Ferns and Maples and More Horse Chestnuts in Everyday Ramblings

When I was a kid the first time I ever remember being alone was when I was walking to school. My brother and I were on a different schedule as he is 18 months older. I walked alone starting in Kindergarten and I loved it. The big thing was I walked across a bridge over a ravine and I loved looking down at all that was going on with the vegetation and of course I had a vivid imagination and knew about fairies and elves and…when I got a little older I found out my best friend in school lived in that ravine. Her house was surrounded by trees and bushes and ferns and…

Yesterday Mrs. Sherlock was doing reconnaissance for a hike she is leading this coming week. She had found out that a place we thought was totally blocked off over in Northwest Portland actually had a footpath and trail but she didn’t feel comfortable exploring it herself so we all (Frida and her and me) went over there together. We’d managed to get a bit lost in the area about six months ago and one always learns things when one gets lost and we capitalized on that.

She had an idea of what she wanted to do and it was a satisfying hike for a number of reasons, it was the perfect length (5 miles) we had 60 floors of elevation but it wasn’t too arduous and it was misty but not wet. We met some great dogs on the way too, all on leashes and well behaved and no encounters with scary local temporary residents of the human sort. Though there was a newspaper incongruously strewn across the trail at one point.

The photo today is from a quiet bridge over a ravine so similar to the ravine I knew as a kid in Seattle. It is interesting to try to identify trees from above, not something one gets to do often. :)

It has been seven weeks since I stopped drinking soda regularly. I haven’t been to a convenience store once in all that time and I do not miss doing that! I have been having a diet soda occasionally and so far that has been fine. I sometimes but not always pick one up at the grocery. I have saved about $175.00. I bought a couple of new bras that fit as well as access to the Mindful Strength virtual studio and the yoga book from England.

Diego is much better. He is still throwing up hairballs but the rest of his digestive system has returned to normal. Part of it is for sure something in the food. The other morning I fed both cats a particular type of wet food with chicken and he ate his with the extra water I add and a few minutes later I was sitting in front of my laptop with the lid closed and he was draped on top of it looking at me, daring me to open it and start typing and all of a sudden he had a spasm, jumped up and projectile vomited the whole thing right at me.

Mr. Sherlock, who is 80 now, has been talking about getting a new cat to keep both him and Frida company when Mrs. Sherlock is away and the first thing I thought of while I was cleaning everything up was, really? Does he know what he is getting himself into?

Carlo was fine with that food. So it is a combo of something in the food and Diego’s micro-biome. Luckily I did not have a case of that one particular kind of food, only one more 3 oz. can left, so it is history.

I heard a statistic that surprised me yesterday considering what is happening to shopping malls and department stores…only slightly less than 10% of retail is currently via the Internet here in the U.S. I buy practically everything that way except for basic groceries. Maybe it is because I live in a mid-sized city with a pretty robust connection system.

Kes and I have been buying what we call our “everyday” pants in petite from Sears for years. They are basically sweat pants but with some nice features. I wear them hiking, grocery shopping, walking to and from class. The one place I don’t wear them is in the office. I doubt my restraint is even noticed because I have seen, in the last year in the office, people in basically pajama bottoms and flip-flops.

There is a dress code but it is quite selectively enforced.

I looked at the label and Googled it and it turns out the same brand is making pants for Macy’s. Granted they are almost twice as expensive but I ordered a few pairs the other day.

I do wear my sweats to church too, though for me that is a step up because I am usually in tights or yoga-pants when I am in the building. Mrs. Sherlock still dresses up a bit for church, but there are no gloves and hats for us.

What got us talking about this was a visiting nurse that takes care of her 91-year-old friend who is still living at home. Apparently even though she is in her fifties she dresses like a sexually provocative woman and we had this drawn out discussion about professionalism and our expectations of it as older women and her perspective as a former nurse manager.

It is good to examine these things in oneself now and then.

And then to go walk over a ferny ravine.