18 Monday Dec 2023
Posted in family, food, life, moments, retirement, technology, Uncategorized
Tags
big girl pants, Christmas tree, family, folding, green, moments, napkins, practice, shapes, Technology, tree, widow
tried to make napkins shaped like trees;-)…
they would have been better with green fabric, but this was what I had to work with, lol…
the first one came out not too bad, but after that, each one was different;-)…
apparently I need to practice for a while with the video in front of me…
14 Thursday Dec 2023
Posted in business, health, life, moments, retirement, technology, Uncategorized, weather
Tags
big girl pants, blessed, cold, efficiency, furnace, heat, high efficiency, installation, M1 Mechanical, moments, nature, replacement, Technology, warm, weather, widow
yesterday morning the furnace people arrived around 8 am, just when they said they would… the temp had made it up to 18°C…
people came and went, bits and pieces were removed and then the new high efficiency furnace made it into the basement after tarps were laid down to protect the stairs… Harry worked all day, with helpers coming and going as needed…
it took two of them to get the heavy oldie out of the house…
I was out for the afternoon and when I arrived home the temperature was at a toasty 20°C…
the basement was perfectly clean, all of the bits and pieces which had gone into the backyard were gone and the vents had been raised so the snow shouldn’t be a problem in the future…
and this pretty thing was snuggled into the space… reminds me a bit of Barbie, the barbecue;-)…
I am very pleased with the whole process and would happily recommend M1 Mechanical for furnace replacement or repair…
13 Wednesday Dec 2023
Posted in business, life, loss, moments, retirement, technology, Uncategorized, weather
Tags
37, big girl pants, broken, cold, furnace, misbehaving, moments, not happy, service, Technology, weather, widow
the furnace has been misbehaving for nearly six weeks…
it started when my Nest app advised that the furnace had been off a number of times over a few weeks starting early in November and suggested I be in touch with a technician… this had never happened before…
I contacted the usual company and they said as long as it was working they couldn’t tell what was wrong… they booked me for an annual maintenance appointment which wasn’t until December…
since the beginning of December I have listened to the furnace starting and stopping close together, a sound which was certainly new… different from previous problems when it had stopped due to snow plugging the vents…
when the technician came for the annual checkup they advised that the furnace needed to be replaced… apparently it is 37 years old… it was working fine while they were here although it was doing a bit of the on-and-off business…
I called another company for a second opinion and on Friday they agreed that it needed to be replaced before too long…
Saturday when I got up, the temperature was 14.5° Celsius and it took hours for it to even start raising the temperature in the house… I was worried it had finally stopped;-(… eventually it made it to 17° C… Sunday it stayed around that temperature…
Monday it was down to 16° C and was quite chilly, lol… I called and a new install was scheduled for Wednesday…
Tuesday, it was 14.5°C when I got up… I raised the dial on the thermometer to 32° and it took a very long time to start to warm up…
then it got too hot, but I was afraid to lower the temperature in case it stopped working again… eventually I lowered it to 22 before bed…
Wednesday morning it was down to 17°C…
it has been a very stressful time, I have to say…
09 Saturday Dec 2023
Posted in health, life, moments, nature, retirement, technology, Uncategorized, weather
Tags
battery, big girl pants, blessed, charger, counting, Fitbit, moments, nature, shovelling, snow, Technology, weather, widow
waited for my Fitbit to charge before going out to shovel the sidewalk today…
and when I got back into the house, there was the Fitbit, sitting on the counter, still attached to the charger…
really not counting the steps, lol…
04 Monday Dec 2023
Posted in business, family, food, health, life, loss, moments, retirement, technology, Uncategorized
Tags
beloved, big girl pants, birthday, blessed, burgers, celebration, computer, family, home, love, memories, moments, Technology, tradition, viper, widow
tonight we had supper with my son-in-law in Ottawa… earlier today my daughter, on vacation in Europe, texted me that she’d had a burger for her lunch, in memory of her dad;-)…
