Hey Lovely Peggy,

So, I had a little midday lull at work and wrote you but see it’s not here. Oh boy. Well, home now and more relaxed anyway. So relaxed as a matter of fact I’m not sure I can walk much tonight! Pretty tired out. 
Yeah, the pickled stuff went over pretty good. Hadn’t thought about that being a Midwesty kind of thing to do but I guess it is a bit. Do you have apple trees? Getting to be that time of year! Mmm. I like most of them. We had a small orchard on our farm where I grew up. My Dad had learned as a boy from his Uncle to graft trees and we had a couple that had two different kinds of apples on them as a result. There was one that was a very old variety that I’ve not found or seen anywhere since. We called them “Snow Apples” though I don’t know that is their real name. They were kind of smallish, and the truest reddest red I’ve ever seen in an Apple. Had these teeny tiny white spots on them. The skin was so red and the flesh the whitest white, just like the pure driven snow. Very crisp inside and when you bit them the skin would bleed these trails into the white flesh following your teeth marks. Tiny little blackest black seeds...Best apple I’ve had to this day. I’ve often thought about making a trip back this time of year and driving out to that old homestead to see if the tree is still there. I do know it is still a dirt road going out there as one my sisters drove by last fall. You’d have to walk back into the orchard a bit to find that particular tree and she didn’t stop. Just drove by. We had our little pet cemetery at the back of the orchard. Have often wondered if all the little crosses and such that we marked graves with are still there and what the folks have thought over the years about it. We used to have these little sweet funerals. One of the older kids would read a passage from the Bible, we’d play music on these toy instruments, and of course always flowers. Lots of wild flowers. Yeah. Maybe some day I’ll make that trip. Maybe some things are better left as is too though. We lived about 9 miles out of the small town. My folks are buried in the cemetery in the town, as well as two of my brothers. I think someday I ought to make the trek to have some conversations there, and if I do I’ll go on out to the farm and wander around. Have to be this time of year though so I can see if I can get me a Snow Apple and grow a new tree. Yeah, Lorelei Appleseed. Could make that my new name! Just bring those seeds over here to Oregon and grow me some apples. 
Not sure where all that came from but it isn’t what I wrote initially! Think I mainly asked how the Septic turned out? 
My after work time used to be my favorite smoke time so I guess that’s what that was. Well, thoughts of long lost vintage apples better than a cigarette anyway, right? 
Hope you’re well and getting some laps in. Saw some real sunshine from the window at work today and everyone was commenting what a nice day it was, so maybe things getting back to normal. Had some folks coming in from the evacuation place worried they got the COVID, so a new can of worms open now I guess. Life rolls on. Oh boy.

Gotta walk Max. Think it’s clear enough that Whoopi can come along now too!

Im super jealous of your fancy apple eating. I do love apples, except the red delicious, I've never been a fan of those. Osiris the dog is allergic to dust mites and three types of grass so we are constantly cleaning and dusting. So that's what I've been doing today. Not fun but my husband and I visit and joke around while we are doing it so I guess it's not a total loss. It's definitely autumn here, the shadows are getting longer and pumpkin spice flavored crap is everywhere. Our dogs get a little pumpkin scoop in their food and the grocery store s here have been sold out. Had to buy pumpkin online, sheesh! At least it's cheaper. I've been decorating the estate (hahaha my house) with autumn decor. One of my friends is super crafty and makes all kinds of stuff. She loves the fall and I reap the benefits. This time of year heard me up for the holidays and I will definitely be tempted to smoke. I'm going to take it easy this year and lay low. My smobriety is my number one priority. It's going to be tough so prepare for some sos posts, but I'm committed and will do my best to keep clean. I know it's all s mindset but every time I've relapsed I have done it between Thanksgiving and Christmas. I've got to formulate a plan to get through this crap.

