This I Know To Be True!

From personal past experience I know the truth behind this saying:  “No amount of budgeting or not eating out is going to change the fact that we don’t make enough money.”

Next time you are tempted to stand in judgement of people you know are struggling financially when you come across them eating a restaurant meal that you think they have no right to “waste their money on”,  remember it is a chance for them to approach normalcy for one hour of their stressful lives and just mind your own business!!!!!!! 

Update For Cee

Cee is in a limbo time as he withdraws from one pain medication to amp up a different one that should soon give him the needed neuropathic pain relief, but in the meantime is suffering intense bouts of pain that causes him to lose a lot of sleep. I have rarely heard of such violent spasms of stabbing pain. As you remember him in prayer please ask God to relieve him of this burden very soon. Thank you so much.

Free At Last....Well, For A Couple Of Hours, Anyway....

 I have been stuck indoors, because of forest fire smoke, since Sunday afternoon; windows tightly shut to keep out the smoke and blankets secured over top of the blinds and curtains to keep out the heat that arrived again yesterday.  I am grateful to have been able to clean the suite and do the laundry despite the sweltering temperatures in this place!

Tonight the smoke is slightly less dense outside so I am risking my lungs and sinuses by opening a couple of windows and putting on the floor fan to get some cooler air blowing through here.  I can't believe I haven't passed out from the stagnant, hot air in this suite the past two days.  Hallelujah!  BUT I have to have "fresh" air for at least a couple of hours now to keep  me from going crazy.

I will pack my nose with Vick's VapoRub to delay the smoke reactions and hope I can get a few hours of sleep before the smokey odor awakens me and I have to shut the windows again.

Tomorrow morning I have some errands to run and a coffee visit to enjoy, smokey or not outside.  Sometimes a person can't remain cloistered at home regardless of air quality impinging on personal safety.  Sometimes the risk simply has to be taken!

Way Too Much 'ZZA!!!!

I am sitting here in front of my computer feeling like Porky Pig and it isn't a good feeling!!!!  Ooooh, way to much pizza for dinner.....ooooo, aaaahhhh, too full, too full, too full!

I am pleased to report that although I didn't get my two days alone to do the cleaning, my husband mercifully and considerately stayed out of my way all day, made me a cheesy omelet for lunch and ordered 3 pizzas for dinner tonight so I wouldn't have to cook.  Cleaning in this sweltering apartment, with all the windows shut since 10pm LAST night due to forest fire smoke, was not the most pleasant chore, but praise God it is DONE!  It means tomorrow I will be able to do the laundry! Then I will be more or less caught up on all the work I have let go around here lately. Even worse than the heat in here is the feeling of having an acre of heavy soil residing in my tummy after eating so much pizza, the "forbidden fruit" of diabetics.  Technically I can eat two little slices for my full dinner carb count but I am NOT going to confess how many slices I consumed this evening. There are some incidents too dire for even big mouth me to elaborate on! Urp!! Burp!!

So it was a productive day despite all the clumsiness. The final straw for me was pinching my finger when I rolled the table leaves back into place after dusting them. Now I have a big blood blister on my finger just waiting to break and create an ugly mess all over something....likely myself! hohoho!

Why Is It Sometimes This And Sometimes That??

Today I finally got my long overdue housework underway.  As I was starting on the upstairs dusting a friend from out of town called and it was nice to have the distraction while I waved the duster here and there and everywhere.

Sometimes I do well with my housework. I remain calm no matter how dirty things are, no matter how long things take to clean, no matter if my husband is lurking around sorta kinda in my way on occasion. Those are the good cleaning days.

Sometimes I don't do so well....like today for example.  I am aching all over, I am crabby to the point where I gave my blood sugar an extra check just to make sure that wasn't causing my problems, I am clumsy: tripping over cords and dropping lamps and falling over chairs that suddenly appear behind me when I was certain I had just moved them out of my own way.  Sigh.....

So, I decided to take a short break.  I washed the bathroom floor before washing the fixtures, to give me an excuse to relax for a few minutes before I finish up in there.

The disappointment of discovering I am not going to have my two days alone this week for cleaning, my husband's comme si comme ca attitude about his own constantly fluxuating plans for today and my growing attitude of resentment toward life in general is making for a frustrating day around here.  Nutsy cuckoo is how I am feeling today.

I suspect the removal of the stress of one set of Executor duties is helping me to feel like a punctured balloon after it being the focus of my life for nearly a year and a half, but still having the other outstanding estate business that involves my husband keeps us under another kind of ongoing stress.  I am feeling trapped in Regina due to the unavailabilty of medical care in other provinces....even in other cities within this province...., I am uncertain of what is going to happen in regard to our accommodation in the new year, with those possibilities seeming both endless and hopeless both at the same time.  My son seems too far away suddenly, after not having an issue with it for the past twenty years.  I am recalling instances of perceived injustice in our lives not only from recent weeks but from years ago; situations that I came to terms with a long time ago and haven't thought of since.  Aaaaargh! What is wrong with me??

Well, my husband and I just had a talk and I think he nailed my problem to the wall:  we are approaching the threshold of big changes in our lives once again.  However, we have not yet quite reached the threshold and cannot see anything to indicate what is on the other side of it, where our future lies.  This is the liminal time, the waiting time, the "sitting in the dark and wondering what on earth is going to happen next" time.  As he reminded me, this has been my response to all upcoming life changes that have remained shrouded in mystery until the last possible second, when suddenly it is time to cross the threshold and take hold of the next phase of life.  The liminal time is a time of turmoil for me: where will we end up living?  Will it be here in the city or another place altogether? Will we still be attending our present church or going elsewhere?  Will we be able to keep our comfortable friendships here or will we be called upon to start again in a new home of some kind, a new city, a new church, a new province?  Limbo: my most hated of life's phases! No wonder I feel crabby lately.

So, the direction for the moment is to remain patient and wait in expectation once again.  Be the changes great or small, there is always a waiting time until we get to them.  So, I will pray and hang on for dear life, remembering the wonderful answers we have had in the past at the end of these liminal times and rejoicing that God has all things in his loving hands regardless of how it seems sometimes.  I am determined to make it to the threshold and cross it in peace and joy!!

Buzzing From Constant Noise!

My ears feel like they have been under attack for the past ten hours or so....wow, my head is buzzing from the many hours of "too much noise"!!!

It started at lunch time.  We took some friends out to one of our favourite little pubs for lunch.  The background music was fairly subdued, but the surrounding customers were all rock band people participating at this weekend's Shake the Lake concerts, they all knew each other and went from table to table all around us, laughing and shouting and carrying on. Glad they were having a great time, but it made visiting for the four of us somewhat difficult to achieve.  After an hour or so back at home it was time to attend a birthday party for a friend. Her party was held in a venue that used to be a bakery many years ago and while it was a great size for the 60 or so guests, the accoustics were terrible!  Brick walls with metal doors and ceiling do not make for the best sound absorption.  During the opening cocktail hour, as people were arriving and finding friends and tables to sit at, the noise level became louder and more intense. My ears were already ringing when the dinner finally began and only had a temporary break while people were tucking into the first few bites of their food. Then the level of conversation began to rise again.  After three hours of straining to hear the people around our own table, we gave up and all of us at that table left for home.  It was a great party, great food, great people, but for people with hearing problems, of which 3 of the 6 of us at our table were fighting with, it was most frustrating.  My ears were still ringing when I got home and it took awhile for it to stop.

Now it is nearly 11pm and the Shake the Lake bands are pounding away at the concert venue only a few blocks from our place.  A warm evening means the bedroom windows have to be open to keep us from sweltering, so we can hear every pounding, pulsing drum beat, every guitar lick and every lyric as well as if we were actually in attendance.  Our parking lot would be a great audience overflow for people who want to hear the music without having to purchase a ticket. Fortuantely it is only two nights per year that this concert takes place, but while it is on, the noise is horrendous.

