Happy Choices Today!!! YAY!

 What a cool day we are having today....well, actually the weather is stifling hot again, but my husband and I are having a "cool" time of it anyway.

My walking partner was over for a good visit this morning.  Thanking God for her youth and joy in living, her interesting sharing about her life, her spiritual encouragement....she is a huge blessing to me.  

My next door neighbour stopped in as well this morning to get directions to a grocery store she wants to shop at as she is fairly new in town. She has been having some anxiety issues and is very stressed about living in this odd little complex, so I asked her if I can take her to lunch next week to give her a break. She is quite alone all day while her son is at work.  It would be nice to give her a change of scene and get to know her better.  Hopefully that will work out and she will feel less alone in here while her son is at work all day.

Our pastor called to ask me if I will read the Scriptures on Sunday, so I am looking forward to that.  We are reading the stories of King David and I have to say the preaching of those stories by various visiting summer preachers, as well as our own minister, have been very real and pointed and helpful...the Bible doesn't water down the issues of the various people whose stories it tells, therefore they are so relatable to every generation since the stories were recorded.  There has been no airy fairy pie in the sky white washing of David by any of our summer preachers...hallelujah!  Our minister this past Sunday even went so far as to remind us that sexual sin is not the only sin in the world and it is time we started being more forgiving toward and gentle with those who have fallen into its clutches. I was so happy that he could be so realistic.  

Then we headed out for some errands. One of those errands was to see if we could find a 9' by 12' area rug to put on top of our dreadful looking old living room carpet.  After the last professional cleaning we realized it no longer looks any different after the cleaning than it did before. It is just so old and damaged from likely more than 15 years worth of tenants.  We found just the right one at our first stop: a liquidation store of all places, Bianca Amors.  We only stopped there because we realized it is very close to where we had just run some other errands, so decided to look, not expecting to find anything at all, or at least nothing of a quality worth purchasing.  Wow, we were wrong!  There hanging on the wall was the perfect carpet for us.  It is an old fashioned pattern that suits our furniture very well. It was half the price of the ones we found online at the carpet stores and the quality is sufficiently high to last us for a number of years.  It will be able to move with us when we finally get around to that event.  

 

 

 My  husband realized as we left the store that one of our favourite little restaurants, which we rarely go to due to its location, was very close by. So we had lunch at Ginger Garlic.  SO DELICIOUS.  Last time we were there we felt disappointed because we ordered some dishes we thought we were familiar with, but it turned out this restaurant had a different take on them than we were expecting. The food was very good, but just wasn't what we wanted at the time.  Today we stayed away from those dishes, picked items we haven't ever had before and wow, it was marvellous. The service was fantastic too. A small bonus was that when I went to pay using the debit machine, the first tip option that popped up was 10% rather than the 18% so many of the other machines offer these days. Of course I tipped more than 10%, but it surely was nice to see that it was offered at all!  We enjoyed veggie samosas with such soft potatoes inside and the outside wrap not so deep fried that it was tooth breaking...bonus...the tamarind sauce was very good too.  My husband had a delicious chicken curry loaded with meat and sauce and I had the grilled fish sekwa that had a very thin chick pea batter around each piece.  It was a large serving for just being an appetizer.  The addition of a butter naan and the "on the house" appetizer of hot crusty potato strips rounded out our meal.  We very much enjoyed it and the prices are very, very reasonable.  We will go there again in the near future.

The other thing that happened today is that my husband, as he was going through more of his "Designer Basement Collection" as I am calling it, discovered the original Venetian blinds that were on our dining room and kitchen windows hiding behind a big box.  Why we still have them we don't remember, but we do remember why we removed them and purchased new ones as soon as we moved in....during a 2 week cold snap of -40C in January!  We were ticked off about the overall lack of cleaning in our suite when we began moving in, we were disappointed to be living in a space half the size of what we were used to before we came to Regina, and after all the other cleaning we had to do to make the place habitable, the extra two weeks we gave the management company to do some MAJOR cleaning jobs that we were told would be done but weren't, the idea of having to put the blinds into the bathtub to wash them, then find a place warm enough to hang them to dry, was just more than we could take.  We were exhausted by the time we got in here and got settled, so we pulled down the old blinds and replaced them with new ones at our own expense....the ones that, over the past 3 summers of intense heat, have melted in the sun.  They are now useless, so tomorrow we are going to wash the old blinds and if they are remotely acceptable at that point, they will go back up for the time we remain in this suite.  Less expensive than replacing the current ones, plus new blinds are now a completely different style...at least they are in this city....and Venetian slats are rarely available apart from a few at one of the hardware chains. The few avaiable have wood patterned plastic slats....no....not so much....eek!  If we have to get those we will....the venetians let the least amount of light and heat is and can be peered through late at night when we hear possible criminal activity going on in our parking lot or out on the front lawns. We shall see what tomorrow brings.  We will be able to hang the the old blinds outside on the back porch railing to dry in the hot sun.

 It has been a good day.  The carpet is down, waiting for a few days to stretch and let us know what direction it is going to start "walking" across the surface of the carpet below. At that point my husband will use a few carpet tacks to hold it in place.  My whole attitude about this suite is lifting as I gaze at something clean and new on the main part of the downstairs floor.

Thanking God for a good day today.

Finally Some Freedom To Enjoy Life Again

This morning my husband contacted the property management company who showed us the "wish it was fit for human habitation because if it was it would be the perfect place for us" rental unit. He cancelled everything and since they had received positive information from our references, they decided to keep our application on file in case they have other places available in future.  We parted on good terms, no problems, no upsets and we feel free as the air today!

I spent the morning making a giant batch of bison chili and a pot of rice to give to three sets of friends in need of edible encouragement. What fun!!!  I browned the garlic and onions with the bison, chopped and diced green peppers and carrots, added some corn and black olives, chick peas, white and red pinto beans, tomato sauces and fresh herbs along with the chili and paprika powders and just had a great time.   My hip behaved itself and I was able to stand up well for the couple of hours it took to get everything prepped and into the pot for browning and sauce'ing.  Now the chili is cooling and will be distrubuted this evening to the recipients.  There was even enough for a good sized carton for ourselves.  

Yesterday after church I went for a little walk....about 5 blocks round trip.....so that I could take some books I finished reading to the nearest community library box.  I was excited to see that they had a half dozen books there that I wanted to read, so I started taking my used books out of the bag to make the exchange. Since there is a large dark leafed hedge around the bottom of the library box, ( I don't know how to spell "ka-tone-ee-asta" bush and my computer search engine won't give me anything but cottoneaster....is that the same thing, plant oriented friends??I know zero about plants!), that I know from experience wasps like to hide in, I decided to be as quick as possible just in case one showed up.  

By the time I got my cane hanging safely on the side of the little wooden box and got the door opened, of course a wasp had already made an appearance.   I brushed it out of my face and it disappeared.  Of course, as I knew already, it had simply gone to get a couple of buddies to come and swarm around the unwanted intruder: moi!!  Long story short, within seconds, as I attempted to avoid the wasps without batting at them and getting myself stung, I dropped three paperback books onto the ground, my cane fell down into the bush and the three wasps were busy buzzing about inside my book  bag so that I couldn't get the rest of my old books out and get the new books in without taking too large a risk.  Sigh....I retreated a few yards away, two of the wasps flying right into my face and the other one still spec'ing out my book bag, but eventually the two in my face lost interest as I stood so still, barely breathing. Off they went and I decided it was time to get those books picked up, fetch my cane from the bushes, grab my now wasp-free book bag that had only a handful of the books I wanted and hie away out of there!!  At least I got all 7 of my old books back into the library box without further books falling to the ground and I even managed to get the box locked up again without panicking.  As I picked my cane out of the hedge of course the three wasps reappeared immediately and started dive bombing my head, but I stood still again and after a minute they moved off sufficiently that I was able to start walking away.  Of course two of them followed me to the end of the block, but I am grateful for the grace to not panic until they flew back to the bushes.  Aiiii yiiiii....wasps are everywhere this time of year it seems, after a late start to wasp season.  I wasn't able to get a prescription for an adrenalin kit before my doctor went on holidays and perhaps I don't need one, but the first sting of my life last summer resulted in only a mild reaction and often the second one is the really bad one, so I am trying hard to remain sting free this year.  Please God....

