UNEXPECTED BEAUTY

 This is going to sound silly and fey fey.  But....I was sitting in my chair this morning and for a few glorious moments the sun came out and blazed into my living room.  I looked out the window and saw the prettiest sight in the most mundane spot.

You know the trickle of water that runs down the road beside the curb.  We have a wee bit fuller one than normal due to all the rain that fell last night.  But when the sun hits it, it sparkles.  And I mean really sparkles.  It immediately gave me the urge to grab my old trusty Nikon.  Not many things do that any more.  So I just sat in my chair and watched the sparkle stream slide down our curb.  

A funny little side note here, as I was sitting here enjoying the sparkle stream and the warm sunshine, a woman came along and stopped, took out her phone, stepped out onto the road a ways and took numerous pictures of the little stream!  So methinks the sparkles were extra sparkly!

Well I have a doctor's appointment this morning.  For some odd reason I am not in the least sick stomach about it.  I had sick stomach just going to the lab the other day but this appointment not so much.  Don't know why.  I kind of look forward to meeting her.  She's a very pushy know it all newbie doctor. At least on our phone appointments.  I know my sugar numbers won't be great.  They never are after Xmas and I am sure she will be giving me lectures.  Sigh.  (shovel list).

 It is always amazing how Captain Obviousy people can be.  It's like telling a smoker he/she should quit smoking.  If anybody is super aware of that little goodie, it's a frigging smoker.  Same goes for a diabetic. I don't need to be told that sugar, flour, potatoes, fruit or anything with no colour or deliciousness are all OUT!  We diabetics know that for heaven's sake.  But then today maybe she will have some other goodie found out in my labs to go at me about.  I do know that I will be getting my shingles and pneumonia shots next door at the Medicine Shoppe after.  (another shovel list...quaint cutesy names). I shall report when I get back.  I will do my best to remain civil throughout.

Well, that was a slice.  She was quite nice and very thorough.  I am not used to a doctor taking any interest whatsoever in whats going on in my body...at least not unless I pursue it first.  I think that since the province started to charge up to 200 dollars for annual physical exams people have obviously stopped requesting them.  Things get away from doctors.  Look at Ange.  Her doctor didn't catch her type one diabetes and she damned near died.  My family doctor in North Van, whom I loved dearly, missed my type 2 diabetes, I diagnosed myself and he completely missed Bill's pancreatic cancer.  An annual physical exam would have caught those things.

Today I found out my blood sugar is too high, my cholesterol is perfect, my kidneys only work at half mast and clearly I don't drink enough water (shovel list...I hate water about as much as I hate walking), my blood pressure was perfect and no ugly little markers showed up in my blood.  Woot woot!!!  She did add and adjust my pills.  And my two shots are scheduled for two weeks from now.  Alls well on the health front!

I had to laugh...when I went out to get in the truck to go to the dr., I looked down as I stepped over the sparkle stream to see that under those deceptive sparkles was the muddiest brown filthy water you ever saw!  A whole load of metaphors popped into my head!!!!

So, this past week was easy and tough.  I opted not to shop at all this last week to avoid the plastic challenge.  Walmart is really bad.  They use twice the amount of plastic bags than actually needed.  They will put one thing in a bag then get yet another bag for one more thing.  And because I am not doing the shopping I have no control over that.

I did rearrange a corner of my kitchen.  I have ordered a lovely large red metal bread box.  It will be here in a couple of weeks.  In order to use it properly I had to rearrange stuff that is permanently on my counter and it looks so much better, even before the new addition.  I will take a pic when it arrives.

I also did some work on the rug.  It is so slow going!  I just can't see well enough.  But I am going to continue until its done!  It's a good opportunity to practise teaching my brain to completely ignore what my right eye sees.  The left eye sees perfectly, the right eye is the one that screws things up.  Past ten feet it all evens out.  Its just up close stuff...like hooking a rug or playing the piano or reading a book.  Fortunately I have all my books on my lap top so I can adjust the size of print and background colour...makes it possible to read my hundreds of books.  LOL!!  I will put a pic of my rug and what tiny progress I have made this week at the bottom.

