the Worth of Souls

 

          Jaime sent me a photo of her beloved dog.  Unlike Hi-Five, Bonnie is real.  But the photo reminded me of the many “treasures” that become earless, eyeless or in Hi-Five’s case, furless as they are cherished by children.

 

          I have used a quote from the Velveteen Rabbit.  I had shared this thought quite recently with the other members of the Relief Society presidency.

 Skin Horse to Velveteen Rabbit:

    “Generally by the time you’re real, most of your hair has been loved off and your eyes drop out and you get loose in the joints and very shabby. But these things don’t matter at all because once you are real you can’t be ugly except to people who don’t understand”

    And then I read another quote that I found in a notebook I had grabbed:

    “We see outward appearances.  God sees what we can’t –

He sees underneath”

Hi-Five has looked shabbier than this (here).  His fur was never soft.  I don’t know what it is about him that had Jaime (who I had earlier referred to as Jenna) so attached.  She had definitely loved away much of his inside fluff as well as outside.  When she was two or three, Richard had taken her to Build-a-Bear and had her beloved dog restuffed.  We can’t see it from the outside but have faith that there is a heart inside.  Okay.  It’s made of plastic, but it’s there.  We can’t see it.  

We can’t always see what’s underneath.  We don’t always get the worth. 

          Bonnie is real.  She is overweight.  She has slowed down big time within the last six years (well almost six full years since we acquired her).  When she came to us we believed she was only one or two – but it turned out to be more like four or five. 

          We had noticed an infection in her eye on Friday.  Jaime had taken the above picture on Saturday.  We have said countless prayers and put her name on the prayer rolls. On Sunday her eye was looking better.  Pupil was more visible though still higher than should be. We took her to the vets today.  The eye infection was not a result of having been loved too much – it didn’t drop off.  But that is what it reminded me of.

          We don’t always understand her pain.  Overall we can tell she is mostly happy.  Still loves people giving her attention.  Some people don't see what we see.  There are some that just don't understand. We love our dog.  Both dogs.  Hi-Five is not active like Bonnie has been but will be around longer.

Taking a Turn

 On Wednesday we sold over 200 dollars worth of product.  So much better than the Mega Summer weekend.  It wasn’t as hot on Wednesday as the weekend had been.  Today we needed coats.  I’m not kidding.  COATS.

We didn’t do as well today as we had on Wednesday, but we did sell a planter box.  So that was nice.

I’d forgotten about the city-wide yard sale and extra tent set ups, the rodeo and the rodeo parade.  I had mentioned the rodeo parade in this post and have a rough map of the parade route at the end.  Today’s parade was horses and fire trucks and I think that was it.  Not a great view from where I sat, but I wasn’t there to watch the parade.

Busy day as a city.  Busy day with automotive traffic.  But not so much foot traffic.  Weird.

The Goats are Gone

           Jaime and I corralled the goats into Mary’s yard before Mother”s day.  They were confined to their own yard for a week before Richard opened the gate to allow them back into our yard.  Funny thing is when Jaime and I had sent them on their way, they appeared as toddlers still.  But they had turned into teenagers within that week.

          They have picked our yard clean – well with what we allowed.  Sugar’s horns were longer and she could not get her head in and out of holes that she could reach.  Cocoa had a sack.  I expect that Sugar will be pregnant before the end of summer. 

Richard and I were pulling weeds and trimming trees and throwing them over the fence so the goats would have something.  This morning we started to tackle the fencing in order reach the trees which may produce pears after six more years.

It was nice having the goats mow our lawn.  But they seemed to be a lot more work than weed wacking had been.  Richard doesn’t seem to have a problem climbing the hill.  I’m getting better with some of it, but am afraid of losing footing.

No more goats.  They have been moved to another location.  It won’t be long before the house next door goes up for sale.  Houses for sale on both sides of us plus at least one more.  It’s a good neighborhood.  May it continue with good neighbors.

A Room for Each Hobby

  

          Richard has a BA in graphic arts.  He uses his office to design cards (here) and programs. 

          He fixes watches and has a desk in the back room along with an assortment of watches, watch parts, batteries and new toys to improve his hobby (here).

          At first he was just fixing them and donating them to the homeless shelter.  But when the homeless shelter seemed to have their fill of watches and more than people, a deal was made with an artisan in Ashland in which Richard would leave his watches and the owner would price them and split the proceeds.  Richard allowed for Jaime to collect for extra spending when she was in college.

          And now for the latest hobby.  Richard had wanted to purchase some planters for our yard – only he didn’t want to spend what it cost and wondered if he could make them cheaper.  He can.  And after he built six for our yard wondered if we couldn’t sell them.  He turned my shed into a workshop.  Oh boy.  Too small for what he is doing.  It’s going to get hot.

Never Again

           The reason why Richard started making planters was because we needed planters for our yard but didn’t particularly wish to pay over 150. for each one. He thought he could make one for less.  After filling six planter boxes for ourselves, Richard wondered if we’d be able to sell them.  And so we started a business.  Or are attempting to.

          We would take our planters and other items (Richard keeps on adding small things) to farmers markets perhaps we could sell them.  We have made enough to cover our expenses but are now in a loll with spending cash only and not paying bills as we had hoped.

