I am writing this as I approach the end of my 66th trip around the sun … actual birthday being tomorrow, August 16. As it (tomorrow birthday) is a work day and I have had several weeks with various work interruptions, I decided to take this weekend for getting my birthday kicks!

The weather is not exactly cooperating, but it is as forecast: hot and VERY smoky. The good news is that is due to change Monday into Tuesday and then … AND THEN!! we are forecast to be cooler than normal for the forecast future and hopefully more rain and less smoke. NOAA claims the weather models are in good agreement for the cool … the rain is still literally up in the air.

So. A mostly inside weekend. Seriously, the smoke is so thick that it makes me feel a bit ill to be outside so I doubt it is good for Emmett either. We do a lot of very short outings for a little walk and a little play in the hose. Thankfully, it has been cooling overnight which is an improvement over the last heat events.

I had planned on going to a kitten adoption event on Saturday (yesterday) … same rescue organization where I found Auggie … but for the 2nd time (they do these once a month), I backed out. Auggie’s loss was brutal and although I miss having a cat as well as missing Auggie … I am finding it very difficult. I thought, ok … a birthday cat or kitten, but when it came down to it, I just could not.

So, I baked and made cherry preserves (from local cherries … thank you @MontanaMilkMoovers!) …

And, harvested more of the “Husky” cherry tomatoes and some peppers. The pepper plants look good, but they have not made new peppers. The existing bell peppers turned/are turning red per their variety. The jalapeno are turning red also which is supposed to make them sweeter, but OMG – they are all hot, compared to grocery store jalapeno! But it is a good hot … at least to me. I am thrilled that the tomato plants have lots of tomatoes and both cherry tomato plants have green/turning red at a great rate for my personal consumption.

Elsewhere in the front porch garden, one of the fuchsia pegged out. It is the one that had the mix of colors and was the latest purchase. They were all doing well and I fed/watered all the same, so I don’t know why that one was not happy. And it was very sudden as in all of a sudden it looked terrible. I pulled out dead parts hoping that would give the remaining bits energy to recover, but this morning, I put it out of its misery :(

Everything else, is beautiful at the moment and depending on how weather looks next weekend, I might do some perennial buying … I am thinking lavender for one thing and need to do a bit of research and/or ask advice at the nursery.

Regarding advice … so with the resolution of my financial situation re the house … at the close of that, I asked the person helping me if the bank had any financial planning service. They did and I made contact and I could absolutely kick myself (VERY HARD!) for not doing this sooner. I thought I knew things, but I did not. At any rate, I am so pleased with some additional options that are in the works.

Other advice kind of things. Some little time ago, I happened on a YouTube channel: Bob & Brad – YouTube. Bob and Brad are physical therapists. They post daily videos as well as other social media … I have only looked at their YouTube. Physical Therapists are experts in body mechanics and over the years have been very helpful to me when I’ve had various issues … the most recent was late 2019-early 2020 with my shoulder. I’m not sure how Bob and Brad’s YouTube came to my attention, but I have used a number of their techniques to great success. Plus, they are fun and funny as well as informative and helpful. A lot of their videos are geared to “Seniors” and in addition to problem solving, they also post “problem prevention” videos like:

I do not watch every single video, but I pay attention and watch ALL of the preventative.

My other recent YouTube find is Earth & Owl – YouTube . This is a channel devoted to rebounding (mini-trampoline) workouts. I have a mini-trampoline and do my bouncy-bouncy nearly every day. I recently added a “bar” for confidence. Nikki has a plethora of video workouts from 5 in 5 minutes to 15 minutes and longer. From beginner to advanced. AND, a number of the videos feature her grandmother bouncing along with doing modified beginner/low impact versions.

I am still somewhat beginner but I go back and forth between Nikki’s and Grandma’s versions as I am comfortable. If you have never “bounced” and think it is too easy to just bounce … HA … so not! One of the best benefits per science is the aid to lymphatic circulation. Great research by NASA as well as by many of the well respected medical organizations. Increasing lymphatic circulation boosts the body’s immune functions including fighting things like cancer. And this benefit is even if you nothing more than the “health bounce” which is just lifting your heels!!

