Oh, I wish I was talking about me!! Today is Wednesday. Hump Day. So, I thought you might like an overdose of cuteness to get you through the day. You can thank The Herd, aka the laziest supervisors ever, for their willingness to work so hard at sleeping and relaxing. It’s a hard job but someone has to do it, right?
I’ve been wanting to write for the past couple days and this is a faster one to get up here for you to remind you that no, I’m not dead. 🙂 My hardest decision about this post is which picture to make as The Designated Picture!
So without further adieu, here are some photos of The Herd, doing what they do best, other than pooping and eating. (And yes, Steel, the German Shepherd, who is an honorary member of the Herd until May 2020, when his dad (my roommate) and I will go our separate ways, has even joined in on the fun.) Many were taken from my office. While I slave away to make enough money to put food in their bowls on the floor (dogs) or on the dresser (cats, in order to keep it away from the dogs), they all work soooo hard. #notesarcasm
But yes….they really are my reason for existing and for living.
Bestill my heart. The cuteness.
Makes me want to touch her belly.
Sophie just loves Snuggles.
Because he’s a giant in a tiny bed
Steel looking ridiculous in a small pet bed. Three babies (Honeybun, Snuggles and Sophie.) Queen Babs looking quite relaxed. Yes, Snuggles really does sleep like that on his back. And Max, hogging the fan. (Ignore the giant pile of clean laundry.)
Max and Callie (Callie is always on the move.) Steel looking like he got shot by a sniper. Queen Babs on her throne of pillows. And Mr. Snuggles, doing what he does best….looking adorable.
What is your reason for living and for working so hard? Drop me a comment below and share, if you can, pictures of your babies!!
Once again, many moons or months have passed since my last post. I’ve started quite a few since then, only to never finish them. I start writing and then I think, who even cares to read my drivel anymore? And is there anyone even out there still reading anything I write? It’s not like I’ve been consistent lately. (Understatement of the year.)
Since I’ve been doing transcription full-time, it is hard for me to rationalize writing on here and then typing about 70 pages a day. I know I should start the writing before the transcribing, because sometimes my fingers literally hurt at the end of the day. So maybe write posts on the days that I am mainly just audio proofing and therefore not typing so much? Anyway, it’s hard to believe I’ve been self-employed now for over a year. 15 months as of February to be exact.
Well, The Herd has grown by one since my last writing. Her name is Babs and she is a gorgeous calico cat whose previous fur mom died. Her human sister and I had a mutual friend who posted her picture and story on Facebook and one thing led to another. And well, Babs traveled across the country from LA to Jacksonville, Florida, where I picked her up and drove her back down to the Ft. Myers area. You know how I love my senior furballs.
How could I resist bringing this cutie into my home??
As I mentioned in my last post, I am looking to move in May sometime as our lease is up at the end of that month. Thinking very seriously about the St. Pete/Clearwater area and its environs. Cheaper to live, more liberal and more people around my age. Down here there are a lot of 20-somethings and then there are a bunch of much older folks, like those who have been able to retire and live off of their savings or pensions or what have you. Really hard to make friends when you work at home and aren’t into the bar scene. I do volunteer at a wildlife center on the weekends when I am in town and I love it. But it’s not really a great way to make lasting friends since the volunteers change a lot on the weekends.
I have been dating someone now for the past few months. Yay! He’s about 5 yrs older than me and is very positive with his mindset. Also into fitness. Another yay! He lives north of Orlando. Boo! But he has two sons in the St. Pete/Clearwater area, so many times we meet halfway for both of us, around St. Pete. Or, I go up his way for a weekend, since I can take my work with me and he usually works 6 days a week due to staff shortages. (He works as a fitness director.) Oh, and he’s liberally minded and open to eating vegan or vegetarian food when he’s with me. Yay! Neither one of us makes a lot of money so it’s good that we like to spend time in parks, going for walks/visiting the beach, etc. We plan to go indoor rock climbing together in Tampa the next time we are up there.
Waiting for sunset near the Peace River Wildlife Center in Punta Gorda, Florida
The finances — eh, they’re there. Still working on improving them and increasing my income. Working with several different companies is helping in that I never have a shortage of work. I also learn about different types of proceedings and how they need to be transcribed, as well as from different jurisdictions. I won’t bore you with the details, but it does make my work more interesting as well.
