Weekly Musings of the 28th

 

Here we are coming up to the end of another month.  How about that, I have even noticed the leaves changing on some of the early trees.  Soon it will be time to pull the A/C out of the window.  I always do it kinda early because although I appreciate it in June, July and most of August I prefer the windows being open and air just coming from outside and if really hot days show up in September I can manage with a window fan for the day or two that it lasts.  It is like I am done with that unit in the window no matter what the weather is.

First onto Sparky as in comments people were wondering how it went.  It was a funny thing, the things that I brought the car in, of course, did not show up on their computer analyzes but they found that the bearings in one place needs replacing and the front brakes will need taking care of when we switch to winter tires.  Waiting on parts for the bearings which is probably because of the guys in power being a**holes on both sides of the border.  The silent horn and steering column stuff which was dead, the lady there and I checked it out and all the buttons worked again and so did the horn.  So, he fixed the stuff we wanted probably by accident but listed stuff that we were not bothered by yet.  Anyway, either way, Sparky is working fine.  

I did a bit of linen shopping at Giant Tiger because of the more expensive ones I cannot stand that slippery crap feeling on those sheets.  It is called Sateen, and trying to find sheets without any kind of Sateen crap is tough now.  Finally found that our good old Giant Tiger carries them.  Found both cotton and flannel plus some great towels.  Another lesson learned, don't bother with the more expensive stores basic linen is best found at Giant Tiger, which is kind of a Target store for those south of the border.  

When all the politicians were screaming at each other I figured that I better get my new phone before the prices go up to silly.  I also decided to get the same as hubby's that way when I figured something out on my phone I could show him on his. 

 I got different colours for us both so we wouldn't grab the wrong one.  Once I had dealt with switching his stuff over to the new one, taking care of my switch over was a piece of cake including the app. that handles my hearing aids.  That was the only one I was a bit concerned about because when I got the aids the tech handled it at their office, so just in case I needed to go in I managed to get my phone on Thursday thus knowing I could go in on Friday to fix it if necessary.  It wasn't necessary.  And I got my phone still for a couple hundred cheaper than hubby's through Amazon instead of our phone server.  I, also, wanted a google one instead of Samsung because I hated having to have a Samsung account with my google one, this way it is just the one thing that runs on all computer, phone and tablet no matter what one is doing.  

Fun thing on Thursday as well was that the internet through our server was down in our town.  I waiting until I had my coffee, got cleaned up and had my book on hand for waiting on hold and gave them a call to see why our internet was down.  That was when I found out it was all of Simcoe and they were frantically working on it to get it back up and running.  After we chatted a bit the guy thanked me for being so nice to him.  He said I was the first one.  I said that I knew these things can happen and it is not those that answer the calls fault nor the techs working on it either and wished him a more peaceful day as I hung up.  That sure is sad to figure that every time you answer the phone at work you are probably going to get yelled at.  No wonder people are angry, what a stress-filled way to work.

So, we settled in to watch some dvds, read some books and otherwise do stuff that didn't require being on the internet.  I also decided if my phone arrived during that time I would just wait until the next day if need be.  No trouble at all and the internet was back up and running by 12:30 p.m.  and my new phone did not arrive until late afternoon anyway.  All worked out just find and we enjoyed re-watching The Hobbit on dvd that afternoon anyway.  

I didn't see the eclipse of the moon last night but I did get a really lovely shot of the moon this morning on my walk.  Yup, this is not the sun coming up but the moon setting.  

Reading-wise while on hold and other waiting things plus my usual time of reading during the day I was onto another book in the series Ordinary Women of the Bible.  

 This one is set in the new testament and during the time of Paul.  Very much enjoying this one too.  Actually once I finish this series I am going back to re-read all these new bible series books.  They have been so good, I am looking forward to visiting them again.  

Well, that was the week that was with also a wonderful sit-down video chat with my sister.  I just love catching up with her.  We ended up catching for an hour and 40 minutes instead of our usual hour.  

Take care all and have a wonderful weekend!

