Cabin Fever

Posted on by
Reply

This slideshow requires JavaScript.

Oh man, talk about cabin fever! I have been trying to limit my driving – gas is up again as are expenses – but I HAD to get out of here today!

So my excuse was, although a necessity, was to take the rubbish to the dump! How exciting is that? But then I added on a trip into Port Townsend and coffee with Susan at our favorite, Tyler Street Cafe. Actually, our favorite was closed for an upgrade, it’s going to be a full cocktail bar and restaurant when it reopens in a couple of months. I’m afraid it won’t have that wonderful vibe anymore, so Undertown might be off our list. But we won’t write it off until we check it out.

And then we went for a lovely walk around town and discovered (actually Susan knew about it) a delightful Tea and Spice store. It smelled wonderful and I can get all the spices I need for curry and chai – same price as Central Market – so that is a real find. I didn’t buy anything, just lifted lids and sniffed a lot!

I haven’t been a tourist in Port Townsend for a while and there are a couple of new restaurants and stores I need to check out. The town was busy, as the sun was out! I had to park quite a way from the center which is unusual, but good for the merchants.

But what a difference the sun makes – even though it was cold = turtle neck, sweater and jacket – my glasses knew the sun had strength as they turned really dark to protect me! Damn my Transition lenses, I need all the light I can get!

I Forget Sometimes

Posted on by
Reply

When everything feels overwhelming, I have to remind myself why I am doing all this – because I get so immersed in the minutia of things, that I lose track of my goal – to get out of here with the properties taking care of themselves and perhaps, even generating a little income! I just forget!

After last week’s bombshell from my ex, which has absolutely no merit, (and even less as I think about it) and my initial freak-out, after talking to Mick, I got back on track and spent the week taking care of getting the rental house rented, going back and forth to Port Angeles – 106 miles round trip. An expensive exercise, but worth it in the end. Fortunately, the weather wasn’t too shitty, so the drive was pleasant, the snow-covered mountains were out and the roads relatively dry! I vetted four possible tenants and chose the one I hope will be the best! She is so excited about the place and anxious to be in there. I should have the full payment and deposits on Tuesday, Monday being a holiday for some, like banks.

So with that handled, I need to make a decision about this house. I’ve thought about doing a summer rental and ran an ad on craigslist to see if there was any interest, but nothing so probably need to rethink that option. By April, I will be back on track and back to normal payments so renting it out is an option – but then the big question is, where do I go? Somewhere warm I would hope but without a steady income, it makes taking off rather iffy. But Susan is planning on leaving for Colorado in July, trading in cold, wet, gray winters for icy, dry and sunny winters. So that leaves me even more isolated down here.

P1040129

Even when they are being a pain, they are cute.

And of course, there are my kitties. These little creatures are what has kept me sane the past few years. So they would have to go with me. A problem!

Since finding good-tasting gluten-free bread is difficult, I’ve been making my own. It’s so much easier now to find the right ingredients, all the GF flours like quinoa, rice and coconut are available and there are even baking mixes. So I have developed a really good recipe with a good flavor and texture and have been making it for Susan and Dan too. He is diabetic and as a lot of these flours are much lower glycemic and higher protein than regular flour, they end up being good for him. Both Susan and I have gone off wheat/gluten and I know I feel really good on it. I don’t think I am allergic to it, but I just feel better.

Today is DVD shipping day, we had a good week last week and it looks like another good one next week. It’s rather fun watching the auction each day, wondering why on earth anyone would pay good money for some of the really junky movies and pass up what I would consider classics and good watching. To each his own, I guess. Tomorrow I will post the new ones for their 5 day run. Time consuming, but I don’t really have anything else pressing so…

I saw the first primrose pushing it’s little head up today. Bright pink splash in the dark. Spring is just around the corner, days are significantly longer, thank goodness. We have actually had quite a mild winter with just two frosts so far and the only snow was over Christmas when I was in SoCal.

