Getting Help With My Ele-Tele-Phobia!!

 This afternoon I was visiting with a friend who happens to be a professional counsellor, but I have known him for so long now that he feels no compunction after (frequently) sharing his professional views about my mental state for free, wanted or not! hahaha  Today I am so glad he did!

His assessment of my extreme dislike of the telephone is that the degree to which I struggle with phone calls has been exacerbated by the pandemic. The short version in terms that I understand is that with the social isolation that has been going on for such a long time now from the pandemic, has effected me to the point where hearing from friends via phone, is making me feel even worse about our present reality.  The longer the calls go on, the worse I am subconsciously feeling about the enforced distance between myself and the caller.  It sounds odd at first because so many of the people I talk to on the phone are miles, provinces, countries away from here, so even with out the social isolation brought about by the pandemic, it is unlikely I would be seeing any of them much more than I am now!!  I have noticed too, if I am being honest, that as long telephone chats progress, I find myself becoming depressed and thinking how much nicer it would be to be able to chat in person. So, how possible would that be anyway when the person I am talking to is in Nova Scotia or Tokyo or New York???  His advice to me is to start taking more and more calls from everyone who wants to talk on the phone.  I can learn to train myself to stop thinking about distances and isolation and get a handle on the depression that happens when I am on the phone.  My response is very Anglican litugy: "I will with God's help!"  I have hope now!

I love my friend.  He helps me a lot.  He gives me many ideas of things to try.  I want to avoid all our visits turning into free therapy sessions, but lately he has been a wonderful help.  He gave me some reasons as to why I am struggling with extended phone conversations, has given me a reason to learn to start enjoying them again, a few tips on how to implement more joy in conversations,  to think of how wonderful it is to be in contact with family and friends far away and not dwell on the enforced separation....SO unrealistic to feel that way, because it is not COVID as much as it is finances that keep me from visiting all of them in person.

A most helpful friend, my counsellor friend.  Thank you.

 

My husband had a very successful class this morning.  There was a lot of discussion among the participants, lots of questions, lots of interest in the subject matter, lots of new ideas to be considered by everyone, including my husband.  He was so happy afterward he was bubbling over with enthusiasm. THIS is the husband I know and love!!  He decided at 4pm that he MUST have fish and chips.....IMMEDIATELY!!  So, off to Knotted Thistle pub we went, orange shirts and all.  While the chips are a bit "meh" there, the battered fish is scrumptious. The mushy peas are pretty good too!!  I decided to throw all dietary caution to the wind.  I had the spinach/artichoke three cheese dip and it was FANTASTIC!!  There were 3 large artichoke hearts in the dip to pull out and feast on. The bread triangles were like thin, soft pizza crust.  Although I could only safely eat about half of it, what I had was wonderful.  That is the second time in a month I have eaten some kind of cheese dip as a meal....bad, bad, bad....that will be the end of that for a LOOOOOONG time!!  Sure was a wonderful meal for tonight though!!

More food facts:  I have to think of something very simple and specific to feed our newly retired Bishop and his wife next Monday when the come for lunch, our last visit before they move overseas!  He has severe dietary issues but at least I know what he can and cannot eat.  They are moving back to the UK in about 2 weeks' time and he is already trying to convince my husband that we MUST come to Scotland to see them. They are living near Loch Ness and the Urquhart Castle.   Oooh, how my husband would love to go.  Our former bishop has accepted a 1/2 time position in the area as a parish priest and thinks it would be great if my husband came over as an interim priest for a few months at some church or other in the area.  Hmmmmm....I think not......as much as going to Scotland for 4 months would be wonderful, working as a priest there is not what he needs right now. Thankfully he is aware of that, hahaha.  I surely would love to go to Scotland though....maybe some day....??  Lord???  One of his local colleagues is going on sabbatical soon and will be spending several months as an interim priest at a church in Egypt!!

Well, it has been a busy, informative, learning experience of a day.......all good! 

So I Bought Me An Orange Shirt!!

 Today is the first National Day for Truth and Reconciliation in Canada.  People are wearing orange shirts of all types all over the city and some are joining our indigenous friends at the small initial event being held here.  Our parking lot is nearly empty of cars as so many of our neighbours are indigenous and are gone to participate in the event.  My husband had work calls to make this afternoon and I had some errands that had to be run, so we didn't make it this year.

However, I did have some clothes to drop off at Value Village and while I was there I picked up an orange shirt for myself.  I hid under a blanket in the back seat of my car after I purchased it and changed out of my pink sweater so I could wear a more appropriate colour for the rest of today.  Unfortunately I forgot to take the sales tag off the orange shirt, but fortunately it tucked itself under my hair at the back of my head and I completed my other errands without anyone realizing it was there. hahahaha  

When I got home my husband showed me an orange tee shirt he discovered in his construction rag bag and it is still in good enough shape to be worn.  When all our neighbours arrive home tonight we will be able to greet them while wearing the appropriate colour of solidarity.

I am excited about the festivities planned for next year on this date.  Some of my favourite native dancers and drummers are booked to perform. While it will be a solemn day once again, there will also be a stronger celebration of hope for the future.  We have our orange shirts now and I will spiff them up for next year's holiday.

Small Change, Big Encouragement!!

 Yesterday as I was cleaning my husband's library, the smallest yet most cleaning intensive room in this place, he came in and told me he has a plan: he is soon going to take over all the cleaning of his office and library; two rooms I no longer will have to keep clean!  YAY!  They are my most unfavourite rooms to have to remove the dust from.  Things will slow down for him considerably in the new year and so he wants to have a more even split on the housework.  He is already doing his share of the cooking and some of the grocery shopping, but I have never felt it was fair to expect him to do housework when he has been so busy earning the wages for both of us to  live on.  I am really looking forward to this change of  cleaning schedule!!  Sometimes the smallest of decisions bring the biggest amount of encouragement and joy!

Speaking of housework I am off to clean the living room, dining room and kitchen while my husband teaches a class online.  Original plan for this morning was for me to take a large volume of books to the neighbourhood library boxes for distribution and some discarded clothing to the thrift store, but that means no one is here to answer the phone. We are waiting for a couple of very important calls today and so I need to be here this morning.  My husband will take over the phone answering after his class, while I am gone this afternoon.  

 Just praying it doesn't turn out to be one of those days where the calls don't actually come in as arranged or that suddenly everyone we know will decide that today is a great day to call for a "chat" when we are trying to keep the line free.  Aaaaarrgh!  AND I also pray that I will not spend the entire morning on edge, hoping the only calls that come in are the expected ones!!  hahaha  Ooooh, the phone stresses me out so badly!  I would love to eliminate them from my life.  I detest long phone conversations at the best of times and yet I don't want to be rude and push people away....aaaargh! Hate phones......

Other than that, it is a lovely day. The sky is blue and cloudless, the sun is bright and lighting up the remaining yellow leaves on the trees, the daytime high is to be about +24C....just a marvellous day!

A Good Watch!

 Recently I enjoyed watching a most pleasant movie: News of the World.  It was pleasant because of the great acting by Tom Hanks and  Helena Zengel as the principal characters and some wonderful casting for the bit parts and cameos.  It was pleasant because it moved along slowly with wonderful scenery shots in amongst the rather sparse lines of dialogue.  It was pleasant because there was minimal bloodshed even though the "bad guys" got what was coming to them. It was pleasant because there were no unexpectedly nasty surprises....or other surprises, come to think of it. It was pleasant because it had the ending I was hoping for.  Guess I was just in the mood for such a flick this week.

I have been watching some of the neighbours moving out of our complex this past few days.  No, I am not sitting at the windows or standing on the porch "WATCHING", just noticing at various points throughout the day that some other long time residents are leaving. Some have been here even longer than we have and they finally have their chance at "escape" from the goose poo and the flooding basements.  The reason I noticed at all is because of the vast volume of "stuff" these people are alternately loading into vans or moving trucks and hauling over to the huge garbage bin in our parking lot and because I noticed, I am feeling less upset now about all the "stuff" WE are going to have to deal with if we get our own chance to move elsewhere come next spring.  We DON'T actually have more "stuff" than all the rest of our neighbours in here! hahaha For some reason that has been a great relief to me.  Just knowing I am not alone in having an overwhelming amount of "stuff" to worry about in the near future has given me a sense of peace I lost for awhile as the idea of moving has been surfacing since we signed our most recent lease.  I am also getting some good ideas of who to give some of our excess of items to.  All the plant pots and "keep them growing over the winter" herbs have been taken by a cousin already. She is also coming over to collect a great deal of my husband's mountain and ice fall climbing gear that he knows he will not be able to use any more now that he is older and will likely never be in good enough physical condition to continue with that beloved hobby.  A second hand book seller in another town has agreed to take a huge number of my husband's books off our hands at some point this winter when we get them into boxes and delivered to him.  We have enough time left on this lease to eliminate the excess slowly and less painfully than we have had in the past with far less time to prepare for our various moves.  WONDERFUL!!!

