Some progress is better than no progress. What’s your milestone?

My partner moved in.

I’ll share something more significant but easily misunderstood: my virulent negative self-talk has stopped due to a uniquely effective therapist.

Yay for you on both counts, @Hawaii_Jake!

I am clearing branches, limbs, and tree rounds from cutting down a few trees. The latest was only 57 foot, but the other two were probably 80’ (I haven’t measured them yet).
The progress is now I have a much better view of Mt. Shasta from my deck.

I need your therapist, @Hawaii_Jake! I’m my worst critic and it prevents me from living.

I’m working more consistently on my painting. I painted a seascape a month or so ago and really screwed up the clouds. The next session I just did studies of clouds and last week I made a much better painting with a good cloudy sky in it.

My time travel, is not causing emotional pain anymore.

The dentist said that my root cannal, and iv sedation. is covered by insurance. Also I can take a cab home after If someone comes with me. I found someone so everything is great.

Also I have 514 days streak for French lessons.

I haven’t had a pop in a year.
I’ve been brushing my teeth every day.

@smudges hugs

@all, I love these things

In the last year? Huh. I decided to retire early, went through the emotional angst of that, got all the money coming in, have done several projects in the back yard (some to completion, others are started and in progress), attended the wedding of one of my sons to a wonderful young lady, became a grandpa for real. Oh! and we might be getting a dog. Not a puppy, but a dog. The jury is still out on that. A neighbor is moving into a condo. She has 3 little dogs which would be okay, but one of them barks every time a car goes by. The Condo Nazis may make a big stink about it. If so, we would probably end up with the dog. She knows we are good dog parents as her dogs and mine were always friendly. And this dog knows us already.

^^ Yayyy! It’s always good news when a good parent is getting a pet! I hope it works out if that’s what you’d like.

@filmfann

Would you care to share a photo of your new Shasta view?

My milestone is being able to take care of my 89 year old father while dealing with my own medical issues. I would not have been able to do all of this if my workplace injury didn’t happen last December. My injury, that was no fault of my own, afforded me time to help my father and deal with other medical issues I have.

@smudges We lost our little buddy a couple years ago. It was my wife’s first dog. She’s allergic to just about everything on Earth, but was not allergic to this little friend. And he didn’t shed. It was a perfect dog for her. This little dog our neighbor is concerned about is about the same breed (terrier mutt), about the same size, just white instead of Yorkie brown. My only concern is the neighbor pad trained her dogs and I’m not interested in continuing that. So I’ll have to train him to go outside (he does for pooping, just not always for peeing).

@seawulf575 While I understand the rationale of pad training, there just seems like there’s something inherently wrong with it. Doggies need to go in grass, otherwise many would never get to sniff interesting scents, and it’s been proven that something like 70–80% of a dog’s energy is spent sniffing. When owners don’t understand why their dog goes nuts straining at a leash, especially in the grass, it’s their own fault! They get ticked off at the dog and I’ve seen many pull the dog along and not let it just free-range sniff. sorry, got lost in a rant there, but it pisses me off to no end! :)

We joined a local gym two months ago and we’re getting strong! After 40 its pretty painful tbh. :)

@smudges Their dogs all go poop outside, but I think as an older couple they didn’t want to have to deal with letting the dog out at night or early in the morning and it just carried over to the dog figuring out it was just as easy to pee on the pad.

^^ Lol Smart dog! I used to live on the second floor and had a balcony. I wanted a small dog but stairs are kind of difficult for me so I came up with the idea of lowering it in a basket to the ground outside the balcony, train it to hop out and go, then get back in the basket and I’d haul it up. I never did it, but still think it’s a great idea!

Follow up: We are indeed the parents of a new dog! The neighbor may come back and say she is missing him, but for now he is here. He spent a couple days in a funk, kept wanting to go back to the other house, not realizing his family was gone. He didn’t eat for a day or so, drank very little water and was reluctant to use the bathroom. Since then he has started settling right in. He is starting to realize his other family is gone but we are not so bad.

^^ Awww…he may be missing his 2 buddies. You don’t have a dog besides him, correct? I hope it works out and he becomes happy with the situation. Dogs feel more than we think. I saw a dog I’d had for 6 years and was his only human. I saw him 10 years later and he was sooo happy to see me. It hurt my heart.

This reminds me of a situation I was in. I was 13 months old and in foster care – had been since birth. One day I got adopted. As an adult, I often wonder how the little me felt, what she thought about that. There she was, living her life with “parents” and 4 teenagers – the only life she knew.

Then she goes to lunch with some people, stays the night with them another time, then she says bye to her ‘family’ and goes away with these new people. I’d give anything to know what she was thinking and how she was feeling. I feel sad for her. Regardless of how the new family worked out, she was attached to her old family and they were suddenly gone with no explanation that she could understand. Your dog situation made me think of that, that’s all.

Yeah, that’s kinda how he was at first. We’ve loved him and made him our little guy and let him soak that up to ease his loss. I know he is still missing his family, but he sees that we are there for him and he is opening up nicely. And no, we don’t have another dog. Ours died last year. We do have a grand-dog, though. It’ll be interesting to see how these two get along. We don’t get to see the grand-dog all the time…usually once every couple months.

Good. With the grand-dog he’ll at least have some interaction with other dogs. It’s possible he misses that more than his people. Who knows. Maybe someday we’ll all have all of the answers. :)

Anyway, I’m happy that he has you guys. Bless your heart.