My eye is healing…slowly…but the doctor is happy with how it is closing up and I have to go back in April. There should be no scar, he says. It doesn’t look bad now and unless you are right in my face, you probably wouldn’t even notice.

The sun is trying to come out so I am going outside for my Vit. D.

 

Still Winter With a Glimmer of Spring

Posted on by
Reply

Here it is February already and I don’t feel any closer to resolution on anything! Of course, weather plays a big part in how I feel and as it is still very much winter here, it doesn’t help much. This morning is frosty but it looks like it might be clear later, much as it was yesterday when I actually spent some time outside, clearing out some of the dead stuff, waiting for spring.

Some of the tulips are pushing their way out of the soil! They must be as anxious for spring as I am.

Some of the tulips are pushing their way out of the soil! They must be as anxious for spring as I am.

There are signs that spring is on its way – days getting longer, the irises are showing their heads, my pot of tulips is growing nicely so these are all signs that the world is turning as its supposed to.

My life is in a stall at the moment. With money so tight, and my eye still not really healed, I don’t go anywhere unless I absolutely have to, which means staying at home here at the end of the world with my kitties for company. This weekend I will go to Port Angeles to check the tenants out of the house there. I have an ad running for new renters and have had a couple of bites but nothing definite as I can’t show the place until the current tenants are gone. I have seen inside and they did a good job of painting and cleaning the place up, but this summer the exterior will need to be painted – cha ching!

In October, I gave myself six months to get the modifications etc. completed and here it is – basically, six weeks from the end of March, my deadline. Doesn’t look like I’m going to make that deadline after all.

Betsy suggested I test the waters with an ad to rent this house out for the summer. It’s around this time people are looking for their summer getaways. I don’t know where the kitties and I would go but right now, I am just looking at options. If someone wants to rent the place for 4-5 months, that would handle my mortgage for the year; I could just lock this place up and leave for the nasty months.

I don’t know…

My eye is slowly getting better. Once I stopped using the antibiotic cream, which it turns out I was allergic to, and just use the Kangen acid water and a moisturizer, it is so much better and it is finally healing. It’s been a month now – I normally heal so fast! So this is very frustrating.

I’ve been updating ColbyCommunications and that has been entertaining, reading all my old articles. Country Life was a lot of fun and so many of the other sailing and boating articles were good too! I’m going to be doing an interesting story in March. Some of the pilots at Kenmore Air, the seaplane company that the magazine is for, do water testing in the Puget Sound and I am going to go out with them. And another I am doing is on the Dragon Boats in Seattle. Both will be fun and although I get paid about zilch, it will be good to get my hand back into the writing game again. I am also going to track down Sandy and Andrew Butt and do an article about their olive orchard up on Pender Island. I will fly up there on one of the seaplanes, spend the night at an inn there, do a an article about the Inn and then go to the orchard. That’s my plan, I just need to contact Sandy and Andrew! This won’t be until May or so as the planes don’t fly up there until then – shut down for the winter.

A Push to Update My Web Site

Posted on by
Reply

kingfishers

This little kingfisher was very happy yesterday – I missed the actual plunge but one second he was on the bowsprit, the next the water was disturbed and then he was back with the fish that went down with one gulp!

So that was my entertainment for the day. Oh, and the otters were out again, playing and lounging on the dock. They are so entertaining!

My eye is finally healing. I discovered that I am allergic to the ointment I was supposed to use. It’s difficult assessing a wound on your eye when you have to take your glasses off to do it, but I realized, with the aid of a magnifying glass that it was causing blisters, so wasn’t healing. Just hope it doesn’t leave a scar. I am only using the Kangen acidic water now, which I was using in conjunction with the ointment. I will be glad when this is done!

pageI have a lot of time on my hands at the moment. With the not very encouraging news from ecology – treat it like a hobby until they throw money at us – I decided to update my colbycomm web site. I was encouraged to do it after Evie posted a Pumula Hotel picture on Facebook and I found I didn’t have the article I did for Country Life on the site. So immediately scanned and put it up. I so loved that job at Country Life. Sigh…

So I am going to rescan my whole portfolio as this scanner I have now does a much better job than my old one; at least you can read the .pdfs. It will be fun to do especially now as I am so used to working with wordpress, it won’t take that long and as I am going to need to promote myself to get some dollars flowing, it will be good the site is current.

