The Occasional Nomads

The gloaming last Thursday evening. Gloaming is a poetic word for “twilight,” or the time of day immediately after the sun sets . . . a word with a strong Scottish heritage, adopted from Scottish dialect during the Middle Ages.

Good Morning! Aloha kakahiaka!

Brett and I have been planning to spend our last week on Kaua’i living in one of the beach cottages at Barking Sands. Those plans got dashed this past week when Brett called to make reservations and learned the first available opening is May 16! We’ll be back in Pennsylvania then, and getting ready to depart for France! We discussed whether we should book a hotel here for our last week, or ask our landlord if we can pay a pro-rated daily amount and continue to camp in our empty apartment for our last few days on the island. A hotel stay, we know, would be expensive but give us a chance to decompress as we take care of last minute business on the island. Staying in the apartment would definitely save a lot of money but it would also be very uncomfortable, tiring, and most likely depressing. After finally deciding we really did not want to live here with just an air mattress, I started searching and found an affordable studio rental at the same complex in Princeville where we stayed when we arrived in 2020, and booked that. We’ll have a comfortable bed, a TV, and a small kitchenette for meals, all for less than a hotel, plus a somewhat poetic bookend to our two years on Kaua’i.

We still are a bit worried about a car for our last few days here, something that’s a whole different thing than it was before. Renting a car on Kaua’i is outrageously expensive these days, and costs are w-a-y outside of our budget. A 10-day economy car rental now is nearly $1100 where when we left in 2018 it was only around $400. We plan to sell our car mid-April of next year, but it looks like we will have to ask if we can continue to use it until we depart (which happens frequently here), or at least until we move up to Princeville. Friends have offered us the use of one of their cars, and it looks like we may have to take them up on their offer.

COVID cases are on the rise again in Europe, and experts are predicting another hard winter there. Much of the increase, it seems, is attributed to children not being vaccinated – COVID seems to be spreading like wildfire through schools, and then children bring it home as well or pass on to other family members. Also, some countries apparently let down their guards too early (Denmark and Austria, for example), even with high vaccination rates. Europe has much higher numbers for vaccinations than we do in the U.S., so we’re probably going to have an equally bad winter here, even with children now being vaccinated. Hopefully things will be better next spring, although we’ve read that as long as we’re vaccinated and have received the booster we will be good to go. Mask-wearing will most likely need to continue all the way through 2022 according to experts as COVID is not going away, at least for the time being. Daily COVID deaths continue in Hawaii; there were on two on Kauai this past week. Another person I know of who had been adamantly opposed to getting the vaccine and mask wearing, and has touted her “natural immunity” over and over, was diagnosed with COVID this past week (“it’s just a cold!”), got the ($$$$) antibody infusion, and is now grateful the government paid for it. If you haven’t already, please get vaccinated!

This morning I am:

• Reading: I’m still reading both The Brutal Telling and Truth Be Told, but am almost finished with both. A Slow Fire Burning by Paul Hawkins came off of hold this week, was downloaded, and is ready to be read next. I also put four new (to me) mysteries on hold at the library, all having been recommended by Ian Rankin. I’m not sure if they’ll be available before the end of the year, but they’ll get read whenever they show up.

• Listening to: There is currently not a leaf stirring outside and it’s humid. But, it’s still coolish, there are birds singing (some loudly), and I can see bits of blue sky peeking through the clouds in a few places, so who knows what’s going on out there today? It’s mostly lovely and quiet inside though. Our upstairs neighbor has turned into a clomper though. He was quiet when he moved in but these days stomps around upstairs with abandon. He currently has houseguests and we can barely tell they’re there, but with him it’s been thump, thump, thump all morning.

