2022 Happy To Be Here

With the closing of the year comes the final blog at this address. The new address should be 2023af.blogspot.com. It will be empty until I write again.  I look forward to seeing you there.  My only resolution is to try to do better.  It is pretty vague, but I'm going to work with it.  Here are some of the happy things from the last day of 2022: As the year closes, I realize I have deadlines to make. The weaving I have only sporadically been working on must be finished before the end of January. To that end, I'm going to attempt to work on it for at least 30 minutes a day until it is done. Today that got me through the first design of the sword and shield and just a little more.   I spent the evening at my friend Amy's house to ring in the new year. When I got there Heather, their old cat, decided that my backpack needed to be marked as hers. I wonder what our cats will do when I get home? We had dinner, watched two movies, and the ball drop in New York City.  Rather t

7:45 AM For some reason, I was surprised to see so many people at the beach this morning. I don't know why this surprised me, it is a vacation week. There weren’t a lot of people, just more than I expected. It is also beautiful and peaceful. The sounds of the waves crashing and mumbling their way in and out from the shore keeps away any noise of cars traveling by. I came to the beach to try to catch the sunrise but with cloud cover I either missed it or couldn't see it. It has been a long time since I came to the beach. I'm writing this while sitting on a cold, damp rock in North Hampton, NH. It is utterly enjoyable to just 'be' for a little while. Water moved rocks during a recent storm. People move rocks too. 8:31 AM I walked about 2.4 miles back and forth along the sidewalk and on the rocks and sand. There was one person who took a quick swim and another who was on some kind of surfboard. Dog walkers, joggers and others were also out in the bright Decembe

 Once again I am awake longer than I should be.  At least I am not working tonight.  That is something to be happy about.  Other happy things from today: Sleep was hard last night.  I kept waking up only to find that it was way too early and to go back to sleep.  When my first alarm went off, I fell back to sleep until alarm number two.  Even though I overslept, I made it to work on time. I wished a Happy New Year to a fellow employee on my way out of work and ended up with being told stories from their life.  It was interesting. The sky after the sun had set and there was still some color was quite beautiful.  I'm glad I happened to see it on my way up the stairs. ☮ Currently reading: Pocketful of Miracles: Prayer, Meditations, and Affirmations to Nurture Your Spirit Every Day of the Year , Joan Borysenko. Currently listening to: The House in the Cerulean Sea , by TJ Klune. Thank you for being part of my happy things. Stay safe.

Thankful Wednesday. Here are some things I am thankful for on this winter day: The old oak tree is still standing on the back property. I didn’t go all the way to it, just far enough to get a picture. Both of my wildlife cameras are not working. I am thankful that I got to use them for a while and see some of the wildlife on the property. I am thankful for the Christmas entertainment that I have been watching and continue to enjoy on both Netflix and Disney+. ☮ Currently reading: Pocketful of Miracles: Prayer, Meditations, and Affirmations to Nurture Your Spirit Every Day of the Year , Joan Borysenko. Currently listening to: The House in the Cerulean Sea , by TJ Klune. Thank you for being part of my happy things. Stay safe.

Somehow I remembered to take care of the wildlife camera. Unfortunately, the SD card doesn’t want to work or the camera is broken and won’t read the card. I’m still happy that I remembered to go out and try to take care of it.  The path is a little overgrown from lack of use. Other happy things from today: Gideon has a friend over. I’m happy that he has a day to play with a friend. He doesn’t get that very often. I have a bunch of candy from Christmas and I am thoroughly enjoying this. When the candy is gone, I will cut back on my sugar and I’m going to reduce my gluten too. For now I will embrace the sugars. Christmas movies aren’t over for me yet. I watched a few episodes of the series Dash & Lily that I started with the family on Christmas Eve.  I'm enjoying this Christmas series, it has intrigue. ☮ Currently reading: Pocketful of Miracles: Prayer, Meditations, and Affirmations to Nurture Your Spirit Every Day of the Year , Joan Borysenko. Currently listening to: Th