The walk was so refreshing as I have not been walking anywhere farther than the property management office on the other end of our parking lot for the past month or more, but of course I am paying the price today.  Still, I have a high pain tolerance and have had only a little bit of trouble post chili making.  I am counting the days now until I see my doctor in early August and can talk further about the hip replacement possibility.  THEN come holidays and it will be so wonderful to go and see family and friends, to participate in their wedding and anniversary celebrations.  YIPPEE!!!  (I am glad I took the wee walk, wasps, pain repercussions and all.)

It is very hot again today and will be hotter again for most of this week,  similar to last week. So, blinds and curtains opening and closing, fans running as required...the hot weather choreography has begun once again after a more manageable weekend.

Small Honesty Equals Big Solution!

This morning my husband came to me to show me all the sorting and turfing and organizing he has been doing in preparation for a move.  Short version is that he is finally able, after hauling many boxes and trunks around for the past over 25 years of moves, to go through every one of them and figure out what to do with all the things inside them. He has never in all that time been able to do this task. Between working too hard for too many hours a week, fighting a constant battle with CFS and coping with all the losses he has experienced over the years, he has never had the luxury of being able to sort through a lifetime's collection of various assorted "Stuff!"  You have to either be a CFS sufferer and workaholic yourself or live with someone who is to understand how there could be NO time available before retirement to deal with all these things.  I am so proud of the progress he has made, but I also began to clue in as to what it is that has been kind of "off", awry, not connecting, out of kilter with this move we have been attempting to make.

Yes, we do need to get out of here before too much longer, BUT my husband finally told me honestly that he isn't ready yet.  He will be before too much longer, (I saw that for myself today as I surveyed his progress), but he admitted that trying to rush through the rest of his sorting projects to be ready to move in as little as four to six weeks, had we decided to take the condo suite we saw on Friday, was leaving him on the verge of another PTSD episode.  AHA!!!  That is what has been wrong since we began seriously searching for a new suite.  He didn't want to tell me and make me feel discouraged; like he would never be done and we could never move out of here.  

I would be tempted to feel exactly that way except that now I have seen how much progress he has made in a reasonable amount of time, so I am more than willing to give him a couple of more months, or however much longer he needs.  

No wonder we haven't been able to find a place....my husband is simply not ready to go. Easy peasy and now he wishes he had shared that some time ago.  I am thrilled that he finally did.  If we are here for another couple of months, longer even, that will be okay.

I know something has been out of sync since we began this search because every 24 hours we have been changing our minds about what to do and where to look for rentals and and and and and....well, you know all about it because every blog post has us going in a different direction than the previous post....like a seesaw!!

Finally we are BOTH at peace about what is going on!  I suspect we will both actually sleep well tonight for the first time in over a month.  When my husband is ready to go we will resume the search...whenever that happens to be.  We will purchase a pair of inexpensive new blinds for a couple of the rooms right here in need of replacements and I will scout out an area rug to cover the ugly living room carpet so that the living space is not so horrible and we will ride it out until it is time to go.

So, tomorrow we will let the management company for the last suite we saw know we are not going to take it and then that will end the entire project until we KNOW it is the right time, instead of making another ASSUMPTION that it is time to go based on our upsets over things here that we have coped and can continue to cope with for awhile longer.  It is all good.  

Now my blog posts can be about other things once again!  ("Whew!", you say?  Hey, I heard that!!!) hahaha

Thanks praying family and friends....your prayers have been answered and we have learned a ton from this search process about what we actually need, about various kinds of landlords and management companies, where we can compromise and where we can't....it has been a good experience for reasons other than the expected ones!

Catching Up!!

 We are blessed today with a daytime high temperature UNDER +30C!  It is only +26C today with a strong wind that is blowing through our place very nicely, creating a liveable space without having to keep every blind closed and covered with heavy sheets and blankets to keep out the extreme heat.  How very lovely!

I was able to take advantage of the somewhat cooler weather and less smoky atmosphere to complete the house cleaning I began yesterday.  Oooh, dat feel good!!!!  The dust was all over everything from having open windows and run fans all night, every night, to cool the suite down.  So thankful for a couple of days like this before the temperatures in the low +30's begin again on Monday.

Speaking of Monday.....since we last communicated with the property management company for the suite we liked so much, we have discovered a couple of well hidden red flags, so are rethinking our plans once again. IF those red flags can be dealt with when we meet with the company rep on Monday, we will likely sign a lease but if they don't it would take more than a compromise on our part to deal with those issues and if the condo owner isn't willing to do what needs to be done to deal with the issues he will have to find another tenant.  More on that if we can't come to an agreement on Monday.  Thanks SO MUCH all you praying people.  I do believe our unexpected findings last night about the suite, the sleepless night we had as a result and the subsequent conversation my husband and I had earlier today, the discovery that we are on the same page about this problem, are all a result of your prayers for clarity for us.  

I apologize if it seems that I am making a daily "huger" than it needs to be deal out of simply finding a new home to rent, but please understand we have lived in the past over 20 years in some of the worst dumps around for reasons beyond our control.  We have been in this one for the past ten years and we are now in our 70's.  Where we move to at this stage of the game is very important to us, particularly now that we are able to pay sufficient rent each month to qualify us for a nicer place now, even if such places are difficult to find.  If things fall apart completely on Monday, we will simply take our August holiday and start the search again when we return home. No biggie.....not really. The prayer support and the suggestions from all of you, our friends and family, have been so wonderful.

Our son phoned today! That was a nice surprise.  Although he is very busy preparing a proposal for a public art installation out in BC, he is sticking to his decision to take his weekends off for the sake of his physical and mental health and we are proud of him for that.  He and his girlfriend were at a modern dance performance last evening that they greatly enjoyed and today he is meeting up with one of his best friends to go to a park to sit by the river and watch the flowers blooming.  It takes a lot of discipline for him to change his workaholic ways, so every time he succeeds are are delighted.

I can't believe it is nearly time to make tonight's dinner. The great thing about housework is that time passes so quickly.  It is a wonderfully productive way to spend a day!  Now I can spend the evening watching sumo with my husband and digging into the chicken 'n' rice stove top casserole I am planning to prepare. 

Another Day That Didn't Go As Planned...And That Is A Good Thing......I Think.....

 Weeeeellllll...another most interesting day for us. hahahaha

As you know from the previous post, we made the decision yesterday to suspend our search for new accommodation because we were becoming stressed and for us that usually means we are not sitting back enough to actually trust God to help us.

Mid morning today we received a text from the management company whose rental unit we made two thwarted attempts to view earlier in the week.  Finally today they had the correct keys....hopefully?  Could we come and see it?  Yeah, sure, why not?  I was cleaning house and wanted to take a break, so away we went.  This time the agent did have the correct keys and in we went to view the suite. There had been an issue between the actual owner of that suite and the recently vacated tenant that resulted in the fiasco.  Weeeeelllll.... as it turned out this suite, LOVELY as it is, it is smaller than hoped with a different, less workable layout for us than the suite one of the other condo owners had shown us on Fiasco Day. Oh well, we had no expectations prior to seeing it anyway.  We told Kevin, the rep, why it wouldn't work for us and he said that he had another place he had just come from that was for rent and was larger and did we have time to drive out to see it immediately?  Sure....he told us the address and we recognized it as a place we applied for some weeks ago and been told that it had already been rented. Kevin said he would call his boss and find out what was going on.  Guess that deal had fallen through so yes, we could certainly go and view it.  

