Welcome to Chaos !!

Me and two other Pet Pack team members saw these two pretty and warm jackets today for dogs on sale at the store where we keep our supplies. So we split the cost, only $9 each. We could not pass up that deal. Besides kibble and canned food, jackets for dogs are the most sought after item. And harnesses for dogs.

I met a dog today that REALLY needed a jacket. First time visitor. Not a good situation. Together with a chaotic couple (the dog's humans), no place to live, not even a tent. The poor dog was visibly anxious, cold, shivering and just wanted warmth, safety and love. I cradled his head in my hands and cupped his ears with my gloved hands and he burrowed his head in between my thighs for a moment. A moment of safety but just a moment unfortunately. I wish I could save him. I hope he is OK tonight. It is cold outside. He got one of those jackets, a pajamas, two leashes, boots and food. The humans got a phone number to a person that can help them secure a better situation for themselves, that is if they make the effort to contact the person. I don't know if they will but I certainly hope so.
I have volunteered with the Portland Pet Pack for a few years now. I have seen a lot of people and I am quite comfortable maneuvering around everybody and their needs. My priority is always with the animals. The people get food too and there are resources out there for them. I know of some sucess stories, like the beautiful blunose pitbull girl Lucy and her owner. When I first met them they were living in a tent, Lucy was visibly stressed out. No it is not fun for a dog to live on the streets in a tent on some corner. It is loud, scary, stressful, cold, windy and food might be scarce. Once her human found an apartment and a job Lucy got to live inside and she is so much happier now. I love when they come and visit so I can get updates. Lucy's human is a very nice man and I care for him too. Everybody has a story. There is a lot of sadness and suffering but hope and happiness too. I see that when I am down there volunteering. I am grateful that I have what I have, food and shelter.
I really hope this couple I met today can get it together. In general I do not think you should have pets or children if you cannot take care of yourself. If you are responsible and trying to get into a better situation then yes but if you are living a crazy and dangerous lifestyle then you are not a good pet owner.
I get really sad over all the animals that suffer because of us humans. Please do not breed your pets. Take good care of the ones you have. They depend on you for everything. Maybe one day I will be able to help more. That is one of my dreams.

It snowed in Portland.....the city stood still for a while. It took a friend of mine 13 HOURS to get home from work the other day. A trip that takes about 30-40 minutes usually. That is insane. I would had lost my mind waiting in traffic for that long, I can barely do regular bumper to bumper traffic.
The hummingbird water that I have out for the little hummingbirds that circle my backyard is frozen, I feel bad for the birds. 
So the other day I tried an eye cream I have not used before (Andalou Rejuvenating Plant Based Retinol Eye Balm), I use other Andalou products for my face so I did not think anything of it. I woke up Thursday with two eyes looking like.....red, puffy, skin stretching downwards. My eyes did not look like usual. Not fun. Not a good look for me. An allergic reaction of some sort. I thought maybe some chilled tea bags would help so I applied those Thurday night before sleep, woke up looking puffy still. Then I read some articles that eye creams can cause CHRONIC eye puffiness and bags under the eyes and that the only way to reverse that is to get blepharoplasty. Now I am not ready to have a plastic surgeon cut up my face.....yet. Ask me in 10 years and I might tell you something different. So I got some antihistamine and some sort of eye scrubs yesterday. Then towards the evening the skin around my eyes started to itch. Earlier yesterday I exchanged the Andalou eye cream for another eye cream I have used in the past (Wild Carrot Wild Rose Hydrating Eye Cream) and patted it on to soothe the irritated delicate skin around my eyes. Did you know that the skin around the eyes (especially the eyelids) is the thinnest skin on your body? I regret not taking better care of the skin around my eyes. Learn from Tati.....treat the skin around your eyes with the most gentle care, get a good eye cream and DO NOT use tanning beds and cover your eyes and face while in the sun as much as possible. 
Woke up today looking better but still not fully recovered. I hope my eyes go back to their normal state soon.

I have been making coffee at home. I do not think that the latte at Black Rock coffee shop close to where I live is worth the $6 plus so I am trying to get lattes from places where the quality is worth it. Like Stumptown. Besides coffee at home is kind of cozy, I get up, make the coffee and go back to bed, sip on the coffee while reading what is new in the world. 

