Recovering From a Bad Morning

This morning was going so poorly, that I determined I'd find some way to redeem it. I wasn't going to waste a whole day! Sometimes the only thing that works for me is a change of venue. So I threw some projects in a car and headed to the local mom and pop diner. After a lunch of comfort food and an ice cream cone, I was ready to face the rest of the day. I wrote 3 pages in my journal to get everything out of my system. Then I went to a thrift store in search of brass bells, a cowbell and ties from the '40's. I didn't find any, but I had fun. Then I went to the local market and bought a cantaloupe, some green onions, and took out $20 cash in case the other thrift stores panned out. But for some reason the Lucerne Valley Thrift stores are high. I think because it is on Hwy 18 and they think some city slickers with fat wallets are going to be driving through, they jack up the prices. Being in Atascadero spoiled me. I found great deals at five thrift shops up there.

Henry's is closing. But it turns out they are just moving across the street.  But honestly, in the four or so times I've been in there I've never bought a thing.  My favorite thrift store closed. I knew the owner was just liquidating stuff until her house in Mexico was finished, but I was sad to see her go. 

The Apple Valley ones are hit and miss. The one run by seniors has the best prices. I'll be going back to that one weekly I think.

My blogs used to get so many views. Now there are probably billions of blogs, so it is hard to get any traffic at all. If you like my blog, I hope you will follow it. When I see I had 2 viewers today, it makes me sad.

I sat outdoors reading as the moon rose tonight. I'd really like to finish Winter Tale and get on to some of the other books I have lined up.  My weekly reading goal is crashing and burning because I keep picking long books.

I got the rest of my raised bed container garden  planted yesterday morning. I put in Kaleidoscope carrots, 2 kinds of lettuce, and some older beet seeds that I hope will do something.  And I put in cucumbers but I hope they don't cross pollinate with the gourds or vice versa.

Yesterday I got out the drill and put another latch on the chicken coop.The side of the coop lifts up for easy access, but if you prop it up there and the wind suddenly gusts, it crashes down. So now it hooks in position and I can use both hands to tend to the water and seed, or grab a chicken if necessary.

I'm not sure if I want to put these beauties on a hatband or on my crazy quilt.

I decided to knit a vest with the gray and white poodle yarn.

I'm really into teardrop beads right now.

Halloween is Upon Us

Halloween is upon us. I wasn't in the mood to decorate, but I didn't want to miss the opportunity either. So I got some cheapo stuff at the .99 store and did a bit of porch decorating. Pumpkins were too expensive so I passed on those.  If they go on clearance I'll grab one later. I like having one to use all the way through harvest and up until Thanksgiving.

I found some awesome gloves for my Slytherin witch costume at the .99 store. My only regret is I didn't snap up the white and pink ones too. They had no black. I imagine those sold out in the first day they were on the shelves. But I wanted acid green to match the Slytherin colors.

I volunteered to do face-painting at a Halloween event. Normally I charge for such things but I need to get my name out there in this community. I've been here a year and only had one gig. So yeah...free...but I'll hand out cards and have flyers. And if a paid gig comes up for Halloween night, I'm taking that one too. This one ends at 7 PM so that gives me time to do a midnight tarot party or something. Halloween used to be my most lucrative month of the year. I feel sad to not be booked for the big events.

The Slytherin colors are green, silver (gray) and black. So I was thrilled to get these gloves for .99. Score.

I Feel Like a Kite

The wind came about 12 hours earlier than predicted. I heard it outside my bedroom about 3 AM. And it's been blowing ever since. So much for working outside today. The temperature is perfect. I tried to read out there and my hat kept blowing off. So I spent the day indoors sorting through boxes, posting things to my Etsy shop, reading and cooking.

Things To Do

My plans today were cancelled due to wind. So I made this list: Not sure what to do today? Call a friend who hasn't heard from you in forever. Keep a skill from getting rusty (piano, pottery, gardening, calligraphy). Play a sport instead of watching it on TV. Learn to juggle or juggle better. Do your yoga. Do something you thought only the other gender was meant to do. Hang up some mirrors. Clean your phone and light switch plates. Let your kid bang on some pots and pans for once. Groom your animals. Read old love letters. Visit a nursing home. Kiss someone. Learn the lyrics to your favorite song. Feed the birds. Watch an old movie. Try one healthy recipe. Try one not so healthy recipe. Figure out how to use your crock pot, food processor, DVD player, sewing machine, cell phone or camera. Stretch after every hour on the computer. Knit/crochet a lap blanket for a vet or women's shelter, go somewhere where no one can hear you and sing as loud as you want. Make a birthday card for a friend. Then it will be ready when they have a birthday. Order seed catalogs. Save your Altoid/Sucrets tins to sort things like bobby pins, washers, nails, rubber bands and Exacto blades in so your junk drawer will be less junky. Donate clothes you will never wear again to a thrift store. Browse Pinterest or Youtube or Intructables for great things to build. Try that interesting new hairstyle. Or you could just sit in your chair and complain that there is nothing to do.

Dust in the air from yesterday's high winds. More predicted for today.

Abandoned House

I really want to be fit, so today my boyfriend and I took an 80 minute hike up the hill behind us. I also took a hike yesterday. I took photos when I needed to catch my breath. It startles me when my foot sinks into gopher holes. I hate that part. We hiked up to an abandoned house. It's sad when people use the desert as a trash pit. We saw discarded couches, mattresses, tires, broken TV sets, kid's playground stuff and lots of old tires.  Broken glass is everywhere.

Glorious Sunset

To say it's windy today is an understatement. I'm surprised it didn't blow my clothes right off. I did get some nice sunset photos yesterday though. I grabbed a cheeseburger at the local diner called 247. Considering there wasn't much food in the house and I didn't want to waste time or gas driving all the way to Apple Valley to go grocery shopping, it was well worth it.

Tomorrow the rocket boys will be back at the dry lake bet shooting off their model rockets if the wind calms down and it's not raining. I hope we can go watch. With both of us being sick, we didn't make any weekend plans, but I'm seriously getting cabin fever.

Snow in the Desert

This morning I got a new video uploaded on Youtube. It's a vlog of the snow we had a few days ago. I am happy to report that once I made the video at home with Movie Maker, and put it on a remote flash drive, it took less than 5 minutes to uplaod it with the library's computer sysetm. So maybe I can make tutorials again. We'll see.


I continue getting new subscribers to my Youtube stream. So if you want to subscribe to that, view this video on youtube instead please.