The mini-trampoline set up is not expensive ($500 will get a great trampoline and bar), you don’t need a lot of space and it is fun!

As I enter my 67th year, I am determined to do what I can to make sure that I can do the things I love as long as possible. That includes learning new things, eating well, sleeping well, moving my body, loving my daily life and last, but certainly not least … teaching and playing and loving Emmett.

Here, we go … gettin’ my kicks as I turn 66!!

I got up this morning (Sunday, 8/8) at 4:00 a.m., to watch the start of the Rolex Fastnet Race.

Fastnet Rock is the most southerly point of Ireland. The lighthouse on Fastnet Rock is now unmanned and operates automatically. The history is fascinating … any interested may search. A tidbit, though … the first lighthouse was built on the rock in 1853!

Fastnet Rock is a “mark” in several sailing races. But the most well-known race is the Fastnet Race, currently the Rolex Fastnet Race:

Fastnet Rock is used as the midpoint of one of the world’s classic offshore yachting races, the Fastnet Race, a 1,126-kilometre (700 mi) round trip from Cowes on the Isle of Wight, around the rock and back to Plymouth. It is also sometimes used as a mark for yacht races from local sailing centres such as Schull, Baltimore, and Crookhaven.

From Wikipedia

The 2021 race as well as the 2023 race (the race is a bi-annual event) finishes in Cherbourg, France vs Plymouth.

My personal interest in the race stems from following the Vendee Globe which started 11/8/2020. I have become enamored of the IMOCA 60 boats AND the skippers, teams, all things IMOCA! It is an open class, meaning there are rules for certain things, but otherwise there can be customization in the design. So … each boat might have certain features designed to make it go fastest in certain conditions … adhering to the IMOCA open class rules. For me … this is the perfect juxtaposition of similar along with innovative.

Based on my experience watching the 2020 Vendee Globe: around the world, single handed with NO assistance … and the results being spread amongst new/older/foiling/non-foiling boats with various “options” … it is somewhat “luck of the draw” re weather, but also the skipper’s knowledge of their own boat and the skipper’s decisions re weather. My take is that the IMOCA 60 class allows for both experimentation in design as well as sailing expertise. I am hooked!!

Hence, I was up at 4:00 a.m. to watch the start:

It did NOT disappoint!

Even if you do not sail, I encourage watching the first 4 minutes of the video. Some history, some spectacular video … it is worth a look!

I am currently following the YB race tracker. (New tab (rolexfastnetrace.com))

And in addition to the IMOCA 60 class, I am keeping an eye on IRC3 and specifically Dee Caffari, skpper of Gentoo. Dee Caffari is most known for the first woman to circumnavigate the globe BOTH ways :). She was a commentator during the Vendee Globe … a favorite commentator of mine and I have followed her subsequent racing and she has a nice dog :) !

The first finishers … probably the multihulls, might be late Monday UTC/early Tuesday my time. The weather forecast is challenging.

The IMOCA 60’s are sailing double-handed, BUT with an on board reporter (OBR). So, there should be video and still documentation of their progress and experience.

Meanwhile, here in NW Montana … far from any ocean … we are enjoying a cool break which includes some wonderful rain!!

Again, I moved everything off the front porch and out into the yard to allow all to have some REAL rain!

AND, I picked 5 more of the Husky Cherry tomatoes .. YUM!!

In anticipation of a cool Sunday, I started a seedy spelt sourdough loaf and a batch of sourdough cinnamon rolls. Both started Saturday evening and baked this morning.

A very early start to Sunday, but much accomplished as well as much fun to watch the race … what a great week end!!

TGIF and all of that.

It has been a WEEK!

Smoke and Heat and work and the whole financial thing…

Exhausting!

But.

Good news is that the financial stuff resolved. We are home. We have time to regroup and rethink. It is good news!

The weather…

Snow ???

Well, likely NOT for me, but I would welcome snow!!

