Love All Around

~Monday, February 14, 2022~

🧡❤️Day 610❤️🧡

Happy Valentine’s Day everyone! Hope you are spending it with the one you love the most. And if you are not, that you celebrate loving yourself. 😉

Our Valentine’s celebration got off to a great start with a delicious breakfast of homemade hashbrowns and omelettes on the new outdoor griddle (Jeff’s just loving that Blackstone!). Then it was a few hours of productivity with me loading oodles of videos of “the trip” onto our YouTube channel. It’s definitely an entertaining task, making me relive all the moments of this amazing trip so far. In the past, we’ve only included “helpful/how-to” videos on our YouTube channel with the remaining “fun” videos placed on our website. Even though I knew it would be a time consuming task to upload and describe each video, I thought YouTube would be the perfect platform for displaying all of our reels from the past 20 months, all in one place. If you are interested, you can check them out at: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCAWrTBmgk5BYoFckONJc5wA/playlists where you can “subscribe” and comment as well.

Jeff spent part of his day sorting through packages that have been delivered in recent days (it’s seriously been like Christmas around here). Since our location is the perfect place to receive mail, we’ve been planning ahead, ordering “backups” for things that we expect to break or wear out down the road; things like a new bathroom fan motor, a sail switch for the propane heater, water pump, stove exhaust fan, etc. We just don’t want to be stuck with these things not working while we’re miles and miles from hardware stores, internet for Amazon ordering, not to mention the supply chain issues we’re all experiencing lately.

I know, doesn’t this all seem so Valentinish?! Though we still believe in romanticism, over the years we’ve become less enchanted with the day that has become all too associated with spending money and the guilt it can create by not participating in it. Even though we got caught up in the celebration in our early years of dating, we have realized over time that we don’t need a dozen roses, a box of chocolates or even a card to express our devotion. A simple “Happy Valentine’s Honey” and a hug are enough.

But we did give Sadie a little extra love and attention by driving 30 minutes to a dog park in Tucson, one we thought had some grassy areas to have her run. The Gene C. Reid Park has a separate dog park area called Miko’s Corner, a dog park dedicated to Miko who was a German Shephard Tucson Police dog who sadly lost his life in the line of duty in 2006. Unfortunately, the only lawn area to be had was what surrounded the dog park which wasn’t off-leash. So the sand, pebbly ground had to suffice. Immediately, the other dogs came to check out the “new girl in town”, butt sniffing and all. Little did they know that tough, yet gentle Sadie could stand her ground with a light Kujo reaction. All in all, we only spent about 20 minutes inside the park and more time walking around the lake watching ducks sunbathe or swim. Sadie would have loved to have joined them being the water dog that she is. Dust ridden and a shedding machine, Sadie was due for a lather. We’ve never seen her shed quite like this before….the one downside to having a lab with their 2 coats of hair. Still, I wouldn’t trade her for anything.

L