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Remembering When

Posted on January 20, 2025 by Kelsey

I remember going through the shop my great-great-grandparents had in West Virginia. It was an old-time gas station and local shop. As I remember it, it was complete with soda fountain. The building was pretty old when I was there in about 1978, and unbelievably, it seems it still stands. The gas pumps are long gone, of course, and now it is attached to a greenhouse in front of Erma’s old house. It was Erma Foor that owned it, and if the current owners were to go into the cemetery behind the house, I think they would find her grave there. Talk about a small world that Erma lived and died in! Work and home and a grave all within maybe 300 feet of each other or so! The place was called The Plant Cult when the more recent people had it, and I don’t know if it is still. I am relying on Google Earth to find this out. The cemetery is Mount Calvary. And the house is now hidden behind the old greenhouses that are in what once was the front yard to Erma’s house. I wonder if that closet next to the front door still has the pull chain flap in the floor where the laundry can be dropped down next to the washer and dryer in the basement? When I was a little kid and visited there, I thought that was the coolest thing ever. What a convenience!

It was not the only place I visited around Morgantown back then. Go up northwest to Black’s Run Road and there just before the Pennsylvania State line you will find Willa and Lester’ Raber’s house on the left side of the road. There was a hutch built-in in the dining room and to the right of it was a door that opened to a very steep set of stairs that lead upstairs. There was also a screened in porch on the back of the house and in it was a glider rocker that would sit three or so. That old thing is still out in my back yard now, 47 years later. Their kitchen table is in pieces out in my shop. Ask me why. Anyway, I will have to get it back together someday, maybe this summer. That would be nice. (I started to restore it to use for myself, and the minute I did, my grandmother suddenly went from not interested in it to wanting it for herself the moment I was done. I stopped work immediately, because that was not the first time I had been through that shit-show with her.) When I was there with my grandparents, granddad and I did something remarkable. He took me for a walk up the road so we could have a piss on the Mason-Dixon Line. What a momentous occasion! Still sticks with me till this day as one of the most amazing trips we ever took, and we took a lot of them together when I was a kid.

All this came back to me again tonight. I am sure I wrote about it before. But it is there, lingering in my mind, wishing I could grab it all and pull it out and walk my kids into that world at that time, and let them see somethings that belonged to people who were born more than 100 years before them. Hell, Lester was 92 in ’78! That would have put him as born in 1886 or so. Do these kids realize I have known people born that far back? Do they know how close history really is to them? If the people we met were simply neighbors in the next house, that would put the late 1800’s right next door to us. They don’t know. I mean, we have a picture that comes up in a digital frame every now and then of the guy who assassinated Archduke Ferdinand of Austria. When was that? June 28th, 1914? That means Lester was about 28? It’s crazy. If my math is correct.

I am off to get some wood on the fire and find a light meal for supper. I wanted to leave this here though. Who knows? Maybe the people who live in the old houses will find it one day and get in touch. I wonder how things are that way. I have always had a place in my heart for that part of West Virginia.

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Somethings Special

Posted on January 19, 2025 by Kelsey

It’s a Sunday morning. The fire is going in the stove, and I have a lovely cup of tea next to me as I type this. It is from a teapot. If you know your English teas, then you know that brewing in a pot is better than in a cup. I woke up to the briefest of mentions of some exciting news today. My mother-in-law and sister-in-law may be out come July. Nothing in stone yet, but at least it is being thought of. That would be really cool. I have not seen mum since 2012, just before we moved up here to Idaho! Ans sis is always wonderful to see. She has been out a couple of times since we moved up here, and I love having her about. She gets involved with things and is always helpful. But if they both come for a visit, I think it would be wonderful to see them. The English think of themselves as world travelers. It would be lovely to see them more, then.

It is a Sunday morning. The fire is going in the stove, and I have a lovely cup of tea next to me. The cups and pot are ceramic. Nothing too fancy, but fancy for us. I am thinking of how else I can market the open house I set up for my wife’s business. It would be great to get some people through the door. It has been so frustrating for her to open her shop up most days then have nobody come by. I want that to change for her. I want it changed now. The ringers on the doors have died, and we have to sort her out so they will ring again. The shop is small, and no place to plan to hang around for a whole day waiting to see if someone comes. Se we have a fix in the works, batteries to arrive on Tuesday. Till then, we are closed. But if we can get people coming over on Thursday, and even just a little traffic that she can manage, then even that could be worth opening for.

