Showing posts with label A-Z. Show all posts
Showing posts with label A-Z. Show all posts

Wednesday, April 30, 2025

Z IS FOR ZEAL

I definitely have ZEAL!
(Image credit almay.com)
As I finish my 11th April A-Z Challenge, I would be remiss if I didn’t admit that I have always struggled with my very last letter. I think my plight is somewhat associated with the fact that I have yet to use the same word twice.

This year, I think my word came to me in around-about way. As I brainstormed letters with a pad of paper (and then the help of Google) I began to hone-in on my word of choice; then I found the graphic I am sharing.

Though sometimes most think of it as dedication or enthusiasm for religion, my personal sense of zeal differs.

I am willing, energized and motivated – still after all these years – to keep contributing to my electronic journal; and this annual challenge has always done that. 

When I look at all the words in the graphic there are a few words that apply to this post. 

Victory, excitement, success, determination, and even emotional.

All excellent descriptions of how it feels to make it through another twenty six posts in the crazy month of April!

Tuesday, April 29, 2025

Y IS FOR YUMMY

Doesn't my puzzle look yummy?
Katie Kate thinks so!
TAKEN: FEBRUARY 15th, 2025

A few years ago, I went to the local Habitat for Humanity, and for a whopping ten bucks I bought myself a puzzle table. Prior to that I have an old piece of plywood I would fetch from under the spare bed on Sundays, then I realized it was worth setting up a 'puzzle specific' table.

You can see I am sitting in front of our exterior sliding door but to my right there are big living room windows with base board heaters. Each year after the holidays are put away, I tuck the dining room table to the side to maximize heat output and minimizing the hydro bills.

For whatever reason, I tend to do puzzles with vibrant colour that also tend to have a focus on with food. The one after this one was yummy too – dogs making pizza!

I only puzzle from New Years Day until I leave for my birthday trip. Not only does it relax me, it helps we gain extra light in the winter months and relax while sports plays on the television in the background.

Monday, April 28, 2025

X IS FOR X-TRAODINARY

A coincidental dinner party...
Created a memory of a lifetime.
TAKEN: APRIL 7th, 2025
Palm Beach, Aruba 

Before we landed in Aruba, we knew we wanted to eat at a specific steak house. Trouble was, there were only two seats in an evening, and they didn’t take reservations; you had to line up outside.

So, on our second night there we decided to roll the dice and see if we could get in. 

We landed in line about forty five minutes before the doors opened and we instantly began chatting up two young ladies in line. 

As they came out of take names and numbers of people dining, we asked the two if they would like to have dinner with us, as a table of four had a better chance at getting in than two tables of two. They cheerfully agreed.

As always, my travel buddy hubby was as comical as ever. He kept them laughing the entire time. When one of his jokes crossed the line, I call him by his name and said “that was far enough.”

The young girl (in the photo above) instantly turned white and asked if his first name was really what I had called him. When we said yes, her eyes filled with tears, and she began to cry. What she shared next had our jaws drop.

Earlier that day she had spread her husband’s ashes on Palm Beach (he had died of brain cancer), and he and my hubby shared the same first name. She was overcome with emotion, as were we once she'd shared.

In a nutshell, I believe we were meant to have dinner with those two, on that day. And though we never did get their names…. We will remember that evening together for the rest of our lives. 

Truly X-traodinary!

Saturday, April 26, 2025

W IS FOR WANT

We will always WANT to travel.
TAKEN: NOVEMBER 2014
(La Romana, D.R.)

Well, with only four letters left, I am on the home stretch. I always struggle at the end of the challenge BUT I knew I wanted to write about this.

I think everyone sets up what they want differently. For us, it has always been openly discussed. The universal correlation between want and need. 

When I started down the rabbit hole of making a point, I Googled want vs. need.

The AI generated response replied with this: "Need" refers to something essential for survival or well-being, while "want" describes a desire that is not essential for living but can improve quality of life. Which is why travel ticks both of those boxes for us.