The next two challenges:

9.  Spring clean either one room in your house or reorganize a very full messy closet, which ever needs it the most!

10.  Discard ten unnecessary items from your house.  This challenge may show up periodically through the year.  And it doesn't matter how tiny and insignificant the items can be.  I still have every single shirt I have bought since our house burnt down in 2003.  Time to let some of them go.  Especially the ripped ones.  The ones that have holes in them from where I am constantly grabbing them to tug them down.

Well thats it folks.  Stay safe, noodle and be nice to old people.  TTYL

SLOWLY SHE GOES

LIVING DEFENSIVELY

 I am not sure that I can explain what I mean in that title.  But I am going to try.

I was laying awake, yet again, in the middle of the night.  It suddenly occurred to me that a certain banking transaction involving my daughter, Arnie, had slipped my mind and I hadn't done it.  And enough time has gone by that I don't even remember the exact details needed to complete it.  I kind of panicked and tried desperately to remember.  And couldn't.

This meant that I would need to contact Aryn, busy busy Aryn who doesn't have time for silly crap like this, to check it out for me.  Now don't get me wrong...Aryn never ever makes me feel bad when I screw up.  Never.  This reluctance and embarrassment is all on me. 

 So this morning I emailed her with the request, I didn't phone.  I told her I was too embarrassed to phone.  And she sent me the most amazing email back.  First she said I never had to feel embarrassed to call her and then she sent a quote from someone on instagram:  "my mom worked multiple jobs while raising me alone and in return she gets to ask me what her Netflix password is every 8-9 weeks.  Thats our little agreement."  Then Aryn went on to say that I could ask her anything whenever and whatever.  Is that not amazing?  That makes me feel so much better, but I will still be careful not to take advantage of that.

I have noticed as I near 70 that certain interactions with people have taken a turn.  A few times now when a disagreement has come up, I was basically told I was the wrong one because I forget things.  Now its possible they were joking but I could tell that there was a smidgen of belief in their statement.  This has started to happen a bit more frequently as I get older.  Its almost like gaslighting.  You start to wonder is this a legitimate normal forgetting or am I getting old and forgetful for real?  I just know I don't need people making it a 'thing' to either get a point across or win an argument.

Age hasn't been something I have been overly concerned about over the couple of years before the pandemic.  Every year when the evil flu hits the country, all the warnings are for older people.  I always sat back in my mind and smugly thought, 'Well thats not me then'.  And then proceeded to not give the flu another thought, until I got it.  But because I wasn't in that 'older' group I took it for granted I would survive and survive well.  And I did.

But now that death has become a sure thing, and I cannot avoid the fact that I am now up in that older category, I can't avoid the recognition of being old.  The pandemic has drawn a very distinct ugly black line under my age, a very defining unavoidable recognition that has firmly put me in the scary zone.  For the first time ever.  And nothing has made me feel 'old' as strongly as this dark covid line.  

So now, on a daily ongoing basis, I live way more carefully.  Not only avoiding the virus, but what my mouth says, my thoughts are, my memory, my attitude....  This is what I mean by living defensively.  When you know that the virus will kill you if you don't take all precautions all the time, when you know people are beginning to think you are an old muddled forgetful grammaw, when you get a chair in a room short on chairs, you start living defensively.

I remember way back, Bill and I would host his family for a Christmas evening party a couple of weeks before Christmas.  And I remember his eighty something Mother, the sweetest person on the planet, would come with the family.  She would be plunked on the end of the couch and basically ignored from that point on.  I remember thinking that she should speak up more, she was an intelligent articulate woman.  But then when I saw how we all ignored her and poopooed anything she did manage to say, I understood her reluctance.

I now understand too why my mother, and other older mothers I know of, are always saying 'what did you say?  what are you saying?', not because they couldn't hear, but because they knew that conversations were going on that did not involve them purposely.  It can be annoying including older folks, their brains do slow down and it takes a little patience, but the reaction from some is to ask what's going on until they are annoying or they just sit back and tune out.  Neither is good.