I am also thinking on building an outdoor workbench. I could work under the willow tree and then watch for customers there in the good weather. I would not mind so much working outside. that could be really nice. It could also serve as a means of advertising. What could be better than building primitive furniture with primitive tools under a tree? Fresh pile of lumber close at hand. I think it could make a lovely picture.

I am excited to see what becomes of our lavender that we put in in the autumn. I can see some ideas in my head if we can get that to grow. I know Missus has ideas, too. But I would like to see a little larger shop in for her, and she could make the trailer one she can transport to venues. I think it would be lovely to have a little lavender field in front of a little shop. I know there was the concern before about a shop that side being too far back. But visibility is always going to be a problem for her. It is now, with the trailer. I think we could make it a space that is more accommodating year-round though! If we can get some money coming in, then we can set up properly on a last building. Of course, the county will oppose us having anyone through the doors. Maybe the shop itself can be outdoors? I don’t know. I have to admit, the ‘rules’ are opposed to anything for small business. It’s like how the state’s SEC rules don’t allow a person to do peer to peer lending unless they are basically millionaire’s then only a small amount. They are protecting us from risk, they say. They are Republicans, I say! What the Hell?

Okay, I think I better get up and moving and go get something done. Anything! IT is a fine time of a day to have a day.

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Trying to Knock Off for a Mid-winter’s Nap

Posted on January 19, 2025 by Kelsey

Nothing like waking up only minutes after falling asleep and finding oneself a pretty darned sight not sleepy anymore. Boy! So, Garrison Keillor is telling the News from Lake Woebegone. and I have been trying to focus on that and go back to sleep. But I gave in and ate some carbs before bed, and now I am feeling hungry. Had I not, I would no doubt be sleeping peacefully by now, or if not, at least I’d be more comfortable, and could think of something else. But the carbs leave a pain the belly, and that gets interpreted as hunger pains. Be it or not, I sure feel it. So, I will try to ignore it and go back to sleep here again in a few minutes.

I put together an event in my wife’s webpage today with a plug-in that allows free and paid events with ticket sales. I then put that on Facebook, and I have a half a dozen responses for it so far with Interested and Going responses together. That is more than I have been able to get to reply to anything else I have put up on the Facebook page. I have little confidence in Facebook because I have posted information for the businesses before and got nothing. So this is significant. I’ll see how it goes and if I can figure out a way to keep pushing the Open House for her and get someone to show up to it on Thursday. Just look up Antiquary Artisan on Facebook and see the Open House next Thursday to know what I am on about.

I cut up some more firewood today and put some on the woodpile and some in the tractor bucket. It is set to be wintery cold tonight and for four nights in total before it should come back up again. I was not even in bed yet before the alarm went off to tell me about the freezing temperatures getting extreme enough to solidify the pipes leading to the kitchen tap. It’s 11:30 in the evening and the temperature is already down to 7.4F. That’s pretty cold to you and me.

So I have heat pouring off the woodstove and will be able to put some more in later tonight if I wake again later. If no, then Missus can, as I have a few pieces on the rack next to the stove. The rest is out in the bucket still, and I will have to go out and get it when the wood on the rack is gone. There are worms on the wood outside, and the pieces I put in were from a piece that has been lay around here for quite some time now. I think it is Russian Olive. That stuff cuts up and looks like maple but is quite a bit darker. But it tends to show the same rays across the medullary splits. It is quite hard, too. I might have to work with it sometime in the shop. But not this piece. It is going to keep the house warm while the temperatures drop tonight to an anticipated 0F. Tomorrow it is meant to drop to -2F. Cold! What a thing it is to have proper winter temperatures here again! It’ll be warmer again by Thursday. But still chilly like it was today. Not summer. Just laughably cool like it has been so far this winter. I have so often said it would not be so bad if the winters here were like Denver when I was growing up, and now it almost is. Yet, it could still warm more. I am nervous for what summer will bring, though.

