A Few Prayer Updates/Requests/Etcetera

It has been a day of requests for prayer and more prayer. I would like to share some of them with my praying friends who read this blog.

1. Update on Cee:  Cee is struggling more than ever with the extensive neuropathy. The episodes of pain have been increasing. The pain varies in intensity.  He has an upcoming appointment with the oncologist next week to discuss another treatment possibility, but as you can imagine he and Nan are not holding out a lot of hope.  Their faith is being sorely tested. They are hanging in there with God, but the discouragement is pretty overwhelming sometimes.  Cee has been suffering for about 5(?) years now when his blood cancer condition first produced symptoms, but there are now some other issues and symptoms that are becoming more and more difficult to bear.  Please, if you have been praying don't give up hope that Cee can get at least get consistent pain relief.  It is becoming unbearable and of course Nan is trying to help him deal with this and fighting to stay strong emotionally herself.  The pain is so brutal when it strikes Cee.  Thank you for continuing in your prayers for them.  They need people to hold them up spiritually right now.  I think of the help Aaron once gave to Moses when Moses felt too exhausted to continue to raise his arms.....read The Exodus to get that story.

2.  The daughter of a dear friend of mine has finally passed her final exams for licensing as a medical doctor after many years of training.  Her training was compromised at one point by an accident whereby she sustained a concussion and it has taken her extra years to recover physically and complete her training.  She has just moved to a new city and is supposed to be starting her first position next week.  Problem: due to the concussion she has had to complete many extra forms related to her licensing, plus has been requested to come up with many forms of documentation regarding her competency that other new doctors would not have to produce before beginning work.  All the forms have come in, except for one of the most important.  It was supposed to arrive this week.  It didn't.  If it is not here by next Wednesday at the latest she is in danger of losing the position because the clinic that hired her cannot wait any longer.  This will be a huge blow to her after all the work and extra work and stress and hassles that were added into her years of training because of that accident.  Please, please petition God with me that he will bestow great grace and mercy upon her in regard to the papers she still needs to begin her work at last. Thank you so much!

3.  My dear husband seems to have contracted a "mild" form of influenza.  We were supposed to be going to the home of friends tonight to learn a new board game and he had to call them mid day to say he couldn't make it.  Then he went to bed for the rest of the day.  He has the typical headache, fuzzy brain and muscle aches and pains and hasn't been able to eat much besides Japanese rice noodles in a chicken broth.  He was so sure, when he woke up feeling punky this morning, that if he just pushed himself to do a few chores he would be better by lunch time, but no he certainly wasn't.  I am grateful to still be feeling okay and I pray his illness will be of the 24 hour variety. Thank you for remembering him as well.

4.  A Japanese friend, Reiko, has struggled with stomach cancer for over twenty years now. Her resilience during and after chemo and other treatments, her joy in the Lord even when the cancer comes out of remission, is an incredible testament to her faith that God is always with her. She entered a stage of treatment this spring that carries terrible side effects and her body is so depleted of the good kinds of cells and "stuff" that often her treatments are being postponed while the doctors wait to see if certain numbers of these cells have risen to the point where she can safely receive the next treatment.  Her husband can see that she is starting at last to fail physically to a point where another remission seems unlikely.  He is filled with faith as well, but I know how desperately alone he is going to feel when she goes to be with God. Please pray for Reiko and Nao.  They were our interpreters in Japan a couple of decades ago and are dear, dear friends.

Thank you so much for praying for these requests. It is wonderful that so many prayer warriors read this blog. Bless you all.

We had a sprinkle of rain this evening after a rather hot day.  An hour later and there seems to be no more rain in the offing, but there is "cluster thunder" like I haven't heard in a long time.  At first I thought it was some new kind of fireworks making the incredible noise, but no, it is thunder bolts coming down in groups with accompanying pops and crackles rather than rolling booms.  Perhaps we will finally get some real rain, but hopefully not as much as Calgary got a couple of nights ago: lots of flooding in some areas of the city.  Friends returning to Calgary from Montreal that evening had to circle Central Alberta for an hour before the storm moved off and it became safe for the planes to land.  I hope we don't get THAT much rain, but a bit more would be beneficial to the lawns and farmers' crops.

I had fun this morning.  I had some errands to run and stopped in at the Wholesale Warehouse for a couple of things. While I was in there I spotted some of their restaurant stock of cutting boards.  O wow, great find....the one I bought there three years ago has been used almost to death at this point and my husband has been eyeing it as a great board to take to the basement for use as a sorting board for various boxes of items he is currently going through down there.   There was an assortment of colours and for fun I chose Tweety Bird yellow!!  It is B-R-I-G-H-T!!!!  Walking into the kitchen now the little room looks bigger and brighter since the brown board was replaced by Tweety!!!  I LOVE it!!! (I can tell I am getting old because I am starting to like "cutsey" things again. This board is an example.  Also, yesterday I saw a friend of mine wearing a jacket with curly wooled lambs on it and I fell in love with it.  Ooooh, dear.......)

I think I will plan to do nothing tomorrow on Canada Day except look after my husband and catch up on some recorded home renovation programmes.  My only beef with these programmes is that I wish they would show more of the actual construction process in each home.  I did carpentry assistance for my husband for so many years that I can't help but be interested in the construction issues more than the decorating and superficial design plans.

I don't know if we are going to be able to have fireworks here on Canada Day evening because of all the forest fires raging in this (and nearly every other Canadian) province at the moment.  It would be kind of nice to have firework smoke drifting through the atmosphere during the night to compete with the forest fire smoke that gives me clogged sinuses and crusty eyes every night because it is too hot to close the windows in the bedroom overnight to keep the smoke out.  I am grateful I am not having too many breathing issues as a result, but every day I am exhausted and slightly nauseous and I am really fed up with it.

HAPPY NEARLY CANADA DAY everyone.  

Oh, I hear a bit more rain coming down...niiiiice!! 😁

My Husband The Fire Fighter?????

This morning my husband told me a story from his earlier life that I had not heard before and I found it rather interesting.

For several summers in his early 20's he had a regular job as a tree planter in the hills and mountains of south and central British Columbia.  He really enjoyed the work and by the time he was in his last two summers with the company he was in charge of many crews of planters and making half decent wages because he could plant so many trees in a day.

One day a representative of the provincial government arrived at the job site and announced that forest fires in the area would soon be encroaching upon the new trees just planted by my husband's crews the week previously.  Please would the crew boss be willing to suspend planting operations for a day or two so that all the planters could go and fight the fire in the area?  My husband agreed. Off the crew went in whatever old trucks were available to them...bouncing and bumping and jarring their bones as they drove farther up the mountain on the skid roads.  Fire control began as soon as they arrived. My husband was happy to spend time with the rest of the crew right beside the burning area, clearing out susceptible undergrowth and digging fire trenches with maduixes to try to get it under control.  Other members of the crew manned chain saws to cut down trees on the periphery of the fire, cutting them so they would fall in toward the fire, rather than away from it in order not to spread the fire farther beyond the containing trenches. 

One day one of the spruce trees at the periphery of the trench caught fire just as the crew was cutting it down.  The nature of spruce needles is that once a few catch fire, the fire spreads up and down through the remaining needles in a matter of seconds and the whole tree is quickly engulfed.  My husband was concerned that it was going to fall across the containment trench and spread the fire even farther!  He was standing pretty close to it when it went up like a giant matchstick, so he and all the crew were greatly relieved when it fell forward into the circle of flames toward the rest of the already burning trees.  Had it fallen the wrong way there would have been a good chance of one of the crew, still madly digging away undergrowth with a maduix, could have been hit by the fiery, falling, 60 foot high trunk.  

At that point the government official decided the tree planters had done enough by trenching so widely and deeply and removing the undergrowth that would also have continued to burn and spread the flames, so he sent them back to their original work camp.  

My husband really enjoyed his short stint as a fire fighter.  He said that standing right at the edge of the burning forest gave him a good insight into the power of a fire like that. The heat and the smoke were nearly unbearable, but seeing how the efforts of his crew were actually working to contain the blaze made him so proud to be a part of them and of the work they were doing to save the rest of the forest in the area.

I am glad to have finally heard about this experience and see the pride he still has in what was accomplished by the few days he spent in the flaming woods.  Way to go dear husband. I am proud of you too!

Keeping Busy Is Good For A Wounded Soul!!

