Eunice's Point Of View

 POST # 552

Finally, she's back home.  Don't get me wrong.  This human that has been taking care of me has done a pretty good job up to now.  Mind you, he is a bit difficult to train.  After a few days, I had him following the rules (my rules), and from that point on, things have run rather smoothly.  But now that she's back, I can relax.  It's hard work training humans, some more than others.

The other day, I decided to play a joke on him.  We had just returned from our morning stroll, and like every other day, he unleashed me just prior to climbing up the back stairs.  Normally, I would follow him but this time I decided to walk around the back of the house.  When he got up on the deck, he looked down, and called my name, but I continued my journey to the side of the house.  I knew that he would come back down the stairs to get me, and when I heard him walking downstairs, I quickly ran around the front of the house to the other side.  I'm sure he must have panicked for a few moments, when he couldn't find me.  What he didn't know, was that I had climbed up the stairs when he wasn't looking, and by the time he returned, there I was.  He looked very relieved to see me on the deck.  I had a good chuckle about that.  It's good fun to play tricks on house sitters.  It lets them know who is really in control.

But soon he will be on his way, to where I don't know, and if he does come back at some future date, I'll probably have to re-train him yet again.  In the meantime, I'm very happy that my owner is back home.  I trained her a long, long time ago, so I can just relax and enjoy my day.

faithfully yours,

Eunice (aka Her Highness)

 That's Eunice's point of view.

Thanks Eunice.

grateful for every breath,

Paul

The Thoughtful Wanderer

A SIMPLE QUESTION

POST # 551

Sunrise on  Friday May 19th at 5:38 am

 In last week's post there was a sunrise photo, and here we go again.  What's going on?  The answer to that question, is as a result of another question, that I asked myself recently.

Who knows why any question forms in our brain?  Almost one week ago, I was minding my own business, staring out the window at my spectacular view, and lo and behold, this thought popped into my head.  The thought was as follows.

"  If I knew that today was going to be my final 24 hours alive on the planet, how would I choose to spend that time?"

I have no idea as to why this thought came to me just then, because I most certainly wasn't in a dangerous position right at that moment.   As far as I could tell at that time, the odds of me still being alive more than 24 hours later would be extremely high.   After all, I was sitting in a comfortable chair, I had plenty of food and water, and it was a beautiful sunny day.  What could possibly go wrong?  On the surface, everything looked about as perfect as one could expect.   And yet, there was the thought, rattling around in my brain.  

Now, I will admit that on more than one occasion, when I have been in conversation with another person, I have stated that none of us really know when we get up in the morning, whether or not we will be going to bed that same evening.  That is a true statement.  But for the majority*** of us, the odds are very high that we will survive the day.

I posed this question to Eunice, and this was her reaction.  She almost looks like she is taking it seriously, but if you know Eunice, you also know that this is just what she looks like all day, every day.  Having been abandoned on the streets of Mexico City, prior to being rescued by her current owner,  Eunice has probably experienced plenty of days when it could have very well been her last 24 hours, and yet, here she is safe and sound.

The Thoughtful Wanderer's reaction to this question has been very significant indeed.  One big change is that I am spending very little of my 24 hour day in bed.  I have been waking up anywhere between 2:30 am and 4 am.  That answers the question of the sunrise photos.  I have been going to sleep around 10 pm so I've been experiencing some rather lengthy days and yet, I feel very energetic all day long.  And I suppose we could all make a list of things we would want to do if we knew we only had 24 hours of life left.  I imagine that for many of us, sleep wouldn't make it onto that list.  

In any event, it has been a very enjoyable, and rather productive week, and if this has been caused by posing this question to myself, then it has been a very worthwhile question.  My gut instinct tells me that this new way of living each day is likely to continue, and if it does, that's a good thing as far as I am concerned.

Shifting gears, I have to mention my most recent trip to the Thrift Store.  I went there looking for a particular item, but ended up with a "new" pair of shoes.  Even though it wasn't Senior's day (30% discount), I knew that these shoes wouldn't last until this coming Tuesday.  But even at their regular price of $29.99, they were still a bargain.  They are like brand new, and a perfect fit as well.  I'll head back there on Tuesday, to see if the item that I was looking for is still there, and with a bit of luck, I'll be able to purchase it, and get the discount to boot.

