Sticking it to Zuckerberg

Jan19

I read a post on Facebook that we should all ignore it for a week so I’m going to do that, just because. I don’t like Zuckerberg, Musk or Bezos, so here’s a very small, likely meaningless attempt by a peon to lodge my protest. Obviously, we shouldn’t be using Facebook at all, nor shopping at Amazon, which thank God I rarely do, and I will never buy a Tesla so I’m safe there.

We’re down to a very thin, free local newspaper called The Capital News which I’ve read since moving here nearly 35 years ago. They always have a section either by the SPCA or the Okanagan Humane Society whereby they showcase various animals needing homes. The other day there was a cat which was elderly and had been obese but was now normal size but suffered from ‘mega colon.’ I think it’d be better to say nothing and just let a new owner be surprised as that doesn’t sound like a selling point for the cat.

Marie was here for lunch last week and noticed the stink bug. Every winter there seems to be one or two that like to stay in the house, and I just ignore them. Marie said she’d just kill it if it was her place, but I said God no and told her about the two different golden orb spiders I had living with me for several months before they perished. One of old age and the other was murdered by one of the cats.

Remember how I said Calvin was good at things I’m bad at and vice versa? The other day, seeing how he seems to do this easily, I replied to a Facebook Marketplace ad for Barbie dolls. I drove over and bought one of them and then brought it home to find one leg was shorter than the other. It’s also not vintage in any way, and I was hosed for $25. I said to Calvin, why I try to buy stuff on Marketplace is a mystery because I’m so bad at it.

He continues to be ace at it as he’d pointed out my receiver was pooched, and I needed a new one. Browsing Marketplace day by day he landed on a nice Yamaha for $50, picked it up, brought it home, hooked it to my Bose speakers, handed me the remote and said, there you should be good to go. Genius, right?

He also cleverly placed the speakers to each side of the new smart TV he picked up for me, and so I had room in the glass-fronted cabinet where I had stored them. I decided what would look very adorable would be my old record albums stacked up in there, spines showing so you can read the titles. I can only play them on a special turntable I bought, but when I do, they bring incredible memories flooding back.

The collection starts with old Beatles LP’s and then moves to Elvis Costello My Aim is True, The Pointer Sisters Steppin’, Bruce Spring The River, Cyndi Lauper She’s so Unusual. If you were around in the 1960s to 1980’s, you’ll be crying because you probably made the mistake of ‘cleaning out’ your closets of stuff you no longer needed. Tsk!

Elsa’s back from several months in Mexico, and last week we returned to the thrift stores for some treasure hunting, so there’s no danger of me ever running out of items I may or may not need in the future. I still like the idea of turning the house into a store and putting price tags on everything and letting people browse to their heart’s content. That’d give all my buying a purpose.

Doesn’t Everyone Bake Ten Batches Of Cookies?

Dec23

Because I regard my Christmas preparations as the norm for everyone, I’m always a bit perplexed and surprised by replies such as this one from my friend Penny. “Whew! Your Christmas preparations are dizzying but most admirable.” It’s the Martha Stewart in me; I guess I can’t just be average, I have to be over the top with everything. However so far all cookie recipients have been quite pleased by their assortment.

Here’s an incredibly stupid thing I did. I assumed a courier company meant faster delivery than what we were told to expect due to back-ups of parcels after the Canada Post strike. I went into Purolator on Friday morning around 9:00 and thought this way the parcels should surely arrive by Monday at the latest. They were weighed and placed into the shipping queue, I paid and said, “When will they arrive?”

“Dunno.” I said, “You don’t know? How can you not know when they’ll arrive?” After a few moments, once I was able to think clearly again, I decided to invoke the Gods of Shipping. I said to the woman, “Ya know what? I’m just gonna think positive thoughts and imagine them arriving there on time.” She then gave me a wink and said, “I think you’re right.” I felt like punching initially, but thankfully left with a Merry Christmas. Must be the season, right?

