Thank goodness for links...

 Drats

I really messed up this week. 

There was a baby shower for my daughter in law today. I had the invite, I had a link to things they wanted. And because of Caregiver restraints, I didn't plan on going. Oh. I wanted to. Baby stuff is awesome, cool, and oh so sweet.

How stupid of me to set the things aside and remind myself. Oh, I'll get that later. 

Of course I thought things like: Oh. It's a way off, I'll get that later. 

Meanwhile I'll take care of the pony who had colic. Oh that fence fixing stuff. Oh wait get those gutters, they're full of leaves again just after I cleaned them a month ago!

This morning I got up and made my coffee as usual. I made Rich's coffee after pouring mine into a thermos. I decided to start the day with fresh crisp air.

Charlie and I left the house in the semi dark. We heard owls talking in the distance. They weren't calling out Who Who Who Cooks for You?? 

It was another kind of owl. The world was mostly silent except for the birds starting to wake up and move about.

The sky was amazing. I sat down in the soybean field and decided just to watch the sky for a while.

All summer we had a drought with no cloudy and brilliant mornings, some mornings were dull with heavy forest fire smoke. This was gorgeous.

The colors kept changing rapidly.

This photo was edited to bring out a painted effect. 

What can I say, it felt a bit like a magical morning.

I was enjoying the fresh air when I stopped in my tracks.

It was Megan's Baby Shower today! Wait, what? Wait...what? 

Oh NO!

I'm an Idiot, I'm an Idiot was my mantra as I walked back home. I shook my head and stomped my foot and told Charlie that I was dumb, I was an idiot. And...how could I???

I tried searching the link that I'd gotten on the card and then gave up. It didn't work for me. I racked my brains. Nothing I could do anyway now. It was too late.

I went about the day with this nagging feeling that even though I was replacing busted wooden posts with t posts, I should be doing something else. I felt wretched.

[Truthfully? I wanted to be part of that happy party where all young moms and old moms -- grandmas sit around and watch the new mom to be open up all those incredible beautiful gifts. I recall the fun and pleasure of being that new mom many many years ago and how overwhelming it was that kind people gifted me items to help me with my firstborn son.]

Finally just before supper I searched my smart phone for the link my son had sent me a while ago. I paged down looking through the baby list and at the bottom it had another link which led me to Amazon. At the bottom of that list was a wish list for diapers. They had a Baby Contribution Gift in which a person could pick an amount towards diapers. There was a monetary goal listed.

Rich and I discussed diapers and talked about it at one point. Diapers are not glamourous or something too ooohh and ahhh over. However I know from purchasing diapers for my youngest son when his two youngest ones were born...that the price was pretty eye opening.

I filled in an amount and sent it off into an Amazon Gift Thingy or Whatever it is called. A diaper Fund?

The best part? An email would be sent to Megan and Eddie alerting them that they had a diaper fund within minutes of me hitting the purchase button. Holy cow, Batman! I would get a gift to them on the proper day after all!

Thank goodness for links, lists, smart phones, and on line purchases.

Now to search high and low over the next few months to find someone to stay with Rich so when the new mom and dad are ready for this old buzzard to visit, I can go.

Whew, thank goodness I didn't delete the text my son had sent my awhile ago.

Below ~
Photo of my Grand daughter Elena from
December 2013

💖💓💞

Wood ticks

I had started to write a long drawn out and disconnected sort of blog that well, frankly, would interest no one.

So I shut down the laptop and started my Subaru with the remote and said to heck with it.

I drove up to the ridge and kick started my Friday with this....

an amazing blood red sky

and my lovely warm Subaru in 32 degree weather. Don't you just love a heated seat?

Ever take Doxycycline? It sucks too. I picked up a wood tick while out mucking around on Monday and pulled it on Monday night. Guess what? I had to make a visit to the doctor who took one look at my calf and said, "No test needed. That is the Lyme Bullseye and Rash." 

I'm generally very good at changing into my other set of clothes when getting out of the woods. Yet for whatever reason, I didn't on Monday. I had other distracting disconnects going on.

Thankfully [knock on wood], I don't feel sick like the last time I was bitten by an infected tick. Little buggers! I had fevers, headaches, and chills that time. Nasty...just...yuck. Um, wait...I guess there is still time to feel rotten. 

Charlie and I did not hike through the woods and the brush. I thought he'd like a road walk and he did. He sought out all the proper places to pee on clumps of grass. I had to laugh about how serious he seemed to be while kicking up grass afterwards.

We then cut through the large hay field and corn strips to avoid the Naughty Dog House.

Charlie: Who you calling short stuff?

Come on lady!

Yes, I am an amazing little dog with a very mixed heritage.

And I like to ignore you.

The purpose of this walk was to see what the Hazelnut tree looked like along with the dogwood trees and the Bittersweet at this time of October.

This is a way that I study things. Take photos of trees or plants and compare them as time changes them. A lot of the shots, I toss because they are just for personal interest. But eventually if I put them together, I get a clearer 'picture' of how a plant or flower grows, changes, and dies off.

