Category: Learned List

1. Alma mater is not Latin for someone’s mama named Alma. It actually translates as”nourishing mother”, so it refers to the university (mother) at which you studied (were nourished), and more commonly, from which you graduated. Good grief, I have 4 alma maters. Wait – was I “nourished” by each one? I can’t remember specifics, but must have learned something. That was well before I started keeping these handy lists.
2. Discipline-based art education is a way to learn about art in 4 areas: A. production, B. Criticism, C. History, and D. Aesthetics. The approach was formulated in the 1980s by the Getty Foundation and was a departure from the “creative self expressionism” that dominated when I was in school. If it had been taught this way, maybe I would have finished a 4 year degree. A friend told me about this (Thank you, DM!) but I haven’t found a site that explains it as clearly as he did.
3. All those lines that I’ve been noticing in the sky are called “chemtrails” , the result of something called “geoengineering”, which is atmospheric experimentation and manipulation by covert aerosol distribution. Some document from NASA, written in 1966, indicates that such environmental shenanigans have been going on since the 1940s. I am beginning to think there is a conspiracy here, one to hide and pretend that this is not happening. To question it is to be dismissed as a “conspiracy theorist”. Good grief Charlie Brown. How totally creepy. Maybe you can understand more than I do if you choose to follow these links: Alachua County, Europe Reloaded, Geoengineering Watch.
4. Almost all large companies hide behind phone trees (except L.L. Bean); they experience an “unusually high volume of calls” at all times; they now have the convenient excuses of Covid and supply chain trouble; they say that they value your business; most offer a call-back option instead of waiting on hold; none of the ones I have tried to connect with ever called back. Anyone wondering why I didn’t want to get a computer, email, a website, or a cell phone? Too bad; this is life as we now know and live it. 
5. Related to #4, I relearned that in order to get big companies to do the right thing, IF you ever reach a human, you must be firm. If you act angry, ask to escalate the call, maybe even raise your voice and tell them what they are “offering” is completely unacceptable, they usually come to see the truth. WHY WHY WHY is this necessary? Buy local, buy used, borrow, refurbish, and avoid big box stores. Take the road less traveled.
6. It is very hard to buy things in stores because many don’t carry items for sale, but only for display. If you want to buy something, they write it down, ask you for all sorts of personal information, put it into an iPad, have you verify the information, enter it into a computer, ask for more verification. They charge for shipping the item to their store, for delivering the item to you, for setting up the item for you, and of course for sales tax. They call to say they will deliver on a certain date, they call again to tell you what time and ask you to call back to confirm, and then you get tangled up in the branches of their phone tree. If you can’t get through to confirm, they reschedule and it starts all over again. I had no idea that this is how it “works” now. Anyone wonder why I avoid shopping, keep my things for decades, and prefer thrift shops?
7. A friend sent a link to a wonderful song. It comes with photos that go along with the lyrics, but the music alone is enough for me. Holy Now by Peter Mayer.
8. My wedding ring needs to be resized. I needed to take it off, which took awhile with lots of dish soap. There is a permanent dent in my finger, and now I am a little bit afraid to put it back on. Is my finger fat, muscled, or have my knuckles grown? I vote for muscled. . . all that knitting, typing, drawing, painting, weed pulling. Maybe in January I can learn about where to get this done. 
9. This was to be the year that I made Hoshigaki persimmons. I learned 3 things: A. make SURE they are firm; B. make SURE they have stems to tie the string around; C. DON’T put a persimmon on either end of one string to counterbalance when they hang because if the string gives way on one, both will go splat. Perhaps I will have success with this peculiar, time-consuming and delicious way of drying persimmons next year.
10. Sawtooth as viewed from the former Sunnypoint Campground in Mineral King, with rushing water in the stream and wildflowers, all exaggerated from the real view in real life is one of people’s very most favorite scenes I have ever painted. Number 6 is now on the easels.(This is #5).
11. We have gotten more rain in the month of December this winter than in the entire previous rain year! (I think a rain year begins with July). I sure hope we are allowed to have it for irrigation, etc.

(More weird lines in the sky when no jets have flown overhead)

Lists are a regular tradition at the end of a year. People list things that happened, celebrities who died, accomplishments, goals for the next year, resolutions, words to live by, on and on. . .*

I’ve been thinking about truths of life. Writer Anne Lamott has a famous list, and you can hear her explain them on a very good TED talk. Her list made me think about my own.

Here are some truths that I know and can count on. 

