Small Whines

Over on my Facebook page I am very perky and thankful right now, so I can't whine there. However, here I make my own rules and suspect that few people will ever know I blog-whined, and there is a certain freedom in that.

My neck hurts. On the left side of my neck, behind my left ear it is swollen a bit and very tender to the touch. Now the tenderness/throbbing has grown to include the left side of my scalp and the front of my ear as well. I think it is a seriously subluxated top vertebra because the intensity can be affected by my sitting/standing position.

I have two tiny finger cuts, one of which hurts.

I have a low-grade fever.

For two days my tummy has hurt, like I have gas but the pain and bloating won't go away no matter how organic my yogurt or apple cidar vinegar, both of which usually keep my irritable innards behaving reasonably well. Blech. I think it's stress. This is a packed week. So is next week, and - well, until Christmas the pressure is on.

Sprained my ankle a bit yesterday while doing inspections.

(Are you catching the barely sentient vibe here?)

And to top things off, the frame on my frameless glasses broke. Yep. My expensive really hip glasses are super-glued together. Uh-huh. So Todd's wonderful solution may get me through until new glasses are available, but the lenses are slightly tipped, the prescription is changed, and my eyes hurt. Ache. Poor me.

And then I remember how small are my woes. Compared with so many, my selfish whine is pathetic. Still, I'm posting this because it is making me feel better just WHINING. And I think my fever may be gone. Hooray for large doses of Extra Strength Tylenol.

My camera is in Anchorage, but I have thoughts, so I'll share. Michael's last regular season football game is tonight, but it's in Florence and weather is supposed to be torrential rains coming sideways, so Todd and I are staying home. Date night! We are thawing venison backstrap and thinking Redbox. Any movie suggestions? Last Saturday we rewatched The Proposal - I liked it better the first time.

I have been thankful this week for the Harvest Moon. Wow - huge and varied in color. When I first saw it, Todd and I were coming home from inspections and the moon was full and huge and glowed like an irridescent pearl. The next night it was amber colored and hung over the football game.

What a dreadful thing to have happened at Fort Hood. I keep remembering and praying for those involved. I heard from Ryan and he said everyone over there is pretty shook up too.

Nancy Doner stopped by yesterday morning and we met at My Coffee in Roseburg, my absolute fave spot for the good drink. She filled me in on many of my old friends from Sand Lake Baptist, and that was great. She is quite a gal.

When will I have time to paint the apartment? I know the colors already, but need a dedicated three or four days, and those are pretty scarce. I also need a dedicated week for collections in the office. Sigh - I don't like collections. Did you ever just want to duck out of regular life for a while? Yeah. And I still haven't planted my winter planters for the porches.

But in general things are fine with so much to be thankful for! The rain, the blue sky peeking through occasionally, my family, our business, the Lord's great love and mercy, opportunity to serve Him meaningfully. These are treasures.

Or - Maybe Not!

It looks like Priscilla will have other company on her trip north!

Heading for the North Land

After almost five years that she has lived with us, Priscilla is moving back to Alaska. There have been many great things about her living here, and we will miss her often and thoroughly. But she isn't done with Alaska and her family calls from there.

Monday morning we plan to begin the trip. We'll start with a loaded U-Haul and drive it and her car to Tacoma. There the hired day-labor guys will unload the U-Haul onto pallets before the pallets are loaded into a container which will then be loaded onto a barge which will take her things up to Anchorage.

Tuesday morning early, the plan is to drive north as far as we can get - hopefully to Prince George. We want to drive very far per day in warmer, lighter B.C.. Who knows what weather and roads will bring in the Yukon and Alaska? Actually, snow and cold are anticipated for much of the trip.

I expect great beauty. I expect long cold days. I pray for the Lord's covering. Would you pray for us on our trip?

After a couple of recuperation/visiting days in Anchorage, I will board a large jet plane and fly direct to Portland. It will be good to get back home.

Annual Breakfast with Jim

For anyone's information, our brother Jim works as a spiritual mentor (I think that's the politically correct term) with the athletes from a prestigious university located in Palo Alto, CA. Anyway, he travels with the football team and they were up to play the Beav's in Corvallis, but they stayed in Eugene. We usually drive north to share breakfast with him on game day. Since this is Priscilla's last opportunity (as she is moving back to Alaska), off we went.

The sunrise down the valley was worth a photo before we took off.

This is the properly posed version...
...this is the - "Wait! I wasn't ready and was talking" version!

Mr. Camera-shy actually agreed to pose with Jim and me! We had a great time chatting over a nice breakfast before Jim had to move on with his duties.

Big Buck on Hunting Season's First Day!

Todd had just told me that he had never gotten a buck on the first day of hunting season. A few minutes later he said, "There's a huge buck! Everyone stay back from the windows!" (In case you don't know, we live on 14 acres on top of a mountain - our own hunting grounds!) Of course, we all gathered at the windows to see what was going on! It was amazing - this large buck had about four does with him and he was just casually browsing right beside the driveway.

Todd harvested him in exactly the same spot as last year's buck, and Tyler helped skin and clean him out. Freezer meat!
Good eating this winter - way to go, Todd!!!

"Duct Tape" Days for Homecoming

Todd and Michael created this amazing Viking helmet for Michael's senior year homecoming duct tape day.

All that weight training and football practice is paying off!
The Nacho Libre mask even got a duct-tape covering!