car fun…

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been a few interesting events concerning the car the last few days…

a couple of days ago, on our way to work, my driving buddy was flagged down as she drove up my street by someone wanting a boost… not sure if you’ve noticed, but we have been having an extremely cold winter…

the young woman’s car had a problem with the car door and trunk which meant that her car light stayed on and drained the battery… apparently she was getting very efficient at boosting the car…

boosting...

boosting, well attempting to…

my friend’s car had a cover on the battery and we had to call her husband to figure out how to connect the leads… in the end it didn’t work, and the young woman said she had tried with a similar car and it had been unsuccessful…

today I had to drive to work and I haven’t had the car out for quite a while… it was very slippery and was slow going on the way downtown, but eventually I got there safe and sound… I had arranged to park in one of my colleague’s spots which was very helpful…

once I left work just after 5 I had to sweep the recently fallen snow off the car and put in the parking pass which another colleague had lent me as they are away for a few weeks and I am able to use their spot… my driving buddy is leaving for Hawaii in a few days so I was planning to drive during that time…

got into the car and there was a light on the dashboard which I had never seen before… yikes, what if it was the emergency brake, or some oil light, or that I needed windshield washer fluid… as I drove toward home I fretted about what it might be… my phone was nearly out of juice so I couldn’t even stop and take a picture and send it to my daughter or son-in-law who would likely know what it meant…

I decided that I would stop at Co-op and have them take a look at it… it is just a street over from home and right on the way… there wasn’t a car at any of the pumps when I drove up so I pulled into a spot by a pump but on the wrong side, because I didn’t need any gas… by the time I was out of the car, at least four other cars had driven up to get gas and so the attendant asked me to move ahead… when he had a minute he came over and looked into the car at my problem light and said…

cruise control sign...

cruise control sign…

“that’s the cruise control, you just need to turn it off”… easy for him to say.. I get back into the car, drive around all the other vehicles getting gas, stop and try to find the cruise control button he’s talking about… can’t find it, so I drive home and when I get into the driveway eventually, or maybe by accident, finally find the button and off goes the light…

phew, there were those big girl pants again…

think I might bring the manual in and look through all the pictures of what might show up on the dashboard, lol…

 

drywall dust…

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there is a thin film of drywall dust just about everywhere in the house… my guy is very good about cleaning up after himself, but there is still lots and lots of dust…

the main floor is hardwood as are the bedrooms and I go barefoot in the house… I can feel the grit in each room I walk in…

the work is going very well… you can see from this picture that the closet looks amazing, even though it hasn’t been painted yet… all those huge holes have been filled in and it looks so much better…

closet with holes filled in...

closet with holes filled in…

it is amazing how difficult it is to manage without a closet… all of my clothes are in the computer room laying over bins and chairs, lol… hope it is done soon so they can get back where they belong…

the stairwell is looking good too… this is the first time it has been painted in twenty years, I am guessing… all the picture hooks have been removed and the holes filled in… I had a number of large pictures up, but am going to do something different…

stairwell from second floor...

stairwell from second floor…

am considering putting up a bunch of my flower pictures… or else family photos… still thinking about that…

stairwell from main floor...

stairwell from main floor…

I am going to have the kids come and help me put the closet back in order and finish the work I started on the book shelves in the hallway… I definitely hurt my back moving everything out of the closet and it is just starting to feel better… although apparently I walk like I just got off a horse, lol…

building a new nest I think…

 

loss…

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a friend lost her mom… it was shocking and awful… didn’t matter that she was in her nineties…

when you lose a loved one, you aren’t prepared, even if you think you are…

we talked for quite a while and she mentioned the most difficult part was sharing the information with her children, and then supporting them as they processed it…

me and my girls...

my girls and I this summer… they are such amazing young women…

brought to mind the very difficult phone calls I had to make when George died… one of my daughters lives here and the other lived at the coast…

