Coming soon!

 Ever have one of those days when you finally pull the ripcord and do something you're not sure you'll pull off well?  Sunday was one of those days.

See the "star" puppy in the middle, with the turquoise collar?  Her name is Ember (since last night's family discussion).  She was born on January 31st.  She's halfway across the state right now, but she will be coming to live at my house with The Prisoner and me, when her grandma goes out to visit for Easter.

I have given myself this week to prepare.  The mythical son and his wife have volunteered to puppy sit when needed.  Ember has not yet met a cat.  Both she and The Prisoner are in for an education.    

Puppy training videos are the new favorite.  What a pleasant distraction from the news, huh?

Now I HAVE to take care of my own health, too... because this little darling is going to depend on me, as much as I will be depending on her.  

Life is good.  Spark on!

Spring on pause

 

This little beauty was frost-bit and it looks like the freeze points will continue for a few weeks, after having been teased by a warmer than normal February.

Wednesday afternoon we got a sister walk in, ALICIA363 and I, and that's always one of those "high points of the week".  We dump our collections of life issues on one another, plus coping strategies and humor.

Thursday morning brought "breakfast with the financial advisors", where I tend to meet other retirees who share the same management firm.  There's a bit of market update and a bit of education on current products they are considering for folks who might be attracted to them.  

One part of market analysis that was shared might be of interest.  It had to do with market performance, the importance of sticking to your strategies in good times and bad, and whether or not "this year will be different".  He did a graphic comparison of "what would have happened to your portfolio over the past 50 years if..."  This was a lesson in the strategy of long term management winning over allowing one's emotions to force your buying/selling decisions.  It was one line of what would have happened if you only invested while the Republican party was in the White House, versus another line of what would have happened if you only invested while the Democratic party was in the White House, versus a third line that showed what would have happened if you just stayed the course regardless of who got elected.  Need I say that it made essentially no difference if you chose based on party, and the "stay the course" strategy was far and away superior to either of those partisan things.

I think that can be applied not just to investment strategies... it can be applied to living life in general and investing our time and energy into what makes one happy and healthy, as SparkPeople used to teach us!

The current investment vehicle they talked about reminded me of my mom talking about "dollar cost averaging" back when she was the one in the family building the nest egg.  This kind of does the same sort of thing, automating the "averaging" piece so that you aren't doing it by dribs and drabs, manually.  I don't know if any of this vehicle are in my own portfolio, but it got me curious enough to go look.

The most fun surprise was running into a gent who graduated from high school with me (and even shared the same Yearbook page, our senior year).  Funny thing about that is that we never met until we worked in the same agency as older adults!  I didn't realize he was a client of the same outfit.  Life is like that... connections and surprises about those connections.

The street work has moved around the corner, so there's still the odor of fresh asphalt in the air.  I'm thinking they will fill the rest of the second patch on my street today sometime.

As of Thursday morning, it still looked like this.

Life is good.

Keep on Sparking!

The asphalt arrives

 

I shall leave the Springtime aroma of hot asphalt being applied during "road repair season" to your no doubt capable imagination.  Sometimes it is a blessing that we don't transmit odors electronically!

Arrival was about the same time, 9 a.m. on Tuesday.  They did finish the work directly at the base of the driveway, but ran out of asphalt before they finished the second spot South of the mailbox.

Looks nice.

Not quite done.  They still have the street coned off for now, and at ten to three, have come back from wherever they went in between.

Monday afternoon late the e-mail from the landscape company arrived.  I cringed at the bottom line, slept on it, and on Tuesday morning called them and booked the job.  Still don't know when it will be scheduled, but he said I was on the list for early in the season.  That will be nice.

Elements involved:  Sod, border wall, river rock, sand for the sandbox, pavers for where I put my hoses.  Labor and equipment charges, of course.  Oh, well, I was told to spend my "extra" money by my financial guy last year... I did some of that with the brick mason last year.  This is a bigger project for 2024.  

I'm still holding off on the inside work because I can't make up my mind what project(s) to take on or in what order.  But at least having committed to this large expense has put the "wanna puppy" urges to rest for now.  One project at a time!

Life is good.  Spark on!

Starting the week "blocked in"

 

The street repair crews are here, in the chill of a Monday morning, the last day of astronomical Winter.

The practical result is that I'm "blocked in" for a while.  I don't know how long.  BUT, the good news is I don't have an appointment for which I need to drive until Thursday morning.

The personal trainer called off Tuesday, and I had already called of Thursday so this is a "no trainer session" week.  Perhaps I'll dig up the dumb-bells to do a few free weight exercises on my own, but no promises.

When you get the trucks and machines, a work crew comes with it, and it turns out that this year, they are doing my pot-holes as a larger project.  For some reason the street repair crews always seem to come before the other home projects I plan, so that the newly repaired street gets the extra weight of landscape work equipment this year.  Sigh.

The Prisoner keeps a close eye on them.

Life continues to be good.

Keep a-Sparking, my friends!

This year's pending projects

I do try to get some projects done "around the house" every year.  And sometimes they are just the start of something that becomes bigger over the years.  This year I have asked the folks who did my "step down" from the patio to the yard to estimate a variety of tasks around the yard.  Probably won't see the break down until beginning of next week, but hang it all, I'm ready to have it maintenance ready.

