Testing...Testing...1 2 3 4 5 6 7.....

 I didn't go for my lab tests today after all.  Yesterday when I walked to the pharmacy to pick up my new prescription I had a good chat with the dispensing pharmacist about my new medication.  Long story short, I am going to wait for 4-6 weeks to get my lab work done.  Although I am quite certain my A1C would show a rise in my blood glucose levels, part of that rise is possibly, likely even, a result of taking the statin....based on the rest of my reactions to several years of taking statins.  I learned that many long term users of my particular statin become type 2 diabetics, which I already am.  No wonder my doctor didn't argue with me about my refusing to take them any more.  Once I have been off the statins for a few weeks I should get a better indication of where my blood glucose levels are at and what sort of longer term plan I need to maintain the lower levels.  Since I am not having any actual discernable symptoms of higher glucose levels, either physical or mental/emotional, (more of an educated guess on my part that they are on the rise), I am going to give this waiting period before testing a try.  

Although the sun is shining and the air temperature is most pleasant, we are experiencing the start of the annual month of June strong winds!!  June hasn't even started yet, but we are being battered about already.  No matter, it is expected and I will tolerate it happily for the sake of having sunny skies and warmth at last.

Walking to the pharmacy yesterday afternoon was kind of fun.  As well as howling winds, it was raining just a little bit.  There was enough rain to speckle  my glasses lenses with tiny dots of water and fuzz out my hair.  Belatedly I remembered my jacket has a large hood, but by the time I thought to put it up I couldn't see through my lenses any more and my hair was rather wild. hahaha  I LOVE walking in the rain, even the chilly rains here on the prairies.  I have many happy memories of events in my life that took place in the rain: first date, first kiss, dodging wet branches on a mountainside with my husband, walking around and around our crescent in the middle of the night with my teenaged son as he debriefed about his evening's fun with his friends, losing my glasses in a puddle at a huge public outdoor event and miraculously finding them an hour later right where they had fallen and discovering no one had stolen or stepped on them, wandering through glowing green wet ferns on Vancouver Island, watching the flowers come alive during warm rains in Vancouver, throwing rocks into the ocean in Oregon as the rain drops plopped around me in the sand on the beach, sitting outside a motel in Ontario watching the approach of lightning and hearing the thunder coming in behind the intially gentle rain, dodging puddles and lightning strikes one afternoon at the Calgary Stampede grounds with my parents during a flash flood and ghastly storm that wreaked havoc for a couple of hours with The Greatest Show On Earth.  Yes, even that last one is a great memory because I had never been so close to lightning strikes and it was thrilling to be caught up in the pandemonium that ensued as people ran to and fro looking for safe places to be.  I am definitely a rain person.

Today is laundry day, ergo a good day of exercise indoors.  I enjoy doing laundry.  Warm towels and sheets right out of the dryer feel comforting and invoke memories of my son, (and also myself when I was a little girl), laying on the bed as sheets freshly out of the dryer were being put back on the mattress, snuggling into the warmth. In the bitter cold of winter time it is a wonderful experience. It is a comforting feeling as the snow and ice storms rage outside.  The past few days I have been surrounded by  memories and am enjoying it very much.

O Spring Where Art Thou??

 Spring has kind of had us fooled this year!  We had a couple of lovely days in a row and then yesterday it rained and rained and rained some more.  Today has ushered in what is supposed to be a very cloudy four or five days in a row. However, there hasn't been any rain since sometime overnight, so that is a bonus I suppose.  At least the leaves are coming out now on the trees and some of the early spring flowers are blooming, so better late than never.  I think it isn't going to be the greatest spring and summer season we have ever had.  O well, at least it is not SNOWING and ICY!  

I walked up to the medical clinic today for my rather late "annual" physical. Fortunately my doctor was in a good mood today and didn't chastise me too harshly for the 8 pound weight gain and the lack of exerise and the poor dietary habits that developed over the winter and and and and and and and....God bless her!  I will head over to the lab for the usual tests first thing tomorrow morning.  If I arrive at 6:30am and stand outside until the lab opens at 7am I will be in the first batch of fasting people who need to get in before the prescheduled appointments begin at 8am.  If that has changed, I will just enjoy being out of doors for awhile, go back home and try to book an appointment for as early in the morning as I can on some other day.  

I am very, very relieved that my doctor listened very closly to the symptoms I have been having for the past few months that I have been suspicious of being caused by my statin.  Sure enough. She agreed and has put me on another cholesterol drug altogether.  It is less effective than statins, BUT that just means I have to be very, very careful with my fat intake. I have spent years doing just that, but the past two years I have not been very careful at all, so it just means a return to former ways. I can do it. It won't be a big issue.  My blood pressure was excellent, even with a quick burst of "white coat syndrome" stress just before the cuff went around my arm.  YAY!!  Now I await the lab tests and results.  My doctor told me that if my blood sugar is up too high she will write me a prescription for a new blood sugar monitor if I can't bring it down again in three months' time.  We had such a good talk today.  The actual physical examination went very well and the skin test revealed no problems. My heart murmur has held steady since it was last tested 18 months ago, so no further deterioration there, yay!  I am very glad that I went to see her and that I can likely get the lab work done this week and find out quickly what I need to get help with.

Yesterday was a lot of fun!  Church was just great. The guest pastor's sermon was very well presented and it was one of the best Ascension Sunday services I have attended at my church in the past several years. We sang our favourite "Lo He Comes With Clouds Descending" (with the "proper" tune: Helmsley).  It was Ruth's favourite hymn as well, so my husband and I got a bit teary eyed as we sang it and remembered her.  We sang my favourite "Days of Elijah" and "Hail the Day That Sees Him Rise", another favourite hymn.  

Afterward we met my husband's cousin and fiance at Knotted Thistle for a light lunch. Just after we got seated a couple from church came in and looked a bit lonely and forlorn, so we invited them to join us. They are great additions to any group as they are wonderful conversationalists and are sincerely interested in meeting people who are new to them.  It was a lot of fun.

Later today I will pick up my prescription from the pharmacy and then swing by my friend's house to pick up the tomato plants she has faithfully started up again for us this year.  What a great deal for us! Every spring, for a VERY FEW dollars, she harvests last year's seeds, replaces the soil, replants and keeps the newly sprouted seedlings safe inside her gardening shed until it is time to take them outside for the spring. She wraps the new plants to keep them warm until it is safe for them to be outside uncovered overnight.  When that time comes she lets us know we can pick them up and bring them home.  The amount of work she saves us every spring and the harvest of fresh, delicious Golden Sun cherry tomatoes that we reap is worth four or five times what she charges. Bless her heart.  

I think I will take my breakfast with me in the car when I go to the lab tomorrow.  After my tests are done I can jam it down and head to the grocery store for a few items before the store gets crowded.  Then I will be free to do laundry or start house cleaning or some such physically active task!  As my doctor reminded me today, EXERCISE, EXERCISE, EXERCISE!!!  Amen! 

Enjoying The Wit of G.K.Chesterton!