       

Weekly Musings of the 21st

 

Another one bites the dust....  (bet you started hearing the song in your head - LOL.  I always do.  So the week was one of usual and interesting.  Hubby's new phone arrived and I was able to do most of the set up but there was one thing I couldn't see.  I opened one slot in the old phone for the sims card but it wasn't there.... crap... I know I was missing something and of course phone companies make it nearly impossible to reach anyone to actually speak to and the AI you do reach won't understand that you want a person.  

Finally after being frustrated enough I decided to go with hubby for groceries.  I also figured I would go into the Mobile shop and perhaps the guy there would take pity on an old lady and fix it.  I put everything in my small purse which made it heavy enough to want to drag it and away we went.  

I walked in the shop and said, I know I didn't buy this phone here and our server is not one that is used here but could you see what I am missing to get this new phone working with hubby's phone number?  He said sure and looked over the old phone and found the second slot that I didn't see opened it up, took the card out and put it in the new phone.  Less that 15 seconds the new phone was all good.  I missed the second slot in looking for the card.  

His new phone is google so it is easy for hubby to get to all the things that he uses a phone for.  The old phone I tried to set back to factory settings in order to donate but I had no idea it was still using a 12 year old email address as the account that neither of us have used in that length of time and have no clue what the password is nor any way to change the password.  They send a log in to that email which we do not have access to, so that is a waste of time.  We might just have to drown that phone before recycling it... lots of time to think on that.  

Oh yeah, in all of this I found that I could actually get the phone I want from Amazon for cheaper than our server company, delivered faster and with no shipping charge and since it is just a switching of cards, I don't have to use our phone company.

Lessons learned every day.  

Beautiful skies and cooler mornings for my walk this week too which was just lovely.  We also had to make an appointment for Sparky this week and I have to take him in for 9 today.  The poor thing seems to be having a little trouble with power to the buttons and horn on the steering wheel.  Also the dash goes wonky occasionally with resetting itself during it's time of just sitting.  I really hope it is something simple for the car and not a big cost.  Sparky is 13 years old and has been having a few hiccups but I really have no desire to shell out a lot of money on it nor have the expense of another car.  My desire is that Sparky lasts until I am finished with driving.  

Well, we shall cross the bridges when we need to cross those bridges and not borrow troubles from days not here yet.

In between it all on days we were not going out to deal with whatever, we pulled out the carpet cleaner and started washing down the old carpets of our apartment.  These poor old things are hanging in pretty well and as we were cleaning them hubby and I both decided that we should do them more on a regular basis as they need a lot of TLC.    

As to books,  this week was another really interesting read from an interesting point of view, the mother of Samson.

I always had trouble with Samson as I couldn't figure out with all that he had and was doing, how could he be such a jerk.  This author is a great one who really showed the ideas of how we all mess up like this and how Samson might have been thinking as he made those awful decisions that he did. It got me thinking deeper of this story and very much enjoyed this book too.  

Anyway, I am off to get presentable and get the car in for them to see if it is a simple fix to fix Sparky and keep him going for a few years more.  

Have a lovely weekend. 

 
 

Weekly Musings of the 14th

 

Look at that, another week flew by.  This week on Tuesday I had a lovely chat with DD the 1st and this afternoon I will be having a chat with DD the 2nd and probably with the 3 GS saying hi as they move about being busy like all young boys do.  I do love being able to video chat with them, what a wonderful thing that came about with the internet and computers.  Sure, there are a lot of things that came about that were just evil but as in all things we humans bring about, there are some pretty nifty things too.

I, also after a chat with hubby went online to our phone provider and purchased another phone for hubby.  The leap of faith was that I will be able to transfer things when it gets here including the phone number he uses.  His phone is over 10 years old and unable to receive anything beyond just a basic text.  I figure best to get him with a new model and since mine is a bit newer get one for me a bit later.  

The week went along as most weeks do with me being the full time driver.  Which I don't mind but hubby is getting use to being a passenger.  I think it is more difficult for him to relax while someone else drives than it is for me to drive with a nervous passenger.  

Oh, and with the half done apartments a new thing was half done.

As you can see we still don't have any numbers on the doors but they decided to put up new lights above them.  These ones are so bright you could put your sunglasses on to just walk in the hallway.  

Some tenants shut those new lights off above their doors.  We don't bother with that kind of thing as what is beyond our home is the business of the building not ours.  I know electricity-wise the lighting is cheaper, which runs from the individual apartments, therefore it is part of the tenants electric bill. 

