Hallowe'en Again? Already??

I confess I completely forgot about Hallowe'en today.  When a large group of kids started pounding on our back door at 5pm I was completely taken aback, but fortunately I realized why they were there before I got to the back door.  I was able to sneak away from the kitchen before they saw me and get out of sight until they left.  Have you ever tried to explain to a group of eager, excited, expectant children that you have absolutely nothing in stock to give them on their special "Gimme Gimme" day?  I couldn't face them.  They stood on our back porch for what seemed like hours between waiting for me to answer and comparing what each of them already had in their collection baskets before they finally sauntered back off the deck and on to the next door neighbour's place.

As soon as I was certain they were gone, I called to my husband to shut off the basement lights where he was trying to work, so the light wouldn't shine out through the two windows onto the back lawn, thereby attracting more trick-or-treat'ers.   He complied and less than five minutes later we sneaked out to our car and drove off to a pub where we put in nearly two hours of time sitting over our nachos and drinks until we thought it would be safe to go home again.  We knew all the wee kiddies would be back at home by 7:30pm and only a few of the older kids would still be wandering about.  Once home we managed to sneak back into the house unseen by a couple of groups of young teens, kept the lights turned out for another hour and then we finally relaxed, put the lights back on and resumed the tasks we had been in the midst of prior to the unexpected arrival of Group One.  Whew!  Dodged a huge bullet tonight. What a pair of wimps we are, scared to death of disappointing little kids over a handful of cheap, yukky candy. Sigh......

The pub was nearly deserted so we had great service and there was absolutely no call for us to rush away when we finished our small meal.  The music was playing over the speaker system at a bearable sound level and we quite enjoyed ourselves conversing with our bored and chatty waiter.  It was a very unexpectedly happy evening.

I wasn't feeling well most of the day today.  My tummy was not happy after lunch for some reason and it kept on roiling away all afternoon.  Not sure what caused the upset, but I knew having a fair number of jalapeno pepper rounds with my half of the nachos at dinner would settle it right down.  Yay, much better now!!  My tummy is calm again.

The only housework I managed to get to this afternoon was washing floors, bu t that is better than nothing. I will just have to work harder on Monday to get the vacuuming and dusting accomplished. No biggie..... Once that is done we will start phoning friends from the small group we used to attend and invite them over. There were  confused feelings among some of the other attenders when we had to leave, so assurances of continued happy relationship is required.  We have met with one couple already and it went well.  They are all lovely people but our other necessary commitments happen to coincide with the meeting day each month.

Looking forward to the rain overnight if it occurs because the overnight low is only going to be +4C apparently, meaning the moisture won't freeze.  No icy roads in the morning.  Amen!

 

 

Thirty Thousand Dollars In Fees Later….

 ….and our son’s card is good for ten years with the option to renew at that point if he doesn’t apply for citizenship. His wife has the same kind of card so that is most handy. I am figuring that after nearly ten years of past visas and renewals and appointments with immigration lawyers he has spent close to thirty thousand dollars to be able to live in a country where his career can thrive. Fortunately it is doing just that. 

I confess to being somewhat envious of him knowing from a fairly young age that he wanted to be an artist living in New York City. He has worked like a crazy person to make his dream come true. Doing his MFA upstate cemented his commitment to try to succeed there, and he never wavered in his attempts to hang in and keep trying no matter how difficult the first few years were.

Yes, I am a proud mama. It doesn’t matter how old the child, a mama is not afraid to admit she is proud of him. 

Since I Have At Least 5 Months Of Winter Ahead......

....I opted for going out this afternoon instead of doing housework!  YAY!  There is the entire winter season to be utilized for house cleaning indoors.  My husband agreed that I should make the most of every day I can get out of here before the snow and ice arrive in earnest.

I am very happy about my choice.  This morning my husband and I had a good visit and I did do some work in the kitchen  after breakfast....which wasn't until just after 10am because I fell asleep sometime after 7am and slept until after 9:30am.  I awoke surprisingly refreshed and full of energy.