I got one of those hilarious Fart Ninjas, have you seen them? They’re motion-activated and make a few different farting sounds. I just like having it around as sometimes I forget it’s on the table and a cat jumps up and suddenly I hear “fraaap” or “poot.” Please don’t judge me, I have a very strange sense of humour. When bored I Google ‘People Get Hurt Slipping on Ice’ and other hilarious topics like that. I’m laughing now thinking about it.

This is the last blog of 2024 and as usual I’m pretty much ga ga with excitement and anticipation for a New Year to begin. I’m not making any resolutions, per se, but I do have two goals that I wish to achieve. One is to hire a Gen Z who knows WordPress to help me with it (this means doing most of it) and secondly, I want to start selling some old stuff that someone who collects may value.

It was good to have mom’s 100-year celebration in summer because she’s to turn 100 on February 25 and at this age it’s nip and tuck. Most days she’s in her nightgown and housecoat so not sure how much steam is left in the old engine. I do hope she’ll be in the mood for our Christmas Eve tomorrow night, and again for Christmas Day. Hamiltons are coming for dinner as they usually do which is great. Fred will wear his Christmas vest, made by Julie and decorated with snowmen and other related things.

I’ve had some very decent Christmas events here in Kelowna. The Crones came for dinner one night, and Calvin and I held our very successful 4th annual Christmas party. Each year another bowl of punch is added, and I think this time he made either three or four bowls, and it still wasn’t enough. This crowd can go through the liquor, which I love to see in young folks.

Sylvie and I had dinner at the Gasthaus in Peachland last night and today I’m meeting Marie downtown for Happy Hour, so life is pretty pretty pretty good here. I’m grateful for all of it, food, friends and family. Merry Christmas!

Moulting Hen Scares Coop Mates

Dec10

I noticed an awful lot of white feathers in the run and then saw that Kate was missing feathers at the nape and also under her neck. I figured it must be moulting, but then I saw one of the fluffy-feet grey hens pecking at her, and she was just standing there taking it. I did some research and as the six new hens are young and have never moulted, seeing Kate featherless in some vulnerable areas likely caused bullying.

To reduce any chance of bullying within the coop I got a handy metal fence from Sylvie which she used to corral her little dogs. It can be made big or small so makes a nice little enclosure within the coop into which I can plop Kate for the night. That sounds easy, doesn’t it? All I can say is you go into a chicken coop and try to catch a hen and then tell me about it. I hope moulting ends soon.

It’s not just chickens and people that bully anyone who’s different, as I’ve seen it with cats. I remember when I had my apartment at the corner of 10th and Hemlock in Vancouver in the 70’s. It had a fireplace which I almost never used. But I did use it enough for it to be coated in soot, and one day one of my two white cats snuck behind the screen and came out looking like a panther.

I didn’t know what to do so grabbed the cat and took her into the bathroom, held her under the tap of the bathtub and tried to get the soot off, but wetting the cat seemed to make it worse as now she appeared dark grey all over. I dried her off and set her down and then her sister arched her back and was hissing at her as though she was an intruder! So funny.

My friends the Lynchs came for lunch yesterday and liked seeing all of the Christmas decorations. I said I always do it on December 1st now because the month flies by and then you don’t get to enjoy all the sparkly lights and other adorable things. Sadly, they brought me delicious pastries from a bakery called Sweet Caroline’s in Vernon and so last evening I ate two huge marzipan-coated sponge cakes that were filled with fresh whipped cream.

Calvin and I continue with our very successful tit for tatting. I described it in my book, Okay I’ll Bite (which you should order as a stocking stuffer), but basically, it’s doing the thing the other person can’t or hates to do. I’ll make a pot roast; Calvin will put up the Christmas lights. He changes my tires; I bake him a pie. It seems to work.

This Saturday is our 4th Annual Christmas Party, so I have to shop for food because I really hate buying frozen dreck like spring rolls as the homemade stuff just tastes so much better. I told Calvin we need a double batch of punch as last year we ran out and people were coming into the kitchen with empty glasses and leaving with sad faces.

