Too much to eat

 Yesterday was the sale in Lorette. Slow but steady, with a bit of a lull around noon.  But the fellow in the kitchen was selling homemade beef soup and a very small loaf of bread for $5, and most of the vendors enjoyed a hot lunch.  He was also selling the same type of cinnamon knot as last year.  Perfect for dessert.  Did I mention that I was sharing a table?  She (Barb was her name) was selling home baking.  I brought home cinnamon buns, home made whole wheat bread, butter tarts and matrimonial cake. Today we out out the garbage and whatever is still around the house will go too--except maybe the bread.

My stuff didn't sell well, nor did I expect it to.  But for some reason I sold coffee cuffs.  It was the cheapest thing on my table, except the book marks, and I sold 3 of those at 3/$10.

But the main benefit of the day?  The support and fellowship that was obvious amongst the women of the group--most from the Wednesday craft group.  Most of these women have lead a simple life, and they have experienced physical work--moreso than I.  Several of them have been school teachers, so they aren't uneducated, but rather, have perhaps chosen a life partner who had chosen to live on the family farm.  Several are widows.  But I feel comfortable around them.  I don't have to carefully choose every word and comment--although sometimes I choose to keep my mouth shut.  
When I was first there, it was as "Gail's friend", but over the summer Gail has not been attending, and now they know me as a person, and I felt, yesterday, that they like and accept me.  They even accept my weird sense of humour, and I understand their somewhat "earthy" humour.  This was a good day.  And to top it off, it was Saturday, and my shows were on PBS from Detroit.

From Mouse Factory Blog...

 Must write a few words on your latest post and the wonderful pictures Pati, of your quilt Long Time Gone. I marvel at your workmanship and dedication to keep going on with each of the many different blocks. When i see this quilt i think...."who would ever try this" ....but here you are  proof of it being done so beautifully. I know there are many others who have also done this quilt but you are very special in my minds eye.❤👀  

Thank you for sharing and anxious to see what develops with the execution to completion. Also very interested in your next endeavour - I have so many stencils here I wish I could share somehow. But I guess they are destined to be hidden away with all the rest of my "treasures" haha!

Take care everyone... and please keep your snow there for awhile. I am not ready for snow yet 😎

I’m back😊

 I’ve been reading the posts but procrastinating in posting myself. I’ve been taking things slow since I fell. Tylenol and voltaran, and repeat. I try to get some sort of walk in with Lucky every day but I am not up to our usual walks. Besides the fact that there are hunters out and we are avoiding our usual bush wanders. Nothing exciting is happening here. Looking out the window depresses me, but when I remember how deep it was by this date last year I feel a bit better. We have had all our COVID shots and our flu shot so, hopefully we will survive the winter. It is hard to remember what life was like pre-COVID. I feel sorry for kids that don’t remember any other life.  We had a suicide in Neepawa this week. A happy, outgoing, friendly, helpful teacher and community member. You never know what is happening in a person’s mind. We have had other suicides, but there has always been outward signs. This has hit the community hard.  I wish I had concerts and trips to tell you about but it seems I only leave Neepawa for doctors appointments. Tomorrow is haircut day😊. Then a 7pm board meeting☹️  Ups and downs.  Rrain is weighing the ups and downs of going to Ottawa for two days. No time to sight see…. Just seminars. She had a zoom meeting today to talk with all the other potential participants. (She had the entire meeting while sitting in the doctor’s waiting room). I have yet to hear of her decision. Friday we will be going to the Remembrance Day banquet. I am not sure if we are going to the service and luncheon. We are still discussing it. Other than that my week is empty. If the pain in my hip doesn’t ease up by next week I will go back to the doctor. Hopefully I won’t have too. And now for supper. We will have “meat and potatoes” tonight but tomorrow will be hamburger soup, as I have to go out again. Such is life. Love you guys

Happy to see your review...

 Glad to read your synopsis of the Concert with Randy Bachman. I so enjoyed listening to his show on CBC for years before they cancelled it. I loved his stories and it always brought me back to our early days in Winnipeg. And in the Free Press today they have a picture of him with what I presume is his long lost guitar which he must have shown at the Concert. One of my favourite songs is Prairie Town which he sings along with Neil Young all about Winnipeg ..."Portage and Main 50 below" in the lyrics remembering the sign atop the streets at the corner of said streets which gave the time and temperatures. I was never much into his time with BTO but some of those songs are nice as well.  So what will you do for an encore Pati - any future Concerts to think about?

It appears that your areas are seeing the snow now - Cathy your weather indicates same and yet Wpg suggests "not quite yet? Is that true?  The end of this week indicates some wet snow or flurries for here but that always changes and I am hopeful it will. Although I have done just about all I can do for outside to prepare for the winters snow. I have the shovels out and the sand bags ready and the driveway and a few paths clear although I have some leaves to move yet. The winds have been very strong these past few days and I see where my neatly arranged piles of leaves out of the way have now blown in all directions so there is some work left to rectify that.

I had to do some sewing yesterday to shorten a pair of Harry's slacks. Actually i made a mistake the previous day in making them too short with hand sewing so to cover up and make them a bit longer I had to use the sewing machine to do a very small tight seam at the bottom. It has been sometime since I enjoyed using my machine and once again that old feeling of "...i wish I could sew more.." came back to me. I had great difficulty with this project and made mistakes that required some seam ripping and then the needle broke and had to get the book out to figure that out. All is all a real disaster but ..eh. live with it.. haha!

We get our flu vaccines on Wed at the PHU clinic and hoping the line up will not be too long - runs from 3 to 6 pm at the arena but usually these PHU clinics are very well organized so I anticipate no issues.

