Glad For Some Rain This Coming Week, But.....

 ...will the areas with the forest fires here get any of that rain and if so, will the rains bring lightning to start more fires?  The situation in BC in the Okanagan Lakes area is horrendous with over 20,000 people evacuated and many homes and other structures already lost in the fastest growing forest fire that province has seen in recent decades.  They are in desperate need of sufficient rain to start putting out the fires, but not of the lightning that so often accompanies the rain storms.  There are other bad forest fire situations in BC, (and in many other provinces right now), so many in fact that the province has declared a state of emergency.  What does that mean in terms of receiving more assistance in corralling the fires and getting them put out? What does that mean in terms of taking care of the evacuees when some of the towns who opened their community centres and personal homes to those fleeing fires are now also under threat?  This is the most frightening summer ever for so many in our country as fires rage across every province to one degree or another.

I had a rather poor sleep last night.  The noise outside was worse than usual even for a Saturday overnight and there was no breeze at all.  People seemed to be coming and going from the parking lot throughout the night and at about 5am the same "bro's" who woke me up at about that time last Sunday morning were out rousting about loudly and in their usual State of High once again. hahaha They are quite the trio and apparently live somewhere in this complex.  Our next door neighbours were dropped off at home by their friends at about 3am, so it took awhile for the  youngest boy to settle down and stop screeching and bashing about.  Usually I can sleep through most of these things, other than the bro's, but last night I wasn't relaxed.  I read a book between 5am and 7am then fell asleep again until after 9am. It was glorious. There was no time to get to church at that point so after breakfast I went grocery shopping instead.  The store was quite busy but the shelves were newly and fully stocked, so I found everything we need to get us through the next few days before we go.  Wonderful!!  My husband also slept in so he began writing a long epistle to a friend who has been waiting for this email for a couple of weeks already.  It is nice he has this morning free now to do that.

This afternoon I will watch online the church service we missed. I will iron yesterday's laundry. Fortunately the only things that need ironing are a few things of my own that I am taking on the trip and it won't take long to complete the task.  

I am enjoying the cool temperatures and slightly overcast sky today.  The sunshine has been marvellous but knowing there is some rain on the way this week is relaxing. It means that as I race around town getting last minute preparations done for our trip I won't be overheating and feeling headachy and miserable. YAY! 

What The Heck Was Going On Around Here Today?

 Our own day was rather subdued.  My husband had a number of emails and short papers he had to finish up today and I did the laundry. Big whoop....However, these chores all needed to be done tout de suite, so it is all good. The weather was nicely warm all day, not much of a breeze, but most tolerable for temperature and the sun shone brightly.

Our complex as a whole though had a few issues going on this afternoon.  Kids from two different buildings in our court got into some kind of a scuffle and then both sets of parents got involved. The one set of parents who live closest to us actually called in other adult reinforcements! All of a sudden there were cars full of grown men and women arriving in the lot, filling up the parking spaces of other tenants. Just as this angry mob was about to descend on the offenders of the other family involved in the original fracas, three police cars manned by six officers arrived and put a stop to the melee before it had a chance to really begin.  Thank you Lord!!!  It seems that almost every day this week something or someone has caused an issue in our particular part of the complex. There are various repair men being called in to suite after suite every day, tensions have been high among the kids when they have been out playing, men from different suites who, to the best of our knowledge don't even know each other, have been outside arguing over what each parent lets their own kids get away with outside....today was a most blatant display of ridiculous anger and how quickly mob mentality over small issues can escalate. The police were here for the better part of an hour before all the "extra help" and even the involved adults from the suite nearest to us got in their cars and drove away. Those neighbours have not yet returned.  

Shortly after the police left, the children of two other families who had not been involved in fracas numero uno got into a huge fight outside our front door. The older boys put the run on the one boy's two younger brothers eventually, then one of the dads went slamming outside hollering at the older boys and physically dragging them back into their own suites. 

