We Are A Happy People!

Over the past several days my husband and I have met some very interesting people who work in retail and banking.  What makes them so interesting is how much they enjoy their jobs.  Interacting with smiling, friendly folk who work with and for the general public is becoming less common as life in that sector becomes more stressed and strained.  This week we have met three different bank employees between Conexus and RBC who love what they do, enjoy the challenges both of the actual work involved and also in straightening out the inevitable misunderstandings that occur with banking clients.  It was a joy dealing with all three of them due to their positivity.  We met a couple of employees at Sears this morning who were falling all over themselves telling us that today is Senior's Day and explaining the discounts, as well as making certain we were getting the assistance we needed for one particular transaction.  The other day we interacted with a Canadian Tire cashier who exuded good humour: she mentioned to my husband as he paid for his items that the security bars at the exit doors were malfunctioning that day and might start beeping and screeching as he exited despite having paid for his purchase, in which case he should just stand there with his receipt in his hand and wait for a few seconds for her to come and shut the system down long enough for him to get out.  "OR...", she said, "you could just make a run for it and see how far you got before a security guard takes you down. That would be WAY more fun for the rest of us!" hahahahaha  We have dealt with her before and she is a most hilarious character.  If we are purchasing something from CT we always check to see if she is working that day and try to get into the line at her pay station.  

I don't ever remember having the enthusiasm and joy in any of my jobs that these particular people displayed to us this week.  It was so very refreshing to see them having such a great time in their positions.  I hope that can soon become more of the "norm" as their cheer is contageous to us.  We came away from all of these interactions feeling buoyed up and happier than before.  Way to go people....may you always have reasons to feel the joy you feel right now as you go about your daily work.  YES!!

Wow....it is tres chilly outside today.  Earlier this morning the windchill was between -35C and -40C depending on where in the city you happened to be.  Fortunately there has been very little wind, so it is tolerable to be outside for a few minutes.  I was able to spend over half an hour shovelling and windshield clearing at 8:45am and only partially froze all my fingers in the process! hahaha Thanking God for having 2 pair of warm mittens that fit inside each other, without cramping my fingers, allowing for maxiumum air circulation inside their woolly warmness.  This kind of weather is quite alright if I put on the proper outdoor wear.  No doubt we will have a few more days of this actual winter weather interspersed with more unseasonably warm days before spring arrives in.....mid to late April??  We should be so fortunate, right?

Thinking About The "Good Old Days" In Our "Twilight Years"! REALLY???

 I am still reeling from hearing my son talk to me and his dad about our living in our "twilight years", but even worse than that is how I find myself giving in to the temptation to look backward sometimes and think longing thoughts about how things used to be in my now far distant past....oh my word!  What is happening to me???  

When I was much younger I secretly mocked my parents' older friends when they "waxed eloquent" about how things were so much simpler in "their day".  While I had a polite smile pasted onto my face, in my mind my eyes were rolling back and I was gagging and wishing they would just "get with the programme".  

And NOW that temptation to look back with fondness on the past hath come to elderly moi as well! HUGE sigh.....

It hit me hard yesterday as a younger friend was telling me all about her family's trip to a well known theme park a few weeks ago.  She was explaining how in order to get through the crowds lined up to get onto the rides you either had to book your time onto the ride well in advance and at a certain time of day using your phone apps, or else pay more and book yourself into the special queue jumping line...also using your phone apps.  While it is a great way to handle the burgeoning crowds at the park, I immediately thought about how easy it was thirty years ago when we were at a similar park with our thirteen year old son.  

At that time there were actual off seasons at the park, where there was rarely more than a 15 minute line up to board any of the rides, even at peak times of day.  We didn't need to, well in advance, pre-book our place in line, we didn't need to pre-book a time to board the ride and we certainly didn't have to spend hours and hours choosing a ride that if we pre-booked first thing in the day for late in the day would mean that we couldn't book entrance to any other rides prior to that later time of day.  My friend and her family are most tech savvy, so they handled the booking details with aplomb, but to me it sounded like my worst nightmare in the making!!  WOW!!!! When does a person ever just get to relax and mosey around a theme park in today's world? I am very grateful we were able to go to large popular theme parks like that before the crowds became the enormous size they are now. I am very glad we were able to see everything our family wanted to see at the park without having to worry about booking our rides in advance, without having to fight with technology to end up in a more expensive queue jumping lineup, without having to worry about much of anything other than wandering around pretty much anywhere in the park we wanted to go at our own whim.  I am happy we could just stop in at any of the restaurants, even at peak meal times, with very little if any wait times to be seated.  Whew!  By the time my friend was finished explaining today's requirements for making sure a person has fun at these parks and sees at least most of what they want to see over the course of a week, I felt worn out and I wasn't even there with her going through the plotting, planning and technological processes required to access rides and restaurants and tours and and and and....thank the dear Lord she and her husband are so up to date with phone technology because they did have a fabulous time. For my husband and I to visit such a place now, we would have to take a pre-travel tech course on phone apps and how to apply them in such a circumstance and place.

Hahahahaha....now I KNOW I am offically old because all that tech learning and having to fight through the crowds that visit these parks at all times of the year now, just seem like too much trouble to be bothered with!  Could we do it? Yup, we could.  Do we want to be bothered to do it?  No we don't.  We admit it!!

The worst thing that happened to us during our visit thirty years ago in regard to crowds and access to the park and its amazing rides and restaurants was on our last day there when it was announced at noon that the entire park had been rented for the weekend by the Southern Baptists for their family camp weekend and would be closing to the public at 5pm, not reopening until after the weekend.  I remember the parking lots around the park filling up with camping trailers and RV's and that by 3pm it was getting a bit more crowded as the SB's began to arrive. Wait lines gradually lengthened from ten minutes to forty-five. That was it, no other concerns regarding space and access.  Now I realize how very blessed we were during our visit!! Things have changed!!!  But WE have not, so we'd best get ourselves better prepared for the future by learning more about phone techology, apps, etc. etc. etc.  Aiiii yiiiii!

