Tag Archives: beautiful weather

Monday Thoughts 11-24-2025

Sent to me by my good friend, Marsha.

This is my first time celebrating Thanksgiving in a totally new way. The Thai people, of course, don’t celebrate the holiday. My husband is in the nursing home getting sustenance from a nasal tube. My son and I will be hopefully celebrating by watching the installation of my new windows and window frames – either Wednesday or Thursday, we are told.

I’m celebrating by talking to you, sharing things I hope you’ll enjoy, sending some e cards to friends and family in the states. It’s different. It’s enough. I’m more than grateful to be with our son, planning for the future, making sure my husband is as well taken care of and comfortable as possible.

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We have already had a busy day today. We went to the gym as usual and shared breakfast. Then we went down to leave clothes at the laundry. While we were there, we met Khun Arm, the building maintenance man, who took us to a condo where there are windows very similar to what I will be getting. They had white frames instead of the black I have now. The windows I can open will be fixed with the new installation. They are small windows on either side of two much larger picture windows. In place of the picture windows will be two sliding glass and screens windows. This way, I’ll retain the wonderful access to my view AND be able to open my windows if I would like to! They will also be slightly tinted to cut the sun’s glare and heat. I will have the slideable windows in my bedroom and in the art alcove. I’m THRILLED!

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After we met with Khun Arm, we went back down to get a jug of water for my place.

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I will finish writing posts for the blog, and then I plan to spend a good time in my art alcove. I’m trying to sketch 25 different Christmas cards to give to people here. I’m also painting a larger sketch from my sketch book every day. It’s a lot of fun.

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The dolphins jigsaw puzzle is coming along, though slowly. I move from working on that, to reading on my Kindle, to doing another stage of my painting or sketching, to checking on the wash out on the balcony, and back again. Sometimes I take a walk, still being careful to just stay close to my place, not trying to cross the super busy streets by myself yet. I’m slowly making judgments about when is a good time to cross. Sometimes Brian agrees. Sometimes not. He explains why when we get across the street. An example, it was MOSTLY safe to cross the other day. The street was pretty clear on one side. Traffic was really slowing on the other side, soon to be at a standstill. We didn’t see any motorcycles darting around the cars. We walked between two cars that were stopped. Then I started to go ahead. Brian stopped me, pointing to a motorcycle that had suddenly darted around the stopped cards. We waited for him to pass, and then got across the street. Whew!

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The weather here is stellar. It’s 62 in the mornings now – a bit cool – but then warms up to the mid 80s in the afternoons. Cools down again in the evenings. Little or no rain!!!! Bright sunshine – but not boil-you-in-oil bright – yet. Couldn’t ask for more. I’m actually wearing layers at times now!

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I hope the coming week is a wonderful, wonderful week for you. Have fun, get and give lots of hugs, laugh a lot, make memories.

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Sunshine Sunday 11-16-2025

Better Life Optimizers

It is an absolutely stunning day today here in Chiang Mai. It’s only 82, sunshiny, and a nice breeze blowing. It was really foggy early this morning, causing some planes to have to delay or divert, but burned off pretty quickly. Brian said the fog is really unusual.

We visited Harvey at the nursing home this morning. Harvey wanted us to buy him a camera with a long lens and a truck. When we asked him why, it took him a long time to answer. Over the course of half an hour, we finally got that he wanted the camera to take pictures of the nests of the white birds that were congregating in the rice fields outside his window to prove that the birds were having babies, not just ‘tourist birds.’ Ooookaaaaay… The truck was a dual display Izuzu he saw on TV. It doesn’t need a key and responds to voice commands. Can you imagine him trying to d

rive this truck when it takes him half an hour to say, ‘no key,’ and ‘dual displays?’ Not to mention he can’t get out of bed… Since he was calm, showed some interest in what we were telling him, and didn’t seem to be in any pain, we declared the visit a success.

ZenArtSupplies.co

I’ve decided to paint Christmas cards for the people here who have been so nice to me. I have 14 people on my list so far. It isn’t much, but it will at least show them I’m thinking about them and am grateful that they have gone out of their way to make me feel more comfortable in my new country.

ElaineNeoWedding

We have been invited to a wedding at the end of this month! It’s supposed to be a very informal affair. I can’t wait to see what it will be like. It’s exciting to see a couple at the very beginning of their lives together.

