Happy Monday

Surprise! It is Monday and I am here after all. I had a heart to heart, private conversation with my boss. She has reinstated my original schedule thankfully, and I will not have to work a fourteen hour Monday. i think I would have needed a couple of days to recover. On Saturday, a normal busy day, my pedometer registered 28,337 steps which is almost twenty-four kilometers. That was from a ten hour shift. Can you imagine fourteen hours at that pace. A marathon is twenty-six so on a really busy day I walk over a marathon. All that said, I can't wait till tomorrow for my two days off.

There were thousands of tourists on the island this weekend for the Festival of Lights in Charlottetown. One of the highlights are concerts of many, rock and pop bands for three nights. My son bought a three day pass and a group of his university friends came over from Halifax. Last night was cold and rainy. I wouldn't have wanted to be standing outside in that for anything! But the twenty-somethings thought nothing of it. They had a great time. Son said that it only downpoured for the first and last bands - perfect timing. OK then.

There are two songs of the day today. One is Private Conversation by Lyle Lovett; the other is Happy by Martin Sexton, who is one of the best acts I've ever seen in concert. He is at Stanfest in Canso, NS next weekend which is where I saw him a few years ago.

I feel like a new woman today instead of one filled with dread.

Could I Be Hungry?

Today is a blue sky day, the first I've seen in weeks, it seems, though when we went to town last week I remember the blue skies and the blue water. If you're driving or stuck inside, it hardly matters. I had some community errands and visits to complete today but did not walk. My soul wanted to so badly but I'm being good and did not venture off on my usual speedy pace. My sister drove me around on the short jaunts and I'm feeling better for it now.

My sister decided to make a special meatloaf that she likes. We visited a friend in a nursing home and he said meatloaf had also been their dinner today. I watched Oprah when we came home and on one segment, Billy Joel's young wife made meatloaf. Amazing? What are you having for supper?

I went to a potluck yesterday and had lots of nice food. My favorite was the asparagus with hollandaise sauce and one of the desserts, the old time, Impossible Pie. I bought an bundle of asparagus earlier in the week and had forgotten about it so that's some of the other items on the dinner menu. We are also having turnip, my sister's favorite veggie. She and my son will have baked potatoes and I will have rice or maybe, I will have the baked for a change. I like baked and sour cream with meatloaf.

I also like lots of music. What can be better than food or music? Food and music? Blossom Dearie is a favorite singer and performer of mine. She does a fine job of the old song Peel Me a Grape and she has a version with Lyle Lovett. Which to choose..... Both were up previously. Today I'll choose her version with Lyle but the other will make it up again some day. Another nice food song is Patty Griffin's Making Pies. Rufus Wainwright has Crumb by Crumb in the food category and he and Didi collaborated on a food song, I Eat Dinner and that's pretty awesome.

Happy Ninety-Second Birthday

My friend and former neighbour, Billy is ninety-two today. I'd say he looks even better than he did a year ago when this photo was taken. He's looking down at my present, the usual bottle of whiskey I always give him for occasions. He drinks very responsibly so it's alright for him to have it in the nursing home. He's quite a character and we've been friends for twenty three years, not all of them smooth. He's perfectly lucid with an excellent memory which is great. His eighty-two year old roommate is beginning to have memory problems and Billy helps him out.

It is a tradition in the Maritimes to have a St. Paddy's Day storm and one is forecasted for this year. A Nor-easter with snow, ice pellets and freezing rain before all is said and done. Only bad part is it could prevent daughter time. With the sharing business, she is coming back tomorrow and if it's storming........

A couple of songs for Billy today. Ain't It Funny How Time Slips Away by Al Green and Lyle Lovett, as well as, Long As I'm Movin' by Ruth Brown kind of fit his situation.

Taking Requests

This is the first time I've had a request for a photo. I was just talking to my daughter and she wanted a photo of her put up rather than the one of the cats I had planned. He boyfriend asked for one of him as well, so here is one of the two of them....the only one I have. Cute aren't they! He has the flu and she's taking care of him today and having her cousin over for a roast beef dinner. I'm having roast beef too.

Not a nice walking day today and I did't dance....a day off exercise. It's warm but very windy. The eclipse was fantastic last night but I don't have an adequate lens for good photos of the moon and especially with the low light of an eclipse.

I thought my squirrel problem was over but it is not. There is still one in here. I have to call my wildlife man again tomorrow. No business is taken care of around here on a Sunday with the older generation. I'm ok with it; last Sunday I went to see about a glass job. Farmers would never hay or dig or do any visible work like that on a Sunday. The thing is they probably do book work or repairs but nothing that the public could see. I was admonished one time for painting a step on a Sunday.

It seems as though I can't really change the music page yet. I would need two accounts and have to sign in and out between the two and find that to be a pain because I do it with Google for this account and another. Five hundred songs is rather bulky and I wanted a second page where everything would be quicker. It takes a long time to find songs when I want to link them because they can't be sorted in there and a long time in the day to day uploading and saving since it has 500 songs to go through in a save. Each song must be uploaded individually then saved individually.

Today there was a new notice about uploading copyrighted material so it's possible changes will be made eventually. Until then I'll keep adding music though I'd like to find another way. Also, I may just link existing music rather than add something new every day....like today. Here's some Sunday music. Depending on how you were feeling this morning, you could have been involved in either activity, Church or Coming Down.

Excitement Building

We are open for regular business ONE MORE DAY!!!!! I have another week of work after that and then a much needed break.

I'll walk, blog, play music, burn cds, dance, pick apples, cook but not bake, go visit my family in the next province, sit outside with my kitties, visit friends, say goodbye to my travelling daughter, send a birthday card to my one year old grand-daughter, miss S., trivialze, clean and shine my house, call friends who I have little time to call during the summer, visit some friends in a seniors home and rest up for the Christmas onslaught of really hard work.

Music: Something for my brother. I have the old Buckingham Nicks album from '73 on vinyl. My brother always loved it. I picked up one song from it the other day on a music blog that I read. I did a search and more is available but I have this one for now. S. tells me her friend has the means to copy all the vinyl to disc. Oh, what a treat that would be! I love my vinyl....just have no way to play it because someone "adjusted" my turntable a couple of years ago. Enjoy Crying in the Night by Lindsay Buckingham and Stevie Nicks before they were Fleetwood Mac.

Also, I am a huge fan of Blossom Dearie. I have lots of her music but not much of her up on the music page so here's a couple of versions of the old standard Peel Me a Grape, one with Lyle Lovett. She has such a unique voice, sounding like a little girl but singing adult songs. I love her sense of time and rhythm. She is one of a kind and still performing today. I'd love to see her live.