Happy New Year Everybody!

 As the sun sets on 2020: (thank you Kat for tonight's photo)

I wish you all every blessing for a most happy New Year! (thank you Jo for this link)

https://www.youtube-nocookie.com/embed/Rtajxo8d7js?rel=0&controls=0&showinfo=0

Our Favourite Christmas Album

 

Holiday Music Wrap Up

Posted on December 1, 2014

Each year, the holidays inspire warm thoughts, cheer, some well-meaning overspending, and a bevy of new releases from artists across a range of genres from gospel to Western classical music. As to be expected, there is a great deal of overlap in song covers between these projects with “The Little Drummer Boy,” “Christmas Time is Here,” and “Silent Night” being some of the most popular selections. For this reason, here’s an overview of the most distinctive features of a few of this season’s projects highlighting some songs that’ll really get you in the Christmas spirit.

Title: The Sackville All Star Christmas Record

Artist: Sackville All Stars

Label: Sackville

Formats: CD, MP3, Cassette

Release date: September 16, 2014

 

The only re-issue included in our wrap up, this album was originally recorded in 1986 and features a classic jazz combo sound from seasoned performers—Jim Galloway (soprano sax), Ralph Sutton (piano), Milt Hinton (bass), and Gus Johnson (drums). Sackville includes covers of some of the most beloved Christmas tunes, rhythmically reworked with striking improvisational solos. For instance, “We Three Kings” opens with Hinton establishing an unassuming yet gently swinging groove in the bass to which Galloway chimes in with an upbeat embellished presentation of the melody. Sutton and Galloway exchange improvisational solos in which they grow gradually more experimental as the track progresses, until the song climaxes with gospel-inspired rhythmic accents and chord changes. Conversely, “Santa Clause is Coming to Town” is a whimsical piece with sleigh bells and sprightly piano creating a playful musical experience. Likewise, “Winter Wonderland” is an upbeat piece featuring some praise-worthy walking bass work while the light-hearted “Let it Snow” includes the use of hand drums creating an unexpected Latin jazz inspired groove. Sackville is rounded out by a few up-tempo sacred music pieces like “Go Tell it on the Mountain” and “Old Time Religion,” accented by enthusiastic stride piano and New Orleans jazz styled saxophone work.

 

At This Point My Friends.....

 ....a good day is any day that I remove as many socks from the dryer as went into the washer!!  hahaha  I will not be sad to see the back of 2020, that is for sure.

Yesterday I roused myself to get dressed properly after a steaming hot shower and scrubbing my hair with a new shampoo, then I started cleaning this suite, also properly!  I will continue that project today and see if I can complete the task.

My husband was able yesterday to reply to a backlog of emails from his various mens' group members.  He is starting on his sermon for Sunday and later this morning is going to spend a few hours on the phone and online with his sister in Alberta, helping her do some computer programme updates and repairs.  He is not minding the constant isolation quite as much as I am, so I am glad of that.  

We start each day with our breakfasts in hand, sitting in the living room comfy tub chairs, listening to our favourite Christmas album:  an oldie by a group of musicians who call themselves the Sackville All Stars. This recording is wonderful because it is light jazz, all the Christmas songs are still recognizable, even in the solo portions.  As much as I enjoy modern jazz and jazz fusion, I equate the Christmas season with serenity and peace rather than with frenetic, extended instrumental jazz improvisation, so this old Sackville All Stars album is the perfect way to begin my holiday mornings. 

Great news from Mom last night: she is among the many who have tested negative (again, haha) for Coronavirus in her facility and as soon as the still outstanding results arrive, hopefully by the beginning of next week, her facility will return to their previous, somewhat less restricted, protocols.  Since Mom could report another negative result, she is now allowed to book a time each day, for a half hour, to walk from her end of the hallway down the long corridor to the other end.  Yesterday she walked it twice, then had to sit down for a rest as she has been so lacking in exercise she pooped out quickly, but then she made a third trip before her half hour was up!  She also washed her floors with the push mop and prepared her recyclable dinner trays for disposal by the staff today.  Good grief!  I know she will be exhausted today and I pray she has no heart pain!  

The other great news from Mom's facility is that they were contacted yesterday by the provincial medical department and informed that the staff and residents will be receiving the new vaccine at the end of January.  Everyone is very excited about it and I pray that it is a good thing for them all.

I am learning about potassium and how it effects the body.  I have a friend who is so potassium deficient right now that in the past couple of months she has spent several weeks in hospital having her levels raised and being tested in every possible way to find the source of the problem.  Then I have another friend who has the opposite problem: his potassium level is so high that he has to eat a special diet at all times consisting of low potassium content foods.  He has done his research diligently and now I know that white turkey meat has more potassium than dark turkey meat!  What a person doesn't know or think about when not experiencing a problem like that...wow!  I had no idea of the problems a person can experience with a potassium imbalance....very serious effects that can be life threatening! 

Today is cold and cloudy outside.  It is not encouraging to look out of the windows today, that is for sure.  The sky is a typical January iron grey where snow flakes may or may not be lurking inside the clouds.  

I was going to drive to the grocery store for a product my mom needs, but there is no point in mailing it to her for another week, in hopes that the backlog of mail in the hands of Canada Post will get a chance to clear. So, I think I will just stay home. The last pair of stockings I mailed to her have not yet arrived and a card that was sent to her from SK over two weeks ago only arrived yesterday.  She is not yet in dire need of the items I am about to mail to her, so I think I will wait a few more days...maybe until the middle of next week.

So, off to clean the bathroom....doesn't that sound exciting!!?? hahaha  At least my energy is coming back, particularly my mental energy, to the point where I actually do want to be dressed and busy around home on the days when I can't go out!  That is progress!!

Getting It All Over With At Once!

This morning’s mail contained my letter from the hospital setting up my appointment time for a new baseline densitometry on January 15th.  That is two days after the ultrasound. Perfect! So happy to be getting both tests in the same week. Then I won’t have to go back to Alberta for subsequent bone densitometry exams. Yay!!  Looks like we have cemented our decision to remain here for possibly the rest of our lives. The ties back to Alberta and B.C. are being cut with more finality, starting with our son’s move out of Vancouver and my father’s death in Calgary. Once Mom passes we will have little reason to ever go to Calgary again. There are a couple of friends there and a handful of friends closer to Red Deer, who of course we hope to see again eventually, but the only family remaining in Alberta live in Edmonton and we don’t need to travel through Calgary to go to visit them. Who can know in advance what the future will hold, but for now we seem to be destined to remain on Saskatchewan with fewer upcoming trips west. 

