This evening my husband and I are rejoicing! Yesterday afternoon we drove to Estevan so my husband could do his part in a service of ordination at the church there. It was a lovely service and it was very nice to see so many people there both of us are aquainted with. There were many nice visits both before and after the service with all those folk.
Before the service we were very hungry, so stopped at the first restaurant we came to for dinner. The restaurant is Eddie Webster's and it wasn't too bad at all, despite the grubby appearance of the outside of the building. My meal was a bit overpriced, as my quarter chicken was more like an eighth, BUT we have never seen so many vegetables on restaurant dinner plates in years and years. They were delicious, grilled beautifully, not a mushy piece in the bunch. My husband had fish and chips and for a relatively reasonable price was given four pieces of battered fish and a bowl of the freshest, crunchiest cole slaw he has ever eaten. He loved it. On each table in the restaurant was a welcoming bottle of wine; in our case it happened to be one of our favourites, Torreon de Paredes merlot, and that made up for my chintzy piece of chicken...teehee.
After the service and the subsequent coffee hour we drove over to our hotel, Western Star Signature. What a lovely treat for us both! The hotel is very nice, we love the decorator colours and fabrics and furnishings. It is new enough so as to still be clean, relatively unmarred by all the guests tramping in and out of the suites and dining room, so we thoroughly enjoyed our brief time there. We both slept very well after watching the last half of the Calgary/Montreal football game...those poor Alouettes were just trounced by the Stampeders. While the winner of the game was not in doubt by the time we picked it up, it was still a fun game to watch.
The complimentary hotel breakfast this morning wasn't too bad actually. There was sufficient variety that we could ignore the gleaming, overcooked, rubbery fried eggs and fatty sausage patties and enjoy the English muffins, whole wheat bread and peanut butter, a couple of teensy potato latkes and yogurt. There were muffins, waffles, bagels, cereal and a few other things available as well. The chairs were comfortable and the dining tables large enough to hold all the food and drink a person could handle.
While my husband was working very hard all day doing pre-Synod presentations for the local priests and delegates, I took myself shopping! I spent several hours wandering about the town and decided if I found some things worth buying, I would for once spend my quarterly sales tax rebate on myself. There is little left downtown for shopping options. The end of the oil boom has pretty much decimated the retail and restaurant sector in that part of the town. However, I got a good morning walk out of my explorations before driving into the newer segment of the town....ooh, sorry, Estevan has "city status"....no disrespect intended by calling it a town. It just happens to be a very tiny city.
Anyway, even the mall was only half occupied, but I did find a couple of bargain treats at Nutters and Eclipse to make me happy. I found a fat and cholesterol free caesar salad dressing that I hope will be tasty AND I was SUCH A GOOD GIRL: there was quite a large selection of No Sugar Added chocolates and candies and I purchased NONE of them...not even ONE!! YES!! I also discovered a little farmers' market in one corner of the mall parking lot. I bought my husband a corn product free saskatoon pie and a half dozen corn product free cinnamon buns. I so hope they are tasty and he enjoys eating them. I bought a large bag of freshly dug carrots we are looking forward to eating! I found a dollar store that carries his favourite small bags of cashews, so got a couple of those for him as well.
After touring the mall I took a quick spin through Canadian Tire and Peavey Mart, just to gawp about and waste a bit of time before it was time for lunch, which I ate at the local Original Joe's. The fish tacos were delicious but the caesar salad wasn't very good at this particular outlet...just a teeny handful of lettuce, a half dozen bits of fatty bacon and a huge blob of gooey dressing plopped on top of the pile. After scraping off most of the dressing it was edible, but I have not had one of their salad side dishes that was not presented in a separate bowl and three times or more the amount I was given today. Blah!! O well, the tacos were fantastic!
Since the restaurant is near a No Frills, I decided to take a quick tour through that grocery store just for fun. I came away with several products that I enjoy eating but that cost far less there than they do at the other Loblaws brand outlets here in the city.
I decided I must have exhausted all shopping possibilities at that point and headed back to the church where my husband was about to start his afternoon sessions. Oooh, hey....there a WalMart I missed seeing on the way over here...must stop and look in there just for fun too. I walked up and down every aisle in the store...twice....to get some post prandial exercise before returning to the church.
Once I arrived back there I checked the time and discovered the sessions would be ending in just over an hour, so I found a comfy chair in a brightly lit small room and did a few crossword puzzles from a book I brought in my purse from home.
When the sessions ended, my husband and I visited with the local priests for awhile, then had a very pleasant drive back to Regina. My husband decided he couldn't wait for me to get us home and make dinner, so we stopped at the Travelodge on the way back into town and ate dinner at their Knotted Thistle pub. What a wonderful, wonderful treat! We liked the somewhat dim lighting, the little gas fireplaces, the general coziness of the space and the efficient, friendly staff. There was music playing, but it wasn't blasting us out of our seats! The menu items looked interesting but we chose to try the special of the night: Guiness beef stew. We decided after dinner that it was the best beef stew we have ever eaten in a restaurant in our lives. The small chunks of meat in the Guiness gravy were cooked to perfection, tender without falling apart and LOTS of them. There were onions and small pieces of turnip and a side of mashed potatoes to spoon into the gravy in the stew bowl or to keep separate. The bowl was topped with a large, square of buttery puffed pastry and it was rather delicious when folded and dipped into the gravy...I have to say. No, I wasn't counting cholesterol tonight!! The side was a salad of mixed greens and the dark balsamic vinegar on the green leaves paired perfectly with the hearty flavour of the gravy. We will definitely be returning to this pub in the near future. How have we not discovered this little gem before now???? YUMMY!!
If I wake up in time tomorrow morning I will head off to church, but my husband has no morning committments, surprisingly enough, so he may just sleep in. I don't mind sneaking off and just letting him rest for a change.
We had great weather for our trip! It was warm and windy, just cool enough to need to wear a light coat this morning, perfect for driving...the predicted rain did not materialize apart from a few drops just as we got back to the city.
My husband is watching football again so I think I will go and join him since Edmonton is one of the teams.
Saturday, September 30, 2017
Thursday, September 28, 2017
One of the Last Outdoor Walks
Today's walk up to the pharmacy was kind of bitter sweet: although it was a beautiful day for a walk, with warm temperatures, almost no wind and lots of sunshine, I was very aware that winter is soon coming and this would be one of the last days to get out and about on foot.
The sun was so low in the sky at 1:30pm it was actually somewhat depressing, to be honest. The wasp activity was just crazy all along the route and forced me to talk to myself to stay calm and cover my shiny ring and purse clasp so they wouldn't be so apt to fly at me in their curiousity about those bright, interesting looking items. Yuck!!
The leaves on the ground and along the curb gutters are all ready brown and miserable to look at. While there are still green and yellow leaves left on some of the trees, the bare limbs all ready look half dead while they await the winter snow. I suppose the lack of moisture is to blame for the first early leaf fall back at the end of August, but it means we have been staring at brown, crispy, dead leaves on the ground for over a month all ready. Only a very few trees near our place had leaves that turned beautiful red before fading to orange and deep yellow prior to falling off the branches.
When I arrived home later in the afternoon the sun was even lower in the sky. I find myself closing the blinds and drapes now between 7-7:30pm as it is getting dark so early. My husband and I find ourselves asking each other if it is time for bed yet and then discovering it is only just after 8pm. We have done that 3 evenings in a row!
Finding out my sister in law and her husband are coming for Christmas was just the boost I needed today. She emailed her news just after I read the weather forecast for next week and discovered freezing rain was supposed to be occuring in the wee hours of next Wednesday morning. Talk about depressing, but now the forecast has been revised. The rain now next week is only supposed to last for 2 days instead of 3, stopping sometime on Tuesday afternoon and having a chance to dry up before the temperature drops below freezing overnight. It will be most interesting to see what REALLY happens! hahaha
The sun was so low in the sky at 1:30pm it was actually somewhat depressing, to be honest. The wasp activity was just crazy all along the route and forced me to talk to myself to stay calm and cover my shiny ring and purse clasp so they wouldn't be so apt to fly at me in their curiousity about those bright, interesting looking items. Yuck!!
The leaves on the ground and along the curb gutters are all ready brown and miserable to look at. While there are still green and yellow leaves left on some of the trees, the bare limbs all ready look half dead while they await the winter snow. I suppose the lack of moisture is to blame for the first early leaf fall back at the end of August, but it means we have been staring at brown, crispy, dead leaves on the ground for over a month all ready. Only a very few trees near our place had leaves that turned beautiful red before fading to orange and deep yellow prior to falling off the branches.
When I arrived home later in the afternoon the sun was even lower in the sky. I find myself closing the blinds and drapes now between 7-7:30pm as it is getting dark so early. My husband and I find ourselves asking each other if it is time for bed yet and then discovering it is only just after 8pm. We have done that 3 evenings in a row!
Finding out my sister in law and her husband are coming for Christmas was just the boost I needed today. She emailed her news just after I read the weather forecast for next week and discovered freezing rain was supposed to be occuring in the wee hours of next Wednesday morning. Talk about depressing, but now the forecast has been revised. The rain now next week is only supposed to last for 2 days instead of 3, stopping sometime on Tuesday afternoon and having a chance to dry up before the temperature drops below freezing overnight. It will be most interesting to see what REALLY happens! hahaha
Good News From the Rellies!!
We are very excited to get an email from my husband's sister asking if she and her husband can come and join us here for Christmas this year! YAY! That will be a very fun time to look forward to! We tried previously....was it just last year or was it the year before.....or both......but illness kept us from getting together. FINALLY it looks like things could work out this year. Hotel rooms are being booked today all ready to be sure they can stay at their favourite place here. Oh....this is happy news! I think this is the kind of uplift emotionally my husband and I have been in need of lately! Thank you Lord!
Wednesday, September 27, 2017
Oh, the Plans That You'll Make and the Ways That They'll Change!
This week the days seem to be blending into each other and they all "feel" the same. Not sure why. Possibly it is because I have been stressing just a little bit about my 6 month lab work that was done this morning. Since I got home from the lab an hour ago, the day seems cheerier, the sun is up so it is certainly brighter outside and whatever my test resuts turn out to be, there is nothing to be done about them now! If I have neither maintained my A1C nor regained control of my cholesterol, there will soon be a phone call from the doctor's office telling me to come in for a little discussion with my physician. Sigh.......I DO know the phone call is coming because we have to discuss cholesterol either way; it is only the day the call is coming that I am uncertain of. So, might as well relax now and wait to hear whatever news I get.
I have been savouring in my imagination the flavour of the steak that will be served at my church's annual steak dinner extravaganza come this Friday evening........all for nought as it turns out. Work has double booked my husband for the same night, so we have to attend an ordination instead. He and the Bishop have not had sufficient time to meet and make scheduling considerations for each other so double bookings have begun happening all around. The bishop was away last week....and most of this week....and will be all of next week.....his life is even crazier than my husband's. The office manager and myself have our own ideas of how this diocese should be run.......teehee.......actually I think our ideas are darned good to be honest. Now we just have to pin down the bishop long enough to seriously make them known!!! Surely he will see our reasoning as sound! Right? hohoho!!!
As the months fly past I am realizing the sense in dropping all but one of my own committments. After the years of being an Anglican priest's wife, a position with generally very few, very low expectations that I should be some kind of unpaid assistant as happens in some other denominations, it is slowly beginning to happen in my husband's present position. The expectation is not at all being thrust upon me by the bishop or my husband or anyone else, I am simply seeing the wisdom of being available all the time to be a driver for my husband, to assist him in things he has no time for (like helping him straighten up his new office space or collect and collate receipts and various papers), and just go along to encourage him at various public meetings etc. I have lived this way for most of our marriage for one reason and another and it is the most peaceful way for me and for him, particularly since he was struck down by CFS so many years ago. Being on permanent standby to assist him has always worked for us, so it isn't a big surprise to find out I need to do it again after a bit of a break from it. Not having so many scheduling conflicts between us is more relaxing for me as well. I shouldn't have purchased tickets to the steak dinner so far in advance, but at the time it seemed the best thing to do based on my now former committment to the transition team. Live and learn, right? Diocesan Synod happens in just over 3 weeks' time, so life SHOULD slow a bit after that...for a day or two!
A few folk have asked me whatever happened in the search for my husband's missing fedora. Well, I don't think it is going to be returned to us. After several visits back to the restaurant where it was left behind, it seems that what happened was that a regular customer saw it hanging on the rack behind the bar and not too many days after my husband forgot to take it with him, this customer helped himself to the hat. The staff is aware of it and seems to have made some good attempts to have the man return it but he has refused, defintely a case of "finders keepers, losers weepers". So, we are very sad, but that is how life goes sometimes. It is a good reminder to us to both be more careful to take our belongings with us when we leave restaurants! Losing the hat is a couple of hundred dollars down the drain for us, BUT I have decided my husband should order a new hat! He knows his size and I am sure the hat could be ordered online from the hatmaker in Vancouver that this last one came from. To be honest, since he gained so much weight after purchasing the hat, I don't think it fit him as well as it did originally and I would love to see him with a brand spanking new hat that fits perfectly. I have a quarterly sales tax rebate coming in about a week's time....the perfect amount to pay for a new hat!! This morning when I woke up I was doing a minor OCD fret over the missing hat...until I turned on my bedside light, picked up the book I am currently enjoying and immediately began reading about an even more expensive and serious loss of some of the author's material possessions and how he dealt so well with the loss of things far more important than a simple hat. I felt like God was certainly giving me the nudge to let it all go, so now that I have prayed and blogged about it I think I will be able to stop obsessing about it and move on with life! hahahaha My husband is much more calm about it than I have been. We were talking over breakfast this morning about if there is any way we can parlay the interaction we have had with the restaurant staff over this hat into a deeper relationship with these precious young souls.
