Sophie's Story

     On Friday I could feel the beginnings of it. A dry scratchy throat and a thirst that never seemed to be quenched. I don't get sick very often, so when something is about to start it's very clear.    By Saturday the laryngitis had set in. I was lucky I was working with Chrys, who was willing to answer the phones so my voice could be spared for the things I had to do. I had taken some ibuprofen to help with the inflammation in my throat and drinking as much water as I possibly could. I got through the day and went home to rest.    Sunday was a little bit worse. My throat was sore in addition to being dry and scratchy. My voice was definitely worse. The occasional coughing spells did not help. Thanks to Chrys, I managed to get through the day. My next shift was the closing shift on Monday, I was not looking forward to it.    After dinner on Sunday night I started to get cold. Things were getting worse. I was now running a fever.   ...

     Gardening can be a frustrating hobby. For most of my life I've been able to keep only extremely hardy plants alive. When we moved into our house I acquired a garden along with a wish from our next door neighbor to "do something with it". (It was a mess of out of control plants and weeds.)    Over the years I've managed to grow things in it, some years more successfully than others.  Lately I've had a desire to grow more vegetables and more kinds of vegetables. My Dad suggested we try growing carrots. Since carrots are my favourite vegetable, I thought this was an excellent idea.    There were a few problems starting out. The first one is that carrots are grown from seed. I hadn't grown anything from seed since I was a kid. I don't have any place in the house that has enough light to start things at the end of winter. When it is time to put the garden in, we buy plants from a local nursery. We got the garden in late this spring because of cold...

   A few months ago I saw the father of a woman used to know in the store. Once he figured out who I was, I asked him about Lily, her husband and children. I only remember on line from what he told me. "They are not together anymore." We chatted for a couple more minutes and then he went to check out.    I stood there for a few minutes, stunned. They are not together anymore. Lily and Rick were dating at the same time C and I were. In fact, they had been together longer. I remember going to a Toastmaster event where Lily was there and Rick couldn't attend. She put a picture of him on the table near her so that he could be there in spirit. I thought it was very cool and romantic.    I'm not sure when they got engaged, but I know that they got married in April a few months before us. C and I attended their wedding dance. They both looked happy and ready to start their new life together. Ten years later, we had dinner together to celebrate our mutual ten year ...

     This is one of those days where I am sitting at the computer with no clear idea of what I want to write about. I have a few random thoughts, but nothing that would make one long column. So today is just going to be a few unrelated things that have been sitting in my head. Enjoy them (or not)    For the past few months I've been reading about the adventures of Kate and Meghan or to give them their correct names, The Duchess of Cambridge and the Duchess of Sussex. I really don't want to read about them, but I allow myself to get sucked in. The one thing that catches my eye when I read some of these articles is how they don't like each other. Most of what's written is critical about one of them. Kate is unfriendly and unsupportive of Meghan. Meghan plays is picked on, bullied and treated badly or is always trying to get attention.     I really dislike the way the media seems to pit these two women against each other. I suppose it generates more ...

     As part of an effort to get the know the women in Relief Society better, each of us in leadership were given a list of names of women to reach out to. It didn't have to be anything big, it could be a text, a letter, or maybe bringing a treat of some kind.    I struggled with what to do. I wanted to do something meaningful, not too expensive and not too time consuming. I asked Wendy, the other counselor, what she had planned to do. She was going to make a treat and deliver it. I'm a pretty good baker, but I decided against that mainly because of the time it would take to deliver the treats.    An idea came to me while I was talking to Wendy. It seemed small and silly, but I told her anyway. She liked the idea so much so that she said she would not mind getting one. What I thought of doing was making an origami heart and writing a small note on it to give to the women on my list. With Wendy's encouragement I decided to do it.    Origami is...

     It's August which means that I'm getting emails from a few places I patronize offering me something free on my birthday. There are some people I know who sign up for various things so they can collect on their birthday month. I'm not one of them. Too much work.     I would like to take issue with two such offers that I recently received.     The first is from a company that makes natural hair and skin care products. I have a lot of strange allergies some of which I've not been able to nail down to a certain compound. So far, I have not had any allergic reactions to anything I've used from this company. I joined their loyalty program and I get something for free on my birthday. It used to be a vial of perfume. I like the perfume, but I never used up the vial before my birthday came around again I got another vial. Now it is a bottle of scented oil.    The problem is that I have no use for the oil. You are supposed to use it for ...