Musings on a Small Life

Happy Easter to all from the boys!  Another, with angels Chumley and Annie too.  And a cutesy Easter greeting snipped from 123greetings.com from me.  :-) I want my basket to be full of the dark chocolate kind of blessings today!  Happy day, everyone. Comments are off for a change.  :-)

Yesterday, Good Friday, the next door neighbours buckled themselves into their truck and left around 8AM. I was beside myself with joy, did a happy dance, called Mom in my excitement. I figured they'd be gone for the weekend, back Sunday night. Well, I heard them come home at 11:30PM last night, heard the pounding of their feet through the house. It was very disappointing, but I resigned myself to it, just so grateful I'd had the day of peace and quiet. This morning when I got up I felt really low, very discouraged by it all, by my life in general, by lack of viable options, etc. I was eating breakfast and flipping through my latest issue of "Style at Home" (Canadian decor magazine), my thoughts spiraling downward to very dark places, when I turned the page and saw this: I kid you not. It was an article on Palm Beach-style decor. I have to say, it enabled me to stop the thoughts of hopelessness and of giving up, to put them aside and carry on wit...

At least I hope.  :-) These are the snowdrops and crocuses I saw on Thursday, heading back to work from an errand downtown. It was such a joy to see the blooms; it's been a long, grey, dreary--did I mention long?--winter. Peace from me and purrs from the boys.  :-)

I have to post this, I just have to. I ducked out of the office just before 11AM to catch a bus downtown to run a couple of errands. Per usual, the bus was running about 10 or so minutes late, because it goes through both the college campus and ours and always is full of students, standing room only. That's fine. But the driver got downtown, about two or three blocks away from the transfer point, pulled over, got on the radio with base, then got up and walked off the bus and across the street to the bus stop on the other side. Leaving the entire packed bus wondering what the heck was going on, if he was coming back, or if the bus was out of service. I exited, followed by most of the students. Actually, I think all but the young woman in a wheelchair and an elderly couple got off. The young guy behind me called out to the driver, who was across the street at this point, and asked what was going on. The driver called back that he had bus problems, to which the kid re...

The little front space at #36 Clergy Street, south-facing, has daffodils up and almost ready to bloom. Seriously.  I saw them early this morning, did a double take and stopped for a closer look, but sure enough...daffodils they were. We still have snow banks from the plows. The sun wasn't even up yet, though, so I didn't bother snapping a pic, as it would have been too dark and grainy. But yesterday it was +7 Celsius, so just perhaps Spring is on her way after all. *** BTW, the moon was glorious this morning, as I was heading to the bus stop. She was hanging low in the sky, had a golden glow. Beautiful. Looked to be full too, which might explain this week's work craziness, at least in part. With (unwanted) changes afoot, and the ongoing neighbour insanity, I've had to print out some inspiration for myself, found via a Google search: I've also decluttered my cubicle space, discarding or taking home most of the "stuff" I've accumulat...

Nope, not the cats--they have a pretty darned easy life 24/7. My dad and his wife, who currently are in Bergamo, Italy visiting with his brother and his wife. They went to Pisa and Florence last week: And a few from Florence: I hope Dad doesn't mind that I'm posting these, I didn't ask. It's okay, he doesn't read my blog anyway. LOL. I, on the other hand, have had an "exciting" weekend of the usual errands and chores and neighbour noise. And I just finished my taxes (rough copy). I still do it by hand, on paper, because I have so little, no investments or anything like that to complicate things. And yep, I owe what I figured I'd owe. They government isn't getting my money until the end of April, though, when the return is due. In the meantime, I await, with eagerness, further pics from my dad!

This was heading to my building yesterday. It looks the same today, except that now (12:30PM-ish) we have weak sunshine, after having had more snow this morning.           I am not impressed that "Old Man Winter" is hanging on so long. I don't think the boys are too impressed either. They waded through the snow in the back space yesterday afternoon, after I got home. Nicki opts to walk the plank, in a manner of speaking, to stay out of the snow.   Derry picks his way carefully, looking for previous paw indentations from the early AM. Winter, you are not helping my state of mind right now. Go. Away .

I got an unexpected gift a few minutes ago, an email from a blogger: I just want to thank you for your amazing comments to grieving kitty parents. Your words are so insightful and helpful. You write what is in my heart, but I can never seem to articulate. Thank you for being there for all of us. You are a comfort and a blessing. Of course I quickly replied to thank her for her kindness. Yet I don't perceive myself as being or doing this at all. Rather, I perceive only my limitations and my failures. In fact, I'm feeling rather despondent at this time, very much that I've utterly failed at life, for various reasons.  So her brief email is a blessing to me . And a reminder that how we perceive ourselves often isn't the same as how others see us, and that none of us ever knows how we might touch another Being, for the greater Good. Ripples in a pond. Image courtesy of Microsoft's Image Gallery and framed at Ribbet.com  Peace and Blessings...Pur...

