Month: October 2020

Creativity, dreams, Emotions, Gardening, Life, Nature, Photography, retail, Thinking

A Day in the Life

1972italy

I feel like I have too much going on right now. A good part of it is that I am so tired. Not much sleep the night before and work was summertime busy for me at the gas /courtesy counter. We had a .30 off gas text go out and everyone was gassing up their vehicles. This was new for me so I had to learn how to do the discount etc. (which really wasn’t too hard). I was pretty much non stop for most of my day. (I did receive a few gifts. One customer brought me some hot sauce and another gave me $5 for giving him a winning ticket (he got $110). So that was a nice way to start my day.)

Yesterday’s plan was to get groceries after work (which I did) and then do a little around the house (which I did not). I got home and unloaded groceries and played with the kids and then hit my wall. I had a headache from the mask I had been wearing all day so that did not help. I did manage to get the few pieces washed in the dirty dishes and watered my plants. Both of these were just before bed.

This morning it is cold, wet and gloomy. I just want to stay home, get everything accomplished that I need to then hibernate until Spring. I think this will be an easier winter for me mentally but physically and emotionally I just wanna jump to Spring. Too cold too fast. I don’t do well with no sunshine and it has all but disappeared the past few weeks.

I’ve not taken any recent photos so the plan is to finish this then sneak out to the yard and take a few to add to the post. It is gonna suck to have to get out in the snow to take pictures. Blah…. might actually have to purchase winter boots. Bah humbug. But I can’t stop taking photographs. I am thinking about pulling stuff together to show the seasons here. Again I need to sit down on my laptop and learn the photography programs I have installed, download all the photos and put things together. Another project for another day.

I have taken a few photos to show how dark it is getting here. The leaves are falling off the trees already. It is going to be a bitter cold this winter. Be that as it may I hope you like the pictures. I still have some flowers open and doing their thing. The yellow is one of my Chinese bushes and the white are my garlic chives. The chives are actually still blooming!

Before I keep going on and on I am going to download the photos and upload the post. Thanks for reading and your awesome comments! Stay safe!

Creativity, Dogs, Learning, Life, Nature, Writing

Like a Leaf in the Wind

1972italy

I am sitting in my office as I type this with a Pibble on my foot. Aaaand here comes another one. Stella came in here and curled up at my feet. Essie is wandering in and out. Moose is asleep in the man cave. He snuck in there while Essie was still outside (she is the one that usually sleeps there in the morning). Essie doesn’t know where to go with her spot taken over.

It is way too early and I’ve had way too little sleep. I have about 15 minutes to get this done and get ready to go to work. I got a lot done yesterday before work. My classwork (my last piece for the whole thing) has been handed in and I have done my reviews. Dishes got done and I made a list of what needs to be done before Saturday. I feel stupid though. I thought I had a meeting tonight but I don’t it is next Tuesday. For some reason I had it in my mind that it was the third Tuesday not the fourth. Ah well. I have also picked up another meeting to cover for the paper. I really really hope I can put off the Capstone part of the course (you only get access to this if you pass all the classes) until after November. But if I can’t then I can’t. It will be a wild ride of writing!

Ok, I need to get going. Sorry this is so short. I don’t have many photos to add since I wasn’t able to take any yesterday. The leaves are beginning to fall of the trees now. The cold is setting in in earnest. Everyone be safe and thanks for reading!

Creativity, Friends, Gardening, Holiday, Learning, Life, Nature, Riding, Thinking, Writing

New Faces and New Plans

1972italy

I am happy to say that I was able to read a lot of new bloggers this morning. New to me atleast. My feed finally showed me a bunch of the new blogs I was following. Good stuff! It was nice to read some work by new faces.

This morning we woke up to a heavy frost. Looking out over the yard to almost looked like snow. Sigh. I am really not looking forward to winter. It is already getting bitterly cold out. I am getting frustrated because the Jeep is getting worse but I still have no word as to when I can drop it off. It is a good thing I have heated gear the rate things are going. I’ll be riding in cold cold temperatures.