• Watching: We finished Billions on Thursday evening (with a fitting ending for my least favorite TV character EVER), watched Inspector Morse and the Great British Bake Off on Friday, and went back to watching Squid Game yesterday. We’re down to the semi-finals on the GBBO, and almost done with Inspector Morse – just four episodes to go. After we finish we’ll start Ted Lasso. A new season of the Shetland series also became available this past week, with a new episode available weekly we watched the first one on Friday evening as well and will continue that each week until it’s done. Television is an embarrassment of riches these days.

• Happy I accomplished this past week: We got seven boxes of golf balls sorted and listed, and sold two boxes right away. We know it will take a few weeks to get them all sold though, Our Big Shop list for next week is completed so we’re ready to go. Making a shopping list is beginning to get a tiny bit complicated though as we are trying to fit in things we’ll need when the girls are here but space is limited so we have to be careful what we buy, and when. We’re also trying to figure out the things we don’t need to buy at Costco any more, like laundry detergent. I got both my shingles vaccination and flu shot ordered, forms are filled out, and can hopefully get them done this week.

• Looking forward to next week: 1) Our mid-month Big Shop is happening on Tuesday. We’ll get a few last things for the girls and then we’re done with their Christmas shopping. I almost can’t believe that Meiling and WenYu will arrive in a month from Tuesday, and YaYu the day after! 2) I have my semi-annual eye exam on Thursday and will be choosing new frames for the coming year. Fingers are already crossed that everything else is okay with my eyes. 3) Something we’re not looking forward to is the drive to both Costco and the eye doctor (and back home) because of road work going on between where we live and Puhi, where Costco and the eye doctor are located causing one-lane traffic for miles. We’re going to have to give ourselves at least an hour, if not more, to make the commute each way. 4) I think I am looking forward to finally getting my shingles and flu vaccines done, although I know the shingles one is going to be painful. 5) Brett and I studied French every day for 20 minutes. We’re not struggling . . . yet, but already has been challenging for us at times.

• Thinking of good things that happened: 1) We got news this week from our vision insurance plan that we will have fewer co-pays coming up, and that our vision care will now be covered overseas! We’ll have to pay upfront for exams, lenses, frames, etc. but we will reimbursed for some of the cost. That means we have the trifecta though: health, dental, and vision insurance while we’re living on the road – yeah! 2) One of the hashioki I sold this past week actually completed a set for the buyer. The buyer had the same design in four other colors but was missing the yellow one I had. I’m still amazed at the odds of my having the missing piece to the set in my shop and her discovering it. 3) Although we didn’t make it to the beach last week as hoped, we did enjoy a lovely evening out by the fire pit on Friday – we ate dinner outside (the fire kept the bugs away), made s’mores for dessert, and enjoyed some nice weather and good conversation.

• Thinking of frugal things we did: 1) I had desired and watched a certain 3/4-sleeve knit top for several months on the J. Jill site, patiently waiting for it to go on sale. However, when it finally did go on sale at the end of last month it wasn’t available in my size – sob! Last week though my size popped up again along with an additional 40% off the sale price, making it extremely affordable even with shipping and tax, and the top was ordered. I’m so happy I both waited and was able to catch it when I did as it is now completely sold out in every size. I’ll have to wait a few weeks for it to arrive though – J. Jill shipping is the absolute slowest when it comes to getting things over to Kaua’i. Anyway, other than ordering boots from Duckfeet in January, that’s it for clothing for me. 2) We bought gas for the car this week, picked up some wrapping supplies and a key lime pie at Target using our grand-opening coupon, and bought a container of Japanese namasu salad at Times supermarket. $12.46 went into the change/$1 bill bag. 3) Another $5 grand-opening Target coupon showed up in our mailbox to use later and we also somehow received three coupons for $10 off if we spend $50 or more at Safeway. It’s extremely easy to spend $50 at Safeway here, and the discount will be a big help when we purchase meat and a few other things we need for the girls’ visit in December. 4) All the leftovers were eaten, but we had to throw out an entire loaf of (expensive) Dave’s 21-Grain bread that went moldy. That was painful.

