Just Thinking Won't Change Anything

 It's probably because I'm the type of person that doesn't really do change. 

I set things up the way I like it and rarely do I switch things around. Like maybe on occasion I'll rearrange my knickknacks and such. But change in general....it's something that rarely happens. I like where I'm at so why change things about it?

So oftentimes when change comes it's after I've thought about it for a while....or I'm dragged into it kicking and screaming. 

Which is why I have one roommate that consistently just...boggles my mind. 

Because she's constantly changing things. Reorganizing. Rethinking. Redoing.

Like she rearranges her room every 2-3 months. It feels like every time I open her door her bed is in a different spot. 

And I just....don't get it.

The last time I moved furniture about was like twoish years ago and that was because I'd been given a few furniture pieces when Daddoo was getting the childhood home ready to sell and I needed to make room for what I could fit here. 

But that was still little things. 

My bigger furniture pieces?

Have not moved.

Mostly because the way my room is designed it doesn't make sense to place the bigger pieces elsewhere. But also because I like where they're at so why change it?

In any case.

It's not just like rearranging furniture and such. 

It's mind boggling.....because this roommate is also constantly stating that they're "rethinking their life." 

Which makes sense in a way because where I live there's a strong. "Get married. Get a House. Have Kids. Get your Dream Career." culture. 

And like if you're not doing those...you're a failure.

And like...I suppose roomie is feeling that pressure a bit more.

Though with them recently getting a new job....I kinda thought they'd be done with the 'rethinking their life' motif for a while. 

Since the last time they were rethinking their life was when they were trying to find a job that would give them stability and more hours.

Which they did find. They found a job that gives them a nice 9-5, weekends and holidays off, stable pay, and also benefits.

Which in this economy is kinda the dream right now. 

But not for my roomie.

Because the job isn't in the career field that they're wanting. 

Even though the reason why they were looking for a new job in the first place is because the job in the career field they wanted and had wasn't giving them the hours that they promised and therefore wasn't giving them enough money to like...be able to afford rent and groceries and such.

And like I get it.

If you go to school for a certain things....you kinda want to get a job in that field.

But at the same time. I also feel it's important to have stability and sometimes you have to have a job that 'pays the bills' for a while first. 

And roomie has only had the new job for like 3 months.

Which is barely any time at all in the job field.

So I don't quite understand why they're already back at looking for another job in their field.

Like I get wanting to keep an ear to the ground and an eye open for opportunities.

But I think my focus would be to stay long enough to get my funds and savings up to snuff and to feel stable. 

But I'm not my roomie.

And my roomie seems to be very much into the "I'm doing something wrong because I haven't accomplished the checklist of life to be considered an actual adult." 

But also like at the same time.....this is a literal cycle they go through.

"I'm rethinking my life."

Yes you're THINKING. but what are you DOING.

Because thinking doesn't GET YOU ANYWHERE if there's no ACTION. 

And it seems like when my roomie does take action...said actions last only a day...sometimes up to two weeks before they stop.

So like.... what's the point?

Why not just be satisfied with where you are now? Why not take the L on the checklist of life and maybe go seek the checklist of happiness instead. Find things that MAKE YOU happy.

Yes it sucks to not be married.

Yes it sucks to not have your own home.

Yes it sucks to not have the job you wanted.

But at the same time. Life never turns out the way you plan it. So why not try and find ways to make life more enjoyable and enjoy what you have now?

*exhales*

We'll see if anything comes of this round of 'rethinking' that my roomie is doing.

I don't think their job is gonna change at the moment since they've had it so short a time ..... 

But you never know. 

Until you next find these words;
I'll be watching the leaves.
Enjoy the day!

-Sarnic Dirchi

Stay Wet

 It's kinda weird how things can work one day and be dead the next without like....any indication that they're dying. 

On Wednesday I took advantage of my roomies both being out of the house to do some laundry I'd been neglecting. 

And everything functioned as normal for me. 

Wash load was normal.

Dryer load was normal.

Thought nothing of it. 

And I had thought that my roomie had done laundry like later that same day or the day after?

It was recent. Because it seems like she's ALWAYS doing laundry....which I still cannot comprehend how and why she manages to do at least 2 loads a week. It's crazy.

In any case.

Today I heard her starting laundry AGAIN.

Which....I'd thought she'd done laundry recently....like maybe last night even? The days blur together. But it was RECENT as in AFTER I did my load of laundry on Wednesday.

And maybe she forgot it yesterday and was finishing it up today.

But she ended up sending a message to the group chat....that the dryer wasn't working.

It doesn't turn on.

Just makes a clicking noise. 

And like ????

But I had just used it? 

It was working fine?

No issues?

I feel like she literally had just been using it and it was working fine? No issues?

So like....what changed so suddenly that the dryer was like "Yah no. I'm done." 

Who knows. 

I certainly don't.

And luckily we have another dryer in the home as our place has two laundry rooms one upstairs and one downstairs so it's no big deal if one dryer isn't working at the moment.

But it is still weird.

Like I feel like there should have been more signs that something was about to break. 

But then again it could just be age. We got the dryers used and we've lived in the house for nearly a decade now. So like....they're old. It wouldn't be surprising if they just....gave out.

Until you next find these words;
I'll be watching the leaves.
Enjoy the day!

-Sarnic Dirchi

It's a 10 Year--No 25 Year Storm

 We had quite the storm hit the area last night.

One of those ones where it blows up upon you fast and hard. The winds are roaring. The lightning and thunder is flashing. The rain is pouring hard enough against the windows that you have to check to see if it's hail or not that's hitting them.

...It was hail at one point. But not the entire time.

And then like 20 minutes later the storm is gone. Roaring on. 

I hadn't thought much about it beyond concern for my roomie who was coming back from an event she'd been at. So I'd texted her to warn her about the storm. How heavy the rain was. That there was hail. To be careful driving.

I didn't think much more about it after that though.

We've had heavy rains before. 

... ... ...

But not heavy rains after a recent fire on the mountain above my home. 

I had heard a ton of sirens earlier on. 

More than normal. That lasted longer.

But I kinda chalked it up to bad accident.

Because like... I live in an area where there's an intersection that likes to have accidents.

I also live above a neighborhood that gets a lot of domestic calls.

I also live near an easy access to the highway...where more accidents happen.

So like sirens aren't out of the ordinary.

So yah I didn't realize anything was out of the ordinary....

Until my roomie got home and was like "Hey, did you know that the bottom of our street is closed?" 

Which.

Huh?

She wanted to know if I'd received any alerts about a disaster ... which no. My phone had been silent. 

But she had had to find an alternate route to get home because our normal way was blocked off. No access whatsoever. 

It took a bit of midnight sleuthing on the Internet before we discovered that there had been a mudslide. 

Landslide? It seemed to be mostly made of mud. 

But regardless. 

The draw where the fire had happened a couple of weeks ago?

Yah. The sudden heavy rain fall did not help all that loose ashy soil. 

I saw a report that 1" of rain and fallen in like that 20-30 minute period. 

I later saw news reports that our street had flooded with water up to 6 inches high in some places.

Regardless. Debris, Mud, and Ash had come flowing down from the mounting into a berm and over and into a Construction patch that lead directly into a Church...piling mud up to 5 feet high against it's walls. 

