The Picnic On The Balcony

Yesterday was Cathys annual picnic. Though they were calling for thunderstorms all day, the day started out promising with the sun shining. As the time drew near to leave it got cloudier and darker. By the time we got down there it was a full fledged thunderstorm with torrential rain. We brought Bear and he was trembling and cowering in the back seat of the car. We decided to go to the park to see if they were there waiting it out. We got there just in time to help them pack up, they were leaving. So we packed everything up and went to their apartment. We partied on their 12th floor balcony. And of course eventually the rain cleared up. We brought beer and potato salad. Celeste brought these coolers that were wicked. I had one and caught a buzz. Cathy had a few and was feeling no pain, she doesn't really drink. The doobies were being passed around one after another and that did me in. I really don't smoke much any more. We had a barbecue and a few drinks and a good time was had by all. Little R took some very unflattering videos. Cathy has a theory about the weather. She just read a book about it. The government is controlling the weather. Interesting. It has been the worst summer in recent memory. It's just more of the same today, cloudy and cool and looks like it will rain any minute.

On Saturday we got all the plates and whatnot hung on the kitchen walls. But not without Mr. Man hurting himself. The stool he was standing on just crumbled under him and he sort of fell, jarring his back. So that was the end of that. That stuff was already unpacked so we didn't do any unpacking. It's crazy how we're living in all this chaos. At the rate we're going we'll be lucky to be unpacked by Christmas.

The police were here this morning. Well it was just one cop. He came to serve Little R papers to appear in court. She is being charged with theft. It all started one day last week, Mr. Man came home from work and asked me if I had taken money out of the bank. No I didn't. Then he asked me where my bank card was. When I looked in my wallet, surprise, it wasn't there. I also had Little Rs bank card and it was gone too. We decided that this just can't go on, we had to do something. So we called the police. At first he wasn't going to do anything, then we told him about all the stuff she's been pulling and he changed his mind. We figured she needs to learn a lesson, she can't keep getting away with everything. She took my bank card and basically cleaned out our account. Thankfully it wasn't a whole lot of money, but it was Mr. Mans gas money for the week. Of course she is denying it completely. We just want the stealing and lying to stop. I just hope she grows out of it and it doesn't turn into a way of life. We're hoping being charged will scare her out of it. It's a horrible feeling not being able to trust your own kid. I feel bad about having her charged, sort of guilty, it just doesn't feel right. But we didn't know what else to do, it can't go on. I mean really, what's next?

So that's all the excitement around here. It's Monday, back to the grind. It was nice to see the old friends yesterday. Though I wish we had done it on Saturday so we would have a day to recover. We have parties to attend the next 2 weekends. But next weekend it will depend if the bike is running or not. If not, we won't be going. Mr. Man is going to work on it tonight after work. The following weekend it would be nice to have the bike for it but we'll still go even if it isn't running. Wouldn't it be nice to actually have some nice summer weather? I keep hoping it will improve. We plan to go back to my friends at Lake Erie at some point in August too. And we also hope to make it to my sisters cottage. So many plans and so much rain. I must say, Cathys conspiracy theory is quite intriguing. She should blog about it lol.

I guess there's nothing left to say so I'll post some pictures from yesterday. I look like an old spaz in most of them. I was feeling pretty old too.

First is Bear chilling out on the balcony...

Me and Mr. Man...

Celeste, me and Cathy...

Little R and Cathy...

This was interesting, just a wall of rain in the distance...

Of course I have more pictures but once again Blogger is being a pain with uploading them. There were some awesome views from the 12th floor. You can see Toronto in the distance.

I'm getting depressed again. I always feel this way the day after drinking. But with this weather too, gawd I can't stand it, I need some sun. And the apartment being such a mess, I can't stand that either. I don't like Mondays when Mr. Man has to go back to work, can't wait for him to take a vacation. SW has been back since Thursday and I haven't even talked to her. Little R went right back to bed after the cop left. Feeling a little lonely today. I have to go check the mail and walk down to the bank this afternoon. So have a great day.

Life Is Going Backwards

I woke up this morning thinking about all the things we left behind. I'm missing my stuff. We went beyond downsizing. And yet this apartment still feels cramped. Of course we still haven't finished unpacking. We've been here for what 2 months now? I've even gotten rid of stuff since we've been here via Freecycle. It's just the stuff we left behind or sold or gave away was things we had for years. Collections. Things we hung onto for years. And now they're just gone, forever. Some things I didn't mind too much parting with, but some stuff I'm really sorry I don't have. I think I got carried away in the frenzy of it all. I kept silly things and got rid of good stuff.

