Good Morning! Woke up with a headache but have to shake it off as I have things that need to be done today at work. The sky is starting to rise as the sun positions to rise. Yesterday was an absolutely gorgeous day. On my lunch break I walked over to the mall and cashed in my winning lottery tickets. I won $2 and a free play. Better than the opposite. I also picked up the winning $62 million lotto 649 for last night’s draw. The walk was so nice. By the time I got back to the office, I was warm with my sweater underneath my jacket. My coworker & carpool had an appointment in the afternoon and left work early so I caught the bus home. Nice walk. The ice and snow on the walkway near to my house thankfully had dried up. YAY. Spring, truly is here. The snow has mostly melted from my back yard and the front. Another week or so and I will be able to rake. Definitely waiting until the ground has thawed completely. I may not rake the leaves up as I heard it is good to leave them on for awhile. Perhaps wait until grass starts to turn green.
When I arrived home, my neighbour (other half of duplex) came out. Jess said that she had something for me, I asked if I could quickly run and grab the mail. My parcels were here from TSC (The Shopping Channel) – the quilt and sheets for my bed had arrived. YAY. When I got back to the house, Jess handed me a bag and told me that she wanted to give me something special as a memory of Alvin. I will have to put the photo here as it is a whirly that has a photo of Alvin on it ….. for outside …… it is made of tin and is so beautiful. I will post a photo later. So grateful to everyone near and far for their love and support. There isn’t a day that goes by where I do not shed a tear for Alvin, I miss him so much. He was the best guy and friend and companion.
I made the executive decision to call a repairman to “fix” my stove. The company I called charge a $99 diagnostic / come out charge so I figured why not? If I can fix the stove – better than something to go to the eco station or wherever old appliances go. The appointment is for 6:00 p.m. on Friday. Fingers crossed that it is an inexpensive repair and that I have my stove back again. Time down will be three weeks on Sunday. ARGH.
I am sorry for this to be short but hard to think with a headache. So I shall sign off.
Have an awesome Thursday! Yup, only one more day now till the weekend. Whoops, sorry – do not need to be rushing the days. Sometimes, I do, sometimes I need to ….
The rabbits are almost completely brown now.
Continuing to live this life with kindness, respect, compassion, patience, love, laughter, understanding, gratitude, focus, possibilities, coffee and forgiveness.
Good Morning. Oh, the moon looks awesome this morning as the sky begins to lighten. Half of the moon is visible and the other half is dark. The darkness of night as the sky lightens is revealing clear skies. Sunshine for today? I sure hope so. There does not appear to be a breeze. Today is Wednesday and only two more days of work left for this week. A very good thing. I am very appreciative and grateful to have a job in this economic climate but honestly somedays I could just scream at the audacity of the way things are going.
Yesterday it was a rain snow mix so no walk at lunch break or after work. My neighbour brought over the new element for the oven but alas it did not work. He took the stove apart (back off and looked for noticeable signs of distress and there were none). Looks like I will be buying a new stove and because we ordered the element from Amazon and actually put it in the oven, there is a good chance that they will not take it back. I think the poor stove is just tired and needs to sleep. All done. So I will need to look for a stove shortly. Cannot go without a stove for long. Already going on three weeks without an oven. I will try to call a repairman tonight (tried last night but could not speak to anyone who could answer my question). Just for the odd chance it might be repairable. But appears to be the control panel. I think that is what it is called.
The sky seemed to lighten so much since the time I typed the last paragraph. WOW. I guess spring is really here. I am hoping for some good things to happen. So far 2023 has been “interesting” and “sad” and a few other things which I cannot say on this platform nor would I want to ……
Most of the snow has melted from the front lawn and all from the deck. I will be able to sweep the remaining dust and leaves that were left behind from the melt. I am not sure why there were so many leaves this year. I raked and raked until I was blue in the face but there were still a million in the snow over the winter and now on the ground. Hopefully the back will thaw quickly.
Time to head downstairs. I hope that you have a great Wednesday.
Trying to keep positive as life just keeps tossing “battles” in my direction. Perhaps battles is too strong a word but anyway.
Oh, my Alvin. Missing my boy …….
Continuing to live this life with kindness, respect, compassion, patience, love, laughter, understanding, gratitude, focus, possibilities, coffee and forgiveness.
