Standing at the Trailhead of Winter

We are just two days away from being two weeks in with Murphy joining the household. At this point, after getting past the sleep deprivation from having to get up three or four times during the night to take him out, I'm so glad I made the decision to add him to the family. It's not been easy, but it is getting easier. And we're not even two weeks in.  Sleepy boys The first night I left Murphy in the big tub I used to transport him home. He settled in and slept for about two hours at a time. He didn't cry, which I had braced myself for, so that was a win, but the second night I wasn't so lucky. I switched him over to the crate, and he wasn't having any of that. I decided, against everything I told myself I was going to do with this puppy, that he could sleep with me if he settled in. He did. Immediately. He snuggled up on the pillow next to my face, puffing his little puppy breaths on me while he slept. Totally cute, but not real conducive to me getting any slee...

Meet Murphy, the newest member of the family.  He is absolutely too cute. And smart. And a cuddle bug. He has slipped right into the spot that's been open and waiting for him to come along.  I started looking for the next member of the family back in May. I tried adopting because I support the "Adopt, Don't Shop" idea, but I never got a response to any of the applications I filled out and submitted. In August, I switched over to a website that lists all kinds of breeds, and since I knew I really wanted an Australian Shepherd, I had tons to choose from. The only downside was most were two hours or longer away. I didn't want to have to drive over two hours one way to pick up a puppy. So I just checked in every now and then to see if new posts were listed that were within my desired driving range. Two weeks ago, a post showed up for Murphy and his brothers and sisters, and they lived a mere thirty minutes away. I called and asked if I could visit the pups, and the ow...

Every single morning I truly can't believe I get to wake up in this little house. I think about how often I said I would never buy a house, and I know if I had continued with that mindset I wouldn't be out here in the quiet, able to look up at night and see the stars. I wouldn't see the streaks of pink and blue across the sky as the sun rises. I wouldn't see the eagles that fly over. Not a great picture by any means, but it's one I'll enjoy for a long time. And it also shows just how dirty the  camera lens is! Definitely time to clean that. I've also seen another very large bird in the area the last few days. Yesterday I was sitting on the back steps, enjoying the warm afternoon and soaking up some sun, when I heard the screech. I looked to the right and saw a large, I mean large, bird flying my way. It was too big to be a hawk, so I'm thinking it might have been a golden eagle. My neighbor said they fly through at times. I've only seen a golden eagl...

When I was in the process of buying my little house in the little village surrounded by cornfields, I had a septic inspection completed just to give me peace of mind that the septic system was good to go. I figured it was since a new septic tank had been installed about five years ago, but I wanted to know for sure what I was dealing with. It's an aerobic septic system, one that I'd never heard of, and after reading about these kinds of systems, I felt like having an inspection would help me learn even more. Little did I know that the inspector would issue a violation for the washing machine emptying into a drain in the basement floor. Which he did. Which meant I had three choices: 1) walk away from buying the house; 2) spend the money to plumb the washing machine into the new septic tank; or 3) remove the washing machine all the way around. The owners of the house had accepted my offer with the condition that I buy the house "As Is." They refused to pay for anything ...

The weather has been quite beautiful the last couple of days. Today especially. I got up early and set out on a long walk. I wandered down to a creek not far past the village limits. When I looked to the left, I saw this:  I've seen several eagles over the past few months, and I never tire of getting a glimpse of one. I took a path into the field, with the intention of getting closer for another shot. I tried hiding behind the big oak trees and took my time going from one tree to the next, but this beauty took flight before I could get the camera up and ready.  Because it was early and the stars had shed their little glitters all over us during the night, the grass was sparkling like gems had been scattered. I wasn't sure my camera would be able to pick up the colors, but I had to try. This is what I got for my effort: Hopefully you can see all the different colored dots in the grass. The one thing about photography is sometimes what I see isn't what the camera sees. It...

Today marks the one-year anniversary of my dad's death. I'm sitting here shaking my head. Already a year has passed.  In a conversation with a sibling, it was suggested the family lost three people a year ago. Dad to cancer, and two of our siblings to . . . I don't even know how to word it . . . bad behavior? misguided thinking? selfishness? disconnectedness? all of the above? Here we are now, a year later, and the silence has only deepened, at least between me and the two siblings. I won't speak for my other siblings who have been disappointed by these two. At this point, I keep returning to the "it is what it is" catch-all for difficult situations, and I find other things, pleasant and happy things, to focus on. Like the time Dad set the oven on fire (well, he didn't really do it; the turkey did it) while preparing our Thanksgiving feast. Lovely Beautiful Daughter was around 8 years old and walked into the kitchen, loudly exclaiming, "Papaw! The ove...

