Jetta!

I embraced 2019 with a lot of hope, and excitement for a new year.  My friend Anna was my secret Santa at the daycare this year, and one of the things she gave me was a memory jar.  You write down special things all year long on little slips of paper, put them in the jar to keep, and then read them on the following New Year's Eve.  I've always wanted to do one, but it got shoved to the back burner, like pretty much everything else in my life that I enjoy. (more on that later)

2019 did not start off how I had hoped.  The jar sat empty for quite awhile, and then it just had a few notes in it.  The winter was hard, work was stressful, we almost lost Cece to illness again.  Then I realized that the love of my life was going to have to leave me.

Yes.  The Mitsubishi Eclipse that I have been driving around since 2007 (it was a 2000) suddenly had a big oil leak, and too many other problems to list.  It's just a car, so no big deal, right?  Wrong.  Very wrong.  Every year I say, I just want to make it through one more winter with her, and every year I did, but when the time came I just couldn't stand the thought of being without her, and another year would go by. I was a wreck when I handed her over to the dealer, and I'm not really ever a wreck about much. She was kind of a representation of my freedom/independence. Let me try and explain.

To the world she was just an old car.  Most of the black paint had faded (factory defect that I couldn't ever afford to fix) and she was starting to rust.  The exhaust had a small hole for awhile, now there were at least two, and you always knew when I was arriving.  She was 19 years old, and 12 of those years were spent hauling me, Leon, the kids (Auntie, you need a bigger car.), and all of the pets that I have owned in my life.

Stuck in the ice a few weeks before we parted.

To me, she was everything.  In 2007, I found myself newly divorced, on my own, starting over again, and really not wanting to be. I was driving a green Ford Escort that I hated, and had always hated.  It was reliable enough in town, I had owned it seven or eight years, but I wouldn't trust it out of town anymore. Online dating was just becoming a thing in my life, and I met someone in Two Harbors, so I needed a newer set of wheels.  (THAT is a whole other story that has never been in this blog.)  I wasn't really sure how I was going to get a loan, or make the payment, now that I had an apartment to pay for, but as usual, I managed.

One morning I drove up to work, at that time I was still teaching preschool for the Y, and this beautiful, shiny, black sporty looking car was parked in a parent spot with a for sale sign.  I went running into the building, stopping at every room to see who owned that car!  It happened to be one of my students' Mom, and she was selling it because she was pregnant again, and swinging a car seat out of that two door would be pretty difficult.  I asked if she had a few minutes for a test drive and she flipped me the keys, saying "Go ahead, take her for a spin."  I sat in that car, and I knew.  I didn't care what she wanted for it, this was my car and I was going to have it.

In a strange twist of fate my Aunt Mary had passed away a bit earlier, and I was co-executor of her estate.  A large sum of money was in my checking account to handle some of her affairs,so when the bank looked at me for the loan that is what they saw, so of course they had no problem lending me the money for the car. 

I believe it was the Friday before Memorial Day Weekend.  I remember cruising in my new car,  windows down, radio blasting, wind in my hair, no one to answer to but myself.  The way I used to prefer it before my X.  The way I really am at my core.  I was 37 years old, and I still really knew nothing about life, or myself.  I was standing on the edge of figuring a lot of it out.  It was a hard time for me, but I fought through it to to rediscover who I am.  The Eclipse took me through that journey.  It stood as a symbol of how far I had come, I guess.

 I went to the dealership when I realized that there was one more major problem to be fixed, and I just couldn't justify the expense anymore.  It wasn't planned, it was just kind of "OK, today we are doing this." The sales dude, Nick, and I looked at a few cars that he thought might be in my price range.  They had sold most of the VW deal cars the weekend prior, but there were a few on the lot, and a few others.  As much as I needed to get a new car, I wasn't going to settle for something that didn't call to me, ever again. (see above Ford Escort) So we were walking back towards the building because nothing really grabbed me.  Then she pulled out onto the lot.  All freshly cleaned and shiny.  A 2013 Volkswagen Jetta.  Silver Metallic is the technical name of the color. I looked at Nick, and I said "You did that on purpose."  I knew it was my car. He claimed that he didn't, and he probably didn't, because it was actually cheaper than any of the others we had looked at. :) 

After a very quick test drive, we settled into a few hours worth of wheeling and dealing and paperwork, etc.  All in all I was pleased, but oh so sad.  It should have been a happy time, but I was on the verge of losing it though most of it.  I had to trade the Eclipse in.  I just had to.  I needed to use it toward the purchase, and I wasn't going to bring it home and watch it just sit around here, or have it turned in to a race car.  If I didn't part with it then I couldn't trust myself to actually sell it outright. I would be dragging it with me the rest of my life, like my blankie.  (Yes.......)

