Leg Up

Sunday, January 26, 2025

I am experimenting with my learning ability by signing up online for a beginning Spanish course.

Here’s why Spanish: My few years of employment in local retail businesses show Central Oregon’s sizable Spanish population. Many local Spanish are articulate in English, and many others are barely articulate or don’t speak any English.

Retail workers who understand Spanish have a leg up on communicating and selling. I hope to at least gain listening skills. That would give me insight into what customers may discuss among themselves when deciding whether to purchase.

I will again be challenging myself, and mightily. Often, I’ve attempted to learn left-brain skills like math and languages, but unsuccessfully. Taking math and language courses has challenged me, usually unsuccessfully, to comprehend specifics well enough to retain them. I can more capably understand right-brain skills like psychology and communications.

It is daunting to try again to learn a foreign language. However, this time’s different because I am clear about what I want to achieve. Having specific goals might overcome what previously were abstract wishes to learn.

I am tiptoeing into this by committing only to one month of immersion. If I am active, feel involved in the course, and discover that I am learning to any noticeable extent, I’ll re-sign up and take the entire course.

Dear Friends: So, “Hasta la vista, baby!” Diana

Starting Point

Saturday, January 25, 2025

The package that arrived included instructions for caring for my new sourdough starter. My instructions were to “feed” the tiny starter flour and water and discard most of it when the dough doubled. Afterward, again feed flour and water, and discard most of it when the “second dough” grows. Repeating that entire process over a week or more would “optimize” the doughball.

Following those instructions gives me mixed feelings. It seems wasteful to toss “living dough” and then start over to feed and toss. I’m a new sourdough caretaker, uncertain of what “optimizing” means. I suppose those repeated small-batch feedings strengthen a core so it has maximum efficiency in a bread mix.

While having such “supposing thoughts” about the dough, I also think about us and consider “trigger words,” like feed, discard, and feed again. They suggest how people usually learn and grow–similar to how a sourdough ball grows. By translating “feeding” into “learning.” we glimpse a key way our human skills develop.

Our journey of learning and growth is a continuous process. We absorb information, and like a sourdough starter being fed, we take in new knowledge. We evaluate its relevance and retain what nourishes us. We discard what doesn’t serve our growth. Each feeding deepens our understanding and makes us more discerning and wiser.

Humans become more resilient through the ongoing cycles of learning and refinement. They shape our perspectives and strengthen our abilities to navigate life’s complexities.

Lesson recognized: Sourdough starters and all other living beings evolve similarly.

Dear Friends: Soon, I will create a loaf of this complex bread from scratch. Diana

Lightening Up

Friday, January 24, 2025

I am going to my part-time job early today. I dislike working away from home in the darkest winter months because short daylight hours force me outside in darkness to give my equines their evening feedings.

Working with them in sunlight will happen soon. In these late winter months, we are experiencing added minutes of visible light daily.

That’s high on my mind today, and now I must start doing my pre-work work.

Dear Friends: Have a great day and enjoy bits more of light at its end. Diana

Oy Vey

Thursday, January 23, 2025

My brain is approaching a more normal state, recovering from a mini-depression caused by the Presidential race results. The winners immediately began generating images of a future darker than any known in modern times.

Right away, we’ve seen efforts to strip personal rights from individuals and groups, vigorous clamorings for lots of focus on religion in classrooms and government, and wild international threats by a President (and his henchmen/women) to claim uber-power recognition.

My depression’s negativity is more fueled by knowing America’s uber-rich will be co-directing the country’s economic and social future–and, therefore, MY future. I’m being forced to pivot and reevaluate my plans, options, and resources. While few plans are ever “set in concrete,” I’ve felt reasonably secure until now.

A “little guy’s” worries include ever-rising food prices, the potential of healthcare availability and costs, whether the Fed will continue supporting Social Security and Medicare, and the increasingly important issue of housing-related scarcities.

The new President’s intent to deport “illegals” boggles my mind. Equally so is the possibility that America might stop supporting Ukraine.

Dear Friends: I’m struggling now, again, to avoid re-sinking into mini-depression. Diana

into mini-depression. Diana

Thoughtfully

Wednesday, January 22, 2025

I am off today from my part-time job. I will try adding “Pimmy Donkey In Central Oregon” to the Bluesky site. Pimmy has a popular page on Facebook, but we’re leaving FB, and I hope she may continue entertaining followers elsewhere.

I’m thinking of becoming a contributor on the Substack site but I’m challenged as a writer who generalizes. Contributors to social feeds are successful by writing understandably and keeping specific areas interesting and enjoyable. I wiggle among topics having the potential to represent my areas of high interest, but electing a constant focus escapes me. Essentially, I’m baby-stepping toward new directions, and fortunately, I don’t need to hurry.

I need to untangle my interests and identify my highest motivators. Doing that calls for me to self-reflect and explore. I must experiment by engaging actively with my passions while considering practicalities. Doing the basics to “seek my true calling” should reveal my highest, most motivating interests.

