Happy Winter everyone!
Love the frost, but don't like the fog that it is the result of. One of our ministers who lives out of town was unable to make it into the city today as he ran into such intense fog on the highway this morning. He made it about half way before having to turn back with less than 20 feet visibility in front of his vehicle! The brilliant sunshine has likely driven away the fog now...at least I hope so for the sake of those who must be traveling today.
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WHITE COLUMNS ONLINE ‘The Void’ curated by Daisy Sanchez |
Abby Lloyd, Untitled, 2019 Courtesy of the artist.
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...As the pandemic drags on and we realize we may be experiencing this for another year or longer, we have been daydreaming about possible post pandemic plans.
I am going to start planning a detailed road trip across Canada and the northern USA, ending up in NYC for an extensive visit with our son, assuming he is still living there. MOMA, the Met, Staten Island, NYC burgers, Broadway, Central Park, the Bronx Zoo......aaaaah, something for everyone. We will go in the early spring before the summer heat hits New York.
I already have a two week itinerary for a Vancouver trip set up, based from our favourite Sunset Inn and Suites. I am dreaming of the greenery of the ferns and trees, the brightly coloured flowers, the ocean, the art galleries....it will be fabulous! We will go in early April when the cherry trees are blossoming.
Another aspect of our daydreaming is deciding where we will live. This daydream is being inspired by the present reality that our local airport is in trouble. Yesterday’s announced cancelation by the federal government of all travel to southern sunny locales, enforced periods of quarantining when entering the country, the cancellation of all international flights from our local airport, followed by major layoffs there of air traffic controllers and worries about bankruptcy for our airport, has us rethinking our location once freedom of movement is allowed once again. Ever since we moved here and have enjoyed living so close to what has been a “major” airport, we agreed we will never again live in a smaller centre where the airport is more than a half hour drive away. Right now if our son was forced to return to Canada, the closest he could land to us would be in Calgary, an eight hour drive from here. Once the pandemic ends, if we lose our airport we would be driving two and a half hours to Saskatoon to access the nearest airport. We have spent too much of our lives driving that far to airports, often in winter storms and we are simply too old to do it now.
So, lots of fun making plans for and daydreaming about possibilities for an uncertain, unknown future, but daydream plans are a lot of fun to make and pass the isolation time in a fun way!
My favourite comedy song of all time. Some of you will be familiar with it already. ENJOY!!!
Lately, watching tv here, particularly when only one of us is watching and the other is performing a household chore or talking on the phone, has become an exercise in frustration. My husband needs the volume up a bit more than I do, but some of the soundtracks on his weekly series programmes are so uneven that it is difficult to keep adjusting the volume so that there are not noisy sound peaks that interfere with what I am doing or that could be bothering the neighbours next door. When I am in the kitchen doing dishes there is no way he can listen to his programmes with me banging pots around and running water in the sink. When I am watching tv alone and he is on the phone with work related calls or talking to his friends I have to keep cranking up the tv volume to hear my programme because he is usually upstairs pacing over the incredibly squeaky old floor boards above my head.
Today we decided it is time to stop these difficulties and purchase a couple of new cables so when we are not watching tv at the same time, the person who is watching can use headphones. Why we haven't done this before now is beyond us both to figure out, but it is past time. Slowly we are getting our act together around here, but as we look back on the past year we are realizing how adversely the pandemic inspired changes in personal lifestyle and socialization, along with many, many extended family stresses, have effected us both. Isn't hindsight a wonderful thing!?!
March 16, 2021 will mark one year since we began following isolation and public hygiene protocols for COVID19....wow...that is only 6 1/2 weeks from now....in 6 1/2 weeks we will be starting year two for us of this craziness! How many more years, I wonder.......
We already have more news about my husband’s sister and it is even worse than we could imagine. The cancer is also in her lungs. Tonight and tomorrow there will be meetings with the doctors and her husband to make necessary decisions.
The good news is that brother in law has received a special hospital pass that permits him to visit the hospital whenever he wants to so they can spend time together and make the decisions together. This is a huge answer to prayer. Since he also has lung cancer he is taking his own informed risks by going into the hospital environment during the pandemic. Bless him. He is an experienced and excellent caregiver.
She is ambulatory now, so with him there to watch over her she can take a shower. She is trying hard to overcome the confusion and telephones him to ask for things she needs him to bring to the hospital.
Day by day....that is their life right now, but we see glimpses of God’s love and comfort being extended to both of them.
My husband has discovered a box of old family photos of MINE down in the basement, photos I thought had been thrown out years ago. So, just for fun I will post a few of them here for some giggles and historical interest! hahaha Enjoy!
My father with his parents in 1931. He was 4 years old.
My parents on their honeymoon in 1953. 
Me at one month of age with my maternal grandmother. 
Me at one year of age
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| Me, nearly two years old |
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| Me at age 4 in Mom's crinoline playing dressup princess |
Yup, I actually was young many years ago. Lots of fun memories here. When my husband gets a few more "interesting" old photos into a computer file I will show you a few more. What a hoot!
Thanks to all of you who have already responded to my post of last night and to those of you who have already said a prayer for Ruth and Ray. They and we appreciate the care and concern.