NOW I get why my parents' friends looked back with such nostalgic joy!!!  NOW, I AM THEM!!!!

Kinda freakin' out here, people!!!  Twilight years, it is!  Aaaaaaargh!!!

Cool Thoughts For Lent!

Our church congregation is doing a series of daily prayers, readings and questions to answer regarding living in our church family,  for Lent this lenten season.  Each day's session begins with this prayer by Charles Wesley:

"I am no longer my own, but yours.

Put me to what you will, rank me with whom you will.

Put me to doing, put me to suffering.

Let me be employed for you or laid aside for you.

Exalted for you or brought low for you,

Let me be full, let me be empty.

Let me have all things, let me have nothing. 

I freely and heartily yield all things to your pleasure and disposal.

Glorious and blessed God, Father, Son and Holy Spirit,

You are mine, and I am yours."

Yeah...."rank me with whom you will".....that one hit me hard.  It is so easy to feel superior to someone else based on some kind of wierd prejudice or presupposition. The other statement that hit me hard was "I freely and heartily yield all things to your pleasure and DISPOSAL."  Yeah....that is a hard one for me to have to deal with as well on a number of levels.....  Good prayer Mr. Wesley!

Yesterday's Scripture verse was Galations 6: 2-3, taken from the New Living Translation Bible.  It says, "Share each other's burdens and in this way obey the law of Christ.  If you think you are too important to help someone, you are only fooling yourself. YOU ARE NOT THAT IMPORTANT."  (ouch..........)

Many practicalities for participating regularly in a Christian community are being brought to the fore this Lenten season for me through the daily readings and prayers from our church this time around!  Aii yii, I am not doing as well with this whole "living in community" thing as I have been hoping I am.  Time to get a grip on reality here.

Yippee! They're Here!!!!

I received my grocery gift cards yesterday and have duly activated them for use.  How very exciting and extremely helpful to us!!  Gift cards make me feel empowered for some wierd reason, hahaha.  

"Your grocery order comes to $112.87 ma'am." 

"Yes it does and HERE IS MY GIFT CARD TO COVER THE FULL AMOUNT!  NYAAAA HAAAA HAAAA!!!!!"

Special, that's what it is. Gift cards make me feel special, like I have something over on the cashier....a secret known only to me as to how the groceries are going to be paid for....until.....I whip out my "magic" gift card and voila, there you have it.  Paid for, bagged and I'm outta there!  hahaha

Yes, I realize you are thinking how silly it is that I feel this way, but too bad for you, because I have the gift cards and you don't. hohoho! (Oh, don't take it personally. I was only funnin' ya'!)

Can you tell I am having another happy day?  Another day of feeling relieved that I am aware that God is taking care of me? Another day of sunshine and light blue winter sky? Another day of unseasonable warmth out there in the great outdoors?  Another day of having a reasonably clean house despite both of us eating our all our meals in the living room since I cleaned it a few days ago?  Another morning of happiness having coffee with a friend after a WONDERFUL evening's dinner yesterday with another friend?  Another happy day of waiting for a good visit with my walking partner tomorrow?

These are the days when it is easy to feel grateful, right?  Now I need to work more diligently at feeling this same sense of gratitude on the days when life is distinctly less than wonderful!  Amen!!

Happy Day Today Once Again!

We had such a good meeting at the bank this morning!  I have decided on a course of action for my own accounts and we have made some investment decisions.  A week from now we will meet with the person again and start the process of moving things over from our current bank.  It will take nearly a year to accomplish, but it will be worth it. YAY! It feels good.  What a relief!

Trips to the pharmacy, post office and eye clinic topped off our morning of errands and since we were downtown at lunchtime we had a nice shepherd's pie lunch at The Lancaster.  The music was booming, so we were grateful to be a bit earlier than the rest of the lunch crowd and get our favourite table under the speaker that hasn't worked for over  a year....a little less music booming in our ears made for a happy conversation.  The food was particularly good and relatively inexpensive today, so those were bonuses.  Off to another couple of banks and that involved a good walk for me as my husband dropped me off and headed to Canadian Tire. I walked over there to meet him when my banking errands were complete.  My it was lovely to be outside walking on a relatively warm day!  The breeze was still chilly, but the sitting air temperature was only about -9C, plus there was sunshine! The sun has disappeared behind the clouds once again, a couple of hours later, so I am grateful I was able to get out for a walk when I did and on dry sidewalks cleared of ice and snow.  YAY! 

The rest of the day is going to seem a tad bland I suspect.  Stuck at home again....hahahahaha!  I think I am happiest when I am in "perpetual motion" mode, walking around all over town with a useful purpose in mind.  In a few weeks' time all the snow will be gone and I will be able to get out walking with my walking partner and other friends where the purpose in mind is a darned good visit along with the exercise.  The two weeks of daily walks in Vancouver were most helpful in getting both my energy level and my walking speed back up. Every day since we returned I have been thanking God for that wonderful break away from molding around here in our dilapidated suite.  I will do my best to walk as many days as I can during the rest of the winter, even if it can only be up and down the one ice free block in front of our complex.   My age means I will start losing more mobility soon enough, so I don't want to give it up before I have to. (Can you tell by recent comments about my age that I am freaking out just a bit over turning 70 later this spring???? hahahaha!) 

Wasting (?) A Beautiful Day!

 It is currently -11C outside, working its way up to -7C as our high temperature for the day.  The sun is shining, the sky is blue, there is a mild breeze rather than a gale force wind blowing outside.  As I look out my window at the gorgeousness of the day, as I am still wearing a nightgown and Mark's Comfy Robe with tabi socks and flip flops, I wonder how much of this day I have been wasting completing my housekeeping tasks I began on the weekend.  

Then I look again and see the same old buildup of ice on the sidewalks and parking lot and I know that safely indoors is still the best place for me.  The sidewalk in front of our place looks fairly clear of ice and it runs for about two full blocks to the next cross corner. Perhaps after I eat a late lunch I could get dressed and walk up and down that sidewalk for a few rounds.  Perhaps I could even convince my husband to leave his sermon and article writing for a half hour and come along with me on that odd little pathway.  