As you may recall I’m working on a memoir of my ten years in the fruitcake business. It’s ten chapters and so far, I’ve sent seven for editing, so three more to go, and I often feel like I need to take primal scream therapy or at least ingest ayahuasca. As a memoir must have a theme, and as we must understand why this person is doing the things she does, my editor will ask questions like, “you want it, but do you feel guilty about those feelings?” Never mind, I plan on giving this my best shot, just like the hen must.

Trip to Leavenworth, Washington

Nov26

In the spring Marie suggested we should do something fun to celebrate turning 70, and said a cute destination is Leavenworth, Washington. I’ve never been but have heard a lot about it from friends who have, so said sure, let’s do it. We booked for two nights and drove down last week.

It was time for an early lunch when we hit Trino’s Mexican Restaurant in Oroville, then we proceeded straight to the Icicle Resort where we arrived around 3:00 PM. We were thrilled to see our huge two-bedroom condo where they’d basically thought of everything a person could need. Just outside the window we saw the pool and hot tub, both heated.

The person at the desk said it was about a fifteen-minute walk into town, and so we thought that’d be nice after our drive. However they’d had a huge dump of snow that morning so the sidewalks weren’t shovelled and in places we had to go out onto the highway to be able to make our way forward. By the time we arrived the cute little town’s trees and stores were all lit up and it looked magical.

We needed liquor so walked back to get our car and drove to the Safeway where it took forever to make up our minds given the vast assortment. I settled on a bottle of a pre-mixed margarita by a company called On the Rocks. We had a drink back at the condo, then drove to town and looked for a place for dinner.

Even though we were in a Bavarian town we decided to eat Italian food, and it was delicious. The place is called Visconti’s and is upstairs and felt all cozy. I ended my chicken and mushroom fettuccini meal with a delicious, strong Irish coffee.

On Thursday we started the day with an attempt at eating the breakfast, which was included, but it wasn’t good, so we just ate a bowl of raisin bran, then headed to Das Thrift Haus for a bit of shopping. I bought two tops for $4 each, and then we went into the cute town and looked at the price of chi chi items in the stores and laughed a bit.

We stopped in at a photographic gallery and admired the landscapes. The artist was there and so we chatted, and of course the topic of the election arose. We said yes what a strange result, and he explained no, not really as you know, Robert Kennedy has a lot of really good ideas. We said huh! He added Elon Musk is really going to clean up some of the bureaucracy, and we said you are probably right.

When we left, we said wow, we sure had that person pegged wrong. Of course we should’ve taken the hint never to speak about politics when we saw a huge, fat man in a T shirt decorated with the stars and stripes and Trump written across it. They are everywhere down there. I said to Marie never say “cream” just say “half and half” or we’ll be outed and shot. Ditto “sack” and not “bag” or “a fifth” versus “a mickey.”

After thoroughly browsing the town, we returned and decided to be brave and hop into the hot tub. We found two big white robes in the closet, donned our bathing suits and shoes, grabbed towels and ran out the back, tip toed through the snow, and unlocked the gate. We removed the bubble wrap cover and ahhhh! Lovely pulsing hot water and steam rising all around. We looked like those snow monkeys in Japan.

We ate German food at Andreas Keller that night and were thrilled to have an old German man playing accordion. He played the Chicken Dance, and we loved doing the clap clap clap clap at the appropriate places. It appeared he was happy with our participation. I’m sure some nights he gets nothing but duds sitting there.

The next morning, we checked out and made our way back, however in Wenatchee we missed a road sign, and then I randomly said “turn left” which Marie did. Later she asked why I said that, and I asked her why she listened when she knew I had no sense of direction. Suffice to say we were badly lost but found good Samaritans who drove ahead of us until we got to the right exit where they waved us on.

Thanks, Americans. We may not understand them, but as we see time and again, when someone needs help, good people step in.

World Gone Mad

Nov12

I drove to Osoyoos last Tuesday as I wanted to watch the US presidential election results with mom. We were both nervously hoping for a Harris win, though she knew full well that Carol, my American acquaintance had explained this to me when Hillary lost. She said, “you have to remember, as much as Americans hate black people, they hate women more.” Hence, I wasn’t shocked by the Trump win.