At some point today Ruth will have an MRI to determine how deeply into the brain the tumor has grown, whether or not it is cancer, whether or not it may be operable and what the risks are if it is, what the time line may be if it isn't and what quality of life she may have in either scenario. Sigh.... Ray is asking for prayer that he can jump through all the hoops necessary to visit her, however briefly, to confirm some end of life issues and legalities and Ruth's own wishes, while she is having a few lucid moments to talk to him. She has sent him some texts, kind of garbled, but she is trying to communicate and the nurses say her speech is better than it was yesterday.
It may be a few days before we hear anything else as there are so many tests and results to wait for, so many decisions to be made and we have relieved Raymond of the stress of having to call every day with updates about every small detail.
My husband is getting his mind wrapped around what is happening and eventually had a few hours of deep sleep last night. I am so grateful for that. We are both praying that whatever the outcome of this situation is, Ruth will feel the presence of Jesus very near to her.
I am sorry to have another family health crisis to ask for prayer for, but I am so glad for all of you who are praying. My husband is also very glad for the support.
I have had a busier morning than I was planning on, out at 10am to get Mom some new winter boots. The ones she has are too fitted around the zippered ankle for her to do up properly with the thick compression stockings she has to wear now. I think the ones I found for her will be ideal....now I just have to hope that she thinks so too! hahaha These have a broad velcro strap and a flared opening just at the ankle so she can adujst the size of the opening to suit whatever state her ankles are in each time she needs to wear them. They are lined with warm fleece. If she ever has to stand outside to wait for a taxi she should have nice toasty feet. I am so grateful for Iannone's footwear here in the city. I have never had a poor quality shoe or a poor fit. They are specialists who take their clients' needs seriously and my family has certainly benefited from their care over the past few years.
My husband has certainly not had much time off work in this past 2 weeks of not having to do church services. Poor guy....there have been and continue to be extra diocesan meetings and preparation is underway for the several AGM's he has to participate in for the three churches/congregations under his care. I am glad he enjoys his job as much as he does. He is very excited about teaching his seminar on the Wisdom Literature in February. I may go online and listen as well as I so enjoy his teaching. I am relieved he is handling the news about his sister today with a bit less stress.
Wow, it is noon already....the day is flying past and I have not yet had time to sort out my own work for the day. The month end banking is done, the rent for next month has been paid....so I guess I have accomplished a couple of small home tasks. My thoughts are still fragmented after yesterday's news, but I will come up with a good plan of action for this afternoon. It has been hovering around -23C for outside temperature today, so I think I will plan some indoor work now. I had enough racing about to shoe stores and the post office!
”In beer there is freedom. In wine there is wisdom. In water there is.....bacteria!”
Hear, hear! Hahahahaha!!
😃 That is what both my husband and I have after our dental cleanings this morning! YAY! 😄 I promised my poor worried husband that this cleaning would not be nearly as painful and disorienting as the one he had in the summer after so many years of not having any dental work done at all. Fortunately I was right about that. He was in the chair less than an hour and came out feeling quite good about everything. I was in the chair for less than a half hour as I do keep up with my own dental work, having the most rotten teeth of the two of us and came away equally pain free and happy.
We headed off to the grocery store closest to the denal clinic and picked up a half a dozen things to keep me from having to go out tomorrow morning for the 7am Seniors shop to top up on the items I forgot to get the last time I went grocery shopping. With the outside temperatures being in the mid -20C's at that time of the morning right now, well, I prefer not to have to do that much car warming and windshield scraping in the pitch black of the early morning. Blecch! A quick trip to a bank completed our chores for the day. Now we can kick back for a couple of days and go nowhere and do nothing we don't want to do. There are some things about these pandemic restrictions I could get used to on a full time basis!
One of the things I purchased at the grocery store was another new shower curtain. I deliberately picked it because it not only has the colours to support my lime green bathmat, but it is manufactured by the same company that manufactured the other recent disaster of a curtain. Before I paid for it I checked to make sure it was in good condition, no deterioration of the plastic causing the folds in the panel to stick to each other and tear the curtain apart upon opening. My bathroom now looks like the wilds of a jungle, crazy fun in that small space. hahaha
After lunch I made potato salad to eat with our dinner tonight. My husband has been craving potato salad and purchased a bunch of radishes today in hopes that I would make him one. He also purchased some great northern white beans for his next batch of baked beans. They are so much tastier and easier to work with than navy beans. He found a tiny cut of ham with minimal nitrates so has enough for the baked beans and a slice for breakfast for himself for a couple of breakfasts. He had ham and eggs for lunch today too. My tuna salad sandwich didn't have the same appeal after I saw his plate loaded with ham and eggs, but I can't eat much ham for the sake of my kidney function and I don't like the taste of eggs nearly as much as I like the sight of their bright yellow yolks sizzling in the cast iron frying pan.
The sun is shining and there is hardly so much as a slight breeze, so despite the very cold temperature, it is quite a pleasant winter day.