Tomorrow is pay day! It is the most lived for day of every month as a rule, hahahaha. I have a regular pay day routine of showing up at the bank as soon as it opens and making sure the cheque and our pensions were deposited. I take out whatever cash I need, then do some more banking at other banks, then head to the grocery store to purchase whatever foods we have been waiting the longest for, then to whatever other stores I need to go to for things that have been waiting specifically for pay day before being purchased. Tomorrow I have to head over to WalMart for some navy winter boot socks, then out to the east side to get the oil changed in the car. I like pay day. It is the day of the month when I feel the most useful when it comes to running the household. Spending the whole morning banking, shopping, paying bills...I love that! I enjoy it even more than cleaning house, even though it is not as physically strenuous.
Our son has an interview today for a full time job at a different gallery than where he now works part time. I pray if it would be a good fit that he will be offered the work. He needs a steady full time income that is less frantic to attain than his present part time job supplemented with bits and pieces of work here and there in between his work hours. He is so very happy in NYC and is getting adjusted to the far more back breaking pace of life than he had in Vancouver. So many Vancouver friends have visited him in the past couple of months he almost feels as if he never left the place anyway. hahaha
Had a great chat with my parents last night. Again, THEY called ME! It was good to hear all their adventures of the past few days. They were at church Sunday, then spent the afternoon making their contributions to their facility putting on an open house for possible new tenants and their families. Monday they ticked off the one item on their bucket list since moving into their present digs: to walk from there over to Mount Royal University to the food fair for lunch and then down into the college basement for their favourite Tim Horton's maple glazed doughnuts! When they first moved the distance would have posed little problem for mom, but as she has been unable to get about as much over the past 2 years with Dad being so disabled, even she has been leery about trying it. Tuesday morning they were thinking about it and realized that their trip to the bird sanctuary last week involved walking a far greater distance than to the University and back. Since it was a lovely day they decided Tuesday would be the day for the long walk. They did very well. Dad is a new man since detoxing from the morphine. Mom said Dad only had to stop and sit down on his walker seat a couple of times and other than slightly sore legs, she was just fine with the round trip walk. They had a wonderful time. They may try it one more time on another nice day before the snow comes again, but if it turns out to be the only time they ever do it, they can be pleased with themselves. Yesterday they were at a special luncheon and today a friend is taking them to Glenmore Park for a picnic. Dad told me last night he is sorry he didn't listen to me several years ago when I tried to tell them how isolated they were becoming in their old condo after he gave up driving. BUT they are happy and busy NOW and that is what is important. Long may it last!
So, life is good. Sometimes it is confusing, sometimes it is frustrating, but mostly it is cruising along okay for the time being. My OCD is getting back under control, as evidenced by how quickly I got over my early morning upset over the missing hat simply by reading about someone else's experience with material loss. As I have given in more graciously to returning to being an oncall wife I have been feeling far less stressed and anxious, happier and more fulfilled. I guess we never stop learning, do we? Yesterday I realized it is just over 2 years since my last fall and broken bones and I rejoice MIGHTILY in that!
Today I have my comfiest winter jeans on with a plain navy blue short sleeved cotton tee shirt and an ankle lenth SUPER comfortable, warm, lovely, cotton sweater from Bootlegger. I LOVE IT! It is right up there with my Mark's Comfy Robe for wearing enjoyment. This morning I wore it instead of a jacket while I stood in line for 30 minutes outside the lab while waiting for it to open. It was wonderful! I always meet the most interesting people in that line up and that passes the time in a happy way. I got in line at 6:30am and we watched the sun rise together, on what looks to be a beautifully sunny day. We watched the land gulls and ravens in the parking lot beside us scrapping over bits of food on the ground. We studied the sidewalk in front of the stores near the lab and wondered why the entire area had been jackhammered into large pieces and what was going to happen next. We took bets on which of us had been fasting for the most hours before lab work. We talked about jobs and former jobs, retirement, kids, grandkids....oh, there is no end to the casual conversation amongst a group of strangers, all terrified about lab results on a dark, chilly autumn morning standing outside the laboratory building.
Now that my tests are over, I am wondering if vacuuming would be a good way to spend the rest of the day.
Looking at the 14 day weather forecast makes me feel cheery. So far only one day with some rain apparently, and for a whole week we return to temperatures each day just above +20C before returning to seasonal highs! YES!! This weather so late into September should make EVERYONE here happy!! Big smile.......
I have been savouring in my imagination the flavour of the steak that will be served at my church's annual steak dinner extravaganza come this Friday evening........all for nought as it turns out. Work has double booked my husband for the same night, so we have to attend an ordination instead. He and the Bishop have not had sufficient time to meet and make scheduling considerations for each other so double bookings have begun happening all around. The bishop was away last week....and most of this week....and will be all of next week.....his life is even crazier than my husband's. The office manager and myself have our own ideas of how this diocese should be run.......teehee.......actually I think our ideas are darned good to be honest. Now we just have to pin down the bishop long enough to seriously make them known!!! Surely he will see our reasoning as sound! Right? hohoho!!!
As the months fly past I am realizing the sense in dropping all but one of my own committments. After the years of being an Anglican priest's wife, a position with generally very few, very low expectations that I should be some kind of unpaid assistant as happens in some other denominations, it is slowly beginning to happen in my husband's present position. The expectation is not at all being thrust upon me by the bishop or my husband or anyone else, I am simply seeing the wisdom of being available all the time to be a driver for my husband, to assist him in things he has no time for (like helping him straighten up his new office space or collect and collate receipts and various papers), and just go along to encourage him at various public meetings etc. I have lived this way for most of our marriage for one reason and another and it is the most peaceful way for me and for him, particularly since he was struck down by CFS so many years ago. Being on permanent standby to assist him has always worked for us, so it isn't a big surprise to find out I need to do it again after a bit of a break from it. Not having so many scheduling conflicts between us is more relaxing for me as well. I shouldn't have purchased tickets to the steak dinner so far in advance, but at the time it seemed the best thing to do based on my now former committment to the transition team. Live and learn, right? Diocesan Synod happens in just over 3 weeks' time, so life SHOULD slow a bit after that...for a day or two!
A few folk have asked me whatever happened in the search for my husband's missing fedora. Well, I don't think it is going to be returned to us. After several visits back to the restaurant where it was left behind, it seems that what happened was that a regular customer saw it hanging on the rack behind the bar and not too many days after my husband forgot to take it with him, this customer helped himself to the hat. The staff is aware of it and seems to have made some good attempts to have the man return it but he has refused, defintely a case of "finders keepers, losers weepers". So, we are very sad, but that is how life goes sometimes. It is a good reminder to us to both be more careful to take our belongings with us when we leave restaurants! Losing the hat is a couple of hundred dollars down the drain for us, BUT I have decided my husband should order a new hat! He knows his size and I am sure the hat could be ordered online from the hatmaker in Vancouver that this last one came from. To be honest, since he gained so much weight after purchasing the hat, I don't think it fit him as well as it did originally and I would love to see him with a brand spanking new hat that fits perfectly. I have a quarterly sales tax rebate coming in about a week's time....the perfect amount to pay for a new hat!! This morning when I woke up I was doing a minor OCD fret over the missing hat...until I turned on my bedside light, picked up the book I am currently enjoying and immediately began reading about an even more expensive and serious loss of some of the author's material possessions and how he dealt so well with the loss of things far more important than a simple hat. I felt like God was certainly giving me the nudge to let it all go, so now that I have prayed and blogged about it I think I will be able to stop obsessing about it and move on with life! hahahaha My husband is much more calm about it than I have been. We were talking over breakfast this morning about if there is any way we can parlay the interaction we have had with the restaurant staff over this hat into a deeper relationship with these precious young souls.
Tomorrow is pay day! It is the most lived for day of every month as a rule, hahahaha. I have a regular pay day routine of showing up at the bank as soon as it opens and making sure the cheque and our pensions were deposited. I take out whatever cash I need, then do some more banking at other banks, then head to the grocery store to purchase whatever foods we have been waiting the longest for, then to whatever other stores I need to go to for things that have been waiting specifically for pay day before being purchased. Tomorrow I have to head over to WalMart for some navy winter boot socks, then out to the east side to get the oil changed in the car. I like pay day. It is the day of the month when I feel the most useful when it comes to running the household. Spending the whole morning banking, shopping, paying bills...I love that! I enjoy it even more than cleaning house, even though it is not as physically strenuous.
Our son has an interview today for a full time job at a different gallery than where he now works part time. I pray if it would be a good fit that he will be offered the work. He needs a steady full time income that is less frantic to attain than his present part time job supplemented with bits and pieces of work here and there in between his work hours. He is so very happy in NYC and is getting adjusted to the far more back breaking pace of life than he had in Vancouver. So many Vancouver friends have visited him in the past couple of months he almost feels as if he never left the place anyway. hahaha
Had a great chat with my parents last night. Again, THEY called ME! It was good to hear all their adventures of the past few days. They were at church Sunday, then spent the afternoon making their contributions to their facility putting on an open house for possible new tenants and their families. Monday they ticked off the one item on their bucket list since moving into their present digs: to walk from there over to Mount Royal University to the food fair for lunch and then down into the college basement for their favourite Tim Horton's maple glazed doughnuts! When they first moved the distance would have posed little problem for mom, but as she has been unable to get about as much over the past 2 years with Dad being so disabled, even she has been leery about trying it. Tuesday morning they were thinking about it and realized that their trip to the bird sanctuary last week involved walking a far greater distance than to the University and back. Since it was a lovely day they decided Tuesday would be the day for the long walk. They did very well. Dad is a new man since detoxing from the morphine. Mom said Dad only had to stop and sit down on his walker seat a couple of times and other than slightly sore legs, she was just fine with the round trip walk. They had a wonderful time. They may try it one more time on another nice day before the snow comes again, but if it turns out to be the only time they ever do it, they can be pleased with themselves. Yesterday they were at a special luncheon and today a friend is taking them to Glenmore Park for a picnic. Dad told me last night he is sorry he didn't listen to me several years ago when I tried to tell them how isolated they were becoming in their old condo after he gave up driving. BUT they are happy and busy NOW and that is what is important. Long may it last!
So, life is good. Sometimes it is confusing, sometimes it is frustrating, but mostly it is cruising along okay for the time being. My OCD is getting back under control, as evidenced by how quickly I got over my early morning upset over the missing hat simply by reading about someone else's experience with material loss. As I have given in more graciously to returning to being an oncall wife I have been feeling far less stressed and anxious, happier and more fulfilled. I guess we never stop learning, do we? Yesterday I realized it is just over 2 years since my last fall and broken bones and I rejoice MIGHTILY in that!
Today I have my comfiest winter jeans on with a plain navy blue short sleeved cotton tee shirt and an ankle lenth SUPER comfortable, warm, lovely, cotton sweater from Bootlegger. I LOVE IT! It is right up there with my Mark's Comfy Robe for wearing enjoyment. This morning I wore it instead of a jacket while I stood in line for 30 minutes outside the lab while waiting for it to open. It was wonderful! I always meet the most interesting people in that line up and that passes the time in a happy way. I got in line at 6:30am and we watched the sun rise together, on what looks to be a beautifully sunny day. We watched the land gulls and ravens in the parking lot beside us scrapping over bits of food on the ground. We studied the sidewalk in front of the stores near the lab and wondered why the entire area had been jackhammered into large pieces and what was going to happen next. We took bets on which of us had been fasting for the most hours before lab work. We talked about jobs and former jobs, retirement, kids, grandkids....oh, there is no end to the casual conversation amongst a group of strangers, all terrified about lab results on a dark, chilly autumn morning standing outside the laboratory building.
Now that my tests are over, I am wondering if vacuuming would be a good way to spend the rest of the day.
Looking at the 14 day weather forecast makes me feel cheery. So far only one day with some rain apparently, and for a whole week we return to temperatures each day just above +20C before returning to seasonal highs! YES!! This weather so late into September should make EVERYONE here happy!! Big smile.......
Sunday, September 24, 2017
A Darned Good Little Movie!!
After supper this evening my husband said he found a movie on our tv rental station he thought we would both REALLY REALLY enjoy. He saw a preview for it a few weeks ago and has had it in his mind to rent it ever since, but there has been no time. I asked him what it was about and he told me it was called Their Finest and that it was a British/Welsh produced movie about the making of propaganda movies during the Second World War.
I hope I wasn't gaping at him as he described the subject matter of this film that starred no one I have ever heard of before. The making of propaganda films? Seriously? He thought I would be fascinated with a movie like that? Seriously??? I was about to say no thank you dearie, but he was so excited to see it with me and had generously and graciously watched the re-broadcast of last weekend's Golovkin/Alvarez boxing match this afternoon, despite us knowing the outcome all ready....so.....yeah, sure, why not watch the movie of his choice? Right? Ho hum....'tis a far, far better thing I do, and all that jazz.
