Hey everybody! It’s me, your birthday girl, Penny! I bet you’ve been wondering where I’ve been, huh?
Keeping track of my birds and squirrels this morning.
Well, mom has been hogging the laptop so I haven’t been able to get on here since my Walktober, and here it is already December! AND it’s my very first birthday!!
Visiting Katie’s park yesterday.
I woke mom up early this morning because I was pretty excited. I’m not exactly sure what I’m supposed to be excited about, but I’m excited. OK. So maybe excited is my normal every single day frame of mind. But still, it’s my birthday!!
“Mom! Is it time to start my birthday yet??”
And look! Mom and Dad got me presents! Dad got me the really cool snake and boy do I like to pounce on it. I pounced on Dad a few times too, just to say thank you. I think he appreciates it almost more than me eating his ankles when he walks by.
I got birthday presents!
Mom got me the pretty purple game! She borrowed one like it from a friend and I loved it, so she bought me one of my very own.
“Stand back, mom, I’ve got this!”
And look! It appears someone stole my likeness to put on the box! Don’t you think that looks like me on there? I think I should get royalties! Or snacks. Maybe just snacks, snacks are good, I don’t even know what royalties are.
“Doesn’t that look just like me?”
Yesterday, to celebrate my upcoming birthday, Mom took me for a walk at my angle sister Katie’s park. The sun was going down and it was cold! Perfect!
“I sit for treats, Mom!”
I give Mom credit, she only said hurry up about a dozen times. I was pretty busy sniffing stuff you know, and she didn’t bring gloves. I told her that was not my problem. But I did sit pretty for her. Many of the pictures in this post are from our walk yesterday.
“You’re gonna need to speed this up, mom, the sun is going down!”
Anyway, today I am 1 year old! Man, what a year, right? From arriving at my forever home in February to going to school and earning my Canine Good Citizen title, to going to the park yesterday, it’s all been marvelous!
Mom and Dad are very proud of me. As they should be.
And it’s so special that I get to see my Mama S, my breeder ,regularly too. I just love Mama S. Why last time I was at her house I learned a new trick! I can now turn off her DVD player! She says I am a little stinker, but I know she’s proud of how smart I am.
“Mama S took this picture of me a couple weeks ago. Mom says I look entitled. Mama S says I AM entitled.
Well, I’ve sure been glad to talk to all of you, but it’s time for my birthday nap now. I hope you all have a wonderful week, and I’ll try to get on more often when Mom’s not looking!
Today is Giving Tuesday. Go to Facebook and donate to your favorite charity.
Trust me, the staff and volunteers will appreciate it! Every dollar counts!
In my own fundraising campaign we’re making progress. I’m over $800 of my $1500 goal. I’m so thankful for every dollar and every person who donates. I’m also appreciative of every one of you that sends me virtual (and real) hugs and warm thoughts and comforting messages.
Never think you don’t make a difference. You all do.
I have a few images from dad’s childhood. He was six years older than his little sister, my Aunt Becky.
My dad and his baby sister.
She loved her big brother so much, when he was killed by a tired semitruck driver December 23, 2004, she was heartbroken. They are together in heaven now, I imagine it was a pretty special reunion.
Hanging out in Ann Arbor MI.
This coming Tuesday is Giving Tuesday. I hope you will consider giving to the nonprofit I’ll be highlighting, CRASH (Citizens for Reliable and Safe Highways) which is a partner with P.A.T.T (Parents Against Tired Truckers) to form the Truck Safety Coalition.
One of my favorite images of the two of them.
We provide support to families of those lost in semi crashes, and to those who have survived crashes too. Every year there are more heartbroken families.
He loved being on the water.
And we work hard at changing regulations, rules and laws in order to protect everyone on the road. But the crash statistics are going up, more than 5,000 dead, almost 150,000 injured in 2021, the last year for which we have numbers.
And he loved all kinds of boats.
So we can’t give up, can’t even slow down now. Please consider helping us on our mission to provide comfort, to make a place for families to put their grief, and to make our roads safer for everyone, truck drivers included.
Wading in Charlevoix Bay.
Thank you for the years of support you’ve already given me.
A week from Tuesday is Facebook’s Giving Tuesday. I’ll be putting up a fundraiser for the Truck Safety Coalition like I have for the past few years.
This year feels different than past years where I’ve promoted an upcoming Giving Tuesday off an on for a few weeks. This year there are other things going on in my life and Giving Tuesday has kind of snuck up on me.
Heck the whole holiday season has snuck up on me.
Regardless, I know many of you will support my effort to raise some funds for the Truck Safety Coalition. (If you didn’t read this post about our latest fundraiser, please give it a look.) You’re so good that way, supportive of an issue most people can’t imagine ever touching their own family.
That’s how we felt too, until it did.
I feel like a broken record when I say over and over that truck crashes are indiscriminate. They happen to people in all parts of the country, in every community, every religion, every political viewpoint. Young people, old people, people with kids. People’s kids. Nobody is immune.
