A True “Saskatchewan Screamer”!

 The wind has not stopped whistling at high frequency for nearly five straight hours now. The above moniker for this type of storm is most apt. Visibility outside is under fifteen feet. There is a large restaurant about 50 yards from our hotel window and we cannot see the building at all, not even the outline. I have never experienced a storm like this, with the incessant howling wind whipping the snow 40 feet in the air. My husband says he remembers these types of storms from his prairie childhood but it has been a few decades since he last saw one this bad. Praying the forecast of the storm blowing itself out by supper time is correct....Lord let it be! 

“The North Wind Doth Blow....

 ....and we shall have snow.”

The storming winds have begun howling and the first flakes of snow have started their crazy, awkward, reeling dance toward the earth as those winds puff them up and down, twirling around and around like thousands of miniature drunken sailors before they alight. Prairie storms in winter, as dangerous as they can be, are fascinating events to watch from the warm safety of a large windowed hotel. Right now the wind is whistling so loudly that I have had to stuff my ears with wads of Kleenex to be able to cope with the sound. Thank you Jesus that we drove here yesterday before the storm started!!! 

I have decided that nesting must be part of my basic nature. We unpacked our suitcases yesterday, then I immediately began casing the hotel suite for little items of cleaning neglected or otherwise missed by the cleaning crew. Sigh....no, I cannot help being who I am. By the time I was done I had washed all the dishes and kitchen utensils, their shelves and the kitchen floor. It’s just me, my clean freak mother’s daughter. Hahaha! It is good exercise for me too after a day of being confined to the car, as we travelled. Thus prepared, my husband and I took a good look at all the foods and wines the family had purchased for us. Talk about a feast!!! 

The foods and wines were so perfectly selected for us that we “smelled a rat”, (no, not literally as I HAD just re-cleaned much of the suite after all), so we finally figured out that the daughter who knows our son must have been in touch with him earlier on to get his recommendations. Sure enough. She lives in Toronto, called our son in New York, then after he suggested the foods and wine supplier, she called our favourite supplier in Moose Jaw for his suggestions!! We are stunned by the machinations going on to provide us with all these lovely surprises!!! All this, and the best hotel suite in town, just because my husband agreed to come and do the funeral of his dear friend. I am starting to cry again....sigh....the loss of a friend coupled with the overwhelming generosity of his family is emotionally taxing. I am a basket case today.

My husband is sitting here waiting for his rapid test result. Although it should be negative there is always the off chance of a positive result and that will spell doom for this entire venture. Please Lord....ten minutes more to wait.

A few minutes ago I tried going out to the car to get something, but the wind was so strong I couldn’t do it. I barely got the side door of the hotel open as the wind pushed it back at me and once I managed to get outside it blew me up against the side of the building and pinned me flat against it. Talk about terrifying! Eventually I was able to twist sideways sufficiently to push my door key against the key pad and grip the door handle, as the gust abated somewhat. Thankfully I was able to wrench it open and fall inside the hallway as the next gust of wind forced the door shut behind me, narrowly missing trapping the hem of my coat between it and the door frame. 

Hallelujah the test is negative, so off my husband is going into the whiteout blizzard! Oh Lord keep him safe! Keep him standing upright in the wind!!!!

Safely At Our Destination

 More gratitude: for clear, dry roads, for sunshine that gives no hints of the looming storm, for a deserted restaurant with tasty lunch food part of the way here, for new passing lanes on the most dangerous stretch of highway, for a beautiful suite at the hotel and a packed refrigerator filled with our favourite meats, cheeses and fruits and vegetables, magazines to read, bottles of our favourite wines from our favourite supplier....the family was obviously talking to our son before going shopping for us. This venture has become a working vacation, heavy on the vacation!!! We feel very, very spoiled and very much cared for and appreciated. It is all quite lovely. Now.....if I can just keep the tears of loss in check at the funeral....

Family Health Update

 My husband received a text from Raymond at 4am. He is in hospital recovering from an emergency appendectomy!!!! He has now officially run out of spare parts. What organs can be removed, have been removed over the course of his lifetime. This latest is unbelievable. The man has terminal cancer. Can his body not otherwise be left in peace for whatever time he has left?? Thanks so much for continuing to pray for him!!

So Grateful!!!

 We are most grateful to friend Kat for her reminder to us the other day that weather conditions in this province are going to seriously deteriorate tomorrow. Thus, we are heading out today for our 400 km trip to the funeral. This morning a Special Weather Statement has been issued for tomorrow that encompasses our entire route: freezing rain followed by heavy snow and gale force winds! In other words, had we not adjusted our plans, we would have either had to bail out of Tuesday’s funeral at the last minute or else have found ourselves stranded on one of the secondary highways along our route. We are grateful to the front desk clerk at our hotel who so kindly arranged the extra night’s stay at our hotel. She was a gem to deal with. We are so grateful to the family members of our dear departed friend who organized every detail of the funeral with minimal assistance from my husband. We are grateful for my husband being able to complete his sermon already for Wednesday’s evening service so that all we have to do that day is find the safest roads back home. We are grateful that we only have a few more weeks of winter weather to contend with. We are grateful for praying friends!

Longing For The Good Old Days Of In Person Banking

 As much as I appreciate the online banking that marks a big evolution in how individuals handle their banking needs, a lot has changed recently even with in person transactions.  I wish it wasn't that way to be honest.  I loved the olden days when you could go into the bank, do your business with a teller who did his or her job without a lot of chit chat and third degree questions to the client....into the bank, transaction accomplished, out of the bank and home.

This morning was what has become a typical experience for me at one of the banks I deal with.  I needed to make a deposit, actually a transfer by personal cheque from one brand of bank to this brand of bank.  I am completely understanding, due to the onslaught of security breaches and identity theft so prevalent nowadays, of the  questions I am asked to confirm my identity.  Inconvenient and time consuming as they may be, they are unfortunately necessary.  

However, this morning I took umbrage with the questions that continued throughout the transaction:

1. Are you going to need to access this money right away?

Answer: No, I realize it is a personal cheque and will need to be cleared first before it will be deposited.

2. Why are you transferring this amount of money from the "other bank"?

Answer: because I need to transfer it here.  Why is that an issue?

3. Just wondering if you are going to leave it with us for awhile or if you are going to be using it as soon as the cheque clears.

Answer: I suppose I will be leaving the money with you until the cheque clears and the money goes into my account.

4. What are going to use the money for?

Answer:  why do you need to know that?  I suppose I will use it for whatever I need it for at some point after the cheque clears.

5. Why did you choose not to e-transfer it to us for immediate deposit instead of writing a personal cheque?

Answer: I do not have online banking here.

6.  Why is that? Would you like me to set you up with that and have someone show you how to do the e-transfer?

Answer: No thank you, I do not wish to do online banking here and so will not be using the e-transfer service.  I will not be making another deposit like this for a very long time, so it is not necessary.

7.  Is your financial advisor "insert name here"?

Answer: I am not sure. I have had so many in the past two years I don't know who I have been assigned to at this point.

8.  Since "insert name here" is your actual assigned advisor why did you meet last time with "insert another name here"?

Answer: When I called in on your phone line to make an appointment to do that transaction, this is the person your administrator set me up with.