So, I have to go to church in the morning, as it happens, but I know I will be very tired and wishing I could have stayed home. Constant hammering noise gets me over amp'd and I have trouble settling down to sleep....even without the rock music it would be a struggle tonight. Ah well, there are far worse problems to have to deal with.  A couple of sleepless nights and s bit of minor tinnitus are not that big a deal.

Well, it has been a very active weekend thus far and it isn't over yet! Church in the morning, some jelly making supplies shopping for my husband after that and the final church patio party of the summer after that!  Then comes my time of forcing myself to stay home for a few days to get some work done around our own home!!!

So Clean ‘n’ Shiny ‘n’ Sparkly!!!

 What a great morning! Our dental cleanings and annual checkups are completed and we feel great!!! Having 80% of our over $800 bill covered by insurance certainly contributes to our elation! hahaha

My husband is eating a second breakfast right now, then he is heading out to finally finish the tree pruning project that has been on hold for so many days due to rain. Even now there are dark clouds hovering overhead and it is chilly outside. Hopefully there won’t be any rain, or at least too little to send him home again before he is done. From my mouth to God’s ears. 

Tomorrow is another busy day with a picnic at a nearby lake with friends at noon and a birthday party for another friend in the evening. Sunday evening is the last of the church summer patio parties.

This week began with only a few commitments, but by Monday evening had exploded with plans. So, my husband may be taking friends fishing early next week and I am going to refuse any commitments for that time so I can clean house, do laundry, shop for groceries and try to get caught up. Realizing last night that I was actually looking forward to relaxing in a DENTIST'S chair to get away from home and social commitments really got my attention. I obviously need some time at home! Who considers a trip to the dentist to be stress relief??? Yikes! I need to slow down! 

Looking forward to the weekend fun followed by a few days to do my own thing.

Weather Cold And Hot, Indian Food, Lessons In Skin Colour and Cultural Prejudices, Home Care...An Interesting 24 Hours!

My head is still spinning this afternoon after a last evening's lessons from other cultures, today's weather "extremes", different sorts of Indian foods and on and on....what an incredible 24 hours this has been....including a REALLY GOOD sleep last night. Hallelujah!

Last evening we met up with a friend and colleague of my husband's for a delicious meal at a restaurant we have not been to a lot, but have enjoyed recently several times. (marvellous jazeera rice and dal makini) It shall remain nameless for this post because I don't want to identify anyone there after last night's very interesting experience.  

The friend that we met up with is a black Trinidadian woman, a most wonderful person who we have known since before my husband became an Anglican priest.  The three of us had not seen each other for awhile, so there was a lot of catching up to do, lots of laughter to enjoy together over our delicious meal.  Afterward I went to the front of the restaurant to pay the bill at the til and after asking me if we had enjoyed our meal, the server hemmed and hawed and finally said, "The three of you.....you are friends?"  I answered that we were indeed and had been for many years.  His response was, "Oooh, ahhhh....oh!" and he was most surprised.  We discovered that as a dark skinned South Indian whose ancestors were likely driven south by either the Aryans or the Mongols many centuries ago, he is very alert to the kind of skin colour prejudices inflicted upon his people ever since those olden days. Very few Caucasians eat at this restaurant, we also discovered, and a black person has never been inside their doors to the best of his knowledge.  It ended up being a fascinating conversation. We left with him still in awe of the mixed race friendship we share with our friend.

When we arrived home from dinner we realized that several of our neighbours who we had been waiting to give apples to, (since the customers my husband is trimming trees for sent a huge box home with him last week), were finally at home at the same time as us. So he quickly boxed and bagged a LOT of apples for them.  It was a most wonderful opportunity to connect with a new family of indigenous neighbours in our building who moved in a few months ago but have been quite skittish about actually talking to us....for understandable reasons.  I wish you all could have seen the smiles on their faces when we presented them with quite a good sized load of apples. The kids started munching on them right away, hahahaha.  It opened the door for a brief conversation and earned us this morning a huge smile from the woman of the house who has never even looked us in the eye before.  Thanking God for the people who gave us the apples and for the Lord's provision of a time to meet these new neighbours at last.  About that time our better known indigenous neighbours also arrived home and received their share of the bounty.  It turns out these two sets of indigenous neighbours are from different reserves who have historically not gotten along well together and they have all been pussyfooting around each other for the past few months.  They finally got chatting over their boxes of apples, so my husband and I drifted away and left them to it.  Finally....a chance to reach out in even this small way to some new and old neighbours.  Thank you Lord. We pray for other chances to connect even a little bit in the coming months.

It has been cold and misty with rain for the past couple of days, but this morning it was absolutely freezing outside and the rain was teeming down.  Brrrrrr.....  I actually put on a dressy hoodie I purchased on our recent trip to Alberta....a fall and winter hoodie, but it was so cold this morning I needed the warmth.  My coffee buddy and I ended up at Smitty's for a light "second breakfast" with hot cocoa and it was fun, but the air conditioning seemed to be on and we were seated right beside the cold windows while the breezes blew the rain against the side of the building we were sitting on. Brrrrrr again.... Our visit didn't last quite as long as originally planned!

I came home to a message from a senior friend who was desperate for a visitor this afternoon, so as soon as I finished some Indian food leftovers for lunch, I  headed to the grocery store and picked up some prepared food for her and her husband to have for dinner tonight.  Being disabled to the point of not being able to cook much is quite new to this dear couple and they are rather bamboozled to find themselves in this situation.  It turns out to be their wedding anniversary and she is not feeling well enough today to do a lot of celebrating, so I am really happy I took them a meal today of all days.  Hopefully she is feeling better after a nap later this afternoon and can go out with her husband and family to celebrate this special day. The food I took them can wait in the refrigerator for a few days.

By the time I had been at her place for a half hour the weather outside had warmed up to the point where I could finally strip the hoodie off...whew!  I tossed it inside the car to come home as the sun was finally shining hotly.  Wow, what a change in a matter of minutes this afternoon. Although it is still August, today was more typical of a late summer day just as the autumn is setting in.  (And I noticed yesterday that many of the hares that live around our place have already got snow white tails and traces of white fur on their toes and tips of their ears....NOOOOOOO!!!!)

So, it is time to go and read a book or watch some tv or some other mindless task. My husband and I both ate our lunch kind of late today, working meals around our various activities, so he is off for a late afternoon walk to the library to return some books and get some exercise.  I planned to walk to my friend's place this afternoon but the puddles from the morning rain were still so deep and extended so far out across the intersections that I wouldn't have made it there without soaking my shoes right through with water.  By the time I left her place to return home, two hours later, all the water had dried up!!!  Heat and wind....the best driers up of water ever!!

Lunch out at the home of friends tomorrow then my husband will drop me at prayer meeting while he races off across the city to attempt to complete a tree trimming job that the three days of rain and cold stopped him from finishing before now. Another happily busy day, all being well.

 

 

 

 

Another Answer To Prayers!

Some time ago I asked those of you who pray for the requests here to pray for Bree. She was enduring an arduous process with a medical review board to receive her medical license so she could accept a locum position and be able to qualify for a full time position post locum at the same hospital. I just received word that she got the license today and starts the locum tomorrow. Hallelujah and her family thanks you all for remembering her. Bless you all.

Final Fun 'N' Games? Can We PLEASE Be Done NOW????

I had a great sleep last night, fully convinced that my duties as Executor had ended during the day and I was free and clear at last.  HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!!!  When is anything ever that easy, right?  HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!!!