~ Become a Lake ~

Posted on by
Reply

driftwoodFrom looking like an abuse victim to a minor swelling and small scab in 9 days is pretty miraculous. My eye still itches like crazy and is still a bit weepy, but overall it is pretty good. I get the stitches out on Tuesday and then I hope the worst will be way over!

Because I was such a scary sight, I didn’t go out at all.So now am going stir crazy and what has happened, with all this time on my hands, is that I realize that it is not the weather so much that gets me about this place, although it does play into the overall scheme of things. It is the location.

It’s beautiful, peaceful, comfortable, cute house, wonderful wildlife. But…

It is way too remote for a single person, meaning me. This is a perfect location for a summer home. For people to come for weekends and weeks in the summer or holidays. Or for a couple who need only each other. But year-round living for me is just not cutting it.

I read this little story, which really brought it home to me:

~ Become a Lake ~

An aging master grew tired of his apprentice’s complaints. One morning, he sent him to get some salt. When the apprentice returned, the master told him to mix a handful of salt in a glass of water and then drink it.
“How does it taste?” the master asked.
“Bitter,” said the apprentice.
The master chuckled and then asked the young man to take the same handful of salt and put it in the lake. The two walked in silence to the nearby lake and once the apprentice swirled his handful of salt in the water, the old man said, “Now drink from the lake.”
As the water dripped down the young man’s chin, the master asked, “How does it taste?”
“Fresh,” remarked the apprentice.
“Do you taste the salt?” asked the master.
“No,” said the young man. At this the master sat beside this serious young man, and explained softly,
“The pain of life is pure salt; no more, no less. The amount of pain in life remains exactly the same. However, the amount of bitterness we taste depends on the container we put the pain in. So when you are in pain, the only thing you can do is to enlarge your sense of things. Stop being a glass. Become a lake.”

I need to become a lake. My life is so small and confining. You might say I am living in a puddle!

My life used to be broad, encompassing the entire world. Now it feels so limited and there are factors influencing this – insufficient funds, etc. But I can’t let these get in the way of my sanity. I never meant to be back here this long. I have know for a long time that is isolation is not good for me.

So…

Three months ago, after I decided to go for a loan modification on the condo, I gave myself six months to do it. The time is running out but I really don’t have to be here to do that. It’s all done by phone or email. So that eliminates that excuse for not leaving.

So I am starting to focus on getting “gone” from here. Making a list of what I need to do to make it happen. The main thing, of course, is to find someone to rent this house. And another of course, is finding a way to fund living elsewhere. Oh, and let’s not forget a car. I can hardly drive out of state taking Bill’s car with me.

The elsewhere doesn’t necessarily mean another country, like I have been dreaming. It could be as simple as California. Much more expensive, but more opportunity than here. I don’t know whether my editor job will go with me as she seems to think that she needs to see me, which is totally unnecessary when there is Skype. But obviously, I won’t throw in the towel, unless she brings it up. The eBay biz can go with me; in fact will be easier as Ryan won’t have to ship the DVDs to me.

Tomorrow, Susan and I are going to Port Angeles to look at the house, and then I am going to hand it over to property management. So that won’t be an issue for me. Chris seems to want to stay in the condo, so that will be taken care of.

