Good morning! The temp is below freezing here. I have on warm clothes and the house is warm so I have much to be thankful for. I hope the weather will be nice for when we go vote next week.
Good morning. No babies got up in the night so the fire did not get refilled. It is a bit chilly in here this morning, as well. But the fire is raging and the house is warming and soon I should be joined by a little girl who generally wakes when her mom gets ready to leave in the morning. They share a room. Other baby is sleeping in the guest guest room with a little radiator to keep the room above sixty. These children are so spoiled!
Kim, “visit Canada” is a very broad description. Telling what parts of Canada one might want to visit would probably help people familiar with Canada to answer the question. I have never been there except to see Niagara Falls from the Canadian side for a few hours as a preteen. But I have a daughter who had roommates in college who were cousins, and Canadian, and the three girls once did a driving trip through New England and parts of Canada. They had to decide ahead of time where to visit, as the country is too big to see it all in one trip.
In case you didn’t see the latest from Little Miss yesterday, she told her Mommy, “MiMi said I have to be potty trained and she lives in Fairhope”.
I’m not sure what living in Fairhope had to do with it unless it gives me credentials on potty training.
If it is for one of those Via rail trips across Canada, it depends what one wants to see. In the winter, it will be a glittering landscape (January/February would be best). In spring (spring comes in May), there would be blossoms and new leaves), summer would have fields of crops (in July the wheat is ripening), and autumn would be a colour palette (the leaves are most brilliant in October).
This is a good preview of what to expect from CIA’s ‘The Canadian’s. Of course, the train ride is from Toronto to Vancouver, so the provinces of Quebec, New Brunswick, Nova Scotia, the island provinces of Newfoundland and PEI, and the territories of Yukon, Northwest territories, and Nunavut are not included. What is included is slices of Ontario, Manitoba, Saskatchewan, Alberta, and British Columbia.
The trans Canadian train teip is something Mr P has wanted to do ever since I met him. I am thinking of making a deposit on a trip for his Chris present.
Something to look forward to sounds wonderful to me, Kim. Although, the last time I was on a train I got very motion sick. I would think fall would be lovely, but it is difficult to predict when leaves will be peak in any one place. Just being off on a trip sounds wonderful. If you are getting off for sightseeing, you might consider how cold it might be and what you will to bring to wear.
I’d love to take that same train ride, any time of the year.
Of course, I saw an article about driving through Siberia–Vladivostok to Moscow, which also looks interesting.
My husband’s college roommate and his wife went to Antarctica two years ago and invited us along. I was ready to sign up, but my husband thought the idea crazy.
When I commented I’d maybe married the wrong roommate, he got insulted.
So, I’ll be home instead, smiling at him beatifically and reading books about lost adventures.
In other news, I think I’ll take my life in my hands and have an Adorable Christmas party on Friday night.
They can decorate.
I’ll buy individually wrapped candy canes and we’ll make the rounds of the neighborhood singing Christmas carols from the sidewalk. I should think we could hand out candy canes, don’t you?
It seems this final surge will be a doozy. Everyone’s just battered after 10 months — and while he vaccine is coming, it appears it will not be without distribution complications (and perhaps some delays).
One of our dog park friends, a retired nurse (a Canada native who worked at St. John’s in Santa Monica, hospital that cared for many a Hollywood star, for years) whose annual Christmas party house bashes were and are still epic, told me on the phone this weekend that it “would have been” the party weekend.
She has lived for these big annual house parties which began in 1977 and never missed a beat in all that time — until now. She’d mail or hand-deliver invitations, the house would be completely done up as a Christmas extravaganza (thanks to Christmas themed gifts, beautiful and silly, she’d received through the years).
She also lost her husband in this past year (he’d been in a facility for probably 1-2 years for Alzheimer’s). What a grim year it’s been for so many.
Michelle, I’d be insulted too, if my husband said he’d married the wrong roommate, sister, etc. Somehow I think that if you want adventure, you actually married the right roommate anyway!