So, I had (still have) a post about the furnace having a gas leak and the gas company coming out, shutting it off, and my little house getting a bit cold for a day. That same post then goes into my fridge gasping its last breath and me venturing out to find a new one to replace it. There was also the fiasco with a large box store that kept pushing back the delivery of my fencing supplies. Yeah, I have that post ready to publish. But then Funny Delightful Son messaged all of us (we have family channel in Discord) that he tested positive for COVID. Of my three kids, I've been most worried about Funny Delightful Son getting the virus. He's the one who spent four days in the hospital when he was just nine months old. Pneumonia. He's also the one who had mono when he was 14. Then again when he was 17. We hear all the time that a person can't get mono twice. Not true. And each time, Funny Delightful Son was really down and out.  When we went on lockdown back in March, Funny D...

Move over Instant Pot. I have a new love. The Air Fryer. Actually, I love you both equally because you each bring such joy to my life. At this moment, I'm happily munching on crispy seasoned tofu. The crispiest tofu I've ever been able to make thanks to the Air Fryer. Yesterday, I swooned over the Japanese sweet potato that came out hot and creamy from the Instant Pot. Yes, life is good. Since going completely vegan (whole foods plant based), I've lost eight pounds. I'm just one pound from my goal. And I did nothing other than change what I eat. I didn't increase my exercise; I'm still just doing the three to four walks a day with Ado, which ends up being anywhere from 3-4 miles for the day. I haven't starved at all, either. I've simply been eating whole foods that are plant based.  Funny Delightful Son came to visit for the weekend. I talked with him about the changes I've made and how it's such a simple thing to do and such a healthy thing to d...

Two weeks ago today, the website for my work was the victim of a cyber attack. That attack came right at midterm and at a time when students were already feeling incredibly overwhelmed. Not being able to get into the site to complete work and to communicate with their instructors sent some students into a tailspin. While our fantastic IT people were able to get some components of the site up and running last week, the damage had already been done. About half of my students in two classes are MIA. I've been posting announcements, trying to entice them to return to class, but so far, I've only heard from three or four. They'll be back, they say. I hope so. 2020 just keeps piling on. I learned ten minutes ago a colleague passed away yesterday. He was the same age I am. 56. Earlier this semester, a member of our Board of Trustees passed away. He was 57. Seems far too young. I know, though, living to see tomorrow is never a given. For anyone. Still . . . Now I'm finding myse...

Three words. Japanese sweet potato. Seriously delicious, so much so that if I were of the mind, I would eat one for breakfast, lunch, and dinner. And as a snack between breakfast, lunch, and dinner. But I won't. Instead, I'll eat a half of one for lunch and save the other half for tomorrow. That way, I can be incredibly happy today and tomorrow just because of this purple skinned, yellow fleshed lovely sweet tater. For the past week, my work's website has been down. The whole kit and kaboodle. An entire week. We've been told it was a breach/hack, and it has affected every part of the website. I haven't been able to work since last Sunday, which has totally thrown me off my routine. Just another curve ball added to this crap show that is 2020. So far today, I've not received a text about what will happen tomorrow, and when I tried to get into the website I was met with nothing. This whole situation has been quite surreal. So, to fill my time through the week, I d...

I've taken the leap into making sauces/dressings for my salads and other dishes that a sauce/dressing just seem to go naturally with. And in the process, I cleaned out the rest of the heavily processed, packed with oil and sugar foods from my fridge. It really is amazing to see just how much oil and sugar is used to create salad dressings and other kinds of sauce. When I think about how much dressing I used to put on a salad, even when all I would have for a meal was a salad, all of the calories were coming from the dressing. They weren't nutrient dense calories, either. Just calorie dense calories. Bad calorie dense calories. I cringe now thinking about all the oil and sugar I was consuming.  So now I'm making my own sauces/dressings. Knowing exactly what is in the sauce and how much of each ingredient is in the sauce creates peace of mind about what I am putting into my body. The first dressing I made is an avocado/lime/cilantro combination. It pairs wonderfully with mixe...

I've seen some very cool things during my walks with Ado this week.  The first cool thing: two bald eagles circling overhead. We had headed out around 2 pm, and just a block away from the house I heard a call I've never heard before. I started looking around, trying to find the bird making the call. When we reached the main street through our small town, I looked up. There they were. Two beautiful bald eagles gliding, circling right overhead, low enough I could clearly make out their white heads and white tail feathers. I stopped, wanting to watch for as long as they stayed around. For several minutes, both circled in the same area.  As I stood there, I thought about how just the day before I'd watched Anne Lamott's TED talk. At one point, she brings up Emerson, how he believed that the happiest person on Earth is one who learns from nature the lessons of worship. She says, "So go outside a lot and look up. . . . Look up. Secret of life." I couldn't agree ...