It has been a good day once again. My husband realized he is more upset about his former brother-in-law’s death than he realized. So, he geared up for a busy day with me, cleaning and scouring the inside of the suite, completing the once a year spring cleaning projects I started earlier this week. We worked hard. I think this is the first time since we moved into this suite that every room has been completely clean at the same time! It feels SO good and it gave my husband something to concentrate on apart from his sadness at yet another loss. 

I was up early this morning....again....so got some shopping done before my husband stirred from sleep. Navigating the street construction in every area of the city I had to go to was an accomplishment in itself!!!! Regina started repairing a 100 year old street infrastructure system this summer, an extensive project that will see inconvenient city wide road construction for several summers to come. I suspect it is going to be about a five year plan, as the road construction season is miserably short. We shall see.

I was blessed last evening to be able to do some counselling with a friend who lost her job unexpectedly and in a rather “iffy” set of circumstances. I hope it was beneficial to her. In the process of recovery from the shock, she is learning so much about forgiveness. I think she influenced me as much as I hope I was influencing her! 

Tomorrow I should be able to get a good walk to and from prayer meeting. It is always a great time of fellowship. The weather is heating up, so I will need my sunglasses and a hat, plus a water bottle. Exercise has been going well this week. Yay!

Another Loss Among The Extended Family...Sigh...

 I woke up at 3:30am.  Going back to sleep didn't happen no matter how hard I tried to doze off again, so I gave up around 5am and started searching on the internet for various things I am thinking about purchasing in the future.  

Long, very bizarre story short, in the process of my searching I discovered that my husband's sister's first husband passed away about 6 weeks ago....the dreaded cancer....again.  (He was a major player at one of the companies I was researching.)  

We have been in touch with him somewhat sporadically, but more recently regularly, over the course of the past few years. When his father, my husband's step father, passed away a few years ago he asked my husband to lead the memorial celebration.  That put us in closer touch once again and we enjoyed some more visits with him since that time.  A few weeks ago my husband called him to see how he was doing, since he had been suffering another round of illness during many years of fighting his cancer.  My husband left a message but never received a call back.  His plan had been to call the fellow again today.

It isn't unusual that we were not told of his death and are not invited to the "by invitation only" memorial.  His wife was never comfortable with the level of closeness he retained with his ex, certainly  had little interest in keeping in touch with her brother, my husband, and while she was kind enough when we did have contact with her, it wasn't a happy occurrence for her.  We completely understand that.  

Although I was sorry to discover the news online, I am happy that now we know what happened, why my husband's most recent phone call was never returned.  We are sad for his children and their families and especially for his wife who is suffering with her own ongoing cancer battles.  We are sad for ourselves too because it is one more person we still considered extended family that we have lost from our orbit.

God bless you George....we are so glad you had a relationship with Him and are still in his care.

Up In The Air It's Senior Birdsmen; Up In The Air and Rightside Up!

 Unless you are in your middle to late 50's or older, it is highly likely you won't "get" the inverted musical reference above, but if you do then my next comment will make sense to you. hahaha

The local "international" (so sadly misnomered) airport has closed a major runway this summer for repairs.  It means that most every flight landing there has to use a flight path that goes right over our roof.  Actually I quite enjoy the loud, low roar of the jet engines, the menacing sounding whine as the engines gear down for the landing.  I find planes to be fascinating machines in every aspect, so it is no upset for me to have them flying overhead all day long.

It has been another wonderful weather day here today.  The rain forecast last week was for seven days of rain this week, starting today.  Over the weekend the prediction changed to only five days, by last night the forecast was for three days of rain and as of this afternoon the next predicted rainfall will be on Saturday....five days from now. My husband is disappointed that his basement wall patching may not get the "acid test" he was hoping for this week, but maybe next week the rain will teem once again.

Things have started out well for me this week.  Today marked day three of complete obedience to my diet, I went for a long walk this morning and spent two hours on my feet after lunch ironing clothes.  Oh that every other day this week could go so well on all three levels: diet, exercise, housework accomplished! 

Little Shots Of Joy

Today has been a happy day thus far.  After putting it off for several days because he has been so busy and tired, my husband has just headed off to his friend's house to transplant some herbs and vegetables for his friend's garden.  They have been growing in small pots quite happily on our back deck, but they need to be delivered to and repotted at their permanent home.  A little shot of joy: my husband is feeling well enough today to not only complete the task, but enjoy it as well.

The temperatures for the next week will be getting awfully close to +30C each day, BUT, little shot of joy, not quite.  Apparently we may get some scattered thundershowers tomorrow and one other day this week, but if we do it will be a good test of the patching job my husband did recently on the basement walls.

I had a nice visit after church this morning with the father of the little girl I gave my piano to.  He was beaming as he told me, (insert little shot of joy here), one of the piano teachers I recommended to him has agreed to take his daughter for lessons!  YAY!!!  I am so grateful to God for leading this family across my path just when I had a piano to give away and they were in need of one.

A lady we have been sitting near in church for the past year has never, ever, warmed up to us, but after my husband did the Prayers of the People a couple of weeks ago, a prayer she apparently very much appreciated, she suddenly turned into Chatty Kathy and today we had a splended talk before church....and during church.....and after church. Turns out she is a life long artist and was excited to discover my son is as well.  We blathered and blithered the little shot of joy is that she asked for our phone number and wants to get together soon!  Wow...talk about a day of small beginnings starting the seed of a possible new friendship!!  (the pastor actually preached a sermon today about not despising small beginnings....from the Book of Zechariah, chapter 4, verse 10!)

We decided not to go out for lunch after church today since I had just been out for dinner last evening to Brown's Social House with Kat and Val....a residual shot of joy from yesterday....so we came home and had a very simple lunch of hummus spread over some chunky deli bread slices.  Shot of joy: the past few days I have had only one major slip up from my dietary plan...my husband's homemade cinnamon buns will do it every time, sigh....but other than that I am winning the fight to regain control of my appetite after nearly 3 years of Covid stress eating.  Thank you Jesus!!  I am so encouraged that extreme discipline is going to be possible once again and that brings a shot of joy all its very own.  One major slip up in the first ten days of trying is not so bad, certainly not unexpected, but I can't allow any more of them in the near future.

Little shot of joy on the housework front:  I am half way through getting the laundry done today, despite a mid afternoon start. I should be finished shortly after dinner.  Tomorrow I will be able to iron, then the way is cleared to get the suite cleaned....FINALLY.  It "feels" like it will actually happen this time around.  Kat and I were talking about the old guilt tapes that take over both our minds when we get behind on housework.  The past generation of both our famlies certainly had a work ethic they passed onto us, but also there is a guilty mentality over not accomplishing every housework goal on time that we inherited as well.  Whatever, it feels wonderful to be getting work done today!  I FEEL GOOD today after an excellent night's sleep....the best little shot of joy at all.

Weeeeellll.....My Intentions Were Good....Sigh....

 I was very determined today to clean this suite, the perfect time with my husband having so many commitments away from home. It hasn’t turned out that way.  Of COURSE it hasn’t, hahaha!! 

It took me forever this morning to wash all the dishes from yesterday’s cinnamon bun and stir fry making, despite them soaking in the sink overnight. By the time my husband came home from event number one, I was just drying and putting away the last plate. Then the phone started ringing, then some e-mails came in that required immediate attention, then it was lunch time, then there were lunch dishes to wash, then it was time to help my husband prepare tea and snacks for a meeting with a friend outside in a pretty city park, then it was 3pm, then I received an invitation out for an early dinner with “the girls”, then I gave up on housework altogether, went and got dressed up and am now waiting for my ride to the restaurant to arrive. 

My husband’s thought is that I will have numerous miserably rainy days next week to stay home and do housework....and laundry....have I mentioned I am behind on doing the laundry again? 

I am like a child these days! Every time someone calls me and wants to go for a walk or out for  breakfast, lunch, dinner, coffee, tea, cocktails, dessert, a drive in the country, shopping.... my automatic response has been, “Sure! What time?” And away I go.

Well hey, it IS summer and the summer season here IS short, so fun times in parks and outdoor cafes ARE limited AND I have all winter to be a fanatical housekeeper, right?

This is my husband’s line of logic. I obviously must agree with him based on my behaviour of the past three weeks! 

Spider Bites......

 .....are even worse than mosquito bites for me.  I was surrounded by a type of smaller sized black spider earlier this week when visiting a friend on her back deck and wow, I got badly bitten in three different spots on my legs.  They are so swollen, hard like rocks, fortunately no longer  itchy like they were to start with.....dumb spiders!  I only hope they are a type of spider that munches on mosquitoes!! hahaha  Between the spider bites, some really ugly mosquito bites and the badly skinned knees I am sporting, I will be wearing leggings under my sun dresses all summer long!!  What an ugly mess.

