What made you smile today?

Letty, I gather the moderators email boxes overflow routinely. What sozobe said when you mentioned this on some other thread about clicking on HELP when he googles the site is the quickest way for him to make contact.

Nice to hear about your luncheon, BBB!

I know, Osso. I relayed the message. That's about all that I can do at this point.

Yes, I smile with you BBB.

Today I went to a small filling station which is owned and operated by an East Indian family. They are the most delightful people that I have ever seen, and they all care about my husband, and look after him. Some strange man with a long plait down his back was speaking loudly about how many foreigners there were in our little village, and how displeased with the entire population he was. The young woman behind the counter was very tolerant, and I told her to tell him not to come back, if he was so damned irate about "foreigners". Another older lady and I exchanged glances and then both of us broke into a broad smile.

Was out doing more garden stuff today. (The fact that it was sunny and warmish, if not downright warm, after a day of snow snow and more snow yesterday was enough to make me smile right there.) A movement in the leaves caught my eye -- I looked, and there was another flurry of movement that didn't seem to be just the wind. I took a stick and lifted up the leaf where the last movement had happened, and there was a little tiny fuzzy grey rodent. I thought it might be a mouse, but it had a long twitchy sensitive nose and tiny little eyes. Looked it up later and I think it was a smoky vole.

Anyway, it didn't seem particularly perturbed. I called sozlet over and we watched him for a long time. She really wanted to pet it -- it was laid-back enough that it seemed possible, but I didn't think it was a very good idea. It would burrow under some leaves, I'd peel back the leaves, and it'd look at us with a "so that's the way it is, eh?" attitude, nose twitching, but not going anywhere. After a while it dashed to the left, decided that wasn't a good idea, dashed back to where it had been, burrowed under some leaves, and was gone. We followed its progress under the quivering leaves until it was in the vinca.

That's the other thing that made me smile -- the vinca is busting out all over!!! Flowers and all kinds of tightly coiled little new leaves. Awesome.

See? Toldja!

Yep, thought of you and Beth.

Being on holiday continues to make me smile. Ah, the luxury of unstructured time!


An episode that made me smile yesterday: I walked into a bakery in (busy) Sydney Road & the woman behind the counter was quite distraught. An elderly man had left his wallet & she'd discovered it too late to to give it it back to him. She said he was a very proud, cranky old man & had refused her help getting out of the shop despite being obviously unwell & having great difficulty moving.
Her description of him rang a bell with me: Was he quite stooped & walking with the aid of a walking stick? I'd noticed an elderly man a few minutes earlier, making his way down the street with considerable difficulty. Yes it was him! Would I have time to catch him, we wondered? I left my shopping with the shop assistant, grabbed the wallet & bolted down Sydney Road in hot pursuit! Halfway down the block I caught up to him. Was this his purse? Well, you should have seen the big smile that broke out on his face! "Thank you," he said & sort of patted my arm. We both stood & beamed at each other for a bit before going our separate ways. That episode left me smiling for the rest of the day. I don't know who was happier - him or me.

Went down this morning to the corner cafe for breakfast. The sun was so bright and glinted off the crests of the waves in the bay. There was enough wind to toss the crests back on themselves. A woman was sitting on the seawall holding her golden retriever. She bent over and gave the dog a kiss. The dog looked old and I had the impression they'd been together a long time. I was reminded once again that I should carry my camera. Well the image will just have to remain in my head. That's fine with me.

Got my gmail account. 2 gig of storage. Boo-yah!

Realising that Spring had REALLY arrived, when my wife uttered the perennial phrase "Lets rearrange the furniture".

My first 25 mile bikeride. To Concord and back. That also means the Spring is here, even if I'm pathetically out of shape.

Did Realjohnboy find his way back into the site yet? I miss his stories, they were the best.

Bobsmyth does a nice one too though, thanks <nods>. I'll miss the open water ...

Why don't you assign Penburry to help your lady with rearranging the furniture? Your Lordship should not strain his arms with such menial tasks. You'll need them to hold a glass of whiskey and to smoke a cigar.

I wont use Penbury for the simple reason that he spends too much time with his hands in her Ladyships Drawers.

but if she wants her drawers rearanged and your lordship won't do it, wouldn't it only be fair to offer her some help?

Why else would you keep a staff on hand?

The problem is that his hands always smell of Mothballs afterwards.

well, all the more reason to assign the task to him and stay away from the drawers...

(Hi, I seem to be, for the moment at least, back on as the original realjohnboy. The folks at A2K have been very kind and very, very patient with me. I appreciate it).

Oh yay! Glad you made it.