Meeting Up with Online Contacts

With the advent of social media, it has often been said that your real friends are the ones you have around you and not the ones you meet online. I'm sorry but I love many of the people I've met online and some of them I have considered to be my friends since well before the invention of the modern internet and Windows and definitely before the term, social media ever started to be in common use.

I have met a few of them over the years. Sometimes they are quieter in person than online. Sometimes it's just the opposite. Sometimes we seem to have said everything there is to say online and it's difficult to make conversation in person without repeating ourselves. Other times we don't discuss much other than what the topic of where we met is online and in-person we really get to know one another by talking about anything and everything. It's always an adventure.

This past week two separate women contacted me out of the blue to join them for coffee here in my own little village. The first one is a businesswoman who joined a networking site called Alignable where you basically only interact with other businesses.  She has lived in the area for the past ten years but she has never really become part of the community as she did her work elsewhere. She is now in the transition of bringing her business here. She thought it would be good to get to know some other people in the area so she has started reaching out to make coffee dates with other local business people she finds on that computer site. I wasn't really comfortable with this in the beginning. I mean, I didn't have a clue who she was or know anything about her line of work. Why would she want to meet me?  But after a week or so of writing a few messages back and forth, I decided I would go and find out. I did a little computer search on her so I had some idea of who to look for in the restaurant. She seemed a little impressed that I recognized her and knew just where she worked and lived. I'm apparently more computer literate than she is so perhaps I can be of some assistance to her in the future. She is a lovely lady and we found a lot of topics to discuss other than what we each do in our respective businesses. We exchanged a stack of business cards that we can each give to our own contacts so now I guess I'm networking offline as well as online.  I also told her of various social gatherings where she might meet more of the people she lives amongst and hopes to work with. I do hope she comes to some of them so I can get to know her better. I think we could become great friends.

The second one contacted me just the evening before she wanted to meet with me. She was going to be in my area the next morning and wondered if I was going to be free. I did a quick check with my hubby to see if he had any plans for us, but he was only planning to make a trip to the dump so I agreed to meet with her. Now this one I knew from a Facebook group or two so I knew we had something in common, but I didn't know much more about her either. We met through Sketchbook Skool so of course she came fully prepared to draw during our meeting. I had thought of that originally but somehow managed to leave my sketchbook in my other bag.  Silly me!  Well, she did dig out her beautifully handmade sketchbook and proceeded to draw me anyway, as she uses it as a sort of journal and this was her way of recording out meeting. I did a quick doodle in a little lined notebook I had in my purse, but I also took a couple of pictures of her and combined them to create my own drawing once I got home.  This meeting was a very comfortable one. It didn't feel like meeting a stranger at all. I hope she enjoyed it as much as I did as I know she comes back to this area from time to time. I'd love to spend more time with her and have already promised to bring my sketchbook and be prepared to draw with her in the future.

I do feel I'm in the process of making two new friends that I never would have met if I had not found them online first.

Unbidden Memories

For the past couple of weeks there has been a song stuck in my head. It's in a commercial that plays very frequently during a show I watch on  https://www.globaltv.com/.  I've heard it so often all I remember is the song and not actually what they are selling.  I'd just as soon forget the song too, as it brings back a memory I think I could live without.

When I was a little girl living in Nova Scotia, we used to come to Ottawa to visit my grandmother and my aunt. I didn't know anyone else in that area, but one summer there was another little girl about my age who was living next door, and someone introduced me to her. I suddenly had a new friend in the city. One day she came up with the idea that we should set up a lemonade stand on the corner. Her mother agreed to make the lemonade for us, and we lugged out a small table and some chairs and made a sign and set ourselves up on the corner of Gilmour and Kent. By then a big jug of lemonade and some glasses were delivered to us and we were in business. A few people stopped by and remarked that it was a perfect day for such a business. They wished us well and sampled our wares. Then my dad came along and told me he was going to a movie and asked if I wanted to come. I really did, because I loved spending time with my dad, and I liked movies but I felt obligated to stay with my new friend. She could see I wanted to go, and told me it was alright, just go and she'd see me later. So I went.