Some other houses experienced slight flooding in their basements I heard.

But the church took the brunt of it from my understanding. 

And two of the main roads in the area got covered in the mudslide....some leading all the way down somewhere on State affecting that road as well...though they cleared up that street a lot faster than they did the other two roads. 

I was told that they moved 960 truck loads of debris today from that muddy area of the Church. Over 13,440 tons of debris. 

They had hundreds of volunteers and a lot of construction equipment over there working to help clear up the mess. 

The poor church building is going to be closed for the foreseeable future. 

There is the obvious landscape damage, but there's also HVAC, Electrical and apparently some Structural Damage as well. 

Which is kinda crazy.

Crazy to see how much can come down from the mountains when you get a heavy storm and there's no vegetation up there anymore to hold the soil in place because it all burned. 

Luckily we're in a bit of a lull here with the storms. 

But there's definitely more of a concern now that this will happen again whenever the next storm hits.

Though hopefully it's not as crazy.

We're told that this storm was a 10 year storm. But with the burn scar on the mountain it exacerbated the problem and turned it into a 25 year storm sort of problem. 

Overall I'm just grateful that it didn't impact our home. And it barely affected us roomies. I mean we did have to detour from our usual routes to get to work as the main road was still closed this morning. It didn't open up again until after dinner time....and is set to close first thing again in the morning so that the construction crews can continue working on clearing more of the mud away.

Hopefully tomorrow they can get the roads fully cleared enough that we don't have to worry about any more road detours. Though I expect the cleanup at the church is going to take a bit longer.

Overall I'm just grateful that no one was hurt and everyone was able to stay safe. 

Until you next find these words;
I'll be watching the leaves.
Enjoy the day!

-Sarnic Dirchi

Another Fire?

 Yesterday ended up being a bit more stressful than expected for a planned mellow Sunday. 

Mostly because the ridge above my home caught fire. 

Well, I guess the...draw? The mini not quite canyon? the slight valley? Who knows the name of it. But the fire started in the next draw over from my home. So if the fire had climbed up and over the ridge it would have come straight down the mountain for our homes basically. 

In any case.

I wasn't home at the time the first started. 

I only knew it was occurring because one of the roomies texted me a picture of the fire at the very beginning stages...as she'd just been leaving to go see family when all these fire and police vehicles came roaring by and she saw the smoke. 

And like....there's still a lot of anxiety...involving fires in my household.

For good reason since the house nearly caught fire what was it....8 years ago now? 

And any time a fire starts anywhere near our area ... my roomie tends to get a bit tense and anxious about it.

Which there seems to be a fire that happens every 2-3 years here. 

As there was a fire on the same mountain just a couple of years ago it feels like. Just slightly further south. 

In any case. 

Seeing the picture and knowing how close it was to our home --though still a handful of miles away-- I knew I would need to come back to support my roomie as the anxiety kicks up high in these sort of situations. 

Especially when you know that if the fire breaks over the top of the ridge it could come straight for us. 

And I have to say it was a bit nerve wracking as I came around the point of the mountain and made my way back into Happy Valley to see this giant plume of smoke rising into the sky. Knowing that it was near my house. Knowing I was still a good 30 minutes away from being able to be home to check in. 

But my worries lessened the closer I got to my home and I could see where the fire was.

Could see that it was being contained to inside that draw area. That it hadn't broken over the ridge. That it looked like the fire was moving up the mountain and south away from us rather than down and north towards us. 

And with how mellow the winds were --compared to the nasty wind storm we'd had Saturday night...I had little concern that the fire would come at us. 

There was minor concern come sunset as I knew the winds would shift a bit as the winds usually do with the setting of the sun. But if the fire had burned south enough by that point....then if the winds shifted it would have nothing to burn north at because it would have already burned everything. 

So overall my worries had been quelled upon seeing the fire in person. 

Were they fully gone? No. But was I stressing about it? No. 

My roomies though? 

Not so much.

And a lot of it was due to past experience with how close our home came to nearly catching fire nearly a decade ago. 

My evening ended up being a lot of reassurance and soothing to both roomies.

Thankfully we have a neighbor who has had experience fighting fires in the past so he was able to explain what was going on and show how unlikely it was due to the terrain that the fire would come at us and what would most likely happen if it did and how unlikely it would be to come at us anyways. 

Like

1. Rocky ground outcroppings on our side means less foliage to burn. 

2. There's a trail that cuts along the mountain that's a natural firebreak that the firefighters can use to stage more hoses and such, but could also use as needed to set back fires to prevent the main fire from coming at us. 

3. There's like 4 rows of houses and a wide road between us and the mountain so less of a threat to us specifically. 

Though yes, I do understand that flying embers can make the fires worse and cause them to catch wherever they land. 

But again. With barely any wind in the air. 

Less of a concern.

Still. We ended up camping out on the lawn with neighbors and family that came by to support to watch the smoke --as we couldn't see any of the flames as they hadn't crossed the ridge-- and watch the various helicopters and planes come in with water and red slurry to treat the fire. 

And really, by sunset when the plane and helicopters got grounded....the fire had mostly been put out....

Like it was still burning and embery looking for sure. But like huge towering flames didn't seems as likely.

And the firefighters had done a good job in trying to contain the fire into just the draw. Putting down slurry barriers on our ridge and at the bottom of the draw to stop the fire from coming at us and such.

So again. I knew we were safe.

The roomies took more convincing though.

And honestly I don't think they were ever fully convinced because the brain does love to do those 'what if' scenarios when the unknown is unknown and danger is on the literal horizon.

But there seriously was a moment where I would reassure one roomie, they would leave, the other would come up I would reassure then, they would leave, the first one would come back to be reassured again lol. 

And honestly...I think we would have had a more peaceful night because the fires were obviously smaller the smoke much less crazy....

But then the bishop sent out an email.

That basically was like "Hey, no formal evacuation has been declared, but they can't fight the fire with air crews at night so it's best to be prepared. Make sure you have everything you need ready just in case you need to evacuate." 

*exhales* 

Which started a further panic in the roomies of what should we take what should we bring.

And it definitely started that tug of war of like "We don't need to pack anything because I can tell nothing is going to happen." with "Well it's best to be prepared just in case" but also like "it's just stuff guys. Literally everything can be replaced." 

...well not everything. They were mostly focused on the irreplaceable stuff. Sentimental items and the like. 

But it did bring to mind the "what would I take?" if I did need to evacuate. 

Because seriously...it's just stuff. Most of it can be replaced. Would I be sad to lose some things yes. But it's just stuff. 

And maybe I'm just a bit apathetic about it because I've had one too many dreams in the past where it's the "the house is falling down grab stuff!" or "the house is on fire! the house is sinking! The house is being sold!" and I always end up bogged down with like...bins of stuffed animals I want to bring when honestly...it's just stuffed animals.

And maybe it's just weird because I'd had a dream a handful of nights ago where I was at my Dad's old home (as my dad sold our childhood home last year) and we were going through various rooms and in my old bedroom there was old jewelry and pictures and such that had been not yet taken where I was like "Why haven't I grabbed this yet?" 

But yah...

Things to take now in the real life?

