days_unfolding

I started putting my clothes away in the new dresser. I started with my shorts.

The yoga class for fall is up on the Urbana Park District site. I need to enroll in it.

I’m giving away an extra wallet on the local Buy Nothing site. It’s great for decluttering.

I want to get an over-the-toilet rack for the guest bathroom. There currently is a bookcase there on which I put toilet paper and such, but I want to bring it upstairs to use for my home office books.

It just occurred to me to use a rotating organizer that I bought a long time ago for mail. I could put different types of letters in different slots and scissors and pens and stamps in the small slots. I'll do that.

I received the dongle to use my earbuds (from Roma!) with my iPhone, so now I can finally listen to audiobooks on the treadmill. I just bought some "self-help" books to which to listen. Yay.

Yay. The real estate guy sent me a picture of the dumpster gone and the car parked in the driveway at my mom's house. Now I’m thinking that I should drive it for a while after my mom’s house sells and earn interest on the money. It looks like this.

Hmm. I've been looking for something to plant along the short driveway to the garage-to-be, and soft touch holly looks like it would fit the bill. It's cute! I wouldn't plant it until after the garage is built though (which depends on my mom's house selling).

I think that I want to get gutter guards after Mom’s house sells.

I’m getting slightly more extroverted and more patient. They might be related. Our yoga teacher never showed, and I was chatting with the other person in the class, telling her that I had a hard time finding my yoga stuff because of the junk in my car from my mom’s house. She seemed upset, and, to be fair, I don’t know how long a drive that she has to get there. For me, it’s trivial. I said, “Well, the flowers are pretty,” and kind of shrugged my shoulders.

Mind you, I’ll never be a major extrovert. I’m too introverted for that.

Emptied the stuff from Michigan out of the car. I was holding the picture of San Francisco that I gave Mom high above a doorway to see if it would fit there, and it slipped and fell. I need to reframe it. Oh well. I’m resting and cooling off for a few minutes with Zara on my lap. Then I’ll get the garbage out.

Today is garbage day. I decided to clean out my underwear drawer and threw out old ugly underwear and bras because life is too short to wear ugly underwear, right? And I found this plaque. It’s a Tennessee Williams quote, and it’s going over my bed. Hmm, it’s a little hard to read with the glare. It says, “The violets in the mountains have broken the rocks”. I love it.

Now I’m resting after taking out the garbage. Then I need to work a little and then study Italian.

I signed up with an app called Fottur that gives you hiking recommendations and directions based on your location and fitness level. I’ve lost all the advantages of all the walking that I did in Italia. It should help. It listed trails that I didn’t know about in Champaign-Urbana.

I got the email saying that yoga is canceled this week after the time for the class was over!

Studied Italian. My Italian suffered from the time away for it. I need to get back to it.

Now it's bedtime.

I'm hoping that Mark Zuckerberg and Larry Ellison will donate money to Maui. They live on different islands, but this is a tragedy. I donated some money. Not nearly enough. The Pioneer Inn is confirmed gone.

I got the freezer plugged in again with a new adapter. I should be getting more food tomorrow.

I don't know what to do. There is going to be a press conference on Maui at 3 AM my time. The sensible thing would be to go to sleep, but I want to watch it. I did get up and watched CNN but no press conference.

Groggy this morning.

I'm wondering if I should switch my Maui trip to Kauai. They're talking about needing the hotel rooms for displaced residents, and that situation won't resolve any time soon. I think that I'll plan a trip to Kauai but not book it yet and see what happens. The hotel that I liked in Poipu is available. I might not want to wait too long, though, because other people might be rebooking as well. I'm also thinking of moving my trip to my birthday in November. Note to self: meetings on the 15th and 16th.

I checked TaskRabbit, and I could hire someone to take Mom's clothes over to the thrift shop. I'll get organized and book someone. And maybe someone to put the glassware into the linen closet plus take the magazines upstairs to the garage.

My presentation at work went really well! I got the idea to breathe as if I was singing, and it slowed my speech down and made it more full. It's the first time that I've felt excited after a presentation! Yeah, I listened to the recording and in general, I sounded good. Yay!

Hmm. There still are some housing bargains on the Big Island (Hawaii island) if you don't mind living in a small town. Something to consider. I'd have to see how long a drive it is to Hilo or Kailua-Kona. No, the real bargains are in the area where lava erupted a couple of years ago. I'll pass on that.

