow being mostly brown with some white and black accents and somewhat longish hair. So theoretically, Granny Goat's Cookie and Cream are full pygmy, while the other three kids are only three quarter pygmy.
Guess I need to check around to find out what 2 week old male pygmy goats are going for at the moment.
Any one want a cute little pet goat? Or two?
It is now the middle of February and I have eight goats. Momma Goat is now Granny goat, and her daughters, Star and Baby have a half sister I'm calling Cookie and a half brother I'm calling Cream. Cookie is mostly black with a little white stripe and very few other spots of white. Cream is mostly a tannish grey with a narrow white stripe around his middle, a white face and black points here and there. Oh, he will be a handsome devil!
Star had two little boys that are half siblings of Granny Goat's kids. (everyone had the same daddy) Both are a light brown with white. The one with the big white spot on one side I am calling Cocoa. The other, who has a white star, a white tip on his tail and a scattering of other white on him is being called Latte'. (extra cream, get it. His brother, with just that one white spot has the marshmallow in the cocoa....dumb, I know but it works for me)
Baby had only one kid. This cute little gal is black on both ends with a wide white stripe around her middle. Couldn't help it. Her name is Oreo. Might nick name her Double Stuff because the white stripe is so wide.
Little Oreo arrived first early on Saturday morning. Before noon Cocoa and Latte' were here. Mean while Granny Goat was trying to take over poor Oreo from her Mom and Baby, as a first time mom was as confused as Oreo.
With the help of some friends we moved the interfering old Granny Goat over to my Dogs kennel. I was keeping him in because of the cold and wet anyway. I stuffed some hay into the dog house in the kennel and spread some around as well as making sure Granny had plenty of water.
Sunday morning I was greeted by tiny little baas from the dog kennel when I went out to feed every one and found Granny Goat busy with Cookie and Cream.
Friends helped out once more by moving Granny and her kids back to the main pen. Granny was no longer interested in 'stealing' Oreo.
These same good friends brought over an old rug, some wood and nails and together we used them to make the old chicken coop a little snugger for the mommas and the new kids.
And then it snowed. And snowed, and snowed.
Now the snow has all melted but all five kids are still here and I'm wondering what to do with all those little boy goats! I don't want to keep them until they grow into big smelly boys. So I guess I'll just have to sell at least two of them. Either Cocoa or Latte' will have to stay to keep Star's bag from getting too full. But then, whoever stays will be going bye bye as soon as he is weaned.
I have considered just trading that last young buck for another buck that isn't related but then I looked around and unless I put the critter right next to my house the only other spot for him would be way out in the pasture. That, what with the feral dogs, coyotes and bobcats would not be a good idea. Not if I wanted a live billy goat anyway. But he darn sure couldn't be right next to my house because it wouldn't be just the neighbors that would be complaining! I would be to when he started to, well, 'smell like a real ram.' So he will have to go as soon as he is weaned.
I guess when the time comes I'll just do as I did this time and find the girls a willing man. One who isn't related, of course.
For anyone who is interested none of these critters have any 'papers' as they were given to me. I have been told that Granny Goat is a full pygmy goat and that her two girls are only half. What the other half is...I don't know. As for the buck that was the Daddy of all my kids, I was told he was a full pygmy. I do know that he was shorter at the shoulder than any of my girls. He was a handsome fellow being mostly brown with some white and black accents and somewhat longish hair. So theoretically, Granny Goat's Cookie and Cream are full pygmy, while the other three kids are only three quarter pygmy.
Guess I need to check around to find out what 2 week old male pygmy goats are going for at the moment.
Any one want a cute little pet goat? Or two?
Wednesday, February 3, 2010
Rain, rain, rain
Well, I'm back.
I have this problem. You see I have this urge to actually DO things rather than sit in front of a computer wriggling my fingers on top of a key board.
Speaking of actually doing things. I built my very own 'Lasagna garden'/square foot garden about a week ago. Just before this last freeze here in the city of Lone Oak, in Hunt County of the great state of Texas.
I have been told that there are some folks out there who have no clue as to what the heck either a square foot garden or, perhaps especially, a lasagna garden is. Sorry, I forget that not everyone is as into the green thing or even just gardening as I.
Where to begin?
Square foot gardens might be best, I suppose.
