53 and counting!!!

I think I may be a bit of an oddity within people my age group but I LOVE having birthdays.  Perhaps it's because it's something I've done for the last 53 years but I don't think so.  I think it is because in my family it's kind of an accomplishment!  My Dad died a couple of months before his 53rd birthday so that was always kind of a goal.  Then when my older brother passed away at 48 the goal post moved.  When my little brother passed at 48 I was determined to stay alive long enough for my 53rd! It was no longer a goal but an imperative!  Fortunately my Mum lived to see her 78th birthday and my sister is healthy and happy at a few years older than me so I think I'm good.  I am looking forward to turning 54 tomorrow!

So how do you celebrate your birthday?  I have a friend Rachel in Winnipeg who celebrates with a birthday week.  The whole week is all Rachel, all the time.  When I was first exposed to the birthday week concept I liked it.  I haven't taken it on myself but I think Rachel is a wise woman.  She knows that she is important enough in our lives that her birth deserves to be celebrated for an entire week!

So this year in the spirit of the birthday week mine is being extended to two days!  Yup!  Dinner at a nice restaurant tomorrow night on the actual day and then cake with friends on Saturday afternoon.  Ok....it's really being done that way because Walter is making me a strawberry shortcake and the farmers' market will have all kinds of fresh strawberries early Saturday morning!  But I'm good with that.  Perhaps next year I'll plan a three day event!

Have a wonderful day wherever you are.  Don't forget to tell the people you love that you love them!
Barb

Vacation is over!

Well apparently my attempt at a schedule goes right out the window when Walter is on vacation!  The first week was what we referred to as 'renocation' since Walter was working on the upstairs bathrooms getting the new gyproc up and painting etc.  Then the second week we went to Prince George for six days.  Of course two of those days were driving days but growing up here we're both ALWAYS up for a road trip!  That's half the fun.

So what did we do in PG you ask?  Well other than doing wonders for the PG economy shopping wise for things we cannot get here in town we went out for dinner...a lot.  Tuesday we met up with friends Tracy and John at a great little place on Third Avenue called Nancy O's.  If you haven't been there you should check it out.  Great atmosphere, great food, great service and reasonable prices!

One day we did a mini-road trip within a road trip.  We drove two hours southeast of Prince George to the town of Barkerville.  It is a Gold Rush Town and was at one time the largest 'city' north of San Francisco and east of Chicago I believe.  If you haven't been there, it is worth going.  If like me you haven't been there since 1969 it's worth going again!  We panned for gold with the five-time World Gold Panning Champion.  We checked out numerous buildings and had lunch in the Lung Duck Tong restaurant.  We really did have a fun day.  We took about 500 pictures between us so I'm sure we looked like the tourists we were.

I find it amazing how digital photography has changed my world.  I used to sweat over every picture I took knowing that I had to pay for developing and then printing.  Even worse was that you'd pay for developing just to discover that half the pictures were garbage!  For the last 12 years I've had a digital camera.  Actually I've had two Nikon Coolpix camera and they have both been amazing.  Having said that I was ready for something beyond point and shoot.  So my really big purchase was a Nikon B5200 package from London Drugs.  I am so excited to use it.  I've read the manual and discovered I was supposed to read it BEFORE I charged the battery and put it and the memory card in their respective places.  Oh well!  The upside is that I did it right!  Yay me!

Well that's it for today.  I hope you've all been well and are enjoying life!

We all know that ONE person...

I'm pretty sure that I am not alone in this.  You know THAT person right?  The one who seems to take pleasure in other people's misfortune?  He or she probably won't say anything to you if it is you going through something, but I can pretty much guarantee this person is telling everyone else.  That is why it is so important to choose who you share information with.  I used to be an open book.  I still am in many ways.  I mean seriously, I write about my life and anyone with an internet connection can read it.  But I have discovered over the years that there are a few people who I've pulled back from.  People I thought were friends but discovered that mainly they just like to be the first to know things.  Those are also the people who ask you questions about other people.  It usually goes like this.

Them - "Did you hear about Susie?"
You - "No"
Them "Well I heard...(fill in the blank)" and off it goes.

I never used to know how to deal with those situations, but now I do.  If someone asks me a personal question that I consider to be just that, personal, my response is "Why do you ask?".  That usually stops people in their tracks.  Or, if they're rude enough to say "Because I'm nosey" I respond with "That's not a reason for me to share".  I am coming to terms with the fact that just because I know someone doesn't mean they are entitled to know everything about me.  Nor am I entitled to know everything about them.  In fact, I have found that I have very little interest in knowing much about anybody else's life outside the circle of my family and closest friends.  Is this just a function of age?  I wonder.

Film at 11

Ok...so now I'm just writing things down as I remember them.  Our society has become so globally aware that we are inundated with news from all over the globe.  I personally find it too much to cope with on any sort of regular basis.  If I was able to avoid watching the news, without taking a lot of flack from people, I would be quite happy.  But I don't seem to be able to.  What this means is that last night I watched the news and heard about a young man, only 18 years old, who left his cell phone in a taxi and used the 'find my phone' app to figure out where it was.  Great app, it told him exactly where it was and he went to retrieve it.  The sad thing is that the men who had it murdered him over it.  The phone was recovered not half a block from where he died.  I was in tears over that story.  Then there was the story of a young woman crossing the street in Vancouver pushing a baby stroller.  They were hit by a large truck and sent to the hospital with non-life-threatening injuries.  Witnesses claim the young woman was text messaging while crossing.  Further stories indicate that the woman was not the mother but the nanny, who we can only assume is now unemployed and probably no longer employable as a nanny ever again.

