And Now For My Next Trick!! HOHOHO!!

 Woke up this morning with a raging bladder infection and an ice covered car, parking lot and back porch steps.  Gag!!!  However, my husband woke up just before 9am and was more than willing to take me on the icy streets to the walk in clinic. God bless him!!!!  I told him to go home to wait for my call for a ride home because I knew I would be stuck at the clinic for awhile waiting to see the walk in doctor and another even longer time while waiting for a prescription to be filled.  As a matter of course, he asked me if I had my phone with me and of course I left it sitting on my desk at home, so I asked him to leave me his phone and I could call him on the landline.  AND also "of course" he didn't have his phone with him either. So, off he went to get my phone and return to the clinic to give it to me....again with the fishtailing on the solidly icy streets. Sigh....he is the MOST patient man.  

A big joy for me: the walk in doctor for the day is my very own doctor!!  So, not only did I get a prescription filled out, I was able to ask her a question I had about the muscle relaxants I am taking for my hip issues. YAY!!  There was an hour wait for the prescription at the pharmacy, so rather than call my husband out AGAIN, to come pick me up, then bring me back to pick it up probably ten minutes after we arrived home, I just sat on a rather uncomfortable chair beside the pharmacy department.  As I sat there, legs crossed and hoping there would be no "sudden urges", I noticed that on a bunk end directly across from me were 8 packs of purse sized tissues that I have been trying to find for months!!  So, I grabbed two of the 8 packs and hobbled up to the cashier to pay for them.  That wasted five minutes of my time before returning to the pharmacy chairs.  YAY! hahaha  After wating for about 40 minutes in total I decided it was worth going back to the Pick Up counter to at least ask if my prescription was ready and it was!  The pharmacist had just brought it to the front for dispersal. YIPPEE!  As soon as I had it in my hot little hands, I called my husband and enjoyed standing outside in the warming air to wait for him. Standing was much more comfortable than spending one more minute in that chair!!  

Tonight we are supposed to be going to a birthday dinner for a good friend, but I am guessing I am going to have to send my husband there on his own.  It will be a large group of partyers, so he will have just as good a time without me. I have already cancelled my weekly coffee visit with my friend tomorrow morning.  We are having a small group of friends over for a turkey dinner on Friday evening, so I need to do some cleaning and preparing of the suite and today is not the day for that now. Sigh... 

So many things in life do not turn out the way we plan or hope for, but things do turn out eventually.

Nan sent me the most wonderfully accurate description of grieving and I am going to keep it in my heart because I know my reaction to losing my husband, should he depart ahead of me, will be very similar to hers.  The quote goes like this and I am sorry but I do not know who the author is:

"The presence of that absence is everywhere." 

If you have lost someone dear to you then you will totally vibe with that statement.  Grieving is a very individual affair, but I think the statement succinctly sums up the process for most people. Tough times....

I Read The News Today……Ooooooh Boy………..

…..and I am feeling rather ill this morning. Prayer partners, please pray for my son’s and his partner’s future over the next four years. Thank you.

A Beautiful Thick Curtain Of Snowflakes

Oh my goodness….the snow is coming down so quickly. It is falling in huge flakes straight down to the ground as there isn’t much of a breeze. The temperature is still above zero so the snow is melting as soon as the flakes hit the ground. Unfortunately that moisture will begin to freeze as the temperature drops later today, but right now the thick flakes are a gorgeous sight. I stood outside for a few minutes just enjoying the snow. No ice yet. So pretty….

The Small Joys Of Aging.....

 A friend of mine recently communicated with me about her upset on the state of her "old lady" hair. She is my age and, like most of us hitting "that stage of life" is struggling to accept the changes that naturally occur.  She got me thinking about whether or not there is anything I am actually grateful for in regard to my current age....some little thing even, nothing major, just some teensy weensy joy. I did come up with a few small things that have been happening to me lately that I admit I am kind of enjoying.  Here is my response to her:

My hair has gone limp and impossible to style properly despite an excellent cut. It is partly due to the terrible water here. When I go to Vancouver and NYC I can wash it, blow it dry with no product and it looks fine. However, it is still limp and grey. Coupled with the latest addition of my mom’s Uber facial wrinkles I look like Methuselah!!  Now I have a cane added into the look so….. I kind of enjoy looking so old as no one pays any attention to me in public. Being invisible means I get away with a lot!! I get to be “eccentric “ when it suits my own purposes. I am embracing the aging! haha People call me “dearie” and give me their seats on public transport and let me butt into the front of long lineups, bus drivers tell me to keep my fare and use it to buy myself a cup of coffee; I get extra discounts , “sweetheart”, at retail store sales. What’s not to like, right??  Hahaha…..I will never travel by air again without a cane: preboarding with guaranteed space for my luggage in the overhead bins! Miraculous!!  So, at least until I get my hips replaced, this is my life! God is good.

