August in 2024 has been a month of activity and learning and a full schedule. Good thing I don’t teach drawing lessons during this month because there was no extra time. Most of my learned items this month are accompanied by irrelevant photos.

1.William Faulkner is not for me. I tried As I Lay Dying as an audio book and only made it through the first CD on my recent road trip. So much repetitive pointless conversation by unexplained characters. So I chose some rather mindless but entertaining “literary” fiction (which I think means modern but not formulaic) by Anna Quindlen, an excellent storyteller.

2. On hard curves on Interstate 5, vehicles lose hubcaps. I don’t know why, but it probably has something to do with excessive speed and centrifugal force (my hubcaps are all intact and in place—thank you for your concern.)

3. My peripheral neuropathy is most likely due to being in the “pre-diabetes” category. This feels quite unfair and rather unlikely, but there is no other possible explanation.

4. I have learned to use a continuous glucose monitor (CGM) in an attempt to understand what is happening to my blood glucose levels when I eat this or that or eat things in a particular order or drink vinegar in water prior to a “bad” food or meal. It is a combination of interesting (because it is fun to learn) and highly annoying (better when I learned to silence the warning alarms) because I had to keep my phone with me constantly. This was a real nuisance in Mineral King, and then I had to borrow a charging device. I don’t take my phone up the hill because there is no signal and the camera is crummy.

5. I learned about a texting problem: messages will only go through when texting a non-iPhone from an iPhone IF YOU ARE USING CELLULAR SIGNALS. They will NOT go through if you are using wi-fi. That sure explains a lot of missed messages.How do you know if you are texting an iPhone or a non-iPhone? If the messages are blue, it’s iPhone; if the messages are green, it’s not.

6. Indoor malls are a thing of the past. I learned this in Salem, because I am not a shopper at malls, having always preferred catalogs and not being one who views shopping as a recreational activity. The mall we visited had each store open to the outside. I wonder what is inside all the space where people used to walk from store to store. I wonder why people stopped doing that (besides the fact that the malls are now all outside access types).

7. Frass is the sawdust made by insects chewing on trees. (Thanks, DV)

8. Learned the ins and outs of In-N-Out Burger. I read the book about it by Lynsi Snyder, who is the big kahuna there. I’ve only eaten there once, and not being a burger aficionado, it was probably wasted on me. The family is full of very rough edges, and the book read like an infomercial. But now I know, and it was worth reading, since memoir is my current favorite genre.

This will not be in Simply Home; it sold awhile ago. I didn’t learn about preparing for a solo show because I’ve been there and done that. No tee shirt because I don’t wear clothes with words on them (except for the tee shirt that says “Easily distracted by plants”, which was a gift).