Musings on a Small Life

Everyone already knows the dining table arrived last week with some slight damage, not enough for me to call and kick up a fit about. (Yes, we Canadians can be polite that way. LOL.) Just for the record, if it had been an expensive table, or if the damage had been significant, I would have called and made a fuss. So. The chairs. The infamous chairs. The Wayfair.ca site had a glitch the afternoon I was trying to order them (1 set of 2 chairs), so I called and spoke with Gary at Wayfair, and he placed the order. (Remember Gary of the barking dog in the background? Gary in his basement in his underwear?) Because of the glitch with the product-ordering at their end, my receipt showed 2 sets of 2 chairs @ $173+ tax each, with a credit for $173+ tax. Bottom line: I paid for 1 set (2 chairs). What arrived on Monday was 2 sets of 2 chairs -- 4 chairs in total! I opened one box to make sure they were undamaged (yes) and then spent about 2 hours trying to get one of them...

I had part 2 of the root canal this morning. I'm unfrozen now (mid-afternoon) and waiting for the pain to start. I found out I'm among the 18% of people who have an extra root! Aren't I lucky?  There still was a bit of infection in various canal pockets, but nothing like before, so everything is cleaned out and sealed up and I have a permanent filling in my crown. Fingers crossed I have no more problems. He did give me a prescription for another round of antibiotics if necessary, though I hope I don't have to fill it. Today's cost? $977.00, on top of the $700+ the last time (of which I was reimbursed less than $300). I'll find out in the near future how much Great West will cover. It won't be even close to all of it, not by a long shot.  So I'd better not need further treatment! BTW, I received my dining chairs yesterday, a double order actually (their mistake), but that's for another post. Just let me state once again: never ord...

Usually I'm great with decluttering, I'm ruthless, no sentiment and no regret. But I confess I was pained by going through my closet this afternoon and ditching the pieces that have nothing to coordinate with or that I really like but don't quite fit over my expanding middle-aged tummy. I had gone through my closet in September/October, but with the recent Value Village purchases the clothes needed to be culled again. It was hard, but I prevailed. And I took the opportunity to organize everything by coordinated outfit grouping. So all the tops that go with such-and-such a cardigan or blazer, for example, are together, by colour group. I hope to make it a bit easier to put an outfit together at 5AM. (Only very rarely do I decide what I'll wear the night before, I'm just not that organized.) This was little Piper, in for her booster shots on Wednesday, when I took Nicki for his anal glands.  The poor thing was so scared she was trembling. The weekend oth...

Happy Friday to all and belated happy Thanksgiving to those of you in the U.S.. Now it's "Black Friday," the super-shopping day of the year for many. Less so here in Canada, though most retailers have gotten on board with the big American sale date. (Our huge sale date traditionally was/is Boxing Day, December 26th.) Anyway, I took advantage of one of Ikea's sales and ordered a new TV bench at 15% off. A sufficient deal to make up for the shipping cost and it should be delivered next week. I've hummed and hawed over which one to order for many months now, so hope I'm not disappointed with my final decision. I have a few other things I'd like to order as well, but those will wait till their next "free shipping" date, which I hope will be Christmas. Speaking of deliveries, I got the dining table I'd ordered from Wayfair.ca. (Still waiting on the chairs.) Of course that's Nicki up on the box.     Derry checks things out. ...

By early this morning we'd had 15 cms of snow, with another 10 expected through Monday. I shovelled at 4 AM, as the snow was blowing and accumulating in my driveway. As always. I had drifts over a foot, probably about 18 inches.  Below: Shortly after I did the first round of shovelling.   Derry actually did venture out for a few minutes around 6 AM, but quickly asked to be let back in! I shovelled again at 6:30, before heading to the bus. Oh and speaking of the bus -- this was the first time in my 16 years in the house that the bus got stuck and couldn't get unstuck at my stop. Sure, buses will have difficulty there, as it's on an incline, but they've always been able to get themselves going again. Not this morning. The driver had to call for a push, and actually the city truck followed us the entire way along our route. We missed the 7 AM transfer, of course, but were in time to catch a 7:15 bus, so that was fine. I always go to work a half hour early an...

In spite of the snow we're having, I headed out around 9 AM with the intent to go to Home Depot for a specific item. I thought I might as well stop in to Value Village on the way, for quick look, half an hour at most. An hour and a half later I left the store with a bag full of bargains, having tried on 23 tops--which surely counts as an aerobic workout, right? I scored 9 tops, including two shrug-style cardigans, which I specifically was looking for, perfect for the office. I also found the two inexpensive prints, above. I'm sure they weren't more than $10 each at full price, if even that, but I paid $3 each. They're perfect for my bedroom! I headed home after that, passing on Home Depot. I'll stop in another time! Now we're all snug and cosy in the house, while the snow swirls outside. We have more accumulation now than in the snapshots below, and we're slated for 10 - 15 cms overnight and into tomorrow morning. What a change...

I've been haunting the online furniture retail web sites (Ikea, Structube, Wayfair, Leon's, The Brick, Sears, etc.) for many months now, looking for a dining table that I actually really like and also can afford. Yesterday, I found this at Wayfair.ca, a new item (for them): Ahhhh....two-tone with white, just about perfect! (Perfect would be an extendable table, IMO.) I ordered it (the table only), unable to pass up the price. I suspect the bots must crawl the Wayfair site and just make up prices--look at the "original" cost! (Click to enlarge.) Anyway, I was showing someone in our office suite the pic of the set and she thought I really ought to order a couple of chairs too. (Check out the price for the chairs!) So what the heck, I thought. In for a penny, in for a pound and hey, you live only once. I went back to the Wayfair site and added 1 set (2 chairs) to my cart. Only there was a website glitch and my cart was coming up with double the pric...

From a co-worker, with comments off. Have a great day!    

Actually, not too many thoughts to share. The week's passing, as all do, and mercifully this one seems to be going by more quickly than last. Probably because the super moon and all the associated craziness is over and done with!  :-) I'm decidedly lacking in any holiday spirit yet, which is atypical for me. Usually early in November I start to hum and play Christmas music and anticipate putting up my little tree. This year? Nothing. Nada. Not even a teensy bit of care for the upcoming season. I do have lights on the fat shrub beside my front step, thanks to the help of friends Robin and Chuck last weekend, but I'm seriously thinking I'll pass on putting up my indoor tree this year. Ho-hum and yawn.  However, our city is in the holiday spirit, with new lamp post lighted ornaments:   They still have the lighted snowflakes too, but gone seem to be the wreaths of past years. I like these ornaments, actually, and it's lovely to peer down the main street ...

A dear friend of mine, who lost both her soulmate horse and her cat this year, just adopted this little pumpkin last Thursday, from a shelter in her area. Meet Amber! (For her amber-coloured eyes.)     Isn't she just the prettiest dilute tortie? Apparently she'd been picked up as a stray on November 6th, I believe, spayed on the 8th, and then adopted on the 10th. Lucky girl! She's thin, but eating very well, and soon will fill out, I'm sure. She's settled right in with the existing dog (who is happy to have a cat in the house again), and apparently she's demonstrating her tortitude by getting into everything, scratching everything (and ignoring the cat scratchers and pads, of course), breaking things and generally being a very active young ladycat.  :-) Welcome to your forever home, Amber! I wish you a long and happy, healthy life! Peace .

"Oh, I'm bein' followed by a moonshadow, moonshadow, moonshadow...Leapin and hoppin' on a moonshadow, moonshadow, moonshadow..." Around 4AM this morning             You can see Cat Steven's in a 1970 concert, singing "Moonshadow," here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hr0rDW5j1KU Peace .