Several decades ago, before I really understood how to manage my seasonal affective disorder, by Easter every year I was in a varying state of depression. So, starting when the twins were ten months old, we began using our tax refund to head to South Carolina for a dose of vitamin D.

Once the children finished post-secondary school (circa 2012), I began to contribute a weekly value into an annual travel fund. As I began to book all of our travel online, one week a year turned into two in the shoulder season; and a long weekend at the end of January – beginning of February.

With the severe health scares my travel buddy hubby as had in the last few years, we talk regularly when our travel adventures may end. Though we don’t know when that might be, we know one thing to be true.

We will always WANT to travel – but I also know, I will always need to travel.

Thursday, April 24, 2025

U IS FOR UPBEAT

Enjoying the upbeat music
from our 18th floor balcony.
TAKEN: APRIL 12th, 2025

 Like most, upbeat music is definitely a part of who I am. As a matter a fact, any and all music is.

The trouble with live entertainment when you're on vacation, is it usually happens after you've had a day full of sun and snorkeling; so being in a crowd of a couple of hundred people when I am tired isn't at the top of my list.

Vacation or not, I should clarify that my travel buddy hubby and I are both morning people. Actually, when on vacation, we give each other an hour of grace. By 7am we are on our second cup of coffee and by 8am we are dressed and on the move. 

So, by nightfall when the nightly entertainment gets started, I am ready to shower away the sand and sunscreen, and get begin to get ready for bed.

It wasn't like that last fall in the Mexico, but then again we were stuck in the middle of a tropical storm, so water activities through the day were limited - leaving energy for night time fun.

I guess you can say that this trip, we were given the best of both. 

Amazing twelve hour days in the sun, and a balcony seat to the entertainment stage (lit up in pink and blue in my pic) at our sister resort next door.

Though we couldn't really see the singers and dancers, you can clearly see the theatre was packed, and the acoustics of the music flowing over was fine.

Yep, what can I say... an Aruban Michael Jackson with backup singer/dancers doesn't get much more upbeat than that!

#yagottalaughaboutit

Wednesday, April 23, 2025

T IS FOR TIRESOME

Photo Credit: reddit.com/r/onguardforthee

 

As we are ending our current Federal Election cycle, I find the ongoing political dialogue that 'Canada is broken' tiresome.

Every time I hear that statement it makes me go Hmmmm, and scratch my head.

You see, I find it baffling that voters that own a beautiful house, lake lot, $85,000 truck, fifth wheel or trailer, speed boat, quad, and vacation to other countries every year.... Can pontificate that "Canada is Broken".

Why? Because they want more!

#mytwocents

Tuesday, April 22, 2025

S IS FOR SUNSCREEN

Day three and almost ready for our
2nd bottle of 30 SPF sunscreen.
TAKEN: APRIL 8th, 2025
(Palm Beach, Aruba)

 For a maturing woman my age, I don’t fret that I have never had a manicure, pedicure, or even a facial. 

Yet, I will boast that the one beauty staple I seriously embrace, is sunscreen. As a matter of fact, for my trip to Aruba, I packed five different kinds. 

I did a lot of personal research before leaving on that jet plane. And with the island having a closer proximity to the equator than we'd ever experienced, I knew the last thing I wanted to do was burn. 

The photo I am sharing today, I snapped on our second full day on the beach. (Yes, those toes are with me... but not mine.) 

For my entire stay, I started my morning with a waterproof 50 SPF applied to my face and shoulders, and a 30SPF spray applied to the rest of me. For the afternoon, I moved away from the spray and used a sweat resistant 30 SPF sunscreen lotion.

I wasn’t always so diligent. I’ve always worn it when away but in the last decade the strength of the UV Rays has become more intense.

For example, when we traveled to Jamaica for a long weekend to celebrate our wedding anniversary in June 2023, I only used spray. On our last afternoon there, the wind made me miss some areas around my shoulders and I burnt. My skin took more than two weeks to heal; signifying the UV intensity.

Nothing makes me cringe more than seeing people burnt to a crisp on with very first day of holiday. Not only because I know the pain they will be in as they try to sleep – but also because I am seeing a complete waste of money. 