Love hearing about your days and adventures Cathy and Pati. Keeps me connected with you. Take care all... be safe. XX

Evening out

 Yesterday was our evening out, attending the Randy Bachman concert at Club Regent.  As we were both intending to have a drink, we took a cab, getting there a little early, but not much. As expected, the audience was full of people our age.  Unfortunately, David was sitting behind a tall guy who like to wave his arms in the air. I was next to a large woman and with the very small seats, we were literally "jammed" in.  I had been worried that the stories would just be a repeat of the ones we had heard the last time we had seen the show, but while he did repeat about 4 of them, he put a different  twist on them.  The new stories were about growing up in Winnipeg, and back stories behind albums such as "Wheatfield Soul". An emotional moment came when we found out that the song "She's Come Undone", was based on an actual person who took something strange at an after show party, had a seizure, was taken by ambulance immediately, and died a week later. It was interesting to see that, when talking about his time with The Guess Who, when there was singing of songs that had originally been sung by Burton Cummings, other band members did the vocals.  Probably a good idea.  I have to say that he looked a little "frail".  While he sat for  most of the concert, if he did get up and move, there was someone, from the band or out from off stage, quickly beside him. But, he is 79-the same age as David, as well as probably half the audience.

Today, David is off to buy a hand-held vacuum for the basement stairs, and probably a lot of more chores that we haven't identified yet.  I get to scrub out the bathroom.  I wonder if this is penance for enjoying ourselves a little too much last night?

Be safe and do something unusual this week.  H'mm, I wonder if  I could call cleaning the bathroom "something unusual"?

very busy week?

 It seems as though we've been running all week trying to catch up with ourselves, but darned if I can figure out what was so important!  We did volunteer in the Selkirk Gallery on Wednesday.  It was one of the most interesting days I've had out there.  Another woman from the Board was with us, and her husband, also a Board member, was in and out all day.  She did a demonstration at 1:00 on painting on wine glasses, and there was a second, very interesting, demonstration a little later on wet felting. This was given by a fellow, a professional felter, who was at the last Board meeting and will likely become a member as soon as there is an opening.  Since David is no longer required to make up numbers ( a legal point in the Articles of Incorporation), he will likely resign at the next meeting.  The very best part of the day was in the quieter moments when this woman and I had several in depth conversations about art and artists.  Two more members of the Board showed up for the felting demonstration, and everyone stayed until closing for a good general getting to know one another.  It was very tiring, and we had to be up early Thursday to take David to Day Hospital. Then I spent the rest of the day in the studio, other than picking him up.

Friday, was an emotional day.  Amber and I arranged to meet at Starbucks for a face-to-face conversation, the first since the beginning of Covid.  David was there at the beginning, then went off to do errands, including grocery shopping, coming back later.  Amber and I took up a table there, with and without David, for 2 1/2 hours. It was a emotional conversation, but congenial, and we discussed several tricky issues.  We also agreed to meet again.

Since Friday is also laundry day, and the groceries had to be dealt with once we were home, by about 7:00 I was exhausted, more than I have been in months.  So a quiet evening, and early shower, and early to bed.  Tonight we will be going to the Randy Bachman concert at Club Regent.  We've decided to travel by cab, so we can both have a drink while we're there, since they conveniently have several bars inside the theater.

Next week should be quieter, but next Saturday is the craft sale out in Lorette, and I have reserved 1/2 a table.  I'll be sharing with a lady who sells fruitcake.  I bought one from her a couple of weeks ago and have been carefully brushing it with brandy and wrapping it up in cheesecloth, so it will be ready by Christmas--if it lasts that long.  I have a hunch it might be an idea to buy another one from her nest weekend.

The Covid numbers are still climbing quickly.  It's even more important that we keep safe-a snarky remark since I'm going to a concert this evening. But I'll be able to isolate until Wednesday, and, if worse comes to worst, nothing in my life is so important that I can't back out.

Bad me....

 The best thing about Hallowe'en is to be eating the leftovers the night after.. that would be tonight, and sure enough I have a pile of little choc bars sitting on the table top as I type my message. 😃 But it will be my problem in a hour or two as I go to bed and wonder why I have heartburn haha! Then it will have been a stupid idea, but now, it is just fine by me. Head count for last evening was 61 (total bags prepared, minus the number of leftover bags equals total number of bags handed out one to each customer) It is a science after all....

Today we went shopping to Huntsville in hopes of capturing leftover goodies on sale. Where do they all go overnight - back to the factory? The only thing Harry could find were boxes and boxes of Old Dutch potato chips in little bags 45 to a big box and the box was on sale for $5.47 at Walmart. Beggars can't be choosers or so they say... I would have left the box on the shelf, and been happy with my little leftover choc bars.

Still trying to clean up outside and if lucky I may just beat the snow, or maybe if it does snow soon, I would be happy that i cannot do anymore outside. Catch 22 I guess. But I must say that these wonderful warm sunny days are glorious and the dogs and I love to take advantage and go for long walks and sniff all along the way ( the dogs, not me) They love to get out. I fear for when it gets colder and snowy and their poor feet and bodies will be chilled in spite of a sweater put on before leaving the house.

So now it is November and as I look at the calendar I have several appt to keep such as Dentist for two fillings, and Flu Vaccination Clinic for that shot.

Well, time to close up for the night - just a few bills to pay on line before I do that though. This will be the last of the bills and if lucky I just may have some money left to get us through the rest of the month. 

Hope all is well with your folks...take care and be safe. Pati you are right - it is a jungle out there. Do not take any chances. Wear a mask!!! Thinking of you ...👀👌