• Adding up all the things that were sold last week: It started out as a slow week on Etsy with only two hashioki sold. But, I woke up on Saturday to a big order of seven items that included hashioki and some other things, and we sold two boxes of golf balls. eBay also finally released funds for items we sold a few weeks ago, so a total of $343.27 is going into our travel account tomorrow.

• Grateful for: I am thankful for the income that my Etsy shop and other things have been consistently providing for our upcoming travels. Some weeks are better than others, but something always gets sold and there’s always money getting deposited into the travel account. Sometimes I worry (a lot) that we won’t be able to sell some things, or I get frustrated with the process here, but I remember that last time everything we wanted to sell eventually did, and remind myself it will happen again this time as well.

• Bonus question: Do you play games on your phone? Yes, every day! Right now my #1 favorite game is Match Triple 3D. On my old phone the screen was so small that I could never get very far because I couldn’t see the little objects to north them out, but I can now see them more easily and have gotten much further along than ever before. It’s a very addicting game. I love word games and sudoku puzzles as well, and play a game called 7 Little Words every day, which I enjoy because I have to think carefully about meanings, synonyms, and how different words can be used in English before I can assemble them. I play Sudoku at the “evil” level which is always challenging, but if I’m patient I can usually solve the puzzle. Sudoku requires lots of logical thinking which I figure is good for my brain. Brett doesn’t play any games and has no interest in any of them, not even solitaire!

It’s almost hard for me to believe, but next month will the last for putting funds away for YaYu’s college expenses – she will make her final payment to the college the first week of January. After that she, like her siblings, is on her own (financially) except for her return ticket back to college, which we’ll purchase for her in January when she has a better idea of when she wants/needs to go back. This is a huge milestone for us – four kids raised and put through college, three graduating with no or very, very little debt (our son paid off his debt, both college and law school, within a year of graduation). All four have their feet firmly planted and are thriving, from our son in Japan to YaYu, who will be continuing on to grad school to earn a Ph.D. Meiling and YaYu are both working at jobs they enjoy and supporting themselves, and are in happy relationships. Over the years, we’ve been told how lucky our kids are, especially the girls, but Brett and I have always felt we are the lucky ones, to have had the privilege of parenting four such great kids. It hasn’t always been easy (a couple of times it’s been downright terrifying) but it’s the best and most satisfying thing we’ve ever done.

That’s it for another good week. I’m looking forward and hopefully ready for whatever comes next and hope everyone is as well. Cheers!

Good morning! Aloha kakahiaka!

I almost can’t believe we’ve arrived in November. It felt like we flew through October with rockets on our feet, and I think this month is going to go by just as quickly if not more so. Six months from now we’ll be on our way to Pennsylvania for YaYu’s graduation, and then on our way to France. Six months!! We have lots to do before then, but if the months coming up go by as quickly as these past few have been, May is going to be here before we know it. We’re going to take break from selling our things for the next couple of months (other than golf balls), but then pick that back up in earnest in January. Anyway, I love November, especially Thanksgiving. We’ll be on our own for the holiday again this year, and haven’t even thought about what we’ll do or what we’ll eat (other than there won’t be any turkey).

All’s well that ends well, and the wool Bokhara rug is now with its new owner on Oahu. I went to pull the ad from Buy & Sell last Saturday evening and was surprised to find a request asking if it was available. I hesitated for a few moments wondering if I should even respond, but eventually hit the available button. The buyer turned out to be legitimate (owns a well-known clothing company on Oahu) and she paid upfront for the rug to be flown over to Oahu via Hawaiian Air Cargo. Although I don’t regret the sale, I think the rug may be one of the very few, if only, items we will miss as it’s been a part of our home for over 30 years. I enjoyed dealing with the buyer though and feel very, very good about where it’s going.

