Thursday 13: Hi

Since I haven’t blogged in almost three months, I thought a Thursday 13 would be a good way to start back and catch up.

1.    Since cat pictures are always a good way to start, enjoy this one of Caroline.  The bed she’s in clamps to the side of my desk, so she has a comfy place to “supervise” me on my work-from-home days.

2.    Caroline has had a lot of work to supervise during my blogging break.  I got assigned to help another team with a project that had a very tight deadline, so I was putting in some extra hours.  We made it, though, and (fingers crossed) it should be January before I’m dealing with any more super-tight deadlines. 

3.    Charlie does not involve himself in my work. 

4.    Nick and I celebrated our 17^th wedding anniversary in September.  It doesn’t seem like it has been that long! 

5.    Theodore turned one at the end of August.

6.    It’s beginning to look and feel like Fall is really here.  We’ve had highs in the low 70s and lows in the mid-40s. 

7.    I’ve switched to my Fall cards for my buddies with Chemo Angels and Senior Angels.

8.    I’ve been crocheting again. 

9.    I found this tutorial and liked the way it looked, so I made one (with no plan for giving it to any particular person).  I enjoyed making it, and I love the texture the stitches create.  (Note:  I used an H hook and a shorter starting chain for a narrower scarf.)

10. During the decluttering/organizing that we did during the spring and summer, I realized that I have A LOT of yarn I had forgotten about.  I came across this green, which is our neighbor’s (Lori) favorite color.  I asked Lori if she’d like a scarf in that color, and she said yes. 

 

11. When I dropped off Lori’s scarf, I asked if anyone else would like a scarf.  Fortunately, a few people said yes.  I’m almost finished with a pink scarf for one of the girls.  Next up is a light blue one for one of the girls, and a dark blue one for one of the boys.  One of the other boys really liked the original gray one, so I gave that one to him. 

12. We got the cats an ice cream truck (remember how much they loved the taco truck), which they enjoyed.

13. I’m working on catching up with visiting everyone’s blogs and hope to “see” you soon.  

Thursday 13: Hi

Since I haven’t blogged in quite a while, I thought a Thursday 13 would be a good way to start back.

1.    Since a cat picture is always a good way to start a Thursday 13, enjoy this picture of Tara.  She’s camera-shy, so I’m always happy when I’m able to get a picture of her.

 

2.    I don’t really have a great reason for not blogging much.  One of the main reasons has been that I find myself alternating between ridiculous amounts of doomscrolling and then taking myself entirely offline for a while.  Also, I tend to blog about very unimportant things, and that has felt wrong lately.  Recently, my friend at my work showed me where they keep all of their documentation to be here.  I’m not sure what else to call it.  This person legally immigrated here over 30 years ago, has multiple advanced degrees, and works for the government.  (I want to be clear that I am not saying that this person’s degrees or employment status make them more worthy of not being snatched off the street and potentially sent to a concentration camp.  I’m just trying to make the point that plenty of people, regardless of other factors, are living in fear simply because of their skin color.  And that is not OK.)  But, recently, they came to me and said, “Because I’m brown, I want to make sure someone here knows where all of these things are.”  They then showed me where to look in their wallet for various forms of documentation.  On one hand, I’m glad they showed me because, unfortunately, I think it’s good for someone to know.  On the other hand, that is not a conversation we ever should have needed to have.  I hate that they’re in a position to need to pick a person at work to have that conversation with.  It’s hard to come home and write a blog post about groundhogs or flowers after something like that. 

3.    I don’t want to make it sound like it has just been misery that has kept me from blogging,  It hasn’t.  I have a very bad habit of trying to start way too many projects at once.  In April, I decided to start a massive decluttering/organizing project on the whole house, sign up for the A to Z Blogging Challenge, take on a fourth Chemo Angels buddy, start the garden, continue working on our big drainage project, and work on some other projects in the yard.  Some of those things have gone better than others, and some have spilled over and are still going on.

