Category Archives: Uncategorized

Like A Half-Birthday But Less Festive; Twenty-Six Weeks In

Posted on by

So, for those of you who are counting, 26 weeks is exactly half a year. Six months of this pandemic! Back in March, six months felt like The Worst Possible Scenario. Now it is Just Life and I don’t think at all at how long this will go on; no one knows and speculating isn’t helpful.

This is where having a blog pays off; I look back and see the evolution. I think we have all gone through the five stages of grief, on a number of different levels, and I am now firmly in the Acceptance Stage. Happy Half-Birthday to the pandemic, I guess. Over the last six months I’ve gone from drinking a lot of wine and eating mini-eggs to frantically cleaning and reorganizing my laundry area and every other part of the house to learning how to teach yoga online to colouring my own hair and giving myself a bikini wax (WE’RE GOING TO NEED MORE WAX).

When the pandemic first started, only the most paranoid of us were wearing masks; that quickly changed and now I am leaning hard into Mask Fashion, coordinating my masks with my outfits.

Back in March and April, grocery shopping was the most harrowing, depressing, and soul-sucking activity; I remember feeling absolutely drained after a Superstore trip, and scheduling a whole day so that I could wait outside, in the cold, to get into Costco, and then feeling so disheartened that I would have to repeat the whole thing over and over again. Now, grocery shopping is just grocery shopping, still some things missing on the shelves but nothing really to write home about, unlike in the earlier months when we were all panicked about toilet paper, flour, yeast, and – for a few strange weeks at our house – baking powder and sauerkraut.

Speaking of which, I have discovered a huge downside to the boys being back at school and that is I have to bring the groceries into the house all by myself. What is this bullshit. For six months I have strolled into the house holding only a jug of milk or the bag with the bread and eggs, and commanded everyone to bring in the heavy bins, and now I, I am the one bringing in those heavy bins, this is an outrage. Groceries aside, I have barely lifted anything for six months, including but not limited to the laundry basket, outdoor chairs, and clothing donation bags. If the school shut-down lasted longer, it’s likely all my upper body muscles would atrophy completely.

The boys just finished their first week of classes; I am thinking week by week and one day at a time when it comes to school. They all wear masks – they are mandatory everywhere here – and although my older son tells me that “social distancing doesn’t exist,” well, we are doing the best we can. I mean, there is only so much physical space in a building, and there are 2300 kids, so take a deep breath, mask up, and wash hands.

It’s my thought that the kids are way better than adults in adjusting to a different world. It is my younger son’s fifteenth birthday tomorrow and on Friday afternoon he celebrated with friends, his usual “hangout” group. They had massive amounts of food in our back yard, always keeping distanced from each other, and when they weren’t they put on masks, even though they were outside the whole time.

The boys finish school at 1:00 on Fridays, and so the party started at that time and went until 6:30 pm, not before five large pizzas were consumed in addition to all the baked goods. Strangely enough, my son had an online math test to do on Friday “any time between 1:00 and 11:00 pm” and so he settled into his test after his friends left. Does that seem strange to anyone else? Well, I’m not criticizing. Finally, finally, FINALLY after years and years of filling out forms until my hand seized up, the school has taken to online forms. I guess they don’t want germy plague-ridden papers coming into the office, and although I don’t really think anyone’s catching The Covid from paper, I am not questioning anything. How many reams of paper have I gone through in my life, filling out the exact same thing over and over? How many Septembers have I spent rubbing my ink-stained hands as I fill out my phone number over and over, signing my name until it doesn’t look like my signature anymore? The biggest bonus is my sons are filling them out themselves, although I was a little taken aback that my younger son put in my husband as “Parent One.” I am usually Parent One! I’m the main contact! When I said this to him, he said “Oh, I thought it went by age.” Well.

