Wordless Wednesday
Author Archives: dawnkinster
Overachieving Walktober
Hi, hi, hi, HI Everybody!! It’s me, Penny!
Mom was talking about Walktober this week, and I wanted to know what it was, cause I’m only 10 months old and I’m curious about everything! When Mom explained it to me I just knew I had to get right on it!
After all, I’m a sheltie and shelties love to go for walks!
Right away I knew I should tell you all about the three great walks I’ve already had this week! And it’s only Friday!
First off, last Sunday, I got to go on a walk with mom and her friend and her friend’s dog Whisky! Whisky is an 11 month old cocker spaniel and he was very excited to see me!
We walked in a beautiful little park, Dinosaur Hill, that I understand was one of my sister Angel Katie’s favorites. It had a river that ran right through the middle of it and I sat on the bridge with all that fast moving water under me without freaking out!
Mom was very happy with my “behavior” as she calls it.
Then a couple days ago mom took me to a park in town. She thought she’d photograph me around the playground stuff.
But there were moms and kids playing there, so we pretty much stayed around the perimeter at first. Mom found this cool musical instrument.
Mostly we walked around and read the dedications on the benches and under trees that were planted in memory of people. One tree in particular was very sad. It is for Madisyn who was one of the 4 victims at a school shooting that happened just up the road from us a couple years ago next month.
Then mom got a chance to photograph me with some playground stuff, but while we were there a big group of high school students arrived to take pictures.
But we met a new friend! Meet Lulu! Her dad was walking her in the park and stopped by to talk. Lulu is a 5 year old mini Australian Shepherd.
Lulu wasn’t that into me, though we did exchange pleasantries. She and her dad wandered away and mom took me over a bridge to the park pavilion for my final portrait of the day.
What do you think? I’m thinking I’m growing into quite the regal young lady.
My last walk (so far) was yesterday. It was rainy outside and mom said we needed to keep training, so she took me for a walk at the Home Depot! Wow, that was a different kind of walk!
First we stayed outside and I checked out the pumpkins. Mom wouldn’t let me buy one, but they still smelled good.
We went inside and I barked at a man getting a cart! Mom said no bark, but geeze, that cart place was super noisy!
We heeled around the aisles a whole bunch. I was a little squirrely at first, but eventually I settled down. We did sits and stays too. Everybody smiled at me but no one asked to pet me. I guess they knew I was working.
Then on our way out mom introduced me to some tall dude in a red suit. I was not at all sure about him, no siree!
Mom said I did really good at the busy store. I slept all the way home. And now she says I am going on an epic walk this Sunday!
Well gee, mom, I’m not sure the nice people want to hear about another walk of mine. You better be at the top of your game if you want me to share that one with them too!
Anyway, I need a snack and then a nap. In that order. I can’t wait to see where you all go on your Walktobers! Mom says she has no idea where she’s going to do her walk because she’s so busy taking me places! As it should be.
Hee, hee, hee.
-Your Walktober girl,
Penny.
Official kick off of this year’s Walktober!
OK everyone, today is the official beginning of Walktober, though if you’ve gone out exploring early, we won’t argue!
But if you haven’t yet, find a place you’d like to walk, or drive, or jog, or swim, or bike, or roller-skate or hike, or canoe, or whatever and spend some time doing just that. Then write about it. It could be an essay or a poem or a run-on sentence. It can include pictures, or you can just describe it and let our imaginations run free. Alternatively you could just show us the pictures without any text if you aren’t in a writing sort of mind frame.
You have until the end of the day October 28th to complete this adventure, though if you need a few more days just let me know. I’m flexible!
Help us see a part of the world we might not ever get to see without your help.
Or show us around your familiar yard or neighborhood. Wherever you go, it’s all good.
You could spend some time in a city…..or head out into the wilderness.
Tell us why the place you visit is special, or why you don’t think you’ll go back. It’s all part of our celebration of October!
When you’re ready to post, link to this official Walktober post, and at the end of the month, probably early November, I’ll gather all the links and put them into one big post so we all can see where we all went.
I can’t wait to see what you decided to share with us all!
Today’s photos are from a drive/walk I took at the Shiawasee Nature Preserve at the end of September. I saw so many egrets there; this series of images was just one of the hungry birds.
