Dear Neighbor . . .

 

 

(source)

ESTATE LANE, NS

33.8*F/1*C grey and cloudy

I think we have reached the high for the day, it is supposed to get colder as the day goes on

Light snow in the morning

Dear Neighbor,

It's fairly chilly this morning. My heat pump is working full time these days and I am grateful for the warmth it brings into my home. I try not to use the electric baseboard heating at all if possible. It does not kick up much warmth anyways.  Last Winter when my heat pump was broken, that was all I had to use and it was better than nothing, but the heat pump is a lot more efficient.

I have in-floor heating in the bathroom which I only discovered last Winter.  Come October-ish I keep it on all the time.  I hate to get out of the shower into a cold bathroom, although it does speed things up a bit as you are so cold you cannot wait to get dressed. There is no dallying about. With the heated floors however, there is not such a rush, and it is much more pleasant getting out of the shower without feeling chilled to the bone. 

There is a baseboard heater in there as well, but it is very small and does little to nothing as far as keeping the room warm goes. Why is it that the bathroom is always the coldest room is the house?  It has been ever so in every house I have ever lived in. 

Perhaps that is so that nobody lingers.

 

(source)

It rained bucket-loads all day yesterday, although it was not enough to completely get rid of the snow which had fallen on the previous days.  On a few occasions it was mixed with sleet, but not so as to make diving hazardous. Cindy and I spent a good part of the day together.  

I went first to her place to pick her up, a bit earlier than we planned to leave. I wanted to help my father with his phone.  He had expressed the night before that he could not find his solitaire game on it so I helped him to find it.  It was there, just in a weird folder that was not obvious to him. All of the icons on his phone are a jumble and spaced well apart. I do not know how to get them spaced closer together. In any case I gave the folder his solitaire game was in a new name, in large capital letters so he cannot miss it and I turned the sound on that particular app off for him so that it doesn't' disturb anyone. (at his request)

He was most grateful.  I am not a genius when it comes to these things, but I do know a bit more about them than Cindy or Dan, so it's all good.

 

(source)

Cindy and I decided to stop at the Super Store first on our way up the Valley.  We didn't want to get to the Cambridge Convenience store too soon before they had unpacked their Costco order.  I had a few bits and bobs I needed to get and so did she.

Right when you go in the door they have a chiller cabinet filled with drinks, sandwiches, pieces of cake, etc.  "PIECES OF CAKE" "PIECES OF CAKE" It screams at you like a parrot on a pirate's shoulder screaming "Pieces of Eight" as soon as you walk through the door.  And its La Rocca Cakes.  If there is no chocolate fudge it is a lot easier to resist, but yesterday there were freshly cut pieces of the chocolate fudge and we both caved and picked one up. A cheeky treat for later in the day. 

In all fairness and full disclosure, I did also look for a salad.  I didn't find one there though. I only like to buy their salads if they have been made fresh on the day.  Any older than that and they are always very tried and full of rusty lettuce.  There were no fresh ones yesterday.

We followed each other around the store picking up this and picking up that.  Sometimes she would be in the front and other times it would be me, and then occasionally we would be completely separated.  We always come back together by the end however and go through the cash together. 

Yesterday, thankfully, the washrooms were clean.  Call me picky, but . . . I really don't like having to share a publish washroom with men, and all of their bathrooms are unisex.  We both had to go after walking around the shop. (Women of a certain age.)  Thankfully they had just been cleaned.   Still not my favorite occupation, but one must do what one must do, and we knew we would not be near another WC again for quite a while.

 

(source)

We took an easy drive up the Valley to Cambridge.  We kept thinking we were hearing alarms and such but it ended up being the radio in the car. It was turned down, but not enough so that these occasional noises crept through every now and then. It took a while for us to figure it out. Between that and the squeaking of the windshield wipers it was not an entirely silent journey. Of course, to be honest, there is never a lot of silence when I am in the car. I fill the air with chatter. 

It is just nice to have someone to talk to that can talk back. The cats do listen most of the time but do not volunteer much into any or our conversations in the way of speech.

We had a nice jaunt through the shop. They have greatly expanded it over the last couple of years and carry a lot of Costco goods.  Unfortunately, yesterday they were not able to get the couple of things that we had wanted, except for my almonds and Cindy's oatcakes. There was no organic sugar we both wanted, nor the dehydrated potatoes Cindy was wanting.  We like the organic sugar for baking.  And we are stockpiling the dehydrated grated potatoes for Armageddon.  Just kidding, but you never know.

Apparently, lots of people are because they are difficult to get ahold of at the moment, and they are actually quite good.

It is never a bad idea to have an emergency food supply with a long shelf life.

 

(source)

Once we left there, we toddled back down the Valley, stopping first at Goucher's Farm Market. They had potatoes on for 30-cents a pound.  Not a bad buy.  We were also hoping that they had gotten the cheese bread in from their bakery supplier, but alas they had not.

