Ethan’s Journey

I asked Ethan and Avery one time to unload the dishwasher. They both did it without a second reminder. I feel like I won the lottery.  Avery had a doctors appointment today for her sore feet. Scoliosis has not been kind to her. When she stands too long or walks a long way, she developed foot pain. We went to see the podiatrist for an opinion. He is sending us to have inserts made for her. I am hoping that offers her more comfort for her little feet. Avery and I ran errands after work. As we exited a store, it was as if Mother Earth painted us a picture in the sky, as the sun was setting. Beautiful pinks, oranges and yellows were swirled in against the growing darkness.  I am glad it is Friday. My brain needs a break from learning. Our town is having it’s annual Apple Fest. It’s a big deal around here. I am feeling guilty because I don’t want to go. There will be far too many people. Any one person could have the Covid….and share it. I just don’t want to bring home anyone’s fun...

An old dog like myself, learning new tricks is mentally exhausting. Today I made some progress on learning my rhythm and developing my pattern of how I want to organize my future days. Ethan was home today. He spent the day welding a frame for an engine. I was glad he got some sunshine therapy. He wasn’t in the direct sunlight….but could still enjoy the cheerfulness of the “shine”. Paul had many things he had to do after work. He was stressed and was still doing things. He has been a Gumby doll this week. I tried to help by putting things in perspective like….”if you don’t mow the lawn today, it will still be here when you get home on Sunday.” It seemed as if that wasn’t helpful at all and it was imperative that the lawn be mowed tonight. We put so much pressure on ourselves. Why? I am so guilty of this. But in the grand scheme of things….would it really matter if the lawn didn’t get mowed? I am glad this is his biggest challenge right now and there isn’t anything bigger. That is amazi...

It was a rainy, damp, chilly-ish kind of fall day. The pears on our pear tree have been a constant battle to keep the dogs away from. Their feet are dirty when they come in. Yuck.  I told Avery that every time she makes a complaint, she has to say something positive. So, being true to my words, I was happy to note that our trees have red tips on their leaves and are really pretty. I normally don’t notice when the leaves change color until they have fallen in the yard.  My work day went well and I was able to check a few things off my “to do” list to get myself organized for work. I was pretty impressed with myself because one of the things had MANY steps. At one point I walked outside today and Ethan had a huge flame coming out of a torch. He had a smug smirk on his face. He was doing it on purpose. The flame was fairly large, it made me laugh. Boys…..he was just quietly playing with fire, outside. At least he was being smart about it. Avery and I watched the most current epis...

Day 2 of my new job: Jiminy is absolutely smitten with this arrangement. He cuddles all day on my lap, snuggled under my shirt. He snores, snorts and sighs. What a life. All of my new team has been bending over backwards to help me. I got to shadow a few calls today and make some templates that will help me in the future with efficiency. Templates are my jam. I feel like they expect me to be overwhelmed, but I don’t feel that way at all. Before work started today I was able to give Jiminy a bath, clip all 4 dogs toenails, run a load of dishes, 2 loads of laundry, prepare 6 stuffed peppers for dinner, straightened up the house a bit and then log into my email. This is so foreign to me. I know it will change. I am used to getting up between 4:45 and 5 am, being to work by 6 am and working until 5 or so in the evening. I would come home and be physically exhausted and hurt. I feel like a more real human being because I have a bit more energy than I did. I have been able to “sleep in” unti...

Day 1: New Job I put some chili ingredients in the crockpot. What? The family is getting a warm meal tonight. 😊 My day started with a meeting. It was a great meeting. My new team mates introduced themselves and I introduced myself to them. I spent the day learning the ropes. Some of the apps I was supposed to have access to, I didn’t. So there was a little bit of a hurdle there. I was paired with one of my co-workers today who was super friendly, and helpful. My other coworker was Jiminy. My new team encourages having pets surround you at all times. These are my kind of people. Jiminy helped by napping on my lap for hours. He loved it. So did I. After work I was able to go get groceries and then go out to dinner with a good friend. When I returned home, Avery and I entertained the dogs until I went to bed, because I am more of an early bird than a night owl.

We spent last night in the haunted room again. Nothing really happened. I did smell smoke all night though. I asked Ethan and Avery if they smelled smoke as well. Neither of them did. Nor did the friends we had with us. Avery did remind me that on our tour, they had told us that our hotel had 3 fires where several people died.  Was it my subconscious or was it residual spirit energy? We packed up quickly and started our long and boring trek home. We made it safely and that is all that matters. Sitting in the car for that long is not kind to my bones. I spent my evening unpacking and firing up the lap top computer. I have a full day of training tomorrow. Woo hoo. Hope you had a wonderful weekend.

 Today was much warmer. It wasn’t nearly as bad as the evening walk the night before. We went to the satanic temple first. It wasn’t actually what you would think it to be. They are a group that uses the legal system to protect the rights of its members. Then we went to tour a few of the popular cemetery’s. The first cemetary the were from the early 1700’s. The second cemetary, the graves were from the 1600’s. Some of the stones had been weathered so much you couldn’t read them. That particular area did have some “grave misplacement” so there were unmarked graves. We then went to the witch memorial. It was done well. It had the names of those that were hanged/pressed.  We visited the wax museum which had staged wax figures dressed in clothes of that time. The clothes were cool to look at. It made me wonder how bad people smelled back then. They had to be so sweaty with so many layers on. Each little scenes had a story involving a little piece of history. The witch trials seeme...