Perhaps.....

It is the February Family Day holiday here, so there isn't a lot going on.  I think some people were able to get away for the long weekend as the traffic has been amazingly slow on the usually busy street outside.  Some of our friends were able to get away and I am glad for them.  

I liked the poem below that I read this morning. Perhaps you too will enjoy it!

 

"If I can stop one heart

from breaking,

I shall not live in vain;

 

If I can ease one life the aching,

Or cool one pain,

 

Or help one fainting robin

Unto his nest again,

 

I shall not live in vain."

--Emily Dickinson

 

How about this one:

"I know, you never intended to be in this world.

But you're in it all the same.

So why not get started immediately.

I mean, belonging to it.

There is so much to admire, to weep over.

And to write music or poems about.

Bless the feet that take you to and fro.

Bless the eyes and the listening ears.

Bless the tongue, the marvel of taste.

Bless touching.

You could live a hundred years, it's happened.

Or not.

I am speaking from the fortunate platform of many years,

none of which, I think I ever wasted.

Do you need a prod?

Do you need a little darkness to get you going?

Let me be as urgent as a knife, then,

and remind you of Keats,

so single of purpose and thinking, for awhile,

he had a lifetime."

--Mary Oliver

 

 

Gettin' Crackin' On The Packin'!

About a month ago I took down most of the pictures and photos hanging on the walls here and packed them to get started on our upcoming move, whenever and wherever that turns out to be!  At the time I was assuming we would be purchasing a house and would be moving sometime in March, April or May.  That COULD still happen....the moving part, not the house purchasing part....but I kind of stalled out once the initial flurry of "first pack" was done.

This afternoon, after cleaning the downstairs yesterday, was supposed to be about cleaning the upstairs of this suite, but about the time I was going to begin my husband decided he was tired and needed a nap...ergo no vaccumming upstairs. Hmmmm....what to do....I got a sudden urge to pack up the books and CD's on my little book case in my office so that is how I spent a happy couple of hours: sorting through the CD's in order to get rid of a few I won't listen to again and taking the book and CD rack apart. The shelves and spacers and shims are zipped into a little bag, the shelves are wrapped up in a larger bag and the whole works is sitting along one wall of the dining room beside a couple of boxes of knicknacks I packed when I was wrapping up the pictures.  Can't accuse me of waiting until the last second to pack everything, can you? hahaha EXCEPT, when the Lord is involved in planning our future, we never know when the call to move will happen!  It could be next week....or it could be this summer or even this autumn...whenever it happens I am going to be prepared because my husband, for all his good intentions and amount of things he has already sorted through, will NOT be prepared even if the move doesn't happen until two years from now. That is just how he is, plus he has a LOT of excess "stuff".  I was just down in the basement looking through the sewing box(es) for the stitch ripper and realized anew just how many things he will never use that he still has crammed into those drawers. Wow....no wonder he is discouraged about downsizing. If only he would allow me to help him....IF ONLY!!  Half a day would be all I would need, a full day at most to completely purge our basement.  Why can't he be like me, right? hahahahaha  😇

My husband had to prepare the Prayers of the People for church today.  As is usual when he is responsible for preparing those prayers, as he was yesterday, he gets attacked on all fronts....from chatty fellows who only call once a year or less deciding that it was a PERFECT day for THEM to have conversations of an hour or longer...two of the dear fellows yesterday in fact....to developing a bad case of "dropsy" where everything he touched fell to the ground and either shattered, spilled or rolled under something big and heavy enough to require using our dolly to lift the thing high enough to retrieve the dropped item, to...to....to.....it was one crazy day yesterday, especially for him. The prayers were finally ready for printing at 11pm!!!!  ELEVEN PM!!!  That is the kind of day he had, poor guy.  Of course he delivered them perfectly this morning and his prayers apparently touched a lot of hearts in the congregation. Thank you God for using him today.

The weather is improving once again.  Looks like we may have some upper single digit high temperatures by the end of the week.  That means a shallow covering of water will be on top of the ice as the snow on top of it melts....it will be a dangerous week for me for walking, but I will be careful!  Yes, I promise!

Since tomorrow is the Family Day long weekend holiday in our province there will be plenty of time to finish cleaning upstairs then.  I think for the rest of this afternoon.....hmmm...afternoon?  It is quarter past 5pm!  Where has this day disappeared to????  Guess I took longer packing and picking stitches than I realized.  It is nearly time to make dinner! Aiii yiiiii.....

One Big Decision Made!

After weeks of hemming and hawing, searching, praying, asking, researching etc., we finally made the decision that we are not going to purchase a house or a condo.  There are many reasons for that which I won't get into, but suffice to say we are finally at peace about not going forward with this purchasing idea.  We let our realtor know this morning and she was gracious indeed about our withdrawal from the search.  Bless her heart.

While I was dealing with her, my husband was at a meeting where he mentioned to a couple of the other men there that we have decided to try to figure out a better way to utilize our savings.  As it happened two of the men present, men my husband has known for the past seven or eight years, are retired financial planners/investment bankers.  They volunteered information as to who we should contact about finding some better investments for our bit of savings than our current non-chartered bank is able to offer, so my husband got in touch with one of the people recommended by them.  The response was that a meeting can be set up in the next week to talk about options we can consider.  Bing, bang boom, we may have some answers in a week or so as to what to do next.  We are most encouraged by this.  It is the beginning of the answers we are seeking, even if this particular plan doesn't work out in the end. At least it is a start toward doing something active to help ourselves find accommodation moving forward.  Thank the Lord!!  We feel like a weight is lifting off our shoulders.

Later this morning I met my Thursday morning coffee buddy for our weekly steamed 2% milk with no sugar caramel flavouring! hahaha  It has been nearly a month since we have been able to get together and there seemed to be a lot that each of us had to share with the other. What fun to get caught up.

This afternoon we met with some friends for fellowship and snacks and an excellent video by N.T. Wright.  Haven't seen any of these dear folk for about six weeks, so it was very special to have a get together.  