I don't think I enjoyed that movie much. I felt guilty the whole time. I felt even worse when my new friend tried to split the earnings with me when I got back. I couldn't accept, but even her mom wanted her to do that because I was there in the beginning.

I think now that this is the only bad experience I ever had with my dad, and likely the only mistake he ever made while raising me. He shouldn't have put temptation before me like that, or he should have scolded me for accepting it. Meanwhile my friend's mom was teaching her to have a kind and generous spirit. We went home shortly after that and she wasn't there the following summer. I still feel guilty to this day for walking away from a friend.

The song is Que Sera Sera, but when I look up the movie it came from that doesn't seem like the one we saw. It doesn't really matter since it is the one that triggered the memory.  What will be, will be.

Shopping For Friends

It is often hard to make new friends

In my experience two types of people I can count on to be friendly are Newfoundlanders and people involved in the martial arts.  Newfies are warm and welcoming and martial artists are generally nice people who quickly embrace others in the field as if they were family.  Today we met a man who turned out to be both, and though we met him in a shopping mall, I feel like we have a new friend.

We had gone to a large mall that we had not been to in many years and got confused as to where to find the food court. The signs pointed us in directions that didn't work, and when we back tracked, and tried again, they simply didn't make sense.  My hubby approached a man and woman and asked if they knew where it was, and we were told to follow them as that was where they were going too. The reason we were confused was that you actually had to walk though the middle of a store to access the food court if you were already on that floor. From the floor below, it would have meant a simple ride up the escalator.

During that short walk through the store we discovered the man was the lady's father and that he had come from Newfoundland to visit with her. We also found out he had spent some time as a martial artist in the past and knew someone my hubby also knew. We parted ways and had our lunch.

Later, while shopping and exploring this huge mall we ran across them again, and stopped for another chat. Before parting we had his name and address and an e-mail address and a new friend. It was that easy. 

I wish it always was.

Maybe I should go shopping for friends more often.

Birthday Deals

Each year, as my birthday approaches, businesses reach out to make special offers as a way of helping me celebrate.

Yves Rocher sent me two different birthday deals.  Actually it does that every year, and while I think I may have two separate accounts, the deals are never the same.  The first one offered me a free product, but they chose it.  They said it was one of my favorite products, but I've only ever used it once before. I'm sure it was a gift then too, as it's not the product of this type that I normally buy from them.  They would also give me a multi-strand jewelry set, which was pretty, and kind of tempting.

The second offer was for a new pair of sunglasses. I don't need those as I already have three pair.  I could have had three trial sized products instead, but I don't know what they would have been and I've probably had a sample of just about everything over the years. Now, if my purchase hit the $25 mark, they would also have included a beautiful tote bag, with some pretty flowers on it.

The thing is, to get any of this free stuff, you need to send an order. There was only one thing I wanted and it wasn't offered in either of these campaigns.

Oh, and while I was trying to figure all this out, Yves Rocher sent me a third offer, but I would have had to make a purchase in an actual store to get that one.  And though I could pick the category of products, it would still be a mystery until I got it. I was not even tempted.  I seldom shop in their stores anyway, as I really think I get better deals through the mail, postage and all.

What I wait for each year, though, is the restaurant birthday deals.  So far I've heard from Buds on the Bay, in Brockville, where, if I make a reservation for four, I can eat free. They will even supply the cake.  Joey gives an age discount.  They will take a percentage equivalent to your age off the entire table's bill, up to a maximum of $25.  They'd likely lose money on me these days, but that deal has only been offered to me at the Cornwall location. I don't expect to go there before the expiry date. Quiznos will generously give me a free cookie with the purchase of a sandwich, while Boston Pizza always thrills me with the offer of free pasta or dessert.  Their pasta dinner that I like is around the $16 mark and I've taken them up on this deal a few times over the years.