The paragraphs below give good insight into the thinking of our son the artist as he was growing up and planning his own artistic decorating of the basement bedroom his father built for him in our house when he was a teenager: 

ON LYING IN BED

(Tremendous Trifles, 1909)

Lying in bed would be an altogether perfect and supreme experience if only one had a coloured pencil long enough to draw on the ceiling.  This, however, is not generally a part of the domestic apparatus on the premises. I think myself that the thing might be be managed with several pails of Aspinall and a broom.  Only if one worked in a really sweeping and masterly way, and laid on the colour in great washes, it might drip down again on one's face in floods of rich and mingled colour like some strange fairy rain; and that would have its disadvantages.  I am afraid it would be necessary to stick to black and white in this form of artistic composition. To that purpose, indeed, the white ceiling would be of the greatest possible use; in fact it is the only use I think of a white ceiling being put to.

          But for the beautiful experiment of lying in bed I might never have discovered it.  For years I have been looking for some blank spaces in a modern house to draw on.  Paper is much too small for any really allegorical design; as Cyrano de Bergerac says, "Il me faut des geants."  But when I tried to find these fine clear spaces in the modern rooms such as we all live in I was continually disappointed.  I found an endless pattern and complication of small objects hung like a curtain of fine links between me and my desire.  I examined the walls; I found them to my surprise to be already covered with wall-paper, and I found the wall-paper to be already covered with very uninteresting images, all bearing a ridiculous resemblance to each other.  I could not understand why one arbitrary symbol (a symbol apparently entirely devoid of any religious or philosophical significance) should thus be sprinkled all over my nice walls like a sort of small-pox.   The Bible must be referring to wall-papers I think, when it says "Use not vain repetitions, as the Gentiles do."  I found the Turkey carpet a mass of unmeaning colours, rather like the Turkish Empire, or like the sweetmeat called Turkish delight.  I do not exactly know what Turkish delight really is; but I suppose it is Macedonian Massacres.  Everywhere that I went forlornly, with my pencil or my paint brush, I found that others had unaccountably been here before me, spoiling the walls, the curtains, and the furniture with their childish and barbaric designs.

--In Defense of Sanity; The best essays of G.K. Chesterton, selected by Dale Ahlquist, Joseph Pearce, Aidan Mackey; 2011, Ignatius Press, San Francisco, pp 39,40.

Another Happy Retirement Kind Of Day!

 My husband had a difficult sleep last night, so we canned any thoughts we had of doing much strenous walking or gardening activity today.  It is mid afternoon and he is napping, trying to catch up. At one point, right around 5am, he was so desperate to fall back asleep that he turned completely around and placed his head at the end of the bed and his feet at the top.  The change of position did help, so he slept until nearly 10am, waking up groggy and exhausted.

We ended up taking a drive around the city doing little errands instead...banking, a couple of short grocery store stops, a search for yarn and since we ended our chores right near the Agave Mexican restaurant we stopped in there for a delicious bite of lunch.  I had the beef taco salad and it was just fantastic....SO MANY little items arranged around the bowl: guacamole, diced red sweet onions, salsa, corn niblets, shredded romaine lettuce, thinly sliced hot peppers, diced red and green peppers, baked corn chips.  In the centre of all this deliciousness was a HUGE mound of shredded, fried beef with a wonderful fresh beef flavour...not ground beef filled with bits of fat, but more like a pulled beef. It was wonderful. My husband wrapped his tummy up in a big fat beef burrito stuffed also with rice and beans and with a large bowl of french fries. I am proud of him for leaving quite a few of the fries due to his cholesterol issues. That wasn't an easy decision for him as he LOVES fries!  Good on him.

Our drive around the city to these various places has given us a good picture of where all the residential road construction projects are happening here.  Water and sewer pipes are being replaced and other road infrastructure projects are being done during this very short spring/summer/autumn season.  Detours are sending us along some interesting streets we have not seen before.

We had nice warmth and overcast skies all morning. Just after we left Agave the rain began to fall.  Seems we will have intermittent showers for the next twelve hours before a forecast day tomorrow of sunshine and warmth, followed by a few more days of showers.  

While my husband continues to nap I am going to type out a few paragraphs from a book by G. K. Chesterton we are enjoying. When I am done I will copy those paragraphs into a new blog post.  Chesterton has some very witty writings that we are enjoying immensely.

Yaaaaakimoooo.....Yaaaaakimooooooo......

Tonight there is a slightly burnt smell from someone's BBQ drifing in through the window.  There is a naturally sweet tang to the odor that, when combined with the present time of night, 11:30pm, makes me think of the old kei truck that used to trundle past our apartment in Tokyo, the recorded "Yaaaakimoooo" song advertising its wares....small, thick, roasted orange yams....blaring over the loudspeaker hung outside the cab of the truck as it drove up and down the narrow streets in our neighbourhood just before midnight.  So often my husband and I would jump out of bed, grab our clothes and run down three flights of stairs to try to get to the vendor before his truck passed by into the rabbit warren tangle of our neighbourhood streets.  There is nothing that compares to the slightly caramelized, slightly charred flavour of tiny whole roasted yams at midnight in the midst of a Tokyo winter, in an apartment with no central heating.  The kei trucks are quickly disappearing nowadays, so we feel even more blessed to have been in Tokyo when their late night arrival was still a common occurrence.

Here is an article from the BBC my husband just found online that brought these happy memories to mind:

https://www.bbc.com/travel/article/20220518-japans-beloved-sweet-potato-vendors

A Day Of Small Accomplishments!

Today was a good day with some excellent outcomes!  We have been waiting and waiting for the past two months for our new leasing contract to arrive.  This morning, there was the new contract for our signatures. Although these papers showed up until nearly the last minute, we didn't have to chase down the leasing agent and demand to know if our new lease was going to arrive BEFORE the present one expires!

Shortly after that we were able to start processing a problem with our television service provider that, had it not been dealt with today, would have left us with no tv service by the beginning of next week.  The provider dealt with our issues very well and as far as we know everything is in place for a changeover that will take place in their system next week.  

I was contacted by a bank I have been waiting to hear from and a small issue there was resolved.

Another estate cheque arrived and I was able to get that deposited with no more hassles with the estate account.

My husband, after being delayed by one thing and another for over a month, was finally able to get over to his friend's place today to help said friend start putting plans in place for a back yard renovation. They will start working on it on the weekend.

I arranged a luncheon for my husband's cousin and her fiance and ourselves for after church on Sunday.  No more indecision and dithering around. As I learn to start taking charge of some of our social situations again I have to put forth suggestions and ideas to other people and get things rolling, so that when the time comes we aren't all just sitting around staring at each other and running out of things to talk about. 

The past few days I have been taking good charge of my diet and exercise once again and am feeling so much better for it. Whether or not I can lose the weight I want to lose, I do at least feel less slug-like, less slothful, less generally dumpy!

Had a good chat with an Alberta friend and that was a great accomplishment in between interruptions by business calls and then us cutting each other off somehow at one point. After three or four attempts we finally got our conversation completed!

It has been a quietly good day of small accomplishments!  AND the weather all day was fabulous!  I am grateful!

Spring in SK Is Almost Sprung!

Tonight a friend in Kamloops sent me some photos of their glorious spring....trees covered in new spring green leaves, gorgeous flowering bushes and plants.  Talk about a "sumptuous" spring landscape. Wow!  Seeing those bright, beautiful flowers made me long for the west coast again, but it was also kind of mentally and emotionally restorative.  I find the long winters and late springs on the prairies personally deadening in a lot of ways.  However, thanks to a recent trip of my friend Kat's to a lake north of here, I do have some images of the EMERGING spring here in SK!  You know when it is ALMOST spring in SK.....