I have been puttering around the kitchen all morning, putting electricians' tape on my disintergrating vacuum cord, washing some dishes that are rarely used but need a freshening and slathering black shoe polish on my walking shoes.  Now it is time to shower and dress, eat lunch and start cleaning this dusty old suite once again.  My husband is engrossed online for Day Two of his annual autumn clergy conference and in between sessions is preparing for the Bible lesson he is teaching tomorrow to a group of Lutheran friends.

 The weather has cooled considerably today, although we have a couple of days coming that are forecast for a high of +27C. Mostly though we are looking at highs between +17C and +24C....perfect in my opinion.  Although the trees are rapidly being denuded and there are crunchy brown leaves all over the ground, thus far autumn has been kind to us.  We just need the ice and snow to stay away for two more weeks so we can get to AB and visit my mom at least one more time before winter takes control of the prairies.

Incredible Weather Here!

 Of course now that my summer clothes are all put away and the fall and winter wardrobe is on the rack in my room, we are having a resurgence of summer temperatures!  hahahaha  Yesterday we topped out at +29C and today we are to reach the staggering September high of +31C. hahaha  Yikes!  Yesterday and today I had to fish through my fall outfits and find the lightest weight pants and shortest sleeved blouses to get through the next few days comfortably.  What a hoot!  I LOVE IT!  The sky is so blue and cloudless, the breeze is very light, I have been out walking both yesterday afternoon and this morning and likely have another long walk over to a friend's house this afternoon.  Glorious, glorious autumn this year!!  Thank you Lord!

I should be making stew today as I have all the ingredients:  fresh garden potatoes, carrots and onions, a nice tasty turnip and a pound of good looking stewing beef, but my husband decided just now that he would like to try his hand at making stew.  I am more than happy to let him.  He knows how to do it on the stove top, whereas I need to cook it in the oven and it is far too hot today to have the oven on for the required number of hours.  So, I feel spoiled today!  I have two hot dogs left over in the freezer from a month ago or more, so we can scarf those down for an easy lunch and make up our proper nutrition with stew at dinner time this evening. hahaha

This is a grand week for me to see friends!  Visiting outside the church after service on Sunday seemed to kick off a frenzy of visits for this week. I should be cleaning house, but it can wait a few more days while I enjoy some socializing!  My husband and I had some great visiting together on our walk yesterday after I had a wonderful and unexpected visit with an out of town friend. This morning a friend from church came over and we thoroughly enjoyed our walk around the lake. This afternoon I am supposed to be going to visit another friend and although I am tired from this morning's exercise, it will be good for me to walk again....especially if I eat one of those non-nutritious hotdogs for my lunch! hahaha  On Friday morning my walking partner is coming over and we may be going for a walk around the lake as well.  What a fantastic week.  My husband will be tied up with work on the weekend, so it is easy enough for me to clean the house then.

Mom is having a pretty good week, at least thus far!  She got herself to a doctor's appointment yesterday and got some help with minor issues she has been struggling with for awhile.  I love that he has agreed to call me and discuss her test results, medication applications etc. so that I can help her understand what is going on. Her hearing is not good enough to understand everything he says at the appointments.  He is very pleased with how well she is doing over all and it amazes me that at the age of nearly 94, she is still able to call a taxi and go where she needs to go! Have walker and a taxi pass, will travel!  I am praying that our plans to go to see her next month will work out....that neither the onset of winter weather nor new COVID19 restrictions will cancel the trip as it will probably be our last until next spring.  We no longer feel safe travelling through blizzards for eight or more hours at a time and Mom is nearly hysterical with fear when she knows we are driving on icy highways, so easier on all of us to stay home, at least until it is safer to fly again. 

The week is starting out well and for that I am grateful!  We had a few digestive issues after our restaurant meal on Sunday, but nothing serious.  I wish the restaurant owners well, but I also wish our experience there had been more positive. I hope they can improve the food quality and the cleanliness of the space so that they can attract more customers. 

I hope all of you are having a good time this week; are healthy and experiencing good times at work and with family!    

I Think We Will Stick To Our Familiar Haunts After All!

 We have been feeling somewhat eager to try some new and different eating establishments these days, before our province places more restrictions on restaurant eating once again.  After church today we ventured out to an Indian restaurant on Albert we have not been to before: New Indian Restaurant.  Hmmmm....we got there just after 12:30pm and kind of realized we might not be in the best of places because it was completely deserted.  We were the only customers in the place and remained so for the hour we were there.  

The cleanliness of the restaurant was not that great, to be honest.  While our table had been wiped at some point before we arrived today, there were still crumbs of naan left over from the previous diners all over the seats of our booth.  The greeter and server had smears of various types of food and "other things" on their clothes and the plasticized menus needed wiping.  My husband remarked that our experience eating at the New Indian restaurant was as close as he cares to get to a repeat performance of eating in restaurants actually in India when he was there a few years ago!!! hahaha

That being said, the food was just fine.  The servings were huge for the price per plate, the lamb in the masala was very, very well cooked, the chicken in the curry dish was a bit iffy as to whether or not the pieces had been thoroughly cooked, but we took the risk and ate them.  The yellow dal was watery and seemed more like a soup than the fried yellow dal we are used to but it tasted good with the chopped fresh cilantro on the top of the bowl.  The naan was fine, at least it wasn't burnt, although it was somewhat over cooked and the saffron rice was not evenly mixed or coloured, with large clumps of rice so stuck together I began to wonder if was left over from the day before. My biggest problem was in paying the bill.  I was told the total amount, but was not given an itemized printout of what we had ordered.  Remembering back to the price per dish I have a feeling we were overcharged by about ten dollars, but I can't prove it because rather than stand around insisting I wanted to see the itemized list from someone whose English skills suddenly deserted him...yeah right....we just paid the bill and fled.  It was an odd experience...not horrible, but not one we are likely to repeat.  DarBar forgive us, we should have just had lunch in your clean and friendly establishment and not dallied with another Indian restaurant!

There were three small and feisty black flies loose in the restaurant and of course as we were the sole customers, we had the "joy" of dealing with them.  We managed to kill two of them before our food arrived, using rolled up church bulletins, but it took us awhile.  Our reflexes don't seem to be as swift as they used to be!  The other one proved elusive as it dive bombed our water glasses and plates of food again and again and again.....so frustrating!!  To add insult to injury, while I was at the cash register paying the bill, the dad gummed fly landed on one of the now empty serving plates on our table and my husband was able to kill him.  Of course that happened AFTER we were already done eating and ready to go home. hahahahaha  Isn't that just ironic???

 

Getting ready to come home was also interesting.  I needed some take out cartons to bring home the leftovers....the idea being that if we last until dinner time tonight without becoming ill then we will chance eating the leftovers at that time.  hahaha  Anyway, I ladeled the yellow dal "soup" into one of the cartons, not realizing I had the carton upside down, so was actually ladeling into the carton lid instead of into the base. Sigh....dumb, dumb, dumb....the dal began running out of the holes that go over the tabs on the bottom of the carton, so I had dal all over the table. Thank you Jesus that I realized what was happening and got it wiped up before it spilled over onto my lap!!  What a klutz!

So that was the start to our afternoon. I am not sure if I want to know how the rest of this day is going to go. hahaha

I got brave today, masked up and walked to my own church this morning.  I have been wanting to attend the adult Sunday school class as one of my favourite teachers is leading a series on Psalms of Lament. Today we studied Ps. 13 and how it moves from lament to expectation to praise.  Next week we are going to look at Ps. 88, that doesn't do the last two things, it is mostly just bleak and dark.  Lament seems to have been removed from being taught properly in the Christian church in our particular culture, so I am enjoying learning more about proper prayers of lament.  I think we have lost something very important in only talking about and focusing on the praise and celebration aspect of the Christian faith.  I want to attend the rest of this class.

