Micki's Latest Gossip: Change the Narrative

Hi <<First Name>>
Welcome to the June 2020 edition of
Micki's Latest Gossip

A centuries old poem taught us April showers bring May flowers. This year the rain came in May. This year, we change the narrative.

But then, we've gotten adept at changing the narrative in 2020, haven't we?

At our house, May showers over-filled the pool. Hubby has had to drain water regularly since opening it in late April. May showers overly saturated the yard and pushed water into the basement.

But May showers also gave us lush, full tomato, cucumber, and basil plants. And as a result of the May showers, our water bill has been low, because we're not adding water to the pool after hot days or watering the container garden. May showers kept the power bill down, too. We haven't been running the air-conditioning all that much.

So which "changed" narrative do I choose? May showers bring June lush container gardens and lower utility bills.

This year, I'm working diligently (and it has not been easy) to change the narrative and focus on the positive. As a writer, I can assure you that the narrative can always be changed, because we are in charge of both writing and editing it.

Including Earth-friendly tips as a regular feature in my newsletter has me constantly thinking about my carbon footprint.

The voice in my head questioning my actions ...

Is that going to decompose any time soon?
Why don't you compost that?
What's the fastest way to get there? (assuming you really have to drive instead of walk)

... used to be my fourth-grade teacher, Mrs. Brennan, who taught us all about recycle, reuse, reduce.

Lately it's been Zahra, my middle-grades works-in-progress 11-year-old protagonist.

And over the past few months, lack of paper resources pushed us into making changes we needed to make.

We've changed the narrative in a few ways. "Add paper towels, napkins, and tissues to the grocery list," has changed to, "We need to do a load of towel, napkins, and handkerchiefs."

The irony here is that the narrative isn't new. We've recycled it from our grandparents and great grandparents. When my nose ran at my grandparents' house, Pop Pop handed me his handkerchief. When we helped set the table in Granny's apartment, we placed utensils on neatly folded cloth napkins.

Zahra's Earth-friendly tip for June is:
Go "old-school" and use cloth towels, napkins, and handkerchiefs. And find a place outside to compost food scraps!

It can be fun, too. Here's a VIDEO (with jazzy music) on how to fold cloth napkins. The photo is from the video.

Three years ago, Hubby purchased a beautiful digital camera for me. I was thrilled with the gift. At the time, I was still doing a lot of writing for our local paper. Ruby—that's what I named the dark red piece of complex photographic equipment—was to be my creative sidekick.

I grew up in the era of film photography. My father's hobby was taking and developing photos. He taught me how to take pictures with a 35mm film camera. I have the photo albums to prove it.

Then came the smartphone era. The world of photography was morphing to digital as phones that fit in our pockets became cameras for the general population. I did well with my smartphones. I have the external drives and cloud storage to prove it.

Then came Ruby. What a joy. I spent the first few months snapping away with my two lenses, filling up my micro-SD card.

Unfortunately, my photos were not clear. They were not well composed. They were awful!

I took better photos with my cell phone.

So Ruby was packed up and placed on the shelf in my closet. Every now and again, I'd get ribbed for not using the amazing piece of equipment on which Hubby spent his hard-earned money.

Then 2020 happened. And, during our weekly Zoom meetings, my boss asked us to ask ourselves, "What would I love to do now that I have more time?"

My answer was, "Learn how to take great pictures with Ruby."

So I changed the narrative. It wasn't that I couldn't take quality photos with Ruby, it was that I needed to learn more about her and about digital photography.

The photo above was taken with Ruby while I was watching a YouTube video on how to take pictures with her. I watched several videos. And I changed a few settings on Ruby. And low and behold, the photos I took came out great!

I would have shared more of them with you in this newsletter, but the micro-SD card somehow got corrupted. I'm not surprised (it's 2020, after all). I'm also not deterred. Expect a photo blog on my website sometime in June!

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Showers & Flowers

AND THE WINNER IS ...

(ANOTHER) EXCITING ANNOUNCEMENT!

Work In Progress

Earth-Friendly Tip from Zahra

My Personal Gossip