Upon Losing Family

"I feel as though every year strips away connections.  It's piercing when both of your parents have died, and you realize, all at once, that their great storehouse of information has winked out irretrievably.  No picking up the phone for a quick call to ask if you're remembering something right--no way to ask who the person is, standing on the left in a photograph.  Children grow and satellite out into their own lives and directions, their own trains, switched over and running now on new tracks.  Communities work differently today:  focusing on the nuclear family means connection ends at the curb, where you put the garbage out for weekly collection."

 --from:  Same Ground: Chasing Family Down the California Gold Rush Trail, by Russell Wangersky.  ECW Press, 2022; page 192.

Gorgeous Birds!

 My walking partner and I struck birdie gold in our walk around the lake yesterday morning!  The first sweet encouter was with two teensy ducklings paddling around near the lake shore....SO CUTE!!!!  They were born so late in the season. I hope Mom and Dad Duck are not planning to migrate come the autumn because these wee ones will not be ready yet to fly that far. Hopefully their parents are "locals" with a safe place to remain throughout the winter season.

The next bird encounter was with a huge pelican who glided down into the water just as we rounded a corner along the path.  It was one of the largest ones I have ever seen and so beautiful with its brilliant white feathers and large yellowish bill.  It glided gracefully through the water.

Lastly we had fun for a few minutes watching the antics of a pair of  yellow warblers.  So cute!  The one in particular was hilarious to watch as he bopped and bobbed along on the tree branches.

As if that wasn't enough of a birdie bonanza around here, I was startled in the afternoon by the appearance of a Baltimore Oriole in full orange and yellow brillance as I walked home from a Cathedral area shoe store.  I was taking a short cut through the parking lot behind Darke Hall and as I reached the thick stand of bushes near the end of the lot a bright orange blur in the bushes caught my attention.  I stood still for a minute and out popped a brilliant orange Baltimore Oriole.  Other people here have told me th Orioles sometimes stray off the usual migration route and end up in Regina, but I have never had occasion to see one here before.  He and I gave each other the eye for a few seconds, then he did some of that complicated birdie bobbing up and down on a thin branch before flying off.  I was so shocked by his appearance that I grabbed my Birds of Saskatchewan tome and found photos and a detailed description. Yup, it was indeed a Baltimore Oriole. I am thrilled to pieces that I was able to see him.  We had them in Kindersley once in a while in the spring, passing through on their way to spend the summer elsewhere, but I hadn't seen even one in all our years here. What a special treat!!

On the way home from my walk with my friend I became aware that one of my sandals was becoming looser on my foot with every passing step.  Sure enough, when I got home and examined it, the elastic on the closure was nearly fully detached from the strap!  Glad I discovered it right away.  So, after lunch my husband dropped me off at Iannone Shoes so that I could hopefully find a new pair.  Fortunately I had good success, even though specialty sizes are becoming nearly impossible to get now from most shoe manufacturers.  With a couple of exceptions, they are simply not making them any more.  Expensive and a tiny niche market...sigh.... Even Iannone's has been having to order in shoes for feet that look like mine and they just sent an order the day before, so I would have had a long wait had they not just happened to have one pair in stock that suited my needs. They are uber comfortable, so I was able to purchase them. They also told me where to go to get my other sandals repaired.  Those old sandals are worth wearing for another summer or two, and Iannone's staff advised me to go ahead and repair them in case sandals to suit my needs become harder to find in the near future.  I have had great service from that store for the past ten years or more.  Even before we moved here I was buying their shoes when we had reason to be visiting in Regina.

Unfortunately for my wallet, The Paper Umbrella card and paper products shop is right next door to the shoe store and I KIND OF needed some more cards, so in I went and spent a small fortune on blank cards. I LOVE using cards when having to write to anyone about anything, so their current stock was a real find for me today as I near the end of the card supply.  

The next misfortune is that there is a WONDERFUL pottery store on the same street!  I managed for the past seven out of eight years of living here to stay out of that store....buuuuuuut, today? Not so much.  I walked inside as if I was a moth being drawn to a flame and there, right on the back shelf was a set of white, carved, pottery serving bowls....SO GORGEOUS AND SO REASONABLY PRICED!!!  Since I am most unhappy with a ceramic serving bowl I purchased eight years ago under duress....long story....I finally saw my chance to switch it out for these two lovely bowls...two new bowls to switch out for one old bowl...that is a great deal right? (What do you mean by "twice the price"?  Who cares??? hohoho! Tee Hee and other evil laughter.....) I got part of my comeuppance by having to carry them all the way home on foot, because with the bowls as well as new sandals and card stock jammed into my carry tote it was a pretty heavy load and I was pooped out when I finally arrived home.  So, that was my penance for purchasing so much "stuff"...at least in my own mind it was.

The weather was perfect for all of my walking yesterday: overcast, cool, but not particularly windy. What a fun day I  had....AND it wasn't over yet.  We took a friend out for dinner to give him a break from the hospital where he has been spending a good deal of time visiting his very ill wife.  We have visited her quite a bit, so it was his turn.  NICE DAY!    

Today  is also a great day, sunny and warm.  All my laundry is completed and as soon as my huband returns home from his camping groceries shopping trip we are going to drop over to St. Mary's church for their saskatoon berry festival.  There is supposed to be some live music and my husband needs to pick up the saskatoon berries he ordered and paid for a couple of weeks ago. When he gets back from camping it will be full on berry pie making. YAY, he will love those pies. After that we will visit our hospital bound friend.  Tomorrow I can iron and help my husband start packing up the rest of his gear and camp food.  Church is on order first thing in the morning and I will also iron the clothes I washed today.  I like a productive weekend!

Framed!!

A number of years ago, about a dozen I think, our son gave us a brightly coloured water colour sketch. I took it to the local framer in our town of residence at the time to have it framed. I had in mind, and thought we had agreed on, simple matting and a plain frame, appropriate for a two foot square sketch. A few weeks later when I returned to the framer to pick it up I received a bit of a shock when the framer, beaming with pride over the surprise he had in store for me, hauled a massivee three foot square creation from the framing shop and presented the sketch back to me. When he realized, after I left the shop from our consultation, that he was dealing with an original work, he got quite excited and thought he should, and I quote, “do it up right!!”.  He, as it turned out, was just getting started in the framing business and wanted to make an impression....and that he did!! 

He had, in his enthusiasm, completely  ditched the agreed upon plan and gone just a tad crazy with the framing. Instead of the simple white matting and plain, two inch wide white frame to set off the bright yellow background of the sketch, he had attached the sketch to wooden blocks that lifted it over an inch off that matting, left a four inch border of matting, then framed it within a wide silver coloured frame that created the gigantic final product!! The painting was covered in heavy duty glass, so the massive creation was so heavy he had to carry it to my car for me. His joy over presenting me with this oversized surprise, his pride in his own creativity, his enthusiasm over having an actual original art piece to frame, all caused me to keep my horror at the resulting monstrosity to myself. I acted as pleased as I could manage to muster, remained outwardly calm and if my enthusiasm for his “gift” to me didn’t at all match his own, well, he was too excited to notice. AND I got a great deal because I was still only paying the originally agreed upon price. Yup, I got a “deal” alright. Sigh..... I couldn’t bring myself to rain on his parade. He asked if he could post photos of it on his website, I agreed, and the photos remain there to this day. I am uncertain how much business the young man subsequently received as a result of those photos. 

Over the years since, the sketch in its giant prison of a frame, has been tucked away on a wall in my office, out of the sight of visiting guests. Every time my son has been here he takes a look at it and nearly doubles over laughing. 

This week I decided it was time to reframe it. It is a nice sketch from a series of dot paintings my son was doing at the time, but the hideous frame was more attention getting than the sketch. One of the art galleries recommended a framer to me, so I lugged everything into his shop a couple of days ago.  He took one look at it and without me even saying a word, he said, "Yes, I think you would want a less grandiose framing job here."  In five minutes or less he had hauled out the exact matting and frame I had originally chosen all those years ago, we struck a deal on the price, I paid my bill and was on my way home fifteen minutes after arriving at the shop.  I will pick up the newly framed painting in two weeks' time.  The price for this new framing is within a few cents of the cost of what I had originally chosen for framing at the first shop.  I assumed it would be considerably more a dozen years later, so was prepared to swallow my first gasp at such a high price, but the higher price didn't materialize. I feel most blessed.  