I managed to encourage myself and gave my friend a good laugh, so I am kind of glad we had our little "discussion" on aging.  haha I just thought of another joy of aging and that is that I can now wear my old Harley Davidson motorcycle jacket (a fantastic pre-snow windbreaker) and lots of people seem to think that I look "soooo cute that she's trying to look so tough". hahaha  I create my own fun a great deal of the time.....

Yesterday was an excellent day. I had my annual appointment with my osteoporosis specialist and he was most encouraging about my bone density situation.  He gave me my prescriptions for my two injections of meds for next year and away I went.  Next year I will see him again on the same date at the same time.  He has moved out of the downtown to a beautiful new clinic building on a major thoroughfare that is very easy for me to drive to. There is plenty of parking on his lot and it is a much safer area to be wandering about than the downtown where he was previously.  One of his kids has joined him in his practice and soon a second child will be completing the same training and also joining the practise.  What a lovely family legacy that will stand our city, as it loses specialist after specialist, in good stead for the future.  

Our Covid boosters went just fine.  We arrived at the pharmacy far too early since my osteo appointment had taken far less time than I scheduled, so we purchased sandwiches at a nearby deli and enjoyed a leisurely lunch.  Even at that we arrived 25 minutes early for the vaccinations, but the pharmacist had just finished filling the morning prescriptions and took us right away. Bonus: time to run a couple of other errands before we came home.  Other than very sore arms today, we are not suffering any sort of reaction to the shots. Yay!  I did learn something from the pharmacist that I hadn't known before: to fully relax my arm and make the injection sting less I need to hang it straight down, limply, from my shoulder rather than bend it at the elbow.  I was amazed to discover this simple posture resulted in almost no sensation at all of the meds being injected.  Good to know for future injections of all kinds.

Today will be our first freezing rain and proper snowfall apparently.  I am so disappointed that we will, after all, have a freezing rain to start the winter.  Although some warmer temps are forecast for during the daytime hours over the next few days that may melt everything off the streets again, I was really hoping we could avoid the freezing rain altogether this year. Yes, yes, I know there was little hope of my dream being realized, but I am allowed to hope and cope with the disappointment I set myself up for.  At least we are not living in south eastern AB and southwestern SK. They are forecast to receive between 15 and 25cm of snow with stormy winds that will reduce the visibility for travelling and make any kind of travel extremely unsafe.  How grateful I am that we are not out on the roads today, that the autumn weather held for Cee's funeral on the weekend and that our groceries will be sufficient for a week or two.  

My husband walked to the postbox this morning to mail an important letter since the rain had not yet arrived and thus far Canada Post has not posted noticed of a date for their impending annual pre-Christmas Rush strike.  They could issue it as soon as this coming Sunday, so wanted to get anything needing to be sent via Snail Mail out by today. 

So, here I sit waiting for the rain to start falling. Should be any minute now...or later....or not at all (best case scenario, teehee).  I am neither showered nor dressed yet this morning but I don't care.  If I want to sit here and perform my annual First Freezing Rain Of The Winter Pout, I just darned well will. teehee  Actually, I have to be completely honest and admit that I am still filled with gratitude that our autumn has extended into the first week of November.  How can I not be happy and joyful about that, right?  Of course right!!

Favourite Figure Skating Routine Of All Time: ETCETERA!

My fave is Canadian Ice dancers Bourne and Kraatz performing Riverdance at the Tokyo Olympics in 1998:

 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0Tu7IxoRafM

I am also enamoured of the modular furniture company in NYC that produced our son's new media cabinet that I posted a photo of a post or two ago. Check it out:

https://us.usm.com/

Our son and his domestic partner call this modular furniture "futuristic", but we old fogeys call it "1960's retro"!  If you were alive in that particular former time period of solid colour geometric blocks and rectangles adorning all manner of items, you will know what I mean.

Yesterday I was able to see my doctor and start on a muscle relaxant. It is one I took years ago for severe back issues and I knew it would likely work for me.  After only 24 hours worth of meds I am feeling quite a positive difference. Yes, the pain is still there in moderation, but I really don't care!  Yee Haw...pain meds.....hahaha.