This year there is an even better offer from one of my friends. She is baking me a cake and has told me to invite a few of my friends to join us at her place to share it.  That might just be the best birthday offer I've ever had, and I'm really looking forward to it.

Some Treasures Don't Fit in Cache Containers

It seemed like a good day to go geocaching, so we headed out with no particular goal in mind, but with the GPS loaded with a whole slew of caches off to the east of us.  We approached the first one from the wrong direction, which made it next to impossible to reach without a lot of backtracking, so after determining where it was located, decided to leave it for another day and moved on.  The second one was really not hard to find because it was in a distinctive container.  The instructions were not to photograph it, and after seeing it, I understood exactly why.  It would make it entirely too easy for anyone who ever saw that picture to find it and that would take the fun out of the process.

Then we went to Hallville.  There is a cache there, that is supposed to be at eye level, but even though I stood at ground zero, that one eluded me. I'll put a watch on it and see if I can get some clues as to where to look.  We found better treasure at this location though. The General Store has a little cafe at the back. Besides subs and other lunch items, you can get home made tarts and other goodies.  We chose the last cherry tart and a scrumptious butter tart.  We were delighted with the floor show that took place while we sat and ate these treats. A young girl was in the process of mixing up some more pastry dough.

When we were finished there we drove off down some back roads, but one cache had been discontinued while another was simply not on the road we were following, and we came to a dead end. There was a really interesting house at the end of that road though, and we never would have seen it if we had not been out looking for treasure.

A look at the gas gauge reminded us that we really shouldn't venture any further without getting some gas, but as we headed toward Kemptville my hubby spotted someone he had not seen in many years.  She was out in her garden watering plants.  He pulled in to say hello, and we not only stayed to have a little visit, we took her for a ride to show her how to look for geocaches herself.  While chatting we discovered we have a lot of things in common.

This might not sound like a very successful day. Though geocaching may be about hunting down caches, the best treasures we find are often not those that are hidden in the cache containers.  We saw wild turkeys in someone's driveway. We had wonderful tarts and got to see them being made. We spotted an interesting house in an out of the way place.  We spent some time in the company of a lovely lady. The best treasure of all for this day is that I may have made a  new friend.

The Latest Technology

Seven years ago I started to wear a hearing aid.  Even then, it was likely over due. But the darn things don't last as long as you would think, given the price, and though I got a couple more years than expected, the old one finally died just before Christmas.  Oh yes, I have been driving people mad by asking them to repeat things ever since.  As I said, they are not cheap and there were other places to spend the money but since I could no longer stand not to know what the people around me were talking about, I finally went and got a new one this week.

I was told that the technology had changed a lot since I got my last one. In fact I was even warned that the new technology might be too much for me.  So, while I was very excited to be going to get the new assistive device, I was also a bit worried about what they meant by that statement.

My old unit was a good one. It had a wee button on it that let me adjust the sound to get rid of background noise, and it was also supposed to be adjustable so that it would work with the phone. Well, I never did get it to work with the phone, though I had it adjusted a couple of times because of that. I ended up listening on the phone with my right ear, so I had to hold it there with my left hand if I had to write anything down. Awkward, but at least I could still hear on the phone. 

Yes, in case you are wondering, I am supposed to wear two hearing aids, but I guess it's a good thing I only accepted one, or I never would have been able to use the phone at all. 

The old unit also came with a little remote control, so I could adjust the volume.  I only ever used it if I was at a play, or in a restaurant. Then I would get rid of the background noise and boost the volume.  That worked very well for me.  The other setting on that remote put the whole unit into automatic mode. That means it would adjust itself, as needed, as I went from one environment to another.   I found that to be very annoying as it had a slight delay and usually changed as I was leaving the new environment and passing on to another one that it was no longer set up for.  I gave up on that option shortly after I got the first hearing aid.

