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.......