I had to pull myself together and call them… I remember calling the one here in the city and praying that her husband was home because I knew she was going to dissolve into a million pieces… and thank goodness, he was home and answered the phone… I was able to know that he was beside her to hold her when she heard the news… I don’t even remember how she told our grandsons…

then I had to call my daughter at the coast… I knew that her husband was across the country and she had no one at home for support… I didn’t even have a friend’s number who I could call to go and be with her… we had to make decisions about whether she would come home right away or wait for the storm that was pounding the coast to abate… would she contact her husband who was writing an exam the following morning or wait until he was finished… would he come back to their home and travel with her here, or would he travel directly here from where he was…

the kids here came immediately to the hospital, although while I waited it seemed like it took forever… the daughter from away had to wait until the next day to come, and her husband did come directly here… finally we were all together

and then we took one step at a time to get everything done that was needed…

speaking with my friend, I realized that I had blocked out making those phone calls…

in less than a month it will be two years since my beloved died… I am working very hard to stay positive and not fall into a funk… when I start to feel sorry for myself I put on those big girl pants and think about all the special times we had over 40 years… I am amazed that after this amount of time I can still feel devastated…

a young friend recently asked me how I was doing and I burst into tears… not that great I guess, lol… some days it feels as though everyone has moved on with their life… and I have too, until the gaping hole opens…

truly I have been blessed, and that helps me take the next step…

450 posts…

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yesterday was my 450th blog post… quite amazing really…

I wrote about divesting books and got a few likes and a couple of new followers…

following the MBlog 2014 conference we went out for dinner and I got to spend some quality time with Cynthia Sanchez (Oh So Pinteresting) who gave me some great tips on how to grow my blog using Pinterest… things have been busy since then and I haven’t been able to look into her suggestions further, but hope to make some time in the next few weeks to test out her suggestions…

 

empty closet...

empty closet…

 

today I spent quite a bit of time emptying my closet so that my contractor can work in it tomorrow… in the process I have injured my back…

sadly I haven’t finished getting all the books off the shelves, and have had to let go of the plan that they would come off the wall and it would be freshly painted, sigh…

 

not yet empty bookshelves...

not yet empty bookshelves…

 

 

books…

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between watching the Olympics and doing laundry, I spent some time cleaning off the bookshelves in the hallway…

it is always difficult to give away books… I had to look at each one and make a decision…  most of them had an inscription because I always write in a book when I give it to someone… a few had been given to George and it was a bit hard to give them up… but, I have decided to only keep ones that the little boys will want to read, or ones that I will read again…

hall book shelves...

hall bookshelves with lots of empty space…

today was a good day and I was able to let go of many… can see the shelves with some books on them and some of my treasures and this is helping with the divesting process…

nearly all my cookbooks went… really, these days you can find just about anything on the internet, if it isn’t already in my green binder (which holds all my family favourites )…  I also gave up some of the books I have had since I was a teenager… including some great poetry books…

was able to fill 3 boxes and started a box of other give-away knick-knacks… managed to get them downstairs even though they were a bit heavy…

still lots to sort through, but I am rather proud of how much I got done… hopefully tomorrow will also be a good day for divesting…

Olympics…

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spent a good portion of the day watching some of the overnight moguls, slopestyle and the opening ceremonies live…

lighting the torch...

lighting the torch…

it was lovely… the TV had been on all night but I did sleep through most of it… which was fine because I had PRV’d everything…

as I was watching the opening ceremonies the sun was streaming through the window… I do love the sun, lol…

sun on the garage...

sun on the garage…

napped for a while, and then watched more TV and worked on a project…

reminded me of the last time I was watching the Olympics… it was the summer Olympics in 2012, and I was watching from the main floor bedroom… we had brought in a bed from my daughter’s house and had purchased a new TV… I had just had my hysterectomy/hernia surgery… got out of the hospital earlier than planned and my nephew came and stayed with me for the first few days…

this was the first time in my adult life that George wasn’t there to look after me… big girl pants can be a drag…

I have bad reactions to drugs of any kind and within 12 hours of my surgery had stopped taking meds as the side effects were worse than the pain… but it did mean that I was hurting and had trouble getting up and out of bed for a while… my nephew was amazing and took great care of me… then my friend arrived and spent a wonderful week with me… she found treats to encourage me to eat as I really had no desire for food… eventually I was able to walk to the back of the garden and sit by the pond…

my friend headed off and I was on my own… and then the Olympics started… I was able to get in and out of bed, but needed lots of rest… so, I would watch for a while and sleep for a while and then watch for a while and so on… it was a perfect distraction…

I am very happy that I had today and have the next few days to watch all I can and then I will PVR all the overnight shows and watch them in the evenings…

and I am very happy that I am healthy and able to work…

life is good…

food…

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today seemed to be all about food…

started out with breakfast at a regular event we now host monthly… it is at The Met just down the street from our office and the space is lovely, the staff are attentive and the food is excellent…

didn’t actually get a shot of my plate, but made this collage of the bits that filled up my plate…

breakfast collage...

breakfast collage…

then at lunch time – for our Souper Thursday – we had a marvelous Thai soup… my colleague has made this one a few times, but each time it is slightly different, always delicious…

Thai soup...

