I May Be Crazy About Cats - But I'm Not A Crazy Lady

Last night I dreamed about cats. Three adults and three little kittens just a few weeks old. All of the cats were black but one adult cat had a white belly and paws. One kitten also had longer hair than the others. Black, it had a streak of really long white angora-type woolly hair growing along its spine.

One kitten had longer hair with a long
white angora-type wool growing along its spine.

In my dream I just kept wanting to RESCUE all of the cats, which were living inside a vacation home but were not being cared for by the business owners at all. They were all hungry, shedding, and had fleas.

In my dream, I felt highly perplexed about the animals because I wanted to save them - yet knew it would be irresponsible to take on more animals when I already have two very healthy pets at home.

To interpret the meaning of this dream, I am sorting through my emotions - pondering the struggles I've endured in my waking hours this past week.

In waking life, at my night job, I am surrounded by homeless people. Some of them seem fully capable of caring for themselves (like the adult cats in my dream) yet some are mentally disabled, either from birth defect, injury, or drug abuse. The most vulnerable among the homeless are symbolized by the kittens in my dreams - seemingly un-cared for and helpless.

The fact that human beings can be so neglected by society (e.g., I see a number of disparaged people in wheel chairs) plagues my soul. So often beggars approach my work truck asking for money and while I work very hard, and don't live any kind of life of luxury, my expenses are too tight to support any of them; responsibly.

Another contributing emotion comes from the following very compelling (very short) film. I had posted it on Facebook just last night before nodding off to sleep. Hope you watch it.

The Witching Hour - Do Hauntings Only Happen Between 9 pm and 6 am

By definition, the Witching Hour is actually at 3 a.m. That's when many middle aged and other people who have trouble sleeping suddenly wake from their sleep - wide awake! Yet according to the following video, which promotes the cramped but real life haunted objects museum owned by world-renowned paranormal investigators Ed and Lorraine Warren, in Connecticut, USA, evil lurks only at certain times of the day.



  

Queen symbolizes dominant feminine/yin
or dark/night energy

In the above mini-film, you will hear Ed Warren claim that the haunting hours are between 9 p.m. and 6 a.m., nightly. My personal experience is that haunting can happen any time of day or night, just like psychic ability. Yet when the lights dim and our own activities have typically slowed enough for us to become more observant about noises and thumps, we notice more paranormal things.

To make sure I’m not just regurgitating already known facts here (I am always refreshing my brain’s input, asking for more clarity on my beliefs about things) I am drawing a Tarot card and I'm asking whether hauntings are more likely to happen after dark.

Drawn is the Queen of Wands. What is leaping out at me from this card, as it relates to the question, is the fact that the Queen symbolizes dominant feminine energy. Night time is also dominantly feminine or yin. The dark hours are ruled by the moon, which controls our intuition and emotions, and since many people sleep during these hours – and sleep is controlled by our subconscious minds – we can be more in tune with paranormal suggestion at night. The conscious mind (which we use during normal daytime business) is much more critical and less willing to allow dreams and paranormal messages to come into our scope of reality.

Therefore, Tarot seems to be saying that it's true. Haunting hours are more noticeable at night.

Now I want to know more specifically if we (as people) simply NOTICE hauntings more at night or if they really happen more at a particular time. So I'm asking Tarot again ...

Justice is impartial and spirits
don't care what time of day it is.

Drawn is the Justice card. Here, Justice teaches us, the sword is double-edged, cutting both ways, impartially. That means spirits, demons,  and critters that make bumping noises in the night don't really care what time of day it is. 

According to this reading ... my beliefs ... that hauntings happen more at night only because that's when we notice them ... seems reaffirmed.

Talking To The Jackass Who Beats His Talking Donkey

2,000 years ago, a story was told about a man named Balaam who, for the sake of this story, we could refer to as "Jackass" (since he was a contemptibly foolish and stupid man). Yet that would make this story-telling awkward because Balaam rode upon a beast that was also from the jackass family. So for now, just know Balaam was a bigger jackass than the domestic donkey he rode upon.

If the records are correct, Balaam saddled his very wise donkey (soon to turn Shaman) in the morning. Soon the two of them were off on a most adventurous journey. But then something very scary happened. The donkey - who was paying attention to the road - noticed the Angel of Death up ahead and it had raised a shiny sword to smite Balaam!

Instantly. Smartly. But with fear and dread, the donkey quickly veered off into a field; protecting his rider. Yet Balaam was seemingly blind and very ignorant. He beat that great animal and forced it back onto the road. 

So later, while the donkey continued to carry his big-ass burden down a much more narrow path, through the vineyards, with walls on both sides, the Angel of Death appeared a second time. Again, to protect his rider, the donkey pressed hard against the wall to escape that sword's powerful swing and accidentally crushed Balaam’s foot.

In retaliation, the horrible man beat the poor donkey again. (Talk about thankless!)

Yet again, farther along the road, in an even more narrow place where there was no room to escape left or right, the Angel of Death manifested yet again to kill Balaam. This time the fast-thinking donkey dropped to his hocks and laid belly-flat so his rider could escape beneath the sword.

Balaam, who could not see the nose on his own face, was blinded by rage. He began beating his faithful animal with his staff and I'm pretty sure there were some pretty salty curses spoken. "G'&@**it!"

Finally, the donkey had enough! In plain Jewish he said: “What have I done to you to make you beat me these three times?”

Go figure. Instead of seeing the miracle in that moment, where his donkey was speaking to him, Balaam reacted as though animals regularly speak to him in human dialect. “You have made a fool of me! If only I had a sword in my hand, I would kill you right now.”

