Monthly Archives: September 2017

Better

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I’m not ready for any marathons, but my back is FINALLY easing up. :0)

I was actually able to sweep the back porch this morning – a really good thing because Amber had decided to take the bedding out of the crate and completely shred it all over the porch.

We just returned from grocery shopping. We found more bedding we can use in the crate. Fingers crossed she doesn’t decide to shred THIS immediately, as well.

I’m going to TRY to get some seeds planted inside – in a plant starter – and outside in the garden. I have no clue whether these will come up at all, (since my moniker of “Serial Seed Killer” still applies), will come up in time to actually make before it gets too cold, or what, but I’m going to try. I DO have 4 celery plants ready to go out in the garden.

I was unable to find any ready-to-plant veggies that I wanted for the fall, so I’m open to complete experimentation.

It’s still reading 110 degrees in my greenhouse, so it looks like my main time for using it will be in the winter, trying to get a good start on spring plants, and also trying to keep the plants that don’t do well over the winter here, alive to set out again when the danger of freeze is past.

I’m not really sure what is working to get me past my back problems, but I’m more than grateful. I’ll take it slow, continuing to use the various meds I have for muscle pain, the muscle relaxers I got from our doctor, the heat pad, careful stretching, my regular massage next month, etc. I’m hoping I’ll be able to resume my yoga practice soon.

 

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Beautiful Animals

“Black Swan and a Duck” – Paul Militaru Photography

 

 

“Resting” – Paul Militaru Photography

 

 

“Waiting” – Paul Militaru Photography

 

 

“White Blue Peacock” – Paul Militaru Photography

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Watercolors I Love – Take 16

Lea Matte – imgarcade.com

 

 

Poppies-Joe Cartwright-www.paintingwithwatercolors.com

 

 

smashinghub.com

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Some Days

Zen to Zany – art by Anita Opper

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String Art – Take 22

allstrungup.com.au

 

 

elsabags.blogspot.com

 

 

homedit.com

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“Game of Light”

“Game of Light” – Paul Militaru Photography

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Trying to Send Strength

DiVoran Lites

The double whammy of Mother Nature with Hurricanes Harvey and Irma – with even more following on their heels – is devastating. It seems more than anyone should have to bear.  There is little we can do for our friends and relatives suffering from these awful storms. They make us feel totally helpless.

We CAN show each of our loved ones are in our thoughts and prayers. We CAN communicate and try to send strength their way. We CAN help them with whatever the aftermath is. We can try to help those we know personally, and also carefully research and donate to all those in need that we don’t know. Coming together when bad things happen is something our country does well. Our differences seem to fade, at least for a little while, and we reach out.

So many people are already devastated. We can hope that Irma will change her course, but we have no control over that. We can just reach out and do what we can.  Trying to send strength to all who need it right now.

_______________

“When things go wrong as they sometimes will;
When the road you’re trudging seems all uphill;
When the funds are low, and the debts are high
And you want to smile, but have to sigh;
When care is pressing you down a bit-
Rest if you must, but do not quit.”

Author Unknown

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New Approach

Amber at 6 months old is a sweet, doofus, loveable, hard-headed dog. She now knows much of what we want her to do, but many times CHOOSES not to do it.  We’re having good luck using treats to encourage her to respond to commands. The main problem area is getting her to stop doing things she shouldn’t.

We got a smart no-pull collar that works with our retractable leash that gives her a warning when she pulls too hard for too long, or decides to play, “Crazy Dog,” running back and forth to the end of the leash. If she continues, she receives a shock. Now, if she’s wearing the collar, she acts very nicely – EXCEPT when she is confronted with a whole vet office full of critters at one time, with ONE big dog acting hostile.

We have to say things over and over, such as “Down” when she’s right beside our dining table. It’s as if she’s on a trampoline. She obeys the command and then pops right up, over and over again. Or we say, “no.” She stops for a split second, and then starts in again. Over and over…

Lately we got a more regular shock collar. I don’t like these much, but certain dogs don’t seem to take you seriously until you really get their attention and show them that you are the lead dogs in the pack. Amber seems to be one of these. The squirt bottles of water and the fly swatters seem to invite her to PLAY many times, rather than disciplining her.

So, the collar is set up so that we can warn her with a sound she can hear, but we can’t. We warn her, and sometimes that’s enough. She stops whatever she’s doing. If she ignores the warning, we have the shock level carefully set so that it gets her attention, stopping whatever she’s doing, but it doesn’t hurt her so she yipes.

