Jenni's Page

My husband passed away peacefully on December 14th at his nursing home, Cottonwoods, in Kelowna, BC.

He had been suffering from a rapidly advancing condition called Lewy Body Dementia. It is similar to Parkinson's but is a type of fast-acting dementia. He had been in hospital since June 12 this year, and was then transferred to Cottonwoods once a bed became available in September.

Even thougn I've virtually been grieving for six months, it was still a shock to get the call on Saturday.

I'm doing okay. I've been busy notifying people and arranging things with the funeral home. What I chose to do because of the time of year, is have Ed cremated and have them put his ashes in an urn. When I can fly there to pick them up, I'll consider some keepsakes, and I want to buy a park bench to put in one of his favourite places, with a plaque as a memorial to him. Then I'll arrange for a memorial service in the nicer weather, probably in May.

Some recent photos:

This was taken in July 2023 at one of his favourite beach spots.



This was in our local pub, about a year ago:



And this is both of us at his brother's birthday party in 2019 in Huntsville, Ontario:



Okay, one more. We are with our son Jamie and his then girlfriend, now wife, and their chihuahua mix, on a hiking trail in Whitby, Ontario, a few years ago, probably 2020.



It's hard to process that he's actually gone.

We’ve been here for a month. It seems like a good time to write about the journey to British Columbia, now that I’m pretty much over the trauma of moving. Here’s my story:

I had known for more than a year that it was time to sell the big house near Toronto because it was becoming too expensive to run, what with both of us on fixed incomes. Once prices of everything started to rise (except our incomes) it became too difficult to handle everything on our own. We tried having our son and his girlfriend live with us for half a year, but when my daughter and her crew arrived from B.C. they couldn’t get along with the others and a big fight ensued, which resulted in my son and gf leaving. *sigh* I have many regrets, but I can’t dwell on that now.

My daughter and her husband, who had been living in Kelowna, B.C. for the past 5 years, talked to us about how great it was to live there – everything was better – the climate, food, activities, everything except prices – it convinced me that since I was looking to sell anyway, we may as well give Kelowna a try. I had been looking for a new home, downsizing of course, in many areas around Toronto but farther into the countryside – with the Muskokas being the most likely target.

I enlisted a real estate agent in September. It would have been sooner, but my poor husband suffered another mini stroke at the end of August and after spending a week in hospital, came out with worse dementia than he had before. I thought perhaps it would be too difficult to try to move him, but then I realized it might be better for him to be living in a place where he might thrive rather than diminish. That made me decide on Kelowna after supplementing my daughter’s stories with some research of my own.

I was born in Vancouver and have always thought about returning there to live someday. Kelowna isn’t Vancouver, but it’s not that far away, and the Okanagan Valley climate-wise does make more sense than living in Vancouver, which gets too much rain for my daughter’s liking. It can be depressing there, which wouldn’t suit my husband at all.

The Okanagan is on the tip of a desert and is also situated in a valley surrounded by beautiful mountains. Not huge like the Rockies, but lower and covered in pine trees. The climate here is dry and one of the warmest places in Canada, with short winters and an early spring.

My real estate agent in Ontario knew an agent in the Kelowna area that she hooked me up with, and he sent me many listings, which I scrutinized and considered in much detail until I landed on the house I bought. He took us on a video walk-through of the place before I made my final decision. The house was built in 1975, so it’s quite old, but it had many upgrades – the central air conditioning and the plumbing was all put in a year ago. It looked like it had new copper wiring as well, but I am supposed to get an electrical inspector in for the insurance company, because the house is so old. I’ll do that right after new year’s.

There are 3 bathrooms, all newly renovated and much nicer than the ones in our old place. The kitchen has also been somewhat upgraded, with stone countertops in flecked white, which was actually my favorite color, and new stainless steel appliances, not that I cared much about that.

The house has a definite 70’s vibe which I don’t mind at all. It needed new flooring, which I had put in before we moved, with all new laminate and carpeting. It also needs painting, but I’ll have that done either this spring or maybe in the fall.

It’s smaller than our old house so I had to get rid of a lot of our furniture and other items. Our old place had 4,500 square feet of living space (that included the finished basement) but the new house is a ranch bungalow style, with 2,500 square feet on two levels. It sits on a 9,000 square foot lot, so the yard is pretty big. One thing that sold me was this place had 5 bedrooms, so just enough for all of us, including my daughter’s family.