So now I tootle around, happy as a clam, in my very comfortable Jetta.  I've hauled myself, Leon, the pets, the kids, (Cece just loves to ride in Auntie's car.) and I am enjoying having a four door reliable vehicle again.  Plus there's a sunroof, AND a moon roof, and a kick ass stereo, so I'm still cool.  Yes I AM Vicki.  The eclipse carried me through some very dark and difficult times, and also some of the happiest of my life.  I'm looking forward to wherever the Jetta is going to take me! 

Loki Poki

I went back to review what I had written last year about the newest edition to our family.  NOTHING??  In my defense, between him, and that demon cat, The Magnificent Mo, I have had a lot on my plate. 

So a year ago last June, this happened:

Loki Poki at 10 weeks. He is a German Shepard/Great Pyrenees mix, the same breed as his new big brother, Jacob Barker.

Who are you??

Loki weighed in at 13 pounds during his first vet check, and he has always been a very healthy, happy boy.  This past year has been exhausting for me, but as time goes by it gets easier and easier.  He is completely border trained, so like Jake, when we are home and outside they just go everywhere with us.  Loki is a very smart boy, and only has to be corrected about something once or twice before he gets it.  When we are gone they stay outside. Jake goes on his run, and Loki hangs out in a large kenneled area.  He has a lot of things to keep him busy in there so he doesn't annoy the neighborhood too much.  He is nothing if not persistent if he wants, or doesn't want something.

It's hard to believe that more than a year has gone by.  The boys had their vet check today, and both are healthy dogs!  Loki is about to graduate to adult dog food, finally.  With large breeds they keep them on puppy food longer.  Jake is a very slim lined 81 pounds, and Loki is a very stocky 84 pounds!  Plus, he isn't done growing yet.  Dr. Becky is very happy with their weight.  Right where they belong.

We see you haz toast........

Jake has never been one for car rides, but he hopped right up into the passenger seat of the Nissan Titan this morning, and Loki (with some coaxing) settled in to the back seat with me.  The boys are home bodies, and that's the first place we've gone together in a year!  I think we'll try a few more outings in the near future, now that we have a vehicle big enough for all of us to be comfy.

Cruisin' with Papa

The Season of The Bear

Living out in the country is a constant battle.  Whether it's the weather, the shoveling, the mowing, or the gardening.  The flooding, detours from said flooding or road construction, or it's squirrels taking the seed and destroying feeders, deer, coyote, and on and on.  It's a never ending struggle with one thing or another.  Each season has it's own unique beauty, and it's own challenges.

Original feeder

We also have The Bear.  Every year near the first of June we have a visitor in the night.  The bird feeder gets raided, the garbage goes over, and thus begins the Season of The Bear.  For the last two years it was a Mom and her three cubs.  The first year she very politely ate the seed and left the feeder, but I forgot it out one night and she absconded with it.  The Brown Eyed Man thought he would come across it somewhere on the property when he mowed, but we never saw it again.  I loved that feeder. The next year she banged up the new feeder, but left it here, and I remembered to bring it in at night after that first time.

"Squirrel proof" feeder

This year I have a new feeder, similar to the first one.  The second one just couldn't stand up to squirrel abuse, which ironically was what it was supposed to do.  I really should just start bringing the feeder inside near the end of May, but after the long, harsh winter my first thought is not that it's almost The Season of the Bear.  I'm more concerned with what I'm growing, and how much work has to be put in to get it done.

The Season of the Bear arrived On the 30th of May, and this bear, a male we're guessing, took down the feeder.  I knew it wasn't the regular Mama, because she isn't so destructive.  The entire feeder was taken apart, and I never did find one of the perches.

Most recent casualty

 Duck tape and a piece of aluminum from a can did the trick, and we're back up and feeding.  The garbage will be staying in the house.  This bear actually also destroyed the suet feeder a few nights later, and has tried to get at the hummingbird feeder.  I guess I'll stop suet feeding until this season passes.  We checked the camera, and it's a lone small bear.  Probably one of the cubs that Mama taught to look for food here.  They always bend the hook, and I bend it back.  It's a crazy looking hook, but it still works.  Note that I've also moved the hook out of the garden, so the bear stop stomping on things!

Good as new.......almost.

The other change that has to be made during The Season of The Bear is the garbage situation.  We do a fair amount of burning, and recycling, so there just isn't that much food garbage that goes out.  In the winter I can go several weeks without bringing the can down the driveway.  In the Season of the Bear the garbage must remain in the house, so the garbage goes down the driveway every week.  Now that I'm writing this I am realizing the can is still at the road.  Oh well, that can wait til morning, where I will probably find it in the ditch and have to climb down to get it.  *sigh*    The Brown Eyed Man is snoring, and I just put on my jams.  The dogs have their good night treat, and that is that for this beautiful country day!

So begins The Season of the Bear, and it lasts about six weeks.  Every time I think it's time to keep the feeder out again, that they must be gone, I've been wrong.  So this time when I feel that, I'm going to wait two more weeks.........and hope we've moved on to the Dog Days of Summer.