I'm not getting used to living in an apartment. I don't think I'll ever get used to it. After my waking thoughts, I got on the computer and started looking at photos. Pictures of my gardens and flowers. I miss my gardens terribly. That's what got me outside. I used to spend hours puttering. I barely go out on the balcony at all. It makes me nervous. I keep getting this feeling it's going to fall off the building. It is an old building. And the view just isn't that great. I think in 2 months I've sat out there three times. I find myself thinking I hope this year goes by fast. Once our lease is up we are free to find something else. I really need a house. I need a yard. I need gardens.

We've been taking Bear with us as much as possible lately. We just really don't feel right leaving him cooped up in an apartment. When we first got him, his previous owner told us he doesn't travel well, he gets sick. Well he has never got sick with us. We've been on some pretty long drives with him and he is fine. We've been quite impressed with how well behaved he is when we take him anywhere.

After my waking thoughts, then looking through photos, I really want to get this place unpacked and organized. I just took Bear out for his morning walk and there is someone moving in. Guess what they had on the elevator? A woodstove of all things! Hell we didn't even bring our air conditioners nevermind a woodstove. We still haven't set up the beds. Well Little Rs was set up but then we had to take it apart to move it to have the new windows put in. We still need to put the mirror on her dresser. We still need to get dressers for us. This living with all our clothes in boxes is getting old fast. I did get a dresser from Freecycle but it's huge and has small drawers. I need big drawers. So now I'm trying to get rid of it on Freecycle with no luck. I really want to hang the dart board. But we're going to have to find something to put around it to protect the wall. We have a spot in mind, hopefully it will work out. And hopefully it won't disturb any of the nieghbours when we play. I've lived in many apartments in my life. This one isn't so bad. But I just got really used to being in a house.

One good thing that has come out of this is we're walking more. I'm not lounging around in my jammies all day because I have to get up and get dressed to take the dog out. And living in town there are places to walk to. All three of us are doing a lot more walking. I guess the dog is walking more too. It's just depressing coming home to a cramped apartment. We've been lucky to have friends and family with houses who invite us to barbecues and bonfires. Otherwise I would really be losing it.

How did I get here? I know how I got here. It's sad. Now all I can think about is when can I get out of here? I feel like we really took 2 steps back. Like life is going backwards. I know things will change. I know things will get better again. Meanwhile, I'm not real happy about things. I'm trying really hard not to fall into a depression. But I think I am depressed to a degree. Life is so different here. I don't know, I don't like it. There is just so much I miss about our house in paradise aside from all the possessions we lost.

I really wish I woke up with different thoughts this morning. Now that I have high speed broadband internet I don't get any emails. I had tons sitting in my inbox that I couldn't even open on dial up. Now I get nothing. Bring on the emails people. Dial up is something I'm not sad to leave behind.

So that's my frame of mind today. Don't know what I'll do today. Probably watch tv all day and wish I was somewhere else. Have a great day.

Our Weekend And Pictures

Last Thursday we went down to the city to meet Big R, my father and my sister for a birthday dinner at the Mandarin. Little Rs birthday was on the 9th, Big Rs boyfriends birthday was on the 16th or 17th, my fathers birthday was on the 19th and Big Rs birthday is on the 27th. It was so nice to see Big R again. I don't think I'll ever get used to her living in Prince Edward Island. But she is getting pretty settled down there. Our visits are never long enough. It was at this dinner that my sister invited us down to her place on Sunday for a barbecue for my fathers 94th birthday.

Friday Mr. Man took the day off work. We didn't do anything. He could have gone up to D & Ss place to work on the bike but that never happened. I don't even remember what we did all day, I think it was a lazy day. Mr. Man has 2 weeks of vacation he can take but he's afraid of the chaos he'll have to return to. I'm trying to convince him to take one week off.

