Wisdom of the West

Long ago when I first read books about dogs, the standard advice was to give your new puppy a hot water bottle and a ticking clock, so it will miss its mother less. As if any baby mammal would not be able to tell the difference between a mother and a clock.

I just checked, and they’ve upgraded the standard advice to at least putting the dog’s pen in your bedroom so it won’t be so lonely, “and if the dog cries, comfort him briefly but don’t make a big deal out of it.”

Still sounds like baby dog abuse to me.

It’s about instinct. A dog on its own is a dead dog. They need the pack. If they find themselves alone, their crying is for survival.

Can you make a human go to sleep in a hammock hung from a steel cable ten stories high? “GO TO SLEEP, stop whining, you’re perfectly safe.”

I say the humans should put their spoiled human self down there on the floor and comfort that poor critter. Here’s my baby dog’s first night home. We had a lovely night.

I slept on the floor with her for the first week, and after that she was comfortable and didn’t mind sleeping in her bed.

Here’s how to tell it’s going to be a grand day!

Here’s the baby dog having her first ride home.

Now she rides on my lap to everywhere!

If she isn’t allowed in my lap for some reason, she’s sad.
It’s baby dog abuse 🙁
It doesn’t happen often since my wardrobe now is chosen for how it will look covered in black hair and paw prints, but still, sometimes…

That’s the baby dog’s idea of staying in the back seat.

“Why don’t you love me any more Mommy :-(”

I didn’t pose this one, but here she is along with the shopping bag I made out of her dog food bag!

Just looked up EMFs to see what they’re admitting about them nowadays. The best results are some lovely double negatives.

World Health Organization, https://www.who.int/news-room/questions-and-answers/item/radiation-electromagnetic-fields

Explains, “Tiny electrical currents exist in the human body due to the chemical reactions that occur as part of the normal bodily functions… Most biochemical reactions from digestion to brain activities go along with the rearrangement of charged particles. Even the heart is electrically active… Low-frequency electric fields influence the human body just as they influence any other material made up of charged particles. When electric fields act on conductive materials, they influence the distribution of electric charges at their surface. They cause current to flow through the body to the ground.”

Oh yes, that’s why I like to go out and stand barefoot in the wet sand, and let the big Earth absorb my bitchiness and realign my attitude with sparkly rainbows. It works!

It works, even in the cold. Five minutes to more cold, less bitchy. Ahhhh.

To continue:

“Low-frequency magnetic fields induce circulating currents within the human body. The strength of these currents depends on the intensity of the outside magnetic field. If sufficiently large, these currents could cause stimulation of nerves and muscles or affect other biological processes. Both electric and magnetic fields induce voltages and currents in the body but even directly beneath a high voltage transmission line, the induced currents are very small compared to thresholds for producing shock and other electrical effects.”

Oh THAT’S reassuring. You’re not going to go GGZZZZZZZT like sticking your finger in a light socket. It’s not that bad.

But don’t worry, they are not definitely not harmful!

“…the WHO concluded that current evidence does not confirm the existence of any health consequences from exposure to low level electromagnetic fields. However, some gaps in knowledge about biological effects exist and need further research… Some members of the public have attributed a diffuse collection of symptoms to low levels of exposure to electromagnetic fields at home… headaches, anxiety… nausea, fatigue… some of these health problems may be caused by noise or other factors in the environment, or by anxiety related to the presence of new technologies.”

HA

“The only thing you have to fear is fear itself”?

Next, the gubmint says — and National Institutes of Health say they’re really the gubmint:

That EMFs don’t definitely not hurt you. This is all making me feel so much better.

Now, in the age of cellular telephones, wireless routers, and the Internet of things, all of which use EMF, concerns persist about possible connections between EMF and adverse health effects. NIEHS acknowledges additional research is needed and recommends continued education on practical ways to reduce exposures to EMFs.

From https://www.niehs.nih.gov/health/topics/agents/emf/index.cfm

Okay, then. How to reduce exposure.

Step 1: Run for the hills.

Or as the guy’s car in front of me said,

On our last trip to our cold new home, Darling heard a thing on the paranoia radio saying that EMFs may influence your mood even more than your gut health does.

He wonders if that’s true.

I asked him, “Am I less crazy when I’m out here?”