We were sort of expecting this past week to be a gloomy one, and while there was some rain and cloud-filled skies, we also enjoyed some absolutely lovely days with light breezes, cool (but not cold) temperatures, and more sunshine than we thought we’d get. The heavier summer air has “popped” and feels different from how it did just a couple of weeks ago, and the sun is once again setting quickly (if we blink the sunset is over) and in a slightly different direction due to the earth’s seasonal tilt. We’ve definitely moved into fall.

This morning I am:

• Reading: I finished Apples Don’t Fall on Wednesday, but am still reading Truth Be Told – both stories got very interesting this past week so I started reading more quickly through both. The next book in the Inspector Gamanche series, The Brutal Telling, came off hold and I began it as soon as I finished Apples Don’t Fall.

• Listening to: I slept late this morning (until almost 11:00! Strange, but I must have needed the sleep), and woke up to strong, noisy winds blowing outside once again, and the sound of Brett making pancakes in the kitchen. The coffee was already made so I’m set, and otherwise it’s a peaceful morning.

• Watching: We watched The Exorcist last Sunday evening for Halloween, but the movie has never scared me as much as the book did when it came out – I read the entire thing in one night because I was too frightened to put it down! We have just a few episodes of Billions left to go and will finish this week, and I think we’re over halfway through Inspector Morse, and on to the quarter-finals with The Great British Bake Off. I am officially sick to death of Bobby Axelrod on Billions though; I haven’t disliked a character so much in I don’t know how long, but appreciate Damien Lewis’s good acting. We finally found Inspector Lewis available on PBS but are planning to get back to Squid Game followed by Ted Lasso and The Morning Show first. I’ve been informed by the girls that we’ll be binging the new Dexter series when they’re here – I’m looking forward to it!

• Happy we accomplished this past week: 1) Getting the rug sold, packaged, and shipped off to Honolulu was a big job. It took us just under an hour, but Brett and I rolled it up and created a shipping container out of a large, sturdy Amazon box we were holding on to, apparently for just this sort of thing. Hawaiian Air Cargo was very easy to deal with and the rug left Kaua’i on Thursday. 2) After finishing that errand we headed to the T-Mobile store and I got a new phone! Buying a phone these days is getting close to buying a car with all the side deals, accessories, etc. but it’s another pre-departure task taken care of. 3) We got some of the girls’ Christmas gifts wrapped, and still have plenty of paper left for more. 4) Brett and I got the last of the golf balls we found washed and somewhat sorted but there’s more to do this week before we can get them listed. We currently have nearly 1,000 golf balls sitting in our bathtub. 5) Brett and I started French lessons this past week, Brett took a test before beginning and we started further along than we thought. We’re doing 15 minutes a day and hope to have some basic skills in place before arriving in Strasbourg.

• Looking forward to next week: We have yet another week with nothing special on our calendar. You would think the days would drag by but they don’t – between our daily walks and other things we have to take care of the time goes by quickly.

• Thinking of good things that happened: 1) A highlight of my week was receiving a tweet back from one of my favorite authors, Ian Rankin, author of the Rebus detective novels. He tweets lovely photos of Edinburgh almost daily, and I commented on one and he wrote back! His photos make me wish we were there now (next year, Laura!). 2) I had three Etsy sales this week, always a good thing. I have sold well over one-third of my hashioki collection, much better than I ever thought it would go. 3) Our avocado tree has leaves! The “trunk” has grown like a vine this week – very different from the last one. 4) The new curl cream I bought last month really makes my hair curl! I love it.

• Thinking of frugal things we did: 1) Because my phone trade-in was more than expected, I was able to afford an iPhone 13 for less than what I had expected to pay for the 12 and with more memory. 2) Other than the phone purchase, we had a no-spend week. 3) We put $2.63 into the change/$1 bill bag (leftover from the upfront phone costs), ate all our leftovers, and didn’t throw out any food. 4) I have now earned enough in additional Swagbucks – doing just two searches a day, answering the daily poll, and playing 10 games of solitaire – for a $25 Amazon gift card. My goal is to earn another $25 before the end of next March, and then we’ll use the cards to buy books for our Kindles before we depart. 5) Rather than buying flowers, Brett cut and arranged leaves from our yard to place in our bathroom. After nearly 45 years together he can still surprise me. 6) We got a $5 coupon from Target for the grand opening; we will use it to purchase ribbon and tags for the Christmas presents.

