There she was just a walkin’ down the street

The other day, I was driving through a nearby neighborhood to drop off a kid from the carpool when I spotted this egret walking down the sidewalk.

I blurted out, “Did you see that?” and then put the car into reverse (after checking for other cars, of course) and backed up for a closer look.  I handed my phone to my daughter so she could take this photo through the van window.

You never know what you’ll see . . . if you’re looking.

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I really did intend to write more regularly once the new year arrived–just like I intended to abstain from all sugar and you can guess how that went?  (Hint:  I baked chocolate chip cookies tonight.)  January always seems like it will be a fresh start, but it’s January!

Here are some things that happened this January:

1.  The rainstorm I wrote about already.  (Can I just be a little more obsessed with the rare rainstorm?)
2. A weekend spent cleaning out kitchen cupboards.  (What has my life become?)
3. Another weekend spent cleaning out the garage.  (I barely made a dent and it looks somewhat worse than when I started.)
4. My 17-year old son got his driver’s permit.  (My nervous system is . . . let’s just say “nervous” when trying to communicate while fearing for my car’s paint job, not to mention fearing whiplash.)
5. I had the dryer vent guy come and clean out the dryer vent.  (My dryer vent has more turns and twists than a daytime soap opera.  The hot air and lint does not have a straight shot outside.  ((I’m pretty sure there’s tortured metaphor about life here somewhere.))  Instead, the pipe turns and then bends and then turns again and clogs up.  This means that it has to be regularly cleaned out by a professional.  The signs I notice are twofold:  First, I smell something burning.  The “something” is the lint that accumulates in the open space in the bottom of my dryer.  I finally learned to open up the dryer by myself and vacuum it out.  Second, my laundry starts to take forever to dry . . . three hours, for instance, for a single load.  When that happens, I have to call the guy and  he comes and takes my money and solves my problem.  Well, he solves my laundry-related problem anyhow.  I have other problems that $145.00 will not fix.  Ha.)
6. I missed several glorious sunsets at the beach due to a wonky work schedule or parental obligations.  I’ve been to the beach a few times, but the best and more vibrant January sunsets happened while I was trudging through my life.  I am trying not to feel bitter.  My husband says, “Oh, there will be other sunsets,” but I think, this sunset will never occur again . . . if you miss it, you miss it.
7. I read my first book of the new year, Diana Nyad’s Find a Way.  What an epic story!  I loved it, especially since I went to hear her speak and could therefore “hear” her voice as I read.  She is a remarkable human being.

And now my 2:00 AM bedtime is approaching, so I leave you with this photo of a sunset, my best so far this January.