WOW, I am so glad I decided to watch the film. It is excellent. It is witty and gritty, well cast, well acted, with a wonderful script and excellent cinematography. When the movie started I happened to have a piece of string in my hand that I planned to throw into the garbage at the first opportunity....the first opportunity for boredom on my part. When the movie ended I was still clutching the piece of string and two fingers that were wrapped around it were nearly numb! There were no boring parts. I didn't want to pause the recording and interrupt the flow of the movie. hahahaha My husband scored BIG on his choice of movie for this evening.
Thanfully it was far less dramatic in some ways than the real life event that took place in front of our suite earlier in the day. About the time we started watching the boxing match I noticed that all the traffic on the street outside was stopped even though they were 100 yards from the nearest crosswalk and they certainly weren't stopping to let geese cross the road. Eventually I realized that 2 cyclists had smacked head on into each other on the sidewalk, right where it curves and creates a slight blind spot. The bicycles were lying in a twisted modern art sort of sculpture, there was a ball cap in the middle of the street and various bicycle parts were scattered about as well. People in the cars were stopping to move the hat and the metal pedals and cross bars off the street so traffic could get moving again.
What caught my attention next was the fact that the two cyclists were having a battle royal, each attempting to make the other into a replica of the bicycle sculpure, fists flying, insults and slurs being shouted at top volume, while terrified onlooking motorists huddled in their cars, cell phones out, calling the police. The fight moved out into the middle of the street, down the centre of the road, stopping traffic in all directions and eventually the two fellows ended up on our complex's lawn, two buildings down from ours. By the time they got to the grass, the blows were becoming more serious and one fellow finally went down under the power of the other's fist. As soon as he hit the ground he began suffering a round of horrendously powerful kicks from his opponent. When that began, two young male motorists leapt from their vehicles and tried to pull the men apart. About that time the police arrived, patrol car lights flashing and sirens blaring. They managed to wrestle both men to the ground, subdue and cuff them, eventually hauling the "kicker" into a patrol car and calling an ambulance for the "kickee"! The two civilians who tried to help stuck around until the ambulance came while giving their statements, as did some of the intial car drivers that stopped as soon as the bicycles collided. Eventually all the cars, ambulances, bystanders, arrestees and EMT's left the scene and the neighbourhood settled down again.
I was pretty jacked up by the time I got to choir practise later in the afternoon, so if my voice still wasn't great, at least it was energetic!! I always feel nauseous and highly emotional watching any kind of real life violence, even violence as minor as the fight on the lawn. I am just grateful neither participant had a knife or a gun.
Tomorrow we have some errands to run. My husband is going to exchange one of his canoe buddy's things for his own things that ended up in each other's pile of "stuff" when they unloaded the vehicle after the trip in early September. I think the rest of the guys have sorted out their things and made the necessary exchanges so that once my husband and his driving partner are sorted out, everyone will have all their own gear back.
Interesting weekend....glad it was so good and that my husband is able to take a couple of sick days and a day off this week.
I hope I wasn't gaping at him as he described the subject matter of this film that starred no one I have ever heard of before. The making of propaganda films? Seriously? He thought I would be fascinated with a movie like that? Seriously??? I was about to say no thank you dearie, but he was so excited to see it with me and had generously and graciously watched the re-broadcast of last weekend's Golovkin/Alvarez boxing match this afternoon, despite us knowing the outcome all ready....so.....yeah, sure, why not watch the movie of his choice? Right? Ho hum....'tis a far, far better thing I do, and all that jazz.
WOW, I am so glad I decided to watch the film. It is excellent. It is witty and gritty, well cast, well acted, with a wonderful script and excellent cinematography. When the movie started I happened to have a piece of string in my hand that I planned to throw into the garbage at the first opportunity....the first opportunity for boredom on my part. When the movie ended I was still clutching the piece of string and two fingers that were wrapped around it were nearly numb! There were no boring parts. I didn't want to pause the recording and interrupt the flow of the movie. hahahaha My husband scored BIG on his choice of movie for this evening.
Thanfully it was far less dramatic in some ways than the real life event that took place in front of our suite earlier in the day. About the time we started watching the boxing match I noticed that all the traffic on the street outside was stopped even though they were 100 yards from the nearest crosswalk and they certainly weren't stopping to let geese cross the road. Eventually I realized that 2 cyclists had smacked head on into each other on the sidewalk, right where it curves and creates a slight blind spot. The bicycles were lying in a twisted modern art sort of sculpture, there was a ball cap in the middle of the street and various bicycle parts were scattered about as well. People in the cars were stopping to move the hat and the metal pedals and cross bars off the street so traffic could get moving again.
What caught my attention next was the fact that the two cyclists were having a battle royal, each attempting to make the other into a replica of the bicycle sculpure, fists flying, insults and slurs being shouted at top volume, while terrified onlooking motorists huddled in their cars, cell phones out, calling the police. The fight moved out into the middle of the street, down the centre of the road, stopping traffic in all directions and eventually the two fellows ended up on our complex's lawn, two buildings down from ours. By the time they got to the grass, the blows were becoming more serious and one fellow finally went down under the power of the other's fist. As soon as he hit the ground he began suffering a round of horrendously powerful kicks from his opponent. When that began, two young male motorists leapt from their vehicles and tried to pull the men apart. About that time the police arrived, patrol car lights flashing and sirens blaring. They managed to wrestle both men to the ground, subdue and cuff them, eventually hauling the "kicker" into a patrol car and calling an ambulance for the "kickee"! The two civilians who tried to help stuck around until the ambulance came while giving their statements, as did some of the intial car drivers that stopped as soon as the bicycles collided. Eventually all the cars, ambulances, bystanders, arrestees and EMT's left the scene and the neighbourhood settled down again.
I was pretty jacked up by the time I got to choir practise later in the afternoon, so if my voice still wasn't great, at least it was energetic!! I always feel nauseous and highly emotional watching any kind of real life violence, even violence as minor as the fight on the lawn. I am just grateful neither participant had a knife or a gun.
Tomorrow we have some errands to run. My husband is going to exchange one of his canoe buddy's things for his own things that ended up in each other's pile of "stuff" when they unloaded the vehicle after the trip in early September. I think the rest of the guys have sorted out their things and made the necessary exchanges so that once my husband and his driving partner are sorted out, everyone will have all their own gear back.
Interesting weekend....glad it was so good and that my husband is able to take a couple of sick days and a day off this week.
Saturday, September 23, 2017
Thank You Husband Dear
I enjoyed a lovely surprise tonight when my husband returned home from a successful meeting at work. He walked in, asked me how many loads of laundry I did today and when I responded with "9 loads", he said he was taking me out for dinner!
YES!!
Going out for dinner is always a lovely thing, but the fact that it was his own idea and that he based it on my work load of the day is an even lovelier thing. He was feeling celebratory because he was proud of himself for finally taking only his third sick day of this year from work, the meeting he led in the absence of the bishop was successful, AND the Dean of the Cathedral gave him some very spontaneous, thoughtful praise for the sheer amount of work he is attempting to do in his position. I am so happy for him that it was such a great day, both because of the successful meeting and because of the unexpected heaping of praise upon him. Bless you dear Dean of the Cathedral. You encouraged my husband even more than you likely thought you did.
We decided to go to Original Joe's as we haven't been there for a long time, plus they now have a Saturday late afternoon happy hour. We arrived early enough to take full advantage of their $3 appetizer specials. The little beef slider came on a teensy round bun that reminded us so much of our old favourite Freshness Burger outlet in Tokyo. All it needed was a 5cm stack of shredded cabbage on top of the meat patty and it would have been nearly identical to those tiny Japanese burgers. We spent about half what we would normally spend on dinner there. Again with the "lovely"!! Then we went for a short walk before coming home so I could complete my final 2 loads of drying laundry and getting everything folded, hung up and otherwise put away. My husband is watching an older movie, Oceans Thirteen, that he has seen numerous times previously and thoroughly enjoying the relaxing time. He is off work tomorrow and MAYBE Monday as well!! I can only hope......anyway, he is happy, I am happy.....this has been a fabulous weekend thus far with equal amounts of rest, work and play.
Thank you very much friends and family who have been praying for us, particularly for my husband. He is weathering the storm in no small thanks to your prayers. Obviously God is listening to you and being merciful to us as a result.
YES!!
Going out for dinner is always a lovely thing, but the fact that it was his own idea and that he based it on my work load of the day is an even lovelier thing. He was feeling celebratory because he was proud of himself for finally taking only his third sick day of this year from work, the meeting he led in the absence of the bishop was successful, AND the Dean of the Cathedral gave him some very spontaneous, thoughtful praise for the sheer amount of work he is attempting to do in his position. I am so happy for him that it was such a great day, both because of the successful meeting and because of the unexpected heaping of praise upon him. Bless you dear Dean of the Cathedral. You encouraged my husband even more than you likely thought you did.
We decided to go to Original Joe's as we haven't been there for a long time, plus they now have a Saturday late afternoon happy hour. We arrived early enough to take full advantage of their $3 appetizer specials. The little beef slider came on a teensy round bun that reminded us so much of our old favourite Freshness Burger outlet in Tokyo. All it needed was a 5cm stack of shredded cabbage on top of the meat patty and it would have been nearly identical to those tiny Japanese burgers. We spent about half what we would normally spend on dinner there. Again with the "lovely"!! Then we went for a short walk before coming home so I could complete my final 2 loads of drying laundry and getting everything folded, hung up and otherwise put away. My husband is watching an older movie, Oceans Thirteen, that he has seen numerous times previously and thoroughly enjoying the relaxing time. He is off work tomorrow and MAYBE Monday as well!! I can only hope......anyway, he is happy, I am happy.....this has been a fabulous weekend thus far with equal amounts of rest, work and play.
Thank you very much friends and family who have been praying for us, particularly for my husband. He is weathering the storm in no small thanks to your prayers. Obviously God is listening to you and being merciful to us as a result.
Some Quotes
I found many quotes written by other authors and theologians cited by Dr. Hill in his first book, that I mentioned in a previous post, titled Washed and Waiting, that are meaningful to me for various reasons, so I pass them on to you here for your perusal. Thank you Dr. Hill for bringing these quotes to my attention, some for the first time.
This is perhaps the hardest truth of any to grasp. Do we wake up every morning amazed that we are loved by God?
--David Ford, The Shape of Living
We also wish to affirm those sisters and brothers, already in membership with orthodox churches, who--while experiencing same-sex desires and feelings--nevertheless battle with the rest of us, in repentance and faith, for a lifestyle that affirms marriage [between a man and a woman] and celibacy as the two given norms for sexual expression. There is room for every kind of background and past sinful experience among members of Christ's flock as we learn the way of repentence and renewed lives, for Such were some of you. But you were washed, you were sanctified, you were justified in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ and by the Spirit of our God. (1Corinthians 6:11)
This is true inclusivity.
--Richard Bewes, "The New Hampshire Decision: Statement from All Souls Church, Langham Place, London Wi, November 2003."
Biblcal commands are not arbitrary decrees but correspond to the way the world is and will be.
--Richard Bauckham, God and the Crisis of Freedom
I can only answer the question "What am I to do?" if I can answer the prior question "Of what story or stories do I find myself a part?"
--Alasdair MacIntyre, After Virtue
Through baptism, Christians have entered a corporate whole whose health is at stake in the conduct of all its members. Sin is like an infection in the body; thus moral action is not merely a matter of individual freedom and preference....The New Testament never considers sexual conduct a matter of purely private concern between consenting adults. According to Paul, everything that we do as Christians, including our sexual practisces, affects the whole body of Christ.
--New Testament theologian Richard Hays, Moral vision of the New Testament, 391,92
What if the church were full of people who were loving and safe, willing to walk alongside people who struggle? What if there were people in the church who kept confidences, who took the time to be Jesus to those who struggle with homosexuality? What if the church were what God intended it to be?
--Anonymous
Don't
Surrender
Your loneliness so quickly.
Let it cut more
Deep.
Let it ferment and season you
As few human
Or even divine ingredients can.
--Hafiz
Be adored among men,
God, three-numbered form;
Wring thy rebel, dogged in den,
Man's malice, with wrecking and storm.
Beyond saying sweet, past telling of tongue,
Thou art lightning and love, I found it, a winter and warm;
Father and fondler of heart thou hast wrung;
Hast thy dark descending and most art merciful then.
--Gerard Manley Hopkins, The Wreck of the Deutschland, stanza 9
This is perhaps the hardest truth of any to grasp. Do we wake up every morning amazed that we are loved by God?
--David Ford, The Shape of Living
We also wish to affirm those sisters and brothers, already in membership with orthodox churches, who--while experiencing same-sex desires and feelings--nevertheless battle with the rest of us, in repentance and faith, for a lifestyle that affirms marriage [between a man and a woman] and celibacy as the two given norms for sexual expression. There is room for every kind of background and past sinful experience among members of Christ's flock as we learn the way of repentence and renewed lives, for Such were some of you. But you were washed, you were sanctified, you were justified in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ and by the Spirit of our God. (1Corinthians 6:11)
This is true inclusivity.
--Richard Bewes, "The New Hampshire Decision: Statement from All Souls Church, Langham Place, London Wi, November 2003."
Biblcal commands are not arbitrary decrees but correspond to the way the world is and will be.
--Richard Bauckham, God and the Crisis of Freedom
I can only answer the question "What am I to do?" if I can answer the prior question "Of what story or stories do I find myself a part?"
--Alasdair MacIntyre, After Virtue
Through baptism, Christians have entered a corporate whole whose health is at stake in the conduct of all its members. Sin is like an infection in the body; thus moral action is not merely a matter of individual freedom and preference....The New Testament never considers sexual conduct a matter of purely private concern between consenting adults. According to Paul, everything that we do as Christians, including our sexual practisces, affects the whole body of Christ.