The Halloween Horrorthon is still on for Saturday. I need to clean up some in the house Thursday (my next day off) and we still need to figure out a menu and what movies we are watching.

My big luscious tomato plant is dying. I need to get more dirt and a bigger pot I think. So that means that after work at one point (or maybe Thursday) I need to drive to the store and get a big bag of dirt and some big pots. I only hope that the stress of the transplant doesn’t kill any of the plants I am repotting. I always hate repotting when it is cold out. I might ask for some tips from my plant group. Maybe some of them have a good technique that I can use. Oh I stand corrected. It might be my basil plant that is dying. I started really looking as I was typing (I’m in the living room this morning) and I think it might be the basil plant that is dying. If the plant base is going brown and hard like a twig I might as well pull it out. Once the plant starts to do that the leaves will taste bitter if you use them. But it looks as if a lot of the leaves are gone so it might be best to pull it out. I didn’t realize how big everything would get. I only have three plants in the long box but they grew so big!

I don’t want to go to work today. There is too much around the house that needs to get done. And not just because we have company coming over. That being said I also need to finish my last piece for class. I have about half of it done. I have gotten all my grades for all the other courses so once this is in and graded then I will have completed the whole thing. Just in time for NaNoWriMo to start. I am hoping I can put the Capstone off and not have to do it right away. It would be a bit of a pain to have to work on two full pieces of writing at the same time. If I can put it off until December then once NaNoWriMo is done I can start that. But we’ll see. I need to get gone and see about doing some more on my story for class. Thanks for reading and stay safe!

family, Life

A Quickie

1972italy

This will be rather short as I am running behind. We had an awesome family day yesterday. We started watching blues music videos but ended up watching a bunch of Van Halen and Eddie Van Halen videos. It was the first time I actually heard him talk. 😱 But I really enjoyed both what we watched and spending the time with my loves.

Aaaaand I need to get ready for work. Thanks for reading and stay safe! ❤️

Animals, Creativity, Friends, Holiday, Learning, Life, Nature, Photography, the World, Thinking, Writing

Adding a Bit of Color

1972italy

This morning I am writing this on my phone. My laptop is still loading after about 5 minutes. I ran the cleaner etc and it is still a mess. I am tired of waiting for it.

Today’s post is late because of Mother Nature. Lol. I fed the dogs and happened to glance out the kitchen window and noticed that the sun was highlighting all the bright colors as it came up. So for the next 30 minutes I was all over the front yard and back yard taking photos. About halfway through I happened to look at the screen to check a shot and the colors looked a bit weird. The camera was on “Effects” instead of manual. Without checking any more pictures I went around one more time and took a bunch more. I tried to get as close to the other ones as I could incase they didn’t turn out. If nothing else it would be a fun comparison between the two.

The maple trees behind the house are finally starting to change their colors. I think they will be quite beautiful this year. It’s like Mother Nature is giving us an extra special display to mss as me up for the pandemic.

Speaking of that… I am finally feeling better. That’s the good news. The bad news is someone was at the store on Tuesday who was diagnosed with COVID. No idea who, or if it was an employee or customer. So we are supposed to self monitor and if symptoms arise go get tested. The joys of working the front lines! We may have to call off our Halloween movie marathon with our friends. It’s supposed to happen a week from today. I texted and let them know the situation at work and told them it was up to them if they still wanted to come over. I haven’t heard back yet.

That is all the excitement here so far! I should try the laptop again since I have class work I need to turn in (the phone app is wonky). I will download some of this mornings photos. Let me know what you think. Thanks for reading and stay safe!

family, Life, Nature, Photography

A Day…

1972italy

Today is going to be a long day. I am working 10am til 8pm. They had a call off at work and their back up plan said she couldn’t work. So I told them I could work 10am til 2pm cashiering then got to the deli and work my shift til close. My tummy hasn’t been doing well so fingers crossed I can make it through. I have tomorrow off and that will help.

