Well, the end of another year is nearly upon us and I for one am glad to see it go. Health wise, 2010 was not one of my better ones...faced lots of challenges and unforeseen crisis. So we put it all behind us and step toward a new year, with false bravado and bluster, hoping to, if nothing else, bolster our own morale. I'm good at that, it's how I get through the days, the winter and my life...pretending everything is great... and hey, who am I to say it isn't, really. When I compare my life up til now with....say that of someone living in Haiti...well, there really is no comparison... I live like Royalty...but it's all relative really...give them some clean drinking water and tent over their heads and they feel like Royalty too I bet....
Robert and I just watched the other night the movie "The Queen" with British actress Helen Miran...boy did she play that part well.... Robert met the real Queen once, for his 21st birthday his parents sent him to the UK to meet some relatives and see his old nanny, who after her husbands passing had returned to Wales...he spent a few days with her and then with some Makepeace and Summersgill relatives who showed him all over London...and they sat outside the palace gates and I can't remember what the occasion was but the Queen and Prince Phillip did a little walk about and he got to shake her hand....cool....she commented on his accent apparently...and he didn't know what to say to her....because to him she was the one with the accent.... I think his parents had hoped he would meet a woman over there...since his nanny and his aunt introduced him to available friends of their daughters...hahahahah Thank God he didn't meet any one or I would have ended up married to some old drunk friend of my first husbands who had apparently just been waiting for the right amount of time to pass after my husband had died to make his move (according to another friend, this fellow was quite devastated when I up and married Robert)....of course I'd like to think that I would have been discerning enough to have not gotten involved with someone so much like my first husband, who smoked heavily, drank and cheated... Good God, when I think about what life would be like without Robert ....I draw a complete blank... He is my Prince Charming (who dropped out half way through charm school) hahahahahaha NOoooooo he's great ... but let's not tell him quite so much okay, because it is starting to go to his head...his mother and old aunties used to tell him he was the bees knees....how British....it always sounded so cute with their accents....
We just heard yesterday that our premier friends have put their farm up for sale and hoping to move to Airdrie...just outside of Calgary where their youngest son lives....so he can take care of them.... We see their farm listed with the realtor, in the paper...so it is just a matter of time before they move away and life as we know it will once again take a big dip....they are only one of two couples we actually have as friends...but they are the ones we visit with the most.....whaaaaaaaaaaa I hate change...I hate losing friends, it is way too much work to make new ones...
These friends have invited us to their place on new years day so I think they have some news to tell us....that makes me worried.... I only just heard about them selling, and haven't had time to come to terms with that...I hope they haven't already bought a place....in airdrie... they were in Vegas for a week and then spent a few days with the son in Calgary who went to Vegas with them...I think he took them around to look for a place to live....bastard....
Robert and I plan to just hang out at home this evening and watch the year in review on TV. I am recording some cool movies playing on other channels to watch later...and will generally eat bad snacks and be lazy...I am still working a devil of a jigsaw...of a valley in Peru...that is solid orange and yellow flowers...so the whole picture is a sliver of blue sky, a sliver of black mountain and then a whack of orange and yellow....very very challenging...it is one of the Planet Earth puzzles...I love it....
I have lots of Dr's appointments and an MRI booked for the first week of the New year... along with my monthly blood work and such... but surprisingly I am not worried ...
HAPPY NEW YEAR, everyone.... let's make it a good one...
Splendor
December 31, 2010
December 30, 2010
Idiot !
Like an idiot, I forgot to take my camera with me when we went tobogganing. My friend had a small camera in her pocket which she took some shots with but her husband tells me she takes lousy photo's, chopping off heads and getting her thumb in the way...that is hilarious...I mean how hard is it to take a picture....if you remember your _ _ _ _ _ _ camera...hahaha
But, in spite of no snapshots, well at least not yet....we had a marvelous time...until it all went horribly wrong... Robert and I on our ancient aluminum toboggan went down DEATH hill, with the added weight of two adults it was fast...but the kids didn't wait and came down before we were finished sliding...Robert and I crashed near the bottom, landing in a tangled heap and then the kids on a plastic sled careened into us and we all went flying...I got the corner of their acid green sled in the forehead and believe it or not it knocked me out for a few seconds...ahahah scared the crap out of Robert and they had to drag my body off the track because, unaware of the incident taking place at the bottom of the hill...our friends and their adult daughter set off, them in our hard plastic calf sled and the daughter on a long crazy carpet, head first...it could have been a slaughter but for my husband who drug me to safety...I came to about that time and immediately got sick....they think I had concussion...I'm fine now, except every bone in my body aches.....probably from the small humps on the way down the hill that cause you to become air born and slamming back to the frozen ground at break neck speed is a bit jarring on old joints....hahahah walking pretty gingerly this morning...but raring to go sledding again when the weather warms up a bit...
I sat out a few turns down the hill, volunteering to drive the truck up and down the hill, taxiing them to the top...and when it got too hot in the truck with all my gear on...I took another turn down the hill at a more sedate pace, alone...and still hurt myself when I hit the huge pile of snow at the end of the run that Robert had put there to stop us from going through the wire fence and into the poplar trees....hitting the hill jarred my sore ankle and that was it, I didn't go down again unfortunately...but I did walk up the hill that time..rather than ride..I figured I could use the exercise...I walked up that huge hill four times yesterday actually and 5 times the day before....
