A-List

 What a difference a day makes!  Work was so much better today than yesterday and I was only there for an hour yesterday.  Here is the list of happy things for today:

• Although I will miss the students I just met this year as well as the team I have been working with for a few years, I was moved today to a different grade at work.  I am with the students I had last year and I am looking forward to the challenge of working with a new team of teachers.
• I got my flu shot.
• Because of all the stress I have had lately I took an opportunity today to speak with the school psychologist.  It was worth while and I am glad I took the time and grateful for her insight.
• The reason I am now in a different grade is that my work friend has left this school and will be starting a new job at a different school.  She will be missed, good thing we have phones and such.  It was nice to be able to work with her today though.
• At least one of the students was sorry to see me leave their grade today.  I honestly didn't think they were liking me.  
• The principal gave me a mask to try.
• Teamwork.
• Breakfast for dinner.
• After work I was productive, K & I even went grocery shopping.
• There was a rain storm this afternoon and it was followed be the sun setting bright with darker clouds and pink/orange wisps that caught the sun.  
• I can't believe I have sketched my was to day seven of Inktober.

Inktober day 7.

☮

Stay safe.

Happy Birthday, K.

As I said yesterday, I am feeling the physical aspects of the stress of working in a school.  Today I felt okay when I got up, worse and worse on the way to school, and went home after being there for an hour.  I rested a little after I got home and then spent the day with the family doing things for K's birthday.  She turned thirty today.  As it gets later I am starting to feel bad again.  It is all stress, I don't like being an in-person essential worker.  If I lived by myself, I don't think working like this would bother me so much, instead I'd be very lonely.  Some days I seem to be able to handle the stress better than others.  

During one of my walks today I was distracted by thoughts of work and fell.  It seemed fine, now I am achy from it.  My apologies for bringing the cloud that was over me today here, reader.  There were happy things today too:

• Enola Holmes.
• Walking with Gideon and hearing his thoughts on making Star Trek fan fiction.
• Being with the family.  
• A caprese sandwich from the Common Man.
• C & E will hopefully be here in a few days.
• I think the shower has been successfully caulked.  I'll check again tomorrow before reattaching the doors.
• Inktober day six is rodent.  Somewhere I have a sweatshirt with two mice embroidered on it, one white and one black.  Their tales are intertwined into a small and simple celtic knot.  I embroidered this for a family member who had a mouse problem in her house.  She hated them, but the stories we told about them always set us to laughing.  The black and white mice were symbols of the love-hate relationship with them.  If I could have found the sweatshirt, that would have been my reference.  Instead I just quickly drew a rodent in pencil, because my pen has disappeared.  

Inktober, in pencil.

Part of feeling better was getting fresh air
for me and the family.

They are such a wonderful couple.

☮

Stay safe.

Walking.

 The stress of working in a classroom during a pandemic is definitely taking a physical toll on me.  When I get home and can go for a walk it helps, quite a bit.  It doesn't seem to be enough to energize me through the work day.  I wish it was.

Happy things for today include:

• Walking.
• Going just a little way on a trail I had not been on before.
• A call from a friend.
• Learning that I probably don't have a future career in applying caulk to a shower-I'm okay with this.
• Helping students learn.
• We have a large Comfy Sack bean bag chair in the living room.  It is pretty much blocking the door between the living room and dining room.  This means that I can no longer walk around in a circle to get steps.  Today Gideon ran around the house jumping onto the bean bag chair from the dining room, laughing hysterically, jumping off in the living room and running around again, repeat.  He had a blast and it was fun to watch too.
• Getting to play a small part in a surprise Z planned for K's thirtieth birthday.
• Being spotted today while walking down the street by a SCAdian.
• Inspiring another to participate in Inktober.  

Part of the new-to-me trail.

Tall tree.

Pretty colors.

More pretty colors.

Sunsetting over the house.

A blade for Inktober.

☮

Stay safe.

Sunday

 It was a bright, sunny, and chill morning.  I chose to try to clean up the sidewalk area in front of the house.  I did not complete this task, again.  I tried to clean it up back in June, too.  I got more of the area cleaned up than last time.  By the time I stopped, I was achey.  The realization that I didn't eat breakfast yet and it was lunch time had created a very tired me.  After a healthy breakfast, I took a nap.  K had a few friends over this afternoon so that helped convince me that waking up again was important.  It was good to see them, even outside today though, people seemed a bit much.  One of the good parts about the visit is that I got my resume updated and gave it to a friend to submit to her company.  It would be a remote job.  Other happy things:

• Inktober number four is done.  I learned that the hashtag feature doesn't work in this blog.  This is still where I will be posting about it if I continue.
• Naps.
• Blankets... it is time to find more.  They keep us warm and comfy.
• Gideon snuggles.
• Sometimes the enthusiasm around the house is contagious.
• Pizza for dinner.

This is apparently a type of nightshade.
This WAS... it was part of what was pulled along the sidewalk.

Just an in progress shot.

This bird nest was upside down on the ground when I found it.
I decided to leave it there, it was very well built.

Okay, I might be a little obsessed with rabbit tobacco plants.

Violet.

