Half a Heart Waffle Iron

I remember ripping an ad out of an old magazine when I was a kid. I don’t know where the picture went. When the internet became a thing, I started looking for it online but never with any luck, until I just today thought of asking the AI.

Me:
Can you find a picture for me? It was in a magazine I saw back in the 80s (but could have been from an older magazine) I think it was an ad for some kind of whiskey. It had a mountain man out in the woods wearing a long fur coat.

ChatGPT:
I’m pretty sure you’re remembering the Yukon Jack campaign—tagline “The Black Sheep of Canadian Liquors.” Late-70s/early-80s print ads often showed a fur-clad trapper/mountain man by a snowy lake or forest, sometimes quoting Robert Service. Here are examples of the exact layout and imagery from that series.

Me:
YES THAT’S IT!!!! That’s wonderful, thank you, I always thought that looked so romantic.

ChatGPT said:
I’m glad I could track it down for you! ✨ Those old Yukon Jack ads really leaned into that rugged, romantic frontier vibe—half whiskey promotion, half daydream of living out in the wild with a fur coat and a campfire.

HA. The machine gets it!

Yes indeed. I remember looking at that ad as a teenage girl and thinking that there is a real man, who no doubt sewed that coat together himself, out of the skins of things that tried, and failed, to eat him.

I’ve been looking for that ad since my darling started talking about Alaska. He was going to go up to Alaska in an old wood boat to see if he could survive the winter.

I didn’t miss that “IF”.

Well, the boat part didn’t work out.

And I’m just as glad we didn’t go to Alaska after he told me it rains more than western Washington! I’ve been trying to escape the consarned rain for thirty years now.

We went east and got just the good parts instead, the snow and trees and the c-c-c-cold. Break out the fur.

(I didn’t kill that poor little furry dude. He’s a third-hand donation.)

Boy, sometimes I just need to talk! Oh yes, I talk to my darling and I’m so grateful we still have things to talk about. We’re not bored of each other after three years! If there’s nothing to do, we can sit and talk about things and we are entertained.

Sometimes I need to write. I gotta share with the world at large. But then, there’s this awful writer’s block lately, like I don’t know where to start, and there’s so much to say it feels like a six foot water balloon and I’m holding a pin.

The beauty of the internet is that I don’t have to worry about boring anyone. If they’re bored, the page impression will be 4 seconds.

I used to write looong letters to random friends/relatives who hadn’t necessarily indicated any interest in receiving such, and then I’d have to hear, “Wow, you really write a lot!”

If anybody gets through the blog, it must be because they read a lot 🙂

Facebook was so cool, with those overlapping circles. Since people can hide each other and the other never knows the difference, I can rest assured that if anybody sees what I post, it’s because they still want to.

Maybe an emotionally healthy person would feel the way I used to feel, that writing letters to people is a gift. But by now I’ve heard “wow, you sure do write a lot” enough times that I’m hesitant to share. I don’t like bugging people.

Realizing I am autistic helps that make more sense. I’ve read several places that this habit of sending “too-long” letters is indeed an Aspie trait.

I guess the typicals write cute little one page missives with nothing in them, kinda like when they get together and talk to each other about nothing for hours – and have the crazy idea that they’re “getting to know” each other even though they can talk for years without really getting to anything that matters.

They say “we weren’t at the stage yet” to talk about the good stuff. Are we ever? So we waste time with sports / cooking / weather / travel for years, then one day the truth comes out and find out that “friend” is on the other side. So all that time was just passing entertainment, or a maybe at least useful connections for when it comes time to need help moving, or populating special occasions.

And some people, when they find out their friends are completely different on the big ideas, will change to suit the group! I find that baffling. I say, might as well drop the big stuff earlier and not waste time.

I’ve had a couple opportunities lately to be put in a position to “get to know someone better” by enduring a period of interchange with good manners and small talk.

In case they can be useful in the future? Hmph. I tend to clam up around people easily enough anyway, now make schmoozing an obligation because I want something you have, and there’s a recipe for stubborn silence. Just go home. (Hooray! Now I have a home to go to!)

On the contrary, if someone stays in my presence for a while and doesn’t pick at me, I’ll probably divulge my entire life story and enjoy doing it. In person at least you can tell by the body language whether they are still interested or not. How do you do that by email?

I miss Facebook, I really do. I want to be HIDDEN by all of those who are bored.

Well, here I am. Here, I can go on without self-consciousness. Like Facebook, if they see me, it’s because they made the choice.

Look what my darling found on the road the other day, and brought home to me!

She may have been run over. She’s a lil bit squashed and battered. Just like me.

I was delighted to receive her, but concerned about who may have lost her.

My husband happened to have a friend with him at that moment, and the friend, seeing my worry, suggested, “Maybe you should put up a lost and found poster?”

Oh, that’s a great idea!

My son interpreted – “I think he was kidding.”

Maybe he was.

I wasn’t.

Oh yeah. The premise. “What are we all doing here?”

If you’re still here, you know what I mean about going on and on XD

This is a place for me to go on and on without self-consciousness.

I put that Barbie pattern up aeons ago, and people liked it, to the point janelwashere.com is found, and feels ever so slightly like a storefront. I only want to put useful, public-oriented stuff there. So that’s less like “my play room” now.

Seven years and up. That means me. I’m older than seven!

I made a post called “A Doll I Didn’t Buy / Purpose of This Subdomain” to talk about her, but then I bought her.

She was ten bucks. I’m an adult. I can buy whatever I want to XD

I want to be one of those old ladies who sits among piles of lace and ribbons, dressing dolls!

The HOTTEST last hot day of the summer – apparently, according to predictions, which we now have to pay attention to, as we’re more at the mercy of them. Today was the last scorcher and after this, it gets gradually better and better until there’s beautiful, crispy snow again.

Yesterday I was absolutely dying. I can almost bear 85, but over ninety and I start to fall apart. Melt. Swoon. Darling says “That’s because you’re a princess! Princesses are delicate!”

That’s me, a delicate princess 🙂

Yesterday I felt like the fire-worm and not very princessy. Today I was griping on messaging while sending pics of our surrounds, that it’s supposed to be 92 again today, and the plan is to “sit around and be miserable”. Then I was explaining about one of the pics “you can see our little boat in the background” and that’s when the light bulb came on over my head.

Marched out and told Darling to drop his tools, we’re not boating later when he gets a certain amount of work done, we’re boating today and he can work later when the boating’s done.

So we floated around on the lake in the shade of a big hill, and it was blissful, cool, quiet, just ahhhhh

Darling stopped rowing and lay back and looked at the sky, and that’s how you know you’re retired. When you’re floating around on the lake looking at the sky.

He met me when he saved me on a boat. Today he saved me on a boat again 🙂

Oh he had to ask for help when he lay back, because the creature thought it was all in fun and cuddle time. You mean you can’t do a sit-up with a 60 lb dog on your rib cage??

Two hours rowing. He’s not tired. I’m tired after two hours sitting in a boat, and ready to go home, once the sun was sinking.

Pics of me. For the pics of Jeffy, go to MeWe! Oooh this is awesome. I’ve finally settled on a plan for sharing that makes me comfortable-ish, and now I can just share. So much fun!