I have kept things pretty free and easy since I retired last spring. What can I say? I have gotten a bit slack and have possibly (probably) developed commitment issues. 🤔
Anyway, the time has come for me to step up and challenge myself. Sooo…. for the month of June (2021) I have decided that I will post a blog EVERY day! Not just any blog. I will post a blog that ‘Accentuates the Positive“. 😊
If you need a smile, a virtual hug, or an occasional snicker, drop by (any day in June) and hopefully I will not disappoint you. If you have the urge to challenge yourself likewise, feel free to join me on my mission! Tag me or send me a link to your blog in the comment section and I will keep an eye on how you are doing throughout the month. 👀
It is too funny that I am nervous about embarking on this challenge. For decades, my life revolved around countless projects, responsibilities, and implausible deadlines. Now, committing myself to a few minutes each day for a month has me in a tizzy. 🤣
To kick off this big undertaking, I turn things over to the great Willie Nelson and this particularly positive little tune!
With our recent rains and a couple of days of sunshine, our plant life seems to be taking over.
Our little cat is still holding his ground but Grandpa’s Bleeding Heart has obscured the bike riding frog.Little frog trying to fight off a fern.Wild flowers trying to take over the birdbath. Yertle the Turtle is looking a bit nervous.The chives are done sharing their pot with our metal mushrooms.Buddha gone into retreatA couple of weeks and the rocks will be struggling to peak out through the ground cedar.Even our houseplants are starting to go after our elephants. 😯
The Saskatchewan floods and frigid weather have passed. Most of our plants have survived so far. We will see how many make it through the hurricane strength winds today!
All of the pepper plants seem good – sweet bell, mini bell, and hot varieties. 🌶️Kat’s Tiny Tim tomatoes and our Roma, San Marzano, Beefsteak, Better Boy and multicolor all look good. Except for one multicolor plant – I think Kat ate it. 🙄The petunias are still small but starting to bloom 👍The wildflowers under our bedroom window seem to be fine – a bit messy, maybe 😉I just loved the color of these plants at the garden centre but not so sure now. Will see once they have a chance to grow a bit.
Dan is back to work – at least for now. He has taken a temporary position in the melt shop in the steel plant at Evraz. (He usually works as lead hand on the legacy spiral mills in the pipe plant but they are currently shut down). From all accounts, and a little imagination, the melt shop is about as close as one can get to hell on earth. But, steelworkers are a special breed and Dan is a steelworker, so when the opportunity arose he took it.
I have been with Dan for twenty four years and worked with him for several months before that. Dan is a good man and I know from personal experience that he is a good worker. He is dedicated, responsible, reliable, dependable, and capable. He takes pride in his work and demands respect for it – not simply for himself but for his fellow workers as well.
Over the years, I have found business interesting on many levels. Although I generally worked in administration, the production department was the heart of every company, in my mind. I have always been fascinated by the process, the equipment, and the skills and strength of the workers. I sat in my (climate controlled) office – supporting managers, serving customers, and doing everything in my power to ensure the production department had what they needed, to do what they did.
For a number of years, I believed that a business was all about the product or service they provided. During the last few years that I worked, I came to realize that the most fascinating part of any business are the people involved – owners, employees and clients.
There are people like Dan, who take pride in what they do and get the job done – regardless of any circumstances. Then there are others. The slackers, who show up (typically late and/or frequently not at all) and do the bare minimum. The desperately ambitious, who claw over anyone in an effort to better themselves 😂. The entitled, who do little of consequence, but blame others for their lack of performance and productivity. The arrogant, who regardless of position, have zero respect or consideration for others. And finally, the self sabotagers who are in a class of their own.
It takes a combination of factors to create a successful business – financial backing, quality product, proper equipment, and good people – Good people like Dan! 🌟
We got the garden in! Our plants all seem to have survived two days of +31 temps followed by three days of snow and freezing temperatures. (They did ride out the snow and cold by hunkering down under sheets and blankets). If they can get through the next week of rain without drowning we should be good!
Kat checking out the plants. Grandpa’s Bleeding Heart blooming like crazyThis year’s begonia for our elephant planter – love the color!Dan did major work on our welcome planter & lights. I planted the posies. Our white flower planter 😊Maple Leafs vs the Canadiens – Go Leafs! 🏒 🇨🇦 🏆
We still have work to do getting the yard cleaned up. I have to finish power washing the patio and outdoor furniture and get the steel planters painted. Dan is working on the front lawn and rebuilding one of the front lawn planters, plus cleaning up some lights and decorations. (Once everything dries up and warms up of course!)
Dan is out working on a few of our planters so I thought I would share shots of our latest yard acquisitions.
Great deal on a new birdbath from Canadian Tire. It will move to its permanent home once Dan gets water flowing through it.Dan picked up another little metal sign. 😊💞A friend for KatSame old Kat but she is sporting a new spring haircut.
