Thank You For Praying For Our Covid Stricken Friends!

Our friends have asked me to convey their gratitude for your supportive prayers! After a few days of rest they felt well enough today to travel into the final destination province on their journey and were strong enough to battle their way through some of the worst traffic they have encountered in some time as they drove through one of Canada’s busiest bilingual cities. A French ancestry has provided sufficient knowledge to read the traffic signs. Now they are resting for another couple of days before the next phase of their planned activities begins. So grateful they were not forced to come home early and that they found safe places to stop and rest when they became ill!! Thanks prayer warriors!

I am happily doing laundry today. The weather is still cool and occasionally rainy, so haven’t been able to scoop up all the goose poop on the back lawn yet. A friend, who has never seen the mess here that a group of 30-50 resident geese can make, dropped in for tea this morning and was shocked and horrified by the amount of feces adorning the lawn…..and that is only the back lawn. He never did notice the even worse mess on the front lawn and sidewalk. I don’t think some of my friends and family have understood the extent of the Goosey Disaster all around our complex. You can’t have a weak stomach if you want to come to our place for a visit. This is the largest group and the most feces problem we have had here in four to five years. GROSS! I picked up over three pounds of poo on my shovel a couple of days ago, and that was just along the footpath between my back steps and my car….a path about 30 feet long and one foot wide. Yup, it is that bad this year. Sigh….oh please God, help us to find a new home soon!!! Thank you, amen!!

My husband and son are having as much fun calling each other every day to sort out design issues and lumber yard orders for the book cases as they will have being together soon to build the cases! hahaha In just over a week they will be getting together in person to build, build, build!! My husband is currently online ordering a camping mat and sleeping bag from the REI store closest to our son’s place so he will have something to sleep on while he is there. The plans are moving forward despite continuing uncertainty about the airline strike. hahaha The guys are going all out for their time together and I am having almost as much fun as they are watching all this going on! haha 

It is time to put the last load into the washer….yay, a productive day!

Temporary Endings And Other "Interesting" Developments

 This afternoon we enjoyed our final meeting for this term with one of our fellowship groups.  We will gather for a BBQ near the end of next month, but as far as our scriptural and theological studies, today was the last one until September.  It is always bittersweet for me to have the summer season come upon us.  One one hand it is kind of nice to have a break from the regular schedule of meetings and events  with a regular group of Christian friends, but on the other hand I also miss the joy of knowing I am going to be studying and fellowshipping once or twice a month with this group.  I will miss having the choir singing at church for the next three months, but I know how much a summer break is needed for the choir director and for the choir members so they can take advantage of their holiday times away.  I miss the regularity of the fall through spring weekly schedules for all kinds of events I participate in around the city, but I also need the break from the constraints of weekly routine.  Spring/summer is an interesting time of year for me to refocus and figure out how to best spend my newly aquired "time off" in the more relaxing, yet still fulfilling ways until my happy regular routine resumes in the autumn.

This morning the news came out that although the WestJet mechanics...I think it was the mechanics....were able to avoid going on strike last month, now the pilots may be striking starting two days from now....exactly one week prior to my husband's flight to the USA.  Oh dear Lord, help us to deal with whatever happens and whatever my husband might have to do to get down there during his and our son's only summer block of time to get together to build the bookcases and enjoy some father and son time in the absence of myself and our son's girlfriend who is going to be away travelling for her job.  Sigh....nothing ever just happens smoothly, as planned, it seems.  I am not frantic about it, just very disappointed that as some stresses are being removed from our lives others are being immediately introduced to take their places.  I am praying so hard that for my family's sake and for the sake of my husband's fellow travellers this strike will either not have to happen or will be over with very quickly indeed. Thank you Lord for hearing my prayers and for your ability to give my husband grace to deal with things however he may have to.  Amen!  I could hardly believe the news this morning, my heart sinking into my stomach and my stomach churning for a couple of minutes after reading the news article.  Aiiii yiiiii......Well, once again it is up the Lord how this all turns out and in the end his ways are higher than ours, so....more praise to him for knowing the big picture that I can't see.

The rain came down overnight but the thunderstorm that was predicted didn't happen.  Today there have been a couple of sprinkles of rain and right now the sky is dark with clouds, threatening a bit more moisture.  I kind of enjoy the thunder, so, as long as the lightning doesn't give any power outages in the city, I would be just fine to see and hear a spectacular rainstorm....see, it is all about ME and MY imposed conditions.....hahahaha.  I am so grateful for God's patience with me! 

An Art Exhibition I Wish I Could Attend!!

 

Penrose_Couch_Notes _Bach_Organ (D59x59mod44 – 5, 10, 15, 2, 3 – 10, 20, 30, 10 – 10, 20, 30, 15, 7 – 1, 1, 1, 5, 1), 2024, egg tempera, gesso on wood, aluminum, 31 3/8 x 35 3/8 inches, 80 x 90 cm

Eli Bornowsky 3.3671984954 × 106391 Opening reception Saturday, June 1, 6-8PM June 1 to July 12, 2024

For More Information or Preview Click Here

Penrose_Couch_Notes _Bach_Organ (D59x59mod44 – 5, 10, 15, 2, 3 – 10, 20, 30, 10 – 10, 20, 30, 15, 7 – 1, 1, 1, 5, 1), 2024 [detail] The gallery is pleased to present a solo exhibition by Eli Bornowsky. This is Bornowsky’s second exhibition with King’s Leap, following his two-person debut with Yu Nishimura at the inauguration of the gallery’s 105 Henry Street location in 2021. This marks his first solo presentation with the gallery.  Bornowsky’s show, 3.3671984954 × 106391, continues his experiments using mathematics and computer programs to derive unique combinations of shapes and optical rhythms. A departure from the modernist and minimalist projects of abstraction, Bornowsky uses geometry without the infamous grid. Here the paintings exhibited are images of the Penrose tiling (or tessellation), perhaps the most famous mathematical object from the class of aperiodic tilings of the plane: geometric patterns that do not repeat and lack translational symmetry. Bornowsky starts by writing programs that generate Delannoy number arrays, wherein specific movements across a lattice are numerated into rhythmic sequences. Numbers from these sequences are translated onto each tile of the Penrose tiling, and each number is used to reference a color from the Ostwald color system.1 In one sense the works are extremely elaborate paint-by-numbers. The final images present a visual phasing, creating a multi-stable picture that is never fixed. Complicating Bornowsky’s process is his use of egg tempera, a medium historically used for painting during the Medieval and early Renaissance periods. On panels with layers of traditional gesso, Bornowsky meticulously renders his computer-assisted tiles, cutting into the gesso to incise an exact outline of the geometric form. Egg tempera is then added, a time-consuming and meditative activity rendering many transparent layers of paint with a small brush. The inside of each tile shape becomes a world of visibly scribbled and entangled strokes of unique and rare pigments. The finished works glow with tempera’s characteristic luminosity, a quality shared with historical tempera works, especially religious icon painting. The exhibition title, 3.3671984954 × 106391, illustrates the total number of possible images that could be generated based on Bornowsky’s computer-coded set of variables: color, shape, axis rotation, scaling, and cropping. This number is incomprehensibly larger than the estimated number of particles in the known universe, 1082. Though there are seven paintings in the exhibition, Bornowsky suggests a practically limitless number of unique solutions to his compositions. By relinquishing his expressive decision-making and foregrounding a set of rigid and overlapping rules, Bornowsky’s paintings exhibit both harmonic and discordant properties, a kind of musical polyphony in visual form. Bornowsky bridges the de-personalized subject of geometry into a sacred process, collapsing the scientific and the spiritual. 1 The Ostwald color system, developed in Germany in the early 20th century, is a limited set of 672 colors. It was an attempt to systematize color in a way similar to notes of musical pitch and was influential on the De Stijl and Bauhaus groups. Eli Bornowsky (b. 1980, Alberta, CA) is an artist based in New York. Selected solo and group exhibitions include a three-person show in 2024 at Catriona Jeffries (Vancouver, CA), King's Leap (New York, NY), Kayokoyuki (Tokyo, JP), Canton-Sardine (Vancouver, CA), Unit 17 (Vancouver, CA) and Burnaby Art Gallery (Burnaby, CA).

