The Next Chapter

Good Morning. The early morning sunshine has been replaced by clouds. It would appear that we had some rain through the earlier hours of this morning. The wind is blowing the trees that I can see through my office window.

Last night after supper, I took my last walk with Eddie & Bruno. My heart is breaking once again or perhaps just breaking more. Life is not fair. These beings that touch our hearts and make us better, are lost way too early. Goodbye is never easy. Our last walk started with finishing off the liver treats on the front lawn. The clouds rolled in and Jeanette had not worn a jacket so I grabbed her one from my front entry closet and then we were on our way. Oh how Bruno loved those treats. He loved to eat. So reminded me of a little someone! Shortly after we left the rain started and continued for most of our walk. Not a downpour as this was the one time that the boys did not have on their raincoats. I think it was nice for Bruno to experience the rain gently falling onto him. He went to places in the park that we had not walked to over the last few weeks. Personally I think he was sniffing and taking in every place that he could. He drank two bottles of water within the first minutes of the walk and then with a burst of energy just kept walking. We did not take many breaks. He just wanted to walk. Eddie was quite attentive to this Father and not as playful as usual. They know. I miss him already. Oh our dear Bruno.

The rain did not make for taking many photos. I will post them later. We also saw about six adult geese and a great many goslings near the water’s edge on our walk. I did not get any photos.

I hope that you have a good day.

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

Always, Carol & Alvin, My Forever Angel

The Next Chapter

Good Morning All! How are you this morning? We have had some rain off and on since early yesterday. I pray that the areas affected by the wildfires are getting some of this moisture without the lightning. To all those folks that were able to go back home, I pray that the damages were minimal. On the news last night I saw a farmer speaking of the loss of his beloved animals. They were saved from the first evacuation and then the fire started up again and they were trapped in the barn. My heart bleeds for the loss of them and all of the dear animal life lost.

Photos taken recently. The “Our Trees” were taken in the morning of my tree and the neighbours. The park photos were taken on my walk after supper. I had a lovely walk. This time I took my phone so that I could take some photos of our world coming back to life after the winter. The lovely pups in the last photo are neighbours. Eddie & Bruno. Eddie is social like Mr. Alvin and Bruno does not like the lime light so much. I saw them at the park across the lake and called out to their Mom who was taking them for a walk. After saying hello from a distance, we carried on our way. Who would have guessed that I would have walked all the round and they were just coming out of the park on that side. We chatted and started to walk together. Another pup Bailey and her Dad were coming. All the dogs know each other. Eddie and Bailey were playing. Bruno was just watching and trying to say out of their way. We had a great visit. Bailey is the pup that with her Dad were here one night when the kids and my grand pups were leaving. Bailey wanted to play with Aspen. So cute.

Time to go. I hope that you have an awesome Tuesday. Prayers going out to the areas affected by the wildfires, I hope that they are under control and no further damage to life or property.

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

Always, Carol & Alvin (My Forever Angel)

Last Half 2022 – August

Good Morning ALL! How are you this morning? We are doing great. Alvin is laying in front of the fan in the hallway as I type this post. We were up for the first time this morning at 5:45, that was fantastic. I suppose we should have stayed up as it was close to the time that during the week I need to be up so that we can do everything we need to do before I start work but alas after I fed Mr. Alvin, took him outside, we laid down on the sofa again. Next thing I woke up and it as 8:00 a.m., I quickly ran upstairs and got changed, filled his water bottle, slipped his harness on, grabbed the leash, poop bags, my sunglass clips, my flip flops and the keys and we were on our way. It was so nice outside a bit of coolness filled the air. The sky is slightly overcast as I type these words and there is a bit of a breeze. I think that today the temperature is to be a bit cooler. So grateful for that. We walked to our friend Pauline’s house, looked at the flowers from the public sidewalk as I could see people coming with dogs. Turning around we headed home. Of course, there was a poop stop before carrying on. We were almost to the poop bag station at the entrance to the park when the lady and her pup caught up to us. She called out that they were waiting for us. Her dog was large but seemed so sweet. Mary and PopTart. Those were their names. We chatted from a bit of a distance as Mary said that PopTart was afraid of smaller dogs. Alvin was busy sniffing and not paying too much attention to her although he did look at her from a distance and was wagging his tail. PopTart was so well behaved. I am always amazed at how many new people I meet. Are there that many moving into this area? She was nice and her pup was nice. We also mentioned about walking early in the morning or later in the evening (if not dark, no mosquitoes) if cools down as too hot for the pups during the day.

