2021

Good Morning ALL! How are you this morning? We are doing well. Had a fairly good sleep and even slept in this morning. No reason to get out of bed and stay up at 5:00 a.m. or even at 6:00 a.m. other than I guess it is better for one to keep the same sleep schedule which includes going to bed and rising. I will admit that I am trying to find the best times and it appears to be a work in progress for us although we usually go to bed within an hour. At this very moment the view out of my office window reminds me of a snow globe. The snow is accumulating as it is below zero. I can see more shovelling in my future. Just when there was only a small amount on the deck and in the backyard. We still have a fair amount on the front yard but that is due to us facing north. All about the shade in the front which is nice as the living room faces in that direction. On those hot summer days when it is +27 or so degrees celsius that shade does not keep the living room cool …… we have fans for that…. The sky is completely overcast with no breaks so looks like this is set in for the day although the temperature is to be plus double digits today so if that happens we will end up with rain and the snow will melt quickly. Tomorrow’s forecast is for plus double digits tomorrow and rain. I am so glad that we had an extra long walk yesterday as we may not make it out today. I don’t mind walking when it is snowing or raining but for Alvin not so good. He runs the risks of moisture getting into his ears (even though I dry them when we get home) and getting a yeast infection. Not much fun for either of us.

What is going on the in world today? I have literally no idea. I only know what is going on in my house. With Alvin I have no idea what he is thinking. I can only react to his physical appearance which makes it hard. It would be nice perhaps to know what he is thinking although between the just moments ago shaking his head and sneezing, I am willing to place a bet that he is not so happy with me at this moment. Clearly he wants something. Now he is whimpering. Perhaps he has to go outside. When we arose from the sofa, he drank quite a lot of water and I coaxed him to go outside but he would not so likely now he has to go for a pee. Well we went down and outside and we are back. Guess you did not miss us as you did not know we were gone, lol.

The house is quiet as always other than Mr. Alvin running across the room. I like quiet but sometimes you need the company of other humans, right?

This is a good time for me to do some further writing.

Do you notice that when it is snowing or raining or the skies are just plain overcast and there is no sunshine that you somehow lose your get up and go? I sometimes do, okay actually lots of times I do. But sometimes when it is snowing or raining – I have the urge to clean out a closet or rearrange furniture. Always a good thing to do. Go through those closets and the pantry. Cupboards and drawers. I will say that one advantage about living with no other humans is when I put something down it stays in that spot until I move it. When I put something away – it stays away until I move it. So there are advantages of being the only human in the house but then sometimes it is just lonely. I would not say that I am lonely often as I usually find a way to entertain myself and after all, I have Mr. Alvin and he keeps me busy. I would think when you are part of a busy household filled with humans and perhaps a pet or two that sometimes you just would like to be alone. I guess for us humans it always remains something to find a happy medium. Like the work life/home life balance.

Well I guess it is time for me to get dressed, take the laundry down to the basement and get that started. There will be vacuuming to do and dusting as well. Bed has been stripped and made already so one thing off my list. I look forward to a cup of coffee on a Saturday ….. it does seem different than during the week. Mainly because I actually can drink it while it is hot/warm. Very enjoyable.

I hope that you are doing well amidst all that is going on in our world and in your life. If we remember to live with kindness, respect, compassion and patience then we are doing our very best. I think that I could add love and passion to that list as well. If we love ourselves and live our lives with passion in addition to living with kindness, respect, compassion and patience ….. we truly have all of the bases covered for a well lived life. Food for thought.

Thank you for taking the time out of your busy life to read my words. I see and know that some of you read this post faithfully everyday and I am truly grateful.

May life treat you well each and every day.

Always, Carol & Alvin

Second Half of the NEW YEAR.

Good Tuesday Morning,

Another night without Alvin.

I know he is okay with the kids but I miss him.

It is good for us to be apart once in awhile.

We will appreciate each other all the more upon his return on Sunday.

Through some conversations and reflections, I believe that I have been causing Alvin anxiety since I have been home.

So I am going to try my very best not to let my job get under my skin.

I think that likely a lot of us are feeling this way now.

No matter if you like or love or don’t fancy your job …. we are all experiencing some form of stress or anxiety now.

I will say that our in person team meeting last Thursday helped us all.

We or most of us LOVE working from home and I would like to remain working from home until I retire.

So whatever I can do to make this be a positive experience for both me and Alvin, I am going to do.

My daughter stopped by yesterday on my lunch break to pick up the groceries that “we” forgot to pack into the car after the birthday party on Saturday.

