Tricia's Musings

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



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Someone’s been in my garden

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Do you remember I wrote about a friend from work coming over a week or so ago? I say friend, but I use that term loosely. He knocked on the door while Chris was at work and then told me that he’d pretty much been hanging around outside our house for a few hours?

It creeped me out. This guy is kind of creepy to begin with, but to hang out around our house and to have gone into our backyard a couple of times when he thought no one was home that day was just plain strange.

Well … I think he might have come back on Tuesday. The reason I think that is because some things were moved around in our backyard and now that Chris is back from visiting his family I know Chris didn’t do it.

On Tuesday, after Chris left to go to Brantford I happened to look out into the garden and I saw that my brother in law had hung towels that they’d used at the beach on the clothes line. I also notices that one of our patio chairs was no longer on the patio, but was under the clothes line. I figured that my brother in law didn’t use the clothes line properly and perhaps had stood on the chair to place the towels on the line. Strange, but whatever.

Well I went out later in the day to retrieve the towels, but I didn’t move the chair. It was still mostly on the lawn, partially on the patio.

On Wednesday I noticed that the chair was on the patio again.

Hmmm … I know I didn’t move it and I’m certain that it was on the lawn after Chris had left to go to Brantford … who the heck moved it? A couple of the other chairs appear to have moved as well.

I know it couldn’t have been my elderly neighbor. The chairs are heavy and I’m certain she wouldn’t have moved one, let alone two or three of them.

All I can figure is that Joey might have come back on Tuesday afternoon or sometime on Wednesday and maybe knocked on our door and when he didn’t get an answer hung out in our garden … again.

I haven’t been feeling well this week and I’ve spent a good portion of my time on the couch or sleeping so it’s more than possible that I missed a knock or two on the door. Actually even if I’d heard a knock it’s unlikely I would have answered the door this week since I’ve been feeling so ill.

Come to think of it our car was missing since Chris was out of town so it’s possible that a visitor might not even have knocked and just assumed no one was home.

We actually know a few people that would take the liberty of sitting in our backyard while we were away from home – mainly because they might have just dropped by from work on their lunch break since our workplace is so close, but two of them are on holiday right now so I’m pretty sure it was Joey again.

I don’t want to call this guy and ask him though. He’d take it as an invite to come over if we called him and I’d like to cut our association with him down as he’s really creepy and once you let him into your house he won’t leave! Even if you tell him to leave! Yeah … he’s a strange one. So I guess this will remain a mystery for now.





The kindness of Strangers

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A couple of days ago I wrote a post on my blog “My World“. The post was about my husband wanting to go to the Rick Wakeman concert (ie the band YES) at the Danforth Music Hall. The concert is this Sunday, and tickets were expensive so he delayed purchasing a ticket and for all we know the tickets are now sold out.

This is the second time that I’ve written about a concert my husband wanted to go to, and it’s the second time that someone has come along and offered tickets to the event. Unbelievable.

There are a lot of bad things about the internet, but then there are good things like what happened after I wrote my post. A man who happened to have a spare ticket wrote to me and offered the ticket to my husband – for free. He read on my blog that we’d both been sick on and off and this was his way of paying it forward.

Chris talked with the man on the phone earlier today and the two hit it off. They’ll meet before the concert for a drink and then go to the concert together.

Now I’d better find a way to keep paying it forward so good thing will keep happening to us. 😉 Maybe I’ll donate to a good cause or a school like this one here, or randomly find someone posting about something that I’ll be able to help with like our kind stranger just did for my husband.

All alone

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Yesterday I was supposed to go to Brantford with my husband to see his family and spend some time with his brother before he goes back to Chicago, but I had yet another bad night and Chris went on his own.

So I’ve been home alone all day yesterday and all night.

That’s ok. I don’t think I make very good company when I’m not feeling well. I spent a good portion of the day lying on the couch mindlessly watching TV. I only do that when I’m really not feeling up to much else and I just hate it.

I’m hoping that I’ll start to feel a bit better this week. Chris took this whole week off work so I’m hoping we can do something fun on our own and maybe get a bit more work done in our garden.

One side effect of my brother in laws visit was that he brought a big bag of Cheetos with him. Now I haven’t had Cheetos for a long time! I love them – they don’t love me, but I love them. So … I’ve been snacking on them here and there.

Hey it’s hard to resist a snack that you like when you haven’t had it for years! LOL

It’s International Left handers Day!

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Did you know that today, August 13th 2007, is International Left handers Day? Yes I’m a lefty, a southpaw, a port sider, a sinister being and I’m in my right mind and proud of it!

I actually wish I’d been aware of this special day earlier as I would have let all my fellow lefties know.

Many lefties suffer in silence most of their lives living in a right handed world. Today we rejoice!

We often have to become quite ambidextrous in order to survive. I mean, if we use a computer in our work place or in a public library or internet cafe it’s set up for right handed people. Can openers, scissors, gardening equipment such as pruners and so many things are made mainly for right handed people. Sure – in some cases we can get left handed versions, but not always, so we must adapt. Plus buying items that are made only for left handed people can be expensive too.

Throughout school I always had teachers come and try to turn the angle of my paper to a right handed angle (which is to the left). Uh … if you want to read what I wrote on a drastic slant to the left sure … otherwise leave the paper that I turned at a right angle alone!

I also always had ink on the pinky side of my hand when I’d come home from school. Now, as an adult that still happens occasionally, but I use better pens with faster drying ink or perhaps my technique has improved as I don’t have a messy left hand quite as often unless I’ve been writing a lot.

My husband has been pretty good about my being a lefty. The only scissors we have in our home are for lefties and we have can openers, veggie peelers and serrated knives that are sharp on both sides so they are easy for both of us to use. I guess you could say that he probably knows better than some what a left handed person has to go through since our house has a lot of things set up for my ease of use and he’s the one who has to adapt.

I like being a lefty though, even though it hasn’t always been easy.

We’re said to have a tendency to be more creative and I believe that I am a fairly creative person.

There are also quite a few genius lefties – perhaps some lefties are smarter because of all the adaptions we have to make in this right handed world. I don’t think I’ve ever mentioned this, but I’ve had my IQ tested a few times and it’s in the genius level at 163. (blush). If you want to find out if your a genius you can take this Mensa Quiz for high IQ geniuses. The top of the Mensa Quiz has some interesting facts about lefties and intelligence. Apparently in a test conducted by researchers there were more lefties with IQ’s over 140 (genius level) than right handers.

I also am in quite good company with fellow lefties. Here’s a list of famous left handers. I bet you didn’t know that some of those people were lefties did ya?

Unfortunately lefties also seem to be prone to some disorders that aren’t particularly nice ones such as Crohn’s disease and autoimmune disorders …. hmmm that’s me too. Darn!

How many of my fellow readers are lefties too? I should add a poll thingy to this post to find out. Perhaps I’ll do that later.

Challenge for my Right Handed Readers:

Right handed readers … want to know what it’s like being a lefty? Why don’t you try doing everything that you would normally do with your right hand for just one hour. Try to cut something with a sharp serrated knife (don’t cut yourself please, and notice that most serrated knifes are only serrated on one side! the wrong side for most lefties), try using scissors (don’t get blisters!), open a tin of food, try to write or draw with your left hand and try using your computer mouse with your left hand. Report back to this post as to how you did. I’m curious. I’d also be curious if you lasted the whole hour.

I wonder how long it will take Mr. Fab to come along and say something interesting about my being a lefty.

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