Tuesday, March 01, 2022

Up early to catch up on news of the war. It’s stunning to learn that Putin is spouting nuclear threats to bully a world unsupportive of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. Only a madman articulates weaponry escalation in this modern age that could destroy vast swaths of humanity.

Tonight, President Biden will make this year’s State of the Union speech to both chambers of Congress and an attentive worldwide audience. I am today off from work and will be watching.

Speaking of work, I’m adopting the last two infant chicks from the store’s last batch. These are from several hundred newborns packaged and shipped by a New Mexico hatchery. Such shipments to Central Oregon usually take one day, but this package became stalled in our worst-freezing recent weather because the Post Office suffered a transportation breakdown.

The package of newborns full of chicks without food and water became lost for three days. It arrived finally with many chicks dead and many others too weak to hang on.

Today, I’ll fetch the still-tiny survivors of that incredibly rough start to life. Not wanting any more chickens, I encouraged co-workers to adopt the pair. Nobody wanted them, although days in the store’s “hospital tank” helped each gain strength.

I was opposed to selling outright these still special-needs chicks. That left me as the last best hope for their continued survival.

Dear Friends: Give a little, take a little, aiming to achieve the best outcome. Diana

Monday, February 28, 2022

This morning, I’m fiddling with the capabilities of Word Press, a powerful platform. When I try becoming more creative with images and spaces, the program’s constraints often interfere. My recent hope has been to insert images of current moon states. These days, the moon in “waning crescent” approaches its monthly transition to “new moon”.

The caption line and image don’t precisely match my vision, but the program allows and links a picture to the daily moon status. So, I’ll be satisfied.

A New Moon will appear on March 2 and be fullest on the 16th. I love the moon’s predictability and dependability. Those attributes help to guide and mollify the Earth’s inhabitants.

Those thoughts fall into a category of “stress relief” lately on my mind. I find that an interest in overhead objects, their activities, and significance, or in other words sky-watching, almost erases a person’s tensions.

Speaking of tensions, this morning I’m to help open the store. So, now it’s off with me!

Dear Friends: The pandemic years have made “stress relief” a vast topic. Diana

Sunday, February 27, 2022

^{(“Cold Moon” @ “Waning Crescent”; New Moon is “Worm Moon” @ 3/1, fullest @ 3/18.)}

Yesterday, in my part-time job in the feed store, I straightened and stacked articles of wear in the store’s upscale clothing department. The Western-themed section offers items designed for men and women, ranging from jeans, jackets, and shirts to shoes, hats, and jewelry. I enjoy being there doing work that primarily involves tidying up.

My job is re-folding jeans that customers have pulled from shelves to examine or try on. The store requires folding items in specific ways to stack neatly, to look new and inviting. I’m a rather lax housekeeper at home and had anticipated that work with clothing wouldn’t appeal. But it does. I really care about how well I’m folding, stacking, and straightening.

That activity is returning me through time and space to something I don’t recall ever giving a thought to. I happen to be the daughter of a top merchandiser and salesperson. My father owned and operated several stores, a music store, a jewelry store, and a shoe store, each in individual sections of an elongated building. He passed away while I was very young, but through the years, I’ve heard relatives who once worked for him speak of my father’s excellent managing and sales skills.

That’s been an epiphany. A sudden glimmer of what charges my motivation to work with and handle for-sale clothing compulsively and correctly.

Should I postulate boldly that folding clothing might be making me discover more of myself? That it is encouraging me to re-think myself, adjust internal assessments of my capabilities?

That’s all this morning because time’s short. I’m to help open the store.

Dear Friends: It’s all fun, kind of odd-funny, and also weirdly motivating. Diana

Saturday, February 26, 2022

^{(“Cold Moon” @ “Waning Crescent”; New Moon is “Worm Moon” @ 3/1, fullest @ 3/18.)}

Our cold snap is ending, thanks to the powers that be. Recent and very low temps blew out the GFCI that controls heaters in my horses’ water troughs. The intense cold seemed too much for me to try being on my knees to work on the GFCI, so I elected multiple times daily to chop ice in the troughs. That’s been worrisome, for thick ice chunks quickly re-freeze, denying animals access to drinkable water.

Today will initiate a welcome warming trend. Speaking to weather preferences is tricky because our area desperately needs snow and rain. Preferable weather conditions are a double-edged sword. I’d less have minded last week’s extreme cold if not for the GFCI and horse-drinking worries.

I remind myself that annual very cold weather snaps usually bring unexpected problems. I remind myself that thinking ahead would be preferable to reflecting from hindsight, as now I’m doing.

