I went out for what I thought was going to be a short stroll through the neighborhood on Friday morning but ended up getting distracted when I found a trail that I hadn’t been on before and followed it. That’s one of the things I am really enjoying about having this flexible time in my…

I had a very social day on Thursday, it was fantastic to catch up with old friends, meet new people and spend a good deal of the day outside.  First I met a friend whose kids went to elementary school with mine. She’s in the process of transitioning into a new career, so we had…

I was listening to Kelly Corrigan’s podcast this week, and these were some of the things that struck a chord with me:  Fear of failure often comes from being judged. Instead you should have a deep protected sense of pride just for trying.  I have found this to be so true, and I love the…

Today I went to an exhibit at Heron Arts in San Francisco. The exhibition was called Biophilia, the artist, Pippa Dyrlaga, lives in rural England and she makes incredible works of art from cut paper. She uses a fibrous Japanese paper called washi. Her pieces of art are so detailed and intricate with tiny, tiny…

I think I mentioned in an earlier post that I’ve been following blog of an 87 year old woman who’s been traveling around the US in her van. She is just so inspiring, not only in what she’s doing, but how open and honest she is about her experience. When she was scared about driving…

Otis and I got out for an early walk this morning as I was going on a hike with Julie and Gabriella. The streets nearby were blocked off because it was the San Francisco Marathon and the running route was one street over. I wasn’t sure how it was going to be getting through the…

Today, Otis, Chicken (the cat) and I had a quiet morning at home. Otis and I went out for a walk in the fog and saw a cool view of the Golden Gate Bridge.  Later in the morning, I went to mom’s as we had family friends coming over for lunch. I was able to…

Thursday was a catch-up day, got laundry done, finished my JNE report and resettled myself after being gone for the last week. Finally managed to get credit reporting set up for Mom after much conflicting information from Experian, that was frustrating and we ended up having to get someone from CalPers to get it straightened…

It was time to head home. We were both sad that we didn’t have more time to spend with all our relatives. When we were kids our family would drive up to Washington every summer for a couple of weeks. Some years we went to either Deer Lake or Loon Lake outside of Spokane, for…

After a final breakfast with our cousins in Seattle, we got on the road to Spokane. It was a 4 1/2 hour drive, the first hour and a half of which was gorgeous going through the Cascades. We passed a sign for Wenatchee, which made my sister cringe. When she was about nine years old,…