9. Well, have you ever actually met in person with  your actual advisor?

Answer: I don't know. I don't think so.

10.  My record shows that you met with him two years ago to do a transaction have not seen him since. Why is that?

Answer:  The pandemic forced me to do all those transactions over the phone or in person at a different branch of this bank because this branch was closed for a year. Also, as I just explained to you, your telephone appointment administrator made my appointment with "insert the second name".

11.  Do you realize it could be February 8 before this cheque clears?

Answer: that seems an excessive amount of time, but yes I am prepared to wait that long.

12. What will you do if you need the money prior to that time?

Answer:  why do you need to know that?  I doubt I will need it before that time. If I thought I would need it before that time I would have simply removed that much money in cash from the bank of origin instead of bringing you a cheque in that amount for deposit.

13. And what did you say you are going to do with the money?

Answer: Well, actually I didn't say.  I thought I was going to simply and easily deposit it into my savings account here, but right now I am tempted to simply ask you to give me the cheque back and we will forget the whole thing.  How would that be?

14. Well, I can deposit it if you don't mind waiting until possibly as long as Feb. 8 for it to clear .

Answer: As I stated previously, I do not mind.

Thusly was my cheque accepted into the system for deposit.

15. Is there anything else I can do for you?

Preferred answer: Yes, you can take my cheque and stick it where the sun never shines and your bank can do the same!!

Actual answer: No thank you, that is all for today.

I praise God that he stopped my wayward tongue and my sarcastic sense of humour from emerging so early in the morning.....

Perhaps I was edgier than usual because my route to the bank was blocked not far from home by road closures due to a parade permit issued to a second troup of  protesting truckers convoying through Regina today to bring their beefs to the provincial government building grounds for reasons no one else understands. The road was supposed to close at 11am so I purposely left home much earlier than that, wearing my wrinkled dirty old clothes from yesterday, unshowered, to get to the bank, drove off in a rush and discovered that MY main route to go to the bank had already been closed two hours earlier than scheduled.  There were many cars behind me that followed me around a U-turn spot to go back to find an alternate route to the bank. Fortunately that was relatively easy.

I am SO GRATEFUL that I have a porch visit scheduled with my friend Kat after lunch.  Thank you Lord.  She and I will laugh our heads off for an hour on her porch and really enjoy our long overdue visit.

More Covid and More Storms!

 We now have 3 more friends in Alberta battling Omicron.  None of them are vaccinated and two of them are very ill indeed, although they have been able to avoid hospitalization and for that we are most grateful.  We pray they will soon be well and whole once again.  

We are also praying that the precautions being taken by the funeral home and the family of our deceased friend we are going to do the funeral for this coming week will be sufficient to prevent the service from becoming a super spreader event.  My husband and I feel a bit like we are walking into a lion's den, but we are very certain the Lord has asked my husband to take this funeral, whatever the outcome for our health.

This morning my husband had an online meeting with the family of the deceased to get the final plans for the funeral in place and they told him the most lovely and meaningful thing:  apparently when our dear friend was moved into long term care and could only take one of his many large wall photos with him, he chose to take one we had given him several years ago, simply because we had given it to him.  My husband and I both shed quite a few tears over that.  To know my husband's ministry and our friendship with him was that appreciated is humbling and so very, very lovely.

We have made the final decision now to leave a day early as there is the strong possibility of a blizzard arriving along at least 2/3 of our route on the day we were to travel originally.  That is a very scary prospect as much of the trip is on secondary roads that rarely see a plough until a good 24 hours or more after a blizzard has ended.  We know this for a fact after living in the area for several years.  I have horrible memories of our last winter trip back there after a weekend of meetings in Regina: me steering the car and trying to keep the windshield wipers going fast enough to clear the snowfall while my husband walked down the road in front of the car with a shovel trying to scoop out a pathway for our tires so that we could keep moving.  It was only one of many travel nightmares we experienced in the winter there and now, a few years later, here we go again!!!  Just when we thought we were done with that sort of thing in that area......sigh.... hahaha  'Twas ever thus, right??

Since we are leaving early I spent today doing all the laundry.  Tomorrow will be some last minute banking, ironing and packing so we can be ready to go the following day.  We have booked our hotel room for an extra night, my husband is busy tonight and tomorrow completing his sermon for next Wednesday's Candlemas service so he doesn't have to think about anything but the funeral and the needs of the family while we are away.  He completed and sent in his article for the diocesan newspaper yesterday and it has been accepted, proofed and made ready for printing.  

As much as I wish we were not going away for the purpose of a funeral and as much as I wish the storm and deep freeze are moving in for the few days we will be gone, it is actually going to be a good thing for us to get out of here and see something other than the inside of our suite and grocery store and medical clinics!  YES!!  Thank you Lord for the opportunity to get out for awhile, despite the sadness of the reason behind the trip!

I had a very good talk with my mother this evening.  She is leery about us being away from the "usual" circumstances that she is used to when we talk each night, but when I reminded her that in actuality I will be nearly 3 hours closer to her where we are going to be, than we are here and could reach her that much more quickly if she has an emergency, she calmed right down.  Another good thing is that two of the days we are away she is having some special events at her facility, one of them being an out trip to her favourite grocery store.  The excitement about that is taking over from her upset about us being away, thank the dear, dear Lord!!  She was pretty upbeat when she was telling me about these events and shared her joy that she managed to get to the sign up sheet to get her name down before all the spaces were filled.  She will have wonderful things to think about, not just the worry of us being away from home.  I am very relieved!!

I am praying my husband and I both sleep well the next couple of nights so we can feel healthy and bright for our travels. 

Free At LAST, Thank God A'Mighty......

 This afternoon the exterminator arrived and found nary a cockroach either at our place or in the suite next door where the infestation started. Hallelujah!  We have been declared cockroach free!  Thank you Lord!!

We are watching a seriously bad weather front heading right through the entire route we need to take to go to the funeral next week, so we have decided to leave a day early so we can avoid driving through a bad blizzard!  We will track the forecast through the next two days before we book the extra night of hotel accommodation, but if it doesn't change substantially we are going to have an extra day away.  And that is fine with us.  My husband can write sermons and tweak classroom material just as easily from the hotel WiFi connection as he can at home, so will still be prepared for the next two committments he has after we get home from the funeral.  It is all good.