When it was time for my husband to meet his friend for coffee he dropped me at a neighbouring shopping mall where I had a bite of lunch at a Montana's restaurant because their combo lunch specials are a great deal.  I have stopped taking my cane in the car so I got a fabulous walking workout after lunch as a stumped around in the mall after I ate.  I have not been in  a mall without a time pressure to leave in probably about 5 years. There were no other errands that had to be run.  I needed a few groceries, but there is a grocery store in the mall, so purchasing those was just a part of the whole excursion.  I lollygagged in I don't know how many ladies' wear stores, purchased two cardigan sweaters to go with my many sleeveless winter turtlenecked tops....when I downsized my winter wardrobe I got rid of a number of long sleeved, heavy fabric blazers I have been wearing since the Ark it seems. Even though all of them looked almost like new after several years of wear because they were good quality jackets, I am not comfortable with those styles any more and it felt good today to be able to replace them with a couple of lighter weight cardigans.  The other day as I looked at my winter tops I realized how many of them are sleeveless and needing to go under a long sleeved "something" to keep me warm.  

My husband texted me that he had arrived at the grocery store just before I was about to walk in there myself, so that was marvellous timing.  We pothered about in there for a long time, picking up  what we needed along with some unexpected sale items.  So, our fridge freezer is now packed!  It is going to be awhile before we have to purchase any more goods needing to be frozen until use.  

By the time we drove from the grocery store half way across the city to take advantage of the 15 cent per litre reduction in gasoline price at the northern reserve station, sat in the long lineup there and made it home again it was nearly time for dinner already!!  Over dinner we looked at a couple of mindless tv programmes that we mostly talked over top of. haha  We are bad for that if we are not particularly engaged in whatever is on the screen. That is okay if it is just the two of us but if there is anyone else there....well.....the poor dear folks tend to lose patience with us. hahahaha

Tomorrow my husband will be at an all day seminar, so I have another day to ponder on what to do.  With a mix of snow and rain possible overnight perhaps tomorrow is the day to stay home and begin cleaning house.  If I start tomorrow and finish up on Monday, we could easily invite some of our church acquaintances over for afternoon tea next week.  That would be fun.  We actually have a couple of afternoons free for visiting.   

A Day With No Out Of Home Commitments

Today is one of those rare days when I have no commitments away from 🏡 home and as usual it has meant waking up shortly after 4am all bright eyed, alert and ready for the day to begin. 😂 hahaha! So, also as is usual, I will likely be too tired to enjoy my day off from grocery shopping, bill paying, coffee partying, general errands, running about madly to medical appointments, house chores and church related activities. Oh well, it is good to know I can still get excited about a day of possible total relaxation. 

The past couple of days have been busy with laundry and ironing, running around town for various commitments and enjoying visits with friends. My coffee buddy and I met at the new Denny’s, which for all its small faults as it continues to work on getting organized and repairing the bathrooms, definitely has more comfortable seating for us “older gals” than our usual haunt at Creme.  Creme is rather more “gourmet” in its offerings though so we will not abandon the place, just trade off between the two locations. 

I could start cleaning house today and perhaps I will, but perhaps I won’t either. Having the choice of making my own plans feels like a luxury after a week with many appointments and necessary errands. 

I love days like this occasionally but am grateful most of my days are filled with activities, however plebeian they may be.

The snow has already melted, the temperature is set to rise a few degrees over the next few days and thus far predicted rain and snow amounts look to be relatively minor. November is nearly upon us, so that delights me. The lack of frozen rain thus far has been a treat….although I confess I would not object to a brief but violent snowstorm between 4pm and 9pm on Halloween night. No offence intended  to the kids wanting to dress up and go out for treats, but it is also a bad night for vandalism in our area so….

I am praying that a new contract proposition brought recently before members of the CUPE unionized health care workers will be accepted and ratified to prevent any more extended waits for upcoming surgeries and recovery physiotherapy protocols like my own. They have been working without a contract since  2023…not good!

My husband is meeting a friend for coffee this afternoon so I am wondering if I will choose to remain at home flopped out in front of the tv watching home renovation programmes or drop him off at the coffee bar and drive to a nearby mall for some window shopping. 🛒 Ahhhh, to have the choice feels good. A spontaneous sort of day is a treat as I am watching our calendar 📆 fill up ⬆️ once again with appointments for next week and the week after that.

I am going to enjoy my “little bit of this and a little bit of that” kind of day.

Two Huge Answers To Prayer!

 1. Nan finalized the sale of her house today! Lots of last minute glitches as seems usual in real estate dealings, but by late today everything solidified and the deal is done! Amen!

2.  Our son was notified last night that his card has been “Approved. Case Closed.” Our relief is now being overcome by excitement. Our son is so shocked by the speed at which he was notified that when he talked to us he still wasn’t sure how he felt, haha. It could still be several months before the card arrives in the mail but finally, after a year or more of stress and collecting various forms of documentation, he has been given a wonderful answer for his immediate future at least. 