My husband and I made a pact over a week ago that we would attempt to leave home at least once a day to run errands, go to appointments, eat a meal out, or just drive around the city, before the snow arrives.  Looking at both the forecast and the present grey, threatening sky outside, it appears we will likely only have a couple of more days of such fun racing about.  Sigh....it has totally been a blast for us to create a daily discipline of any kind at all and actually stick to it.

Today our reason for travelling outside the city was to attend Cee's funeral.  It was a sad reason, but as we travelled down the highway looking at the then blue sky and enjoying watching the lower numbers on  our car's gasoline efficiency gauge going down, seeing how all the surrounding fields had been well harvested, watching the landing of a couple of thousand white geese in one of those fields for a rest along their migration journey, we rejoiced that the oncoming winter weather has held off sufficiently to allow us to go and celebrate the life of our friend.  We were so pleased to see the number of old friends and precious extended family who have been and will continue to be there for Nan in the coming weeks and months.  A lovely luncheon was provided after the service and we had the opportunity to spend a few minutes visiting with Nan...what a blessing to have that joy in the midst of the busyness and sheer number of people who wanted to talk to her and assure her of their support.  Thank you for your prayers for Nan as she adjusts to this horrendous loss.

Other friends from here in our town were also able to make the journey to the funeral and it was nice to see them connect with Nan as she hadn't met some of them even though they have been praying constantly for her and Cee over the past few years.  How delightful to have the chance to witness some prayer warriors meeting each other for the first time. Nan is also one of those, fer shur!!

Coming home from the funeral, the gale force winds indicating a change of weather had begun.  I drove into a head wind for the entire nearly hour trip back to our place.  Those fuel efficiency numbers climbed right back up to where they had been before we left home and went a bit higher yet by the time we got back. Sigh...

Tomorrow is church and then for our bit of an extra outing we will drive across the city to locate the new office space for my osteoporosis specialist who I have an appointment with the following morning.  (From that appointment we will be racing across the city to get to the pharmacy on time for our COVID boosters....at least we hope we will be.  Hopefully the pharmacist was able to rebook us in time that we can actually receive the Pfizer vaccine before she runs out of it again.)

So, the two days after the vaccine are days when neither my husband nor myself have any other plans arranged. That will give us a couple of days to discover if we are going to have a reaction to the vaccine....we never have before, but we hadn't had reactions in the past to our annual 'flu' shots either and we did this year.  Being at home is giving a dear friend in AB a chance to phone me for a good old blatherfest and I am truly looking forward to that. I had one yesterday with extended family in Alberta and again this afternoon with a long time buddy from BC.  Most of these people are friends I rarely have a chance to hear from so the long phone calls I can handle because I don't know when I will get my next chance to chat with them.  God bless my dear, dear friends!

My husband and I have decided that this winter's mutual reading project will be Moby Dick.  I will read to him as he enjoys that so much and my reading comprehesion is far greater if I hear the spoken words.  Yesterday I found a second hand collection of Robert Frost's poetry and picked it up for some lighter poetry reading on my own. I haven't read him for a very long time and enjoy the pictures he draws through his simple poems.

Well, I didn't eat much at the funeral lunch, although it was wonderfully delicious food, but I was too emotionally all over the place to eat a proper amount,  so it is time to go and make dinner! 

 

 

A Surprisingly Nice Lunch Out Today!

My Thursday coffee/lunch buddy and I decided yesterday that today would be a good day to go for lunch as it has been awhile since we did that.  We picked out a restaurant that my friend really enjoys and about 11pm yesterday I went online to take a pre-visit gander at their menu.  To my surprise I discovered that as of earlier this week the restaurant is permanently closed, as is its "sister" restaurant next door.  The article I read talked about the exorbitant rent hike the owners of the building had suddenly imposed upon them, so that is the end of their tenure here.  I am guessing the owner has another offer from another type of business who wants that space, so bye bye to the restaurants. Rats!!  My friend liked that place so much.