In square foot gardening the aim is to grow as much as possible in a single square foot of space. It could also be, and maybe is, called intensive gardening. It often makes use of trellises instead of allowing things usually planted in 'hills' to spread out over the ground and thus take up more horizontal space.
"So what?" you may say. "I've seen all kinds of things growing on trellises. Roses, grapes that kind of stuff." Yeah, but Square Footers tend to trellis almost everything that would ordinarily spread out and leave the fruit laying on the ground. Things like pumpkins, watermelons, and cantaloupes as well as some variates of tomatoes and squash. Obviously they do not go for the biggest possible variety of these plants. You do not grow a 500 pound pumpkin on a trellis. Unless, of course, you know a competent welder.
Back to square foot gardening itself.
The square foot garden is usually no more than four feet across and is often only four by four feet in all and is also often a raised bed. Though one can be several feet long it should never be more than 4 feet across. This is so the gardener can reach into the middle of the garden without ever stepping into it. A frame of some kind, be it removable wired together dowel rods or permanently fixed, is also used. It is set up so that it marks of square foot sections of the four by four space. My understanding is that you then plant your plants, or seeds, at a fraction of the distance called for on the seed packets. And you do not thin the crop later. The whole idea is to have a thick planting. You want the plants to overlap and cut off the sun from any of the weed seeds that may be lurking in the gardens soil.
You will, of course, have fed that soil heavily with compost and composted manures that have been well mixed into the soil before planting.
Now for the oddly named lasagna garden and what I ended up with.
It is called a lasagna garden because it is built up of layers like a pan of lasagna.
First, the pan.
This is a nice layer of wet newspaper and you lay it down where ever you want your garden to be. Oh, don't bother with a shovel and forget gassing up the tiller. You place that wet newspaper right down on top of whatever is already there, be it lawn, or a mass of pressed down weeds. In fact if the grass is real tall you could mow it then rake it up for later use as a layer in the garden.
Anyway! Lay down the wet newspaper, overlapping the edges, in what ever shape you want your garden to be. You can go traditional with long rows or do as I did and make it a kind of four by four, sorta square. ( I didn't break out the tape measure and t-square if you are wondering.) I laid my saved up newsprint over the grass infested semi raised bed I'd made last year. I even used some old Lone Oak Newsletters which are printed on copier paper.
That done, I pulled a friends two wheel blue cart over to my goat pen and used a horse stall rake to pull out the hay the goats had trampled, and...umm...amended with their manure. I piled that on top of the wet newspapers and spread it out. It took two loads and I guess you could think of it as the pasta in the lasagna.
After recuperating from that exercise for a half hour or so on my front porch swing I trundled the blue cart out to that little hill of whats left of the horse manure pulled out of the horse barn last year. There I did need a shovel to dig up the rich, rich dark brown loamy stuff it had become. That was piled on top of the used hay in the garden and I called it a day. Keeping to the 'lasagna' model, I guess this layer would be the 'sauce'. The day after that the predicted cold snap was lurking nearer and I had recovered enough to prompt me to further effort.
I went to Wal-Mart(c) and bought some peat moss, potting soil, and, just for fun, some hard wood mulch. When I returned I unloaded my truck (with a little help) and then scrapped up some more of that well used goat hay to spread over the top of the composted horse manure. (another layer of pasta!)
Now at this point I have to point out that I could have kept going with these alternating layers until I had a pile about a foot high or even higher. Laziness and the coming cold got in the way of that. Instead, I spread the peat moss (cheese?) over the top of the used hay, opened up the bag of potting soil and started planting the cool weather veggies. I couldn't leave them outside in their little pots or they'd freeze and that would be a waste of my hard earned money. I couldn't bring them in either as the cats would likely eat or just destroy them and that would also be a waste of my money. They had to be planted and covered somehow.
Thus, I extended myself, and planted them all that afternoon with few rest breaks. Boy, did I pay for it that night! And the next day! And the day after. (There is a reason I'm on disability.)
I planted them this way. First I dug a hole through the peat moss down to the hay and filled it with a fist full of potting soil. Then I plopped in the plant, surrounded it with a couple of more fist fulls of potting soil and snugged the peat moss over the soil to keep it moist.
By the time I finished I had one nine pack each of Broccoli, Cauliflower, Brussel Sprouts, head cabbage and head lettuce as well as a good number of red and white onions planted in a nearly four by four area. Yeah, I know. It looks crowded even to me.