Tomorrow morning I have some errands to run and then it is time to tackle the badly needed cleaning of this suite!  I was bad....I didn't clean before we took our vacation because I knew there would be dust all over everything by the time we returned, so I lazed out!  Do I regret that? Not remotely!  Why clean twice when once is enough, right? hahaha Oooh, so very lazy......

I think I am becoming more adjusted to being back at home.  My husband is still struggling but I think seeing the guys this morning at his meeting, getting some useful information from them that will effect our future and having his mind and spirit more settled with our decision about housing, are all contributing to him feeling more calm about being here for the time being.  Our cold weather is set to take another break in another 48 hours or so, so that is also encouraging to us both.

It has been a good day. 

My Sad Husband!

 My poor husband has the worst cast of post holiday blues that I have ever seen.  He is absolutely miserable being back in the land of ice and snow. When the temperature heads into the -20C’s overnight for the next couple of nights he is going to be even more unimpressed! Last night he plugged the car into the outside heating plug so he wouldn’t have to stumble out there this morning to get it warmed up for a couple of hours prior to his lunch date and he was muttering under his breath the whole time. I shouldn’t laugh at him, but it is so funny seeing him so ticked off about living on the prairies in the winter. Since we returned from Vancouver absolutely everything is wrong here! Both our minister on Sunday morning and our friend at dinner last night tried to reassure him that they share his post winter vacation frustrations and he will get over it on a few more days, but he refused to be placated by their empathy. He is wallowing in his misery and it is totally unlike him to be so determined to be miserable, so that is why I am laughing. He is like a tiny tot stamping his feet and hollering, “But I don’t WANNA live here!!!!”.  hahahaha I have not seen this side of my husband before. He is always Mr. Acceptance, able to roll with life’s gut punches, proud even of his ability to adapt….but not this time. Aiiii yiiii!! I can only pray he can chill out again and accept reality soon for his own sake. I do know how he feels. I have experienced my own misery in times past over circumstances I wanted to change and couldn’t.  I am sorry this is happening to him. At the same time his grumpiness is kind of amusing because it is so rare and he is so determined to hang onto it. I guess maybe it is  just good to know he is human after all, as I feel sorry I often cannot attain his usual ability to accept the more difficult of life’s circumstances. Hang in hubby of mine. This too shall pass.

The Longest Christmas!

When we were in Vancouver last week we were kind of surprised to see so many Christmas lights still decorating windows and balconies on the city residences so long after Christmas.  Neighbours across the street from our hotel still had a Christmas tree in their window, decorated with white and gold lights.  It was very pretty but not expected.  We were musing as to why there would still be so many Christmas lights up.  However, this evening as we drove home from Food Village....our first attempt at this particular Indian restaurant that warrants a second visit fer shur.....we noticed that all along our route home there are many homes right here in Regina with their Christmas lights still on in windows, around eaves and covering trees and bushes.  Is this a new way to add a bit of joy to the miserable winter time?  We certainly find it cheery to look at!  Way to go brave folk who are still enjoying dressing up the streets with prettiness!!

 It was very nice to see a bit of sunshine this afternoon.  It has been most uninspiring around here since we returned, weather-wise at least.

Connecting with friends here at our place last night for a great visit filled with laughs was a good help in readjusting to being back here.  My husband spent his recovery time our first two days home looking at rentals in Vancouver and area and wishing we could afford to move there. hahaha  He knew before he started it wasn't going to happen, but he had fun searching it out.

The children took most of the church service this morning, greeting, reading Scriptures, lighting candles, processing in and out and acting out the story of Shadrach, Meshach and Abednigo in the fiery furnace.  We sang several songs geared to them and after each one the minister gave a short reflection that was based on the kids' level of understanding as much as the adults', so that was fun. The prayer time was different for this congregation as usually only one person prays the main prayer. Today the minister wanted us to model public prayer for the kids and I was delighted by how many congregants shared one and two sentence prayers out loud.  It was a creative and attention keeping service that we thoroughly enjoyed.  

Today for lunch and dinner we finished off leftovers from the past three days and that was fun.  There isn't much desire to eat at a restaurant here, even after church on Sundays, after having the chance to eat in so many truly fine restaurants in Vancouver.  DarBar here is on that scale, but few others are, so we will be doing a lot more cooking than usual....blecch, but better than eating at restaurants we aren't going to be thrilled with after being reminded what else is possible for menus and food quality. The downside of our trip is that it reminded us all too well of what we are missing out on by living on the prairies. Our hearts have never made the adjustment, unfortunately.

Off for the bulk of our grocery order tomorrow.  I am getting better at navigating the thick, smooth ice on the back lawn as I pick my way across it to the car. My husband has decided there is no way we are going to spend another winter here in this complex with the ice constantly presenting problems for us getting to the parking lot. He has survived too many of my broken bone/surgery scenarios and wants to just be done with it. I can't blame him and I am tired of being frightened by simply crossing the back lawn in winter. 

‘Tis The Bleak Mid Winter!!

The big DC cat is removing snow from our parking lot and hopefully is able to blade off most of the ice as well. It is treacherous under foot out there! While we were away the abnormally warm temperatures brought heavy rain a few days before we came home. Then the temperature dropped overnight and froze the ground puddles solidly. The snow that fell the day we flew home did not bond at all to the thick ice underneath it, so it has provided no traction. Going out to the car and back last evening I had to hang onto my husband rather tightly in order to stay upright….terrifying! My cane with the ice pick on the end of it is quite useless on the smooth ice. Today we are in need of groceries so I am kind of dreading the trip, as surviving a trip across the back lawn to the car is only the beginning of my flirtation with falling down. After that there are smooth as glass parking lots to finagle my way across.  So thankful we are getting closer to spring and the worst of the truly horrible weather should be over by the end of March…or so.

I WON Something!!!!

At least I have if I answered the skill testing question correctly on the release form my husband is currently scanning to send back to Loblaw Company to receive my one thousand dollar gift card for answering a customer satisfaction survey after a recent shopping experience at one of their stores.  

