Gladiola, Carts & Horses, and Pissing in Cheerios, & Tor (Issue 109)
Yeah, how's that for a collective title? They keep getting more interesting!
Gladiola’s new website page is here! I was told by my neighbor when we moved in this house in 1986 that the original owner, Mr. Lincecum, always planted a huge patch of Gladiola where our back patio is now. He would faithfully dig them up every year and replant them the next. I have had a desire to continue on his tradition by having some in the gardens somewhere as well. When I learned I did not have to dig them up in recent years, I was so glad for the gladiolas!
Are you as excited as I am? My website pages started by following my written journal pages. In sequential order from 1 to 103, there remains only 3 pages not finalized, but I am waiting for those to bloom (mums & sedums in the Autumn). I have come a long way last year and this year in building these website pages. I have 127 pages designated with what goes on each page and 107 pages completed! Wow!
Here is the YouTube video. After I filmed this, some others bloomed with a beautiful range of pinks and peaches, along with white, and I was pleased with the colors I had planted.
Here is our camper update and another sneak peak photo. The table folds down into a second bed. We have new flooring and a new ceiling. We took it to the shop this weekend because we are concerned about safety since it was squeeking when it rolled. The wheel bearings, axel, and leaf springs are fine. They were greased and/or oiled, and we greased the ball as well, and the squeeking is gone. Awesomeness! Progress! We needed new tires because the inside had dry rot, even though the treads were good. All is good with the trailer.
We took it out for another practice of backing it up and I was giving myself a pat on the back for the improvement after only a second quick practice. I think I can back it up straight. I still cannot back and turn though. With enough willpower, we can get this.
The bad news is that we still have the bouncing and rocking, which also rocks the truck and makes us sick to our stomachs. It does alright on flat roads and highways, but these bad, lumpy city streets are horrendous. A kind neighbor hooked it up to his bigger vehicle and it was taken for a spin with no problems. So the problem is our truck. Sigh. Every single person we meet who has experience with campers says my truck should be fine, but it is not. The engine is strong enough, but the size of the truck with weight distribution is not. We learned a new word today: porpoising. That is apparently what it is doing. We have been learning a lot about a lot of things.
Now we are left with a few options. There is an upgrade to the truck, but we learned today it costs more than the camper! We really do not want to invest that kind of money in our truck. So we are left with either getting a bigger truck or selling the camper. We haven’t even used the camper. Plus, I am reminded that the very first question I had before buying this was whether or not my truck could pull it. We looked into all the specs and are able to pull many thousands of pounds more than this camper. All the opinions said ‘yes.’ So we did.
It was brought to my mind today:
Do not put the cart before the horse.
Yeah. I am guilty of thinking to much. And that old adage just popped into my head. It seems a John Heywood first said that around 1589, but Shakespear popularized it.
Photo credit. We should be doing things in the proper order. We all know that. To do things in the wrong order is disasterous. We now have a cart, but we have no horse to pull it. Then again, in the above photo, the horse is pushing the cart that is before it. Ah! They made it work! I have to laugh at the “comin or goin’” on the side of the cart. I often do not know if I am coming or going. Mostly I bounce around like a pinball.
Some folks giving advice tell me to sell it. I remind myself it would be good to have a reset. Others say to “make it happen.” I have no idea where our adventure will take us, whether we get it off the ground and fly or give up and let it go. Part of me says we deserve to have fun. I am often weary of watching everyone else have good times and I wonder how they can even afford it. We do have some mini-fun, but I tell you it has always been a very conservative adventure. We are not getting any younger and there is only so much time left before our bodies deteriorate more. Do it now or never do it. Part of me says keep living your wise life and live within your means. Which part of me will win out?
I was having a rough day yesterday. It actually started the night before. Very early in the morning at 7 a.m. a beautiful vase of flowers arrived on my doorstep with a card. I could not have had a better pick-me-up and thoughtful care than what was written inside: Do not let protocol piss in your cheerios! I am certainly going to pass that on to someone else in the future. They do say we should pass our blessing on, right?
Protocol: the official procedure or system of rules governing affairs. I had been calling it bureaucracy: a body of non-elected officials. More specifically, I have been dealing with what I called “a liason to a bureaucracy.” I’ve reached the end of my rope. The rope holding my emotions in place broke and down I went.
No details here, but I say that to say this:
Have you ever had one of those moments when someone says something to you and it clicks to totally apply to another thing going on in your life? That happened to me today.
This is all disconjointed, but bear with me. Tomorrow they are going to start digging up my yard to put in a new water line. If you have been following my posts, you know I am very much done with piles of dirt after our 7 months digging and installing drainage pipes. Well, more dirt is coming. Tomorrow. And a lot of it. Oh Joy.
I was talking to someone about the new water lines and in his thought process he said:
The microorganisms of government do not care who they mistreat.
Oh man! Now that just sums up this other thing I am dealing with! Sometimes coincidence seems a little to well timed! It makes me wonder if God was not helping my thought process along. He was talking about one topic in my life and it totally applied to the other topic in my life. I was letting him know he was quotable!
I think by ‘microorganisms’ he meant ‘micro-organization,’ although both words get the point across. That is, the small groups organized under the authorities above them do not care who they mistreat. They are so small of a detail that they are not seen, which leads to them to just doing their job and caring little the consequences they befall onto others.
I had just said yesterday that this ‘liason to a bureaucracy’ was mistreating me in that they did not care about the amount of volunteer time was being put forth by all. I made a list of all of the things I could have been doing in the alternative with my time spent on this project. I can only imagine the amount of good that could have been done by all involved if their time were better applied. It’s been such a waste of time. to sum it up, my kindness of respecting authority was taken advantage of and abused.
I liken it to a conveyor belt wherein the first micro-ette mistreated the object rolling along, and it did not seem so bad of an injury. Then the next micro-ette mistreats the object, and does not take on blame because its part was so small. Then the next micro-ette takes another jab, but its mistreatment is so insigificant it does not really matter. And continuing rolling along, the object takes on so much mistreatment that collectively it ends up broken. The micro-ettes may not even realize they are doing damage.
The the thought comes to mind: have I ever been an oblivious micro-ette not caring about how someone is mistreated? Probably. But I wouldn’t know because I was oblivious! Ah! It is always a good prayer to say, “Lord, open my eyes. Let me see as you see it.”
While looking up a synonym I saw that this was the word of the day. It also is appropriately applied. Some protocols and the people who instill and enforce them have become exhausted and alseep. Someone needs to wake them up.
Yeah, it also applies to my need to sleep. This writer is a walking tired person who is always feeling zonked.
Malwarebytes put out this in their email. Inquiring minds want to know.
Oh, here it is: https://www.torproject.org .
I just learned something. It’s a browser I can download. Do I really want to? Maybe not.
But I do like to pass on techy stuff when I learn. Is it really that simple? You know curiosity killed the cat, or so some saying says that, whatever it means.
If you read this far, then kudos to you. I never expect people to read my thoughts and words, and yet somehow there is also at least one person who comes back and lets me know they actually did read it. It blows my mind that anyone would want to read what I have to right.
Is that you?
Cheryl
I often don't read every word you write, but I scan what you have written when it is longer.
The fluffy gladiolus flower has such a fairy-tale vibe. It's super light-hearted.
Would leasing a large truck to hook up the camper be an option?