Don’t you have a good variety of apples there Tiny? There are some different ones here than what I grew up with. I’m with you on the Red Delicious thing; I don’t care for them either. Pretty soon I will go do what we call the “Fruit Loop”. It is a drive out I-84 to Hood River (gorgeous by the way) and the you take state road South on the other, or East side of Mt Hood and loop around through all the orchards and wineries. It’s a lovely day trip. May wait for Daughter to come home as she usually likes it as there are Alpaca and Llama farms we stop at. Such sweet animals. Those big eyes and long lush to die for lashes!  
Still waiting to see if I will take Max over to Eastern OR to his momma. She may come here she said. She wants me to go with her to look for Riley. Of course I dread that as does she. Her neighbor found the remaining cows, what was left, but said nothing resembling a dog. Ok, I gotta stop about that now. Good news is the fire near there is close to 25% contained. We have some rain expected in a day or two and that will help. It was pretty smoky this morning and woke me as I had the window open to sleep. It cleared up quite a bit by noon and we had actual sun and I was able to run. Could feel it some but not as bad as a couple days ago. Then I worked in the garden a bit. Stuck my finger quite good on my young Agave and it is quite swollen and red and hot now, so it may need some treatment. Bugger. 
Hoping to find out tomorrow which direction I’m going to venture. If friend comes here maybe I’ll take her to the Coast for the day. I’m sure she would like that and it would be really good for her right now. She loves the Ocean almost as much as I do, but will say if she had to pick she’d take the Mountains. 
Sounds like you’re doing a bit better. I sure hope so! Don’t worry about the Follydays coming. We will get you through it. Just one day at a time is all it takes. I’m certainly not looking forward to them either, so we will middle through them together and keep each other motivated, ok?

Will get you a Starfish pic soon! 
Starfish, Starfish, Starfish, Agave, Starfish, Starfish...

There! I mixed it up a bit for you to bring you a smile!

Oh boy. Definitely more birds here now with the fires eating up their homes. Thought I was actually going to get to sleep a bit earlier than last night, but, about 2 minutes after turning off the light a Screech Owl is going off in that Doug Fir behind me, which is the side the bedroom is on. Been in the spare room for close to two weeks as Pat is coughing too much through the night from the bad air. Am finding that I kind of like this room though. Daughter decided a couple months ago she wanted to move into the basement so I made what was her room upstairs into my spare room and Kombucha making space. Pat is happy as all the critters are now in here with me. Of course they are all asleep!! Lol.

Oh, forgot to tell you...yes, Nightswimming on piano. You are lucky as you get to actually GO  night swimming. I am stuck inland and muddling through the water on the ivories. It is relaxing and joyful in a different way. Will have to wait for water night swimming till next year now though unless I get back out there really soon, and that might be risky now even, so shouldn’t go it alone. 
Have fun with your Tribe day, most lovely and grounded Peggy.

Tribe Day! Yay! I like how you wrote about it; “ left leaning out of the box”. It is good to have folks you relate with. I suspect there is more common ground among humans than we care to admit. At times it seems they hang onto small superficial things about each other so as to have conflict. Not sure why as peace truly is more complete and simple. Think I’ve spoken somewhere about the reptilian brain before. It does seem to be that part we revert to to drive with in many areas of life unfortunately. There are other parts in our heads that bring more joy and less knee jerk response for sure. Still trying to decide which part hid more behind the veil of smoking for me. Think it was actually the pre-frontal cortex part truthfully, though perhaps I should be ashamed or sad to admit that.

Im killing time waiting for a “video appointment “ for me for my finger. Will have to go down tonight and give John a look-see and a talking to about what his species did to me yesterday. Was up far too late again and woke up far too early from a throbbing in this finger which is now about double the size and quite painful. Stuck it on one of my Agaves I did. Was my fault really (of course it was! Plants like that don’t move on their own) as I don’t have the proper gloves on to be working with or near them. Sometimes I just want to really feel the dirt and earth and don’t think beyond that simple pleasure. Well. I’m sure there is a course of antibiotics in my very near future due to my thoughtlessness. Bummer. Have only been on them twice in my adult life and am hoping to get out of this world someday with being able to say I’ve only taken them a small handful of times. Well, I will be able to justify more Kombucha and Jun so there will be that bright side! Will have my own little war going on inside of my body. Drugs killing bad things and Probiotics trying to offset that. It’s actually been over 17 years since last round as it was while in hospital having Daughter. Ha! Will get to tell her that her momma is doing drugs! I suspect also that I will need to postpone my piano lesson this week. I think it may be working up to the point of needing to be drained. Ugh. Well...that will be a course in empathy for me I suppose. Will be kind of naughty and fun to hold this particular finger up to the video for the appointment though! Lol!

