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| Makes Me Think of Our Son in His Youth! |
Sunday, May 31, 2020
I Want My Sake Cool, My Gulab Jamin Warm, My Church Services NOT Online and My Son NOT Trapped In a NYC Riot Zone!
So.....you can't always get what you want......that's life.....
Yesterday we had a nice day together. My husband prepared and rehearsed his sermon in the morning while I caught up on some tv shows and home chores, then after lunch we headed out to the country to his adorable little church building to record the sermon for his parishioners. Since the sermon was geared to today's annual celebration of Pentecost, he was able to wear his flashy red stole with the tongues of fire emblazoned on it. Against the white alb it looks pretty classy!
On the way home he decided we should do our second huge Indian food splurge order, so he ordered online as I drove us back to the city. The food was spectacular and what a lot of it there was. We enjoyed our first helping as soon as we arrived home, the second helping for lunch today and the third helping for dinner. The only thing we ran out of and had to make from our own cupboards today was more rice, because my husband can inhale two cups of cooked rice all by himself in about 3 minutes flat! We had never tried the chicken rogan josh before and enjoyed it, but it is a very different dish without the pervading lamb flavour in the regular version. My chicken masala was fabulous and good grief, what a lot of meat!! No wonder I was able to get three separate meals from my order. The daal makhni is my favourite dish, but so full of creamy cholesterol. I still have a fourth helping of that left for tomorrow. A couple of small veggie pakoras for an appetizer, drenched in our favourite tamarind sauce (only Darbar's homemade will we eat), a bit of whole wheat naan and one tiny gulab jamin ball made last night's dinner a true feast. The staff at Darbar's gave us a free order of gulab jamin...an entire carton of them!!! WOW! I can't eat much gulab jamin because of the sugar content, but oh how I did enjoy my couple of bites.
Kat came over last last night for a bit of a distancing visit. We put our lawn chairs up in a protected space between our car and a maintenance bin where our voices didn't drift into the open windows of the other suites here. Face to face contact....SO HAPPY! It was lovely and we had so many laughs.
I slept a bit better last night than I did the night before (2 hours), so I woke up feeling a bit better this morning, less groggy and stupid. I attended the online service for my church and read the Scriptures, so it was nice to have some small contribution to make for a change. The breakout room after the service was a very small group, so I did enjoy that. Everyone had plenty of chances to chat and share what is going on in their lives these days. There were some good laughs and big smiles. I enjoyed it.
Since my husband didn't have to provide an evening prayer service for his congregation this morning, he was able to have a relaxing afternoon in the basement repairing small appliances, sewing and mending and doing some writing. It was good for him to sit in the cool of the basement.
Our temperature reached +29C this afternoon after a vicious wind storm this morning that had me chasing our tiny starter pots of newly purchased herbs all across the back lawn. Eventually I got them all rounded up again. Originally the plan for this afternoon was that my husband would replant them all in larger summer pots, but with the extreme wind, all he could do with them was set them in a more protected area on the porch. Since we were supposed to have rain by 7pm, morphing into a severe thunderstorm by 9pm, (it is nearly 10:30pm and we are still waiting for that first drop of rain and flash of lightning), he pushed them back against the building as far under the bit of eave as possible.
We have been pretty worried about our son and his girlfriend in NYC. We knew they were supposed to be returning early this evening from Long Island, but with the riots going on in NYC the plans have changed a bit. The protesters...including, unfortunately, those who are there for other reasons than the death of the black man at the hands of the cruel white policeman in Minneapolis....have been blocking the Brooklyn and Manhattan bridges as well as setting fires and looting the designer stores in Manhattan. The worse of the violence, originally centered around the famous Barclay's Centre, has fanned out very close to our son's girlfriend's neighbourhood, so if they are able to return early tomorrow morning, she will likely have to stay at our son's place. He is still a half hour by bicycle from the centre of the rioting...at least that was the case earlier this evening. First COVID-19 and now race riots, followed I am guessing by another extreme outbreak of COVID-19 in NYC due to the lack of distancing between the protesters, too many of whom are not wearing even the flimsiest, most useless of face masks! Sigh..... What is going to happen to our son? We can only go to God and ask for him to protect our son and his girlfriend. There is not one other thing we can do for them at this point. They can't even come back to Canada with the border still being closed to non-essential travel. Sigh....BIG FAT SIGH..... Well, we shall see how God looks after them and in the meantime be grateful that they have been spared thus far. When my son was tiny we never once thought about finding our family in this kind of a mess in the future.
Got a lovely email from Val tonight from the hospital. She is doing exceptionally well with the physiotherapy for her newly replaced joint. However, the muscles and tendons on her "good leg" are balking because they have been under so much stress for the past two or more years. For now she is scheduled to have the joint replaced in that leg as well in about 3-6 months. She sounds SO happy, looks fantastic in the photos taken in the hospital....amazing! We are very excited for her and she is so grateful for all the prayers. Bless you prayer warriors.
Don't know what tomorrow will bring around here. I suppose there will be some house cleaning for me, some tv watching and writing for my husband as he has tomorrow completely off work. A bit of a walk would be in order for us both.
For the rest of this evening we will situate ourselves next to the open windows in our suite and try to catch some bit of fresh air before going to bed for the night. The air is still very hot, although a slight breeze began a few minutes ago. I thought I heard thunder in the distance, but it turned out to be a car stereo with a booming bass. hahahaha Here is to another week of unknowns......
Yesterday we had a nice day together. My husband prepared and rehearsed his sermon in the morning while I caught up on some tv shows and home chores, then after lunch we headed out to the country to his adorable little church building to record the sermon for his parishioners. Since the sermon was geared to today's annual celebration of Pentecost, he was able to wear his flashy red stole with the tongues of fire emblazoned on it. Against the white alb it looks pretty classy!
On the way home he decided we should do our second huge Indian food splurge order, so he ordered online as I drove us back to the city. The food was spectacular and what a lot of it there was. We enjoyed our first helping as soon as we arrived home, the second helping for lunch today and the third helping for dinner. The only thing we ran out of and had to make from our own cupboards today was more rice, because my husband can inhale two cups of cooked rice all by himself in about 3 minutes flat! We had never tried the chicken rogan josh before and enjoyed it, but it is a very different dish without the pervading lamb flavour in the regular version. My chicken masala was fabulous and good grief, what a lot of meat!! No wonder I was able to get three separate meals from my order. The daal makhni is my favourite dish, but so full of creamy cholesterol. I still have a fourth helping of that left for tomorrow. A couple of small veggie pakoras for an appetizer, drenched in our favourite tamarind sauce (only Darbar's homemade will we eat), a bit of whole wheat naan and one tiny gulab jamin ball made last night's dinner a true feast. The staff at Darbar's gave us a free order of gulab jamin...an entire carton of them!!! WOW! I can't eat much gulab jamin because of the sugar content, but oh how I did enjoy my couple of bites.
Kat came over last last night for a bit of a distancing visit. We put our lawn chairs up in a protected space between our car and a maintenance bin where our voices didn't drift into the open windows of the other suites here. Face to face contact....SO HAPPY! It was lovely and we had so many laughs.
I slept a bit better last night than I did the night before (2 hours), so I woke up feeling a bit better this morning, less groggy and stupid. I attended the online service for my church and read the Scriptures, so it was nice to have some small contribution to make for a change. The breakout room after the service was a very small group, so I did enjoy that. Everyone had plenty of chances to chat and share what is going on in their lives these days. There were some good laughs and big smiles. I enjoyed it.
Since my husband didn't have to provide an evening prayer service for his congregation this morning, he was able to have a relaxing afternoon in the basement repairing small appliances, sewing and mending and doing some writing. It was good for him to sit in the cool of the basement.
Our temperature reached +29C this afternoon after a vicious wind storm this morning that had me chasing our tiny starter pots of newly purchased herbs all across the back lawn. Eventually I got them all rounded up again. Originally the plan for this afternoon was that my husband would replant them all in larger summer pots, but with the extreme wind, all he could do with them was set them in a more protected area on the porch. Since we were supposed to have rain by 7pm, morphing into a severe thunderstorm by 9pm, (it is nearly 10:30pm and we are still waiting for that first drop of rain and flash of lightning), he pushed them back against the building as far under the bit of eave as possible.
We have been pretty worried about our son and his girlfriend in NYC. We knew they were supposed to be returning early this evening from Long Island, but with the riots going on in NYC the plans have changed a bit. The protesters...including, unfortunately, those who are there for other reasons than the death of the black man at the hands of the cruel white policeman in Minneapolis....have been blocking the Brooklyn and Manhattan bridges as well as setting fires and looting the designer stores in Manhattan. The worse of the violence, originally centered around the famous Barclay's Centre, has fanned out very close to our son's girlfriend's neighbourhood, so if they are able to return early tomorrow morning, she will likely have to stay at our son's place. He is still a half hour by bicycle from the centre of the rioting...at least that was the case earlier this evening. First COVID-19 and now race riots, followed I am guessing by another extreme outbreak of COVID-19 in NYC due to the lack of distancing between the protesters, too many of whom are not wearing even the flimsiest, most useless of face masks! Sigh..... What is going to happen to our son? We can only go to God and ask for him to protect our son and his girlfriend. There is not one other thing we can do for them at this point. They can't even come back to Canada with the border still being closed to non-essential travel. Sigh....BIG FAT SIGH..... Well, we shall see how God looks after them and in the meantime be grateful that they have been spared thus far. When my son was tiny we never once thought about finding our family in this kind of a mess in the future.
Got a lovely email from Val tonight from the hospital. She is doing exceptionally well with the physiotherapy for her newly replaced joint. However, the muscles and tendons on her "good leg" are balking because they have been under so much stress for the past two or more years. For now she is scheduled to have the joint replaced in that leg as well in about 3-6 months. She sounds SO happy, looks fantastic in the photos taken in the hospital....amazing! We are very excited for her and she is so grateful for all the prayers. Bless you prayer warriors.
Don't know what tomorrow will bring around here. I suppose there will be some house cleaning for me, some tv watching and writing for my husband as he has tomorrow completely off work. A bit of a walk would be in order for us both.
For the rest of this evening we will situate ourselves next to the open windows in our suite and try to catch some bit of fresh air before going to bed for the night. The air is still very hot, although a slight breeze began a few minutes ago. I thought I heard thunder in the distance, but it turned out to be a car stereo with a booming bass. hahahaha Here is to another week of unknowns......
Friday, May 29, 2020
Niceties and Frustrations....Life....
We had a lovely day yesterday! There were phone calls from friends far and near, some encouraging emails in regard to Val's recovery from her surgery: she sat up in the wheelchair yesterday for 4 HOURS. I have never seen her able to sit down in the past 2 years. She has had to rest her rear on the very edge a tall stool to get off her feet even a little bit. Her surgeon is thrilled with how well the complicated surgery went. She had her first physiotherapy yesterday using the parallel bars and actually taking a few steps with her walker! AMAZING!
We drove to several greenhouses and picked up all but two of the herb varieties we were hoping to find. Most of the greenhouses are sold out of the most commonly grown herbs and popular flowers and flowering trees, so we were very happy to get as many herbs as we did. It was a windy but warm day and there weren't too many customers in any of the greenhouses so we were able to take our time and look at each plant carefully to make good choices.
My husband has been asked to be the online tech host for an upcoming Diocesan meeting, so of course he said he would since the Bishop is the person who requested it. They miss each other, miss working together, so any opportunity to do anything together is leapt at with great joy!
This morning I tried to walk to the post box about 3 blocks away. It was an obstacle course through the complex this morning as the underground sprinkling system was on for the first time this spring. Being understaffed as far as competent grounds people was showing today. There were sprays of water covering sidewalks and parking spaces rather than the lawns, there were some sprinklers that were rotating so a person had the opportunity to wait for the water to arc off in a different direction and still be able to walk on the sidewalk, there were non-rotating sprinkler heads spewing water several feet above the sidewalk, right about eye level for me, making it impossible to continue walking there. There were very few dry places on the grass that were not covered in goose poo for stepping around the flying spray, so twice I had to go back the way I had just come and seek a different path to get to the post box. It was extremely frustrating, but at the same time, it was a puzzle to be solved, something different to think about, AND it was all going on in the great, sunny, breezy outdoors. I sort of enjoyed the whole procedure. hahaha
Other things have occurred in the past week that have us wondering what on earth God has in store for us a year from now....I suspect we are getting inklings and promptings this far in advance because God knows we (particularly ME) need a lot of lead time to prepare for any sort of major change in life. My husband and I need that much time to start a more serious downsizing of all our "stuff" than we have ever needed before...that alone requires a godly nudge a year in advance!! hahaha
Dad is approaching 6 months since he went into long term care. He is just as miserable as he was when he arrived and there is not one thing anyone can say or do to help him to feel better. There are occasional, rare bright spots in his life, but for the most part he has decided to remain miserable. I am sure the staff is grumpy, overworked and there are likely far too few of them to do a better than simply an adequate job, but for me, I stand impressed that one case of COVID-19 that took the life of a patient over two months ago now is the only case they have had! Praise the Lord for that! The sad part is that there is no hope of things improving for Dad. He is living in the one place he can afford to live that is not totally wretched. The level of care is actually pretty good. Mom is lonely and bored so we do talk on the phone fairly often. She dumps her woes to begin the conversation, but then she starts talking about every good thing that is happening and cheers up. I am glad I am at least able to be on the other end of the phone so she can share all aspects of what this continuing lock down is doing to her. Her residence has had zero cases of COVID-19 among the residents and staff, so again, whatever is miserable about the situation, they are doing something right. I am grateful to the staff in both my parents' facilities who have kept them safe despite the other ensuing issues.