This week I have gone back to teaching in-person classes at the community centre; I am now teaching two online classes and two in-person classes per week. It feels a bit strange after a six-month hiatus to see people again, but I will say this: if I contract Covid, it won’t be from that. The community centre is very strict: hand sanitizer before entering, one (masked) person at a time allowed in the lobby where we take off our shoes, there are x’s on the floor to mark where mats can go, and the x’s are three metres apart, and we leave via the emergency exit door so as to not run into anyone coming into the centre. My students don’t wear masks when actually practicing yoga, but I wear one to teach, and it isn’t as hard as I thought it would be.

Six months seems long, but it’s really a just a blip. I’m trying not to think ahead to the next six months and the long winter on the horizon, instead buying more warm clothes and taking things a day at a time. At least the masks will keep our faces warm.

Pandemic Reading

This book was, frankly, bizarre. I thought it sounded like a funny concept: man has an affair, so his wife decides she is going to have her own affair to get even, and is thrown into the new world of dating. But…the underlying theme of the book was stay married no matter what because divorce is awful and hey, we all make mistakes. I thought of googling the author to see if she is a fundamentalist Christian, but I guess I don’t care enough about it.

I have NO idea why I put this on hold at the library. Did someone recommend it to me? Was I drinking and library app-ing? Who knows. This was fine, not enjoyable but not terrible. It was very repetitive and gave advice like instead of flipping out when someone doesn’t change the toilet paper, just discuss your needs instead. I mean, that’s probably sound advice but I didn’t really need a whole book about it.

Six months, you guys. We can do this. xo

Science Is Magic; Twenty-Five Weeks In

Posted on by

I, Too, Get Cold When It Is 72 Degrees Outside

As my husband and I were out for our daily constitutional, an older lady in a fabulously bright pink jacket was walking down the sidewalk towards us. I stepped off the sidewalk to give her a two-metre bubble, and said “Oh! I LOVE your pink jacket!”

My husband said I sounded exactly like Buddy the Elf, which put me in mind of the old Twitter game, back when Twitter was fun and not a toxic cesspool of inhumanity, where you would describe your personality using three characters from popular culture. Mine are, without a doubt, Sally Allbright, Monica Geller, and, obviously, Buddy the Elf.

What Day Is It Even

To familiarize the students with new health and safety protocols, and to ease all the teens back into the classroom after a nearly six-month hiatus, last week the boys went back to school, one morning each. Grade Tens were in on Tuesday, Elevens on Wednesday, and then nothing after that until classes resume tomorrow. Add that to a long weekend in which my husband miraculously did not work and a visit to my parents for an early birthday celebration for my younger son, and I am more confused than ever about the days of the week. I feel really discombobulated, more so than normal. I mean, today is MONDAY. And it’s also a holiday. And it’s also freezing cold, complete with icy rain, in a “hello, it is now fall” kind of way. So far, the snow has held off but it’s COLD. I’m glad I “harvested,” as I am pretty sure my herb garden is not going to survive this.

It’s Sweater and Boot Season

There are a few warm and sunny days in the forecast, but mostly we are transitioning back to socks, boots, and sweaters. Despite my reticence to say goodbye to summer, it’s kind of fun to go through my sweaters again, after a whole two months without them. Shopping my closet, that’s my game.

Also matching my masks to my outfits.

Whoa-oh-oh It’s Magic

I have a beautiful Pandora necklace that is probably ten years old; I haven’t worn it for years as it had completely tarnished and blackened. It hung in my jewelry box, and, frankly, I forgot about it until a couple of weeks ago, when it caught my eye.

I looked up easy ways of cleaning silver and discovered the most amazing, incredibly simple way of doing it. First, line a bowl with aluminum foil and set the piece of silver in it, making sure it’s completely touching the foil. Bring water to a rolling boil on the stove, measure out the boiling water, and add one tablespoon of baking soda for each cup of water. Pour that mixture over the silver and wait for the magic to happen!

You can actually see the chemical reaction take place, you can smell the sulphur. I left it all to sit until the water cooled enough for me to put my hand in to take out the necklace, so probably 25 minutes. Rinse off the silver, and voila.

Magic! Or, more accurately, SCIENCE.

Pandemic Reading

This was incredibly eye-opening, terrifying, sad, and yet very hopeful. I actually didn’t know who Trevor Noah is, as I have never watched The Daily Show, but I’m glad it was recommended to me.