--New Testament theologian Richard Hays, Moral vision of the New Testament, 391,92
What if the church were full of people who were loving and safe, willing to walk alongside people who struggle? What if there were people in the church who kept confidences, who took the time to be Jesus to those who struggle with homosexuality? What if the church were what God intended it to be?
--Anonymous
Don't
Surrender
Your loneliness so quickly.
Let it cut more
Deep.
Let it ferment and season you
As few human
Or even divine ingredients can.
--Hafiz
Be adored among men,
God, three-numbered form;
Wring thy rebel, dogged in den,
Man's malice, with wrecking and storm.
Beyond saying sweet, past telling of tongue,
Thou art lightning and love, I found it, a winter and warm;
Father and fondler of heart thou hast wrung;
Hast thy dark descending and most art merciful then.
--Gerard Manley Hopkins, The Wreck of the Deutschland, stanza 9
O What A Night...Late September 2017!
O my....we had SO much fun with our friends last evening! We realize most people have great times of fun like we had last night as a regular way of life, but we don't get out much to entertainment venues featuring special events, so for us it was quite a grand occasion.
The evening started with a delicious dinner at The Willow restaurant. It was a slow moving, relaxing, feast filled evening of excellent service, a relaxed atmosphere, a sunset view, twinkly outdoor lights and excellent food.
My husband and I skipped the yummy sounding appetizers, but one of our friends ordered the wild boar soup and it smelled like heaven in a dish...maybe it was just my intense hunger from waiting such a long time for our meal, but it smelled like something I could eat every day for the rest of my life. He said it was indeed very tasty. While we waited for the rest of our meal, we were each served a teensy bite of pickerel on a round sliced pickle and a Japanese sauce with sesame seeds. Beats the heck out of the usual basket of hot, doughy bread and greasy butter as a "freebie" we often get from the kitchen in many other restaurants, that is for sure! My husband ordered the "Meat and Potatoes", which arrived with an incredible amount of freshly roasted beef slices and the potato puree. I was too invested in concentrating on my plate of wild boar meat balls and spaghetti squash with a light helping of marinara sauce and topped with crisy fried kale, to notice what my husband was served for vegetables on his plate. All I know is we both cleaned our plates completely of food! The spaghetti one friend ordered looked so delicious and she truly enjoyed it, a relief since she is not one to try new adventures in food comsumption. Her husband had a lamb dish that featured a large "hunk" of tender, juicy lamb. I think I may just order that if we go there again sometime before the Fall Menu changes over to the Winter Menu. We tried 3 of the desserts. There was a cherry "flan" sort of thing made mostly of whipped and baked sugar, so I didn't try that one. My husband and my friend declared the honey pie to be quite a taste sensation, but when I was told it was like a combination of caramel and shortbread for flavour and texture, I passed on trying that one too. Had I liked it the other two would have lost any chance of getting another bite! I settled for the rather fabulously flavoured chocolate beet cake...gluen free of course, so I did get the occasional heavy, woody tang that seems to accompany most gluten free foods on my taste buds...but it was so good. There were bits of chocolate shaved avocado that didn't add a lot to the flavour, but looked amazing and gave a lovely soft texture to add into the thicker cakey one. The prices were middle of the road reasonable, the portion sizes big enough we knew we eaten a good dinner but without making us feel stuffed and uncomfortable. Not having to feel rushed because our friends made the reservation for early in the evening and gave us the exact amount of time required to relax and enjoy the time it takes to wait for freshly prepared food, set the perfect tone for the evening. Listening to the stories of their very interesting lives was entertainment enough for us, but then after dinner we got to go to the comedy night event!
One of the friends works for Investors' Group and that company sponsors a Canada-wide comedy tour each year for its employees and clients. What a privilege to be invited to attend. We haven't laughed that hard for years! Ivan Decker was our comic MC for the evening and he was hysterically funny. The first main act was Patrick Haye. He was funny too and didn't resort to the "dirty jokes" until the very end of his set, so we were spared anything really gross. At least his little foray into that realm was funny enough not to be annoying and meant there truly was something for everyone at the event. As much as I enjoyed Mr. Decker and Mr. Haye, I super duper party pooper enjoyed Bengt Washburn! He had a long set, we started laughing ten seconds into it and didn't stop for the next 20 minutes or more when his set ended. He talked about the most every day things and made them hilarious! He didn't need to resort to bad language or filth to make his points, he was just a real "everyman" sort of comic and wow, did we ever enjoy him!! There are a couple of lines from his set that I suspect are going to become family sayings in this house. hahaha
Despite the headache of trying to drive out of the parking lot at Conexus Centre after the event, we were still home by around 9:30pm. My husband was able to collect his papers and computer set up to take with him to his meeting this morning and still be asleep by shortly after 10pm. I stayed awake a little longer, replaying some of my favourite jokes from the evening in my mind.
It was SO good for my husband to have a chance to step away so completely from work and all its tiresome stresses for the whole evening. He dealt only with one issue just as dinner was getting started, then that was it for the rest of the night. He had no cell phone calls to deal with, no frantic emergencies arose after 4:30pm yesterday that required his immediate attention. He had his 2 naps yesterday afternoon, had a good sleep last night and left for work this morning more rested and cheery than I have seen him in awhile. One day of catching up on sleep will not completely solve all his lack of rest issues, but it certainly helped! I am going to take his work phone away from him on Sunday, as it is his one day off he is "fer shur" supposed to have between now and sometime in October.
I am so grateful to our friends for the invitation out last night. They are truly nice folk. I am so grateful to God that He allowed my husband to just relax and enjoy it without interruptions. I am so happy my husband stepped out of the office yesterday and took the time he needed to rest. I am happy he is supposed to have tomorrow off work. I am happy I have choir rehearsal tomorrow afternoon. AND right now I am happy to be up to my armpits in laundry, so I better go and rescue the load presently in the washer and change over the clothes to the next load.
Have a wonderful day family and friends!
The evening started with a delicious dinner at The Willow restaurant. It was a slow moving, relaxing, feast filled evening of excellent service, a relaxed atmosphere, a sunset view, twinkly outdoor lights and excellent food.
My husband and I skipped the yummy sounding appetizers, but one of our friends ordered the wild boar soup and it smelled like heaven in a dish...maybe it was just my intense hunger from waiting such a long time for our meal, but it smelled like something I could eat every day for the rest of my life. He said it was indeed very tasty. While we waited for the rest of our meal, we were each served a teensy bite of pickerel on a round sliced pickle and a Japanese sauce with sesame seeds. Beats the heck out of the usual basket of hot, doughy bread and greasy butter as a "freebie" we often get from the kitchen in many other restaurants, that is for sure! My husband ordered the "Meat and Potatoes", which arrived with an incredible amount of freshly roasted beef slices and the potato puree. I was too invested in concentrating on my plate of wild boar meat balls and spaghetti squash with a light helping of marinara sauce and topped with crisy fried kale, to notice what my husband was served for vegetables on his plate. All I know is we both cleaned our plates completely of food! The spaghetti one friend ordered looked so delicious and she truly enjoyed it, a relief since she is not one to try new adventures in food comsumption. Her husband had a lamb dish that featured a large "hunk" of tender, juicy lamb. I think I may just order that if we go there again sometime before the Fall Menu changes over to the Winter Menu. We tried 3 of the desserts. There was a cherry "flan" sort of thing made mostly of whipped and baked sugar, so I didn't try that one. My husband and my friend declared the honey pie to be quite a taste sensation, but when I was told it was like a combination of caramel and shortbread for flavour and texture, I passed on trying that one too. Had I liked it the other two would have lost any chance of getting another bite! I settled for the rather fabulously flavoured chocolate beet cake...gluen free of course, so I did get the occasional heavy, woody tang that seems to accompany most gluten free foods on my taste buds...but it was so good. There were bits of chocolate shaved avocado that didn't add a lot to the flavour, but looked amazing and gave a lovely soft texture to add into the thicker cakey one. The prices were middle of the road reasonable, the portion sizes big enough we knew we eaten a good dinner but without making us feel stuffed and uncomfortable. Not having to feel rushed because our friends made the reservation for early in the evening and gave us the exact amount of time required to relax and enjoy the time it takes to wait for freshly prepared food, set the perfect tone for the evening. Listening to the stories of their very interesting lives was entertainment enough for us, but then after dinner we got to go to the comedy night event!
One of the friends works for Investors' Group and that company sponsors a Canada-wide comedy tour each year for its employees and clients. What a privilege to be invited to attend. We haven't laughed that hard for years! Ivan Decker was our comic MC for the evening and he was hysterically funny. The first main act was Patrick Haye. He was funny too and didn't resort to the "dirty jokes" until the very end of his set, so we were spared anything really gross. At least his little foray into that realm was funny enough not to be annoying and meant there truly was something for everyone at the event. As much as I enjoyed Mr. Decker and Mr. Haye, I super duper party pooper enjoyed Bengt Washburn! He had a long set, we started laughing ten seconds into it and didn't stop for the next 20 minutes or more when his set ended. He talked about the most every day things and made them hilarious! He didn't need to resort to bad language or filth to make his points, he was just a real "everyman" sort of comic and wow, did we ever enjoy him!! There are a couple of lines from his set that I suspect are going to become family sayings in this house. hahaha
Despite the headache of trying to drive out of the parking lot at Conexus Centre after the event, we were still home by around 9:30pm. My husband was able to collect his papers and computer set up to take with him to his meeting this morning and still be asleep by shortly after 10pm. I stayed awake a little longer, replaying some of my favourite jokes from the evening in my mind.
It was SO good for my husband to have a chance to step away so completely from work and all its tiresome stresses for the whole evening. He dealt only with one issue just as dinner was getting started, then that was it for the rest of the night. He had no cell phone calls to deal with, no frantic emergencies arose after 4:30pm yesterday that required his immediate attention. He had his 2 naps yesterday afternoon, had a good sleep last night and left for work this morning more rested and cheery than I have seen him in awhile. One day of catching up on sleep will not completely solve all his lack of rest issues, but it certainly helped! I am going to take his work phone away from him on Sunday, as it is his one day off he is "fer shur" supposed to have between now and sometime in October.
I am so grateful to our friends for the invitation out last night. They are truly nice folk. I am so grateful to God that He allowed my husband to just relax and enjoy it without interruptions. I am so happy my husband stepped out of the office yesterday and took the time he needed to rest. I am happy he is supposed to have tomorrow off work. I am happy I have choir rehearsal tomorrow afternoon. AND right now I am happy to be up to my armpits in laundry, so I better go and rescue the load presently in the washer and change over the clothes to the next load.
Have a wonderful day family and friends!
Friday, September 22, 2017
And Now My Husband is Home For the Day
The poor man is so exhausted he was only at work for just over an hour before he packed up his laptop and came home. So, he is napping and will finish up today's work from home this afternoon.
The poor, exhausted man. He slept badly last night again, so has just reached the end of his tether for today. I have to admit I am glad to have him around even when he is napping, or still working.
The poor, exhausted man. He slept badly last night again, so has just reached the end of his tether for today. I have to admit I am glad to have him around even when he is napping, or still working.
The Day is Starting Off Well....If a Bit Too Early
Welcome Happy Morning, as the old hymn goes. My morning began just after 4:30am. I woke up for no good reason, then realized my husband was also awake, so we had a chat for a half hour before both of us tried to get to sleep again. My husband succeeded, but I didn't.
I stayed awake partly because I began reading a tiny but most interesting book by Wheaton College and Durham University graduate, Dr. Wesley Hill. The book is a short reflection, but a deep one, on his struggles as a homosexual Christian who believes that God requires chastity and friendship for his homosexual followers, rather than sexual fulfillment in a gay human relationship. His theololgical argument is about the most sound one I have come across. It is a lonely journey, but as he says, it is an equally lonely journey for heterosexual people who end up going through life without a partner, or who find themselves in a marriage that is less than what it should be. However, they are not always battling the stigmas related to being gay. Reading about his struggles, his failures and also his successes in embracing a celibate lifestyle, in being lonely and how he relates so much to the writings of other homosexual Christians such as Henri Nouwen and Gerard Manley Hopkins, was very encouraging to me as well. Although I have not had to struggle to process something as confusing as homosexuality, when he writes about incidents in his life such as being in the midst of his friends, partying, feasting and being included in their celebrations, yet still feeling like he is standing outside the building looking in through the window at everyone else's fun, I can identify all too well. So many of his own struggles to be a part of the Christian church, although also influenced by the struggles and stigma of homosexuality, are common to many of the rest of us. You certainly do not have to be gay or lesbian to get a tremendous amount of understanding and encouragment from Dr. Hill's first book: Washed and Waiting: Reflections on Christian Faithfulness and Homosexuality. It may even give you more compassion for those who struggle all their lives to fit into being disciples of Christ while acknowledging their sexual attractions are not considered "the norm" for God's people. In October I am going to be attending a day long seminar Dr. Hill is presenting and hope to read his second book before I go.
By 7:30am my husband and I were both up and bustling about getting ready to go over to the breakfast buffet at The Fairmont, meeting up with the 3 Kenyan Anglicans my husband was busy entertaining yesterday. They are representing the Council of Anglican Provinces of Africa. Canon Grace is a lovely man with a huge smile and a predilection to laughter at every opportunity. His co-workers are a huggy bunch with similar huge smiles. If the breakfast was less than wonderful, and honestly, how good are most "breakfast included" hotel restaurants, right(?), the visit was completely wonderful. I warn you now, family and friends, do not be surprised if sometime next year we up and head for 2 months in Kenya on a pastoral exchange. Nothing arranged just yet, but, I'm just sayin'........the possibility is there........
