Does it help to...

RITE LEADERS & OTHER JERKS...
I don't know but I do it.  Everyone is always preaching about the 1st amendment and so that is my right...I don't post any threat I threaten to withhold my vote, to spread the word that this person is not fit for office, and I sometimes demand they resign.  

I have written my Representatives and Senators, both Federal and State level, local city council members, local Sheriff, Federal cabinet heads, Presidents, and others, such as TV News, Newspaper and Magazine Editors.  

Most of the time if they respond, they do with a "form letter" that says NOTHING...like "I am working hard to represent the people of my county, state, and country." I call BS...
So this is the first time I've written to a Supreme Court Judge...

I have never been a fan of Justice Thomas, I totally believed the charge of sexual harassment that Anita Hill testified to about him before he was put on the Supreme Court.  

NOW more of his true character is showing.  He has an agenda, and his wife who has helped to spread Conservative fake news in the form of writing for Fox news websites, submitting videos and attacking Democrats is pulling some strings.  She continues to say that she has no sway on Thomas's decisions, saying she finds it boring to read briefs and decisions...I find that very hard to believe.  She has degree in law and she has worked as an aide to a former House of Rep member from her home state of NE.  She also worked in the US Chamber of Commerce as a right wing lobbyists,  She is a self proclaimed Conservative news "journalists" which I say that tongue in cheek.  
She created her own law firm called Liberty Consulting....which she calls her job, "a bridge building role"..my question is a bridge to where?

I thought was so odd....

HOW can Thomas be the only dissenting vote on the decision of Trump handing over his messages, emails, correspondences to the Jan 6 committee? And of all the Justices seated his wife was the only one who attended the Jan 6th rally right before the Capitol was attacked?  That's way too much of a coincidence.

So I wrote to him "you need to step down, you have your own agenda, which is  biased and not independent based on the latest information we are hearing."

I am certain I will get no reply...but every little bit of pressure to have him step down should be applied...his wife is 10x worst that M. Taylor Green!!

O'POSSUM named Zaxby's

EIRD DAY..
You know that old saying one thing leads to another?  Today was the perfect example of that...I went birding early and I didn't take the time to make myself a sack lunch. So of course I got hungry..

We are about to get 2 more days of rain so I wanted to just spend the day peacefully engaging nature, hiking, birding, listening, observing...this is how I spend my time when Im birding...it's not just about the bird.  

So when I left Goodale park it was coming up to noon and I felt hungry...so I did for the second time this month go to a fast food place, Zaxby's.  I went inside not wanting to waste any gas idling in a drive thru...I ordered Fries, a piece of Texas toast and a soft drink.  I should of brought my own container in since it was a self serve drink machine...but I didn't think of that till I was faced with a Styrofoam cup, plastic lid, and plastic straw.  I almost reacted like she had placed a tarantula on the counter in front of me.  I think I even said out loud...."OH,  Its all bad stuff."  She was too busy saying next..

So off I went like a good little American and filled my crap cup with my crap soda.  Then when my fries came they were in a Styrofoam tray with lid, it had a wax paper liner, my toast was in a paper foil lined pack...and the entire meal I carried out in a paper bag tote, and there was 2 paper napkins in there too.  
I was mentally picking this packaging apart as it was handed to me...I poked around inside not even bothering to check the food.  

But it was my cross to bare since I had made this blunder of not bringing my own sack lunch with me...and so with my head down I headed out to the van...and headed out to the highway turned right and over the Wateree river bridge to my next stop.  
The Riverside park...it's a new spot that has only been a park about 3 yrs and the first year it had major flooding and was in pretty bad shape and closed for 6 months!  So there is some picnic tables, so I sat to have my lunch and while I ate I replanned this packaging...the cup could be a waxed paper cup, there is now plant based plastic cups...that bio degrade! Lids too...And the Styrofoam tray could be a paper/cardborad tray or what's wrong with a waxed paper container for this? Straws can be paper, and the paper tote was good but it had a little plastic reinforcement at the handles...The whole meal could have been placed in a waxed cardboard box! And If they encouraged people to bring their own cup....that would be wonderful...In house drinks should be in washable glasses.  
I noticed the bags going out the drive thru window were Plastic like the kind you get in Walmart!!

