Last time I tried this it was a bust. My mind was on holiday.

Actually, it wasn’t, not really. My thoughts were focused on a number of things and, for a variety of reasons (none of them bad,) it wasn’t appropriate to talk about any of them. That is still the case but at least now I’ve recognized a solution and can move on to the small talk areas in my life instead.

The weather. It’s been crazy this last week or so. Soaring temperatures, wild thunder and lightening storms. Wind gusts battering the house, trying to blow in the windows. Torrents of rain challenging the gutters to handle it all.

A backyard that, with all the heat and moisture, has gone from zero to overgrown in four weeks. The thistles seem to grow a foot a day, I swear. This year I broke down and bought some serious weed killer to deal with it all. Now if it would only dry up enough to avoid walking in mud to spray it around.

Between extreme heat and heavy rain it has been an exercise in futility for the painting team to meet their projected finish date. The last task is the deck, fingers crossed it will be dry enough to be painted by Saturday. The fence and the house look even better than expected. The young ladies did a great job and they liked my color choices. A win/win situation in my books.

There is talk today about lifting some of the covid restrictions around here, which is good news. The infection rates have been high and our medical staff is feeling burned out. For their sake it will be nice to see an end to this plague. It has been a challenge to convince people to do the right thing and take care. Who knew Manitobans could be such rebels?

I did my part, in my hermitage.

Although I have to admit, lately I have been going out more often than I have in years. At least one trip a week and sometimes even four in a week. Grocery store, multiple drive-thru, even Canadian Tire a time or two. I know, hey. Crazy.

It has been good having people around this week, even if they are not here for social reasons.

Power outages and thunder storms, that’s the other thing messing up my life this week. They don’t work well with computers and internet connections.

I’m still smiling though and I even feel like smiling, nothing fake going on here, so life is good.

We will talk books next time.

Last night I missed the midnight deadline by two minutes. This time I’ll pay more attention. It’ll still be close.

See ya later.