You spend thousands of dollars to holiday.  Then remain in pain the entire time, limited on what you can enjoy, having to shy away from the sun your traveled to experience.

Rhondi Rule #412: Always wear sunscreen. Because it is simply the ultimate in adulting!

Monday, April 21, 2025

R IS FOR REMEMBERING

Remembering my Dad.
Taken: SPRING 1996

 
To the living, I am gone.

To the sorrowful, I will never return.

To the angry, I was cheated.

But to the happy, I am at peace,

And to the faithful, I have never left.


I cannot speak, but I can listen.

I cannot be seen, but I can be heard.

So as you stand upon a shore, gazing at a beautiful sea,

As you look upon a flower and admire its simplicity,

Remember me.


Remember me in your heart:

Your thoughts, and your memories,

Of the times we loved,

The times we cried,

The times we fought,

The times we laughed.

For if you always think of me, I will never be gone

Author ~ Margaret Mead

Saturday, April 19, 2025

Q IS FOR QUIET

 

The older I get.... It seems
quiet is what I seek most.
TAKEN: JULY 23rd, 2022
(Me, floating around Orillia Lake)
I'm not quite sure what happened. Ten years ago, I’d jumped through hoops to stay busy with friends and family but for the last couple of years, I just generally want to be left alone.

I suspect it started with the social distancing mandate that COVID had us live through. Then, as health issues began to plague my travel buddy hubby, I just became hyper focused on him and our home.

I suspect the icing on the cake was when I changed jobs at the end of 2021 and slowly began working from home (I only leave my home office a couple of days a month).

There are times when I feel guilty that I enjoy my seclusion - but as I can see retirement on my horizon, I feel I have earned my quiet moments.

 I truly feel I have spent my life in the service of others. Nursed both my parents to their death before I turned forty and gave my children ever possible opportunity I could manage.  In some areas, I think by doing so I failed them in some way. (…Maybe more than one.)

As we entertained fourteen for dinner Good Friday, my hubby and I decided that Saturday was going to be our day of rest.

The best reward?

A quiet nap.

It was perfect!

Friday, April 18, 2025

P IS FOR PODBEAN

A snapshot of some of my
latest PodBean episodes.
TAKEN: APRIL 18th,  2024

As I mentioned in my A is for Audio post, I decided to start a podcast platform. As predicted, I only complimented my first three offerings with a posted audio file.

I have promised myself I will go back and catch up but it will take me some time. I am thinking if I try to tackle one a day for the month of May, I just might get there.

Next year, my letter E is definitely going to be for EFFORT.

Like I've always said, it's the thought that counts!

Click here to check out my 2025 posts so far.

Thursday, April 17, 2025

O IS FOR ORANJESTAD

Driving past the Malecon boardwalk
in downtown Oranjestad, Aruba.
TAKEN: APRIL 13th, 2025

During my recent visit to Aruba, I travelled through their capital of Oranjestad four times. In all expereinces, the downtown traffic was horrendous.

That said, as the lightbulb for the letter 'O' went off in my head, I was on a coach bus headed to the airport to fly home. This was the only photo I snapped. 

Our week away was so jampacked that working on the challenge took a back seat. As I planned to catch up on my writing on the plane, as I traveled to the airport I began to go through my up coming words in my head. 

This one, specifically, has always been a challenge, and usually signifies when the onset of writers block sets in. How I couldn't have thought of this word in advance makes me scratch my head. perhaps a simple single of how my overthinking begins.

Anyway, this bustling harbour city feels a tad over developed. When traveling east to west, if feels like you're grains of sand going through an hourglass. Two lane traffic where tens of thousand get off cruise ships to browse luxury retailers, and traffic slowly creeps through the city center.

Don't get me wrong, we had an amazing time, but won't be returning. Not because of the expense, or traffic in Oranjestad - but because of the airport.

It was the most painful I have ever had to navigate... and believe me, I have navigated a few!