We placated ourselves with spaghettini and a wild shrimp and salmon sauce, made from reducing a litre of whipping cream until the right consistency. No flour or cornstarch needed with this method, just heat and time are required. I’d sauteed the fish with garlic and onions, removed these from the pan, then poured in the whip. At the end I added a dash of white wine. The dinner helped a lot, as did the marshmallow squares for dessert.

Or was it the extra guava nectar, club soda and vodka cocktail that helped ease the pain? I woke around midnight looking for headache relief, and realized I’d forgotten to pack this vital medicine. I don’t like to go anywhere without Advil and Gravol. I had to make my way through the scary long hallway of mom’s house to the kitchen to find meds. I think when mom’s dead that house is going to be extra spooky.

I’m currently editing chapter six of my memoir of the fruitcake business, so I’m going to be rash and say I believe I’m going to complete this project within the next few months. The hard part will be once all ten chapters have been edited individually the whole book needs an edit. Thank God for Judith. I wouldn’t be able to continue without her feedback chapter by chapter. It’s like having a life coach.

I was shocked to see I’ve made $69 from my book, Okay I’ll Bite. One day I decided to look at my bank account, and went what’s that from Amazon, and realized it was royalties from book sales. As we all know, this was never going to be Fifty Shades of Grey, and that’s fine. It’s my first effort, so I’m cutting myself some slack.

Calvin kindly changed the tires on my car, and alleges he’s going to strengthen the chicken fencing, so at this very moment I have a lovely pot roast in the oven for him as a reward. It’s a divine-looking cross rib from Lakeview Market, and ringed with onions, carrots and potatoes, all drenched in gravy. It’ll be a hit. Calvin and Nick have similar appetites, so I know how many pounds of food it takes to fill them.

Yesterday Marie and I had an uneventful walk along the beautiful Mission Creek Greenway, and then today I had a harrowing walk on a different section with Sharon. As we walked, she said she felt dizzy, and then all of a sudden, she lost her balance and fell straight backwards, hurting her lower back. Needless to say, the rest of the walk was dead slow.

Since Elsa’s still in Mexico I haven’t been thrifting, and it’s just as well given the volume of stuff. I have so many beautiful old Pyrex bowls in different shades of blue, two yellow, one red, and then dozens of ramekins in various colours. Just awful as who wants all of this down the road? Certainly not my children who have explained that to me quite firmly.

I’ve decided to look at the bright side of the American election, as what else is there to do? And you know I’m prone to Schadenfreude so the next four years might be okay.

I Let My Thoughts Fool Me

Oct29

In my last blog I mentioned Louie was sick, and I was waiting to see what happened. He didn’t get any better, in fact he was worse the next day as he couldn’t even keep water down. So I thought better listen to the vet and take him to the hospital. However, I spent that entire day telling myself this was either kidney or liver failure, and that it was curtains for dear Lou. I cried for hours.

It turned out to be pancreatitis and he was put on an IV overnight and seemed fine the next day so they called to say I could pick him up. $1500 later, I was of course relieved the dog wasn’t terminal, but then mad at myself for being so insane and deciding the dog was going to die. I lecture the living daylights out of people who imagine hypothetical scenarios cautioning them not to allow their thoughts to fool them. Now here I was, being fooled by myself.

Now that the garden hell is over for another season, I’m sedentary and prone to watching absolute rubbish. I wait for a whole year for another season of When Love is Blind, and I’m currently watching season 7. I’m also very happy to be watching The Great Canadian Baking Show season 8.

For exercise I ended up chasing an errant hen the other day which caused me to sprain my leg. I went out with the dogs and walked over to their pen and saw Chicken Little was outside. If they get out, they don’t run away but stay very close to the fence wondering how to get back in. I have no idea how she got out given the crop netting.

