I'm away from the horses for a bit and house pets have to satisfy for a while. It works, but the mix of the bigger and the smaller critters will feel good when I am recovered from the fall I took and able to shovel horse poop again.
In the meantime I have had a chance to think about where I want to go with my violin playing, and I well may opt for a change of direction. The woman who has been holding down my seat in front of the second violins in one of my orchestras has again started to get odd about the conductor. Thus far it feels very similar to what happened the last time I was out of action for a bit and she filled the seat. The conductor is easily influenced by someone with a certain type of manipulative behavior, and as a result I felt like chopped liver for a while when I returned to the seat. There was little to no communication and he was downright rude several times in the first couple of performance cycles.
I am resolved that I don't want to go through that again, and I've been thinking of doing some different things in my playing than before. I well may let her have that seat, move to the back, and not get into the fray. This time of being unable to play is helpful in my coming to a decision about that.
Tuesday, October 25, 2011
Wednesday, October 19, 2011
Things to remember
The pair of goats at the farm, leaning out over the top of their enclosure hoping that one of us coming by to pick up our box of vegies will go over and scratch their head. The male nuzzling the doe while thay waited.
The ever-annoying Siamese patting at my leg to get some attention, so he can climb in front of me as I type.
The ever-annoying Siamese patting at my leg to get some attention, so he can climb in front of me as I type.
Sunday, October 16, 2011
From the Farm, Animals Too
The last week has been spent processing vegetables that arrive in copious quantities from the CSA, but my husband doesn't eat. This last week turned up a red beet coulis, which worked great as a sauce over cheese ravioli and for pork chops. The second batch of beets got turned into that and hit the freezer today, with the garlic and ramped up from the original version. Some of the collard greens were hidden in a kimchi soup, and the rest may find their way to tonight's fish.
Today's recipe was to use something that he does like, but Ma Nature tends to pre-package in a quantity that is harder for two people to kill in a single meal - butternut squash. Aside from having overshot the mark a little on the curry, which will not be an issue when I add the cream tonight, it came out well.
I was struck by how much of what I used came from a local farm, including animals. All of the vegetables as well as the pears came from this last week's visit to pick up our farm share. The stock came out of the freezer, made a few months ago from the backs of the whole chickens from another local farm. I buy them fresh and cut them up for our purposes. The vegetables that went into that stock came from the same farm as the squash and the pears.
The only things that did not come from a local farm were the butter and the curry. The cream I'll add later is also from a local cooperative.
Some years ago, I'd have thought that this kind of habit required that I live in a very rural area. But we live in a cluster of small cities with over a dozen colleges and the seat of state government under our noses, in a traditionally industrial valley. The produce and animals that contributed to this soup all came from smaller family farms, tucked into the rolling hills north and east of here. The local food movement is alive and well around here.
Today's recipe was to use something that he does like, but Ma Nature tends to pre-package in a quantity that is harder for two people to kill in a single meal - butternut squash. Aside from having overshot the mark a little on the curry, which will not be an issue when I add the cream tonight, it came out well.
I was struck by how much of what I used came from a local farm, including animals. All of the vegetables as well as the pears came from this last week's visit to pick up our farm share. The stock came out of the freezer, made a few months ago from the backs of the whole chickens from another local farm. I buy them fresh and cut them up for our purposes. The vegetables that went into that stock came from the same farm as the squash and the pears.
The only things that did not come from a local farm were the butter and the curry. The cream I'll add later is also from a local cooperative.
Some years ago, I'd have thought that this kind of habit required that I live in a very rural area. But we live in a cluster of small cities with over a dozen colleges and the seat of state government under our noses, in a traditionally industrial valley. The produce and animals that contributed to this soup all came from smaller family farms, tucked into the rolling hills north and east of here. The local food movement is alive and well around here.
Thursday, October 6, 2011
Can We Help You?
I called up a web hosting service to have them refresh the site at their end. My index page wasn't being seen. It took a about 4 minutes and things were fine. I got a customer survey call back.
I called up an insurance company to ask them to send another bill, one that I tend to lose in the house. I got the bill two days later. I got a customer survey one day later.
I got an oil change done on the car. I got a call back with a customer survey.
I get a paper or automated survey after almost every doctor's visit these days, no matter how routine.
It took 7 days, three visits including two times of adjusting the phone line so it wasn't too low and many phone calls to get our land line and DSL moved and functioning at a different address this last spring. I got a call back with an automated customer survey after every call and visit. Some of these came through while I was on hold trying to get to Verizon to find out what had gone wrong this time.
I appreciate that people who provide services want to know how well they are doing. But their needs for feedback are getting to be pretty high maintenance.
I called up an insurance company to ask them to send another bill, one that I tend to lose in the house. I got the bill two days later. I got a customer survey one day later.
I got an oil change done on the car. I got a call back with a customer survey.
I get a paper or automated survey after almost every doctor's visit these days, no matter how routine.
It took 7 days, three visits including two times of adjusting the phone line so it wasn't too low and many phone calls to get our land line and DSL moved and functioning at a different address this last spring. I got a call back with an automated customer survey after every call and visit. Some of these came through while I was on hold trying to get to Verizon to find out what had gone wrong this time.
I appreciate that people who provide services want to know how well they are doing. But their needs for feedback are getting to be pretty high maintenance.
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