Silent sufferers, chronic complainers, friendly conversations

One of the things I like about social media like Facebook, is the interaction with people of all sorts. Personally, I choose who I add as a Facebook friend with discrimination. I do not add everyone I know. My friends are people whose face-to-face company I have enjoyed, or would like to enjoy. It does not mean I like everything my friends like, or agree with every point of view. It is the interaction that is stimulating.

Recently I have seen a number of posts on my “News Feed” reflecting two avenues of sharing. One is detached. The detached one sometimes takes the form of cryptic posts.  That is, something is hinted at but not explained. I don’t especially like the cryptic posts. Perhaps the person is simply trying to invoke questions or evidence of interest in themselves, or perhaps it is that they want to talk about something, but don’t quite know how to start.

The other form of sharing is very much connected, providing either very strong opinions or long descriptive commentaries. I rather like the long ones where a friend is explaining some event or situation that has occurred. I don’t relish the opinionated ones, but I can understand how strong feelings prompt one to speak out with passion.

Of the two, I think the second one is more beneficial. People are not like soap bubbles, floating around unconnected through the air to quickly pop out of existence. We are more like trees, with many branches and leaves and seeds and fruit. We are like streams that flow into a river to make it bigger and stronger, to carry onward the water and nutrients.

I believe in the old adage that a burden shared is a burden lightened.  So . . . silent sufferers, share your burden. Chronic complainers, think about editing. In either case, I hope my friends and family will share those things we would talk about if we could sit at the kitchen table together over a pot of tea. And, if social media is not for you, remember that the US postal service still delivers letters.

My Aerogarden DIY

My husband got an Aerogarden several years ago. It is recommended that you put in new light bulbs every 6 months, to keep the lights bright, as they tend to fade in intensity. This was fine for a couple of times, but then the replacement bulbs were difficult to find, and then impossible to find any in Alaska. Neither did I especially want to buy or use the seed kits that were available. They were pricey and did not really include what we wanted to grow. Those also became hard to find. I've heard lately that Aerogarden customer service is next to worthless, so I thought I'd share my own solution that allows me to grow some herbs of my choice with a small initial investment and very little ongoing cost.

1.  I bought a couple of gooseneck table lamps at Home Depot for about $15.00 each. I bought some 100W CFL daylight bulbs to put in the lamps.

2.  The light fixture that comes with the Aerogarden can be easily removed by sliding it up the neck, as you would when raising the light level, until it comes completely out. I unplugged the cord that goes from the Aerogarden unit to the lamp. I don't know what I did with the lamp - probably in the crawlspace somewhere - but I didn't have it handy for a photo.

3. I wrapped the cord around the neck to keep it out of the way.

4.  The two gooseneck lamps are plugged into a timer that will regulate when the lights come on and go off. The power cord that runs the pump will be plugged into the wall outlet, so that it is always on to run the proper pumping of water and nutrients.

5. To provide the medium for planting the seeds I use sponges. The first couple of times I did this project, I used rockwool, but I found that rockwool tends to break down or dissolve over time and possibly can get into the pump itself. The sponges I use are dense, but light weight and flexible. They are inside the Dobie scrubber product, covered by a nylon mesh. I cut the mesh open at one end and take out the sponge. The mesh works well at the kitchen sink without the sponge, so don't throw it away. I cut the sponges into strips about 1 and 1/4 inch wide. You can get three out of one sponge. AND, you can reuse them the next time you plant your Aerogarden by washing them thoroughly and pulling any little roots and stems out of them.

6.  I roll each cut piece of sponge and push it into the little plastic frames for the growing medium that come with the Aerogarden. I think those frames also come with the purchase of seed kits.

7.  I have grown basil, flat leaf parsley and thyme. I've found that a packet of seeds will last a long time (2 or 3 years) so it's not especially necessary to buy a new packet of seeds each time you want to replant. Once the plants have a good start, you can also take them out of the Aerogarden and plant them into potting soil, as long as you have some good light for growing them in pots.  I have tried, but not had any luck with cilantro or rosemary in the Aerogarden.