We checked everything out before printing off the forms to fill out and scan, I talked for a long time with the Loblaw employee who called me to let me know; neither she nor the forms she emailed to me at the addie I had registered with Loblaws previously are asking for any personal info other than my mailing address as she already had my email and both phone numbers.  Looks legit, so I will return the forms via email in a few minutes and wait for my card to arrive in the mail soon.   I could have just been given the same value on my PC point system, but I love gift cards and will enjoy using it....wow....3 months of free groceries!

Thank you Loblaws and PC Points!  Thank you God for this unexpected gift. I am so excited!!

Safely Home!

 We are home!  Home from the land of sunshine and rain to the land of fresh ice and snow...and ice!  SK is having a revival of winter after several weeks of break, so our plane was delayed arriving in Vancouver this morning due to icy conditions in Saskatoon where the flight originated.  Fortunately we still arrived in Calgary in time to make our connecting flight to Regina. In Calgary we left the terminal on time, but had a half hour de-icing process to go through before we could leave. However, the 75 minute flight only took us 47 minutes today, so no worries about being late! hahaha It was somewhat serendipitous that my husband kind of messed up the seating assignments so that we weren't sitting together onboard and as a result we each met a different bunch of interesting people sitting beside and around us.  There are many fascinating people in the world and it was an honour to talk to so many of them on the planes today.

When we arrived at our home airport, there was Kat waiting outside for us, bearing two pots of her famous veggie casserole and a bag of to die for multi-grain plus seeds buns.  How lovely to be able to come straight home without having to drag our weary selves around a grocery store first.  I picked up two large cups of milk at the airport, all for the price of $12.50!!!  YIKES! Could have purchased at least 8 litres of milk at the store for that price, but who cares, right?  It saved us having to go grocery shopping when all we wanted to do was get back to our suite and have a nap.  It was so kind of Kat to do help us out today.  Other friends have invited us to their place for dinner tomorrow evening, so this has been a very  wonderful welcome home.

After our delicious dinner I went through the mail that accrued in our absence and paid the bills that were in the pile, sorted through some tax receipts and caught up on settling my bank balance, watched a bit of tv and now I am about to end this post and go to bed. 

So grateful for the care and prayers from our friends as we finally put together a decent holiday for ourselves. Thank you all.  We both admit that after we skated across the terrible ice to the front door of our suite and got ourselves inside, our first thought was, "Where in the heck ARE we and when can we leave again?" hahahaha  Yeh.....as much as we would like to wake up in the morning back in Vancouver that isn't going to happen. Time to readust ourselves to the insulation-free walls and leaking windows here in our old suite and get on with real life.

Goin’ Home Is Gettin’ Real!

The airline just sent the emails confirming our boarding passes and seat assignments for tomorrow. My husband has dropped our son at his final work related meeting and is on his way to return the rental vehicle. The hotel has emailed our final payment receipt and told us where to leave our keys when we check out at 5:30 tomorrow morning. This afternoon they will pre-book our 6am taxi to go to the airport. Most of our pre-packing is done. We will have our final family dinner early this evening before our son heads to the airport for his flight home.  MUST remember to take a family photo!! The end of our amazing holiday is in sight.

And today that is okay……….forecast of snow at home and all. 

A Busy Day!

I was feeling quite well again today by after lunch so I went for a decently long walk to the Japanese grocery for a couple of last treats. It was a bit cooler today with little sunshine, but blessedly no rain either. 

I barely got in the door back at the hotel when my son texted me to say he and his dad were exhausted from sorting and packing stuff into boxes. They wanted to come to pick me up so they could have a little break. Well, sure guys! I enjoyed assisting with the last of the packing, then my husband and I walked a couple of blocks to Max’s Deli for a snack while our son had a telephone conference. He joined as an hour later as it was after 3pm and he had not eaten in nearly six hours. After that we returned to his rental accommodation and loaded up the boxes going to the thrift store into the car….so many boxes!! It took awhile to get there in the rush hour traffic, but eventually we arrived only to discover they are no longer taking soft cover books, so that meant we still had four boxes left in the trunk of the car to dispose of. What to do…My son remembered that an old acquaintance of his owns several second hand book stores and one is located close to the thrift store, so he took a risk the fellow might be around and off we went to the bookstore. The fellow happened to be there, was delighted to see our son and happily took all four boxes of books. Yay!!!! My son made a few dollars in the process! By then an invitation for the three of us had come in from our son’s second family so off we went to meet them at Congee Noodle House for a tasty feast!! Having the rental car made accepting their invitation feasible. Yay! The food was delicious. I tried deep fried, chili covered tofu for the first time…delicious! I also tried green pea vines for the first time: they were smothered in oil and minced garlic. Delicious!!!! All the food was fresh and well presented. The visiting was great!! What a lovely time together. 

After dinner, as exhausted as he is, our son drove us home and insisted on coming in for another long visit! It was wonderful, but he needs sleep. I hope and pray he sleeps tonight after having a very sleepless time here this past week. 

Tomorrow morning my husband will be up and gone early once again for one more trip to our son’s storage unit and then to help haul the seven huge boxes of “keepers” to the UPS depot to send them to NYC. That will cost a small fortune, but it is the last of the transitioning of our son’s belongings. He accomplished a tremendous amount in the past couple of days! Once everything is posted my husband will drive our son back to the art gallery for yet another meeting, then my husband will return the rental vehicle and return home for lunch. Our son will return one last time to our hotel, after his meeting, we will grab a final meal together and then he will taxi to the airport to catch the red eye back to New York. As hard as it will be to say goodbye, I am beyond grateful for all the time we were able to spend together. Thank you God.

