My Vacation Time in Janetville - March Break 2017 (6) - by Anne Shier

(Babysitting my grandson, James)

Saturday March 11 to Saturday March 18, 2017:

Today, Saturday March 18^th, is my last day here.  We are going to my place later this morning where Brent will help me hang the rest of my curtains.  Then, they will take off for John and Steph’s for the afternoon so that James can play with their son, Jake, for a while.  Poor James hasn’t had any kind of peer companionship this week, so this playdate with Jake will do him good.

Before they took me home, we stopped in Oshawa, first at The Home Depot so that Brent could get some needed tools and parts to finish the job of hanging my curtains. Then, we went to McDonald's, ordered lunch in the drive-through, and ate it on the road. Eventually, we arrived at my place at Yonge and Davisville in Toronto.

I’m rather looking forward to going home.  I need a hot shower again and I want to relax by watching some DVD movies of my own.  I’ve finally gotten used to living on my own again.  It’s taken a while to feel “at home” in this apartment, but it finally feels cozy.  I imagine that it’ll feel even cozier when the weather improves and the sun is shining on a regular basis.  Spring is around the corner and I am looking forward to it so much, as I imagine everyone else in Canada is too.

copyright 2017 - Anne Shier

  

My Vacation Time in Janetville - March Break 2017 (5) - by Anne Shier

(Babysitting my grandson, James)

Saturday March 11 to Saturday March 18, 2017:

Today, Friday March 17^th, is my last babysitting day, maybe forever!  The next time I spend time with James alone will probably be at my apartment in Toronto in the summer.  It was a really lazy day today.  We did not get up until after 12:00 pm noon, and that’s partially due to the fact that I had been awakened in the middle of the night by a beeping sound coming from the furnace room downstairs.  

I didn’t know for sure what this beeping was all about, but I suspected it had to do with the sump pump, which drains the waste – solid and liquid - into the fill tank underground.  I couldn’t shut the alarm off by myself though, so I had to get James up to do it.  He at least could read the text beside the buttons on the alarm box.  I had called Brent when the beeping was first detected, and he told me how to shut off the alarm.  When I got James up (from a deep sleep, I might add), he took my cell phone from me and followed his dad’s directions, checking the sump pump for functionality, and then turning off the alarm.  It turns out that this alarm beeps with alarming regularity and there was no real emergency – thank God!  However, I was a little concerned, to say the least.

Neither of us did much all afternoon.  I read my book and played a few games on my Smart phone, like “Trivia Quiz”, which I have not played in a while.  I also played my usual games “Solitaire” and “World Geography”.  James played on his iPad most of the afternoon.  When Brent got home from work at 4:30 pm, we were both napping on the couches downstairs.  Brent wanted James to go outside and do something – not just veg out inside.  So, they played some kind of game together outside (I don’t know what) since none of James’ pals were home.  

We had dinner at about 7:00 pm and watched another “Big Brother Canada” episode, the second one of the season, and then some more pre-recorded TV shows.  I also watched some more “Forensic Files” tonight.  And, eventually, Brent fell asleep on the couch after his long day.  I went to sleep upstairs at about 12:00 am, but didn’t fall asleep for quite a while.   Eventually, everyone went to bed and slept until just after 8:00 am (Brent and me).  James was still asleep and probably won’t wake up until after 11:00 am.

copyright 2017 - Anne Shier

My Vacation Time in Janetville - March Break 2017 (4) - by Anne Shier

(Babysitting my grandson, James)

Saturday March 11 to Saturday March 18, 2017:

On Wednesday morning (March 15^th), after I got up, I had a quick shower, got dressed, and went downstairs to make my usual cup of coffee.  James was still asleep.  He has a number of tasks to do today:  take out the re-cycle bins to the laneway after the bins there have been emptied, which will happen later today; then, he has to shovel the snow from the walkway; and then do his homework or whatever is left of it.  I read my book again for a while this morning, then did the dishes from last night, made breakfast for James when he finally got up at 11:30 am, and then watched some TV shows on the Discovery Channel with James.  A while later, we had a late lunch.