What a wild afternoon.  Other than a brief soccer game just before dinner between five boys and a couple of kids out in the back tooting on whistles and driving us all completely mad for an hour after dinner, there have been no kids outside tonight, no parents sitting out on their decks talking all evening.  You could shoot a cannon down the middle of the parking lot and or across both front and back lawns and not hit a solitary soul.  I am not happy about the reasons for that, but I have to admit I am thoroughly enjoying the unusual level of quiet this evening.  

I hope tomorrow is less frantic between the various kids and their parents.  Today was rather ugly so my husband and I remained indoors until things calmed down enough that we felt sufficiently safe outside to take out the garbage and compost to the bins.  

We talked about church tomorrow, took a look at the long list of things that need to be done around here and have chosen to remain at home instead.  The list of things my husband in particular has to achieve before we travel seems to be getting longer instead of shorter, so I helped him with a couple of things tonight.  The service will be available online by mid afternoon so we can watch it on YouTube once it is posted.

All the laundry for the trip is done and I will do some ironing tomorrow.  There have been a couple of serious changes of plans at our destination, so we have to change some of the clothing items we planned to take originally.  I will do another trial pack up with the new items at some point this week, so in that aspect of the trip I am starting all over again.  Always something, right? hahaha 

Waiting For Over Four Months For That Healing "CLICK"!

 I am most grateful that, after four months of constant pain and discomfort with the reawakening of an old knee injury several months ago, this morning at around 3am I rolled over in bed and heard the satisfying "CLICK" sound as my knee cap went back into place.  Oh dear Lord Jesus, long may it last this time!  If it stays in place it will make all the walking I have to do during our upcoming trip so much easier and less painful on a daily basis.  Oh, so happy for this little medical encouragement. Today I was pain free at last...ALL DAY LONG!!

Tonight I found out that an elderly friend of ours fell victim to a scammer that was on "ITS" way, (sorry but to me such scammers are some kind of sub-human creature), to her bank this afternoon to pick up three hundred and fifty thousand dollars from her account.  Thanking God her Financial Advisor was on top of things, realized what was going on and refused to release the money.  Please please pray for all the seniors you know who so easily could fall victim to such a scam as this.  They know how to get at the emotions and fears and inability for fast thinking of the elderly in particular. Our friend is not an unusual case unfortunately. 

We are so enjoying the cooler temperatures this week.  It is possible to go outside in the sunshine and not worry about fainting from over heating and dehydration!  What a treat!

Tonight we went over to a friend's house where our canoe is stored.  We took over four pots of mint that we have harvested sufficiently for our own needs over this coming winter and planted the mint around the the sides of the canoe storage for ground cover.  That mint is extremely hardy and will likely survive the winter just fine in the protected area where we planted it. If not, no big loss, but we have had good success in the past wintering over mint plants so here's hoping.  It makes the storage area look so much nicer.  It was fun wheeling the barrow about to haul fertilized black soil, plant pots and long handled spades.  My feet were filthy with black dirt when we got home, as were my hands and now I am all washed up and clean and that feels wonderful.  I did okay hobbling around with the wheelbarrow, so that was encouraging; still awkward with my gait, but still improving too. YAY!!

Tomorrow is the last call for doing the laundering of items specifically for our trip.  Once those things are worn they have to be set aside on the clothes racks for packing up.  I have so many other things to do next week now that are not trip related that my planned time for preparation then is being eaten up by other unexpected but necessary tasks. Never fails... 

Maman's Update

My friend has returned home after leaving her dear Maman in the capable hands of another sibling. Her reports are very positive and she is happy to share them with such faithful prayer warriors.

Maman continues to become stronger each day.  She is positive in outlook and is preparing for the TAVI team to get together to prepare for her aortic valve replacement sometime in the next few months. Fortunately that is not an emergency surgery that must be done immediately, so there will be time to get the proper TAVI team in place ahead of time.  For a woman who died twice in the ER when she initially arrived at the hospital she has come along way. As I told my friend, "An amazing woman has received an amazing piece of medical technology."  Thanks again for your prayers. When it is time for the aortic valve replacement I will be soliciting your prayers once again. Bless you all.

Today's Events Began Happening Before I Even Had A Chance To Ask.....Hahahahaha.....

