Musings on a Small Life

I thought I'd save myself effort and aggravation this year by using tax software, one of the free ones recommended by the Canadian Revenue Agency and linked to off their site. I know the CRA wants Canadians to file via the internet, but I'm not quite ready for that. Anyway, it was all going well until I needed to enter an amount for "schedule 7." Doesn't matter what that is. I've been filing my taxes (manually) with schedule 7 for the past 11 - 12 years and the government has not once indicated I'm making a mistake with it. But this tax software won't allow me to input my amount in a certain field, and when I add a minimum payable amount (which I exceeded) in another field, it thinks I owe tax on it and increases my balance owing to over $500. Which is not the case, or certainly hasn't been for all these years. Pffffttttt! So I've saved a PDF copy for myself, minus schedule 7, and will print it out at the office (I don't have ...

Not mine, I couldn't have an "inspiring" (original) thought if my life depended on it. Ha. From Tiny Buddha : "View your life with KINDSIGHT. Stop beating yourself up about things from your past. Instead of slapping your forehead and asking, 'What was I thinking,' breathe and ask yourself the kinder question, 'What was I learning?'" -Karen Salmansohn I really need to take that advice to heart. The boys a couple of weekends ago.   Purrs from them and peace from me.

Recently I discovered cute/fun/happy pet news on mnn.com and yesterday's post is too sweet: http://www.mnn.com/family/pets/stories/lessons-in-cuddling-pit-bulls-and-tabby-cat-show-us-how-its-done The pet section is worth book-marking, if you're not familiar with it. My own two cuties were bookends yesterday evening: They had quite the adventure, too, with a new-to-us black (? it was dark by then) cat hanging around the fence and then walking all around the top, repeatedly. I managed to get Derry inside before Nicki went postal...and oh, you should have heard Nicki! The howling, while he was still outside. I predict a highly stressful spring and summer, with everyone's roaming cats hanging around on or near the fence. $1200 of incurred debt back in June 2010 to allow the cats to go outside safely and this is what happens. It wouldn't be an issue if Nicki weren't so aggressive, if he didn't turn on Derry to redirect that aggression.  :-( Have I ...

...I found this awesome site (Tiny Buddha) a short time ago, particularly the "Fun & Inspiring" section: http://tinybuddha.com/category/fun-and-inspiring/ Awesome quotes with artwork, Buddha doodles, inspiring videos, etc. Also inspiring: The daffodils I saw yesterday afternoon, peeking up through the freezing ground outside our office building. They're in a sunny, protected spot...hope they survive this cold! Comments are off. Check out the site...really.  :-)

I saw three geese by/in a pond in a little park by our "big" mall, while out this morning. (One on the dead grass on the right, near the top of the image, one heading down into the water, one in the water by the dead reeds. (I was some distance away and at full zoom, so this is the best I could do.)   I take them as a good omen, as it means that enough snow and ice has melted in a few places to allow them to alight, at least for a while. We did have 5 cms (about 2 inches) Saturday morning, but it melted by the afternoon, once it cleared and the sun made an appearance. I'd like to note, however, that not one single street plow or sander was sighted the entire morning; the bus dispatch was inundated with calls from drivers who couldn't make turns or get up small hills, etc. (The streets and sidewalks were deadly icy.) In fact, I found out from someone in this complex that our 8:15AM neighbourbood bus couldn't make it up the slight incline from our bu...

Wednesday night was our private farewell at our original boss's home, for our retiring staff member. Yesterday afternoon we had the public drop-in farewell at a campus pub. (THAT was like old home week, with all the retired and semi-retired mucky-mucks coming by, including a former Principal who/whom I so wish was still head of our university.) And that's it. Our co-worker's last day was yesterday, though he'll be in on a weekend or two to clear out his space, once he's back from his trip to a warmer region, to golf. It's funny...I didn't think I'd care. He and I communicate in totally different ways, and though he's the most personable and social of our group, and fun to be around, I've found working with him irritating from time to time. Normal, I suppose, for us all. (I know I can be annoying and irritating too.) But I realized yesterday evening that I've been with this group of co-workers for longer than most of my friendshi...

