On recent morning walks, there has been virtually zero wind. This is a rarity in these parts.
Besides adding to the comfort and the peacefulness of my morning power walks, the reflections on the river have been outstanding.
Category: Mindfulness
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Read My Sign … Little Hands with a Big Message
At one of our city parks that’s adjacent to the newest elementary school here.
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Happiness Is … A New E-reader
I’ve had an e-reader ever since the Amazon Kindle was first released in 2007.
At that time, these amazing little gadgets weren’t offered in Canada, but I was able to get one because hubs was regularly driving to the USA and he could have mail sent to a hotel address where his company had overnight accommodations booked year round for their drivers. These originals even had a keyboard! (The iPad wasn’t released until 2010).
My next e-reader was the Kindle Fire, released in 2011. I didn’t get mine until 2013. I still had to order to hubs’ USA address. The Fire tablet was in full colour.
A few years later, I purchased a Kindle Paperwhite. Finally, I could purchase a Kindle in Canada! This e-reader felt good in hand, was close to the same size as most paperback books, and the backlit non glare screen was perfect for both bedtime and sunny outdoor reading. Unfortunately, my current reader was facing end of days and I wanted to be sure I didn’t lose any of my extensive e-library.
Yesterday, my new Paperwhite arrived. The screen dimensions are a bit bigger (approximately 1/2” overall in each of width and length). Where the frame had a ridge before, it has none now. Overall, it feels and looks great.
E-reader pros: To me, the biggest pros are space, convenience, and cleanliness. I have a huge library that takes up only a bit of real estate on my bedside table or on the little table by my armchair.
When we travel, my entire library fits into my purse.
I can have several books on the go at a time, without having a pile of them around my chair and each book is automatically bookmarked at the last page read. I can also hilight passages and look up the definitions of new-to-me words.
For many, the tactile sense is the biggest reason for “real” book preference.
That’s not an issue for me. Real books can be a pain in so many ways: torn pages and broken spines, too bright to read outside on a sunny day, the space they take up, the book mites that make me sneeze, if they accidentally get wet, they swell up or the pages glom together and they’re pretty much hooped, and the list goes on.
I guess you could say that e-readers are a good fit for my ocd-ish personality.
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Happiness Is … Brain Health
I’m thankful that, at my age, I can play (and win) complex thinking games like bridge and mahjong.
In the summer, female family members gather each Friday for a summer fam-jam mahjong league.
We play four games and share lots of laughs and good-natured teasing.
Three of our past players have dropped off for various reasons, one being that the game was too complex.
Each week, we do “I’ll make you famous” photos of the winners. The photos are given this name, because the winners’ pics are posted to Facebook.
If anyone wins more than one game, she holds up the number of fingers to indicate how many wins that day.
This was a very good day for yours truly -
Friday Freestyling … Pigsqueak?
When I’m out for my morning walks, I’m always on the lookout for something to photograph.
These quick stops and then restarts at or above pre-stopping pace, create a form of HIIT.
Recently, this flower in a yard I passed by, caught my attention.
After I got home, I looked it up and was surprised at its many aliases:
heart-leaved bergenia,heartleaf bergenia, leather bergenia, winter-blooming bergenia, elephant-ears, elephant’s ears, Korean elephant-ear, badan, pigsqueak, Siberian tea, and Mongolian tea.
The one that made me smile and wonder why was “pigsqueak”.
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Happiest Places
After walking the same six streets over and over again in our south Texas park for the past six months, I’m loving being back to our walking/biking/hiking trails here at home in Sask, Canada.
There’s just something about the trees getting ready to leaf out, the fresh air, the river, the variety of trails, and the familiarity of home that makes my morning walks here at home so peaceful, meaningful, enjoyable, and special.
The winding trails are always inviting 
Bridges over the Souris River are plentiful and varied in design 
Our city does a great job of path management and maintenance 
The river views from the many bridges are always peaceful and grounding 
One of the many bridges on this trail – one day I’ll make a post about all of them 
You always wonder what’s around the next bend Do you have a place that’s your happiest?