So thats my rant for a while.  LOL!!  And I don't feel I need to add a specific covid section.  I have mentioned the pandemic quite enough!  So take care people, stay safe, noodle and treat old people nice!  TTYL

JEEZ ANOTHER DAY SAME OLD SAME OLD

 Yesterday I was sitting in my chair by the front window, like where else would I friggin' be, and I saw this kind of scruffy looking fella, fairly well dressed, long long grey hair and beard, coming down the sidewalk, pushing a grocery cart.  There wasn't much stuff in the cart.  As he got closer I recognized him..it was Pat!  He looked so wet, it was snowing and cold, and he just had a vest on, no coat. 

He turned in at our gate so I went down to meet him.  He stayed a safe distance back but pushed the cart up to me.  He told me that the things in the sitting part of the cart were for Monte and I for valentines.  It was three beautiful deep red roses, a charcuterie board of cheeses, salamis, olives and peppers, and a beautiful Tuxedo cake.  So in his deepest misery about Angie, and his exhaustion, he still thought of us.  What a sweet man.  And on top of that he was wearing the black button down shirt we gave him and Bill's Tilly fishing vest...which brought back a lot of memories and looked fantastic.  What a sweet man.

And...our neighbour and his little boy shovelled our sidewalk!  People can be so kind and thoughtful.  And I just love watching their little Jacob.  He is six and the loudest, busiest kid ever.  I could watch him all day.  Nicole was pregnant when we moved in here and now their Hannah is running around just like her brother.  How time goes by when you aren't paying attention!

Cookie your comment made me laugh.  When I was writing all those things about being covidized, I was going: this one doesn't apply to Cookie, this one doesn't either, and this one definitely doesn't.  So when I read your comment I had to laugh.  I can just picture you, hair looking lovely, perfect earrings, makeup lightly applied, smelling fresh and clean with brushed teeth, in your baggy grey sweats sitting on the end of your couch drinking a cup of tea and maybe eating a piece of toast.  Jeez, I wish I could come visit!

I am sitting in my chair, in the same crap I have been wearing for a week, needing a shower and hair looking like hell, no makeup (don't own any) and my ear holes have pretty much healed over.  The worst part is I don't even give a hoot!

In my email I saw I had a Blue Mountain card sent to me.  I opened it and it was the most meaningful little card with a video of a cat sitting in a window looking out at a big dog gathering things up to make a valentine that the dog held up at the window for the cat.  In this pretty lonely time with no people in our lives, it was a pretty significant valentine.  It was from our dear dear friend in Omaha.  We met Dean on a cruise years ago and we became friends with him.  Since then we became FB friends too.  He means a lot to me and he always sends me cards, even on our Canadian holidays.  I would sure love to see him again one day.

I did make some art this week.  I went looking for my glue gun.  It's in one of the cupboards downstairs.  After pushing chairs, boxes, Rubbermaids, etc out of the way I went through the cupboards and of course, no glue gun.  But I did find a rug hooking kit I bought in Walmart in Kamloops and never even got started on it.  I brought it upstairs and got started.  I will put a weekly pic on here as it progresses.  We will see when the picture emerges!

I did make some almost cheating easy art.  I had a large piece of wood I found and I had small river rocks.  I made a candle river rock thingy.  So now there are three river rock things in a row on the coffee table.  I shall take pics.

I also made the most yummy drink.  I don't think it actually falls into the cocktail category, but it does have booze in it and its delicious.  You take a big mug and fill it half full of hot coffee.  Then you put in just under a half mug of hot chocolate, or if you prefer you can do it the other way around so there is more chocolate than coffee. I added some cream.  Then you pour in lots and lots of Fireball!  Mmmmm....I call it Mochaball.  It's delicious!  I mean you can't beat coffee, chocolate, cream and cinnamon!!!! If you are really into it you can make some cinnamon sugar and rim the mug.  Then to make it really fancy, take a marshmallow and wet the top and dip it in the sugar and float that on the drink.  Mmmmmmm!!!!!

