Happy feet

My new shoes arrived bright and early this morning.  They are very comfortable, and the upper part of the shoe is much more substantial than my older shoes, so these are more appropriate for the fall weather.  We have another bright and beautiful day here in Eugene, so Ozzie and I will be back out on the road later today for a good walk.  Since the skies are so clear, it gets a bit chilly here at night — temperatures have been near freezing — so we’ll wait for things to warm up a bit before we head out.  This will give me some time to quilt and, perhaps, time for my Fitbit to arrive so that I can take it for a test drive.  The tracking information says it’s on the truck, on it’s way to my doorstep.

In the meanwhile, here are some photos from yesterday’s walk.  The trees are so pretty this year!

A little of nature’s beauty

When I first moved to Oregon, long, long ago, I was a bit disappointed in the quality of the fall colors here.  I grew up in New England — well known for spectacular autumn displays. In Oregon, the trees are green.  In autumn, they just sort of turned brown and fell off.  Well, in town anyway.  Up in the forests, there are lots of vine maple and other trees that can put on a spectacular show in the fall.

Over the past ten years, many of our street trees have been replaced with more colorful trees.  The two trees in front of my house used to be hawthorns, but they eventually decayed and the city cut them down and removed them.  They then allowed me to choose two other trees to plant.  I chose Norwegian Sunset Maples which, it turns out, are not all that colorful.  Other trees in town though, are putting on a very nice display.  I thought I’d share some near the dog park that Ozzie and I get to see every day.

Now these would all have looked much prettier if the sun had been shining when I was taking the pictures, but it’s been a bit cloudy and rainy here lately.  That’s fine with me.  We really needed the rain.  It’s also great quilting weather, and I’ve been extremely busy, hence the less frequent posts.  I’m trying to get some client quilts done and out of here before I go off to the Pacific NW Quilt Festival (MQX) next week.

A missed opportunity

I usually always have a camera with me.  If not my wonderful Pentax K2000, I have the camera in my phone.  While there is absolutely nothing wrong with the camera in my Samsung Galaxy S3, I don’t like to use it often because it can’t really handle my tremor.  Well, I would have loved to have had it with me yesterday, but I left it by the computer where I had been using the contact information to enter an invoice for a new client.  Ozzie and I made a break for the dog park in between the showers.  We had just gotten there, started playing ball, and a gentle shower came.  Being the Oregonians we are, we just continued playing, and just over the trees appeared the most vibrant double rainbow I have ever seen.  It was glorious, and I had no means of capturing it to share with you.  Bummer.  But . . . I still have it in my memory.  It was so very beautiful.

On the way home I had a bit of a chuckle about how some people should keep some images in their brains only.  Seems too many folks these days get in serious trouble for sharing photos none of us should see.  ;D  I promise, you’ll never see any of those kind here!

Oh – and we got almost 2 inches of rain on Sunday.  We need the rain so badly.  We generally don’t get much rain at all in September, but we managed to hit a record of over 6 inches for the month – greatly helping us catch up on a 16 inch deficit for the year.  I’m ready for October showers and gloriously beautiful fall leaves.  As soon as Ozzie and I manage to get out for another walk, I’ll share some of them with you.  I’ve seen some beautiful trees over the past few days.

On the trail

of the cause of the pain and stiffness.  I don’t know what I’ve done to myself that will not let my right arm relax, but I think I may have found part of the problem today.  It might be my neck.  I sort of suspected this before, and my stretches and ice/heat applications have focused not only on my shoulder, but my neck as well.  Today I decided to go back to where I started, with my nice little heated massage pillow.

I had already been feeling fairly tense when my health insurance enrollment guide landed in my mailbox.  It reminded me that there is an informational meeting tomorrow.  I tried to read the benefit guide and it just is so full of legalese that it made me even more tense.  So, I decided I’d lie down on the pillow.  It felt relaxing, but I could really feel a pull in my muscles coming from near my spine at the top of my back.  I moved the pillow and thought I would rocket through the ceiling!  You know that bone at the top of your spine, right before it goes up into your neck?  Ya, that one.  Well, the muscles to the right side of it are so knotted that pain shot through my shoulder and down my arm, as well as up into my neck.  I did my best to stay with the massaging for a while, and I think I’ve worked some of the stiffness out.  Hopefully, that will get rid of one of the major sources of pain I’ve been feeling lately.  If not, I have an appointment with the doc tomorrow — after the insurance meeting.  In addition to the recent pains, I need my flu shot, a retest of my parathyroid, and a yearly update of my meds.  So, the trip won’t be wasted if I start to feel amazingly better.  Why didn’t I just jump back on this thing on a regular basis?  So, the good news is, I may stop whining soon.  Aren’t you pleased?  If you’re a quilter and you don’t have one of these pillows, I’d highly recommend it.  They’re made by Homedics.  It can really get the tension out of your neck and shoulders after a day of quilting!

In other news, we’ve had some rain today.  Much appreciated, as we’re 16″ below normal rainfall in the Willamette Valley this year, and we are beginning to feel a bit crispy.  My lawn is almost shouting for joy.  It’s managed to absorb a bit of the morning mist we’ve had lately and was getting slightly green, but I think today’s downpour may just help it turn the corner. I was thinking I wasn’t quite ready to let go of summer yet, but now I’ve decided I’m really ready for fall.  Bring on the rustling leaves, the soft slant to the late afternoon sun, and that wonderful earthy smell that comes with autumn.  Not to mention the gorgeous full moon to be seen tomorrow night.  Well, if the clouds go away.

I’m going to see if I can get a few small pantograph quilts done today.  Chances are the IQ may be able to handle life without the stitch regulator.  I can’t do it for custom quilts, but we might make it through a few digital designs.