June 10, 2020

So, how's everyone enjoying their little pandemic? We opted out of participating in the pandemic--have worn no masks or gloves. Zero. Not once. Grocery stores, hardware stores, Lowe's, etc. And no one has said anything! This crap about no dine-in restaurants in VA for a while--no prob. We ain't that far from NC, which is what we did for our recent 40th anniversary. No mask to even walk in the door. We met with my aunt who helped us a great deal when we got married and two of my cousins who still live in the area. Forty years! That's a long time, still together and still diggin' life together.

Scaled back veggie gardening this year, as I've been working on new landscaping; putting in trees and starting a new orchard on the back property now that the one in the front property is about grown to maturity. So far I have 12 cherry trees planted, 2 elderberry bushes, a pomegranate (another one from out front will be transplanted in the new orchard this fall), 4-5 blueberry bushes, and will continue adding cherry trees from the volunteer "suckers" from the mature trees. These are tart cherries that are great for pies, cordials (I make GOOD cherry cordial!), etc--tart cherries have antiviral properties that are as good as, if not better than, elderberries. I made a lot of tart cherry syrup this past winter and we have not had a cold, flu, 'rona--nothing. The syrup is made just like elderberry syrup but is a lot less expensive since we have our own cherry trees (and soon, our own elderberries) and I have about 40 pounds of cherries in the deep freezer. It has raw honey (MUST be raw), cinnamon stick, whole cloves, anise seed (not to be confused with star anise but could be used interchangeably), and whole ginger--using the powdered spices, you don't get the antiviral properties of the whole spice. I've been asked to make it for sale but I can't do that--I'd need to know a medical history and what prescriptions people are taking, so I tell them how to do it and stress highly that people do their own research--elderberry is not for everyone and could interact negatively with some medications.

Planted several Star Magnolias on either side of the front of the house, and 3 new Formosa azaleas--the oleanders were pretty but looked like crap after being hit with ice storms a time too many. The house has been repainted a darker grey and looks very nice. Out back I put in Confederate jasmine, more hostas, a rosebush, and new raised flower garden with tons of flower varieties, and, of course, lots of sunflowers. Next year (or maybe this fall), lilacs and gardenias.

As for veggies, we now have terrific sources for organic fruits/veggies at a couple of farmer's markets so I buy from them and can, freeze, etc. I just have 10 tomato plants (down from a high of 80!), 4 bell peppers, and 8 hot peppers. That way I can concentrate on the new landscaping and such. My new herb bed has parsley, sage, rosemary, thyme, chives, oregano, marjoram, etc. I love using the dried herbs all winter.

I bought a reel mower (made in the USA!!!) and I love love love it! I can quickly cut grass around my various pocket gardens (I have 6 pocket gardens right now, each a little different) without the noise and stink of the push mower or riding mower. I wish I'd bought one sooner! Each pocket garden has a birdbath, and/or bee bath with lots of tempting plants for bees birdies and butterflies. Look up pocket gardens on Instagram; some are fancy, more fancy than mine. But they are just small gardens scattered here and there around the property. Once the plants start blooming and I get the gardens the way I envision them, I'll post pix. I don't do Instagram much anymore; once they messed with the algorithms and you see posts from days ago, it wasn't as much fun anymore as photos posted in real time.

All of that keeps me hopping, and tending the several birdbaths and bee baths around the front and back property. It's so cool watching the bees use the bee bath to drink! The dragonflies, too. So cool to watch. I make sure to keep all of the water baths clean. I planted tons of thyme because bees love the flowers. I hope if there's a beekeeper around that they are enjoying honey from the bees collecting pollen at my herb gardens!

That's 'bout it, just livin' life. Refuse to get caught up in pandemic pandemonium. I just laugh at all those videos being passed around about washing your groceries and sterilizing anything in the house that the groceries touched. Other than normal cleaning, we ain't sterilized shit. People need to look up what living in sterile environments does to your immune system. And what the science is about masks...I'll post some links later, gotta go hang the laundry--yep, I still use my "solar clothes dryer" and laugh at the nitwits who say we gotta be taxed more to "fight" climate change while not doing shit about it!

