2021

Good Morning ALL! How are you doing on this rainy Tuesday, June 8th, 2021? Both Alvin and I are great. We, Alvin slept through until 5:00 a.m. – that is amazing. So at least I feel as though I had a decent sleep. It is raining as I alluded to in my opening sentence. It just started raining about half an hour ago. I have to run out and ensure that the downspout is turned the right way and clean up you know what from a little while ago when Alvin was out. The forecast is for rain off and on for the next couple of days. There were points yesterday where the sun did shine. Last night I made an executive decision to put most of my flower pots in the garage and the others close to the garage and to the house for some shelter as they do not require that much moisture. Also yesterday one of the girls on my work team let us know that it was hailing at her home. So decided not to take the chance. I cannot do anything about the plants in my flower beds but at least I can help out the flower pots. I very much want them to last until say October. So I watch the weather – if it looks like a huge downpour / hail is in the forecast I move them into the garage or to some shelter. The garbage guys just picked up the trash. I love when I can look out of my office window and see green. The trees are full leaved now and are beautiful.

Yesterday my kids made a quick stop to drop off some items that they picked up at the freecycle and some items they no longer wanted and that I could use. I got a chair that I am using in my bedroom, two chairs for the kitchen and a desk and a flower pot. The flower pot is an exact match to a ceramic one that I acquired a few years ago. Sweet deal. We had a short visit and then they were off.

As it was raining at noon we did not go for a walk and in the morning we were reeling from lack of sleep so our walk waited until after work. It was actually quite nice at that time. I wore a light spring jacket as it was a bit cooler.

Oh, I forgot to tell you that I went from 3000 photos on my phone to 285. I went through most of them. The ones remaining are a few that I choose to keep and the remaining are ones to be uploaded to my computer. YAY, me. Feels so great.

I cannot remember if there was anything else that I was going to tell you or not. Oh, last minute ….. Master Teddy is coming at 10:00 a.m. to spend the day with us. His parents are going to the farm for a bit and Kobi is going to the groomers. So Teddy will come and hang out with me and Alvin. Alvin will have company while I work. He will be happy.

Well time to get going. I want to check on the downspout and do the other thing in the backyard …. starts with p and ends p ….. three words. Can you guess? Think about it. I gave you some clues in my post.

Wishing you a wonderful day.

Continuing to live this life day by day with kindness, respect, compassion, patience, love and gratitude.

Always, Love Carol & Alvin

P.S. one more thing. Yesterday the doorbell rang so we went to the door to find this gray-haired older man standing on the bottom step holding a sign. The sign was from Canada Roofing. The guys that are going to do our shingles. Only thing is they have not confirmed this and I have not signed a contract as yet. Kind of out of order, I would think. Anyway just wanted to share. I am excited to finally have new shingles on our home.

2021

Good Morning ALL! How are you this morning? I had a slightly difficult time wanting to stay up this morning. Their were plans to be up earlier but ended up just before 8:00 a.m. Are there folks out there who are like me, who would love to be an early morning person but someone cannot bring themselves to get up at let’s say 6:00 a.m.? I manage to get up for work although now that I am at home, I push that time to the latest that I can and still able to fit in our morning routine. I have tried staying up later so that Alvin will sleep past 2:30 a.m. and most times he has been waking up at 4:00 or a bit earlier. Not quite sure what to do. I know that consistency is the key and I guess we have to find out groove, our place. I believe that part of “our problem” is that he will nap in the evening while I am watching television or whatever it is that I am doing unless I am outside working on something and then he is right at my side. I guess I have to spend less time on the sofa and more time doing things. Likely I do spend too much time on the sofa semi watching television and the rest of the time checking things on my smartphone. Here I am falling into the groove that I did not wish to when I first got the phone. On the bright side or upside, it is almost summer. There are many things to do outside so if we are busy and are in bed at/by 10:00 and then could sleep until 6:00 a.m., that would be perfection. 8 hours sleep or close. In a row would be ideal. Not sure how that would work with both Alvin and I be “older” and sometimes a full “bladder” wakes you up. Oh well. Life in the fast lane.

