Back to normal?

It's hard to believe that I've been home for nigh on a week. I'll reach that milestone around midnight! It has been a busy and mostly productive week. This weekend, however, looks to be quiet - I'm hoping to work on a few vacation posts for next week. For the commenter that asked, the photo on Wednesday was of bougainvillea - a prolific flower that thrive in the heat of the Caribbean. 

After arriving home early Sunday morning, I spent the day doing as little as possible. The cat had me awake at 6 a.m., and I'm certain there was an afternoon nap. Monday, though, it was time to get busy. I sorted laundry and had the second load in the washer, before I left to get groceries. My son did some cooking while I was gone - the number of pizza boxes in the bin were far less than I thought might be there. :) He even had meat thawing in the refridgerator so I didn't have to plan dinner on Sunday. 

Once home and with the groceries put away, I continued my laundry, updated my budget spreadsheet, did some on-line banking, and had a wonderful chat with my friend K. They are leaving this weekend for a cruise in Florida. Unlike my trip, they are driving down, and plan to visit friends in Texas and Arizona before returning home. I'm not sure I could manage (or even want to) a road trip of that length, but I'm sure they'll have some interesting stops along the way. We've tentatively planned to get together in mid-May - I'll be in the city to do some yard work for my son - before they leave at the end of May for another trip. 

Tuesday was another busy day with errands. I needed to pick up some boxes for D for packing in the east end of the city, as well as paperwork from her doctor's office. Since I was in that end of the city, I went to the Walmart store for a couple of things. It is the one near my former house and I know the layout far better than the one closer to us now. There was a stop at Value Village (Tuesday is senior's day), where I picked up a lightweight windbreaker, a pretty tea cup and saucer for my daughter's collection of blue glassware, a bath towel, and a humidifier. All of that for just about $20!

I needed a haircut too. Do you ever wake up one day and realize you can't stand the length of your hair for one more minute? That was me. I tried a different salon which is a few minutes drive from this house. I had tried another salon with my last haircut several weeks ago, and went home with a cut I didn't like. Thankfully my hair grows quickly. I'm much happier with this week's cut, and the stylist wasn't much younger than I am. We had a wonderful chat discussing growing up in the 1970's. Anyone else remember the Bay City Roller plaid pants? From there it was a short drive to the motor vehicle office to get a new photo for my renewed driver's license. That was another good reason to get a haircut!

Meanwhile, in between runs into the stores and mall, I was speaking with and e-mailing the insurance agent. While I had contacted two other companies before I left on my trip, neither had reached out to me by the time I returned. D gave me information about a local insurance company and the agent owner took care of things for me very efficiently. One more task off the checklist for the move.

On Wednesday, I drove out to D and Eli's to drop off the packing boxes and the paperwork from her doctor. Eli was at school when I arrived so D and I drove to the larger nearby community to order mattresses for delivery in mid-April. We found what we wanted on sale, and I think the salesman was very happy to see us come through the door. We made a couple of other stops and were home in good time to pick up Eli for lunch. He hadn't slept well the night before so D kept him home that afternoon. We all had a rest, though I don't think anyone actually slept. 

By 8:30 a.m. on Thursday, I was on my way back to the city. Once home, I spent far too much time contacting the utility companies to arrange for the services at the new house. The worst was the local city hall to arrange for the water/sewer to be connected. Not only did I have to complete an "application" form for service along with various other documents, getting connected required an admin fee of $140, reduced from $240 for agreeing to have the payment taken directly from my bank account every two months.. This despite the fact, that I already have a property in the community. Since I was in the city, this required a couple of phone calls, as well as e-mailing the completed documents and by the time all was said or done the process took nearly 2 1/2 hours (much of it waiting). Had I thought to stop at the city hall while I was there I probably could have saved some time. I did get dinner made while I was on the phone with the various utility companies so it wasn't entirely wasted time.

Hopefully the last snow of the season!

I was happy to relax that evening and watch the Blue Jays win against the Tampa Bay Rays in their season opener. We got about 3 inches of snow overnight Thursday and through the day on Friday. I spent much of the day catching up on blog reading, watching some previously aired television programs including the Brier final, as well as the Jays game in the evening. In other words, I had a pretty relaxed day!

Today, I've gathered up the various boxes in the basement that will be going with me and will start packing the contents of the china cabinet and desk. With the snow on the ground the sorting and re-packing of various boxes in the garage will wait until later this week when the temperatures are forecast to be in the range of 10-15C (50-60F). 

Today the Men's World Curling starts with an early game, as the event is being held in Switzerland. Between baseball and curling, I'll be well entertained.  

Have a great week ahead everyone!