Milestones and Understatements

Let's start with the latter... I'm tired. But to say I'm just tired is an understatement of epic proportions. I've had two hours of sleep in the last 28 hours. I'll survive, but I thought in case this post got a little... side tracked, I would put that out there.

Now, for the milestone. Somewhere in the last few weeks when I have been distracted from blogging, I passed 10000 views. I know, in the grand scheme of the great blogs, this isn't much, but it's a milestone to me and my little blog.

With the official stuff out of the way, let's move on to the other stuff. I don't have a lot of other stuff to truly share with you. I have once again been buried in work so I have had little interaction out there in the real world with people that actually breath and speak. And since I normally get my stories from them, I don't have a good one for you. I have some truly funny works stories from the week but I don't do that. One, I could get fired, and two, I just can't break my own morals enough to do that. People call me when they need help, and not matter how ridiculous I may find their positions, it's not right to kick them when they're down. When I need to do that I go check out fail army. Hey, we all have our failings, and I love to watch people hurt themselves.

I know I stated before that I have been lacking photos as of late, so I tried snapping a few for us this afternoon. Sorry, being tired I did a crappy job with lighting and cropping them for posting. Oh well...

This week Shiela once again did what she wanted. It pays to be a 17 year old bitch of the highest order.

I have still not gotten the bill from the electrician for the work they did bringing our meter and fuse box up to code so that we could have out power turned off. To be honest, I am kind of okay with that. It's hard to keep my head in the sand with the numbers right in front of me on a nicely formatted bill.

I snapped some pictures of our damage.

Both of our cottonwoods lost over half of their canopies.

The one in the back still has a lot of dead fall caught in the beaches. Let's hope when the winter winds finally clear some of it, it doesn't do a lot of damage on the way down. Most of that lower canopy to the right is actually the apple tree that faired amazingly well for the cottonwood dropping large limbs into it.

I finally got a picture of the finished cotton/linen scarf that has been done for a while now. I still need to do some trimming but otherwise it's finished.

As you can see here with some of this months fiber club, I have not re-raked the lawns for what has fallen this week.This fiber is a 100% Blue Faced Leicester combed top that I am about half way done spinning. Yes yes, for those that have seen me work on it, I am no further than I was last week. Remember that busy part? Yeah, wasn't joking.

Then there is one of favorites I have ever gotten from Huckleberry. Beachcombing. I did it as a three ply crepe and ended up with about 116 yards of DK to worsted weight yarn. I love the colors here. It is a 60% Polwarth wool and 40% silk. It was lovely to spin.

And then there was "The Soft Dying Day". This is another of those that I would never have put these colors together yet they are beautiful when it is all spun up. This fiber is 100% Falkland with about 200 yards in a Worsted weight 2 ply. I am always amazed at the eye for color some people have.

I have been trying to spin a little bit larger. I realize now why I don't prefer too. Only getting about 116 yards out of such wonderful fiber makes me sad.

Unlike these two that I finally got wrapped up. Both skeins are a fingering weight and almost 400 yards apiece of a Merino/Silk/Bamboo mix. The fiber was lovely to work with. I will definetly order from Wooly's again.

But, back trees, I forgot to discuss the real sadness. Remember my beautiful Purple robe Locust that grew so much this year? Well, the cottonwood coming don broke it good

See?

The top is gone and it split the truck down the middle. We'll see what comes in the spring, but considering all of our troubles getting these ones established, this was a bit of a heart brake.

Okay, I am at that state where I am so tired I'm freezing because my body has given up the effort of staying warm, so I am off to bed with the furry beasts and the electric mattress pad. Have a good night all.

Oh, really quick before I forget, you ravelry members out there, we have a new group called the Wyoming Fiber Skeinks if you are interested in joining. We're just a group of Wyomingite Fiber lovers of all kinds.

It's about time

I just got in from working on cleaning up the yard some more before the next storm moves in tomorrow and makes another mess of it all. As I was raking up the last bag worth I was thinking to myself, "You know, you really should get a blog post up tonight."

And since I'm not working tonight, here I am, sitting at the computer writing this to you all. I hope those that have been bugging me are grateful. I myself am hopeful to peruse some of the blogs I have lost contact with over this unintentional break from the modern world. I promise, no politics. I just don't have the stomach for it today.

So, what's been going on in our world here you might ask? Well, we fostered this silly mutt in a last minute move to keep him from being euthanized at the shelter.