Good Morning! Rainy night and morning in Edmonton. I can hear the rain drops hitting the sidewalks. Starting to get light out there. Thankfully only rain! According to the forecast for today from yesterday when I last checked it is only to be +3 celsius today, argh. But it will warm up.
Well I am so proud of myself. I decided to google how to move photos from computer to WordPress as something changed in the process since I used my old computer. Anyway, I found the easiest way is to drag and drop. It was so easy and I could pinch myself that I did not know how to do that earlier. Would have saved some time and aggravation. So there are a photos from spring cleaning and a few extras. This post is all about photos. I am so happy that I can do this easily now.
My last day of the four day weekend was great. I cleaned the main bathroom upstairs, figured out the photo thing, Cleaned some of the stair well walls. Ordered groceries and guess what! The delivery guy came hours early as he couldn’t find the other address, so instead of mine coming between 8-10 p.m., they were here before 7:00 p.m. Was great having them early so that I could get to bed on time. Definitely worth the $9.95 delivery charge. I think you actually save money as you are not picking up extra items along the way.
I texted my friend Pauline to see if she wanted to go for a walk and didn’t hear back so later I called her and we arranged to meet up at 4:45 at the entrance to the park. When I was leaving the house, I noticed a container sitting on the bench. As I looked closer I found that it was a container full of cookies from our friends Savannah and Grayson (he is not quite 2) wishing me a Happy Easter. I set them in the house and quickly texted her a thank you. Pauline and I met up and had a great walk. She invited me over for a cup of tea and I graciously accepted. I was home around 5:00 p.m. and had leftover chili for supper. What a great way to end a four day weekend. The willows by the water were budding.
Cleaning and rearranging things feels so good. Feels like a new upstairs except for the guest room, which I will need to get done before my daughter sleeps over next. I hope that I can find a new home(s) for the books. Photos in no apparent timeline.
Pictures hung upFrom our friend Cindy P.Office before ChiliLeft to doWashing wallsSpare room waitingNeighbours burning stuffScary flamesEaster ProjectTreatsMore chocolatey goodiesFirst T/W mealCloset cleanFront Closet Main floorFor AlvinFor AlvinCloset makeoverOffice nowOffice Closet nowWaiting to do this specialOfficeBookcases Books to give awayBathroom doneBedroom Bedroom
The area rug from my bedroom fits perfectly in the office and controls the chairs from rolling. Who knew by moving the shower curtain from the right side to the left would brighten up the room so much. It was a great thought! Still cleaning to do but that is okay. Lots done and feels wonderful.
Have an awesome Tuesday.
Continuing to live this life with kindness, respect, compassion, patience, love, laughter, understanding, gratitude, focus, possibilities, coffee and forgiveness.
Alvin was with me the whole way in my spring cleaning. Keeping me company spiritually. I will always think of him and miss him with my whole heart.
Good Morning! Beautiful sky and another “holiday” for me. I am so grateful for this extra long weekend. Well my plan to have the whole upstairs done by now has not come to fruition. Oh well, I did put a great dent into it. The office was a whole day all by itself and I just realized that I did not wash the blinds in here. So I will do that this morning and then I will need to reorganize the bulletin board and do the guest bedroom. At the moment it is filled with books, not completely but there are a lot. On the bed and on a table that was previously in the office closet. I, in essence downsized my books by one whole bookcase, I almost said book shelf which is not the case. The last couple of days, I am aching from anywhere that I have muscles and even my butt is not without some aching. Using muscles that I have not used in a long time. Climbing up and down the ladder and stretching to wash the walls, well that would do it. But I am so glad it is done. I also found a new home for the area rug that had been in my bedroom and that is in the office. It fits perfectly and no longer will the office chairs slide out from underneath me. There are still projects to do but I put a large dent in the spring clean up. Even the basement which I had not planned to do has been almost completed thanks to the change in plan on Good Friday. I just made a change to the few older books that I had on the top of one bookcase and laid them flat instead of upright so that I could set two of Amanda’s childhood books on top. One of her books is a Golden Book with her name “Amanda’s First Day of School” and the other “Nursery Rhymes” which I gave to her in 1981 (she was born 1980). I loved looking at the titles of books. There are school readers from my day and many decades before that and I have kept quite a few, half of a book case of my daughter’s books. Hard to give away someone’s history. Each book brings back memories. I can see her at that age and it makes me smile. Books have always been so important to both my daughter and I. When she was growing up she had hundreds of books. In school when the students could order books from the book club, I always made sure she could order as many as she wanted. I remember ordering from Scholastic when I was child. It was a huge deal and I wished that I had those books today. Somehow this post changed course from spring cleaning to books and reading. Well both are important. Oh and last night not long before bed, I chopped off my hair. Yes, I pulled out Alvin’s electric clippers and went to town. I actually cut the back quite short. Never have I been able to do it this way and I am happy for it. The sides are still long in comparison and I have found after showering and drying my hair the odd long piece so had to snip them off. I also for supper last night made a pot of Chili using my Tupperware Pressure Cooker. It definitely is easy. Just throw in the ingredients and put on the lid in the correct manner and pop into the microwave for just minutes. Very easy except I still struggle with removing the lid which I will manage in time.
