Now, some views from two days of filming in 100 degree heat. These pictures are not from the actual set, which is not allowed, but from around the site as people get ready to be called to the set. I don’t have any with people or costumes, because unfortunately all of my costume photos show the set. I’ll try to get sharable costume pictures next time.
I’m having a great time helping with this project. More to come.
Happy birthday, United States. Here is a transcription of the Declaration of Independence, signed July 4, 1776.
In Congress, July 4, 1776
The unanimous Declaration of the thirteen united States of America, When in the Course of human events, it becomes necessary for one people to dissolve the political bands which have connected them with another, and to assume among the powers of the earth, the separate and equal station to which the Laws of Nature and of Nature’s God entitle them, a decent respect to the opinions of mankind requires that they should declare the causes which impel them to the separation.
We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.–That to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed, –That whenever any Form of Government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the Right of the People to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new Government, laying its foundation on such principles and organizing its powers in such form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their Safety and Happiness. Prudence, indeed, will dictate that Governments long established should not be changed for light and transient causes; and accordingly all experience hath shewn, that mankind are more disposed to suffer, while evils are sufferable, than to right themselves by abolishing the forms to which they are accustomed. But when a long train of abuses and usurpations, pursuing invariably the same Object evinces a design to reduce them under absolute Despotism, it is their right, it is their duty, to throw off such Government, and to provide new Guards for their future security.–Such has been the patient sufferance of these Colonies; and such is now the necessity which constrains them to alter their former Systems of Government. The history of the present King of Great Britain is a history of repeated injuries and usurpations, all having in direct object the establishment of an absolute Tyranny over these States. To prove this, let Facts be submitted to a candid world.
He has refused his Assent to Laws, the most wholesome and necessary for the public good.
He has forbidden his Governors to pass Laws of immediate and pressing importance, unless suspended in their operation till his Assent should be obtained; and when so suspended, he has utterly neglected to attend to them.
He has refused to pass other Laws for the accommodation of large districts of people, unless those people would relinquish the right of Representation in the Legislature, a right inestimable to them and formidable to tyrants only.
He has called together legislative bodies at places unusual, uncomfortable, and distant from the depository of their public Records, for the sole purpose of fatiguing them into compliance with his measures.
He has dissolved Representative Houses repeatedly, for opposing with manly firmness his invasions on the rights of the people.
He has refused for a long time, after such dissolutions, to cause others to be elected; whereby the Legislative powers, incapable of Annihilation, have returned to the People at large for their exercise; the State remaining in the mean time exposed to all the dangers of invasion from without, and convulsions within.
He has endeavoured to prevent the population of these States; for that purpose obstructing the Laws for Naturalization of Foreigners; refusing to pass others to encourage their migrations hither, and raising the conditions of new Appropriations of Lands.
He has obstructed the Administration of Justice, by refusing his Assent to Laws for establishing Judiciary powers.
He has made Judges dependent on his Will alone, for the tenure of their offices, and the amount and payment of their salaries.
He has erected a multitude of New Offices, and sent hither swarms of Officers to harrass our people, and eat out their substance.
He has kept among us, in times of peace, Standing Armies without the Consent of our legislatures.
He has affected to render the Military independent of and superior to the Civil power.
He has combined with others to subject us to a jurisdiction foreign to our constitution, and unacknowledged by our laws; giving his Assent to their Acts of pretended Legislation:
For Quartering large bodies of armed troops among us:
For protecting them, by a mock Trial, from punishment for any Murders which they should commit on the Inhabitants of these States:
For cutting off our Trade with all parts of the world:
For imposing Taxes on us without our Consent:
For depriving us in many cases, of the benefits of Trial by Jury:
For transporting us beyond Seas to be tried for pretended offences
For abolishing the free System of English Laws in a neighbouring Province, establishing therein an Arbitrary government, and enlarging its Boundaries so as to render it at once an example and fit instrument for introducing the same absolute rule into these Colonies:
For taking away our Charters, abolishing our most valuable Laws, and altering fundamentally the Forms of our Governments:
For suspending our own Legislatures, and declaring themselves invested with power to legislate for us in all cases whatsoever.
He has abdicated Government here, by declaring us out of his Protection and waging War against us.
He has plundered our seas, ravaged our Coasts, burnt our towns, and destroyed the lives of our people.
He is at this time transporting large Armies of foreign Mercenaries to compleat the works of death, desolation and tyranny, already begun with circumstances of Cruelty & perfidy scarcely paralleled in the most barbarous ages, and totally unworthy the Head of a civilized nation.
He has constrained our fellow Citizens taken Captive on the high Seas to bear Arms against their Country, to become the executioners of their friends and Brethren, or to fall themselves by their Hands.