Mama bears leave hibernation, hackles raised as they protect their young!  CcKat

No tree leaves yet, but bits of green grass along the paths. CcKat

Beautiful skies over the lake ice that is NEARLY all gone.  CcKat

MOST of the snow has melted off the beach! CcKat

The ubiquitous prairie pussy willows.  CcKat

As you can see there is still a lot of brown and grey and I find that depressing when it is nearly June, as I sit here dreaming of the deep green ferns, cherry blossoms, and thick cedar trees on the west coast....not to mention sandy beaches and international freighters and giant ocean waves....BUT it does make spring on the prairies, when it FINALLY does arrive, all the more special I suppose.  As we consider moving a year from now, knowing that at this point there is literally not one place in Canada we can actually afford to live in a decent accommodation, why not head to the west coast and take whatever hovel we can find?  If a hovel we shall have, why not have one in a spiritually refreshing place, right?  For us that is not the prairies. The lake country, hidden away in the central prairies, as you can see from Kat's photos, have a beauty all their own, but it doesn't speak to us the same way that the beauty of the coastal areas does.....geography IS important we have learned....so much to consider when it is time to move....so very much to consider......

Truth

“To recommend thrift to the poor is both grotesque and insulting. It is like advising a man who is starving to eat less.”

—Oscar Wilde

Loping Along....At A Snail's Pace!

 Despite the lousy sleep last night, (I did pull off two more hours after my earlier morning post, hallelujah), I did manage to get myself up and going to the car dealership on time this morning.  The walk home was glorious!  The sun was shining, the breeze wasn't too strong and it wasn't freezing cold this time.  I marched along, slowly, but very happily, taking a few blocks'of detour to accomplish some banking on the way home.  I really, really enjoyed the time to myself  and being out in the nice weather. What a great start to the "other" waking part of the day, hahaha.  

Hopefully the car will be ready soon. It is nearly 2:30pm and our sunny daytime forcast has suddenly changed to scattered thunder showers for the rest of the afternoon and evening.  One small smattering of large rain drops already arrived a half hour ago, but was thankfully short lived.  If I can get to the car before the next building cloud formation to the west arrives here, it will still be a pretty nice walk.  I am so grateful that I remembered to lengthen my walking gait so that the stiff muscles and tendons around my leg hardware that seized up over my slothful winter had a chance to stretch out.  If I can keep on remembering to do that until I am more "in the groove" again for my spring and summer walking routine, I should escape the pain I have experienced during reintroduction to long walks that has plagued me in other, more forgetful years.  

During my foray off track to get to the bank I discovered a neat little place downtown where my husband and I can get breakfast the next time we find ourselves walking home from the car dealership so early in the morning!  It is only a couple of blocks out of the way and it is clean and almost empty of customers at that time. YAY!  I forgot to look at the sign as I passed by, being so curious to see what the menu and interior of the place were all about, but at least I remember where it is and what time it opens, hahahaha.  The name of the establishment doesn't matter then does it, right? hahaha  Typical me....the possibly most important detail is the one I miss. hahaha

Just finished watching a two part documentary about George Carlin.  He was a most interesting comedian.  He could see so many truly honest ironies going on in the world and yet others he missed completely.  He and his family survived a lot of "bad stuff" and I always admire people who can keep life going during the worst possible circumstances, even if those circumstances are a result of their own poor choices in life.  

Well, time to call the dealership and find out how much longer they think the car will be in the shop and then head out of here to pick it up as soon as I can.

Why Is It That When A Good Night’s Sleep Is Most Required......

 ........it doesn’t happen? 

It has been a lifelong problem. I don’t know how to solve it, so have tried over the decades to accept the inevitable. Some sleepless nights I am more accepting of it than others. 

I fell asleep at 11:30pm, happy in the knowledge that today’s car repairs will give me another 6.2 km round trip walk home from the dealership and back to the dealership to retrieve it when the car is ready. My tummy was filled with the residual warm spiciness of a fabulous DarBar dinner and my mind relaxed from the conversation with friends over our shared meal. It was lovely to feel myself falling into a deep sleep. Aaaaahhhh.....success....

Ninety minutes later my deep, relaxed sleep came to a crash banging halt when neighbours of a particular religious persuasion set off nearly five full minutes of fireworks celebrating the end of one of their annual religious festivals. My husband leapt out of bed thinking we were being shot at, slammed the window shut, (not that shutting the window made any difference to the noise of fireworks being set off less than  200 yards away), fell back into bed and promptly fell back asleep. How I envy him that ability. 

I have been fully awake now for two and a half hours. In just over three hours it will be time to get up, eat breakfast, take the car to the dealership and then face what will now be a torture test of aching muscles, jumpy tummy and foggy brain as I slog my way home, then wait, sleepless again most likely, for half a day until it is time to repeat the aching muscles, jumpy tummy, foggy brain route in reverse. 

Dang it! I had high hopes of a good sleep last night after three nights in a row of excellent sleep, for which I have been most grateful. 

One thing I am very thankful for at the moment is that in Canada the followers of my own religion tend to be a rather quiet bunch who eschew loud 1am celebrations that infringe on their neighbours’ ability to sleep. This group of neighbours pulled the same stunt a year ago but, although I was aware this year of their annual celebration, I didn’t remember to prepare myself for their 1am fireworks display. Next year.....I will be ready for it next year.....

My Year Of Yes

This has been a year for me to face a few small fears and stop saying "no" to everything just because I am insecure or worried about whatever the task is!  So far it is working out pretty well.  I haven't overwhelmed myself by saying "yes" to every single possibility that comes my way, but I have certainly started expanding my own horizons again and acting more adult again.  For some reason, right about the time the pandemic began...although I am not convinced the two are related....I developed a terrible insecurity about doing much of anything at all outside the home. Even my health has been neglected because I wasn't in the mood to face taking care of it by going to see my GP.

So, this year I have said "yes" to doing the executorship duties for Mom's estate when I could easily have signed off and left it all to my co-executor husband, who would have generously allowed me to get away with that, but loves me enough that he wanted me to try it myself.  At church I took on an offering counter position and took on the organizing of the church kitchen cleaning project.  I took back my position of taking care of the needs for vehicle repairs, tire changes and general maintenance scheduling.  I have been following my instincts to send emails to friends I have not been in touch with for the past couple of years and received an excellent response, as well as occasionally purchasing small gifts to send to a few out of town folk just because the things I stumbled across seemed to be a great fit for them, as well as a way of solidifying some relationships that have not been that stable the past few years.  Sometimes it has to be ME that does the reaching out and I have neglected that in favour of allowing other peoples' shyness to dictate the lack of direction in the friendship.  Today I pulled myself together and actually called the medical clinic to book an appointment for my annual physical examination....my last "annual" exam was 19 months ago!!!  I am keeping up with hair appointments this year, dental work and church attendance.

The success I am having once again at taking charge of the details of my life is giving me confidence for the next time I hear a "no", or have something I am interested in not work out.  

The fog is finally lifting out of my brain and I am starting to remember I am an adult with skills to utilize and opinions that have the right to be held and sometimes stated.  

This is a good feeling!!  Long may it last!!  Thank you Lord for this burst of confidence that my life won't end if I step out and start living it more fully again.

Looking Heathier Now!