1. Life is better with a cat.
2. Almost everything in life is a mix of good and bad—life may be better with a cat, but eventually the cat dies; social media is a sewer, but it is also a place to keep up with your modern (and often puzzling) nieces and nephews.
3. The two best ways to spend time with friends are working on a project together or taking a walk.
4. There are no perfect friends; no single person can meet all your needs.
5. The more stuff you own, the more stuff breaks (and gets lost, dirty, or messed up and wastes your time in maintaining it).
6. Gardening is war.
7. “Upgrade” and “update” are euphemisms for “complications”. 
8. “Educated” and “smart” are not synonyms; knowledge does not equal wisdom, and information does not guarantee discernment. In the same vein, common sense has become quite uncommon. 
9. My approach to sweets: if it isn’t chocolate (dark), it probably isn’t worth the calories.
10. Beauty is a need, and it is something that has no danger of an overdose.

Sincerely,

Your List Lady AKA Central California Artist

*A list from the past before I started doing those end of the month Learned Lists (because search engines like links in blog posts): 2016

1. Crocs: Classic All Terrain Clog or Offroad Sport Clog? I found Offroad on Amazon (not referring to the fake ones I bought in the previous month) and then found All Terrain on the Crocs site. All Terrain (2nd photo) have a better tread, but I haven’t had a chance to try them on a trail yet.(Come on, you stupid fires, and I am taking both pairs if we have to evacuate).
2. Akimbo means standing with a hand on your hip and your elbow pointed outward. I didn’t know this. (Well, duh, that’s why it is in a Things I Learned Post)
3. If you are vacuuming your bathroom and start waving the wand around (chasing spiderwebs or something equally adventurous), watch out for the loose end of the toilet paper. Of course, it is good for a laugh…
4. August has been my least favorite month for most of my adult life; September is threatening to replace it.
5. September brought a very hands-on lesson about the difference between opinions and facts. During these fires, people express their opinions such as “It isn’t looking good for Mineral King” or “So-and-So Who Supposedly Has An Inside Track said mandatory evacuation is coming soon!” These opinions affected me at first; I should have blown them off as FakeBook noise (even though many were spoken in person). Now I can recognize an opinion and wait for the real information.
6. The Human Calculator is a guy named Scott Flansburg. Fascinating! I heard him on Mike Rowe’s podcast and learned that all calculations lead back to 9. Maybe not all. . . but get this: pick any 2 numbers, add them up. Add up the digits within the answer, subtract them from the answer, and if the new answer is right, it will be divisible by 9. For example, 44 + 23 (just random numbers)=67. 6+7=13. 67-13=54, which is divisible by 9.
7. Fire containment is based on the percentage of the perimeter of the fire. I wish I didn’t need to know this.
8. Did you know that a dial tone on the telephone is F#? You can use it to tune a guitar in an emergency! (Just what constitutes a musical emergency?; yes, guitar strings begin with E, but if you find F#, you can get to E, and finally, no, I don’t play guitar).
9. This Evergreen Home is a new-to-me blog about simple living. The page called 101 Simple Living Tips is especially good, and has links in it to other sites full of good tips.

Is it redundant to say “new things learned”? Maybe so, because if they haven’t been known previously, then they are new. To me. To you, also, I hope. And if not new to you, you can revel in the feeling of “I already knew that!”

1. It cost $41.50 to send a copy of the Cabins of Wilsonia to England. Really! And the man was happy to pay it, because he found one for more than $91.50 online in his country. He also found a paperback copy of The Cabins of Mineral King for 13 pounds (can’t find the symbol for that on my American keyboard).
2. It would cost $635 to repair a blown speaker on my 4 year old laptop. WHAT?? Not worth it. If I need good sound, I will plug in the Bose speakers. Why did the speaker just go all rattly like a cheap car stereo? My other laptop got wonky at 6 years old. I thought about going to ifixit.com but taking apart the laptop feels very risky.
3. People can get a fungus in the ear. Gross, eh? It can be treated with a mixture of white vinegar and water. If this doesn’t do the trick, you can buy a microscopic bottle of Athlete’s Foot Treatment for $49.95. I am not making this up (nor am I talking about myself here.) Sorry if that is too much info. I learned it in August, so now you get to learn it too. You’re welcome.
4. If it feels as if the end of the world is near and if you like to learn about End Times, here is a very helpful sermon, clear and simple information that feels somewhat encouraging. Happening Now. Political warning: it leans right politically, so if that is annoying to you, you know in advance and can make a decision about watching or not.
5. I learned that my tolerance for too many conversations, too many activities, and too many people is waning. The busy nature of Mineral King in August wore me out, and sometimes, I needed to hide.
6. Crocs make clogs almost worthy of being called hiking boots. So far, so good, nay, GREAT!
7. I declined an opportunity to teach a drawing workshop. This is because with a mask requirement, it is too hard to read people, and to understand their muffled voices. It is also harder for them to understand my muffled voice, and even harder to breathe. I knew this already, but didn’t realize how much of an obstacle it is to learning until I found myself dreading something that I usually look forward to.
8. Swimply is a new way for people to earn money at home by renting their swimming pools. Good thing my neighbors haven’t done this or I would owe them thousands.
9. My friends have a strong influence over me. One gave us a miniature battery operated blender tool for whipping cream or making a fake latte; another friend told me about putting 1/2 and 1/2 with cocoa powder in her coffee. I have always drunk my coffee black, but I decided to combine these 2 things – whipping 1/2 and 1/2 with cocoa powder into my coffee. Whoa. Better keep that one as a treat and not make it a habit.