I was awakened just after 5:30am by a text message arriving on my cell phone.  I assumed it was some kind of scam at that hour of the morning, so I ignored it and went back to sleep for a couple of hours.  I got up and ate a leisurely, relaxed breakfast at 8am and put on the tv to await my husband's awakening for the day.  At 8:30 am another text came in, so I checked my phone properly and o wow....quite a surprise awaited me. Sigh.....

The texts, which I determined to be legitimate said, (long story short) that there was a huge issue with my account at one of the banks I dealt with yesterday, the one from which most of the estate monies were disbursed.  Wha????  I was able to check out the details and sure enough, my careful work of yesterday was, unless I dealt with the problem by noon today, going to be cancelled and I would be facing a series of NSF bank charges and other fines.  My husband chose this exact moment to enter the room, took one look at my face and with great discernment based on past experiences asked me: "Ok, which bank screwed up our careful work of yesterday?"  

We threw on our clothes and arrived at the bank that had sent the text messages ten minutes before it opened, so we could be first in line for the tellers to try to find out what happened.  I am praising God that we got a wonderful teller who listened to our tale of woe and looked very carefully at the information we had been given by the bank who had steered us in the wrong direction in the first place.  Fortunately, Thank you God, I had, even in my initial panic thought through things enough to bring all the paper work regarding the previous location of the estate account, the Clearance Certificate, death certificate and will, two forms of personal ID and on and on,  SO this wonderful teller told me that she would take all the information to her supervisor and see if she could help us and save us, the other recipients and the other banks involved, a whole lot of trouble and expense.  All we could do is ask God to bless her for trying and to give us favour with the supervisor while we stood waiting for her to return.  

She was gone nearly twenty minutes while we stood there fidgeting and trying to convince ourselves we could have sufficient faith and trust in God to be able to accept things if they didn't go our way, but she came back with a smile on her face.  The supervisor had talked to the branch manager, the manager had contacted the bank of origin of the estate account and between everyone, it was decided that the problem could be immediately solved with no cost whatsoever to us or any of the other recipients or banks involved.  The teller put all the pertinent changes into the computer system, the supervisor checked to make sure it had gone through, we left the bank, I triple checked it again from home and bingo!  ALL IS WELL......FINALLY!!

By the time we returned home our original plans for this morning were pretty much ruined and we both felt like we had been sucker punched, so by after lunch we gave up on any plans to do anything around here for housework etc.  My husband decided he needed a nap, so he is currently snoring away in the midst of a deep sleep and I am trying to get my head together so I can at least attempt to get something of value done now for the rest of the afternoon.

Our day should end better than it began because we are meeting a good friend and colleague for an Indian food dinner this evening. Indian food is amazingly healing to the soul and mind we find.

Speaking of which, I am going to go now and look at their online menu and decide on the most wise choice of a meal for me.  If I can get through the next couple of days with no more repercussions over this ongoing estate fiasco, THEN I will have another celebration this weekend....perhaps something even more exciting than tomato soup! hahaha

Upon Reflection Of The Previous Post.....

 .....I am killing myself laughing over our tomato bisque lunch.  Talk about two old peoples' idea of a celebration: tomato soup! hahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahaha!!!!!!

The Final Deed Is Done!! YAY!

I am happy, content, exultant, delighted.....mom's estate account is closed with no issues, the money already deposited and distributed where and to who it is supposed to go.....with no issues....hallelujah, I am done being an executor for the estate!  What a relief.  Every thing is done, everyone is happy....thank you Lord for getting me through this incredibly stressful 18 months!  Thank you praying, caring friends!  Over! Done, Finished! The end!! Amen!

To celebrate, my husband took me to Famoso's for a very late lunch after the estate tasks were completed and we gorged on our favouite tomato bisque with toasted pita halves.  DELISH!!  My mom would have been happy with our mode of celebration, as eating out was her very favourite thing to do....always!  

I have just completed filing away final bank statements and all the required paperwork for the last seven years of income taxes for her and dad, preparing a pile of papers for shredding later this week, and returning my husband's lap top computer case to him that he lent me as a briefcase to carry around all the bank statements and death certificates, copies of the will and what have you necessary to present at every bank and legal appointment since Mom died.  The huge box of paperwork that has to be kept has been sealed and removed from under my desk to be tucked away in a less accessible and awkward storage spot.  

Ooooh, dat feel good!!!!

Cold Chills: Weather? Illness? Stress?

 I had a weird sleep last night.  Didn't fall asleep until 3am and woke up at 8:45am.  Today I have cold chills of suspicious origin.  Brrrrrr.......

There are a few possible reasons for these chills.

1.  The freezing cold winds I was exposed to on the weekend for over 2 hours during my trip to the Farmers' Market may have left me susceptible to a respiratory infection.  Coming down with a cold could certainly explain my inability to sleep overnight.  I generally experience a very sleepless night with severe wakefulness into the wee hours of the morning a day or two before a cold virus appears in all its glory of annoying symptoms.

2.  The weather itself was miserably cold last night overnight.  There were scant showers of raindrops off and on throughout the night and it was so cold that I had to put socks on my feet.  I could have just closed the bedroom window, but then my husband's marvellous sleep would have been interrupted, making for a miserable health day for him today.  He sleeps best when it is very, very cold in the bedroom.  Usually I do okay with that, but the fact that I didn't last night makes me wonder if it was just cold weather keeping me awake or if something else is going on.

3.  This afternoon is our bank appointment to complete the Executor duties on Mom's estate.  After some of the experiences we have had along Executor's Way since we lost Mom, there is always an underlying stress before banking appointments JUST IN CASE what "never" goes wrong, goes wrong with this one.  I would so like to be able to stop worrying about these things.  As I know now from 18 months of experience, if something does go wrong, there is a way to fix it even if it takes a long time to do so.  These issues tend to be time consuming and inconvenient, but not impossible to solve.

Perhaps I am chilled to the bone today due to a combination of all three factors, but I am REALLY hoping the chills are a result of option 3 alone because if so, the chills will be gone by early afternoon!

Lord, may it be so.  For those of you whose main source of news about our family is through this blog, I will post later today to let you know how the bank appointment went. Bless you for caring.

Short Update On Cee

Hello Prayer Warriors for Cee: since he began the plasma replacement therapy he has been adjusting to some of the little side effects of both the treatments and the associated meds, but there has been a bit of positive change in the patterns of his episodes of neuropathy pain. He has also had a much easier time lately getting his socks on in the mornings using his particularly bad hand and lifting his foot higher than he has been able to in awhile. Please pray these small changes truly are signs that his treatments are working. It would be such a mercy after all he has suffered over the past five years or more. Thank you. 

Aaaaaand He's OFF!!

My husband is currently at his first ever live football game watching the Riders play (and likely lose to) the B.C. Lions.  He went to the game with a mixture of excitment and trepidation: excitement because he was going with one of his few friends where he can relax enough to at least try to be "one of the guys", and trepidation because of the noise and the worry that his ignorance of football crowd etiquette will embarrass his friend. hahaha  I am praying for him. He will have a grand time and be just fine.  It is the perfect way to relax after the stress of "sermon-ing" this morning at church.  (His sermon went over very well and I managed not to embarrass myself too much delivering the prayers....although I did not get the message that one of the very ill people I prayed for actually died earlier this morning....gleep.....well, at least she truly is completely healed now, so that is a good thing. Amen!)