There was a moment where I was scared shitless...Robert elected to go down the hill in our blue plastic calf sled...now this sled is not really meant for tobogganing in, the sides are high to keep the baby calf from flopping out while you pull it into the barn...but those high sides keep you from being able to manipulate the sled in any way, either with your hands or feet...so once you set off you are at the mercy of the hill and sled....so he blasted down the hill at a very high speed and hit the protective bank of snow (which by the way is about 6 ft. high) up the side of it and rocketed off the top, hung suspended in the air for what seemed like forever and then crashed to the ground behind the bank...we were all rushing down the hill to him and it was a few seconds before he even moved...so I was thinking the worst....(that I would have to do chores the next day....hahahahha) but he said he was laughing so hard he couldn't move...hahahaha but later admitted to me that he nearly shit himself when he was going up the side of the bank and had no way to stop. After that if anyone slid in the blue sled...they had to go down the other path we had made that headed out into the open pasture field...he went down again later on that path and ended up way out in the field...farther than anyone else had made it...and when he hit the fresh undisturbed snow...it flew up in front of the sled and covered him from head to toe...even plastering his face with a couple inches of wet snow jammed in behind his glasses...hhahahhaha he was blinded while his glasses defogged and he had really bad brain freeze from the snow hitting his forehead.... so all in all, it was a great time...we definitely want to do it again.... I always knew these mountains we have for farm land were good for something.
We came to the house and had a veggie plate, hot dogs and hot chocolate and I got rid of some more of my Christmas baking...
But, in spite of no snapshots, well at least not yet....we had a marvelous time...until it all went horribly wrong... Robert and I on our ancient aluminum toboggan went down DEATH hill, with the added weight of two adults it was fast...but the kids didn't wait and came down before we were finished sliding...Robert and I crashed near the bottom, landing in a tangled heap and then the kids on a plastic sled careened into us and we all went flying...I got the corner of their acid green sled in the forehead and believe it or not it knocked me out for a few seconds...ahahah scared the crap out of Robert and they had to drag my body off the track because, unaware of the incident taking place at the bottom of the hill...our friends and their adult daughter set off, them in our hard plastic calf sled and the daughter on a long crazy carpet, head first...it could have been a slaughter but for my husband who drug me to safety...I came to about that time and immediately got sick....they think I had concussion...I'm fine now, except every bone in my body aches.....probably from the small humps on the way down the hill that cause you to become air born and slamming back to the frozen ground at break neck speed is a bit jarring on old joints....hahahah walking pretty gingerly this morning...but raring to go sledding again when the weather warms up a bit...
I sat out a few turns down the hill, volunteering to drive the truck up and down the hill, taxiing them to the top...and when it got too hot in the truck with all my gear on...I took another turn down the hill at a more sedate pace, alone...and still hurt myself when I hit the huge pile of snow at the end of the run that Robert had put there to stop us from going through the wire fence and into the poplar trees....hitting the hill jarred my sore ankle and that was it, I didn't go down again unfortunately...but I did walk up the hill that time..rather than ride..I figured I could use the exercise...I walked up that huge hill four times yesterday actually and 5 times the day before....
There was a moment where I was scared shitless...Robert elected to go down the hill in our blue plastic calf sled...now this sled is not really meant for tobogganing in, the sides are high to keep the baby calf from flopping out while you pull it into the barn...but those high sides keep you from being able to manipulate the sled in any way, either with your hands or feet...so once you set off you are at the mercy of the hill and sled....so he blasted down the hill at a very high speed and hit the protective bank of snow (which by the way is about 6 ft. high) up the side of it and rocketed off the top, hung suspended in the air for what seemed like forever and then crashed to the ground behind the bank...we were all rushing down the hill to him and it was a few seconds before he even moved...so I was thinking the worst....(that I would have to do chores the next day....hahahahha) but he said he was laughing so hard he couldn't move...hahahaha but later admitted to me that he nearly shit himself when he was going up the side of the bank and had no way to stop. After that if anyone slid in the blue sled...they had to go down the other path we had made that headed out into the open pasture field...he went down again later on that path and ended up way out in the field...farther than anyone else had made it...and when he hit the fresh undisturbed snow...it flew up in front of the sled and covered him from head to toe...even plastering his face with a couple inches of wet snow jammed in behind his glasses...hhahahhaha he was blinded while his glasses defogged and he had really bad brain freeze from the snow hitting his forehead.... so all in all, it was a great time...we definitely want to do it again.... I always knew these mountains we have for farm land were good for something.
We came to the house and had a veggie plate, hot dogs and hot chocolate and I got rid of some more of my Christmas baking...
December 29, 2010
Well Thank God that's Over
Dodged another crappy holiday season with little to no damage done. We ate three separate Xmas dinners, oddly enough each one good enough in their own way but sadly lacking that traditional flavour...either not the right veggie combo, or the right turkey dressing, one didn't even make dressing. That is sacrilegious, who doesn't make turkey dressing, even stove top is better than nothing for Christ's sake...
Any way, enough about food. We timed the arrival at Robert's nephews just right, arrived there just 10 minutes before eating and left directly after, we would have stayed longer but we got heaved out the door so that they could go to the Xmas church service in their families little Lutheran church...we made our escape, but left without taking part in the movie exchange later that night...outside in the snowy parking lot...Roberts brother caught up to us and asked if we would come to his place for dinner on boxing day...and Robert, I am ashamed to admit, barked out "who else is coming"....how rude....his brother Tom said "phht, what do you mean who's coming...me you and Cathy"
Robert was reluctant to commit ourselves so we left it hanging and his brother walked away...insulted I think.
