... to quote a 1977 Grateful Dead song! The past 24 hours have been ... eventful!!
We're in the longest cold, wet stretch of weather here in the Valley of the Sun - with no end in sight! It has rained 23 out of the last 24 hours it seems. I barely got a walk in with Sadie this evening without getting soaked. Our morning walk was delayed until it was sprinkling rather than drenching! And during the night when she needed to go out -- well, let me tell ya, my pug is notorious for not wanting to pee in the rain! I had to trick her at 11pm, make her think we were taking a walk out front to get her to pee, and then? Dashed right back in, she wanted no part of a walk! (Thank goodness, because I was in my jammies!!! hehehe) According to the weather service, 55 and sunny on Saturday, then more sun on Tuesday, with a high of 72. Finally!!! I'm ready for winter to be over!
It looks like someone crashed into one of the power transformers, or mini power station? I'm not sure what to call it, but SRP has been working hard to keep that up and running while repairing and/or replacing whatever is needed. I noticed the damaged unit on my way home from work Thursday, then at 2am Friday morning, we lost power. It was resumed just past 4am. But with temps in the low 30s, the house was very chilly and it took some time for my heater to get the house back to warm again!
Kudos, SRP! for keeping things running!
With a day of vacation today -- nearly a waste of a day, considering it was too wet, too rainy, too miserable to be out and doing anything fun! Instead, I spent the day "adulting" -- doing things that you can only do on a work day, and because I work days, I have to take time off to make time for these crazy things. I spent some time with an estate planning attorney, because yes, I'm turning 60 this year, and yes, things need to be .... taken care of! Frankly, I'm in one of those weird positions: I don't quite have enough equity in my home to need something just yet. But at the same time, if housing markets keep growing, and I gain a little more equity, I'll be needing something. And let's face it, I'm making payments, so my equity should grow there too! So. I went ahead and decided on a trust.
But what was so draining was having to think about *things*. If you were to die today, who would do what? How do you want things to go? And if by chance you, your children and grandchildren were in some kind of horrific accident, then what? Who handles your estate?? Let me tell ya, I never thought up those kind of drastic scenarios! What happens when you ..... ? what happens if this .... ? My cousin recently went in the hospital for a procedure that doctors have done thousands of times over the years, and yet his heart stopped as he was being prepped for surgery. Not common! And who would've thunk it?? But there it is: he was 61. They were able to restart his heart, but he was on a ventilator. In that situation, what would *you* want???
Yes, we all need to think of these things! As painful as the subject of death is, we will all face it some day. Given that my maternal grandfather lived to be 104, and my paternal grandmother lived to be 95, maybe I'll get some of those good genes. However, my maternal grandmother was only 32, and my paternal grandfather was 57. I've bypassed both those ages, so am I living on borrowed time? Naw, I don't think so.
However many days I have on this earth, I hope the rest of them are as good as the past has been. Yes, there have been ups and downs; the good, the bad, and even some ugly. But there aren't any choices that I have made that I regret. I just followed my heart and did what felt right. And there was always more good than bad in nearly every choice I made. So no regrets!
"..... Sometimes the light's all shinin' on me,
Other times I can barely see.
Lately it occurs to me
what a long, strange trip it's been. "
I've also quit focusing on a goal of 12k steps per day, and am actively watching how my FitBit tracks active minutes. You have to be engaged in your activity for more than 10 minutes for it to count anything toward that number. Mondays are always more active than any other day, but with changing that focus, Sadie and I head out each evening at 6pm for a long walk. It's a quick 10 minutes over to the park where I let Sadie run in the grass. Then it's back into her stroller and off we go for 1.4 miles, circling our neighborhood. I'm sure if any of the neighbors are like me, they have a nickname for folks if they don't know a real name. 
