Tag Archives: newsletter

“All good things must come to an end”

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I was looking through my “bird folder” and found a few photos I really liked but didn’t remember taking. They are from April and May. I brightened them up in Adobe Camera Raw and cropped them.

“All Good Things Must Come to and End” is a line attributed to Chaucer, a 14th century English poet. It seems fitting for my life right now.

First, I decided to no longer serve on the board of my women’s group. Then I learned a few weeks ago that the organization is caput. I believe it lasted for more than 30 years and I’ve been involved for about three. I was in charge of communication for membership and for the public, promoting our work and events. The group post COVID had dropped in membership from 200 to 20. Plus a lot of women are getting older. It just wasn’t feasible anymore.

Next, I decided to resign from the HOA newsletter. I worked on the newsletter for four years. I enjoyed it, but a new board was micromanaging and it was no longer a joyful experience.

Does anyone know what type of bird this is? I’ve only seen it once. I’m glad I got a photo.

I had my last photography class last week for the semester. I’ve really enjoyed it and have learned so much. There are five other students who have taken the class for three to nine years. I’m the newbie and this was my first semester. I thought this was going to be an ongoing experience for me. In our last class, I was the last person to present my final project, which I posted HERE.

Then the professor said he had some business to go over. He said the community college may be discontinuing the class. He won’t know for sure until January. So this too may pass.

A Harris’s hawk taking off.

The class is over zoom and there was complete silence when we heard the news. Apparently a student in another one of the professor’s classes was causing trouble for him. He didn’t go into detail, but said the other issue is low attendance. The advanced workshop is by invitation only. It’s not open enrollment. The group is very cohesive and everyone is talented and open to improving and trying new things.

There’s nothing I can do but wait for the New Year and find out if I have a class or not.

Mourning dove landing on the fence.

What good things in your life have come to an end?

One of those days

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It’s been quite the week for wildlife. I had two Harris Hawks hanging out on the fence yesterday. Here’s one of them.

Yesterday, after my two-hour zoom call, doing household chores, writing and all the other stuff, I went to the grocery store to pick up ingredients for Ina’s Chicken Pot Pie Soup with Puff Pastry Croutons that I wrote about Wednesday. I loved the recipe from Monday’s cooking class I attended.

I made a grocery list that was quite extensive. There were a lot of ingredients in the recipe that I never buy, like fennel and leeks. It took a bit of time to hunt everything down, plus get the things we ordinarily use. Plus I needed bird seed for my Bird Buddy AI feeder and for the quail.

Of course, all the lines were jam packed. I didn’t feel like self checkout so I waited and waited. Once I got everything out of the cart, I reached for my wallet.

My wallet wasn’t in my purse!

Then it dawned on my that I left my wallet in my swim bag the day before. I had gone lap swimming at the YMCA. The grocery clerk asked me to put everything back in my cart and go to the manager. I thought she’d at least check me out and they could hold onto my groceries until I came back with my wallet. But no, I was going to get to stand in line again plus schlep the groceries around again.

I called my husband. I called three times and he didn’t answer. I had talked to him moments before. But he was probably on the phone for work. I wanted him to meet me at the grocery store with his wallet.

The grocery store is 15 minutes away and for some unknown reason the street, of course, had a ton of traffic. Once I got to the main road to make a left-hand turn to go two miles to our street, a police car with a siren stopped in front of our turn lane and blocked us. I noticed the writing on his car. Funeral. He was blocking the road for a funeral procession. The deceased must have been famous or well-liked. Yes, there were a ton of cars.

Eventually, after driving back and forth for one hour, shopping, un-shopping and waiting to pay for groceries, I got everything home.

I was planning on prepping for the delicious soup when I called my partner for the HOA newsletter to confirm our meeting was in a week from Friday, not the next day.

“No, it has to be tomorrow,” she said. “I’m leaving town Saturday.” I was afraid of that. That’s why a little voice in my head made me call.

So much for cooking. I had to sit down and write newsletter copy. Hunt for photos, write captions and get ready for today’s meeting.

Then I got to cook. But I was exhausted!

Chicken Pot Pie Soup and and Puff Pastry Croutons

When was the last time you had “one of those days” and what happened
that made it so?

Happy Friday!

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I have never seen this cactus bloom before, let alone in August! Must have been our recent monsoon.

I’m wondering what happened with the week? It rushed by. Usually the dog days of summer in the desert are slow to pass. But not this week.

What was I up to this week?

On the weekend, we made dinner for newish friends of ours. We cooked an all American meal of ribs (my husband), potato salad, corn on the cob and cherry pie (me.) We met these friends at the funeral of our friend who introduced me to my husband 40 years ago. He died suddenly from Valley Fever after we moved to Arizona. Our friends we had over for dinner were his brother and wife who moved to Arizona from Seattle. A circle of new friends all bought homes in Arizona, including us and another couple from Kirkland, because of this one friend. We’ve all pledged to keep his memory alive and get together several times a year.