Good Timing!!

 This past couple of days Have been filled with wonderfully timed, providential events.  Yesterday I had a series of phone calls from various friends, all of which seemed to go on for a long period of time, but each call came in just after the previous call had ended!  So, I was able to talk to everyone and that was great!

 

 evening calls came in before and after my nightly chat with mom so that was also very nice timing.  No one had to wait, I didn't have to be stressed out over call backs and remembering  in what order to return calls, or juggling various different time zones across the country.  Of course all these calls one after the other meant I didn't get my ironing even started, let alone completed, but the calls were SO much better, right? haha

 

This morning I got up early to go shopping at 7am.  I got to the store just after it opened, so the waiting crowd outside had already entered the store and I didn't have to stand around with them jockeying for an entry position.  I noticed today that everywhere I went, people were for the most part much more conscious of maintaining social distancing than they have been in the past.  Guess our ever rising number of COVID-19 cases has finally created sufficient terror for more people to be paying attention to protocols. hohoho!!

 

My husband and I ran what should have been a short couple of errands later in the morning, but I wasn't able to find the one product I need for my mom so we drove to at least six more stores than originally planned.  The weather was dry and warm when we left home, just cooling off as we drove back, then shortly after we got back into the house the snow started falling...huge, wet flakes that are still coming down two hours later.  Again, no snow was forecast and we are so grateful we arrived home before it started falling.  More providentially good timing! yAY!   

 

Our son is eager to have another zoom visit later this afternoon and the good timing continues.  He wants to chat one hour before i have to eat my dinner to keep my blood sugar stable, so I will have a comfortable amount of time to eat before  making my nightly phone call to Mom.  

 

Seeing this kind of timing happening day after day on all these little events, unimportant as many of them actually are, keeps me relaxed.  Stressing about details is something I do all too well and I need times like this where I can just calm down and enjoy every minute of the day.

Now THAT Was a Fun Church Service!!

 We really enjoyed the Zoom church service at my church this morning!  The guest speaker talked about the Coptic Christian and Muslim traditions regarding the Holy Family's trek from Bethlehem to Egypt, some of which we hadn't heard before and we found it fascinating.  I was particularly interested in the idea that the family's flight to Egypt was not only to flee those who wanted to kill Jesus, but also may have been used by God as a way to spread the gospel into that area. 

The music was absolutely marvellous!  Our regular, very accomplished pianist played the beautiful prelude music, our pastor and resident accordionist played three of the carols....the now rewritten to be inclusive "Good Christians ALL Rejoice" has never been such fun to sing. These two played it up to tempo, a rare delight, and put such heart and soul into their upbeat version of "Joy to the World", that a friend of mine commented later that had young Jesus heard that rendition on his way to Egypt he would have fallen right off the donkey. hahahaha  The minister's eighteen year old son, who has only been taking organ lessons for over a year, played three special solos, two of them classical arrangements of carols, and his playing is already spectacular.  He is very good at all that he does because he works very hard on top of his natural abilities.  Musically speaking there was definitely something for everyone this morning at church.  The service was a cheery change from the same old, same old and brought to our memory the church services we attended in the 1970's, as far as the staid old traditional church congregations being willing to allow change for the sake of the younger, brand new Christians, who were streaming into the old church buildings by the dozens all over North America.  Oh, that it would soon be that way again for all the young people who would be more willing to stay in the churches they were raised in if we could just accommodate their various different cultures with more graciousness.

Our plan to go for a walk this afternoon was scuttled by the arrival right after church of a near white out of snowfall.  It was just too slippery for me to be outside trudging along, unable to get any sort of aerobic benefit due to having to inch along at snail's pace to avoid slipping and falling down.  So, we did house chores instead, deliberately choosing chores that kept us going up and down both flights of stairs many, many times for several hours.  My chore was laundry and tonight I am feeling like I actually accomplished something after three days of being completely inert!  I even got dressed today, hahaha.

 

We have planned our week out in advance, making certain that each day we either have to go out of our suite to do some kind of shopping or other errand, or have a house chore that takes a lot of exercise and energy.  After spending most of the past week in Slug Mode, we have to get ourselves motivated to be more busy and engaged with the outside world!! 

Pa-rum-pa-pum-pum!!!

 Great Christmas meme:

“Mary, exhausted, having just gotten baby Jesus to sleep, is approached by a young man who thinks to himself: what this girl needs is a drum solo!”

Hahahaha! It’s ok Mary, I detest that song too! Hahaha!

Christmas Feasting!!

 We have been dining in style for the past few meals and have enough of our Indian food treats to last us each for at least one more meal tomorrow, possibly two.  

Since some of you were asking, we ended up getting all the food at DarBar after all....long story....and it was delicious as always.

We have been eating:

Chicken samosas

Tamarind sauce

Green salad

Vegetable pakoras

Saffron rice with raisins and cashews

Chick pea curry

Yellow Dal in onion sauce

Minced eggplant with onions and peas

Mango Chicken

Coconut pepper chicken

Lamb rogan josh

Gulab Jamun

Keeir (rice pudding with coloured coconut)

Yes, we went completely crazy and are enjoying every mouth watering bite!!  Happiness is eating a scrumptious Christmas dinner without having to do any food preparation or cooking!!!  This could be a new tradition for my husband and I!

 

(and for some of you local friends who were curious, we paid, sales taxes included, a total of $113 for the entire feast...pretty darned good prices at DarBar)

 

Mom was feeling kind of teary and sad when we called her this morning, but by the time we called her back after dinner tonight she had cheered up considerably.  Getting a phone call from her beloved grandson was greatly responsible for her change of mood.  She also received many phone calls from other friends and family, as well as her surprise gift from the residence volunteers.  One of those gifts was a crocheted lap blanket that she already had over her knees as she sat in her rocker to chat with me this evening.  The staff dressed up in Santa Claus costumes to deliver candies and cards to each resident, so she enjoyed that immensely.  Her Christmas dinner, though it had to be delivered to her room due to the lockdown shuttering the dining room, was fantastic.  There was so much turkey on her plate that she was able to put half of it into the fridge for her lunch tomorrow.  Her favourite treat, pecan pie, was tonight's dessert so I know she ate it all! hahaha  Delighted to hear how much more settled and happy she is tonight.