• Adding up what we sold this past week: Besides the rug I sold 12 more hashioki this week. The total going into our travel account tomorrow will be $282.69.

• Grateful for: I’m thankful for all the positive, kind, and helpful people that I dealt with last week, from the rug buyer in Honolulu to the crew at Hawaiian Air Cargo to the young man that helped me with my phone purchase. Every encounter was made easier and more pleasant because of them. Sometimes it’s easy to get discouraged, and wonder if kindness and professionalism has gone the way of the dial telephone, but it’s still out there if you look for it. Not everyone has a chip on their shoulder these days.

• Bonus question: Can you describe where you grew up with four pictures of food? I had to think carefully about what choose, but the four below are definitely associated with growing up in the Los Angeles area, and were all things we ate regularly. See’s still makes the best chocolates ever, and you still get a free sample when you visit their stores. I have no idea if Van de Kamps exists any more, but their bakery items were always fantastic. One of our family’s favorite items was the half layer cake (9″ cake cut in half) – we had one for dessert about every other week, affordable but unfortunately no leftovers with our family of six (German chocolate was my favorite). Their pecan tarts were to die for. Tacos and In-n-Out were/are LA staples.

Every month. like clockwork, Delta Airlines sends Brett the same offer: 70,000 miles into his FF account if he gets a Delta American Express card and spends $2000 in the first three months (My mistake: I originally posted it was 700,000 – no way would they give that much for just $2000!! Sorry!). It’s very tempting as that is a LOT of miles , and we know we’ll have at least $2000 of expenses coming up early next year that we could put on the card and pay off immediately. However, since we plan to be outside of the U.S. for a few years, we have no way to use those miles because while Delta flies to overseas locations they do not fly between overseas locations, and the miles can’t be used to purchase fares on partner airlines. Having all those miles would be helpful if we ever have to come back to the U.S. for some reason but otherwise we don’t see ourselves needing or using them. We also don’t really need or want another credit card, so we remain tempted but undecided. I’d love to know what you all think – worth getting or not?

That’s a wrap for the first week of November 2021! It’s was a good week with lots accomplished, read, eaten, saved, and more. Here’s to all of us enjoying the week coming up – may it be another great one!

Good morning! Aloha kakahiaka! And . . . BOO!

I was feeling sort of melancholy yesterday as I thought about how Halloween has turned into one of those holidays we just don’t celebrate any more. We didn’t even send candy to the girls this year! I used to go all out for Halloween, collected Fitz & Floyd pieces that I decorated with, and I loved, loved, loved trick-or-treating, both my own when I was young, and our children’s years of going out. I trick-or-treated with friends every year until the ninth grade; that was our kids’ cut-off year as well. Trick-or-treating was a big enough deal that my friends and I used to carry and fill entire pillowcases with candy during our middle school years. I looked forward to helping our kids carve their pumpkins, pick their costumes, and go out with them to trick-or-treat, helping them practice what to say at the door and reminding them to say “thank you” when they were toddlers. Anyway, I have lots of good memories associated with Halloween, but these days we’re at the end of a dead end street, located at the back of a building, so no visitors and no candy here. Brett and I will dim the lights this evening and watch The Exorcist for our little celebration (no candy for us this year either).

