We Did It!

Loved the seagull up top.

We did several things:  

• Every year I'm determined to make it to June 1st without turning on the air conditioning.  The solar panels we're fortunate enough to have, really help.  I count on that lower power bill to even out the high water bill for keeping the lawn green.  I'm a firm believer that green things help to lower the temperature of the house, even if it's only psychological.  But we managed to keep the air off until the 6th of June, no small accomplishment.  

• We went on a road trip!  It gets reinforced every time we drive any distance that I'm not really a road trip person.  I'm not good at sitting in the car for long periods of time.  In fact, at one point, I told The Husband I was having an argument with my body - it was refusing to get into the car for one more minute.  My head won.  My body is still achy.

• We survived the road trip!  Truly, it was wonderful to get away, it's been way too long.  This was supposed to be the time of our life/marriage for us to travel some, to enjoy the fruits of all that frugality, to see some new places.  How grateful I am that we managed to go and enjoy ourselves.

And these gulls just chillin'

• We went to the beach!  Not our usual beach. (Hopefully soon.) We wanted to go somewhere we could drive.  CA felt too iffy, and was too expensive. Northern Oregon added just that extra amount of mileage that was a deal breaker for me.  So south-central Oregon coast it was.  That stretch of the Pacific coast is full of little tiny beach towns with nothing much to offer - except the beach.  We rented a house that was just across a parking lot to the actual ocean beach and the side of the house faced the mouth of the river.  At high tide we watched seals right out our window casually floating around in the shallow inlet/bay.  Just delightful.  We got to see lovely sunrises and sunsets, wear layers of clothing on the beachwalks to counter the cooler weather.  Most of the days were spent inside a heavy layer of marine air (what some might call fog - was really dense and 100% humidity).  We love that kind of weather (as long as we can occasionally see the sun). We had a couple really pretty sunshiny days, which I can handle when it comes with the same high temp of 65 degrees that we were seeing.  (It was a challenge to come home to 90+ degrees.) 

A very small Husband.

We drove a lot, ate a satisfactory amount of seafood - and an almost satisfactory amount of ice cream -  shopped a little and spent hours walking the beach.  That last part - the beach walking - is my very favorite soul-soothing, peace producing, gratitude generating activity.  (That picture of my step counter shows over 23,000 steps that day. Fun day.)

• We rode horses on the beach!  Walking into church on Sunday morning (just a tiny little branch of less than 50 attendees, including two visiting families - us and one other family) a sweet sister chatted me up.  When queried about a few things to do to help keep everyone engaged and happy (unfortunately we can't walk the beach all the time) she mentioned a few things that we actually did and were so happy to have done.  Riding horses on the beach was one.  Big Red was my horse.  He actually seemed to listen and enjoy when I sang him a childhood song (Horsy, Horsy on your way...).  He was content to be in the back of the line heading out but the minute we stopped for the picture session he forged his way to the front and nothing would sway him from his personally designated place.  No amount of urging would convince him to vary his chosen spot or his speed.  Of course, I probably should allow that he was very aware of the fact that his rider was a complete novice and was more scared of him than he was of me.

Lots of steps.

• We had a nice visit with our daughter.  She has that super thoughtful, super generous treatment of others down pat. We are lucky to be the recipients.  

Me and Big Red.

• We neglected to leave the automatic sprinklers on.  (It had actually rained a couple days before we left so they'd been turned off to save on the water expense.) So we came home to a mostly dead lawn.  Our kind friend who'd been keeping an eye on things here at home was so uncomfortable that it happened on his watch.  I hope he knows that we know it was our own fault.  So the thing we did here was to provoke some serious lawn/sprinkler attention.  Looks like it's time to also replace a couple sprinkler heads.  They are, after all, 20 years old.

And it's so grand to be home - including my own bed, bathroom, kitchen and personal luxuries.  By 8:30 this morning, I'd done several loads of laundry, watered the orchids, been to the grocery, wrapped a thank you gift for our friend-house-watcher, and several other little putterings around. It feels good.

So happy we did it all.

Sunset.