A car could be a problem – or not. I had to have a new exhaust pipe put on the Leaky Beasty and it is a lot quieter now! Not just less exhaust noise, but less rattles too. I’m not sure about this, but maybe Bill would sell it to me but I would need to have the oil leaks fixed and know that that is all they are – leaks, and not something major. And I could probably work out some sort of payment plan with him. That is just a thought, at the moment. I would need to know it would make the trip to California and beyond.

So lots to think about, decisions to make and things to plan and plot.

Paying For Pleasure

Posted on by
Reply

Sun and Fun

Through the first two weeks of the new year already. Days are getting noticeably longer… and noticeably colder! Mid-winter is here but it has actually, touch wood, been relatively mild, with freezing temps at night but not too bad during the day.

So I knew that eventually the years of sun would catch up with me and now I am paying the price. On Friday I went in for supposedly minor surgery to remove a basal cell carcinoma from my eyelid. I wasn’t nervous at all, looking forward to having it gone! It was one of those things you swear everyone is staring at when they see you – “ooohh look she has a wart on her nose” or something like that. Probably no one even noticed, but it was starting to bother my vision, so my doc recommended a plastic surgeon/ophthalmologist so Susan drove me down as they has told me I wouldn’t be able to drive home.

Well…

The surgery took twice as long as they thought, and even though I couldn’t feel anything, other than the tugging and stretching, and could -oooo ick – smell the cauterizing, I found myself clenching my jaw so hard I thought I might crack a tooth!

The doctor started asking me if I had taken aspirin or any medications as they had a difficult time stopping the bleeding – hence the extra time to complete the process.

Finally, it was done and with all concerned clapping themselves on the back for a job well done, I staggered out. Shock set in immediately and I was shivering uncontrollably  until I got some sweet hot chocolate into me. Half way home, a 45 minute drive, I had to ask Susan to pull over as I felt like I was going to pass out. I managed to get my head between my knees and wait it out. When we got home, all I could thing about was getting into bed, which I did, post haste!

The shocky stuff continued through the night, sweating like crazy, light headed and woozy. But the vicodin kept the pain under control and in the morning felt almost human. With one eye-covered, my depth perception was way off and I felt completely off-balance.

Mid-afternoon I took the eye-patch off and decided I better not let anyone see me! I looked like something out of a horror movie! Eyeball bright red, and my eye almost closed from the swelling. But even with just a partial slit eye, it helped my balance and I could actually see.

Every day has been better and better. The swelling is going down, but my face looks lopsided but that is also improving with all the icing I am doing. And there is no pain now so haven’t had to take more vicodin.

I go back next week to have the stitches removed – and no, I am not posting a picture. I don’t even want to see myself in the mirror until I am healed!

On another note, my tenants in the Port Angeles house just got their orders to move back to Florida. Bummer! So now I have to go through that process again but I’m thinking that if I don’t get a Coastie, I will have a Property Management company handle it. It’s such a hike from here to deal with it, especially in the Leaky Beasty. So I have that to deal with in the next week.

Oh well, the trials and tribulations of a land baroness!

A New Era

Posted on by
Reply

panoWe are already almost through the first week of this new Golden Era. At least that is what the thinking is as the Maya calendar rolled over into the next baktun. There is a lot of belief around a new beginning, a new start, a new era of peace and prosperity which I fervently hope is true!

My new year is all about moving forward and not counting on anyone but myself. I think I have put way to much emphasis on outside sources providing for me – jobs, relationships etc. I just have to do it myself and if any of these other projects that have been hanging around come to fruition, well, that will be wonderful.

Stuff to be disseminated on the bed in the spare room

Stuff to be disseminated on the bed in the spare room

So I decided that, seeing as it looks like I will be here for a while, at least through the winter, then I would get out my “stuff” that has been in boxes up in the attic. But as I am pretty cautious about climbing ladders on my own, Susan came down and I handed stuff down to her and had her spot me on the ladder.