The "perfect" weather we have been having for the past week or so is set to continue for another couple of days before some rainy days arrive next week.  Oh how I have enjoyed the mid +20 degree highs and overnight lows that cool down our suite so nicely and allow us to sleep really well.  I am grateful for every summer day that provides only a slight breeze and a temperature lower than +30C.

We had a wonderful day yesterday with my husband's cousin and her husband. They are moving to Ontario and Oh how we will miss them!  they have been living in a "showhome" since their house went up for sale earlier this week, had multiple showings of their house yesterday and were looking for a place of refuge for a few hours.  We invited them over for tea and home made cinnamon buns early in the afternoon.  As the hours ticked past so quickly it was "suddenly" time for dinner, so I prepped all the vegetables and my huband made a most delicious stir fry.  We enjoyed going all out and using my japanese tablecloth, placemat and napkins, japanese bowls and chopsticks.  It was a lot of fun.  Cousin's husband lived in Korea for awhile a few years ago and he regaled us with his tales of adventures there. What fun!! 

My husband is preparing for his attendance at our church's men's breakfast this morning and his visit with a good friend in a local park this afternoon.  He is taking the rest of his home made cinnamon buns for he and his friend to enjoy as they sit and visit and look at the beautiful flowers in the park. They specifically scouted out a park with amazing flower displays now that the indoor Conservatory is closed for the summer.  

While he is gone I am going to tackle the rest of the housework.  Since the new dining room chairs arrived I have been able to rearrange the living/dining room furniture the way I had envisioned it and we are feeling quite organized and comfortable in our own space again.  Honestly, remove one narrow piano from the space and it all becomes unmanageable for awhile! hahaha

Well, time to get about my day. Fulfilling work awaits!  We have stir fries and rice left over from yesterday so the main meal of the day is taken care of.....no need to cook.  I can concentrate on the work at hand.....at least until the next interruption pulls me away.  I never complain about interrupting my housework for unexpected visits with friends and there have been many of those over the past few weeks.  YAY!!

 

On Time Delivery...It’s A Miracle! (These Days)

My two new dining room chairs arrived today, only twelve days after I ordered them. The scheduled delivery time was for four to six weeks, not twelve days. I am delighted! As soon as the call came in we raced to the store to pick them up.....although with the traffic tie ups due to road construction, “raced” is not really a correct description of our trip to get the new chairs! Hohoho! Now of course I have been rearranging the living room to incorporate the new chairs. Honestly, who knew that removing one narrow electric piano out of the living room would create such arrangement havoc????? I am struggling to get things set up in a visually pleasing way!!! 

This afternoon we sat for two hours on the deck of friends, inhaling the beautiful aroma and enjoying the thick clusters of white blossoms on their mock orange tree, while drinking iced coffee. What a blessing. 

I was planning to spend all day tomorrow cleaning house, but now a cousin who is moving from here to a new job on Ontario wants to come over for what may be a last or second to last visit before the move. We are not going to miss that!! So, I will clean what I can in the morning and leave the rest for the following day. Since my husband will be out gallivanting with his buddies that day it will be easy to complete the cleaning.

Our beautiful weather, just the right temperatures with some cloud cover and mild breezes, is to continue until after the weekend. Yay!!!

Got The Info, So Decision Made! YAY!

 Today we went on a fact finding mission in regard to having our current vehicle repainted.  As usual, it pays to go to the local "best in the business" and get the kind of service and information required to make an intelligent decision about what to do.  It was a wonderful time of learning more about what is required not only for the actual process of painting, but what all else must be done to ensure the job is done properly and will last for many years to come.  If you want to get really good service and a ton of information about completely repainting a vehicle here in Regina, I would highly recommend having a chat with the staff at Elite Auto BOdy Ltd.  Wow....we learned more than enough for us to make a decision about what we are going to do with this vehicle!  Thanks so much to the staff there who are knowledgeable and incredible helpful!!

So, short story is that based on what we learned today after the initial inspection at Elite, I have decided I do not want to put that much attention into repainting and repairing this vehicle after all.  There are so many things to consider that I had not realized.  The staff there could have been less than honest with me and convinced me to get all that work done, but no, i felt like my best interests were paramount in the conversation.

I have decided that we will continue to drive it for the foreseeable future, but once I close out the estate account for Mom I am going to treat myself to the first brand new vehicle I have ever purchased.  I will start looking once i have the account closed this autumn, so that if it is going to take a few months to get a new vehicle delivered upon ordering, I will have lots of time to make a good decision. The winter tires I currently have will certainly last one more winter, but my summer tires are on their last season of use and I don't plan to have to order new ones for my present car next spring.

It feels like a weight has lifted off my shoulders since I made the decision.  If my present car was even 5 or 6 years newer than it is, the amount of money and time required to repaint it and repair certain things to guarantee the lasting quality of the paint job might be worth it, but it doesn't "feel" right to sink as much money as I would need to sink into this vehicle considering its age.  Mechanically it is still in good condition, but a vehicle its age can develop problems unexpectedly quickly.  I have LOTS of past experience with that sort of thing.

Ooooh, I am becoming very excited about the new car possibilities!!!!  I have never owned a brand new car of my own.  Yippee!!!!  It is so much fun to have something like this to look forward to.  I didn't even feel a little bit disappointed that my original plans for repainting have not turned out to be the best option after all.

Modern Mummyhood?

Walking home from an appointment this morning I noticed a young mom with a "barely toddler" ambling toward me from about  block away.  The little fellow couldn't have been more than a year to 18 months, very cute.  As they slowly walked toward me I saw that Mom was texting on her phone while her son was grabbing at her pantleg and begging with great desperation of tone, "Phone down, phone down, please mommy, phone down, PLEEEEEASE Mommy! PHONE DOWN! Please Mommy??"  

 A couple of other women my age standing on a patch of grass beside us, as the mom and toddler went past, me were smiling and giggling and saying, "Oh, isn't that ever cute?"  teehee  

I wasn't.  

I didn't find it cute.  

I don't know anything about the circumstances as to why Mommy was continuing to text and not giving any sort of verbal or other obvious response to her toddler's pleas, so I can't judge the situation, but inside I admit I felt very, very sad.  

Mobile phones....can no one just put them into their pockets anymore while walking down the sidewalk?  Not only young moms, but so many others that I see when I am out walking.  I have narrowly avoided being crashed into head on three different times already this week by people using their phones, their eyes so glued to the screens that they have no awareness of other people walking around them, of light posts, curbs, cyclists, what have you.  As I attempt to avoid them I can't help but pray for each one to be kept safe from injuring themselves or others.  

Mobile phones, to me at least, have become a different type of pandemic. 

Whittling Down The Times

My husband and I were quite pleased with our walking times to and from the car dealership today.  Since we started taking long walks again after the winter snow and ice melted away, we found ourselves much slower than we were a year ago and that has been a bit concerning.  However, we were delighted when our time each way today for the car repairs was down from 55 minutes to 45 minutes per trip.  YES!  All the other walking we have been doing, to and from church, with friends around the lake, heading downtown for errands and back, has been paying off after all.  It is definitely a relief!

Had another super good visit tonight with our AB friends.  We went to Earls for dinner....their prices on a few items have become completely ridiculous, but for one evening's meal, none of us cared.  We just enjoyed the good food and had a lot of fun together.  YAY!  Hopefully we will be able to go to AB later in the summer and enjoy some time together once again.  I am grateful for good friendships, particularly those that didn't start out that way, but have grown over the years into very special ones.

After over two weeks of nearly daily visiting, sometimes several visits in one day, it is time to slow down once again.  We have a few days now with nothing but some personal errands scheduled.  I think that is a good thing.  The next couple of days I will have time to relax and dawdle about cleaning house.  I can happily start cooking again.  The past two weeks WERE our summer holiday I suspect: great fun, but time to be at home again for awhile.

Enjoying Some Time Together Today.....

 .....walking around the town.  We took the car to the dealership early this morning to have the brakes cleaned, a compression test and possibly the replacement of struts as part of a recent recall, IF the parts have finally come in.  If not yet, we will have to retune once again to have that done.  The compression test will help us to decide if we are going to continue repairing and newly repainting this vehicle or if we are going to have to order a new one and wait for many months for it to arrive.  We LOVE our current vehicle and at this time, with the rising and completely crazy costs and wait times for new vehicles, we may be just as far ahead to keep this one going for another five years or so.  In five years time it is possible neither of us will be driving any more anyway. Who knows at this stage of life?  Aaaaah, decisions, decisions.....