I may have made a big mistake telling Mom about our plans this far in advance.  She is already upset about how she will reach us when we are away. I finally got her to understand, ( I think....), that the only time we won't be reachable directly by phone is during the actual funeral, when we will have to shut the phones off for about 2 hours.  Other than that there will be little difference to our nightly visits.  I might have to call her an hour later than usual, the same thing I do right here when I am at home if I have to be out somewhere else.  My fear is that she is going to work herself up and spend a lot of time crying and bring on more heart disease symptoms from all the panicking she does over this sort of thing.  My husband and I have decided that, regardless of what she thinks about us visiting her in the winter, we are going to be heading to see her much sooner than she expects.  It is twice as far to drive there in winter as it is to go to this funeral, but the highway to her place is far more well travelled and cleared of snow and ice than the secondary and worse types of roads we will be on next week.  So, I am praying that my mother can remain calm despite us not being right here in our usual spot for 3 days.  We haven't left yet and I am already stressed about what kind of emotional price I am going to have to pay for changing the routine even for that short amount of time. Mom isn't deliberately trying to push guilt buttons because she is not and never has been that way....the stress is coming from myself because I have been through this sort of scenario a number of times already. She does make herself ill if she thinks anything with my location or availability has changed even though it changes not one thing about my response time if she needs to get in touch with me.  She has no qualms about me being unavailable on the phone for a few hours when I have some kind of  local medical or dental appointment, but knowing I am a few miles away from home base pushes her right over the emotional edge. Sigh....my poor mom.  She is so tired of living, but I suspect that she could be around for quite a long time yet if she takes good care of her heart the way she has been.  Well, we will see what happens on this very short trip away and if she develops an issue over it, then something has to change, or if it can't I have to learn how not to let her upsets bother me so much.  It sucks being the only child...even at my age the repercussions are difficult for everyone.  And now my own son is in the same situation of being the "only".  Oh Lord, please deliver me from becoming like my mom as I age.  My son should not have to have to deal with my emotions. Thank you, Amen!

 

Changes In Plans! Road Trip.....

 We received sad news yesterday that one of our elderly parishioners from my husband's first parish passed away.  He and his wife were so very good to us and they became fast friends during our years in their town.  Now my husband has been asked to officiate for his funeral next week.

This morning was spent in a flurry of emails and phone calls getting permission from the Bishop and from the present priest in charge of that parish, checking both provincial and church denominational COVID protocols and moving our dental appointments forward by a week so that we can travel there early enough to meet with the family the night before the funeral service.  

So, now we are praying the the snow showers predicted on the day we leave and that are to fall along our entire 5 hour route, will not turn into something more serious and dangerous and make the drive a miserable experience.  It will be bitterly cold the day we return home, but better cold with no fresh snowfall than warm with the possibility of a blizzard.  

I am already in prayer for a safe trip!  If any of you are also of a mind to ask the Lord for our safe travel we would both appreciate it. 

We will see if this all comes together as planned.  

Praising God for the life of this man and we pray that his wife and family will be able to fully grieve his loss and share many stories of what a wonderful man he was.

Little By Little The Provision Trickles In!

 As we expected, God is making sure we are financially provided for now that my husband has had to retire. The monthly class session my husband is teaching has added to the monthly income and this morning we had a pleasant surprise when our monthly pensions went into our bank account. We are now only a hundred dollars a month short of what we need to maintain the same pre-retirement income so I think we will manage just fine. Thank you Lord and thank you praying friends! 

Family Health Update

We had a text from Ray tonight. He met with the oncologist today. Unfortunately he will have to take another MRI because the claustrophobia induced panic attack he had during last week’s test meant the techs were unable to complete it. So, it will be done again very soon. There is one brain tumour that is of particular concern, so once the second MRI is completed he will likely have the same gamma knife treatment that Ruth had. He will also begin a four month course of intravenous chemotherapy every three weeks and daily chemo pills. The oncologist thinks that if he responds well to the treatments he should live longer than Ruth did, but of course there are no guarantees. I cannot imagine how alone he is feeling, facing all this only six months after Ruth’s death. Sigh.....

And my only worry today was whether or not it would be Covid-safe enough to get my hair cut at the salon today.....sigh.....

Pandemic Life In The Fast Lane

 Housework, once a week runs to the grocery/pharmacy, nightly phone chats with Mom, watching tv, reading silly novels, cooking, washing dishes manually because it fills more time than quickly loading the dishwasher, playing the piano badly, emailing, Zoom church, posting inane blogposts because I am not doing anything worth writing about, visiting with my husband, occasional very welcome porch visits.....with a few weeks’ exception during brief periods of dropping pandemic numbers, this has been my life for the past two years and year three is soon to begin.  Yawn....I am beyond bored at this point.

I am going to get really wild and crazy today and phone my hairdresser to make an appointment for a cut one day soon. Hopefully she is not out of commission with Omicron! My husband has a work related in person meeting today so I don’t think he can be too upset if I also choose to venture out this week. 

The weather is not helping my mood: +4C one day then -26C the next. I will be very happy to see January from the rear view mirror! Although February can also be a brutal month for cold weather, it signals the start of the final two months of winter weather. I know then that the icy conditions during the late March melting of winter’s snow will soon be coming and then glorious spring will be upon us sometime in April. It is great to have the spring weather to look forward to. My mood always becomes more positive with the arrival of February. I start thinking about what new routes I could start taking for spring and summer walks. That inspires me to work harder on my indoor exercising. 

Hmmmm....I’m feeling happier already!

Yup, better times are coming!

Ground Bison Makes The Best Chili!! YUM!!

 I am so happy that we splurged on a few pounds of bison meat.  We stuck with the ground meat because it is the easiest for us to cook without over cooking it. Over cooked bison steaks and roasts are tough and stringy, but any kind of bison meat cooked properly puts beef to absolute shame!!  Now, if I could just get some fresh ostrich meat here!  Two of my favourite meats and at least I can get one of them right here in the city from my bison ranching church friend.  I made chili yesterday and it is so fantastic. The bison gives it a richness that even the best quality ground beef doesn't quite match.  So, we now have the remains of my turkey veggie soup to finish along with the chili.  It will be a couple of more days before we have to cook anything again. YAY!!

The weather here continues its crazed course.  Today it is 0 degrees with snow flurries and now a fair amount of rain that will be frozen solid all over everything by tomorrow morning after a night below zero.  I hoped to go out tomorrow to do some post office mailings, but perhaps I will just wait another day before venturing out there.  I should be out shoveling the pathway to the car again as it has blown in completely in the past 48 hours, should be shoveling before the top layer has a chance to freeze over, but I am cleaning house this afternoon instead.  I will have the upstairs completed later this afternoon and clean the downstairs rooms tomorrow.  That will keep me busy enough without trying to de-ice the car to go skating along the streets and sidewalks and parking lots in an attempt to get to the post office as well.

We are getting rather anxious about what the outcome of Raymond's meeting with the oncologist this week will be.  It is difficult to remain calm when we are so very worried.  Prayers I suspect are keeping our own emotions in check as much as his.  Once we have the plan he will be following we will start making our own plans for the next few months so that we are free to go and care for him as required.  My husband talked to Raymond's sister the other night. She wants to be there for him as well, but is currently awaiting surgery dates for two very important procedures and both surgeries are imminent, so she is very relieved that my husband is so willing to help her brother if she cannot in the next few months.

Our plan for this afternoon was to have a porch visit with a friend, but between the freezing rain and all of us being very tired today, we will postpone it for a more appropriate time.  I was awake until quarter past 3 this morning before finally falling into  a deep sleep until quarter past 8am.  Not the longest sleep, but it was at least somewhat refreshing. I confess I was reading a novel that was more interesting than most I have read in the past year, so it was difficult to put it down just as it was getting to the climax of the story and the denouement.  hahaha  Dummy me! But it was nice to have the option to stay up half the night as our adult Sunday class didn't start until 9:30am.  

