Sunday, June 24, 2012

Sometimes Nature is Sad

I did a little research on abandoned baby moles.  Btw, the internet is full of misinformation.  I know this is not news, but I was shocked when I saw some of the "references" for information about moles on the internet.  It's enough to make me want to be a mole researcher, and fill the internet with facts.  God help us all.  One result was the most comical, and touched on all the basics, plus it's a Mac Forum, and Mac users are the best  (sorry PC.  (not really)).  1.  Don't assume you have an abandoned baby anything.  Leave it where it is, and hope for the best.  2.  Call a wildlife conservation organization.  Um, I don't believe there is an organization in this universe, that is interested in saving moles.  Doesn't exist.  3.  There are no pet mole stories, where a baby was rescued, raised and rehabbed to be set free, or lived happily-ever-after in a hamster habitat.  That doesn't happen.  4.  I don't actually want moles in my yard.  When a cat catches one, I rejoice.  Obviously, I don't imagine that the mole has a family, and will be missed.  My yard looks like a golf course, if there was a golf course that was mostly rough, with a million mini sand traps made of dirt.  Moles do that.


Leaving them alone was the right thing.  If Mama Mole just stepped out, she'll come back and want to find her babies where she left them.  If Mama Mole got picked up by a hungry cat, those babies better eat worms and like it.  I had to know how this story ends, so I went out to survey the area a few days later.  Out of four babies, I found one dead.  That isn't to say the other three lived, I just didn't find them.  I can't tell you how sad I feel about this.  Back to the internets.  This comic pretty much sums up the horror I'm feeling.  I feel so bad about this, it's like I feel responsible.  And I know I'm not, but I almost just deleted all those pics, like taking those pics caused it or deleting them could undo it.  Then I decided some BS about celebrating the baby moles' lives, and not squandering the precious gift of seeing them at all, blah, blah, blah.  Kill me now.  So, sometimes nature is sad, and I'm just putting it all out there.    

My Baby Moles

When I saw these out of the corner of my eye, and looked down, time stopped.  First, I realized they were baby moles.  Second, the urge to pick them up and hold them was overwhelming.  Simultaneously, my conscience told me I was absolutely not allowed to touch them at all, not even for a second.  At the same time, I was imagining picking them up, and taking a picture of them in my hand.  Concurrently, I knew I couldn't take that pic, because I was absolutely not allowed to pick them up.  However!  I could take their pics on the ground.  The inside of my head was like a cartoon, with thought bubbles, an angel in one ear and the devil in the other, and smoke about to pour out from the gears turning so fast.  Time started again, and I ran in to get my camera.  

I try not to upload every pic of an event, and even now, I didn't upload every pic, but there are a lot.  I can not choose between these, and if you were to play them in a sped-up slideshow, you would get a feel for how fast these babies move.  In retrospect, I could have made a short movie in order to illustrate this.  At that moment, I didn't have a thought in my head.  There were four baby moles that I saw, and I just wanted to capture every second of each one.




























My mom is a genius, and suggested I take a pic of the baby moles with a quarter, for comparison.  Getting a baby mole to pose next to a quarter, without picking the mole up or touching it all, is very difficult.  I kept moving the quarter, and the baby moles kept doing their thing, which has nothing to do with quarters.  














You can stop here, meditating on the mind-blowing cuteness of baby moles.


Sunday, June 17, 2012

Garbage Disposal

So, I've been cleaning.  I love to throw stuff out, which you wouldn't know by the amount of stuff I still have, but I'm really not a hoarder.  I decided to tackle my files, due to the fact that I finally filed 13 months of papers, and realized I don't have room for all that paper.  I didn't mean to accumulate 13 months of filing, but apparently, when my space for putting things "to file" is a box the size of a case of paper, I will fill that space to overflowing before dealing with it.  Light bulb:  I got rid of the box once it was empty.  Now, there is no space for "to file," I just file it.