Oh, heavens! You are not pleasing the agave gods by dragging around your little plants! You definitely need some better gloves. I don't even want to know how big your finger is for it to need to be drained. I'm also impressed that you've barely ever been on antibiotics. I have chronic eat infections and for years that was the treatment. Now I just use saline spray and nasa court and I'm all good in the prevention department. Took two ent fellas to get that one right. Yes we do have apples here but most you can buy here come from Washington or somewhere else. There's already been a very light frost on my car this month, so I imagine that's not ideal for apples. I do shop at the crunchy store and they do have some closer to home, but they are super small and very tart. They do have an excellent red pear, though. Let us know how your physician visit goes and for pete's sakes,get a tribe already!

Just finished! Will have to go to the pharmacy soon to get meds, just as I figured.  Bummer. She said same thing though about possibly needing drainage soon. Will do some salt water soaks and see if it will do it on its own. If not one quick jab with a scalpel will do it and I’m certainly willing to do that on my own rather than go in for a visit and bother with the more painful experience of numbing it up to do it! Too bad Daughter isn’t here as she’d likely be more than willing to do it for me. Pat would likely faint and he’s too big for me to pick up of the floor! Lol! Oh man. Just got that visual. Will be calling ambulance for him after he knocks his head or something going down. Sorry fellas...but generally speaking , testosterone is not the stoic hormone y’all may think it is! Plenty good for other stuff, but not blood and pain in real life. Us gals generally do better with that. So I’m glad you got the ear thing finally to a preventative approach. That’s always better than taking pills. Never underestimate the power of salt water with wounds and such. Nature has her way of working wonders pretty often when given the chance!

Ohhh. Frost. Pretty. I will say too I’m not a fan of “pumpkin spice “ infused things other than actual pumpkin pie. That’s my favorite! In other stuff? Gross. Why can’t people just keep food simple and pure? There is a reason why when growing up the game my Dad and brothers brought in tasted way better than meat from a store. It didn’t eat or get force fed a bunch of unnatural stuff! Ewww...just think how terrible a human would taste to actually eat one. Really gross I bet. Ok....no clue why my mind went there!! I am gonna claim sleep deprivation. Yes. That’s it. I get a string of days off and immediately revert to full on night owl, which is fine, but the last two have been even later than normal and up way earlier than I should be too. Will go to Pharmacy and then NAP! Yay! So I can be up all late again. 
What kind of red pear?? I like pears a lot! 
Oh, and yes, we both got a good chuckle with me flipping her the bird on that video appointment! Was funny. I have good gloves, just chose not to wear them. Some stuff we learn the hard way. The Agave is fine!

Oh...and I have a Tribe!! It is you all! 
 

Want me to put a picture of my finger Tiny?? Lol! I won’t torture you with that, but will look through my pics for a purple Starfish for you today. Right after the Pharmacy and nap and walk. In that order. Our crunchy store has this chocolate milk that is to die for and I’m gonna get me some to soothe my soul. Will toast my Tribe.

Hmmm. Had Susan here too but don’t see her. Maybe there is a limit. Anyway...you are definitely also my Tribe Susan!

The pears are called starkrimson. They are so good. The crunchy store carries them through December. I simply must get some more soon. I highly recommend them. Oh gross, do not lance that finger yourself! You can get an infection and we don't want anyone passing out. And wear your dang gloves next time! Do you want to relive this? You're quit the risk taker you know. I've been trolling around online looking for good starfish videos but none have blown my socks off. I need to research more, especially these purple ones you speak of. ..

Ha! Am I? Risk taker. Yeah, I think you may be somewhat correct. I don’t generally view the way I live as risky except maybe when I smoked. Talk about risk, yes? Generally I’m not too afraid to venture out and live for sure. And I do want another motorcycle but will probably forgo that and put the money into travel instead. Soon as we can again.

Well Tiny...this darn finger is already infected! So lancing it myself would be no big deal and probably make it feel a lot better. It is likely throbbing from Pus building up in there. No, I wouldn’t ask Pat, or probably even tell him I was gonna. So funny to see the big dudes. The bigger they are the harder they fall for sure! 
Sitting in the parking lot waiting for meds. Went through the drive through but it wasn’t ready yet. Then to crunchy store for chocolate milk and with a little luck some lovely pears!! I desperately need a nap.