There was also a couple of loads of laundry done yesterday as well. A full day. Lots of stairs and steps up and down.
I wished that I was able to show you all some photos of the changes that I have made in my office. Looks pretty great. Definitely some major changes. Still couple of things to do but most of it is done. I guess the spring cleaning will pour over to another weekend and likely another one after that, but that is okay. Keeps me busy and from sitting on the sofa watching television.
My friends Pauline & Al are back from Hawaii where their eldest daughter was married. I can only imagine going to Hawaii. My grandparents visited there decades ago and I still have the pearl shell broach that they brought back from their trip. I was about 10 when they went on the trip so it is about 55 years old. One of the tiny pearls came loose but I managed to keep it. When you consider all of the moves that I made over my lifetime between three Canadian Provinces and from a young age, I managed to hang onto it it is staggering. I treasured that broach and still do. It is one thing that wherever I go, it will go with me. Over the years, I have considered wearing it but am afraid that the pearls may come loose or I may lose it. Other than a couple of cards that I gave to my grandparents and my grandma kept and my Baby Book (record of birth, baby gifts, birthdays etc, the broach is the only item from my early years. Somehow I got sidetracked once again, I meant to say that Pauline replied to my Happy Easter text and we set up a walk for today. So I should get going and get the coffee brewing followed by washing the office blinds and some other items. Another friend is going to come over and pick out some books. I will likely put the books on the Community Board and see if someone would like them. They are all in perfect condition.
I hope that you have a wonderful Monday whether you are at home or at work or at school. Happy Monday.
Continuing to live this life with kindness, respect, compassion, patience, love, laughter, understanding, gratitude, focus, possibilities, coffee and forgiveness.
Alvin was surely with me this whole weekend as I kept his Urn close by – he always liked to be wherever I was so I do that now when I am at home, keep him close. He is always in my thoughts, always and forever. I so miss the little guy. Everything in the house reminds me of him.
Good Morning! Tuesday morning. Two more days until Easter long weekend. Two more days till the big spring cleaning begins. How are you this morning? I am okay. Woke up several times during the night. Reminded me of someone. Oh, how I miss my little buddy Alvin.
Yesterday at lunch break I took a stroll taking the route to the bus stop and back to the office. After work I went for another walk. Total walking time 45 minutes. I also grabbed my trash picker tool and the garbage bag from the small trash container on my front porch and cleaned up the trash from the street. I am always struck by how many times people will walk over or around trash and not pick it up. Then it was time to put out the trash for pickup today. We are on the spring/summer pickup. With a few more warm days the remaining trash in our neighbourhood should have dried out and will make it easier to collect. Picking up and dragging around bags filled with wet trash is not much fun. Perhaps more than 10 years ago it wasn’t as much of a deal as it is now. I can still lift it but at 65 do I really want to be lifting bags that are really heavy and struggling with them, no not really! Too bad that some of the younger people in the neighbourhood wouldn’t get out there and pick up trash or how about people just keeping their yards, the public sidewalk and street directly extending past their property clean! That would help the cause for sure. Anyway, I like a clean place to live and includes my home and neighbourhood so I shall continue to pick up trash for as long as I am living here.
Slowly this time of “grey” while the snow melts and life returns outside, I can visualize the trees budding and the grass slowly turning green. This in between time feels dirty so I call it the grey time. Soon we shall be surrounded by amazing colours. I cannot wait.
I can see that it is starting to lighten up outside. The trees to the south and the garage tops are starting to come into view. Morning time.