8.  Put the pods with the sponges into the Aerogarden slots. Poke the seeds into a fold of the sponge with a toothpick and then run a little water over the pods to make sure the sponges are completely moistened. I plant at least a couple of seeds (more for the thyme, since they are really tiny), and as the plants begin to grow, I remove the weakest ones.

9.  Of course, you need water and nutrients. Aerogarden nutrient tablets are hard to get, too. I use filtered spring water, because my home well water has a lot of lime in it. I add 1 ounce of Grow Juice to 1 gallon of water. You can get the liquid nutrient at any store that has hydroponic gardening supplies. Do not use distilled water. Although you can mix up an extra gallon to top off the water when it gets low in the Aerogarden tank, it is probably good to totally replace the water/nutrient mixture in the tank from time to time. I do so after I've used 2 gallons.

10. Here is my modified Aerogarden planted for a bit of winter-grown fresh herbs on September 23, 2012. Water tank is filled, domes are in place until the plants start growing, and lights are plugged into a timer. I plugged in the Aerogarden base unit into a wall outlet and chose the setting for Herbs/Basil. The photo at the beginning of this page is from last January when the new plants were starting to grow.

Update, September 29, 2012. In less than a week the thyme and basil have sprouted.

Clones

I’ve been thinking about clones for a few days. I don’t mean "cloning," as in making a new living thing that is an exact copy of another. Propagating plants by rooting cuttings is sometimes called cloning, but the new plants that grow will not be exact copies. That is not what I mean when I think about clones, but that’s a little closer.  Besides, bringing up the subject of cloning may bring on opinionated comments about the morality, benefits and risks, which I don’t really want to do.  No, I’ve been thinking about having a clone which is very much like a naturally born person, but not exactly the same. It is fantasy and perhaps science fiction.

My pondering of clones started with a friend’s Facebook post, in which she shared an article naming the top 10 worst career choices for college study, based upon potential salary, employability and opportunity considerations.  Her career choice had been anthropology, which was listed as the Number One worst career study choice.  I said to her that anthropology was one of the things I had listed for my clone to do.

I actually have a little jar that is labeled “Things for my clone to do”.  In it I have put small, folded slips of paper, each bearing a project name or a wished-for activity.  Some pieces of paper are larger and contain lists.  A number of the slips have projects I could do, not routine nor urgent, but which only wait for a stretch of time when I can do the project.  These are things like reupholster the couch, clean the crawlspace, repaint indoor window moldings, make candles, record my LP records to CDs, replace seat covers on the old oak chairs.  The other things are areas of interest that realistically I don’t have enough lifeline left in which to pursue, and because of that, they could be done by a clone of me. Those are subjects like computer programming and writing games for Apple computers, landscape design, anthropology, archeology, geology, photography and writing a novel. I imagine any adult who loves to read has wished to write a novel.

My idea of a clone of me would mean there would be another person who could do those things I don’t have time for, but doing so parallel to my current life and in such a way that I could be aware of the pleasures and benefits of doing them.  If I could ever work out a complete plot, that might be a good subject for MY novel. Last night I had a dream in which some people were drowned, and somehow these people were brought back to life as copies/clones of the ones who had died. It was a bit creepy, because these clones, although not disfigured, smelly and blood thirsty, were a little like zombies of the movies. Zombie stories do NOT appeal to me.

So anyway, my train of thought about clones rolled me onward to another “what if”. What if there were clones of some of the best people. The Dalai Lama, Mister Rogers and Bill Cosby came to my mind.  These real people bring messages of compassion, honesty and humor to the world and they have gone about doing good.  If there were more people like them, dispersed around the world into every culture, wouldn’t that bring hope for a better, more loving world society? Not meaning to be blasphemous in any way, I think clones of Jesus would be fantastic. To have people with his unselfish kindness, goodness, charisma and perfection in today’s world could bring about amazing reformation. Now that I think about it, perhaps that is what Christianity should be about, making clones of the goodness of Jesus who would live in ways that could make our world better.