 

4.    On the decluttering/organizing front, we have made tons of progress.  This closet used to have things falling off the shelves.   We didn’t keep track, but between donations and a few things that went to the dump, we got rid of probably dozens of carloads of stuff. 

 

5.    We each got rid of about half of our clothing and reorganized where and how we store a lot of things.  It makes keeping up with laundry, putting away clean laundry, and getting dressed so much easier.  Plus, it makes me ridiculously happy every time I see my shirts organized by style and color.

 

6.    Theodore absolutely loves storage cubes!

 

7.    With our neighbors’ help, we have finished one of the French drains we were working on.   After this project is finished, I will be very happy if I never have to shovel gravel again!

 

8.    We are almost finished with the second French drain.  We just need to add the overflow valve and finish filling in the trench with the pipe. 

 

9.    We haven’t started on the third one yet.  Between heat advisories and storms, it has been hard to do much work outside.  We hoped to be able to hire someone to finish the project and do some grading work, but after the estimate, that’s off the table for a while. 

10. Some parts of the garden are going better than others. 

 

11. The Orange Chef’s Choice tomato plant is doing fairly well.

 

12. The Roma tomato plant is barely hanging on.

 

13. I’m working on catching up on visiting all of your blogs, and hope to “see” you soon.  

Collard Greens & Cilantro (Blogging from A to Z Challenge)

I’m hoping to have a fairly large garden this year. 

We’re not past our last frost date yet, so, for outside, I’m only starting seeds that are a little more cold-tolerant. 

I recently learned that cilantro is best planted while it’s still chilly, and of course, greens tend to do well in cooler weather. 

So, last weekend, I started my collard green and cilantro seeds.

I’m hoping to see little sprouts soon!  

March Wrap-Up

Since I missed doing a Thursday 13, I thought I’d do a March wrap-up for the random things since my last Thursday 13.

A cat picture is always a good place to start, so enjoy this one of Charlie in a basket.  He doesn’t exactly fit in the basket, but he still enjoyed hanging out in it.

We were close enough to some of the NC wildfires to get a lot of smoke and falling ash from them.  I’m not sure how well you can tell in the pictures, but the haze is from the fires.  

We had rain yesterday and today, which has helped with the fires.  Even though we desperately needed the rain, it’s still making me nervous. 

Last week made six months since we were hit by Hurricane Helene.  The recovery process is ongoing.  Storm damage was a contributing factor to the fires.

Our wonderful neighbors have been helping us dig a dry well for drainage.  It didn’t occur to me to take a picture while anyone was in the hole.  Hopefully, you can tell from these pictures how deep it is.  I just dangled my legs in for the pictures because I didn’t want to have to climb out of it again just for pictures. 

We had four tons of gravel delivered last week for the drainage project. 

I started some seeds (only for cold-tolerant plants since we’re not past our last frost date yet) last week.  Hopefully, I’ll be sharing seedling progress soon. 

I’ve decided (at the last minute!) to participate in the Blogging from A to Z April Challenge.  You can read more about it here, but the basic idea is to blog every day (except Sundays) in April, starting with A on the 1^st and ending with Z on the 30^th.  Some people do themes.  I’m not doing a specific theme; I'm just trying to blog more regularly and hopefully catch up on some of the things I’ve meant to blog about. 

So, how was the rest of March for you?  Are you planning to participate in the Blogging from A to Z April Challenge?

A to Z Blogging Challenge

It seems like March lasted for about five minutes.  It’s hard to believe it’s already April!  I knew March was practically over in the sense that I rely pretty heavily on calendars, but I still found myself a little surprised that yesterday was the very last day of March.

For many bloggers, April means the A to Z Blogging Challenge.  If you’re not familiar, it’s where you blog every day in April with something that corresponds to the day’s letter; A on the 1^st, B on the 2^nd, etc., and Sundays are your days off. 

