Month: December 2015

I woke up to glowing pink sky this morning. It was beautiful. The sun hadn’t quite cleared the horizon, but it was making its presence known. One of the things I disliked most about working a conventional job is that there is always a period of time in the year when you have to both leave for work and return home in the dark.

I always found that to be a little soul sucking. Sure, I worked in an office building with windows, so I would always get to see daylight, but it’s just not the same. I think waking up in the dark is the part I find most difficult. It’s very unusual for me to wake up before sunrise without the aid of an alarm clock. Fortunately, I rarely need to now.

Today I’m featuring the last of the random unpublished photos from our visit to the train museum near Baraboo, Wisconsin. There’s just something about old signs in black and white that really speaks to me. My husband is currently rebuilding our big computer, so hopefully I can do more processing in the near future, as my unused folder is getting a little thin.

The little bit of snow we had is gone after several days of 40 degree temperatures. The warm trend is supposed to continue through the week. I’m not complaining. Yesterday I wore the most wildly impractical item from what what my husband calls my “dizzying array” of outwear. (He’s not wrong, by the way.)

The article in question is a stunning black shearling coat with lambskin insets and a possum fur collar. I purchased it during our New Zealand trip in 2014. It’s impractical because, while warm, it’s very short and very fitted. So I can’t wear anything heavier than a shirt under it and it doesn’t cover much. Consequently, I can only wear it when the temp is above freezing but below 50 degrees.

That’s a pretty short window in Minnesota and it frequently falls during the time we are in Phoenix. I think yesterday might have been the third time I’ve worn it in the 18 months that I’ve owned it. But it is absolutely stunning and I do not regret buying it.

Today’s random photos are once again from my dahlia photo session in October. I warned you that it was a highly productive day. You’ll notice they’re not dahlias and they’re not in color. Because I like to mix it up that way. The top image is a faded rose. I am almost starting to like roses more in black and white. Maybe the color is too predictable.

I finished wrapping Christmas presents today. Let the hating commence. I’m trying to keep ahead of any known tasks in anticipation of any unknown tasks cropping up. I’m hoping/assuming we’ll need to make some house related decisions in the next few weeks.

Oh please, oh please. I’d like to be focusing on picking major ticket items, like flooring, windows and exterior finishes, while we are here in Minnesota and relatively available. But something tells me that’s not how it’s going to go. Yes, I’m a little cynical at this point.

Our architect is currently making a few tweaks to the plan and then will proceed to the exterior concept. After we see and approve that, we’ll move on to construction level plans. Based on how long that took last time and factoring in the impending holidays, I’m guessing we’ll be ready to request a permit sometime in mid January.

That means we might be in a position to start making major decisions after we come back to Minnesota in late January. The permit process typically takes 4-6 weeks, assuming no major snags, so it will likely be March before we get the thumbs up from the city.

Right now I’m hoping we can break ground in May and be done by the fall of 2017. I’m not sure if that makes me a pessimist or an optimist. Maybe a little bit of both. Today’s random photos are courtesy of our November 2014 trip to Sedona.

We were supposed to get our first big winter storm of the season on Monday. The forecast kept fluctuating, but it called for something in the neighborhood of 3 to 6 or more inches of snow between Monday afternoon and Tuesday afternoon. It was snowing when I left the house Monday morning. I made sure to stock up at the grocery store. ‘Cause snowmageddon was on the way and we’d be stuck at home.

So naturally, because of all the big warnings, it turned out to be nothing. On Tuesday morning I shoveled less than an inch of slush out of the driveway, mostly because I was afraid it would freeze. I was somewhat astonished to see our snow removal guy show up yesterday afternoon. He’s not supposed to come for less than a two inch snowfall. Must be hard up for money.

Today’s random photos are courtesy of Tasmania. The first one is from a cruise we took in Launceston and the second is from Cradle Mountain National Park.

I’ve been posting a random photo of the day on Facebook every day for the last week. Why? Because I have all these photos on my computer that never see the light of day. Sure, I’ve been trying to catch up with posting some of them here, but let’s be honest, about 5 people actually read this blog on a semi-regular basis.

I’m not a super popular person on Facebook either, but at least I have 72 friends there and a fair number of those actually see what I post. I even get likes and, occasionally, comments. And let’s be honest, that’s what we all live for on social media, right? But to be fair to the handful of people who actually do wander in here and read my random thoughts, I’m going to try not to repeat the same photos I post on Facebook.

They might be similar. I do have a lot of freakin’ photos of dahlias, cemeteries and our niece, among other common subject manner, but I will do my best not to post the exact same photo in both places. I make an exception for the little photo albums of major trips that I put on Facebook. You’ve got to cut me a little slack. It’s hard to keep track of all this stuff anyway.

I actually had a friend send me a text asking if I was on Instagram. The point being that it is theoretically a better medium for posting photos. No, I’m not and I don’t want to be. For one thing, Instagram is all about posting photos you take with your phone and those are not usually the photos I really want to be sharing with a large audience. For another thing, I really don’t want to spend more time on social media than I already do. Even if no one sees it.