Jumpin’ June

On July 3, 2016July 3, 2016 By Widow BadassIn Goals & Dreams, Home Improvement, MBA, See the Beauty1 Comment

I had a feeling that June was gonna be a bit crazy and it did not disappoint.

First there was the wedding of the son of a good friend, which was delightful and took place on one of those perfect June days that make it such a popular month for nuptials.

Then there was prepping for renovations AND for leaving for Edmonton for my Convocation:

Accepting MBA degrees for both myself and JD.

It was emotionally draining, to say the least. But I was glad I did so that JD got his recognition. He received a spontaneous standing ovation and many eyes were filled with tears. The dean broke down several times while reading the short biography I prepared about JD. Afterwards so many strangers approached me to say how touched and inspired they were, and to offer me a hug.

After the ceremony, with JD's hood draped over my arm. — After the ceremony, with JD’s hood draped over my arm.

Meanwhile, back at Chez Badass floors were being sanded down and refinished! I came back home on a Sunday evening to my planned interior and exterior renovations in full swing.

There was nothing to do but put up with the disruption and hit the trails. Almost every night that week I was at the Dundas Conservation Area for the annual 4 Day-Evening Walk (a Dutch tradition brought home to Canada):

Walkers ahead of me got their Dutch on, wearing orange for the Dutch royal family (House of Orange). — Walkers ahead of me got their Dutch on, wearing orange (official colour of the walk) for the Dutch royal family (House of Orange).

Four 5 km walks earned me my Year 5 participation medal.

Renovation work continued, both inside and out.

New entrance doors and exterior lighting. — New entrance doors, just installed…and new exterior lighting (LED).

Another escape from all the dust and debris and flaking paint, onto the Speed River:

Kayak parking only...hehehe. — Kayak parking only…hehehe.

Breakfast on the water. A grain-free Morning Glory muffin.

Wish Floyd came with a cup holder. Don’t possess a thigh gap really – more of a tea gap 😉

When indoors, I have been working away at the Badass Budget and have set up another automatic savings account (Emergency Bucks) as a result, and in addition to my pre-existing Travel Bucks account. Lest I fritter away all my discretionary cash on stuff like these lovely Fluevogs:

Is this truly the last pair of shoes I will buy in 2016? Check back with me after my upcoming trip to the Netherlands.

And I have placed myself on a shoe moratorium for the remainder of 2016, after having to find new homes for my clothing and shoes during the apartment renovation. I’m not approaching Imelda Marcos territory with respect to shoe collecting but damn…I realized I do have many pairs….and many pairs I cannot or will not wear any longer. So I did a bit of purging in June also.

So badass yet so practical. Yes, those are skulls on the buckle.

And finally, on the last day of June, my dining room dreams came true as I took delivery of the table I had custom-made, from reclaimed threshing mill floor planks (hemlock):

Dining room furniture: check! — Renovate room and acquire dining room furniture: check!

A bit of mixed feelings on this one, as this room was last in regular use as my mom’s bedroom. But I know she would be very happy that I have a table again at last, for everyone to sit down at.

Party ready for my Canada Day baby's birthday on the 1st. — Party ready for my Canada Day baby’s birthday on the 1st.

Hope everyone had a lovely June and has an exciting July on deck!

Rock on,

The WB

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A Plan is Born

On May 21, 2016May 21, 2016 By Widow BadassIn Goals & Dreams, Roadtripping5 Comments

I love to plan things. This is no secret to those that know me. The J in my personality profile (INFJ) needs decisions to be made, like NOW.

The sooner I get shit nailed down, the better I like it. I’m OK with changing plans – even at the last moment – but I want there to be a plan in place to begin with. I am not happy with drifting along aimlessly. Course corrections/deviations are always allowed but there needs to be a flight plan first!

I have just come off of a long period of my life in which my ability to plan or control it was extremely limited – living with someone with OCD meant “the plan” was always gonna be his plan. And try as I might to have some control over my life and jointly plan our future, there was very little input I had as the disease had the final say on just about everything.

Then, after JD passed away I was left with the issues that the OCD had created…to clean up this huge mess literally and figuratively. But at the same time I was feverishly planning my new life as a widow.

