Yesterday was the 14th occurrence of being notified that my husband had died while I was out of state to bring my first grandchild into the world. There are years that this passes with just a ripple. Then there are other years that the pressure in my chest becomes unbearable, a weight I am dragging…
So I have been absent, and lax, not writing about my adventures. And there are a string bag full of them! But not now. Later, when they have settled in and become pieces of me. Instead, here is a poem I worked on. I’ll post it on my poetry blog too, but wanted to dedicate…
Oof. Working. Driving. Doing. These things leave little time for reading or updating as I’d like. But the trip is going well, if a bit slower than anticipated initially. When you stop to see and try to do as well, or the weather decides to become an obstacle, things change. Thankfully, there is not a…
This will be my fourth opportunity to cross our wonderful country. The first three times were pretty harried and hurried – the first a true unknown adventure full of break downs and roadside kindnesses in a dilapidated van (I didn’t know it at the time of purchase, but it had a blown head gasket!) which…
When you read the words of great writers, you realize that what you offer when you sit down at a keyboard is paltry; perhaps not even worth typing. After spending the morning with the words of Rachel Carson, Emily Dickinson, M.C. Escher, Thoreau, Oliver Sacks and the like, you wonder what in the world makes…
Today on a break I sat outside, away from computers and phones, and practiced just being. Why is this so darn hard?? Thoughts came floating in and I let them float by. I looked at the ground. I looked at the sky. I looked at the golden air where sun streamed between tree limbs. Here…
Shabbat is always good for a lazy, reflective, do-nothing-much day. Today it has rained on and off. So I fired up some wax tarts (Cinnamon Roll and Orange Spice), took out the sketch book (if you can call what I do at this stage ‘sketching’ lol), and connected the phone to the laptop. Yes. I…
Trees are such an amazing part of our world. They provide shelter, shade, food, heat and suck up all of that carbon we’re emitting! These two caught my eye, appearing to be a long-time partnered couple, supporting each other through thick and thin. Or maybe he’s goosing her…knots? 🙂 Instead of the more sentimental limb…
I dropped my phone and busted the screen, and that is what I do all things non-work on. So, please bear with me while I develop a work around 🙂 PS. I am hell on phones, so why I buy expensive ones escapes me. Oh, right, the camera…the one I currently cannot pull any photos…
Today’s trip to the lake was simply sublime, and a perfect post- work unwind. I love woods and water, especially the rocky shoreline type. So I was primed for some zen rock sitting, watching the water do its thing. I got so, so much more! First off, there is nothing like occupying a waterside picnic…
Heh, maybe I should change the bus name! Monday at work is usually lightly peppered with meetings and then plenty of time to actually get work done instead of meeting to talk about getting work done. But today the merger and acquisition was formally announced, so a lot of post meeting time was spent by…
Today was a pretty good measure of what a non- work bus day looks like. Sleep in (I get up around 0430 on weekdays), coffee, read the digital newspaper, start puttering. The bus is energy independent in most situations, as I have 750 watts of solar on top, plus another 400 watts on stand alone…
Today was errand day, With the hope of picking up mail along with groceries, and a stint at the laundromat. Alas, mail is still in Denver, which means a return trip to civilization tomorrow:( Mail retrieval is a challenge on the road. I have a mail service, but then I have to pay to have…
People’s affinity for affixing stickers for public consumption fascinates me. I linger far too long in front of mass gatherings like these, possibly making the folks behind the window wonder if I’m a little daft. Anyone else here actually read through displays like these? A few other recent discoveries in towns or on roadsides I’ve…
At the same time I am embarking on poking my writing muse, I am also doing an art journal…finally. I follow an artist whose books I own, and I’ve been watching little clips for probably close to a year now, contemplating doing one. What held me back? I sketch like a kindergartener, lol. Plus, you…
In order to reinvigorate my writing activities, I thought I’d once again attempt a post a day. I did this once, several years ago and it led to both good and bad. Good, because I was thinking like a writer again, and bad, because I got burned out. This time I start with a 30…
Ah, I can remember when sixty was a distant thing, and how wise and patient I’d grow to be by that age – if indeed I’d live that long. Now that it’s here, what is it really like? Am I wiser? A life of ashes and rebuilding teaches one a great deal. Things like: Nothing…
