Back to the grind tomorrow

 Our week off has been very nice, for the most part.

We took a trip up to Jet, near the Kansas border, on Monday, and saw more cranes than I had ever seen in one place on the ground in my life.

That trip was very satisfying.  We heard coyotes, and owls, and thousands of cranes, and saw a stunning sunset.  

Our lodging was modest (an old trailer house), but comfortable, and free.  It's located on the boundary of the state park and the wildlife refuge where the cranes gather.  

We have been welcomed to go back any time we want.  I guess we were good guests. 

Then, we spent the night at home on Tuesday, and left Wednesday for the southeastern portion of the state, where there are forested mountains.

Hoping to see some spectacular fall color, and to use the telescope, we booked an Air BnB house in the country.

We chose the date originally because there was supposed to be a meteor shower peaking that night.

The Air BnB house itself was very nice.  Clean, well appointed, comfortable.  However, the host did not provide ANYTHING by way of personal amenities... no shower soap, no shampoo, not even any coffee.  I have soap and shampoo in my travel kit, and we anticipated bringing our own food...but the lack of coffee really surprised us.

Especially since the host DOES provide a coffee maker, and filters, and sugar.... 

AND THEN, there was the fact that the house was infested with wasps.  

We killed several, and left the bodies on a paper towel on the kitchen counter for the host to see.

One of them even landed on my glasses while we were having dinner.  If I had not been wearing glasses, it could have stung me in the face.  

Then, we discovered that the house, and the nearby properties, had those giant sodium lights that come on at dusk and go off at dawn.

We set the telescope up Wednesday night anyway, in hopes of seeing something cool, but there was so much light pollution that it was a lost cause.  

There were more visible stars to the naked eye out there, though.  Way more than we can see here in the big city.

Never saw a meteor, though.  Just a bat, chasing the bugs that were drawn to the giant light.

Thursday morning, Dave's anxiety over the wasps inside the house (he's allergic) got the better of him, so we got up and left right away- instead of relaxing, as we had planned.

We stopped at a drive through for coffee, and then drove on south into the hills.  

It was a lovely drive, but there was very little fall color yet, and we didn't stop anywhere to hike, as we had also planned.  Dave was tired from not sleeping well, so we just got to the turnpike and headed home.

We were home by about 2:30 in the afternoon.  

So, the second trip was kind of a bust.... but the drive through the hills sure was pretty, none the less.

We have just spent Friday and Saturday here at home.  Dave has done a couple of errands, and I got my cleaning and chores caught up.

Oklahoma has been seeing its highest Covid-19 numbers to date, and nothing is being done about it.  No further lock downs, or restrictions, state wide.

On our little trips, we were usually the only ones wearing masks when we made stops... and it is in the rural areas where the virus numbers are spiking.  

Their "faith, not fear" tactics are not working.  We currently have the highest number of people hospitalized with Covid to date.

You're doing fine, Oklahoma!!

Today, I have an on line visit with my classmates for the course I am taking, and our dance studio's online Halloween dance show is this evening.

I need to remember to re-set the alarm, and set my office space back up.  

Looking forward to our cabin camping trip. We have confirmed that they will NOT be providing dishes, pots, pans, or any kind of kitchen tools what so ever.  

We have decided that adding one more big box to our packing will now require that we rent a vehicle. 

 We are looking at a U Haul van, because that looks to be SO much less expensive than renting an SUV through Enterprise (about $80 compared to $300!!).

We will be able to take guitars this way, too.  There would not have been room in the car for them to start with.

SO, we will press forward with our plans for that trip.  Dave tried to pick up some fire wood at Lowe's yesterday, where we had seen it a few weeks ago for $6 a bundle.... and they didn't have any left. We missed that opportunity, and will now need to pay more for my cabin fireplace obsession.

My little bit of overtime pay will help with that.

I am off to make breakfast, and start my day.

Have a good week, friends! 

Vacation is underway

 When my employer encouraged us to use our vacation time, I didn't mess around!  

