January Winter scenes............

Friday was a somewhat sunny day and so we went for a drive. I just needed some sunshine and to get out of the house. Well we did go out yesterday, did some grocery shopping, got the poodles washed haha. Now they have to wear coats to stay warm. It was COLD. Not too many people on the roads once we got out of town. The roads were clear and just a little snow left to cover up the drabness. We are expecting a Winter storm this week, maybe we can get out again after that.
Had to take this shot, I usually do but love it, this is Suttons Bay.

Our first stop was at the Peddling Beans, we got white chocolate Mocha and a scone and a very large peanut butter cookie to eat that evening. They are all fresh baked locally I believe. Always a nice selection. They have a nice seating area with fresh roses on the tables but we didn't stay.

Decided to skip Leland and headed to Glen Arbor, stopping at Port Onieda hoping to see some critters along the way. We took a side trip down to Good Harbor Bay, Gerry was not thrilled to be on an unploughed road haha. No sense of adventure that one. Me and Laura never gave it a thought, Old Betsie always got us through. It was ccccccoooold.


We got out of there just fine but I figured we better stay on maintained roads. So next was the Lake on the Boardwalk we always stop at but nothing to see there

On to Port Oneida


The Beaver seem to still be busy and have cut down a LOT of trees. Don't they sleep in Winter??? Apparently not.


Not much to see so we continued on, I said "I suppose the roads up through the woods are out of the question?" hehe I was joking, they would not be passable in our van. Hey Ho so off to Glen Arbor we go
Wow no traffic, what's up with that. Usually packed with cars and pedestrians haha. Way too cold to be walking around.
It was good to see they are working on restoring the old mill and I can't wait to see what they do with that.

Nothing to see in Glen Arbor so on to Glen Haven. It looked so pretty, no one around except for one person walking their dog. A Husky, loving it. It was very windy and cold, I put my coat on to get out that time.





We headed to Empire next, passed the Dunes and saw a couple of brave souls had ignored the wind and climbed up.


We passed Jo and Tony's house but didn't stop. It was beginning to snow lightly and I still wanted to stop at Empire. So far we had seen no animals, thought it was probably too cold. We saw a large herd of deer right in town, and then again on the outskirts of town where we saw them last year. First the beach though. I had hoped to get pictures of ice this day but the water was too rough. Still I got a couple of nice shots




The best though was the deer. We went into town on one of the small side roads down past the museum.

We saw deer.



They had their winter woolies on

we sat for quite some time watching them eat and cross the road right through peoples yards.

We decided to leave and let them catch up with each other although they hardly seemed worried. As we turned onto the beach road there was another herd. Had to stop again to watch. Beautiful healthy deer, it's not been a bad winter so far so they are not skinny and their coats look good.



Empire was not busy either, all shut up for Winter. No one on that beach either and I don't blame them but it was just so good to get outside I didn't care how cold it was.


So we headed home for me to make a tuna/salmon casserol for supper.

The dinner turned out well and we ate the peanut butter cookies for desert

Grooming Poodles.......

Today was spa day for the poodles. We take them to Brenda's Pet Parlour these days. She is just so kind and patient with my girls and does a wonderful job. We have been to many groomers over the years because we have always had poodles. I have to say that I have never had a poodle who enjoyed the experience. I don't know why. I mean they have a nice bath and then the hair cut and nails clipped. Certainly more comfortable than if I/we did it at home.

Bodi gets way to hot in the house when she is in need of grooming. Her plump little body just can't take the heat and I fully understand.
I didn't take a picture of them before we went to the groomers but they were bad. We didn't have the money and then the weather didn't cooperate. We had to cancel last week.

I actually love them with long hair but its so hard to keep clean. Brea still had a lingering odour of Skunk from quite some time ago, now she is smelling sweet again.