I had 2 big problems to bring home...one says it degrades in 4 yrs...one did not I put the plastic lid and straw in my plastic recycle bin...I don't trust my county is doing the right thing and I've thought of doing an investigative report on this and send it to the paper! I think they take the plastic and dump it in the city dump!!

Any ways...we should NOT have to attempt to recycle this corporate debris.  It's their product...they are forcing us to pollute our planet in order to use their product.

So I was gonna toss my paper items in the trash can at the park...at least that would degrade...when I went to do that I spotted an O'possum in the can! He was not actively digging he was curled up in a defeated ball and looked exhausted...he got in but the slick tall sides of the can prevented him getting out! POOR thing. 

 He looked as if he had been in there a while.  So first off I went to the edge of the woods and got a long stick...placed it in the can...But he had no strength to climb this stick...the can was very heavy and hammered into the ground but the actual liner was removable..so I set about removing the top which was a heavy metal with a large hole in the middle for tossing the trash inside the can.  I tossed that on the ground...and then he looked up at me and kind of hissed...poor thing...

So I then attempted to remove the plastic liner it was one of those large black rigid plastic trash cans so I managed to get it up the metal holder was at least 3 ft tall...and with the trash, water from yesterdays rain, and the possum it was heavy...BUT I got it out...then I tipped it over on its side and tapped the bottom of the can with the stick...he still did not come out but he stood up...So I held the bottom up higher to give more tilt and out he came....He was so stiff and sore he could barely move, poor thing I can relate!! 

He was quite an old fellow and it was obviously a male....but eventually he hobbled over to the woods...And I put the trash can back together...

Later I flagged down the ranger, and he said he had removed all but this one can from the park, for this reason...and he has asked for a wildlife free type can but so far none has come  his way from the County...He said he has released 3 and found one dead in a can when the flood came...he said he only empties the can every other day!

The point is trash is dangerous stuff!! I may contact the county parks n rec and request this can be replaced..

So I was able to save this possum, if I had not stopped for the food and been so disgusted with the amount of rubbish I had to discard just for one meal I would not have found the Opossum...a silver lining I suppose.  

Companies have to help us make this a zero problem! They created it, not US...so they should fix it!!

I wrote to Zaxby's and recommended they take another look at the one time use products they send out the door and into the environment. I asked for a reply so we'll see.  
https://www.ecoproductsstore.com/

ITS not like we don't have solutions we do as you can see, if you follow that link...and here is the lucky guy who gets to live another day!

            Trash affects this whole planet...in so many ways...

                                                   FREE

NO reward

HAT'S GOING ON?

To be quite honest I've been out of sorts for a few weeks now.  Im angry, but not just at one thing; everything.  I feel like a fish out of water.  The politics of the world has been pressing on my lately and I am unable to separate me from that...But of course Im not in Ukraine with bombs raining down on me however I feel so BAD about it.  Ive tried to not say much cause what can you say? Putin is evil...he wants to destroy what he cant have like a jilted lover.  
ITS wrong Dammit!!

And the  greedy corporations here in the USA using that as an excuse to push families to the brink of economic collapse...WHY?  So they can buy another yacht...another mansion on a hill somewhere...another Limo, another leer jet, another Vacation home in another warm island spot??? 

So people can't eat good food, they cant get health care, they can't drive themselves to work...all so these spoiled rich people can have MORE of what they ALREADY have way too much of...

When things are not level, not balanced it puts me off...I feel that weight of injustice. 
The price of gas came down a wee bit...a few cents.  I was laying in bed last night thinking of why the auto industry doesn't make a line of cars fuel efficient, safe cars for people who make $8 an hr! Small basic with heat and ac, easy to drive, with air bags and safe glass and good structural cage...Fuel efficient...basic transportation.  And yet they want to make driverless cars?? Why?? That is not the answer to our current needs. Elon Musk could do this and make affordable electric cars for people to communte to work!! 

HE could invent a very inexpensive to run and safe to operate heater....so people don't go cold, BUT he doesn't...his extra curricular is to explore space.  What good does that do humanity? 

I just don't get it.  Capitalism is leaving so many behind, Communism leaves everyone behind, Fascism leaves the majority behind...