Probably my contacts/glasses. Meds -since Migraines I don't want to suddenly stop those. Important documents. Clothes --which I just grabbed everything on my floor and shoved them in a waste basket. Laptop. A couple of my favorite stuffed animals. And then I was like "well if I had time." there are some of my mom's cross-stitches as well that I would also do my best to bring out.

But yah....it is an interesting perspective to just see what I would and wouldn't want to bring with me if I had to evacuate.

Like that list was just the quick "just in case 5 minutes before I try to go to bed" things I gathered.

If I had a couple of days to plan the items would probably be different.

Like...I suppose the main question would be....would I try to save my fish? 

I have 4 tanks of fish currently. 3 smaller ones that could be easily moved. But then I have this large 125 gallon tank. Can't really move that when it's full of water.

And like....it's full of water....water is the opposite of fire....but the tanks are on wood stands...which fire burns....

So yah....like would I make the effort to try and save the fish? If I had 2 days to plan? Probably.

If I had 5 minutes? No. They're fish. In water. I'll leave them to their chances.

But it does make you look at your home a bit differently.

Like....with all the stuff you've gathered over the years....what actually matters in the end?

Honestly....the important things for me would be. 1. My phone which has my wallet and hopefully with a charger. But if not. 2. My car w/ keys which my car has a charger in it. So yay charger. 3. Laptop if possible because laptop! but again can buy a new one if needed. which leads to 4. Being able to see so Contacts/glasses. (but I can always contact my eye doctor and be like...heeeey can I get some temporary contacts until I can order more in lost all mine in a fire)  and 5. Migraine medicine. But that one is ...lesser because I'm on a low enough dose that if I miss a day or two it's no big deal and I could always contact my doctor and be like "heeeey I need more meds. Lost mine in a fire." and I could get them rather quickly.

And then 6 would be like....sentimental stuff. Things I would like to keep with me. Things with memories. Things with value. Like at this point a lot of stuff from my mom would have higher value to me if I could keep that near. 

It does bring to mind too like....there's always talk about 72 hour kits or bug out kits of "if you have to leave fast take this!" 

And like...part of me is like....I should keep a change of clothes at work. A set of meds at work. An extra series of contacts at work... just in case. So that if for whatever reason I can't get home to grab anything. At least I have /something/ there so I'm not totally destitute and I have back ups just in case. 

It's also interesting how the mindsets vary in the face of potential disasters or actual disaster.

Like what my roomies focused on wanting to bring with them just in case is similar but also different from what I would take. 

It's also interesting because one roomie is like "I know it will cost money but maybe I should go get myself a storage locker and keep all my most important things there so they're not at risk!" 

Like...one of those storage facilities people rent to store their stuff. 

And like....yes....you can do that. But 1. Why spend the money on that? 2. Is it actually any safer? The storage facility could catch fire too and you could lose all your stuff in that as well. If the things are really that important to you...invest in like a fire proof safe at home maybe? 3. Why lock it away where you can't ever see it and enjoy it? 4. What's the point of even having it if you're not going to be able to see it and enjoy it whenever you want? 

In any case.

The fire smoldered through the night and the firefighters have been fighting it all day.

No idea how it's doing now though the smoke has faded some I'm hoping it's mostly if not all contained at this point. 

In any case. Still safe. Fire never made it over the ridge. And I think my roomies have been able to relax a bit more today with the fire obviously getting smaller and further away from us. 

Still.

It does make you think.

What would you take....if you had to leave suddenly in the face of disaster? 

Until you next find these words;
I'll be watching the leaves.
Enjoy the day!

-Sarnic Dirchi

In Our Dumpster

 So there I was. 

Taking out the trash at work. 

And I go to throw the first things into the dumpster.

When I realize said dumpster is fuller than it should be.

Why?

-_- Because someone had come by and tossed some of their trash into it. 

Which is frustrating. 

Because our store usually ends up with a lot of trash. And the Garbage Truck only comes by like once or twice a week.

So it's not great if someone else fills up our dumpsters with their stuff when we need to fill them up with our stuff.

Like I've seen a variety of stuff over the years. Including old furniture and such. 

And I was immediately semi annoyed. 

Because like what had been tossed in the dumpster was a couple of wooden pallets.

Which threw me off for a moment.

Because we too use wooden pallets in the store. That's what all our store product comes stacked on. 

So, truthfully my first thought was "Why did we throw these pallets away?" 

Because we're supposed to return the pallets to our DC so that they can reuse them to put more product on to send back to the stores.

So we wouldn't throw them away unless they were completely broken...and these did not look broken.

Which was then when I realized "Oh. Someone ELSE threw these in our dumpster."

My next thought was I should pull them out so we could send them to the DC.

But then a split second later I was like WAIT A MINUTE.

Because my roomie had just been talking to me the other day about decorating for Halloween. And how she was considering tracking down a pallet to use for one of her projects. 

Which I was sad about because like I have tons of pallets at work....I just can't take them because we have to return them to the DC.

BUT.

THESE TWO PALLETS IN THE DUMPSTER WEREN'T OURS.

They were someone else's pallets.

Therefore FREE GAME!

Thankfully there was enough trash in the dumpster that the pallets were close enough to the top and light enough that I was able to lift them both up and stack them on the side of the building so that I could come grab them after work.

Though I wouldn't have been surprised if someone else would have taken them before I managed to get back out there. People like their craft projects around here. 

BUT.

Both pallets were still there when I got off work! Yay!

So I pulled around back to shove them into my car....

Only to encounter the slight problem of....I could only fit one of them in my car. 

Foo. 

My car was slightly too narrow to be able to lay them down flat so they had to go in at an angle...meaning only one would fit in.

Which overall was fine. The project really only called for maybe 1 pallet but I'd been planning on 2 in case the 2nd could be useful for scraps. 

Still. I picked the nicer looking pallet and shoved it in my car and took it home.

And roomie was sooooo excited when I brought her out to my car to show her my find. lol.

Solved a lot of time and potential issues in tracking down and finding one. So ha!

So one step down for her project.

Who knows how many more to go.

But yah. Good day for dumpster diving I suppose lol. Found a pallet that my roomie needed so it's all good. 

Until you next find these words;
I'll be watching the leaves.
Enjoy the day!

-Sarnic Dirchi

Wakey Wakey

 You ever wonder if things happen for a reason?

Especially the random....inconvenience things? 

Like last night.

There I was. 

Peacefully asleep. 

When I get woken up by noise over my head.

Which okay. First thought is one of the roomies must have gotten up to grab something in the kitchen.

Since the kitchen is over my head.

Weird.

Since both roomies had gone to bed before I had.

But maybe they needed a drink or to warm up a heat pack or something.

Figured the noise would vanish and I would fall back asleep.

....Except...the noise kept continuing.....

And kept getting louder.

Which....okay?

Must mean that it's morning and one of the roomies was up and getting ready for the day....which would be slightly weird as I was supposed to be the first one to leave today. 

And it was weird because at like one point it sounded like they were moving the trash can around upstairs...like kinda early to do that...plus like garbage day has already come and gone this week but whatever.

But the NOISE kept going.

And I was getting annoyed because it's DARK. I am trying to SLEEP.

I roll over to look at my clock to see what time it is....and it's 1:30 am. 

Like WHAT?

There's no reason for there to be so much noise that late at night. Especially when I had gone to bed like an HOUR beforehand.

I had only been asleep for maybe an hour. 