The last couple of days Bijou got really bad, she had an upset tummy and her eyes were having issues so that we had to put drops in. She was just really pathetic looking. Now she is back to her pretty self.
I have not taken the after the spa pictures because everyone is under blankets right now but Brenda took these pictures of Bodi having her turn. Bodi has joint issues and will no longer stand for grooming. Brenda just rolls her around the table and Bodi seems to enjoy it. Here are Brenda's pictures


Then the after picture

Time to go home.
Poodles are high maintenance and we have 4 so we can't take them as often as we should, I don't think they have ever been this bad and I just have to praise Brenda no end for taking care of them.
BELLA

BREA

BIJOU

BODICEA

Three girls with coats on, Bodi does not need one haha............happy poodles today

Retirement 101.................

Christmas is over and it's now mid January almost. Where has this time gone? Well, for one thing after my visit to Dr Weber, the very next day I got a cold. Thanks to Cooper starting school it was the first I have had in 3 years or so. It was bad. Two whole weeks of coughing and sneezing and all that good stuff. Unfortunately for me the meds I took for the cough made my whole system, blood pressure and sugar and all that way out of whack. I felt ill. I mean not just sick but more than that. Dr Weber gave me two new blood pressure meds that made me shaky and just feeling horrible. The pressure would not come down. In the end I stopped taking one of the pills and stopped checking things. I figure you can make yourself sick just thinking of things. When I see him again I will be discussing my medications. The Thyroid medication I believe is responsible for all the muscle cramps and body pain. So even though he lowered the dose I have halved it again and it's a lot better. So when I see him again we will have words.

Well that was one thing, during that time Gerry wanted the Christmas tree down. So he started that crap. That took me about 3 days to put stuff away and another 3 days to unpack and clean up. I did some Spring cleaning, things like dusting the walls and so on. Yes, dusting the walls. Having burgundy walls in the living room means it all shows. Just about that time himself got a cold. OMG a man cold. You would think he had typhoid. So everything stops when a man is sick. I should never have told him mine lasted two weeks. So we survived that. Barely. I have since finished all of that and am very happy with the results even though I really didn't find anything to get rid of other than books. Lots of books. Can you say yard sale come Spring?


So Justin and Carrie came down for a few days and we went down to Frankenmouth. We had Tristen overnight and took Cooper as well. We went to Bronners, it's a huge Christmas store, does nothing but Christmas. It's a 3 hour trip. I was able to give Carrie her quilts that I had hurried (well you can't say hurried, guess I set my mind to finishing them) and got finished. She had wanted some paintings so I let her have what she wanted of those and I also went through my jewelry box. Most of my Mum's things Laura has but I had a few things left. I gave Danielle and Gabby things a few years ago but had some nice diamonds left. I kept one necklace and bracelet and my wedding set. The rest I gave to Carrie for her and her girls. Hey I can always get more right. I just want things to go where I wanted them to go while I could make the choice. SO, with all that done we just enjoyed their company. Frankenmuth is really a small town but is a tourist destination, probably more fun in summer. We had the traditional chicken dinner while there.
When we first came here Gerry's mum and dad took us down there for the "world famouse" chicken dinner and to visit Bronners. Personally I am not that impressed but its a place to go. The ornaments are either made in China or hand painted by the family who have always owned the place.


After Justin went home we got back to sorting and the Spring cleaning. Guess I got things out of order here but hey ho.........I actually only finished that this week. Well when I was giving Carrie her jewelry I found Gerry's wedding ring and gave it to Justin. Gerry decided he could wear it and wanted to keep it. SO he was brandishing a wedding ring after not wearing one for 47 years. The disaster. He fell on the stairs. He missed the last step and fell, he was holding Bodi it was first thing in the morning. Thankfully he fell without hurting her because he would not have recovered from that. It was a very very loud noise believe me. I went to see what happened and all seemed well, poodles outside and Gerry in bathroom. He came out and I asked what the bang was, he told me. He said his finger got bent when he fell and he had to put it back into place and that made him feel queazy. No doubt, it would me too. He seemed fine though.