Naked Ladies are the only growing thing of beauty in my yard in the crunchy, smoky, brown, dried-up month of August. 

My list for June was quite short and I was about to make an excuse; then I gave it all another think, and here is the longest one in awhile.

1. For the very first time in my entire 61 years, I attended an open casket funeral, where the deceased was visible. It wasn’t one of those deals where the attendees file past if they are so inclined – he was fully visible from every place in the chapel. “Disconcerted” might be the best word for how I felt.
2. I described A House in the Sky to my hiking buddy, a memoir about a woman’s experience of a 460 day kidnapping situation. Her husband asked me why I would want to read such a disturbing tale, which made me think. My conclusion is that it was interesting, and it caused me to be very very very thankful for my life. (Maybe 4 verys, or even 5).
3. Live oaks are dying all around my neighborhood. Drought? Maybe, maybe not. The native trees are “designed” to live in our climate, which historically has droughts (or dry years) every 5-6 years, as learned by studying the rings on Giant Sequoia trees. 
4. As I dithered on whether or not to get my 25 year old car painted, it occurred to me that I could spend the equivalent amount of money on looking better myself, something that would probably only last for 3 months, as opposed to the car looking good for the rest of its life. (No decision has been reached.)
5. Leaky canoes at Hume Lake seem to be a normal thing. Oh well. It was nice on the lake regardless.
6. This site is fun and helpful: Everyday Cheapskate 
7. Secondhand: Travels in the New Global Garage Sale by Adam Minter is an education about what happens to all the stuff in the world when we are finished with it. It can be put in a landfill, incinerated, taken apart for recycling, dismantled for parts, or used by other people. Poor countries import massive amounts and use it in all these ways; of particular interest to me was the innovative ways our junk gets used to build useful items. (Remember, “Junk is the stuff we get rid of; stuff is the junk we keep”.) Some countries have laws against importing secondhand items; other countries have laws against exporting them. Those laws cause a problem for the economies that depend on secondhand products. The planned obsolescence is also causing problems. Having replaced our water heater, washing machine, refrigerator, and the A/C in my studio within the past year, I can relate to this. But then how do I get my broken things to Ghana or Nigeria so they can use the parts??
8. Some friends shared some new peppers from their garden, called “Padrone”. Green, wrinkled, and not hot. I wonder if they would grow in Three Rivers. . . maybe I can save a few seeds.*
9. A farmer friend told me the way to understand climate and weather is to look up something called “degree days”. I haven’t studied it, but according to my friend, there are going to be a certain number of hot and cold days every year. He gave these examples: if there is a cool spring, it will be a hot summer; if it is mild summer, it will last a long time. I would like to understand it in terms of weather, but it is used mostly to predict energy usage to heat and cool. Here is the explanation from the National Weather Service.
10. Big box stores are inefficient, overstaffed with incompetent employees, disorganized, dependent on computers for inventory which waste the customers’ time and prove to be unreliable. I’m talking about Home Depot. Good Grief Charlie Brown. Nope, not going on social media to badmouth them; just hoping I can always plan ahead enough to have Three Rivers Mercantile order what is needed to avoid future aggravation of HD.
11. You might be able to have a say in the redistricting of California that happens every 10 years. Why bother? A good example is that Three Rivers is lumped with Bakersfield, Ridgecrest and Lancaster, where no one goes, instead of being with Woodlake, Exeter, and Visalia, where most people work, shop (HEY! We have a great hardware store in Three Rivers!), go to school, go to church (HEY! We have churches in Three Rivers too!) access county and state offices. The site is DrawMyCACommunity.org I say “might” because I don’t have a lot of confidence in governmental requests for public participation. I couldn’t find the already drawn community called “Three Rivers-Visalia COI” to “endorse” it, as the newspaper article suggested. Everything is complicated.

Let’s rest our minds with something less complicated.

*Never mind. Just found a hot one. Burned my mouth.

