Hello!
I’ve been in Visalia, CA since May. It’s a pretty cool town.
I work downtown.
Clearly, that’s a big photo dump, but this city deserves it, and then some…
New town, who dis?
Tag Archives: Facts
Blue Luna Belle
Over 2 years ago, my Avon lady saw someone dump a kitten in a city lot, she scooped up the l’il, 3-week- old, tabby scruff, took it home, and cared for it for a month.
She showed me this photo:
And this picture:
…asking if I knew anyone who could care for or foster it (she wasn’t sure of baby’s sex) as my Avon lady is actually, mildly allergic to cats…like she gets a sore throat/stuffy nose…not like my other friend, Natasha, who never got to visit me cuz she would have stopped breathing. 🥺
ANYWAY…Avon lady’s other gig is singer in a band, so she can’t really keep a cat, even though she loved the li’l peanut!
SO…I asked her to bring that baby to me!
I loved having this sweet girl in my little 2nd floor apartment. Emily was NOT sure at first:
But Blue gradually wore her down:
She charmed us both:
And she ABSOLUTELY grew up too quickly. 🥺❤️
She is my perfect, best girl.
My sweet, baby Blue.
December 2024
- Coffee. Freshly roasted, freshly ground, freshly brewed. The smell of Folgers, in the red, metal can…opened with the green, electric can opener, is a CORE memory for me. I started drinking coffee when I quit drinking (1/9/00) and am now a snobby addict.
- Hearing aids. I’ve had mine for a month. I can hear the frogs out front now…
- The green of new grass.
- I am perpetually grateful for food that is made for me by others.
- The distinct purrs of each of 3 cats.
- Everything? Ok…trees.
- I was blessed to have a pretty stellar childhood, at least until the divorce when I was 13. Memories of growing up with My Brohim and my revered parents make me happy.
- C’mon! That’s a ridiculous question for a Librarian!
- The ranch house that I grew up in on a 1/4 acre lot in the middle of Kerman, CA in the 1970s & early 80s.
- Coffee.
- All winter light celebrations.
- Shonda’s homemade chocolate with cinnamon and chile.
- The ability to entertain myself. I don’t know if that’s a Gen X thing, a la “I’ll give you something to do.” or just me, but IMO, when you’re bored, you’re boring.
- Snow on the Sierra Nevada mountains.
- I have always adored autumn. I understand other places with 4 actual seasons, but I love when the rain comes to the San Joaquin valley in the fall, turning the golden grass on the hills to their winter green.
- My legs that take me everywhere.
- That my reinvention of me never ends.
- Dang! Another ridiculous question! This time for an Artist!
- When I pet Emily, then try to move away, she reaches out her white paw and touches me in hopes that I’ll stay.
- My Matt
- These Are Days by 10,000 Maniacs
- The stories of my family & me. Like how they left baby me with my godparents while they went to Disneyland.
- Traditionally, My Brohim and I are in contact with each other on xmas day. Anything more than that is frosting with sprinkles, baby!
- I’m supposed to wax poetic about how challenges make you stronger, but I’m not quite feeling that right now TBH.
- Every moment laughing with Matt.
- Making art with acrylic paint.
- My hearing aids are very small.
- A zoom meet with my Art Folks.
- Emily Doll Starr
- I’m very good at finding things.
- NEW YEARS EVE. I enter 2025 absolutely grateful for my little life.
My cats now…
Currently, I am owned by 3 felines…
The Queen of our home is Emily Doll Star, previously introduced as the partial namesake of this place, who just turned 15 years old in August.
15 feline years = 76 human years, so Mama gets what she wants on the regular:
She owns my heart. ❤️
Emily is my Best Friend, my Familiar, and my Muse. This is her song:
Because she is my sweetheart.
She had been blissfully alone with me after Merry & Pippin moved on, until 2 years ago, when Blue arrived…
But she deserves her own post.
Emily started to warm up towards Blue after a few (6) months, but then Joey arrived and she basically says, “Fuck those kids.” on the regular. 😁
Joey deserves his own post as well.
Emily, named for:
1) Emily Starr, of the L.M. Montgomery trilogy
2) Sara Crewe’s doll in A Little Princess by Frances Hodgson Burnett
3) Emily the Strange
…is the best cat who ever owned me.
She sleeps inside the armoire during the day, because she wants to be alone.
She curls up next to me and purrs me to sleep every night.
She cares gently for my heart.