105 Henry Street (Store 5) New York, NY 10002 Wednesday–Saturday 12–6PM & by appointment kingsleapfinearts.com info@kingsleapprojects.net The gallery is wheelchair accessible

An Early Birthday Celebration

Today has been a happy day!  The sun was shining and even though the wind was rather brutal for most of the day, it was still fun to be outside enjoying the spring!

Right after breakfast my husband dropped me off downtown so I could do some family banking, then I had a lovely walk home. The stiff breeze was blowing in my face the entire way, so my hair was not blowing over my eyes, blocking my vision....a real treat.  Sometimes I nearly trip and fall over the many sidewalk cracks and holes in this city when the wind picks inconvenient times to toss my hair over my entire face.  I had two walks yesterday, a total of between 8 and 9km, so I was grateful for the shorter just over 2 km return from downtown. Tired leg muscles today made the walking a bit slower than usual.

My husband was ready to go and run some more errands about the time I arrived home, so I tossed a book into my purse and went along for the ride.  I had a nice long read while he was at the insurance company booking his travel insurance.  Then he decided that since my birthday celebration with him is going to be a bit of a bomb this year with him having medical tests and then flying off to the States, he wanted to take me out for lunch.  He chose Agave and we had a very delicious, reasonably priced lunch....chicken fajitas for him and beef barbacoa quesadillas with creamed pinto bean soup for me.  Both meals were delicious and the restaurant was happy to give my husband flour tortillas instead of the corn tortillas that usually come with his meal.  How very accommodating and kind!  We had a lot of fun having our early celebration, me especially because it was a complete surprise.  After lunch I received my gift of a shopping spree at Laura's while my husband was in the phone store arranging for an American phone package for his trip.  I had a blast!  I had no idea I was going to be clothes shopping today, so what a lovely treat. I found three wonderful tops in colours I was short of for two of my pair of summer pants.  YAY!!  Some of Laura's new summer stock has just arrived, so there were plenty of choices in my size.  I opted for one striking green shirt dress that I can wear over a couple of pair of capris that I already have, but the other two tops are kind of frilly and feminine.  It felt so good to get a couple of items that don't make me look like the practical gal that I am.  Really nice treats today from my beloved husband.

I spent the rest of the afternoon composing emails to send out to some of the people and groups our church senior's group is interested in having come to speak to us during the autumn sessions.  Hopefully I will have some responses soon.  

So, not only a productive day, but a very happy surprise kind of day as well.....made up for all the goose poop scooping I had to do after dinner tonight. We have four new geese coming through the back yard every day who have decided they could care less about our large vinyard "Scare off the geese" ball waving about madly in the wind, so there is poop from here to tomorrow out there.  Sigh.....I can't really complain because our original goose visitors are still, even after two summers with that same ball, afraid of it and do not cross our back lawn at all.  I wanted to clean up the mess tonight after the geese had returned to the lake for the night and before the predicted overnight rainfall begins.  Soggy goose poop is the WORST!!!!  There is no way to shovel it up.  So grateful I got out there as there are a few rain drops starting to fall now, just before 10pm.  I apologize for TMI about the goose poop, but it frustrates me, so venting is helpful....sorry about that folks.

Well, I do need to get to bed right away.  On Thursdays I go for coffee with a friend at 9:30m and I need to get up at 6am to take a pill for my GERD, have my breafast at 6:45am to fall within the parameters of the GERD pill's effectiveness and still finish breakfast a good 2.5 hours before having my mid morning coffee or steamed milk, to accommodate my blood sugar.  Aaaaargh....chronic illnesses make life so COMPLICATED!!!

We are going to Fancy Fork for dinner on the weekend with friends, so that is something to look forward to....Oh shoot, I forgot to make the reservation.  I will do it tomorrow between events!  Duh.....I think I am all distracted by my husband's medical tests (he found something suspicious on the inside of his arm today, so back to the doctor the middle of next week before he leaves for NYC.  Dang it....)

I do have one event planned already for myself while he is away: dinner out with one of his former colleagues.  We are going to have a Girl's Night and we always have a great time together. We don't get many chances to socialize so it is very special when we can.  Next week I will hopefully settle down a bit and get some plans made for the following week. His absence encompasses two weekends, the most difficult times for me to get together with friends. Younger, working friends have to utilize their weekends for house chores, shopping and visiting their kids and grandkids.  Other retirees like myself are heading out of town most weekends now to enjoy their cabins at The Lake or seeing their children who work during the week.  Yeah....not a great fan of weekends, but generally God helps me put something together so I don't get too bored and lonely on my own.  Thank goodness for Sunday morning church!  Even if Saturdays are a bomb, there is that wonderful service and times of fellowship with friends to look forward to. It's all good!

Would You Mind Saying A Prayer For Our Covid Stricken Friends? Thank You So Much!

 Friends of ours who are travelling around to visit their family members have been struck down with serious Covid infections that are now spreading to their adult children and it is a very frustrating time. Their trip lies in ruins at the moment and they are stranded in another province thousands of miles from home,  in isolation in a room in one of their children's houses. Now that child has Covid and her husband is isolating himself in another part of their house....I feel so very badly for them.  They have been planning this trip for months and so looking forward to it.  They feel guilty for giving a Covid infection to their family members, even though it isn't their fault. Please, if you could, asking God for grace and healing for them and their family members would be so appreciated. Thank you all so much.

Plans That Come Together!!! YAY!

The past couple of days have been great for my son and husband to start firming up their plans to get together Stateside in a couple of weeks' time.  Tomorrow the flights can be booked, my husband is already looking into travel health insurance and updating his phone so he can use it in the USA now and when we (hopefully) return to NYC together in the autumn. Since today is Memorial Day in the USA, our son has to wait until tomorrow to get confirmation from the lumber yard that the huge sheets of wood he is ordering for his bookcases can be delivered at the right time, then my husband will confirm his flight bookings.

This afternoon we received an exciting invitation from Alberta friends to come to their 50th wedding anniversary later this summer, back in our mutual "old stompin' grounds" north of Calgary.  They and we have moved on a few times since those days when we were church buddies and they were so supportive of my husband's decision to become an Anglican priest.  It has been about five years now since we last saw them....yup, pre-pandemic....maybe even six or seven years??? The time flies by so quickly I can't keep track of the timing any more of past visits with any number of old friends. Suffice to say we are excited to see them and their family members once again for such a happy occasion!  It just happens that this marvellous celebration takes place four days prior to a family wedding we are attending in Calgary. After the wedding, we may have the opportunity to visit with a former priest and his family in Lethbridge before we come back home. That would be icing on the travel cake for us.

It seems our summer plans are starting to gel nicely.  We are free from mid June to mid August to continue downsizing and to find a new rental by September 1st. By then all the rentals units that generally go to university students will be full and we will have a better idea what is available for old codgers like ourselves.  We could spend the whole month of September moving from here to there and only pay double rent and utilities for one month.  It also gives my husband the time I know for a fact he is going to need to complete (sort of??) his pitching and tossing and burning and donating project so this time he can more a more reasonable amount of items to a new place.  Of course if we stumble into somewhere suitable to live prior to Sept. 1, that is fine too. We will adjust our plans.  This also gives him the entire summer to juggle any medical appointments that may arise from his upcoming ultrasound.  Perhaps once again these apparent plans will end up being in disarray and all changed, but for now we seem to have a peaceful plan in place for the immediate future.