We received the photo of our son, below, last evening. Hani took the shot and sent it to us.  Ebot is looking more like himself, not so much like the pasty faced skeleton he looked like when he was visiting us two months ago. The diet and exercise and stress reduction are beginning to work their magic. For that we are grateful.

Happily displayed in the photo are the Japanese tea mugs we sent home with the two of them after their visit here, along with the charcuterie board a long time friend gifted them with, some Belgian chocolates Hani brought home from Antwerp yesterday, my father's painting of Christ's crucifixion and above Ebot's head is one of his paintings.  It is a happy remembrance of their time here with us.  How thoughtful of them to set the scene and send us the photo.

Sometimes Life is very good indeed!

 

 

Getting Lost Isn't Always A Bad Thing

 On  This  Gorgeous  Warm  And  Sunny   day,  my   husband  decided we    should  take  a  drive   out  to DOORN'S  green houses to look  at    their  remaining  pots  of  herbs.   He   was   newly  inspired  to  do  so  today  when  his  cousin  dropped  off  the  plant  pots  she   borrowed  from  him  last    year.     So,   after  lunch  away  we  went.   It  is  only  a   short  drive  south  of  town  and  we  had   a wonderful  time  there.   Marjoram  was  the  only  thing  we   wanted    that  they  are  sold  o ut  of,   but  we  came  home  with  five  other  pots   of deliciousness!   We   purchased  box   basil  and giant  leaf  basil,  parsley,   dill  and  French  Tarragon  to    add  to  the  other  pots  of  chives ,  spearmint,  mint,  cilantro,  silver thyme,  rosemary,  oregano,  lavender,  tri colour sage,  garlic and potatoes.  My  husband   is   going  to   repot  the  new  herbs    tomorrow.  He  is  SOOO   excited.  hahaha!

Coming back to town we were yakking and not paying close enough attention to our route....a very simple and straight forward one that still we missed!!  Instead of turning off the secondary road onto the ring road to return to our place, we turned too soon and ended up on the new bypass highway that connects with the number 1 east to Winnipeg! hahaha  So, we got a chance to travel a few kilometres on it before locating a turn off that returned us to Arcola Avenue in our fair city.  We were at the farthest east end of Regina and as we drove along Arcola we noticed the sign for an Indian grocery we had not been aware of before: India Market.  We decided to stop there and look around.  It was a lovely place and we ended up coming home with several items, as well as having our names on their membership list for a 5% discount every time we shop there, including today's purchase!  We purchased paneer and a large bag of loose leaf Bakhri tea, four vegetarian samosas (two mild and two spicy),  mango chutney and some methi roti.  (Methi is fenugreek and wow, it makes cooked vegetables taste spectacular!  My husband purchased some fresh methi at FreshCo the other day and used it generously with freshly cooked potatoes, cauliflower, onions and tomatoes. YUM!)

What a serendipitous route error as it turned out!  We had a lovely time in this new, very clean, well stocked store and will definitely return there next time we need Indian groceries.  There is an excellent selection of dishes and cooking utensils as well, should my husband wish to continue learning how to cook his own Indian fare.  

This is shaping up to be a good week for us.  My husband has two of his most enjoyable mens' meetings, we are taking DarBar takeout food to some friends' place for dinner one evening, the car will have its TBS system repaired and I am going to make enquiries at the dealership in regard to having the vehicle repainted, my husband has his regular lab work done, and on the weekend his cousin and her fiance are coming over for lunch and a visit.  It has been several months since there has been time for the four of us to get together, so we are certainly looking forward to it very much!

Looks like we have two more days of good, spring weather before another week or so of rain showers and cooler temperatures.  The plants will be very happy and perhaps the farmers who haven't been able to seed yet due to the massive pours of rain will get a chance to at last plant their crops properly.  Here's hoping......
 

 

Updates For All You Prayer Partners!

Good Saturday evening on this chilly, windy, damp Victoria Day weekend! 

Here are a couple of updates on my prayer requests:

1. Talked to Ray tonight. He completed his first five days this week of radiation for his pelvic tumour. So there is swelling and he has temporary mobility issues until that eases. He has two more five day sessions, followed a week later by an MRI to check on the effectiveness of the radiation. He also had an intravenous chemo treatment that, along with the typical radiation exhaustion, has made him quite ill the past couple of days. He will have one of those every few weeks. He is still balking at the idea of needing more live in help, but has agreed to consider more seriously my husband’s offer of it after his next chemo treatment in June. His son will be far more available to him now that a career training seminar is finished.

2. Son  “Ebot” is having trouble adjusting to the life changes he is making. With enforced shorter work hours, less strenuous exercise and dietary changes, he is not sleeping well for the first time in his life.So, thus far he is actually more tired than before. This shall pass, but he is feeling a bit discouraged right now. Hani will be home tomorrow from her working trip to Belgium, so they are going to discuss a mutually acceptable white noise loop to try in hopes it will help Ebot to sleep better.

3. My husband has gotten a better concept of what retirement needs to look like for him at this point. Therefore he has decided that apart from his final three classes and the two sermons he is scheduled to preach between now and the end of June, he is not taking on any more commitments this year. Well, I will see how long that lasts, but at least he will definitely be taking the summer off. I am so relieved! Just making that decision put a spring in his step today. He is exercising more and that is helping him a lot.

4. My walking partner has Covid! She feels lousy. Please pray for her recovery and for protection from the virus for her family. Thank you so much!

5. Cee is not doing as well as hoped. He has good days and bad days and is now awaiting gall bladder surgery on top of all his other issues. He will soon (?) see another specialist about the ongoing neuropathy but remaining hopeful is a big struggle for him and Nan. Your prayers are very much appreciated by both of them.

Minding Our P’s And Q’s!

 I just got off the phone after a conversation with my husband’s nephew: all the time we have known him as an adult he has been a highly regarded fireman, but last year he decided it wasn’t a challenging enough career. (!!?????!!Wha’?????) So last weekend he graduated from an intense course of police training and is now in line to prepare for an eventual position on his city’s SWAT team, having aced his firearms training. 

With his new career underway, we are going to have to mind our actions and conversations with this newly minted city policeman with excellent tactical training. Yikes!!! Hohoho!!

Late Spring In Southern Saskatchewan Looks Something Like This:

Just a couple of hours south east of here is the beautiful Kenosee Lake, located in gorgeous Moose Mountain Provincial Park. Today, May 20th, this is what it looked like:

Welcome to spring in Southern Saskatchewan!! Sigh........

Fortunately, here in Regina we only had a few hours of scattered flurries, but whoa Nellie, is it ever cold outside. So grateful the area will start slowly warming up FINALLY tomorrow!!! I wonder if we are going to start having long, cold springs followed by short, brutally hot summers, what with climate change and all.....

Mom, I Miss You!

I am still adjusting to the loss of my mother. I still relive the moment of her passing several times a day. Occasionally I still note subconsciously the time of the evening when I used to call her for our daily conversation. I am still weaning myself off checking the daily obituary postings in her city as I remember it is no longer necessary to keep track of the passing of her friends for her. There is no longer a need to track the tv shows she enjoyed in order to let her know the dates for their season beginning and finale episodes. I still find myself checking out sale prices of products I shipped to her on a regular basis so that she wouldn’t be obliged to shop for them herself in stores that were difficult for her to get to. I caught myself the other day wondering how much her rent would be going up this autumn. I wonder if my mind goes automatically to her death rather than Dad’s because I was able to be with her and see for myself the excellent care she was receiving, whereas COVID lockdowns meant neither she nor I had seen Dad for six months prior to his passing and he died frightened and alone.