So that’s about all that has changed. I have realized that being a nomad is just too difficult when you have as many furballs as me. I can’t afford nor would I want to drive around a huge Class A at this point. A Class C might work, but I would always be terrified about any of them getting out or being unhappy, and that is no way to live. Plus, living the RV life isn’t always that cheap, and I really do love being near the water. Even if you live somewhere inland like where my boyfriend lives, you are still just an hour away from a huge body of water like the Atlantic. To do the RV thing more cheaply means you live in the desert southwest or where there is a lot of BLM land, and I really need the greenery that I have around me here. I have come to realize that. I do miss the wide open spaces of the southwest though.
There are always compromises, aren’t there?
Anyway, I wanted to write this post while I had the ambition to do so, and while my hands weren’t hurting from typing 15-20,000 words in a day. Yes, you read that right. Not a typo.
Thank you to Dawn from Change is Hard for inspiring me to write this evening, after dropping a comment on my blog letting me know she was thinking about me. I admire her ability to blog so consistently. And if you haven’t read her blog or seen her pictures, well, you’re really missing something.
Again, I do want to write more. It’s just hard when you feel like you don’t have much to say, or you do feel like you have something to say but feel the need to earn an income for your furballs and put a bowl of food on the floor for them. Life, right? I’m not complaining. I love working from home and watching my babies sleep (seemingly all day, lol.)
Steel (roommate’s dog) next to my baby boy, Snuggles. Look at the size difference!
See what I mean? Lots of sleeping going on in this photo.
Sooo much sleeping goes on during the day here. Sometimes I even join them. It cracks me up to go lay down on my bed and then hear the pitter patter of little feet as they wake up from their naps, only to realize that Mom has moved. So they pick their bodies up, stretch, and then come in and lay back down next to me. Sometimes, the bed is very crowded… LOL.
Anyway, I feel like I sound like a broken record when I say that I am sorry for the long lengths of time between posts. Thanks for reading if you made it this far. At least some of the photos were cute, right?
I’ve been obsessed with the idea of living simply and living in a tiny house for many years now, way before it became trendy. Thinking about living in a tiny home helps me to stop myself from buying things I “want” but don’t necessarily need. Kind of like when I was getting ready to move cross country. The way I made decisions about what to keep and what to get rid of was to ask myself, “was there room for both this thing and my animals in the car?” The animals were definitely going – that was not even a question. It was more a question of whether there was room for this additional thing.
So now I sit and think to myself – is this object I’m perusing, be it a second-hand shirt or pillowcase, or whatever, something that I would definitely want to move into a tiny house when I finally achieve that dream? Or when I move into a small bachelor-type apartment? If I can’t picture it, I don’t buy it. Do I already have something at home that can fill the “need” it would otherwise cover? Usually, the answer is yes.
When I first got out of law school, I should have done what I advise all students to do now. When you get out of school, don’t live any differently. Continue to live like a student while you pay off your debts and get started with your life. Just because you’re no longer in school doesn’t mean your home needs to look like it just walked off the pages of Dwell magazine.
So these days, I live frugally. Like a student. I have a roommate and it’s a one bedroom apartment, so my bed is in the living room and I’m totally fine with that. Every morning when I wake up, I look at the Sandia Mountains to the east of Albuquerque. It’s a beautiful view, especially when the clouds are so low they obscure the tops of the peaks. I have a large picture window that lets in lots of light.
Speaking of beds, mine is on a platform of milk crates. Guess what? It’s pretty supportive on my back. It’s also a good way of creating some built-in storage in a very inexpensive way. My mattress cost me all of $129 from Walmart, and I bought it online so didn’t have to deal with transporting it in my small car. It came in a box and once it was opened, my roommate rolled it open, and voila, in an hour or so, it was ready to go up on top of said milk crates. And instead of buying heavy, hard to move bookcases, I have, guess what? Milk crates! When you have to move, you just turn them, your stuff is in them, and voila, no need to get lots of extra boxes to pack your stuff in, because it’s already packed!