I started this blog, way back in 2012, by participating in the A to Z Blogging Challenge.  I can’t believe that was ten years ago!  Wow!  I looked through some of the old posts and saw that there are some people I still interact with regularly via Blogger, which I think is pretty cool.  I also realized that my blogging has come a long way.  We had a very slow digital camera way back then and an even slower desktop computer.  It took so long to get a post up!  And adding pictures was such an ordeal, so I very rarely had any.  That has definitely changed!

I don’t have the best track record with the A to Z Blogging Challenge; I finished successfully in 2012 and 2015.  I didn’t participate in 2013, 2016, 2018, 2019, 2020, or 2021.  I started but didn’t finish in 2014 and 2017.  But, the ten-year mark seems like a good time to jump back in, so here I go.

Since I’ve signed up at the last minute, I don’t have a theme, and I don’t have very many posts planned out.  I have a few drafts and ideas for things I’ve been meaning to post for a while, but definitely not 26 posts.  So, I’m open to ideas if there’s anything anyone wants to read about or see more pictures of.

So what about you?  Are you participating in this year’s A to Z Blogging Challenge?  How long have you been blogging? 

A Lot Can Change in a Month

I don’t think I’ve ever written a catch-up post without random cat pictures sprinkled throughout, so here’s one of Tara to get things started. 

Tara

One thing (maybe the only thing?) that has been consistent over the past year and a half is how quickly things can change.  If you wait a month in between blog posts, what’s going on in your little corner of the world can drastically change.

I’m back to working from home.  We were back in the office for about a month.  Our official work from home started on August 9^th, but a few of us started working from home about a week before that.  We have mask requirements in place again, but there was about a week between those starting and when the CDC started recommending masks even for vaccinated people in areas with substantial or high spread.  Our county continues to have high spread and a lower vaccination rate than the rest of the state, so we’re fortunate to be able to work from again.

Charlie

Caroline is thrilled that I’m working from home again.  My work laptop seems to be her favorite thing in the world, so she’s back to spending her days on my desk. 

On my last day in the office, I discovered that I have a mask and dress that match perfectly.  I didn’t realize it until that morning when I was getting ready to leave, but I was pretty excited.  Lots of people commented on it.  One of my coworkers asked if I had a mask to match all of my dresses.  I don’t, but that would be pretty cool.  I still seem to be the only person at work embracing more colorful masks.  As one of my coworkers pointed out, though, I have a pink office, so no one should expect me to show up in a dull mask.  I still think that masks in cheery colors or patterns help make the best of a bad situation.

Our library system did a summer reading program.  You were given cards to fill out with time spent reading.  It was a check-off system, in 30-minute increments, and you turned the cards in when they were full to be entered in a drawing for prizes.  They had a program for kids; they got a free book every time they turned in a card, in addition to being entered in the drawing for prizes.  The adult program was just for the drawing at the end.  Each branch did a drawing and had prizes.  I won one of the prizes! 

I was so excited to win!  I know the picture isn’t the greatest, but my prize was a tote bag (great for taking books to and from the library), a tumbler, a book light, and a puzzle.  I’ve loved the library for as long as I can remember, and the only award I ever won in public school (before we started homes-schooling) was for reading, so I was very happy to win anything in a reading program.  Even as an adult. 

We’re currently enjoying some cooler weather, which is a nice change.  It’s still warm but not miserably hot.  We’ve been opening the windows in the mornings and evenings.  I love it when the weather is mild enough to do that.  I’ve seen a list of the 12 seasons of the Carolinas floating around the internet, and I’m not sure who started it, so I’m not sure who to link to.  Here’s a link to it, showing that we’re currently in False Fall.  I’m just glad we’re no longer at Hell’s Front Porch.  It’s one of the most accurate things I’ve ever seen about our weather, especially the various winters and springs. 

So how are things for you?  Are you working from home, or are you back in the office?  How many seasons do you have?  And which one are you in?

Getting Back to Normal

 

It has been a long time since I’ve posted, which seems to have become my pattern over the past couple of years.   This time, though, there seem to be more positive things going on in between posts.  I’m not sure how long that will last, with the delta variant, but it’s nice for now.