So the donkey snorted: “Really? Have I been in the habit of doing this to you?”

“No,” Balaam finally had to admit. Right then, however, is when he finally noticed the Angel of Death looming overhead. Yet instead of thanking the donkey for saving his life three times, he groveled before Voldemort, for some reason that escapes me completely, his pathetic life was spared.

TO READ THIS STORY OF BALAAM AND HIS DONKEY IN ITS ORIGINAL FORM: See The Holy Bible, Numbers 22:21-39. 

How This Story Relates To Providing Psychic Readings On-Line 

On rare occasion, when a new potential client contacts a psychic on-line, that person might ask for a "free connection." In that process, the less well-mannered among them also want a question answered for FREE. 

Fact is? They are acting very much like Balaam and cannot see the Angel of Death that looms whenever someone asks someone to work for nothing.

Like any reader with experience, I might feel especially generous and agree to make a connection by telling the new person something about themselves. The reason I do is to show good faith. Maybe I provide a few details about how they look. That's even after I've received nothing but a series of numbers, or the name "anonymous" and not so much as their favorite flavor of coffee to go on ... 

In spite of my good intentions, however, too often, if that person is like Balaam, they respond in anger that I did not answer their pressing question before they hired me. Like ignoring the talking donkey, they not only missed the fact that I just described them completely (proving I can do the work they want me to do) but they also missed the fact that I've been rated by more than a hundred other clients and have earned that five star rating that's brandished below my name.

Fact is? I could lower myself to that "give it to me FREE" behavior. I could also walk around declaring that I want free pedicures, free gas and free groceries. More importantly I'd like free Interent so I could better afford to sit here at the computer talking to people! 

Yet I have observed that asking for things for FREE (with no effort given) tends not to produce very good results. Most things in life - from the coffee we drink in the morning to the hot bath we pour at night - required some amount of effort on our part for us to enjoy such.

How To Talk To A Psychic On-line

Charlatans are everywhere. That's true. They're working in education, for newspapers, in churches and I'm pretty sure they're also working on-line. That's why I feel it is completely acceptable to ask a psychic to make a connection BEFORE you hire for the first time but only if they don't have any other kind of ratings for you to judge them by.

Nobody but Balaam would insult the psychic by asking them to work without hiring first. Fact is, many Tarot readers who work on-line can only read Tarot and cannot make psychic readings about who you are or what you look like at all. That's not a bad reflection on them. Simply look at their ratings, pay attention to what kind of services that reader offers, and know, if they have five stars, or even four stars, they'll very likely provide you with incredible insight.

Reflect on the donkey's past behavior to know if you can trust him/her in the future. That's the best advice any psychic can give. *Don't beat the worker, with words or otherwise.* That's the best professional policy.

The Possession: My Personal Dream Of A Haunting

This morning (I work grave yard shift so sleep in the day) I dreamed I was inside a mansion talking to very wealthy people. The maid brought in a cylinder-shaped lamp where the ingredients inside twirled in circles. I did not see a cord or other power source yet the lamp seemed self-powered; even without any solar panel. 

The master of the house explained it was his deceased wife, living inside the lamp. Her soul made it glow and swirl. Next thing I knew, her spirit left the lamp to possess me. In that moment, and by no effort on my part, I began floating and swirling around that luxurious room faster and faster, the tips of my toes barely touching the floor. My body was moving in the same circular fashion the lamp had swirled and it was bizarre but felt very peaceful and spectacular.

Then the spirit left me and entered into yet another visitor to the mansion. I approached that person to talk to the spirit, who had not communicated at all with me while she had been inside my body. I asked the spirit what she wanted and why had she left me so quickly.

The crotchety old woman-spirit said she didn't like the smell of my breath; which tasted like salsa and hot sauce. She also said the back of my long hair was greasy and she found that loathsome.

I woke up, checked my hair, and it was still clean. Haven't eaten Mexican-style food in a very long while. Have no insecurities and have not felt rejected by anyone in a very long while so the meaning of this dream completely escapes me.

It felt so very real. Whatever could the meaning be?

What Helped With Hot Flashes: Estroven verses Promensil

UPDATE: Months later I am hot-flash FREE. Seriously. Mine were really out of control until I went through all of this. May my suffering and success help YOU, dear sister. May you also return to your own pre-change sanity.

HOW TO GET OVER HOT FLASHES

First time I tried to get relief from hot flashes my doctor claimed that the estrogen birth control pills (pharmaceuticals) that were formerly prescribed more often than mole-removal therapies were now considered taboo. Turns out estrogens created pharmaceutically were now believed to cause cancer. My M.D. had nothing else to offer me.

Because I was suffering quite severely, waking up in sweat, feeling like I needed to shower after every hot flash during the day, and because I was entertaining my boyfriend by suddenly ripping off all my clothes at times I wasn't romantically interested ... my resolve was to get help. I recruited some advice from herbal therapists and friends.

Turns out, a few of my middle-aged gal-pals had used an herbal supplement called Estroven and said it really helped curb their perimenopause and menopausal symptoms.

So I investigated and learned one cannot just go out and buy a product called "Estroven" anymore. That's because there are many products under that name.

• Estroven® Max Strength + Energy
• Estroven® Weight Management
• Estroven® Intimacy Pack
• Estroven® Nighttime
• Estroven® Stress, Mood & Memory
• Estroven® Energy
• Estroven® Peri Support + Weight

Because my hot flashes and night sweats were rather severe (even my hair would get wet) I opted to buy Estroven® Max Strength + Energy. Like any herbal product, I gave it six weeks before I started seeing results and for a couple of months thereafter it actually seemed like my hot flashes and night sweats had diminished. I was relieved. Almost giddy even. 

