I COULD HAVE USED SOME SUN....

Photo courtesy of alambrit, Photobucket

I needed the sun to shine today, but it’s not there. I guess I’ll fall back on what I would tell my children when they would fret about the rain, keeping them from playing outdoors. “The birdies have to drink too,” I would say. I think it was a 10 year old Bow who, tired of hearing the repeated reason, grumbled that he would be happy to pour them a glass of water from the kitchen tap, LOL.

I’ve been working some from home…since I got out of bed at 4 AM…but am finding it difficult to focus on anything for long. Our appointment with the cancer specialists, where we are to learn the results and treatment schedule for my brother, is at 1:00 this afternoon. He hasn’t really been up to par these past few days – not sleeping much, low morale, and I can imagine how long he must find the nights alone in his apartment. Last week he had warned the CLSC, the home care service prescribed by the doctor, that he would be away Tuesday. In parity with the confusion that seems to reign lately, they called to say they would be stopping by, at exactly the time we’ll be in the city. It’s easily corrected, but still aggravating when one is already uptight. It was the same thing while he was in the hospital; you have to wonder if they are even listening to you, or relay information to each other. Everything has to be stated over and over again. A little scary when you realize that these are the people supposed to be taking care of you.

I’m sure Bird will be as happy as I am to finally know what’s what; a plan of action can be discussed instead of just sitting around waiting. It’s accepted that there will be rough times ahead, but let’s get on with it. …and I’ll probably regret my impatience later.

Last night I kept an eye on the Hawks/Rangers game while answering numerous calls about income tax. There was a screw-up with the program we use at the office, and Line, who is responsible for the project, is devastated that she didn’t catch it before handing them in. The government immediately returned them to the clients with ‘error’ written all over the forms. Talk about panic! The program is to be repaired this morning, but the poor girl will have to do each report over again, plus calm those people who were unable to reach me during the evening. She’s in for a heavy day. Not fun.

After fielding the barrage of complaints, it was refreshing to hear Karen’s voice from away out there in Saskatoon. We chatted for a couple of hours, and I was laughing when I finally hung up the phone. It’s amazing how chatting with a good friend can improve my mood!!

It’s similar to what happens when we write our feelings out; it releases all that heavy stuff from our system, we can pick up where we left off, and we do it with a SMILE. Mine is winging its way towards you – and there’s a giggle included – hope it improves your day!

Luv from the Bush in Quebec.

I'M STILL HERE...

Helen is an avid reader, but has never been to that huge, wonderful, bookstore called Chapters. For the longest time we’ve been planning to go together, and something would always come up, on her side or mine, so we never did make it. Lately she’s been having a rough time, and needs the break. I have $80.00 of gift certificates in my purse, and they have been crying out to be cashed in for the longest time…so today is the day. I’m picking her up at ten this morning and off to the city we go. For a couple of hours we will lose ourselves in that fascinating new-book smell, peeking into the imaginations of as many authors as we can before choosing the ones that most entice us. In my case it’s always a toss-up; there are too many. I have difficulty deciding on which to buy and which to leave for another shopping spree. Ah – if only all the decisions I need to make could be so joyful an experience!

It’s been a tough week. Long hours and stressful situations kept me from blogging, and I apologize to my regular readers. I know how disappointed I feel when Kilroy doesn’t post; it messes up my routine, LOL! However, I always end up writing what touches me emotionally at that moment, and there some things better left unsaid. Fortunately, I had a long chat with my Saskabush friend, Karen, last night, and it helped put my head on straight. She endured my venting, so now I can move on to more positive thinking. Thank you, Karen!

This is short, folks. I need to prepare for my excursion to Chapters, but I’ll come back in later today and write more. Have a good one – enjoy the beautiful fall colours that are so vivid in this morning’s sunshine! Sending you SMILES!

Luv from the Bush in Quebec.

THE SURPRISE

I couldn’t believe my eyes when I turned the corner of the driveway. It was standing, tall and beautiful, right beside the little white cross marking the grave of Bow and Yoshiko’s beloved pet, AC. The cat had been buried there a couple of months ago, and more than one tear had been shed by my son and his wife. Now a solitary, bright yellow sunflower graced the site.

I have little knowledge about plants, so have no idea how long it takes a sunflower to grow. It’s true I have been away for a few days, and even before my vacation I was arriving home after dark, so could have missed seeing the flower. Still, I walk down around there often with the doggies, and it seems I’d have noticed it during one of those jaunts. I didn’t. In fact, I’ve never seen sunflowers down there, or anywhere on my property, so the sight yesterday was a delightful surprise. I ran back up to the house and fetched my camera. For once, my pictures turned out good, and I can’t wait to show it to AC’s masters, who still miss her presence.

Camera still in hand, I decided my apple tree merited a few shots, as did the playful antics of Bud and Grump. Louka was sitting higher up on the hill, haughtily watching their games, so I caught one of her too. Then a cluster of plump white and brown mushrooms nestled in the green grass got my attention. I was trigger happy, LOL! My youngest son thinks he may have an adaptor to transfer the pictures from my camera to computer, so I believe I’ll run over to his home today and check it out. If it works, I’ll post some of these pictures.