Grief is an interesting process......

My husband is struggling with the feeling that all the work he has put and continues to put into scanning hundreds of old family photos onto computer files is an exercise in futility because his reason for doing it, (to share with his sister), ended with his sister’s unexpected death last summer. She will no longer be able to identify for him various relatives and old family friends or the circumstance and story behind each elderly black and white picture. They will no longer be sharing conversations about their shared family history, but he is toiling on to complete the project. It has been cathartic for him in some ways, upsetting in others. 

I suspect it is the finality of death that is striking us in a deeper way than it has before; perhaps because we too are aging and realize how close to the finish line we ourselves may be?

Directing Choirs

 I have attended a few choir concerts over the past several months and watching the various directors has given me a new appreciation for the style of directing my father subscribed to during his musical career.

At the concerts I have attended I have watched shoulder shaking, arm swooping, butt jiggling, twerking, crouching, wild gesticulating, bending over at the waist in appendix attack position, excessive head bobbing, toe bouncing, heel clicking, leg twitching, hair flying and profuse sweating brought on by the intensity of these gestures. Some of the directors’ movements have been so distracting that their own performances have outshone the performances of their choirs!! SO WEIRD! 

My father was an elegant choir director. He wore, ALWAYS, a dark two piece suit, white shirt and dark tie. He followed his choir into the performance venue, spoke briefly about his choir rather than himself and his musical education and experiences when required to give an introduction and never once gave a public recitation, (brag fest), of all the other well known musicians he personally knew or had worked with. He stood ramrod straight to direct, his arms moving discreetly in front of him, making certain in a quiet way that the choir members were watching him for their direction. After a concert my father would make a brief bow, then step aside and gestured for his choir to be the recipients of the applause, if a speech was required at that point it was brief and all about the wonderful choir members and their hard work. 

To me, my dad was the consummate professional in his choir work. For someone who enjoyed being the centre of attention most of the time, when it came to his choirs, musicales and chamber music groups, he took little public credit or glory. As I have been watching other directors seeming to want to be the centre of attention, giving long litanies of how important they think they are and citing lists of well known acquaintances in order to boost their own public image, seeming to use their choirs as props, my admiration for Dad knows no bounds!

So THIS Is What Retirement Looks Like!! I LIKE It!!

 Today has given us a happy glance at what full retirement should look like as my husband's regular weekly commitments continue to wane over the spring and summer!  

We both had a good sleep last night and woke up at a reasonable time for breakfast. We were going to go grocery shopping, but received a spontaneous invitation to meet some friends at The French Press for mid morning coffee.  YES YES YES!!  Off we went after a quiet visit together around our breakfast at home.  

Two hours after arriving at The French Press we finally headed for the grocery store after a very nice visit with our friends.  The four of us laugh an awful lot, so it is always an edifying time when we get together.  I enjoyed my Paris Fog with lavender and vanilla and my husband enjoyed his matcha latte because it didn't seem as sweet as the syrupy kind made in other coffee bars he has ordered it at.

Since the closest grocery store to The French Press is FresCo, the discount....kinda....store in the Safeway/IGA chain, we made a rare stop there.  There were a half dozen items I need that they don't carry at all, but everything else was there and there were lots of sales going on.  The meat looked fresh and well butchered, so I picked up a couple of packages to hold us over the weekend before I go to SaveOn for their free range options.  It was fun shopping somewhere new even if they didn't have everything we needed.  We took our time and enjoyed the shopping adventure.   

As we were driving away from the grocery store I realized I was feeling overly hungry and kind of crabby, so I checked the time:   yup, it had been nearly six hours since I had eaten breakfast and my special tea hadn't brought my bloodsugar level back up sufficiently to wait any longer for lunch. My husband knew if we went home and cooked something I would be in rather a bad way, so he took me immediately to the Knotted Thistle for lunch.  I haven't felt that way for months...a testament to how well I can do if I keep my time frames consistent for meal times. Today I didn't pay attention and paid for it.  I was pretty light headed when our food arrived....in record time I might add, but by the time my lunch was half way finished I was feeling a lot better.  I am loving burgers without the buns and because I didn't have the bun I was able to have a small bowl of delicious, tasty, wonderful, scrumptious potato and bacon soup.  The Thistle does a wonderful soup as a rule.  This one certainly is marvellously tasty.

Came home to some bills in the mail, so ran around and got them paid right away in between small bouts of rain that have been going on since sometime in the middle of the night!  We are supposed to be having thunderstorms right now, but thus far all we have seen beside the rain is a brief smattering of soft hail pellets.  My husband was able to cover the 8 small pots of herbs we purchased at FreshCo with a towel to protect them.  Since we are going to have overnight lows of +1C to -1C the next two nights, with possible snow tomorrow, those lovely wee herbs will be coming inside until the warmer weather arrives this long weekend holiday. By next week the daytime highs will be a more normal +22-+24C! CAN'T WAIT!!!!!  I am truly looking forward to taking the car in for its TBS system repair next week as it will probably be a fine day indeed for the 6km round trip walk home from the garage and back again.

Spring is FINALLY coming!  I am so excited!!!

Those crazy beachballs we have had hanging off our back deck to scare off the geese have actually been working!  We haven't been totally sure, until today. Due to strong winds last night we brought them inside, then forgot to put them back out before we left the house this morning. When we arrived home there were seven or eight geese on the lawn instead of the usual three we have had since scaring the first dozen or so away with those plastic balls.  It has been at least two months since we have had more geese on the lawn than those three.  So, my husband hung the balls back up on the deck and in less than a minute the extra four or five geese that arrived in our absence disappeared again.  The usual three resumed their discomfort with the appearance of those balls and hightailed it across the lawn where they have spent most of their time since the balls went up in early April.  The darned things really are working! YAY!!

If this is a glimpse into what some of our "completely" retired days are going to look like, it is going to be a happy time indeed!!

 

First Mosquito Bite Of The Season!!

We know that spring, at last, is here. How do we know this? We know this because after days of rain, followed by today’s warmth, the mosquitos have hatched and are already biting with evil fervour!!  I received my first bite this evening after dinner: I ate the entree and a nasty mosquito had the dessert! Thus I am sitting up in bed at 12:15am scratching the giant itchy bump on my leg while rolling my eyes and cussing softly at the ceiling. I am also listening to the strong winds forcing sheets of rain against the siding of our building and thanking God that my casual look at the overnight forecast resulted in my husband running down to the basement to grab the window well covers and reinstall them before this vicious storm  arrived!! 

————————————————————————————————-

Now it is 7:09am. I slept for nearly six consecutive hours....almost. That’s pretty good. I am still tired, but my tummy is rumbling so I know I will need to eat breakfast soon. I think I will do that and THEN open all the curtains to see what damage may have occurred outside from the overnight wind and rain. Hopefully the window well covers have not detached themselves and gone walk about through the complex grounds. Hopefully the basement water leakage is only slight, that the patching and drainage systems my husband worked so hard on have held their own. I will check after breakfast.

