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Chico. I know where Lodi is, I lived in Stockton (about 15 miles south of Lodi) for 16 years (about 15 too many!) and I’ve lived here for about 17 years. I really like it here. It’s a smaller city with the 3rd largest municipal park in the US, only NY Central and Golden Gate in San Francisco are bigger. It’s 2000 acres. It’s got a view of the mountains without the steep hills or the snow, and the University provides lots of cultural events. It also has 3 farmer’s markets in the summer and 1 year around one which are very popular, and city wide events like Watermelon Day where the city provides free watermelon, all you can eat all day, and the Downtown Christmas event sponsored by the downtown stores where there is singing and dancers and snacks provided by the stores. There is also a plaza where there are Concerts in the Park series every Friday evening during the summer.
I know I must sound like a one-person chamber of commerce, but I really do like the small-town combination with the University larger cultural events. I bought 19 tickets last year to see all kinds of events, from Lily Tomlin, Linda Ronstadt, to the Peking acrobats and the AfroCuban Allstars, to Celtic, Sikh, Reggae, South African, Mali, and Hawaiian music and dancing among others. Willie Nelson was here and Garrison Keillor, Ziggy Marley comes through occasionally, etc. The fishing is generally good and the mountains are 20 minutes away. The people are friendly and helpful, like small town values. Disadvantage is, it gets very hot in summer, up to 110F sometimes, but it’s dry heat, so the humidity doesn’t getcha!
My Windstones are all in my office, I have only one at home, and when I get another display case, that one will also come here.
Of course you are all welcome to come and see them any time! For weather, spring and fall are the best if you have a choice. Winter is cold, but not like farther north. Summer we get heat and the fires burn up California on a regular basis, as they are doing now in Santa Barbara that was truly a beautiful city on the coast.
So anytime you can make it, you are more that welcome. I love showing off Northern California to anyone who comes.
DM, Chico is about 2 1/2 hours from Lodi. Anytime, just let me know! 😀 😀You’re right, Snap, they are too long. I will be more careful to break up my posts into smaller chunks. They are a bit hard to read this way. Thanks for telling me!! 😀 :yes:
You are more than welcome, DM!!! Anyone who is in this area is more than welcome to come and see it!! Just let me know so I can be sure to be here (I’m here a lot anyway, even on weekends, it’s where my computer is and I always have paperwork to do, so any break would be welcome welcome! 😀 😆 ) It’s not hard to find, directly off freeway 99N, about 1 1/2 hours north of Sacramento. You all have an open invitation! :yes: :yes: 😀
I’m gonna do a new inventory pretty soon, but I think as of now, I have a little over 290, maybe 293 or 4. I need a new display case too. I have 5 and I’m still out of room. I keep them in my office and this year, I discovered that by keeping them there, I can write them off my taxes as “office decorations” and “therapeutic tools” for the next five years!!! 😮 😆 😀 :yes: How about THAT!!!! 8) Right now they are all over the place: top of file cabinet, bookcases, coffee table, refrigerator, floor, sconces and art pieces on the walls, etc. I really want them in display cases because when I leave them out for long, they can get chipped and dusty.
