End of summer this and that

September 1 and Labour Day weekend must mean the end of summer. We can finally stop waiting for the hot spell that never really came and appreciate cooler sunny days. I've been baking crisps from our earlier ripening apple tree and Fred's been busy making pepper sauce from the greenhouse harvest. I got a bit of a break from contracting so I have to pick up those threads again.

A tale of three slippers...and barking

We went on a short road trip with Bennie and visited both sets of parents. We've been working with him on guarding and he's been working on getting shoes and socks and parading them in front of us for a response.

Politics and me

Talking with my dad when we arrived for a visit and he's decided to stop watching news other than, I assume, local evening news. He says he's been much more relaxed since then. When visiting with the in-laws the first thing I asked was if I could turn down the radio. MIL has switched from CBC to Calgary talk radio. Any conversation ends up at odds because there is no agreement on facts to even start from.

Paper Towels - Sustainability is hard!

Today we had a discussion about paper towels. We had gone to Home Depot and I thought I would get paper towels while there. I didn't end up buying as I could get them cheaper elsewhere but this was the first time Fred had seen how much they can cost and he was floored. No more paper towel. It's costing us $100s per year.

Quick reviews

The hardest part of being retired is I am still a huge consumer. I'm trying to focus more on small items to help stay in budget. If I do spend big - I expect high quality and reliability. Here are my most recent 3 purchased items.

Bennie's Bootcamp

So innocent looking

After the last time Bennie bit me I looked back and realized he bites us a lot and it's moving beyond a puppy thing so we got a behaviourist recommendation. One behaviour to address is him barking when he hears other dogs and becoming uncontrollable when they actually get close enough for him to notice them. People walking differently, either because of disability or accessories (like strollers) can also prompt barking. The larger problem is Bennie has a strong sense of ownership - the source of bites. Our neighbours love to visit with him through the fence. They are unlikely to trigger an episode but ...

One year of retirement down! Hopefully many to go.

When we say we're retired people ask if we miss work or we're traveling a lot. No and no. Actually, I kind of wonder how people have time to work with all the things there  are to do! To be fair, my job, in later years, consisted of collating and reporting data and immediate responses to questions so I'm used to finding productive (or not) things to do.  Spouse's was more project oriented so he's used to sorting his time out. Like many people our age who are retired we have side gigs - they just aren't required for financial support like they may be for younger people.