I put my new batch of food in the freezer. The meals are more to my liking. I'll fine-tune them as I go along.

I decided that yes, I should change the trip because it's supposed to be relaxing to recuperate from Mom's passing, and things on Maui now are not relaxing. (I definitely will go back later though.) I might not be able to get my money back for tours and such, but they need the money. I tried to change my flights, but Expedia is having issues. I'll try again later. I canceled the hotel in Lahaina and booked one on Kauai. I found some tours that interest me. Interestingly, they have a tour for "travel bloggers and social media influencers" that you can design based on your interests.

I just thought about an easy way to make money; sell a map of the most photogenic places for graduation pictures on the U of I campus. The question is how to sell them.

I was thinking that it would be good to have a Web site for people to get hiking buddies if they don't want to hike alone. Well, there is a Facebook group that does exactly that. Awesome. I probably won't do a lot of hiking this trip, but would like to go back and get a hiking buddy.

Part of the reason that I'm picking at my diet food is the food. Tonight I had a meal off plan, and I had a Factor meal, and gobbled it right up. It's not totally a bad thing that I'm eating meals that I'm less than thrilled with.

I need to do a few chores and go to sleep. Oh, and I'll try one more time to change my flights.

I've decided that because I haven't been feeling well, I'll stay home today instead of hiking. And take a nice long nap. My eyes look puffy. Still no fever this morning though.

I started reading Grandma Gatewood's Walk last night, and wow, she was hiking the Appalachian Trail with hardly any supplies. Tough grandma. It gives me hope that I could at least section hike. I'd like to do the Virginia part. There are showers and restaurants. My kind of "roughing it". :-P

I've decided that Mimi is the opera singer of cats. She went Maaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaow. Not bad for a creature with tiny lungs.

The Census people are still contacting me about a part-time job, but I still think not doing it was a good call. Peoria, where their office is, is spiking COVID cases.

Napped for three hours intentionally. Can't tell if it's helped yet. Feeling kind of shaky. I'm feeling wiped out, but need to get bread. Maybe I could wait and go to Walgreens, although I'm sure that their bread is more expensive.

Ate, got my clothes ready for a shower, and took another nap. Now I'm feeling better. Made it to the grocery store and grabbed some bread. Got back so quickly that the laundry in the washer wasn't done yet. One advantage of small towns.

Talked to Mom. We talked about how nothing's going on in our lives, and she's glad that I'm going back to the library, which should prove to be "interesting" in all senses of the word. She thinks that stress is causing me to not feel well. She was concerned about my wanting to go camping until I told her that it would be on private property with baby goats. She said that sounded charming. We discussed how many Girl Scout songs were trying to get the singers to swear ("Amster-Amster-Damn-Damn-Damn," etc.)

Made some tomato soup and grilled cheese. Spent some time Googling my last name. I think that I'm going to bed early.

Now I'm wondering if I really want to hike in 93 degree F heat. If it makes my plants wilt, it will likely make me wilt too. Plus they're predicting rain at 5 PM. Hmm. Maybe I'll open the door and step outside and see how it feels. After I feed the hungry cats.

Zara cracks me up. She stays wherever she's hanging out until I get close to feeding them in my morning routine. Then she appears. Economy of motion :)

I went outside and stood in the sun for a couple of minutes while I watered the plants, and I think that's a nope for hiking. Even 80s F would be a lot better, although they're predicting 90s for a long time to come. If there's a day with cloud cover, I'd go, but it's sunny out. I have plenty of things to do at home.

Had a nice nap with Mimi. I got up when the alarm went off, so I'm catching up on my sleep.

Had a bite to eat. It's nice and cool in here. I checked the average high temperatures for Lincoln in July, and it's in the 80s F, not 90s, so I should be able to wait out the heat wave. Although right now, the forecasters are predicting temps in the 90s next weekend too.

Took a nice cool shower and shaved my legs. I'm ready to wear dresses next week (with temps in the 90s, that sounds like a good idea). Resting for a moment before I take out the garbage. Weeded the beet patch. Took out some of the garbage. My back is spasming out. Finished the garbage.

Read a retirement article that recommended Gulfport, MS. It seemed lackluster online, and if its advertising seems lackluster, I don't hold out much hope for the city. It is close to New Orleans though, which I love. I don't like the trend line of COVID cases in Tennessee, so I'm kind of assuming that I won't be able to go there in the fall.