we tried a new app called Viper, and it worked great… think I will use it again…
burgers were had by all… ours came from one of my beloved’s favourite burger places… and we even shared a chocolate milkshake here… it was delicious…
birthdays often seem hard, but coming together to share a meal is a lovely tradition to remember him…
and it is always such a delight when the technology works, lol…
02 Saturday Dec 2023
Posted in business, family, health, life, loss, moments, retirement, technology, Uncategorized
Tags
beloved, big girl pants, blessed, blog, congratulations, day-to-day, moments, Technology, widow, WordPress
yesterday, WordPress sent me congratulations on my blog, which turned eleven…
since then I have posted 4031 blogs, which is slightly over one per day…
the blog began 271 days after I lost my beloved, and many of the first ones covered the complications of moving forward as a widow… a lonely business…
sometimes I have deep thoughts, although most of the time they are just about what is happening around me and in my day-to-day life…
it is still fun to think of something to write about…
eleven years…
01 Friday Dec 2023
Posted in business, family, food, health, life, moments, retirement, technology, Uncategorized
Tags
Advent, big girl pants, blessed, calendars, chocolate, family, grandson, memories, moments, nuts, Technology, treat, versions, widow
happy first day of Advent… it has always been a special time for me…
this year there are three different calendars for me…
the first is a digital version which comes via email every day with things to do or think about;-)… all focussed on chocolate, without any calories… this was the first one, which provides an opportunity to check items off over 25 days…
the second is on the wall in the living room and this year is filled with nuts and seeds and the odd bit of chocolate…
the third climbs the stairway… it is made up of twenty-four different sized boxes with items in them from the kids in Ottawa… last week a parcel arrived addressed to my grandson, who then filled each one… they look very cute on the stairs…
as I empty a box, I am breaking it down and stashing it at the top behind the last few… I don’t want to lose any of them…
every day is a treat;-)…
26 Sunday Nov 2023
Posted in life, moments, retirement, Uncategorized
Tags
bathroom, big girl pants, blessed, hammering, injury, level, moments, Technology, toilet roll holder, tools, widow
tried again to level the toilet paper holder…
took a bit of time and a number of tools…
took it off the wall, unscrewed the fasteners, drilled the holes slightly bigger and then hammered in a little plastic piece before reinserting the screws;-)…
was slightly injured in the process…
maybe it will stay level…
23 Thursday Nov 2023
Posted in business, family, health, life, moments, retirement, technology, Uncategorized, weather
Tags
5°, big girl pants, blessed, garden, heater, moments, nature, plunge, Technology, tub, water, weather, widow
last week a big black tub landed on the deck…
a few days later, in the evening, it got filled up with water…
then a cover went over it… and a heater to keep the temperature at 5° Celsius was added…
now, after a shower, someone uncovers the tub and sits in it for 3 minutes, which seems like a long time, lol…
this is what I spotted this morning;-)…
I am going to give it a try on a Sunday morning… wish me luck…
20 Monday Nov 2023
Posted in business, garden, life, moments, nature, retirement, technology, Uncategorized, weather
Tags
big girl pants, blessed, cleaned, dahlias, dirt, experiment, garden, jobs done, moments, nature, paper bags, separated, shrivelled, Technology, tubers, widow
all of the garden work has now been completed for the winter… yay…
about a week ago I finished cleaning and putting away the last pond pump…
Saturday I finally got around to the dahlias… after watching a few videos, I used a knife to clean out the bits of dirt that were still on the tubers and then cut them to separate those with eyes, which should produce next year…
after doing a bit of research, I left a few (after cleaning them), to see if I will be able to separate them more easily in the spring when they start to sprout…
packaged them in paper bags, put them back in the pot, which went into a box in the coolest area of the basement… and wrote on the box to remember that is where they are, lol…
we will see what shape they are come spring… sometimes when the bags are open, there is nothing but shrivelled up bits of nothing;-(…
always an experiment…