Confession time: the planning actually started as JD’s disease progressed and my tiny fragile sliver of hope for his survival evaporated. That sounds cold but it is the truth. While caring for him as he withered away from the cancer, a part of my mind was also busy drafting a plan for dealing with the aftermath of his passing. This is how I was able to hit the ground running right away and get his messy, chaotic life and hoard cleaned up in just under a year. They say not to make any major decisions in the first year after a spouse passes away, but in my circumstances these decisions were absolutely necessary and thought out well in advance.

My new life plans only existed about a year or two out up until yesterday, and they lived in my head and nowhere else except for some brief mentions on ye olde blogge. I was flipping through the new National Geographic Travel Magazine while eating lunch at work when I came across this article:

Route 66: The Mother Road turns 90 this year.

Holey moley! It hit me all at once. In less than 10 years I will be retired from full-time work if all goes well. In 10 years Route 66 will be turning 100. And I will be 66 for part of that year. Getting my kicks on Route 66 when 66…how can I NOT do this?

As I was thinking this and looking at the article, I felt like I’d been really close to a lightning strike and a huge thunderclap was reverberating through my body. I knew I had to make a long-term plan to get from A (now) to B (The Mother of All Road Trips) successfully.

So then I got to thinking about retirement and how I don’t really have much of a plan from now until then either. Except for some vague thinking about what to fix on my building for the next couple of years AND to start putting the equivalent of my car payment into savings each month once Edward II the Sparkly Prius is paid off next December…

I realized I didn’t even know the year of my retirement off the top of my head, except that it is about 8 years away (that’s 2024 for those that are still reading).

So WB (I said to myself), how ARE you gonna get from here to adventuring off into the Western sunset in your hippie van/Airstream Bambi/ragtop convertible/Harley Davidson/Mercedes Sprinter Camper/whatever? Aha! The zygote of a game plan was conceived at the moment I asked the question.

That night the 10 Year Plan spreadsheet was born. Not only that, it’s fraternal twin (surprise!) – the Badass Budget – took its first breath as well. Both babies are doing well and Momma couldn’t be more thrilled. More about them later…

Rock on,

The WB

A-Z Blogging Challenge Reflections

On May 12, 2016 By Widow BadassIn Hmmm?, UncategorizedLeave a comment

Another April, another 26 posts.
Got through them again, without too much angst although some posts were pretty durn lean due to time and creativity constraints.
I am disappointed I didn’t get to visit as many blogs as I was intending to, ~~before the madness that is the challenge began~~ pre-April. No one to blame but myself.
However, I do have the list of 2016 participants bookmarked and it is my plan to dive in to it throughout the next 12 months to find more great bloggers to visit.

I am so very thankful to the A-Z Team for making this possible every year! I find this exercise revitalizes me and reminds me how much I get out of ~~spewing my guts on~~ keeping up ye olde blogge.

My goal for 2017 is to come up with a theme. There, I said it.

Rock on,

The WB

It’s been a Mother of a Day

On May 9, 2016 By Widow BadassIn Health Transformation, Hmmm?, Uncategorized2 Comments

I hope everyone had an absolutely delightful day yesterday because I know I did!

I had been dreading Mother’s Day a little as this year marked my first motherless Mother’s Day in 56 years. But the anticipation of how I would feel was, as usual, worse than the actual way I ended up feeling.

I was determined to make it a good day and that in itself paved the way for me to have a very good…no, great day! Because I had planned ahead to make Mother’s Day my bitch.

I woke up early , raring to clean and reseal the slate tiles in my bathroom. I also did laundry and finished binge-watching the rest of Season 2 of Grace and Frankie. Goddess bless Netflix, I say. And Jane Fonda and Lily Tomlin and the writers and the rest of the cast. And yam lube and Count Drinkula and Hitler’s Circumcision. And so on.

Then I went to the Village Rec Centre and signed myself up for a 10 visit pass and got ready to attend my first drop-in fitness class. Of which I ended up being the only participant. SHIT. No hiding in the back or dogging it. I was the centre of the instructor’s attention. THE. WHOLE. CLASS. And today I hurt where I didn’t even know I had muscles. It was glorious. Especially watching Instructor Ian show off all his killer fitness moves (which I am supposed to be aspiring to perform myself, one day) as I was egging him on. Hah!

I kinda committed myself to trying out his yoga class tomorrow night too. Damn.