I was bone tired by then but I hung in there to deploy the wood and plastic contraption I'd come up with to keep the freezing cold away from the tender young veggies.
The wind that night played havoc with the plastic. Fortunately a weather report I'd missed had put the actual freeze off until the following night. A better thought out freeze protection contraption worked much better.
That was all a week or so ago. The plants seem to be doing fine. The thing I have fixed up to protect them from freezing nights may have to be deployed once more this coming week and in weeks to come, but I'm sure it will work again despite the holes the plastic has already developed.
They are cool weather plants after all.
I'll use the hard wood mulch either on my other gardens or build another lasagna garden and use it as I used the peat moss.
But first I need to buy a couple of Sunday newspapers.
I have this problem. You see I have this urge to actually DO things rather than sit in front of a computer wriggling my fingers on top of a key board.
Speaking of actually doing things. I built my very own 'Lasagna garden'/square foot garden about a week ago. Just before this last freeze here in the city of Lone Oak, in Hunt County of the great state of Texas.
I have been told that there are some folks out there who have no clue as to what the heck either a square foot garden or, perhaps especially, a lasagna garden is. Sorry, I forget that not everyone is as into the green thing or even just gardening as I.
Where to begin?
Square foot gardens might be best, I suppose.
In square foot gardening the aim is to grow as much as possible in a single square foot of space. It could also be, and maybe is, called intensive gardening. It often makes use of trellises instead of allowing things usually planted in 'hills' to spread out over the ground and thus take up more horizontal space.
"So what?" you may say. "I've seen all kinds of things growing on trellises. Roses, grapes that kind of stuff." Yeah, but Square Footers tend to trellis almost everything that would ordinarily spread out and leave the fruit laying on the ground. Things like pumpkins, watermelons, and cantaloupes as well as some variates of tomatoes and squash. Obviously they do not go for the biggest possible variety of these plants. You do not grow a 500 pound pumpkin on a trellis. Unless, of course, you know a competent welder.
Back to square foot gardening itself.
The square foot garden is usually no more than four feet across and is often only four by four feet in all and is also often a raised bed. Though one can be several feet long it should never be more than 4 feet across. This is so the gardener can reach into the middle of the garden without ever stepping into it. A frame of some kind, be it removable wired together dowel rods or permanently fixed, is also used. It is set up so that it marks of square foot sections of the four by four space. My understanding is that you then plant your plants, or seeds, at a fraction of the distance called for on the seed packets. And you do not thin the crop later. The whole idea is to have a thick planting. You want the plants to overlap and cut off the sun from any of the weed seeds that may be lurking in the gardens soil.
You will, of course, have fed that soil heavily with compost and composted manures that have been well mixed into the soil before planting.
Now for the oddly named lasagna garden and what I ended up with.
It is called a lasagna garden because it is built up of layers like a pan of lasagna.
First, the pan.
This is a nice layer of wet newspaper and you lay it down where ever you want your garden to be. Oh, don't bother with a shovel and forget gassing up the tiller. You place that wet newspaper right down on top of whatever is already there, be it lawn, or a mass of pressed down weeds. In fact if the grass is real tall you could mow it then rake it up for later use as a layer in the garden.
Anyway! Lay down the wet newspaper, overlapping the edges, in what ever shape you want your garden to be. You can go traditional with long rows or do as I did and make it a kind of four by four, sorta square. ( I didn't break out the tape measure and t-square if you are wondering.) I laid my saved up newsprint over the grass infested semi raised bed I'd made last year. I even used some old Lone Oak Newsletters which are printed on copier paper.
That done, I pulled a friends two wheel blue cart over to my goat pen and used a horse stall rake to pull out the hay the goats had trampled, and...umm...amended with their manure. I piled that on top of the wet newspapers and spread it out. It took two loads and I guess you could think of it as the pasta in the lasagna.
After recuperating from that exercise for a half hour or so on my front porch swing I trundled the blue cart out to that little hill of whats left of the horse manure pulled out of the horse barn last year. There I did need a shovel to dig up the rich, rich dark brown loamy stuff it had become. That was piled on top of the used hay in the garden and I called it a day. Keeping to the 'lasagna' model, I guess this layer would be the 'sauce'. The day after that the predicted cold snap was lurking nearer and I had recovered enough to prompt me to further effort.