You know those plastic white bin type of drawers you can get at Walmart or Target? I bought those to organize my stuff in the fifth wheel I owned in Utah. Still got ’em. The old me of several years ago would have gotten rid of them as soon as I could afford a nice “dresser.” But you know what? It’s hard to move heavy furniture on your own and when you have a small hatchback type car. Plus, these white drawers can be configured in a multitude of ways. I can see everything I have in them. When they’re too full of crap, it’s time to downsize. Looking at them now, I see that yes, it’s time for me to get rid of stuff again. You really do only wear 20% of your stuff, 80% of the time.
I’ve been thinking of what I would want in a tiny house. I honestly don’t need much, aside from room for me and my animals. I think about whether I would want a flush toilet or a composting toilet. To not have to deal with a black tank would be awesome, so I’d likely go with the composting toilet. I’d like to do solar and have as much of my energy needs filled off the grid.
Would I want my tiny house to be on wheels? I sometimes think so, but then realize a shed that could be insulated, etc., might be a more economical way to go. Just have to find a place to put it (and oh yeah, be able to afford that place/land.) So I have begun to save. It’s a small amount right now, but that online savings account is named “Tiny Home.”
You might wonder how all of my animals will fit into a tiny home. If my roommate and I go our separate ways, Morgan will likely stay with him. She does very well with training – her brain likes to be challenged, and she helps him in a great therapy-type way. He has PTSD and a few other problems from having been in the army and Iraq. Also, since Snuggles is so possessive/obsessive of me, he has become “her human.” (It is a trait of weiner-dogs to be super possessive.) Morgan adores him to the moon! Yes, I’m her momma and the one who feeds her, but he’s the one who takes her on lots of walks, and snuggles with her and plays with her in the yard during the day when I’m at work. When he is feeling down, she stays close to him. Every time she hugs him, I see the bond that has formed between them. It makes my heart feel good.
So in closing, if you started reading my blog because of my tiny house posts, never fear, I’m still very interested in them! I still watch tons of YouTube videos about simple living and tiny houses. Yes, I used to live in an RV and that one didn’t work out for me, but I feel like a tiny home is different and can be made much stronger and much better insulated than that fifth wheel was! I haven’t given up on the tiny living dream, so don’t give up on me!
And yes, in case you’re wondering, I don’t like that they’ve become trendy and that the prices have increased so drastically over the past few years. I think they can still be built economically, and I’m willing to put in the elbow grease on mine, if someone is willing to help me figure out what the hell I’m doing!
Are you interested in living more minimally? In a tiny home? Or an RV? Let me know what you think, what you would prioritize, if you’d want it to be on wheels, etc., in a comment below! And if you’ve liked the post but prefer not to comment, please hit that like button or share it!
I love this photo of Morgan because she looks like she is smiling. Luckily, I get to see her do this every day. As humans, we should strive to smile more and live in the moment like her.
One thing I’ve known about in the past but which has really hit home as I pursue the program in humane education is that people react much better to something positive, or something beautiful, something small and simple that they can relate to, rather than an abstract whole world problem, something they have trouble picturing.
So below are my ideas of what are truly moments of beauty:
Reading a facebook post of a friend who has recently become a mom via adoption, after years of trying to become pregnant. She broke down in tears when in a store with her child strapped to her chest, seeing all the Christmas decorations and realizing that this year, she wouldn’t face the holidays with sadness in her heart, but with a feeling of fullness and pure joy.
The turning of the leaves from green to gold and bright red and orange. Realizing that New England doesn’t have a monopoly on beautiful fall foliage, after all.
The amazement you feel at seeing one or two wild sunflowers still finding the courage to grow, weeks after the rest have died.
The warmth of the sun on your face while you lie on your back and look up through the trees at the blue sky above you.
The sound of children playing together at a party in the park, cheering for one little girl who *almost* makes that one perfect hit to the piñata that will grant all of them a good deal of candy.
Seeing your dog literally smiling because she has found a home with people who really love her.
Writing to further my dreams and listening to one of The Herd (Snuggles, to be exact), barking while he’s deep into a dream, nestled at my feet.