          His first experience was in Riddle – I think when I was sick.  He took Jaime for the afternoon – I think from 12:00 to 4:00 on Fridays.  It was not the most productive – but the least amount for set up fee.  Myrtle Creek has farmers market on Saturday from 10:00 to 2:00 and Canyonville is Wednesday from 9:30 to 1:30. 

          Thus far we’ve made sales in Canyonville and Myrtle Creek.  His first two projects were special orders custom made.  We then sold three planters in Canyonville when the weather was nice.  Not such a great turn out when it is cool or overcast.  There have been a few Saturdays that we have worn coats and we had sweaters on Wednesday.  The temperature had raised over 40 degrees for the weekend.

          Last Wednesday the girl in the booth next to ours asked if we would be doing the Summer Mega Mart coming up for Friday and Saturday (12^th and 13^th). We had never even heard of it, but Richard called the provided number and signed us up for two eight day shifts. What a waste.  Recruiters had been great and brought in vendors from Eugene. Outside spots were quite reasonable at 25 dollars for both days.  But inside vendors had to pay over 100 for their spots. 

Marketing sucked big time!  I have never seen so many vendors so bored out of their minds.  I felt horrible for all of those who had less profit than what they had spent – which looked to be the majority.  So many of the sales made were from other vendors.  I felt bad from those who had made the drive from Eugene as I heard they would have fared better if they had just stayed in Eugene.

Richard has a book called “Your Marketing Sucks” by Mark Stevens.  It was written long before this Summer Mega Mart was put on, so I guess he wasn’t talking about Seven Feathers.  But I couldn’t help thinking of that title the entire time we sat in the parking lot throughout the atrociously hot day.  I think there had been at least 24 tents set up in the parking lot on Friday.  When we returned Saturday morning there were only seventeen left.  Throughout the day that number dwindled as vendors packed up and moved out. 

We decided to pack up at 5:00.  We had only made one sale on Friday.  Nothing on Saturday.  Few people stopped to browse – but mostly guests of the hotel that might have room for small trinkets, but nothing big.  The summer mega mart was a flop in my opinion.  And this heat has made me so tired and grouchy.  But at least we did have a breeze.  Sometimes too powerful of a breeze.  Friday’s breeze was cool.  Saturday’s was less powerful and warm.

I don’t ever want to do that again.  I guess if it’s better advertised.  My guess is they have lost business with most of the vendors that were there. It's not like they have an incentive to come back.  I would suspect most people lost money. 

While Driving

 

          Whenever I go to the Medford Temple (located in Central Point Oregon about an hour and ten minutes away) I have so many thoughts enter my head on the drive there.  Yesterday I had at least four blogging ideas.  All vanished on the return home.  What’s up with that?

          I think one was a reference to policy change – which I am certain I have already mentioned but thought I’d look it up and add to it.  No.  Not now anyway.

          A couple were in reference to my mission.  The area where I currently live reminds me so much of my first area when I served my mission.  Though not as cold.  Never as cold.  Perhaps on the coast.  But the wind still does not go through you as it did in Giles county.

          I remember being in the bishops office and gazing at a board full of names.  There was a column of active members, a column for inactive members, and a column of the unknown.

          “How could they be unknown?” I thought. But I get it now.  Rural addresses aren’t always discovered.  Some are downright eerie.  Do people really live at some of the provided addresses? Or sometimes there isn’t even a physical address – just a PO Box or city.  Invalid phone number. 

          Perhaps I will go into more detail later on.  Don’t hold your breath though.

Lisinopril side effects

           An eight month cough is outrageous.  I had believed it was allergy related and looked at external possibilities – it never dawned on me that it might be something internal.

          I had a friend tell me that she had been coughing for six months straight until her doctor took her off Metformin.  That didn’t make sense to me.  I’ve been taking Metformin for over two years now.  Why would it all the sudden cause me to cough.  Perhaps she provided the wrong drug.  Lisinopril is the cause.  It not only made me cough but had made Richard cough as well.  I forgot that he had dealt with his own episode – though I do remember him coughing – I still hadn’t made the connection.  He had been on Lisinopril before I started taking Metformin.  Now neither one of us are taking Lisinopril.

          I don’t know how high the statistics are for those who need to be taken off Lisinopril due to a cough.  Apparently there are some pharmacists who give a warning.  I don’t remember if mine did or not.  If so, it obviously didn’t connect.  But if it is really that common of an occurrence, why is the drug still on the market?  There have been some medications removed due to some individuals experiencing side effects.  Why not Lisinopril?

          I realize that not every drug works the same way for every individual.  There are side effects.  There are trade-offs.  I’m not trading a preventative for a cough.  There has to be another option.  As of now I won’t be taking anything until my cough completely disappears.

          Meanwhile I still have mostly a full bottle of the nasty Buckley’s syrup.  It did work.  But I’m not going to use it to chase a side effect when Lisinopril is the problem.  I wish I would have made a connection earlier or never taken it in the first place.  Live and learn.

          Hopefully if there are others who are taking the drug and experiencing the side effects that you will not have to go through this yourself and that this blog post will help you figure out that Lisinopril is NOT the direction you would like to go.