Monday, September 04, 2023

Happy Labor Day!

The last few evenings while coming home from work, it’s been a delight seeing the still-fabulous Super Blue Moon, overhead and huge. Even when dusk partially has buried the Globe in clouds, Heaven’s gift to our Earth has lit my pathway.

I have today off from my part-time job. Starting tomorrow, I’ll work during earlier hours–a good thing. When I clock in during the late afternoons, I’ve already done a full day’s work at home. By store closing times, holding up my head is an effort. The other evening, I was beyond embarrassed to feel myself repeatedly nodding off during the team’s closing meeting.

Yesterday, a mailing from Home Depot announced that last June my hourly pay rose by a dollar. Nobody has mentioned that, and I never felt the increase. Many events that should be notable these days are handled very differently from my long-ago youth.

Finally, my friend, Ava, has joined the ranks of ex-Winco employees. Today, she will start on a road trip to San Antonio, where there’s a house that’s her very own. Ava’s story reveals more differences about living in these days; such as the massive obstacles and headaches associated with buying a home. Ava says she’d wish not to live in Texas, but regardless, for a hard-working, deserving person, attaining one’s own home is a great win. Yep, I’d go to Texas, too.

Dear Friends: Yesterday, HD sold lots of BBQs; have yourselves a good holiday! Diana

Sunday, September 03, 2023

Finally, my entire horse fencing is sturdy and doing its job again. The one who repaired it, Gustavo, has experience and creativity. He fixed it by re-supporting some of the sagging posts instead of pulling out and replacing every less-than-sturdy post. Broken posts and their bases buried in concrete can be very heavy for digging up and hauling out of the ground. By installing new posts to support several wobbly ones, Gustavo avoided having to dig and haul out all the bad post bottoms.

He did a great job. I like the fence’s look, and best of all, that there’s no give when I’m pushing on it. Ahead, there’s bigger testing from my horses. They lean their behinds into the fence and scratch itches. Gustavo will also renew the fence’s failed hot wiring.

Watching him work has taught me more about fencing. In the future, I won’t repeat past mistakes, as now I know how to counter some fencing wear and tear when it starts again.

Now, Pimmy’s hoof. She’s better following another veterinary visit. The doc recleaned the infected hoof, took x-rays (didn’t see anything frightening), and retaped it. We received a stretch of antibiotics and relatively easy-on-the-system pain meds. Medicating Pimmy requires preparing a complex mixture and then administering it. Pimmy is cooperating, now puts some weight on her healing foot, and walks almost normally.

Dear Friends: With fence issues off my mind, I can relax and do some gardening. Diana

Sunday, September 02, 2023

On a whim, I’m going to do something that feels special. I’ve enrolled in a Zoom class to try and learn to speak Yiddish. It was the language of my grandparents, of my father, and a secondary language for my mother and her siblings. As a child hearing it spoken, I never tried learning it. In my very early years, public notions didn’t think anything good about being an immigrant. I wasn’t encouraged to learn to speak like a Jew.

Through the years since my early days, Yiddish has become much less spoken and also less read. I’ve been aware of this, gradually understanding that I missed a grand opportunity. Learning Yiddish also would have been an opportunity to learn more about my grandparents’ early lives.

My maternal grandparents immigrated with their small children from Odessa, Russia. I’ve always been interested in what their “early Odesa” might have been like; I’ve always wished to visit contemporary Odesa (pre-Ukraine war). The current war especially has put these feelings more on my mind.

Maybe it was no whim that motivated me to enroll in the Yiddish class. Maybe it was more about trying to realize some long-held wishes. It’s a complicated mix of past and present.

I can’t think more about that now, for Gustavo is arriving soon. He will finish repairing my horse fencing, and I must help him. But stay tuned, for soon the learning will begin.

Dear Friends: A challenge for a “no other languages” type who speaks only English. Diana

Friday, September 01, 2023

Last year, for months, I worked at Winco as a cashier. That’s where Ava and I became friends. She had been working at that cut-rate supermarket for years and helped me know how to perform my role more effectively. All her co-workers trusted her as our go-to for advice.

Last fall, I quit working at Winco, and suddenly, for reasons I can’t fully understand, except that occasionally, I can become sort of a drop-out. Afterward, I stayed home, concentrating on property and animals. Months passed before I sought outside work again.