I had a short but peaceful walk to the grocery store after breakfast yesterday to pick up a few items. The sun was radiating sufficient warmth that I was able to wear a sleeveless blouse for type first time this spring, yay!! After lunch my husband and I took another short walk to our favourite lookout point at the lake. There we watched a family of geese with their goslings, nipping at the dirt for small blades of grass before waddling single file into the lake for a paddle, mom leading the march and protective dad bringing up the rear. The goslings are growing, but these siblings still had plenty of bright yellow downy feathers. So adorable! We watched a pair of brown thrashers for awhile and were serenaded by a tiny yellow, very yellow warbler. The ground under some wiry bushes was covered with scurrying nuthatches. I think we will go bird watching more often in that area of the park. There is thick vegetation and there are fewer people wandering around that area, so the various varieties of birds seem to congregate there. It was lovely to finally discover one of their hideouts! 

Dinner with our friends at Tamarind was delicious. The food wasn’t spicy enough for me, but it was still tasty. We spent over two glorious hours listening to them talk about their experiences in Egypt and related well to their discombobulation over being home again to discover that their world of Egyptian colour has returned to prairie flat sterility. It isn’t only the difference in geography or even culture, but also the level of spiritual excitement....or lack thereof. We experienced similar feelings when we came home from Japan. As they shared their reentry confusion we felt like we were listening to ourselves. So, the four of us are now in the same boat: by this time next year will we have decided to remain in Regina with its placid predictability or will we be allowed one more adventure before being forced to succumb to old age and its need for geographical, (mostly medical), stability? It is going to be an interesting and stressful year for us all. 

Like A Holiday!

 Today has been so much fun!  We were up before 7:30am for a cup of tea and a drive to the car dealership to have the tires changed and some other repairs done.  It was perfect outside for an early morning walk home...about 3km.  The sky was cloudy and the temperature was slightly cool, but there was little wind.  

We decided to stop in at Wild Sage for breakfast on the way home, not realizing their morning breakfast brunch as been reinstated after being shut down for a couple of years for the pandemic, so we paid more for breakfast than was worth it as neither of us can eat enough food for the price,  but it was so nice to sit in a serene atmostphere, in a tiny booth in a remote corner of the restaurant.  We did enjoy the small breakfast we were able to eat.  It was fun.  The rest of the day seemed to carry on like a holiday for us!

We watched a bit of tv and had a good visit after we got home. Some bills came in the mail for me to pay, I sent a couple of emails.  We received a call from the dealership to pick up the car about an hour before lunch, just enough time for us to walk back to the dealership and pick it up.  YAY!  One of the problems we were aware of was an issue with the tbs.  We didn't have the control we are used to on the ice this winter, so we were pretty sure something was wrong.  It took a lot of figuring out, but the problem was diagnosed so parts have been ordered and we are taking the car in again next week for the rest of the repairs.  YAY!  The cost for all this work is surprisingly reasonable, several hundred dollars less than we were expecting, so that is a bonus.

As we drove out of the lot on the way home, after our 6km total morning walk, my husband decided we should go back to Birmingham's for their mid afternoon Monday New  York Style pizza special for our lunch. hahahaha Talk about the holiday continuing!  The pizza was fabulous and with the thin crust I was able to eat two pieces, so yay me!  We ordered a rather large pizza, so we brought home enough for lunch again here tomorrow.  We chose our own toppings out of a long list: we had spicy beef, red onions, black olives and red peppers.  It is 20% off pizza today after 2pm, so we were able to enjoy the discount and a restaurant that was 3/4 empty at that time of day.  Bonus!!  

Tomorrow night we are taking a colleague and his wife out for Indian food at Tamarind. They have just returned from Egypt where they spent a 6 month sabbatical.  We are very excited to hear about their adventures. They loved it in Cairo and are finding it difficult to be home again.  Understandable....there is SO MUCH to do in that amazing city!

Tomorrow's dinner out will mark the end of our extended holiday from cooking and meal planning.  It has been a wonderful break for me.  My husband told me today that one reason he has been so pushy about eating out is that he knows HIS "retirement" has thus far meant little to ME in terms of performing the menial chores of daily life.  He also knows that other than a week in Alberta later in June or July, we are not able to take any kind of holiday this year, so THIS IS IT!  It has been delightful for both of us.  After eating out so often over the past couple of weeks, the temptation to over eat is long behind me.  We carry our own take out containers, so as soon as a meal arrives at our table, we scoop up what we don't need to eat immediately and bring it home for later.  This works well for us.  Our freezer is full of yummy treats we can pull out as wanted in the future.

Our walk back to get the car today saw the sun begin to shine more brightly as the clouds rolled away. The heat in that sun is quite shocking after so many days of chilly temperatures and rain.  We are so grateful that we have been able to get in shape sufficiently over the past few weeks to be able to handle two 3 kilometre walks in the space of three hours!  

What a great day.  Now I am going to put on some house pj's and relax for the rest of the day.  

In two day's time the management here is having a smoke detector installed in each of the upstairs bedrooms.  They are very close together and there is already a smoke detector in the short connecting hallway and at the bottom of the stairs on the main floor and one in the basement, but I suppose they are covering all their bases.  A year before we moved in here, there was a fire in one of the buildings in our court and it burned to the ground! Very quickly!!  The building has never been replaced.  People were injured and it was a big tragedy that must not be repeated!!  I am just as glad to have the detectors, even if having 4 of them within 15 feet of each other seems rather superfluous!

Wonder what other adventures this week will bring??  

Our son is meeting with his cardiologist today to confirm the interpretation of the echocardiogram results the lung specialist read for him last week. Hopefully he won't get any sad surprises!  Hani leaves for Antwerp tomorrow, but will only be gone for a week, so Ebot will fill his time alone with work for his boss and creating paintings in his own studio.

The stress and depression and rather dark feelings that my husband and I have been fending off with limited success since his sister became ill over a year ago, seem to be easing significantly over the past ten days or so.  We are both very grateful to God for the reprieve!

Church Is SO Fun Some Sundays!!

 My husband and I had an absolute hoot this morning at church!  We have never laughed so hard in a service....even though it was only us who were laughing of course. Can we help it if the more tired we are the more humour we find in the actions of other people???

We arrived in our favourite pew rather early this morning and were having a lovely visit with each other to pass the time...actually the time was what we were not watching, so we didn't notice the pianist heading to the piano to play the prelude.  Weeeeellll, she decided to play a ragtime version of an old hymn, which would be starting enough for our particular congregation, but as those first notes came crashing in on our ears, they startled my husband and I so badly that we both nearly fell off the pew at the same time.  Unfortunately, that gave both of us a terrible case of the giggles....an uncontrollable case....both of us.  We clung to each others' arms as we tried to stiffle our laughter, our faces turning red and our shoulders shaking so hard they nearly dislocated.  The couple sitting behind us, also former attenders of a Pentecostal church, tapped me on the shoulder and he said, "Now, don't you two start dancing down the aisles, ok?"  That set us off with fresh gales of laughter that we just couldn't keep silent. Fortunately the piano was so loud, no one but those immediately around us noticed....and only a FEW frowns were sent our way.  This piece of music continued crashing around us for the full five minutes of the allotted prelude time and we laughed and giggled and snorted the entire time, barely getting ourselves under control in time for the opening announcements in the  now seemingly deadly quiet sanctuary.  Aiii yiiii....what a start to the service!  