Our son is out in the Hamptons this weekend opening up his girlfriend's aunty's summer house there. It will whet his appetite for the two weeks he will be able to spend there at some point in June. His girlfriend is recovering well from her emergency dental surgery now, so we are all relieved. So far they are both healthy and we couldn't be more grateful!
Well, it is time to go and make some lunch for us. My husband had a little tummy episode this morning. He got going on a long pastoral phone call and forgot to eat breakfast, so when he finally got to it, he had waited too long. However, he is doing fine after sitting still and resting. He ate some apple slices with the skins on and that was a poor choice after the long wait to eat. I was out fighting my way through the complex's sprinkler system when he finally got off the phone and prepared his breakfast or I may have been able to convince him to peel the apples.
Ironing awaits this afternoon! Whoopee!! haha Actually I enjoy ironing.
Tomorrow we are hoping to drive out of the city to my husband's little country church and video his Pentecost sermon. His parishioners always enjoy seeing the inside of their church online. Should be a fun trip! The weather will be very nice but not overly hot, just like today. YAY! We have only filled the gasoline tank in our car twice in the past 3 months, so wow, we are saving a bundle on that!!
We drove to several greenhouses and picked up all but two of the herb varieties we were hoping to find. Most of the greenhouses are sold out of the most commonly grown herbs and popular flowers and flowering trees, so we were very happy to get as many herbs as we did. It was a windy but warm day and there weren't too many customers in any of the greenhouses so we were able to take our time and look at each plant carefully to make good choices.
My husband has been asked to be the online tech host for an upcoming Diocesan meeting, so of course he said he would since the Bishop is the person who requested it. They miss each other, miss working together, so any opportunity to do anything together is leapt at with great joy!
This morning I tried to walk to the post box about 3 blocks away. It was an obstacle course through the complex this morning as the underground sprinkling system was on for the first time this spring. Being understaffed as far as competent grounds people was showing today. There were sprays of water covering sidewalks and parking spaces rather than the lawns, there were some sprinklers that were rotating so a person had the opportunity to wait for the water to arc off in a different direction and still be able to walk on the sidewalk, there were non-rotating sprinkler heads spewing water several feet above the sidewalk, right about eye level for me, making it impossible to continue walking there. There were very few dry places on the grass that were not covered in goose poo for stepping around the flying spray, so twice I had to go back the way I had just come and seek a different path to get to the post box. It was extremely frustrating, but at the same time, it was a puzzle to be solved, something different to think about, AND it was all going on in the great, sunny, breezy outdoors. I sort of enjoyed the whole procedure. hahaha
Other things have occurred in the past week that have us wondering what on earth God has in store for us a year from now....I suspect we are getting inklings and promptings this far in advance because God knows we (particularly ME) need a lot of lead time to prepare for any sort of major change in life. My husband and I need that much time to start a more serious downsizing of all our "stuff" than we have ever needed before...that alone requires a godly nudge a year in advance!! hahaha
Dad is approaching 6 months since he went into long term care. He is just as miserable as he was when he arrived and there is not one thing anyone can say or do to help him to feel better. There are occasional, rare bright spots in his life, but for the most part he has decided to remain miserable. I am sure the staff is grumpy, overworked and there are likely far too few of them to do a better than simply an adequate job, but for me, I stand impressed that one case of COVID-19 that took the life of a patient over two months ago now is the only case they have had! Praise the Lord for that! The sad part is that there is no hope of things improving for Dad. He is living in the one place he can afford to live that is not totally wretched. The level of care is actually pretty good. Mom is lonely and bored so we do talk on the phone fairly often. She dumps her woes to begin the conversation, but then she starts talking about every good thing that is happening and cheers up. I am glad I am at least able to be on the other end of the phone so she can share all aspects of what this continuing lock down is doing to her. Her residence has had zero cases of COVID-19 among the residents and staff, so again, whatever is miserable about the situation, they are doing something right. I am grateful to the staff in both my parents' facilities who have kept them safe despite the other ensuing issues.
Our son is out in the Hamptons this weekend opening up his girlfriend's aunty's summer house there. It will whet his appetite for the two weeks he will be able to spend there at some point in June. His girlfriend is recovering well from her emergency dental surgery now, so we are all relieved. So far they are both healthy and we couldn't be more grateful!
Well, it is time to go and make some lunch for us. My husband had a little tummy episode this morning. He got going on a long pastoral phone call and forgot to eat breakfast, so when he finally got to it, he had waited too long. However, he is doing fine after sitting still and resting. He ate some apple slices with the skins on and that was a poor choice after the long wait to eat. I was out fighting my way through the complex's sprinkler system when he finally got off the phone and prepared his breakfast or I may have been able to convince him to peel the apples.
Ironing awaits this afternoon! Whoopee!! haha Actually I enjoy ironing.
Tomorrow we are hoping to drive out of the city to my husband's little country church and video his Pentecost sermon. His parishioners always enjoy seeing the inside of their church online. Should be a fun trip! The weather will be very nice but not overly hot, just like today. YAY! We have only filled the gasoline tank in our car twice in the past 3 months, so wow, we are saving a bundle on that!!
Wednesday, May 27, 2020
Finally....the Happy Surgery!
For those of you who have been praying with us over most of the last year for Val, her joint replacement surgery happened this morning! It was apparently successful, she was back in her ward before noon and has been experiencing minimal pain and discomfort. Thank you Lord and thank you to the surgeon. Recovery will take time, but Val has great determination to get started on her physiotherapy right away. When I think of the never ending agony she has dealt with these past months, physio should not compare for pain levels. She will likely be in rehab for awhile to help her become fairly independent before going home. Kat is not healthy enough yet herself to handle full time care giving on top of her graduated return to work.
So, hallelujah, the deed is finally done. Val is grateful for your prayers. I participated last evening in a Zoom prayer meeting for her with the ladies of our church. Val felt well enough to participate and it was a special time. She knows she is loved.
So, now we hope for a full recovery and for nothing to interfere with another joint replacement surgery that will have to take place in six months to a year from now!
So, hallelujah, the deed is finally done. Val is grateful for your prayers. I participated last evening in a Zoom prayer meeting for her with the ladies of our church. Val felt well enough to participate and it was a special time. She knows she is loved.
So, now we hope for a full recovery and for nothing to interfere with another joint replacement surgery that will have to take place in six months to a year from now!
Tuesday, May 26, 2020
Well, I Never Thought I'd Ever Hear Anything Like THIS!
I don't even know what to say about this one.Yikes! Something appealing, something appalling, something for everyone on YouTube, hahaha.
Off To A Great Start!
This morning I conveniently woke up a few minutes prior to my alarm ringing, so I was up and ready to go well in advance of the 7am Seniors Shopping hour at SaveOn and Superstore. It was wonderful. I don't think there have ever been less shoppers in either store than there were this morning. The only disappointment was that my favourite seed bread, on sale this week, was completely sold out all ready. So, I am compromising with some artisan bread that I really don't like as much and which has higher carb counts, but at least I will have bread for my low fat cheese sandwich at breakfast. Life is really tough isn't it when the biggest disaster of my day is an absence of my favourite bread! NOT!!
I spent a long time washing everything off once I got home. My husband loves it when I do the Seniors Shop on Tuesday mornings, because he knows he will not have to help me disinfect the goods when I get home as he is in the midst of a meeting at that time. hahaha
Once again we are supposed to get some rain this afternoon...well, I'm from Missouri.....
I spent a long time washing everything off once I got home. My husband loves it when I do the Seniors Shop on Tuesday mornings, because he knows he will not have to help me disinfect the goods when I get home as he is in the midst of a meeting at that time. hahaha
Once again we are supposed to get some rain this afternoon...well, I'm from Missouri.....
Monday, May 25, 2020
What a Difference a Day Makes, ( #Who Knows??)
After about 17 hours of sleep Saturday night into Sunday and another good nine hours last night, my husband woke up this morning feeling just wonderful, primed to take on this week at his own pace, thrilled to be in the relaxing position this week of having so few time sensitive responsibilities, delighted by the ongoing good weather....ah yes, the first words out of his mouth this morning were, "Life is GOOD!" Yup, quite a change from the past couple of days! hahaha
Having the better part of a week with no commitments to anyone but himself is just what he needs right now. As a result of this total relaxation, he is sitting at his desk copying down a couple of thoughts that came to him during our breakfast that he wants to be sure to incorporate into next Sunday morning's sermon! hahaha 'Twas ever thus, right?
His tummy has calmed down, he feels happy, there is no obvious stress plaguing him....so, today is a happy day...for both of us!!! I think another contributing factor to his good mood today is that our son will be leaving next week for a safe house in Long Island to have a break from the stresses in NYC. He will likely be there for 2 weeks. Even though beach access is restricted due to the number of New Yorkers who are escaping out that way, he will still have some access to his beloved Atlantic Ocean. It will be a marvelous mental health break for him. When he returns the stress of debt will finally hit him and then we have to help him figure out the best way to tackle that. So, in reality all three of us get a 2 week break from those mental and emotional stresses that are on their way soon enough.
I called my hair salon this morning. As I expected, it will be at least a week from tomorrow before my hair dresser MAY return to work, MAYBE, PERHAPS, DON'T KNOW FOR SURE, SORRY MRS. B. I am guessing she will not be back at that particular establishment at all, or at least she will not be back until she can have some adequate and safe child care arranged for her youngest two kiddies. So, I will call again next week and try to cope with this huge mop of '80's hair that has slowly taken over my scalp since early January! I cannot believe I have gone nearly 5 months without a haircut. Thank the Lord my hairdresser has done such a great job of shaping my unruly locks. Even though they are greatly overgrown, the basic style is still obviously there. Whew! I am going to feel naked once that cut finally occurs.
It has been a relaxed morning for me too. I revamped tomorrow's grocery shopping list, paring it down considerably. We watched a NOVA programme about tornado warning technologies while we ate breakfast and now I am going to turn the tv back on to watch some veterinarian shows while I iron. This afternoon I want to go for a LONG walk. I will need to do that, absolutely fer shur because my husband is making his wonderful baking powder biscuits for our lunch....mega carbs....YUMMY! The sunny day with its mild breeze and mid plus teen high temperature make it a perfect day for me to be outdoors.
Having the better part of a week with no commitments to anyone but himself is just what he needs right now. As a result of this total relaxation, he is sitting at his desk copying down a couple of thoughts that came to him during our breakfast that he wants to be sure to incorporate into next Sunday morning's sermon! hahaha 'Twas ever thus, right?
His tummy has calmed down, he feels happy, there is no obvious stress plaguing him....so, today is a happy day...for both of us!!! I think another contributing factor to his good mood today is that our son will be leaving next week for a safe house in Long Island to have a break from the stresses in NYC. He will likely be there for 2 weeks. Even though beach access is restricted due to the number of New Yorkers who are escaping out that way, he will still have some access to his beloved Atlantic Ocean. It will be a marvelous mental health break for him. When he returns the stress of debt will finally hit him and then we have to help him figure out the best way to tackle that. So, in reality all three of us get a 2 week break from those mental and emotional stresses that are on their way soon enough.
I called my hair salon this morning. As I expected, it will be at least a week from tomorrow before my hair dresser MAY return to work, MAYBE, PERHAPS, DON'T KNOW FOR SURE, SORRY MRS. B. I am guessing she will not be back at that particular establishment at all, or at least she will not be back until she can have some adequate and safe child care arranged for her youngest two kiddies. So, I will call again next week and try to cope with this huge mop of '80's hair that has slowly taken over my scalp since early January! I cannot believe I have gone nearly 5 months without a haircut. Thank the Lord my hairdresser has done such a great job of shaping my unruly locks. Even though they are greatly overgrown, the basic style is still obviously there. Whew! I am going to feel naked once that cut finally occurs.
It has been a relaxed morning for me too. I revamped tomorrow's grocery shopping list, paring it down considerably. We watched a NOVA programme about tornado warning technologies while we ate breakfast and now I am going to turn the tv back on to watch some veterinarian shows while I iron. This afternoon I want to go for a LONG walk. I will need to do that, absolutely fer shur because my husband is making his wonderful baking powder biscuits for our lunch....mega carbs....YUMMY! The sunny day with its mild breeze and mid plus teen high temperature make it a perfect day for me to be outdoors.
Sunday, May 24, 2020
BBQ’d Beef and Bocce Ball
So, last night's out of town visit was pretty cool all right! YES! I am SO grateful for the time away from this suite with the walls that are beginning to close in on me.
We visited our wonderful friends. Our host bbq'd lamb chops, chili beef sausages and ground pork sausages, all from farmers and ranchers in the area. He grilled whole mushrooms and yam rounds, his wife made a Greek salad with quinoa and a spinach salad with citrus dressing. For dessert we had baked cinnamon apples topped with a chia seed custard, followed by peppermint tisane in heirloom teacups. O wow...it was amazing to be somewhere else eating a home made, healthy meal someone else cooked. Aiii yiiii...heaven!