So now for the next two challenges:

7.  Have a plastic free week.  This one might be tuff when you go shopping.  How do you buy ten onions and other fruit and veg without plastic.  I will have to think about this one.

8.  Rearrange one of your rooms in your house.  I just did that with my living room.  Well and my kitchen for that matter.  Hmmmm....I have an idea.   Rather than not do it because you like the way your rooms are right now, try just changing one thing in the room, no matter how small.  Switch a couple of pillows, or turn a rug the other way.  Just make sure you enjoy the endeavour!

Now I shall attempt to add a couple of pics.  Its always iffy here on blogspot.  Have a great week, stay safe and noodle!  TTYL

MY BEAUTIFUL ROSES FROM PAT

MY CHEATINGLY EASY PIECE OF ART

IT MATCHED MY OTHER STUFF ON MY COFFEE TABLE

ITS A START...THIS TOOK ME AN HOUR.  MY EYES ARE SO BAD IT MAKES IT A REAL CHORE.  BUT I DON'T MIND

KITCHEN

I have finally figured out how to really get my kitchen cleaned up.  I just pretend my house is going up for sale and my past real estate guy, Dane Kingsbury, was going to come to inspect and make suggestions on how to improve the place before listing it.

He was a nut case about decluttering.  No matter how bare the place was he would always find things he would tell me to remove.  He sold enough of our places that it actually became a game.  I would bare naked the place of everything except the bare necessities.  I then would take a detailed gander around the place then call him.  He would come.  Look around.  And declare that the place needed decluttering before he could list.  Grrrrrr!!!!!

Now why was I telling you all that?  Oh yeah!  The kitchen.  So yesterday I didn't like my kitchen.  It needed decluttering.  I thought, 'Hmmm....Dane would have a fit if he saw this kitchen!"  So I dug into the normal cleaning and then started to remove stuff we just didn't use enough or at all.  I removed our giant coffee pot, two canisters full of god knows what, a French press, a carafe, two, not one, two coffee grinders, a tea pot and a sink full of clean drip dried pots and pans.  It is still needing some stuff taken off the counters but not only do I not have anywhere to put the stuff but I use it on a daily basis.  Now to move on to the dining room.  It's worse than the kitchen was.

One time, back when we were moving from North Van to Langford, I put off telling Dane that we were moving and would need the house sold.  I waited until the moving company came and loaded up.  The house was completely empty except for one room that Myles and April were going to use for a few days.

I called Dane and waited for him in great gleeful anticipation.  He arrived and, still outside, I filled him in.  I told him to go on in and take a look around and let me know how much decluttering I would need to do.  A few minutes later he came out and in a dead serious voice he said, " I am going to have to stage decorate the place.  I have a company that does that.  They will bring in beds and couches and knick knacks. The cost will be in the five thousand dollar area which I will attach to my real estate fee."  Dead serious.  Well crapadoodle!  I thought this isn't going the way I thought it would!  Then he started to laugh but did say it would have been better to move in two parts.  Junk first furniture second, after it sold.  Sure, it would be cheaper to empty and stage.

You know I have mentioned Pat and Angie over the years here.  They have become very good friends to both of us but mostly to Monte.  If it weren't for Pat over the years helping Monte I think we would be in a very sad and sorry state right now.  I will eternally be grateful to Pat.  And Angie is a real sweet heart.

I got a frantic, totally panicked phone call from Pat four or five days ago.  Angie had slowly become sicker and sicker over a period of a few days.  She was insatiably thirsty, many trips to the loo, which in the end she wasn't strong enough to do herself and she completely quit eating.  Finally Pat called an ambulance.  She was sent to Nanaimo hospital.  I had a feeling it would be a diabetic issue.  The thirst and loo trips and her drunken type of behaviour that Pat described seemed to indicate diabetes.