Once I get the painting back, I will trade it out for one that is currently in the living room so it gets a chance to be seen by a few people who will appreciate the simplicity of both sketch and framing.  The original framer has built himself a good business, but I notice he has diversified his services, adding in photography, pottery and greeting cards.  He has a successful business in a rather tiny town. More power to him.  I am happy I gave him one of his first chances to frame an original work rather than a print, even though in the end that simple sketch has cost me double to display.

Quite A Delegation!

Before I begin a new post I just wanted to let you know I deleted both previous posts as many of the regular responders to prayer requests have already indicated they will pray for the R family.  It is too emotional of a subject for me to post about and I am afraid it is going to end up being all about myself and my own reactions.  It could be months before there are any updates that will be shareable, so thank you to all those praying and when new information becomes available I will let you know. Bless you all.

Something interesting happened this afternoon that kind of blew us away!  Mid afternoon we stepped outside to water the plants on the back porch and suddenly a group of our indigenous neighbours materialized at the bottom of the steps.  We greeted them and asked how each one was doing this summer and they told us that we were the first and in most cases the only neighbours that welcomed them and treated them as if they belonged in our complex.  Wha?????  Ever since most of them moved in here we have been feeling that we have barely had a chance to get to know them or even make contact more than very occasionally.  We were blown away by this little delegation of neighbours and are still shaking our heads.  What kind of prejudice have they experienced to make our feeble efforts at being good neighbours seem like such a great thing.  When we told them we will be moving next spring, one woman started to cry!  Aaaaaargh!!!  Both of us were left feeling kind of stunned.  God is good, that is all I can say.  All we can do now is pray that we can continue to be the kind of neighbours they need us to be for the next few months while we are still here.  Oh Lord bless our neighbours and please help other tenants to reach out to them. They are wonderful neighbours, every one of them.  Thank you, Amen.

Our son texted us late this afternoon to say he had arrived safely in Halifax and was at that moment eating some rather delicious Chinese food and enjoying the beauty of the many trees and flowers in the neighbourhood where he is staying.  For being such a west coast guy when it comes to flora and fauna, we can hardly believe how well he has survived the "concrete jungle" of his area of NYC.  Mind you, he knows probably every park within the five boroughs at this point as he loves to walk among the green trees and lush blossoms that many of them are filled with.  His girlfriend is in Toronto this week to see her own family and friends. It will be back to work with a vengeance next week for both of them when they return home.  Our son is feeling well again, likely had food poisoning from his last meal on the way home from Europe....thank you Airline Food.  Sigh.....

The weather was mercifully cooler today.  We barely reached +29C according to the thermometer on our deck, so while that is still quite warm, it is five or six degrees cooler than the previous few days.  The winds were gale force all day long, so that made my walk this afternoon to the hair salon bearable, despite my overly long locks blowing up over my head and covering my face for most of the way there!  hahaha  Not a problem coming home as there is now very little hair to blow anywhere. Feels SO GOOD!!!!  I am grateful for temperatures below +30C, prairie summer winds that keep the air moving and shorter hair for the rest of the summer!  

My husband's health continues to improve each night as he sleeps most of the night under the wide open downstairs window!  He has not had a headache for two days in a row and has had an absolute ton of energy each day compared to the previous weeks of misery.  It is so wonderful.  I am not so worried now about him trying to go hiking and camping with his friends next week.  Mind you, they know his limitations from previous camping trips and were more than willing to accommodate him again this time, but it would be so nice for all of them if he could keep up the pace.  At about 6am the sun begins streaming in through that open window, so he gets up and closes it, covers it with blankets and comes upstairs to sleep for a couple of more hours. The fact that he has not had a headache to keep him awake once he has been up and moving is a near miracle!  He is sleeping fewer hours each night, but feeling very good the next day anyway.

With great joy we have returned to DarBar restaurant for their glorious Indian fare.  The personnel who had decided serving "people who look like us" customers was beneath them have been moved to a different place of employment and the service we have had both times we have been there in the past six weeks was back to impeccable. The said persons were completely new to our country and our customs and were highly offended by my Canadian Women Take Charge manner.  The cook who couldn't even bring himself to look or speak to me during the kafuffle that caused our refusal to return way back months ago, came out of the back today to greet us most cheerily as nothing had ever happened and it was lovely.  We are most relieved to be able to eat there once again.  The noon hour platters have only gone up in price by one dollar and are just as delicious as ever.  We still eat lunch there for less than thirty-five dollars including both sales taxes. AAAAND, there is enough for two meals so we ate the rest tonight for dinner. Incredible! Thank you Lord that we seem to have been reinstated as customers there.  

My husband gets to be the social butterfly tomorrow as he is meeting a friend for coffee.  Before he does that though he and I are going to take a walk through a park that he discovered a few weeks ago and would like me to see.  As much as I enjoy walking around the lake, it is not his favourite place to walk as there are often so many people and bicycles, so he is going to take me to HIS park "happy place".  I am looking forward to it. I get to return to walk in "my" lake park the following day with my walking partner.

My friend and I had a wonderful visit over hot tumeric drinks from Good Earth this morning.  We got take out and sat at a little metal table and chairs in a public space/art installation across the lot from the cafe.  Despite the howling wind that nearly lifted our sun hats right off our heads, we had a great time visiting about all manner of things.  We decided we would be silly not to make this a regular mid-week event for the rest of the summer and into early September before her regular weekly Bible study begins again, so we can take advantage of the summer weather.  YAY!!!  A regular coffee friend is something I have been missing since my original coffee buddy here became unable to continue our routine visits for health reasons.

I should be getting some things ready for next week's camping.  My husband has his sleeping bag and bedding set out already. The only helpful thing I have accomplished is finding clean earplugs for the overnight sleeps in the camper.  I need to get my act together and get laundry done. I DID remember to get his prescriptions refilled to take with him.  (Remember the days when having to fill prescriptions to take on a camping holiday was something only "old people" did? Weeeeelllll, guess what?  hahaha RIGHT????)  Somehow neither of us can seem to get it through our heads that there are only four days left before the excursion.  We need to get our heads into this and get a move on!!

Banished! Hahaha!!

 My husband is having a terrible time with his health the past few weeks.  In the summer he sleeps in the unfinished basement in order to get cool enough to survive the season, but since the big rain storm a month or more ago that resulted in the need for him to seal some more cracks in the foundation, he has been waking up in the middle of the night with mild headaches that last until about mid morning.  So, with the idea in mind that there may be mold in the basement that is causing him grief, he is sleeping on the main floor tonight....on a camping cot....under the open window to get fresh air, with the floor fan running to cut the noise from the parking lot and street outside.

I hope this helps him.  Over the past week it has become clear that his mild headaches are not the result of dehydration as he drinks a huge glass of water before bed and another one or even two during the night without any significant change.  He is worried that this headache harkens back to his original chronic fatigue symptoms from over thirty-five years ago, when wheat and other grains were the cause.  I am worried that if it is a food sensitivity issue, it could be his precious tea that he absolutely loves and has been such a wonderful hobby for him for the past twenty years.

So, my dilemma is this:  if he is going to sleep in the kitchen for the rest of the summer, I will no longer be able to sit in the living room to watch tv after he is in bed, usually much earlier than I am ready to sleep.  In the mornings he sleeps in much later than I do, so I won't be able to go downstairs and get my breakfast without waking him and thusly defeating the very purpose of him sleeping in the kitchen instead of the moldy basement.  He needs his 9 hours of consecutive sleep, particularly if his CFS is rearing its ugly head once again.  Sigh.....  so, I suppose I am banished to the "food- and tv- free" upper storey bedroom each night far too early for me to want to go to sleep and far too late into the next morning for me to get my breakfast at a time that allows me to regulate the rest of my day's meals within reasonable boundaries for being free to run errands and visit friends. Hmmmmm....what to do....  Unless you have lived with someone who has health issues resulting in a serious sleep disorder it is hard to understand why I would "stand" for this situation that effectively clips my wings within my own four walls.  My husband desperately needs to try this change of sleeping space so for the length of the experiment I am willing to stay out of the way until we can judge if staying out of the basement overnight is helping him.