After dinner we played a round of bocce ball. My husband and I suck at bocce ball, but it didn't matter. We didn't end up with our usual final score of zero. We got FOUR points! 4! F-O-U-R whole points! hahahahaha It was great post prandial exercise for me. We surely did a lot of laughing throughout the rather one sided game. hahaha
The drive was excellent. The grasses and weeds in the highway median and along the side ditches are greening up now. There are a few small leaves emerging on the budded trees along the highway. There was only a bit of breeze instead of horrendous prairie winds. Coming home in the dark there was very little traffic and the air was calm. We got excellent gasoline mileage this trip. Our host gave us two bottles of new Portugese wines he is now representing and we are saving them for a couple of occasions upcoming. One set of friends is particularly interested in Portugese wines due to all the time they have spent in that country and we will save the best of the two types to share with them sometime in the future. It was a super night.
There was one rather unexpected and upsetting blot on our day yesterday: my husband had the first digestive disruption of any significance after he finished his lunch here at home. It was a bad attack that left him lying on the bed, ice packs cooling his tummy and thighs while he slugged down two cans of carbonated water. I wasn't sure he would make it to the bbq and was consoling myself over the disappointment while he was napping after the worst of the attack was over, when he suddenly woke up, declared himself fit enough to go to the bbq and away we went, right on time. He was exhausted of course, but he enjoyed the visit and seeing his bestest buddy so much that he powered through it and quite enjoyed himself. As soon as we got home he went straight to bed and slept for the better part of 17 hours! He woke up for a light breakfast this morning, then went back to bed, awakening only 2 hours prior to officiating at the Evening Prayer Zoom service for his parish. During that 2 hours he made a huge pot of butternut squash soup! It is delicious! Now he is happily watching "Father Brown" on tv. As is typical, the attach occured just toward the end of a period of extended work stress and now that he is able to take a few more days off over the next two weeks, he feels just fine and his symptoms have abated. He will eat "tummy calming" foods for the rest of this week and particularly avoid rinds and thick vegetable and fruit skins, like on tomatoes and cucumbers and zucchinis, fill up on tofu and pureed veggie soups, avoid starches found in breads and bagels and even rice and go to bed super early every night for the next couple of weeks. Whatever the actual physical problem actually is, ongoing stress sets it off every time. I had a feeling a week ago that the amount of work he needed to do over the past 2 weeks was going to catch up with his digestion and sure enough...he never believes me, but it happens every time. Hopefully he will recover during the coming week. He has only a short meditation to prepare for next Sunday morning...Pentecost Sunday. He has preached on Pentecost Sunday so often he won't need to prepare much. He could probably do the entire sermon off the top of his head. There is no Evening Prayer service next Sunday evening so that his parishioners can enjoy the many special services on YouTube other, larger, churches in the city are preparing. The following Sunday morning another short meditation will be all that is necessary and one of his wardens is doing the evening sermon. It is all good!
I had a great deal of fun this afternoon. The 3 oldest of the little munchkins next door came outside to play while I was sitting out on the deck in the sun. The five year old girl, Brinna, who lives there with her mom fulltime, is the friendliest little go getter on the planet. She saw me and headed on over for a great visit while her 2 male cousins, not that much older, were riding their little scooters around in the parking lot and shooting darts from their nerf guns. We had quite a talk about the bunnies that grace our complex and are multiplying daily it seems~we had a deep discussion about whether or not we would like to be rabbits and came to the conclusion that while it would be fun to be able to run and hop like rabbits, the best rabbit to be would be the Easter Bunny, what with the full access to all that candy, ya' know? After awhile 6 year old Austin decided it was time for Brinna and I to be his nerf gun prey so we ended up covered in little foam darts. hahahaha I don't know the name of the 8 year old boy yet, but he smiled and waved at me several times. While we were all visting, the mom of the cousins brought out their baby brother and scooted the boys into the car to go home after their nearly two weeks here. Brinna was disappointed they were leaving "all ready". Their mom and her mom and her grandma have not been particularly friendly to me, but I think a few continuous greetings over the next few times I see them, without overwhelming them with a conversation they are not ready to participate in, is the best move. I am, after all, a "privileged white" person and after the fiasco relationship we had with their cousin, the tenant who moved out at the end of last month it is a wonder they don't have the kids running from me as quickly as their little legs can take them. So, I am praying that after all that has gone on previously in that suite, the people who are left in there will be able to relax and enjoy having us as neighbours. It will take a miracle, but that is God's business, right?
Somehow I didn't get to the ironing produced by last week's laundry day, so that will be my chore for tomorrow. There isn't that much, but it will keep me off the couch for at least an hour if I do it all....and I will do it all. The next day will be a Seniors Hour shopping trip. I think I am going to take my life in my hands and make a hair appointment for as soon as possible...I was going to await the coming and going of the second wave of coronavirus in our city, but I realize I can't possibly stand to wait that long. My hair is down around my shoulders and at my age it is not a pretty sight. If we are going to be seeing a few more people in person over the coming weeks then I have to spruce up! My husband has all ready trimmed his beard nicely and shaved the remains of his wispy hair off for the summer, so he looks very nice. I look like an aging hippy. Not good.....
We visited our wonderful friends. Our host bbq'd lamb chops, chili beef sausages and ground pork sausages, all from farmers and ranchers in the area. He grilled whole mushrooms and yam rounds, his wife made a Greek salad with quinoa and a spinach salad with citrus dressing. For dessert we had baked cinnamon apples topped with a chia seed custard, followed by peppermint tisane in heirloom teacups. O wow...it was amazing to be somewhere else eating a home made, healthy meal someone else cooked. Aiii yiiii...heaven!
After dinner we played a round of bocce ball. My husband and I suck at bocce ball, but it didn't matter. We didn't end up with our usual final score of zero. We got FOUR points! 4! F-O-U-R whole points! hahahahaha It was great post prandial exercise for me. We surely did a lot of laughing throughout the rather one sided game. hahaha
The drive was excellent. The grasses and weeds in the highway median and along the side ditches are greening up now. There are a few small leaves emerging on the budded trees along the highway. There was only a bit of breeze instead of horrendous prairie winds. Coming home in the dark there was very little traffic and the air was calm. We got excellent gasoline mileage this trip. Our host gave us two bottles of new Portugese wines he is now representing and we are saving them for a couple of occasions upcoming. One set of friends is particularly interested in Portugese wines due to all the time they have spent in that country and we will save the best of the two types to share with them sometime in the future. It was a super night.
There was one rather unexpected and upsetting blot on our day yesterday: my husband had the first digestive disruption of any significance after he finished his lunch here at home. It was a bad attack that left him lying on the bed, ice packs cooling his tummy and thighs while he slugged down two cans of carbonated water. I wasn't sure he would make it to the bbq and was consoling myself over the disappointment while he was napping after the worst of the attack was over, when he suddenly woke up, declared himself fit enough to go to the bbq and away we went, right on time. He was exhausted of course, but he enjoyed the visit and seeing his bestest buddy so much that he powered through it and quite enjoyed himself. As soon as we got home he went straight to bed and slept for the better part of 17 hours! He woke up for a light breakfast this morning, then went back to bed, awakening only 2 hours prior to officiating at the Evening Prayer Zoom service for his parish. During that 2 hours he made a huge pot of butternut squash soup! It is delicious! Now he is happily watching "Father Brown" on tv. As is typical, the attach occured just toward the end of a period of extended work stress and now that he is able to take a few more days off over the next two weeks, he feels just fine and his symptoms have abated. He will eat "tummy calming" foods for the rest of this week and particularly avoid rinds and thick vegetable and fruit skins, like on tomatoes and cucumbers and zucchinis, fill up on tofu and pureed veggie soups, avoid starches found in breads and bagels and even rice and go to bed super early every night for the next couple of weeks. Whatever the actual physical problem actually is, ongoing stress sets it off every time. I had a feeling a week ago that the amount of work he needed to do over the past 2 weeks was going to catch up with his digestion and sure enough...he never believes me, but it happens every time. Hopefully he will recover during the coming week. He has only a short meditation to prepare for next Sunday morning...Pentecost Sunday. He has preached on Pentecost Sunday so often he won't need to prepare much. He could probably do the entire sermon off the top of his head. There is no Evening Prayer service next Sunday evening so that his parishioners can enjoy the many special services on YouTube other, larger, churches in the city are preparing. The following Sunday morning another short meditation will be all that is necessary and one of his wardens is doing the evening sermon. It is all good!
I had a great deal of fun this afternoon. The 3 oldest of the little munchkins next door came outside to play while I was sitting out on the deck in the sun. The five year old girl, Brinna, who lives there with her mom fulltime, is the friendliest little go getter on the planet. She saw me and headed on over for a great visit while her 2 male cousins, not that much older, were riding their little scooters around in the parking lot and shooting darts from their nerf guns. We had quite a talk about the bunnies that grace our complex and are multiplying daily it seems~we had a deep discussion about whether or not we would like to be rabbits and came to the conclusion that while it would be fun to be able to run and hop like rabbits, the best rabbit to be would be the Easter Bunny, what with the full access to all that candy, ya' know? After awhile 6 year old Austin decided it was time for Brinna and I to be his nerf gun prey so we ended up covered in little foam darts. hahahaha I don't know the name of the 8 year old boy yet, but he smiled and waved at me several times. While we were all visting, the mom of the cousins brought out their baby brother and scooted the boys into the car to go home after their nearly two weeks here. Brinna was disappointed they were leaving "all ready". Their mom and her mom and her grandma have not been particularly friendly to me, but I think a few continuous greetings over the next few times I see them, without overwhelming them with a conversation they are not ready to participate in, is the best move. I am, after all, a "privileged white" person and after the fiasco relationship we had with their cousin, the tenant who moved out at the end of last month it is a wonder they don't have the kids running from me as quickly as their little legs can take them. So, I am praying that after all that has gone on previously in that suite, the people who are left in there will be able to relax and enjoy having us as neighbours. It will take a miracle, but that is God's business, right?
Somehow I didn't get to the ironing produced by last week's laundry day, so that will be my chore for tomorrow. There isn't that much, but it will keep me off the couch for at least an hour if I do it all....and I will do it all. The next day will be a Seniors Hour shopping trip. I think I am going to take my life in my hands and make a hair appointment for as soon as possible...I was going to await the coming and going of the second wave of coronavirus in our city, but I realize I can't possibly stand to wait that long. My hair is down around my shoulders and at my age it is not a pretty sight. If we are going to be seeing a few more people in person over the coming weeks then I have to spruce up! My husband has all ready trimmed his beard nicely and shaved the remains of his wispy hair off for the summer, so he looks very nice. I look like an aging hippy. Not good.....
Saturday, May 23, 2020
Off And Running!
I woke up at a ghastly time this morning: 5am! No, I don't know why. So, by 7am I decided more sleep was not going to happen. I got up and had breakfast then headed over to my neighbourhood grocery for the 8am Seniors Shopping Hour. There were a couple of items on next Tuesday morning's regular shopping day list that I decided we couldn't live without between then and now, haha. Also, I needed to pick up a brick of cheddar cheese to take to our hosts tonight for the meal they are sharing with us. It is surely a perfect day for a BBQ in Southern Saskatchewan and a drive out of town: warm but not too hot, sunny, a slight breeze! (Yesterday there was snow in Edmonton!!) This is going to be an awesome evening! I am breaking out another of my brand new masks for the event! It is SO CUTE: lime green with little black Eiffel Tower prints all over it. I love it!
By the time I did the shopping, came home and washed up, ate my late breakfast and disinfected all my purchases it was after 9:30am and it felt like about 3pm! haha
After that I became my husband's one woman congregation while he recorded his sermon for tomorrow morning. It took us 3 tries to get his nerves under control and stop racing along through the sermon. All 3 tries were better than the last few weeks of recordings because he ditched his notes and just preached "cold turkey" on the Acension Day scriptures! (he has preached on them before and so his research was all done properly, so don't freak out please all you academics) He still has to work a bit harder to recall his old radio broadcast training: when your audience is invisible, don't talk as if you are talking to a large group, have more of a conversation directed to only one person. My husband was much improved today, less stilted, his head not in his notes, but the poor man has to learn to relax!! I find it hilarious that he can stand up and preach and teach for hours to a room filled with hundreds of complete strangers but gets completely freaked out when preaching in an empty room to an itty bitty computer screen camera. hahahaha Poor guy! For myself, I don't care so much....I just love to talk! There doesn't need to be anyone around for whatever I am saying, or there can be a church congregation or audience at a performance. Blah, blah, blah...no holds barred, no nerves in any of those circumstances...that's me. If I mess up, o well....no one will remember after a few hours or days. I so wish my husband could be like that when he is YouTubing his sermons. It will come with more practise.
The day is going incredibly well thus far for both of us. How nice to have a happy day. Yesterday we both felt kind of bleak and out of sorts as the continuing isolation and the possibility that many of our present lifestyle changes will become permanent hit us like "baseballs in the face". That is how the days seem to go now: one positive happy one, then a bleak depressed one, then a blaaaaah unmotivated one, then another positive motivated one....it is kind of like an emotional seesaw for the pair of us.