The girls seem to be wondering what I'm doing in the kitchen. "Mommy, there's so much more room to run and raise havoc!"

Checked on when I planted the beets, and it's been a month. Two to four more weeks to go.

Googled someone with whom I used to work on whom I had had a crush. A very long time ago....

Just ate soup because I don't feel like cooking. I think that I'm done decluttering for the night, but I'm mulling over setting up the new monitor. Done. It's indeed a screamin' machine (very fast). I'm very happy with it. Although it copied my desktop wallpaper from my laptop, which borders on a little creepy. Want a picture of the Smokies anyway.

My next step is to get a Windows recovery disk to have handy when I partition the disk and set up the dual boot. Hot damn. I'm creating a Windows recovery flash drive right now without resorting to eBay. I just need to get a second one for Ubuntu.

Had a nice sleep. Threw laundry in the washer.

I don't get what's going on with Zara. At night, she's subdued and picking at her food. In the morning, she's lively and chowing down on her food.

Small thunderstorms in the area. Well now, they're larger thunderstorms. I'm not going to get soda because of it. However, I had a bottle of soda that I couldn't get open. I even tried a wrench on it. Just tried it now with my bare hands and opened it. So I have a little more of a stash. Aaaaand down comes the rain.

I'm going to look for my Hiking Illinois book. If I can't find it, I might replace it. Yeah, I don't see it. Found some deals on eBay for the Hiking Indiana and Hiking Missouri books. My dad was encouraging me to hike downstate Illinois, eastern Missouri, and western Indiana.

I bought a new litter box, but haven't put it in the TV room yet. Well, Zara went, "Ooh, a plastic box!" and is now hanging out in it. It's probably nice and cool in there.

I'm thinking about adding an extra day to my Tennessee future trip to pick up the Georgia highpoint, which is close to Chattanooga.

I'm mulling over taking a trip to the Illinois high point, Charles Mound, without going to Galena. It's a four-hour drive one way, so it would be a long day.

Had a second nap.

Had a long conversation with Mom. We talked about trips. I told her that I'm thinking about coming out to see her, but that I need to see how things go, plus I'm concerned about Zara. She also sees me retiring in Tennessee "because it's south, but not far south". I do like the idea of having a fall and spring.

Zara is chowing down on her food tonight. Way to go.

Stuffed with food. I'm feeling grateful for having food to eat because I know that there are people out of work who don't have any.

I'm going to work on the kitchen for a while, and then go to bed.

Ugh. People are shooting off fireworks. At midnight.

floatingleaf mentioned the MeetMindful dating site, which sounded interesting. Of course, you have to create a profile before looking at others' profiles, and, not surprisingly given the name, if requires some thought. So I printed it off so work on it over a while. I'm too tired to write anything coherent tonight. Actually, I did throw up a profile. All I saw were guys, though, and no women.

Harlee is now on prescription food. However, I bought her really expensive non-prescription food at the beginning of the month. I want Mimi and Zara to eat the expensive food. Mimi likes it. (Mimi has never found food that she doesn't like, except for turkey. She's kind of like a stomach with legs and fur.) Zara does not, and is refusing to eat it. I had a long talk with her about the importance of eating her food, and how there were starving cats out there who would love the food, but no. Zara wasn't going to eat the food, and I couldn't make her eat it. So she wins. I'm going to pick up food that she likes at WalMart later tonight, plus an extra cat food cap. I'll feed Harlee the prescription food, Mimi the expensive non-prescription food, and Zara her junk food (Fancy Feast). Sigh. Oy. Zara was nosing around Mimi's dish. Surprise, surprise, she's hungry. Did I say, "Sigh"?

After I picked up Zara's meds, I drove to Funks Grove. It's a very pretty grove of sugar maple and oak trees. I had planned on stopping by the Funks Grove pure maple sirup store, but blew past it on old Route 66. I also blew past the turnoff for the old historic church and cemetery. I did turn off for the Sugar Grove Nature Center. The Center was closed, but the trails are open until dusk. First, I walked over to the Imagination Grove, which had a ton of things that kids would enjoy: a playhouse, a sandbox, a way to get to the creek, steps up a tree, tires, a pipe to crawl though, and a low zip line. There also were picnic tables for us old folks.