Well, let’s see if a couple of melatonin tablets will just knock me over to sleep now. I hope so! They usually keep me till around two or three in the morning. It is easy to wake though, and a good night’s sleep is to be or not based on my bladder.

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Middle of the Night

Posted on January 18, 2025 by Kelsey

Here I am awake at 4 in the morning again. I have been awake for an hour already! Where did that go? I went to the loo about an hour ago. While I was up, I shut off the alarm that sets off beeping on the weather station receivers whenever the temperature drops to 20F. That is an important alarm. Below that temperature the pipes that lead to the kitchen tap are susceptible to freezing. So I have to be sure the water is running ever so slightly to prevent that. I put it on last night before I went to bed, so that was not so important tonight, but there was other waterworks that needed to be run, so I went downstairs to sort that out. While I was there, I noticed there was a very good bed of charcoals in the woodstove, so I put more wood in to keep it going till morning. But the wood is outside in the tractor bucket so none of the bugs wake up and crawl into the house. Keep them cold, keep them dormant. Bring them in and, well. First thing I noticed when I opened the door was the little layer of snow on the ground. Not much. Maybe a half an inch or so. Just enough to make me with I had brought my slippers down with me. But I didn’t. It was a good reason to put my feet up in front of that fire a bit before coming back up to bed.

With the water run, and the alarms shut off on both weather station receivers, I came back up the stairs. A quick scour of YouTube revealed to me a channel I have never seen before. It is from an optimistic fellow who put a few videos up 13 years ago and has now apparently decided to put some work into the channel again. I have not watched any of the old videos yet, but of the three or four I watched from his new ones, it looks like there is some serious potential there. The channel had beautiful cine work, and symbols styling. It deals with the woods in his hiking and in his woodworking in Canada. It is called Woodlore.

Reminds me. I proposed an idea to Missus that I build an outdoor bench and put it in the newly formed room under the tree in the front yard and use it as a space to do some woodworking in the warmer months. I could use it as a vantage point to watch her shop from. But I also could maybe draw some attention from passersby and use it as a space for shop visitors to observe the building of furniture and such for sale. I am thinking that it is nice working outdoors but, in the shade, too. So that might be a good workspace for me, a piece of wood or two, and a few hand tools. I like the idea of the natural setting for the work, under a tree.

This summer I would like to finish the final push on my weight loss. I am doing good, but I need to drop a few more pounds. I have no idea what my weight is, but I could love to see me a bit thinner. I am already happier with where I am at so far. I’ll bet that will turn to euphoria if I can get rid of the rest of my belly.

And now you know, again, what kinds of thoughts I entertain in the middle of the night. I am going to go watch a few more of the videos from that channel and see what the old ones look like. There are some interesting thumbnails and titles about making a wood screw. I have ideas for what I can do with that skill.

You know? Maybe a fire ring out from under the tree, but also in the front yard, would be a good place to do some outdoor cooking? Make supper and do woodworking all at once. What a life!

Posted in Weather, Woodshop | Comments Off

Lost An Old Friend’s Mom Today

Posted on January 17, 2025 by Kelsey

Got a message from an old friend today. His mom passed. Such sad news. It’s a tough thing to go through. I have good memories of the lady. She was nice, and very likeable. I wish the whole family well.

It’s been a busy day. I took the kids to their bus, came home and did the dishes, then had a little time to relax. Soon I was up and cleaning up the cast iron shelf and all the iron on it. It was a bundle of work. After that, I got to work on the firewood pile. While out there I put the chainsaw to the willow tree and trimmed it down some along the bottom. I think it will have a nice little room under it next year so long as I keep the new starts from intruding.

Okay, it did not take long to write about the day, but it was a lot of work.

The bummer of the wood is that it is from the tree that was out back of the house. I can see why a woodpecker was going to town on it. There were a lot of worms up there. That tree was in pretty bad shape. I am keeping the wood outside on the tractor bucket. I don’t want to bring any of it inside till it is time to burn it. Don’t want the insect life crawling around the house.

I need to put some of the cast iron out in storage. The iron shelf is much cleaner and clearer now. It is nice. It sure makes me happy.

Anyway, it is time for bed.