She says that Alvin sleeps through the night until they get up in the morning and he has been doing great.

This is good for both of us.

Although I have never minded being alone …. I will say that the house is empty without the boy.

He is a force that is for sure.

Tuesday already and I have some things that I wanted to do this week so I guess I had better get the show on the road.

Tonight my girl friends are coming over and we are going to work on our “diamond paintings.”

It will nice to have them over.

I have some yard work to do.

When I opened the blinds in our bedroom this morning I saw that the sidewalks were wet.

I was not expecting rain.

The patio furniture still has the cushions out as I had not put them away.

Oh well.

I left the kitchen window open.

Luckily it was not a hard rain or coming in on an angle.

A nice rain is okay for us in the city but I hope that the farmers did not have rain as they are right in the midst of harvest.

My brother that lives in the country has been helping out some farmers with their combining.

So I hope it did not rain out there.

 

I was watching the weather channel last night before bed – trying to see what Saturday’s weather will be for the wedding.

They always switch it to something so I did not have the patience to wait.

I also noticed that yesterday in weather history ….. parts of Alberta had huge amounts of ….. should I say the word ….perhaps not.

Starts with a S and ends with a W and is four letters in total.

I am going to check my blog from last year and see if we had any??

Don’t remember.

That is the beauty of being Canadian we seldom remember the weather from year to end.

 

Well it is almost time to head on downstairs and have my first cup of coffee and perhaps start work a few minutes early.

Get organized.

I wish you an awesome day.

The sky out the office window kind of looks overcast so maybe this will be a rainy day.

I hope that the skies are clear on all the farms.

Live your life with kindness and respect.

Help when you are able and always do your best.

 

Living my life with kindness and respect.

As Always, Carol & Alvin

 

P.S. last year it was sunny and warm, Edmonton did not have the S–W that other areas of Alberta experienced.

Also I had put all of my patio furniture away and was cleaning up the flower pots already in preparation for winter.

 

Living … One day at a time.

Hello,

Wow, Saturday morning and almost time for me to pop over and pick up Mr. Humphrey who will be spending the weekend except for sleeping at our house.

There has been peeps of sunlight coming through the smoke filled sky this morning.

The wind is blowing so what that will mean, only time will tell.

Last night my daughter gave me a ride home from work as a couple of food items of mine had been left mixed with hers.

She helped me or rather set up a couple of things on the new phone for me.

After she left which was about 5:15 or so, Alvin and I left the house for a walk.

We were only a few doors down when I noticed a man trying to corral his dogs one being a large dog and the other a small one.

He yelled to a neighbour (our friend) who was out in her front yard to pick up the small dog while he called after the large dog who just kept running.

This is the breed that killed another friend’s dog and I will say I am just a bit, okay a lot scared of that dog.

So we ran onto a porch of another friend and hid at the front door.

She has a large full tree in the front so we were not in sight.

Thankfully.

I figured that she would be at work and she has a small older dog who had seen us go by …

Jazmin did not start barking and I was hoping that the owner of the large dog would hurry and get him.

He kept calling to the dog “come get into the truck” as he walked to his truck.

Meanwhile cars are zooming by ….. the dog stayed on the other side of the street but at one point was right directly across from us.

Alvin barked once and I covered him with my body and sort of pinned him against the door for protection.

I was not taking any chances.

Hoping that he would not start barking grabbing he attention of the loose large dog.

Not with my Alvin.

Just as Jazmin started to bark again …. the door opened and we almost fell into the house.

My friend was at home (happened to have the day off) and had been upstairs when we first arrived on her porch.

I noticed that the dog ran by towards his owner.

My heart was racing.

It was finally over.

Only was a handful of minutes but seemed forever.

So we ended up staying for a visit.

Alvin had some treats.

Life is good.

After that we continued on our walk.

We saw that the Geese including the goslings were on the grass by the water in the park.

So great so see those darling babies.

As we rounded the ponds we, I spotted a friend out watering her garden.

I said hello and that started a long chat.

Alvin was pretty patient.

After that, we turned around to go home and met a woman with her two small dogs.

We stopped and had a meet.

One of her dogs was a senior at 15 and then had a 7 year old small dog.

The senior about Alvin’s age but not his weight.

After that we headed home.

Saw other neighbours out walking with their doggie but we only said a quick hello.

Just about home when I saw other friend and her son.

She spotted Alvin whom she loves …. another beautiful conversation.

Guess what time we got home?

7:30 p.m.

So then we were famished or at least I kind of was …..

What a walk we had!

