Somehow it is six days until Thanksgiving? Time has been so wonky since COVID began, but it feels like November especially disappeared in a blink. The weather has continued to be strange here, and I think that's part of it. We're on our second week in a row of cold, sunny days, when normally it…
It went from summer to winter overnight here - and we're seeing freezing temperatures already. My husband had said that they were predicting a warmer than normal winter, but that's definitely not turning out to be the case. Between that and the time change thanks to Daylight Savings, the cold darkness of late afternoon absolutely…
This week's Frugal Five was all about Halloween, so it's fitting to talk about something truly scary: next week is election week. I honestly can't even begin to guess at how things will go... but I'm glad to be in Washington, where even a shift won't look like a shift compared to other parts of…
After all of my/our collective whining about how it's been too hot/dry/smoky in the PNW this fall, we've skipped right over to winter this week. So much rain - but clear air! I think perhaps this is the first year where I haven't heard anyone complain about the rain yet. (It's still early though -…
Hallelujah! The air is finally clear today! And the rain has returned. I swear, there has never been a year where the whole of the Western Pacific Northwest has been so excited to see the rain. It has been weeks and weeks of mostly awful air quality and temperatures 10-20 degrees above normal. Today is…
It's mid October, and it hasn't started raining. It's been in the 70s almost every day this month, including two that hit or came close to eighty degrees. And we might have another eighty degree day coming up. By this time, temperatures are usually only in the low sixties, and October usually sees 4 inches…
It is now the end of the first week of October, but we definitely haven't had October weather yet. The first two days of the month were eighty degrees, and we've been hovering in the mid seventies the rest. The lingering warm weather might be nice, except for the fact that because of no rain…
After putting our pup down on Friday, we escaped for the weekend. I started looking at options once I knew we were saying goodbye, because I knew it would be better for all of us if we weren't looking under the kitchen table for a dog that was long longer there. Everything is expensive right…
Today, Friday, we said goodbye to our beloved dog, Sasha. (I'm writing this beforehand but will publish after. I don't think I'd be able to write this...after. I think then I'll be stepping away from the internet for a few days.) This week has been brutally hard. Saying goodbye to pets is always agonizing, but…
Well, we've escaped the smoky skies and extra terrible wildfires up here in the PNW for most of this summer, but the smoke is headed on in this weekend. Fingers and toes crossed that things can stay in check for the next month or so, because it is dry out there. In comparison to a…