We decided to de-stress over lunch at the Knotted Thistle and it was quite good.  We were most disappointed to find yet another brand new menu and the removal of our favourite Pot Pie from its list of items.  Waaaaaaahhhhhh.....WHY??? WHY?????  hahaha  My husband tried one of their new nine inch, three topping pizzas and he claimed it was pretty tasty.  Since I decided to pout over the removal of the pot pie, my rebellion surfaced by my ordering the artichoke and spinach dip with a 9 inch pita for dipping; a meal that had no relation to either my diabetic diet or my weight loss diet, SO THERE!!! Take THAT Knotted Thistle with your lack of pot pies!  hahahaha  Of course now I am kicking myself for being so stupid, but it was only my second transgression in the past month, the other being my burger at Carl's Jr. the other day.  So, I won't be using my husband's absence from tonight's dinner to create some kind of cheat meal for myself here at home. It will be a slice of unbuttered bread with one slice of low fat cheese and a single serving fruit yogurt with a glass of water!  Blecch....but SO HEALTHY!  Right? Of course right!!! Yippee! (blecch!!)

We are expecting two or three consecutive days of rain now....oooh, my leaking basement....but the last couple of days have been so chilly and overcast that it will be nice to finally get this particular weather system over with.  After that we are to have some better weather, comfortable highs of mid to high +20's, for the rest of the week. Long may that particular forecast last!! May it even come to pass.

This weekend we weren't too bothered by the musical concerts going on at the arena, at the park downtown and not even by the concert in the park right across the street last night. However, next weekend it is the annual Shake the Lake outdoor concert only a few blocks from us.  It will be crazy loud, so we are trying to prepare ourselves now for what is coming then.  If we get our attitudes in check now, we will survive far better when the "music" hits us on Friday and Saturday evenings.  Hopefully the decent weather forecast will hold so that the attendees can have a wonderful time dancing about and singing along with their favourite groups.

And now I must go and blanch some yellow beans and accomplish a few household chores I have been saving to do during this amazing 4 to 5 hours of uninterrupted time alone that I have been looking forward to for over a week now.  Happy Dance!!! 😃

Here's to a decent week for us all, amen!!

Summer In This City.....

 ....feels as though it is already coming to an end this very day!!  All day long a bitterly cold wind has been howling, the air temperature is carrying a late October sort of "warm chill" and the sky has been  completely grey from a combination of cloud cover and high altitude forest fire smoke.  Yuck!!  Now, in the late afternoon, the clouds are clearing off a bit to reveal the last traces of daytime sun and the wind is a bit less "howly" than it has been thus far today.  Brrrrrr.....what a stark reminder that summer won't last forever around here.

Idiot that I am, I decided to go on foot to meet my friend at the Farmers' Market downtown this morning.  I SHOULD have driven and been content to park a few blocks away from the crowded parking areas right around the market.  Nope, dummy here decided a few chilly breezes wouldn't be a big deal, but wow, they certainly WERE!!!!  My friend was a bit late to our meeting place so after my half hour walk I sat on a freezing cold metal bench near the market waiting for her.  I was really looking forward to going for coffee after our trek around the market.  However, my hopes for a breezeless, WARM indoor coffee time visit were dashed completely when my friend arrived with her coffee mug already in her hand.  NO!!!!  We toured the little market, marvelling at the ingenuity of the vendors in finding various heavy objects to put down on their tent straps, display tables and light weight items to keep them from blowing clean away in the gales happening in the space where they were situated, between the downtown buildings and the park. We saw buckets filled with hardening cement, heavy books, tools and even big round weights from weight training sets holding everything down.  Not that it was easy to see anything at all as our hair whipped across our faces, blocking our view as we tottered along trying to keep our balance in the wind.  I wondered if my friend was going to invite me over to her nearby suite after our fifteen minute jaunt around the market, as it was so cold outside, or if she would suggest we go to the nearest coffee bar, the one I assumed we would be going to, so she could refresh her coffee, I could get mine and we could both get warmed up, but no.....  She wanted to sit outside and visit....on that same cold metal bench I was already too familiar with.  We sat for an hour, teeth chattering and bodies shivering, but it was a great visit despite the discomfort.  About the time I was prepared to tell her I couldn't stay out there any longer, she declared she was getting cold and it was time to go home.  hahahaha What a crazy morning. Welcome to our fair city filled with hale and hearty folk!  I am still chilled to the bone four hours later and praying I don't end up with pneumonia by mid week!!

I spent the afternoon writing the Prayers of the People for our church service tomorrow. It was difficult to pull my scattered thoughts and list of requests a yard long together coherently, so I hauled out my old copy of the Anglican Book of Alternative Services and used some of the formatting ideas from the litanies there.  That was most helpful and it didn't take me more than a couple of hours to put the prayers together after that.  Praying concisely for that many requests without leaving out the important details is a bit of a challenge, but I think it will work out alright.  

My husband was able to complete his sermon well ahead of time for tomorrow's service and tonight will read it over one more time before printing it off.  It was so nice to have so much notice that he was preaching so that he could start long in advance and not have to sacrifice the entire past week to study and prepare it.  

Next week we have a few important commitments, but thus far not every day is filled with activity the way this week has been.  I am glad I had such a busy week to get used to being home from holidays, but am quite content to slow down the social activities next week and get some badly needed housework done right here at home.

So Many Things.........

 .....to pray for this coming Sunday as I am assigned to perform the Prayers Of The People.  Forest fire evacuations in Canada, flooding in other parts of the world, wars overseas, illnesses and deaths and bankruptcies and and and and and and and.....there is no way there is time to verbally express every request that has come to me this week from the pastors and congregation of my church.  I pray for the gift of being able to be concise while covering all the bases.  Wow....what a week it has been worldwide!

Went for a lovely walk around the lake this morning with a friend.  Although it was forecast to be about +26C by the time we went walking around 9:30am, the upper atmosphere forest fire smoke blocked the sun, without making the air down on the ground too odiferous to be bearable.  We had a most pleasant time traipsing around under the trees, watching the cormorants sunning themselves on the shore of the lake and listening to the canoeists shrieking with glee as they manoevered their crafts through the algae infested slime.....oops, I mean water. 

I didn't sleep well or for very many hours last night, so that little walk of less than 5km wore me right out.  Mostly I accomplished diddly squat for the rest of the day.  It is a good thing that our hosts for lunch today had to cancel because I would have been too tired to be much of a guest. I sat around watching a couple of home improvement programmes on tv,  sent some emails, cooked and did dishes, napped, watched football with my husband....sort of....and suddenly it was 10pm!  Fortunately now, a half hour later, whatever rock group was caterwauling over at the arena has shut down. Perhaps a wee shower of unexpected rain forced them off the open air stage, but whatever the reason is, I am extremely grateful not to have to listen to that any longer tonight.  I have to get up early tomorrow to walk to the Farmers' Market to meet a friend. We will enjoy doing some veggie shopping before having a coffee visit.  I am glad it will be much cooler tomorrow than it was today, however it may be rather windy.

I am glad my husband was able to complete his sermon prep for this Sunday a couple of days early as there will be more music blasting at us from the park right across the street tomorrow evening.  He will not get much sleep before he has to preach. The last two weekends of August always provide us with rotten sleeps due to the thumping music coming from open air venues around the city centre. Next weekend we have two LOOOOONG nights of the annual Shake the Lake event just down the street from our place.  Sigh....Most of the time the bands obey the 11pm to 7am city noise bylaw, but it seems that for Shake the Lake and a couple of other major outdoor music events, special exemption is given to carry on blasting those of us close to the venues into oblivion until midnight or 1am.  We have learned over the years to adjust the best we can and we certainly don't begrudge people their fun. Just wish it wasn't a stress nearly every time my husband has important church duties on summer Sunday mornings.

After lunch today I drove to the grocery store for a few items I was unable to find at my usual haunts the other day.  The smoke had cleared from the sky, so it was clear and bright summer blue. The loss of that covering meant the +34C temperature was rather apparent.  Wow, it was really warm compared to earlier in the day.  I am so thankful for the AC unit in our vehicle.  Hallelujah! 

