28 Friday Oct 2022
Posted in business, health, life, moments, retirement, Uncategorized
Tags
big girl pants, blessed, driving, getting out, Life, masking, moments, normal, Staples, vote, widow
was out and about like normal people on Wednesday…
walked to the community club to vote, then to the IDA drugstore and back home…
after lunch drove to Staples, Home Depot, and Chapters…
wore my mask whenever I was inside and felt pretty good about the whole business, lol…
gave my hands a good washing each time I arrived home…
29 Friday Apr 2022
Posted in business, life, moments, retirement, Uncategorized
what a busy day…
this morning I was picked up and dropped off downtown at my dentist‘s office for a cleaning… I was early so I walked around a bit and got a few photos of the golden guy…
been a really long time since I was downtown…
from there we went to Superstore where I found a few dishes and a little Tradescantia Nanouk…
then I drove home, emptied out the car, and took Indi to get a bath…
seemed as though most of the city decided to do the same thing, lol… got there at 12:11, into the wash at 12:32 and was out by 12:51… I walked outside while the car was inside…
back home, had lunch, and then drove to an appointment… from there it was back to Superstore to collect my grandson and return home…
a lot of driving and it was fun to be behind the wheel…
but now I am tired, lol…
08 Tuesday Mar 2022
Posted in business, health, life, moments, nature, retirement, travel, Uncategorized, weather
Tags
big girl pants, blessed, car, driving, drove, grandson, Indi, moments, nature, out and about, snow, snowbank, weather, widow
yesterday I drove the car… woohoo… it has been four months since I was last in it… I see the doctor every three or four months and that is the only time I am out and about on my own…
the drive was fine, although the corners were difficult to maneuver with so much snow making it hard to see if other vehicles were coming…
in the afternoon I also drove to the eye doctor’s office to have my glasses tightened… been a very long time since I’ve been in a store… they had excellent procedures in place which made it feel safe… and the great news is that now my glasses don’t fall off my face when I bend over, lol…
seems like everywhere I went there were big trucks that were being filled with snow on street corners…
spring is coming… there were puddles right next to huge banks of snow…
and then, my grandson arrived and off went the car;-)…
11 Sunday Jun 2017
Posted in family, food, health, life, loss, nature, Photography, technology, Uncategorized
Tags
beloved, big girl pants, dad, driving, effort, emphysema, family, George, office supplies, special, sports, treat, widow
been thinking of my dad a lot lately…
he died nearly thirty years ago… he lived with emphysema from the time I was a teenager…
he did as much as he could, but spent the weekends recovering from the week and trying to build up the energy to make it through the next week…
when I turned sixteen, he and I bought a new car together and I began driving him to and from work every day… which also meant that I got to drive to school each day;-)…
he loved sports and we often attended athletic events at the arena and watched whatever sport might be on tv…
he was the person who taught me to appreciate each person or team’s efforts and applaud everyone’s performance, whether they were the one you were rooting for or not…
to this day I do the same…
he started me on my love of office supplies… when I was young I would occasionally spend a weekend morning with him at work and organize his desk, lol…
he spent a good portion of his working life helping people figure out what type of work they would be best at, and he was very good at it…
when my beloved and I were first married, he would go grocery shopping with me and add a roast or some other treat to my bag… at first I felt bad that he did this, until I realized it was something he could still do for us… by that time he couldn’t manage physical things like home repairs any longer… buying us a treat was his way of supporting us…
he was a very special man… my girls were not yet teenagers when he died, much like my grandsons who were so young when my beloved left us… maybe this is why I try to keep memories of George alive so that the boys remember him…
a very rare professionally taken picture of mom and dad…
06 Friday Jan 2017
Posted in family, food, health, life, loss, nature, Photography, technology, Uncategorized
Tags
beloved, big girl pants, comfortable, driveway, driving, ice, pump, Shadow, widow
this morning as I was driving to work I ran into a patch of ice…
had to work hard at leaving my foot on the brake… used to old school pumping…
reminded me of what an excellent driver George was…
he always drove defensively… which also made me think of him as I was sliding on that ice patch…