Ciao for niao...but here's one link:

From the New England Journal of Medicine...

"We know that wearing a mask outside health care facilities offers little, if any, protection from infection. Public health authorities define a significant exposure to Covid-19 as face-to-face contact within 6 feet with a patient with symptomatic Covid-19 that is sustained for at least a few minutes (and some say more than 10 minutes or even 30 minutes). The chance of catching Covid-19 from a passing interaction in a public space is therefore minimal. In many cases, the desire for widespread masking is a reflexive reaction to anxiety over the pandemic."

Poems/prose on this site are original works, copyrighted Julie P. Clark 2020, and may not be used without permission. DISCLAIMER: Poems and commentary should not be taken to mean any person living, dead, or otherwise.

April 30, 2020

Part 1:
So, once in a while, but not as often now as in years past, I get these random emails. Usually asking when I will be posting on my blog again. I used to respond with something along the lines of "I'll try to get to it soon." Then I just stopped answering because I don't need to respond to nameless, faceless people.

Last week or so I received an email asking me if I knew what "So and So" was up to. And explained some of what So and So was doing. WTF? I hit "permanently delete" and then wished I hadn't, and here's why: I started thinking about who I used to email with from that Gmail account; I usually emailed So and So from my AOL (main) email account. I never emailed So and So from this particular Gmail account so he likely doesn't know of it. I wished that I had saved it to post the email in this blog. So, here's fair warning: If I receive another one of those emails; I am going to post it here, going to screenshot it and post it publicly; headers and all. I don't give a flying shit what So and So is doing.

Part 2:
Masks. The last mask I wore, I was probably 7, 8 years old. Halloween. I have not worn a mask during this pandemic and will not. I go into stores and do my own shopping (delivery or pick up, means at least one additional person before you, and sometimes 2, have also handled your groceries--and I've never seen any of those personal shoppers wearing gloves and masks...).

I wash my hands when I get home, but I've always done that. Basic hygiene. I don't wear gloves--what's the purpose if you're going to wash your hands anyway? When you take gloves off, you have to do it in such a way as to not touch the contaminated gloves and then--wash your hands. Gloves are not antibacterial; they pick up germs and viruses the same as hands. Every time you touch a cart handle, a freezer door etc, you're picking up germs.

Masks need to be handled carefully as well; I see people constantly wearing them wrong, and constantly touching them, adjusting them, and talking on their germy cellphones wearing masks. That puts germs and viruses right where you don't want them--near your nose and mouth, where they multiply quickly in that warm, moist environment. Masks are supposed to be changed when they become damp; which is very soon after donning them--you cough or sneeze, etc. Then you have to handle them with your--hands. Then you need to wash your hands again and put on a clean, dry mask. Just wash your freakin' hands people! Limit exposure if you're afraid. Personally, I have cause to think I may have had a mildish case, along with Matthew. In any case, I'll let "herd immunity" take care of it. Only a tiny fraction are sick enough to be hospitalized, and an even tinier fraction need to go on ventilators. Masks are the new virtual signaling...

This is from JAMA (Journal of the American Medical Association):

Face masks should be used only by individuals who have symptoms of respiratory infection such as coughing, sneezing, or, in some cases, fever. Face masks should also be worn by health care workers, by individuals who are taking care of or are in close contact with people who have respiratory infections, or otherwise as directed by a doctor. Face masks should not be worn by healthy individuals to protect themselves from acquiring respiratory infection because there is no evidence to suggest that face masks worn by healthy individuals are effective in preventing people from becoming ill. Face masks should be reserved for those who need them because masks can be in short supply during periods of widespread respiratory infection. Because N95 respirators require special fit testing, they are not recommended for use by the general public.

How to Wear a Mask

If wearing a face mask is indicated, it is important to wash your hands with soap and water for at least 20 seconds prior to putting on the face mask. An alcohol-based sanitizer that contains at least 60% alcohol can also be used if soap and water are unavailable.