Pngtree

I learned a lesson today. I was groggily awake at around 4 this morning when my walkie talkie on my nightstand started making noise. We got these as an emergency measure if I have trouble in the middle of the night when Brian turns his phone off. The device was saying, “Check the battery.” over and over. I charge it twice a week, starting when I get up at 5am. I unhook it from the charger when I get back from breakfast at about 8. Wednesday I was up super early and went ahead and plugged it into the charger. It was charged up before we went to the gym, so I unplugged it. Turns out the hour or so made all the difference on when it needed to be charged again. I won’t do THAT again…

Freepik

The building fix-it guys are due to come tomorrow morning sometime to work on my door. I’m counting the hours. I’ve taken a lot of things for granted over my lifetime, but being able to leave and come back to my place whenever I wanted without the door trapping me on one side or the other didn’t even make the list of noticeable things! I will be really glad if they can make me independent again!

On our travels today, I noticed a shop that was called something like, “Overseas Pet Shop.” We went by it very quickly, but I thought, “I want to visit that place!” Then, as I thought about it more, I decided, ‘No, it would be best if I didn’t visit. I would want to adopt most, if not all, of the animals there, and wouldn’t be able to even get ONE. That would break my heart. (I researched it when we got home and found my instincts on NOT going there are correct. I’m in love with the PICTURES I found.)

Finally, this is the latest painted sketch.

I hope your weather is wonderful where you are and that you’re packing your day with fun things.

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Good Morning! 10-27-2024

“Pelican chillin with a friend in England” – Smile – BoredPanda.com – Nikita Manot and Dominyka

Our weather here in Arkansas is really beautiful. Cold fronts are coming through, but no rain yet. Maybe we’ll get some Wednesday.

PROJECT – My husband and I got the shelf back up in my art room. We chose different holes in the wall strips and the new brackets I ordered were correct. The shelf was heavy, but we managed it. I gathered two leaf bags of trash that I brought down yesterday. I’m hoping to wrap up the reorganization of the art room in the next day or two. Pictures later.

LINDA’S CRAFTINESS – I am having a sale on my tote bags on HandmadeHavenbyLinda on Etsy. Storewide, whether the totes are in the “Tote Bags – Painted” category or in the “Christmas” section, I have marked the price down 25%to $13.49 – and, as always, I will handle the shipping. The links here will take you directly to the site as a whole, or the categories. Take advantage of this sale to get unique and useful “Christmas wrapping totes” or totes to take to school, work, or the beach. Great gifts! Have fun. Here’s a sample –

Make this Sunday a fun one.

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Monday 10-7-2024

Angela Jeanine-saatchiart.com

A beautiful morning here in Arkansas. We have doors open to the breezes and a/c off. Woo HOOOO!

Cleveland.com

We’ve had a lot of deer in the area lately. We were coming home from errands a couple of days ago and FOUR deer were suddenly crossing the road in front of us. My husband managed to slow down enough to miss all of them, including the baby, who was lagging behind and might have been hit. We’ve also seen them toward the bottom of our driveway. They are always crossing over the driveway, on the way somewhere else. :0)

The Courier-Journal

We were going to watch the Dallas Cowboys vs the Pittsburgh Steelers football game last night, but gave up because of the hugely long weather delay. I read this morning that they STARTED the game after a 90-minute delay. We’re not die-hard fans of anyone, so too much for us.

I will be super-aware of my husband today. He’s in a mood to do a bunch of stuff. I heard the driveway alarm and got up to see if anyone was there. When I came back, he was upset he couldn’t find me. He wanted me to check my phone for a code he needed from our investment brokers. I gave it to him and then asked why he didn’t have them send the code to HIS phone. He said he couldn’t remember how to do that.

NOW he was gathering some tools in the office. I asked him what he was planning to do. He said, ‘surge protector for electrical system.’ I asked him if this was a big deal – and he said, “kinda.” I asked him to get me if I could help. He left, mumbling. I’ll check on him in a bit. As so many of our days around here go…

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Friday 10-4-2024

Mats Jonasson Crystal

We are home now from blood tests, breakfast at The Dari, a quick stop at Harps for groceries, and a stop to pick up our mail.