Last note. The doctor I saw said that the ticks with Lyme were awful this year for some reason and she had seen an 'up-tick' in cases. I hope we do have a cold enough winter to kill them off or to at least make them scarce.

Yes, I hate wood ticks but it won't keep me out of the woods. I just need to be much more observant and swap clothes when I get in.

Kicking my butt and road walking

I had my first Shingles vaccine shot and it kicked my butt for about 12 hours. I mean it kicked like a mule. 

By mid afternoon I felt somewhat human and my headache was going away. I grabbed Charlie and decided it was a nice day for a walk on the back roads. It gave me a chance to look at what I suspected was the Witch Hazel tree/bush and see if any trees on our ridge were turning colors.

When we switched from our township to Kickapoo township, there was more gravel on the road and Charlie seemed like his feet bothered him. We stopped for a few breaks along the way so he could get a drink of water. I carried him through the worst of the sharp gravel. 

It was nice though to walk on the ridge and then down into the valley. We are densely forested here so I don't often get to see wide open spaces unless I am driving somewhere.

These two shots are about a mile from our place. There is a tree line on the horizon in the above shot. That is where our dead end road stops. I walk there often in the summer to watch the sun come up.

I was happy they planted soybeans this year, I don't have to stand on a ladder to see the horizon!

The nasty dog came charging out on Charlie and I. I had picked Charlie up and sprayed the gravel road between us and the dog with pepper spray. Nasty Dog turned and ran back home. I hope the dog relates anyone walking by to that nasty horrid smell. Time will tell. Note, I did not spray the dog, I sprayed the gravel between us...

Other than that, our walk was relaxed and pretty nice. I brought my tree book and took some time looking at different trees.

I'm pretty darned sure that this is Witch Hazel! I found two of them!

This one is...I don't know.

More Bittersweet. I found three more places this was growing.

Wild Grapes. Wow have those nasty Beetles done a job on them.

The black walnut trees were literally bending over with walnuts as were the Bitternut Hickory trees. The apple trees were nearly barren and the Box Elders were yellowing and looking old and worn out.

I actually didn't take photos of trees I guess. It looks like I took photos of bushes that were interesting.

When we got down near the Black Bottom creek bridge we turned around. Down in one of the steep areas off Riley road, we heard a coyote barking. Pretty haunting. 

I fell in love with the rocks and ferns as we trudged back uphill to the ridge.

Our walk was long, it took us nearly two hours. The up and down hill portion of the walk is an elevation change of 200 feet each way. I knew it was steep but had no idea as I'd always driven it. If you fall off the road on one side there is a 50 foot drop to the bottom of a gully.

So I do avoid this road on snowy and icy days. But it is a beautiful walk.

Charlie was worn out when we got home and as I packed my backpack this morning he is giving me the stare with wide eyes. 

It's okay not to be okay....

The other day I got an email from our CrossFit coach, Josh, that was a mini read by a man named Jon Gordon. I looked him up and he is an author of what I would classify as 'Self Help' promotions and books. You can read about him at the link if you like.

But the email addressed the fact that it IS okay not to Feel Okay right now. Of course he offered words of encouragement that really struck a cord with me. I've gone back to read those words more than once in the past few days.

Because with the mounting death tolls of the Coronavirus, the politics, the demonstrations, the economic outlook, and then the possibility of staring this thing in the face for a very long time...
well, it seems that there is no more normal.
Everything I thought I had planned out for our future is no longer our future.

I texted my neighbor and CrossFit friend who I haven't seen for weeks and we met up on a back road to take a walk. A Distancing Walk with Charlie to just talk and just walk. We used to kid each other that we were the Elderly CrossFit people.

I stopped Bill and said I needed a photo of him in Tainter Land. He quipped that I'd ruin the scenery and the photo of course.

No, it didn't Bill.

We talked about our futures and ideas. He has worked for a nursing home so we have no misconceptions about aging and futures but only to try hard to stay healthy and fit. We talked about 'at what point' do we give up our homes?
In light of recent events we discussed our luck in living a rural area. At the same time rural wouldn't be so great as we aged.

We didn't talk gloom and doom our whole time. Most of the walk was spent marveling at the scenery. Bill kept commenting on how amazing Charlie was with his tiny legs and seemingly boundless energy.
Bill talked endlessly about his grand children and how much he enjoyed having them around. The things he still wanted to show them and do with them.

We discovered the 'first' violet coming up on the valley floor. We spotted Virginia Bluebells all over the valley as we walked. We marveled at how the floods in recent years had wrapped trees around other trees, changed the flow of the stream, and piled boulders and rocks in so many odd places.

I took photos with my Infrared Converted camera and explained light spectrums as best I could with some limited knowledge.

We did as two people would do. We walked ... distanced... and talked. We enjoyed the outdoors and sunshine.

Maybe in that time we learned a lesson from Charlie.

Just live in the moment for right now...

And it is okay ... not to feel okay.
But we are trying not to let it bring us down.