Swine Flu

Lately, I have been watching the news about Mexico and the swine flu with more than a bit of interest. Someone who I went to school with lived full time in Mexico for at least 10 years. Once or twice a year, she would come to Canada to visit family and catch up, enjoy cottage country. It might have also been for immigration purposes, I am not sure. She had definitely set up a permanent life in Mexico.
On her last visit in the fall, not sure of the date (October/November)- I do have the hand out from the funeral which already tells you what comes next, Dona arrived in Toronto and was immediately taken to hospital and died within a couple days. Other than the problem was respiratory, there does not seem to have been a definitive diagnosis. Could this have been one of the early cases of swine flu and it is only now reaching the numbers that make it significant?
Dona did not live in a resort area so she would not have come in contact with a great number of tourists. These are the people who now seem to be spreading the illness.
Questions to be asked.

Taxes

Yeah, they are done the taxes. I am going to mail our taxes after work. Actually, I am going to leave work early because I have a lawyer's appointment to deal with an estate that I am executor for. Probate has been completed after nearly 6 months! Time to finish off final details. All this is a learning experience to say the least. Will mail taxes after the appointment.
Hope that everyone has their taxes completed. Some years, I finished just before the midnight deadline. I remember walking through a major mall and managed to feel better because there were people in the mall sitting on bench completing their taxes. I hate doing taxes and the forms become more convoluted with each passing year. I wonder if there is someone who is paid to come up with the amazing percentages used for the calculations: .0605. Who uses a number like that for finances? Not the average person.
Oh well, I have twelve months before I worry about this again.

Time?

I have returned back to work full time. I am really in a quandary. Where do I find time to do the things that I was doing when I retired and the most that I did was work every second day? Getting life on track working full time is a challenge.
Please bear with me. No I am not complaining just observing that this is a challenge. I know that I did work full time for over 30 years and many people work longer. It is just that I have so many things that I would like to do such as blog, exercise, knit, garden and the list goes on.
Hopefully tomorrow I will find a few minutes to do some serious blogging.

Knitting

We all need to relax and I have found that knitting for a few minutes definitely helps.

Today, an article in one of the daily newspapers mentioned that "Two sticks, a length of yarn and you're knitting". If only it were really that easy but the concept is good.


There are only two stitches-knit and purl. The article suggests that the toughest part is controlling the tension but as I found out when I first started- not dropping stitches or adding on stitches also add another dimension to the craft.


Pickering Museum wants help making period costumes and in exchange will teach interested people how to knit in three sessions. If you have time and are interested worth considering.
http://www.cityofpickering.com/standard/cityhall/news/LearnToKnit.html


Wow- sounds like fun.

Passwords?

I was just going to write about bowling because yesterday after work, we went bowling-students who are trying to do some fundraising and some teachers. I am teaching again and this was one of the fundraising efforts that a group of students organized. I bowl every couple years. I do not embarrass myself by sending the ball into the gutter but somehow, I am able to create those interesting splits and then when I have to try to hit at least one outside pin, I usually manage to bowl through the middle. I was not the lowest scorer and actually bowled some some strikes and spares.
As I wrote bowling was going to be the focus but instead it is all the password numbers that we are collecting. Is anyone else having a problem remembering what passwords and or numbers to use. I can not believe how many passwords and numbers I have managed to collect. I have several websites, this is one of them that require different passwords and words to access the site and post. I have financial records that require passwords, computers- I use other computers that want to know that it is me that is logging on; phone lines. It goes on. I want advice as to how to remember all of these sites. I have a good memory but I am becoming baffled. And the worst feeling happens when the site goes down and you are trying to access the site and it does not let you in. Is it you or the site- you don't know! At work there is a site that I can read but not post to. The site does not recognize that I am now part of the staff- who to contact? We are still working that part out. My goodness, I should just be like an older friend and pretend that I only accept phone calls and dial phone only, and letters. Interesting but it would not allow me to contact friends all over this continent and sometimes people in other parts of the world without great expense and sometimes challenges over the contact times.
Enjoy your day posting and accessing people and site.

Work!

After a great deal of thought, I have come to the conclusion that we all want something worthwhile to get us up on the morning. It does not have to change the world just have some meaning for us and others who are important to us and not necessarily all of them.

Recently, this week in fact, I returned to work full time. This is giving me a chance to reflect on the past few months which most of the time did not include work. How did I spend my time? I was not bored!