Going to the dentist together ("Date Day....hahahahahahaha!" chuckled my hygienist), then grocery shopping and banking together was a very normalizing experience. We enjoyed enormously the doing of those simple tasks together. We watched a couple of favourite fluff tv shows while we ate our lunch and have set up our evening Sumo tournament viewing for the dinner hour. We have only the final 3 days of the tournament left to watch. I have managed to maintain sufficient discipline to prevent myself from going online to see who the winner is! YAY ME! hahaha
This morning I got fed up with having to run through the house collecting things from the bathroom to use them and then returning them to the various rooms we have had them stored in awaiting the return of the plumbers. My husband was equally fed up, so he took it upon himself this afternoon to take the plumbing pipes apart under the sink, clean the plumbing joint under the sink himself and snake out the system farther down the stack. In about ten minutes he had the water draining free and clear from the sink, no clogs, all well once again for the first time in several frustrating months. It is the usual thing: if you want something done properly and quickly, just ruddy well do it yourself! I am glad my husband has a fair amount of plumbing experience from his days in the trades. As soon as he is done cleaning up in the bathroom, the shelving unit is going back in and everything we removed is being put back in place. YAY!!!! Good news on a dreary, grey, miserably cold Sunday afternoon!!
Where did this week disappear to?? The time seemed to fly by....from nearly spring-like weather conditions to today's -26C. Wow....
This morning I chose to stay in bed and read for a couple of hours after I woke up. My meal times are so off kilter as a result that I will not be able to eat dinner until at least 7:30pm! I did try to eat lunch before 2pm but got myself wrapped up with phone calls and had one heck of a time getting myself free of them. It was great talking to my friends, but I should have insisted on hanging up sooner....I am so not good at extricating myself from phone calls, but I am so very grateful to have friends to talk to that it isn't easy to say it is time to hang up. I love hearing about their lives and getting their help with mine.
This morning my husband and I decided he has been at home, sitting at the computer, far too much over the past couple of weeks. His exercise regime has gone by the boards and he has been feeling and acting morose all week. So, after lunch he waxed up his cross country skis, got himself dressed for the bitter cold winter weather and headed out for nearly an hour. He had such a good time and came home thoroughly, happily, exhausted for a hot bath and hot apple cider...and a nap! If he can get out 3 or 4 times a week to ski or hike through the snowdrifts he will be happier and in better condition. So thrilled to see him willingly return to exercising!
I have officially given up on the plumbers returning to do anything more about the bathtub. Now that the bathtub drains are working again here and next door, it seem my clogging sink has been forgotten. O well, for now I have moved almost everything back into the bathroom except the cleaning supplies that sit in the cupboard under the sink. I decided it was time to put up my new shower curtains and roll out the new bathmat. Unfortunately, the outer curtain that I got at such a good sale price, was NOT in equally good condition. As I unfolded it, I discovered the plastic it was made of had adhered to itself in several places and as I carefully, gently tried to separate the folds from each other, the entire top of the curtain tore out in large, gaping holes. Sigh.....since it was on sale I cannot return it, so it is crammed into a garbage bag waiting to go outside to the bin tomorrow. Waaaaaaaaahhhhhhh! Since this curtain was such an unusual pattern and colour combination I am going to have a dreadful time trying to find an outer decorative curtain that will match in some way with my lime green bathmat that only looked good with the now destroyed new curtain. Sigh..... At least I was able to put up the white inner liner curtain with no problem and I enjoyed a hot shower, scrubbing my hair and gulping in the steam from the hot water in order to clear my dried out sinuses. The liner was quite adequate, no leaking of water out onto the floor and I have been able to breathe for the rest of the day. Tonight we will put on the humidifier as we both woke up with dry sinuses this morning.
For lunch we enjoyed left over lemon and herb basa fish that my husband fried last night in panko coating. He uses a dusting of pancake mix on the fish to hold the panko in place so it doesn't just fall off the fish. He has tried egg and lemon juice and water and flour and I don't know what all in various previous attempts to try to get the panko to stick properly and the pancake batter works best! We made some tortellini and a salad, so it was a fairly simple dinner, but it really tasted good. The leftovers were a sweet treat as they meant we didn't have to make lunch today. Tonight we will have tuna salad and toast. Easy peasy! Tomorrow it will be time to do some serious cooking once again.
It is nearly time to give my mother her nightly phone call. Hopefully she will not be completely exhausted after her unexpected trip to the optometrist yesterday afternoon. I am so grateful that the poke in the eye turned out to be far less serious than it appeared yesterday, AND that she got peace of mind by going to the doctor to check it out. I am grateful for the amazing taxi service she had yesterday. Occasionally getting home from appointments doesn't go that smoothly, but yesterday she utilized two different taxi companies and did very well indeed. She got home ten minutes before the dining room at her facility opened for dinner. The fact that she continues to be capable of calling for and riding in taxis to accomplish away from home errands is a blessing to her, but also to me. When she is no longer able to get around so spryly I don't know how I will be able to help her from this distance. O well, so far so good and thank the Lord for her continued agility!
In less than a month we will mark the end of six full years here in our odd little townhouse, six full years in this quirkly little prairie "city". We have been very happy here for the most part and one of the happy things is that although we have lived here longer than we have lived anywhere in the past nearly 21 years since leaving Alberta for Tokyo, we still have no plans as yet for another move! While this is not the sort of dwelling we would like to spend "the rest of our days" in, it has been so lovely not to have to pack and move and pack and move and pack and move for this long a period of time. The pandemic has certainly quashed our tentaive plans to move at the end of May this year, so I am hoping to work a rent deal again that keeps us in this townhouse for one more year. By then my husband's employment situation may be very different than it is right now and we may be forced to move, but hopefully his contract with his present position can be extended until September of 2022, keeping us stable for a while longer. From my mouth to God's ear.......
