2021

Good Morning ALL! How are you doing this Wednesday morning, May 5th, 2021? We are okay here at my house. Mr. Alvin for some unknown reason has been up and down since 3:00 a.m. There are so signs of distress other than him whining from time to time but that is not unusual for him. He ate his breakfast in quick time as per usual and did his business outside. I will have to keep an eye on him. Perhaps it is arthritis in his paws/legs. Poor guy. He does not look sickly and his eyes are clear. They sometimes seem to tell me when something is off. Bored, perhaps. I do not know. Older age, possibility! So I am a bit on the sleep deprived side. So it is Wednesday, mid week. The sunrise was gorgeous, yes I watched the sky turn from my vantage point on my sofa. My windows in the living room face north but I can see how beautiful the sky is as it goes from night to sunrise to morning. There is a bit of a breeze this morning and I believe today is to be a good day weatherwise.

It is true that we never know what any day is going to bring us. Yesterday for example. At noon we only walked to the park and then turned around and headed for home as it had started to rain. Although I don’t mind walking in the rain, I really don’t like Alvin to get his ears wet. He can get ear problems faster than anyone I know. Does not matter that I careful dry them. So a short walk at lunch time. I made sure that I finished work right on time as I had our Annual General Meeting for our Union Chapter on Zoom. I wanted to feed both of us before the meeting and I managed to do so but it did take me 15 minutes to get into the meeting and I was ten minutes late joining. But I did it. After the meeting I cleaned things up and decided that as it was 13 degrees out at 7:00 p.m. that we should go for our regular walk. We did just that. There were a lot of folks out walking and walking with their dogs. We were just inside the park when I noticed a man coming down the path with two really large dogs. I walked onto the grass and almost to the fence of the houses that line the park giving them a wide berth. He saw us and walked around a tree and when I came back down to the sidewalk and he got the sidewalk he turned his head and started talking loud enough for me to hear that “something about COVID, he worked as a biologist/chemist something or other for a company and that they had come up with a quick test before something else.” He also mentioned about the numbers put out by the government were crap. I mentioned about the 30 million people in India that have COVID and he said that how come only 16 US states are reporting no COVID?, Mexico? and other places he mentioned have no COVID … he went on and on … stating that his family were all University trained (what the heck did that mean). He said so much and spouted off numbers and such and said the f word a couple of times or so. Clearly he did not believe that COVID was real as he said it is just influenza. I will say this kind of scared me. No wonder we are where we are ….. I did not hang around very long. But he managed to say a lot of something in just a couple of minutes.

We continued on our walk as I tried to make sense of anything that he said. Now he said so much and I could hear him but not hear word for word.

I arrived at home just in time to see that a call was coming in from messenger. I did not catch it in time. So I opened messenger to find a message from someone from my hometown, the place where I was born. I had not spoke to him in decades. He had sent me a message and as I was reading it I accidentally called him so we chatted and he apologized for contacting me with bad news. A guy that I went to elementary school with passed away. How incredibly sad. We chatted for a long time catching up on our families. I was grateful for his call.

What a strange evening. You never know where things will go or what will happen.

Well time to head downstairs, I am truly running late and that coffee is going to hit the spot this morning.

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

Always, Love Carol & Alvin

Thought for the day ….

Good Morning and Welcome to Friday the 18th day of August, 2017.

The air is cool this morning in Edmonton and the sky is a white colour with hints of pink.

The fires that surround us to the north and in British Columbia have been changing our sky-scape.

The smell of smoke fills the air and slowly finds it’s way into the house.

I can only imagine what it is like in the areas affected by the fires.

We hope and pray that they are out soon.

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I have a friend who is fighting to have our city by-laws changed with respect to dangerous dogs after her little dog was viciously attacked and killed, a few short months ago.

She just did another interview, this one on the radio.

She was out walking their two small dogs with one of her sons.

The family’s second little dog was also seriously injured in the attack and required surgery.

That horrific scene plays over and over again in her mind.

I cannot imagine.

I hope that our city changes the by-law back so that there are more strict laws in place concerning the ownership of specific large dogs.

When you have a dog of any size for not only the sake of your dog, you and anyone else you may come in contact with …. please put your dog on a leash.

I walk with Alvin all the time and would never, never consider letting him off leash.

When you have a dog it is your responsibility to care and look after that creature.

It is a big deal.

Not to be taken lightly.

They take time, effort and money.

A couple of weeks ago now I was walking with Alvin in the morning and saw ahead of us a man walking with a large dog (pit bull) off-leash.

I stopped dead in my tracks and brought Alvin close to me holding my breath not knowing if the dog would see us or not.

Praying that Alvin would not bark.

That is what happens when people do not look after their dogs properly.

They scare others and even worse.

When I felt a bit more secure with distance I yelled to the man about “putting the dog on a leash.”

He ignored me and I am pretty certain he heard me.

When we got to the safety of our home …..  I tried again and he yelled back “I don’t care.”

I went into my house.

It is arrogance and ignorance that kills and injures.

I had no way of taking a photo to report him.

I will say that whenever I am walking with Alvin I am on high alert.

Gone are the days when we can walk with no fear.

Leisurely walks are a thing of the past or at least until people take responsibility.

 

Special Hello to: my friend “S” ….. stay strong and we are with you.

Always, Carol & Alvin