As per usual there isn't a lot going on this week around here.  My husband has some meetings in regard to possibly bringing the message at a local Candlemas service on February 2. He is working away quite happily on his next teaching assigment, getting more of our family photos onto computer files, watching tv and reading books and baking and cooking and generally enjoying his retirement VERY much! It is great to see him feeling more relaxed, happier, less exhausted despite all the work he has done in this suite with caulking and foam insulation so that every  unnecessary crack imaginable is sealed up at last.   

Yesterday afternoon we Zoomed into the installation service for my husband's new  bishop.  She is a lovely woman who we think will do a stellar job in this diocese.  My husband tried to recruit her to come here as a priest several years ago so he is absolutely thrilled she is finally here.....and as the Bishop!!  Even better!!  My only little issue, personally, about the service is that 6 hymns, all played at the speed of an anaesthetized snail, made the event rather overly long, particularly for the congregation, all of us on Zoom due to pandemic closure protocols that made it impossible for a congregation to be in attendance at the cathedral.  Only my own feelings of course. The service really was lovely and very exciting with the Primate of the Anglican Church of Canada in attendance and participating in the installation. 

Mom has had a very good couple of days!  We have been laughing together over all manner of silliness, old memories, current craziness that is happening in her facility among the residents, lots and lots of fun talks.  I don't know why she has been having fewer complaints and meltdowns in the past few days, but I have certainly enjoyed hearing my mother sound the most like her "old self" than I have heard since long before Dad died.  I am prepared for a return to all the upset and frustration that plagues her, but for now, I am thoroughly enjoying our evening conversations.  I am happy that right now SHE is happy!!  She has had quite a few phone calls from friends lately and two very good doctor's appointments that encouraged her, so some things have definitely been going right for her.  Thank you Lord!!!

Weeeelllll....the bathroom is not highly likely to clean itself so I had best stop monkeying around here on this posting and get the work done. Hopefully I will be as inspired to clean the downstairs tomorrow as I was earlier today to get started on the upstairs housework!!   

More Devastating Family News

 We have just hung up the phone after talking to Raymond about the follow up scans he had this week, checking on his lung cancer that was diagnosed over two years ago.  His last scans were in November. The lung tumours had not grown at all and there was no brain involvement.  Unfortunately these scans contain more upsetting results:  the lung tumours have grown and now there is a brain tumour as well.  Oh dear Lord....he is following a similar path to his wife, Ruth who died less than seven months ago.  Next week Raymond will meet with the oncologist to discuss treatment options and try to figure out a possible time frame for how long he has left to live.  We are gutted!  We weren't supposed to lose him so soon after losing Ruth.  My husband is looking at his commitments over the next few months to see what he may have to cancel in case he needs to make more extended trips to Edmonton in the coming weeks.  

Right now the exterminator is here doing what is hopefully a final check on the cockroach situation.  He was supposed to be coming yesterday, then it was changed to tomorrow, and now without warning here he is today. hahahaha  Communications around here between the manangement, maintenance and tenants is sometimes a bit interesting!  Oh dear LORD, please let this be the end of the need for bait traps and inspections!  Oh Lord hear our prayer..... The exterminator's visit is a good distraction for my distraught husband who turned green and then deadly white by the time Raymond had given us all his news.

I am going to spend some time concentrating on the cost of our utility bills that finally arrived yesterday afternoon in the mail and how my few cost saving measures so far this winter seem to have made a positive difference over the size of last winter's bills, despite a raise in the rates.  Not using the dishwasher, never moving the thermostat and only plugging in the car occasionally for 90 minutes on days we HAVE to go out, has lowered the electric bill by a good sixty dollars over the bill at this time last year.  The natural gas bill is the highest of the two, but it is more than forty dollars lower than it was at this time last year. These kinds of savings are substantial. Thank you Lord!!  Thinking about such small things will help me stay positive as Raymond's news sinks in.  

I think we both went into shock as our phone call progressed and it is going to take time to process all of this.

Thank you praying friends for your prayers for Raymond and for his three siblings who are not going to handle this news well either. Raymond is the only Christian in the family and we are grateful that his faith seems to be sustaining him to some degree at this frightening time.

 

Well, the exterminator just left and the news wasn't quite what we hoped for: he did find two tiny cockroach carcasses in the traps in the kitchen...one under the sink and one under the stove. Sigh....HOWEVER, the good news is that he and my husband discovered what is likely their entry point in the kitchen under the sink.  The mouse exterminator didn't properly seal one side of the board that fills the hole between the neighbour's under sink cupboard and ours.  So, my husband has permission to reseal it tomorrow.  All new traps have been put down. The exterminator will be here in one week to recheck and then, even if they are free of carcasses, he is going to return a month later to make the final inspection, just to be certain.  The renovators next door will have disturbed and dislodged any survivors of the original fumigation in there, so of course the easiest place for them to get into is our place with the connecting kitchen spaces.  Aaaargh....will this ever be over????  All we need is to not be able to get rid of them and end up taking them with us if we move again in the spring.....

Okay, okay, I swore I was going to concetrate on the positive news about our utility bills, didn't I?  Okay, so back to that....and SUPPER!  It is time to eat supper!  YUM!

Please Weather, Can You Wait One More Hour Before You Get Ugly Again, For The Sake Of Our Travelling Friends??

 Our friends who also serve as our weather forecasters will soon be hitting the highway outside our city to return home after an appointment today.  I just checked the highway report and the snow is already drifting across it.  The higher winds, freezing rain and more snow are still to come, so I am praying those things can hold off for just one more hour or so, until our friends are safely home again.

I am so happy that the Calgary weather looks fairly decent for tomorrow as my mom has another doctor's appointment in the early afternoon.  I am glad she rescheduled her eye appointment this week to a day that had better weather than the original appointment day.  Yesterday was a red letter day for her at the ophthalmologist.  She was scheduled for an eye injection for her glaucoma, but her levels in both eyes were so good that the injection was cancelled once she completed her other eye tests. She is tested once every 8 weeks and generally receives an injection in her eye at that point, but it wasn't necessary this time; the first time in nearly two years!  Thank you Lord! The injection leaves her eye in a tremendous amount of pain for the rest of the day, meaning she cannot watch tv or play cards, but just lies on the bed waiting for dinner and then bedtime. By the next morning she is just fine again.  She was nearly jumping for joy yesterday to have not needed the injection.  She is having a re-check at her GP's office tomorrow so he can check on the progress of the healing of her shingles rash. After many months of pain and itchiness it is finally subsiding!  Soon, hopefully, she can remove from her daily schedule all the creams applications she has been trying to keep straight all these months. Fortunately she creates weekly medication charts for herself so she knows exactly what she is to medicate herself with and at what times of day. She just checks off the box beside each application time on her chart when she has given herself the correct dose.  She is amazing, BUT I am seeing a bit more confusion and stress, so am keeping a watchful eye on that. She is taking so many pills for so many things right now that it is no wonder she just wants to give up, but with the shingles rash under control and another issue almost cleared up, she will soon be free of at least half her present meds. Hallelujah!!

We had an excellent morning here today!  We both had a decent sleep and woke up none too early, but by 11am we had all our bottles and cans unloaded at the recycling depot before going to the bank, the health food store, the Indian grocery and our neighbourhood grocery store.  

We came home for lunch.  I enjoyed another heaping plate of my husband's wonderful Indian food and my husband enjoyed a huge bowl of the chicken and veggie soup I made yesterday.  Whew!  He actually enjoyed some soup he hadn't made himself!  YAY!! Score One For Me!!!  I am going to have soup for dinner tonight.  I am pretty proud of myself for cooking something HE enjoyed so much!!

The banging and crashing coming from next door as the renovations in that suite continue are not as terrible as you might think. My husband's resealing of the walls has helped a LOT with the transferable noise. Unlike the wild and unruly kids we had next door previously, these renovators are pretty quiet in comparison!  We know all that noise is going to stop by 5pm. There will be no smashing into the adjoining wall, no crashing and banging in the stairwells going on until after 11pm in the evenings.  The renovators are a pleasant break after what we endured at the hands of the previous tenants.  Only the Lord, and perhaps the property management company, have any idea who will next be living on the other side of that wall, but I am asking God for EVERYTHING we want and preparing myself to accept whoever we actually get! hahaha

After doing laundry all day yesterday I should be ironing this afternoon, but am fighting an extremely rare migraine, so perhaps a little nap would be in order instead.  Ironing can always wait an extra day......

Accepting Reality Is Difficult....Sigh....But It Must Be Done!

 For all my excited blithering about practising my piano pieces until they can be played properly once again, after yesterday's session I am going to have to admit defeat.  Waaaaahhhhh....another age related loss I hoped I could put off awhile longer, but it is not to be.

Yesterday afternoon I realized the cleaning and renovation crews were gone for the day from the suite next door, so I  unplugged my ear phones and allowed myself to play the music at normal indoor volume as no one but my husband would be able to hear me.  Mistake? or Reality Check?  

As I listened to myself playing those notes, sans my headphones, the way other listeners would hear them, I had to accept reality.  My days as any kind of proper pianist are truly finished.  I recorded myself playing as well, just to make a secondary check on what I thought I was hearing and unfortunately the recording spelled out reality quite clearly.  Unless I want to spend my time playing Beginner Level music, which I don't, it is all over but the disposing of the keyboard and the remaining reams of music I have been clinging to for the past few years and last three moves around the province.  

Apart playing hymns and choruses that no one NOT born in the 1950's and 1960's would have any interest in or memory of, I am done.  Maintaining my own interest in that sort of music will be difficult as well.

So, one decision has been made in regard to wherever and whenever our next move takes place.  The boxes of music and the keyboard will not be coming with me.  Less "stuff" to worry about finding room for in a downsized apartment.

Such are the realities of life in one's 60's.  May the Lord make me gracious about and during this time of personal loss.

I received a report directly from a government weather bureau contact this morning that there is another storm set to hit us tomorrow evening and well into the following afternoon.  The brief warm up tomorrow during the early afternoon will see the moisture blowing in from the west turn possibly to freezing rain before the wind starts blowing the following snowfall all over the place once again.  By the weekend it should be all over, but I am praying the entire weather incident will be less brutal than presently predicted.  My weather forecaster friends have an appointment in Regina tomorrow....one that was a reschedule from the last storm we had a few days ago!!!  Oh my....oh my....those poor people.  Fortunately it appears at present that they will be done here and home again before any significant system arrives.  Aiiii yiiiii!!!  

Laundry day today....quite a bit to do as it seems I haven't done that chore for a quite a bit longer than I realized.  It is always so nice to bring up the baskets of dryer warmed clean clothes to fold.  The sun is shining, making me feel cheery today and much more active and motivated than I am on the dreary days of grey clouded skies.  Despite the cold and the threat of an oncoming storm, even the disappointment about my music, I feel happy today. T hank you Lord!!

Now, if Canada Post will finally be able to deliver mail today, my happiness quota for the day will be complete.  My utility bills should have arrived a couple of days ago, but Canada Post is short of personnel due to Omicron Variant sweeping through their employees here, so there has been no mail delivery yet this week.  I suppose if those bills do not show up in my mailbox by week's end I will just have to call the companies on Monday to find out what I owe and get everything paid.  I was hoping for mail delivery today, but so far there has been no sign of anything in my mailbox. (No, I can't use the online system for paying utility bills yet because my husband has to present the original copies to Revenue Canada for his housing allowance rebate.)  Less frequent postal service....another reality to have to accept in this age of Covid19 outbreak.  O well, everyone is in the same situation regarding mail delivery, empty shelves in the stores and now with Canada mandating full vaccinations for all truck drivers crossing the border into our country from the USA, there will be more shortages than we have seen to date.  While I am managing to avoid giving in to temptation, I am beginning to better understand why people become so afraid of the shortages that they start hoarding various items.  Lord in your mercy, deliver us. 

Extreme Cuteness!!

 

Be HEALED!!!

My Friends Are My Weather Forecasters!

 I have friend in Moose Jaw who often come to Regina for shopping and medical appointments.  Their history this winter of having appointments scheduled for the same day that unexpected storms arise is beoming legendary!  It happened again today:  an appointment here had to be rescheduled because once again the weather is so bad that the highway between our two cities has been closed by the RCMP!  The highway is ice covered, the wind is creating total whiteout conditions and it is just ugly, ulgy, ugly out there!!

It is becoming quite a joke between us that their ability to forecast storms before the actual weather forecasters are aware of such conditions seems to be based on what days my friends need to come to Regina.  This is twice now in less than two weeks that an appointment for them has had to be rescheduled. hahaha

They are going to start developing a complex about this sort of thing!!

Here at  home, the pathway I so carefully dug out to the car a few days ago is completely blown in, but it is too windy and cold to be bothered shovelling it out again until the present storm is finished.  I am watching people walking north on our front street, heading for the bus stop and they are walking backwards to keep the wind from freezing their eyebrows and foreheads. Thanking God for masking right now because the masks definitely protect tender skin from the elements in winter.  I just may wear mine every winter now as a matter of course, pandemic  conditions or not!

Today is our second last cockroach inspection, hopefully. Normally it would have waited until Friday, but yesterday and today the carpet and linoleum layers are busy ripping up the old and pounding down the new in the suite next door where the original infestion began. If there are any live cockroaches left over there after the intense fumigation process next door, they will be trying to flee over here. Hopefully the new foam insulation and fresh caulking my husband laboured over installing this week will defeat their escape.  If all is clear over here in our traps today, then the inspector will come over on Friday afternoon to check one last time and hopefully give us the all clear!  After that we will feel safer when it comes time to be able to visit other people at their homes again. The idea of inadvertently spreading a cockroach invasion to the homes of friends fills me with dread!!

My husband is busy making Rogan Josh today.  I need to make up my chichen vegetable soup from the roast chicken broth I made a couple of days ago.  There is only one problem with all this cooking.....there is zero room in the freezer to cram even the smallest of cartons into it. Sigh....guess we will be wolfing down Rogan Josh and chicken soup every meal for the next few days so none of it gets wasted. With the pandemic ongoing, it isn't safe to have anyone over to share our bounty.

All this writing about cockroaches is making me feel itchy!!  I think I will go and have a shower and wash my hair before getting things ready for the exterminator's visit this afternoon!!