Oh, this was so good. I have always loved “slice of life” books and this one, set in Jerusalem, is an incredible look at female friendship with one of the most complicated political backdrops. Warning: this is not a CHEERFUL story, but it is incredible, so well-written. I resented doing literally anything else but reading this until I finished it. Fun fact: the author used to live in Calgary! Why? Who knows! But she did.

I know so many women who loved this immeasurably. I really loved the messaging, I admire her humanitarian work, and a lot of it resonated deeply with me. However, I did not love the writing style. I wasn’t at all surprised to see that Elizabeth Gilbert is her friend and mentor, as their styles are very similar.

I was one page into this when I realized I had read it before, back in 1998 when I was in grad school and someone lent it to me to take a break from economics texts. It was certainly worth a reread though! It’s good to have 22 years of a different perspective.

Photos taken before the weather change! Hope you have a great week, everyone. Stay safe. xo

One Day More; Twenty-Three and Twenty-Four Weeks In

Posted on by

Summer’s Almost Gone

School starts TOMORROW, and at this time every year I have feelings of melancholy and why-is-time-so-fleeting and landslide. I would say that I am having those feelings on steroids this year. Despite everything, we have had a really good summer; last week the boys got back from their annual camping trip with their dad, and said that they have had the best summer ever. The best. Summer ever. In 2020.

A habit I’ve established during this pandemic is reading a poem every morning before my yoga practice, and then during the yoga practice I meditate on an aspect of that poem. Last week I read this by Mary Oliver:

The present is what your life is, and you are capable of choosing what that will be. I love that. I guess if my boys can think that Summer 2020 has been the best summer of their lives so far, I can march forward into Fall 2020.

Both boys will be in high school, and they have a lot of health and safety protocols that make me feel as comfortable as I’m going to feel. Although every time I turn around someone is raging “But HOW can they POSSIBLY (fill in the blank: social distance, eat lunch, have gym or drama class…)” and I have to just take deep breaths. They will do their best with mandatory masks and eating lunches in designated classrooms and sanitization stations; they won’t have lockers, or change rooms and tote boxes for gym, which should be interesting. Take a deep breath and jump in, is what it feels like.

The masks arrived!

Small Non-Pandemic-Related Grievance

Last week I learned that my Garmin watch automatically resets after 150 days of a movement streak. I discovered this while running on Friday; my watch congratulated me on my FIVE day step streak, when it was really 155 days. Well. This is a good opportunity to practice non-attachment and remember that this is just a fun gadget, not something that is dictating my life, all evidence to the contrary. Om.

Super Exciting Grocery News

While I was on vacation, my dear friend and soul sister Janet (HI JANET) texted me to let me know that after a two year hiatus, Costco is once again stocking the 34 ounce jars of sundried tomatoes. I am not sure I can adequately convey my excitement at this news; I have been buying the Much More Expensive, smaller jars of sundried tomatoes at Superstore, with which I make my pasta sauce for our Monday night meal. As soon as I was home I hightailed it to Costco.

That should hold us for a while.

In addition to that, after months of not having giant rolls of parchment paper, those were back in stock. When they went missing a few months ago, I went into Pandemic Panic At The Disco and started stockpiling parchment paper from Superstore, thinking that would be the next thing that would be completely unavailable, and that upset me more than the difficulty finding baking powder, back in April. Long story short: I now have enough parchment paper to see me into the spring of 2025, give or take.

Vacation

I was so burned out prior to our vacation. I was just emotionally exhausted; being everyone’s Emotional Support Person was really draining me. My goals for our vacation were as follows: sleep, go for walks and runs (BECAUSE I DIDN’T WANT TO BREAK MY STEP STREAK WHAT), read a lot of books, and drink wine. That is exactly what I did.

We also had some beach time with my sister-in-law; her apartment complex has a private beach which was deserted during the week. It also happened to be about 38 degrees, so that was perfect.