On Christmas day, we lazed around, well I did, Robert had to feed the cattle. But at 4 pm we got dolled up, and headed into town (local) to a friends house to join their family for dinner...the food was okay...but their grand kids were there and you know I finally have to admit, I, in my old age find young children horribly annoying... perhaps it would be different if they were my grand kids, but some body elses....yikes...especially the boy age 11, he kept having to be the centre of attention and was shooting foam darts from a massive gun he was given for Christmas at everyone in the room, company not exempt. He got Robert in the face twice. Robert, I could see, was getting a little miffed....as would I have been, and the grandpa grabbed the darts and put them away..so the kid just opened a second package of them...thank god supper was ready and we all went to the table... They have two adult children the son is about 38 and talked of nothing but zombies and science fiction movies all night..and the daughter age 35 didn't talk...except she kept calling Robert, Roger all night...until he finally told her to just call him Sue...she clammed up after that... and kept going outside to smoke...yuk...
We left around 10 pm...I had a bad sciatic nerve thing going on in the back of my thigh and buttock so it made sitting on anything excruciatingly painful...boy weren't we just the life of the party....grumpy Robert and tight lipped from pain Cathy...hahahahah bet we don't get an invite back there next year...hahahaha
Boxing day, we headed off to Roberts brothers...at noon....stopped at a walmart (big mistake in my mind) to grab a cheap movie for the exchange.... I wrapped in on the go...ahahahah what a mess...but at least they never guessed who brought that movie...hahaha looked like a 5 yr old wrapped it.
When we arrived at Tom's, Robert the chicken that he is...dropped me off at the door and said to go in, he was going to turn the truck around for an easy escape...so I had to face the dragon by myself...and low and behold...she was there all right...Tom's suppose to be estranged wife...the one who called the police on him over a year ago and had him removed from his house for three months and then put him through the hell of a court case to get a peace bond...all because she is an unrepentant alcoholic...who doesn't think she has a drinking problem... but apparently she did the exact same thing to her first husband and ended up getting his acreage in the settlement... She and Tom lied to us the whole time they were together...and so when the shit hit the fan with them and they were estranged we hoped that he would end it and go through with the divorce...but no...he thinks he can help her with her drinking and wants them to be together... THIS was the first time we had seen her in a year and a half. NEVER would have been too soon to suit us. anyway, there she was.. standing inside the door with arms thrown wide...crying my name like we were long lost twins or something... she threw herself at me and hugged me...while I tried unsuccessfully to extricate myself...what a hag...she definitely has not aged well...her hair was lank and stringy..dark circles around her eyes, she is nearly emaciated but her eyes had the distinct look of someone well into the sauce...kind of glazed looking... a hug from tom and I was in the house....I excused myself for being rude and made my way straight to the washroom....by the time I came out Robert was at the door...she tried the same thing with him but he just crossed his arms and refused to hug her....
We moved toward the dinning room and nearly fell to our knees in gratitude when the door bell rang again and two old neighbour ladies of Toms came in....they were invited too THANK GOD !!!!! so if not for Ella and Stella being there...things would have been very ugly I think, since Robert was in no mood for her bullshit...I wondered how things would go.. and thought it would either be a knock down drag out fight or she would pretend nothing had ever happened....and that is the card she played...she acted like nothing had happened...and she hadn't nearly caused tom to kill himself in despair...of losing her and nearly losing his home , he did lose his kids because none of them will talk to him for getting back together with her.... Anyway, after a couple of hours sitting there in their blue haze of cigarette smoke, my eyes were burning, my throat was sore and tightening up, with no puffer on hand I told Robert it was time to leave...so all the way home we had to smell the stale smoke smell on our clothes and the moment we walked in the door of the house we stripped and headed straight for the shower...to de-tox ourselves...hahahaha boy that was emotionally draining...sitting through that...but the worst is over, the first time being the hardest...we do intend to talk with her about her behavior and let her know why we are mad and don't want to have anything to do with it but didn't think boxing day was the time to that...another time perhaps...
I never heard from my son other than the card his wife sent...just Robert and Cathy love Rob and Eleesha... no note, no call, no visit... I wrote a nice note in his card inviting him to come during the holidays for a visit since they both work and I never know when they are home it is easier for them to come or call here. Since when I call it is always to get his voice mail and they never call back... So, I am going to wait awhile and if I don't hear from him, he is dead to me....hahahahaha like the Mafia....banished....
Yesterday, Robert and I spent the lovely afternoon, it was only -5 out and sunny, preparing a big hill for tobogganing....our friends that we spent Xmas day with are coming out for a tobogganing party today...so we were getting it ready yesterday and had a hoot....first Robert put the bucket on the tractor and back bladed a few runs down the hill...then I tested them out with the toboggan and calf sled...we decided which one was the best and developed it further...putting in a few humps to get you air born...and such....oh man did I have fun....I even got old stiff in the neck Robert to go down a couple of times...and he screamed like a little girl all the way down...because this some some serious sled hill...steep as hell and long....we are going to use the tractor to taxi people back up the hill....should be a blast...hot dogs and hot chocolate afterwards at the house....and Xmas baking of course...have to get rid of it before I start in on it...managed so far not to because Robert had his nephews beef on top of it in the freezer but now that that is delivered...butter tarts are calling my name.... so I hope to have a few pictures of our sledding day to post soon....
In the meantime, between all this holidaying...I have been working on a not so small project for my friend whose family lost a great uncle in the sinking of the HMCS Esquimalt... what an interesting story that turned out to be and I have been emailing with the author of the article and he had helped me enormously...I have put together a collection of articles about the ship, the day it was torpedoed and about the German u boat that sank her..along with some photographs and such...it is a gift to her and her great aunt (whose brother it was that died on that ship). I know, I know....over the top again but what can you do...I am just that kind of person...if I do something, I like to be thorough. Type A personality disorder....over achiever, it has many names... take advantage of it while you can...I hope to change someday...
Well, that's all for today, I'm off to defrost the hot dogs and polish my toboggan bottom...hahahaha
Any way, enough about food. We timed the arrival at Robert's nephews just right, arrived there just 10 minutes before eating and left directly after, we would have stayed longer but we got heaved out the door so that they could go to the Xmas church service in their families little Lutheran church...we made our escape, but left without taking part in the movie exchange later that night...outside in the snowy parking lot...Roberts brother caught up to us and asked if we would come to his place for dinner on boxing day...and Robert, I am ashamed to admit, barked out "who else is coming"....how rude....his brother Tom said "phht, what do you mean who's coming...me you and Cathy"
Robert was reluctant to commit ourselves so we left it hanging and his brother walked away...insulted I think.
On Christmas day, we lazed around, well I did, Robert had to feed the cattle. But at 4 pm we got dolled up, and headed into town (local) to a friends house to join their family for dinner...the food was okay...but their grand kids were there and you know I finally have to admit, I, in my old age find young children horribly annoying... perhaps it would be different if they were my grand kids, but some body elses....yikes...especially the boy age 11, he kept having to be the centre of attention and was shooting foam darts from a massive gun he was given for Christmas at everyone in the room, company not exempt. He got Robert in the face twice. Robert, I could see, was getting a little miffed....as would I have been, and the grandpa grabbed the darts and put them away..so the kid just opened a second package of them...thank god supper was ready and we all went to the table... They have two adult children the son is about 38 and talked of nothing but zombies and science fiction movies all night..and the daughter age 35 didn't talk...except she kept calling Robert, Roger all night...until he finally told her to just call him Sue...she clammed up after that... and kept going outside to smoke...yuk...
We left around 10 pm...I had a bad sciatic nerve thing going on in the back of my thigh and buttock so it made sitting on anything excruciatingly painful...boy weren't we just the life of the party....grumpy Robert and tight lipped from pain Cathy...hahahahah bet we don't get an invite back there next year...hahahaha
Boxing day, we headed off to Roberts brothers...at noon....stopped at a walmart (big mistake in my mind) to grab a cheap movie for the exchange.... I wrapped in on the go...ahahahah what a mess...but at least they never guessed who brought that movie...hahaha looked like a 5 yr old wrapped it.
When we arrived at Tom's, Robert the chicken that he is...dropped me off at the door and said to go in, he was going to turn the truck around for an easy escape...so I had to face the dragon by myself...and low and behold...she was there all right...Tom's suppose to be estranged wife...the one who called the police on him over a year ago and had him removed from his house for three months and then put him through the hell of a court case to get a peace bond...all because she is an unrepentant alcoholic...who doesn't think she has a drinking problem... but apparently she did the exact same thing to her first husband and ended up getting his acreage in the settlement... She and Tom lied to us the whole time they were together...and so when the shit hit the fan with them and they were estranged we hoped that he would end it and go through with the divorce...but no...he thinks he can help her with her drinking and wants them to be together... THIS was the first time we had seen her in a year and a half. NEVER would have been too soon to suit us. anyway, there she was.. standing inside the door with arms thrown wide...crying my name like we were long lost twins or something... she threw herself at me and hugged me...while I tried unsuccessfully to extricate myself...what a hag...she definitely has not aged well...her hair was lank and stringy..dark circles around her eyes, she is nearly emaciated but her eyes had the distinct look of someone well into the sauce...kind of glazed looking... a hug from tom and I was in the house....I excused myself for being rude and made my way straight to the washroom....by the time I came out Robert was at the door...she tried the same thing with him but he just crossed his arms and refused to hug her....
We moved toward the dinning room and nearly fell to our knees in gratitude when the door bell rang again and two old neighbour ladies of Toms came in....they were invited too THANK GOD !!!!! so if not for Ella and Stella being there...things would have been very ugly I think, since Robert was in no mood for her bullshit...I wondered how things would go.. and thought it would either be a knock down drag out fight or she would pretend nothing had ever happened....and that is the card she played...she acted like nothing had happened...and she hadn't nearly caused tom to kill himself in despair...of losing her and nearly losing his home , he did lose his kids because none of them will talk to him for getting back together with her.... Anyway, after a couple of hours sitting there in their blue haze of cigarette smoke, my eyes were burning, my throat was sore and tightening up, with no puffer on hand I told Robert it was time to leave...so all the way home we had to smell the stale smoke smell on our clothes and the moment we walked in the door of the house we stripped and headed straight for the shower...to de-tox ourselves...hahahaha boy that was emotionally draining...sitting through that...but the worst is over, the first time being the hardest...we do intend to talk with her about her behavior and let her know why we are mad and don't want to have anything to do with it but didn't think boxing day was the time to that...another time perhaps...
I never heard from my son other than the card his wife sent...just Robert and Cathy love Rob and Eleesha... no note, no call, no visit... I wrote a nice note in his card inviting him to come during the holidays for a visit since they both work and I never know when they are home it is easier for them to come or call here. Since when I call it is always to get his voice mail and they never call back... So, I am going to wait awhile and if I don't hear from him, he is dead to me....hahahahaha like the Mafia....banished....
Yesterday, Robert and I spent the lovely afternoon, it was only -5 out and sunny, preparing a big hill for tobogganing....our friends that we spent Xmas day with are coming out for a tobogganing party today...so we were getting it ready yesterday and had a hoot....first Robert put the bucket on the tractor and back bladed a few runs down the hill...then I tested them out with the toboggan and calf sled...we decided which one was the best and developed it further...putting in a few humps to get you air born...and such....oh man did I have fun....I even got old stiff in the neck Robert to go down a couple of times...and he screamed like a little girl all the way down...because this some some serious sled hill...steep as hell and long....we are going to use the tractor to taxi people back up the hill....should be a blast...hot dogs and hot chocolate afterwards at the house....and Xmas baking of course...have to get rid of it before I start in on it...managed so far not to because Robert had his nephews beef on top of it in the freezer but now that that is delivered...butter tarts are calling my name.... so I hope to have a few pictures of our sledding day to post soon....
In the meantime, between all this holidaying...I have been working on a not so small project for my friend whose family lost a great uncle in the sinking of the HMCS Esquimalt... what an interesting story that turned out to be and I have been emailing with the author of the article and he had helped me enormously...I have put together a collection of articles about the ship, the day it was torpedoed and about the German u boat that sank her..along with some photographs and such...it is a gift to her and her great aunt (whose brother it was that died on that ship). I know, I know....over the top again but what can you do...I am just that kind of person...if I do something, I like to be thorough. Type A personality disorder....over achiever, it has many names... take advantage of it while you can...I hope to change someday...
Well, that's all for today, I'm off to defrost the hot dogs and polish my toboggan bottom...hahahaha
December 25, 2010
Merry Christmas All
I hope you all have a great day. R and I went to see a movie yesterday...this is, after all our holiday time...with the exception of feeding cows everyday, this is the time of year when we have the least amount of work to do, the lull before the storm, if you will. Calving starts mid-January and we try to take advantage of the spare time to do some fun stuff. Catch up on our movie seeing. On Thursday we went to see Little Fockers, and it was pretty funny...but yesterday before going to R's nephews place for a Christmas eve dinner we went to see THE KING'S SPEECH and Oh My God...it was great...the acting was superb...the movie builds with anguish, at such a dark time in history...only to leave you filled with such a lifting of the spirit...up lifted...yes, that's how I felt at the end...I wanted to go out and conquer something... it was awesome... so I would recommend it to anyone...if you can only see one movie this year...this is the one to go to, I think.
On a completely different note...... has anyone else noticed how the population is dwindling...I mean you probably haven't what with all the immigrants coming to Canada...but I meant the size of the average family...I was just remarking on this the other day to R...doing this genealogy made me aware that the size of a normal family is completely different than it used to be even only 50 yrs ago. Couples used to have six or more children...and then in my generation it was down to two to four and now seems like one child is the norm, what's next is even too scary to think about...but couples not having any children could be the normal thing...and where would that leave us... somebody needs to be having babies..... should I tell you why this bothers me....
I grew up in a family where 12 children were born, although we did not all grow up together...there were 5 that I did grow up being a part of. There is a certain comfort in that I think....a buffer or cushion...you feel some sort of connection to at least a handful of people...that is an important thing to have I believe. Even now, at my middle years I feel such a loss in my parents deaths and that of one brother...like my grasp on something is slipping...and I don't want to lose it...but it seems inevitable that I will.
I say this with this thought in mind.....what must an only child feel....to not have the cushion of family around them...to know that once the parents have passed on...what does he have a connection to...how singular that must feel. an island in the ocean...
It makes me sad then that THAT child won't take advantage of the family connections he does have, like cousins and aunts and uncles.
So you can probably guess where this is leading and I promised myself I wouldn't thing about it again... I've been awake since 4 am, after waking from a bad dream, so humour me... I am tired and afraid to go back to sleep..you could even accuse me of rambling...god forbid...
Don't forget that I am going with R to some friends place for our Xmas dinner...and I should be full of weird stories for tomorrow... take care all and we'll talk again soon.
On a completely different note...... has anyone else noticed how the population is dwindling...I mean you probably haven't what with all the immigrants coming to Canada...but I meant the size of the average family...I was just remarking on this the other day to R...doing this genealogy made me aware that the size of a normal family is completely different than it used to be even only 50 yrs ago. Couples used to have six or more children...and then in my generation it was down to two to four and now seems like one child is the norm, what's next is even too scary to think about...but couples not having any children could be the normal thing...and where would that leave us... somebody needs to be having babies..... should I tell you why this bothers me....
I grew up in a family where 12 children were born, although we did not all grow up together...there were 5 that I did grow up being a part of. There is a certain comfort in that I think....a buffer or cushion...you feel some sort of connection to at least a handful of people...that is an important thing to have I believe. Even now, at my middle years I feel such a loss in my parents deaths and that of one brother...like my grasp on something is slipping...and I don't want to lose it...but it seems inevitable that I will.
I say this with this thought in mind.....what must an only child feel....to not have the cushion of family around them...to know that once the parents have passed on...what does he have a connection to...how singular that must feel. an island in the ocean...
It makes me sad then that THAT child won't take advantage of the family connections he does have, like cousins and aunts and uncles.
So you can probably guess where this is leading and I promised myself I wouldn't thing about it again... I've been awake since 4 am, after waking from a bad dream, so humour me... I am tired and afraid to go back to sleep..you could even accuse me of rambling...god forbid...
Don't forget that I am going with R to some friends place for our Xmas dinner...and I should be full of weird stories for tomorrow... take care all and we'll talk again soon.
December 21, 2010
Lunar Eclipse
So, last night was the first full lunar eclipse occurring on the winter solstice in over 378 years or something like that...pretty awesome...and I tried valiantly to stay up and see the whole thing...but it was -25 here last night and I was super tired from shovelling tons of snow that day...so I powered out after only a third of the moon was covered...R stayed up a bit longer and saw the whole thing covered but didn't take a picture...he is afraid of my camera... so here is the shot I got with just my digital...I wished I had telescope.... we won't see the next one on this day until 2449..... I don't know about you but I definitely won't be awake to see that one...hahahahaha
That's Disgusting
Well we did our good Samaritan gig for the holiday season, last week, we moved that furniture our friends had bought for their daughter, with our stock trailer to her home in Ft. Sask. just north of the city. We left here about 10 am and got to their place shortly there after. Loaded up the stuff, which turned out to be a bit more than just furniture....let's see, there was a sofa, love seat and chair....a bike, several bags of clothes (recycled) and a box of blankets. I have to admit that when I saw the furniture I nearly gagged...it was one of those suites that your grandma might have owned...now don't get me wrong, a floral pattern on furniture can look quite lovely (ie: sue's) light, springtime-ish and clean.....but this stuff, they had bought for a song from the guy that runs the gas station in town, his mom moved into the nursing home and they were selling the house....and I guess it is a testament to how desperate this 30 yr old mother of two is that she was tickled pink to get it...but it was indigo blue, purple and pink flowers on a very beige, nearly toffee coloured background. with the big rolled arms and the frilly skirt along the bottom...gag.....
I said to R that I hoped she had some nice quilts or blankets to cover it up with...
so when we arrived there the first order of business was to remove the old sofa...and wooden walmart rocker from the house....which the guys did....now J is a small statured man about a foot shorter than R and slim...so moving furniture with R was made more difficult because of the difference in height...J tripped on a small step in the sidewalk going up to the driveway..and fell on one hip while his end of the sofa came down on his other hip...hahaha he was a bit uncomfortable the rest of the day but I guess he is in his mid sixties...so we should have been a bit more sympathetic....I think the sofa would have been only half as heavy if she had vacuumed it out...because when they took the cushions off of it it was filthy dirty...I mean filthy... It made me want to wash my hands and I hadn't even touched it....hahahaha there was dried up cereal, fruit loops and cheerios, and such, candies stuck to the bottom of the cushions, dead bugs, and general filth....I could tell our friends were a bit embarrassed and the young woman did confess that her vacuum had broken over a year ago....ewwwww.... but R and I later discussed it and we both had to ask ourselves....what the hell was the matter with borrowing a vacuum from a friend or borrow your moms...or something, man, it's just a lame excuse for being lazy...on my way to the bathroom before we left I had to pass one of the kids rooms and the carpet that was visible at the doorway was filthy too.... our friend said they had bought their daughter a new vacuum for Xmas....I say, not a moment too late...
This is not the only friend we have with cleaning issues...our long time friends are hoarders....yes I said hoarders....we helped them move from the farm to their new place near the city, and it took me weeks to recover from the trauma...so much stuff in the house that there were just paths to the sink, bathroom and kitchen table...no other rooms were accessible...really...they had to climb a pile of clothing and jackets to get into their bedroom.which in the 20 years we have been friends we had never seen the inside of ...and after the first two years of being friends we no longer could sit in the living room...it was full and overflowed into the kitchen...when we packed up their crap and stuffed it into a school bus...to haul to the new place we were aghast at the mouse turds on the kitchen counter and it made me nearly vomit because we had just had dinner there a few weeks before..... when we walked on the empty kitchen floor, your shoes weren't really in contact with the linoleum...it was like walking on a layer of rice kernels, that's how bad the mouse shit was on the floor...and they knew they had mice...because there were chunks of mouse bait and some of the turds were blue and pink, the same colour as the bait...hahaha....I swear .... I came home and fanatically cleaned my house for weeks afterwards...even if it wasn't dirty... I also couldn't help myself from editing....you know...going through everything we owned and getting rid of the things we didn't use or need....that wore off after a few weeks thank god...but it has been nearly three years now since they moved and we had hoped at first that moving into a bigger place away from their family would give them a chance to start off on the right foot again but sadly...their new place is filling up with crap again...now it isn't so much garbage but, piles of fabric (she's a quilter), books, food stuff and laundry and general clutter...they are both to blame...one being as bad as the other for just piling stuff on the floor beside their chairs...the kitchen area is again cluttered with piles of food boxes and cans of stuff, fabric and that kind of stuff to the point where there is just a path from the front door to the stove...but she has to lean over to reach the stove because there are pots and pans in front...on the floor...the counters are covered a foot deep with cookie tins, pans, and what have you...and I don't think she even owns a broom...that was one thing we noticed when we moved them, we never saw any cleaning products, brooms or mops. She hadn't been able to clean in that house for so long I think she just forgot how...sad isn't it. We love them dearly but they frustrate the hell out of us...they don't think there is anything the matter with how they live...he even brags about it being homey....and that our house is cold and sterile...hahahahaha what ever...I could never live like that...and for all my parents shortcomings....I can honestly say that never, ever did we live in a filthy hovel...ever...both my mom and dad were tidy people...and they instilled that in us kids...besides if anything sat around too long without being used my dad traded it at the second hand store for something we did need...
so back to moving our friends used furniture....we now have a harshly used sofa and wood rocker on our stock trailer waiting for the day the dump opens here...(only one day per week) so that we can take and be rid of it.
But we are committed to returning to her house to help her and her parents move her to a new rental house...at the end of Jan. Let's hope she has used her new vacuum cleaner and things are a bit less gross...because even with a broken vacuum cleaner there really is no excuse for living in filth. Really people...
I said to R that I hoped she had some nice quilts or blankets to cover it up with...
so when we arrived there the first order of business was to remove the old sofa...and wooden walmart rocker from the house....which the guys did....now J is a small statured man about a foot shorter than R and slim...so moving furniture with R was made more difficult because of the difference in height...J tripped on a small step in the sidewalk going up to the driveway..and fell on one hip while his end of the sofa came down on his other hip...hahaha he was a bit uncomfortable the rest of the day but I guess he is in his mid sixties...so we should have been a bit more sympathetic....I think the sofa would have been only half as heavy if she had vacuumed it out...because when they took the cushions off of it it was filthy dirty...I mean filthy... It made me want to wash my hands and I hadn't even touched it....hahahaha there was dried up cereal, fruit loops and cheerios, and such, candies stuck to the bottom of the cushions, dead bugs, and general filth....I could tell our friends were a bit embarrassed and the young woman did confess that her vacuum had broken over a year ago....ewwwww.... but R and I later discussed it and we both had to ask ourselves....what the hell was the matter with borrowing a vacuum from a friend or borrow your moms...or something, man, it's just a lame excuse for being lazy...on my way to the bathroom before we left I had to pass one of the kids rooms and the carpet that was visible at the doorway was filthy too.... our friend said they had bought their daughter a new vacuum for Xmas....I say, not a moment too late...
This is not the only friend we have with cleaning issues...our long time friends are hoarders....yes I said hoarders....we helped them move from the farm to their new place near the city, and it took me weeks to recover from the trauma...so much stuff in the house that there were just paths to the sink, bathroom and kitchen table...no other rooms were accessible...really...they had to climb a pile of clothing and jackets to get into their bedroom.which in the 20 years we have been friends we had never seen the inside of ...and after the first two years of being friends we no longer could sit in the living room...it was full and overflowed into the kitchen...when we packed up their crap and stuffed it into a school bus...to haul to the new place we were aghast at the mouse turds on the kitchen counter and it made me nearly vomit because we had just had dinner there a few weeks before..... when we walked on the empty kitchen floor, your shoes weren't really in contact with the linoleum...it was like walking on a layer of rice kernels, that's how bad the mouse shit was on the floor...and they knew they had mice...because there were chunks of mouse bait and some of the turds were blue and pink, the same colour as the bait...hahaha....I swear .... I came home and fanatically cleaned my house for weeks afterwards...even if it wasn't dirty... I also couldn't help myself from editing....you know...going through everything we owned and getting rid of the things we didn't use or need....that wore off after a few weeks thank god...but it has been nearly three years now since they moved and we had hoped at first that moving into a bigger place away from their family would give them a chance to start off on the right foot again but sadly...their new place is filling up with crap again...now it isn't so much garbage but, piles of fabric (she's a quilter), books, food stuff and laundry and general clutter...they are both to blame...one being as bad as the other for just piling stuff on the floor beside their chairs...the kitchen area is again cluttered with piles of food boxes and cans of stuff, fabric and that kind of stuff to the point where there is just a path from the front door to the stove...but she has to lean over to reach the stove because there are pots and pans in front...on the floor...the counters are covered a foot deep with cookie tins, pans, and what have you...and I don't think she even owns a broom...that was one thing we noticed when we moved them, we never saw any cleaning products, brooms or mops. She hadn't been able to clean in that house for so long I think she just forgot how...sad isn't it. We love them dearly but they frustrate the hell out of us...they don't think there is anything the matter with how they live...he even brags about it being homey....and that our house is cold and sterile...hahahahaha what ever...I could never live like that...and for all my parents shortcomings....I can honestly say that never, ever did we live in a filthy hovel...ever...both my mom and dad were tidy people...and they instilled that in us kids...besides if anything sat around too long without being used my dad traded it at the second hand store for something we did need...
so back to moving our friends used furniture....we now have a harshly used sofa and wood rocker on our stock trailer waiting for the day the dump opens here...(only one day per week) so that we can take and be rid of it.
But we are committed to returning to her house to help her and her parents move her to a new rental house...at the end of Jan. Let's hope she has used her new vacuum cleaner and things are a bit less gross...because even with a broken vacuum cleaner there really is no excuse for living in filth. Really people...
December 16, 2010
Digging out
Well, that was quite the storm. Robert and I were suppose to go to the city yesterday but made a unanimous decision to stay home and cancel our meeting his nephews wife for an exchange of beef and cash.....hahahaha very good judgement on our part when later in the day they closed the yellowhead highway because of the over 80 vehicles in the ditch just west of Edmonton. That could have been us.... but we were snug as bugs in a rug at home, jigsaw puzzling our little fingers off...and drinking hot chocolate...sugar free of course.
here are some pics of the snow and drifting that took place at our place and we didn't get as much snow as some places...but it is over three feet deep now and deeper where the drifts are...
I have this dilemma. I got my ears pierced on my thirtieth birthday, it was a rebellious action....my mother would never let us girls have our ears pierced, always saying "if God wanted you with holes in your ears he would have made them with holes", now don't get the impression that my mother was religious, she only turned sort of religious when it suited her to appear holier than thou...usually of us kids or my dad.... I was feeling neglected on that particular birthday, feeling that it was a bit of a milestone for me, since as a kid 30 seemed awfully old and I never thought I would live long enough to reach it...hahahaha seems ridiculous now...but (insert shoulder shrug here) I was a kid, kids don't make sense some times....so..... I wanted my husband Sid to take me out for dinner...or something, anything really, but instead he just said no, he was too busy....so I went to town myself, which I rarely did for some strange reason...I bought a new top, got my hair cut short (which makes it go curly) and radically got my ears pierced, it was one of those spur of the moment things...and by the time I was sitting in the chair and she was getting the little gun ready I was regretting my decision...hahahahha and definitely was after she did the first ear....it isn't that it was so painful but the shock of if is more upsetting than anything...the pain didn't come until about an hour later and lasted for several days....so when I got home to an empty house....kid was still in school and Sid was....well I still don't know where Sid was...but he wasn't at home...so I put on my favorite cassette and grooved to the tunes while I got some supper started...and I foolishly decided a drink (meaning alcohol) wouldn't go amiss.... Vodka was my drink of choice, when I rarely drank, but much to my disappointment I was out of orange juice....but not one to be diverted...I used lemon aid instead since I had some in the fridge already..homemade even...The first sip proved to be disgusting....but I persevered and by the fourth or fifth sip it was tasting better....so I had a few more drinks....and by the time Sid and my son came inside for supper I was pretty much hammered...I am ashamed to say....since I rarely drank it only took two or three drinks to get me there..... I remember making a big dramatic speech about being taken for granted and how I thought I deserved to be treated soooooo much better than they were doing...and that they hadn't even noticed my lovely new earrings.... which by this time were nearly hidden by the swelling in my ear lobes...and their shiny new newness dimmed by the beet red colour of my throbbing ears....hahahaha Sid suggested I have a shower and I concurred...a shower was just what I needed...to cool my ears off...I felt like I was burning up.... so downstairs I traipsed...and began a nice coolish shower....I was singing and crying and generally feeling sorry for myself when Sid reached in and turned off the hot water....COLD, freezing cold water....Oh My God....I sobered up in a hurry and he was holding the shower door shut so I couldn't get out....to stupid to turn off the water...I just slid down to the floor and sat there in the cold water crying.....where I stayed for what seemed like hours...when I finally emerged from the bathroom....I was feeling pretty sick...I suffer greatly of hangover when I drink...and boy was I hungover....so imagine my horror when Sid announces to me that we have company coming over that evening...it was about 7 pm by this time...and no sooner did he tell me than there was a knock on the door.....OH GOD....I had to sit there the rest of the night watching them drink and celebrate my birthday when all I wanted to do was crawl into bed and die.....how awful....
Any way, I am a lot older now and find myself faced with a life decision.... to keep my pierced ear lobes or not....Oh I mean not have them chopped off or anything but to keep wearing the studs in them or take them out and let the holes grow in.... I have a metal allergy, have had for years....so unless I wear really expensive ear studs (gold)...they bother me a lot.... I can't wear dangle earrings or I get a rash on my neck...so I have been wondering lately, why bother....just take them out and maybe my ears will feel better...
What do you think I should do..... I don't know why I haven't been able to just do it....I know what I want to do...I want to just take them out and not bother....but I went through hell when I got them...infection and what have you...so they are like a badge of courage to me...I guess.. and it feels a bit like surrender taking them out....
I guess I will just have to ponder it some more and then suck it up and decide.
here are some pics of the snow and drifting that took place at our place and we didn't get as much snow as some places...but it is over three feet deep now and deeper where the drifts are...
Any way, I am a lot older now and find myself faced with a life decision.... to keep my pierced ear lobes or not....Oh I mean not have them chopped off or anything but to keep wearing the studs in them or take them out and let the holes grow in.... I have a metal allergy, have had for years....so unless I wear really expensive ear studs (gold)...they bother me a lot.... I can't wear dangle earrings or I get a rash on my neck...so I have been wondering lately, why bother....just take them out and maybe my ears will feel better...
What do you think I should do..... I don't know why I haven't been able to just do it....I know what I want to do...I want to just take them out and not bother....but I went through hell when I got them...infection and what have you...so they are like a badge of courage to me...I guess.. and it feels a bit like surrender taking them out....
I guess I will just have to ponder it some more and then suck it up and decide.
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