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At Bedtime

Posted on January 16, 2025 by Kelsey

I got out and worked in the tractor today moving long narrow-ish logs from the back by the sawmill to the Service Yard ready for me to cut down to burning length. It went pretty good sorting the ones big enough to use from the smaller stuff that I think would work well to burn outside. I left those on the dirt pile so I can pull them away next, and burin them and cook outside. Anyway, I will fill up the little chainsaw tomorrow and cut the big ones down and stack them tomorrow and clear them out of the yard.

After some working outside, I took Missus up to sort out her 4H course schedule. While she was in, I called and found out that Dominos is not hiring here. So that’s off the table for a quick fix on money. So, I will try again elsewhere. Meanwhile, she got months’ worth of courses sorted out, especially where the book club goes.

After we returned home, we soon had visitors and got to entertain all of the grandkids and their parents at once! The only one missing was our oldest who is at work in the oilfields. That was a great time, as it always is! We really enjoyed the lot of them.

Tomorrow, as I said, I will be cutting some wood down, and I plan on working on the chandelier, and searching the job market and putting in applications. I would also like to see about putting in some ads for tractor work such as spring tilling when the ground is thawed. I also need to get a firewood sales rack put together. That could help a bit. Then there is photography.

So, there is where I am as of tonight at bedtime.

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I made it to 4AM

Posted on January 15, 2025 by Kelsey

Up at 4AM to hit the loo, and put some wood on the fire to keep the house warm. That old woodstove is the heart of the house, I swear. Everyone genuinely gathers around it. I have come to understand how the hearth truly once was the heart of the home, historically. Perhaps that is why the words hearth and heart are so close a match to one another. If our house was better arranged and appointed, there would be two two-seaters in front of it with space for the whole family to sit comfortably. But doing that would put a little settee right in front of the door to the kitchen and the front door of the house. Who wants to come in the main entry and be blocked out by a big chair with its back to you?

To be fair, it was an alarm that woke me up this morning. I have one that goes off when the temperature outside drops to 20F. Below that temperature the pipe to the kitchen sink will freeze. If that happens, well, it’s anybody’s guess when it thaws again. It usually has to get above 45F in the day for that to happen. In a typical winter setting that can be anywhere from three or four days to a few weeks till that happens. And it could come with devastating consequences. I one had to pay a plumber $219 to come out and install $6 worth of PEX piping and two couplers. It was embarrassing because that was after talking the price down with him. But, if I obey my temperature alarms and get up and put a very slight trickle of hot and cold water on at that sink, it will not freeze, and I can sleep soundly. The trick is to put it on before I go to sleep, but that alarm will still wake me, because who knows when that temperature will be reached, and who wants to risk it? There is no way to turn it off easily, and I wouldn’t because it would have to be manually put back on, and who knows if I would remember to before the next freeze? All chances I would not want to take. So, I wake up once in the night once in a while! Better than not being able to wash the dishes in the kitchen sink easily. Better than replacing pipes. All these things in consideration and easily avoided by having an alarm connected to the thermometer outside.

I feel a little rough right now. Nothing on the joints, but on the tummy, for having eaten corn chips last night at bedtime. Yes, I had chips y salsa. I was craving the stuff after having not had it for some six months now. A staple of my former pallet, chips and salsa was a defining part of me, and I could normally eat nearly a whole bag of chips at one sitting. I finished a bit more than half of one last night before I could not. So my capacity is still shrunk, but I needed this. I just needed it. I am satisfied now, and satiated for hopefully the next six months so I can continue on with losing weight. It has been good to lose some, and I do feel better for it. I wonder how much better I could feel if I lose more. I mean, I think I am a lot healthier now, but I could be doing better, I am sure! It is a worthy goal!

Perhaps I can get some more sleep now before waking up to take the kids to school. I need to get out in the slightly warmer weather today to cut and spilt some firewood. I assumed by the warmer forecast that the sun will be shining a bit today. And tomorrow. And the next day. Sunshine makes a big difference in warming a fellow while he works in the winter days. Anyway. I have a bit of wood out there still, but the temperatures are forecast to drop in the next week or so and look more like a normal winter around here, finally. It seems we are on shortened winters now. That is not all that bad for this place. I think we could use more snowfall for the sake of the water supply. I also think the summers are getting a bit on the hot side, and I will have to adapt to working outside in the heat. Maybe that is something the diet will help me accomplish! Does a thinner man work better in hot weather? Does he tolerate it better? I have no idea! I have always been suseptable to heat stroke.