Pandemic Reading

I got so much reading done on vacation, which I’m glad of, as my library pile was actually fairly daunting. It’s still daunting but that’s because I have become a Weird Book Addict who can’t seem to stop putting things on hold and picking up three extra books every time I go to pick up a hold.

This was interesting: a trend forecaster sees a movement toward less technology and more actual communication and physical contact and touch. Meanwhile her boyfriend is part of an antisex neo-sensual movement. It is especially interesting to read NOW, as we are all not allowed to touch one another and my god, I miss hugging people.

A psychological thriller, and I won’t say more than that for fear of spoiling.

This was about one of Iran’s most famous women; all about poetry and feminism in a place and time that was not friendly toward women.

Just a fun, light read about a heavy topic: cancer.

Another book about cancer; I guess the man who wrote this is very famous, which I didn’t know when I picked it up. It’s very sad and touching.

If you’re at all interested in politics and racial issues between Indian and Black people in Kenya, this is a great read.

I think every woman should read this book. This was life-changing for me. It’s like a switch went off in my head. I should write an entire post just about this book, it affected me THAT much.

I really enjoy Moriarty’s writing, but this might be one of my favourites. It was just totally satisfying in every way.

Reading this book was exactly like watching a movie on the Hallmark channel, in a good way. Very soft and feel-good.

Well, off to prepare for a strange, staggered-entry week. Let’s do this! xo

Nicole’s Favourite Things: The Herb Garden Edition

Posted on by

Earlier this week we got back from ten days at our vacation place; more about that later, but it was relaxing and chill, which I desperately needed. Prior to that my husband was out there for eight days by himself, which both worked out well – we have spent 24/7 together since March – and also was a challenge in terms of solo parenting emotional people getting ready for school/ worrying about possibly not going to school/ not knowing if their friends were going to school or taking the online option, not to mention preparing for the vacation itself, and all that entails. You all know what I’m talking about.

After coming home from ten days away, there was much to be done and I just now feel like I’ve caught up on groceries and laundry, scheduling the kids to go get their school ID and paperwork – school starts TUESDAY and I have feelings, but that will be left for another post – as well as picking up the dog from the kennel and – because the kennel either lost my booking or I failed to book him in for grooming – scheduling a visit to the groomer’s.

He’s happy to be back, can you tell?

Vacation, school, and everything in between will wait for next time. What I really wanted to talk about today is…

Nicole’s Favourite Things: The Herb Garden Edition

I have had so much fun this summer, growing herbs. I have kept them in pots by the back door, where it is sheltered and receives a blast of south-west sun, so it is also the hottest part of the yard. This year I grew basil, oregano, two kinds of mint, parsley, and chives, and I also transplanted my grown-in-house cilantro to a pot outside, and although transplanting cilantro is apparently a no-no, it worked great.

Pre-harvest! That’s the cilantro in front.

I learned some very important lessons: basil needs to be grown in a pot by itself, rather sharing a pot with the oregano, because oregano is super-bossy and totally takes over, don’t plant parsley unless you really love parsley or know people who do that don’t mind being constantly gifted parsley, and that I don’t actually use a lot of fresh herbs in my cooking.

I mean, I DO, I use cilantro often and chives are always a nice addition to dishes; I like to use fresh herbs while making salad dressings, and mint is nice for the occasional mojito. But honestly, my herbs were so prolific that I couldn’t possibly use them all fresh. So I got a little Ma Ingalls If Ma Ingalls Had An Herb Garden And Wasn’t Mostly Starving To Death On The Bald Prairie Most Of The Time:

Mint Extract

Fun fact about mint is that you should always grow it in a pot, unless you want it to take over your entire garden. It is VERY prolific; I would cut it right back, and within a day or two it would be happily popping back up. I decided to make some mint extract using a “recipe” I found on the internet.

First, fill a jar with a cup and a half of fresh mint. Or thereabouts!

Then muddle it to release the essence.

Add a cup or so of vodka, enough to cover things up. No need to get neurotic about the measurements. Just pour!

Fun fact! I was gifted that giant bottle of vodka on my fortieth birthday; I do like vodka but clearly I don’t have mixed drinks that often.

