Rose posted this on her blog so I’m posting it here in case you haven’t seen it.
October 12, 2025/span>
A Stress Test
In a 2010 post I wrote I looked at the news every morning as a way of practicing stress management. And the idea of news as stressors is a common one:
I’m spending a lot more time now trying to understand what’s happening in our country and the world. There is a lot more going on, and the news is even scarier now, but I’m mostly not getting thrown by it. I try to focus on what little I can do to affect things. That works for us, but it takes a lot of time and effort, and I understand why some people say it just isn’t feasible for them. That doesn’t mean they are helpless or apathetic — there are always valuable contributions we can make in our everyday lives.
October 11, 2025
Posted in Life As a Shared Adventure
28 Comments
Facing Reality
I love this cartoon. The fellow is saying,
I believe in facing reality, but only because I don’t like turning my back on it.
Andy and I spend a lot of time and money trying to understand what’s going on in our nation and the world. It’s important to us but we’re retired and don’t have a lot of other obligations. The fellow in the cartoon implies being informed will make a big difference. What do you think?
October 10, 2025
Posted in Life As a Shared Adventure
34 Comments
The No. 1 Rail Journey in the World for Fall
Monday Kaitlin and were excited to read an article that said the Cumbres and Toltec Railroad was named the number one rail journey in the world for fall. We took that trip shortly after we moved to northern New Mexico and it still warms our hearts to think of it. Kaitlin found these two pictures from our archives and sent them to me.
Their website says,
Travel the Cumbres & Toltec and see the most spectacular scenery in the Rocky Mountain West
The Cumbres & Toltec Scenic Railroad is a National Historic Landmark. At 64-miles in length, it is the longest, the highest and most authentic steam railroad in North America, traveling through some of the most spectacular scenery in the Rocky Mountain West.
Owned by the states of Colorado and New Mexico, the train crosses state borders 11 times, zigzagging along canyon walls, burrowing through two tunnels, and steaming over 137-foot Cascade Trestle. All trains steam along through deep forests of aspens and evergreens, across high plains filled with wildflowers, and through a rocky gorge of remarkable geologic formations. Deer, antelope, elk, fox, eagles and even bear are frequently spotted on this family friendly, off-the grid adventure.
Yes, the train does pollute, but we didn’t worry about that 50 years ago.
October 8, 2025
Posted in Life As a Shared Adventure
23 Comments
Fall Colors
A lot of people associate fall with orange and red, but around here fall colors are mostly yellow and green. In good years they can be spectacular, but not this year. The nights have been too warm for the colors to be brilliant, but it was still worth driving up to see them. (The photos don’t do them justice, of course.)
October 7, 2025
Posted in Life As a Shared Adventure
31 Comments
You Don’t Even Have to Have Your Own Pets….
to get your spirits lifted.
October 6, 2025
Posted in Life As a Shared Adventure
23 Comments
Dogs and Their Owners
The Economist had an article about how dogs and their owners often look alike and have similar personalities. I enjoyed it but it’s behind a paywall so I asked ChatGPT “do dogs and their owners really start to resemble one another?” It answered:
Yes — at least a little bit, and there’s actual research behind the idea.
Psychologists have studied this and found that people can often match dogs to their owners with accuracy much higher than chance. A well-known study by Michael Roy and Nicholas Christenfeld (University of California, San Diego) asked strangers to look at photos of dogs and their owners separately, and the strangers were surprisingly good at pairing them up.
A few patterns explain why:
- Selection effect: People often choose dogs that mirror something about themselves. For example, a tall, lanky person might unconsciously prefer a long-legged breed like a greyhound, while someone with curlier hair might lean toward a poodle.
- Shared lifestyle: Owners and dogs influence each other’s activity levels, posture, and even body weight over time.
- Facial similarity: In some cases, owners and dogs share features — big eyes, long noses, round faces — that make them look alike.
- Emotional mirroring: Dogs pick up on their owners’ expressions and body language, which can give the impression of resemblance.
So it’s not that owning a dog makes you start to physically look alike, but rather that people gravitate toward dogs who reflect them in some way — and then shared habits and expressions reinforce that resemblance.
Would you like me to show you some of the funniest documented examples of owner-dog lookalikes?
I said yes, and this is what it came up with:
I think the woman is frowning too much. The dog looks serious, but not as upset. I think these pictures by Gerrard Gethings are better examples.
What do you think?
October 5, 2025
Posted in Life As a Shared Adventure
24 Comments
The Power of Pets
Having a pet isn’t always enough to lighten our moods, but they can help.
October 4, 2025
Posted in Life As a Shared Adventure
24 Comments