My husband started using it day before yesterday. The first day he had to hit the shock button 3 or 4 times during the day and evening. Yesterday it was only once. So far today, not at all. And when he hits the warning tone, she’s beginning to respond to that well.

At almost 62 lbs now – with possibly another 20 pounds to go, we need to be serious 24/7 before she hurts one of us. Her exuberance is pretty impressive, and she has a healthy streak of ‘stubborn,’ as well. Since we have heard that labs are ‘puppies’ for 2 years, we’ve set up for the long haul on serious training.  We’re making good progress. We want her to be a happy member of our animal and human family, plus act politely around other people and other animals. We just need to keep on keepin’ on…

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Changes are DIFFICULT!

becuo.com

It seems that life is providing several character-building changes to us lately.

  • I’ve already told you that our much-loved dental hygienist and her husband were killed in a plane crash last month. We lucked out that our dentist, Dr. Wes Moore, was able to find another very competent, physically and emotionally gentle hygienist to take care of us.
  • Today we learned that our wonderful family practice doctor has left the Greenwood practice and has relocated to Russellville AR., an hour and a half each way from us. :0(   We are just devastated. We’ve looked up information on the new doctor coming in October, and have decided that we would like to try her. I called the clinic and they said someone would call us about it. Our doctor was compassionate, and provided samples of the blood sugar medicine my husband needs. Since this very likely will stop, I’ll need to research possible sources of this very expensive medicine. Humana doesn’t cover it, and it’s $550.00/month. To say I’m freaked out right now is an understatement. My husband glibly says, “I’ll just take it until the samples run out and then stop.” (I’m trying not to deck him.) He understands, but doesn’t really absorb, the fact that his body will do really bad things if he doesn’t take the medicine that helps control his blood sugar. So the search starts now…

I feel that the rug has been pulled out from under us several times lately. We’re trying to deal with things the best way we can, but one of the things about getting older is that you stiffen up and don’t bounce quite as well as you did when you were much younger.

I’ll try to focus on all the positive things in our lives – and we have a BUNCH of them.

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Filed under Acting Like a Grownup, Challenges, Changes

Help for my Back

arcatamassage.com

I did SOMETHING mysterious to my back a couple of weeks ago and have been pretty useless ever since, spending a lot of time in my chair with the heating pad, taking pain relievers, etc.

Yesterday I had a wonderful massage. My massage therapist always asks if I need more help in a certain area, and I told her about my back – that my muscle pain keeps moving, causing me spasms, pain, and general grief.

My doctor gave me a prescription for a muscle relaxant and that has helped, but I’m still a mess.  I had to grit my teeth to get up on the massage table and lie down flat on my front.

Lynn concentrated on my back, using a spray stuff she massaged in. For the first time in a long time I was free of pain! I asked her what it was and where I could get some. She got it on a trip to Branson, Missouri, but she said the lady had a website, www.kellysworldfamous.com What she was massaging into my back is called, Kelly’s World Famous Eucalyptus Oil. It’s an all natural pain reliever. It doesn’t have an odor and rubs in, not getting on your clothes. To be honest, at this point I wouldn’t care if it looked and felt like tar and smelled bad. It took my pain away.

When I got home I went to the website and ordered two 4 oz bottles. I’m going to ask my sweet husband to spray it on me and rub it in as soon as it arrives.

I still have a super tender back today. It isn’t a miracle drug, but it DOES really ease the pain while your body works its way out of the pain cycle.

I’m hoping the combination of muscle relaxants, the spray, the heat pad, and really careful stretching will get me back to my normal state – my husband describes as, “mean as a snake!” :0)

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“Purple Echinacea”

“Purple Echinacea” – Paul Militaru Photography

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Treat Driven

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Our yellow labrador retriever “puppy” Amber is 6 months old as of yesterday and officially weighs 61.6 lbs. She will do almost anything if she knows a treat is involved.

This has made our efforts to train her more effective (thank goodness!) but it’s a problem if you go outside with her and find you are ‘unarmed’ without one treat in your pocket.  (See pic above)

I switched to goldfish because they’re small, fit in my pocket more easily, and a double handful will get us through the day pretty well. She doesn’t seem to mind the change. She loves EVERYTHING, but she goes through a LOT of them, so we’re trying to find cheaper alternatives and use the more expensive stuff sparingly.