Mostly, I have pictures and slides. Masses of them and getting them all – or at least the most important ones – scanned has been a long time goal of mine. It’s tedious but oh so worth while. Also in the boxes are memorabilia from travels, like the jippy jappy baskets and drum from Belize; my beautiful African baskets and carvings. And then of course, there are the things the boys made as kids and poetry they wrote and their report cards! Oh, and MY report cards from elementary school. “Susan doesn’t apply herself” was the theme throughout my school years! Damn, I was sooo bored!

And then there are all the framed pictures. Since I landed back here, I didn’t really think I would be here this long so I haven’t hung anything on the walls. But now, I figure, what is going to take to repack this stuff and take the pictures off the walls? Not much and having them visible will feel more like home. So I have some of them hung including my lioness closeup and have put some out on shelves but I have become so used to the minimalist feel and being able to go around and clean quickly. So don’t want to clutter things up.

Despite the resolution to not count on anyone else, I still remain hopeful about ecology. Maybe now that the “fiscal cliff” is behind us, the investors’ purse strings will loosen up a bit. Harbors Magazine published and it looks goo and I am working on the next issue. I’ve also taken over Ryan’s side job. He said he was just too busy to do it any more so he handed it off to me. It’s an eBay deal where we auction newly released DVDs. Then they get shipped. He’s been doing it with a friend for a couple of years so he has a system that I use. It’s fairly simple but the added income will definitely help me out a lot!

This Friday, I pay the price for sun time in my youth! I have a basal cell carcinoma on my lower eyelid so have to have minor surgery to have it removed. It is really starting to bug me. The doctor who is doing this is an opthamologist/plastic surgeon so he knows what he is doing. Susan will take me as I will have a patch for a couple of days, so no driving! I will be so glad when it is gone. It’s got to the point where I think everyone is staring at me – “See the old lady with a wart on her eye?” Probably no one notices except me!

December Update

Posted on by
Reply
Balls at LACMA

Art?

A lot of things have changed since my last post so will attempt a catch-up and update everyone!

At the moment, I am down in SoCal staying at Ryan and Les’s apartment. Mostly here to see my boys and grandboys but also it’s an attempt to miss some of the nasty weather that is happening – and will continue to happen – for the next few months.

But getting back to where I left off…

In a bizarre twist, Chris is back on the periphery of my life – as a tenant in the condo! He had agreed to quit claim it to me as he has no interest in keeping it. When I found out that I may be able to do a loan mod on it, Susan and I spent a day cleaning it up and getting it ready to rent. I took the keys to the property rental people and was getting ready for them to go through the process and find me a tenant. That day, I got a phone call from Chris, asking if I had rented the place yet. And that he was interested in taking it! Immediately! Which meant that he had been asked to move out from his last place/relationship. I was astounded and backpedaled a bit and said I would think about it for a couple of hours and immediately called Susan! We discussed it and agreed it would work – but ONLY if he paid full rent and a security deposit up front and signed a lease. Which he did!

So now both rentals are occupied with rents coming in on time. The Port Angeles house paperwork should be completed and waiting for me when I get home later this week and hopefully, progress is being made on the condo. I am making increased payments on the house on the water to catch up with payments I missed when I so unexpectedly landed up there again, and so far, have managed to do that.

End of the World Burger at Umami Hamburgers

End of the World Burger at Umami Hamburgers

All this means that I have to live extremely frugally and I really hesitated coming here but as my ultra-generous son insisted and has treated me royally while here, I am so glad I did. We have spent some wonderful time together here at the apartment and yesterday at the Los Angeles Contemporary Museum of Art and eating amazing Umami Hamburgers. Later today we will take a walk over to the Farmers Market which is just down the street. We went last week and I was amazed at the variety and quality of the produce and food. Fun!

I’ve been driving Ryan’s extra car that he is in the process of selling, and have been up to Apple Valley to see Cody, Mel and the little boys a couple of times. What little characters they have become! Oliver is four now and Everett two. He is such a cutie and all boy! I will go up there on Christmas Day.