I didn't sleep too badly last night. Lights out at 12:20am, awake for an hour of reading at 4:30am then a great sleep from 5:30am until 8:45am. I yawned and stretched for a minute and then the phone rang. It was a dear friend from another province, so I happily delayed getting breakfast and getting ready for my day so we could chat.  Then just as we were wrapping up our call a text message came in from out of town friends to let me know they were coming to our house and would be arriving in about 2 minutes.  I had to excuse myself from my phone call friend to run upstairs and throw on some clothes, barely making it down to the back door as they began knocking.  My husband was staggering about all through my phone call, trying to get ready for a morning meeting in his still sleepy state after he also slept in unexpectedly, but fortunately it was a breakfast meeting so he didn't have to try to make breakfast before he left.  Just as I got downstairs with day wear on, our friends arrived, exchanged greetings with my husband as he was leaving and then were very patient with me as I prepared my own breakfast along with their pot of tea.  What a crazy, delightful start to the day.

When my husband finally arrived home close to 1pm I had to hop into the car and race to the bank where we have had SO MANY issues and glitches and set up some financial "stuff" for our upcoming trip. This time there was only one glitch and THIS time I was actually prepared for it!  The teller was very experienced, has been at that branch for some time and was most helpful in straightening out the issue. Bless her!  Since I got home she has emailed me with some more information and has offered more help with something that may come up with our account while we are out of the country and is going to solve that possible problem for us.  The more unavoidable contact we have with this bank the more we are realizing it is only rarely the employees at the local branch who are making a mess of things, it is mostly the third party investment and credit card companies etc. that are screwing us over time after time.  Well,  we will be shut of that bank altogether once we get home.  We are done with it.  Hallelujah!!

We ran a few errands before I ate lunch at 3pm.   

Oh yay!!  We just received a dinner invitation to the home of friends this evening.  Curried chicken veggie pot pie!!  Our absolute favourite and these two women can COOK, yeah you betcha'!!  How wonderful. How blessed are we, right?  They get home late enough from work that I won't be eating that much too soon after my late lunch.  Ooh, I am so excited.

Wonder what I can cram into the next two and a half hours before we go out for dinner?  Who is going to call or show up next?  I LOVE days like this because I LOVE happy surprises like long distance phone calls and long distance company!  It is a good day today.  I COULD do the ironing, but it might be wiser to bury my nose in a book instead for an hour and leave the ironing as my tomorrow afternoon's chore. 

The Plumbers Come The Neighbours Go....Sigh......

 My afternoon was interesting but perhaps not in the best ways, hahaha.

Shortly after I posted the entry prior to this one the plumbers finally arrived.  I was expecting the professional plumbing firm hired by the property management company here, but what I got instead was the long term "head handyman" who has been here for at least 12 years and left his job as a restaurant cook to do small maintenance projects here because he wanted daytime work.  He is the MOST lovely, consistently happy man I have ever met in my life, but unfortunately has had little proper training in carpentry or plumbing by the powers that be here. By the time he left I didn't know whether to laugh or cry, but I have shed enough tears over this place in the past couple of years so I chose to see the humour in his attempt to solve our plumbing issues today.  Aiii yiiii....

He arrived with another fellow, a newer hire and that newer hire brought in a high step ladder and drill for the purpose of standing high enough to drill a hole in the kitchen ceiling where the leak had opened up so he could check the condition of the new connecting pipe that was put in there nearly 2 years ago and see if there were any other leaks from either our bathroom or our neighbours coming from places not causing issues before.  However, as he was setting up the ladder Mr. Happiness came downstairs from checking our bathtub situation to announce that setting up the ladder and drilling into the ceiling would not be necessary. He had located already, in less than a minute's time, the source of the leak.  Oh yay, I thought. Oh yay, my husband thought.