Wednesday, April 16, 2025

N IS FOR NEIGHBOURS

 

Our lovely neighbour texting me
a snowy photo of our home.
TAKEN: November 23, 2022

I read somewhere that great neighbours make ordinary communities extraordinary, and I tend to agree.

When we were first married, we married in June and my father offered for us to live rent free in his town home for two years to save money. 

We moved in the following month, then he decided to move in with us in November; we bought our first home the following month.

Though we bought the house across the street, we lived in the most amazing neighbourhood. I could visit with my Dad daily, and the kids were constantly in and out of his home. As a matter a fact, every single door was open and welcoming - as was our to them. 

They say it takes a village to raise a child but in our case, our Toronto Street neighbourhood helped raise our three.

Funny how a single word sparks so many memories.

We moved from that home in 2002 and to this day... I still miss it.

Friday, April 11, 2025

J IS FOR JUSTICE

My beautiful friend
Ashley Milne
Gone but never forgotten!
(c) The Toronto Star
As my readership knows, my friend and coworker was murdered by her husband on January 23rd, 2023.  He was sentenced for his senseless crime on February 10th, 2025. 

What appears here is is what Toronto Star Court Reporter Betsy Powell wrote after the man I refuse to mention by name was sentenced to life in prison, with no eligibility for parole for 20 years. 

For those that have followed my journey - do you really think this is justice for Ashley?

I do not... But at least now we can begin to heal.

Firefighter gets life for murder of wife Ashley Milnes Schwalm, which he staged to look like a fiery crash near a Collingwood ski hill.

Written by: Betsy Powell
Courts Reporter - Toronto Star
Betsy is a reporter with the crime, courts and justice team at the Star

BARRIE, Ont.—A former Brampton firefighter who killed his wife in their Collingwood home and tried to make it look like she died in a fiery car crash was sentenced to life imprisonment Monday without parole eligibility for 20 years.

Forty-year-old James Schwalm pleaded guilty to second-degree murder last June, admitting that he strangled Ashley Milnes Schwalm, 40 — with their two young children nearby in their bedrooms — sometime during the night of Jan. 25, 2023.

The killing of Ashley Schwalm was not spontaneous on Mr. Schwalm’s part. He did not act in the heat of the moment. He did not act in circumstances where his ability to reason was impaired. To the contrary, Mr. Schwalm had resolved to do what would make him happy. And what would make him happy was to excise his wife from his life, by taking hers,” Justice Michelle Fuerst said Monday, reading her scathing reasons for the sentence.

“There would be no alimony to be paid, no assets to be divided, no financial loss to bear, no impediment to leading the happy life to which he felt himself entitled.”

Fuerst said: “This was a case of intimate partner violence of the most extreme kind.”

The sole issue for the judge to decide was when Schwalm should be first eligible to apply for parole, as a conviction of second-degree murder carries an automatic life sentence. The Crown asked for a period of between 20 and 21 years; while the defence recommended he serve between 13 and 14 years in prison before being eligible to apply for release.

The judge said that despite Schwalm’s guilty plea — and the fact he had no prior record — the evidence of planning and deliberation made the case close to a first-degree murder, which was his original charge. (First-degree murder carries an automatic ineligibility period of the maximum 25 years.)

When the judge told the court she was imposing a parole eligibility period of 20 years — which may set a legal precedent in Canada for intimate partner homicide — Ashley’s close friend, Christan Bosley, leaned forward and placed her hand on the shoulder of Lindsay Milnes, one of Ashley’s two sisters, who sobbed quietly. 

During the hour-long hearing Monday, Schwalm sat stone-faced, facing the judge, not once glancing at his late wife’s loved ones sitting in the body of the court.

Fuerst reviewed the evidence against Schwalm.

As Ashley’s final hours counted down, she noted he attempted to implicate his wife of a decade in making arrangements for her own death, by asking her to buy gasoline for the snowblower that he used to dispose of her body, the judge noted.

After strangling her in the family home — “an especially cruel” way to end someone’s life, Fuerst said — he dressed her in hiking clothes, put her dead body inside their Mitsubishi Outlander and drove to the ski hills where they shared decades of memories and had exchanged vows. He poured gasoline throughout the interior and then drove it off the side of a road, using a lighter with his initials to set it ablaze.