Sure enough, when she was admitted they ran a bunch of tests.  For those that don't know your blood sugar should be between 4 -6.  At 10 you have to go on meds for diabetes.  At 18 and above you need to see a doctor or go to the hospital.  ANGIE'S WAS 70!!!!!!  That is unheard of!!!  She must have been having symptoms for some time and just ignored them or misinterpreted them.  And her father was a diabetic but I guess she didn't think of that.

Pat has been utterly frantic as you can imagine.  He called me every two or three hours giving me updates, although nothing changed except they got her numbers down to 6.  But she hasn't changed.  She apparently is agitated, confused, doesn't know where she is and she isn't coming out of it.  The Dr. has asked Pat to go down and go in to see her, just to see if seeing a familiar person will bring her out of it.  And that is what he is doing right now.  Poor Pat.

And a wee word here....Arnie's beloved kitty, 21 year old Fred passed away in her arms two days ago.  Arnie and Bradley are completely heart broken.  The pain when you lose a beloved pet is as strong and terrible as losing a person.  21 years and that cat was different.  He talked to her, played the piano and sang as he did, slept with her, snuggled with Bradley, sat at the table during dinner.....he will be sorely missed.  

It snowed last nite, enough that we have to shovel the sidewalk.  It has to be shovelled by noon or we get a hefty fine and the bastards in this town go infraction hunting on everything to make money.  Our shovels, we had two, mysteriously disappeared during the last move.  Funny how that happens.  So Monte is up at Canadian Tire as we speak buying yet another one.  We get so little, if any, snow here in Port.  The whole province can be dumped on and we will be sunny and warm here.  Not sure why.

Well thats it for today.  I shall do my Covid thingy below, which as I always say, please skip.  But remember if you have an opinion or observation on covid I would love to hear it or even print it here.  And BTW, Arnie, a book mark totally counts!  Send a pic of the finished product!  I am working on a drink, I think I have come up with a timely doozie and the art is a bit more of a challenge.  Stay safe people and try to noodle.  TTYL

COVID

This is a personal note today.  My belief is that humans, who usually take the route of least resistance, are in danger of becoming so used to the  easy habits that can become prevalent by staying home, will be really challenged to get back into the rat race game when the time comes.  And make no mistake, the rat race will return, with a vengeance.  We will have learned nothing by this enforced interlude.

I believe that first of all we will become even more antisocial than we were becoming before, due to social media etc.  I think we are getting used to not having to go to all of the work it takes to maintain acquaintances or friendships.

I believe that we are seeing that showering only when necessary is pleasant, showering every day has now become a chore.  Of course that only applies to some of us.

I have also heard that people are not necessarily brushing their teeth twice a day.  Another healthy but annoying habit falling by the wayside for some.

Also, I believe that not getting dressed is another bad habit that is forming.  It is so comfortable and easy to just wear pj's every day, all day.  Getting geared up every morning is becoming an unwanted chore.

And I think all us stay at homers are ruining our feet.  We wear slippers all the time to the point that our feet are splaying out and getting back into form fitting shoes will be very uncomfortable!  Plus we will have to find all of our socks.

And for us women, I am pretty sure our bazooms have fallen another two inches by now.  Bras were probably the first thing to go.

And I just wonder how many humans have discovered new and easier hairdos because they couldn't safely go to hairdressers.  Permed to unpermed, trimmed to shaggy, coloured to grey....It will be interesting to see how people look different afterwards!!!

And one last one...weight.  If you used to go out of the house to either work, shop, visit etc...and now stay home, you know you aren't getting the amount of physical movement as you used to.  And many many people have had to start cooking every single day now and food has become a lot more important. Plus you have easy access to snackers.  All of that adds up to WEIGHT GAIN.

So let me reiterate:  If we all were swooped up, just as we are and lined up all along our streets...we would appear with bad hair, fuzzy teeth, kind of smelly, in our dirty frumpy pj's, and not our normal slim selves.  We have been COVIDIZED!!!!!!!

THERE HE IS OUT THERE SHOVELLING AWAY (SHOVEL LIST)

OOPS!!! DID IT AGAIN!

