September 2020 – Diana Kelley

Our landlord agreed that we could hang things on the walls with nails/screws in areas that we can not use command strips.

The first item on the list? Mom’s precious cuckoo clock!

The clock hasn’t worked properly in a very long time. My ex took it to a repairman once in California, but it wasn’t working again by the time he got it home and we never had it running in Oregon.

Bob is trying to fix it himself. He’s very mechanical, though he’s never worked on a clock before. The music is not working yet and the owl can’t decide how many times to hoot (3x at 8, 4x at 9, 2x at 10… 20 times at 6).; but, at least it is keeping time now

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hmmm… I wonder… if the terrorist attack on the Twin Towers happened today, claiming it to be “protesting”, would people be all “Awww, they are just acting out because they are so sick of what’s going on…”? or is that only valid for black skinned Americans? What would happen if BLM rioters did something like this? would those actions still be considered “understandable”? or was this event so horrific because so many lives were lost due to actions of foreigners on the same day versus months of destruction during “peaceful” protests across the nation by those that live here? It’s ok to terrorize your neighbor, but not ok for someone from another country to? Really? I truly don’t understand how the actions of one group is acceptable and the other is not. Where is the line?

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Don’t Blame Climate Change For Raging Wildfires, Blame Bad Management

I get climate change. You can see it. You can feel it. But, I totally get bad forest management too…

Did you know that while we lived in California that millions of acres of DEAD trees were saved from being cut – just in case a spotted owl decided to live there? I understand wanting to give the birds a place to roost, but there are plenty of dead trees in areas that you can not get to with logging equipment or pickup trucks. These dead trees are/were just fire fuel. Many more acres died with the long, devastating drought – all just waiting for a fire instead of being cut and used.

Another thing they did was PLANT brush. Why? Because deer eat the tender seedlings as it grows. However, once the brush gets established, the deer quit eating it and it becomes… you guessed it! Fire fuel! Brush burns hotter and more readily than trees do.

Of course, Trump’s suggestion of sweeping the forest to get rid of dead leaves is ridiculous, but those in charge of these environmental changes/experiments (like planting brush and keeping almost every dead tree) seriously need to use some common sense.

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