Back then and feeling guilty about quitting my job suddenly, I avoided shopping in Winco and lost touch with folks working there who had become friends. Including Ava.

Weeks ago, a chance meeting in Home Depot with Stacy, another friend from my Winco days, blew open my resistance to returning to Winco. I began shopping there and swapping greetings with acquaintances.

A couple of days ago, Stacy texted me that Ava was leaving soon and moving to Texas. I barely could absorb that because Ava has been a staple–besides Winco, she’s very close to her sisters who live here. Plus, her daughter frequently travels here to visit Ava.

What I appreciate about Ava, besides her intelligence and dedicated work ethic, is that she’s highly relationship-oriented, in other words, she’s a real friend. Stacy’s texts explained that Winco is in a state of chaos over Ava’s leaving. Here’s a funny thing, I am, too.

Yesterday, we met, and Ava explained why she’s moving. Her daughter has just closed on the purchase of a house which was affordable and is for Ava. It’s located in San Antonio, where Ava’s son and his child live. Her son is a working single parent, and Ava will assist him with her eight-year-old grandson.

She was edgy because of tasks she must complete before departing next week. Her sisters will join her on the drive to Texas and stay there a while to help arrange the new household.

Like many others, I’ll miss her. A good thing is that Ava follows this blog, so, we will stay in touch.

Bon voyage, Ava. I’m thrilled that you will have a house. I hope we may meet and catch up again when you’re here to visit your sisters.

Dear Friends: The great co-workers at Winco make me feel sorry I left. Diana

Thursday, August 31, 2023

Yesterday, your Moonchasers returned to their business of capturing the biggest and best full moon risings. We were working with new cameras and had too little practice using them, so couldn’t capture accurately the whole show as we had planned.

Nonetheless, a show it was! This year’s rising Super Blue Moon made a beautiful appearance while rising above the dark horizon of Horse Ridge. We were parked out on the desert side, east of town, in near-darkness where we could see the lengthy dark Ridge, and practiced with our cameras while waiting for that special moon’s earliest glow.

It didn’t disappoint. Susie has great sky sense and was quickest to spot an emerging light. And we watched, awed, as the oversized globe rose and brightened a great darkness. Susie quickly spotted Saturn above the moon, dimly apparent to the naked eye. We took pictures and peered through binoculars. And then, we sat and watched the moon’s ascent while talking and catching up with each other.

We exchanged happenings in our little worlds and in the shared larger world. I began thinking of not having fully appreciated why the moon offers inspiration and reassurance. Its darkness-breaking appearances certainly touch our most inner-human selves, relating us to all humans since before time immemorial. We’re affected by a new light and a sense of renewed hope.

As we chatted, I dreamed more contemporarily about the moon’s impact on us humans. Maybe its power is because it has constant behaviors–routine and predictable. That’s completely the opposite of Earth’s current social, economic, and political turmoils.

The moon is a visual icon of genuine dependability, with a constancy that reassures a larger universe with genuine order. Despite today’s confusing world, we can become soothed by reminders that orderly behaviors and processes exist.

About today’s header photo, it’s a hint. I’ve not yet had time to download all our photos. More will come.

Dear Friends: September’s wonderful Harvest Moon will send us chasing. Diana

Wednesday, August 30, 2023

This evening, moon-chasing friends Susie and I will be chasing the Earth’s current and larger-than-usual Super Blue Moon. We will be waiting in darkness on the city’s desert side to witness the very first moments of gorgeous moonrise. This rare and beautiful moon should produce magnificent and thrilling first lights.

Much information is easily available about blue moons, which aren’t really blue, and here I will skip those details. They’re interesting, though, and more understanding of them increases the beauty of seeing this moon.

What’s not so easily understood is all the excitement a moon’s first light can generate. Susie and I have often waited in dusk or full darkness to see a moon’s first rise. The light-breaking experience is a phenomenon that has thrilled humans since time immemorial. To me, it’s about a dawning light bringing together a new day and renewed hope. That strong sense of a “newness of it all” has drawn us to many rising moons.

As it will this evening. Susie’s technical bent will have determined our best-sighting location and will have rise-timing down pat. I’ll carry a camera for adding pictures tomorrow.