Fun thing about the new lights is that it really shows up how much the hall carpets need cleaning or replacing.  I wonder if that will come before or after the numbers. - LOL  

The book finished this week was this one.  You remember the part of the widow that put just two pennies in the collection and Jesus said she gave the greater because the others gave of their abundance and she gave all she had?  

This author imagined a story around just that moment and gave her a name and a full rich story that made you truly think about this moment in time.  Really well done.  

Lastly this week was Tigger's birthday (at least the one we guessed it might be considering she was barely 3 weeks old when we found her) 

She is 13 now and still working so hard to keep her humans trained properly.  

I think she is not only pondering her world but wondering why it takes us so long to do what she expects us to do - LOL.  

So that is it for me this week.  Time to get a move on to take a trip to the reserve and then back for a chat with DD the 2nd.  I love those weeks I get to chat to both girls.  Have a lovely weekend!

Weekly Musings of the 31st

 Last day of the month already and taking the days slow and easy.  

Eye appointment on Monday morning and as I figured I needed new glasses as there was enough of a change that I would notice it when reading or on the computer or driving.  They should be in next week or so.

I also did my semi-annual pick of new puzzles although neither hubby and I wanted to drive to Mary Maxim in Paris for a 'look see' they do ship so this time I manage not only to find some good deals on the puzzles I managed to get free shipping too.  It can be expensive if one isn't careful but with a bit of hunting one can find some pretty great deals.  I ended up with 6 new ones which will keep me busy for awhile.  I do like getting off screens and working on real puzzles instead of puzzle apps. 

Miss Tigger loves puzzles too as when they are finished she loves to lay on them so when I am working on one she watches carefully.  

Books this week I went back to the extraordinary women of the bible series and this one was about Sarah.  At first I thought, okay another one.  I had read several from different authors about Sarah but each point of view was interesting.  This one surprised as it was set at the time Sarah was dying and all the things could have happened as she lay on her death bed.  

Very interesting thoughts of what could have been.  I always come away with something deeper to think about and this author has some very good stories to tell.

So, between reading, puzzles and a bit of colouring, some watching of the commonwealth games as well as our usual daily walks it was as always, for this retired couple, another quiet week but quiet is nice especially sitting in the shade of our balcony and reading.  

Wishing you all a lovely long August weekend as we say good-bye to July 2026. 

Take care. 

The puzzle Tigger is laying on now

  

TTFN 

Weekly Musings of the 24th

 

Wow, here we are sliding into the last week of July, we have already past the 200th day of the year, isn't that something?

As you might have seen or read hubby got writing a couple of shorts on language which are posted here too (for those whose reading feed is not putting the newest posts up) He says he has come up with more and of course if he does keep going they will be here.  

Our neighbour who was a really nice lady has moved after only a year in the building.  Our grumpy neighbour seems to be a bit of a challenge to live beside and she found a lovely little home with central air and a laundry room for the same price as she was paying here so she moved this week.  I manage to exchange numbers with her so that we can hopefully keep in touch.  Who knows, if the day comes that the rent here gets silly for us, we might go there.  I peeked on google maps and it is a really cute place.  Apparently her bedroom balcony overlooks the deer park.  Nice place to enjoy one's morning tea.  

Chatting with another couple from a different floor this week was nice as well.  I seem to be meeting others from the next door building and different people in this one.  I make sure I repeat their names a few times so that they will stick with me - LOL.  Nice to be chatting with new friends.

I finished that 6 book series by Christine Dillon.

  What a powerful series, the previous one Loss and Loyalty ending took my breath away and I just sat there not believing it finished that way.  I think it could have not finished any other way but still one is shocked by it.  This one too was very hard to put down and when I did I was sorry I was finished the series but it is the kind I will certainly read again.  

The Commonwealth games started yesterday and this time our station CBC is carrying it like they do the Olympics which is great.  I hadn't been able to watch them before and my Dad was an official at a couple of them.  I am looking forward to watching when I can.  There was an event that I hadn't heard about or ever seen before called Bowls.  It is like lawn bowling but the balls are in a shape that causes them to never go in a straight line.  It was interesting to watch, I thought it seemed like curling on grass.  