One of the luxuries that I enjoyed was reading the newspapers each morning and then doing the crossword in one of them- I am getting better. I get 3 dailies- that is one of my indulgences. The other two crosswords go across the street each day to a neighbour who does the crosswords for recreation. Her son was visiting recently and he commented how important these crosswords are for her. She is a very active person in her 80's and I appreciate his comment but I know that she has many interests that fill her days.

After breakfast and the papers, computing would be done. I won't list the many things that involve computing but I can say the computer is a wonderful tool that makes life easier (most of the time ) and communication more efficient. I am very happy to have a computer as part of my life.

Music fills my days: my trio, orchestra, octet in the summer and also groups that I sub with. Days pass quickly and there never seems to be enough time to do all the practising that I hope to do.

This gets me to lunch time and I have not included all the tennis that I play. Usually, I manage to play 6 days a week! Wow! Love it.

Now unfortunately, it is time to return to work and earn the pay cheque that I am given.

Have a wonderful day and enjoy.

Life Coach

This week while attending a garden society meeting, I noticed that a life coach had put up paintings in the presentation area. This life coach uses paintings to help people figure out what direction people want for their lives. It is not direction that I need but time.
I have plenty of ideas but as I have told my students over the years part of growing up is putting aside the idea that we can do it all and choosing what roads to travel on. These paths might change due to personal circumstances and other opportunities.
I don't want a life coach just someone to discuss choices with. There are so many. Life can be good but we need to be open to the opportunities and also aware of what we are trying to deal with at any time and place.
Painting my choices would not be a great idea. I would spend more time painting and trying to get things right than making good choices. I have learned that becoming a good painter is a choice which requires time and patience just like life.
Enjoy and keep making choices.

Happy Easter

I hope that when I check the stats for today that I find that you spent the day with family and friends and not reading Blogs! I am writing because I have a few minutes before heading out to spend time with a friend who will not be here at this time next year. She is terminally ill and has only weeks left.
My husband is coming home later today, so I have some time to think about friends and family before actually seeing some of them.
Have a Happy Easter and remember those people who are important to you.

Monica Schnarre

Over the years, I have had the pleasure of teaching many students. Some have been a challenge and helped me to grow and some have grown because of their own hard work.

One of the students who I taught was Monica Schnarre who won a supermodel contest while still in high school. I remember photos which were taken while she was still in grade 8, she looked someone much older and sophisticated. The camera loved her.

Monica has had a varied career. I am impressed that her feet are still on the ground even when she is in the air working on homes for Habitat for Humanity. Monica works for the organization and is not afraid to pick up tools and actually participate in the building projects.

What a pleasure it is to know that people become people who care and contribute to society.

Easter

My goodness, I can not believe that tomorrow is good Friday. Last night was the beginning of Passover. First of all, it is supposed to be nice and warm. It was below zero this morning when I finally fell out of bed. (What am I going to do next week when I have to go to work and be there by 8 a.m. ?) It is interesting how we develop new habits that work for us.
Later this morning, after the laundry is done- I only have one load, it is in the dryer. I also need to wash my hair, do not want to scare the sales clerks, I want to buy some Greek Easter bread. Love the stuff. I already bought a chocolate Easter bunny for Michael. Not sure what to buy my friend Ruth who I will be visiting tomorrow morning. Ruth has terminal cancer and I am part of the care team and one of the organizers of the care teams. We are going to listen to a mass tomorrow morning. Should be very relaxing and appropriate for the season.
Hope that all of you will take time to think about the season and those who you care for. I was going to write about people who dress up animals for the season but that is another post.

Windfall

Back in the early '90s, Ina Andre and Joan Clayton drove around Toronto in their cars, picking up donations of new unsold clothing from retailers and manufacturers to people in need.
"We started on my dining room table, on her dining room table, in my basement, and a little in hers,"said Andre, noting that she hit upon the idea after seeing clothing displays being turned around for the change of seasons in a department store.
"And I said. 'I wonder what happens to all the seasonal clothes that are not being used.' "
The organization they founded, called Windfall, (http://www.windfallclothing.ca/) has grown by leaps and bounds and now has an enormous warehouse serving 90 agencies, including shelters for abused women, reception centres for new immigrants and job training programmes.
Last year, it processed 265,000 pieces of donated new clothing worth an estimated $10 million.
And now, as the ranks of the unemployed grow due to layoffs in various sectors of the economy, the need is greater than ever.
The women, who had previously launched the food redistribution system Second Harvest, are both in their late 70's, but Windfall executive director Helen Harakas says they still come around to help sometimes.
"They weren't being paid a penny-this is something that they believed so strongly in and they wanted to make a difference in their community." she said.
What wonderful women! I am sure that if we all look we can all make a difference.