You pray in your distress and in your need; would that you might also pray in the fullness of your joy and in your days of abundance. -Khalil Gibran I haven't done anything exciting this weekend, and in fact am staying put all day today, watching a favourite movie, reading, and so on. But I did take a page out of Poppy's mum's book yesterday and stopped at Farm Boy, as part of my errands, and picked up an abundance of veggies and fruit. Plus some fresh rolls and-- heaven --fresh sourdough bread. I also treated myself to some new silk flowers from Michael's (craft store). I had clipped a coupon for 15% off one's entire order from 9AM till 1PM yesterday, so bought 3 stems for 50% off and 3 "bushes" for 40% off, less the additional 15%. That's the only way to purchase anything from Michael's; they're so pricey. But these flowers are on the lower hall table right now and provide a bit of brightness and cheer in the midst of our continue...

Between logging off my work computer yesterday and logging in this morning, everything has been wiped out. Programs, documents, personal stuff...absolutely everything . I am so screwed. I have a message in to our IT guy, but he's not around till at least 9AM. Must be a nasty virus, even though I update our University's virus protection program every . single . day . Think good thoughts, please. I'm supposed to have a daily automatic back up of my work docs, but if that hasn't worked, I'm toast. Cooked. Done for. May you be free of dire computer problems today! The boys certainly don't care about my work issues!   Update : There are computer gods! It turned out to be a corrupted profile (i.e. mine) and was easily fixed by our IT guy. No virus, all my docs still there and fine. Hallelujah!

It was glorious--just glorious --on Saturday, with sunshine and warm temps. Warm yesterday too, though we were back to grey, grey and more grey till late afternoon. The "adults" next door saved their fighting for Saturday afternoon/evening (he had been gone for several days, got back Thursday night), complete with his storming out and taking off for a while. Overheard by me were the words "neighbour" and "dead" in the same run-on sentence, in between all the "effs" this and that. I sincerely hope it wasn't me he was referring to! I really didn't hear the entire context, am glad I didn't. Maybe a bit of holy water and a crucifix, some garlic and a stake would come in handy. For me. Ha. On a cheerier note, Sunday morning I heard a robin singing his sweet little heart out, early in the morning when I let the boys out. And on Saturday I had a much-needed haircut, am happy with what she did. I'm going to pass on getting anymor...

“Be thankful for your allotment in an imperfect world. Though better circumstances can be imagined, far worse are nearer misses than you probably care to realize.” -Richelle E. Goodrich I'm thankful that I didn't have any more than 3 glasses of this last night: I'm not a wine drinker, as most of you know. I'd much rather have a shot of good rye, on the rare occasion I have anything. I think I had one glass of wine while Dad was here last September, but none since. Yesterday, for some bizarre reason, I felt like picking up a bottle of wine, stopped in at an LCBO on the way home, and found this truly lovely Australian wine, 10 bonus Air Miles. Which is the reason I bought it, since I know zilch about wines. It turned out to be so good that I had 3 glasses, which was 2 glasses too many. Oops. So I'm also thankful, today, for Ibuprofen.  :-p

I keep an eye, daily, on the townhouses for sale in my complex, hoping to one day (the sooner the better) see my neighbours' unit up for sale. Alas, not yet. But numbers 6, 10 and now 12 are listed--and 12 just came on the market between yesterday and 10:30AM today. This makes me wonder why the mass exodus from our street! *** I've not seen any more robins, though a friend told me that they will eat frozen berries and even seeds, when they come back early like this. I didn't know that, I thought robins ate only insects, worms, etc. As for the skies, they continue to be predominately grey. I think all the cat pics I've snapped (outdoors) from December through yesterday, look the same. Grey on grey on grey. The boys after work yesterday.   A slight brightening of the endless grey, for this snapshot of Derry. I wish everyone a colourful day!

I was headed out to WalMart early this morning when I happened to spy two unexpected, and early harbingers of Spring. I say "early" because the temp was -8C, windchill -14C. Even so, I saw pussy willows, took two snapshots, but both were blurry, so I didn't keep them. And I also heard...I can hardly believe it...a robin. Peer closely--this was the best I could do in PS Elements, having snapped him from some distance away with the little Elph. I told him he was crazy, it was freezing out and there couldn't possibly be anything for him to eat yet! The swamp down the road still looks like this:   But maybe, just maybe, Spring is on her way, regardless. I live in hope.  :-)

Welcome , March...Dreary, grey, snowy, miserable February can kiss my ass goodbye. :-) Nineteen days till the official start of Spring, though I think it will be a few weeks beyond that before we see any crocuses this year. Unlike last year, when our forsythia was in bloom (previously unheard of) during the third week of this month. I spoke with Meghan at the vet clinic this morning, for my weekly Toby update. He's still at the clinic, though she said he's going home to the barn tomorrow, as she works tomorrow. He's had his last vaccinations and is all set.  He has been outside in the evenings, in their outdoor run, she told me, so he's not been cooped up inside the clinic the entire time. I hope he settles in well to the barn; I'll give it a couple of weeks (her suggestion) and check back, probably for the last time. It's taken almost a month, but I'm starting to feel an emotional disconnect now--not a lack of caring, never that. But not as wor...