daily life – Page 9 – The Hermits' Rest

Too Tired? Then Don’t Blog

Yesterday I wrote a long post about my day yesterday. But did I manage to share it? Nope. At least the email subscribers got to see it. I shared this evening. Better late than never.

In related lateness, I finally found a moth, after moth week ended. *Helicoverpa zea*, a huge pest to agriculture.

I also was tardy with my own health. Thanks to the internet outage last week I wasn’t able to go to my nurse practitioner to get my thyroid medication prescription refilled. Today it was very obvious that my body wants its pig hormones (I use natural hormones for all my faulty bodily functions). TMI. Anyway, I have a sore “throat,” which is really sore glands. Let’s hope I can get to the pharmacy tomorrow, which may be hard given my schedule.

I’ll try to be as persistent as this scary robber fly

That’s enough whining. I will end this short blog with three different species of Ruellia that I’ve seen in the past three days. It’s been a good year for these “Mexican Petunias” around here this year, but I only have one kind here at the Hermits’ Rest. These are so pretty, but they get around—the flowers shoot seeds for quite some distance. I’ve witnessed it at my old house, where I actually planted some. I feel sorta bad for the people who bought the house.

Metz’s Ruellia, *Ruellia metziae –* I’ve only seen this one other time

Tarot card of the day

Today was a welcome return of the 9 of Pentacles. It’s funny, because I told the nurse practitioner how content and grounded I am right now. I’m so much better at observing the negativity without absorbing it these days.

Dang You, Musky Satellites

You can certainly get accustomed to your technology. When it fails, your day can go downhill fast. That was my experience when my deal with the Devil, otherwise known as a subscription to the Musky StarLink Satellite Connectivity Godsend. When it’s good, it’s our link to the world. When it’s bad, wow, you feel disconnected!

StarLink went down in the middle of my work day. It did not help that my backup plan, connecting to my phone hotspot, was unavailable. AT&T was displaying SOS. Yup. The phone was out of commission, too. I was hosed.

Just waiting for the vultures to start circling my dead connectivity.

It’s hard to tell your coworkers why you’re not at meetings when your only option is to send them a letter, ya know? But, it’s not common and the system is mostly reliable. Still, Lee and I both have had fleeting thoughts about what would happen if someone attacked the satellites we rely on. Back to the olden days? Eek.

I do still write things by hand, like my bullet journal.

Anyway, StarLink came back. And I went out and rode my horse in the intense heat and sweated all that paranoia off!

Tarot card of the day

Man, this new practice of drawing a card a day after many years without it is very different. The thing that’s taking some getting used to is how darned encouraging the cards are so far. Today? 9 of Pentacles.

This card is about having all you need (in material things) and feeling content. That’s exactly how I’ve been feeling with regard to my physical situation these days. I can’t imagine having a more pleasant and supportive setup in my life, designed to keep me mentally healthy and stable no matter what else is going on.

The 9 of Pentacles reminds me of how kind my family has been to provide this safe haven at the Hermits’ Rest. I have my animals, my pool, the porch, my books, and all that yarn. Material things aren’t necessary, but for some of us they provide comfort, security, and stability when everything around us is unstable.

Hmm. Lots to think about today.

Maybe I’m Not Cut Out for This

Yesterday I worked ten hours and had eight meetings, nearly all of which were challenging and some of which were stressful. Yow. I was truly wiped out at the end of the day, but managed stay online another half hour for my tarot group. My ears hurt from wearing headphones all day!

I wished I was on the porch with all the new pillows and cushions.

It has taken me all day today to recover from yesterday. Luckily today I had some nice writing to do, and lunch to enjoy, which helped. And a friend dropped by after work, which was a good surprise.

Drew and I felt similarly yesterday afternoon.

Never fear, I’m still loving my consulting job and the people I’m working with, but it’s a real job so of course there are challenges! I’m just disappointed that I didn’t recover as quickly as I’d like to have. It makes me feel my age. Ugh. I’ll have to figure out a way to ration my energy better. I want to contribute!

This is my bucolic photo of behind the house for Robert.