I want Sean to come, and he said he might fly out next month. I miss him so much and there’s plenty of room here for him.

Our old house was brick. This one has a white exterior, probably aluminum.

Our old house sold in 4 days with a closing date two months away, November 23rd. I put in an offer on the Kelowna house and its closing was November 25th. Then I arranged for my husband and I to take the train while my daughter, husband and two kids decided to drive. She has a nice BMW that she wanted to keep, so driving was the only option for her. Our grandson Sean didn’t want to move with us, so he ended up moving in with his other grandmother in Peterborough, which is between our old place and Ottawa.

We have 3 cats and I found a lovely man who took them to Kelowna for us. He picked them up on the 21st and my daughter and family left the same evening.

I couldn’t get train tickets until November 27th so I booked my husband and myself into a hotel until then (we vacated our old house on November 22nd ) and I was there that last day along with the cleaners. I had also arranged to have our old Cadillac transported to B.C. by a company that specializes in that. First, I took it to the dealership to have a diagnostics test run and to fix a crack in the windshield and give it an oil change. Luckily there wasn’t much that needed doing and I got the new windshield.

But two days later I got a call from the transport company saying that they got delayed on another call and were going to be late picking up our car. They didn’t know when. I panicked and after much deliberation, cancelled our train tickets. My husband was starting to get antsy at the same time and wanted to leave, so I felt I had no choice but to start driving there myself. My husband had his license suspended so there was no way he could do it. I would have to do all of the driving.

The first day was fun. It was a lovely drive through the Muskokas and we ended up staying in North Bay the first night. It ended up being two nights because I was waiting for the funds from the sale of our house to be deposited into my account. It took a couple more days than I had thought but then it was done and we continued on our way.

All of us were lucky because the good weather was with us. However, we stopped in Sault Ste Marie on the third night and I got sick. It was also the U.S. Thanksgiving weekend and because Sault Ste. Marie, Ontario is directly across from the USA and Sault Ste. Marie, Michigan, it was very, very busy. But I found a good hotel called the Water Tower Inn (a Best Western) and checked in there.

I hadn’t noticed until I was unpacking that I had left most of my clothes behind in North Bay! I remember packing the used ones into a large bag in the motel we stayed in and I must have forgotten to put it into my suitcase! The receptionist at the front desk in the Water Tower Inn told me there was a big mall across the main street with a Walmart and other stores where I could buy clothing, so after I settled my husband, I walked over there for a shopping spree.

It was fun and I liked Sault Ste. Marie a lot. The hotel had a Casey’s Restaurant on their main floor, which served great food – it was like homemade and not at all expensive, at least I didn’t think so. The portions were huge so we would order only one meal and share it. It was more than enough!

My husband got panicky after we ate in the restaurant the first two nights and for breakfast. He found it too noisy – they did play their music very loud. I took to going downstairs by myself every dinnertime and taking the food back upstairs. During the day I’d go over to the mall or just go for a walk around the area and bring lunch back from Booster Juice.

I contacted the people who were supposed to pick up the car and they said they’d come and get it from the hotel in Sault Ste Marie, so we stayed there for a week and waited for them. However, at the last minute they called me to say they were on their way from Thunder Bay and unfortunately ran into bad weather and road closures, so they were going to be late again.

At this point I panicked. I knew we had to get out of The Soo, as people call it. But I got very fond of the place and if I had to move back to Ontario I’d consider living there. First, it’s beautiful, maybe not at this time of year, but in the spring and summer it would be awesome. There’s lots to do and explore and it apparently has great food everywhere.

I started looking for apartments there. My husband was also having episodes of right arm numbness accompanied by an inability to form words to be able to talk properly, so I was worried that I’d have to take him to a hospital, and I didn’t want to leave him.

The weather also turned bad for a couple of days, with blowing snow. When we looked out the window it was blowing sideways! I knew I couldn’t drive any more by myself.

In the meantime, my daughter and her husband had reached British Columbia. I told her she could pick up the keys to the new house from the realtor and go there to wait for the movers. They arrived just after my daughter did.

I decided the hell with the car and booked a flight for my husband and I. Luckily Sault Ste Marie has an airport. It’s a small but lovely one. We took a plane back to Toronto from there and then on to Kelowna from Toronto. It took just over 5 hours altogether plus an hour or so waiting time at Pearson, Toronto’s airport.

