Small house extreme

At VA Puget Sound Health Care System Healing Garden

There is good news every day

Ole Miss student who led charge to relocate Confederate monument on campus named Rhodes Scholar
by Kendall Downing | December 6, 2019

Coach Catherine and Me

Saturday mornings coach Catherine or one of her colleagues lead 20 or 30 of us at West Seattle & Fauntleroy YMCA into some very sweaty and stretchy situations, which is absolutely the best way to start the day!

Marine Grade Art

My nephew does great art, combining images of food, sea life and humor - at honeycombwinnie.com

Autumn traffic signal

I love this picture because it fits the rules of my project so well. I didn't set it up artificially; I just saw it by looking. It is pretty on its own but the caption adds humor.
Now I will admit that I cropped the original pretty well - that's just a question of seeing the image among the clutter. Also this picture is upside down - in reality, that green leaf is at the top. I suppose that is an image modification, but maybe it's just taking a different point of view.
Anyway - autumn has it's signals!

I showed vintage Mister Rogers to my 21st-century kids

WORTH READING:
"...intertwined with all of the current chatter is the implied message that the original “Mister Rogers’ Neighborhood” series, while loved and appreciated by adults, is part of a bygone era and would never (ever!) fly with today’s iPad-loving, Fortnite-obsessed youth. I discovered just how wrong that assumption is...."

What happened when I showed vintage Mister Rogers to my 21st-century kids
By Mary Pflum Peterson / Special To The Washington Post Posted Dec 1, 2019

Snapdragons in December!

Snapdragons in December!
Those little guys are tough

Very rare Seattle Clothbird

SPOTTED: Very rare Seattle Clothbird. Non-migratory. Location: on my Thanksgiving Day walkabout.

Imp Watching Bird Videos

I swear, she begs for them like we used to beg for Saturday morning cartoons!

Sunday Busy

Persimmons must be really good
if the trees defend them with daggers like this!

I saw this on my walk today, going someplace I hadn't been before, I saw a peculiar sight.
From a distance it looks like someone had decorated their tree with orange balls - how strange! As I got closer I saw that it was a strange orange fruit, neither apple nor orange.
Could this be the mysterious persimmon?
Google on my phone said yes!
From the look of it the homeowner must've harvested the ones that could be taken without bloodshed. As for these the remainder, I supposed they were left for the birds.
Then I looked down - there were many fruit on the ground. Perhaps the homeowner has not harvested at all; the fruit in the trees were the few that the wind could not blow past the thorns!
 It is simultaneously freaky and wonderful!

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I've had problems with my ORCA pass and the transition to the new Transerve card my employer issued to pay for it.
It turns out that my payment for November was rejected, and I didn't notice. I sort of do the renewal on autopilot. The ORCA card automatically reverted to the "e-purse" option, which holds cash from the time where I used my Transserve balance to charge the ORCA pass with cash, to be spent as used, instead of a monthly pass. I did this last year as the federal shutdown loomed and I anticipated a monthly pass would not be used. I was unfortunately correct, but the one positive result is that I had a cash balance in my ORCA e-purse for when the next contingency arose.
As it happens, that contingency arose this November. Since the payment failed, the money in the epurse got used up commuting. It stretched out pretty well because I took a few use-it-or-lose-it days and so didn't use the card as often. Toward the end of the month, the farebox buzzed annoyedly instead of beeping in a friendly way but I ignored it. However, when I got to the ORCA website to renew, the site stubbornly refused to accept payment.
I called the Transserve automated help and was told that my balance was $0. I assumed that meant I didn't have any money in the account, so I waited a few days and tried around Thanksgiving. No change.
Friday I got to Transserve customer service, who said that the zero balance meant I had not used my authorized level yet; I was entitled to buy a pass. This is a great example of miscommunication but at least it meant I was authorized under the new card to get the usual pass. I asked why Transserve rejected my ORCA order anyway? The Transserve CSR said they approved my payment request but ORCA rejected it.
ORCA customer service was closed for the extended holiday so I put in an inquiry on their website. I then tried various options on their website. The one that worked: normally the payment address is the work address; this had been the answer for years. But now: the work address that lead to the payment being accepted was "same as mailing address" - that is to say, my home address to which the new Transserve card had been mailed.
This seems odd but the transaction went through so was I happy?
Not quite. The pass did not go into "Active" status; it was "Pending".
I had never seen a pass that was "Pending" so I was concerned. However, finally on December 1 (Sunday) ORCA reported my monthly pass as "Active".  I hope this means I can get to work without any problem on Monday.
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I took Arthur to the vet for his periodic eyedrain. This was sooner than usual but who knows? Afterwards I usually let him walk around the raised garden by the outside stair to the office, but he was uninterested, perhaps because it was cold and wet.
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I am confident I gave the cats the flea treatment during Thanksgiving week, but I didn't note it. I'll note it here. Next treatment should be end of December.
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I started on the conversion of the St Edward Seminary Alum yahoo group to groups.io, as yahoogroups is decaying. I got partway through the process only to discover that there is some yahoogroup issue that groups.io says requires a delay. Oh well, that's how it goes - often!
It gives me time to think whether to keep the name "steds" or expand it to something more meaningful, such as "stedwardseminary".
There is probably no wrong answer.
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This morning for my first writing project I commented on and editted a resume from a Toastmasters friend. It is disconcerting to give such advice but, like evaluating a speech, I can only provide helpful observations; I don't have to be perfect.
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As the day started to get dark I found myself outside, transplanting periwinkle. I have to cut it back as it grows over the sidewalk anyway, and why not take the trimmed clumbs to plant were grass grows in the front yard. I don't have much to mow, and I intend to make it less.
I also moved the cinderblocks that were defining the edge of the patio, since Heather needs to pull her 2nd car in a little further so I can park offstreet also. I'm not obsessed with parking offstreet but Heather feels badly about it.
This car is a remnant from a lousy ex-boyfriend who stuck her with a co-signed loan. Of course the car is worth less than the loan. It's not a problem I can solve, except to grant parking space - sort of like Carlos last winter.
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Tomorrow starts week 32 before I open my office. I resolve to do something about that every day. Today I stated the problem:
To support myself financially with just enough income from a low-bono advocacy practice that, with social security and my pension, will keep me comfortable in my home while making life meaningful through advocacy.