Sunday evening was very nice for me.  After a nice long walk to and from church in the morning, with the service and a nice lunch at O'Hanlon's pub, I had a relaxing afternoon watching sumo and then in the evening Kat picked me up for an ice cream run and a relaxing visit just sitting in her car over at the lake, chatting, people and goose and sunset watching,  just chatting about a few things on each of our hearts.  It was nice.

Today was a short grocery run, some house chores and a great chat with my husband. Tomorrow is another nicely busy day with a walk with my walking partner, a planning meeting with my minister which includes another nice long walk, and our fellowship group in the evening. The weather is supposed to be quite lovely tomorrow....FINALLY....so I am really looking forward to getting outside for more walking!

This next couple of weeks my husband will be somewhat preoccupied with getting ready for his trip I suspect and that is quite alright.  He is still doing at least a bit of sorting and tossing each day in spite of being busy with his trip planning. This evening he took three large boxes of paper and cardbook out to the recycling bin in our parking lot and I know there were things in that box he didn't really want to get rid of, but he is seeing the practicality of pitching and tossing more than he ever has, so more power to him, right? So proud!!

Another Box Packed In Faith!

I haven’t been able to focus today, lost my mojo sometime between getting up this morning early and my later morning shower. My plan for this afternoon was supposed to be a walk to the church to attend a baby shower, but when the time came to get ready and leave, I couldn’t convince myself to go. I am glad that I dropped my gift off a few days ago.

Part of my change of heart is the long talk my husband and I had this morning about some personal and spiritual issues arising over the past few weeks. It was a revealing conversation and a healthy one. Short story is that instead of going to the baby shower, I packed two more boxes of kitchenware for this move we know we have to make by the end of this summer. (Mojo back!!) No, we still don’t have a place to go but that is ok. 

Based on many years of past experience with God’s provision for us, we know there will be a place for us that will appear at the right time. Only one landlord or management company we have contacted in the past few weeks has contacted us in return. We have phoned, texted, emailed, filled out applications for viewings but even the  one responded who positively disappeared on us just before the actual viewing was to take place. We should be discouraged, worried, possibly a bit frightened that nothing is even in the beginning stages of working out, but all we have felt with the falling through of each contact has been relief! It just means none of them are the right place for us, or the timing was wrong….who knows?? Oh, wait a minute, I know who knows: God!! Our Heavenly Father knows!! As we continue to pray and track down possibilities, eventually the right one will present itself to us….at the right time and we plan to be as ready as we can be in case the move happens quickly. My sweet husband, as tired as he is today from a tree branch removal project he took on yesterday to help some friends, managed to completely clean his office this morning and throw away some more old paperwork before lying down for an afternoon nap. God bless him.

We took a half hour during our lunch time to watch the highlights from last night’s matches at the current sumo tournament in Tokyo. Sumo for a half hour each day has been our guilty pleasure for the past 13 days. The tournament ends on Sunday in Tokyo and the highlights announcing the winner will be available online on Monday. Thank you NHK broadcasting!! 

Tomorrow afternoon sometime my husband and son should have the dates confirmed for their father/son “extravaganza” in NYC, so my husband can get his tickets booked and go about getting his travel health insurance set up. He is very excited. I am thrilled for him!! For both of them!! My husband will get a good overview of our son’s new area of the city that will make planning our mutual trip there in the autumn easier! 

I feel so much better since I packed the two boxes this afternoon. I need to clean out my desk drawers so perhaps I can go and do that right now. I am certain I have quite a few old papers and bits of useless stuff in those drawers!!

And I Said To Myself: What A Wonderfuuuuuuul Weeeeeeeeek!!!!!

 Oh how I wish every week could be as filled with joyful activities and friend encounters as this one and that I would miraculously have the energy to sustain the level of activity I have been enjoying this week!!!!  Right????  Wouldn't that be loverly!!!?? haha

In the midst of the busyness I was able to work in a happy coffee hour with another friend this afternoon that wasn't in the original plan and that was a marvellous bonus.  My lunchtime buddy and I had a very, very nice meal at Greko's today....if I just stay away from their caesar salads the lunch menu has some very nice and reasonably priced items.  Today I had the gyros pita. It has been years and years....decades even....since I have had a gyro and this one was delicious and stuffed with meat and salad veggies.  For $15.95 I had the pita, Greek fries and a romaine salad topped with crumbled feta, onion slices and Greek dressing...again, not the greatest salad perhaps, but better than the caesar.  It was a LOT of food for that price and the food was well cooked and tasty.  What a nice time we had.  Afternoon coffee took my other friend and I to Stone's Throw where my friend enjoyed a HUGE brownie with her coffee and I enjoyed my Americano with skim milk.  I hadn't been to Stone's Throw in years and we were blessed with only a few other customers in attendance so we didn't feel crowded out and unable to hear each other over other voices.  

My husband is making his plans to go to NYC in early June.  He will leave a day or two after his medical test and be home be gone for a week.  If the doctor calls while he is away, it will only be a few extra days before he is back to get his test results.  Going away prior to test results seemed like the safest time to plan the trip in case other procedures await when he returns.   My two guys are beside themselves with excitement about getting together "just the two of them", as my son's girlfriend will be out of town for her job commitments that week. hahaha  This time together is a rare event for my husband and son, so it will be a great visit, building bookcases together, eating out, cooking for each other and just enjoying the process of "Being Dad and Son"!

Tomorrow my husband is going to the home of some elderly and somewhat incapacitated friends to help them take a tree branch off one of their large and beautiful backyard trees.  Last summer one of the branches of that tree took it upon itself to start growing over their back fence and into the public park on the other side.  It is quite a safety hazard to members of the public trying to use that part of the park, so our friends received notice from the city that the branch must be cut off and removed.  We are so glad they called my husband to help them.  He used to prune their trees, so he knows which tree they are talking about and has just the right kinds of Japanese saws to lop the branch off and cut it into pieces to be hauled into a corner of their backyard until a disposal truck can be located to pick it up.  

While I am at a baby shower on the weekend my husband will be doing a hospital visit for a former parishioner.  She was diagnosed with stage 4 cancer about six or seven months ago and since then her husband passed away very unexpectedly.  The other day she was rushed to hospital in extreme pain and found out the cancer has metastasized.  Things are not looking good. Sigh....we are losing so many to The Big C that it is frightening!  We are so sad at the thought of possibly  losing her as well in the near future.

Tomorrow I will have time to iron the laundry that I washed 5 days ago....finally.....hahaha.  Looks like our evening Bible study group for tomorrow night is going to have to be rescheduled, but perhaps we will both need a bit of time to relax by tomorrow evening before the weekend events begin.  If my husband is going to be leaving for New York the week following next, he is going to need time to book flights, get extended health insurance and get what he needs to take for packing all organized. Fortunately next week is a slow one in comparison to this one so he should have time to think and plan the details.  I am excited for him to be able to go and I am excited for me to be "stuck" here WITH MY CAR!!!  What a difference it makes to be on my own with wheels to get around wherever I want to go! 

I feel like a small boy portrayed in an old tv commercial for Disneyland. It is the night before his family takes him there for the first time and he parents are admonishing him to shut out his bedroom light and get to sleep.   His response is, "I'm too excited to sleep!!"  That is how I have been all this week. Many amazing meetings, arts lectures, supping coffee and meals with friends from out of town and right here in the cit y, going to fun church meetings....I have hardly slept decently since last weekend. I go to bed still thinking about the happy events of the day and then my mind starts looking forward to new events the next day and...... For me a little extra joy is, apparently, a dangerous thing!!! hahaha

-1C With Freezing Fog! THIS Is SPRING On The Prairies.

