Musings on a Small Life

We went from these scenes, snapped this morning heading out for a walk: To this, early in the afternoon. Short-lived but most unwelcome nonetheless. Fortunately, I had just finished storing away the plant pots and the small, rusty BBQ (into the garage) for the winter. And even hauled out one of my shovels to leave beside the back step. I think I'll have a garden post this week for the Fuzzy Tales blog, since Nicki had to go out in it, of course. And household tip #347? It's a good idea to clean out the exterior portion of your dryer vent more than once every 10.5 years. Just sayin'. And for the record, it never would have occurred to me to check it and clean it, except it was making a whistling noise (I had a load in the dryer) as I was hauling stuff from the back space around to the front and into the garage. So I took a look and saw that it was almost entirely blocked by lint. Yeah, good, Kim, for not cluing in oh, years ago, that it had to be cleaned regularl...

I'm guest posting today on Reenie's Scribbles , in honour of her 100th post. It's long, it's not light-hearted and happy, because gee, much of the time life actually does suck, so don't feel obliged to head over and read it. However, Reenie's own posts are well worth reading! As for today, well, here in my part of the world it's still Friday, it's our once-a-month payday, and I'm going to do my best to take a half day and get some errands done. Positive work news: I have a template from the Marketing & Communications web people for the big dashboard/metrics project. Yay! Needs some tweaking, but I think it will do nicely. And best of all, it's accessible to things like screen readers for the visually impaired, which JPGs (and of course PDFs) are not. So back to work I go, and I'll wish everyone a wonder-full day. Just a few snapshots--very quickly snapped--while walking home one day this week.

I came in to the office this morning and said, "Good morning, Cube!" Then I said, "I love my cube" and did a little twirl around. At 7AM, it's only me, no one else to see how silly I am. Ah, such a small thing, but oh so important to my mental outlook! The overhead cabinet, decorated with laminated pics from a 2008 cat-a-day calendar, plus the Dollarama floral display I had done for the downstairs cube, to give me more privacy. It looks fine up in the corner here. Note that it didn't take long for the clutter on my desk to get out of hand.  Still more laminated cat calendar pics Working hard...You can see which blog I was checking when I snapped the pics. Have I said I love my cube? That doesn't mean I'm not delighted to leave at the end of the day, or that it wouldn't be nice to be able to afford to work part time or at something I truly loved, but this space goes a long way to perking up my spirits. We're all feeling better up here now...

My T4 (thyroid) is still low, even after 6 weeks on the increased dose of Synthroid, so we're upping it again from the 137 mcg to 150 mcg. I've been on Synthroid for over 20 years, most of that time at 125 mcg per day. Then after my August annual blood work, it turned out that I'm hypo-thyroid again. So my dose was upped to the 137 mcg. I really thought that would either do the trick or that I would have to reduce the dose once more. But nope, the test results showed that I was above the high normal range, meaning I'm under-active. Hmm, could this be why, at least in part, I'm always so tired? And gee, so chubby? LOL! Anyway, we'll see what happens after a couple of months on the 150 mcg. No big deal, as far as I'm concerned, and it doesn't worry me in any way. Being hyper-t, like Annie, would be more of a problem. This? I just shrug my shoulders and say, "Whatever!" Today's sky pics are from November 2008 , all taken from my (dir...

It was a busy weekend and I wasn't on-line much. I spent five hours on Saturday shopping and doing errands. Spending money I don't have on a few articles of clothing I happened to see that were on sale at The Bay. (I hadn't been in to that store in two or three years, was surprised by how reasonable a lot of their prices were.) I had gone to the mall for an inexpensive purse, as I have a slew of backpacks, but no purse for the winter. Ended up with said purse as well as a pair of dressy jeans for work, a fleecy zip-up sweater and two tops for the office. Very reasonable, with prices almost but not quite as good as Value Village, with the sale. I also stocked up on cat food at PetSmart, did some other running around and finally made it home by 1PM. (Yes, I had left the house at 7:40AM; I prefer to go early and get everything done before too many people are out.) Sunday a friend came up, the same friend who recently reconnected with me after a five-year absence. She...

Two shots of rye (whiskey) with and after supper, plus one Valerian tablet at 7:30 PM, equals asleep before 8PM and awake at 3:50AM. Sweet! Happy Friday to all. I'm counting the hours till we're done for the day. One work project almost done, four more to go. Pics for the day are from October 2007 , so a significant "flashback." It's not like I've had much time or inclination or energy to go out this year!

It's not only beauty that is in the eye of the beholder, reality is too, of course. We each have our own beliefs and perspectives and biases through which "reality" is filtered, often making "reality" quite subjective. But rather than a nebulous philosophical ramble, I have a few snapshots of this evening's sky, in which our perception of reality is altered. The sky as it actually was, with soft pastel colours.  The sky snapped in "sunset" mode, which significantly alters the real colours.  Snapped in "sunset" mode and then with an auto-colour adjustment in PhotoShop Elements. I often find that reality pales in comparison to fantasy, in a great many ways!

The movers got everything done this morning, and I spent most of the day unpacking, sorting, moving things, stowing them away. The usual. Had a little bit of "help"...when I got home. So, I know getting remotely excited about a cubicle is rather odd, but after two years in our former cramped space, I'm very pleased with my new area. I actually had to get a former co-worker (who works on the lower floor) to come and give me suggestions--there was too much space to work with and I couldn't decide what to do. LOL. Of course, "too much space" is relative! Settling in...  But not all sorted out yet. Entry to my cube, flanked by the two bookcases and the mini-jungle. I have to transplant a few of those plants into larger pots. Best to do that sooner than later, too! Yes, that's my toaster oven next to the old fax, on the short file cabinet. I doubt I'll be able to keep it there, though. There is a small kitchen on this floor (the big one is downstai...