This new aid has that little button and a remote too, but it has a few interesting differences.  I don't need to set it up to use it on the phone. It changes settings on it's own, both when you start to use the phone and when you stop. It senses that all by itself.  Other than that, there is still a little button on the unit that gets rid of background noises, and has another setting for wind!  That surprised me, as when I got the first hearing aid, I was told these little computers don't like wind.  This new one has a wind shield and with this new setting, I might actually hear people I walk with on windy days. I'll get to test that out this week.  My fingers are crossed for that to work!

The main difference with this unit is that it sends me signals as to what it's doing.  It will play me a little tune when it first turns on, so I know it's up and running. It will tell me in words, what mode I'm in as I change from on to another. Yes, it talks to me!  It will even tell me when the battery is about to die.  If I mess around with the volume control on the remote control to much, and loose track of what setting I have it on, I can reset it by hitting the Home button, but if I still don't think that it's set to the original mode or volume, then I can open and close the battery door three times and it will reset everything, or, if it can't, it will actually tell me, "Make an Appointment!" 

I've been wearing it since Friday morning when I got it.  It doesn't have too much technology for me, and I'm still not sure what they meant by that.  I'm doing fine, and so happy to be back in the world of the living.  I was almost in tears one night last week as I sat in the home of some friends while they had a good visit with my hubby. I couldn't hear my friend, who was sitting right beside me on the left. I couldn't hear my hubby who was sitting on the opposite side of the room. I could only hear the person on my right, and he didn't do much of the talking.  Not being able to hear is not fun!  Last night we were at a little dinner party with two other couples, and even though it was outside on the patio, I had  no trouble hearing at all.  I'll be needing a slight fit adjustment, but otherwise I'm quite happy with this new unit.

In Memory Of.....

Over the past few years a few friends and relatives have passed away, but their names are still on my e-mail list.  I keep thinking I should delete them, but I never do it. Though those dear people are gone, and I know it, somehow I just can't seem to get myself to hit that delete button in my address book. It just doesn't feel right yet for some reason.

Today I was reading an article about the Slave Lake fire in Reader's Digest. At the end of the article they mention marks made on a white board during the fire. The marks show where the bulldozers saved houses and where the fire reached town and raged on through until it reached the lake before dying out.  The article mentioned that six months after the fire those ink marks on the board remained untouched.  The fire chief said he just couldn't bring himself to erase it. 

I guess I'm not so strange after all.

A Whole New Look

For years my brother and youngest son have been commenting that they can't believe I still have a 19 inch television.  My house isn't all that big, and it fit in well, and I could see it, so it was fine for me.

Recently a friend was moving from her big house in the country to a much smaller place in the city.  She had a TV to get rid of, and she offered it to me.  My old TV was starting to get lines at the top of the screen, but I would have lived with it for a while yet, as this isn't the best time of year for me to be spending money on a new replacement. I asked her what she wanted for her used one, and she told me she just wanted to get rid of it. It wouldn't cost me anything, but I would have to come pick it up on a specific date. 

I saw it and it looked good, and worked fine, so I lined up my hubby and son to help get it home.  It's a 27 inch conventional style television and weighs much too much for me to have been of any help at all. 

This is where the problem came in. I didn't have a stand to put it on.  It was too big for the stand I had been using for my 19 inch one.  I decided to try FreeCycle, and put out a request.

I quickly got two responses.  The first one sounded promising, but when we went to fetch it, it turned out to be smaller than the one we had previously been using.  We stopped by the son's place and found out he still had the old stand he got from us years ago.  But when we got it home, it was too small too.  We had an old desk in the garage, so we dragged it in, and set the TV on that. It just barely fit.  The little legs under the TV were half on and half off at the edges of the desk,  and I worried that this big front heavy TV might be easy to tip over if our little grandchildren came to visit. 

The desk was 30 inches high, and we found ourselves looking up.  Having this larger TV was like having an elephant in the room, especially with it up in the air like that.  The second offer I had from FreeCycle was for a cabinet but it stood 33 inches tall.  It was obvious that wouldn't do either. I started looking at stands in the stores.  They are now made mostly just to support the newer flat screen televisions.  And even then, it would cost more for one of them than it would cost me for a new TV of the size I was used to.