Off we went.  It is in a building that other friends of ours have been living in for a number of years.  The suite is, shall we say, somewhat well worn, BUT it is in better condition overall than our current address.  There are two large bedrooms with large closets and plenty of storage space for our large stacking shelf unit, a decent sized pantry, two bathrooms and best of all there are underground parking stalls.  The parking unit was being cleaned today so all the cars were outside and we could wander through the lot to look at the size of the storage units....so, guess what?  hahaha OUR parking stall is the only one in the building that had no storage unit. hahaha  It was roughed in but had never been built.  Building the storage space in full is the responsibility of each tenant and the person in this suite had never done it.

Long story short, we are interested in the place, there is a good possibility of a 2 year lease with another possibility of a slight rent reduction for a lease that long, we got permission from the owner to get the three sheets of plywood and a door unit to build our storage area in the garage and our friend who lives in the building has volunteered to help build it as he also helped build many of the other units. We want to make it look the same as the others to keep things uniform and it is not a difficult build.  With a rent reduction for the longer lease and likely not paying the water utility, we are happy to purchase building materials and do the work.  Less than a day would have it finished. 

The way things stand now, as we enter the weekend, is that it is highly, highly unlikely the owner of the unit is going to change his mind about our suitability for tenancy and if nothing changes on our side or his between now and Monday, we will probably go into the management office then and make initial payments, sign the lease etc.  

However, if something changes and we realize this is NOT the place after all, we will not be heartbroken.  The trade off for us is that although the place is a bit worn, the rent is much lower than many of the other 2/2's we have looked at....to the tune of four to five hundred dollars a month.  Even if we have to pay for the water utility after all, we are still in good shape with monthly payments. It is a condo unit so it is all on one floor on the top level, but we have stair access as well if we want to keep fit!  The location is very good.  It is a little bit farther away from downtown than my husband was hoping for as he is very enamoured of our current location, BUT it isn't half way to Winnipeg or Calgary or Saskatoon, like some of the other places we viewed. hahaha AND BEST OF ALL, there are no geese to contend with.  hahaha

So, you can expect one of two things in my posts early next week...either we will be set up for move at the end of the summer, or the deal will have collapsed and we will be starting from scratch. 

At least my quota of housework was already completed before all this "stuff" began.  A small mercy, but one I appreciate if it turns out this rental possibility falls through at the last minute.  It means my whole day has not been wasted on something that doesn't work out. I know this post maybe sounds like we are very excited about this situation, but we are very prepared for this plan to crumble on Monday.  

In the meantime we are relaxing for an hour each day watching the highlights of the July Sumo tournament from Nagoya at the Aichi Prefectural Gymnasium....the last tournament to be held there before it is torn down to make way for an updated facility.  It is the end of an era for long time Nagoya sumo fans.

Oh....I just received a call from my doctor's office regarding my recent hip x-ray.  Although my doctor and her husband....the fellow I saw about it last week....are currently on holiday, they will be back the first week of August and I am booked in to discuss the results with her as well.  She wants more details about how this is effecting my daily life, more details about my symptoms that her husband didn't have time to ask me.  She wants to be the referring doctor and I am very happy about that as it will keep communications simple.  She intercepted his letter of recommendation to my preferred surgeon and feels I have a better chance of being given an intial consult if she can pad out the details. God bless her.  So, I am booked in to see her toward the end of the first week of August, before we leave on our own holiday.  I am thrilled that she wants to make a stronger case for me before the letter is actually sent.  YAY!  Her husband's recommendation to her is that I do need to get on that waiting list, so that is good news. I feel like there is hope I can get some help within the next couple of years. 

So, not the day I had planned, but a good day, including a medical appointment coming up that should help me in the long term, a possibility of a new place to live in a few weeks' time that is a reasonable deal all things considered....a slightly cooler day for temperature along with a cooling wind that is much appreciated, a letter from the government confirming a monthly payment that has been reduced but by only three dollars and twenty cents a month when we have been concerned for weeks that it could be as much as a one hundred and twenty dollar a month drop....yup, a most interesting day; one we are grateful for.  

Although we made the decision to stop searching like frantic hens for a new place to live, we were happy to "follow the clues" today and find out what might be possible. It came to us and that was our criteria for looking at any more places before the end of our holidays next month.  If this possibility does fall through at least we know we are closer than ever to our answer for a new place to live.  We are going to have a peaceful, relaxed weekend!

An Area Rug And New Window Blinds Could Work Wonders!!

Since my husband has shut down our new rental search until we get back from holidays, I have decided if it looks like we will be in this suite for another winter I will invest in two new window blinds…kitchen and dining room, and a larger sized area rug for the living room to cover the worst of the visible carpet in there. For a few hundred dollars the place could be liveable again short term and the carpet could move with us, the blinds resold online or to other tenants in this complex. After holidays, as we return to our search, I will make those decisions. A couple of inexpensive blinds will perk things up visually and an area rug would certainly be a cheery addition should we be facing another bleak winter.

The last viewing fiasco and surrounding circumstances have given us a much firmer understanding of what we can cope with for space and resolve to wait for such a thing. Making a more or less lateral move and paying another $500-$800 a month to make it just because it is a newer building seems senseless.

Finally we are at peace.

And now, on this brutally hot day, I am going to a nice air conditioned restaurant to have lunch with a friend!

Shaping The Hot Summer Days

 I woke up very, very late this morning, luxuriating in the knowledge that we  have no committments away from home today.  What a wonderful feeling!  However, it was also somewhat daunting as today's high temperature is supposed to be at least +35C, so too hot to go anywhere and staying home all day will just make me feel sluggish and nauseous.  Hmmmm....

As usual things have worked out just fine.  Due to my very late breakfast I can't eat my lunch until after 2pm, so after calling the hair salon to get the surprise news that there is an opening for my haircut today at 2:15pm, I can look forward to eating "lupper" at about 3:30pm and get by with a later evening snack. My diabetes should be quite happy about this arrangment actually.  My day has a shape to it now. I can stop in at the grocery store before my hair appointment and pick up a couple of litres of milk as well.

Yesterday had an amazing "shape" to it.  A group of friends decided we should all travel about a half hour from here to the small community of Wilcox, where the Notre Dame private school is located.  The school was started in 1927 by a group of American nuns and began its life as a school for girls.  A few years later a Roman Catholic priest, Pere Athol Murray got involved and brought in a small group of juvenile delinquent boys he wanted to help and, due to the ability of the priest to connect with politicians and business men of that time, he was able to fundraise decade after decade to build the school into an amazing institution.  Pere Murray believed that any kind of sincere spiritual connection with God would give focus and centering to all people and he was a great promotor of the three main eastern religions, Judaism, Islam and Christianity....but pretty much any form of sincere spirituality was welcome.  If there is actually such a thing as a Christian humanist, Pere Murray was it.

The small museum building holds a fascinating collection of archives....photos, art, correspondence, antique books, the history of the original nuns and Pere Murray, stories about the life of the school over the decades.  It was fascinating to say the least...another hidden gem tucked away out of sight of the main highways and byways  here on the Saskatchewan prairies.  Pere Murray was very involved in fighting against the introduction of Medicare in the early 1960's, met with many a politician over the years.  His pet project at the school is a small bell tower containing tributes to the previously mentioned three eastern religions, along with beautiful stained glass depictions of commonly held stories and a wall of significant sayings about religion by well known people from all walks of life.  A few years before he died, Pere Murray travelled to visit the King of Saudi Arabia to promote the idea of of building a similar tower there, but unfortunately that king died  shortly thereafter, his successor had no interest and Pere Murray also died not long afterward. We toured the lovely church on the grounds and had an excellent viewing of the Olympic sized hockey rink where, much to our delight, there was a goalie camp in progress so we were able to see the rink being used.  Inside the arena is a wall of photos of the many hockey and football players who attained great fame in their sports after spending some of the highschool years at Notre Dame.  

