My Life's Winding Roads: Wait... What ??

My Life's Winding Roads: Wait... What ??: Hi folks, I can't even say good morning because noon has come and gone.     Is it just me or is anyone else feeling like they are on a t...

Wait... What ??

Hi folks, I can't even say good morning because noon has come and gone.   Is it just me or is anyone else feeling like they are on a treadmill and not quite keeping up?  Life seems to be getting busier and faster by the day. Wow !

Ok enough about me and why I am late with this months Blog, sorry all.  Even the weather is a tad confused I think. It is supposed to be Spring and is in some parts of the country, but the Western Cape is receiving mixed messages.  Warm(ish) for a couple of days and then wham cold front.  There is a saying down here that when you leave home be prepared for all four seasons before you get home. So true, I have so many locations tabbed on my weather app, because the temperature can be 15 c cooler or hotter not even 50 km away.  You've got to stay prepared 😄. 

August, if that is what just blew past, was one busy month.   Sadly,  the Bears had to say goodbye to their precious, eldest fur child, Gandalf.  G was diagnosed as a diabetic some years ago and had been sick for some time.  Despite doing absolutely everything humanly possible, with the best Vets, they had to make the incredibly heart breaking decision to  let him go over the rainbow bridge. It is so difficult to lose a member of the family and has been enormously difficult for them both. Galdalf you were a true legend boy. As some of you may know from previous years we as a family are in what I call birthday season. We had three in the last week of August and more coming up.  It was myself, BigBear and BabyBear and we were all blessed to be able to meet together on the Sunday in Stellenbosch (for a change of scenery) and had a super lunch at a quaint,  Italian Restaurant and then wandered around a bit and finished off with the most mouth watering, decadent Italian ice creams.  This was quite an event actually as Hubby had, had his knee replacement on the Tuesday just 5 days before.

The surgery went exceptionally well, he was discharged the following day and his recovery has been nothing but amazing. I am so surprised and yet not because it is exactly what we prayed for.  He has had no pain in the knee itself, only muscular aches and tightness.  Still walking with crutches,  more for balance than actually taking the weight off his leg. I walked in on him last week and he was walking holding both crutches in one hard .... as he saw my face he said "I've got both crutches "  hmmm yeah they should be in each hand carrying you.🤦🏻‍♀️   He has done so well and we are super proud of him.  The watches and clocks proved too much of a temptation for him and he goes to his garage almost every day and spends time working on them.

I conquered my overlocker, yaaay,  as a result and thanks to some encouragement from the family I have started a small business doing Mending and Patching.   Right now I am feeling a little overwhelmed as I had my first non-family client here earlier and she has left about 10 pairs of kids and adults jeans and pants that all need mending and fixing. I am probably more surprised than anyone but there you have it, people need someone who can just repair the tears and rips and give the item a few more years, hopefully. Poppet has been more than generous in offering to be a guinea pig and has endowed me with a whole heap of clothing that needs re-making, not even repairing 😜🤦🏻‍♀️.

My Calcium Drip last month knocked me for a bit of a loop, painwise which added to the fibro flare and my right arm was incredibly sore, it was a tough month. I have been going for Physio which certainly helps.  Having stepped in for the Hubster has also been a challenge, but one that is a delight to see him recovering so well, is so worth it.  I am not in the best place physically but take each day as it comes. God has been and is SO good to us, without His strength I would not be able to cope.

For some of the funnier moments of the month, most were vehicle related.  On the day of Hubby's surgery, it poured the entire day and JB and I were in and out the whole day. Going in he had told me to get some Automatic Steering Fluid and the garage would put it in.  Well garages don't sell it, so I went to the spares shop.  Such a nice guy who served me and then, in the rain, showed me where to put it and actually did it for me.  On my way to the hospital later the car was jerking and spluttering which was concerning to sat the least.   I mentioned it to Hubby, and in his doped up state he suggested I go to the garage and get them to blow air over the ECU 🙄, in case it got wet during the pouring of steering fluid, which it  did.  So ... off to the garage and they obligingly blew the air which did the trick.  Score 1 for drugged Hubby and 0 for Citroen.  This past Friday I took JB through to the Bears as she was house sitting there for the weekend.  This time we used her car.  All good until we got close to Cape Town when there was an engine alert sound but no signs or visuals.  I took care and eventually the sound became consistent but still no clue as  to what it was.  I could not explain to Mr Hubby because he was without a phone ( he dropped his and shattered the screen. I had just dropped of shattered phone for screen replacement).   The car appeared to be behaving  itself, except for the flashing red line and the beep.  On the return as I neared Somerset West I noticed steam coming out of engine, yet the temperature was not going up, my stress levels were though, rampantly.  I stopped at the first available garage and low and behold the water tank was empty which we refilles - gauge still normal.  Being the resourceful woman I am, I bought a 2 L water just in case I needed to refill the tank, this however was not needed. Apart from the red line there was no further issue and on arriving home Mr Mechanic hobbled around and cleared the computer fault. When he checked the water earlier he had closed the lid too tightly and pressure was building up and there must be a sneaky leak somewhere 🤔 🤷🏻‍♀️.  The moral of both stories is I now know exactly where water, oil, steering fluid etc go on both Citroëns.   Yesterday I took  his car to CT to fetch JB and oh I did so enjoy the smartness and smoothness hehe.  No issues either what a pleasure.

In closing folks I promised I would post pics of the plates Jelly Bean and decorated in our Sip and Paint class.  They came out tons better than we ever imagined whoop whoop.  We will be doing that again for sure.

Have a wonderful week all, wherever you are and please just remember a bad hour doesn't make a bad day, a bad day doesn't make a bad week and so on.  When the fan of life gets 'dirty' do what you can, step back, breathe and move forward.  If we don't do that we will forever be tossed around by the catastrophes and bad moments. Ciao Ciao

R.I.P. Gandalf the Great, 

Mine 

Jelly Bean's