Yesterday we walked up to the post office to mail the grad cards to our godchildren and even being outside didn't cheer us up that much. We were feeling so sorry for ourselves all day. hahahaha How childish, but we just were.
I have developed a contact skin allergy and am having trouble locating my physician to make an appointment to see her so I can get a corticosteriod cream that will take care of it. I know from long years of experience with these allergies that nothing less strong than that will take care of it. It was bad yesterday, so while I was at Shoppers mailing the cards I stopped at the pharmacy to find out if SK pharmacists are allowed to prescribe a 14 day regimen of any of those creams, or if I would still have to track down a doctor for an appointment and prescription. I never did get a straight answer from the pharmacist: she walked me down one of the aisles and handed me a tube of 1% hydrocortisone cream with the assurance that would be enough to take care of it. Since she hadn't bothered to look at my skin or ask for my history of skin allergies, I found it interesting that she "knew" an over the counter cream would get rid of the symptoms. I took the tube and looked at it for a second, then looked up to ask her to look at my skin but she had disappeared...POOF....like a magician had whisked her away into thin air. So, in desperation due to the itch, I bought the hydrocortisone cream to get me through the weekend and then next week I will resume my search for a physician to take a look and prescribe what I really need to get rid of the allergy. I have been fighting with these allergies since the age of 6, so I think by now, 60 years later, I should have some basic idea of what is required to keep the allergy from spreading. Our poor artist son has inherited my horrible skin issues and has to wear non-latex gloves every time he paints in order to protect his skin. Ye gads!
So, onward and upward! I am looking forward to the BBQ tonight. I feel a bit like a lady in a meme I saw the other day: "What colour lipstick shall I wear??? It is time to take the garbage out!"
By the time I did the shopping, came home and washed up, ate my late breakfast and disinfected all my purchases it was after 9:30am and it felt like about 3pm! haha
After that I became my husband's one woman congregation while he recorded his sermon for tomorrow morning. It took us 3 tries to get his nerves under control and stop racing along through the sermon. All 3 tries were better than the last few weeks of recordings because he ditched his notes and just preached "cold turkey" on the Acension Day scriptures! (he has preached on them before and so his research was all done properly, so don't freak out please all you academics) He still has to work a bit harder to recall his old radio broadcast training: when your audience is invisible, don't talk as if you are talking to a large group, have more of a conversation directed to only one person. My husband was much improved today, less stilted, his head not in his notes, but the poor man has to learn to relax!! I find it hilarious that he can stand up and preach and teach for hours to a room filled with hundreds of complete strangers but gets completely freaked out when preaching in an empty room to an itty bitty computer screen camera. hahahaha Poor guy! For myself, I don't care so much....I just love to talk! There doesn't need to be anyone around for whatever I am saying, or there can be a church congregation or audience at a performance. Blah, blah, blah...no holds barred, no nerves in any of those circumstances...that's me. If I mess up, o well....no one will remember after a few hours or days. I so wish my husband could be like that when he is YouTubing his sermons. It will come with more practise.
The day is going incredibly well thus far for both of us. How nice to have a happy day. Yesterday we both felt kind of bleak and out of sorts as the continuing isolation and the possibility that many of our present lifestyle changes will become permanent hit us like "baseballs in the face". That is how the days seem to go now: one positive happy one, then a bleak depressed one, then a blaaaaah unmotivated one, then another positive motivated one....it is kind of like an emotional seesaw for the pair of us.
Yesterday we walked up to the post office to mail the grad cards to our godchildren and even being outside didn't cheer us up that much. We were feeling so sorry for ourselves all day. hahahaha How childish, but we just were.
I have developed a contact skin allergy and am having trouble locating my physician to make an appointment to see her so I can get a corticosteriod cream that will take care of it. I know from long years of experience with these allergies that nothing less strong than that will take care of it. It was bad yesterday, so while I was at Shoppers mailing the cards I stopped at the pharmacy to find out if SK pharmacists are allowed to prescribe a 14 day regimen of any of those creams, or if I would still have to track down a doctor for an appointment and prescription. I never did get a straight answer from the pharmacist: she walked me down one of the aisles and handed me a tube of 1% hydrocortisone cream with the assurance that would be enough to take care of it. Since she hadn't bothered to look at my skin or ask for my history of skin allergies, I found it interesting that she "knew" an over the counter cream would get rid of the symptoms. I took the tube and looked at it for a second, then looked up to ask her to look at my skin but she had disappeared...POOF....like a magician had whisked her away into thin air. So, in desperation due to the itch, I bought the hydrocortisone cream to get me through the weekend and then next week I will resume my search for a physician to take a look and prescribe what I really need to get rid of the allergy. I have been fighting with these allergies since the age of 6, so I think by now, 60 years later, I should have some basic idea of what is required to keep the allergy from spreading. Our poor artist son has inherited my horrible skin issues and has to wear non-latex gloves every time he paints in order to protect his skin. Ye gads!
So, onward and upward! I am looking forward to the BBQ tonight. I feel a bit like a lady in a meme I saw the other day: "What colour lipstick shall I wear??? It is time to take the garbage out!"
Friday, May 22, 2020
I Have Only Evolved Up Until 2010!
Or at least my knowledge of contemporary worship music has. In the awesome little video below that traces a brief musical history of worship, I knew every song....until 2010. Then I knew NONE of them....hahaha Guess my age is catching up with me in this arena too!
Thursday, May 21, 2020
Slowly But Surely We Are Getting Things Done!
Lots of things are getting done around here. We are hardly speed demons, but small projects that have been waiting for awhile are being accomplished at last.
Today's good works included my husband fixing the handle on the kitchen window so that I can get it open and closed by myself. He cleaned another small portion of the basement and a few more items went into the "we are NOT taking this with us next move" box. I contributed several more kitchen items to the same box and it feels SO good to be preparing for our next move a full year ahead of time. (or whenever...) I could be discouraged if I look around at the incredible amount of STUFF we still have to go through and downsize, BUT instead I am choosing to rejoice over each small victory of downsizing, particularly over the amount of things my husband is finally ready to part with! Thank you Jesus!! Getting rid of anything is such a stress for him. He is not a hoarder, but wow, he is close to it with some items. His fear of not having every possible little thing a person could ever need for home repairs and everything else in life is finally starting to let go, but it has taken several decades! I am proud of him everytime he gets rid of so much as an empty glass jar! Or admits that not every piece of paper that crosses his path is needed for scrap paper! Or actually gets rid of some old rusty piece of climbing gear that wouldn't be safe to use on a mountain excursion any more anyway! GO SWEETHEART! YOU CAN DO IT! YAY HUSBAND! Cheerlead, cheerlead, cheerlead....you can do it buddy, really you can! And he IS! WOW!!
My husband spent most of this afternoon and evening on the phone with his parishioners, checking in on them, encouraging them, laughing with them and having a great time doing pastoral ministry. He had a productive day that has left him tired but content. As for me, I did laundry and that means a lot of healthy stair climbing exercise. YAY US!
Yup, another good day today. Amen!
Today's good works included my husband fixing the handle on the kitchen window so that I can get it open and closed by myself. He cleaned another small portion of the basement and a few more items went into the "we are NOT taking this with us next move" box. I contributed several more kitchen items to the same box and it feels SO good to be preparing for our next move a full year ahead of time. (or whenever...) I could be discouraged if I look around at the incredible amount of STUFF we still have to go through and downsize, BUT instead I am choosing to rejoice over each small victory of downsizing, particularly over the amount of things my husband is finally ready to part with! Thank you Jesus!! Getting rid of anything is such a stress for him. He is not a hoarder, but wow, he is close to it with some items. His fear of not having every possible little thing a person could ever need for home repairs and everything else in life is finally starting to let go, but it has taken several decades! I am proud of him everytime he gets rid of so much as an empty glass jar! Or admits that not every piece of paper that crosses his path is needed for scrap paper! Or actually gets rid of some old rusty piece of climbing gear that wouldn't be safe to use on a mountain excursion any more anyway! GO SWEETHEART! YOU CAN DO IT! YAY HUSBAND! Cheerlead, cheerlead, cheerlead....you can do it buddy, really you can! And he IS! WOW!!
My husband spent most of this afternoon and evening on the phone with his parishioners, checking in on them, encouraging them, laughing with them and having a great time doing pastoral ministry. He had a productive day that has left him tired but content. As for me, I did laundry and that means a lot of healthy stair climbing exercise. YAY US!
Yup, another good day today. Amen!
Wednesday, May 20, 2020
What a Privilege!
We received an invitation this afternoon to "attend" via YouTube the graduation ceremony for 3 of our Florida godchildren! HOW EXCITING!
Unfortunately the time coincided with my final book club meeting of the term, but there was no way I was going to miss that graduation!!
What a fun evening we had watching the kids in their gorgeous graduation finery and fancy "do's", as they celebrated from home with their families. The speeches were well done and one of "our" kids graduated Cum Laude so we were awfully proud of him...and his 2 siblings as well. All 3 of them have overcome incredible odds with many mental and physical challenges as adopted children of severely drug addicted moms. I applaud my friends who adopted the 3 of them, along with 2 other children and have raised them with all the love and support in the world.
We were tickled to be able to share in their special night from this vast distance away!
Unfortunately the time coincided with my final book club meeting of the term, but there was no way I was going to miss that graduation!!
What a fun evening we had watching the kids in their gorgeous graduation finery and fancy "do's", as they celebrated from home with their families. The speeches were well done and one of "our" kids graduated Cum Laude so we were awfully proud of him...and his 2 siblings as well. All 3 of them have overcome incredible odds with many mental and physical challenges as adopted children of severely drug addicted moms. I applaud my friends who adopted the 3 of them, along with 2 other children and have raised them with all the love and support in the world.
We were tickled to be able to share in their special night from this vast distance away!
Would That Every Day Could Be Like the Last Two!!
Today has been just great once again. I think the accummlated nights of good sleeps are working to restore both of us mentally and physically. Who knew a little white noise in the background could be so relaxing and sleep inducing? Well...probably most everyone on the planet except ourselves. hahaha
This morning we received a notice that our friend who starts a tomato plant for us each year had our lovely plant all ready to go, so we drove over to her place to pick it up. She and her husband are so enjoying all the gardening they have time to do this year, rather than the usual running hither and yon. That has been a positive side of the isolation for them. Our plant has its first blossoms all ready and is over a foot tall. It looks great. Due to the extreme wind on our back deck today, we have left the plastic protector around it and have set it in the least windy area. There is rain forecast for later this evening, possibly a severe thunder shower, so we will just protect is as best we can until the weather calms down. I can all ready taste the Sun Gold miniature tomatoes that will soon be produced by that lovely plant.
This afternoon my husband decided that since I cleaned the refrigerator so well a week or two ago, that it was time to do the stove as well. He pulled it out of its cubby hole and we both went to work bleaching the floor underneath it, scrubbing it down on all sides, then cleaning out the baking dishes drawer underneath it. It wasn't as filthy anywhere as we thought it might be, after it not being pulled out of there for over a year since its last cleaning, so that was encouraging! We are not as sloppy as we feared! hahaha
A bonus from doing the job is that we now have another box of "stuff" to be gotten rid of next time we move. Baking dishes, pie plates, a waffle maker etc., are all stacked in a cardboard box to be taken either to the thrift store or to my church for our many immigrant families who come to Canada with nothing at all. It is SO exciting that my husband and I are both on the same page about starting to unload our excess belongings! Since we will likely have to move into low cost housing at this time next year and those units for a senior couple are all rather tiny, we HAVE to downsize. It is going to take us quite awhile to go through all the things we have stored around this place, so it is great that we are getting started all ready. Our newest one year lease doesn't even take effect for another 11 days, but we are all ready preparing for a move. LOVE IT! (However, why can I NOT shake the idea that possibly, just maybe, perhaps, we are going to be moving before the end of our next lease???? It seems impossible, but I have learned over the years not to ignore such wee niggling thoughts that skate through my mind every so often. Hmmmmm.....time will tell....)
No word today from our son about his girlfriend's condition, so we just pray all is going well and that if not, they are getting the help she needs. Thanks for continuing to pray.
Three children of a friend of ours in the USA are having their grade 12 graduation posted online this evening. It starts soon, so I am going to go and have a look at it. It is a small class of graduates, 278, from Florida. Their last name is prior to middle alphabet, so I think I will be able to see these kids graduate before I have to go and eat dinner.
Hugs all!!
This morning we received a notice that our friend who starts a tomato plant for us each year had our lovely plant all ready to go, so we drove over to her place to pick it up. She and her husband are so enjoying all the gardening they have time to do this year, rather than the usual running hither and yon. That has been a positive side of the isolation for them. Our plant has its first blossoms all ready and is over a foot tall. It looks great. Due to the extreme wind on our back deck today, we have left the plastic protector around it and have set it in the least windy area. There is rain forecast for later this evening, possibly a severe thunder shower, so we will just protect is as best we can until the weather calms down. I can all ready taste the Sun Gold miniature tomatoes that will soon be produced by that lovely plant.