My walking pal just offered us five face shields for our quintet recording tonight. Mr. COVID laughed and said, “Good idea,” since we have to record indoors, on mikes, and be six feet apart. This will make us all feel better.
He nixed candy canes for the neighbors, however wrapped.
Oh, Kim! The mountains of British Columbia are beautiful any time of the year, but I think my favourite is winter. However, in winter you may have to delay for avalanches, etc. We used to lie in bed and listen to the big Howitzer bringing down snow off the mountains when we lived in a warden station in Glacier National Park (not the one in Montana, the one between Golden and Revelstoke BC). If the gun was off one mm the shell would have landed on our house!!! That was back when the army still did the avalanche control there.
For eastern Canada I’d go in fall to see the colours of the trees (Roscuro would know when best) But I think a spring/summer trip – June or July would be absolutely lovely.
The mountains are also lovely in the fall with the aspens standing out sharply against the evergreens and the tamarack (larch) turning golden. You would likely see more wildlife in spring.
Anyone see the stat comparing totals US deaths in November 2019 to total US deaths in November 2020?
Not much change.
Our auto insurance company has given us three rebates this year because numbers of accidents are so far down (that did not include me, of course, and I still pray for the kid who hit and ran my poor car).
Are you seeing many flu cases, Roscuro? Those numbers with complications are down, too.
It may be because many of us are staying home and washing our hands more, wearing masks and working from home?
Interesting.
Mental health issues, however, are climbing. As I mentioned in June, one of our acquaintances killed himself because of mental health issues.
No sickness from church and most of our church members are thinking that if Laurie (you all prayed for her last month) with a chronic serious lung condition can survive COVID, most of us could, too.
That does not, of course, mean we should not be concerned and I wear my mask, wash my hands, and felt uncomfortable actually shopping in Target yesterday.
But where else was I supposed to buy a coffee maker (since purchasing the carafe on Amazon was more expensive than buying a new Mr. Coffee. I hate that)?
We’re putting up our Christmas tree (a smaller one) for the first time in four years. We won’t be going anywhere, and it seemed a good idea to do something apart from our ordinary day-to-day stuff.
I only moved about half my Christmas stuff when I married my husband. He and the family had a crazy number of boxes of Christmas stuff, most of which was actually marked not to open it. So when we were moving, I chose some of the Christmas stuff that had originally been in his household and some that had been in mine, and let the girls have what they wanted from the rest. I think they were surprised I kept any of what had been “theirs,” but there was enough for several households. And I told them that the last time I visited Mom at Christmas, nothing on her tree was familiar. If they visit us at Christmas, I want them to be able to see things they “know.”
Anyway, with all that I wasn’t even sure what we kept and what we didn’t! But now I have sorted through it, and after the lights are put on, I can start decorating it. We have Christmas music playing, too. I just realized it will actually be the first year he and I have decorated it together without the girls doing most of it. (The first couple years, decorating was actually hard for me, since my husband wanted me to help and I knew the girls would rather do it themselves, so I’d help a little but mostly stay out of their way. After that, it was a happier family event. But those first couple of years I was aware that my presence didn’t add to the girls’ Christmas joy, though they did love me.)
I’ve long been impressed by how well and sensibly, but also with such compassion, Cheryl integrated into a family that had to still be grieving. Well done, Cheryl! xoxox Five stars! 🙂
BG has put up her first “adult” tree. She sent a photo. It’s pitiful. She is coming to raid what I have used this year.
Little Miss came in this morning through the garage and ran straight to the front door to she what was on the front door. I need to share calling her Eagle Eye. Then she spotted some presents under the tree and wanted to know if Santa had been here. I distracted her by showing her a present under the other tree.
BC is beautiful year round. But so is most of Canada, from what I have seen. Lots of variety, like the USA. I would think a train ride there would be lovely at any time.
Michelle: “because numbers of accidents are so far down (that did not include me, of course)
Or me. 😦
Just set up the automatic car payment each month for my new/used Jeep, had to take some more out of the paycheck to cover it.
I’m on tap for the state covid news conference at noon and the county one later in the afternoon, for some reason 3 of our reporters are covering the board of supes meeting today and I haven’t had a chance to find out why as I had to make the run up to the CU also to get some money out for the property taxes.
