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No man is free who is not master of himself.
-- Epictetus
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Pretty simple really... Two sticks of butter, a little over a cup of honey, some cinnamon, and some vanilla. Heat, stir. Pour over oats and slivered almonds and mix thoroughly. Spread out the wax paper, heat the oven to 250, and bake, stirring it up occasionally until golden brown - not dark. Remove, then cool. Mix it with your favorite dried fruit: coconut, craisins, raisins, dried apples, whatever...  It's good :) |
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A Story of a Pitchfork and Health Insurance |
About six weeks ago when I first started the garden, I was using Patti's old rusted pitchfork and bent one of the tines. In an effort to bend it back, my hand slipped and I stuck the bent tine into my left shin. Probably went in about two inches. We cleaned it up aggressively, but there was no way to clean it out completely. I knew at the time that I needed a tetanus shot. No way I could avoid that. But since my divorce, I haven't had health insurance. (Quick sidebar: originally, when quoted last year on the cost of COBRA, a figure of $500 a month was given. Thanks to Obamacare's regulations and price increases, that figure became $1,000 a month in February. Plus, it came with a $3,000 deductible. Too much money.) Patti told me that Walgreens, here in Texas, allows you to visit their walk-in clinics and that it's much cheaper. The pharmacist herself gave me my booster shot and it was a grand total of $63. That's affordable. But since that time, it's been a struggle to figure out the best way to allow the inevitable infections to seep out. Blood poisoning was always a possibility. Kind of a mess. This is me today, almost healed.  About two weeks into it, a second swelling started to emerge, about where the tip of the tine was. The infection broke the skin and since that time, I've had two open sores. Both have steadily weeped out the guk, and Patti was intuitive about how to treat it, keeping both sores soft and open, covered with Neosporin and band-aids. If I didn't allow them to be soft and open, they would get real angry looking and swollen. So soft and open it is. Been a weird journey, but I'm reminded that I'm older and not as quick to heal as I once was. |
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 I'm starting to have increasing conversations with other vendors in industry niches who see the benefit of 247Toolset's capabilities to integrate with their product. I have another one on Monday.
One foot in front of the other... |
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Orange Guard and Boiling Ants |
Garden update: after spreading ant killer over the rest of the yard, the ants - those that remain - are trying to take up residence in the garden itself. I bought Orange Guard, which is an organic/garden-safe ant killer/repellent. I've discovered that it does kill some ants, but not all of them. The rest simply move away. They don't like Orange Guard's residue. Once they're away from the plants themselves, I pour boiling water on the ant hill, and that kills them in a non-toxic way. The boiling water would, of course, kill the plants, so using Orange Guard to send them to the garden's edge allows me to kill the others safely. Gardening is pretty much daily work, doing this. But it's worth it. My tomatoes are over the size of a quarter now and the peas are about to bloom. |
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 We went to get some potting soil today and planted more tomatoes into starter pots. Put more peas, beans, lettuce, carrots, and onion in the ground. The entire list of what's planted: - Peas
- Beans
- Tomatoes
- Onion
- Red Peppers
- Carrots
- Spinach
- Lettuce
- Cucumber
- Watermelon
- Cantaloupe
- Sugar Pumpkin
So far, we haven't had luck with the spinach or the beans, but everything else is on its way.When I buy the island one day, I will look forward to getting the garden started there. Patti and I love to garden. It's fun to watch everything come up... P.S. Pouring boiling water on fire ants that want to set up shop in your soft garden dirt is fun. |