As advertised, the ingredients in Estroven Maximum Strength + Energy are: Black Cohosh, Soy Isoflavones, Magnolia Bark, Green Tea, and Yerba Mate.

The product had looked rather safe, harmless, and even supportive of anyone's health. Yet then again, after I'd been taking the product for about four months, the Estroven® seemed to not be working any more. I mean it wasn't working AT ALL. My hot flashes returned and they were worse than ever before. I was really suffering from an out-of-control body thermos and if I hadn't heard, read and been advised about menopausal symptoms I would have thought I was dying.

WHAT DO HOT FLASHES FEEL LIKE?

Hot flashes do NOT feel normal or healthy. I really felt something serious was missing from my diet. So, lo and behold, I started doing more research and learned that Estroven had been rated only 3 out of 5 stars by studies conducted by places like Wellesley Health. It only worked for SOME women. (It had only worked for me short-term.)

That's when I went to a natural health and vitamin supplement store and noticed the clerk behind the counter looked older than me but her skin was much more radiant, and she looked fantastically healthy. When I asked her for help with hot flashes, she pulled me aside and whispered that I should try a product that worked so well, the FDA reportedly pulled it from natural health food store's shelves.

Now? Women can only find this product in a traditional pharmacy. So I went home and did research on the supplement she suggested: Promensil.

Unlike Estroven®, Promensil is made from naturally occurring plant compounds, or more specifically, "red clover." Three products are sold by Promensil:

• Promensil - 30 count
• Promensil - 60 count
• Promensil PM - 30 count.

So I trusted my natural health-store advisor, who claimed Promensil was backed by clinical studies, and started taking Promensil - 30 count. Yet I did it with some caution because certain studies like the Wellesley rating rated it only 2 out of 5 stars. Similarly, Consumer Health Digest rated it 3.5 out of 5 stars. Six weeks into taking Promensil (which is not too cheap at $30 per package) I finally started noticing my hot flashes were beginning to lessen in severity. I might still be woken up with a couple of night sweats but they were nowhere near as severe as they had been and I could go back to sleep without having to climb into the tiny freezer above our fridge. I no longer felt like I needed to take a shower after experiencing one. 

Because both Estroven and Promensil have different ingredients that are both supposed to help balance out a middle-aged woman's hormones ... I started taking both of them together. 

Now? After two months of taking Promensil daily and an Estroven every other day (at times when I think about it) my life is completely back on track. I might have one or two hot flashes per day and they are barely noticeable except I feel warm.

UPDATE: After two months of starting Promensil, taken with Estroven, I have ZERO HOT FLASHES. Only other thing I've changed in my life is to stop eating soy products. Soy increases estrogen levels in the body and I felt intuitively that soy might be interfering with herbs that were trying to balance my hormones out.

That stated ... I'm hoping this new remedy of taking Promensil and Estroven together keeps working. Hope it works for ya'll as well. 

Love and light, 

~ SunTiger

Easy Fix: How To Get Rid Of Frito Pug Stinky Smell

Artemis: Easiest Going-Low Maintenance-Dog Personality

I love my 10 year-old Pug so much, if both of us ever need to go to the doctor's and I can only afford to take one of us ... it's Artemis (not me) who gets to see the professional.

That said, veterinarians have not always been a very big help in treating my Pug's skin allergy problems. They've prescribed things like Benadryl - and other allergy meds - that have not helped my Pug's skin problems and hot spot breakouts at all. 

Little Red Riding Pug

Over the years, my dog Artemis has suffered from everything ranging from infected ears, to yeast infections between-the-folds in his face, to having horrible skin allergies where he ends up scratching himself all of the time to having a big squishy tumor removed from his scalp; surgically.

Not Even Regular Baths Could
Eliminate That Frito Pug Smell

Each vet visit made helping my dog feel comfortable get more and more costly. While he is the easiest-going dog on the planet, and therefore very low-maintenance as far as his personality goes, I have had to wash my Pug's face two-times daily, spent countless hours washing his ears with medication, and even bathed my Pug every couple of days in therapeutic vet-approved baths with oatmeal. I also used other expensive skin ointments and oral therapies just to keep him from scratching off his own skin.

In spite of my heroic "pet management" efforts, my Pug still suffered and in spite of his many baths he stunk like dirty socks, and had a Frito corn-chips smell about him the very next day after any vet prescribed bath.

With so much time, money, and effort spent trying to keep him comfortable - I finally began to rethink all the veterinary approved therapies I'd used and finally began to employ my own background as an amateur sleuth. Also having a great fascination with herbs, and having taken college courses in herbal medicine, I started slowly researching and introducing alternative therapies for my Pug.

WORD OF CAUTION: Never give your dog any herb or medicine that your are not certain is 100% safe. So many supplements people take can be terribly toxic to dogs. Many of the foods people eat (e.g., avacados, coffee, chocolate) can kill a dog. So it's probably very wise to consult with an expert if you aren't sure about how to treat your pet with what herbs or natural medicines. Meanwhile, the herbs I am about to recommend are completely safe. I have used them on my own fur-babies with great success. 

Before being treated with 2 tsp coconut oil,
daily, Artemis would scratch his own hair off
and suffered a number of red hot spots

 

FIRST TREATMENT I TRIED TO CURE MY PUG'S SKIN PROBLEMS

Turmeric, that yellow powder you find in the grocery store's herb section is a very powerful anti-microbial/anti-yeast treatment. I have been using Turmeric to cure all kinds of skin infections and wounds on myself, on my cat, on my chickens and on my Pug and I have to say this powder, when added to a little bit of water to form a paste, is the best possible salve for soothing insect bites, healing open wounds, and treating skin allergy hot spots around. Not only is Turmeric cheaper than most antibiotic ointments, but if the pet licks their Turmeric-treated wound they will not get poisoned. In my experience, Turmeric has cured wounds that antibiotics were not affecting at all. Turmeric has done the job even faster than vet-prescribed synthetic drugs. I cannot think of a faster, safer, or better cure for hot spots and skin wounds and in fact I cannot praise Turmeric LOUDLY or enthusiastically enough. 