And both roomies had gone to bed before me.

So of course with the noise being consistent over my head my next thought is "BREAK IN?!" 

Like had someone come into the house and was now robbing us?

So of course I do the slightly foolish thing and get out of bed to investigate.

Because 1. If it was actually my roomie I was going to be SO ANNOYED. Because YOU WOKE ME UP.

And 2. if it was robbers....well.... I'd burn that bridge when I got to it.

But like cautiously climbing the stairs to investigate I didn't see anything out of the ordinary though I could hear noises. 

And what do I find when I get upstairs?

Our little Robot Vacuum chugging away sweeping the floor in the kitchen.

Like....WHAT?

I mean we haven't used that vacuum in a couple of months at least. 

And when we do use the vacuum it's never at ONE IN THE MORNING.

Owner Roomie does her best to only use it when the rest of us aren't home so it won't bug us. Because as proven by the fact that it WOKE ME UP. The vacuum can be rather noisy on the hardwood floors. Especially when said floors are over your head.

But that begs the question...WHY did the robot turn on?

Like BOTH roomies were asleep. There was no reason for it to be active and moving. I had been the Last to go to bed and hadn't gone anywhere near the dock to trigger it to turn on.

I mean....I have had the vacuum randomly turn on on me before late at night. But that was while I was still asleep. And it's been months if not a year or so since it's done that.

Like...glitch in the system? Bug? Who knows?

Maybe a restless ghost?

*shrugs*

But it just begs the question....was there a reason why I needed to be woken up last night? Was there a reason to give me slightly less sleep than I had planned on? Was it a sign of something?

Who knows. 

I was mostly focused on "Get back to your dock and STAY THERE." before I went back to bed and crashed until my alarm went off.

But yah. Definitely a random thing. 

I really hope it doesn't happen again tonight.

I'd actually like to get some uninterrupted sleep. 

Until you next find these words;
I'll be watching the leaves.
Enjoy the day!

-Sarnic Dirchi

1 Unread Message

 It's interesting how dependent or not dependent on technology people are. 

Like I remember back in my first year of college barely ever using my cell phone.

Like I could turn it off forget to turn it on for a day or two and not miss anything. Like not dependent on it at all. 

And now...well my phone is practically glued to my side for the most part. 

Though I do have my moments of setting it further away so it won't disturb me if I'm trying to relax. 

So I do have a vague recollection of like not being phone dependent. 

But at the same time technology has 'advanced' so much that you kinda need your phone around in order to stay 'connected.'

Whether it's for work or family or friends.

It's kinda expected you'll have your phone around you with the ability to answer and respond to things quickly. 

Though I do understand people aren't like that.

My siblings don't always respond quickly if I text them. So I do know that other people aren't connected to their phones.

But there are situations like today....where I'm just left a little bit...mind boggled.  

Because a little bit before I got off work today, one of my roomies texted our group chat to be like "Hey, I need to be leaving around the time both of you are getting home. So please don't park behind me." -as she was in the garage- "I would move to the street but there's a car parked in front of our house currently so I can't do that." 

Which yah makes sense. 

Doesn't apply to me at the moment as it's my week to also be in the garage-. So the text message was mostly geared towards our other roomie to be like "HEY PARK BEHIND SARNIC WHEN YOU GET HOME." But it makes sense to warn us to not park behind her because odds would be other roomie would come home park behind her and immediately get busy with something where she wouldn't be able to break away causing first roomie to be late to the thing she didn't want to be late to. 

And I made an effort to come straight home once I was off work to make sure I was the first one home because roomie and I technically got off at the same time today, but travel times and work obligations means we don't always arrive home at the same time. That way there would be no issue so that other roomie could park behind me and we wouldn't have to worry about her parking behind the roomie who had to leave.

So I get home.

And the car in front of the house is gone so yay for that tool. 

And a few minutes later I hear the other roomie get home while first roomie is gathering the last of her things to get ready to come out.

And roomie walks in the house and I'm like "Did you park behind me?" 

And she was like "No? I parked behind other roomie." 

.... 

.... 

....

"She's leaving soon. She sent out a text warning us." 

And the roomie was like "Well I've been at work all day! I can't look at my phone!" Before she went back outside to move her car behind mine. 

Which off topic, I think that's a stupid work policy to have. Like I get why companies don't want you to have your phone with you because they want you to focus on the job. Like my job was like that when I first started but it's become a lot more lax since then.

But like. 

GURL.

I get you can't look at your phone while you're at work. Sucks. But I get it. 

BUT WHY DIDN'T YOU LOOK AT YOUR PHONE THE MOMENT YOU WERE OFF?

Like if it were me I would be pulling my phone out as soon as I left the building to see if I'd missed any messages or notifications. Especially IMPORTANT ONES where I might need to RESPOND ASAP. 

Not that the group text required an immediate response.

But like. She could have known MUCH EARLIER that she SHOULDN'T PARK behind the other roommate because she TEXTED TO WARN US. 

Like...it just boggles my mind.

Why in the world did you not look at your phone before heading home?

Or did you look at your phone but ignore your messages?

It's just...so weird.

Because like I used to be like that. 

But at the same time....it's been over a decade since I've been like that. 

I communicate through texting. So like I'm constantly checking my phone for messages.

And I just can't fathom not glancing at my phone at least once after getting off work if I hadn't been able to look at it for Horus just to make sure I hadn't missed anything. 

I especially don't understand it because roomie is constantly listening to music and such. Like....I've assumed its music from her phone...but maybe it's actually an old ipod or something. Because like gurl. 

It's not the first time this has happened. 

Where we've tried to text her a heads up to try and help ease things or make transitions easier...and she's missed them because she didn't get the notification or didn't have her phone with her. 

I just...

It's so mind boggling. 

I don't get it. 

I seriously don't. 

Until you next find these words;
I'll be watching the leaves.
Enjoy the day!

-Sarnic Dirchi

Resting?

 Sometimes I wonder if rest days are detrimental to my health.

Like...it shouldn't be a thing where one gets a headache when they finally get a moment to relax.

And yet it seems to happen to me all too frequently.

Day Off?

Headache.

Like 9/10 times it feels like.

Part of me thinks this particular one may just be because of how much I was lifting and moving things at work this past week.

Like I had to go pick and lift and pack and move a good 60 boxes for the stupid ship from store thing work does on Thursday. And then did like another 15 on Friday. And then had Petcare related cleaning tasks on both Friday and Saturday so like....if I didn't properly relax those muscles....I could see myself growing tense and stiff and the muscles getting all sore and achy and of course traveling up to my head and causing the stupid headache.

Perhaps it's also caused from trying to sleep a bit longer than normal.

Perhaps it's also caused by me reading all day long on the computer.

It could be all three. Who knows.

But yah. Kinda frustrating that the migraine just kinda....hangs out you know? Like i should be resting because I want to and not like locked in a dark room with a headache trying to get it to go away.

*exhales*

Until you next find these words;
I'll be watching the leaves.
Enjoy the day!

-Sarnic Dirchi

Where's My Floor?

 It's been a while since I've cleaned my room. 

Like I've 'spot' cleaned it. Made the bed. Done the laundry...even occasionally put away the laundry.

But....I've had stuff piled around my floor that I've had since like Christmas....that I hadn't yet put away.