So, that was it for us here, quiet as most of our summer days are.   Then again when one's favourite activity is reading, quiet is what one enjoys best.  

Have a lovely day and weekend.

Weekly Musings of the 17th

 

Yup, it was back to hot, hazy and humid and for added fun the smoke from the wild-fires in Northern Ontario have drifted down through most of the province and it just isn't a good idea to go outside for long.

One of the mornings I decided it would be smarter to go for my 30 minute walk with a mask on which helped a lot.  

This morning was finally cooler but the smoke is still hanging around. On top of that just down the highway from us a barn fire happened which killed 20,000 hogs, a devastating loss to the farmer and his family.

After that fire was brought under control the sky became a horrible yellow colour and the smell of smoke got worse which was from the wild fires and not the barn fire.  We kept everything closed and the A/C on which help a lot.   This morning seemed a little better as the temperature was finally cooler so we opened the windows for about 30 minutes before closing things up again.  

 The sun has looked like this for 3 days now.  

As to the lines of the parking lot, well, after seeing what they painted I have a new name for our 2 apartment buildings - The Half Done Apartments.  Everything they have done lately has been only half.  They painted the hallways and doors but not the stairs nor the step into the apartments, they remain in the stairs - two colours ago and on the step one colour ago.  Oh, and they still have not put any numbers on the doors yet.  They say they are waiting for a template.... seriously?!?!  They are numbers, how tough can that be?  

They paved only half the parking lot and therefore only painted half the lines.  Not even all the newly paved area, only the front part.  The baseboard carpet in the hallways they pulled out for the painting over 5 years ago and still have not put them in again nor changed the hallway carpets nor cleaned them as they say they don't need to clean them as they are replacing them.... not sure what decade they plan to do that.  The owners of the buildings live in another city so really not that important that things get finished.  Reason we stay?  Simple we moved in when the rent was reasonable and will stay until it isn't and keep our home clean and maintained behind our door.   

 Didn't take a picture of the lines yet but this is the only area that they are painted.  

Okay enough of the rant of the Half-Done Apartments.  

Since we like breathing without smoke in the air we stayed home and of course I curled up with another amazing book.  This series is one of the very best I have read.  I told you of the first one how the author wrote from the Egyptian point of view instead of from Moses's side which was such a different way and made it such a great read.  This one too was even better.

This one was the 3rd of 6 and I started the next one.  If it is as good as the first three I can't wait to get into the story.

Well, that was the week, pretty much of a stay put and keep the A/C on and windows shut.  I am hoping that through the weekend rain will come and winds to dispel the smoke and the heat and next week will be fresher.

Today we are off to the reserve for our monthly trip - probably with the windows closed and the air on in the car to keep the smoke out. 

Wishing you all a great day and fun weekend.

 

  Kind of hope I am that kind of person 

Weekly Musings of the 10th

 

Here we are again.  As I mentioned last week, they were paving our parking lot.  Found out that those that owned the building (who live in another city) decided to do only half of it.  Mind you, it is the part that had all the potholes and damage so that is great.  Funny thing was they told people it was because the back half had been done pretty recently.  I smiled because I know that it has been longer than 13 years because we have not seen the back half being done since we have been here.  Another funny thing is that I asked the Super if the lines were getting painted before the parking lot is opened up once more and he actually said that he doesn't know.  I just smiled and said - oh good, I do love a challenge.  

I know that through all the paving that those spots that were available for parking would have been at least 5 or 6 more spots if people had just parked a little closer to each other.  Still having room to open doors but most put enough space for half a truck on either side of them.  

So, that is the finished product without lines.  You can see our car at the very back between the two black ones.  I actually like being parked back there.  The shade made the car easier to get into during the hot days.  

The photo here, well, I just had to take as there is one guy driving the little bobcat back and forth and the group at the side looks like a bunch of supervisors discussing what the one worker is doing.  

In all fairness I have to say this crew worked non-stop during the hottest days from 7 in the morning to 5:30 every afternoon.  They took only a half an hour for lunch and took only 15 minute breaks.  That photo was actually one of their 2 breaks.  

During this part of the work I still took my morning walks but I went down the street and walked around the blocks for 30 minutes.  Basically it meant I went down to the main park and back again each morning.  