Dear Heavenly father: please help us both to survive health-wise until we can get moved out of this crumbling old heap of a complex and get away from the several toxins we suspect have infiltrated this suite over the years.  Although our bsement carbon monixide alarm has never gone off, there could be other toxins,such as radon, coming up through the cracks in the cement floor. please help my husband to discover the source of his headaches and get some relief. Thank you Lord, Amen!

A Blessed Sunday Morning!

Despite getting to bed later than I wanted to last evening, and despite a lot of noisy folk out on the sidewalk under my bedroom window between 11pm and 1am, I did manage to get a half decent sleep last night.  One reason is the wonderful bit of rain that came down in the middle of the night that cooled the air and refreshed the plants. There wasn't a lot of moisture, more lightning and thunder than rain, but it was enough to wash the dust off the leaves of the trees and herbs and flowers.  With a floor fan running to push the cooler air through the bedroom all night, I slept fantastically well after the street noise stopped.

My husband didn't fare quite as well.  When it was time to wake up for church it didn't take him long to move himself from a prone position in bed to a prone position on the sofa.  His colour was poor and I knew he wouldn't be able to rally sufficiently to come to church with me, so I went on my own.  Great service, lots of fun, excellent message about the need for true, from your heart forgiveness toward all who have wronged us, based on the parable of the unforgiving servant in Matthew 18:21-35.  Jesus uses some pretty strong language, (honest, stern and downright blunt), as he tells us that forgiveness must be given to all who have hurt us if we want to receive God's fullest blessings.  

After church I came home to get my husband and we went to the home of some friends for a delicious chili lunch.  Yummy!  Another newer couple were there that we have been getting to know as well as another woman who is new to the city and was visiting our church for the first time.  We had a delightful time. My husband benefited from the extra two hours of sleep he got while I was away at church and he was able to enjoy himself visiting over lunch.  

Now I am awaiting a phone call from some relatives in Calgary.  We haven't talked for a long time so it will be grand to get caught up.  

I am most grateful that the home of our friends today is air conditioned.  Whew!!!  What  nice relief from the +32C temperature outside.  In another couple of days it will be +35C or higher, so I am very happy to discover that our system of keeping all the windows and blinds shut, covering them with heavy blankets all day, then opening everything up for the cooler evening and overnight air is working well.  Our suite is still bearable to be in, even in the late afternoons.

With the time difference between us and Japan, the July sumo tournament has just ended. I can't wait for NHK to get the last two days of competition posted online so we can find out who the winner is.  As of two days ago the sole leader was an older rank and filer...aged 36, I believe.  Don't know what happened since then, but I would be so thrilled to see one of the Maegashira level competitors actually win the tournament!

A Happy Good Kind of Tired!

It has been a wonderfully busy day today, but now I am tired and kind of grateful I don't need to make dinner for another hour! hahaha

This morning I went for a good long walk with a friend.  We have been shut down a few times this summer by forest fire smoke, grandchildren who became ill and needed care, heat and what have you.  So, today was a day to rejoice, hope for the best walking in the heat that increased as we wandered along and enjoy our conversation.

I got home just before lunch time, so after lunch I FINALLY got my huge pile of ironing completed and put away. That felt so good. 

Now though my hardware filled leg has very tired muscles and I have been sitting here for the past half hour playing a silly video game and giving those muscles a bit of a rest.

A friend of my husband's contacted him the other day to invite him to go camping and hiking for several days. They will head out in a couple of weeks' time.  I am so excited for my husband.  He hasn't had the mental oomph to make any such plans this summer. To have someone else actually make the plans instead, so that all he has to do is pack up and go, well, it is a wonderful blessing for him.

Our suite is stifling at the moment. My husband got excited about a slight breeze outside and opened some windows far too early.  I didn't notice in time to close them again before our suite filled with hot air.  Oh well...yesterday my open and shutting of windows and blinds worked very well.  Now I just have to survive until I can open all the windows overnight to let in the slightly cooler air before locking the place up tight tomorrow when the even warmer temperatures arrive. 

Today is a good day!  I went for a walk. I completed some outstanding home chores....a GOOD Saturday for a change!!  Not boring for a change...GOOD!

A Teary Goodbye!

People who know me know I am not a crier.  I am the last person to shed tears over much of anything at all.  I didn't even cry when my parents died.  I.  Just.  Don't.  Cry.  Period!

However.....today I shed a few tears....saying goodbye to our cousin and her husband....in a restaurant....waiting at the cash register to pay the bill for lunch for the four of us. Sigh....

I suppose if I had more experience with crying I would have been able to contain myself at least long enough to return to the table with the food before the tears actually ran down my face, but no.  It was at the cash register with the poor restaurant server looking on in wonderment, wondering I suppose if I had lost my mind completely....or perhaps sneaked a bite of food when he wasn't looking and found it wanting?  I don't know what he thought.

All I know is that as I told our cousin, standing at the til beside me, how much we were going to miss her and her husband now that they are moving away, my eyes spontaneously filled with tears that proceded to flow somewhat freely, trickling down past my nose on both sides and dripping off my chin onto my shirt.  Cousin took one look at me, turned beet red in the face and also began crying...just like that....crying just like me....only even more so. The server, now totally bewildered, politely turned his face away from us while I paid for lunch and didn't come near us again for the remainder of our time there. hahaha  I think as I stood at that cash register beside cousin and her husband the full weight of yet another loss hit me like a brick over the head.  Okay, it isn't the same as the loss of someone dying, but for all intents and purposes we are likely not going to see these two again for a VERY long time, a VERY VERY VERY long time.  It was a difficult time for me today....and for cousin too apparently.

I hope I don't cry again for a long time....or ever again actually.

My plans when we returned home were to get some ironing done and some other small home chores. Didn't happen...none of it.  A cousin from MY side of the family who I rarely hear from actually called me today and we chattered on for over an hour.  It was just lovely and was followed up by another long call from an out of town friend I used to spend every day with when we lived in the same town and now hardly ever see more than once or twice a year.  For such phone calls, ironing and house chores can wait another few hours or even another day.  The dreaded Saturday is looming over me and other than a walk in the morning with a friend, I have no other plans because the day is going to be so hot...day two of our approximately 6 day hot spell.  It will be a good day to stay inside and do the chores I didn't get to today.

I suppose we will be driving to church on Sunday morning....disappointing, but it will be so darned hot by the time church is over that my husband in particular would never be able to handle the heat on the walk home again.  I can't say I would enjoy it either to be honest. My tolerance for heat, never that high to start with, will be close to zero by Sunday I am guessing.  Thus far it appears our city will miss the thunder and hail storms that are forecast to occur in wide swaths all around us over the weekend.  Here's hoping.....

Hopefully the air outside will cool off significantly tonight for one last time to fully open the windows for fresh air before the overnight temperatures are too high for them to remain open if we want the suite to be bearable for temperature the following day.  At least we have had a break for a couple of days from the low altitude forest fire smoke.  I am SO grateful for the break. Long may it last.

Travel Bugs

There are various types of travel bugs. 

One type is the consistent urge to go to new places and see new geographical and cultural attractions. My husband had this type of travel bug connected to his love of camping outdoors. Soon his travel bug is going to be temporarily assuaged.

A second type is one of several illnesses encountered and suffered as a result of a virus or bacterial infection, or eating tainted food, while travelling. My son has been suffering from this type ever since his recent return from Berlin. Happens every time he travels internationally, sigh. This time it is tummy, rather than respiratory. Poor guy. He has to leave for Halifax in less than a week, so praying he is well again soon. So grateful he has his girlfriend to make him chicken soup! 

No News Must Be Good News This Time Around!

It has been over a week since all the eye tests were performed on my tired little eyeballs. I have heard nothing from the ophthalmologist, so it appears I should be fine until I see him in January next year. Yay! I am grateful. 

Accomplished so many errands today after we both had an excellent sleep in. The malaise I have been fighting with for the last three years, beginning with my dad’s death, is lifting more often these days so my energy is creeping back slowly but surely. Yesterday was laundry day and everything was done in short order. Today I was able to refill our heavy water jugs and haul them into the house up the back stairs, then down into the basement, without asking my husband for help. 

