I’m sure there are birds in this state, but I have not been able to put myself into places where birds are. Still, by wandering around the hotel this morning and searching for a neighborhood after work, I found a few, plus a new one, Vaux’s Swift.
Mostly I heard Lesser Goldfinches, Black-capped Chickadees, House Finches, and Crows. Not the plethora I’d hoped for, but I haven’t made it to any nature sights in Oregon and probably won’t since I leave tomorrow and it will be rainy. Oh well! I did see some plants!
This apple tree was bending down from its beautiful crop.
There are wild blackberries everywhere. I guess I’d never go hungry this time of year.
So beautiful and juicy.
I did enjoy looking around at big trees and colorful flowers, though I’m in a noisy area both at work and where I’m staying. Good thing this wasn’t a sight/seeing trip!
A daisyAn elmA mapleA cherry?Shadewort-not nativeVery blue hydrangea
The work part of the day was great, and there was a fun lunch with the people from the company I contract for. They gave us all nice, soft sweatshirts, too. The people part of this visit has been just great. It’s so empowering to work with people who feel like they’re working as a team to make interesting cutting-edge things.
I do need to go home and tell Drew to treat Vicki better, so I’m looking forward to getting on that plane tomorrow afternoon!
Citizens of Beaverton loved my shirt. I hesitate to wear it at home. Well, everyone has their opinions.
I’ve been in the Portland, Oregon area since yesterday morning, here for work meetings at my fine new job. I’ve had a great time so far, and feel like I’ve contributed to some good work with this company.
Fiddlehead in front of a work building.
I’ve had no issues getting my exercise in, because I’ve walked back and forth between buildings many times. Each meeting seems to be in a different building. It would be fun, except it’s as hot as Texas! It will cool off, maybe.
The rose city is Portland. I’m in Tualatin.
It’s pretty here but I don’t see myself having much time to see any nature. I’ll keep trying! The work setting is great, too. I’ve learned a lot about the amazing machines this company produces for the semiconductor industry, and I enjoyed seeing the research areas very much.
No interior photos due to secrets and stuff.
Mostly I’m really enjoying meeting my coworkers and the people we are helping. I’ve had a lot of fun chatting and laughing as well as getting lots done. Any hiccups have been worth it. Maybe I’ll get to come back someday.
View from hotel room
I hope to be less tired and more coherent tomorrow! Maybe I’ll be able to describe my days better.
The tarot card of the day was the Child of Water (Page of Cups).
Aww
She reminds me of myself as a child, who ran along the beach in Sarasota, Florida. I found out a coworker now lives there today, so the card evokes my memories. The card just reminds me of myself, the little dreamer. Currently the very tired little dreamer in the Pacific Northwest.
Write about a random act of kindness you’ve done for someone.
Seems that this here blog prompt wants us to brag on ourselves about some spectacular kind thing we’ve done for someone. I don’t feel like doing that.
I don’t have to follow instructions! Here are basil blossoms.
Instead, I’ll share how I manifest my small and unspectacular acts of kindness. In a nutshell, I just make an effort to see the humanity of people I come across, even when I’m tired, hungry, in a hurry, or distracted. It’s hard to do! Perhaps that’s why I mentally pat myself on the back when I’m kind under pressure.
Treating people who serve you your food or check you out at a store like someone worth knowing and sharing a kind word with is usually pretty easy and always very kind. I’ve had some great conversations that way!
Bonus: Lee bought and repotted this lovely angel-wing begonia for the porch. He also got the screens clean! He did a kindness for me!
Waving at people going down the road, that lets them know you remember a human is in that car. So I do that.
At work I try to check in with folks, to remind me that they’re not just annoying employees and remind them I’m not just the weird Planview lady.
I have a long history of being that weird lady, though.
No need to go on and on. I truly feel that the best kindnesses we can bestow are when we could most easily skip them. I find it takes no more energy to be kind than to be grumpy, though often being kind makes you stop and think about what you’re doing. And voila! you’re being kinder to yourself.
In more mundane news, I started August with dusty violet hair (way more subtle) and purple geode nails. It’s already Lammas, the first harvest celebration. The year is flying by.