The couple we drove down with are from our church, but we have had very little opportunity to get to know them, so we really enjoyed our time together.  We met up with the other carload of people and had a lot of fun. This tour happened because one of those friends has an interest in almost anything that comes across his path, he knew about the school and wanted to learn its history.  Thank you friend for a lovely day.

We arrived home at about 4:30pm, ravenous and tired.  It was rather hot out at Wilcox and I spent nearly 2 hours mostly standing and walking about, so even with my cane for support, my hip and leg were giving me heck.  My husband said he had no interest in waiting for dinner to be made, so off we went to DarBar because somehow, magically, he has much more interest in waiting the same length of time for his meal over there. hahahaha  Our meal was fabulous, we brought home enough leftovers for another meal...or two....and then we raced off to meet with some other friends for a "godly chit chat".  This group of friends are all younger than we are, still working full time and we have all been a bit frustrated by the lack of time to get together to visit. So, a few months ago we decided to just choose a date once a month to be social together and chat about what God is doing in our lives.

A busy, happy day! My only misfortune was drinking a cola drink too late in the evening, so the caffeine kept me awake until just after 2am. Hence the sleep in.  However, I feel great today and knowing I am going to get out of the house for at least an hour this afternoon is keeping my spirits up. 

Snagging a hair appointment for today was a happy surprise. I have been fighting all week to keep up with caring for it....the humidity is not helping right now.  I finally looked back on the calendar to see when my last hair cut actually was....five weeks to the day.  No wonder it seems to have grown past the point of me being able to deal with it....time for a cut!!

One more very hot day forecast for tomorrow, but I have to say that the one positive associated with our last few days of higher altitude forest fire smoke, is that it has kept out some of the warmest rays of the sun, keeping the daytime highs just under what has been predicted. Of course that also means the heat doesn't escape as well overnight, BUT last night we had some rain so that cooled things off nicely. Last night I slept well....once I fell asleep! 

No, we have not heard back from the management company who were unable to show us the suite we applied to see back on Monday and attempts to contact them have gone unanswered. Thinking back on the experience we are wondering if there was some sort of dispute between them and either the owner or last tenant of the condo, resulting in the fiasco we experienced trying to see that place.  We likely will never know, but for now we will continue to search elsewhere....when we feel up to it...when we feel prompted....when and however it happens. Nothing new showed up today.

A Warning For Our Easily Offended Culture!!

 “Let me never fall into the vulgar mistake of dreaming that I am persecuted whenever I am contradicted.”

— Ralph Waldo Emerson.

Amen!!

Your Laugh For Today!! Welcome To Our Life That is Proceeding As Per Usual! HAHAHAHA!!!

 I am a firm believer that everyone needs a laugh at least once a day, so today I am delighted to provide YOURS! Hahaha!!

After a rather sleepless night we pried ourselves out of bed quite early so we would be prepared for the viewing of a rental condo at 9am.  We arrived at the building at 8:50am so we could spec out the foundation of the building, the parking garage entrance doors, the condition of the grounds and the other small outside details that can tell a potential renter quite a lot about the way the property is being treated. We had to admit it looked quite good all the way around!

The fellow showing us the suite, I will call him Kevin, was quite late arriving, so we waited and waited, standing outside on the sidewalk, enjoying the breezy fresh air that we knew was going to become heavy, humid and cloying by after lunch.  Finally, with no sign of Kevin by 9:20am my husband texted the property management office manager to see if the man was still coming to show the suite. At 9:30am he received a text back to say there had been a terrible mix up for this morning and could we return at 1:15pm.  Okay, sure yeah, we are retired, so why not?  As we were about to leave, the owner of one of the other condo units appeared. We told her why we had been standing outside her suite windows for a half hour or more and she asked if she could show us her condo as the one we were going to see was directly above hers and has the same layout.  Okay....BONUS, right?  A pre-viewing viewing...we really lucked out....rain turned to rainbows....adventures in Providence......and all that jazz.  We like the floor plan; with just a tad more downsizing than we hoped there is certainly sufficient storage, the kitchen counter space is more adequate than a lot of other places, the garage parking is great and the small storage unit in front of our parking spot would certainly hold my husband's camping gear and whatever small tools he isn't ready to relinquish just  yet.  Oh, it was all so positive.  We returned home for lunch in high spirits about the possibility that just MAYBE, if we were chosen from among the applicants, this COULD be the place!  The answer was perhaps coming clear because my dear husband was actually quite enthused despite having to do some extra downsizing of his own stuff if we could get this place!! MIRACLE, right???

We returned to the condo at 1:08pm for our 1:15pm viewing.  Once again Kevin was late....5 minutes, then 10 minutes...as we approached the 15 minute mark my husband was about to text the property management company to ask what was going on THIS time, when Kevin arrived, out of breath and slightly frustrated.  He said he had been there before we arrived, tried the key to the lobby door and it didn't work, wouldn't even let us inside the building, so he'd had to return to the office about the key....a long drive as we already knew.  We said it was okay with us that he was late and we entered the first set of doors into the building.....only to discover, just inside those doors, a 20's something aged couple who were also there to see "our" condo.  They had scheduled a 1pm viewing and it was after they arrived that Kevin discovered his lobby door key didn't work.  Well...all four of us were a tad startled, but decided we all liked each other quite well.  My husband and I told them they could go into the suite for their own private 15 minutes first then we would have our viewing. They thanked us very much as we wandered down the hallway to the suite. Kevin was very happy because when he had returned to the office, with the incorrect door key, the manager told him that the owner of the condo had changed the locks on the suite and had accidentally turned in the wrong keys to the office....the intial set of keys that kept Kevin and the young couple from their viewing. NOW he had the new set of keys with him.  We were all encouraged because the new set had opened the lobby door, so now Kevin must have the right keys for the suite itself, right???  WRONGO!!!!!  HOHOHO!!! That poor man tried every single key in that suite door, even the old set, just in case.  He wriggled and jiggled the keys, bounced them up and down, pulled and pushed and hauled on both keys and door, even tried using the keys to the parking garage and storage unit. When he was all done with his Dance of Despair, he turned all the keys over to my husband and told HIM to have a go at it.  Of course my husband had no success either. By this time Kevin was frustrated and angry. He checked his company website to be absolutely certain we were trying to get into the correct suite.  However, he discovered that they had been managing that suite for some time and the photos had not been updated since 2021!  Who knows what condition the place is in now, right?  We told him about our tour that morning with the woman on the floor below who told us the suite we were going to view was the one above her place, but it turned out she was dead wrong...THAT condo unit is for sale, not rent, so it turned out "ours" is a corner suite with a totally different layout....so our joy at being ahead of the game with our pre-viewing preview was dashed!! Hohoho again!  

We all trooped dispiritedly back downstairs and outside to our vehicles.  Then Kevin said he just wanted to try one more time and loped back into the building, hopped into the elevator and returned to the scene of our mutual disappointment.  It took him ten minutes to return, more ticked off than ever. He told us we would all receive a text from the office offering us a rebooking time...well, we have been waiting for the past on the way to 3 hours and no word yet. Apparently Kevin has worked all across Canada and into the USA for various property management companies over a span of many years, loves the work, but has never experienced something like this before. To say he is not impressed by what happened is an understatement in the extreme. hahahaha (Ooooh, I came wickedly close to saying, "Welcome to Regina, you'll get used to it.", but I think it was the Lord that restrained my sarcastic tongue today.)