Brent is working his overtime shift tonight until 7:00 pm and then going out with his good friends John and Steph for dinner.  They live in Whitby, Ontario, and it’s John’s birthday today.  Brent is planning on staying over at their place tonight and going to work from there tomorrow morning.  We won’t see him again until Thursday afternoon after his workday is done.  Meanwhile, James and I will have dinner on our own tonight – no big deal.  After dinner, we watched a previously recorded Pay-Per-View TV event called “WWE FastLane”, featuring popular WWE wrestlers, both male and female.  I enjoyed watching the females wrestling actually, not so much the males – they’re way too macho for my tastes.

I stayed up late again (till 1:30 am) watching “Forensic Files” while James watched his YouTube videos, at first downstairs then in his room upstairs.  So, we both got to bed late tonight.

On Thursday morning (March 16^th), when I woke up after 11:00 am, it was a really sunny day out today for a change – thank God!  I thought the sun would never come out – at least not this week.  But, I was wrong.  I took some new pictures with my Smart phone camera and they turned out much better than the ones I’d taken earlier in the week when it was so dreary out.

Today, I spent some more time reading and now I am about three-quarters of the way through my book.  I had made myself a coffee as usual, and then I thought of what we should have for breakfast.  There was a package of Pillsbury giant croissants in the fridge that seemed to be beckoning to me to bake, so I did and then called James to come downstairs for breakfast.  After breakfast, I had to go to the store to buy some milk and toilet paper because I knew that Brent doesn’t stop anywhere on his way home from work to buy anything.

I then spent some time sweeping the floors on the main level and upstairs.  And, I finally finished cleaning that pesky slow-cooker pot that the ribs were cooked in two days ago.  I hate cleaning out the greasy remnants of cooking fatty meat like ribs, but I did it.  Now, Brent has nothing to complain about.  James also did his part by taking out the re-cycling stuff today.  The bins on the laneway weren’t picked up yesterday as expected, so James had to wait until today to put the new re-cycling stuff outside on Brent’s driveway (the bins on the laneway belong to Brent and need to be emptied by the collectors before we can re-fill them).

In the afternoon, I mostly relaxed by playing “Solitaire” and “World Geography” on my Smart phone upstairs on my bed.  I also submitted a new order to Amazon from my Smart phone and it should be mostly delivered to me at home by March 22^nd which is next Monday.  But, part of the order won’t be delivered until early May, when one of the DVDs I want is available.  I also checked out my Gmail account and finally, my Facebook account.  I’ve been having trouble logging into Facebook on my Smart phone though and I’m not sure why.  It’s the same situation with Shoppers Drug Mart on my Smart phone only this login situation was supposed to have been fixed already.

Brent came home at 4:30 pm or little after that, and we are all going to be spending the evening after dinner watching “Survivor” and “Big Brother Canada”.  These are TV shows that Brent has already recorded on his PVR.  I usually don’t mind what we watch together as long as it’s not totally boring.  At least I got to watch “Forensic Files” for the last two nights, so I am not complaining about anything we watch tonight.  I take my opportunities to watch what I want whenever I can.  We missed him when he was away last night.  I don’t begrudge him his party time though.  John and Steph are really good friends of his and it was John’s birthday party, after all!  As it happened, they stayed in and ate dinner at John and Steph’s home and did not go out for dinner.

