Weekly Chat (Non-Osprey), 31 December 2023

Hi, all.

I am in the big city of Indianapolis until Monday night. My friends have gone off for a brief holiday, and I am dog sitting for their 5 dogs! Three pit bulls, one English setter, and one mix breed that has some German Shepherd blood, but has thick multi-colored fur, tall pointy ears and a lovely wild. long pointy face rather like a wolf or coyote.

They are all rescue dogs. Three were adopted from the local shelter, and two were rescued from the street. They have all bonded with me and crave my attention. LOL I have cared for Daisy (the English setter) , Sylvie (a pit bull), and Tuna (a pit bull) before. This is my first time with Pancho (the wild looking mix with the pretty fur) and Lefty (a beautiful black and white pittie mix who also has a long nose and tall ears). When I met Pancho, he knocked my hat off and sweetly kissed my ear. Lefty has to be cuddled next to me constantly.

I'll post again when I get home.

HEATHER: I'm so sorry you are again in hospital. Sending you healing.

ANNETTE: I hope you aren't experiencing the bad storms.

Also, ANNETTE and BJANE or anyone:

My friends are subscribed to several streaming services, and I finally got to watch the movie "Don't Look Up" on Netflix. It is now my favorite movie ever. I highly recommend it. I also enjoyed the new movie "Rustin," the documentary/drama about Bayard Rustin. the advisor to Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. who organized the March on Washington.

DIANE – Enjoy your “working” holiday! Sounds like a great relaxing time with furries and streaming.

PAT – Baby Grand pianos are easy to move. They take off the legs, the pedal thingie, the lid, the keyboard cover. What is left tips on its side and they wheel it on a trolley. OH had one ages ago and it was a quite impressive procedure. Fast. Spiral staircase would be somewhat slower!

HAPPY NEW YEAR to ALL

Sydney Harbour vantage points were filled by noon today. Spectators-to-be had bags of food, drinks, music, umbrellas (yes it was raining). Some keen people queued from Dec 29. To me fireworks are money going up in smoke that could have assisted health, education, etc. Silly me, Gotta feed the masses with bread and circuses.

I wish you the same Diane. And I hope your current  weather is better than ours. High winds with awesome gusts and rain rain rain.. Of one thing I am  certain  2024 will be much better than  2023, if for no other reason than what is shown on the short video below

Christmas message from Times Square 

Best wishes to all for a fun or peaceful New Years Eve, whichever you desire and may 2024 be good to us all.

Stay healthy friends and those with ailments - I wish you a speedy recovery.

Thank you Diane for our new week. You sound quite content with the dogs and streaming. Do you have to spend a long time walking them?
AQ - I have seen a clip of the fireworks in Sydney. I won’t be staying up but I am planning a nice evening meal. Tomorrow the whole family meet up in Llandudno for a walk to the end of the pier. It has become a tradition. I must make a picnic and a flask of hot coffee!!!!
Happy New Year to all with good health and peace too.

I certainly hope you get the last two wishes granted Clare!

Hello. I've been away to St Albans, where we stayed with our Eldest and family. Had a rather "hairy" journey down there on Thursday, when it began to produce torrential rain in the Midlands. My OH, who has been driving for over 60 years, including a stint as a heavy goods vehicle driver once, said he had never seen anything like it. We couldn't see the road markings at all, it was like driving in snow, and the rain bounced off the tarmac. Thankfully, as it was so bad, everyone, even the speedy drivers, had to slow down. After about ten minutes of our being very worried indeed, it ceased and became ordinary rain. What a relief. A few miles furher on it began again & if anything, it was worse!! Very frightening. I was glad that my OH was driving.

Such relief to have it clear up. By the time we reached Toddington Services, you wouldn't know that there had been such drama The roads were completely dry for the rest of the journey & we reached our destination without any problems.

It was wonderful to see our granddaughter Amber, and she was very excited. They wanted to show us the extensive work they'd had done, which took most
of the late summer & autumn. A new entrance with a grand front door, following through to new hallway with new stairs! The best part, a brand new & spacious kitchen which is everything they wanted-- they've worked hard & saved for this, and so we are very pleased for them.

We opened presents once we had settled in and Amber loved telling us about her Christmas Day - one of her favourite presents had been a proper cricket bat and gloves!! She plays cricket at school.