Period of transition

Listening to Van Morrison's A Period of Transition. It's not one of my favs, but fits sometimes ... like now. I'm struggling at a cross road ... more a y really since there are only 2 ways to go. Which way do I veer? It's time to do a semi-major face lift to my house, my home. Outdated and worn cabinets in kitchen and baths. We've been thinking about updating them for a couple of years and had decided that this would be the year to do it. The discussion of what and how has uncovered a bigger decision that was simmering under the surface. Do we stay or do we go?

Is it better to fix/update the cabinets or is it time to find a new place that will be where we stay for the next 20 years? We've been in this house for 20 years. We love it and have made it our own with paint, wall paper, and saltillo tile. But we are getting older and the sunken living room that was one of the things that drew us to the house 20 years ago looms now as a possible liability. Knees don't bend like they used to or they give way at the most inopportune time. What happens if my husband stumbles on the step to the living room and falls and breaks something. Rehab at a place not home until he can handle the step? It hurts to even think about that. So do we leave the cabinets as is and find a one level house? Do we do minimal less expensive cabinets so that it will be updated so that in a few years if we have to move the outdated cabinets will not reduce what we get for the house?

I don't know the answer. I just know that this feels like one of those major points in one's life that becomes a bigger dot on the life line ... a decision point ... a period of transition.

Olympic National Forest

I realized that I have not posted pictures that I took during my vacation in October to the Olympic National Forest. Normally when I'm on vacation, I take my computer and post as I go. But where we stayed in the forest, there was not even cell phone coverage! So here are some photos ... better late than never.

This first one is of the Lodge at Lake Quinault where we stayed.

This next one is of a water fall near the lake.

I'm not at all sure how this one is going to how up. We were taking a drive around the lake and it was dusk. We stopped to take a photo of a waterfall and just stood for a minute soaking in the quite sounds of the forest. We looked forward and back and were completely alone. I took this photo hoping to capture some of the feelings we had. ... a long a deserted back woods path.

This one was taken along the coast.

This is the cabin we stayed at when we visited Sol Duc Hot Springs. In the evening, the deer would come right up to the porch looking for a hand out.

Here I was trying to capture the simply awesome light that was coming through the clouds at Sol Duc.

A new year - one month gone

I was just emailing a friend that I had found again on Facebook when I realized that it has been months since I've blogged. Oh, well, that's what happens in life.

I was very moved during the inaugration and am still very hopeful. This in spite of working very closely with someone who is addicted to talk radio. Whenever I have to ride with her, she has the radio on. It is quite offensive to me. I've not said anything to her, but have tried subtle hints, like turning it down and starting a conversation. Her response is to turn it back up and converse over the radio. There has to be some way to handle this, but I'm at a loss to say what it is.

I'm being successful with losing weight (42 lbs so far) and am quite pleased with that. Now I'm working on fixing the new image of myself in my brain. A whole new realm of possibly has opened to me in terms of clothing and it is a little hard to get my head around that. I need new clothes because nothing fits. I go to the store and go to the area I'm used to shopping in, pick up smaller sizes and try them on only to discover they too are too big. So there is this whole other area that I'm shopping in. Many many more choices. So I'm having to sort of reinvent myself. What is my style now? Very odd feelings.

So that's my posting. I'll make an effort to get back into blogging.