After cleaning your hands, place the face mask over your nose and mouth. Make sure there are no gaps between the face mask and your face, and ensure a tight seal. Try to avoid touching the face mask when wearing it. If you do touch the face mask, wash your hands or use hand sanitizer again. When you are done using the face mask, remove it without touching the front of the face mask, and discard it into a closed bin. Wash your hands again after discarding the face mask. JAMA

__

So that's what's up from me. Busy with my gardens, orchard, house, crafts projects, and my "prepper pantry." Charlie is doing well, and Matthew is doing awesome--not quite 10 years out of high school, he's pulling down $51,000 in a dream job of working with the State in fire safety. He also has a State car to drive! He's based from home and has set himself up a nice home office. What makes this extra delicious is he had a teacher during his senior year who tried to discourage him from pursuing his dream and kept him out of a class he wanted to take. Best move she could have done--he drove himself, twice a week all that winter, an hour each way, to take the class he needed and it turned out to be more educational than the high school class and he networked with some awesome people who mentored him and helped him along the way with job openings he never would have heard of otherwise, and great references from them. He's won awards for his hard work and that teacher, who is now one of his Facebook friends, sees all that he is accomplishing. And he's making more than she is!

So, if the person who sends me periodic emails is reading this--stop. I don't give two shits. And next time, I'm makin' it public--

Poems/prose on this site are original works, copyrighted Julie P. Clark 2020, and may not be used without permission. DISCLAIMER: Poems and commentary should not be taken to mean any person living, dead, or otherwise.

March 2, 2020

Helloooooo, Charlotte!

LMAO...y'all watching this on-fire Trump rally? No? You should be!

So who y'all for, the socialist or the senile geezer? Shit, he doesn't know what day it is or what it is he's running for, or what state he's in. Damn.

Socialist Sanders is gonna get hosed again; the writing is on the wall. Looks like he's gonna get that fourth house!

Ah well. We all know who's gonna win. By a landslide!

Speaking of Charlotte...what the hell is happening to that beautiful city? Homicides right and left, school violence, and it's just fucking falling apart...you been in the Charlotte airport lately? Flew threw there twice in the last few years and it's actually shocking how bad it is. The Queen City is badly tarnished, very sad.

Poems/prose on this site are original works, copyrighted Julie P. Clark 2020, and may not be used without permission. DISCLAIMER: Poems and commentary should not be taken to mean any person living, dead, or otherwise.

September 1, 2017

September! The month that gives us fall! I always look forward to cooler weather and the promise of snow. Some of the older folks around here say that because of our cooler summer that we will get a major hurricane and they ain't liking it...they say they've noticed a pattern, these are people in their 80's. So it will be interesting to see. If a Harvey hits Mathews County, this county will be history.

Been seeing all this stuff about it has been 142 months since the last major hurricane. That would be just short of 12 years. Without thinking too hard I come up with hurricanes Hannah, Irene, Gustav, "Super Storm" Sandy, Ike, and Matthew. Some say those hurricanes didn't make landfall. When I show them the evidence (like they've forgotten all the images already?!) they say well, it has to be a Cat 3 or higher. Show 'em the evidence and they shut up. I emailed the National Hurricane Center but have not heard back yet. When you look at the stats (damages, death, destruction, etc) on each one, you can't fucking convince me we ain't had any major hurricanes in nearly 12 years!

I understand that another sweet soul has passed away too soon. Damn shame. Seems like the sweet ones are the ones who have to endure the most shit. One of the worst things in the world is to be betrayed, and then to have an STD on top of it...that has to be the most horrible thing to happen to someone. But seems there was a lot of that going around...

And this is interesting...had an email from a former (who shall forever remain a former friend) friend. This friend used to bitch to me right and left about some mutual friends of ours and ask me if she was "right" to feel offended, to feel snubbed, etc. I still have them emails in my old mail folder. So this person wants me to forgive 'n' forget and maybe be friends again. I don't forgive, I ain't Jesus (tho I used to be convinced it was my real name!) and I gots the memory of an elephant so I don't forget. I thought for a minute about what to reply and then thought, why reply? Be a waste of time, I don't want to hear no more about certain cretins and what they've done now or forgotten to do or whatever. Just ain't interested. So I will just let that email sit in the old mail file. When someone shows you what they are, believe them. And this person is no one I want to be friends with ever again. That door is nailed shut!