–> YYEEEESS <–

It’s the thickest heaviest flannel I’ve ever come across. It’s a queen size flat sheet and it is absolutely going to end up as a dress with long sleeves.

ChatGPT takes a crack at it –

Ummmmm wut? That’s pretty, but I want the stripes going vertically.

Okay!

Oh, boy, ChatGPT.

There was lots of attempts to explain in words.

How about another AI? “thenewblack” gives a free sample.

THAT’S what I had in mind!

Then I realized I gave that AI an advantage because I rotated and cropped the image of the fabric first. I explained to ChatGPT that it was an image of a folded sheet, buuuut… baby steps.

Given the same advantage to start with, ChatGPT does better. But unfortunately I said “illustration” and I didn’t say “a girl wearing…” and that’s the end of my free images for today.

Craving for heart waffles. Darling says we can run a 700 watt appliance – in the summer – and not for very long.

What’s the alternative?

Only half a waffle iron. For only a few dollars more

I could have had the real thing with both halves and the trivet that used to come with it. But I don’t want those, so it would have been a few dollars wasted.

I had a cast iron waffle maker back at that other place I used to live. It was left behind of course. And we say no more about that.

It was the typical round style. Oh, here, Walmart still has them.

When I first got it, I fiddled and fumed, and made a mess, and made another mess, was hot and bothered, frustrated, etc. Then figured out you only need one half. After that, it’s a snap. It works like this.

Easy. Use two burners. Have half a waffle iron and a frypan on the heat at the same time. Pour the batter on the waffle iron, and it ISN’T going to make a mess, because nothing’s going to come down and squish it out all over the landscape. It’s not going to rip apart, because you don’t have to lift anything to check if it’s done enough. When it’s done enough, lift the corners with a fork to loosen them, and flip the whole thing over onto the griddle to cook the back.

Srsly nobody’s going to lift their waffle from the plate to see if both sides are the same.

My darling says (of my infernal honesty), “You’ll have to tell them!”

No, I won’t. This is technically and truthfully a waffle. It’s crispy and made of hearts.

I don’t think there’s anything wrong with hearts despite some of the theories of their origins. No shapes are inherently bad. Not gonna digress here (although would love to) but geometry isn’t bad, any more than guns are bad. It’s people who are evil.

I also bought one of these.

It was just so very beautiful. So very swirly, and made my heart sing. My darling is mostly Nordic and has never eaten krumkake, and I felt the need to remedy that.

He still hasn’t eaten krumkake. I made a fantastic mess, and cleaned it up, and made another one, and later tried another method, and grumbled and groaned and lost my temper. The fails weren’t even edible, just scrapings of mess. He may be Norwegian but I’m not, so I couldn’t manage. I’m German and this thing is NOT efficient which means it’s out the door. It’s for sale again. Let me know if you want it.

Oh, he kinda had krumkake because I made him heart-shaped half-waffles with the rest of the batter, with whipped cream and blueberries, and he said three times that it was DELICIOUS!!!

The krumkake recipe called for cardamom. I’ve never even heard of it, and had to look up what to use instead. The internet says to substitute cinnamon and nutmeg, or allspice and cloves. Christmas, basically. Make it smell like Christmas, with whipped cream.

I saw the darling whittling something. He was turning a piece of dowel into a beautiful replacement handle! He oiled it up and, “Now I just have to find the perfect screw!”

Notice the website change?

Messing around again. Tried to adjust the margins on twentytwentyfive mobile view, and ended up mired in similar frustration level as a two-halved krumkake iron. Do I really have to sit in front of this computer when it’s ninety and things aren’t working? I put Kadence back, which is the perfect FOOL proof theme. Fools can make it look personalized, but can’t fiddle with the settings until they make their websites into a pile of mess, as I had done to mine. So here we go again, with a fabbdalous background and not even a header. That’s okay.

Hey, I might have solved the posting thing! And I can break out of my posting doldrum. All the regular chitchat can go here, and the family stuff on MeWe. I had to wrestle with MeWe for a bit (in my overparticular, stubborn noggin) but I’m past it and emerged into the sun on the other side, with a sense of peace (ish) about using it. It’s funded by the users, not the enemy; it’s nothing the same level of objectionable / controlled / controlling as Facebook and simply is not over my boundaries, so, say thanks, Weinstein / Berners-Lee, and here we go.

More nonsense to come!