Proactive

No, not the acne med.

The act of Choosing how one will respond to any given circumstance or feeling.
Pausing in the moment to decide rather than react.

I find I react too much.

Push my buttons and a day later I might settle down and think about what I should have done.
Or wish I'd done.

Our book club has moved on to chapter two of "7 habits of highly effective people".

It has been very rewarding in just a few days.

Chap. one asks that you decide to be proactive. To make a promise to yourself for thirty days and keep it. Starting small and growing.

For a long time now I have told myself I want to, and should, walk 30 minutes a day, but have never actually Done anything.

Being proactive, I have set aside time right after lunch during my lunch hour and walked.

I can see this

taking me places...

***
Got the NCARB letter from my last Architectural exam.

"PASS".

One more to go!
And that is scheduled for March 12th.

I might be a R-chee teck by the time we move into our new house!

Zelda, can I get a new car as a Congrats!?

(Just kidding.)

new house

One week later and the house is closed in.
Roof deck is on, exterior sheathing in place,
all but one window and the doors.

We stopped by today to mark the studs so the electrician will know where to place the cable and phone outlets.

It's coming true,

"our house".

We have been of the attitude that we can and will hire others to maintain our existing home.
But thanks to a the sewer problem and bailing Sed out of jail, (mom has been gone 6 years now and thanks to the equity in her house, she's reaching from beyond the grave to help out her children) we are down to half of the cash we had in place for repairs...
Sed's company does interior repairs. He's offered to have his guys work for a straight fee to do the remodel.
Maybe now that he's into us for more, he might help by working it off.

Anyway, I should get off my lazy butt,
buy the proper equipment,
and make repairs to the outside and paint it myself...

Working in stages,
Z and I could do Some of the stuff on the inside as well...
***
We met our new neighbor to the west today.
He's building a two story, 3000 sf home.
Five bed rooms.
He's in his twentys, maybe his early thirties, single, and can afford such a big house...
He told us he's planning for a family and Lord willing, he'll meet his wife in good time.

A man with a plan!

7 friends, 7 habits

Zelda's bestest friend started a book club via the internet.

We have been reading "The 7 habits of highly successful people".
A book I have owned for years and have never finished...

It has been wonderful to discuss this with Zelda in particular, and others as I have my own interpretations and frames of reference.
Z has presented a view from across the way that has been refreshing.

What is your idea of "the Personality Ethic vs. the Character Ethic?"

It's sometimes difficult to see when right in the middle of it...

I have strayed, like most folks, from the Character ethic towards the Personality.
***
(for those who have not had a chance to read it, for the first 150 years of US literature, the focus was on the Character Ethic, what is inside is important. Character, courage, integrity, faith.
It has since changed to Personality. How you sell yourself, what people think, etc.

Character Ethic:
An example given is the farm.
There is a process that must happen before the harvest.
The soil is prepared.
Seed planted.
Tended.
and after a set period of time,
the crop is ready for harvesting.

Nothing can short circuit this principle.

Personality Ethic:
Cramming for an exam.
Play all week till the night before the exam then study all night in an effort to 'learn it all'.

the point being is, you can't cram on the farm (the principle),
forget to plant in the spring, play all summer then squeeze the planting tending, and harvest into one week.
***
It, along with the fresh food we've been buying brought this thought on investing.

Someone gives you some eggs.
They are viable and if tended too long enough, will hatch into chickens, ducks, geese, etc.

Which if tended to and managed (and left alone) will produce more eggs,
which given enough time will hatch into more live stock.

some eggs can be sold for income
some eggs can be raised for chicks which can be sold
others raised till adulthood for sale
and the last raised to continue making eggs
which can be sold for income
or....

The question becomes

"what will You do with the eggs?"

I find I spend them.
Cash them out before they can even hatch.

And lately, I have sold them before they are even laid...
This puts me in a bind...

Change "eggs" to "Money"
and it still works the same way...

So...

what are you doing with your eggs?

Raw

Real Food!

Zelda and I stopped by Burgandy Beef Saturday on our way down to Granbury to pick up more free range eggs.

I'm never going back! (to factory eggs).

Z made sunny side up and they were silky and rich and creamy.

She used them in a cheese cake that was also silky smooth.

The thought of going back to the store bought is unappealing.
Watery, pale, standard eggs with no life...

Caused me to wonder how the factory chickens must feel physically.
Their produce being a reflection of their state of health and well being, they must feel like crap...
****
I have also been interested in trying raw milk. No additives, etc.

Burgandy beef doesn't offer milk as it doesn't have dairy cows.
But the sales lady put us in touch with a lady who does.
One gallon of un processed milk.
"Remember to shake it because the cream rises to the top."

Just like the eggs, it is rich and creamy. It has life in it...
The nutrients and bacteria haven't been stripped out.

Everyone I have mentioned this too have responded with something along the lines of "oh! you have to be careful of raw milk, you can get sick".

True.

But you can also get sick on
industrialized peanut butter,
or factory packaged spinach.

A few years ago, non pasturized apple juice made some folks sick.
A law was pasted requiring it to be pasturized if sold via stores.

Those were small, organic companies selling to the 'health nuts'.

Since the peanut butter and spinach were from large corporate growers, I wonder if there will be any laws passed about irradiation of all veggies?

Anyway.