Saturday we walked the dog down to the Farmers Market which happens to be at the end of our street every Saturday morning. There was a very tall guy dressed in a bear costume walking around, when Bear saw it he barked once and then just cowered. He had never seen anything like it. He couldn't get away from it fast enough. We walked over to Timmys and got coffee. Then we jumped in the car and went to a few yard sales. It was pretty disappointing. One thing we did end up buying was a few cassette tapes. Pretty ironic since I just gave away my cassette collection before we moved. I'm pretty sure I used to have all the tapes we bought. They're for listening to in the car. At some point we went to the thrift store. We had some stuff to drop off and I've been looking for a gift for my old friend whose birthday is on the 25th. I'll be seeing her on the 26th. I didn't find anything in there so we went to a different store where I did find something I hope she will like and use. Later in the afternoon again we took the dog down to the park at the end of our street for Marc Emery's Farewell Tour. We met "The Prince Of Pot" himself, listened to him speak, signed a petition, got his autograph on a DVD and I got my picture taken with him. I only learned about his plight the weekend before so I wasn't too sure what was going on or even who he was. I'm more educated now. There was a police presence, when they all marched off to another location we just headed home.

Sunday we headed down to the city to my sisters for a barbecue to celebrate my fathers 94th birthday. I got to see a couple of my nephews who I rarely see and my great niece who I have only seen a couple of times. She's 5 now. Quite the little chatterbox. And not shy at all. We brought Bear too, it was his first time there. He was very well behaved. Even though my father has never had a drink of alcohol in his life, there was some drinking going on. Even my sister had a couple of coolers. It was fun though I didn't really talk to my father much. We were banished to the smokers table. We did make plans to go to my sisters cottage at some point this summer. I've never been there mainly because its on an island and you have to take a boat to get to it. I don't do well with boats. But I'm determined to go this summer. Maybe when Mr. Man takes a week off work.

And now for some pictures. First is Big R and Little R. Big Rs boyfriend was entertained by all the mannerisms these two share.

Next is our little family. This is like one of 2 photos in existence of the four of us together.

This is me and my sister Linda.

Little R and Papa.

My dad with his two youngest granddaughters.

And Big R with her man Glen. We like him.

Here's me with Marc Emery, "The Prince Of Pot".

My dad with his birthday cake.

Little R with my great niece Faith.

Blogger is not making it easy to add pictures these days. So that's it for now. That was our weekend in pictures. Next weekend we are going back down to the city for a barbecue picnic in the park with old friends. That is assuming it doesn't rain. Hopefully we'll get some time during the week to work on the bike. We need to have it running the following weekend. Mr. Man needs to make the time to do it. The summer is slipping away.

Well I'm off to start my day, back to the grind. Gotta get the kitchen cleaned up. SW is on her way back home! I can't wait to see her. Have a great day.

Chit Chat

One thing I've noticed that I really don't like about living here is, every single morning I hear sirens. Never in the afternoon or at night, always in the morning. I went for 6 years with hearing no sirens at all to hearing them every single morning. I don't like hearing sirens no matter what time of day. Man I miss the peace and quiet of paradise.

Little R admitted to me yesterday that she did not go to get her SIN (Social Insurance Number) card. I had a feeling she didn't. So yesterday I went down with her and got it done. She needs that to get a job. She now has a number and they gave her a piece of paper with her number on it, so technically she can go get a job any time. Yesterday I allowed her to go to a party. Later she phoned wanting to spend the night, which I allowed. I figured it was better than having her tripping around town in the middle of the night. Today I think I'm going to send her job searching.

They arrested a guy for that stabbing. The last I heard the woman was still in critical condition. I'm happy they made an arrest. The police aren't saying much about it all yet. Stuff like that just shouldn't happen in a town like this.

I'm looking forward to seeing Big R for dinner tonight. She is in town for a wedding this weekend. We are meeting for dinner. Mr. Man will have to drive up here to get us then drive back down to the city for dinner then back up here home. He booked tomorrow off work. I'm not sure what his plans are. I promised Little R we would go shopping for clothes this weekend. Kind of a birthday present. At some point Mr. Man has to go work on the bike. We have a couple of events coming up and it would be nice to have the bike for that. He is confident he'll get it going and I really should have faith, he's always got it going before. It's just been so long since we rode. The last time we rode was July 2007. I'm a little bit eager.

I've taken Bear downtown twice now. Both times were uneventful. But we didn't run into any other dogs. I may be getting over my fear of taking him out on the streets. A lot of people brought their dogs to the Founders Fair. There were a couple of incidents of growling and barking. I don't know what it is, he just automatically doesn't like other male dogs. But the other dogs were starting it at the fair. So we're fine as long as we don't come across other dogs.

