Greetings

It's another ridiculously cold day. Friday night we had 20-30 cm of snow. Since then it's been clear and cold. Tomorrow it's supposed to warm up, snow and then perhaps even rain. It will presumably be a very appropriate day for getting a tooth filled and attending a funeral, which are likely to be my most important activities of the day.

I'm waiting somewhat impatiently for Sock Madness V to start. In the meantime, I've decided to try making a prayer shawl. If my parish's parish nursing team isn't sure whether or not to embark on this ministry, the Cathedral's will get it.

Still winter

We have far too much snow, though nowhere near as much as some other places. Today it's around the freezing mark, but still snowing.

Silly me, I agreed to teach three days this week. Yesterday I taught a small group of high school students. Thursday and Friday will be "regular" classes, and goodness knows how many students that will mean.

It's weird. I love teaching, but it knocks the stuffing right out of me.

Of course, I was still tired from the Spark sleepover. The girls behaved beautifully and we had lots of fun, but you never sleep quite the same way when you have an ear cocked to the sounds of ten kids.

Off to play on the Wii for the first time in several days.

Remarkable how hard it is to get in the habit of blogging

Back again, though. Just had a lovely weekend in Moncton and now am waiting for my husband to wake up from his nap so we can go out and celebrate his birthday.

Boy, does that make him sound old. 8*}

Such joy

It is still ridiculously cold out, but slightly less so than yesterday. It is also snowing, so it has to warm up a bit.

Off I trot in a few minutes for a doctor's appointment. Must get my medical for my Class IV driver's licence renewal.

On another chipper note, I'm loving the Wii. Best birthday present I ever got my husband, and his birthday isn't for several more days.

Cold

It was -25 C when I got up this morning and still -18 C when I got home from Mass. I detest the cold!

Reflections on retirement

Do I miss the unreasonable clients? Not in the slightest. I occasionally still have one as a free-lancer, but I can refuse a job if I want or need to, so that's better.

Do I miss the paycheque? Yes, in that I hate uncertainty. No, in that I've been managing OK anyway.

Do I miss going out of the house every day? Not at all. Indeed, I'm well on my way to becoming a recluse. That isn't good for me.

Do I miss my friends? Yes, but I'm not very good at keeping in contact with them. It may also be that they were more precious to me than I ever was to them, but I'd rather not know it.

Do I miss being blamed for everything that went wrong in the province? Heavens, no! I'm proud of what I did for a living, and I believe I served the people of this province well, but I don't miss working for a political football at all.

Incidentally and on a totally different subject, I'm loving the Wii I bought my husband for his birthday.

Fun and pain ahead

Bought a Wii and Wii Fit last night. They are my husband's birthday presents.

Wii Fit says my body age is 58, but Wii Sports says it's 66. Yech. Guess I'm doomed now.

Well, it's been a few days

Since the last time, I've had a lovely birthday (54, but who's counting?) It coincided with the first Spark meeting of the new calendar year. I have missed the little darlings, even though they are all a little nutty. I probably was at that age, too. They were also all very sensible and full of good ideas when we were talking about what to do in the next few weeks.

It's a lovely weekend, as my elder daughter is in town for a visit. I went to a morning Guild stitch-in and finished two projects that have been gathering dust for months. Both were nearly done, so I'm very proud of getting them done.

The week ahead is shaping up to be delightful, too - we're going to True Grit this afternoon and Green Hornet tomorrow. I have two interesting looking free-lance projects to do. There is Guiding stuff to sort out. Mass tomorrow. Several of the things on this week's to-do list are actually done and don't need to be carried over. Should be glorious!

Incidentally, the Ghirardelli brownie mix really does deliver a major hit of chocolate.

Send me vibes - I'm seriously considering buying a Wii for my husband for his birthday.

Depression is the oddest thing

I've been depressed for about 24 hours. It's the strangest physical sensation, mostly accompanied by as desire to sit around and stare into space, not doing anything.

Now that may be laziness, but in my case it seems to be a bit more than that.

Haven't gone off my meds. Nothing really horrible has happened in my private or public life. It isn't even a blizzard here. I just feel yucky.

I have, by great feats of will, managed to do two contracts and finish the Andalus mittens. I have another contract to get done for tomorrow noon, and I really should at least try to find the mending. Why do I want to go and lie down instead?

Well, I didn't balance my chequebook

I did, however, finish the huge translation project that was hanging over me, so I feel good. Now to do the chequebook.

(I also finished a sock and made great progress on the second in a pair of Andalus mitts.) (And made it to Mass.)

Ah, procrastination!

I'm really, really trying to procrastinate if it sends me to my blog.

Two days of teaching first aid to delightful, intelligent, interesting students, and now a weekend of translating. The latter is much better paid and less physically tiring. I just procrastinate.

Now that I've confessed to the world, I shall go and revise the next part of the project. Or maybe I'll balance my chequebook. Does that sound desperate enough for you?

Exhaustion

I love teaching first aid, but boy, is it exhausting. Could never do this full-time.

Question about the basic makeup of the universe

Now that I'm ostensibly retired I free-lance. Work comes in almost randomly from a number of long-term clients, and totally randomly from new clients.

But why, when I was home all day, did work only start coming in after 3:30 p.m., when I start thinking about what to have ready for supper when my husband comes home? At least none of it has to be done in the next 24 hours.

I knew this was going to happen, incidentally. After all, I'm teaching first aid the next two days and won't be home to work on either of these projects.

Back to normal

My younger daughter is back in Ottawa, so it's peace and normality here, as peaceful and normal as it ever gets, anyway.

Well, yesterday got hijacked.

I don't even want to think about it, but it involved five bags of garbage, three recycling bins and the rest of my sewing/craft stuff being moved back from my daughter's room, where I had put it when she went of to univeristy, and into the newly-rearranged playroom, now the sewing/music/jigsaw room. Who knew she would complain so much about me using her room? I cleaned off the bed. What more could a woman ask for? It's all her sister demands when she comes back to what has been laundry central since she went to college four years ago.

I guess I'm just an unfit mother.

I'm back - redux

So much for intending to blog regularly! I did intend to, but a bunch of stuff happened that I didn't want to talk about in public.

Very shortly after I made my last post, my beloved employer decided that the only way to make the people of the province I have served for 30 years was to be seen to cut staff, so they offered a lovely retirement package. I had a very limited time to decide what I was going to do. I was very conflicted about the whole thing, and didn't dare blog about it.

To make a long story short, I did retire in the middle of June, 2010, and then of course life got even more complicated.

Still complicated, but I'm going to give blogging another try.