He has excited domestic insurrections amongst us, and has endeavoured to bring on the inhabitants of our frontiers, the merciless Indian Savages, whose known rule of warfare, is an undistinguished destruction of all ages, sexes and conditions.
In every stage of these Oppressions We have Petitioned for Redress in the most humble terms: Our repeated Petitions have been answered only by repeated injury. A Prince whose character is thus marked by every act which may define a Tyrant, is unfit to be the ruler of a free people.
Nor have We been wanting in attentions to our Brittish brethren. We have warned them from time to time of attempts by their legislature to extend an unwarrantable jurisdiction over us. We have reminded them of the circumstances of our emigration and settlement here. We have appealed to their native justice and magnanimity, and we have conjured them by the ties of our common kindred to disavow these usurpations, which, would inevitably interrupt our connections and correspondence. They too have been deaf to the voice of justice and of consanguinity. We must, therefore, acquiesce in the necessity, which denounces our Separation, and hold them, as we hold the rest of mankind, Enemies in War, in Peace Friends.
We, therefore, the Representatives of the united States of America, in General Congress, Assembled, appealing to the Supreme Judge of the world for the rectitude of our intentions, do, in the Name, and by Authority of the good People of these Colonies, solemnly publish and declare, That these United Colonies are, and of Right ought to be Free and Independent States; that they are Absolved from all Allegiance to the British Crown, and that all political connection between them and the State of Great Britain, is and ought to be totally dissolved; and that as Free and Independent States, they have full Power to levy War, conclude Peace, contract Alliances, establish Commerce, and to do all other Acts and Things which Independent States may of right do. And for the support of this Declaration, with a firm reliance on the protection of divine Providence, we mutually pledge to each other our Lives, our Fortunes and our sacred Honor.
Want to read more about these and other documents? Click here, or on either of the pictures to go to the National Archives page.
You are driving down the highway and suddenly there’s a rattle or a scrape coming from under your car. You pull off the road worried that you’ve got a real mechanical problem. Nope, it’s just a piece of loose plastic. I had it happen this weekend while driving on the Kansas Turnpike. Naturally, it was after dark. I pulled into the next fuel/food stop, found a safe place to park and look under the car. Yep, it was a piece of loose plastic, hanging down and scraping the pavement.
My car is a 2016 Honda. Not an old car. No dents and damage. It shouldn’t be falling apart. But tell that to the scraping part, and Honda.
So, I got my pack of zip ties out of the glove compartment, and started looping. Usually there’s a screw hole in the plastic to loop the tie through, The screw hole is probably where the plastic should be fastened to the car, but it stretched out or the screw fell out. (Are you reading this, Honda?) There’s likely a secure piece of metal nearby that the tie can loop around to hold the plastic up. Sometimes there’s a need to chain some ties together to reach the secure piece to loop around.
This is not pretty, but it was a windy January night in the Kansas Flint Hills. I didn’t care to spend any longer than I had to, laying on the ground reaching under my car. It got me home without hearing my car scrape the pavement for 50 more miles.
It took several ties chained together, to reach the secure car part. Then I cinched them up to make it close.
How did I know to carry zip ties in the car? Well, this isn’t the first time I’ve needed them for a loose piece of plastic. Or the second time. (Are you reading this, Honda?)
Anyway, the temporary fix is that simple. Carry zip ties in your car. I’ve just ordered some more. Because there will be a next time. Sigh. I’m going with this assortment. It will help to have an assortment of lengths. https://amzn.to/3WdaJY8 (affiliate link)
If you get caught out with a flapping car part and no zip ties, don’t despair. They are probably sold at the nearest convenience store on the road. Dollar General carries them. They are carried just about everywhere, thankfully. You’ll probably only pay $2-$5 for a pack.
It’s been awhile, but I don’t want to miss the chance to write well wishes for the holidays and a happy new year. It’s been a year full of new adventures, sewing projects, new recipes, home projects, and more to write about…as time permits.
Last year I stuck my toe back into teaching, by becoming a substitute. I thought I’d do it once or twice a week as a break from my regular work. Well, I enjoyed it so much that I substituted every day of the school year. Then, I accepted a full-time teaching position for this year. Every day has been a new adventure. I arrive home at the end of each day exhausted with nothing left in the tank, but happy and looking forward to the next day. I don’t want to sound smarmy or magnanimous as I say this, but honestly, this feels like the most important work I can do right now.
Now that I have a full semester under my belt, and time to prep for second semester, I’ll hopefully have time to do some blogging again. I miss it. Until then…
Have a lovely time, however you celebrate these special days.
