We're talking about worn out soccer shoes here, and my daughter says "I won't go to the store to get new ones unless I can keep my old ones". I'm ready to throw the old cleats out. I mean, they smell, they're ripped up and they can't be used to play in a game unless you tape them up severely...
Being an attachment sort of soul, I cling to people. Pets. Nature. Memories (while I can anyway). I don't cling to lawnmowers. Or trophies. Or old shoes. But I live with people who grow attached to "things".
My husband and my children are extreme clingers. And that is a good thing in many ways. I know they'll always be around. But it's the odd things they cling to that make me nuts.
Today I took my big kid to the soccer store for new cleats, which amazingly enough don't require duct tape to hold them together. And that's a good thing because we can't afford duct tape now that we've bought the new cleats. In my world: old cleats OUT and new cleats IN. SO not going to happen in their world.
Someday, someone will come clean this house out. Please tell them I was forced to live with stinky old cleats.
Saturday, October 10, 2009
Monday, August 31, 2009
Green Bag Backache
So I've got a bunch of those nice "green" bags for hauling my groceries home. You know the bags I'm talking about; the ones you pay a buck or two for and then you never need answer the "plastic or paper" question again.
I have two old bags, from a previous life in another state; they're plain old canvas with the store name on the side. I have two new bags from my current grocery store; made out of whatever that lightweight fabic is that seems less permanent than canvas but "looks" like canvas...
But you have to actually USE the bags to fulfill the "green" mantra. So, you have to have them with you every time you grocery shop. And that's the first challenge. We're a two car family, but since I do most of the grocery shopping I keep the bags in my car. And then when I get the urge to use the other car, and stop by the store... I'm back to "plastic or paper". I had the same problem with the store "value card", until they put our phone number on the account. You see I keep the card on my keyring, but my husband doesn't want extra weight (I know .02 ounces is too much!) to carry around. But that's a whole 'nother story.
The second challenge is the weight. The only "con" I've found to the whole "green bag" thing is that baggers tend to want to fill them up. They get that you're trying to not use plastic or paper and their goal is to get it all in those four green bags. Which is fine except for two things: 1) the bags are bigger than the average plastic or paper bag and 2) when they're full they're HEAVY.
If you buy a few coupons worth of tomato soup, for instance, and the bagger puts them all in one bag and then layers the juice boxes and potatoes on top, your bag will hold you in place through a Category 5 hurricane.
So, you need about twice as many green bags as paper or plastic, just to spread the weight around, OR you need a couple sons who lift weights to accompany you to the grocery store. But if you had a couple of those sons you'd probably need more food and then you'd need more bags and then you'd need more sons. I better stop while I'm ahead!
I have two old bags, from a previous life in another state; they're plain old canvas with the store name on the side. I have two new bags from my current grocery store; made out of whatever that lightweight fabic is that seems less permanent than canvas but "looks" like canvas...
But you have to actually USE the bags to fulfill the "green" mantra. So, you have to have them with you every time you grocery shop. And that's the first challenge. We're a two car family, but since I do most of the grocery shopping I keep the bags in my car. And then when I get the urge to use the other car, and stop by the store... I'm back to "plastic or paper". I had the same problem with the store "value card", until they put our phone number on the account. You see I keep the card on my keyring, but my husband doesn't want extra weight (I know .02 ounces is too much!) to carry around. But that's a whole 'nother story.
The second challenge is the weight. The only "con" I've found to the whole "green bag" thing is that baggers tend to want to fill them up. They get that you're trying to not use plastic or paper and their goal is to get it all in those four green bags. Which is fine except for two things: 1) the bags are bigger than the average plastic or paper bag and 2) when they're full they're HEAVY.
If you buy a few coupons worth of tomato soup, for instance, and the bagger puts them all in one bag and then layers the juice boxes and potatoes on top, your bag will hold you in place through a Category 5 hurricane.
So, you need about twice as many green bags as paper or plastic, just to spread the weight around, OR you need a couple sons who lift weights to accompany you to the grocery store. But if you had a couple of those sons you'd probably need more food and then you'd need more bags and then you'd need more sons. I better stop while I'm ahead!