Don’t drink the vodka while you are doing this! Wait until later.

Once the vodka is added, let it sit in a dark cool spot for a couple of months, and then strain out the mint leaves. Did it work? Who knows! I’ll let you know around Christmastime.

Dehydration Nation

Longtime readers will remember my love affair with my dehydrator. Remember that episode of Friends when Joey has a roommate obsessed with dehydrating fruit? This? This, my friend, is a CANTALOUPE. I feel seen, is what I’m saying. Crazy Eddie, I feel you.

Anyway, my love affair continues as I used that baby to dry my herbs, particularly parsley, because OMG look at the parsley.

This was the second round of dehydrating parsley; it now looks like I need to do it a third time. WHO WANTS PARSLEY.

Excess of parsley aside, I have to tell you that it is very satisfying to have homemade dried herbs, like I’m “putting up” for the winter.

A Seedy Story

As my cilantro started to flower, my thoughts turned to seeds. Could I save the seeds for future plantings, possibly saving myself $1.99 for a seed pack? The answer is an unqualified yes.

The key to saving seeds is to allow them to DRY, and I didn’t use the dehydrator for that, I just left them on a paper towel in what is usually my indoor herb/ predominantly cilantro garden. The seeds in front were, I think, picked too soon. I may just grind them up with a mortar and pestle to make coriander. The rest are drying nicely and look like the seeds that you can buy in a package. I might be saving myself MORE than $1.99 this year. Maybe more like $2.98.

I think next year I will try a different variety of herbs; maybe just one type of mint and probably no parsley. That spot is so hot and shaded that I might just try growing tomatoes too. Wouldn’t that be fun; my very own caprese salad garden!

So tell me: have you been gardening this year? xo

Slowly Losing It; Twenty-Two Weeks In

Posted on by

Get It On, Bang A Gong

With absolutely no prompting and zero information on the Noise Infraction Police Situation, my neighbours two doors down – a couple in their late sixties – told me that every day at 5:30, when my son practices his drums, they come out into their backyard to listen to him. “When you have your windows open we can really hear him,” the wife said, and when I sheepishly said that it’s pretty loud, she answered with “It’s music! He sounds great!” I feel Very Fortunate for my neighbours and more inclined than ever to encourage more band practices (the socially distanced kind, of course) in my basement. Get ready for some covers of Another One Bites The Dust and Plush, neighbours!

Channeling Tammy Faye

Every night for two weeks, I wondered why my mascara was so hard to remove, and every morning for two weeks I woke up with raccoon eyes and mascara residue still, somehow, on my eyelashes. I wondered if they changed the formula; it was going on a little funny as well. Every day. Two weeks. Then I looked at the tube and realized I had accidentally bought the waterproof kind.

You Go To School To Learn, Not For A Fashion Show

The boys have not worn jeans since March; they have been, weather be damned, exclusively in shorts. They are starting in-person school in just a couple of weeks, and so I had them try on their jeans to see where we were at.

You know how you can be around people for twenty-four hours a day and not really realize that they’ve changed until you look at old photos or, in this case, have them try on clothes they haven’t worn for five months? They’ve GROWN.

My older son went to try his jeans on and said, “Mom, I’m not sure if it’s just because I haven’t worn jeans in a while, but were they always this tight?” He came into the room looking like Kramer when he went back to jeans. They were absolutely, 1980s-Girls-Who-Wore-Jeans-Still-Damp-So-They-Could-Dry-Tighter, skintight, ending at mid-calf. He could barely walk. Then he bent over and the jeans completely ripped up the butt. My younger son’s jeans fit similarly but with less dramatic ripping.