Other than the large dog experience … it was great to see so many friends.

Well I better get this day going.

I was going to mention that I started watching a mini series called “THE HOT ZONE.”

Based on true events in the United States (assuming).

I had watched the first of three two hour episodes Thursday night and watched all but about one hour last night.

I was so tired and poor Mr. Alvin …. kept trying to get me to go upstairs.

 

Well in the moment …. Living … One day a time.

Have an awesome Saturday.

Time to go and pick up Humphrey.

His Momma left about 8:00 a.m.

So he is okay …

Alvin will be happy to have company.

 

Laundry and grass mowing await me but not before picking up Humphrey and oh, yes COFFEE.

I also have to have breakfast.

Somewhere between changing bedding and gathering laundry and a handful of chores, I forgot.

 

Be kind …. and always aware of what is going on around you.

 

Always, Carol & Alvin

 

Thought for the day ……

Good Morning and Welcome to Sunday the 16th day of October, 2016.

Grey skies out there this morning.

I believe they are forecasting more freezing rain over the next day or so.

Not a good thing.

Funny how dark skies makes everything feel so quiet and sunny skies are noisy.

I guess we do things differently on those days.

Going to be a quiet Sunday ….. finishing up some cleaning.

Work on my Steeped Tea business.

Just enjoy the day with my boy.

I am grateful to have some less hectic days.

The leaves are all off of my tree now.

Missed that final final raking but I guess a bit of leaf cover is not all bad.

Alvin is patiently waiting for me outside the office.

These days he is not liking walking on the laminate floors.

A sign of getting older.

Oh the joys.

Well I have to fly again …. always flying.

Have a great Sunday.

Take some time to relax.

Special Hello to: all my fellow bloggers ….

Always, Carol and Alvin

Thought for the day ……

Good Morning and Welcome to Sunday the 12th day of July, 2015.

The sun is desperately trying to break through the smoky haze that has taken over our skies for the past few days.

I can only imagine what it is like near the fires.

The smoke filling the air …. hard to breathe.

I was thinking of all of the poor creatures that lived in the forest with no where to run unlike we two-legged ones that can jump in a car or be flown out of the danger zone.

My heart bleeds today for them all.

If they are fortunate to escape the fire zone then what?

They end up in a habited area and then we do the unthinkable because we think they are a threat to us.

I am just grateful to be where I am …..

This has been an odd weekend.

The basement pretty much done ….. the “DRYWALL” ( I thought of the name ).

When I was vacuuming the more fine dust the filter on the vacuum decided to be done.

A bit later I found a wee small dead mouse behind the furnace tucked behind a small opening ….

Where and when ….. OMG ….. they creep me out.

I also hooked up the dryer vent hose and levelled the dryer (all by myself, found that it wasn’t difficult). YAY, me.

I was just about to start laundry and entered the laundry area (furnace) and found water by the furnace.

It had run down into the area under the stairs ….. grabbing towels I got it wiped up …

Thinking it was the humidifier … I called my neighbour as she had removed the top part by the filter.

She came over and we found it was not the humidifier …. she called her friend’s husband who is a plumber, heating and a/c guy ( they were here in just a few minutes or so it seemed).

He was pretty certain that the a/c pan that is enclosed in the furnace unit was over flowering because it was plugged somewhere and then the water has to come out somewhere …..

So he cleaned it all out and the water stopped running.

Note to self: must have the a/c unit on the furnace checked annually.

It was an invaluable lesson.

Just seemed like one thing after the other.

So glad that it is fixed and that the a/c continues to work when we need it to …..

Once again and I am in continuous gratitude to be surrounded by great people …. truly I have the best neighbours on the planet.

This morning I am on my way to another friend’s place just down the street for coffee and muffins.  A third gal, neighbour and friend is going to be there as well.

This weekend I am so grateful.

I also want to send some love to Miss Aussie, neighbour cat who had surgery on Friday and needs some love and positive energy to make her well.  Come on girl you can do it.  We love you …… Alvin, too.

Well I should go and do a couple of things before heading out to socialize ……

I hope that wherever you are that life is treating you well and that you are treating life well.

Spread the love, gratitude and positive energy …..

Thank you.

Special Hello to: to all those folks who try something new and spread their wings daily.

Thought for the day……

Good Morning and Welcome to Saturday the 30th day of May, 2015.

It was sunny earlier this morning but now as they have forecasted the skies are beginning to fill with dark blue clouds.

I have a couple of chores in the yard to do but if it rains before I get out there then they will wait for another day.

There is always enough work to do when you own a house.