Ready To Embrace Reality After All

I am grateful to be feeling better today about going home. Last night the disappointment was so overwhelming that I barely slept. As a result I was gut wrenchingly ill this morning. The physical action of being sick to my stomach made me feel much better….the typical life long reaction for me whenever I lose a nearly full night’s sleep….more ready to not only accept the reality of returning home but almost looking forward to it.  A friend from home just sent us a dinner invitation for the evening after we return, so that is helpful. Kat wants to pick us up at the airport, although we will likely taxi home. Another friend from home sent us an urgent prayer request this morning. These three friends reminded me of the strong group of friends we have back at home and my husband received word that he has a group meeting to lead shortly after our return, plus a funeral has come up for next weekend where his presence is requested. He now has two sermons to prepare and preach during Easter Holy Week. One of my friends has encouraged me to plan daily activities for myself farther in advance than I usually do and I plan to heed that advice. I have to stop sabotaging myself by not thinking ahead!!

As much as we love Vancouver and many other non-prairie locations, the Lord is just not calling us to leave Regina at this point in time. So…returning home is actually A-OK!! The peace of mind is returning after getting yesterday’s misery out of my system! Yay!

Transformation Of The Son

 We are amazed by the changes in our son since he joined his present spiritual community. He is transforming rapidly into the humble, compassionate person he has always wanted to be but struggled to become. We stand amazed at the depth of the change in him. He is more at peace than we have ever seen him. After years of seeking he has found his niche in a spiritual community who support him and who receive willingly his support as well. God is answering decades of prayers of his and of ours. All of us are grateful. 

Today our son is taking the director of the city art gallery to see his exhibition. The fellow was the director of the residency programme at the Banff School of Fine Arts when our son did his first residency there over twenty years ago. He bought one of those first abstract paintings and is interested to see how our son’s works have progressed since then. After all this time of not being in touch it was a joyful reunion this weekend. The number of old friends our son has reconnected with here is mind boggling. 

I don’t mean to make it sound like our son is the greatest man of all time. I don’t mean to sound like I am bragging about him. It is just that after standing with him through a lifetime’s intense personal struggles of all kinds, my joy at seeing his life finally coming together in such happy and uplifting ways is shocking to experience and I need to express that joy. I can’t share all the details because it would invade his privacy, but my relief at seeing him changing is almost overwhelming. He has suffered a great deal on his way to healing and wholeness in God. God has appeared to him at last through the fog of sorrows and made himself known, amen! 

Sunny Day, Walkin’ My Cares Away!

It is incredibly beautiful outside today. The men are driving the rental truck around the city to collect all our son’s scattered belongings left behind when he made the sudden decision to move to NYC in 2017. 

I am sitting here under the curving bank of ten windows that comprise the outside walls of the living and dining rooms, blinds up to let today’s glorious sunshine stream in and top window panels cranked open to fill our suite with refreshing west coast air. I opened the windows in both bedrooms as well, so the cross draft is most pleasant. Back at home there is no way any windows would be open at this time of year! It is only  +9C, but it feels much warmer during this second day of break from the daily winter rains. 

After the guys left mid morning I walked out for some lunch groceries to go with the thick slab of tasty meatloaf I brought home from the Ukrainian Village after last night’s dinner there. Very tasty leftover to go with my kale Caesar salad. I did a couple of loads of laundry today and took another walk after lunch. 

Sunday afternoons are incredibly busy in this neighborhood. Music is blaring from a car waiting at the intersection two storeys below me….chill 80’s music that makes me feel all summery. Happy voices from the sidewalk below are unwitting including me in their conversations. Vancouver is a little slice of heaven for me today!!  Thank you, Lord!

I do have one prayer request: that arriving home to the wintery gloom that is Regina in February will not bring on an episode of depression. This break away has been good for both my husband and myself, but we are wondering how long the positive effects will last when the reality of the bleakness of home once again sets in. I am trying to remain positive and trying to look forward to getting home but each time I remember we have only two more days here I get weepy. This reaction has to stop! 

Tragic Scenery

 Coming home on the bus this afternoon we travelled the full length of downtown East Hastings, several blocks, and it was the saddest sight I have seen in a long time. While it has always been the place for addicts, drug dealers and the homeless to gather, in the nearly eight years since we were last here the number of these sad souls seems to have quadrupled….or maybe even quintupled….or more. These people covered nearly every square foot of the sidewalks on both sides of the street….people high and agitated on Fentanyl and badly cut hallucinogens, filthy, toothless, drunken, starving, dressed too scantily for the chilly nights, surrounded by torn remains of cardboard boxes and grocery carts with broken wheels that held the few meagre possessions of the “lucky” few who manage to hang onto the handful of prized items found laying around on the street or abandoned by others in stinking garbage cans along the curbs. It was difficult not to burst into tears at the apparent hopelessness of the situation. As much as our city of Regina has a growing issue with  people in similar dire straights, we currently experience nothing to the same extent as Vancouver. Oh dear God, please help us find effective ways to help as many as we can before we reach this point of social disaster!.

The disaster that is East Hastings is visually exacerbated by the change that occurs as East Hastings crosses Carrall Street and is renamed. West Hastings. Within less than two blocks the sidewalks teeming with some of the saddest, most lost souls, give way to bands of merry middle and upper class shoppers going about their weekend shopping routines. Just like that….bang…my husband and I were once again looking at hordes of people just like ourselves. It was as shocking a change of scene as East Hastings had been. 

We are so proud of the other groups of people we saw on East Hastings: people who came with truck and carloads of clean clothing and fresh sandwiches and hot drinks to distribute to those people many of us have little contact with and might find rather terrifying.

Most poignant to me today was having a young couple barely out of their teens board the bus as we drove along East Hastings and sit down next to me. The young man was so out of it he was incoherent and could not stay awake. The girl was trying to convince him, as he grunted out that he wanted her to tie his shoe, that it was already securely tied and he should stop sticking his leg out into the aisle and waving his foot around. His head lolled over onto my shoulder at one point as he began passing out. She grabbed him by the shoulder to pull him more upright and proceeded to pull a half full bottle of White Lightning out of her pocket, along with a crumpled paper cup. She poured him half the cupful and made him drink it, hoping the act of that physical movement would wake him sufficiently to be able to haul himself off the bus a couple of blocks later. In another life she could be an amazing nurse or elder care worker, as she has the care giver’s heart and mental/emotional strength required. But oh so misdirected due to her circumstances. The two of them broke my heart. “Wake up, please stay awake. We are going to Chris’ house! You like it there, there is alcohol there. Please stay awake!” All I could do was sit on my seat and pray that the young fellow would live long enough to make it to Chris’ house….and beyond. Sigh…..I will remember them for a long time to come. There but for the grace of God go I……..