I have to ask how these stories affect my life.  Why do I need to know them?  They both horrified me.  They both saddened me.  But neither of them affects my life directly.  Even though the young man in London, Ontario was killed just a block from my old home at Highbury & Brydges and the young woman and child were injured just a couple of blocks from my sister's workplace, I don't know these people or probably anyone related to them or the incidents.  I feel for all involved, deeply, but I don't think I have the emotional resources necessary to watch the news.

My promise to myself is that I am no longer going to watch the news regularly.  I will peruse the CBC website and cherry-pick what I want to know about.  Instead I am going to focus on the positive things in my life.  Like yesterday when the gentleman (and he truly is a gentle man) who owns the townhouse next to us was over cutting the lawn for his tenants and very generously offered to mow ours as well.  Thank you Mr. Jawanda for mowing our lawn, thank you for being a good neighbour but most of all thank you for putting the good news back in my day!  

Road trip!

So you know that the countdown is really on for vacation when the day you are leaving shows up on the iPhone weather app!  Today is Wednesday and we leave Monday...and according to Apple it will be sunny and 22C on Monday!!!!

Tell me something.  Does every one, every where just LOVE road trips?  Or is it a side effect for me because my parents came from Manchester, England and exploring their new country involved constant road trips?  Or is it because they moved us up north when I was 9 years old and to get anywhere from Terrace you pretty much have to drive for 6 hours?  I don't know the answer but I do know that I love road trips.  We're only going to Prince George for a few days but driving between here and there is so beautiful and somehow the scenery never gets old for me.  Even though I can anticipate pretty much every turn in the highway it seems new.  For instance, the other day I went on canada411.ca to see if there are any art supply stores in PG other than Spee-Dee Printers and it brought up a listing for a place called Process 4 Gallery in Burns Lake.  Now I've never noticed it and yet it's there!  So we're going to stop there on our way through and check it out.  I'm ALWAYS happy to find a new place for art supplies!

Well I'm off to get my day started!  Lots to do.  Have a wonderful day and enjoy yourself wherever you and whatever you're doing!

I DID IT!!!

Ok...so I'm feeling pretty pleased with myself!  Admittedly, I didn't last long but it's about quality not quantity right?  ;)

I took my guitar out of its case and played!  I was able to play Aura Lee through three times without a mistake!  Woo hoo!  Many, many thanks to Greg for getting my guitar in shape for me and giving me the encouragement I needed!  :D

So now I need to be on the look-out for a music stand.  Although Walter just suggested that temporarily I try my little portable art easel!  Great idea!  I feel amazing!!!

Some days...

It is easier than others to write what I think.  In fact, when I lay down in bed I can think of DOZENS of things I want to write about.  I think it's time to start keeping a pen and paper in my bedside table to write things down as I think about them.

Our dog Shadow has a sore leg that he is favouring.  It's weird with pets because they can let you know that something's wrong but not exactly where.  It was so much easier with kids.  Well maybe not.  For years my eldest son would complain about a sore stomach before going to school.  I took him to the doctor early on in the process and it was decided that it was just nerves.  Which in the 80s was just what it was.  It wasn't until he was long out of school that he discovered a lactose intolerance.    :(   Yeah....didn't even figure it out when I had the dairy cow.  Lactose intolerance just wasn't really anything I knew about in the 80s.  Even after I had son number three in the early 90s lactose intolerance was generally thought to affect certain ethnicities.  Since #3's dad is half Chinese it was suggested by the doctor that I try him on soy formula.  Total no go!  He wanted good old-fashioned Similac!  Apparently it's the Caucasian kid who has the problem and the part Asian child is just fine with milk and all its wonderful by-products.  Who knew?!

  Ok...so I just called the vet's office about Shadow.  Apparently the way he is favouring it is indicative of a problem with the knee.  Off to the vet's tomorrow!  Woo hoo!  It's a party I tell you!

It feels weird that it is Tuesday already.  After having a foggy TBI headache day yesterday I feel out of whack.  It's weird how that happens.  I feel like my week is out of sync.  Actually I feel like my brain is out of sync.  Of course it's felt that way more than it hasn't for a long time now.

So since my friend Greg re-strung my guitar for me I went and found my guitar lesson books.  The neuropsychologist in Winnipeg that Manitoba Public Insurance hired suggested that I receive art or music lessons to help my memory.  So MPI hired some guy to teach me guitar back in 2008 or 2009 suggest.  He came to my home 5 times out of the 8 lessons he was booked for.  He would cancel for various reasons.  I think that combined with the fact that he required me to learn to read music was probably why I didn't progress like I had hoped to.  But...the books are out and I'm ready to go!  I'm going to get myself back to it and hopefully with Greg's help and encouragement I will get back to playing regularly.  Think good thoughts!

Have a wonderful day and no matter what you're doing, make the most of it.  Today is THE day!