Thanks everybody for your interest, concern and prayers for these two precious ones.

The Weather Chose Snowing As Its Option Tonight!

There are about three centimetres of snow on our lawn and back deck. The soggy mist that fell first is starting to freeze, so I am thanking God we don’t have to leave the house tomorrow, as far as we know. I need a day to adjust to even the idea of winter, let alone the onset! 

My walking partner is coming for a visit in the morning. Unfortunately we won’t be going for a walk in the icy snow, but I am grateful we did get our walk around the lake accomplished once in between my trips this summer and fall. 

Tomorrow I will begin a giant batch of laundry. 🧺 I have not done laundry since just before we left for Alberta, two weeks ago yesterday! Yikes! 😱 We have been too busy dealing with other things, mostly time consuming and sometimes labour intensive frustrations since returning home, to get to the laundry. My husband made me promise him I would split this task into two days instead of attempting to do it all tomorrow afternoon because he saw how exhausted I made myself doing laundry after our New York trip. Sigh…..he is correct about that so I will behave myself tomorrow and only wash and dry the amount of laundry I can cope with comfortably. I will, I will, I will! (I will, won’t I???)

I heard a cute joke tonight from a friend and if you attend an evangelical church it will give you a chuckle: 

A teacher asked her young students to bring their most meaningful token or artifact from their religion to school for Show and Tell the following day. The little Roman Catholic student brought a crucifix. The little Jewish student brought a menorah. The little Baptist student brought…….a casserole!! 🥘 hahaha…love this one.

Raining, Snowing, Raining, Snowing...Make Up Your Mind Already!!

It has been rather cold today. The light breeze was biting and the temperature didn't rise above +2-+3C all day.  After an overcast morning the damp mist began sometime after 1pm and by 3:30pm the first flakes of snow were coming down, only to be washed away by more mist.  Mist and rain and snow have been vying for first place for the past couple of hours.  I am guessing the mist and bit of rain we had earlier today are going to be frozen into a thin cover of  ice all over everything before much longer. More snow is forecast to come down between tonight and sometime tomorrow, so I am guessing either we will wake up to an invisible icy coating on deck, sidewalk and street, or ice patches covered in at least a couple of cm of snow.  Winter is here...YUCK!

I am in complete denial.  Although I know in my rational mind that the lovely autumn weather has come to an end, my "wishing mechanism" is expecting this moisture and chilliness to be over in a day or two and the  lovely autumn weather will return until next spring.  Yeah right...unfortunately winter cannot be avoided here on the prairies and we are now in for it. Sigh....

At least we did get some chores done around the house this morning after a relaxed, non-alarm induced, wake up.  Right after lunch we finally managed to get to the hospital to see our friend.  She was pretty perky for someone suffering severe mobility issues and now that the infection that originally hospitalized her is gone and she is off the strong antibiotics  she is rational once again...no more hallucinations.  Whew!  Our friend has returned to us!  

We ran one more errand after the hospital visit, then came home and crashed in our tv chairs, ate an early dinner and now are preparing to wash dishes and catch up on some writing and research projects.  

When we were watching tv while we ate our dinner, we came across an ancient film on Silver Screen, "The King of Jazz" from 1930, so we watched part of it.  It is typical of the era that there is no story line, just a collection of song and dance numbers directed by the aforementioned "King of Jazz", band director and musician Paul Whiteman...for you old timers like myself, think of his recordings of "Three O'clock in the Morning" and "In a Little Spanish Town".  While his era was before my time, my parents and grandparents were big fans of his recordings so I grew up listening to them regularly.   This little movie was not a hit despite its overwhelmingly expensive 1930's price tag of two million dollars and the film was eventually lost. It was rediscovered in 1970.  The film makers were playing with special effects such as over dubbing one film track on top of a second track to create ghostly effects.  Unfortunately some of the lyrics of the singers are difficult to hear. We are guessing the sound was picked up on the same strip of film as the video track using magnetic tape.  There are songs, dances, comedy routines, animations...a real olio of typical 1930's productions. Bing Crosby made his screen debut in this movie.  It is fascinating.  I recorded the rest of it so we can watch the over 2 hour production in segments as it suits us.

We are grateful we have no outside the house chores tomorrow.  It is time to get ourselves into winter hibernation mode over the next few days, only going out when we need or want to.....unless my wishful thinking turns out to be more than just a wish and the snow and ice do disappear before the weekend.  Wouldn't that be "loverly"??!!!