Right now

Right now...* 

*(A (mostly) monthly series/meme.  Explanation of how this started & my inspirations in my first "Right now" post, here. Also my first (similar) "The Current" post, here.)

September was a busy month (when are we not busy these days??), with mostly good weather (yay!). Younger Nephew moved into a new house, LGNephew #1 started Grade 1 (!), his little brother (LGNephew #2) was baptized (and we weren't there to see it  :(  ),  we (finally!) got the balcony windows washed (just in time for winter...!), and we spent another lovely weekend with dh's cousins at their cottage. 

This month included: 

• Dinner at BIL's (and some one-on-one time playing with Little Great-Niece), after dh spent the afternoon helping him and Younger Nephew move some stuff over to their new house. (Sept. 2nd) 
• (Dh) Helping with the move and setting things up at the new house the next day (Sept. 3rd). He & BIL came to get me later in the afternoon and took me over (in rush hour traffic...!) to see the new house and have some dinner. Younger Nephew's MIL brought LGNiece over (she'd had her all day) along with some food, which we all enjoyed. (SIL now goes there to take care of LGNiece two days a week, so we haven't seen her since then. :(  )  
• Brunch, gelato and then a browse at the bookstore (Sept. 4th), postponed from the first day of school (on the 2nd, when dh was helping Younger Nephew move). 
• More plumbing work (Sept. 8th, after a previous/expensive round in late August).  :p  (Hopefully the last needed for a LONG time...!) 
• Lunch and grocery shopping with dh at the supermarket (Sept. 8th, after the plumbers left!). 
• More grocery shopping (and takeout soup/pizza slices for lunch)(Sept. 15th & 29th). 
• Shopping/walking at the local mall for the first time since mid-August (avoiding back-to-school shoppers...!), Sept. 9th;  and again on Sept. 16th, 23rd & 30th.  
• Picked up dh's prescription at the drugstore en route home on the 9th. 
• Withdrew cash at the bank on Sept. 11th to put in a card for LGNephew #2's baptism gift (on Sept. 14th). 
• Took it to BIL's house the next day for them to deliver (since we weren't invited. :(  )
• Brunch (again) on the morning of Sunday, Sept. 14th (while LGNephew #2 was being baptized).
• Washing the balcony windows!! (Sept. 17th) (They look SO good!!) 
• Haircuts, lunch and a bit of shopping at the mall in our former community (Sept. 19th). 
• Browsing briefly at the bookstore and buying a board game there to bring as a hostess gift for our cottage weekend. (Sept. 24th) 
• Manicure & pedicure, then grocery shopping at the supermarket for supplies for our cottage weekend (Sept. 25th). 
• Our 5th annual fall weekend at dh's cousin's cottage with BIL & SIL, the couple that own the cottage and another cousin (Sept. 26th, 27th & 28th). 
• Visited Petroglyphs Provincial Park en route there. Very interesting! 

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Also right now:  

Reading: I finished 2 books in September (all reviewed on this blog, as well as Goodreads & StoryGraph, & tagged "2025 books"). 

• "A Place of Greater Safety" by Hilary Mantel, the most recent slow read with Footnotes and Tangents, which began May 5th and ran for 20 weeks through Sept. 15th. (3-3.5 stars;  my review.)  
• "The Secrets of Blythswood Square" by Sara Sheridan, the October selection for my Childless Collective Nomo Book Club. (3.5-4 stars;  my review.) 