Just as I was typing this post, I realized that I had a voicemail message and it was from Pauline, she had called after we left the house to see if we wanted to meet and go for a walk. I texted her back and she suggested maybe this evening. I hope that the temperature allows for us to walk.

I would like to bake a banana loaf however it will depend on the temperatures. Have to check the weather station.

My brother and his husband made it safely to Regina last night to our sister’s house. She has air conditioning so they would have had a good sleep last night.

I can smell the freshly brewed coffee so it is time to end this post. Looks like more clouds are rolling in. Perhaps we will get some rain. I watered my flowers last night as they can barely go more than one day without being watered. We are also getting closer to the end of their season. I will need to bring in my geraniums and canna lily in likely a couple of weeks so will need to repot the geraniums. Guess I will need to look at getting some more flower pots and dirt.

I hope that you have an awesome Sunday. I have to bring up the clothes that are drying in the basement. Perhaps this afternoon, I will go through some of my crafting items as I promised them to a person that picked up a item that I was selling. No point in having things laying around the house that you will not use.

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

Always, Carol & Alvin

PS: always be open to possibilities!

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!

The New YEAR 2022

Good Morning ALL! How are you this morning? Well we are in for another strange, whacky winter day. According to previous forecast, warming up from cold temperatures overnight with “snowy conditions” later this morning. So what does that mean? Could be a rain/snow mix or just snow. I hope that for all those people having to drive somewhere that it is just plain snow and that we receive only a very small amount. On the upside there are plus temperatures even as high as 7+ celsius for tomorrow. Wow, tropical heatwave. I am quite sure that I will see some of the teens in the neighbourhood out with shorts and a long sleeved t-shirt and flip flops. Perhaps when you are a teenager your hormones work the same as menopausal females? Possibly the reason why they or a good portion of them are always warm. I don’t think it is all about fashion and just being a teenager. Just my thoughts on the topic. Well anyway, I am looking forward to walking with Mr.Alvin along with working on gathering up information to do my taxes (trying to get ahead of the game) and laundry. That is my Saturday plan. Anything else that gets done will be a bonus.

Yesterday was a BONUS GREAT FANTASTIC DAY for me and Alvin. Started off with my son-in-law stopping after some appointments and dropping some things off and having a brief but lovely visit with us followed by a walk after work. So after work (yes, I stopped work on time), we went downstairs and got ready for a walk. Usually I have to chase him around the table for awhile but not too long yesterday. I truly believe that he has been missing our walks. We got outside and he literally (whoops overused word, not supposed to use, sorry I forgot – could you excuse this 64 year old woman, thank you, lol) he pulled me all the way to the park stopping momentarily to sniff some yellow snow (yuck, yuck, I will never understand that). We were just inside the park when he stopped to go to the “bathroom” and after he was done (I picked up the poop, of course) and then he pulled in the direction back toward home. He did the same thing on the way home. Pulled. At first I thought he was pulling because I had a text from his best friend Teddy’s Mom who said they were in the City and wondering if they could drop by at some point for a visit? I had briefly mentioned them and thought he may have remembered and was heading to their house. Not. Back home, I emptied the food scraps bucket and kitchen garbage into the big bins in the garage. Once done, I gave Mr. Alvin his supper. Teddy’s Mom made arrangements to come after supper. We were all so happy to see each other. The pups ran around the main floor jumping up to say hello and chasing each other in the way that they do. We had an absolutely fantastic visit and I look forward to the next one.

Well it is time to sign off for another day. I hope that you have a great, great day. If it is warm where you are – go on that walk and take in nature. You will feel all the better for it. I promise. I cannot wait till we go on our next walk.

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

Always, Carol & Alvin

2021

Good Morning All! A bright sunny, bit on cool side morning but there are no rain clouds in sight. i decided that we should try and go for a walk and see if there are any problems for Alvin. When i went to get his harness he immediately ran under the table but instead of hiding there he ran under and to the back door. There the boy was wagging his tail and didn’t fuss when I put on the harness. With the grass so wet i carried him down the steps and to the public sidewalk. Not quite sure why I thought that was necessary as a few doors down he was checking out a bush on a neighbour’s lawn. Then he was wet. That is why there is a towel at the front door. The walk was great with no signs of distress. Thank goodness as over the weekend he was not himself.

