TWO FOR ONE TODAY

 Sorry folks, I owe a challenge post and a covid one.  If I suddenly disappear here and never come back it won't be because I want to be gone.  It will be because of blogspot. What an awful site this is.  Although, it is forcing me to learn way more about computer problem solving than I ever thought I would know.

One thing I did this week was I got a good start on my xmas shopping.  I decided to spread it out over the year.  

Amazon has become so expensive.  It makes me mad.  I have been an avid Amazon shopper for years now and I know the prices.  You can still get the odd thing at a decent price, but they make the item and 'add on', meaning you have to spend at least 25 bucks to get that cheap item.  

So I went hunting for a different site to shop at.  Speed doesn't matter, it can take months to come if it wants to. Dec. is still a way off.  The only thing is there isn't any drop shipping this far ahead of xmas.  I have to order it here and then resend it.  But thats okay.  I just keep size in mind whilst I shop.  It was fun.  I am kind of hoping that by November when I would normally be doing the xmas shopping, I will be too busy doing things post covid to have time to shop!

Seeing as how I wasn't going to do one of the challenges (make liquor of some sort) and couldn't do the other one (the zoom isn't until the 22nd) I resorted to the default challenge, twice.  I hauled a heavy garbage bag out to the bin on Thursday.  Certainly got rid of more than 5 and 5 things.

I was talking to Kathy and I mentioned that I had filled a massive big rubber maid to the top with junk, from beside my chair, from under the hearth, from beside my bed, at the end of my bed, in two drawers in the kitchen....junk that has no proper home.  I did that some time ago and I hadn't gone into that bin one time since then, not for one thing.

  So I decided to just whip through it, keep only the bare minimum, like the stuff I need for Micky mousing things together and fixing  (twine, universal screw driver, duct tape, wire etc.), mail, camera stuff, hair curlers etc.... I would then tip all the rest, most of it, straight into the garbage bin.

She stopped me.  She told me that her oldest grandchild Ainsley, who is at her house a lot, is at that age, she is five going on six, where she loves loves loves junk.  She asks Kathy if she has 'stuff' for her to go through, sort and store in her personal 'locker', a portion of the buffet.  Kathy suggested I make up bags of 'stuff' for her!  What a fantastic idea!  That totally motivated me.

I found three appropriate cloth bags, probably bigger than what she had in mind, and started to fill them.  I made up three fantastic bags!  Notebooks, pencils and pens, a complete set of prism pencil crayons, jewelry, little sparkly boxes from one of my China trips, compass, shiny things, weird foreign coins, stuffed toy, tiny Chinese dolls, tiny little candles in wee animal shaped holders and on and on.  But as I was doing this I kept thinking of her younger brother Stirling.  I had nothing for him.

So I went on the Ikea site and spent a ridiculously small amount of money and bought him a whole plethora of fun gadgets...finger puppets, cars, stuffies, etc...they have so many little things for kids!  And it arrived here faster than Amazon ships!  Now to get it all to Kathy for them.

I have not cooked this week.  We have rediscovered hot and sour soup.  Our local Chinese restaurant makes the best hot and sour soup you ever ate.  I looked up the calories and its super low so every night now we order the soup and Monte goes and picks it up.  It is Devine!  We also get one order of mo pho tofu.  It's a very spicy, kind of soupy hot mixture with chunks of tofu in it.  I add spoons of it to my soup and oh my!!!! You slurp up spicy burny spoonfuls of soup then you get a big chunk of soothing cool soft tofu.  Man oh man..you can't beat it!!  I think we are on our fifth night of soup for dinner.  I couldn't ever make it that cheap either, never mind even making it to begin with.  Forget it.

So....challenges for this week:

15.  Video call with a distant friend.  Yes!  I am not sure it will be video for me but I will certainly call someone far away.  I think I will call Clare.  I haven't talked with him in a long time and I miss him.

16.  This one is stupid.  Teach your pet a new trick.  Right.  Has she not heard that you can't teach an old dog a new trick?  Jeez!  Wrangler is 17 and crippled.  No new tricks there.  And you can't teach a pet you don't even have a new trick either.  So it's default time. Five more things gone from this house for me!!

Covid:  So exciting!  Finally the vaccines are on a roll.  It is still going to be a long wait.  We don't actually get the shot for about a month or more after you make the appointment.  Then you have to wait for two weeks after that.  Then a four month wait for the second one.

It's funny how now that they have announced the special groups that don't have to wait for their age group because they are in high risk areas or jobs, there are people that are so angry and incensed that they weren't included in those groups.  The powers that be concentrated on the groups where covid has hit them hard.  Well, one of the groups that didn't get included is the BC Ferries.  Haha!!  They are pissed!!!  They have said that it feels like a kick in the teeth to not be included.  Yet...they have not had one case of covid.  Just because they work with the public doesn't mean you automatically get early shots.  People become such bullies or whiners when they aren't getting what they feel are their right to have.

Anyway we are all feeling a little more hopeful today.  It feels like half the weight has been lifted.

Take care people, stay safe, noodle and talk to oldsters.  TTYL