And so it goes.

I hope that you are doing great on this fine Saturday morning.

I am so grateful that I am able to now have the evenings and weekends at home.

So nice to actually have the time to do things.

There is a long list.

Do you sometimes feel overwhelmed with the TO DO LIST?

I hear you …..

Sometimes it is better to have a MASTER List, and then each weekend or evening, take a couple of items from the list and do it that way.

It seems to me that I keep adding things to the list and not taking any away.

So having a few things to accomplish each day makes it more manageable and much less stressful.

We all have to remember to take time for our ourselves, our families, and friends.

Well as I sip on my delicious cup of coffee I am thinking it is time to get this show on the road.

I always have to run out to do a couple of errands.

It sure feels cold today compared to the beginning of the week.

Ah, spring.

So happy second last day of May …..

Have a blast.

Take time for you.

Do one thing at a time.

Don’t fret ….

Sing out loud ……

Dance like you know you want to …..

Happy Saturday everyone.

Special Hello to: FAMILY, FRIENDS and STRANGERS.

Always, Carol and Alvin

Thought for the day…..

Good Morning and Welcome to Monday the 2nd day of June, 2014.

June …… WOW.

I see the first fly on my office window ……. officially spring/summer.

A robin just flew by ….. sure seems to be lots happening as I look out my window.

The sun is shining and the sky is a lovely powder blue.

YAY …… perfect Monday morning.

I hope that you awoke this morning surrounded by delightful-ness (not sure if that is even a word).

Last night on our walk just before the skies opened up – we picked up most of the posters from our neighbourhood cleanup.

We will get the rest tonight.

Back to the fly …….

The fly almost looks like it is frightened to be up so high.

He keeps turning ever so slightly.

I do not know how high they fly?

Maybe two stories is too high.

Poor little guy.

Well almost time to go to work ….

Just seems like it was Monday ….. a day or two ago.

Lots has happened in that one week.

The fly is still there.

Seems weird.

They never stay in one place for very long.

Perhaps he just just taking in the sights or maybe he is a “peeping fly” ……

Very strange.

Okay, enough fly commentary ….. time to go to work.

Have a great day …..

Special Hello to: all those people who write stories ……

Always, Carol and Alvin

 

Thought for the day……

At mid point of this week midway through the month of August …… the morning sky was so incredible.

The moon glowed in all it’s glory and the stars were bright and too many to count.

I love this time of year.  Just as summer winds down to become autumn or fall.

I love the morning skies as the sun begins to rise as it is now at this very moment.

 

The colours of fall are so pretty.

Reds, oranges and golds….

The morning air beginning to be a bit cooler but so comfortable that you feel as though you could walk forever.

Take a few moments and stand on your back deck, patio, balcony or wherever and just breathe in that glorious fresh air.

I am so grateful for these days…..

 

I am grateful to Alvin for waking me up a few minutes early this morning (4:40) so that I could drink in the amazing morning sky.

Thanks buddy….. he always seems to know just what I need.

 

Make sure you always listen to that little voice whether it is your dog, cat, child or your inner chatter…..

RELAX …… you deserve a few moments of pure glory each and every day.

You are worthy and deserving of a grand life.

 

Have a great great day.

 

Always, Carol

Thought for the day……

Every now and again, I have one of those days and not even a whole day but all the same, I have them.

Just wanted to let everyone know that YES even “moi” has moments.

Well I am getting ready for bed and at the end of the day – it was a very good one.

The skies opened and graciously watered my plants, flowers and grass and for that I am truly grateful.

My sister called and they (my sister and her boyfriend) are coming for a visit in just over a week.

My nephew is also coming for a visit in a few days from now.

I had some shelves built in the garage which are perfect, (thank you John & Delroy) and will help to display all of our awesome things for the garage sale this weekend.

Okay, guess this is more than a “thought for the day” ……

Thought for the day is:  it is good to be busy and always be open to anything that comes your way.  It is okay to be spontaneous (I am learning that it is okay not to have everything planned all of the time). Fly by the seat of your pantaloons, sometimes.  Good for your HEART & KIDNEYS (LOL) ……. not sure why I decided to use KIDNEYS but it sounded good.  Good to LAUGH, are you smiling yet !!!

So for now.  Good Night and I hope that you always have HAPPY, HEALTHY THOUGHTS.  That Mother Nature sends her beauty your way.

BE KIND !!!

As Always, Love from ME…….

P.S.  Alvin sends his LOVE, too.  He is patiently waiting in bed for his “Momma”.    🙂