In the days leading up to her death, Schwalm sought advice on Google about alimony and asked if an iPhone’s search history could be seen once deleted. He’d also asked a doctor at a social gathering if snapping someone’s neck would kill them, and told a friend he was concerned about the financial consequences of divorce.

Schwalm had a $1-million life insurance policy naming him as the sole beneficiary in the event of his wife’s death.

Schwalm also provided police with footage — and a map — of his purported dog-walking route that morning. However, when police checked surveillance cameras in the neighbourhood, they found no sign of him and concluded he had “deliberately manufactured” the footage of him leaving the house. He also literally failed to cover his tracks. A passerby who saw the burning car in a ditch took photos of footprints in the snow leading from the driver’s door.

In the days following the murder, the Collingwood community rallied around the “distraught” first responder, sending flowers, food and messages of condolences.

Ashley’s family believe Schwalm killed his wife because she planned to leave him after tolerating years of his controlling behaviour, which escalated in the last year of marriage when she had a brief affair with her boss.

Scores of women are killed by their intimate partners each year in Canada. Records of nearly 400 Ontario cases since 2003 show that two-thirds of intimate-partner homicides happen after a relationship has ended or is about to fall apart.

Schwalm will have no guarantee of parole upon his first eligibility date, nor ever.

The judge agreed to the prosecutor’s recommendation that Schwalm have no contact with his children until they are 18.

Friday, April 4, 2025

D IS FOR DARKNESS

The dead of winter in Muskoka
(A 6am pic snapped from our kitchen)
TAKEN: JANUARY 16th, 2025

I don't know about you, but as a person that suffers from Seasonal Affective Disorder (SAD) the darkness within the days of winter is something I seriously struggle with.

For those that aren't familiar with the condition, it is categorized as a type of depression that is related to changes in seasons. My symptoms generally begin when the clocks fall back for daylight savings time, worsen over the holiday break, and begin to lighten once the days begin to get longer in March.

It took me years to understand what was happening but once I did, I decided to battle it head on. 

I do my very best to keep my mood and body motivated.  I have often joked here that during the winter months I end up in the bedroom closet, with a blanket over my head, eating gravy from a ladle.

Aside from personal motivation to overcome symptoms, I will admit that my 'happy' lights work really well for me. I know some people don't believe in light therapy, but I swear by it. For over ten years now, my ‘happy’ lights automatically come on in the house to trick me into thinking the sun is rising, when in fact it is pitch black outside.

A commitment to light therapy, and the fact that I can afford to give myself a good jolt of vitamin D in the last week of November, are two of my blessings. A fall trip into the sun and self-awareness are key. By the time I travel (mid-April) for my birthday, I feel I have come out the other end. 

As I am preparing to hop an airplane this weekend, I am pleased to report that my inner darkness has lifted.

So here's to a really great six months of sunshine, until this vicious cycle begins again.

PS: Be sure to stop by tomorrow, to read where the jet plane is taking me, to celebrate my making it through winter!

Thursday, April 3, 2025

C IS FOR CHAOS

Image downloaded from Facebook

CLICK HERE: To listen to Rhondi read this post on her new podcast platform.

The Oxford English dictionary describes chaos (noun) as complete disorder and confusion. 

In keeping with that definition, my mind immediately offers the perfect example of it in,  "the sweeping new 'Liberation Day' tariffs are causing total chaos." 

I have said it here before and I will say it again, I am not a political person looking to stand a top a soap box and pontificate my opinions. What I will say is that I am generally an intelligent person with a keen grasp of common sense, that follows the political climate. And I can't seem to figure out what the hell is going on!

I am confused at the rhetoric that is perpetuating that Canadians are nasty. 

In all the decades I have been crossing into the United States, I have never had a bad interaction with our neighbours (yes that is the correct spelling) - and it is to be hoped they can say the same when visiting us.

I am generally sad that I won't be crossing the border to visit my friends next-door for the next four years. In fact, the thought in general makes me anxious. 

