TOUGH DAY

 I guess one can't be happy all the time.  It's been a really rough day today.  I am not used to this feeling of downness.  Jeez!  I do not know how those poor souls who suffer from depression live with it day after day.  I guess I can mention one of the reasons and the second one is private.

I have been up to my elbows prepping the new guest room for Kevin and crews' visit coming up.  So exciting...even more so because it is very rare to have a visit from one of my kids.  It's not their fault.  I have chosen to live in a pretty isolated place. Also it's due to an expensive ferry trip to the island.  It's not so far in milage but throw in a 1&1/2 hour ferry trip that always costs more than 150 dollars...well that makes it quite daunting.  This results in special excitement of a visit from my eldest...I don't see them often.  My brother who lives an hour from here is not well and they have decided to visit not only him but others on the island here as well.

This morning I got a text from his wife.  They won't be staying with me after all.  They will be staying in Qualicum...a village near where our highway meets the main highway.  I guess the twenty minutes getting to the main highway from here is twenty minutes too long.  Kevin phoned me a few minutes later and I said they can stay here.  It would be a whole lot cheaper and it would only add twenty minutes.  But clearly they didn't want to.  I wish I had known. 

 I busted my ass getting that room ready for them.  I bought a brand new bed I can't really afford right now. Researched some new vegan recipes to try.  Oh well.  It is what it is. 

 I have decided to go ahead with plans I had made with April when I thought Kevin etc. were coming later in July.  I shall go and do my Vancouver visit the first two weeks of July as I had planned earlier.  I was going to see if Cookie was around one of those weeks and go see her for a few days as well.

Last night was awesome.  Monte and I took the wee bbq, a couple of steaks and headed out to a nearby beach.  It is beautiful and so healing out there.  They have a big grassy field down to the beach.  They have built a massive round fire pit and scattered benches and picnic tables about.  No one else was there and we had a bbq in peace and quiet and camaraderie.  Monte doesn't visit.  But thats okay.  It was so peaceful. 

Well I am feeling a bit better now thanks to you folks.  I am so grateful for all of you that read this stupid blog.  When I read other blogs I am tempted to drum up exciting crap out of my head!!!!  But I cannot lie.  sigh.   I also had a nice long chat with Ange about all my angsty crap. She was very very helpful.  Such an insightful friend.  I am pretty sure I will wake up my happy self tomorrow.  Being unhappy is alien to me. 

 I am not going to be jiggy with them not coming here nor will I understand.  But I can do my best to try to not take it personally.  It is a choice...not that they have eliminated my hospitality but how I react.  Doesn't that sound noble and wise!!!???  hahaha...we will see how successful I am!

I wrote all that a few days ago right after I found out they weren't staying with me.  And unfortunately I have to confess I am still upset.  I am not just getting over it like I thought I would.  I had thought that this was a visit to my brother and a visit with me but that has turned out not to be the case.  Thats okay. I shall go to Vancouver and have fun with my other kid.  She has some pretty exciting stuff up her sleeve I hear!

Also, a couple days ago Monte and I hopped into the car and took off to Nanaimo.  He took me to a restaurant that serves dim sum on Sundays. It was fantastic!!!  But instead of heading home we went gallivanting and ended up way up in Courtenay.  He wanted me to go to Thrifty Foods...a grocery store.  Okay but...why?  Well holy doodle!!  I could see why!!!  It was like Whole Foods on steroids and a whole lot less expensive.  What a place!!!!  All in all it was a lovely awesome day.

Again I will post pictures after this post.  It's just so much easier.  Thank you For Listening to me moan and TTYL

FISH PICS

 

YOU SHOULD HAVE SEEN THE SLIME AND MUCOUS THAT CAME OFF OF THOSE SUCKERS.  SOME PEOPLE I SHAN'T MENTION WERE GAGGING.  JEESH!!!

THIS IS THE PAN I USED FOR THE THOUSANDS OF POUNDS OF SALMON WE CAUGHT IN BAMFIELD...PREPPING FOR CANNING.HEY KATHY I BET YOU REMEMBER IT!!!!!!