Coffee will taste so good this morning. I must have been dreaming or something. So need to put my energy cap on for the day.
I hope that you have an awesome day. Tues – day that is. Be well and take care and be safe.
Continuing to live this life with kindness, respect, compassion, patience, love, laughter, understanding, gratitude, focus, possibilities, coffee and forgiveness.
Good Morning! Dark outside at this moment. I am up, bed made and had a shower, bit of makeup on and dressed. Yesterday was another productive and even had time to relax. Taxes done for another year. I did some cleaning and went for a nice walk about mid afternoon. Looking forward to this long weekend. Planning to get some “major spring cleaning” accomplished. Washing walls, baseboards, blinds etc. and going through the office/library and reorganizing and going through that closet. Lots to do but I would like to have it all done so that I have time for other things. It will not be too much long and I can start figuring out what to plant. Picking out flowers is so much fun especially if I am with my girl, my daughter. I always have a hard time deciding on which flowers and usually buy a lot. I am sure that they love to see me coming. Planting flowers is so much fun and I love to see them grow and fill out the pots and the flower beds. The front flower bed has always been a bit of concern for me. Some years the flower choices are good and others not so much. I have from time to time had perennials until the lilies had those dreadful red bugs and I ended up pulling them out although if you do not take out the bulb, they will come back. Last fall I thought of getting small ornamental bushes and I may this year. Depends on the quality and pricing. Time will tell.
Seeing as though we are talking flowers, I am going to post some of my favourite flower pictures from over the years. Oh, I can see it beginning to get light outside my office window.
For MomFlowersMore FlowersA proper GentlemanPhoto ShootMy FlowersFlowersImpatiens – for you AlvinTemporary bedroomPerfection
I just had to add some photos of my boy. He loved the flowers and to be out in the middle of me planting. Sniffing and watching my every move. I shall miss him dearly this planting season.
I hope that you have a wonderful Monday. Be safe and be well.
Continuing to live this life with kindness, respect, compassion, patience, love, laughter, understanding, gratitude, focus, possibilities, coffee and forgiveness.
Good Morning! How are you? I am doing well. Last night I did not toss and turn as much as the bed was less “apart.” Funny how that happens! YAY, it is Friday. Today is also the birthday of a long time friend of mine Paulette. We have known each other since the early 80’s. She lives back in Saskatchewan. I wish her a very Happy Birthday.
Yesterday was an odd day but not so much for the end of March. It was cloudy and cold for most of the day. After work I changed and went for a walk. There was a cold breeze but it was nice to shake off the cobwebs of the day and start fresh. I saw lots of “pups” while I was out and that was nice. I see Alvin everywhere. He is with me on walks and in my heart during the day at the office. Today is the last day of March 2023 so I wonder what Mother Nature has in store for us today. I had planned to walk at lunch break yesterday but decided against it so hopefully the sun is shining today and it is nice.
I found all of the information for the replacement heating element for my oven. So this weekend I shall figure out a way to go and pick one up. Sometimes not having a car or a vehicle is a pain in the butt. I am not a fan of asking people for rides or for help. I much prefer to be able to do things on my own but that is not always possible. Anyway, that is my cross to bear. We all have things that we do not like to do or to admit to ourselves or to others. Being independent has always been a big deal for me, just saying. P.S. I turned on the broiler in the oven last night and it heats up so it is only the bottom one.
This will be a busy weekend with coffee at my friend Gillian’s tomorrow morning. I have to complete and submit my income tax (so grateful can do on line now although seeing things on paper is sometimes easier, I should have a printer?), do laundry, clean out closets and figure out formatting the photos. I want to start next weekend as it is four days by going through room by room and doing a spring clean. I am quite sure that I have things that I no longer wear, need or use and that I could find a good home for them. One always feels better when they “spring clean.” I know that I certainly do.
Time to head downstairs and put on the coffee. I love having time to sit back and have a cup of coffee before leaving the house. I have also started to eat breakfast before I leave. Then I fast until supper time. Funny how one’s body gets used to changes.
Happy Friday to you. I hope that you have an easy breezy WONDERFUL day. Only good things happening to us all on this Friday, March 31st, 2023. See you on the other side. (Saturday).
Continuing to live this life with kindness, respect, compassion, patience, love, laughter, understanding, gratitude, focus, possibilities, coffee and forgiveness.
