Questions! Green onion growing, EZ pass transponders, teaching, and more
I'm catching up on reader questions again today. Let's go!
Do you plant your onion ends in dirt or let them sprout in water? I've never had much success planting the ends either way. They rot on me. I'd love some hints to make them work.
I do a hybrid method; I usually stick the ends in a shallow dish of water for a couple of days to encourage the roots to grow, and then I plant them in a pot.
I do not have trouble with them rotting during the water stage; I just give them a water change every day. And once they're in the dirt, they usually grow just fine.
You only need a teeny bit of the bottom of a green onion for this; as long as it has even some short roots, it should grow for you.
Sometimes, if I am feeling a little lazy, I skip the water stage and just put the onion straight into the pot (as I am doing in the above photo). As long as the soil is pretty moist, this method also works.
Do you miss teaching? You were a homeschooler and a piano teacher - both of these required a lot of patience but also tangible rewards. I love that the last few years have allowed you to be a student and benefit from the learning but I wonder if you'd want to go back to teaching in some capacity, maybe teaching future nurses or doing continuing education.
Well, in a sense, I am still teaching! Nursing, when done right, requires a lot of teaching. Patients are not medical professionals, so they frequently need some help understanding what's going on with their bodies, and why we are doing/not doing certain things.
Like, I might say...."Some of that terrible pain is from gas because during a laparoscopic surgery, they fill your abdomen up with air, and some always remains after surgery. Let's get up and go for a walk because that can help move the air out."
A patient asks if I can take their IV out, and I say, "I'm so sorry, but it's our policy that it has to stay in place until you leave. It's for your safety, just because on rare occasions, a patient may need an emergency medication right before they leave."
If a patient asks for morphine, I have a conversation with them about their options, and I explain that morphine hits fast but also wears off fast, and that oxycodone takes a little longer to hit, but that its effects last longer. And then we work together to figure out the best plan of attack...but the education is necessary first, so the patient can make a more informed decision.
It would be possible to breeze through these scenarios and more without doing the teaching, but I have found that patients and their families really appreciate a simple explanation. And since teaching is right in my wheelhouse, I'm happy to provide this service. 🙂
I also teach when we have nursing students on our unit; when one is assigned to shadow me, I try my best to explain what I'm doing and why.
I haven't ruled out formal future teaching, though; a BSN will allow me to become a clinical instructor or a nursing lab instructor at my community college. There are also paid nursing tutor positions at the school, and I know I'm already qualified to do that! I just don't have the time right now.
One day down the road, I may get an MSN so that I can become a nursing school instructor. But getting another degree seems very daunting right now; I need a nice long break from school because I know I will have a serious case of burnout if I keep going after my BSN.
How did you get the “$0” charge transponder for your EZ pass?
I don't know if every state is different, but I just logged onto my state's EZ-pass system, and ordered one through there.
I have heard that the transponders are going away in the future; Massachusetts, for example, is switching to windshield stickers instead. Apparently, the stickers cost $0.55, while the transponders are $6-$7. As long as the stickers work, I'm all in support of this because it would be much less wasteful.
But for the moment, transponders are the thing here, and I'm glad I could get one for free!
I’m curious about how long it takes you to create a post. Also, has that changed with time? I used to contribute restaurant reviews for someone else’s blog, and it always seemed to take a long time.
Interestingly, blogging used to take me less time. It's not because I used to be faster; it's because blogging has become more complicated.
Back in 2008, you could just type up several long paragraphs, maybe add a photo, hit "publish" and you were done.
Now, it's prudent to write in very small paragraphs, and sprinkle lots of photos. The photos need to have a behind-the-scenes description written in for screen readers to comply with ADA regulations (a move I support! I'm just saying it adds some work.
Also...there's social media now, and sharing your work through some kind of email system. You have to set a featured image for each post, and it has to be a certain number of pixels tall and wide, and it too needs a written description.
Basically, there are more steps now than there used to be. However, I have definitely gotten faster as a blogger, just from sheer repetition and practice.
I honestly have no idea how long it takes me to write a post, and I also have no earthly idea how many hours I spend on my blog each week. I keep meaning to track it, but never do.
