A Quiet Christmas

Many people told me they were having a quiet Christmas and meant that as they were staying home. For several years now I've done all my Christmas Day's at home with my husband and dogs. With dogs, there is never a quiet Christmas. The morning always starts off with the dogs tearing into their own stockings and goes on from there.

This year Boomer got fascinated with one of my gifts that gurgles, coos, and moves. He wasn't sure what to make of it, though he has finally accepted Baby Yoda (Grogu).

Happy Almost New Year!

Boomer wondering what that thing is

Boomer and Baby Yoda  meet on Christmas morning

Christmas Poem 2020

Happy Thanksgiving!

Happy Thanksgiving!

May you be enjoying your day with good company and good eats no matter how big or smaller your Thanksgiving is.

Squirrel taking a peanut butter-bird seed pine cone hanging for the birds. He eventually gnawed it free and took off with his Thanksgiving treat.

Happy Halloween 2020

Happy Halloween 2020

Halloween night is here,
marking the end of October,
Blue Blood Moon over head.

Pumpkins were carved,
glowing owls hidden inside,
waited to great,
the three trick-or-treaters
that dared to spread their wings
and journey out on this clear night.

Happy Halloween!

I Woke Up On Mars

I woke up on Mars this morning. Some how I slept through the entire journey. Upon opening my eyes I thought it 6:30 am as the dim light filtering into the bedroom was subdued. Once up and having opened the blinds, I saw the sky was an intense red-orange as I had never seen before. The clock revealed it was actually 9:30 a.m.

Now it is 11:50 a.m. and the red-orange sky is even darker than before. I've had to turn on synthetic lights just so I can see in the house.

Photos have not been color changed. These were taken without a flash.

My Beautiful Empress Tree

Last year my Empress Tree was huge and in full bloom. The tree looked amazing and many people stopped to take photos of it (and I can't seem to find a single photo right now). Unfortunately, the branches were brittle and breaking off in huge chunks. In addition it was in the power lines. So, we let the electric company cut it down.

The result was we used the trunk to create our Halloween Pumpkin Creature last October.

Now that summer has come around again, a full year since the tree was turned into a trunk, it has transformed itself.

I can only wonder what it will look like next Spring.

Months and Months

You think with being home more, I would be blogging more, instead it has been a lot less. It took a friend to point out to me I hadn't blogged since April and that was back in June. Now we are nearly at the end of July.

I did have ideas for blog posts, and kept meaning to write them, but each day has past by me. Between adapting to working 100% from home and new writing ideas, blogging fell between to the cracks. So today, before I allow myself to fall into complete distraction I shall blog.

The fifth Conrad novel is almost finished. It is in the final stages of editing. When done it is off the printers and an examination of the proof. Then POOF! It is released.

One of the items I wanted to show on my blog, but failed to was all the beautiful flowers that popped up in yard at the end of April and early May. Luckily, I snapped some photos of them. Here they are:

Co-Hosting My First Webinar on April 22 @ 6 p.m.

As life is focused on safe, isolated pursuits, I am working from home with my day job as a financial advisor. My firm is putting on a Webinar on April 22 @ 6 p.m. The title is Successfully Managing Adversity: Through Mental Health, Financial Opportunity and Empowerment. You are invited to join us for this fun hour-long educational event. You can join either through Facebook or if you prefer a Zoom link, e-mail me and I will send you one.

https://www.facebook.com/events/220347125915676/


See you there.

The Giant Easter Egg!

With Easter almost here, the creativity was sparked in our household, especially given that we are living in isolation per the current pandemic situation. Wanting to make Easter special, and knowing we couldn't do what we normally do this time of year, we decided we should make a giant Easter egg to place on the Empress Tree stump in our front yard.

This idea started a debate on what we could make it from. A balloon was the first thought. Yet, we didn't have any in the house, and given the need to stay out of society and with most stores closed, reasoned we needed to come up with another idea. That lead us to the concept of a wire frame. We had some fencing wire in the garage, but that didn't seem like a good idea. Rummaging around, I found a damaged umbrella I had placed in a bucket of random sticks, poles, and broken curtain rods set aside to prop plants up as needed. We had our wire.

First we broke the spokes off the umbrella and stuck them in some card board circles. We added a paper bowl to the top to round it off.

Since we had found a roll of Easter wrapping paper to decorate our egg, we figured we needed something to go over the spokes. While we considered more cardboard, we came up with a better idea: egg cartoons! Since Boomer and Fern eat eggs every day, and egg cartoons are no longer considered recyclable in our area, we had a huge pile of them. We tore the tops of the egg cartoons, flattened them out, and then used hot glue to attach them to the spokes.

Next we cut the wrapping paper into strips, which we glued and taped to the egg body.

We finished our giant egg off with a gold ribbon and bow.

Now our Easter egg is ready for Easter morning!

Feel Like Reading!

Feel like reading?

Here in Oregon, it's been raining daily, which always motivates me to read and write. If you are into fantasy, science fiction or children's books, you might like to read one I penned.

That said, I arranged a discount through my printer if you buy the books directly through them. I set all my books at 20% off or more. In addition, Lulu.com, usually offers an additional 10% or 15% off. Thus, going straight to my printer is the cheapest way to buy my books, though you can still find them wherever books are sold.

http://www.lulu.com/shop/heather-hobson/the-conrad-chronicles-revolt/paperback/product-23411235.html

Thoughts on a Pandemic Day

Before I was a financial advisor, before I was a teacher, I was a historian who studied the Middle Ages and Ancient World. Those times in history were marked by increase travel and trade, which resulted in the spread of viruses and diseases that frequently halted the daily life which our ancestors were accustomed.

