Updated as of November 2020: If you have a dream, you have to do more than just think about it. Take at least one small step toward it every day. That’s my philosophy. I’ve always been one of those folks who researches everything before they do it, or decide to buy something. So, of course, … Read more About Me
Page updated as of January 2023: If you’ve just stumbled across my blog, or even if you’ve been a long time reader (in which case, I thank you wholeheartedly!), you know that I am a huge animal lover. So much so that I have my own little *herd* as I like to call them. I … Read more The Herd
Yep, another pic from Zion. This is from a location that is east of the big tunnel.
The other day I wrote how I’ve been feeling kind of down lately. It definitely helped to get it out onto paper (or in this case, the screen.) I also decided to write down a list of things that I was thankful for, as I figured that would make me realize how good things really are. You know, look at the glass as hall full, not half empty. So here is what I came up with, and it’s not in a particular order of importance.
my animals and their good health
a roof over my head
a job that pays my bills (barely, but I do live frugally)
warm clothes
warm bed to sleep on
my car runs reliably
neighbors who look out for me
my family is in good health (relatively, anyway)
my best friend, Sarita
my writing ability
the full tank of gas that was in my car at the time
I have friends that care about me
I can choose where I want to be next year
I can walk and breathe fresh air.
In addition to all of this, I had a really good conversation earlier this week with someone who has offered to mentor me with my writing. Out of the goodness of her heart. I’ve had people come out of the blue, just from reading my blog, offering to help me, in various ways. I can’t tell you how much that means to me.
Thank you so much to everyone who read my last post and responded and offered support and encouragement. It helped a ton. Even though I’ve talked about depression and other things on this blog, I was still very afraid to write that post. There is still always this stigma about it. But it always helps me to write about it and get it out. Cathartic, in a way. And also, I got more back into my gym routine this week and it helped. One of the regular ladies there in the mornings reads my blog and we had a good talk.
I felt like this photo was my reward for being at Zion today. I felt honored they let me get so close.
I’m sorry it has been a while since I posted. I’ve been trying to sort through some things – figuring out my place in this world, etc. I’m feeling like this town is too small for me to stay in permanently, having lived the last 20 or so years of my life in big cities. And I’m getting the urge to possibly pursue seasonal work as Becky does from Interstellar Orchard. But I don’t want to give up on helping animals either. So, blog readers, I’m totally open to any and all suggestions you might have on that front! (And yes, I have signed up again with Workamper News so I can peruse the possibilities there in addition to Coolworks.com)
But seriously. I’ve been feeling down in the dumps lately. Not sure why. It might be the weather, the ever-shortening days, the smallness and consequently isolated-feeling I get from being in this town. Maybe it’s because with the trees having lost all of their leaves, I can see just what a dump the property is behind where my RV is parked. Literally. It looks like the owner of the house just let a whole bunch of cars or other types of machines park themselves out back, to just rust away. It’s depressing and an eye sore. I’m told the guy is like 90 years old, though, so I just kind of ignore it and try to not look at it or dwell upon it. But it is an eyesore, to be quite blunt.
I was amazed at how close this family of mule deer let me get to them.
I’m just having a hard time of it right now and it’s frustrating to not be able to snap out of it. I used to be able to rely on my workouts to keep my mood up, but lately, I just don’t even have that motivation to work out like I used to. It’s been several weeks since I went on a real run. I don’t count the one or two nights on the treadmill where I did walk/run/walk/run, etc. I’ve also been sleeping a lot more than I used to. I get bored to death at the gym with the same routines over and over. Last week, I went to the gym once. Once. That’s unheard of from me. And, most nights, it’s all I can do to stay awake past 8, which might be one of the reasons you’ve not seen many blog posts from me lately.
I went to one of my favorite (and cheap) places to go, today. Zion National Park. (It’s cheap because I have an annual pass so it doesn’t cost me anything more than the gas required to get there.) I made sure to go early enough that the sun would be out and feel warm for quite a while. I found a good spot on a bench outside of the Zion Lodge and read a book while occasionally looking at the massiveness of this tree, pictured below, and tried to figure out just how old it is. Any guesses?
I decided at one point to drive and park at the visitor’s center. Once there, I decided instead of doing the Pa’Rus Trail again, I would do some walking toward the town of Springdale. Springdale is a small, artsy town that borders the park, and while it’s small, as you can see in the photo below, at least it has a large screen movie theatre. (That’s more than I can say for the town I’m in right now. But I digress.)