And now off to get some of that yummy peach ice cream I made from our homegrown peaches!

PS: A six word story from a while back:
I know more than they know...

Poems/prose on this site are original works, copyrighted Julie P. Clark 2017, and may not be used without permission. DISCLAIMER: Poems and commentary should not be taken to mean any person living, dead, or otherwise.

Tercet

April Tools 

They never thought that they'd get caught

Not a faithful one in that lot

And they think that they are so hot!

Poems/prose on this site are original works, copyrighted Julie P. Clark 2016, and may not be used without permission. DISCLAIMER: Poems and commentary should not be taken to mean any person living, dead, or otherwise.

March 3, 2015

So I heard from someone who said they didn't think I predicted Trump would win the nomination, all the way back to last August. But I did indeed: August 14, 2015 (I also said the same thing in September and October.)

So we will see if my prediction comes true but looks likely so far. And we will see if Obama refuses to go.

I know people who were diehard Obama fans and voted for him twice who've jumped ship for Trump. I think the only way to stop Trump is for Cruz to be supported but whatever happens, happens. Who needs a reality show when you've got the presidential stuff going on? :)

Why did I say that Trump would win the nomination? Because people want real change. They're tired of bullshit. "Hope and change" was a good promise but fell flat. Trump will bring about change. Will everyone like it? No. But not everyone liked Obama, either. That's the way it always is; you can't please everyone. One side is always pissed. And seeing the vitriol spewed by libs does nothing to sway me (or anyone) to their side. They just beat the same tired drum with their tribe.

I will say that I am saddened by the lack of constitutional knowledge displayed on both sides but especially on the Dems side. They say that only the uneducated will vote for Trump but they lack knowledge of the Constitution and for history in general! I've called out a few on Twitter and on Facebook. One Dem on Facebook messaged me to say that he "knows his history and the Constitution but the other side doesn't and he's trying to trick them." I didn't buy it. He and his tribe all slap each other on the back and congratulate each other for the "points" they made that were so wrong historically that it is sad.

Didn't these people go to school? Don't they read, have any curiosity about history and our Constitution?

And those voting for Sanders? Like that'll go far. As criminal as she is, HRC will win the nomination. Those who are for Sanders are the ones who tend to want everything provided for them. Ya know what--only about 45 % pay no federal income tax. Those who do pay taxes will have even more heaped on them to pay for the free education, absolution of past education debt, free health care, and so on. We can't afford it. So with the added taxes, more will decide that they are better off not working and even more will pay no federal income tax, further burdening those who do. Be careful what is wished for, as the saying goes.


Poems/prose on this site are original works, copyrighted Julie P. Clark 2016, and may not be used without permission. DISCLAIMER: Poems and commentary should not be taken to mean any person living, dead, or otherwise.

September 10, 2015

Family reunion done. Company has come and gone. Now back to my usual routine...until October 24 when we go to visit some of my relatives. So been getting caught up on emails and such, and finally turning my attention to some books that have been in my stacks for a while.

One book in particular is quite riveting...I don't know how I even originally found this book. Maybe someone gave it to me, or I picked it up at one of the library book sales. But it has been in my stacks for a year at least. Wanting something not too heavy, I picked a book out of the stack and began reading about 9:30 pm a few nights ago. I read straight through the book that night. And read it again the next day.

I wondered why I had not heard of this book before and checked the pub date: 2011. That explains why I had not heard of this book. The title of the book is "Surviving a Shark Attack (On Land): Overcoming Betrayal and Dealing with Revenge," by Laura Schlessinger. I had not heard of this book in 2011 because I was recuperating from my own shark attack (on land), which happened in 2011.

In the years since then I have recovered and am even stronger now. In the years since, I had figured out "why" and "what" and so on. And made peace with the fact that those people are out of my life forever, and embraced the fact that those people are out of my life forever.

