Sunshine Snippets for the End of January 2021
This week’s Sunshine Story is actually Sunshine Snippets. Bits and pieces of our past week – the bright parts, at least.
IF YOU CAN’T FLY, YOU MIGHT AS WELL SNOwSHOE!
Since we aren’t going to Korea or Arizona this year of 2021, we are racking up Air Miles, but not using them. Somehow hubs tweaked to the knowledge that he could buy products with points at the Air Miles Shop. He’s a Scot. This is BIG THING for him.
He fixed on buying us a pair of snowshoes each. To be honest, living in balmy St. Catharines, I felt like an onlooker of Noah building his ark. What’s the point Noah? We live in a desert! Well, the rain did come to Mesopotamia, and the snow did come to St. Catharines. Not much, but enough for Laur to bring out the snowshoes.
I confess, I was apprehensive. I am not an athlete. Nor am I fast learner. I had never snowshoed before, and while Laur hadn’t snowshoed for over 40 years, he at least knew how to.
It took us a while to get set up in the Hydro-Lands south of Thorold – near the Allanburg Bridge - #11 on the Welland Canal. (Who says I never know where I am?) This is a place where you won’t find a lot of hikers. (That should tell us something!)
And things most folks would have figured out at home, we did outside of the van on a cold day in a wind:
- Take snowshoes out of their packaging.
- Set up the poles. We now have seven or eight sets of poles. Are we becoming Preppers?
- Figure out how the snowshoes actually go on – which is left and right. Where to put the foot. Etc.
- Figure out again – after tromping around a few feet – how the snowshoes actually go on. Etc.
Eventually, we were reading to start. And big surprise to both of us, I took to this like a duck to water. (Speaking of which, lots of birds in the Niagara region don’t bother going South for the winter. As a snowbird, I simply don’t get this. But I digress …) No weeping or tantrumming from me. I said to myself, “Jan, pretend you are hiking and you haven’t tightened your boot laces, so your boots are flopping. And Laur is nagging at you to tighten your laces, but you are ignoring him.” It worked!
We ended up tromping around for 4 plus miles. There were a few learning curves. How to cross railway tracks. How to figure out if the ice in the swimming pool sized pothole will hold us up. How to snowshoe when four-wheelers have devastated a stretch of the trail. That kind of thing.
We got back to the van just in time. We were getting tired – this being our first time out, and all. Thankfully, these new-fangled snowshoes are a cinch to pop off, unlike the authentic ones from 40 years ago. Getting into the van was easy. Getting out of the van – not so much. And the walk across the parking lot was more like a crawl. Thankfully, I had a massage booked that day. Laur was very grateful for the multiple grab-bars in our shower!
Finding a place to store them in our already very full seniors’ apartment will be another thing. Since I’m leaving that up to Laur, I don’t get to complain should he pound a few giant nails into our ceiling, and hang them from there.
*****
BUBBLEHEAD AND CEDAR ICE CREAM
On Tuesday, we picked up Jasper and went sledding – I mean tobogganing (I got corrected) – at Jaycee Park. This 3 year old kid is a very good sport. It was cold by St. Catharines standards. By my home-town-of-Sudbury standards, this was T-shirt and shorts weather. Jasper loves flying down head-first, and doesn’t mind when he wipes out. It helps that he is racing his Grumpa, who always wipes out because he is on a child-sized saucer!
Finally, Jasper said, “I’m hot and I’m tired and I want a butter bagel.” (Specifically, a Tim Horton’s toasted four-cheese bagel, buttered, and cut into four pieces.) We were glad because we were freezing and getting a little tired of climbing up the Jaycee Park Hill. It is NOTHING compared to some of the hills in Sudbury. Still, there is something to be said for no bloody noses or broken bones. Or frostbite. Off to Timmie’s.