Weeeeeeeelllll, not so much.  His decision was that since the metal cover over the overflow valve was upside down, that is how the water got into the kitchen ceiling from my morning shower on The Day Of the Grand Leakage.  My husband explained to him six ways from Sunday that the overflow valve cover was upside down when we moved in over 11 years ago and had never once caused leaks in the past.  However, Mr.  Happiness suddenly took on the alias of Mr. Deafness and completely ignored what my husband was telling him. He insisted he had found the source of the problem, scraped off the more than 11 years old caulking around the cover, pulled it off, reinstalled it right side up and instead of installing a new screw in the place where one has been missing since before we moved in here, he filled that hole with caulking as well. Then he caulked around the entire cover, effectively sealing off the access holes, now underneath where they belong, so that no water will ever be able to get into the overflow pipe even though it is now right side up. My husband stood there watching him in complete disbelief for the first minute of this operation, then realized that this kind of incompetence is par for the course now and has been at various times throughout the last 11 years.  He didn't even try to stop the fellow as he gunned the caulking everywhere it didn't belong, just stood aside, thanked Mr. Happiness for his attention to our plight and we waved him out the back door along with his head shaking apprentice, who obviously also realized what was going on but also was powerless to stop the fiasco from continuing.  My defeated husband simply said goodbye and good luck to Mr. Happiness and his apprentice and assured him that if we experienced any more leaks we would send in another work order.  After the men left my husband and I looked at each other, shrugged and put the catch basin back on top of the cupboards under the now cracked and stained ceiling and will leave a note for our house sitter to check for water every time she comes into our place while we are away. There isn't anything else we can do at this point.  So be it.  That is the way it goes around here every so often.

Shortly after the "plumbers" left the next door neighbour appeared at our back door asking for my husband to come over for tea and to meet his Syrian refugee sponsor, now friend.  The three men had a marvellous visit together but my husband came home with the bad news I have kind of been expecting.  Our beloved refugee neighbours are moving out while we are away.  With another baby soon to come, the lack of space in their unit and the ever rising cost of rent in there, they have been accepted for a low cost government suite with more bedrooms and bathrooms and for over seven hundred dollars a month less than their current rent, which would have been going up again at the end of this year.  I feel so sad to lose them.  I know that between the language barrier, the age difference and just the way life goes for a busy family of soon to be 6, it is unlikely we will be able to keep in touch with them.  She was the key to my being able to spend time with the other Middle Eastern Muslim women in our complex and I understand that once she is gone there won't be any continuation of those relationships either.  My neighbour was the "glue" that included me in that community and I am not close enough to the others who live in other parts of the complex to continue in relationship together. So, that is that.  It was really good while it lasted. So what next will be my next question after our holiday.

On a personal "issue" level, it is likely that for the third time since moving in here we will be arriving home from a vacation to find new neighbours on the other side of the wall.  We are already praying for good, quiet neighbours, but there is always the chance of arriving home to a disastrous situation, like 2 out of the 3 have been in the past. We are already praying hard for God's help in either finding us the kind of neighbours we are hoping for, or else giving us extreme patience and ability to cope if we come home to less than stellar tenants next door.  Since we will be coming home in September, I am wondering if we wouldn't be wise to just take a risk, put in our notice here for the end of October and if we can't find a decent and affordable place to live by then, just put everything in storage and take a hotel for a month while we continue to look.  Sounds impractical I know as well as expensive, but it may take something very drastic like that to get us moved into a better place. We have learned that short notice sometimes is the catalyst to a move out of a bad situation that has been dragging on for so long as to appear to be hopeless for finding a solution to it. Then we step out in faith and BAM an answer appears within a few weeks.  We will see what happens when we get home but for now we have determined to simply pray and not worry too much.  (All the more reason to accept a ride from a dear friend who has offered to pick us up at 3:30am on our departure day and deliver us to the airport, so we can leave our car in the parking lot to save our parking space.  We have learned that once a new next door tenant thinks that there is no one parked in our space that tenant tends to use it liberally in our absence and it is often VERY difficult to retrain them to stay out of our spot when we return.  Our house checker upper will be able to monitor what is happening with the car so we are not afraid to leave it in place.)