I likely would have decided to upsize my TV the next time we bought one, but I'm sure glad I found out about all this now, as it would have instantly cost us a lot more than expected, given that we would have needed a new stand too.  It's one of those things I never thought about before.

Luckily, one of the ladies at my paint class is also planning to sell her house, and she had just the thing at her place that she was more than happy to part with.  So now the 27 inch television has a new home, and I think it looks fine sitting in my TV corner.  There is no place to put the VCR or DVD player at the moment, but we don't use them often anyway, so that's not really a problem. 

Will I buy a new large TV someday?  That's a question I still don't have an answer to. But you can be sure it will have a flat screen so we can put it on a proper stand.  At least now I know I'll have to work that into the budget when the time times.

A Blooming Good Time

I love social media.  It brings people together in many different ways.

Today I was on Facebook and a neighbour had posted a picture of Blooming Tea. I had never heard of it before, but the pretty flowers in her glass teapot looked so lovely, I wrote under the picture, "Oooooh. I have to get some of those!"

About a minute later, just as I located them on E-bay, the doorbell rang, and there she was, holding a package full of these little dried up balls of tea, and a glass teapot.  She handed me one of these balls, and told me she didn't know which one it was, so I was to take a picture for her so she could see.  That's when I understood that she was actually giving me one.  Not only was she giving me one of her tea balls, but she had also brought over her glass teapot, so I could watch it bloom. I was absolutely thrilled and I told her I was in the process of trying to figure out which E-bay dealer to order from.  There were so many choices! 

I narrowed it down to those that didn't charge shipping and then looked for someone with a good satisfaction record. My neighbour had told me how much it had cost her, but admitted that someone else had done the actual ordering for her.  In the end I got a better price than she did with someone who had made over 50 sales and had a 99.9% satisfaction rating.  Now I just have to wait as the package will probably take a month to get here.  It's coming from China, after all, and even things that come from the United States take 3 weeks to arrive.

I had never seen one of these tea balls open before, and decided I needed company to help celebrate this great event. I called a long time friend who I had not seen for quite a while and asked if she was busy. She wasn't, so I told her I had something to share, and wondered if she would come over. She was here with 15 minutes and I put the kettle on.  While that was boiling, I put some blueberry squares on plates, for us to enjoy with the tea. The glass teapot, with the little round tea ball sat in the middle of the table. I asked her if she knew what it was. She didn't.  Then I started to pour the water into the pot, and pretty soon the tea ball started to unfold and reveal it's treasures.  We watched in amazement. 

How on earth do they do that.  The tea balls are apparently wrapped by hand, and I cannot imagine how it's done.  The results are stunning.  There was at least 3 different coloured flowers inside this particular ball.   I poured the tea, and it was surprisingly good.  The instructions told me I could add water 3 times, but not to drink the tea after it was 12 hours old.  It did say that the flowers could be kept in the water for 3 to 5 days, just for visual enjoyment though.  Since the teapot was borrowed, I found a clear glass vase, and transferred the flowers into it so I could wash and return the teapot. 

I had a lovely visit.  My friend really enjoyed the experience. She thought it was too bad her mother wasn't there to see that. I told her I'd have my own supply of these marvelous treasures in about a month, and she could come back and bring her mom and we'd do it again. 

Just from this one picture I saw on Facebook this morning, I got the gift of a tea ball, the loan of a teapot, a visit from an old friend, a great learning experience, a lovely cup of tea, a flower to enjoy for a few days, and I made my first ever purchase on E-Bay, using funds I had earned doing surveys.  That's quite a treat. I can hardly wait for my shipment to arrive. I intend to share each one with a special friend, and give at least one of them away, just as my lovely neighbour did. 

Without the social media of Facebook, I would not have had such a lovely day.