Turning51

I woke up at 5:00 AM to discover that John was gone. I didn’t worry too much about it, until I realized there was actually something in the bed with me.

Maybe it was John, but it had no head on the pillow. So I lifted the pillow, and there was no head under the pillow either! There was a headless something in bed with me!

I started patting the angular, headless object with increasing agitation (yeah, ok, I was hitting it) until suddenly a long arm reached up from down near my feet and patted me back. It was John, and he was alive.

My sleep-numbed brain tried to figure the situation out. Why was I sleeping with his feet? Finally I said, “Was I snoring?” and he said, “No.” And that was all. So WTF John?!?

That’s the question.

When I moved back to New Mexico, I promised myself I’d go out to the coast at least once or twice a year. (The desert is wonderful – until it’s not).

Therefore, I scheduled two beach trips this year, one in April and one in August. I made reservations at Fort Bragg, California, for both of them, because we’ve been there before and know we like it.

Then our April trip was a near-disaster. There was no cell tower and the wifi was broken. In theory, this could have created a welcome retreat from the world. But in reality, we ended up needing to deal with issues with a rental of ours that we were selling, and it wasn’t possible for us to be completely cut off from all communication. We spent most of two days trying to get the wifi fixed, and then gave up.

We tried to salvage our vacation elsewhere in California, got rained out, and just managed to prolong our drive home by two extra days of cruddy motel rooms that always looked way nicer on the outside than on the inside.

Understandably, John does not want to go back to the beach in August. I’m also dreading the thought of another long drive out there (even if we fly, it’s still a long drive to that remote location). So three times I’ve started to send the “sorry we have to cancel” email to the owner of the vacation rental. And I just can’t send it. Darn it, I want my beach vacation!

John’s been looking into other alternatives – mountain lakes, etc. But lakes just aren’t the Pacific coast beaches.

The problem with posting minute details about my daily life, such as the making of a pie, is that my husband then comes home after a 5-day business trip and expects pie!  Pie? What pie?

If a pie gets eaten in the middle of the night and no one was there to see it, did it ever exist?

The problem with going on a short jog in the morning is then I think I get to eat pie for breakfast.

Estimated calories someone of my weight would burn jogging 2 miles = 180

Estimated calories in a slice (1/8 of 9″) of 2-crust blackberry pie = 393

I would have been better off staying home and sitting on my butt like yesterday.

I have new driving glasses!  They are the coolest ever because they have sunglass lenses that attach with magnets!

 

I don’t need them indoors, except in very large spaces like auditoriums.

They’re mostly for driving and for going to concerts, because things in the distance were slowly…becoming…vague.

At first I just thought it was due to moving to New Mexico, where the sight distance is hundreds of miles.  But finally I had to admit, it was me.

Wow, what a difference!

But the funny thing is, when you’re nearsighted, getting new glasses is like getting the world, with all its imperfections, shoved right up into your face.

It’s like when you’re late to a movie and have to go sit in the front row. You lean back as far as you can lean, but still, the onslaught!

This guy’s pretty cute though, actually.

It’s like, whoa, does no one in New Mexico ever wash their car?

And what’s with all the little bits of trash along the road?

And critters too! Some things just aren’t meant to be seen all sharp and clear and coming right at you.

It’s like I suddenly have x-ray vision.  Get it away, get it away, I just don’t want to see that!

I’ll tell you what though, I am hoping I’ll be wearing these glasses next time I spot a bobcat walking through our yard!

UPDATE!  I just saw her! I just saw the bobcat!  Less than 2 hours after I wrote that I wanted to be wearing my new glasses the next time I saw her! And I haven’t seen her since last fall!

Right after dinner I went up to the house on the hill that we’re going to remodel, and I was outside laying caution tape to mark where I want to build a courtyard.

First I saw a dog-sized shadow disappear around the corner of the house. So I went around the house in the other direction, and got a good look at her before she disappeared off the slope. Then I went back to my work and she came back! I looked up and she had come back down and was sniffing at the caution tape!

 

And yes, I was wearing my new glasses! Geez, if I knew it was Kristina-gets-a-wish-day, I would have wished for a million dollars!

However, I was not carrying my phone, so I have no pictures, so you’re probably not going to believe me.  After she came back the second time, acting fearless, I did go to my car to retrieve my phone. Having no pockets, I shoved it into my bra.  But that definitely scared the bobcat away. That would scare anyone away. Don’t even get me started again about phones and no pockets.

I really wanted to reassure her that although there will be dogs moving up there, they will stay behind the courtyard wall, and they can’t get out. So she doesn’t have to move away.  But I’m afraid as soon as we get moved up there, she will move.  I’m sorry bobcat. I wish you knew you could stay.

I skipped my morning exercise, sat down in my pajamas without even a shower, and started beading.  Next thing I know it’s mid-afternoon.

And I feel so guilty – not because beading is evil.  It’s just pointless.  There are so many more useful things I could be doing with my time. And the world needs so much right now. There’s a huge number of useful volunteer activities I could be doing.

I also could be marketing my coaching business, or packing to move. And John works so hard, it doesn’t feel fair if I’m just spending half the day amusing myself.

 

Ooops.

I was talking to Darren last night and he mentioned that he had just bought some rhubarb to make a pie. I got inspired – although not enough to bother going out to look for rhubarb.  I figured the frozen berries in my freezer were good enough.

The problem with frozen fruit is it’s too wet – even though I partially thawed and drained it.  Actually, that’s not even why.  I always boil my pies over, even with fresh fruit.  I overload the pans, because I like my pies all plump and heaped up, and not flat after the filling cooks down.

The pie looks great!  The oven, not so much.

As the title suggests, I’ve been particularly phone challenged these last few days. Not only did I drop my phone on Wednesday and have to take it in to get it fixed, it also went missing while we were running errands last night! We retraced our steps and asked at all 4 stores we had visited, only to find it sitting on my desk when we got home!

 

Although smart phones make many things in life much easier, I find keeping track of mine to be a challenge. I can’t put it in my back pocket or it’ll fall in the toilet! It doesn’t fit in my front pocket because women’s front pockets aren’t deep enough. I can’t hear it if I leave it in my purse.

 

I find myself picking it up and setting it down in some new spot every hour or so, as I change activities and move around the house. Even when it’s not lost, it could be in any number of likely places. Kitchen counter, bathroom counter, nightstand, desk, dining room table, dresser, window sill, coffee table, laundry room, etc. It’s like “Where’s Waldo?”

 

I’ve seriously considered creating some sort of retro wall mount for it, and making myself put it there every time I put it down. It would save me a lot of wandering around looking for my phone.

Look, they make wall mounts for iPhones!

But do I really have the discipline to get up off the couch and put my phone in its designated special place many times per day, when it’s perfectly fine sitting on the end table?

I think an Apple watch would help, by decreasing the number of times I feel like I need to find and check my phone, and alert me when my phone is ringing out of earshot. But an Apple watch isn’t an actual phone.

What I really want is a wearable phone.  So I googled that, and yep, there are some concepts being developed, but not much on the market yet.

Here is a cool looking phone-watch for kids, that lets them call up to 5 preprogrammed numbers, so they can stay in contact with their parents and primary caregivers. http://www.myfilip.com/about-filip/

Now that I think about it, how many numbers do I regularly call every day?

That’s it!  I need a kid’s phone!