Maybe if we all knew Kim’s plans we could just kinda show up on the same train. That trip sounds lovely.
I have been doing more on my ipad, but don’t have a keyboard, so I tend not to comment on here unless I am on my laptop. I am still reading and enjoying all of the posts.
My father and mother drove west from Ontario to British Columbia the year after they were married (they drove east to Nova Scotis for their honeymoon), so I asked my father what would be the best time of year. He said said summer, because then you would get a little of everything, including snow in the mountains. They like to tell the story of how they camped after dark one evening at the edge of the mountains in Alberta, and awoke strangely cold for summer the next morning. When they crawled out of their tent, they saw the edge of a glacier just a few feet away, which explained why they were cold.
Eldest Niece has had to be swabbed for COVID because she got sick at work. She learned through the grapevine that several coworkers have tested positive, but management had said nothing. Grocery stores here that have an outbreak temporarily close the store for cleaning, send out an announcement of when the workers who tested positive were last at work, so any customers can know about their potential exposure, and all employees who had contact with positive cases are asked to self isolate for two weeks.
Cute duck up there!! He appears to be on a mission!
I have been cleaning and cooking. Two couples from our small group are coming over for dinner and prayer. It is 60 degrees outside and I hope to get a walk in before they arrive at 6….
My brother in law and sister in law enjoyed that train ride across Canada…I think it was last year. They encourage us to go if we ever have the opportunity…they say it was one of the best vacations they have ever had….
I thoroughly enjoyed our train trip from Torino, through the chunnel, up around Scotland and back down. Beautiful time. Motion sickness ought to have been a problem but it wasn’t.
I have been on one scenic train ride up to the Georgia mountains. A steam engine pulled all the passenger cars. It was a fun day trip for our family when Wesley was young.
It is still chilly out so I wore a jacket while I swept accumulated fallen leaves out of the carport. There aren’t so many now. I pulled a few ivy vines and returned a trash barrel to a neighbor’s carport since it was still on the street from yesterday. It was nice to get outside for a short while but it made my nose run a little. I have had a bit of sneezing at times. I hope it does not turn into anything more.
I’ve ridden the train to and from Iowa, but that was a while ago. Usually we drove (in a car that occasionally broke down and had no A/C, though most cars didn’t back in the 1960s). California kin blowing in from the desert …
Nothing but bad Covid news out here, numbers going up-up-up, it’s not good. Merry Christmas.
Janice – I didn’t have anything like that growing up, and we didn’t think to do it for our girls. But a couple years ago, Nightingale bought an old-fashioned-looking (retro) wooden box-kind-of-thing for Boy. It has 24 little drawers for putting candy in (numbered 1 thru 24), with a larger “door” in the middle that has an old-fashioned-looking painting of Santa Claus where a larger piece of candy or a small toy is supposed to go.
It’s pretty neat. Boy enjoys going to get his candy each morning.
Wandering Views 
Good morning!
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What is it?
Looks like a black duck caught in a whirlpool
Good morning everyone
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Katy beat me by this much.
Good morning Kathaleena. Do you go by that name? It is so easy to shorten that I suspect most do.
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Good morning! The temp is below freezing here. I have on warm clothes and the house is warm so I have much to be thankful for. I hope the weather will be nice for when we go vote next week.
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No, Chas, I don’t go by that name anywhere but here. Or on Word Press, I guess. I do go by a couple of different variations. I see you Got Smart. 🙂
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Good morning. No babies got up in the night so the fire did not get refilled. It is a bit chilly in here this morning, as well. But the fire is raging and the house is warming and soon I should be joined by a little girl who generally wakes when her mom gets ready to leave in the morning. They share a room. Other baby is sleeping in the guest guest room with a little radiator to keep the room above sixty. These children are so spoiled!
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My QoD is when you be the best time of year to visit Canada by train?
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Kim, when it is warm and not icy. Although some of the natural beauty could only be seen during snowy times.
