Daze Off

Tuesday, October 21, 2024

Yesterday, after feeding my horses and chickens, I spent a couple of hours raising the height of a section of the fence surrounding a large area where my dogs may be outside safely and in relative freedom.

I became intent on raising the fence section’s height. My puppy Chase had discovered a spot allowing a foothold that he could access, climb, and escape to freedom. He was freeing himself routinely, and I needed to interrupt his cleverness before he escaped more.

I found some unused fencing in a shed. I wired the extra fabric to the standing fence, lifting the fence top by a foot. I let the dogs out and watched Chase dash to the area of my fix, and he couldn’t climb.

I’d been working long hours at my part-time job in a large department store. I felt tired and decided not to work more on the property but instead go horseback riding. I’d take the dogs and they’d be able to run lots. Unfortunately, the area weather didn’t cooperate. The afternoon became very windy and cold, making me hesitate about physically being in the open and roaming on horseback.

Today is another off from my part-time job. If the weather cooperates this afternoon, I will gather the horses and dogs and head for the Great Outdoors.

By the way, today’s header photo might seem AI-generated, but it isn’t. It’s a photo of Sunni from my camera. It illustrates similarities between “constructed and real,” suggesting how much AI imagery has developed. It also illustrates how images on social media and other sources may confuse and manipulate us.

Dear Friends: The outside temp has dipped to 37 degrees–good gravy! Diana

Doggone Dog!

Monday, October 21, 2024

I’ll finally have these couple of days off from work. The department store where I work part-time is short on employees, so I’ve worked alone in the Jewelry Department. The department has been busy with increasing Christmas shoppers, and I’ve worked long hours.

Last evening, after coming home dog-tired, I was out feeding horses when my dog Chase appeared unexpectedly. He had escaped the yard but not by digging because little Mitzvah would have slid out, too. Chase must have discovered a vulnerable spot in my mostly eight-foot-high fence.

I returned him to the fenced dog area and watched him dash toward the dark side before reappearing beside me, free. Although the evening was early, darkness prevented locating and repairing the weak spot.

Later, I let the dogs out briefly in the middle of night. When Chase didn’t re-enter the house with the others, I opened the garage door and found him waiting to enter. Early this morning, I let the dogs out again. Soon, Chase was missing–this time, not waiting at the garage door nor responding to my calls, and it was raining.

Chase showed up at the garage about a half-hour later. Right now, he’s sleeping; he won’t go outside again until I have located and addressed his escape spot.

Chase is two and one-half years old and started living with me when he was eight weeks old. My property includes a half-acre that’s fenced for my dogs. My others are happy, but Chase is another story. He’s always digging, jumping, and seeking ways to achieve freedom, not because he’s unhappy or wants to leave, but simply because it is “who he is.”

I constantly worry about keeping him safe.

Over the years, I’ve lived with many dogs, some bigger than Chase’s fifty pounds. None ever behaved in manners as strong, smart, focused, and determined as Chase. He wants to be my constant companion, 24/7, which is impossible. Luckily, he’s still safe, and I hope he will age out of escaping behaviors.

Dear Friends: Just another “Chase Story” and unlikely the last one. Diana

Comfort

Sunday, October 20, 2024

The waning Hunter Moon was gorgeous in yesterday evening’s cloudless sky. I couldn’t resist its beauty while coming home from work and later feeding my horses. The moon’s fullness had softened some, making the globe seem huggable.

That’s my almost favorite moon sighting, second only to watching a full moon rise with light interrupting sky darkness.

The header photo is AI-generated and evolved more into what I wanted after several iterations. The technology is mind-blowing already and is improving rapidly. I’m finding it can adjust a single image to specific requests. My learning is asking correctly for desired specifics.

The moon’s attributes are mind images now, temporary feel-goods before I must prepare for today’s early shift at my part-time job. Yesterday, a scheduled co-worker was a no-show, and I worked longer to cover our area. Coming home, I was dog-tired and appreciating the visible, friendly moon.