And, it’s been a while since I wrote anything. I’ve been busy traveling, trying my hand at other forms of expression like watercolor (long way to go on that media!), Junk collage mixed media, alcohol inks, bone art, photography, and practicing looking at things differently. Today the real chill of fall is in the air,…
After leaving Hope behind, the path southward down Idaho became one long, undulating journey through the many shades of dun. I drove mostly in solitude, seeing more cows than cars, past miles and miles and miles of hay stubble. With the combination of the wildfire haze and the pallid, wan disc of the sun, it…
Do you have superpowers? We all do, sometimes they are just hidden from us until needed. Lately, I feel like my cape is at the dry cleaners. I’ve been accused of being a Pollyanna, a rose colored glasses kind of gal often in my life. The eternal optimist. Today was supposed to be a celebration…
… And other musings. Ruby had been sputtering along in a stoic way on seven cylinders but she finally complained loudly enough, and refused to signal when turning, so I bit the bullet (wallet?) and took her in to a mechanic referred by another nomad friend. Whatever gremlins have been rambling around in my other…
I finally fulfilled one of my dreams out here, to sleep in the open, under the stars. It’s something I’d only do in a safe place. Last night I visited my original camp for a potluck, but I was packed to the gills for a camp move. Seemed like the perfect place to try it…
I came out to the PAR TR for a weekend of fun, to shuck off a couple of difficult weeks and to just relax. What I’ve experienced turned out to be much more. In a world that grows more expansive each day via the Internet, people seem to be growing more isolated and lost feeling;…
The wonderful thing about Google photos is that it sends you reminders of where you were x years ago and what you were doing. Well, sometimes it’s wonderful; other times, painful. Today it reminded me of where I was five years ago. I was camping, alone, down in Florida, under another full moon. I hiked…
I’m nearing the end of twelve work free days, a luxury I’ve not had in over five years. But today I had to start easing back into my normal sleep/wake patterns for work on my East coast timeline. So I was up at 0300 Pacific time. Music kept me company for a while, checking email…
In my everyday life I can be scattered, clumsy and downright hazardous to myself. Not so with dance. It is like someone else lives in my body, perhaps that wild, free part of me that wants to take over now and again to just be. I’ve seen more of her out here on the road,…
As the sun falls behind the hills, woodsmoke drifts my way bearing the scent of juniper or pinon, which I’m not sure. The sky is a soft baby blue layered with pale pink and translucent yellow, with violet indigo coming in fast. By the sun’s falling place, brilliant orange with a red tint flares up…
And so it goes! After traversing Arizona moving south and westward, I finally arrived at the RVing Nirvana known as Quartzsite, or “Q”, as one mountainside proclaims visually. I had seen a video or three on this place. Seemed cool enough. However, after having the freedom of truly boondocking, this is just a leetle different…
It’s funny sometimes, how things happen. I stood in the chilly darkness before work this morning straining to see a falling star. It was breezy, quiet and dark. Only the sound of the wind in the junipers, the rustle of grasses, and the trill of unseen insects kept me company. But no such luck. Tonight,…
“They” say this is the time of the year to reflect on your yearly posts. Ach. Hit and/or miss. So many left in drafts because they were written late at night after work ended and there didn’t seem to be much ‘me’ in them; or maybe, too much of me in them. I look at…
(Oooh, a fragmented lost in draft post, just found, from earlier this year) Now that was a catchier title than “Getting to know my fellow air travelers”, was it not? Feet firmly back on the ground from vacation, I’ve been in hibernation from over-socialization. It isn’t that anyone was rude or intentionally draining either. I…
My goal is to make a post a day to wrap up 2016 and teeter into the unformed abyss of 2017 🙂 Carapasces of Dreams The dry wind chattered Winding through the carapaces of dreams Discarded in corners Shrugged off during a mental molt Raw skin couldn’t decide Whether to embrace the nakedness For…
I need to see her face. She is pale and breathing fast. Darkness colors the hollows under her eyes; not purple, not brown, but some muddy, delicate mix of the two, not unlike some smudged color you would see touted in a new fall palette on sale at Ulta. On the forty minute drive north…
For almost seven years of widowhood, I have lived in solitude, with the exception of a one year stint with a co-worker roommate. She opened her home to me for a pittance while I was struggling to get back on my feet upon returning to work and I will always be grateful. I am comfortable…