(The optimization bros would be horrified.)
I write at such random times, with no consistent schedule, so tracking would be a little complicated.
I will say that putting a post together takes longer than you'd think. Indeed, I often look at my finished posts and think, "Now, why did that take me so long to write??"
I suppose that is the case for most things we create; once they're done, they seem easy. But coming up with the thing in the first place is sort of hard/time-consuming!
If I ever do track my blogging time, I'll let you know what the results are.
In my state, they sent out transponders ( and now stickers!) for free in order to encourage EZ pass / I pass use. We did need to link to a credit card and have a small amount put on the account to pay tolls. That amount went only to tolls, so no cost for the device.
I didn't know the captions on the pictures were required; I thought bloggers were just using them to explain further or to be humorous. Now I know!
So, the caption that you see is optional. But when you upload a picture, you are supposed to add some "alt text" to describe the image. That way the screen reading tools that people with low/no vision use can read the description of the photo. You don't see the alt text unless you're looking at the code on the page. 🙂
I recognize the maths correction picture! That is a long time ago. Also, I think the fridge is huge. Is that a usual size or only for people who live in rural places far away from shops? I think my fridge is about half that size. I do have and love a crisp drawer!
I had some questions for you too, but now they escape me. I'll just add them in response to random posts if you don't mind.
That’s a typical fridge in the US. Sometimes, you’ll see smaller in very small apartments, but it’s not common.
Ha, yes, European fridges are much smaller than ours here in the U.S.! I honestly think that's probably a win on the food waste front because it's easy to lose track of things in a big fridge.
Compared to European fridges, US fridges are monsters. One reason is that we don't have a tradition of shopping every few days.
Now that I think of it though... my French friends have a small fridge in their Paris home and a larger one at the family place in the country.
I'm guessing European countries don't have warehouse stores like we do here. Where would you store something like a case of yogurt?
In my home country we do have stores similar to Target or Walmart in the U.S., but not like Sam's or Costco. Most people shop a couple of times a week and if you walk and live in a city, even more often.
Another reason why people in the U.S. need more fridge space is to hold cold drinks; I would say the average American drinks more sodas and flavored drinks than Europeans, even water from bottles because most people don't drink the tap water without filtration.
We have solved the problem by having a separate small fridge for drinks, which frees up space in our regular fridge (I'm with you, Kristen, I would love to have a wider but shallow fridge than the tall and deep one I have now!)
Random question, if money wasn't an issue, what would you spend more money and on and what would you keep at your current spending level?
the first target i ever saw was on my trip to australia in may of 1999. they called it targee pronounced tarjay. it was too funny.
My fridge is minute - there's two shelves, a crisper and a small freezer compartment - but even my parents' fridge is small compared to American ones, and theirs is a lot larger than mine. I think there are positives and negatives to this; it helps fight food waste in a sense, but it means I have less room to store food (ie, if I wanted to freeze food ahead of time). Overall it fits my needs though 🙂
I remember a girl at school having a fancy fridge with an ice dispenser and we called it 'her American fridge'!
Well, I shop every week (the current hot summer was an exception, I did an in between run for leaf greens and soft fruits) . In summer that is a challenge. In winter, the garage is an additional fridge!
I buy veg as is and only cut/slice them when we eat them. And veg is eaten in order from leaf to root. Cabbage, onion, carrot, last really well.
I live in a 100-year-old building, and I have a very difficult time finding a refrigerator that fits in the only space where it can go. Fridges have definitely gotten bigger and bigger, and I do think that is contributing to waste, because how much can you eat? If you fill a fridge that size you're going to have waste, unless you have a big family.
You know what I would actually love? A fridge that is very wide, but not deep. It makes no practical sense in terms of home installation, but it would be great to see everything!
Kristen, I used to wish for a fridge like the one you describe while DH was still living at home. Because of his dementia, he could never find anything in the fridge unless it was right up front.
