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The Silk Scarf

           In Red Wing there is a store in the depot down by the river. Area artists of all types can sell what they create there.  There is jewelry, pottery, pictures, carved wood and hand dyed silk scarves to name a few of the items sold there. It's a bad place for me to go into because I almost always see something I like and I usually purchase it. I'm wearing one of the things I bought there right now, a round gold pendant with a rose on one side and rays radiating from the center on the other side.          One time last year when I went in there I saw a silk scarf. It was cream coloured with splashes of red, fuschia, purple, pale blue, pale green and pale yellow. It was beautiful and I wanted to buy it. It was a bit expensive and honestly, when would I wear it.? I have many scarves that are in my closet that I don't wear. Since I'm trying to become better at not purchasing things I won't use, I left the scarf in the store...
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Election Season

           The primaries are over and we are now in the season I dislike the most, election season. Don't get me wrong, I'm grateful for the right to vote, but I truly despise what happens between now and the first Tuesday in November. Hateful speaking will be pouring out from everywhere and since there are women running for office in Minnesota it will be even worse thanks to rampant misogyny in our culture.          I believe there is a better way. It will be less expensive so candidates for office can't be bought  by businesses and other groups. It will give voters information on candidates so they can vote for the person they believe is best. It would also give third party candidates a chance to get their information out there equally with those of established parties.          I think that candidates for public office should be treated like people interviewing for a job. All public offices filled by...
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An Interesting Cat

           Today is International Cat Day, created in 2002 by the  International Fund for Animal Welfare. Most cat "owners" know that every day is cat day when you live with one. Although the day is meant to bring awareness to the welfare and protection of cats, I'm using it as an opportunity to write about Barnaby.           For those of you new to this column, Barnaby is a three year old cat that lives with us. He is big and fluffy with a white and orange coat. He looks a lot like a Norwegian Forest cat, but is not a purebred cat. He came to us via a coworker of mine who was running a small scale rescue of cats living on an abandoned farm near her home. Many of the rescued cats became working cats on farms after neutering/spaying and vaccination. She was looking for a home for Barnaby as she felt he would do better as a housecat. She described him to me as "starving for affection".          When ...
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Sophia Latinam linguam discit.

           I'm learning Latin. I use the word learning very loosely as I'm using the free version of an app. It's fun, but as someone who took four years of German in high school and three years in college, it's more a game to play than actual foreign language study. I'm learning a few words and sentences, but nothing really usable at least so far. None of the lessons cover Latin sentence structure. That bothers me because I like knowing the rules for sentence structure. When I get a sentence to translate, I feel like I'm guessing.          I've always wanted to learn Latin. I had even signed up to take it in college, but I got accepted into pharmacy school and wasn't able to. The Romance languages such as Spanish, Italian, French and Galician descend from Latin. Some of terms used in pharmacy are Latin like BID (twice daily) and TID (three times daily) and PO (by mouth)          I was reminded of my interes...
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Saved by the Bike Shop

           C was loading the bikes onto the car on Monday night when he discovered a big problem. The front tire on my bike was completely flat. As I looked at the tire I noticed that it was cracked and that's probably why it went flat. The tire was the the original one on the bike when I bought it about 30 years ago so it's no surprise. It's been really hot outside, the temperature in the garage would have been even higher.          This was a bad time for this to happen. C and I were really looking forward to a ride since it had been too hot to ride all last week. We wanted to get an early start, but the bike shop didn't open until ten. We discussed possibly hiking somewhere instead riding our bikes.           The next morning, C decided to play pickleball since we weren't going to be able to start our ride early. I did some chores around the house. When C came back we donned our riding attire, filled...
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Middle Eastern Festival

           It's Middle Eastern Festival time at the Eastern Orthodox church near our home. We've been going to this festival every year for most of the years we have lived here.          I have always enjoyed learning about different faiths especially when paired with other ethnic cultures.             We like to go when the festival opens and have lunch. They have Lebanese food: kabobs, kafta, kibby and my personal favourite falafel. They used to have a combination plate with a sample of most of the menu that C and I liked to share. Unfortunately they stopped offering it.           They play music while people are eating. The lyrics are in a language I don't understand, but the music is very rhythmic and loud. They have two dance groups made up of teenagers and preteens that perform ethnic dances at set times in the tent where people eat. I was surprised the first tim...
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Ode to Another Billy Joe

           A few weeks ago, one of my coworkers committed suicide by jumping off a bridge. I use the word coworker very loosely. He was not a part of the pharmacy staff so I didn't interact with him. I saw him a lot around the store. He was kind of hard to miss as he had the longest hair I have ever seen on a man along with facial hair to match.          What I do know is that he was a dependable and well liked by everyone. When he didn't call or show up to work, people were concerned. This lead to a search which found his car parked with his phone and ID in it. There was a note in his apartment.           He wasn't found right away. Some of the people who knew him thought that maybe he ran away. Maybe he was in Las Vegas or some where getting away from it all. They didn't want to believe that he was really gone and that he had killed himself. I don't blame them. It's a hard thing to process.   ...
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