Before we left, I gave the car keys to the receptionist at the Water Tower Inn, with the name of the transportation company and instructions to give them to the people who were to pick the car up from there.

Everything worked out. My daughter picked us up from the airport. My husband traveled well (I was afraid he might not) and was mesmerized by the sight of Kelowna, surrounded by beautiful mountains. Our cats arrived the same night we did – it was 2 a.m. the next day. At first they were very confused, but it took them only a day or so to get used to the new place.

On the Sunday morning we saw a herd of deer grazing on the rose bushes under our living room window. I took some photos of them. It was a small herd of 5 females. The next day we saw a lone male with huge antlers across the street.

A few days later we went for a walk with our granddaughter and saw the same herd again a few streets over. Since we’ve been here, we’ve seen the deer 5 times and a squirrel only once! Back home the squirrels are very plentiful and the deer very scarce.
After we were here a week our car finally arrived! The couple who run their own transportation company were lovely people. Very interesting to talk to. They had quite an adventure getting here but finally made it.

That’s it for now. We are gradually getting settled and getting ready for Christmas. I’ve done all my shopping and now it’s time to clean the house. We’re still not completely unpacked but we are getting there.

To be continued.

I'm out of excuses so I'm just going to jump in and get some things off my chest.

Today is starting off as frustrating as possible and it's only 10:30. First I had to reply to a letter from Canada Revenue Agency, which is our tax assessment agency. In the USA I believe the same thing is called the IRS. Anyway, the CRA wants to "review" our recent claim, I think on the basis that Sean turned 19 in November but he is still our dependent. The letter didn't state that and it's also made it clear that this is NOT an audit, but it asked for Sean's pertinent information. My response had to include a lot of personal details and be supported by 15 relevant attached documents, I kid you not. Typical government stuff.

This is fine. It has taken me about a week to put together but I've finally done it. They've given us 30 days to respond.

However, my Canon printer isn't working and I don't know why, so I can't scan my letter & documents and send them that way. I can also photocopy everything and send it via snail mail, so I decided to do that. I went to the local drug store which had a photocopier and has a post office, but they no longer have the photocopier, perhaps because of COVID.

My next best option is to visit the local library (within walking distance although a long walk) where I can print my letter and copy it and the documents, and there is a UPS store in the same plaza so I can send everything to CRA that way, by courier. That's probably my best option. I also have some papers that the UPS people can shred for me because our shredder is broken. So I'll kill two birds with one stone.

Alas, but I checked and the local library is closed today. I guess it'll be okay to wait until tomorrow but it's supposed to rain all day. I can call an UBER I suppose. There's always something! And it always costs me!

In sadder news, our pet cat Shorty passed away two nights ago. It was very sudden. It seemed like he suffered a heart attack. I don't know if it's related, but we had taken him to the animal hospital in early February because he was vomiting and they ran a series of tests. The test results were all negative, and the only thing they could find was a possible small ulcer so the final diagnosis was gastroenteritis, which is neither a pre-existing condition nor a chronic one. They sent him home with two meds for stomach issues and some cans of rabbit meat for dietary maintenance. Apparently rabbit is very digestible.

He did have some weight loss with it but we thought that was a good thing. I have no idea why he should have gone downhill so quickly which resulted in his passing. He was only 10 years old. Perhaps he had a heart condition that the vet didn't diagnose. He was negative for diabetes, cancer, kidney and liver problems, etc.

We have pet insurance so I submitted the bill for $2,400 to the company and they are currently processing it.

They took out my monthly premium already for May, so I have to let them know that he died so they can cancel his policy. I hope they'll still reimburse me for at least some of the $2,400 from February!

We buried him in the back garden where our other two cats are resting. We are all still in shock because he left us too soon. He was a real sweetheart too, so it's all very sad.

My husband's dementia is getting worse but he absolutely refuses to get checked out. He says there's nothing wrong with him but he's causing havoc on a daily basis. Another thing I need to do is see a lawyer for obtaining a Power of Attorney, if it's possible to do that without an official diagnosis. I'll make an appointment to see one anyway, so I can at least find out. It could become more difficult to do things in his name in future. I've already had to write his signature on a few things that needed signing because he didn't know what they were.