While my husband has a long way to go yet to get his emotions back together after our most recent family loss, he is trying hard to deal with the sadness.  Today a good friend contacted him about the possibility of a few days of hiking and camping in a couple of weeks, so I pray that works out. It would be so good for him. He actually got excited about it! That’s a good sign! God bless this dear friend!! 

Tonight we will revisit a friend in hospital who may be able to go home tomorrow. Our other hospitalized friend went home today. Yay!!! It is so nice to see healing and positivity happening for these two loved ones. 

We get to go out for lunch tomorrow with our family member and her husband who are moving from here to Ontario in a couple of days. We can hardly believe they are making time for one more visit with us before they go....it touches our hearts. Oh how we are going to miss them. Sigh...... We will miss their youthful energy and perspectives and their willingness to spend time with us, the elderly uncle and aunt. God bless them both! 

The heat wave is moving up here from the USA on the weekend for a warm weekend and with daytime highs of +34C to start next week. Thankfully it is to be short lived. This time we will be feeling the lack of air conditioning in our unit. The other new tenants in our court who also had no A/C for their suites had the units installed earlier this week. When we move out next spring the new tenant will likely install a system to make summers more bearable. We might have sprung open our wallets to have that system installed here, but found out from the other A/C renters, (yes, the tenant pays for the installation then rents it for $35 a month year round....a ridiculous cost), that the system only cools the main floor of each suite and barely affects the upstairs bedrooms: not worth it for us. 

Well, time to eat so we can get to the hospital tonight.

As The Lighting Flashes And The Thunder Crashes!

 It is nearly midnight as I am sitting at my desk preparing this post and a storm that hit parts of southern Alberta late yesterday is on its way here. What a lot of noise and flashing lights as it wends its way toward us.  I pray we will not get the golf ball sized hail it has dropped over parts of Calgary and southern Alberta, since our car is parked outside along with the equally vulnerable cars of all our neighbours.  I suppose I am going to have to shut the windows soon, for safety's sake.  The storm is getting closer.  The rain has just begun falling.

I should be asleep by now after not falling asleep until 1am today after a wonderfully fun patio party at the home of church friends last evening. No, we were not at their home until after 1am, but it was so much fun and we enjoyed far too many sugary treats.......

....AAAAND the power went out just at this point in the post.  The lightning stuck something important here in the city and it was instant blackness.  It is now about twelve hours later, after a good sleep, restored power and the return of sunny skies!  Fortunately for us no hail fell from the skies to cause damage...we feel most blessed this morning.

I have been praying this morning for various friends with health issues and particularly for those who we spent most of yesterday visiting in hospital...all good reports and prognoses. Hallelujah!

In about a half hour our son and his girlfriend should be arriving back in the U.S. after their holiday in Berlin.  We are looking forward to their (hopefully) good report about their vacation and her experience in Avignon at the performing arts festival.

And now it is time to go grocery shopping. I think I will go to Safeway this time as they have a type of hummus I particularly enjoy eating.

Joyfully Making Up For the Previous Cancellations This Weekend! YAY!

Today's activities are making up for the smoky atmosphere induced social cancellations of the past two days. YIPPEE!!!   

We got to church this morning and I did fine reading the Scriptures, except that as I scrambled to make sure I got away from the podium in time for the minister to come up and speak, I forgot to tell the congregation to sit down again after the reading of the Gospel. hahaha  The minister had to tell them to sit down....so I suppose she got a standing ovation before she even brought the teaching, hahaha.  She spoke about the children in Matthew 18 and Jesus' love for them, his protection of them, his admonition to those who treat children poorly....treat anyone new in the faith or struggling to find faith poorly.  She is the children's pastor at our church, so she knew whereof she spoke!!  It was excellent.  Our summer services have been so great the past couple of years....recovery from COVID closures seems to be nearly complete at this point. Hallelujah!!

We were taken out for lunch afterward by dear friends to a wonderful old, huge pub restaurant we all like quite a lot.  Good old Bonzzini's: yummy clam chowder soup, soft'n'crispy garlic toast, huge taco salads, tasty Cajun pasta, crispy fish and chips, ab fab beer and cheese dip for the taco chips....  We got there just as it was opening for the day. The service was fabulous.  We all had leftovers to bring home for dinner tonight.  Bonus! 

I have been wondering how to best juggle our monthly finances for the next year with a greatly reduced GIS payment compared to last year.  The amount of money from Mom that I had set aside for sheer entertainment, at her request a few months before she died, will come to an end in a few weeks' time and I want to be able to budget accordingly.  So, lo and behold, today my husband received a gift that will make up for that deficit for the next three months!!!  Incredible!  Thank you Lord and thank you wonderful, loving friend who gave us this provision.  We are humbled and most grateful, that is for sure.

This evening we are going, Lord willing and the "smoke don't rise" to some friends' church sponsored patio party...really hoping and praying this is not just one more event we will have to cancel out on.  It is still over 3 hours away, and the sky remains overcast with only a very slight breeze. We can't smell any smoke at the moment, long may that last.  When I woke up this morning and discovered the low hanging smoke had disappeared sometime overnight, I rejoiced and flung open all the windows in our suite.  Fabulous to get some fresh air in here. The temperature is barely above +20C and wow, we are loving that!!  Guess it will be quite hot next weekend, so we intend to enjoy every cooler day in the meantime to the fullest!

Today's sad news is that one of our beloved parishioners, who just recovered recently from several years of cancer surgeries and treatments, had a serious stroke a couple of days ago and is hospitalized with loss of speech and sight, although his motor skills are largely uneffected.  Sigh....this man and his wife have dealt with so much over the past four or five years...please Lord, enough already!!  

My other friend in hospital has apparently been given a whole different diagnosis than she received last time she was in that MAY give her more chance of receiving the help she has desperately needed for quite some time.

Tomorrow will be hospital visitation day for us.  I have not been able to see my one friend yet because my eyes have been streaming so badly from the forest fire smoke that the hospital would not allow me in to visit.  The threat of eye issues being a sign of COVID infection is still being taken seriously by hospital staff, thank goodness, as our provincial Premier tries to pretend COVID is no longer happening here.  No wonder we are losing so many excellent doctors and specialists from this province as they head south across the border to the USA. Who can blame them?

The other bit of sad news, not totally unexpected but still so sad, is that Penelope's mother will likely not last too much longer. Thank you for praying after my post the other day about this possibility. The family is with her, extended family have been contacted, as everyone prepares themselves as best they can for this loss.  Such a hard time.  Penelope's father will be devastated after he has cared for her for many years at home. I pray Penelope and her family can accept this loss with grace and find healthy ways to grieve over the coming months.  Losing a mom can be devastating. 

Temporary Relief From The Smoke Was/Still Is Appreciated!

Although our area of the city did not receive any of the short lived rain showers last evening, the wind direction shifted mid evening, bringing us an hour or two of blue, sunny skies and dispersing the worst of the forest fire smoke. By 9pm we were able to open all the windows in our suite for three cooling, refreshing, glorious hours before going to bed for the night. I closed the windows again, but those hours of cooler, fresher air made for a good sleep. The smoke didn’t blow in again until early this afternoon, so the windows were open again from 7am until 3pm, at which time the miserable smoke descended once again. I felt well and awake enough all day to accomplish a number of projects around here and print off copies of the scripture passages I will be reading at church tomorrow morning. Unlike yesterday, my day has NOT been a total washout. Yay!!!!

Enjoyed a long chat with Alberta friends today. He has received a Parkinson’s diagnosis only a year after full retirement, so just like ourselves, health issues are standing in the way of all the happy retirement plans the four of us were looking forward to. We are all part of a large and frustrated retired people group. Sigh.....so many people have this type of experience, so we are not alone. I am just sad that another dear friend is afflicted with a debilitating chronic condition. This is a difficult age to be. The good news is that the four of us may be able to spend a week in NYC at the same time later this fall....here’s hoping!!!

Tomorrow SHOULD be a cheery day!!! After church we are going out for lunch with friends my husband did a garden project for. It is going to be a lot of fun!!!! If the smoke disperses sufficiently by tomorrow evening we will attend a church sponsored patio party, so I am hoping we will be able to attend. My sore throat is fine now and my eyes have quit streaming, at last, so my allergy meds must be working! Yay!!! One of our new ministers is preaching tomorrow on Matthew 18:1-14; talk about a heavy and sometimes confusing passage for her to have to tackle on only her second or third sermon!! Brave woman!!!