 

My New Favourite Burger Joint!

Tonight I discovered a different burger place that is now my favourite fast food hangout!  It is Carl's Jr.  The outlet has been here a number of years, but since I so rarely am able to eat fast food I have never tried it.  However a couple of weeks ago my husband grabbed a burger there that he quite liked.  So, after both of us walking around and working out in the heat of the day, he decided cooking at home was not in the cards for us this evening.  We went to Carl's Junior.  As fast food burgers go, I quite liked mine.  The patties are a generous size and stretch the full span of the bun, the lettuce and tomatoes are in abundance, and best of all for us, there isn't a great huge dollop of either ketchup or mustard to override the taste of the rest of the burger.  We asked for no salt on the fries and that is what we got, yay!  There is more than enough salt in the meat, so no more is needed for us.  It will be awhile before I can eat fast food again, but next time I can I will definitely return to Carl's Junior.  It is worth a return visit.

My husband had a most enjoyable day trimming the large branches of some trees he first trimmed for an aquaintance about three years ago.  After spending most of the weekend and the past three days at his computer writing he was ready for some exercise. Fortunately the heat of the day was kept off of him by the large shade producing tree in a neighbour's back yard!

My coffee visit this morning was postponed to this coming weekend.  You know, I really enjoyed having one morning to sleep in if I wanted, enjoy a leisurely breakfast and then have a few hours to myself, accomplishing very little, after my husband left.  The result of my quiet morning was a readiness to brave the heat and walk a half hour to my weekly prayer gathering and back this afternoon.  It was a wonderful time together with the other women, as usual and returning to my husband's insistance that I not cook dinner tonight....well....the perfect ending to a nearly perfect day.  YAY!

For the rest of the evening I think I will catch up on some recorded tv programmes and put my feet up to relax.  I am off walking around the lake with a friend quite early in the morning tomorrow......unless the predicted forest fire smoke warning comes to pass. Sigh....It has shut us down once already this summer.  It is going to be about +34C by tomorrow afternoon, so I hope that the morning's rise in temperature doesn't also present the possibility of shutting down our plans to walk together.  (I thought maybe it was just the power of suggestion that I started to smell intense smoke just as I began typing this paragraph, but no, it is already drifting in and tickling my nose and throat and making my eyes water. Drat!  Well, at least I am not waiting to be evacuated while being nearly overcome with drifting smoke like friends in Yellowknife are at this moment.  Pray for Yellowknife if you can folks, please pray for Yellowknife.)

You Really DO See Stars!!

When I was a little girl watching cartoons on tv, I used to find it hysterically funny when one cartoon character would bash another cartoon character over the head with some hard object and the victim would stumble around with stars swirling around his head to indicate the obviously painful bash left him unfocused and staggering.  

Today I discovered the use of stars to portray the results of a bonk on the head is actually far more accurate than I ever knew!  I was helping my husband load empty water jugs into the trunk of the car and as I put the last jug in I grabbed the overhead door's handle to shut it, got distracted trying to avoid letting a huge wasp fly inside the car, forgot to look up to see how far back I should stand to avoid being hit by the sharp edged bottom of the door as I swung it shut and conked myself right in the head.  Whammo!

Talk about seeing stars!!!  I am stronger than I appear to be and am pretty adept at swinging that door back into place quickly and firmly. Sigh.....I staggered back from the car while my husband frantically called out, "Are you okay?  Are you okay?  You haven't split you head open have you?"  I was able to assure him that the scrapes on my head barely broke the skin, but oh wow......the pain was rather intense and I had to sit down right away to keep from fainting.   It only took a few moments me to start seeing the horizon in its proper place and angle again, but my poor old head now sports a huge bruise and big bump just below my hairline.  Gaaaaack!!!  It is incredibly painful to touch.  I am hoping (assuming correctly?) that the presence of the huge bruise means I have not concussed myself.  The dizziness that accompanied the intial blow went away very quickly, I don't have an upset stomach and no odd and overwhelming urge to fall asleep.  

I doubt this is a serious injury, but my pride is BADLY injured. How very stupid of me. I know darned well I have to step away from the car as I swing the back door into place, but today I allowed myself to get distracted during the process and paid the price for it.  While I am happy that my antics kept the wasp out of the car, I am not happy that I hurt myself for such a stupid reason!  By tomorrow my forehead will be all manner of pretty colours!!! At least I didn't see stars again an hour later when I pinched my finger in the car door....sigh.....it is still numb. Oh well, it could have been worse.  At least I got all my grocery shopping done this morning before I did  such stupid things to myself.

I received news that my cousin in Ontario lost her husband yesterday. He'd had Alzheimer issues for quite a number of years and it has been hard going for him and all their family, but it is still a very diffult loss for them.  My cousin was like a sister to my mom for many years before Mom and Dad were married. While I saw very little of her and her family once I got into my teen years, occasionally we have been in touch and I feel very sad about another loss in the family.

My husband is taking tomorrow off from his various writing and research projects to do some tree pruning for a friend's neighbour.  He helped them out with some other flora trimming a couple of years ago and is looking forward to a day of outdoor activity.   I am glad he gets to do something that he (occasionally) actually enjoys that is outdoors, physically taxing and NOT mountain climbing!!

It has been quite hot here the past couple of days, but tomorrow we get a wonderful break before the following two days of over +30C again.  It is only going to about +23C tomorrow, a perfect day for tree pruning.  I will be out "coffeeing" once again in the morning after dropping him off at his destination.  YAY!!

Fortunately something wonderful happened in between injuries: I checked the mail and (as previously posted) the Clearance Certificate for Mom's estate was there in the box.  YAY!!  I have an appointment with the bank next week to close the account and then, I WILL BE DONE WITH ALL THE EXECUTOR RESPONSIBILITIES!  YAY!!  How grateful I am to God that after 18 months my only responsibility to the estate will be to keep the tax records for a few years "just in case".  Thank you Lord!  The whole legal nightmare is nearly over.

It’s Finally Here!!

I am delighted to discover the Clearance Certificate for Mom’s estate has come in today’s mail. Whew!! I am going to set up an appointment at the bank, hopefully next week sometime, and once the account is closed out my Executor duties should be all over. 18 months from start to finish....a long time. I cannot imagine how long it must take for people dealing with large estates and several bequests or trusts. Assuming nothing unexpected goes wrong with what should be a relatively simple procedure, I soon will be free at last. Hallelujahs all around!!

Oh Come On! More Going On This Week Than Already Scheduled???

We are giggling tonight!  Earlier this afternoon I contacted an elderly couple to ask if we could bring them a carton of bison chili, but they decided they would rather we brought over enough chili for all four of us and stayed for dinner. hahaha Another invitation, impromptu, which is even more fun.  We stopped at the grocery and purchased some buns to go with, our friends had prepared a pot of mixed rice and opened a bottle of wine and we had the best time.

When it comes to socializing this week we have hit ludicrous speed fer shur!!!  What a crazy wonderful week. We certainly cannot say we have no friends here, because the number of people we are seeing this week alone is only about half the people we know and love in this tiny city.

On the sadder side of things: we received word today that two of our former parishioners are in trouble.  One has had a complete breakdown and the other one, who has a husband struggling with early onset dementia, has been diagnosed with cancer. Sigh....more loved ones struggling and they are not anywhere near as old as we are.  More prayers to pray, more people to try to help as much as we can.

So Grateful For All The Activity This Week!

My husband’s series of writing, preaching and teaching projects coming up in the next few weeks means he will be very busy here at home and not available to do much else. If this week is any indication of how my days will be filled while he is so busy, then it is not going to be a boring time for me!! 