Took an evening walk through the snow the other night. Saw this. Pretty!

Now I am going to start my day. Work tonight. Pet Pack tomorrow.

I was planning on working today but since then we are currently (when I am writing this) under winter weather advisory and it snowed like two inches this evening.....so Portland is basically in shutdown and people in almost panic mode.
This happens when it snows in Portland. So the club was closed and I went to Powell's Books instead to browse books.
It was so serene in there and I got an overwhelming feeling inside that books are beautiful. Even got emotional and teary eyed. Reading is a beautiful thing. I can still kind of remember when I learned how to read, ever since then I have been constantly reading.

I found this great book on pierogis today. When people ask "what's your favorite food", I am like.....I love food too much to pick a favorite food. BUT my true fave foods are pierogis and barszcz. Those are childhood foods and DELICIOUS. But I love food in general.

Here are some pictures from the book. This is barszcz.....red beet soup. I haven't had a proper barszcz since last time I was in Sweden, staying with my Mom.

No I do not make my own pierogis. But growing up I did with my Mom, from scratch at home of course. Mom would make the dough and the filling and I would be in charge of putting a glass upside down on the dough to make the round cut outs and then we would fill the dough with the filling together.

My Mom was born in Southern Poland close to the Ukrainian border. The closest large town was Lublin.

After Powell's Books I went to the grocery store. There was one little sample cup (just for me) left and they had my fave brand of coffee to sample, Stumptown. That made me happy.

Today was the last evening of the Portland Winter Light Festival which has been going on here in Portland for about a week now. Super fun and super nice, especially for kids (but not for dogs, I do not understand why some people insist to drag their poor traumatized dogs into events like these). I went down there around 8 pm, it takes me about 15 minutes to drive to City Center from where I live. Lots of people were out and about.
I don't know if this robot, Mechan 42 Space Explorer is going to stay here in Portland at the waterfront, it would be nice.

Lights reflecting in the Willamette River.

Lights in the trees - the city is so pretty right now.

Poineer Square had a large happy crowd, live music and propane flames. A touch of Burning Man here in Portland tonight.

I stayed for a bit.....then I had enough and drove home. Dateline and Earl Grey was on the agenda for the evening.

Where is God I am asking myself while slowly crying when looking at the picture of the Dad holding his dead daughter's hand crushed under the rubble in the earthquake that shook Turkey-Syria a few days ago. Is there a God really? If God exists somewhere up there beyond the blue sky.....why is God allowing these things to happen? Why is there so much suffering here on Earth? Can't we just be born and live somewhat peacefully for like 8-10 decades until we die? Why do we need to deal with hunger, natural disasters, painful diseases etc on top of everything else? What good do these things contribute to our already difficult existence? What did those poor people do to deserve to be crushed in that earthquake? And their poor loved ones left behind that have to deal with the mental agony aftermath and having nowhere to live and all their belongings destroyed. I do not know what to believe. I consider myself spiritual, I do not belong to a particular religion. I am not sure what I am trying to say here but I am sure that most of us have at some point prayed to God or asked God why when faced with a difficult situation. Except the atheists of course. I just wish there was no suffering. We have enough to deal with already on our individual life journeys. All I want to do for the remainder of my life is to live as calmly as possible, care for animals and do something positive for......for? I guess positive somehow for the things I care about.....like animals and nature and the World as a whole. Not trying to be a Saint or anything, I am not that nice to everybody. In fact I dislike humanity in general. But animals and nature I do like.