The next busy moments came Monday morning meeting to brainstorm with my newsletter co-hort to write and layout the quarterly HOA newsletter. I’m proud to say that after 30-plus years of “newslettering,” I returned to my roots. We initiated a new process this issue that worked and the President of the HOA approved.

I compiled all the copy in a word document and sent it to the board to approve — prior to spending hours laying it out. This was similar to my early PR days, before desktop publishing and Mac computers. I would drive copy to the typesetter and then get it approved before giving copy to graphic designers to layout. Or, do the layout myself.

This is saved me countless revisions. It was annoying to have the newsletter all ready to go, and then have five board members give their two cents worth on what to change — one by one.

Other than the newsletter, which took up most of Monday and Tuesday, I had my first hair appointment since April. My hairdresser, who I love, went on maternity leave and it wasn’t worth it to me to try someone new for a one off appointment. It was fun to learn how my hairdresser is totally amazed and feels blessed with motherhood. She wasn’t expecting the dramatic love and emotions she’s experiencing now.

Thursday was a doctor’s appointment for my husband that I drove to. It was his final cataract appointment. He has new-fangled lenses that can be adjusted post-surgery with a laser light. It meant four or five extra appointments, but it’s supposed to make vision sharper.

Now that it’s Friday, we’re meeting friends who moved here from Palm Springs for dinner. But I have the day free to relax, read and comment on posts. I might visit the library, too.

I feel like one of my husband’s older clients from decades ago. My husband would call them to come into his office for an appointment. Often they’d respond, “Oh I can’t make it Wednesday. I have a doctor’s appointment.” Those were the days I was volunteering at school, taking kids to piano lessons, packing lunches, making dinners and volunteering at swim meets. I always wondered why people thought they were busy doing one “main thing” a day. Now I know!

How did your week go? Did it flash by quickly or seem slow?

What were some highlights of the week?

Beautiful Blooms vs. Invasive Plants

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Look at how beautiful this cactus in bloom is! Photo taken Thursday.

I am discovering flowers where we have never had flowers before. Take the cactus above for example. It hasn’t bloomed in the three years we have lived here. But this year, plants I didn’t know could flower are bursting with blossoms.

This is what the cactus looked like Wednesday:

It’s beautiful with buds. But I wasn’t ready for the next day and how spectacular it would be (photo above.)

What about invasive plants?

The front page article for my community newsletter was a request to get rid of invasive plants. The two species to eradicate were Globe Chamomile (also known as Stinknet) and Desert Broom. Although Desert Broom is native to the Sonoran Desert, it’s aggressive and takes over, hence the need to get rid of it. I researched Stinknet and Desert Broom and found photos online for the newsletter.

One of our neighbors received a letter from the Scottsdale Fire Department to clean up their yard and to get rid of Globe Chamomile. Apparently, it can be a fire hazard as well as taking over land from native plants.

I haven’t seen Stinknet in real life but I’ve read about it from Erin on Existential Ergonomics. Also my graphic designer friends who make up my “lunch bunch” talked about Stinknet at our last lunch. I’m keeping my eyeballs peeled for it. I mistakenly thought brittle brush was Stinknet.

I keep hearing, “It’s the little yellow balls.” Well, brittle brush looks like yellow balls, because the petals are falling off with hotter days.

Imagine my surprise when I was taking photos of the beautiful cactus blooms and looked at a pot next to it and saw this:

Stinknet took over a planter in my backyard!

I sent the photo to my lunch bunch and got this reply:

“It’s insidious and will grow anywhere….

“Masquerading as a plant worthy of a pot 😂 is taking it up a notch!”

Since yesterday, I’ve found it growing next to our trash bins. The plant originated in South Africa, made it’s way to Australia and Riverside County, California before heading to Arizona. I never heard of it when I lived in Riverside County — it must not have made it’s way into the Coachella Valley.

I’ve been instructed to wear gloves, dig it up, throw it in a plastic bag, tie it up tightly and throw it away. I want to thoroughly inspect our yard for Stinknet. But then I just got an email from my next door neighbor that he found a large rattler in his backyard! Yikes!

Have you heard of Stinknet before? What invasive plants do you have?

Walking through the weekend

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More trash on our trash walk

We saw this styrofoam on our walk. This is on the other side of the road from where we cleaned up last week.

As I wrote last week, we decided to have a quiet weekend without cooking, cleaning and entertaining.

It was lovely. We’ve been entertaining and going out with friends more than introvert me prefers. I don’t know why our neighborhood is so darn social. Maybe it’s the years of being shut down. The newcomers — like us — who moved during the pandemic were looking to end isolation and make new friends.

Anyhow, a weekend alone was much needed and appreciated.

Some of the highlights were our morning and afternoon walks. We decided to double up on walking and although my feet and knees hurt, I think it may be good for me?

Last week, we noticed trash on the side of the road and sidewalk. We picked up several bags and felt good about our good deed. I wrote about that HERE. After this weekend, we are up to eight bags of trash. The side of the road we started on looks wonderful. But then one day we ventured to the other side of the road — and it’s a mess!