I heard about someone’s collection of one or more of every sculpt Windstone ever made, from the very beginning! That would be really interesting!!!Congrats on your collection!! I think there are three big reasons to have collections. Of course the first one is the beauty of whatever the collection is and the second is the thrill of FINALLY getting that piece you have been searching for like forever! The next one is being part of the community that also collects what you collect because nobody understand WHY you collect what you do except another collector and being with likeminded people is a wonderful reason to collect these beautiful things!!! So congrats again!!! :yes: 😀 I think posting collections is neat! I can’t manage pictures either, I keep saying I’m going to learn and then I don’t, I just stay in envy of those who are so good at it, it seems effortless. Someday!! I’m doing an inventory too, mostly for insurance purposes, and then I will post it too when I get it done. Might as well put it to 2 good uses while I’m at it! :yes: 🙂
I have heard of “Moms on strike” where she stops doing ANYTHING, no cooking, no cleaning, laundry, bathrooms, dishes, running errands, shopping, taking older kids to their friends, NOTHING!!! Mom fixes her own meals, does her own laundry, etc, and sits out in the yard with a book and a glass of lemonade or ice tea, sometimes they even picket their own houses with picket signs with “MOM ON STRIKE!!!”on them. When the “family” wants to negotiate a settlement, they have a family meeting to discuss terms. They make a list of everything that has to be done to keep the health department away and so everyone feels comfortable inviting their friends over. The list includes going to work, school and homework, paying bills, pet care, big things like cleaning out gutters, seasonal yard work, deep cleaning like curtains and scrubbing the walls, etc. and lesser things, like cooking, dishes, cleaning off countertops, mopping, sweeping, setting tables, bussing the table, picking newspapers and magazines, vacuuming, running the washer and the dryer, folding and putting laundry away, emptying the dishwasher and putting the dishes away, cleaning the refrigerator, cleaning the sink, planning menues, cleaning the bathroom mirror, and the sink, putting towels where they belong, etc, etc. That’s all for the first step is to write it all down. Then decided just how clean is clean and decided on a standard that you can all live with. If one is “relaxed” and another is a “neatfreak”, a compromise is in order.(I have a little sign on my refrigerator that says “this house is protected by killer dust bunnies!” but I have never seen them actually kill anybody!) Then, as a group, you “volunteer” for the jobs until they have all been taken. Obviously not all jobs are suitable for everyone, like kids can’t pay the bills or go to your job, and you can’t do their homework or go to school for them. But those jobs still need to be accounted for in terms of the time they take up. So after most of the jobs have been volunteered for, there are always a few that NO ONE wants to do, maybe it’s cleaning the dog poo. or cleaning the bathroom or vacuuming. Whatever it is, they are all written down on pieces of paper and everyone has to draw one at a time until they are all gone. That way, people are much more likely to cooperate if they have volunteered for the job rather than have someone (you!) assigned it to them and have them rebel. There are time limits on all of them, like the dog can’t wait a week to be fed, neither can you, the laundry can’t wait a month, etc. But within the agreed upon time, the person with the chore has the options to do it within the time frame. So if they want to do the wash in the morning or the afternoon, or Friday or Saturday, they get to choose. This is only good for1 month, then you have another meeting and volunteer again, so you have to opportunity to switch jobs if you want to, you aren’t stuck forever. EVERYONE HAS TO COMMIT TO THIS PLAN!! There are also consequences for not doing what you agreed to . do. If a legitimate reason comes up and someone can’t completer their job, they are still responsible for the job completion, so they have to make arrangements for someone else to do it while they can’t, then they owe the other person for the same courtesy. The consequence of not doing what they agreed to do is decided by the group that needs to listen to the reason and decided the consequence which will be different for each one, ie, fines, no computer time for a certain period, something that fits the person. The deeper consequence which also needs to be emphasized, is that if you can’t trust them to keep their agreements in this situation, how can you trust them to keep any other agreements? Their word has to be important to be trusted in all the areas of your lives including this one. No one can say “oh you can trust me to do this, but not that”. No! The 7 rules of trust are 1) do what you say you are going to do. 2) Say what you mean 3) Mean what you say 4) Don’t say what you don’t mean 5) Keep your committments 6) Don’t threaten 7) Don’t call each other names: It’s disrespectful!! So if you are going to trust some one in any area, you have to be able to depend on them to keep their word. Broken promises erodes trust in all areas. In the end, if they won’t agree or they break their commitments consistently, you can always go back on strike until they understand that you are as serious as a heart attack!! This isn’t a threat, because if you threaten, you get into a power struggle and then everybody loses. So no threats, just consequences. You can start out after your strike, by saying that you want the family to be happier, to feel that their contributions matter, and that it’s gotten out of balance and you want to have the family be in better balance, because right now the imbalance comes from you doing all the work, and complaining about it, and they are having to listen to you complain and get resentful and unhappy and nothing changes. So you are proposing a new plan, and you are open to discussion because it is essentially their plan, not just yours, and are they open to listening to it and making suggestions about it. Then, be quiet and wait. Believe me, it’s worth it, and better that than a stroke or an ulcer or a broken family. It will take some time and patience and effort to work out the kinks, but it will make your life easier. One word of caution: BE CONSISTENT!!! If you let up anywhere, or let anyone get by with shirking or avoiding their responsibility, don’t ever do it for them!! It opens the door again to you doing all the work again, because then they can’t trust YOUR word that you are serious about this!!! Not even once, especially in the beginning. Remember, intermittent reinforcement is the most powerful reinforcement there is, ie, advertisements, slots machines, etc. So your biggest chore is to be consistent, no matter how hard it is for you, and how much easier it is to just go ahead and do it, or excuse the behaviour.But if you do, you will sabotage the system and no one will believe that you mean what you say. All excuses have to be decided on by the family, with some obvious exceptions like illness, but even so, the person still has to make arrangements for the chore to be done, because person is still “foreman of the job” and it’s still their responsibility. If they don’t like the chore, they will have the opportunity to trade it off next month. If it’s job nobody wants, then the one who had it last month, isn’t “eligible ” for it again for the next 2 months.