Also went down south to Cardiff to see my dear friends, Steve and Cathy. Those people are salt of the earth and I so love seeing them. As usual, as it is now a tradition, they took me to Fidel’s restaurant where we had a lovely Mexican dinner and a nice surprise when Brynn (their daughter) and her husband Garth and their very new twins and 2-year old showed up as well. Spent the night and headed out early as Ryan and Les were expecting a delivery at the apartment at 11. I was expecting traffic but so far, on all my little forays out into the hustle and bustle, the only time I have hit the dreaded LA traffic was when I left for Cardiff and it took me 45 minutes to go a couple of miles!

I had an amazing Kangen water experience. Ryan doesn’t have a machine – yet – so I was drinking their filtered water for the first few days but I started getting headaches and not feeling so hot, tired and just out of sorts. So I checked around and found a water store not far from here and she agreed to let me have water whenever I needed it. So took a quick drive over there, filled my two 5 litre bottle/bags and my drinking bottle. Within three minutes of inhaling almost a full litre, my headache was gone! Now that is no coincidence! And I found a place close by that actually sells it for a buck a gallon so I won’t have to be without while here any more.

What a relief!

I think the best part of being here is seeing for myself that Ryan is healthy and that he is pretty much completely healed. He has such a positive attitude and has done everything he was told to do by his health professionals (not all Western medicine :) ). So that sets my mind at ease and I can go back up to the cold in a few days, knowing that when he tells me he is doing fine, I can rest assured that he is.

 

I am a Believer – in Synchrodestiny

Posted on by
Reply

Today I became a true believer. There are no coincidences. None. Never. Ever.

This morning, with not a lot of forethought other than stopping for gas and picking up my sewing machine to take to a different Bernina technician, I got in the car and headed out. It wasn’t raining, just cold and gray. I barreled down Beaver Valley Rd, a two-lane road that is known for police speed trapping and many accidents on the bends. But I just tootled along at the speed limit, an old pickup truck several good car lengths behind me.

First stop, gas at the cheap station attached to the supermarket. I pulled into the pump and rummaged for my card. As I got out of the car and started the process – special customer number, bank card etc., I noticed the following truck pull up behind me and a youngish guy got out, walked up to me and said, “Did you know your back wheel is about to fall off? It’s going like this,” waving his hands like a snake. Of course, I didn’t know it, as the Jeep has so many squeaks, squawks, rattles and shakes that if a loose tire was making any new noises, they would have blended into the other cacophony of sounds.

“Will it make it to Port Townsend?” I asked, thinking I would drive slowly and carefully the next 8 miles to the guys who mounted the tires in June.

One word, “No.”

“Do you have a lug wrench?”

I had no idea what was in the hidden compartments of the Leaky Beasty.

Hhhmmmm… as I’m filling the tank wondering what the hell I was going to do. Next thing I know is my good samaritan had a lug wrench out of his truck and was kneeling down to tighten things up! “I can tighten these with my fingers!” as he spun the wrench.

About this time, I start to realize how lucky I was and how there are no coincidences. How many times have I driven Beaver Valley Rd with no one behind me? The road is notorious for accidents! I could easily have been one of those crosses marked with plastic flowers along side the road! How many people would have followed me and made a point of telling me, and then stepping in to make it safe enough to get to the repair shop?

And isn’t it telling that just this morning, the Deepak Chopra meditation was titled, “Living Synchrodestiny,” and that is what I had been thinking about as I drove. And it wasn’t even today’s meditation – I missed a couple and am two days behind in the program.

Makes you think, doesn’t it?

The outcome is Bill came to the repair shop with the winter, studded tires and the tire place swapped the summer tires for the winter ones. The one that was ready to fall off was retired as the holes were no longer round!

So now I am set for the winter, will have the lugs checked for tightness on Friday and thank my lucky stars, the young man who helped me and whoever is watching over me for the lucky coincidence!