I haven’t decided if that walk will be my official Walktober…I have so many other photos to share with you from that day so maybe I should use it. But I would really like to explore somewhere new. On the other hand, if time gets tight, I might just share the rest of this wonderful walk with you.
We’ll have to see how it all works out.
Oh, and just a fyi, Penny says she’s thinking about doing her own Walktober. Since she’s only 10 months old she’ll need a little help, but so far she thinks she can do it all on her own. Silly girl.
If you have any questions about Walktober, you can email me at dawnkinster@gmail.com, or just comment here.
Have fun everybody!
Pie conversations
I was talking to my mom yesterday evening. Not literally of course, as she’s been gone since July of 2004. Not even out loud because my husband and my dog were watching football nearby and the Lions were winning.
No, I was talking to my mom because I was making an apple pie with apples I’d gotten from an orchard a couple of towns west of here. It was a last minute decision to run over to Spicers Orchards to get old fashioned baking apples, on a beautiful, crisp Sunday afternoon.
My family used to go to Spicers when we were kids, in the 60s and 70s. Back then it was a one building small place with acres of apple, pear and cherry trees. I have lots of good memories of all of us there.
But it’s not small anymore.
When I arrived, late in the day, I noticed right away all the additional parking. Most of which was filled with cars. An entire field that used to be, well, a field, was parked full of cars. Not to mention the regular lot next to the building that houses the bakery and picked fruit and jelly and stuff. And another full lot across the street.
Something told me Spicers is not the same anymore.
I hadn’t worn a coat, assuming I’d park in the lot and buzz into the store, grab some apples and go. Apparently it wasn’t going to happen like that. I tromped up and down the hills and finally made it over to the store.
For the weekend (I assume just the weekend) they had moved the sale of donuts outside and the line, double wide, stretched from the back of the building, where the tables holding the donuts were, to the winery on the other side of the huge parking lot. There seemed to be nothing left of the small local orchard I remembered. It just wasn’t the same.
Inside, where apples and cider and fudge and ice cream and jelly and cookies and bread were being sold, the line went from the cash registers (now 4 instead of 1) to the back of the store. The place was packed with people.
My first instinct was to turn and flee.
But I was there, so I found some courtland baking apples and a half gallon of cider and I got in line, trying not to feel claustrophobic as people pushed by, their arms laden with goodies. I have to say those cashiers were expedient, and I was paying and back on my way walking up and down the hills to the distant car before I could consider buying a cookie.
So I was telling mom all of this while I was peeling and slicing apples, as I was mixing and rolling the pie dough. It’s not the same, I told her, just not the same.
Then, with my head in the pantry, grabbing some sugar, I had a flashback to a pie she used to make. We called it cheesecake but it obviously wasn’t. There was cream cheese and maybe lemon pudding, in a graham cracker crust. For half an instant, probably because I’d been talking to her about Spicers, I thought I’d just ask her what was in that pie.
It’s still a gut punch, even after nineteen years, when I realize all over again that I can’t ask her anything anymore. It’s not the same, mom, just not the same.
But the apple pie? It pretty much looks the same as the apple pies mom used to make for us decades ago. Mine isn’t as pretty as hers were, but I’m betting it tastes the same.
Some things, regardless of commercialism, never change.
Don’t forget Walktober this year!
As you read in a previous post, Robin is a little busy so I’ll be collecting your Walktober adventures this year.
If you’re new to the concept of Walktober, it’s pretty simple. Sometime between October 15 and the 28th go on a walk (or a bike ride, or a boat ride, or a car ride, or a jog, or a hike, or climb a mountain, or explore a town or show us your backyard!), take a few (or a lot) of pictures and show us around your part of the world by writing a post and linking it to my official Walktober post.
I’ll be posting the official start to Walktober on October 15th. But if you want to walk earlier, feel free to link it to this one! I’ll find it.
And sometime not too long after October 28th I’ll write a post with all the links to your walks, so that everyone can see where everyone else went! And if you need some more time, just let me know. I’ll wait to post that last compilation till you get yours written.
I can’t wait to see where you all go. I haven’t decided where to take my official walk. So many options, so little time!
Stay tuned!
Pictures in this post are from Shiawasee Nature Preserve, a walk taken a few years ago. I figured you wouldn’t mind seeing them again.
We can’t stop now
Long time readers know that my dad was killed by a tired trucker almost twenty years ago and I and members of my family volunteer with the Truck Safety Coalition, working to make our roads safer.