I spent as much time today as I could meditating and planning how to care for my energy and brain so I can be productive.

See how perky I looked with my official iNaturalist shirt and cicada earrings?

Naturally, hanging out with birds helped me clear my mind. There were so many today, which was great fun. Red-eyed Vireos were everywhere making their weird sounds, as were Great Crested Flycatchers, and not fake Mockingbird ones, either. Just identifying what was flying while I was floating in the pool around sunset was enough to bring me back to my center.

This bird sighting made me chuckle. The Great Egret looks fascinated by the cow’s rear.

I’m sure glad I live here in the peace and quiet (mostly; tonight they’re harvesting Milo or something across the road, which entails big machines, shiny lights, and hubbub.) That’s just once or twice a year, though.

Carlton would like me to go to sleep! Okay!

Tarot cards of the day

Yesterday my card was the Teacher or Hierophant. I like this image of a wise person learning in different ways. It’s better than the mean institutional guy in Robin Wood. Plus it has a Great Blue Heron!

The card was a great choice, since the spread my tarot friends and I did last night was about messengers and the lessons they had for us. I was encouraged to keep going in my new endeavors. Also I had to laugh when I drew the 3 of Cups as one of the messages, because it had happy, playful otters on it!

Today’s card was The Sun, which I forgot to photograph. It’s very summery and happy in the Gaian deck. To me it felt like celebrating that I am handling what comes my way with positivity, even through some painful times of change.

This is Benebell Wen’s image. I’ll replace it tomorrow when I go downstairs.

The Slug of Exhaustion

The title is my weak analogy to yesterday’s blog title, The Salmon of Knowledge. I was pretty sluggish today after all yesterday’s exercise, though I ended up with almost as much exercise today, thanks to swimming in circles around the pool and vigorously winding yarn into ball, which counts.

Of course, I spent time in nature. Hope these Mockingbird babies make it.

It’s healthy to take a day off from being busy, though, so I gave myself permission to sit on the porch, watch documentaries on octopi, and enjoy food Kathleen made. The porch is getting even more relaxing. Two of my cushions arrived, and now lying on the couch is as comfortable as my bed.

Lee says the pillows are too loud. I say they pull together the trim, couch, and blue chair colors. Wait until he sees the outdoor rug…

Being the Slug of Exhaustion today also allowed me to ignore anything stressful that I possibly could. I just looked at my surroundings and enjoyed them, enjoyed the family, and will take the stress back up tomorrow.

Since I have nothing deep to say, let me recommend the Billy Joel documentary, And So It Goes, part 1 of which just came out. This part covers the years I really liked, the 70s, when he was quite amazing to see live. You end up really liking his first wife.

Oh, here’s something exciting. The unused RV that had been next to my tack room went away today. It will be easier to get to my square bales of hay that way. It looks all color-coordinated now!

Tarot card of the day

Today I pulled the Explorer (knight) of Water (cups). It’s a pretty darned happy card, hinting I’m in a good place, emotionally today, able to navigate the waves of feelings smoothly. It also may indicate a new emotional path, sort of like yesterday’s 10 of Water.

We will see. As I grow more Hermit-like in my self preservation mode, I’ll be interested to see if anything manages to stir me in new emotional directions other than inward!

The Salmon of Knowledge

I said I’d draw a card from my new deck daily for a while. The one I drew today sure fit! It was the Ace of Water (cups), and it has my favorite Celtic symbol, the salmon of knowledge.

Yesterday I drew the 10, which focuses on the return home. The Ace is about starting a new path to your heart’s desire. Spot on!

Today my neighbor, Vicki, and I had our first lessons together with Apache and Drew. I know for her it felt like restarting her desire to work with horses, and for Drew, it was a start working with a new human.

Drew discovers he has to do what Vicki says.

We all ended up very tired after many hours in the sun, but we were happy. Drew was happy to be back at work, especially since he’s so tubby he can’t even buck properly when he can’t canter right. There’s work to be done!

Apache is doing better, too, and everyone survived the trailer experience with Vicki’s vehicle. I look forward to finding out what’s next on this journey. May the salmon grant us emotional fulfillment and knowledge!