Before hair After hairHair, nails, sky, purple shirt. Nails.
I drove to College Station all by myself this afternoon to go to dinner with friends. Great food, fun stories of war, crime, and peace…and even some pleasant live music. Tomorrow I may seek out a park and birds.
Italian restaurant aftermath.
Tarot card of the day
The Hanged One, or the Tree in the Gaian Tarot. It’s about keeping your center even when things get topsy turvy. I love the sky in the upside down yoga woman (tree pose)’s outfit.
I have more confidence than usual that I’m handling all the world’s weirdness. Hope it lasts!
A friend posted that today was Murphy’s Law Day. Suddenly, I understood my morning.
I felt like this poor bird grasshopper who keeled over right in front of me today.
The power glitches last night had both my computer systems confused. I couldn’t get my peripherals to work right. Every way I tried to plug my monitors and camera in failed.
I got frustrated. Then I found out I’d botched setting up meetings in India. I lost cables. I spilled a soda on my desk. Ugh.
Anything that can go wrong will go wrong.
Thanks, Captain Murphy at Edward’s Air Force e Base, who came up with this saying. You are right some days.
I was ready to join these Purple Martins and migrate outa here.
I persisted, though, and by 3 pm I had my work setup functioning. I just plugged things into and out of the weird docking station with no instructions until things worked. I just have too many cables and power sources.
I even broke a nail. Woe is me.
Middle finger has repair. The others are shorter.
My friends at lunch thought I was going to explode, but the hour away from blank monitors did me good! And I did have a couple of good work meetings. So Murphy wasn’t everywhere.
But like Penney watching cows, I didn’t take my guard down in case of new complications.
By the end of the day after a successful session with Apache the horse followed by a cold rum and soda, I was fine. Life has ups and downs!
Tarot card of the day
Eight of swords
Ha. The Gaian Tarot has an image of people working cooperatively. I did a bit of that today. Sorry I forgot to take a photo.
Robin Wood shows how I really felt today., however.
I was feeling pretty trapped my technology issues, but I found that path out, the one shown in the card. Whew.
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!
Where’s my dang Internet?
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.
Look at that happy lady.
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.
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.
Today was quite a slog, but not without its highlights. I have not been sleeping well for a few days, so 6am came quite early. Sigh, as hard as I try not to turn other people’s issues around and blame myself, it sometimes happens, especially when I’ve messed something up. Hence, little sleep.
But rainbows!
But it was worth getting up early to make it to an 8am horse lesson with sleepy Apache. He was feeling a bit better today, plus he had some excellent entertainment in the form of two curious foals who shared the training arena with us. Those babies have lost all their shyness and found Apache fascinating.
Snappy!
He did a great job playing the patient but grumpy uncle role. The filly just marched right up to him and said HI. She only left when he snorted at her. The colt, who has been less brazen in the past really wanted to be Apache’s buddy.
My friend!
Both foals did that cute mouth snapping they do to show they mean no harm, but the little guy did try to taste Apache’s mouth and substantial hindquarters.
Mmm. Butt.
Tarrin road Apache a bit to work on his turning and the little guy followed them like he wanted to do some work, too.
We’re exercising!
His mom, who’s trying to recover from a rough patch, kept telling him to stop, but it really didn’t work. That’s okay, it was great practice for Apache (and me) to focus with lots of cute distractions.
It’s a parade!All that circling and baby stuff wore me out. Gotta pee.
We made it home in time for me to shower before work started. That’s good, because things did not let up for the rest of the day. Finally, at 7:30pm I was able to leave my desk. Whew. It’s a good thing I’m so peppy for an old gal. I wasn’t even phased to walk into the chicken coop in time to see a turkey egg going down a rat snake’s throat.
It’s a good thing my new consulting position cropped up. Getting immersed in creating quality documentation this week has been very helpful in keeping me from dwelling on how the natural disasters keep coming more and more often.
Flowers are also a diversion.
I’ve been able to concentrate so hard on enjoying my work that time seems to speed by. I’m really feeling like a part of the team, plus my input is solicited and seems appreciated. I’ll enjoy this as long as it lasts!
I think you can tell that all the vegetation was sparkling this morning. Cheerful.