So, next week, on Giving Tuesday, please take a moment and think about all of us in the Truck Safety family, a family we never wanted to join, but a family we’re all so very grateful to have found.
Sadly there have been new families joining us this year, people we need to comfort and support. Your dollars do that.
Thank you for supporting my mission to help those families, and to work on changing the way things are on our roads.
And thank you for supporting me, even when I’m on my soapbox.
Spreading the word.
Note: images in today’s post are from my last walk at Shiawasee Nature Preserve. I haven’t had time to share them with you, and I thought you’d like the distraction from such a serious topic.
Thank you all for sharing your Walktobers with us! It’s been an honor to be the keeper of your walks this season. I loved every one of them and I know you will too!
I thought we should start with Robin from Breezes at Dawn since she’s been the host for our wonderful Walktobers for so many years. She and her husband traveled through Pennsylvania and stopped to get a little hiking in. Her pictures are, as always, just stunning.
Then we had Elisa visit from her blog Elisa’s Spot who shared lovely images from one of her walks, both in color and in black and white. She made me stop and think because I’ve never thought about doing black and white images in the fall. But it worked so well on her post, I think it’s something I should try.
And here’s Penny, my young sheltie, from my own Change is Hard with her over zealous Walktober where she shares three walks she went on in one week! She was only 10 months old when she did her Walktober, and she managed to go further than I did at 6 decades plus! She’s going to be a handful, this one, when she grows up!
Next we have Monkey, another sheltie, writing on his mom Debbie’s blog Musings. He did his walk with his mom and took us to the Douglas-Hart Nature Center on a beautiful day. They had quite a lot of fun exploring the trails with Halloween decorations and pretty flowers enhancing the fall foliage there.
And Frank shares a post on his blog, Beach Walk Reflections, about his walk on the beach and into the woods, with stunning photos of both.
Shelly, from Quaint Revival, took us on walk down memory lane as she shared images from her past. Check it out, there’s surely something in there that will make you smile.
Debbie, from Musings of a ND Domer’s Mom, went for a walk without her Monkey and took us to Whiteside Garden in Charleston, Illinois. There she saw many beautiful things, including sculptures and blooming flowers along with wonderful fall color.
Next up is Linda, from Walkin’ Writin’, Wit & Whimsy, who loved the concept of Walktober and decided to share photos from one of her favorite places, Council Point Park, where she introduces us to some of her favorite squirrels!
Then Barbara, from In the Woods, takes us on a walk at the Carolina North Forest trail system, in North Carolina. There she found light even in the deepest woods and she shares it with us all.
Frank, from Beach Walk Reflections, takes us on another walk on the beach. He likes to ponder as he walks, and this time he was pondering the color brown, which he thought was an odd color to be thinking about on a beach walk, but he has some stunning photos to help us all appreciate the color.
Then Penny, being the overly controlling dog that she is, reminded us not to forget, and just to put us all to shame, she did another Walktober!
Jo posts in her blog, Still Restless Jo, about her exploration of Castelnaudary in rural France. She and her husband walked the canal path and saw beautiful boats navigating through the locks there. If you read the post following her Walktober post you’ll see even more about Castelnaudary.
Deb at The Widow Badass and her little Bowser take us on a beautiful walk through their woods. They saw all sorts of color. It’s always fun to have a little four-footed adventurer along for the walk.
Diana, from My Life and Horse Stories, shared her birthday with us. The cake looked great! She and her daughter explored Solvang and visited some of their favorite places there.
Helen, from Helen’s Home World, and her dogs, Liam and Teddy went on a walk with a lot of other shelties. Sheltie meet-ups are so much fun! Having many of the shelties in Halloween costumes made this walk even more special.
Dale, from A Delectable Life is up next. She did a couple walks and combined them into her post. Note that at the beginning there was still a lot of green in the trees, but by the end things had pretty much turned to glorious fall colors!
And here comes Linda From The Task at Hand, with her walk in two different areas of Texas. She shares some amazing images of beautiful late summer/fall plants in bloom! What a nice change from all the cold and dropping leaves up here in Michigan!
And lastly, I got my walk in just under the wire, posting about it at Change is Hard. I went down to Hidden Lake Gardens near the Michigan/Ohio state line. I had a wonderful time exploring the garden and my memories of being there as a young child many years ago.
I hope you enjoyed all these walks! I find it fascinating to see different parts of the world, and how we each approach a project like this. We all live in such wonderful places, it’s fun to share them with each other.
I thank you again for taking the time to walk (or run or skip or boat or bike…) and photograph and write about your times in the special places you visited. And thank you for supporting Walktober! It’s a very special tradition that I hope will continue for many years to come! Thank you also to Robin for sharing the concept with us all in the first place!
Images in this post were taken in my yard the day before our Halloween freeze and snowfall. The yard is brown now, but I have these memories to keep me warm.
Change Is Hard 