Happiness is Wonderful Days Even With Setbacks

~ Jenny

Krissie wrote and said, “I’m worried about disrupting your writing because it’s going so well,” and I looked at how much time I was actually spending writing and talking with Bob online, and she was right. So she’s putting off her visit because she is a goddess of a friend and we’re speeding right into Act Two. And the weather here is wonderful–okay 90 here for the next two days and it’s June so what the hell? but then 70s again the rest of the week–and everything is growing like crazy and the house is getting incrementally cleaned out–damn I have a lot of stuff–and there’s nothing but good times ahead even though aliens have evidently taken over the Supreme Court and I hope James Comey is happy, the dimwit.

Where was I?

Right. What made you happy this week?

100 thoughts on “Happiness is Wonderful Days Even With Setbacks”

  1. My big happy this week was celebration my son’s college graduation. In Canada, college is a 2-year program. My son’s had numerous challenges over the years, including ADHD, and watching him cross the stage to receive his diploma was a big moment. My PIL and my brother, SIL and 2 of his 3 adult kids were in town and we had a lovely low key family celebration. My brother lives in the US and I haven’t seen him in over 2 years due to Covid. Squeezed in a neighbourhood shopping trip with my niece and bought her a belated birthday gift.

  2. My happy is that the floors are FINALLY refinished and the baseboards are caulked and painted and the furniture is back in place!!

    Now there is a butt load of silver to clean… but my niece wants to learn that process and I’m more than happy for the help!

  3. My trip to Indianapolis was surprisingly terrific: my daughter had a warm, productive meeting with her specialist and we had an amazing time at the zoo (elephants, cheetah, and you can walk in the enclosure with the red kangaroos). Mostly it was a special time together.

  4. My end-of-semester marking is nearly done. I’m not 100% sure whether the mulled wine I started in on an hour ago helped. Let’s not do a correlation between the level in the glass and the marks. I am enraged, delighted, despairing…but most of all, I’m nearly done. Thank god.

    COVID has sucked for students, some of them have thrived with lecture recordings and online access, but also some of them are just abysmally terrible. Were you not listening at all (I yell at my screen)? It’s in neon pink in the assignment instructions: it is an observation study, not a survey. So what do I read many many MANY times? We conducted an online survey. No! No you didn’t! You conducted an observation study, and you recorded your observations online. You were there. You did it. It was not a survey. Fuck me. These are the kids we’re relying on to save us from the mess we’ve made. And like the generation before them (my generation), some of them are wonders. Some of them obviously have strengths that lie elsewhere.

    More wine. Oh yeah, the mulled wine made me happy too. And we’re past the equinox. We’ve had a week of crispy frosts and blue skies. Nothing but good times (and longer days) ahead.

    (PS. Why, yes, it is 11.58pm on the Sunday night before marks are due in the department, because I too am abysmally terrible, Thank god no one is expecting me to save the world).

  5. Your Canadian friends are just as horrified with your Supreme Court as you are and we send many good wishes to you. And if any of you ever have a desire to come camping up here, we’d be happy to come down and drive you up here to go camping or to another state to go camping and we never need to talk about camping.

    1. My 14 year old is enraged by the decision as the US in so many aspects is still a role model. Her 17 year old brother is as well. It’s the immense bigotry that makes them furious and ready to sign any protest nite. Which of course has no effect whatsoever as we are no US citizens and will never be.

      1. My happy were thd couple of rainy nights sfter horribly hot days. Climate change us palpable – we never had the feeling to be baked inside our homes that usually don’t have airconditioning. Now it’s an annual occurence and I don’t like it at all.
        Having a few mornings with bearable temperatures was bliss.
        Sadly, it’s already heating up again…

      2. As a non-US citizen, I too am enraged. I think there needs to be a rule that if it turns out a supreme court judge lied during their nomination hearings, they are immediately removed from the bench, on the grounds that they are a lying liar and obviously don’t have the integrity to be in such a powerful position.

        That would knock out quite a few of them on the Roe vs Wade question.

    2. Me here too. My back yard is good for camping in, in Edmonton. Even mountains nearby. I realize none of you know me but I am a safe camper and a good egg. (Wodehouse reference not pun)

      1. *waves at Lisa from her friends’ place near Commonwealth*

        Hi fellow north central Albertan! Gorgeous morning, isn’t it?