Right now, the idea of moving again any time soon is so abhorrent to me as to bring on nausea at the mere thought.....unfortunately that can and has in the past signified that an unexpected move was about to slap us across the face and away we would go to new adventures. However, we were much younger in those days and it wasn't that difficult to achieve new goals and discover "new lands". It will be most interesting to see what our immediate future may hold when our lease runs out this spring.......we have actually appreciated the "settled" feeling we have had during the pandemic, knowing it was highly impractical to consider moving even to a different rental unit in the same city. The sense of peace has been quite lovely so long may it continue....the sense of peace, not the pandemic!
Finally the temperatures are beginning to drop to more normal January temperatures, for a few days at least. It will be -28C by Saturday evening, but then after a few daytime highs in the -17C range, it will start to warm up a bit once again. Hmmmm.....does this mean that February is the month when we get slammed with a couple of weeks of -40C, or has global warming started a new trend to our winters here? I suppose we should have washed our car at the auto wash after our trip out of town the other day as the back of it is slathered in thick mud from the wet, unpaved country roads. O well...
I had a very short sleep last night, but couldn't get back to sleep after waking up at 6:45am. So, off I went to the nearest grocery store for its 8am opening. I picked up enough things that we are going to need in the immediate future that I will be able to skip next Tuesday's early morning seniors' shopping hours. Since it will still be cold then, I am mightily relieved!
There have been giant fluffy snowflakes falling all morning. It is beautiful, but they make the already treacherously icy streets even more dangerous to navigate. I appreciate that they kept the frost off my windshield this morning, so I didn't have to stand outside scraping ice, but wow, if the residential streets were bad previously they are even worse now with the fresh covering of slippery snow. I am glad it is a short drive to that grocery store! Found some good sales on a couple of products I specifically went to purchase, so that was a bonus...a reward for going to the more expensive store rather than braving Friday morning crowds at the discount grocery store! hahaha
Still no plumbers on scene here. I doubt they will start such a major project on a Friday afternoon, but I am praying they will be here by Monday or Tuesday of next week. I don't think either my husband or myself will have the patience left to continue trucking our essential items back and forth between the "library", bedrooms and the bathroom for much longer than that. We completely dismantled the free standing 4 shelf unit that is sits around and over the toilet, put everything on those shelves into boxes to store in the other rooms. We did that on Tuesday morning because of the notice we had that the plumbers would be in our unit that afternoon. Sigh....WHY did we believe that notice, right? hahahaha Typical these days around here. Once we got the notice of date and time, I threw out our old shower curtains and bath mat and there is no way I am putting out the new ones until the plumbing is done. So, only baths, no showers until then! Since I am physically incapable of getting out of the tub once I am sitting in it, this weekend should be quite hilarious! I suppose another couple of sponge baths and episodes of washing my hair in the kitchen sink will be okay. I got pretty handy at both things after breaking both an ankle and a hip in close succession a few years ago.
Not sure if it is worth cleaning downstairs this afternoon, but it will give me something to do that is useful today. Tomorrow morning I can stumble around the various bathroom items stored in the library and bedrooms and do at least a cursory cleaning. Aaaaaah, my life....one amazing adventure after another! hahahahahahaha
So far our dental cleaning appointments for next week have not been cancelled due to the pandemic, but my husband and I had a chat this morning about whether or not we should still go. We decided it is worth the risk as we know just how stringent the hygiene measures are at our dental clinic. My husband desperately needs to have his teeth cleaned and mine can benefit from keeping up with the wonderful job that was done 6 months ago.
COVID19 has finally reached its ugly hand into our circle of friends. A fellow from my church has tested positive and that has put some of the others from the church at risk. Sigh.....I feel so badly for our friend. He is so strict about following protocols and we wonder how he managed to become ill. So, we pray that no one else, including his own wife, will come down with this horrible disease.
My husband will be meeting with the bishop and other clergy at the end of next week to discuss reopening the churches. Hopefully that will not happen. It is so unsafe right now. The other clergy have already planned their Easter week services to be done online and my husband has similar ideas for his rural parishes. Our bishop has been very wise to date, so I am pretty sure the churches will remain closed indefinitely.
Time for a Zoom meeting with my church youth leader. Since the youth are still not going to be able to meet in person for a long time, we are revamping our presentation on prayer to make it more online compatible for easily distracted teens.
Have a great day ya'll!
The Mountain
If the mountain seems too big today
then climb a hill instead.
If the morning brings you sadness
it's okay to stay in bed.
If the day ahead weighs heavy
and your plans feel like a curse,
there's no shame in rearranging,
don't make yourself feel worse.
If a shower stings ilke needles
and a bath feels like you'll drown,
if you haven't washed your hair in days,
dont throw away your crown.
A day is not a lifetime
a rest is not defeat,
don't think of it as failure,
just a quiet, kind retreat.
It's okay to take a moment
from an anxious, fractured mind,
the world will not stop turning
while you get realigned.
The mountain will still be there
when you want to try again,
you can climb it in your own time,
just love yourself til then.
--Laura Ding Edwards
It is only 1:30pm, but the day has already been more interesting than most days around this self-isolating household! Thank you Lord!
We were on the streets about town by 9:30am to get to some business appointments and pick up some Indian groceries before heading out of town at 11am.