 

Our son and his girlfriend gave us a Zoom call and we spent over an hour together chatting and just gazing at each other, hoping it won't be too many more months before international travel is safe once again.  They are both doing well despite being stuck together day in and day out in order to see anyone at all as they both try to stay away from others in order to remain safe from contracting the virus. 

 

We had a nice chat with my husband's sister and her husband this morning and later tonight a Zoom chat has been set up between the 4 of us and all of the brother in law's siblings in BC.  My husband hasn't seen any of these people in years, so it will be fun for him. I only know one of them, so I think my part in this Zoom interaction is to be as decorative as possible while saying very little, nodding and smiling a lot and waving goodbye when it is over. hahaha  I have seen all of these people before, but it was over 40 years ago in most cases.  I haven't seen more than the one person since before my husband and I were married. 

 

I watched several episodes today about the animals in the Bronx and Queen's zoos in NYC so that took up some time.  We have free access to the Animal Planet channel for the month of December, so I have been recording the programmes to watch once the free preview ends.  I cannot justify paying out any more money to add Animal Planet to our roster of channels, but I am taking full advantage of this time limited freebie!  My husband is watching some rootin' tootin' old movie while we wait to join the family Zoom experience.  He has had a very relaxed day after all the stress involved in putting the Christmas Eve Zoom service together properly, so I am relieved his church traditionally doesn't meet on the Sunday after Christmas. It gives him a bit of time to regroup before the new year begins.

It has been a satisfying Christmas for us this year.  It has been the most relaxed Christmas in our memory and with Zoom and the telephone we at least had some contact with our families, so we have not been lonely.

 

 

 

 

First Christmas Without Dad

 An astute and caring friend of mine sent me the poem below in commemoriation of my first Christmas since Dad died.  The fact that she realized it could be a difficult time for me and for my Mom means a tremendous amount to me. I called Mom this morning and she us having a tough time, missing Dad a lot. This is a nice poem and I am copying it to send to Mom.  Thank you friend for thinking of us this Christmas.

A Truly Canadian Christmas, Thank You Clark W

 

Whoa....MORE Blessings????

 So just now some more church friends dropped off another gift for us...what the heck????  We received with great gratitude a plate of beautifully presented rice and wheat crackers, several types of sausage and cold meats, green and purple grapes, blackberries and cheese slices!  This coldplate is the perfect snack before our church services begin.  We were wondering how we were going to hold out until our 8pm dinner, as we didn't have much in the way of "quick but healthy" snacks to eat prior to church tonight and we knew that our bit of nervous energy precludes eating a major meal before the services.  Well, I have finally stopped crying over this unexpected, perfect, gift.....oh yes, 2 freshly home made GIANT cinnamon buns with pecans were also included.  If I eat 1/4 of mine each day for the next 4 days I will be able to enjoy the whole thing!  Merry Christmas to us!  We have more than our share of loving gifts and well wishes at the moment! Amazing.......

Teensy Serendipity, Gigantic Blessing!

 Yesterday afternoon we heard the large grader coming into our parking lot to clear the ice and snow buildup that runs down the center of the lot.  Serendipitous for us as it turned out.  Since the neighbour next door doesn't have a car there is an empty space beside our vehicle.  My husband hoped that if he moved our car there would be enough room for the big blade on the grader to fit into that space and clear the slippery, dangerous, mounds of ice and snow that have built up around our car despite our best attempts to shovel it away after every snowfall.  The grader operator agreed that there would be room and that he would be willing to remove said dangerous buildup!  So my husband moved the car to the street and the man was as good as his word.  Whew!  Getting into the car now will not be a dangerous balancing act for me as I was slipping and sliding previously, trying to find enough grip to keep my feet from flying out from under me as I tried to enter the vehicle.  We are both very grateful for the accommodating grader operator.  What a blessing!

In a couple of hours we will order our Christmas Indian food feast and drive off through the now settled snow to pick up our order.  We are ordering from two different places to get the variety we are after.  YIPPEE!! It is going to be a lot of fun eating Indian food on Christmas Day!  

Our son and his girlfriend are plannng to join my husband's Zoom Christmas Eve service this evening.  We are delighted that they want to share with us in relating the Christmas story and the online fellowship.  I don't think his girlfriend has ever attended a Christian service before.  She is looking forward to seeing what we do. Just wish it was a more in person event to give her a better idea of what goes on in a church service, BUT we may have to accept that these online services WILL BE the new and ongoing reality for Christian mass worship for a long time to come. 

 

Setting Ourselves Up For Persecution

 This morning I read a newspaper article about yet another Christian group, this time in California and led by a so-called "celebrity", who determinedly defied the common sense expected by adults and went out caroling in the streets, unmasked and not socially distanced. They claim that the government is stripping them of their religious freedoms, particularly the right to gather.

Sigh.....

Are people still that ignorant about the devastation this disease can wreak on themselves and others, or are they defying reason because they are just selfish and malicious in ignoring their Christ appointed duty to love others SACRIFICIALLY, deliberately setting aside their human rights for a time to protect the vulnerable "other"?  If the life that they now live is truly lived by faith in the Son of God, why are they so fearful of losing personal freedoms? Are they so caught up in paranoia over the government possibly intefering with their personal, religious, human, whatever kind of rights you want to refer to, that they have laid aside their Jesus' command to love others, to protect others?  The whole concept of demanding our rights as Christians from a generally secular government boggles my mind at the best of times. 

What upsets me most is that so many Christian groups are seeing persecution, inventing persecution by the government in a situation where persecuting religious groups is  generally NOT front and centre of the government reasons for  mandates to wear masks and socially distance in  public places.  Why do so many Christians and perhaps some other faith groups as well continue to expect a generally secular government to give them special religious rights that could end up hurting their "neighbours"?  I have talked about this issue round and round with some of my anti-masking activist acquaintances and I can't make any sense of what they are thinking.