We were almost at the park when we had to stop at a friends so he could sniff on the power box. it was there I noticed an empty liquor bottle on their lawn with some cigarette butts on the sidewalk. Further down on the sidewalk more butts and a lighter. Someone was partying and didn’t care where they took the party. As we got closer to the park, I noticed something off. Yes, likely the party people had tipped over the large cement glower pot that sat near the entrance to the park spilling dirt and flowers everywhere. Why oh why, don’t people have regard for other’s property? I would think they don’t treat their property respectfully either. Disappointing.

Well human brings what can you say.

Time to get to work. Alvin has a vet appointment today so will take the afternoon off from work.

Have a great day.

Continuing to live with kindness, respect, patience, compassion, understanding, love and gratitude and laughter.

Always Carol&Alvin

2021

Good Morning ALL! How are you this Sunday morning? Both Alvin and I are well and it is warm in the house despite having the windows open to let in the cool air. Alvin and I both slept until 5:30 a.m. and then we were up to stay. I cannot believe it. I gave the boy his glucosamine chew and then his breakfast. Following that I brushed my teeth, washed my face and got dressed and then filled up Mr. Alvin’s water bottle. I grabbed the harness and chased him around the table (actually he was under the table) and then he broke free and ran upstairs, with nowhere to go, I managed to get his harness on him. Back downstairs, grabbed shoes and keys. We were about 1/2 block or so away from the house before I realized that I had forgot to grab my sunglass clips. ARGH. I do not like being out in the sunshine without them. Anyway I kept my eyes pointed down. As we reached the park I noticed in the middle of the sidewalk a bright blue item, oh I knew exactly what it was, a disposable face mask. They are all over the place. I used a poop bag as a glove and carefully picked it up and threw it in the garbage can a short distance away. Not sure why this happens so much. Anyway. We took our time and as we walked I picked up using another garbage bag as a glove multiple cigarette butts, some plastic and a huge ziploc bag. At one point Alvin got something in his mouth and as I saw him start to chew, he spit it out and I saw it was a cigarette butt. My heart sank. So thankful that this time he actually spit it out. So grateful. They can do so much damage to the internal organs of an animal even causing death. The butt was in the grass so I did not see it. As we walked the birds chirped and the sun shone. What a glorious morning. As we were exiting the park we saw a rabbit, I called him Jack and up the way I noticed another rabbit, I called her Jill. No idea if they were a male and female, two males or two females. But they hopped away and it was not much further and I noticed another bunny. Must have been a convention of the rabbits before the humans are out and about. We carried on enjoying the walk. It wasn’t actually until we got all around and back to the entrance to the park that we saw any human life. A woman walking into the park wearing a dress and boots. I saw her yesterday in a dress and boots with a man. Boots just don’t seem very comfy for walking or in this heat. Mind you perhaps that is all that she has to wear, so no judgements. Another woman was on a bike. Oh, I got out another poop bag and picked up a Tim Horton’s iced drink plastic cup and more cigarette butts. Thankfully I carry several poop bags with me. I sure wish that people would be responsible and dispose of their garbage and that includes cigarette butts. I guess that some people have no idea and really do not give any consideration or thought to what they are doing. My thoughts anyway. We arrived home and once inside I quickly turned on the fans. Anyway I guess I did some more community service this morning by picking up the trash on our walk.

I also noticed it appeared that someone dug up some of the roses at the entrance to the park. Pretty sure there were taller ones by this certain tree yesterday and the days before but they were gone this morning.

Oh, I googled “how to keep your dog cool.” In the house you can add ice cubes to their water dish and you can soak a towel in some cool water and then wring it out and place over them. Alvin absolutely loved it. He laid on the sofa with a wet towel for a long time and then when we went to bed, I soaked another towel and covered him. Worked like a charm and he slept from just after 10:15 p.m. until 5:30 a.m. ……. that was amazing. Personally it was likely that the heat plum tuckered him out but I would like to think that he was comfortable and just slept. It was easy to remain up when you had a continued sleep. Fingers crossed that it will continue.