this is the most recent picture of Shadow that I have… didn’t remember to take a photo of her this morning in her new parking spot at the office… it is a great one with a car on one side but not the other…
the other day, when I was backing out of the garage, my daughter commented on how well I maneuvered the tricky bend in the driveway…
made me think back to when my beloved left me and I had to get in and out of the garage… at first it was very stressful, but as time has gone on I’ve become comfortable with the process… I still would rather be the one to put her into the garage which makes getting her out simpler, lol…
this was a picture I took of the house, from the car, when I made it out of the driveway after one of the big storms recently… you can sort of see the jog by the garage…
I am getting more comfortable in those big girl pants…
11 Monday May 2015
Tags
met with my ReImagining friends tonight…
almost didn’t go because I was worried about the drive home after our gathering… put on the big girl pants and went anyway…
after a great dinner we spent some time focusing on dealing with change… great book and good conversation…
once I got my directions straight I headed for home, on the Perimeter… still have trouble with east and west, lol…
everyone knows that I dislike (previously would have used the word hate) highway driving, but thought this would be the best route…
as I drove, the sky was absolutely beautiful… didn’t have a chance to get a picture but enjoyed watching the sun set…
made it home, safe and sound, and in good time too…
06 Thursday Mar 2014
Posted in life, Uncategorized
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started the day driving to work in a snowstorm… it was warm but the snow was coming down and had been for most of the night…
it was early, as we had an event… by the time I got to the office I could barely see through the windshield as it was iced over…
when we returned to the office the snow had stopped and it was quite nice…
when I left to come home it took a while to clean off the snow and ice which covered the car…
the drive wasn’t too bad although there was lots of mushy, dirty snow on the streets and it was a bit slippery…
a little while ago I went by the window and lo and behold it was snowing again…
here’s what it looks like…
can’t remember when we last had a winter like this…
16 Sunday Dec 2012
Posted in Uncategorized
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as I was heading toward the Dollar Store this morning I ended up behind a Driver Training Car…
made me think of a number of things… George’s mom, who, when George’s dad died, decided that the bus was just fine for her so she never did drive… my mom, who in her late 50s decided she would learn to drive and get herself to the places she needed to go… she took lessons and went out and got that driver’s license… she was very proud of it and enjoyed the independence… the sad day when my dad had to admit it was too difficult for him to drive anymore and gave up the car keys… it was so hard for him to do…
I’ve been driving since I turned 16… at that time I bought a brand new car with my mom and dad and drove my dad to work every day… he had emphysema and driving took a lot of energy, and in the winter the cold was very hard on him… so, I drove him to work, and then myself to school… at the end of the day I would pick him up and bring him home… so, I’ve been driving for a long time…
a few weeks before George died I took the car to work… that was unusual, because if I needed a ride to or from work, and my regular ride wasn’t available, George would drop me off and pick me up… one of my colleagues commented that they didn’t know I could drive…
our last drive through the park…
I remember how, when I was home with the girls, George would ride his bike or take the bus so that I wouldn’t be stuck at home…
George loved to drive… he often regaled me with stories of being out in the country with his dad in their big old boat of a car and practicing on ice, and gravel, and other strange conditions… and when we were in Halifax on a family vacation, he drove around the parking lot – literally in circles – he laughed about that for years…
when we were coming home from a visit to Calgary, I remember how he patiently sat beside me while I drove on the divided highway, after I got my nerve up because I abhorred highway driving… I am sure he was gripping the door handle, but he never showed it…
he didn’t like it when I drove, not because I wasn’t a good driver, he just preferred his driving… so it was much easier for him to drop me off and pick me up than for me to take the car…
so it was funny when my colleague made that comment…
snowflake on car window…
of course now I can drive the car whenever I want, even when I don’t want, lol…
herbiggirlpants 