Walking home from the dealership was great this morning.  The sun was shining but not too hot yet and there was barely a breeze.  We stopped at Wild Sage for breakfast again and even though it has been a couple of week since our last stop in after dropping the car off, the servers remembered us and thanked us for the positive compliments we had given to their manager about their service to us.  We noticed my husband received an extra slice of French toast with his order this morning and I got extra ham on my Eggs Benedict. Yum, how very kind.

Not sure when the car will be ready, or if we are going to have to walk back for it, or if the shuttle will be available.  Our Alberta friends will be arriving back here between 5pm and 6pm, the very hour we may be rushing back to the dealership on foot.  We'll see how that works out.  They expressed an interest in having dinner at Earl's tonight, so that would be quite fun.  We haven't eaten there in a long while.  We shouldn't need a reservation on a Monday evening.

Yesterday we also had a pleasant walk to church in the morning, a wonderful visit and quiche lunch with friends at their home afterward and then an equally pleasant walk back again.  Over a special end of Sunday School term "second breakfast" at the church prior to the service, we ended up being invited to another friend's birthday party at his daughter's home in the evening, so off we went again for more socializing and fun.  I felt very stupid that I had actually missed this friend's birthday earlier in the week....it is on my calendar, but with my usual inability to keep track of dates for birthdays and such, I missed it.  I was stymied as to what to give our friend for a present, so I grabbed a bag of Tong Peanuts I had just purchased and put it into a gift bag with a couple of cans of blackberry flavoured Perrier sparkling water and hoped for the best.  Whew! When our friend pulled the bag of peanuts out of the gift bag, his face lit up and he proclaimed that he LOVES salted peanuts and it would be a miracle if the bag lasted more than a day!  Thank you Lord....score one for you Jesus for directing me to that bag in our food storage pantry!!  The dinner we were served last night consisted of the most delicious Greek risotto dish and Greek seasoned pork tenderloin that was so very tender. There was also a feta salad with cherry tomatoes and an assortment of coloured peppers.  It went well with a similar salad we had at noon that complemented the green onion quiche we ate with great relish....as in joy and excitement, not actual relish. hahaha

For the past couple of weeks our lives have completely rotated around friends and food....how very wonderful!! teehee

One Of Those Days When All Seems Right With The World!

Today has been one of those days where a strong feeling of  joy and serenity abounded. No, I don't know why it felt that way but I am very grateful for such a day!

The weather was about as perfect as it could be for me....only a breeze and only +23C at the hottest part of the day.

It was an excellent day for walking around the lake with a friend.  We wandered along the pathway chattering happily.  As I was providing my friend with some laughs about my attempt to drive home from the furniture store, post fall, last weekend, we suddenly came to a blockade across the walking path more than halfway around the lake!  How appropriate in light of the conversation we were having about my recent traffic blockades!! hahahahaha  We had to take a detour across the road, wander along a path on the other side of a bridge and back around and across the street to come back to the lakeside pathway just on the other side of the area closed for a huge repair project. A sinkhole opened up there yesterday, right alongside the walking path and it wasn't a small sinkhole.  Although we finally arrived at the opposite side of the project after our detour route, we still had to stand and wait by the construction site while a large truck hauled away debris.  We were both very grateful that we hadn't had to turn around and return the way we had originally come, as it would have added an even greater length to our walk and neither of us was up for quite that much walking this morning.  Whew!!  

As soon as I returned home my husband and I ran some errands all around the city. That was fun and included a stop at a very large Indian grocery on South Albert.  We will return there for more product next time we need Indian teas and other foods, particularly rice, of which they have a marvellous selection.  

As we left the store my husband, who is somewhat hypoglycemic, announced that he had to eat and he had to eat RIGHT NOW.  I know better than to make him wait for food when he has these occasional episodes, usually brought on when he has forgotten to eat breakfast....as he had this morning.  We whipped across the road to The Rock Tavern because they are quick to deliver their meals and fifeen minutes later he was stuffing himself with fish and salad.  He felt better almost immediately, so that was just great.  He ate before he had a chance to feel so weak he could barely stand up. YAY!  The Rock has a new menu for the summer and it is wonderful! They also still have their usual lunch menu and talk about good food for a reasonable price!!  I particularly enjoyed my meal of one small beef taco with a delicious hot citrus sauce added, and one small sized empanada with spinach in the filling. The house salad was very tasty, a light summer dressing and some diced carrots mixed in with the lettuce and red onion.  There wasn't a great variety of veggies in the salad, but it tasted really good.  With our drinks, the food order prior to taxes and tip came to only $36!!  We enjoyed the price as much as we enjoyed the food. The service was quick and efficient as always.  What an unexpected mid day treat.  

One of the things we purchased today were some fresh pitas from Amado's, so for dinner tonight we made pita pizzas with ground turkey and olives and our own home grown herbs. Yum!!

I felt so happy and content today.  I think it is partly because I have been able to do a lot of socializing for the past couple of weeks as I celebrated a birthday that is the last one I will have where 6 is the first number and I know that next year's age is NOT going to start with a 5!  hahaha  Only a handful of invitations came from people who knew it was my birthday, all the socializing just happened for no real reason apart from a sudden desire on the part of many friends I haven't seen for awhile to get together.  How blessed am I, right?

Tomorrow we are out of town for a wedding vow renewal ceremony and bbq at the home of wonderful friends.  I am praying very hard about coping well with the event as there are going to be a number of people among the other guests who I don't relate well to. It WILL be stressful! That is all I will say about that, but I suspect I may spend a fair amount of time out in our friends' back yard visiting with the dog to avoid some of the discomfort.  Sigh.....what a person sometimes has to do for good friends, eh? hahahaha  I have been praying a lot about it this week, so hopefully I will just relax and enjoy the party as much as everyone else is going to.  I am happy that all I have to contribute to the feast is a large green salad.  It will only have to be refrigerated for an hour or so before it is eaten, plus it is super easy to make.  The remains of my husband's pico de gallo will serve as the "dressing" and that will taste very nice indeed.

I have some frozen bananas thawing overnight in the fridge.  Early in the morning I will use them to make a banana loaf to take over to our Ukrainian neighbours. They arrived here the other afternoon with a plate filled with freshly made vanilla and raisin muffins. Yummy good!  We haven't had much time to spend with them lately, so I am looking forward to having a bit of a visit together again.

Sunday morning our Sunday School group who have been studying about the theology of food are having our last session. We will share some breakfast together, so that will be a lot of fun. What a nice way to close out the term for the summer break.  In September we have a wonderful professor from the Alliance Church bringing us a class on Isaiah that we are really looking forward to. He is an excellent teacher.  Then after Christmas, we will study Revelation with a Greek professor and theologian who is also excellent.  Some good things to look forward to at church I think.

I am still feeling very peaceful and happy about my day. There was nothing particularly special or spectacular about it, but spending time doing errands with my husband is a great joy.  He is so happily retired now, enjoying life more, still finding his boundaries and limits for preparing lessons and seminars and teaching and meetings, but getting better at it all the time.  Slowly he is working on getting all our things stored in the basement sorted and is collecting an ever growing pile of things to be given away, as well as tossing out a few things  I never thought he would part with so easily. Thank you God!

Thank you Lord for this day....AmEN!

 

The Sublime To The Ridiculous OR The Ridiculous To The Sublime....Depends On Your Point Of View

 Food ingestion was kind of hilarious yesterday!  hahaha  I was super proud of how I stuck to my diet at lunch time.  The Willow has some tasty tiny soft tacos on the menu with various meats and condiments to accompany them.  I chose the pulled pork with corn and black beans.  Talk about a perfect sized meal for me, for my diabetic and weight loss diets: two of the teensy tacos with a couple of tablespoons of the meat and veggie mixure on top of each one.  It tasted fabulous and was well within my lunch time carb amount limit.  I was SO proud.  I had two glasses of water as well to keep my hydration up as we opted to sit out on the huge porch, not under the protective tarps, but right in the bright, warm sunlight overlooking the man made lake and the parliament buildings.  With the fairly decent strength breeze blowing, it kept the direct heat away from us as my friend and I enjoyed our meal and a great visit.

