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It’s been a gorgeous few days but the rain moved in today. After nearly a week of low humidity, blue skies and temperatures in the mid-70s, today is rainy with a high in the upper 60s. Not bad, but not fantastic either. Still, for two people who spent the last two days doing yardwork andContinue reading “The things I do for love…”

Who hasn’t experienced it? Your fridge is crammed with food but as you systematically look for something you want to eat you discard options because you know the food is either past its prime or outright spoiled. You pry open the freezer drawer or door to look for something to defrost for dinner and itContinue reading “The Great American Cleanout”

Last Saturday night was our chance to watch the Perseids meteor shower. At peak, it was too cloudy and hazy to see much. But on Saturday, the first night past peak, was perfect. We went out to dinner, then had a little campfire in the back yard. When it got dark, I had made upContinue reading “Wishing upon a falling star…”

It was a gradual change that my life went through when I decided to declutter, routinize and generally calm things down. It was not just one thing that brought my life back into order but a series of things. Darryl’s accident, losing my mom, my sister’s illness, renovations, and even having pets for the firstContinue reading “Of simplicity and things…”

So, my dill pickles are practically world famous. Alright, let’s be honest: people who have been to other countries like my dill pickles. But that’s mostly just a collection of friends and family who have been gifted a jar over the years. However, last year’s batch was unique for two reasons: 1) they turned outContinue reading “Getting pickled”

The past few days have been the perfect days of summer – low humidity, warm temperatures, a nice breeze and a brilliantly blue sky. The weather has embodied why I hesitate to go away in summer… it’s just spectacular here. The side effect of this gorgeous weather is two-fold: we have cool nights, which areContinue reading “Morning fog”

So, one of the jobs I self-assigned to myself is the job of gathering enough kindling for the winter. Okay, I can admit several things about this self-assigned job. First, it’s not absolutely necessary for many reasons. One, we have geothermal. We are certainly not going to be cold if I fail to bring inContinue reading “The zen of kindling”

Today, I come back from a two-week vacation and finally get to experience for the first time what it will mean to work reduced hours. While technically the change happened in July, I only worked half of the month and didn’t get to experience much of the difference. Additionally, I have a call in justContinue reading “Of transitions and such… .”

Lots of things in our life are dictated by the seasons, much in the same way it was for our grandparents and their parents. In many ways, all of us still follow a seasonal calendar so it’s really not that uncommon. There are only a few places where our alignment with the calendar seems toContinue reading “Harvest season”

A few friends have expressed their anxiety lately. The issues run the gamut of the usual – kids, jobs, spouses, pets, houses – and the 2020-version of “usual”, i.e., the pandemic. In the meantime, I’ve been coming out of my own bout of anxiety. Again, all for the usual reasons and the unusual reasons. Yet,Continue reading “Requirements for simple peace”