"Curses, Foiled Again!"--Snidely Whiplash from "Rocky and Bullwinkle" Cartoons

I am feeling somewhat like dear old Smiley Whiplash myself this morning!  My husband and I had great plans this morning to travel the city picking up some items we desperately need to purchase before the supply chain disruptions leave us in danger of missing out.  However, the weather had other plans for us.  A light coating of freezing rain descended between 8am and 9am and wow....far too unsafe for me to go anywhere.  Even the city side streets that have grit left on them from the last blizzard made tires spin as vehicles tried to stop.  So, we settled for a quick drive over to the nearest grocery store for a few food items and will try going out again tomorrow for the rest of the non-food items.  My dear husband kindly took my arm and escorted me to our vehicle out in the icy parking lot, then dropped me right at the front door of the store after ascertaining that there was a liberal sprinkling of ice-melt on the sidewalk so I wouldn't fall and break bones in the process of buying a loaf of bread and a couple of litres of milk!!  Bless him.  We crawled along the street to and from the store in our icy vehicle without incident and both of us managed to stay upright when bringing the groceries into the house. Thank you Lord!!

It has been a crazy, busy, wonderful few days around here.  On the weekend we had dinner with our Egyptian friends. Turns out they have recently moved back here and were able to move back into their house as the family members who were renting it have work elsewhere now. Fewer people than I anticipated translated into less chaotic visiting. What a grand time we had reuniting and sharing our stories from the past two years or more since we saw each other.  The food was spectacular as always!  Oh my....where to start!  There were tubes of phyllo pastry stuffed with feta and spinach, tubes of phyllo pastry stuffed with beef and onions, a rice pilaf with green beans, yellow raisins, onion and bits of chicken.  There was a giant casserole dish of braised beef shank. There was a platter of stuffed potatoes that looked like stuffed peppers...absolutely delicious and stuffed with hamburger and tomato. There were pickles: carrots and cauliflower buds and onions.  There was pita bread.  I took the desserts: an assortment of Lebanese cookies that were so fresh and tasty.  Grandma attacked one particular kind that was stuffed with a clear jelly and ate nearly the entire plateful herself.  She said she has not had them since leaving Egypt several years ago.  Oh how she enjoyed them.  After dinner the men departed to watch a movie and have a talk and I got to spend the evening with my dear friend who told me about all the moving and disasters and family issues and and and and that this family has endured since they first moved away.  She and her sons spend most of the summer back home in Cairo. What a great time I had watching videos of the three of them riding camels and horses across the desert, driving dune buggies in a desert recreational area behind the pyramids and swimming in the Red Sea.  Egypt as a country certainly has its problems, but it is such a beautiful country that I am rather envious of friends who are currently there on a teaching sabbatical.  I would love to see it for myself.

Sunday was a happy day as well.  We were able to go to the Adult Sunday school class and learn more about laments in the psalms and how to use those psalms in our prayer lives today.  We were able to be present in the church service to say farewell to a departing associate pastor and to enjoy visiting Many, many friends after the service.  It was very nice weather outside the church, so there was no rush to go anywhere. we stood around chatting for a long time, getting caught up with various friends we have not seen much of since the pandemic began.  We were determined to at least greet every person we know at church because with the onset now of the Omicron Variant, who knows if we will end up isolating again for part of the winter until the medical and scientific communities can find out if our current vaccinations will stand up to the new mutation!???!

After church we went for lunch at Tipsy Samurai. They were sold out of a lot of items after a big rush of customers the night before. For the first time we were  disappointed in what turned out to be a very overpriced meal with not much content to it.  We will not go there on a Sunday morning again.  What we ate was tasty, but there were elements of my meal that were missing compared to the last time I ordered the same meal  and the price was not reduced because of that.  Oh well...we still had a nice time being out and about and sharing our views on the happenings at church.  I spent the afternoon ironing the previous day's laundry, so my whole day was productive.  

Yesterday was another good day. I spent the morning tidying up from some of the weekend projects and in the afternoon my husband's cousin from Alberta came over to visit for a few hours. He and his wife are visiting their daughter who lives in our city. Unfortunately she was working, so we missed seeing her, but it was a wonderful visit with her parents that we truly enjoyed!!  Their family was an incredible help at my husband's sister's funeral dinner back in September. We will never forget all they did for the rest of the family.

After the visit we decided we were incredibly hungry, but neither of us had any interest in the leftovers in our refrigerator. My husband was craving Chinese food or Thai food or Vietnamese food, so he drove us to a tiny, rather elderly oriental restaurant not too far from here: Nhu Y Tea Tree.  The decor was pretty basic, not appealing in the least, but the food was quite delicious and there were heaping plates of it for the most reasonable prices we have seen in a long time.  My husband had massaman curry with rice and it was delicious. I ordered a combo for $12.99 that included a small bowl of wonton soup....watery, but still very tasty with two small wontons, sliced green onion and bits of cabbage. It also included a choice of spring roll and I chose the crispy Thai style...hmmm....the only disappointment in the meal.  It was a tube of delicious, greasy crispness, but inside there was a small bundle of egg noodles and little else for flavour. No matter, the rest of the combo made up for it: a delicious mound of friend rice, a LOT of the mixed fresh veggies on a small bed of egg noodles and a huge helping of  theThai version of ginger chicken....just the thin strips of meat, minus the carbohydrate filled batter that comes on the original Canadian version. The ginger taste was in the yummy sauce, and the meat itself was saturated in lovely ginger flavour.  We enjoyed our meals immensely, dreadful decor and all. For under $30 for two people for dinner, who cares about decor?? Right? Of course right!

 We only have three more days of the November Sumo Tournament left to watch.  It has been a great basho...so far no one has been removed due to injuries.  Looks like Terunofuji is going to win his third in a row, but you never know at these meets what can happen in the last bout of the tournament.  The tournament ended this past Sunday, but we have been recording it and watching it at our leisure.  Thankfully Sumo winners are rarely if ever reported in any of our newsfeeds, so we still don't know who actually won.  We will watch the rest of the tournament later today and find out.

Housework will dominate the rest of my week I think.  The dust is getting built up again on all the desks and tables. I am noticing some lint on the carpet....time for a good going over. However, it will likely have to wait a couple of days as we hope to go out tomorrow to complete our thwarted venture of today.

Mom had an unexpected appointment with her doctor yesterday....nothing too serious probably, but he did want to see her in person. She called his office in the morning and her appointment was right after lunch.  WOW!  She managed just fine with the taxi and in the doctor's office. I am praying today that she is not too exhausted to go on her facility bus to a special outing at Red Lobster. She has been looking forward to it for a month!  Tomorrow she has to go to a walk in clinic for an x-ray of her hip that is bothering her. She likely pulled the muscles badly lifting something last week that was too heavy for her, but since it is the hip that was replaced in 1997, it will be good to check it out and make sure a pull is all of the problem.  Once again she has to go alone in a taxi to a medical appointment. It hurts my heart that I am not there with her.