As it happened later on, we did watch the two pre-recorded shows “Survivor” and “Big Brother Canada”.  Then, we watched a second Maple Leaf game, this time versus the Tampa Bay Lightning, and it was spectacular!  The Maple Leafs redeemed themselves from their disastrous defeat against the Florida Panthers (a 7-2 loss) and they are back in contention for a wildcard playoff spot.  Tonight, we ordered dinner in - it was a pizza dinner to beat all pizza dinners!  “Tony’s Best” provided us with an extra-large meat-lover’s pizza with extra cheese, a pound of wings with honey-garlic sauce, a box of potato wedges which were mouth-watering, a pound of raw veggies, cheesy garlic bread, and enough drinks for six people.   It was truly yummy!

copyright 2017 - Anne Shier

My Vacation Time in Janetville - March Break 2017 (3) - by Anne Shier

(Babysitting my grandson, James)

Saturday March 11 to Saturday March 18, 2017:

On Tuesday morning (March 14^th), I woke up relatively early to answer the call of Nature, but didn’t know what time it was.  It was quiet, which meant that Brent had decided to go to work after all, even though a snowstorm was forecast for today, and James was still asleep.  I lay back down and stayed in bed for a while just thinking.  Finally, when I heard my cell phone ringing downstairs, I got up, got dressed and went downstairs to call Brent back.  No doubt, he was calling to remind me to put the pot full of already-prepared ribs into the slow cooker so that they would cook thoroughly by dinner time today.  

After doing that, I made myself a coffee and sat down to spend some more time reading my book “The Girl on the Train”.  It’s a good book, but it’s taking me a long time to finish it.  I haven’t spent much time reading at all since I started this book in the Dominican Republic in mid-January, so I’m only about halfway through it.  Meanwhile, I know that Amazon has a DVD movie of this book available and I am going to order it this week and have it delivered next week when I’m back home in Toronto.

Today, I also resolved to do some journal writing, something I try to do whenever I’m not at home.  Somehow, I didn’t get to it until this afternoon, but here I am finally doing it.  Other than that, I did the same things I’ve done since Monday – made James his breakfast and later on, his lunch.  After lunch today, James and I went for a walk over to his friend, Jayden’s, but Jayden wasn’t home.  It was quite cold out; my face froze.   Later on, I had a nap this afternoon when Brent arrived home.  I think it’s because I had a headache or maybe I was just feeling the cold.  Some more snow had fallen, but not a great deal, which is why Brent had gone to work this morning.  Regardless, it was definitely colder out.

Later tonight, I’m probably also going to be watching some of Brent’s recorded TV shows on the PVR and watching Brent and James play video football again.  Maybe, with some luck, I will be able to watch my favourite show when James goes to bed:  “Forensic Files”, which Brent doesn’t want him to watch with me (assuming, of course, that I don’t also want to go to bed at the same time as James).

We had dinner as usual later in the evening:  slow-cooked ribs, rice, and salad, and it was delicious!  Then, we settled in to watch the Toronto Maple Leafs play the Florida Panthers.  We knew this hockey game would be a fierce contest, but it became obvious right from the beginning of the game that the Panthers were going to outclass the Leafs.  During the second period, after the Panthers had scored their fifth goal of the night, versus the Leafs’ single goal, that Brent decided to switch to a TV show called “Scorpion “, which I’d never seen before.  It was a pretty interesting show.

Brent was so exhausted after his late retirement to bed the previous night that he fell asleep on the couch around 9:30 pm.  Meanwhile, James was looking at YouTube videos on his iPad and I took this rare opportunity to watch “Forensic Files” due to the fact that James was busy elsewhere and Brent was asleep.  It was maybe 12:30 am when Brent finally decided to retire upstairs to bed while James and I stayed up downstairs until 1:30 am.