Tortilla chips at Aldi have gone from 92 cents a bag to $1.42 per bag. Dollar Tree items are now $1.25, instead of $1. Milk and gasoline were both $1.59/gallon less than two years ago. Milk has doubled since then; gasoline almost tripled. We can all do the inflation math. I’m splurging less to keep my budget in line.
And now turning attention to this product:
Photo from Walmart website
I’m not specifically recommending this brand of dishwasher detergent, because what works for one household isn’t necessarily right for another. Water hardness, dishes, pans, food and food preparation routines all factor in to what works. The range of positive and negative reviews on one retailer’s site shows that this detergent is great for some households, and for others it doesn’t clean and leaves a hard residue on the dishes. https://www.walmart.com/reviews/product/19653258But this product works in my household, and finding a detergent that works consistently for me has not been easy.
For the past couple of months, I haven’t been able to buy this product anywhere. The shelf where it resides at the store has been bare. Today it was back, but look at the difference from my old bottle:
Same price, but the new one has been hit with a shrink ray. Grrr. I’m calling you out, Palmolive. This is an outrageous price increase. I didn’t realize the size disparity until I got home and set it next to the old empty bottle. I’ve tried before to make my own dishwasher detergent, and wasn’t thrilled with the product, but now I’m fired up to try again. Stay tuned.
Not related to the topic above, but from a time when I don’t think people bought much dishwasher detergent because well, most homes didn’t have dishwashers yet. Here’s a long-forgotten song from 1969 that I heard this week.
Happy Spring Break! August 31 was my last blog post until now, because that’s when the school year started. That matters this year because I am substitute teaching this year. Sound awful? It’s not. I’m having a blast. It was the break I needed from my office/home office job. I put myself on a self-imposed sabbatical from my regular ‘day job’, and am very happy with my choice.
Of course, a few days have been nightmarish. I’m now afraid of 2nd graders. 😉
When this school year started, most of the students had not been in a formal classroom since spring break of 2020, when the pandemic shut down schools everywhere. For 2nd graders, that meant they hadn’t been in a classroom since Kindergarten. For 5th graders, which is the age group I started the year with, they hadn’t been in a classroom since 3rd grade. In other words, there was an extended period of easing in of the classroom structure, behavior requirements and expectations. The expectation to ‘sit down at your desk and be quiet and listen’, had been long forgotten. The classroom settings needed other options. I was inspired to see how some teachers arranged their classrooms, with diffused or dimmed lighting, curtain panels to separate sitting areas, and floor seating pads, to make calming and comfortable environments.
Since those first two months, I’ve spent most of my days in high school FACS (fka Home Economics) classes. It’s as enjoyable and rewarding as when I was a full-time salaried teacher for those first few years after college. I consider this subject matter to be ‘survival skills’, and I approach it that way in the classroom, and I feel that teaching it is important work.
There is a dire shortage of substitute teachers in public school. That is in part because of the pandemic, but also probably because substituting pays a wage similar to the fast food sector, with no insurance or other benefits. If school gets cancelled for snow or other cause, substitutes don’t get paid; not even those of us who had already committed to a sub job for that day.
On the positive side, a substitute can generally choose what days to work. You can choose your job day-by-day. And because of the sub shortage, there are a lot of jobs to choose from each day. You don’t have to work days you don’t want to. I’ve worked every school day but two this year. I didn’t expect to work every single day, but was having fun from the start, so it’s been an easy choice to keep going. I now have my favorite schools in the district, where I enjoy working the most, and where I look first for sub jobs.
In Kansas, the substitute shortage is so dire this year that they relaxed the requirements. You are now eligible to apply for a substitute teaching license if you are 18 and have a high school diploma. Normally, the requirement is a minimum of 60 college credit hours.
This is what I’ve been helping sewing classes to make: Pajama pants, a hooded wrap robe/cardigan, and hand-sewn plushies. All are free downloadable patterns and instructions. Pattern websites below:
August is the season of the annual butterfly invasion of my back yard.
I’m not responsible for it. The Chasteberry bush was in my yard when I moved here almost 2 decades ago. It grows big and wide (8-10 feet tall and wide), it’s not pretty, and smells terrible. It actually gives me a headache when I trim it, i.e., a mild allergic reaction. But I put up with it just so I can enjoy these scenes in August. It’s like a busy airport for monarchs and other butterflies and bees.
When I started hearing about monarch butterfly numbers diminishing a few years ago, I thought it was a story concocted to advance a political agenda. The monarchs had never let up on their visits to my yard, and it never occurred to me that things were different elsewhere. It’s the bush. It brings all sorts of butterflies and bees.