Meme Statement for the day:

Person 1: I need the Holy Spirit to go to heaven.

Person 2: I need the Holy Spirit to go  WALMART!!!!! 

Hahahahaha!!

(Person 2, I hear you!!!)

Another Smoke Inspired Cancellation Pour Moi Today!

 I found out this morning that the wine and cheese party tonight is actually an out of doors party in the host's backyard and gazebo, so guess I won't be going unless this smoky haze miraculously clears by then.  If I can't go it will be particularly disappointing because it is a fellow clergy member and his wife, my husband's cousin, that this farewell party is for. Sigh....maybe I can put in a quick appearance? I don't want to spoil my husband's fun though because he will be excited to visit with former colleagues and friends from his days as an active priest.  So, I think I have convinced him to go on his own if I can't make it.  His cousin and cousin-in-law will certainly understand.

I drove three blocks to the grocery store this morning because I was fairly certain walking was not wise and I am glad I did.  Crossing the parking lot into and back out of the store involved probably less than a full block of exercise and my eyes were smarting and my lungs hurt just from that short distance and time outside....MAYBE two and half minutes in total by the time I got my groceries loaded into the car there and out of the car back here at home. Wow, I guess the buildup of light smoke from the past two or three weeks is finally catching up with me.  

I cannot imagine what the firefighters are going through working so hard physically in the intense heat, wearing heavy suits and equipment....it takes a very special kind of person to be a firefighter in the first place, the right kind of mentality to handle the extemes of boredom and actual firefighting adrenaline.  I couldn't do it. I never could have done it: admration PLUS for these front line fire workers.

I am grateful that my husband's commitments tomorrow are all indoors!  Just in case it is this smoky tomorrow.....yikes!  We have been so blessed here in comparison to other cities that have put up with far more consecutive days of smoke than we have thus far.

Time To Quit Smoking!!!!

I am disappointed this morning that the somewhat more extreme forest fire smoke from across western Canada blew in here late yesterday afternoon and is still with us. By early evening yesterday we had to close all the windows in this stifling hot suite because we were both struggling with mild respiratory symptoms. Plus, my poor eyes are sore, red and weepy. Glad I had my eye tests before they got this bad. (Thankfully we both slept well as the temperature did drop sufficiently overnight. Yay!)

Earlier this morning I cancelled a planned walk with a friend. Sigh.....I was looking forward to both the visit and the badly needed exercise. Oh well, we will try again next week. Thankfully our evening commitment is a wine and cheese party at someone’s home. If it is still this smoky those of us with health issues will be able to stay indoors. We are contributing a block of gouda and our last bottle of Torreon de Parades Carmeniere. Now that our friend is no longer importing wine we are no longer able to purchase our favourites, so our wine drinking days will be over unless and until we discover some import wines here as fabulous as his selection. So far no luck.....what a lot of truly horrible wine there is on the local liquor store shelves. 

Not sure how long the lower hanging smoke will last, but I hope it lifts soon. I am desperate to open the windows for fresh air and cooling down this suite in the afternoon. The fires have been raging for several months now. I continue to pray for all the firefighters coming from all over the world to assist our Canadian fire fighters in controlling them and getting them out out eventually. 

No Big Dental Deal For Now....YAY!!

 My husband survived his dental check and is grateful and relieved that he didn't have to have any work done today. (and I really enjoyed my hour of sitting in the car waiting for him, reading an interesting book with no interruptions) Now he is online enjoying his monthly discussion with his World Issues group. Today they are discussing a couple of articles they read together about today's so-called "wokeism" and how what was formerly considered a liberal veiwpoint that protected freedom of speech completely has now taken up the frightening banner of banning speech the current movement considers incendiary for one arbitrarily decided reason or another.  Talk about a flip flop of values over the past twenty years or so.

Anyway, yes, there is an issue developing with a tooth, but for now the decision is to leave it until the dentist can see which direction the problem is going to take, then repair the tooth accordingly.  If my husband hadn't freaked out and waited another few weeks to have it checked, the problem's direction would have been likely more obvious, but better to have things checked right away "just in case", right?  Now my husband is mad at himself for "wasting" part of our slim dental insurance coverage for this year, silly man.  I could feel badly for doing the same thing this past spring when I had a sore tooth checked only to discover the pain was coming from a bruised ligament and would heal itself over the next month to six weeks...which it did. Neither of us would have known we had nothing immediate to be worried about if we hadn't checked these things out. No regrets!!!  Now neither of us is stressed and have a far better idea when we need to have pains checked, what specific types of pains need to be checked immediately and what pains require waiting longer than we want to for a check up.  It is all good.

This afternoon our ladies' prayer group is going to be a bit of a "special" time. Our hostess has developed a serious mobility issue and must head to hospital by ambulance after our meeting for several days of assessment as to what do to next to help her.  She has been struggling for months now, so it is a relief that she decided to accept the recommendation of her home care worker and have the assessement done.  Please shoot up a prayer for Mar, if the Lord should so lead you. Assessments can be scary things when it is so difficult at this point to know what the results will be. Thank you.

We had to cancel our game day with friends on the weekend as my husband has had a plethora of other meetings arise for that day.  Waaaaaa.....  Oh well, there will be other chances to play this game soon. I am reading the Scriptures at church on Sunday and then after church we have another meeting with LUNCH!!, a happy business meeting, and also get to attend a patio party that evening with some church friends.  So, a busy weekend coming up, but it will be good despite so many meetings.

I am looking forward to my walk to prayer meeting this afternoon.  The weather is perfect, mid plus twenties centigrade, a slight breeze, a bit overcast...mostly from forest fire smoke rather than clouds, but it is upper atmosphere smoke, so it isn't bothering me today.

A Nearly Perfect Summer Day For Me!

Today it is a bit windy, but apart from that it is a great kind of weather day for me: overcast with short bursts of warm sunshine to dry up the rain that fell overnight.  I thoroughly enjoyed sitting outside with a friend this morning having a really good visit together.

We began our morning at a Good Earth coffee bar, enjoying our yummy Earl Grey Latte's and a "lemon squishy" cookie, but it soon became very crowded and we felt like we were part of one large group of customers.  We noticed each of our voices getting lower and lower as we attempted to visit without being completely overheard by other customers sitting nearly at the very same table in the small space, so we decided to go elsewhere to chat.  As it happened there is a concrete art and performance pad right across the parking lot from Good Earth that had no one sitting at any of its picnic tables or cafe tables, so we crossed over to enjoy the rest of our visit there. I didn't even have to move the car!  What a good time we had sitting out there all on our own, talking about anything and everything without worrying that we were disturbing other people.  It was just lovely.

I came home feeling very upbeat and encouraged, so I immediately attacked a few items of ironing and got them smoothed out, hung on hangers and put away in the closet.  Those clothes had been sitting out waiting for the iron for several days, but I just didn't feel motivated to take care of them. Amazing what a couple of days of on the phone and in person visiting will do to motivate me to action around here, hahaha.

Tomorrow will be an early morning for both of us here. My husband has a sore tooth that has been bothering him for a couple of weeks, so he just got an appointment for 8am tomorrow to have it checked.  Hopefully it isn't anything too serious, but it "feels" like it is under a tooth he had crowned not long ago, so....I hope there isn't a cavity or rotten root under that crown.  I hope it isn't even that particular tooth! Hopefully it is the one beside it that is causing the issue.  He may have bruised a ligament that is holding on to one of those teeth. That was the issue for me a few months ago when I thought I had a cavity, so I am hoping it is something that simple for his sake.  He gets pretty pasty faced and shaky from nerves when he has dental procedures.  He had exactly 4 dental procedures in the first 68 years of his life, so now it is very stressful for him to go to the dentist since it is a new issue in his life.  Fortunately his teeth are still pretty good over all.  

We are feeling so fortunate to have some dental coverage, minimal as it is compared to many other peoples' work related dental plans, but a wee something is much better than nothing at all.