Some people have used the comparison that these same protesters are obeying the government mandated wearing of seatbelts so why not masks?  I am not sure that comparison is completely equal in that the wearing of my seatbelt is for my own protection, whereas wearing a mask is more about protecting others around me.

I am afraid that these Christian brothers and sisters who put their own rights above all else and insist on finding conspiracy theories, interpreting the government's right to legislate safety measures as persecution and rebelling against them, is showing us to be a selfish, self-centered, unloving bunch of idiots who are setting us up for future REAL persecution based on our present foolish and sometimes medically dangerous actions in our wider communities.  

 I see the government legislators trying their hardest to figure out what is best for the general population, yes making many mistakes, some of them dreadful mistakes, BUT they are doing the best they can with responses to a pandemic that took the whole world by surprise and has left all of us flapping about like chickens with their heads cut off as we try to navigate our way through the disaster.  

Perhaps my own belief in the separation of church and state plays into my opinions on this issue, but I do not appreciate people who are a part of my own faith making life difficult longer term for the rest of us by acting either so ignorantly or so maliciously and leading us farther down the road to increased government interference in religious communities, increased persecution....a slippery slope that had already begun. Why are we so determined to make it worse any sooner than it would be?  Sorry, I just don't understand it despite having so many conversations with the people protesting masking and distancing.

End of rant......

Wacky But WONDERFUL Christmas Gifts

 As I sit here waiting for the time to pass until the agreed upon time for my nightly phone call with Mom, I have been enjoying thinking about the wild and crazy and WONDERFUL Christmas gifts we have received this year.  When we were in missions and during times of unemployment it wasn't unusual for us to receive gifts of money to keep us afloat either on the mission field or between employment positions.  It never ceased to amaze us how many people continued to send us financial assistance even after we had left the missionary organization that formerly provided the donors with charitable tax receipts.  This year we are not suffering any kind of financial need and so no such gifts have been required.  We assumed that meant no gifts for us this Christmas as we are not a big gift giving family since our son grew up. As adults it has seemed kind of unnecessary to be buying gifts for each other just out of a cultural, seasonal habit.

However, in the past week we have received some unexpected, wild and WONDERFUL gifts from various friends.  Why? We really don't know, but wow, what a blessing to us is each and every one of them.  We received a bottle of expensive red wine that we look forward to having in the new year.  We received fresh beef from a local rancher.  We received a HUGE package of steel head trout.  We received a beautiful scripture reading/prayer journal that we have all ready made use of.  Today we received a gorgeous bouquet of flowers from out of province friends, "just because".  Wha????  What is with all the gifts??  We are both blown away by peoples' generosity and the variety of gifts.  Since we have done very little ourselves for any of these people, certainly we have not sent them any presents lately, we are quite stunned by all this attention.  I hope our stammered thank you's have been sufficiently able to express our deep gratitude.

The other amazing gifts we have received have been in the form of personal notes written by various friends in the Christmas cards they sent us; they are praying for us for everything from "a decent roof over our heads" to "financial security" to "healing and good health" to "surprising and exciting new opportunities for ministry"!!  Wow!!  Where have we found all these good friends anyway?  People all over the place are continuing to pray for us, for needs that they don't even know we have and for God to do new things for us in our lives and ministries even at our age.  We didn't even know we were looking for God to do new things for us, but wow, now we are starting to consider what else we might be led to do in the coming year and beyond that we have no notion of as yet.  Exciting times may be ahead!!!  All these prayers are so encouraging and helping us to start getting our stuffy heads out of the COVID19 mire to look forward to seeking out new possibilities if we can get my health issues dealt with.  

So far this has been the craziest Christmas ever, for a number of reasons, but thus far it has been crazy in the most encouraging and fun ways!!

Musings While Wielding a Shovel

 Like the rest of the western prairie provinces we have had and are continuing to have a fair amount of snow with blizzard conditions this week.  Yesterday afternoon we had stong winds blowing the thick snow about, creating a whiteout so that we couldn't see the buildings on the other side of the street for a couple of hours.  By evening the wind had lessened, but the snow still hasn't stopped coming down: huge fluffy, wet flakes that are clinging to every surface and are too heavy to shovel very quickly.  This morning I managed to shovel the 8 inches of snow off our deck, but only managed to clear a single shovel scoop wide path to and around the car.  I could have shoveled out a bit more around the car I suppose, but I was exhausted just from doing the necessary shoveling, so I will go out again once the snow stops coming down and start all over again.  I know it was 8 inches of snow because I took our imperial measure yard stick out to measure it where it hadn't blow around and drifted even higher.

It was great to get some (very) fresh air today after an extremely lazy and unmotivated day yesterday!  One thing I love about shoveling is that it is kind of a mindless task.  Shoveling is a job that leaves my mind free to wander about aimlessly and fixate on some small thoughts that I enjoy exploring, even though they aren't worth much.

Today I thought about the Christmas cards and annual letters we have received from various family members and friends.  I admit I truly miss the "old" Christmas cards we received until the past couple of years.  The old familiar reds and greens and deep blues with shiny silver and gold highlights that lit up our living room every Christmas have been replaced by greys, assorted blues, browns, flat silvers and whites with the occasional smattering of gold to liven things up.  I hang our cards on strings along the living room walls because they have always brightened up the dull matte colours that rental unit maintenance folk are tasked with painting in between tenants, but the past couple of years the cards have not really succeeded.  I suppose the Christmas cards of today do look more sophisticated than previous ones, at least in terms of softer (duller) colours, but I admit I really miss the older styles that made my walls pop with brilliant colours.  

This season's Christmas letters, almost without fail, have also taken on a new tone due to the pandemic: many people simply have very little to report compared to previous years.  Many of the letters began with either joy or sadness over retained or lost employment, continued with a brief mention of the equally restricted lives of their children and grandchildren and closed with standard greetings, religious and/or secular of the Christmas season. Some people tried valiantly to avoid all mention of the pandemic, but no one succeeded fully.  While some letters contained a spirit of hope for the future, others had a tone of resignation and defeat, particularly if separation from family and/or complete loss of income has been part of their COVID19 experience.  What difficult times for one and all.