        1. It’s blissfully Alberta blue sky today! One of the 23 days of the year one likes to live here.

          1. I hear people really enjoy midsummer. I, going to bed regularly at eight-thirty, would not get to enjoy the late sunsets.

      2. Also waving at Lisa and Cherry from my base a few blocks south of Whyte Ave. in Edmonton. I, too, am here for any American woman who needs to camp.

    4. Pa is still good for camping, for the time being, although I am worried about the upcoming election for governor. Anyway, I have a guest bedroom if anyone needs a way station to or from a campsite.

      1. And if someone stayed in your guest room they could also attend the National Little League Championships right??

        1. Yes! Overpriced popcorn and bottled water for everyone! Wear walking shoes. There will be absolutely no parking anywhere.

      3. I too worry about the outcome of the governor’s race. And the senator. And my rep’s (his opponent is Bognet, another New Jersey resident with a mail box in PA).
        It’s nuts.

  6. My big happy is that I’m going to have a proper holiday this year! At the end of my annual reunion with my two closest friends from university (actually our second this year – we got together before Easter since Caroline had been going through so much, with her mother-in-law and mother dying in the same month), Caroline got the bit between her teeth and found us a cottage in the Peak District for a week in September. I’d suggested (thinking of next year) that the area round Chatsworth would be good to explore, and the others fancied it too. We’re staying in Tideswell, which rang a bell – so I’m rereading Heyer’s The Toll-gate, happy to find I was right: it’s where the hero goes to shop for a change of clothes. I’ve just reread Loretta Chase’s Miss Wonderful, set near Matlock – and discovered that both Carsington and Hargate are local place names. Will have to read Pride and Prejudice, to see where exactly Elizabeth and the Gardiners went on their tour of Derbyshire.

    Also had a couple of lovely days vegging in the garden in the sun, reading gardening magazines and enjoying the flowers. And my strawberries are fabulous: I’m about to make two batches of jam.

    1. I am soooo jealous that you can actually go to these places I have only read about, and see and feel what it’s like to be there. Bring back wonderful descriptions, please?

    2. It’sso hot out. I should reread ‘The Talisman Ring’. It’ll make me feel cooler.

  7. I had a great day at the New York Faerie Festival yesterday with my friend Robin and her kids (my goddess-children). It was a little bittersweet–at 14, Nate was clearly in full teen mode and over having fun with us, and although 15/going on 16 Sophie had a grand time, all dressed up in her best Ren Faire finery and elf ears. But the handwriting is on the wall that these days are coming to an end, and I will miss them. Very glad we got this one, and that Sophie, at least, still thinks “Aunt Debbie” is cool.

    So lots of happiness, but in a way that made me a little sad.

    1. I recognize your situation. Maybe you and Robin can make future New York Faerie Festivals a time for you two with an open invitation to either kid if he or she is in the mood.

    2. I wanted so badly to come to this, but had to work this weekend. Plus the gas prices… Argh. Maybe next year…

  8. In amongst the events of last week, including my own venting about the library, the congressional hearings and Supreme Court decision there was a little humor at least at my house. One of my sons works nights and sometimes stops a bakery in the early morning hours and puts some goodies in the mailbox then e-mails me to let me know. He notified me to check the BBQ grill because the box was too big for the mailbox. This was at 5:AM. At 7:AM I opened the grill only to be surprised that the package had already been ransacked by squirrels. In two hours those f#%&*n bandits had helped themselves to donuts, brownies and whatnot. There was talk of lying in wait and going after the ones with powdered sugar dust on their fur.

    2. I absolutely hate those tree rats! I have to put stones all around my flowers in pots, because they think that’s a great, soft place to dig and put their treasures. Same for small shrubs and trees in the ground, till they are big enough to survive the onslaught. who woulda thought the little menaces could lift the lid of a grill?

      1. In Norse mythology Ratatösk is a menacing squirrel roaming around the world tree Yggdrasil.
        This creature seemed to be rather unpleasant.
        Though this could be what I took away from reading too much Magnus Chase by Rick Riordan…

      3. I need to keep my squirrels around. My dog would be devestated if she couldn’t chase them.

  9. At this exact moment, finishing a re-read of Frederica and springing a pair of sentimental tears at the happy Heyer ending has made me content. This particular one has very engaging secondary characters.
    In the other life, my daughter has graduated Canadian high school and finally got her ears pierced last evening, in company with friends and at a fashionable salon where a straight pin is utilized rather than a punch gun, at triple the price.
    My son goes into fourth year poly sci in the fall and is practicing law school entrance exams, with the vague ambition of one day going into politics and changing the world.
    The book I illustrated, I have been told by the designer, is at the printers and in the ‘cue’ (sic).
    It is finally a sunny weekend and my tomato plants are still actually alive.

