SO POST NUMBER THREE

THIS IS THE ONLY PIC THAT WENT THROUGH.  MY FAVE PICTURE OF BILL.

 

A PS TO THE PREVIOUS POST

 I sent the previous post ages ago earlier today.  Since then I have been in this chair so long my ass hurts in a new place, trying to put pics on this stupid blogpost.  To make matters worse they updated my laptop, an apple, and you no longer have iPhoto...it is now apple photo and it freaking sucks.  You cannot put photos anywhere.  They don't drag and drop.  They do not email.  They do not insert.  No matter what I do they don't effing go anywhere.  I am so pissed off.  So no photos.  Even AI when I asked slapped his head with the palm of his head and said okay here we go....and proceeded to instruct step by step about twenty steps you have to follow.  Which I carefully did and it still didn't work.  So I am about to throw this freaking computer out the back door so I am going to quit trying.  You will have to go to fb.  I think they will drag and drop from my pics there.  I will go see.  Sorry about that.    HP

EITHER I AM POSTING TOO OFTEN (SURE) OR WAY TOO FAR APART

 I remember when there use to be all kinds of blogs to read and the writer would leave a long distance from the last post, I would panic that whoever was writing wasn't writing anymore.  It happened a lot.  I don't think any blogger got further than three months before quitting.  Just a few continued longer.  One of them that I religiously read had gone on for a couple of years or more.  I became very very familiar with her life.  Then one day there was nothing.  I just kept checking and checking and checking.  Nothing.  Then one day...ping!! and there was a post.  But it was her boyfriend telling us she had been killed in a car accident.  It was so terrible.  I can't tell you how upset I was for someone I had never even met.  I still kinda twinge when I think of it.

I think this is the longest I have gone without posting.  It means I have been busy!  And I will admit that I am not busy all that often...not often enough for sure.  April came to visit!!!!!!  Visits from one of my kids is very rare.  I live in a stupid place for easy visiting.  Plus they all have very busy lives.

We had such an awesome visit.  The first day I got up in the dark and drove to Nanaimo to the ferry to pick her up.  We then mozied up the island on the old highway.  What a fantastic trip!  We had time to make a couple of stops here and there and take a few pics.  Our destination was Campbell River where my brother lives.  We had a wonderful visit.  Antonia makes fancy delicious little sammiches and awesome bean soup and she MADE panacotta...perfectly with the caramel and all.  Then we got visiting so much we forgot to leave!!!! lol

Our next stop was at a mushroom farm near there.  April was approached a couple of years ago to make their signs using the cutest mushroom cartoon character.  She became friends with them.  We had a most interesting visit with them!

Then we hit the freeway and got home....but not before we stopped at A&W and picked up a couple of teen burgers and onion rings to bring home.  I ended up giving my burger to Monte.  They are the most delicious burgers money can buy but I was still full from lunch.

She stayed for another couple of days.  One of them we spent part of a day in Winners for heaven's sake.  It was actually a lot of fun.  I am not a shopper and especially now with an uncooperative tailbone.  But it was fun.  I bought a bright red dog house for Leeloo, who is staying with me for a couple of weeks.  She is in it as we speak.  I then took April out to Canal Beach...a fave spot Monte and I go to sit in the car and listen to music and stare at the channel.  And this time a big humpback whale breached and April caught it in a video!!!  It was an amazing moment!!!  You can see the video on Facebook or instagram.  I would put it here but...well you know.

On our way home we went to a place called Dog Mountain Brewery.  We sit upstairs on a huge patio in the hot sunshine, with the dog, and we drank delicious amazing beer (they win all kinds of awards) and the best freaking nachos I have ever had!  Then home and no supper.  We were just too full!

The next day we didn't leave the house.  We just lazed around the house and gossiped.  Best day ever.  Then I baked a massive salmon chunk and made dill béchamel sauce and April made a massive Greek salad and we had some rice and dinner was incredible. Spring salmon.  It was way better than I thought it would be.  Spring isn't my fave.

Yesterday we took April back to the Hullo ferry and she was gone.  But I still have Leeloo!

Monte and I then went to Horangs on the way home.  We had an early dinner there.  Jeez Murphey the food there is outstanding.  It is Korean and honestly their food is award worthy.  We got sushi rolls for a starter then there is this dish for two.  It includes a bowl of rice each, a bowl of amazing miso soup each, a long wooden narrow serving dish with kimchee, salad leaves (so deliciously dressed) and some kind of fermented amazing onion.  Then the main event was this massive cast iron cauldron full of long cooked braised beef short ribs still on the bone and a broth with carrots, potato and tiny Korean dates.  Unbelievable!  I park the car there where I can see it right out the window so we could leave Leeloo there.  I went out to check her and she was just laying there, happy as a clam.