Did you watch the State of the Union today delivered by President Joe Biden? Yes? No? I did not but I briefly read a bit about it just minutes ago so while I still have the enthusiasm and energy I will now deliver to you Tati's State of the Union. The only one you will need. First of all let me address hecklers. People that act as immature and stupid like Marjorie Taylor Greene did during Biden's speech should be banned from attending all public events. She is as ugly on the inside as she is on the outside, a real embarrassment. My eyes hurt when I look at her face......seriously. During MY speeches you either shut up or get kicked out. An adult that holds a position in Congress should be held to a higher standard. Taylor Greene makes $174,000/year and she is not happy with that because she made more money before. Pack your shit up and quit then and I will take your position for LESS pay and actually get stuff done instead of what you do. Let's touch on some of the issues Biden addressed. Fentanyl. I am for the legalization of drugs because people do them regardless. I wish people were not using Fentanyl to get high and instead only used it as it is supposed to be used, closely supervised pain management. Unfortunately Fentanyl is here to stay, so either DO NOT DO these kinds of drugs or get some Naloxone. I do not know how to stop Fentanyl coming into the US since drugs have been coming into the US since several decades now. People do drugs. It is what it is. According to Donald Trump's response to Biden's State of the Union, the murder rate is higher than it has ever been in the US under Biden. OK....? Look people are INSANE nowadays in case you haven't noticed yet. Ever since Trump's presidency the a large amount of the US population has became borderline unhinged. So I would not blame Biden for it. Biden is certainly not responsible for randos shooting people. That too has been going on for decades in the Land Of The Free. Perhaps Trump should scrutinize himself and ask himself if he has a role in the according to him higher than ever murder rate? Sit down Donald. Be glad Melania has not officially left you yet. My input, because Tati's State of the Union is THE real State of the Union......guns are not the answer. Too many crazies out there now with guns. So many that even I'm thinking about getting one just in case. Sorry America, WAKE UP, time to get with the times. This is not 1791 anymore OK. Time to rethink The Second Amendment. I know it is a difficult pill to swallow for many but it is time. Time for the boys to stop playing Rambo and put those guns away. No....the Government will not take over your life more than it already has, you pay taxes so you are not truly free. People in other westernized countries somehow live so you can too here in the US with very strict gun control. Bipartisanship and unity? Absolutely! Remember united we stand divided we fall, there is real truth in that statement. I am all for more help for seniors. Seniors are awesome and should enjoy their retirement and absolutely support Social Security. I will also say that Universal Health Care needs to happen in the US. Like immediately. How should we pay for it? Tax the rich more. Why not? They can afford it. Tax large companies like Amazon. And tax churches and religious organizations. And stop wasting money on bullshit. And spend money where it matters, like on affordable healthcare for all. Also start teaching responsible parenting. To save money it is time to only allow responsible people to reproduce. If you cannot take care of yourself you cannot take care of a child and I do not want to take care of your child. I am for population control as well. This planet has too many useless humans on it. Stop squeezing out kids. By the way.....poor children that have to deal with this disaster that is happening all over this planet. Who in their right mind wants to put children into today's world? And as far as abortion goes? I am PRO CHOICE of course. Pro lifers only care about the fetus. Once the baby is born they do not care what happens to it. Way too many children in this country get severely neglected, abused and murdered by their parents or Mom's new boyfriend. Care about the EXISTING children. Not unborn children. Figure out a way to make rents affordable or deal with more homeless. Many Americans are only one paycheck away from homelessness and that is terrible. Put a cap on rents. Allow people to be able to afford the basics - food and shelter. How to deal with Russia and Putin? I told you many times before, let me deal with Putin. How to deal with North Korea? I am not sure. I hope Kim either gets to his senses but as the dictator he is I don't think he will so my next hope is that he dies soon. I really do not care how he dies. I truly feel very sad for the poor innocent people of North Korea. I cannot even imagine how miserable life must be there. So Americans hold on to everything you take for granted everyday and be GRATEFUL that you have it. As far as the "American Dream" goes.....there is no American Dream. That is an empty promise to keep you from either rebelling like the people in the 60s touched on or completely losing your mind. You will never be truly free unless you are one of those rare very fortunate people. Most of us will be forced to go to school, some will be conned into getting an expensive and useless education, then some will squeeze out innocent children that will repeat all of the mistakes of their parent/s and more, you will be forced to work in order to survive, pay taxes and scrape by until you are a few years or a decade plus from death. So try to make the best of it. It will not be easy. Is that it? What else? Better care for animals. ALL animals. We can always improve on that. Because animals are beautiful contrary from us. Do YOUR part to improve the world.