We are also now living in such a time, and as a historian, I see this as a moment of great change for how our lives are lead. Societal shifts, as we are undergoing right now, are often hard, confusing, and can be painful, but once the change has occurred the opportunity for a new creative society is born (imagine the shift from the Middle Ages to the Renaissance).

What we are experiencing with Covid-19 is new for us, but it is not a new experience for the human race. Once all is settled again, which will take time, we will find ourselves in a new age, with new opportunities. So even though you may be suffering or grieving today, realize you are living during a unique, historical moment, and you will get the honor  of being one of the first humans to experience the birth of a new age.

My Other Job

For years I have kept this blog exclusively focused on my writing, random thoughts, fun things, and areas of concern in the world. Very little have I written about my various careers. Right now, given the Covid-19 Virus and our changing world, I feel perhaps my other skill areas are important to share.

Heather H. Lewis, Financial Advisor

Currently I am employed as a financial advisor with Castro Monroy Group in Salem, Oregon. So if you are currently concerned about your financial situation, you aren't alone. My colleagues and I are here, and are more than willing to do our best to help you at this volatile time. We are working remotely, and conducting meetings via phone or video. So if you feel the need, please reach out. There is no cost to meet and consult with us. We offer personalized service, and many products that are stable in this current environment and with solid companies that survived even the 1929 market crash. We carry very strong and competitive life insurance products, if that is a current concern you have.

Also, you should know I am a former teacher, and am passionate about educating people, as well as have a strong desire to see a vibrant and successful middle class, so I'm willing to work with any client, with which I can legally work (that means Oregon residents right now), no matter their income level.

So if I can help you in anyway, please e-mail me at my work at HL@castromonroygroup.com

Life on March 17, 2020

Here we are on St. Patrick's Day, in the middle of the season of Lent, living during a pandemic. Now that I have done all I can do in preparation for what might come, many thoughts bounce around my head. They are random in many ways, but also connect to the current times and spread of Covid-19. As a historian by training, and novelist, I have felt for weeks this virus would turn into a pandemic and spread. Unfortunately, what I believed would happen has (though I have been surrounded by those who don't think the virus is much of an issue).

One thought that reached my mind was of the Titantic. When it hit the iceberg, and a few feared it may go down, they prepared life boats. Not many people were willing to listen and get in at that time. After a bit more time passed, a few more saw the wisdom of getting in a life boat. By the time most people realized the ship was truly sinking, it was too late and they drowned. I'm in the first life boat. That's just who I am.

Secondly, I've been pondering how one of the priests at my church talked on Ash Wednesday about Lent being a time to grow closer to God, to remove from your life what is keeping you away from God. Now that I have chosen to eliminate all extra out of the house activities, and the world has slowed, I wonder if one of the positives to look for in this time of forced stillness is a space to be closer to the Creator.

Last night I pulled a book off my shelf I had read in college and kept. Now seems to the right time to read it again. The first chapter, in several ways, connected to and helped explain the spread of diseases and how pandemics occur, and have done so throughout history. The book is The Black Death: Natural and Human Disaster in Medieval Europe by Robert S. Gottfried. For years I have referenced ideas from it in conversations I have had, as many of the facts written among its pages awoken and expanded the thoughts of my young mind.

Take care of yourself. Use some of this stillness to reflect on what is important to you.

The Conrad Chronicles

With a joyous smile I finished writing the first draft of book 8 of The Conrad Chronicles today. When I started penning words this afternoon, I knew I was near the end of the book, but didn't realize I'd finish. Usually when I sit down to write with my cup of vanilla piece tea, I write one scene. Today I knocked out the last three and then jotted down notes so I begin writing book 9, which will be the finally book in the series.

Of course, I still need to get books 5 through 7 finished and published. The plan is to publish 5 this year, which will happen as it only needs formatting and one more proof reading after that. I shall have published in the Fall for sure, maybe sooner.

Happy reading!

A Poem For These Times

This morning I awoke with a heavy heart, feeling the anxiety and depression of those around me, and the world. As a historian by training, I feel saddened by where I sense we are going. Normally I don't write poetry, except for my annual Christmas poem, but at dawn, on this lovely blue sky, February day, this poem came to me. It is untitled at this point.

Dreams of Founders shattered,
Fears of the Innocent manifested
as they come to await a tragic end.
Sold out for evil gains,
a nation once full of promise and hope,
titters on the pinnacle of despair,
bracing for the fall into darkness
as faux leaders push
Democracy and the Republic
over the edge and grin wickedly as they die,
thinking themselves gods.

2 Years Since Konrad Reichenberger Disappeared

Two years ago today Konrad Charles Reichenberger went missing. He was last seen on January 13, 2018.

As a reminder Konrad was last seen in Alturas, California in the California Pines Hill Area.

Konrad is 6'2" tall, weighed 200 lbs when he disappeared, and is now 46 years old. He has tattoos on his right arm, brown hair that he usually has worn very short to almost shaved off, and usually has facial hair.

Please remember that Modoc County is a rural area. It is one of the poorer counties in California, and is filled with a lot of wilderness. In the area he disappeared from there has been illegal logging, as well as drug labs hidden in the forested areas. None of us are sure what has happened to Konrad other than he was last seen at his cabin home on January 13, 2018 and that he loved his dogs so much he would never have just left them without a solid reason or being forced to leave against his will. When he disappeared there was several feet of snow on the ground.

His family and friends really want to find him or at least find out what happened.

If you have any information on his disappearance please contact the Modoc County Sheriff's department at 530-233-4416.

If you can help spread the word he is still missing, that would be appreciated also.