Life at a "Swell's" pace

Hello.

The seasons are changing here and it's not exactly the same, but at least we are out of the dangers of wildfires. All of them have been contained here and it's a nice relief. And, the Coronavirus numbers are going up drastically nationwide. Here in Oregon we are still under a mask mandate, which I'm not sure when that's going to be lifted. Here in our own county there's still people that are calling it all a hoax and it's going against our civil rights and is treason. I don't understand that. It's as if we've all stepped through the looking glass into an alternate universe, or something, and some of these people fell completely down a rabbit hole and can't climb out. We've been enjoying Sarah Cooper's TikToks on the president's speeches, too. They are quite comical. On another side we've been looking into land purchases and came across a website that only shows houses for sale in an area in British Columbia named Ucluelet. A lot of these houses are amazing and actually affordable. We love the view from some of the houses decks and porches. We've been drinking a lot of water lately. I think the heat and smoke from the summer has dehydrated us inside and out. We used to have an automatic cold/hot water dispenser, but the rental price on those is ridiculous. We have gone to five gallon containers and filling them at the local food co-op, but it would be nice to have the water cold. We are looking into getting another cold/hot dispenser, but we aren't sure what we want yet. As for now, we have gone as far as getting Fiji Water and Evian delivered straight to our door. This will work for now, but we need a cheaper and longer term solution. We'll weigh the odds and see what's better for our family. For now, here are five things this week.

1. This Rosemary.

We trimmed the rosemary bush on the side of our house this week and I took the opportunity to hang dry the stems. One of my favorite herbs is rosemary and the house twice this week smelled amazing. It's interesting to know that inhaling rosemary essential oil and just smelling rosemary increases mental clarity and stimulates brain function to be able to concentrate better.

2. This Ambience.

I was hunting one day to find some ambient restaurant sounds recently and found two great sites. They are free and offer such a great mix of sounds that you can personalize to your own liking on what you want to hear. The first one is AmbientMixer.com and the second one is MyNoise.net. Both are great for creating ambient sounds of a café, restaurant, kitchen cooking, etc.

3. This Kid.

He is just growing up way too fast. He is taller than I am now and almost taller than Jeff. It's incredible how quickly the time goes by when you don't want it to. He turned 17 in September and is going into the eleventh grade. At times we miss our little Bean, but we are so proud of who he is becoming and how awesome he is to be around.

4. This Podcast.

As mentioned in the previous Friday's post, Skylar and I started a podcast, finally. We have been toying with the idea for several years now and finally just did it. The first episode came out Thursday before Halloween. It's a topic a lot of people are discouraged about, but we are enjoying learning as we go. It's mostly about the horror side of history and season one is about serial killers of the 1800s. You can listen to episodes at the link that the top of the blog, listen to them on pretty much all platforms, our Anchor page here, or our website here. If you enjoy it, let us know! Our first episode is on H.H. Holmes, and our second is on The Harpe Brothers.

5. This Kitty.

Sometimes she's just too pretty not to share.

Positive affirmations this week:

Have a nice weekend.

We decided against our yearly cotton candy spinning this year because of the pandemic, but we still had a good Halloween at home. Skylar wanted to dress up, like he does every year, but he decided against going trick or treating on his own. We answered the door with masks on and washed our hands after each person left. We even sanitized our door often just to help cut down on the spread of germs. It was a foggy morning and because of that, I decided to take a few shots in the local cemetery. I've started an Instagram account on the fog that rolls through the Willamette Valley and you can view it here. But, the fog on Halloween morning was perfect for a photo opportunity. Later in the night the Blue Moon was amazing! It's the first full Halloween moon to shine in all U.S. time zones in 76 years.

Skylar decided to go as the Joker for Halloween this year and when we turned the lights out, he really did look pretty scary. We only got a few trick or treaters and Skylar didn't go trick or treating himself, but it was a fun night. His makeup was pretty accurate and I can hear the Joker's voice, "Why so serious?"