And now I am home in a pretty messy house and posting instead of cleaning!!  I did clean the kitchen whilst my coffee brewed!  And now I am going to clean up the living room and get me a fat salmon sammich.  I am hungry.  I think we are supposed to drive to Bamfield today.  At the moment though it is so foggy we can't see past the house across the street.  We shall see.  I will try to post some pics in a separate post.  TFL&TTYL

HOW DOES THIS HAPPEN

 You know I have basically no life.  Which obviously suits me fine or I would change it.  So how is it I forget to post every four days...which is what I tried to aim for.  Obviously that aim didn't happen.  Jeez!!!

I have two awesome daughters in law.  One is in Kamloops and one is near Vernon.  I see Dana in Kamloops once in a while.  If I only got to Kamloops more often I would see her more often!  I love having lunch with her.  She brings her mom whom I just adore.  We spend the lunch laughing and thats with no drinking I might add.  I love those lunches.

My other daughter in law is Cheryl.  She and I, when we do get together which isn't often sadly, get along like a house on fire.  I super like her. 

 I messaged her the other day to say hello, how are you and what's happening with all the family.  She sent me back the longest most awesomest message and caught me all up on Bill's extended family.  It was so good to hear about all her kids and grandchildren.  I miss most of Bill's family. 

 I see now after living here on the Island for seven years, seeing family and friends is not easy. Every trip is no less than 300 dollars and I am at the counting shekles part of my life. 

I gotta say getting halfway through the seventies to eighty is very humbling.  I was just texting April about this this morning.  And I can see that the majority of the population under seventy not only can't understand that concept but probably could care less.  I don't blame them.  Their time will come soon enough.

I think the only thing I would change if I could  would be to get them all to stop treating us like we are stupid.  We know more than they ever will til they hit over seventy themselves.  After all we are the ones that invented the computer.

I didn't realize this consciously until I hit over seventy.  I think what did it was cruising.  Being on a boat for three weeks where the vast majority of two thousand plus people were well over 70 did it for me. By far they are the most interesting group of people I ever hung with.  They had all had the most interesting careers and lives.  Many of the women in that age group never worked. They taught me verbally so many awesome recipes and home making tips.  They were interesting and geniuses in their own right!!!

  I remember one old old geezer had been a nuclear physicist. Another had been a radar specialist in a war.  Another one was only 59, retired RCMP, talked endlessly about himself and bored us silly.  Hah!!!! I thought...just you wait til your over 70.  No one is going to be trapped by you.  If you are a long time reader of this blog you may remember me writing about him.

Well the last of my culled clothing went out the door yesterday.  Another five bags of the discard.  What a waste of money.  I was feeling bad until the chubby little lady said that she and her plump friends had a blast going through and picking out clothes that fit them.  They all got used!!!  It just goes to show us chubalubs are overlooked in the fat lady clothes department....thank you Temu for putting an end to that!!!!  And putting and end to dreary, grossly ugly, expensive clothes and giving us fun and colour we can afford.

Just a final note here...I have quit worrying about my diet.  I have become more than jiggy (I said JIGGY, not jiggly) with my chub.  I have become more than jiggy with my kidneys and fat liver.  I figure I will outlive both the troubles with them.  And I have basically quit worrying too much about my type 2.  I am somewhat mindful but not overly so.    I am done with all that.  I am about to turn 74.  I want to enjoy my last years.  I will shorten my life for sure by worrying about all that and trying to figure out what to eat.  For the last time ever will I be sitting in my beloved recliner, mentally going through what food I have that I can safely eat and going..no, no, no, no and blah!!!to raw vegetables.  Done with it.  And I can't see doctors who would give me shit anyway so I just don't care anymore.  If they don't care why should I.

Thats it for today for this happy camper.  I am going to go cook spuds now to make us all corned beef hash and eggs for supper tonight!!!

TFL&TTYL

JUST A THOUGHT

 Just to be clear here this post is NOT a rant.  It's just interesting...to me.  Probably boring to you guys.  As always feel free to skip this one.

I was reading an article in one of the newsletters I get in my email.  It was a big expose on how 'little' people on disability get and that it should be increased.  So I did a little math.  I happen to live with two people who are on disability for different reasons.  One for physical and the other for mental.

So they each get just under 16 hundred a month.  Which does seem like not enough.  But.....they never have to pay for certain things above and beyond that base pay...that never seems to be mentioned or added into the equation.

