Yay! Time For The November Sumo Kyushu Basho From Fukuoka!

 My husband is napping at the moment. When he awakens he will record the current week's televised sumo highlights from Fukuoka, thank you NHK Broadcasting, and we will have a marvellous evening catching up with the latest tournament bouts and results.  I will be interested to see who, if anyone, has had to drop out of this month's tourney due to injuries from the last one in September.  I have not seen as many terrible falls off the dohyo in one tournament as there were in that one.  A number of the referees sitting on the floor at the bottom of the ring were flattened by falling wrestlers, as were quite a few of the ring side audience members.  Sometime I would love to return to Japan for a basho, but at the moment ring side seats for a single evening are $541 each, with the less expensive seats going for $264 each.  Yaaaaaah....not this time, hahaha.  For your money you do get the extra added thrill of giant falling men landing within inches of your person if you are ring side and also the full Shinto rites and rituals display, from which sumo grew out of a few centuries ago,  prior to each match.  It is one long evening of fighting and rituals and incredible refereeing.  Some day perhaps....watching the bouts on tv it seems that many of the people sitting ring side on the floor are quite thrilled to be risking a squashing by nearly naked 400 pound men! haha Honoured, even!!

My main entertainment today and for the rest of the week will be medical appointments and board meetings and housework...and I can live with that quite happily. 

Remembrance Day

 It is Remembrance Day 2026. I can hear the cannon being fired across the water from our place...deep BOOMs.  We opted not to attend a service this morning because our church had a Remembrance Day service this past Sunday that was very meaningful.

Also there is a thin coating of ice covering all the sidewalks and streets and our back deck. There is thick slippery frost on the back lawn that the chilly sunshine has not yet melted sufficiently for it to be safe to walk on for me.

We are delaying our search for my husband's new tea mug and tea selection for another couple of days to give the ice outside a chance to melt. Fortunately there is no more rainfall or fog forecast between now and tomorrow morning when I see the surgeon.  Unfortunately it is not going to be as warm as originally predicted tomorrow so I may have to take a ride to the appointment instead of the walk I have been looking forward to.  Whatever...as long as I get to see the surgeon it doesn't matter that much how I manage to get to his office.

Although it is slippery outside, I am enjoying the sunshine, lacking in warmth as it presently is, as well as the pale blue sky with its little streaks of thin clouds.  If we do get to the forecast +5C by this afternoon the bit of ice will melt, but it is only -1C at the moment, only 45 minutes prior to the noon hour.

The thin layer of ice is somewhat sobering.  I have been able to forget that winter weather will soon be upon us because it has been so very lovely thus far....so rare for this far into November.  What a treat and a blessing.

I will utilize my unexpected day at home by doing the ironing from yesterday's laundry...nice to get it done right away.

Next week we have scheduled some afternoon company early in the week, so that will give us something lovely to look forward to.  Just have to decide if I am going to attempt to bake some kind of treat to have with our tea or if I will wimp out and purchase something extra special and delicious from La Macaron, or Creme...hmmm..... 

A Soggy Day!

 It is nearly 5pm and the sun is just now breaking through the long day of grey clouds as it sinks further below the horizon.  The light drizzle that started during the sleeping hours finally ended about an hour ago. Thankfully we did not get any freezing rain as the temperature kept itself just above zero in the early morning hours.  

I am feeling for Vancouver Island and part of the  lower mainland of B.C. today as they start their third day of intense rain. The west coast of the island was predicted to receive as much as a whole foot of rain in one day.   We continue to be blessed with tolerable and even enjoyable weather  here.  Oh how grateful I am!!

My email server has had some kind of hitch in its getalong all day today.  A couple of business related emails finally straggled in a half hour ago, but I have received no response at all to a couple of personal emails needing some answers by this evening.  My personal inbox has been vacant all day long. 