Christmas shopping got underway this past week and I’m already about halfway done. Amazon Prime literally had everything here in two days as did a couple of other places I ordered from. Meiling sets up our family’s annual Secret Santa exchange every fall, and everyone finally got their wish list up so it was easy picking gifts, and everyone is going to get things they want. I ordered a few non-gift items as well that I can’t get here, things like Cadbury’s drinking chocolate to enjoy while the girls are here, and Fisher scone mix for our Christmas morning brunch. We scored some leftover Christmas paper when our neighbors on the other side of the building moved out earlier this year, so I’ll be getting things wrapped, labeled, and tucked away this coming week. This will be our last Christmas with the girls for a couple of years as (fingers crossed) we plan to celebrate in Japan next year and the year after. I also ordered an inflatable queen mattress to use when the girls are here, and then Brett and I will use it next year after we sell our mattress and frame.

Weird stuff continued with Buy & Sell this week but ended on a high note. Ghosting B&S listings seems to a problem everywhere but I think part of the blame this last time may go to Facebook. I added another listing to Buy & Sell last week, a mid-century modern bench, and immediately got two “is this still available” messages, in less than a minute of the listing being posted, a new record. One of these people lives in Seattle and the other is on Maui, both outside the supposed 100-mile selling distance! Facebook hadn’t been loading correctly anyway, so I deleted its cookie, reloaded, and changed my password. From that point forward everything worked like it should, and I received only local requests for the bench and sold it immediately. We’re otherwise going to take a break from selling anything else (other than golf balls) until after the holidays, but starting in January we’ll have something for sale most weeks until we leave. The car will be listed for sale in early April, and we’ll hold our garage sale mid-April. We plan to close down our eBay sales at the end of the year, but I’ll most likely keep the Etsy shop open for a couple of months into next year.

And, for those who were baffled by or curious about American washcloths, above is what they look like, and how they sometimes come packaged. They’re very useful, easy to wash and dry, and great to have along when we travel.

This morning I am:

• Reading: Apples Don’t Fall, set in Australia, got off to a slow start, but it’s building and I’m enjoying it. Truth Be Told: A Novel also came off hold early last week, so I’m again having to read two books at the same time so they both get finished in time.

• Listening to: We’re enjoying blue skies and a quiet cool morning with nothing but birds singing outside, much appreciated after two days of overcast and rain. I’m hoping the good weather lasts all day so we can get our walk this afternoon – we couldn’t go Friday or yesterday because of bad weather. Brett was already up and had the coffee made when I got up, so it’s perfectly quiet inside as well with me writing and him reading. In other words, it’s another perfect Sunday morning, one I’m hoping I can stretch out for as long as possible.

• Watching: We’re still watching Great British Bake Off, Billions, and Inspector Morse, although we’ll finish Billions this week and we’re getting close to finishing Inspector Morse. Hopefully we can segue from Morse right into Lewis, but we haven’t found where it’s streaming yet. We love watching Guiseppe and Jurgen on GBBO, and it’s sort of fun that the two top contenders this year (and great contestants) are not British (born)! We watched the first episode of Squid Game this past week and all I can say is whoa!

• Happy I accomplished this past week: 1) Besides getting some of Christmas shopping done and the inflatable bed ordered, I also starting work on a menu for when the girls are here. There are things Meiling likes but YaYu doesn’t and vice versa so I’m trying to make sure I get those dishes fixed at the right times (before one arrives and after someone leaves). I’m also trying to make sure we have everything we need on hand before the girls arrive so that we’re not stuck with a big, expensive shopping trip right before their arrival. WenYu thankfully likes everything and will eat anything. 2) We got our end of the month shopping done last Friday, came in under budget, and have plenty to get us through until the middle of November! 3) The only other things accomplished were all the regular stuff we have to do.

• Looking forward to next week: Once again, there’s nothing we have to do next week, but we’re hoping for another beach day. If we make it down to Barking Sands, we’ll stop at the MWR (Morale, Welfare, and Recreation) office and reserve one of the beach cottages for our last few days on the island, after we move out of the apartment. Otherwise, our calendar is open once again – the days still seem to go pretty quickly though.

