"The best thing one can do when it's raining is let it rain." - Henry Wadsworth Longfellow

Brett sent this to the staff Thursday.

That Longfellow quote up there is true of literal rain and life in general. Go with the flow.

It's raining as I type this (5:30 a.m.) and has been for a couple of hours. They're now saying we'll get about 1/4" today and another 1.25" tonight. Then 1.5" tomorrow.
Let it rain.

Life here is raining, too. I've said to Pam a few times over the last week or so, "Too many pieces." By that she understands me to be saying that right now life has too many issues to be worked, puzzles to be solved, things that demand attention. Some of those are of no real import, they just have to be dealt with. Others are, at least potentially, pretty big deals. Large pieces.
Be where you are, deal with what's right there right then, and sweat the rest of them if/when they arrive.
Easy to say, eh?

I lit a fire an hour ago because it cooled down more outside last night than it has recently and MoHo got cooler on the inside as a result. It was 58 in here when I got up and it's now at 61. Once the climb starts it usually progresses at a reasonable rate, so by the time I leave to meet with Levy at 10:00 it should be almost comfortable in here.

It's now 9:30 a.m. and I'm exhausted. I spent about 3 hours doing our taxes using TurboTax (free because we're old and poor). Words are inadequate for expressing how much I HATE that task.
We owe the feds, get a refund from Oregon, and have a net expense because I forgot about the generous honorarium I got a year ago for the month I spent in Eastport. Ugh.

I used to say that Pam's 15 lb. mutt that looks more like a large rat is useless. Turns out I'm wrong. He does have something he can do.
He's apparently mad that Pam is gone and that I left him alone yesterday when I went into town. He expressed his irritation by going to our closet, getting one of my black dress shoes, and chewing off the back end.
He's still alive, but it was real close for awhile.

It's now 7:30 p.m. but feels like 10:00. It's pouring outside and they say we'll get another inch before midnight. And now the word is 2" tomorrow.
Frenchie has been bellowing for the last hour. Don't know if the rain is bothering her (noise on the barn roof) or if she's in heat. But even the dogs have noticed the noise.

I did get the kitchen fan fixed this afternoon. MoHo's kitchen has one of those old school in-wall fans over the stove with a pull chain. Pulling the chain (yeah, you can yank it) closes the flap outside and turns off the fan. The reverse to turn it on.
The new (used) stove we got a month ago has a control panel that is a bit higher than the old stove's and covers up the place where the chain comes through the metal cover.
Pull out the stove, take the cover off, create a new hole for the chain that's above the stove's control panel, clean and paint the cover, then put everything back together.

I talked to Pam an hour ago. She's being a good daughter but sometimes it's challenging. And her mom has a bad cough with a declining appetite. The dr. prescribed a Rx cough med that seems to be helping but tomorrow will be a better indicator.

I miss her. I'm not good at being alone. Oh, I do OK with eating and basic hygiene, it's just SO quiet here. Buddy is doing his best, and he's darn cute. But he's not much of a talker.