As I went down the hill toward the hen Louie realized easy prey was within reach and ran down toward the chicken. I was holding a bowl which I threw, then I dropped and managed to grab the chicken just as Louie was about to chomp. I got her by the tail feathers which caused a terrible ruckus, but then I had a decent grip and started uphill at which point I slipped on the Ponderosa pine needles and did a strange kind of a standing split.

Once Chicken Little was back in the pen I limped over to pick up the bowl, called the dogs, and went inside wondering what repercussions would come of it. Sure enough around midnight I was awakened in agonizing pain around the knee area so I took two Advil and applied a frozen gel pack. Hard to explain to people I was injured corralling a chicken.

As you may recall Luke installed cameras in mom’s house and I can see where she is and what she’s doing using an app on my phone. When I call her, I can see mom’s phone is right in front of her, and I can hear it ringing, then can watch her pick it up and press random buttons going, Hello? Hello? Sometimes this goes on for a quite a while. Eventually we connect and she says, “there’s something wrong with this phone!”

But currently Luke can’t run over to help her as he’s here in Kelowna being trained for his new job for Northern Computers. Once this week is over, he’ll be able to work remotely from Osoyoos so he’s extremely excited and happy. He’s staying here while he does that, so I had to think hard to cobble together a menu for us for the week.

Thankfully Luke and Calvin are friends so I can shoo him down there in the evenings.

Now Louie’s Sick

Oct15

I suppose you think I went right ahead and applied what I had been taught regarding my WordPress site. Wrong. I was so frightened by it I haven’t been near it since. Beekeeping, owning chickens, adopting dogs and cats, growing dahlias all seem so simple compared to whatever occurs on this new-fangled typing device known as a laptop.

More technology hiccups awaited in Osoyoos when I arrived for the Thanksgiving weekend. I’d had someone come to repair mom’s roof, and in the process, he had to move the satellite, which meant no CNN or MSNBC which is the same as saying a diabetic has run out of insulin. It’s an emergency.

Luke had cleverly provided mom with the old Netflix remote and so she was back to hours and hours of Virgin River as she waited for her TV channels to come back. I phoned Shaw but they don’t have anyone available to come until October 29, but the nice person said call a local technician and see if they can do it. Turns out our friend Jim and Luke were able to figure it out all by themselves.

It was sunny and very warm in Osoyoos, so we sat out, and mom made her way out to sit on the deck with us. She managed to eat a nice plate of turkey dinner on Saturday night, and we all had a good laugh over my attempt to make pastry. Suffice to say the dessert was pumpkin custard with whipped cream.

On Sunday Jan noticed Louie was suddenly walking backwards a few steps, which was very odd, and he did it again yesterday back home in Kelowna. Then today he’s been completely disinterested in everything, lethargic, and not himself at all. I called the vet, and she said it could be kidney failure so I should take him to the hospital, but I said no, let’s wait until she examines him tomorrow and then decide.

Around here there’s always someone in medical distress. From the hen that died in the coop in the spring, to my mom weakening by the day, to the cat with his massive abscess and now Louie with whatever it is he has. And then people wonder why I drink. How else to cope?

The Crones got a surprise last week as we headed into Maestro for Happy Hour only to find the door locked. We then had to go to a Plan B which was fine as the Eldorado is right next door, so we went over there. Donna’s going to be 90 in December and weighs as much as my dog but can eat twice the amount of food in one sitting that I can. It’s kind of amazing.

We sat in the lounge and shared yam waffle fries and wings, and I slugged back at least two cocktails. That would be all the food I’d like to eat, but no, Donna said let’s go over to the dining room for dinner. So we went over there and it was lovely and quiet and I looked at the menu and said I think the most I can do is a bowl of clam chowder.

Donna had salad followed by the ravioli and ate every bit of it. It’s like watching those people who win eating contests. Some are tiny yet they can eat their own weight in hot dogs. Fortunately, this was a grade above, but still, the volume of it all. I can probably eat more than Donna does in a whole day, but I can’t do it in a single sitting.

