September 9, 2021 – Photo

Today I am featuring my final photo of this place. I took it several years ago during an outing at a nearby state park with my true-blue friend ‘P’ (who I also met up with for a quick bite to eat today). I have no doubt I will miss having so many beautiful places to explore (mountains, lakes, forests) right at my fingertips. Alas, it’s time to move on. I am getting up first thing in the morning and driving approximately 500 miles, followed by 500 the next day, and another 235 on the final day. I am not looking forward to the drive, but at least I’ll have my dog to keep me company. Anyway, I need to get to bed. Spent the whole day cleaning and packing up the last few odds and ends, and still have a bit more to do before we turn the key in the lock the final time.

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September 8, 2021 – Homeward Bound

Today’s the day we’re supposed to officially be ‘on the road again’ but it’s not going to happen. My husband found more issues with the trailer we purchased, so we ordered parts through Amazon but Amazon wasn’t able to get them to us in time to meet what we originally had planned for our ‘exit strategy’. I’m relieved because it’s buying us more time and giving us another day to finalize everything and get the house ‘squeaky’ clean. Upon returning home (after visiting my family and our daughter), I discovered that there was a great deal more to be done than I initially thought. Most of the rooms are cleaned out but the kitchen’s another matter. We’ve still got a long ways to go before it’s presentable, despite my efforts to make a dent today. I think I’m going to look forward to a smaller house because it won’t take nearly as long to clean it. It shouldn’t take two days to clean one kitchen! At least, the ‘packing’ portion of our move is complete. It was a job to put all of our belongings into boxes and then load them onto crates. I downsized as much as time would allow, but I’m certain that I’ll be downsizing even more once we arrive at our new home and begin to unpack.

September 7, 2021 – Photo

I came across this photo after looking at well over two hundred. It was ‘buried’ among other farm-themed photos, including those of a rooster out in front of a barn, groups of people riding horseback, and an old cowbell. Horses both thrill and frighten me and I used to love to ride them; however, the last time I rode one, I was diagnosed with a concussion after being violently thrown twice, cracking my head on the ground upon impact (both times), and ending up in the hospital. Needless to say, nowadays I prefer to appreciate them from afar, or at least with a solid fence between us. The name of this particular horse is/was Hercules. I like the perspective of this photo because it makes him appear rather comical. Enjoy!

September 6, 2021 – A much needed break.

After feeling dumb, discouraged, and depleted after spending several hours ‘repairing’ the walls throughout my house (and doing anything but), I really needed a good day. Fortunately, I got it. My husband and I were invited to a BBQ by my brother Clover, so once we’d had a ‘good’ night’s rest (followed by a satisfying breakfast), we loaded up our truck with an assortment of items (a huge succulent, the ‘stuff’ our daughter left after she moved out of our home several years ago, a bag filled with magazines, a bunch of frozen meat and butter, a housewarming gift for our nephew, overnight bags, etc.), and ‘hit the road’. Ordinarily, I assist with the driving duties but my husband ended up behind the wheel for the entire trip because 1) we had a huge piece of equipment in the bed of our truck which obstructed the rear view, and 2) I was so tired that I couldn’t keep my eyes open. If we were going to arrive at our destination alive, I thought it best that I opt out of driving duties for once. For me, driving a truck is already challenging, but driving a truck with an obstructed view (while sleep deprived) is a recipe for disaster in my book. I am happy to report that no disasters occurred during our road trip and that (surprisingly) we arrived at our destination in record time.

September 5, 2021 – Photo

I am so tempted to show you a photo of one of the walls in my home that I attempted to ‘fix’ by filling/patching the nail holes and painting the area over and around them. What a disaster! My realtor warned me not to do it but I did it anyway, and now they look terrible! As much as I want to, I won’t share that with you; I cannot imagine anyone wants to look at a lousy attempt at repairing walls, I sure don’t! What I will share is something from ‘the vault’ because once again, I was so blasted busy trying to get stuff done around the house (i.e.; destroying the walls), I didn’t have a chance to take any photos. That’s my reflection in the mirror, by the way. I call it ‘Sneak Peek’. Anyway, enjoy!

