Radically Retired

Category: Family

  • More Pros than Cons

    More Pros than Cons

    I said to hubs the other day, that although I love the winter weather in South Texas, pretty much everything else is better here at home.

    We got a little skiff of snow yesterday (feature photo), but temps are going to be above freezing from now until the end of the month, so it’ll all be melted in a couple of days.

    Things are easier here.

    I can walk across the street and through a parking lot to get to a familiar, large and newly renovated supermarket. It’s a Co-op store that I’ve shopped at since I was old enough to drive here from our home town (18 miles/28 km away).

    It’s a 2-block walk from our condo building to the downtown area, and I can be guaranteed that on any walk to the grocery store or the downtown area, I’ll run into someone I’ve known all of my life.

    Family is here. My mom lives less than two blocks away. I have two sisters who also live here, and another sister and my brother live in our home town (20 minute drive away). My dad’s youngest sister is more like a big sister than an aunt to me. She and her husband live across the street from us.

    Our walking trails are beckoning already. In Texas, my walking route is around our RV park … over and over again for 6 months.

    Here, I can walk on a different path every day for weeks on end and always see something new. In addition, many of the groomed trails are on the city outskirts (which I also walk to) and are beautiful nature trails among wildlife habitats.

    I like our Canadian bread, beef, eggs, flour, and poultry better. It’s all in what you get used to.

    We have many restaurants in walking distance and there’s a new movie theatre nearing completion two blocks from here.

    The ice hockey rink is nearby and the junior team hubs played with many years ago is in playoffs now. We’ll definitely be attending some games and he’ll no doubt touch base with friends from “back in the day”.

    There’s so much more, but I think by now, that you get the picture.

    As Dorothy Gale’s famous final line says, “There’s no place like home”.

  • “Swiss”mas Eve

    “Swiss”mas Eve

    My Christmas gift to myself this year was a raclette grill.

    A part of my heritage is Swiss and many years ago, I enjoyed a raclette evening at the home of a nurse friend and colleague who had, as a young teen, immigrated with her family to Canada from Switzerland.

    The evening and the meal was so enjoyable that, over the years, it was never far from my mind whenever I was planning to entertain.

    This year, I finally purchased the grill and planned the meal for Christmas Eve with hubs’ brother and his wife.

    It was relaxing and enjoyable. Each person grilled whatever they wanted from the variety of foods available, and the raclette cheese was constantly melting in the little shovels that sit under the grill.

    Missing in my feature photo are the cooked baby potatoes and cooked mini carrots. There was no room on the table for them. The little ramekins on each plate held individual carrot salads.

    The melted raclette cheese was rich and smooth without the long strings like melted mozzarella would have, and was a perfect topping for the potatoes.

    It was a brand new dining experience for everyone but me. It was a brand new food prep experience for me.

    We’ll definitely do this again, and often!

  • 2016 – The Wrap Up

    2016 – The Wrap Up

    What started out as an incredible year of long distance travel from January, to and including July, ended up with shorter trips from August to December that focused on weddings of family and friends, my Dad’s 85th birthday party, and lots of quality time with our own small family.

    Each part of the year held its own memories and treasures, and the best part was that hubs and I were both now fully retired, so neither of us had to miss a minute of it because of work schedules.

    We kicked off our retirement with a year packed with everything imaginable. It’s almost as though we were compensating for all of the things we had to cut short or miss entirely in our working careers.

    It was a good year.

  • The Dreaded Rabbit Cage

    The Dreaded Rabbit Cage

    When I was a child, my dad worked building the first gravel roads around our small prairie town.

    He was known near and far for his CAT operating skills.

    While Dad was out on his daily work schedule, he’d often come across wounded and/or abandoned animals.

    His soft heart resulted in a great variety of temporary pets for us kids. Once they were nursed back to heath, or had grown enough, the critters were released back to their home in the fields.

    One spring, he brought home two abandoned baby rabbits. He promptly built a cage for them and all seemed rosy and filled with love of nature, until …

    Taking turns cleaning the rabbit cage became a part of the chore list for my sis and me.

    All the love of baby bunnies went downhill from there.

    If you’ve ever had to clean a rabbit cage, you’ll understand.

    *My feature photo is courtesy of Google images*

  • Remembering Dad

    Remembering Dad

    This photo was taken from the Statue of Liberty with NYC in the background.

    Our “East Trip”, as we refer to it, was one of many wonderful road trip vacations we were blessed to take Mom and Dad on.

    Dad’s comments, made with awe and wonderment in his voice, as he saw things he had thought he’d never see in his life, make up a big part of my fondest travel memories.