We decided to stop at Spurr's Farm Market and hit the motherlode.  They were just unpacking their bakery order. We patiently watched the girl putting it all out like a couple of crows waiting for peanuts. She did not mind in the least.  We both walked away with almond croissants and a jar of fermented kraut.  I enjoyed some with my supper last night. I got the one with the red cabbage in it.  It's loaded with pre-biotics, which are good for the digestion.

We ended up at the Independant store in town, once again looking for salads and thankfully were able to get one each. I also picked up a can of mixed nuts to give to dad as a treat and they had large plastic storage buckets for Christmas cookies on special as well, so I got one of those.  I used to have huge butter tubs/margarine buckets, but those are long gone.

It was still raining bucketloads.

And there was still snow on the ground  . . .  and lots of slush.  I dropped Cindy off and her goodies, gave dad his can of nuts and then came home. 

The cats were happy to see me.  They always are. It's nice.

(source)

I fed the felines and got everything put away.  Started some supper for myself and was soon ready to settle in for the rest of the day.  I had picked up a box of frozen Detroit style pizzas at the Convenience store. I gave one to Cindy for them to enjoy and then cooked one for myself. (I cut it all into slices after and froze all but one, packing them into separate baggies for another time.)

I enjoyed a slice of pizza, some salad, a dollop of kraut and that cheeky slice of chocolate cake for my supper.  The cake was a bit of over-kill, but . . . it was very good.

 

(source)

I emptied my compost machine and took a shower, fed the cats again and was ready to settle in for an evening of viewing, reading, cat cuddling and contemplation.

And that was my day yesterday.   It was a very good day indeed.

Already this morning I have something in the slow cooker for later on.  I am making a "Marry Me Chicken" in the slow cooker. I have never tried that kind of chicken before. Everyone always raves about how delicious it is, so I thought why not try it in the slow cooker. I have nothing to lose and there will be some to take next door to Sheila as well. I will cook some rice to go along with it.

Earlier this week everyone on the street was enjoying Turkey Dinners from the local Volunteer Fire Hall.  I didn't know anything about it so had not ordered one.  They were only $10 and apparently there was turkey, stuffing, swede, potatoes, veggies, a roll and gravy, some fruit cake and a mince pie. Not bad for $10 and you are supporting the locals. I will ask Glenna to tell me next time this is happening so I can get in on the deal as well. Everyone was very pleased with theirs, and for $10 you cannot go wrong.

 

(source)

I have been thinking a bit about my feelings about going to the Temple this week.  It is not that I do not enjoy being there when I am there. I always have done.  It's that most of my Temple memories are now associated with one of the biggest betrayals of my life and I find it a bit triggering.  Before my husband and I got sealed in the Temple, I had only been once, for my initial time.  We got married in the Temple two months later, and every visit after that, for 20 + years, was in his company. The king of all liars, and someone who shouldn't have been there in the first place.

It's a bit hard to explain. I believe I have some form of PTSD from the whole experience. (Not just the Temple, but all of it, the marriage, everything.) It is taking me a bit of time to get past that and associate those years with nicer feelings and memories, and I know I cannot build happier memories and associations with it if I do not go, but . . . it is what it is, and I believe I will get there in the end.

Yes, I do like to listen to the Compline and the Rosary on my Hallow App on my iPad in bed sometimes to relax.  I do get a lot of anxiety dreams, usually within the first half hour of me falling asleep. Listening to these things help to distract me so I can fall back asleep.  There were times over the last few years when I could not find the words for prayer and so I have found listening to them or to talks helps. Jonathan Roumie who plays Jesus in the Chosen is the narrator on the Hallow App, and it's like Jesus is talking to me. Oh, I know he is not really Jesus, but he is the best portrayal of Jesus I have ever seen.

I look forward to meeting the real one in person someday  . . .

I am a Latter Day Saint at my very core, and quite happily so, but that doesn't mean that I do not enjoy and appreciate some of the values and teachings embraced by those of other faiths. All that is good comes from God does it not?

And with that, I best close off this letter to you. Time is marching on, and I have miles to go before I sleep  . . . 

A thought to carry with you . . . 

° * 。 • ˚ ˚ ˛ ˚ ˛ •
•。★★ 。* 。
° 。 ° ˛˚˛ * _Π_____*。*˚
˚ ˛ •˛•˚ */______/~＼。˚ ˚ ˛
˚ ˛ •˛• ˚ ｜ 田田 ｜門 ★

 *.˛.Back on its golden hinges

the gate of memory swings --

And my heart goes in the garden

and walks with older things.

~Ella Wheel Wilcox° * 。 • ˚ ˚ ˛ ˚ ˛ •

° * 。 • ˚ ˚ ˛ ˚ ˛ •° * 。 • ˚ ˚ ˛ 

In the kitchen today, Old-Fashioned Baked Ham Steak. This is simply fabulous.  Simple, easy, an old, old way of cooking a full center ham steak that always turns out beautifully tender, flavor-filled and moist.

I hope that you have a beautiful day. Whatever you get up to, don't forget!

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⊰✿░G░O░D⊰✿⊰L░O░V░E░S⊰✿⊰░Y░O░U░⊰✿
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And I do too!