Our new sanctuary choir, under the direction of our interim music minister, was quite a treat to hear this morning. It is quite a rag tag group of singers, but the director pulled things together in an amazing way.  She is so gifted. I wish she was able to stay on as our full time music minister, but she has a full time position at the university so is knocking herself out to help us as it is, while we wait for a new hire in the new year.  Gosh it was wonderful to hear such clear words and decent amount of volume coming from these masked and distanced singers up in the choir loft!  Incredible.

The sun is shining brightly today. I enjoyed my walk to the church.  There were quite a few people on the streets early this morning taking advantage of one of the last days this glorious before it gets cold again.  What an interesting and wonderful day this has been thus far....assuming I have no negative repercussions from my lunch, it should continue in this vein.

Family Means More Than Ever In These Times!

 We enjoyed a long conversation with our son last night. We are praying together about a possible visit from him in November, Lord willing and the borders be open by then. Lord, hear our collective prayer...

It was fun hearing little bits of news about his life. This weekend he and his girlfriend are in upstate New York visiting with the couple whose apartment they lived in for over a year, during the worst of the pandemic when the free rent was so necessary due to pandemic unemployment.  It is a lovely, lovely time of year to be upstate in the most woodsy part of NY in the colourful autumn.  Wow!!  What a great break away for two very busy people.

Our son has been asked to contribute a painting to be shown at a  "one night only" art gallery showing in October and the art fair he sent paintings to Tokyo for earlier this spring and that was postponed due to the pandemic is going to go ahead in November now, so three paintings will go to the art fair. However, they will be three new paintings because the original three are going to be shown in a Tokyo art gallery show instead in October.  He has two of them finished and is working like a crazy man to finish a third in time to be shipped overseas.  He only found out yesterday morning about the art fair going ahead, so is very grateful that he had two of three new works completed already.  Whew!!  

His girlfriend is having great success of her own.  The play she produced for her theatre company had a successful opening in Philadelphia and has now received invitations from other theatres, so she will be very busy travelling around to other cities with the rest of the crew and cast.  The last play she herself authored has been chosen to have a reading by a prestigious theatre reading group later in October and she has found two actors willing to do the readings for the group.  Recommendations coming from reading groups such as this one is how plays are chosen to be produced in NYC.  This is another huge step for her in her fledging arts career and we are as proud of her as we are of our son.

Once our son returns from Paris near the end of October, we will reassess the pandemic situation, particularly the state of closure or openness of the US/Canada border.  If it is possible, our son plans to come for a visit in November.  It may only be for a few days, but even a day or two would be an incredible treat for us.  Lots to be praying about in the meantime, hoping very much that it can happen.  It has been nearly two years since we last saw him...let's see....we drove him to the airport in Calgary on January 4th, 2000.  That was our last glimpse of him in person.  We are praying for the miracle that would allow him to be able to afford to fly directly to Vancouver first, to check on the contents of his storage locker and the subletter in his apt. there, then a quick flight to Calgary to see his grandmother and then on to our fair city for a few days.  This would be best case scenario, very dependent on COVID19 restrictions, affordable flight availability and of course the biggest bugaboo of all: the onslaught of  Canadian winter weather!  Lots and LOTS to pray about!!!

Mom is battling on with a certain amount of courage and strength. To have to start thinking for herself and making her own decisions at the age of 93, after a lifetime of having all her decisions made for her since birth, is a tremendous stress for her. With a bit of encouragement from the staff at her residence, myself and a couple of her telephone friends, she is managing to do it. There is a lot of grumbling, complaining, whining and crying, BUT she is doing it and in some areas she has gained a lot of confidence in her abilities.  I am very proud of her.  She is so VERY alone with me being so far away and it isn't easy, but she is forging ahead. Thank you Lord!!  She is seeing some answers to her prayers, very specific answers to very specific prayers and that seems to be giving her courage.

My husband is feeling somewhat better now that his sister's funeral is over and his life is getting back to more normality. The grieving continues, but the daily headache is easing, he has more energy and he has hope for his own future changes of plan, coming up in a few months.  He has a special service at his smallest, most rural church tomorrow where the tiny congregation is having their annual Harvest Thanksgiving celebration.  Normally I would go too, but my own church is having music tomorrow sung by its new congregational choir and I would like very much to hear it in person.  Have mask, have mobility, have vaccination passport, will travel!!!  It should be a lovely walk through an older treed neighbourhood where the leaves are turning yellow, red and orange.  Autumn is very pretty here.

Better get some sleep since we both have to arise quite early in the morning.

Our Son The Carpenter

 My husband is thrilled that his son is honing his carpentry skills that his dad tried for years to teach him, despite our son's complete disinterest in the trades.  However, something must have sunk in as he decided to build some end tables for the new apartment.  He wasn't happy with anything he found in the stores and when he found out how many months it would take to have furniture delivered, he decided it was time to create his own!  YAY!  His efforts paid off handsomely and he explains the design below:

{Versions of Gerard Rietveld's "pallet furniture". Simple designs that you could technically make for yourself out of a shipping pallet. I've used a nice pine wood and treated it with a "Tung Oil Varnish". My personal flair was to add the primary-colored screws. Rietveld was influential on the early 20th century De Stijl artists, of whom Mondrian has been a big influence on me, both for his abstraction and his spiritualism. But Mondrian was an ideologue, and Rietveld, instead, considered design as a "sport", haha}

Taking Time To Breathe!

We have been happily busy since arriving home earlier this week.  We did take the next day to do absolutely nothing at all, so we spent the day watching tv, paying bills that arrived in our absence, watching tv, making simple meals, watching tv, catching up on emails, watching tv, going for a walk, watching tv....yes, it was a very good day of rest!

Of course my husband did have some work interruptions before the end of his agreed upon compassionate leave.  One of his superiors had no idea he was having that and called him the day we were driving home.  So he had some arrangements to make for some parish meetings last night, he had a clericus in the morning, the days in between he had to get sorted out for registration for a clergy conference, prepare for a lesson he is teaching to group of Lutherans next week, call the diocese office to discuss a decision he has made regarding his future ministry here, etc. Etc. Etc. Today he is replacing computer batteries and putting new sliders on the feet of our living room chairs.

My last few days have been a blur of laundry, banking, changing out summer and winter wardrobes and all the work that entails, (yes dear husband, our new living room couch will soon be free of the pile of ironing that currently adorns it.), as well as grocery shopping very early in the mornings, keeping my mother calm during a time that is stressfull for her, assure a few friends I have not dropped off the planet and make arrangements to see them next week.  We have not been seeing anyone at all since we got home to ensure we have not picked up a covid virus from any of the people we saw the previous week. 

Busy, productive days!!  Thanks Lord!!

 

All That And A Bag O’ Couch Cushions!

 We had a beautifully relaxing trip home yesterday! Instead of peeling out at 4am and driving like crazy people to get home early in the day, we left at 7am, dawdled along and took a full ten hours to arrive at our little place. 

On the way out of Edmonton we took a lovely route back to the Yellowhead on tree lined country roads. It took us a full hour, including a couple of wrong turns, to return to the highway; sooooo pretty. My husband noticed a series of gasoline stations charging thirteen cents a litre less than the city stations, so we got in line and were able to pump nearly a full tank of discount fuel into our car. We stopped at a rest stop along the fence line at Elk Island Park to watch the bison, ducks, a beaver lodge and a family of muskrats. While we were there we also cleaned the inside of the car windows to remove the film caused by oxidation from the upholstery. Lunch was a tailgate picnic in the parking lot of the Lloydminster Safeway, followed by a long drive in the brilliant sunshine, watching the fall colours, to Davidson for a surprisingly delicious Chinese dinner. 

As soon as we got home we unpacked, relaxed in front of the tv and were asleep by 9pm!

This morning we are eating a leisurely breakfast, watching the federal election results and awaiting delivery of our new sofa that has very comfy cushions!! What a wonderful phone call to wake up to!! We are excited! A bit of a sleep in, plus good news about getting new furniture!!! Yippee! 

