Thanks, everyone!
I think part of what’s blocking me here is that I don’t really think my life will be wildly different at 3, 5, 10, etc. years, mainly because I’m not going to have kids so they won’t be at different ages or anything. I guess I know that I want to be living outside the US, and that’s it!
I used to make plans for years in advance, and then I heard someone speaking about planning for the future, and how we can usually do less than we think we can in a year, and more than we think we can in 5 years. And that sometimes planning 5 years in advance can be very limiting because we are capable of much more than we can imagine/put on paper at the moment. So now I just plan for the year in January and take it one year at a time. I project finances for the year and 5-10 realistic goals. That seems to work better for me and stops me from the extreme future tripping I used to do when thinking about 5-10 years in the future.
I definitely stopped doing it entirely. My life is stable enough now, I’m NOT upheaving everything on a regular basis. Now I just do yearly bingos, 20 for 20, that sort of thing.
What would be some reasons that a dog pees normally at the beginning of a hike, disappears for a few minutes, and returns peeing blood? No external signs of wounds. We are seeing a vet in a couple hours but point me to some internet doom-googling please 
Fell hard on a rock. But, frankly, urinary tract infection that just coincidentally happened to start showing that symptom at that time is much more likely.
Even if he ate something bad, that seems like it would be way too fast. I’d also guess fall or coincidental timing 
Ok peeps, yet another question. Does anyone have experience with portable humidifiers? I need one. Lol.
Portable as in small or as in not plug in?
It doesn’t have to be tiny or anything, and plug in is fine, just not something I need an expert installer for, that kind of portable. 
In that case yes! Haha. We only have used cool mist because of the baby and injury risk. We got this one from target (and have two of them now):
What would you like to know in particular? I generally use it on the lowest setting, and it has to be refilled about every 24 hours that way. With continuous running. We have moderately hard water here, and I definitely notice more build up versus where we lived before in Portland with soft water. So it would probably be best practice to use Distilled water. But I don’t have my life together enough to do that. 
Thanks! I just wanted recommendations for something reliable that works well. 
I have hard water here as well (until I get a water softener system in a few months probably)… how fast do you think the buildup happens? Like, if I just used regular water for a few months do you think it would ruin it?
(I also have ferrous iron in the water (aka clear-water iron) - apparently they only typically test for ferric iron but not ferrous. I wonder if that would affect it. It takes time to come out of solution though, it isn’t immediate. It isn’t dangerous (in fact as a vegetarian I could probably use more iron in my diet), but it will eventually stain things if left to sit out (like over the course of hours or days). It’s basically water soluble iron that comes out of solution once exposed to oxygen. So water comes out of the faucet clear, but eventually will start to change color as it sits for hours. It doesn’t taste or smell at all. I haven’t noticed any weird stains on my dishes or clothes either.
Since ferrous iron and hard water don’t make water impotable, the testing they did with the new well was sufficient (it’s perfectly potable water). I knew I was going to need a water softener system anyway since the water here is pretty hard, and such a system will also treat ferrous iron, so it doesn’t add any cost. It just makes getting one slightly more urgent. Just thinking aloud here about timeline now, not humidifiers, lol.)
(Buying distilled water would generate a lot of plastic, and I don’t have my transfer station (landfill) access set up yet (it’s yearly, and it happens in March, and I don’t want to pay a year for like a few weeks of access (they don’t pro-rate) so I’m just waiting. (Transfer station also does recycling.))
ETA: $30 is pretty cheap but you think it works well? I’ll go for it in that case, can’t lose out much at that price point!
To be fair, I don’t really have anything to compare it to. I haven’t really used any humidifiers prior to this point. But it certainly makes everything more comfortable, and leads to me and the baby being less dry it out. There’s still some static in the air and stuff, but I also run it on a very low setting so I don’t have to fill it too often. I am for good enough . We’ve lived here eight months now I think, and we’ve ran her humidifier for probably four or five of that. It had gotten used in Portland prior to this too, but no build up at that point. It’s still working fine now.
There’s all sorts of fancy ones you can get with UV sterilization and stuff. I will say, these ones build up some like slimy pink mold stuff, like what you get at the foot of your shower. I just occasionally kind of wipe and scrub it off. There’s not really any good way to clean them. But that seems like a pretty universal problem for the small ones.
I think I’ll only need to use it in the winter, as I’ll have windows open all the time in summer and probably a lot of spring and fall as well. So it’s probably worth it for me, at least to just get one and see if it makes an impactful difference. I haven’t had a humidifier in probably decades, so I don’t really have anything to compare to either. (And I’m sure they are a lot different now, like, I don’t think ultrasonic humidifiers were a thing back then.)
You can clean humidifiers to get rid of hard water deposits. We have a Vicks (yes - like Vaporub) one. I should have cleaned it the end of last season we used it.
We have the wire cutter pick for humidifier and love it. Nearly all the pieces are dishwasher safe and it’s easy to fill and clean (even without a dishwasher). Highly recommend.
Trying to figure out what one this is and am unsuccessful! Can you link it? I think it must be a typo… or my brain is not working well. 
Oh, lol, The Wirecutter. NVM, I found it.
https://www.amazon.com/dp/B002QAYJPO/?tag=thewire06-20&linkCode=xm2&ascsubtag=AwEAAAAAAAAAASQV
This is the wirecutter pick and the one we have. I think it works better than most humidifiers with hard water because if the filter.
I’ve never had a humidifier, but my sister bought one shaped like an elephant for my nephew’s nursery. I vote you get a cute one.
What did the vet say?
They tested Dingo’s urine and found that it wasn’t blood per se, it was red blood cells naturally present in urine (I did not know this!) that had burst. Apparently this is rather rare; the emergency vet had to call a colleague to confirm.
They said the bursting is most often caused by overexertion. He runs twice a week and 10+ miles a couple times a month, so I don’t think he was winded in the usual sense… maybe he slipped in the snow while he was out of sight and strained a muscle? Anyway, his pee was normal again in the evening and seemed fine all day today. He seems a tiny bit subdued, but is eating & drinking normally. I wonder if this has happened before, but only became visible in the snow this time.
They said there’s some concern that these burst blood cells could overtax his kidneys, so they suggested going in again Monday to get them tested.
I’m glad there’s no more bloody urine, but I don’t like mysteries 