Singing My Heart Out

 It was a cold dark morning, the wind blowing straight through my jacket, chilling me to the bone.  Not really.  It was a bit chilly at 43 degrees, but thankfully the clouds kept it doable.  I was off on my morning walk WITHOUT the kid.  This time I even used my ear buds for a little company.  I do love that FREE Pandora on my phone.  I can even blue tooth to a speaker in my house if I want.  

In the old days, we had to sing to ourselves if we wanted a little music.  My horses were not impressed as I serenaded them around the fields to the MOOING of the cattle.  I'm not sure why, but music was always part of our life on the ranch.  

If we were moving cattle through the brush in the mountains, it was almost mandatory.  It warned the bears you were heading their way, giving them plenty of time to hit the trail, which thankfully they did, probably because I didn't exactly sing on tune.   I also sang VERY loud ... you know, just to be sure they heard me.  The secondary effect was that it let everyone know where everyone else was so you didn't get lost.

As for the bears, if they were around, you could smell them.  Of course the horses smelled them before you did.  Any time your horse started getting antsy, you went the other direction quickly.  Always trust your horses instincts over yours.  They are better at it.

Every night around the campfire was spent singing old cowboy songs.  So much so that my dad actually recorded several, including my favorite Riders In The Sky, which led to recording hymns for our church.  That led to us all singing in the choir.  Not my favorite, since I was so shy, but I remember it like it was yesterday.

I walked a little over two miles in total, as evidenced by my aching hips on the return home.  I plopped on the couch for some R & R, and of course aspirin to sooth the pain.  You call it aspirin, I call it cookie.  

I spent the morning finding more hiding space for the stuff I brought in from the rig.  I still haven't gone through everything, but I'm getting close.  The problem will be when I'm BACK in the rig trying to find things.  As it is, I have to look through all four cupboards when looking for ANYTHING.  Hopefully the routine kicks in soon.

Of course the no cooking thing kicked in the second I got home.  Hello Fresh has come out with pre-made meals, and meals requiring only 15 minutes to prepare.  I'm giving them one more try.  How bad could it be?  Well ... pretty bad I suppose.  Here's the "should look like" picture.

This stuff ... YUM!  I don't know if you can find it anywhere in a nice easy-to-carry little box, but it's quite tasty.  The fettuccine on the other hand was the FRESH kind.  Instead of cooking it separately, you put it in the sauce mixture and let it cook there.

Yeah, it doesn't even come close to looking like the picture.  It didn't TASTE like the picture either!  This stuff turned to GLUE.  Oh I ate it, and sadly I have FOUR more servings to choke down.  That certainly makes it cheap enough, but I guarantee I won't pick this one again!  You can't go wrong with ciabatta bread ... it was yummy, but the rest left a lot to be desired!

I spent the evening watching everyone pick the Chiefs to win the Super Bowl, while sewing another binding on.  I didn't get very far since SOMEONE kept snuggling up, making it impossible to move.  

I did work on the puzzle here and there, though not enough room makes it hard to see the pieces.  I didn't get very far before quitting in frustration.  I think it's that right brain left brain thing.  And neither side seems to be working for me when it comes to puzzles.

Today I get to work on my taxes.  How fun will THAT be??  I picked up my mail yesterday, a 12 inch high stack of junk.  I think I'm getting too old for this stuff.  SO many papers to find for the required information, much of which is only available on-line.  Talk about frustrating ... trying to get in to all those accounts that I set up last year and can't find the password for.  Paperless is great until you need to extract the information from the internet!!  Oh the fun!!!