September 4 , 2021 – Rounding the Curve

My friends, today is one of those days that I wish I hadn’t made a promise to write or post 365 days straight. I am so damn tired and all I want to do is go to sleep, but I cannot because I have to fulfill the promise I made or I’m going to feel really terrible. There is some reassurance that I am in the home stretch and only have 24 more days to go, but I’m not there yet. Life right now is so full and has been for the last couple of months, and I wish I’d only committed to write or post something for six months straight rather than twelve. Clearly, I bit off more than I can chew but I refuse to quit when I’m so close! I remember when I used to run Track years ago and so many times I’d ‘hit a wall’ and want to quit so desperately. Each time I’d clear a lap, I’d question the whole point of running multiple times around an oval until my lungs burned. I felt like a hamster in a wheel and yearned to get out of my lane and make a beeline for the concession stand, but never did. I continued on until I rounded that final curve, sprinting the last few yards towards the finish line. I loved to run (for pleasure) but loathed competitive running; however, since I signed up to compete for my team, I felt the least I could do was give it my ‘best effort’.

September 3, 2021 – Original Artwork

Since I had another ‘full’ day today which consisted of packing up the last of our household goods, I didn’t have the time or energy to put my Nikon to work. For this reason, I’m going to feature (a copy of) one of my original drawings. I actually gave the original (as a gift) to the parents of a very dear friend of mine. They’ve been good to me throughout the years and I wanted them to know how much I appreciated all of their love and support. I worked on it right after I moved into my house and completed it within a couple of weeks. The medium is colored pencils and I hadn’t had a lot of experience using them, so the learning curve was pretty steep! Enjoy.

September 2, 2021 – How time flies!

I just have one question, how is it September already??!! It was during September of last year that I began this blogging ‘adventure’ and I cannot believe how quickly the time has gone (as well as how much has happened)! Around this time last year, I was experiencing some pretty significant emotional lows and feeling incredibly lost. It was six months after I’d been laid off due to the Pandemic and my head was filled with vast amounts of negativity. That’s what tends to happen when I’m alone with my thoughts for too long. I was getting ready to board the ‘Straight Jacket Express’ because my mental health was spiraling out of control, and had life continued on as it had been, I was convinced my head would likely explode. For some reason, however, I got the idea to start a blog. I’ve always enjoyed writing and was hopeful that blogging might help me work through some issues. Putting pen to paper and writing in a journal was something I’d tried in the past but each time I’d try it, my entries would only manage to fill up a few pages before I’d lose interest and place the journal in the top drawer of my nightstand (on top of several others I’d given up on).

September 1, 2021 – Image

Since I don’t have any fresh photos to share today, I thought I’d share an ‘image’ instead. A common thing I like to do is contact companies (or people) when I notice blatant spelling errors in their ads or on their websites. I took a ‘screen shot’ of this image after I signed into my account at a national grocery chain and noticed a spelling ‘boo boo’. Whenever I read a book or a sign or a magazine or a menu, I constantly find mistakes (especially on menus). I’m not sure whether this ‘ability’ is a blessing or a curse but it’s been with me for my entire adult life. I do have to admit that I get a kick out of it sometimes because a letter missing in a word or a few shifted around can really alter the meaning (in a humorous way). And with the world in its current (worrisome) state, I’ll take all the humor I can get!

August 31, 2021 – Full Circle

When I collapsed (from exhaustion) onto my ‘not half bad’ air mattress last night, I thought about how much my present life resembles life seven years ago (this month). During the month of August, 2014, we purchased our home. On the day of the closing, it was over 105 degrees and ash fell from the brown sky. My husband seriously questioned our whereabouts, suspecting we had taken a wrong turn along the way and wound up in “H, E, Double Hockey Sticks.” We had no idea when we made an offer on our home that wildfires were even a ‘thing’. However, I learned quickly that in addition to the seasons of spring, summer, winter, and fall, that there is a season dedicated to wildfires, too. At the time we moved into our newly acquired ‘whopper of a fixer-upper’ seven years ago, all we brought with us was enough to get by on. We had an air mattress with linens (for sleeping), a card table with folding chairs (for dining), a laptop (for viewing), some assorted dishes and pots and pans (for eating/cooking), a lamp (for seeing), and a couple of weeks worth of clothes and shoes (for wearing).