I had a blog post going a couple weeks ago and lost it into the internet netherworld. Frankly, with not a lot going on since returning home, I don’t have much energy to come up with one, especially as my pursuits now seem to revolve around my volunteering and sewing projects.
I’ve been diving into doing some new stuff and found one type
particularly appealing: called stitch pots. They are basically just roughhewn,
hand sewn decorative vessels on the rustic side but are great fun to design.
They start out flat in design and sewing, then end as various sized vessels. It’ll
be interesting to see if they sell at the shelter online auction in February but
I do plan to line my RV valances with some as well. Especially these first two.
I caught up with some fall home chores and this month have participated in two shelter events: photos with Santa, and the annual deer hunter widows craft show. I was able to sell a few of my goods, plus others’ donations, while we sat with the most adorable puppy and two kittens, all ready for adoption. They captured everyone’s hearts.
Also in October, we sadly suddenly lost another long-time volunteer, who passed away after just a few days of not feeling well. She had come to our fundraising meeting on a Wednesday and died that Sunday. She was younger than I and always a real workhorse at events as she was strong and tireless. She is really missed.
Earlier in October, I had some skin cancer cut off the end of
my nose, with the stitches making me look like Frankenstein just in time for
Halloween. Due to lots of nerves in the nose, it actually proved to be quite
painful and swollen for a time and my nose continues to be red and numb. Thankfully, it was
just basal cell so not too worrisome.
Other than a brief Halloween snow, we’ve enjoyed great fall weather, with temperatures way above normal and days and days of no precipitation of any kind. That allowed me to do quite a bit of yard pruning and clean-up and Marc got lots of scrap stuff hauled away to recycle, like much of his steel and aluminum. He’s been having quite a few bouts with his back going out so hasn’t been particularly busy so far.
Now, onto another note about blogs. I have several bookmarked
from older days and have noticed the evolution as people age out of the RV
lifestyle or move on to other endeavors they don’t care to share with a readership.
Mine too, has greatly evolved and I often think of totally giving it up. It's been going a long time and actually I had one before this which started in 1998 under our own webpage called "Itchyhitch" that we had to pay for. One
thing stops me. Actually, two things: the blog serves as a visual diary of our
lives, and two, I often wonder how many of you tune in just to see how we’re
faring? Blogs I follow, whether I personally know the folks or not, give me the
sensation that I at least keep up with someone’s wellbeing (or not, as the case
may be).
I suppose, however, that without travel and new things to see, there’s only so much interest my blog can now hold for folks and I worry about being just mundane with everyday “life”. Nothing so much to learn from that, eh? The truth is often a hard pill for us to swallow, but realistically, we’re just now old people slowing fading into a life of fairly sedentary retirement with a small budget which prevents exotic or other travels. Plus, the desire is just no longer there given the cats. It’s disruptive to them, hard on them and they just plain hate it and their wellbeing matters greatly to us. Traveling down freeways across the country is no longer at all thrilling to us either; nor would fighting for RV sites be of interest. With the purchase of our northern property, we have the perfect camp spot and it’s all to ourselves! We get the best lakeside spot with the enticing view, there’s no other loud neighbors, barking dogs, running kids passing through our spot or late-night boom box activity.
I guess where I’m going with all this is that going forward, I’ll likely continue the blog but the posts may become fewer over the course of the year. I hope you continue to check in occasionally but, in all likelihood, the days of any big announcements are probably over.
Have safe and memorable holidays!