I started this past last Wednesday. This is what I'd written: For the first time in months, probably years actually, I didn't make my bed right after getting up. Or even an hour later. In fact, I didn't make my bed at all today. I know! The horror! I'm not sure why I was such a rebel. I think I just got going on other things and didn't even realize I'd left the bed unmade until after lunch, when I walked into the bedroom to change into shorts. Or maybe it's because I'm getting old and just forgot. When I went to change from jeans to shorts since the day was warming up and saw my unmade bed, it was like meh, whatever. I changed and left it the way it was.  Every day since, I've made my bed like usual, right after getting up. There's just something about the practice, the routine. It's a small accomplishment, keeps my bedroom tidy and comfortable.  With it being just me here, the living spaces remain mostly tidy all the time. Living on one leve...

Fall is definitely in the air. The mornings are cool, enough so that I need a jacket for our walk. The sunflowers are ready to be cut out after the gold finches picked them over until all the seeds are completely gone. And the robins are moving through. I've not seen them all summer, but this morning, quite a few were in the driveway and yard. Yesterday, as I drove home after visiting with a friend for the afternoon, the killdeer seemed to be grouping in preparation for migration. I don't think I've ever seen so many killdeer my entire life. I love living where we have four very distinct seasons. Fall is my favorite of the four. It just seems like we're being told to slow down, relax, enjoy. I really try to listen and do all three as often as possible. I worked a bit in the yard over the weekend, mostly removing the tall sunflower stalks and other ungainly weeds growing alongside the house. I'd left everything alone this summer just to see what was already here, and...

I am now six weeks in to being "two steps away from being completely vegan" as Angel Baby puts it. The two steps keeping me from being fully vegan is I still eat mayo and honey. When I think about it, though, I so seldom eat either one that it's kind of silly for me to even have them. Maybe I'll do what I did with the milk and eggs -- toss them in the trash. I felt just a tad bit bad about dumping out a half gallon of milk and throwing away two dozen eggs, but it had to be done. The three packages of unopened cheese, though, I kept. I gave those to Funny Delightful Son when he was here for the weekend. He bowed slightly when I handed him a bag full of cheese, bacon and sausage I'd had in the freezer, along with a package of frozen salmon, and said, "Thank you for your vegan ways."  My vegan ways have me cooking a lot. I was cooking quite a bit anyways, but now I'm preparing things I've never tried before. Yesterday it was falafel with a tahini dr...

I've been told twice now, that because I believe I am entitled to my perspective on things, just as anyone is entitled to his/her/their perspective, I must be a Democrat (I'm pretty sure this was meant to be an insult). I'm still trying to wrap my brain around this logic, if there is even a logic to it. I guess for the person who said this to me there must be a logic, but I'm failing to find it. For the person who said this to me, it's called Theory of Mind. Look it up. Read about it. Learn about it. Everyone has a perspective that is unique to him/her/they. Even you. And I am more than happy to allow you your perspective on things though they are very different from my own. And in the process, I won't stoop to calling you a BITCH (the all caps where how you sent it in the text). I won't sink so low as to say, "Fuck you" like you did in another text. After you've finished learning about Theory of Mind, consider turning to Malcolm Gladwell's...

So, apparently I'm stepping over the boundaries in speaking out about a family member's behavior. Also, apparently I'm not allowed to have a perspective on what my life was like growing up in my family. According to one sibling (who ordered me not to write about them on the blog, and who I'm pretty sure didn't even know my blog existed until I wrote the last post and it was shared by the family member that post is referring to), "I'm still wondering where the rest of us were when things were SO bad for you. We had an awesome and blessed bringing up."  I don't disagree. We did. But this doesn't mean there weren't bad things, too. It wasn't all butterflies and unicorns. To believe otherwise is to live in La-La Land. And, I just want to go on the record now and say I'm pretty sure I've never said through the years writing on my blog that my life growing up was SO bad. I'm still scratching my head over what blog posts my sibling...

Well, the whole "my siblings and I have been getting along great" after Dad passed away has ended. We've all heard the horror stories of siblings who fight over the estate, taking each other to court or whatever, and I was so glad that wasn't the case for us. I was proud of how my siblings and I were in agreement about so many aspects concerning what to do with Dad's things. Little did I realize . . . At this point, speaking for myself (though I've heard from another sibling that this is true for at least one other in the group as well), I've washed my hands of one of my siblings. The one causing the trouble. And I have said as much to this sibling. I will no longer try to get in contact. Not that it would do any good. This sibling won't respond anyways. Like a petulant child. Or maybe a chicken shit. Probably 1/4 petulant child and 3/4 chicken shit. Because this sibling knows their actions are truly shameful.  Backhanded accusations have been thrown t...

