tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9819392246209897402024-03-18T23:52:43.518-05:00Chicken Creek JournalShirleyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18139902839567865081noreply@blogger.comBlogger717125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-981939224620989740.post-55912944284023344792019-12-11T16:27:00.000-06:002019-12-11T16:27:17.551-06:00How To Ruin a Good Idea<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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<i><span style="font-family: "avenir book"; font-size: 14pt;">Walmart</span></i><span style="font-family: "avenir book"; font-size: 14pt;"> ran the first recycling program in Lawrence. The Walmart on South Iowa included a separate building with drive-up parking. The long building had a series of large openings with roll-up windows, one window for each of the various types of materials – white paper, newspapers, mixed paper, cardboard, chipboard, aluminum, and separate boxes for different numbered plastics. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "avenir book"; font-size: 14pt;">Under each window was a large cardboard box to catch the deposits. Walmart employed cognitively challenged people who watched to make sure only the appropriate materials went into each category. The employees took pride in their jobs and policed the contributions vigorously. Consequently, all the recycled materials were clean and, consequently, totally recyclable. When a box was full, they emptied it into the appropriate bin and replaced it. During the hours the center was open there were always people unloading their recycling materials and placing them in the appropriate boxes.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "avenir book"; font-size: 14pt;">Then the City of Lawrence instituted its own recycling program. The city provided each household with a rolling container for <i>all </i>recycling. Happy residents threw everything into the container. Consequently, the recycled materials were contaminated with everything from greasy pizza cartons to dirty diapers. These recycled materials were, of course, not recyclable.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "avenir book"; font-size: 14pt;">Walmart, which had done a fine job of handling recycling responsibly, closed their recycling operation.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "avenir book"; font-size: 14pt;">You can count on human beings to make a good idea unworkable through our love of convenience.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<i><span style="font-family: "avenir book"; font-size: 10pt;">Copyright 2019 by Shirley Domer<o:p></o:p></span></i></div>
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Shirleyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18139902839567865081noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-981939224620989740.post-21080073960166276892019-08-17T14:25:00.001-05:002019-08-17T14:30:39.404-05:00The Pause that Refreshes<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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<span style="font-family: "avenir book"; font-size: 14pt;">Do you drink Coke? I do. I’m not one of those folks who drink a Coke for breakfast. No, I’m horrified that these people understand so little about what their bodies need to function. However, there are times when I feel the need for a treat and times when my stomach is queasy and those are times when I want a Coke – a Coke made in <i>Mexico</i>.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "avenir book"; font-size: 14pt;">I first heard of “Mexican Coke” when we went to Arizona for the winter. We looked up other people from Kansas who live there. Some we never sought out again, but others became dear to us. They are musicians, <i>good </i>musicians who play at a small—batch brewery on Sunday afternoons.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "avenir book"; font-size: 14pt;">We became fans and attended regularly. The bar pays them and expects that increased patronage will offset the band’s fee. That makes sense, but I’m not a fan of beer drinking, but I noticed the bar’s menu board which listed, in addition to their several brews, <i>Mexican </i>Coke. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "avenir book"; font-size: 14pt;">I tried a Mexican Coke and found it tasted so good it became my drink of choice when we went to the Sunday sessions. Then the brewery’s hard benches became a deterrent, and our attendance became sporadic.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "avenir book"; font-size: 14pt;">A few weeks later I found myself wanting a Coke, specifically a Mexican one. I thought I’d have to go to a Mexican tienda to buy it, but I soon learned that most grocery stores in Arizona carry it. Now that I’m back in Kansas I can buy it here, too.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<i>Mexican Coke bottle</i></div>
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<span style="font-family: "avenir book"; font-size: 14pt;">There’s actually a controversy nationally about the difference between Mexican-made and U.S. made Coke. Mexico uses cane sugar but the U.S. uses high-fructose corn syrup to sweeten their Coke. Moreover, there’s a <i>trade war </i>over it. The controversy spawned two appeals to the World Trade Organization. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "avenir book"; font-size: 14pt;">Afficianados of the two kinds argue over taste. “Mexican Coke doesn’t have that ‘chemical’ taste that U.S. Coke has.” “Nonsense,” the U.S. group respond, “sweetness is sweetness whether it comes from cane sugar or corn.”<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "avenir book"; font-size: 14pt;">Those who favor Coke <i>heche en Mexico </i>argue that the traditional curvy glass bottle is more aesthetically appealing than an aluminum can or plastic bottle. Some even claim that Coke’s taste is adversely affected by aluminum cans or plastic bottles.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "avenir book"; font-size: 14pt;">Yet another argument is that the choice of Mexican over U.S. Coke is an ideological choice, a protest against globalization<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "avenir book"; font-size: 14pt;">This hubbub amuses me. I drink Mexican Coke for one reason only: it tastes better. After a couple of sips of U.S. Coke, I don’t want any more of its metallic aftertaste. Mexican Coke is sweet and smooth, like a good bar of chocolate, and distinctly preferable. In fact, I’m sipping one right now.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<i><span style="font-family: "avenir book"; font-size: 10pt;">Copyright 2019 by Shirley Domer<o:p></o:p></span></i></div>
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Shirleyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18139902839567865081noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-981939224620989740.post-77071773931654182072019-07-27T12:08:00.001-05:002019-07-27T12:08:02.939-05:00Going with the Grain<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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<span style="font-family: "Avenir Book"; font-size: 14pt;">For many years I’ve avoided refined flour, bleached or unbleached. My attitude toward refined flour started when I noticed that grain moths never show up in refined flour. They know there are no nutrients in it and that it would not support life. I noticed also that whole wheat flour in the cabinet had to be protected from grain moths. If moths got in the flour, they would thrive and reproduce.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Avenir Book"; font-size: 14pt;">Why then, do humans go to a great deal of trouble to remove the nutritious parts off wheat so we can eat <i>white</i>bread, muffins, biscuits, croissants, and scones? Why d<i>o we eat </i>pasta made from refined flour<i>? </i> This stuff is just starch. Its nutrition is the equivalent of library paste.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Avenir Book"; font-size: 14pt;">I’ve made whole wheat bread for many years, buying whole wheat flour in 25-pound bags. But recently I accidentally ordered a 25-pound bag of whole wheat berries instead of flour. My first thought when the bag arrived was that we could feed the berries to our chickens. But I asked Laurie’s opinion and she said that cooked wheat berries have culinary uses. This triggered a memory from my childhood. Every year when Dad harvested wheat on his farm, his sister Janet, would beg him for some wheat berries to cook. Dad indulged her, but we thought her eating habits strange.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Avenir Book"; font-size: 14pt;">Now, I wondered whether I might be missing something. Being rather cowardly, I gave some berries to friends to try. Everyone loved them, so I cooked a cupful and made the cooked berries into a salad, adding diced cucumber, tomato, green onions, and red pepper, with lemon juice and vinegar as a dressing. The result was much like a tabouli salad, but chewier. It was delicious!<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Avenir Book"; font-size: 14pt;">Now I’m sold on cooked wheat berry salad and have some berries cooking right now. I haven’t whether to make a salad with an oriental slant or an Indian-inspired salad with curry. Whichever I decide, I expect it to be good. I'm having fun going with the grain.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<i><span style="font-family: "Avenir Book"; font-size: 10pt;">Copyright 2019 by Shirley Domer<o:p></o:p></span></i></div>