Lately I’ve discovered that she will stay pretty much by my side outside without a leash if she is sure I have treats in my pocket. I simply show her one and then we take a nice walk. She is also improving on ‘sit,’ ‘down,’ ‘place,’ ‘get the ball,’ ‘come,’ ‘waiting for an ok before she eats,, not jumping up, and other things. Remaining a challenge are teaching her

  • ‘we’ are NOT chew toys,
  • not chewing on things not designated as toys (we’re hosing things down with bitter apple)
  • not dive-bombing our dignified elder dog, Molly, the cats, etc

Especially challenging is getting her to mind us when others are around. It’s as if she is suddenly blind and deaf, doesn’t know who we are, etc.

Lately, one of her favorite things is catching me on the stairs when I’m coming down in the morning. This morning is a typical example – I got halfway down the stairs. She heard me and came bounding up the stairs to greet me. I’ve learned to sit down on the stairs and give her a lot of love and petting before trying to continue down. Last night I left shoes and socks on the floor in front of my chair in the living room. I know better, but she has to reteach me from time to time.

I had to fight my way over to the chair with Amber trying her best to chew on my toes or trip me. I made it to the chair, but Amber had one of my shoes in her mouth. I retrieved the other shoe, plus the socks, and then had to try to ‘trade’ her something for my shoe. I finally got my shoe and then fought my way back to my chair. She tried to get both socks and shoes back as I squirted her with the water bottle and said, ‘place!’ firmly. She finally responded, though she really didn’t want to. I put on socks and shoes and vowed NOT to leave them again…

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Hair-Raising Trip

Amber at 6 months

We just got back from taking Amber to the vet to get an official measure of her weight, since she is 6 months old today. She now weighs 61.6 lbs. We’re HOPING that her final weight will be 75 lbs or less, but we’ll just have to wait and see.

We had a hair-raising trip.

I had called to make sure it was okay if we brought Amber tin o use their scales and the receptionist said, “fine.”  She neglected to tell me that they had a FULL house, with dogs, cats, and other critters from wall to wall. Amber doesn’t pick up on ‘vibes’ from other animals well. Another large dog was there, and wasn’t happy to see Amber at all. That didn’t keep her from trying to nose the dog, wagging her tail the whole time. The large dog got hostile. My husband was able – with a LOT of pulling and almost being tripped by Amber trying to go in two directions at once – to pull her into the room where the scales were. We got her on, looked at the scales long enough to register 61.6, and then got out of there as soon as we could get to the door. Whew!

On the way over, we had Amber in the front passenger seat of the truck. I sat in the back seat. I had her on her leash, holding her tightly enough she could put her head out of the window. She moved around a bit, but not badly. She wants to really lean out, which bothers me, but I was confident I had good control with the leash locked in.

After the vet, we stopped quickly at our insurance agent’s to leave an updated DVD of our ‘stuff,’ and then at the bank to leave a copy in our safe deposit box, and then we were on the way home.

Amber was antsy this time. She got in the back seat with me, sitting on me, standing on me, leaning out of the window, coming back in to sit beside me, over and over. I’ll probably have some interesting bruises on my ‘lap.’ She was really a handful on the way home.

We’ve decided we need to take her for rides more often, mainly around our neighborhood, and maybe down to Greenwood Lake, where we can walk around a bit mid trip. We’ll do the vet weighing in again next month, but we’ll try to find a good time when they’re not busy…

 

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Paintings of Children – Take 7

 

 

 

 

 

 

yevgeniawatts.com

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“Oasis of Peace and Meditation”

“Oasis of Peace and Meditation” – Paul Militaru Photography

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Emotional Day

blog.mamamshealth.com

The picture above could be Amber, but it isn’t. Isn’t it great?

 

We went to have our teeth cleaned yesterday, the first time since our wonderful dental hygienist and her husband were killed in a crash of their private plane.

Our receptionist called the day before to remind us of our appointment. (I hope this is routine, and that she calls everyone – not just us because we’re getting a bit doofus in our sunset years.) She told us that our hygienist’s name was Alisha. She also carefully tiptoed into making sure I knew that our Shannon was gone.

When we got there, we were greeted with smiles, as usual. I went first, and discovered to my delight, that Alisha was competent, gentle, and caring. She had worked for the dental office part time, and so knew everyone there. She really liked Shannon, too, and was grieving with us all. She’ll be very good in that spot.

My husband went in when I came out. When he left, there was a steady stream of people coming to me one at a time, asking for a hug, and thanking me for the card and letter I sent them when I heard the news. Lots of people sent cards, flowers, plants, and called, but I was told I was the only one who wrote a personal letter. The receptionist came over, hugged me, and told me she was so touched by what I had said that she had copied my letter and sent it to Shannon’s parents. I teared up over that.