Good morning! It is just after 5:30am and I am awake because I want to be at the grocery store by 7am, but it looks like I will have to start the car extra early so I can melt and scape the frozen fog off the windows before I drive away. When I think of how the cold, damp, drizzly weather is helping the fire fighters put out the northern forest fires, where fortunately some of this weather is also occurring, I do feel at least some gratitude for the unseasonably miserable weather. Here’s to my morning shopping adventure! 

We attended a wonderful lecture last evening given by the MacKenzie Art Gallery head curator, Tim Long, who is an excellent public speaker  and has many fascinating stories to tell about his art related adventures around the world. Last night he presented a number of religious themed paintings by Giotto and Rembrandt, among others, and talked about how some of their works inspire the viewer’s compassion toward others and toward the world. He talked about the interaction between the viewer and the painting: where are we located in that painting as we look at it? He talked about how various artists frame their works….not the frame that holds the painting, but the frames the painter has incorporated around the characters within his actual work with his brush strokes and colours. It was such fun and a good learning experience for the mom of an artist. I am inspired to visit the Frick Museum now if we get to New York again this autumn. Some of the paintings we saw last evening reside there. Tonight is the second part of the series, Art and Love, where he will discuss the architecture of various buildings he likes. We will definitely attend! 

Well, if I am going to go grocery shopping I had better go and eat my breakfast first. Today lunch will be late for me as our AB friends are not sure when they will be leaving their hotel this morning on their way here. I have to cram a late lunch and earlier dinner into my schedule today so we can have a proper visit with our friends and still get to the 7pm lecture tonight. Oh how I love such days! Days of joyful racing about seeing all kinds of friends and doing interesting things make me happy.

13 Big Fat Feathered Geese On the Lawn, 13 Fine Fat Feathered Geese......

 ...one steps on the road to go back to the park,

12 fine fat feathered geese on the lawn!

(sung to the tune of "99 Bottles of Beer on the Wall")

Sigh.....

All the babies have been born by the egg laying couples over at the lake across the road, so the singles and gosling-less couples have been turfed out of that feeding area and are taking up residence over at our place once again.  If we have 13 regulars already, we will be inundated by the time another month has rolled around and the growing goslings are also brought over here by their parents to feast on our lush green grassy lawn after they have mowed down all the available feed around the lake.  

Sigh.....so much goose poop.......oh well, hopefully this will be our final summer for that messy inconvenience.  We really thought we would be out of here earlier in the spring and avoid the geese altogether this year, but other plans, problems and issues have arisen, so here we still sit waiting.

To be honest, I am beyond grateful that Goose Poo Season is later than usual starting up this spring, by a good six weeks.  We have had only the 3 regulars here since sometime in early March, prior to the birth of all the babies in the park. I have had to poop scoop exactly once until yesterday's new arrivals. So, I am not actually complaining. I am too busy being grateful that it has taken this long for more geese to arrive here on the lawn.

Once again I abandoned my plans of spending the day racing about the city doing banking, shopping and other errands.  I looked at this week's calendar of events and realized that while I will have several mornings free to do errands, my afternoons and evenings are filled with activities every day this week except for today. So, I decided I had better do the all day chore of laundry today right here at home. SO glad I did as it has been awhile since the last laundry day, so it took most of the day to compete the task.  I can work in the ironing easily around the rest of this week's activities.

It should be a great week: tomorrow morning or the next I need to grocery shop, tomorrow afternoon we are going to our church seniors' information/discussion group, then in the evening we are going the first of two lectures a friend is doing on Faith and Art, the next afternoon we are meeting with good friends from Alberta for a late lunch and long visit together at our favourite pub, followed that evening by the second lecture on Faith and Art.  The day after that my husband has a retired pastors' meeting and I have my twice monthly lunch out with my "coffee buddy", the following evening is our small group fellowship and Bible study group and the next afternoon is a mixed baby shower for some new folk at our church.  

I am REALLY looking forward to this coming week!!!  BUSY BUSY BUSY and I have all my house cleaning and laundry done, so I can relax and enjoy everything!  My husband needs a mental break from the stresses of going through all his belongings, trying to downsize for the eventual move and so I am glad we have some more social things to do this week for a change.  YES!!

Chilly Toes, Warm Spirit!

My poor toes feel like ice cubes with this ongoing chilly weather!  There was a frost warning last night overnight and at about 3am I had to close the window in the next room that I'd left open the slightest crack just to get some fresh air, but it was too fresh and I have felt chilled ever since! Brrrrrr....it still isn't feeling much like spring, despite the leaves opening on many of the trees and the GORGEOUS blooms on the ornamental cherry trees that opened up over the past few days.  They are so lovely!!  I wish the blossoms lasted longer than they do.  

We had a lot of fun going out of town for church today. My husband loves preaching on Pentecost Sunday as it is such a happy atmosphere, celebratory as we remember the introduction of the Holy Spirit to God's people after the resurrected Jesus ascended into heaven.  I am glad he was able to preach and preside today at the church we still consider "home" ever since he was prepared there for his ordination to the priesthood. I got to sit with my dear friend who attends there....Nan, of Cee and Nan fame. She was able to share with me that Cee's new meds have kept him free of neuropathy pain for about 12 days in a row! Please Jesus, long may that last....long, long, long!! Amen!

Lunch time was interesting. I was ravenously hungry by the time we finished visiting old friends and new during the post service coffee time, but every restaurant downtown was so busy today that there were even lineups outside the doors of some of the places.  So, we opted to get out of downtown and try the Caraway Grill in the section of town where there are several blocks of shops and restaurants.  We used to go to the Caraway Grill here in the city before Covid, or whatever, changed both their menu (now decimated with the loss of some of the more gourmet items offered originally, plus the "cheating" on the food preparation that makes for a disappointing meal.....not a bad meal, but not the depth of flavour and the combination of ingredients we got used to when Caraway Grill first opened locally.  It wasn't horrible, just rather disappointing.  The so called pakoras were little groupings of thin french fries deep fried into little bunches and topped with chili and cilantro.  Anything less like a pakora I have not had before and hope not to ever again.  I suppose it would have been okay if it had been advertised as something else....kind of like the old days when Chef Boyardee boxed pizza mixes  actually tasted okay to me as a kid, except they were nothing like real pizzas!  hahaha  The korma gravy on my chicken was thin like soup and there wasn't a cashew chunk or a slice of onion or anything at all to be found in it. The chicken had obviously been cooked ahead of time, cut into chunks and then tossed into the already heated gravy, so no depth of flavour at all.  Again, it wasn't horrible, it was just so disappointing as we remembered what Caraway Grill used to be prior to Covid.  I blame Covid for a lot of the negative changes in restaurants because it has messed up food ingredient accessibility, restaurant staff employment, costs to the restaurants etc. etc. etc.  Guess here in town I will stick to DarBar for my meals, but even there, lately the amount of salt seems to have been seriously, noticeably upped, much to my dismay.  I am glad we have gotten to know the head cook there because we will be free to ask him about that and see why that has changed.  He is easy to talk to and knows if we ask a question we are not complaining or criticizing. We simply want to know.