This afternoon my husband decided that since I cleaned the refrigerator so well a week or two ago, that it was time to do the stove as well. He pulled it out of its cubby hole and we both went to work bleaching the floor underneath it, scrubbing it down on all sides, then cleaning out the baking dishes drawer underneath it. It wasn't as filthy anywhere as we thought it might be, after it not being pulled out of there for over a year since its last cleaning, so that was encouraging! We are not as sloppy as we feared! hahaha
A bonus from doing the job is that we now have another box of "stuff" to be gotten rid of next time we move. Baking dishes, pie plates, a waffle maker etc., are all stacked in a cardboard box to be taken either to the thrift store or to my church for our many immigrant families who come to Canada with nothing at all. It is SO exciting that my husband and I are both on the same page about starting to unload our excess belongings! Since we will likely have to move into low cost housing at this time next year and those units for a senior couple are all rather tiny, we HAVE to downsize. It is going to take us quite awhile to go through all the things we have stored around this place, so it is great that we are getting started all ready. Our newest one year lease doesn't even take effect for another 11 days, but we are all ready preparing for a move. LOVE IT! (However, why can I NOT shake the idea that possibly, just maybe, perhaps, we are going to be moving before the end of our next lease???? It seems impossible, but I have learned over the years not to ignore such wee niggling thoughts that skate through my mind every so often. Hmmmmm.....time will tell....)
No word today from our son about his girlfriend's condition, so we just pray all is going well and that if not, they are getting the help she needs. Thanks for continuing to pray.
Three children of a friend of ours in the USA are having their grade 12 graduation posted online this evening. It starts soon, so I am going to go and have a look at it. It is a small class of graduates, 278, from Florida. Their last name is prior to middle alphabet, so I think I will be able to see these kids graduate before I have to go and eat dinner.
Hugs all!!
Tuesday, May 19, 2020
Thank You Jesus For ONE KINDA NORMAL DAY!
Today has been JUST LOVELY!!!! (thus far at least)
I had an excellent sleep last night because I knew I didn't have to get up and go racing to the grocery store and face the accompanying stresses. Thank you Lord!!
I had a long hot shower and washed my overly long hair...yes, the hair stylists mostly opened up again today, but I am going to wait another 2 or 3 weeks before trying to make an appointment until we see how this re-opening is effecting the COVID-19 numbers.
At 10:30am I called the bank to make an appointment and fifteen minutes later I was on my way there. It was a glorious walk under a sunny blue sky. The temperatures were in the mid teens all ready, there was barely a breeze...wow, it was wonderful to be outside walking about. There were far fewer people walking today than I expected, so I didn't have to wear my mask until I got to the bank. That was a treat!
When I was done there I walked downtown to another bank to place an order for some cheques. I didn't have an appointment, but there was a lull in the action just as I arrived, so I got the cheques ordered and was on my way in about three minutes. YAY!
Then I stopped in at Dollarama at the Cornwall Centre. Since today is the first day of retail re-opening I expected there would be many more people in that mall than there actually were. Although, as seems usual, most people were completely ignoring the directional arrows on the floor, there was some attention being paid to maintaining distancing, so it was an okay visit. I picked up a couple of shower curtain liners to replace the moldy one I have been frowning at for the past few days. Then I stopped in at my optometrist's office for a new bottle of lens cleaner. SHOPPING!! I went SHOPPING today!!! Okay, it wasn't for anything frivolous and fun, but still it was SHOPPING!!! IN STORES THAT DON't SELL GROCERIES!!! YIPPEEEEEE!!!!!! Since the pandemic began, my credit card company has given all its Luddite customers who do not have a TAP feature, people like myself, free use of the TAP feature up to a total of one hundred dollars per purchase. I really enjoy not having to touch the keypad buttons that so many other fingers have been touching. Dollarama has a bank of new self-pay machines and it is much more fun than waiting in line for a cashier, BUT I hope once this crisis is over the cashiers will be able to return to their jobs. That is my big worry for them in this age of so many using the self checkout machines.
The walk home was just as lovely. The weather has remained gorgeous all day. I stopped in at the newly re-opened Naked Bean and picked up a couple of their wonderful sandwiches and a cinnamon bun as a treat for my husband. By this time I had been walking for 2 hours and knew I would be too ravenous when I got home to want to spend another half hour making lunch. The staffs' PPE and the customers' commitment to distancing made stopping in that tiny space quite safe and pleasant. My husband had some fresh home made lentil/carrot soup made when I got home and so we were able to have a delicious soup and sandwich luncheon.
Today has been "just like the old days", and wow, have I ever needed it!! Thank you Lord!!!
My son is home from taking his girlfriend to the oral surgeon. She developed a terrible infection last week and by this morning she was in agonizing pain, so she took her inheritance money from her grandma and found what sounds like an amazing dentist who took her immediately for the extractions! The office had been sterilized before she arrived and the dentist had a proper mask, gloves and an office full of hand sanitizer as well as masks for patients to wear when the actually surgery was not going on.
The car and driver hired by the aunty were also a treat. The car had been completely sterilized for the use of her niece and my son, the driver had a plexiglass barrier, was wearing a mask and gloves and had new masks and gloves for his passengers, as well as hand sanitizer to put on before the masks and gloves, as well as after they had been taken off and thrown into a disposal unit. Both my son and his girlfriend are extremely thankful to aunty for her help. They are grateful for the extreme safety measures taken by everyone they had to deal with today.
The girlfriend is now resting her swollen face after managing to eat some of my son's mashed potatoes. She has pain meds and antibiotics, so we pray that between the meds and the extractions the infection will be gone soon and she can be healed and healthy once again. Thank you to those of you who have been praying for her today.
What a day this has been........and NOW we have just received a weekend invitation to a distancing BBQ at the home of friends out of town. WOW again! Thank you Lord, again!! Since the re-opening of stores and other public services is likely to spike the virus numbers soon again, I am going to enjoy every moment of freedom I have between now and when we have to return to super strict isolation once again.
I had an excellent sleep last night because I knew I didn't have to get up and go racing to the grocery store and face the accompanying stresses. Thank you Lord!!
I had a long hot shower and washed my overly long hair...yes, the hair stylists mostly opened up again today, but I am going to wait another 2 or 3 weeks before trying to make an appointment until we see how this re-opening is effecting the COVID-19 numbers.
At 10:30am I called the bank to make an appointment and fifteen minutes later I was on my way there. It was a glorious walk under a sunny blue sky. The temperatures were in the mid teens all ready, there was barely a breeze...wow, it was wonderful to be outside walking about. There were far fewer people walking today than I expected, so I didn't have to wear my mask until I got to the bank. That was a treat!
When I was done there I walked downtown to another bank to place an order for some cheques. I didn't have an appointment, but there was a lull in the action just as I arrived, so I got the cheques ordered and was on my way in about three minutes. YAY!
Then I stopped in at Dollarama at the Cornwall Centre. Since today is the first day of retail re-opening I expected there would be many more people in that mall than there actually were. Although, as seems usual, most people were completely ignoring the directional arrows on the floor, there was some attention being paid to maintaining distancing, so it was an okay visit. I picked up a couple of shower curtain liners to replace the moldy one I have been frowning at for the past few days. Then I stopped in at my optometrist's office for a new bottle of lens cleaner. SHOPPING!! I went SHOPPING today!!! Okay, it wasn't for anything frivolous and fun, but still it was SHOPPING!!! IN STORES THAT DON't SELL GROCERIES!!! YIPPEEEEEE!!!!!! Since the pandemic began, my credit card company has given all its Luddite customers who do not have a TAP feature, people like myself, free use of the TAP feature up to a total of one hundred dollars per purchase. I really enjoy not having to touch the keypad buttons that so many other fingers have been touching. Dollarama has a bank of new self-pay machines and it is much more fun than waiting in line for a cashier, BUT I hope once this crisis is over the cashiers will be able to return to their jobs. That is my big worry for them in this age of so many using the self checkout machines.
The walk home was just as lovely. The weather has remained gorgeous all day. I stopped in at the newly re-opened Naked Bean and picked up a couple of their wonderful sandwiches and a cinnamon bun as a treat for my husband. By this time I had been walking for 2 hours and knew I would be too ravenous when I got home to want to spend another half hour making lunch. The staffs' PPE and the customers' commitment to distancing made stopping in that tiny space quite safe and pleasant. My husband had some fresh home made lentil/carrot soup made when I got home and so we were able to have a delicious soup and sandwich luncheon.
Today has been "just like the old days", and wow, have I ever needed it!! Thank you Lord!!!
My son is home from taking his girlfriend to the oral surgeon. She developed a terrible infection last week and by this morning she was in agonizing pain, so she took her inheritance money from her grandma and found what sounds like an amazing dentist who took her immediately for the extractions! The office had been sterilized before she arrived and the dentist had a proper mask, gloves and an office full of hand sanitizer as well as masks for patients to wear when the actually surgery was not going on.
The car and driver hired by the aunty were also a treat. The car had been completely sterilized for the use of her niece and my son, the driver had a plexiglass barrier, was wearing a mask and gloves and had new masks and gloves for his passengers, as well as hand sanitizer to put on before the masks and gloves, as well as after they had been taken off and thrown into a disposal unit. Both my son and his girlfriend are extremely thankful to aunty for her help. They are grateful for the extreme safety measures taken by everyone they had to deal with today.
The girlfriend is now resting her swollen face after managing to eat some of my son's mashed potatoes. She has pain meds and antibiotics, so we pray that between the meds and the extractions the infection will be gone soon and she can be healed and healthy once again. Thank you to those of you who have been praying for her today.
What a day this has been........and NOW we have just received a weekend invitation to a distancing BBQ at the home of friends out of town. WOW again! Thank you Lord, again!! Since the re-opening of stores and other public services is likely to spike the virus numbers soon again, I am going to enjoy every moment of freedom I have between now and when we have to return to super strict isolation once again.
Stupid Wisdom Teeth!
Received a frantic email from our son. His girlfriend developed a miserable problem with her wisdom teeth over the weekend and had to be rushed to an oral surgeon this morning to have them removed. We are grateful for her aunt who rented a car for our son to drive his girlfriend to the surgeon so they would not have to take the public subway and risk exposure to The Virus after three months of careful self-isolation. Our son will sit in Central Park and wait for her surgery to be over, then drive her home.
So, we are praying not only for a safe surgery but for protection from exposure to the Coronavirus for everyone involved. The concern about the pandemic adds one more layer of worry to an all ready stressful situation. We are sitting here hoping for a positive update soon. Once they get home both our “kids” will have to go into quarantine for 14 days....so that means our dear girl will have to go through her recovery completely alone and our son will be frantic over not being able to care for her.
Sigh....I feel so badly for these two after both of them being so very careful over all these weeks.
So, we are praying not only for a safe surgery but for protection from exposure to the Coronavirus for everyone involved. The concern about the pandemic adds one more layer of worry to an all ready stressful situation. We are sitting here hoping for a positive update soon. Once they get home both our “kids” will have to go into quarantine for 14 days....so that means our dear girl will have to go through her recovery completely alone and our son will be frantic over not being able to care for her.
Sigh....I feel so badly for these two after both of them being so very careful over all these weeks.
Monday, May 18, 2020
Decision Made! YAY!
Turns out neither Tuesday NOR Wednesday will be the best day for grocery shopping this week! I admitted to myself a few minutes ago that I am dreading getting up at 6am either of those days to go to the 7am senior shopping hour. I just plain don't feel like getting back onto the usual 2 week shopping treadmill.
So, my husband and I just went over the remaining items on our grocery list and decided that with the items we purchased on sale today, there is no need for me to do any more grocery shopping whatsoever this week! YIPPEE! Next Tuesday morning I can purchase one huge load and get it over with then.
I feel like I have been given a wonderful reprieve! I am SO not good at maintaining a regular schedule of any activity that goes on week after month after week after month. It is one reason I detested most of my paying jobs all my life. The lack of spontaneity is a joy killer for me.
Nowadays the obligation of attending Zoom church, the breakrooms, and other regularly scheduled Zoom meetings are becoming dreaded drudges, a never ending grind of feeling forced to keep up my end of "staying connected" via Zoom. That is the problem for me: we are NOT actually connected with each other. Now even facing a regular schedule of grocery shopping is more than I want to have to think about. There is no connection that is positive between shoppers struggling to maintain proper distancing, being directed around by masked staffers and lining up waiting to get into the one aisle I need to get into for the one item I have left on my list. I am even glad in a way that my book club is having its final meeting of the season this week and that I won't have that committment hanging over my head either until the autumn.
I know that sounds terrible, but that is what I struggle with all the time. I like the regularity of a weekly schedule....for about 2 or 3 months at a time and then I can barely cope with it. Perhaps that is why I have survived all the moves we have made in the past 20 years. When a person moves a dozen or more times in 20 years there is no chance to become bored with anything for long. In the past 20 years I have found myself in only one never endingly dreary living situation...pretty fortunate for me! We are entering our sixth year in this particular city...a new record for us since leaving Alberta 20 years ago...is this the root of my present discontent? Am I truly hoping to move only out of this suite next May or am I hoping for another, greater adventure elsewhere once again? At my age it seems ridiculous to even want to contemplate such a thing as another adventure, but who knows what God has in store, right????
