Monday, May 12, 2025 - Day 272

Monday, May 12, 2025

Good morning from the heartland. ☀️

My apologies to all the moms out there—I totally missed Mother’s Day yesterday. So, a heartfelt Happy Belated Mother’s Day! I hope your day was filled with love, laughter, and at least one meal you didn’t have to cook.

Things around here continue to be fluid. Every day has a slightly different rhythm, like life’s running on shuffle mode.

Yesterday’s main event was smoking the pork belly. I don’t think Cindy is especially fond of this part of the bacon-making journey. There’s just nothing glamorous about managing the smoker—tending charcoal, scooping ash, handling greasy grates, and having to touch the meat again. She powered through it with a half-smile, and after a few smoky hours, we had ourselves a batch of bacon. Today’s plan: slicing and packaging. Whether she ever signs up for this particular adventure again remains… uncertain. Bacon: delicious to eat, less fun to create.

There is a bit of an art to maintaining the smoker at the right temperature. You can’t just set a dial and walk away. It takes practice—and what better way to practice than hanging by the grill with a cold beer? Or in Cindy’s case, a nice glass of wine. Who knows, maybe she’ll take to it and start smoking her favorite dish—salmon. Now that would be a win.

After the smoke cleared, we headed to Sew Hop’d Brewery with Barb and Mark for an afternoon of craft beer, sunshine, and music. Turns out, we weren’t the only ones who thought breweries made good Mother’s Day destinations. All the outdoor seating was taken. We brought Bear with us, which ruled out the indoor option (no dogs allowed). But luck, patience, or maybe the power of the cane worked in our favor—we snagged a spot after about 10 minutes. Either way, it turned into a great way to spend the afternoon.

Now for the less savory update: the stairs. We’re preparing for the day when my legs decide they’ve officially had enough of climbing. That day is creeping closer. I keep flashing back to Easter up north, when I tried stepping up into the boathouse—a simple 10-inch rise. My leg gave out halfway up, and the result? A head wound and another lesson learned. It was eerily similar to the St. Maarten incident in December—me, trying to climb onto an 18-inch wall for no good reason. (Why? Because I was being stupid, let’s just call it what it is.) That one ended with a loud crack and—you guessed it—another head injury. Call it what it is…a conspiracy. Clearly, elevated surfaces and gravity are working together to hold me down.

At home, the stairs to the second floor have a rise just under 8 inches. Not huge, but still enough to worry about. Thankfully, we’ve got solid handrails on both sides. If nothing else, they should keep me from doing a dramatic tumble backwards.

The good news: there’s a solution for when stairs become totally off-limits. It’s called the Liftkar stair climber. It’s a pretty clever piece of equipment—portable, too—so we can toss it in the back of the car and tackle places that aren’t wheelchair accessible. ALS United is dropping it off today, and I’m hoping we can get a video of it in action. Honestly, I’m just as curious as anyone.

Prey Series update: I’m just a few pages from finishing Silent Prey. Perfect timing, because Winter Prey (book #5) arrived yesterday afternoon. Thank you, mystery sender! I’m not sure when I’ll crack it open—I’ve got a couple of other books in the queue—but I’m glad to have it ready. And the best part…no library due date to be concerned with…just a place to store them.

Have a great Monday, everyone.

Love you guys! ❤️