Then came dinner that evening: not quite so adhered to my present dietary demands....um....yeah....not at all actually.....sigh.....  Our friends arrived from Alberta right at dinner time. We met them at their hotel and took a short walk down the street to the Knotted Thistle for beer soaked burgers and Irish pot pie and salad, and for me three more glasses of water.  We took our friends there because on week nights it tends to be somewhat quiet.....except for last night!  There is a huge Farmer's Convention coming to town next week and this week all the presenters, vendors, organizers and what have you are in town getting everything ready for next week's convention. The place was so packed out that our server had to drag a table part way down a hallway toward the main entrance of the attached hotel to fit us in. hahaha  However, we were in the quietest spot possible.  Subsequently we had a wonderful visit to go with our delicious meal.  After we finished our main course my husband decided we should go elsewhere for dessert, so we wandered off another couple of blocks down the street to the London Belle for some sticky toffee pudding. I ate a full serving of the wonderful date infused cake  and covered in toffee sauce, on top of the full meal of Irish pot pie (all the crust, all the potatoes) and tried to tell myself I was not that far off my diet (yeah, right....) because I gave the large scoop of iced cream and whipping cream that came with the sticky toffee pudding to my husband. (How quickly I jump to delude myself about what I actually HAVE eaten!)

I think that after I completed all my dinner last night it was the first time I have felt too full after a meal since my diabetes diagnosis in 2013. Oh wow, not a good feeling AT ALL!  However, at the time I certainly enjoyed every starchy, salty, carby, sugary, wonderful mouthful.  AND I had two more glasses of water!  Talk about hydrated!!  THAT I was successful at.

Our travelling friends had such a great time that they have decided to stop in again next week on their way back to Alberta!  We are very excited about that, really looking forward to it.  Now that my parents and Dell's sister and brother in law are no longer with us and the legalities of Mom's estate no longer require trips west to accountants and lawyers, our trips back to Alberta are likely to be very few and far between, so we are delighted to get an extra unexpected visit in with this pair of good friends.  YAY!

So which of my yesterday's  meals was sublime and which one was ridiculous:  the teensy weensy tacos or the Great Britain extravanaza?  Could go either way.....

This morning I got up and moving relatively early after an okay night's sleep.  Places to go and things to do....  I am short on books and haven't been finding anything of interest lately in the community library boxes, so I splurged on a handful of books at Chapters Indigo.  It took me awhile to get to Chapters and subsequently to other parts of the city to run some necessary errands due to all the street construction, but I made it!  I even remembered to fill the car with gasoline for an out of town trip we are taking on Saturday for part of the day.  I got into a Safeway store and found multiple boxes of green Tabasco sauce after my fruitless search for it in multiple stores yesterday.  Good old Safeway. They are the only store that carries my husband's old fashioned puffed wheat cereal as well.

I walked off (hopefully) some of the last evening's gross pig out that I indulged myself in, when I walked to my ladies' fellowship group meeting this afternoon.  If the walking didn't help wear off a few "baddies" in my system, then the energy I expended from simply trying not to get blown over by the blasting wind certainly did!

Tonight I did much better with my dinner!  I had one small turkey patty on two slices of low carb whole wheat seed bread and a single serving of 0% blueberry yogurt.  Good on me, right??  For a condiment on my turkey "burger" all I had was a spoonful of my husband's home made pico de gallo....that he made the other day and thought he was making relish even though none of the ingredients were cooked, hahaha.

After last evening's blowout it felt very good to be back on track all day today.  Lunch was a toasted tomato sandwich with one slice of lower sodium, lower fat bacon to give it some flavour. I don't actually like tomatoes, but they seem to be healthy for people like me, so I eat them fairly often despite my fairly strong dislike of them.

Walkin' around the lake tomorrow morning with a friend from church while my husband spends some time making sure that Kat and Val have their kayak firmly tarp strapped to their car so they can go "to the lake" for the weekend.  Then when I get back from my walk we will run a few errands together.  I always enjoy that because we laugh so much over nothing at all.  I think tomorrow will also be a pretty good day.

No Time To Slow Down....Just The Way I Like It!

 It is another hot day today, so I decided to get up early and go to the grocery store at 7am.  It has been awhile since I have done that and I am so glad I did. As usual SaveOn had most of their product for the day already on the shelves so it was easy to get my favourite Free Range meats. YAY!  The only thing I couldn't find on the shelves today at any of the stores I shopped at was green Tabasco sauce, but tomorrow when I head out to Chapters Indigo for some book shopping I can stop at the nearby Safeway and see if they have any.

I was home before 8am and had all the groceries put away quickly, so off to the shower and some clean clothes for the rest of the day.  I am meeting an old friend for lunch today at The Willow, so that should be really fun.  They have some small plate meals that are the perfect size for someone who needs to lose some weight.  teehee

Yesterday morning I enjoyed a tea and muffin visit with a friend from church who is part of our fellowship group.  It has been several years since we have had a good visit together and I appreciated her asking me over.  We sat in her beautiful back yard, in the shade under a big canopy....gosh it was lovely.  It reminded me of how desperately I miss living on Vancouver Island....or in the rectory in Kindersley where we had massive trees and grasses in the side yard.  I am in desperate need of trees, so being able to see so many across the street from my front windows has been quite a treat here.

Yesterday my husband brought home some hot dogs for us to enjoy now that summer is nearly officially here....only another week.  We discovered, to our horror, that we were completely out of the amazing Swiss Chard relish that my walking partner makes, realized immediately that no store bought relish could remotely compete with hers, so my husband went online to seek some recipes for relish that don't require cooking.  He found a possibility and went back to the store to get the ingredients.  His relish of course is much different than our friend's but it did turn out quite well: diced bread and butter pickles, dill pickles, green onions, green and red peppers, a bit of mustard seed, balsamic vinegar, cilantro, basil, dill (all fresh from our back porch pots).....it was very yummy on the hotdogs.  That will be our big hotdog splurge for the summer...maybe one more in August.  hahaha

We are still waiting to hear from our AB friends who are supposed to be arriving in town late this afternoon.  They remind me of my husband....a bit lax on the communications end of things, but very laid back and ready to take life as it unfolds.  Hopefully we can dine together tonight or have breakfast together in the morning before they carry on along their east bound route. 

The next two days are supposed to be substantially cooler and I am most relieved about that. That will make my walk to prayer group tomorrow afternoon and my walk around the lake the next morning with a friend much more enjoyable!

Sloooooooowly She Heals!

 My knees are apparently going to take quite a long time to heal and that is A-OK!  I had my knee caps checked out and I was correct that there are no fractures or tiny bone chips. Hallelujah!  My son called this afternoon to see how I am doing and how I appreciated that phone call.  He has been with me for some of my more serious falls over the years, helping me get medical assistance, helping me when I go into shock, which I seem to go into with little provocation unfortunately.  My husband has given me good advice on medicated creams and the best kind of breathable bandages to avoid infection in the wounds.  I sometimes gave my self these kinds of scrapes and bruises falling off my bicycle when I was a kid and I don't ever remember anyone being quite so solicitous as my husband and son.....I think part of their worry is that the "OLD gal" will do another serious number on her fragile bones and that would be a real upset for us all.  The location of the skin trauma is such that I can walk easily enough as long as there is no fabric chafing the abrasions.  YAY!

Today was a happily busy day with plenty of exercise!  For reasons mentioned in a previous post I have not been able to do laundry for 20 days!  I had no idea we both had enough clothes to survive that long between laundry days!  hahaha  I did ten loads of laundry, plus some recycling projects with our basement bins, resulting in a total of 32 trips up and down two flights of stairs.  Fantastic exercise for my knees, hips and general cardio fitness.  YAY!

The weather was somewhat less intensely hot today. So very happy about that.  It was hot enough with barely any wind for most of the day, but at least five degrees cooler than tomorrow and the next day are predicted to be.  The forecast for tomorrow has caused a rescheduling of my coffee date with a friend tomorrow afternoon. We have moved it to mid morning so that we can sit outside and relax in her beautiful back yard before it gets to hot to want to go out anywhere.  that will suit me on another level as well: I can spend the afternoon ironing the small mountain of clean clothes presently hanging to dry.  The hot weather has also effected my lunch date for the following day....my friend has made reservations in the shadiest part of the restaurant's outdoor patio.  At the end of the week I am going for a walk with a friend quite early in the morning before it becomes sweltering for the rest of the day.  Working around the weather is something my long term Saskatchewan friends are very good at, and that I am learning to do as well as the years pass in this little city on the prairies.

