Happy New Year!!

Happy New Year! This will be my last post of the year! And it will catch us up to current time. Yes, I’ve left out a lot, but you know how that goes. Life goes on. It’s snowing here . . . I love it so much. Since I moved to Arizona, I have really missed the snow. So I just drove to the store, in the snow, thinking that with a storm like this, people from ARIZONA are not going to be out and about. Wrong! I forgot that it was New Years Eve day and everybody was out trying to get their last minute shopping finished. So it was crowded in the store, and the streets were starting to get slick, and by the time I reached home, I surprised myself by thinking that I was pretty glad I was living in Arizona and that it didn’t snow that often! How things change, huh?

Now, on to the post. That was just preliminary jabber. Now, I have to catch you all up on my life, because an extraordinary thing has happened. Stand by.

If you don’t know about “earthing” you really should find out about it. There is an excellent book about it called . . . Earthing by Clinton Ober and a couple other people, one of whom is a doctor. Basically, it says that part of the cause of so many illnesses . . . including cancer . . . is that humans have lost touch with the earth. Once upon a time, we walked around barefoot . . . or even had shoes with leather soles (which are conductive). Now, most shoe soles are plastic . . . even my cowboy boots have plastic “grip-rite” soles. And who goes barefoot anymore? Not many. Kids grow up and put on shoes.

BUT when we go barefoot with the grass beneath our feet . . . the real earth beneath our feet . . . there is an exchange of electrons that is incredibly healthy for us. And not doing that is unhealthy for us. So I’ve been doing that . . . well, not so much since the weather has been cold . . . but, here begins my story.

Key up the Jaws theme music.

So I’m sitting on a plastic fold up chair that I bought for five dollars at a garage sale—I love the chair, it’s very comfortable and light to carry—and my feet are on the sandy soil, and Moki is running around enjoying his freedom. I have two books and my iPad with me. There’s a third book on the iPad. As I sit out there for my thirty to sixty minutes of earthing, I rotate the three books. One of the books is the Earthing book that I mentioned earlier.

Turn Jaws music louder.

It’s a beautiful day with ultra blue skies, white puffy clouds, and the fragrant and pleasant smell of horses on the breeze. I look up from my book. There is something about twenty feet away from me, on the ground, heading my way. It’s small, but large enough to be seen clearly from twenty feet away. It has eight legs. And it’s headed straight toward me. And for something with eight legs, it’s actually pretty large. I close my book, wiggle my toes in the dirt, and watch it approach. It looks like a baby tarantula. I like tarantulas—however, the idea of it crawling over my feet doesn’t really appeal to me. It keeps coming. When it gets about a foot or two away, it veers off slightly to my left. I watch as it circles my chair and walks off on a roughly parallel course from its original path.

Now, here comes Moki, oblivious to the drama (and the Jaws music). He’s walking toward me and doesn’t see the tarantula. Oops! He steps on it as he walks toward me! Poor tarantula. But it was big enough to survive the assualt, and it kind of limps off and disappears under a bush.

Now key in Sound of Music . . . the hills are alive . . . with the smell of horses . . . 

So . . . the fragrant smell of horses is because I am once again living on a horse ranch. And the dirt under my feet is inside a large “corral” technically labeled the arena. Moki and I have been living here since June, and it is the most incredible living situation that you could imagine! I take care of the horses when the owners are away (always on long trailrides not too far from here), and when they’re home, I get to go riding all the time! (Though it’s been too cold for the last week or so.) And the best part, really, is that they treat me incredibly well. Tonight, I’m going to a New Years Eve party with them. And although normally I am extremely shy and try to stay away from parties where I don’t know most of the people . . . for some odd reason, I’m looking forward to this one.

I think this post is long enough now, so I’ll end it here. I did go ice skating earlier in the week . . . sixty-three years old going on seventeen! I had a great time and didn’t even fall down!

I wish each and every one of you a very happy and healthy new year. Hugs.