To be honest, I’ve wondered about that GFCI, if it might be on the fringe after several years of operating. I’ve changed the GFCI before but it’s not a job I’m capable of completing quickly. Besides, working with bare hands in single and double-digit temps, makes fingers start to freeze and hands become intensely painful.

Before leaving for work later in the morning, maybe I will tackle the GFCI problem. A successful outcome so the horses may drink anytime would ease my mind.

The feed store where I work is expanding my retailing experience by giving me a broader range of responsibilities. Besides selling chickens and associated merchandise, I’m now assisting with sales and merchandising in the Animal Health Department, also assisting in the Clothing Department, and am a back-up cash register operator.

Those changes are making my days more interesting. The hours away from home pass quickly, and returning home always feels good.

Plus, I was included in a year-end bonus!

Dear Friends: One thing lovely about aging is the shedding of some old worries. Diana

Friday, February 25, 2022

^{(“Cold Moon” @ “Waning Crescent”; New Moon is “Worm Moon” @ 3/1, fullest @ 3/18.)}

I’m drafting for publication the story of Lisa’s unique aviary. Yesterday, I returned to gather new images and more about how she created the beautiful place.

One of my photo objectives was related to my part-time job in a feed store. Lisa purchases from the store chicken feeders and hangs them high to feed finches and canaries. Yesterday, she staged perfect shots by not feeding birds until I arrived. That let me capture the feeders loaded with birds.

Here’s another image.

The most colorful bird, second from left, is a male. So is that bird at far right. I wished for close-ups of those guys, but they’re too quick. Soon as I spotted one perched and shifted my camera, he flew. That camera can stop action, but not that of those little quickies.

Here, he looks up at a lady friend. This capture also shows decorative perches and trees inside the aviaries.

I’ll save most of the aviary story for our article, except for this irresistible nest. Lisa lowered it yesterday, showing brand-new babies moments after hatching. They’re all-skin bundles with big eyes and have sparse baby feathers sticking up. The whole sweet group is smaller than my hand.

Look closely, and you’ll see a beautiful egg, not yet hatched.

I will make a print of a “feeder with birds” image and offer it to the feed store. It perfectly demonstrates a creative way of “putting to work” a product beyond its designated purpose.

Dear Friends: So much to write about and with many delightful images. Diana

Thursday, February 24, 2022

^{(“Cold Moon” @ “Waning Crescent”; New Moon “Worm Moon” @ 3/1, fullest @ 3/1,8.)}

As of yesterday, War! In our “age of enlightenment,” and world nations sharing one planet and knowing it’s in crisis, how does anyone in “a right mind” initiate war with another country? Wars cost money and lives, utilize modern weapons to target and kill accurately. Even very-oddball leaders, like North Korea’s front-man, sputters threats and refrains from starting a significant war.

Putin is crazy, and his game is on.

I carefully selected today’s header image. It shows my dogs beside a canal, almost as pretty as an Old Master painting. It’s a peaceful scene of living and being together, suggesting what ought to be for us all.

Today, I have a day off from the feed store. I’ll draft a magazine article featuring Lisa’s aviary. I’ll take Mitzvah, my busy little J. Russell/x, for a play date with Petey, the Gilberts’ Border Terrier. And, Dang, it! I’ll change that malfunctioning GFCI letting my trough waters freeze.

Dear Friends: And like us all, hoping it’s possible to halt a madman’s dream. Diana

Wednesday, February 23, 2022

^{(“Cold Moon” @ “Waning Gibbous”; New Moon @ 3/1, “Worm Moon” fullest @ 3/18.)}

Cold yesterday! My big hen turkeys were shivering, same as me. I was trying to string a wind barrier against their exposed area. My fingers were freezing, my hands painfully numb and nearly useless. An early temperature in the high teens was cold aplenty, but with winds from the west blowing strongly, outside was sheer misery.

I have turkeys, chickens, a couple of goats, and three equines demanding care. Equines need periodic dribbles of feed, which forces me outside to provide for them. I checked their watering troughs in that early evening and found them solidly frozen. Fortunately, I was able with a hammer to break up that ice. (In the past, I’ve faced thickly-iced trough water, with my best hammering not causing a single crack.)

Out in the cold and on my knees, I bent and peered at the GFCI, finding it off. But why? In darkness and awful cold I closed my eyes and hit the “on” button. The controller clicked in, and I double-checked. It seemed working again. I looked closely at both troughs and saw their heaters creating steam.

Right then, my best choice was to leave good enough alone, return to the house, and hope the GFCI wouldn’t click off. Regardless, the horses should be okay through the night’s remaining hours.

Maybe in this cold morning, I’ll be on my knees replacing that controller.

