The New YEAR 2022

Good Morning ALL! I hope that this post finds you doing very well. Both Alvin and I are good. I think that Alvin has had a turnaround in how he has been feeling. Part of how I can tell is from his “poop.” Argh, yuck, you might say but poop is important for animals and humans alike. It can tell a lot about your current state of health. Al was having some loose stuff happening, I will skip the details. This morning it was more firm and that is a good thing. Yesterday was an odd day. I had BIG plans but then they completely changed. OH well, I say, Oh well. I did some laundry in the morning, cleaned bathrooms and reorganizing a bit. By the afternoon, after being up so often Friday night, that I laid down beside Mr. Alvin on the sofa and ended up falling the asleep. Yes, I had a nap. I woke when something happened in a dream. This is what I remember: I happen to see our old neighbour Sherry outside looking around as if she did not remember she used to live in the other half of our duplex so I opened the door to check on her. I was so caught up in what was happening with her that I did not notice that Mr. Alvin slipped out quietly through the open door and was gone. When I realized he was not there, I happened to look down the street and there he was walking down the sidewalk toward the park. That is when I screamed and woke up. I really did scream. Poor Alvin in real life. I hope that my now neighbours did not hear me, I don’t think I had the window open at that time. Anyway, no one came over or called. So all good. But when I woke up to find myself drooling and Alvin right beside me on the sofa, I breathed a sigh of relief. It seemed so very real. Yup, drooling, I was. I had fallen asleep sitting up with my legs up on the sofa and head back on the back cushion of the sofa. Very comfy. Anyway, I still have that scared feeling running through my veins.

The sun shone for most of the day and it was nice out. After I woke up I checked on the laundry and then decided it was time to go for a walk. We had a great walk to the park and did our usual walk. When we first got into the park we came across this woman and a little white dog. So cute. Anyway, Alvin decided he wanted to say hello. We, humans decided to chat. I found out that her dog’s name was Bailey and Bailey is 16 years old. She has a heart condition but is on medicine. Bailey’s Mom’s name is Gail (not sure if this is how she spells her name or not). So they are going to be moving into our neighbourhood in June and she was just bringing Bailey here to get her used to the new place. What a good Momma. We had the nicest chat and I learned so much. I happen to mention to Gail about my concerns about Alvin, about how I thought that perhaps he may have the onset of dementia. She said that one day a while ago, Bailey would get lost (at home), starr into nowhere and have accidents. She took her to her vet and found she did have the onset of dementia. There is a human drug for Parkinson patients called “selegiline” (not sure of the spelling, I forgot to look it up) and you can buy it at Safeway. So she gave her the medicine and after 5 weeks, she was much better. The vet said if you catch it in time, you can stop or greatly reduce the effects. So I will keep an eye on Alvin and take him to the vet if required. I had no idea that there was a drug out there – that helped with dementia to that degree. If you catch it soon enough. All about the timing. We had a great chat. I am so happy that I fell asleep and that the dream woke me up when it did and that we met Gail and Bailey. After our walk, I worked on the laundry, cleaned up my plants and watered them. Baked a banana loaf. I checked a basic recipe and then decided to have some fun so I added pumpkin instead of oil or butter and orange zest. OMG, it turned out so good. I cannot wait for the girls to try it this morning. This morning is coffee visit with my pals Gillian and Signe. In less than one hour.

Considering we had a quiet day yesterday, I am going to clean out the office closet. I have things neatly put away in there and I think that there are items that I can sell or give away or even toss. Better to see if someone can use them. Remember spring is the time to go through closets, things stored away and decide if those items bring you JOY. Do they make you happy? How often do you look at them? Do you really need or use them? We in North America get so stuck on keeping things. Hoarding is getting to be a problem for a lot of people. That is a whole other topic for another day.

Time to get Mr. Alvin downstairs as he is patiently waiting. I will make myself a cup of coffee before putting on the pot for Gillian. Signe is not a coffee drinker she likes a specific kind of tea and she always bringings her own. I have the banana surprise loaf and some oranges for a snack. Which will be breakfast for us all.

I have decided to hold off and plant my flowers, tomatoes and oregano next weekend. If it gets colder after that, I will have to put them in the garage overnight. I do love having the plants filling the kitchen table.

Have an awesome Sunday. Thank you so much for reading my posts, this blog. I love to write, share stories about my life with Alvin and my thoughts.

Continuing to live this life with kindness, respect, compassion, patience, love, laughter, understanding, gratitude, focus and possibilities.

Always, Carol & Alvin

P.S. do what makes you feel good ….. you can clean the toilet tomorrow…..enjoy the sunshine!

