Me at my house this week

[If some photos are sideways, click here for an archived original.]

---

I hardly have any kids, though I talk to them a lot. Marty's here but hangs out with Ashlee and plays video games and music, and isn't the most talkative of the group. I do hear from Holly a time or two every three days or two. Kirby, every couple of days. But as to obligations, it's mostly just me and Keith, and I'm gimpy.

Here's our cat Mina, who came to live with us in May and used to hide. Now she will climb on people, and lie between me and the computer and purr and groom me. She chews my hair. Both cats go all over the house now, though the pre-existing cats disapprove. The new cats will be in the same room with Gudrun (the dog) now, and Gudrun was on the couch in the library yesterday, sleeping. They didn't used to let her in there.
Some of these photos were taken with Holly in mind. Here's the very end of that months-blooming false sea onion:



Then I took the plant and divided all the bulbs and they lived in water for a few days and now they're all transplanted into various pots, and I've put the "mama plant" back in the kitchen, but noticed just as I went to hang it up that it's... ...starting another bloom stem.

Keith's brother retired from his job with the navy and now he works at WalMart. He brought us a shelf from the garden department, that they rejected for being too ratty. It's getting cold outside, and I'm starting to move plants in that have been out all summer. Some don't look so good. No doubt the shelf will fill up and those plants with the capability to entangle themselves in the expanded steel will do so. It's fun to have, though.
Holly, remember those big white signs in the windows at Kinko's that said "We Mean Business" but we used to see them right to left when we came around the corner? That's them, in the pile to the left. I'm using them to put on either side of copies of the Big Book of Unschooling. I went to Kinko's looking for cardboard to cut up for that purpose and found those three huge foam-core boards in the dumpster. Keith helped cut them up.

And there's my WWII paper cutter, which I was given as surplus when I was working at Española Jr. High in the 1970's.

That table is what used to be in the sunroom where the big shelf rack is. The baskets were bought after Easter, at various thrift stores, for use for kindling at the Unschooling Symposium in Santa Fe. Had I waited until winter, they'd've been real money, but after Easter, they were fifty cents or a dollar. We'll take them in the trailer to Santa Fe, and then bring back extra firewood (if any). We're ordering a cord of stovewood for use of conference attendees. Each condo has a fireplace or wood heater.




This is how I'm remembering whether I've taken the etodolac (anti-inflammatory pills I'm to take with food morning and evening). Marty has noticed twice when I missed one, and I appreciate that. This is the third week's worth I've taped up there. Nice system for me. I'm using old envelopes which I sealed and then cut in half with the afore-featured paper cutter, and then mark them, put one pill in each, and tape them shut with box tape. Tadaa! They're taped either left, right or middle so they can be staggered and tape isn't on tape. The kitchen cabinet doors are old and ratty and the tape isn't hurting them anyway. That's about all the news here, except that I've sent copies of The Big Book to New Zealand (today) in addition to the exotic other places from before: Scotland, England, Wales, Denmark, The Netherlands, Switzerland, South Africa, New Zealand, Australia and India. There have been a few dozen to the U.S. and Canada, but they're not as exotic, from here. 🙂 There was a really sweet review of it that included this: "It is a household necessity. Like a toothbrush! Or a flashlight! Yes, it’s just like those two things, because you need it during ordinary times and during emergencies." (It's longer, and here.)