In addition to treating my Pug's skin infections with a Turmeric/water paste, I would regularly add sprinkles of the herb powder to his every meal. The Pug loves the taste of Turmeric and, being human, you can sprinkle some of this known anti-inflammatory powder on your fried eggs, if you're not familiar using it for your own food.

CAUTION FOR USING TURMERIC ON YOUR PETS:

This powder will stain everything it touches. If you put it on a white dog, his skin and hair will look yellow. If he lays on a white couch - you got it - yellow stain wherever he laid. Remedy: Put a shirt or wrap over whatever area you are treating to keep from staining your furniture.

BENEFITS OF USING TURMERIC ON YOUR DOG:

Many sources claim Turmeric has anti-cancer properties. I have personally observed Turmeric helping cure every skin problem EXCEPT my Pug's yeasty-aroma. His yeasty inherited condition was getting so progressively worse, even after feeding him Turmeric, I hated taking him in my car to the dog park. That's  because the automobile would smell in the aftermath of having him ride in it even for a few minutes. That's even while my beloved Pug sat on a towel and I washed it after each ride.


HERE'S WHAT I USED TO CURE MY PUG OF THAT FRITO STINKY SMELL FOREVER 


I cannot claim to have found this cure on my own. It was my boyfriend/sweet domestic partner Art who actually suggested it. So I went on-line and did research and discovered that veterinarians talk about using this naturally made - relatively cheap - coconut oil as a pet food supplement. Yet I did not see any of them suggest it for curing stinky dog smell like my boyfriend insisted it would cure. In fact, I haven't found a site that talks about this cure for dog odor specifically, at all. Since I trust Art (who used to work at a healthfood/supplement store) we started trying it on my Pug and I have to say, two months after I started using it on my Pug - the results are already spectacular. 

2 months after feeding coconut
oil daily - fur is growing back. Most
hot spots are GONE! No detectable
Frito/Stinky odor!

CAUTION: Nothing happens immediately. This cure will work but you won't notice the difference until six weeks to two months


People have long claimed so many health benefits from eating coconut oil but who would have thought it would be good for dogs? In fact, I worried coconut oil might be harmful since oil is a "fat" and fats are well-known to be high in calories. No Pug needs extra help gaining weight. I mean, how many grossly fat Pugs have you seen gasping and waddling when their owners take them for a walk? (I've seen too many to count!) Fact is, Pugs love to eat! It's up to YOU and to me, their family members, to make sure they don't eat too much.

So with all the research I've done, reading veterinarian sites that claimed it was safe to give dogs coconut oil - I've not found ONE that would give me a recommended dosage for any size dog, let alone a 25 pound one. So all I can do for you, dear reader, is share the dosages that worked for treating MY PUG Artemis; where he did not gain weight at all. 

I decided to trust nature, my intuition, and my boyfriend Art's suggestion. Gave my dog one teaspoon full of coconut oil mixed in with his dry and wet dog food with each meal. My Pug eats two times a day. That means I gave him a total of two teaspoons of coconut oil each day and here are the observations I've had after six months of feeding my dog coconut oil.

It took six weeks but thanks to supplementing my Pug's diet with coconut oil
* My Pug has no more Frito body odor.
* Redness has disappeared from his skin.
* Fur he previously scratched off has grown back. (See pictures.)
* I can go weeks without bathing my dog and he smells like a normal dog (not too stinky to share blankets with)


ADDITIONAL HELP FOR ITCHY SCRATCHY PUG


Even with the coconut oil that I've supplemented my dog's diet with, my Pug still likes to scratch a lot. His pits still get red from his scratching in the morning. Here are two additional things I do to give him comfort (so he stops scratching himself). 

1. I rub JoJoba oil directly on his skin. My Pug loves JoJoba oil so much he rushes to me so I will rub it on his bare pits and paws. From his behavior, I would judge the JoJoba oil to be incredibly soothing to him. Reason I don't just rub coconut oil on his body is soon as I put it on he begins licking it off. JoJoba oil works better for that reason. It absorbs very quickly and he lets it stay there.

2. I put a toddler's size 2 T-shirt on my Pug and change it daily. Sometimes I need to crop the shirt (so it's not in the way of his needing to urinate). Yet I have noticed when he wears a T-shirt that covers his fore-pits he does not scratch there at all. The T-shirt covers his vulnerable spots and offers a visible sense of relief to his itching. Fortunately for me, Pugs like to be dressed up. I suffer no guilt for trying to force my dog into looking more like a boy by dressing him.

So there you have it. These are the treatments that I've used to have a much more comfortable, scratch-free dog. *Hope these treatments also work for you and your beloved pet.*

Seattle Area Attraction: Future Of Flight Museum - Everett, Washington (USA)

LIMITATIONS AND RESTRICTIONS

The Boeing Future of Flight Aviation Center prohibits some people from taking the tour. If you're carrying either a machine gun or a baby you will NOT be allowed on tour. Even though Seattle and Everett are both rainy cities - plan to leave your umbrella behind as well.

OTHER RESTRICTIONS

First: You must be able to walk up and down steep stairs. If you cannot do that then you must either make wheelchair accommodations far in advance of your tour or experience spontaneous healing because this trip is not wheelchair accessible.