It seems that I haven’t checked on the wildlife camera in the woods on our property since June. Most of what was recorded was the leaves blowing in the breeze. Tomorrow the batteries will be charged and I can get it set up again. Hopefully I will get myself out there more often so that this doesn’t happen again. Other happy things for today: I spent some time at the studio getting my new tablet set up. Most of the apps I want are on there I think. I finished watching The Santa Clauses series.  I enjoyed it. My friend, Amy, and I went for a walk along the Londonderry Rail Trail. We walked over four miles. There was ice on most of the water by the trail. One place with rushing water had ice formations alongside it. It was very pretty. ☮ Currently reading: Pocketful of Miracles: Prayer, Meditations, and Affirmations to Nurture Your Spirit Every Day of the Year , Joan Borysenko. Currently listening to: The House in the Cerulean Sea , by TJ Klune. Thank you for being part of my happ

 Even on my days off I try to get up fairly early.  It took me a while to be productive, but my laundry made it into the wash before the rest of the house woke up and that was the goal.  Here are some happy things from this Christmas day: The stockings were overflowing this morning.  There were lots of treats all around.   We had a practical Christmas so things like clothing, closet rods, and kitchen items were happily given and received.  I got something that I didn't know what it was and they had to tell me.  It is a teflon liner for the stove top.  I'm the one who usually cleans the stove top and this should make the job a lot easier.  Yay! We had a big breakfast after presents.  I made the French toast with eggnog and French toast bread.   I heard from my best friend from high school, Bel & Folke, TF, Amy, and other family and friends with holiday wishes.   I finally made the time to do more setup of my new laptop and I am using it to write this blog. The rest of the fa

With care, we hung the stockings by the chimney -that no longer works- in the living room.  Winston by the fire. Happy Christmas Eve!  Here are some happy highlights from today: What we are using as a Christmas tree this year is finally ready. Keziah had this idea and yesterday she put it together. Today it got decorated and the presents were placed nearby. She created a "tree" out of the empty boxes we've been receiving deliveries in. Unfortunately, many things came in bags instead. The "tree" is perfect for the safety of the cats. Nanni is under the "tree". Not only did I get myself a laptop with money I've been saving, I got myself a Kindle Fire tablet with my overtime money from this month. It arrived today. I don't know when I will have the time to start using my new toys.  I may have gone overboard on myself this year. We watched three holiday shows this evening. The first was my favorite, Emmet Otter’s Jug-Band Christmas . Gideon s

Things at work have slowed down so when voluntary time off was offered, I took it. I'm scheduled and still plan to work tonight. The part of me that likes a larger paycheck thinks I should have stayed at work. The part that finished Christmas shopping with Keziah this morning is very happy.  Other happy things from today: In the quiet before everyone else was awake I was able to weave.  I finished weaving on the award for fencing and I started the next one.   The weather outside is frightful. Winds are gusting such that the rain is sometimes horizontal. If this were snow, it would probably be a Blizzard. Gideon loves the rain and was very excited to just listen to it when he woke up this morning. Yesterday I finished watching The Santa Clause 3 . I don't think I had seen that one before. The Santa Clauses is new this year. It is a series and I watched the first two episodes today.   Keziah brought home my last two pieces of pottery.  They are finished. Keziah received a gre

Part of me is excited about working on December 24th, part of me is not. Two more days of work and I don't know when I will finish the little bit of holiday shopping I have left to do. I have one big happy for today: A few days ago I mailed a package to Texas. Today it reached its new home with TF.  It also happens to be her birthday, so the timing was good. I sent her a few things, including the earrings I made for her. The big thing I sent to her was the iPad that I won through work a few weeks ago.  It isn't very often I get something like that to give away (like ever?).  She was very surprised and happy which made me happy. The box contents. ☮ Currently reading: Pocketful of Miracles: Prayer, Meditations, and Affirmations to Nurture Your Spirit Every Day of the Year , Joan Borysenko. Currently listening to: The House in the Cerulean Sea , by TJ Klune. Thank you for being part of my happy things. Stay safe

Happy Winter Solstice! It is Thankful Wednesday. Work gave us food again, breakfast burritos. I'm thankful it was good and that I liked it. Other things I am thankful for: Being greeted by Gideon with a hug when I came home from work today.  I'm thankful for holly, jolly, Christmas movies. I finished watching The Santa Clause 2 after work.  I've finished the initial setup of the new laptop. I need to sit down with both laptops to get all the things I want onto the new one. This might not happen until Christmas.  Only three more work days left in my work week!  This is the last mandatory five day work week for me for a while.  I'm so very thankful for that. Solstice Sunset ☮ Currently reading: Pocketful of Miracles: Prayer, Meditations, and Affirmations to Nurture Your Spirit Every Day of the Year , Joan Borysenko. Currently listening to: The House in the Cerulean Sea , by TJ Klune. Thank you for being part of my happy things. Stay safe

