Good Morning, Taylor.

I’m having breakfast on the deck, with a nice latte. The sun is out, it’s cool, but not cold. And it’s quiet for a Saturday morning. Ragdoll asked me to see about eating the last of the mashed potatoes before they go bad. I ended up making a breakfast taco with them. Eggs, burned bacon (oops) cheese and potatoes and gravy. Its good! But a little sloppy.

I’m watching a tree in the distance. The leaves are all fluttering in the wind, and the whole tree is swaying slightly. It’s so alive out here. Everything is alive. Moving and doing when you’re not looking at it. People are walking by on their way to whatever the day brings them. It’s really wonderful.

This has been a quiet week for both of us. She has the week off and its looking like next week will be quiet. That’s good because we’re getting a lot of work done in the house (together!). I made a decision a few days ago, that I’m going to try and help more around the house. I know between the job and me, Ragdoll doesn’t have the time she used to for all her projects and everything else. There were chairs needing to be built for months. Boxes of stuff were still all around the house from December.

I decided I was going to help. I’m the housekeeper. And I’m going the keep house like a boss.

She makes a lot of To-Do lists and I looked to see what I could do. There were some mercury lights she needed recycled (and have been there for years, she said), and some broken electronics needing recycling. I decided I would, on one of my days, take those out. I did some looking up on the internet about where I could recycle them, and found two places.

So I went to one, and was a little overwhelmed. I haven’t talked with a lot of people since I’ve been here. But they’ve always come to me, instead of me go to them. I wasn’t sure if I could go to someone to talk. But I was already there, and the bulbs were in the car. So I just walked in and looked for someone to help me. And they did! The bulbs are gone. I drove to another place to drop off some of the broken electronics and they said literally dump them in the corner. So I did. And now they’re all gone!

I went to a park afterwards to walk and take in the view, but it wasn’t a nature park like I thought it was. IT was a city park, and while there was a nice lake there, it was just a playground and houses for the view. I thought I’d walk it anyways, but I ran into a problem.

Ragdoll wears shorts she bought a while ago when she was heavier. We’ve lost weight since then, so the shorts kept dragging down with the keys, the wallet and two phones. I decided walking like this wasn’t going to work without a belt. I decided to try another trail some other day.

It actually make me think I should buy my own clothes. Ragdoll dresses in a lot of reds and blacks. I like lighter colors like white and gold. She gets a lot of clothes catalogs from the company she buys clothes from. I’m thinking I might spend some of my allowance on that and wear what I like. It’s funny how she bought some smaller shoes than her big clunky sneakers, and I adopted them as my own. And we had a tiff over a skirt we both liked over if I could have it, or she could have it (we BOTH can have it).

I ended up putting up some more of her toys and mementos, too. And together (she got inspired to help after she took some of my time for an appointment, and used the waiting time to help ME), everything is put back up. Progress! And I managed to keep the house clean while doing it.

This leads us to yesterday. Ragdoll woke up, and handed over to me. I love when she does that because I wake up in bed like every other person. I get to choose what I wear, I get to get out of bed and wake up. I decided since I hadn’t walked that week, I would go to a trail in the woods and walk it.

I got there and it was beautiful. The river was really running and you could go right up to it. You could see it flowing really hard and the water burbling up and everything. But about halfway through I saw a sign saying “Trail Closed” and the trail had been washed out. I really didn’t want to just go back, and saw a side trail. I took that instead. And I really shouldn’t have. They weren’t walking trails. They were animal trails. And they didn’t get close to the water, just deeper in the woods.

I found a few spots where the trails ended at open spaces in the bushes, which The Oracle told me later were probably places that animals slept overnight and that I could have been in real danger if it was a bear or a cougar. After not finding a way back to the other side of the trail, I turned around and began walking back. And on the way back I tripped on a vine and fell into a thorny blackberry bush.

That hurt. A Lot. I fell right forward with a huge thump and scratched up EVERYTHING. When I tried to get up, I ended up with thorns in my hands and lost my balance and fell again onto the trail this time. It took some effort but I got up. Nothing broken. Just scratches all over my legs, and thorns in my arms and hand. And somewhere along the line I brushed up against some nettles, so that stung, too.

I went to river to wash myself off, and just enjoy the water after all that. And that’s when I began thinking…Ragdoll doesn’t know I hurt her. She’s going to wake up and be all scratched up and thorns in her hand. She might get mad at me. And I wasn’t sure what to do. I ended up driving to nearby farm stand and buying some applesauce (my new favorite food) and drove home.

I started talking to The Corsair, and she suggested I buy her some treats and leave a little note about what happened. I got her some popcorn candy and some cupcakes. When I woke her up, she was surprised at how much we were hurting…but was okay with it. She said “bad news goes better with good food” so I learned that lesson. She did tell me that if I do something like that again to please turn on the GPS tracker. She didn’t even know I was going hiking. If something happened and she woke up in the middle of the woods she wouldn’t know where she was. But she also said don’t stop exploring. Just be careful, and remember, She’s sleeping inside when I’m doing all this.

It didn’t feel like scolding. And she wasn’t mad. It was almost encouraging. And I liked that.

That evening, we went grocery shopping. She always lets me do the shopping myself on the last Friday of the week. So we went to my grocery store, and I did the shopping. Housekeeping like a boss. 🙂 But when I went to pay, Ragdoll got recognized again and I had to shove her back in. She figured out what was going on really quick, and recovered. But now I felt even worse for throwing her back into a situation.

She’s looking at having me shop somewhere else now, because that store is too dangerous for me to go to anymore. She’s thinking of having me shop in my town where she’s not allowed. I just can’t get frozen food because it’s so far away. But it would be safe.

I was really feeling bad about the day. And when I woke up today, there was a file in the middle of the screen that said “For Andrea.” And it was a voice recording! I did a voice recording for her a few days ago, and she returned the favor. She told me the scratches were just going to happen, and not worry, and being recognized wasn’t my fault but hers. And she was so encouraging and proud of me, I felt so much better.

But oh, am I feeling that fall today. I think we’re going to take it easy. In all the rushing around, I’ve still listened to your advice, and taken time to relax and enjoy the slow life. I think that’s what we’re going to be doing today.

I hope you and Didi are well. Take care and I’ll write you soon.

–Andrea