This brings me to 27 books read in 2025 to date, 60% of my 2025 Goodreads Reading Challenge goal of 45 books. I am (for the moment, anyway...!) 6 books behind pace to meet my goal.  :) 

Current reads: 

• "Things Fall Apart" by Chinua Achebe, the current "slow readalong" with Footnotes and Tangents. Started Sept. 29th, runs for 5 weeks. 4% completed to date. 
• "The Two Mrs. Abbotts" by D.E. Stevenson. Chapter-by-chapter reading & discussion with my D.E. Stevenson group, which started Aug. 4th and runs through mid-October. (My original 2015 review here;  most recent review here).  79% completed to date. 
• "Childless: A Woman and a Girl in a Man's World" by Fabiana Formica.  This one is beautifully written, but slow going, and I was reading it (or trying to...!) at Mom & Dad's, where there were a lot of distractions. I've put it aside for the moment to focus on other reading priorities, but I've completed 33% to date.
• "L.M. Montgomery and Gender," an essay collection edited by E. Holly Pike & Laura Robinson. Slowly working my way through, in between the other books...! 

Coming up: Most of my book groups have their next reads plotted out for a few months in advance -- and listing them here helps me keep track of what I should be reading next. ;)  

• For my Childless Collective Nomo Book Club:  
• "We Solve Murders" by Richard Osman (November) 
• "I Am Half Sick of Shadows" by Alan Bradley (December) 
• For my D.E. Stevenson group:  This list of upcoming books should keep us busy through 2025 or even into early 2026!  (A couple of the books are ones we covered shortly after I first joined the group back in 2014 -- you know you've been around for a while when....!)  
• Crooked Adam. (I have never read this one, and we've never tackled it during my 11 years with the group! so I'm looking forward to it!)  
• The Four Graces (original 2015 review here). 

• Footnotes and Tangents slow readalongs planned for 2025 include:
• "The Blue Flower" by Penelope Fitzgerald -- starts Nov. 3rd, for 7 weeks. 

(Simon is a big fan of the late great Hilary Mantel, and the books he selected for 2025 were all ones that were either written by her or ones that she loved -- so he figured they would probably be worth reading!  2026 selections to be announced soon...) 

A few recently purchased titles (all in digital format, mostly discounted ($5-10 or less) or purchased with points): 

• "Endling" by Maria Reva 
• "When the Going Was Good" by Graydon Carter
• "Run for the Hills" by Kevin Wilson 
• "So Far Gone" by Jess Walter
• "Wild Dark Shore" by Charlotte McConaghy 
• "Stone Yard Devotional" by Charlotte Wood 
• "A Different Kind of Power" by Jacinda Ardern 
• "Little Bosses Everywhere" by Bridget Read 
• "The Correspondent" by Virginia Evans 
• "Detective Aunty" by Uzma Jalaluddin 

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Watching: 

• "The Marlow Murder Club" on PBS Masterpiece Mystery. The second season began on Aug. 24th and ran for six weeks, through Sept. 28th. I provided some thoughts on the first episode in my recent review of "Death Comes to Marlow" (which forms the basis of the first two episodes), here. 
• Pronatalism alert:  Annoyingly, the TV show injects a lot of content about families and motherhood/mother-child relationships into the scripts that is not present in the books (and generally not at all relevant to the plot). (Judith, the main character, is childless.)  
• Watched the first two episodes of "House of Guinness" on Netflix with SIL & dh's cousin's wife at the cottage last Saturday night. Pure (and often ridiculous/over the top, lol) soap opera, set in 1860s Dublin, based (very loosely, I am sure...!) on the real-life Guinness family of brewers. I enjoyed it enough that I will probably look for the other episodes to watch on my own!  

Playing:  

• Heardle Decades: Stats as of Sept. 30th:  
• Heardle 60s: 74.0% (779/1053, 309 on first guess), down 0.4% from last month. Max. streak: 15.
• Heardle 70s: 76.8% (610/794, 348 on first guess), down 0.3% from last month. Max. streak: 18. 
• Heardle 80s: 40.1% (264/659, 96 on first guess), unchanged from from last month. Max. streak: 5.
• Heardle 90s: 32.1% (244/759, 63 on first guess), unchanged from last month. Max. streak: 5. 
• NYT Connections: 
•  By Aug. 31st, I'd completed 398 games and won 87% of them, including 205 "perfect puzzles" with zero errors, including 9 where I got the most difficult/purple category first.  Maximum winning streak: 45 (unchanged). 
• As of Sept. 30th, I'd played 428 games and won 88% of them, including 220 "perfect puzzles" with zero errors, including 10 where I got the most difficult/purple category first.  Maximum winning streak:  45 (unchanged). Current streak: 30. 