Good Morning! How are you this morning? I am well. For some reason, I am running later than usual even though I was up at the same time. Argh. Oh well, I will be ready when my ride arrives. Spring is here. Mixture of weather. The sun is higher in the sky and feels warmer. The snow is melting as is the ice.
Dilemma, my ride is leaving work early today so what do I wear to work my regular shoes or do I wear boots. If I get off the bus at the back way to my house, there is ice/snow and mud by the bushes. With the warmer temperature forecasted for today it is likely to be a pool of water. Do I want to take the longer way around and carry my laptop? I do not know. I guess I will make the decision before I leave for work. I could wear my new old pair of running shoes that my daughter picked up for me at the thrift shop. I was always thinking that I need to figure out about the oven. Will need to go and get a heating element or pay someone to look at it and confirm that is the problem? I would love to have one week where everything went smoothly. Don’t you think that is a reasonable request? Perhaps I need to refocus my thoughts. I will admit with the changes to the office,
Continuing to live this life with kindness, respect, compassion, patience, love, laughter, understanding, gratitude, focus, possibilities, coffee and forgiveness.
Good Morning! Dark outside and I cannot wait until the sun is rising while I am getting ready for work. How are you this morning? I hope that your week is going well thus far. So excited one more day after today and it is the weekend. Oh, I know, that one should not wish their days away but sometimes, and that sometimes is now, I am.
I long for the summer so that I can go for walks perhaps even in the morning before I leave for work and then after work. Our sidewalks and streets in our neighbourhood and throughout the places that I have been are icy and treacherous. Better to be safe than sorry. I was walking when there was more snow than ice but now it is a mixture of water and ice. Hopefully the temperatures remain above zero so that the ice melts and goes down the drain. Of course, we are still getting double digits below zero overnight so the water freezes and we start all over again. We need a few days of +15 or so to really get it moving. Fingers crossed that will be soon. Soon the birds will return or at least more of them. Always amazes me that the crows, magpies and pigeons can survive the cold of the winter.
We have an off site “all staff” meeting this morning, only for the morning. Usually they were all day affairs. Will be nice to see the girls from our old team. Then we are back to our new office for the afternoon.
My eye is burning so that is a sign that I must go and put drops in.
Have a great Thursday.
Continuing to live this life with kindness, respect, compassion, patience, love, laughter, understanding, gratitude, focus, possibilities, coffee and forgiveness.
Good Morning! How are you this morning? I am okay. Had a much better sleep last night. I have been going for walks after work and I am finding that this enables me to clear the “crap” from my brain and then settle down for the evening. Did you ever see that when you slow down and concentrate on one task or one thought at a time, that you feel more positive and just feel more relaxed? I have noticed that with me. Yesterday when I was feeling better and then last night after work. Just refocused to one thing at a time.
Starting to feel like spring during the day as the sun rises higher in the daytime sky. Yesterday there was a lot of water that had melted so it begins to get sloppy. I noticed when I was outside that the storm drain is plugged again. People driving over it pushing the snow onto the grates and eventually plugging it. So tonight if it is melting and the ice has softened I will chip away and try to open it up so that the water does not pool on the street. Our streets are always a pain. Either icy or full of massive ruts. Most of the time in the winter it is massive ruts. When the street was “plowed” a few weeks ago, they basically went down the middle of the street so the middle is clear but they pushed the snow up. Anyway, it is always fun when you are driving. Of course, cars line both sides of the street so down to one lane driving. I am grateful that spring is close.
I am going to try something different today and have breakfast before I leave home. Finding eating at the new office is a pain. Everyone is so busy – no one takes a coffee break. Lunch, I usually don’t eat anyway so unless I go for a walk, it is hard to actually take a break. So have to work out some things. Anyway, I will see what my body likes. I used to always eat in the morning and then eat at supper and sometimes have a snack at noon. I like breakfast and supper, not so much lunch. But have to have something during the day (including morning) otherwise I get a headache. Experiment, I guess.
I hope that life is treating you kindly. May your day be filled with possibilities of all good things and that your dreams are coming true.
Have a wonderful day.
Continuing to live this life with kindness, respect, compassion, patience, love, laughter, understanding, gratitude, focus, possibilities, coffee and forgiveness.
My New Life @ 51 