I hadn’t talked to my brother much since my return, so I tried to contact him twice yesterday. The first time he didn’t answer the phone; I thought he was out and about. The second time he called me back to tell me he had spent the whole day between toilet and his bed, and was not feeling good at all. He must have picked up a virus. His system is still weak after the cancer treatments, so anytime he is sick it’s a cause for worry. We agreed that I would let him rest last night, but today I’ll see him just to make sure things are okay.

I also hadn’t heard from my friend out in Saskatoon for ages, and decided to give her a shout. We did what we always do on the rare occasion we get to chat; opened a bottle of wine and had a long conversation (was it really 4 hours, Karen?) to catch up on our doings. We don’t call each other often enough, but I suspect that, even if we did, the conversations would still last as long; we never seem to run out of something to say.

When I finally got to bed, I found that Morpheus was right there waiting for me. Although not all that long, my sleep was deep and appreciated. This morning it is grey and raining here – just the incentive needed to go through my closet and pull out autumn clothing. Tomorrow is a return to the office, and I know already that my agenda is full.

Vacation is never long enough, especially when one takes so few of them, or ends up working for much of it. Unlike my friend, Kilroy, who was not looking forward to his retirement (but enjoys it now, right?), I find myself longing for it on occasion. I’ll probably change my mind once I get there, LOL!

Hope y’all are enjoying the weekend and that each day gives you reason to SMILE!

Luv from the Bush in Quebec.

A LAZY SUNDAY

Yesterday was a quiet day. I have to admit that I slept through most of the morning, having been awake from 2 to 6:30 AM; blogging, a little cleaning, reading, watching the sunrise. I finally fell back to sleep, leaving the doggies on guard duty outside. They were quiet, and my snooze lasted until 11:30. It feels like it’s a morning wasted when I crawl out of bed at that time, and I have to force myself to remember that sleep is important, no matter when it happens.

I ran into town for a few things – for some reason I had a craving for spaghetti sauce, and needed some ingredients to complete my mom’s recipe. While unloading my bags, the renovation dude came by, and we strolled around outside to look at what I needed done before summer’s end. My budget is severely limited at the moment; most of the work will be paid for by barter; he has need of the backhoe, so we negotiated a method of exchange. While this was going on, I heard my telephone ring, but I knew I wouldn’t get to it before the voice mail answered. Both times were long distance – the 3 rings – and I imagined it was Suzie calling to tell me she had made it safely home to Detroit. I was right for the one of the calls; Suzie rang again as I stepped back into the house. It had been a long drive – 11 hours on the road. There was a lot of traffic in Toronto, she told me, and near London, Ontario she ran into a storm much as we saw last week; heavy rain, hail, strong winds. She was obliged to pull into a rest center and wait it out. She had finally arrived, exhausted and very happy to be there.

The second call I had missed was my friend Karen, from Saskatoon. She and I don’t talk often but, when we do, it lasts for a couple of hours. Fortunately she has a long distance plan, so I rang her back, then she rang me back, and we chatted from about 6 to 10 PM, breaking off just long enough for my daughter to tell me that my grandson, Raphael, had won his soccer tournament. Needless to say, the spaghetti sauce never happened; it’s on tonight’s agenda, LOL.

It’s another beautiful day out there – the birds are trilling away, and the doggies already making the rounds, sniffing out whatever may have happened on their territory during the night. Because I never did get to see my associates as planned this weekend, I’m heading into the office now, intent on catching up to them before doing anything else at the office. I expect I’ll have to lay off most of my employees for the moment, and I’m NOT happy about it. If there is any way at all to avoid it, I’ll use it; but I need some answers from my associates before making the decision.

That’s it for now, folks. Hoping you have a good day, find lots of reasons to SMILE, and don’t forget to share it!

Luv from the Bush in Quebec

MY MOUNTAIN

This one is for my friend, Karen, who sometimes can use a dose of scenery from the Laurentians. It's a view from my gallery, with a lazy sun just skimming the tree tops on its way up my mountain. A better photographer could do it justice; could capture the height, the distance, the play of light on the various shades of green....
Yours truly just aims and shoots. I have learned what my fiddling with the 'zoom' do-hickey on my camera can produce; have experienced too often a mass of blurred 'what's that?'. Photography is not one of my talents. Karen's memory will fill in what's missing, I'm sure. Anyone who has been raised or has lived in the Laurentians tends to hold them close to heart - they are special.

My plans for the past weekend hit a wall. The only thing on my agenda that I DID manage to accomplish was to keep an eye on hockey games; there was very little reading (none at all in Blogit); even less sleep, and no writing. Having supper on Mother's Day at my daughter's home, surrounded by children and grandchildren, made up for the rest of the hellish time. Chubby arms hugging your neck and a baby's sticky kiss can work wonders. Those precious moments puts any turbulence being experienced where it belongs - on the back burner.

