Standing at the Trailhead of Winter

My summer is well underway, and so far I'm enjoying each and every minute. I really am very fortunate. Not many can say they get their summers off to pursue all kinds of fun things, so I am very thankful I am one of the lucky few who can.  Speaking of being thankful . . . I've fallen into the habit of saying thank you nearly every day to whatever it is that's out there watching over all of us. And I've noticed when I utter the words Thank you, a warm sense of wellbeing just washes through me. I was told recently that my living out here in this house has brought out the happy in me, that the happy is quite evident in the way I look, the way I talk, the way I am.  Yes, I am very happy. Along with the happy is being content. I'm incredibly content. I don't think I've ever really known what this feels like, what this means, until being out here in this wonderful little house. Speaking of wonderful little house . . . the painting is moving along. The base color ...

Another lesson I learned Friday, in addition to make-up nearly going dry after a year of not being used and the piercings in my ears being almost non-existent, is that my digestive system can no longer tolerate cheese.  Yeah, I ate cheese. Along with turkey pepperoni. And at 2 am I awoke to discomfort. I thought I might be able to go back to sleep, but that didn't happen. Instead, I had to make a visit to the bathroom. I NEVER have to get up during the night. I was able to get back to sleep, but at 4 am, I awoke to more discomfort. Twice in one night I had to visit the bathroom. So the cheese and pepperoni . . . two things I've not eaten in the past nine months, ever since going whole foods plant based. Funny Delightful son made us his wonderful homemade pizza, and I was not going to say nope, can't eat that. It was the first time we'd been together since Christmas, and he had taken the time to make the dough and as well as prep the other ingredients. The least I could ...

Friday I learned two things: 1. After not wearing make-up for over a year, the make-up I had was dried up and mostly unusable. 2. After not wearing earrings for over a year, the piercings in my earlobes were very reluctant in allowing anything to pass through them.  I'm inclined to continue not wearing make-up and earrings. I went for over a year just fine with neither, and really, at this point I simply can't be bothered.  But for Friday, I eked out as much mascara as I could and I wore a pair of very light, silver earrings for Funny Delightful Son's graduation. It was kind of nice, too, to dress up a little after wearing jeans, flannel shirts, and sweats for the last eight months. Even through the last month it's been quite chilly, so I've not packed away the flannel just yet. Friday, though, with the chill somewhat offset by the sun when it peeked out from behind the clouds, I wore a sleeveless, polka dot dress I found at Goodwill. It has buttons up the left side...

Funny story . . .  A couple of weeks ago I was fixing myself breakfast. I had some lovely potatoes I'd cooked in the Instant Pot, so I was all set to cut them up and air fry them to have along with some steamed veggies. While the air fryer heated. I sectioned the potatoes. Then, when the air fryer was to temperature, I pulled the drawer out and dumped the taters in. I pushed the drawer back in and . . . nothing. The timer kept working, but the fryer itself seemed to have blown up. I checked the power cord. Plugged in. I unplugged it, plugged it back in. Nothing. I pulled the drawer out and slid it back in. Nothing. Lovely Beautiful Daughter was staying with me and had just fixed her coffee. It appeared the outlets were working. I was stumped. And disappointed. I bought the air fryer maybe six months ago and I used it nearly every single day. I loved my air fryer. So I went online and looked at air fryers. I already knew which one I wanted after having read about them months ago. I ...

With just a couple of days remaining in the semester and the bulk of the grading completed, I've turned my attention to starting the big summer project: painting the house.  I am so excited. And I'm in no hurry. I have all summer ahead of me. So I've started the scraping work, just taking my time. I decided to begin the process on the back side of the house since it's in the worst shape. That's the west-facing side, so it gets a lot of wind and rain pelting it. I've made some good progress over the last week. Last evening when I stepped off the ladder after scraping the fascia board, I felt such satisfaction with the amount of progress I've made so far.  Before I can continue on to paint this side of the house, though, one section of cedar shingles needed to be completely replaced. The old shingles are so rotted that a layer of wood came off with the paint. I figure this isn't a good thing, so new shingles it is. A quick run (as quick as can be living 30...

I've started a new endeavor. Not sure anything will come of it, but as my mom always said, "Nothing ventured, nothing gained." So, I'm venturing. We'll see if there's anything gained. I have tons of photos on my computer. Just tucked away in folders. Every now and then I'll open the folders and go through them. I thought about printing them and making albums, but I'm really the only one who would enjoy flipping through the pages. I thought about having a couple put on canvas to hang on my walls, and I still might do this. Then I thought: Why not put them on a photo platform and see if I can make some money from them? For the last six or seven months, I've been thinking through if I should try this or just let it go (yeah, I tend to take a long time to come to some decisions). I talked about this with the kids, and they shrugged, giving me the standard young person response, "You do you." So I'm doing me. A couple of days ago I finally...

The really, really old furnace I ran an experiment through the month of March. I turned my furnace off on March 1st and kept it off (except for a couple of days when Lovely Beautiful Daughter was staying with me), just using the fireplace to warm the house. I wanted to see if 1) the fireplace would actually heat the house and not just the living room; and 2) what this would do for the gas bill. While my February gas bill wasn't as bad as I thought it was going to be, it was still on the high side. The furnace is old and inefficient. It's definitely time for it to retire. What I found was the fireplace will warm the entire house. I got into the routine of turning it on around 6:30 am and letting it run for a couple of hours. The blower chased the chill out of the air quickly, and I found I was very comfortable for several hours after turning the fireplace off. Then I'd turn it back on in early afternoon, letting it run again for a couple of hours. Then around 7 pm I'd tu...