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Kim, “visit Canada” is a very broad description. Telling what parts of Canada one might want to visit would probably help people familiar with Canada to answer the question. I have never been there except to see Niagara Falls from the Canadian side for a few hours as a preteen. But I have a daughter who had roommates in college who were cousins, and Canadian, and the three girls once did a driving trip through New England and parts of Canada. They had to decide ahead of time where to visit, as the country is too big to see it all in one trip.
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In case you didn’t see the latest from Little Miss yesterday, she told her Mommy, “MiMi said I have to be potty trained and she lives in Fairhope”.
I’m not sure what living in Fairhope had to do with it unless it gives me credentials on potty training.
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Kathaleena:
Likewise. The only place I go by Chas” is here.
Everywhere else, I am “Charlie”. I didn’t know my name was Charles until I joined the AF.
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If it is for one of those Via rail trips across Canada, it depends what one wants to see. In the winter, it will be a glittering landscape (January/February would be best). In spring (spring comes in May), there would be blossoms and new leaves), summer would have fields of crops (in July the wheat is ripening), and autumn would be a colour palette (the leaves are most brilliant in October).
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This is a good preview of what to expect from CIA’s ‘The Canadian’s. Of course, the train ride is from Toronto to Vancouver, so the provinces of Quebec, New Brunswick, Nova Scotia, the island provinces of Newfoundland and PEI, and the territories of Yukon, Northwest territories, and Nunavut are not included. What is included is slices of Ontario, Manitoba, Saskatchewan, Alberta, and British Columbia.
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The trans Canadian train teip is something Mr P has wanted to do ever since I met him. I am thinking of making a deposit on a trip for his Chris present.
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I’m planning to pay for it with the money I don’t spend on diapers 😂😂😂
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Something to look forward to sounds wonderful to me, Kim. Although, the last time I was on a train I got very motion sick. I would think fall would be lovely, but it is difficult to predict when leaves will be peak in any one place. Just being off on a trip sounds wonderful. If you are getting off for sightseeing, you might consider how cold it might be and what you will to bring to wear.
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I’d love to take that same train ride, any time of the year.
Of course, I saw an article about driving through Siberia–Vladivostok to Moscow, which also looks interesting.
My husband’s college roommate and his wife went to Antarctica two years ago and invited us along. I was ready to sign up, but my husband thought the idea crazy.
When I commented I’d maybe married the wrong roommate, he got insulted.
So, I’ll be home instead, smiling at him beatifically and reading books about lost adventures.
In other news, I think I’ll take my life in my hands and have an Adorable Christmas party on Friday night.
They can decorate.
I’ll buy individually wrapped candy canes and we’ll make the rounds of the neighborhood singing Christmas carols from the sidewalk. I should think we could hand out candy canes, don’t you?
Mr. COVID will weigh in . . .
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It seems this final surge will be a doozy. Everyone’s just battered after 10 months — and while he vaccine is coming, it appears it will not be without distribution complications (and perhaps some delays).
One of our dog park friends, a retired nurse (a Canada native who worked at St. John’s in Santa Monica, hospital that cared for many a Hollywood star, for years) whose annual Christmas party house bashes were and are still epic, told me on the phone this weekend that it “would have been” the party weekend.
She has lived for these big annual house parties which began in 1977 and never missed a beat in all that time — until now. She’d mail or hand-deliver invitations, the house would be completely done up as a Christmas extravaganza (thanks to Christmas themed gifts, beautiful and silly, she’d received through the years).
She also lost her husband in this past year (he’d been in a facility for probably 1-2 years for Alzheimer’s). What a grim year it’s been for so many.
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Hah! Autocorrect thinks Via should be corrected to CIA. Silly AI.
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Michelle, I’d be insulted too, if my husband said he’d married the wrong roommate, sister, etc. Somehow I think that if you want adventure, you actually married the right roommate anyway!
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He laughed, Cheryl. 🙂
My walking pal just offered us five face shields for our quintet recording tonight. Mr. COVID laughed and said, “Good idea,” since we have to record indoors, on mikes, and be six feet apart. This will make us all feel better.