It's 2:30 AM. Murphy is avoiding me again. I'm finally meeting Kilroy for lunch tomorrow, so need to get some shut-eye, or I'll be too tired to enjoy our time together. I want to be awake to see the HABS play game number 7 tomorrow night too, so off I go. Maybe I should crawl up beside Bud and Grump-puppy on their cushions...they'll happily make room for me, and seem to have found Murphy with no problem at all, LOL!

Have a good day tomorrow, folks - sending you a sleepy smile....

Luv from the Bush in Quebec

MORNING BLUES

Yesterday morning, I hit the floor running. I try not to schedule appointments until 10 AM, mostly because arriving on time depends on the traffic rush hour, and I don’t like the stress of worrying about being late. This appointment was at the client’s office, which is on the outskirts of the city, and I felt safe accepting to meet at 8:30 AM. I just never learn!

I woke up late. This does not happen when I have NO need to be at a certain place for a certain time, but just let me confirm a meeting, and my body does an ‘about face’! It doesn’t help that it takes me so much longer than it used to before I am fully conscious. I won’t even attempt to make coffee too quickly after I get out of bed – the water may end up in the coffee can, and I’ve been known to dump the coffee where the water should go. What a mess that was!!

What has happened? I can remember jumping out of bed, into the shower, having breakfast on the table and the kids up and ready for school, getting dressed and out the door myself – all within an hour. I often managed to get a load of wash folded too. Let’s see – that was….THIRTY years ago??? Okay – no further questions, LOL.

To continue, I did make it on time for my meeting…by the skin of my teeth…and slightly scruffy. I’m not sure I paid enough attention to my hair, or what I threw on as clothes. I checked later and nothing was inside out, so it wasn’t completely hopeless. Fortunately, whatever papers were required had been prepared the night before, so I may even have seemed efficient. I can’t really remember the drive to get there though. But the client served me coffee, and my notes are legible, so we’ll leave it at ‘all’s well that ends well’.

I blame it, in part, on Kilroy. His absence totally screwed up my morning schedule. He’s back now, Once more I can pour my coffee (love those machines with timers!!), then sleepwalk into my office and bring up his Blog. It’s like the bell training mice to eat. My brain comes alive. Karen told me she feels the same about MY blog – so I am determined to be a daily writer again. I know the withdrawal pains, and no-one puts a friend through that on purpose. Just to be safe, I gave her Kilroy’s address. Now she has something to fall back on when I do get up too late to keep my resolution.

Once more – it is time to go. In fact, it is past time. Those horoscope people were way wrong about the windfall, but I’m still above ground, so I’m SMILING!
Have yourselves a great day, people. Don’t forget your SMILES, especially if your day isn’t going so well. It somehow makes things just a little easier! (and that last phrase was for you, my friend Kilroy, LOL!)

Luv from the Bush in Quebec.

WEEKEND EVENTS

This morning you can look out of any one of the many windows in my house and get stuck there, admiring the view. I know it’s very cold (was -36 last night), but the sun is shining, and doing the most wonderful things to the snow-covered mountain, the long winding lane, the trees…a postcard picture no matter which direction holds your gaze. With such a feast for the eyes, it’s hard to imagine why anyone could complain about our Canadian winters. Note that I am standing inside, where the fires’ warmth allows me to admire the beauty while still garbed in my pyjamas. If I was standing outside dressed in similar attire, feeling the bone-chilling temperature, my words would probably wax less poetic, LOL.

I will be working all weekend. It’s annoying, but expected in my chosen line of work at this time of year. I should be in the office by now, in fact, but more than one event has delayed my departure.

The first is that Murphy held me in his arms later than planned; it was such a deep sleep, and thoroughly appreciated by this insomniac. Granted, I had not been in bed that long. Karen, my long-time friend who lives in Saskatoon, called last night and, as is usual when we get gabbing, time just whizzed by. Was it five or six hours before we reluctantly said goodbye and hung up the phone? I’m not sure, but it doesn’t matter. It’s a rare occasion when we get the chance to chat together, and our conversations never seem to last long enough.

The second reason is job-related. We received a request from a hospital yesterday - the services of two nurses are needed, beginning next Monday. My co-worker found the candidates, which is a feat in itself. Nurses are at a premium in this area. My colleague is meeting one of the ladies for her C.V. and copies of diplomas, and I am to pick the documents up, then fax the information from my office to the hospital this afternoon. When the administrator arrives on Monday morning, everything will be ready. We enjoy being able to provide good and rapid results.

The third reason is not so pleasing. My backhoe is stuck on a side road with a busted tire. Heinz is out there now waiting on the garage dude to arrive. It is one of the huge, back wheels, and they do not come cheap. I foresee another loaded credit card. Ugh!

Now it’s time to go. Hope you are all enjoying the first day of the weekend. Sending you my SMILE!

Luv from the Bush in Quebec.