Now I am making plans for this afternoon....I think I want to cook a really nice dinner for tonight. (yes, you can read "for a change" into that statement, teehee)

The mother of a friend of mine has been very ill for a long time and it appears she may be nearing the end of her life. Please remember Penelope and her mother in your prayers if you wouldn't mind. Thank you so much.

A Positive Update

 After a bit of a rocky start over the weekend, Cee's body seems to have adjusted to his new meds for pain.  He has had a good day or two now that they are working and he is not fighting upsetting reactions that can happen sometimes with new meds.  I am praying this pain free status can now become the norm, that the medication will continue to work and that any increase in meds that is coming in the future will not require his body to experience another period of adjustment.  Thank you Lord for this help Cee is FINALLY getting!

So far I have not heard anything from the ophthalmoligist's office about any problems with my test results from yesterday's marathon.  I THINK if I have not heard anything by the end of the work week I will be able to relax, exhale and assume I won't need to see him until my next scheduled 6 month appointment.  Lord willing....

My husband and I had a chat this evening about the fact that our summer is slipping away from us with nary a plan for so much as a day trip planned, not so much as a one day out trip for canoeing for my husband, not even one night of camping out for him, BUT as it turns out we are both A-OK with that!  We are worn out from having three summers in a row dealing with deaths in the family and subsequent legalities, plus we need some down time before the next and final round of legalities begins.  In the next ten months we are facing those and the subsequent trips out of province they will require, we will be car shopping, possibly going to NYC to see our son if the legalities get sorted out in time, planning our move for next spring, etc. etc. etc. etc. etc.  There is still a lot of stressful "stuff" to deal with by the time summer ends. So perhaps a Do Nothing summer is exactly what we need this year.  It is almost miraculous that we are both okay with that.

Coffee with a friend tomorrow, not sure if the weekly prayer meeting will happen this week due to an unexpected health issue for our host.  Upcoming is another walk around the lake with a friend, a farewell party for local family members, a game night and dinner out after church with friends. Busy, busy!  It is WONDERFUL!

I had my injection for osteoporosis today.  It was nice to see my GP for the first time in several months and to hear about the Alaskan cruise she and her husband are going on later this summer.  I hope they have spectactular weather!!  I also hope they don't fall in love with the far north and decide they should move there to run a clinic!  Our provincial health care system is so messed up that doctors are leaving in droves it seems to practise elsewhere, mostly in the USA from what I am hearing.  

It is a good beginning to the week.  Lots of plans, but not so many plans as to cause dread from over booking. As far as I know the medical appointments are over until nearly the end of August, so we have the rest of the summer to enjoy however we want, even if that means doing nothing much at all. 

The Son Travels!

An email arrived in the middle of the night from our son. He is safely in Berlin after an overnight flight and happily relaxing in a beautiful Airbnb waiting for his girlfriend to arrive after a final performance of her theatre company’s play at the Performing Arts Festival in Avignon France. They will have a week of holidays before returning to the U.S. I am so happy they get to have this break away from their extremely busy working lives. Did I ever have the energy they have when I was in their age group? I think not. To fill time early this morning until his rental room was ready, our son sat happily in an outdoor cafe watching the passers by on their way to work and school, while listening to some church bells pealing a long and lovely set of classical pieces. He is back in Berlin, his happy place. I am happy for him.

It is 6:45am and I will soon be eating breakfast and heading out for the first of three sessions of eye testing. It is frustrating having to drive downtown trying to find parking for the first and third appointments because they are only glaucoma tests that take about five minutes! The middle appointment for peripheral vision takes about 30-40 minutes and is more worth the stress of locating parking. I will actually walk to the third one today, as my husband needs the car this afternoon. That will be relaxing. 

Well, time to get ready to go!! The glaucoma tests always make me nervous as I have a family history of it. The forest fire smoke has started up the severe dry eye again so I have to stage my medicated eye drop applications today in order to keep my eyes from being too blurry to do the periphery test properly. 

I confess I will be glad when this topsy turvey day is over!

So Proud Of The "Kids"!

 From a friend's recent wedding in Massacheusetts:

 

Friday Night Pizza and Games

 What a happy Friday night we are having.  A  younger family from the church invited us over for pizza and to learn anew board game with them.  We had a blast!  

The pizzas were from Red Swan....delicious!  AND a reasonable deal. We ordered three medium pizzas, and the food cost plus tax and tip came to well under sixty dollars and fed all 5 of us.  I love the way all the vegetable ingredients are diced up...the onions and peppers were not in huge chunks so  those flavours did not take over from everything else in the pizza toppings.  With such tiny pieces of vegetable all the flavours melded well.  We thoroughly enjoyed it. 

 The game is a "hidden movement" game, where one player's character remains invisible for the entire game, but controls the actions of the other players' characters.  To learn the game the 5 of us played tow training games against the phone app our friends downloaded, making it the invisible player.   We lost the first game badly, but won the second game.  The moves we used were only the basic moves in the game. Next time we will be adding all manner of special move cards for our characters, new characters, new circumstances and situations to chase down the hidden character we are after, who will be played by one of us instead of using the app.....it is like CLUE on mega steroids!!!!  If you enjoy "cat and mouse" with added twists kinds of games, including an invisible character to add to the fun, give MIND MGMT: The Psychic Espionage Game a try.  We are looking forward to trying it again in a few weeks' time, but getting past the "training" games and onto a deeper level of play.  

It has been a good couple of days.  Ironing done, prayer meeting attendance accomplished, some resting, some reading, some computer games,some walking outside, some visiting with friends, great weather every day....yup, it has been quite a fulfilling and happy week. Last night we enjoyed the whackiest, wierdest football game ever, between the Roughriders and the Lions....just so strange!

At this point we have no plans at all for tomorrow. Who knows what cool events might take place, right?  Time for some spontaneity!

More Answers Today! YAY!

Today was a good day for Cee and I continue to pray that things keep moving along for him like they have been this week!  He was sent by the oncologist to a pain specialist MD in Cee's own city and the appointment was already today!  The MD is going to try him on some new meds, working up slowly to what will likely be the required dosage to keep the intense pain under control.  That is such great news....there ARE other meds to try after all. Hallelujah!  Let's pray that Cee's body will tolerate them as he has had some previous issues with reactions to other meds.  The most wonderful thing is that today Cee's hope was restored and that in itself is a near miracle after all he has been through.

My husband's longest time friend, who has waited for over year for a new kind of laser surgery for a cancer he has been struggling with, had the surgery today.  It is hoped that he will have the same kind of success as others who have had this laser surgery and by avoiding the usual invasive procedures have also avoided having to endure reconstructive surgery.  Although it has been a long wait, our friend is very happy he opted for the laser and now we pray that as he heals there will be no more cancer for him to have to deal with.  The answer to prayer here includes more than having the surgery after such a long wait. It also includes the fact that he called my husband for prayer. Our friend set his faith in God aside a long time ago, but seems to very slowly be making his way back.  May God be merciful to him with this surgery and recovery.

So, so grateful for these prayer answers. Sometimes it seems that God isn't going to intervene in any kind of obvious way, but then when he starts showing us what he is up to, it is sometimes pretty spectacular.

Resetting The Monthly Budget

 Every July I wait with bated breath to see what the quarterly Harmonized Sales Tax Rebate is going to be for the next 4 quarters of the next 12 months.  Last July we received quite a drubbing with a huge drop in amount, only to have it changed again for the next quarter because our tax files had been reviewed.  Those next three payments were very much more helpful to our grocery budget.  Today I discovered that our quarterly HST payments for this next 12 months has dropped by one hundred and fifty dollars per quarter.  Losing fifty dollars a month is somewhat substantial, but who knows whether or not our file will once again be reviewed prior to October's payment and we will receive more for the final 3 payments.....or less.....one never knows.  Don't get me wrong, please, I am grateful for any size of rebate that will assist our income in the coming months.  I wasn't sure either if we would qualify for any amount at all of today's federal rebate to qualifying Canadians due to proven price gouging by some of our grocery chains.  Apparently one of us did, likely me, as we received a rebate of approximately half of what I had read would be the minimum qualification for a married couple.  Again, don't get me wrong. It almost makes up for the money lost on the HST rebate...within a few dollars, so that is nice.  All together we haven't lost much of our monthly expected total.  If we don't get a review on our last year's income taxes October's HST rebate will be very disappointing.  Again, don't get me wrong. I am VERY GRATEFUL for ANY sort of assistance. I just hope that the grocery rebate we received today is being paid out of fines paid by the offending grocery chains and not out of Canadian tax payer's own pockets!  You just never know.....  Our GIS also dropped considerably as of the most recent pension payments, BUT the pension from my husband's former workplace went up and all together the monthly income went up ever so slightly. Go figure....hahahaha  We may not be getting any farther ahead overall with our pension amounts, but we are hanging in there year to year to year.  I am very, very, very grateful for that.  So, there will have to be some reworking of the annual budget based on the loss from the quarterly HST payments, but we could be in  far worse shape with these unknown amounts that change our annual income every July 1.  Interesting, always interesting....and we are SO BLESSED to live in this country that has OAS and CPP.  Yes, we pay for it during our working years, but what a joy to reach an age where we can get some of it back when we retire. So many countries have absolutely nothing like this, nothing at all. Thank you God for Canada, with all its issues and problems, but with so many benefits still.  Long may they last, Lord, long may they last.

