Thursday, September 10

[gottawonder]

Today I am grateful for:

Good sleep. The cats actually left me alone and let me wake up on my own.

Not feeling a pressing need to do much.

I went outside to do chores, and spent some time walking around in the horse pasture (which is tough because the grass is so long).

I talked with Brother T for a while, since we tried phoning several days ago and missed each other.

They are well, living in their new house on the farm. They've moved things over from the house we grew up in to the new house, and apparently downsized a lot so there's not much clutter in the new place, which must be nice. He says it's nice to have everything be new and clean.

I imagine that using the new bathroom would be wonderful, as the bathroom in the old farm house was not that nice, the old tub and shower surround badly stained by minerals.

It sounds like they're doing well. They just had something like three inches of rain there, and it's messing with the harvest for those who have crops to bring in.

It's funny, he and his wife have managed to travel a fair amount, even though they have animals too. It seems to have worked for them to just have a neighbor make sure the water isn't frozen, and I guess they just put out a lot of hay bales for the cows/horses and the dog stays with another sibling, and the cats get the run of the heated shop and a bag of cat food.

I guess I couldn't be that cavalier.

I would like for us to travel more, and I just really struggle with who could/would come here and care for the animals to the level that I do for a whole week or two weeks even. I can't quite imagine that happening.

It's one of the things I do regret, is for us not to travel pretty much at all.

Especially now that we could actually afford to go somewhere.

Then my Sweetie came home, and he brought the book from marketplace that I asked him to pick up.

Since he was home in decent time, and I was home, I said let's go for a walk at the park near town. We haven't been there in a while. This is the old farmstead place.

It was a nice walk, and a cool, overcast day. We walked for about half an hour or so.

What's nice, is that Roxy still wants to go on walks like this and does fairly well with them. She's 11/12 this year. I'd have to look up her vet records to be accurate.

Then we came home and I made supper, and we still had time to watch an episode of "The Witcher" together.

So it was nice to walk with my Sweetie, and to watch a show, not to have him just walk in the door, eat and go to bed.

He didn't even go to bed any later. We just did other things earlier.

Comments

[ratunderpaper]

Where would you like to travel?

I do not have much financial leeway (without feeling anxious) but I'd like to go to Tokyo with the sous chef, and to Paris again, to other parts of France, to Salzburg, Vienna, Porto, and perhaps to the Amalfi coast – with friends, of course. Or the sous chef.

I'm glad to have traveled through several states, but it was a different country back then.

[gottawonder]

There are places I would like to see, but not sure if I really would want to make the overseas flight and the issue of could I eat properly.

If nothing else, I would love to travel a lot more within Canada. I've never been to Toronto or PEI, and would like to spend more time in B.C.

If politics allowed, and a different government took over, I would like to visit parts of the U.S.

I've always wanted to see Australia and New Zealand.

[ratunderpaper]

Toronto is the centre of the universe, but don't go in January.

Lois took me on week-long trips through BC and Alberta, and of course to Winnipeg. We had great weather, which made our visits to Lake Louise, Mt. Robson and Vancouver very pleasant.

[gottawonder]

Ha! You could say that about most of Canada, here included.

We were in Victoria years ago, and it felt like a whirlwind trip (because it was).

We saw the Butchart Gardens, and I recall little else except for a lovely pool of water at the campground where we stayed that had a waterfall.

I barely got to see the ocean, and we didn't see any museums or other attractions.

What did you see in Winnipeg?

[ratunderpaper]

I saw the old stomping grounds (Portage and Main) of my parents – where they met and lived after they got married.

I'm told it's not as pleasant any more.

[gottawonder]

Yeah, I'm not sure if most people really think of Portage and Main as "pleasant".

I guess it has some nice buildings, and that underground area used to be cool (not sure if it is anymore).

It's most famous for being a howling wind tunnel.

Still, nice that you got to see where your parents were from.

[ratunderpaper]

There is a neat photo of P and M from 1961 on Facebook that someone posted, and some elderly people were discussing the pleasantness of that spot "back then". Lois used to describe it the same way.

[gottawonder]

It certainly was and still is "The big city" for Manitoba, and parts of it for sure are very nice. I like the old neighborhoods with the huge elms (or whatever is left of them) with the branches forming an arch over the street.

[ratunderpaper]

I'm pretty sure my parents lived downtown and walked to work. They certainly worked downtown.

[gottawonder]

That would have been a pretty cold walk in the winter, as the streets channel the wind there.

[ratunderpaper]

I know they didn't drive back in those days. Lois learned to drive around 1970.

[gottawonder]

I wonder if the bus system was okay back then.

As a side note, it would have been the era of the Greyhound bus line.

[ratunderpaper]

I should do a bit of research and find out where they lived before they (we) moved to Scotland for a year and then here.

[gottawonder]

That would be interesting to know!