After a wonderful church service, yay Anglican liturgy, and a hearty, thanks to the naan, if disapointing meal, we headed home through the rain that began just after church.  The highway was rather slick, but the traffic wasn't heavy so it wasn't a big deal.  We spent a quiet afternoon reading books and watching sumo so that was very relaxing.  After a very light dinner my husband said he wanted to watch a particular home renovation programme with me on tv.  I couldn't believe it!  However, he loves the couple on the programme "Home Town", who renovate old houses in Mississippi. The fellow has every carpentry tool in the known universe I think and my husband, the retired carpenter, gets quite a thrill out of seeing what kind of woodworking projects the man can do in his well appointed wood working shop.  He also enjoys the man's personality and his wife's eye for designing spaces in the old homes they renovate. My husband....watching a home renovation show....will wonders never cease!!!!

The plans I delayed on Saturday due to poor weather that reduced my interest in going outside anywhere, may be moved into tomorrow.  Although it is a long weekend, most of the stores I need to get to will be open tomorrow with slightly reduced hours and hopefully the few people who don't get rained out of their weekend camping spots will be straggling home to dry out their camping gear rather than shopping in the mall I need to go to!! hahaha

Putting A Cloudy, Windy Day To Good Use!

I woke up this morning wondering what would be the best way to deal with my day.  Despite having a couple or more consecutive nights of decent sleeps, I just had no energy or motivation to do much and the wind was howling already at 6am.  So, what is the best way for me to deal with those little problems? Housework!!  It is all done now except for the bathroom fixtures, which I will do after dinner this evening.  That leaves my Saturday free to do.....whatever comes along!  

It is the May long weekend and we have to drive out of town on Sunday for my husband to preach and preside at a church service, so tomorrow he will be polishing and printing his sermon and I will be free to potter about town as I so choose.  I will see what I feel like doing and where I feel like going tomorrow.  Next week is going to be a busy one with various scheduled phone calls with friends from out of province, an evening lecture, visitors from Alberta for dinner one evening, lunch out and shopping with one friend, coffee time with another, and other happy events.  The idea crossed my mind that perhaps I could just rest at home and read a book tomorrow and was instantly discarded as being too blah and boring and old aged and hopeless.  If all else fails I can at least go for a decently long walk in the morning.  YAY!!  

I am looking forward to some slightly warmer weather next week, exchanges with several friends, delivering more books to some of the community library boxes since I found an entire bag lurking behind my desk today that I forgot about last time I made a book delivery....and had a fender bender at the same time....returning to that particular drop off point and parking in that narrow lot is less than appealing so I think I will drop the books off elsewhere this time! hahaha  Perhaps that is something I could do during my wanderings about town tomorrow.  

A day to do and go wherever I want to on my own.....it is all good!

After A Glorious Three Week Respite…..

 …..from scam phone calls, a couple of days ago the calls resumed….with a vengeance!! The break was wonderful, but this week we are back to several each day. Today’s first call jangled my husband awake at 7:45am, sigh…..here we go again. 

We continue to pick up the receiver, say nothing at all and wait for their system to hang up on us. It generally takes about a week of this response on our end of the call before the calls stop for another few weeks. 

So frustrating, isn’t it? 

The weather is also frustrating. Mid May and overnight temperatures are still only just above freezing, the wind is still cold every day and little drizzles of rain keep the sky looking ugly with grey clouds. Early this morning it was foggy. I am so grateful for several sunnier days last weekend and earlier this week. The drizzles though are also happening up north and helping keep our provincial forest fires more controlled for now than in some other provinces. That is certainly an upside to this very late spring we are having. 

This morning I am heading out for another fun coffee time with a friend. Talking with friends brings so much cheer into otherwise dreary days. I am excited for this morning’s visit, followed by our fellowship group this afternoon. It’s going to be a wonderful day!!

Hmmmm....Kind Of A Crappy Birthday "Celebration" Coming Up!

 My husband and I decided to abandon our phone "watching" this morning and go for a walk together.  Fortunately my husband brought his mobile with him because half way through our walk it began chirping at him that he had a call waiting.  We are praising God that it was, at last, a call from the ultrasound clinic to let him know that his initial cancer testing will be in a few weeks'time:  right smack dab in the middle of the day on my 70th birthday!  

Not quite the celebration of that milestone that either of us was hoping for.........sigh.....HOWEVER, that is one less huge "waiting for the phone to ring" stress off our plate.  Also, we are happy that the chances of this test showing cancer are only 50/50 and my husband's doctor is hoping for confirmation of the benign issue that he thinks it is. So, all is not hopeless and scary yet, if it turns out to be that way at all.  Yup, my husband will take all the prayers you care to offer up for him and he thanks you with a great gratitude indeed.  In the meantime neither of us is panicked....yup, of course I was panicked for the first week after the discovery of a possible upsetting issue, but those of you who know me know panic is my initial reaction to any sort of remotely possible medical worry.  Just bein' myself about this, as usual.

So, our plans for that day will have to be completely changed now and I am quite fine with that. My husband's health is far more important than trying desperately to celebrate a depressingly high birthday number!

I am very happy that after several weeks of pain in my neck and across the top of one side of my shoulders, I made a quick twist of my neck last night to see something going past outside the window and as I did so I heard a nearly deafening "CRAAAAAAAACK!!!!!"  Whatever happened to my neck when I cranked my head around "rubbernecking", has eliminated most of the pain that I have been dealing with.  Today there is still a bit of tightness in the back of my neck, and I have started doing some physical therapy exercises to help with that, but compared to what I have been dealing with, this bit of residual pain is not a big deal.  Stress tends to settle in my shoulder and neck muscles anyway and we have had rather a lot of that building up again recently.  While I have ultimate peace that a suitable place will be found to move to over the next couple of months, if my husband is dealing with a very serious health issue, that is going to change all our plans considerably.  Wow....life is NEVER boring, is it???  hahaha

My husband, in the course of his sorting through decades of accummulated "stuff" in our basement, came across a large box of our son's school assignments, academic awards, art projects, baby book etc.  I had no idea we still had any of those things. I thought they had disappeared years ago.  We spent a lovely evening looking at everything, keeping one or two letters our son wrote to his dad when he was very young, and the rest of the things will be boxed up and sent to our son to deal with.  Now that our son has twice as much space in his current apartment than he has ever had before, he can deal with his own things and decide what he wants to do with them.  It was an emotional evening in some ways: joy at the memories of happy times with our son when he still lived at home, interspersed with horrible memories of the other circumstances in our lives during his school years.  Today we are both feeling physically exhausted, mentally tired and emotionally wrung out.  Hopefully our son will have some really fun memories when he looks at his old school achievements and photos!  I hope he is spared the other memories that are not so great of that time in his life.

Our walk this morning was lovely!  The temperature is not too warm or cold, the breeze is mild thus far today, only a vestige of forest fire smoke in the air, the trees are leafing out and there are a few tiny flower buds showing up in a few garden beds along the route we took.  I will walk to my hair appointment this afternoon as well, so two short walks today instead of one long one.

We had a lovely visit yesterday afternoon with some church friends.  Something my husband said about "love" in his sermon last Sunday captured their attention and they had some questions to ask about what "love" actually is and how it differs from "gratitude" and "doing what is right in God's eyes", etc.  It was a stimulating discussion with our friends asking questions I admit I have never once thought of before, so I am digging deep into my own ideas of what "love" is and trying to figure out what, if anything, I am missing about the whole concept.  We shared snacks and drinks and conversation for a couple of happy hours.  It was a good afternoon and a very good chance for my husband to take a break from his sermon preparation for this coming Sunday.

Tonight my husband has the next session in the class on the Book of Judges that he is taking from the diocesan school.  He certainly has been enjoying it.  He has three more classes after this one, taking him into June.  I am not sure if he will have to miss one of the final two sessions or not in order to go to NYC to see our son, but for now, he is getting a lot out of it.  It is being well taught by one of the seminary professors at Briercrest, so it is certainly a quality course.

