Hopes & Goals for November

🎂🧣🍎🧘🏼🎨🎼🍁💻🐶☔️🍗

As usual this is probably too much but time will tell!

CELEBRATE

Enjoy celebrating our Granddaughter’s 8th birthday and the accompanying visit by our older son and DIL.

Celebrate Hubby’s 72nd birthday however he wants.

Send cards or make calls for my cousin’s birthday and brother and SIL’s anniversary.

Enjoy visits with my nephew who is in town for most of the month but lives in Taiwan.

Thanksgiving. 

LEARN & DO STUFF

Sign up to change secondary health insurance to Kaiser for 2025 and beyond.

Become comfortable with Google docs, sheets, drive and photos.

Set up weekly exercise program and specific exercises targeted for my body.

Farmer’s Market to get apples for eating and cooking.

Attend card making class at rec center.

SELF CARE

Practice a month of daily thankfulness.

Buy cool weather clothing on my list.

Art, music or nature outing.

Find a colorful piece of art for bedroom - thrift store?

PREP FOR RAIN & COLD

Buy a better raincoat for the pup. His current one blows up in the wind and he gets wet as well as annoyed. This week I was able to buy myself rain pants so once he gets a better coat we are set.

Ready the house and yard.

- wash patio furniture and store much of it in garage

- touch up paint on metal patio furniture that stays outside

- hire a handyman to fix attic door so it closes tight and to hopefully replace the front door weatherstripping 

What made me happy in October - Thriving week 44

The big thing that made me happy this month was my successful road trip to S California. Lots of laughs and a good catch up with my older son and DIL. They fed me really well too.  It was also fun to be out on my own during the day and chatting with strangers. The emotional visit with my closest friend in Camarillo, who was widowed since we moved, was really great. So glad I went.

I went to two art exhibits to feed my soul - A local artist’s guild show and a big special exhibit at the Pacific Asia Museum in Pasadena.

While I was on my road trip Hubby changed up the pup’s routine a bit. Hubby isn’t an early riser like me so when they did get up he sent Coco into the backyard instead of walking him first thing. Works a treat for me too now! Don’t worry - that dog gets 4 long walks a day plus another time in the yard with his chew bone but that essential first brief trip out is now by himself while I make coffee.

Enjoyed a lunch date with my younger son and a couple of visits with the whole local family. Grandgirl hugs are the best! The toddler’s arms get me right around my knees so I do have to brace myself lol.

My nephew who lives in Taiwan got a great new job based there but the HQ is in Berkeley so he will be in town most of November for his onboarding and we will get to spend time together on weekends.

I’m not too much of a Material Girl, but getting new sheets in a lighter color really brightens up the bedroom and thus lifts my spirits. The two fleece vests bought from ThredUp are great for our transitional weather as mornings are quite cool but afternoons pretty warm.

I am also happy with the candle I bought on my trip and the many book ideas I got while wandering an amazing Pasadena bookstore. Plus lots of good coffee 😉

Hubby decided he could nail, patch and do touch up painting on areas of the house siding where the vibrations from the earthquake retrofit popped nails or paint. We have a l9t 9f the paint left by the previous owners.

Lastly, getting much better earthquake insurance coverage for the same cost feels great.

What brought you happiness during October?

It must be Fall - Thriving week 43

We have been doing more cooking that heats up the kitchen this past week (chicken enchilada casserole and beef stew for example), walking around outside the house to see what needs doing before the rains come, and more Fall typical stuff. Given how warm it still is, I would guess we are driven more by the calendar, changing light, and plants showing fall color than by the weather.

Growing up in central Illinois, Fall definitely was the time to prepare for the coming harsh Winter. It was also time to get the last of the big garden harvest, play in piles of leaves and since we were growing kids, get new cold weather clothes. 

My parents retired to New Hampshire so they then had shorter Falls and longer Winters but not the blizzards, snow drifts and ice storms that were definitely possible in Illinois. I will admit I don’t miss that type of Winter, but lots of rain and wind in cold but not bitter temperatures is it’s own kind of chilly especially when walking the dog early in the morning! 

I’m enjoying pumpkin treats and thinking of all the things that can be made with apples. I’ll have to see if there is an apple orchard around here or simply go to the fancy-schmancy farmer’s market to get some different varieties plus other Fall treats.

What brings a sense of Fall to you given where you live now or where you grew up?

Road trip part 3 - Diving conditions and challenges

I got a bit more than I had in mind when I said I wanted to get my freeway driving confidence back! Between human behavior, construction zones and wild weather I got to practice lots of driving skills and realize that, while the vigilance required is tiring, those are well learned habits that kick back in. 

I did confirm though that driving at night on freeways is no longer a good idea if it can be avoided as driving at dusk on a relatively unbusy freeway was challenging enough. I’ll also be checking forecasts for driving conditions for any future trips!

