A walk a day - not quite

 It's Thursday, near mid-day as I start this post and I'm thinking where the heck did this week go?  My son C is off on vacation and I sort of took one too - as much as one can when retired.  Not a lot of housework was completed, just a little cooking, a bit of yard work, and a whole lot of relaxing was in the cards.

I did drive out to the farm last Sunday to check on the house and the cats, as my brother and his family were off on a canoe trip in Northern Saskatchewan.  He shared some photos with me and I've included a couple here.  

They have been taking canoe trips in this part of our province since the early 90's and with the kids for nearly 20 of those years. For perspective, K will turn 20 this year. Since the kids are older, they now travel with two canoes, R and their daughter L in one, and P and their K in the other.  The dog goes with P usually - and I won't tell you that she, K and Cola ended up tipping the canoe.  Just off shore thankfully, nothing was lost.  But I didn't tell you that, did I?

Here's R enjoying a tea by the fire early one evening.  He said the weather wasn't the best, very windy with gusts up to 70 kph (45 mph) through most of the trip.  The weather improved on their last day.  No matter, with fishing for their dinner, family cribbage games, and a bit of exploring on the lakes they had a wonderful time.

The cats, Callie and Celfie were happy to see me, especially when I opened a can of cat food.  Neither are particularly cuddly cats, so after watching them play for a bit, I cleaned the cat litter and took my leave.

We had two beautiful weather days on Monday and Tuesday.  I walked both days, a rarity for me, and as usual the path I walked had interesting things to see.  The creek is pretty much dry and the ducks have moved on, but the pond still has lots of water and lots of birds.  Oh, I read a realtor's ad the other day for a condo unit looking out of the pond....he/she referred to it as a lake, and the creek as a river.  Ha! 

As you can see we had no wind that day, the pond was still.  I like the reflections of the buildings in the water.  The tree to the left is beginning to change color, the leaves are mottled green and rust.  It hardly seems that long ago the leaves were beginning to fill in.

I had stopped to get a photo of the cormorants, the first time I've seen four of them sitting on or near the post, when I heard loud honking overhead.  The geese were coming in for a landing! They're certainly noisy birds and I laughed as they skidded to a stop on the water.  

The wild thistles are finished blooming and the seed heads are simply enormous.  I'm not a fan of thistle in my yard, but they're sure pretty out by the pond.

Wednesday was a cool day, with intermittent rain and thunderstorms.  No walk for me, I didn't want to get caught out while the lightning was possible.                                 I watched a lot of hockey this week and that means a lot of time for crocheting or knitting.  I finished the scarf I'd started at D's last week and since I had enough yarn left, I started a matching one for Eli.  His is not as wide, so the pattern won't be the same, but D was tickled when I suggested it.  I also got some work done on her afghan and should complete it before the week ends.      

That works, since I need to start on the third of the baby blankets for the triplets.  B made an announcement on FB live Thursday, after they got the information at the latest ultrasound.  Two girls, one boy - D has decided the green will be for the boy, yellow for one of the girls, so the third will be pink.  Oh, and  I just happened to pick up a couple more skeins this week for a yet to be decided project.  No wonder my stash never seems to get any lower. I just can't resist when I find yarn on sale and Walmart is clearing out much of their product.

I went to Costco on Tuesday (yes, I know I said I wasn't going back).  It wasn't as crazy as my last visit, and almost all the customers and all of the staff were wearing PPE.  Still no sanitized carts, but I had my wipes with me.  I was there to find masks for Eli, but they were out.  I did pick up more Christmas gifts, a cargo carrier for D's trunk and some "underwears" for Eli.  After a quick stop at Walmart, I headed home to the computer to look for disposable masks.  Most school boards are making it mandatory for children in grades 4-12, and optional for the younger ones.  I have made one mask for Eli, and D has ordered a few more cloth ones, but I thought some disposables would come in handy.  Now we just have to convince him to wear them.  

Speaking of Covid-19 we've had a surge in cases here in Regina.  A local business was found to have eleven cases and I suspect the more recent ones were identified through contact tracing of these individuals. We had the distinction of the highest number of active cases in the province for a couple of days, before being surpassed by the southwest where the Hutterite colonies have been hard hit. 

There have been announcements of several businesses in the city where people may have been exposed. Thankfully, none of the businesses identified were ones I've been shopping at lately!  Many of the stores, including Walmart, are now making masks mandatory. I suspect it may bring out some of the angry people who feel their right to be stupid to go mask-less is being infringed upon.  What they don't seem to understand is wearing a mask protects other....not wearing one is simply selfish. Unless there is a medical reason why one cannot wear a mask, we need to take care of one another.  Okay, rant over.

At 40 active cases locally (as of Friday) it isn't a terribly high number but when one thinks of the potential number of contacts those individuals may have had with others, my level of concern increases.  I think we're good for groceries so I probably won't leave the house again until next week.  

Friday morning, I woke up feeling exhausted, with a distinct sense of having experienced a nightmare but I could not recall what it was.  Imagine my surprise when I checked my Fitbit to discover I had over 100 steps, and even more surprised to see it had registered 11 active minutes.  Curious I went to my app and discovered that for a period of nearly 25 minutes my heart rate was elevated into, what Fitbit describes as, the fat burning and cardio ranges. That must have been some dream - I'm glad I can't remember it!

I didn't walk in the morning as the clouds were threatening rain.  At one point, I asked my Google mini if there was rain in the forecast, she said no and as I turned around the rain started falling.  Not infallible is the forecast!  I did go for a brief walk in the evening over to the pond.  It was quiet, a few ducks settling down for the evening in the grass, a cormorant sharing the space with two pelicans, and a third pelican feeding where the water circulates into the pond.  It was lovely evening, with a temperature around 22C (72F).

Today the weather is similar, cloudy skies with a threat of rain, but again none in the forecast.  I expect it will clear off later.  I'm going out shortly to water the containers (that will make it rain), and mow the lawn.  It will be an easy day with more hockey, more crocheting, and I have chicken marinating in the fridge for dinner.  

I saw this poster on another blog and borrowed it to share.  It pretty much sums up my feelings about 2020!

Take care everyone and stay well.

P.S. Cheapchick, if you are reading this, you've been on a mind several times this week, especially when I've been walking.  I hope you've been able to spend some time near the ocean and are doing well.