He was supposed to be a troubled young soul, but he was a breeze. His name is Bob, and he was a sweet heart. He just went to a new home today and I already kind of miss this one. If I had room for another he would have made the short list for sure, and not many of the fosters do. I love them all, but when they go to a new home it's always a happy day, with a relaxed evening following it. Even my dogs seem to take a breath after a foster leaves.

But Bob here, was a special one. He was in bad shape when he came here. It's hard to see because of his fluffy coat but he was skinny. We got a few pounds on him before he left. He's the only foster dog that has come to us knowing the joys of belly rubs and not having to learn the joy while living here. Someone cared for him and did some training with him. It's a shame he ended up at the pound in the shape he was in, but I'm glad we got the silly boy to a new home.

As I was heading to pick his happy butt up from the pound I got hit by a truck.

My poor little soul has about 4,000.00 in damage. She is going into the shop tomorrow to get the work done on her. The night after we got the first of our two storms. When I got up I found this in the front yard.

I thought about moving the car then thought, "Maybe the next one will total the vehicle and then I can get a new one."  It didn't work.

As you can see the storm caught us with leaves still on the trees. That is what wreaked havoc and took out the power through the area. We fiinally got ours back on Thursday evening about 7 or 8 while I was at work. That left us without power just about 7 hours shy of a full week. We now have our fuse box and meter up to code. Thursday they were here all day working on it before we could get the power company out to hook us up. I got about 45 minutes sleep that day before having to go into work... Because my stress level wasn't high enough lately. I ended up being sent home because as the lead stated, "I can see the tired all over you."

Today as I was doing some more raking and running of the chainsaw to add to the fire wood pile we depleted heating the house this last week, I found this.

I thought it was kind of cool. It looks like an oak leaf in a cottonwood leaf. It's what got me thinking that I needed to make a blog post actually. What few posts I have had lately have been high on my own lofty opinions (well, maybe some of my opinions are more... shall we say, earthy. But we shall not discuss that at this time), and very low on photo content. For that I apologize and am going to try to work on.

Through all this, the dogs have been a bit stressed. The poor old girl with the rickety joints did not fair well without her heated beds and warm house. She is loosening back up over the last couple days though. Sullivan and his feline buddy Smudge were often caught near one another for comfort and warmth.

Of course they moved when his head was next to hers on the chair and they were nuzzling one another like eskimo kisses. Brats. You don't think of Great; well, mediocre Danes being cold but he doesn't have a lot of insulation and a short coat so he was often covered up by that green blanket at night when the fire would get low.

The Guy said the night the power came on they all seemed to sleep like rocks and were sluggish in the morning which is unusual for the pack. They are typically up and raring for breakfast and the morning walk by 4.

The chainsaw freaks them out a little bit too and we've been wielding it frequently over the last several days. I think we are going to need to get a new chain on it after all the use it's been seeing, or at the least sharpen the one that is on it. On Tuesday as I was running loads from our yard and the neighbors to the dump areas, I was loading the kids up one by one on each trip as I went. I realized we had never taken Sullivan the big guy in the pick up for a ride. And I now know why. A small truck cab and a Mediocre Dane... Brings a whole new meaning to whiplash, and I don't mean the neck injury. That tail to the head hurts!

As for my fiber crafts, very little has gotten done. When home I have been working on the clean up process when it's light out, and without power, when it's dark it's really dark.  I did get a little spinning done by firelight.

Not much, Just enough to keep the fingers nimble.

Knitting has been at a stand still and since I got the cotton/linen scarf off the loom I have not had the time to re-warp her. I am also kind of waiting on the last of a yarn/supply order to come in to. I have a project that requires those last parts that I am itching to do.

Well, that's about all I have at the moment. I need to go find something to do to keep my eyelids open just a bit longer tonight. My two hour nap when I got home this morning from work before taking Bob to meet his new family is wearing a bit thin. Hope you all have a great night.

Q

And there was light

From a bulb that is... Meaning I have power! But now I have to get ready to work so I'll catch up more later. Have a good night everyone.

As Far As Excuses Go...

It's a good one. We still have no power. I sit here tonight in a coffee shop charging my phone and realize I should say something on my blog. I'm not so upset at the government shut down I am striking from blogging. I can't physically blog. No electricity means no computer, which means no internet and since I am saving cell juice in case I have a true emergency... It's a blog shut down for now.

I hope we have power back on before the weather gets cold again since we are currently heating the house with the fireplace and eating hot meals out and getting hot showers at the gym. It's gotten old, really fast. And dammit, I have a lot of other peoples blogs to catch up on! Anyway, to the gym with me so I can shower off the stink I made hauling branches from ours and our neighbors yards to the dump.  Someday, I shall have electricity again.