So, here we sit....we like the building and, in the process of the many attempts to open the suite door, met most of the other tenants on that floor....lovely older folk all....BUT we are wondering, if we ever do get a rebooking day and time, should we just recommend they give the place to the young couple instead?  They need a place pretty quickly and this place is available right away. They are both students who are working full time all summer to pay for university. They are lovely people and we fell in love with them...they could be our grandchildren! How well I remember our younger lives where older people gave us a break unexpectedly.  I know, I know, we need to look out for ourselves, I don't need that reminder, but o my....it is tempting.  

So, was the fiasco today our Final Answer on the possibility of renting in that building?  Only the Lord knows for sure. For now we await whatever rescheduling information we get....or don't get as the case may be.  We are supposed to be going out of town tomorrow....so....whatever will be will be. Hahahahahahahahaha...what a crazy day....kind of a waste of time, but nothing usually is an actual waste in God's economy.  In this rental search we truly have reached "ludicrous speed"!!!  Maybe Spaceballs is a more realistic movie than we realize! Hahahaha!!!

But What If We Don’t Know? What If We Aren’t Sure???

My husband expressed some concern to me today about the unit we are viewing tomorrow. He had a flash of worry that when we see it we will not be certain if it is The Place or not. I told him that personally I fully expect to either be positive it is not the right space for us or as confused as he is afraid we will be. You can’t ever know for absolutely certain if you are making the correct decision, particularly when the type of unit you know you do want for certain is not the type of unit available anywhere in the city!! One reason I am not that concerned is because even if we decide we do want to rent the unit, we have no guarantee we will be the tenants chosen to live there. We don’t know how many other people have already viewed it, how many are still scheduled to view it. We don’t know anything for certain, we haven’t seen a copy of the lease yet, we haven’t had the opportunity yet to ask all the questions we have about how the building is managed, if the owners of this particular condo are using it as rental income long term or have plans already to sell it a year from now, who to call if appliances break down over the weekend when the offices of this particular property management company are closed. So many questions needing to be answered. Viewing is only the next step in a long process. Looking forward to tomorrow to see what it brings.

So Grateful The Hailstones Were Tiny Today!!

This afternoon our fair city experienced a flash cloudburst with some raisin sized hailstones and so much rain falling so quickly that cars on the road outside our place had to pull over into the farthest right hand lane, put their flashers on and sit there waiting for the storm to pass.  Within minutes we had over four inches of water puddled onto the road and the rain was falling so thickly and quickly, creating such a splash around the moving cars that other vehicles couldn't see where on the road they actually were. So grateful they had sense enough to pull over and stop driving!  The drainage systems under the road couldn't handle that much water coming down in such a short span of time.  We are most grateful that the hailstones were so tiny and didn't do any damage to the cars in our parking lot.  Compared to the giant hailstones that have fallen recently in the surrounding area, we consider ourselves to be most fortunate today.  Interesting though how our small hailstones, driven by a brisk wind, sounded like they were going to shatter the living room window at any second.  

Can't say the rainstorm has cooled the air at all, but at least we could open the windows for some fresh air for a few minutes.  I packed towels along the ledges of the open windows to protect the sill and the carpets below from the water and let the air blow through. Wonderfully refreshing!  Hope none of the surrounding towns or farm crops had larger, damage creating hailstones today.

An Upcoming Viewing!

This morning we received a text in regard to one of the rental units we applied to view after friends brought us the listing yesterday.  It is an apartment condo only a few blocks from where we currently reside and while it is only 2 bedrooms the square footage is good, there is underground parking with a bit of storage and there are 2 bathrooms, not 2.5 as seems to be the floor plan in most of the new builds.  It is all on one floor and we think it is on the top floor. So there are some pluses.  While it is still in the Transition Area, thus not any safer than where we are now, it is at least still in our familiar zone, still within walking and easy driving distance of our medical practitioners, grocery stores and other retail shopping.  I am praying quite a lot about this place.  The jury is still out on whether or not my husband will accept the amount of downsizing he is going to have to do and we suspect the actual owner of the place is going to want to rent it immediately or at least by August 1st rather than waiting for September.  The idea of paying double rent and utilities is not appealing, but can be done IF this seems to be "THE PLACE".  Guess we will find out on Monday what our own thoughts are and even if we decide we want it, we may not be the chosen tenants in the end.  Finding rentals in today's market has been quite a revelation to us.

Just to reiterate to those of you who have applauded our decision to suspend the search for a week or two to deal with our stress issues, we didn't actually cave in and frantically seek this place out, it was brought to us. And to those of you on the other end of the spiritual continuum who have expressed concern that we are irresponsibly refusing to search and are only praying for God to drop a place into our laps, be assured that is not the case.  Lots of opinions being expressed about OUR lives, hahahaha.  To be honest we love all the expressions because they all tell us we have family and friends who care about us....not everyone is as blessed that way as we are and it is quite wonderful.  Thanks all of you for your honesty and your love.  BIG HUGS go out to you.

Today we are doing a few home chores and then will go out for a few groceries and a late luncheon to escape the heat building in our suite today. I managed to miss the optimum time for closing some of the windows this morning, on top of there not being much of a cooling breeze overnight, so it is a tad warm already in here and it isn't even noon yet.  Today will be good training for next week's +34C to +36C temperatures.  Fortunate not to be in the Okanagan where several cousins reside.  It has been +38C there and new forest fires are breaking out close to other cousins in Blind Bay.  Yikes!!

An Eerie Evening!!

 It is eerily quiet tonight around our complex. I was looking out the window as I did the dinner dishes and noted at all our neighbours’ cars are parked in their assigned spots, lights are on in all the suites, the air temperature has cooled off nicely…..BUT where IS everybody???? 

There is not one child out playing, there is no one outside bbq’ing or smoking on their back porch, there are no people outside anywhere in sight taking a nightly stroll, only one vehicle drove past the entrance to our court over the twenty minutes I was working, there are no birds singing or squawking, no sign of any birds at all, not even geese. The rabbits are nowhere in sight. I can hear no voices coming from any direction. What the heck is going on???? 

I do not like the silence …. not one little bit! Is there some horrendous situation going on in our neighbourhood that I am unaware of? Brrrrr…. I could never live out in the country. Yikes!! 

My husband received his ultrasound results just before lunch and it is a relief to know he does not have a blood clot. He has Superficial Thrombophlebitis. His doctor will be in touch tomorrow to talk about the best way to treat it. Although it is not a clot, the condition is a good warning to him to spend less time sitting at his computer writing his sermons and articles. He needs to get more exercise in the midst of these heady pursuits! 

Someone directed us to a property management company website today as there was a possible rental newly posted. Since it came to us rather than us finding us as a result of a frantic search on our own, we filled out the online application form to try for a viewing, but of course no one got back to us. hahaha This is our third attempt to view this company’s properties with only one call back….to tell us the place was already rented! Hahaha!!! 

We have decided to go out for a late lunch tomorrow to get a break out of this non-A/C’d suite during the afternoon heat up. We tend to hibernate indoors and depress ourselves in this type of heat, so our goal this summer is to get the heck out of here a few times a week for something other than grocery shopping and medical appointments! We are invited one day next week to travel out of town with friends to a special museum in a tiny hamlet. All day in an air conditioned van with a chance to learn some history about an area of SK we know nothing about….count us in!!!  

Really hoping I can sleep well tonight. It is pretty warm in here, but my issues of today are all either solved already or in process. Yay!

My Lesson For Today....And Hopefully Now, For Always!!!!

 So, of course, after fighting half the night to control my crazy worried thoughts and confessing my issue on my blog in the middle of the night, the things I was unable to stop worrying about have been resolving themselves as the morning has gone along.  Is this the occasion where I will actually LEARN not to worry in the middle of the night about issues that can find solutions with the dawn of day???  Will I actually LEARN this lesson this time around?  God must be so bored with this whole worry routine of mine, so disappointed after all he has done for me in every aspect of my life over the decades I have been getting to know him.  I am so thankful that he loves me anyway and seems to have limitless patience as I continue to learn and then unlearn and then relearn the lessons of walking in the Spirit.  I am frustrated with me too!