A Little Muskrat Love

 We had a glorious day today over at Raymond’s, feasting once again with the Calgary cousins. By early evening, after a long talk with Mom, who has recovered from her vaccine reaction quite well, (and a few bouts of sumo on tv),we decided a short walk would be appropriate for our exhausted, achy selves. We have had eight days with only one proper walk and we are suffering for it! 

We wandered around the business area surrounding our hotel, then discovered a flower and tree bordered walkway through an expensive residential area. We wandered around the walkway and reached a small pond bordered by gated houses. There in the pond was a pair of muskrats swimming about, carrying twigs in their mouths. We stood and watched them until it was too dark to see them anymore, then meandered back through the trees and flowers to our hotel. 

A precious day with OUR family, followed by a serene evening with the muskrat family...how lovely!

The Funeral Went Well!

 Although fear of Covid decimated the number of attendees, those of us present enjoyed a meaningful time of remembrance of Ruth and a spiritually encouraging time of worship. I do love the Anglican funeral liturgy and Rev. Danielle’s homily brought us such peace in regard to Ruth’s spiritual state when she became so ill. Apparently they spent a lot of time together and Rev. Danielle is most confident of Ruth’s commitment to God. Ruth was very private about her faith, good Anglican that she was, haha, so to learn the depth of her discussions with her priest brought us much joy. There was enough space in the choir pews to contain a goodly number of distanced, masked singers. Ruth was a choir member and would have been delighted by their singing yesterday. My husband and I made it to the church, through major road construction, in time to secure a parking space near the downtown church, the slide show and stories my husband put together for after the service were very popular and it was worth all the work he put into it. Raymond’s large back yard was a perfect spot for all the people to sit in accordance with provincial pandemic protocols and enjoy the funeral dinner together. As we all drove to the house for the meal, the sun came out, the wind died down and the temperature rose to a balmy +18C. It was a marvellous day.

This morning we are joining the other relatives over at Raymond’s to have brunch together before we all go our separate ways. My husband and I will stay here one more night to get emotionally put back together, repack our mountain of “stuff” and try to get a few hours together, just the two of us, to unpack our feelings about the weekend. Hopefully we will have less noisy neighbours in our hotel tonight, get a few hours of deep sleep and head for home EARLY in the morning, although I won’t hold my breath on that idea! hahaha We are so ready to go home. I need to get my diet and exercise plan back on track. It is impossible to be as strict as I need to be when I am travelling and nine days spent mostly riding around in the car wreaks havoc with the muscles surrounding my hip hardware. I live daily with pain each time I take a step or sit too long, so I am used to that after six years of it, but all this sitting in the vehicle exacerbates the pain to a nearly unbearable degree sometimes. At this point my desire to get home is bordering on panic.

I am hoping my husband’s stresses will begin to wane now that the funeral is over and the acceptance of the loss of his sister has begun. This has been a horrible year for him and I pray he will be able to begin his personal grief process now that his responsibilities to pastorally care for the grief process of others in the family is coming to an end.

Redemption!

 We just took a call from Tru Hotel’s front desk. It seems they have suddenly come up with our original room booking and lo and behold our room is available after all for the rest of our stay. We can move immediately. We are not going to. We spent a lot of time getting set up in our present room, to make the space and amenities work for us. There is no point in getting two rooms dirty and having to repack our massive amount of stuff, haul it elsewhere, then unpack and set up all over again when we need to be concentrating on getting to the church early enough to get the pre-service tasks accomplished.

Thank you though to Tru Hotel for trying to make it up to us for the booking mistakes. We appreciate it! 

Mom’s Misunderstanding

 My mother arrived home from the ER yesterday at 2am. She is fine for now. The whole incident was the result of her misunderstanding of medical protocols within her facility. The happy ending is that the EMT’s not only stayed with Mom until she was seen by the doctor, but transported her home at 2am and helped her get back to her suite safely....incredible to me was their unfailing courtesy to her despite the whole incident mightily wasting their time. To be given that level of kindly attention in the midst of a terrible pandemic understaffing, under resourced situation seems almost miraculous to me. Mom had more chest pressure yesterday, but followed her assigned protocols and by dinnertime last night she was pain free once again. I will call her again after today’s funeral and check on her progress. The home care advisor for her facility has been updated and will be visiting Mom this coming week, thankfully. 

My mother is very literal in her understanding. When she received her booster shot the other day, she was of course told that if she experienced any aches, pains, nausea etc. later in the day she was to report it, so when her heart began acting up that evening, she dutifully reported it to the night desk clerk who, following the facility rules, dutifully called the ambulance and thus began the whole saga. Mom admitted she was shocked when the paramedics burst into her suite. Oh my....

I had a long talk with Mom early yesterday morning, then my husband and I enjoyed the most marvellous visit and brunch with more old friends before heading on to Edmonton. That brunch: vegetable frittata made with mostly locally grown ingredients, home made baked beans, home made seed bread toasted with yummy butter, sliced avocados, fabulous preserve made from our friends’ crabapple trees, home made chow chow relish and sauerkraut, a luscious green salad with pumpkin seeds and a white wine vinegar dressing.....oh my goodness, what am I forgetting? There was so much variety and nearly every item was locally or provincially sourced. It was an absolute feast! My friend Jo outdid herself. We felt like royalty!

After a nice drive to Edmonton we shed our royal delusions of grandeur seconds after arriving at our hotel! The desk clerk at Tru Hotel had a desperately difficult search for our reservation. We showed her the hotel’s confirmation both on a printout of it from their email to me and on a second confirmation on my husband’s phone. Finally she found it, but when we got our mountain of luggage it to the room, we discovered the arrangement of/amenities in the room were not what we had booked and were somewhat unsuitable. Sigh......we hauled all the luggage back to the desk and told the clerk what had happened. She finally got in touch with her supervisor by phone, no supervisor was on the premises, and after a very long wait we were told that the hotel was fully booked and our pre-arranged, confirmed room was now unavailable. Big, huge, gigantic sigh..... We were so tired after our miserable, sleep derived previous night, we didn’t bother to argue further, as it was too late to book in at any other hotel in the area. There are so many weddings, funerals and weekend conventions happening this weekend, that we didn’t have much in the way of options. We made do last night with what we were given and it is going to be ok.

We had a good visit with Raymond and other visiting family last evening, so going into the funeral today will be less daunting than if we hadn’t seen anyone before grouping together at the church this afternoon. My husband is going over the eulogy he is presenting while I am taking advantage of an entire morning of no commitments prior to the funeral. It is after 9am and I am not planning to get dressed until after lunch! I have had my shower and done my hair, eaten breakfast and am sitting here in bed, swaddled in toasty warm blankets and the sunshine streaming through the window. Today in my gratitude journal I am listing hot showers, indoor plumbing and firm mattresses! Hallelujah for all three of those things!  

A Bucket Of Cold Water

 Well, I am stymied right now as to how to handle Mom’s issues. Last night’s fiasco upset me badly and what to do next????

Yesterday started out so well. We had a lovely visit with Mom and then had an hilarious time trying to leave the city to continue to our next destination. We decided not to take our usual route to the highway because the traffic on it appeared to be heavier than usual Every alternate route we tried to take, thinking it would be the next quickest route out, turned into a gauntlet run of street construction. Aiiii yiiii! Our usual time to leave the city via any route is about 20 minutes. Yesterday’s time was 45! Fortunately we were not overly late for our next appointment and we also had a grand visit with great friends in the afternoon. 

We got checked into our hotel late in the afternoon, had a nap and then headed out for dinner on the large, sunny deck of life long friends on their beautiful acreage. The wind that had been pounding us on the drive there died down just in time for us to enjoy the Thai meal. 

Then my phone rang. It was the paramedics who were with Mom back on the city. She was having chest pressure and instead of following her four step medical protocols and then calling me to tell me they were not working before calling the ambulance, she only completed the first two steps, then promptly called the ambulance. Sigh.... THEN she gets the paramedics to call ME to get my opinion on whether or not she should go to the hospital! The fact that it is even a question means that as a C Level patient she does not need to tie up paramedics and ER staff and spaces when she has not attempted to complete the last three steps of her assigned protocols! I told the paramedics to take her in, hoping that someone at the hospital would have more success than I apparently have had in making her understand she has to stop calling the ambulance all the time. Then I was up until 1am making calls to the hospital switchboard, the ER mainline, and  the cardiac ward to keep track of her location and status. Finally the ER doctor contacted me at nearly 1am to let me know she was just fine and he was arranging to have her transported home. Mom is being charted as a problem patient after last night’s episode. The doctor empathized with me in trying to deal with this problem of making unnecessary ambulance calls, but emphasized that we have to find a way to prevent this from continuing to happen. Sigh....