I pretty much spent my day either talking to Mom or talking to Dad. At one point with Dad I had to put the phone down and race outside to cover the memorial garden. Mixed in with the heavy rain was bits of ice. Then temperature dropped enough last night that all that water was a thin layer of ice on everything.

I got everything done for class except the writing portion. I plan on doing that tomorrow. It is too quiet here this morning. Normally it doesn’t bother me but it does this morning for some reason. The sun is out this morning so that will help. I see by the clock that I need to start getting ready to go. I’ll share a few photos as well. Be safe and thanks for reading!

Books, Creativity, family, Learning, Life, Motorcycles, Nature, Reading, Riding, Thinking, Writing

A Day to Do???

1972italy

The day has dawned dark enough that I have the light on in my office to see. The wind has been pretty fierce the past few days too. Now that the colors are peaking around here the leaves are really falling off the trees. It’s gonna be a mess once I start riding the bike to work (please let him get my Jeep in this week). For those of you that don’t ride it is like taking the motorcycle on ice. You can (and usually do) slide all over. The side road I take home was just coated in leaves. Just sent a text to our mechanic to ask when I could drop the Jeep off.

Last night I had to fly solo in the deli. I gotta say that everyone went above and beyond to help. Two employees even came in on their time off to help me finish up. I was never made to feel guilty for calling in nor for saying I couldn’t come in to work the other day. It is so weird. It will take some getting used to. That is how toxic Younker’s was.

The sun is finally out enough for my little bobble heads to start working. When I started this post everyone was motionless. Classwork is caught up for the week. I am debating about starting the next lesson or not. I still need to get people to read my stories for class. I also need to stop in at work and ask for Tuesday night off for a meeting. The last of the month for me unless something else comes up. I can’t believe that we are halfway through the month already! I am finally ordering myself an Otter Box for my phone. I need something to protect it. I am getting this pretty purple. Actually it is quite a bold purple. I won’t get it until a week from today (hopefully Amazon will continue to surprise me and I will get it earlier… now that I ordered it I will be paranoid about damaging the phone before then).

I am excited to report that the garage is almost ready to use! Chris has been busting tail before work and on weekends to get all the fixes done so we can have a final inspection before the snow flies. This might be the winter we don’t have to clean off our cars before work!

I have too many books I want to read. I have many started that are scattered through my things so I can read on the go. Not to mention the various piles and bags (I put all my books related to the current novel in a bag of some kind that way it is all together). But then I clean or move something and find another book I forgot I had and I want to read or reread. It is very frustrating sometimes.

I guess I had better get it together and “go to class” since I atleast need to find a few people in my class to review my work. I hope you have a great day! Thanks for reading and stay safe!

P.S. The tomatoes are from the big plant in the house. I was able to fill the whole container!

Creativity, Learning, Life, Nature, Photography, Thinking, Writing

The Unknown

1972italy

Another morning. The colors are getting brighter everyday. I did take some on the way to work yesterday. Pretty sure people thought I was some weirdo pulling over every few feet to take a picture. Ah well.

Tonight is a deli night. Not a fan of closing in the deli. But it will be a different coworker than usual so it will be interesting. Then I have tomorrow off. I am very grateful for that. I may or may not take Stella and Moose for a little ride so I can take photos with my camera. Or I may end up making a trip to Urgent Care. It will depend on how I feel.

I got up a little later than normal since we will be doing the time change thing here soon. November 1st to be exact. So in theory I am getting up at 7:30am. I find myself getting concerned about the money situation if something is really wrong medically. I think that is another reason I am dragging my feet about going to the doctor. I know that shouldn’t matter but it does. I am finally in a position to keep up with bills and handle the occasional emergency and even take care of the dogs. I kind of like that. It might be sticky some weeks but all in all it is ok.

