The quality of our lives depends on how we focus our energy and our attention.

Hmm. Either that bug that laid me low last Saturday came back in a milder form, or I just have a bad cold with some minor aches and pains. Whatever it is I’ve been fighting it since Wednesday. So I’ve been taking good care of myself and trying to get something constructive done…something that doesn’t take a lot of energy.

I decided it would be a good time to go through all of my unorganized files and pictures on the computer. I’d been putting that off for a long time, and it turns out it was a good choice. The pictures brought back all sorts of warm fuzzy memories, especially of dogs from the local shelter. For a while I used to go over almost every day, and I truly loved some of the dogs. The above two pictures are of Samantha, an elderly dog who had no problem getting adopted because she was the mellowest, most cheerful dog I’ve ever known. She’s still lifting my spirits after all of these years.

Some people think oxytocin and warm fuzzy feelings rev up the immune system. I don’t know about that, but it certainly makes recuperating more pleasant.

I’ve also been listening to a lot of good audio books, which also helps. What about you? What do you do when you’re feeling under the weather?

художник на икониИкони на светци

It was a little hard sleeping last night because the wind was rattling our windows, and Andy plowed today because of the drifting snow. We only received about 2″ of snow, which wouldn’t be enough to cause problems if it hadn’t been for the wind.

We were supposed to meet with our kitchen designer yesterday, but I suddenly got very sick Friday evening and spent most of Saturday in bed. Andy checked to see if it made sense for him to keep the appointment, and the designer was happy to postpone it. For some reason she is having trouble with utilities to her house and needed to deal with that.

The most interesting thing for me was that after being so sick and spending 14 hours in bed, I was almost back to normal last night. Who knows what was going on? Another mystery of the universe.

Has anything unusual been going on where you are?

Have you ever had to jump through hoops in order to do something?

We’ve also been learning about other people’s experiences, both in conversations and through the internet, in order to get new ideas and hopefully to avoid some pitfalls. Kaitlin and Torben have been a big help because they remodeled their home not too long ago, and I ordered some “like new” books about kitchens from Amazon for a reasonable price. We’re also using the internet to get details about the various products.

This is a picture of the floor we’ve chosen with two samples of quartz for a countertop.

The colors aren’t quite right, but it does give the general idea.

Andy has also been doing research on ventilation systems for an energy-efficient house. The fellow we were referred to for our kitchen fan has a different definition of a quiet fan than we do. It was so noisy we would probably hesitate to use it. Fortunately Andy found some engineers online that sell a kit that should do what we want. We will no doubt write more about this later.

What about you? What have you been doing/learning lately?

For the past 35 years our tradition was to go up to our land and cut down our tree shortly before Christmas. We clearly couldn’t do that this year, so I bought some lights, garlands and a little artificial tree:

2011.
 

That works too…it pays to be flexible. How have your traditions changed over the years?

I hope you all had a great day.

I’ll spare you the details, but it turns out that idea was too good to be true. Someone has to go up to do one more inspection. Besides the fact it’s a long trip that no one wants to make, the county doesn’t have a key to the Forest Service lock, and it’s almost Christmas and more snow is expected. What do you think the chances are that this will be resolved before Spring?

It pays to have patience and a sense of humor.

I went up with Andy this afternoon and started marking off the thickness of the walls, where the various rooms are, etc. As you can see from the first picture, it was a glorious day. (A camera can’t capture the feeling of spaciousness, but it’s better than nothing.) We still have a lot more details to decide before the plans are complete, so we’ll be going back to Santa Fe this week to look at kitchen and bathroom sinks and fixtures, etc. We’re also doing a lot of research on the internet and have found the propane refrigerator we’ll probably get. It’s just one step after another, and doing our best to enjoy the process.

What about you? Have you had to deal with any big projects lately? If not, are you glad? If so, are you enjoying the process?

 
Joe was originally going up tomorrow to do more work, but they’re predicting more snow with highs around 20° F. for the next two days. Not exactly building weather. We’re hoping this unusually early cold snap won’t hurt the new concrete. Time will tell.

Andy practiced plowing the road yesterday and will probably plow again tomorrow because it will need it. Winter has come!

What about where you are? Cathy and Evan will be dealing with summer instead of winter, of course.