Wish It Was a Happier New Year

 Don't get me wrong, I was so happy to visit my daughter in Indiana and she and her family were happy to see us. We exchanged gifts. We were gifted some laser-cut ornaments my son-in-law designed and cut at work on the plasma laser. We also stopped by the cemetery to lay flowers on my former hubby's grave and my younger daughter's grave. We drove down on Saturday morning and returned Monday morning, December 30th. Hubby worked Monday night and now is off for a few days until January 6th. We took a walk yesterday and plan to walk again today and every day that we can, bundled up.

Yesterday we stopped by Hobby Lobby and bought some yarn and a loom pick tool for the long loom I was gifted. I bought an artificial fern for my desk. I don't normally like plastic plants, but it looks real and I can't grow ferns.

My desk fern

Last night hubby and I talked, a much needed talk. I know he is grieving the loss of his beloved father. When he is sad, I feel it. too, like our energy reflects on each other. He is also still looking for a job. I was confused, I thought everything was ok. Apparently not. He didn't tell me they back-pedaled on the "good news" they previously gave him. 

I wish I could say I was confident in our future. I feel unsettled with the thought of leaving this apartment. rent is too darn high everywhere. I have plants. They need windows. I have been blessed with three windows here in this apartment. Three windows are rare as hen's teeth in apartments. I have been paring down my collection and going through boxes of stuff, sort of "pre-packing". I'm not sure how confident I am in hubby finding a good job. He is concerned as well. There are some well paying jobs over an hour away. Typically companies don't hire people that far away. We would need to move. 

Thankfully today is sunny. We are going for a walk later. I'm leaving today's blog at that, will write more later.

Feeling Better Today

 Today is a better day. Hubby and I are feeling better. His best friends from Helgesen sent him pictures to say hello. It would be great if they could all end up working together again.

There was a big bird sitting on one of the trees this morning. I couldn't tell what it was. When it flew I didn't think the wings were long enough to be an eagle. The wings were a bit short and wide. Later it was preening itself and I could see red tail feathers, so, Red Tailed Hawk! It was probably fluffed up against the cold, making it look bigger. Also, I'm used to seeing crows in those trees, so my judgement was off.

A bad picture of the bird preening

Sandhill Cranes

A flock of geese were flying over and around and around. The geese don't migrate anymore, they just hang around in the fields. Sometimes they seem unsettled, like some hint of migration is nagging at them. I'm sure they fly south if we get lots of snow, I'm guessing. I also saw and heard a large flock of Sandhill Cranes fly over. I love how they sound.

I got some lights up on the patio. Mostly just a rehash of what was up last year. My Feit Electric outdoor WiFi Smart Plug has disconnected from my Netgear WiFi Mesh Extender, so now I need to go outside and push a button on the smart plug instead of in the app on my phone. The lights are going to stay on all night because I'm not going out there in my jammies. Will try to connect tomorrow.

Oh, now I have it connected. I can only control it when my phone is connected to 2G. Since my phone is 5G and both my phone and router don't have a 2G setting, I decided to buy the Netgear, in which I created a 2G network to connect to. I know that plug has a way to set it to go off at a certain time, But I seem to have lost that setting. Once I have it set to go on and off when I want I don't need to keep my phone on 2G.

I thought these solar LED light bulbs would be cute but they aren't bright enough

Blue lights mess with my camera. Trust me the bulbs I bought are not bright enough.

Those bulbs.

That's all for tonight. I've been doing a little painting so I want to do some of that before I head to bed.