Refrigerator blindness taken to a whole new level! 😉
So, perhaps you should see about finding one of these? Pretty sure you're even tall enough to be able to reach all the shelves. 😉
https://rarehistoricalphotos.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/04Refrigerator-vintage-photos-08.webp
When we moved into our current house, the previous owner took the fridge as part of the deal. We thought it was no big deal because it was very large and did not sit in any way flush with the counter. We went on to find out it was as small as we could get unless we wanted something just slightly bigger than a dorm fridge!
I once had 3 fridges in the house, but am now down to 2, both secondhand.
When I first moved in, I bought a nice refrigerator with freezer on top and it had an automatic ice maker. Perfect!
Then the roommate moved in. She stuffed the fridge with so much stuff that the door started sagging. Even thought the roommate brought her waist-high fridge for our cold drinks; we put it on the old entertainment center where the oldstyle TV would have gone and it was great! The shelves of the entertainment center served as extra pantry space for two.
My handyman mentioned he had a secondhand 2 door side by side fridge/freezer for sale for $150. Since the door to my first fridge was still sagging and we still didn't have enough space, I bought it and put my food items in there. I still have it. It's in the den, by the kitchen door, but I don't mind it, as it is very handy and large.
Eventually, the roommate moved out and took her small fridge with her. But she had damaged the original fridge to the point that I had to call the repairman. Twice. He proclaimed it DOA so I had it hauled away. I then found another fridge for about $125 at Salvation Army and although it's smaller than the original one, I'm using it along with the side-by-side one. (I also have an upright freezer in the laundry room.)
I use the Salv. Army fridge's top freezer strictly for ice. Since we don't know if it was in a clean environment or not, I don't use the automatic ice maker. (The side by side was in a garage so I already knew it's ice maker was dirty, and therefore never used it.) But I used the larger ice maker bin from the original fridge (it was being junked so I took out the bins to be reused) as an ice holder, and I fill ice cube trays and then dump the contents in there. Right now I have about 5 or 6 ice cube trays chilling in the freezer in addition to what's in the bin. It's very convenient as I just grab cubes from the bin whenever I want ice, and then once a day empty the trays into the bin. My trays do not match so I have different sizes of ice cubes (big squares, little rectangles, small cylinder shapes meant for water bottles and small round "cubes") that are all mixed up.
All this sounds crazy, I know, but it's much cheaper than buying a new refrigerator. A lot of the new ones don't last but a couple of years, and mine have been going strong for almost a decade.
I also sprout/plant green onions and love clipping off new green until they're done reproducing. I have an adorable chipmunk who lives in my main flower bed. Their name is Chonk. Chonk loves to dig in flower pots. Some are more sensitive than others. I plant my onion stems in the sensitive pots to 'Chonk-proof' them. Chipmunks have sensitive noses. Adding onions and fresh coffee grounds to the 'No, Chonk' pots is a non-toxic way to protect my more sensitive flowers and let them know where it's free to play in the dirt. lol
That sounds very humane, or monk-mane. I put black plastic forks with the tines sticking up just an inch or two in the dirt where I don't want digging guests, and it certainly slows them down. The forks are annoying more than dangerous to the animals and hard to see.
Oooh, I like this idea and I will adopt it!
Yes, it is a safe method of reusing plastic forks!
What? You aren't planning to be a teacher so you can assign useless group projects? I never found group work to be of value to me in college. It was rather like when I was young and supposed to sell Camp Fire Girls candy, to build character. It didn't; it just annoyed me and my mother.
My green onions grow in their plastic bag in the refrigerator if I leave them in there long. Usually, I cut several inches off to use, then put the remaining root and several inches back in the bag, and they sprout there.
I like what you wrote about nursing as teaching. The same can be said of many professions.
Right!! I remember taking a few educational courses in college as I was thinking of getting certified to teach. I spent so much time driving all over the county to meet with my classmates to work on group projects.
I agree with Kristen. There are many ways to teach. All of them are important. I gained a lot of self esteem from being a very good classroom teacher ( with all due modesty), and I was afraid to give it up. However, I discovered I find great fulfillment in individual voice lessons, small group interactions, and large speaker formats ( when I share my experience as a recovered alcoholic.)