New shoes are on the right.

I looked back through my old blog posts in order to find this one from September 14th of last year, which highlights the shoes that I have been wearing up until now.  They wore out much faster than I had expected, but the good news is that I must have been doing a decent amount of walking in the past eight months, for them to wear out that fast.   Eunice is giving me "the look", which tells me that it's time to strap on the new shoes and head out for a stroll.

http://wherespaulnow.blogspot.com/2022/09/the-wandering-continues.html

Here is one more sunrise, which was from this morning at 5:21 am.

grateful for every breath,

Paul

The Thoughtful Wanderer

***

Almost to prove my point, a couple of days ago on our morning walk, there were three City of Nanaimo Parks individuals, collecting garbage from the nearby park.  As we were returning home, the workers were returning to their truck to load up the garbage, which happened to include a pillow of all things.

As is my nature, I started up a conversation with them, because of the pillow.  They mentioned that they collect all sorts of strange things.  Just jokingly I asked, have you picked up any dead bodies lately?  Instead of them laughing at the question,  right away one guy said yes, three, just yesterday.  I thought that he was having me on, but he went on to explain the details of three adults, one a pregnant woman of just twenty-two who had all died of drug overdoses.    That story has stuck with me ever since that day, and perhaps it highlights the point I was making in this post.  

We must always count our blessings.  Every day is very precious indeed.

LEON, MARSHALL and MADONNA aka MOM

 POST # 550

I had some chores to complete over on the mainland earlier this week, so I was up early to catch the ferry.  This photo was taken at 6:07 am on Wednesday, just prior to the ferry departing Nanaimo.  This was the first ferry of the day.  Up until this point, I had never been on the first ferry, but I may want to do this again, as it was almost empty.   The journey was a success, and before long I was on my way back to Nanaimo.

This is a return visit with Leon.  He's a real treat, and I consider myself very fortunate to be able to spend some quality time with him.  The other furball in the photo is Marshall.  Marshall lives across the street, but he seems to spend as much time here as he does with his owner.   The interesting thing about Marshall is his split personality.  I've known plenty of Tabby cats in my time, and they are all extremely friendly.  Marshall, not so much.  He's a bit of a trickster.  Like most Tabby cats, he comes up to you and immediately is rubbing up against your legs.  Of course, the natural tendency of the human, is to bend down to pet the furball.  With Marshall, this is a big mistake, and if you try this, you end up with blood spurting out of your hand.   Marshall draws you in first, and then he attacks you.  It didn't take long for me to learn my lesson.  Nowadays, I still let him rub up against my legs,  but I keep my arms away.  However, he seems to be mellowing out, and occasionally I get to pet him, but certainly not for long.  

Marshall has been very keen on trying to come in the house, and I have managed to keep him out, except for one time early on in the house sit.  Once in, I wasn't exactly sure how I would get him back out without suffering major blood loss.  Thankfully, I had plenty of cat treats, and I managed to slowly get him to the door, munching treats all along the way.  Since that time, I have been extremely vigilant, and he has remained outside.  As I write these words, he's sleeping right next to the door on the back deck, hoping that it will once again open, so that he can attempt another entry.

This just in, after I posted the blog.  So much for Marshall mellowing out.

Yesterday, I informed Mr. Leon that our time would soon be coming to an end.  Below is a photo of his reaction, once he heard the news.

Okay, that's enough furball news for today, but my blog post wouldn't be complete if I didn't acknowledge the fact that today is Mother's Day, 2023.  No doubt, most people are taking time to appreciate their mom today.  I'm quite sure that most of us could relate a story or two regarding our moms, and I am no different.  If I started to write down all of the memories about mom that I am so grateful for, I would be writing all day long.  However, I will mention a very, very early memory, when I was still a young child.  Even to this day, I can recall mom carrying me from the bedroom to the bathroom, so that I could have a late night pee.  She would place me on my feet in front of the toilet, and then turn on the tap and let the water flow into the sink.  It worked.  The sound of the water running, got my "water" running as well, and soon after she would tuck me back into my bed for the night.