It must be; Dad sent me this sweet Jacquie Lawson e-card. He's getting his money's worth out of that site. :-) We had our private retirement dinner for a staff member, at our boss's house last night. Just our original group, I mean, not the merged group. My boss and his partner have a few pets, a 13-year old cat, Zeke: And two "rescued" dogs via Kijiji, Dexter the lab and Charlotte the...whatever. Now, someone who knows photography might be able to answer this: Do you see the funny circular light "blob" on the edge of the carpet, behind Dexter? I get these a lot with this little Canon Elph 520HS. I can't adjust the intensity of the flash, can only have it set to on/off/auto/slow-syncrho, even if in Program mode. I've been Googling but can't yet find anything to help me. Does anyone know what I'm doing wrong or have suggestions? My thanks if you do! P.S. I found a bit of info on Wikipedia, for what it's worth,...

My "old" boss sent this joke to our retiring staff member (they're both 60, btw), and copied the rest of us: EXERCISE FOR PEOPLE OVER 60 Begin by standing on a comfortable surface, where you have plenty of room at each side. With a 5-lb potato bag in each hand, extend your arms straight out from your sides and hold them there as long as you can. Try to reach a full minute, and then relax. Each day you'll find that you can hold this position for just a bit longer. After a couple of weeks, move up to 10-lb potato bags. Then try 50-lb potato bags and then eventually try to get to where you can lift a 100-lb potato bag in each hand and hold your arms straight for more than a full minute. After you feel confident at that level, put a potato in each bag. *** Our retiring staff member's response? That he's past that level, he's up to two potatoes in each 100-lb bag.  :-) *** Snapped while waiting at a bus stop on Sunday. Brrrr.  *** Today...

So I'm in the McDonald's café in WalMart last Sunday morning. There are three elderly men (one looks to be in his late 60s, two older, possibly late 70s or even 80s) off to my left. Another elderly man comes in and sits down at a table directly on my left (one table over), opens up the paper on the table. One of the men in the group of three greets him and says they left the paper for him, because they know he likes to read it (while having his coffee/whatever). They "know" each other, though the man immediately to my left is not in their clique. Out of the blue, one of the three says to this new arrival, "Bob's dead." Just like that, no preliminaries.  After the expected "Oh no," etc., it turns out that Bob was found dead in his bed by the apartment building superintendent, who had gone in to check on him because it was noticed that Bob's car hadn't moved in a few days. Then--and I'm not kidding or making this up--...

I'm not going to bitch about the weather here; I've already done that on the boys' blog. I am going to post two cute (IMO) things, one a question from a week or two ago on the Canadian Weather Network site, the other an ad I saw on our City web site yesterday. I voted "openly weep," as did a great many of those who had voted when I clicked. And the ad for transit drivers: BTW, I recognize three of the four people in that photo, all drivers, though I don't know their names. As much as I complain about our typically late-running, slow service, I will give kudos to the drivers of the two buses I caught yesterday afternoon, going home. Both actually were on time, by some miracle, as I couldn't even see a half-block ahead, with the white-out conditions. Thank you to both for a safe ride home; I'm sure glad it wasn't me behind the wheel! The other "two too cute" are, of course, the boys: Derry on our mild Tuesday, be...

