Today... in the Valley

Today...  is a "tad" chilly in East TN with a high temperature of in the low 50's which means very little if any work will be done outside...  but, starting Saturday, the temps will be in the 60's/70's and that trend will remain several days out into the future...  so, whatever outside  work was not accomplished today will have an opportunity to be completed in the near future.

For me, it does not matter if there is adverse weather conditions outside because I have plenty of things I need to do inside...  like prepare for next week's class on Personal Financial Planning that I am teaching for a local university, work on my blogs, and do a little cooking...

But, what is getting under my skin is the fact that I am counting my calories each day...  typically less than 2,000 each day and more often than not, averaging 1,500 +/- each day and instead of my weight going down, it is going up.  And that does not make any sense to me...  eating less...  weight going up...

However...

living in East TN is much different than living in a larger city, like Atlanta, New York City, Chicago, or Los Angeles.  We don't have the traffic nor the crime in this area and the rural community where our home is located is quiet and serene and I feel secure enough to be able to walk around the community at any time of day or night.

For most of the morning at least until 10:00 am or so, I will watch FOX News and during the time that I am watching FOX, I will change the channels to CNN, CBS and sometimes ABC and NBC and what I have discovered is the fact that these other stations do not spend much time promoting the news that negatively reflects on the Biden administration.

I watch these other stations because I want to make sure that I get both sides of the story so I can make up my mind what to think and/or believe rather than be told what to think.  If I don't have access to both sides of the story, then I am receiving CENSORED NEWS.  I am against CENSORED NEWS being aired in a DEMOCRACY...

Today...  in East TN...  as long as I can watch FOX News, I am happy and content...   and, with that said...  I like the money that the Dems are spending and hope that they personally send me MORE...

I Must Be Crazy

I can see my reflection on the monitor screen as my laptop boots us...  an old face, deep set brown eyes with wrinkles at the corners,  a grey toboggan covering my head and forehead under the hood of a heavy duty, fleeced lined sweatshirt zippered half way up...  even though my laptop is 5 years old it still boots up rather quickly and instantly I am connected to the internet as if someone had played a magic trick on me...  wool socks with leather soles are on both feet and except for my hands, I feel rather warm and toasty to be sitting outside on my back porch deck in weather less than 40...  

A light rain makes concentric rings as it hits standing water and for a moment or two, I watch them disperse and disappear as other drops of rain takes their place in my time and space...  a cooling cup of coffee in a paper cup from McD's is on my left side with McCafe spelled out in brown letters...  our fat (due to steroids for congestion) yellow cat joins me on the deck wanting to continue its way outside but changes his mind when he sees all the rain...  and, the heat from all my clothes makes me sweat a little and for another moment I wonder how long it will be before I decide to go back inside and quit enjoying all this nice weather...

On the other side of my deck rails are the stumps of the bushes I cut down about 2-3 feet above the ground and while I cannot see them from my vantage point, I am just as confident that they are still there as I am that they will again grow tall in the spring of this new year...  a 4X4 treated post stands firm in the ground and supports a blue bird house I made out of the old decking I replaced this year and while there are no inhabitants, I have seen a couple checking it out as a possibility...

Neighbor's leaves have once again blown into my back yard and as soon as it stops raining and the grass dries out, I will again mow that area for the third time...  and, while it is a tad annoying to do this each year, it does help my grass grow strong...  and, as I stop to reflect upon it all, I notice the rain is still falling and the sounds that it makes when it hits an object seems to be getting stronger and stronger...  as if the rain is going to replace the early snow that feel a few days ago...  and, even though it did not last that long on the ground, it was still early and not being a farmer, I have no way of knowing if that is a good sign or not...

And...  while it may seem a little funny to you or even weird, I still do not feel the least bit cold...  not even my bare typing fingers...  the rain has decided to increase and there is no doubts about it...  falling like it does during a typical summer shower...   and, while this is good for the 3 new spots that we sowed grass seed, it is not good for the one task that I was going to perform outside today...  and, while its delay will not bother me...  it will bother the other resident who lives in this house with me...

My second cup of coffee tastes as good as the first and I am not sure what I am doing, if anything, differently to have all this good luck...  but, it would appear that the rain is starting to subside and I really must go and start what I need to do so I can finish before this cup of coffee gets cold...