Happy? New Year 2025

Happy New Year, my friends. Trying to ignore the monkey in the room for today, here's a little look back and forward, courtesy of FB memories.

2010 - A year that started off on the wrong foot. The "before" picture of the victim of the cryme (combination of Crying + Shame) can be seen here: https://lab-reports.blogspot.com/2009/11/buster-cube.html. Funny to go back and realize that I had seen it coming about 6 weeks prior to the event. 

To help you visualize the "after", the plant came down straight out of the corner, diagonally into the middle of the room, with dirt and broken pot strewn all about across the center of the room. Incidentally, the plant is still alive today, cut back many times. Sadly, the dog is not. :'(

2014 - Xander and I had our first agility lesson the night before. You can read how that went.

2016 - Was I really that social in Utah? Hmmm.

2017 - The inversion in Utah is a serious bad thing. It was amazing to see the sun that day. Sunny and Star laid outside. Xander and I were probably doing a puzzle just inside.

2020 - Started off well! A party with friends, a road trip with dogs. A month later, a road trip to Tucson to help a friend get her RV down there. The calendar for the rest of the year is just a bunch of X's through each month.

2021 - America the Beautiful. We were so glad to see the end of 2020.

2022 - I'll just keep sharing this one as long as I'm a rabid dabbler* in flower gardening. The last 3 years had other priorities so the flowers were minimal, so much so that in 2024 I might have only brought 0 into the house. 2020 I had a bouquet in every room all summer and would have had more if I had more surfaces. Oh, and I gave tons away. That's what I really love to do. Trying to get back to that in 2025, in late August 2024, I sowed, growed and in late Oct I covered the first 6 beds. With luck, those will be my first flowers of 2025.

2024 - I'd like to repeat the message from one year ago and welcome more friends for doing those things in person. Add bike rides on the Centennial Trail to the list. I succeeded big time with the CA/OR trips although I missed a few people. UT, I've got my eyes and compass directed towards you for a special party in 2025. Let's do it!

2025 - It was not too cold at sunset y'day and I'd been sitting all day, doing a puzzle, listening to an audible book, so I took mom's old bike out for a spin, as I often did in the long lovely autumn of 2024, and have managed a few times with the mild winter. I had stopped to take a picture of the hills behind Liberty Lake, with snow and clouds reflecting the fading light, then turned around towards the factory and saw the sun setting through a high fence. It fit the mood from what I'd been listening to all day (Timothy Snyder's The Road to Unfreedom).

Deliberately saving this one for last . . . 

Anyone wanna meet me at the river to do laundry? Hmmm. That might be a good secret code for 2025. But seriously, it's a good essay on one of the ways we've lost community (see book referenced above for one of the results of same) and encouragement to get it back.

Here's the link to the full post:

https://www.facebook.com/share/p/3ypLYcCuWT6J8uQa/

I wish you all a happy and safe 2025. The best I have to offer is let's stick together and stay in touch and make sure we're all doing ok. And if you want "meet at the river and do laundry", I'm actively researching options.

And now I have to get off these devices and go spend time with family.

*rabid dabbler

2024 CA Trip #1

I'm trying something different here, since I've already done the hard work of choosing images and writing text. I wish the text wasn't so fuzzy but for the sake of getting on with more important projects . . . here it is.

7 weeks living in the camper with 2 dogs.

Fri Mar 23, 2024, leaving from Spokane.

Week 1 - "vacation" on the Oregon coast, in winter, or I guess very early spring. I didn't luck out with mild weather, but we survived.

But first, a few posts from the 10 days prior to liftoff.

And we hit the road!

First night, Boardman, OR, parked in a friend's driveway.

Day 2 - The drive along the Columbia River was so windy I lost a piece of the camper - a plastic shroud underneath for protecting sensitive equipment. 

Sarcasm font - "just a little coastal breeze". 

Haha - it was insanely windy. 

The first picture is a video of Tuc's head wings flapping before take off.

After the 3 weeks in Sonora, we spent a night on a street in Brentwood. Not just a random street - in front of a friend's house in a gated community. 

Then across the bay to San Carlos to meet my new boss. Then north through San Francisco dodging potholes, across the Golden Gate and up to Sonoma County. It's been so long since I've been over that bridge that I forgot about the great scenic lookout until I was driving past in the wrong lane. I wish I had a picture of Goldie with The Golden Gate in the background. Maybe next time.

Back in Sonoma County for the first time in 9 years! I forgot about the allergies that go along with spring beauty!

I tried to put the awning out, but the wind came up as soon as I did. This week and one other, I was working from inside the camper. The other 3 working weeks I was allowed house privileges, although the dogs only had house privileges the first week. The other 2 they were just outside the front door of the house and I was close enough to sniff just through the door, with weather good enough to keep the screen door open between us.

I had indoor showering privileges at each friend's home, and electric hookup, creature comforts that I enjoy.

Not actually as anxious to get home as one might think, I stayed 2 nights in Bend. I had left myself the possibility of getting home a day early, but although a little bored, what was waiting at home was a big unpacking job. So I lingered longer.