We were impressed with the new Greenwood clinic – all bright and shiny, large, and spacious. There are TWO check-in places now, more doctors, more staff, more space. Of course, we parked the farthest from where we needed to go, but that’s just the way things go for us. :0)

I got the best blood test stick I’ve ever had. I praised the lady profusely, telling her AFTERWARD that I used to have nightmares before a blood test and that people had trouble taking my blood because of rolling veins, not being able to find a good vein, etc. The BAND she tied around my arm hurt more than the stick! Amazing. We were in and out quickly.

We had a delicious, though expensive, breakfast at The Dari afterward. I love being able to eat out AND stay on my low carb eating plan. My husband enjoys being able to have hashbrowns as a part of his breakfast, so both of us were sitting there and grinning throughout.

We’re home for the day now. The doors are open, letting in a nice breeze. It’s 75 now and we’re due for a high of 84. The humidity isn’t bad, so we MAY be able to get through the afternoon without a/c. NICE! My husband is taking a nap in his recliner and I’m catching up on computer stuff.

I hope you’ve started a peaceful, enjoyable day.

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Tuesday 10-1-2024

Facebook

I hope that October will be a good month for all of us. I’m happy that the summer ‘intense heat warnings’ seem to finally be gone for the year. Since I’m “mature” (synonym for ‘older-than-dirt’) and carrying more than enough weight for my height (which is shrinking) I FEEL even what is considered normal for the summer. So the warnings we’ve had much of the summer kill most of the joy I have about trying to work in the yard. I did all I could about trying to work in the cooler parts of the day, but even that and a sweat band and keeping sessions short wasn’t much help. I’m glad to put that behind us for a while. :0)

I finished several things in my art room yesterday. I’m listing two custom Christmas cards I’m offering for 2024 plus 4 small signs I wood-burned and accented with pastel paint. I’ve started a new larger piece now and am having great fun with the challenge.

I’m going to try now to spend a bit of time each day cutting stuff down outside. Our lawn is staying under good control, both with the grass and the trimming around it. Our flower planters seem to be holding their own, not sprouting a bunch of weeds yet, so I can turn my attention to the fact that since we live in the woods, nature is always trying to ‘return to normal.’ That means the land trying to regrow, fill in, and grow over the top of us, returning the land to what it was before we ‘landed’ and built 37 years ago. I’ll take the big pruning shears out and just do what I can for a short time each day and see what good I can do.

I think I told you that the innards of one of our toilets gave up the ghost recently. We ordered a replacement kit, but my husband said he just wasn’t strong enough to install it in the Kohler toilet we have. (They have a really weird set of innards and require that one part be pressed into the side of the tank and then turned 45 degrees.) I called our plumber. His partner came yesterday. HE had trouble with it, too, and he’s young and strong and experienced. He got it installed, though, and so the toilet is good now. We agreed that the person who designed the innards should be shot. :0)

I wish you a fun day and a great October.

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Monday 9-30-2024

Oak Canyon Art – Etsy

Good morning! We’re into a ‘throw-the-doors-open-and-enjoy-the-breezes’ time each morning and closing up and turning on the a/c around lunch time. I’ll take it.

I had fun in the art room yesterday. I’m hoping to get up there again today, but house stuff is taking priority – exciting stuff like laundry, changing the sheets, gathering trash, cleaning, etc. Though, I vacuumed the first floor tiles yesterday and there were ALREADY three tufts of Amber hair wafting around this morning. Makes me wonder why I bother at ALL. That dog should be absolutely bald.

Update to the first paragraph – I was writing this blog post and my husband is across the office from me, working on a computer program. We both jumped about 3 feet straight up into the air when Amber started fierce barking at the front screen door. She obviously smelled something and her hair was standing straight up on her back. I made her go to her place on her bed in the living room, but it took both of us a while before our hearts beat normally again and we were able to concentrate.

All was good until BARK! BARK! BARK! BARK! BARK!!!! – giving our hearts another big jolt. I have now closed the front door after making Amber get back in her place. Hopefully, this will be the end of it… I’m wondering – do jolts like this count as cardio exercise?

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Tuesday 9-24-2024

alcohol ink painting-facebook.com-pinterest

The glorious color in this lifts my spirits. :0)

It turned out yesterday that we did NOT have a new innards kit for the cat’s bathroom toilet that was running intermittently. We spent a long time getting it out, then made a trip to ACE Hardware. They only had the standard innards kit, so we came home empty-handed.