The Little Animal Things

Still a busy busy week at work and home. Luckily, being occupied with work keeps me from other thoughts. Even better, I’ve got all these animals to keep my “free” time not very free.

I love going out on breaks to care for the hens and check on the horses. Dusty always sticks his head in my hands for love.

And working to keep Apache feeling good and getting Drew back into work is a great distraction. Droodles is getting lots of reminders that crazy canter is not his goal. But he’s awfully good walking on Lee’s new trails.

And then the dogs. Even when I’m feeling the jitters over things I can’t control, they make me and Lee laugh.

And thanks to all of you who share your pets, birds, and kids on social media—it doesn’t remove serious concerns but it reminds me of what’s good.

DMV Blues

I’m sitting in the driver’s license office in scenic Hearne, Texas. It’s in a weird spot in the westernmost part of the town, making it only 25 minutes from my house. It’s really an odd spot, right next to the remnants of a POW camp for Germans from World War II. You can see the old watch tower and building foundations right outside the driver’s license office.

And the inside of the building is so quiet. They make you get appointments and you can only check in a half hour before yours. There’s one person ahead of me and I can tell he’s all confused, so I’ll be here a while.

And who knows if I’ll succeed in my own mission to replace my stolen or lost license. It was freshly renewed, so you’d think they’d just replace it. But, no, I hadn’t taken a photo of my newest one, and there’s a secret number that changed with the renewal, so without it I couldn’t simply do it online.

Because I live in Texas and they think everyone is trying to sneak into this paradise on earth, I’m worried I don’t have enough ID. I even ordered a copy of my Social Security card in case my passport wasn’t enough. I have proof of insurance and pieces of mail addressed to me just in case they don’t believe I live in my house. The only thing I don’t have is a copy of my birth certificate, which is in a safe deposit box in Austin.

It’s really odd to need all this, when they believed I was me in March and renewed my license. I will update this post when I succeed or fail!

Hooray! My appointment is over and it couldn’t have been more pleasant. All I needed was my passport. And of course, this being rural Texas, the clerk and I quickly determined who we knew in common and had a nice chat about our common interests. You just can’t beat this aspect of living in a connected small community. There is much good in this area!

The only negative was that I didn’t realize I’d need a new photo. I have pink hair. Oops. Luckily I had pulled it back. That, however, makes me look like my father. Oh well, at least I have a temporary license and will have a real one soon, and they believed who I was!

On my way out, I drove by Camp Hearne, since I’d been meaning to do that for many years. It’s hard to believe they brought Germans here. Interesting historical tidbit.

What’s with All the Insect Bites?

Argh. I know it’s normal for a damp time in summer, but gee whiz, I’ve had ENOUGH already with mosquitoes, fire ants, and biting flies. It’s hard to enjoy myself outdoors right now!

And it was a nice, if humid, day in between showers.

First, house flies are having one of their periodic invasions. They follow me everywhere, indoors and out, and either bite or leave a weird feeling where they land. They are just so buzzy.

Then there are the mosquitoes that make me unable to stand still or sit outside unless I’m in the swimming pool. I saw 6 at once this afternoon. And they come get me in my sleep, too. Mosquito nets seem like a smart idea. Since I’m slightly allergic, I’ve been mighty uncomfortable from itching.

I don’t let them sit on me long enough to photograph, so this is from Pexels.

We cannot forget fire ants. I wish we could. They seem to be on the move, because no matter where I stopped today, ants would be on my feet instantly. I paid a price for any photo I took today! There are way too many to treat chemically, but I know of a few beds I’ll go after.

One more! I think there are no -see-ums or some tiny biting insect out right now, too. My arms and neck will start hurting and I don’t see any cause. Wah.

Pretend there are bugs in these mushrooms.

No wonder I walked in the rain a lot today. If I stay on the road, not much will bite in the rain. Also yay rain.

And yay. Half the year done in my temperature blanket calendar style.