Second: The tour is in English. American Sign Language is available upon request for all tours scheduled at least two weeks in advance. If you don't speak English? Well, you aren't reading this blog then are you!
 
Third:  Children must be at least 4 feet tall (122 cm) to take the tour.  Don't worry if you're short as Danny DeVito (4'10") or shorter like Peter Dinklage (4'5"). No matter how tall you are - if you're old enough to own a mortgage, you're tall enough. Put on your high heels and take this tour. Just hold on to the hand rail as you go downstairs because those babies are steep!
 
Fourth: Visitors may not carry cell phones, umbrellas or babies on the tour. That means you can't wear babies in a back pack or dangle them over a balcony Michael Jackson style. Leave your crying, sucking, beautiful babies at home.

WARNING: If you violate any of the above restrictions the security will side-line you and you'll be spending the day in the "How Planes are Made" section of the museum. There you will stare at still photos with reading cards waiting for your friends to get back - which can take a couple of hours. You might also see a couple of airplane models suspended from the Center's ceiling not far from the various flags but after half-an-hour you will undoubtedly be feeling very bored and wish you had not come.

WHAT YOU'LL SEE ON THIS BOEING FUTURE OF FLIGHT TOUR (if you met the above limitations standards)

Expect to learn a lot about plastic composites and engineering as you take this factory tour. While mechanics and engineers ride bicycles to get around from place-to-place because the factory is so large, you will be walking a cat-walk far above them and you'll be looking down on them. Even way up there, from your haughty perch, you'll get to see how the Boeing 747 is made. You'll also learn a lot about the 787 Dreamliner!

In that part of the tour, you'll learn crazy-fun facts such as how jet lag was never caused by changing time zones like we once thought. Instead - it's the cabin pressure and oxygen deprivation that makes people feel groggy after a long flight. The new Dreamliner is built to address many such traveler side-effects so in the future ... when someone goes from Japan to Africa ... they can rest assured they'll be feeling well-rested and ready to embrace new adventures soon as they land. 

I've taken this tour and highly recommend it to anyone who is the least bit interested in flying and modern airplane technology. The admission price is well worth every penny. Bring extra cash because they have a couple of fun gift shops and you'll be hungry enough to buy a sandwich when the tour is over.

Ten Things I Hate About Seattle

So Many Things Annoy Me. Why My Adored? Why? 

Pet Peeves That Annoy The Hiss Out Of Me 

WARNING: This is an article written while I am high on steroids to treat/cure work-related injury. (The doctor WARNED that steroids would make me BITCHY.) May you never say that I ever wrote a blog entry without cautionary instructions for how to proceed; in this case, with noted precaution. Even still, I write this with a bit of humor kept in mind.

#10. Bunch of bat-winged penis ogres
of Tanzania's Popobawa fame run Seattle

I have enough pet peeves to write an encyclopedia but this is just a blog entry so here are a mere few things that are wrong with Seattle.

1. What is it with bicyclists in Seattle who REFUSE to use the (very expensive) protected maze of bike lanes that weave around and through our city, such as the $1.5 million pilot project on 2nd Avenue. The bike lanes are something that motorized tax payers keep footing the enormous bills to expand, and yet cyclists themselves (who are not obligated to pay for any of it) insist on slowing down traffic in the too few lanes made for cars, trucks, motorcycles, and "Ride The Ducks" killing machines. I've sat for ridiculous hours in gridlock traffic without seeing a single bicycle use those lanes ... so why not open them up to motorcycles and people who want to abandon their parked cars when they can just run really fast?

Please bicyclists. For trucker's sakes. That solid white line between the bus and my semi, utility vehicle or midget-car IS NOT FOR YOU to roll your rims over! So stop splitting lanes. You're much too-easy-to-splat like a bug on our windshields. Move to YOUR skinny-spandex-wearing-bony-butt into the DESIGNATED LANE.

SAFETY FACT: Cyclists have a too silent and nearly translucent way of appearing out of nowhere like a scary poltergeist. Are you trying to ruin other people's lives by causing us to merge into you on accident? Wear a wind-whistle around your necks or something. For crying out loud!


2. Am I the only one who had driver's education instructions in my student manual that declared I must PULL my vehicle over to the side of the road whenever an emergency vehicle, or cop car, with sirens and flashing lights, is approaching? If not - then what-in-tarnation is the matter with you dumb-masses who keep on driving in the same lane that an on-coming ambulance is driving? Pull the Hell over! Stop turning our streets into "death row!" Your schedule is not more important than someone who just dialed 9-1-1. Right now I feel like choking the life out of you just to save whomever the fire trucks are racing to rescue.

3. Ism you hungry? Because this "ism" rant is a big one. To be a functioning society, we all must follow rules that fellow residents agreed upon, and if you don't agree with that particular society's rules then move more-than-a-yell away to some place where you do agree with the rules. You don't see me living in the Bible Belt, for instance. (The Pantheon of Gods forbid.) Yet when I went to an anarchist march in Seattle only to observe a bunch of fellow vagrants act like they want bigger freedoms while they wrote graffiti on metro buses and otherwise damaged or destroyed public property ... I just gotta say that's not anarchism slum-guts! That's vandalism! (Know that just because two words end the same way, they don't mean the same thing!)

4. All over the media Seattleites are presented as granola-eating, pacifists. For the most part they may pass on throwing a fist and get a sunburn every time it stops raining. Yet I really hate the stereotypes spoken about all of the wide and varied folks who live here and that whole designation about people from Seattle looking alike does not hold water; not the way our gutters, retaining ponds, and my feet do. People, meaning both men and women from Seattle, may grow beards to shield their faces from the wind but many of Seattle's women actually pluck theirs. We're not so distinct-looking that you can tell us apart from, say, someone living in the mountains of Kentucky, North Carolina, or Montana.