Fifteen minutes ago It was that day. The day I flew. The day I decided not to counteroffer on a house I really liked. The day I last heard “I love you so much.” The day I last shared a newspaper with anyone. I wonder when this day’s awareness will fade from my brain. When…
So what, you may ask, can one DO when there is no internet to absorb, delight, educate, aggravate and titillate? If you are a geeky person like me, you read. Yes, those book things that we house in places called libraries and line up in bookstores filled with the intoxicating aroma of, well, probably glue,…
It has been a stretch of interesting days. I’m not certain how my life always seems to amble along like a comedy, but it does most of the time. It could be that I am just silly 🙂 I ran up against a wall this week that I’ve not encountered ever I don’t think, since…
Quote of the week: “…People should be able to walk into their back yards and say, ‘that’s a cicada, that’s a tree frog, and that’s a bird.’ Then, when they hear a bird scream, ‘get out of my territory, get out of my territory,’ I want them to recognize the cadence and remember that…
Just like going to the Doctor for a check up is not intimate when compared with the touch of one who knows you, neither is having professional movers wrangle your stuff from one place to another. But to have people who know me trail their fingers through my things is something quite different for me. It is…
Catchy and academic-sounding title eh? My brain works weirdly in sleep deprivation mode. I also love to make up words that have meaning probably only to me. Last night was a late night (morning) working as the next in line is out for medical assistance for his partner. That left me in charge of herding…
Reading novels makes me feel like I am stuck in a really bad one sometimes, one that I might produce on my first stab at such. Since I’m winnowing my books, my reward for working towards packing is reading books I’m getting rid of before spiraling into sleep, instead of my normal perusal of the…
I did it! I am now the owner of a rolling version of a tiny house. Well, me and the credit union 🙂 And yes, I drove it, adrenaline inducing event that was. I’m scheduled for a full driving course prior to taking actual delivery, after it goes through its bells and whistles review and…
Yes, it is gory. Gut-wrenching. Painful. Overwhelming. That’s why I am taking a break to write about it instead of doing it. Heh. We squirrel away for all kinds of maybes. Maybe they won’t make (insert item of choice) any more. We stock and store because we’ve a prepper mentality so maybe there will…
Did you know that online RV shopping is a LOT like online dating? No? I did it for you, so you don’t have to. In all seriousness, it is somewhat similar. Nice photos. Catchy list of amenities. Make appointment. Show up. Think you must be at wrong place as nothing looks like the photos. Then…
**************************** Did I feel a tug at the corner of the dream Which I must have ignored, glossed over Darted at through rose-colored glasses Via an edgewise glance And kept on dreaming, looking forward Did I hear ambivalence whisper, or Was it dissonance maybe? They can be so hard to differentiate, tease apart No matter…
I’ve been on sensory overload lately – not sure why. In this post are tidbits of thought, internal and external conversations, sights and smells, a photo or two and the requisite songs that have been running through my mind lately. Best read while drinking hot tea and listening to Jackie Greene’s “Travelin’ Song” Don’t have…
Yesterday was a rare treat, a double-header with two of my daughters and my four grandsons, plus helping the third daughter watch shop by text 🙂 It was also a two restaurant meal day for me, which is exceedingly unusual. In the midst of my ‘fake hiking & camping’ fun I had a birthday luncheon…
…and other unusual things said to me lately. Scent has always played a huge role in my life. As such, I own probably an inordinate amount of scented things, personal and home. I picked up a new perfume on a trip. It is very green, woodsy with a mossy undertone at dry down. It reminds…
Ensconced back in the micro-haus in balmy weather, last week feels like it passed in some kind of dream form. I’m pretty bone-weary in all honesty. It was a very emotional trip, in both good and bad ways, thanks to incredible friends. The roughshod road trip was to pick up venison on another person’s timeline.…
This experience, while considered by many to be slightly insane, is very educational for me. It is an opportunity to learn while learning is optional and not mandatory, or driven by necessity. I’ve known too many people relegated to a lifestyle they didn’t anticipate with no foreknowledge, myself included. The saving grace in my sleeping…
Sunflower Solace Farm 