My husband was able to order the Kohler kits we needed on the net. I had him order TWO of them, since the other first floor toilet is the same brand, so we will have a kit on hand if the other toilet goes on strike. We already have the standard kits for upstairs, if needed.

I had a good time in my art room yesterday. I’m wood-burning and painting wood slices for Christmas ornaments, plus making layered wood ornaments, 4-ornament sets, etc. I have an idea for a custom Christmas card design and more wood-burned earrings. Needless to say, my dreams are full of rambling ideas!

It’s cloudy and 67 right now, a beautiful change we are embracing with front and back doors open, enjoying a quiet breeze through the house.

I lost pound #37! I’m beginning to believe that my interim goal of 40 is within reach.

I’m planning to cook a new low-carb chicken recipe this evening. If it turns out well, I’ll tell you about it and give you a URL to the recipe.

Have a wonderful day.

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Sunday 9-8-2024

ShopWorldFly-Etsy

This is truly stunning. I can’t say enough about it.

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I had a fun day yesterday. Instead of going out and weed-whacking, as I “meant” to do – I played in my art room. I had a great time, only feeling a bit guilty about not starting my clean-up of the yard. I will TRY to get out there today, right after lunch. REALLY. :0)

Our weather is wonderful. Really fall-like. Our high is due to be 81 today! And the humidity is down. You can actually walk outside and breathe at the same time, not frying like an egg. Truly amazing.

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I’ve been considering getting new covers for Amber’s dog beds for quite a while now. I’ve been dragging my feet because we got new covers once before and spent a fortune on them. I decided to see what I could find.

I couldn’t find any covers offered for beds as large as we need them. About a week or so ago, I found a man on Etsy who does custom replacement covers using denim – exactly what I wanted. I still dragged my feet because I need THREE of them (Amber has a bed in the living room, another in the utility room, and a third, smaller one, in the office. ALL of them are looking thoroughly disreputable.

I reread the information provided on his site, read the reviews again, and finally bit the bullet and ordered today. When we get them, I’ll take pics for you and then let you know if they last a reasonable amount of time.

Monster Cat has sleeping places all over the house. She doesn’t, however, have one in the bathroom. I’m going to look for a cat bed to put in there, too.

I hope that you’re having an enjoyable day.

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Thursday Thoughts 8/22/2024

Fitdognation.com

I’m having a wonderful massage this morning. Ahhhhh! Then I’m hoping to have a good visit with my friend, Linda, who lives at the retirement place where I now get my massages. It’s a great combination of seeing two good people and easing all of my knotted up parts. :0)

I am 2/10ths away from my interim goal of 35 pounds down. I’m hoping I’ll reach that tomorrow. It would be a nice spur to my motivation to continue trying to lose the lard.

Today is the last day of super-nice-weather-for-August-in-Arkansas before the ‘intense heat warnings’ start in again. We’ve had about 3 days here of amazingly cool days and evenings with a soft breeze. We actually kept the car windows open on the way to our errands yesterday, thoroughly enjoying how beautiful it was.

I finished my latest wood burned piece yesterday afternoon. I’ll show you a pic later and I’ll try to get it listed on HandmadeHavenbyLinda on Etsy this afternoon, as well as do another session of trying to clean up my art room.

I hope you have a joyful day.

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Feeling Frazzled

@atchoumthecat (Norwegian Forest Cat)

My day is almost gone already! As you can see, I got my hair cut this morning. My husband went with me because he wanted to go to Walmart after. By the time we got home it was almost 1pm.

We ate lunch and took naps (have I told you how much I love having a humongous heat pad in my recliner and being able to sandwich myself between that and my throw or my new quilt and just let myself go?)

It’s a beautiful day today – sunny and 55 degrees right now, although it was really chilly when we left for errands. Our driveway detectors kept going off, but only one of them, over and over, indicating probably an animal, rather than a vehicle. I went out to check and it was several deer! One turned, looked at me for several seconds, then flashed his white tail at me and leaped to the other side of the driveway into the woods. Beautiful!

And now the afternoon is half gone and I’m writing my first blog post of the day!

