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Thursday, 05 November 2009

  • The Tyranny of the Black Vest

         I'm free of it for today!  Let me backup. My plan for this week was to finish a dress I had started earlier and make a black lined vest which I had cut our last week. All this was to be for our church Ladies Banquet this evening. It's a very special annual event and there's a tendency to be decked out in our very finest, often something new. Well it seemed that this year I could join the new outfit crowd until.....

         Last Sunday evening as I sat here at my computer I suddenly felt very tired and almost ill so I decided I will just have to go to bed.  By 12:00 that evening I was heading for the bathroom, barely making it in time, and vomiting into the commode.  Well, I hadn't done that for years and years. Back to bed but it wasn't long until I was there again. And again.  I probably made the trip almost every hour until 7:00 in the morning when things settled down a bit. But I was still feeling miserable.  And did for the rest of the day. I thought I was sicker than I'd ever been before and was thankful for the short interludes of sleep I got on Monday because then nothing hurt or ached. Well enough of that. (I could go on)

         Tues morning I woke up and nothing hurt or ached. I just lay there not moving revelling in feeling good. However, as I might have expected, I was still weak and spend most of that day lying around too. Wed I managed to get to work on my sewing project. By now I knew the dress would not be finished for tonight but hoped I might manage the vest. It was a new pattern that I had cut off a friend's pattern and I didn't have the actual sewing instructions but had jotted down some of them. Soon I could no longer understand those and ended up going to her house for the written instructions last evening yet. Suddenly things seemed clearer and this morning I set to work again with renewed hopes. Well, I'm not the most accomplished of seamstresses and when I realized I had the facing and lining switched around it was time to face up to it.  I will not be able to finish it today.

          So I began to work around the house here, getting at things I had ignored or postponed for most of this week when suddenly I realized, "I'm free"  Free from the 'have to work at this vest' nagging.

         So now I'm going to town to do some errands and one of them includes buying a seam ripper. I've evidently lost mine and I guess I'll need it. 

Tuesday, 28 July 2009

  • An Outing

          Several years ago one of my nieces SB who was then in her late 20s decided to take her single aunts for a days' outing. That felt weird as it used to be the aunts doing all kinds of things with their nieces and nephews and now the tables were turned.  That time we visited a local, fairly large flea market and had a nice day.

         Well this year she planned it again and invited all (almost) her unmarried cousins and her single aunts and yesterday we headed for Niagara Falls, our party of 7 ladies, ranging from myself (oldest) down to a 18 year old. When you live within 100 miles of a major attraction such as Niagara you don't go to see it all that often but I don't recommend July or August for doing it.  There were so many people around. However the weather was great, not too hot for the walking we had to do. First we viewed the falls - they continue to be as powerfully awesome as ever. Then we had lunch at a little Tim Horton's I'd stumbled across on my last stop at Niagara about 3 years ago. After lunch SB and her cousin MH decided to walk back to where we'd parked the car some distance away and pick the rest of us up (First indication that we weren't all spring chickens and that it takes some accommodating when you travel with your senior aunts!)

         Next we visited a green house, also part of Niagara Parks commission after which we headed for theWhite Water Boardwalk down from the falls.  I remembered doing that about 40 years ago and voted for going again. There we stood in line for the elevator that takes you down to the river bed although the word bed is much too tame to described the churning, tumbling, green waves throwing off foam spray as the water heads down river. There is a nice boardwalk built along a good section of it where you can watch the churning of the water.  The walk is a refreshing change of pace from the bustling lined up crowds up on the street.

         Now this was not going to be a travelogue so I'll get on to another part of the day. As we were driving home in the van the nieces began to tell of funny things their nieces and nephews had said and done. Of course that led to my sisters and I recounting some of their escapades! Which was fun too.

         This first one is not funny but clearly shows the inguenity of one almost 4 year old.  He was playing in the garage at their home and his father happened upon the scene just in time to avert tragedy. The youngster had found an electrical extension cord which had the plug cut off at one end leaving some exposed electrical wiring. (His father had done that for whatever reason and even if it was on a high shelf, that was not enough to deter the 4 year old)  He had removed the gas cap from their van, stuck the cut off end of the cord into it and was heading for an electrical outlet to plug the other end in....when his father came by. We shudder to think what could have happened and I don't even like to think about it.

         Another told of a 2 year old little boy who had locked himself and the keys into their van.  His mother was outside telling him to open the door but he ignored her as he pretended to be driving, shifting gears and playing around in the van. It was a warm day and the windows were all up but it didn't bother him even though he was very hot. Finally, after quite a while, someone decided to take a car, drive to their home and get another key. This little fellow's sister was getting into the car to go along for the ride and when he saw that he wanted to go too, opened the van door and got out!