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Shirleyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18139902839567865081noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-981939224620989740.post-37251937975023011752019-07-25T16:16:00.001-05:002019-07-25T16:59:36.411-05:00The Mayo Caper<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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<span style="font-family: "avenir book"; font-size: 14pt;">After studying the condiment aisle filled with plastic containers, I decided to rebel by making my own condiments. The mayonnaise jar in our fridge was almost empty and I decided to start there. I scoured the internet for recipes. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "avenir book"; font-size: 14pt;">I’d heard how difficult mayo can be. There’s the situation where the mixture just won’t emulsify. I’ve read about a way to rework the ingredients to give emulsification a second chance. I’ve also read that one is advised to throw the failure away and start over. This information deterred me. As a Depression baby, I am ingrained with frugality and can’t bear thinking about throwing food away.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "avenir book"; font-size: 14pt;">I was also intimidated by the descriptions of using a wire whisk to beat the oil <i>one drop at a time </i>into the other ingredients. How long would a person have to wield a whisk to incorporate the oil? Five minutes? Ten minutes? Even longer?<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "avenir book"; font-size: 14pt;">So I came to the internet search expecting confirmation of these concerns. To my amazement, however, I learned about mayonnaise made in one or two minutes using an immersion blender. My immersion blender has become a major kitchen appliance, right up there with the stand mixer, and I know how easy it is to use. No whisking is required. One merely has to hold the blender and watch the miracle emulsification occur.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "avenir book"; font-size: 14pt;">Whisking was no longer an issue, so I just needed a recipe and, if possible, advice from someone who makes their own mayonnaise. Mayonnaise recipes abound, so I just had to try them until I found one I loved.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "avenir book"; font-size: 14pt;">My first attempt made a thin mayo and tasted overwhelmingly like olive oil. I learned that lesson, and ditched the olive oil in favor of safflower oil for my second batch. Linda’s son Ben shared his recipe and I used those ingredient. This batch was a little thicker in consistency, but it didn’t seem zippy enough in light of my lifetime consumption of Miracle Whip, <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "avenir book"; font-size: 14pt;">The third time’s the charm, and this third recipe seemed almost perfect to me. There's more acid, both vinegar and lemon juice, so the taste is zippier, not Miracle Whip zippy, but coming close. The consistency needs tweaking just a bit. I had difficulty mixing it into my coleslaw dressing, but it spreads nicely for Dennis’s sandwiches. Before beginning to tweak the consistency, I need to know more about the chemistry of emulsion and that calls for research.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "avenir book"; font-size: 14pt;">How can one resist the plastic tide? One plastic jar at a time, that’s how. I won’t be sending any more Miracle Whip jars through the so-called “recycling” which will end up in the dump. This will hardly make a difference, but it’s all I can do. There’s a bonus for me, though, because I’m having fun learning to make mayonnaise and look forward to learn about making mustard when the plastic mustard container in our fridge is empty.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<i><span style="font-family: "avenir book"; font-size: 10pt;">Copyright 2019 by Shirley Domer<o:p></o:p></span></i></div>
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Shirleyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18139902839567865081noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-981939224620989740.post-90634672214244136852019-07-18T17:47:00.000-05:002019-07-18T17:48:10.475-05:00Off To the Dump We Go, Part Two<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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<i><span style="font-family: "avenir book"; font-size: 14pt;">Walmart </span></i><span style="font-family: "avenir book"; font-size: 14pt;">ran the first recycling program in Lawrence. The store on South Iowa included a separate building with drive-up parking. The long building had a series of large openings with roll-up windows, so the facility could be closed up at night. Inside the building a line of large cardboard boxes sat beneath the windows, one for each of the various types of materials – white paper, newspapers, mixed paper, magazines, cardboard, chipboard, aluminum, tin cans, and separate boxes for each of the different numbered plastics. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "avenir book"; font-size: 14pt;">Through Cottonwood, Inc., Walmart employed people with developmental disabilities who watched to make sure only the appropriate materials went into each category. When a box was full, an employee emptied and replaced it. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "avenir book"; font-size: 14pt;">Sitting beside the recycling building were three dumpsters for glass containers, one each for clear, brown, and green glass. The green and brown dumpsters smelled strongly of beer.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "avenir book"; font-size: 14pt;">This system had two great advantages. One, disabled people found useful employment. Two, the recycling was sorted by citizens as they deposited their materials, under the watchful eyes of sharp-eyed employees.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "avenir book"; font-size: 14pt;">Then, when the city of Lawrence decided to begin weekly curbside recycling pickup, Walmart closed the recycling center. And that’s when the whole concept of recycling fell apart. Now, those who chose to recycle didn’t need to sort anything. Citizens simply put all recycled materials in one big bin. I suppose the sorting fell to city employees or other hapless person. If someone chose to toss a dirty diaper into recycling, who was to know? If newspapers and other paper materials got wet, who cared? If the peanut butter jar wasn't clean, so what?<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "avenir book"; font-size: 14pt;">No one should blame the Chinese for refusing to sort through our garbage in order to reprocess the salvageable materials. They quit taking our stuff.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "avenir book"; font-size: 14pt;">Once again, Americans’ love of ease and convenience was our downfall.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "avenir book"; font-size: 14pt;">The Sierra Club, in its July/August issue, assesses the recycling nightmare in an article titled “Trash Talk,” and concludes that the recycling system is broken. The article’s advises us to put everything in landfills until we can figure out a better way. I recommend that we look to Walmart for a workable solution.</span><i><span style="font-family: "avenir book"; font-size: 10pt;"><br /><br /><o:p></o:p></span></i></div>
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<i><span style="font-family: "avenir book"; font-size: 10pt;">Copyright 2019 by Shirley Domer<o:p></o:p></span></i></div>
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Shirleyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18139902839567865081noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-981939224620989740.post-53410970072845418852019-06-29T12:38:00.002-05:002019-06-29T12:38:42.299-05:00Off The the Dump We Go, Tra-la<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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<span style="font-family: "Avenir Book"; font-size: 14pt;">Plastics don’t rot the way organic things such as vegetables, cotton clothing, or dead humans do. Plastics just break into smaller and smaller bits. That’s why sea creatures aren’t the only life forms consuming plastic; bits of plastic are in our drinking water, our table salt, and even mothers’ milk.<u><sup>1</sup></u><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Avenir Book"; font-size: 14pt;">But wait, we recycle most of our waste materials, don’t we? No, actually, only about 14 percent of solid waste is recycled. (Estimates vary from 10 percent to 17 percent.) The remainder ends up in landfills, rivers, the ocean, and beaches.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Avenir Book"; font-size: 14pt;">And what happens to the materials we do recycle? As an article in the New York Times explained:<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; color: #333333; font-family: "Avenir Book"; font-size: 14pt;">“In the past, the municipalities would have shipped much of their used paper, plastics and other scrap materials to China for processing. But as part of </span><span style="font-family: "Avenir Book"; font-size: 14pt;"><a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2017/10/23/business/china-pollution-economy.html"><span style="color: #126d91; text-decoration: none;">a broad antipollution campaign</span></a></span><span style="background-color: white; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; color: #333333; font-family: "Avenir Book"; font-size: 14pt;">, China announced last summer that it no longer wanted to import ‘foreign garbage.’ ”<sup>2</sup><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; color: #333333; font-family: "Avenir Book"; font-size: 14pt;">China let us down and other Asian countries have followed its lead. They are shipping <i>tons</i>of trash back to the countries where it originated, including the United States, Canada, and Mexico. <sup>3</sup><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhHbmLLqtkHR7SHA4KlHxWIQFoeXjZyBEbZKi_AB5gTo8cU0DPd3Ay3OZW2Xs8WEMWGCnebtMgwtx9qSexFQ8aLgM9Z6504jO1Sg9_pzYd2gEk0kDV6dh2KPAE6uJgE-kMXB3gf0utfiBjg/s1600/636504716279996742-recycling-crop.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="401" data-original-width="534" height="300" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhHbmLLqtkHR7SHA4KlHxWIQFoeXjZyBEbZKi_AB5gTo8cU0DPd3Ay3OZW2Xs8WEMWGCnebtMgwtx9qSexFQ8aLgM9Z6504jO1Sg9_pzYd2gEk0kDV6dh2KPAE6uJgE-kMXB3gf0utfiBjg/s400/636504716279996742-recycling-crop.jpg" width="400" /></a></div>