This is my wood-working set up. I have the Dremel on one side and the wood-burning tool (which basically looks like a soldering iron with some fancy tips) on the other and the experiment scrap board in-between.

I FINALLY got up there yesterday and played with the wood-burning tool a bit. I used some stencils so I would have something to work on. I’m going to find some YouTube videos to watch that I hope will give me a good idea of which tips do what. Meanwhile, I quickly decided that I needed a ‘holder’ for the hot tool. You put it down for various reasons, and I want to be as safe as possible. I came downstairs to see what I could order from Amazon and my husband gave me an extra soldering iron he wasn’t using that will be perfect for my needs. Here it is –

I’m going to see what I can get done otherwise so I can experiment some more in my art room. I’m getting over being intimidated, since I’ve soldered for a long time and didn’t realize how similar the tools are. Making ‘designs’ with it is totally different than soldering, but the feelings of total inadequacy are gone now and I can concentrate on seeing what I can do with it.

I finished getting my Etsy offerings labeled and back on clean shelves. I added the rest of my memory boxes to the site. It’s interesting that this is a work in progress. I’m trying to improve the site, add new things, improve the traffic to the site, and more. It’s a lot of work, but worth it. A customer left a nice review recently and I’m still walking a bit above the ground. :0)

I hope that you’ve either been more productive than I have today or that you’re enjoying yourself immensely.

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Hooray – It’s Friday 2-17-2023

Imgflip

Today is Lunch Bunch. I haven’t heard from anyone that they AREN’T coming, so I’m going, hoping to catch up with everyone. These days it’s almost like throwing a bottle in the ocean trying to reach my friends. I can leave a message on Kay’s phone, but Kay says it doesn’t show up. She also says it doesn’t ring, but hasn’t gotten a replacement phone yet. So, unless she answers, I’m not at all confident I can reach her. Linda’s phone message system hasn’t been set up. If she doesn’t answer, I can’t leave a message. Her daughter Patty says she often doesn’t hear the phone because she isn’t wearing her hearing aids. Getting older is SUCH a reminder to keep your sense of humor.

One good thing, my friend Nora has quit her full time job and is writing a children’s book with the idea of self-publishing via the Kindle app. She is a talented artist (pastels), so I don’t wonder that she’ll write well, too. I’m hoping to be able to recommend her book to you one day. In the meantime, I’m hoping she’ll start joining us at Lunch Bunch. She can’t come today, but I’ll text and remind her that this is a standing invitation. :0)

I had a really nice thing happen yesterday. I was getting the mail and a truck went by. We waved, then he stopped and backed up. He told me he loved the mailbox decorations and made it a point to drive by and see what we had up, even though he lives down the road in the other direction. He asked if we used a CNC setup to make them, so he knows his tools. I confirmed that and told him he made my day and that I would tell my husband. He said he’s a handyman! I asked if he had a card and he gave me one. I will keep this with the idea of getting his help in the future. I’ll let you know how he does.

We’re due for nicer and nicer weather the rest of the week. It’s really terrific to see the sunshine and have afternoon temperatures at 50 today and even warmer the rest of the week.

Have a fabulous Friday.

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Thoughts on a Sunday 3-7-2021

Lowe’s

We spent from before lunch until 6:30 in the evening, but we got the new garage door opener installed and running yesterday. I am definitely coming back ( in my next life) as a combination weight lifter and basketball player who majored in fixing things.

The main thing that strikes me about the new opener is how QUIET it is compared to the one we replaced. I’m also very grateful we don’t have to manually haul the door up and carefully let it down now. A device that does that at a touch of a button is definitely a good thing. :0) It would be very nice if our garage were as clean as the one shown in the nice image above. No such luck.

We are resting today, still pretty whipped out with all the labor yesterday. The weather is gorgeous with reasonable temperatures and lots of sunshine. I will try to at least walk around the yard awhile before the afternoon is over, just to smile at the sun a bit, if nothing else.

I’m enjoying book # 29 “Widows Walk” by Robert B. Parker. I think there are 40 in the Spenser series, and I am truly enjoying revisiting his wit, sense of humor, wonderfully drawn characters, and clean writing.

I have spaghetti sauce in the slow cooker for dinner tonight. Nice Sunday.

I hope that YOUR Sunday is a good one, too.

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