Four days until the 2020 Presidential Election. We have a new member of the SCOTUS. The United States has now hit new highs for COVID-19 infections, and tomorrow is Halloween, with too many people with party plans. 2020 is certainly planning to finish out with a bang. We will be trick or treating on our…
Thirty two weeks into our experience here in Kirkland, Washington, the one time hotspot in the United States when cases of COVID-19 first arrived here in the United States. Thirty two weeks, and I'm certain we're in it for at least another thirty two, which feels long and hard. I'm not sure how long I'll…
Another week, another Friday post that starts with “I’m tired.” I’m simply brain tired, exhausted, emotionally spent. I’m not sure exactly why these past few weeks have been particularly hard, but they have been. If you’re feeling it too, you’re not alone. Unfortunately, I’m not sure that feeling is going to change in the next…
By the time this post gets published, we should be back fully immersed in smoky air, though we are the lucky ones. There are historic wildfires raging all up and down the west coast, including one less than forty miles from us. For the Puget Sound metro area, that is unprecedented by itself, and Washington,…
And like that, it's now September, though the weather isn't acting like it. We should hit eighty degrees today and the mid-eighties for the next week, which is considerably warmer than typical for our area. We only hit ninety degrees a couple of days this whole summer, so mid-eighties for a full week is really…
And with that, we are at the end of August. The weather has continued to stay mild, and the forecast is for more days of full sun and in the seventies. We *might* hit eighty degrees again this year, but we might not. Either way, I'm going to enjoy the sunshine while it lasts and…
I know that I said last week that August was dragging by, but now it feels like the past week disappeared without me even really knowing it happened. Lots of time out in the garden and quite a bit of work, but time passed in a blink. Perhaps my brain is simply fried from some…
I've talked to enough people to know that it's not just me, but August is a particularly hard month. In many ways, it feels emotionally more like March than June or July, except that we've been in it for that much longer. For us, at least, it feels like we are holding our breath for…
We've somehow ticked over into August, which means this past Tuesday was our state's primary elections. Washington is a 100% vote by mail state, which is completely awesome. I've actually never had to go down to a polling booth to vote. Of course, I waited too long to put it in the mail (no stamp…
It finally really feels like summer around here. After a cool and rainy May and June (and first part of July), the second half of the month has come in with a vengeance. Nothing like other parts of the country, but for the Pacific Northwest, it's been pretty consistently warm - in the mid to…