Well my tiny kitchen is a mess. That's my job for today, getting it cleaned up. Man I miss my dishwasher. Just waiting for Little R to come home, she said she would be home in the morning. Time to start my day. Have a great day.

Our Weekend

How was your weekend? Mine was ok. This weekend was the Founders Fair here in town. We've never gone to it before. Saturday evening we walked the dog down to it. They close off the main street through town and have a big fair. There's street entertainment. We spent most of our time just at the bottom of our street. There was vendors, street entertainers, midway stuff, rides and a stage at either end. We had a stage at the end of the street. There was bands playing on the stages. We liked the one by our street. We watched them for a while then walked down to Timmys for a coffee and came back to watch the jugglers. They did all kinds of cool tricks. We walked around a bit more then came back for the jugglers to perform with fire. It was very cool. I took a bunch of pictures but they didn't turn out. We were there for about 4 hours. It had been a beautiful day, but once it got dark it got damn cold. I was glad I brought a jacket. When Mr. Man got cold and wanted to go home we left. The dog did not want to leave. We had to drag him away. We got home around 11, it was great free entertainment.

We had been invited to a pig roast party at our old nieghbours place but decided we really shouldn't go. It would have just felt a little awkward partying with all our old nieghbours. We don't live in paradise any more.

No, we live in town now. Where a woman got stabbed Saturday sometime, right around the corner from our place. She is in critical but stable condition at a hospital in Toronto. Jeez. The guy took her car, so the police are looking for that. I just hope she recovers and they find the guy. It happened way too close to home. One year is all I have to spend here.

Sunday was spent just hanging around home doing nothing. S & D went away for the weekend so we couldn't go there to work on the bike. We didn't do any unpacking. We watched a couple of movies. It was a lazy day. We took the dog for a walk and went by the crime scene, the police were still there and had it all roped off. Stuff like that just doesn't happen in this town.

It was Little Rs 16th birthday last Thursday. She didn't want to go to Wonderland. With the way she's been behaving we didn't feel we should be getting her gifts etc. All she got was a cake. I don't think she expected much more than that anyways. Back in the day I wanted to throw her a huge Sweet 16 bash. But for the past year and a half she's done nothing to earn it. Hopefully she'll straighten out soon. We're just waiting for her SIN to come in the mail so she can get a job. But we don't know for sure if she actually went to get it or just spent the money. Time will tell.

Big R will be here on the 16th. She wants us all to go to the Mandarin. She's coming up just for the weekend for a wedding. Going to the Mandarin is all we'll see of her. She's getting pretty settled in PEI. It doesn't look like she'll be moving back here any time soon.

Friday my computer died and I couldn't get it going all day. Mr. Man comes home, smacks it a couple of times and it works. Gawd. I'm missing a lot of photos on it though. Like I open an album and there should be about 20 pictures there but there's only 3. So I don't know what's going on. I didn't know what to do with myself on Friday. I mostly watched tv. When we have the extra money we're going to put the computer in the shop to have it fixed and maybe they can retreive my photos too.

I hope the weather is going to get nicer soon. This is ridiculous. It's only 20 when it should be 30. We had a little thunderstorm on Saturday morning. Was it ever dark out. After not much of a storm it passed and brightened right up. So far today seems sunny. I'm still white as a ghost.

There's going to be a protest at the park at the end of our street. They are protesting Bill C-15. It's someting about making possession of small amounts of marijuana a big crime. We'll be going to that. I don't know too much about it yet, I just found out about it on the weekend. I think marijuana should be legalized. Not have stricter laws.

Well I need to start my day. I'll leave you with a picture of me and Mr. Man sitting on a bench dowtown enjoying the band. Mr. Man took this with his phone camera.

Pictures

I got Mr. Man up and he loaded the software for my camera. I got all the photos off my camera, going back a couple of years. But I lost all photos from before that. So I'm going to post a couple from our visit to Lake Erie.

This weather has got to go. We haven't had summer yet. Today is cloudy and it feels cool, but I don't know if that's just because I'm up on the 6th floor getting a breeze or what. I sure hope it's going to get sunny and hot soon, before summer is over. I'm still white as a potato. I got a bit of colour on my face this weekend, but that could also just be windburn. We weren't there long before I put on a coat and jeans.