My husband and I had another chat this morning about next year's move.  We both shared that we are wanting to find a new place to live a couple of months before the end of our lease and get out of here as soon as possible before the heaviest spring rains and myriad geese return to test our patience once again.  That would give us the luxury of taking as many weeks as we want to move everything out of this suite and paying double rent for a couple of months is worth it.  In fact, if we give the property management company sufficient notice of our move, it is possible they could  find new renters for that second month  if we are completely out of here and save us a second month of double rent.  Well, we shall see what the Lord has in mind, but those are our thoughts at the moment.  Life is becoming interesting again.  It is wonderful to see my husband more enthused than he has ever been about going through everything he owns and getting rid of so many things he has held onto for years and years.  Yay husband!

I started watching a movie today, got about half way through it before making dinner interrupted my viewing pleasure.  The movie stars Tom Hanks:  A Man Called Otto.  I am enjoying the movie very much. The first half hour was a summary of my childhood with my parents:  obsessive compulsive about not losing 33 cents at a store cash register, angrily telling other people not doing anything to hurt us to follow the rules because not following the rules isn't right, and becoming arrogantly angry at others perceived to be complete idiots because they did things differently than we did. The Tom Hanks character for the first part of the movie is an amalgam of both my parents and is a video of how I myself acted prior to meeting Jesus and learning to take a chill pill when other people disrupted my concept of an ordered universe.  Unbelieveable to see behaviour so very familiar to me up there on the Silver Screen......okay, my somewhat small tv screen, but you get my drift.  A transformation is just beginning for the Tom Hanks character just at the point where I had to turn the movie off, so I am looking forward to seeing the second half and how that transformation continues...or doesn't. 

All in all, a very good and fulfilling day today. I am grateful for it!

  

Finally A Relaxing Day!

Today was a very, very relaxing day! For the first time in a week my husband and I never once left the house!  Aaaaaah.....what a wonderful day we had.  It is now nearly 10:30pm and I am still wearing last night's pajamas!!  No point in getting dressed today.  We slept right through the time for adult Sunday School at church, waking up and grabbing breakfast just barely in time to attend church via ZOOM.  hahaha  It felt just great not to have any deadlines or time pressures today.

I did get substantial exercise here at home today, began my revamped diet in hopes of losing a few pounds over the summer and read quite a bit of a novel that is mildly interesting.  I only have one more book left from my most recent stash of community library books, then I have one my husband lent me to read, then I am going to splurge at the local Chapters Indigo and buy something fresh and new and up to date for a change!!  I am going to take a look at some of the more recent biographies and perhaps find a new copy of some of the older classics that I haven't read in years.  I can't get library books just for the sake of saving money; having a time deadline to read and return a book is beyond stressful for me.  After years of frustration and unhappiness with my usually beloved reading hobby, I finally admitted defeat and started using the community library boxes and purchasing the occasional brand new book.

Tomorrow is laundry day after a nearly three week break from it due to not being able to access the machines during the flooding and subsequent wall repairs in the basement. Wow....I didn't know either of us had enough clothes to last that long without any washing being done!  Good to know for future reference I suppose, hahaha. I have a huge basket of dirty towels and bedsheets!  No, I don't intend to make a habit of waiting three weeks between laundry days.

Somehow I need to find time to clean the house thorougly before Wednesday evening when friends from AB will be visiting here on their way to a wedding in Manitoba.  I am praying that whatever hotel they are staying in has a decent restaurant so that we can just take them out for dinner when they arrive and not have to bring them over here to this furnace box of a suite.  However, just in case they end up here, I have some serious cleaning to do again.  I have to work it in between a major grocery shopping trip, an afternoon coffee on Tuesday and lunch out on Wednesday.  Another crazy week is in the offing, but I am praying that by Friday I can take another day off.  My poor scraped knees are pretty painful and even more so after I tweezered the tufts of cotton fabric from my ruined summer pants out of the abrasions.  Ow, ow, ow..........!!!  (Still can't believe I didn't break any bones....fantastic and wonderful!)

Watched a bit of football with my husband today.  All 8 CFL teams had games on this opening weekend of the season, so he has now seen 3 games this weekend and will catch today's Saskatchewan vs Edmonton game tomorrow sometime. So thankful for tv recording systems.

Took a half hour to play my old computer game Atlantis this afternoon.  That was fun.  I'm afraid I used too many of my gathered "assists" on the last level I played, so the last few levels will be more difficult than they should have been....I get impatient and want to blow things up early instead of waiting until closer to when I am running out of time to complete the level, when I really actually need to use an assist. Duh!!!  Atlantis is yet another version of Mahjong, the basis of all my favourite games.  I like what I like.  I like all those older games based on it and have no interest in the fantasy games so popular now with all the graphics and story lines...I am too old to care about fantasy people and creatures I suppose.

Looking forward to some more good weather this week, hopefully not QUITE as hot as last week, but at least no rain is forecast until closer to the end of the week....at least it wasn't forecast an hour ago, but who knows what the morning forecast will bring.  The next rain will test my husband's resealing repairs on the basement walls and I suspect we are going to have to use the last of our 4 gallon pail of Xypex to seal one fairly long hairline crack that has been in the wall for some time and that my husband was able to attach a siphoning hose to, so that those leaks drain into a four litre pail. If we pull everything off our large set of food storage shelves he will be able to access that thin crack and perhaps be able to remove the siphoning system.  Time will tell.......

A Reading From The Desert Fathers

The short story below is taken from one of Thomas Merton's collections of stories about the Desert Fathers. My son sent it to me today and said that Part 2 reminded him very much of me.....I think it is because so often the Lord has called me to give away things that I hadn't really planned to give away until someone else's great need was presented to me.  As my son was growing up he saw how if I felt led to give something away, if and when I ever needed such a thing again God provided it, replaced it, restored it in some kind of incredible way that would never have occurred to me as a possibility.  My son and I have been doing some serious relationship rebuilding in the past couple of years, so receiving this bit of writing from him is very special for me.

Tumble Two!

 Well, I guess this is just my day for taking tumbles!  hahaha  I opened my bedroom window right after my last post, then stepped backward, tripped over a pillow I had carelessly left on the floor when making my bed this morning, then tipped over backward....onto the bed, fortunately.  It must have been a fairly spectacular fall because I managed to kick over the chair at my desk in the process.  Time to slow down and pay more attention to my surroundings...today I was fortunate....twice.  Don't want to press things any further.  My vision is a bit of a problem and today I was distracted and not concentrating, hence the tumbles.  Okay, okay vision, you have my attention once again!

Taking A Tumble!!

At this moment I am shaking with gratitude to the Lord for preserving my brittle bones after falling down on a cement stairway earlier this morning.  Other than two very badly skinned knees and a ruined pair of cotton summer pants, I am not suffering anything serious. Hallelujah!!  Almost unbelievable as well, given my record for falls equating to broken bones every tumble taken in the past 12 years!

I decided this morning to go up to Madison Furniture to order two more of my dining room chairs.  I bought the first four during the height of COVID supply chain issues and had to wait 16 weeks for those first four chairs.  Happily, this time I will only have a 4-6 week wait. YAY!  So grateful for that.  Rather than buy any more living room chairs since we don't know where we will be moving next spring, I opted for two more dining room chairs instead and was delighted to find the style of the ones I bought previously still available!  Now we will be able to invite four people for dinners rather than just two at a time.  The chairs will also double as extra seating for our various fellowship groups when they meet at our home.

As I was about to walk up the steps into the store I caught my toe on the edge of the bottom step.  Thankfully I fell forward, landing on one hand and both knees, instead of rolling sideways and hitting either hips or spine on the rough brushed cement.  As I recovered myself and stood up, I was worried I may have cracked a knee cap or shin bone, but no, I was fine.  I realized my one hand and both knees were scraped, but in order to fend off the shock I felt myself going into, I continued into the store and immediately met with one of the clerks.  God was so good to me: this young woman is an immigrant from Bangladesh and has been here ten years.  She seemed to like me well enough and we fell into a long conversation as she put my order into the computer.  After the order was completed she continued to talk as the store was deserted of customers and overly stocked with sales staff.  Having to carry on a long conversation, being able to ask questions about her journeys in Canada, having something else to think about other than my now throbbing knees, staved off the shock reaction and I was just fine.  Thank the dear Lord I didn't pass out in the store and injure myself further, or frighten the staff, or fall onto and break a piece of furnture in the show room!  Whew!!

I left the store, got back into my car and only then noticed the huge hole in my pants and the sticky blood covering half my one pant leg. Fortunately the store clerks didn't notice since my pants are so wide legged that the folds covered the disaster as I walked.

Fortunately I had no other stops that had to be made and I was happy to be able to head immediately for home to bandage my soggy, painful knees.  Hah!  NOT quite that easy!  