5. Notice how everyone who campaigns AGAINST the minimum wage getting raised to $15/hour in this hard-to-make-it city makes a lot more money than that? The naysayers should all be forced to live on the current minimum wage. That's all I need to say about that. Oh wait. I'll say more. Read #6.

6. There are definitely way too many homeless people living in Seattle and they didn't just move here because they like sleeping in soggy blankets. Why is nothing being done about it? No I don't think we should be giving everyone a hand-out. But why can't these people at least be given the opportunity to earn a decent minimum wage when many of them are working to earn their food for less than a sustainable income? Why are returning wages so low - especially if you're a woman who took time off from your career to care for ailing parents, for children, or for just five minutes when you got a hair cut. Why are people making less money today when they did this same job ten years ago at much higher pay?

7. I love Seattle's scenery, the clean smells from the forest, and the many natural attractions available here in Jet City. Yet if I were in control I'd declare it really should rain between the hours between midnight and three in the morning. Beyond that? All those many consecutive months of 24-hour drizzle mixed in with grey skies and downpour? It's torture! There are reasons why Seattle is affectionately known as the "Coffee Capitol Of The World." It's because sun-deprived residents must self-medicate with enough caffeine to not feel lethargic as a slug shriveling up on on a trail of sea-salt. Perpetual darkness and gray skies can suck the soul out faster than anyone attending Bram Stoker's Vampire Ball. Note: Seattle is also known as the "Suicide Capital."

8. "The Seattle Chill." We're not talking about outside temperatures here. Depending how long you've lived in this city - your experience may be a little better. Yet try being a tourist, a new resident or guest and say "hi" to someone on the street and you might wonder if all people from Seattle have severe hearing problems. Most don't talk to strangers; at all. There are many speculations as to why that might be. I grew up in Seattle and was taught early-on about "stranger danger!" (Don't get inside that white-paneled van with "free candy" painted on the outside no matter how friendly the driver may seem.) Yet perhaps a more logical explanation for the "Seattle Freeze" is because this evergreen city is a technology hub. Most people are too busy listening through their ear-buds to notice that you need them to unwrap their dog leash from around your ankles so you can enter the grocery store.

9. Until I moved to the Queen Anne neighborhood - I never knew any of my neighbors. That wasn't because I didn't try to get to know them. It had everything to do with Seattle's "no touch" policy when it comes to speaking to whomever you share an apartment laundry room with. Don't expect to get eye contact from your neighbors when you hold the door open for them either. Yet now that I live on Queen Anne? Because everyone looks alike in this neighborhood with various shades of blonde hair and blue eyes? I gotta admit there's at least one bunion in Seattle where people do actually speak to each other. 

10. No matter how long you live in Seattle, how much you dialogue with the powers-that-be, or how active you get in volunteering for the community your opinion will never count in this city no matter how many "troll be-gone" spells you cast. Your money will never be your own either. That's because a bunch of bat-winged penis ogres like the Popobawa run this city. Perfect example? Voters turned down the construction of the new Safeco Field stadium back in 1997. In fact we voted it down TWICE. So what did the Popobawa's (meaning: Washington State Legislature) do? They built the stadium with public money anyway.

Another example? Our Sonics basketball team was pulled away when we were promised it would stay with new ownership. This list for making voter opinion not count could get really long because in Seattle there is never an issue that ever gets decided permanently by majority rule. Not even when it regards building sky-rises in places where a house used to stand only to provide zero parking for it. Seattle seldom fixes the pot holes in its plethora of one-lane-only streets. Currently insurers of Bertha, the tunnel-boring machine, are suing to avoid paying $143 million for repairing it; a machine which tax payers paid more than $80 million just to get started. Pretty sure the average citizen will be picking up the repair costs too; against their will and vote.  

Let's Talk Trash. Because Bus Stop Garbage Is Changing How I See People

For the next six months I am cleaning bus shelters in the Northeast district of Seattle. That’s where a large number of destitute people, meaning panhandlers, homeless people, and folks with no better place to go to get out of the rain seem to want to hang out. It's also where people who are not so homeless spit gum on the sidewalk and fill the trash cans meant for bus passengers with things they don't want to pay to haul away: like seriously heavy car parts, their personal household garbage, and even 35 gallons of dog poo wrapped in individual-sized doggie bags (probably deposited by numerous dog walkers).

NOTICE THE BENCH. Short. Hard. Metal (to encourage
sitting but discourage comfortable sleeping on it)

Judging by the beer and whiskey bottles behind, used heroine needles, and pizza boxes that I throw into my truck with all the other trash, it’s obvious that bus shelters provide respite for many unintended guests ... mostly people who are not nearly as down-and-out as, say, the poor and homeless who live in places like Madagascar. Nope. These garbage-makers have some degree of affluence or they would not be able to create so much waste and debris

My Personal Experiences With The Homeless Who Hang Out At Seattle’s Bus Shelters

While I’m momentarily contracted to power-wash and collect trash, I start work at 4:30 in the morning. That means I’m sometimes waking people up in ways I never intended. The bright lights from my utility truck woke a woman who was sleeping in a store front doorway near one of my stops here recently. As she stood up to stare at me I noticed she was a bit smaller than me, also blonde, and she looked highly vulnerable to life on the streets. As I looked her way, I really worried about her well-being. Then she flipped me off, with both hands, and I was reminded there are many reasons why people become dispossessed or disinherited.