So I had to do some fast checking for another restaurant in the area that has a sufficiently extensive menu that my friend could find something she can eat.  I decided we would go to The Cottage.  It has been at least eight years since I went there with my husband and paid a ridiculous amount of money for a very average dinner.  However, I think time has been good to that place! hahaha  The lunch menu prices are no higher than anywhere else I enjoy eating, the menu has a number of good choices to suit almost anyone's dietary needs and wow, the server was amazing! She was so professional, looked after every table in the main dining room all by herself so efficiently, while remaining friendly, not making anyone feel rushed. She had even written down the daily soups and specials on a piece of paper that she brought to the tables because she knows darned well after years of serving experience that half the people at each table are not going to remember anything from the list if she just stands tableside and spouts the specials off orally.  Smart woman!!  There were three specials and three daily soups, so it was very nice to have a written copy to look at.

My friend and I ordered the chicken corn chowder and it was not only delicious and filling with lots of chicken, it was piping hot...the way soup needs to be and so rarely is any more in restaurants.  My caesar salad was fresh, with croutons that did not threaten to break my teeth and the dressing was a proper caesar dressing....what is with the green goddess and other oily dressings being served these days around here with caesar salads?  Kind of crazy to me, but whatever, I am not in charge of those restaurants.  My friend ordered the club house sandwich and it was gigantic. She wanted it on brown toast and that is what she got....actual whole wheat toast, not multigrain or whatever else is being called "brown bread" when it isn't just whole wheat.  The lighting was very good for a restaurant with dark brown decor and the lighter carpet was easy to see for our somewhat elderly eyes!  There was a good mixture of age groups represented among the other diners, so we didn't feel like we had ended up in a place that specifically caters to seniors....although we are guessing by the age of the actual restaurant that many of their customers are indeed seniors who have been loyal for a couple or three decades. All in all it was a much nicer experience than I was expecting and we will definitely return there for lunch in the near future.

I came home to a phone call from my son. He is concerned about me needing pain killers for my hip because he has watched me tough out so many painful health conditions/surgical recoveries without needing meds for the pain.  What a nice fellow to be worried about his mom.  We had a lovely chat and he sent us a photo of the new modular entertainment console that just arrived at his home.  His partner fell in love with the blue colour and it complements the blue in the turkish carpets in their living room.  I love it!!!  

If you like 60's style modular furniture NYC seems to be a good place to get it!

 

The weather is still so great here and it appears we will not get our usual Halloween evening storm this year...thus far at least, hahaha.  I am so grateful as it means I can still stumble across the back grass to my car with not too much danger of falling down. Once the ice comes I will need not only my cane but my husband's strong arm to hang onto so I can stay upright just trying to get to my car. Thank you God for the lack of snow, BUT there are many reasons why we do need the snow here and soon, so.....since it's not all about me....if I can just get to the town where Cee's funeral is being held on Saturday, without driving in a storm, I will be a happy woman.

Off to the doctor tomorrow morning to begin the pain killer saga....sigh....I have tried to tough it out but realize it is silly to continue doing so. I also learned recently that when I do get to the next step of this process along the road to eventual surgery, the big medical assessment at the joint clinic, if I am not at a point of requiring constant pain medication I will not be considered to be in serious enough condition to even meet with the surgeon yet.  Oooh, spending my bit of inheritance on private surgery in another province is SO tempting and I am kind of glad the threat of winter coming soon will prevent me from getting ahead of myself and falling for that temptation before I would really need to....not to say that that time will never come....wimp, wimp, wimp......sigh...I hate feeling weak and helpless....control freak....sigh again...haha

Some Stress Removed And This Afternoon It Is Time To Make Stew!!!

After a painful but productive morning it is time for my husband and I to make the first batch of freezable winter stew.  I am about to head for the kitchen and remove excess fat from the stewing beef, my husband has already peeled and diced potatoes, onions, carrots and turnip. When I finish with the meat it will be time to put all the ingredients together and roast them for hours in the oven. My husband is currently at the grocery store to purchase fresh dill for the celery soup we are making tomorrow. The onset of winter seems more “appetizing”, (See what I did there? Teehee), with a freezer already filled with yummy comfort foods! 

Today is a very painful day, so I hobbled into my office, called the doctor and I have an appointment in a couple of days’ time to discuss and get a prescription for painkillers. I arranged a lunch date for tomorrow with a dear friend, at a restaurant where I can get a close by parking spot and ground floor access. I was able to reach my now former financial advisor and stay on the line while he finally made the electronic transfer required to move my monies to my new financial institution. That was a difficult experience, but worth it. I am finished now, after 18 months of moving things around. What a blessing to be done with it and be involved with an institution with policies and procedures I understand. 

Pain relief is on the way, a few other stressful situations have been dealt with today and now I am off to make stew. Yippee!!!!