Here are a few of the highlights.  As usual with this kind of post, most of the pictures aren’t related to the post.  They’re just pictures I like and haven’t gotten around to posting yet. 

Like many people, I’m fully vaccinated.  My group got bumped up pretty fast, so I got my second dose on March 28^th.   I didn’t expect to get it that soon, but it seemed like it really sped up.  Everyone at work was emailing information about clinics, and several of us ended up at a drive-thru clinic about an hour away.  It was so efficient!  Everyone was really nice, and they did a great job moving people through.  

I ended up getting the Pfizer vaccine and had fairly mild side effects.  I had a small, slightly itchy rash around the injection site after the first dose.  I had a large (pretty much my entire upper arm) very itchy rash around the injection site after the second dose.  I messaged my doctor, and he called in a cream that cleared it up within about a week.  I’m told skin reactions aren’t unheard of but aren’t one of the more common side effects.  I’m very, very prone to skin reactions, so it makes sense that I’d be one of the people to get a rash.  My sister is fond of saying that I can get a rash if someone looks at me the wrong way.  She’s not exactly wrong. 

I will definitely take a week-long rash over COVID, though.  Possible death or permanent lung damage versus a rash?  I’ll take the rash, thank you very much. 

Nick and my sister were fully vaccinated last time I posted.  Both of my parents and Nick’s mom and step-dad are fully vaccinated as well.  We’ve been able to see my sister and parents, which was wonderful.  There’s more travel involved in seeing Nick’s mom and step-dad, so we haven’t seen them yet.

We had our neighbors over for a cookout and game night a couple of weeks ago.  We’ve been out to dinner a couple of times and have met friends for lunch.  It is so wonderful to be around people again!  I think that was something I took for granted pre-COVD, the ability to see people by going out to eat or having someone come over for dinner.   I hope it’s something I will always appreciate going forward.  

I’m finally back to working in the office.  We went back on July 6^th.  There are a few more teleworking options than there were pre-COVID, but I’ve opted to keep the same schedule I had before COVID.  I’m embracing being back to normal!  I have some projects I’m really excited about coming up, so I’m doubly happy to be back. 

As so many people are, we’re trying to schedule all of the appointments that we missed in 2020.  Our dentist’s office isn’t scheduling any appointments.  They just put you on a call list and aren’t saying how long it will be.  I got lucky when I called for an eye appointment in June.  They were scheduling for January but had one cancellation for the next day.  I was pretty sure my prescription had changed, so I happily took that appointment.  My prescription had changed drastically!  In addition to glasses, I have prescription sunglasses, but my insurance only pays for one set of frames and lenses per year.  I couldn’t get new lenses for the sunglasses without leaving them at the office, but I could for the glasses without leaving them.  They said it’s because the sunglasses frames are so old.  I’ve had them since 2012, but they’re still in great shape.  So I have new sunglasses (frames and lenses) and new lenses for my glasses.  And I still have my old sunglasses for working in the yard.  I’m hoping my prescription won’t change for a few years so I can eventually get to the point of having a backup pair of glasses and sunglasses. 

Charlie

 We’ve been working on another house project.  Because, apparently, we didn’t learn our lesson with the kitchen.  Our back porch was screened in when we moved in, but over the years, the screens have torn, and the outdoor carpet has fallen apart.  Nick’s mom gave us a Lowe’s gift card for my birthday in April, so we decided to re-do the porch.  Like every other home project, it has been more difficult and taken longer than expected.  It’s so close to being finished, though!  And I think it will all be worth it.  I envision lots of al fresco dinners and time spent outside reading. 

I don’t have many pictures yet, since there’s still work to do, but you can see the color we painted it in these pictures of our cute little groundhog visitor.

Isn’t the groundhog adorable?  They remind me of Howard the way they stand up.

Howard

The groundhog hasn’t been back.  While I would have liked to see him again, I think it’s probably best for him that he’s staying away from our yard and away from Duke. 

Duke

 So what about all of you?  Are things getting back to normal for you?  What have you been up to over the past few months?