Imaginary Sore Throat

Oct2

Last week I developed a horrible pain on the back of my tongue and upper throat area. I had to gargle with salt water dozens of times a day, and was taking two Advil every six hours for the pain. I was sure I had something God awful, and of course it was the long weekend, so I knew I would perish without medical intervention. As luck would have it traffic was low to the walk-in clinic nearby so I drove straight down.

There was only one man in the waiting room, so it was a quick visit. I soon saw a doctor who looked into my throat and said, “I don’t see anything alarming.” I was in shock, “You don’t see ANYTHING in there?” I asked. “Nope. Probably just a virus, continue to gargle and take pain meds.” I left saying to the receptionist, who I happen to know, “turns out I’m a hypochondriac.”

Probably some kind of mental reaction to all the care and feeding of the 99-and-a-half-year-old. I’m back to Osoyoos again today, despite having just been there last week, because mom’s in poor shape right now. Last week Luke had found her sitting on the bathroom floor, naked from the waist down, and had to wrestle her into her bed. This caused a few days of confusion, but she was watching the vice-presidential debates last night so she may be making a comeback.

Calvin’s cat Felix had his canine tooth knocked out at the root, and as a nerve was exposed it had to be dealt with by a vet. He took Felix in for an exam, then there was surgery booked for the next day to remove what was left of the tooth. I was in Osoyoos so emailed him and said how much did the vet soak ya for that, and he replied $1400. Can you imagine? I think this is why there are so many pets at the SPCA.

My cat George is just recovering from an abscess he had in his cheek, and which began mid July. It’s the cat’s own fault, as he loves to fight, and he’s also too crazy for surgery, a drain, and a cone. Or I should say I’m too mentally fragile to deal with that cat under those conditions. So he and I have toughed it out, it’s now healing with just a small scab remaining on his chest. Cost? Zero, to both my bank account and my nerves.

But I don’t blame Calvin as his cat is his number one companion and best friend. And you can’t leave an exposed nerve. I could tell Felix was feeling bad prior to the surgery as he loves canned food, and when I went downstairs to open a can for him, he refused it. Poor little cat, but all better now, and back to being allowed outside during the day.

I was thrilled to find a neighbour who’s an expert in WordPress so I now know how to add all of the blogs I wrote in 2006. And magically, WordPress will place them way back ahead of all the others, so it appears as though they’ve always been there. They were always on my website, but for some reason were missed when it was migrated over.

I’m slogging through my memoir of the ten years of the fruitcake business. I’m torturing my editor Judith by sending it to her chapter by chapter. I sent chapter one, she sent a full page of comments. I fixed chapter one, worked on chapter two, and sent her that. This will go on for a while as once each of the ten chapters have been worked on by me after her comments, the poor woman will have to read the entire book and do hard edits.

But as I said to her, you were the one who wanted to be an editor, so cry me a river.

Memoir Writing Causes Catatonia

Sep17

You may recall in my last blog I talked about an encapsulated spider bite on my hand. I can happily report no taxpayer money needs to be spent on an ultrasound, despite my doctor referring me for one, as I performed the operation on the cyst myself. Over time the half-pea sized bump protruding from my skin turned very hard. This brought my friend Compound W, a wart remover to mind. I thought oh what the hell and began painting it onto the area.

After a few days I could see that I could lift this hard white ball and eventually was able to pull the whole thing out. It had those gross, gooey white strings that you see in horror movies when a person is morphing into a house fly. Not nice but quickly disposed of and now my hand is fine. Honest to God, if people would just become more proactive with their health we could save millions.

My friend and neighbour Sylvie invited me to a place called Forbidden Spirits here in Southeast Kelowna. It’s a distillery where they make vodka, gin and brandy, all from their own apples. I had a delicious vodka and passion fruit cocktail and Sylvie had their flight where you can taste each of the liquors with different mixes. A great place to visit.

Another very nice place is the Perch restaurant on the top of the Innovation Centre building downtown. It’s on the 7th floor so has fantastic views and you sit outside so it feels really great, especially as the Crones and I were there on a sunny, warm day in September. Just perfect. Delicious truffle fries and lovely cocktails.