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I now live with Patti, and we have a yard. Texas grass is quite different than Iowa grass. St. Augustine must be royally pissed because this low-lying, tendril-oriented grass (weed) is named after him. "Why not a flower?" he must wonder...  Anyway, it's stiff and tough. So after some research, I bought a different kind of mower.  It's made by Fiskars. It's a push mower, with no gas or oil. And even on St. Augustine's coarse lawn scruff, it does a great job. It's even fun to use. For $200, it's money well-spent. Between that and my bike, I am oh so environmentally friendly. Today has been a good client day, aka income-preservation day. A client who uses 247Toolset gave some incredible feedback on volunteer shift management, which I will incorporate this weekend. And another client saw a proof of concept in the way that data is stored and displayed that will speed up everything to their expectations. Last year sucked for income. This year is much better. One foot in front of the other... You know, I could have just opted for a 9-5 job with fixed income. I tried insurance, which was kind of a mixture of DIY and regular job, but I do what I do because it's what I do best, and now a whole bunch of opportunities avail themselves. I believe in myself. I know what I can do. Luckily, I'm with a woman who deeply believes in me as well, and because I have her full-throated and full-bodied support, it's helping me to excel at what I do. Patti told me that she would rather live out of a back seat with me in pursuit of my dreams than live in a mansion with me miserable in a regular job. Thankfully, she'll never have to test the former scenario, but she is firmly latched onto me, for better or worse. She would never want her comfort at the expense of my happiness. I love her for that. The whole premise of Seeing is that you see a person for exactly who they are and you accept them for exactly who they are - otherwise, it's critical to see that the relationship is not a fit. If it is truly a fit, you respect who they are by not wanting to change them or make them into something they aren't. She doesn't want to change me. Not one iota. I hum while I work and dance goofy and order strange things, like the mower. And she sends me texts like these:  I am valued for who I am. Amazing... When I was looking into a mower, I showed her the Fiskars and asked her thoughts. "Are you sure it will handle the grass?"
"I read a testimonial that says it will. If it doesn't, we can return it."
She smiled warmly and confidently, and said, "Go for it, babe." And that was it. The mower came, I tried it, it worked, and she told me later that despite her doubts that a manual push mower would work, it did, and she was glad that it did. That's easy. No fighting, no argument. We hear each other and allow each other space to be ourselves fully, and even that is without effort. I looked at her last week and told her that for the first time in my life, I feel like I could trade places with a woman and the treatment and sentiments we share wouldn't change. I can be me. She can be her. We love equally. It makes me crave her all the mower :) |
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If he's good enough to marry, he'll almost certainly not still be around when you're ready to make that leap. The same is true about women as well. I'm amazed that Patti wasn't scooped up, but then I told her that on the first night I met her. Which reminds me of this. "A good man is hard to find, not hard to keep." Paraphrased: if he's good enough to marry, and you do, he'll be happy to stick around if you treat him well. As Penelope says, "Everyone has a breaking point, and considering how basic and few a good man's needs are, it's really not that hard to keep him happy and home." Amen. ETC: Further down in the comments, this gem: You should only take a feminist advice as to what type of cat to buy.Also vibrators. Ain't that the truth. After all, as Gloria Steinem said, "A woman needs a man like a fish needs a bicycle." Unless she expects the bicycle to fertilize her eggs. Or cuddle with her. Or tell her that she's beautiful. Or surprise her with her favorite treat after a trip to the store. Or quietly listen to her vent about work. Or love her children from a previous relationship like they are his very own.Feminists are idiots. Great relationships are precious and shouldn't be taken for granted. By a man or woman. |
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Learning to Grow in Texas |
Gardening in Texas is not like gardening in Iowa. But I'm figuring it out. For one, fire ants. Evidently, they like the loose dirt I created in the garden beds. Thankfully, there are two ways to get rid of them organically: 1) Boiling water
2) This stuff So it takes a bit more effort down south, but I suppose the reward is that my tomato plants are a foot tall in this warm weather. Two new plants are emerging:  Cantaloupe  Cucumber To get the yard as rid of these loathsome creatures as can be, Patti and I worked on the yard tonight, to spread anti-ant pellets and also something called Weed and Feed. Patti explained that this chases the ants into other yards. Good riddance, and tonight's solid rainfall is helping to activate the pellets. Suh-weet :) Also, got my first sale today for the text timesheet feature of 247Toolset - a multi-state environmental cleanup firm. Very cool. Let's see how quickly these can line up. |
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