My chat for the week centers around making the big decision to put my mom in independent senior living. She is 91 but acts like she is 71. Her beloved condo, though, only has one bathroom up a tricky stairway with a landing. Her stairlift of 30 years has finally been declared DOA. I can't rationalize putting more money in for a new one at her age. Plus she is decidedly more frail since her silly fall in May.
This is what I have learned making the tortuous decision. I do not have a crystal ball. I can't guess where her very limited funds will be best spent because I do not know how long she will live or if she will need long term skilled nursing. Sell or rent, regular apartment or chair, there is no "right answer." I am making the decision that gives her best chance of keeping her safe and with a good quality of life for the longest time.
Nota Bene: I will now be clearing out and selling a third house in as many months. Sigh!!!!
Oh my goodness, that is so many houses to clear out in such a short period of time. You are probably an expert by now!
I am lucky that I am not a saver. I am a thrower!
It’s a wild card for sure. My MIL is 107 and now fading slowly but at an accelerated rate. For 8 years she lived with family (we took turns, swapping her out for several months at a time). In hindsight I am not sure we would do anything different but it was hard work on many levels. For almost 2 years she has been in skilled care facility because it became too difficult to keep her in our homes.
I have another friend who at age 81 has both medical and financial POA for a 99 year old friend who is running out of funds and cognition. She just facilitated her move to a studio (vs her previous 1BR) so she can hopefully stay in the same assisted living community.
You just do the best you can with the experience, energy and information you have.
I have another friend who wisely said “I never second guess the people in the trenches”. Observing and living it are wildly different.
Whoa! 107! That's amazing.
The lack of a crystal ball… I also had to help my mother transition her living arrangements. When she was widowed, and the year prior, I kept her house running with the assistance of her one day a week companion. Eventually this became too much of a strain on my family as she required more personal and house management assistance while I was working and caring for my son after a serious fall with concussion.
First stop was an independent living apartment that was a half mile from me. Being an outgoing person she made many friends near and old. The proximity to me was so helpful for those middle of the night runs. Then the “fall” and no longer ambulatory.
Second stop…assisted living two miles away. (Yes, our SE Pennsylvania area has a large aging population.). Again she finds a friend from her young adult years to ease the transition. Two and a half enjoyable and supportive years. As fate would have it her money and health declined at a similar pace.
A crystal ball couldn’t have predicted the changes but we were blessed to have each situation as the need arose.
May you and your mother be equally blessed.
This probably just means I've watched Friends too many times, but when I see 'transponder' I think of the quiz game episode where Monica and Rachel are asked what Chandler's job is and Rachel yells 'he's a transpons...transponster!"
Maybe when you are done with school, I'd love to see more of the behind the scenes of blogging. How long it takes or an example of the photo caption.
Also, I planted some green onions in a pot because I read about it here first! Mine are growing, but it's been 3 ish weeks and I don't think they are ready to harvest just yet. It is cool!
I didn’t know blogging has become so complicated! I am planning a move in the next few months, and thought about starting a garden blog following my progress in planting a garden. I might have to reconsider or get some hands on guidance.
If you are just doing it for a hobby and you are not worried about optimizing it and growing an audience, then there is no reason to fret! Start a free one on WordPress.com (WAY better than Blogger, trust me) and have fun with it. You can learn as you go.
I regrow green onions too. I just stick them in a pot of dirt.
I'm enjoying your recent posts that discuss how you blog.
Im a 45 yr old currently I'm transitioning my career and decided to enroll in a LPN program track stsrting Fall term. Ive gotten a lot of mixed opinions as to whether i am equipped to handle being a mother (3 kids, range from college, middle school, and elementry) as well as work full-time. Seems as though others are worried about me burning out but im stuck in limbo doubting myself whilte at the same time desperately seeking a career transition and the LPN program is 16 months. I do plan to do the LPN to RN Bridge down the line but I guess im letting others get to my pyche thinking Im biting more than I can chew but I do feel its possible with discipline and proper time management. Any thoughts?
I am cheering you on over here! I think you can do this. Lots of people work as LPNs or RNs while also being moms; it is not that unusual. Don't let the naysayers get you down.
