Category Archives: retirement

bedtime…

08 Wednesday Apr 2020

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been noticing that how we use our time has changed in this covid-19 period of our lives…

apparently I couldn’t have started my retirement at a better time…

in conversations with friends we’ve talked about how it doesn’t really matter what bedtime we have, because for many of us, we don’t have to get up at a certain time…

last night was an example for me… I went to bed at 8 in an effort to get rid of a nagging headache… I woke up around 1, still had the headache, and couldn’t get back to sleep so eventually I got up, had a hot tub and spent a few hours reading in the living room…

there was a full moon so I spent a lovely few minutes with my camera and tripod taking photos…

finally around 5:30 I went to bed and slept until 9:30;-)…

just saw this post on Instagram from @canadianchocoholic… an example of changing times…

as emails come in from banks and other organizations; tv ads mention options to delay payments; the government continues to come up with ways to assist businesses and individuals in these crazy times, I truly am blessed that my home is safe, my income is secure and I don’t need to leave for any reason…

time is fluid…

proud…

04 Saturday Apr 2020

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rather proud of myself… I have barely done anything for ages, but today I was able to accomplish three things…

first, I went into the backyard and shovelled a path to the hot tub… my shoveler hasn’t been by… likely he is staying at home like everyone else;-)…

being very careful of my back, I worked slowly and made sure there wasn’t too much snow in each shovelful… now I can go out to soak my back if I want;-)…

came in, had a break, and then tidied the hallway bookshelf… I’d organized it back in 2014… made me laugh when I realized it was that long ago…

finally, I redid the living room table drawer… put sea shells in two of them and left the others as they were… one has all the retirement cards and the other has a number of pictures and maps from our trip to Hawaii…

looks good…

pleased with all that got done… maybe I will keep on getting things done;-)…

deadhead…

30 Monday Mar 2020

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Monday is now plant watering day… used to be Saturday, but this new schedule is working well…

was talking with someone about their friend who, whenever they visited, would walk around and deadhead all the plants in the house…

as I was wandering around the living and dining room this morning I was reminded of my mom and mother-in-law and how they both did that in my house… they were both gardeners and certainly had green thumbs, actually – hands, lol… the plants always seemed happier after they had been over…

I think of my friends who are also amazing with plants… right now I am working on growing an avocado following one of their directions;-)… hope it works…

I also spent a bit of time enjoying the newest blooms…

flowers sure do make me happy…

started…

27 Friday Mar 2020

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at least two weeks ago I started to clean out the kitchen junk drawer…

started, as in I took a bunch of stuff out of it and left all of it on the kitchen counter…

finally, today I finished the job… yay…

some things went into my toolbox in the basement… some went into a box to go upstairs to the computer room… and some went back – neatly – into the drawer…

I even tidied up the next drawer, which mainly has my collection of technology in it…

the counter looks much better as well;-)…

happy to have that done, although apparently I wrote about it before, lol… not sure what happened;-)…

Mac…

25 Wednesday Mar 2020

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this morning I set up for a FaceTime meeting with a friend to see if we could connect a portable drive to her Mac…

we’d gone shopping for it a number of weeks ago and planned to meet in person to get it connected…

lots of fun as we tried to figure it out from a distance, lol… I know how the drive works but don’t have a clue about Macs…

we think we got it sorted out after a number of bumps in the road;-)..

we also talked about Google Photos, which I’ve been using for quite some time… it is free and easy to access from my phone or the computer… it is simple to make albums and to put photos back onto my phone if I need/want them…

spent some time proofing a document for my daughter, worked on my recipe book a bit and watched a few PVRd shows…

later I baked sweet potato fries… fried up some pickerel breaded with crushed potato chips… and made a tartar sauce…

it was all delicious and I enjoyed every bite…

changes…

23 Monday Mar 2020

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I’ve noticed a few things during this time of social isolation…

but I do think that sheltering in place – words used in the US by many – feels like a kinder description, although maybe not as clear for those who are not paying attention to the seriousness of the situation we are all in…

I have been isolating since I returned home from Ottawa in January as I recovered from a very intense final six months before I retired… of course I was still able to go out, but mostly I stayed home…

I did get to see my boys a few times, so that was lovely…

one of the things I’m pleased to see is a family that has been playing street hockey in front of my house a couple of times… haven’t seen kids (and their parents) out on the street getting some exercise for years;-)…

the other thing is about being told to stay at home and how it makes you want to go out… this reminds me so much of times when I’ve been told what I should and shouldn’t eat, and how all I could think about were those things!

when our girls were little I had to have access to the car, although I rarely went out in it… just knowing I could made being at home much easier…

we must stay home to protect everyone…

popping…

20 Friday Mar 2020

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after a conversation yesterday I had an urge for popcorn…

I love theatre popcorn a lot and sometimes eat the entire bag before the movie even starts, lol…

I used to have the bags that were nuked, but now I make it in the microwave in a glass measuring cup with a cover and put a tiny bit of oil on it when it is popped…

last night I decided to make some and poured butter on it as a treat…

you have to pay attention when it is cooking… if the popping slows down too much the popcorn burns…

as I was preparing it, I remembered doing an event with my dad at his work… I was maybe twelve… he had arranged for a popcorn cart and we made the popcorn fresh for the guests… it was fun…

great memories…

goldfish…

17 Tuesday Mar 2020

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I ordered groceries which will come on Saturday… I paid all my bills online so I wouldn’t need to leave home… I updated my prescriptions and had them delivered last week… yesterday I filled the car up with gas…

felt as though I had done everything so that I wouldn’t need to go out and was rather pleased with myself…

this afternoon I realized that the goldfish are almost out of food… I spent time stressing about what to do…

eventually it occurred to me that I could find out what time the PetSmart was the least busy so I gave them a call and confirmed that first thing in the morning is a quiet time…

so, it is off to the pet store in the morning… it will be a quick trip, but the fish deserve to eat as well…

noticed…

12 Thursday Mar 2020

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had a bit of a giggle on Monday night…

while I was having a visit with my BS buddies, one of them noticed that I had a dryer sheet attached to the back of my shirt… when she took it off, there was a second one as well…

what made it particularly funny was that I had removed two sheets from the sleeves of the shirt in the morning when I got dressed… apparently that particular shirt likes to collect stuff…

I rip the sheets in half and reuse them a number of times which means that there could be a number of them in a load of laundry…

I also went out for lunch… there were no diners behind me and luckily my friend didn’t notice, I hope, lol…

the next day I put on a pair of Spring-looking leggings which I thought I’d worn before… at the end of the day I discovered they had the plastic size information still on the leg…

lucky for me, I spent the day at home;-)…

my beloved would have noticed these things…

helping…

06 Friday Mar 2020

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spent an hour or so this morning moving pictures in my Google Photos into albums… I really need to do this more often once I’ve got my Albums sorted out so that it doesn’t take so long…

just about the time I finished I got a text from a friend who wanted to do some shopping for an external drive and maybe spend a bit of time learning a few things about her iPhone…

I did some research on best deals and when she picked me up we headed to Staples to purchase the drive… it was a great deal, she got a 2 terabyte backup for the same amount I paid for 1 terabyte in September;-)…

we learned about a new offering they have… $20/month for a year for online support for up to 5 devices… sounds like it might be a great program for those who don’t have access to their own computer geek…

from there we went for lunch at Za Pizza Bistro… delicious, and I had half to bring home for tomorrow’s supper…

once we got home we spent another hour or so going over some tips and tricks for the iPhone… we’ve already scheduled our next time to play together…

after she left I wrote out notes about all the things we covered and sent the info off to her…

helping others with technology makes me very happy…