I opted to return home on the large, busy thoroughare that passes by our suite.  Bad mistake!!  By the time I left the furniture store, the barricades on that and many of the nearby side streets had been erected for the passing of the annual PRIDE parade!!!  Their route has expanded now to include the main street going right past our house. So, I was unable to avoid getting wrapped up in bumper to bumper traffic as we all tried to find our way through the maze of those streets closed for the parade, other streets closed for ongoing road repairs, other streets closed today for the downtown Farmers' Market.  Talk about an absolute nightmare.   I have never lived before in a city with such complete ignorance as to what is supposed to happen to traffic flow when there are parades, street fairs and road construction all happening at the same time.  Where I live, as it happens, there is no way to avoid being caught up in traffic jams as people attempt to navigate their way across a city with half its major streets closed!!!  I remember the havoc last year's PRIDE parade wreaked around here, to the point where the doctor I was supposed to be seeing at the nearby walk in clinic was unable to access the clinic at all....talk about a disaster for everyone involved there, including the patients.  This year it will be even worse. There is literally no way to get to the clinic or the adjoining pharmacy from any direction for several hours today.  At one point there was a long line of traffic winding its way through the narrow downtown streets looking for a way out and we couldn't find one. Around and around we wove until someone finally realized we could cut through a parking lot, into an alley and get across one larger street into a residential section to try to get out that way.  Again I found myself in a line of traffic winding around the residential streets, making U-Turns here and there, some of the drivers becoming dangerously frustrated.  I happened to notice, as I was sitting in this line of cars, none of us knowing where to go next, an unimpeded back alley that could possible link me to a busy street far to the east of our place, but that would be out of the line of fire of the parade route.  Away I went, no one following me, and it worked out really well....until it didn't!  My access to the open busy street at the far end of the alley was blocked by a moving truck!  So I had to turn out sooner than planned onto another residential street. However, this one connected me to a major thoroughare that would connect me to a good road home.  I turned onto that road, realized too late that the cars ahead of me were making a U-Turn before the intersection I had counted on being open for me to get home, so I followed them around the U-Turn, noticing that several blocks down was a street that would ultimately connect me with a still open street very close to my home.  I followed that route, eventually getting caught up in traffic again that was backed up trying to get around the parade route, BUT I found a quiet side street that connects to our place quite easily!  YAY!!!!  I got onto that street and a few minutes later was parking my car in my own parking space!  Thank you Lord!!  I made it.  If I had been paying attention to the PRIDE parade route this year I would have realized what a traffic debacle would be created in our area and waited until Monday to go and order my chairs! hahaha

Back at home I was finally able to peel my ruined, blood soaked pants off and toss them in the garbage, clean off my badly skinned knees and get some healing ointment and bandages on the wounds.  It took me 40 minutes to make my 10 minute drive home from the furniture store.  Yikes!

There are people sitting in lawn chairs all over the sidewalk on our street, waiting for the parade to arrive.  It is nearly 1pm and I don't know how long they will be there, chatting, playing music, eating snacks while their kids yell and scream and run across the broad expanse of our complex's front lawn, kicking balls and having a great time.  Fortunately my husband hung up the large plastic vinyard anti-bird ball from the back roof of our suite and that has kept the geese, driven over here due to excessive human activity in the park today, away from our part of the back lawn.  They are quite frighened of that large ball with huge eyeballs painted on it and gold, sparkly streamers hanging from the bottom of it.  Despite their numbers, there was no goose poo along my pathway between the car and my back porch.  Another blessing today!!

Quite a Saturday...thought it was going to be a slow, restful day....what on earth was I thinking??? hahahahahahahahahahahahaha!!

Mopping Up: Him The Social Whirl: Me

My husband is grateful for last night’s big storm, even though it created minor flooding in one corner of the basement again. The patching he put on held well and he was able to discover the one crack that hadn’t been obvious before the rest of the cracks got sealed earlier in the week. Once this left over crack stops seeping water he will patch it up and our leaking basement will once again be less of an issue. Oh dear God, please give us the mental fortitude and emotional strength to survive one more year of this place. It has been such a good place for us in many ways, but now that the building is starting to literally crumble, we need to get out of here.

My husband admitted he is feeling overwhelmed again from taking on a few more commitments  this spring than he can handle. So, as of next week he is back to a commitment free schedule for the summer. Too many groups that meet too often, one too many construction projects for friends, once he is done sealing the basement wall cracks he is determined to step back and focus his energies on preparing us to move next year by working on clearing out his vast stores of stuff. God bless him!

Somehow I have ended up going out for both lunch and dinner with friends tomorrow and now I have a tea date and a lunch set set up for next week. Where have all these friends come from and why are they all showing up in such a narrow time frame to socialize?? I don’t know whether to be ecstatic or paranoid!!! The superstitions of my Irish ancestors are threatening my joy about all this socializing! hahaha 

I choose the joy!

Another Storm....Another Flood???

Oh my goodness!!!!! We were out having a lovely relaxing dinner with friends when we noticed what appeared to be thunderheads from four separate storm systems filling the sky. After dinner we stopped in at our friends’ home for a visit that was much abbreviated because as the systems  collided over the city the rain began teeming down at an alarming rate. This unpredicted set of storms was creating havoc along the city streets within a matter of minutes as we drove home. The curb gutters were already streaming with water, the storm sewer grates were already blocked by twigs and leaves blown so quickly off the many trees along our route. Running from our car the 20 yards or so to our back door exposed us to enough rainfall that we were soaked from head to foot by the time we gained entrance to our suite. My hair is dripping still on my iPad as I am writing this post. Lightning is flashing, thunder is crashing and my husband is working like a mad man down in the basement setting out towels and replacing buckets and siphoning hoses just in case he missed any cracks with the Xypex or needs a second treatment on any of the worst ones, Aaaaah, next spring’s move out if this leaky old dive is looking sweeter and more appealing than ever. I am delighted that even my somewhat hoarding husband has already  caught the downsizing vision and has his plans made. Thank you God for that!

Gallivanting About Town!

 Oh happy day!  it has been a wonderful day today, despite the ongoing intense heat outside.

Our car tires finally got changed this morning after yesterday's power outage shut down the dealership.  The shuttle bus driver was very good and showed my passenger husband a new way to get to and from the dealership while avoiding all the road construction and closures along all our other more usual routes.  Bless her!

A friend from out of town took me out for lunch today....once again a restaurant I recommended because I have never had a bad experience there, provided probably the worst meal i have had in some time. Sigh....i feel like after today's debacle i am never going to ever recommend a restaurant to any of my friends ever again.  there was so much dressing on our caesar salads and so much salt on the accompanying chicken it was all either of us could do to eat them. However, we survived and ended up our meal with the most delicious frothy, whipped cream covered coffees.  they kind of made up for the somewhat less than wonderful salads.  the visit was much more delightful than the food though and the strength of the visit made for a marvellous time....worth a great deal to me.

My son phoned me today.  We had the nicest chat and he told me more about his weekend in Washington DC.  The Philip Guston retrospective exhibition was a great highlight and the main reason for going to Washington, but some of the exibits at the Smithsonian he found somewhat wanting.  Apparently UBC has a more comprehensive and larger exhibit of first nations artifacts than the Smithsonian, in his opinion. He thought the vietnam memorial was touching in its simplicity and is so glad he saw it.  He said the smoke in NYC coming down from the forest fires in Quebec is so thick that his eyes burn when he travels to and from work, the sky is black with smoke and there is a bright orange glow to the north of the city.  Yikes!

We received word today from a couple my husband was supposed to be marrying this summer, that they have called the wedding and the relationship off.  We are so very sorry, but greatly relieved for them that they were able to come to this conclusion before the wedding and not end up in a mess afterward.  God bless them for being able to be honest with themselves and with each other.  It is sad news on the one hand, but good news that they are a very mature pair who have been able to figure things out for the best.

Tonight we are going out for dinner with some church friends....again to a restaurant I recommended.  I hate to think what tonight's debacle is going to be in terms of the quality of the food or the service, hopefully not both. Sigh....oh Lord, please could everthing be better than it was at lunchtime? Perhaps it will be: different restaurant than at noon, perhaps there is hope....perhaps.  

I am so happy to be able to attend prayer meeting tomorrow with my very senior women friends. They are a delight.

The following day a friend is having us over for lunch and is cooking a curry.  He is a marvellous cook, from Hong Kong originally and we are delighted to be looking forward to sampling the results of his kitchen skills once again.  He is a generous soul who loves to cook for his friends.  his wife is a wonderful woman and visiting with her is always very encouraging as well as a lot of fun.  