Honest, I’m Fine

Whenever I start to go in and on about my pessimism it makes certain beloved relatives worried. When I realized that this afternoon I began to muse about how okay I’m actually doing right now. I guess if things have to get scary for those of us not in power, now is preferable to even a few years ago, for me. Spiritual growth is a big help.

Lee says a giant porch chair is a big help.

It’s taken a long time to get to where I don’t panic and start feeling paranoid. Even if “they” were out to get me, it wouldn’t hangs who I am or how I act. Like a friend mentioned in response to yesterday’s post, I’m going to choose to be kind. I’m also not going to give up my ethics and morals. Not panicking doesn’t mean not doing the right thing.

By the way, porch furniture came mere minutes after my son finished the beautiful trim work. He did so well.

(Aside: more than one person I know called their representative today and talked to a real person.)

Look at that fine detail. Craftsmanship!

Anyway, I’m coping well, my anxiety only pops up occasionally, and I’m enjoying my little hermit life. I’m staying in my lane, not asking questions of anyone who’s not wanting to share with me, and enjoying the heck out of my tiny circle of friends and loved ones, dogs, horses, and fowl. That, and birds, is enough to create a peaceful oasis.

This excellent hammertail robberfly was my nature fun of the day.

Please remind me of my peace when I start whining about being lonely, left out, or missing old friends. It does happen. Those I care about are in my heart! That has to be enough.

And all of you who read and comment and share your stories with me are also in my heart. Thank you for showing all of us how much good and caring for others there still is in the world.

Habitually Consistent

What are your daily habits?

Whew, at first I thought they were asking about my bad habits. I can say that I have fewer now than I did in the past, and I don’t think I’m developing any significant new ones.

Daily habits, though. Hmm. What does this mean? Parts of my routine? Things I habitually do throughout the day? I do know that I habitually look at my watch to see how far I am toward my exercise goals, how hot or cold it is, and the date. I no longer track dates well, though as I work more I assume I’ll get better.

I closed all my rings today. My watch will soon praise me.

I also look at my phone a lot. I’ve cut down on it lately, having found the world is fine without my attention. Still, I get many texts. Some are cute photos of animals or birds, so I don’t mind.

Sara in Wisconsin sent me these glorious golden oyster mushrooms today. Worth checking my phone for.

I’m also habitually looking for my bird notebook. In my mind it must always be nearby, in case I see something, like the Cattle Egrets I saw on the way to dinner tonight. I must write these sightings down! That’s my own rule; no one is forcing me.

I had my notebook when I saw this Downy Woodpecker pecking away at some giant cane *(Arundo donax*). I wonder what it was looking for in there?

That, and twirling my hair around my fingers, a childhood habit that comes back whenever I grow my hair long, about sums up my daily habits that occur at any time of day.

As for things that I habitually do every day, I’ve developed quite a routine lately.

Wake up
Dress
Teeth, medication, facial stuff
Make coffee
Sit in my birding chair and watch/listen to birds. Write down birds I see and Merlin hears.
At the same time, do my Finch self care app (my birb is Ada), read Facebook, check personal email.
Go for a walk to the bridge and back, also listening to birds.
Feed chickens and Connie Gobbler.
Go inside and work. Or spontane if not working.
Check mail after lunch. That’s my break.
After work, feed horses, groom a horse, or work with Apache.
Gather eggs.
Swim in summer. Another walk in other seasons.
Watch whatever television show we are watching. The Gilded Age right now, since we finished Star Trek: Discovery. Crochet or knit.
Write blog or Substack if I didn’t earlier.
Read current book or magazine.
Sleep, glorious sleep.

Oh my gosh. I just wrote down a day in the tedious life of Suna. I do eat somewhere in there. Apparently that habit isn’t worth noting. Please believe me that interesting things do happen! But I realize that this is the first time in my life I’ve had such a routine that I can stick to or deviate from.

And of course I have my weekly nail strip application habit.

I think the Covid isolation led me to become more set in my ways, as my elders used to call it. Now that I’m borderline elderly, I guess I have a right to do so.

Maybe you’ll start to think about your own habits, productive or otherwise. Do they rival mine in dullness?