Stay-at-Home Weekend

It was a relatively quiet weekend for us AND very enjoyable. 

"Away" from the Lovestead, this past weekend offered a vast smorgasboard of "things to do, people to see and places to go."   

All the more reason why staying home seemed so inviting.  More importantly, "home" had started looking like we'd been "on the go" too much this summer. 

So, Saturday served as catch-up time with an intensive and dirty day of yard, garden and housework.  

After spending some brief time at the POAC Arts and Crafts Festival where he purchased the metal "LOVE" sign above with its tree, Bill also began a construction project----a shelter for the doggies in their run.

The pups don't use the run much these days because Liam has become so trustworthy that he seldom strays more than ten feet away from Kiwi, Foster or whatever human happens to be outside.  

Nowadays, Bill likes to call him a "companion dog," and Liam is consciously working into the role quite well.  

Nonetheless, there will be a few times in the next several weeks (like when we go to Ireland) that the dogs need to be confined for more than four hours at a time. 

So, having the outside run, and a permanent shelter within, is a must, so they can be safe and escape the elements. 

With luck, Bill will have the wooden shelter completed in the next few days, and then we can test it to see how it's gonna work for the pups. 

Meanwhile, Sunday turned out to be both relaxing and fun hanging out right here at home.  

I rode Lefty.  I finished a book and worked on a story assignment for Sandpoint Magazine.  Bill continued to work  on the shelter.  

Topping it off, we both enjoyed a delightfully tasty dinner of items fresh from the garden along with some relaxing wandering around the place with the dogs.  

Pleasant temperatures and smoky skies played a big role in our enjoying home more than usual.

After all, most of the drives we take during the summer involve looking at beautiful scenery and escaping the heat.  Neither was a factor this weekend.

A few words about the book I finished, which Bill is now reading.  

I just learned that Educated is the "common read" assigned to the entire freshman class and transfer students at the University of Idaho this upcoming school year. 

 https://www.uidaho.edu/academics/general-education/common-read

The selection committee picked a good one.  

When I read the last chapter of Educated, I felt both saddened and a bit curious regarding the author's relationship with her family.  

My first comment to Bill:  it's unresolved.

That, in no way, takes away from the quality of the book,  as anyone who has read this 2018 memoir will probably agree. 

As a reader, I really want to know that things will eventually be all right for Tara Westover.  

Will there some day be a happy ending?  I think we've grown accustomed to yearn for that outcome, but the answer will only come with time.

This book provides a variety of heavy-duty and timely discussion topics:  home-school vs public education, "us" against the world, brain washing, clouding of truth via control and the importance of seeking more than one viewpoint in drawing conclusions.

Westover's first book also deals with unfounded fear of the conventions of an outside world, the question of why siblings raised in the same situations turn out with different perspectives, subtle and not-so-subtle destructive forces to one's self esteem, and so on.

It's truly a book worth reading and discussing. 

And, speaking of Lefty, I am realizing more and more what a priceless horse he happens to be----for both young girls and old ladies.  

Lefty is as willing and cool as any horse I've ever ridden.  He seems to totally enjoy the attention and the companionship that comes along whenever someone wants to climb on. 

We plodded up and down the road, through the woods, around the yard, up and down the lane.  Never a hint of any reluctance on Lefty's part.  

He's truly a gem, and with each experience, my appreciation for him continues to grow. 

Finally, for the oldsters among us, my friend Mow sent me a list of fun zingers yesterday.  Will leave you with the list, and if you're under 60, just wait.  They'll eventually make sense cuz your time's a-comin'!

Happy Monday. 

Subject: Fwd: Senior Humor

I changed my car horn to gunshot sounds. People get out of the way much faster now.

Gone are the days when girls used to cook like their mothers. Now they drink like their fathers.

I didn’t make it to the gym today. That makes five years in a row.  

I decided to stop calling the bathroom the “John” and renamed it the “Jim”. I feel so much better saying I went to the Jim this morning.

Old age is coming at a really bad time.

When I was a child I thought “Nap Time” was a punishment. Now, as a grownup, it feels like a small vacation.

The biggest lie I tell myself is ”I don't need to write that down,
I'll remember it."

I don’t have gray hair; I have "wisdom highlights"! I must be very wise.

If God wanted me to touch my toes, He would’ve put them on my knees.

Last year I joined a support group for procrastinators. We haven’t met yet.

Why do I have to press one for English when you’re just going to transfer me to someone I can't understand anyway?

Of course I talk to myself. Sometimes I need expert advice.

At my age “Getting lucky" means walking into a room and remembering what I came in there for.

Actually I'm not complaining because I am a Senager. (Senior teenager) I have everything that I wanted as a teenager, only 60 years later. I don’t have to go to school or work. I get an allowance every month. I have my own pad. I don’t have a curfew. I have a driver’s license and my own car. The people I hang around with are not scared of getting pregnant. And I don’t have acne.  Life is great.

I have more friends I should send this to, but right now I can’t remember their names.

Did I send this to you, or did you send it to me?