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<span style="background-color: white; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; color: #333333; font-family: "Avenir Book"; font-size: 14pt;">What will we do with this trash? To get an idea of the problem, I watched an NBC story on line.<sup>4 </sup></span><span style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: "Avenir Book"; font-size: 14pt;">The story left me even more distressed and I wish everyone would watch it. Then maybe we could take on the real problem, which an unfortunate blend of our lifestyle and the politically powerful plastic manufacturers.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Avenir Book";">1. “Plastic in Your Drinking Water, Table Salt & Mother’s Milk,” earthdecks.com<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Avenir Book";">2. “Your Recycling Gets Recycled, Right? Maybe, or Maybe Not” , May 20, 2018, New York Times.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Avenir Book";">3.“</span><b><span style="font-family: "Avenir Book";">Malaysia has started returning tons of trash to the west: 'we will not be the dumping ground of the world'”, Newsweek, June 20, 2019.<o:p></o:p></span></b></div>
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<b><span style="font-family: "Avenir Book";">4.</span></b><span style="color: #333333; font-family: "Avenir Book";">“Recycling Breaks Down: US Struggles to Keep Plastic From the Dump”, </span><b><span style="font-family: "Avenir Book";">N</span></b><span style="font-family: "Avenir Book";">BC, </span><span style="color: #777777; font-family: "Avenir Book";">Aug 13, 2018, </span><span style="font-family: "Avenir Book";">Broadcast by Chanel 4, Washington.</span><b><span style="font-family: "Avenir Book";"><o:p></o:p></span></b></div>
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<i><span style="font-family: "Avenir Book"; font-size: 10pt;">Copyright 2019 by Shirley Domethem strongerr<o:p></o:p></span></i></div>
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Shirleyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18139902839567865081noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-981939224620989740.post-82538911830650033812019-06-19T13:18:00.001-05:002019-06-19T20:50:17.780-05:00Plastic Kills, but Who Cares?<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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<span style="font-family: "avenir book"; font-size: 14pt;">Dead whales wash up on beaches. Why did they die? Could it be the 48, 67, or 88 pounds of plastic in their stomachs?*</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "avenir book";"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhwArR5GepbDDpWa5CX1gQLgLRPq3LLGZf-mdQtNsWAcRPZkq-zKo5QFiBWhBAEQJaSApfkvVli0GtOsLdLkZqG5P8wjAtcAgzG6JiuzF7gZluDPtcVmRmvdtHI4Kr7KHSuwyBPlyfJXuCV/s1600/Dead+Whale+Plastic.jpeg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="168" data-original-width="300" height="224" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhwArR5GepbDDpWa5CX1gQLgLRPq3LLGZf-mdQtNsWAcRPZkq-zKo5QFiBWhBAEQJaSApfkvVli0GtOsLdLkZqG5P8wjAtcAgzG6JiuzF7gZluDPtcVmRmvdtHI4Kr7KHSuwyBPlyfJXuCV/s400/Dead+Whale+Plastic.jpeg" width="400" /></a></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "avenir book";"><i>Photo found on the internet.</i></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "avenir book"; font-size: 14pt;">Whales aren’t the only ones dying. Plastic kills millions of sea turtles, sea lions, seals, fish, and sea birds each year. Either they mistake it for food and eat it or they become helplessly entangled in large pieces of plastic such as nets, bags and fishing line.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "avenir book"; font-size: 14pt;">Well, heck, who cares about dead whales, anyway? We need our conveniences. Manufacturers must enjoy the profit from low shipping costs of plastic containers. Humans are the most important species and we can’t be expected to look out for other species. They will have to look out for themselves and deal with our plastic waste.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "avenir book";">* Whales are also dying because their food cannot thrive in warmer ocean temperatures, so the whales starve. But that issue is for another day.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<i><span style="font-family: "avenir book"; font-size: 10pt;">Copyright 2019 by Shirley Domer<o:p></o:p></span></i></div>
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Shirleyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18139902839567865081noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-981939224620989740.post-62252337244046099662019-06-08T14:09:00.000-05:002019-06-08T14:11:01.898-05:00Casing out the Condiments<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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<span style="font-family: "avenir book"; font-size: 14pt;">In the second installment of the Grocery Plastics Tour I move on to the condiments aisle, looking particularly for mustard sold in glass jars.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "avenir book"; font-size: 14pt;">Here is the mustard section. I scan the shelves.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi6e96IGKBOE1PmkZHDvm1GVD-NpESY-0eTJOd_g0ifGjIg86qqw7uMU8V_c_jNYZSZL1joPa9G1qrLfGrLy5TAleTwexeB9xYtZdAHJanjiyb1i7ILSkb1KEO4wRlG11QYvNWU3gPtxTA0/s1600/Condiments+Aisle.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1200" data-original-width="1600" height="300" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi6e96IGKBOE1PmkZHDvm1GVD-NpESY-0eTJOd_g0ifGjIg86qqw7uMU8V_c_jNYZSZL1joPa9G1qrLfGrLy5TAleTwexeB9xYtZdAHJanjiyb1i7ILSkb1KEO4wRlG11QYvNWU3gPtxTA0/s400/Condiments+Aisle.jpg" width="400" /></a></div>
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<span style="font-family: "avenir book"; font-size: 14pt;">I see twenty-nine different kinds of mustard, including each of the different flavors offered by the same company. Of these, only <i>one </i>kind is in a glass jar, Grey Poupon, an import from France, is, of course, the most expensive. Otherwise the shelves are filled with plastic, plastic, plastic, and more plastic. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "avenir book"; font-size: 14pt;">Next to the mustard is the array of plastic bottles of ketchup. There's no use looking here.The old glass bottle of ketchup has been extinct for years.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "avenir book"; font-size: 14pt;">Moving on to mayonnaise and its kin I find no glass whatsoever.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "avenir book"; font-size: 14pt;">How about the vinegar section?<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjCk7eGXgPs4ggHGvXoN8JmpIdmLH6jqdAl_YIvYukb3LHAGqXxRseuBrBtNLwHMrwbYgF9FhpqNPcaL0RNv3V-FNQhNf4G0TRtrhCkHZ969YooIFAn9tZlALUQCPgABR08Y5d-YYtMAZy0/s1600/Condiment+aisle+-+vinegar.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1200" data-original-width="1600" height="300" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjCk7eGXgPs4ggHGvXoN8JmpIdmLH6jqdAl_YIvYukb3LHAGqXxRseuBrBtNLwHMrwbYgF9FhpqNPcaL0RNv3V-FNQhNf4G0TRtrhCkHZ969YooIFAn9tZlALUQCPgABR08Y5d-YYtMAZy0/s400/Condiment+aisle+-+vinegar.jpg" width="400" /></a></div>
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<span style="font-family: "avenir book"; font-size: 14pt;">Nope. Nada.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "avenir book"; font-size: 14pt;">Okay, but maybe the salad dressings will have a glass bottle or two.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "avenir book"; font-size: 14pt;">Ah, at last, amongst the forest of plastic, I find four flavors of Brianna’s salad dressing in glass bottles on the top shelf, far left.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "avenir book"; font-size: 14pt;">When the squeeze bottles are almost empty, I throw them away, because the last can’t be squeezed out. I used to enjoy adding a bit of water and getting the last dregs of catsup to pour out. That just doesn’t work with plastic squeeze bottles, so what can I do? I can toss the bottles in the trash or recycling, which creates more problems. Either the enormous landfill gets another plastic bottles that won’t decompose for hundreds of years, or I send the bottle to some third-world country to be made into something else. That, too, is problematic. But I’ll save the facts and my thoughts on that on another day.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "avenir book"; font-size: 14pt;">For today, it’s enough to have observed the plethora of plastic in the grocery store condiments aisle.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<i><span style="font-family: "avenir book"; font-size: 10pt;">Copyright 2019 by Shirley Domer<o:p></o:p></span></i></div>