So, I was able to get another 3 hours of sleep before arising to get my husband to his ultrasound appointment.  His results will be posted for him to see later this morning and he will be able to contact his doctor for a consult, possibly even later today, as soon as they arrive.

We barely walked in the door back at home afterward when the phone rang and it was my son, apologizing for having to call much earlier than originally planned. Of course the timing could not have worked out any better because I was able to get a call back from the bank shortly after the call with my son ended and the problem with my transfers from that bank to another institution have now been resolved.  Not only that, I have now recorded the steps in this unnecessary procedure that I will likely have to repeat twice more later this year when I transfer the final two investments.  Now I know that is just how it is with this particular bank and I will be better prepared for the battle.  There are sometimes hassles with all financial and investment institutions, but at least at my new one, I have been given a clearer understanding of what I can and cannot do with my own money depending on what plans I choose. Bank number one has been sadly lacking in providing clear information on that sort of thing for the ten years I have dealt there.  Soon I will be free of it, yay!

So, can I now get over some of these nighttime phobias sufficiently to just rest in the Lord like I seem to do so much better and more easily during the daylight hours?  As long as I am on this side of the soil, it will not be too late to learn my lessons, thankfully!

PS Thank you prayer partners....your care helps sustain an apparently increasingly nervous nellie of an old woman!

Another Sleepless Night Due To Banking Nonsense!

I am fed up with the bank my well meaning husband dragged me into several years ago, so I have been moving my GIC’s and other dealings out of there and transferring them to my investment institution. For the second time this bank has sent me a monthly statement letting me know they moved out one of the GIC’s I am transferring, that I signed the legal paperwork for back in April, but are refusing to obey that paperwork and have not transferred the GIC to my investment bank. Just like last time they are refusing to make the transfer, despite being contacted by the investment bank head office about it, without talking to me first. Did the original bank contact ME to say they would not hand over my money as requested without a verbal conversation with me?? Nope, they just removed the GIC without passing it on as requested and signed for by me. 

So that means that once again there is going to be a stressful phone conversation after a waiting time on the phone for who knows how long. I have to deal with this right away as I am once again going to lose a month’s interest on top of the hefty transfer fee, BUT at the time I should be placing the call as soon as the bank opens this morning, I will be over at the ultrasound clinic while my husband has his leg looked at for a possible blood clot! 

He has had a pain and mild swelling in his calf muscle for several days. He thought he had a bad cramp, then a couple of days later he thought he had pulled a muscle, then after a few more days noticed the bit of swelling, so it hit me it could be a clot and off we went to the doctor yesterday. The doctor contacted the ultrasound clinic to request the soonest possible appointment, hence we will be up and moving rather early this morning. Silver lining on the current sleeplessness is that I am already up and moving!! Hohoho!!

In the meantime three different rental possibilities have presented themselves, so at the same time I am supposed to be calling the bank but will actually be at the clinic, I also need to be filling out applications to view rental properties so they arrive in time to be considered before someone else snatches the places up. Aiiii yiiiii yiiii….

While I do know in my heart of hearts that all three of these situations will resolve themselves, I cannot seem to shut my mind off right now to fall asleep. Knowing I will now likely miss the phone call my son scheduled for today….he talked to his dad yesterday while I was out coffee-ing and wants to speak to me as well…..is a source of deep disappointment. 

I am trying not to worry about my husband. Apparently it is possible he sat in front of the computer for too many consecutive hours for too many consecutive days preparing for last Sunday’s sermon. Hence the possible clot. He has lost his ability to climb mountains and icefalls and glaciers, has had no opportunity to go canoeing in the past two years, is giving up his woodworking tools and most of his inherited family odds and ends he is sentimental about. Is he going to have to give up sitting as well????? He has a serious skin issue that has recently started raging out of control, so he also had to get a referral back to the one and only skin specialist left in this town. How long will it be until he gets to see her? 

My poor old brain is fried. It is exhausted from swirling around for the past 45 minutes after only 90 minutes of sleep. Shoot!! I have done so much better getting good sleeps the past few days. I am disappointed to be having a bad night again. 

So, now that I have used this post to organize the onrush of confused thoughts I am going to turn out the light and spend some time praying for our many friends going through terrible times with health and housing and family issues and poverty and unemployment…..people who have a lot more to worry about than I do. Lord, sustain them. Amen.

He Knew Whereof He Wrote!

America is a Gun

 

England is a cup of tea.

France, a wheel of ripened brie. 

Greece, a short, squat olive tree.

America is a gun.

 

Brazil is football on the sand.

Argentina, Maradona's land.

Germany, an oompah band.

America is a gun.

 

Holland is a wooden shoe.

Hungary, a goulash stew.

Australia, a kangaroo.

America is a gun.

 

Japan is a thermal spring.

Scotland is a highland fling.

Oh, better to be anything

than America as a gun.

 

--Brian Bilston 2016

Suspending The Search!

 After another sleepless night last night my husband and I decided it was time for a talk over breakfast this morning.  We realize that for both of us the stress of constantly searching for a new rental is destroying our summer joy.  If we have learned nothing else over the past 25 years, when we began all this moving about, we have learned that when we reach a point of stress related sleeplessness and borderline depression, it is time to back away, remove that stress in whatever way possible and let God just do his thing while we recover for a few weeks.  If what we are doing is not resulting in peacefulness and patience over the long term, then we are not operating with the wisdom of God. Time for a change of tactic on our part.

We have decided to back off from even searching for a week or two.  I think we can honestly say we have been diligent in our search and application process for the past couple of months and are not wimping out due to laziness or lack of motivation.  (the death of our laundry room dryer this morning following so closely on the heels of the death of our bathroom toilet last week  has certainly motivated us to not give up the idea of moving, that is for sure)  Our August holidays out of town are already being ruined by this search for housing and they are still a month away! Our trip to NYC in the fall is still on hold as we have been assuming we would be moving by September 1 and haven't wanted to plan anything that will interfere with moving.  However, as I slowly lose mobility in my hip, I think getting to see our son is more important while I can still walk with a cane for at least a few blocks without excruciating pain! Since we are retired and don't know what the future may hold for us health-wise, it seems just wrong to spend an entire summer....all 3 whole months of it and half of it is already over....fretting over this move.

This morning we reviewed how things have worked out for us on every move in the past 24 years and have realized that only twice in 15 moves have our own rather frantic efforts resulted in a new place to live!!  In the other 13 cases incredibly unexpected events have ended up pointing us to the right place at the right time, after our own efforts have yielded no results whatsoever.  So, we are not discouraged.  If we are here in this suite for a few more months we will cope with it.  We both feel we have been too worried about appearing presumptous in our faith and not really giving God enough credit for helping us find a new place.  We have been feeling somewhat pressured internally to let others know how hard we have been looking so they won't mock us for sitting back just a bit so God has room to work without our interference. What a subtle trap. It is time to quit that right now!!

The burden we have both been secretly feeling lately has lifted now. Once we both confessed to feeling stressed, depressed and out of control, we were able to reformulate our plans.  In awhile we will resume the daily search of rental listings with more peace in our hearts, less frantic racing about, but for the rest of the summer, our relaxation and travel plans come first. If we still find a place over the summer, wonderful. If we have to wait until the autumn in order to maintain our equilibrium, also wonderful. 

Amen and Whew!!!

A Sellout! At Last!

 So grateful for the news today that our son's winter art exhibition is now a sellout. The last painting went over the weekend.  Thank you praying friends and thank you Lord.  He and we are beyond grateful.  That is all I can say....