This all means that either we have to cancel our visiting plans for this morning and return to Mom’s for The Talk before turning around and driving back to Edmonton for a late setting up of last minute details for Saturday’s funeral, or take an extra day after the funeral to return to Mom‘s and make ourselves a day late getting my husband back to work. It is nearly 6am, so once my husband wakes up we will decide on the best course of action. I am SO tired.... I have not heard from Mom so I can only hope she is safely back home and sound asleep.  I need wisdom from God as to how best to help her.

New Restrictions Begin In Three...Two...One...

 At 12:01am Alberta implemented too long overdue pandemic restrictions after declarations for weeks by their premiere that it would not happen. He waited until now, when the entire provincial health care system is on the brink of collapse from the upsurge in COVID19 cases, mostly among the unvaccinated, and in this morning’s news is trying to blame the chief medical officer of  provincial health, Dr. Hinshaw, for not bringing him these recommendations sooner, as if hers has been the only voice out there decrying his lack of concern for this provincial health disaster. Just sad....

So, how do these new restrictions affect the funeral and the rest of our trip? Well, we praise God that many of the restrictions to do with funeral gatherings do not take effect until two days after the funeral occurs.  The funeral service will be able to take place as planned, but our own insistence that the attendees mask and distance will now be backed up by provincial legislation. The church leaders may decide that we will no longer be allowed to go into the church hall afterward to see the slideshow of Ruth’s life that my husband has spent many, many hours putting together....a shame after all his work, but he is ok with that. The biggest effect will be on the cold plate family and friends dinner that evening back at the house, as all of us will have to be outside and distanced, which the cooler autumn weather may prohibit. 

Two days later we shall be driving home and that is the day the restaurant restrictions such as no indoor dining come into play. By the time we need lunch we will likely have crossed the border back into Saskatchewan, where so far our own wishy washy premiere has not brought in similar restrictions.

We are very grateful the funeral can still happen with few changes. Thank you Lord. However my heart aches for wedding parties and other upcoming gatherings in Alberta that have already had to be rescheduled multiple times during this pandemic. 

Looking ahead: while we will still be allowed to see Mom this morning and say goodbye, our trip to see her next month is now in doubt. If AB remains under restrictions and SK does not follow suit, it is possible that AB will close its borders to SK visitors. Sigh....

If people had just listened to the actual medical doctors and scientists, dropped their ridiculous paranoia and gotten vaccinated this fourth wave would not have reached the point of threatening provincial health care systems and causing life threatening delays for treatments and surgeries for people with non-COVID19 related conditions. My mother and other seniors would not be living in fear that they will soon be under lockdown once again, unable to see their families.

Interesting Comparisons

 The comparisons between the various hotels we stay at always interest me. 

In Medicine Hat this trip we spent a night at the Home Inn. We were only there for one night, but three nights there, such as we are having in Calgary and Edmonton, would have cost us about $282 which included a choice of hot or cold breakfast served up by an employee in the breakfast room. The choices were limited, but there were choices between hot and cold cereals and jams, bread/toast, hot and hard boiled eggs, hot sausage patties, yogurt and fruits. The room had two double beds and lots of closet space in a long wall unit. The room had a coffee maker/kettle and microwave and small refrigerator. The room was barely large enough to turn around in, but the tiny bathroom was sufficient for space, although it contained the bare necessities for hygiene products. Thick wiping cloths were provided for cleaning dirty boots and mopping up spills. Make up removal wipes seem to be standard issuance now at most places. The view from the windows is the highway or various car dealerships.

Now we are at the Grey Eagle Resort and Casino Hotel. Our three nights here cost about $347 for a well appointed huge room with a king bed, small sofa, giant desk, larger flat screen tv and better quality soaps and shampoos etc. The bathroom is large, with a big step in shower. Thick terry towel bathrobes are provided. The mountain view is gorgeous. It is a good deal for the room, but breakfast isn’t included. There are fabulous breakfasts to be purchased at the restaurant downstairs. (The Little Chief) There is only a keurig coffee machine that makes terrible tea with the provided tea product, so my husband has to bring a kettle and tea from home. The fridge is much larger than the teensy weensy one at Home Inn. The sound proofing is better than standard unless you get stuck in a room with an adjoining door to the room beside....a nightmare to be avoided! This is our hotel of choice as it is clean, roomy, comfortable and close to Mom’s.

In Edmonton we are staying at Edmonton Windermere Tru for another three nights for the same price, almost to the penny, as the Grey Eagle. However, for room size and provided accoutrements we are in a similar situation as Home Inn, except that the beds are queen and not doubles. Breakfast in the past has been a hard boiled egg, muffin and a juice box in a brown paper bag to be picked up each morning and taken back to our room to eat. No salt, pepper or butter are provided, at least they weren’t at our last stay there. Perhaps the breakfast situation has changed since then. Our first stay there back in n June is what prompted my husband to purchase a small electric kettle so he could make tea, in the smallest hotel room I think I have ever stayed in! Once again the fridge is minuscule and the views are of various store parking lots and gasoline stations. 

For us the Grey Eagle is best for more than an overnight stay, but the other two are clean and adequate for a night or two if we have to be spending a lot of time in the room. It is just very interesting to see what we get for the price as we travel from one hotel to another, the differences in weekend vs weekday rates etc.

The Most Decadent, Fattening, FANTASTIC Appetizer EVER!

 Ooooh, gotta tell you that if you ever find yourself in south west Calgary you must go to The Little Chief restaurant at the Grey Eagle Resort and Casino and order the Artichoke Arugula Dip!!!! It is so rich it could stop your heart a quarter of the way through its luscious deliciousness, but it truly is a “to die for” appetizer, so dive in and enjoy.

The “dip”, (talk about an understated description), is a blend of artichoke, arugula, pimento and cream cheese that is blended to silky smoothness, then baked in the oven in a six inch cast iron pan to give it a beautiful brown crusty top. The pan is delivered on a wooden serving board and beside it is what must be a full loaf of fry bread slices. Yup, deep fried bread!!! It is golden and slightly crunchy around the crust and soft ‘n’ chewy in the middle. Yummy!

I decided to only order an appetizer for dinner last evening, assuming it would be small and barely worth the fifteen dollars, but the size of the portion was astounding. There was enough to serve at least three people an appetizer sized portion. I shared some with my husband then ate about half of what was left over. He brought the rest of it back to our room and ate it for breakfast this morning! Even then he couldn’t finish it!!

This morning it is setting up to be rainy, so we are glad we got our packing act together and brought a variety of wardrobe items and footwear with us.

Falling Into the Routine

 We have a predictable routine now when we visit Mom. Day one we arrive just after lunch and complete whatever little house chores she has for us to do. Yesterday it was re-programming her tv remote and doing some laundry, then going over her shopping lists. After dinner I return to her place for an evening visit.  Day two is a trip for the three of us to London Drugs, then Coop Store lunch in our hotel room, followed by a bank appointment. If Mom isn’t too exhausted I return to her place for a visit after dinner. Day three my husband and I spend the morning shopping for household things like new mops, side table lamps, large print playing cards, whatever things need replacing for Mom since our previous visit, then picking her up for a different pre-made lunch in our hotel room, then grocery shopping with Mom at the Coop. That evening my husband and I go to visit an old hiking buddy or two of his, then stop in at Mom’s again the morning of day four to say goodbye. I am seeing changes in Mom that indicate a few more supports will have to be put in place soon, but I am praying I will not have to invoke POA....from my mouth to God’s ear!!!! 

The weather here is beautiful, sunny and certainly not overly warm. Autumn has arrived in all its yellow and red leafed splendour! 

Amen To That!!!

 Difficulty is a miracle in its first stage.

—Amish Proverb

So, don’t be afraid to remind me of that in future times when I am admitting to facing difficulties with a less than trusting, positive attitude, ok? 

Nice Start To The Week!