He nixed candy canes for the neighbors, however wrapped.
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Oh, Kim! The mountains of British Columbia are beautiful any time of the year, but I think my favourite is winter. However, in winter you may have to delay for avalanches, etc. We used to lie in bed and listen to the big Howitzer bringing down snow off the mountains when we lived in a warden station in Glacier National Park (not the one in Montana, the one between Golden and Revelstoke BC). If the gun was off one mm the shell would have landed on our house!!! That was back when the army still did the avalanche control there.
For eastern Canada I’d go in fall to see the colours of the trees (Roscuro would know when best) But I think a spring/summer trip – June or July would be absolutely lovely.
The mountains are also lovely in the fall with the aspens standing out sharply against the evergreens and the tamarack (larch) turning golden. You would likely see more wildlife in spring.
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Anyone see the stat comparing totals US deaths in November 2019 to total US deaths in November 2020?
Not much change.
Our auto insurance company has given us three rebates this year because numbers of accidents are so far down (that did not include me, of course, and I still pray for the kid who hit and ran my poor car).
Are you seeing many flu cases, Roscuro? Those numbers with complications are down, too.
It may be because many of us are staying home and washing our hands more, wearing masks and working from home?
Interesting.
Mental health issues, however, are climbing. As I mentioned in June, one of our acquaintances killed himself because of mental health issues.
No sickness from church and most of our church members are thinking that if Laurie (you all prayed for her last month) with a chronic serious lung condition can survive COVID, most of us could, too.
That does not, of course, mean we should not be concerned and I wear my mask, wash my hands, and felt uncomfortable actually shopping in Target yesterday.
But where else was I supposed to buy a coffee maker (since purchasing the carafe on Amazon was more expensive than buying a new Mr. Coffee. I hate that)?
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Wesley did a week long study program at a school in BC and thought it was beautiful. I think that was in the summer.
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We’re putting up our Christmas tree (a smaller one) for the first time in four years. We won’t be going anywhere, and it seemed a good idea to do something apart from our ordinary day-to-day stuff.
I only moved about half my Christmas stuff when I married my husband. He and the family had a crazy number of boxes of Christmas stuff, most of which was actually marked not to open it. So when we were moving, I chose some of the Christmas stuff that had originally been in his household and some that had been in mine, and let the girls have what they wanted from the rest. I think they were surprised I kept any of what had been “theirs,” but there was enough for several households. And I told them that the last time I visited Mom at Christmas, nothing on her tree was familiar. If they visit us at Christmas, I want them to be able to see things they “know.”
Anyway, with all that I wasn’t even sure what we kept and what we didn’t! But now I have sorted through it, and after the lights are put on, I can start decorating it. We have Christmas music playing, too. I just realized it will actually be the first year he and I have decorated it together without the girls doing most of it. (The first couple years, decorating was actually hard for me, since my husband wanted me to help and I knew the girls would rather do it themselves, so I’d help a little but mostly stay out of their way. After that, it was a happier family event. But those first couple of years I was aware that my presence didn’t add to the girls’ Christmas joy, though they did love me.)
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Cheryl, a Hallmark story♡❤♡
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I’ve long been impressed by how well and sensibly, but also with such compassion, Cheryl integrated into a family that had to still be grieving. Well done, Cheryl! xoxox Five stars! 🙂
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Ooh- a trans Canada train trip! Sounds like we should do a group tour with Kare and Roscuro as guides!
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BG has put up her first “adult” tree. She sent a photo. It’s pitiful. She is coming to raid what I have used this year.
Little Miss came in this morning through the garage and ran straight to the front door to she what was on the front door. I need to share calling her Eagle Eye. Then she spotted some presents under the tree and wanted to know if Santa had been here. I distracted her by showing her a present under the other tree.
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BC is beautiful year round. But so is most of Canada, from what I have seen. Lots of variety, like the USA. I would think a train ride there would be lovely at any time.
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Michelle: “because numbers of accidents are so far down (that did not include me, of course)
Or me. 😦
Just set up the automatic car payment each month for my new/used Jeep, had to take some more out of the paycheck to cover it.