The step and boulders at the bottom of the photo were done by these guys about 15 to 20 years ago.  But it has held up well.  I'm asking them to make that back yard mowable grass, and graded so that their mowing guys can maintain it, without my having to garden or weed.  Clean up the landing there in the foreground, fill the sandbox with sand, etc.  

In the front, I've asked them to estimate putting stone borders around a paved/rocked areas where I want the plants to "go away", until the bay window, and where the swing used to sit.  Get rid of the old stumps of the volunteer trees.  General yard cleanup.

While they are at it, they will "take a peek" at my long-broken sprinkler system.  He says a new system for a yard the size of mine might run about $13,000!  So if they can fix the one that is there, no matter how many problems there might be with it, it would be a lot less.  OK, on this one I feel like I'm dreaming, but it can't hurt for them to look it over.

Dream, dream, dream.

Lots of bare dirt there, I will ask them about re-seeding, especially if the sprinklers get fixed.

I expect the estimate via e-mail sometime next week.

Meanwhile, the city has been out marking the potholes it intends to fill this Spring.  I'm on the list, like always.

I'm not sure when they will get this work done, but it doesn't seem as bad as it has been some years in the past.

Saturday afternoon, "the kids" collected me for an outing at the dog park for Carl's birthday weekend.  He ended up doing a bit of water fetch and then showering anyone within shaking range.

In the end, a tired dog is a happy dog.  And a tired dog is also a good dog.

Life is good.

Spark on!

Happy Birthday to Carl (and Pi Day, too)

 

Nothing can focus Carl's attention better than his birthday sundae.  Such a patient fellow.

It was a rainy day, so he got a good sniffing walk mid-day, and a romp at the dog park after his Dad got off work, too.  Muddy paws washed, sundae delivered, he's a happy birthday boy.

Middle aged doggie... those five years just flew by!

Life is good.

Keep on Sparking!

Words Carl knows

New family game one February Saturday morning.  The kids have created a shared list of "words Carl knows", and all of the group are contributing to it.  

Surprising?  Carl knows "Guinness" as well as "Beer"!  Who teaches these to their dog?  Turns out Guinness is the name of one of his doggie friends from the park.  He knows several names of dog friends and he knows my Prisoner's name, too.

I noticed that I use a different set of words with Carl than his "mom" and "dad" do.  Kind of like a little kid knows that when at Grandma's house we habla Español.  Not that it's a foreign language, there are enough English words to build whole different dog-vocabularies specific to whose house he's in.  I use longer / more words than they do.

"Out" versus "Outside".  "In" versus "Inside".

Silence, repetitive nature of life, "am I weaning myself from blogging"?

It's been nearly a month since I posted a blog.  Yes, I'm still breathing, but when I'm being a bit of a hermit, and life just gets repetitive, and all I'm writing about is life, because, gee, you don't want to be controversial or offend someone by talking about politics (which is going to be taking up a lot of space in my brain for some time here)... well, silence tends to ensue.

The medical stuff keeps on trickling on:  had my annual mammogram as rescheduled. I've received the snail mail "it's normal" letter.  I finally got off the dime and scheduled the "every ten years" colonoscopy... has it really been ten years?  Yes, it has.  Sigh.  The verification of the phone number was enough to make it clear:  they still had my land line on record.  The verification of insurance, same-same, I was still working and on work's insurance back then.  The kids will provide transport and monitoring, but the appointment isn't until June.

Of course, the kids' lives are far more active and interesting than mine.  My son started a new job the last week of February, but he hasn't entirely left the old one.  The two of them finished up their foster parenting classes, and have an up-coming home visit the end of March.

I have been sorely tempted by photos/videos of puppies, born the end of January, and hand-raised by a trusted person.  BUT, I know better, so have resisted up to this point.

The Girl Scouts are selling cookies in their little booths, in rotating spots for limited hours.  I am pleased with myself for having resisted this food temptation, as well.

See?  The end of February, beginning of March... it's a time when change is in the air!  The time when you're likely to get your hair styled differently, change your diet or exercise plan, or, in my case, call up the lawn and landscape people and schedule an evaluation / advice appointment.

Friday morning comedy

The repetitive part:  a dusting of snow, and a grocery order pick-up.  

But then, in my rush to watch a taped show (the finale of The Traitors, on Peacock)... I managed to try to balance my oatmeal on a knee, and whoops, slip, slide, spill...  The leg of my jeans, the pet cover AND the slip cover on the couch, and the carpet!  Yikes.  No, I did not photograph the evidence, but I ran for the paper towels, mopped up, stripped the couch and now am on my second load of laundry associated with my home-grown slapstick of the day.

Had Carl been in residence, I would have had less "clean up on aisle ten", because he loves oatmeal and blueberries, and would have slurped it right up, but The Prisoner is not tempted by most human foodstuffs.  But there you have it, a klutz story to lighten up your day!

Hope everyone has a good Spring-forward (why are we still doing this) weekend, and that the warmer weather returns soon!

Life is good.  Spark on!