Following:  

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Eating/Drinking:  

• As I've mentioned before, we achieved our goal of lowering our cholesterol levels in late January, after less-than-stellar bloodwork (in fall 2024) earned us both serious chats with our family doctor. We've been trying to maintain/improve on those numbers (and lose/keep off some extra pounds) since then, by eating healthier and moving at least a little more.    
• This goal took a bit of a hit over the summer -- as weight loss efforts often do.  While you might be out and about more/a little more active, you're also likely socializing and eating out more! (a few examples of that below...!) 
• I ended the month 0.4 pounds lighter than when it began. (I'll take it...!  lol)  Overall, I'm down about 12 pounds since our chat with the doctor last October (dh has lost more than 20), and a little over 24 pounds from my heaviest-ever weight a few years ago. 
• We've slacked off a bit lately (eating out a bit more) -- but we'll be seeing our family dr again for checkups (and, I'm sure, more bloodwork!) in late October -- so we've been trying to get back on track..! 
• We went out for brunch not just once but twice this month (and had omelettes both times -- ham & cheese for me, a Western for dh): 
• We'd planned to go for brunch on Sept. 2nd (first day of school hereabouts) -- because we can!  but those plans were upended when dh had to help Younger Nephew move. So we did it on Sept. 4th instead, followed by gelato ;)  and a browse at the bookstore. 
• We went again on the morning of Sunday, Sept. 14th, while LGNephew #2 was being baptized. 
• We ate very well at dh's cousin's cottage this weekend! The menu included barbecued hamburgers and sweet potato fries for lunch on Friday; chicken and veggie skewers on the grill for Friday supper;  excellent steaks and potatoes for Saturday night dinner, pasta & beans with sausage for Sunday lunch. Indulged in some wine and coolers to drink, and made a stop at the local ice cream shop for some Kawartha Dairy ice cream on Sunday afternoon before we all headed home. (I had the salty caramel truffle -- it was excellent!).  
• We also indulged in some of our usual takeout meals for lunch once or twice a week, plus Saturday night dinners, including soup and pizza slices from the supermarket, and veal & chicken cutlet sandwiches from California Sandwiches.

Wearing: (Still!) Enjoying my capris, sandals and short-sleeved T-shirts, while I still can...! 

Buying (besides books, lol):  This was an expensive month (and not for good reasons...!):   