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Shirleyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18139902839567865081noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-981939224620989740.post-62764395042580318212019-05-23T16:20:00.000-05:002019-05-23T16:22:46.840-05:00Jugged<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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<span style="font-family: "avenir book"; font-size: 14pt;">Every trip to the grocery store dismays me. Single-use plastic is everywhere, in every aisle. We carry all that plastic home and try to recycle it or just throw it in the trash. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "avenir book"; font-size: 14pt;">Do we really need this wasteful junk? Landfills are full of it, creating great hills that alter the landscape. Much of it isn’t even put into a trash receptacle so it litters beaches in every remote part of the oceans. Bits and pieces of it mar the landscape. It collects on fences and litters even the gravel road that leads me home. Sea creatures ingest it or become entangled in it and die. Whales that wash up dead on beaches are always found with stomachs full of plastic – 15 pounds of it, 80 pounds of it, 22 kilograms of it, on and on.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "avenir book"; font-size: 14pt;">No wonder a grocery aisle appalls me! That’s why I’m going to war on single-use plastic. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "avenir book"; font-size: 14pt;">The first plastic I’m attacking is laundry detergent, both liquid and pod, packaged in big plastic jugs.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "avenir book"; font-size: 14pt;">Is it really easier to lift that heavy jug and pour some liquid into the lid before emptying the lid’s contents into the washing machine? Or is it easier to scoop granular detergent and dump it into the machine? Does the liquid really distribute more easily in water, t</span><span style="font-family: "avenir book"; font-size: 14pt;">hus avoiding clumps of un-dissolved powder when the washer finishes its cycle? In my sixty-some years of doing laundry I’ve never had that happen, and I’ve managed to use powdered detergent packaged in cardboard boxes the whole time. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "avenir book"; font-size: 14pt;">Although I thought the plastic measuring cup in every box of it was a terrible waste, for several years I used Arm and Hammer, which I could find at only the Kroger stores in my town. Then, shockingly, even Arm & Hammer quit making powdered detergent. Now there is none.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "avenir book"; font-size: 14pt;">The amount of plastic contained in these jugs is staggering. These jugs aren’t sold in just one store in my town. Every one of a dozen grocery stores has an aisle just like this one. Everybody in town is buying these jugs, not just once, but again and again. Multiply that by every city in the United States and you will have enough detergent jugs to build a jug Pike’s Peak.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "avenir book"; font-size: 14pt;">There’s no good reason for consumers to accept detergent in plastic jugs. We should demand powdered detergent packaged in cardboard boxes. We should hold the manufacturers responsible their role in plastic devastation. Let’s see if the consumer is always right.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<i><span style="font-family: "avenir book"; font-size: 10pt;">Copyright 2019 by Shirley Domer<o:p></o:p></span></i></div>
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Shirleyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18139902839567865081noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-981939224620989740.post-66272568114021570922019-05-18T17:09:00.000-05:002019-05-18T17:09:49.621-05:00Convenience<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Avenir, sans-serif; font-size: 13.999999999999998pt; font-style: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Convenience – how we love it! We pursue it and snatch it up at the earliest opportunity. Many of us make our lives so convenient (and sedentary) that in order to get any exercise we have to join fitness centers where we can use machines that produce nothing. </span></div>
<b id="docs-internal-guid-09030c09-7fff-5743-336e-bec510165991" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; caret-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); color: black; font-family: -webkit-standard; font-style: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; orphans: auto; text-align: start; text-decoration: none; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: auto; word-spacing: 0px;"><br /></b>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Avenir, sans-serif; font-size: 13.999999999999998pt; font-style: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">“Working out,” is what it’s called. It seems like “acting out,” in the old sense of pretending to be or do something on a stage. If that comparison is valid, “working out” must mean that one is </span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Avenir, sans-serif; font-size: 13.999999999999998pt; font-style: italic; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">pretending</span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Avenir, sans-serif; font-size: 13.999999999999998pt; font-style: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> to work. Is an underlying implication that physical effort is beneath the person who “works out?” No, this has nothing to do with snobbery. It’s just that modern life places most of us in positions that are totally convenient and require no physical effort from us. Yet we know that our bodies were designed to be used, and that exercise is essential to keeping our them in good order. That’s probably why apartment complexes and businesses offer free gyms and why there are many for-profit health clubs. </span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Avenir, sans-serif; font-size: 13.999999999999998pt; font-style: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">This scheme of “working out” seems to produce a great deal of wasted energy. What if all the exercise machines were built or retrofitted to harness this wasted energy as electricity? Just imagine that every exercise bike and treadmill was hooked to a generator. The wattage harvested would not be insignificant. </span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Avenir, sans-serif; font-size: 13.999999999999998pt; font-style: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">If every machine were designed to harvest energy, “working out” would become just plain old “</span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Avenir, sans-serif; font-size: 13.999999999999998pt; font-style: italic; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">working</span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Avenir, sans-serif; font-size: 13.999999999999998pt; font-style: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">.” Perhaps even the vocabulary would change. Instead of bragging that one ran twenty miles on the elliptical machine or squatted three hundred pounds, one could say, “I generated 60 watts of electricity this morning.”</span></div>
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Shirleyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18139902839567865081noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-981939224620989740.post-61344458979847130962019-05-15T12:03:00.000-05:002019-05-15T12:03:13.171-05:00The Customer Is Always Right, Right?<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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<span style="font-family: "Avenir Book"; font-size: 14pt;">“The customer is always right,” is a traditional motto for businesses in the United States. What the customer wants is what he gets, at least that’s how it used to be.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Avenir Book"; font-size: 14pt;">But today things have changed. It’s the stockholder who is always right, not the customer. Businesses don’t care about the customer now; they care only about the bottom lines on their financial statements. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Avenir Book"; font-size: 14pt;">Here is a recent example: Baker’s Chocolate used to offer an eight-ounce package of baking chocolate containing eight individually wrapped one ounce squares. Each square had a groove down the middle, making it easier for the cook to use half an ounce, if needed.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Avenir Book"; font-size: 14pt;">In 2013, everything changed. The package contents went from eight ounces to four ounces. Moreover, the individually wrapped one-ounce packages disappeared and were replaced by a single four- ounce bar of baking chocolate. The product has shrunk and was now less convenient, but its price did not change.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Avenir Book"; font-size: 14pt;">I’ve noticed the shrinkage trend for several years. Who else remembers that coffee once was sold in one-pound tin cans that opened with a key so the lid could be replaced? Who else remembers the lovely aroma that came when one turned the key, releasing the pressurized seal? Somewhere along the line coffee was sold in plastic bags, which happened to weigh just 12 ounces, a 25-percent reduction.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Avenir Book"; font-size: 14pt;">Any grocery shopper who is paying attention has seen these sneaky weight reductions occurring in almost every kind of food products. Usually we accept these changes without much protest, but the changes to Baker’s Chocolate produced a firestorm of home baker complaints. We were so incensed that the venerable New York Times ran an article* reporting that a Kraft spokesperson claimed that “</span><span style="background-color: white; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; color: #333333; font-family: "Avenir Book"; font-size: 14.5pt;">Our consumers have told us that they prefer this size over the larger size because the majority of our Baker’s recipes call for four ounces or less. The easy-break bar makes it faster to melt and easier to break apart.”</span><span style="font-family: "Avenir Book"; font-size: 10pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Avenir Book"; font-size: 14pt;">Kraft‘s spokesperson must think we are fools. If so many of “our customers” are pleased, where are their voices. The only ones speaking up are the unhappy ones. The customer, sad to say, is no longer always right. The Baker’s Chocolate package is still four ounces.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Avenir Book";">*Halving the Portion, but Not the Price, June 22, 2013, The New York Times.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<i><span style="font-family: "Avenir Book"; font-size: 10pt;">Copyright 2019 by Shirley Domer<o:p></o:p></span></i></div>