I hope this is useful, if it is, try it, if it isn’t, ignore it. If you want some more information, pm me. It’s worked for a lot of my clients, I know it works if you do it. I also know that one of AA’s sayings is “The definitiion of insanity is doing the same thing over and over and expecting different results” So it seems that uou all have been doing the same things, like yelling and scolding and accusing and expressing your resentment and anger and explaining and martyring and begging and threatening and….so why not try something different? Another AA thing is, if it works, do it again. If it doesn’t work, don’t do it again, do something different, anything. It will break up the pattern. Yeah, it’s a lot of work, but so is doing what you are doing which is less effective and keeps you stuck. If you want the changes, then you have to make the changes too in a calm consistent way.
Anyway, good luck and “God bless” and talk to you later!!! 🙂 :bye:Better than a kidney, I think! 😀 I found an ad once that said she was advertising her husband for sale, a nice clean housebroken man, helped with the housework, etc, but he said either the cat goes or I do, so she was putting him up for sale!!! 😀 Sounds like he could go for some Windstone money! 😀
Thank you! I also learned that if you keep going, you can download 4 coupons, then the machine stops at 4. So you can download 1 coupon each for 4 people! Pretty good deal!!! But tomorrow, may 6, is the last day, so you need to hurry!!!
Yabbadabbadoo!!! I have FINALLY found a small emerald wizard I have been looking for for well over a year and I found one in the store that silverarrow referred us to in Corvallis!!! He is Windstone store priced and mint condition and they ship!!! He completes my collection of the people wizards, including the woodlore wizard. I was never taken with the animal wizards, so I haven’t collected them, but now I have all the big and the small wizards (except the really rare pink cloaked black large wizard and I’m not concerned with that one unless the opportunity for it arrives in which case I will get it in a heartbeat!) Right now, I am so ecxited about getting the small emerald!!!! Hot diggity damn!!!! 😆 😆 😀 😀 XD XD 😆 😆 :yes: (Excited? Who, me? You think? *doing the snoopy dog happy dance*)
unfortunately my camera is kaput, plus I am a terrible picture taker. I am looking at mine and it is a lot darker than this picture. Maybe I can get someone to take a picture and fax it to you. I’ll try to do that. I’m amazed at how different mine looks!!
I have one, but unfortunately my camera is kaput. The picture is in the store under the dragon section. It is really beautiful in golds with brownish accents. The color fits this sculpt really well. I have the other two as well and they are all beautiful, the gold one is very distinctive. There is one on ebay right now too, so you can see the enlargement. I bought the last one from the store, then Windstone found one more, that’s why they are selling it on ebay at the store price. I have no idea if they will be making any more in these production colors or not, you might want to ask Melody. Good luck!! 🙂
Each one I look at, I think, oh that one’s my favorite! No, that one! Etc. I guess my favorite favorites would be my tiger cub, my quagga, my jade/silver SK, all 66 of my cats, my 13 oriental suns, my rasta male (on my avatar), my barn owl, my OW’s, all the rest of my males (18), and my 21 curlies. I really don’t want to leave any of them out, but my least favorites are my one poad, then the scratchers, the youngs, the fledges, and the turtle. The rest fall in the middle. I guess that’s as close as I can come to the favorites ordering. (Interesting, I had not done that before!)
Hot diggity damn!!! First, this store is not closing, so there are lots of pieces still available including a lot of retired pieces. Lots of emeralds, whites, peacock, fairies, mermaids, there’s a griffin and some pegasus (pegasi?) and unicorns among others. Second, I have FINALLY found a small emerald wizard that I have been looking for for well over a year and they HAD ONE!!!! They will ship, too!!!! Yabbadabbadoo!!!! I’m so excited!!! (you think?) 😀 🙂 😆 😆 😆 :yes: Now I finally have the complete collection of all the people wizards (not the animal wizards, they don’t do much for me) but all the rest including the woodlore wizard. This is so incredible!!! Thank you so much!!! :yes: :yes:
