Good morning one and all on this very sunny and somewhat mild Wednesday closing in on the middle of March which of course means that spring is almost here according to the calendar anyway but that does not necessarily mean very much in this part of Canada and so spring really starts when the snow begins its melting in earnest and not just a bit now and then like it is doing these days where it melts a bit where the sun hits directly enough and then the shade returns and that little bit of melting returns to freezing and the water that was generated now returns to ice which naturally builds up continuously overnight as the water under the snow keeps on flowing being insulated from the cold by the cold snow until it comes in contact with my walkway and each morning there is an additional 2 inches (or 5 cm for those who prefer the archaic method of measurement) of ice for me to slip, swip, clip, and trip on in a multitude of new ways sending my legs higher than my head and my arms waving in the most frantic way giving all kinds of confusing messages to the many animal friends that frequent my yard space, like mama below, which isn’t really mine since it belongs to my landlord but it is at least the yard space that I use and at times like these wish I didn’t which is why my header photo is still from Hawaii which is where I should be right now and would certainly like to be right now but if I was I probably wouldn’t want to come back here anymore and if it was possible I would stay there because really who in their right mind would want to come back to this land of cold and snow and ice and headaches from slipping on the ice and it’s enough to make a person want to jump up and down, bang their head against the wall, fall to floor, pulling their hair on the way to the floor and, and… AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!  It’s okay.  I’m fine.  I’m calm.  I’m normal.  Really.  Even if it doesn’t always look like it.  Sigh.  The other day I was doing some cleaning.  Happens now and then.  I stood up after picking something off the floor. Whacked my back against one of my cabinets.  That made me kick a stool.  Which made me bend over hitting my head on a shelf unit.  And aside from the oh, ah, AA, I dropped the item I had originally picked up.  Sigh.  Hard to believe sometimes.  Also, I needed to vacuum the place.  First I needed to empty the container on the vacuum.  Didn’t want to come off.  I struggled and struggled.  Nothing.  Finally one last desperate attempt.  It came flying off and covered me and surrounding floor with the total contents of dust, cat hair and assorted whatever.  Sigh.  I think there was still a cloud of dust floating around the apartment the following day.  Unless it was foggy.  I wanted to make myself I little sweet treat, nice to have once in a while.  It required a cup of brown sugar.  No problem, had a new bag.  Cut an opening and proceeded to pour it into the measuring cup.  Nothing.  Sugar never budged.  Hmm, the opening is plenty large enough, I thought.  So I squeezed the bag.  Whomp!  Brown sugar everywhere.  On the counter.  In the sink. On the floor.  In my slippers.  Except in the measuring cup.  Not a grain of sugar there.  Sigh. Bought a new bag of brown sugar.  Speaking of shopping.  While out shopping the other day I needed to pick up cat food for Muffin.  She likes it.  And really, it isn’t bad on a sandwich, though now that I am on this crazy gluten free, which basically is almost food free, I am no longer able to borrow her food.  Oh well.  Anyway, back at the store, I head to the pet section and when I arrive I notice there was a new stack of cat litter.  Right, said I, need to get some of that.  Which I did.  And promptly left.  Returning home Muffin greets me as usual, and I remember.  Not cat litter, cat FOOD.  Muffin was not amused.  Just sat there swishing her tail back and forth and looking at my feet.  So I kept my shoes on.  My feet were quite grateful.  Speaking of feet.  Went to get something from my closet and there is a board standing up next to it, which I promptly knocked over, which I tried to stop, and hit my head on my dresser as I bent over, which caused me to miss the board and it hit my foot.  Sigh.  Yes.  These things really do happen to me.  This is a very small apartment.  So it is easy to bump things, kick things, walk into things, trip over things, and hit my head on things.  Of course, I used to do these things when I lived in a larger apartment too.  Sigh.  Guess I better stop.  There is more, but for another time.  Enjoy the rest of your week and God bless!

Steve and Muffin.

Good morning to all my faithful readers no matter what time of day it is when you read this since for me, as you know, it is always morning since I am a morning person because, to me at least, morning is definitely the best time of the day and really what could be nicer than watching the sun rise as it shoots it’s bright beams of light over the hills and touching the tree tops turning them a beautiful golden amber which of course would be a bit different once the leaves come out and then a sunrise is absolutely stunningly magnificent and very nice as well and yet very few people even notice such a thing as they grumble about the sun rising too early and they would rather sleep through it all and enjoy a sunset instead and I will admit a sunset can also be rather stunning but it always signals and end whereas a sunrise always signals a beginning which gives me energy and drive to desire to get things accomplished and, and…sigh.  Okay, it used to do that.  Now my drive is just trying to get out of bed.  Sigh.  And I am not even OLD!!  Though I do feel like it at times.  Speaking of phones.  Do you ever get those irritating type telemarketer calls?  I certainly do.  Sometimes it’s enough to make me want to throw my phone right out the door.  I would throw it out the window but they are still frozen shut and will likely be that way for quite some time yet.  You’re getting me off subject again.  Not nice.  Anyway, a good way of dealing with these calls is to say, half way through their delightfully boring speech is to interrupt and say, ‘what causes a hiccup?’ The other evening one of them called me about some TV survey.  I said I don’t watch TV. There was a brief silence and he started to fumble around and finally asked what cable company I had and I said, I don’t have cable since I don’t watch TV.  He said, oh.  That ended the call.  Amazing how that really mixes people up by saying that.  Did that once before too and that poor guy didn’t know what to say next.  But that is the truth, I don’t watch TV.  Just not interested.  Sigh.  I am still on vacation.  In Hawaii.  Still don’t know why anyone would want to go anywhere else.  It is just the most beautiful place.

Just look at those amazing Banyan trees above.  Walking under those trees enjoying the cool shade during the heat of the day, listening to the birds singing overhead.  Sigh.  Instead we have this

just a frozen wasteland.  Just cold, ice, cold, snow, cold.  And more cold.  Sigh.  But spring is almost here.  Right.  Even though it has gotten milder, it is still winter, and after a few days when the temp finally got above the freezing point, now it is back to freezing and everything is frozen.  And icy.  Which means dangerously slippery.  Don’t even want to go out when it is like this, however, being in a place like this makes one want to go out.

Now doesn’t this look a lot nicer than the other?  If you don’t agree, you’re welcome to move here and enjoy all this cold, ice and snow all you want.  Me?  I will take the palm trees and warm weather any day!!  Sigh.  But here I sit.  On my vacation.  Without going anywhere.  Enjoying these fantastic photos, all but one, compliments of Candace, and trying not to look out the windows.  Speaking of shopping.  I needed to pick up a few things.  Muffin was hungry.  And I wanted to keep my feet in one piece.  Each of them.  Or is that both of them?  Good thing I bought a large box of band aids last time I went shopping.  Also bought a larger size.  That way I don’t have to use so many.  I’m in the aisle where the cat food is located and this lady comes along also looking for cat food and she wants to pass me which is okay since there is plenty of room to do so and she says, ‘you don’t need to move, lots of space’, which is something I already knew and yet, whump!  She still managed to run into me almost knocking me into my cart which smashed into the shelves which knocked cans of cat food scattering onto the floor and left me wondering what happened and the lady was gone as quickly as she came leaving all those cans of cat food on the floor for someone to step on and go flying through the air landing splat on their back and maybe denting the can of cat food.  Oh well.  Off I went before someone saw me there and thought I had made the mess.  Muffin appreciated the effort to get her some food.  I think.  I will say she did anyway.  Sounds better that way.  Ahh, that nice warm sunshine and gentle breeze through the palms.  I will let you know when I get back.  Or if I do.  Wheehee!  Hope you all enjoy your week, warm or cold, especially all those poor people to the west that got all that snow yesterday!  God bless,

Steve and Muffin.

Today’s deep philosophical thought, ‘sometimes you win, and sometimes you learn.’