I think I’ll add another slip of paper to my jar as a reminder:  “Dalai Lama, Mister Rogers, Bill Cosby, Jesus”.

Autumn

“The summer was over at last, and nobody could deny any longer that the autumn was definitely there. It was that rather sad time of year, when for the first time for many months, the fine old sun still blazes away in a cloudless sky but doesn’t warm you, and the hoar frosts and the mists and the winds begin to stir their faint limbs at morning and evening with the gossamer, as the sap of winter vigor remembers itself in the cold corpses which brave summer slew. The leaves were still on the trees and still green, but it was the leaden green of old leaves, which have seen much since the gay colors and happiness of spring that seems so lately, and like all happy things, so quickly to have passed. The sheep fairs had been held, the plums had tumbled off the trees in the first big winds, and here and there in the lovely sunlight, too soon enfeebeled, a branch of beech or oak was turning yellow, the one to die quickly and mercifully, the other to perhaps hold grimly to the frozen tree and to hiss with its papery skeletons all through the east winds of winter until the spring was there again.”  T. H. White, The Once and Future King.

For me, autumn IS a rather sad time of year if I let it get to me. It definitely makes me moody. I feel restless and a bit anxious and eventually resigned to the fact that my short Alaskan summer is over.  I am restless, not because I am bored, but because there seem to be so many outdoor projects yet to be done and my mind has a hard time settling on which to do first, or next, or at all.  I am anxious because time is running out for completing projects I had thought I'd get done during the summer.  The length of the daylight shortens; the angle of the sun gets lower; there is a chill to replace summer's warming sunshine, the beautiful flowers are going or gone. In addition to that, the political campaigning heats up and all that rhetoric, confusion and frustration can be really depressing. It all is such a drain on my normal level of optimism.

Yet, because I AM an optimist, I look to that glass that seems to be draining below half full and manage to find ways to fill it up again.  There is harvest from the garden that I have had to wait all summer for.  Hand-picked spinach, chard, broccoli, cauliflower and zucchini are included in many home-cooked meals. I revel in the flavor and texture and cling to the memory of them when I am forced to choose from supplies provided in the grocery store over the winter. Clinging to the memory is not so much regret that the past is over as it is hope and anticipation for what next summer will bring.

The beautiful colors of the flowers in the garden were captured in photos, and now I look for the beautiful colors of fall - the turning leaves, the bright berries. The Eternal Artist exchanges the painter's pallet of pink and blue and bright green for oranges, reds, yellows, browns and "leaden green".  The mountains become purple and white.  The sunrises and sunsets take on the colors that are unique to the equinox sun, as do the lakes and streams.

As the number of hours of darkness begin to outnumber the daylight hours, I realize I can again see the stars that were so muted by long days, with Auriga and Gemini coming up over the eastern mountain top well before midnight and Orion showing himself in the south.  The harvest moon will be here soon, shining brightly all night long, getting ready to make the coming winter white landscape more striking as the months progress.  Although the sun takes its brightness and warmth below the horizon at this northern latitude, it will also send us the aurora to be seen in the deep black sky against the brilliant stars and planets.

It is raining today, so perhaps I should turn away from the regret over the end of summer, and turn my energy to making my indoor space cleaner, brighter, more inviting. Potted red and pink geraniums are blooming in the window.  It's time to get the winter herb garden started.

Making a start

I spend a lot of time at my home here in Eagle River, Alaska, often physically without company. However, I still connect with friends and family via Facebook and phone calls, with birds and other critters large and small that visit my yard, with the garden outdoors and potted plants indoors, with characters in the books I enjoy, with making music and listening to it, with God who is always on call for me.  It seems a waste to keep all those connections secretly to myself, so I decided to try blogging.  This is a sidebar to my life, to share with anyone who is interested in my thoughts and activities.