As the pandemic drags on, I am being faced with the recognition that I suck at maintaining regular ongoing commitments and have all my life. No wonder 12 years of school was so torturous that by the end of high school I wasn't that sad (at the time) to miss out on going to university...how embarrassing to have to admit that! Embarrassing but true....sigh....
So, my husband and I just went over the remaining items on our grocery list and decided that with the items we purchased on sale today, there is no need for me to do any more grocery shopping whatsoever this week! YIPPEE! Next Tuesday morning I can purchase one huge load and get it over with then.
I feel like I have been given a wonderful reprieve! I am SO not good at maintaining a regular schedule of any activity that goes on week after month after week after month. It is one reason I detested most of my paying jobs all my life. The lack of spontaneity is a joy killer for me.
Nowadays the obligation of attending Zoom church, the breakrooms, and other regularly scheduled Zoom meetings are becoming dreaded drudges, a never ending grind of feeling forced to keep up my end of "staying connected" via Zoom. That is the problem for me: we are NOT actually connected with each other. Now even facing a regular schedule of grocery shopping is more than I want to have to think about. There is no connection that is positive between shoppers struggling to maintain proper distancing, being directed around by masked staffers and lining up waiting to get into the one aisle I need to get into for the one item I have left on my list. I am even glad in a way that my book club is having its final meeting of the season this week and that I won't have that committment hanging over my head either until the autumn.
I know that sounds terrible, but that is what I struggle with all the time. I like the regularity of a weekly schedule....for about 2 or 3 months at a time and then I can barely cope with it. Perhaps that is why I have survived all the moves we have made in the past 20 years. When a person moves a dozen or more times in 20 years there is no chance to become bored with anything for long. In the past 20 years I have found myself in only one never endingly dreary living situation...pretty fortunate for me! We are entering our sixth year in this particular city...a new record for us since leaving Alberta 20 years ago...is this the root of my present discontent? Am I truly hoping to move only out of this suite next May or am I hoping for another, greater adventure elsewhere once again? At my age it seems ridiculous to even want to contemplate such a thing as another adventure, but who knows what God has in store, right????
As the pandemic drags on, I am being faced with the recognition that I suck at maintaining regular ongoing commitments and have all my life. No wonder 12 years of school was so torturous that by the end of high school I wasn't that sad (at the time) to miss out on going to university...how embarrassing to have to admit that! Embarrassing but true....sigh....
Best Pun of the Day
I admit I am not a great fan of puns. Our Bishop used to send me crazy as he had a pun as a response to almost every sentence I said to him. As a rule I find puns more irritating than funny, but my husband came up with a cute one this morning:
If Mrs. Fires started a flower shop how would she be known?
As Florist Fires!
Okay dear, I will chuckle with you about this pun since you are not generally the funniest, smilingest, laughingest man on the planet. Hohoho!
Went for a decent walk this afternoon despite the wind. Stopped in at the neighbourhood grocery for a few sale items. It will cut down the number of groceries I need to haul out of the stores tomorrow morning......or the next morning.
Is the Tuesday after a long weekend the best day to go grocery shopping, or will the shelves be more fully stocked on Wednesday morning?
Aaaaah me....of such decisions is my pandemic life made.....yawn....
If Mrs. Fires started a flower shop how would she be known?
As Florist Fires!
Okay dear, I will chuckle with you about this pun since you are not generally the funniest, smilingest, laughingest man on the planet. Hohoho!
Went for a decent walk this afternoon despite the wind. Stopped in at the neighbourhood grocery for a few sale items. It will cut down the number of groceries I need to haul out of the stores tomorrow morning......or the next morning.
Is the Tuesday after a long weekend the best day to go grocery shopping, or will the shelves be more fully stocked on Wednesday morning?
Aaaaah me....of such decisions is my pandemic life made.....yawn....
Sunday, May 17, 2020
Can We Last Safely Here For Another Year?
The situation with our next door neighbours has settled down nicely over the past couple of months and we are so grateful for that, long may it last!
However, now we are concerned about the well being of another suite of neighbours across the lot. They have been there for several months and it has appeared there are some social issues, but whatever is going on cranked up to new levels this week. Two morning ago we opened our blinds at 8am to find three police cars and six police over at that residence. They were there for a long time. Right now there is a giant fire truck, lights flashing, an emergency fire department ambulance and two police cars filling the parking lot and all the fire crew and police are in that same suite. We are not sure what is going on. We can only pray that the people in that suite are and will be okay.
This complex is becoming a tad too interesting for me!
However, now we are concerned about the well being of another suite of neighbours across the lot. They have been there for several months and it has appeared there are some social issues, but whatever is going on cranked up to new levels this week. Two morning ago we opened our blinds at 8am to find three police cars and six police over at that residence. They were there for a long time. Right now there is a giant fire truck, lights flashing, an emergency fire department ambulance and two police cars filling the parking lot and all the fire crew and police are in that same suite. We are not sure what is going on. We can only pray that the people in that suite are and will be okay.
This complex is becoming a tad too interesting for me!
Happier Days 2019
I came across a photo from this time last year where we are both looking pretty pleased with life. We were visiting with friends in Olds Alberta on one of our extended family visits between Calgary and Edmonton. At that time we had no idea that the following year we and all our family and friends would be stranded in our homes, running scared from a teensy weensy protein that would be wreaking havoc on the health of humans around the world. Yes...happier days indeed:
Today was a rather nice day! The wind was howling all day long, but after ZOOM church we braved the gales and met up with Kat and Val on their lovely, large, secluded porch. Kat had ordered a Chinese/Indian fusion lunch for us all from Go Grill, so we had a lovely time eating and visiting, laughing lots and celebrating Val's upcoming joint replacement surgery.
After a lovely afternoon and dinner of lunch leftovers, my husband scurried upstairs to his office to meet up with his parishioners for their weekly Zoom evening prayer meeting and chatting time.
While he was doing that I was on the phone with my cousin who just turned 80! She is the most lovely woman, down to earth, so friendly and family oriented and has always included me as if I was part of that family....which technically of course I am, but I am not connected to most of the rest of my cousins for a variety of reasons. It made for a nice evening for me.
I also spent a few minutes standing on the back deck after dinner, enjoying the fact that the wind finally died down. What a warm and pleasant evening it is out there.
Now it is time to join my husband for the latest recording of "Vera" on tv.
Today was a rather nice day! The wind was howling all day long, but after ZOOM church we braved the gales and met up with Kat and Val on their lovely, large, secluded porch. Kat had ordered a Chinese/Indian fusion lunch for us all from Go Grill, so we had a lovely time eating and visiting, laughing lots and celebrating Val's upcoming joint replacement surgery.
After a lovely afternoon and dinner of lunch leftovers, my husband scurried upstairs to his office to meet up with his parishioners for their weekly Zoom evening prayer meeting and chatting time.
While he was doing that I was on the phone with my cousin who just turned 80! She is the most lovely woman, down to earth, so friendly and family oriented and has always included me as if I was part of that family....which technically of course I am, but I am not connected to most of the rest of my cousins for a variety of reasons. It made for a nice evening for me.
I also spent a few minutes standing on the back deck after dinner, enjoying the fact that the wind finally died down. What a warm and pleasant evening it is out there.
Now it is time to join my husband for the latest recording of "Vera" on tv.
Saturday, May 16, 2020
Best Meme of the Day!
“Someone just used my driveway to turn around and now I am standing outside with two open beers and a lonely face.”
And so the self-imposed pandemic isolation continues.....
And so the self-imposed pandemic isolation continues.....
Friday, May 15, 2020
Face To Face Visit = G(ood) M(ental) H(ealth)
I am grateful to God and to good friends today for providing me with the mental health boost I have been needing for the past couple of weeks! SOOOOOOOO grateful....
As I was looking through some of these posts from the past few days I realized how negative some of them have seemed. Trying to express disappointment was coming across as anger, although that is not what I was conscious of feeling. The craving for a "return to some kind of former normalcy" was beginning to overwhelm me.
This afternoon though, I received a great deal of healing from loneliness and disconnection that even the best Zoom or SKYPE meeting has not been able to alleviate. We had a long face to face visit with some wonderful friends from my church who reached out to us. She and I bonded very quickly two years ago, almost as soon as we first met and our husbands have also carved out a deep friendship in an even shorter period of time. For these and all our friends I am profoundly grateful.
We sat on their broad back deck, just the right size to maintain appropriate social distancing. They have a large, beautiful, treed back yard that will soon be filled with blooming flowers and perennial ground covers. The lots in their neighbourhood would be considered double sized lots in the newer subdivisions here so even though the neighbours on both sides were out gardening and working on vehicles, there was plenty of privacy for conversation and the other noises didn't carry over to us very much.
Good friends, sitting outside in the early spring beauty, sunshine, no wind, good strong "Mennonite coffee", freshly baked blueberry scones, CONVERSATION that was NOT about the pandemic, all made for a perfect, peaceful yet exciting afternoon.
My husband feels newly inspired to finish tweaking his seminar notes and PowerPoint for presentation tomorrow afternoon, after such mental and spiritual refreshment.
This afternoon's visit will carry us for a long time to come. It was fun, there was much laughter, there was a conversation about practically any topic you can imagine, there was loving concern, there was recognition that God is still moving even in the present mess around the world....yes, just what the doctor ordered for us all.
Thank you Lord for this lovely, healing day! Amen!!
As I was looking through some of these posts from the past few days I realized how negative some of them have seemed. Trying to express disappointment was coming across as anger, although that is not what I was conscious of feeling. The craving for a "return to some kind of former normalcy" was beginning to overwhelm me.
This afternoon though, I received a great deal of healing from loneliness and disconnection that even the best Zoom or SKYPE meeting has not been able to alleviate. We had a long face to face visit with some wonderful friends from my church who reached out to us. She and I bonded very quickly two years ago, almost as soon as we first met and our husbands have also carved out a deep friendship in an even shorter period of time. For these and all our friends I am profoundly grateful.
We sat on their broad back deck, just the right size to maintain appropriate social distancing. They have a large, beautiful, treed back yard that will soon be filled with blooming flowers and perennial ground covers. The lots in their neighbourhood would be considered double sized lots in the newer subdivisions here so even though the neighbours on both sides were out gardening and working on vehicles, there was plenty of privacy for conversation and the other noises didn't carry over to us very much.
Good friends, sitting outside in the early spring beauty, sunshine, no wind, good strong "Mennonite coffee", freshly baked blueberry scones, CONVERSATION that was NOT about the pandemic, all made for a perfect, peaceful yet exciting afternoon.
My husband feels newly inspired to finish tweaking his seminar notes and PowerPoint for presentation tomorrow afternoon, after such mental and spiritual refreshment.
This afternoon's visit will carry us for a long time to come. It was fun, there was much laughter, there was a conversation about practically any topic you can imagine, there was loving concern, there was recognition that God is still moving even in the present mess around the world....yes, just what the doctor ordered for us all.
Thank you Lord for this lovely, healing day! Amen!!
Thursday, May 14, 2020
Nice Day With Highlights!
Highlights:
--today was warmer and sunnier than yesterday
--I had time to catch up on several veterinary tv shows
--had wonderful phone chats with both mom and dad
--had wonderful phone conversations with friends from Ontario, Alberta and Moose Jaw
--received some good news emails and photos from Kat and Val
--helped my husband by being his "congregation" while he recorded his weekly sermon
--basked in the glow of our son's assurances that his girlfriend enjoyed our first visit
--received/accepted an invitation to a distancing patio party tomorrow
--felt relieved that our prior "goose boot camp" exercises of the past two springs have taken hold and all 5 geese that returned to our lawns this year continue to cut a wide swath around our particular section of the back yard. In two weeks I have shoveled goose poo only three times. Until the rest of the geese return from the south in a couple of weeks, I can relax and enjoy watching our fivesome from the back deck as they scurry about avoiding our patch of grass.
--our new lease finally arrived in the mail today after a nearly 8 week wait and all is in order, everything that management agreed to and we accepted is there on the document
Today was a very happy day for both of us! YIPPEE!!
--today was warmer and sunnier than yesterday
--I had time to catch up on several veterinary tv shows
--had wonderful phone chats with both mom and dad
--had wonderful phone conversations with friends from Ontario, Alberta and Moose Jaw
--received some good news emails and photos from Kat and Val
--helped my husband by being his "congregation" while he recorded his weekly sermon
--basked in the glow of our son's assurances that his girlfriend enjoyed our first visit
--received/accepted an invitation to a distancing patio party tomorrow
--felt relieved that our prior "goose boot camp" exercises of the past two springs have taken hold and all 5 geese that returned to our lawns this year continue to cut a wide swath around our particular section of the back yard. In two weeks I have shoveled goose poo only three times. Until the rest of the geese return from the south in a couple of weeks, I can relax and enjoy watching our fivesome from the back deck as they scurry about avoiding our patch of grass.
--our new lease finally arrived in the mail today after a nearly 8 week wait and all is in order, everything that management agreed to and we accepted is there on the document
Today was a very happy day for both of us! YIPPEE!!
Craving cake!
I have type 2 diabetes, ergo, I cannot eat cake. Well, with careful planning I can occasionally have a two inch square piece of un-iced cake or a one inch square piece of iced cake. While that may not sound exciting or “enough”, there are tines when consuming that tiny piece of cake can be quite a dietary thrill!