For example basic dentistry (right now I am having to fork out abut 2,500 for a dental piece),  eyeglasses (five hundred per year plus eye exam 75), medication (mine is 2,000 per year), they get transportation help which can be 300 plus bus help, subsidized housing qualifications, all medical supplies, all diabetes supplies.  This all adds up.  I am more than happy they get all that but 15,000 per year is kind of a false number.

Well Monte and I are off to Coombs today.  Last time I was there I found the carb free bbq sauce I love.  It's only available on Amazon or Coombs market.    On Amazon the one Ange likes is 90 bucks and mine is 15.  They both are available at Coombs for fifteen.

This may sound like a lot for a bbq sauce but when you are eating so stringently and so limited in your choices a qualifying bbq sauce is way more important than it should be!!!  It makes amazing chicken wings, if you can afford those.

I finally did it.  I hauled every piece of my clothing into the living room, sat on the edge of my recliner with a massive box for give away on one side, designated piles in front of me, a garbage bag for discards between my feet and the unfolded ready to sort piles of clothes on the other side.  And now I am feeling accomplished and looking at nine separate  giant piles around me on the floor.  Waiting.  To be put somewhere.  And there's nowhere for them to go.  There is no room in the two pieces of furniture in my bedroom to put them away.  So there they sit, on the living room floor.  And there they will stay until I figure out an answer.  Whenever.  Whatevs.....If anybody comes to visit they will just have to step around them and pretend they aren't there.  Oh yeah...no one visits!  I don't have to worry about it!!!

On rereading this it sounds like I have way too many clothes.  But here's the thing.  It's about the size of the clothes not the quantity.  When you are a chubalub, one piece of my clothing is like four pieces of a skinny person's clothes.  It makes a difference!

Well enough rattletrap for one post.  I shall quit....I was going to say while I'm ahead but I have a feeling I am NOT.  lol!!!  TFL&TTYL

PICTURES

THIS WAS IN MAUI.  IN A FIELD. A COWPIE AND A THISTLE.   THE CAPTION WAS 'IF I EVER OWN A BRITISH TYPE PUB, THAT IS WHAT I AM GOING TO CALL IT'.  THISTLE AND COWPIE.  PLEASE REMIND ME IF I OWN ONE AND FORGET.

THE SALMON I COOKED.

THE MONSTROCITY BEING BUILT DOWN THE BLOCK A WEE WAYS

MONTE'S BULGOGI AT THE KOREAN RESTAURANT

BEST SUSHI I EVER HAD

MY LOBSTER AND BRISKET RAMEN.  THAT LOOKS LIKE A GIANT TOUNGE STICKING OUT OF MY SOUP

MY NEW BELL BOTTOMS.

 

ALMOST TIME TO START SMOKING AGAIN

 Back when I was a naive (read ignorant) youngun' of about forty years old I quit smoking.  Finally the fear of lung cancer outdid the jonesing for a cigarette.  I soothed my frantic early cravings by telling myself that I would smoke again when I hit my mid seventies. You are so close to death what does it matter if you smoke?  Well guess what?  That is NOW!!!!

I had pictured myself sitting in a senior establishment, a fancy particularly beautiful one, at a card table with three other old ladies playing bridge.  On that table were ashtrays and we were firmly ensconced in the smoking section.  It was a pleasant future to look forward to, all of us sucking back that elixir.

And now it's time. Firstly, I am not in a fancy senior establishment.  I am still in my house.  Secondly there is no such thing as a smoking area in these establishments anymore.  You have to go outside suffering the elements, far away from the front door.  Thirdly, who knew a pack of smokes would end up being half your weekly allowance.  Holy Hannah!!!! they are mind numbingly expensive.  And fourthly I still have the deadly fear of lung cancer and a very faded urgency for a cigarette.

Plus, I thought in my mid seventies I would feel more like an old feeble blister. I was wrong.  I have not ended up that way.  I don't feel old enough to justify smoking again.  Plus when I am cooking mildly spicy stuff it seizes my throat up.  I can't imagine assaulting it with smoke.  A couple of years ago I tried a puff from a mild vape, flavoured with raspberry and I still cough when I think of it.  I have become a weenie,

So now I have to give up a long held dream.  I looked forward to that day in that lovely place with other old lady blisters. But I think I will stick to just visiting the old folks place here in Port.  I am starting soon with the old lady who took Monte in a few years back when he desperately needed a place.  Shirley is now in a senior place and her grandson and I are going to start visiting.  A much healthier endeavour I would say.  TFL&TTYL