Our short drive out to my husband's parish area was fraught with interest because we were driving in a windstorm on a highway that was nearly completely iced over; the snow was blowing so thickly across the road that all the lane markers were obliterated a lot of the time and our main scenery was the plethora of police cars with their flashing red and blue top lights, as well as tow trucks hauling various vehicles out of the median. Since it wasn't safe to drive more than 70-80km max, we had plenty of time to take in the view!
I managed to discipline myself not to cling to the door handle the entire way...only 48 km, but it seemed like three times that far going at that slow speed on the ice. My husband is an excellent winter driver though. Had I been out there with anyone else I would have demanded we return to the city within two minutes of reaching the highway! Wellll, I would also have driven with my husband's sister because she is the champion winter driver of all time!
Pastoral care visit completed while I sat waiting in the car due to the pandemic restrictions and it being too windy to stand outside, we headed home. We were off the highway just long enough that the sun had come out; beautiful, brilliant, surprisingly warm sun that melted half or more of the ice cover for our drive back to the city. We were able to attain a speed of 90km for the return trip and were relieved that there were so few drivers willing to take the risk of driving too quickly for the conditions. I am not sure if it was getting away from home for a whole three hours, including our drive in the country, or if was just the relief of not ending up in the ditch during the highway portion of our travel extravaganza, but I was absolutely giddy by the time we parked back in the lot at our place. hahaha
My husband decided we needed to have a bit of a pre-celebration treat type of meal to start the celebration of my recent good medical news, so he chose to pick up some mini veggie samosas, pitas and spicy hot potato wedges from Amado's, then cruised us through an A&W drive through to order me a teen burger....a salty, fatty, carby, DEEEELICIOUS treat I have had only once since my diabetes diagnosis in 2013! It was a fantastic lunch....the teen burger that is. There are so many carbohydrates in such a burger that it is literally all I could ingest at one meal. hahaha The teensy samosas and spicy potato wedges will have to wait for dinner tonight. I have not eaten even one strip of bacon in almost three years, so that burger was a double treat!! Yum, yum!
The sun is still shining, the clouds are high and thin and scattered so I doubt we will receive any more freezing rain or snow for a day or two. The back steps were covered with freezing rain this morning, but by the time we came back from our drive it was completely melted off. A quick warming of our car windshield as we prepared to go out today softened the frozen water pellets adhered to it and we plan to enjoy the next day or two before we have more typical January temperatures.
Today has left us both feeling very satisfied and fulfilled. Even if nothing of interest happens for the rest of the day, we will be very happy!
Today was a decent day around here with really nice weather, some home chores accomplished, a positive conversation with my mom and the confirmation from my doctor today that she is satisfied with my test results from last week. I do not have cancer and there is no need to do any more testing at this time, since all my symptoms have been gone for more than two weeks now. If I develop even one of them again, ever, I am to contact her immediately and she will try to get me some emergency testing. Whether there were some small kidney stones that finally passed, the whole kidney irritation was dietary in nature and cleared up when I stopped ingesting the offending foods, or it was some wierd, left over symptom from my case of shingles last summer, I no longer have any symptoms and all the tests have been "normal". So, I will go forward trusting God and paying strict attention to any sort of recurrence of whatever this has been. This experience forced me to come to some sort of peace with the whole idea of death and dying and for that alone it has been worth it. Allaying my concerns in that area is giving me more peace about life in general. Thank you Lord and thank you prayer partners.
The plumbers arrived next door this afternoon as planned, to open up the access panel to the pipes that service both our suites. They did some bashing about in my neighbour's bathroom for about fifteen minutes, then left in their van and never returned. Our offices are filled with bathroom items, we have no idea what the problem is that was discovered today or when the plumbers will return, if they will now even require access to our suite as they didn't communicate with us at all and we don't know how long our bathroom will have to remain a shambles while we race around between the two office seeking toothbrushes and eye drops and towelling. hahaha This is a typical scenario around this complex. Eventually the plumbers will return, the problem will be fixed and we will all go our separate ways quite happy.
Mom got the news today that tomorrow's scheduled vaccinations for her facility will be postponed until sometime near the end of February, due to a shortage of supplies. This is no surprise. Between the government making promises with no guarantee of being able to fullfil them, confusion over manufacturing and distribution of the vaccine, media pronouncements that have little basis in reality, etc., neither Mom nor I were surprised about the postponement. Ah well....
My husband and I are part of a 24 hour prayer team that is focusing our prayers on the exchange of power tomorrow in the USA. Lord, protect the citizens of America, the incoming and outgoing presidents, their families and their entourages. Give peace in our time, O Lord.
I have a bank appointment tomorrow morning and my husband will join me as we have a few errands to run afterward. Overnight we are to develop 90km winds and snow flurries that will not pass until sometime in the late afternoon....at least that is the present forecast....so we may be driving around town in a blizzard! It will make our day interesting, if nothing else. Never a dull moment weather-wise!
Days like this in the middle of a pandemic are the types of days that give me the strength to carry on and wait for the world situation to sort itself out without wanting to bury my head under a pillow and forget about life.
My walking partner and I sat outside this morning for over two hours, chatting away like a couple of magpies. There was no wind, the snowfall ceased for the entire length of our visit before starting up once again and there wasn't any wind whatsoever. We blabbed on for so long that my friend's husband had to call her and tell her she was late for work. Aaach! Totally missed the passing of that much time. It was wonderful.