He can't be trusted with money either. If he wants something I have to pay for it. To my horror he told me he went to a driving range to hit some golf balls and when he had to pay, instead of using cash he gave the person behind the counter his debit card and his PIN number so she could process the payment for him. Luckily she was honest and didn't wipe out our savings.

It's rather surprising, but he is still physically fit and is able to drive, but sometimes can't remember where he's going. The driving range is just up the street and he's very familiar with the route so he won't get lost.

That's all for now. Just writing this has relieved some of my stress. I'll go prepare something for lunch now and not worry about doing any of the above-mentioned things until tomorrow.

I hope everyone is well and I will try to catch up with you.

It seems every time that I come by to post something I find it's been longer than I thought since my last post.

The lockdown has made me feel as if time has stopped. It feels as if nothing has been progressing. Maybe that's good, maybe not.

To alleviate the boredom because my son and his girlfriend are unable to visit until the lockdown lifts, my husband and I have been exercising every morning by playing table tennis. The best idea he's had in ages was to buy a full-size table tennis table and some good paddles and balls. I usually warm up by doing some exercise on the elliptical machine before we play. It's amazing how much it has helped us in a number of ways.

But household chores have become even more oppressive than normal since we are making more mess by not being able to go out. I miss eating in restaurants or from food trucks after our hikes. I really miss hiking, not just for the exercise but for gazing upon nature as well.

And I'm seriously considering hiring a cleaning lady because I feel overwhelmed at times at how much there is to do. I'm not getting any younger.

There's only so much TV you can watch and I've become rather obsessed with Chinese and Korean dramas and movies.

One good thing about that was that it got me back into writing fanfic and I've started a series based on The Untamed. What else? I'm too embarrassed, though, to promote it. But at least it got me writing once more.

Now to concentrate on The Silm again. I feel I've lost touch with it because I haven't re-read it or any of the other associated books in ages. If B2MEM were still in existence I'd be getting into it again but alas! My favourite Tolkien challenge is no more.

I know I should be paying more attention to the SWG. I often read the new challenges and they are truly mouth-watering but I haven't been able to give myself enough of a boost to try a new one. I'm still stuck on some old ones from at least a year ago.

Actually, my old favourite laptop died. It was a Lenovo, circa 2012 and I did love the stupid thing. I like Lenovo's keyboards because they're big and clean without a lot of extra stuff that I never use. The old one had a cracked screen but was still usable, although it was a bit difficult to see what was on the screen, and that probably put me off doing any writing.

So I bought a new Lenovo, called Legion. It's smaller than the other, but nice. It's also a gaming computer which I thought I might use even though I haven't gamed in ages. And fortunately, all my WIP's from years ago are still on Word, thank goodness.

For Christmas I got a Nintendo Switch but only just opened the thing recently. The idea was to play Animal Crossing with my daughter and so far it's been fun but I'm a real noob and am just learning the basics. We can communicate during the game which is nice.

Aside from the above (pretty mundane stuff) we are all awaiting a diagnosis for my little 7-year-old granddaughter, Jessica. She has been having what they call "Absence Seizures" (it used to be called Petit Mal Epilepsy). My brother has this also, but there is medication for it and it works very well to prevent the seizures from happening. Jessica needs to have a brain scan and they are waiting for the appointment to come through, in order to confirm that's what this is. Currently she cannot attend school because she was having 10 or 12 seizures a day and it would be impossible for her to continue in a classroom setting.

My daughter said the poor little thing doesn't know what's happening to her and gets upset by it. I'm sure she does, the sweetheart. I wish they were here so I could look after her.

Here's hoping for the best news possible about this. My daughter will keep us posted.

It's raining today, but gently and the sky is trying to choose between light and clouds. Its colour is white in some places and very pale blue in others. I feel odd today as if I am coming down with something so I decided to relax and listen to music, mainly Bob Dylan and Joan Baez.

Their songs take me back to when my sister and I were in our late teens - about 16 and 17 - and spending the summer in the country where my parents had rented a cottage. We were smitten with the popular music of the time but there was nowhere we could listen to it at that cottage so we sang the songs we could remember the words to to each other.

I remember that because we were bored we wrote a song parody based on Dylan's "The House of the Rising Sun" and we called it "The Outhouse of the Falling Spiders" because the cottage wasn't fitted with a toilet so we had to go and do our business outside with the help of a flashlight. We were fascinated by the large number of spiders (some of them very large themselves) who chose to hang out in that dark little building. I remember it was painted dark green but a lot of the paint was peeling off.

