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only real cad in this story
Sunday, November 11 2018
I didn't expect to salvage as much firewood today as I did yesterday, though I ended up salvaging slightly more. This was because most of my backpack loads came from the newly-fallen tree near the Gullies-Stick Trail fork, and it was safer to overload my pack there than it was at the woodpile upstream from where the Chamomile crosses the Stick Trail. The terrain that must be crossed to reach that second spot is more treacherous, and I most definitely do not want to slip and fall while carrying an especially heavy pack. Today's haul came to six backpack loads, four of which came from the Gullies-Stick-Trail fork, one coming from above the Stick Trail's Chamomile crossing, and one coming from the north end of the Stick Trail (about 50 feet from the house). Near that last spot, I found another standing dead tree. It was tall but only about five inches thick. But it was super dry despite all the recent rain, making it great for immediate use. In addition to the six backpack loads of wood, I also gathered an armload of that stuff. Despite all the wood gathered, I didn't manage to complete the woodshed's second tranche, though I came very close.
I should note that harvesting all this wood over the past couple days has definitely contributed to my short-term discomfort. The worst of it is what feels (but does not look) like a large bruise at the base of my spine, the place on my body against which the backpack had been pressing. I adjusted the padding somewhat and this was less of a problem, but the damage had already been done. This caused the most discomfort when I was lying on my back, either in the bathtub or in bed.
As I gathered firewood both yesterday and today, I continued to listen mostly to Dave Ramsey's back catalog of call-in radio shows, mostly to hear the range of stupid financial decisions being made across America. I take for granted my common sense with regard to money, something instilled by my parents and from which I've never strayed no matter how marginal my income has been. I did have some small student loans back when I was in college (an investment that led to me meeting the people such as Gretchen whom I met there, which was the thing I got instead of a diploma), but aside from that, I've never bought anything on credit (and, aside from the stupid decision to buy that condo in West Los Angeles), I've never bought real estate without coming up with a 20% down payment). It's fortunate that Gretchen has most of the same financial habits that I have, though I don't think she was initially as clear about the foolishness of buying new cars (though she is now).
There are only so many episodes, so occasionally I hear ones I've heard before, and it's gotten to the point where I actually remember such turns of phrase as "come to find" (that was Mike in Oshkosh, Wisconsin). The one that struck me today (another I've heard before) was the sad tale of Brian, a 29 year old man abandoned with four little boys (aged 11 months to 6 years) by his wife. Brian was hoping to jumpstart his life by buying an associate degree in "engineering technology... CAD" for $38,000, mostly because $20,000 is being paid for by scholarships. When Dave suggested that the dopey young man shop around to see if he might could get his CAD associate's degree for cheaper, Brian acted like the idea had never occurred to him. His dopey cluelessness suggested to me that he'd learned about the CAD program from a popup he'd seen on a porn site, and he'd never bothered to Google the "university" offering the program. To me, it was clear why his wife (who sounds like the only real "cad" in this story) might want to leave him. But for some reason Dave kept telling him he was "smart." Usually I agree with Dave's financial advice, but this case made me add "judgment of people" to "religious attitudes" and "politics" in the bucket of Dave Ramsey opinions requiring deep discounting.
Earlier today, I'd cooked up some brown rice for Clarence the Cat. The hope was to mix some rice into his wet food so he'd get more carbohydrates in his diet. But Clarence was less excited about rice than I'd hoped. I could get him to eat some if it was embedded in wet food, but that was about it. I then did some reading about cat metabolism and learned that the chief mechanism cats use for getting glucose is the breakdown of amino acids, which come from proteins. It's possible that, for cats, carbohydrates are as useless as cellulose is for humans. A new diet may be a solution to Clarence's wasting syndrome, but rice is probably not it.
Since I'd made rice already, tonight I made a big pot of chili, this time containing "french cut" green beans in addition to kidney, pinto, and black beans. Gretchen thinks that too much "human food" has spoiled Neville and made him not want his kibble, so while Neville was still away at the bookstore, I gave all the bean cans to Ramona so they'd be licked clean by the time he got back.
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