Be safe!

And Now I'm Mad

I had a lot of comments and emails regarding my last posts. Some who agreed, some who didn't, and it's all okay. I find it funny that those that didn't agree chose to email me only, but that's for another day.

Mainly, I was kind of shocked about how many people stated it was a rant on my part. I didn't feel like it was a rant, and believe me, I know how to rant. But when I wrote that I can't even say that I was angry. I was dismayed by our governments actions. I was frustrated. But not ranting, slobbering, fist shaking mad, and I apologize if it read that way. But after watching the news tonight, I'm down right pissed.

I know! Why did I watch the news? I know better than that. It always just gets me going. And what exactly got me going?

This.

Sorry, I couldn't figure out how to embed the video.

That's right, that's one of our members of Congress trying to hold a Park Ranger responsible for the actions of the Government. You know, the one he is part of and that she is sworn to uphold the decisions of? Yeah, it's all her fault. Not his. Not at all.

Okay, so I've been trying to keep my mouth shut about all this. And it's been hard. All week I've been in a room of fairly mouthy opinionated people who's political views don't mesh with mine. And I've been good. I've been downright angelic sitting there with my mouth shut. But I can't keep it shut after watching an attack like that on someone who was not part of that decision process by someone who is an active member of that decision making process.

And my response is? Mr Neugebauer, Shut up. And no, it's not Congressman Neugebauer, because your fired. You failed to do your job, again. That equals, you're done. Pack your bags, go home, and by the way, you can pay for that ticket. Buh bye...

And that goes for all of them. If I were to not do my job over and over again meanwhile pointing at someone else and saying, "It's their fault." I would fully expect to be fired. I think it's time that they are held to that. No impeachment, that will cost us money. Just pack your bags, empty your desks and go away. Not even home because all those people who voted for you are there and I can't say you'll be welcomed home and you don't get a security detail anymore. You failed, you flunked, get your crap and leave. And while we re-fill those positions, their pay goes to our troops. Their pay goes to actually funding a medical coverage change instead of arguing about something that was already passed.

And that my dears, is a rant, because I was actually mad as I wrote that. And it felt kind of good.

Q.

Change

"We the People of the United States, in Order to form a more perfect Union, establish Justice, insure domestic Tranquility, provide for the common defence, promote the general Welfare, and secure the Blessings of Liberty to ourselves and our Posterity, do ordain and establish this Constitution for the United States of America."

Do you recognize those words? I truly hope so. I do, though I had to think long and hard about them to recall them from my school days because it has been that long since I thought much about them. I'm not saying I don't think of politics, because I do. To live this day and age and not think of politics I think would be rather impossible. I'm sure some people manage it but I can't imagine it for myself.

Lately, politics keep getting thrown in my face even when I try to not think about them. They surround us at all times and when I try to escape them because there are no easy answers, they break right back into my thoughts, or worse, are forced by others back into my moment.

As I tried to come up with those words, I kept gravitating to the first three. To start, it is the beginning of the preamble. They are the most commonly thought of, and how my memory works is to start at the first part and move through, getting the synapses that laid those words into my longterm memory kick back on in the sequence they were last fired. But second, I think those first three words, are the most important.

WE the People. WE.

Then you have the next four which are the next important. They state who We are.

That is what politics is about, isn't it? I think all of us; especially those that despise politics, think that it is for those people in the state capital, in the town halls and way far away in D.C. We forget, politics are about us. They shape who we are as a people, how others see us as a nation, and how we operate daily on a regular basis. Politics are necessary, but even more important, politics must pertain to us. US. You know, US as in WE the People.

To often now politics don't pertain to us. They are about the wheeling and dealing of politicians filling their wallets. Which in the long run, does affect us. Such political machinations though far from us take food from our children's mouths, remove our options as individuals in our nation, our healthcare, and how we choose to make a living within the economies that surround us.

And once again, I don't have an answer to these problems. Seeing the news this week and watching as our government takes money once again from the programs that serve our ever growing poor population I am filled with misgiving, apprehension towards our future, and anger. Anger towards a congress and senate that are filled with the rich that do not have to worry where their next meal comes from while taking the money that would assist those that do have those fears. And I wonder where this generation of "Me" gets it's ideals? I know I wasn't raised like that. I know that I don't go about my life thinking, "Whatever, I got what I want so screw off". Because I don't go about my life like that I can't help but wonder where this general attitude that our society has, and then I watch our leadership do almost exactly that and think, "That's where it comes from. From the top."