After lunch I went out to the store to find my mother some eye patches and then to the post office to mail them to her. The stores were not very crowded and distancing was easy to maintain, so that was a bonus.
My husband has a batch of chili on the go, we have lots of cooked chicken for sandiwches because I have been forcing myself to do some proper cooking once again.
It has been a good day. If mymorning visitor had been allowed to enter our suite, it would have been just like any day prior to the pandemic. I am so grateful for such a day as I sit here watching the snow falling from a depressing grey sky, knowing that the lowest temperatures thus far of this winter season will be here in another couple of days. That will put a stop to all outdoor socializing for awhile.
Thank you Lord for today! "I needed that!" as the saying goes.
This font is called Dancing Script and I am using it because I am dancing tonight....on the inside at least, haha.
I prayed for a long time this afternoon about what action to take regarding my prescription fiasco. Just after 8pm I had a STRONG urge to get over to the pharmacy and talk to the evening pharmacist. So, I braved the incredibly ice rutted streets in our area once again, always more fun in the pitch black of night! Gleep.....
The evening pharmacist listened very patiently to my tale of woe and went online to see what she could discover. In about 5 seconds she had the request resubmitted and it was accepted for my expected full coverage. Wha'???
She explained to me more fully what the day time pharmacist had been trying to tell me this morning as he blithered on about some kind of provincial plan for coverage for seniors, blah, blah, blah....I had NO idea what he was talking about and I felt too stupid to ask and he was too busy for me to be bothering him anyway.... Turns out that many of the insurance companies are now asking their SK customers to sign up for a provincial seniors lower income assistance drug coverage programme and will not pay for the more expensive non-formulary drugs like mine, even with the provincial health department issuing me a letter of exception status coverage. If a person doesn't qualify for the provincial programme, then that is fine, but we are all supposed to apply. I can see why the insurance companies do not want to be paying for something that some other programme will cover. My husband apparently applied for that programme last January and did not qualify, but apparently there have been changes in the application programme, so I took the new forms from tonight's pharmacist. She said we need to call our insurance company and ask if it is necessary for us to do this. The process takes a long time apparently before we would know if we qualify or not for the provincial plan.
SO, IN THE MEANTIME, this wonderful and understanding pharmacist, a wonderful born in SK girl who understands a LOT more about how to deal with people than the poor distraught pharmacist I usually have to deal with, sent my prescription coverage request in again to our insurance company, but this time she checked off a box about the provincial seniors plan that said "Decision Pending". She decided that was the truth because I did take the application forms and assured her quite honestly that we will apply again if we need to. Bingo bango, prescription coverage request accepted. I paid her my one dollar fee and joyfully brought my prescription home. It is sitting in my refrigerator until my doctor's appointment on Tuesday when it will be injected. YAY!
Thank you for praying and thank YOU Lord!
My mother also relieved some of my stress tonight as it turns out she will not need me to go shopping for her tomorrow after all. She has found a local source to get the supplies she needs.
So, all I have to do tomorrow morning is prepare my back deck and warm blankets for my outdoor distancing visit with my walking partner. I am so relieved that things turned out tonight without having to face a lot of extra hassle tomorrow. HOWEVER, I am grateful the incident took place because it revealed the aforementioned triggers of bad memories that God will help me deal with now. Amen!
My morning was interesting!
It started with a trip to the pharmacy at 8am to pick up a prescription that was filled late last night. The prescription is my annual January injection to treat osteoporosis. Last January I went through mental hell trying to get the insurance company to pay for it as usual, because the pharmacist forgot to include the provincial drug number with the request. I wasn't able to get him to understand that was the problem, the insurance company didn't seem to be able to figure it out either and it took two days to sort it out. It was a royal mess.
However, according to the other pharmacist on duty when I went to pick up last January's prescription, the drug code was now on my file and there would be no more issues. When I picked up my July prescription, he had been right. There was no issue. I paid my one dollar fee and walked out with it quite happily.
Last night the same pharmacist that messed things up for me last January ordered the prescription. I didn't worry about that because I assumed there would be no problem, but this morning I found out otherwise. He is not an easy fellow to deal with, so I left the prescription with him and, after a huge online search this afternoon where I THINK I located the provincial drug code, I am going to return to the pharmacy after he goes off shift and see if the night pharmacist can straighten this out, just in case I can manage to avoid spending half of tomorrow with the insurance people and fretting that I won't have the injection in time for my doctor's appointment the following afternoon.
If you find this sometime today, could you pray it just might be possible to fix this tonight? Thank you so much. If the original ordering pharmacist is on again tomorrow I am afraid I will be in near tears once again trying to talk to him. He doesn't listen and he doesn't ever accept that any problem could be of his own making. In fact, after many a problem there I am going to have my prescriptions moved to another pharmacy once I am able to pick this prescripton up. It isn't worth the extra hassle just to have a pharmacy I can walk to. Sigh....
However, here is a cool thing that happened later in our adult Sunday school class. The short version is that during the discussion, one of the participants mentioned that she finds she sometimes has triggers that remind her of bad things in her past and she has to go to prayer during those occasions to get past the bad memories. Later on another of the participants mentioned that it is good to look back and see what God has done for us in the past, BUT that we have to be careful not to get caught up in any bad memories. I had been sitting in the class fretting about the pharmacy incident, but after the second comment I started putting the two comments together. I had been wondering why I was SO upset about this situation and why I couldn't seem to relax and just wait until I can return to the pharmacy, call the insurance company, etc. My reaction seemed far too intense for the actual hassle the situation will cause, time consuming as it may be.