Socialism to me is the best BUT it has never worked because it is flawed.  We need to step away from the "reward' system...if we did not expect a huge reward for our efforts, then we could all grow into the potential peace and happiness we all deserve. The first thing to go should be the monetary system...And we need to break down into small communities that are self sufficient.  Cities no, towns no, communities yes..

Communal living does not have to mean we are all up in each others business...what if we made a community where every family had a home of about the same square footage, and the same amount of property...each community had a well for water, a grid for their electric run on solar, wind, and bio fuels that burn clean.  I know it sounds silly when you think from the framework of Capitalism but what if there was no reward beyond a life where food, water, shelter, and peace is the reward?  

If  only....

 

RV Wrong?

HEN IS TOO MUCH... TOO MUCH?

I was checking out some Youtube since we have yet another rainy day to get thru here.  One caught my eye, the thumbnail showed a huge behemoth travel trailer trying to make a curve like into a campground or whatever and it obviously was not gonna make it.  This is a thorn in my paw as I am not a big fan of oversized rv's and travel trailers.  I have watched as the industry has driven the parks and camps to become an urban jungle and been forced to accommodate these misguided couch potatoes to become adventurous. 

RV parks, privately owned, is to me the only place these monstrosities should go. Honestly you can't force a square peg into a round hole, so now due to the on slough of urbanites heading for the hills, the parks are changing...now it's reservations, it's high prices, its widening of the roads, it's overcrowding...it's just too much!

Now many parks are more like parking lots...Easy in easy and out for this invasion of outlandish sized rigs to make it not only into the park, but into the camp spots...once in and all the slides deployed it reminds me of Miss Piggy in a low cut dress with everything bulging out, or the local weather man with a suit jacket 2 sizes too small...Kind of disgusting.  Once they are rammed into place then they unload the golf cart, the bicycles, the grills, the patio furniture...well it's Home Away from Home;  Including the kitchen sink the big screen tv and the lazy boy recliners!! 

Meanwhile people like me, pull up in their van, and they can barely edge up to back into their spot cause the RV across the way is bulging out into the road by 5 ft.  The string of party lights glares into our windows...and the sounds of their AC or heat constantly shutting on and off is def drowning out the sounds of crickets or the lapping of a nearby shore.  The sanctity of the whole camp experience has forever been ruined in main stream America...as with all things the American Dream ruins it for everyone. 

So I looked down the line of other similar Youtube and there is lots more than ONE of these "I destroyed my 5th wheel trying to get into Yellowstone." type titles on them.  It made me want to barf. Another thing that I saw is this Youtube called Max Recovery. Or something like that....and this guy goes in with all sorts of rescue vehicles to get stupid people's vehicles out of the places they get stuck in....like in a Slot Canyon in Utah!  WTH was a guy doing driving a Dodge Ram pick up truck thru a slot canyon??? If he wants to see that slot he should walk thru not try to force a truck thru it and ruin the whole thing for generations to come.  That sandstone is fragile at best. 

We need to be protected from this stampede of wanna be's.  It's the biggest bunch of greenhorns ever to hit the road.  It reminds me of the Oregon trail where a bunch of city slicking Swedes decided they had this adventurous spirit and they hooked OX up to wagons carrying pot bellied stoves and went miles...should not have happened...but it did.   The can do spirit of humans sometimes becomes should not have done it in history books....look at all the upheaval that came with those ox...tribes forced off their lands and still are.  

Just because we can doesn't mean we should....I would love to see a Limit on the length of rv's and travel trailers.  I would like to have parks where they are not allowed...pack them in like the sardines they are  in privately owned parks...and leave the fresh air and wild spaces to the light of foot..

I know Im evil. 

Used UP

AS NOT EXPECTING THAT,,,
I lost most of my garden seedlings! These are the ones that supposedly tolerate cold...I should of brought them all in, but I didn't what was I thinking? Well they were on the porch but it's a screen porch...Some I can replant the radish, the pok choy, Maybe I have seeds left of all of it, But how annoying ONE night 22 degrees, and now I have to start over...I think it went lower...but I didn't hear.  I was too busy trying to hold onto my hat.  We had such a windchill I couldn't even be outside.  And the wind blew more stix down and the electric went off for over 3 hrs It got very cold in the house during that time.  The never ending saga. I do not like cold weather period. 

