Brisingamen End of Year Note, 2022 (January)
Continuing on with tackling my boasts, the family went to the Penn Museum of Anthropology and Archeology. Library museum pass number 3, check! And best yet, Judy and Henry were able to get a pass as well and join us for a short while. Our family ended up being at the museum almost until close. We got into the museum for free but had to pay for parking. I wanted to get the most out of the museum in one pass and not worry about having to pay for parking again. The museum was well done – ancient China and Egypt, Native American tribes and the progression of fashions were some of the exhibits that I remember. I thoroughly enjoyed the China and Egypt areas. I was attempting to read the educational boards in the Egyptian exhibit and kept getting tripped up on pronunciation. The museum guard came over and helped me out with words and names and started sharing facts about the pharos. Turns out, the guard studies ancient Egypt in college and had a degree in Egyptian history, (or something like it) and really enjoyed his assignment at the museum.
We as a family visited the puppies again. It was wonderful. They were mobile and playful. Knowing we would be purchasing Vega made it that much sweeter.
Catawba-Lynn and I went to the John James Audubon Center back-to-back Fridays, first with our neighbors, Sam, Justin, and Landon and then with Justine and her boys. Again, library museum passes, so it was all free. We greatly enjoyed the museum. First off, the museum is in a beautiful place. The center has trails on the grounds that you can utilize without paying the entrance fee. There are animal ambassador birds outside that you can walk by and look at. John James Audubon’s house (or a replica) is on the property with a sign-up 13:00 free, guided tour. We loved it. A docent came out and explained what was in the house and the history of the property and Audubon himself. It was very interesting. There is a find-it type game in one whole room. The tour was informative and enjoyable.
There is a children’s play and craft area in the basement and an amazing, educational, “back yard” for the kids to play in. There are a lot of hands on, educational displays throughout the museum. Tawbs enjoyed it just as much as I did.
When we lived in Wisconsin – still in West Allis, in the second trailer, I started on my master’s degree. We opened up the blacklight miniature golf course and then surprise! Became pregnant! So I didn’t finish my master’s degree, but I did earn a graduate certificate in Environmental Education – but I digress, I took 3 of my 4 graduate classes at what was then called The Audubon Center of the Northwoods. It is about an hour North of the Twin Cities in Minnesota – so yes, the Northwoods – but it had zero affiliation with the Audubon Center. Upper staff and such decided to change the name of the center to Osprey Wilds. I was disappointed, as I liked the old name, but respected the leadership – especially since the director was my past instructor. Well, while visiting the John James Audubon Center, we were notified that Audubon himself was – complicated – gifted, yes – but a hypocrite – and well – not really pro human rights. Anyway, the Audubon Center said that in 2023, there would be time put in to presenting the whole of who John James Audubon was, not just the artwork and thus conservation he is known for. With no affiliation to the Audubon Center, I can understand why Osprey Wilds distanced themselves from the Audubon Center. With all that said – I still highly recommend going. It has been one of my favorites.
In between those Fridays, on the Monday, Catawba-Lynn went to her first 4H Clover Bud meeting! I remember being in 4th grade and having to write in our journals every morning in class. I wrote about going to an informational 4H meeting (but due to schedules and what not, I wasn’t able to participate in 4H). I wrote about it in my journal and later felt bad, because I wrote only about 4H and not about my brother’s birthday which was on the day I wrote the journal entry. 4H is one of those things where I was pretty sure Catawba-Lynn would love it, but if she didn’t, too bad, she was going to do it because I wanted to as a kid and couldn’t. Luckily – she loves it! In Delaware County, my little monster gets to run around on a farm. Excellent!
Eridanis To Sessrumnir Freyja Gets First Pick. His name is so long, I paid extra for it. I brought my puppy home on 1/15. One of the few times I didn’t drive. The whole ride home I just snuggled with my new little puppy. I needed a dog to go hiking with. I needed a walking buddy. A huge, extra bonus in that Sessrumnir is AKC registered and I can show him. No, it’s not the Iditarod, but it is an event I can do with my dog.