As you can see I had a large audience watching my walk each morning and this morning I was very happy to be able to walk the loop around our buildings again.  I don't mind the audience but not a fan of dodging their poop.  

Another fun thing was even though there were days that were cool enough to leave the A/C off we had to keep things closed and keep the A/C on because of the dust and dirt that was flying around when the wind came up.  

Turned out that, of course, it was a bigger job needing a lot of extra dirt to even out the ground that had sunk over time.  Apparently before these apartments went up there was a pickle factory here. Who knew?

So, quiet week with timing when it would be the easiest to go in and out.  Hubby had his eye appointment which he was pleased to learn that his eyes had not changed at all and everything was good.  Mine is coming up in another week and I am guessing there will be changes because I am noticing differences myself.  

However, such is life in the senior lane.  

As to which book I got into this week, another old testament one of Queen Esther.  

Good read although I had read in the past another version which had more depth to it than this one.  Still all in all a good read and very thought provoking which is what I like about these books. 

Now, I am onto another about David's first wife. 

So far quite interesting.  Again like Esther's story I have read a couple other authors versions of Michal's story.  I still enjoy them as seeing them different ways makes me think about the person more and brings them to life once again.  

So, hope you all had a fine week and managed to keep cool.  

Huge hugs and much love.

Weekly Musings of the 3rd

 

What a hot, hazy, humid end to June and start to July.  Canada Day saw storms moving through the area, we had high winds and a bit of rain but Ottawa got hit really hard and had to cancel the evening show and fireworks.  They had 100mm of rain with flooding in many areas and lots of power outages as well.  

This triple H is suppose to last at least until Sunday and our little A/C unit is working overtime each day.  

This week also meant the beginning of the replacing of the sidewalks which, of course made it challenging going in and out of the building.  From our balcony the fun part was watching people who either wanted the workers to let them in the building (where they didn't live) or walking exactly where they were trying to work. 

The first two walks are having the finishing part done today and I am sure that means the front will be the next one.  After all the walks are done they are going to replace the parking lot too.  Should be a fun time but certainly really needing doing this year, there are way too many potholes now.

Had the chance this week to catch up with my sister and chat about life in general and solving all the problems of the world - LOL.  It was great to get the chance to just sit with her and video chat.  I think back on the long distance phone calls after 6 or on weekends and not seeing the person or writing letters if they were overseas because phoning and the connections were just too difficult and now we can sit and chat with video and not worrying about the minute costs and see the loved one.  That, I thank Meta for too.

I still kept to my morning walks although still hot I was glad to walk as early as possible to be out of the full morning sun.  As well, hubby's pictures are finished the clearing, sorting and naming as well as my Pinterest has been deeply cleared out from over 5,000 to under 100.  I am sure the collection will grow again but I am planning on purging each summer in the future to keep it from getting silly again.   

As I stayed out of the heat I am enjoying the 3rd book of the Anna series

Another powerful book and I cannot wait until the 4th one comes out next year.  

So, that was the very quiet week that was and I must say I hope we get to open the windows at night once more next week.  Keep cool everyone and enjoy the weekend.  Happy 4th to my American friends and family.

That's me - ROTFL

Weekly Musings of the 19th

 So another week, a rainy one with lots of thunder in the distance but the week still flew by.  I did finish up the photos although hubby has a few more to go through.  I tease him that it is because he is older than I am and that is why he has more pictures than me.  Not that I had been working on them longer and adding them to a history of our family blog.  Nope, he is older and that is why - LOL.

We did take a drive to the reserve for our monthly errands.  We actually didn't need to fill the car but we topped it up anyway while we were there.  

We spent the rest of the week pretty quiet and enjoying the cooler temperatures at night.  I really never mind it being hot during the day just as long as it goes below 20C at night so I can have the window open.  

Reading the 2nd book of Anna's story. 

Really a very good read and I actually cannot wait to get to the third book, there are four in this series and each one a treasure.  