Dear Friends: Christmas shoppers, already! The Season Has Begun. Diana

Moving On

Saturday, October 19, 2024

In my part-time work of selling jewelry in a large department store, I find many women shoppers deciding to tell me about their lives and their current, changing status. Generally, these women are in their seventies and beginning to cope with significant life changes. Those could be caused by a husband losing memory and becoming very dependent, or because a husband recently passed away, or because an individual is rethinking her life following an illness.

These ladies have in common that most have cycled through typical life phases, such as marrying, mothering, working, and retiring. Now, each faces a forced transition, and her future lacks the ongoing support and typical responsibilities she has understood, accepted, and accommodated for most of her life.

These women exhibit strength by articulating their situations and actively searching for different futures. Maybe they tell me their personal stories because I like people, and in the right circumstances, I will listen and ask questions.

My usual advice for exploring women is to “join a shared-interest group.” Most want to start “finding themselves,” identify as “newly alone,” and actively seek new roles, among others with similar lifestyles and interests.

At this point, I’m sorry to break away, but now I am running late for leaving to sell jewelry. I’m thinking about those women in transition and will say more in a future blog.

Dear Friends: New issues pioneered by people outliving typical expectations. Diana

Salute!

Friday, October 18, 2024

This AI-generated header image reflects my pleasure yesterday evening while watching this season’s lovely Hunter Moon. I planned to photograph this special moon before realizing my camera’s battery needed charging. So, I took a chair to my property’s highest hill and sat, sipping wine and reflecting.

Bright moonlight lit the evening sky. The combo felt warm, and my wine helped. I spent too much of the earlier hours working physically, shoveling and moving dirt from one section of my property to another, filling spots made bare by horse hooves.

Horse-keepers have few restful moments. We constantly spot areas prime for repairs. I needed last night’s clear sky, moonlight, wine, and especially time doing nothing.

Well, not “nothing,” because my brain was busy thinking about my lack of time to read the books stacked and waiting for me, about ongoing brutalities in Ukraine, the Middle East, Sudan, and Myanmar, and about the too-tight race between America’s presidential candidates.

The mind is a wonder, an attribute capable of adjusting and offsetting stress. Last evening’s mild temperature and sky beauties refocused me, making worries routine and not overwhelming.

Dear Friends: Fall weather turning colder means fewer sit-out evenings ahead. Diana

Sockin’ On

Thursday, October 17, 2024

Yesterday morning, while short of time, I hastily wrote my blog. Thinking about it later, I wondered why I claimed to be satisfied with having some socks featuring the images of a few outstanding women. I began thinking about women leaders over the years and know that many more images should be in my sock collection.

Admirable women in my lifetime have included the influential Eleanor (whom I mentioned yesterday) and, I’ll add, First Lady Betty Ford, who was open about her battle with alcoholism. I admire the one and only Ms. Fannie Mae Hamer, whose energy and activism have been featured on PBS. There’s Hillary, too, and although she’s very human and, like us all, has flaws, she’s knowledgeable with hands-on experience and would have been a capable President.

Those are some “quick grabs” from my list of admirable American women. Some of those I’m naming were active in the late 20th Century, and others are still active today. But now, recalling more outstanding women–those active in the nineteenth-century–I could list more of them.

If I could have image socks for all my choices, I’d need a standalone building to house them.

Our voting for America’s President has begun and will end soon. Many Americans, both men and women, remain daunted by thoughts of a woman in our national leadership role. In fact, women have excellent track records of successful leadership in other countries. Examples are Golda Mier and Angela Merkel.

Dear Friends: These are typical nail-biting days preceding the voting tabulations. Diana

Images

Wednesday, October 16, 2024

I’m due in the opening shift at my part-time job. This is a brief good morning to you all.

Among the socks with images of women leaders I appreciate, my friend Bill (who gifted the socks to me) included a pair with Nancy’s image. I managed to overlook those and just last night discovered the Nancy socks. She rounds out my sock collection of impressive contemporary ladies. Now, I have socks with images of RGB, Kamala, and Nancy; I’d add an “Eleanor pair” in a heartbeat.