We were blessed with an impromptu trip out of town after church yesterday to enjoy a bbq and fine wine visit with dear friends. My husband really appreciated the time with his buddy and they are planning a short fishing trip before summer ends, only a day or two to give them both a break from their work related stresses. 

This morning I am walking with my walking partner, then doing some housework in the afternoon....my pattern for the week: mornings of fun followed by afternoons of house chores. I like it! Grocery shopping will fill my morning hours tomorrow, next day my weekly morning coffee time with a friend from church, coffee with a recently made friend the following day with prayer group in the afternoon,  the morning after that is a walk with a church friend followed immediately by lunch out with some musician friends....and my husband who has to take a lunch break anyway, haha. 

I suspect I will be happily exhausted by the weekend. Yay!!! A happy week indeed!!

My husband has another treat for himself coming up too: a friend with season Riders tickets is taking him to a home game in a couple of weeks. My husband has never attended a football game before, so it will be exciting for him, a complete change of pace! Yay! We will also attend a friend’s 50th birthday together the night before the game.

Maybe all the activities with so many friends will sooth my “itchy feet”. Here’s hoping! 

Happy Family Chit Chat!

 I have the last load of laundry in the washing machine right now and hope to have the load dried before the upcoming thunderstorms arrive for the evening.  

In between loads this morning I worked away at getting a new pair of shoes to fit my feet properly, with orthotics, moleskin heel grabbers and proper thickness of socks, so I can enjoy them for the rest of the summer and autumn.  ( I have a double to triple A foot, one heel that is a quadruple A and the other heel a quintuple A, so a proper fit takes some time and work unless I want to pay hundreds more dollars and wait many months to have shoes made specifically for my feet. Refitting the heels myself is time consuming, but easier and far less expensive in the long run.)

My husband decided he should take me out for lunch to give himself a much needed break from all the writing he has been working at this week: a sermon for a week from tomorrow, a diocesan newspaper article on handling conflict in the church and an upcoming presentation on the theology of personhood as applied to Medical Assistance In Dying.  Tres busy right now, this man is!  Although he was trying to do something nice for me on laundry day, it was actually himself who badly needed to get out of here for a change of scene.

We decided to go to London Belle for lunch. Apart from one evening's dessert visit with out of town friends a couple of months ago, we haven't been there in the past few years.  Usually it was unbearably crowded and noisy, so we have steered clear.  However, today at noon there was one other couple just leaving the dining room as we arrived and a couple of women who arrived part way through our meal indoors and decided they preferred to sit on the patio outside. So, we had the place to ourselves and it was wonderful!  The music was truly background music and we could hear ourselves talking to each other quite well!  The service was stellar and the food was delicious.  We decided on the crispy chicken burger special for $14.99. It included the delicious tomato bisque or salad or seasoned fries.  We opted for the tomato bisque as we got onto that particular soup just before COVID hit and a number of restaurants were serving it at the time.  This one was very, very tasty!  Our burgers were good too: the chicken patties were nicely crispy, there were two thick slices of tomato, lettuce, mayo, melted mozza and green and red jalapeno pepper slices on a small, tasty butter bun! The peppers made the otherwise plain burger most delicious with a hint of nice heat without being overpoweringly spicy.  The whole meal was quite a treat!  With an extra fries for my husband and our drinks the food bill pre taxes and tip was only $36!  That is a real bargain these days.  I think we will go there again sometime.

When we got home there was a text for us from our son.  His girlfriend was invited to a major writers' silent retreat in Texas for ten days, so she is away this weekend.  He is very proud of her being invited because the retreat is usually composed mostly of well known Broadway and screen writers, so he is delighted her considerable writing talent is being recognized already.  He himself is working very hard for his next three art exhibitions happening between December and next spring, as well as working full time for another six weeks for his boss, preparing for his boss' upcoming art show.  Although our son looks a bit tired, he is enjoying his life very much.  Today he is adhering to his Sabbath principles and forcing himself to stay home to rest. Tomorrow back to his studio to work on his own paintings.  He told us all about the trip to Berlin in June and his susequent visit to  Halifax for the Bridges art and math conference, which he found fascinating, although the "bridge" between artspeak and mathspeak, art mentality and mathematical mentality is extremely difficult to cross.  So, our son is taking online classes in mathematics right now, courses about tiling patterns....looking for the Einstein tile for example.....that are presented by mathematicians rather than by artists.  It is great to see him using his full potential in the field of mathematics after reneging on his math studies in all his previous "incarnations".  We always knew he had it in him, but he never cared until he realized how math could help his artistic endeavors.

What a great day I am having while awaiting the night's storms!  The last load is in the dryer and some of the clothes I washed this morning are already dry enough to be ironed.  YAY!

 

Itchy Feet!

I have to confess that for the past few months I have had a severe case of "itchy feet"!  This problem most often arises awhile before God calls my husband and I to make some kind of big move somewhere different, to a new adventure, often one we never ever expected or even thought about until it actually happens.

HOWEVER:  I am most uncertain, in fact not certain at all, that this antsy feeling I have been experiencing has anything whatever to do with a call from God to seek out new horizons.  My suspicion is that there are a couple of other reasons for feeling so unsettled these days.

1.  It is a reaction to the realization that I am at a point where new adventures are going to be intensely difficult due to mobility issues, other health problems, the struggle to make new friends in new places at our age....all sorts of age related upsets that have been subconsciously making me rebellious recently about the entire aging process and the abilities we lose the older we get.  I am, I suppose, thinking in the back of my mind, "God, can't I have just one more adventure before I become too old and ill and disabled?  Just ONE more???"  AND my suspicion is that God's answer is actually, a compassionate but firm, "Sorry my child, but no."  Waaaaahhhh!!

2. The other reason for this current state of affairs could be simply that I feel trapped here in Regina because the medical doctors and specialists and other needed assists are all in place here, while to move elsewhere in Canada would leave both my husband and I stranded with no GP, no specialists and no way "in" to access those things.  A friend of mine who moved back to AB a few short years ago discovered she couldn't get a GP, the doctors in her town were not and still are not able to take new patients.  She finally located a nurse practitioner in another town that has been very helpful, but doesn't always have sufficient credibility with the other members of the medical community....a whole new set of problems for my friend when she needs certain medical tests or referrals.  

I am guessing that the second reason is the main reason for wanting to move on from Regina.  That trapped feeling is something I have never been able to cope with.  I have felt trapped before in other towns, by financial circumstances, by jobs, by friendships and/or church congregations where expectations of my availabilty or actions or words or opinions or spiritual pathway become smothering over time.  Freedom means a great deal to me and sometimes expresses itself by a moving/outright pushing away from whatever or whoever it is that makes me feel trapped.  

The longer we remain at our current church the more often we are being asked if we will do thus and so. At this point in my life I feel a strong sense of having the walls closing in if I am committed to doing a task on a regular weekly or even monthly basis over the course of a year in the life of the church.  Being obligated to perform the same task at certain days and times for months on end doesn't seem to be something I can cope with these days.  I am not sure why.  

Although I have great friends who I would miss desperately if I left, I feel there is something else I am missing by remaining here, but I can't think of what it could be.  Weird eh?  BUT not so weird if the origin of my feelings is either Possiblity #1 or Possibility #2 or a combination of both.

It will be interesting to see what happens when it is time to leave this suite next spring. Perhaps a simple move right here in the city to a less disastrous old ruin of a place will be sufficient to settle me down once again.....for awhile.

I Too See Dead People!!

 After our recent stop in Edmonton, I have been thinking a lot about that old movie The Sixth Sense starring Bruce Willis and Haley Joel Osment.  Do you remember it too?  Remember the boy in the movie who confesses, "I see dead people."?  I am starting to understand how that young man in the movie felt!

