Back again!!

 Well, once again I am back.  Due to the current situation with Covid nothing of real interest is happening/

I do not get any visitors I think because of my age etc., most people say they don't want to take a chance on passing anything along to me.  I should be thankful for this however it does get a little "lonely" just "talking" via text.  The texts are few and far between as how much can you say in a text. I do see neighbors when I walk up to the mailroom to get my mail and have a few words other than that I "talk" to the TV!

Well, let's see what I have been doing: As I don't drive my neighbor(she shares my name) took me to four necessary medical check ups - these are done every two years and unfortunately this happened to be the "two year" mark. I was able to get several of the tests done at one time cutting down on trips. Fortunately all tests came out well.

One exciting trip was to get my eyes checked as it had been two years plus I wanted to get new frames. I got frames two years ago but over the years I had come not to like the style. Anyway, I was able to get an appointment the day after Thanksgiving however it was at a location eight miles away. My appointment was at 11:25am so my neighbor and I left at 10:15am. I had looked online to check the directions to the location. My neighbor put the address in her phones GPS and connected it to the car radio. We realized after leaving our building that the "person" was not talking to give us directions. Neither of us had bothered to print out the directions as we were relying on the GPS. We were traveling in an area that was surrounded by mountains and realized we couldn't get a signal. After driving for approximately 30 minutes we noticed the street sign showed we were in the town on the other side of where we had to go. By this time it was 11:15am. We went back the way we came and stopped in a shopping mall in the town where the eye doctor was located, the third person we asked for directions was able to help. I told my neighbor that just take me home and I would call and reschedule my appointment but she said no we would give it one last try as we didn't have anything else to do. Well we finally found the medical building which was "hidden" with trees and backed up onto some hills. Now it was 12:00pm, I entered through the main door of the building and went through the usual (now standard) Covid check then back to the doctor's office. I was talking to the reception and figuring out when to make my rescheduled appointment when a young man came out from the back area and said he would take me so I was able to see the doctor, get new frames and was out by 1:00pm. There was nobody waiting in the Optometry area - I think I caught them either on the staff's lunch break or just after. Anyway now waiting to get the call that my glasses are ready for pick up. My neighbor and I said we have decided to take the "scenic" route!!

One last story and I will let you go.  When I got my hair cut in September my hairdresser said she would text me the end of November for my next appointment. As I didn't hear from her by December 1st I texted her.  We set up an appointment for December 8th, this would give her time to get a baby sitter for her two girls - that weekend there were talks that we would go into another "lock down" for non essential services which included hair salons. Sure enough Sunday I got a text cancelling my appointment. I decided to cut my hair myself; I keep my hair short as it gets really curly/frizzy when longer, so I just cut the sides up and around my ears then cut the back - I surprised myself it actually turned out looking pretty decent. Oh yeah.

Well that's enough chit-chat for now. 

Will talk later - not sure when!!

Sad day

 Today I lost a friend to Covid complications.

You will all know him as Trini Lopez of "If I had a Hammer" fame and the "Dirty Dozen".

My late husband John always "dabbled" in the entertainment business and my husband became acquanted with Trini, this was the beginning of 2000. I was introduced to Trini on a weekend trip to Palm Springs that same year. Our friendship continued over the years.

In 2005 my husband and I rescued a dog; mixture Jack Russell and Norwich terrier.  The rescue foundation had already named him Monte so we decided to keep the name.  Shortly after getting Monte we all made a trip to Palm Springs to see Trini who decided to call Monte - Junior.  

We spent several Thanksgivings with Trini as he always left shortly after Thanksgiving to drive to Texas to be with his family for Christmas and New Years.

Sadly my husband passed away January 2, 2015 (2 days after our 38th Wedding Anniversary) and Monte passed February 6th, 2017.

I had not heard from Trini in several years. In researching last year I found that his house was for sale. Yesterday, August 10th 2020, I decided to check online to see if the house had been sold. I also made up my mind to either email Trini this weekend or to send him a card to let him know I was thinking of him. Imagine my surprise/shock when a friend texted me this afternoon 11th (he was also acquanted with Trini) and told me that Trini had passed.

God bless you Trini you are certainly sleeping with the Angels.

Again I am back

Again I am back after approximately a 4 year absence.

I don't know if I will still have followers, if not this is good therapy in these trying times.

I personally have not been out in the general public and have worn a mask in the senior complex where I live since the middle of January.  I was hospitalized the beginning of January for 10 days for a condition totally unrelated to the flu which was pretty rampant at that time.

March 16th was the day our complex was put on complete "shut down".  Everyone had to wear a mask if they went to the mail room or laundry room and of course follow the distancing rule. This shut down slowed my recovery progress. I had a cleaner come in every other week to do light cleaning in my "very small" apartment.  This help was/is on temporary hold. I had to start doing some housework myself which really set me back on a timely recovery.  I am much better at this time but I still have to be careful and not do too much in one day.

Since January I order my groceries online.  I get them delivered within 2 hours except when everything got a little "crazy" in March, for a few weeks I could only get delivery times scheduled for a couple of days in advance.  I started at that time ordering all of my needs online and getting items delivered.