At about the half way point in the service a time of prayer and laying on of hands by the clergy was called for: the youth minister is going to be put forward for ordination AND he is going to South America to teach English for the summer, so we prayed for him. Then there was a lovely time of prayer by the other clergy for our senior minister and his family who are going overseas for a three month sabbatical.  One of the choir members up in the loft in front of us was very much into the prayer, her eyes and her hands raised heavenward....raising hands in prayer is not done often in our church, so her actions were quite noticeable.  She obviously felt it was supposed to be the done thing by everyone else, because at one point she reached forward and gave three very hard pokes to the shoulder of the choir director in front of her who had his hands at his sides. This is not a man who would ever be prone to raising his hands in prayer....certainly not in the public setting of a church service. The man is a lovely man, very much a strong Christian but conservative to a fault in any outward manifestation of his faith in the services.  When he got poked he turned to look at the woman who had dared to do such a thing, she gestured with her upraised arm, but he turned around again and didn't follow her blatantly obvious silent request for him to raise his hands too. SO, she poked him again....REALLY REALLY HARD!!!  He nearly lost his balance...which could have been quite a problem as he was right at the edge of the railing in the loft and could have pitched right over the edge of it into the centre of the group of clergy praying there.  He looked terribly startled, embarrassed and red faced, but he knew when he was beaten and his hand came up!!!  The woman behind him nodded with satisfaction as the prayers continued and the hands stayed raised.  This was not a "bow your head and close your eyes" kind of prayer so I wonder how many others in the congregation saw this hilarious exchange.  It was absolutely marvellous to see her brand of "encouragement" to our the choir leader to "loosen up"!  hahahahahahaha  LOVED it!!

We are going to miss our pastor and his family while they are away.  It is nice that my husband is one of the people who was asked to preach in the minister's absence, but it is going to be a seemingly long three months I suspect.  We can only pray the sabbatical is refreshing and fun and restorative for him and his family after all the extra work and stress COVID has caused in his life over the past two years.  Protect and guide them Lord and bring them safely back to us. Amen!

Ow...Owww...Ouch....Ooooo....Owwwie...Ouch....

 It is a true blessing that I worked so hard at the church yesterday because the aches and pains I am still carrying today have gotten my attention. If the arthritis has increased this much in one year, how much worse is it going to be one year from now when we are planning to be in the midst of a move??? This condition has serious implications as to how the actual, physical moving of boxes and furniture is going to have to be done. Our move here is the only time we have ever used a moving company and we only sent them with half a load. We moved the rest ourselves. Hmmmm....we need to stop making assumptions about our capabilities now and face the reality of age related health issues! Hmmmmmm....we are entering a new phase I am not excited about it, to be honest.

A Lovely Way To Relax At The End Of the Day, Here In SK

 If you  live in a place like SK that has wide open skies, watching the sun set can be a most serene and peace inducing experience.  Thanks to Kat I have a few photos to share with you of some of our most recent, gorgeous local sunset extravaganzas:

CcKat

CcKat

CcKat

CcKat

 

 

Thank you Kat for these wonderful photos to share with the other blog readers.  I love looking at your photos as muc as I do seeing the skies for myself!

 

Kitchen's Clean And We're All Dead Tired!!

The kitchen at the church is now cleaned and there are five exhausted church women on their way to bed early tonight to sleep off the aches and pains!  We accomplished a ton of work in less than 3 hours and we are all grateful to God for each other being so willing to work so hard.  We had a good time together, but we are all very sore and achy this evening. This is a job for much younger women, that is for sure.  Really really happy we accomplished so much today.

Kat was one of the workers.  Afterward she and Val took myself and my husband out for dinner at Bushwakkers and it was a grand evening of good food and laughter.  Some of Kat's and my laughter may have been bordering on hysteria because we were so pooped out, but laugh we did!  

All of our meals were excellent!  Between us we had a Greek salad with Cajun blackened chicken that was spicy hot, a Venetian pizza with yummy asiago cheese, a Saskatchewan Plate consisting of sausage, toast, pierogies and saurkraut, plus a huge taco salad with spicy beef and a mix of lettuce and spinach, corn niblets and black beans, avocado and salsa.  We all enjoyed our meal very much. Then we went right over the top and all ordered desserts....was it the hysteria??  hahaha  Three of us had a special pecan pie (the best I have ever eaten in my long life) and one of us had a chocolate stout cake that was warmed and tasted like it had come right out of the oven.  It was a spectacular evening. Kat and I went all out to celebrate our own hard work this afternoon, hahahaha.  

Now I am back home, all ready for bed, enjoying some down time blogging and emailing and alternating putting ice and heat on my many aching muscles and tendons: back, hips, knees, ankles, shoulders, arms....you name the muscle group and I guarantee you it hurts!!

So, happy as I am to have been able to help out the pastor and my church family, I will not be doing any more cleaning there.  I have to admit that age and health are against me, but I surely did enjoy today's group of women as we worked together.  What a nice day!  

Gratefully Sharing Good News!

I am grateful to have good news from our son. He met with doctors today and learned that his chest X-ray and echocardiogram results are all clear! What a blessing. AND what a surprise to the doctors and to him!

Thank you from us and from him for your prayers. 

He believes that God has given him a second chance at life and is choosing to honour that by continuing with the strict new diet and lifestyle regimen he began under doctors’ orders eight weeks ago. While he is still very tired, he has not experienced any of the other symptoms in a couple of weeks. He continues to work at improving his working conditions and has an understanding boss, so things are slowly improving there.

I suspect I will have new energy now to tackle my tasks at tomorrow’s kitchen cleaning bee at church!

Byebye Yellow Rims

 On Monday we are taking our vehicle into the shop to have the studded tires removed and the summer tires put on.  It means we will no longer have the yellow rims on our tires.  The yellow rims will be replaced with the proper aluminum rims that our summer tires are on.  So, in honour of having the easiest car in town to locate in large, vehicle filled parking lots, here is a tribute to the old yellow rims. They will be replaced with brand new rims next autumn:

Bye Bye Yellow Rims.  How will I ever find the car now??

I Finally Caved In...What A Wuss!!

 With the cold wind and intense rain outside overnight and continuing into this afternoon, I had to reverse my earlier decision to shut the furnace off for the season. I shut it off a week ago, but even with heavy socks and a thick sweater, I had to admit defeat just after lunch and turn the blasted thing back on again. Sigh...  It is  May 13 and I have put the furnace on to warm up!  Shoot!!  My husband was equally chilly and was glad that I put the heat back on.  What a wussy pair we are, but maybe old age is responsible for our being so very cold today...that would be OK, wouldn't it?

After a good sleep we both slept in a bit this morning and I relaxed in front of the tv after breakfast while my husband worked on his upcoming sermon...he must be excited about it because "upcoming" means more than 3 weeks from now!! hahaha  He has rarely been so very prepared so far ahead of time to preach! He has another Bible Survey class before this sermon presentation, so I hope it gets a fair amount of attention as well. hahaha  

At lunch time I took the last of the fresh vegetables out of the refrigerator crisper drawer and decided it was time to wash out the drawer before loading it again.  Weeeelllll, you know how it goes sometimes with a small project like that, don't you?  I pulled out the drawer and decided that I should also wash the surrounding compartment, but to do that properly I had to clear everything from and remove the plastic shelf unit on top of the vegetable drawer and then it morped from there and before you know it I had cleaned the entire inside of the refrigerator....not the smartest move to make when I am supposed to be conserving my energies to clean the church kitchen tomorrow.  Well, thankfully it is a good job well done. The fridge looks all sparkly white again inside.  Newly purchased fresh vegetables will have a lovely clean home to reside in when they arrive from the store.