So today I had the simple goal of getting my floor cleaned at least. 

I figured if I had that goal...then it would be easier to not get overwhelmed.

As I still need to declutter a few areas...like get rid of some clothes and other odds and ends I don't need anymore. As well as reorganize my knickknacks to make room for more knickknacks I've obtained over the last few months. 

But today. Today I was focusing on my floor. 

Which first step was to make my bed. As I have a ton of blankets on my bed...and they all end up on the floor over time since I'm a restless sleeper. 

Second step was to do the laundry. And to actually put away the finished laundry afterwards.

Third step was to gather and take out the trash. 

Since I still hadn't really cleaned up from Christmas there were a lot of boxes holding various gifts around my room. As well as other odds and ends trash things that have just ...found their ways into various spots around my room.

Fourth step would then to be to organize and put away the various other objects on my floor that weren't trash, clothes, or blankets. 

And yah.

I think I did pretty well overall. I mean. I can see my floor again! So woot!

I even had the energy to clean up around my 125 gallon fish tank as well today as I took one look as I was taking out the trash from my room and noticed that the shelves under the tank were...well cluttered with stuff I wasn't using and didn't need to hoard anymore. So that went under a bit of cleaning as well.

And I was feeling so proud of myself because my other roomie who shares the same floor as me...complains often about finding spiders in her bedroom.

But like I never see them in mine.

And with how long some of the stuff has been sitting on the floor I wasn't going to be surprised if I had found spiders hiding among the things there.

But I didn't!!

..... Until I was reorganizing the various cords to various electronic things near my bed and THERE was the spider. A nice brown one that unfortunately blends into my brown floor. >_<  *shudders* It nearly vanished under my bed, but I managed to catch the creature (hopefully it wasn't a hobo. Ewww) and toss it outside. 

But yah.

I feel quite accomplished today lol. I'm glad I actually had the energy to make my room look a bit cleaner today.

Maybe I'll be able to continue later on with decluttering and organizing....but at least for today I'm content that my floor is visible and clear enough that I could get a vacuum in there. 

Yay for accomplishments lol. 

Until you next find these words;
I'll be watching the leaves.
Enjoy the day!

-Sarnic Dirchi

Fallen

 So like nearly ... ... I don't know six years ago now? I think it's been around 6 years. We had a fire behind our house. 

Where I'd basically just woken up from a nap...possibly also had been dealing with a migraine and was just hanging out when I heard a bunch of popping noises coming from the backyard. Which upon investigation ..... showed that the strip of land between our back yard and the road below the house ....was on fire.

I'd been quick to react in that I was the first to call 911 for help so that we could get the fire department over.

And luckily there was minimal damages to the houses along that strip of land. A few balconies and fences received damage and that was about it.

But at the time of the fire we had 2 huge cottonwood trees behind the house.

And both of them had caught fire. The one on the left had gone up like a torch in front of my sister and had burned hot enough to singe some of the hair on her head.

But upon investigating after the fire was out and such.

The people in charge of figuring out saftey hazards and such...decided that the cotton wood tree on the right needed to be cut down.

But decided to not cut down the one on the left as they thought it would 'come back'

It didn't come back.

Like it may have had a bit of greenery the first year or two but overall the tree was dead.

And despite all our efforts. We couldn't get the city to come in and cut down the tree.

No the most they did was trim some branches to make sure nothing would fall on the powerlines.

But otherwise. 

They were like "Not my circus not my monkeys." as the tree was on "private property" in that the strip of land is actually owned by a person so that person is in charge of maintaining the land and the trees there. If the tree isn't on 'city property' then there's nothing they can do. 

Only the city didn't TELL US THAT.

No. Last we'd heard was that the city was considering buying the land from the property owner to make sure that a fire like that couldn't happen again. But I guess they did nothing with it?

In any case. 

Over the years the tree has been slowly rotting away. Like we'd get in storms of rain and snow and wind and pieces of bark and lots of branches would fall off and break and such.

And in many ways we kinda just figured the dead tree would be standing there forever.

And in others we worried about the day it finally fell because we weren't sure how much would be uprooted when and if this cotton would decided to topple over.

And like it's on the side of a hill. So odds are the tree would fall down the hill and not up it. But like there's always that chance that the tree would fall uphill and hit our or the neighbor's house.

Anywho.

Today.

Today I had been down with a migraine that got triggered yesterday. 

And it was towards sunset when I finally awoke from my midafternoon nap that I'd taken to try and get rid of the headache.

And I was just lying in bed when I heard this odd....crashing noise?

Like it kinda sounded like the wind rushing through the branches of a tree. But there was also a heavier sound that was similar to like heavy snow falling to the ground after a storm. But like...it hadn't been snowing at all and only recently had I noticed the wind was blowing outside and honestly the only reason why I noticed the wind was blowing was because of these odd sounds I was hearing.

And I had this thought of like "Huh...this combination of noise almost sounds like a tree fell down outside my window."

You know what tree is outside my window? Yep. The dead one.

So I venture out of bed to my window and peer outside.

And there's just....nothing.

No tree.

The tree is GONE. 

So I rush upstairs up onto our deck because I wanted a birds eye view and Yep. The TREE IS GONE. 

With a quick dart back down the stairs so I could put in some contacts so I could actually SEE SEE what was going on.

I go back upstairs.

And yah. The tree had finally fallen over. 

Which was crazy because yes the wind was blowing and it was a stronger gustier wind that had a bit of a biting chill to it.

But like. It isn't the strongest wind that we've had here. We've had worse winds that I thought for sure would topple the tree...but didn't.

But for whatever reason. This wind. This day. Ended up being the last day for the tree to stand.

And since I only heard it and didn't see it....I don't quite know how it fell.

Like it sounded like 2 separate breaks. But I don't know if a top portion of the tree broke off first and then the base...or if the base actually snapped and the portions of the tree towards the top broke off when it hit the ground.

I'm thinking the base finally snapped....because it has been rotting there for years now. Maybe the rot and the increased wind from just the right direction finally convinced it to fall.

As the roots of the tree are still somewhere in the ground. Because the base of the tree is a very jagged snapped look. 

Thankfully the tree didn't hit anything manmade on its way down. The powerlines were safe that were in the area. And the tree itself managed to mostly avoid falling into the road below.

Like the top maybe 6 feet of branches had made it into the road so if a car wasn't paying attention they could have hit it.

But overall. Nothing but fallen tree to worry about.

But in an odd twist of fate.

The owner of the property happened to be outside when the tree fell.

Like was basically just down the road in their pickup truck waiting for a supply of wood chips from somewhere when the tree came down.

I don't know if they saw the tree fall itself or happened upon it soon after.

But like between me rushing up the stairs to check, getting my eyes in, and letting my roomies know hwat happened...the owner (i didn't know it was them at the time) had already pulled up at the tree in their truck and was tossing branches and grabbing a power saw to cut larger pieces into more moveable pieces. 

With the sun quickly setting they didn't do much more than gather the branches they could into the bed of their truck and move the larger pieces off the road so it wasn't blocking anything or a danger to traffic.

I'm guessing that they'll be back tomorrow or maybe this weekened to finish sawing apart the tree??? Not sure.

