Room For All

Welcome to Wondercafe2!

A community where we discuss, share, and have some fun together. Join today and become a part of it!

Register Log in
Loss appears to be a theme of my life recently. Complicated relationship next door. A daughter, divorced, 40s, living with kids, brother, etc. and her Mom. Mom is 70-ish, a lot of fun, and she and I have bonded. She comes to Wed morning bible study with me, I take her to Qi Gong on Thurs if I'm not working. We spent quite a few hours last summer floating in their pool, discussing politics, theology, having just a nice time. But, relationship with daughter not really working out when it comes to living together, and she was asked to find alt living arrangements (daughter owns the house). So she's found herself a nice little bedsit. Other side of town. We'll stay friends, but less intimate, which is hard...
 
@BetteTheRed - I remember you mentioning those wonderful summertime floats in the pool with your friend. Sorry to hear she is needing to move. It's never the same is it, even when one moves not a long distance ... I get that. Sorry for that loss.
 
I keep seeing this on the list - "5G Poses Major Threat To All Biological Life? " and somehow my eyes keep reading SG instead! Many will remember our friend SG here ... nice to think of them!
 
My boss announced today that she will be leaving Dec. 31. Her replacement will start in Sept and they will overlap for 4 months. I really like her and she has been a great supervisor.
 
Wow! That is more advance planning than I have ever seen in the workplace. And a longer period of overlap.
 
It is a tricky position-Director of Student Services No job posting will come out this week, need someone with admin. experience-usually at Principal level plus a thorough understanding of special education
When current person came-she only did special ed. portion for her first year-and some one else did the admin. level stuff-and she assumed the full role her 2nd year.
 
Change is coming to our block. The lady across the street is moving away. Not surprising, really. She split with her husband a few years ago, one kid has moved out for university and the other will likely be doing the same in another year or so. The house is way too big for a single. Hope we get someone as nice as them.

Interesting note: the daughter who is in university was at the Daughters of the Vote event in Ottawa last week. Met a bunch of big name female politicians including Kim Campbell and Judy Wilson Reybould.
 
So in your neighbourhood Mendalla - when houses are sold are many torn down & replaced? That's the experience here - we are constantly living with construction all around the neighbourhood - dirt, noise, traffic, porta pottys, heavy equipment, roads torn up ... sigh. One just seems to get finished & the next begins soon after.
 
Last week a family with two small kids, two dogs and a cat on my street were evicted. My neighbour told me that the animals had been peeing in the house and the place stinks so badly that he wasn’t able to walk into it. The kids had always had health issues. The janitor for the landlord has taken pictures and sent them to family services.

I don’t understand how people can have their animals pee inside, but it seems to be a common thing. My sons father in law, who owns a business apparently lets his dog pee in the basement, because they are away too long during the day. at work, I hear of home care getting canceled because people let their dog pee inside because they can’t walk it anymore, so did my neighbour across the street, who was over 400 lbs, she had those pee pads, but the place stinks. Honestly, I can understand that landlords don’t allow pets. People should stick to stuffed animals if they can’t look after real ones or stick to guinea pigs.
 
Carolla said:
So in your neighbourhood Mendalla - when houses are sold are many torn down & replaced? That's the experience here - we are constantly living with construction all around the neighbourhood - dirt, noise, traffic, porta pottys, heavy equipment, roads torn up ... sigh. One just seems to get finished & the next begins soon after.
Click to expand...

We are in the newest part of the subdivision. My house was built in 2000 and only small street was built after that. So we have only seen one case of that up here and we suspect it was the one that was busted for being a grow up. Those are prone to mold so tend to get the teardown and rebuild treatment.

However, there are neighbouring areas where it has been happening. One where I pass through on bike rides had maybe half a dozen construction sites last summer.
 
Weird moment of the day.

On Saturday, my boss and I went to a Celebration of Life (basically a "wake") for the father of one of my staff. We drove through Lucan and the boss was telling me about the history of Hogtown Cycles, a business on the main street of that small community. He grew up in rural Middlesex County and knows a lot of people out that way.

So this morning I open Twitter to find out that the place burned down the next day. It was in an historic store dating to 1853 according to the news story.:cry:
 
My wyrd moment along these lines happened last week. Went to visit a church-friend on mine, and since she's living elsewhere than her usual, due to some family stuff to do with sibling care, had to take a route that I don't very often, maybe a couple of times a year. On that route, is the house that my late ex-father-in-law and his new (second) wife had custom built (In the early 80s) on a few acres just outside of town and moved into the day they got married. She's still living and I see her regularly. They sold the lovely house and moved into town when his dementia demanded it. It was lovely in a number of ways. He'd kept as many trees as possible, so it didn't have a raw 'new house' look. Inside was very open concept, with huge windows looking out in all directions, and light oak floors and trim. A big portion of the outside front had been finished with a real fieldstone wall, custom built by two of the last old guys to do it. Don watched them and loved to tell stories of how the senior would tell the junior exactly what kind/shape/size rock he wanted next, how it might split, then acceptance/rejection. One rock at a time. It was also really energy-efficient, with one of the first heat pumps, etc. And outside - there was lovely big shed/workshop, there was a stocked trout pond, there was a long dirt path up to "Echo mountain". There was always a dog or two, usually a cat for Doreen. Don had guinea hens for a while. It was a kids' paradise, and my kids adored it and were often there. I had a rule for all of them, "If there's trout involved, it had better come home either already inside them, or, at least, cleaned".

It's gone. Torn down in a massive development happening in the land Barrie annexed from Innisfil. Clear-cut. All the trees gone, Echo mountain almost leveled. Trout pond filled in. I wonder what happened to those lovely rocks. And I'd buried a lot of critters out there over the years, as did Don when his animals died. We didn't mark them, except maybe with an unmarked stone, and they were yards apart - every critter-parent got to pick the place that "Lucky" would like best. It was our family's pet cemetery. There were two or three, maybe four, large dogs, and probably four or five cats. Someone must have wondered.
 
It sounds like it was a lovely place. So short sighted to cut down trees and fill in trout ponds. It could have added some nice green space to the development.
 
This is my happy place above my desk at work. I found the cacti at dolorama and looking at them makes me happy. I added an oriental rug and my colleague added the Ikea chair, cat and the window. ( our office does not have a window).

F3FC7F61-4F35-4F60-B599-4F10CBEEED40.jpeg
 
It's a sunny warm day - so I am throwing open the windows of the room and letting a fresh spring breeze blow through! You might need to wear a sweater for a while - but ohhh ... it feels so good! I've put a big pot of carrot soup in the slow cooker - it will be done for lunch & a welcome treat when I come in from doing some clean-up outside of the room! We have such beautiful views here ....
 
It is lovely outside here, too!

I just got in from visiting my dad. I am feeling thankful for the experience I had as an OT with dementia patients. Also feeling thankful I still have him and that he remembers me. His grandchildren are touch and go sometimes, sadly, but they are not completely forgotten. He misses my mom so much.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top