I still remember the sour sweat of a hot, late summer day when I was around ten years old. My cousins and I had been playing up the hill on “Tea Table Rock”...a stone outcropping about forty feet up the hillside across the creek from Grandma’s house. We laid out soft, damp moss for tablecloths and served “tea” in our little cups made from acorn caps. It kept us busy for hours and our sole purpose was to stay outside and play as long as possible. 

When I lived in Colorado, you knew fall was here when the roadside stands set up for fire-roasting green chiles. It was like any roadside stand you might see selling tomatoes and corn back east or in the south. But there, a gas fired chile roaster was set up. It looks something like a great big Bingo basket that gets rotated over a flame and slowly roasts the chiles till the skins are blackened and blistered. Then, the hot chiles were weighed out and packaged in plastic bags. All you had to do was grab a bag and take them home, clean the blackened skin and either cook with the chiles right then, or put them in freezer bags and freeze for use during the winter. 

In April 2001, a brand new movie came out that kids everywhere loved. Shrek was a green skinned troll with questionable social skills who paired up with a delightful donkey named...Donkey. They lived in the swamp and met up with Princess Fiona...a girl troll. It was fun and funny. Daughter #2 and I watched it a lot! She was eleven years old at the time...one of our fondest memories.

I have vacillated back and forth whether to sell Big TOW-Wanda or not and finally decided to go for it. It’s time. She’s just too big to tow with this truck and we are far less likely to up and take off camping with this big trailer. I’ve had her for six years. She has been with me almost since the beginning of this journey. She sheltered me from the winter winds when I lived on that bluff overlooking the Ohio River. She’s been all over the country. But it’s time to let her go to someone who can use her more and a joy the heck out of her. I had to wait till I was ready to let her go...and the time has come. Time to move on.

My mom always told me my mouth would get me in trouble someday and she was so right. There have been times...too many times...that I react and speak instead of take a breath and think. I try limiting my news time. I try staying off of social media more than just a few minutes a day. I try to get out and do something active. I try to end each day with a feeling of accomplishment.

Back in the day when I was living a Jewish life, every holiday was celebrated in our home. There are fun holidays like Chanukah and Purim and solemn holidays like the Days of Awe between Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur. Those are the days for introspection and forgiveness. I haven’t always been my best self and the angst of this year has not brought out the best of my at every turn. 

My dearest sister/friend in the whole wide world sent me a link for a song by Leonard Cohen...Come Healing. It starts out rather ethereal, then Leonard’s deep, old-man voice comes in with a jarring duality. The juxtaposition between the two kept me on the surface of the song as I absorbed the intonations of his dusky baritone. Then I listened again. And again. I finally looked up the lyrics and followed along as the song played for the umpteenth time and I got it. 

When Mr. FixIt and I were visiting the Outer Banks for our anniversary, we stopped in a seafood shop to check out what the local waters were offering. Among the many delicious varieties available was a seemingly out of place item...Tomato Pie. I asked about it and they said it was a southern thing and very tasty, however...the price was outrageous and you couldn’t buy just one piece. You had to buy the whole pie. I could only think of one thing...what if we didn’t like it? I would hate to throw all that food away. So, I vowed to try making it myself when my own tomatoes were ready.

I was hopeful when we spent the entire day in town on Monday, it meant I wouldn’t have to go back for a week. But that was not to be. I woke up yesterday and went over my to do list and remembered I needed to have blood drawn. Dang. I needed to pick up flea medicine for the kitty and buy a new set of sheets for the camper. And I’ve been wanting a food processor. I have one of those tiny food choppers, but they don’t do what I need done. Mr. FixIt had an appointment in town as well, but we decided to drive separately since we each had things that we needed to do.

I had my first Zoom meeting yesterday. Well, almost had it. One of the key members didn’t show so we postponed till next week. I was all jazzed to see what this Zoom thing is all about. First of all, it took me three hours to prepare for it. I wanted to use the desktop computer, but I couldn’t find my plugin headset. Our computer doesn’t have Bluetooth so I couldn’t use the wireless headset. I finally figure out I could used the plugin headphones on the laptop while using the laptop’s microphone. It was quite a chore.