It is very cold outside now after what we have become used to over the summer. After breakfast my husband dropped me off at the grocery store before he drove back to work. The temperature was +6C. I was wearing a sleeveless turtle necked top under a long sleeved, scoop necked shirt, long heavy pants and a light rain coat, shoes and socks. I am very glad I had to purchase sufficient amounts of groceries that I required a bag for each hand to carry them home. Lifting that amount of weight, even for the short 3 blocks home, and walking as quickly as I could, I still got a chill walking back to the suite. Brrrrrrrr!!!!!!!! By the time my husband gets home this evening to get ready for our dinner out it will probably be pouring rain. Brrrrrrrrrr!!! I am glad we live so very close to the restaurant and not that much farther away from Conexus Centre where the comedy night is happening. We had originally planned to walk, but I think we will just wimp out and drive!! Brrrrrrrrrrrrr!!!!!
The last of my summer clothes will be washed and packed away by tomorrow, including my sandals and summer purses. When the end of summer came, it came quickly. Wow, it is going to take some time to adjust!
I stayed awake partly because I began reading a tiny but most interesting book by Wheaton College and Durham University graduate, Dr. Wesley Hill. The book is a short reflection, but a deep one, on his struggles as a homosexual Christian who believes that God requires chastity and friendship for his homosexual followers, rather than sexual fulfillment in a gay human relationship. His theololgical argument is about the most sound one I have come across. It is a lonely journey, but as he says, it is an equally lonely journey for heterosexual people who end up going through life without a partner, or who find themselves in a marriage that is less than what it should be. However, they are not always battling the stigmas related to being gay. Reading about his struggles, his failures and also his successes in embracing a celibate lifestyle, in being lonely and how he relates so much to the writings of other homosexual Christians such as Henri Nouwen and Gerard Manley Hopkins, was very encouraging to me as well. Although I have not had to struggle to process something as confusing as homosexuality, when he writes about incidents in his life such as being in the midst of his friends, partying, feasting and being included in their celebrations, yet still feeling like he is standing outside the building looking in through the window at everyone else's fun, I can identify all too well. So many of his own struggles to be a part of the Christian church, although also influenced by the struggles and stigma of homosexuality, are common to many of the rest of us. You certainly do not have to be gay or lesbian to get a tremendous amount of understanding and encouragment from Dr. Hill's first book: Washed and Waiting: Reflections on Christian Faithfulness and Homosexuality. It may even give you more compassion for those who struggle all their lives to fit into being disciples of Christ while acknowledging their sexual attractions are not considered "the norm" for God's people. In October I am going to be attending a day long seminar Dr. Hill is presenting and hope to read his second book before I go.
By 7:30am my husband and I were both up and bustling about getting ready to go over to the breakfast buffet at The Fairmont, meeting up with the 3 Kenyan Anglicans my husband was busy entertaining yesterday. They are representing the Council of Anglican Provinces of Africa. Canon Grace is a lovely man with a huge smile and a predilection to laughter at every opportunity. His co-workers are a huggy bunch with similar huge smiles. If the breakfast was less than wonderful, and honestly, how good are most "breakfast included" hotel restaurants, right(?), the visit was completely wonderful. I warn you now, family and friends, do not be surprised if sometime next year we up and head for 2 months in Kenya on a pastoral exchange. Nothing arranged just yet, but, I'm just sayin'........the possibility is there........
It is very cold outside now after what we have become used to over the summer. After breakfast my husband dropped me off at the grocery store before he drove back to work. The temperature was +6C. I was wearing a sleeveless turtle necked top under a long sleeved, scoop necked shirt, long heavy pants and a light rain coat, shoes and socks. I am very glad I had to purchase sufficient amounts of groceries that I required a bag for each hand to carry them home. Lifting that amount of weight, even for the short 3 blocks home, and walking as quickly as I could, I still got a chill walking back to the suite. Brrrrrrrr!!!!!!!! By the time my husband gets home this evening to get ready for our dinner out it will probably be pouring rain. Brrrrrrrrrr!!! I am glad we live so very close to the restaurant and not that much farther away from Conexus Centre where the comedy night is happening. We had originally planned to walk, but I think we will just wimp out and drive!! Brrrrrrrrrrrrr!!!!!
The last of my summer clothes will be washed and packed away by tomorrow, including my sandals and summer purses. When the end of summer came, it came quickly. Wow, it is going to take some time to adjust!
Thursday, September 21, 2017
Found it!
I am very happy today. After a ton of fun visiting and rehearsing with my friend for her audition, I headed downtown for my hair appointment. My goodness, I knew I needed to have my hair cut, but wow....I look SO much better, I should have paid closer attention and had it cut about 10 days ago! Gotta pay more attention to such things!!
I stopped in at The Bay afterward with the intention of finding the "almost what I want" winter dress coat I saw in there the other day...in every size but mine. My sister-in-law suggested I go back there, copy down the tag numbers and then try to find it online. When I got back there today I searched all around, but could not find the remaining few coats I saw previously. Sigh..... Then, around a massive corner post I found a whole new section devoted to winter coats. Now I am happy the Anne Klein coat was unavailable in my size a few days ago. I found a very cute ready-to-wear Calvin Klein that is even closer in style to what I have been looking for. Unfortunately there wasn't one in black, but I fell very much in like with the grey one and settled on purchasing the coat in a deep navy after deciding the grey was too light and would show every bit of dirt and dark lint even more than the darker colour. The coat is at least knee length and, although what I really want is a much more expensive ankle length coat, this one will suffice. The price was very good so that certainly added to the attraction. The coat is 60% wool with cotton and a bit of polyester and is well lined so it should be warm. It is roomy enough to wear a suit jacket or heavy sweater under, as evidenced by the fact that I was wearing a heavy suit jacket when I tried the coat on. There is a large, heavy duty angled zipper the full length of the coat as well as a huge snap both top and bottom to prevent pull on the zipper. It has a belt that I am ambivalent about. Generally I do not like wearing belts on coats as they make a short person like me appear to be cut in half. However, the belt loops are just cotton/nylon thread and can be easily removed if I decide the belt is not what I want. This coat is definitely second choice for style, but it is stylish, long enough to keep my knees warm and nicely affordable. Even after having to pay our new 11% total tax, the coat was reasonable for cost.
I am happy!
The walk home was quite wonderful. It was cool this morning when I left home and the bright yellow suit jacket was definitely a wasp magnet, so I ended up catching the bus part way downtown....and the stupid wasps followed me right onto the bus. Fortunately for me, as well as for the other passengers, the attraction of buzzing themselves into a frenzy against the closed bus windows was bigger than the attraction to my jacket or other passengers. Walking home the wind was much stronger and I didn't see more than one wasp the entire way. I stuck to the main business streets, away from all the beautiful old trees on the residential streets, so I think that helped as well.
This weekend's laundry will see the last washing up of all my summer clothes and they will be packed away until next spring. It will be nice to get the tubs filled and out of my bedroom, back into storage down in the basement. I wore the last of my late summer outfits today. The "feeling" and "appearance" of the outside air has definitely changed from summer to fall and I think today was the last sandal wearing day as well.
"One more sleep" before our dinner out and evening of comedy tomorrow.
I stopped in at The Bay afterward with the intention of finding the "almost what I want" winter dress coat I saw in there the other day...in every size but mine. My sister-in-law suggested I go back there, copy down the tag numbers and then try to find it online. When I got back there today I searched all around, but could not find the remaining few coats I saw previously. Sigh..... Then, around a massive corner post I found a whole new section devoted to winter coats. Now I am happy the Anne Klein coat was unavailable in my size a few days ago. I found a very cute ready-to-wear Calvin Klein that is even closer in style to what I have been looking for. Unfortunately there wasn't one in black, but I fell very much in like with the grey one and settled on purchasing the coat in a deep navy after deciding the grey was too light and would show every bit of dirt and dark lint even more than the darker colour. The coat is at least knee length and, although what I really want is a much more expensive ankle length coat, this one will suffice. The price was very good so that certainly added to the attraction. The coat is 60% wool with cotton and a bit of polyester and is well lined so it should be warm. It is roomy enough to wear a suit jacket or heavy sweater under, as evidenced by the fact that I was wearing a heavy suit jacket when I tried the coat on. There is a large, heavy duty angled zipper the full length of the coat as well as a huge snap both top and bottom to prevent pull on the zipper. It has a belt that I am ambivalent about. Generally I do not like wearing belts on coats as they make a short person like me appear to be cut in half. However, the belt loops are just cotton/nylon thread and can be easily removed if I decide the belt is not what I want. This coat is definitely second choice for style, but it is stylish, long enough to keep my knees warm and nicely affordable. Even after having to pay our new 11% total tax, the coat was reasonable for cost.
I am happy!
The walk home was quite wonderful. It was cool this morning when I left home and the bright yellow suit jacket was definitely a wasp magnet, so I ended up catching the bus part way downtown....and the stupid wasps followed me right onto the bus. Fortunately for me, as well as for the other passengers, the attraction of buzzing themselves into a frenzy against the closed bus windows was bigger than the attraction to my jacket or other passengers. Walking home the wind was much stronger and I didn't see more than one wasp the entire way. I stuck to the main business streets, away from all the beautiful old trees on the residential streets, so I think that helped as well.
This weekend's laundry will see the last washing up of all my summer clothes and they will be packed away until next spring. It will be nice to get the tubs filled and out of my bedroom, back into storage down in the basement. I wore the last of my late summer outfits today. The "feeling" and "appearance" of the outside air has definitely changed from summer to fall and I think today was the last sandal wearing day as well.
"One more sleep" before our dinner out and evening of comedy tomorrow.
Happy To Have My Husband Home and Cheery
Yesterday was another fine day. Although it was quite breezy and there was a bit of a nip in the air, the sun was shining most of the day and the temperature rose to +18C by mid afternoon. Quite a glorious end to the summer season. As of today's date it is officially autumn and this past week has certainly prepared me to come out of denial about the winter and embrace this next season.
In the late morning I decided it was time to unload some of the books I have read lately, so I walked a few blocks to a community mail box and deposited them, stopping for a couple of grocery items on the way home. I had to pick up a can of oven cleaner to clean up the horrendous mess I made of the oven earlier in the morning when I made my husband's favourite pudding. The baking bowl I used to cook it in broke some time ago and the one I chose to make this pudding in turned out to be just slightly too small to retain all the boiling liquid that goes into the pudding just before putting it in to cook. By the time it was cooked the entire bottom of the oven was drenched in a layer of sugar water and apple juice. Eek!!!
I suppose it is just as well the mess was so bad because I absolutely had to clean it up before it would be possible to use the oven again. While I cleaned I had a great chat with a friend who lives in Ontario. Talking to her certainly made the job go more quickly. May she be richly blessed for taking the time because her conversation helped me keep my cussing about my own stupidity with that too small dish to a minimum! haha She has a very calm voice and serene manner that is very good for me!
I wasn't sure what time my husband was coming home because there was no time to ask him before he blasted off Monday morning. So, when a friend from out of town called me with some great news she wanted to celebrate with me I accepted her invitation to go out to dinner together. She was making a long drive just for dinner and I appreciate that! No sooner had I hung up the phone when my husband returned! Fortunately he was so tired he was just as glad I was going out for a couple of hours so he could have some time alone. He has had many days in the past month where he has been away overnight with other people for work or recreation and the constant 24 hour contact has exhausted him. He needed some time alone and wanted to putter about putting his own dinner together, so I was free to go out and have fun.
My friend and I went to Regina's newest Mexican restaurant, Chachalacas. It is east on Quance, in where Breakfast Bistro used to be located, directly east of Oliv and La Luna. We had a delicious meal there. I think I have now tried every taco salad in the city and this one was very good. There was so much meat on it I am shocked I didn't react to all the sodium it must have been cooked with. It came in one of those big taco bowl shells, which is perfect for me because I don't have to eat the oily, cholesterol producing shell to feel I have had a wonderful meal for the price. There was so much salad inside I felt no need to do more than break off a teeny bit of shell just to try it. My friend had beef tacos: soft tacos with spicy strips of steak, onion and green peppers with an accompaniment of a scoop of Mexican spiced rice and some kind of salad. The included starter was a rather large amount of relatively fresh corn chips and a spicy pico de gallo that made our lips burn....it was DELICIOUS and if it wasn't for all the cholesterol producers in the chips I would order a meal of that and that alone sometime. My friend is the funniest person I know, so beside the great food we had many, many hearty laughs and giggles.
When I got home my husband was flaked out on the couch idly flipping the channels on the tv and looking far more rested than he did when he first arrived home. We watched the finale of American Ninja Warrior together and I knew he was feeling more rested because he was rather verbal about how much better he could construct that course and arrange the order of events. hahahahaha It really irritates him that so much upper body strength is required for most of the course as he feels it caters only to certain body builds. I couldn't care less about any of it. For me it is just a chance to watch something together on tv and have some fun at home. Some wives have to be football wives or hockey wives, me, I am an American Ninja Warrior wife. hahaha
My day ended with a phone call from a friend in BC...more good news to celebrate, so I headed off to bed feeling very happy for the many answered prayers in the lives of two of my closest friends.
