Caution

I saw a social media post about a jogger who was followed by a man in a car.  I have seen quite a few of these lately, usually in rural Midwest, small county roads - women in cars followed by men in cars.  Supposedly single females being followed by single men in cars with no licence plates.  The men in cars engaging in strange behavior, such as photographing the women, passing them, then slowing down to be passed, then repeating.  This happened to me couple times when I was a young woman.  Maybe I will write about them tomorrow.

I have seen posts in the past about walkers and joggers being followed, over the past few years.  I wish I could point to some national story that might have been the inspiration...There have been some national news stories about this.  A woman in California taken and then later she escaped.  Several stories about joggers back East. 

Then this post I saw last night.  This post was in my old neighborhood of our city house.  This is the 2nd such incident in 2 months in this same 2 block area.  There was a local news story last night about this woman who did the social media post.  She reports that a man in an SUV was parked and when she jogged by, he drove down and cut through at a turn and came up the side she was jogging on.  By then, she joined another jogger and the SUV then left. 

I walk there still while we are in extended stay hotel.  The hotel is on an outer road with no shoulder, so I felt it was too dangerous to walk near the hotel.  So, I have been driving over to my old neighborhood and walking.  Now I am not so sure.  I told DH the other day that I often see cars go by and then go by again, I thought not much about it.  Now I have doubts.  DH says he will walk with me after retirement.  I guess I better have him join me now.  But I cannot find anyone who wants to walk as much or as far as I do.  And I will walk in hot or cold.  Makes me sad.  I really need my walks.  Walking helps me get vitamin D, helps me stay trim and lets me eat what I want, helps me clear my mind, creates neurotransmitters, gives me solitude.  If I keep walking, I will stop listening to my books, which is a big part of what I enjoyed.  Guess I can't have it all. 

When I walked last night, I also saw a vehicle stopped by a road that did not continue (like where you see the signs with red diamonds).  The vehicle was running and there was a man sitting in it.  DH said maybe the man was watching his wife jog - I did see several other women jogging.  If DH won't/can't keep up with me - I guess I will just have to have him go with me and at least sit in his car and watch me.  Crazy isn't it?!

I guess I may try to go to yoga tonight.  It is worth the $15 per time.  If I cannot walk outside, I just don't know what I would do.  I guess in my little small town usa retirement town, I will walk laps around town instead of walking out in the middle of nowhere.  But part of the appeal of where I walked here in the suburbs was seeing nature, birds, critters...etc. 

I wonder if this is some sort of worry phenomenon or if there really is more young women being followed.  This hysteria on the heels of the girl missing and then found dead in Iowa?  What do you guys think?  I do not walk without protection, I will just leave that at that.  But I am still just a middle aged woman, no match for a strong man or men.  It really makes me wonder. 

Blogging for a month

10/25/17
Blogging for a month

So, while I am a little quieter this week, I still want to continue blogging.  I am not sure these are even published because when I google, I can't locate.  I can just access it via Blogger on my cell phone.

Oh, well.  Not even sure if I care, but I would like to connect with someone else out there. 

I guess I am quiet this week because I am all talked out from this weekend!  There are a few people in my family that I worry about for various reasons.  Sometimes that worry gets overwhelming, not because of the worry itself, but because I know I could help if I were asked, but I cannot help unless the people want me to help.  So, it feels frustrating being helpless.  Then I remember the best way I probably can help is to work on myself and pray for those people.

The weather is turning a little cooler.  Getting darker.  I am going to run home after work and walk, no matter what!  When my husband and I walked Sunday afternoon we saw a new to us bird - a cormorant.  It was cool.  We also found the 5 gal bucket of brand new paint.  My sister has decided this will be good for the well house/storage they are building.  I am happy to save her $100 on paint!  I am happy it is just in my garage temporarily!