Still.

It looks like a brief cooling respite … until Thursday.

We will take it!!

Holy Cow, it is Friday!!!

I am writing this post on Monday morning and all is well.

But yesterday was definitely scary – for me! Saturday, the temp rose to 96F as forecast. There was a lot of smoke and Saturday night, a fire blew up 25 miles south of me, along Flathead Lake’s southeastern shore. The fire jumped a fire break and down draft winds drove it towards the lake. There were a lot of evacuations and sadly, a number of homes were destroyed. And … it is a human caused fire … not sure whether accidental or intentional.

***This map added after initial post. The red X is about my location. The site is a national site. I zoomed in to my area. InciWeb the Incident Information System (nwcg.gov)

Sunday was forecast to be 95F with high winds in the afternoon in front of a monsoon moisture/thunderstorm event.

The temperature rose to 97F by mid-afternoon on Sunday with lots of smoke. It unnerved me to the point that I gathered duffle bags for clothes, thermal bags for food and water, an electronics bag and made a list…

The typed list on the left is always on my key rack in my home entry. But, I hand wrote the list on the right to cement in my mind what I would do if necessary. Also, I had no intention of going in the motorhome. The Jeep is more maneuverable and able to go places the motorhome cannot. The fire to the south meant that direction was not available. I am likely making this sound more serious than it was, but I was thinking “worst case, what do I want to do”.

It was so darn hot, dry and smoky … I’m sure it addled my brain a bit.

That is the weather radar about 6:00 p.m. The motion view showed the moisture headed northeast and that cell (red) to pass south of me.

Emmett and I went out just after I looked at this. It was eerily still and quiet … the calm before the storm?

About 5 minutes after we came in the house, the wind started blowing, thunder rumbled and …

Rain!!! Lots of rain, but not so hard as to roll off … It soaked the ground, formed a few puddles and I never saw or heard lightning to ground. From the map, it looked like the area of the fire south of me as well as some other spots with active fires, got rain as well – I hope so.

The temperature dropped 20 degrees F in a little over an hour. And the humidity rose to 100%, but I am NOT complaining!

This morning, it is 67F which is still a warm overnight temperature and the humidity is 99% as 66F is the dewpoint …

So, it is misty, foggy, smoky … but thankfully wet!

I doubt this is a fire season ending event, but we are to get more rain today before 2 days of dry at hot (90F, not upper 90’s) and then more rain followed by cooler than normal temps. While not ending fire danger, if the forecast is correct, it should allow progress on fires and hopefully reduce the smoke.

A slow start to Monday as we (ME!) recover from a seriously scary Sunday.

***A little PSA here … the other thing I did yesterday afternoon, was walk through my entire house and all closets and drawers taking video of my possessions. I also did the garage. The motorhome is mostly empty so skipped that. With the refi I am doing, I have recently adjusted my homeowner’s insurance for current costs of construction and replacement cost for my stuff. I highly recommend. It is easy to do and even if the video is not great, it will be a visual reminder if you ever need to make a claim … a lot easier and less stressful than trying to remember everything. I was too antsy last night, but this morning, I copied the video to my laptop AND to my cloud backup. And while I am lecturing here :) …. all important paperwork can be scanned and similarly backed up to cloud servers. I did all of mine last year with the scan feature on my phone. It went very fast, easy to organize into folders and now I scan docs on receipt. No paper files that you have to keep track of.

Tuesday evening and Wednesday morning … we had a little rain!

Tuesday evening was a teaser of drops here and there … blech!!

And Wednesday morning started the same, but then some drizzle and finally some light, gentle, but steady rain!

For almost 2 hours.

I moved everything off the front porch to catch the rain…

It is incredible what rain will do that watering does not. And especially because I water with untreated well water, i.e. rain water filtered by 200 feet of ground. I don’t understand, but a little time in real rain makes a HUGE difference!

Hee… my first home grown tomato! One of the Husky Cherry tomatoes.

I picked it!!

And also some basil…

And made the world’s smallest Caprese Salad: bite sized, but delicious!

