365-9 | Peaches Prattlings

{January 8, 2025} Birthday messages!

I love when my friends and family have birthdays and apparently, they love that I love it too. Ok, the reason I am saying this is I started making birthday videos for people and they love it, some have even come to expect it and if I’m late… uh oh!

I don’t even know when or how it started, but it did and I’ve had so much fun over the years! I take a video of me singing happy birthday to the person. Sometimes I do it early for people, maybe somewhere I’ve been traveling, for example, last year, I made a few while I was snorkeling/swimming in the waters of Jost Van Dyke, the British Virgin Islands, and by last year, I meant in December 2023 for birthdays coming up in 2024.

This year, or last year, well, last week, I was in Hawai’i and recorded a few for this year. I even did one or two while I was riding on my motorcycle! NO! I am not holding the phone! It’s in a phone holder on the bike, I flip the camera and press record, then start singing. Now… those are harder to hear, I’m as loud as I can be, but…the bike and the wind are louder, imagine that!

My singing is not great, I put on voices and accents, and I absolutely love doing it. And as I make friends and family, or make friends my family, my record collection, so to speak, grows and grows, I think I get sillier and sillier, but it seems to work for me!

The year started off with our niece, MM, I was so excited, I sent it the day before her birthday! I sent one to a friend yesterday, HH, who is celebrating in London, then today, my cousin MS celebrating with her daughter in Barcelona, a friend LJ, who happens to be in Puerto Rico celebrating, and then SMB, who is 16, not in a foreign land, but… drumroll please…got her license today! That is a great way to celebrate a birthday!

And if you’re celebrating a birthday today, tomorrow, this month, or…whenever you celebrate, I wish you all the best, and a very happy birthday to you…happy birthday to you…happy birthday dear….youuuuu…happy birthday to you!

{January 7, 2025} I have the travel bug, I know it, I knew it, and I reinforced it!

You know I used to travel for work, I would share some of my exploits with you, 12 years of being a road warrior, 12 years on the road 100%, then covid hit and that changed and I rolled with the punches. I didn’t go exactly willingly, but I went, because that was the way it was going to be.

I knew I had the travel bug when PSM and I met, I was traveling, then I got on a project in Boston, I wouldn’t be too far from where he lived, and we thought, this will be great, we’ll see each other during the week, yeah…right…well that didn’t happen, traffic in Boston was against that! But…we saw each other every weekend and that was great…we went to the mountains, we did things, we explored, but I wasn’t getting on a plane, and I discovered…I needed to get on a plane every week or every other week at least. Ok, discovery…

Then…we moved to Hawai’i and I was only coming home once a month for the weekend, sometimes a week, but mostly just a weekend, that was hard, but we managed. One advantage, I was able to travel to other places, since I couldn’t fly home, they would still pay for me to fly places for the weekend. I remember landing in Chicago, after being on a 7/8 hour flight from Amsterdam, going through customs wondering where I was going next, and that spoke volumes!

Then covid hit, grounded, everyone on my team thought this would be great! I won’t have to dress for work, I can do meetings in my jammies, well… that wasn’t for me, but the plus side… PSM and I got to find out what it was like to really live together, full time, 100% and it was great! I wanted to travel, of course, but this was quality time. Then… I got back on the road, 2022, I spent in Boston on another project, coming home every other weekend, not great, but we made it work.

I got on another project after that, it lasted a minute, not as long as it should have, I was back on the road, then not…but…it allowed me to be there for the contractors when we moved to PA and take a 3-week motorcycle trip across country, all wonderful. I’ve been on my current contract for over a year now and it’s been great. You know I love training, I really enjoy the people I am working with, but I’m remote on this contract…if I had all the money in the world, wait, I wouldn’t be working if I had all the money in the world, or at least not working for someone else, ha ha, but if I had the money, I might travel to different locations to work, because working remotely…home is where the wifi is!

But… I have digressed a lot… the point of this post…I realized I have the travel bug because while we were flying back to the mainland, a 5+ hour flight, then a second 5 hour flight, all I kept thinking was…where are we going next? When I was flying back from London in November, where am I flying next? No, I don’t want to be a flight attendant, lord love ’em, not for me, but I definitely need/want to be on the road again.

As for personal trips, that involve flying…I have one planned with SDL in April and one with PSM planned for July…it’s January, April is just around the corner and will be here before we know it, who knows what’s going to happen between now and then, but whatever is in the cards for me… I’m ready!

Up…Up…And Away!

{January 6, 2025} Brrrr…who turned up the AC?!

Two days ago we were on the beach, snorkeling, swimming with honu and today…I was using a snow thrower to clear off the driveway! What?!

We left the Big Island on Saturday night, it was a balmy 80 degrees out, we flew through Phoenix, 45 degrees! as we walked through the jet bridge. We landed in Newark, it was about 30 when dad picked us up! What?! Brrrrr…drove home, it was about 23 when we pulled into the driveway at home. Seriously?! A lot of people on our flights were worried if they would make their connections, the winter weather heading in.

This morning…woke up to a covered backyard, house, street, it was white out and it kept coming…it wasn’t too bad when PSM left for work, then about 1130a, I decided to go out and throw a little snow! If you recall, last year, we bought a snow thrower, not a snow blower, it literally throws the snow, very cool! Well, I put on my cuddle dud layer, fleece on top, snow boots, ski jacket, and headed to the barn to blow the 4 inches of snow so it would not be difficult when PSM came home or when I went to get the dogs.

I made a first pass, took about 40 minutes, not too shabby, then I put the snow thrower away, turned around, and there was a new layer of snow on top of what I just did! Oh brother! But… it wasn’t too bad, even if it left another layer, we were in a good place.

Later, I looked out the window and the area near the barn, you couldn’t tell it had snowed! All melted from the ground, what?! The driveway still had some snow. We were in business.

Then…it started snowing again…it wasn’t bad when I went to pick the pups up, but definitely not top down weather, sorry Ruby! Easy driving and PSM took it easy going to the office and coming home. And… guess what…it’s still going! Looks like I have a morning activity tomorrow!

Walking in a winter wonderland…may I just have the sand instead?!

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