Tag Archives: friends

thankfulness…

11 Sunday Oct 2020

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our lives have changed so much in the last months… and I’ve spent time considering many of the things I am thankful for…

my retirement at the end of December has been a huge change… I had worried that if I retired I would turn into a hermit, lol… and so I did…

during these crazy covid times I have been able to find businesses that deliver groceries, books, technology, plants, meals…

I am in touch with friends through various applications, and have enjoyed many garden visits during nice weather…

I have found help with projects and my neighbours are available if I have issues…

my grandson has my car and picks up items on a regular basis when I can’t find them any other way… the younger ones have looked after maintaining the grass and helped with the pond…

time spent in the garden, following the shade, soaking up the peace and serenity has been amazing… watching flowers bud and open, birds and squirrels at the feeders, and fish, frogs, plants and blossoms in the pond have whiled away the spring, summer and now fall…

how blessed I am;-)…

monitor…

29 Tuesday Sep 2020

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last night, preparing for our weekly BS Skype call, I moved the monitor on my desktop computer… and it went black;-(…

tried checking the cords but the picture would not return…

I ran downstairs and brought up the laptop for the meeting… of course I had to run back to get the cord as it was nearly exhausted…

it worked well and I was able to see everyone… I’ve been trying to use the computer room to see if being closer to the router and internet link would mean less dropped videos…

this morning I was able to jiggle cords and when I pushed the start button it turned on, updated a million things and then worked perfectly…

yay, I don’t want to be having tech people in the house if I don’t have to…

neighbours…

24 Thursday Sep 2020

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I have the nicest neighbours… they are basically all new(ish)… when we first moved here we became good friends with a number of neighbours, but they are all gone…

since then there have been a few inhabitants of various houses who we didn’t chat with very much…

today, the neighbour across the street came over and fixed a piece of siding at the peak of the house that had come loose during the big wind storm a while back… we had a lovely chat as he tried to get it hooked back in… he had volunteered to fix it for me, via his wife, who I had chatted with the other day when the fire trucks raced down the street… he helped me last winter when Indi got stuck at the bottom of the driveway and I couldn’t get her up the slope…

the tomatoes I’ve been eating came from the next door neighbours on my right… they have been in the house for a few years now and remind me of our friends who used to live there… he spends a lot of time tinkering in the yard and garage, lol… they spend time at the lake and moved here to help with their grandchildren and have them over on a regular basis… they got a dog a few months ago… not sure what type he is, but he is small and learning not to bark when he sees me in my garden…

the neighbours behind have been there for ten or so years so knew my beloved and they would chat over the fence all the time and share tools… the other day he offered to help with the garage cleanup…

the neighbours on the left are the newest addition… they are a young couple who also have a new puppy, which is going to be fairly large… they have both offered to pick up anything I might need when they are out and about…

I think back to the gatherings we used to have on the deck… weekend breakfasts, dinners and visits… those days are long gone…

and of course, nowadays the only visiting we do is at a distance…

still, it is lovely to know that if I need urgent help I could call on any of them…

experiment…

21 Monday Sep 2020

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recently I spent a good portion of the day in the computer room tidying…

I’ve been dumping empty boxes in there for months and there were about 10 boxes of books that were packed up before the pandemic but hadn’t made it to the fire station…

when I am on my Skype calls with my BS buddies I keep losing video of them, so I thought I’d try a call from the main computer which is hooked up directly to the internet… hope that helps…

so, I had to clean the room up so when I was on the call I wouldn’t be horribly embarrassed, lol…

this morning I carried all but one of the boxes of books out to the garage and put them on the newly emptied shelves… they weigh a lot… the last one is way too heavy for me…

for tonight’s call, one person wasn’t available, one person couldn’t get her camera working and in the middle of the call, my computer decided it was going to upgrade, so I was off the call for ten minutes or so…

interesting experiment, lol…

fudgicles…

28 Friday Aug 2020

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had an excellent visit with a good friend a few days ago…

she brought fresh veggies from her garden… we consulted on a project, talked about our lives, exercise, technology, and living on our own…

we ordered in some tasty Pho Hoang and had fudgicles for dessert…

after dinner, while we were sitting beside the pond, I spotted baby fish… this was very exciting…

after she left, I sat and spotted at least four, in three different sizes… looks like two about two inches long and at least one each of two smaller ones…

have not been able to get any photos as they move very quickly and look black in the water, lol… maybe they are nervous about some of those bigger ones..