Though I will concede that the comments on our becoming the 51st State have calmed since a new Prime Minister was named - I don't think the back and forth surrounding a lot of silly political stuff will stop anytime soon.

...Which is just simply unfortunate, and definitely something I never want to laugh about.

Wednesday, April 2, 2025

B IS FOR BRUTAL

By mid-afternoon, the tree in the centre
of my photo filled the driveway with
fallen debris.
TAKEN: MARCH 30th, 2025

Though we live within our small town limits here in Muskoka, we are fortunate enough to live on what I have labelled the ‘waving street’. Where the homes are nicely staggered, and all you usually do is wave at your neighbours as they pass by.

Well, around dinner time last Friday night, it started; a three-day freezing rain event across the province that was brutal.

Hydro service left us about 10pm and was off for the majority of Saturday. It returned long enough for dinner to be prepared, warm the house, then ZAP; just like that the power was out another 24 hours.

The photo I am sharing displays what we woke up to Sunday morning. (That is one of the light fixtures on the garage and you can see a downed tree below it.) We spent the day huddled around the BBQ to stay warm, listening to the ice storm take tree after tree.

There were so many downed trees around us that by early afternoon the air smelt just like a sawmill filled with the aroma of freshly sawn wood.

With still over three hundred thousand residences without power, I am not sure what to expect as another round is to hit us by dusk tonight.

Which proves, yet again.... that Mother Nature is definitely off her meds!

Wednesday, April 27, 2022

W IS FOR WORDLE

 

Each day I Wordle as I sip my morning coffee.
... and Quordle while I eat my lunch.

When I started my new job everyone in the office was talking about this thing called “Wordle”.

I’d never heard of it, but I had seen a flood of yellow, green, and black square emojis flash across my Facebook timeline. Always cautious of click bate, I never gave it a second through. That was until my entire new crew seemed obsessed with it.

For the first week, I listened to try and understand what the point was. Limited to just one game a day, you have six chances to guess a five-letter word. Each time you hit enter to register your guess, each letter turns a different colour.

Black means the letter isn’t in the word at all. Yellow means the letter is in the word but in the wrong spot. Green means you have the right letter in the right spot.

I haven’t been playing long, but I seem to Wordle in just three guesses quite regularly. 

Don’t get me wrong, I have also burned through my six guesses just as easily.

All in all… Just a really great way to start the day.


Thursday, April 30, 2020

Z IS FOR ZAP

Jukebox, Goob, and Sweetie on Huckleberry Rock.
TAKEN: OCTOBER 2018
ZAP... Just like that, the month of April is over!

Having paid homage to the twenty six letters of the alphabet in the last thirty days, my 8th annual A-Z Blogging Challenge is officially complete. As expected, as every year previous, I truly struggled with the last four letters. 

As my readers know, this year has been exceptionally difficult for me to stay focused from a daily post/timeline perspective which is why I’ve played catch up from the start. 

Seriously, with what’s happening around us with Covid-19, I was asked to do an above average amount of website optimization, social media training, and freelance copy writing. Some nights in the last month, I’d still be sitting at my home office desk at 11pm; writing for a purpose.

That said, the other side of this crazy Covid coin is that we lost 3 family members in as many weeks. 

None of us able to pay our respects. None of us able to grieve those wonderful lives lived. Instead, we had to look to each other via Facebook and text messages to process what’s to be considered the new normal? 

Anyway, last week on the local radio station a listener was asked, ‘what’s the first thing you’re going to do when social distancing relaxes?’  Their response was, ‘hug my mother.’

Do you know what am I going to do when we can move freely? Beg my grown children to take a much needed break with us.

With two of my three working as important front line workers (that also live with front line workers) and the third an asthmatic that lives with a front line worker, they will all need and deserve some well deserved TLC.

As I officially finish my 2020 challenge, I ask that everyone hang in there and always remember to be kind and considerate. None of us have a GPS to offer direction for what is happening right now. 

Never lose sight of that.

Thanks again for reading.
Rhondi