Mom

My mom would have been 94 tomorrow, July 20.... I would give everything I have for ten more minutes with her. I miss her more than any other ... more than I ever thought I could miss anyone. None of the fights or arguments are remembered, only the laughter, the good sound advice she gave, never heavy-handed, always tempered with reason...don't do drugs. With the exception of MJ in the 70's when I was an adult, I never did. Never touched a beer in high school when "everyone else was doing it." And when I entered my teenage years... "don't fall for boys who say they love you, or tell you how beautiful you are...teenage boys have one thing on their minds. One thing." I was a virgin when I got married... at least the first time 😁 My mom was flawed, all moms are, we fought at times, made each other cry... but she never lied to me, even when the news was bad. I didn't cherish her enough when she was here... I hope she hears me now. Take heed.

Have always loved fresh squeezed orange juice

When I was a kid my mom would  make fresh squeezed orange juice... yeah it didn't come out of a can, bottle, or freezer section of the grocery store....  she bought oranges, squeezed them by hand, blended them... delicious!

Did the same thing for my kids when they were little... by then they were already used to the store-bought orange juice.... didn't like the stuff I squeezed and blended !   Pathetic.

Homemade orange juice is labor and time intensive... people get used to a little less than quality to save time.... examine that for a bit.... "saving time" is not possible. It can only be used, but that's how we get indoctrinated to accept less.

Well that didn't last long

The cross-stitch project is over.... now have so much arthritis pain in my hands and neck that I can barely move.... can probably give the kit away on Freecycle, but will do that later... now I have to stay down with the heating pad.  Didn't realize it would affect the neck and shoulders so much but no doubt from the head bent forward position taken when cross stitching.  Neck and shoulders are the only other place I have arthritis besides the thumbs and wrists. 

Looks like it's going to be difficult to find something to do that won't end up with me being immobile with pain.  Did take a 500 mg Naproxen but that's as far as I'll go with the meds... too hard on the tummy.

Guess I'll start cleaning up the garden tomorrow.... a bit early but as there are no pollinators my squash hasn't set any fruit, the tomato plants have produced very little fruit, and the flowering plants are thin and shabby.  Sunflowers did okay - at least the Goldfinches got something to eat.  As I have been gardening for over sixty years this is a huge blow.... thinking next year I'll do nothing....

I can't be the only one who writes and calls congress about the disaster that  Monsanto, Dow, Bayer and Syngenta are bringing to our planet. Can I?  People are still using Roundup in their yards... unfathomable to me.  Even if they don't bother with research, surely they can't have missed the several hundred million dollars in fines Monsanto has had to pay so far for lying about the dangers of Roundup... people working in the fields are coming down with cancer. How oblivious does a person have to be to just not KNOW that pouring poison on the earth, filling the air with it, poisoning all our waterways is sheer idiocy? I mean, is it that fucking important to have "perfect" produce?? The planet is dying. 

Have Started What Appears to be a Lifelong Project

Have started my first very large cross-stitch.... it has taken me two hours to NOT quite complete one square... there are 506 squares. One square is approximately one inch by one inch.

Ah well.  Not quite as painful for the hands as crocheting/knitting, but close. If I complete it, WHEN I complete the project will be quite beautiful.

It has been close to six and a half years since I have done anything I considered purposeful on this earth..... that was my work with Old Dog Haven.