Trudeau likeMagic Mike Sharri!!!???  Hahaha!  There are a few Canadians that would object to that comparison!!!  He isn't overly liked by a lot of people.  But I will say he sure is a damned sight better than your last president!  Trump was a true gong show...still is by the looks of it.  How horribly embarrassing...even for us as neighbours to him!  LOL!!!

 I am always on the wrong date.  I could have sworn today was Monday!  I don't know what happened to yesterday.  If there is anything that I can say has definitely happened since covid is that I cannot keep my days straight.  One day is just like the next and the one before.  Sigh.

Monte and I have decided to eat a little more mindfully.  For me its way less meat or no meat and for him its no empty carbs.  He tries to stick pretty strictly to paleo.  I am having a hard time getting Atkins out of my head.  Atkins doesn't work if you aren't eating meat!  Hahaha!!  And Atkins is all I have ever done...quite successfully, over the years.  But now I can't eat meat without getting pukey so its a new way of eating for me.  Diet bloggers call that WOE.  Ironic.  

With all that health in mind(fullness), we headed to No Frills yesterday.  And Monte...holy Hannah!!!  he turns into a totally different person whilst shopping!!!  He almost gets giddy and starts chucking things gleefully into the shopping cart.  If I say Hold It Hold It!!!! this costs money Mister...he immediately offers to pay for it or at least half!  Sheesh!!!!  In goes ham, sausage, cheeses, diet juices, hamburger, vegetables..never fruit though.  He just doesn't eat fruit.  And he is all hyper and talky and just plain bouncy happy.  I do believe he has all the makings of a shopaholic, a seriously happy one.  Well I can say it was fun.  I NEVER go shopping...this was a once in a long while event for me.  I was simply going in for lettuces and came out with a loaded buggy.

So how did you folks do this week with the challenges?  Not eating meat isn't much of a challenge for me.  Nor was the ordering food in.  We do that fairly frequently.  I'd say sushi is our most ordered food and Chinese second and pizza third.  I do not like pizza.  The Chinese food in this town is so predictable and tasteless. I am used to the Chinese food I used to get from my fave spot in Kamloops.  It was unusual dishes and they all tasted distinctly different.  The stuff here all tastes the same and I can't stand the smell in the fridge the next day from the leftovers.

Well this week's challenges might be a wee bit difficult.  

5.  Create a piece of art for your house.  Oh boy.  That should be interesting.  The person making this list suggested paint by number.  I am ordering one.  I found a fantastic different, more folk arty, site and am going to try to buy one again.  The last one never arrived.  It was coming from Hong Kong.  This one is also coming from China but its only 25 bucks so I am going to risk it again. I will put some example pics below.  But that doesn't solve making art this week.  I have rocks and a glue gun.  What more does one need I ask!?  I will take a pic of the creation and post it next week....unless I fail.  Which is a distinct possibility!!!

6.  Create a new cocktail drink.  Oh jeez!  Whatever I make it is going to have to involve Fireball.  I think Monte has cleaned me out of all my other alcohol choices...like my pineapple vodka, coffee flavoured rum, vermouth and maybe other stuff I don't remember.  I don't really drink so the one I make might be awful.  I would test it on Monte but he will drink anything.  Clearly.  Not a good judge there.

Let me know what you folks make and send me pics of your art.  I won't put it on here unless you give me permission...I promise!

Stay safe and noodle!  TTYL

DAY TRIPS

 Our town has turned into a rather pleasant typical (as Peter was pointing out) wee BC town.  We have a new RCMP inspector and over the last few months crime has dropped by 80%!  Stuff isn't automatically disappearing off of our deck, or anyone's deck.  He formed a task force that put extreme repeat offenders away, got the powers that be working solidly on shelter for those that want it and this town royally feeds people, all people, not just the homeless.  It's made such a difference.

The other day the three of us hopped into the jeep and headed out to places unknown.  We got coffees and decided to head out to the airport.  There are a couple of interesting planes out there and we drive by the xmas tree farm and we went out past the old mill and headed down to the Quay and just generally drove around.  It was a beautiful day which here on the wet coast is rare and extremely valued.