If you can locate a local farmer with produce to sell,
Z and I highly recommend you try them at least once,
if only to see what you're missing...

sed ned

Yesterday I spent the day with my estranged brother Ned and his wife, Neddy, at the Collin County Court house where we reconnected, and testified in the Bond Reduction Hearing for Sed the formerly incarcerated.

Hiring the Attorney was the best thing we did with our money.

Sed's $10k bond was deemed Insufficient by the judge after his case was reviewed by the grand jury and raised to $50k. That's 5,000 bail and collateral.

He was rearrested in January.

Neddy has been studying to become a Criminal Law Attorney and knew some tricks.

For all of you out there who have Myspace accounts and haven't learned from the cases you may have heard about high school cheer leaders posting suggestive photos, or high school baseball players being kicked off teams for comments "made in jest" about coaches....

Thank you!!!

The guy who accused Sed has such a MySpace account.
He makes comments about the charges. He makes comments about liking rough sex.

And Neddy paid it a visit and printed off a number pages from his page, his friend's pages, and from his attached blog.

And gave them to the defence attorney!

This guy has shot himself in the foot (and then stuck it in his mouth).

And yes, we did get Sed out on reduced bond.
Which was not going to happen till both Ned and I testified.

Moral of the story,
Pay the money to get a good attorney up front
cause if you are accused and go to jail,
the system is against you...

and on that note,
while at the bond company filling out the paper work, there was a guy there with warrant aganst him paying his bond,
then all he had to do was turn himself in and he would be immediately released.

Smart...

Problems

From "Little Miss Sunshine"
the character quoted Proust who said something along the lines of,
'what made me who I am, what made me grow, were all the bad times, the troubled times in my life. the happy times were worthless.'

I would say the struggles help me mature.
to tackle those things I'd just rather ignor...
***
We stopped by the new house Saturday.
they have the walls framed and the second story started.

but Zelda noticed that the two electrical outlets we paid extra for are in the wrong locations.

both place them in walk paths.
Unless they are out of traffic, (where we requested) they are going to be tripping hazzards and thus utterly useless...

Zelda is going to make a call Monday to resolve it...

Thanks love
***
latest sewer video (at $160 each) shows the sewer is only 50% blocked now. and that the pipes owned by the city have shifted, as we thought, and are allowing ground water and silt into our line...

Zelda has offered to contact the City
Again.
but I know it is wearing on her...

but this time we have a tape of it as proof...
***
Sed, the incarcirated, is not happy with the lawyer we hired...
he's still in the Colin County jail.
He's called 6 times tonight but I haven't answered as there is nothing new to say.
I have a call into his lawyer about some questions.
But Z and I are growing weary of being in the middle...

Seems the original warrant doesn't exist for their entering his house.
Or at least they have not been able to track it down.

Seems the latest indictment was for someone Sed doesn't know.
(So it should be thrown out, but has not).

The judge has not been willing to lower the bail.

And since I have not heard back from the lawyer,
I'm not answering the phone.

And it makes me feel like a jerk...
***

Organic milk

I have tried to research the whole Horizon Organic milk thing, so far I haven't found anything...

I do know from a friend who grew up on a dairy that
***
for those with a queezy stomach, you may want to skip this entry
***
with all the antibiotics and other drugs they give the cows...
it makes them sick.
as in...
they give the cows runs....
and since large dairys use mechnical equipment to milk the cows,
it doesn't care what is sucks up...
and since all the milk from all the cows goes into the same vat...

The standard practice, since most dairies can't afford to throw out an entire morning's proceeds,
is to add bleach or some other chemical in large enough amounts to kill any of the bacteria,
and to also Hide the, uh... added ingredients, but not in enough amounts to cause an odor or change the taste...

My buddy doesn't drink milk...

this would not happen if
the animals were allowed to roam freely,
they were grass fed, (feed lots at most commercial factories and meet packing lots provide grains, not grass, more about this later),
and thus antibiotics would not required (because of the close quarters and improper feed)
the diarrhea would not happen in the first place

it may be that Horizon's contracted dairys are good to the cows, it may be the milk is adulterated...

anyway...
***
cows are designed to eat grasses, but not grains.
Grasses and grains are hard to digest,
so cows have the four stomaches.
We are designed to eat meat,
thus the shorter intestines,
other wise the meat would begin to rot in our gut.
We have to process grains, cook them, treat them etc. so our stomaches can digest.

On feed lots, cows are fed grains to fatten them up,
this process encourages harmful bacteria,
such as e coli.
Which is becoming stronger
due to the antibiotics,

Spinach any one???

the new and improved... yeah..

well, I've made the switch to google blogger.
(if I WANTED to have a blog through gooble, I WOULD have signed on with one from Gobble.
Guess if you buy the company, you make the rules..)

sigh...

organic

Zelda and I visited Burgandy Beef today, the organic beef company south of Fort Worth.

The lady behind the counter is from Iowa originally so Zelda and she talked about Texas weather.

She also provides some of the free range eggs.

Zelda is excited because amoung the brown eggs were two Green Eggs!

The secret to making great pasta is... the eggs.
Fresh, free range chickens make the best eggs...

We talked about organic milk.

Turns out Horizon, the provider of much of the Organic milk is not good to the animals.
She suggested a Raw Milk farmer near by.

I have heard from two sources now that Pasturization and Homoginization make Milk toxic to calfs. It will in fact kill them.

Zelda has discovered that she does not have milk problems when it's Organic, but "normal" milk, gives her stomach trouble...

I discovered that organic tastes sweeter to me...