        1. Yeah, he gets to me, too. Take a deep breath, blame it on Bob, and move on. That’s what I do.

  10. I saw 13 bunnies on my walk through the neighborhood this morning! No babies, though, and I saw one dead Opossum in the street. I hope it wasn’t one of my visitors. My cherry tomatoes are ripening, and there is nothing like a ripe, home grown tomato for flavor. Which brings me to a spelling silly that I was thinking about as I fell asleep last night. Somewhere in the Kansas City area, alongside a beltway or a highway, there is a sign advertising “Ho Made Biscuits.” I laugh every time I see it. They get those Hos up before daybreak, after a hard night’s work, to start making those biscuits. Poor dears.

      1. Thirteen is the record for this year. 5 or 6 years ago, I used to see 30 or 40 on my walks. Climate change is really affecting everything, including bunnies.

  11. I may have mentioned (repeatedly) that I was once a “Nuke.” Trained in the ways of Naval Nuclear Power. And that one observation of Nukes was, “Nukes is amused by the simplest things.”

    One of my happies this week is that I have replaced my Bangy-choppy thing for a “Fullstar 9-in-1 Deluxe Vegetable Chopper.” [Links (for both) on Amazon available on request.] The bangy-chopper is now destined for Goodwill. I spent a happy and productive time – I lost track of how much – turning all the bok choy and peppers on hand into diced ingredients, for the next cooking projects. I did the same for three large Vidalia onions and four red onions. Cleanup was swift and easy. I like this gadget. I’m eyeing my small supply of red potatoes…

    One of my happies this week is reading Diskworld #41, The Shepherd’s Crown. I know some folks are putting off reading this for sentimental reasons. But I’m not getting any younger and Sir Terry isn’t getting any older, so I’m charging ahead. Slowly. Besides, I finally added Raising Steam to my Kindle library – I’d been waiting for the price to drop. What the heck, if I can drop $100 on a hydroponic gardening unit, I could afford $12.99 for an ebook. So I did. More Pratchett to look forward to.

    One of my happies this week was the report from North Carolina that my eldest grandchild was proposed to at a party and accepted in front of many witnesses. Which came over a week after the report that said granddotter is with child. It’s a family tradition. First the dead rabbit, then the engagement.

    There are other happies. I might share, later.

  12. I just had a moment of real happiness–I typed YES!!! in the Spike chat to Bob–because I found out that people who die of smoke inhalation sometimes have cherry red skin, too.

    Well, it’s good information for the book. We were thinking we’d have to change the title from Rest in Pink, but now we’re good again.

    Happiness. It’s an individual thing.

  13. I had some insanely good times with my grandsons. Walter is six and Shares his addiction to video games with me. He’s fascinated by singing monsters in Fishdom. And he’s very good at them.
    Eugene is in training to be the devil. Between devil times he’s a very happy kid and it’s wonderful watching him be surprised and over joyed by simple things. I also got two auditions done. And I have a wonderful puzzle to finish. And I got some more done on the book. Since it’s going to be 100° here today I got up early and walked. Feeling very proud of myself. Wishing you all a beautiful week.

  14. I am a little later than usual, because I often get behind on blog reading later in the week, so end up doing Thursday on Sunday – but do you realize there were also 195 comments from Saturday for me to read?????? (Which were all fun, so I had to read them all. I am two spaces, only possessive, don’t feel strongly about commas and too many beloved children’s books to even start listing, just to catch up)

    I have the office to myself Monday and Friday and working with my sister Tuesday -Thursday, so should be a restful week.

    Car shopping NOT restful, apparently I will have to put a deposit of $1,000 on a car to get it ordered so I can TEST DRIVE it!!!!! though they swear they will cheerfully refund my deposit if I don’t like it. At least I have the time and money to explore this option, for which I do feel thankful.

    1. I just put up the posts, I’m not responsible for how many people chime in.
      Although I love it when people chime in.

