Ho Hum how I have been slacking.  It seems that every time I blog I find myself feeling guilty for not blogging.  I shouldn't really feel guilty... not really... but somehow I do.  Maybe in my head I am so much more important to people than I really am   One of the main reasons I do not post a blog more often is my new job.  The new hours have taken some time to get adjusted to.  I wake up really early (usually before 5:30 am) and don't get home until around 6pm.  I cook, I eat, try to walk the dogs (sometimes in the morning before work - when it's still night time outside), spend time with Mark and then go to sleep.  I am usually in bed between 9:30 - 10:00 pm which doesn't leave much time for blogging.  Sure, I could blog on the weekend, but I spend the weekends doing things I didn't have time to do during the week (cleaning, laundry, visiting friends and/or family, running errands)  I feel a whole lot better now though as my body seems to have gotten used to my new hours.  I wake up every morning without the need of an alarm - my body wakes up because it's time to wake up.

The job is going great!  I love my new job.  I am being kept busy with lots of new projects. I really think my boss values my opinions and ideas and he gives me tasks and then leaves me to them knowing they will be completed.  I am pretty happy about that.  The drive to and from work is very lovely too.  The traffic has been mostly light and when there is traffic I usually find a way around it on the many side roads and country roads.  The view is stunning on most days, the sun poking out over the horizon with wisps of fog and mist floating around, the smell of dew and soil and forests in the air (sometimes onions and cow poop - not together of course) 

I have been watching a lot of movies with Mark and reading more.  My book list on the main page keeps tracks of the books I have been reading.  Currently reading Hearts in Atlantis which was also made into a movie which I have not seen yet.  I will watch the movie after I am done the book.  I love how this book as well as Black House which I read before this one all make reference to The Dark Tower books I have already read.  Thinking back, there have been so many references from one book to another book.  Stephen King really likes to create links to characters and places in various books which would mean nothing to someone who has not read any of his other books but titillate the fan.  I have always loved books since as far back as I could read but for a while there, for a few years at least 4 years, I didn't do much reading.  Reading again is like coming home for me.  I really missed the stories and the adventures I have through these fictitious people. 

Mark and I, having been very low on cash for the last little while haven't really done too much this summer.  Two weekends ago though, we did take a road trip.  We got in the car and were on the road with the dogs at 6am.  We got to watch the sun rise and explore waterfalls and interesting places.  The dogs got to sniff new smells.  Taking the dogs with us allowed us to be out for longer than we would normally be out because we didn't have to worry about them being home along for too long.  We saw a deer family that stepped out and crossed the road in front of us and we also saw a coyote trot across the road.  It was so wonderful.  I love seeing animals in their natural environment though it saddens me greatly when I see a dead animal on the road or by the side of road, not dead because of natural causes or enemies, but dead because man has come into his environment and changed it forever.

I could certainly go on a rant about how I feel about man but I know most people don't agree with me or if they do, will simply brush it off.  When I am alone in my car and I see a dead animal on the road, it often brings me to tears.  I am so deeply saddened that in an attempt for the animal to travel from point A to point B he must cross a man-created space (the road) that could, unbeknownst to him, end his life.  I once saw a string of baby raccoons dead on the road.  You know they were crossing the road together in their little family when a car in the night came by and ran them down, ended their little lives.  I wonder if their mother cried.  I wonder if she was sad.  When a mother is killed leaving the babies orphans, I wonder what the babies think, wondering if their mother has left them, are they scared, lost, hungry.  These are the things I think about and it makes me very, very sad.  Man is a virus on the planet - slowly and efficiently killing everything he touches, slowly realizing that he is killing the planet that is his home and slowly, VERY SLOWLY, trying to solve the problems he has created over decades of abuse and negligence of that home without giving up any of his creature comforts. 

As a population we have become dependent on those things that cause destruction around us and this dependence makes it very difficult for us to give up these comforts.  My plan is to move into a more remote area in the country to be surrounded by more green than gray, more earth than concrete, more trees than buildings, more animals and less people.  I love nature and wish I had more opportunity to surround myself with it.  The way things are going everything will get far, far worse before it gets better.  I think of books like The Chrysalids, Swan Song and The Stand. 

Leaving you with something to think about....

Stay Safe & Have Fun!

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