Little R continues to act like nothing happened. My money collection is gone forever. I collected for years and years. She is never going to learn with no consequences. But what exactly are we supposed to do? She's going to be 16 in a few days. She may just get kicked out for her birthday. I was planning to take her and a friend to Canada's Wonderland for her birthday, she's never even been there, but she wasn't eager to do that. Suddenly she doesn't really like rides. She didn't have a birthday celebration last year, for the first time in her life. Not with what was going on then. It's looking like there won't be a celebration this year either.

We're sort of like empty nesters. Little R is pretty self sufficient. The dog is my baby now. I'm not liking it. I miss having little kids around. My days feel so pointless now. Walking the dog is my big responsibility. I'm thinking once Little R is out of the house and we don't need to worry every time we go out, it will get better. The dog is getting old. I'm sure he only has a few more years in him. We've been taking him with us a lot because we don't like leaving him alone in an apartment. It was different at the house, he could go downstairs to keep cool, he could wander around. He's pretty cooped up here. With all the stunts Little R pulls, I am looking forward to truly being an empty nester.

I can't stand living here. The constant noise is driving me mental. Not noise in the building, but outside noise. I think I can deal with it for a year, not that I have much of a choice. But as soon as our lease is up I'm looking for a house in the country.

I've been going with Mr. Man on his marathon dog walks. It's getting easier. And I'm almost ready to take Bear out on the streets myself. As long as we don't run into any other male dogs we'll be fine. Even though I have lost weight, I could stand to lose more. Me and the dog are both out of shape. I look forward to SW getting back from out west, we can walk together. She's gone til the end of the month, sigh.

I've completely lost interest in unpacking. I still haven't unpacked my china. There's about 15 boxes to unpack still. It'll be like Christmas lol. Mr. Man hung a couple of pictures on the weekend, so it feels a little homier. Still haven't set up the other desktop computer either. We have the big ass desk sitting here taking up precious space, but no second computer on it. Now I'm thinking we really don't even need the second computer or the big ass desk. Time to sell it? I think so. We have countless more pictures to hang, not enough walls probably.

Ok, due to the fact that I have no life these days, I have nothing else to say. Here's a couple of pics from our weekend visit to my old friend at Lake Erie... me and Mr. Man...

My friend and her brother whom I've known since I was a very little kid. I hadn't seen her brother in 15 years.

My friends cute little house.

And this isn't the best picture to show just how rough the water was. The wind was just unreal and the water was really rough.

I did take more pictures but Blogger is being a pain with uploading them this morning, so that's it. Have a great day.

It's A Sad Day

Yesterday we went to visit my old friend who I've known since I was a toddler. We lost contact for many years and then hooked up recently on Facebook. She lives quite a distance, on Lake Erie. I'm surprised the car made it. It was a two hour drive. It was our first time at her house. She was at our house last fall. I did take pictures, but it's a whole other story why I can't post them. She lives right on the beach. It was so windy we never did bother going on the beach. The water was very rough. We brought Bear, and he did great for such a long drive. His previous owner told us he gets sick on long drives, but he didn't get sick. We had a good time seeing her and her brother. Her house is so cute. I look forward to going back. Hopefully the weather will be nicer next time.

We got back around midnight and headed up S & Ds for a bonfire. We were too late. No one was there and the fire was out. Sigh. So we came home to find Little R had rifled the entire apartment and stole my coin collection! And she wasn't here. She came home this morning and I asked her if she spent or sold my collection, I also had some old paper money. She spent it! She would have got more for it if she sold it rather than spending it at face value. I could kill her! I don't know what to do. She needs to learn a lesson. We are thinking about having her charged.

So Mr. Man sat up all night waiting for her to come home. While he was up he decided to fix my desktop computer. Well he got it going and got it online, but I lost everything! All my photos, my camera software, all my favourites, everything, gone. And that's why I can't post pictures. It's a sad day around here today.

It's now been a week that I've been off the pills. I think it's getting easier. I don't know, I can't even think straight today. I am so disappointed. Now Mr. Man is going to sleep all day, sigh. I need my camera software to get the pictures off my camera. I don't know how to do it, I need him to do it. Yesterday was so fun and today is such a drag. My child needs to learn a lesson. You don't steal. It's even worse that she will steal from her own family. Gawd.

Have a great day. Sadly I won't.