Even if we weren’t in a pandemic, the thought of actually taking the boys to a store is defeating to me; their sizes are so strange that stores rarely carry them, so we ordered online and I chose in-store pickup. The date for pickup was last week, the same date that all the masks I ordered from a great company called Wedding Star were due to arrive. I cheerfully walked to the mall, which was busier than any place I’ve been to but with mandatory masks – and everyone complying – it felt okay. Jeans in hand, I waited happily for the masks to arrive on my doorstep…and waited. I wondered if I got the dates wrong, but when I went to look at the confirmation email, I couldn’t find it. I went to the website, and there was my order, that I HAD NOT FINISHED. My little cart was sitting there, ten masks in, waiting for me to pay. Oops. Happily, they are due to arrive BEFORE the start of school, and I have the confirmation to prove it. Plus, now all of the masks were on sale. Who knew being a flake could pay off?

Stick It To The Man

My younger son had to go for blood work, and, as with anything in our new reality, I was a bit nervous. The lab, at the best of times, seems like a disgusting petrie dish of humanity. I needn’t have worried. For one thing, as I said masks are now mandatory in all public spaces; even so, when we were allowed to enter, we had to remove our masks, sanitize our hands, and put on fresh, disposable masks provided by the lab.

Side note: is anyone else a little concerned about the environmental impacts of all of this? Disposable everything, harsh chemicals cleaning every surface that could possibly be touched by another person, not to mention gallons of hand sanitizer, possibly ingested when we eat anything and possibly absorbed into our bodies? Hello, superbugs and environmental crisis. Anyway. One thing at a time.

*repeat mantra* we are all just doing the best we can, we are all just doing the best we can

Anyhoo, back to the lab. We had to line up, physically distanced, in the hallway so the staff could control the numbers, and then after we were freshly masked and sanitized and signed in for his appointment, we were directed immediately to a cubicle where the technician would take his blood. There was a waiting room but I assume it was for people who had arrived a bit too early.

My son and I were reading and laughing at the warning signs with regards to getting blood work, that were posted on the cubicle wall. Side effects include minor discomfort! Oh no! You may have minor discomfort! My son pointed out bleeding from the puncture site. “Isn’t that how they take blood? Bleeding from the puncture sight?” Ha ha ha, yes, well.

We finished the appointment and went to the stairwell – I never take the elevator for less than five floors, and we were on the second – but it was closed due to cleaning. “Well, I guess it has to be the elevator,” I said, turning to my son, who at the same time said “Um, Mom?”

The cotton ball was soaked with blood and it was dripping down his arm. Huh.

Back to the lab!

Of course, there was a big lineup when we got there, and at the very front was an older couple, going through a very long explanation with the technician – who had her back to me – about why there was two of them and why they were there so early. The gentleman had aphasia, yes he speaks English but doesn’t always understand what’s happening, yes they understood that all chairs were six feet apart so in the waiting room, those were brand-new disposable masks they had on, did they really have to use the lab ones, okay, yes, they would use the lab ones. Meanwhile, my son and I stood there as patiently as possible; it’s not like he was bleeding OUT and also, as a society we should remember that other people exist and have needs. Aphasia is hard enough to live with, after all, and it was, as Monty Python would say, only a flesh wound.

Once the couple were inside, the technician gestured to the next person in line, who had watched my son and I standing there, and in turn gave me the universal “OMG, GO!” gesture. I apologetically explained to the woman that we were just there, but my son started bleeding…she looked at his arm and it was High Alert! Code Red! We were rushed into a new cubicle and quickly looked after, which seemed a little dramatic but was appreciated.

The lesson here is, of course, karma, because he also had some minor discomfort.

Pandemic Reading

I don’t know why I keep reading about Truman Capote, when I find his life completely sad and depressing. I guess I like reading about fashion and high society in the 1960s-70s. A few years ago I read The Swans of Fifth Avenue, which was, in my opinion, much more fun than Swan Song. However, this book contains a lot more about Lee Radziwill, who I find kind of fascinating, and also Pam Churchill. Worth a read if you don’t mind depressing end-of-life stories.

Oh, this was good. A psychotherapist seeks therapy to deal with a bad breakup, but ends up facing the fact that she is having a midlife crisis. This is wonderful and life-affirming in every way. I usually photograph pages that contain lines I want to remember, and I could have photographed this whole book.