Had a wonderful time tonight with friends at the Fancy Fork....again....the Tuscan chicken, gnocchi and garlic chicken pasta were hits tonight.  I think we have now taken everyone out for dinner who have reached out to us in recent months but who we can't face inviting into our disastrous, half packed up home, the home with so much goose poo on the sidewalks that it isn't possible to even think about expecting any of our friends to have to do the Poop Scoopin' Boogie just to reach our front door. W ho wants to eat a meal after having to face that just to get into the building, right?  Yikes!  As tenants here it is beyond humiliating, to say the least.  Not that any of our friends would mind as much as we ourselves mind, but at some point you have to draw a firm line and say, "No, not going to happen any more for the sake of my own sense of friendship integrity." (and hygiene...don't forget hygiene)

I am grateful for every venture out of this suite this summer, no matter how short a time away.  Between heat, forest fire smoke and my present inability to walk very far even with an aid, getting outside and out of this building at all is a blessed bonus.

Tomorrow is laundry day....it must be more than 2 weeks since I last did laundry because of our mini heatwave last week. Must get it done tomorrow because two days after that the heat returns for apparently a very long stretch.

A Day Of Encouragement! YAY!

After church yesterday I was approached by a woman who was considering renting her house to us as she is moving soon, but hadn't decided if she wanted to become a landlord or just sell the house while prices are continuing to rise here. She very apologetically told me that she is going to sell the house. So, another door has closed and we are okay with that.  The idea of renting from someone we know is not that appealing. Damaged friendships can result from such situations and that is something we prefer not to risk anyway.  

However, subsequent to that, as we stood around the church visiting with various friends who asked us how our search was going, we received SO MUCH encouragement from everyone we talked to. They all told us not to rush into anything we will end up regretting, to take our time and find the place that is actually best for us, to hold out for the things that are truly the most important to us.....wow, it was amazing.  At last night's patio party a whole other set of peple reiterated everything we were told in the morning.  It was a little boost we needed to keep from feeling discouraged that somehow we are "missing the boat" in this process.  So, today we are relaxing, not looking at any listings, waiting for a call back that may or may not come and we will resume the search tomorrow.  My husband is hobbling about on a cane due to a badly pulled muscle in his leg and has zero interest in having to look at possible new accommodation until that muscle is more up to handling walking about.  The more people spoke to us about things last night the more relaxed we became.  I think we just needed the reminder that God not only has a place for us, if we continue to seek without being frantic and stressed, we WILL find it eventually....just like all the other times we have been in this sort of position. ?"There is a time for everything, a time for every purpose under heaven.", has been made real to us over the decades and we should know by now that being worried and stressed is never helpful. God will move in his own good time and we will find the place we know is right for us....again.  We were also encouraged by the news last night that a young family we know who have been outbid and outbid time and time again as they have been attempting for the past month to purchase a home, finally won the bidding war this weekend and will be moving soon into a very nice, turn key home with a lovely yard for their small children.  Senior friends have been scoring in person doctors' appointments after being told there would be no hope of being attended to in a timely manner. We have been surrounded by answered prayer over the past few days so that keeps us encouraged about eventually getting the answer to our prayer for different living accommodation.

We are enjoying very much a few days' break from the very hot temperatures. In three or four days' time we will be sweltering again, but wow, yesterday and today have been perfect for us.  This morning I was up and at the bank right as it opened at 9am, I picked up a few discount groceries and now I have the energy to do a few outstanding chores here before we take some friends out for dinner tonight. Tomorrow I will be able to catch up on doing the huge piles of laundry that have been stacking up since the first of the hot weather hit.  It will be an all day task, that's for sure. I am looking forward to it.

Our Morning Menagerie!

This morning at 7 o’clock I  was awakened by an avian ruckus going on in the parking lot. Three large gulls were chasing the crows and our widowed goose, the dear Uncle Harry, (who has spent the last three summers wandering aimlessly about our complex seeking and incessantly honking for his former mate), away from the remains of the shrinking puddle created in our parking lot from Saturday night’s rain. The gulls were screeching, the crows were cawing and Uncle Harry was more confused than usual as he was chased away from the water so the gulls could drink their fill and splash about throwing water up onto their backs and wings. Hares who began hopping across my back lawn heard the gulls, stopped and looked about, then loped off at high speed….all nine of them. Then I noticed the tiny body of our front step’s resident gopher sprawled out under our window. The maintenance staff must have finally realized he was here digging underneath the steps. They took care of things. Poor little fellow. He was making quite a mess though and was also gnawing daily on the bottom post of our back porch railing, so unfortunately the sad deed had to be done. Do I shovel his remains out from under my window or run a contest about how long it will take maintenance to find and remove his wee carcass? Place your bets ladies and gentlemen!! The neighbours’ beautiful black and white cat is also not thrilled by the presence of the noisy gulls. She is curled up on their deck railing gazing mournfully at them and flattening her ears as the level of cacophony rises. Aaaah, early morning activities at our own personal zoo……included in our rent too!! 

Eyes Widening On My Learning Curve In Regard To Art Sales!

The wonderful world of professional artists never ceases to teach me things I never knew before.  In the past ten years I have learned things about art exhibitions, sales, commissions, agents and what have you that, until my son became a career artist, I had no reason nor desire to know!!

Case in point:  he recently sold a small painting for 13,500 dollars.  The buyer was a special client, so received a 1500 dollar discount, bringing the total sales price down to 12,000 dollars.  Then the gallery took its 50% commission: 6,000 dollars, leaving the artist with a grand total income of 6,000 dollars for that sale.  AND he is most fortunate that particular gallery takes only 50% of each sale.  60%+ is also quite common for a gallery commission.  So, when you are tempted to complain about the price of art and wonder why the artist would dare to charge so much for a small painting, remember that the artist does not set the price, the gallery does, and that the artist in the end will receive 50% or less of the final sale price.  In my son's case that money is in Canadian dollars, so his actualy useable take, as he lives in the USA will be less than 4500 usd. I am glad my son is an artist and has started teaching me so much about the actual industry and its politics and sales and other unwritten but very much followed rules and regulations around agents, exhibitions and business. Incredible the amount of things an artist has to understand beside how to actually create a saleable piece of work.  It is a lot like the music industry, the wonderful world of acting and other professional creative businesses.  I find it all fascinating!

My husband preached a very fine sermon this morning....and no, I am not so biased as to be the only person in church this morning who thought so.  God bless all the folk who were so forthcoming about what they actually got out of the sermon.  It is very encouraging, in his full time retirement, to know he can still do the preaching and teaching part of his calling quite well.  It makes him feel useful in the face of having to give up full time ministry.  Thank you Lord!

After church we went to DarBar for lunch.  They seem to have sorted out the excess of salt in the food that we experienced the last two times we ate there. Today the meal was once again exactly how we remember it being, delicious, richly flavourful and well priced.  

When we arrived home our Nigerian Anglican neighbour was just getting out of his car and he stopped to talk to us.  When he found out my husband is an Anglican priest, he decided we should be invited to his church's annual Cultural Day service and celebration at the end of this month.  How very exciting. The preaching and prayers will be in English, but lots of the songs will be in their own African languages, so I am very excited to experience that.  As it is a celebration of Nigerian culture, all in attendance will be dressed in their fanciest Nigerian cultural garb....in other words they are all going to look amazingly fashionable, colourful, and my husband and I will look like drab little Canadian moths in comparison, no matter how dressed up we get.  Oh, I am so very excited!! YAY! Something different for a change!  I am SO ready to experience other peoples' style of worship for a Sunday.  Yippee!

This evening is the first of our own church's summer Patio parties!  It is at the home of a couple who are becoming good friends. Hopefully the predicted thunderstorm possibility will not occur and cancel the event.  If it is not pouring rain at 5pm the party will go ahead at 6:30pm as planned.  Praying for a break for these wonderful hosts as they are so excited about having everyone over.  If it doesn't rain it will be a great evening for an outdoor gathering as it is 8-10 degrees cooler today than it has been for the past several days.

