If we live long enough, we are getting fiber optic services here! Work has been done in fits and starts over the past year. My husband and I have followed the progress with great interest because – though our service now is the best we have had – it’s pretty laughable.
A young man came a few days ago and wanted to look at what had been done lately. He looked at our telephone pole, and one down the hill from us, planning to add some hardware. Our stuff had apparently been done differently, so he was a bit worried and said he would be back with his boss at a later time.
The man came back this morning. The ‘boss’ was his dad. We all took a look together and decided there was no problem. The younger man is supposed to be back this afternoon to do the work.
These men were super nice. The boss/father was very complimentary about the view in our back yard, saying he wanted to have something similar when he retired. We laughed together when I told him we pretended we owned all of it – saying it we could SEE and ENJOY it, it was OURS…. :0)
He actually took a couple of photos of the view on his tablet.
It was a pleasure to meet such nice people. It lifted my spirits today.
The photo above was just what I needed to lift my spirits this morning. I hope it does the same for you.
We are all living through a roller coaster of emotion this year with politics, the pandemic, the economy and worry about what lies ahead.
My personal way of dealing with all of this is to concentrate on doing things that bring me joy or a sense of accomplishment, things that allow me to escape for awhile, to concentrate on one day at a time, working on things I can control, cherishing the wonderful things in my life, trying to sustain through humor.
Forward by Bill Lites
I am concentrating on how very lucky I am at this very moment. My family is doing well. We are trying to stay safe, being as careful as possible. I have a wonderful group of friends who mean the world to me. I’m concentrating on trying to let them know.
I’m working to fill each day with as much joy as I can.
This is a terrific Tuesday. I hope you feel the same.
I am finding that my yoga stretches are helping me more and more.
Each day where Mother Nature is cooperative, I’ve been trying to get outside and do at least a half hour of yard work, trying to neaten up the yard for the winter. I find that if I don’t do my yoga stretches, I get up from my chair later and feel really stiff and sore. If I DO a series of stretches, I don’t have near as much of a problem – PLUS I put a gold star on my desk calendar. :0)
Yesterday my husband went out to burn boxes in our burn barrel. I asked him if he wanted me to stay and help, but he said he was fine.
I went inside, taking some time for a bathroom break. When I came out, I saw he wasn’t back in the house yet. I went out to check on him.
The burn barrel had smoke coming up, but all the boxes were gone. My husband wasn’t there. I started looking around.
I found him, and wanted to kill him. He was lying on his back on top of the roof of our shop! (He has had several mini-strokes, just celebrated his 77th birthday, and we have agreed that we are too old to be up on roofs anymore.)
I tried to remain calm while talking to him. He wasn’t hurt, but he realized the ladder was rickity when he was on the way up. (He went up anyway.) He wanted to re-attach a wire to the power pole thingie that is attached to the front of the shop. He had gotten the wire re-attached, but realized the ladder might not stay where he needed it when he tried to get down. So he decided to wait for me to come ‘rescue’ him.
I held the ladder (and my breath) while he came over to the edge of the roof and got onto the ladder. He got down safely.
I reminded him that we had agreed that we weren’t going up on roofs anymore. He huffily told me that this job was ‘within his capabilities.’ I told him that I needed to be able to trust him not to do things like this without at least letting me know. He said he knew I would come out to check on him and would ‘rescue’ him then, even if he was lying on the roof all day…
I am trying to get outside about 30 minutes to an hour each afternoon to continue making the yard as presentable as possible for the coming winter. I’m doing it in the afternoons because right now it’s 32 degrees F. and absolutely too cold to care about yard work. If it warms up to the low 50s as it’s supposed to, I’m planning to stick with my plan.
I enjoy working in the yard unless it involves lots of hauling or things that make my back hurt. Happily, most of the things I’m doing are simply good exercise. I can enjoy the sun, fresh air, get some good exercise, and earn a gold star to go on my desk calendar while making the yard look a bit nicer. :0)
Yesterday I PLANNED to weed whack in the garden area. I MEANT to do it, PLANNED to do it, THOUGHT about doing it, but didn’t actually get out there and DO it. My only excuse is sloth. I DID so some cleaning and cooking, but hopefully I’ll do a better job today.
I’m also trying to do a half hour or so on my elliptical, but the yard work is tending to take the place of that – particularly since it is in our garage, and the priority is to get the yard work done while the temperature is warmer. I AM doing a session of yoga to stretch everything out before the afternoon is over daily.
All this makes me wish I were what I call an ‘exercise nut,’ who LIVES to run a million miles a day, or work themselves into a frazzle at the gym, or fold themselves into a pretzel while touching their nose to the floor – their feet stretching to the wall behind them, forgetting to eat in their zeal for a lithe, slim, limber body.