      I feel your pain on car shopping. When my car died, thankfully at the service part of the dealership (it didn’t die there, they just said if I drove it again it would probably kill me), I went in to shop for a replacement and they basically said, “We have one.” I thought that was weird, but putting down $1000 just to test drive is insane. I assume that means they’ll hold it until you can try it, not sell it out from under you.

      I didn’t like the one they had, but I was desperate so I bought it. And now I love the damn thing. Turns out if you don’t buy a car for sixteen years, they make improvements.

        1. I appreciate my back-up camera. It is a blessing.

          I clicked on the car buying link that MS Edge insists on sharing with me, because the dotter’s eldest has gradgiated an’ got his dilemma. I mean diploma. His dilemma is that he needs transportation to get a job, but he needs a job to get transportation. In my years, I have owned many cars that cost under $1,000 USD.

          My years are done. Shopping online I found one (1) vehicle for under $3K. It was gone before I could call about it. I love the boy, but a motor scooter would be more affordable.

          1. Was going to say bicycle, maybe given current gas prices. In London, you’d just get an oyster card for public transport, but some areas don’t have good public transport

          2. Most of Virginia lacks good public transportation, sidewalks, or bicycle paths, which means that bicyclists must share the road with every kind of motor vehicle. There are entirely too many roadside memorials to dead cyclists.

        3. Back up cameras (in other people’s cars) make me dizzy, but if the arthritis in my neck gets any worse I will have to overcome that somehow.

      2. Similar thing for me. Never wanted a KIA Soul but when my Forte died – they had precious little on the lot. Bought the KIA Soul and I love it.

    2. I’m sorry for your pain to have to catch up with 195 posts from one day before, but I have to say I am VERY happy to have the Random Thoughts Saturday post now! It really meandered, too. So cool. Oh, and as I write it’s up to 205. So random! Yay. 🙂

  15. Happy this week was continuation of flowers in my yard. Also continuation of heightened bird/critter activity, for which I am prepared to take all the credit. EVERYTHING loves the sunflowers.

    Also happy because the aged parents seem to be genuinely pleased with their new house and adjusting well to their new town. *Whew*

    Also happy because the last week of Day Job Hell Month is about to commence, and at the end of it is another three-day weekend, and by the end of today I’ll have finished Chapter 16 of the WIP (2/3 of the way through).

  16. This weekend:

    On Friday I saw The Music Man, a show I declined to be in after 3 musicals in a row, and then the crush got recruited to join it and I felt sad and left out for a month not seeing my musical friends every day. The show has run rampant with covid in the last two weeks before the run and Marian was only back on her 10th day THAT day and then had to make out with two people (who guess what, also had it recently so I guess that doesn’t matter). Two people are still out with it and having heart palpitations, which really worries me 🙁 So it barely went on at all on opening night. I figured I should go then Just In Case Anything Went Wrong and the show got canceled for covid again, and I didn’t even know all that drama.

    I think I’m glad I didn’t do it. That show is so wholesome you could barf, honestly, and wholesome is not my bag, baby. The crush looked kinda bored-ish doing it, not that I’d say that to him, but he seems to like barbershop quartetting, anyway. I did get to reunite with people after the show, which was great and felt like I was home again, as it were. He hugged me four times, whatever that means.

    (yeah, yeah, I know…well, he does like me, he has…whatever).

    Saturday I did my first murder mystery party show! This was actually the lone non-murder one in which a diamond is stolen, I play the rich lady who owns the diamond. It was great fun and everyone enjoyed it and my boss there is absolutely lovely and handled stuff and gentled me through my first one and was very entertaining to talk to in the car on the way over and back. I really like her/them and think there’s friendship potential in addition to side job hangout.

    Today I am going to lunch, seeing Bye Bye Birdie (the show I auditioned for and then bailed on because I got recruited for Evita) and then auditioning for Beauty and the Beast. I’ll either do “There Are Worse Things I Could Do” or a snippet I found online from “One Day” from Groundhog Day: The Musical. “One day, some day, my prince may come, but it doesn’t seem likely…and even if he came and he liked me, it’s likely he’d be not quite my type. Some day, they say, he’ll come riding up on the back of a horse. But of course I’m allergic to horses. How will I tell him? He’ll just have to sell him….” Sounds perfect for the subject matter.

