Sophie's Story

           One of the blessings that comes with age is the appreciation of simple things. I've discovered that little things can be really satisfying. Here are a few of them.          I like pulling weeds in the garden. I know for most people it is a dreaded chore. For me it is instant gratification. I can look at the spots that are cleared of weeds and see the flowers that I planted looking happier and less crowded. When I pull weeds around the carrot plants I have the satisfaction of knowing the carrots will have room to grow. Pulling weeds is also a good way to deal with anger in my opinion. it gives you something to do with your energy which can help to settle you down.          Doing laundry and washing dishes are also satisfying tasks. You can see your progress. I'm always thankful when I put away clean dishes and clothes. I'm grateful to have them and also grateful to have a place to put them.  ...

           Yesterday I spent most of the afternoon on the couch. I wasn't sick or anything like that.           My original plan was to sit on the couch, send a couple texts and sip some water. Then I was going to start on the things that needed to be done. There were clean dishes in the dishwasher that needed to be put away. There was a laundry basket of clean clothes in our bedroom that needed to be folded and put away. The kitchen floor needed to be swept and mopped and dust bunnies were running rampant in the living room.           I sent the texts first using the Ipad. Sometimes Willow would come up to me looking for a head scratch or to sit on my lap for a bit. Eventually I got my messages sent.           I noticed a book that I had started sitting on the bookshelf. It was a book I owned but hadn't read in several years. I thought it would be nice to relax and re...

           You never know what you are going to get when you adopt a kitten (or cat). I imagine it's much like having a child. They come into the world with their own personality and as they grow you can see how they develop.          We've had some cats that were interesting to live with, but I think Barnaby may be the most interesting of all. I think he might be a dog in a cat body.          The woman who was fostering him described him as "starving for attention". That's an unusual description for a cat. While cats can become attached to their  humans, they generally don't act needy for attention. With a description like that I had to meet him.          I met his fosterer at her home. She took Barnaby out of his carrier and handed him to me. He was a couple days past a neuter operation and his tipped ear was still healing. Her curled himself into my shoulder and began to purr...

           Last weekend I gave in to C's pleas to down size my music collection. I had bought a lot of CDs over  the years and most of them were in a plastic bin in the storeroom. I understand that we need to get rid of things we no longer want or need and have no trouble getting rid of some things. Books and CDs are much harder for me to get rid of. My fear is that I'll get rid of something that I'll want later and it's actually happened to me a few times. There are two books that I got rid for the I wished I'd kept. I was able to find one of them at a used book store. The other I haven't been able to find.           The first thing I did was go though all the CDs that are in the entertainment center with the stereo. There were a several that I knew I no longer wanted. Then I went to get the big bin downstairs. I was afraid that it was going to be hard to decide what to keep. I had decided that all Frank Sinatra, Bobby Ca...

           When my dad was getting rid of things in preparation for his move to this area he had a Technics turntable that he no longer wanted. He offered it to me and I accepted it. For nearly a year it sat in the basement until the upstairs TV finally died. We put the turntable where the TV used to sit. For several months it sat there until last night when we finally had time to hook it up to my stereo.          At this point a bit of backtracking is in order.          After I got my first job and apartment, my first big purchase was a stereo. I didn't have time to watch much TV and music was my chief form  of entertainment. At that time my small music collection was on cassette tapes. CDs were just starting to become available. My stereo consisted of two large speakers, a receiver, twin tape deck and a CD player with room for five discs. I didn't get a turntable because it seemed that form of music r...

           When some people get to be "a certain age", they tend to reminisce. Things were better then including the food.  While that may be true about some foods, there is one that has improved over time. It is ice cream.          When I was young, we always had ice cream in the house. Most evenings after supper, my dad would eat a scoop of vanilla ice cream with nutmeg sprinkled on it. Sometimes we would buy it in plastic buckets, most of the times it was in rectangular cartons that we kept in the basement freezer. I remember that ice cream came in very basic flavours vanilla, chocolate and strawberry. If you felt fancy you could get Butter Brickle, Moose Tracks or Mint Chip.          I'm not sure if ice cream making technology has improved in the last 40 years, but for some reason ice cream tastes better to me now than it did then.           There could be a couple reas...