Yesterday was D day for us.  We had to deliver Peter back to Victoria.  Sitting here this morning I am sorely missing him.  Most mornings he would come upstairs at some point and we would sit in the living room, drink coffee and solve the world's problems.  He is such a wise, extremely well read, learned old man, even though he is only thirty!  LOL!!  That guy can talk about absolutely anything, any subject.  I have learned so much from him and not once did he make me feel stupid.  Which can happen sometimes with intelligent philosophical  wise people. He has an immense spirit and we are going to miss him.

The trip was uneventful.  It was quite a lovely day and we broke the trip up with a stop at a Wendy's in Duncan.  While the boys went in and Monte bought his breakfast (lunch), I took poor old Wrangler for a turn around the parking lot.  He almost couldn't walk.  Monte has to lift him in and out of the truck now and then, when he has been laying for any length of time, his back legs don't work.  He is happy though and doesn't seem to be in too much pain.  We are keeping an eye on that though.

The trip went quickly and before we knew it we were pulling up at Peter's sister Zoe's place where he will be living.  I won't go into detail here but I have to say it was a very very sad parting.  He's like my kid and Monte's brother.  And living in Victoria is going to be hard for him with all the crime and drug addicts. It will hurt his soul.

We stopped on the way home at Long and McQuade.  I was going to go in but the place was packed.  So Monte zipped in and bought an amp and got out as quick as possible.  And to that end, this being a covid post, I am 'writing' a letter to Bonnie at the end of this.  I was utterly shocked at how this province is NOT following the rules, or the rules are skewed.  

Anywhooo, I am going to go and get laundry done today.  Peter left the rec room downstairs so beautiful and clean and I think the laundry room, which is a huge part of the basement, needs to be clean too.  So til Monday, stay safe and noodle and TTYL

Dear Bonnie,

Yesterday, due to circumstances, we had to make a trip from Port Alberni to Victoria.  We only had our household three in the truck and we had no intention of lingering anywhere outside of the truck.  This will be the first time, other than short local jaunts where we don't leave the vehicle, that we have been out of the house and town for months, obeying your lockdown order.  But clearly, after seeing what we saw yesterday, a vast amount of people are simply not listening to you.  It is either that or you have missed making orders that make the lockdown make sense.  It is no wonder our numbers are either increasing or staying the same.

To begin with from the moment we left Port, the traffic was just shy of bumper to bumper, all the way to Victoria and home again.  I was shocked!!!  If people are following your orders there should not be that many people on the move.  In fact we all three agreed that there was more traffic on the road than we had ever seen, from before covid to now.  And there were many vehicles from Alberta, Saskatchewan, Ontario and Quebec.  It was like summer on the highway, only heavier traffic.  So unless these people were driving from nowhere to nowhere with no intention of getting out of their vehicle, you have a problem.

I also know that people basically didn't obey the orders to keep their xmas to just their house hold.  I have mentioned this before so I won't go into it.  The latest ipso reed poll did indicate that 65% of people did not obey the order.

Every restaurant that we could see into was packed, no one wearing a mask.  Packed!  How is this conducive to controlling the virus?  I know the restaurant people are bullies and whiners but this just creates a paradox....lives versus money.

Long & McQuade was absolutely packed with people. The only covid control going on was squirty stuff at the door.  No distancing. No limit to the number of people.  No directional walking.  And this is in the middle of a Fri. afternoon. 

Clearly given the huge number of covid spread, ski hills should be closed.  Why are places like Whistler or Big White still allowed to be such huge spreaders?  

I could go on, but won't.  It seems kind of silly to tell people not to gather in smaller groups for, let's say the big game, when stores and restaurants and ski hills and ferries are packed to the gills.  Everyone is wearing masks (except for a minority of idiots) and clearly that isn't working. 

One other thing.  For every party you break up and fine the participants, there are umpteen more you don't see.  I am glad that the police are doing what they can about that.  No amount of orders can really control that.