A Six Block Walk I Nuttin' Now, Nuttin' I Say!! HAHA

The walk around the lake on the weekend restored my confidence, so today's short 6 block walk to the post box sans cane was a breeze.  YES!!  I think my muscles have pretty much healed over the past month.  I am so grateful.

Although it is quite windy again this afternoon, there is no evidence right now of smoke in the air and the sunshine is most pleasant.  I had a busy morning of chores and baking here at home so was ready to take a bit of a hike in the balmy weather!  The heavy rain last week has unfortunately resulted in an early birthing of mosquitoes, but thus far the wind has kept them moving and I haven't had any bites that I am aware of.....would you believe I am finally ALMOST healed from two bites I got last August that became seriously infected and didn't respond to any of the healing ointments that usually work wonders for me??!!? Fortunately they are ALMOST healed and gone by now....just in time for a whole new set.  My doctor thinks the two bites were more likely from spiders because of the trouble I have had getting rid of them and I am guessing she is right.  Just so thankful my skin is nearly back to normal now at that spot.

My husband is already deeply ensconced in his sermon preparation for next Sunday.  I am happy for him, but gosh darn it, he is going to lose a ton of time on his "getting rid of it" moving project in the basement due to all the committments he agreed to for this month. I was down there this morning and took a minute to look at ALL the STUFF he still has to go through and eliminate from our storage and I admit it was most discouraging. There is still SO MUCH stuff!  Sigh.....  However, I refuse to give in to discouragement over this!  "A time for everything and everything in its time", shall remain my motto for the summer.  It will, it will, it will!!!!  (won't it??)

It is after 2pm and I just realized I was so busy baking and "choring" this morning I forgot to take meat out for dinner again.  Duh....I am so easily distracted these days!!  Guess it will be tuna salad or omelets again, but that is okay.  We had leftover turkey for lunch, so have had our meat portion  for today already.

I made a Poor Man's Pudding this morning and thankfully it is the most forgiving recipe in the world!  I accidentally doubled the milk measurement and then realized my baking dish was too small for me to add the full 2 cups of hot water before putting it into the oven....the 4 apples I peeled and added instead of the asked for 1/2 cup of  coconut, took up a lot of space in that dish!  Then I forgot I have to cook it on the lowest oven rack and thoughtlessly put it onto the middle rack, so the 45 minute bake took an hour and 20 minutes, followed by leaving the pudding in the oven as it cooled down after I shut it off.  Well, I tried tasting it after that extra 30 minutes cooling in the oven time and it tastes just fine.  The texture is fine. The amount of moisture and "sauce" is fine.  Big, huge, double WHEW!!!!!  

Still waiting for some important phone calls with a plan to start making our own calls to some of these clinics and business institutions to see what is going on, if referrals were received, the correct papers signed, etc. etc. etc.  We are tired of waiting and past experience has taught us that it isn't a good thing to wait too long in case there is a problem that has been missed and we are going to be starting all over again on whatever test or procedure is supposed to be set up.  I think I will let my husband make these calls.....it MUST be his turn by now, right?

Now I am bored, so I think I will go and make some cookies for some friends. 

If you happen to be a non-baker like myself and want something super easy to bake here is the Poor Man's Pudding recipe I have:

Grease a fairly large casserole dish.

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.

In greased dish make a soft dough from these ingredients:

1 cup sugar (much less works well too)

1 stick of butter (say, about a half cup)

1 cup flour

Pinch of salt

1 tsp. baking powder

1/2 cup milk

1 egg

1 tsp vanilla flavouring

Once it has been mixed into a dough of nearly any thickness or thinness, pour over it the following:

1 3/4 cups brown sugar (again, it will handle as little as a half cup of brown sugar....or demerara sugar or coconut sugar or whatever kind of sugar you best enjoy)

1 cup coconut (or not, or (add/replace with) apples or peaches or berries or, or, or......) 

2 to 2 1/2 cups of very hot water (not boiling)

Bake in oven for about 40 minutes, check after half an hour though if you have an oven that actually works properly, as mine does not.  

It is almost impossible to ruin this pudding and the fun is that it rarely turns out exactly the same way twice when you decide to play with the ingredients a bit. 

A Happy Weekend For Me! Hope Yours Was Happy Too!!😉

I am grateful that the forest fire smoke dissipated overnight, so I was able to open a window at 3:30am to let in some fresh, cool air. Since I was awake anyway I responded to an email before falling back to sleep. Gotta make the most of those waking hours, right? hahaha

We toddled off to church at 9:15am so we could take in this morning’s adult learning class, Faith and Fantasy, where today’s session was about today’s popular board games and how gamers can build friendship communities together. Our presenters are well versed on the origins and original purposes of hundreds of games and have themselves made many faith connections with other gamers. It was very interesting to listen to them and to be able to ask questions as I am so not a gamer. I have enjoyed a few gaming sessions for fun with the couple who did today’s presentation, but delving into it at the depth they have is not something I feel led to even try. They are amazing. In the church service this morning, the kids were very involved with the readings and prayers so that was fun. We always enjoy the kids. 

I enjoyed a very quiet afternoon, reading with my husband and discussing today’s chapter in the book we have been reading together for several weeks. My husband also had a nap since he was happily exhausted after his seminar presentation yesterday. Then our son called me, so that was lovely. We talked for nearly half an hour and then his girlfriend took the phone for over half an hour. How very lovely and unexpected. We talked about all kinds of things!! Having only met the woman once for a few days of visiting here with our son in 2022, I don’t feel I know her all that well, so today’s conversation was a delightful surprise. 

There is still no smoke outside so we will start our night’s sleep with the windows open and hope for the best. By tomorrow afternoon the wind will be gusting and howling once again, so I expect more smoke will blow in then…..but hopefully not.

Forest Fire Smoke….All Ready?????

The wind gusts began wafting smoke from the northern B.C. fires into our area briefly overnight, then this morning when the winds died down for a few hours the air cleared again, but this afternoon there is a pall of smoke hanging in the air. The sky is grey with smoke. My eyes are itching and my nose is starting to drip. Blecch, pooey!!! It isn’t even mid May yet and all ready outdoor activities are being restricted due to poor air quality. I had to close all our windows a few minutes ago, so it is heating up in our suite. Notifications regarding deteriorating air quality are popping up every half hour on all our electronic devices. How very disappointing for everyone affected. I am even more grateful for the ability to get out for a walk this morning!! Thank you Lord!!!

Whew! Made It Around the Lake This Morning With No Problem!

 I am so happy today!  I went for a walk around the lake for the first time since last fall and for the first time since my little tumble and muscle damage a few weeks ago. YAY!  Yes, I did take my cane, but only caught myself putting weight on it for less than the last half kilometre!!  I also learned that when I go walking that route again with my usual walking partner, I should take the cane whether or not I need it for any reason:  for the first time I can remember people and cyclists were giving me a far wider berth than usual when the path was more crowded or when groups of more than two people were coming toward me.  Will tuck that bit of data into my wizened little brain for the next walk there. Sometimes we actually get forced off the pathway by large groups who don't seem to realize the pathway is actually two way traffic!

What a glorious morning for a walk.  There was a breeze at 8:30am instead of the gale force winds forecast for this afternoon. The sun was shining brightly and it was about +20C for the whole time I was out there in the trees, watching this year's goslings and their protective parents, rejoicing in the weather, in the restoration of my ability to walk farther distances, for my husband's opportunity to do some teaching and pastoral mentoring today, for the good post surgical recovery of one of my friends who spent yesterday in the OR.  My other friend was doing well last night but is facing a setback today, so.....we shall see what happens.  She had a hardware installation and it appears her body MAY be rejecting it.  Praying it isn't so.