And it dawned on me, there are no easy answers. I can't keep thinking like this. Then I read anothers blog today that called for leadership. They were hoping that Barak Obama would be a leader like JFK. That he would say "Enough" to our out of control party led Senate and Congress. I never had that hope myself. I voted for Obama because I couldn't trust our other options. He wasn't some great new presidential hope for me. I read up on him, I saw where his history had led him and felt that he stuck to his financial roots more than the other options and I could trust the bad decisions he would make more than I could the others. Turns out I was right. His presidency led pretty much where I thought it would. But I take no pride in it. None. Further more, I'm a little ashamed of my thinking. I voted for a man that I felt was the lesser of two evils. And this is not a new activity for me. I've been doing this since I have been able to vote. I haven't powerfully liked a presidential candidate, or candidate for any public office as much as I have powerfully disliked their opposition. EVER. That does have something to do with me. And I accept that, and I accept that I don't think any of them are evil people. They are heavily tempted people that are doing a job that I wouldn't want. The difference between us is that I don't ever want to hold an office. And maybe because of that, I should.

Now, by no means does this mean I am going to run for an office. Because I won't. But maybe that's where we need to start looking for our political leaders. Not the people that are born and bred into it. The ones that go to school to become a politician. The ones that want the power of a public office. We need to look to those that know how to balance a budget. To those that show quiet dignity and lead with a grace that is unknown to them and do not seek the power of the office. Maybe those are the ones that will respect that power, and more importantly the respect the will and wants of the people that wanted them to hold that power. I know a couple people that I would nominate. I think they would be great leaders. I think the political arena would be truly shaken up by them, and I think over a few years they would do a lot of good.

Then we'll boot them the hell out of the office before it goes to their head. No, seriously. Term limits, for all offices. None of this senator for life crap anymore. When you stop holding the people as the most important "Domestic Product" of our nation you are no longer fit for the job.

In all of this, what I am saying is that I am no longer waiting for a leader. I will state my feelings towards politics, loudly, and boldly. I will not be afraid to read deeper and learn more about politics and form my own opinion. And from here on out, I won't vote for the lesser of the evils presented to me. I will simply not vote for any of the lousy choices, or I will write in a candidate that I feel would do a good job, even if I'm the only one who thinks so. In short, I will lead myself. And that's what WE need to do.

WE the People, need to take the politicians by the hand and show them what is important to US. Not to them. They have enough money to get what they need. WE the People, of the United States of America, need to rise to the call that we are putting out there. WE have to be the leader we wish to see, for if we keep waiting we will only get more hucksters and charlatans who do not care about US as the People. When our constitution was written, it was for a simpler time, and a much smaller country. We have grown, and our political arena with us, as well as that original document. Now that technology will let us, it's time to return to a smaller political forum. With us seeking everyday to be aware of what changes they make in our town halls, state capitals and D.C. and how it affects us in our own home towns. And most of all, now that we can we should vote our president in by poplar vote. We can now easily handle the tracking of our votes to do so. Our outdate Electoral College system should left by the way side. You don't want to know what I think should happen with tax reform either... But that is another blog and another rant for another day.

I. I as one of the We. I as a member of the People of our country and saying "Enough". Granted, it's not much. It's just me. It's one tiny vote, in a country where on the national stage, my little vote doesn't count. But maybe with saying this out loud, writing it down, and putting it out there it will make others say it too. And if we get enough of us together saying it, sooner or later someone is going to listen.

With all that said, it's been a long day. I have worked a long 12 hour shift, am tired and rambling. But I needed to get it out there. It's how I am feeling right now, and despite the-reading this to make sure I'm not rambling too much, I feel I am right. For me, I am right. And that's all I can ask for.

Good Night,
Q

Don't be a dick...

I just had to remind myself of this several times today and I thought perhaps other people have needed this reminder too. I mean, if I've had one of those day, maybe others have too? It's a possibility.

So; Dude, don't be a dick. It's all right to have the thought, just don't say it.

And seriously, if you call a 911 dispatch center and say, "This is probably a stupid question...", it is. And I'm not your kindergarten teacher that will say, "There's no such thing as a stupid question". No, I'm the guy that will say, "There's no such thing as a stupid question, just a bunch of scab eating mouth breathers that ask questions that are pertinent to their own inadequacies."

But that would be called "being a dick", and today we are all about being undick like as possible

Don't be a dick, don't be a dick, don't be a dick, don't be a dick, don't be a sick, don't be a dick, don't be a dick, don't be a sick, don't be a dick, don't be a dick...