Dear Friends: Just beyond the city lights, a genuine light show can delight you. Diana

Tuesday, August 29, 2023

This day off from my outside job should be productive at home. Gustavo will arrive to complete the “broken fence posts” project. He also will install a pole light beside the house. Mike Holmes will be here, too, and will wire a starter button onto the tractor. What’s not finishable today could be re-addressed tomorrow, also a day off for me.

Pimmy’s infected hoof doesn’t seem to be improving. She’s still moving painfully. I’ve soaked and re-medicated the hoof and replaced its dressings, and by now, she shouldn’t feel much pain, if any. She is receiving half-doses of a pain medication that tends to be hard on an equine’s system. She can’t be hauled to Bend Equine because entering the trailer requires her to jump and put weight on the sore front hoof. So, a vet will come here Thursday morning and reassess the hoof.

It’s almost seven a.m., and Gustavo is on his way here. I must run out, feed animals, and be there to help organize him.

Dear Friends: Sightings of our current fabulous moon generate refreshed hope. Diana

Monday, August 28, 2023

I worked a late shift yesterday and left the store in darkness. Except that the sky was alight with an almost full moon. Did you see that moon! If so, keep watching, and if not, start watching. The Globe will become full, and in just a few more evenings, rise as a Super Blue Moon. Unfortunately, it’s destined to be Earth’s last Blue Moon until another 14 years pass.

Early this morning the almost full moon was a single visible object in the smoke-filled and overwhelmingly hazy air. To the west of us and nearby, there’s a wildfire blazing. For miles around, its heavy smoke has created unhealthy air.

Right now, we need this Super Blue Moon! Despite what’s happening with the Earth’s increasingly concerning social environment, our dependable little planet routinely and dependably does its stuff. Since time immemorial, that steadfastly behaving moon has offered its watchers inspiration and optimism.

Dear Friends: Enormous issues right now: climate, weapons control, and diversity. Diana

Sunday, August 27, 2023

Yesterday, I went out to purchase tiny baby diapers for newborns. They’re for protecting my donkey’s injured hoof–bandage-like–after it’s been soaked and medicated. I was shopping in a supermarket where I know some of its cashiers, and as anticipated got teased about being pregnant.

I’ve learned that covering a hoof with a diaper and taping it to dress an injury is easier than working with cotton. With cotton, one unrolls, cuts, and holds together its ends while simultaneously unrolling stocky tape and wrapping it around the cotton. Whoever got the notion of using a diaper instead deserves accolades.

Yesterday afternoon while Pimmy walked she looked better. She was putting more weight on the sad hoof, which in several days should be fine again. Nonetheless, that hoof has allowed for abscessing, and I must find out why. Hopefully, it’s a treatable condition.

Now’s the time to revisit my old standbys: broken fence posts, leaks in the septic system, and etc.

Dear Friends: Yes, and, at least, I’m not pregnant. Diana

Saturday, August 26, 2023

The equine veterinarian who came yesterday to examine Pimmy’s hoof described the donkey as a “perfect patient.” No surprise to me, for otherwise, I’d have stayed home instead of being away at work during the vet’s “farm call.”

As I suspected, Pimmy’s foot was abscessed. The vet said the abscess was very deep, and opening it released more fluid than is typical. Pimmy has lived with me for many years without any visible hoof problems until now because this abscess is her second in two years. Perhaps Pimmy has contracted a hoof disease and become more vulnerable to abscesses.

Those who’ve not had equines probably know very little about hoofs. They are actually very sensitive and complex structures. When I began with horses, I visualized hooves about the same as wooden blocks. In something less than a heartbeat, however, I learned that the health of its hooves either makes or breaks an animal.

Pimmy’s veterinarian said the abscess was located very close to the hoof’s “white line” and that Pimmy might have a “white line disease.” I’m unfamiliar with this disease and will research it. I hope a disease isn’t an underlying problem but, if so, that it’s treatable.

Meanwhile, the sore hoof is medicated and wrapped, and she’s receiving painkillers. Last night, she hobbled more willingly to feedings, and she had an appetite. Over the next few days, I will soak her hoof, re-medicate, and re-wrap it until she’s walking normally again.

If anybody wonders, Pimmy is about twenty years old. Generally, a donkey that’s well-cared for can live for around forty years.

Dear Friends: Thanks for sharing my distress and concerns for a sweet pet. Diana