A week in September, and a week in October were possible, with my office's ridiculous micro-managed rules, because October is in a different quarter of the year.  I'm a crafty one, HAHA!

And, in November, I only have to take one extra day off  at Thanksgiving to get a 5 day weekend for our annual cabin camping trip.

Yes, we have already confirmed that we have the cabin this year!!

I've also put in for Winter Solstice off.  However, I am trying not to think about how sad I am about Christmas Eve dinner just being me and Dave this year, AND that we probably won't be able to have the tree up because of Frank's destructive nature.....  I can't process any of that just yet.

Anyway, our plans are coming together for some nice day trips this week.  We enjoyed that so much last month!

We even have free lodging one night so we can go visit the migrating sandhill cranes up in the northern part of the state.  

I made some lovely lavender body butter for our hostess, and we will leave a bottle of something for the family to enjoy.  Maybe they will let us come back some time!

Our house sitters are arranged, and the hiking boots and canteen are already in the car!  Mustn't forget the field glasses!

Originally, we were supposed to go to a concert in Dallas mid-week, so we already had a couple of days scheduled off for that trip.

Of course, that concert was canceled, and our tickets will be honored at the same time next year, if it's safe to have indoor concerts by then.

Unfortunately, the hotel we had booked refused to refund our money, OR let us move our reservation to next year, so we will definitely NOT re-book with them if we can go next year.

That being said, it was an easy thing to just take the rest of the week off when my employer said we needed to use our time.

Amidst surging COVID numbers in the "great state" of Oklahoma, we are still in a virtual lock down here.  

I go through phases where I feel like I am an emotional wreck, but then at other times, I just feel like I have adapted to isolation pretty well.

Getting in the car and driving away from the neighborhood this week will be very good for me, though!

When I made my weekly visit to the office on Friday (which is only 2 miles away), I was able to arrange to get my flu shot.  

My employer is doing drive in shots this coming week, on the exact days that we plan to be on day trips, so when I emailed the coordinator, he said I could just come to his office when I was in the building, so it worked out great!

This afternoon, we will be recording my short comedy dance routine for my studio's Halloween Hafla ("hafla" means "party" in Arabic).  The hafla is next weekend, on line.  We can't be together, but we can all "log in" at the same time!

Before that, though, I have to "practice and perfect," and I also need to decorate the end of the living room where I will be "performing."

I'm doing a little witchy routine with a video of "I Put a Spell On You" playing on the big tv behind me. It'll be a multi-media extravaganza!  (I am laughing out loud)

We also need to clean house today  I am a stickler for not letting people come into my home if it's a mess, and I am so glad that Dave helps me with this by doing some of the harder jobs, like cleaning the bathroom floor, and the stove.

I mopped yesterday, and today I will dust, and shine-up the kitchen counters and backsplash, which are black, and look dirty REALLY easily.  Especially around the sink.  Water marks show up really badly!

If I had the money, I would TOTALLY re do the kitchen.  I've never liked the black, or the ugly floor tile!

I also have to do a little bit of my course work today, but I will save that for evening, as it is a relaxing meditation.

Best wishes to my readers for a lovely autumn week ahead! 

Mums and pumpkins

 We're having a heat wave the past several days.  Dang, I was so used to the cool, pleasant weather!

But, this IS Oklahoma.

Anyway, we had hoped to go hiking somewhere today, but it's going to be too hot, so we will stay home and do stuff around the house.

I have a couple of projects that I need to do for the course I am taking.  I have fallen behind a bit, so this will be a good day to catch up.

My blood work came back looking fine last week. No more issues with sodium, or anything else, for the time being.  It fluctuates, though, so hopefully, next time will be good, too.

The nurse who has never messed up accessing my port was the one who was there on Tuesday, so that was a huge relief.  She did, as always, a fine job - with no painful mis-jabs, HAHA!

We went out and did some errands yesterday.  I wanted to go to Target myself and look at the stuff on the shelves that our shopping service says are "not available at our local store."

There they were, right where I knew they would be.... it's so weird that Shipt shopping service, which is OWNED by Target, can only buy certain things for us.  I do not understand that.