I need to do my classwork as well today. I work at 1pm so that does given me some time yet. I just feel a bit overwhelmed. It was due Monday around 2:30am. I have decided to participate in NaNoWriMo this year. For those of you who do not know NaNoWriMo is short for National Novel Writing Month. Essentially you challenge yourself to complete a novel in a month. You have word count goals for every day. It has been many years since I attempted this but I think I can with my schedule. My classes should be done by then so that would be alleviated. I decided I would use one of my novels in progress. I can’t use anything I have already written so I will use it as background information. I will start from scratch and see what happens. Since I have a clearer vision of what is supposed to happen it might be easier this year.

Looking at the clock I need to get writing on my paper for class so I can turn that in before work. I will share some of the photos I took yesterday. Stay safe and thanks for reading!

Animals, Dogs, Gardening, Life, Nature, Racing, the World, Thinking

Trudging Along

1972italy

I have been in my office long enough this morning that Moose has come in and is laying on the floor. Essie hasn’t felt good and has been in and out quite a bit. Stella has been snuggled up on the loveseat. I asked them to find someone else to cover my meeting this morning. Since I am still not feeling all that great I didn’t want to attend the meeting in person. The bathrooms are not close enough. Last night’s meeting was interesting though. OPA (Offshore Powerboat Association) is trying to get Elk Rapids to be a venue for what they are going to call the Triple Crown of Michigan. It would be the third stop for them in the Michigan tour. It sounds rather exciting. I was intrigued until the speaker compared it to nascar (all lowercase on purpose) and said it was the best of the best in the world. That left a very sour taste in my mouth. My intense dislike for nascar aside they are NOT the best of the best in the world. There are other racing venues that have much better drivers than that. I see I am inching toward my soap box so I will step back. Anyway it will be interesting to see how things turn out. They will have to move fast if they are going to keep with the projected race date of the end of August.

I left the memorial garden uncovered last night. It was misting when I got home from work yesterday. I was concerned that it would not rain and the plants really needed water. So I watered them. And lo! Bring in the storm! Over the course of the evening it poured rain and we even had thunder and lightening (much to poor Stella’s chagrin). It was still raining when we went to bed so I left the garden uncovered. Everyone looks ok this morning. I think I will keep it covered all winter and see what I find in the Spring. I can bundle the tarp so that they will miss the brunt of the Winter. I may sneak out to see if there is still veggies growing once in awhile. We’ll see.

I think I will wrap this up for today. Thanks for reading and stay safe!

Animals, Dogs, family, Gardening, Life, Nature, Photography, Thinking, Writing

A Little Surprise

1972italy

Not feeling so hot this morning but off to work I go. I’ve been awake since 3am. All three pups are under blankets sleeping. Stella is on her back asleep. Goofball. We all had a busy day yesterday. If I wasn’t talking with one of my parents I was outside doing things. Chris made a very good chili for us as well.

In my wanderings outside taking photographs I found a grape tree. Yes, you heard me correctly. A grape vine had grown up a tree and along the branches. The grapes are high up (the deer probably ate the lower hanging bunches) so I got a ladder and got as much as I could from the branches I could reach. The grapes are plump and sweet. They have big seeds in them as well so I am trying to save them and then in the Spring I will try planting them along the fence line and see what happens.

It is supposed to rain today (I typed tonight because it is still dark out…). I hope it does. I need to water the memorial garden. I had intended to do it yesterday but by the time I remembered I had covered the garden up for the night. So if it has not rained by the time I get home from work I will break out the hose. I am tempted to try to uncover the garden before I go as well. The temperature is supposed to be quite nice today. We’ll see how much time I have once I finish this.

I have a meeting tonight that will be a Zoom meeting but the one tomorrow morning will be in person. Since I am not feeling that great I am thinking I might ask the paper if someone else can cover it for me. I don’t understand why they don’t Zoom it. I take that back, I do. Everyone is there at work anyway and since it is a morning meeting they might as well do it in person. They just have to walk down the hall. So it does make sense.

Moose is completely buried in his blanket. You would never know that he is there until he hears something and picks his head up. Even then you just see a nose and the gleam of two very tired eyes. I feel ya bub. I need to wrap this up so I can get ready for work. Thanks for reading and stay safe!