a lovely time…

provisions…

16 Sunday Aug 2020

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one of the gifts I received for my retirement was a gift certificate to Black Market Provisions…

a few days ago I ordered one of their Care Packages… it arrived right at supper time the next day and included the most delicious salad with beets, goat cheese, chicken, and greens… I also enjoyed some garlicky bagel crisps…

there were a few frozen items, more crackers and some delicious looking cookies…

I am excited to taste all of these as well…

commemorate…

14 Friday Aug 2020

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what a wonderful evening we had on Wednesday…

our BS group met for dinner in the garden to celebrate a birthday…

I spent a good portion of the day ensuring that there were enough chairs available and physically distanced… it was very warm and the sun was shining in most of the garden…

in the end, we ate on the deck as it was shaded, lol… had dinner and dessert delivered and it was tasty…

after dinner we moved to the garden and carried on our visit…

took a very distanced photo as we usually commemorate special times together and I used my phone as the remote to take the shot…

although we video call each Monday night it was lovely to be together again in person…

landline…

13 Thursday Aug 2020

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I was without internet and cell service for five days… just to be clear, in case you were worried, I did survive;-)…

all my phone could do was take pictures, act as a flashlight and let me play my solitaire game on occasion… if you wanted to speak to someone who wasn’t there you had to use the landline…

as I was preparing to leave for the trip, I would think of things like – oh, I can change the lights in the house occasionally so it looks lived in, or I can text my daughter with information she would need, or I can call my grandson to remind him about watering the plants, or I can add my meals to MyFitnessPal, etc. etc… nope, no, I could NOT…

when you don’t use the phone, you don’t need to carry it around so much though… although it was handy if my camera wasn’t close by… there was a good deal of reading of paperbacks, doing newspaper crosswords and talking with one another…

while there, the discussion arose as to what was more needed – internet access or a shower… I mean, the lake is right there, so clearly the answer is the internet;-)…

it was like the old days, lol…

on the return trip, all of a sudden, the phone started to beep and buzz and ding as it came into cell range and emails and messages starting downloading… it was funny…

zebra…

10 Monday Aug 2020

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we had wonderful times at the beach and in the water… the area is quiet so that means the beach is too the majority of the time…

I did watch kids from a few cottages over as they kneeboarded and that was fun…

we went in the water often and it was refreshing… we floated on pool noodles and had deep conversations and lots of laughter…

we also found tons of zebra mussels… only a couple the first few days, but after a really windy evening that blew into shore there were many clusters under our feet… one day we spent at least an hour or so feeling them with our toes and then having someone lift them up with their feet so we could collect them and bring them to shore to be disposed of… it was great exercise…

they are very sharp and all three of my companions ended up with cuts on their feet that had to be taken care of to be sure that no infections occurred… I nearly always wore my water shoes so happily was able to feel the clumps or sticks or rocks with them on and not get injured…

it was rather concerning to see so many…

fed…

10 Monday Aug 2020

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for five days I have been fed by others… what a wonderful treat… the majority of time I am fine with cooking, but some days I particularly miss my beloved, because he would often take a turn preparing our food…

the variety and complexity of meals was amazing… we had crepes, with freshly made blueberry sauce; spatchcock chicken with potato salad, pan stuffing and green beans; sausages and toast; hot dogs with onions; steak, baked potatoes and salad; bacon, eggs and toast; pork tenderloin, rice and roasted cauliflower; homemade enchiladas with guacamole and homemade sour cream; and the most tasty almond bars and Rice Krispie squares… plus many snacks…

my friends are both excellent cooks and they had nearly as much fun preparing the food as we had eating it…

my contribution was dishwashing, lol… and they use Dawn, which makes bubbles if you squeeze it;-), which I did, numerous times… I may have to switch to Dawn because the bubbles bring me such happiness…

I am glad to do dishes because it doesn’t involve any complicated activity and saves the cooks from cleanup after all their work to produce a meal;-)…