  17. Two happies for me this week.

    My two youngest have gone to visit my oldest in his new city and are clearly having a great time. It’s so nice to see how well they get on.

    Second happy is my husband and I have enjoyed our (rare) alone time, not that the two resident (adult) children spend that much actual time with us but not having them lurking in their bedrooms and emptying the fridge at regular intervals and leaving masses of dirty plates lying around is unsurprisingly restful and freeing at the same time.

  18. Happiness is waiting on a Jersey shore boardwalk while they make me a crepe, and two friends I love wait down the boardwalk for me at a table they snagged. We’re mourning abortion rights, but we’re also finding some summer happiness since life has layers like that.

  19. Speaking of packages from Amazon (and I was, just not here), my “Twinings Herbal & Decaf Tea Sampler: 40 count” arrived today, along with some English Breakfast Tea. I’m sampling Wild Berries Herbal Tea just now, with a splash of SweetLeaf Peppermint Stevia for sweetness. I’ve never been into herbal teas. So far, so good. I already know I like their English Breakfast Tea (w/lemon stevia) and their Earl Grey (w/Valencia orange stevia). I’m going through the entire sampler before my next cup of coffee. Any suggestions for my next sample?

    1. My favourite Twinings teas are Earl Grey and Irish Breakfast, although I also keep Lady Grey and English Breakfast on hand for family members. Irish is a little stronger and smokier than English. It’s a real morning wake me up tea.

      For herbal, I prefer their peppermint and spearmint blend to their pure peppermint. If you haven’t tried Dilmah yet, their black tea is very easy drinking in an English breakfast style and they do a rooibos infusion with peppermint and ginger that is great for after dinner.

      1. Cool! I also bought the Irish, but it won’t arrive until sometime “before 10PM” today. The Lady Grey won’t be here until July.

        This morning I am enjoying “Honeybush, Mandarin & Orange” herbal tea with orange stevia while I look through the box. Found “Pure Peppermint,” so far, but no Spearmint. There’s “Pure Rooibus Red Tea.” And, of course, The English and Irish Breakfast teas and Earl and Lady Grey, two of each, but I already know I like those. There are two different green teas. Chamomile, other fruit flavors. I found the Peppermint with Ginger. 🙂

        1. The Dilmah green tea with jasmine is also lovely, very soothing and doesn’t go bitter if you oversteep it.

        1. I was introduced to it at a sort of natural-foods, hippie-oriented snack bar in New York some time in the 70’s in New York. So to me it’s sort of a natural foods we’re-all-humans-together sort of tea. I really don’t understand how some of the ingredients meld together into the tea, but the flavor combination is so interesting and yummy.

    3. One of the grandkinder just brought me a package, not the first this week. In addition to the Tea Sampler and English Breakfast Tea, The Earl Grey and Irish Breakfast Tea had arrived. What was unusual about today’s package? It was the Twinings Decaf Green Tea in a recycled Bigelow Tea box. Someone at Amazon got their fancy tickled, I think, to repurpose a competitor’s packaging that way. Coincidentally, I’m drinking a Green Tea (the same as the new arrival) from the sampler (with some peppermint sweetener). I’m checking for Mu 16 and similar on the net.

  20. There was a good turnout for the Pride march and festival today. The progressive group I belong to registered quite a few new voters and did some party changes. That made me happy.

    I finally switched my old ‘flip’ phone to a smart phone-5G’s coming. It was 3 hours in the store getting it set up because the phone was old. None of my contacts transfer so they have to be entered manually. Still, I think I’m going to like it. Eventually.

    Now I’m going back to Saturday’s post. Happy, happy, happy.

  21. I had a wonderful weekend with friends in Vermont last weekend, celebrating a birthday. Wednesday, I met up with a Master Gardener friend for lunch; we have been trying to get together with a couple of other MG friends but without luck, so we made plans for just us to meet. Thursday I met up with a friend who had moved out of state a few years ago and was back in town visiting relatives. We spent the whole day together in Canandaigua, window shopping, having lunch, visiting Sonnenberg Gardens and then having chai lattes while sitting in the park along the lake front. It was so good to see her again!