Until a few months ago we had my parents' ashes in our house, along with my husband's mother's ashes.  As of three days ago we have now added my sister-in-law's and her husband's ashes to our apparently growing collection.  Sigh....my home is turning into a columbarium!  I had been naively assuming once my mother-in-law's ashes were distributed sometime next spring, that our home would no longer be filled with the morbid feeling that such an accummulation of dead folks' remains bring (at least for me) to our living space!  No such luck.....Sigh.....

However, next spring we will take all three of the remaining urns out to the mountains, likely the Illecillewaet area of Rogers Pass in British Columbia, or somewhere in the mountains surrounding Jasper AB.  My sister-im-law's step son and his wife want my husband to "do the honours" of a little time of remembrance and will likely join us when the time comes. That will be very nice.

I have been having a lovely social time since we arrived home a couple of evenings ago. In fact I have been so busy I haven't even done the laundry from the trip yet, have not begun any housework whatsoever, am just barely keeping up with meals and dishes.  Oh well, there will always be time for those things....eventually.  

The day after we returned I went out for lunch with a friend.  We went to a chain restaurant I have rarely eaten at but it was pretty tasty. We opted for a 3 course pick'n'choose meal, which was fun.  We ended up with a yummy shepherd's pie, each portion so large we both brought half of ours home, caesar salad, old fashioned mozza sticks and bite sized pieces of brownie with a scoop of iced cream so teensy it could have been a  Japanese restaurant dessert.  It was the perfect bit of sweetness to end the meal. I really wish that tiny bite option was available in more restaurants. My friend and I had so much fun catching up on our summer news.  

This morning I went on what has evolved into a weekly coffee date with a new friend from church. Usually we pick up our coffee at a tiny organic coffee shop and retreat to some comfy outdoor chairs in a public space outside, but today it was pouring rain, so we settled for Smittys.  It wasn't crowded, our tea was run of the mill but hot and comforting on a miserable day and we were allowed to stay afterward to visit as long as we wanted.  Then this afternoon my weekly ladies' group met for coffee and visiting and prayer.  It was fun to see everyone after missing a few weeks while our hostess was in hospital.  It was good to see her back at home.

I think tomorrow I will allow myself to sleep in, have a long hot shower and iron the new winter clothes I purchased in Alberta.  They became extremely wrinkled after being transported home in our crowded old vehicle. My husband had the bags of clothing sandwiched into the spaces between suitcases and backpacks.  We have a bank appointment in the afternoon for round three of trying to straighten out a transfer of funds that our so called financial adviser has messed up twice in a row since the first week of March.  He is a lovely man, but seems completely clueless and I am afraid if this goes on much longer we will end up paying some kind of financial penalty for his mistakes.  We are now operating on a Three Strikes, Yer Out! policy with him.  What makes me the angriest is that I never ever wanted to deal with this particular bank, but my husband was adamant.  If there is another issue I have decided I will not bother requesting another advisor, I will simply remove what I have there and have a fresh start with a bank I have had decent dealings with in the past.  Our current advisor is past the point of being useful to me!  Grrrrrrr.....Gus, Gus!!!

By the way, Cee is having a tough go with pain and blood pressure issues since he had his plasma replacement therapy last week.  This is apparently not unusual after the first treatments, but he is struggling to accept what is going on. He is tired, worn out from the constant fear of wondering when the next episode of pain will hit him.  Hopefully after his next treatments these symptoms will settle down. Thanks for continuing to pray for him.

Beautiful South East Kananaskis Camping Trip

 My husband and his friend had a wonderful time camping out last weekend in the mountains.  Here are a few photos and a couple of videos (hopefully if I can get them to work for you) to display the gorgeous scenery. The main part of their hiking was centered on Cataract Falls, but they hiked into some other lovely falls in the area as well.

You can see why our move from Alberta to the prairies was a bit of a shock, right?

The Old Man Of The Mountain!!

Over the mountains and through the woods....tra la la.....

Cataract Creek

A still photo of the falls!

My husband is a happy man, out in his favourite wilderness areas.

The 3 categories of mountain flora: trees, plants and little bushes.

Home From The Holiday I Didn't Realize I needed!

 It took us over eleven hours to drive home today because we opted to ignore the speed and excess traffic of Highway 16 to stick to the back roads and secondary highways.

Highway 16 is a lovely highway actually and not exactly overcrowded at the worst of times, but we had such fun the other day driving backroads to Edmonton from Olds that we wanted a repeat of that kind of scenery today.

Although it turned into a trip a couple of hours longer than it would have if we drove the four lane, we had a blast creeping along through one tiny town after another, stopping to look at a mother moose and her calf chowing down on some poor unsuspecting farmer's crop, ducks on every pond and slough, checking out the main streets of towns we have heard of often enough but have never actually traveled to ourselves.  We had lunch at a charming old hotel in Wainwright that has been redcorated as a pub. It has excellent food. The downtown streets are charming and the clocktower in the centre square at one end of downtown is just lovely.

Over hill and down dale we drove, watching the landscape change from rolling hills covered in tall poplar trees to less high hills with stunted poplar trees, to flat lands with no trees at all other than the windbreaks around farmhouses and on into the flatter prairiescape.

The weather was sunny but not hot, the wind was slight most of the time and it was behind us.  The car's gasoline consumption was far better with the wind behind us than it was as we drove full on into head winds on the way to Olds.

This morning before we left Edmonton we picked up Ruth's and Ray's urns containing their ashes. We have been tasked by the executor with spreading them in an appropriate place sometime in the near future.  It will be our privilege to do so.

Once it hit us both, part way through our short holiday, that an actual holiday was not only warranted after a tough few months, but also badly needed, we relaxed and enjoyed our time away.  Although coming home wasn't all that difficult, it wasn't that joyous either.....kind of a "meh" sort of feeling.  

There is comfort and a certain level of convenience here, that at our age is rather reassuring and safe, but we both seem to be craving that "one more adventure in life before we grow any older and become any more decrepit".  Hmmmm.....not sure that is any kind of internal direction for the future....more likely just rebellion against the idea of aging as we see our abilities continuing to wane.

It took us forever to unpack the car when we got home this evening, but everything is now out and scattered across our living room and dining room.  There will be time tomorrow to sort it all out.  Tonight it was more important to start watching the football games we recorded while we were gone, catch up on our banking, read the mail and only unpack the necessities.

Tomorrow I have a lunch date, so I hope I am awake enough to actually go! The forest fire smoke was thick in the air for our entire journey home today and my main symtom of smoke inhalation is tiredness....it is incredibly diffcult to stay awake when I am breathing in that particular kind of smoke.

Hmmmm....actually it already IS tomorrow...better get some sleep!

Going Home!!! Yippee!!!

After a fabulous day yesterday to complete our responsibilities in Edmonton, we will be going home today. We are most fortunate to be heading home to some happy commitments: I have three coffee/lunch dates and my husband has an upcoming sermon to prepare. These things will “soften the blow” of having to return to the prairies. As much as we appreciate and have come to value some aspects of the distinctly laid back prairie mentality and find it more relaxing than Alberta’s “gotta get, gotta have, gotta flaunt” mentality, the geography there still touches our souls more deeply than the prairies. I am delighted that my husband filmed a few short videos of some of the waterfalls he visited on his hiking trip and I will post at least one of them when we get settled back at home. 