Well, not being distracted today by my computer allowed me to do all of our laundry of the past nearly 2 weeks.  Thankful that I did the bedding on the weekend as it made for one less load today.  I do have one pair of my husband's work jeans in the washing machine right now after having to soak them in stain remover overnight. When he washed the car yesterday the hand held water hose was covered in some kind of industrial grease and when he was done he not only had to use solvent on his hands to remove it, but also had to treat those pants.  Ugh!!!  It is my final load today, a load unto itself to keep the grease from transferring to any other items.  After it is done I will fill the machine with hot water and soap and run a cycle without any clothes in it to hopefully remove any grease from the pants that may have stuck to the tub.  Eek!  This gives me vivid memories of doing laundry years ago when my husband was doing construction and oil field work full time.  YUCKO!!!  (I have to admit that I am grateful for how rarely I remember those days any more. FREEDOM!)

We will try to make one more attempt tomorrow to find my husband a thin rimmed white china tea mug.  There are a couple of antique stores that may have what he is looking for. The locally thrown pottery mugs for sale in most stores here are lovely, but are thick rimmed and chunky and generally do not have the blazing white interiors. 

Yesterday we received a sheet of Dairy Queen coupons in the mail. The last time I ate DQ food was a few months ago with my cousins and their friends and before that was about 13 years ago when we lived in the town of Kindersley SK.  When we lived in Moose Jaw nearly 20 years ago DQ was a staple in my fast food dietary indiscretions as my best friend there loved going there for iced cream treats. hahaha  Lots of good DQ memories.  Once we moved away I rarely went to DQ in any of our subsequent locations because it just wasn't the same without my bubbly, laughing, mischievous friend!  However, seeing this sheet of coupons I am tempted to indulge myself there later this week.....their burgers, if I remember correctly, have a distinctly charred flavour that seems appealing to me at the moment. hahaha  Don't want to ruin the results of all the healthy at home meals we have been preparing lately...stews and veggie soups etc.....but it might be fun to relive a few happy memories from The Jaw......

SO Grateful For New Medication Access!!

 I just read several news items announcing that epinephrine, available only by prescription and usually by injection format, is now going to be available nation wide as an over the counter nasal spray, "Neffy", for emergency use like Type 1 food allergy and stinging insects anaphylactic reactions.

This is the most fantastic news for me.  It has been some years since my last terrifying allergic food reaction, but only a couple of years since my first wasp sting, which resulted in only some swelling, but since there was a reaction at all it is highly possible my next sting could result in anaphylaxis.  

So, once it is available here in our fair city I am going to get myself one of these cartons of spray to have on hand, in my purse at all times.  It will be so much easier than having to carry around the huge epinephrine filled needles that Canadians had to carry previous to this new ruling.  It wasn't even possible to get a prescription until a serious reaction had been treated in hospital or at a walk in clinic, so basically I had to risk death in order to get the blessed prescription to use for the next reaction, if I survived the first one.

I am rejoicing over this wonderful news.  I am SO grateful to find this out.  What a relief for thousands of Canadians who suffer not only serious allergic reactions, but also have not always been able to get the immediate help that they need. Wow, this is marvellous!   

Dang It!! Totally Missed It!!!

 I slept in this morning, woke up kind of befuddled, dithered around all morning long and missed completely the final flyover of the Canada Snow Birds as they passed right over our very own roof and over the parliament buildings across the road.  By the time I heard the plane engines and went stumbling downstairs to open the door to see them all that was left were the trailings and the ever diminishing sounds of the planes as they returned to base near Moose Jaw.  BIG FAT UNHAPPY SIGH!!!!  Charlie Brown's expression, "RATS!" took on a new significance for me.  I was so determined to see the Snow Birds for the last time as they are retiring their old planes and will not be flying again until about the year 2030 if ever at all.  Oh well, not the end of the world, just a bit of a disappointment that my own fuzzy brain this morning caused me to miss out.