The Finale Of Our Artsy Weekend

Another wonderful day is drawing to a close, and what a happy day it has been.  I began my day with an iPad issue, my husband thought it had been hacked, so he spent a good part of the morning repairing the damage while I texted friends and family to be on the lookout for suspect emails from my account. God bless my dear husband and his ability to do tech repair. Whew!! Could have been disastrous without him. He isn’t fast, but he keeps at these tech projects until he is able to complete them, figuring things out as he goes…I am hopeless at it all. 

From there the day got better and better. We moseyed on down to the gallery once again…..by bus this time as it was daylight, ergo safer….hopefully. There was time to view the exhibition again before the artists’ talk and then we sat for nearly 90 minutes listening to the two artists ask and answer each others’ questions about their works and their creative and physical process. It was fascinating! We were able to chat once again with some of the same artists we met the other night. 

It has been a fantastic time for us watching our son in his element, something we are only rarely privileged to experience. It has also been an artistic learning experience that we have appreciated very much. We were given a tour by the gallery owner to see all the on site storage facilities and offices, shipping and meeting areas. She has been good to us. Today I was in a bit of a hurry to leave as I had been waiting seven hours between breakfast and lunch, so she hustled us into her office to devour the remains of the lunch she had provided for the artists earlier that afternoon. 

So, our reasons for coming here are slowly drawing to a close. All the arts events are done and our son flies out on the red eye back to New York Tuesday evening. Tomorrow he and my husband will pick up the rental truck and collect all our son’s boxes and other bits of “stuff “ he left all over Vancouver near seven years ago when he departed the west coast to aim for his dreams in New York. They will haul it all to the apt. our son is staying in and he will take a few hours to sort everything out. (I will be at the suite doing laundry and taking myself out for lunch at a restaurant my husband has no interest in.) The next morning the “keepers” will be taken to one storage unit, some of the rest dropped at the thrift store and a precious few items to UPS to be shipped home to NYC.  Then we will have a final breakfast together the day our son flies home. We will leave for home the following morning. Wow, it has been a wonderful break from day to day reality for us. 

Mama Is Starstruck!!

I admit to feeling like a starstruck teenager this weekend, meeting well known Canadian artists through my son’s connections at this exhibition. When I met Liz Magor I was totally tongue tied…..at MY age, totally starstruck!!! How crazy is that, right??  Just because she is such a Canadian icon….hahaha Elizabeth Macintosh sat across from me at dinner and I blithered like an idiot about how I love one particular painting of hers, but at least she seemed pleased by how much I like it. I completely fell apart when I met a literary agent who represents a number of Canadian authors my husband and I read, but her response to my stumble bumbling conversation was that she thinks I have a sly, subtly hidden sense of humour she bets not everyone gets. Wow, she is so right!!!!! But SHE got it!!  wanted to bow down and kiss her feet but even in the midst of my super fan fuzz brain I was able to process the fact that I definitely should NOT do that. Hohoho!!! She collects my son’s works, has since 2007. Thank you Lord. There were other iconic Canadian artists there as well and over dinner I managed short conversations with each of them without making a complete fool of myself….weeeellll…maybe half a fool?? 

I am freaking out because I will have the opportunity to see some of them again this afternoon at my son’s artist talk at the gallery. Hopefully I will be able to behave like a mature adult….or at least some kind of adult …..aaaaaaarrrrrgggghhhhh….I am so embarrassed!!!! 

My son lives and breathes the rarified air of his arts community and I respect his ability to move smoothly and easily between the various classes of people who share his world, not a trace of snobbism, or even recognition that there could be such a thing that would require HIS participation in it. He has no use for that and has made it clear throughout his life. Bless him for the way he includes his hayseed parents in his circle…..a circle that also has well accepted us here on the west coast. We are blessed.

I Think I Agree With Jacques Ellul On This….

Christian anarchist Jacques Ellul brought up a good point in some of his writings that Christians could likely be more successful anarchists than humanists would be because Christians would have a better understanding of human nature. I find committed humanists a tad naive about that. There seems to be an idea there that if there were no imposed societal controls on behaviour then humankind would work out ways to get along together. As lovely as that thought is……hmmmm….I suspect not. I need to study this subject a bit more.

Thoughts for a slow day at home….restful day…..boring day? I do not rest and relax well here it seems. Perhaps a good long walk while my husband is napping would be in order.

Such A Great Time Last Night. Part 2

 Once we actually found our way into the gallery the fun began!! We were happy to have been among the first to arrive because we were able to do a thorough tour of the exhibit and actually view all the paintings relatively unhindered. All three artists had excellent work on display. Our son is the only artist in the exhibition who is not currently represented by this gallery, but that might change, who knows? Our son and the gallery owner have been dancing around each other for years now. He has no rep at the moment, but the owner of the New York gallery where he is showing in May stepped into the dance to suggest more appropriate pricing for our son’s works in this current show. The art world is a complicated one, that is for sure. Yikes!!

During the two hour reception we alternately continued wandering about the gallery in the midst of the ever growing crowd with all its noise and sitting on a comfy bench looking at the many artists’ publications on the shelves out on the waiting area. Our son was taking a count of all the people he talked to and it was closing in on 100 by the time the two hour reception ended. By that time the gallery owner had taken us upstairs to a comfy sofa to sit and enjoy some of her other represented artists’ works not in the exhibition. 

After the reception ended there was a dinner hosted by the gallery owner for the exhibitors, plus the other artists she represents, plus elderly us! hahaha We have never been so pampered in our aging lives, thus have never been made so aware of how obviously ancient we apparently appear to be to other people. Hahaha!!!

