Welcome And Show Setup

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 adulthood while doing so with humor and light. Welcome everyone to the Only Child Diaries Podcast. Today I want to talk to you about daylight savings time and bobcats. First, daylight savings time. So this week is when we change the clocks and we spring forward. And I know there's a lot of discussion and disagreement. Well, I think it's uncomfortable for most people. But there is some discussion about not doing the time change anymore. And so far, I haven't seen any movement, any real movement on actually putting that into place. For me, I don't like losing an hour. I think it's pretty disorienting. But I do like having the extra hour of daylight at the end of the day. The morning I could care less about. Whenever that happens, I think it's in the fall. But in the evening, I like having that extra hour because it allows me to do more with my day. So there you are. But the other thing that is distracting and disorienting for me, for us here, um, with daylight savings time, is that, or anyone with a diabetic cat is trying to figure out when to do the shots. And this is when I have to transition uh my timing with his insulin shots, because uh, for us, we give Bubby his insulin shot every day at noon and at midnight. And so if you change the time that you give the shot or something happens and you're not home for whatever reason, you can work back every day by a half hour. That's what they tell you. So I always sit here and I think, well, what time is it really versus what time is it now? What's the real time and what's the new time? And I get myself terribly confused. And like today, I stayed out till one o'clock the new time, thinking that it's really 12 o'clock the old time. So by the time I gave him the shot, it was 1 15 the new time, or was it 145? I I lost track. I'm so confused. So eventually it's gonna work out, but I want to do it with as little disruption to his body cycle as possible. I did come home, give him his shot, and it's it's very hot today. So the air conditioner was was running. He was very thirsty, and he wanted to get up on the bathroom sink, which is something that he does, and so he drank a pretty good amount of water, and then he got down and he threw up. But it it really might be because of the time change, too. I I really don't know, but anyway, we'll work it out, but eventually, but I'm so confused at right now, anyway. That's neither here nor there. But for me, I I guess I would prefer having it light later or more daylight every day. So at least especially in the evening. Does that make sense? Am I confusing myself? I think I am now another reason that I think it's helpful to have it lighter later is because of the um wildlife in our canyon. Now, we live in a canyon. There's uh somewhere over 700 homes in our canyon. There's one way in and there's one way out. It's the same way, by the way. And so it's not a small canyon, it's a fairly large canyon. I don't know how many acres it would be, but there's a lot of people, there's a lot of um a lot of traffic with that. There's people that come in for the parks and whatnot. But we do have wildlife, and I've often seen coyotes, I've heard coyotes. There's been a coyote many times on my front lawn, and so I'm always very vigilant about watching the coyotes take care of my dog, and my cat stays inside all the time. That's a given. So the other day, I took my dog for her walk, and we walked up the street. We just go around the block usually. If it's during the week, I just take around the block, or if I'm tired, but I have been, you know, going, taking her every day, right? And so we went up to the corner and I looked, uh, and if you get to the corner, then the streets that intersect there, they go uphill. And I looked and there was something. I couldn't really tell what it was. At first I thought, oh, is that a big coyote? No. And then I thought, oh, is that a mountain lion? And I was like, no, because I didn't have my glasses with me. Anyway, it was a bobcat. So I saw my first bobcat in the canyon, never having been with my dog and seeing a bobcat. I didn't know how the bobcat would respond to us. And I couldn't really tell because it was probably about, I'm a bad judge of distance, but it was probably about 100 feet away. So I couldn't get a real accurate read on how big it was. I I walked up the other street about 50 feet, and we kind of gave it time to do whatever it was gonna do. And by the time we came back to that corner, it was flying by us. I was like just you could go another way, you could go another time, you could have decided to go in the opposite direction, but it decided to intersect with us. And I think it was probably somewhere in the neighborhood of 35 to 40 pounds. My dog is 14 pounds, so it was, you know, sizably larger, but it was probably more scared of us than we were of it or him or her. Uh, what pronoun should I use, right? So it kind of trotted by us and it saw us and it kind of took off down the other street where we were gonna walk. And I was like, should I walk this way? Or, you know, anyway, it went down the street and it decided to turn into a driveway that goes probably up into the hills behind the houses because those houses are just right up against the the hill. And uh my dog, my little dog brownie, she's got the heart of a warrior. So she didn't bark at