I wish I could remember the words to that parody! We would sing it while taking the rowboat the cottage owners had provided us out on the lake. We sang our parody, of course, and never sang the real words ever again.

I have no idea what I'm writing about but I think I'm getting a bit feverish.

Years later in the 80's I bought the DVD of "Woodstock", that amazing film of the event. I liked Joan Baez' performance the best and every year I listen to that DVD which is getting very old now but I love it and can't part with it.

Edit: I decided to come back and add this song from Joan Baez. It's sad, I know, but it's kind of fitting for these times, isn't it?

I've been thinking recently about doing a lot of stuff that involves finishing things I started but haven't finished, i.e. W.I.P.'s, organizing my large collection of photos and albums into something that makes sense, clearing out the basement, etc., etc.

But the main unfinished activity that has been bothering me most is that over the past 20 years or so I've fallen into the habit of buying lots of books but hardly ever reading them. It's dangerously close to "Tsundoku", the Japanese word for doing just that sort of thing.

I have managed to read a few books here and there but I've bought too many to keep up with the rate by which I can read them.

When I was a kid I started reading early. By Age 7 or 8 my father would take me to the library with him and let me pick out my own books - at that time fairy tales mostly. Every Christmas since I was 5 one of my uncles would give me a precious book from the Wizard of Oz series and by age ten I had read them all! I still have 3 of those books from my childhood, full of childish drawings that I doodled in the margins on many of their pages.

Around age ten I would hunt for books to read in the house in between library visits and one day came across a treasure trove in my parents' bedroom. In the bottom drawer of my father's desk there were a whole array of books of the kind he liked to read and I would sneak into that room and read them avidly for a couple of years before I eventually got caught.

Of course some of them were really inappropriate for a child but I read them anyway. His favourites were war stories, crime novels and sometimes the odd science fiction book. I remember being particularly impressed by a few for various reasons which stayed in my memory forever: Catch-22 which scared me half to death, The Martian Chronicles by Ray Bradbury, which did the same, even more. To this day the line "we are the Martians" sends chills up and down my spine.

But my favourites were the crime or detective novels, like Raymond Chandler's and Rex Stout's. So I recently got my hands on an old paperback of Rex Stout's called The Three Witnesses. It's a very short book but it's taking me forever to read it. I just can't concentrate on the written word anymore it seems! It's very annoying,

The Nero Wolfe novels began interesting me again because the fictional detective was born in Montenegro, a Balkan country that has intrigued me since I discovered that our famous Canadian tennis player, Milos Raonic, was born there. One day I'd love to visit it because it looks so beautiful and peaceful.

Of course my Dad eventually caught me sneaking his books out of his desk but instead of punishing me he'd take me to the library more often and introduced me to more appropriate mystery writers for my age like Agatha Christie's novels. My grandmother introduced me to historical romance writers whom she liked, i.e. Daphne DuMaurier, when I was a bit older. I loved Du Maurier because her stories were dark and sometimes terrifying, and thus I became interested in horror.

I gradually grew to love science fiction and fantasy as well as horror fiction and first read The Lord of the Rings trilogy when I was 17 or 18.

But right now I'm determined to pick up again starting with my Rex Stout book and then move on to the books I've piled up over the years without reading them. I've got lots of good ones and it looks like lots of time in which to read, so it's now time to say goodbye to Tsundoku.

We do not yet have any cases of COVID-19 in the town in which I live. However, in the region there are 8 cases but no deaths. The first two diagnosed patients here have recovered and were sent home to remain in self-isolation. I know this is nothing compared to elsewhere in the world and compared to what some of my flist has been experiencing. But things could get worse.

Some people here have given in to panic and have depleted all stocks of certain products in the grocery stores, pharmacies and department stores: toilet paper, facial tissues, paper towels, bottled water and many other products remain unavailable. Luckily I had sent a grocery order to Walmart last Friday and my stuff was delivered today. But there were certain items that were unavailable. Instead of bagged milk I received two cartons, one of which I put in the freezer, and instead of a case of facial tissues they sent me three boxes. I wish they would do that with the customers who trot out of the store with carts full of these items that I've seen in photos and videos online!