I am also grateful to her, for allowing me the freedom to head off on all of the different adventures over my lifetime.  Goodness knows how much worry she suffered from not knowing where her only son was from time to time, but when we would re-unite after months or even years, she never commented on this.  She was just her loving self.  How lucky am I to have had a mom like that?

If I was allowed only one way to describe her, it would be someone with a happy disposition.  This carried through right until her final days.  

Mom died on October 6th, 2007, a few months short of her 92nd birthday.  So I can't just call her up today to wish her a happy Mother's Day and to tell her that I love her, so I will do the next best thing.  As she was a volunteer for decades at various thrift stores (see photo below), I have decided to visit the local thrift store later today in her honour.  Who knows, I may even find a bargain while I am there.  But if I don't find a bargain, I will at least have the memory of her, while I wander from aisle to aisle, and that, in and of itself, will make the visit worthwhile. 

Her happy disposition shines through in this photo

grateful for every breath,

Paul

The Thoughtful Wanderer

A CLOSE ENCOUNTER and TODAY'S DATE

POST # 549

DEAD!!!  I should be dead. Well, perhaps that is a little hyperbolic.  But I certainly could have been dead.  If not dead, then so smashed up that I probably would wish that I were dead.  Wait a minute,  isn't this blog mostly about house and pet sitting?  That's true.  But let me tell you the story about what happened just a few short days ago.

It was a rain-soaked day when this event took place, so I was wearing my bright yellow jacket, and carrying my large blue and white umbrella.  In other words, I was very, very visible.  The local shopping centre is about a ten minute walk from where I am currently pet sitting, so off I went.  Getting there, requires walking across the highway which I have done on numerous occasions.  As the traffic roared by, I pressed the button that activates the pedestrian crossing signal, and stood patiently, waiting for my turn to  walk across the road.

The lights for the traffic turned red, the traffic came to a full stop, or so I thought, my light turned green, and I started my journey across the highway.  There was a long line of stopped traffic in the lane closest to me, but there were no vehicles in the outside lane, or so it appeared.  As I approached the outside lane, I looked to my left.  What I saw was a truck barreling towards the crosswalk.  I came to an abrupt stop in front of the vehicles in the inside lane, and began pumping my umbrella up and down, while frantically waving my arms, in order to get the driver's attention.  I was so close to his truck, that I had a very, very clear view of the driver.  And what struck me was the look upon his face.  As he continued through the crosswalk, he appeared to be totally oblivious to the fact that he was driving through the red light.  I am very sure that he didn't see me, the crosswalk, the red light or even the stopped traffic on his right.  After he blew through the intersection, I looked at the people in the car that was stopped in front of me, and I could tell by their expressions, that they were as stunned as I was.  We all shook our heads in disbelief, and I continued my walk to the other side of the highway, unharmed. 

Now, I've had many close calls with death over the years, and this is just the most recent one.  My good luck continues.  But this latest incident got me to thinking about why I hadn't kept walking without looking to my left, as I automatically had done. The best answer that I can come up with, is that  during my very early years, it would have been my mom or dad that had taught me what to do, and later on, my sisters would have continued with my street crossing education.  I guess that being the youngest of the family had its advantages, at least in this department.  So thanks to all of them for the great education.

  As far as the subject of death goes, I like this quote from none other than Mark Twain.

I do not fear death. I had been dead for billions and billions of years before I was born, and had not suffered the slightest inconvenience from it.”

― Mark Twain

The final topic for today's post is one about the date, being the "date guy" that I am known for.  Thirty-two years ago, I received my pilot's license, so I thought that I would include a photo of it here.

That's enough writing for today.  It's sunny outside, so it would be a good time to go for a bike ride, and enjoy the warmth of the day.  Next week, I'll get back to talking about my four-legged furry friends.

grateful for every breath,

Paul

The Thoughtful Wanderer