Oh, one last thought. That woodshed I stopped working on really could use finishing. That thing would have been sure handy to put the firewood into! I do not like working with the tarps, and it is not even snowy out! It is much worse with snow on them.

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Chandelier Making

Posted on January 15, 2025 by Kelsey

Building the chandelier still and decided today that rather than notching the bottoms of the stars, I would notch the arms, so I did that. Now I can get longer screws and put them through with some glue and fasten the stars down to the arms and hold the candle cups to the stars. Once that is done, I need a longer and larger screw to hold the bottom of the candle in the spindle. Once that is on, the only thing left apart from oiling it down is to put the eyelet in the top and hang it up. I want it at least two feet from the ceiling. That should keep it safe from burning the ceiling.

So that’s the progress for today. I got the notching done in my free time and set up one star for attachment to the final product. That establishes how the other three will be done. I’ll get to those tomorrow. If I get to town, I can pick up a couple of screws to finish the work up. Then I will set it up, photograph it, and set up a product page for the shop, and put it ready to sell for probably $250. Then I will make another, and do it better, then replace the photos and put it up for sale. I have a few improvements to do on production and design. But I think it will come out pretty good. And that’s it. When I get the pictures, I’ll post it here, too.

I called about the job today, but the manager was not in, so I will call again tomorrow. Perhaps. Perhaps.

Off to bed for now. I’ll probably write some more when I wake up at 2AM. What a laugh!

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Coming of Age

Posted on January 14, 2025 by Kelsey

My first year of high school I remember the upperclassmen talking about one of the teachers that had retired at the end of the year before. I don’t remember a name, or even a gender, to be honest, to go with this tale, but I do remember them laughing about how said teacher would come to class drunk and sometimes sleep through it. I had teachers that would come back from their brakes smelling of cigarettes, and if you could hear them on breaks they would talk about the conversations they had in that sacred space called the teacher’s lounge, where none of us were ever allowed, in part because of the smoking, and in part because of these conversations. Or maybe it was because of the liquor stash. But I caught a couple of the guys who taught neighboring classed once talking about what a lot of dumb shits some of us were.

This was no secret though. They would tell us to our faces, too! Only difference was, they would be a little more tactful. Rather than saying “you are a dumb shit!” They might use something like, “you are never going to amount to anything when you grow up, are you?” Rather than, “you are so stupid!” it might be, “I had a pickle in my sandwich at lunch that was smarter than you.” They would happily say that we were going to end up living on the streets. Never would they hesitate to tell us that we were as dumb as a box of rocks. It somehow seemed less direct than “you are an idiot.” But I would get the sense that they were cleaning it up not just for any kind of liability’s sake, or to not end up on the bad end of an argument with a parent. They were cleaning it up from the generation before them that would tell them they were idiots, and perhaps the generation before that would put a ruler across their knuckles.

We sure didn’t get ceremonies and trophies for every little accomplishment. And I am not saying I am against that, either! Hey, kids should be celebrated! But some of us are floated up like on a balloon. Some of us are dragged up. Some of us were kicked up. I am from the generation that was kind of dragged with the occasional kick. Hell, I was spanked for bad behavior in elementary school once by the principal, a creaky old man who had seen his best days before the war. Seriously! He would have been born around 1900. If having your ass tanned is a ceremony, then that was one of my best.

Things improved, even during the time I went to school. I saw the changes over the years I went. And now, I look in as a parent of two kids in school. They have serious attitudes against bullying now. I think when I was a kid, if a kid could not bear the bullying and intervened in their own life to stop it, then it was said of that kid that they could not hack it. It has a certain inevitability to it, like that was how Survival of the Fittest was interpreted back then. Many people still think of it that way, but they do a lot more to stop bullying, or to prevent it in the first place. I have got time for that. I was bullied quite a lot as a kid. There were people who made my elementary, middle, and high school life a pure and living Hell. I did not want to go. I hated being there. I feared some of these guys. And if I learned anything, for a brief while, it was how to hate. I grew out of that, and I honestly hold no ill will towards them. I don’t think much about them at all, except for something like this, an historical reflection. But I don’t have kids now who say of anything like this.

