Still No Juicer, Fall is in the Air, Festival Time, Our trees cut down needlessly

    It is funny, my last post about needing a juicer. I still don't have one, as my damn, stupid old car (the one I inherited 'back' from my son after he got a job and needed better, more reliable transportation) took $460 of our hard earned dollars -- the back tires were in bad shape and the exhaust system was totally rusted out and barely attached. WEll, son Zeb had been without a job for a while so he spent as little on the car as possible, I can see. Cars are a real money pit!
   So, I don't have a juicer but am trying to exercise more and get out in nature. This  is the time of year for outdoor festivals, when the air is not too hot or too cold, though today it is colder and windier than normal. Yes, the clean, crisp air of autumn, the different colors swirling around your head as you venture out across the lawn or across town-- if they stay up there.
    Yes, our maintenance crew by the house we are presently renting (man, do I want to move out and into a house of my own!) "said" that the town told them our walnut trees were close to the power line. Baloney. They weren't within 15 feet. They just wanted them cut down because the black walnut fruits put dings in a few of their trucks! They're maintenance people so why don't they build a canopy for the stupid trucks! No, they had to tell the landlord about the trees. But what does "he" care if we have squirrels in our yard scurrying up these wonderful, healthy trees, or if my husband has a place to hang a bird feeder and drive our cat crazy with watching them? Why should he care? Well, he didn't!
    I ran to the realty office as they were cutting (not trimming, which they could have done) these 60 foot trees, the three sisters down. They refused to give me the landlord's whole name and address  or phone number, so I could talk him out of destroying these healthy, beautiful trees. Well, he's part of the one percent and we are part of the 99 percent. We just don't count. We don't have any money to fight city hall, as it were.
So the three sisters, who provided us privacy, who soaked up nasty fumes and carbon dioxide from passing cars, who provided a home for squirrels, who beautified the neighbor, were cut down to three foot stumps. It was unnecessary and spiteful.
   And a week later, nature retaliated. A week later an old silver maple let the wind break off its limps, landing in our front yard and almost on our little house. A coincidence? Maybe  Mother Nature was just plain fed up!

Colon Cleanse Best with Juicer, Dog Problems, Talk to Students about Nature

     Well, I saw an ad online that said Rachel Ray lose 32 pounds, something about Acaci berries and a colon cleanse. I should do a colon cleanse, but I need to get a juicer. Did you know that a juicer actually 'breaks down' the walls of fruit and vegetables? I tried a "juicing" recipe from Natural Health magazine that used carrots, romaine lettuce and mustard greens or some such green and it just created a big goop! And then I drank that three mornings in a row and actually made me, with my messed up intestinal track, constipated! Yes, I got plugged up by something healthy! I am going to get
a juicer now this month.
     And the danged dog-- what an expense. Spent over $100 (!) on a haircut and some shots, but the vet said he had an enlarged testicle and yet, surgery would be risky and require certain tests (as he is 11 years old). Not my dog, our fifth stray dog and never wanted  this whiny mutt so it's the husband's call. The surgery alone would cost $200! Oh, will I ever have money?
      Well, my students are analyzing an excerpt from the book Last Child in the Woods: Saving Our Children from Nature Deficit Disorder. Some of them want to argue about the issue instead of just analyze, one student just "described" what was in it without analyzing the logic of it. They seem to need to be led by the hand, most of them. It is frustrating, and they wonder why they haven't gotten all As! Next week I will have a guest speaker  talk about  the town's trees so maybe that will help them see the value of nature more. One can hope. 

Miserable cold Highlanders' Festival, Radford,VA, hair still thinning out

     My musings on life are not all that amusing, are they? Kurt Vonnegut had the line "and so it goes" and now has a biography with that title. What could my
literary title be? And so she went (and needed to lose weight and become somebody to have some satisfaction in life and make a difference). I think we all want to make a difference. I stay dissatisfied with myself all the time. But I am no great perfectionist either. Just looking for publication, I guess, some validation.
     I am going to try to write about the "Highlander Festival". It is an annual event in Radford for the Scottish clan in you, with Scottish competition like the  hammer toss, tossing hay bales (supposed to represent sheep and they wanted to be humane, I guess ) all kinds of arts and crafts, Irish bread, Amish Bread, Celtic symbols, bands that use fiddle, guitar and drums. I have been to this event several times and the band was good, despite it being cold and then starting to rain, and then not raining,and then being cold again. It was miserable, but they got us up and jumping several times and met a few English
club friends there too!
   I'm in here waiting for a student and look in the mirror -- man,I need to lose body fat, and need a wig almost, this low thyroid crap is bad. I need to increase my metabolism, and/or find a doctor who can. Wish I had some real money to go to the doctor.