But apparently the owner didn't even realize that the tree was dead? Because their portion of the strip of land ends just past our house...so I guess they didn't venture down this far that often?? Because the owner was like "So did this tree die this past summer?" and my roomie (who'd ventured down to see the tree) was like "No, it was dead since the fire." 

So yah. Not observant the property owner. Not at all.

But in any case.

It's just crazy that two similar events involving trees happened when I was experiencing similar circumstances of nap/migraine.

And it's just another one of those 'is this real life' moments. Because like you see it happen but you can't really believe that it happened.

Like I keep looking out the window and it's sooo crazy to not see the giant dead tree right there. It's all open view now. I have a new view of the valley that I didn't have before because giant dead tree was in the way. And it's just....something I'l have to get used to. It's crazy. So crazy.

Until you next find these words;
I'll be watching the leaves.
Enjoy the day!

-Sarnic Dirchi

Whelp. It's the Battery....Right?

 Whelp.

I've had a rather stressful day today.

So like.....a few weeks ago I helped to jump an old ladies car right?? With my own car???

And like....I had noticed after helping her start her car that when I left for the day, that when I started my own car...it had had a delayed starting sound to it.

Kinda like the "Hey your car battery is dying" sort of sound.

Which was semi concerning because like....I'd literally just bought a new car battery?? Like I remember it being cold when I got it so it had to have happened sometime between October of last year and March of this year. But like...it's a recent new battery. So it shouldn't be dying just yet!!

And like, I'd chalked it up to just the stress of starting the other person's car and it would be fine after that point

Only....my car continued to have a delayed start when I'd try to turn it on.

And it was getting to the point where I was like "Huh, I should go get that looked at."

And like I was literally planning to take my car to the Autozone to get the battery checked later THIS week on one of my days off.

ONLY

This morning when I went to leave for work....

My car wouldn't start.

It made that ancient chugging "I'm tryign to start up" noise and the clicked a bunch.

but no car started.

Which when it's seven in the morning and both your roomies are asleep....is not a good thing.

So I was like "Okay, I need to either get a) my car started by a roomie helping me to jumpstart my car or b) have a roomie take me into work.

And I like dithered for a good two minutes on which roomie to wake up before finally knocking on upstair's roomie door.

Which is NOT fun to do to be like "Hey....my car won't stop can you help me?"

Especially since I knew she'd had a late night before and also that she didn't have to get up for her own job for another couple of hours. 

*exhales*

In the end we decided that it would be best if she just took me into work and would come pick me up after as she was concerned my car would die AT work if we got it jumpstarted here at the house and I would have to get it jumpstarted there to get back home.

So she took me into work with the plan to get my car jumpstarted when I got home so that I could drive down to the Autozone to get a new battery since this one was /obviously/ bad. 

Fast Forward to this afternoon after getting home from work.

And we're having to play a bit of ring around the rosie with our cars.

Because unlucky me...I'd parked on the right side of the garage. And my battery was on the Right side of my car.

While BOTH my roomies car batteries were on the LEFT side of their cars. 

So the jumper cables couldn't Reach both batteries. *exhales*

We ended up enlisting the aid of two neighbor guys to help me roll my car out of the garage, and then push it back into the left side of the garage so that my roomie could pull into the right side of the garage and her left battery would be close to my right battery and Walla!! We could get my car jumped!!

*shakes head*

Funnily enough....like the old lady I helped before...my car wouldn't start up until we fully completed the circuit on the batteries. So instead of 'grounding' the black clamp to somethign metal in my car, we needed to place the clamp on the negative point of the battery to get my car to start up.

And I was like WOOT!! It's started! Time to go get to autozone.

Only. As I was backing up out of the driveway. I noticed my clock in my car was flickering. :S And none of the dials were really responding. So to try and test it out I switched from reverse to drive to pull back into the garage to see if the dials would show me using slight accleration....and my car died again. Right there in the driveway. 

*exhales* 

Like. That's not a Good Sign. 

As that probably meant that that wasn't the battery that was the issue. XP booooo. 

No apparently there's a part called an Alternator that helps to keep your car charged between driving???? And my roomie thought I hadn't been driving enough to keep the charge going or recharge the charger?? whatever. It wasn't working.

but like....my car was at my house....and if it couldn't hold a charge long enough to get to a mechanic....how in the world was I going to get my car fixed?!!? 

I tried knocking on the other next door neighbor's door...because he's a bit of a car guy with his friends as they come over every weekend to do car related things it feels like....only he doesn't answer.

So.

I call the next best person I know.

Which is my brother.

Like he's not a mechanic, but Mav has worked on his own cars before with the help of his best friend who IS a mechanic. A Semi-Truck Mechanic. But still. They've done car related things!

And so I explained my problem to him and he's like "Yep. Sounds like the alternator. Let me youtube it real quick and see if I can fix it. Oh look! I think i can fix it!!"

And then was a whole unhelpful time of us trying to figure out just what type of car I had and what engine I had and what part would be needed for said car. And the stupid little Car Manual that i had would NOT give me ANY of the numbers I needed to figure out the right part.

Like whoever made the manual in the year 2000 forgot the "Oh your car is this type with this body and this engine and this other fancy terminology."

In any case.

My brother was confident he could buy the right part and then drive down here and fix my car for me which YAY! 

lol as I desperately needed to have a car. Because I have work shifts both Tues and Wed so I need to be able to get places those two days at least.

But I was like "Okay, worst case scenario. I will just borrow my Dad's car." Because in the unlucky/lucky part of this scenario was that today was the first day of yet another cruise for him. So like...it was frustrating to not have him here to help me out with figuring out what to do with my car but like that meant he wouldn't be using HIS CAR so worst case scenario if it wasn't the alternator or Mav couldn't fix it....I could borrow his car until he got back and we'd figure out where and when to get me a new car at that point.

ONLY.

When I informed Daddoo that I was going to have Mav bring down his car just in case I needed to borrow it. -And if I did then Mav's wife would come pick him up from my house after she got off work to take him back home- My dad informed me that....he'd taken the car keys with him on the trip. 

*face palm*

WHY?!!?

Like. Every. Single. Other. Cruise. He's gone on. He's LEFT behind a key. 

WHY THIS CRUISE?! WHY TAKE THEM!?

And I was like "What about the spare keys?"

Nope. No go there. My step-mom had taken hers with her. So the cars at my dad's house are basically just sitting hunks of metal until they get back from their trip. *exhales* 

So. Frustrating.

So now I was like....Okay...now what?

Because I knew my brother and his wife would need both their cars. And my one roomie wouldn't be able to give me a ride into work because she is also leaving on a trip tomorrow and leaving her car with her parents -as they're closer to the airport- and my other roomie wouldn't be able to take me into work because we worked opposite shifts this week where she wouldn't get home until AFTER I needed to get into work.

So I was like. Sister!! Kikay would let me borrow HER car. Since she doesn't always use hers.

Only she kinda hemmed and hawed and was like "Maaaaaaybe???" It was like a 'tenatitive' yes to borrowing it for just two days if needed. 

So basically.

I was screwed. And like...while I knew my sister was a kinda option I've also never driven her car further than like....a block? And the thought of having to make a 40 minute drive IN THE DARK in a car car when I'm used to driving taller cars...on the HIGHWAY....yah....I would do it if I'd have to but I was half convinced I would die if I did.