Welcome December 2020

Good Morning ALL. How are you doing this fine Friday morning? Some of my work colleagues are going to enjoy this as their last day before vacation returning to work after the NEW YEAR. I wonder how many folks out there that are employed did not take any or much of their 2020 earned vacation? Our immediate area found several staff with vacation days that must be taken before the end of 2020. I will admit that I am a bit envious. By take two weeks starting on Monday the return date is January 4, 2021 and with our office shut down time you end up with three weeks off. How lovely. Oh well, maybe next year. I did enjoy a couple of weeks vacation in August around my birthday and it was great. I am not really “upset.” Just wondering what other things we did in excess during this crazy year of 2020.

  1. Many folks started eating to find comfort hence the term “COVID-15” was penned.
  2. While others baked banana bread, cinnamon buns and bread like there was never going to be flour and sugar on this earth again. So evident by the bare shelves in the grocery stores.
  3. We (not me) hoarded bathroom tissue as if it was more important than food and water. Making it difficult to find any if you ran out. Which I ran into that situation. Luckily I had family and friends that came to the rescue. Definitely something you don’t want to run out of but not necessary to buy in huge bulk.
  4. Folks started ordering from online venues such as AMAZON in record high numbers. Really, how much of that stuff did you really need?
  5. We saw the increase of businesses delivering food that had been prepped and only required to be cooked such GOOD FOOD and CHEF’s PLATE and others.
  6. We saw the increase of online communication platforms (is that the correct language, I’m old so I am guessing here, lol) such as ZOOM and I have forgot the others now. OMG. There are a few.
  7. Increase in pet adoption. My hope is that when this is over that these pets remain in the homes and that they are all being well provided for ….
  8. Diamond Paintings. I hadn’t realized that this was even a thing before my friends told me. There are a great many websites where you can purchase pictures of anything. They are pre stamped with the picture, and a sticky covering and you match the coloured beads and with this pen like apparatus you pluck the matching coloured bead on the matching number and in the end you have a beautiful picture. I finished one and they finished tons. I started a fall one in late summer and it has been placed in the basement. Somehow I lost interest. Fun but not really my thing. Maybe it is old eyes. Okay that was poor wording.

Well time to go. I did come up with 8 things how about you?

I wish you a great Friday and I look forward to picking out new glasses later today. Not exactly sure how this is going to work but I will let you know tomorrow.

Remember together living with kindness and respect and compassion it will be a better world.

Always, Carol & Alvin

Countdown we are at “13” sleeps until Christmas EVE DAY.

Second Half of the NEW YEAR

Good Morning Everyone.

For some of us this is the last day before a long weekend.

I am so grateful that most months we have a statutory holiday.

YAY, happy days.

I have a few large jobs to accomplish this weekend and it is the Labour Day weekend after all.

So why not?

I need to trim my tree in the front yard ( I only have one tree ).

My daughter is coming over on Sunday for a pancake breakfast and to help me give her brother Alvin a haircut and then I will give him a bath.

The blinds on the windows are calling out to me, “dust me, wash me.”

Then there will be the regular things such as dusting, vacuuming and laundry.

 

I was thinking last night and this morning about “hoarding.”

The book that I am reading is about a woman who is a hoarder.

The House We Grew Up In by Lisa Jewell.

Likely most of us can relate in some fashion.

I am not a hoarder regarding things around the house but I am a “hoarder” when it comes to emails and photos.

For some reason I cannot seem to “press the delete button” on the phone or camera or computer for the emails or photos.

I am the same with emails at work.

So I need to start FALL CLEAN UP 2020.

I challenge you all to join with me and go through your emails, your photos and clean up your electronic devices.

I will say honestly that I do delete some of the advertisements but not all.

I will say that honestly I have two emails and the second one I almost never check and it has a massive amount of emails.

Unfortunately I have to go through them all as I have saved photos to that email and cannot do a massive wipe.

I am aware it is my fault and my own doing ….. but I am pretty sure that I am not alone in this.

Please join me and let me know if you are like me and so many others.

By Christmas I am hoping to have cleaned my phone photo library of the bad shots, duplicate photos and videos.

I am hoping to have made a dent in the bad shots, duplicate shots and videos from my computer (now that will take longer likely than Christmas as I have over 40,000 photos and videos.

Email wise, I want to have done.

Big job ahead.

But I need to step away from watching television as I am finding that I am watching far too much.

 

So on that note, I leave you …..

Have an awesome weekend.

Please do not feel badly if you are like me and others, I find that life gets in the way sometimes, and when it is something that is not directly in front of you every minute; you, me, we are more than

likely going to procrastinate.

Human Nature.

That is okay.

We are going to fix this.

Now is the time.

I am with you.

Are you with me.

Supporting each other is most important.

Please send me comments along your “FALL CLEAN UP 2020” project.

We can do this together.

 

With kindness and respect and understanding, I try to live my life.

I/We shall remain,

As Always, Carol & Alvin

 

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