We survived the fires, but two big ones broke out around us. The conditions were perfect for something much worse—dry heat and high winds. Unfortunately, we have another hot weekend coming up. I kind of thought we were out of it, but Mother Nature isn’t done with us yet.
Bring on Fall!
A good friend wrote me yesterday and asked if I wanted to ride, but I told her I am on full time babysitting duty and have been for the last two years. She was surprised. I guess I didn’t tell everyone why I’m not riding as much. I’m pretty sure I’ve explained it on this blog, but probably not well enough to my local friends. When all this happened, I kind of isolated myself and threw everything in to getting through it. I told her that in September I will have two days a week free and we will ride then.
Bring on Fall!
In the meantime, we are getting a lot of family time and we are blessed to have so much of it around us. Tonight we’re having Thai Tuesday with the kids and on Saturday, taking some on the boat. We’ve hosted family for the last two weekends also, and had a trip to Texas (I stayed home to babysit) to see family.
The work on the house next door continues, but we still have a long way to go. We knew it would be a big project, and it is. For example, it’s a large house and every smoke alarm was beeping for new batteries. ✔️ done. The furnace hadn’t had the filter changed in four years. It was completely clogged. ✔️ done. The refrigerator was broken and the contents spoiled. We cleaned it out. ✔️ done. Mowing. Almost done. And so much more to be done.
Nature doesn’t take much time to reclaim itself. All it would take is a fire and nature would win the battle entirely. Poof! That’s how transitory our lives are.
There has been a theme this year. The year my husband’s dad died there was also a theme: Christmas Carol by Dickens. We somehow saw it performed three times, twice here and once in Omaha when we went to visit him a week before he unexpectedly passed.
This year it’s Vivaldi’s Four Seasons. We have heard it performed the normal way and then in interpretations by Max Richter (my absolute favorite) and Piazzolla, also beautiful.
It has made me wonder which season of life we are in. The busy-ness sometimes makes me think summer, but the reality is probably autumn. It’s definitely not winter.
Someone recently said that babysitting duties keep us young and contribute to a longer life. Maybe prolonging “summer” and “fall” has that effect.
If so, I will live a long time.
Bring on Fall! It is, after all, my favorite season.
It's hard to make time for everything to do that we love when we have so much richness of family and cherished activities. Everything has its proper order in the grand scheme of things. Once the house next door is done and they settle in, things will take on a new perspective.
ReplyDeleteI was raised on classical music, dad used to sit us down on the living room floor and play a classical album and invite us to use our imagination as we listened to it. My favorite was Dvorak's New World Symphony, my sister loved Eine Kleine Nachtmusik by Mozart.
What a wonderful tradition that your dad started.
DeleteWe have temps in the upper 90’s forecast for this weekend, so I’m going to dedicate it to getting the Nextdoor house set up with my daughter. The boys went over after dinner last night to do some heavy lifting. We can see light at the end of the tunnel and we can also finally see the house at the end of the forest weeds which have been knocked down. lol. Our tractor will never be the same though. It has overheated every time we’ve run it for very long. The job was probably too much for it.
Scary! Glad wildfires did not ruin your homestead.
ReplyDeleteWhat a huge family project! All the hard and yucky labor will be well worth making it into a healthy household for your grandson & daughter to live.
I do not listen to classical music, altho now as an adult I do appreciate it's quality, feel and complexity. Long story.
Yes, bring on Fall! For every season, there is a reason. In life or otherwise.
The house Nextdoor feels better and better everyday. The energy is shifting. We will get a lot done this week. Yay!!
DeleteYou should listen to the “conversations” about Four Seasons. The one by Max Richter is the one shared above. Really beautiful addition to the theme, and expands it for modern day hearts and minds. It speaks to me most. The conversation with Piazzolla, from Four Seasons of Buenos Aries, is almost a whole new song. I hadn’t heard of either “remakes” before this year. They were new to me.
Richter’s was performed by our Symphony Orchestra with random very old family movies behind them, in a loop. Totally anonymous people, maybe not alive anymore. It was a powerful performance on every level.
I’m listening to Piazzolla’s right now. Maybe it’s my favorite. Haha!
Everything is so dry here it will only take a spark. I’m hoping for rain for both of us!
ReplyDeleteHow exciting to be working on the house.
Honestly, it does feel good to improve the house next door. Every night after our work, we kind of feel like we accomplished something good. We have a long, long way to go, especially if we want to bring back the lawn, and we do, but it’s satisfying to see such stark results. We can see the house now! Yay! And we got almost all her stuff moved in today. It’s definitely sending a signal to squatters and robbers that the house is not abandoned anymore and that’s good for all.
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