 My husband has nearly completed his Christmas phone calls to all his parishioners, only three more to do this afternoon.  He is busy tweaking his Christmas Eve Zoom PowerPoint presentation for the evening service tomorrow and then when he is done we will rehearse how we are going to present the biblical narrative from the book of Luke about the birth of Jesus. I will do the reading and my husband will manipulate our large knit creche figures. Should be a lot of fun.  We are grateful to Zoom for lifting the time limit restrictions on their free service for the holiday season.  Thank you Zoom people!!

My son's girlfriend is going to call my husband today. She wants to know the finer points of making his "famous" Christmas trifle so that our son will get a taste of family and home in far away Long Island where they are spending the holidays with a cousin of hers.  How thoughtful.  Our son will really enjoy it. It is quite a competition here at Christmas to see who ends up eating the most trifle, my son or my husband. hahaha  I only like the cake and whipped cream and a small taste of the peaches. The alcohol, usually brandy at our house, tastes yukky to me so I try to avoid the "juice" and skim off a top layer of dry cake and cream.  As a diabetic I can have only the tiniest taste of  trifle anyway, but it is nice to have those couple of sweet bites after a big dinner.  This year we are skipping the trifle as it doesn't really go with Indian food. hahahahahaha  

Mom was feeling depressed last evening. Her legs have started swelling again so it is back on the phone today with her doctor to get some more diuretics.  She is more upset about her present lockdown situation than any of the others because it makes Christmas even more lonely for her than it was going to be before one of their staff tested positive for the virus.  Her evening meal arrives anywhere from 4:45pm to 6:30pm, with last evening being a late delivery. When I talked to her the meal had not yet arrived and I suspect her blood sugar was too low....oh my she was depressed. Hopefully she will get some help today from the doctor, so she can have her meds delivered before the Christmas Day and weekend pharmacy home delivery shut downs.  I am praying our son can call her fairly early on Christmas Day as that is what will make her day most special.  She is going to receive a surprise gift package on Christmas Day too.  A group of volunteers who serve in her facility have put together a Christmas gift bag for each resident there!  That is a LOT of residents!!  They will get candies, large print wordfind books and other things to help the lockdown be a bit more fun.  All the residents and staff will be tested for COVID19 in the next 3 days and as soon as the results come in, if everyone is negative, then the lockdown will end at that point. O  how  hard I am praying for all of them.  

The only thing convincing me that tomorrow is Christmas Eve is the snowfall.  We are most definitely having a white Christmas this year. Doing the church service will also make the season more of a reality for us.  I will be able to attend my church's online service at 6pm, leaving me time to participate in my husband's service at 7pm.  YES!

Aaaaand Done!

 My ultrasound is January 13! I have to drink an entire litre of water one hour beforehand and hold it until after the test!

 Nooooooooo! I will never last that long! Hahahahaha!!!!

That is my prayer: that I can retain a litre of water for at least 90 minutes....oh Lordy.....

Slow Progress, But Progress Nonetheless! 😁

 Heard from my doctor today. There is good news and bad news.

The good news is that the gross ill feeling I had while taking the last batch of strong antibiotics was worth it because all the infection is gone.

The bad news is that while there was no longer a bacterial count in my specimens from last week’s lab tests, there is still blood that is not visible to the eye.

So, now I am waiting for an appointment for an ultrasound.  I am grateful I can be referred as the ultrasound should be definitive as to what the problem is. The main possibilities now involve my bladder and kidneys and there is a wide range of possibilities, not all of them dire. 

Tomorrow I will call my doctors office again to ensure the referral was actually sent to the ultrasound clinic. My doctor is a sweetheart, but cannot for the life of her get her fax’s to send. hahaha Here’s hoping! 

Poor Mom...More Restrictions!

 Last night I received a Family Letter in my email inbox from the director of my mom’s residence. Yesterday afternoon one of the staff was diagnosed with COVID19. The facility went into immediate full lockdown. Poor Mom will be trapped in her room once again for two weeks. 

The dining room facility was closed immediately of course, one hour prior to Mom’s seating at 4:30pm, so that threw everything off schedule as the kitchen staff had to box up everyone’s meals for delivery to their rooms, but mom had her dinner by 5:45pm so she was pleased. She set up a tv table right beside her entrance so that the staff can swing the door open and deposit the food box on the tv table without having to touch anything other than the exterior door handle. 

I am impressed that in the past nearly ten months of pandemic disruption this is only the second diagnosis in my mom’s facility. Both times it has been a staff member and the first time no one else was affected. I pray this will be the case once again. Mom seems to be well cared for at all times so I pray this will be the case once again. I am grateful that her next eye injection is not until February 1st. By then perhaps she will have the freedom to go out to medical appointments. She is so glad she did her laundry the day before this lockdown! 

Right now her biggest disappointment is that the fancy Christmas banquet meal will arrive boxed at her door, and will likely have to be reheated. I suggested she may want to reheat it in the frying pan rather than the microwave so the turkey doesn’t get rubbery. She decided that is  what she will do. hahahahaha 

So once again I am praying for safety for Mom and all the senior residents, that the worker with the virus will recover and that there will be no more spread in that facility. 

Crazy days.....

Christmas 2020????

 

The Bearded Son!

 Our son has never had a beard in his life, until now.  He looks so much now like his dad looked at that age, only our son has far more hair on top of his head! hahaha (No that is not one of his paintings in the background.)

Sunday Morning Surprise!

My husband was out of bed and on his way downstairs to the kitchen almost an hour ahead of me this morning!  I indulged my laziness and stayed in bed reading until hunger drove me downstairs too.

 When I got to the living room I could see huge fluffy snowflakes cascading outside our big windows AND there in the corner was our Christmas tree with the lights all on it, beaming and flashing and looking just gorgeous!!  My husband wanted to surprise me with its cheery lights and he surely did.   Seeing the gleaming coloured lights with the thick snowfall coming down just behind them was awesome!!

 I realized I could smell something good coming from the kitchen, so I went there and discovered my husband had also made baking powder biscuits for breakfast!!  Mr. Energy is what that man is today!  I am the joyful recipient of all his good work this morning.  WOW!!!  Tonight when it gets dark outside I will turn the tree lights back on and sit in a comfy chair with a cup of hot milk (with butterscotch flavouring) and meditate on the First Christmas.   