Anyway, then we stopped and picked up some chrysanthemum plants for the porch and back patio.  I never got any last year, and decided not to let that happen again this year.

I enjoy them so, and they make the house look prettied up for fall.  

I have my great-grandmother's big cast iron cauldron, and I like to drop a 'mum into it this time of year. 

In fact, I have two relatively large cauldrons as part of a collection of various sizes of cauldron collected over the years..  

The other large-ish one was my cooking pot when I did living history.  I didn't get a mum for the cooking pot this year, though...just for the bigger one.

We keep the cauldrons on the back patio,  because people steal things off of front porches.  Someone stole the metal dragon we had out there a year or so ago.

I put the other 'mums in the pots that had my tomato and watermelon vines in them all summer, so they're now out on the front steps.

No pumpkins were purchased, though, because I refuse to pay $10 a piece for something I am going to hack up, and that is going to ultimately rot in the back corner of the yard, where we leave them for the critters.

I have a couple of other places I want to check for cheaper pumpkins.  The situation was the same last year...couldn't find any that weren't ridiculously over priced.  

We caved, and paid $10 for one last year, and it rotted before we could carve it.  I was so mad!!

The cats let us sleep in this morning, which was so nice!  I took a sleep aid last night, after an hour in the hot tub, and I slept better last night than I have in weeks.

The result is, however, that it's already 10:30, and this day will be over before we know it, so I am off to get underway! 

In a couple of weeks, we have another staycation planned, and have to get some details settled for when and where we will go on little adventures and day trips.

That was so much fun during our week off in August, we decided to do it again!

Wishing anyone reading this a good Sunday, and a pleasant week. 

Season's End

 Well, the Chicago Cubs are out of the play offs.

This season was so surreal.  No people in the stands, only 60 regular season games. 

Hopefully, next year will be more normal.  Time will tell.

Unfortunately, I now realize how much I was relying on the games to distract me from the terrible state of the country and world.  When they lost the other day, I literally wept.  It was a real sense of loss for me, because a layer of insulation against the stress was taken away.

We've still been enjoying mostly good weather.  There was one afternoon when it was 90 degrees, and there are a couple more in the forecast for next week, but mostly, it's been nice.

No rain, though, at all... not even when we were supposed to get storms last weekend.  Things are drying out quite a bit.

Dave did some yard work yesterday out front, and will mow in the back today.  Maybe I will help with that.  I like to mow, but don't do it when the weather is not.

Yesterday, he spread clover seed in the bare spots under the shade out front.  Hopefully, in the spring and early summer, we will be helping out the bees!  We have quite a bit of clover in the back yard already.  

I have an online guided meditation this afternoon, but other than that, our only plans are to go to Costco this morning while the crowds are at church, and we also want to get the guitars dusted off and re-start me teaching Dave the basics of how to play a simple song.

Our friends from Switzerland gave me a guitar, and we want to show them that it's being loved and appreciated, so we hope to do an online get together at Christmas time, and play for them.

Franklin the cat is in his 12th month.  It's getting harder to tell him and Pete apart.  He's definitely smaller than Pete, but once he fills out, it will be even harder to tell them apart, HAHA!  

Frank hadn't broken anything lately, but last night, for some unknown reason, he tore across the windowsill above the kitchen sink, and knocked my solar bobble heads off.  

He broke my Queen Elizabeth, but she should be fixable.  Her head doesn't bobble, but her hand does the queen wave, and that was not broken off.

I haven't weighed Frank lately, but the last time I did, he was 11 pounds.

There's really nothing else to report.  

I get my labs drawn tomorrow, and then Tuesday, I go to the clinic for my port flush and monthly injection.  By not seeing Doc this time, I'll start the new routine of only seeing him every other month.

The only reason I had to get labs this time is because my sodium was "off" last time, and they want to make sure it's stabilized.

Chances are, if that's all good, then I will switch to only needing labs drawn every other month, too, beginning with next month before I see Doc again.

I am off to the shower.  Have a good day, and a good week!