TSC is based in Washington DC, but has families of volunteers all across the country. Of course it does, because truck crashes aren’t restricted to ‘somewhere else’ like we all want to believe.
Truck crashes happen anywhere and to anyone.
It takes money to keep our organization going, to pay our small staff, to help families come to DC for conferences or important meetings, to pay for grief counseling for those that want that help, to run the website that provides information to new families, and where we post our stories about the loved ones we lost and about the lives changed forever for those injured in crashes with trucks.
It takes money.
And it’s not so easy to raise money for our cause. Organizations that might have sympathy for our families, like truck part manufacturers, can’t be seen associating with us, because many of the truck companies they sell parts to are so often on the other side of our arguments. Trailer manufacturers sell to truck companies too and steer clear of us, as do some road safety equipment manufacturers and many others.
It’s hard to explain that we aren’t anti truck, we support safe trucking. It’s important to remember that truck drivers die in crashes too, and that driving a truck is one of the most dangerous jobs in our country.
A lot of our funding comes from individuals who have had family or friends injured or killed as well as survivors of truck crashes. The people that have already paid the price for unsafe policies and regulations continue to pay in an effort to make things better.
Every single family will tell you they continue to tell their stories, continue to come to meetings, continue to donate because they don’t want another family to experience a truck crash. Every single family comes to TSC with the same wish in their hearts.
To make it stop.
The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration says that over 5,700 people died in truck related crashes in 2021, the latest year from which we have data. That’s a 71% increase since 2009. Truck crashes are trending the wrong way. More people are being killed every year. And injuries are going up too, over 155,000 are injured every year.
Think about that. Every single year 155,000 people are injured in truck crashes. Ford Field, home of the Detroit Lions, has 65,000 seats. Every year 2.3 football stadiums of people are injured in truck crashes. And the numbers keep climbing.
So this past weekend my husband and I traveled, on our own dime, to DC where we attended an evening of celebration of those that have contributed to TSC. Donors, safety advocates, board members, friends and supporters gathered together to recognize some very special people who, during this past year, have gone above and beyond to move our mission to make our roads safer going forward.
It was a good evening and we raised some money. We felt warm and happy with our effort, but don’t think I won’t be asking you for support this November during Giving Tuesday. Because 5,700+ people died in 2021, and it will likely be a larger number for 2022 and 2023. Whole football stadiums of people are being injured. We can’t stop now.
Thank you in advance for supporting me, for the dollars you donate whenever I ask, for your emotional support when I’m having a meltdown, or when I’m just missing my dad. Thank you for letting me get on my soapbox once in awhile, and for not turning away when I tell you about really sad things that make me (and many of you) really angry.
Last weekend was a time of celebration, but now it’s time to get back to work. We’re trying to get the speed limiter past the finish line at the DOT, and we’re working on getting Automatic Emergency Brakes in all trucks sooner rather than later. And don’t get me started on the minimum liability insurance issue. Or those companies that want longer trailers, and the ability to haul heavier loads. There are already triple trailers on some of our nation’s roads and we’re keeping watch so they don’t get permission to move onto more.
We need to keep holding our fingers in the truck safety dike. And we need money to do that.
Wordless Wednesday, Happy 70th Anniversary Mom and Dad!
Wordless Wednesday
Penny practices posing
Hey guys!
Mom is busy doing stuff that doesn’t involve me so I stole her laptop. I don’t think she’ll even notice unless one of you snitches on me. Which I’m sure you won’t.
So anyway, it hasn’t always been this way with her being so busy. She’s been taking me to a lot of parks lately.
She says the weather is just perfect, a little cooler, but sunny skies and the trees are just starting to change colors.
She says we can’t waste days like this, so she’s been taking me to a new place almost every day, and I thought you might like to see.
Mostly she’s been training me to pose for her. I wasn’t so sure of this concept at first.
But eventually I figured out that after I pose I get a treat, and that big black thing in front of her face isn’t really scary after all.
Plus I talked to my Angel Sister Katie who told me that treats were an integral part of park visiting and especially posing. I think I’m getting it!
But I could always use more practice, so I’m bugging mom every day to take me somewhere. I find that poking her hard in the knee works pretty good. If you have any other suggestions let me know.
I’m not above taking good advice, no I am not!
Talk later, your professional poser, Penny-girl.
Change Is Hard 