Dear Friends: Winter harshness tests a rancher’s intelligence, strength, patience. Diana

Tuesday, February 22, 2022

^{(“Cold Moon” @ “Waning Gibbous”; New Moon @ 3/1, “Worm Moon” fullest @ 3/18.)}

The header cartoon from today’s “Economist” easily sketches me. I’m thinking and wondering. It’s a miracle if I get something constructive done. Just saying.

Yesterday at work, while stocking shelves, I heard a call over my radio to go to the cashiers. A young man with a carrier containing two baby chicks wanted to return them. His landlord refused to let him keep chickens. Of course, the tiny beings became mine.

They have overnighted in an aquarium under a heat lamp. These two don’t seem big and strong enough to join my other babies still living in a brooder. They’re about three weeks older than the newbies and very active.

It’s a little scary wondering how many chickens I might wind up with in my “Chicken Lady” stint in the feed store. I’m worried about the time and space to care correctly for them. Maybe that’s why today’s header cartoon attracted me.

Otherwise yesterday, I played sleuth. A young man entered the store’s Clothing Department wearing all black, carrying a large backpack, and with a scarf covering most of his face. He walked into an expensive boot aisle. Over my radio came a call for “extra eyes on this guy”.

The concern is a possibility of someone putting on new shoes, leaving his or her old shoes in an empty shoebox, and wearing new shoes to walk out of the store. A “look” common to potential thieves includes dark clothing with a backpack and mask.

I went into Clothing. He was deep in an aisle, pulling a box, and about to try on shoes. I grabbed a duster and entered the aisle, dusting shelves and demo shoes. He stood, trying out the new shoes, and I said, “Hey, those look great. Are they comfortable?” He was silent. I went on dusting toward his direction. Soon he returned the shoes to their box, stood, and left Clothing. He walked straight to the main exit and left the store.

It appears that collective experience teaches shopper “types” or “appearances” that suggest potential thievery. We employees are instructed, for safety, to do nothing to stop an act of theft, but instead, to gather all possible about how someone looked, their behavior, and the license number of a departure vehicle.

Dear Friends: A day of chicks and wariness, and last night of even some snow. Diana

Monday, February 21, 2022

^{(“Cold Moon” @ “Waning Gibbous”; New Moon @ 3/1, “Worm Moon” fullest @ 3/18.)}

I read national media and often worry about the environment, economy, and political world mishegoss. All those problems affect little old me in real-time here in Central Oregon. Some “whys” are emptier grocery shelves, higher prices everywhere, and drying-up, desperately needing rain in Central Oregon. Whew!

I worry about being stuck in such conditions. The popular media report on “action ways” to elevate anxious or bad moods. They recommend journaling, hiking, working out, or escaping into fiction and movies.

I have learned to elevate my worrying moods by practicing how to divert my thoughts. The bottom line is having gained more control over my brain processes.

The first step was to identify my feelings. Were they worried, sad, or simply bad moods? The second step was having an internal conversation with my brain. It went something like this: “Brain, I appreciate you. I understand your concerns about our future and negative challenges. But could we shift? Would you provide something more positive for me to think about?” I learned to “listen” for the brain’s response. It always does. A suggestion gears up my thinking and elevates my mood.

I practice often, “Having talks with my brain.” I speak with consideration, or in other words, treat myself well and anticipate kind responses. After all, my brain is me. I must practice being kind to myself.

Dear Friends: These thoughts are preliminary to an upcoming writing goal. Diana

Sunday, February 20, 2022

^{(“Cold Moon” @ “Waning Gibbous”; New Moon @ 3/1, “Worm Moon” fullest @ 3/18.)}

Yesterday the feed store where I work part-time sold the few remaining baby chickens. Many who enjoy the birds came in to purchase or simply see what’s in stock. I listened to “chicken stories” from visitors’ past and present lives through the day and shared some of my hard-earned wisdom.

It’s a non-brainer to suspect that recent pandemic years have boosted a general interest in having chickens. Folks staying home through the worst times discovered new hobbies on exploring for diversions. Many took up chicken-keeping. Some visiting the store have spoken of having beehives and how environmental circumstances make chicken-keeping easier than bee-keeping.

I’m watching my two big roosters, still getting along though sharing too few hens. My newest problem is seeing that the dominant rooster doesn’t like the two hen turkeys. He sees them as some sort of threat and gives chase. The turkeys are bigger but neither fast movers nor fighters. I love this rooster but worry that he’s begun to tread a thin line.

Ahead today, I’ll be chicken-less and focusing on the more extensive section of Animal Health. Maybe hearing customers’ stories about having horses, cattle, pigs, goats, and/or sheep. I’ll be in a listening mode and understand the role as a learning experience.

Dear Friends: This morning, just a quick hello and have a good day. Diana