Yes, There Are Skunks!

Our neighbour, Kim, took this picture recently as she was leaving for work... at 5:30 AM.

A gentle reminder that one has to be alert when walking at dawn or dusk. We do have skunks in our neighbourhood ... and that's when we tend to see them. They roam at night and sleep during the day.

I don't usually worry about them: They leave you alone if you leave them alone. But I also don't get too close!

Problem Solved!

A few days ago, I mentioned that I had encountered a problem uploading photos to my blog. My free photo storage was apparently full...

One solution was to purchase more storage space on Google.

But when I clicked on the second option - to delete files - it appeared that I had quite a bit of storage available, as I had been busy deleting photos that were no longer important to me. Yet somehow this fact hadn't registered with Google because I was still receiving warnings and I was still blocked from uploading photos to the blog.

I consulted (complained) to various family members who offered various suggestions:

• Pay the $3 monthly fee to get more storage
• Create a new email account and email all large files (eg videos) to this new account. Then delete them from Google.

I tried unsuccessfully to contact SOMEONE at Google who might help me - but to no avail. There was an invisible wall between their help desk and me... It was just so frustrating and such a waste of time...

(But - on the positive side - it did show me how important my daily blogging was to me. The idea of giving it up was really crushing!

After yet another unsuccessful attempt to post a few photos to the blog, I (yet again) lamented to my daughter that I didn't know what to do. 

Have you tried deleting cookies? she asked.

I didn't know an iPhone had "cookies," I  replied. So she led me step by step ...

• Go to Safari and find the book icon at the bottom of the page. Click it.
• Next, click the clock icon
• Then delete your history...

I did it - I deleted it all... and "lo and behold" the problem was gone! I have no idea what I was doing or why... But I could again upload photos to my blog!! Problem (FINALLY!) solved!

Mobile Hair Salon

In my childhood, I remember milkmen and bread-men delivering food to the door in the city. Did my parents have to sign up?  I don't know - but I still remember my mother leaving a quarter in a glass milk bottle to pay for a quart of milk. 

The back door was left unlocked in those days, and the delivery man just stepped in, unannounced, to fill the order.

These days we have courier delivery people delivering parcels from Amazon.

And recently on our street, I noticed something I'd never seen before: a mobile hair salon. One of our neighbours has apparently been having her hair done regularly at this mobile salon ever since it opened during the pandemic...

Great idea! But strange that I've never noticed it before!

Life Changes!

Our family life is changing ... again!

The pandemic brought changes to all of us  - as we distanced ourselves from each other, at least inside buildings, wearing masks, working remotely via computer from home.

Our daughter was one of those office workers who stopped going into the office, doing the same job through the internet and her computer at home. 

(And it worked!)

Eventually she decided to move back to Ottawa - to be closer to us. After all, her company didn't care where she lived, as long as she was sitting in front of her computer from 9 to 5 every day. We enjoyed having her nearby.

But now, two years later, life is shifting again. Some companies are again bringing employees back into the office. Are they trying to fill empty buildings? Or will productivity actually increase? 

My guess is: time will tell.

So... our daughter will soon be returning to the office half time - two days one week, three days the next...

It's a big shift for us all - as she moves to an apartment closer to where she will work (which happens to be a five-hour drive away in Toronto!)

National Ice Cream Day?!!

Yesterday was "National Ice Cream Day"...

Yesterday was also my mother's birthday! She was born 105 years ago in Ukraine. 

She and my dad loved ice cream - so I know she'd have been thrilled to share the day... and some ice cream!

Great-grandma Meets Ivy

Today I remember my mother's birthday...

My daughter-in-law reminded me that 8 years ago today - on my mother's 97th birthday, Ivy met her great-grandmother for the first and only time.

I want to hold her, my mother said. Put her on my lap. That moment was captured in this picture.

Holding her, she marvelled at her tiny fingers and toes!

We were all laughing! Even Ivy, two-and-a-half months old, was smiling! What a joyful day for us all!

Happy Birthday

Happy birthday to our youngest son...

Amazingly, Google recognized him in all these photos... And they were right! How do they do it?!