What a fun drive we took yesterday to get from Olds up to Edmonton. With it being a long weekend Monday we decided to skip the joy of travelling bumper to bumper on the QEll with so many people returning home from their long weekend adventures. Instead we opted for a series of backroads and secondary highways. What fun we had!! We zigged and zagged, north, west, north, east, north, east etc. All the way. There was a bit of slower traffic pulling trailers and boats around Sylvan Lake, but other than that bit of congestion we saw very little traffic. Driving through large stands of trees, beside smaller lakes and swamplands, between fields of bright yellow canola and densely packed stalks of corn being grown for the production of ethanol, we eventually came to a road that took us into the farthest south community in Edmonton, only blocks from our hotel. We avoided completely having to drive along the construction riddled Anthony Henday!! Yay! Unfortunately we will have to drive that route today to save time going home, but we will still be thinking about our beautiful, peaceful drive yesterday. 

There will be some rain along our route today, but that is okay. Mostly this trip has been filled with sunshine with the occasional light rain overnight to cool things down. Neither of us realized how desperately we needed a break from the same old, same old routines at home. We haven’t even gone online yet to watch our home church service from this past Sunday. Now, after such a positive break away, we are ready to return. It has been a good week. Thank you Lord.

Another Day, Another “Town”!

In a few hours we will be hitting the road once again, this time to Edmonton to deal with some legal matters pertaining to my sister in law’s estate. At first we thought we would have to spend a week there, but it looks like what needs to be done right now can be accomplished this afternoon! We could be on our way home tomorrow already!! Here’s hoping.......

While we likely will have to make a couple of more trips there over the next month or two to get everything settled, we have some options now for dealing with things that will make our lives easier over this matter than first thought. Yay!!  Again, here’s hoping! 

Since my husband returned from his camping/hiking trip in better health than he has after trips the past several summers, we had a delightful day yesterday! He didn’t have to spend the day lying around exhausted and feeling miserable. So, we were able to join our friends at their morning church service. Yay! Their guest speaker is an area rep for alumni of Dallas Theological Seminary and he was interesting to listen to. The music was well done and even some of the older hymns were pepped up enough to restore my interest in them. A great time of fellowship over lunch with our friends capped off a wonderful time here. 

There is no rush to get back on the highway this morning so we can take our time packing and checking out of the hotel. The traffic on the QEll as people head home from their long weekend holiday will be horrific, so my husband has planned an alternate route through some pretty countryside. We can dipsey doodle along at our own pace and enjoy the drive. 

Once I relaxed here I enjoyed my time away. The hotel was full, but surprisingly quiet and I slept well almost every night. Yay!! However, home is calling and there are things I need to attend to there. I truly hope we can go home tomorrow!

The Campers Have Finally Returned!

 Oh joyous day, the menfolk hath returned!  wow, did they ever have fun with their extra day of hiking. So glad they could stay out a good long time after all and take in all the scenery: trees, bushes and little plants, fordable creeks, mountains and waterfalls.  the weather was about perfect for outdoor pursuits in their area and they returned feeling very satisfied with their time away.  For an "old man camping" expedition, they accomplished quite a bit. Yes, their knees and backs are stiff with the loss of agility that is now inspiring them to look at better exercise programmes this coming winter, but they still covered a fair amount of territory in their travels.  YAY!!

I covered extra territory today as well since I found myself still in town.  My friend and I went out to a specialty shoe shop an hour away and I found a nice pair of walking shoes already tailor made to my requirements. Now I am not stuck with only the pair of walking shoes that are the same brand and style my 90 year old mother used to wear.  Yay!!  At least now I have an  option for walking footwear.  we also had a lovely walk through arboretum and had lunch in yet another town(!!!!) before returning me to my hotel.  What a great day. And now just as I am finally relaxing and starting to enjoy my little holiday, my husband is back and I will be dealing once again with all the same upcoming issues in regard to his sister's estate that we were dealing with for the past two years. The closer things get to being settled the more stressful it is becoming.  sIGH....how lovely it was to just be able to forget that and a lot of other stresses for a few days.  I am grateful.

Off on another trip around the area tomorrow for church and other fellowship.  I hope the weather is as great tomorrow as it has been thus far on this trip. There have been warm days, but not too warm, a bit of a breeze occasionally but no gale force winds, blue sky, a bit of cloud cover off and on....oh how I love the south central alberta weather in the summer.  I miss that.  I do not miss living in this little podunk (look it up) town, but the summer weather is perfect for me.

Resting, Driving, Visiting Eating, Holidaying Sort Of.....

Today was a pretty good day!  I woke up quite early and checked my news feeds, read a bit over a leisurely breakfast in my room and drove to the next town on the list for the birthday party.  It is extremely difficult to see a much younger woman so incapacitated by MS.  Along with losing her mobility it has seriously effected her memory, destroyed her energy and I only just managed to hold back tears when I saw her.  Sigh..... HOWEVER, she seemed to really enjoy having her family and a few friends there to celebrate and enjoyed eating her slice of tiramisu cake with great gusto. Her daughter had to feed her, as my friend can no longer get food from the lap table on her wheelchair to her mouth on her own.  It made me so sad. Fortunately her one year old granddaughter was also there and she lightened everyone's mood, even grandma's.  I went for a nice mini-taco lunch with my friend's sister afterward and we talked for over an hour after we finished our meal.  Then we went clothes shopping and that was a blast.  I found the black winter pants I have been searching for among the new arrivals in all the stores and my friend unexpectedly found a skirt and blouse that looks awesome on her. So we left each other in quite happy spirits.

I decided to buy a sandwich and salad at a grocery store near my hotel for my dinner tonight.  There were storm clouds moving into the area right around 6pm and I didn't feel like losing my parking spot in the very full hotel parking lot to drive six blocks to a restaurant.  I so enjoyed my simple tuna sandwich and small salad.  Then I decided to risk getting wet in the coming rain, walked about three blocks to WalMart to pick up a couple of books to get me through the rest of my trip away and only got hit with a few scattered drops on the way.  The rest of the rain held off until just after I returned to the hotel, thankfully, so I dragged the desk chair over to my window and watched it come down for awhile.  It wasn't very heavy rainfall and didn't last long, but it was fun seeing the sun setting behind the heavy black clouds.  The weather forecast for the campers is for severe thunderstorms and possibly hail overnight, so I am very grateful they are staying in our friends' travel trailer and not in a vulnerable tent on the ground. Hopefully it will clear off by the morning and start to dry up so they can stop for one more short hike before they begin the long drive back here.  My friend and I will head off early in the morning to spend our planned day together. I will leave my car at my husband's camping buddy's house in case they get back earlier than planned. He can put his dirty, possibly soggy gear into our car and head over to our hotel to get cleaned up while he is waiting for me to come back from my own adventures.

As the days pass I am starting to drop some of the feelings of depression that have been pestering me lately.  I am not lying in bed now at night asking God, "Please couldn't we just go home now?"  Being with friends my own age and younger for so many days in a row has been restorative and I realize I have been so busy caring for more elderly friends back home that it is starting to effect me mentally and emotionally. When I return I am going to have to make some changes in those relationships to make them healthier for me.  Hmmmmm......this is going to take some thought, planning and effort.

My son is going to be a working fool between now and the end of September when his boss's paintings are completed, packaged and sent off to an art show in Beijing.  Originally my son was going to go along to do the installation of the works, but the size of the show has been reduced so he can leave the installation in the capable hands of a local gallery installer there.  He is only a bit disappointed because, as much as he would like to go to China, there would be little extra time around the installation process for him to do any touring.  He would need help to do any exploring there to keep him safe and aware of the laws of that country. To be completely honest, I will be greatly relieved if he doesn't go. Our friends there aren't going to have much time available either to show him and his boss around.  He is okay about not going because he has had so many other wonderful travels this summer.  

I  just took a look at the latest weather report and it appears tomorrow's out of town trip with my friend is going to be in good weather once again. YAY!  I have my winter clothes now. Tomorrow: Shoes and/or Winter Boots!! Oh and of course we will share a lunch out!