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Shirleyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18139902839567865081noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-981939224620989740.post-37893898576763910622019-04-27T09:47:00.001-05:002019-04-27T09:49:05.843-05:00Waiting to Die<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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<span style="font-family: "avenir book"; font-size: 14pt;">When I turned eighty almost four years ago, it seemed to me that I had reached the appropriate time to die. My life has not been one of restraint and caution. I have drunk bourbon daily for more than twenty years. I drink several cups of coffee every day. What’s more, I have smoked tobacco for most of my life, and still enjoy five or six cigarettes every day. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "avenir book"; font-size: 14pt;">I do not deserve a long life, nor did I expect one. I braced myself, thought about what happens in death, and sat back, waiting for it to come to pass. I waited, and waited, and waited some more.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "avenir book"; font-size: 14pt;">On the car drive returning to Kansas from Tucson I experienced a moment of truth. I suddenly realized that waiting to die is pretty damn boring. I’m done with that, I thought. I decided to give up the role of distant observer and become a participant again.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "avenir book"; font-size: 14pt;">When we got back to Kansas, I looked at our home with new eyes – eyes that saw how I’ve let things slide, how stuff has accumulated. I don’t even know what this house contains. So this is where my return to life begins. I have resolved to clean out every drawer, cabinet, and closet, one each day. This alone could take the rest of my life, but it’s interesting, which is more than I can say for waiting to die.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<i><span style="font-family: "avenir book"; font-size: 10pt;">Copyright 2019 by Shirley Domer<o:p></o:p></span></i></div>
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Shirleyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18139902839567865081noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-981939224620989740.post-90179061540290187432019-03-28T21:20:00.002-05:002019-03-28T21:20:58.695-05:00Hello, Old Friend<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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<span style="font-family: "Avenir Book"; font-size: 14pt;">Moving to Tucson for the winter, we didn’t expect to know anyone except our grandson and his wife, but Tucson has surprised us with some old acquaintances and a surprising number of other Kansans.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Avenir Book"; font-size: 14pt;">I didn’t expect to encounter any familiar flora, either, and that proved to be the case. The landscape here seemed totally alien to me. Different trees, different shrubs, different smaller plants. Ocatillos fascinated me, as did the many kinds of cacti, especially the saguaro, whose dead bones are made into useful fences and shades.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Avenir Book"; font-size: 14pt;">Until last week, I hadn’t seen a single native that I recognized, but that changed when the plants were sitting in pots in the yard.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Avenir Book"; font-size: 14pt;">An ecologist planned the landscape for our front yard around native plants whose blooms would attract bees and butterflies, but some of the plants were downright ugly, such as this one.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Avenir Book"; font-size: 14pt;">A few days later I discovered a pod hanging from one of its branches, a pod I recognized.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Avenir Book"; font-size: 14pt;">That has to be a milkweed pod, I thought. I know milkweed pods well because eleven varieties of milkweed grow in our Kansas posture. Their pods are variations on a consistent theme: their pods burst open and release hundreds of tiny seeds with gossamer wings, seeds that float away like a troop of sky divers.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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Butterfly Milkweed, Blooming</div>
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<span style="font-family: "Avenir Book"; font-size: 14pt;">The green sticks I had hated were my old friend, <i>asclepias</i>, commonly called milkweed, adapted to a desert climate. It has only insignificant leaves that soon die. Photosynthesis occurs in the plant’s stems, which explains their green color. I’m not sure of the genus but it is either <i>albicans</i>or <i>subulata. </i>Both are native to this part of Arizona.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Avenir Book"; font-size: 14pt;">The Sonoran milkweeds are part of a chain of 156 varieties of <i>asclepias </i>that stretches across the United States. This chain is vital to survival of the monarch butterfly. Monarchs can feed only on the flowers’ nectar and can lay their eggs only on <i>asclepias</i>because newly-hatched larvae can eat only milkweed leaves and live only on the plants until they become fat caterpillars and move away to form chrysalises. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Avenir Book"; font-size: 14pt;">It’s very nice to see my old friend living in the Sonoran desert. He has changed, of course, as old friends tend to do, but I’d recognize him anywhere.</span><span style="font-family: "Avenir Book"; font-size: 14pt;">Crop Circles<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<i><span style="font-family: "Avenir Book"; font-size: 10pt;">Copyright 2019 by Shirley Domer<o:p></o:p></span></i></div>
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Shirleyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18139902839567865081noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-981939224620989740.post-85459324857291679672019-03-11T21:33:00.000-05:002019-03-11T22:05:35.830-05:00Cut-Cut-Cut-Kadacket<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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<span style="font-family: "avenir book"; font-size: 14pt;">When I was a little girl, hearing one of Grandpa’s hens cackle after laying an egg, I heard it as, “Cut-Cut-Cut-Kadacket.” Eighty years later, I still hear a hen’s bragging that way.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "avenir book"; font-size: 14pt;">When I’m in Kansas, the hen’s ruckus is part of my life’s soundtrack. Here in Tucson the soundtrack switches to the hum of distant traffic and the roar of Air Force planes passing overhead. Not a single Cut-Cut-Cut-Kadacket can be heard. I miss that as well as the contented clucks the hens utter while picking at the grain Dennis scatters in their yard.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "avenir book"; font-size: 14pt;">That’s why I’m thrilled about Grant’s latest big project – building a chicken house. A Tucson architect had designed a chicken house for the Tucson climate and built one for his son’s school. Grant bought the plans and materials, and he and Dennis laid a concrete footing to anchor the house.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "avenir book"; font-size: 14pt;">Then Grant spent part of his days away from lawyering building the outer structure. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "avenir book"; font-size: 14pt;">Since then, he and Dennis have worked together to put on the finishing touches. They’ve built nest boxes that we can access from outside. And </span><span style="font-family: "avenir book"; font-size: 14pt;">Dennis has stained the building’s outside.</span><span style="font-family: "avenir book"; font-size: 14pt;"> </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "avenir book"; font-size: 14pt;">With an improvised a brooder that will keep baby chicks warm and provide them with food and water, we were ready to get some birds. That was easy. An Ace Hardware about ten minutes away gets shipments of baby chicks several times a week. We bought five of assorted breeds, but only four of them chose to pose for this photo. As you can see, two appliance cardboard boxes make a sturdy, protection for the babies.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: x-small;">Photo by Dennis</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "avenir book"; font-size: 14pt;">The only sounds these little fluff balls make now is “Cheep, Cheep, Cheep,” but when we come back to the desert next fall, I expect to be welcomed by the old, familiar, “Cut-Cut-Cut-Kadacket.”<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<i><span style="font-family: "avenir book"; font-size: 10pt;">Copyright 2019 by Shirley Domer<o:p></o:p></span></i></div>