Thai soup…

spent some time sharing about how WordPress works… it is always exciting to share something you know about with others… nearly always learn something in the process…

finally tonight’s supper turned out to be a lovely garlic bread broiled with fresh garlic and brie and some strawberries on the side… I had a handful of pistachios a bit earlier…

brie on garlic bread...

brie on garlic bread…

as I ate my supper I was watching slopestyle and team figure skating, sigh… I do love the Olympics… a friend of mine was teasing me about this today, lol…

my day really was all about food…

too funny…

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my daughter just arrived at the house from the airport, where she just returned from her week away in Mexico…

she walked into the house to discover a pair of men’s shoes at the front door, and heard his voice and mine upstairs, coming from the bedroom…

it didn’t take her more than a few seconds to recognize the shoes as those of my contractor (one of her friends), but for those precious seconds it was too funny…

she and her friend were eager to get home to see their families so they didn’t stay for more than a few moments… they had come by to pick up my car, as while she was away, her car had an oopsie and can’t get in to Autopac until the end of February… there have been so many accidents over the past month due to the bad weather that getting cars in for estimates is taking ages… I’m wondering how long it might take to get it fixed too…

usually lending them the car is not a problem at all, but my travelling buddy is heading off to Hawaii in a week and the other two people who might give me a ride are also going on vacation around the same time…

not quite sure how it will all work out… those big girl pants again…

my contractor was here to discuss our next project – repairing some cracks and painting the stairwell and the inside of my closet…

now I have to move about 40 feet of books so he can get the work done… this might be just the time to divest some of them, although I always find letting books go very difficult… I was hoping the kids could help me this weekend but just discovered they are going to be away, yikes… will have to think about how I might get this job done…

was telling my guy how everyone loves my new purple wall… he had been laughing because we had just talked about how the stairwell wall and closet will all be painted white and he said something about all he would ever need here was white and purple paint… and, of course, he’s right…

purple wall with new picture hanging...

purple wall with new picture hanging…

light…

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have really been noticing the additional light each day recently…

today the sun rose at 7:55 am and set at 5:29 pm for a total of 9 hours and 33 minutes of light… a month ago, on January 4th it rose at 8:25 am and set at 4:41 pm for a total of 8 hours and 16 minutes… every day an additional three or four minutes are added on, which doesn’t sound like much, but it sure makes a difference…

amazing what an hour and seventeen minutes can do for a person… nearly everyone I have talked with recently has noticed it… and the fact that we are all feeling better and happier

the temperature has also risen a bit and we are enjoying more sunshine… walked over to the library yesterday and took a picture of the maze that was built by volunteers over the weekend… it is very cute…

Millennium Library Maze...

Millennium Library Maze…

last night I got this picture of the sunset…

sunset last night...

sunset last night…

tonight on our way home from work the sun was shining into the car and I was basking in it… we also saw a very nice sundog…

sundog 4Feb14...

sundog 4Feb14…

I am also doing a better job of dinner, which I think might also be related to the light… I feel as though I have the energy to cook something instead of relying on frozen things from the freezer or something that doesn’t involved any prep…

I do love sunshine…

the Olympics…

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starting to get excited about the Olympics…

have now organized having Friday off so that I can watch the Opening Ceremonies… I really like to watch the events live if I possibly can…

have downloaded an app – Sochi 2014 – which lists times when all of the different sports are taking place and you can add them to your calendar…

Sochi Olympics app...

Sochi Olympics app…

planning on some Slopestyle qualifying around 4 am on Thursday with semi finals late Friday night…Saturday has lots of skating and some moguls as well… Sunday looks to have some downhill, ice dance and luge…

going to be a rough week next week.. short track is happening at 5 am Monday so I should be able to watch a bit of that before heading to work, lol…

this has reminded me of the time that I was listening to the TV as I was getting ready for work a number of years ago… was so intent on hearing how our athletes were doing that I put cleaning solution on my contact and then put it into my eye… I could barely move, the pain was so bad, and I remember calling George to help me get the lens out.. after rinsing it for quite a while I contacted my eye doctor and had to go right to his office to get it looked at… it too ages to heal… since then I have been extremely cautious as to what solution I am using…

in a recent conversation, realized that I am currently looking back but also seeing how I have grown… some days it is quite easy to put on those big girl pants