In the meantime I am going to predominantly sit in my house with my one other person, order groceries and watch the numbers go up on the news.  Until you control shopping, restaurants and places where people gather, there isn't much point.  Way too many people are either NOT listening to you or thinking just little them can make a little exception this one time. I was just talking to Aryn and she put it very very well:  Everybody has gone back to their normal lives, just wearing masks.  Exactly!  It seems so.   FROM ME

A LOGGING HELI

COULSON, THE COMPANY THAT MAKES THE MARS BOMBERS

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NOTICE

 We are off to Victoria today to take Peter back to Victoria.  He has to go back to work.  And we are so sad.  We are going to miss him, I mean really miss him.

Today is actually a Covid report day for this post but I will post tomorrow.  I hope to get some pictures today I will post and I have a few more to add and I will make my covid stuff tomorrow.  I just didn't want you to think I was falling down on my commitment to post on Fridays and Mondays.  Actually I think I was supposed to post on Thursday.  Oh fer jeez...I never get anything straight.  Sigh.  (shovel list). Stay safe and talk to you tomorrow.  TTYL

MUSIC OR PEOPLE

 Isn't it funny how you super like or super dislike people or music....for no obvious reason?  I was awake in the night last night thinking about that.  Like...why....why can I not stand Marley Matlin?  There is absolutely no good reason to not like her.  And why do I hate jazz.  There is the occasional bit I can tolerate but otherwise it simply disturbs my being.

Anyway, it's been another predictable, nothing to report couple of days.  I have had some amazing visits with both the boys.  Peter leaves on Friday.  Monte and I are driving him back to Victoria.  He needs to get back to work.  This is kind of awful.  We are going to miss him so much.  He is such a calming presence and such a good friend to Monte, and me.  The last time we took him down it felt like it was the right thing to be doing...good for him.  So we dropped him off, felt really sad but knew it was good in the end.  But this time I don't think we are feeling that way.  Thank goodness he knows we will be there in a New York second to bring him back if necessary.

I bought some artwork off Etsy.  I love their stuff.  Some of it is super expensive, some not.  And if you click the free shipping button you will only see the stuff that ships free.  I will put some pics at the end here and show some of the stuff I bought.

So there has been some response to the 2021 challenges!  Tanya made pie and curried lentils.  Arnie made tiki masala and brownies!  She sent pics of her masala.  I made the brownies with walnuts in them (shovel list) and I made the Russian cabbage casserole!  Best tasting stuff I think I have made in years.  Right from the first bite it was beyond delicious!

I also made something else yesterday that had nothing to do with the challenge. I had a couple of Pillsbury crescent roll rolls.  So I made these: (no pics) in most of them I put a slice of cheddar, a slice of pepperoni and a lengthwise chunk of cooked beet.  In Peter's I didn't put the pepperoni in.  They were soooo damned good!!!  Beets just go in everything! Tonight its sloppy joe's.  I bought Bob's Red Mill soy protein pieces.  I will be making Peter's with that.  Monte is picking up Manwich in a can for his!

So here we go............the next TWO CHALLENGES

1.  Get Uber Eats or similar, to deliver one meal to your home this week.  Now if you are like us this will be one of the simple challenges she talks about. But if you are like,  you know who you are, it probably will be a skipped challenged...which is perfectly okay!

2.  Do not eat meat for one solid week, try to save the world, one meal at at time.  Now for some of you that will be a piece of cake, well not literally cake.  Hahaha!  Or maybe literally a piece of cake, thats okay.  It's covid time...anything goes!  So you meat eaters out there...are you up for it??!!  I think I will start tonight.  Veggie ladywich here I come!

So there you go.  Pretty easy couple of challenges I think.  Let me know how it goes!

Stay safe and Noodle as much as you can.  In fact, given the new strains, double noodle!  TTYL

MY BROWNIES

THE RUSSIAN CABBAGE PIE CASSEROLE MMMMM

ONE OF MY PICS

GLUED ON ROCKS....LOVE IT

I LOVE THIS ONE

SPOD AND I WATCHING THE SUNSET IN MAUI