And in our case, I'm referring to winter, as we brace for 15 - 25 cms of snow tomorrow (6 - 10 inches). There's nothing good to be said about this. Nothing at all. I move that the university close tomorrow, because we're all going to be too depressed to get out of bed anyway. I think I'll take my example from the boys (pics snapped yesterday evening).   At least my calendar page is displaying Spring in all her glory. For those of you who actually have Spring now, for the love of all that's holy, please send her to us! *Human figuratively pulling hair out in sheer frustration and desperation*

I didn't do badly this weekend, in the "hopes" department.  :-) A bit of snow did melt...though we had another 10 cms or even more overnight. I didn't bother shoveling the driveway this morning, I was too disgusted, depressed, dismayed, discouraged...pick a word. I had low-lites and a cut on Saturday and am pleased with the results. Same colour (caramel), but all the old blonde hi-lites finally are gone. I added a very little bit of "glow" to the "selfie" in Picasa, but otherwise didn't do anything to blur it...the original already was a bit blurry, which works in my favour (re: crow's feet and middle-aged skin). In spite of a few sneezes and snuffles, the boys seemed fine. (I have this "fear" that they're just going to pass the virus germs back and forth now, indefinitely.) Pic snapped through the patio door glass. The neighbours were gone until about 8:45PM last night; yay! I had a quiet, peaceful week...

My hopes are for: Good health/healing for the boys (pic from last weekend). For some of the snow to melt, if we're lucky (more is in the forecast, unfortunately). For peace and quiet next door (it's March break next week; the neighbours have been away the past three nights, not sure if they'll be back today, this weekend or next week). For nice low-lights and a much-needed trim tomorrow (hair, obviously). For something pretty, cheerful and spring-like. That's all...I'm not too demanding today.  :-) For most of you in North America, remember to turn your clocks ahead Saturday night, before you go to bed. Purrs from the boys and peace from me.

The boys survived, Derry had to move a couple of times, Nicki too, but I had no problem with that, thank you, Universe. It's a very noisy business, though! There's no entry from the garage into the house, so he had to run the hoses from the basement up the stairs and out the hall to the truck.   It's also a very cold business in winter. That tarp didn't do much to prevent the cold wind from blowing in. I was the one who taped it up with painter's tape, as he really wasn't prepared with anything to hold the tarp in place. After he dicked around it with for too long, I told him I'd fiddle around with it while he started the ducts, as it was just wasting his time (and my heat).  A snap of his vacuum bags from my bedroom window. I turned the heat off, of course, and it got down to 51F before he was done and I could turn the furnace back on. Brrrr. (If only it were 51F outside , though!) He said there wasn't anything "heavy"...

That would be Mr. Derry-Bear this morning, and as I was picking him up and giving him a cuddle for the umpteenth time, while trying to cook breakfast, do dishes, get ready for work, etc., I thought, I'm so happy he's being a pest! LOL. He sneezed green once on Sunday, and once yesterday when I got home from work, and I called the vet clinic to find out when his vet would be in today, thinking he'd need antibiotics for sure. Then last night, after Nicki and I had gone to bed and I was drifting off, Derry joined us and started a tussle with Nicki, on the bed, as they often will do. A vigorous, chase-off-the-bed-and-race-downstairs tussle. And this morning he was out and in, out and in, out and in (minus 24 Celsius windchill), no sneezing yet, nothing untoward, just being his normal adorable but pesty self.  :-) So I'll just wait and see, since he obviously was feeling just fine. Fingers crossed. Toes crossed. Maybe even eyes crossed for good luck. Ha. ...

Well, I'm not meant to have a head board after all, at least not right now. Turns out it's too high, even for the original higher box spring with the mattress on it. Even with that, there was still a gap of a couple of inches between the top of the mattress and the bottom of the headboard, and the headboard was wobbling back and forth. So back it went and I'll have to get a refund. A bit disappointing, though I'm happy to have the lower box spring in the end. I still have to hitch my butt up a tiny bit, but at least I don't have to hop up or need a foot stool. LOL. I must say, the delivery guys were very kind, they put the head board on, tried both box springs with the mattress, then ended up having to take the head board off and pack it up again. No extra charge for delivery, btw, it's included in the cost of the original purchase (they claim free delivery, but I'm sure it's not "free"). I put the old king-sized duvet cover on until...