Lunch With Sandi

Friday was a cool 4° and overcast. I lit a bonfire to get the house warm, and I putzed around the house doing chores, writing my blog post and checking out the homework I had to do for SPACE on the weekend. And then, just past 9:00, I headed off to the Windecker trail to walk Sheba with our friends and their doggers.

The walk was fabulous because the forest was incredibly fragrant. There were many of us and we had a great time together. Denise brought us all biscotti. And when the walk was done, I went to Jay’s place to deliver the books I wanted to leave for Kelly, and I helped her lift a cabinet into the bathroom that she is renovating. Then we went shopping and after we came home and I fed the brood before leaving to pick up Sandi for our lunch at the Surf.

Sandi is a lovely neighbour. We always have a good laugh together as I talk to her over her fence, and I absolutely love her Airedale, Baxter. She proposed that we do something together, and I suggested a meal together. I left looking forward to learning a little more about her.

We had a great time, and she wants more ‘dates.’ And when I got home, the sun had come out, so Her Highness and I went for our afternoon walk, and I spent the remainder of the day in our nice warm home with my book and the pets. I am close to finishing my Martin Walker book, but I have six books by Kate Atkinson on their way.

I had a great chat with Dwight. He’s going to come for a visit. It’s been a couple of years since he was here, so I’m thrilled he’s coming. We talk at least once every week, but an in-person visit it so, so much more fun.

I felt flat all evening. Perhaps two meals with company at the Surf on two successive days is overdoing things. I kept falling asleep as I tried to watch The First Cow, an unusual and fascinating film on Kanopy. But although I was so tired, I rallied and stayed up later than I have in years (23:30).

Today has dawned bright and sunny. The snow predicted for tomorrow is no longer in the forecast, but snow, day and night, is predicted for the end of next week. I’m distraught at the thought of it. By raspberries are covered in new leaves, my daffs are about to bloom, and my hydrangeas and roses, everything is budding out. There are signs of Spring everywhere. I don’t want snow!

Tonight: Dinner and Kris and Steve’s with them and Stacy and Bryce (and probably, Nancy).

Invitations!

wednesday

Wednesday began under cloudy skies, but as we walked with our friends through the 707 Park, the skies cleared and the day became a beautiful sunny day, and the sun shone all day.

Our morning walk was a long one, so my foot was killing me when I got home. I puttered on the computer until it was time to feed the brood, and then I read until it was time to Zoom with Aidan. We had a great session. We made good progress on the survey we want to circulate to dysfluent people.

When that was done, Her Highness and I went for an afternoon walk in glorious sunshine but cool temperatures. There remains the potential for snow on Sunday, Monday and Tuesday nights, but the days are likely to be wet so there’ll be no accumulation of snow at least. However, the forecast is often wrong for us because we are in the rain shadow of the big island.

Suddenly, late in the afternoon, a flurry of emails had me socially busy. Kelly invited me for dinner at the Surf tonight, and Sandi, a neighbour, wants us to have lunch together tomorrow at the Surf, and on Saturday night, I’ve been invited to Kris and Steve’s for dinner with them and Stacy and Bryce. Call me popular!

Wednesday night was the usual.

It was dull and only 4° as I headed out with Her Highness for our morning walk. I had the day to myself to enjoy and I’m very good at enjoying time alone.

thursday

Thursday was a very slow easy day. I’m very good at slow and easy. I cleaned up and did dishes after I fed the beloveds and lit the fire, and by the time I’d finished with the dishes, the bathroom was warm enough for me to shower. Then we went for a good long morning walk.

When we came home, I watched less than half-an-hour of the Olympics, and then I buried myself in my Bruno book by Martin Walker until it was time to feed lunch to my roommates. After lunch, more reading until it was time for our afternoon walk in the Elder Cedar grove.

And then it was off to the Surf for dinner with Kelly, and the Surf was chock full of people. I don’t recall ever seeing it so busy, and it could be because of the new chef whose specials are all fabulous. Last night both Kelly and I had Pork Belly Ramen. Yum! But I forgot to take her the books I am giving to her, so I shall go by Jay’s place today to drop them off.

I got home just past 19:30, so I had time to chill and to watch some television before going to bed. And then my watch started pinging as homework from SPACE started filling my inbox. I have lots to do and it will likely happen on the weekend, not today. I’m going back to the Surf for lunch with neighbour Sandi.

The USA is fucked!