Our son is still waiting to find out about his art works stored in a Richmond storage unit. At this point there is little to be done but wait for the terrible rain storm parade to finally come to an end.  While everything may be fine today, another storm or two could wipe the facility right out.  He is trying not to worry, trying to trust God that good will come out of the situation whatever has happened to his life's work.  Sigh....O how I feel for him, waiting and wondering day after day.  

The time is flying past today. It is time for lunch. I have a small submarine style loaf that I will turn into a pizza bun. It already has cheese and onion baked into the crust, so it should be very tasty.  

Have a happy day everybody!    

Livin' In A Sci-Fi World

This font is called "Quicksand" and it seems an appropriate font to use these days as quicksand is what I feel my feet are mired in at the moment.

My world seems to be turning into a world of science fiction in some ways.  The Covid Crisis, our current and ongoing pandemic, is surging and resurging all over the world.  The virus is creating variants faster than the medical establishment can come up with cures, deflections, vaccinations and hygienic helps.  The variants are being tagged with names like Delta Variant and Omicron. 

"Delta Variant"?? "Omicron"?  These are virus names straight out of my childhood science fiction television programme days, straight out of "Lost In Space" and "My Favourite Martian", then in later years "Star Trek" and "Third Rock From The Sun"!!!  They are supposed to remain in the realm of science fiction and  not invade my REAL life!!  No, they are NOT!! 

Now however, the Corona Virus and the rise of all its apparently never ending variants seems destined to designate the borders of my future life plans and daily behaviours until I am no longer living on this earth.

Mutating is what all viruses do.  That is one reason human beings, even the best medical and biological scientists, have not completely cured/conquered/eliminated the so-called "common cold" and other viruses that have raged among us with great acceptance for so many decades, but that have not generated the kind of short term world wide death toll that the Corona Virus and its mutations have.  (Isn't Corona supposed to be the name of a light Mexican beer?  Is there a reason it couldn't have just stayed that way? Did it have to be assigned to a death dealing virus that is ruining life for so many peope around the world?  Even if somehow the Corona Virus came to be completely eliminated, I could never drink a bootle of Corona beer again without the whole Corona Virus pandemic being played out in my mind. I am not a beer drinker, but you get my drift.....)

On three different evenings this past week we have had the deepest red, most incredibly amazing sunsets I have ever seen.  Looking out at the red sky as it surrounds the dome of our provincial parliament buildings presents a scene right out of a movie such as "The War of the Worlds" or "Independence Day".  

I feel like I am living in a kind of bad dream some days, what with the state of the world and all: pandemics, flooding, heat waves, "wars and rumours of war........". 

Lord, give us courage and give us your help and shower us with your undeserved mercy, just 'cause.....you know....you created us and all that is........ Thank you.  Amen!

Brrrrrr, Brrrrrr, Shiver, Shiver, Shake, Shake, Chatter, Chatter!!!! Second Verse Same As The First!!!

 It is freakin' cold in this suite!!  Whatever insulation was left in the walls when we moved in seven winters ago seems to have completed its decades long settling process and I spend the winters with blue hands and feet, a stiff neck and a bad case of the chattering, shaking, shivering, brrrrrr's!!  

Tonight I got fed up with being so cold all the time. While it is definitely a great way to burn carbs, all this shivering and shaking and chattering, it is perplexing as to why I am this chilled to the bone after only one day of below zero weather during the daytime hours!

Tonight I rebelled against the cold. Since my regular winter wear outfits do not seem to make much of a difference to my body temperature, I decided to just wear every warm item I have all at the same time.

Ergo I am wearing my thick baby pink, blue and green reading socks over top of a pair of navy and cream striped knee high socks, fleece lined moccasins on my feet. I am wearing a blue and white variegated striped knee length flannel nightgown, with a floor length red and black striped thick cotton housedress over top and over top of that I am wearing a brown, grey and navy knee length woolly cardigan. Around my neck is a cream coloured wool dress scarf that is wound around twice and tied at the throat.  I have another larger cotton scarf tied over my head babushka style and baby, after spending the past five hours in this getup, I am FINALLY WARM!!!!

Good grief!  I can be grateful that the pandemic has reduced the number of people coming into our home, because as long as we are alone in here, I will be wearing said getup an awful lot this winter, particularly when the temperatures drop to between -20C and -40C later in December and January/February.

I feel like a bag lady. I look like a bag lady.  Now I know how bag ladies stay warm on the streets in the winter............I have discovered their wardrobe secrets!

Beating the Start Of Winter Blues

 Yesterday my annual start of the winter blues finally ended and my energy and enthusiasm about life returned! YIPPEE!!!  These blues happen every year so I was fairly confident they would pass after a week or two......or three.....

Yesterday was also a great day of cooking and catering and visiting with our friends.  I spent the morning making a pasta and chicken casserole and getting the fixings ready for a guacamole dressing for the salad.  Olive bread rounded out the main course and my husband made a delicious phann kuchen with some Gala apples for dessert.

Our friends were wide eyed as we carried in the boxes of food and all the dishes and tableware we would need for the meal. What fun!  It was marvellous to just pack up all the dirty dishes and take them home to wash later, so as not to interrupt our excellent visit with dish washing. There were enough leftovers for all four of us to have for lunch today. Bonus!

When we arrived home we discovered a message from our former neighbours, our beloved Egyptian friends who moved to the Vancouver area after they left here.  Suddenly they are back here staying with relatives and we suspect it may be because of the flooding in their home area.  They are very excited to invite us to dinner there on the weekend, so what a hoot that is going to be after not seeing any of them for the past two years.  It will be the usual bedlam I am sure with 5 energetic kids, all manner of food served every hour of the evening, lots of laughter, a blaring television and the hourly Muslim prayers, in Arabic, being piped into the house via their media system.  hahaha  It is always total chaos, but so much fun.  We have missed our friends and are thrilled that they want to see us again.  Such a blessing!

This afternoon we were able to sort out the problem with our tv cable bill. The upshot of it being their mistake is that we are ending up with a whole month of our most expensive channel package free of charge!  Isn't that cool? Another little "extra" provision as we move into retirement income loss. I am very impressed I have to say.

Our son has decided to wait until the next three forecast horrendous rain storms stop battering the west coast over the next week before he calls his storage unit again to check on his paintings.  Although they may be just fine at the moment, this next series of storms will be targeting the area where his storage unit is with far more intensity than last week's debacle.  No point having a false sense of security when it will be "easier" to get any bad news after the storm waters recede.  For this evening he is taking a walk through Central Park with his girlfriend's family and then they will go to Auntie's house for a big American Thanksgiving meal along with some early Hanukkah treats, since Hanukkah begins on Sunday.  I am happy he has such a good relationship with his girlfriends's family, that they have welcomed him so warmly.  

My husband is setting up a better arrangement for his sleeping at nights, a better method of keeping his head up to prevent so much drainage from his sinuses from going into his ears.  He spends every prairie winter fighting dizziness all day long for months on end, but has always insisted on lying flat on the mattress to sleep at night.   I have conquered my own similar problems by that simple method and I pray, pray, pray it works for him.  On top of dealing with CFS and PTSD, he also battles dizziness daily for months at a time in this dry winter weather.  I don't know how he has managed to keep going for the past 30 or more years!!!  God has given him the strength to continue, but once he isn't working any more it will be a lot easier to take care of his daily health needs.

Heard good news from friends in Nova Scotia that they are not in the flooded area of the province. Whew! Now I can concentrate my prayers on those in NS and Labrador/Newfoundland who are suffering from flood damage and trauma.

Tomorrow I will head up to Amado's eastern foods and pick up some fresh pitas for my husband and some delicious phyllo pastry desserts to take to our Egyptian friends' place on the weekend. It can be our contribution to the dinner.  Whether we end up eating home made delicacies or order in Halal pizzas, it is going to be a wonderful time.

Sunday morning we will try to get to my church service to share in the farewell for our assistant pastor who is returning to the Maritimes with his family.  

 It is going to be a busy, happy weekend around here, winter and all!! hahaha I am so grateful to be seeing so many friends this week! Hallelujah!!

That's What I Call A True Building Renovator!!

 

The proof is in the picture. Way to go my dear!

I Feel Too Old To Be A Senior...Is There Another Even Older Popular Category?

 This morning I went for my first senior shopping extravaganaza in about  a month. Wow....6:10am seemed to arrive an awfully short time after I turned the lights out the night before!!  O well...I was at SaveOn just before 7am and had the store pretty much to myself apart from the staff.  I was amazed at the emptiness of the produce section and many of the shelves in the centre of the store. The meat department was depleted of what I generally buy there; not one loaf of my seed bread was available and no one in the bakery seemed to have any idea when there would be more on the racks.  I asked the check out clerk what was going on and she said that beside being a bit short on stock to start with, people here spent the past weekend panic buying due to the flooding in BC that is creating supply chain shortages in many stores there.  She said yesterday's buyers pretty much put them out of some items completely and when those things will be available again is anyone's guess.  I came away from there with less than 1/4 of the items I planned to purchase there.

So, on to the detested Real Canadian Superstore a few blocks north on Albert.  I had no plan to go there originally, but it is the closest store that is open at 7am in the area.  Wow.....more empty shelves, and many severely depleted ones.  For some reason there seems to have been another run on paper products, even though many of the stores do not get those stocks from the west coast.  Soooooo, between a lack of product and a reorganization of some of the aisles, I did manage to find some of the things I couldn't get at SaveOn, but when I got home it was still without several badly needed items.  I unloaded the groceries and unpacked them, then headed over to Mike's Independent, another Loblaws subsidiary, but a well run one, unlike that dreadfully dirty and disorganized RC Superstore on Albert.  There were all the things I couldn't get elsewhere and in abundance!  YAY!  Apparently the customers there didn't get the "memo" others got and so there had been no run on any specific products at Mike's.  Thank the Lord!

The increase in some of the prices is rather daunting, I have to say.  I had a certain total in mind that I was willing to spend, but to just get these things we needed cost me nearly double what I had budgeted for.  Not everything was gouge-priced, but the things that were, well, they were incredibly high in price even at the so-called "discount" grocery stores.  It will be interesting to see how prices go over the next couple of months. With my husband and I both being on special diets there are many less expensive brands of things that we are unable to purchase because they contain some ingredients we cannot eat.  We have found too often that "less" expensive means "more" salt, fat, carbohydrates and corn products.  Yeeeuck!!!

It was nice and warm outside this morning.  I so enjoyed being out there. I had very little ice buildup to scrape off the windshield and walking across store parking lots was quite pleasant!  There wasn't any wind.  Just now I took out the garbage to the bin in the parking lot and the cool wind has started up. The sky has gone from bright sunshine to grey cloudiness as a cold front is moving in that will stay with us for a couple of days.  Our high temperature tomorrow, after being above zero yesterday and today, will only be -12C!  The following day it will begin warming once again to only a degree or two below zero.  In the morning tomorrow I will have to plug the car in for an hour so that my husband can drive to his duties for men's prayer meeting.

We have postponed our trip to the SaskTel offices to deal with our tv issues.  My husband had to attend an early morning meeting today, this afternoon he has to go over his notes for a meeting tonight that he is dreading.  Tomorrow morning is his prayer meeting and in the afternoon we are preparing dinner for some elderly friends and plan to have a lovely evening sharing it with them. The NEXT day we will deal with our tv issues.  There are no other commitments that day, so my husband won't be too stressed or exhausted to deal with the situation.  I would do it by myself but all the bills are in his name, hence he is the one they want to deal with. I will go along to "help out". ( I hope I am a help and not a hindrance.)

Our son sent us the most lovely email last evening. He shared about the inner sadness he experienced in the midst of his while visiting his Vancouver friends and associates earlier this month.  This was the trip where he realized that the ongoing geographical distance and the difference in life experiences between him and his west coast friends is starting to interfere with the closeness with and the ability to relate to each other.  Having experienced that "you can't go home again" sensation a couple of times myself in the past, I can certainly relate to the sadness of the realization of having moved on and the old friends not being able to understand why I and my interests have changed.  Our son is having trouble getting information about the state of his storage locker in Richmond, but is going to try again today to see what is going on after the flooding there.  He is pretty distraught at the idea of losing his entire body of previous artworks. Understandably!!  "Acts of God", including flooding, are often events that are not covered by insurance companies. And so we wait.....

I am SO tired today. I didn't sleep well last night after two very good sleeps in a row and carting all those groceries into the car and then into the house for cleaning and storing, seems to have taken all my energy.  I used to envy Methuselah for his nearly 1000 year life span....NOT TODAY!!!  Today I am not that excited to have to continue pushing one foot in front of the other for the rest of the day.  I feel too old today to be "just" a senior!

Well, That's A Relief! It Is Only A Blanket.

 I haven't slept well for the past couple of weeks.  Ever since the snow and cold weather arrived I haven't been able to get out for daily walks, my indoor exercise has been severely limited for one reason or another, I have had to switch from wearing shoes to wearing winter boots when I leave home and all of these things seemed to have combined to bother my hip hardware terribly.  I have been stiff and sore and unable to get comfortable sitting or lying down for most of the past two weeks.

Last night I discovered the main source of discomfort:  two weeks ago I put a small crocheted blanket on my bed to keep myself warmer in this freezing cold hell hole of a poorly uninsulated bedroom.  Last night it wasn't nearly as cold overnight so I flung the extra blanket off before I even shut the light out.  I slept for over 8 hours after not getting more than 3-5 hours per night since the winter arrived.  When I woke up my hip was not stiff, not sore, not complaining with every step I took.  Problem solved:  the real problem bothering my hip has been the weight of that extra blanket overnight.  I will come up with some other solution to stay warm again when the overnight temperature drops once more a few days from now.  YAY!  I suspect that a light pair of socks worn overnight will solve the hassle of how to stay warm in here.  Double  YAY!!

I have been thinking of little ways to save money once my husband loses his job income in the new year.  So, this morning I used my dishwasher for the last time.  That will certainly lower the electricity and natural gas bills somewhat.  I have set the thermostat at +20C and we are wearing thicker sweaters and woolly socks during the day to compensate for the lower temperature.  It is quite comfortable actually.  We don't move the thermostat up and down, it just remains in place for the winter.  We did that for the first time last winter and noticed a positive difference in our electrical bill.  It also keeps the air in this suite from getting so dry that we have to drink pints of water at bedtime to keep our sinuses from drying out in the winter air that is so lacking in moisture.  Once my husband is done work our weekly Sunday lunches out will also come to an end of course.  For now we are certainly enjoying that little family "tradition", hahaha.  What a great way to let down after a stressful morning of work.  Tomorrow we are going over to the SaskTel office to talk about making cuts to the number of tv channels we currently have. We recently received notice that some of our most favourites are going off the air permanently, channels in packages we have had for awhile are being either repackaged or cancelled altogether.  Coupled with a notice we received from our property management company that the 7 year agreement they have had with our tv provider is coming to an end on December 1st, we have to get this looked after.  So, after some initial online research today, we will head over to the provider's offices tomorrow and try to reset all these things.....a total nuisance, but it has to be done.  Higher speed internet is being installed in our complex, so that is part of the problem.....we have no need for it ourselves, but as a result of it coming in we are in the same turmoil as the other tenants trying to get the phone/internet/tv package deals sorted out.

Yesterday I listened to three different sermons.  To say it was an encouraging and spiritually motivating day is an understatement.  Then this morning my husband and I completed another category on our "stress and burn out" worksheet, which engendered excellent discussion between us and set us up for some good changes in habits and lifestyle in the new year.

Tomorrow morning will be my 7am grocery shopathon. It has been about a month since I picked up such a large order, so hopefully I have enough room in the freezer for what I am purchasing for bread and meat! The out trip will get me geared up and energized for the meeting with SaskTel afterward.  I am going to have to work harder at staying motivated when the sky is grey with cloud day after endless day.  Otherwise it is going to be a boring and unhappy winter.

  

Still Praying, If Nothing Else These Days.....

 If I believed in reincarnation I would have to assume that in my next life I would come back as a slug!  The past 3 days have been a total washout as far as accomplishing anything useful.  This is my third day in a row of not bothering to get dressed because there seems to be no point when I am not going out anywhere.  I am saving the getting dressed thing until it is time to get ready for church tomorrow morning!  I have been reading a murder mystery novel, drawing silly pictures, playing my piano a bit, watching the daily videos from the current Sumo tournament at the Basho in Kyushyu and staring out of the window a lot, watching the grey clouds in the sky that seem to have taken over the sun's daily duty roster.  Although I had a wonderfully refreshing hot shower this morning and washed and styled my hair, that is as far as I got today doing anything useful....oh, and I changed the sheets on the bed. Big whoop, right? 

Slug, slug, slug.......sigh....I WILL get over it, I WILL!

The one productive activity I have participated in each and every day has been prayer and reading my Celtic Daily Devotions.  That has encouraged me that I haven't completely lost touch with life.  I have been praying a lot for Cee and Nan again. Cee was given some hope through a new medication that some of the neuropathy and other debilitating conditions would lessen or go away completely. During the time of taking the meds they did do that, but now he has had to be weaned off it because that is the normal way to use this particular med. Now, since weaning off it, the neuropathy has not only worsened, but is spreading. Other symptoms that the medication gave him relief from have also started returning it seems.  He is waiting for a special appointment with a neurologist in another city, but the referral has not been dealt with and he is still trying to get the appointment, track the referral, get SOMEONE to call him back from one of the many doctors' offices he has had to call trying to chase this appointment down.  The discouragement is hanging heavy for Cee and Nan, so if you should feel so led to pray again for them, they would appreciate it very much.  It is difficult not to feel discouraged when facing the kind of pretty much undiagnosed condition Cee is now struggling with as many of his symptoms are not symptoms of his chronic cancer condition. That condition has responded well to the chemo and now he only has the occasional maintenance dose to contend with.  Wow, Lord, could you at least send him to someone who can figure out what the problem actually is???  Thank you and amen!

Well, it is time for The Slug here to look around and see what she can make for an interesting dinner with what is left over in the refrigerator from her husband's past few days of cooking!  Bless that man!!  Would tossing some of the cooked minced turkey into the remains of the squash soup be creative enough for today?  Yikes.....

Better Preparation Next Time!!

 Watching the continuing coverage of the flooding in BC and the north western USA and listening to the interviews given by some of the folk who were stranded on the highways has given me pause to rethink the way my husband and I have been travelling in recent years.

When I think of how many, DOZENS AND DOZENS, of times over the past 45 years that we have travelled on all the highways and rail lines that are currently washed out, flooded over and otherwise destroyed, without any food or water in the car, without proper travel documents etc., I shake my head in wonder that we never ran into the kind of trouble that the people in those areas are currently experiencing.  

People have been stranded for hours, if not a couple of days, in their vehicles with no sustenance, no medications and no passports during this latest weather debacle.  As a diabetic I shudder to think what would happen to me now if I found myself in such a circumstance.  Back in those golden "good old days", having to cross the US border to take a long, arduous route back to AB across the northern States did not require a passport between countries. Nowadays though, it is an absolute necessity.  Some people are waiting in BC emergency shelters while new passports or other travel documents are being processed for themselves and/or their young passport-less children and until those arrive one way or another, they are stuck in BC, unable to return home to other provinces to the east. 

Personally it wouldn't have occurred to me to take our passports on a trip to another Canadian province, but I will now!  I will also make sure I have at least 24-48 hours worth of water and food supplies.  The rapidity with which these storm systems can move in anywhere across the country and leave people stranded is something I have to keep in mind now when I go anywhere out of town. Thank you global warming! Wow....when I think of how much trouble we could have been in at any time during those long mountain drives and train trips to the west coast years ago.....yikes!  I am so grateful to God that nothing as serious as what is happening now ever happened to us.  Thank you Lord, and please keep rescuing the people, cattle, chickens and pets of those now displaced by flooding and mudslides to the west.  Please help retail and transport companies figure out ways to get supplies in and out of the effected areas.  Thank you Lord for the military volunteers who are trying to help with this mess, as well as all the other government departments left to take care of rebuilding roads and railways as quickly as possible....we talked to Raymond yesterday, a former railroader himself and he told us it could be next spring before the two washed out railway lines can be re-engineered and restored.  The Coq is also going to have to be re-imagined and re-designed before any repairs can be completed and the onset of winter weather means little can be done until the spring thaw. What a terrible mess, what a disaster and what a tragedy for so many people who have lost their homes and/or livelihoods as a result of this weather system.

In happier news, my mom is having a wonderful birthday week.  She was able to go to Happy Hour yesterday for her birthday cake. She was hoping it wouldn't be something chocolate because she isn't supposed to eat chocolate.  WOW, it was not only her favourite white cake, but it was filled with her favourite raspberries, topped with boiled icing and covered in ground nuts.  It was like it had been custom baked just for her!  She had a couple of more birthday calls, plus an old friend came to visit her.  Another much younger friend and her husband are going over to see Mom tomorrow and are bringing lunch to share with her. She is SO excited.  Apart from ourselves and her grandson, the visits she has had this week are the first face to face, in her suite visits she has had since the pandemic shut everything down in March of 2020.  She will be completely exhausted by Sunday morning, but that is okay. She can sleep all day if she wants to.  I refuse to advise her to take it easy, not have so many visitors all at once, etc. like perhaps I should, but she is so happy and has been so terribly lonely that I would prefer she just have fun.  She will shut down the activity when she is ready so I don't need to interfere as she is a grown up woman who is still rational and sane.  

Today we have to sort out some problems with our media bill.  For some reason a big charge for a package of tv channels has disappeared from this month's pre-paid bill. Love the lesser amount of payment, but does this mean we are not going to get any movies or HBO service after December 1st?  SKTel/SaskMax are making some changes and there seems to be some confusion as to what is happening. Guess it is just our turn to be confused. My husband will call them this afternoon and try to find out what is going on.  A special seven year contract with our property management company is coming to an end on December 31 and we suspect our "interesting bill" has something to do with that change.  It would be so nice to have just one day where there are no challenges to living, wouldn't it? hahaha Not to be, not today.......

 

The sun is out, not a lot of warmth, but it is certainly a cheery day. There is no snow coming down, the winds are not as strong as they have been.  I am loving this.  Yesterday when I drove over to a friend's house I discovered that on two of the streets around our complex huge snow drifts had formed across them during the blizzard earlier this week.  Although many vehicles had driven through them, it was still difficult to drive across them without slipping and sliding or getting stuck if not driving fast enough. I am grateful for the anti-skid feature on our vehicle.  I was able to plough my way through without too much problem. 

It was fun visiting with my friend yesterday. She is recovering from a mobility issue as well as facial surgery and has a huge ball of white surgical tape over the end of her nose to hold a skin graft in place.  I told her she should paint it red and I could call her Rudolph!  hahaha  She was in great spirits and ready to be teased about it.  I took some baked beans and turkey soup over and apparently her husband was thrilled to have a chance not to cook dinner, so they ate the whole works. hahahaha  I was sure there was enough food there for 2 meals for them, but they were so glad to eat something besides scrambled eggs and sandwiches that they confessed to getting somewhat carried away. hahaha  Once my friend is able to cook meals again, she happily will, but in the meantime her husband is doing his best to keep them fed.  I feel for him. He is 83, not the optimum time of life to have to learn to cook!

Now I have to go and figure out how to cram the rest of the turkey soup and baked beans, turkey burgers (and now squash soup and baking powder biscuits my husband decided to prepare yesterday when I was at my friends' house) into the freezer!  The poor wee thing is filled right up, but I can't leave this much food in the refrigerator as it is also full to capacity.  As I think of people in the Okanagan who have no food left in their grocery stores and will have a long wait until supplies can be air lifted into their communities, I am tempted to feel ashamed by our own abundance.   

Yup, It's Winter In Saskatchewan!

It Isn't BC Flooding, But It Is Winter In Our Neighbourhood!

                                              Thanks Kat for the photo.  

Yup, we finally have real winter.  Between last night and this morning I had to shovel over two feet of snow off our back deck and steps, not because that much snow fell, but because 90 km winds drifted it onto the deck so badly overnight.  I took about a foot of drift off last night and the same amount again this morning. I had to use a yardstick to push the snow away from the teeny tiny crack between the back door and the townhouse as I couldn't push the door open more than that with the buildup of snow piled against it.  Once that bit of snow got pushed away, I was able to force part of the bristle broom outside and reach around to clear a bit more away from the bottom of the door, enough to sidle out with the shovel and get it all cleared away. My next door neighbour is heavily pregnant and her man has horrendous lung damage, so shovelled them out as well.  Of course I wasn't thinking about the fact that I hadn't had breakfast, so I was pretty light headed when I came back in. Once I got my blood sugar raised I was just fine.  My husband was very grateful that there was very little drift around the car this morning and he was able to easily dislodge the tires from a bit of ice build up and go over to the church where he leads the weekly men's meeting.  He was the only person there of course, but he did the daily office anyway and hied away home again.  It reminded him of being in his first parish where meeting after Bible Study after special service was attended by no one but him and myself no matter how great the weather....not a great confidence booster, but he felt a lot better when he found out how many other of the local ministers had similar issues with their own congregations.  hahaha He rather enjoyed his time alone this morning in the beautiful old church sanctuary.  He wasn't surprised at all that no one else was there, since the weather is horrendous to the point that every road and highway out of Regina continues to be closed since the shut down early last evening.  Blowing snow is a huge hazard.  If the photo above, taken inside the city, showed so much blowing snow how much worse was it on the highways crossing the bald prairies???  So grateful for the sense the RCMP and provincial highways personnel showed by closing everything down!

Today is my mom's 94th birthday!  It is incredible to me how her energy continues to rally after a few down and dirty days of exhaustion and heart condition related depression. Yesterday was a fabulous day for her.  Her happiness quotient was reached when her grandson called her last evening for a long, long chat.  She had lots of help from Beltone with her new hearing aids, she was able to enjoy her favourite BLT sandwich in the dining room at lunchtime, she was able to have help from the staff to get her proper Alberta vaccination passport so she can go with the other residents  on a scheduled outing to Red Lobster in a couple of weeks, she accomplished some of her most dreaded house chore details with no problem, she found out her prescriptions could be delivered from a new pharmacy with no hassle and so they did deliver, she received birthday calls from friends and relatives, as well as birthday cards in the mail....on top of getting herself by taxi to the doctor and to London Drugs the previous day, her week has started off very well after last week's dismal days. Thank you Lord and please bless Mom on this, her 94th birthday.....amazing!  Tomorrow at Happy Hour she will receive a special slice of cake and a balloon to mark the special occasion.  To hear happiness in her voice in the past couple of days blesses me beyond measure!

Remembrances Of Last Winter!

 Today reminds me of last winter, in the height of COVID19, when my husband and I were stuck inside for weeks at a time, watching the weather outside and cooking big pots of soup and baked beans.

Right now we are experiencing 90-100km winds and blowing snow.  We cannot see the housing units on the other side of our parking lot or the naval academy buildings across the street  on the other side of our building.  The wind has blown a blanket of snow nearly 3cm deep in between the window screens and the interior plate glass panes, something new for us.  The temperature remained above zero overnight last night and most of the day, but the freezing winds have pebbled the water from yesterday's rains into bubbly ice that is very, very slippery!  A few pedestrians walking past before the wind made it impossible to be outside at all had to walk across our lawns to prevent falling and I hope they all made it safely to their destinations.

My husband has been baking peach pfannkuchen, sauteing onions, baking potatoes, yams and squash and now has a giant pot of baked beans in the oven  for a late dinner tonight.  He has kicked into winter cooking survival mode and it is pretty hilarious to see him so intent on making sure we have enough healthy root veggies and navy beans to see us through the storm....and probably the next six storms as well!  My dear husband has no idea how to cook in small quantities. I hope he remembers I have no freezer space left for storing any of these things!! hahaha  Guess we will be eating many, many helpings of winter foods over the next week even if the weather improves!!  I am going to have to find a way to balance all those carbohydrate laden root vegetables with lots of protein and non-starchy foods!  Yikes!  I wish, wish, wish I could consume the amount of carbs at one meal that he can with no negative effect on his blood sugar whatsoever.  Food envy supreme........!!!

Our son found out  today that he has likely lost his entire body of Canadian art works due to flooding in the southern BC city where his art works are stored.  If so, it will be a terrible blow for him. The works are of course irreplaceable. I am praying desperately for a miracle.  Even if the storage unit didn't get a lot of water flowing into it, the mere fact that there has been water present will end up creating mold and mildew on the canvasses.  It may be months before he can return there to see if anything can be salvaged.

Various BC friends have been evacuated from various towns and cities in BC due to the incredible amount of flooding. Some of their homes have been completely destroyed by water and I am heartsick for them.  I have been glued all day to the tv news coverage and it seems there isn't much good news happening for any of the people displaced or stranded by flood waters and washed out highways.  As of this afternoon every highway into Vancouver is closed and could remain closed for several weeks before structural engineers will have a clear view of how much highway is washed out, how many bridges are destroyed and what can be done to rebuild the roads.  The highway supply chain into Vancouver is non-existent at the moment. The city is completely cut off from the rest of the country.  What a disaster. My son can hardly believe all that has happened in the past week since he flew happily out of the Vancouver International Airport to return home to New York.  

So, in light of what BC and the north western states are experiencing right now with flooding, following on the heels of intense, deadly summer heat waves and incredibly damaging forest fires, I am not complaining about a few centimeters of snow and a few hours of whiteout conditions here.  I feel blessed beyond measure to live in this part of the prairies when I see what  true weather disasters others are suffering each and very day right in my own country!   If a more or less "normal" prairie winter is all I have to contend with for the next 5 or 6 months, I am JUST FINE with that!!

Power To The People, Yay!

 After the severely misguided announcement some weeks ago by the Saskatchewan government that they were cancelling all their trustee agreements that allowed for those at high risk of homelessness due to mental and addictions issues to have their rent and utilities paid for them from their monthly incomes, people all over the province rose in protest. 

As a result the trustee programme has been reinstated to protect those most at risk of being able to manage their incomes properly. Thank you Lord! Whether or not this at least partial reversal of the new rules will be sufficient, only time will tell, but I am encouraged by how many of us registered our protests with the government. Apparently we did have an impact. Way to go People of Saskatchewan.

Praying For Our BC Friends!

 We have friends, former colleagues, who live in Abbotsford BC and as we watch with horror the news reports of floods and slides and evacuations in their city and surrounding area, we are moved to pray for them like never before.  we just received an update from them that they are under evacuation notice and that they had to dig a trench around their property to divert water from a mud slide that happened a few meters away from their place. Unfortunately the trench is proving to be insufficient protection. It is very hard  not to worry about them. They have a lovely home, but it backs onto the hill that is starting to slide. Oh Lord, protect them and all the other people effected negatively by this weather disaster.  Please deliver those trapped in their cars between the two slides at Hope and Agassiz BC. Thank you Lord.

What A Sap!

 Today I ended up watching TWO Services of Remembrance!  The first was at my husband's church this morning, so I got to hear his Remembrance Day homily and that was very good indeed: how we need to honour our veterans who died or were wounded in various ways in various wars by not simply remembering their sacrifices, but also by honouring their intent to fight for us to have peace by using our freedomg each day to unify our peoples and countries to bring peace to our world. To do anything less is to dishonour their sacrifice.

This afternoon I watched my church Remembrance Service online and it was somewhat similar to the one my husband had preached and presided at earlier in the day.  It was also excellent.

One thing I am realizing, and particularly on a day when I sat through two such services, one right after the other, is that I am a complete emotional basket case sap at such times!!

Both times today when the services reached the liturgy where the priest quotes Laurence Binyon's poem, "For The Fallen", and we the congregation respond with the line, "We will remember them.", I unexpectedly, instantly, started bawling.

(They shall grow not old, as we that are left grow old: 

Age shall not weary them, nor the years condemn.

At the going down of the sun and in the morning,

We will remember them.)

I felt pretty stupid because we have veteran survivors in my husband's church and THEY weren't bawling like babies and THEY are the ones with perfect reason to do so!

To cap it off, when my husband closed out the service with a recording of Vera Lynn singing "We'll Meet Again" because of its symbolism of resurrection, (and because that congregation does it every year and now he is used to it), I totally lost it and sobbed my heart out.  O dear Lord, what is my problem????  I DO know from previous experiences at Remembrance Day services that if anyone had surprised me by launching into "White Cliffs of Dover" someone would have had to remove me from the premises!  I would have been lying on the floor in a fetal position, completely cried out and subsequently dehydrated!!  

I have never been involved in war.  I have only one family member who ever fought in a war and whose ship was bombed by the German Luftwaffe, although he himself survived.  My husband's father was injured in Italy and his step-father was a POW in a Nazi concentration camp and survived and as a child I knew one man, a German soldier who had been captured by the Russians and survived.  That is the closest connection to any war that I have ever had....not much in other words. I have not personally felt the side effects that happened in many families when their loved ones returned from fighting in wars, bringing their physical wounds and emotional scars with them.

So why in the heck do I fall apart like this at Remembrance Day services?  I missed them completely last year due to pandemic restrictions shutting down the public participation in such events, so I guess I quickly forgot that I sometimes have this reaction.

It is a puzzlement! 

Football’d Completely Out!!!!

 Three football games in one day.....I never want to watch football ever again!!!!!!!!!!

So Great To See The Sun On Such A Chilly Saturday!!

 It is nearly 2:30pm and the sun has just broken through the clouds.  Thankfully we are going to get at least a couple of hours of sunny joy today after a dismally grey, windy and cold morning.  We were originally forecast to get to +7C today, but that is not going to happen!  Maybe we will reach +1C if we are fortunate.

I decided to laze around today and not bother getting dressed, but when I phoned the hair salon for a hair cut next week, I was given a late morning appointment today...about an hour after I made the call. Had to get cleaned up and dressed in one heck of a hurry, but now my hair is manageable again!  It was worth slipping and sliding around on the parking lot ice to have that done.  I was able to go into the grocery store beside the salon and pick up the one item I wasn't able to get the other day when we shopped post 'flu' vaccination.  I also picked up a new shovel and another bag of ice melt. The worst ice this morning was right outside my back door, so that patch received a generous shaking of ice melt all over it when I got home. My husband was looking for our old shovel when I arrived home, but that is because I neglected to mention to him that after spring's arrival last April, post snowfall, I tossed the broken old thing into the big trash bin outside!!!  The shovelling edge on it got gouged badly a few years ago and of course has only gotten worse with use over the subsequent winters.  I figured that if he couldn't locate the old shovel we would be forced to get a new one and I did: for $15 less than the same shovels were  ON SALE for at the end of last winter!  SO THERE!! hahahaha  I will be careful not to shovel into the ice with this new one and keep the sharp edge on it for a winter or two.

My husband is donating an older computer to his church. He is spending the afternoon scrubbing the hard drive of anything personal and preparing to download hundreds of hymns and songs so that the lay reader who takes care of running the overhead and sound system will have lots of choice for the future services.  I am happy he is doing it, but not only because it is a nice thing for him to do. I am also happy because it eliminates one more aging computer from our household over supply!!  hahaha

I am killing myself laughing at my husband's new interest in football!  I don't know what precipitated it, but we seem to be watching all manner of games this season.  As playoff spots are being decided, we are now watching EVERY televised game instead of only the games featuring our Saskatchewan Roughriders.  hahaha This morning we finished watching last night's game between Calgary and BC, are currently recording the Montreal and Winnipeg game and at 3pm it will be time to watch our own provincial team playing Hamilton.  Good heavens....listen to me: I am starting to remember the teams and I am watching football right along with my crazy husband!

What is happening to us???????  hahahahaha

Received a happy email from our son this afternoon.  He is having a wonderful time back home in NYC.  He and his girlfriend have been to a play this week, are going to an art gallery opening tonight and have cooked all manner of special dinners at home after work. He has been able to get into his art studio again and plan his next set of paintings.  Now that he has crossed the border safely again we old folks have been able to relax.

The forecast for tomorrow afternoon  or evening is really intense freezing rain, followed by rain and more freezing rain on Monday, then snow on Tuesday. No wonder I have been feelng compelled to fill the larder and collect the ice melt over the past couple of days.....time to hibernate for awhile.

Winter....ugh!!

Achy Breaky........Uh.....ARM!!

Oh dear, I just realized that sounds like I BROKE my arm!  Relax family members, I didn't.  For once it is just a joke!

 

My left arm is only SORE because I had my 'flu' shot this afternoon, that's all.  After a sleep in this morning and some quiet time together, my husband and I went out to run a few errands, including getting our annual injection.  Tonight my husband, with his badly compromised immune system, is feeling the typical reaction symptoms: aching legs, sore arm, mild "almost" headache.  He knew it would happen and there is nothing unusual about his symptoms. He will probably sleep most of it off overnight.  At this point I barely have a sore arm, although past experience tells me that will change by morning.  I also know I will not sleep tonight. I never do the night right after a 'flu' shot.  Hopefully those are the only two issues I will have as both will be quite short lived.

I wimped out today on my big 7am seniors' grocery shopping plans for next week.  After we had our injections at our nearest grocery store pharmacy, I got looking around the store aisles on the way out and realized I could get all but one item on my list right there in that store.  The one item I couldn't get I can live without anyway, so we each grabbed a shopping cart and loaded up. Fortunately I had the list with me and each took half of it to pick up. I love shopping with my husband occasionally because when we are both highly motivated to just "get 'er done", it only takes us a very short time to complete the task and get home again.  Yes, I paid a bit more to do the shopping at this particular store, but today saving a few dollars didn't seem to be the priority.  Just knowing that I don't have to get up on a cold, snowy morning next week to make my usual foray into the dark morning to purchase groceries has given me a better attitude about the approaching second week of winter weather. Since I DO have to get up at 6am one day next week to deliver my husband to the early opening lab for his 3 month fasting blood work, I will not have to miss out altogether on the early morning drive in the winter darkness. Isn't that wonderful???!!?  Hohoho!!!

Mom had a good day today. She accomplished many small tasks, she went to the dining room for lunch for a change of pace, she got to talk on the phone to her sister as it is her sister's birthday today and as a result got to visit one of her nephews and nieces as well as they shared cake with auntie.  Mom had a nice chat as well with one of her dearest friends who always remembers Mom's birthday even when most of Mom's remaining family have no idea when it is. Mom's sister is living on her own planet these days, and is not really sure who Mom is, let alone when her birthday occurs.  Mom's dearest friend is married to one of my dad's cousins, so she is happy to have members of Dad's family still in her life after his passing.  Mom has finally figured out that it isn't really death she craves as much as she craves someone to make her every decision (and I mean EVERY decision) for her every minute of every day.  It isn't because she is no longer capable, it is because she has never had to make a decision by herself in her life until after Dad died and she hates having to start now at the age of nearly 94! I get it, I really do.  We discussed whether or not I should invoke the Standing Power of Attorney and no, she isn't ready for that...thank you Lord, because trying to run her affairs from this far away is not something I ever want to have to deal with, although it may happen at some point in the not too distant future.  Mom is still incredibly capable, she just doesn't believe in her own abilities as much as she should.  She is enjoying life in her facility. She is participating weekly in a few of the events like Happy Hour and Bingo.  She is still not in great shape physically though, so who knows if she will last much longer....sigh....

Tomorrow I have zero plans. With all the ice on the sidewalks and streets I cannot go out walking on Saturday afternoons any more and I feel a bit bereft of ideas for what to do when I don't have to do housework or laundry or emails or blogging or playing the piano or reading books or doing crossword puzzles or talking on the phone.....hmmmmm....guess I WILL have a few things to do tomorrow after all! hahahahahahaha!! 

Bureaucracy: Right Hand Knowledge vs Left Hand Knowledge

 It is no wonder people have developed a distrust, or at least a lack of respect, for big bureaucracies!  

I think I have posted previously about the interesting times we had with the judicial system and the police when we used to be involved in an inmate visitation programme years ago: the time we had one of the inmates with us on a day parole pass while he was incarcerated on drug charges and his parole officer showed up at our door higher than a kite on weed.  Sigh....  Then there was the time the local RCMP detachment had two cars and four officers driving at top speed around and around our house, finally stopping outside our front door and rushing it in an attempt to arrest that same inmate....who had been picked up and reincarcerated in another province two weeks previously.  Another sigh....