Other drivers - Besides the usual speeding lane changers and tailgaters including semis, there was the accident blocking 2 1/2 lanes right in front of me as the freeway split into 4 different routes so lots of lane changers. Then there was the semi driver who almost side swiped me by weaving into my lane. I simply had to be patient to get around the accident and kept my hand on the horn when passing semis from then on.

Construction - The biggest challenge was not the construction zones themselves but rather freeway sections with no lane lines or temporary ones that zig zagged for miles when there were five lanes. Fortunately the other drivers managed well too.

Weather - This was an entirely new experience! For about half an hour the wind was blowing so hard that the freeway was in the midst of a dust and sand storm. Fortunately the times when the road was not visible were very brief. The steady wind reduced but high wind gusts persisted for over 2 more hours until I went over the hills and back into the coastal plain.

BTW, these type of winds are part of wildfire season in California and are called Diablo winds in the north and Santa Ana winds in the south. I’ve just never been on the freeway when they included such sight reducing dusts/sand storms nor have I had to drive that far in them. They produce conditions that make any fire spread rapidly and out of control so thankfully there were no fires yesterday.

Defensive driving skills definitely intact!

Road Trip Part 2 - Fascinating art, Visiting friends & coastal drive

Wednesday afternoon I walked to the USC Asia Pacific museum to se the special exhibit recommended by my DIL. Art made over many decades using gunpowder, pigment, mirrors, and other materials. I really like most of the artist’s works and his process and reasoning was fascinating. Special Exhibit

Thursday’s first freeway drive was a well practiced one from Pasadena to Camarillo. It is a pretty drive as you go near the foothills and although there is lots of traffic it is not nearly as much as the other more direct route. More miles but less time and stress.

I spent the morning and lunch with a group of friends and then went over to my closest friend’s new to her house and had a good visit. I headed back on the road again at about 3:30 so I could make it to San Luis Obispo before dark. The Hampton Inn and Suites is right off the freeway and they very apologetically asked if I would mind an upgrade as they needed the two bed room I had reserved. No problem 😆 and the room is really nice.

Tomorrow I will drive a bit further north on 101 and then cut over to I-5 to zoom back home. Definitely have my freeway driving confidence back but the vigilance required is tiring so I’m glad I broke it into smaller segments.

Road trip part 1: Freeways, bookstore, museum and family

The drive down to Pasadena was nerve rattling at both ends but the long middle part was placid if boring. My freeway defensive driving skills came back very quickly and the drive went well and I made great time.

All that was new on the drive from a year and a half ago was that in the alternate universe part of Kern County along I-5 there are now Trump Vance signs to go with the fading signs that say things like “Build more dams - Stop manmade droughts”. Those type of signs are in the arid areas where some landowners want to continue to grow very thirsty almond trees, etc. and continue to have lots of water supplied to them - at least as I understand the long standing water wars. Then the gas station I stopped at had several cases of rifles and other guns plus a wide range of hunting knives prominently displayed on the way to the restroom. All I can say is “I definitely wasn’t in Berkeley anymore.” 

Got to Pasadena mid afternoon and had a nice long catch up with my son before my DIL came home and then a good visit with both. Today as they are both busy I walked to the ultra nice Target close by to by a couple of random kitchen things on my list plus Halloween cards for the Grandgirls. 

I guess that means I’m a mystery!

My vacation souvenir. Overpriced as all good souvenirs are lol.

Then I walked to Vromans bookstore which wasn’t open yet but there coffee shop was so I got some and then (ad a nice chat with a woman sitting next to me who was also on a road trip by herself but started from Portland, OR. I also chatted with a man who had his 2 year old Belgian Shepherd/Husky mix dog with him and got some dog pets in. After an hour in Vromans I only walked put with an overpriced candle for myself and photos of books to request from the library (see the covers below). That store gets an A++ for merchandising and I could spend a lot there. I didn’t even go to the 2nd floor.

After lunch I’m going to walk to the Pacific Asian Museum and get an art museum fix while I’m in the big city. My road trip mini-vacation is good so far.

Art & Travel Prep - Thriving week 41

These were my two top favorites in the art show we went to on Saturday at the city recreation center. The hen and chicks is actually a mosaic made from pieces of old dishes. The amount of detail and the color/pattern combinations were amazing in person. The piece below is acrylic and mixed media and kind of glowed in person.

I’ve mapped out my travel with lots of rest stops and have my fingers crossed the drive won’t feel like I bit of more than I can chew. ☺️ I’ve already broken the drive home with a night stopover and if I get too tired on the way there I will find a hotel for a night too. Trying to get back into my very confident traveler mode as I lost it during the pandemic years.

The main thing is that I can leave quite early and avoid the worst of rush hour heading south. The driving challenge later becomes the unremittingly boring road and landscape while the last part is very busy traffic with lots of trucks and heavy traffic over Tejon pass and on into the greater Los Angeles area. Younger me would have no concerns lol.