December literally came roaring in, in the middle of night. The one good thing about suffering from hearing loss is that I don’t hear much street noise or the like. There is no street noise here, none at all. For this, I am grateful. Where we live is undoubtedly the most quiet place in the Mat-Su Valley. There are a few disadvantages --for example, there’s light pollution. Ridge Runner Court has become a subdivision because there is power over there. So some keep their lights on at night. Very distracting.

But noise, none, except the roaring of the wind. As hearing impaired as I might be, I was awoken to the sound of a windstorm. I looked out the window and noted that, yes, the power was still on across the way. If it was off, this would have meant that there was a power outage. At such times I feel smug because in such instances, we are not affected. We have solar panels and a generator (generator Z very funky and nearly on its lips) and so are not reliant on grid power.

We do have a landline phone line, and we do have a well. We have food in our freezer, and in a freezer over at a neighbor’s house. We are set.

I sometimes feel lucky. Yes, for the above, and usually late at night. In the daytime, I generally feel lucky when I am with my horses, even picking up their poop. I really feel lucky when I’m riding or walking them. Lately, I’ve been walking them, mainly because I don’t have the time to get them all out, and I do need to get them all out.

Today, even with the wind blowing, I first got Hrimmi, and then got Raudi, out. Hrimmi was not overly excited by the windy conditions. Pete and Shadow came down road (Pete was on his fat tired bicycle), and Hrimmi quickly went from who dat? To dat Pete and Shadow. Raudi was more energized by the wind than Hrimmi – I could tell that she was considering bolting as I was walking her on the upper road – her ears were up and her head was high – so rather than struggle to keep her in hand, I let her go. She raced off at top speed, went up our neighbor Pancho’s driveway, then raced back to me, kicking sideways and bucking. It did my heart good to see her move with such abandon.

I did not get Tyra out because the sun was setting. I will soon be riding again. I still have a cold; I have now had coughing fits three nights in a row. Bummer.

I worked for some time on my People’s Paper article, again raising the bar. I wrote about going to Old Harbor school and helping with the library revitalization project. I am going to take what I wrote and make it a part of Shelf Life, expanding upon it since I am only allowed 800 words in the People’s Paper.

Back to work tomorrow. Question. Is it work if I am not getting paid for what I’m doing?

Next: 328. 12/2/24: Tired and Wired