Yesterday we had to go to Service Ontario, the government building where you apply to update your drivers' licence, health cards, etc. Sean and I both received notices last year that our health cards were expiring and I could kick myself for not going sooner to do it, but now it's a priority. Sean is scheduled to have a dental procedure done on April 8th. Part of it is covered by our health insurance, and almost the rest of it by our dental plan through private insurance, but I still have to pay $480 up front and if we didn't update the card it would be more!

We joined a rather long line on the way in of around 20 people. Sean noticed on the sidewalk outside that someone had dropped their cellphone - it was a nice, new iPhone in an aqua-coloured case - very pretty. Once inside I held it up and called out to everyone that someone had dropped their phone. Turns out it belonged to a woman who had just returned from Pakistan and had to get her son's health card updated. She thanked me profusely and I said no worries, I was glad it wasn't broken.

Everyone in line had to answer a bunch of questions from the clerk at the front desk about the state of their health and if they had travelled anywhere outside the country in the past couple of weeks. Of course he had to put the people who had been to Pakistan through the wringer! They were really sweet - they stopped again to thank me for retrieving the phone before they left. I told them anytime! I didn't even think about worrying they might be carrying the virus. I'm just not used to this new lifestyle yet!

Anyway, on a brighter note, some time ago I had decided to pay to have a DNA test done through Ancestry.ca, the Canadian site. I just received my results this past week. For me they are fascinating!

It turns out there were few surprises - My ethnicity is 63% from England, Wales and Northwest Europe, 20% Germanic, 10% Ireland and Scotland, and 7% Norwegian.

I knew nothing about the Norwegian part, but I would suppose it's from the Viking invasion of England way back then. Another surprise was the very small Scottish heritage. My maiden name was Stewart! The part of Scotland where my DNA lies is in the Isle of Skye and Outer Hebrides only and nowhere else in Scotland but all over Ireland! I started doing research and found that in 1745 Bonnie Prince Charlie (who was a Stewart/Stuart) travelled into that region before the Battle of Culloden, and no doubt he and his men spread their seed around in those parts.

I'll be delving into this some more. I knew that my paternal grandmother was a Ryerson and one of the Germanic peoples in my DNA profile. She had traced the Ryerson family tree back to a Martin Ryerson (at that time spelled Ryerzsen) who came to New York from The Netherlands in 1645 and was the known ancestor of all the Ryersons in North America. I have family in Michigan, and family name Morrison and Root is part of my heritage too.

Ancestry.ca also provided me with the names of all my great grandparents to the 5th degree (going back to 1701!) complete with in some cases, photos and documents! There's a lot to look at and a lot of names to memorize. There are also photos of 438 living relatives from 2nd to 4th cousins. I have no, and never had any, first cousins.

If I wanted to spend another $2,500 I can have Ancestry's genealogists do all the work for me in delving deeper into my background.

Interestingly as well, I have no related DNA east of Austria except for a little bit in Australia, which I knew about. I am related to Ronald Biggs, the Great Train Robber, through my mother. After he escaped, he went to Australia and stayed with one of my grandmother's relatives that she used to correspond with. He was my mother's cousin's son, so her second cousin and my third. It's something I'm not proud of and would like to live down, but there you have it.

I don't feel like making New Years' resolutions anymore but had promised myself to start posting more on here than I did last year - at least one post a month. I had meant to do it at the beginning of the month/year but it's taken me this long to manage it.

For me, posting in the morning always seemed to work best since I've always felt sharper in the early hours, but the only way I am going to be able to write these days is at night. I'm sure it's because when I was still working I was far more disciplined with my time. Now I find the couple of hours before bedtime is the quietest and thus easiest to get my thoughts together.

What should I write about? A lot has happened around here since Christmas. And the weather has been crazy so maybe I should start with that.

This is the GTA - Greater Toronto Area - it should be winter here! But we have not yet experienced appropriate weather except for a couple of snowfalls that melted almost immediately afterwards. Last weekend we got our biggest snowfall on Sunday which stayed around until now but the past few days have been very mild - in the 40's Fahrenheit - so it's melting. The grass under the snow is still green! It never went dormant yet! Some of my deciduous plants have not lost their leaves!

I don't know what to expect from my garden. The plants are probably all confused so I'll be interested to see how they do this year. It's a bit scary.

My son and his lovely girlfriend went to New York between Christmas and New Year's and came home on New Year's Eve Day because they thought it would be too crazy in NYC to stay for the New Year celebrations. They came to us after a 10-1/2 hour drive from where they were staying in Princeton, New Jersey. They took either an Uber or the train into New York to sight-see, feeling it was better to stay in Princeton, a town they loved.