  22. I was happy to spend two days on retreat with other women cancer survivors. We have not been able to gather for two years because of covid, so the time was especially precious. Our organization plans a wonderful time–speakers, memorials, and alternative medicine healing sessions. I had a session of healing touch and one of chair massage–both marvelous. I did more walking than usual, and it helped, too. Tonight, easing back into my life and routines, glad for the cats and, unexpectedly, to have dinner with a friend I’ve not seen for several weeks.

  23. Last night I was sitting out by the sea in the dusk, with beloved family. My mom pointed and we all turned to see, and there was a young buck standing up on the stone fence of the next yard. He stood there looking us over for a bit, outlined against the evening sky, then turned around and went the other way.
    Such a sight.

  24. Yesterday was my sister and BIL’s 50th anniversary and today they had a party. The post office ate several invitations so a number of the people I had hoped to see were not there, but I really enjoyed spending time with those who were. I particularly loved hanging out with my sister’s out of town daughters and her SIL. My brother from Milwaukee fell and broke 2 ribs and so was unable to attend. I also got a chance to hang out with my BIL’s much younger siblings. They were perhaps 8,10 and 12 when I met them at the wedding and now one of them has a grandchild! The youngest of them has since he became an adult looked and sounded very much like my BIL so his sisters and I had fun trying to decide which one has less hair. We decided that they are almost equally bald, but big brother has at least twice the potbelly of baby brother.

  25. My cousin Bill found more pictures in the attic and is scanning them for me, including pictures of my parents’ wedding — they look so young! Among these was the picture I’ve been hoping to find for quite a while, showing the reception line with the best man and his wife, the witnesses. The best man, Dad’s best friend, died of a sudden heart attack within a couple of years, leaving a baby daughter. I found some dishes that had been her grandmother’s when my mother died, and got them to her (to her complete surprise, since she had no clue who I was at all), and she sent me a scan of her parents’ wedding, asking if I recognized anyone — the person standing next to the groom was my father, clearly the best man. So I’ve been anxious to find the picture of her father, and now it’s turned up, and she has it!

  27. I am now on annual leave for the first time since Christmas, and I have two whole weeks where nobody is going to yell or cry at me, I don’t have to get up at half past three in the morning, and the only reason I have to go into an airport is to get on a plane to go and see my family. Bliss, I tell you. Sheer bliss.

    I didn’t even get out of bed until lunchtime today I was so knackered. And I’m still exhausted so I’ll probably go right back to bed after only six or seven hours out of it. Apart from some desperately needed grocery shopping, the chores can take care of themselves. Maybe an afternoon nap…

  28. I won my bid on Ebay. I am the proud owner of a naked lady oil rain lamp, (circa 1972ish). I had seen these in the Sears Catalog and in person at the San Diego PX. (This was NOT in my mother’s decorating scheme.) It needs a really good cleaning and some plastic greenery. And some special oil and maybe a pump. If I ever get tickets to Antiques Road Show, I’m all set. Although what if I destroy the patina?

  29. The writing prompt for my memoir class was something like: write about your younger self within your family – picture to accompany.

    I decided to write about the 2 proms I went to: 1 as a sophomore server and 2 as an attendee. I had great fun as a sophomore server and no fun as an attendee.

    Looking for pictures was happiness although, sadly, didn’t find any. They are either lost forever, prom 1 was in 1973, 2 in 1975. Or they are somewhere in my semi-hoarder mothers house or outbuildings and won’t be discovered until after she dies – if ever.

    This is not happiness but – I propose it is time for the Supreme Court as an institution to die. The days have passed when it operated with integrity and now it is instead a tool of anyone with an agenda and money.

    Of course, congress is not much better.

    Anarchy anyone?

      2. Uneven number is right, so there’s a tie-breaker. Better would be to get an amendment to limit the court to 9 judges, one term to 75 years old or 18 years, whichever comes first, and prevent either side from packing the court to higher numbers. If the democrats pack the court to 13 to get the bias on their side, the republicans will pack it to 17 in retaliation. I’d prefer they drop the mandatory number to 7, except the terms should drop to age 75 or 14 years, so there is a vacancy (at least) every 2 years.

  30. I’m happy that there are vaccines and effective antivirals for Covid… Yes, I managed to get through 18 days in England, 2 international flights, 8 train journeys, 1 longish ride in a very full bus, and innumerable local bus trips without getting sick, only to come home and be exposed during random weekend activities.