Finally July 21st a neighbor took me to her hairdressers to get my hair cut. I have naturally curly hair which I keep very short for easy maintenance however it had grown about 4 inches (according to the hairdresser) - I looked like I had been pulled through a hedge backwards. This was a salon that was allowed open as the building had small offices/rooms on both sides of a round corridor. The room was just big enough for me and the hairdresser plus a sink/chair, hairdryer, seat for cutting, small chair and sofa, everything else was set up on shelves around the room with a small TV on one wall.
I thoroughly enjoyed my first "outing", the drive was a little over 30 minutes on the freeway.  It was great to talk to my neighbor and I found out we have quite a few things in common - not just our name.

I will cut this short - didn't mean to make a short story out of it. I will do another "episode" in a couple of days.

Stay well and safe.

I'm back!!

Well here we are first day of spring; lovely weather for a change, hopefully some of the wet stuff coming our way in a few days, not much but every little bit helps.

I have been so busy researching and writing my nephews story about his life in Australia. I have also been busy trying to put together a compilation of short stories my sister-in-law has collected from her friends and now wants me to publish.

I am continuously looking for new ideas for stories; I must realize that having too many things on the back burner could turn into a "disaster", such as nothing getting done!!!!

I am still walking my dog, Monte around the neighborhood.  I like the walk as I get to met some nice people to have a short chit chat with then go on my/our merry way.  I talk to Corey, the dog walker and a couple of his charges.  Then we have Spot and his owner.  We see Bowie occasionally with his owner, Jennifer.  Monte usually will sniff at the dogs then just lays down on the grass while I do some chin-wagging.

Jumping to a completely different thought: I have been thinking a lot this past week about Stephen King's story "The Langoliers".  I feel bad for the families of the 239 souls on the missing plan.

Toodles

AT LONG LAST!!

At long last; I must have really been having fun, as the last 10 months have literally flown by. 

I finished and published my third story "The British Import," available on Amazon in paperback and Kindle also available on B & N Nook.  I was somewhat delayed in publishing as I had a minor medical set back but all is well now.

I am busy working on two projects at the moments:

• The story of my eldest nephew migrating from England to Australia in the 1950's with his parents and brothers.  We are collaborating via email.  Life at that time in Australia was not easy as in essence they were one of the many "families" needed to populate and build Australia after World War II. 
• My sister-in-law has collected some short stories from her friends; the stories are "telling tales" about their husbands.  I am working to publish them all in one book.  This again is being done by email with my sister-in-law who in turn is relaying everything to the story tellers.  A long process.

These projects are keeping me busy and my mind active.  The first one I am doing a lot of research on Australia which is very interesting.

My buddy Monte is doing well.  We just got back from our afternoon walk and ran into several friends both human and canine which always makes the walk more enjoyable.  The weather is (hopefully) settling down into winter temperatures and it has been forecast that we are going to get a little, very badly needed rain over the next 10 days.

Finally, I am back; what with the scorching summer sun raining down on me from August thru October (2012) and computer problems I have had a very lazy 6 months in the area of computing.

I still needed to walk my dog, Monte every day; even in the 95 degree plus weather.

January 11th 2013 saw the arrival of one of my nieces and her husband from the UK.  They visited with us for 9 days, not really long enough to catch up on 18 years however we had been emailing and telephoning over the years.  We were about in the "middle" of their epic holiday which started out with 2 months in Florida, 9 days Los Angeles, 6 weeks touring New Zealand in a motorhome then to the land of OZ for 6 days to visit more relatives before heading for Singapore for 3 days, then home, makes me exhausted just thinking about all of it.

Now my computer: it finally died in February 2013 after all it was a "hand me down" and 11 years old.  I am now working with my new computer which of course came loaded with Windows 8 operating system.  This system is quite a shock as it is a lot different to the other Windows operating systems but I am happy to say I have figured out how to use the "quick" keys to navigate to where I want to go.  I have been able to set up my own personal Desktop plus screen saver, at my age I feel this is quite an accomplishment.

I am starting the researching and writing of my third story.  I have no excuse now that I have a new computer.  My first two stories are published with Amazon - paperback/Kindle also Barnes and Noble on Nook.

www.amazon/com/author/tonibyrnes

I will talk to you soon dear Blog.

HOW TIME FLIES

Well, 2 + months have gone by since I last put fingers to keyboard to put my thoughts into published copy.

I have not been idle: I have now 2 stories on Amazon.com - soon both will be on Kindle and Nook.

I have located a cousin of my husband's on his biological mother's side of the family.  The cousin gave me some information and I located 5 biological siblings of my husbands': 2 brothers, unfortunately both deceased - one in 2003 and the other just this year, 2012.  Still working on the 3 sisters, this is a little harder as woman change their last names through marriage, sometimes more than once. It is back to the drawing board to locate children of the 2 brothers.  Hopefully I can find them with the help of our newly found cousin.

I am working on another story and have another one in the research and gathering information stage.

Well dog days of summer are upon us. Time to be lazy and keep cool.