In any case.

Basically everything now was riding on my brother's ability to fix my car.

Because the only other possible option at this point would to be to beg my fellow managers to give me a ride into and from work for Tues and Wed.

*exhales*

Such good/bad timing. Like the 'good' timing is that I only work 3 days this week so the stress is only for Tues and Wed. The bad is like....the fact that EVERYONE is gone on vacation this week. UGH.

In any case.

My brother arrived like an hour after dark. (because yay daylight savings making it dark at 530pm now) 

And we managed to jump start my car enough to get it pulled back into the garage -where there was a bit more light- and onto some blocks -so that my brother could get under the car easier if needed- and then he went to work.

And guys...Youtube is mostly your friend. It's amazing how much you can google/youtube to get answers on how to fix things.

Didn't tell us that the alternator in my car had THREE bolts instead of 2 like we originally thought.

But Hey. My brother -after remembering to disconnect the battery, and a quick trip to Home Depot to get a 12mm wrench to better fit a narrow spot to get the stupid bolt undone...---

Managed to take out the old part and insert the new part!!!

It took about 3 hours because yah....never done this before.

BUT. He got everything back in it's place without breaking anything so woot!! lol. 

And after a quick jumpstart with his car....My car started back up!! Woot!!!

We did a quick test drive too and it didn't die on the road and would start up and shut off normally. So double woot!!

The only slight concern I have at this point is that the engine is making a 'clicking' noise as we drive kinda like the baseball card in the tires of a bike sort of sound. Which everyone else is like "Well I think it sounds normal for an old car." but I'm like "No it hasn't made that noise before!" sooo yah.....we'll see if it still happens after sitting overnight. But like....if anything I do plan to do an oil change on the car soon as it might just be making noise from having low oil from what my neighbor says....so yah.

But!

My car is FIXED.

So I don't have to worry (so long as my car starts tomorrow) about how I'm going to get to work anymore. So woot!!

lol and funfact about Alternators.

Apparently they're supposed to last either 7 years OR about 150,000 miles.

And my 22 year old car....has just under 156,000 miles on it. 

So like. 

That alternator did its job so well! To last 22 years!? Because like...no one in the family could remember it needing to be replaced before. So yah. Ancient machinery part did it's job well. lol.

So grateful that my brother was able to come down and get my car fixed for me. So grateful. 

One less stressor to deal with.

Until you next find these words;
I'll be watching the leaves.
Enjoy the day!

-Sarnic Dirchi

Let It Snow

 We had the first major snow storm of the winter today.

I mean, it snowed like....two weeks or so ago?? But it was mostly in the mountains.

This was the first storm to actually stick in the valleys and give...at least my area...a good two or three inches of snow, though I know other parts of the state received higher amounts. Like I heard my hometown got like 8 inches?

In any case.

It's kinda weird that it's still....snowing?

Like I'm used to most storms only lasting a couple of hours.

But this morning when I finally got out of bed like around 930ish...it was raining and who knew how long it had been raining for, but it was raining heavily enough that when I relcutantly ventured out to go grab the groceries I desperately needed....the rain thick enough that the windshield wipers were going like crazy...but also the cars on the roads were kicking up a lot of water into the air.

Which made driving along the freeway quite the experience. Nothing like driving thorugh a thick layer of mist where you can barely see the car's taillights in front of you.

I nearly chose to take the backroads back home to just avoid dealing with the misty driving, but when I got off the exit there was an accident up the road at the next intersection. I have no idea how big it was originally but there were 2 cars and 2 ambulances and like a good 6 police officers....soooo big enough??

In any case. I chose to take the familiar freeway back instead of dealing with the unknown city street driving...as in many ways that can be scarier with all the stopping and going and multiple points of access.

At least on the freeway there's a limited amount of ways you could interact with the cars around you.

But! I got home safely.

And had the excellent timing to get home like...maybe ten minutes before the storm switched from rain to snow.

And boy did it snow.

Like again, I'm used to storms only lasting a couple of hours.

But it's nearly midnight now and the snow is still falling steadily a good 12 hours later.

Which is great because my state desperately needs the moisture.

It's just weird. Weird to have it snowing for so long. 

Though it's very enjoyable....when I'm inside and nice and warm lol.

Until you next find these words;
I'll be watching the leaves.
Enjoy the day!

-Sarnic Dirchi

A Favorite Food

 I made pepperoni crescent rolls today.

Which normally isn't really a notable thing to blog about.

Except.....

So. My sister has been working on creating a family cookbook.

It's been a 4 year task -one that she started right after Mother Dearest passed away- with a lot of stopping and starting and stopping again.

But she's finally gathered enough reciepes and organized them and got everything formatted enough to have our Family cookbook be sent to print so that each family member can have one.

And for the past....couple weeks or so? She's been giving us little check ins.

Letting us know the progress and such.

And like all last minute things....there were a few last minute recipes that other family members realized that they wanted to be placed in the cookbook. 

Mostly it's Daddoo's recipes that he's recently found and such.

But the most recent 'is this all the recipes you want' check ins.

Daddoo mentioned to Kikay that he'd found a list Mother Dearest had made at some point of some of her favorite family meals. And he wanted to make sure all the meals listed on her list had made it into the family cookbook.

And one of those meals was my Pepperoni Crescent Rolls.

Which it's just a simple meal of Pillsbury crescent roll dough with pepperoni and cheese and some parmesean cheese rolled up together and cooked. 

Nothing too crazy meal wise.

But it was one of the first recipes that I created on my own after I'd moved to college.

Which means Mother Dearest made this list probably in the first year or so of me being at college as other later creations of mine that I knew she liked weren't on my list. 

In any case.

It just....it was just...heart warming in a bittersweet way to know that she loved my little crescent roll creation enough to put it on a list of her 'favorite meals' as I hadn't realized she'd loved them that much.

I mean....it didn't even have any pizza sauce lol since I can't stand red sauce on pizza.

Just cheese bread and pepperoni. Like....it's such a simple meal.

And yet she singled it out as one of her favorites.

And I never realized she liked it so much. 

So yah. It was a bit...nostaligic making the crescent rolls today for lunch as I haven't made them in a while....but they've been on my mind since Kikay brought up that they were on the list.

....yah. Kinda has me missing mother dearest a bit more today.

Until you next find these words;
I'll be watching the leaves.
Enjoy the day!

-Sarnic Dirchi

Pain Flare

 Gotta love it when your body decideds to be weird.

*exhales*

I was woken up unexpectedly this morning at like 530 in the morning by a burning pain in my right big toe.

Like right at the joint to bend the toe.

Honestly, having been startled awake by it, I was halfway thinking I had somehow broken it in my sleep.

Which would be amazing considering that like....there were only blankets at the bottom of my bed, so unless I'd somehow tangled my toes in it and yanked hard....there would be no explaination for my my toe suddenly felt on fire.

Like it was excruciating even attempting to bend it. 

And I couldn't even see anything wrong with it. Like...maybe there was a slight discoloration on the joint area? 

But after carefully massasing the area a bit....the pain began to subside and by the time I rewoke up later in the morning....it wasn't in pain at all. And the toe looked normal enough.

Though the toe and my foot have felt a bit....achy for most of the day....I can't quite tell if it's an actual achiness or if it's just paranoia achiness because I've been focusing on my foot it makes me more aware of it than I usually am.