Even Dr. Moore took time to come out and thank me. I again thanked HIM for taking such kind care of me when I was in terrible pain from a wisdom tooth. I remarked that he has the kindest eyes I’ve ever seen. When my husband came out, Dr. Moore told him that I was “hitting on him,” allowing us to share a good laugh.

No one can or will replace Shannon. I still dread going to the dentist, even for a teeth cleaning, but we’re extremely lucky that Dr. Moore really has a talent for gathering good people, then treating them so well they stay. I’m happy he found another kind lady to take care of us.  I told her that Shannon’s patients remained in good hands, and that once she had seen and taken care of each of us, the next time we would definitely be HER patients. She does a great job.

 

 

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THANKSGIVING – “Turkey” Hand Painted Tote Bag

This one-of-a-kind Thanksgiving turkey tote bag is hand painted on both sides and then protected with several layers of Scotchgard to prevent stains. Dimensions of the tote are 10.5″ x 12″ not including the handle. Ready to ship to celebrate Thanksgiving at your home this year! FREE SHIPPING to contiguous U.S.

Use the link above to purchase this tote bag. If it doesn’t work for some reason, please paste this URL in your browser –

https://www.artfire.com/ext/shop/product_view/LindaLewis/8064158/thanksgiving_-_turkey_hand_painted_tote_bag/handmade/bags_and_purses/tote/painted

Other painted totes by Linda Lewis

All items on ArtFire by Linda Lewis

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Read Very Slowly – Take 4

Shelley Hallmark.me

 

16. PRIMATE: Removing your spouse from in front of the TV.

17. RELIEF: What trees do in the Spring.

18. RUBBERNECK: What you do to relax your wife.

19. SELFISH: What the owner of a seafood store does.

20. SUDAFED: Brought litigation against a government official.

 

Thanks for the email from Marsha Koenig

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Can You Hear It?

Greenpeace-Upworthy-via Cathy Ruggiero

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Relief

Amber with bit of green plastic bone

I was helping my husband put a gigantic box that the TV came in up into the attic over the garage this morning. After we accomplished that, we swept out the half of the garage that was easy to get to with one of the cars out on the pad.

We went back into the house, but I couldn’t find Amber. I checked with my husband, and he glibly said, “I let her out when we went out to the garage. She’ll be fine.”

I ran out to the front yard and started calling her. I went all the way around the house, calling, but no Amber. I was in tears, still calling when Amber came running across the yard to me, smiling.

I gave her some treats, put her into the house, and then calming told my husband that his life was on the line if he did that again.

(We had agreed that HE could let her run first thing in the morning when breakfast followed. I have taken her out without the leash, walking from the house to the shop. I did it again yesterday, keeping a close eye on her and keeping the walk short. She is coming better now, but I don’t trust that she would come if she were distracted by a rabbit, squirrel, cat, or another dog. We even have COWS across the street that runs in front of our yard.)

My husband gave me the lecture about ‘mistreating the dog’ by not simply letting her out and letting her come home when she’s ready. I told him that we would build to that, but NOT YET!

And so continues the disagreement about when Amber truly knows where home is, when she’s coming on a reliable basis…..

 

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String Art – Take 20

allstrungup.com.au

 

 

 

elsabags.blogspot.com

 

 

 

homedit.com

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“Gazania”

“Gazania” – Paul Militaru Photography

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Paintings of Children – Take 6

Imgarcade.com

 

 

Marina Kim Portrait Art Gallery – marinakimart.com

 

 

Mary Sauer Art – marysauer.blogspot.com

 

 

picmia.com

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Fierce Molly!

This is Molly. She’s a cocker spaniel/schnauzer cross who has been a member of our family for over 12 years now. She and our pit bull, Bambi, got along famously, in fact she is such a happy dog she added joy to the life of a rather serious dog – and his people – who needed some laughs.

When Bambi died, she wandered around the house looking very lost. She would bark to go out, searching the yard, then bark to come back in, searching the house again.  It killed me that we couldn’t share the hard decision we had to make with her, help her understand. All we could do was hold her a lot, hug her, and grieve.

We then found Amber, our completely doofus, now almost 60-pound labrador retriever puppy. Since we brought her home in May at 10 weeks old, she has pretty much dominated our days. Molly’s reaction was to hide, leave the room, try to disappear.

Lately she seems to have made the decision that she’s not going to give up her rights as the dog who should be the head dog in the family, the one with seniority. Now when Amber dive-bombs her, she bares her teeth, growls, and maybe even gives Amber a little snap. Amber’s reaction is to jump straight up in the air, and then decides Molly must be playing with her.