Wednesday, July 15, 2009
Out of the Pond and onto the Couch
Tonight I am thankful for digital video recorders. We bought a new tv during the holidays and decided to bump up our cable service instead of buying a DVD player/recorder. So when I'm not cleaning the pond or roaming the countryside picking up and dropping off daughters, you might find me on the couch.
It is amazing how one little device can make everyone in the house happy. Other than the lights and the air conditioning, or the fridge and the toilet... I'm hard pressed to think of anything else we all use on a daily basis. And use it we do. There is along list of what we record: Friends, Soccer, NCIS, Bones, Bakugan, Pokemon, Soccer, FSU football, and did I say soccer? The only problem we have is figuring out how we can all watch all we record.
It is amazing how one little device can make everyone in the house happy. Other than the lights and the air conditioning, or the fridge and the toilet... I'm hard pressed to think of anything else we all use on a daily basis. And use it we do. There is along list of what we record: Friends, Soccer, NCIS, Bones, Bakugan, Pokemon, Soccer, FSU football, and did I say soccer? The only problem we have is figuring out how we can all watch all we record.
It's still a clean pond!
Today I planted (and I use the term loosely) a water lily in my pond. I will say the contrast between the beauty of a lily's bloom and the muck the roots live in, is well, huge. And muck is gilding the lily, no pun intended.
I had to clean out the pond before I could plant though. The water hyacinths and water lettuce have multiplied many times over the last month. I tried giving babies away, but I'm running out of neighbors with ponds. So, I had to sacrifice some. There was simply no surface area for the lily pads. And it was getting hard to see the fish too. And fish, after all, is what the pond is all about.
So, tonight, the fish can see the moon and I can see the fish. And all is right with the world.
I had to clean out the pond before I could plant though. The water hyacinths and water lettuce have multiplied many times over the last month. I tried giving babies away, but I'm running out of neighbors with ponds. So, I had to sacrifice some. There was simply no surface area for the lily pads. And it was getting hard to see the fish too. And fish, after all, is what the pond is all about.
So, tonight, the fish can see the moon and I can see the fish. And all is right with the world.
Thursday, June 25, 2009
It's a clean pond
I don't know exactly what happened. Perhaps the stars aligned properly. Maybe the plants reached maximum algae eating size. It's possible that tons of rain altered the water and the acidic ratios were enough to destroy algae but not fish. It may even be the weeks of bucketing out yucky water that I've tirelessly (but whinely) performed. But, whatever it was or is... it is glorious. WE CAN SEE OUR FISH!
Yes, the fish are visible. All perhaps 11 of them - though it is hard to count fish because they don't "sit" still. I almost hate to say this, but I'm happy to have fish at this moment. It's only taken YEARS to reach that point.
Future posts will tell the WHOLE story of the fish I care for, but now I must show the pet sitter the bucket...
Yes, the fish are visible. All perhaps 11 of them - though it is hard to count fish because they don't "sit" still. I almost hate to say this, but I'm happy to have fish at this moment. It's only taken YEARS to reach that point.
Future posts will tell the WHOLE story of the fish I care for, but now I must show the pet sitter the bucket...
Monday, May 4, 2009
Buckets and Buckets and Buckets, Oh My...
My neighbors are probably still laughing at me. I have been out front, bucketing green water from the pond again. I planned to do 30 buckets this morning, figuring that's about 30% of the volume of water in the pond. Once again we're talking buckets of green water. It's a pretty green until you think about what's in it. Fish poop, sun, water temperature change, algae bloom... Lots of stuff that through the transitive property equals one LARGE "gross". So I'm not going to think about what's in it anymore.
Except I will tell you that I facebooked (OK, so I made it a verb) the possibility that this green stuff might, perhaps, be an anti-aging treatment. My friends asked for gallons, some volunteered help with bottles and marketing. Sadly though, my hands remain covered in age spots. And I am SO NOT STICKING my face in the green water. At least not until my hands look better. And given that these same fish used to live indoors and I've been taking care of their water for the better part of a decade, it's not looking good for the whole anti-aging thing but it was fun to think about.