As we were headed back to our garbage cans at our house with our stuffed bags and my husband holding random pieces of styrofoam too big for the bags, we ran into neighbors. They said they thought about doing the same thing. The wife asked her husband to take a photo of us holding our trash! She said, “You can put it in the newsletter and maybe it will encourage others to do the same.”

“That’s a great idea,” the husband said snapping our picture. “We’ll put you guys in the newsletter.”

I laughed along with the wife. He obviously didn’t know that I’m the one who writes and lays out the newsletter.

After they left my husband said, “Over my dead body.”

He explained that he likes to pick up trash because it makes the desert cleaner and it gives him a sense of satisfaction. He doesn’t want any recognition or attaboys for it. Thankfully, he doesn’t read my blog!

Another highlight of our afternoon walks, besides listening to the birds, who I can now identify by their calls and songs — thanks to Bird Buddy — was when a neighbor drove up the road and unrolled her window.

“Down across the street is a big bobcat,” she said.

We thanked her and I wanted to turn around. My husband pushed on. “They are afraid of us,” he said.

We walked to the end of the block and a few feet from us was a bobcat — who is much stockier and filled out than the skinny one we see in our yard. He walked nonchalantly across the road. He was in no rush and didn’t give us a glance. My husband tried to snap his picture — for the newsletter of course — but he quickly disappeared in the brush on the other side of the road.

Bobcat in the yard

This is our skinny bobcat on our patio. She passes through for a bird snack from time to time.

Saturday night we watched football. But in two different rooms. I’m a big Utah Utes fan. My husband is rooting for USC and both games were on Saturday night.

USC is already headed to the PAC 12 champs, regardless of what happened Saturday.

Utah had a few hurdles:

They had to beat CO — done 63-21

Oregon State had to beat Oregon — done 38-34

UCLA had to beat CAL — done 35 – 28

Washington had to beat Washington State — done 51 – 33

All the dominoes fell into place. Can you believe it? Our next game is Utah vs. USC for the conference title. I have a feeling we’ll be watching in separate rooms again.

What are some of the simple pleasures you enjoyed this past weekend?

A few more issues

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The latest issue of the HOA newsletter.

I thought with my new laptop I’d be through with computer issues. But an issue came up with the latest issue of the newsletter that I volunteer to do for our homeowner’s association.

If you didn’t read about my computer issues, I was losing files and realized that the “automatic backup” wasn’t backing up. You can read about that HERE.

My new laptop doesn’t have the fonts for the newsletter. I get missing font messages and the type reverts to Helvetica or Geneva which doesn’t look great. So, I asked my son — who created the layout and template for me — to help fix it. He told me to email him the newsletter and he’d convert it to a pdf on his laptop. (He has the fonts.)

After my son made the newsletter look pretty, I sent it off to my newsletter co-editor for proof reading — plus the board of directors for their input.

In the end I received 10 small corrections and tweaks last night. Instead of sending the newsletter to my son to make the corrections, I thought I’d try turning on the old laptop — which has the missing fonts. I thought I’d be able to update the newsletter all on my own. What I discovered is those fonts on my old laptop are missing. too!

So, even with a brand new laptop that’s working great, I still have issues to fix.

With different fonts, spacing is different which changes every page’s layout.

What a mess.

On our beach vacation, our kids are joining us and my son has promised to install the fonts and we won’t have to be emailing the newsletter back and forth in the future.

Do you work on any layouts besides your blogs? Do you enjoy it or find it tedious? What computer problems or glitches have you dealt with?

Issue number two

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newsletter
My community newsletter

Issue number two for 2022 was put to bed today. YAY! It’s a satisfying feeling to finally get it approved and done.

I sent the newsletter to my co-editor to proof read and to make sure I made all the requested changes from the Board of Directors. Then weird stuff happened. I had made changes and they didn’t save. Also when I made a few corrections, photos disappeared and entire blocks of text disappeared. My layout skills haven’t kept up with the newest version of the program.

I held my breath when I hit send. It’s done. And I have a few months until it’s time to do it all over again.

It’s hard to remember back to when I wrote nine newsletters a month. That was way before internet and newsletters were a big thing. With social media, blogs, and email newsletters, not many are still printed and delivered via snail mail.

Without me stepping up to take over the newsletter, this one would have ended after 15 years of being published. I like the old fashioned printed newsletter. There’s something to be said for reading on paper.

I edited the newsletter for my kids swim team on a volunteer basis for years. We used to mail it out with the monthly billing. Eventually the billing went online — and my son started a website and posted the newsletter there. The newsletter was no longer printed. That was before the iphone got popular. We were using an Apple program that worked well for the new iphone, but not for the Blackberry. One of the board of directors wanted us to invest in software that was older so it would be compatible with Blackberry phones because he predicted the iphone would never amount to more than 10% of phones. Do they make Blackberries anymore?

Then one of the coaches told me she didn’t see a place for the newsletter anymore. She felt Twitter and FB would be more up to date. I was sad to see that newsletter go away.

What are your thoughts about newsletters? Do you see them very often or do you think they are going by the wayside?