We’re still trying to monitor the doggies when they’re together and curb Amber’s exuberance as much as we can. Molly seems to understand that it’s not a free-for-all, but she also won’t cower in the corner anymore.

She DOES still leave the room, if possible, but I’m glad to see her standing up for herself. (Our two cats are learning to deal with Amber lumbering toward them. They hiss and spit, if she corners them, and jump up where she can’t get them. Smoke actively stalks Amber when they’re outside. Our fish couldn’t care less about any other family members.)

Hopefully, Amber will begin to see the pattern on approaching Molly,  adapting her behavior a bit.

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Beautiful Birds

“A Tired Pigeon” – Paul Militaru Photography

 

 

“Flying” – Paul Militaru Photography

 

 

“Pigeon in the Tree” – Paul Militaru Photography

 

 

“Please, Do Not Leave – Just a Word to Tell You” – Paul Militaru Photography

 

 

“Relaxation” – Paul Militaru Photography

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Read It Slowly – Take 3

Shelley Hallmark.me

 

11. MISTY: How golfers create divots.

12. PARADOX: Two physicians.

13. PARASITES: What you see from the top of the Eiffel Tower.

14. PHARMACIST: A helper on the farm.

15. POLARIZE: What penguins see with.

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I Don’t Want

Funny Pictures of the Day

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Electronic Mysteries

therealkenjones.wordpress.com

Every once in a while, our electronic stuff goes ‘wonky.’ (There is probably a technical term for what happened in each case, but ‘wonky’ suffices for me.) Sometimes it just wants to be looked at. Sometimes it wants to be taken apart and put back together. Unplugged and plugged back in….

Yesterday it was the TV. It simply died. No warning, No waning. Just died. As with a lot of things these days, it’s cheaper to buy a new one than even THINK about fixing it or paying someone else to fix it. We looked on the log we keep of stuff we’d like to remember, and discovered the TV was over 10 years old, and we paid over $1200 for it. We discussed the problem, then decided to list the features we thought were mandatory and go from there.

We decided to go to WalMart, and then, if we didn’t find anything, go to Fort Smith to Best Buy. My husband insisted we get a larger one than we had, which was 48″. He wanted 4K (Ultra High Definition Television), HDR (High Dynamic Range) – this has been explained to me that it can handle whatever resolution we get on upgrades for the TV, better resolution on DVDs, etc.  He wanted at least 3 HDMI ports (plug-in places for our Playstation 3, Roku, amplifier, etc.) AND a price tag below $600….

We found a Philips 5000 at WalMart. It’s 55″,  has all the things mentioned above, and cost $428.00. It’s also much lighter than our former TV.

We spent the rest of the day and evening getting the old one out, the new one in and hooked up. My husband is trying to teach our remotes to handle the new stuff so that we don’t have to play ‘juggling remotes,’ if possible. He’ll get them to do as much as he can, and for that I’m grateful.

I just hope that this is the last in the line of electronic thingies that suddenly doesn’t work, can’t be revived, and must be replaced!

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I’m a Mess

abcnews.go.com

I’m officially pathetic.

I don’t know what I did, so it’ll be hard to avoid doing whatever it was again. Bottom line is that I’ve been doing very little the past few days, and had to cancel bowling with good friends this evening because of back spasms and pain that keeps changing location, but doesn’t go away.

My doctor gave me a prescription for some muscle relaxants, telling me to try half a pill twice a day, up to one pill twice a day. I’m on the latter now, plus a heat pad. I’m trying to get to the point I can get down on the floor and do some slow, gentle yoga stretching, but I think I would need a crane to get back up. Back pain is the pits and I’m ready to get through the pain cycle. Thankfully, I have a massage scheduled for Thursday. Maybe THAT will get me over the hump.

 

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Let

purpleclover.com

I’m feeling really lazy today.

Poor Amber desperately wanted me to play, so after I took her for a walk, we played with her basketball and small purple squeaky ball on the back porch. She only brings something back every once in a while, so once you get it going, she pretty much entertains herself – while someone is there. She teases you, acting like she’s going to bring it to you to throw again, and then, when you try to get it from her mouth, she either runs off again or tries to change the game to tug of war.

She also drops the ball a LOT, giving her oodles of chances to run, jump, play, and growl.

Amber on the dog run yesterday.

We played for about 15 minutes before she finally had enough. She’s asleep on the floor beside my chair as I type….. YAWN.

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“Waterfall”

“Waterfall” – Paul Militaru Photography

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