So 30 buckets OUT, which I poured hither and yon around the yard, taking special care to not lose any fish in the process. Then it's 30 gallons of fresh water IN to top off the pond, along with a squirt of what I call "happy fish slime". "Happy fish slime" (sold comercially under less attractive names) mitigates the chlorine in the fresh water and de-stresses the fish. It's a wonder they don't sell this in gallon jugs for hot tub use. Or maybe they do - I don't have a hot tub.
My neighbors, who find our whole fish pond "period" amusing, saw me bucketing and asked what I was up to. I explained that in really good aquariums with healthy fish you have a 3 part filter system; mechanical, biological and chemical. I told them I was working on a Nobel prize for a new 4th component to filtering systems. I call it the manual filter. I, with my own hands, remove dirty water and then, with those same hands turn on the hose to replace the dirty water with clean water. At this point the neighbors started backing away, said "hasta luego" and vanished. Smart folks, the neighbors.
OK, so I know I didn't invent this component, because I simply cannot be the first person on earth to be stupid enough to go through this process several times a week for what appears to be an endless period of time, but IF I write it all down and send it in to the Nobel prize committee first then I'll get credit. And quite frankly, if I win a $1,000,000 then I'll be able to pay someone else to figure out how best to avoid green water in the first place. Although I have that part figured out already. Give the fish away, drain the pond and fill it with dirt. Which leads immediately to the age old "stay at home mom" question: "but what will you do with all your spare time?" To which I'll give the standard "stay at home mom" answer: "HA!"
Janice Arrowood
Buckets and Buckets and Buckets, Oh My © 2009
Except I will tell you that I facebooked (OK, so I made it a verb) the possibility that this green stuff might, perhaps, be an anti-aging treatment. My friends asked for gallons, some volunteered help with bottles and marketing. Sadly though, my hands remain covered in age spots. And I am SO NOT STICKING my face in the green water. At least not until my hands look better. And given that these same fish used to live indoors and I've been taking care of their water for the better part of a decade, it's not looking good for the whole anti-aging thing but it was fun to think about.
So 30 buckets OUT, which I poured hither and yon around the yard, taking special care to not lose any fish in the process. Then it's 30 gallons of fresh water IN to top off the pond, along with a squirt of what I call "happy fish slime". "Happy fish slime" (sold comercially under less attractive names) mitigates the chlorine in the fresh water and de-stresses the fish. It's a wonder they don't sell this in gallon jugs for hot tub use. Or maybe they do - I don't have a hot tub.
My neighbors, who find our whole fish pond "period" amusing, saw me bucketing and asked what I was up to. I explained that in really good aquariums with healthy fish you have a 3 part filter system; mechanical, biological and chemical. I told them I was working on a Nobel prize for a new 4th component to filtering systems. I call it the manual filter. I, with my own hands, remove dirty water and then, with those same hands turn on the hose to replace the dirty water with clean water. At this point the neighbors started backing away, said "hasta luego" and vanished. Smart folks, the neighbors.
OK, so I know I didn't invent this component, because I simply cannot be the first person on earth to be stupid enough to go through this process several times a week for what appears to be an endless period of time, but IF I write it all down and send it in to the Nobel prize committee first then I'll get credit. And quite frankly, if I win a $1,000,000 then I'll be able to pay someone else to figure out how best to avoid green water in the first place. Although I have that part figured out already. Give the fish away, drain the pond and fill it with dirt. Which leads immediately to the age old "stay at home mom" question: "but what will you do with all your spare time?" To which I'll give the standard "stay at home mom" answer: "HA!"
Janice Arrowood
Buckets and Buckets and Buckets, Oh My © 2009
Wednesday, April 29, 2009
Fly Fishing in Idaho
My mind has been on fishing today, probably because I've been working in the pond again... It's been about 15 years since we wandered our way across the St Joe River in the far reaches of Idaho (Avery) to fly fish in the Bitteroot Mountains. I'm sure it's much as it was then; not much traffic, really rustic hotel rooms, lots of logging roads to get lost on.
