Mute the Dogs!

       A few months ago, we got new neighbors.  Very quickly they built a tall wooden fence to provide an enclosed area for their three dogs.  It is not a very large area.   The dogs bark endlessly at all hours of the day and night.  They are just across our row of trees, next door.  The barking drives me crazy!

       As a retiree who spends a lot of time at home,  I am actually accustomed to quiet.  I do not turn the television on during the day.  I do not listen to the radio.  I simply work in a comfortable silence!  Or at least, I used to!

         This morning I decided that I had to do something!  The barking sound is so annoying.  I am not even sure they take the dogs inside during the cold winter nights.

         I remembered that our cable options include some music stations.   I found the right numbers to plug into the remote.  There are about 50 stations.   I have never really identified a genre of music that I would consider "my kind of music",   so I started exploring.  The first thing that came up was Classical (as in famous composers).  Definitely not for me.   I lasted about thirty seconds before I figured that out!

    Then there was pop,  rap,  jazz, and finally, then I found MY sound---classical country,  much to my surprise!   It is calm and comforting!   They are mostly old songs from the past, and somewhat familiar!  I should have know that I am a country girl!  (Because I am so NOT a city girl!)

    The challenge of the moment is,  I am not sure exactly what channel it is on! Don't know if I can easily find it again.   The number doesn't display anywhere are over 50 of them to go through!

                                                                                    

    

Goal Weight

     I didn't start out with this goal weight.   It evolved over time.  At first,  my goal was to lose the 10 pounds that I gained while baking during the spring 2020 covid lockdown.   I did manage to achieve that within a few months.

    I have had a lifetime of being overweight, starting probably when I was five or six.  I'm not sure that in 2020, after losing those first 10 pounds ,  that I expected much more than that initial loss.   But I discovered along the way, when Covid persisted, that it was a huge advantage not to "have to" go to any social events that required eating,  nor was going to restaurants much of a possibility for quite a while.

    So I too persisted in changing my eating to more healthy options while I continued to try to drop some more pounds.   It is an extremely slow process, being well over 70.   Then my goal became simply:   Before I leave this earth,  I want to feel comfortable in my body!!  

    That goal has been accomplished!  I wear the size clothes I never expected to wear again.  I can cross my legs with ease.   I am in no way skinny or thin,  but I no longer hate how I look when I see my reflection in a mirror.  So there have already been some major changes that are quite wonderful to experience!

    Since I changed to eating primarily fruits and vegetables, and since I watched a yucky documentary on the meat industry,  I thought it would not be a big leap for me to go vegetarian.  Not vegan, just vegetarian.   That was six months ago.  I do provide moderate sized meat servings for my husband,  but I stick with my vegetables, and love the challenges that brings.  I have to constantly add to my vegetable recipe repertoire so that I am not bored.   I am very fortunate that grocery shopping and cooking are among my favorite activities.  It also helps that I am retired!

    I did eventually set a goal weight, which would amount to a loss of forty pounds over almost two years.  I am four pounds away from that goal (and four months shy of two years).  I do hope, and am confident that I will achieve it eventually, although it is quite likely to take another six to eight months.  I have discovered that the more one cuts back on their food intake for weight loss,  the more one has to keep cutting back in order to maintain it!

    But even if I never do lose those last four pounds,  I have already changed my health dramatically,  changed my size considerably,  renewed my wardrobe,  changed my attitude toward my body,  found comfort in and appreciation for the body I do have.   All of those are changes that are just as valuable as any specific number on the scale.

  Besides, a number on a scale is a very fluid thing,  always subject to change! 

  Having more confidence,  liking myself more,  being very healthy,  feeling comfortable-- those are things that have already made my life so much better!

    I guess you could say this is a positive side-effect of the otherwise terrible miseries of a Pandemic!

Millie and Carl

 Millie and Carl

 

Millie is changing the wheel

on her mower

when I encounter her one day.

Around those tools and

tires and bolts,

she clearly knows her way!

 

I ask her to tell me about the farm,

if she would not mind;

It was clear that for quite a while

it has been in some decline.

 

Four silos no longer filled,

A barn with just one cow.

She still keeps the old place going,

though she is a widow now.

 

She and Carl bought that farm;

fifty-six years she’d endured.

They were young and optimistic then,

and would conquer the world for sure.

 

They could not have known the changes to come,

Plummeting prices, mounting debt

too much exasperation.

Carl said it was too hard a life

To pass to the next generation.

 

The children grew up to leave the farm

And created lives of their own.

The grandchildren still often come

so Millie doesn’t feel alone.

 

Eva milks the cow in the barn;

Carson loves the tractors too.

Maybe they will take the farm

And turn it into something new.

 

Successes, failures, memories and joys;

Millie had seen them all firsthand.

Mostly they have planted themselves

There in the barn, the house, and the land.

 

 

By Nancy and Gerry Rehkugler

For Showing Up

Thank you, beautiful blue morning glory for showing up!

     I initially planted my morning glory seeds in pots, thinking the seedings are fragile and I could protect them when they were young.   Then I moved the pots to the bottom of the front porch posts and tended them daily,  watering, feeding, caring for, until they lovingly wrapped themselves around not only the posts, but also the entire front porch, pretty much!

    Eventually,  the leaves began to die off,  and I looked at the pots, and much to my dismay discovered that they were completely potbound....no nutrients..no soil, only roots in the pot!   Then I thought maybe I could take them out of the pots and transplant them, which I knew would be very risky.   Once I broke the plastic pots away,  I realized that the rootball was well above ground level, so I could not put them in the hole in the ground I had dug for that purpose, because that would rip it all apart from the vine!   Then, I constructed an above the ground planting effort with lots of dirt, with potting soil, and with wood chips to cover the ugly above ground construction.    I actually did not have much hope of them surviving the week.

    But, miraculously, they did, and continued to grow and grow and grow.   However, there were no flowers.   Then I realized that morning glories prefer full sun, and these are in a shady area for most of the day!   So I had lots of lovely vines,  which I loved and enjoyed and continued to care for.

    I would check every day, looking and hoping for one little blue flower!  Since is is late September,  I know that frost is not too far away!  Will the frost come before I every see a morning glory flower?

    There were a couple of other before this one,  but this one is by far the proudest and loveliest,  and I touch it and thank it repeatedly, and say thank you for showing up!   This may be the last one,  so I am really appreciating it!

    It has been a long journey raising these glories!   I have loved them even when they were seedlings,  when they were potbound,  when they were just vines.   But I take it very personally that against all odds,  this one beautiful morning glory has come to celebrate with me before winter sets in!