Random Thoughts on my Mind Today

Downtown Norwich, NY

 

Recently I took a walk with one of my friends who lives next door. Crossing the street to the park, talking and enjoying the sunshine and fresh air was so refreshing because I usually walk alone. There are actually four parks within walking distance of my apartment building. My favorite thing to do is to take my camera and take pictures while on my walk. Then I find a spot to sit and just people watch. Sometimes there are no people! The city I live in is not huge, so many times I go for a walk and don't pass another person the whole time. Now the traffic is another story! 

When I moved here I chose not to get a car of my own. The reason was because of the expense. My experience with vehicles is that they are very expensive even if you drive an old one. In fact, an old cheap one would probably be even more expensive due to repairs. I am quite happy with the decision not to own one. In winter I see the people cleaning off their cars so the snowplow can remove the snow in our parking lot.  I am relieved I don't have to do that. I am keeping my driver's license though so I can drive a car if I need to. 

On the way to the store!

Unfortunately I cannot walk to the grocery store. It is too far for me so I take my mobility chair, "Jazzy" when I need to shop. I also have a subscription to Instacart which I have used mostly in the winter so far. Race walking used to be my form of exercise in my previous life. Now just walking with a walker to the dumpster outside my building is an accomplishment. One of the things I want to stress to others is that no matter what disability you have it is important to strive for doing something out of your comfort zone. Otherwise you become stagnant. Not only in your physical body but in your mind as well. Instead of saying, "I can no longer do this." Say, "Since I can't do that now I will do this instead." 

Even a weed has a purpose though many only see it as a pest.

I know it is not easy to look beyond what you are going through at the moment. Sometimes I can't see past today. Wondering why I can't walk like I used to? Why did I have to have this Lymphedema on top of it all? Well, I remember my mother saying she couldn't understand why God let her get Cushings Syndrome and become crippled for life. I am not sure why we have to get diseases and accidents that impair us for life. Maybe it is not apparent to me right now. For myself, I have satisfied myself with the answer that I have to be an example or a helper in some way to others. 

I LOVE BUNNIES!!!!

A few days ago the thing that was upsetting me was that I had been banned on "fakebook" (as I call it, I know that is not its name and I don't care) for commenting "head shot" on a photo of a wild rabbit looking directly in the camera. Of course anyone who knows me knows I would NEVER be promoting shooting a rabbit with anything other than a camera! When they said that to me and that I was going against community standards that was it for me. I knew I did not want to be censored by them any longer or belong to their so called community.  The thing is I have felt for a very long time that fakebook promotes violence every day. So I am not planning on going back. When my time is up I will be taking all my own content off and give everyone my contact information. 

Copyright © 2022 Kathleen G. Lupole

All Photographs Copyright © 2022  Kathleen G. Lupole

Facebook Fights Are Getting Old Real Fast

Raised Bed with Bush Beans

I must annoy a lot of people. I am here at home minding my own business. But it is Facebook that is the culprit. One person who was a Facebook friend got mad at me and deleted me, because my husband made a remark about wanting pot legalized. It wasn't me. I don't even smoke nor do I drink or smoke cigarettes either. I agree with legalizing it, but what's that to her? But she got mad at me. Fine, I didn't really have anything in common with her anyway.

When my father passed away in 2012, my husband and I had the burden of dealing with my niece who had stolen everything of value out of my father's home. Her family had lived off my 94 year old father and stripped his bank account and did all sorts of things while he was in the hospital. He worried the whole time about them being in his house alone, even though he knew he'd never go back there. She burned her bridges with her family, including my brother who is her father.