I do want to be there to listen to folks who need to talk through their sadness and feelings, though, and I feel more able to empathize and provide support (and receive it) having given my mind a break.
Our creek spilled its banks overnight, though we’ve not had as much rain as most areas nearby.
We’re in for a lot of weird nature stuff, I’m afraid. It does serve as a reminder to live well and love hard. Speaking of love, here’s a salute to my many friends working right now to kick some medical challenges away from their lives. Your healing vibes are on their way!
Penney wanted to tell you that Lee strung lights in the porch.
I’ve written about teachers I admire many times in this blog over the years, and you can go to the search bar and find them (a good teacher encourages students to do the work themselves, ha ha). I’ve even been called a good teacher, which is undoubtedly an advantage for my career as a teacher. Great? Some might say so; others might not. That’s fine.
Great teachers are passionate about helping people learn. I’ll teach you that this is a passion flower Passiflora incarnata. Passion.
One person’s great teacher can be a poor fit for someone else. That’s why I think one factor that makes a good teacher is the ability to change their style depending on the student. That’s why I prefer to teach one on one. It’s hard to meet all the students’ needs in large group settings. It’s very frustrating and makes me cranky.
Whoever taught my son how to lay floor tile was at least a very good teacher. All that’s left are baseboards.
Great teachers need more than a mastery of the subject matter and a sense of humor. The best ones I’ve had all were able to make whatever they were teaching relevant to their students and got them thinking about the topic for themselves. Sometimes the diversions that come about when engaged students start asking questions make the subject matter unforgettable. I can still remember what that feels like.
It makes me gloriously happy – and here are morning glories.
One reason I was a student so long was that many great teachers engaged me, made me think about things in new ways, and shaped me into who I am. I loved learning and still do. I could probably attend pragmatics and semantics seminars the rest of my life and never get bored, but hey, I have Master Naturalist trainings now, and some of those presenters fit my criteria for great teachers!
I’ve come a long way from academia.
I also love teaching, whether students find me “great” or not. Helping someone learn a new skill or see things in new ways feels almost magical. It’s darn hard work figuring out the best way to present new content to perhaps a disinterested audience but nonetheless it’s rewarding. No wonder I had a difficult time staying retired! I enjoy the challenge.
Speaking of challenges, the baby swallows challenge me to leave them alone.
Maybe next time I retire I can stick to teaching nature apps instead of project portfolio management. As they say, no one dreams of being the best project manager ever as a child. You just suddenly are one. Then you watch a lot of training videos if people like me can keep you awake.
This is an interesting point in my life. Having time for myself for three months was really pleasant, once I got used to being retired. But I’m just as glad to have gone back to work for a while, because it’s opened my eyes to a few things.
Life is all rainbows.
Granted, I haven’t been in the new organization a week yet, but I’m pleasantly surprised at how positive everyone is, how helpful they are to each other, and how they all like what they’re doing (mostly). People act interested in each other as people, even contract workers. And they’re generous with their time and expertise. I’m having a great time collaborating with others in roles similar to mine.
Cheerful as a yellow Kingbird on a wire.
The company has many goals and values that I agree with, like diversity and inclusion, carbon neutrality, and having fun (the larger team couldn’t stop talking about how much fun they had playing kickball).
Gee, I hope the “new job glow” doesn’t wear out too quickly! It’s refreshing to not be looking over your shoulder for HR to escort you out of the building or to have no idea where your team is going or what’s next. I spent too many years in my previous two Austin tech cultures, both of which had an atmosphere of negativity that I was always trying to make the best of because I needed money. And all those mergers and acquisitions!
I often felt like I was going down rabbit holes.
That’s no longer an issue. I’m working now because I want to be helpful and I’m in a place that values transparency and honesty with customers and staff. I may be tired from drinking information from a fire hose right now, but I’m doing things I enjoy (other than mandatory compliance training). I feel useful, helpful, and appreciated. That’s motivating!
Porch before tile was installed. It’s just dry fit here.
And very soon I’ll have a porch I can work from. The floor is going down, though my son is tired of having to vacuum up dog hair before laying each tile. Dang dogs.
The Hermits' Rest 