But yah.

It was just the weirdest and painful thing to wake up to.

Especially because I can't think of anything I could have done yesterday to cause the flare up hours later into the next day. *shakes head*

The body is weird. So weird.

Until you next find these words;
I'll be watching the leaves.
Enjoy the day!

-Sarnic Dirchi

Outside

 There's something different about picking food to eat from the garden.

Like I did it all the time growing up as my daddoo is an avid gardener. 

But it hasn't really been anything I thought about recently beyond those reminiscing moments of "Oh yah I used to go out into Dad's garden and eat peas and strawberries and tomatoes and raspberries, etc" 

Today though.

I actually went outside and grabbed a tomato from the garden.

Not my dad's garden.

But my roomie's little mini garden as the past couple of years she's been growing tomatoes and peppers to be eaten and used in cooking and such.

Normally I wait for her to bring in the harvest of whatever is ripe.

But today we were out of tomatoes in the kitchen and I really wanted some for my sandwich.

Sooo outside I went! 

And I have to say. It was a tasty tomato. :D

Until you next find these words;
I'll be watching the leaves.
Enjoy the day!

-Sarnic Dirchi

Expired

 Sometimes I feel like food shouldn't go bad.

Like if you stick it on your shelf it should stay good to eat until you're ready to eat it. No expiration.

Of course...that's because I have this bad habit of sticking things towards the back of the shelf...and loosing track of it....or else getting far too many take out meals in a row with leftovers and I can't eat all the leftovers in time so they just go bad....

But in any case....

I did a bit of 'spring---' Okay a bit of "Fall" cleaning today in the kitchen.

As it's been a hot minute since I've gone through my share of our various shelves.

Yah.

I won't say it was bad....but it wasn't good....considering I threw away a good 3 garbage bags of food that had expired.

Most of it was shelf food, so lucky me I found ony like...one rotting thing in the fridge. Whew. Still stinky though.

But yah.

It's impressive how much food I just had shoved in the dark corners of my shelves that just.....sat there. Untouched....because I bought them with good intentions to eat them...eventually.

Truthfully....a lot of the food I tossed away was things I'd probably bought at the beginning of the pandemic when everyone was panicking and looking to 'stock up' on food. 

As a lot of the 'best buy' dates were dated in 2020. So yah. It's been a while since I've done a DEEP clean of my shelves. *shakes head* 

But yah. A lot of the food was just things that I'd bought and never ate because they were for when 'things got bad' with the pandemic.

Which truthfully...with the way I eat....I never really was low on things I liked to eat so therefore the things I 'sometimes am in the mood to eat' never got eaten.

Part of me feels bad for wasting the food. Never touching it.

But the rest of me....the rest of me is just relieved to finally throw it away and get it off my shelves and out of my sight. 

Until you next find these words;
I'll be watching the leaves.
Enjoy the day!

-Sarnic Dirchi

More Tomatoes

So. There I was. Checking out at the grocery store after gathering all my groceries.

I was doing the final payment, when I took the opportunity to glance at my phone and saw I had a message.

A message from my roomie.

Asking if I could grab some tomatoes for her.

Which on the one hand. I had told her to text me if she thought of anything she needed while I was out shopping. Though the timing was rather....bad....in that I'd just finished paying for my groceries....but not unexpected.

No. The odd thing was that....I was so confused as to why she would need tomatoes.

Like I knew perfectly well we had a nice big bowl of tomatoes in the kitchen from the Garden. I had literally been thinking minutes earlier as I was going through all the produce that at least I wouldn't have to buy tomatoes because we had plenty at home.

So why in the world would she want me to grab her a 'big bag' of tomatoes?

Like...there literally weren't any 'big bags' of tomatoes at the store. It was all little cherry tomatoes or like a bushel of 4 tomatoes.

But there certainly wasn't the FIVE POUNDS of tomatoes there that she was wanting.

Wanting because she was making some tomato sauce....but only had half of the tomatoes needed for it. *exhales*

I probably could have said "Sorry they don't have that many" as the 'bulk' section only had small things but then I saw these nice two towers of single tomatoes where you could pick them out one by one and bag them.

And the roomie was liek "Yes! Those! Get my 5 lbs of Romas Please."

*shakes head*

For those curious. 5lbs of Romas was around 25 tomatoes. As I had the fun task of weighing them. So yay for using a device in the grocery store that I basically never use but was aware of lol. 

But yah. It was that nice awkward moment of dragging my cart full of already paid for groceries around the store as I gathered the tomatoes and then had to go back through checkout to pay for them.

At least no one stopped me. Heh. I was halfway expected to be accused of trying to steal. But nope. It didn't happen. I was able to get in and out just fine. So yay for that.

Until you next find these words;
I'll be watching the leaves.
Enjoy the day!

-Sarnic Dirchi

Pizza Pizza

 It's always a semi-adventure when it comes to ordering pizza.

Mostly because the local places seem to have a hard time keeping delivery drivers on hand to be able to get pizzas out to people. 

So like half the time, when I go online to try and order a pizza for delivery....the website will day "delivery isn't available at this time."

Which I can get.

Delivery Drivers don't always get the best reactions from customers and it's alot of driving for who knows how much pay.

So can't fault that....even if it means I either have to go to the store to get my pizza...or I go without pizza that day.

In any case.

Monday I ended up having a bit of a hankering for pizza.

Mostly because it was a busy weekend and the roomies and I were all feeling "meh" about making our own food. Low energy and such.

So I was like "Oh! I can order pizza!" 

Because Pizza is good and easy to eat and can last for a few days which is great when I come home from working closing shifts and am starving and need a quick something to eat.

So.

I tried the website. 

And upon discovering that it was a "Yes, we can deliver!" day. Ran the idea past the roomies about ordering pizza.

To which there was a resounding YES!!

And it all went well with ordering on the website.

.....

Until I got to the payment option.

And I was confronted with a rather....large hurdle.

"We aren't accepting credit cards at this time." Or something like that.

But basically Credit Cards, Gift Cards, Pay Pal...all the electronic methods of payment....were down on the website.

Which RUDE.

And also left only one option left if we wanted pizza delivered.

And that was paying with Cash.

Which Ha.

Who really carries cash around anymore?? Most people tend to pay in card or via their phone. 

So Cash?! 

It made me wonder if this was a sly way to decrease the amount of online orders the store was getting so that they could keep up with demand and still have available drivers as again...not everyone has enough cash on hand to pay for their pizza.

Usually I don't either.

But lucky me...I had a bunch of cash on me still because I hadn't spent all the money I withdrew from the bank to go to the gem fair with. 

(As oftentimes people give you better deals if they see you paying with cash instead of cards.) 

But with how crazy I went with the gem fair....I ended up using my card a bit more than I did the cash I had on hand.

So I still had plenty left to cover the cost of a couple pizzas for me and my roomies as well as tip the driver.

SO HA.

Take that pizza place.

You can't deny me my desire to eat pizza while avoiding having to go anywhere to get it! 

And I have to say. The food was well worth it. SOOO TASTY.

So glad I had the cash on hand because that pizza was well needed lol.

Until you next find these words;
I'll be watching the leaves.
Enjoy the day!

-Sarnic Dirchi