Hi All! I am going to have to admit that when I looked back this week I wasn’t seeing a whole lot. I mean, the week wasn’t totally rotten and there were things to smile about. My dogs and cats are always smile worthy. I had a haircut, though no photos. Some good runs. Things like that. But I didn’t want to do another, “It’s the small things” post.
Part of the problem with the last week was that work was very busy with a few unexpected issues popping up. This took all of my energy, so I didn’t do a whole lot else. But thinking about it gave me an idea.
One of the issues that popped up had been going on for a while. My team was made aware of it in early September during the week I was out. When Idid hear about it, at first I stayed out, letting the technical folk take care of it – we had a ticket open with another team and several of their techs were working it since the issue started when that team made a change. But as time went on, I did get more involved and so pushed it a little more and got more techs involved.
Hi All! I know I sometimes sound like a broken record on these posts, but some things really make me smile ;) Oh, for those who are not ancient, vinyl records would sometimes get scratches which made them skip. Sometimes that old album would repeat the same partial phrase over and over and over and over until you moved the tone arm. I know, back when the brontosaurus roamed… Anyway, that is what a “broken record” is…
I spent the weekend on Cape Cod. Saturday was a beautiful day, though it started very windy. I took a long walk in the woods in the morning, where the high winds didn’t matter. I did an equally long walk on the beach in the afternoon. The wind was not coming off of the water, so it was easy. But I also noticed that it had died down quite a bit.
Hi all! This week I am going to try something a little different for the Smile. Well, different in a way, maybe. Perhaps.
I have two dogs, Fiyero and Idina. Fiyero is a boxer and is about 8 months older than Idina. Idina is a mixed breed rescue. She is also alpha. They get along great, play together all of the time, and such. But there are some things… For instance, I have a doggy bed by my computer. Fiyero occasionally likes to stay in it. As soon as Idina walks into the room, Fiyero gets up. It is hers, she is queen. Alpha.
As alpha, she is also the protector of the family. An example is that if the dogs hear a noise, she will bark at the door while Fiyero comes and gets me. There are other ways she protects “the pack”, some more annoying than others, but the “one dog barks and Idina rushes the door” routine is the most common.
Hi all! I’m going to have to be very quick today. I am back at work after a week off, so I don’t have more than about three minutes to pound this out and post it. Yikes! But, no worries. Work is what it is, and after a week off, one can expect an overflowing in-box.
And where is the smile in all of that?
The week off, obviously!
It was nice to have a week off where I had no commitments, no schedule and nobody to please. I did what I wanted to do. I kayaked, hiked, swam, walked, walked dogs, exercised, read, etc., etc. In other words, it was all stuff I liked and at my own pace with no times involved, other than dogs and cats telling me about their needs ;)
Vacations are great, and I love to travel, but occasionally we all just need a staycation, and that is what I had last week.
So that is my smile, a week’s staycation of no schedules, no meetings and no work.
What made you smile?
A reminder – although you can still put up smile posts on your own, I will not be putting up smile posts for the next two weeks.
****
Come on, I’m sure you smiled at least once last week. Why don’t you share it? I hope you can join in!
Here is list of “rules” and guiding ideas. If you don’t have time to read it right now, just remember that this is an exercise to spread positivity. Don’t smile about the misfortune of others. Don’t smile in a way to excludes others. Make sure a 12 year old can read it.
To join in, write a post to share your smile and then leave a comment on this post with a link to your smile. Or, if you prefer, do a pingback to this post (pingback = have a link from your post to this one) (Note – pingbacks have been very inconsistent – please leave a comment :) ). You can post any time until next Sunday evening (to be simple, I will say midnight GMT, which is 7 PM Sunday for me). Note – I am no longer compiling the smiles into a weekly post as I used to – Sorry, I do not have time.
Hi all! I have been on Cape Cod for the last five days. Those of you who read my blog often know that I have a house here, so being down on “The Cape” isn’t unusual. I have done some of the usual things, like run by the beach, swam at the beach, walked in the woods and saltwater marsh, etc. I’ve also been out on the kayak three times.
I was up pretty early on Sunday. My dogs insisted that I get out of bed around 6 am. After all of the taking care of dogs stuff was done, I did a long paddle. I actually got a later start than I wanted, so there were people out, and it was busy by the time I returned, but it was still nice out.
There was almost no wind early, though it picked up as the paddle went on. Still, the conditions were perfect. The tidal current was ever present, but not as bad as I have seen, so no issues there. A good thing about all of that was if I saw something, I could stop and take pictures without the kayak being pushed all over the place.
For the most part I saw osprey. A lot of osprey. I also saw a seal, but it was pretty far away, so no photos.
When I am not taking photos, I paddle continuously and at a pretty good rate. I followed a power boat for about two, maybe three miles on the way back. I had to stop paddling on occasion because I would start passing – I hate being out front, if, for nothing else, if I need to stop to take photos, I don’t have to worry about what is behind me. OK, so don’t think I was being a speed daemon on my kayak – the speed limit is 6 mph/10 kph. I can easily keep an 8 mph/13 kph rate for miles on end and much faster in bursts. This boat was most likely going very close to the speed limit.
The paddle is nice and takes in a lot of scenery. There are relatively narrow places and large open expanses. Some places are pretty secluded while others are built up. Over all, this is a great paddle, though, because of its length, I only do it a few times a year.
So that was my smile for this week, a very nice, long paddle in my kayak.
