HAPPY BIRTHDAY SUNNY

Today is Sunny the birds birthday. He is 15 years old. When I look at Sunny I don't see a bird that's older than eight or nine. He looks quite young. He is now such a seasoned traveler that he's going to come with me on my next trip. 

Here's the story of how I got Sunny. 16 years ago my bird Baby passed away at the age of 17 years old. After a few months I went down to the bird store to look at other birds. I was told that they had baby cockatiels that were just born. I could pick out a baby bird and come every week to hold the bird to bond with the bird. They told me this is the best way to have a bird bond with you from birth. Each week I went down and held the bird. I came up with many names for the bird; jokingly one of them was frog. I can't remember now why but I think it had to do with the way the bird looked. 

Anyway I went week after week for a couple of months to sit there for an hour and hold the little bird. The day that I was supposed to go and pick up the bird because he was ready to go home with me, I got a phone call that he died. So now within months of each other I had two birds die. I was devastated. 

The bird store told me I could get my money back or I can get another bird. They felt horrible with what happened. I could not make a decision at that time so I waited about 6-8 months to call them up and say I want to get another bird. 

The day I went to go get a bird I walked in the store and went over to the bird glass enclosure. There were probably 15 birds in this giant glass enclosure. Right as I walked up this little bird walked right up to the glass looked at me and just stood there. I said that's my bird. The woman at the store laughed. She said of all the birds you would pick this bird. This bird has an overgrown lower beak. He's considered disabled because his lower beak juts out over his top beak. I said I don't care I'll take this bird because obviously he needs a home. They said not to worry they'd help me take care of his lower beak. I called him Sunshine after a dark period with birds. For short I call him Sunny. 

That is how Sunny came to live with me. Happy birthday Sunny!

Until tomorrow...

JUNETEENTH

Today my contractor came to install my new French door since the rain of 2022-23 ruined the back of my house. We thought we had gotten the leak but then another popped up. This time he found out my contractor years ago did not put flashing under the door frame on an outside door. If I knew where he was I would *#&$@# him. All the stupid things he did because he was ignorant or trying to cut corners. 

Today was Juneteenth and I had to sit around all day waiting for him to finish. 

I started meeting with someone to try and figure out what my next steps are going to be for my life. I want to quit the job I am currently doing and try to do something else. 

Until tomorrow...

DENTIST VISIT

I had to go for my 6 month cleaning. Wouldn't you know the dentist found something! One of my old old fillings was coming loose. So I'll need to go back and have her refill the filling. 

Don't you hate going to the dentist? I always think I do such a good job brushing flossing and then I show up and they find something. It's sort of very defeatist. I just want to go, sit in the chair, have them clean my teeth and then praise me for having beautiful teeth. Not sure that will ever happen because I'm a grinder and a gritter. So many of my teeth are cracked and I have lots of crowns. 

Until tomorrow...

ANOTHER VISIT FROM MY BROTHER AND SISTER-IN- LAW

Around lunch time my brother and sister-in-law came over to spend more time together. My brother had promised to fix a few things before he left town. One of my routers died and needed to be replaced. He helped me figure out about charging my new electric car. So we were busy. 

Meanwhile my sister-in-law re-wrote a text that I needed to send to somebody. It was a sticky situation and it needed a diplomatic text message. What emotions are included I'm not always the most diplomatic person. 

Once we got all the tasks done, we went out to lunch before I drove them to the airport. 

It was a fun visit and we never were at a loss for conversation. 

Miss Vivien butterfly adores my brother. I think she would leave me if he took her home. She was following him around after he put her on his lap for some pets.

Until tomorrow...

AI AND OLD CARS

Today was a busy day. First I got up early and went to a local old car show. My neighbor is part of it with his old restored cars. There are some very pretty old cars. It was near the beach so I brought along Miss Vivien Butterfly. I am not sure that she has ever been at a beach. She loved the sand and all the smells but was not too thrilled about the water. So we spent the time with her sniffing around the sand. 

Then I dropped Miss Vivien Butterfly off at home while I went to a conference/event where my brother and sister-in-law were. I entered into a world that I don't know much about. There was AI, robots, 3D printing, cosplay and so much more. It was incredibly fascinating to see so many people with such creative ideas and such passion. I ended up spending hours there including having lunch with my brother and my sister-in-law. It was a great day. 

Until tomorrow...

CURLING

Today was the day that I had my curling class. I've been super excited about going to this but as time was getting closer I started to get more nervous. I figured curling had to be harder than it looked on TV and I was right. 

But first I have to tell you why I was a little bit late. I was so excited I got in my new car, I backed it out of the garage, the garage door came down and went back up. I tried it again same thing happened came down and went back up. I checked the remote that wasn't it. I checked the garage machinery, that wasn't it. I checked the railings of the garage door, that wasn't it. Finally I looked very closely at the sensor, and there was a daddy long legs on the sensor. So he must have been going off and then going back on which caused the garage to go back up. Once I eradicated daddy long legs, the garage door closed. But now I was 8 minutes late. 