In lieu of a mountain hike, this week my dear friend and frequent hiking partner Taryn (HI TARYN) and I headed for a 10 km in the foothills – very lovely and so close to home!

Lots more adventures to come this week, I’m sure. And for those of you wondering about my herb garden? Sorry to keep you hanging! xo

Rock and Roll Ain’t Noise Pollution; Twenty-One Weeks In

Posted on by

Turn Down For What

We have officially reached a new milestone. My younger son was practicing with his band in his buddy’s garage, so they could have the door open, be physically distanced, and in general follow Covid-style health guidelines, like the responsible 14-and-15-year-olds they are. His buddy’s dad is in a band, and so has a complete drum kit and set-up, and since it is a garage, it is much cooler than my basement, which is also a practice area, given that we have drums and they are not a portable instrument.

The neighbours did not enjoy their free concert, as evidenced by the noise complaint lodged and the police showing up to shut them down. In the middle of the afternoon, no less! Did you know you can lodge a noise complaint at 2:00 in the afternoon? Neither did I!

Evidently the officer was very nice – my son, the drummer, was the one who had to talk to him – and “no fines will be pressed as it was their first offence.” I am trying VERY HARD to feel compassion for the individual who a) called the police instead of walking twenty steps to the garage to ask them to maybe lower the noise, and b) are that bothered by teens who are not getting into trouble but instead are making music together in the middle of the afternoon that they lodge complaints. Well. Some people are just generally unhappy and in the meantime, I guess practices will take place at my house, as the basement is quieter from the street and also my neighbours are very nice and would never complain.

After they got shut down they apparently went into the field and played golf with tennis balls, which seems to have more potential for damage than playing Stone Temple Pilot covers.

Where The Wild Things Are

Speaking of fields, there is a little green space behind my house. Longtime readers will remember it as the scene of the crime where we found Manny the Mannequin, and not infrequently, a passed-out individual. But not these days! These days it is the hangout of a gang of coyotes. Right behind my backyard, where my elderly dog spends his days. I guess this explains the decline in the wild jackrabbit population.

The Wolfie Dynasty

The older gentleman who lives across the alley and down – just down from the coyote hangout – had a wonderful golden retriever named Wolfie. Barkley, in his spoiled life and advanced age, doesn’t love all other dogs, but he and Wolfie were, insomuch as we can anthropomorphize a couple of dogs, friends. Sadly, Wolfie passed away this winter, but the gentleman has a new puppy now. A sweet golden retriever, and when I asked his name, he replied “Wolfie.”

I was speaking of this phenomenon to my husband, and he recalled, many years ago, that the gentleman had a German shepherd, and he thought that THAT dog’s name was also Wolfie. It turns out, upon questioning, that the current puppy is Wolfie Number Five. The gentleman has, he said, had a Wolfie since the Sixties.

It’s a dynasty of Wolfies! I guess the dogs wouldn’t know the difference anyway, and it sure would take away any confusion over calling the dog by its name.

Summer Breeze

As per usual when we get our 7-14 days of summer, there have been many complaints about the Heat, and Heat Warnings Are All In Effect, the Heat being defined as being 28-29 degrees Celsius with very little humidity. Heat Warning! Is the warning that you may get a little sweaty while walking around outside? Possibly.

Anyway, the complainers are now vindicated, as the weather has turned. In Calgary, when the weather turns, it TURNS. You can actually feel the fall-like chill in the air. The nights are very chilly and even the warm days have that fall feeling. Complainers, you got your way.

Why doesn’t it work that way when I complain about the cold? When I complain about the cold it doesn’t magically get warmer, we just get snow for another six months.

Before it turned, my husband actually had a day off work, my god, a day off, and he accompanied me and the boys on a 13.4 km, 900 metre elevation hike. It was a great day – and we did, in fact, get sweaty.

Note! As per my Favourite Things post, I wore my Routine deodorant and I was perfectly fresh-smelling even after that hike on a warm day.

Pandemic Reading

This was a fun reading week!

