De-Stressing

Heat working beautifully. Now we've apparently sprung a leak in the main water pipe coming into the building, so I've shut the water off while trying to locate a plumber. If it's not one thing, it's another. And I'll really be miffed if I haul someone out here and pay a huge fee and then find out it's something I could have fixed with a wrench if I'd had one.

It occurs to me that this blog seems to have become a place to dump my stress, which is not at all what I originally intended. So I think I should write about the non-stressful things about this place. Like the early morning light setting the stained glass windows aglow. The soft ticking of the baseboard heater at night in an otherwise silent space. The reliable, fast internet. The wide stretches of empty fields all around me, bordered by bare trees, alive with the song of birds I don't recognize. The melodic honking of Canada geese rising from the lake en masse. The joy in Brio's eyes as he chases the ball around the rec room. The unbelievably huge stars in the black sky. The tangy smell of apples being crushed in the warehouse down the road. The time and isolation to take long walks down quiet roads, or just sit still and breathe. The soft weathered gray of the barn I pass on my walks.

Much to be grateful for.