this one, but she usually barks when the coyotes have come past us. I think she thinks that they're big dogs, and she she really enjoys barking at the big dogs for whatever reason. Like if it's a German shepherd or uh another dog that's about that size, she decides to bark at it. Like she's challenging the other dog. And I always say, Brownie, you're out of your league, girlfriend. You don't have the weight to be in this fight, you know. So when she sees a coyote, she decides that she's I guess she thinks it's a dog, and she barks at it. And I'm like, Okay, let's just not push it. So she she definitely saw the bobcat, and shh, but she didn't bark this time, but she just kept pulling on the leash, and again, I know she's 14 pounds, but you would be surprised at how strong this dog is. And she kept just pulling and pulling and just I guess egging me on, like, come on, come on, let's go, let's go, mom. Uh, and she really wanted to go after it, but again, not barking. So it was a different reaction in that regard. And she wanted to know where it was going and she wanted to follow it. I'm like, I had to tell her, we're not following it. We're not, we don't care where it's going as long as it's not coming after us. We have a private Facebook group for our canyon, and there's been people have posted pictures, oh, there's a bobcat in my backyard, or I saw a bobcat today on my drive up to the park, but you know, I've never seen in all the years that I've been here, I've never seen a bobcat in person live. So that was good, it was fun, and it was unnerving at the same time. But I mean, I appreciate nature, but sometimes there's a little too much nature in your midst, and uh like the skunks, you know, too a little too much nature, anyway. So that's my take on daylight savings time. Maybe if it's lighter later, they won't feel like they have to come out right away to get their nighttime snacks or something, and it'll be a little quieter in terms of the wildlife out on the street. But uh, it just makes me feel like I have to have my head on a swivel when we're walking because there's you have to watch out for other dogs and cats and squirrels and cars and bicycles, and now you I have to watch out for all the wildlife too, and and snakes, but usually snakes aren't in the road. Anyway, tonight I'm going to try to get some gardening done as well. Always have so much to do here. I also did have a home emergency, and I wonder to myself, why do people not want to buy a house? Why do they rent? And this is one reason. So I I I had a new noise in the house, and when I would turn on the kitchen sink, the bathroom, the toilet in the back would make a little noise, just for a little, just for a few seconds. Turn on the faucet, the the toilet would make a little chirping noise. And I thought, well, that's interesting, okay. Did it do that before? I don't remember. Okay. So then over the course of a couple days, it became more of a constant noise, right? And I thought, well, that's curious. But again, busy week, lots to do, many things going on. So Thursday night last week, we were here and I got my husband to go out. I thought I was losing my mind. I could hear it in all parts of the house. I mean, we don't have a big house, it's like 1200 square feet, but I could hear it in all parts of the house. But it was particularly loud in that back bathroom. And I got my husband to go back there and he heard it. He said, Well, it's mechanical. It didn't sound like a like a drip or like water running. It sounded like a mechanical, like a very rhythmic noise. Okay, that was Thursday. So Friday morning, I woke up, I texted the plumber, and waiting for him to get back, and I got a text from the city, and it said, This is what you never want to get. It said, uh, we've detected some unusual water usage in your house. Let's check it out. And it says, check it out. Oh, it's not a leak. Like I forgot, I forgot I'm running the shower for you know 10 hours or something. I don't know what it would be. So I was like, uh-oh. So then I heard back from my plumber, and unfortunately he told me that there was a death in the family. And oh, guess what? Friday was the day of the viewing, and Saturday was the day of the funeral. So Tracy had to figure out what to do. Um, and it's nice because the city gives you this little checklist of all these things that you can ways that you can check out. Like where is it coming from? What is it? You know, do this, it could be this, do that. In the end, I just turned that valve underneath the toilet and it stopped making the noise. That would have been a smart thing to do a couple days before, but I didn't anyway, I didn't do that. But we'll see if this turns into like, you know, unusual water usage. Is that like there's a bucket of water under the house, or is that like, you know, there's a small swamp under the house? And these are the things that you really don't want to know. Um, but anyway, it's good to get a sense of these things early on. And I'm learning, I'm learning about home maintenance. I'm learning, but trying to catch these things early, just like some sort of bad disease. Um, anyway, so I digress. But that those but those are the highlights this week. And um yeah, it's it's I it's always something, right? Next week we'll tackle another topic together. I hope you'll join me. If you like 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.