Until a couple of days ago, it’s been unseasonably warm here in our corner of Oklahoma. It’s been so warm, in fact, that two of my plum trees have lost their minds and blossomed, presumably “thinking” it’s springtime.

That’s not all that’s delusional. Many of my friends and I are still in dismay over politics, so much so that something as simple as scrolling down a Facebook feed becomes an ordeal. I hate to bury my head in the sand, but social media has become too combative, stressful and deceptive. When I get stressed about things like these, I like to take pictures (which I do for living), and work hard outside.

Yesterday was one such day working outdoors, and included photographing and measuring the roof of the decaying dog house, then tearing it apart and hauling it to the burn pile. That’s when I saw the plum blossoms. I also decided to tidy up the range, including building a stand for a shipping pallet to be used as a paper target holder, since I recently repainted Abby’s father’s gun bench to use for more precision shooting.

I also reorganized a bunch of tools, which included adding a number of surplus cup hooks for hanging things like box wrenches.

Finally, as I returned from taking the trash to the curb, which my readers know is 100 yards from the house, I decided to finally act on a notion I had earlier this year. The trash can I currently use is a wheeled poly-cart, but the handle is too short for someone my height, so to roll it to the curb, I have to stoop a bit, and it tries to cronk my heels as I go. The solution was a piece of wood with a notch in it to extend the length of the handle.

Finally, back to social media: I don’t know where all this national stress is leading, but I can feel it everywhere. The parade of unfollowing and unfriending genuinely, willfully ignorant people continues. I find myself closing browser windows with Facebook or Twitter, and opening ones with Photo.net and the photography blogs and sites of my friends. I want to think about what I can do, not what I can’t.