LOOK AT THEM THAR FILLETS...JUST DON'T LOOK TOO CLOSELY!! THEY ARE PRETTY ROUGH.

THAT BIG OLD BUSTER KNIFE IS THE ONE BILL USED ON EVERY FISH WE CAUGHT.  THE OTHER IS A BRAND NEW FILLETING KNIFE.  ALL THE MANY ONES WE OWNED OVER THE YEARS ARE SWIMMING WITH THE FISHES.


I forgot to mention the rellie part of the previous post's title.  Jeni, Stan's daughter, my niece whom I love to pieces picked me up and we went to Smitty's for a three hour talky talky breakfast!!!!  Man I love that girl!!!  We are so much on the same page...one of the few people in the world I can just be me and not worry about sticking my foot in it.  

Before she picked me up I pondered what to get off the menu.  Everything is so carby and anti diabetic.  Then I had a brainwave.  They have a reasonable steak breakfast.  So I ordered a rare steak (0 carbs) two barely poached eggs (2 carbs) a bowl of hollandaise sauce (0carbs) and they put four tomato slices on the plate as well....and I don't give a hoot the carb count in those....I ate 'em and loved 'em.

All in all it was an amazing morning...three hours well spent!!!

PACKING RELLIE VISIT!!!

 Well the house is looking a tiny bit emptier, especially the deck.  Shane the garbage guy hauled away at least fifteen huge very full bags.  He is a nice guy and I always pay him an extra twenty bucks.  He charges fifty plus dump fees.  This last time Monte dropped a bag over the railing onto the bags below, saying they were getting a soft landing.  I had singled that bag out because it had plastic and glass bottles of sugarless syrup in them. They were really old and half full and had been sitting in the sun.  I asked him not to drop the liquidy one over...and he did anyway.  Well I guess they leaked in the back of the truck.  Keep in mind that diet syrup is like water.  When he texted me later he asked for an extra ten dollars because he had to clean the back out, it got syrupy.  I was a little ticked considering I have been paying him twenty each trip over and above the amount he charges. 

 I kinda...only a tiny bit, felt that way at first when Ange didn't want Monte using the downstairs bathroom in the night.  She keeps it stocked and clean.  He never does anything but number one but she said he was using too much toilet paper.  I got thinking about that.  She has used the upstairs bathroom for four years using the tp I provided.  And she was ticked off about the small amount Monte would use.  Poor Ange...my immediate reaction, and those immediate ones are never good, (I should know by now..shovel list) NO, you tell him. In the end  I did tell him and surprisingly he said no, he was using it only in the night and only for number one.  I left it there as I will with garbage guy.

My lawn guy's wife fishes with the indigenous women early in the morning.  Right now the sockeye are running.  Jonathon phoned me up yesterday and asked if I would like one.  They are quite small.  I have caught a lot of them over the years...using a pink hoochie.  They generally are the size of coho.  So I said I would take two.  He only charges 25 dollars.

He showed up at my door later in the day with two massive fish!!!  Even he said that they were weirdly big this year.  I have never seen sockeye that huge.  Now the problem was what was I going to do with them.  I am not that fond of zip locked salmon chunks that have been frozen.  They get a fishy taste I don't like.  I know.  That sounds ridiculous but there is a flavour that is unpleasant compared to fresh fish.  The only way around that is to use a vacuum pack food saver.  Next step was to send Monte off to Canadian Tire and get me one.  

Now it is three in the morning, I am wide awake and I am about to YouTube how to fillet a massive fish.  Times like this I miss Billyboy.  He always did the butchering part and I didn't pay attention.  When I got smaller sockeye from Jonathon before I always cut the fish into horseshoe shaped steaks and cooked them.  I had also got Monte get me a filleting knife at the same time.  I figure I will follow a good YouTube tutorial.  Should be good!  Wish me luck!!!