• Thinking of good things that happened: 1) Etsy sales are always a good thing. 2) So was getting Facebook sorted out, and another thing out of the apartment. 3) We enjoyed absolutely beautiful weather the first part the week, although rain finally showed up at the end (gotta keep things green though). 4) Meiling is having a wonderful time in Paris and has been sending lots of pictures (including some from a 19-course vegetarian meal at a 3-star Michelin restaurant. I can’t even imagine doing that, but she’s a foodie and it’s one of the things she saved for). 5) Our new avocado tree is having a growth spurt of some kind and has more than doubled in size – leaves should appear this week.

• Thinking of frugal things we did: 1) I used some of our credit card rewards to pay for the inflatable bed, so it cost us nothing. We’re going to keep it; it will be mailed back to Massachusetts after we move out of the apartment. 2) We noticed gasoline had climbed to $4.16 this week at Costco, so we’re strategizing on how we can cut back even more on our driving. 3) We were $58.92 under budget on our shop this past week, and that’s after buying some more items for the girls’ that were not on our list!. 4) We put $8.92 into the change/$1 bill bag this week, making our total for the month $13.54, not bad for the small amount of shopping we did in October. 5) All our leftovers were eaten this past week, and there was no food waste.

• Adding up what we sold last week: I sold 15 hashioki this past week, and the mid-century modern bench in a day once I got FB straightened out. $193.53 will be going into our travel account tomorrow. I was ready to pull the rug off B&S last night, but then got a last minute legitimate request from Honolulu! The potential buyer and I are both working on an affordable solution to getting it over there, so it’s not a done deal yet but getting there. I also sold another hashioki this morning so will be packing that up in a little while; I won’t see the funds from that until next week.

• Grateful for: I’m always thankful for the occasional days when we can’t go out to walk. I thoroughly enjoy our walks and look forward to them, but I also enjoy having a day off now and again where I can curl up with a book and a cup of coffee and not have to watch the clock and be ready to go. Days off don’t happen often, and although we’ll walk in almost any weather other than rain, they’re always appreciated and I try to make the most of them.

• Bonus question: Do you have an all-time favorite book? The one book that has affected me more than any other was Toni Morrison’s Beloved, which I read in the late 1980s. I’ve never had such an emotional reaction to a book before or since, and although I’ve wanted to read it again I haven’t as I’ve never felt ready to face those emotions again. It was that good. The book I’ve actually read more than any other is Joe McGinness’s Fatal Vision, about the murders of his wife and children Dr. Jeffrey McDonald committed at Fort Bragg in 1970. I had never read a true crime book before, and boy did I get hooked. I think I’ve read Fatal Vision five or six times now and I always find something new to think about. The Jeffrey McDonald case is one of the most litigated murder cases ever, but he’s still in prison where he belongs (and still claiming he’s not guilty).

One of the best things I’ve discovered recently on Twitter is the daily tweet from Gurdeep Pandher of the Yukon (@GurdeepPandher) doing a 55-second dance. Gurdeep is Indian, a Sikh, who moved to the Yukon Wilderness in Canada a few years ago. He lives full-time in a cabin (with electricity but no running water). Every day he posts a short video of himself, dancing Bhangra, a joyful style of Indian dance. He shares his dances to build cross cultural bridges, to illustrate the power of joy and positivity at the center of one’s life, and to show the beauty of the natural world as well. For some reason that tweet and video always shows up early in my Twitter feed each day, and in the middle of what is often pretty much nothing but glum news, his minute of happy dancing always brings a smile to my face and a reset to my thinking for the day. Being joyful and positive, he reminds me, does not mean I can’t feel sadness, or anger, or frustration, but that those are places I should only visit before returning to a joyful, positive center.

That’s all for this week, and for October, too! Six months from today will be our last in this apartment, and time seems to be speeding up with each month we reach. We still have so much to do to get ready. Cheers to finishing another good, productive week, and here’s to another good one coming up!