My kitchen sink’s been draining very slowly over the past while, so I finally called in a plumber to snake out the drain. I still have the old, galvanized pipes in some areas, and this is one of them, so they’re very rough and easily clogged with gunk. He’s currently in the kitchen working away while I hide back here, praying for him to hurry up and get out. No reason really as he’s quite pleasant, however I like being alone in the house.

Turns out the plumber also has a dachshund, a mini named Lucy so we bonded immediately over that. He and his wife also have five cats, so what’s not to love about someone like that? Now it remains to be seen if the sink snake-out actually did its job. As we know, no German relative may visit and see a sink that drains like that.

The ten-day stint of minus 27 in January seems to have taken out quite a few of my garden plants as well as the Valley’s grapes. So off to The Greenery I went to shop like a wild hyena for all manner of lovely perennials, then yesterday Petra and I went to Vernon to two nurseries there, and I hauled home more flowers. Now to wait for a sunny day to plant them all.

I can only do about two hours a day in the yard and then the body starts to say no. I have a handy low stool which helps with weeding, but even with that, the old carcass starts to balk at odd postures. And then I like to do things like dig out deep-rooted plants with a hand shovel so that it also feels completely trashed.

So I intersperse thrift store treasure-hunting with garden work and that seems to help though lately it’s been pricey as I can’t stop buying things I don’t need because they’re $5.00. However, five dollars times God knows how many items equals a lot of wasted dough. And then we can’t try on in some of these stores so when I get them home and realize they don’t fit they’re donated back. Let’s face it, Elsa and I are heroes for all we give to charity.

Mom’s been battling with her body for 99 years and it appears she’s losing the battle. She’s very tippy and has no balance so is nervous to move. Then she’s also got awful spells of dizziness and has terrible back pain from compression fractures of the spine. In other words, aging is the pits and she’s not enjoying it. Her only comfort is the four litres of wine she drinks in a week and the couple of pounds of chocolate to go with it.

I’m losing the fight when it comes to YouTube as channels like The Bulwark, The Meidas Touch and Brian Tyler Cohen have me glued to them. I tell myself it’s not necessary to check these channels throughout the day, but I continue to fall for the algorithm’s sensationalistic captions, like “Trump goes into panic mode with DESPERATE stunt.” How can I resist that?

I also enjoy River, or River Royal as she dishes the dirt on Harry and Meghan, my dear, with the loveliest English accent. She also enjoys shopping at thrift and is a fan of J.K. Rowling. Again, what’s not to love here?

Something I do find detestable is my neighbour who insists on having a bright LED outdoor light on all night long. Why? I just heard an article on CBC Radio about the dangers of LED lighting to all living things. If only I had a YouTube channel, where I could, my dear, talk about all manner of miscreants.