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My View From Here

Living in the city, no matter the size, is waking in the morning to the smell and feel of fresh night air. A yawn and a stretch later, that intoxicating aroma is smothered by the sickening odor of exhaust and fumes of an awaking city full of automobiles rushing to a destination of “another day, another dollar” hoping to make ends meet in an increasingly greedy world.

Closing the window as if closing my mind to this life in the city where each house surrounding ours feels like claustrophobia crowding out the freedom I felt on the four acres that was once our home in the country. Will my longing for a return to that life ever cease?

Children’s eyes are different. They do not view life the same as adult’s eyes do. Young people see each day or each event as an opportunity for adventure. 

Recently, my grandson and his friend shared an ephemeral moment in the rain, one of those moments that was as forever memorable as it was fleeting.

Two eight-year-old boys walking in the rain, pouring from giant buckets in the clouds. They could barely see their water soaked shoes as they splashed through growing puddles on their journey toward a moment of discovery two blocks away… pipes and drains, drain fields, and rising water. How did the water get in the pipes? Why was the water rushing out of them like a firehose? How much water could the drain field hold?

Shivering, wet, and cold, yet undeterred, they returned home full of excitement and questions about their discovery, each of them barely noticing the towels their mothers wrapped around their soaking wet bodies, heads shaking the water out of their hair like puppies shaking their furry bodies, twisting and turning and wagging their tails hoping someone will pay attention to them and pet them lovingly. 

This was a moment frozen in my mind as I longed to be eight again to feel the freedom and excitement of new discoveries… even in rain-soaked clothing. Not having a care in the world other than having fun with my friend in a field in the rain. Even in the city…. Children’s eyes are different. 

I wish that at almost 60, I could relax and enjoy the freedom of discovery on a rainy afternoon like a child, and not worry about my shoes being wet, or my hair looking flat, or water dripping onto the carpet upon my return. Adults view life differently.

I’m not saying one decade of life is better or worse than another. It’s just different.  Ahhhhh….

Posted on by ChatterLei

Unexpected Drive

Today, I accepted my second Amazon Flex block ever. It was a 4-hour block that paid $95. When my husband and I pulled into the lane as directed in the outdoor Amazon loading dock, I was happy to see only two bins of packages for me to deliver today. I proceeded to scan and load the packages into my car, Olive. (She is little and black, so her name is perfect! And, did I mention she gets 45mpg in town? 37mpg on the highway? Yes!) 

As I started sorting the envelopes into the plastic tote to keep them from getting lost amongst the boxes, I noticed one was addressed to a lady in Inkom and one in Pocatello. Turns out that all of the packages were going to Pocatello or Inkom. What!? I had to drive an hour before I could even start delivering?! That was unexpected. I thought all of the deliveries I would be doing as a flex driver would be local. I wasn’t so sure it was worth the money.

Especially when at one of the last stops, I had a huge scare… my first run-in with not just one, but two huge dogs! Rottweilers? Mastiffs? One of each? I am not sure, but they each had a bark like they could take me down and eat me in one gulp! Maybe two or three.

I had walked warily past the beware of dogs sign, up the steps, and onto the large deck toward the front door. I paused before reaching out to knock, as I could see that the door behind the heavy old-fashioned wooden blue painted screen door was open.

They must have heard my approach. Just then, the first dog flew through the unlatched screen door, throwing it open so hard it slammed against the house. I was surprised, but honed in on his barking mouth. He did not bare his teeth or foam at the mouth as he ran past me, rather than straight at me. In that split second, I figured I would be ok. Until… the second dog came barreling through the screen door at break-neck speed. I prepared for the worst. My entire body tensed, waiting for the bite. My arm? My leg? Would he jump at me to attack? Nope. He ran right past me, barking louder than his buddy.

At the same moment, his owner with a gray scraggly beard appeared at the door. Walking through the door, he gently placed his hand on my shoulder to calm me. (I am sure I looked petrified.)

His wife, not much taller than those big dogs, followed behind him and said, “The dogs won’t bite. They are friendly.”

I exhaled, forced a smile, said thank you, and handed her the bubble-padded envelope. She walked with me back to my car parked in the dirt driveway a fair distance from her front door. Her husband secured the dogs near the house.

I opened my car door and melted into my seat, finally able to breathe normally. I backed us down the driveway and out onto the road. The shaking and teary eyes could not be helped as my body was relieved of the tension and added adrenaline that was released in my “flight or fight” moment.

Those famous last words were playing over and over in my head, “Get a gun.” Meaning a stungun for protection from animals. If only I could remember the one recommended to me before I decided to start delivering with Amazon.

The positives from today were the beautiful fall weather, the view, not becoming lunch for those two dogs, and having my husband with me. Days like today make me feel like I want to travel.