We were still "new" to the whole pregnancy thing when we made this trip. It was late summer/early fall, there were still berries on bushes, and the St Joe was running well and loaded with trout. We found a good spot to fish and I tied on my favorite ant fly, I should say my "lucky" fly. I perched on a nice big boulder and casted for awhile, nothing was biting. After an hour of different spots for me and different flies for my husband, we decided to take a hike. We found a nice trail that led up to a ridge overlooking the river. Before we knew what happened we'd covered a good bit of territory and somehow lost the trail. We headed towards the river.
We walked downhill through a lot of brush and a lot more berry bushes; me ever wary of bears. The Bitteroots still have their share of Grizzlies... I did what I was always told to do: make noise as you hike. It wasn't hard; I was pregnant, tired, lost, worried and hungry. And I had to pee. Badly. I was wearing clothes topped with waders and boots. The effort to get out of the clothes took way longer than my husband thought it should, but I couldn't hurry for fear of "losing it" too early in the process. And the spot had to be just right too and, of course, when your belly is big your balance isn't quite the same, but you get the picture.
Then we had to worry about losing light, it was late in the day. We found a trail, but couldn't be certain it would lead back to our spot on the river. SO we opted to hike IN the river. For those of you who haven't hiked in wading boots and waders... there is a lot of drag involved, and we were dragging ourselves UPstream too. And the bottom was slippery. And I was still hungry. After what seemed like a long time we came to a fork in the river; not good. But we found a fisherman and he pointed us in the right direction. And since we still hadn't encountered any grizzly bears my patience returned. We found the car.
We had dinner in Avery and then decided to head east for "shelter". Somehow we ended up on a logging road that grew more trail looking as we drove, eventually leading us in Montana and dropping us off in St. Regis. There we found a hotel room, which was more "shed" than Sheraton, but it had a bed and a bathroom.
Janice Arrowood
Fly Fishing in Idaho © 2009
We were still "new" to the whole pregnancy thing when we made this trip. It was late summer/early fall, there were still berries on bushes, and the St Joe was running well and loaded with trout. We found a good spot to fish and I tied on my favorite ant fly, I should say my "lucky" fly. I perched on a nice big boulder and casted for awhile, nothing was biting. After an hour of different spots for me and different flies for my husband, we decided to take a hike. We found a nice trail that led up to a ridge overlooking the river. Before we knew what happened we'd covered a good bit of territory and somehow lost the trail. We headed towards the river.
We walked downhill through a lot of brush and a lot more berry bushes; me ever wary of bears. The Bitteroots still have their share of Grizzlies... I did what I was always told to do: make noise as you hike. It wasn't hard; I was pregnant, tired, lost, worried and hungry. And I had to pee. Badly. I was wearing clothes topped with waders and boots. The effort to get out of the clothes took way longer than my husband thought it should, but I couldn't hurry for fear of "losing it" too early in the process. And the spot had to be just right too and, of course, when your belly is big your balance isn't quite the same, but you get the picture.
Then we had to worry about losing light, it was late in the day. We found a trail, but couldn't be certain it would lead back to our spot on the river. SO we opted to hike IN the river. For those of you who haven't hiked in wading boots and waders... there is a lot of drag involved, and we were dragging ourselves UPstream too. And the bottom was slippery. And I was still hungry. After what seemed like a long time we came to a fork in the river; not good. But we found a fisherman and he pointed us in the right direction. And since we still hadn't encountered any grizzly bears my patience returned. We found the car.
We had dinner in Avery and then decided to head east for "shelter". Somehow we ended up on a logging road that grew more trail looking as we drove, eventually leading us in Montana and dropping us off in St. Regis. There we found a hotel room, which was more "shed" than Sheraton, but it had a bed and a bathroom.
Janice Arrowood
Fly Fishing in Idaho © 2009
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