1. It's an ongoing conversation, ripe with uncertainty. It's fun. It takes place between Debbie and me. It's our regular "well maybe we could" chat about me flying to New York so that Debbie, Gibbs, and I can pile into the Camry and head back to Kellogg, Idaho.
Debbie and I have traveled by car across the USA and back with Molly and Patrick. That was in 1998. We drove across the country again, this time with Maggie and Snug, in, I think 2005, for visits in Cincinnati, Hendersonville, NC, Arlington Heights, IL, and Kellogg. We drove out to Virginia in 2014 when we moved back east and we drove back west when we moved, in 2017, to Kellogg. Tucked in there somewhere, I believe it was 2009, Debbie had been traveling in the Sube and flying to New York, Texas, and points in between and ended her travels in Arlington Heights. I flew out to Chicago in late August and we eventually traveled in the Sube together to Kellogg and back to Eugene.
Today, Debbie sent me an itinerary we might follow if and when the time comes to drive east to west again.
It reflects Debbie and my decision when we drove to Kellogg from Greenbelt, MD in 2017 to limit our road time to about six hours a day.
Debbie charted out a travel plan that follows this principle -- if we limit ourselves to about six hours a day on the road, we drive in daylight and are rested when we arrive at the different cities along the way. We can enjoy food. We have the energy to take Gibbs to a dog friendly brewery or two and enjoy small amounts of beer and get some beer to go if we so desire.
Yes, this stretches out the trip -- but so what! We learned back in 2017 that traveling while rested, not driving at night, having time to try out beers and food in different places, and simply taking our time as we meander across the USA makes for a much more enjoyable trip.
The next step is figuring out when this can happen.
That's an ongoing and enjoyable conversation.
2. The days are cooler. I can cook the ways I most enjoy.
Today, I browned some beef stew meat, set the pieces aside, and then sautéed onion, celery, mushroom, and garlic.
I returned the browned beef pieces to the pot and added chopped broccoli and cauliflower and opened packages of frozen green beans and sweet corn and tossed them in.
I poured a box and half of beef broth over the beef and vegetables, brought it to a boil, turned down the heat, put the lid on the pot, and let this soup cook.
For the coup de grace, I put the remaining beef broth I had on hand into a pot with some water and cooked a batch of Amish Egg Noodles. When they were soft, I added them to the soup and poured the broth/water I used to boil the noodles into the soup.
I've got a ton of soup.
It's not the best soup I've ever made. No problem. I savored being able to enjoy a bowl of hot and nourishing soup on this lovely late August (kind of like early autumn) day and am happy to have a plenty more to eat later.
3. I am always asserting effort to keep creeping anxieties at bay. If I can hold the anxiety off, I think more clearly, enjoy my days more, and behave more calmly and reasonably. My mind is much less preoccupied.
I've been successful, for the most part, over the last year and a half or so. But, those guerrilla bands of anxiety have tried launching surprise attacks lately and I've found that working acrostic puzzles helps keep them at bay. I can't really explain why. I can say, though, that I've completed several of these puzzles in the last two or three days and it's helped keep my mind clear, keep me focused on what's at hand, and has kept me more relaxed.
More than at any point in my life, I don't want to feel agitated. Finding ways to resist the persistent rising up of anxiety within myself has significantly improved the quality of my life.
Cooking. Working puzzles. Reading. Just watching Luna and Copper. Watching movies. They all help.
With my shoe inserts, I hope I can return to the best antidote of all: walking.
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