 This afternoon we are driving over to the house of one my husband's colleagues.  We will take our extension ladder with us and he will assist her in putting up her outdoor Christmas lights.  I will sit inside the car, wrapped up in my winter woolies and parka and either shout "helpful" directions to them as to how to place the strings of lights, or cop out of it all completely and read a book until they are done.  This day is taking on some direction despite my own lack of planning ahead.  

 

Mom and I had a good conversation last night after her own good day. She is on a new medication and had a question about what she thought might be an allergic reaction to it yesterday.  I am so proud of her. Instead of calling me in a panic and crying, she called the pharmacist and got the information she needed from him, and did what he said to do without involving me at all.  Slowly but surely she is getting stronger after her heart attack.  Physically she has improved about as much as she ever will, but mentally and emotionally she is continuing to get on top of life once again.  She signed up for a special pre-Christmas brunch yesterday and enjoyed every bite of it. She had some unexpected phone calls from friends that cheered her greatly, and she got her bank book to balance.  I have no idea what is happening in her world today, but yesterday was pretty fantastic. I am grateful for every good day she experiences!

Christmas is Cancelled In Our Province People. Figure It Out!

 I have a good friend who holds an important position with the provincial health ministry. Like so many medical workers here she has been pulled from her duties and temporarily reassigned to deal with a huge surge of  phone calls. In this case she is not being forced into making important calls such as delivering peoples’ virus testing results. Instead her own duties and deadlines are now behind so that she can help deal with hundreds of people calling to beg for personal exemptions to the restrictions on holiday indoor gatherings! 

“But Uncle Bill will be all alone if he can’t see us, his family!”

“But my grandchildren will be devastated if they can’t come over to open gifts together!”

Since there are already provincial regulations in place regarding indoor gatherings, the answer to these requests will always be “No!”

While I have made up the specifics of the requests, these are the sort of calls that medical people, who would normally be accomplishing tasks that help people who are actually sick, are being tasked with answering while those of us in need of time sensitive diagnostics and treatments are forced to wait.

Yes, of course Uncle Bill and the grandchildren and pretty much everyone else in the province will not be able to enjoy our usual Christmas traditional gatherings and that is hard to bear, but bear it we must. There will be those who choose to disobey the rules and gather anyway and so they will do what they will do, but for heaven’s sake people, stop redirecting medical workers others of us have dire need of in order to waste their and our time giving you answers to questions you already have the answers for!

The Edification of Face to Face Friends!

 Early this afternoon the rain came pouring down out of an iron grey sky.  The wind blew the drops against the siding of this building with mighty thwacks of sound. Boom swasch, boom swasch.....  Fortunately it didn't last very long and now, two hours later, the sky to the immediate northwest is clear of clouds and a beautiful shade of winter blue....amazing.  The air temperature is reasonably warm for the third week of December and the brilliant sunshine cheers me down to the tips of my toes.

Friends from out of town just stopped by bringing a Christmas gift and joyous greetings.  Although we couldn't invite them in to visit due to the current pandemic restrictions, we did stand with the door open and talk to them as they stood outside on the back deck for awhile.  It was a frightfully short visit of course, but just seeing their eyes smiling back at us from above their masks made us both incredibly happy!   Before they left we all pulled our masks up from below our chins just for the two seconds required to view each others huge grins before sealing ourselves away again.

Thank you God for our many great friends here in Saskatchewan and all over Canada and around the world.  We feel so undeserving of the amount of love and care they show to us, every single one of them.  Amazing!

So Happy For Our Son!

 We received some happy news from our son today!!  He thought his January art show was going to be completely cancelled due to the lockdown that is likely going to happen in his state after Christmas, but instead the gallery has rescheduled it for May...a full year after it was first supposed to happen.  He is relieved that it is still going to happen at some point!  

The other good news is that this same gallery was able to push him forward as a featured artist at a small art fair in Kyoto Japan that is happening in the new year.  Our son has worked at art and art book fairs all over the place over the years he worked for a gallery in Vancouver, but this is the first time he will actually be one of the featured artists.  It may or may not result in some further sales or shows overseas, but at least it gets him out there once again after a bit of an absence from any kind of international art scene.  Cool!  So happy for him!  He is working like a mad man in his studio to get everything completed and ready for shipping!

So Glad My Father Didn't Have To Know......

 ....that one of his fellow residents, from the Long Term Care facility he was in when he died, wandered out of doors somehow in the middle of the night and was found frozen to death the next morning!  Unreal!! She was last observed in her room by the staff at about 1:15am and then discovered dead outside in the courtyard at about 3:30am.  So very, very tragic.  No one knows how she could have gotten out of the building at that time of the morning and there is going to be a huge investigation by the police and the medical authorities.  Dad was frightened the entire six months he was there and if he had still been alive when this happened he would have freaked out completely. Thank the Lord he was spared this additional stress and fear.  We had no options about his going to live there as there were almost no other facilities with beds open at the time.  The only other one who could take him was even worse than the one he ended up in in many ways, so at least he was spared some of the trials that would have gone on in the other facility.  Sigh.....so difficult to know in advance what we are actually subjecting our elderly parents to once they are forced by ill health into senior care homes.

Mom called me a few minutes ago to let me know she had a serious reaction to some dark chocolate she ingested after dinner.  Her doctor told her some months ago that she was not to eat chocolate, but she received a box from a friend just yesterday.  Due to the COVID19 restrictions she is not allowed to pass them on to any of the other residents or staff, so she thought she would just eat half a one because this brand is her favourite.  Within a few minutes she had chest pain so badly that she could barely cope, but she knew it was not her usual heart pain, more like the terrible acid reflux pains she used to get years ago. She took a Tums and within 20 minutes all the pain was gone!  So the remaining chocolates are going into the garbage. She feels terrible that she has to dispose of a gift someone went out of their way to give her, but she has no choice.  I am just so grateful she is okay!  She began the conversation by saying, "I wanted to let you know I had terrible chest pains after dinner.....".  I went on high alert instantly, but then she told me the rest of the story....whew!!!

 Being far away geographically from ill, struggling senior parents is incredibly difficult....I have many friends in the same position I am and we all struggle to feel good about the situation.  For myself, I can only be filled with gratitude that the staff and other residents in my mom's facility take such good care of her.  She is very comfortable and feels completely safe there.  Thank you Lord!! 