Yesterday I took a vacation day. What a great day I had. We were up fairly early and had a quiet morning. My daughter had a bit of a late start but she was here by noon and that was great. She brought the pressure washer so that I can clean the deck (hopefully) this weekend. Then we were on our way. I brought along a to go mug of freshly brewed coffee for her and I brought water as I had already drank way too much coffee. Always have to think of the bathroom thing. LOL. We decided to drop off her groceries that she had picked up from COSTCO on her way to my house to her house. She also picked up new eyeglasses which looked so good on her and had very “fancy looking” frames. At her house, I said hello to my son-in-law and to my grandpups who were excited to see me. I spent a few minutes giving Miss Aspen a belly rub. Soon we were on our way to a nearby community that was hosting the free cycle and I made an error in my previous post(s). It was Stony Plain that was having the freecycle weekend and June is when Spruce Grove (my daughter’s home) is hosting this event. We drove around and admired homes looking for people who were participating in the freecycle. The first thing we found was what looked like a garden hose and was very soft and flexible and two battery operated garden lights. We also pulled up to this house and we both spotted three vases. One was a dark copper, tall and cylindrical and the other were glass and beautiful. I was in love with the copper one and luck would have it my daughter loved the other two, most especially one that was greens and yellows so pretty. Another person pulled up right behind us but she stayed in the vehicle until we were finished. WE got lucky. We also found a bit later a bunch of medium and small Christmas tins which I love to use either to give baked goods to during the holidays or to wrap a small gift. We stopped at a garage sale and my daughter brought a brass bathroom towel holder stand. It was heavy and well made and worth the $10 that the woman asked for when we asked how much it was? We decided to drop off our finds at her home. At my daughter’s I got to meet the infamous pup LUNA who lives next door, formally met Luna’s parents and gave Miss Aspen more belly rubs along with Luna who kept giving me kisses when I rubbed her back. Mi Mi he would come for attention and then leave. The car was unloaded, a snack was had and bathroom breaks and then we were on the road once again. This time with stops to Canadian TIRE and then a greenhouse/nursery. I was able to pick up several items that I had wanted and a few extra things. It started to rain when we got to the greenhouse. We were standing in line. I said we would only wait 5 minutes or so and then leave as I did not have to buy flowers this time around. Before you know it was raining hard and people were starting to move inside. The young male employee was trying valiantly to keep people outside as it was against health regulations. No one listened. One older woman did not want to stand outside and basically just “pushed” her way into a corner and then when her husband came he just said he was with her. Some people. Most people moved into the entrance way which was frustrating the employee who was trying to keep people outside. Another employee came and told everyone that they could be shut down but no one seemed to care, they just did not want to get wet. We stood at the entrance, as we were third to go into the nursery. Anyway, there was chatter while we were there. Some laughs. No one seemed to remember the order except for me. Then we had a cart it had been sanitized and we were in the greenhouse. So many beautiful flowers and plants. While my daughter went to check out the succulents, I went to the other side. First find was some impatiens plants that were 6/$6.95 so I grabbed a couple of them. That was the last time that I looked at the price. The name of the game was to pick up some flowers and get home to Mr. Alvin. We were already later than I had originally planned. Although he had not been alone for very long as my neighbour had gone over around 3:00 p.m., I did not want to stress him more than necessary. I caught up to my daughter and we went around and picked up flowers that appealed to us. I picked up some many and was really excited. We were both excited as we love to plant flowers. I may need more for my front flower bed but it was a good start. Considering I had not been paying attention to the cost, I came in way under budget. So it goes to show you that if you pick out only the items that you love …. that you may just come in under budget/cost. Happy as a lark, I was. By the time that we got out of the greenhouse, the rain had stopped. We loaded up the car and were on our way to my house. Thankfully it is a short drive and we were home just after 5:30 p.m., so not too late. Mr. Alvin did let me know his feelings on the subject though. I let him out right away followed by his supper. We unloaded the plants and my shopping items and then my daughter was on her way. Once she was out of the garage I moved the flowers/plants into the middle of the floor. We are going to be busy this weekend. Pressure washing the deck and the house, planting flowers, the Fifth Avenue Jewelry lives which we had one last night at 7:30 p.m., laundry (that load I put in a while ago will be long since washed, a walk and some cleaning and whatever else I can squeeze into today and then tomorrow. I had better get this show on the road.