Dear Friends: “I think, therefore I am.” (I think.) Diana

Enlightenment

Monday, January 20, 2025

This is Martin Luther King Day. Yesterday’s weather prevued this chilly but beautiful new day. I was outside several times to feed my animals. My gloved hands tended to become freezy, a signal to stay inside as much as possible. So, I did: cleaned the house, fed a sourdough starter, baked bread (machine), organized spaces, studied algebra online (Kahn Academy), and read more of Amy Tan’s bird book.

The more I learn about genetics, the more I appreciate that various beings, existing commonly alongside humans, may also “have intelligence.” Studies have revealed vast underground networks of tree and plant roots–intertwined, communicating, and exchanging nutrients. Researchers have learned more about how plants communicate with each other, respond to touch, store memories, and deceive animals for their own benefit.

A recently published book adds to such learning. It’s The Light Eaters: How the Unseen World of Plant Intelligence Offers a New Understanding of Life on Earth. Its author, Zoë Schlanger, covers climate change and here explores the contemporary world of botany.

In the past twenty years, ideas of plants communicating are more broadly accepted. Research shows examples. Lima beans protect themselves by synthesizing and releasing chemicals to summon predators of the insects that eat them. Lab-grown pea shoots navigate and respond to the sounds of running water. In Chile, a chameleonic jungle vine mimics the shape and color of nearby plants.

Those behavioral mechanisms aren’t fully understood, and scientists have different opinions about whether plants can sense the world and communicate. I’m eager to start reading this book and thinking about possibilities.

Dear Friends: Are humans possibly less supreme among organisms? Diana

Flyin’ High & Low

Merlin, atop my juniper, captured several years ago

Sunday, January 19, 2025

Yesterday, I was too optimistic about this area’s “warmish” January weather. Last night turned into a deep freeze. I must tread into the uninviting outdoors soon to care for my outside animals. Meanwhile, my early morning rituals of coffee and headlines remain unchanged.

Regarding headlines and wishing to follow state and local news more closely, I have subscribed to The Oregonian. Like many others, I can’t imagine what might occur nationally and internationally after tomorrow’s leadership change; however, staying abreast of local impacts is essential.

I’ll be engaging my brain in matters more local and specific. Local, as in political, social, and economic impacts to Oregon, and specific, as in studying math and art again. I’ve yearned to be good at math and art all my life. I have pursued and got a “leg up” on each but haven’t maintained a grip on either after periods of inactivity.

The famous saying, “All politics is local,” will be my near-focus, besides occasional outbursts if I can’t “pack it in.” Today, I’ll start by reading more from Amy Tan’s “The Backyard Bird Chronicles,” enjoying her mastery of math and art–while imagining myself with similar skills.

Dear Friends: Shifting(s) in one realm may insist on shifting(s) in others. Diana

SF Legacy

Saturday, January 18, 2025

I’ve been feeding my new sourdough starter. It’s supposed to have descended from a 100-year-old starter created on old San Francisco’s Warf by a then-baker, the grandfather of today’s seller.

I’m interested in starting to bake sourdough bread. A San Francisco starter is best for producing airy, chewy bread with a distinctive tangy flavor. Theoretically, San Francisco starters benefit from that area’s unique local microbes and famously foggy region. The cool and moist environment creates a unique microbial ecosystem, perfect for starter growth.

Besides, sourdough bread is historic, starting as a San Francisco staple in the Gold Rush era when miners brought their personal starters. San Francisco has an iconic bakery, Boudin, founded in 1849. It has maintained its original sourdough starter for over 170 years, and its skilled bakers have perfected the art of sourdough bread making. Boudin’s loaves are widely distributed (I can find its sourdough bread here in Central Oregon). Boudin’s longevity and success have boosted San Francisco’s sourdough legacy.

Sourdough starters can thrive in various environments and will accept many flour types. I’m confident that my new starter (regardless of its actual age and origins) will produce loaves that will satisfy. I will find new bread flavors and textures while re-experiencing a little history.

Dear Friends: Now, I will go feed my new starter again. Diana

Weathering

Friday, January 17, 2025

Here in Central Oregon, the weather has been warmer, a January surprise. I recall this time of the year more typically as finger-freezing wet and snowy. For years, I’ve had to be outside daily and in all kinds of weather, feeding and caring for my outside critters. I can attest that this is not a warmish month!

I’m prepared for the rough January weather I’m accustomed to. I have handy ski outerwear, snow goggles, and gear that offsets swirling winds against my neck and ears. These aren’t always necessary before March but are ready for possible earlier needs. However, I’m going outside nowadays wearing lighter jackets. My well-padded, heavy coats are waiting.

I’ve lived in this area for twenty years. Until recently, our fall and winter temperatures were reasonably predictable. Our first snow usually fell before Thanksgiving, with more occurring periodically before and around Christmastime. Last year and this one, our weather was relatively mild without snow before New Year’s.

Last year’s heavy winter weather hit us hard in early January and lasted until almost the Summer Solstice. I’ve anticipated this January to be the same, but that isn’t happening…yet, or maybe it won’t.

Climate changes have become serious matters, and they are now even worse after being driven to world attention by massive wildfires in California. Climate change and its possible aftereffects are high on our minds.

Dear Friends: Watching for what sort of weather may next occur in Central Oregon.