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Spring Weekend 2026 – Day 3: The Best Laid Plans …
Neither hubs nor I have ever been involved in a spring break celebration, so we thought that a Sunday visit to South Padre Island during spring break might be a good way to wrap up our weekend of welcoming spring 2026.
Out of curiosity, the morning that we planned on leaving, I decided to consult professor Google as to what we might expect in terms of crowds. I’m so happy I did that.
Sunday, March 24 this year just happened to be the apex of the Texas Spring Break and this is what we should expect: possibly fifty thousand high school and college students in full and noisy party mode, heavy traffic (including complete jams) for both South Padre Island and the causeway going to and from the island, two hours or more waits for food, and zero parking at the main venues.
We decided to nix the trip and spend our last day of celebrating spring by watching nature programs on TV in the comfort our A/C’d living room, with snacks available immediately, and silence on demand as soon as we decided to mute the TV and have a nap.
The header photo for this post came up in Google Images when I looked for Claytons Spring Break Celebrations 2026. Claytons is one of our favourite stops for food and entertainment.
This photo was all that either of us needed for a “hard no!”
I guess we’ll complete life with never experiencing spring break.
I’m perfectly OK with that.
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Welcoming Spring 2026
Because the official first day of spring fell on a Friday, hubs and I decided to spend the weekend welcoming the new season by doing new things.
On Friday, we visited the Veterans War Memorial of Texas in McAllen, TX.
Hubs and I have passed this park many times over the years, but have never stopped to take it in.
The 3.5 acre site was opened in 1990 and pays tribute to the 1.4 million Americans who were killed or missing in action in every conflict the nation has been involved in.
There are 160 tall granite panels, each engraved with a plethora of historical information. To read it all, one would have to spend several hours there. Because it was a hot day, we browsed and read a bit from each plaza and I took photos of every block, so we could read them later.
Each plaza is made up of several granite panels arranged in a circle and has its own theme.
At the centre of the site is a 104 ft tall granite monolith. It’s named the American Spire of Honour.
There is a statue of a female officer at each entrance 
A Sobering experience 
Memorial to WAC and WAVE members 
General Bernardo de Galvez 
Patrick Henry 
George Washington 
Martha Washington 
This shows the amount of engraving on each panel This was well worth the stop and we’ll definitely visit again on a cooler day.
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Addictive
Everyone, both here in the blogosphere, and among my family and friends back home have been talking about ChatGPT.
I’ve been resisting… until two days ago when my closest sister posted on Facebook, the cutest caricature of herself.
I called to ask her how she made it, and of course, it was through ChatGPT.
I succumbed and downloaded the app.
I spent the next several hours making caricatures and laughing so hard at the results.
I then submitted a photo of my kitchen here in south Texas, and asked for ideas for cabinet paint and countertops.
Before I knew it, I was asking for a printed schedule for my hourly and weekly activities.
Every single experience was interesting, fun, and rewarding.
I can see how people can get addicted to this stuff … because after just two days, I already am.
More on that in an upcoming post.
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New Year, New Approach
There’s something about a new year that drives us to want to make significant improvements in our lives.
Resolutions for a new year are usually made with the best intentions.
Unfortunately for me, and almost anyone else I’ve spoken to over the years, these New Year’s Resolutions all too often morph into New Year’s failures, disappointments, self-doubt and self-chastisement.
I later moved on to setting goals. This was somewhat less discouraging, but still never 100% successful.
This year, I’m trying yet another approach. This one is about asking intention questions and then working with the answers to set daily affirmations. The affirmations are a guide instead of a hard and fast rule or goal. I like that.
These are my questions and affirmations for 2026 and beyond:
- How do I want to live my life? Affirmations: I’m thankful for my many blessings. I’m happy, I’m healthy, and I’m eager to continually learn new things and develop new skills.
- What personal qualities do I want to embrace? Affirmations: I continue to care about my health and that of others around me. I share what I know and learn, in hopes of helping others.
- How do I want to experience relationships with others in my world? Affirmations: I make regular contact with friends and family. When necessary, I set healthy boundaries. I experience joy in my interactions with others.
Radically Retired 