Anyhow, while I was wrecking myself at the Wreck Centre all hell was breaking loose back amongst the famille. Mizz J had been trying to reach me and I wasn’t answering my cell phone since I left it at home. As this was unusual behaviour for me, she enlisted her brother, Miztah K (lives 5 minute walk away), to come over to my place to recover my certain-to-be-dead body before she could drive across town to do it herself. Before a pack of wild cats came in to eat me, I suppose.

So this was the situation I dragged my sweaty self home to, after Instructor Ian handed me my ass.

Miztah K had told his sister that I was just probably out and about since there was no dead body (or cats) to be found in my place. So I found her making herself breakfast in my kitchen and relatively calm by the time I arrived back home.

The rest of the day was nice and peaceful. I made supper for us all, including Miztah K’s delightful girlfriend, Mizz C. I also made my kids work, carrying a bunch of stuff down to the basement in preparation for next month’s renovation of 3 rooms. No free lunch at Mom’s house…hehehe.

I was the beneficiary of the most wonderful Mom’s Day gifts. Behold:

108 bead Mala necklace created by Mizz J. So pretty!!! — 108 bead Mala (Tibetan rosary) necklace created by Mizz J. So meaningful and pretty!!!

Kayaking and hiking gear, colour-coordinated to go with Floyd the Pink Kayak. From Miztah K and Mizz C. So damn nice!!! — Kayaking and hiking gear – colour-coordinated to go with Floyd the Pink Kayak. From Miztah K and Mizz C. So damn nice and thoughtful!!!

After supper, it was time to ~~sleep through make fun of bitch about~~ watch a couple more installments yet in the never-ending James Bond film festival ongoing at Chez Badass. Roger Moore’s interminable reign had finally ended so it was Timothy Dalton’s highly forgettable turn. Next up is Pierce (Mamma Mia) Brosnan.

All I can say is I appreciate Daniel Craig more with each movie I watch in this series.

Hope you remembered your momma and/or your kids were good to you.

Rock on,

The WB

Survivor!

On May 2, 2016May 2, 2016 By Widow BadassIn Bruce Trail Adventure, Hmmm?, The Great OutdoorsLeave a comment

And congratulations to all my fellow survivors! We did it! Some of us did it again! (Year 2 for me.)

Yay everybody!!!

What a weekend for finishing up challenges this was. Mizz J and I got our Niagara section end-to-end badges on Saturday – look:

Yes, we were also awarded chocolate "Congratulations" bars. Which were inhaled immediately after this selfie. — We were also awarded chocolate “Congratulations” bars from Monk’s Chocolate. Which were inhaled immediately after this selfie.

Eighty kilometres down. Only 805 to go. Tobermory or bust! 😉

Saturday was another stellar hiking day. Eight Saturdays spent outdoors with nary a drop of rain. Incredible luck with the weather.

The previous week's hike, as captured by the Garmin. — The previous week’s hike, as captured by the Garmin.

Saturday's hike data. — Saturday’s hike data.

We saw at least a thousand of these. Trilliums - the provincial flower. — We saw at least a thousand of these in the woods. Trilliums – the provincial flower.

Only a trickle right now, but still more falling water.

Always seeing Lake Ontario through the trees and in the distance. — Always seeing Lake Ontario in the distance, through the trees.

Forest floor carpeted with trilliums and trout lilies. — The forest floor was carpeted with trilliums and trout lilies.

I think I’m suffering a bit of a post-challenge let-down right now.

Mizz J and I are wondering if to continue on our own or leave off hiking for a bit till the fall. The next few weekends are tied up with other scheduled events and by the time we are free to hike again, the heat/humidity and biting insects will be out in full force. It may be time to switch to other pursuits like kayaking instead. Oh goody!

Rock on,

The WB

Z is for…

On April 30, 2016 By Widow BadassIn Health Transformation, Hmmm?4 Comments

…Zen Habits.

I have been subscribing to Leo Baubata’s blog posts for years now.

Yesterday’s post on upward and downward spirals in health and productivity resonated with me more than usual.

I had noticed this tendency in myself many years ago. That I could be in a downward spiral with respect to health and emotional well-being until….little by little, tiny positive change by tiny positive change, I was spiraling my way back up again to a more positive, happier place.

This is a post that I could have written over 10 years ago (but not nearly as beautifully as Leo), except I wasn’t blogging then. (It wasn’t until 2009 that I joined the blogoverse in a real, committed way.)

Leo’s blog is all about changing your life one positive habit at a time. You don’t need to quit your job or leave your relationship or trek up a mountain and meet with a guru.