 

 We received a lovely email of thanks today from our son's girlfriend for the small Christmas gift we sent to her.  She is going to send us a decent photo of our son sporting his first ever beard. She likes it and says it suits him.  He will be pleased because this is his first attempt at growing an actual beard and apparently she likes it so I know he will too. hahahaha  They are going to be able to spend Christmas and New Years at the family home on Long Isand, a wonderful way to get out of the city.  According to our son the huge snowstorm in NYC yesterday was "pretty small by Canadian standards".  Yup, he hasn't completely left behind his Canadian experiences in life quite yet.

Test Results Are Already Posted.....

 .....and they are not good, worse than last time with some new problems. So praying friends, no I don’t want to discuss the details right now as my consult with the doctor is not until Monday, but if you feel so led I would appreciate prayer that I would not feel frightened while awaiting my Monday appointment. 

Thank you so much! 🙂

And The Music Goes Round And Round! Hahahaha!!

 Having any kind of medical work done these days is always an adventure, with our without prescheduled appointments at clinics and labs.  I love an adventure, fortunately as today was no exception for me!  

I called the clinic yesterday to request a telephone consultation with my doctor today.  Hallelujah, she called me just after 9:30am, keen to get my lab requisition sent off to the lab of my choice to see how much progess, if any at all, the last round of medications have made toward knocking this infection out of my system.  She faxxed it off immediately and told me to show up at the lab in about a half hour.  I told her that since she and I had had very little success in faxxing requisitions in to the lab, perhaps it would be easier for her and for  me if I simply dropped by the clinic in a half hour and picked up a hard copy instead, but no, she insisted that it would be better if she faxxed it as her machine has been repaired and all would be well.

Yeah. Right.

So, I appeared at the lab 30 minutes later, was grudgingly admitted without a prescheduled appointment and of course discovered they had not received a faxxed requisition there for me.  I was told that they had a problem with THEIR system that was delaying hundreds of fax's each day and that it could be Monday or later before my doctor's fax reached them.  Could I please drive to my clinic to get a hard copy and return with it in "my hot little hands"? (expression in quotes my own)

Sigh.  Told ya'.

I drove back to my clinic, giggling and wondering what fresh hell would await me there in my attempt to get a simple set of lab tests this morning.  I need to get going on the next steps toward healing before the Christmas and New Year holiday break creates even more medical chaos in this city.  

It turned out to be a far easier process than I dared to imagine.  I was called to the reception desk by my own doctor's loyal assistant who scanned the records and found the requisition online, copied it off on the machine on the desk directly behind the reception area, handed it to me with no questions asked and away I drove back to the lab, where I was admitted immediately and did the testing.

There were so few patients at the lab that not only was there no line up for entrance, two of the four lab techs were sitting on chairs in the waiting room waiting in hopes that more patients would arrive so they would have something to do!  As I walked out the door again one of the techs had all ready taken my samples into the lab to begin testing them.  Talk about service!  I am hoping my doctor will have the results by this afternoon, or if not that I will have them online by tonight so that if need be I can be prepared to begin the next medical battle by Monday morning.  

Despite being a balmy -19C outside while all this was going on, my car started and ran very well.  There was no windshield scraping required apart from a quick bout on the inside of the windshield where condensation had built up after our last trip out.  The sun was and is still shining brightly and there is only a slight breeze, so the -19C was not that bitter for standing around outside.

One good thing about all this lab and fax confusion is that all the driving around has used up the entire morning!  Now I just have to discover the best way to spend my afternoon and evening hours!

 

My husband and I decided this morning what we are going to do about special meals over Christmas Eve through Boxing Day.  Between our mutual high cholesterol struggles, my diabetes and his digestion issues there is very little in the way of the usual Christmas treats that we can dare to enjoy for three days running.  We do have a couple of farmer sausages and a small block of higher fat cheese than we normally eat, but we can't live on those two items alone for three days.

 We decided we are going to order a few dishes from both DarBar and Caraway Grill at noon on Christmas Eve to make sure we can get their take out service before possible early closures.  Then we will store all the dishes in the refrigerator and mete them out slowly over the rest of the 3 days of celebration dinners!  YUMMY!  We thought of buying a large chicken and roasting that along with the potatoes and yams in our cold storage (aka the basement), so that at least our lunch meals will remain salt, fat and sugar free, hahaha.

 

That ladies and gentlement is how we will spend the holidays: eating yummy foods and drinking a bottle or two of the wine we have had stored in the cupboard for months. I may even treat myself to a now rare gin and tonic.  

 

Whoopee, eh? hahahahaha Haaaaaappy Holidays!!

Advent Waiting During a Pandemic (2020)

 simeon

           I wish for a faith like simeon's

           a faith that waits for God's salvation

           a perceptive faith to see truth

           a welcoming faith to hold the baby

           a consistent faith to counter questions

           a ready faith willing to let go

 

 

Pieced Quilts

           In these tangled times

               the weaver lays thread

               on fragile thread 

               of hope and love creating pieces

         to quilt in rich patterns

              for soft comfort

              to wrap around our stiff and tired

              shoulders

              and our sagging hearts

from: Let's Talk about Christmas by David Kaiser

Epiphany Books/Aurora Productions; Regina, 2010.

simeon: page 33

Pieced Quilts: page 60

 

Escape For A Whole Two Hours!! hahaha

 Could our days be any lovlier???  It is another spectacular winter day today with sunshine, relatively mild temperatures throughout the day and very little wind!

 

We happily escaped from home this morning for a couple of hours of errands.  My husband was able to get to his favourite discount grocery right at 7am and shopped with very few other customers to contend with while I stayed home to get ready for the day.  When he arrived back home we ate breakfast and then headed out to a couple of bank appointments, to the water supplier for some huge containers of RO water, to the best store for fresh pitas and a carton of spicy potatoes, then over to friends' house to drop off a Christmas gift.  While one of us ran the errand, the other one stayed inside the car to read books or doze or just admire the blue, cloudless sky.  My husband took care of the shopping and I took care of the banking.  He went into a new Indian grocery that I have been dying to go into so I can peruse their wares, but my husband is the ethnic specialty grocery shopper, so I grudgingly stayed in the car and let him get the first glimpse of their products.  Since he came out with a couple of what turned out to DELICIOUS vegetable samosas I got over my disappointment rather quickly.  Once the pandemic is under control and we can safely shop together again, this new store on South Albert is the first place I am heading for.