I’ll have to content myself with the IDEA that I might be making a few calories scream…
Mother Nature warmed things up here yesterday afternoon for long enough that I was able to clean out the second tomato planter. This was a laborious process of trying to untangle or cut the plants off the tomato cages and supports, then stack the cages and supports out of the way, then pull the plants out – sometimes one branch at a time – then gather the frozen tomatoes that could now be used as ammunition in case of intruders, then dispose of the vegetation, then clean up a bit and put the wheelbarrow away, I was tired and cold by the time I finished, but feeling triumphant that another yard project could be checked off my list.
We had a nice tomato harvest this year, even though our weather was a bit wonky. I’m still enjoying some cherry sized tomatoes for snacks and in salads. :0)
Today’s project – again if Mother Nature is feeling cooperative – is to do some weed whacking in my garden area.
Winter for our Square Foot Garden
We converted two brick planters on the far side of the house to be used to grow tomatoes. Those are the ones I’ve been trying to clean out. As you can see here, our square foot garden is ready for the winter. This is the first time we’ve used the tarps. This is to keep the Mel’s Mix Soil Alternative from blowing out and also hopefully to keep weed growth to a minimum as far as getting the planters ready for spring planting.
It’s the perimeter of the garden outside the fencing, plus the area around the trash barrels that hold the Mel’s Mix ingredients and around the propane tank for the shop that need attention with the weed whacker. I will be happy if I can get that under control today. :0) Right now it’s 37 degrees F. – too cold, but the forecast is for 59 this afternoon. Fingers crossed.
No one actually SAID I would look like Julia Roberts if I use this Hair Biology Thickening Treatment and Silver & Glowing Shampoo, but I KNOW it will get me one step closer…
I have always had super thin, straight hair. When I was young, I bleached it blond and wore it long and straight, hippy style. Even when it was really long, I didn’t have much hair.
Now that I’m a bit ‘long-in-the-tooth,’ I wear my hair really short. I still have no hair, and my thin hair is thinning MORE – an unfortunate thing.
Any product that says it will make my hair look thicker, my silver ‘brighter’ and ‘glowing’ – sounds GREAT to me, so I ordered some of each today.
In these days I love anything that gives me hope that something will get better. I will give you a review once I try these – unless I actually end up looking like Julia Roberts. (I’ll be too busy smiling her great smile to write…)
I have always had an appetite that would kill a horse.
My father did, too. He would eat humongous mounds of food, but HE had a metabolism that wouldn’t quit, also, so he always fought weighing too LITTLE. Unfortunately, I seemed to have inherited HIS appetite and my MOTHER’S metabolism.
Since I essentially stay hungry all the time, I have tried appetite suppressants – to no avail. I’m drinking enough water to make my eyeballs float and keeping healthy raw veggies and low-fat/no-sugar dips in the fridge ready for snacking. I’m exercising most every day.
It would be MUCH easier if I weren’t ready to eat AGAIN right after finishing a meal… :0)
My weight loss efforts follow a pattern that I find very annoying.
Whenever I am making a good effort to keep moving, to do actual exercises plus my normal yard work, I either hold onto my current weight or I GAIN weight.
I tell myself all the cliches’ – that muscles weigh more than fat. yata yata – but I resent it that I am eating right, exercising, drinking lots of water, and GAINING.
I know. Life isn’t fair. It will ‘all come out in the wash.’ The scales will finally catch up with my efforts….
But I would be happier if my ‘goodness’ showed more quickly…
I didn’t get my tomato plants pulled out yesterday, so I just went out and tried to do it. It didn’t LOOK like it was raining much. It waited for me to get the wheelbarrow and get started pulling plants out and then the sky opened up. I put the wheelbarrow under the porch as quickly as possible and came back inside, grabbing a towel on the way to the office so I can dry my dripping hair. I’m happy that our schedule is clear today. This is a perfect day to crawl under a throw in a recliner, a cup of coffee beside you, reading or watching TV – and probably taking a nap somewhere along the way. I may gift myself some time in my art room this afternoon.
Pinterest
I am newly aware of how much my old lady yoga stretches help me. A couple of days ago I spent about half the day off and on cutting the leaves off my poor, frozen elephant ear plants, then digging out the humongous bulbs, storing them in a trash can full of peat moss and potting soil in our garage for the winter and then cleaning up outside. I really stiffened up, and shoveling things that don’t want to come out of the ground has never been a skill of mine – and certainly not since I’m older than dirt.
I did about half an hour of my yoga stretches and that loosened me up a lot, even making my back stop complaining. I did it again yesterday, doing a longer session because I had stiffened up again and my body was telling me that I’m no longer 20. Between yoga stretching, slowly and carefully, and muscle gel, I’m almost back to normal this morning.
This, and time on my elliptical trainer today will be a good amount of exercise even though Mother Nature is making this an ‘inside day.’
I hope that you can make this a good day, regardless of the weather.