Lists, Bargains and Busy

 As someone who now has to fit 14 days worth of life stuff into 7 I am busy on my good week.  I still have Dr appts and such, but I am fitting in so much more.  I am so lucky where we live the pandemic is not quite as serious or I would likely be self-isolating.  But I am choosing not to, instead of being ultra-careful and having no one into my home.  I am going to quieter stores, masked up, run in, get what I need, get out. Much like the start of the pandemic.  This makes me feel "normal".  I also get to help out hubby a lot more than I will when/if I get surgery for a long time.  This week:

-We had takeout from a water side food shack.  This was our view as we ate of the Comox estuary.  It didn't suck.  While we were sitting there eating we watched a heron fishing for supper, 2 eagles fishing, and a large seal that was also fishing for supper just mosey on by a few feet from the waters edge.  I am so glad we moved here when we did and get to live in this paradise every day.  It isn't perfect (no where is) but we live a very nice life here and it gives me peace to look at this.

- made jam with mom with raspberries given by my BF and store bought frozen blackberries since I didn't get to pick any this summer.  Storebought ones are not as tart so it turned out good but nothing beats wild blackberries in my opinion.  We made 7 small jars worth and hubby has his jam fix for the winter which was my goal, plus less things cramming up my freezer.

-did company banking - timed it so almost no one was in the bank - success

-we changed the tires on both vehicles (which means we drove there and had the mechanic do it).  It is a little early as usually, we wait until mid-November but with so much up in the air in November best to do it now.  We are not driving enough to cause excess wear on our winter tires.  One more winter prep thing is done.

-we hired the company who did our landscaping/sprinkler changes this summer to do our winter blowout.  They showed up the day after we asked and charged half the price of the last landscaper.  Funny story.  We have had a very flaky landscaper/irrigation guy ever since we bought the house.  He installed the original system so we used him.  Now that we have a new irrigation company we are so happy with their response time and service.    Usually, we have to text the irrigation guy about our sprinkler blowout every fall (they shoot air through the lines so it doesn't freeze over winter in case anyone who doesn't know about sprinklers and is wondering what I am talking about)and then remind him 2 weeks later then text him again as we are panicking as the ground gets much colder.  2 days after we had our blowout from our new company the old company shows up unannounced to do our blowout.  Ummmm....no.  Hubby went out there and set them straight.  Oh yeah, last winter after repeatedly requesting a blow out they came....and then never ever billed us.  That happened another year and I had to remind them 3 times to get a bill.  I am not doing that again.   I figure it all evens out in the end.  We usually paid $120 for that service.  This year our new company charged us $60 - and 1 day service!

- A few weeks ago I cashed in my Quality Foods points for a small turkey which is our Christmas dinner.  I had been saving them for this and found the perfect size one.  I have most of our Christmas foods purchased, just need a few more items for the fruit cake cookies that Mom and I will bake in November and freeze.  Pecans were purchased yesterday and I have been stockpiling candied fruit and baking goods in case there is a run on them (pretty sure there will be).

-I have also done 2 5 minute thrift store shops.  Funny how one of the thrift stores I go to is the most safe place - no one and I mean no one gets in without a mask or face shield.  Absolutely only 10 people in the 8 room store at a time - and they have guards at both entrances.  All the volunteers are seniors and it is so important to them to protect all the volunteers as well as the patrons.  The paperbacks were all 25 cents and I found a couple. I have wanted to read Jo Nesbo (Norwegian mystery writer) for a while although some of the drugs I take week 1 prevent me from reading on week 2 I seem to be able to concentrate to read so I started it and am on chapter 3.  I also have a couple books on kindle that I try and read but find that harder as have never loved reading electronically.

In the second thrift store it is rarely busy and so I zipped in and out in 2 minutes with Mom one day.  Hubby accidentally broke the little owl that held scrubbies by the sink last week so we needed a replacement.  This white container was .50 and does the job perfectly.

I have also been purging and selling things on the facebook bidding site.  I did manage to find and successfully outbid others on this absolutely beautiful (and costly new) large Mexican glass jug and margarita glasses.  While I am choosing not to drink alcohol (kidneys and liver are my most valuable organs currently) they are so pretty both hubby and I absolutely love Mexican glass and this is  some of the top-made type that would have been very expensive, even in Mexico.  I paid $21 and we love them.  They go nicely with the rest of my mexican pottery collection.

I mentioned in my last post that we are going big this Christmas.  Part of that is to light up our back yard so we can see it from the inside of the house.  I love the fact that my house has windows in every single room except the mud room.  Large windows look out to our patio and we usually string vintage Christmas lights in our cedars.  We are still doing that this year but adding two six-foot light trees to the patio (held down with cement blocks if the wind picks up).  I don't have a great picture of them as hubby put together one last week when I was on an off day to cheer me up so this photo is taken from the bedroom but you get the idea.  We love them - they will look fantastic along with our existing decorations.

We have an election in our Province today.  Over 800,000 people chose to get a mail in ballot which we did along with Mom.  It was sent off 2 weeks ago.  In the last election only 100,000 people did that.  It may take a few weeks for them to count the ballots before they can determine if our Premier stays or goes....the joy of running an election in a pandemic but I do have to say that I am so glad that mail in ballots in Canada are not that big of a deal and that we were able to vote that way.  

Anyway, that's what's shaking in our world.  Today it is sunny but cold, only a few degrees above zero and we actually had a frost yesterday.  Our sole plan today is to hang the exterior lights on the house that require two of us.  The rest can be done together if I am feeling well or by hubby alone if I am not.  We will wait until the end of November to turn them on but at least this is one more winter/Christmas preparation chore out of the way.  I've done a bit of Christmas shopping and packages are starting to come in.  I am storing hubby's at Mom's house and Mom's presents at our house as hubby is like a little kid when it comes to presents and guessing/find them.

Tonight we are ordering in Pizza, picking up up Mom (she is in our "bubble" of safe people) and watching a movie.

Take care, everyone, stay safe and wear a mask! :)