I realized that I did have an old "trigger" in some "bad memories". Years ago we were struggling so badly financially that we could only afford a prescription plan that covered no more than 15% of our prescriptions and we had to pay the full price up front, then send in reimbursement forms to the insurance company. The upfront payment for a prescription like today's, several hundred dollars, would have likely meant I would not have been able to afford the prescription. The memories of those days had come flooding back into my subconscious and that is why I was freaking out inside.
Once I realized that's what was happening I was able to put aside the stress and fear. Will dealing with this be time consuming and frustrating? Maybe. BUT will it matter if for some wierd new reason the insurance company absolutely now refuses to cover the cost? No. I have enough money in the bank to pay for the prescription. It will make life a bit difficult for a couple of months, but will I have to start crying in fear, will I have to go begging to family, friends and church for help, will I have to sit back and wait for God's provision to show up at the 11th hour to prove to me once again that he can provide for my needs? No I will not! He has ALREADY provided!
I didn't realize until this morning's church class that I was still in possession of that particular trigger that could bring back all the worst memories of my life in such a subconsious flood! Now I know. Now I can go to God and deal with this more effectively. Wow, what a cool morning! Thank you Lord!
NOW: I DO need your help Lord to get this latest pharmacy/insurance mess solved. tThank you! Amen!
I am extremely grateful that Mom is doing much better emotionally today....thus far at least. Hallelujah!
She had a wonderful, LONG talk yesterday with both the health care administrator and her doctor. She told the administrator everything that she has been feeling mentally and suffering physically over the past week and the administator made her feel so much better. This wonderful woman understands my mother very well after dealing with both her and my dad over the past three years or more. She assured Mom that not only was she not wanting Mom to move into LTC, but also that she is in no way at that point in either her physical or mental health. She refused to put Mom onto the waiting list anywhere because she told Mom no one will even consider taking her while she is this bright and capable. She told Mom she is one tough lady and Mom was still glowing when she passed that comment on to me later. hahahaha Her doctor also called her and talked for an incredibly long time. He reinforced everything Mom is doing with her meds, told her some more ideas to deflect her mind from the level 2-3 pain and to stop taking her BIG GUN meds until she is more than a 5 level. The two visits perked Mom right up, encouraged her because she was hearing these things from people with education and training in dealing with physical and mental health issues for seniors. I am so very grateful to both of these people who make Mom feel so personally cared for. Both people said she is showing signs of isolation fatigue and reminded her how many times she has been forced into isolation for at least 14 days at a time in the past three months. She has spent half of the past 12 weeks being forced to sit alone in her suite, not even able to go to the dining room for meals, or to her postbox, laundry or even the garbage shute! No wonder she is struggling. When these people tell her these things she is able to understand and believe what they are telling her far more than when I tell her the same things. May God bless these people richly!
Mom appreciates the prayers from other family and from my friends as well. Thank you for the times you have brought her before God in prayer.
My bone densitometry experience this morning was a positive one. I arrived at the hospital more then ten minutes early to check in and found they had an excellent system on the go for keeping patients in the right places for following pandemic protocols.
As soon as I entered the front doors there were hand sanitizer dispensers set up with very clear instructions that everyone MUST sanitize before entering the hospital and there was someone watching to enforce that.
The first stop inside the foyer was at security where a security guard sitting beind a thick plastic screen told me to remove my own mask, then picked up a disposable mask, from a large box on her desk, with a set of tweezers and deposited it into my hand. Once I had it on I was directed down a narrow marked path to the registration desk. There was a wide red line on the floor at the other end of the pathway, well marked with signage that told me I was to stand there until one of the registrars called me to the registration window. My health care card was to be set into a rectangular square drawn onto a piece of plasticized paper and slid under the protective window to the registrar. She prepared all my paperwork and slid my card back to me, sanitizing the plasticized paper both before and after my health care card touched it.
She gave me clear directions as to how to find and access the nuclear medicine department, where once again the directions as to where to stand, where to deposit the registration paperwork and where to sit in the waiting room couldn't have been more clear and concise. It was marvellous! There was little opportunity for any of the patients to end up going the wrong way or getting too close to each other or to the staff.
My tech for the densitometry was efficient and so cheery, a breath of fresh air from some of the other extremely stressed medical personnel I have had to deal with lately. I wish she was able to demonstrate how to be that cheery in the middle of intense stress to the others who were having a difficult time in their own medical offices earlier this week.
I was impressed that after the densitometry was done on my spine and remaining "good" hip, she also gave me the first densitometry on my wrist that I have ever had. She said that just in case I ended up with hardware in my other hip sometime, that would still give her two points of reference for determining the bone density. That has never been done or even suggested by my previous imaging office.
I am so grateful that my husband was available to drive me to and from the hospital today. The ice sitting on top of the lawn here at home just before stepping down into our parking lot is so thick and smooth that if I hadn't been able to step over it onto some snow to get into the car, I would have fallen down. The ice on the streets around the hospital where I MAY have been able to find a place to park if I was driving myself, was thick and the closest I could have gotten to the front door would have been over two blocks...I am not sure I could have navigated those blocks on foot without a bad fall or at least a frightening slippage. I would also have had to cross the hospital parking lot on foot and it was a nightmare of ice!