It took me 3 days to get to Walmart for birdseed, and vitamins, and I got the wrong vitamins, I didnt open it so I hope they will allow me to return it.  I don't know why I was so careless, except that aisle is soooo narrow and I kept having to move my cart so others could cruise by, very distracting.  I find being around people now a days gives me anxiety.  And of course the prices gave me anxiety also.  

My day is over before it begins since the time change.  I am not waking up that hour earlier Im sleeping right thru it..so it's gonna take me a while.  Tomorrow I hope will be a birding day for me, I tried yesterday it was still quite cold so I did the best I could...hopefully tomorrow no wind...and Wednesday more rain and wind expected...seems like a turbulent March. 

My right  hip joint is giving me a fit lately...I know more and more I sound like a super senior.  Im one of those people who is going out with a worn out body not one that died from not moving but from OVER doing it! I think I hurt the hip the day I took the trailer to unload it some of the bins of mostly PINE tree limbs I cut up were pretty heavy and I have to climb up steps carrying the bins cause the dumpster is so tall I can't just reach up and tip the bins into the dumpster...and the 4.5 mile hike I did last week probably added to it....Im  no spring chicken...and I have had hip trouble before,  but this time its very painful  I can barely lift my right leg up...

SO hopefully tomorrow will be an easy birding day... just enjoying myself pains and all...

A Billionaire burst my dream balloon...

HATS THE CAUSE

I know everyone is being affected by the price of gasoline...so what's the cause, is it the war in Ukraine, we only get 8% of our oil from Russia...so that should not matter, and the prices were rising prior to that.

It's the Industry as a whole that is to blame.  They cut production during the pandemic and they have not ramped it back up.  They have tons of leases on public lands that they are not even drilling on, and yet they want more leases, so I dont blame Biden for saying NO.  They only want to keep dragging us on for another 50 years...and they want to charge whatever price they want for it.  

We have been enslaved to this industry for nearly a hundred years, isn't that long enough?? 

No one industry should have the power to destroy lives...greed and disregard is at the root of this problem.

I've dreamed of having an electric car nearly my whole life...but I won't be able to get one its well beyond my means.  I may end up having to sell my van or get a battery scooter if the Oil n Gas barons decide to not lower the prices, then I won't be able to afford the gas to travel in my van which is WHY I have it.   It serves as my camper and everyday vehicle.  It saves me a lot of money not paying for motels when I travel.  I also cook from it so I save on meals...it has afforded me to travel thousands of miles, but when gas gets so high it's not affordable to go on an extended trip...then what?  It's totally impractical.   Im about too old to ride a scooter as my body has changed. IM no longer as strong as I was, as nimble, or as forgiving..

Some days when I over do it, I can barely get out of bed due to pain.  I have over used my body all the years of hard work...I was never a desk job person, I was always a blue collar worker.  Getting older means change is coming  in ways you hadn't thought of.  

So a Billionaire could easily take away my dreams.  Just when everything is beginning to improve...travel restrictions are lifted, the covid threat is going away...and the door was about to open up for me to feel I could begin to travel a little...even with the dogs I could make some travel happen...and now Gas too high to afford...

Damn!  For 10 years I cared for my elderly mother...putting my dreams on hold...she passed away and the grief held me captive, then covid  hit, now gas prices.  I can't just say oh well and bite the $$bullet, there is a limit to the income I have! 

I am thinking of the people of Ukraine who have had to walk away and leave everything behind...would I even be able to do that?  Life right now is very unfair for so many people on this planet...due to the Fascists who have risen to the top! 

Sunday Trip

ENT to a birding spot today...

Ive been wanting to go to a couple of the hotspots that are not too far away so today I went to Santee NWR, it's about 1 hr and 15 mins drive south of me.  I hoped for a good weather day and although it got warm by afternoon, it was a good day.  The birds mostly ducks that I went to see were pretty far back on the distant side of the pond, and hard to see with all the reeds and cattails in the pond...but I saw them...got a few  photos but my camera only zooms 60x closer....and it gets blurry when it's too far so I didn't get many good photos...but I sure had a pleasant day.  