A friend is coming over fairly early this morning to rehearse her audition pieces for little theatre and then I am heading out for a hair cut and some banking. It is time to renew our car insurance and the new tax that was slapped on so unexpectedly a few weeks ago is going to ding us pretty hard each year. I thought car insurance here was ridiculously expensive to start with!! I am so grateful for the nearly three hundred dollars a year that is deducted from what we owe for our safe driving record. I think we would be tempted to give up our vehicle if we didn't have that. We are just conscious of the newly rising cost because our base insurance nearly doubled with this newer, larger vehicle. There will be no car once we retire, that is for sure!
So happy it is going to be another decent day outdoors so I can walk to the hair dresser and back. My husband has some African agriculturalists from Uganda to entertain today in the midst of everything else that is now another 3 days behind due to the Conference, hahaha. However, he has been able to arrange visits to a farm and one of the potash mines with some other people from the diocese as leaders. I think he himself just has to take them to the Provincial Museum this afternoon, if all goes well. hahaha That will be his 3rd trip in as many weeks. In his retirement I think he should lead Provincial Museum tours! hahahaha
Okay, time to get a move on. It is nearly 7am. I only have a bit of time to get my husband's lunch made, get myself showered and dressed, eat breakfast and practise my friend's music. Ready, set, GO!
In the late morning I decided it was time to unload some of the books I have read lately, so I walked a few blocks to a community mail box and deposited them, stopping for a couple of grocery items on the way home. I had to pick up a can of oven cleaner to clean up the horrendous mess I made of the oven earlier in the morning when I made my husband's favourite pudding. The baking bowl I used to cook it in broke some time ago and the one I chose to make this pudding in turned out to be just slightly too small to retain all the boiling liquid that goes into the pudding just before putting it in to cook. By the time it was cooked the entire bottom of the oven was drenched in a layer of sugar water and apple juice. Eek!!!
I suppose it is just as well the mess was so bad because I absolutely had to clean it up before it would be possible to use the oven again. While I cleaned I had a great chat with a friend who lives in Ontario. Talking to her certainly made the job go more quickly. May she be richly blessed for taking the time because her conversation helped me keep my cussing about my own stupidity with that too small dish to a minimum! haha She has a very calm voice and serene manner that is very good for me!
I wasn't sure what time my husband was coming home because there was no time to ask him before he blasted off Monday morning. So, when a friend from out of town called me with some great news she wanted to celebrate with me I accepted her invitation to go out to dinner together. She was making a long drive just for dinner and I appreciate that! No sooner had I hung up the phone when my husband returned! Fortunately he was so tired he was just as glad I was going out for a couple of hours so he could have some time alone. He has had many days in the past month where he has been away overnight with other people for work or recreation and the constant 24 hour contact has exhausted him. He needed some time alone and wanted to putter about putting his own dinner together, so I was free to go out and have fun.
My friend and I went to Regina's newest Mexican restaurant, Chachalacas. It is east on Quance, in where Breakfast Bistro used to be located, directly east of Oliv and La Luna. We had a delicious meal there. I think I have now tried every taco salad in the city and this one was very good. There was so much meat on it I am shocked I didn't react to all the sodium it must have been cooked with. It came in one of those big taco bowl shells, which is perfect for me because I don't have to eat the oily, cholesterol producing shell to feel I have had a wonderful meal for the price. There was so much salad inside I felt no need to do more than break off a teeny bit of shell just to try it. My friend had beef tacos: soft tacos with spicy strips of steak, onion and green peppers with an accompaniment of a scoop of Mexican spiced rice and some kind of salad. The included starter was a rather large amount of relatively fresh corn chips and a spicy pico de gallo that made our lips burn....it was DELICIOUS and if it wasn't for all the cholesterol producers in the chips I would order a meal of that and that alone sometime. My friend is the funniest person I know, so beside the great food we had many, many hearty laughs and giggles.
When I got home my husband was flaked out on the couch idly flipping the channels on the tv and looking far more rested than he did when he first arrived home. We watched the finale of American Ninja Warrior together and I knew he was feeling more rested because he was rather verbal about how much better he could construct that course and arrange the order of events. hahahahaha It really irritates him that so much upper body strength is required for most of the course as he feels it caters only to certain body builds. I couldn't care less about any of it. For me it is just a chance to watch something together on tv and have some fun at home. Some wives have to be football wives or hockey wives, me, I am an American Ninja Warrior wife. hahaha
My day ended with a phone call from a friend in BC...more good news to celebrate, so I headed off to bed feeling very happy for the many answered prayers in the lives of two of my closest friends.
A friend is coming over fairly early this morning to rehearse her audition pieces for little theatre and then I am heading out for a hair cut and some banking. It is time to renew our car insurance and the new tax that was slapped on so unexpectedly a few weeks ago is going to ding us pretty hard each year. I thought car insurance here was ridiculously expensive to start with!! I am so grateful for the nearly three hundred dollars a year that is deducted from what we owe for our safe driving record. I think we would be tempted to give up our vehicle if we didn't have that. We are just conscious of the newly rising cost because our base insurance nearly doubled with this newer, larger vehicle. There will be no car once we retire, that is for sure!
So happy it is going to be another decent day outdoors so I can walk to the hair dresser and back. My husband has some African agriculturalists from Uganda to entertain today in the midst of everything else that is now another 3 days behind due to the Conference, hahaha. However, he has been able to arrange visits to a farm and one of the potash mines with some other people from the diocese as leaders. I think he himself just has to take them to the Provincial Museum this afternoon, if all goes well. hahaha That will be his 3rd trip in as many weeks. In his retirement I think he should lead Provincial Museum tours! hahahaha
Okay, time to get a move on. It is nearly 7am. I only have a bit of time to get my husband's lunch made, get myself showered and dressed, eat breakfast and practise my friend's music. Ready, set, GO!
Tuesday, September 19, 2017
Rain, Rain, Gone Away
The rain ceased to fall just after lunch. I am delighted. We had an excellent downpour which can only help the dry conditions at least somewhat and our basement leaking was confined to the original corner where it seems it has leaked for years. It is much better since my husband reparged it, but there is still one spot right where the landscaping outside funnels all the water right into the biggest corner crack in the foundation that starts leaking with little provocation. Well, FAR, FAR better than it used to be down there before he sealed some of the other, even more massive cracks. Don't know how many seasons the sealant will hold, but perhaps we will be moved on elsewhere by the time it lets go.
As I suspected, today was indeed a perfect day for cleaning house. I took my time, I took some phone calls, I took time to make myself a decent lunch, to practise a couple of songs for my friend's audition and to read some online newsfeeds....o my goodness, those poor folk in Puerto Rico and area getting decimated by another tropical storm, horror is striking in Mexico from another serious earthquake and the leader of our neighbours to the south is making threats against North Korea when diplomacy and mediation are what is called for when dealing with Asian thought process and culture. All I can say is that if all this nasty rhetoric ends up starting a huge world war and our country is in the midst of the bombing, I pray if one lands around here it lands directly on me and ends it all instantly! I was furious that both our major newscasters cut away from a speech by our very own prime minister to instead bring us the speech being given at the same time to the United Nations by President Trump. Grrrrrrr!!!!!!! Wow, that makes me intensely hot under the collar!! The media here is minimizing our own leadership to play voyeur with our neighbouring leadeship to the south. It isn't that we shouldn't have heard that speech to the UN, it is that it could have waited until our VERY OWN leader completed his message to our VERY OWN nation. Okay...off the bandwagon now.....
After waiting for a full week until their schedule had sufficient breaks in it to give me a call, I finally heard from my mom and dad today. hahahaha I am glad I obeyed their "Don't call us, we'll call you when we finally get time." edict from last week. Since they initiated the contact they were all primed to share their lives with good humour and they even asked me about my life....it has been some time since they last remembered to do that. I am very excited to hear how many things they are up to with their fellow residents and staff. They have a wonderful recreation director and an event planner who both love senior citizens and knock themselves out to make those seniors' lives more fun and interesting. There is a new chef now, finally, part time, to make at least a few of the nightly dinners right there in the kitchen instead of having all the meals made at a different facility, then trucked over and ending up over cooked, cold and generally unpalatable too much of the time. The chef is a lovely man and he too enjoys seniors very much. He put on a special BBQ lunch today for the people who had originally signed up to go on a picnic to Glenmore Park and who were disappointed when it had to be cancelled due to weather. So, in between the BBQ and appointments with the podiatrist, my parents gave me a call. It was nice.
Tonight I want to make myself a decent dinner so I suppose I should scout around for something tasty and nutritious. I have lots of salad veggies I can prepare. Maybe, since the chicken I thought would thaw in time for dinner has not thawed sufficiently, I will make another of my favourite tuna salads with a toasted pretzel bun. Yum! There is lots of prep for the veggies so I think I will go and start preparing for my own little home feast!
Oh, my husband called me last night after the evening conference lecture was over at the retreat centre. Dr. Barclay is talking about "grace" in the New Testament. There is quite a bit of teaching from the Book of Romans, but from other books as well. My husband sounded quite enthused. Now I too am looking forward to reading his notes, like he did mine from the Galatians lectures. I am realizing I could almost handle going back to seminary....ALMOST!! (but not quite)
As I suspected, today was indeed a perfect day for cleaning house. I took my time, I took some phone calls, I took time to make myself a decent lunch, to practise a couple of songs for my friend's audition and to read some online newsfeeds....o my goodness, those poor folk in Puerto Rico and area getting decimated by another tropical storm, horror is striking in Mexico from another serious earthquake and the leader of our neighbours to the south is making threats against North Korea when diplomacy and mediation are what is called for when dealing with Asian thought process and culture. All I can say is that if all this nasty rhetoric ends up starting a huge world war and our country is in the midst of the bombing, I pray if one lands around here it lands directly on me and ends it all instantly! I was furious that both our major newscasters cut away from a speech by our very own prime minister to instead bring us the speech being given at the same time to the United Nations by President Trump. Grrrrrrr!!!!!!! Wow, that makes me intensely hot under the collar!! The media here is minimizing our own leadership to play voyeur with our neighbouring leadeship to the south. It isn't that we shouldn't have heard that speech to the UN, it is that it could have waited until our VERY OWN leader completed his message to our VERY OWN nation. Okay...off the bandwagon now.....
After waiting for a full week until their schedule had sufficient breaks in it to give me a call, I finally heard from my mom and dad today. hahahaha I am glad I obeyed their "Don't call us, we'll call you when we finally get time." edict from last week. Since they initiated the contact they were all primed to share their lives with good humour and they even asked me about my life....it has been some time since they last remembered to do that. I am very excited to hear how many things they are up to with their fellow residents and staff. They have a wonderful recreation director and an event planner who both love senior citizens and knock themselves out to make those seniors' lives more fun and interesting. There is a new chef now, finally, part time, to make at least a few of the nightly dinners right there in the kitchen instead of having all the meals made at a different facility, then trucked over and ending up over cooked, cold and generally unpalatable too much of the time. The chef is a lovely man and he too enjoys seniors very much. He put on a special BBQ lunch today for the people who had originally signed up to go on a picnic to Glenmore Park and who were disappointed when it had to be cancelled due to weather. So, in between the BBQ and appointments with the podiatrist, my parents gave me a call. It was nice.
Tonight I want to make myself a decent dinner so I suppose I should scout around for something tasty and nutritious. I have lots of salad veggies I can prepare. Maybe, since the chicken I thought would thaw in time for dinner has not thawed sufficiently, I will make another of my favourite tuna salads with a toasted pretzel bun. Yum! There is lots of prep for the veggies so I think I will go and start preparing for my own little home feast!
Oh, my husband called me last night after the evening conference lecture was over at the retreat centre. Dr. Barclay is talking about "grace" in the New Testament. There is quite a bit of teaching from the Book of Romans, but from other books as well. My husband sounded quite enthused. Now I too am looking forward to reading his notes, like he did mine from the Galatians lectures. I am realizing I could almost handle going back to seminary....ALMOST!! (but not quite)
The Only Problem With Denial Coming To An End.....
....is having reality slap you upside the head!! hahaha
I awoke to a downpour of rain outside this morning. This is not the odd scattered shower that was forecast. Nope! This is a mighty deluge guaranteed to have my basement sprouting leaks again by after lunch. Aiiii yiiiii....TEEMING doesn't describe the pounding rainfall out there this morning. Hopefully it will ease off a bit before long.
I certainly did enjoy my summer of weather denial. The drought, the ensuing lack of mosquito activity and the lack of parking lot puddles helping to keep the geese over at the lake where they belong...well....these are some of the factors that made for the best summer I have had in SK in years!!
Now hits the reality of oncoming winter. I felt completely depressed as I looked out at the rain after crawling out of bed to the sound of pounding drops on the roof. That only lasted about 5 minutes though because all ready I am thinking past the fall and winter and making plans to enjoy next summer....perhaps it will be a dry and warm and wonderful as this year's has been!
It seems the perfect day to stay warm by doing some house cleaning. There are a few overripe apples sitting in the birchbark bowl on the kitchen counter...perhaps a great day to peel and chop them up for a Poor Man's Pudding to greet my husband with when he arrives home tomorrow.
It may be a very productive and pleasant day in this suite. Time to get at it!
I awoke to a downpour of rain outside this morning. This is not the odd scattered shower that was forecast. Nope! This is a mighty deluge guaranteed to have my basement sprouting leaks again by after lunch. Aiiii yiiiii....TEEMING doesn't describe the pounding rainfall out there this morning. Hopefully it will ease off a bit before long.