My phone’s camera doesn’t do the redness of the leaves justice. It was amazing!
What are some moments of beauty that you’ve recently observed or felt in your life? Please feel free to share them in the comments. And if you’ve liked this post, or know someone who might benefit from reading it, please hit “Like” and then share it!
As you can tell from the title of my post, there is a new family member. His name is Snuggles, and I think little Osito had a hand in his making his way to me. Allow me to explain.
A very sleepy Snuggles. This usually happens after he and Morgan rough house (I always watch them to make sure no one gets too excited.) Adorable. 🙂
You know from reading my last post that I lost my little Osito a few weeks ago. Well, the following day, my friend Elaine’s dog, Annie, was crying and crying at the front window in her house, and wouldn’t stop until Elaine went to see what was amiss. She looked outside and saw this little brown dog on her front lawn and he was running from one neighbor’s house to another. A lady was walking by and helped her to catch him.
Upon closer look, Elaine could see that he had some sort of injury to the right side of his face. His jaw was misaligned, and one of his eyes appeared to be much smaller than the other, or maybe that’s just because it was more sunk into his head than the left side. So basically, it looked like he suffered a major trauma to that side of his face at one point. Then she looked down to his feet and saw that his toenails were so long, they had curled under his feet and he was essentially walking on them. That couldn’t have been comfortable for him.
Just relaxing in the backyard with Mom
She took him to her vet, located nearby and asked them to see if he had a microchip. He didn’t. They suggested she take him to AWD (Animal Welfare Department) but also said that he would likely be put down there. So she called me and asked if my hospital could do that kind of work that he might need. We do. So she brought him down to me, and I had a doc examine him, who surmised that he had had a broken jaw at one point. However, it wasn’t causing him any pain at this point, you could touch it and he would never cry out. So clearly, it was an old injury, and one that he had learned to deal with. I told some of my coworkers that I would take him home that night and see how he did with the herd, and see what I thought to do in the morning.
Super drugged up after being neutered and having some teeth removed all in one shot! This pic shows how his jaw is misaligned. He doesn’t let it stop him from doing anything, and I’m so inspired by him.
Well, you all know where this is leading. The following morning, I was like “no way in hell am I taking this little guy to a shelter. I don’t know how i will afford to pay for his care, but he’s staying with me.”
Flash forward to last week. He has all of his vaccinations, and he IS microchipped. He has a collar with his and my names on it, and my phone number. He has now been neutered. He had a dental surgery that removed three of his smaller teeth and a canine tooth that was hanging out of his mouth like a snaggle tooth. This way, when he eats, he doesn’t have a tooth pushing up into the roof of his mouth, since it is so misaligned.
The dental vet thought that he might be 9 to 11 years old. That’s older than was initially thought, but it makes sense based on his energy level and the grey hair I see under his chin.
Taking a breather from playing
He has fit into the family quite easily. Morgan loves to play with him, and he pays no mind to the cats. He weighs about 12 pounds, so he’s what we call a chi-weenie (part Chihuahua and part mini-Dachsund (or weiner dogs as I like to call them.)
He loves loves loves to be snuggled, as his name suggests. He doesn’t bark much and has a great demeanor. Very loving. When he wants to be picked up, he gets up on his hind legs and rests his front paws on knee. He loves to sleep on the bed and on one of my living room chairs. And usually, it’s with all four feet up in the air while he lies on his back. You can tell by that pose, he’s happy and comfortable where he is.
What’s unusual about this story is that Elaine’s dog, Annie, doesn’t usually whine and cry like she did that day. She usually barks, if anything, at people passing by.
Also, his temperment is so much like Osito’s, I definitely think that he was a gift she sent to me. He loves to sleep under the covers just like she did. He is perfectly content to just sit beside me on the chair while I’m reading or doing some transcription. And the fact that he is another senior makes me love him all the more.
I may not have been planning on getting another animal so soon, but I’m glad he found me. Thank you, Baby O, and Annie for being the conduit that day and getting your mom involved. ❤ Osito can never be replaced, but I’m finding a different part of my heart for this little one to occupy.
Have a great day everyone!! And as always, thanks for reading!
Chasing Simple Dreams 