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Shirleyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18139902839567865081noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-981939224620989740.post-5149039556314021372019-02-20T18:21:00.003-06:002019-02-22T17:25:25.897-06:00Peggy, I Get It<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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<span style="font-family: "avenir book"; font-size: 14pt;">Years ago Dennis went around Douglas County looking at old buildings and interviewing their owners. The most interesting person he met was an invalid old woman, who was widely known in Kansas as Peggy of the Flint Hills. That was her pen name for the column she wrote for the Topeka Capitol Journal for 55 years.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "avenir book"; font-size: 14pt;">In spite of being locally famous, she somehow ended up living alone in a stone cottage in rural Douglas County with numerous cats. Peggy was mostly bedfast but the cats weren’t. There was no litter box so the floors were a mess. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "avenir book"; font-size: 14pt;">Peggy didn’t seem to care that her life circumstances were less than ideal because she had her books, probably collected throughout her career as a journalist. She was reading them over again, one by one, and when she finished one she gave it away to a visitor. Handing Dennis a book, Peggy remarked, “When they are all gone, I will die.”<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "avenir book"; font-size: 14pt;">At the time I didn’t greatly understand Peggy. I was rather disapproving of her situation, but now I have become an old woman, I identify closely with her. I can’t travel anymore, and if truth be known, I wouldn’t care to even if I could. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "avenir book"; font-size: 14pt;">Why put myself through the hassles of travel when I can sit in my comfortable chair with a cup of coffee and open a book. Through a book I visit any place in the world, meet people of every culture, and even travel through time backward or forward.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "avenir book"; font-size: 14pt;">I never met Peggy and don’t even know her real name. I can only guess that she died, happy with her books. I hope that only a few of them remained in her library. I do sort of wonder what became of her cats.</span><span style="font-family: "avenir book";"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<i><span style="font-family: "avenir book"; font-size: 10pt;">Copyright 2019 by Shirley Domer<o:p></o:p></span></i></div>
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Shirleyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18139902839567865081noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-981939224620989740.post-70920562681614594142019-02-08T15:57:00.000-06:002019-02-08T17:26:01.404-06:00Past the Cusp<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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<span style="font-family: "cochin"; font-size: 14pt;">Past the cusp of transition into being elderly, I’m now acutely aware of things one needs in order to be active when one reaches this stage. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "cochin"; font-size: 14pt;">Bill gave me a cane years ago, when I was traveling by air and needed some support walking long corridors, Except for that use, I left it propped against a corner in the dining room. Now that has changed. The cane, awkward as it is to handle, has become my frequent companion when I go out. I drop it, it’s hard to fit into the car beside me, and finding a way to keep it accessible when I sit is not easy. It's made to collapse in length, which would be handy, but my hands aren't strong enough to fold it. Those inconveniences, though, aren’t enough to discourage me from using it. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "cochin"; font-size: 14pt;">Holding the handle of a grocery cart is also good at giving me stability while cruising the aisles. Thanks to grocery carts, grocery shopping ha my main form of exercise.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "cochin"; font-size: 14pt;">Grab bars in the shower now are indispensible, whereas they used to be a convenience.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "cochin"; font-size: 14pt;">I bought a button hook (useless) and nail clippers for designed for handicapped people (also useless ). <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "cochin"; font-size: 14pt;">These things are just the tip of an ever-growing iceberg. Recently I bought a rolling walker that has a seat where I can rest when the back pain becomes overwhelming. I’ve had my eye on those for over a year, after seeing an elderly man resting on one during an evening walk. and recently meeting a woman at the grocery store who graciously let me try hers for a moment. Walking with it is as easy as walking a grocery cart. The down side is that I can’t lift it in and out of the car, but when Dennis and I go together, he will do that for me. I’m very lucky to be married to that good man.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "cochin"; font-size: 14pt;">Yesterday, UPS delivered another enabler. This time it’s a lumbar brace. I’ve hesitated to open and try it on because the packaging pictures a man with body-builder muscles modeling one. If the model were a frail old woman, I wouldn’t hesitate to try it on. But I know when back pain interferes with my meal preparation, on it will go, if my crippled hands can use the Velcro fasteners.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "cochin"; font-size: 14pt;">That’s the trouble with the design of many “enablers;” often they don’t work. The designers didn’t consider all the forms of disability. Sometimes I wonder if they were even tested. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "cochin"; font-size: 14pt;">If only I had a 3-D printer, I could custom design my own enablers as well as some for my friends.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "cochin"; font-size: 11pt;">Copyright 2019 by Shirley Domer <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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Shirleyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18139902839567865081noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-981939224620989740.post-30905207309467196952019-01-10T12:53:00.000-06:002019-01-10T12:54:31.448-06:00El Nino, the Spoiler<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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<span style="font-family: "cochin"; font-size: 14pt;">When Halloween is over, many older Americans head south, seeking sunshine and warmth for the cold northern winter months. They call us “Snowbirds,” because, like many birds, we fly south.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "cochin"; font-size: 14pt;">Normally this is a good solution for bones that creak and muscles that ache in cold weather. We bask in southern sunshine and count ourselves lucky to be here.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "cochin"; font-size: 14pt;">This year, though, we aren’t so lucky, for El Nino has intervened. El Nino is the weather pattern that brings one cold front after another roaring in from the Pacific Ocean, clouding the skies and dropping rain on the Sonoran Desert. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "cochin"; font-size: 14pt;">Our neighbor Val Bay shared his photo that tells the tale of Tucson skies this winter.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "cochin"; font-size: 14pt;">This cloudy weather is a reminder of how lucky we are to be here <i>most </i>years. We can be thankful that El Nino won’t last forever and that this year the desert will gloriously bloom, although we won’t be here to see it. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "cochin"; font-size: 11pt;"><span style="font-size: x-small;">Copyright 2019 by Shirley Domer </span><span style="font-size: 11pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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Shirleyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18139902839567865081noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-981939224620989740.post-50836639266874438112019-01-07T10:52:00.000-06:002019-01-07T20:48:07.687-06:00A Spicy Romance<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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<span style="font-family: "cochin"; font-size: 14pt;">When I was a girl, a special treat was going to the drug store to drink malts at the soda fountain. After the soda jerk took our order, we saw him assemble the ingredients in a stainless steel jar, and whirl them in the electric malt maker. Then we saw him pour most of the contents into a glass and present it to us, along with the can, which still contained some malt, and a can of ground nutmeg to sprinkle on.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "cochin"; font-size: 14pt;">Nutmeg was not to be found in our kitchen at home, but it was the traditional addition to malts at Baumgartner’s Drug Store. For me, nutmeg was love at first taste and when I married, at twenty, I included a can of nutmeg in my rather limited spice collection.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "cochin"; font-size: 14pt;">Nutmeg, I now know, is best when freshly grated, so I have replaced cans of ground nutmeg with whole nutmegs and a nutmeg grater or microplane. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "cochin"; font-size: 14pt;">The spice has numerous, but not extensive, uses. First of all, nutmeg is essential to grate over egg custard before baking. Making a tender egg custard is easy and it tastes marvelous served with berries such as fresh red raspberries .<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "cochin"; font-size: 14pt;">Egg Custard<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "cochin"; font-size: 14pt;">In a 1½ quart baking dish beat (in this order):<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "cochin"; font-size: 14pt;">2 eggs<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "cochin"; font-size: 14pt;">1/3 cup sugar<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "cochin"; font-size: 14pt;">pinch of salt<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "cochin"; font-size: 14pt;">1 teaspoon vanilla extract<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "cochin"; font-size: 14pt;">2 cups milk<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "cochin"; font-size: 14pt;">Set the baking dish in a pan of hot water and bake at 350º for 50 minutes. Only the edges need be set when you remove it from the oven. The custard will continue to set as it cools.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "cochin"; font-size: 14pt;">Second, this spice complements certain dishes made with members of the brassica family, cauliflower, spinach, and broccoli. Nutmeg is delicious in creamed spinach. It’s also delicious in my favorite broccoli soup* and can similarly be added to cauliflower dishes.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "cochin"; font-size: 14pt;">Oddly, I don’t like nutmeg in apple pie, although most apple pies I’ve encountered use it. Romance, as we all learn, can be a bit fickle.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "cochin";">*Published on this blog on April, 23, 2013, titled “Back to Soup.”<span style="font-size: medium;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "cochin"; font-size: 11pt;">Copyright 2019 by Shirley Domer <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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Shirleyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18139902839567865081noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-981939224620989740.post-40076116217127426722019-01-03T15:54:00.001-06:002019-01-03T15:57:19.535-06:00Our Lucky Day<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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<span style="font-family: "cochin"; font-size: 14pt;">Unpacking a dusty cardboard box that had been undisturbed for more than a decade, Marianne found a lizard amongst the box’s contents. She was startled and later said that she had reacted as if the four-inch-long creature were dangerous. Ozzie soon carried the box into the garage so that the lizard could escape. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "cochin"; font-size: 14pt;">When Marianne, who is visiting here from Kansas, heard that Arizonans consider having a lizard in one’s house to be good luck, she embraced that aGecko, which is one of the five subspecies of the Western Banded Gecko.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "cochin"; font-size: 14pt;">Our gecko is almost, if not fully, grown. The species ranges in size from four to six inches. They are shy, nocturnal creatures, foraging at night for insects and small spiders. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "cochin"; font-size: 14pt;">I sure hope that our gecko decides to stick around. Many things will happen in 2019, and we all need some good luck with them. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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Shirleyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18139902839567865081noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-981939224620989740.post-64314361017031140462018-12-07T13:56:00.001-06:002018-12-07T16:47:12.813-06:00Art in the Sonoran Desert<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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<span style="font-family: "cochin"; font-size: 14pt;">It seems strange to be in Tucson in December with a steady rain pouring down. The same thing happened yesterday. Today, though, there’s thunder and lightening, making me feel more as if I were at home in Kansas. Even so, I'm thinking of desert art.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "cochin"; font-size: 14pt;">Some people who live in the Arizona desert country use the desert as a junkyard, abandoning old metal pieces to the elements. These pieces survive for years of burning heat and monsoon rains. Other desert-dwelling people like going into the desert to shoot their guns. They shoot up cacti but their favored targets are those abandoned metal pieces. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "cochin"; font-size: 14pt;">Our friend Gabe, who is a welder of ornamental and artistic pieces, likes to walk in the desert, collecting the old metal, including the metal used as a target. After he flattens and shapes them, they become pieces of art.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "cochin"; font-size: 14pt;">I love found art, and have many examples on display in my home. I was naturally drawn to Gabe’s art, and told him so. My enthusiasm earned me two gifts from Gabe. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "cochin"; font-size: 14pt;">Last year he presented me with this piece. Gabe offered to hammer it out flat, but I loved it just as it was.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "cochin"; font-size: 14pt;">When we returned to Tucson this fall, I discovered another gift. This one has not been a shooter’s target. The shape is wrong for that purpose. The piece appears not to hove been in the desert long enough to develop rust. Grant tied it to the shed wall with wire for display..<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "cochin"; font-size: 14pt;">I love these pieces partly because, like me and like many of us, they are bent and twisted, but they have survived. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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Shirleyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18139902839567865081noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-981939224620989740.post-50449970813903623492018-10-15T11:57:00.003-05:002018-10-15T11:59:27.033-05:00And All That Stuff*<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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<span style="font-family: "cochin"; font-size: 14pt;">After they had both retired Mother and Dad left their six-room house and moved into a two-bedroom apartment. I was amazed to see how little they took with them when they moved. The 1930’s dining table, six chairs, and buffet were at my house, I knew their Haviland china for twelve, sterling sliver tableware, and the teardrop crystal were now part of my brother’s household. But where was all the other stuff? <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "cochin"; font-size: 14pt;">There hadn’t been room in the 1925 bungalow’s small rooms for a lot of stuff. I finally figured out that Mother had pared life’s necessities to their bare essentials. Her bathroom medicine chest seemed spacious because just a few things lined its selves. Her bedroom closet, likewise, seemed much larger than it was because Mother had simplified her wardrobe to a few coordinated polyester outfits, housecoat, and winter coat. Gone were the costume jewelry, the cultured pearls, the blouses that needed to be ironed, the pants and blouses that didn’t go with any other piece of clothing, the high-heeled shoes. The only nonessential she didn’t throw out was her dozen or so bottles of cologne. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "cochin"; font-size: 14pt;">Mother died at 78. Now I’m 83 and longing to be as free of stuff as my mother was. I’m tired of the boxes of materials and tools, pictures on the walls, books and papers, and all the other stuff in drawers and closets and cubbyholes. I want simplicity like Mother achieved. I’d better get cracking on that right away.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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Early autumn on the patio</div>
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<span style="font-family: "cochin"; font-size: medium;">*I use the term "stuff" rather than "things" because of the verb "stuff" means fill tightly with something.</span></div>
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Shirleyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18139902839567865081noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-981939224620989740.post-54295007780951880452018-10-11T17:44:00.001-05:002018-10-12T03:22:09.073-05:00Wrinkles in Time<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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<span style="font-family: "cochin"; font-size: 14pt;">Making my bed this morning, I noticed a number of wrinkles in the covers, and tugged at a few, trying to straighten them before deciding that was good enough, and walking away. Once upon a time I would have left the bed covers perfectly smooth. That woman – the one I used to be – believed that if something was worth doing, it deserved obsessive attention and care. She certainly would not have made a bed poorly or walked away while a wrinkle in the covers remained.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "cochin"; font-size: 14pt;">What happened to that vigorous woman? She is gone, replaced by a disabled old woman, who looks back at that old self with astonishment and jealousy. That old self was endlessly studying, planning, figuring out how to accomplish her goals, and pursuing them with joy and strength. She used a 35-pound crowbar to move 700-pound slabs of rock to make a tiered garden on the slope behind our house. She raised vegetables and made baked goods to load in the truck at four a.m. and carry to the local farmer’s market, where she set up a tail-gate display and served customers until late mid-morning. She gave parties, invited people to dinner, and was hostess to many large family dinners. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "cochin"; font-size: 14pt;">She was a wonder, yet something was missing. In her strength she was somewhat arrogant and indifferent to others. She hadn’t experienced sufficient pain. Her body was strong, reliable.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "cochin"; font-size: 14pt;">Now, many years later, having suffered pain, lost strength, and deteriorated, she is a different woman. She has learned humility and empathy for others. She has learned to ask for help from others and to give thanks for it. She knows how to reach out, one human being to another, look them in the eye, and smile, as if to say, “I know what it is to live and struggle, yet we two find humor, and persevere.”<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "cochin"; font-size: 14pt;">Her bed covers are wrinkled, as is her face, but they are merely the surface. They are merely the wrinkles of time.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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San Xavier Mission near Tucson, Arizona.</div>