So today, not much on the agenda. Just bring up the clean clothes that are air drying in the basement. Perhaps rearrange the basement a bit. OR not. Oh, I have my second vaccine this afternoon. YAY, then I am done.

I hope that you are doing well wherever you are and keeping cool if the temperatures are hot.

Please stay safe and be careful.

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

Always, Love Carol & Alvin

Ready to grind some beans and have a mug of coffee and maybe even on the deck before it gets hot.

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

2021

Good Morning ALL! How are you this Thursday morning? Alvin and I are doing well. We had a reasonably good sleep last night which was awesome. There is a breeze this morning and the skies are filled with rain clouds. The ground outside is wet. We definitely could use some rain at this point. No complaints from this gal. I love that word. “Gal.” Please note that I have no idea if there is a deeper meaning other than when referring to a girl. Oh, the wind is getting up as I watch the trees sway back and forth. Yesterday we had a lovely walk around our “ponds” over the noon hour. We saw some of our neighbours out and about. After work I thought after our long day “at work” that perhaps a walk would loosen me, us up. So off we went. We were only a few doors down when we came across our friend Crystal just parking her car after arriving home from somewhere. She had the youngest son with her “Zane.” He is the sweetest little guy and loves Alvin with a quiet passion. As soon as he saw us, he was over like a rocket. Giving Alvin some kisses and hugs. He wanted so badly to come for a walk with us and hold onto Alvin’s leash. Well Alvin could easily pull the little guy over but I was there for support. I asked Crystal if okay and she said of course as she had to go and pick up the mail from the community mailbox. I said that we would just walk to the park and back which would only be a few minutes. Well Mr. Alvin was definitely not certain of what was going on. He kept looking for me even though I was right there. I had to jump in once in awhile as Zane was definitely not he pack leader between him and Alvin. But we managed and Zane was happy and Alvin was just confused and not really happy that I was not holding the leash. We got to the park and back to their house with no boo boos, thank goodness. Alvin does not like anyone other than me holding the leash. He will tolerate his sister and brother-in-law but that is it. He is a one human …. dog. For sure. Anyway it was cute and a fun way to start my evening.

Yesterday my place of employment officially changed their name from Capital Region Housing Corporation to CIVIDA. It did provide some issues yesterday with all things computer, if you know what I mean. But those issues will get fixed and life will go on. I like the name, it is shorter for one thing. I am certain that I will mess up the name or say the old name from time to time. Change always takes a bit of time for adjustment. That is okay. I have been through so much change with this company over the past ten year.

Last night I watched a movie that I had recorded. It was amazing. Malika the Lion Queen narrated by Angela Bassett. She was the perfect choice to narrate this movie. The story of a lioness from Africa. If you have an opportunity to watch it …. please do. It is happy, sad and really runs all one’s emotions. Not only was the story interesting but I learned so much about lions. I will never forget Malika.

Well it is time to hop off of the computer, get the coffee perking and hop onto a different computer for work. I wish you a wonderful Thursday.

Living this life with kindness, respect, compassion and patience. Always working on the patience. Some days it is easier than others.

Always, Love Carol & Alvin

2021

Good Morning ALL! How are you this Thursday morning before the Easter weekend? I am doing well and thankful that our office is closed for four whole days, what a wonderful break with time to renew, recharge, relax and reorganize my house. Looking forward to it for sure. What about you? I forgot to mention that I finally saw a bunny the other day and it was mostly white with only a few brown patches. If we go by the bunny it would mean that we will still have winter weather for a bit. March came like what, I really do not remember without checking but definitely went out like a lamb. It was absolutely gorgeous here in Edmonton yesterday. We had the most wonderful walk at 3:00 p.m. yesterday afternoon. Why so late? I worked the late shift so my “lunch break” fell at that time. It was pretty quiet out when we went except for the playground at a nearby park which was filled with children. They sounded happy. That is a good sign. I can see a tree on the other side of my garage and with the glow of the sunrise it appears to be golden. Just the reflection, I suppose. Really pretty, really pretty. So happy that it is getting lighter earlier each morning.

I hope that you and your family are doing well and that you have a wonderful Easter. It is definitely a time of celebration for many reasons.

Feels like a photo sharing day….. beauty

Continuing to live this life, my new old life with kindness, respect, compassion and patience. Adding love and joy.

Always, Carol & Alvin

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