The town is definitely in its off-season mode. It seemed like almost every business I passed was closed. A coffee shop was open, as were some of the outdoor gear type places, but most of the restaurants were shuttered. I soon gave up on the idea of eventually people-watching, and started walking back toward my car and that’s when I saw this family of mule deer, up close and personal. I took so many photos – the ones sprinkled throughout this post are just a sampling.
Mama and baby. I was so lucky to get this shot with the baby’s big ears turned toward me.
Another guy came over and started taking pictures too and we got to talking. Earlier today, he had hiked Angels Landing, and he said at the top he saw a California Condor, which he told me was made extinct in the wild in the late 1990s. He said they’ve only recently begun to be released into the wild in Zion and the Grand Canyon, so we agreed that it was pretty amazing that he saw one today. Together, we just marveled at how close the deer let us walk toward them. They clearly know they are safe there, and that’s a beautiful thing.
Seeing these deer lifted my spirits in a way it is hard to describe. I’ve always felt this connection to animals, like they just know I mean them no harm. I also enjoyed connecting with another human being over how it felt to be so close to them and to feel such wonderment together. It got me to thinking of ways I can help animals other than or in addition to what I do now for work. I’m still sorting it out in my mind, that and a lot of other things. I just know spring can’t come fast enough, for so many reasons.
Have you ever been down and just can’t snap out of it, even after a few weeks? What did you do to get out of it?
My lunchtime view – close to the Visitor Center at Zion. I *think* that rock formation is called The Watchman because it overlooks the Watchman Campground.
I asked my friend Dan the other night, “does it make me pathetic that I go to Zion almost every week these days?” And he said “no!” I don’t know what it is, but I just don’t feel comfortable sitting at home on my days off. Maybe because I know that during the week, there pretty much is no other option after work, since it gets dark at 5:30ish. Living in a small town is one thing in the summertime when the sun only sets around 9 p.m. (we’re so far west in the mountain time zone, that’s why) and you can go hiking after work. But now, it gets very cold here after the sun sets. The difference in temps between daytime and nighttime can be about 30 degrees. I’m sure those ranges will get even larger as we get more into winter. And no, I’m not looking forward to it, not one bit. I think the only thing that will save me this winter from sinking into an abyss (yes, I’m being a bit dramatic) is the fact that we get more sun here than we did back east. I remember sitting and looking out the small window of my office last January. The sky always seemed to be a foreboding gray and on a really gloomy day it could be almost dark by 3:30 p.m. Read more →
I took this photo today on my walk on a trail close to town. At parts of the trail, it is super quiet and you feel miles away from everything.
I’m sure we have all had times in our lives when we have sensed that something just wasn’t right. We might not have been able to put our finger on it at first – maybe it was the look of a stranger that told us to not trust them, or an offhand comment. Maybe it was our gut telling us to not take a job but we ignored it and took the job anyway, only to find out that we were pretty miserable soon thereafter. I’m not saying that is the case with me, I’m just using those as examples. Read more →
I recently put my financial picture out there for the world to see and I just got a paycheck a little while ago that finally had my health benefits subtracted from it. For 80 hours of work, the net pay was $699, but some of that went into my online savings accounts automatically. I’m hoping this next paycheck is for 88 hours of work – that small difference of one additional day’s pay can make a big difference, money-wise, when you are living kind of close to the bone, as they say. And yes, I do plan on doing an updated post on my financial picture, now that I received a paycheck that included my health insurance. So, stay tuned for that! Read more →
Just one example of the beautiful places I get to visit on my day off. This is Lake Powell which is in both Utah and Arizona.
Hi folks, just wanted to let everyone know I’ve not forgotten about the blog this week, but I’ve been really trying to get my writing going, book-wise. So I’ve been getting up early, like usual, about 4-4:30 a.m., and instead of going to the gym every day, have sat at my chromebook and let whatever thoughts I had in my head come out onto paper. It’s very hard to not edit myself all the time, but that’s a skill I am working on shutting down.
The good news is that I have two different projects going. The first is a non-fiction one, self-help, kind of work. Also, a fiction book. Not sure which one will win out and be my first finished project, but we shall see. I’m finding that the more I write, the more I want to write. However, I still find it more difficult to fill up a blank sheet of paper, or white screen, than with my blog editor. With my blog, I find the words sometimes flow much more freely.