I did. I had one who went through a lot of bullying in school in England. It was both better there, and worse there. He had a teacher who quite literally hated him. We came across her in the grocery store one day, and he got all excited to see his teacher out in the real world. I watched him as he called her name, then looked at her and watched as she turned her nose up at him, turned herself and her daughter around, and huffed away. Never before or since have I seen a worse human being teaching children. That hurt him. At the time. After coming to the US, he got going in school and learned horse riding. Some time passed, and I asked him why I never hear about him being bullied anymore. His reply was, “When you learn to move a thousand-pound animal around, even the big kids at school don’t look so big anymore.” IT was one of the best moments in that I saw in his life. No more bullies! Well, non who could just get away with it, anyway.

Neither of the two kids still in school complain about the crap we put up with when I was a kid. Maybe the adults are the key! Maybe they are better at teaching them young not to be little jerks, and stopping them doing it when they are older. And maybe they are even better now at treating the kids with respect and not telling them their innermost feelings. Whatever the case, the ones of my generation who think that kids are being raised too soft would welcome back a world where people are deliberately rude to each other. I have got no truck with the world being a better place. Especially for the children.

Posted in Memories, Philosophical, Writing | Comments Off

A Daily Check-In

Posted on January 14, 2025 by Kelsey

After finally getting someone who could help us sort out our financial side to the whole go to the hospital and think death is knocking at the door thing, today we are feeling a lot better about progress, and where we can get help that is actually helpful. We also got a report back saying things are looking on the up and up for Missus, and on top of all that, she seems to be feeling generally a bit better, though there are still problems that she has to overcome to feel 100%. It has been a struggle, that’s for sure. I can’t think of anything so scary or worse that didn’t result in someone ending up dead after. This has been harrowing.

We got some things sorted and then went to the store to buy a few things for the pantry, then came home and I soon went to pick up the girls from the bus stop. Home again, some chores done, and some firewood brought in, and I made them burgers for their tea. Missus got up from a short nap, and I made her the Chinese that we picked up at the store only a little while before. Tomorrow, I need to check in about a job I have applied for, I think, and maybe look up a few more to try out.

The heart of the problem for us seems to lay in marketing our businesses. We don’t know how to drive traffic through the door, as it is commonly said. We don’t know how to get interested people to come and see what is on sale, and what we have to offer. So that is something we either have to work out on our own, or I need to pay out to Zuckerberg for advertising, and trust in his algorithm that has already shown bias to me by preventing posts on my business page from being seen by even the people who subscribe to it. It all seems so out of human control and feels so wrong to me. For example, I don’t know if you have noticed it or not but spellcheck has gotten worse on the computer. Mine, at least. It seems that when I spell a word wrong by a letter, spellcheck offers almost every imaginable correction except for the right one. It used to always include the right word in the suggestions list. And to think; these people who write programs want us to ride in their cars driven by these machines. Not me. Not yet. So I don’t trust algorithms. I’d rather put up a sign.

I want to build a few prototypes and jigs for making production work out of what I prototype, so I can make something the moment it is ordered, or in batches. Then I want to put images of the prototype up on the website and offer it for sale. I’d be great with selling a couple of chandeliers and a few other objects per week, for example. I could probably live off that. I could at least pay my bills to some degree! Then I could branch out even more prototypes and more offerings. But again, I need to drive people to the website where things are for sale. Maybe that is where Etsy comes in? Maybe I risk too much in the way of idea theft there. Have you also noticed? Everything we make is being copied in China now. They scour the web and find things that they can make and sell, and they steal it, right down to the images sometimes, and then sell it from there. That is destroying the online small business culture in America right now, and none of our politicians are doing anything about it. The only thing we can really do is keep our stuff offline and only allow it to be seen by those who come to the shop. But as I said, we need traffic through the door. It is all very difficult.

Well, I may work on finishing my current prototype tomorrow. I would like to put together some sort of advertising. It would be great to find that careful balance. I see a QR code coming in our future. And some signs for the local shop bulletin boards.

But for now, I foresee bed, and a good night’s rest! I sure didn’t get that last night after I woke up at 2AM and could not get back to sleep.

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