Faith-- Discipline and time management, certainly, but also make sure who is on your side, so you can rely on those people! Talk with your family about what you need and want and why, and what they need and want from you. Best of luck to you!
My boys were in preschool and kindergarten when I went back to school in the evenings to earn my associates in occupational therapy. Primarily I worked at home babysitting other folks children until mine were in elementary school.
My motto for those years was that we needed meals prepared and laundry done. Cleaning etc could wait
My daughter was in kindergarten when I started a doctoral degree at night. I worked two jobs during the day, picked her up at afterschool care, got her to ballet and watched her class, and my husband would meet us there to take her home while I proceeded to class. That was hard enough, but I got PREGNANT in the middle of all that (AWK) and just kept going.
It's very possible if you have good support, and yes, discipline is key. You must keep up with your classes (and I used breaks to get ahead), and just keep swimming, swimming, swimming.
Thanks for this info, always like listening to you.
I have a good friend who is graduating with her RN in December and I would like to give her a gift. I was wondering if you have any recommendations for gifts for new nurses! Based on your blog and her own testimony, I know how incredibly hard she has worked and would like to congratulate her with a gift! Thanks!
Aww, that is so sweet of you!
My clinical instructor gave all of us a big canvas bag kinda like this one: https://vanessarosella.com/products/nurse-personalized-tote-bag-nurse-gift-registered-nurse-tote-rn-tote-rn-gift-future-nurse-gift-nursing-student-gift-nurse-graduation-gift-319396063?srsltid=AfmBOopHoJPUWFrd-9mAV_pPYdHkRwKL5Ybed-yBRkZj082sNWkm4mK4 And I love mine!
A gift card to her favorite scrubs brand might be nice too. Or a coffee gift card. You could throw in a little enamel pin for her to put on her badge (I have a Snoopy one on mine. Of course.)
The nurses I work with love Owalla water bottles right now, and I love mine too (a graduation gift!)
Mass changing over to a sticker ez-pass is news to me. I wonder if the transponders will still work until they die. I've had mine for probably close to two decades. I'll have to read the article to see. Thanks for sharing it.
Our state provides three transponders per person during your lifetime--you can return an old one and then that one doesn't count. I missed sending back my old one, now I have to send #2 back because I just got #3.
I don't see California going to window stickers because the newest transponders let you dial in the number of people in the car. During commute hours, you pay less if you have 1 or 2 passengers in the car and you can use the carpool lanes, but you have to tell the readers how many people are in the car with the transponder.
I bought my first transponder at Costco for a few dollars. They had a deal where they will cover the where you paid a small amount for the transponder and if you put your Costco Credit Card on the account they covered the first $15 deposit. This was a long time ago, though.
Kristen, I can see you as a nursing educator. You'd be great at that! Or maybe a nurse practitioner if you can stand more education some day.
If you want an easy "tracking your time" approach, maybe try this idea.
Jot down what time you sit down to blog, and do the same when you stop. Then next time you start, repeat, as well as when you stop.
Then go back at the end of the day, and tally up time actually spent. If you do this each time you blog, for maybe 5 blogs, you will get an average time spent. Just a idea.
As a person with a blog myself, I can second that it takes so much longer than I ever figured, mostly coming up with things to write about. Which is kinda funny in my case since I am a writer and my blog is about my books! haha.
i for one hope you never track the length of time it takes to create your FAB blog. you would see the whole time spent and say OMG I don't have time for this anymore. and i would be the saddest person in the commentariat.
Hehe, oh, I don't think you have to worry about that!
Regarding root rot, the most likely explanations are using a pot without a drain hole or overwatering. It's not clear if either of those situations might be involved.
I live in MA and just got a sticker as well as a transponder (new to them cars for household members). I decided to use the sticker for myself and it is much less noticible than the transponder. BUT I realized that one negative to the sticker is that you can't switch it easily between cars like you can do with the transponder - so not sure how I will feel about the convince of stickers as time goes on...
Oh, interesting. I will say, the new transponders are less bulky than the old ones, so that is nice!