They were most struck by Strawberry Fields, the tribute to John Lennon outside the apartment building where he was gunned down. I have a book about him that I wanted to give them but I couldn't find it after searching for an hour.

I decided that I need to clean out the basement. It's full of junk that has accumulated for years and most of it has to go. I dread to think of the horror it would be for my kids to have to clear out the house if something happened to Eddie and I. That's my main motivation.

My daughter in Vancouver wants to come home. It's rained there for 6 days in a row and she said she can't take it anymore. Since she suffers from depression (it's under control so no worries) she needs to see some sunlight some of the time. I told her, "Come! We are enjoying Spring already in January!"

They will probably head back when the kids finish school in June.

There's lots more to post about but I think I've written enough for now. I left out all the drama - and holy hell, there is a lot of it! I can get to that another day.

I haven't gotten anything near ready to post yet, but I did come up with two story ideas right off the bat. I collected quite a few prompts which I'm listing here so I can keep them organized in case I want to write about anything else. I don't think I'd be anywhere near achieving Bingo yet in any case.

Here they are so far. The first number is the Bingo card drawn (one each day of March). The part in brackets is the card I chose with the subject matter.)

B11 - Scouring of the Shire (#5 - Alternate Viewpoints)
" - Stew (#82 - Food)
" - Belegaer (#165 - The Sea)
" - Laurelin (#206 - The Years of the Trees)

B12 - Follower of Orome (#39 - Complexities of Celegorm)*
" - The Dark Rider (#50 - Cuivienen)*

G48 - A Fic I Reread (#38 - Comment on a Fanwork)*
" - Fighter (#39 - Complexities of Celegorm)*
" - Finwe, Ingwe & Elwe (#50 - Cuivienen)*
" - Glaurung (#52 - The Dark Side)
" - Edain (#79 - First Age)
" - Sausage (#82 - Food)
" - Chaining of Melkor (#206 - Years of the Trees)

I20 - Angband (#52 - The Dark Side)

N42 - Shadow Shapes in the Hills (#50 - Cuivienen)*
" - Rise of the Nazgul (#52 - The Dark Side)

O68 - Insomnia (#28 - Cliches, Fluff & TLC)
" - New to You Ship (#38 - Comment on a Fanwork)*
" - The Dagor Bragollach (#39 - Complexities of Celegorm)*

O72 - The Field of Cormallen - Return of the King (#5 - Alternate Viewpoints)
" - To Cuivienen there is no returning (#50 - Cuivienen)*
" - Vegetables (#82 - Food)

* - The asterisks indicate the stories I decided to write. I'd like to tackle some of the others but we'll see how I'm doing for time later on.

By the way, I found my Silmarillion. My husband had put it in a laundry basket with some other books and papers and taken it into the basement. When I went to find things we had stored to give to charity that will be picked up on Friday, I found it! I feel that was extremely lucky. It's funny how things happen.

I thought I'd watch Roma, one of the Oscar-nominated movies that's on Netflix. I've paused it but fully intend to go back and watch the rest later.

Some people have remarked that they found Roma to be boring, but I felt refreshed by what I've seen of it so far. It does slow one down a bit though and is far from the more exciting fare like Black Panther or Bird Box.

In the opening sequence, a young girl is washing a tiled floor. She's very thorough, but when she's finished, she takes the mop and bucket through a door which could have used a thorough cleaning, but she didn't come back to do that. I kept mentally yelling at her, "Go back and wipe the door! There are cobwebs all over it!"

I found that little scene very unsatisfying, but upon further reflection I realized that instead of feeling frustrated that she cleaned the floor so well yet left the door untouched, I should have realized that this is true to life where things don't satisfy us all of the time.

Just this morning I washed the tiled part of the floor downstairs (front entranceway, hall and kitchen/breakfast room) and while I was doing so I noticed a handprint on the sliding glass doors leading to the backyard. But I left said print alone because I couldn't be bothered to go get the Windex and paper towels and clean it at that time. However, it's bugging me an hour or so later and unless I go do it soon it will ruin the rest of my day.

Such is life. It isn't perfect, and there is a lot going on that we don't deal with perhaps when and if we should. This is probably the beauty of the movie. It's a slice of imperfect life.