My Small Town Life Encapsulated In A Poem

 breathe

 

she sat at the back

and they said she was shy

she led from the front

and they hated her pride

 

they asked her advice 

and then questioned her guidance

they branded her loud

then were shocked by her silence

 

when she shared no ambition

they said it was sad

so she told them her dreams

and they said she was mad

 

they told her they'd listen

then covered their ears

and gave her a hug

whilst they laughed at her fears

 

and she listened to all of it

thinking she should

be the girl they told her to be

best she could

 

but one day she asked

what was best for herself

instead of trying

to please everyone else

 

so she walked to the forest

and stood with the trees'

she heard the wind whisper

and dance with the leaves

 

and she spoke to the willow,

the elm and the pine

and she told them what she'd been told

time after time

 

she told them she never

felt nearly enough

she was either too little

or far, far too much

 

too loud or too quiet

too fierce or too weak

too wise or too foolish

too bold or too meek

 

then she found a small clearing

surrounded by firs

and she stopped and she heard

what the trees said to her

 

and she sat there for hours

 not wanting to leave

for the forest said nothing...

it just let her breathe

 

--Becky Hemsley  Talking to the Wild  2021

Sometimes I DO Get What I Pray For....Yawn....hahahahaha!

 We may have a storm blowing in tonight. At least some snow and high winds are predicted and the temperature is going to take a plunge for a couple of days as an Arctic Low sweeps through the area.  48 hours from now we will be in the -24C to -34C temperature range again, just for a day or two before things warm up a bit.

Since that is the forecast I wasn't sure last evening when I went to bed if I wanted to wait to do my grocery top up tomorrow morning, as freezing rain is part of the forecast.  I was SO tired last night, but couldn't seem to get to sleep. When I finally turned the bedside light out just after 1am my prayer to God was that if he wanted me to get up early this morning instead to go grocery shopping he was going to have to wake me up and ensure I was wide awake enough and feeling well enough to attend the 7am opening of my preferred store.

Weeeeellllll, it would seem he did exactly that!  I woke up just over 4 hours later in a bit of a panic about finding the tracking number for a package I mailed to Mom a week ago, but that has not yet arrived. I searched and searched through my purse and wallet, through the papers on my desk, even turned the garbage can upside down and sifted through the torn up receipts in there.  I eventually found a ripped post office parcel receipt, managed to tape it together enough to lift the tracking number, but didn't bother to check the date, assuming it was the correct one. hahaha  It was a correct tracking number....for a parcel I sent to a different person altogether before the new year, long since received!  Sigh....

I was certainly awake after all those didos, so I got up and dressed, downed a bit of a snack and headed off to do my shopping.  I left at 6:45am, found absolutely everything on my list in the one store, plus a couple of sale items I will need in a couple of weeks anyway, went to the bank, filled the nearly empty car gas tank with fuel and was home in less than 90 minutes. YAY!  I have been home for 90 minutes at this point, groceries all sanitized and put away, bank book updated with my receipts and my dear husband is still having a grand sleep in, completely unaware that I was gone! hahahahaha  I am so happy I was able to slip out of the house and return with a ton of groceries and not awaken him.  YAY!  (Oh, and by the way, I JUST found the Post Office receipt with that tracking number I was looking for before 6am and have discovered the parcel will be delivered in a couple of days! YAY!)

I am going to be tired this afternoon, I am very sure.  So, I think after lunch I will shower and wash my hair and go back to bed for a wee nap.  I love mornings like this: I accomplished something useful.  AND we are set up now to remain at home until the weather warms up sufficiently to want to go anywhere.

Must share something cute that happened during yesterday's church service, hahaha.  The children's pastor was asking the kids who they think they can go to for help when they have a problem.  The kids were pretty shy and it took a lot of prodding for them to start giving some answers.  One said he would go to his parents, another said he would go to his teacher at school, other answers included friends and Sunday School teacher. FINALLY one of the older boys clued in and said he would go to God with his problems....aaaah thought the children's pastor, just the answer he was looking for.  He expounded briefly about how going to God for help is a wonderful and right thing to do and as he wrapped up his talk about going to God, we heard a small voice pipe up from behind him, (the pastor's own youngest son), and it said, "Or Grandma!"  hahahahahahaha My husband roared with laughter as he remembered some of the responses he himself had from various kids when he was telling them about God in his church services. hahaha Children's Moments these events are usually called these days.....CHILDREN'S Moments they truly are. hahaha

That Heavenly Sunshine IS Flooding My Soul With Glory Divine! YES!!

 It is a marvellously sunny day today!! It is warm enough in fact that my husband and I enjoyed a short walk around the complex this afternoon.  Mid January and we were able to get out there and walk a bit, picking our way across some icy patches and single filing it where there are narrow strips of pavement, but we were OUT in the fresh air, so it was all good.  Our cheeks were burning a bit from the cold by the time we arrived home, but we surely had fun.

 We enjoyed the adult Learning for life class again this morning.  It was another good reminder to stick to the text when interpreting scripture.  In John 1: 16-17 we read, "For the law was given by moses, grace and truth came by Jesus christ."  Notice that in the original greek there is no "but" inserted between the words "moses" and "grace". They stand side by side, rather than in a "before and after" or an "either/or" situation.  Many English translations insert the word "but" as if God's law and Christ's teachings are somehow different than each other and that Jesus' words are somehow better that his father's.  The KJV inserts the "but" word and I think that has caused some incorrect ideas to circulate through the church.  Just one example, but it is an important one.  The two thoughts simply exist side by side.

The other treat we had today, apart from the good weather and excellent teaching, was a surprise outdoor visit with two ladies from church. They were  walking around the lake and went out of their way to stop at our place on their way home.  It was a lovely blessing from God for me because I have been feeling very disconnected from my church pals since the pandemic forced isolation upon us just as I was starting to progress in the relationships beyond a mere close aquaintance stage.  How exciting to be remembered today.  Thank you Lord!

I am on a roast chicken sandwich kick these days.  I found some delicious flax bread at my neighbourhood grocery store recently and am discovering how well it compliments freshly roasted meats. Yum Yum!  My husband is making some kind of rice pilaf for himself for dinner tonight, so I will stick with my sandwich this evening.  Tomorrow I will thaw some small rounds of sirloin tip and try to make something creative with them.  Then I have to get working on using the ground bison I purchased last week. Ooooh, it is going to be so yummy!!    

I recently resurrected an old computer game I haven't played in a few decades!  (The journeys of hercules)  I am having the best time playing a few levels each day.  The old graphics are a hoot and it is just one of thousands of ancient games that are all based on mah jong.  It is really nice to have something else to do as the days drag on when I am stuck at home.  I have also been locating old pieces of music so that I am playing my keyboard more often. I am sticking to the easiest pieces and forcing myself to practise the same few each day for a couple of weeks until I can play them perfectly, instead of playing a few bars of many old pieces every couple of weeks and becoming frustrated because I can't play any of them well.  The arthritis stays in check if I keep up a daily habit of no more than 20-30 minuntes on the keys. I am trying to keep busy and not read so many books that leave me frustrated by how poorly they are written.  Once I can get out again safely to places that sell new books I will be able to find better material than what is usually available in the community library boxes. 