When I got there everybody was already in their groups and had already started the lesson. The instructor volunteer gave me one of those I'm disappointed in new looks because I didn't show up on time. I tried to explain but the class was moving forward. First thing we did was learn how to do the curling lunge. You put your foot on this little black wedge, you squat down putting your hands on one the curling Stone and the other a white thing that holds you up. Then you put your other foot on this footprint that is very slick. Realizing we're on ice the slick foot is super slippery so while you're in the squatting position with one foot on a wedge and the other foot on the slippery footprint, you put your hand on the stone and on the White thing and you use your foot in the wedge to push off into a lunge position. The other foot is supposed to sort of stay under you. When you get a few yards out you let go of the Stone and the stone slides down the "sheet" (the ice alley) were you stay in the lunge position. If you've ever seen curling you know what I'm talking about. 

I was in a group with a couple who both managed to do the lunge position Stone push. After two tries I was unable due to my knees being weak. So they gave me what's called a push stick to push the stone down the sheet. It worked well and I enjoyed pushing the stone. 

Then you have to learn how to "sweep" the ice. The sweeping is essential to keep the stone moving further down the sheet. When you watch the people sweeping on TV they look like they're just sweeping but it is harder than it looks. Not only do you have to sweep really hard, you also sweep while you are almost running alongside the stone. So you're moving fast while shuffling your feet (because you have to have your feet on the ice),  and leaning over sweeping furiously in front of the Stone. You can't touch the stone or that's a automatic disqualification of that stone. 

I found that I was a better sweeper than the person pushing the stone. That doesn't mean I was a good sweeper. I was just better at sweeping. 

Anyway at the end of the lesson we had a very quick tournament with another team and we won. I'm not that excited because it wasn't like we WON. We were just the least worse of the two teams. 

Overall it was a good time. I don't think I'm going to go again because they seem to want people to join their team and I don't want to join a curling team. I would do it again if it was just for fun. 

Until tomorrow...

BROTHER AND SISTER-IN-LAW

I got up early so I could finish cleaning up before my brother and sister-in-law arrived. I ran to the supermarket to buy some strawberries, chips and drinks. After they arrived we ordered lunch to be delivered so we could sit out in the backyard. It was a beautiful day and we did a lot of catching up. 

I drove my brother and sister-in-law to their hotel. Only later I found out that the wrong hotel was in the GPS and I left them there to take an Uber to the correct hotel. If I had known I would have never left them at the wrong hotel. 

It was a great time catching up and I'm sure I will see them over the weekend while they are at their conference/event. 

Until tomorrow...

IMPENDING VISIT

I spent today thinking about getting ready for my brother's visit. I didn't understand that he is coming tomorrow and Monday. I cleaned up and put things away to clean up the living room. 

I have to go to the store in the morning for diet coke. 

Today was a struggle after last night's concert. The singer was good but it was not the best concert I've seen. She sang pretty good but the stage was boring. 

Until tomorrow...

CONCERT

I went to a concert this evening by myself. It is not my first. I have a few concerts this summer that I am excited about. 

This concert it's fine but not as exciting as I thought it would be. The singer was good but the stage was not very decorated and very boring. Overall I had a good time but if I'm being honest I would not go see this singer again. 

I had to find my way there and back because I couldn't drive. So I took a taxi to the venue and the taxi driver told me the best way to get a cab to come home. So I left the concert before the last song so I could beat the hordes of people coming out of the venue. Once I got outside I couldn't find any taxis except one and he was taken. So I asked him if it was a place to find a taxi cab and he said to go a one block away. Once I got one block away I went on the taxi app and ordered a taxi and believe it or not it arrived in like 2 minutes. So if I go to any more events at this venue I'll know to leave before the end and that way I can quickly get a taxi. 

I probably could have taken public transportation but I didn't quite know which publishers transportation to take. So if I do go to this venue again I might investigate which buses trains etc I need to take. 

I found out that this evening that my ex-foster kid will graduate high school on August 8th. It's very exciting. He works very hard to get to this point. And I feel I worked very hard to make sure he got to this point. The percentage of foster kids that finish high School is incredibly low (50%) so this is really going to be a celebration day. 

Until tomorrow...

ARTHRITIS MEETING

Tonight was the arthritis group gathering. It's been a little bit hard because the group is dwindled and we don't know why. Started dwindling just as I became the co-facilitator and has continued to doing the while I became the facilitator. We spent some time tonight brainstorming what we could do to fix the problem. 

Meanwhile I gave my little presentation on tips for gardening with arthritis or chronic pain. It felt a little flat because neither person attending was a gardener. 

But at least it was a successful meeting. 

Until tomorrow...