• Paid for (more) plumbing repairs (Sept. 8th) -- hopefully the last for a LONG time...! (The bill for this round was, at least, substantially less than what we'd paid for "stage one," a week or two earlier in August...!).  
• Around the same time, we were notified of a "special assessment" on our condo unit, to help cover the cost of roof repairs (already done) as well as replacement of the rooftop "chiller" unit that provides air conditioning to all the units (and has broken down at least twice in the past two years during heat waves). 
• We've already had a previous special assessment, not too long after we moved here, to help rebuild the reserve fund (after it was drained by the completely useless now-former property managers who ran the building when it first opened -- robbing Peter to pay Paul, so to speak...). 
• Many owners in our building are up in arms, saying they won't pay (ummm, sorry, but that's what you signed up for when you bought the condo...!). There was an owners meeting/town hall last week with the board and property manager to discuss the matter. All owners were "strongly encouraged " to attend.
• Dh & I did not. I'm very conflict-averse (or maybe I'm just a coward, lol).  
• (I can't help but think of what happened in December 2022 at a condo building near the mall we frequently shop at -- a building we actually had on our list of potential places to look at (but never did), early in our search.  :(  I don't think I posted about this event at the time -- we were at my parents' house for Christmas then -- but you can read about it here, here and here.)  
• Obviously, we're not HAPPY about coughing up several thousand dollars (in two installments), on top of the monthly fees we already pay (AND the plumbing repairs we just had done...!)  -- but if the work needs doing, the work needs doing -- and as owners, it's our shared responsibility to ensure it gets done and to pay for it. 
• We do question, though, why both the roof and the chiller unit need replacing already, when the building is only about 10 years old??  (Did they use the absolute cheapest materials when they built this place??)  
• We also think the board/property manager could have communicated better with us up front while the repairs were going on, and when a/c was breaking down, just what was going on, and that this might be a possibility... 
• Gave LGNephew #2 cash in a card for his baptism on Sept. 14th (despite the fact we were not invited...!)(!). 
• Couldn't resist a pretty new blouse for myself from Reitmans... 
• ...or some new V-neck T-shirts from both Gap and Old Navy outlet stores.  :)  
• Started gathering stuff for Halloween goodie bags for the LGNiblings. :)  So far, each bag includes both Halloween and Christmas-themed PJs, a T-shirt, a book, a plastic Halloween tumbler (from the dollar store), jack-o'lantern deelybobbers (ditto), and a chocolate lollipop from Purdy's Chocolates (get 'em started on the good stuff young, lol),  
• Continued to purchase Canadian products (or from Canadian companies), as much as possible ;)  (albeit I will admit I'm not as much of a purist as some people seem to be...!).    

Prioritizing: My book club obligations, versus my own reading picks (tempting though some of them may be -- "The Impossible Fortune," I'm looking at you...!)// 

Noticing: Problems with my vision. Both eyes have been incredibly dry and irritated these past few weeks (no matter how many eyedrops I put in them), and recently, they've been itchy and gritty, and the eyelids red and irritated (allergies?). The left eye in particular has been irritated and the vision has frequently been blurry lately (but sometimes it clears and it's better??).  Either my vision is deteriorating (hopefully it's just aging, and the Saltzmann's nodules I had surgically removed three years ago from my right eye have not returned...??), my glasses need replacing (lots of scratches, etc., which certainly don't help matters), or (most probably) a bit of both. My glasses, after all, are 11 years old (!) -- they've served me well!  I liked them, and still do, but I think it's time for new ones. 

At my last visit to the optometrist (more than a year ago), he told me to come back when I turned 65 (i.e., January) -- presumably so he wouldn't have to charge me for the visit. (It's free for seniors 65+ in Ontario.) I may try to get in to see him earlier than that, though.  

Enjoying/Appreciating:  The nice fall weather (even if it's not exactly normal... and even though it's delayed the arrival of the fall colours a bit...!) 

Wondering: When our doctor's office will be running its fall vaccine clinics for covid & flu shots?  

Anticipating:  Getting to see the great-niblings on our upcoming (Canadian) Thanksgiving long weekend (if not before that...).  :)  We last saw LGNiece on Sept. 3rd (at her family's new house! -- almost a full month ago now...!), but haven't seen the two LGNephews since Aug. 16th ( = almost two full months).  :(  

Loving: Shopping for things for them. :)  Cute outfits for little girls still have the power to give me occasional pause, but I am glad that, for the most part, I can visit a children's wear store or department these days without feeling overwhelming sadness for what might have been... 

 

Trying:  To let things slide a little, re: my overflowing inbox & never-ending notifications. Trying to remember that I don't HAVE to look at/read everything...!  

Wanting/Hoping: (Still!!) To book a getaway of some sort, somewhere, before the end of the year...! (The days go by so quickly, and I often don't have the bandwidth to do the necessary research, let alone actually book something...)  

                              

Feeling: Disbelieving that we're into October, and the final few months of 2025, already!  Thankful that the weather has been so nice. But also: apprehensive, because it's not usual for this time of year....!  A little sad about the big changes that I know are coming for my family, as my aging parents (finally!) begin considering new housing options, after 40+ years in their current (split-level!) home.