Oh, one more thing. After I fed Mr. Alvin last night I decided we should go for a walk before the rain. The sky held some big dark clouds. We did not get the rain shower that Spruce Grove had while we were flower shopping. We got to the park and Alvin decided that was far enough, I tried to convince him to go further but he would not so we headed home. I remembered as we got closer to the mailboxes that I had not picked up the mail recently and I had heard that the census had been mailed so decided to stop and grab the mail. While we were walking I noticed two woman and a medium size dog on the same side of the sidewalk as we were on and we had to cross to pick up the mail which we did. It was then that we were close enough and one woman had her back to us and I thought that she looked familiar. When we grabbed the mail we were crossing the street but there was a car in between us and when we came around the other side I realized that I in fact knew this woman. Surprise of all surprises, this is my new neighbour. The people that were moving out said a “woman” had bought their duplex and who knew that it would be someone that I knew. How cool is that? Very cool. We chatted for a few minutes. WOW.

I had better get going. Get dressed and get that load of laundry hung up and the next one into the washer. Lots to do this day.

I am excited to try out my new garden hose.

We wish you a wonderful day.

Continuing to live this life with kindness, respect, compassion and patience.

Always, Love Carol & Alvin

It is a NEW YEAR.

Good Monday Morning ALL.

The clouds are beginning to break and I can see clear blue patches of sky.

We definitely require some sunshine.

Appreciate the rain, the moisture but really, really, really need some sunny warm days.

May and June thus far have been on the cool wet side.

Keeping positive thoughts that we will have a nice warm sunny summer.

 

How was your Sunday?

Mine was good, quiet.

I did some odds and ends and spent about 3 hours in the afternoon working on work.

Just gives me peace of mind.

Also helps when Monday rolls around …. not quite so frantic.

Last night early evening I saw some movement across the street.

Here were these two young rabbits (definitely not fully grown) running.

They were chasing each other.

Full throttle.

So cute.

They were definitely playing you could see it plain as day.

Back and forth and forth and back on the stretch of lawn across the street.

Actually our lawns are perfect for rabbits and children.

With no fences they can run and play.

I wished that I had been able to catch a video of them but somehow I can happy that I captured the video with my own personal recorder.

Sometimes we need to drop the devices and capture life’s movies with our own built in video cameras.

Often times we miss the little things by always being behind the lens.

We do have the photos and videos for all time.

Mostly, we do not look back over them at a later date/time.

Although I will say that I do quite often look at the photos that I have taken over the years.

Sometimes when my sister comes to visit we drag out the photo boxes and take a journey down memory lane.

Laughing and crying.

My daughter is a photo nut as well so we often look over photos and share them as well.

 

Speaking of my daughter.

This past weekend the small City where she lives has a program they call “free-cycle.”

I do not remember how many times in the summer they hold it but more than once.

Folks put out on their driveways and lawns …. items they no longer want.

Free for the taking.

My daughter and son-in-law love to check out the treasures.

This weekend it has been raining but did not stop them or others.

I guess later yesterday people starting putting more things out for pickup.

Just received a text from my daughter telling me of the treasures they found yesterday.

Flower pots, some art, a few fans, another patio table and an amazing iron garden slide chair.

She said they had to drive down the street with her holding the chair halfway in the car.

They would like to give it to me.

Further details about the chair …. really heavy iron chair that rocks.

That would be cool.

I can not wait to see the photos and the real life items.

I can only imagine an iron rocking chair?

Never seen one in my life.

Never ever.

 

What a great idea for neighbourhoods to host!

A weekend when folks place items on their lawns or driveways for others to take for FREE.

Now they should be in good condition.

I don’t think this event is for folks to put out broken unfixable items.

Nor should it be.

But what a great way to give a new home, new purpose, a future, to some of those items that you no longer need or love.

Better than a garage sale.

You may not make a few dollars but you might just make some passerby very happy.

 

Well time to get this show on the road.

Coffee is ready.

Alvin is snuggling under a blanket on top of his little bed in my office.

It is chilly in the house this morning.

The last couple of mornings, I really should have turned on the thermostat but just could not bring myself to do so in JUNE.

Alvin has been cold with his new haircut from last weekend.

So he snuggles under a blanket.

 

I hope that you have an amazing Monday.

Living with kindness and respect forever.

I/We shall remain,

As Always, Carol & Alvin