 

It was fun driving around the city. Now that we have decided who will be the consistent shopper in each store and who will go into the banks, we are enjoying running errands more. It took awhile to figure out the safest way to handle the necessary errands.

 

I cannot believe how my energy comes back on a sunny day!  As soon as lunch was over I did all my ironing from yesterday's laundry extravaganza.  How two old people managed to get so many clothes and towels dirty only a few days is beyond my ability to figure out!!  hahaha

 

Mom is going to the doctor today with some small but persistent problems, so I have been praying she will be able to have smooth taxi service and easily get her prescriptions delivered once again.  She was quite tired yesterday, no surprise, but she did spend the morning resting on the bed, dozing and reading so I am proud of her for that.  Then in the afternoon she did laundry!!  Eeegads!!  REST??  Does she know what that is? hahaha

 

My husband was able to straighten out some of the plans for his upcoming Christmas Eve service and the advice he received from his immediate superior has made the job much simpler than it first appeared it would have to be. YAY Immediate  Superior!!  Now he just has to telephone all his parishioners personally to wish them a happy Christmas and that is something he enjoys doing.  HIs evenings will be filled with joyous calls between now and Christmas Eve.

 

Well, I think I will go and find something fun and interesting to do for the rest of the afternoon that takes advantage of this lovely day!

So Good To See The Sunshine Today!

 The SUNSHINE IS HEAVENLY THIS AFTERNOON!!! YAY!!!

Earlier today it was kind of dreary outside and we felt rather miserable when we woke up, but we decided to take a short drive around to perk ourselves up.  In the course of our drive we ended up stopping at a sewing shop where my husband was able to find a couple of coloured threads that are a perfect match for some clothes he is mending on the sewing machine and I was able to get 4 litres of milk and some bananas at a small store along the route, saving me having to go into the crowded discount store that has had quite a few reported cases of COVID19 lately.  

 

Now the sun is shining and I have the first load of laundry swishing about in the washing machine.  The sunshine has, as usual, restored my flagging energy.  

 

Today I am feeling terrible and praying a lot for Penelope as her elderly mother is extremely ill. Mum may not do very well over the next little while, so please, if you should think of it, could you offer up prayers for this hurting family? Thank you!  I will update as is appropriate in future. 

 

My own mother is doing well, just feeling tired all the time, no surprise.  She is doing her own laundry and other household chores, ironing her clothes in far too large batches at a time, making arrangments for doctors' appointments, ordering groceries online and on and on and on!  Although she has had no heart pain for quite some time and the swelling in her ankles is currently under control, she is exhausted day after day.  Trying to get her to slow down and only do part of a project one day and another part the next day is like talking to her when her hearing aids are not in place....completely useless!  I understand that because I am just like her that way...we be project people and cannot rest until the project, whatever it may be, is completed. I am very proud of her for the way she has taken charge of her life, all the while complaining that life is too hard to live now.  Her actions are belying her words to some extent, hahaha.  What a trouper!

 

Tomorrow morning I have an appointment at the bank.  Since there is no point in mailing gifts to my son and his girfriend this Christmas with all the delays in parcel delivery south of the border, I will send them a wire transfer instead and they can each buy whatever they want with it.  Easy peasy for me and for them too.

 

My husband is going to take advantage of the 7am opening tomorrow of his favourite bulk grocery store and get some things that he is in need of and that will complete our shopping for the next week. Maybe I will need produce before the Christmas closures, but we are arranging our grocery shopping so that we don't have to enter any stores for at least a two week period over the Christmas/New Year holiday.  We want to extend our groceries as far into January as possible while we wait to see how badly the pandemic cases spike here.  We do not expect many people to abide by the new ruling that people must not gather with others in their homes between Dec. 19 and mid January.  The ruling was made after most of the Christmas turkeys and other special dinner treats were purchased and family plans made to get togther in groups of 5 at a time.  Today, for the first time, our city has the highest number of cases of anywhere in the province.  Aaaargh!!

 

Tomorrow after the bank appointment I have to call my doctor and arrange some post-medication rechecks at the lab.  I take the last of round one of my meds tonight.  It is always a hassle arranging these things due to my doctor's broken fax machine, so who knows how this will go?  I just want to be on my next round of antibiotics during the Christmas/New Year break to ensure I will be able to have any other re-tests etc. when needed after the holidays.

 

It is turning into a busy week after all.

Do You Have Tooth Chattering Weather Today??

 Wow, we certainly do here!  This morning I woke up to -26C and this afternoon isn't a whole lot warmer, plus there are huge fluffy snowflakes coming down to cover up the all ready treacherous ice on the streets!  I drove over to a friend's house this afternoon to make a delivery and it took 3 hours of plugging in the car, fifteen minutes of window scraping and warming the engine up before I could drive over there, only achieving a top speed of 30km on the side streets to avoid hitting the ice ruts and bouncing the car all over the streets!  hahaha  

IT. IS. WINTER. IN SASKATCHEWAN!  hahaha

Tomorrow is supposed to be just as cold and miserable, but then there is a slight warming trend for a few days.  YAY!  I can't really complain.  Our car is plugged into the power source for only the second or third time this winter, so my power bill is not going to be terribly much higher than usual.  That will wait until January and February. YAY!

It was wonderful to see my friend today, even for a few minutes from a masked distance.  We packed a lot of visiting into a very short time.  I feel content now to wait a few more days before seeing anyone else.  My friend had a surprise delivery for us too!  She gave me a giant bag filled with fresh frozen ranch beef and frozen steel head trout fillets!  She also included a card with the most lovely, loving note written inside.  We have only cooked steel head trout once, a few years ago, but we must have done something wrong because it tasted dreadful!  We are going to get online and find some recipes so we can enjoy this unexpected bounty of fish!

Tonight we have several recorded programmes to watch together.  We can put our jammies on early and cuddle on the sofa with mugs of hot chocolate while we watch tv.  I LOVE this kind of an evening when "the weather outside is frightful!"

I Am Fed Up With Anti-Mask Protests!

The Son This December

Our son is very good about sending us updates and photos. Yesterday he was able to get out to a few art gallery exhibits for a treat. He sent us a photo of himself, rather rare, and it is good to see him as he enters the middle age of his life looking so well.