My stomach is feeling good this week which is amazing considering I ate too much and most of it junk this past weekend.  But I am doing pretty well.  It helped that I backed way off Sunday and I have not been eating anything except fruit in the evenings.  Tonight I might have a smoothie. 

This is the last weekend before Halloween.  I think Sat my husband and I are going to go out and see my Brother in Law (BIL2) play with his band.  We never go out, we are home bodies.  We especially never go to bars or clubs.  We usu eat out and relax and make an evening out of it, so it will be fun.  I am glad we don't do it often, I can't stay up too late, I am early to bed kind of person.  Have a great Wednesday!

blogging anniversary, quiet, cooler fall weather, family worry, how I can help, prayer, work on myself, feeling pretty good, walking, listening to brother in law, BIL band, light eating

First day of fall Friday

So I got my walk in last evening after work.  It was nice, a little warm but nice therapy.  I have been walking regularly (I jogged for a few years) for over 30 years, since I graduated from high school.  I walk outside and inside.  I have gone through two treadmills.  I just sold my last one to downsize. 

 

I walk as much for relaxation as anything.  The weather lately is not like fall, it is in the high 80's low 90's and pretty humid.  Oh well, it won't last long.  We need rain at RH or I rely on my in laws to keep things alive and I hate for them to have to worry about it.  My DH parents and sister are great to help us when we need to, or we could have never bought this house and started getting it ready for when we retire ahead of time, like we have done. 

 

This month officially makes it 3 years that we have been dealing with 2 house payments, 2 insurance, 2 real estate taxes, 2 utilities...it has been great, but a little stressful (first world problems).  But we could not have done it without dear IL and my SIL and BIL. 

 

Today SIL had to oversee 2nd delivery of our new dishwasher.  The first one they installed had large defect in the surface covering about 1/3 of the front panel.  Our existing appliances there are white (I hate) and the cabinets are white (I love).  We could not find a nice updated slide in electric range (and were not willing to tear up entire floor to run gas line) in white, so we got stainless.  I have heard all the stories of fingerprints, smears, etc.  But white was not working out and we did not want black.  The kitchen is sort of small and a little closed off and the black would have been way to dark for the space. 

 

The house itself is small ish 1400+ square feet.  Our current city house is about 2700, but has a large storage area and 2 full living areas.  We felt it important to go slightly smaller and with true range/one story lay out.  This RH is also older than CH, but we fell better built.  So both houses seem to have things they need at the same time - that has been fun.  This year we have purchased a water heater and washer/dryer (CH) and a roof, range/oven and dishwasher (RH).  At least we have paid case as we have gone along. 

 

Also last year we finished more laminate floors in CH (to get it ready to sell) and enclosed a car port at RH.  Next will be a new AC for RH, but at least we got the one for CH purchased a couple of years ago (the unit on CH was less than 10 years old and just quit). 

 

I am told that builder grade things are like that and we see this over and over in CH.  Even how the siding and doors/windows on the SW side was done wrong, leading to water rushing in when we first moved in and requiring a sump pump in the basement - which all fell on us and HOA, instead of the builder (not my decision, this was the mindset of the HOA person/hired by builder).  This eventually has lead to ever increasing HOA fees and a deficit to our neighborhood account.  Some of my neighbors are very concerned and try to get answers and some of the neighbors seem to just "trust" it will all work out.  DH and I are just looking forward to getting away from it before there is a large assessment. 

 

Oh, and while we feel lucky home prices seem to be rising which is good for sellers, taxes on both places has risen steadily in the past 3 years.  We are really basically just over the stress of two places.

 
Well, this weekend I have not decided what my project will be at CH to do something to help the process of selling it.  There are plenty of things to do.  Maybe I will scrub the white grout in the master bath.  Whose idea was it to use white anyway?  Duh.  There are lots of fall festival type activities in the city this weekend and a movie we want to see, so we will have some fun and make run to appreciate my gratitude for the present and not wish my time away too fast! 

Hope you have a great weekend if you are reading this, thanks for stopping by.