Then I went looking for the trails. I finally found some off to the side of the main area. I started down the longest trail, which goes near the old church and cemetery, but stopped a little way before the cemetery because I was afraid that it was going to get dark, and the forest was pretty dark as it was. The trails were well-maintained, and there were lots of signs for the trails. I really liked it. I was alone again, though, and I was wondering if I should take pepper spray with me, just in case. They did find someone dead there a little while ago, but apparently the woman was killed by her daughter.

Then I drove over to the old church and cemetery. The church is small and pretty. The cemetery was quiet and peaceful; it's easy to imagine "resting in peace" there. I really liked it. There also is an auxiliary cemetery because the old one is full. It wasn't quite as pretty, but it was nice enough.

Then I went home. I want to come back and hike more trails sometime, and check out the "Chapel in the Woods".

I did get up on time today, although I had some problems actually getting moving. I planned to go to Moraine View Recreation Area today. Then I received a weather alert on my phone. Bloomington is having a thunderstorm with torrential rain and possible hail. That alert also covers the recreation area. It would be over by the time that I'd get there, but I don't really want to walk wet trails. I don't have waterproof boots, although they're on my list. Well, it's summer, so I suppose that I should expect weather like this.

I could stay home. I have a lot of stuff to do, plus I haven't set up the blog yet. I thought about staying home and then going to the fireworks in Bloomington, but watching fireworks on wet grass doesn't sound appealing. (I have a camp chair, but still....)

There is a nature preserve near the Illinois River in Havana, about an hour from here. I could go there (assuming that the weather is okay, but it might have been in the path of this storm). However, there's a restaurant there that I'd like to try, but I don't know if it's open today because of the holiday.

I'm leaning toward staying home.

I have a vague memory of liking Pere Marquette State Park as a kid. (We took trips all over Illinois when I was a kid.) So I looked it up last night. Beautiful, so beautiful, with lots of hiking trails. It's especially beautiful in the Autumn. So taking a trip there in Autumn is now at the top of my list. I'd love to stay in the Lodge, but it appears to be booked up way in advance. Plus, it's probably very pricey. (They don't post their prices, which I don't like. If you have to ask....) However, I found an Airbnb about 15 minutes away that's $22 a night. Can't beat that. (There is a nicer place that's a little farther away with a river view for $89 a night.) We have Fall Break in October, which should be good leaf-viewing time, so when I get paid, I want to book the Airbnb for Fall Break. The only thing is that I want to have decent hiking boots for that trip because the trails are steep, and there are poisonous snakes in the area.

In another area (Ottawa, IL), I found a place with a class in glass-blowing. Doesn't that sound cool? I'm going to ask my mom if she's interested in trying it.

Illinois has some interesting areas!

I've feeling kind of burnt-out, slightly depressed, tired, and headachy. I think that I'll hole up with some photography books that I checked out of the library (I want to work on photo composition because that doesn't require a DSLR) and a snuggly cat. After I meditate and exercise.

Had a long afternoon nap again. I wish that I knew why I'm so tired.

I'm currently eating lunch, and then will throw myself together to do a little more laundry. It's supposed to rain (maybe part of the reason that I slept so long is that it's overcast?), so I guess that I'll put the laundry in plastic bags.

Need to e-mail my dad to tell him that I'm not taking the Rockford trip. There's a state park between Rockford and Galena, Apple Canyon State Park, that he was encouraging me to go to. I suppose that if I get up really early (it's a three-hour drive), I could still go there sometime. But it's easier to get there from Rockford or Galena. Judging by the pictures that I've seen, it's a very pretty park.

I've been looking for a good guidebook to Illinois, and I've not been finding much. There are a bunch about Chicago, but not the rest of the state. Maybe that means that I should write one :) I'm semi-serious about that. Working title: The Other Illinois: Get Out of Chicago and See the Rest of the State! It could be fodder for a lot of road trips. And maybe an article or two. I need a decent DSLR though. (It's always something.)

A Road Trip Illinois blog would be a good idea too. It would get me out of the house and exploring. It sounds like fun!

I found a state park about 2.5 hours away from here that I really want to hike. It's kind of hilly (it's in Eastern Illinois), but that might build my leg muscles up.

I solved the problem with my boss about my working days while she's gone. I'm going to take the Monday after my Sunday conference presentation off, and work the rest of the week, including Friday. Including the Sunday, that would be a full week. And then I'm going to work Wednesday - Friday the following week.

There is a horrific fire in a tall apartment building in London. Most of the building seems to be ablaze. Those poor people trapped inside....I hope that firefighters contain the blaze soon.