We can’t bring Jazz to our place these days because of covid restrictions, so we add in an errand to buy a little time and give his Mom Julie a little more of a break. Today my errand was picking up bananas and marjoram (the latter being very hard to find. A story in itself). We went to a No-Frills we had not been to in a very long time. There is a reason for this. There was a lineup to get in. And (as it turns out) at least a 20 minute lineup to get out… Likely longer. I became friends with the lads in front of me and behind me. We joked about opening up a hot-dog stand together …
Meanwhile, Laur had to entertain Jasper. Fortunately, both are easily entertained:
- New weird names. For example, Bubble-head, Bumpy-face, etc.
- New ice cream flavors. Jasper is a three year old boy so one of them is Pee Ice Cream. Thankfully, the last was Cedar Ice Cream. We were turning into Jasper’s driveway.
We brought Jazz back home safe and sound. But the first thing he does is call his Mom “Bubblehead” and says he wants Cedar Ice Cream. I said to hubs as we drove off, “Perhaps we should explain some things to Julie to help with the transition home…”
But then we started playing our own word-game. “If a glow-worm went tobogganing, it would be… GLOWBOGGANING.” “If a sloth went tobogganing, it would be … SLOWBAOGGANING.” I’m easily entertained too.
*****
WHY SHOULD ELF ON THE SHELF OR BERNIE SANDERS HAVE ALL THE MEME FUN?
Why should Elf on the Shelf or Bernie Sanders have all the meme fun? If there is Bernie on a Gurney, what could hubs and I be? Aha!
Laur on a Boar
Jan on a Van
What about the grandkids?
Jasper on Casper
Ems on the Thames!
*****
And finally…
HAVE YOU EVER???
I have days when I feel truly well put together. I also have days where I think I need more caregiving than I already get in our seniors’ apartments. The latter outweigh the former. Have you ever done any of the following things?
a) poured orange juice – instead of milk – into your coffee?
b) gone looking for your keys and they are in your hand?
c) ordered the same order twice on Amazon in one day?
d) sprayed hairspray on your glasses instead of lens cleaner?
e) printed a long document twice. One that you didn’t want in the first place?
If you have done any of these, welcome to the club. If you have done all five of these in one day, I’m sending you a friendship ring.
IF YOU CAN’T FLY, YOU MIGHT AS WELL SNOwSHOE!
Since we aren’t going to Korea or Arizona this year of 2021, we are racking up Air Miles, but not using them. Somehow hubs tweaked to the knowledge that he could buy products with points at the Air Miles Shop. He’s a Scot. This is BIG THING for him.
He fixed on buying us a pair of snowshoes each. To be honest, living in balmy St. Catharines, I felt like an onlooker of Noah building his ark. What’s the point Noah? We live in a desert! Well, the rain did come to Mesopotamia, and the snow did come to St. Catharines. Not much, but enough for Laur to bring out the snowshoes.
I confess, I was apprehensive. I am not an athlete. Nor am I fast learner. I had never snowshoed before, and while Laur hadn’t snowshoed for over 40 years, he at least knew how to.
It took us a while to get set up in the Hydro-Lands south of Thorold – near the Allanburg Bridge - #11 on the Welland Canal. (Who says I never know where I am?) This is a place where you won’t find a lot of hikers. (That should tell us something!)
And things most folks would have figured out at home, we did outside of the van on a cold day in a wind:
- Take snowshoes out of their packaging.
- Set up the poles. We now have seven or eight sets of poles. Are we becoming Preppers?
- Figure out how the snowshoes actually go on – which is left and right. Where to put the foot. Etc.
- Figure out again – after tromping around a few feet – how the snowshoes actually go on. Etc.
Eventually, we were reading to start. And big surprise to both of us, I took to this like a duck to water. (Speaking of which, lots of birds in the Niagara region don’t bother going South for the winter. As a snowbird, I simply don’t get this. But I digress …) No weeping or tantrumming from me. I said to myself, “Jan, pretend you are hiking and you haven’t tightened your boot laces, so your boots are flopping. And Laur is nagging at you to tighten your laces, but you are ignoring him.” It worked!