TFL&TTYL

I am going to send another post after this one with pictures.  I hope.  This blogspot does not make it easy!!!

BIT BY OVERWHELMING BIT

 I am finding the house clean out, which I have done quite a few times in my adult life (I tried to count how many times I have moved in my life and I just never get to the end for the final count it's been so often) extremely difficult, annoying and overwhelming this time around.  

I hate thrift stores.....as an option.  Seriously.  I will be in a room, okay honestly my bedroom, where there are at least a thousand things to sort through and decide where they go.

At first I was going to just throw ninety per cent of it in garbage bags and get Shane, my junk guy, to take it to the dump.  But as I am eliminating the tenth item of clothing with a price tag on it still (ashamed) I start thinking about stupid damned thrift stores.  I hate them.  We have been quite traumatically rejected by them both here and in Kamloops.  Like what the eff do they want anyway?  (SHOVEL LIST).  

So out the name taggy stuff comes and I put them into a separate bag for....the freaking thrift store.  We have found one that seems friendly.  I heard that they take everything and 'she doesn't make you stand there whilst she sorts through your boxes'.  Sounds good to me.  Now there are thrift store bags sitting around waiting to be taken down to the thrift store instead of being thrown onto the back deck for Shane to deal with.

And what bugs me the most is that sorting just slows you down.  Frankly if I went to visit my awesome grandchildren for a week and my house was pretty much empty except for the dire necessities when I got home, I would be one happy camper.  But for me to do it...well it causes pause and thinking...which is time consuming, not to mention exhausting.

Plus now, this time around it's quite different.  I am not in the kind of shape those annoying 70plus energized oldsters are.  I have longevity as far as energy goes but my physical body can't do it.  My back and hip hurt so bad within ten minutes of running around and bending over (the worst) that I seriously can't stand. The moment I sit its perfect. No pain.  Within a few minutes I am good to go for another ten minutes.  Do you know how freaking annoying that is?  Makes me mad.

I am getting smarter about it though.  I have a red cheapo office chair.  I have started to put piles that need sorting on the floor in front of me and a garbage bag for donations on the left and a garbage garbage bag on the right and a box for the stuff I HAVE to keep to put away later within throwing distance.  It has really helped doing that. I can scoot around too without having to get up.  I don't have to stop!  Once I get going I don't like stopping.  And a bonus to that method is I don't fall or lose my balance nearly as often!

I now have the guest room five minutes away from bing totally ready for company.  I have my bedroom eighty per cent  done.  Now all I have left is ...an overloaded hugely packed big laundry room, two sheds that are the size of small bedrooms and Tinny.  Tinny is thirty foot by twelve foot tin building erected on cement flooring and all three of those are packed full.  Waaaaaaahhhhhhh!!!  Not to mention a packed dining room and back deck.  Frankly it's overwhelming.

My main goal is to get all this cleared out, Ange situated in Chiliwack with her family and Monte living independently somewhere he can afford.  Thats all.  I can't die until all that is done.  I don't want my kids to have to deal with any of that.

In the meantime the clean out continues.  Tomorrow I am commandeering Mr. Man to help me with the deck.  I can't be bending and carrying.  So he can do that for me.  I don't think it will take too long...hopefully!  I think I am going to get him to go buy a few proper packing boxes from budget and I am going to fill them with the awkward hard stuff for the thrift store.  I have a huge amount of kitchen pots, pans, muffin tins, pop over tins, etc etc etc.  Also dishes and mugs and endless odds and ends.  They all gotta go!  Then I will be able to breathe.

Well thats it for today.  If you got this far in this post my hat is off to you!  I will tell y'all when it's all done and you can come visit me.  I will be keeping enough dinnerware to make delicious food for you!!!

TFL&TTYL

A MONEY WIN AND A MONEY LOSS.

 I called the credit card peeps to ask a question about a certain thing on the statement.  At the end of the conversation I asked about the cash back part of the card.  I said I had never seen a cash back deposit.  On my cash back master card I always get notice that I have x amount of credit available to use.  Td? Not so much.

