Goals Without Deadlines

It’s been a typical Pacific Northwest winter day cloudy, cool with off and on drizzle. Nice after almost steady rain for 24 hours. I thought it would be a perfect time to make one of the soups Stacie had sent me earlier this year as a gift. I knew I had already purchased the ingredients I needed to go with the dry soup mix and since I had my big crockpot I decided to slow cook it. I was surprised that it called for so much liquid and the crockpot was filled to the brim.  While it cooked I was finishing a good read that the kids sent me for Christmas. I’ve got a box of books almost ready to send them and wanted to include it in the box. So I sat and read and enjoyed the smell from the soup cooking.  Even though I was almost finished with the book I decided to eat before I finished it. I looked for my pot holders but couldn’t find them. (I remember where they are now🙄). So I figured I’d just use a dish towel to take the crock out and carry it to the stove. I didn’t want to dish...

I’m not proud of the title of this post but nothing sums up my feelings about today better than that. This isn’t going to be a catch up post or a year end wrap up post, that’ll happen later, this is a post that I’m writing to tell 2020 Fuck You and to describe my morning on December 27th when it’s barely past noon! 😳  I got up at my dogs command as usual and started a cup of coffee in the Keurig. Fortunately I keep the reservoir filled because when I turned on the water to take my first round of morning pills there was no water. I just figured it was frozen and would thaw in a while so I just got one of my Nalgene bottles out of the fridge and took my pills.  Well of course it wasn’t that simple, it’s 2020 after all. One of the horses is a pain in the ass who constantly kicks the wall at the front of her stall. Long story short, she broke the waterline running in front of her stall which also happens to be right where the main line for the barn comes in. It also is the line t...

The reason the title of this post is a question is because I’m not even sure what catching up means in these crazy times. There’s not much to “catch up” on in the year 2020 when I feel like I’m being kept prisoner by dual jailers, Covid 19 and my own health issue PNH! 😳 This picture of my dog Charlie is a good metaphor for how my life has been going. 😊 I ended my last post with “what’s next?” because we’re living in such uncertain times. I said first the election and thank God Trump was voted out of office. I honestly don’t think our democratic way of life would have survived another year under that fool. I honestly believe that he is certifiably mentally ill.  With the big holidays that I have always looked forward to coming up I knew I needed an attitude adjustment and need to go back to finding positive things. I looked harder for beauty in nature and even in a PNW wet period it’s still there.  I talked with my sister and made sure we planned a Thanksgiving dinner this ye...

I know it’s redundant but WHAT A YEAR! It seems like everyone is just waiting for the next shoe to drop. Just when you think things might get better something else happens. My biggest hope is that things will start improving first with the election results.  I was excited to get my ballot in and drove it right to Eugene. After that I treated myself to a breakfast burrito and then drove to Alton Baker Park to walk and I was happy to finally see some fall foliage.  For some reason my treatment seemed to start wearing off about half way through this time. The doctor is going to monitor closely this time to see if it was just a fluke or if something will need to change. I just know it’s obvious immediately if it’s working or not.  And to add insult to injury my grandson Chase was just diagnosed with Covid.  What’s next? First the election next Tuesday! 

I asked the question in the title of this blog September 27th it’s now two weeks later October 11th and I think I can safely and sadly say that it appears the answer will be yes! With the exception of a couple of trees in the neighbors yard that have nice colors the rest has simply been underwhelming with leaves simply turning brown and falling without ever offering the beautiful fall colors I’ve come to expect wherever I am.  Other than these two trees everything is dull brown or maybe dull yellow at best. We have a nice variety of trees on the back of the property and they lost most of their leaves already without ever turning colorful.  On Lynx Hollow I had hoped to see a lot of color when I walk. Unfortunately I haven’t walked much but when I have it’s pretty much the same story. No color or minimal color at best with everything just turning brown.  And I have gone looking. I drove a ways up into the mountains to scout a course for a race I hoped to run and while the ...

I mentioned in my last post about smelling smoke at the race. I thought it was smoke from the fires mostly northeast of here. As it turned out there was a new fire up the McKenzie that was going to really impact us. That evening when the smoke came it came fast and it came to stay. Our air quality would be unhealthy for the next ten days. This was what one local posted on Twitter.  And this is what it looked like then. And then the next morning.  If the bad air quality and fire danger wasn’t bad enough we lost power in the middle of the night and it stayed off for over 60 hours. The worst part about losing power here is that we have a well and no electricity means no pump and no water. Brandy went and bought all the gallon bottles she could from a local Dollar Tree and that’s how we watered the animals. When we ran out she went to another store in another town and bought more while Donna took some of the empties to a place that still had power and refilled them. It was crazy! ...