I had been struggling with accepting our taxes being so high. I’m still not accepting, but there are only a few options to fix taxes. I was told to apply for the homestead tax abatement. In my mind, I thought it would make $10,000+ housing taxes more manageable. I was relying heavily on this abatement. See, when we moved here, we knew we were going to need to pay much more than we were used to in taxes. We purchased the house and agreed to pay $8,000 in taxes. It hurt and it was horrid, but we accepted it. Well, we were not aware, however, from 2017-2020, Delamare County officials were looking to restructure how taxes are collected. And these officials decided to decrease the percentage of taxes on businesses while raising the already high percentage tax rate on homeowners. It went into effect in 2021. The restructure, plus our supposed raise in home value equals too high of taxes for us. So I was hopeful for the abatement. I submitted our paperwork and waited. I received no word so I called the office. The woman on the phone was rude mind you, and said I should qualify for the abatement, however, I had lived in the house more than a year, thus we lost out on last year’s abatement. I told her I wasn’t aware of the program – I found out from my neighbors. This lady had the audacity to tell me I should maybe open my mail then. “What?!” I said, “I’m the only one that opens mail in our house, we received none of these papers.” She said I needed to get it together because her office would have been the office to send out the paperwork. Well, I was pissed by then, because not only was she being a bitch but she sucked at her job too! The real kicker is, this abatement only saves us roughly $400 a year. “That’s It?!” I blurted. I couldn’t help it! This was supposed to actually help me out – mean something! “Honey, I don’t know where you come from – but $400 is a lot of money.” she snapped back. “Not when I’m paying $10,000 a year in taxes – $400 is nothing!” (Oh, and by the way, where we come from in Wisconsin, housing taxes are around $400 a month. Yes – $400 is a lot of money!) So my plan to survive the Philadelphia area by using the tax abatement was a flop.
Later that week, Lucas was laying around on the couch watching YouTube – nothing intense or interesting really. I sat over next to him and realized that his heartbeat was abnormally alarmingly, high. I counted it out. High. I told him about it, said he needed to get it looked into. Said he would. … He also started to develop chest pain throughout the coming months as we tried to get to the bottom of his irregular heartbeat. It took us to October to figure it out – but Lucas is healthy and has a strong heart – he just hates Philadelphia and SEPTA! SEPTA is the public transportation system out here which is inconsistent, breaks down, double charges riders, has lackadaisical customer service, and also has cancelled Lucas’s train pass that he uses to get to work! He got it working again, but still.
It was getting late one night, I was cooking dinner, Lucas was still working, Catawba was in the living room building a fort with the couch and blankets and Sessrumnir was being a puppy, walking around the house looking for trouble but not quite getting into any. I had the music playing in the kitchen, had vegetable lasagna in the oven, it was going to be a good night! But I heard glass break in the living room. I made three hasty steps towards the living room – I was concerned, not mad. But it was partly dark in the house, and the music was up, and Catawba-Lynn had been trying to keep a sheet taught with a glass planter holding it down…things were not ideal.
So, when Tawbs saw me moving fast, she thought she was in trouble, but then got scared because she watches scary shit with Lucas that is not age appropriate, annnd because she couldn’t see who was in the shadows moving towards her. She let out a screech and dove under the couch. Which is where Sessrumnir had been. Had been. He had been under our couch. But Catawba-Lynn was in tears not knowing what the after her – and then a 10-week-old puppy was bounding through the shadows too after the sound he had just heard – close to the glass and dirt and plant and I smelled it and Catawba-Lynn rolled deeper under the couch to avoid me and I yelled “Stop!” and Sessrumnir didn’t listen and Tawbs was even worse, crying even more… I finally managed to get the lights on, and I saw it. Catawba-Lynn was no longer under the couch, but standing in the living room, hands outstretched, looking at the puppy poop she just flung herself into. My easy night quite literally turned into a shit show mess as I cleaned the kid and the plant and under the couch and kept Sessrumnir from making a big mess even bigger, and swept the floor, and did the laundry… What a night! And Luke was oblivious as he was at work.
Half A Human 