People Who Live On The Street: All Unique

Next bus stop? A homeless man approached while I collected garbage and started helping me clean. It was like he felt sorry for the fact that I had to pick up trash - or maybe he was the one who left it there, beneath the bench, and felt guilty when I showed up. Who knows. I thanked him for his help but pointed out the fact he didn't wear rubber gloves - so maybe I needed to be the only one tidying up. Insight about germs and contagious diseases seemed to dawn on him and he left me to work alone.

Nobody who is reading this blog entry right now is lowly enough, or so closely aligned with the very first amoeba that crawled out of the ocean, to diminish themselves by talking badly about society’s under-privileged (meaning the homeless) and that's not where I'm going with this article either. Just like any community in America, someone who is homeless could be from any culture, philosophy or religion. Some homeless people bathe. Some don't. Some are very smart. Some aren't. Talking about people from a low socio-economic status like they're all the same would show great ignorance on our part. So let's make it clear when I talk about the homeless I'm only talking about a very small segment of people of a particular soci-economical-housing-disadvantage and they're only people who have met ME (as opposed to homeless folks who live in people-shelters or avoid bus shelters altogether or who have met Johnny Depp and therefore make me feel very jealous).

It's a regularly established fact that some people become homeless after they lose everything thanks to life experiences like drug addiction, divorce or PTSD. There are also some very hard-working street people who have reasonably good habits - they just cannot afford to pay rent on their minimum wage paycheck. Heck, we have all heard of soldiers returning to America from the ravages of war who cannot keep things together now and become homeless thanks to their past trauma. 

No matter the cause for someone choosing to live on the streets, we all can agree it's a crying shame when someone cannot get basic necessities like a dry place to sleep. So I approach non-bus-riding customers who are staying inside a bus stop with the desire to be considerate.

At yet another bus shelter, I was power-washing and a well-groomed grey-haired man moved close from behind me to ask if I could please avoid getting his bedding wet. He didn't look "homeless" (meaning disheveled or poor) but in the direction he pointed was a sleeping bag; 5 feet past the “rent-a-bicycle” rack and another ten feet beyond the bus shelter. To accommodate him, I changed the direction I pointed my jet-steam. That’s when he offered to come home to live with me and, oh compliment of all compliments, said I was just as sexy as his sister. That's what he said. That's not a joke.

At the next stop, someone had left their cardboard “please help” sign along with a syringe with its uncapped needle ready to stab anyone who kicked it on accident. I've found as many as 15 needles left in a pile on the ground at other bus stops. One can only ponder what sort of "den of iniquity" that bus shelter provided for people.

When it comes to protecting the public from used needles, Utility Workers have a lot of rules to follow.  I treat each one like the toxic waste products they really are and feel grateful for nifty grabbers, where I don’t have to touch the pokey things with my bare hands.
 
Yet beyond needles and garbage that some folks leave behind, there’s also barf and, you guessed it. Someone just may have sat there on the bus stop’s bench with their pants down. Diarrhea is not a fun or pleasant-smelling splatter to clean up with a shovel and/or power washer.

Now I gotta admit I prefer to think that it's the homeless people who are using bus stations for toilets. Yet I could be wrong about that. Maybe it's just drunk college kids, or angry people who are expressing some political statement about tidy bus stops. Who knows.

Since I personally recycle or reuse packaging items as much as possible I often wonder why some people from Seattle would create so much garbage that it clutters public areas. I consider the reality that someone might be so high (on drugs) they just cannot function or do anything socially responsible at all. That idea seems more palatable than pondering that people might create trash either for shear laziness, or out of spite for society, or some other form of meanness. 

Should We Give Homeless A Handout?

Many years ago, when my children were little, I used to go to the food bank on a semi regular occasion because feeding my family was just impossible given my measly monthly paycheck. Back then, I would get donated food then would sit in my dilapidated old car crying out of gratitude for all the generous people who made it possible for my children to eat. The memory of that has caused me to donate money to food banks over the years whenever I can.

Contrast my personal experiences with what charity I find tossed away in the bus shelter trash cans today and I gain a different perspective. It seems obvious from the unopened cans of pork-and-beans, bottles full of juice, and boxes of dry goods that some folks pick through whatever they got from the food bank, keep what they like, and throw the rest away.

Add to that reality that it’s cheaper to go get a brand new coat for FREE than it is to put quarters in a washing machine to clean the one you're wearing and you understand why so many homeless leave their clothes in the park, along any given sidewalk or at the bus shelter where I am obligate to throw such dirty items away.

All my experiences have caused me to believe that for many - when food and clothes are always free such charity carries little or no value. The right recipient (no matter how needy) who is actively trying to improve their life situation will fully appreciate the charity and will use it to go on and improve their life. Other people? I just don't understand how they think.

While Seattle put "help the homeless" strategies in place many years ago - those seem to not be working. The homeless population keeps growing in this metropolis and so does the amount of garbage the city and county continue to clean up.

If there's a conclusion to this article about the homeless, and about garbage at bus shelters, I'm not sure what that moral would be. Yet there's obviously a segment of society that does not hold my same values for social awareness and polite cooperation. That segment continues to throw trash on the ground when an available trash receptacle is a mere foot away. I'm not sure if those litterers are being mind-controlled by extraterrestrial radio waves and therefore should be held harmless for the behavior they exhibit or if they all need to be sent to an island of floating plastic out at sea where they can smother each other in their own trash. 

Point is - there is no point. There is no answer. There is only trash talk and garbage. The telling of a story for the reader to decide why things are as they seem to be and whether anything could be done to improve life for all or even should something be done about anything.

*the end*

Who Is Tami Jackson

WHO AM I? MY NAME IS CHANGE!