Beautiful Colors
Posted on by ChatterLei

Beautiful views

Utah’s beauty this time of year is exceptional! Though my husband is in the hospital due to a knee replacement revision, we have both enjoyed nature’s changing weather and colors. Here are a few photos from my husband’s hospital room on the 6th floor:

They view from my hotel room:

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Football Season

Football season is a wonderful time of year. Today, the air is crisp and cool. The sun is lighting up the blue sky and brightening the wispy high clouds, a beautiful background to the fading green leaves. All of the windows are open, letting the cool air and aroma of freshly cut grass waft in through the screens and permeate our home, the feel of winter pushing not far behind. Sweatshirts and blankets are the new relaxed look of the day.

My players are set in two leagues for Fantasy Football. It used to be that my husband watched football every chance he got and I would busy myself with other things. Now, I can’t wait to watch football to cheer on my fantasy football players and excitedly watch as my numbers go up and up on my matchup, while my husband enjoys one of the last nice days outside soaking in the few rays of sunshine.

This week, I am matched up against a coworker with a pretty good team. His quarterback is T. Tagovailoa, who scored 55.5 points! But, that was no match for my quarterback, K. Cousins, who scored 56.0 points! It was a virtual tie. However, I am now a total of 24 points ahead of my opponent, and he has only one player to play Monday night. I am hopeful my 24-point lead will be enough to win. He is a smack-talker, so it would be nice to shut him down.  😉

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Sky action!

Clouds are intriguing. The form, shapes, color, size, speed of movement. The lightening, dancing through the sky from one cloud to another. Ahhh! I love it all!

The setting sun behind a growing thunderhead passing over us, tonight, lit up the clouds like an explosion in the sky!

The feeling was incredible, standing under an amazing, ominous, burning group of clouds exploding in the sky, as if marching on to victory.

Not a single drop of rain fell to ground in our neighborhood. The lightening danced. The thunder roared. Somewhere, it rained. But here? The umbrellas stayed dry.

Posted on by ChatterLei · 1 Comment

Rainy Days and Mondays

If you are retired, you might need to remember back to when you had to work on a Monday and just what that felt like. Until 3 years ago, all of my jobs for the past 17 years included having Mondays off. I loved it! It’s been three years and I still have not adjusted fully to working on Mondays. I like to have the weekend to play and then have Monday to sleep in a little, then clean the house. Now, I cram everything into two days. It’s exhausting! 😊 

Dad Jokes

Today, at work, the young men who work as aides at our PT clinic were on a roll with their “dad jokes,” which is funny because none of them are dads, yet. All of them are newly married (married about two years or less).

  • Do you know what a dancing bird is called?

               A twerky.

  • Do you know what is odd?

               Every other number.

See! Dad jokes!

They tell the jokes so seriously that I can’t help but laugh out loud, then they start laughing, which makes me laugh harder. I enjoy where I work, who I work with, and the fact that age does not matter. We are like a big family.  

I guess working on Monday is not so bad after all, even though it was raining outside. 😊

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Ahhh…. Grrr

Exiting the chilled temperature of the PT Department, the warmth hit my face like the heat escaping an oven through the opened oven door.

The wind is blowing through the shrubs and trees. Leaves, rustling in the warm breeze, is the only sound I could hear as I sat down at the round metal grate table.

I was enjoying this moment of peaceful beauty when suddenly, breaking through the quiet solitude from the next table over, was the sound of my co-worker’s cell phone blaring a comedy show!! Really?!

As I was walking up the stairs to leave my invaded sanctuary, I took a call from my husband. We talked while I walked. I vented to him about my first world issue. He shared with me the good news from his urologist that he is healing well post-operatively. He should not have any more prostate problems. If he does, he knows who to call.

I’m feeling better already. A short walk and talk was all I needed. Do you ever have moments like that?

Posted on by ChatterLei

In My Own Words: The Big Flood

My DH said my blogs should be written in my own words, rather than written with the help to ChatGPT. So, you just get me and my own words on my blog. Sorry for your bad luck! 😉

Last evening after I returned home from a long day at work, it began to rain. From our kitchen window, I could see the rain change from hard rain, to downpour to raining in SHEETS of water, sideways! I met my husband in the front room to watch out the window to view the street in front of our house. The wind was blowing hard as the rain turned to hail and new spring leaves started blowing off of the trees in the neighborhood. It was a crazy unusual spring storm.

Our neighbor across the street and couple of houses down from us had flooding in their basement. A coworker showed me a short video she took of a passing car driving through the “river” that used to be the road in front of her house. There was so much water that when the car drove through, it caused waves to roll up onto my coworker’s driveway and sidewalk toward her front door. The water stopped about 1 foot from a window well to her basement. She was fortunate the rain slowed when it did. The water did not get into her house. We were fortunate as well. Our basement is dry. No flooding. I heard stories of lots of flooded basements around town. My heart goes out to them.

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In My Own Words: The Big Flood

This morning, on my way to work, I could see small pockets of hail piled up in corners, near fences and houses. There were leaves plastered to cars, fences, and houses. Our little neighborhood park and storm field were filled with water. They looked like beautiful still lakes where the kids usually play. It was oddly beautiful.

New Neighborhood Lake 😉