I got there about 9:30 and started my hike...it's all walking there is no auto tour...you park and you hike! I did 4.15 miles on foot and almost 1.5 of the entrance road by car... I was dragging that last 1/2 mile back to where my van waited.  I saw 60 species of bird.  I got back to the van at 3 pm...and then the drive back home...used half a tank of gasoline...for the roundtrip. which is pretty horrible...with gas on the rise soon I won't be going anywhere.  I do wish I could buy that little car...but just can't right now. 

So I had a good day but I was also glad to get back home and put my feet up.  So I found a new Youtube to replace the Cat Lady and it's a couple.  A family in Russia, they have a one yr old daughter.  They are learning how to speak English from Youtube and watching old American Movies...its been very interesting to see how their life is in Russia.  The cost of living is very low...like they pay the equavelent of $1.80 for a Litre of gas...and they have higher octane than we do...they have 92, 94, 98 octane.  

Their income is low...he said for instance, a teacher makes $300 a month, a doctor $800 a month...and a policeman makes $1,000 and they take bribes so they make Dirty Money...as do the Politicians and officials...Fascist Corruption is controlling the country.  He says the police there do not serve n protect, they harass and bully people. 

Their food he said is garbage...full of chemicals...pretty much same thing as here.  They do not eat meat.  They live a simple type life and seem happy but I think they dream of moving the USA where people are treated fairly.  They better hurry.  Of course they are very upset about the WAR..and they wonder how life will change there because of it. 

Putin thinks he can reunite the USSR, do you think he will stop at Ukraine?  He want to be a World Dictator....and it would not surprise me to know Trump was part of his plan to subdue the world.  Trump would have pulled US out of NATO in his second term and then Putin would have cart 'blanche.  JMO.  

FOOD and stuff...

HATS FOR DINNER?

I just ate a stack of 5 pancakes! With Maple Syrup (glass bottle, can not recycle in my county)...They were like 4 or 5 inches around...I ate it with no guilt at all.  I was happy to find a mix just add water, it's in a cardboard box with a wax paper liner, ALL bio degradable...and I can recycle the cardboard anyway.  Since I stopped buying any sweets, due to the packaging always being some type plastic most of which I can not recycle... I've been making my own. So tonight it was pancakes.  I don't crave a sweet every day only every now n then.  I made those banana bread muffins a couple weeks ago and had one per night for 6 nights! I made the 6 large size muffins.  It was delious. 

I also made an excellent meal tonight.  I always just put things together not from a recipe.  Last night I had brown rice with sautéed Kale,  and sweet soy sauce...the rice came in a box, no liner, the Kale was fresh off the shelf no packaging, but the soy sauce is in plastic, it's #1 plastic so I can recycle it.  
I purchased a Butternut squash a medium sized on, it was fresh no packaging...I precooked it after slicing it and cleaning out the seeds..in the microwave, 11 minutes each half.  I use the Pampered Chef 2 qt. microwave steam pot. I did that in the morning so it could cool and then I pulled the outer skin off...

I had some Ziti small sized it came in a cardboard box with a plastic window this I put in the plastic Film recycle bin at the Food Lion and the box I can recycle.   I cooked it Al dente'.  I cubed up the Butternut squash only one half of it so I have another half to use for another recipe.  And diced up some onion in my cast iron skillet  with some veggie oil. The oil is in a #1 plastic bottle.  The onion off the fresh veggie aisle, no packaging.  Once the onions were sauteed, with the squash I seasoned with some All Spice that I have had for a while it came in a plastic container #2. 

I also used salt n pepper.  I refill my own shakers.  Once the squash and onion was browned I removed it from the pan and cut up a roma tomato and added some chopped garlic,  then poured the al dente pasta into the pan with some of the water I boiled it in.  I let that come to a simmer and added the last of my fresh home grown spinach to it and gave it all a stir.  The tomato breaks down to form a gentle sauce for the pasta...
I added this to the top of the squash added some French Fried Onions that I found in a cardboard container and it has a #1 plastic lid...

I stirred it all  up and YUM YUM...it was so tasty OH and I added some dried Rosemary to it as well when the sauce was simmering. That I have had a long time..it is in #1 plastic.  