          There were funny comments too such as a 6 year old saying to her 25 year old aunt - "We just don't know if you are going to get married or not." She says things in such earnest sincere ways. Well there were more but I can't just think of them all right now.

     

     

Saturday, 20 June 2009

  • And time moves swiftly on..

    Even so I don't have anything significant to write about but I do enjoy reading other's entries. We had just another fairly heavy rainfall today and the air is quite muggy since then. Tomorrow is to be 27c which is going to be a little too much for me. I just wilt in heat and humidity. I'm looking forward to tomorrow though as I'm invited to a nephew's and they are having a barbecue for their whole family. So I'll get to see all the great nieces and nephews in that family which will be a treat. My camera batteries are dead and I didn't get replacements so no pictures tomorrow.

    I got to keep two of these beautiful little people at my house for several hours on Wednesday. The 18 month old girl was put down for a nap by her mother before she left. Her 3 year old brother, too old for naps of course, busied himself playing with the toys I keep for them. Afte a while he decided I need to help him play and so we did a few block puzzles. He did quite well picking out the right colours but I began to realize he is almost too tired to figure it out. I asked him if he wanted to take a nap. Well no, but then he headed for the couch and laid down saying, "I'll just keep my eyes open."  He managed for a while but eventually fell fast asleep and had himself a nap in spite of himself.

    Between working in the flower beds and yard, working in the office two afternoons this week and other odds and ends around my house I'm keeping busy. And I managed to get plunged into the whole car buying routine this week after having my 1998 Cavalier in to be serviced. It needs work on the exhaust system and brakes and this might just be the time to stop.  I've also been told that this current economy makes it a good time for buying cars. I'm quite clued out about cars and only pay attention to it all when I need to replace one. I've had several Cavaliers and they served me well but it will be something different this time.  I've talked to my mechanic, my brother and my banker who serves as my financial advisor and I think we'll go ahead.  My brother, fortunately, has a bit of time to be looking (I think he rather enjoys it) and has come up with some ideas. Follow up scheduled for Monday.

     

Tuesday, 05 May 2009

  • This and That

    My, it's hard to write when you simply decide to write because it's time again. I sometimes wonder if there's still anyone out there reading this.  Anyhow it's May 5th already.

    News or items of note 

    It's spring but seems oh so late. Today I worked on my roses - taking away the soil which I had heaped up last fall for frost protection, feeding them, pruning etc. At least two are not showing any signs of green and I'm starting to believe they didn't survive our hard winter.  A few perennials didn't either.

    Tomorrow forenoon I need to bake two cakes. My small Bible Study Group is to take supper to "Oasis" a Christian drop-in centre in our local city.  I'm not going along as they only want 6 or 7 people to serve this meal which is to feed over 100 people. Not sure what all else they do.

    I need to go into the International Teams office for about 6 hours this week yet, and it might be tomorrow afternoon or on Wednesday. I continue to enjoy that connection and the bit of extra income is very handy too.

    Sunday I had guests for dinner which I don't manage very often. Ham, make ahead mashed potatos, carrots and peas, lettuce salad, strawberry tapoica and cake and ice cream. The cake was very tasty and I took the left over pieces to my niece's place so I wouldn't eat all of it. That is, after eating a slice and another sliver and feeling tempted to eat more!

    Said niece is waiting for her 3rd baby to arrive very soon. She's almost a week late. I get so excited over these little ones and can hardly wait either. There's close to 25 great nieces and nephews by now and it's hard to keep up with them all but this couple lives just a mile or so from here so I see them more often.

    That's it.

     

     

     

Monday, 02 March 2009

  • The Cold of the Winter

    The cold, as in weather, is record breaking for this time of year. The last several nights have been 16 or 17 below zero Celsius and daytime not much better. Then they add a wind chill factor which takes it down another 10 degrees or so.  That's cold.  However today I was inside looking out and nursing my own personal head cold. I don't get many bad ones but this one came with a vengeance.  Sniffles, coughing, runny and burning eyes which means I can't read hardly at all. And for good measure I get a headache when I persist in trying to read or do the daily crossword in the newspaper.

    Last week I got a phone call from my former employer at International Teams asking if I want to take on a work project. Like doing bank reconciliations that haven't been kept up to date. Well sure although it doesn't sound easy but I've always enjoyed doing bank recs and I don't mind a good challenge. I was in for 4 hours one day last week. The next day their office was without electricity and today I really wasn't fit to go anywhere. I know I can't pore over computer printouts very long while my eyes are affected by this head cold anyway. But I'm hoping for tomorrow though despite all the liquids I'm swallowing,eating chicken soup (that's an experiment), taking Tylenol and Vitamin C not much has changed.