I've done a lot of writing on this blog in the past year or two or whatever it's been. So no need to rehash all of that. I was able to slash to the bone what happened and expose the marrow of truth.

But. It is interesting when I read what others have to say about people like these and see that I was right. I did figure it out.

Whilst this book of Schlessinger's is full of good stuff and on-the-mark analysis, I will post just a few relevant tidbits. The book should be available in most libraries and available on amazon.com. I encourage everyone to read this book!

It took a little while (maybe too long, but I give benefit of the doubt too often and too much credit to people who don't deserve it) but I finally figured out that the person who betrayed me was jealous. She wanted certain people all to herself. She conned them. She "won." But you can't con people who are truly friends, who want to stay in a relationship of any kind. Unless they want to be conned. And the "win" here is a tarnished one.

Here is what Laura Schessinger says on page 30:

Possessiveness

“Imagine making new friends, only to find them getting ever more cold and distant. For the life of you, you can’t imagine what has happened, and uncomfortable to try to get information out of them. Then imagine discovering that one of your prior friends has been poisoning their minds about you to turn them away from you. Imagine going to that original friend and presenting point-blank the proof that they’ve been spreading horrendous lies about you, your marriage, your children, your mothering, and so forth. Why would a “friend” do that? The answer is a horrible distortion of biblical writings: “There shall be no friends before me.”

The so-called friend’s betrayal of the friendship by spreading disgusting gossip about my caller was not meant to directly hurt her at all, but rather to eliminate all competition so that the “friend” couldn’t possibly lose the friendship. Clearly, she believed that she was only going to be seen as a valued friend if there was no one else to compare with—and some people see sharing as minimizing their gains. Possessiveness comes from insecurity.”

From page 23: “Perhaps this is only a misunderstanding that can easily be rectified with a friendly conversation aimed at clarification and a reestablishment of bonds.” 

I had this same thought, also brought out in page 23 of Schlessinger’s book: “You are usually wise enough—especially after a night of sleeping on it—to know the difference between a glitch in communication and a frank betrayal of your trust, faith, privacy, truth, status, reputation, relationships, and so forth.”

Why do people do this? Why do they hurt others? Pretty simple, as the book says on page 24: “…hurting other people feels good when it is in the service of the hurter’s ego. Plain and simple. It is an endorphin and adrenaline rush to have godlike power over the life of another human being who has or is something you want or wish to be.”

So I had “friends” that this person was covetous of. She wanted these friends, all for herself. Instead of getting to know people and be included in a large circle, this person sought to shrink the circle. While she was destroying my friendships behind my back, she was asking me about others in the circle; trying to get intel on them as they were her next targets.

So it is all as I had thought. And as I have written about in the past few years. And I can sum it up in six words: She loses by winning the losers.

She is welcome to them, and they are welcome to her. I am thankful to not fit into that circle, but have created an even better circle that is inclusive. The only ones not included are those who perpetuate evil on innocent persons who have been nothing but kind to them, in order to cause the hurt they felt to someone else. But that is just an excuse—you are not powerless to stop.

When I was the recent target of evil, I stopped responding to this person and blocked her on Facebook. I didn’t go running to mutual friends; I didn’t have to. She blasted her hate all over her Facebook wall. While the intent was to hurt me, in private message and publicly, it did not. She hurt herself more. I had no intention of running to our mutual friends about her, bad mouthing her to them. (It was the same a few years ago when a "friend" was bad mouthing mutual friends to me, I did not go to our mutual friends as I did not want to interfere with relationships. But that is exactly what that "friend" sought to do.) I had no intention of hurting her relationships with people. But she is trying to do so, just as “someone else” did some years ago. And for the same reason: Possessiveness. Wanting to eliminate the “competition.” But why do we have to compete? Why can’t everyone just get along?

Rhetorical. Because I will never, ever be friends with such people again. I trusted too much. Gave the benefit of the doubt too much. They are all in the cornfield with Anthony…in The Twilight Zone.

Poems/prose on this site are original works, copyrighted Julie P. Clark 2015, and may not be used without permission. DISCLAIMER: Poems and commentary should not be taken to mean any person living, dead, or otherwise.