The inktober category today was radio.
The first is a person on a hammock with headphones,
the second is a radio with headphones.

☮

Stay safe.

Too Many Pictures

 In a few minutes I am going back outside to view the sunset.  It is just after 6 PM and I want to get an early start on writing this.  My day has been fairly productive, not as much as I had hoped, but it was a relaxing type of productive, so that it good.  I took a few walks around the property.  Some things look the same each time, some I wonder how I missed seeing the first time.  Then there are the things that I see and try to locate again when I walk the next time and can't find. 

 For a little more than seven weeks I have managed to reach my 10,000 steps a day goal.  I feel that this exercise is finally starting to improve my mood.  Making the time to see the sunset and appreciate it is one of the joys of life.  Achievement attained; the sun has set.  Other happy things for today are:

• Pictures of the sunset have been taken and will be below.  
• One of the rabbit tobacco plants I walked by today has either been damaged by a creature or is reaching the point where the plant will be sending seeds forth to propagate, I believe the latter.  It didn't need to be bruised to smell that lovely maple sugar fragrance.
• There are so many bees right now. 
• Fall flowers are awesome.
• I've managed something for inktober today, third day in a row.  I have added those pictures at the very end of the blog.
• I helped K process apples today, there is a pie and apple sauce.  There is also the innards of a pie in the freezer for another time.
• The apple pie was yummy!
• I found my resume.
• Playing Minecraft with TF.

Rabbit Tobacco close up.

Rabbit Tobacco close up where
it seems to be getting ready to shed some seeds.

Deer print.

Aster and a bee.

The previous pictures were taken with my Samsung phone.
The following pictures were taken with the Canon camera.

Bee polinating.

Bee in flight.

View from out back.

More view from out back.

Rabbit tobacco.

Trees.

A very tall tree.
In the spring as I walked through the property I was impatient for the leaves to come.
Now I am watching them fall and wondering what it will look like blanketed with snow.

Behind me, the sky has turned orange as the sun begins to set,
this is why the trees are that color.

Sunsetting.
The colors aren't quite right.
There was more orange.

Cloud color.

☮

Stay safe.

#inktober- today the theme was bulky.  While drawing the first one I had the idea for the second sketch.

I did this in pencil first and then inked it.

This was done in ink.

Wrote the blog and forgot to publish it...  oops.

Wisp

 This was at least the fifth professional development day this school year (I've lost count) and the first one that I felt I had a reason to actually be onsite and not something that could have been remote.  We learned how to use the special chair to carry someone downstairs in an emergency.  Someone from the fire department visited to show us how.  It must have been a challenge to teach us.  To maintain social distancing we were spread along the stairs and into the hallway.  

It was raining again (yay!) and my friend and I were planning to meet and walk at a park.  We switched that to the mall instead.  When we got there, the sky had stopped shedding the moisture and was starting to clear.  We walked a little in the mall and then walked along the outside in the sun.  Other happy things for today:

• It is Friday.
• K has been making an outfit from the regency era, around 1810, and her enthusiasm for this has been contagious.  I'm looking forward to seeing the results.
• I attempted to draw a cloud wisp for Inktober.  I'm happy that I made the attempt.
• C and E bought a bus that they are going to convert to a living space.  

Before the walk.

After the walk.


#inktober
An attempt at a wisp of cloud.
I used a pen this time...
It would make a better monster than a wisp...

☮

Social Distance.

Moondance

 When I got home from this afternoon the van was not in its normal spot.  It was in the -- I have something heavy to unload and carry -- spot.  Then I remembered that there was the possibility that K would be getting a Comfy Sack from someone for free today.  Sure enough there is a very comfy AND very large bean bag couch in the living room.  It is soft and pleasant, at least for the short amount of time I was on it.  All it needs is a cover.  Other happy things include:

• Pretending to bite Z's arm as he pointed to things in front of me.  I mean, it was right there, and I didn't really bite it.
• Not the happy part: my friend from work is leaving next week to a new job.  Happy part: we walked today, about 5 miles.  We also made plans to try to get together and walk about once a week going forward.  
• Reading comments.
• The quick write in language arts today was to create a story in ten minutes that included the words dolphin, American flag, and banana-man.  Since I was working, I wasn't able to participate, but I love the idea of randomly picking three words and making a quick story.  Feel free to comment with three random, appropriate (G rated) words and I'll try to make some time this weekend and see what I can do with them.  Try it yourself?
• For today, I decided to try doing something for Inktober.  This is not something I really knew about before.  Since I don't really draw, it is quite possible that this is the only day I will do this.  I didn't have a pen handy, so used a pencil.  I'll try to pen over the pencil later.  This is the first time I've tried to use a hashtag in my blog, not sure if it will work or not... Anyhow, there are rules on the link above.  That was new to me as well, not sure why I didn't think there would be rules.  The drawing is below.
• There is a full moon tonight.
• There was singing and dancing under the full moon.

Morning star.

Part of today's walk along a rail trail.

Gideon on the new comfy couch.

#inktober

The Canon camera took this picture of the full moon.
It may need a tripod for better clarity?

Also taken with the Canon and no flash.
There are three dancing people and a car driving by.

☮

Stay safe.