A neighbor has invited friends in the area over on election night. It’ll be a nail-biting event that will have us all either celebrating wildly or commiserating sadly. It’s a great idea since almost everybody, everywhere, will be on edge, waiting for election outcomes.

Now, I’m off to feed horses before getting ready for work.

Dear Friends: Tomorrow evening’s sky will offer a beautiful fall full moon. Diana

Worldview

Tuesday, October 15, 2024

The authors of this 2012 book received the 2024 Nobel Prize for Literature yesterday. Today, I read a review summarizing their work. Their logic about an ever-changing world tracks with real-time nation-changes that occurred after its publication. The authors supplied unarguable data to support their observations, conclusions, and theories.

My learning this morning while reviewing felt awesome. I decided to order the book.

This was a big seller in its early years. Finding it now is difficult, especially in hardcover, which I wanted. However, the book’s win and renewed attention will soon bring reprints.

How I’ve changed! Unlike my tendency to focus on the situational while I grew up, today’s wide-world affairs are more fascinating to me. My views have become less on the here and now and more on the there and beyond.

Surely, technology is altering my views and will continue to do so. It produces constant (and ever more rapidly) new information. Nowadays, AI can reinforce information and enable rapid data checking.

We’re experiencing the impact of so much information in real time. This election cycle is proving rapid beyond belief. Maybe we will witness an unconflicted transition of power, which may diminish our anxieties.

Dear Friends: Blah, blah; maybe this book will help me grasp and hold. Diana

Flash Pash

Monday, October 14, 2024

I have off from my part-time job today and tomorrow. Goody! Today, my goal is to winterize critical elements on my property. An electrician is coming to help. My part-time job is tiring because the store hasn’t enough employees. After working extra hours, I crave fun. Completing the most demanding work today will free me for horseback riding tomorrow.

Yesterday, my friend Bill surprised me with some pairs of campaign socks. Before writing this morning, I grabbed today’s header from Amazon’s site (quicker and easier than photographing my socks). Bill already had provided me with yard-style campaign signs; the fun socks are pièce de résistance.

I haven’t staked out those yard signs, fearing they might be stolen, and I won’t wear the campaign socks to avoid being categorized and challenged. However, I will add all these campaign pieces to my growing collection of “social and political change” souvenirs. Those include magazines’ and newspapers’ original announcements of Obama’s first Presidential win, socks carrying the image of RGB, and now, my Harris/Walz campaign signs and the image socks.

Thank you, Bill!

This campaign season will end in a couple of weeks. Regardless of who becomes this nation’s president, we’ve witnessed evidence that its mass population actively wants social and political changes. We’re all woke, for better or worse, and undoubtedly will experience changes. For reasonable reasons, everybody’s on edge.

Dear Friends: I might carry a sock pair in my pocket for flashing when appropriate. Diana

Word-Worthy

Sunday, October 13, 2024

That’s me, helping to celebrate the Beauty Department’s “pink day” yesterday at the department store where I work part-time. I am assigned to work near Beauty in Jewelry, and someone suggested I wear pink and help support Beauty’s special day. I don’t have much pink clothing, but I chipped in and did my best.

Hanging from my neck are keys to my kingdom, the Jewelry Department. Looking closely, you might also see a golden Aspen Leaf hanging, a gift from my Cousin Mary years ago.

Mary lives in Southern California, where I lived before moving to Central Oregon. We are close and love autumn. We’re awed by nature’s color-changing and its power in general. The bright pendant speaks volumes, and everybody “gets it.” To me, it represents my cousin’s nearness and support.

Aside from the pink color, those keys, and that shiny pendant, my facial expression is vague. Maybe it’s my surprise at being photographed. Nonetheless, the image works overall. It captures a moment of the “special Pink Event” and my “Cousin Mary connection.”

Dear Friends: More evidence of a single image being worth 1,000+ words. Diana