I’m on tap for the state covid news conference at noon and the county one later in the afternoon, for some reason 3 of our reporters are covering the board of supes meeting today and I haven’t had a chance to find out why as I had to make the run up to the CU also to get some money out for the property taxes.
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I vote fall or winter for Canada train trek
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It’s 80 degrees here and the air remains just sapped of all moisture, dry, dry, dry. No rain on the horizon. A fitting end, probably, to 2020. 😦
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Maybe if we all knew Kim’s plans we could just kinda show up on the same train. That trip sounds lovely.
I have been doing more on my ipad, but don’t have a keyboard, so I tend not to comment on here unless I am on my laptop. I am still reading and enjoying all of the posts.
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My father and mother drove west from Ontario to British Columbia the year after they were married (they drove east to Nova Scotis for their honeymoon), so I asked my father what would be the best time of year. He said said summer, because then you would get a little of everything, including snow in the mountains. They like to tell the story of how they camped after dark one evening at the edge of the mountains in Alberta, and awoke strangely cold for summer the next morning. When they crawled out of their tent, they saw the edge of a glacier just a few feet away, which explained why they were cold.
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Eldest Niece has had to be swabbed for COVID because she got sick at work. She learned through the grapevine that several coworkers have tested positive, but management had said nothing. Grocery stores here that have an outbreak temporarily close the store for cleaning, send out an announcement of when the workers who tested positive were last at work, so any customers can know about their potential exposure, and all employees who had contact with positive cases are asked to self isolate for two weeks.
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Cute duck up there!! He appears to be on a mission!
I have been cleaning and cooking. Two couples from our small group are coming over for dinner and prayer. It is 60 degrees outside and I hope to get a walk in before they arrive at 6….
My brother in law and sister in law enjoyed that train ride across Canada…I think it was last year. They encourage us to go if we ever have the opportunity…they say it was one of the best vacations they have ever had….
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Well I don’t know what happened there…I guess I am using an alias or something! 😂
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I was wondering tool
Just as I saw your last post, I started to say you couldn’t fool most of us.
Me? Maybe, but not most.
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/Soes this work?
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Now you see me…now you don’t…. 😂
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Is that a symptom of covid?
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I thoroughly enjoyed our train trip from Torino, through the chunnel, up around Scotland and back down. Beautiful time. Motion sickness ought to have been a problem but it wasn’t.
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I have been on one scenic train ride up to the Georgia mountains. A steam engine pulled all the passenger cars. It was a fun day trip for our family when Wesley was young.
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It is still chilly out so I wore a jacket while I swept accumulated fallen leaves out of the carport. There aren’t so many now. I pulled a few ivy vines and returned a trash barrel to a neighbor’s carport since it was still on the street from yesterday. It was nice to get outside for a short while but it made my nose run a little. I have had a bit of sneezing at times. I hope it does not turn into anything more.
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I’ve ridden the train to and from Iowa, but that was a while ago. Usually we drove (in a car that occasionally broke down and had no A/C, though most cars didn’t back in the 1960s). California kin blowing in from the desert …
Nothing but bad Covid news out here, numbers going up-up-up, it’s not good. Merry Christmas.
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Did anyone else have one of these? My mother made one for Wesley. He said it was his favorite Christmas activity when he was young.
https://www.ebay.com/itm/A-Beary-Merry-Christmas-Wall-Hanging-Advent-Calendar-Finished-No-Bear/184375164920?hash=item2aed9dbff8:g:xCcAAOSwYaFWf2Or
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I watered the dead Christmas tree in the back
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Janice – I didn’t have anything like that growing up, and we didn’t think to do it for our girls. But a couple years ago, Nightingale bought an old-fashioned-looking (retro) wooden box-kind-of-thing for Boy. It has 24 little drawers for putting candy in (numbered 1 thru 24), with a larger “door” in the middle that has an old-fashioned-looking painting of Santa Claus where a larger piece of candy or a small toy is supposed to go.
It’s pretty neat. Boy enjoys going to get his candy each morning.
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