So, stay tuned, as I plan to put up a few posts very shortly about some other hikes I’ve done in the past months at Bryce Canyon National Park and at Zion National Park. Also, I have some great photos of Lake Powell I can’t wait to share with you (above is a teaser). I’m so lucky that these places are so easily photographed, as I don’t have any special talent, that’s for sure. In fact, with my cheap phone, sometimes I can’t even see what I am taking a photo of. 🙂
As always, if you have liked this post, please hit like or subscribe or drop me a line below!
This pic was taken toward the beginning of the hike, when I stopped to eat my pb&j sandwich. You find the trailhead for the Observation Point Trail at the Weeping Rock shuttle stop.
One of the good things about where I live is that one of the most amazing national parks is pretty much in my backyard. Just a quick forty minute drive or so to the Visitor Center where on weekends through the end of November, they are running a shuttle service through the scenic road of the park. Yesterday, I felt like challenging myself so I set out to do the Observation Point Trail, which is described by Zionnational-park.com as “[t]he path is steep and gains elevation quickly, making it one of the most strenuous of the classic hikes in the park. If you have poor fitting shoes it can be quite painful on your toes on the return hike.” (I found the description to be accurate, btw.) Read more →
I’m almost there, I’m down to just 1/2 of a tiny pill, and soon I will be down to no anti-depressant/anti-anxiety medication! It’s been five years since I got through the day without them. I would be lying if I said I wasn’t a bit nervous to see how things go once my body adjusts to even the dosage that I am on right now. You see, Prozac has a very long half life, of about 5 weeks. What that means is that if I were to stop taking it altogether today, some semblance of it would be in my system for another five weeks. So, even though I have been only taking 10 mg this week, my body still thinks that it has at least 20 mg in it, or one full pill. Read more →
So, this has been an insanely busy week every night after I’ve gotten home from work, so I’ve not been able to update the blog much other than responding to comments (which I love by the way, so please keep them coming!), but I wanted to give everyone an update of what is going on in this little circle of my world.
First, a HUGE thank you to everyone who has responded to and read through my post on my financial picture. I agree, cutting expenses even more will be difficult (but that doesn’t mean I can’t do it), so I need to add to my income if I’m going to have much hope on paying off the RV and car early. So my plan so far is this (and not necessarily in this order):
bust my butt to get a second job (have started making calls to local businesses and will be grabbing applications after work this evening and coming week)
send in my invoice to my author for work I did before I moved out here
become an Amazon affliliate (this has already been done, please see the link in my sidebar)
write an ebook (or two or three, as much as I can inspire myself to get down on paper!)
start learning more web-based and other marketable skills through Lynda.com (my employer has obtained access to this for all employees, so it will cost me nothing!)
Second, yesterday, a co-worker mentioned NaNoWriMo, which I have heard about before but never taken part in. No good time like the present to join in the fun, right? The goal is to write a novel in a month, and it is a huge community of writers who attempt to do the same thing. The goal is ostensibly to write 50,000 words in a month and there are forums you can join, prompts you can use, etc., to get that creativity flowing. I plan on using this to keep me motivated.
Third, in case you’re unfamiliar with the Amazon Affiliate Program, the way it works is that if you shop Amazon through my affiliate link, it doesn’t cost you anything extra, but a small percentage (I’m not sure of the exact amount) will be then returned to me in consideration of my having the link on my website.
Finally, you may notice I have a page on my blog called Helpful Books. It has languished a bit for a while but no more! I plan on adding resources to this as well as book reviews. If you have a suggestion of a book to read or a resource that has helped you, whether it’s on budgeting, RVing, living frugally, inspiration to live your dreams or life your way, etc., please let me know! (There’s an easy way to do it by just filling out the form on that page too.) I’ve already received a suggestion or two on books to add to that page, so stay tuned, those will be added shortly.) 🙂 I am also hoping that I can learn some new skills through Lynda.com, as mentioned above, to update and customize this website as well. It might involve paying for a blog theme, instead of the free one that I currently use, but let’s see what I can learn and do on my own first!
Have a great weekend, everyone, and as always, thanks for reading!
What’s this, you ask? A credit card in water, which is now frozen.
Yep, I’ve put my credit card on ice, baby. As in permanent ice. If you have a problem with your credit card usage, I highly recommend freezing it as an tool for helping you to not use it. Read more →
Chasing Simple Dreams 