Although you may eventually do one or more of those things at some point along your journey, instead Leo asks you to make one small positive change at a time. Then build on that with another one. And another one. Until one day you notice you are living a very different (in a good way) life from one you were living a month or 6 months or a year ago. Because this is how he became fit, lost weight, quit smoking, got out of debt etc., etc. Read his story here.

Rock on,

The WB

Y is for…

On April 29, 2016April 29, 2016 By Widow BadassIn Hmmm?Leave a comment

…YOLO.

You. Only. Live. Once.

Somebody famous (or infamous) famously said: You only live once but if you do it right, it’s enough. Or very similar wording expressing the same sentiment. Blah blah blah…details!

The point being made that living life fully is the way to go.

For me that means being in the present moment, as much as possible. Not just going through the motions or living life on autopilot while mulling over the past or fretting about the future. Being engaged with people and the community. And saying yes… a lot. But not so much that this happens.

Oh, the mythical Balanced Life – how it eludes me, even now! 😉

Living life right. Easier to say than to do at times. But with practice and determination, I believe it is possible to achieve, even just momentarily.

YOLO it up everyone – and rock on,

The WB

X is for…

On April 28, 2016April 28, 2016 By Widow BadassIn Hmmm?Leave a comment

…the lovely X-Chromosome.

I am so blessed to have been given 2 of these, making me female.

I remember as a young child becoming very frightened at the thought that I could have been born a boy instead. Followed by immense relief that I could live my life as a girl.

I can’t begin to imagine the torment that transgendered individuals go through when they realize their inner and outer selves don’t match society’s expectations for gender. Thankfully there is beginning to be acceptance for these individuals. To live happier lives and to be able to fully express who they really are. We still have a long way to go as a society but progress is being made.

Late yesterday I found out it was Denim Day. April 27th is a day to wear denim to work in support of a woman who was told by an Italian court that her driving instructor couldn’t have raped her because she was wearing tight jeans at the time. The justice ruled that since she was wearing these jeans she had to have helped her attacker remove them so he could rape her and that meant it was consensual.

So I am wearing denim at work today with this in mind. Okay, confession time – I often wear denim as I work for an agricultural company and denim is our power suit. 😉

But today I am wearing my jeans with intent. Intent to support of all those XX (and XY too) chromosome possessors who have been – and continue to be – told that they or their actions have caused their bodies to be violated by another human being.

Wanna know who is responsible for rapes happening? Rapists. The End.

Rock on,

The WB

W is for…

On April 27, 2016 By Widow BadassIn Bruce Trail Adventure, Health Transformation, The Great OutdoorsLeave a comment

…Walking.

Sometimes the simplest things are the best, you know?

What could be more simple than walking, for those who are able-bodied enough to do so?

You don’t even need to think about how to do it. You just think about where you need to go and magically your body takes you there!

Which is why walking meditation works so well. The act of walking is so automatic for those of us blessed with working legs that our minds can be freed up for other pursuits while we are walking.

The steady rhythm of walking puts me in a mental state that allows for deep thought (0r the distinct lack thereof, if I am trying to meditate). I often solve problems or come up with fresh plans while I am out walking.

My spirit is renewed by the sights, smells and sounds of nature. My body is energized by the deeper breathing involved in fast walking, and the upright posture that allows my lungs to inflate fully. My mind is rested by the beautiful scenery and the deliberate shutting down of inner chatter (when actively trying to meditate).

Walking can be done just about anywhere and needs no special equipment.

Walking is too often taken for granted by those of us who do it without thinking. Guilty, as charged.

Rejoice if you can walk!

Rock on and walk (mindfully) on,

The WB

V is for…

On April 26, 2016 By Widow BadassIn The Great Outdoors, UncategorizedLeave a comment

…Van.

Specifically a retro-style camping van.

Something like this:

hire-a-camper-van-isle-of-wight — VW Camper Van aka Hippie Van

Is what I am envisioning for adventuring with, in my retirement years.

And then sometimes I think I would rather have something like this:

I fell in love with the Airstream Bambi at a camping show this winter.

Thankfully retirement is still a few years away. Maybe by then someone will have come up with the perfect option for me. A VW van with the modern trimmings (A/C, bluetooth…for starters) or a Bambi with an induction stove and solar panels…Hey a girl can dream, can’t she?

Rock on,

The WB