We ended up tromping around for 4 plus miles. There were a few learning curves. How to cross railway tracks. How to figure out if the ice in the swimming pool sized pothole will hold us up. How to snowshoe when four-wheelers have devastated a stretch of the trail. That kind of thing.
We got back to the van just in time. We were getting tired – this being our first time out, and all. Thankfully, these new-fangled snowshoes are a cinch to pop off, unlike the authentic ones from 40 years ago. Getting into the van was easy. Getting out of the van – not so much. And the walk across the parking lot was more like a crawl. Thankfully, I had a massage booked that day. Laur was very grateful for the multiple grab-bars in our shower!
Finding a place to store them in our already very full seniors’ apartment will be another thing. Since I’m leaving that up to Laur, I don’t get to complain should he pound a few giant nails into our ceiling, and hang them from there.
*****
BUBBLEHEAD AND CEDAR ICE CREAM
On Tuesday, we picked up Jasper and went sledding – I mean tobogganing (I got corrected) – at Jaycee Park. This 3 year old kid is a very good sport. It was cold by St. Catharines standards. By my home-town-of-Sudbury standards, this was T-shirt and shorts weather. Jasper loves flying down head-first, and doesn’t mind when he wipes out. It helps that he is racing his Grumpa, who always wipes out because he is on a child-sized saucer!
Finally, Jasper said, “I’m hot and I’m tired and I want a butter bagel.” (Specifically, a Tim Horton’s toasted four-cheese bagel, buttered, and cut into four pieces.) We were glad because we were freezing and getting a little tired of climbing up the Jaycee Park Hill. It is NOTHING compared to some of the hills in Sudbury. Still, there is something to be said for no bloody noses or broken bones. Or frostbite. Off to Timmie’s.
We can’t bring Jazz to our place these days because of covid restrictions, so we add in an errand to buy a little time and give his Mom Julie a little more of a break. Today my errand was picking up bananas and marjoram (the latter being very hard to find. A story in itself). We went to a No-Frills we had not been to in a very long time. There is a reason for this. There was a lineup to get in. And (as it turns out) at least a 20 minute lineup to get out… Likely longer. I became friends with the lads in front of me and behind me. We joked about opening up a hot-dog stand together …
Meanwhile, Laur had to entertain Jasper. Fortunately, both are easily entertained:
- New weird names. For example, Bubble-head, Bumpy-face, etc.
- New ice cream flavors. Jasper is a three year old boy so one of them is Pee Ice Cream. Thankfully, the last was Cedar Ice Cream. We were turning into Jasper’s driveway.
We brought Jazz back home safe and sound. But the first thing he does is call his Mom “Bubblehead” and says he wants Cedar Ice Cream. I said to hubs as we drove off, “Perhaps we should explain some things to Julie to help with the transition home…”
But then we started playing our own word-game. “If a glow-worm went tobogganing, it would be… GLOWBOGGANING.” “If a sloth went tobogganing, it would be … SLOWBAOGGANING.” I’m easily entertained too.
*****
WHY SHOULD ELF ON THE SHELF OR BERNIE SANDERS HAVE ALL THE MEME FUN?
Why should Elf on the Shelf or Bernie Sanders have all the meme fun? If there is Bernie on a Gurney, what could hubs and I be? Aha!
Laur on a Boar
Jan on a Van
What about the grandkids?
Jasper on Casper
Ems on the Thames!
*****
And finally…
HAVE YOU EVER???
I have days when I feel truly well put together. I also have days where I think I need more caregiving than I already get in our seniors’ apartments. The latter outweigh the former. Have you ever done any of the following things?
a) poured orange juice – instead of milk – into your coffee?
b) gone looking for your keys and they are in your hand?
c) ordered the same order twice on Amazon in one day?
d) sprayed hairspray on your glasses instead of lens cleaner?
e) printed a long document twice. One that you didn’t want in the first place?
If you have done any of these, welcome to the club. If you have done all five of these in one day, I’m sending you a friendship ring.