(Aside:  when I'm having a bad day, I like to do a task I didn't want to do anyway.  1.  My day can't be made worse.  2.  There is a small chance that completing a heinous task will give me pride in my accomplishment, and make me feel better.  Tackling that damn box happened on a very bad day).


Some of it I want to keep for a few years, like bank statements, and some of it, I really don't need.  For example, I had a file labeled "Apartments."  Well, I haven't lived in an apartment for 5 years, so I probably don't need that file.  It was full of old leases, and Notices of Intent to Enter, and receipts.  But there were also a couple of sentimental things, such as the Maintenance Request below.  In my new enlightened organizational life, when I have a paper thing which is sentimental, I take a picture of it, and then I get rid of it.


This thing cracks me up:



Ok, I'll quit pouring bacon grease and hair down the disposal.  What?!?  Does someone actually do that?  I never did.  And mind you, I think I'd lived there for like six months at that point, so I guess this perfectly identifiable stuff had just been sitting there petrifying that whole time?  And I never knew?  I only occasionally used the disposal, but wouldn't I have had problems before this?  The whole thing was so mystifying.  At the time, I was pissed, because the maintenance man had used my fancy Viva printed paper towels to make this discovery, and then threw them in my garbage.  Call me bourgeois, but I believe maintenance people should bring their own rags, and take them with them when they go.  Pack it in, pack it out, as they say.  My Viva printed paper towels are expensive!  But since then, this makes me chuckle.  And now I've immortalized it in digital memory, and that whole file is kaput.


(Aside:  I think the team at UfYH will appreciate this.  I was utilizing the 45/15's before I knew they existed. I don't have before and after pics of the filing or the disposal, because in both cases,  my pic would be of empty space which I think is boring, but I love the before and after pics, so believe me, I will someday organize something really visibly just so I can post those pics). 


And, for anyone keeping score, file this post under Crewel, because cleaning is a craft!

Monday, June 11, 2012

Hair Cut

Well, I got a trim this weekend, from a new stylist.  I just met this stylist, but I like her a lot.



  • She's really good
  • She gets my hair
  • She's honest
  • She's funny
  • We live in the same town, even though the salon is in a different city, so we have lots to talk about



However!  


We were talking about hair color, and she said my "natural color is not that bad."  Really?  I love to color my hair.  I especially like to get highlights, and be blond.  If I didn't have to comply with a "professional and conservative" "dress guideline," I would so color my hair purple.  


I have colored my hair a lot, but not for several years.  And here's why:  It costs so darn much.  I'm not too cool to ask how much things cost.  Initial ton of highlights:  $120.00.  Touch-up every seven or eight weeks.  Every other touch-up, do a ton of highlights.  You can see where this is going.  


I happen to like my hair color.  Not every minute of every day, but most days I think my hair color is pretty.  You know what I like best about my hair color?  It came free with my body!  It was free when I was born and it was black.  Free when I was little and it was blond.  And it's free now.  Someday it will free and it will be grey, and this issue will be revisited.


Know what else?  Somewhere, someone is paying to turn their hair my hair color.  Guess how I know?  Because every grocery and drug store is selling boxes of my hair color.  Every day.  Can't be that bad.



Monday, June 4, 2012

Crafts Update!

I finished a flower!  It's been a while since I updated you on my crewel work, so here we are.  If I keep up this pace, I will definitely finish the kit this year.  Good thing I've got another kit!

After



For before and during shots, see this post.  For an array of artsy renditions of this photo, and to help me solve the riddle which is my uploading experience, see that post.

What's my problem?

I uploaded the same photo approximately a million times, and got these results.  They're really artsy, but I just want the picture that I took to look like the picture that I took.  These look like underwater x-rays...  They don't look like this on my computer.  It just happens when I upload to blogger?  And it doesn't happen if I upload pics to my Picassa web albums, and then upload to blogger.  It only happens if I upload directly to blogger from my computer.