I also dropped two of our streaming channels for at least the summer since all the shows we watch are done for the season so down to keeping Prime and Crave/TSN.  Of course there are those free ones such as Pluto and Tubi (which I love to call Tubby - LOL) Our parish also pays for a Catholic streaming service which everyone of the parish can have for free called Formed.  I haven't gotten into that one yet but looking through the basic of it, there are some good shows and documentaries to watch, which I hope to get to this summer.  I kind of wonder if I really will pick up those dropped channels when the seasons start up again in the fall as although there are shows that we like I have gotten to the point that I really no longer mind either way if I watch them or not.  With the services we have we always find something interesting to watch so why not keep going with new things.  Anyway we shall see.  As I get older I do find it easier to let things go that I thought were necessary or important are not so much really.

It was like when I looked at old Amazon orders from before I retired and saw the kinds of books I bought.  What a waste most of them were (the diet ones I mean and there were a lot of those) I would probably have a nice nest egg had I saved the money that I spend on those silly books.  Oh well, lessons have to be learned in the seasons of life one is in.  

Well, that is it for me this week, quiet as it was.  I hope you had a nice week too and have a lovely weekend.

I am actually okay not living in the woods or talking much to squirrels but I just love the expression on her face.  

  

Weekly Musings of the 12th

Good Morning Friends and Family.  Another week in the bag again.  Hope you had fun from time to time during it.  

Heat and humidity made us both realize that it was time to put the A/C in the window for another season.  A little later than last year which is nice.  This time we remembered to pick up a little plastic placemat to put on the top to help the water pouring off the unit above us not go into our continually.  Theirs has run into ours's every summer since we had it and we find a placemat solves that problem without telling them that their unit is a pain to others.  You could fill a bucket with the water that pours out of it each day.  

Tuesday I got the call that my hearing aids were back and I could come in for them the next day and all would be back to normal.  No more headphones for which I am really happy.  When I went in and we chatted I found out that the company fixes nothing, they just replace them.  What a waste and then we got to talking about how on one hand we are suppose to care how much we throw away and yet no appliance or tv today has a repair person that can come out to fix it, everything to fix cost more to fix and less to throw away (hopefully recycle) and buy another new one.  It is the same with hearing aids.  

The feedback thing is kinda there again but I looked things up on the computer and found that feedback can happen if the aids are not far enough in and mic, speaker and output are too close.  So, it might be my placement that causes it to be louder but we shall see in time.  So far that is working.

Tigger said it was too hot and so we got busy getting the air in the window.  The cart we got last year sure made a difference in hubby not having to carry the silly thing far.  First night we found out that although we have it shut off upstairs doesn't shut theirs off and ours was not angled right to prevent the water coming in and getting our curtains wet.  The rain didn't help either.  So, it was necessary to pull it back out and reset it at the proper angle.  

As to the photo purge we are still working our way through them.  I worked with the idea to keep only those photos that we took that I love and with that in mind, purging doubles and the many shots of the same scene meant thousands of photos went into the recycle.  My family was huge at taking photos after church in the driveway with everyone facing the sun and trying not to squint.   Now one or two of those kind of pictures or those with other family, one or two are fine but the hundreds I had, I dumped those.  Most old family pictures are in the blogs that I wrote and have stories about them, don't need the photos just the writings with those photos in there.  I have to say that after purging I cut my photos from nearly three thousand to under five hundred and those are from the 20s to present day.  I think it is coming along pretty good.  I plan on doing a yearly look and purge at the end of every year to keep the documents (which I hadn't cleared out in nearly 10 years) and photos taken that year to a comfortable amount. 

The books that I got into were this one. 

Which is part of the series of ordinary women of the bible.  This one I was really interested in as I always thought deeply about this scripture, the details around the story and this author was very good in writing a fiction of what could have happened.  Sure it is fiction and the story could have been totally different but still it makes one think that - it could be.   Really good read, very thought provoking.  

The next one after this that I got into was the first of another series.  Bookbud deal which made it a good bargain.

It expands on Joseph of Arimathea who gave his tomb for Jesus's body, that perhaps he had a daughter and that there was this story about her and perhaps the apostle Andrew.  Of course, there is a surety that things didn't happen that way but it brought out some great things to think on.  I can't wait to get to the second book as the first was so good.  Really a good read. 

So, that was the week that was.  All good between photos and hearing aids fixed.  

These always gives me a giggle, probably wouldn't remember to say it but it does give a chuckle.

Have a wonderful weekend ahead.