Happy Thanksgiving!

Abundance

Posted on by
Reply

It is winter – no getting around that. There’s no color left on the trees; all the leaves are turning to mush on the ground. It’s dark when I get up and dark when I go to bed and the in between is low light. Except for a few very welcome “sun breaks,” when the air is crisp and the light so sharp and clear the sky turns deep blue.

Those are the times I make a break from the house and get some fresh air. And if it’s not too cold, will actually crack the windows a bit to get some of that freshness back in the house.

This morning, the clouds are hanging very low and it poured all night, drumming down on the metal roof. That’s a sound I enjoy, evoking memories of tropical rains and steamy nights.

Oh well….

So what’s happening in my life?

Not much has changed and yet a lot has changed – in my mind, I think.

Up until just very recently, I was very angry about the way my life has turned out, with a lot of blame being directed at a certain person. I didn’t feel good about it; it goes against my nature. So I started a meditation program Betsy told me about, the Deepak Chopra 21 day Meditation Challenge. The focus is Abundance, and heaven knows I need all I can get! But what it has revealed to me is that I am surrounded by so much abundance in so many areas of my life, and that if circumstances had been different, perhaps I wouldn’t have seen this.

I am only lacking in one area – money – but what has happened is this.

I have always, for as long as I can remember, done everything for myself, been self sufficient, a survivor, you name it. I didn’t need anyone else and a lot of the time, being that way has been a necessity, given the past relationship. But I have found that there is a huge amount of help out there – if I just surrender the control and ask for it. And understand that the safety nets are there for a reason.

The metaphysical “Ask and it is given” actually works. The hardest part for me is asking – for help, for assistance, for anything. In some cases, it’s not the result of “please may I have” but more a flow of abundance, stuff, etc that shows up.

For instance, since I landed back up here in the Northwest:

  • I have my house (at least for a while) by working with the lender and negotiating new terms
  • Dear Bill has loaned me the Leaky Beasty Jeep to get around in
  • The loan modification on the Port Angeles house is being finalized; the tenants are paying regularly and finally! changed the utilities to their name
  • It looks like I can get a loan mod on the condo and even though the (almost) original lender changed the locks, the new loan people paid to have the locks changed and gave me the keys so I can get it rented out. This will make it more attractive to the lender and hopefully easier for the modification
  • Because I have so little cash (but am blessed with what I do get) I asked for, and now receive assistance with my heating bill (no cold nights here) and food. And, very important, my doctor and medical is covered 100 percent as I am so low down on the payment sliding scale that I qualify for care. And not just a clinic. I get to go to my own doctor and any others and the hospital in the group
  • My photos are selling on the stock photos sites; not enough to change the status quo, but a nice boost to the ego
  • I picked up the Editor position for Harbors Magazine and Around the Pacific Northwest. Again not big on financial abundance, but a nice credit on my resume
  • Hinckley and Buddy are healthy and a great source of comfort. What would I do without my boys?
  • And yesterday, my Mother’s Day gift from Ryan arrived. A brand new iPhone 5, just in the nick of time as my old Blackberry was about to give up the ghost

And although I had absolutely no intention of being here, especially through another winter, I am actually feeling good about it. Ryan is healthy and doing well in his job which he loves. His relationship with Les is wonderful. Cody and Mel and the little boys are happy and Cody moving forward with his Paramedic training which he starts in January. And loving his EMT/firefighter job. “It’s the best job in the world. I get to help people all day long,” he said.

So I would say I have things pretty good. My friends are close by (perhaps not close enough, given that I live at the end of the world) and family is within easy flight. Some of them anyway. I have Skype and FaceTime for those out of driving range.

I better go meditate now so I can fill in the abundance gap, or perhaps what I perceive as a gap. Maybe it’s a blessing in disguise. I guess sometimes it just takes some of us longer to get it.