I certainly did enjoy my summer of weather denial. The drought, the ensuing lack of mosquito activity and the lack of parking lot puddles helping to keep the geese over at the lake where they belong...well....these are some of the factors that made for the best summer I have had in SK in years!!
Now hits the reality of oncoming winter. I felt completely depressed as I looked out at the rain after crawling out of bed to the sound of pounding drops on the roof. That only lasted about 5 minutes though because all ready I am thinking past the fall and winter and making plans to enjoy next summer....perhaps it will be a dry and warm and wonderful as this year's has been!
It seems the perfect day to stay warm by doing some house cleaning. There are a few overripe apples sitting in the birchbark bowl on the kitchen counter...perhaps a great day to peel and chop them up for a Poor Man's Pudding to greet my husband with when he arrives home tomorrow.
It may be a very productive and pleasant day in this suite. Time to get at it!
Monday, September 18, 2017
A SIMPLY LOVELY DAY IN THE NEIGHBOURHOOD!!!
WOW, what a wonderful, beautiful, gorgeous, perfect day it is outside today!!! It is a brief respite for us before the cold and rain comes to us tomorrow.
I wasn't sure how to spend my day, being too tired to do house cleaning and hoping that tomorrow and the next day will be sufficient time to do that this week. The weather definitely decided my plans for me. With the wasps flying about in fewer numbers since it got colder outside, I decided to risk going for a walk.
The day started out without that plan. I helped my husband pack up some snacks to take to Clergy Conference early this morning, but it wasn't until the mail came just before 11am that I even bothered to shower and dress I sat around all morning setting up tv shows to record over the coming week, puttered and pottered about doing nothing of significance and then the telephone bill arrived in the mail. I wandered outside to the mailbox still in my nightgown with a big old coat thrown over the top of it and discovered warm air, a nice breeze, a noticeable lack of wasp activity and some motivation to get going and do something with my day!
I got showered and dressed and walked downtown to pay the phone bill and mail a letter. What a grand walk it was too. Although I had a light longsleeved sweater instead of my usual bare arms for walking comfort, the weather was perfect for the trek. After I did my two little chores I went into Cornwall Centre to window shop and that was fun. I did give The Bay a serious once over looking for a winter dress coat, but the only decent ones were Anne Klein and Calvin Klein and of course they were all ready sold out of my size. I was disappointed because the prices were good...well under $400! I will try again in a couple of weeks in case these were just last year's leftover stock and new stock will be coming soon. At least I have begun the search. I want something good quality that is going to last me for a few years like the last wool coat I found at Sears in Moose Jaw. I would be wearing it still, 14 years later, had I not lost so much weight and had to give it up two years ago. The quality was that good! We have to go to Calgary in November to celebrate my mom's 90th birthday and I suspect I am going to have to go to Holt Renfrew and pay bigger bucks to get what I really want and need. For now the search continues.
After a seriously fun time of window shopping I went to Zam Zam Wraps for the delicious chicken shawarma salad....oooh, so good and for only $10. There was so much chicken on it today I could hardly find the salad...what a treat!
Another beautiful long walk home followed. In all that distance there was only 1 very persistant wasp who insisted on bumping himself into my hand over and over again, terrifying me to death, but once I cleared the strip of restaurants on Scarth Street he disappeared again. Whew! I was delighted to see my favourite pan handler once again at his usual post at the corner of Scarth and Victoria, but he has lost so much weight since I last saw him I hardly recognized him. Last time I saw him I thought he was not long for this world, and he may not be, but there he was today and I was glad to visit with him for a few minutes.
Well, lots of emails to answer, lecture notes to transcribe and newspapers to read, so I had better get with the programme. I also have to be sure I remember how to play 2 songs a friend of mine is using to audtion for a local musical theatre group. She is going to practise her audition with me some time this week so that will be a ton of fun.
My husband is safely ensconced at the retreat centre with the rest of the clergy for a few days of conference, so I don't have to worry or stress over his job or his health or his diet for awhile. It is a nice stress break for me and hopefully he will come home refreshed. He has been feeling much better at work the few days despite the never ending busyness. It is all good.
I wasn't sure how to spend my day, being too tired to do house cleaning and hoping that tomorrow and the next day will be sufficient time to do that this week. The weather definitely decided my plans for me. With the wasps flying about in fewer numbers since it got colder outside, I decided to risk going for a walk.
The day started out without that plan. I helped my husband pack up some snacks to take to Clergy Conference early this morning, but it wasn't until the mail came just before 11am that I even bothered to shower and dress I sat around all morning setting up tv shows to record over the coming week, puttered and pottered about doing nothing of significance and then the telephone bill arrived in the mail. I wandered outside to the mailbox still in my nightgown with a big old coat thrown over the top of it and discovered warm air, a nice breeze, a noticeable lack of wasp activity and some motivation to get going and do something with my day!
I got showered and dressed and walked downtown to pay the phone bill and mail a letter. What a grand walk it was too. Although I had a light longsleeved sweater instead of my usual bare arms for walking comfort, the weather was perfect for the trek. After I did my two little chores I went into Cornwall Centre to window shop and that was fun. I did give The Bay a serious once over looking for a winter dress coat, but the only decent ones were Anne Klein and Calvin Klein and of course they were all ready sold out of my size. I was disappointed because the prices were good...well under $400! I will try again in a couple of weeks in case these were just last year's leftover stock and new stock will be coming soon. At least I have begun the search. I want something good quality that is going to last me for a few years like the last wool coat I found at Sears in Moose Jaw. I would be wearing it still, 14 years later, had I not lost so much weight and had to give it up two years ago. The quality was that good! We have to go to Calgary in November to celebrate my mom's 90th birthday and I suspect I am going to have to go to Holt Renfrew and pay bigger bucks to get what I really want and need. For now the search continues.
After a seriously fun time of window shopping I went to Zam Zam Wraps for the delicious chicken shawarma salad....oooh, so good and for only $10. There was so much chicken on it today I could hardly find the salad...what a treat!
Another beautiful long walk home followed. In all that distance there was only 1 very persistant wasp who insisted on bumping himself into my hand over and over again, terrifying me to death, but once I cleared the strip of restaurants on Scarth Street he disappeared again. Whew! I was delighted to see my favourite pan handler once again at his usual post at the corner of Scarth and Victoria, but he has lost so much weight since I last saw him I hardly recognized him. Last time I saw him I thought he was not long for this world, and he may not be, but there he was today and I was glad to visit with him for a few minutes.
Well, lots of emails to answer, lecture notes to transcribe and newspapers to read, so I had better get with the programme. I also have to be sure I remember how to play 2 songs a friend of mine is using to audtion for a local musical theatre group. She is going to practise her audition with me some time this week so that will be a ton of fun.
My husband is safely ensconced at the retreat centre with the rest of the clergy for a few days of conference, so I don't have to worry or stress over his job or his health or his diet for awhile. It is a nice stress break for me and hopefully he will come home refreshed. He has been feeling much better at work the few days despite the never ending busyness. It is all good.
Sunday, September 17, 2017
Another Happy Weekend
This has been a grand weekend. My husband's pre-Synod meetings out of town went so well yesterday. Even the computer system delivering his power point presentation did not fail him. After the past week of systems breakdowns at work it seemed a near miracle that he had no technical disasters yesterday.
The series of lectures on Galatians that I attended yesterday was just fantastic. Professor John Barclay is quiet spoken, laid back and incredibly well educated! It is no wonder that one of our fellow priests, not at all Anglican when he did his PhD. work under Professor Barclay's mentorship, became an Anglican partly as a result of this man's influence. I don't know how may PhD.'s this fellow has of his own because he did not use his title even once all session, but he certainly is humble in the sharing of his academic skills.
We experienced and enjoyed over 5 hours of teaching, discussion, questions and fellowship together as a group. There were people in attendance from several parts of the diocese so it was a diverse group.
Untangling Paul's theology in the Galatian letters was a great challenge, even as we just touched the surface, but I think we all learned some new things about the Apostle Paul's teachings and attitudes.
What I enjoyed most is that the professor is very skilled in teaching a large group of people with varying degrees of theological study ability without either making those of us with less educated minds feel at sea, or dumbing it down so much for us that those in attendance who are actually theology students would feel bored and like they were wasting their time. Everyone there seemed to get something out of the teaching.
The other scriptures he quoted to support various ideas he presents left us feeling the man has memorized the entire Bible! hahahaha What a treat to once again be privileged to sit under the teaching of someone so knowledgeable.
Thank you so very much Professor John Barclay for spending your day teaching us, taking time out from your incredibly busy life and schedule just for us.
My husband is very excited to hear the teaching Professor Barclay will be presenting at the clergy conference that starts tomorrow out in Lumden. I think he will be quite pleased by the teaching he hears.
My husband arrived back in Moose Jaw just as our seminar was ending, so after an abbreviated Evening Prayer service to close the sessions, we went out for a lovely Indian dinner at Moose Jaw's new Indian Restaurant, "Spices". We were a bit leery as we have had some pretty atrocious Indian meals of late, but this was absolutely delicious!! My chicken zal frezi was full of large pieces of chicken and the sauce and vegetables were spiced exactly as I asked them to be. My husband had a very mild vegetable korma and there was so much packed into the small dish he had to bring half of it home. The samosas were huge and stuffed full of peas and potato chunks. It was an excellent meal and I am glad there was no buffet last night so that we were forced to order from the main menu. All the food was freshly cooked and piping not. It isn't a large menu, but I think that allows the cooks to do their best job on each dish. I hope the quality continues. We were happy to see so many customers in there as the street in front of the restaurant had been closed off since mid afternoon for some kind of street concert later in the evening. Some of the businesses took quite a hit by being forced to close by 3pm on a Saturday, but it didn't seem to be hurting "Spices" much. We will definitely go there again next time we are in Moose Jaw.
This morning I decided to attend church at the last possible second for getting dressed and ready, but I made it in time. It was cafe church this morning so we sat around tables in groups and enjoyed the tea, coffee, juices and many, many muffins, cookies, cheeses, fruits, dips etc. I was able to sit at a table with 3 visitors, some other congregation members joined us and all 3 visitors said how much more welcome they felt than they would have just sitting in a row of chairs for the service, then leaving afterward without as much chance to meet the congregation members. It was fun for me too. The sermon on forgiveness given by our lay reader was fantastic!!
Now it is time to make lunch and head for choir practise. My husband is out on the back deck with an electric tool of some kind removing rust and impurities from the camping pots he used on the canoe trip. He is scouring them out like a mad man and they are looking nearly new and very fresh and clean. After choir practise we will head over to his new office space, hopefully, and try to get the last of the books and papers put away and some certificates and pictures up on the walls. He is SO busy during work hours there has been no time during the last 2 weeks to finish moving in!
Chilly again today but at least we have some lovely sunshing peering around the clouds. I wore a pair of summer pants and summer suit jacket to church this morning, but it is time to wash them and put them away now with the other summer clothes. I will put something warmer on for choir practise this afternoon.
Have a blessed Sunday everyone!
The series of lectures on Galatians that I attended yesterday was just fantastic. Professor John Barclay is quiet spoken, laid back and incredibly well educated! It is no wonder that one of our fellow priests, not at all Anglican when he did his PhD. work under Professor Barclay's mentorship, became an Anglican partly as a result of this man's influence. I don't know how may PhD.'s this fellow has of his own because he did not use his title even once all session, but he certainly is humble in the sharing of his academic skills.
We experienced and enjoyed over 5 hours of teaching, discussion, questions and fellowship together as a group. There were people in attendance from several parts of the diocese so it was a diverse group.
Untangling Paul's theology in the Galatian letters was a great challenge, even as we just touched the surface, but I think we all learned some new things about the Apostle Paul's teachings and attitudes.
What I enjoyed most is that the professor is very skilled in teaching a large group of people with varying degrees of theological study ability without either making those of us with less educated minds feel at sea, or dumbing it down so much for us that those in attendance who are actually theology students would feel bored and like they were wasting their time. Everyone there seemed to get something out of the teaching.
The other scriptures he quoted to support various ideas he presents left us feeling the man has memorized the entire Bible! hahahaha What a treat to once again be privileged to sit under the teaching of someone so knowledgeable.
Thank you so very much Professor John Barclay for spending your day teaching us, taking time out from your incredibly busy life and schedule just for us.
My husband is very excited to hear the teaching Professor Barclay will be presenting at the clergy conference that starts tomorrow out in Lumden. I think he will be quite pleased by the teaching he hears.
My husband arrived back in Moose Jaw just as our seminar was ending, so after an abbreviated Evening Prayer service to close the sessions, we went out for a lovely Indian dinner at Moose Jaw's new Indian Restaurant, "Spices". We were a bit leery as we have had some pretty atrocious Indian meals of late, but this was absolutely delicious!! My chicken zal frezi was full of large pieces of chicken and the sauce and vegetables were spiced exactly as I asked them to be. My husband had a very mild vegetable korma and there was so much packed into the small dish he had to bring half of it home. The samosas were huge and stuffed full of peas and potato chunks. It was an excellent meal and I am glad there was no buffet last night so that we were forced to order from the main menu. All the food was freshly cooked and piping not. It isn't a large menu, but I think that allows the cooks to do their best job on each dish. I hope the quality continues. We were happy to see so many customers in there as the street in front of the restaurant had been closed off since mid afternoon for some kind of street concert later in the evening. Some of the businesses took quite a hit by being forced to close by 3pm on a Saturday, but it didn't seem to be hurting "Spices" much. We will definitely go there again next time we are in Moose Jaw.