This morning I had the over twentieth call in the past three weeks from a collection agency/sheriff's department looking for 4 members of a family who had our phone number before it was assigned to us nearly seven years ago.  I have explained and explained over and over again that I do not know these people, the circumstances as to why the collection agencies have this phone number, and how I am quite certain that the family is still giving it out on credit applications and the like.  I have had nearly seven years of cluster calls from such agencies, the local police and even from inmates and staff at a pentitentiary in another province and I am getting VERY tired of it.  After yet another call yesterday looking for four members of that family, from one of the same agencies as has assured me my phone number had been removed from the search list, I decided to do some online stalking and see if I could figure out where these people have gone.

Weeeeeelllll, as it turns out, three of the four people indeed HAVE GONE, as in gone to their eternal reward!  I found posted obituaries for the three now deceased people, one died in 2018 and the other two in 2019, all right here in our fair province.  Do the collection agencies not do this sort of thing? Are they forbidden to do that kind of tracking down?  Having had previous experiences with collection sheriffs and agencies, I know there are any number of devious, yet legal ways to find folk who are in long term arrears.  Are obituary checks not among these methods?  I also located through this search another local family member who has a phone number listed, a sister to the one fellow being sought who is still living on this earth.  So, do I give this information to the next collection agencies or pentitentiary personnel who call what has been my phone number all these years or do I keep it to myself and continue to allow them to muddle along? 

Aaaah, what a predicament! hahahaha  

It really is no wonder people get frustrated by the bureaucratic problems that occur when the right hand doesn't know what the left hand is doing!

My Husband Has Had An Interesting Life!

 

Growing Up On The Farm With His Sister

Cattle Drives Like This One Near The Homestead

The Young Hippy Philospher

Sailing Along the Labrador Coast With Operation Beaver

Building Homes For Metis and Non-Status Indians in Ontario

Bein' A Dad

Building Our First House in Alberta

Mountain Climbing (in the Bugaboos)

Oooh to be young again, eh?  Lots of good memories from those days!!  Travels to India, Japan, Tanzania, the UK, the USA, before settling down to life as an Anglican priest. Now with his second and hopefully final retirement coming up, he will be ready for the next phase of life as a senior citizen.

From My Husband's FIRST Retirement in 2018!

 

Attempt Numero Uno!!

First Snow On The Ground!

 The first snow of the winter is stuck fast to the lawn, the deck, the vehicles in the parking lot, the streets....winter has at last arrived here in Regina.  There is only a thin layer of frozen rain underneath it, just enough to send a person's feet sliding out from under if one isn't careful about placing each footstep outside, but not so thick that it is a guaranteed ice base for the entire winter.  (Looking at the weekend's predicted plus temperatures though, there is still time for that to happen if we get more rain next week....gleep.....)  The central part of the province has already been dowsed with the white stuff and it is moving south and east tonight.

 The clean white snow looks so pretty, but it means my walking days are over until next spring when it is all melted away once again.

 

Snow light, snow bright, first snow I see tonight.

I wish I may, I wish I might, melt the snow so I'm less uptight! 

 

My apologies for the bad rewrite of "star light, star bright...". 

 

Praying already for my husband's travels out of town tomorrow morning, grateful he doesn't have to leave until 9:30am.  The ploughs should have the highway cleared by then. I am so grateful for the various websites available that report the highway conditions throughout the province.

PTSD IS All It's Cracked Up To Be!!

On top of his chronic CFS my husband also suffers from Post Traumatic Stess Sydrome, traceable back to his last carpentry position where he was slandered, libeled and even threatened by one of his bosses and a couple of his co-workers who were pushing their own agendas that he was in the way of.  It was the worst time in our lives, worse than all the stresses in life that had gone before....and that is saying a lot!  At the time my husband developed a hand tremor that is still with him on occasion to this day, showing up only as a symptom that his stress levels are too high.

Yesterday was such a prime example: he started the day and spent the entire day engulfed by dizziness and nausea.  There was a meeting last night he had to attend, a meeting with a group of folk who have caused all manner of problems for my husband and many of his peers at work. Every time he sat down yesterday he started to shake and turn pale green.  The trip to the book sale was good for him, took his mind off the meeting over the situation that happened long before he arrived on the scene and in many ways has nothing to do with him, nevertheless he has to be involved right now for several good reasons.  As I suspected, after the meeting was over, (a meeting that actually ended on a positive note for once), he came bouncing into the living room all smiles, his face the proper colour for the first time all day, the shaking over, the nausea gone and the headache subsiding for the first time in 2 days.  The next thing I knew he was changing a burnt out lightbulb and cleaning the fixture it was in, humming to himself.  He had a snack, enjoyed a tv show and went to bed with a book to read before he fell asleep for the night.

This morning he was up and off to his men's meeting quite cheerfully, slept well, enjoyed getting ready to do the Morning Prayer service for the guys he is meeting with.....yup, a new day and a new attitude.  He will need a nap this afternoon I am sure, but the change in him between yesterday and today is significant.  

Lord, thank you for giving him the confidence that he needs in order to trustingly retire at the end of this year.  He will be stepping back from all denominational involvements but the one weekly men's group and a couple of teaching gigs he is mightily looking forward to.  He will not be attending the local congregation.  No one will notice and no one will care and he will be able to relax and find his own new spiritual niche each day....lots of prayer and personal meditation and study.

Oh my goodness, the end of this year cannot come fast enough for us. 

 We woke up to rain this morning. By tonight whatever has not dried up will be frozen and we will get another mix of snow and rain overnight. Praying my husband has a safe drive to Lumsden tomorrow morning for the Remembrance Day service.  Wow, we are going to miss the daily sunshine we love so much. 

Enjoying The Sunshine Before It Disappeared!

 My husband is exhausted to the point of dizziness and nausea. He has had to get up early six of the last eight mornings for work and other commitments, has to be up and away at meetings for the next two mornings and has to mediate what will be a difficult meeting this evening. Just praying for strength for him to survive until his retirement at year end. 

After lunch today he should have gone straight to bed for the afternoon, but the bright sunshine beckoned and he remembered there was a book sale out in Lumsden at the United Church....their minister passed away suddenly and her entire theological library was up for the taking for a donation to their mission fund.   

No, we don’t need any more books, but we enjoyed the drive out there on this lovely day. We each picked out a handful of books and music sheets, made our donation and enjoyed the drive home just as much as the drive out. 

Now my husband is sleeping at last. I will make dinner soon and make sure he is awake in time to eat and prepare for the meeting.

The sky has completely clouded over, the temperature is starting to drop and sometime in the next 24 hours we are predicted to receive serious freezing rain followed by snow that will make my husband’s drive back to Lumsden to do the Remembrance Day Service there Thursday morning rather miserable. 

Thank you Lord for today. Thank you that my husband is finally able to have a restorative nap.