Not too long ago, I joined a prepping group which is located in our area. They seemed like a nice bunch of people. I am not a prepper by any means. I am a modern homesteader and that is a whole different thing. So one of the guys saw a picture my husband posted that was about using solar for energy. It said something like the sun has been providing energy for billions of years and this guy took offence to that. He thought the world was only about 6000 years old (where has he been living? Under a rock?)! He actually made a bunch of religious comments on my husband's page. Then he said he was being persecuted for being a Christian! He was the one who started this argument on my husband's Facebook page! Keep your mouth shut, or write on your page, buddy. And just for the record: I AM a Christian, but I am not a follower of organized religion. I do not believe that the earth is only 6000 years old though. They have been saying that for hundreds of years now, I guess it never gets any older.

Now this month, a girl who I knew quite well, in fact, she lived with my son in the early nineties. They fought like cats and dogs then, and they still fight like that now. Only now she says it is all my fault. She put her nose in my business while I am trying to keep my son in his own apartment. So she slanders me. Accuses me of all sorts of REALLY bad things. She implied I was saying bad things about her, give me a break, she has not been on my mind at all. All I did was to remind my son to stay away from her because she causes trouble, which she does, and did. Of course she now has a job that she thinks puts her in a power position. Shoot, she is just a Medicaid Service Coordinator at the Handicapped Children's Association. So she should know better than fighting back and forth with my son who is a handicapped adult. It is, and was a very stressful situation to say the least, because of my son's girlfriend who is friends with the old girlfriend. What a mess!

I am distancing myself from these types of people. One thing is that Facebook does make it easy for people you have nothing in common with to become friends with you. It seems to me that it is rude to not accept them as a friend. But if I can't write what I want on my timeline, because of them, then I can't be friends with them. If they want to argue, do it on your own page.

So I have thought about trying to make my page even more private than it is.I have it set pretty strictly, I think. But I am looking to see if there is more that I can do with it. I hate fighting with anyone, and that is why I live this type of life to begin with. I just wish I lived further out than this, and maybe I will think about doing just that in the near future. So if you'd like to be friends with me on Facebook, go to my Homesteading On The Internet page or my Solar Baby page. I am on both of those pages quite often.

Copyright © 2014 Kathleen G. Lupole

All Photographs Copyright © 2014 Kathleen G. Lupole

Facebook Issues

Hobo keeping a look-out!

Do you ever just get tired of people on Facebook who are always judging you? Always making comments on your posts because they don't agree with it, but have to put their two cents on your page? Why don't they just mind their own business or post their view on their own page and leave mine alone?

Facebook is a huge network of people from all over the whole world. I am friends with more people there than I have ever met in person. For the most part, I enjoy my friends there. Especially my homesteading friends from Homesteading Today! And of course, my special blogging friends (and they know who they are!).

Seeing as we are all different, having been raised in different areas and have our own views on various subjects, that means we are not going to all agree on everything, all the time. So what is the sense of being friends with people who are not like yourself? Maybe it is to learn about others? Learn about their views and why they feel that way about an issue. That is what makes traveling to other countries interesting. To see what others do and how they live and maybe even what they think. It doesn't mean you have to change your views.

Or do you have a closed mind? One that sees only your way and no other? Or maybe you are a follower and just get in line to whatever is the supposedly "right" side of an issue? I'd say there are many oppressed people on Facebook. They get the wrong idea if someone makes a comment they don't understand. Many just want a chance to start an argument. Many people talk about issues that they support, and may not be doing.

I have to laugh at a Facebook friend who deleted me last night. All because my husband used the term "puff" in his comment, about a photo and statement about Monsanto on my timeline. She declared us drug users on my timeline! Big time slander on my reputation! I did not appreciate that at all! Especially since I do NOT smoke anything (or drink either for that matter) and probably take less drugs than she does. The reason it made me laugh, is that he said it in jest. He is not a drug user and does not even use aspirin! But maybe if pot becomes legal in my state, then she would all of a sudden say, "Oh, its not a drug after all." Or will she stick to her guns as she guzzles her beer and smokes her cigarettes? Which I feel is a much worse "DRUG." My husband doesn't do either!

Copyright © 2013 Kathleen G. Lupole

All Photographs Copyright © 2013  Kathleen G. Lupole