Outside, the wind is whipping the rain around. I hope it rains for hours and hours. That's what refills the creeks so I can go backpacking next week!
Inside, I have made garlicky bread and veggie soup for lunch and have cooked cauliflower and turkey tenderloin for dinner later. We are all full. The house is dark, just a few lights on. The boys are playing a game together, murmuring and laughing. Chan is curled up chatting with friends online, enjoying a day off. There are a couple of fans on, moving the air around. It's a very good day.
Earlier today, Ben went to his orchestra class and I went and walked 3 miles before the rain started. The trail was tougher than expected and I was sweating. I was in Chan's car because Matt has my van, with my wallet inside. His car is at the shop for a front end noise that turned out to be rough brake pads, so not another $250 repair for the 4th month in a row! Chan had a small stack of quarters and after my walk, I drove over to a drink machine only to discover it was a Coke machine. BUT LO AND BEHOLD there was a Diet Pepsi in the silver can option. It took the money and dispensed an icy can with zero drama. I may have done a dance. Thank goodness for second-hand soda machines that the owner can stock whatever way.
I can only drink diet Pepsi because it does not have aspartame. Aspartame makes my muscles and joints HURT, I don't know why. Once I get moving I limber up, but the first minute or two EVERY TIME I GET UP my joints feel like they are either going to seize up or give out knees and hips being the worst. That's zero fun in the middle of the night when all I want to do is run pee before I wake up enough to just lay there until the alarm goes off. Instead, I hobble. It took the better part of a year to figure it out because I had cut out all kinds of other foods first. Mainly dairy and gluten. That sucked, lemme tell ya. It wasn't until after a backpacking trip that I realized I was moving just fine despite being for real sore from muscle use. The only thing I didn't have that week was-diet soda.
Anyway, loathe to give it up totally because-that would make sense-I simply started reading about what in diet drinks makes people have stiff joints. And viola! I can drink Diet Pepsi is the moral of this story. I drink water, too. I drink water from creeks, which is why I am liking this rain.
I have been bummed this whole month, October is our Big Trip month-for the past 10 years, we have been gone somewhere awesome this month. DC, Blue Ridge Parkway, St. Louis, Cayman, Savannah, Florida, the OBX twice, Disney, Buffalo River...I don't have anything on the radar until nearly the end of the month and that's iffy because it involves taking Ben and his buddies off for a few days and Elan just started working. So we aren't even sure if that's going to be a thing. I wanna go somewhere!
In other comforts news, I have ordered yet another camping pillow to try. I have the pack, pad, tent, and even camping hammock that I want, but that pillow...I want something HUGE like a bed pillow, but there's no backpacking pillow that big. They are all slightly larger than a tictac container and not any softer. The pad/pillow combo plus head results in a squirting action in which the pillow goes 'feeyuuum' and bounces off the tent wall as soon as I lay down. I spend an hour each night locating the pillow and getting it back underneath my head. Slightly deflated helps, but does not solve the problem. This one has a cover.
I did find out that I can cut down my too long pad and iron the ends closed. So I may soon have a pad that works in the tent AND the hammock. As soon as I get up the nerve.