We also have a variety of new holes in the sand around our garden planters. Our squirrels take the peanuts we put out for them and bury them in the sand. Kat smells the peanuts and goes around digging them up – leaving a new hole for every peanut she finds. Fun times! 🤦
Our grass is turning green and the trees have their leaves coming. By the time I post pictures of our yard again, we should have the garden cleaned up and the bedding plants in. Summer is coming! Yay🥳
I do my best to avoid being a burden to our medical system. Actually, I just do my best to avoid our medical system altogether. I should touch base with my doctor more often, but one trip to his office and all too often I have slipped down some wierd rabbit hole into the land of medical miracles and miscues.
My last trip down the hole started last January with a trip to emerg for pneumonia and bronchial spasms. This led to trips to my doctor for follow up tests and x-rays which resulted in a diagnosis of COPD on top of my asthma. This led to trips to a respiratory specialist, a CT scan, more tests, and a diagnosis of bronchiectasis. (I was also supposed to see a heart specialist and ENT but what with the Covid pandemic that never happened.) 🙄
In the meantime, after consulting with my doctor and respiratory specialist, I started working out to hopefully improve my lung (and possibly my heart) function. While that didn’t happen, it did lead to more trips to my doctor for not one, not two, but three hernias.
This led me to an ultrasound clinic – for the hernias and for a checkup on my abdominal organs. From the amount of pressure that the technician had to use, I am pretty sure she was working with the microphone from Barbie’s karaoke bus. (State of the art Saskatchewan medical equipment!) 😩
In a follow up with my doctor, I discovered that the ultrasound technician had totally missed the hernias in my lower abdomen, found a two inch epigastric hernia in my upper abdomen (No doubt a result of violent coughing fits last January and my workout efforts last fall). And, as a bonus, she noted that I have a bit of fatty liver.
Fourteen months in and I am on a surgical wait list for a hernia and my doctor has strong suspicions that I have a serious drinking problem due to the fatty liver thing.
I doubt that a couple of small glasses of wine a week at most, and the occasional Caesar is that big of a deal as drinking problems go. Personally, I think my love of KFC, Cheezies, and Smarties has more to do with the fat I have in my liver or anywhere else. 🤨
The bizarre thing is this is not the first time that my health issues have cycled around to a serious drinking problem! I must have been a heavy drinker in a previous life because it sure hasn’t been in this one. 🤦
When Dan was running errands a few mornings ago, he found this metal plaque to put in one of our flower beds.
We are getting to an age where life is becoming more precious and fleeting. Regardless of what is happening, how we are feeling, or who is or is not physically with us, we try to make the most of each and every day. This little sign will be a reminder to help us do just that.
We have other such reminders around our house. They may be a bit corny but they work for us. 🙂 They help us to appreciate each other and our life together.
A little bowl of stones from my mother.Dan bought these to dress up the kid’s playhouseI picked this one up at a garden centre.
Not every day is the best, but try to make the best of every day💞
I have often wondered about Karma – “what goes around comes around?”. It generally seems that Karma is more a hit than a miss. I do something I think is super special and …. nothing. Not a thank-you, not a thumbs up from the universe, Nada! Then someone does something totally nasty to me and …. the universe beams down on them. All the while, Karma is nowhere to be found.
Then there are the other times – those times when I am just trucking along, totally oblivious to Karma. I am not trying to bargain with her or pressure her or sneak anything past her, and there she is!
In the past few days, Karma has just been there! It started off in such a simple manner that it hardly seemed ‘Karma‘ worthy.
Before we received our recent heavy dump of fresh snow, Kat and I had resumed our daily walk. Dan had been joining us. After a few days, the walks started to bother him – a lot! Dan is a big man. He has been working in a steel plant, walking miles and miles, on cement floors, wearing heavy steel toed and steel plate metguard work boots for decades. His feet have taken a beating. Since he has been off of work for a few months now, the feeling seems to be coming back to them, making things even worse than usual.
I knew Dan had foot issues. I knew he had a number of thick callouses and problems with his nails. It is one thing to know it and another to really know it. One day Dan was saying how much his feet always bother him and it just hit me how much discomfort he was in. I started wondering if I could do anything to help.
The next day we went shopping and I looked around for foot care products. We came home with some Dr. Teal’s Epson salts. At home, I found a rubber basin and some foot lotion. That night, I brought everything out and asked Dan if we could try soaking his feet. He was more than willing. Now, this has become a thing we do. Every night I fix a warm basin of water with Epsom salts, he soaks his feet, one at a time, and as they come out I dry them and massage them with foot cream.
Our evening ritual takes less than an hour from start to finish. Dan’s feet started looking and feeling better by the third night in. It was amazing.
What was even more amazing, was the unexpected arrival of Karma. As Dan’s feet have been healing, I have found it pleasant and relaxing to work our way through our evening routine. It is like our own little spa date every night. As a bonus, my hands are smoother and softer than they have been for years, the achy stiffness has been melting away, and my dexterity is improving daily. Thank you, Karma!
Seclusion 101 with AnneMarie 