 The baptism went well this morning! The baby was freaking out prior to the actual baptism because she was chilly in the unheated church, so once her mom put a sweater on her she was fine, really enjoyed the warm water my husband poured over her head. She wore the same baptismal gown her mom and grandma both wore at their baptisms all those years ago. The gown is about 70 years old and still crisp, white and lacy. 

After the service we had a delicious pizza and salad in Lumsden before heading west. We had a chance to travel for the first time on a section of Regina’s new ring road so we were able to avoid miles and miles of fresh gravel and dirt on the other routes west from Lumsden. Yay! 

The weather was lovely for driving today: overcast and not too hot. My husband was able to get his favourite maple walnut iced cream at the highway stand at Tompkins and we were able to fill the car with cheaper gasoline in Walsh....saved us 8 cents a litre compared to the price in Medicine Hat! 

Dinner at the Hat’s Thai Orchid was sumptuous and not terribly expensive. My husband had a beef stir fry that was packed with meat and veggies, and there was a gravy sauce that almost made it a curry when he stirred his n the coconut rice. Yum! My salad was fabulous: a bit of romaine, a few cherry tomatoes, a hint of both mint and cilantro, a toss of bean spouts and grated carrot, lots of prawns and calamari, a few chunks of fresh mango, a few slivers of red onion, no one ingredient dwarfed the others, all in a satisfying amount of chilli and lime dressing. Fabulous! 

Now, hopefully, we will have a decent night’s sleep before driving on to Mom’s in Calgary tomorrow! 

Baptism

 I am excited that my husband is performing a baptism at one of his churches this morning! The baby is three months old this very day. There will be many family visiting the small church this morning, so unfortunately some of our own parishioners do not feel free to attend as distancing will be a huge problem, but my husband ruled that there will be masks for everyone and there will be no singing, just recorded hymns. So, we will do our best to keep everyone safe. 

A baptism is always an exciting service to attend. We are both looking forward to it! Now hopefully, there has been no unexpected overnight rain to turn the roads leading to the lovely rural church to slop!

Have a blessed Sunday everyone.

TRUE....Sad But True!! HAHAHA!!

 Meme from The Diocese of Algoma website:

Brain cells die, skin cells die, even hair cells die.

But FAT CELLS...must have accepted Jesus Christ as their Lord and Saviour because they seem to have eternal life.

I saw another cutie on Deuteronomemes that is a photo of a fellow eating a fairly large pizza and drinking soda pop. The accompanying expression is, "When your body is a temple but you wanna make it a megachurch!"  

hahahaha

 

It is a chilly, overcast day outside and we have just reaped the last of our tomato and herbs harvest, which is a sad feeling of acceptance of the coming winter, so a bit of humour is needed here today!

 

Done And Done!

 Great day: slept in until 8:45am!!!!! Completed laundry! Voted at advanced poll! Received confirmation that after yesterday’s banking saga, the whole transaction was at last completed! Made tasty meals! Grocery shopped! Had awesome visit with Cee and Nan for the first time in over a year! (Speaking of them, Cee remains in desperate need of healing from spreading neuropathy with no cause found as yet.) 

A good day and tomorrow will be crazy as there is so much that must be accomplished! 

Four Hours But The Wait Is Over. Yay!!!

 As I suspected would happen the minute I finally stopped worrying and relaxed enough to leave everything with God and stopped hauling the phone all around the house to make sure I didn’t miss my bank call, the bank called and the transaction was processed.  hahaha But just to be certain I truly had stopped worrying, God, His humour ever intact, had one more little glitch ready for me. The final part of the transaction had to be done online, but I made a keying error and thus managed to lock myself out of my own account! . DUH!!!!!! So, back on the phone to try to locate the same FA I dealt with when my call back finally happened, then leaving her the message, then waiting for her to call back a second time to unlock my account, which thankfully she did within minutes. As far as I know the transaction has been completed! Ooooooh, next time I have to do this particular transaction I MUST remember to be patient in the first place and just let the details unfold without becoming so dreadfully impatient that I get frustrated and completely discombobulated! Yikes!!! 

So now it is 2pm. Is it too late to shower and put on clean clothes or should I give up on that idea and just start the laundry? 

Yup, laundry it shall be!!

Ooh, how I hope the lesson in patience I was taught today will stay with me!

Wasps And Waiting!!

 On this gloriously sunny and perfectly temperature'd day, I am waiting (and very impatiently I might add) for a bank to call me to complete a procedure that during the pandemic has had to be completed each time over the phone to keep the Financial Advisors safe working from home instead of exposing themselves to the dreaded bank clients who could infect them with COVID19.  Valid point, so I am not complaining about having to do certain transactions over the phone, but o my....it all seems to take forever.  Gone, for now at least, are the days when I can make an appointment for an in person appointment. When by meeting face to face with an FA, everything is accomplished within a half hour or less, the transaction is put into the system and by the end of the day it has gone through.  Looking at the time right now, I know I have missed today's deadline for getting everything completed before tomorrow and that irritates me, as I called right when the bank opened this morning to get this procedure underway. Sigh....why do I find it so difficult to wait?  Because I don't trust this process. It has let me down before and created problems for me.  Since I will not be here next week to dipsy doodle around and start again after the weekend, I feel a bit agitated about waiting for this call and wish I didn't get so stressed out by these things. God will deal with it all, it will all work out in the end as it always has, but I am getting worn out from these new pandemic protocols that continue to change weekly.  I have been waiting to have a shower and get dressed, not realizing the change in procedure, AGAIN, would delay me this badly.  

It is serious wasp season once again.  They are looking for more food and places to nest for wintering over their eggs....or however wintering over and re-emerging in the spring works in the Wonderful World of Wasps.  I should do some simple research and find out more about that process.  However, for now all I know is that it is time for the annual ducking and batting and running routine to protect ourselves from the hordes of the danged things. They are EVERYWHERE!  They hang out around our back deck because of the tomatoes ripening out there. Subsequently they make every attempt to fly into the house every time we open the door.  They hover around our vehicle by the dozens, making it very scary to attempt to get inside and shut the door fast enough to prevent them from travelling with us.  There are hundreds flying around, over and inside the main garbage bins out in the parking lot, so even disposing of our garbage bags turns into a marathon of dodging and dipping and swatting and racing back to the house. hahaha  Always crazy in September trying to avoid being stung by these determined little creatures.

This afternoon my husband has his eye appointment. I pray and hope that he ends up with the correct prescription for both his middle distance and reading glasses and I REALLY hope he doesn't need distance glasses because three new pair is going to break the bank. However, I am grateful he is willing to go and take care of his eyes.  He is so disappointed that his eyes have never been able to adjust to progressive lenses.  He has tried three times now in the past ten years and it just hasn't been a good thing.  Our son has his eye appointment today as well.  He is paying the price of going to a private clinic. Last year he went to the public clinics and he had a very bad experience, felt he was being pushed through the system with insufficient time for a proper check, the doctor made it clear he had no time to answer my son's questions and in the end he came away with no glasses and has spent a year losing even more vision....not a good situation for a visual artist!   Well, he has hit his 40's and that is when major changes in vision can start to happen.  He has noticed he is sitting too close the the tv and computer screens and is having trouble with close up reading as well.  I can relate to that. It happened to me when I was 9 years old!  So grateful for my progressives!

Well, I have wasted enough of your time blithering about nothing just to fill the time while I await a call back from the bank.  Sigh....God, You are really pushing me to relax and I am trying, I am trying. hahahaha  This is a lesson I have struggled all my life to learn and I am glad that even though I am now old, God has not given up on attempting to teach me to be patient!!

Good Thing I Nailed The Cook On the Eggplant At Dinner.....

 ....because the rest of my day was a disaster of huge proportions in terms of my ability to think clearly!!!!  Aiiii yiiiiii......

I have been letting a lot of circumstances in my life right now "get to me" of late.  Today was the culmination of too many months of carrying the emotional load for the rest of my family.  Today I completely lost it mentally!