She explained that I have to redeem it.  She showed me how and where to do that.  When I went there the credit balance of the cash back was 530 bucks!!!!!  Holy cow!!!!  I was gobsmacked!!!  And I couldn't be happier.  I am cash starved right now til my next investment pays out...which is very soon.  But in the meantime  the house kitty is pretty empty and has been for a while.  That money will pay the 400 dollar utility bill that just arrived on the doorstep.

Well yesterday the three of us decided to go up to Walmart and No Frills.  I didn't need to go to Walmart but Ange had made mention of going and so did Monte.  So we went then moved next door to No Frills then headed home.  It was hot out and the house is nicely cooled by ac.

When we got home Ange got her stuff and got to the door first.  Unlike Monte and I, she always locks the door.  We have a very expensive awesome keypad door locking device but it isn't working at the moment.  Needs a battery.  She has a house key and so does Monte.  I don't have one.

Well long story short she lost her keys.  And Monte didn't have his car keys with his house key on it.  We used the van and that set doesn't have a house key.

We hunted through everything but no key.  We finally had to phone a locksmith, who arrived a half hour later.  Poor Ange was so upset and she was too hot.  She doesn't do well in the heat and especially under stress.

Well the guy said that with that three hundred dollar keypad lock if he tried to open the door it would destroy it. Well I sure as heck didn't want that.  I can't afford to replace it.  So around the back we go to the basement door.  Well he worked on that dead bolt for at least a half hour or more and simply could not budge it.

Back to the front and with a screw driver and a hammer it took two minutes to destroy my keypad lock.  The door opened.  (shovel list). He is coming back later this morning to put in a dead bolt.  And now my beautiful red door is going to have a white patch where my fave type of lock used to be.  It was much bigger than a deadbolt.  And just like that my found money disappeared.  The utility bill will just have to be added to my exorbitant ridiculous property tax bill.

But to cheer us up I am going to make my all time fave thing to eat.  Chicken and dumplings.  I absolutely love planning it, shopping for it, making it and eating it!!!!!!  And I will try to make Ange feel better about the whole thing.  The poor girl felt so so bad.  Shit happens.  To all of us at one time or another.

Thats it for today...chicken and dumplings comin' up!!!!   TFL&TTYL

ANOTHER TRIP TO NANNYMO..AND READYING A HOUSE FOR LISTING

 Yup...made another trip to Nanaimo.  Monte's friend, another non driver, needed to go to the ferry.  So off we went.  We also made an appointment at the cpap store for Monte to sign papers and get some replacement straps for his ever breaking delicate  mask.

I have had to kind of draw the line, and this is pretty hard to do, at driving people around, especially to Nanaimo with gas prices what they are.

I mentioned to Ange that there seems to be an above average amount of people in this town who don't drive.  It's kind of amazing.  When I commented on that she got a wee bit huffy.  She said it was no different than any other town.  I beg to differ.

  I know waaaay less people here than I have in other towns I have lived in and never ran across people who didn't drive.  Here, when I first moved here I had twelve people to monthly dinners til covid hit.  Not one of them drove except Monte and I.  Thats a lot of people with no drivers license.  Our friend Graeme doesn't have a car, I understand that, but he does have his license.

As I said I hate saying no to people when they need help.  But unfortunately the needy Nanaimo peeps not only can't drive but they can't pay today's gas prices.  And guess what?  Til the next influx of money, I can't either.

Well slowly but surely I am getting the house ready to list.  I might pay for a proper appraisal when I am finished.  It's a matter of prioritizing all the projects.  Mostly judging it by which things wrong will the buyer want to take money off the asking price.  Those things need fixing first and maybe only those things will get fixed. 

 I have let Ange know that this is happening sooner than later.  I don't want her suddenly hanging.  Monte and I will help her move some of her stuff to Chilliwack where her family lives.  She can't take much so the big job for her will be getting rid of her bigger stuff and all the stuff she can't take.  I can't realistically list the house til she has moved.  I don't want to be here too much longer after we move her....I will miss her too much. I am kind of aiming for mid summer to beginning fall.