A couple of communication stresses were removed yesterday.  Praise the Lord that the banking issues are finally resolved and happily so. Also happy that I received a late in the day contact from the insurance company confirming that with the lack of a witness to the fender bender, it has been judged a 50/50 fault and since I had no discernable damage to my vehicle beyond a small scratch below one of the doors, I will not be required to file any kind of claim, so will not have to pay 50% of my deductible for repairs.  The other person involved will only have to pay her own 50% if she opts to repair the plastic cover on her tail light.  Looks like everything will be okay there.  I am grateful to her for apparently telling the insurance the truth about what happened as it could have been very different....the down side of having no witnesses and both of us not able to take date and time photos of the damage.  

So, now I need the clinic to call with a testing date for my husband so he can get some plans made soon with our son. They are both hoping my husband can fly to NYC in a few weeks' time, help our son build some bookcases and then take a few days to go hiking in either the Adirondacks or the Catskills before my husband returns home.  It is becoming more and more evident that regardless the outcome of this test my huband is waiting to have, it is imperative that he head south to spend time with his son before Son has to look for a new job that will of course not permit him to immediately take time off for a hiking excursion! haha Ya' think???  hahaha  Just praying like crazy that this can all work out and no doubt it will eventually.  One thing we have learned about God's economy is that there is always time to accomplish what is necessary....the timing isn't always what we hope for and it isn't always personally convenient to be on God's schedule, but it surely does work out for the best overall.  We shall see what transpires in the coming weeks.

My Teensy Weensy Fender Bender....Sigh....

Since it is such a lovely spring day with a ton of sunshine, light breezes and a temperature in the low +20C's, I decided it was too nice to remain stuck at home after lunch.  So, I bagged up a bunch of books I have finished reading and took them over to a local pub that also has a community library in the front entrance. Good old Bonzzini's has had this going on for awhile now.  Friday afternoon presents a number of challenges for finding parking spots in the strip mall where the pub resides, but I eventually found one and did my "book thing".  Since the lot is kind of narrow, a person has to be very careful to be looking in all directions when she backs out of a parking spot and I thought that is what I was doing.  However, right in my rear view mirror blind spot and backing up from a space behind me, the same time as myself, was another woman in a large van.  We cranked our steering wheels in opposite directions and the back corners of our vehicles connected, shattering the plastic cover on one of her rear tail lights.  Big sigh.....  Fortunately that is all the damage that occurred to her vehicle and there was none whatsoever to mine, not even a scratch!  We exchanged information and we each called our provincial insurer to file a report and in her case a claim.  I am so grateful for my very clean driving record!  Unless the other woman files a different report than I did, it should be declared a 50/50 and I will lose 3 points from my current 25 points. I am not claiming any damages either so won't have to pay a deductible.

My prayer request is this: since there were no witnesses and my camera on my phone was not cooperating for me to take a photo of her damages, please pray that the woman I hit is an honest individual who will report what actually happened.  We accepted each other's apologies when things first happened and I pray there was sincerety happening for her.  My bit of paranoia about it is due to an accident my husband had many years ago that was the fault of the other driver, but the dishonest report filing of the other driver almost created a horrible mess for my husband. Thankfully the insurance adjusters involved n that accident report were very savvy and I hope ours now are as well. Thanks for praying. I have stopped shaking now.

Waiting, Waiting and Waiting Some More.....

The telephone has become the bain of my life recently. It seems I am forever waiting on one or another important call that, should I happen to miss it, will result in some kind of longer term consequence to add more stress to whatever the background situation is. 

Today marks the 12th day of waiting for a call from a medical clinic, a call that may not come for another two or three weeks, but to miss out on the earliest opportunity for the test procedure the caller will be trying to schedule just adds to the pressures we are already under in attempting to make travel and moving plans.  Until we get that appointment arranged and the follow up with the doctor, we are hamstrung for firming up any kind of plans for the rest of this spring and summer.

I am waiting, along with my husband, to find out if he is going to be able to schedule his trip to NYC next month to help our son build bookcases and share a bit of hiking together in the Catskills or the Adirondacks.....a consequence of having to wait for the scheduling of the above mentioned testing.

Next week I will be waiting to hear, or not to hear, from the ophthalmologist regarding my eye examination results from yesterday's testing. Will I have to return because there is a new issue or am I finished with his visits until some other dire condition shows itself?  Not as stressful as the waiting for the call described in paragraph one, but still....waiting....

Right now I am waiting to hear from my new bank, the final step in resolving the issue with the old bank, so I am stuck at home until that call comes in....supposedly today, but who knows, right?  These people are very busy and my rather small issue, on their scale of issue sizes, has just created more work for all of them.  I don't expect to be top priority for their work day today.

Later today I will be waiting for a couple of calls from friends regarding surgical outcomes for their relatives who are "going under the knife" today.  I am close to all these people and it is hard to sit and wait to hear....if I am this worried, what on earth are their family members feeling right now? 

I am waiting througout the day to see if my extreme dry eye and other symptoms since my eye tests yesterday develop into conjuntivitis.  I am praying not, as I THINK I went through this same thing after my last session of testing there.  Hopefully it is just dryness and strain.  If not it means I will be waiting in line at the walk in clinic tomorrow, waiting to see if I can get in before all the spots are filled for the day, then waiting for a prescription at the pharmacy while trying to stay far, far away from all other human beings so that I don't spread an infection to them.  As I say, I am fairly certain these symptoms will not develop into conjunctivitis, but I will have to (key word) wait for a few more hours before I know for certain.

Hahahahaha!  Wait, wait, wait....life is composed of a series of wait times doesn't it?  We all seem to be waiting for something to happen or not happen all through our lives. It is the human condition, at least here in our highly technological cultures.  Waiting is a grand lesson in learning patience,  isn't it?  The frustrations that come with waiting can overwhelm us and cause us great stress and grief IF we don't learn how to deal with them.  In my own case I have to continually take the upsets to Jesus and ask for his help in being able to relinquish the impatience that shows itself in frustration and stress and sometimes anger.  Today I am succeeding more than I was yesterday and certainly more than I was the day before.  Progress is slow with me, as always, but I have hope that I can deal with these patience-trying details in life, with God's help.  Big life events like moving, new jobs, retirement, personal surgeries and medical isses, I have learned to deal with over many years. Now it seems it is the littlest issues that are able to drive me crazy in a short time.  Next steps on the Patience Learning Scale!! Right?  Transformation of character, even by the Holy Spirit can take a lifetime!  Hoo boy, do I ever know that about myself and my own transformation process!!

"Lord, I believe....help my unbelief!" 

Eye Examinations: What Fresh Hell Is This??

 Today I had what is supposed to be my final appointment with my ophthalmolgist, barring any unexpected findings when he reviews my tests next week, after five years of followup following a posterior detachment in my right eye.  I went to take the tests, filled with confidence because I have had them all before....SO many times....every six months for the past five years. (and I am grateful for them, and for this wonderful doctor who has cared for my eyes so thoroughly during that time)

All was well until I completed the "final" test in the usual sequence...the periphery vision test....like a video game so it is a ton of fun!  I assumed at that point that I was done and all I had to do was go home and await next week's results. However, the technician told me to go and wait back in the reception area for one last test. Huh?  WHAT one last test?  What fresh hell would await me?  When I got back to the reception areas, I realized that the patient two ahead of me in the queue was just completing this mystery test and, looking at my watch, I also realized it had taken her the better part of a half hour to complete. She came out of the exam room looking frustrated and unhappy.  The fellow next ahead of me in the queue was taken into the exam room and I could hear him sighing with frustration for a whole 20 minutes or more. What the heck, people????  