First thing this morning I got mixed up about what time it was and nearly missed eating my breakfast at the right time for my diabetic self.  Then I nearly forgot to eat lunch at all because I was engrossed in writing an anniverary greeting email instead of watching the time....an email that turned out to be totally unnecessary because the folks who I was sending the greeting to actually had their anniversary LAST month, but I had put the wrong date into my calendar.  Oh well, hahaha, I thought...one red face for me because I thought I had just forgotten already that I sent them a card on the proper date.  But NO!  The card I was remembering was actually the birthday greeting I sent to HER earlier this year....or maybe it was the graduation card I sent to her son in June.....sigh....if it hadn't been that I have gone through this before when under similar loads of stress in times past....LONG past, I would be seriously concerned about my mental state.  To add insult to injury, as the saying goes, when I was making dinner tonight I was nearly finished cooking the main dish when I realized I had forgotten to make the rice base for it.  BIG, HUGE, LOUD, EMBARRASSED sigh.....

But at least I nailed the cook on the eggplant for the first time in my life.  We are not big eggplant fans, but the other day we received the most beautiful little eggplant ever from one of my husband's parishioners and we wanted to eat it right away.  For once I took the time to slice the eggplant into VERY thin slices, instead of getting bored and leaving them too thick to cook through properly. Instead of skimping on the olive oil in the frying pan I dowsed every slice liberally and let them cook down to quite a soft texture before adding in a bit of water (and diced garlic and ginger) to finish steaming the purple skin.  Instead of trying to rush the process, I took my time and voila, perfectly cooked eggplant for a change!  While this mixture was cooking, I fried some minced turkey leg with a few chunks of green pepper we received from that same parishioner, as well as soy sauce and sliced green onions.  I got my rice made then created a bed of it on each plate for the mixture of eggplant and turkey and it tasted quite good.  It was fun making something new for a change.  

My husband worked VERY hard today: filling and sealing the latest cracks and holes in the basement foundation.  It was an all day process because he did such a good job, building in a wicking system so that if we do get more cloudbursts or long term rain buildup like we had last week any water that still finds its way in through or around those cracks will end up in a pail and not all over the floor like last time.  I am so happy he had the energy and I hope he doesn't pay for it by having a miserable day tomorrow.  He has  his monthly meeting with his political discussion group in the morning on ZOOM and is looking forward to that.  I will run around doing banking while he is meeting with his friends.

This afternoon I ended up spending nearly three hours looking after an incapacitated friend while her husband took his chance to get out and do some errands.  That was more than twice as long as I should have stayed when I had things to do at home, but her husband needed the break. He still wasn't home when I absolutely HAD to leave, so I helped her get out of her chair in the living room that she managed to sit in for over 2 hours and helped her back into bed where she would be safe until her husband returned.  It amazed me how, after a morning of being COMPLETELY dibbled and stressed out, the long dormant elder care skills came back to me. I haven't done elder care for about 25 years!!  Helping in the washroom, preparing a bed to be comfortable for the client, arranging blinds and opening windows, preparing soft lighting, making sure meds and phone are by the bed within easy reach, putting warm fuzzy socks on the client's feet.....I am so happy that my mind was working on all cylinders by that time of the day.  Dear Lord, I pray it doesn't take me as long tomorrow to get my head working properly as it did today.

I am asking God to either lift some of the family stress off my shoulders or help me to better access his available grace to deal with it all better than I have been over the past month or more.  Here's hoping....

So Far, So Good!

 After jumping through a lot of hoops, it seems it will be okay to continue the blog posts. Here's hoping, hahaha.  I am glad of that. Unfortunately the tech changes do not mean changes to the boredom level of these posts about my daily life, but at least they are cathartic for myself. hahaha

Despite the tech stresses yesterday it was still a very good day after all.  Round about noon my husband decided he was craving Chinese food, so two minutes after he expressed this craving, I found myself being carted off to one of the few Chinese restaurants in town that still serves lunch!  The restaurant shall remain nameless, because it wasn't horrible, but it wasn't very great either and we have eaten far better meals there pre-pandemic, so I am hoping yesterday's food prep was an anomaly on the space-time continuum! hahaha  Yeah.....my husband's wasn't too bad and the steamed broccoli in my dish was fabulous, but the chicken wasn't cooked well, nor had it been removed properly from the chicken, so a lot of it ended up staying on my plate, but at least the flavours were excellent.  I doubt we will go there again any time soon, but my husband's need for Chinese food was satisfied and we were the ONLY customers in the giant eating space, so that was fabulous!!  

I accomplished some home chores yesterday and today my husband is finally completing the basement wall sealing project. YAY!!  He is still not feeling very well, but he is enough better today to want to get it all done and over with.  YAY!!!

Our son phoned us last evening. We had a marvellous chat, a long and personal chat.  It was fabulous for all of us to be able to speak our minds, share our opinions, start making tentative plans for a future visit here in Canada and for my son to have the time to also phone his grandmother and make her day VERY happy.  It was grand getting caught up on his news about work, outfitting the new apt., his girlfriend's play opening this week in Philadelphia, and his upcoming optometrist appointment where he will be getting his first pair of glasses!  He is taking good care of his health and that makes his old parents happy.

My husband goes to his eye doctor tomorrow and he will also be getting new glasses and they are badly needed as well.  YAY!

Well, time to go and ready for a visit with a friend....a friend....I have friends!  Hallelujah!!

What A Blessed Evening!

 Tonight was “just what the doctor ordered” for us both! Thank you Lord! 

My husband’s young cousin and her boyfriend dropped over and we took a walk together around a tree lined neighbourhood in the lovely evening weather. What a beautiful end of summer night. Then we came back to our place for a visit. We shared a taste of the home made sour cherry mead our guests presented us with, then my husband baked the tastiest German peach kukken (kuchen, cucken, cuken, cookin’?? I need to find out how to spell that word!!!) he has made to date and we ate the entire pan’s worth!! We washed it down with strong black tea. We went out to our little herb garden and filled several large bags with part of the remainder of our herbs. We have dried as many as we need for ourselves and it is time to give the rest away, then get the pots emptied and stored for winter before our upcoming trip. By the time they left, on foot, for their two kilometre walk home, we had also loaded them down with the whole pot of remaining marjoram and a pot full of roses! Oh, and two large books about the Crusades and medieval weaponry! We all had a grand time and my husband and I are delighted these young people want to spend time with us! Now we are staying up way too late because we need to gear down from the excitement of having company and all the laughter we shared with them tonight. We are getting to old to have such fun! Haha!

Thank You Anti-Vaxxers For This 4th Wave of Coronavirus!

 I am angry this morning.  I feel justified in my anger today because the deliberate ignorance of others is now affecting sensible folk.  A friend who was unwittingly exposed recently at an event where she later discovered herself to be one of the only double vaccinated people present in a large group of anti-vaxxers....long story....now is struggling with a mild case of Coronavirus.  Several of the other people, completely unvaccinated, are also VERY ill with the virus and two of them are now in ICU.  

I use the term "deliberate ignorance" because there are many factual research essays, articles and scientific journals that can be researched to learn about the vaccines, but too many people are reading articles by Lord knows who on social media sites and believing every oddball, scientifically unsubstantiated blurb out there and there are hundreds if not thousands of them floating around on the internet.  I suppose it is less time consuming and mentally strenuous not to bother doing actual research and just grab onto whatever wierd conspiracy theory that makes you comfortable with the position you have chosen to have in regard to vaccinations.  Thank God your parents didn't have the same problems accepting your childhood vaccinations so you haven't already died from polio or tetanus.  There was no long term research for those either when they were first given.

Thank you anti-vaxxers that because of the growing number of Coronavirus cases among your numbers, it appears I may be unable to assist my mother with doctors' appointments and other necessary errands I was supposed to be doing with her next week as the possibility of a 4th wave lockdown at her facility is now looming.  As you tie up ICU beds and add more stress to an already overly stressed medical system here on the prairies, those of us who have been following the mandates to protect ourselves and OTHERS (remember the concept of "OTHERS"???) are being penalized because of your refusal to listen to reason.  (No, it is not an inability in most cases, it is a deliberate refusal.)  Friends who have already been waiting for surgeries to relieve them of ongoing pain and illness, waiting for a couple of years already in some cases, have had their wait times extended once again because all available medical staff are once again being rerouted into Covid Care.  A lady I attended church with yesterday has been waiting the usual two years for hip and knee replacements and now has been told she will have to wait another 5-7 months because of this. She is now so crippled up she can hardly walk and her back and hips have become twisted. Even after surgery now, she will not have the outcome she should have and it is because of the extended wait.