This morning I decided to attend church at the last possible second for getting dressed and ready, but I made it in time. It was cafe church this morning so we sat around tables in groups and enjoyed the tea, coffee, juices and many, many muffins, cookies, cheeses, fruits, dips etc. I was able to sit at a table with 3 visitors, some other congregation members joined us and all 3 visitors said how much more welcome they felt than they would have just sitting in a row of chairs for the service, then leaving afterward without as much chance to meet the congregation members. It was fun for me too. The sermon on forgiveness given by our lay reader was fantastic!!
Now it is time to make lunch and head for choir practise. My husband is out on the back deck with an electric tool of some kind removing rust and impurities from the camping pots he used on the canoe trip. He is scouring them out like a mad man and they are looking nearly new and very fresh and clean. After choir practise we will head over to his new office space, hopefully, and try to get the last of the books and papers put away and some certificates and pictures up on the walls. He is SO busy during work hours there has been no time during the last 2 weeks to finish moving in!
Chilly again today but at least we have some lovely sunshing peering around the clouds. I wore a pair of summer pants and summer suit jacket to church this morning, but it is time to wash them and put them away now with the other summer clothes. I will put something warmer on for choir practise this afternoon.
Have a blessed Sunday everyone!
Thiis Morning My Chilly Self Caved......
....and put the furnace on while preparing breakfast! I took one look at my husband, huddling miserably on the couch watching the tv news broadcast while wearing a turtle necked shirt, AND a hoodie, WITh the hood up over his head, AND fleece lined sweat pants, "40 Below" socks and canvas boat shoes and I had to take pity on him. He was completely decked out in his winter camping pj's! Guess it was a bit too cold in here after all this morning.
I confess that hearing the furnace click on and soon feeling a blast of lovely warm air on both of us as I made breakfast created a cheerier feeling around here. The heat felt SO SO good! My natural chintziness with utility bills gave way to simply enjoying being warm.
I am old now. I am a wimp. Oh well.
I confess that hearing the furnace click on and soon feeling a blast of lovely warm air on both of us as I made breakfast created a cheerier feeling around here. The heat felt SO SO good! My natural chintziness with utility bills gave way to simply enjoying being warm.
I am old now. I am a wimp. Oh well.
Friday, September 15, 2017
My Husband's Fancy Fedora...Sigh......
I am feeling so, so badly for my husband today.
His best hat, a very expensive black fedora that he made one of his rare personal splurges to purchase only a year ago, went missing some time ago. He didn't realize it was missing until about a week ago and we have been wracking our brains, ever since he made the discovery, as to where he may have left it. For the past week we have been turning our suite and his office and our vehicle upside down trying to find it, with no success.
A couple of days ago we began tracking our travels around the city over the past month, because you never know what could trigger a memory, right? Sure enough, we finally came up with the last day we remember him having the hat in his possession: 3 weeks ago tomorrow. It was the day we were touring the new exchange employee from Britain around the city.
So, we made a list of where we went that day and this morning I began driving from place to place, hoping against hope I could find it. I NEARLY succeeded. Sigh.....
The last place we remembered being was at Leopold's Tavern downtown, but we couldn't remember if he had bothered to wear his fedora for the few steps between our parking space and the restaurant. Both of us had a vague memory of him setting it on the one empty chair around our table, but it could have been wishful thinking. I retraced our steps to the other venues while I was waiting for Leopold's to open this morning, getting there just as the sandwich board advertising was being put out on the street in front by a staff member.
When I asked the 4 staff in attendance, 2 of them remembered seeing the hat and I got my hopes up. They spent nearly 10 minutes searching every place they could think of, but couldn't come up with my husband's hat. I wrote down my name and phone number and they taped it up for tonight's manager, as he was the one on duty the day we were there and he is the one who told the others about the beautiful hat. The day manager felt very badly that no one could locate the hat today and offered me a free lunch as an apology for that, which I took him up on! It doesn't give my husband any comfort or replace his hat, but I figured I wasn't going to say no if they were offering any kind of apology for not being able to find such an expensive hat. Since it was our own fault for leaving it there....and I take equal blame to my husband, because I always make sure I check when we leave public places that he has everything he went in with and I was too distracted and tired myself that day.....it was kind of the manager to do anything at all for me. My taco salad was as delicious as ever, but it still left a bad taste in my mouth because I am pretty certain the hat will never be found. The free lunch offer left me thinking that the day manager agrees with me for whatever reason. Perhaps someone else on staff decided that after 3 weeks no one was coming for it and took it home, or perhaps it got discarded in the garbage or some other patron noticed sitting on a counter and swiped it. Unless tonight's manager knows something the rest of today's staff doesn't and is able to locate it and return it, I think my husband's beautiful hat is long gone.
I want to cry just thinking about it because he was SO proud of himself for finally spending a few dollars on something he really liked as soon as he put it on his head. He doesn't buy himself anything at all without my urging. He is so selfless in so many ways and yet it is HIS fancy fedora that is missing. While I am grateful that we finally tracked down the place where we left it, I feel nauseous that we may have come so close to getting it back and then we don't.
Such fuss about a hat, but for my husband it was a big deal. He was always smiling when he wore it and very proud of looking good in it. I love my husband. I don't want him to feel sad. I don't want him to have lost it due to both our poor memories due to exhaustion and distracted thoughts.
Well, all I can do is pray and ask God if it could please be restored to my husband and if the answer is NO, then just accept it and move on. You know how it is when your spouse or significant other is hurting about something, even something that to other people would seem insignificant, but YOU know why it matters so much and it hurts you too.
Okay Lord, is it possible we could get that hat back? Is there something else we need to learn on top of taking better care of our memories so we keep better track of our stuff? I am trying to be open to any and all possibilities, as long as my husband doesn't have to feel any worse than he already does about this.
His best hat, a very expensive black fedora that he made one of his rare personal splurges to purchase only a year ago, went missing some time ago. He didn't realize it was missing until about a week ago and we have been wracking our brains, ever since he made the discovery, as to where he may have left it. For the past week we have been turning our suite and his office and our vehicle upside down trying to find it, with no success.
A couple of days ago we began tracking our travels around the city over the past month, because you never know what could trigger a memory, right? Sure enough, we finally came up with the last day we remember him having the hat in his possession: 3 weeks ago tomorrow. It was the day we were touring the new exchange employee from Britain around the city.
So, we made a list of where we went that day and this morning I began driving from place to place, hoping against hope I could find it. I NEARLY succeeded. Sigh.....
The last place we remembered being was at Leopold's Tavern downtown, but we couldn't remember if he had bothered to wear his fedora for the few steps between our parking space and the restaurant. Both of us had a vague memory of him setting it on the one empty chair around our table, but it could have been wishful thinking. I retraced our steps to the other venues while I was waiting for Leopold's to open this morning, getting there just as the sandwich board advertising was being put out on the street in front by a staff member.
When I asked the 4 staff in attendance, 2 of them remembered seeing the hat and I got my hopes up. They spent nearly 10 minutes searching every place they could think of, but couldn't come up with my husband's hat. I wrote down my name and phone number and they taped it up for tonight's manager, as he was the one on duty the day we were there and he is the one who told the others about the beautiful hat. The day manager felt very badly that no one could locate the hat today and offered me a free lunch as an apology for that, which I took him up on! It doesn't give my husband any comfort or replace his hat, but I figured I wasn't going to say no if they were offering any kind of apology for not being able to find such an expensive hat. Since it was our own fault for leaving it there....and I take equal blame to my husband, because I always make sure I check when we leave public places that he has everything he went in with and I was too distracted and tired myself that day.....it was kind of the manager to do anything at all for me. My taco salad was as delicious as ever, but it still left a bad taste in my mouth because I am pretty certain the hat will never be found. The free lunch offer left me thinking that the day manager agrees with me for whatever reason. Perhaps someone else on staff decided that after 3 weeks no one was coming for it and took it home, or perhaps it got discarded in the garbage or some other patron noticed sitting on a counter and swiped it. Unless tonight's manager knows something the rest of today's staff doesn't and is able to locate it and return it, I think my husband's beautiful hat is long gone.
I want to cry just thinking about it because he was SO proud of himself for finally spending a few dollars on something he really liked as soon as he put it on his head. He doesn't buy himself anything at all without my urging. He is so selfless in so many ways and yet it is HIS fancy fedora that is missing. While I am grateful that we finally tracked down the place where we left it, I feel nauseous that we may have come so close to getting it back and then we don't.
Such fuss about a hat, but for my husband it was a big deal. He was always smiling when he wore it and very proud of looking good in it. I love my husband. I don't want him to feel sad. I don't want him to have lost it due to both our poor memories due to exhaustion and distracted thoughts.
Well, all I can do is pray and ask God if it could please be restored to my husband and if the answer is NO, then just accept it and move on. You know how it is when your spouse or significant other is hurting about something, even something that to other people would seem insignificant, but YOU know why it matters so much and it hurts you too.
Okay Lord, is it possible we could get that hat back? Is there something else we need to learn on top of taking better care of our memories so we keep better track of our stuff? I am trying to be open to any and all possibilities, as long as my husband doesn't have to feel any worse than he already does about this.
Another Awesome Prayer from the Blog of Pastor Randall Friesen
An old Puritan prayer.
Lord, high and holy, meek and lowly, You have brought us to the valley of vision, where we live in the depths but see you in the heights; hemmed in by mountains of sin we behold Thy glory. Let us learn by paradox that the way down is the way up, that to be low is to be high, that the broken heart is the healed heart, that the contrite spirit is the rejoicing spirit, that the repenting soul is the victorious soul, that to have nothing is to possess all, that to bear the cross is to wear the crown, that to give is to receive, that the valley is the place of vision. Lord, in the daytime stars can be seen from deepest wells, and the deeper the wells the brighter your stars shine; let us find your light in our darkness, your life in our death, your joy in our sorrow, your grace in our sin, your riches in our poverty, your glory in our valley. Amen
Copied from randallfriesen.blogspot.com
Lord, high and holy, meek and lowly, You have brought us to the valley of vision, where we live in the depths but see you in the heights; hemmed in by mountains of sin we behold Thy glory. Let us learn by paradox that the way down is the way up, that to be low is to be high, that the broken heart is the healed heart, that the contrite spirit is the rejoicing spirit, that the repenting soul is the victorious soul, that to have nothing is to possess all, that to bear the cross is to wear the crown, that to give is to receive, that the valley is the place of vision. Lord, in the daytime stars can be seen from deepest wells, and the deeper the wells the brighter your stars shine; let us find your light in our darkness, your life in our death, your joy in our sorrow, your grace in our sin, your riches in our poverty, your glory in our valley. Amen
Copied from randallfriesen.blogspot.com
SO Tempted To Put On the Furnace
For the moment I refuse to give in and push that switch on. It is only +10C outside and I don't think it is all that much warmer here inside the suite! However, I am nothing if not stubborn!
From sleeveless sun dresses and bare feet in my sandals 4 days ago, today I have had to change into long pants, a top with a sleeved sweater, socks and shoes. I wore a scarf to go to the grocery store this morning in order to avoid putting a coat on over my sweater. It is TOO MUCH OF A CHANGE o weather man, too much, too quickly!! BRRRRRRRRRRRR!!!!!!!!
I am rethinking my outdoor walk today and not just because of the amount of forest fire smoke swirling around in the air.
This is downright depressing! ALTHOUGH, last night I got an email from friends who are in Jasper trying to have a short holiday. They were able to secure two nights of accommodation before all the hotels filled up for the weekend, but for the past 2 nights they have been camping in an area with a fire ban, so no campfire could be lit to keep them warm in their tent. They are praying for a cancellation at a hotel for this, their final, evening away or they may have to come home early to avoid another miserably cold night of tenting. All my prayers guys that you have success in finding warmer accommodation for tonight!!
At least I have this firm roof over my head and a furnace I CAN turn on when I decide I can mentally cope with that all ready in mid-September. Really, despite these temperatures being below average for September, they still wouldn't be such a big deal if it hadn't been SO hot less than one week ago. Wow, how things change out here on the prairies!!
From sleeveless sun dresses and bare feet in my sandals 4 days ago, today I have had to change into long pants, a top with a sleeved sweater, socks and shoes. I wore a scarf to go to the grocery store this morning in order to avoid putting a coat on over my sweater. It is TOO MUCH OF A CHANGE o weather man, too much, too quickly!! BRRRRRRRRRRRR!!!!!!!!
I am rethinking my outdoor walk today and not just because of the amount of forest fire smoke swirling around in the air.
This is downright depressing! ALTHOUGH, last night I got an email from friends who are in Jasper trying to have a short holiday. They were able to secure two nights of accommodation before all the hotels filled up for the weekend, but for the past 2 nights they have been camping in an area with a fire ban, so no campfire could be lit to keep them warm in their tent. They are praying for a cancellation at a hotel for this, their final, evening away or they may have to come home early to avoid another miserably cold night of tenting. All my prayers guys that you have success in finding warmer accommodation for tonight!!
At least I have this firm roof over my head and a furnace I CAN turn on when I decide I can mentally cope with that all ready in mid-September. Really, despite these temperatures being below average for September, they still wouldn't be such a big deal if it hadn't been SO hot less than one week ago. Wow, how things change out here on the prairies!!
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