It has been many many months since I last tried to eat a piece of cake: a grocery store bakery cake slathered in gooey thick icing....I remember taking one bite and feeling my teeth immediately grit from the extreme sweetness.. It was SO sweet I couldn’t even swallow the first bite. That was the last of my attempts at cake ingestion.
However, the past few days I have been strongly craving cake....not the sweetness, but the texture. There is something very satisfying about a mouth full of that solid, yet somewhat airy dessert that I have loved all my life. So, yesterday afternoon I found a recipe for an apple cake I thought I could modify to suit me. My husband also prefers non-sweet desserts, so I thought he too might enjoy the modifications.
So, instead of beating 1 2/3 cups of sugar into the eggs, I beat 1/4 cup of sugar into the eggs. Instead of adding 5tbsps of sugar to the 5 diced apples I added only two and twice as much cinnamon as the recipe called for.
I just finished mixing the batter when I realized what I was making was actually a bundt cake and it has been over twenty years since I owned a bundt pan! Duh..... So I buttered my 9x13 glass cake pan and smeared the batter over the bottom of it. Then I put all the diced apples over the top, put it into the hot oven and hoped for the best.
Wow, it turned out surprisingly well! Of course the cake itself has very little flavour and I think I would rectify that next time with the addition of vanilla or lemon flavouring, but the important thing for me is that I could eat a larger than usual piece of it. So I did. In fact it WAS my dinner! Lots of carb content from the flour, but it was a larger than usual piece, not a gigantic piece. My husband loves the cake! He poured a tiny amount of maple syrup onto his second piece, then a ladeled a couple of tablespoons of apple sauce onto his third.
As for me, ( three hours later I made a tuna salad for my evening snack...no bread and lavender vinegar instead of mayonnaise, just so you health police know), my craving for cake has been completely satisfied. I want no more of it. Unfortunately it is a huge cake! haha I know my husband will eat another large serving today, then he will not want any more for awhile. Hopefully I have enough room left in the tiny refrigerator freezer compartment to freeze the rest of it!
I slept very well again last night. No cake cravings awakening me at 5am, plus I feel wonderful this morning, despite all the white flour carbs I ate at dinner.
Now I just have to clear a space in the freezer for the rest of that humongous cake that rose 5cm above the depth of my deep dish pan!
It has been many many months since I last tried to eat a piece of cake: a grocery store bakery cake slathered in gooey thick icing....I remember taking one bite and feeling my teeth immediately grit from the extreme sweetness.. It was SO sweet I couldn’t even swallow the first bite. That was the last of my attempts at cake ingestion.
However, the past few days I have been strongly craving cake....not the sweetness, but the texture. There is something very satisfying about a mouth full of that solid, yet somewhat airy dessert that I have loved all my life. So, yesterday afternoon I found a recipe for an apple cake I thought I could modify to suit me. My husband also prefers non-sweet desserts, so I thought he too might enjoy the modifications.
So, instead of beating 1 2/3 cups of sugar into the eggs, I beat 1/4 cup of sugar into the eggs. Instead of adding 5tbsps of sugar to the 5 diced apples I added only two and twice as much cinnamon as the recipe called for.
I just finished mixing the batter when I realized what I was making was actually a bundt cake and it has been over twenty years since I owned a bundt pan! Duh..... So I buttered my 9x13 glass cake pan and smeared the batter over the bottom of it. Then I put all the diced apples over the top, put it into the hot oven and hoped for the best.
Wow, it turned out surprisingly well! Of course the cake itself has very little flavour and I think I would rectify that next time with the addition of vanilla or lemon flavouring, but the important thing for me is that I could eat a larger than usual piece of it. So I did. In fact it WAS my dinner! Lots of carb content from the flour, but it was a larger than usual piece, not a gigantic piece. My husband loves the cake! He poured a tiny amount of maple syrup onto his second piece, then a ladeled a couple of tablespoons of apple sauce onto his third.
As for me, ( three hours later I made a tuna salad for my evening snack...no bread and lavender vinegar instead of mayonnaise, just so you health police know), my craving for cake has been completely satisfied. I want no more of it. Unfortunately it is a huge cake! haha I know my husband will eat another large serving today, then he will not want any more for awhile. Hopefully I have enough room left in the tiny refrigerator freezer compartment to freeze the rest of it!
I slept very well again last night. No cake cravings awakening me at 5am, plus I feel wonderful this morning, despite all the white flour carbs I ate at dinner.
Now I just have to clear a space in the freezer for the rest of that humongous cake that rose 5cm above the depth of my deep dish pan!
A Good Group
We tried out a new house group tonight, associated with my church. There were about fifteen of us. Considering it was done via Zoom, it went okay, but having a home group on Zoom is like having Eucharist via a Zoom church service.....it completely misses the point of the exercise. In both cases the point is showing the Body of Christ as one body unified, serving and receiving together as one, drawing strength from each other’s physical presence. That is just not possible online. Breaking down walls with new people over the Internet is not possible the same way it is when meeting face to face in someone’s living room. The intimacy that grows so quickly in person is going to take a very long time on Zoom. If you have ever been part of a home group you will understand what I mean. There were certainly no barriers coming down tonight in this group of people who don’t know each other very well. Understandably!
I tried taking Communion at home during the last Communion Sunday celebration with my own unconsecrated juice and a cracker. Blah....and to add insult to injury, since 3/4 of my fellow Zoomers chose to leave their videos off, I wasn’t even partaking of the elements in the visible presence of my fellow congregants! While I choked down a dry cracker and ghastly sweet fruit juice, I found myself staring at dozens of tiny black squares with names printed across them instead of live videos of the rest of the Body. I don’t know what to call the experience but I cannot call it Eucharist or Communion because it wasn’t! Talk about everyone “doing what was right in their own eyes.” Never again!
Yesterday was a very good day! I got most of the suite thoroughly cleaned. I spent hours and hours on it and enjoyed myself! This morning I completed the last of it and this afternoon my husband and I took a lovely walk down a long, curved alleyway next to a huge greenbelt filled with pine, spruce, fir and tiny Japanese maple trees with tiny, new, bright green baby leaves. Gorgeous! A curious squirrel followed us for most of the walk, jumping from tree branch to tree branch way over our heads. A huge robin sang his little lungs out. It was such fun! People outside gardening in their back yards waved and greeted us. Such a nice afternoon to walk...a bit chilly but with absolutely no wind!
Who knows what happy experiences will come along tomorrow!??!?
I tried taking Communion at home during the last Communion Sunday celebration with my own unconsecrated juice and a cracker. Blah....and to add insult to injury, since 3/4 of my fellow Zoomers chose to leave their videos off, I wasn’t even partaking of the elements in the visible presence of my fellow congregants! While I choked down a dry cracker and ghastly sweet fruit juice, I found myself staring at dozens of tiny black squares with names printed across them instead of live videos of the rest of the Body. I don’t know what to call the experience but I cannot call it Eucharist or Communion because it wasn’t! Talk about everyone “doing what was right in their own eyes.” Never again!
Yesterday was a very good day! I got most of the suite thoroughly cleaned. I spent hours and hours on it and enjoyed myself! This morning I completed the last of it and this afternoon my husband and I took a lovely walk down a long, curved alleyway next to a huge greenbelt filled with pine, spruce, fir and tiny Japanese maple trees with tiny, new, bright green baby leaves. Gorgeous! A curious squirrel followed us for most of the walk, jumping from tree branch to tree branch way over our heads. A huge robin sang his little lungs out. It was such fun! People outside gardening in their back yards waved and greeted us. Such a nice afternoon to walk...a bit chilly but with absolutely no wind!
Who knows what happy experiences will come along tomorrow!??!?
Tuesday, May 12, 2020
The Miracle We’ve Been Praying For?
Apparently, after a two year wait spent in daily agonizing pain, Val suddenly and very unexpectedly received a surgery date for her joint replacement....an elective surgery during a pandemic when 60% of our OR’s are closed. The surgery should take place in two weeks....please God, let it be! Thank you prayer warriors for your concerned prayers for her over the last few months. Hallelujah! Pray that nothing will happen to cause another delay as I don’t know how much longer she can go on with these pain levels. Amen!
The Formal Introduction!
Our son has had a fabulous lady in his life for the past year. Tonight we were introduced via Zoom. Zoom IS good for something, haha. It was a delightful visit. Seeing our son so at peace after many years of emotional turmoil was pretty fantastic. The girlfriend is a lovely woman inside and out and we are ever so grateful for her presence in our son’s life. Thank you God.
What Are You Most Looking Forward To Post Pandemic?
As I have been cleaning house today and trying to behave as if everything is "normal" again, I have been pondering what it is I am most looking forward to once the pandemic is truly over. I have discovered exactly what that is!
I am NOT first and FOREMOST looking forward to (and I AM looking forward to all these things):
1. that first haircut and styling session with the hair dresser
2. being able to go grocery shopping sans mask and gloves
3. retailing it whenever and wherever I darned well feel like it
4. eating in restaurant dining rooms
5. visiting with friends in person
6. attending church and community group meetings NOT online
7. getting back to Alberta to help my parents and see how they are doing
8. finding a way to go and visit my son in NYC
9. having my annual dental check up rescheduled
10. walking around the lake without having to flee from non-distancers
No, as wonderful as all those things are going to be when they can happen again sometime in the future, they are not The Thing I am most looking forward to.
What I am REALLY looking forward to is being able to disengage, wrap up, store and otherwise eliminate all the cords and cables and connection boxes strung across the floors of most of the upstairs of our suite in order to properly utilize the combination of 4 PC's, 3 lap tops and 1 iPad during this time of isolation. Sigh....
Oh, this machine is the most portable and this one is easier to shoot YouTube videos on and this one has the best microphone and this one has the clearest video and this one handles Zoom the most easily and this one has all the theological notes and files and this one has the PowerPoints and this one has the Photo Folders and this one has the easiest arrangement for screen sharing and this one and this one and this one and this one and this one and this one and this one ad nauseum!
Vaccuming this morning was an absolute nightmare of cord and cable and connection box lifting and dusting and being ever so careful not to get sucked into the bottom of the vaccum. The happiest day of my life to date will be the day that we can disconnect all the cords and cables for at least 5 or 6 of these machines and NEVER EVER have to ZOOM ever again as long as we live!!
Oh...and did I mention the other cords and cables and floor/shelf spaces needed for the 3 separate stereo systems we also need to have hooked up in order to accomplish all that is needed to make the YouTube videos, participate in the Zoom services and meetings properly, play the pre-recorded sound tracks for some of my husband's services, play our nightly white noise loudly enough that it is actually useful for getting some sleep and and and and and and and and and and and and and and and and....? Did I?
I will not miss having to walk around slowly on tiptoe throughout the upstairs rooms in order not to catch my foot in one of the aforementioned cords or cables and rip half the system apart, nor to cause myself to lose my balance and take a tumble.
I am grateful we have all the technology SOMEWHERE in this suite to make everything that needs to happen during the pandemic to maintain ministry and social connectiona, but I have a new affinity with the old cartoon character Charlie Brown as he cries out so often: "I CAAAAAAAAAN'T STAND IT!!"
Me either buddy, me either......
I am NOT first and FOREMOST looking forward to (and I AM looking forward to all these things):
1. that first haircut and styling session with the hair dresser
2. being able to go grocery shopping sans mask and gloves
3. retailing it whenever and wherever I darned well feel like it
4. eating in restaurant dining rooms
5. visiting with friends in person
6. attending church and community group meetings NOT online
7. getting back to Alberta to help my parents and see how they are doing
8. finding a way to go and visit my son in NYC
9. having my annual dental check up rescheduled
10. walking around the lake without having to flee from non-distancers
No, as wonderful as all those things are going to be when they can happen again sometime in the future, they are not The Thing I am most looking forward to.
What I am REALLY looking forward to is being able to disengage, wrap up, store and otherwise eliminate all the cords and cables and connection boxes strung across the floors of most of the upstairs of our suite in order to properly utilize the combination of 4 PC's, 3 lap tops and 1 iPad during this time of isolation. Sigh....
Oh, this machine is the most portable and this one is easier to shoot YouTube videos on and this one has the best microphone and this one has the clearest video and this one handles Zoom the most easily and this one has all the theological notes and files and this one has the PowerPoints and this one has the Photo Folders and this one has the easiest arrangement for screen sharing and this one and this one and this one and this one and this one and this one and this one ad nauseum!
Vaccuming this morning was an absolute nightmare of cord and cable and connection box lifting and dusting and being ever so careful not to get sucked into the bottom of the vaccum. The happiest day of my life to date will be the day that we can disconnect all the cords and cables for at least 5 or 6 of these machines and NEVER EVER have to ZOOM ever again as long as we live!!
Oh...and did I mention the other cords and cables and floor/shelf spaces needed for the 3 separate stereo systems we also need to have hooked up in order to accomplish all that is needed to make the YouTube videos, participate in the Zoom services and meetings properly, play the pre-recorded sound tracks for some of my husband's services, play our nightly white noise loudly enough that it is actually useful for getting some sleep and and and and and and and and and and and and and and and and....? Did I?
I will not miss having to walk around slowly on tiptoe throughout the upstairs rooms in order not to catch my foot in one of the aforementioned cords or cables and rip half the system apart, nor to cause myself to lose my balance and take a tumble.