So, once again I thank the Lord and my prayer warrior family and friends for all the prayers and concern over my health issues from the past few months. After I see my doctor next week I will report on what is going to happen next.
Hugs to you all!
Below is an excerpt from a diocesan letter sent out by our bishop. I found it very encouraging and thought you might as well.
Dear sisters and brothers in Christ,
As we journey together this year I pray that we, as a church, be enabled to find God even in unexpected places and in unexpected ways like the Magi did. It was encouraging recently to read ‘The Grapevine’ a collection of stories from people at St Mary’s, Regina; stories of where they have witnessed God’s presence in the pandemic of this past year.
Like the Magi, following stars and finding stables can be a common occurrence in both a human and a spiritual sense. Who among us has not at some time in our life fixed our gaze on some high and lofty ideal only to find it led to a stable and was nothing like what we had hoped for. Hundreds of examples could be given. Last year being one of them. The challenge is turning those stables, broken resolutions, or dashed hopes, into holy moments, places where truly God is found.
The Magi could have just dropped their heads and turned back home, like the ones on the Emmaus Road did, when their hopes were dashed. Rather, they entered the stable and, having entered, they knelt, paid homage, and offered their very best: gifts of gold, frankincense, and myrrh.
As we journey in faith, follow a star, and find a stable, we also need to look for God in that stable, and give our very best to him. For that is the glory of the gospel. That’s why it is called Good News, for it transforms the stables of our lives - the coarse and the commonplace - into possibilities to encounter the sacred, the most Holy. The Herod’s of this world don’t get it, but the humble and the wise of every age do, for when they follow a star and find a stable they look for God – offer their very best and then tread a new path for God’s glory, and not their own.
Your ministry here matters. Your words and your actions matter. Your faith and collective witness to the Lord matter. At this New Year I thank all of you who are offering your very best to God. Our clergy, lay leaders, carers, phone callers, intercessors, doctors, nurses, cleaners, emergency responders, carol singers, food outreach ministers, listeners, snow clearers and civil leaders. God bless you all for the gifts you offer in the stable of this pandemic. In the muck, disappointment, disillusionment, bereavement, and worry of these times, may you be blessed to discover that Immanuel, God is with you, the very Lamb of God, the Babe of Bethlehem.
Yup, we are having quite a storm all right! Over the past nearly 24 hours it has re-sided our building! I always did like crisp white siding....good thing......
Oh well, even though I am stuck indoors I will be plenty busy, yup,yup,yup...
I love community library boxes. All I have to do is grab a handful and take them home to peruse at my leisure. If I end up with some that don't interest me, I just return them and grab another load to bring home. It is fun taking them from one box, reading them and then returning them to a different box so that the titles get spread around from neighbourhood to neighbourhood.
Today was a PJ day. The wind has been howling so strongly all day as to be nearly deafening at times as it rattles the siding and attempts to lift all the shingles from the roof. I couldn't force the front door open to check the mailbox today because the wind held it fast in place, but I don't think there was any on foot postal delivery due to the storm and the bad drifts and ice. I doubt the mail trucks arrived in the city from elsewhere due to the majority of roads being closed in this part of the province. The Trans Canada Highway was closed most of this morning from west of Swift Current all the way to Winnipeg. That is a rare occurrence!
I am supremely grateful that my husband is going to drive me to my bone densitometry tomorrow and pick me up again afterward! Thank you Lord and thank you husband! I got the phone call today confirming my appointment and was asked all the COVID19 exposure questions. So nice to be able to do that before I ever get there, but I will be asked again at the main admitting desk at the hospital tomorrow before I check in. Since the appointment is very early in the morning, I will come home and do something active like laundry or housework to help make up for today's lack of exercise.
Mom is having a horrible day again today. She is so stressed out by finding herself still alive and having to take care of herself in the midst of all the pandemic lockdowns that she fell apart with her home care worker this morning. She cried and told her she is tired of living. Of course the worker has to report this incident to the home care administrator, so now Mom is freaking out that she will be forced to move into Long Term Care. We talked for an hour after she found out the administrator will be coming to see her sometime in the next couple of days. I helped her calm down and craft what she wants to say to the lady, a wonderful woman and very helpful. By the time we were done talking she realized she is going to have to pull herself together if she can or she may end up moving somewhere like the hell hole my dad was in, just because those are the places with the most immediate openings. I told her to compromise and agree to put her name no the waiting list for a couple of the places she would be happiest in, such as the LTC in her own building and then if she gets a call and she doesn't really feel ready, then she simply has them put her name back on the bottom of the list. I am not sure she really qualifies for that level of care anyway. The problem is that Mom was always able to download responsibility for making her own decisions to Dad. Now that he is gone and cannot tell her what to do every time she has to make a decision about her own life, she is completely at sea. So, I am praying she can regain some emotional control and look at life as a happy challenge each day instead of assuming every single thing that comes up is negative and too hard for her to face. I certainly have my work cut out for me........sigh....hopefully I can coninue to jolly her along until she is feeling better. Poor Mom....it is so hard to be old and alone and in declining health. I wish I lived so much closer!