The rest of the day should go well. We are about to eat lunch and then we have some fun errands to run along with the usual regulars.  It is my husband's turn to pick up a couple of happy "just for him" items like a new bone china tea mug after his other "bestie" of the past three years developed a crack in the rim a couple of weeks ago. I am hoping he can find one he likes as much as that one....a very thin lip and a white interior so he can see the colour of the tea.  The cracked one had a lovely reproduction of a painting of a chickadee and he loves that mug.  I suspect I am responsible for the crack...possibly smacked it into one of the heavy glass mugs in the sink?  My husband has the best attitude about it.

Speaking of good attitude, my husband has finally reached a point with the items left in the basement that he is finally ready...well, almost at least....to just take what is left and toss most of it into the large garbage bin outside.  Oh Lord....let it be. He will feel so much better to be rid of all these mental burdens he is carrying over "just stuff" and it could speed up our ability to move once we find a new place.  

Three more days until my meeting with the surgeon.  I pray I can come away with, if not actual answers as to the surgery time, at least the knowledge as to whether or not he is going to be able to fast track me after the total revision arthroscopy debacle of last year.  OR's are not readily available these days and after the surgeon himself being away for several months of medical leave and realizing he has to return with a reduced patient load...well....it is anybody's guess as to when this surgery will actually occur.  Praying and hoping is all I can do for now, that the procedure will happen at the right time. God knows even though I don't yet.

For now I am just enjoying every moment I have with no discomfort in the second hip and the work I am doing to reduce my limp from the first hip revision. I am enjoying the complete absence of snow and ice outside.  I am enjoying my new clothes. I am enjoying watching my husband's joy as he continues to prepare new lessons to teach and sermons to preach.  Whatever other activities older age is forcing him to relinquish, he can still do research and present a message properly.  Hallelujah!

My Favourite Kind Of Sunday!

 Today was my perfect sort of Sunday!  YAY!  My husband taught a wonderful class on minor prophets Jonah and Nahum, then the church service of Remembrance was very honouring of our war dead, the sermon on the power of the Holy Spirit to transform us was powerful and helpful, then lunch with friends at the Fancy Fork included delicious food and a great visit of sharing summer vacation stories and memories among the four of us. All this "marvellousness" was followed by a much needed nap, some reading, a light dinner and a couple of tv shows to end our happy day.  The weather today wasn't as wonderful as I had hoped....a little too cloudy and windy, not as warm as expected, BUT it still was great to walk from the church to the restaurant and back at quite a good clip with our friends so we could get out of the wind as soon as possible.  Wearing one of my new sweater/jackets today started me off this morning with a very cheery feeling...a much needed mental boost!  

I am grateful for this good day. I am grateful that my husband wasn't so exhausted after teaching that he survived the rest of the day with only a short nap after lunch.  I am grateful that we received an email from our son and his wife with Starter Ideas as to when their first trip here in over a year should be and where we should meet...here, Vancouver or Calgary or Toronto. It will take a couple of weeks to figure it all out with their very limited time frame due to their jobs, but whatever we end up doing it will be fantastic just to be together.  As I face another surgery probably this winter, knowing we are going to see our kids somewhere in the next few months is most encouraging and gives me something cheery to focus on.  YAY! 

A Quiet, Restful Night!

The music stopped just after 9pm.🕘 I am grateful. Only three hours of booming bass altogether, so that wasn’t very long. Whew! I sat up reading until 11pm and by then my ears had stopped their straining and my brain quit inventing imaginary bass lines so I was able to fall asleep peacefully. My OCD only becomes this intense over a few issues and unfortunately neighbour noise can be one of them. Music 🎶 is the worst trigger and I suspect it is because I have no control over or any idea of how long it is going to last. Kids’ noises rarely last past whatever enforced bedtimes they have every evening. Working adults are not prone to bashing about much after 11pm. Some neighbours are simply incredibly considerate when they realize the lack of sound proofing, or are naturally very quiet folk. But booming music 🎵 really sets me off. I wish it was not so. Well, it is something for me to work on, a new test for my patience and a chance to learn new ways to gain control over the OCD reactions, so it is not all bad. 🤪🔜😁