Today I stayed at home and did not go anywhere, except to take the dogs for a walk around the loop. Now that I commute to work (if you want to call it this) on a regular basis, I notice that I have more time when I’m home.

As Pete has said, the town commute takes an hour total. This is a lot of time. On days home I thus get my empty hour back. Today was such a day.

I was productive. I slept in, sort of. I worked on Bright Lights Book Project stuff after tending to the animals and eating breakfast. I finished the Franz Bakery Grant and talked with a woman who lives in Pedro Bay about her sending books here. She then sent me some state-based contacts and I sent out emails ASAP.

Pete went to get a load of hay after breakfast. Upon his return, we cleared out the hay shed – it was a winter storage unit, much like U-Haul. Then I passed bales on to him, which he then put in the shed. Our getting hay is no longer as simple as going to the hay field once, loading

Rainbow

bales onto the trailer, and then storing them in our shed. Oh no, we get 80 or so hay bales in July, but no more because we have learned the hard way that if we get more, and the monsoons coincide with warm weather, that the bales will mold. Cough, Cough, says Raudi. So we now get the bulk of our hay in September, when it’s less rainy and colder.

After lunch, I harvested the carrot crop. Last year I planted them and we had no crop. This year, the carrots were puny. Well, we are headed in the right direction.

I then put the stuff we pulled out of the shed in various places, i.e., I put my mountain and fat tired bicycles and new, bright orange horse blankets in the horse trailer. Sad to say, we won’t be going on any trips this year.

I also picked broccoli, tomatoes, and green beans; the latter two items were growing in the hoophouse. And then I picked raspberries. I got ¼ of a bucket – it is the end of the season.

And I took the dogs for a walk around the loop right before dinner. I did what has become routine, which is let Shadow off her leash so that she might chase the two rabbits at the house on the corner of Sybarite and Samovar Streets. Shadow always returns when I call her – always. She has the chase and run genes, but she does not have the kill genes.

Now Rainbow, if she were still around, she’d bring me back a dead rabbit or two. Shadow, alas, is no Rainbow.

My thoughts are now gravitating in the direction of tomorrow. A day that I’ve been dreading is hours away. I am going to get an MRI. My hip has not seized up in a week, so I wonder if this is necessary. However, I am curious and want to know what might be wrong. That which does not make you stronger will make you weaker.

Next: 259. 9/23/24: A Sense of Calm