What made you smile?
A reminder – although you can still put up smile posts on your own, I will not be putting up smile posts for the next two weeks.
****
Come on, I’m sure you smiled at least once last week. Why don’t you share it? I hope you can join in!
Here is list of “rules” and guiding ideas. If you don’t have time to read it right now, just remember that this is an exercise to spread positivity. Don’t smile about the misfortune of others. Don’t smile in a way to excludes others. Make sure a 12 year old can read it.
To join in, write a post to share your smile and then leave a comment on this post with a link to your smile. Or, if you prefer, do a pingback to this post (pingback = have a link from your post to this one) (Note – pingbacks have been very inconsistent – please leave a comment :) ). You can post any time until next Sunday evening (to be simple, I will say midnight GMT, which is 7 PM Sunday for me). Note – I am no longer compiling the smiles into a weekly post as I used to – Sorry, I do not have time.
Hi all! It’s been an odd week over all. I think I complained a lot in my weekend coffee share post. Oh well, it was like that in ways. But it wasn’t all bad, and some of those things I complained about were actually had a good side to them. So things were pretty good, but there was no one big thing that stood out.
Yep, you guessed it, this is another “it’s the small things in life that count” post ;)
I have said it many times, and I will say it again: we cannot expect one huge thing after another, life doesn’t work like that. To get the most from life we need to celebrate the small, be grateful for the common and smile at the every day.
There were some highlights last week. I had a few great walks, including into a small bit of woods near my house. I had the best run I have had since I’ve been back from my trip. I spent time socializing with friends and neighbors. I talked to family. Although I complained about getting home well after my bedtime, seeing all of the people at the Lions Club dinner meeting was good. We had some much needed rain! It is going to be hot today, but we had a couple of very comfortable days. I’ve returned to blogging after all of that time off (I posted a lot last week, but more than that, I read quite a few posts). I’m in the middle of a great book. I received some fresh honey in the mail (my dad has bees).
Hi All! Some of you may have noticed that I am not really back from my blogging break. I have still not caught up on my life after being away for a couple of weeks! Work is still backed up. And then there were other things that kept me from it, but some of those busy things are busy with a smile…
My niece and nephew from northern Maine have been visiting us at our Cape Cod house for the last few years, minus 2020 (covid restrictions). Even though we had just returned from Scotland, last week was the week for their visit. I was super busy and could not get any time off work, but did go down there for a few days (I can telework from that house).
Hi All! I have been away for a while and missed the last two Weekly Smiles. I took a two week (give or take) break from social media, including blogging. There are times I want to take a two month or two year break from social media ;) Anyway, I am at least partially back. Although I can say that I had a big smile for takign a social media break, my smile will be about the reason I took a break when I did.
If you read my Coffee Share post on Saturday you already know the reason – I was traveling. Do you recognize this bridge?
Yes, I went to Hogwarts! Uhm, actually not. I went to another magical land, a place whose official animal is the unicorn, Scotland.
I was there for about 10 days. I was traveling with family – there were 18 of us, ages 3 to 89. We spent most of the time in the Highlands – Isle of Skye, Inverness and Glencoe being our main stops, though we had a few days in Edinburgh. There were castles, villages, recreation of historic houses/villages, ancient sites, “modern” cities and a huge amount of gorgeous scenery.
I am about 2/3 of the way through my photos and hope to do a series of posts later in the week, maybe next week.
That was my smile, going to Scotland for a few days.
What made you smile?
A reminder – although you can still put up smile posts on your own, I will not be putting up smile posts for the next two weeks.
****
Come on, I’m sure you smiled at least once last week. Why don’t you share it? I hope you can join in!
Here is list of “rules” and guiding ideas. If you don’t have time to read it right now, just remember that this is an exercise to spread positivity. Don’t smile about the misfortune of others. Don’t smile in a way to excludes others. Make sure a 12 year old can read it.
To join in, write a post to share your smile and then leave a comment on this post with a link to your smile. Or, if you prefer, do a pingback to this post (pingback = have a link from your post to this one) (Note – pingbacks have been very inconsistent – please leave a comment :) ). You can post any time until next Sunday evening (to be simple, I will say midnight GMT, which is 7 PM Sunday for me). Note – I am no longer compiling the smiles into a weekly post as I used to – Sorry, I do not have time.
Hi All! I hope you had a good week with plenty to smile about. The last week for me was, well, you can read my coffee post for details, but… Despite being a tough week, there were some big smiles, like the cookout my local Lions club had on Tuesday. It was nice catching up and all. My real smile, though, is going to be an odd one. But first, a word from our sponsor (well, that’s me ;) ).
I just want to put this in early to make sure people see it: I am going to be on a blogging break for a while and will miss at the very least the next two Weekly Smiles. So I will not be posting on 1 Aug or 8 Aug, but hope to be back on the 15th.
Hi all! This was an odd week with a lot to smile about, but very little that stands out. So, yes, it will be a “it’s the small things that matter” post ;)
Although there was some rain and such, the last week had pretty close to perfect weather. The days were warm, borderline hot, but the nights cool, almost cold. Because of the cool nights, I was able to manipulate the windows and keep the house down right chilly all day.
I spent a huge amount of time outside and was able to get some great runs in, as well as many walks, both with and without dogs. Twice I saw deer as I walked. One of the times I was by a pond and watched a deer on the other side getting a drink.
Trent's World (the Blog) 