Tricia's Musings

Random Thoughts about life in general, living in the big city of Toronto



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My traveling brother

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I feel a little sorry for one of my brothers. He’s traveled every week so far this year for his job. I know some people do that all the time, but it’s unusual for him and when you aren’t used to traveling that often it can take a lot out of you.

I suppose it’s a good sign for him that his company is having him travel to their head office in Montreal so often. They must have a lot of confidence in him. At least he can visit with his son when he’s in Montreal – that’s one plus. Another plus is that my brother used the conferencing service to call my sister, my brother in Vancouver and I last week for a family conference call. That was kind of cool. Of course he could do that any time from his Toronto office, but he rarely does.

I don’t think my brother is traveling this week. If he isn’t it’s the first week this year that he hasn’t had to fly out of town. I’m sure he’s happy!

Do you travel for work a lot? Do you like it?

My cousin has been very sick

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My dear cousin has been in the hospital for several months. I only learned of her illness shortly before Christmas and at that time she was still gravely ill and in the ICU of a hospital of a town five hours from where I live.

Thankfully, she’s now on the road to recovery even though she’s still in the hospital. I think I’m going to use an online flower delivery service to send her some flowers.

I haven’t seen my cousin for at least six or seven years. It’s been far too long, but I have talked to her on the phone a few times since I last saw her but even that’s been years. I was going to go to Ottawa between Christmas and New Years, where my cousin lives, to see my brother but that fell through and I ended up not going … if I had I definitely would have visited my cousin if I’d gone. Hopefully I can schedule another trip in the near future and if I do I’ll make sure I get a visit in.

I haven’t seen a lot of my family in quite a while. By this I mean cousins and the only Aunt that I have left. That’s going to change this year.

Long walks with my dog

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I’ve been walking my dog a lot more lately. We’ve been taking long long walks through the neighborhood. It’s interesting to see the different neighborhoods and areas that are within walking distance of my house.

The other day, Boxing Day (Dec 26th) one of the biggest shopping days we have here in Canada, I decided to take a walk up to what is called “The Danforth”. It’s not all that far from where I live – maybe a mile or so. My goal was a particular pet store. You see I thought I’d lost my dogs favorite bone over the holidays and I wanted to replace it as quickly as possible before she noticed. She plays with her bone pretty much all day so it would be tragic for it to be missing!

So … I got my dog ready and off we went for our walk. It was about 4:30 in the afternoon. I was pretty sure the store would be open …. but once we got to the store I could see it was closed. I couldn’t believe it. There was a sign on the door that it was only open that day from 10 to 3 pm! The biggest shopping day of the year and they were only open for five hours? Very strange.

Oh well – my dog and I got our exercise that day. Good thing too because there was a snow storm (the first in this area!) the next day and it was way too cold for a long walk. Oh and I found her bone the next day as well. We also saw some strange things on our route home. I know people travel long distances when they visit at Christmas but you don’t usually see trucks marked pool fence az on the street. Someone obviously had a visitor from Arizona for Christmas.

Hopefully you had a nice Christmas or holiday season. Mine was quite different from normal – not in a good way unfortunately …

I think we’re going to have a Green Christmas

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Well it certainly looks like it’s going to be a green Christmas here in Toronto. We’ve only had the tiniest bit of snow this month and it’s melted immediately. It really hasn’t even been all that cold either – very few days below zero.

I’m probably going to jinx things but this is a great start to winter. Last year was extremely cold and we had a lot of snow so if we end up having a mild winter this year we earned. It will be a problem for all the people that get snowboard gear for Christmas though .. they’ll have to find artificial snow to try out their new gear.

How’s the weather in your area? Are you going to have a green Christmas too or do you have lots of snow?





Still busy getting those last minute gifts

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Brrrr it’s getting cold here in Toronto. I’m so glad I’m inside my nice warm house tonight!

I’m still busy trying to finish my Christmas shopping. I can’t go out shopping tomorrow but I think I’ll be hitting the stores on Monday once again. Until then … maybe a little more online browsing and shopping – provided I find some good gift ideas of course.

How have you been doing with your Christmas and holiday shopping. I’ll bet that most of you are finished already aren’t you? Well I’m not and I don’t think I’ll ever be an early to finish holiday shopping. I guess that’s just not my style.

One thing about shopping late into the season is that the stores start lowering prices the closer we get to Christmas. I’ve found some great deals by waiting until a few days before the 25th! Speaking of deals … my brother in law called earlier this evening and he told me that he’s getting his kids and all of the nephews and nieces certified gold coins as a gift. That won’t be their only gift I’m sure, but he wants to start them out with a collection and since the coins are made of gold they’ll always have value. I think it’s a good idea, hopefully the kids will like their gifts.

Well .. happy shopping if that’s what you’re up to this weekend! Otherwise stay warm and have fun.

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