Panic Attack

What a surprise. After thinking the moon was moving and that perhaps the universe was changing, I was delighted to see the sun come up and the treetops shine in golden light. I’d been expecting rain. But yikes, the weather forecast shows possible snow on Sunday night. However, rain is predicted for Monday, so the prospect of snow is not too scary.

I cleaned and puttered before the sun rose. I tried to determine how to tighten the tap on my kitchen sink, but the mechanism is a mystery to me. I’d like to tighten it because the faucet is wobbly, but there is no leak, so I’ll let it stay wobbly. At least I tried.

We walked in the cool sharp air of morning. We went for a reasonably long walk because the weather was so good, and then we came home and I got lost in Internet tunnels and then read until lunchtime. While doomscrolling, I came upon something uplifting. Watch this!

I read after lunch, but it was so beautiful outside, I had to get out and walk. Her Highness and I went to Drumbeg because it is such a lovely place to walk on a sunny day. It was super mild and so we really had a lovely time. I stopped to just sit on a bench and soak up the sunshine for a while.

Then we came home and I did some more reading until dinnertime when the usual routing began. I watched a wonderful film on Netflix called Pangolin, and then I turned on the Olympics and that became a disaster. They started showing the women’s luge competition, and it sent me into a panic attack. I felt allergic to tension. It was a dreadful reaction that I’ll be talking about with Dr. Shoja.

Today is overcast. We will walk with our friends this morning, and this afternoon I have a session with Aidan and lots of SPACE homework to do. 

Doom Morning

Monday began with a flurry of domestic chores prior to meeting our friends for some cool forest walking. I love our walks, every single time I go walking, no matter what the weather or the pain, my mood is lifted and I feel so, so happy to be alive. I am amazed by how powerful nature is as a healing force.

We took a long walk. I was glad to be taking advantage of the decent weather to walk Her Highness. The rain held off all during our walk. It only began to get quite wet when we got back to our cars.

When we got home, it was lovely to arrive to a clean and tidy home. It isn’t always this way. I tend to let things go and then do a big clean. It is a constant battle to keep the house, my beds, my cooking containers… everything clear of Fir needles. And of course, once I put the vacuum away, all I see are the needles I missed.

When I got home, I started working on our SPACE survey. We are circulating a survey to stutterers and others with communication difficulties to document their problems accessing service providers. This is part of the grant that Aidan and I are working on. But I found that I couldn’t do the work alone as so much of our objectives and methodologies are in Aidan’s head, so we will work on the survey together tomorrow while chatting on Zoom.

After lunch, I read while cozy under the electric blanket, and I watched a bit of the Olympics, but I’m just not feeling the love for them as much as I once did. I’ve been enjoying reading more. So, that’s what I did until it was time for our afternoon walk. When we got back, our usual evening pattern began.

I watched a vampire movie last night. It is my first venture into horror since I was about thirteen years old. I have no interest in horror and science fiction stories, but the movie Sinners has more Oscar nominations than any other movie in Oscar history. It held my interest and I was not diving for the mute button or fast forwarding. It is a very clever movie. The director is extremely present in the way the story is told. It’s a compelling movie.

CBC’s The National is on at 20:00 during the Olympics, so last night I watched it as a chaser to horror and what I saw was far more frightening than the movie. The National does a ‘deep dive’ into stories in its second half-hour, and last night was bout the behavior of ICE agents interspersed with interviews with experts in constitutional law. And holy fuck. I don’t have any interest in the news, so I was horrified by what I saw, especially during the focus on the murder of the two innocents in Minneapolis.

I cannot imagine being an American citizen and seeing federal agents masked and in full war gear bullying people with impunity. If I was an American, I would not live in a big city. I’d want to leave my country or move into a small rural town not in a red state. America is at war with itself. Fuck.

And speaking of war. Last night was very scary. I wake up to pee often and last night, when I woke up early this morning, the moon looked orange when I looked out the window, and when I came back to bed, I noticed that the moon was moving rather quickly. I couldn’t make sense of it. The next time I got up, I thought it must be raining hard, so I opened the window and the noise was very loud, but I couldn’t account for it. And then I noticed another moving moon; this one was white. What the fuck?!

When I finally got up at 4:30, I fed the pets, lit the fire and booted up my computer and our Facebook page was filled with moving images of moving moons. It turns out that the military is conducting exercises very close to us and what I saw were huge flares, and the noise was military planes.

Today is all for me. No SPACE work, no appointments or Zooming, just reading and walking. The brood and I are going to have a fabulous day together.