A little rain!

Awareness sharpens joy, don’t you think?

Sharp Joy – that’s what I’m feeling!

From “A Presumption of Death: a new Lord Peter Wimsey/Harriet Vane mystery” by Jill Paton Walsh and Dorothy Sayers

The above quote is a discussion between Lord and Lady Peter (Peter Wimsey and Harriet Vane Wimsey), in the early days of WWII when Peter has just returned from a very dangerous mission for the Foreign Office. Harriet was living with their 2 young sons, Peter’s sister’s three children, a cook, Bunter (Peter’s valet extraordinaire who had returned earlier) and a housemaid … in their country home having closed up their London house. During Peter’s absence, Harriet did not know where he was or what he was doing (Official Secrets Act) and had very limited ability to communicate … some military address and heavily censored. At this time of the war, Germany was running roughshod over everything and things looked VERY grim for England and the United Kingdom. When Peter returned safely from his mission, it was obviously a huge relief … that is the setting for the 2 lines of their conversation.

I have never had that kind of drama or fear in my life, for which I am very grateful!

But for whatever reason, as I was gathering some photos and thinking about a post, I thought: “sharp joy!”, that is what I am feeling today. Maybe it is awareness … awareness of being in circumstances that I love, despite the weather and fire danger. Being aware that I am so very fortunate to live in a beautiful and comfortable spot with dear Emmett for companionship … while still missing Auggie terribly … but grateful for his place in our lives and all he brought Bear, Emmett and me.

It looks like the financial reorganization will resolve as I hoped … in two weeks. The bank seems certain and banks are given to being conservative, so while “not counting my chickens”, I am feeling that I will not need to sell and move into the motorhome. And while a motorhome adventure was/is not undesirable, there is a part of me that does not want to do that right now: heat, fires, general upheaval in routine and some motorhome maintenance needed. So, I am cautiously optimistic that things will resolve to give me some breathing room to stay in this house.

And the Jeep has new tires!!! Minor, but it has been one of those “back of the mind” things that I am so happy is done!

So … awareness that things are on the way to resolution after nearly 2 months of great uncertainty! Probably :)

Meanwhile …

It doesn’t look great and “slight chance of rain” on Wednesday … there was a slight chance 3 days last week and we got nary a drop! It is scary dry and we move to Stage II fire restrictions tomorrow (I think this should have happened weeks ago!!)

You can barely see a mountain shape through the smoke. BUT, it is not as smoky as some mornings … the sun looks like the sun vs an orange-red blob. And don’t be fooled … the woods looks pretty in the photo, but the reality is there is a lot of dead and dying vegetation. The paths are dried hard and dusty.

The fuchsia are not really “cut flower” things, but the baskets have such an abundance of blooms, that I have been doing some thinning. I hate throwing the gorgeous blossoms away, so … a bit of pretty for my kitchen island.

It is exhausting: walks, games of fetch, playing in the hose :)

Despite the fact that they are not aesthetically pleasing and a bit noisy, I am so grateful that the 3 roll around behemoth A/C units keep this little house comfortably cool.

But, I have 2 little fans for helper air. Both are USB powered, one is rechargeable…

Above is the rechargeable fan. It has a reservoir for water and ice cubes, then the fan blows a cool mist. I use it in the bedroom and on my desk. It is quiet compared to my floor fans and big A/C units so is perfect for when I am in a work meeting and also at night, if it feels stuffy-warm but I don’t want the noise of the big unit. There are lots of small fan options which I found via some of the RV YouTubers I follow. And I am a huge fan of rechargeable USB things.

The final contributor to the “awareness that sharpens joy” … the first tomato starting to ripen! There are a LOT of baby tomatoes on all of the plants. And lots of peppers: jalapeno AND bell. The rest of the herbs and flowers are all doing well. I am just thrilled and am having so much fun taking care of things and enjoying all. So far, no critter or deer damage.

Despite the heat and smoke and fire-scary factor, it has been a lovely weekend.

Sharp Joy!!