1. Butternut squash – time consuming to prepare, decent eating. A friend once told me, “Squash is the past tense of squish, and squish is not a food.” However, I kind of like this stuff!
2. Lung transplants – all aboard the Rachelle Express, with many ups and downs. She and I never discussed the details of what the surgery and recovery might entail, and I am stunned by the difficulties. I am also in awe of Rachelle and Steven’s courage, persistence, patience, determination, and strong strong faith.

   

3. I used to get azaleas and rhododendrons mixed up. I think I can tell them apart now, and so far, my rhododendron has escaped the deers’ notice.
4. Maeve Binchy has long been my favorite novelist. I found her after I ran out of Rosamunde Pilcher (before she wrote The Shell Seekers — now all those older novels seem so silly). JoJo Moyes’ Me Before You became a very well-loved story, and then I found that she has been writing full time since 2001 and has a pile of very well-written books. (Don’t you just love it when you discover a great author and then hate it when you run out of their books?)
5. Did you ever use those colored aluminum tumblers when you were a kid? I bought some reproductions and use them regularly. I left water in one for quite awhile, and then had to soak it with vinegar to get the hard water marks out. IT LEAKED!! Leaked, I say! Developed a bunch of holes in the bottom from the acid in the vinegar. If you have those tumblers, consider yourself warned. (Trail Guy says I had probably weakened the bottom by jabbing something frozen in it with an ice pick awhile ago).
6. I learned how to set a gopher trap, the kind called “macabee”. I’ve never done this, because between Trail Guy and our ever-changing stable of cats, the gophers were somewhat under control. Trail Guy finds this task to be repugnant (it is), and our three cats seem to prefer hunting on the neighbors’ properties. Meanwhile, those rodents are just wrecking my herb garden. All the vegetables are planted in wire baskets, but everything else, in particular the ground-cover thymes, went from full to spotty. Caught one, fed it to Tucker, and still, the destruction continues, but I will not stop trying to protect my garden. (Those macabees are crazy hard to set!)
7. If the gauge on your propane tank is not working, you can estimate how much propane is in the tank by putting your hand on it, rubbing downward until you feel it turn colder. That is the level of propane.
8. Movies are not a large part of my life – we don’t have (or is it “get” or is it “belong to”?) Netflix (or is it “the Netflix”?), and I always prefer the book version of a story. (Yeppers, always.) However, I watched 2 movies in May, both of which were excellent (used Amazon on my laptop computer). Fisherman’s Friends, and Accidental Courtesy, and both of which I recommend. 

1. A stainless steel refrigerator makes a kitchen look darker than a white one. We never realized how much light that old white one was reflecting into the room.
2. Someone wrote Easter words to Leonard Cohen’s “Hallelujah” and it is stunning to hear it sung by 2 Canadian sisters, one age 10 and the other age 19.
3. My painting called “Yokohl Oak” is actually a tree where bikeriders heading up the Yokohl Valley Road regularly stop to rest; they call it the Bike Oak.
4. Amazon has a severe quality control problem in its instructions to sellers. Does this sentence make any sense to you? • “Starting July 1, 2021, Individual Sellers will longer need to do provide customers with a prepaid return shipping label for in-policy returns.” (No, I did not click on any links in that email!)
5. Shutterfly, where I order photographic prints, has changed to the point that I think it might be time to find another photograph printing company. Why do so many web businesses have to keep changing, becoming less helpful, shrinking their offerings? Anyone know of a good place to get prints made? (No, I don’t belong to Costco).
6. April has its charms, in spite of only being my 3rd favorite month.
7. I found a new podcast to listen to: it is an artist interviewing other artists. Might not be your cup of tea, but if you like hyperrealistic paintings, you might enjoy seeing the podcaster’s art, Andrew Tischler, along with another artist that he interviewed, Renato Muccillo. (I’m getting a clue as to why I still feel like a beginning oil painter.)
8. A friend from Kansas sent me a recipe for an orange cake several years ago. In spite of never having made a layer cake or having round pans, I made the cake. Apparently I am as much a rogue baker* as a rogue knitter, but the batter tasted great so I knew the cake would be decent, in spite of looking a bit wonky, as if it is covered in lumpy gravy.(Yes, eating sugar again. Wanna make somethin’ of it?)
9. Sometimes people make an appointment to stop by my studio. What I learned is that sales do sometimes occur, so I need to stop viewing this as an interruption to work — it IS my work. These 4 paintings found new homes due to the in person visitations in April.

*Cut the sugar back by 1/3, tripled the amount of orange juice, substituted butter for margarine so skipped salt, used square pans, added about 3 times as much vanilla, doubled the nuts, added orange zest to the frosting, and had to guess how to duplicate mixer speeds with wooden spoons and wire whisks.