I had some problems getting to sleep tonight because of recurring knee pain, so I applied some Heat Rub onto my knees and upper legs, and also onto my neck, which also has recurring arthritis, so the pain was minimized overall.  Although this trick did not work until I took an extra Tylenol # 3 afterward, I did eventually get to sleep and stayed that way until 7:30 am when I had to get up to answer the call of Nature.  Then, I went back to bed after turning on my Notebook computer located by my bed and fell back asleep until about 10:00 am or so.  For me, this is a “normal” night these days.

copyright 2017 - Anne Shier

My Vacation Time in Janetville - March Break 2017 (2) - by Anne Shier

(Babysitting my grandson, James)
Saturday March 11 to Saturday March 18, 2017:

On Sunday morning (March 12^th), I woke up late – 11:00 am is late for me.  James also slept in and when we got up, I made myself a coffee and made James his breakfast.  I don’t remember who made lunch today or if we even had lunch.  Brent doesn’t have to work today, but he’s going to make dinner for us three tonight and I’ll do the dishes and make his lunch for work.  When we’re together, we work well together as a team.  It’s James’ job to take out the re-cycle bins and garbage from the kitchen to the laneway when necessary.  I usually don’t do the cooking when Brent’s home, but I always help with the dishes afterward since Brent doesn’t like doing them.  

On Monday morning (March 13th), I woke up relatively early.  Brent had gone to bed at 10:30 pm, and James and I went to bed at midnight last night.  This time, I did sleep through the night.  At home, I’m usually wrestling with the arthritic pain in my knees and doing whatever I can to minimize it.  If I’m lucky, I may get to sleep before 4:00 am and then I strive to stay asleep until at least 10:00 am.  Today, I was lucky enough to stay asleep until 10:15. 

Brent has to work today and I’d made him a lunch last night for him to take.  He told me he was coming home right after work tonight and he was going to cook dinner for us three, but sometime this week, he told me he will stay back and work overtime till 7:00 pm.  In that case, I will have to cook dinner, but only for James and me; Brent will look after his own.  We’ll just have to wait and see which night he chooses to work overtime.  It’s fine with me – he just has to tell me what he’s going to do.  This afternoon, I read a little bit of my book “The Girl on the Train”, and I played “World Geography” on my Smart phone, as I usually do. 

I went to bed before midnight along with Brent and James.  Brent did not want to go to bed by 10:30 pm tonight for some reason.  He only does that because he has to get up at 4:45 am and be out the door by 5:00 am or a little after.  Anyway, I’d had a headache most of the day today and just didn’t feel like staying up.  I was kind of tired as a result and went to bed earlier than I normally would have while staying up here.

copyright 2017 - Anne Shier

My Vacation Time in Janetville - March Break 2017 (1) - by Anne Shier

(Babysitting my grandson, James)

Saturday March 11 to Saturday March 18, 2017:

On Saturday March 11^th around 2:00 pm, Brent picked me up at Yonge and York Mills as he usually does and we drove northeast toward his place in Janetville, Ontario.  James wasn’t with him though - he was going to be dropped off by his mother later this evening.  Meanwhile, we had to go grocery shopping since Brent had run out of food at home.  I would be staying at his place for the week while he worked and babysitting James at Brent’s place because it was Brent’s turn for custody.  He and James’ mother, Tori, share custody equally.  This week, it’s March Break and, usually, parents spend it with their kids, except that Brent has to work this week.  He’s used up all of his holidays for now until July 2017.

 

It’s a largely grey, sunless week up here on Lake Scugog.  There is still a little bit of snow on the ground, but not enough to prevent you from going anywhere on foot.  It’s a really nice place to visit when the sun is out even in the winter, but this week is not one of those weeks, so far - too bad.

All we did on Saturday evening was to watch some TV shows that Brent had recorded on his PVR and later on, after dinner, Brent and James played their football video game on the PlayStation 4 system.  It’s pretty awesome.  The graphics are very lifelike and, even though I am not a fan of football by any means, I like the way that Brent and James interact with the football players in the game. 

I really wish that, as a computer programmer, I could have created something like this during my career, but it was impossible since it takes a lot of knowledge of graphics as well as Object-Oriented (OO) programming to create games like this and make them work properly. Computer technology had just not advanced that far.  This video game is pretty complex.  There are many teams with many football players on each team and many different plays that can be made.  It would definitely require a team approach to develop a project like this that has so many design and programming stages.

copyright 2017 - Anne Shier