Priest Of The Pit

 After we burned our unnecessary papers from last year my husband read two short passages of Scripture and said a little prayer for us and our friends as we welcome in the year and discard the remains of last year's paper trail.  Here he is, appropriate stole around his neck:

Priest of the Burning Pit!

It was fun to see our friends and enjoy the annual ritual. I think next year we will follow their lead and write letters about the previous year's ups and downs and throw them on the pyre.  It is a nice way to bring closure to the stresses of the year behind us.

We arrived home over 3 hours ago and I still smell like the fire pit. My hair will smell this way for days!  hahaha  It is kind of a comforting odor, reminiscent of happier, younger days.

Blessed Silence!

As we sift through our possible options should we deem it necessary to move from this suite come spring, we have been blessed this time around with a blessed silence from various and sundry aquaintances as to what they think God is telling them we should do about a move, where we should go, what sort of accommodation we should be seeking.  

After our last umpteen moves we were beginning to think God was some kind of "nosy Parker", giving all this supposed direction to everyone but ourselves....at least until the last minute when we were finally let in on the secret of our next location and it rarely matched any of the "advice" we were getting from so many other people.  

It has been so lovely to be free of all the well meaning spiritual antics of others,   Our close friends and family never did try to interfere with our own discernment process, but there have always been assorted "hangers On" of a spiritual sort who really have been out in left field in their ideas for us.  It has been extremely wierd to say the least, so to be free of that this time around has been marvellous.  We are in a stable community in the church, in our personal lives, and our families have always known not to offer advice unless it is requested.  Nothing clouds our thinking more than a bunch of people assuming they  have "God's Word" for us....yikes....so many of them do mean well and they truly do believe God has given them the word for us, but usually....not so much.  We seem to have been some of the unwitting instructors for people learning how to use and not misuse what could be true discernment gifts that simply need honing, so we are happy to help on the one hand, but on the other it is exhausting!  

Nothing so unsettling has happened thus far in our discernment process, so while we have many questions needing answers about our accommodation in a few month's time, we also have a peace we haven't been allowed to have during past moves.  It is quite lovely!  I am enjoying being involved in a church that doesn't have people bouncing off the walls in their attempts to find God's will for every minute moment of their daily lives...and mne as well!!!  

God Bless the Exterminator!!

 We  had a very informative chat today with the cockroach exterminator when he came to do his follow up check up this afternoon.  He found none whatsoever in the traps he had set and we were able to tell him that we found three wee carcasses in those traps the evening after he originally put them down.  He explained that it was likely they were in our suite because the day before his colleague had treated the empty suite where they originated with a very strong chemical spray. He sprayed down the entire suite.  The cockroaches that smelled the spray before he got to their part of the empty suite fled through whatever openings they could find to get into our and the other neighbour's suite.  He said that while he was here the first time he discovered two open spaces around the pipes in our bathroom and kitchen that had a shared space. They were very small and had never been sealed. So, he sealed them himself during that first visit.  The three we found likely crawled through sometime during the previous night to escape the chemicals next door, but died from the powder and baited strips he had put out here.  Those are the only 3 found in the interim week, but he has put down all new traps for us and will not declare our place cockroach free until another week has passed. He will return next Friday and check to be sure no eggs were laid and hatched in the meantime. He doesn't think so, but we are so relieved he is being extra careful to take care of our place.  He also told us exactly what to look for in terms of cockroach droppings and we are relieved that we never have seen anything like what he described. Thank the Lord!!  

My husband spent the entire day completing his crack sealing project in the basement along the connecting foundation wall between our two suites.  It has been a physically torturous two days with all the bending and stretching and contorting of his body required to seal the wall basement wall in around the furnace and hot water tank.  The basement wall was apparently poured in two sections and as the building has settled over the years the two halves are starting to pull apart.  No wonder when we were all  in our basements at the same time we could hear every single word each other had to say!!  The cockroach issue revealed a host of other issues that my husband is now eager, willing and able to resolve without having to rely on the somewhat sketchy knowledge and abilities of the onsite maintenance crew.  

While my husband was bending, stretching and contorting his body down in the basement, I was doing similar activities outside wielding the snow shovel to clear the snow that fell last evening.  Fortuately it was light enough to move that I could shovel off the back deck, create a new pathway out to the car, shovel around the vehicle, then shovel out the unmarked parking space beside the car....very much appreciated by the exterminator when he arrived in his pretty white SUV and his winter boots that are only ankle high!  hahaha  

Now it is time to make dinner.....again.....I have some minced turkey so I think I will just make burgers as I am not feeling particularly creative this evening. I did make a salted caramel  pudding this afternoon and that seemed to zap whatever tiny bit of cooking creativity I had today.  Maybe tomorrow I will be more inspired??  Hmmmm.....maybe not??  A friend sent me a bunch of recipes in the mail that arrived today. Every one of them uses corn meal, or corn flour, or corn starch, or corn something else, so I won't be able to make any of them. That is a shame as they all sound so delicious!  It was nice of her to think of us and send her faves to us, but unfortunately corn allergies are a "thing" around here.  Stupid allergies and food sensitivities and diabetes and other chronic issues we both fight with....thanking God every day, EVERY DAY, for the wonderful foods we CAN still eat!!

Not A “Fascinatin’ Rhythm", But A Rhythm Nonetheless!

Our pandemic days have taken on a certain pattern that is peaceful and enjoyable, if not wildly exciting. 

While my husband either sleeps in or attends a variety of Zoom mens' meetings in the mornings, I laze about over my breakfast and either watch tv or do paperwork until he emerges from his bed or office, then we sit and have a wonderful visit together where we can chat about all manner of topics.  We eat lunch together and usually download the previous evening's sumo bout from NHK's website, plug it into our tv and enjoy cheering for our favourite athletes while we eat.

Afternoons for my husband are spent either baking or preparing food for dinner, doing various chores long outstanding around this suite that have been let go for too long, reading and writing for an hour or so, then sometimes having a nap. I play the piano and read or blog or email.

We eat dinner together after preparing it together, chat again over our meal, then my husband retreats to the basement to work on his photo scanning or putting records onto computer files while I clean up the kitchen and phone my mom, then we watch a movie or some other tv programme, or play an elderly trivia game, or like we did tonight, spend a long time standing on our back deck watching the snow come down, followed by some time sitting quietly in our living room looking at the Christmas lights that we keep telling ourselves we will "take down and put away tomorrow morning!"  

We have so far received only about 5cm of snowfall, but the winds that accompanied it have made some incredible drifts across the front and back lawns. They are about three feet to four feet high, twenty to thirty feet in length and are shaped very similarly to small sand dunes or a wall of ocean water as it approaches the shore!  They are magnificent to see with their smooth rolling tops.  If we get more snow and wind overnight those drifts will change shape again, so we are delighted we got to see them in this condition.  We are so thankful that the outside temperature is not all that cold...yet....I suppose we will return to the deep freeze at some point before the end of the month.  We still have February to get through and it isn't uncommon to have a couple of weeks of -40C then too.

Health Issues And The Rellies!