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<span style="font-family: "cochin"; font-size: 11pt;">Copyright 2018 by Shirley Domer <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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Shirleyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18139902839567865081noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-981939224620989740.post-23194961716150396062018-10-06T15:40:00.000-05:002018-10-06T15:41:12.937-05:00First Soup Day<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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<span style="font-family: "cochin"; font-size: 14pt;">The first autumn rains came last night, chilling the air and sending us searching for warmer clothing. Already some leaves have yellowed and Virginia creeper is snaking flaming leaves up tree trunks in the woods. </span><span style="font-family: cochin; font-size: 14pt;">The sky is grey and we feel lazy and sleepy. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: cochin; font-size: 14pt;">This seems a good day to make the season’s first soup. It will have to be chicken soup, because there’s half a roast chicken in the fridge. That’s fine! We have onions, celery, carrots, and garlic. What else? There may be a quart of chicken broth in the freezer, but if not, we can use chicken base and water. There is thyme for seasoning, or we could use Poblano peppers for heat. Finally, do we prefer noodles or brown rice? Noodles if we use thyme or rice if we choose the pepper version. We can decide that later when we’re cooking.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "cochin"; font-size: 14pt;">Meanwhile, we can take a nap. It’s the perfect Saturday afternoon activity on a dreary autumn day.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "cochin"; font-size: 11pt;">Copyright 2018 by Shirley Domer <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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Shirleyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18139902839567865081noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-981939224620989740.post-9878275995969362632018-08-18T12:26:00.002-05:002018-08-18T12:26:19.604-05:00Jammin'<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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<span style="font-family: Cochin;">This morning Dennis and I made red plum jam – 7 pints of it plus about a cupful in a bowl. I hadn’t made jam all summer because the fruit crop, along with almost every other crop from garden or field, failed this year. The weather has been mean to us. Too cold, too hot, too dry, plant diseases, all conspired to disappoint.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Cochin;">Our stock of homemade jam was getting low. There wasn’t enough left to last until the next growing season. We had options. We could buy many kinds of jam and jelly at the grocery store. Nevertheless, I wanted to make our own jam, so I bought 5 pounds of red plums and a bag of sugar. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Cochin;">Financially it hardly made sense. The plums and sugar cost about eight dollars and the cost of heating our stove burners to cook the jam, and sterilize the jars and lids increased the cost. We both spent two and a half hours completing the task, including clean up. The value of the product was just $35. Homemade jam was not a profitable use of our time.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Cochin;">So, we asked each other, why did we do it? We found good reasons. We had worked for the satisfaction of carrying on tradition, the pleasure of seeing our handiwork, the ultimate pleasure of smearing the jam on our morning toast, and the perhaps irrational joy of doing it because we know how. Having made jam and jelly so many times, we move like clockwork, each of us knowing exactly what to do and when to do it. That, alone, made jammin’ worthwhile.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Cochin;"><span style="font-size: x-small;">Copyright 2018 by Shirley Domer </span><span style="font-size: 11pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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Shirleyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18139902839567865081noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-981939224620989740.post-8372710327049883552018-08-13T07:47:00.000-05:002018-08-13T07:47:15.911-05:00Grandma's Apology<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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<span style="background-color: white; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; color: #333333; font-family: Cochin; font-size: 13.5pt;">Like it or not, climate change isn’t just coming – it’s here.<span> </span>This year, along with the three previous years, make the hottest years ever recorded.* I don’t need to lay out the details for we all know wildfires are raging all over the world, people are dying from heat, and crops are failing worldwide. This, scientists say, is <i>not</i>the new normal, for temperatures will <i>continue to rise.<o:p></o:p></i></span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; color: #333333; font-family: Cochin; font-size: 13.5pt;">I’m an old woman and won’t have to live long with climate change, but I shudder to think what my grandchildren’s lives be like at the earth heats up. This is my apology to them for our stupidity and for the human weaknesses that have created this mess.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<b><span style="background-color: white; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; color: #333333; font-family: Cochin; font-size: 13.5pt;">We love ease. </span></b><span style="background-color: white; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; color: #333333; font-family: Cochin; font-size: 13.5pt;">We want machines to do as much of our work as possible. Machines wash our dishes and clothing, mow our lawns, carry us from place to place, and much more. We even need machines to help us build and maintain muscle strength, because we no longer use our muscles to perform the work of living. Machines run on electricity, most of which comes from burning fossil fuels.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<b><span style="background-color: white; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; color: #333333; font-family: Cochin; font-size: 13.5pt;">We love convenience</span></b><span style="background-color: white; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; color: #333333; font-family: Cochin; font-size: 13.5pt;">. It’s so much easier to carry a plastic bottle full of water than to fill a container from the kitchen faucet. Never mind that great-grandmother had to carry a bucket of water from the well or the creek. Poor old soul; she had to work so hard. We don’t want to bother with cooking when it’s so convenient to get packaged meals from the grocery store or carry out from a restaurant. We prefer to ride in motorized cars than walk or exert ourselves riding a bike.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<b><span style="background-color: white; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; color: #333333; font-family: Cochin; font-size: 13.5pt;">We love our tribe.</span></b><span style="background-color: white; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; color: #333333; font-family: Cochin; font-size: 13.5pt;">We are suspicious of people who look different from us or hold different beliefs, and we often make war on them. War is a tremendous waste of resources and requires clean up and rebuilding when it’s over. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<b><span style="background-color: white; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; color: #333333; font-family: Cochin; font-size: 13.5pt;">We love luxury. </span></b><span style="background-color: white; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; color: #333333; font-family: Cochin; font-size: 13.5pt;">We must have not just one indoor bathroom, but two or three of them. We crave the latest style clothing, and discard things that are out of fashion. We want new carpet on our floors and the latest model cars in our garages. We want, want, want, and are never satisfied. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<b><span style="background-color: white; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; color: #333333; font-family: Cochin; font-size: 13.5pt;">We love money.</span></b><span style="background-color: white; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; color: #333333; font-family: Cochin; font-size: 13.5pt;">We will happily destroy our environment to get more money. Renewable forms of energy – solar, geothermal, wind – can’t be promoted because oil has made so many people rich, and continues to do so. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<b><span style="background-color: white; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; color: #333333; font-family: Cochin; font-size: 13.5pt;">We love self-indulgence. </span></b><span style="background-color: white; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; color: #333333; font-family: Cochin; font-size: 13.5pt;">We will do whatever it takes to immediately gratify our whims. No matter what a mess we make or how much debt we incur, we must have everything now.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; color: #333333; font-family: Cochin; font-size: 13.5pt;">The upshot, dear grandchildren, is a foul world, drowning in rising sea levels, wallowing in plastic trash, stinking with poisonous air, and awash in filthy rivers and streams. I’m sorry. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Cochin; font-size: 11pt;">*“The Year Global Warming Turned Model Into Menace,” page 1, <i>The New York Times</i>, August 10, 2018.</span><span style="font-family: Cochin; font-size: 10pt;"> </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Cochin;"><span style="font-size: x-small;">Copyright 2018 by Shirley Domer </span><span style="font-size: 11pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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Shirleyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18139902839567865081noreply@blogger.com2