Randi, Ange's friend (and now mine too) is coming to dinner tomorrow.  I am making a giant shepherd's pie and coleslaw.  I make my pie with gravy and tiny chomped up carrots and onions and garlic.  The potatoes I make with sour cream, butter, Montreal steak spice, bacon on top, and sprinkle green onions when it's out of the oven.  The mashed potatoes end up tasting just like baked potatoes.  It's like magic!!!

For dessert I am making strawberry shortcake.  I am using Pillsbury grand biscuits (which aren't sweet, I just thought of that....dammit),  extra sweet then macerated strawberries from frozen, and sliced fresh ones maybe.  Walmart has just told me they don't have any for delivery (asshats!!!  you have no idea how often that happens with the W).  I bought a litre of whipping cream and a can of chocolate whipping cream.  Like why not?  Stawbs and chocolate go together.  We will see.  Hopefully they will be willing guinea pigs!!!!!

If I remember I will attempt pics here.  Stupid blogspot.  I am just sad that people can't comment.  I would so love to hear people's opinions and suggestions and questions and recipes to try.  Oh well. (shovel list...shame on you blogspot. we can put a man on the moon....haha)

TFL&TTYL

PICTURES TO GO WITH POST...ONLY WAY I COULD GET THE STUPID THINGS TO BEHAVE

HONESTLY YOU HAVE NO IDEA HOW FREAKING HARD PUTTING PICTURES HERE WAS!!!!  HERE ARE THE GOATS WHERE THEY GO WHEN THEY ARENT ENTERTAINING THE MASSES FROM THE GRASSY ROOF OF THE MARKET 

AS WE WERE LEAVING A MAN AT THE NEXT TABLE SAID TO ME THAT MONTE LOOKS LIKE AN ARTIST!  LOL

THE TRADITIONAL PIC OF A TALL PERSON

MY DESSERT.  A BURNT BASQUE CHEESECAKE.  IT DOESN'T HAVE A CRUST AND IS BAKED AT A VERY HIGH TEMPERATURE WHICH CARAMALIZES AND SLIGHTLY BURNS THE TOP, EDGES AND BOTTOM...CREATING ITS OWN CRUST.

THERE WERE TEN MASSIVE PRAWNS UNDER THE POMO...SOMETHING OR OTHER SAUCE

THE PLACE WAS HUGE AND BEAUTIFUL

WAITING FOR MY CAESAR

MY TURN UNDER THE WISTERIA

I HAVE BEEN MEANING TO PUT THESE PICS HERE.  BACK IN THE EARLY 70'S ONE COULD DRIVE TO THE TOWN DUMP AND DUMP THEIR GARBAGE...AND BROWSE THROUGH IT TO FIND TREASURES.  BEING ON WELFARE AT THE TIME I COULD NOT AFFORD A ROASTING PAN.  WELL THIS OLD BEAT UP BUSTER WAS SITTING OVER AT THE EDGE OF ALL THE GARBAGE AND I BROUGHT IT HOME, BLEACHED IT, (YOU NEVER KNOW WHAT PEOPLE USED IT FOR) AND I STILL USE IT TO THIS DAY.

THE OTHER DAY I LOOKED OUT MY FRONT ROOM WINDOW.  ACROSS THE STREET WAS A NEWER NEIGHBOUR WITH HIS NEW DOG.  AND THERE WAS HARRY, ON THE LEFT.  I THINK I HAVE MENTIONED HIM.  HE LIVES BY HIMSELF RIGHT NEXT DOOR AND BLESS HIM, YOU CAN'T BE OUTSIDE TWO MINUTES WHEN YOU HEAR 'WELL HELLO THERE!'  HE SO REMINDS ME OF MR. FLANDERS ON THE SIMPSONS!  HE'S THE GLUE THAT KEEPS THE NEIGHBOURHOOD CONNECTED.