Next day his finger was swollen and he could not get the ring off. Should not have been a problem as it was not that tight but he began to obsess over it and made himself sick. I can't explain, neither can he. Anyway, the result was that he could not get this out of his mind and said it was driving him crazy. I had to take it serious because he was shaking and being totally weird. So............we went to the fire department and got the ring cut off. He immediately felt better. For awhile............last night he was feeling bad again, things going around and around in his mind and his blood pressure souring. In the end, worried he may have bumped his head, and after the episode where he was in the hospital with thr brain injury a couple of years ago..........I asked Gabby if she could take him to the ER. I can't drive at night and didn't want him driving. Cooper was sleeping so it had to be her. She very kindly did that for us. They did blood work, and did a cat scan and EKG. Nothing wrong. That was the fear, that he had hit his head without realizing it and reinjured it. SO............nope all was well, just his blood pressure elevated. They got it down somewhat but its still high today. Today he is going to a doctor and he can explain things to someone else. Maybe some anti anxiety meds are in order. I have no explanation. His tests show nothing wrong, but mentally he is still out of whack.

Picture of my Dad getting his retirement watch.
When Dad retired he seemed lost for a time. When you get up every morning to go to work and then don't have to it takes time to adjust. Lucky Dad liked fishing and his garden. Holidays over here and so on.
Now as far as I am concerned a large part of Gerry's problem is .......oh yes.....retirement. He has no hobbies, he does not read. He has no friends and no interests. Before the snow came we were going out and doing things but he obsesses about things. Money for one. I do not. I figure if we spend money on gas and maybe coffee or lunch then I cut back on something else. He cant grasp that idea. So he doesn't want to do anything. If I suggest things he says "well yes if we had the money" So..............I had two insurance policies on him, life insurance. One was a pay out on death but the other had money in it. SO I cashed that in. It saves me about 98 dollars a month (there's ya gas and lunch money) and the cash value was 9000 dollars. SO now we have a buffer in savings. I thought I might see that fly out the door with medical expenses just like my retirement money but thankfully now he is not working and we have things sorted out more. This little nest egg will help us with the house repairs and holidays maybe. That only time will tell. I want to keep it in savings and save up for the things that need to be done around here. I need/want new furniture but with the poodles and cats I may wait on that. Save up for what I want.

The end goal is to fix up and sell this house and then pay cash for a small one. This summer and maybe next summer I would like a camper and go visit Justin in the UP and Laura and Jason down state. Then when and if we sell this house we can always move to a place less expensive. I would not mind leaving Traverse City. It has grown so big and is so touristy now, plus we have seen everything around here. I would love the UP but that would be a commitment because it would be harder to sell up and move from there. I do know houses are very cheap up there and he can fix things up. Trouble is Justin and Carrie may not stay there forever. Then there is the option of moving down state closer to Laura and Jason, but I am not fond of downstate. I like the north. That would put us further from both of those guys though. Not only that but also Tristen.

However, we can not live our life always for other people. My kids have to live their own lives just as I did. It was not a good descision to leave England. We never intended that to begin with but that was the path we chose. Now both Laura and Jason live several hours away from us and are doing well in their own lives. Laura's move was a good one for her and her family. Jason lives where his work is. Justin lives where Carrie lives even though he also lives and works in Wisconsin, his family home is Baraga. To move from here would mean leaving Tristen. Tristen says not to sell this house because it was his mothers home and the last place he lived with her. There is that. I would feel bad selling for that reason alone. At our age now though we do not see a long road ahead of us. Money is tight and will be until we get out from under this house. We have to think of that. Gabby lives with us, and soon she will have to make her own choices, we can't always make our descisions based on what's good for everyone else.

So retirement........will he get though this crisis? Will I survive it? stay tuned. Just send us a million bucks and it would resolve a few things haha. I thrive on micro managing things. Apparently he does not (smile)..............ho hum.