Waiting: Not My Favorite Game

It’s been a difficult couple of weeks for several reasons, but especially because…I haven’t heard anything back from  Agent.  I’m working, of course: the wildlife management report (in the process of which I discovered that my old printer no longer prints text…just pictures.  And not very well…with thin orange striped across them.)   Then there’s the body, which I overfed for some months and it (gee, ya think?) gained back weight it had lost and pushed me out of the jeans I was in.  Luckly (for me, not him) it pushed R- out of the next size up and he had to buy a new pair of jeans because I’d actually tossed some pairs.  Still, it’s handy that he could snag the (mutter) pair I hadn’t given away yet, that *had* been two sizes too big, and I could snag a pair he’d just grown too big for, the next size up from the ones that I couldn’t get on.  (Yes, I wear men’s jeans.  They’re made of better quality denim and they have real pockets.  I have a pair of lady jeans–too long in the leg, some weird denim attempt, little pockets that I can’t put more than a few coins in.  I wear them only when I have to.)   So that means I need to lose back down to my riding tights.  Which means the indulgences of last fall (finishing [HA!] the book) and then the holidays and starting to cook again…are forbidden (by me…not getting advice or wanting it from internet glop.)    Also upped the exercise.  As usual, switching away from “balanced” eating back to protein-heavy has restored energy and I’m able to walk briskly farther than I was slogging along before.

My laptop also died on me suddenly, so I couldn’t do the Zoom interview for Brown University, but had to do it over the phone…and I’d gotten gussied up and had everything ready and a few days before the laptop was (appeared to be) working fine.  Until that morning.

So…I need a new printer before the deadline for the annual wildlife management report.   Tomorrow I hope I get that done.  I need more wormer for the horses.  I need to be outside walking briskly, digging holes, cleaning up the garden area.  We dug a new hole and installed a tub for the base unit of the new wildlife water feature at Cloud Pavilion, and the solar panels/pump are on order.  Need a couple more smaller tubs for the little waterfall and a better “rescue” for the bottom tub than the ugly white PVC pipe section that we’re using now.   Something more natural looking.    I’ve taken more pictures for the wildlife report–every year I think I’ve taken more than enough but there’s always something I “meant” to take pictures of, that I forgot to do, and take in January when I’m writing the report and realize…yeah…THAT.

This year several of them are thickets.    We’re trying to grow scattered thickets for wildlife shelter (especially after an overenthusiastic mowing job by one of us gave the place a scalped look.)  I’d been gently avoiding certain clumps of woody stuff and those were big enough to avoid the machinery.   In the process of documenting the enlarged thickets here and there,  I got to see again the game trails and  ground nests of mammals and some tree nests of birds…always a joy to see the place being used by the wildlife.  So some thicket pictures:

Single tree left “bushy) for birds that nest low.

 

Multi-tree thicket, 2 species: cedar elm and bulemia

Dense end of another multi-species thicket with juniper in it

The goal eventually is scattered dense shelter with both shelter plants and food plants in it: one of this year’s jobs is trying to harvest vine seeds and get them into these thickets for varied food production.  Also want to add in thicketing plum, and/or Mexican plum.   And got a good sighting of a Northern Caracara on Saturday while out with visitors to the new water installation.

Meanwhile Horngard II is alive and wants me to spend more time on it instead of the wildlife management report…but the wildlife report has a hard deadline and Horngard I is still in limbo with Agent.

 

 

9 thoughts on “Waiting: Not My Favorite Game

  1. So sorry you haven’t heard from your agent – I do hope no news will prove to be good news! Meanwhile, I’m surprised you fit into men’s jeans – I find they never have enough hip width for me. But I so agree about pockets – I wear men’s coats and jackets a lot of the time for that very reason!

    1. I choose them for the hip fit and tolerate the overlarge waist…men’s jeans will last about twice as long as lady jeans if worn the same # of days in the same activities. Back in my childhood, girls’ jeans weren’t like they are now…they were just jeans, not a fashion item. But then came the Sixties (HS, college) and suddenly the fashion-conscious girls were wearing jeans and thus wanted them to be “the right” jeans. I remember being able to buy women’s slacks & jeans in my teens up until about ’68, when Levi quit making the styles that I’d liked so much. Had actual pockets, made of the same denim and chino of men’s, yet cut to be smaller in the waist and larger in the hips. For a few glorious years when she retired, my mother went back to sewing more and made me jeans (mostly thinner denim but still cut and fit for me) that I absolutely loved. We found a pattern–I forget the name–that was comfortable to wear and ride in, and she could customize the leg to be slimmer or a little wider. They looked really good. After the disaster of my attempt at turquoise bell-bottoms in the bell-bottom fad, she quit trying to get me to sew…I’m just not good at it and I fret and sweat the whole time.

    1. I have many faults but boredom isn’t one of them. (My mother considered boredom as a character flaw and trained me out of it by putting me to chores whenever I admitted being bored or “havivg nothing to do.” Amazing how fast a child who hates scrubbing woodwork to full whiteness, or using a washboard, can learn not to be bored, or look bored, or hang around as if about to be bored.)

  2. I have become a fan of some of the cargo pants made for retailers who are not into fashion. Insect Shield makes clothing for outdoor use which repels ticks and other nasty and dangerous biters. Duluth also has interesting non-denim fabrics (as well as the denim) which don’t get so soaked with sweat (and all the styles have pockets). I have even moved to drawstring and elastic waists, especially for our increasingly hot and humid summers.
    Regular jeans just out of the wash/air dried stretch so much around the waist that they can by pass my hips by evening. I hate adding belts.

  3. I have a vague memory that many years ago jeans for ladies did not zip up the front but on the side. But wear what is comfortable for you and don’t sweat the critics. Did you hold a funeral for your laptop and bury it under a tree? Laughter. Stay safe and stay sane.\

  4. So sorry to hear about your laptop. How frustrating. And doubtless expensive.

    I’d been trusting Twitter to show me your tweets sending me here but apparently it’s not even working that well. So I’m checking here manually and have mostly quit Twitter.

    Best wishes for positive news from your Agent!

  5. I hope some of the problems/tasks have now been solved/completed.

    I have given up on jeans. Levi 501s used to fit me reasonably well, given that I really do have an extended posterior (in relation to the rest of me). However as you say fashion got involved in jeans and I couldn’t find 501s in Oxford or London, then when I could again they were incredibly expensive. These days I get nearly all of my clothes from a company that understands women need pockets too, and decent sized ones at that. It makes me ridiculously happy having pockets I can get my whole hands into despite (or perhaps because of) being brought up NOT to put my hands in my pockets except to extract a lady’s size handkerchief.

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