 My husband talked to his brother in law last evening.  Next week the dear man has his lung scan to check on the progress of his cancer. The following week he will meet with the oncologist to discuss chemo and radiation treatment options.  He was supposed to do that before Christmas but he refused treatment at the time as he wanted to be well enough to go out of province to visit his siblings over the holidays.  So, his oncologist dropped him as a patient and he will meet with someone new next week.  His case is terminal anyway, sadly, so we are glad he stuck to his guns and didn't start debilitating treatments prior to seeing his family.  He has had serious eye problems for the past few years after a retinal detachment and it is time as well for his annual check up on that situation.  The first appointment was scheduled for the same day he has his lung scan, so it had to be rescheduled. Instead of asking him when he was free to do that, he was automatically rescheduled for the day he meets with the oncologist. Sigh....what are the chances, right? So the eye appointment will have to be rescheduled once again.  We are praying for wisdom for him as he makes his choices regarding any offered treatments.  He saw what his wife went through as she suffered through two different cancer events and experienced every possible side effect from her chemo treatments. He doesn't want to go through that, living alone and dependent on home care for his daily needs when he is having side effects.  The pandemic prevents us from going to care for him if he has side effects due to his immune system being shut down by the chemo treatments.  

Today we are awaiting the possibility of another big snowstorm.  There is a system moving our way and we are likely going to receive a minimum of 10cm of snow, plus very high winds that will create horrendous drifts once again.  Due to the higher air temperatures we have been enjoying this week, we are also at high risk for freezing rain.  YUCK!!  We are both so grateful we picked up our groceries and ran other necessary errands earlier this week! Thank the dear Lord!!

Just last night we received news that six more people that we know have been diagnosed through PCR testing with Covid19.  All these people are under the age of 40 and two of them are pre-teens.  Only 2 of them have been vaccinated and they picked their infections up on a trip to Mexico recently. This disease is striking too close for comfort right now.  We have canceled plans we had set up over the next three weeks and are staying home. We have no desire to inadvertently spread the virus to others as we know so many people who refuse to be vaccinated. Their refusal is impinging on our freedoms, yes, but we love them and want to keep them safe.  It isn't all about our own freedoms.  Oh Lord, is this ever going to end???

Old Age & Memory....Aiiiii Yiiiiii!

 My husband and I are laughing at ourselves this morning! We are getting older and less able to put two and two together to come up with four, as the saying goes. 

When we went to bed last evening we set the alarm to ring in time for my husband to go over to the church this morning to lead the men’s Morning Prayer group. Half an hour before the alarm rang he woke up with a start and hopped up to grab his phone. He’d had a realization upon awakening that the “acting bishop” has cancelled all public worship gatherings until some time in February, hahaha. My husband had to  make some calls to be certain all the men in the group had received that edict so no one would drive to the church to be met with locked doors. 

For whatever reason I had not thought of the obvious either! Hoo haw....what a riot. I don’t know how much to blame old age for this type of gaff and how much to blame the social isolation brought about by the pandemic. 

We both feel rather sheepish this morning, hahaha.

TODAY'S Spelling Of "Relief"

 Today's spelling of "relief":

W-A-R-M-E-R--W-E-A-T-H-E-R!!!  Hallelujah!!

 

Although I am sitting at my desk wrapped in an ankle length housedress, my Mark's Comfy Robe and a knee length sweater, it is because it is terribly cold in this suite....MUCH colder than it was outside this afternoon.  Today has been mild and wonderful and a great relief, a great break in the horribly cold winter!

I was able to unplug the car today as the temperature rose from -23C when I woke up early this morning to -3 just before noon!  When I drove to the clinic a couple of hours later it was -1C!  There was so much oatmealy snow on the roads that I had to kick the snow off all the mud guards behind my tires both after I arrived at the clinic and again after I arrived home. There was an horrendous buildup of dirty black snow along the bottom of the doors as well and my entire vehicle is covered with muddy, melting snow from roof to running boards. Dirty as the car now is, at the same time all that melty snow it is a welcome sight. Not certain how many days we will have of this weather freedom before the cold descends once again, but even a week of this would be spectacular.

I had my first of two annual injections for osteoporosis today.  A sore arm for a couple of days or so is the worst side effect I ever have from those, so no big deal.  My doctor is trying to feel hopeful about a possible ending to the worst of the pandemic as the Omicron variant begins to peak and then hopefully drop off in the next few weeks, but I am wondering what is actually going to happen next.  I have quite enjoyed wearing masks all winter because my asthmatic reaction to the cold air has been greatly reduced, just like last winter.  Even if the masking mandates come to an end sometime in the future, I may just continue wearing mine in the below zero temperatures.  It has been over two years since I have had a cold or influenza....bonus points for my adherence masking and hand hygiene. YAY!

My husband woke up early enough, for the first time in weeks, to attend his morning Zoom men's meeting and certainly enjoyed reconnecting with his retired Lutheran pastor buddies and the Baptist fellow who invited my husband into the group in the first place.  Tomorrow morning he will lead his other Anglican men's group in their Morning Prayer liturgy.  Then in the afternoon he will go about making the repairs in our basement that should remove most of any remaining threat of getting contaminated with cockroaches or other insects coming in from the suite next door.  He was happily putting down a non-chemical cockroach, ant and silverfish bait/killer in strategic places in the basement, "just in case".  Once he catches the vision for something there is no stopping him! hahaha  Busy guy and so happy these days....lovely to see!!  He no longer feels guilty and useless if he has a slow day where he doesn't feel well, because on the days in between he keeps himself very busy with useful projects that he enjoys.

This morning we had a long talk about the possibility of finding affordable housing accommodation in Calgary when our lease is up in the late spring.  While we likely will not move there, finances being the biggest issue in that high cost of living city, there is also the truth that making a major move as he turns 70 years old is going to be easier than when he is 75 years old....yup, truth.  The end result of our conversation: we have no idea what we are going to do when the current lease ends! hahaha All that talking with no resolve, hahahaha, but it gets us thinking about all the possibilities.  Our main prayer is simply that whatever happens, the Lord will grant us permission to remain in a city, rather than returning to a rural town.  I can't stand it socially and neither can my husband.  We have realized over the years that our misery in every small town we have lived in has been the result of simply having nothing in common with most of the people we met in them. (with a few noteable exceptions of course) There really wasn't much wrong with the towns themselves, or with the people either. We simply haven't been able to relate to more than a handful of the folk and the harder we tried over the decades, the deeper we dug ourselves into situations that were untenable for both of us.  We came away from our last small town experience in Alberta displaying minor symptoms of mental illness after not being able to be ourselves for well over twenty years. Trying to fit in was a big lie as we kept telling ourselves we could do it. We didn't succeed.  We nearly lost our minds. People thought we were really off beat and phony and they were right. We WERE being phony, albeit with the best of intentions. When we were "just ourselves" they couldn't understand us and were offended by us, so we tried hard to fit into their culture....BIG mistake. We did them no favours in our attempts to protect ourselves. Trying to be like them when we were not was selfish, very disrespectful and unloving. We needed to get out and we did, by the grace of God and have spent a lot of time repenting for our huge error in judgement.  Fortunately we do have a handful of friends left from that place and time who we love very much and who stuck with us through our inability to relate to a lot of the other townsfolk. Bless them!!

 

Yup, we had a long talk this morning and hopefully that converation will be a help as we look forward into the future and make our decision about moving in a few months' time.