The problem with getting new technology is the time it takes to set it up. I'm tired and I'm hoping that my new laptop will still be at the same spot when I try to finish setting it up tomorrow. The new laptop is pretty and a little bigger than my other one. It will never be this clean again. Other happy things from today: Bagels, cream cheese, and fruit salad were served at work today. This is the last week of mandatory extra time, I think. Maybe we'll get food every day this week. Keziah learned to throw pottery off the hump today. That is when a large chunk of clay is used to make many small pieces. It is a cool technique and I am happy for her. On Facebook I had a bunch of Happy Birthday messages from yesterday.  It is nice to see and makes me feel special. ☮ Currently reading: Pocketful of Miracles: Prayer, Meditations, and Affirmations to Nurture Your Spirit Every Day of the Year , Joan Borysenko. Currently listening to: The House in the Cerulean Sea , by TJ Klune.

Working strange hours meant I did not get enough sleep last night. I woke up somewhere around three in the morning and couldn't fall back to sleep. The good news is that I should fall asleep easily once I've finished writing this. Other happy things from today: Keziah took me out for a mother-daughter breakfast for my birthday today. We ate and did some errands. It was nice to spend time with her.  In the afternoon my friend, Amy, and I went for a nice walk in the cold. The morning was sunny, but the winds picked up and flurries fell on our walk. It was a nice visit and the cold air was refreshing.  Bel called me to wish me a happy birthday and we got to talk for a little bit. So nice to hear from my youngest. They are in Maryland now and I don’t know when I’ll be able to see them again. Hopefully not too long.  The new laptop that Zed ordered for me arrived today! I have no time today to set it up, hopefully tomorrow after work. ☮ Currently reading: Pocketful of Mir

There are three games I try to play every day: Wordle , Chrono , and Sedecordle . I usually play them during breaks at work or when I am pacing at home.  In Sedecordle the player is given 21 turns to figure out 16 five letter words. I have three words that I use every game to start off which means I have only two more things that I can get wrong before losing. Today was one of the rare days that one of my starter words was a right answer. Other happy things from today: Tomorrow is my birthday so today we went out for breakfast to celebrate. It was a lot of fun and I'm grateful to the family for joining me in the celebration. This afternoon I joined Keziah and a friend at the studio and tried to help Keziah pattern a dress. It is something I am new at but was happy to help. There were friends over for dinner. One brought her menorah and lit the first candle for the first day of Hanukkah.  I finished watching The Santa Clause .  I plan to watch the rest of that series during t

Right after I parked my car to go to work I got a notification from the company. They were offering voluntary time off. I decided that I would go to work, since I was there already. I went in and saw that there was hardly any work to do and I (and some others) didn't have an assignment. So I put my name onto a list for voluntary time off. I got an assignment and ten minutes later they replaced me and I was out the door. Other happy things from today: I was able to sleep for about three hours before getting up again for the day.  While the family slept, I got some weaving done. I'm very close to having the first of three champion's pieces done.  Crossed fencing swords. When the family was up we made cream of wheat and toast and all had breakfast together.  Since I was home and had slept I was able to go to a craft gathering at Joann's with Keziah and see friends. I embroidered three letter D's to put onto favors.   I also finished putting the backing on my c

Happy Friday! These long work weeks for me have me forgetting what day of the week it is. Friday means I have one more night to work. I expect it to be busy. Here are some happy things from today: It was ugly Christmas sweater day at work. I wore an ugly Christmas sweatshirt. Most people didn't participate. Some did.  One person had a light up sweater, someone else had a Christmas Kraken sweater. It was nice to see people having fun with it.  We had a plowable amount of snow. I'm still having a hard time with winter this year, but the snow on the trees is pretty.  The picture doesn't show the pretty snow on the trees, just in the yard. Keziah introduced me to the show The Great Pottery Throw Down . It is a pottery competition show. I only watched the first episode and then started watching another Christmas movie. Maybe I'll get back to the pottery show after the holiday.   ☮ Currently reading: Pocketful of Miracles: Prayer, Meditations, and Affirmations to Nu