Everyday at lunch I eat 2 boiled eggs mixed with a drained can of tuna, mixed with yellow mustard, tossed with some sweet pickle relish and a squirt of mayo.  Every day Baxter jumps up on the counter as soon as he hears the can opener drawer open.  I started leaving a small bite of tuna in the can to occupy him so I didn’t have to share my bowl.

HE brought me home albacore tuna from Sprouts yesterday…..lunch started like every other day…me scurrying around trying to protect my lunch from the cats…when I slid the albacore can over to Baxter today

He was not impressed and after one sniff, turned his head!  

Until next time….

Everybody I know has a different music list of favorites…including him…although I must say he seems to be pretty all inclusive judging from the tunes coming from his workshop in the morning.  Throw in a little classical, country, pop, rock and roll and even a good ole Christian harmony and he is good with it.  He has his preference but he say my music doesn’t irritate him.  Unlike me.

I seem to be one of those souls who is very sensitive.  NOT boo hoo sensitive but sensitive to loud noises or breathing depending on where I find myself.  For an example…if my mind is clear and concentrating, I can read a book with the TV on and with noise around me.  On the flip side, if my mind is in easy-distraction-mode, that sound of him cracking peanuts can send me flying for ear plugs.   With music….something that doesn’t  align with my current soul setting can blow my mind and I seem to build up anger in my head.  Especially if it is loud.  The other night while listening to my music which ranged from Disturbed to Heart to the Osmond Brothers, I had the thought….if I could just find a soul mate that liked exactly the same music and songs that I like, I would love them forever.  I even had the image of driving miles and miles in the car with someone who had the same degree of love for MY music and we could sing obnoxiously loud song after song after song and both be feeling the same high.  Because seriously one of the joys in my life is driving down the road alone in the car with my music cranked singing at the top of my lungs.  When the radio is loud, I sound pretty damned good!

Until next time….

When I attended college in Joplin, MO back in the 70’s, I recall one snow storm that surprised me due to Joplin being in southern Missouri.  Everything shut down.  It was an impressive amount of snow but nothing like we had in Iowa.  

For 30 years, we lived in the country in Central Iowa.  We drove on 4 to 5 miles on gravel just to get to a hard surface…nearly every winter we had copious amounts of snow with high winds that completely shut the road down.  I worked for 911 and occasionally a deputy would have to pick me up in a 4 wheel drive because I couldn’t get my car out.

That’s what it looks like having the road drifted shut!

I hated it!  Perhaps had I worked at a job that wasn’t emergency services that only 9 people in the county were trained to do, I wouldn’t have stressed out about it.  I always worried about mom and dad (lived next door) having a health emergency or the house catching on fire…I worried because it happened the first year my folks lived out by us…the rural fire department had to push the fire truck out of the ditch 2 or 3 times to get to us!  By that time, He had already made it into the attic and we handed water up to him.

SO we move south of Kansas City and woke up to this picture this morning.

SChools were closed and evening church activities were cancelled for tonight.

Give me 6 months and I’ll be sure to waaaaaa about the heat…although summer here doesn’t seem much worse than the corn loving heat and humidity that I’m used to.

Until next time….

I was going to put Franny out tonight and follow him to bed and read…at least I would BE in bed ..sleeping was not part of the plan….but…I thought I would check FB while Franny was doing her business (which really means wrapping her chain around a tree and bark) and I found a post from a friend about getting an Instant Pot pressure cooker.  So I spent at least an hour watching YouTube videos about it.  I think I need one.  While the one I want is pricey, it’s certainly not as expensive as say the Kitchen Aid mixer so I would be saving money.  That argument makes so much sense to me!

It’s so cold here tonight…not Minnesota or Michigan cold but so cold it hurts when you (I) run to the mailbox without a coat….it’s suppose to continue this week with the possibility of 2 inches *rollingeyes.  In Iowa two inches meant you could still get by in flip flops.  Someday perhaps I will heal from the traumatic Iowa winters and living in the country on gravel roads.

I’m going to read now….my current book is The Glass Castle….it’s a good book…not a great book…but I’m invested.

Until next time….

Even though I allowed someone to mess with his private parts at midnight last night….I’m referring to Baxter not HIM, look who is following me around today.

January 2nd 2001, my dad passed…it’s always a bitter sweet day for me.  Very sad because I lost my dad but relieved because he was ready to go….and he didn’t have to live through 9/11 or the state of the world as it is today.  Politics and  disrespect always angered him.  He was always a staunch republican except for Nixon..I would like to talk to him about Trump and our current situation.  I would learn something regardless of whether we agreed or not.  It’s a dark and gloomy day with spitting rain which always sends me down the rabbit hole; but, while I was watching my second cup of coffee go through the Keurig, I noticed the tree outside the kitchen window.  BUDS.

The beginning of renewal.

He’s off to the Woodcraft store in Kansas, I’m going to work on my scarf….new pattern….I love it.  

Until next time….

Being retired is very comfortable for me.  My retirement Anniversary is coming up next month…3 years.  I find that I’ve become quite lazy.  I do what I want to do and that is it.  Because of my personality, I worry that I’m wasting every day…but then the voices in my head say….if you are at peace and enjoying it, what do you think you are wasting?

Since we last talked, I’ve been blessed with a new grandson,  He was a whopper 9lb 9 ounce whopper.  by the looks of my daughter, there was no doubt he was going to be half grown before he met us all.

I’ve been able to get back to book reading.  It’s a pleasure to settle in and read all day when my mind is quiet.  A couple of books back, I got involved in a well researched fiction book – the Aviator’s Wife – the story of Charles and Anne Lindbergh. In the story, Anne was writing Gift From The Sea so yesterday I went in search of the book and downloaded it on my kindle app.  It’s very short….around 90 pages…but so far it’s a book that I think every woman should read.  ITs hard to believe Anne Morrow Lindberg wrote it in 1955 because it could have been written in today’s world!

Just got back from the emergency vet….MY cat, Baxter, was displaying some urinary issues late this evening so I got HIM out of bed to drive us to the 24 hour vet.  NOthing serious….a UTI….although I’m guessing if Baxter could talk he would let me know how serious it is to him.

SO.  That is it tonight, I decided my only New Years change would be going to bed earlier like most people do.  ITs past the time when I should go to bed earlier …. I’m a night owl and it is going to be hard to make the adjustment….the voice keeps arguing with me saying….why do you feel you have to live by other people’s rules.

Happy New Year!

Until next time….