The other day I went out to the coop to collect the one egg that’s always there, given the six new chickens are too young, so the eggs are from Kate, the big white hen. Imagine my shock to find an egg so big I couldn’t close the lid on the egg carton. I weighed it and it was 96 grams whereas most are around 60 grams That had to be a hard egg to lay.

I now have six reviews for Okay I’ll Bite but need so many more for the algorithm to keep moving it up the pages. The goal of course is to always appear on page 1 of a search. I notice it’s like the stock market. One day I’m #37 in Humour and the next #89 so it’s a tough nut to crack.

Max Dehart mentioned me in her weekly column in the Capital News so that may bring a sale or two. But for now, I’ve moved on and am working on the memoir of the fruitcake business. I sent Chapter One to my editor to see if it’s a complete dog or not, and in the meantime, I’m trying to edit the rest of the chapters.

It’s very reminiscent of my days at university whereby an essay could only be completed hours prior to the deadline. As I don’t have one for this, I have to make artificial ones, or else try the carrot and stick approach. If I write for an hour, I allow myself a few YouTube videos as a reward. Sadly, some days I argue with myself so much about what a stupid waste of time this is and so I just go straight to the videos and skip the writing.

Another way to waste time is to get out favourite memoirs and re-read them and hope I somehow absorb the talent of the writers. Or I sit with my wrists resting on the laptop as I type a word or two stop, stare out the window, re-read what I wrote, delete, sit and become totally catatonic for a long while. It’s quite relaxing actually but not productive.

Chicken and Iguana Bacteria

Aug20

One of my favourite stories from when Margaret and I stayed on the Island of Cozumel came from a couple from the southern U.S. They said their young son received an iguana when it was just a baby and then he and the animal slept together for the rest of its life. The dad said his son had that lizard for years before it finally died.

Margaret and I both felt sick as we had kids that slept with cats or dogs, but not reptiles. A few days earlier we’d been offered a chance to pet an iguana and said no thanks. Recounting that story to another person at the Cozumel condo he said his son had kissed an iguana in Mexico and once home found himself filled with parasites.

Then the other day I had written how I’d kissed Jennifer, one of the new chickens, and my friend Eve sent an e mail saying “Please, please do not kiss chickens.” I don’t want to find myself full of parasites, or perhaps with a brain worm, so I’ll definitely take Eve’s advice, especially since she’s a pharmacist with decades of experience.

Now that I have Okay, I’ll Bite for sale on Amazon I’m working on a romance novel for seniors. I wrote a romance novel 20 years ago and am now revamping it to feature oldsters and will see how that goes. Writing is a hard slog, but I have to do something to keep my brain from withering.

On that note, I went to Vernon again for 20 pounds of frozen chicken feet for Jan. She reports they’re delicious, but I keep thinking about the claws. Do you just spit them out, or are they removed prior to cooking?

And of course, for real stimulation there’s treasure hunting. Elsa and I went last week, and I found the perfect towel rack for my bathroom for $8.00. I said to her I could’ve used that when my German visitors were here as I have just one rack for towels which is awkward for guests.

We both bought masses of things and justified it by saying we hadn’t been in over a month. Once home I did manage to find four or five tops that could go back to thrift in order to make room for the new items. But there’s still a very large volume of everything in this house.

To celebrate how wonderful it is to be alive I bopped into the Mission Thrift Store today and had to buy a cute pair of vintage Japanese geese and a lovely soup bowl. The bottom of it said Black Knight Hohenberg, Bavaria and at $2 I thought why not. When I googled it, I was happily surprised to see it’d be ten times that on e bay. Manufactured sometime between 1921 and 1946, and in mint condition.

You know how I fear and loathe change, and it appears two local institutions are gone for good. One is the old BC Tree Fruits company that was founded 88 years ago but is now in bankruptcy and closed. The other is our local news station, formerly called CHBC, then it became Global, and now bye bye.

To deal with these stressors I’ve just made those date balls everyone goes nuts over, and will now make some chocolate chip cookies and a batch of brownies. When the going gets tough, the tough put on an apron and start softening butter.