Gee, since I moved here I think this is the first completely cloudy day we’ve had. I don’t mind, it is making me do more things inside. I am trying to finish emptying bins of clothes, washing the clothes, and hanging things in closets. I still need to find dressers and a night stand for the master. Might have to look in some antique shops to find what I envision for my room.

I swear, when I look outside today, I can see the grass growing with every passing minute.  LOL

I still haven’t sold the Allentown house, much to my disappointment and aggravation. Everyone tells me it will sell soon. My questions are: How soon? What is your idea of soon? Why are people such idiots about cemeteries?

Lucy is taking advantage of this day to practice her snoozing.

It terrifies me.

It draws me back time and again.

Blank it remains.

I’ve taken to rereading all my writing books.

Writing prompts…still the page is blank.

Writing advice…

Blank it remains.

Building worlds.

Nonexistent.

Where have all my stories gone?

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The one thing this new house lacked was a buffer between my living room and the back yard. The first house I bid on here had an all season room and I loved it.

This house was better than that one except it didn’t have the all season room and it lacked the landscaping I liked. However, this house has the potential to be oh-so-much nicer than the other one.

Later today the final measurements will be done and that means the work should begin soon afterwards.

We’ll be a bit inconvenienced for a while but I’m sure it will be worth it in the end.

Here’s a before picture of the back of the house.

Far too often we forget that taking care of ourselves is as important as taking care of our loved ones.

We forget that if we aren’t happy, healthy, mentally or physically, or at ease with ourselves, we aren’t there for others.

“Self care: any activity that we do deliberately in order to take care of our mental, emotional, and physical health.”

A day out with friends or alone to do whatever you want. Do it!

A few hours in a library. If you crave it why deny yourself the pleasure of it?

A trip to a coffee shop to just people watch for a while.

Time alone in your garden, work room, she or he shed.

Don’t forget you.

Shame on our government for allowing an idiot to head our education department. Shame on our governments–federal, states, counties, and cities that do not fund education properly.

Shame on them for forcing educators to have to pay out of their own pockets for the school supplies needed for their students.

My niece is a teacher, she has, as do many teachers, a wish list on Amazon for school supplies for her students.

These are supplies that should be paid for and supplied by the American system of education. But NO! Our teachers dig onto their own meager salaries, and often beg friends, relatives, and strangers for help.

I suggest all teachers send their wish lists to congress and demand the US government get rid of Amway queen Betsy Devos and get someone in that office that actually gives a damn about educating the American children to the highest standards.

The way things are going we’re heading toward a country of morons who can’t read a map, spell, form a sentence, have no knowledge of history, or know anything about sciences or maths.

People, wake up. Fight for the children, fight for kindness, fight for good over evil…

Quit waiting for the other guy to take action. Raise your hands for peace, for equality, for truth and transparency in government. Raise your eyes from your phones and look about you. Take stock of how far down we’ve sunk into the dregs.

Don’t sit quiet when someone spouts off racist remarks, tell them to crawl back under their rocks.

Lucy has a new daily routine these days. She stays snuggled on the bed while I get up, hit the button to flatten the adjustable bed, go to the kitchen start my coffee, get her breakfast ready…oh, there you are…

I take her out, give her her breakfast, stir my coffee, grab it and a Metamucil wafer and head for the front door.

She’s on my heels ready for her morning porch sit. She looks off in all directions, and then settles down to either chew a bone or doze on her bench.

She is so much more content and happy here.

The new house seems to be taking all of my time and energy but I am loving every minute of it.

I love watching everything pull together into a style that is all my own.

Lucy is a happier and calmer dog in the new house too.

So when I realized I wasn’t confident enough to install my Ring doorbell, I had Amazon send me an expert.

Well, he went through the bits and bobs I’d bought to go with it and told me I didn’t need them…The battery pack works with the Ring 2, not mine…I didn’t need the angle changer either.

Once he got the Ring connected we had to get my phone and Alexa to recognize it. That’s where my usual luck came into play. For the life of me I couldn’t get my phone and the Ring to talk to each other much less let Alexa into the conversation.

Hours later, I saw what was happening–my password was not the one on the side of the router nor was it the one I’d put on it anymore. It reverted back to the password the Comcast tech had put on it when I’d had to unplug my router.  DUH.

Once I’d entered that password, everything fell into place. Lucy now has a security assistant.

I got a bit sidetracked working on getting my office sorted. No, it’s not done yet. But I put a heck of a dent in the mess. I still have to unpack my computer, printer, and monitor, plus figure out how to set them up with just the antique desk at hand. Yeah, this might have to change.

My exercise bike is set up and in use.

The guest room work hit a halt when I realized the bed slats were still in PA. I’m waiting for new slats to get here. Thank goodness for Amazon, they’ll be here in a day or two.

The first part of my alarm system gets installed today.

After breakfast Lucy disappeared, I went to look for her and found her in her bomb shelter.

Every time I turned around today, Miss Lucy was at the front door to go sit on her porch. She loves the freedom she has now that there is a gate.

I see one more improvement for our porch and that is a ceiling fan, because when there’s no breezes it gets quite stuffy.

Little girl is passed out now after a busy day of supervising the neighborhood.

I love this house.

Now the deadly game of “where the heck do I hang the pictures?” begins.

Deadly because I’m scared to death of putting holes in the dry wall. And I realized I don’t have a stud finder.

So many pictures…..So little courage to put holes in the walls.

Wish I had some help on deciding where they go.

At least Lucy can romp on the front porch without me having to hold on to her  leash all the time now.

Spencer built a lovely gate for the front porch that matches the railings so Lucy can have free run of the porch when I have her out there.

We had a heck of a thunderstorm pass through this evening. Poor Lucy hid in her crate until long after it passed. It took the sound of her food hitting her dish to draw her out.

Poor baby will never get used to fireworks and thunderstorms.

After the storm I managed to completely load my recycling bin with cardboard without touching all the crap in my entryway hall. Sigh. I’m never going to run out of things to stuff the bin with at this rate. I did run out of large garbage bags. I swear I’d packed a full box of them but haven’t come across them yet.

The mat for my rug got here today, if I’m lucky I’ll have help tomorrow to get it under the rug.

Lucy did battle with her first palmetto bug that tried to come in the back door as she was going out. She chased it clear off the back slab. Score is: Lucy 1   Palmetto bugs 0.

Personally, I think it creeped her out as much as they do me.