12 Oakdale

Back in the spring, when I signed us up for the local 5K, October 11 seemed way, way off. Yet, so much of life, it found its way to us. Fortunately for Grant, he’d been walking each morning. So far, only about a mile, but still. I, on the other hand, had done absolutely no training. I did walk home from Town Hall Thursday, the only walking I’d done in weeks (months?). Yet, this morning, we got up and drove over to the start - absolutely no way were we adding that extra .5 mile over and back to our day. 7:30, the 5K is off and running. I say goodbye to Grant and start walking. My competitive nature kicks in, and I start to try to catch the next person in front of me. Soon I’ve finished 1 mile, then 2, didn’t see the 3 mile mark, turned the corner on Fifth, and was at the finish line. Because of the stupid tariffs and backup at Customs, no medals for us. Leis instead. I roamed the tents, getting 2 chicken sandwiches, candy, popcorn, a delicious kale smoothie. Sitting on a bench in front ...

We turned the air conditioning off yesterday. Day temperatures under 78°; nights in the low 70s. However, the humidity is running at about 94%. The AC may get turned back on. With it being less hot, I’ve been able to shift my gardening to later in the morning, giving me time to paint first. Better for my brain and energy level. I’ve also started knocking off some of the projects I’ve been avoiding,  First up was making the buttonholes in the Halloween shirt Stephanie made for Kyle. That began with a search for the shirt, which I remembered as a cream color, but was actually black. Overlooked several times in the hunt, but eventually found in one of my craft stashes. Next was reading the online manual to re-learn how to use the automatic buttonholes on Steph’s machine. Neither she or I could find the right pressure foot, but luckily she has inherited another machine which had one. For the life of me, I could not get the machine’s buttonhole lever to stay down, and the computer would...