Sharon's Week 2: Sympathy, Anyone?

Hello, all.  I am late this week (not that I will be docked marks or anything) because I haven't been able to sit at the computer.  Since yesterday morning, I have been feeling under the weather and even the thought of sitting at my desk made me tired.  I am feeling somewhat better right now so I thought I would get this week taken care of.  

My gang of games night friends spent the afternoon at Hiawatha in the sunshine, enjoying the great outdoors and eating some yummy food.  I am so jealous.  I napped and occasionally looked at the kitchen deciding if I could eat or drink anything.  So far, the answer has been no.  On the upside, I have probably dropped a pound or two.  On the downside, I certainly haven't met my Fitbit goals - so far today, I am under 1,000 steps and it is already 6:00pm!  The worse downside is that this beautiful day full of photographic opportunities has been wasted.  Oh, woe is me!

Alright, enough complaining.  It's a good thing I had all my photos done by Friday so let's look on the positive side.

tools

When Pete and Darlene arrived at Mom and Dad's on New Year's Eve, they had a lot of luggage...kind of normal for them but still surprising considering they were only staying two days.  The luggage was heavy too.  The reason for the poundage became clear when Pete brought out a bag of tools.  They were part of John's immense tool collection and Pete and Darlene wanted Levi to have them.  They are an interesting mix of well used, good quality items but there is also adventure to be had.  There are at least two or three tools in the bag that nobody was able to identify.  Levi must investigate - gotta love the gift that keeps giving.  I chose to photograph this colourful socket set because of the bright colours.

too much!

Considering the weather we have been experiencing, my first instinct was to photograph the freaking snowbanks around town but upon going to get myself a cup of tea last Sunday, I realized that too much! applies most definitely to my tea cupboard. Yes, I have a tea cupboard and taking all the containers out to pose for photos gave me the perfect opportunity to clean it out.  I wish I had shares in DAVIDsTEA but I will  have to make due with my loyalty card.

flower petals

Pam and I headed to the greenhouse last Sunday ostensibly to get nice and warm but really to photograph flowers.  Maxine didn't join us since she already had a plan.  It was warm and quiet and the perfect place to spend 45 minutes (before heading to DAVIDsTEA to refill my favourite flavour).  There were plenty of options to choose from and initially I had chosen this flower for "prickly" (see below) but I changed my mind.  When I looked at it more carefully on the computer, I realized that I could definitely call it spiky but prickly would be pushing it.  I really liked the curly bits of stem hanging in random places.

a cat

Easy peasy lemon squeezy.  Here is Bellatrix.

prickly

My favourite prickly shot you have seen many times before - it is a barrel cactus with really interesting lines and dangerous spikes.  Speaking of dangerous spikes, they really should have a warning sign in the cactus area so people don't lean over to take photos of something in behind and end up impaling themselves on the deadly sharp picks in front!  I chose this cactus for the simple lines and interesting shape.

at work

For this one I figured I would catch some cool scenery on my way to Elliot Lake on Thursday.  We had had some weather for the two previous days so I left earlier than usual in case the highway was bad.  As a result, it was still dark when I passed all the usual stopping places.  On the way home, the skies cleared (I hear it was sunny in the Sault all day - not so much in Elliot Lake and Blind River) and there was some sunset colour in the sky.  I pulled off the highway onto an unfamiliar road hoping for a scene and after a while, I found this.  Not quite what I was looking for but officially something I saw while I was "at work."

wild card

This is a long story so you might just want to skip to the photo.  However, you'll probably get to the photo and wonder "what the heck?" so I suggest you stick with me and read this first.

As I mentioned above, I am sick.  Yesterday morning, not knowing that I was sick, I got the crock pot going to make pulled chicken for our games night thing at Hiawatha today.  As I began to feel progressively more icky, the smell of the cooking chicken became bothersome.  At one point I removed the lid to stir the chicken and I immediately realized that there was no way I was going to be able to shred the chicken when it was done.  I put out an SOS but sadly, nobody was able to help.  While on nap number 527 yesterday I had a brainwave.  Remember SARS?  Ever since that  time, I have been required to carry around a Personal Protective Equipment (PPE) Kit, consisting of gloves, gown, hand sanitizer and best of all...N95 masks!  I in fact, do not carry this kit around with me...I figure if kids are sick enough that I need to protect myself with that gear, they won't be at school and if they are, it will be obvious that they are sick and wouldn't benefit from my therapy and thus, I would not see them.  My PPE kit is in my home office on a shelf.  I donned the mask, shredded the chicken and one friend was able to pop over to remove it from my house.  I left windows open for an hour or so then removed the mask, happily to a pulled-chicken-smell-free environment.

Thinking about it now, I probably caught this virus from one of the little buggers and I would have benefited from wearing the mask at work!  

Wishing everyone a good week.