And the power went out. So, okay, fine, whatever. Welcome to the Only Child Diaries podcast. I'm your host, Tracy Wallace. Have you ever felt like you didn't receive the how-to brochure on life, that you didn't get enough guidance about major life issues? So did I. You don't have to be an only child to feel this way. In my podcast, we'll explore some of the best ways to better navigate adulting, while doing so with humor and light. Welcome everyone to the Only Child Diaries podcast. Diaries podcast.

Today I'm going to talk about well, I'm going to talk about where I'm at, and I promise that this is going to be a short episode. Last week, if you listened to last week's episode, you know that it was not one of my happier, perkier messages. It was well, it ended up being sad and that's because I was talking about the impending anniversary of the death of my horse, dallas. It's been a year and for the most part, I've really tried to just put it out of my mind. The actual date is the 17th, which is Monday, but today is Sunday and it feels like it's today. It's like anniversary is today because it was a Sunday, it was an afternoon, it was a nice day, it was a sunny day like it is today, and it was about 5 o'clock when it happened. It was about 4 o'clock when we got the call. So it feels like today and, as much as I tried to be perky and to be my usual joyful, joyful self, that was really impossible self. That was really impossible. And sometimes, when you have these days that come up in your life, the universe knows I think that it's and they just pile it on. The universe piles it on even more. Maybe that's to make you wallow in it, maybe they want to put everything on one day, I don't know. But there were some other things that happened here. At the same time I went out, I found out about two of my friends that lost their jobs. Another friend of mine lost his brother.

I have to say I have to go back and say that last week, this week, this past week, let me say that this past week was my brother-in-law's birthday and, um, it just turned out he didn't plan it that way, but that day he put his dog down. Um, so that was, you know, that was a situation where he had adopted a dog who had been, uh, living on the street with a homeless person, and that was a thing where it was pretty much, you know, a day by day. Every day is a gift kind of thing, and he had the dog for two years, which I think is longer than anyone expected him to have the dog, but still, it's a sad thing to do and it's a sad day, and you don't want to have to do it on your birthday. So, uh, but that's how it worked out. So, uh, not to be a bummer Okay, if you look up the word bummer, there's a picture of me in there today, anyway. So that happened.

And then today I also met a woman who I think she's probably younger than me, who mentioned that her husband had passed away, and I didn't even know her, and she started crying and I started crying, so, of course, I started crying. One of my friends, one of my newer friends, who doesn't know me, brought me flowers, which also sent me into a tailspin. I wanted to just I mean, it's so sweet of her and I wanted to just, you know, I hugged her, but she didn't know why I was crying, but it's very sweet. And then I finally came home and wanted to just sit here and watch a comfort movie. You know, something that I've seen before, something that I don't have to think about, something that I really enjoy or have enjoyed. Um, and the power went out. So I, okay, fine, whatever, nevermind.

So I ended up going outside and doing some stuff in the yard, the garden, because that's the last. That's the last, my last. No, it's not a desperate effort, but it's the last bastion of hope. It's the place where I can go to, it's my safe space. That's what it is and it's healing. It's a healing space.

So I'm getting things put together, worked out, and there's so many weeds because we've had a lot of rain. I was going to say wine, but we've had a lot of wine. No, I haven't had any wine. I should, but I don't like to drink wine, I don't like the taste of wine, but no, we've had a lot of rain. So now the weeds everything is growing, everything looks good, but the weeds are also looking good, unfortunately. So there's all that and the gophers, at least in the backyard. The gophers make that easy because they kind of plow through the ground underneath and so it's easy to pull up the weeds, but everything's still moist and wet and I haven't had to water. Oh, I did get. Okay, let's end on a good note, let's do that.

I've always wanted a fountain somewhere in the yard. And why not have it in the backyard so that I could enjoy it in peace? Right, nice to have it in the front, but then I'd have to sit out in the front and everyone else would enjoy it. So I did get a fountain. I finally saw one. But you know what? You get a fountain. You have to put in an extra water line or you have to put in an extra electrical plug, right, sounds complicated.

So one of my favorite things is QVC. Don't kill me, don't be mad at me. Qvc A friend a long time ago who has also since passed away, but my friend Tammy. You'd go over to her house and she would have QVC on probably 24-7. I think she slept to it. She taught me that you could have it on for company, but she also ended up buying a lot of stuff from it. And QVC is the kind of thing where you can look at it, you can flip it on, for I don't have it on 24 seven, because if I flip it on for half an hour I'm going to find something I want to buy. So it's kind of dangerous. It's like my husband's eBay. It's like if he gets on it he's going to find something he wants, so anyway.

So they had these fountains and I watched the thing and I thought, okay, you know, pretty easy, because it uses batteries. You put D batteries in it and they said that it lasts if you run it six hours a day. It's on a timer or it's just automatically shuts off after six, six hours, automatically shuts off after six, six hours, uh, or you can turn it on and off. It's whatever, um, that it'll run for. I forget what it was like 200 days or something. I have to go back and look at that. But it runs for a long time on D batteries and it's got different nozzles.

So right now I've got like kind of like a, uh, it's probably goes up like eight inches and it's really it was super easy to put together, um, and it's got these different things that you just screw together and then you put the water in and you put the batteries in and and it. You know, there you go. So I'm looking at it right now it's, it's outside the, the sliding glass doors in our den, and I can crack the window a little bit if the neighbors aren't barbecuing and want to gas us and then we can hear the sound of water and it's very nice. So that's my happy thing, that's my happy space. I did get a fountain Don't need a water line, don't need an electrical line and it's beautiful.

So I promised you last week that I would have a happier episode and I'm desperately trying, but somehow today was just not the day, this week just not the week. But we're going to carry on, we'll push on. Sometimes you just need to take the time to be melancholy. I'll say that, and you need to respect that time within yourself. Right, and that's unfortunately where I'm at, but enjoying the spring, enjoying the flowers, and next week we'll tackle another topic together. I hope you'll join me. If you liked this episode, please follow the Only Child Diaries podcast on Apple podcasts or other platforms you might listen on and consider rating Only Child Diaries and writing a review. It helps others to find us. Please share it with a friend you think might like it as well. Visit my Instagram page Only Child Diaries or Facebook Only Child Diaries Podcast. Thanks for listening. I'm Tracy Wallace and these are the Only Child Diaries.