    My symptoms have been very mild… scratchy throat, slightly sniffly nose, and infrequent cough, most of which happened on the day I tested positive.

  31. I’m happy I remembered float tanks. That’s big tanks, that can be made dark, of water with so much magnesium salt that people float without effort. But you have to leave the house, talk to people, make appointments in advance and I had a big tub, epsom salt can be delivered…

    The temp, until I get my visa, place does not have a bath. My back still hurts. An hour in a float tank is expensive. It also beats chemical painkiller and will keep me away from the piles of things(that need doing) that I keep reinjuring myself on. If the combination of total relaxation and actually not doing any lifting, or even too much sitting upright :(, improves things as much as I hope I will be very happy indeed.
    At minimum it will be a lovely afternoon out that doesn’t hurt.

    The offers of camping support helped too. I sorrow for my country of origin.

  32. We went to see Garth Brooks (the country singer most famous in the ’90s) in Edmonton on Saturday and the concert was fantastic. Probably only second to Paul McCartney, who sang and played for what was probably close to 3 hours without even stopping for a sip of water. I find that no matter what your thoughts on the music are, watching someone do the thing they love most in the world to do (in front of their second consecutive sold out 61,000 person strong audience) is always amazing. He took requests (people holding up signs with song titles) from the audience, and I was really impressed at how well he and his touring band knew the back catalouge because one of the songs was an album track not released as a single and not something they would normally play at a concert. It must be such a rush to have 61,000 people singing backup for you. I was hoarse all day yesterday from singing so much. It was really good to hear live music again. A good time was had by all.

    I ordered some fancy roses from a nursery owned by the wife of one of Paul’s friends. We’ve shopped there twice this year and will definitely be going back, even if I hadn’t ordered the roses. They are from a very popular rose grower in Ontario who specializes in grafting old roses onto hardier root stock so they will actually in most of Canada. They sell very limited stock to the public, usually a limit of 1 type of rose per year per person so having an in on the wholesale side is nice.

    Today is my sister’s birthday. She’s 49. I’m not sure how that happened. This weekend was my friend’s daughter’s high school graduation. Again, not sure how that happened, she’s only 6 I’m sure.

    We went to see our friend who has cancer and, long story short, we were very surprised to see our old foreman showing up at the same time! He’s a really great guy and we’ve all stayed friendly with him so it was a really nice surprise. He knew we were going to be there but we didn’t. It’s probably the last time he will see Cory unless Cory is feeling better in the fall and they go fishing but no one is betting on that, even though Cory has gained weight and looks good. He has been in much better spirits the last 2 visits than he was in November when he was being a huge jerk. His dad is his executor and he told Cory to get rid of all his personal belongings that he wanted to go to particular people while he was still alive and Cory gave Paul his things this time. It was pretty emotional. In a way, losing Cory is going to be harder on him than losing his mom.

      1. Love Garth! I’ve seen him once, and my favorite part of the show was when the band left the stage, and he stayed behind with his guitar. And he said “Now I’m going to play some of my favorite songs”. And he played John Denver and Jim Croce. (Particular favorites of mine). I don’t know who else he played, because the driver wanted to “beat the traffic”. Me? I stay and watch the credits of the movie… 🙂

        1. This show it was Bob Seaver, Elton John, Billy Joel, and someone we can’t remember but another classic rock song. Night Moves, Rocket Man, and Piano Man.

          Trisha sang She’s in love with the boy and Walk away Joe, which is one of my favourites. A woman in the audience had a sign that said “ We’re in love with the boy” and he said ‘I don’t know if you know, but that’s not actually one of my songs’. Audience laughs. Trisha leans over his shoulder, read the sign, and said she knew it.

          2. Those are the best Trisha Yearwood songs, and you got to see her live! (fangirling over in UK)

    2. Speaking of cool concerts, on July 19, 1975 I went to the World Series of Rock at Three Rivers Stadium in Pittburgh — with a killer lineup of Dave Mason, Foghat, Styx, Kansas, Johnny Winter, and Bachman Turner Overdrive. As we said in the day, far out, man!

  33. Happiness is having a new Anne Stuart book to read. It’s called It Takes A Thief.

  34. My happiness this week:

    The farmers market has local heirloom tomatoes and half-runner green beans.

  35. I didn’t have a happy Sunday or Monday but today the January 6 committee and Cassidy Hutchinson made me very very happy.

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