This was such a fun read. If we were going to a beach this year, I’d call it a Beach Read, but alas. It was a great Sunny Backyard Read. Part murder mystery, part detective story, part Scooby Doo, this also had a really good theme of body acceptance and the dangers of believing everything we see on social media. Plus, lots of fashion descriptions, which I am HERE FOR.

Ooooh, this was SO GOOD. It’s been a while since I read something that made me want to not do anything else at all, just read. Ooooh, I can’t say anything about this without spoiling it, so I won’t. Just. It’s so good.

I think Suzanne recommended this? Suzanne? Was it you? (HI SUZANNE). It was fascinating, all about children’s television as an educational medium and – spoiler alert! – how Elmo saved the day.

Have a great week, everyone! Rock on. xo

What Day Is It? Twenty Weeks In

Posted on by

Very late to the party, but last night I finally watched Hamilton and it was worth staying up an hour past my bedtime to do it. The music! The costumes! The entire cast and ensemble! Normally I fall asleep within minutes of watching, well, pretty much anything, but this felt like an EVENT.

Watching Hamilton on a Sunday night did not help my complete disorientation with regards to time. As I mentioned, last week was our week of summer and we spent some days at my parents’ place up at the lake. This feeling of festivity and holiday, along with my husband STILL WORKING EVERY SINGLE DAY, has left me feeling like this:

The other day I squirted dish soap into the sink full of dirty dishes and turned the hot water on full blast. I puttered around, putting things back in the fridge and wiping the countertops, and when I turned back to the sink, anticipating it to be nearly full, I was startled to see it empty, just a couple of bubbles sadly resting on the dishes. I went into full panic mode that something! Had happened to our sink! And we are in a pandemic! And my husband is working EVERY SINGLE DAY! And I’ll have to call Tony The Hot Plumber to come and fix it and it’s just one more thing to schedule into the week that I don’t know what day is what! And then I realized that I didn’t actually PUT the plug in.

Well. I was at Superstore last week, and at the entrance is a giant bottle of hand sanitizer and a giant bottle of spray with which to wipe down carts. At the Co-Op – which I rarely frequent these days, given my enormous once-weekly routine – there is a bottle of spray that is meant for both wiping carts and sanitizing hands. Like I said, I am rarely there these days so it’s not like that is the routine I’m used to. I am used to Superstore. So I don’t know why I sprayed both my hands and the cart with the same bottle, belatedly realizing that the bottle contained BLEACH. I stood there in the entrance way, masked people zipping around me to grab the actual hand sanitizer, while I realized that I bleached my own hands and waited for my skin to dissolve.

That incident did NOT help the dried-out old-lady appearance of my hands.

Peas from my parents’ garden! If there’s anything better than eating them straight out of the pod, I don’t know what it is.

In addition to fresh garden veggies, we spent time paddle boarding and lots of time on my dad’s boat. It was warm enough to swim, although the water – like any Alberta lake – is NOT warm. The boys had a great time jumping from boat to water until, in what can only be described as a testosterone-fueled attempt to jump the furthest, my older son sliced his toe open on the edge of the boat. Oops. I hope Grandma’s not upset that I got blood all over her towel. Luckily it wasn’t deep enough for stitches, and also luckily, we take butterfly bandages with us wherever we go.

Well, we had a great week and it looks like there will be MORE sunshine and warm weather this week too! I can hardly believe it.

Pandemic Reading

I picked this up on a whim at the library and was glad I did; on the surface it’s about how we live our lives online, and what that means. What does it mean if someone likes your post? Or doesn’t? But deeper than that, it’s about systemic barriers for women of colour and trans women in the music industry, white privilege, and how the world tries to pit women against each other. A timely read, that’s for sure.

I picked this up because it was touted as uplifting, but I frankly found it just extremely sad. It’s a memoir written by a man dying of a very strange and debilitating neurological disease, and as he wrote about his childhood, I was reminded of the theory that painful and traumatic childhoods are associated with chronic health issues and illness in adulthood.

That’s it for me this week – August, my god, it’s August – I’m off to enjoy the next few days of summer. Next week…an update on my herb garden! I bet you can’t wait. xo