Each year late in the fall after there’s been a freeze, I cut the bush down to the ground, and reclaim that corner of my yard. Then every summer the bush grows back with a vengeance, and then in August the Monarchs return to frolic with each other, do touch-and-goes, and feast on the purple flowers.
The Chasteberry has potential medicinal properties. I can’t speak to those properties with any authority, but the aroma and it’s power to give me a headache makes me not doubt its potential. The National Institute of Health has a page on the Chasteberry. https://www.nccih.nih.gov/health/chasteberry
The Chasteberry has similarities in appearance to the more well known ‘Butterfly Bush’, aka, Buddleia. However, the Buddleia grows into a smaller, more compact bush, with a fuller purple flower than the Chasteberry. The Buddleia bush might be a more visually pleasing option for a front yard. Like the Chasteberry, the Buddleia also looks easy to grow, to the point of being a challenge to contain.
“These 15 images will make you forever see your [blah blah blah] differently.”
“You get one point for each experience you’ve had. Share your results.”
The list can be a round number like ’10’, or seemingly random, like ’23’. Anyway, I don’t have a cure; only the observation that the internet is an endless supply of lists for people who gravitate toward enumerating perfection and objectifying comparisons and rankings. A numbered list or checklist is a way to compare yourself to others, or test your level of perfection against a list compiled by someone who is likely not qualified. Example: “24 ways to raise perfect children”, *barf*.
Before the internet, it was magazines like Cosmo:
“Kitty: Good news, Red. I just took Cosmo’s ten ways to please your man in bed test, and I got nine out of ten! But I didn’t get number three because I’m a nurse and number three is icky.”
So anyway, stop it. I say caringly and forcefully.
If you are going to compare yourself, or if you are motivated by a set of goals, make sure the goals fit you. Number them if you must, but make them your own.
When you are reading articles on the internet and you start to click on an article that is based on a numbered list, consider the source. Consider the amount of time you’ll waste only to find that:
Of course you ‘failed’ to check off everything on the list.
Of course the thing you think is the best didn’t even make the list.
Of course you scored less points than your younger Facebook friend, because you haven’t been arrested or haven’t tried that one drug, or haven’t been to Gravahispanoslavanda.
It is truly a worthless, and counterproductive exercise. I vow to remind myself of that next time I see a list to click on. Sure, that list of pretty views is missing the one I think is best, but that’s because the list is a few photos someone spent 5 minutes harvesting from other people’s internet sites. Sure, ‘Karen’ made a list that got people talking or arguing, but ‘Karen’ may actually be a guy who really needs to put on some trousers and go mow the lawn.
Rant over. Sorry for the list.
This rant has been festering in my draft folder for a really long time. Then this week, Billy Bragg, a singer-songwriter (who actually does his own social media interacting) put out a new song about these internet phenomenons. His almost-Cockney accent made me have to listen hard for the lyrics, but it was worth the effort. Internet behavior makes for good lyrics. ‘Rabbit holes’ rhymes nicely with ‘rabid trolls’.
“…Ten mysterious photos that can’t be explained are draining away the best of my day, and fragments of songs that I never wrote are rotting in the pockets of my winter coat…” “Just a click away from all of the facts…” “Common sense, like art, is in the eye of the beholder.”
Back in October 2018, I wrote about the 13 women who trained to be astronauts in 1961. Their program was shut down before any of them could be selected for a space mission. Today, one of the 13 astronaut-trained women, 82 year old Wally Funk, will be on a space mission with Jeff Bezos. The flight can be watched here: https://www.blueorigin.com/
Right now, it is 8:12am Central time, and lift off is imminent. They have closed the hatch and are posting updates to their https://www.blueorigin.com/ site.
UPDATE 8:36am: The flight is back on earth, and here is a screen capture of Wally Funk emerging from the capsule!
My post from 2018:
Mercury 13–what I’ve been watching
This week I watched the Mercury 13 documentary on Netflix. It is about the thirteen woman astronauts who trained for the space program in 1961.
I tried to be inspired and not let myself be consumed with anger at the stories told in this documentary. It wasn’t easy. There were plenty of moments that moved me to tears, at how these brilliant, accomplished aviators and scientists were trivialized and relegated to lesser status for being women. They were put through more rigorous testing than the male astronauts, and scored better on some tests. These 13 women qualified, but were banned from the missions to space.
Below is an excerpt from one of the woman astronauts’ testimony before Congress. She used the exclusion of woman nurses from Civil War field hospitals as her example of why women should be allowed on space missions.
National hero John Glenn then testified, drawing laughter from the senators when he said he would welcome qualified women astronauts with ‘open arms’. Then President Johnson ended the women astronaut program, saying, “We have to shut this thing down.”
run | sew | read 