So, my emotions had a rather tentative afternoon.  My husband was tired after a busy day doing carpentry, struggling with language barriers, not getting enough sleep last night, subsequently having no patience for sitting around here making dinner with me, so we went out for salads and buns.  It was nice.  We drive a fairly long way now to a restaurant far removed from where we live and any other places we have been to eat in the past few years.  It is like having a mini holiday just going for that little drive into a newer area of the city where we don't know anyone.  It is difficult to describe, but the fact that we find a fifteen minute drive to the outskirts of town to have a mini "holiday" away from our familiar haunts is a bit telling as to our need for change, isn't it? haha

I do hope and pray all goes well tomorrow for our errands.  I have had enough disappointment for one day....well, only one afternoon....and the disappointments were not devastating....so really, I think now that I have confessed them in this post I will not think about them again overly much. Confession IS good for the soul!  AAAND, thank you for "listening"!

Why O Why Did I Bother To Ask???? Hahahaha....

We were "up 'n' at 'em" by 8am today; breakfasted and dressed and ready to go by 9am.  We wanted to get to our nearest post office branch before it got busy and we were successful in that.  It took just over five minutes to arrange for our mail to be held while we are away and then we were on our way home again.  

The plumbers are supposed to come today to suss out our leakage issues but we knew they likely wouldn't get here until later in the day. So at nearly 3pm we are still waiting, but that is just fine.  It is highly likely they got held up on another job, so if they don't get here today they will be here tomorrow and one of us should be home most all day to explain the problem to them.  Who knows when arrangements will be made for the issue to actually be repaired, right?  We know from our years in construction how the best laid plans in the trades can come apart within seconds, leaving the next customer waiting longer than arranged for originally. That is just how it goes sometimes.

Once we arrived home from the post office my husband headed over to our friends' house to complete the building of canoe racks for their and our canoes, so I stupidly asked myself, "Hmmm, I wasn't expecting to be done with the post office this early so what shall I do for the rest of today?"  Dumb, dumb, dumb.....I barely got the question asked when things began to happen.  I realized it was time to put a load of my husband's clothes into the laundry and some of it needed stain spray...that man never remembers to put on his chef's sized apron when he is stir frying with hot, spattering oil.....and I wanted to get that finished before the plumbers might arrive and have to turn off the main water valve.  Just got that in when my next door neighbour arrived with a giant tote bag filled with more bags of rice and rolled oats that, when added to what she has already brought us since the end of June, could combine to feed a lumber camp crew for an entire summer.  In the top of the bag were two large bunches of carrots and a giant head of broccoli, both veggies needing immediate attention.  So, I spent the next hour cutting off carrot tops and peeling and bagging them for my husband to make soup out of, perhaps tomorrow.  Then I chopped the heavy, tough stem off the head of broccoli, removed a section for our dinner tonight then cut the rest of it into somewhat smaller pieces, blanched the whole works, cooled all the pieces and bagged them for the freezer.  Originally I had hoped to have the freezer and most of the refrigerator free of any food items before we left town, but that isn't going to happen, so all we can do is pray our refrigerator, poor ancient scratched stained ugly old thing that it is, doesn't break down while we are gone. So thankful our friend is checking in several times a week to water plants and check things like basement flooding and dead refrigerators. God bless her!!  

After lunch I got the load of clothes dried and sorted, but I think I will wait and iron them tomorrow.  For some reason our lunch preparations resulted in more than the usual amount of dirty dishes, so I spent a fair bit of time tidying up the kitchen and washing plates and glasses and bowls and pots and and and and....

Now as I write this I am waiting for my son to call in regard to some mutual banking arrangements we need to make together in regard to our trip.  Those arrangements will dictate how I spend the rest of the next ten days in preparing to go. 

Tomorrow morning if I am looking at a chunk of free time after I iron the laundry I washed today I think I will just keep my questions about further chores for the day to myself!  Hohoho!!! I certainly can't whine today about not getting enough exercise.  I have lost count of how many times I have been up and down both flights of stairs and how long I spent standing in the kitchen doing various chores.  

That part is ALL good!!!  My hip muscles on the operated leg are finally beginning to strengthen up to cover up the fact that the tendon has not returned to full operation.  YAY!  I thought I was done with all of the healing and restoration process, but no!  That 18 month time frame for complete or nearly complete healing is still in effect for me for the next 5 months apparently. I am delighted and relieved as I see the limp finally beginning to lessen even when I am walking farther than usual without my cane.  Thank you God.