I went to Wal-Mart(c) and bought some peat moss, potting soil, and, just for fun, some hard wood mulch. When I returned I unloaded my truck (with a little help) and then scrapped up some more of that well used goat hay to spread over the top of the composted horse manure. (another layer of pasta!)
Now at this point I have to point out that I could have kept going with these alternating layers until I had a pile about a foot high or even higher. Laziness and the coming cold got in the way of that. Instead, I spread the peat moss (cheese?) over the top of the used hay, opened up the bag of potting soil and started planting the cool weather veggies. I couldn't leave them outside in their little pots or they'd freeze and that would be a waste of my hard earned money. I couldn't bring them in either as the cats would likely eat or just destroy them and that would also be a waste of my money. They had to be planted and covered somehow.
Thus, I extended myself, and planted them all that afternoon with few rest breaks. Boy, did I pay for it that night! And the next day! And the day after. (There is a reason I'm on disability.)
I planted them this way. First I dug a hole through the peat moss down to the hay and filled it with a fist full of potting soil. Then I plopped in the plant, surrounded it with a couple of more fist fulls of potting soil and snugged the peat moss over the soil to keep it moist.
By the time I finished I had one nine pack each of Broccoli, Cauliflower, Brussel Sprouts, head cabbage and head lettuce as well as a good number of red and white onions planted in a nearly four by four area. Yeah, I know. It looks crowded even to me.
I was bone tired by then but I hung in there to deploy the wood and plastic contraption I'd come up with to keep the freezing cold away from the tender young veggies.
The wind that night played havoc with the plastic. Fortunately a weather report I'd missed had put the actual freeze off until the following night. A better thought out freeze protection contraption worked much better.
That was all a week or so ago. The plants seem to be doing fine. The thing I have fixed up to protect them from freezing nights may have to be deployed once more this coming week and in weeks to come, but I'm sure it will work again despite the holes the plastic has already developed.
They are cool weather plants after all.
I'll use the hard wood mulch either on my other gardens or build another lasagna garden and use it as I used the peat moss.
But first I need to buy a couple of Sunday newspapers.
Thursday, January 21, 2010
Well looky there! A brand new year!
Well, it's a brand new year. Well into it in fact and I'm just now getting back to this blog thing. What can I say? I've been busy....Okay, okay! I'll admit I've also been a bit (!) lazy as well.
Seems the holiday's gave me a good excuse to do something else other than sit in front of a computer most of the day...and I LIKED IT!
Then, as those of you who might read this and live here in N. E. Texas also know, the December deep freeze has been followed by a spring like January with outside temperatures soring into the seventies. It's got my slightly greenish thumbs itching. I've even bought some cool weather veggies to plant. Now all I have to do is get the grass out of the one bed I've got that's sort of ready and dig some more. I'm planing on going the square foot gardening route.
Of course if it doesn't stop raining I'll have to give up on borrowing a tiller and just make some 'lasagna beds'. That would still work with the square foot method.
If you are lost and confused about what I'm talking about above, heh, heh. You're on the Internet for crying out loud! Go Google 'Organic Gardening', 'Square Foot Gardening' and 'Lasagna Gardening'. Or maybe just google 'gardening'. Whatever. Look it up.
The sun is shinning out there. It rained last night so the ground is soft.
My fingers are itching to get muddy.
Forget Farm Town. Forget Farm Ville.
I'm gonna go dig in some real dirt.
Seems the holiday's gave me a good excuse to do something else other than sit in front of a computer most of the day...and I LIKED IT!
Then, as those of you who might read this and live here in N. E. Texas also know, the December deep freeze has been followed by a spring like January with outside temperatures soring into the seventies. It's got my slightly greenish thumbs itching. I've even bought some cool weather veggies to plant. Now all I have to do is get the grass out of the one bed I've got that's sort of ready and dig some more. I'm planing on going the square foot gardening route.
Of course if it doesn't stop raining I'll have to give up on borrowing a tiller and just make some 'lasagna beds'. That would still work with the square foot method.
If you are lost and confused about what I'm talking about above, heh, heh. You're on the Internet for crying out loud! Go Google 'Organic Gardening', 'Square Foot Gardening' and 'Lasagna Gardening'. Or maybe just google 'gardening'. Whatever. Look it up.
The sun is shinning out there. It rained last night so the ground is soft.
My fingers are itching to get muddy.
Forget Farm Town. Forget Farm Ville.
I'm gonna go dig in some real dirt.
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