Then finally it was my turn.  I went into the examination room with great trepidation. The tech handed me an iPad and told me to put it flat on the desk top, then put an eye patch over my left eye. I could either leave my glasses off or put them on over top of the eye patch....which I tried, but a few minutes into the test realized was not going to work with them jiggling about over top of that patch.  The test had to be done first with the left eye and then with the right, standard procedure.  Well, what a test. This was a Color Shading test.  Oh my....no wonder the two patients before me were so frustrated!  The test on the iPad screen had four rows of small coloured squares that would have been so much easier to see and work with on a full sized desk top monitor, but no, an iPad it was.  Sigh....  Hovering over the iPad, my eyes about two inches away from the screen and being very careful not to touch it with both hands so the errant hand wouldn't accidentally register the test as being completed before it actually was, I looked at the square at each end of each line.  There were ten squares per line and the idea was to look at the difference in colour of the square at each end of the line.  The first square in line 1 was a rose pink. The last square in line 1 was a fern green.  The 8 squares in between these 2 were variegated with different blends of rose and fern.  I had to place my finger on each of the 8 middle squares and drag them one at a time into the correct colour sequence that would take me from the rose coloured square to the fern coloured square, looking at each square and comparing it with the others to figure out the shading sequence that would lead me in graduated variegations from the first colour to the last.  FOUR of these lines of ten squares, different colours at each end and each line to be done by each eye.

GOOD GRIEF CHARLIE BROWN!!!!!  Attempting to do this test even without having first had air puffed into my eyes for a glaucoma test, the  lights flashing directly into my eyes for photos of the back of my eyeballs, making sure I paid proper attention to the colour blindness test, and the strain of keeping my eyes open sufficiently, trying not to blink at the wrong time and therefore miss some of the tiny lights flashing at me during the peripheral vision test, well.....it would have been extremely difficult even without the eye strain from the preliminary testing.

I am a mutterer when I am even a wee tad stressed and I don't always realize I am saying things out loud, so when I was finally finished with the colour shading test and called the tech to come in and register the completion of the test, she was laughing her head off at me.  She could hear me as she sat at her desk in the next room and she apparently thought I was absolutely hilarious, ready for the stand up comic stage.  Sigh.....how very embarrassing.....well, glad I could make the end of her working day such fun.  Aiiii yiiiii....

It has been a busy day....starting off by getting my husband up and at 'em early in the morning so he could attend a meeting related to Ascension Day with the Anglicans. Then I started on the next steps of straightening out the bank issue that began at the end of last week. Then I picked up my friend and we went for a so-so lunch at a restaurant....half salads. The chicken was delicious on both our salads, but the amount of brown lettuce was atrocious.  So unnecessary and so pricey!  Plus the piped in music was far too loud. Oh well, we still had fun and we had a good visit as there were only 8 either people in the huge restaurant space and none of them were anywhere near our table.

After I dropped her off I picked up a few groceries and headed home to see if any progress had been made with the bank disaster...a resounding NO. Oh well. There is always next week, right?

I visited with my husband for a few minutes and then I got ready for the appointment at the ophthalmologist's office.  When I arrived home afterward my husband said my eyes were so dry and bloodshot that he didn't think was fair that I should have to go to all the "trouble" of warming up yesterday's leftovers for dinner tonight. In other words HE wanted to go out to eat, hahaha, so I had my second meal of the day out.  We enjoyed our discount burgers at Bonzzini's and we were there before 5pm so it wasn't busy, despite it being "Burger Night Bonanza".  (title my own)  We had a lovely visit seated at our favourite little booth where there is no music speaker anywhere near. The burgers were better than I dared to hope and we have leftovers in our refrigerator for my husband's lunch tomorrow.  For some strange reason, eating the bun from my burger as well as the bun from his own burger left him little room to eat his potato chips or finish my yam fries....hmmmmm...I don't understand it. hahaha

I have been setting my alarm early nearly every day this week and I am SO looking forward to waking up when I want to wake up tomorrow.  My only commitment thus far is to start cleaning house with a possible trip to the two banks involved in the dispute debacle I am dealing with.  My husband will be busy with last minute preparations for the seminar he is involved in on Saturday so I can clean here to my heart's content both of those days, although it may be a late start on Saturday as I am going for a walk with a friend at 8:30am!  Yikes....how did I let that happen???

Despite nearly hurricane force prairie winds today, running errands and going to appointments was still quite lovely because the blessed sun has been shining ALL day. This evening, closing in on 7:30pm, it is still shining brilliantly.  My  moods are so dependent on the weather, but I am learning to recognize weather related depression and to take appropriate steps to get it under control.

One Health Update From Anne

I received an email from Anne tonight.  While some of her tests have shown up a few health issues, she and her husband will be able to pack up as planned and leave in a few weeks on a nearly two month driving trip to Eastern Canada and northern USA. They will be able to see their family at various stops along the way AND they will be stopping here to have dinner with us as they travel through our area.  Anne thanks you so much for all your prayers for her.  I continue to pray that these little issues that showed up in her test results can soon be dealt with and that she has a marvellous trip. Bless you all for asking about her, for praying for her and for caring so much about my friends that most of you don't even know.  You are wonderful.

Losing My Favourite Clothing Store....Sigh....

 Since the Covid related retail disasters began, one store here that always serves me well for clothing has managed to remain open despite the closure of many of its sister stores across Canada:  The Hudson's Bay.  This morning I found the announcement that our store will also be closing in April of next year.  Waaaaaaaaahhhhhh!!!! Yes, our store has changed significantly in the past four years and not always in great ways, but it has still been a good place for me to shop.

I admit I am not that surprised. I wondered how long we would be able to keep our outlet.  Saskatoon's store will remain open for now and that also makes sense....larger population, or, if for no other reason than our local outlet simply isn't reaching the target profits each month and theirs still is.

Whatever is going on I am going to truly miss the Bay.  I can get quality women's wear there, clothing that is well made and lasts for a long time at mostly reasonable prices. Guess I am going to be purchasing my nightwear from places like WalMart from now on....oh NO!!.....but there are very few other places that carry what I need at all for style and "coverage".  Only the Bay......

The Bay online has been a very efficient and reliable option for me over the past few years when what I want has not been available in store. It was particularly wonderful when my mom was alone the last couple of years of her life and I could order things for her to be sent directly to her address without me having to take an 8 hour drive to take her shopping in person.  I have ordered a couple of things for myself online from the Bay, but only after having had the same items purchased locally on previous occasions, so I already knew they would fit properly, that the sizes would be consistent.  Ordering clothing online without being able to see and touch the fabrics, check the size by trying on first, is simply reverting to catalogue shopping.  I remember how many times I was stung by purchases that way when I lived for awhile in a town with a catalogue office only, far from a brick and mortar store.  Disaster after disaster resulted in many a purchase being returned....BUT at least in those days there was an actual person in the office who took the purchase from me, helped me fill in return forms and who I could go to if anything went wrong during the transaction.  Now, I hear too many stories of return item disasters to make me thrilled about having to purchase unseen clothing online.  I suppose I will have to resort to that if I can't find some other stores here to replace the good quality items at the Bay....oh dread....and not only good quality items, but age appropriate items, sized in an appropriate manner for "more mature" women.

So, a bit of disappointing news today, but hardly the worst disaster imaginable, of course.  I guess I will head over to the Bay in September and stock up on a few items of winter clothing and nightwear that I particularly like and hoard them away until I need them....after getting after my husband more than once for doing exactly the same thing in times past....yikes!  What a hypocrite, eh? hohoho!

Better take my mind off this by doing my long waiting pile of ironing....oops, ironing CLOTHES is not likely to take my mind off where I am going to purchase decent clothes next year! hahaha