Friday, July 30

Today I am grateful for:

Going to town with my sweetie to pick up the next phase of building materials. We got some of the rock stuff that will go on the lower part of the house.

I had a serendipitous thing happen. Last year I bought an Ikea chair from buy and sell (fairly cheaply), but I got it home and discovered that part of the frame was cracked, so no good. I didn't bother trying to get my money back. The leather cover was in good shape, and those covers come off, so I thought maybe I could find a good chair frame and still use it. Well, a woman on buy and sell had just a frame to sell, so we went and picked it up since we were in town. When I got there, she said "I really don't want money for it, I'm just happy you're going to use it". When we got home, I put the cover from the other chair on it, and it's all good! Now I can throw out the cracked frame and not feel guilty.

I also got my second Covid shot. I had been resisting making an appointment to get one, since we've been so busy and I hadn't been able to get one for a time that would work for me. I didn't WANT to have to make one three weeks in advance and hope that it would work for me. Anyhow, we've reached a point where the pharmacy has lots on hand, and I was able to get one today without an appointment.

I've been worried a lot about the fact that our province, Alberta, has basically just abandoned all of the public health measures we were taking, including even no longer requiring isolation for people who tested positive for Covid! I cannot believe this, given that there are now variants, and there are still plenty of un-vaccinated people in Alberta. So far we aren't vaccinating kids, but that means we should all be doing our best to protect them, especially since they are going to be going back to normal classes this Fall. I am very concerned about what's going to happen this Fall when we all go back indoors, if there are no more precautions. I'm considering continuing to wear a mask when we go shopping.

Then I went to see River, and though he seemed sluggish because of the heat, his breathing was good. We worked on the things from our lesson, such as going from a halt to a trot, and then a clean halt from a trot from the lead line. I rode him, and worked on those spirals to keep him giving the shoulder. My sweetie came with me this time, so that was nice.

Then we came home and watched "'Rise of the Silver Surfer" which was okay.

I'm grateful that we are gearing up for the next push on the house that will feel like noticeable progress. I'm grateful for getting the chair thing to work out. I'm grateful that River's breathing was okay today.

Saturday, July 31

Today I am grateful for:

Phone conversations with family that didn't leave me freaking out.

I did some laundry, and I finally remembered to put the turtle out in his little pool outside for a while today. The sunlight is good for them, but I didn't leave him out too long in the heat. He's not used to it.

My sweetie went to our friend's place and helped him with some electrical stuff, then he went to town and picked up materials and the packer for our pathway.

We worked on the path for awhile, adding sand and leveling it, then packing it. It makes a very smooth surface. Tomorrow, if all is well, our friends are coming and we will lay bricks finally.

I picked more raspberries. They are really nice this year.

My arm where I got my Covid shot isn't even all that sore today. For the first one, I was pretty sore the next day, with this one I was a little sore when I went to bed last night, but today it was pretty good.

I ran up and down the lane a few times with Dandy (pony), because I know I need to get better at running for the Liberty work I'm doing with River. A lot of what we're doing requires me to jog with him, and I am SO not in shape for that! So, I'm going to see if I can run a little bit here and there and improve if possible.