Tami Jackson: Grandma. Mother. Sister. Lover. Writer. Healer. Intuitive. Author. Artist. Laborer. Gardener. Animal Enthusiast. Writer. Blogger. Editor. Web Designer. Trucker and Faerie Friend.

So often when someone writes a description of themselves they present some pigeon-holed story in too rigid of a way for anyone whose suffered, or lived life at all, to relate to that writer on a personal level. In my case? "Change" or maybe even “Spare Change” should be my middle name. It’s not that I enjoy upheaval. I hate it, especially when LIFE modifies my carefully-plotted desires without consulting with me in any way.

Yet metamorphosis keeps on happening. Now that I’m in my fifties I’m adapting to even more change and transition. I'm also going through “THE CHANGE.” That means I am finding cures for all kinds of obstacles and am learning to keep my body's triple-heater set at a normal temperature. It also means elder folk want to give me all kinds of advice. Typically they say that the older we get, the more difficult it seems just getting out of bed in the morning. "Yay!"

Glad to report that for the time being I can still sleep soundly thanks to my clear-conscience, and sometimes thanks to Melatonin and maybe some home-grown Valerian root.

SELF CRITICISM/CONCERN ABOUT AGING IS NEEDLESS AND BIZARRE

Since I'm currently working a very labor-intensive job, I will be posting a "how to heal carpal tunnel" article here pretty soon.

In the meantime, I’m learning that too hard of repetitive physical labor can actually make the limbs grow weaker, not stronger. At some point ya just have to "pace yourself" better. Take time to smell what ever's under our noses.

MY HISTORY:

Back when I was 18, I married a Seventh-day Adventist Preacher/sexual-predator. 8 years later we divorced and seeing how the church stood behind pedophile behavior, I found logic and became a witch (thanks to Scott Cunningham's book, "Wicca, A Guide To The Solitary Practitioner.") 

That's not to say my religious evolution has not grown since then. It's just that, at the time, witchcraft did not seem like a religion at all. It seemed much more like logic, especially after I grew up on a small goat-and-vegetable far. Cunningham's book, which embraced everything Nature has to teach us, just seemed smart.

It can be said, that due to all the changes life has brought me, I now relate to more to human suffering and people who are in transition. Fact is we all go through change (not referring to pick-pocketing here). So anytime someone is lost, feeling confused, or clueless about what they should do next ... I'm totally there to help them. That's largely why I offer Tarot readings online.

I also write about a variety of life experiences I've been through. That's what this blog is about ... sharing life lessons I learn along the way. In fact, here's a link to an article I wrote for a local paper about being a woman, working in a career traditional to men, and holding my own. "Mother Trucker!" (Enjoy.)

MY LIFE AS A WRITER

Born to write, *writing for hire* remains my life passion. As a little kid I wrote poetry and drew pictures and wrote short stories. My dad then said that for me to be a good writer - I should be able to write a story about what that cement fence post that he had just poured, and set, to hold up the fencing materials that would keep farm animals out of our front yard. So I did. I wrote a very emotion-filled story in first person about being a fence post for one year. In that story I shared how it feels to be crapped on by birds, how unappreciative folks are when I protected them from predators with no financial or emotional reward and how awful it is to continually endure all kinds of weather, not to mention dogs peeing on me. In the end, my dad thought my story was noteworthy enough to encourage my study at Washington State University, where I earned a bachelor's

degree in communications/English from their Edward R. Murrow program.    

WHY BLOG - A WRITER'S BLOG

I write and blog for many reasons. First for self-healing (writing is therapy). Second for money. Third because my family keeps evolving and one day I may be gone but my words might stay behind to let future generations know that I’m still around to haunt and protect them. (Hope that last part will make the unborn future offspring laugh.) Actually - I really write because I feel like I really have a lot of important things to say! (So listen up.)

The reason I design web pages is to stay connected in the perpetual evolution of our world at large. This blog and revampshebang.com are my way to stay current with an ever growing computer technology as I study social trends and throw around important-sounding acronyms like SEO, HTML and AYSKM (are you serious kidding me). 

MY LIFE AS A HEALER

In tech school, where I earned my massage therapy credentials, I earned straight A’s. That’s important because there are many times when I’ve gone to a traditional doctor for assistance with carpal tunnel treatments or whiplash injuries and they really did not seem to have the slightest clue as to why my arms, hands, were falling asleep on me. Thanks to the fact I actually paid attention in anatomy and physiology class - I am most often able to find ways to treat my pains when doctors merely seem to want to address symptoms with synthetic drugs; anti-inflammatory medicines which come in handy sometimes but are not sustainable for long term health care.

When newspapers started folding and it became harder and more difficult to find work as a professional writer, I studied massage, herbs and hypnotherapy to better care for myself – and that knowledge has often translated into my helping others heal. In the process of working as a masseuse, it also became evident (from touching people) that I’m also rather empathic. That reality – of hearing thoughts, feeling other people’s emotions, and completing their sentences before they could find the best word – launched me on a new journey for wanting to know how the brain works. How did I know the new massage client laying silently on my table was in horrific grief when they showed no signs outwardly?

My work as an intuitive massage therapist also led to me getting paid for doing other jobs, such as clearing houses of ghosts and other metaphysical critters. My massage customers determined if anyone could talk to the paranormal - it was their telepathic masseuse.

Such questions - about how we know what we know - are why I became fascinated with and studied hypnotherapy.  See this watch I’m dangling before your eyes right now? Watch the watch, the watch, the watch... Then? Make sure you subscribe to this blog! Watch the watch, the watch. Subscribe. Watch the watch, the watch.