I am grateful we have all the technology SOMEWHERE in this suite to make everything that needs to happen during the pandemic to maintain ministry and social connectiona, but I have a new affinity with the old cartoon character Charlie Brown as he cries out so often: "I CAAAAAAAAAN'T STAND IT!!"
Me either buddy, me either......
True, So True!
I came across a new online group last night that call themselves The Depression Project. One of their pages I found to be so very true.
Here are some of the steps they list to help identify emotional abuse in a persons' life:
Someone Who's Been Mentally Abused Will:
1. Constantly apologize
2. Breakdown during small disagreements
3.Feel like they're "not enough"
4. Need a lot of reassurance
5. Hide their feelings
6. Struggle to put their guard down
7. Be hypersensitive to criticism
Check out the Depression Project on FaceBook.
Here are some of the steps they list to help identify emotional abuse in a persons' life:
Someone Who's Been Mentally Abused Will:
1. Constantly apologize
2. Breakdown during small disagreements
3.Feel like they're "not enough"
4. Need a lot of reassurance
5. Hide their feelings
6. Struggle to put their guard down
7. Be hypersensitive to criticism
Check out the Depression Project on FaceBook.
Don't Bother, OK?
Rider: I DO know I am too sensitive about this issue.
However: As much as I understand church and other leaders wanting to care for their congregations and community group members by ensuring everyone has a chance to stay connected during this time of isolation, I am always bitterly disappointed when I discover, after a lovely chat with someone from my church or other community group, the person on the other end of the phone line has called me BECAUSE my name has been assigned to them by someone else as a "obligatory check in", for lack of a better way to phrase it. When that happens, no matter how lovely the conversation, I feel conned. Sorry, I know that is overstating it and that it is not the most gracious reaction, but I do.
Explanation: I was in a pseudo Christian cult group long ago and spent my fair share of time having people "assigned" to me by the leaders of the group. My job (called a ministry, unfortunately) was to ensure the people on my list were made to feel cared about, were made to feel safe enough to open up and allow themselves to be drawn into the clutches of the group. People became nothing more than projects and when the project was eventually completed...ie the person became a member of the group....that specific "project" was over and I was assigned someone else to fraudulently befriend. Some cults called that kind of activity "fishing". Mine didn't use such blatant terminology, but the actions and outcomes were similar.
So: when I get a call from someone to who I have been assigned for contact, I feel terrible. Although the person calling me now is not trying to rope me into anything because I am all ready a part of the church or community group she or he represents, it is upsetting to me that I have been led to believe this person, often someone who I don't really know all that well, actually thought about me unprompted and cared enough about my welfare to enquire after it. To be frank, it hurts my feelings. I have been fortunate in that the last 2 assigned callers told me somewhere between the middle and end of the conversation that my name had been assigned to them, so it wasn't a shock later on, but it still hurt to some degree knowing that if there was no isolation happening and no assigned phone list, they would not feel enough interest to be in touch with me.
Too sensitive? Too ungrateful? Yes, likely.
However, perhaps if you are a person who is busy with an assigned list of contacts through this time of pandemic, you should search your own heart before calling each person and ask yourself if you would really have any interest in that person apart from participating in an assigned calling list. If the answer is "no", don't bother picking up that phone, okay? Creating an interest in what is actually a false attempt at friendship is not going to help anyone. Sometimes it can create more hurt than intended.
Do you have an assigned phone list or are you a person responsible for creating them?
Just think about it before you act, okay?
However: As much as I understand church and other leaders wanting to care for their congregations and community group members by ensuring everyone has a chance to stay connected during this time of isolation, I am always bitterly disappointed when I discover, after a lovely chat with someone from my church or other community group, the person on the other end of the phone line has called me BECAUSE my name has been assigned to them by someone else as a "obligatory check in", for lack of a better way to phrase it. When that happens, no matter how lovely the conversation, I feel conned. Sorry, I know that is overstating it and that it is not the most gracious reaction, but I do.
Explanation: I was in a pseudo Christian cult group long ago and spent my fair share of time having people "assigned" to me by the leaders of the group. My job (called a ministry, unfortunately) was to ensure the people on my list were made to feel cared about, were made to feel safe enough to open up and allow themselves to be drawn into the clutches of the group. People became nothing more than projects and when the project was eventually completed...ie the person became a member of the group....that specific "project" was over and I was assigned someone else to fraudulently befriend. Some cults called that kind of activity "fishing". Mine didn't use such blatant terminology, but the actions and outcomes were similar.
So: when I get a call from someone to who I have been assigned for contact, I feel terrible. Although the person calling me now is not trying to rope me into anything because I am all ready a part of the church or community group she or he represents, it is upsetting to me that I have been led to believe this person, often someone who I don't really know all that well, actually thought about me unprompted and cared enough about my welfare to enquire after it. To be frank, it hurts my feelings. I have been fortunate in that the last 2 assigned callers told me somewhere between the middle and end of the conversation that my name had been assigned to them, so it wasn't a shock later on, but it still hurt to some degree knowing that if there was no isolation happening and no assigned phone list, they would not feel enough interest to be in touch with me.
Too sensitive? Too ungrateful? Yes, likely.
However, perhaps if you are a person who is busy with an assigned list of contacts through this time of pandemic, you should search your own heart before calling each person and ask yourself if you would really have any interest in that person apart from participating in an assigned calling list. If the answer is "no", don't bother picking up that phone, okay? Creating an interest in what is actually a false attempt at friendship is not going to help anyone. Sometimes it can create more hurt than intended.
Do you have an assigned phone list or are you a person responsible for creating them?
Just think about it before you act, okay?
Sunday, May 10, 2020
Thank you.....
.....to my husband for the amazing breakfast, to my son for the laid back phone call and the plans you made for us to formally meet the lady in your life later this week, to my Mom for your cheery attitude today during this difficult time, to Olds Baptist Church for your livestream service that I found so enjoyable compared to the glitchy Zoom services I am used to being part of...being able to sing along with your worship team was a special treat...to Karen, Val, Kat and Penny for the ecards and the chatty, fun phone calls, to Pat who wants to reconnect after 20 years....an otherwise difficult day was salvaged and made special.
Today, for some reason, I was allowed to be especially blessed. I love you all!
Today, for some reason, I was allowed to be especially blessed. I love you all!
Saturday, May 9, 2020
Puleeeeze Dearie, That Tube Is NOT Empty!!
I am chuckling tonight at a friend who was bemoaning using the last of her reinforced aluminum tube of cortisone cream for a skin contact allergy. She was most upset because she only needs to use the cream for a few more days, but it is "empty" as far as she can tell. She has pinched and squeezed and rolled it up from the bottom to get as much cream out as possible, but no more is coming out the top opening despite her best efforts.
For once, I don't need my husband to run to the rescue with some wild but workable idea to "squeeze blood out of a stone", or in this case, more cream from a depleted tube. No worries! I've Got This!!
My friend has not experienced poverty at any point in her life, so doesn't really know a lot about getting the most out of every single thing. The concept of "eking out" is new to her. I am grateful for my own experiences that are helping her out right now! YAY!
I told her to unroll the tube take a large pair of sharp scissors and slice off the very bottom of the tube, where the tube rolls up and is sealed. Then I had her cut a quarter inch wide strip off the bottom of the tube, cut it in half the short way and peel open both sides. As I suspected, stuck inside the various wrinkles in the mangled tube there was enough cream left to smear the equivalent of one dose over the effected skin.
She measured the tube and figures she can get about another 6 quarter inch strips off the tube before she gets too close to the top of the tube. She realized there is probably a bit more cream stuck in the top part of the tube that she has jammed up just below the cap. However, she has pinched that so tight and it is such a narrow strip, she won't be able to open it up without cutting herself.
I told her when she gets to the point where she can't cut any more strips, to get a pair of pliers, remove the cap from the tube, apply the pliers to a spot around the rim of aluminum at the bottom of the cap opening and squeeze some more cream out of the top. By squeezing around the bottom of the cap opening from three or four locations, I am guessing she can manage to get another 4 treatments out of it before the remainder of the top of the tube has to be thrown away. By then she will have completed the number of consecutive days it is safe to treat her skin with a cortisone cream before it is time to take a break and spend a couple of weeks assessing whether or not the cream has been effective. By then it may be safe to return to her doctor's clinic if she thinks she needs another round of treatment prescribed.
If I have learned nothing else in my life, I have learned how to "eke"!
For once, I don't need my husband to run to the rescue with some wild but workable idea to "squeeze blood out of a stone", or in this case, more cream from a depleted tube. No worries! I've Got This!!
My friend has not experienced poverty at any point in her life, so doesn't really know a lot about getting the most out of every single thing. The concept of "eking out" is new to her. I am grateful for my own experiences that are helping her out right now! YAY!
I told her to unroll the tube take a large pair of sharp scissors and slice off the very bottom of the tube, where the tube rolls up and is sealed. Then I had her cut a quarter inch wide strip off the bottom of the tube, cut it in half the short way and peel open both sides. As I suspected, stuck inside the various wrinkles in the mangled tube there was enough cream left to smear the equivalent of one dose over the effected skin.
She measured the tube and figures she can get about another 6 quarter inch strips off the tube before she gets too close to the top of the tube. She realized there is probably a bit more cream stuck in the top part of the tube that she has jammed up just below the cap. However, she has pinched that so tight and it is such a narrow strip, she won't be able to open it up without cutting herself.
I told her when she gets to the point where she can't cut any more strips, to get a pair of pliers, remove the cap from the tube, apply the pliers to a spot around the rim of aluminum at the bottom of the cap opening and squeeze some more cream out of the top. By squeezing around the bottom of the cap opening from three or four locations, I am guessing she can manage to get another 4 treatments out of it before the remainder of the top of the tube has to be thrown away. By then she will have completed the number of consecutive days it is safe to treat her skin with a cortisone cream before it is time to take a break and spend a couple of weeks assessing whether or not the cream has been effective. By then it may be safe to return to her doctor's clinic if she thinks she needs another round of treatment prescribed.
If I have learned nothing else in my life, I have learned how to "eke"!
Nary A Snowflake! Grrrrrr.....
I sat up until midnight waiting for the predicted storm. Nothing!
I woke up at 1:45am due to the fierce winds outside rattling the metal siding on our building. No snow. I grabbed my iPad and checked the Provincial Road Conditions map to see if I could figure out what direction the supposed snow storm was coming from. There was a small section of highway to the northeast of us showing a warning of “wet, subject to freezing”, which means there had been some rain or snow showers that left the road open to a thin layer of ice formation if the overnight temperature dropped below zero. The rest of the province was as dry as it still was here. When I woke up a few minutes ago it was to chirping sparrows, honking geese, cawing ravens and sunshine peeking through a somewhat cloudy sky. Nary a drop of snow or rain has put in a lasting appearance overnight. Sigh....
I was so looking forward to enjoying watching a spring snowstorm and WE NEED THE MOISTURE!
I am concerned about the dryness and the upcoming forest fire season. The smoke swirling down here from up north during extreme fires gives me asthma and forces me to remain indoors with all the windows closed on the hottest days of the summer. The fires displace hundreds and occasionally thousands of people living in the far north. Many of them come to stay with relatives and friends in our city.
This summer there is an additional threat. There is a horrible outbreak of Coronavirus in the far northern regions of our province. It seems to be raging out of control up there right now. If the forest fires begin before that outbreak is under control, the second wave of the pandemic here and in other places located in the central and southern regions will be as bad or worse than the first one. Our fragile medical system has all ready been overwhelmed despite our city having had a comparatively low number of cases. That is frightening!
We all really do need rain, for crops, for forest and grassfire control and now for pandemic control as well.
Difficult times for all.
I woke up at 1:45am due to the fierce winds outside rattling the metal siding on our building. No snow. I grabbed my iPad and checked the Provincial Road Conditions map to see if I could figure out what direction the supposed snow storm was coming from. There was a small section of highway to the northeast of us showing a warning of “wet, subject to freezing”, which means there had been some rain or snow showers that left the road open to a thin layer of ice formation if the overnight temperature dropped below zero. The rest of the province was as dry as it still was here. When I woke up a few minutes ago it was to chirping sparrows, honking geese, cawing ravens and sunshine peeking through a somewhat cloudy sky. Nary a drop of snow or rain has put in a lasting appearance overnight. Sigh....
I was so looking forward to enjoying watching a spring snowstorm and WE NEED THE MOISTURE!
I am concerned about the dryness and the upcoming forest fire season. The smoke swirling down here from up north during extreme fires gives me asthma and forces me to remain indoors with all the windows closed on the hottest days of the summer. The fires displace hundreds and occasionally thousands of people living in the far north. Many of them come to stay with relatives and friends in our city.
This summer there is an additional threat. There is a horrible outbreak of Coronavirus in the far northern regions of our province. It seems to be raging out of control up there right now. If the forest fires begin before that outbreak is under control, the second wave of the pandemic here and in other places located in the central and southern regions will be as bad or worse than the first one. Our fragile medical system has all ready been overwhelmed despite our city having had a comparatively low number of cases. That is frightening!
We all really do need rain, for crops, for forest and grassfire control and now for pandemic control as well.
Difficult times for all.
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