Due to mom’s broken hip, the move to Nevada, and COVID-19, I have not been on a trip since fall of 2018. This is the longest time that I have ever gone without a vacation. I don’t like it! I miss planning trips, taking trips, and doing photo books of trips after they are over.

I enjoy making photo books and mom and I have been spending a lot of time looking at both the books and all the photos she has from all her travels. I find that a physical book of photos is way, way more convenient and more likely to be looked at than scrolling through pictures on a computer screen.

Thanks to the cruising I’ve done, I get travel brochures almost every day in the mail. I now toss them away without even glancing at them: I don’t want to find a wonderful trip that can’t possibly be possible!

Instead of focusing on where I can’t go, I’ve decided to focus on all the wonderful places I have been. I have been privileged to see way more than the average person. My travel dreams now, then, are of the past; things like:

Hope your dreams are as pleasant as mine!

We are making some changes to our kitchen. Here’s a pic of the original:

The island is so large that I can’t reach the middle of it! But the reason for redoing it is that I need some counter space that is a few inches lower. At 5’2″, I can’t work long at regular counter height without tiring. Kneading bread is hard, because I can’t push down on it, for instance. I used the blender the other day and wanted to look in it, but I’m not tall enough when it is on the counter.

We are going to lower part of this big island, then, down to regular tabletop height. This should give me a lot more usable working space. Also going to replace all the countertops with something less blah.

Here’s the demo in process:

The new sinks are supposed to be in at Lowes tomorrow; I have my fingers crossed!

The other night I went to bed a bit disheartened about things in general. As I lay there feeling a bit sorry for myself, I thought about how nice it would be to have a warm body to hug. Brindy was in her bed on the floor, so my obvious choice seemed to be to invite her up on the bed.

My immediate reaction to that thought, though, was that it would not be fair to the dog. After all, I don’t ordinarily allow her up on my bed while I’m sleeping and it didn’t seem right to confuse her just to satisfy my own need. How was she to know why the next night it was back to her own bed?

This idea of not treating other beings as objects for my own desires is something I have tried (very imperfectly) to practice for a long time and I started thinking about where I had first run across the concept. I was sure I had first seen it in Martin Buber’s book “I and Thou”. I know I tried to work my way through that tome when I was 26 or 27. I could picture reading it in my first apartment in Reseda. I can still even see a page in the book (left-hand side, middle of the page) when the idea enveloped my mind. I don’t know now if I ever finished the book or not, but what I took from it has stayed with me all these years as being part of a worthwhile guide to how to live an ethical life.

Since I had never looked at it again, I went on Amazon to see what was written about it; wondering if I was, indeed, thinking about the right book. Here’s a quote from the Amazon write up:

Throughout I and Thou, Buber argues for an ethic that does not use other people (or books, or trees, or God), and does not consider them objects of one’s own personal experience. Instead, Buber writes, we must learn to consider everything around us as “You” speaking to “me,” and requiring a response. Buber’s dense arguments can be rough going at times, but Walter Kaufmann’s definitive 1970 translation contains hundreds of helpful footnotes providing Buber’s own explanations of the book’s most difficult passages. –Michael Joseph Gross

“Rough going at times” is indeed what I remember about it, but apparently I did get the gist of his argument. I still haven’t found many better guides to how to treat others.

Any one else have a book that made a profound influence on their life?

Today was my first walk in two weeks. I have been laid up with lower back pain. Apparently just muscle spasms as the X-rays didn’t show any signs of arthritis or fractures or any other type of bone problem.

At any rate, happy to be able to do a short walk and enjoy the sunrise.

We have had a coyote family in the scrub area next to our complex this year. Still haven’t been able to get any pictures of them as I am more worried about making sure Brindy doesn’t get involved with them than with pulling out my phone to snap a pic.

Yesterday, though, I was able to get this picture as we walked up the street. If you don’t see it at first, the coyote is mid-picture on the far side of the tee box. A few minutes after this shot, we saw the family of mother and two or three pups trotting down the nearby fairway. Too far away for a phone camera to get a shot unfortunately.

This morning one of the coyotes had just crossed the street in front of us as we started up the hill. Then as we went a few feet further, one on our side of the street stuck its head around the bluff about 20 feet away. We about-faced and decided we didn’t really need to climb the hill today!