The heat wave continues here, so my husband spends most of his time in the basement these days. Fortunately we haven't had much more rain apart from a brief shower yesterday afternoon, so he has been able to complete his basement wall sealing project.  Soon it will be tested by the arrival of more rain, but I can't see how any water in the basement this time could possibly be worse than what we dealt with over the past weekend.  So very grateful for my husband's many years of being employed in the building maintenance trade!

I talked to my next door neighbour today.  She admitted she too is planning to move out next year when her lease runs out...only two or three months prior to our own lease ending. So, that is the longest we should have to endure new, possibly noisier neighbours before we get to leave here.  Talking to her and finding out she is leaving, as well as learning of her woes regarding our management company's new stance on repairing and not repairing issues in our building, has added another huge confirmation and impetus for us to get a move on purging for our next spring's move. God bless you neighbour for your honesty to us.

Tramp Tramp Tramp Along The Biways!! AKA City Streets!

 At the moment it is just after 10am and the day has been productive already! YAY!  I likes productive!

We were up at 7am dragging tires and rims out to our car for an 8am appointment at the dealership to FINALLY get our studded tires replaced with proper summer ones.  Only six weeks behind schedule....not that bad for us actually.  hohoho! Unfortunately the recall inspection for the struts will not happen today because the expected parts have not arrived on time. That's okay.  We will make an appointment to have the entire car inspected when the recall parts are installed. Then will come the decision as to what to do regarding restoring this car or ordering a new one.  I am really hoping it will be worth restoring this one.  It is all we need for the few more years either of us will be driving and we like it the best of any vehicle we have ever had.

It takes about an hour to walk home from the dealership now, after starting out a few years ago at a maximum of 45 minutes, our age showing up more in our walking speed from year to year, appointment to appointment, but that's okay.

Half way home we decided we should eat some breakfast and the only place open at 8am along our route was Wild Sage at the Double Tree hotel.  They have really improved their food and service now that the restrictions for COVID have been lifted and they can resume some sense of the old normalcy.  The service was superb, there is now a small breakfast menu for those of us who cannot eat enough to warrant paying over twenty dollars for the excellent, but very filling buffet.  My Eggs Benedict was quite tasty and not a huge portion, my husband really enjoyed his French toast breakfast with bacon, and sausage and ham.  Mine unexepctedly came with a side of hash browns and we both were given a fruit dish to start. The fifteen dollar meals also included our tea and orange juice, so it was very reasonable.  In fact my husband brought his bacon home with him, along with some of my hash browns.  The food was not gourmet by any means, BUT the service was superior and we both enjoyed having proper linen napkins, decent flatware and having our teapots arrive with the tea bags already in the boiling water instead of us having to rip open tea packs and putting bags into water that is already just above lukewarm when it arrives at the table.  The price was reasonable, there is no pressure to have the buffet.  We are really surprised though that some of the other downtown restaurants that featured breakfast menus prior to COVID have now scrapped that meal altogether and are not opening until 9am, or 10am, or even 11am for lunch menu service.  There are some places we miss going for a breakfast out along our route home from the dealership, but if Wild Sage keeps up its service and breakfast menu like what we had today, we can make that our "walking home from the dealership" breakfast spot on a regular basis.

We were most blessed to have a fairly stiff breeze blowing as we walked home between 8am and 9:45am in the already +25C temperature.  The heat today is supposed to climb to +32C with a humidity index of at least +38C.  Whew!  Thrilled to find out when we arrived at the dealership that the shuttle will be available to pick us up when it is time reclaim the car.  The closer we got to home this morning the more conscious we were that the breeze was lessening significantly.  If today is anything like yesterday, there will be no breeze at all by this afternoon when the car is ready for pick up.

So, a friend just dropped in for a moment and that was a nice surprise.  It is my walking partner and we decided that we will wait to have our next walk together after these brutal early June temperatures have subsided!

Water Water Everywhere....But Not For Much Longer!

 36 hours after the end of our last rainstorm the water that was gushing into the basement from a crack in the foundation right at the bottom of the steps slowed to a trickle.  Now, 48 hours after that storm the trickle has slowed to constant but greatly reduced dripping.  My husband slept in the basement last night and got up at regular intervals to mop up the puddle and change out the towels that ringed the area to keep the water from flowing across the basement floor.  Sigh....I was pretty upset about this new area of flooding, but my husband remained calm as usual.

Tonight I am feeling more at peace about the situation.  After church this morning we drove to Rona and picked up a giant pail of Xypex to reseal the wall where the water has been pouring in.  It is the best product we have ever used to seal concrete!  In fact, the other cracks that my husband filled a couple of years ago have held up very well, even with the huge amount of water we had from our last two storms. plus the fact that my husband didn't have enough product at the time to seal those cracks properly.  So, now that he has the giant pail of product he is not only going to trowel it into the big crack that caused us grief for the past couple of days, he is going to slather it all over the cracks he sealed not quite solidly previously.  We did have some trickles from the three cracks he ran out of product on during the last application.  Xypex is the product some companies put onto concrete water cisterns to prevent the water from leaking out.  Once it is in a crack and water runs in against it, it turns into crystals that rapidly expand, completely filling the cracks.  We have spent quite a bit of money on Xypex and have never regretted it. For just under one hundred dollars we purchased a four litre pail of it today.  Rona is one of the only places in  Regina we have been able to find it.  We are grateful that they carry it.

While my husband was picking up the Xypex, I was in the lighting department looking for a floor lamp for our living room. With the new configuration of furniture and the extra space left by my departed piano, it became obvious that I would finally have room for another lamp, which we badly need when having Bible study in our living room in the evenings with friends. The one end of the sofa has been so in the dark that our friends were using the flashlights on their cell phones to do the readings!!  Rona had a goodly selection of floor lamps and I immediately spotted the one I wanted....black with a nice rectangular design on the pole and a big rectangular white shade on top.  It was very easy to put together....bonus!  I am having a personal celebration this week and the lamp was a gift from my husband.

He also took me to Birmingham's for lunch.  We were fairly certain we wouldn't be able to get in because they usually have a huge brunch happening. Today was the perfect day for us to risk it as it turned out.  As we drove into the parking lot we were very surprised to see only a half dozen cars.  We walked in and saw people sitting at only two other tables and there was not a living soul in the brunch dining room.  Our waitress approached us as soon as we sat down, no menus in her hand, and explained to us that scattered power outages happening throughout the city meant their debit/credit card machines were not working and we would have to pay cash for our meal if we ordered.  Thankfully my husband always insists on both of us having a bit of cash in our wallets for "just in case".  It meant that we could order our meal and not worry about paying, so we were given menus and ordered quite happily.  We both had the brisket sandwich, which was not cooked down to the kind of soft texture brisket should have, BUT it was still tasty, tasty beef and the chili mayo, sauteed onions, shredded carrots, cucumber slices and proper ciabiatta bun made for a nice meal.  I had a small bowl of carrot/broccoli soup as my side dish and it was most delicious!  Oh how wonderful for US that the place was nearly deserted, but the restaurant took a huge financial hit by not being able to provide an electronic form of payment.  Who is to blame ultimately for such an occurrence, right?  It is just a small example to me of how overly dependent we are on technology and on electric power!  What happens to electric cars when there is a power failure?  Do they have some kind of small built in generator so their drivers don't get stranded?  Hybrids at least provide some choice to their owners.  I know nothing at all, obviously, about electric vehicles so I need to do some research!

At our high temperature of +31C this afternoon, my husband hightailed it back to the cool basement to do some writing and have a nap, due to his sleepless state last night.  I determined to stick it out on the main floor, but oh wow, did it ever get hot up in the bedrooms!  YIKES!  I hate to think how dreadfully hot it would have been up there if I had not remembered to make use of my system for opening and shutting windows and blinds at just the right times during the morning hours before closing everything right around lunch time until early evening.  So, we are back into our spring and summer schedule of too high daytime temperatures and flooding in the basement, but at least there is hope now that by tomorrow evening or early the next morning the seeping crack will have dried up sufficiently to put on the new Xypex before rain hits again the day after that for two more days!!  As I carried that pail of product across the Rona parking lot to my car, it felt like the weight of the world was lifting from my shoulders. I was absolutely despairing the past couple of days as I saw what kind of summer we were in for if there was no sealant to be had. Thank you Lord for an abundance of the stuff!!  Amen!  We have had a most blessed day!!