#MicroblogMondays: Sad things, annoying things & small pleasures

Sad things:  

• My beloved uncle & godfather passed away recently, not long after his 81st birthday. He was my mom's younger brother and only sibling -- my only uncle on that side of the family. He'd just turned 81. His health had not been good in recent years and, as my cousin/his son told me when I messaged him, "he kind of ran out of gas."  :(  I hadn't seen him since summer 2016, but we've talked on the phone and I've kept up with him & his family through social media and through my mom, who spoke/speaks with them regularly. I am going to miss him. :( 
• I told my mom I like to think he's joined my late grandparents and other family members (including my Katie, of course) at that big kitchen table in the sky (which looks suspiciously like my grandmother's old kitchen, only bigger), where the coffee pot is never empty and the laughter just keeps on going.  :)  ❤

Annoying things:  

• Waking up (AGAIN -- 4th time in two weeks) at about 7:15 a.m. to a tapping noise coming from the bathroom walls (or ceiling?).  Dh went upstairs a while later and tapped on the door of the unit above ours, hoping to speak to the tenant (we know it's rented) and find out if she'd been in the shower or???  but no one answered the door. :(  
• The property manager came by last week, notified the unit's owner and was able to go in and run some water through the pipes, and while we could hear the faint sounds of water running (as we sometimes do -- and that's to be expected, I think), we didn't hear any tapping/dripping noise this time. There's not much she can do until/unless we actually see signs of water damage. (And the ceiling of our shower cubicle is tiled, so it may be quite a while before anything shows up, if this is what's happening.)  Sigh... 
• Knowing that I need to tackle cleaning the shower cubicle again, soon...!  (One of my least favourite chores! -- although I always appreciate how it looks when it's done!) 
• Certain politicians (on both sides of the border...!).  :p   
• Unrelenting grey skies these past several months (including this morning). 
• Small pleasure:  The rare days when we see blue sky & sunshine! 
• Not being able to think of something more original/interesting for a #MM blog post.  ;)  

Small pleasures:  

• Spending a full day last week with Little Great-Nephew, who was on spring break from junior kindergarten.  Exhausting, but so much fun!  :)  
• Seeing BIL in a good mood, and more like himself than he has been in a very long time.  :)  
• Knowing that he & SIL had a nice holiday with his & dh's cousin and her husband in the Caribbean.  :)  
• A trip down Yonge Street in Toronto last week, from the 407 to our optometrist's office midtown. The traffic can be miserable (and it wasn't great), but it was a gorgeous day outside (18C!! -- I left my jacket in the car for the short walk from the parking lot to the office), we had the windows rolled part way down, and it was fun/interesting to see all the changes that had taken place even just since our last trip along the same route a few months ago.  
• (Annoying/sad thing:  SO. MANY. CONDO BUILDINGS!!  going up!! =  entire blocks of stores and other small businesses being demolished...!)  
• No significant changes in my vision since my last visit!  :)  
• Taking Easter/spring decorations to the cemetery for Katie's niche. 
• Driving around our old community afterwards (to kill time before an appointment nearby). We didn't go past our old house, but we did drive down some streets we hadn't been on in quite a while. 
• Easter chocolate. :)  I bought some for Little Great-Nephew's Easter goodie bag (Little Great-Niece is still too little for candy) -- and some for us to nibble on too.  Both Lindor milk chocolate eggs, and Cadbury mini-eggs.  :)  
• The prospect of lunch with an old friend later this week. She messaged me on the weekend that she'll be in town and did we have time to get together on Thursday? 
• Annoying thing: I responded yes, proposed lunch and a place to eat -- and still haven't heard back from her. :p  
• Looking at my cellphone wallpaper:  a photo from Little Great-Niece's recent first birthday party,  of her sitting on the couch beside Little Great-Nephew (her cousin), who is playing a game on his tablet and studiously trying to ignore her (lol!!)  as she leans over to see what he's doing.  I think it's one of my favourite photos I've ever taken. 
• Trying a new recipe for dinner last night:  easy chicken tetrazzini (using Campbell's soup for the sauce!).  Very gooey and very rich (definitely NOT low-cal!!), but pretty good!  :)  (Lots of leftovers too!)  
• The first day of spring is tomorrow!!  

You can find more of this week's #MicroblogMondays posts here.