Garden 2024
We moved the potted succulents back out by the fence after the risk of frost passed:
Before I started repotting almost everything:
And then I started weeding the dog run:
Along this side is where I found all of this and then some:
After the dog run, I weeded the front spot so’s I could fill it with wildflowers:
After the space received its feline blessing from Blue (my garden assistant):
…the sprouts popped up and have been growing since:
Look how tall they are now!
I did weed the big rectangle too:
We had no idea that the aloe would be so happy, it would bloom…um…fluorescently?
The other good thing I kept is this little rose bush:
She looks pretty good now:
After the great repot-the-succulents session, everything has more room and they’re showing me how happy they are now:
I love our back yard.
We’ll have a night fire in the chiminea soon. Prolly will be s’mores there too…😋
Dang.
I realize that it’s been over a year since I’ve written, but I’ve been weirdly occupied.
A week after my last entry, I was sent home from work on Paid Administrative Leave for 7 months, then released from employment on September 5th.
I moved to Woodbridge (Lodi) with Matt. I brought my (now our) 3 cats:
* I’ll tell Blue & Joey’s stories soon.
I applied for CA state unemployment in September, was denied on November 1st, and have been waiting for my appeal date since then.
I finally received notice of my appointment (4/25/24) 1.5 weeks ago.
Groovy, yeah?
Today I received this notice:
So…I’m on 6 months and counting with no income. (That tax return was helpful tho…).
We are safe and happy, here together.
I’ll tell about my gardening efforts soon, too.
✌️❤️🤘
Edit: I received notice that my appeal is now scheduled for May 7th at 10am. 🤞
Holocaust Memorial Day
My Father, Rob Roy Wirt, served in WW2. I’ve told the story many times, how he was too thin to enlist until he went home and ate bananas & cream for 2 weeks to make weight.
This was right after Pearl Harbor was attacked in 1941, when Dad was 19.
He told me stories while he prepared and broiled a steak (peppered heavily), sautéed mushrooms in butter, and made a green salad with cucumbers, green onions, radish slices, and blue cheese AND French dressing.
Only once, he told me about how he nearly got into a fight with 2 fellow recruits during basic training.
He happened upon the 2 while they were picking on a rather small-framed, Jewish, fellow soldier, calling him a “Christ killer,” and shoving him around.
My Father was angry hearing this and he called them out for the bullies that they were being, challenging them to, “Pick on someone your own size. I don’t believe in ANY of your gods!”
Although he was thin, Rob Roy was 6 feet tall and he’s the one who gave me these broad shoulders…I’d bet cash that he could appear as “intimidating” as folks call me.
While I imagine that he stood up for the guy because he was being picked on, because religion was of very low importance to my Dad, there were likely multiple reasons for him to intervene.
I have always been inspired by this story, to step in if necessary, and to stick up for others.
For always, and for many reasons, I will never forget.
A public edit
Hello.
I was able to have a professional photo session in January, and I love how the photos turned out.
Since that time, my eczema has flared up mercilessly. It’s all over my torso and now it’s on the side of my neck. It’s itchy, it burns, and I’m not happy about it heading towards my face.
I first had eczema around 2001, when a tiny spot appeared on my shin. I generally had a few flare ups on my shins/calves, and rarely, (thank goodness) on my hands.
This most recent flare up has been on my lower back, and the sides of my torso, which makes it ferociously painful at the waistband of my pants, and at my bra strap.
I finally have a Dr. appointment next Wednesday, where I hope to be referred to a Gastrointerologist and a Dermatologist for my problems in both of these areas.
I’m tough, so I’ll make it, but sometimes I get tired of being tough.
My Partner takes exquisite care of me on the weekends, when I stay with him, but there isn’t much to be done until I can receive medical treatment.
I have superb (for the United States) health insurance through my employer, but it can still be an ordeal.
Wish me well, will ya?
Social media break.
I’ve been on Facebook for a very long time. Since 2013? 2011? Something like that.
Recently, my Facebook use has gotten a bit excessive. As in, scrolling on Facebook has become an unacceptable time-suck in my life.
I am connected with far-flung family and friends through FB, as I have lived all over the country, and so do my friends and family, so I don’t plan to quit it completely, but I haven’t been on for over a week and the lack of daily scrolling sessions has not been in the least unbearable.
After this past week of total blackout, I’ll likely go back on sometime this weekend, but I will avail myself upon the scheduling software available to assist me in establishing/keeping limits on my use.
My Facebook habits have been causing issues in my most important personal relationship and I will never let a computer program get between me and real-life Human Interactions.
This I swear.
Horatio and Emily 