I was pleased by several things that came in the mail for Mom's estate today.  Everything was properly addressed to  MY address and so that leaves only a couple of more items to come in early next year so her final income tax return can be filed. I appreciate the banking institutions who get T4's for deceased persons sent out well before the following year's tax time.  I already have Mom's OAS tax info for this year as well.  I only have her T4CPP and one of the banking institution's T4's to wait for next year.  I should have final clearance on her estate by late next March or early April.  YAY!! Then I can do dispersals and my estate work will be done, completed, over, finished!  YIPPEE!! 

Onward to the ironng board!  After a brief respite, the rain and winds have begun again so I will distract myself with house chores.  The basement is of course leaking a bit, but only in four spots out of the usual/possible nine and my husband's good work has pretty much completely sealed the other five places.  For the four still leaking a bit, he has used plastic tubing and funnelled plastic strips to draw the water off the wall and into a pan on the floor. So, we can empty the pans once the rain stops tomorrow. There is no water on the floor at this point. YAY HUSBAND!! The special cardboard slabs he put over the window wells outside are doing their job and keeping water out of the wells.  It is marvellous!  Again I say: YAY HUSBAND!!

Yeah...Clumsy Is As Clumsy Does...Sigh....

 

Here’s the most recent hilarity: a few minutes ago, after completing some laundry, I set up the drying rack in my husband's library to dry the cold water wash clothes that can’t go in the dryer.....it is actually a tree limb that fits just perfectly hanging across the room between two bookcases. My husband brought it home from a mountaineering expedition a few years ago with the idea of carving a walking stick out of it, but I absconded with it when I realized what a perfect drying rack it made for my laundry! I just got everything hung up when I bumped the branch, it fell off the book cases, onto my head and nearly knocked me out!!!! The clothes and the branch hit the floor with a bang, I crashed into the chair that had been stuck in the doorway when I was talking to my Island friend this morning because all I could see were "stars" and my panicked husband came racing up the stairs because he was certain I must haver fallen and broken more bones! hahahaha....

I think I will just go to bed and stay there for a few days to keep myself safe....at least until I fall out of the bed! hahaha

Partying While We Wait!

Today and tomorrow we are under a heavy rainfall and wind warning. We are waiting for the weather system to arrive.  We are still waiting to hear from our son after he has his test result appointments with various doctors.  We are waiting to hear how Kenny is faring with his rehab after his fall and brain bleed. We are waiting to hear from Ray about his reactions to his new chemo regime.  Waiting....waiting....so how to spend the time?

Today we decided the best way to spend the time is to give up the worrying and just party on!!  

My husband attended his monthly political discussion group this morning while I completed my weekly house cleaning project.  Then we headed out for party time, but our first stop was at Michael's to pick up some thick corrgated cardboard stock with which to cover our window wells for deflecting any water the strong forecast winds decide to blow against that side of the building.  The one and only time those window wells filled with water was last September when a similar system came up from the central plains of the USA, the same place where this storm is originating.  We had over two feet of water in the window wells and the pressure forced a new hole to open up in the basement wall below. We were up until sometime after 4am bailing and sopping and cleaning and stuffing the hole until my husband could fill it properly a couple of days later, after everything dried out.  Since the main storm will hit overnight again, it is a performance we would prefer not to have to repeat, although I am certain we wll be awake and checking on the basement every whipstitch overnight into tomorrow.  Just in case.....  I am hoping the big rain will wash off our car. It is covered in goose droppings that the darned things bombed it with this morning as they flew overhead. Yuck!!

Once the cardboard stock was purchased our party began!  We went to Birmingham's again for lunch.  I had my favourite taco salad but instead of the usual spicy beef I had it with crunchy chicken slices instead. Yum!  My husband ordered a marvellous pastrami sandwich that was so huge he brought half of it home for dinner tonight, along with half of his fantastically delicious cucumber and red onion salad.  On this rare occasion my husband decided after our meal that the party must continue and took me over to Le Macaron for a rich and sweet and  YUMMY NUMMY dessert!!! My husband actually yearing for dessert after a big meal....very odd. He had a cannoli stuffed with delicious cream and I had a huge triple chocolate tart, the effects of which I am working off by running up and down the stairs doing my laundry!   My husband got his exercise preparing the window wells and covering them with the newly purchased corrugated cardboard.  I alerted the office here that we were doing that so the maintenance personnel wouldn't come along and remove it, wondering what on earth it is doing there!  We have all the summer students here now doing outdoor maintenance and some of them are very, shall we say, eager to please the management! haha

I am not sure we are up for any more partying today, but it certainly has been fun.  After having to deal with losing so many relatives in less than two years and the concerns about our son's health and myriad other upsets, throwing all caution to the wind for a few weeks is a wonderful feeling.  It will grind to a halt soon enough I am certain, but for now....YAY, it's a party!!!!

Here is your chuckle for the day:

While I was cleaning my husband's library this morning the phone rang.  It was a good friend from Vancouver Island.  There is a landline in that room, an old fashioned dial phone for which I was grateful as I had the hallway blocked with furniture from the library that I had moved out for vaccuming purposes and would have had trouble getting to the phone in the bedroom next door!  At least that was my initial assumption....

My friend had a scripture related question, which required that I have a Bible in hand; no problem since my husband has almost every translation there is in the library.....except I discovered he had moved them all out of there the other day for a project he is doing, so there wasn't one in there.  In order to get to my bedroom Bible I had to excuse myself, put the phone down as the handset is attached to the base with only a three foot cord, then I had to start hauling furniture out of the way in the hall to get into the bedroom.  I had to lift one chair off the other, then move the second chair away from the wall to clear a sufficiently wide path for me to squeeze past into the bedroom.  I flipped the light on, but the bulb instantly burned out. I tripped over the bed in the dark on the way to the cupboard where my most beloved Bible is stored in the cupboard, but when I opened the cupboard I couldn't locate it by feel!  I fiddled about trying to feel all the books on the shelf in that cupboard and eventually came up with an old KJV that would have to do. Fortunately the translation of the appropriate verses in the KJV are not that different from the same verses in my friend's version of the Bible.  We talked over her question while I was trying to pull one of the hallway chairs back into the room so I could sit down, but the chair got stuck in the doorway. Only having one hand free because of the phone not being cordless and too slippery to tuck under my chin to straighten out the chair, meant I had to stand up and lean against the file cabinet beside the phone while we continued our conversation....because the chair stuck in the doorway effectively trapped me from accessing the second chair in the hallway that my short phone cord could have JUSt reached comfortably.  I can't sit on the floor any more because without someone to help me stand up, I am stuck there!!! My bad knee doesn't allow me to get up from the floor any more.  hahahahaha  I also tripped over the long handle on the duster I was using while I was struggling to free the chair from the doorway.  I am trying to imagine what kind of wierd squeaks and gasps and grunts my friend on the other end of the phone was hearing while we talked. hahahahaha  I THINK I was able to keep it together okay and I THINK she was okay waiting for me to return with a Bible while I crawled around in the hallway and in the dark of the bedroom trying to find a Bible to use.

Ooh, we have lots of fun at our house!!  hahaha

The dark clouds are building outside...rain's comin'!!  Enough rain to at least justify the expense of that cardboard would be kind of appreciated!! hohoho!