IT was such a brave flavor with the all spice and the rosemary.  I should write it down so I can try to make it again.  As you can see I keep the packaging in mind when I am cooking and buying my foods.  Without the effort Nothing Changes.  


RUSSIA PLEASE STOP THE MADNESS!

Trust...

HAT THE HECK?

I just don't get it...yes a  mouse in your car or van can create havoc...I had a field mouse or something like that get into my van in Idaho...He came in and ate the edge off some cheese crackers I had in my console and he got into Casey's dry food...
So I put some Pnuts outside on the ground and he left the van and then I hightailed it...the next day and he was left behind..no harm no foul...
I just saw a YouTube post by BOB WELLS of CheapRvLiving...he cruelly told his half a million viewers to use a bucket of water and drown  mice.  Use the bucket as a trap, lure the mouse up a ramp then he falls in a bucket of water and drowns...OMG is this man insane??
First off he should not be advocating cruelty to animals, drowning is NOT humane...I would much rather see a trap that kills instantly! BUT to me live trapping is the best way to go...it's not hard to do...it's quite simple.  I left a not so nice comment and I reported the video...as cruel...I hope Youtube makes him take it down! 
Unsubscribed! 

That's the 3rd channel I unsubscribed from in two weeks time.  I know people who have a large following make quite a bit of money on YouTube...so my views are like money in the bank, so if the content is out of line with my morals or is just not in line with what the content creator says it is then wth? He is supposed to be telling people how to live cheaply in an RV...not how to kill mice.  I think he should just leave that subject alone.  His channel is not about hunting, or trapping or fishing...so why would I click on his channel and see cruelty being promoted??  It's like tuning in This Old House and then seeing a murder happen on the set!! How can you trust the creator when they can flip the content like that?

So the others one was   "Solo Female Traveler" but is now in a relationship.  Ok, that's not the issue, but honestly it's not why Im there, this happened last month with another channel...suddenly there is this guy in the picture...HE doesn't even want to be in the video so when he is, his back is turned, only far away shots of the two of them...OK, not exactly the right content for a nature based channel...just leave that part out.  And then I saw she has done just that...suddenly she is not waiting outside his work for  him to arrive, she moved on, and even tho I am not subscribed again I saw one of her thumbnails in the suggested list and I did click on it because it was titled "Back on the Road Alone." 

These other 2 channels that I was subscribed to  hooked up now they are a twosome... the mighty Chrome and the Cat Van Lady...are now a couple...one word on that BORING! if I want to see adolescent type romantic behavior holding hands drawing hearts in the sand, sweet lovely dovey, than I would probably look for a channel named "how I met my teenaged love"
I certainly don't tune into a Vanlife how to Channel to find a budding romance...fine if that happens in  your life but does it  have to make the channel content? Or maybe it's click bait?  I will be wondering how this affects both of those channels going forward.  

 I admired her for her ability to make her own way in life,  being independent,  doing things her way and now all she does is giggle while he tells her what to do.  It's like "honey Im home, what for dinner" content now...very dull very boring. 

And him...he portrays himself as a macho outdoors man which is not true anyway. He is so obviously a green horn when it comes to nature, and being outdoors, and even traveling. When I first started watching his channel it was about living in a van to escape the high cost of living...That was interesting, it was creative, it was educational....Now he earns $300K a year, (not verified but presented by another  Youtube channel that crunched the numbers and came up with this estimate that sounds about right) And there is nothing wrong with that either...but now his  content is so far off the mark of what it was in the beginning, he is so materialistic, and even tho he puts his best foot forward in his episodes, when I've seen him on other people's channels he is like a different guy, a loud mouthed bully type guy...when I first saw that I was surprised...
IM SO NAIVE...

So he is phoney pretty much and just putting on a persona that is not completely honest. And now he swooped in an  the stayed in catlady's life.  Tune it to see her you see him.. tune in to see him you see her...it's kinda like June and Ward Cleaver.  Brain suckingly boring. 

It is not up to me to tell these people how to live...far from it, but with my click I can agree or disagree...and that's as simple as it is.  I think I want to find more channels that are JUST how to such as my channel...there is no way a relationship will suddenly pop up.