If anti-vaxxers want to put themselves at risk of extreme illness or even death then that is their choice, but unfortunately that choice affects the rest of society and that is what makes me angry.  I see people I know suffering because others didn't care enough about people other than themselves and their own fear that the government is controlling us through health mandates to get vaccinated and do what they could do to protect all of us, including themselves.  

 

 I can't apologize for this rant. I am fed up to the back teeth by people who are so self-centered that they care not one whit about the rest of the population.

Just Another "Sacred Sunday", That's My Fun Day.....

 I do enjoy Sunday's like this one! The weather is what I consider to be perfect: sunshine, an afternoon temperature of about +21C, NO discernable breeze, not even the threat of rain.....yup, a perfect kind of day despite being awake since 2:50am.  (Nope, don't know why.)

I went with my husband to his church this morning so that I could help him drive if he needed it.  His CFS inspired ennui had reached a point where he was barely functional as we arrived at the church.  However, not unexpectedly, once he got in there, donned his clergy duds and strode to the front of the church to lead the service, he came alive as though someone had flipped an ON switch!  His voice was full of joy and teasing, his preaching inspired, and he took lots of time after the service to chat with his parishioners who he has not seen in the past five weeks due to his being on holidays.  I assumed he would crash out again once we drove away home, but his energy remained up and he was determined we were going to go out for lunch.  After discovering that most of his favourite hamburger haunts are closed on Sundays at lunchtime, he decided it was time to try Bushwakkers once again after about a 3 year moratorium on us going there because he didn't care for the food that much.  Well, he certainly enjoyed the food today.  He ordered their special "Steak Sandwich and a Pint".  The steak was a huge piece of decent quality beef, cooked to medium rare perfection and he loved the string fries...slightly salted, but mostly coated in paprika, which gave them a tasty flavour to go along with the steak.  I ordered a chicken caesar salad and it came with garlic toast....amazing....just like the "good old days" when being served a piece of garlic toast with a caesar salad was standard practise, none of today's need to order the toast ala carte, if the restaurant even has such a thing!  The chicken was plentiful and I had a choice of plain or blackened chicken.  I would have enjoyed the blackened chicken, but it is always SO SALTY that I knew my diabetic kidneys would never forgive me!  Plain was just wonderful thank you and the dressing was garlicky and not too thickly applied....it was a tasty treat.  Two thick slices of fresh lemon made my diet cola taste quite marvellous too.  I am so grateful my husband's church service starts at 10am because we made it back to the city in plenty of time to have most of our lunch consumed before the restaurant filled with football fans enjoying a meal and a few glasses of beer prior to today's game against the Winnipeg team.  The number of fans for the Roughriders and Blue Bombers entering the restaurant as we were leaving  was huge and there was good natured ribbing back and forth between the fans of the opposing teams.  I was remembering living in a town in Alberta years ago, where that kind of good natured rivalry often escalated into the exchanging of fists and nasty words with little provocation. I am grateful that so many sports fans here are generallly more laid back than some of their AB counterparts.

Once we got home my husband was able to complete the contacting of readers for his sister's upcoming funeral service and emailing them their parts to rehearse at home.  He has been on the go since before 8am, it is now on the way to 5pm and the exhaustion has only now caught up with him.  Hallelujah that he has lasted this long without feeling like he is going to collapse from being so tired.

I enjoyed watching MY church's morning service online this afternoon.  Some of my favourite scriptures from Psalm 150 and Habakkuk were read and preached on by our seniors' chaplain and she did a grand job. She reminded me of the charismatic preachers we used to listen to in the 1970's, making the scriptures so practical for daily living and being so enthusiastic about praising God in all circumstances. We even sang a couple of choruses from back in "the day" that I have always loved. I am so glad I got to enjoy both services today.  

It is nearly time to go and prepare dinner....this has been a wonderful, fast moving day after a day so slow going yesterday that I thought the boredom and ensuing depression would do me right in!  I was so depressed yesterday, so lacking in the kind of creative thought required to think of something useful to do, that I spend the ENTIRE afternoon reading a novel!!! It wasn't even a great novel!!  Aaaargh!  I am so happy that today I am more cheerful and had more interesting things to do and think about!

My husband pulled himself out of his stupor late yesterday afternoon and toddled off to a church wardens' meeting.  The man at whose house they met sent home items from his garden: a brilliantlly red tomato, two large green peppers and a perfectly shaped egg plant!  Who knew anyone could grow eggplants around here, but he had planted them in "Dutch pots" that held in the intense heat we had most of the summer and with his regular watering routine, he has been innundated with these incredible eggplants and peppers.  What a treat for us!

Tomorrow we have to start getting ready for our trip to Alberta.  With the return in some sectors to some of the previous pandemic requirements for masking, hand sanitizing and distancing, I am praying very hard that Mom's facility won't decide it is best to go into lock down before we ever arrive there!!!  From my mouth to God's ear!!

A "So Happy Together" Kind Of Day

 I love days like this one!  Despite feeling tough from his CFS and the constant headache it brings, my husband woke up this morning determined to accomplish a few things if I would be willing to help him.  Yup, no worries!  

So we got our hotels booked for the upcoming AB trip, talked to his brother in law about some of the funeral arrangements that need changing due to the huge COVID numbers there, got some tv programmes previously recorded onto a computer file as we have a friend who wants to watch them over at his house with my husband....he is an architect and my husband is a carpenter, so the NOVA programmes about restoring different buildings around the world are of interest to both of them.  I cleared ALL the storage shelves in the basement that are sitting in front of the foundation cracks most recently opened up due to the force of the wind driving huge rainfalls into each side of the building during consecutive storms and now my husband is mixing up the various compounds he needs to fill them up before we get more rain and wind. Fortunately it shouldn't be for awhile, but you never know around here at this time of year. The forecast can change within minutes it seems.

Tonight's dinner will be leftovers from earlier in the week. I have so many leftovers in the refrigerator that there is no room to squeeze so much as a thin slice of cheese into it!!!! So tonight we will feast on Japanese seafood soup, hotdogs with swiss chard relish, baked potatoes and carrots, as well as pasta with a spicy sausage and tomato-onion sauce.  I think that mix is sufficiently eclectic even for the two of us!

Sometime this morning as I was rearranging cartons in the refrigerator, I must have bumped the little knob that tells the fridge and freezer how cold they are supposed to be. Sigh....a few moments ago my husband found a puddle on the floor in front of the refrigator and discovered water dripping from under the freezer door.  Wow....good thing he discovered it when he did. The bread and cheese in the freezer are nearly completely thawed and the meat would have been the next victim by the feel of the packages.  The little temperature knob had been spun all the way around to 0, instead of sitting at the proper temperature setting.  Aiiii yiiiiiii.....I haven't been in the kitchen since lunch time, so by the time I might have found the problem all the meat in the freezer would have been too thawed to re-freeze! Thank you Lord for my husband's sharp eyes this afternoon!!

Yes, it has been a good day of doing things together, even discovering what could have been a serious problem and getting it solved!!

Remebering My Sister In Law

 This is how I will always remember her: dressed up with a glass of nice wine in her hand, enjoying herself and her husband and family.  Miss you sister in law, very much!

Feeling A Tad Frantic Right Now!

 I am trying to reach my son in NYC, but having no success. Sigh......  His last big push at work after a summer of overtime was yesterday, a long day that ended at some point after the storms from Hurricane Ida slammed into New York State. I am watching the videos of New York’s subway system flooding last night, the sections of the system he would have used to get home. In the videos water is pouring over top of the subway cars and gushing onto the platforms in the stations. First responders were rescuing people from out of the train cars. Eight people in my son’s area drowned in the basements of their homes. Several other people drowned and n their cars. New Jersey, Pennsylvania and Delaware are also suffering from flooding. What a disaster! 

——————————————Later:

Just heard from our son and he and his girlfriend are fine. Thank God! Fortunately for him, he was so late getting off work that his subway line had already shut down. He didn’t know how to get home, so he sat outside on a raised restaurant patio eating a chicken sandwich while he watched the storm going on all around him. Eventually he found a taxi driver who figured out a route to get him home safely, but it was a harried trip. Today he is relaxing at home appreciating the sunshine that broke through the clouds at last. 

So many more places and people to pray for in view of this latest global warning/hurricane disaster. Despite decades of talking about how to repair infrastructures and plan in advance for handling environmental disasters we are still woefully unprepared.