The food for the dinner was prepared by a Syrian women’s catering group. Oh, it was delicious: chicken and lamb skewers, salad, saffron rice, feta filled samosa like wraps, battered fried cauliflower, sticky buns…..ohhh la la!! It was more than worth the wait until after 9pm to eat.

We were so wired from the exhibition, seeing our son’s works along with the other two artists, as well as the interest shown by the attendees in our son’s works, the very late dinner and the sheer joy of being there to meet other artists and art collectors over dinner, getting to share our faith with several interested folk….it was nearly 1am by the time we got to sleep. 

We are having a quieter day at home now. We went grocery shopping before breakfast and then I took a walk afterward while my husband hauled out his laptop to begin working on a short series of sermons he is giving at one of our former churches in the weeks before Easter. Our son is at two meetings this morning and will rejoin us for awhile after lunch. Another happy day! We have been in touch each day with his girlfriend and she is slowly getting over whatever “bug” made her so ill, but is able to work from home. Today we will make our own lunch, then venture into the Friday night crowds for dinner. Fun!!

Such A Great Time Last Night! Part 1

We had a blast yesterday!! Our son showed up for breakfast again and we visited together all day! We walked to Papi’s for really tasty fresh seafood chowder and kale salad at 2pm and around 5pm he left for a trip to his favourite bookstore while my husband and I got ready for the gallery reception at 6pm.

The hotel here is so helpful in arranging taxi service, even directing the driver into the underground parking area to keep us out of the rain! (one perk of being old codgers) We were outside the gallery entrance right on time…..except neither we nor our taxi driver were sure that was where we were!  hahaha The gallery is housed in a former marine engine repair building on a dark side street in the most dangerous area in the city. The building is painted black and so is the gallery logo on the lower half of the wall beside the industrial gates at the entranceway. It was completely invisible in the darkness. 

The entry door to the gallery is through those gates and around the side of the building away from the street. It is actually completely invisible from the street. Our taxi driver refused to let us out until we confirmed we were at the right place, but my husband got out of the cab and did some checking, finally figuring out what was going on while I called our son for identification assistance. Hahaha 

We found out we are total taxi rubes here: when it was time to come home at 10pm our son used his Yellow Cap app to find us a driver, the driver was only three minutes away, so the gallery owner led us to the closer exit door to catch our ride.  Aiiiii yiiiiii….what idiots we turned out to be. A couple of minutes after stepping outside into the darkness a small dark blue car pulled up. There were no markings on the outside of the car to indicate it was a taxi, it was too dark to see the driver’s face and we couldn’t see any equipment on the dashboard to indicate the car was a taxi. 

For the next nearly five minutes the car sat there. No one got out of the car. We continued to cower in the dark. Finally the driver rolled down the passenger window and asked, “You’re not waiting for the taxi ordered by Eli by any chance, are you?”. Ooooohhhhh how embarrassing to have to admit we were indeed his expected fare. Blush….. I don’t know what the extra five minute wait cost our son, but we sure felt stupid!! hahahaha 

That’ll larn us!!! Yuppers!!!! We have been away from cities for two long…..we no longer know anything. Two prairie rubes….sigh…..We will do better next taxi trip….surely we will…..right??? 

I Forgot!

 Since arriving here I am remembering how larger cities energize me. Even walking about the streets on my way to the grocery store or pharmacy, running the most mundane of errands, gives me joy as I witness the abundance of life teeming around me. By the third day here in Vancouver my daily malaise was lifting, my brain fog completely dissipated, my physical energy started recovering and my happiness has grown by the hour. When I realized this morning that we will be returning home already the middle of next week I became rather teary. Yes, I want to see my friends there, but then I wish I could return here, or to some other larger city. Aaah well, it is not meant to be. That is ok. Life at home includes the wonderful friends and some ongoing ministry opportunities that we enjoy. 

If we had a larger, less provincially contained arts scene I would really enjoy Regina much more. The galleries here do not contain themselves almost solely to indigenous works and  artists from this province like our local galleries do. The variety of truly exceptional art works at home is pretty scant. I am realizing just how much I miss having that kind of variety in the visual arts scene. Our own local galleries do the best they can with what is available to them, but the size of the provincial population certainly limits the number of skilled artists. I am happy with how hard Regina promotes what artists we have, great and mediocre, but I feel bereft by missing out on all the other cultural attractions that exist on larger cities. Yup, that’s just me. I recognize what I need personally and I also recognize how few people have the privilege of having all their own social and cultural needs met in this life. 

Although One Of Us Is Missing From This Trip….

 ….yesterday with our son was still glorious! He arrived at our hotel for breakfast, jet lagged and stressed about his afternoon lecture, missing his life partner terribly, (she is improving day by day so we are relieved about that), but determined to make the most of his time here. One of his biggest, happiest pieces of news is that after an over 20 year search he has found his spiritual community and is celebrating four months of involvement with them. Our hearts are rejoicing! 

After breakfast and a long, happy visit, he left for the first of two business meetings and we met him later that afternoon at the university for his lecture. It was so much fun and we learned quite a bit more about his creative process and painting techniques than we knew previously. Seeing his joy bubbling up as he interacted with the students was just great. 

Afterward we met some of his friends from the university before he left for his next business meetings and we headed back to our own neighbourhood for dinner.  My husband has been wanting to try the oven fired pizza at the Nook, so last night was the night!

What fun!!! The little place was crowded and the music booming, but we scored one of the last open spaces: a tiny ledge table up against the window looking out on the street, separated from the other tables and away from the main music speakers; just wonderful. We spent the nearly 40 minute wait for our fabulous ricotta pizza (with fresh spinach leaves and spicy black olive strips) munching on an endive salad with chick peas and candied walnuts. The meal was fantastic, the pizza was thin crust so I could actually eat three of the smaller slices, and was worth the wait.  We came home to the hotel very full and very happy. 

Tonight is the opening reception for the exhibition and we are looking forward to that very much. Our son has work related commitments every day he is here, yet has set things up so that he can see us every day. Bless him!