Annoying things & small pleasures

Annoying things:  

• For the first time ever, I lost my cellphone last month (July). Thankfully, it was only a temporary thing:  I left it sitting on the table at the restaurant where we were having dinner on our wedding anniversary. (eyeroll)  I normally don't look at my phone much when we're out for dinner (and of course we haven't done that as much since the pandemic) -- but the service was a little slow (and dh was looking at his), so.... 
• When we got home, I realized it wasn't in my purse or in any of the other usual places I set it. Tried calling it with dh's phone -- nothing. (Uh oh...)  Dh went down to the parking garage;  it wasn't in the car, so he hopped in and went back to the restaurant while I called ahead. Thankfully, the waitress who served us had already found it and left it at the front desk. Whew! 
• (Another reason why you should leave your phone in your purse/pocket when you're in a restaurant...!)  
• I'm sure I've written before about the McMichael Centre for Canadian Art, a true national treasure in a small town near where I now live. I took out a membership not long after we moved here, and we've really enjoyed visiting there a couple of times a year to tour the exhibits, hear some of the interesting lectures and stroll around the beautiful grounds. I've also brought guests with me occasionally. (My membership is a "plus one," i.e., it covers admission for two people, and also includes a handful of time-limited guest passes.) 
• The last time we were there was earlier this year, and I'd been saying to dh that we should go again soon (and certainly in the fall, when the colours are at their peak!). 
• I'd heard the gallery was planning to expand -- but it came as a bit of a shock when they  announced on July 16th that it was (temporarily) closing... for THREE YEARS (until sometime in 2029).  (That's assuming all goes well, of course...!) 
• Not only that, the closing date was July 26th -- just 10 days after the announcement (!) -- and a few days before we were scheduled to leave for Manitoba for a few weeks -- meaning we wouldn't have time to squeeze in a last visit before closure.  (I wasn't the only person who questioned this schedule...!)  
• Meanwhile, my membership has been paused. 
• A lot of very hot, humid days, both here and at Dad's (although this past week has not been as bad). The humidex reading one day at Dad's was 47C ( = 117F).  Yuck.  Thank goodness his apartment has an air conditioner (albeit it's very noisy, and he kept turning it off because he would get cold...!).  
• The plug-in carbon monoxide detector we bought & installed when we moved into our condo 10 years ago reached the end of its life and started giving off warning chirps... at 5 AM (why do these things ALWAYS go off in the middle of the night??!), the morning after an exhausting day of travelling home from visiting my dad (!). 
• It's been four years (!) this summer since I had both eye surgery and gallbladder removal, three weeks apart (!)... and a selfie I took and posted on social media, of me prepped and waiting to get rid of pesky gallbladder, recently surfaced in my Facebook memories. I reposted it with a caption saying, "No regrets, hardly any digestive issues since! (And a much easier recovery than the eye surgery I had three weeks earlier...!)"  Would you believe I had THREE people offering me thoughts & prayers for a speedy recovery??!  I mean, it was lovely of them (they were mostly older friends of my parents, perhaps not entirely social media-savvy), but... does anyone actually read captions anymore?
• On a recent discussion thread I was on, the host asked for ideas for future discussion thread topics... and someone suggested a thread of birth stories (!), saying it made her sad to think she only had so many people to tell her story to, and it would make everyone [ed. note: "everyone??"]  feel supported and also prepared, because "no one talks about it!"  
• Do she & I live on the same planet?? 
• I was tempted leave a comment reminding her (and everyone else reading) that not all of us who wanted a baby get to give birth, and some of us have birth stories you really do not want to hear (and yeah, some of us really don't want to hear yours either...!) -- but I bit my cybertongue and scrolled on. (And came here to vent, lol.)  

Small pleasures:  

• Sleeping in my own bed again!!  
• (On that note:)  The new sheets I got just before we left. My sister had recommended them to me a while back, and while I've been reluctant to order from Amazon or buy American lately if I can help it (for obvious reasons...), dh shredded our bottom sheet with his toenail (don't ask...), and my former go-to places to buy bedding (The Bay, Sears, Bed Bath & Beyond...) have all gone the way of the dodo bird in recent years, so...  They are lovely, crisp 100% cotton damask sateen, 500 thread count, deep pockets on the fitted sheet, and reasonably priced.  I'm going to order a second set to keep in reserve!  
• Spending time with the the great-nephews after three weeks away (almost half the summer...!).
• I was pretty busy while we were at Dad's, and I had my share of screen time while I was there (more so on the phone than my laptop) -- but I did have time to finish five (!) books while we were there (albeit a couple of them were pretty short).  :)