Very grateful that my husband and I are having a productive day today.  Yesterday was a bit of a washout, apart from having a wonderful lunch out with friends from church.  We had a lot of fun together talking about our various camping trips, their joys and disasters over the years, while we muched down on salads and sandwiches and soup.  We have never been fans of Montanas, but the 3 item lunch special was very good, quite delicious, just enough food and very reasonably priced at $11.99 per plate.  What a nice surprise!

Today was also productive. My husband felt well enough this morning to go to Morning Prayer with some friends and then met another friend in a lovely park for tea and snacks. My husband made the tea and used his brand new Thermos that he purchased yesterday and his friend brought them each a slice of blueberry pie.  They had a wonderful time chattering away.  This fellow is a new friend of my husband's and they have a lot in common.  The other fellow is not a religious person of any persuation, so it is nice for my husband to have someone outside the faith to talk to sometimes who is becoming such a good friend.  I spent the morning baking and then tied into the laundry. That is all finished but the ironing, which I will do tomorrow or the next day.  All those trips up and down the stairs are good for my overall health!

We have errands to run in the morning tomorrow and then I will likely attend the ladies's prayer group in the afternoon.  I am so grateful the forest fire smoke was somewhat less overnight the last night to give my poor eyes and throat a break.  Yesterday  morning when I awoke my eyes were nearly glued shut and I was convinced I was getting conjunctivitis!  So glad I was wrong about that!  This afternoon the smoke smell is starting to permeate our suite again, so I guess it will be another bad night of sore throat and dripping eyes. Blecch!  Will the fires ever be put out here in the western provinces??  More dry air, no rain coming....it is a bad situation.  Dear God, send rain and more help for the firefighters, thank you, Amen.

Prayer, Praise and Planning!

Well, there have been a few positive answers to prayer arriving today and so I want to share them with all the faithful prayer warriors and others who are interested in the convoluted paths that Christian faith sometimes take.

So many prayers have been going up for Cee for the past few years and today, after another day or so of excruciating neuropathic pain, something very good has happened at last!!!  The oncologist he talked to today finally received the information regarding one treatment that has the capacity to halt neuropathy from getting any worse and is totally interested in helping Cee to get this treatment.  It is complicated and it involves a blood plasma exchange and a special medical team (that the doctor has already spoken to) who are able to do this.  It is about a 6 week session of treatments and has been very effective with the Canadian patients who have been able to receive it.  In a couple of days the oncologist hopes to have the information as to when this could begin.  Praise God for this amazing possibility that has FINALLY opened up to Cee for some possible help very soon.  Now we pray that not only can he have it soon, but that the Lord will grant a reprieve to Cee and help this treatment to be effecive. The oncololgist was also sympathetic and very upset about the amount of pain Cee is in with these pain episodes that last anywhere from a couple of hours to a couple of days without ceasing and that even the strongest meds he has been taking are no longer helping. So, the oncologist is in touch with the pain clinic here and is getting some other meds set up for him.  Oh, how grateful I am for these starter answers to the many prayers for Cee over the past few years.

Another friend who has been suffering greatly with a respiratory problem, who was several weeks ago put on "emergency" status to see two specialists, but has not had appointments yet and whose condition is getting worse, had to see her surgeon today to cancel another surgery she has been waiting a year and a half to have.  Not being able to breathe properly and not knowing why, means she cannot have the anaesthetic for the surgery.  The surgeon was appalled that the one specialist was making her wait until December to see her....she of "emergency" status....and that she hadn't even heard yet from the other specialist. So, the surgeon got on the phone and suddenly she is seeing the one specialist THIS Friday and has a guarantee she will be seeing the other specialst long before December. She needs this diagnosis so her surgery can happen, as it is also an important one. He is very interested in assisting her and was very caring, so what a bonus! God has moved in a somewhat unusual way to get her some help. Cool, eh??  

So, there is some movement in the area of answered prayer, fellow prayer warriors, so let's not stop praying now.  I am very encouraged and I hope you are as well.

My husband has been doing some online research tonight and slowly another idea of how to see our son this autumn is taking shape.  It is now POSSIBLE that we will make a real trip out of this visit and drive to New York City.  There is even a safe place to park our car there for the duration of our stay and it is less than a 2km walk from there to our son's apartment.  Due to some business in Alberta that, unfortunately, may coincide with the dates we planned to visit our son, the whole trip may not be able to happen, but if it can, we have an exciting alternative now to fighting with airlines and baggage handlers etc. etc. etc.  Friends just returned from Moncton with more nightmare airport and baggage stories, so we are even more turned off the idea of flying east.  Time will tell how, or if at all, we make it to our son's place, but for now it is really FUN to plan for various possibilities.  Surely we could make one more exciting road trip before we are forced by old age and deteriorating health to give it all up, surely, surely......

Somewhat Inevitable I Suppose.....

 Sometime last evening or overnight our best plant watering jug disappeared from our back deck, never to be seen again I am assuming.  I am sorry that someone was so desperate either for a drink of water or a plastic jug or just to be nasty that they felt they had to take it, but my husband and I are beyond grateful that in the going into 9 years we have lived here, this is the only thing thus far that has been stolen from us, as this is kind of an "iffy" neighbourhood.  I expect it was taken during the huge surge of foot traffic happening in and around our place last evening as hundreds of people came through our complex seeking a good place to sit or stand to watch the Canada Day fireworks.  Feeling extremely thankful that in all these years all we have lost is a plastic watering jug.  Thank you Lord!!!

An answer to prayer, however temporary it may turn out to be, is that Cee had consistently reduced pain all day yesterday and was able to sleep THE ENTIRE NIGHT THROUGH last night!!!  He had another nap this morning until just after lunch time as well.  Praise the Lord for some answers to the prayers from you faithful prayer warriors who care about him so much, even though you have never met him.  The night of pain free sleep is the first in at least a week.

I too slept through the night last night and am absolutely thrilled about that.  The good sleep gave me the energy to go and pick up a few groceries this morning, as well as make a couple of meals to take to a disabled friend.  When I delivered them we visited for two hours and that was a precious time.

My husband slept until 11am today.  I didn't wake up until after 9:30am, so of course we missed 10am in person church, but I did manage to get my Zoom programme up and running just in time to see the service online.  My husband is going to listen to the sermon from the Gospel of Matthew on YouTube tomorrow afternoon. It was a really good one the wheat and the tares growing up together in the church and how it is up to God to do the judging and any required uprooting of the tares. It isn't up to us who consider ourselves to be wheat to root out all the false teachers and immoral folk, or to deny the right of anyone else to be exposed to spiritual truth and to God's transforming power in their lives. (Besides, what if it is US who are wrong about who is who, right?)  That is a simplistic description of what the sermon was about, but that was the general idea.  It gave me some things to think about fer shur!!  My husband is preaching one Sunday next month on Matthew's parable of the Ten Virgins, so he began today already checking out the cultural context of that parable, remembering some weddings he attended in India that included the carrying of oil lamps, plus checking out other academic and theological sources. He is really into this sermon and I am so pleased he is starting so early to get it properly prepared.  Now that he has cancelled out on other weekly commitments he is really enjoying having the extra time to research and write not only this sermon, but some other topics of interest.  He felt much better today, still kind of weak, but the main symptoms of 'flu' are definintely subsiding.  YAY!

The fireworks were fun to watch last night.  What they may have lacked in artistic display they more than made up for in sheer numbers!  WOW!  I love fireworks, so I was thrilled that it took about twenty minutes, maybe more, for all of them to be set off...incredible.

I am grateful that the daytime high temperatures this week are mostly well under +30C.  Hallelujah!!

A Lovely Saturday Evening At Home!

 After a very slow day for both of us, my husband roused himself sufficiently this evening to watch the Montreal/Winnipeg football game with me!  I love the way he watches televised football: fast forwarding through all the blithery commentary, not watching the replays very often, concentrating our viewing on the game plays as they happen and then moving on. Perfect for me!  

Then to top off our evening of entertaimnent, we stood upstairs at 10pm looking out over the trees of Wascana Park to see the Canada Day fireworks.  What a lovely end to the day.  Regina outdid itself this year for the number of fireworks and the beauty of the display.  Oh how we enjoyed it.  

My husband toddled off back to bed immediately afterward while I washed a few dishes and waited for the crowds of people and cars to leave our front street after viewing the fireworks. The other tenants in our court stopped partying and went back into their suites quite quickly. By 11:15pm it was all quiet outside as usual once again.  Our neighbours right now are really a great group of folk, very considerate of the others in the court, being careful not to make noise very often after about 10:30pm and not honking horns on their vehicles early in the mornings, not sitting outside in their cars with their in car stereos blasting.  This past year is the best we have ever experienced here in terms of neighbour noise...how blessed are we, right?

So, I am hopeful my husband will be feeling even better by tomorrow. The headache and muscle aches and pains are mostly gone now and he ate properly today, so that is a good sign. It seems I have been spared this 'flu' and I am most grateful for that! 

We are not setting the alarm for church tomorrow morning. If we awaken in time we will go of course, but if not we can catch the service on YouTube or Facebook in the afternoon.

I've been awake now for nearly 22 hours, so I hope I will fall asleep in about five minutes time when my head hits the pillow once again.

More Friends In Need, Etc.!

I got word a few minutes ago that this afternoon there was a significant tornado just south of where we used to live in Alberta.  It touched down in a rural area and completely destroyed the home of parents of former music students of mine.  She had to be pulled out of the wreckage by fire crews, so she is injured but thus far it appears she will survive.    Tornados were always a possibility when we lived in that area more than twenty years ago, but other than the occasional "dust devil" in the farmers' fields there weren't a lot of problems with true funnel clouds touching down.  I can think of only one seriously damaging tornado that ever touched down anywhere near our area in all of the twenty-three years we lived in that part of Alberta.  Over the years since we moved away there have been a few larger sized funnel clouds spotted between our former town and the foothills to the west, but those rarely touched down long enough to cause more than a couple of farm sheds or small grain silos to be blown down. Today's tornado was apparently between one and two kilometres wide.  It took out the house I mentioned, took the entire roof off another fellow's brand new house and I don't know what all else.  By tomorrow, after the Calgary tv film crews have had a chance to drive up there and photograph the damage, I hope to see and hear more of what happened.  How terrifying!!  I am living in yet another area where tornadoes can happen, but only rarely have.  Is this the year????  Yikes. 

I had the most wonderful deep sleep last night. It lasted from midnight until 2am.  Then I woke up with a start and that was the end of any sleep.  I am still awake.  I tried to have a nap this afternoon, but sleep wouldn't come to me, so I hope I will fall asleep for a good long time tonight.  I am not going to set the alarm for church.  If I wake up in time I will go, but if not I won't.  My husband is feeling at least somewhat better today, but whatever illness he was fighting yesterday surely knocked the energy out of him.    Neither of us accomplished anything today other than making meals and cleaning up afterward.  It was rather warm outside today as well so that did nothing to motivate either of us to action. If it is overly warm outside then it is overly warm inside our suite as well. Thankfully tomorrow is supposed to be a few degrees cooler. Long may that last!!!

My week next week has filled up with one fun activity per day and I think that is all I am going to take on.  Monday I am going for a tour with my walking partner, Tuesday my husband and I are meeting a couple from church for lunch, Wednesday I am going for a short walk followed by a coffee visit with a new friend, Thursday is prayer meeting and Friday my husband and I will at last get to go to our friends' home for the night of games and pizza we were supposed to be at last night, until my husband became too ill to go.  So grateful these particular friends agreed to a rain check because I think it will be fun to learn a new game with them.  My husband is only involved in two of those named activities, so he will have lots of time to write, read, listen to music, work on some of his basement "stuff sorting" projects or do nothing at all.  He is taking the doctor's admonition to stop making plans in advance this summer very much to heart.  It will certainly help him get control of this latest PTSD episode.

The myriad events set up at the church this summer have both of us feeling trapped, caged, like the walls are closing in on us.  The stress of having all these activities to sign up for is upsetting both of us.  The leaders of the church are certainly not pressuring us to become involved in anything. Only a few people have expressed wonderment at our lack of involvement in any of the summer programmes, yet we feel cornered.  My husband's PTSD is certainly a part of our feelings of wanting to run screaming in the other direction every time a new activity is announced, but there is another aspect to it as well.  Over the past three years, as we have lost nearly every last member of extended family  members of our parents' and our own generations, we haven't really taken time off from the daily same old same old routines and activities to get away from here and fully grieve in private. We have just continued to soldier on. Even our last "holiday" in Alberta came about because we had legal business to attend to for Mom's estate.  It also didn't turn out to be at all the quiet, "just the two of us" time we had expected after having several days of good visits with friends.  Things came up here at home that effectively cancelled that latter part of our trip and home we came. Sigh.....Perhaps if more of the church activities were not things that have to be signed up for in advance we wouldn't feel so stressed about having to make plans ahead of time, not knowing how we are going to feel on the day they actually occur.  Right now weekly regimentation is the last thing we need.  We have not for many years been the sort of people who plan their entire lives around church activities and I think there has been an expectation on the part of some that now that my husband is retired we will be involved in all kinds of weekly church activities. No.....not so much.  There are four different things going on next week alone that we have refused to commit to.  We need unscheduled time, particularly my husband, away from group expectations, so we can do more spontaneous things like meet friends for lunches and walks and game nights, things that can be cancelled out on by and and all parties if the need arises without making things difficult for a larger group.  My husband began to relax and feel happier as soon as he dropped out of the ongoing weekly committments he already had, so taking on more weekly church activities was an appalling thought for him.  We are going to slip away unannounced a couple of times this summer and just do our own thing, take some time away to share our grief from all the losses and get our emotions back on track.

Our "daughter-in-law" arrived in France yesterday and today began preparing with the rest of her theatre group for their opening night performance at the Avignon Performing Arts Festival.  They will perform four times next week. Fortunately there isn't much going on near their hotel in the way of riots and looming police presence. We pray that continues for the entire run of the Festival.  So much political upheaval and rioting after a French policeman shot a teenaged boy the other day in what appears to have been a deliberate homicide. Sigh.....Our son leaves for Europe toward the end of the play's run and will meet his dear love in Berlin for a good long holiday before they return to the USA.  He is going to Long Island with his boss's family and other co-workers to celebrate the Fourth of July, so is really looking forward to that as well.....a pre-holiday trip.

We did absolutely nothing to celebrate Canada Day today.  I was too tired, my husband still hasn't recovered from his bout of 'flu' and it was too hot for us to be out and about in the park, battling mosquitoes and too much sun.  Apparently there will be fireworks tonight, but we can see most of them from our front windows, so that will be very enjoyable.  Although we have been total deadbeats on a day when we should have been participating in the local celebrations, we can sincerely and happily say to you:

HAPPY CANADA DAY!!!! Hope it was a wonderful day for you!

testing, testing, 1, 2, 3......

Apparently there has been an unusual upsurge in activity on this site in the past 24 hours.  Due to that activity, as I was writing my post this morning, it was not being saved and when I posted it the thing completely disappeared. So, I am trying again to post something.  I looked at the stats and there were over 6,000 views from one place in the world yesterday, so yeah, something has been going on.

Well, here goes!