I've decided every Friday will be my weigh-in day. I figure I bought the darn scale, so I'm going to use it. Maybe it's the ingredient I've needed all along to hold me accountable for what I eat. The trepidation I feel just looking at the scale is ridiculous, but I conquered the fear yesterday and stepped on. Half a pound down.  And that made me incredibly happy. Seeing that third number change from where it's been the past two years was the jolt of energy I've needed to continue on the path I'm walking. The path of eating strictly plant-based.  I've been working on this for a year and a half. I tried several years ago to be vegetarian, but I ended up feeling awful, and my doctor said eat meat. So I went back to eating meat though I really didn't want to.  So for the past year and a half, I've joked about being a bad vegetarian. I started the 90/10 routine. I ate mostly plants and eggs 90% of the time during the month. The other 10% of the month,...

The fall semester is officially underway. Most of us are teaching solely online, so we won't have the usual gathering in the hall to chat and catch up with one another, something we all looked forward to after nearly three months of not seeing each other. I miss my friends so much.  But I do enjoy teaching online. It's such a different animal from teaching in the classroom. I used to give myself little pep talks before going into the classroom, and I made a list of everything I wanted to cover during the class period. I'd check each item off throughout the hour and fifteen minutes. I never sat down, either, always moving around the room while I talked and worked with the students. Now . . . much of my time is spent sitting.   For hours I sit in front of the computer and create the materials that I upload to the LMS. At the same time, I check my email regularly to field any questions that might come in from students. But I have the freedom to stand and stretch, go to the k...

  What a beauty!  Little guy tucked into the leaves of a lily plant. The walkway to the table under the maple tree. Broken wing but still getting along. The abandoned stroller. Kinda creepy. (This was at a state forest I visited last week. I want to return and take more pictures of this with better lighting.) One last lightning but photo. Taken right after sunset, over the field directly behind my house.

My lovely summer is coming to an end. Nearly time to return to work, well, as much as we can return to work, which means being online for the fall semester. From my cozy house out in a little town. And I can't say that I'm sad I won't be returning to campus. I do miss my friends. A lot. But I truly love being out here, awakening to the orchestra that is birdsong outside my bedroom window, sitting on the front porch every morning and evening, wandering through the garden that surrounds the house and finding beautiful little surprises from one day to the next. And while I didn't get the deck on the back of the house (lumber shortage due to the pandemic) or the garage door opener installed (not in a hurry to get this done), those will happen. Just not right now.  Mostly I've just been enjoying being here. The quiet when I wake up during the night is wonderful. The owls calling back and forth make me not want to fall back to sleep. So far, because the temps have stayed ...

Recently I've been sharing some of my photos with friends. One friend emailed me privately, asking if I had at one time studied photography or worked as a photographer because I "have a good eye." I truly appreciated my friend's kind words, and as I mulled them over, I was taken back to my time as an undergrad, when I was studying photography. I loved everything about working with film. Not long into my first black and white photography class, the TA wandered in while I was working one evening. I had just developed an image of a wind chime that hung on the front porch of my parents' old farmhouse. I had achieved a nice range of tones with the image and the TA remarked about this. I was really pleased I was understanding how to work my camera as well as the enlarger and chemicals. I spent hours in that darkroom, determined to learn as much as possible about black and white photography. The professor of the class showed up for the lecture portion but left the lab co...

One of the best parts about cycling along at 14 miles per hour is the opportunity to really see the nature surrounding us. I love stopping on the bridges spanning the creeks throughout the countryside. Yesterday, I stopped to watch the swallows emerge from under a bridge, dipping and diving through the air, hoping to get me to move along. I turned to look in the opposite direction, wondering how the late-evening sun might look as a backdrop to the creek. That's when I noticed this beauty. I could tell from the size I wasn't looking at a hawk. Given I was probably 100 yards away, I figured I wasn't going to get a very good picture of it, but I was going to try. I pulled out my little camera I carry with me and zoomed in as much as possible. I snapped a photo then enlarged it on the camera screen. To say I was just a tad bit excited to see an eagle would be an understatement. I kept snapping photos, hoping at least one would give me a decent image. This one made the cut. It...

Much needed rain graced us on and off the last couple of days. My lawn was beginning to show the suffering signs of drying out, but now it is vibrant green and lush again. Which means I'll have to mow tomorrow or the next day, most likely tomorrow.  The first time I mowed my shoulders and biceps burned from pushing the mower over the nearly one-third acre of yard. I don't have a self-propelled mower. I have a JP propelled mower. Now, my shoulders and arms feel strong when I mow. The burning and fatigue are a thing of the past. It feels so good to know I've gained strength in muscles that have always been on the weaker side for me.  I'm seeing the same strength and endurance improving with the cycling. I can comfortably complete 40 miles now. My last ride just a few evenings ago was just under 25 miles, but my average moving speed was 17.2. To say I was happy with this is an understatement. A few weeks ago my legs were tiring at the 20 mile mark, going 14.5 miles an hour...