Time Off

 It seems like a good time to take a vacation again from technology - or some of it - the social kind.  

I'm immersing myself in the Wild West with Lonesome Dove.   I'm 49% finished now, and it says I've listened just short of 18 hours with more than 18 hours to go.  It's been a long time since I read the book and a long time since I saw the TV movie, but I do remember how much we all loved it.  Emily and I are constantly texting scenes and phrases back and forth.  I guess as soon as I finish the book, I'll go watch the movie.  I'd love to watch it with Emily, but it's 8 hours, and I'm not sure we have that much time together!

The good thing about audio books is getting to do other things while you listen, so I've done all my housework, taken down the garbage, got the mail, gone for a walk, and sorted paperwork (although that does need a little concentration).  I can also sew and listen, so I worked on one of the kits Barbara sent me, the tea book.

It's a little padded book with pockets for teabags to carry in your purse so you always have a handy teabag with you.

Pretty fabrics.

It folds up into a compact little package.  I guess you could carry credit cards or money or anything small if you don't drink tea.  I'm not a big tea drinker, although I try, so I might do that or gift it to someone who does drink tea.

Snaps are not my friend, and I struggle with them, but this one went on very nicely and looks pretty.  It was a good satisfying project, and I'm glad to have finished another one without losing it or hiding it.

Thanks, Barbara, for such a fun project.  I'm trying the needle case next, another little doable project.  

I do have the batting for the girls' quilts and am just waiting for the backing we chose to be in stock again.

I took all my books back to the library Monday and voted.

On the weekend, there were folks receiving ballots from cars and cheering and having a big celebration in front of the library.  I'm so happy to see photos of the long lines of voters who are overcoming all sorts of odds to vote this year.  So sad that voting in some places is trying to be interfered with, but that's what this last four years has gotten us.  I'm not sure what the aftermath of the election will be like, but it could be something the American people never thought would be possible in a free country.  But then we've seen a LOT of things we never thought we would see from the leader of our country.  Normally, they just do their jobs, good or bad, and not act like psychotic idiots.  In normal times. 

Right after I dropped off my ballot, a young couple dropped theirs in and the girls said, "Hey, I'm disappointed.  I thought we would have someone at least to celebrate with us."  I told them I would celebrate with them, so we had a tiny little woo-hoo, good job moment.  

On our video call that night, I told the girls I had voted, and Graysen said, "Who did you vote for?"  I said, "Trump."  There was stunned silence and then big eyes and a silent scream and then "Mom, she voted for Trump!"  First, Mom told her that you never ask people who they voted for, and then she reassured her that I did NOT vote for him.  Just doing my itty-bitty part for their future.

We had such a good call last night.  I heard about the tooth fairy coming, getting back to school and the Halloween treats they were making for their neighbors and heard about their newest favorite treat - that I can't remember now, but I'll find out.  I saw everything they had in their little school bags.

I saw their land forms they made from salt dough for a school project. They were so beautiful with oceans and mountains and even a cave and a volcano!  It was a second-grade project, but Katherine made one too because her sister was making one. 

 We listened to an audio Halloween book, Room on the Broom, read with a British accent - or Scottish for the dog, I think.  This is my favorite version.  There is a little movie too. 

Then I had to go find whatever books I had in the house to read even more stories.

They loved one of their mom's old Golden Books, The Lively Little Rabbit.  

How about that price - 59 cents?

At one point, Emily was passing by as I was reading, "The mean old weasel came again and ate our great-grandmother on Daddy's side for breakfast."  She stopped and stared, and I said, "Well, it was already coming out before I realized it."  They're tough girls though and weren't traumatized.

We ended up with a Hatchimals puppet show, which consisted of them each showing me every Hatchimal they had and my exclaiming over it.  They wanted to do more, but I told them to plan a musical for the Hatchimals for today.  So far, I haven't been honored with that production.  Maybe tomorrow.

It's been a good few days, and the leaves were even more beautiful today.  I just forgot to take pictures.  We'll have our first frost this weekend and a chance (4%) of snow.  I'm sure the mountains will get some though, and that's always a neat thing to see the first snow.  

I'm trying to stay positive and not letting mean-spirited and misguided posts on  FB get my attention.  And not feeling like I have to read all the upsetting news articles.

I did see this article headline earlier before my ban on news, and it piqued my curiosity. I did a fact check and assume it's a legitimate interview. https://www.rawstory.com/2020/10/evangelical-pastor-leaves-his-longtime-church-over-the-congregations-devotion-to-trump/

Being a Christian, I have a hard time with this president's morals and ways of handling things, but all this is taken with a grain of salt  and totally overlooked by his followers.

This paragraph stood out to me.  Copy and paste doesn't work, so I'll just type it.  "It just floors me how church-going people who read the Bible and sing the hymns can show up at a [Trump] rally and just do that deep bellow like an angry mob supporting these horrible things that just come out of his heart and mind, "Mannes said.  "It just began to trouble me so much that I am a pastor in this big enterprise."

Good for this man standing up for his beliefs.  That "angry mob" scares me so much.  Just like people in a cult, worshipping their leader and believing whatever he tells them while listening to the hatred and the disrespect for anyone who doesn't agree with him.  The name-calling, the support of white supremacy groups and conspiracy groups, the lack of concern about the pandemic, none of which seem Godly in the least.  It scares me that people like this are responsible for the leadership of our country.  

Positive thinking.  I have to concentrate.