Tomorrow night we have arranged to take another couple from the church out to the Fancy Fork for dinner.  This is a couple who have reached out to us so often, ever since we started attending the church, have had us over for countless meals and social events and we have been negligent in having them back here quite as often, as we often are. It is just so much easier to take people out than inflict this suite on them...particuarly in the summer when the suite is so hot...and in the winter when it is so cold!!  haha  Ever since COVID we have decided that this is how we like best to entertain!  May we be blessed in continuing to be able to do such things for our friends.  Being able to give back to some of the folk who have been so kind and giving to us since we arrived here has been as much of a blessing for us as it has been for them.

Running Under Water

That is how our search for new living accommodation feels!  The days where we wake up in the morning brimming with enthusiasm about that day’s search are becoming fewer and farther between.  We found a possibility yesterday and emailed the property management company about it, but haven’t heard back, so that usually means the property is already unavailable. The joy of this unit, even though it is an apartment condo, is that it is fairly large and is all on one floor, plus it has underground parking. These types of listings are rare and are snapped up immediately. I suspect we are too late with our inquiry. At this point we feel mentally paralyzed about this moving project. 

My husband and I have both been toddling about on canes the last couple of days. He has pulled a muscle in his leg and it is very sore.  He is dreading having to take the cane to church this morning and is hoping he can manage to hobble up the stairs to the podium to preach without dragging the cane with him. (Yes, my one worry wart friend, he has made a doctor’s appointment this for coming week to have his leg checked out.)  

Well, life is always a challenge and a mystery and a joy. No two days are alike and for that at least I am grateful. My sense of adventure is easily fulfilled by small changes in daily routine. Perhaps I am too easily satisfied these days, but since moving to the prairies that is the easiest way to cope. I have also, occasionally struggled with a sense of futility that I am stuck here…on the prairies….in this suite….with my health issues….whatever….so the joy part of the equation has been somewhat lacking of late.

We are not alone on this time of seeming paralysis. Other friends are caught in the same trap of trying to move and finding nothing suitable, or just missing out on securing that rare suitable listing. Other friends are seeking new employment to escape jobs that have turned into nightmares but can’t seem to score so much as an initial interview despite their appropriate skill set and steady work experience. All of us are trapped in place for mystical reasons we can’t seem to grasp and we are all caught between the expectation of an answer coming soon and wondering if we are all completely off base in expecting our present situations to change.  We are all waiting on the Lord and he is taking his time these days in showing us answers, but based on past experience, I do believe those answers will come. Lord, I believe….help my unbelief. 

As my father in law used to say, correctly I think: “Life is a mystery to be enjoyed, not a misery to be endured.” 

Some of us are struggling right now to keep from crossing that line.

Someone Else's NIghtmare Health Crisis Helped ME Today....Unbelievable!!!!!

What a crazy morning at the clinic while I was waiting to see the doctor!  I got checked in and was seated in the waiting area when I overheard another patient asking when her doctor, also MY doctor, would be returning from her home country.  Turns out she is returning already on Monday and had appointments booked already for Monday and Tuesday. Since the waiting room was crammed with people waiting for the walk in doctor and the other doctors with booked appointments appeared to be very behind schedule, I went back to the check in desk to enquire if it would be better for me to wait to see my own doctor about this hip x-ray report next Wednesday, reducing the number of items I had to have dealt with immediately, hoping to give today's doctor a break from having to deal with my more time consuming hip issue. I thought he could just give me my time sensitive meds injection and I could be on my way.  Weeeeell, the receptionist hemmed and hawed and told me that all my doctor's appointment time was taken until next Wednesday. Then she told me that both my doctor and her husband who I was about to see, would be leaving that Thursday for 3 weeks of vacation, so perhaps I would do just as well to have everything looked after today.  Okay then, I would do that.

After a very long wait I finally saw the doctor racing down the hallway toward the exam room I was in, but he had two EMT's and a medical stretcher following right behind him.  The EMT's raced into another exam room and my doctor came running into my room to let me know he was behind because one of his patients had just had a heart attack during his examination!!!  He had to sign forms to have the fellow loaded up on the stretcher and taken out to the waiting ambulance!  Off he went to do that.  A few minutes later he literally ran into my room again and told me that he would give me my injection immediately but that he then had to run next door to complete a medical test he was doing on another woman who had been left in the lurch mid test when the EMT's arrived for the heart attack victim who had been in the care of one of the clinic nurses while the doctor tried to tend to the rest of us.  It was an absolulte three ring circus in there!!!  

Finally the doctor reappeared to say he would have a minute to review my hip x-rays.  I sucked in my breath and waited for him to tell me I should make that next Wednesday appointment to see his wife as she is my actual doctor.  Instead he looked at the x-ray, read the report twice over and asked me if I wanted to go for the hip surgery or prolong the inevitable with a few months of physio therapy first. I told him I wanted to be on the surgical waiting list, gave him the name of the surgeon I want and why, he noted that name down on my notes, told me he will write the referral letter at the end of today when he does all his other daily notes, thanked me for coming, said goodbye and next thing I knew I was back in my car rejoicing at what had happened!!!

I have been praying every hour or so since I got home for that man who had the heart attack, that he is still alive and on his way to recovered health.  The chaos that ensued when he collapsed meant the doctor I was seeing had no time to ask me more questions, no time to go into all the details of how delaying the surgical referral might be a good thing, he just agreed I need surgery and that was that!!  Off he ran to complete the other woman's test.  I was amazed at how calm he actually was about everything despite the running about, how much he could say and listen to from me in such a short appointment time and he even was able to give off an aura of actually caring about what is up with my health even though his wife is my actual doctor.

I will wait for a month or so as we have so many other commitments over that time, but then I will contact the office of the surgeon and make certain the referral was received. That time frame should correspond with the return from holidays of my own doctor and her very helpful husband on the chance that the referral didn't get sent/received and we have to start again.  I am still amazed at how everything clicked into place for me today.  I am ever so grateful to God and to my praying friends and family. Thank you.....

I think we are going to have to move back to Alberta for the month of August. hahaha  We have already been juggling trips back and forth a couple of times for a 50th wedding anniversary, a family wedding and the wedding of a close friend. NOW, we are invited to another wedding in the same area of Alberta on the August long weekend...more than a week prior to the first event we were going to! hahaha  Looks like house hunting and moving are going to be on hold for a few weeks if we don't come up with a new rental prior to August long weekend!  There is no way we are missing these marvellous events with our dear family members and wonderful friends of so many years' standing!!!  Lord willing of course.....right? Of course right!  

Say, if you feel so moved, could you say a prayer for the heart attack victim at the clinic today?  I am very concerned for him and there is a certain odd feeling of knowing that I likely benefited in the long term because he had a serious, unexpected medical event. Thank you......

A Thin Spot In Time

The concept of time as we practise it is a man made one. Personally I think we have all kinds of internal connections, somehow, with things of the past. While I don’t spend a lot of time wondering about it, occasionally I find myself becoming quite emotional over past people and events, as in centuries past, for no reason I can understand. Museums really set me off! Gazing at arrowheads and broken pottery from thousands of years ago, medieval weaponry,  unexpectedly hearing old highland music, flipping through albums of pictures of sod houses constructed by our country’s pioneers, all bring me to tears. I have visceral reactions every time I have contact with these things. So, I suspect there are thin spots in time that are not allowed for in our modern, industrial 24 hour, seven day a week clock and calendar. Sometimes the past reaches out and draws us in somehow. Such experiences make what we tend to call “the supernatural” more real to me somehow, bolster my faith in the Creator God who is not bound by time in the same way we humans have bound ourselves. There is so much more going on in the universe than the understandable experiences of our mundane daily lives: truly fascinating 🤨 stuff!!!

Why Does Life Feel Too Bleak To Sleep At 4am??

I have often wondered how life, and my feelings about it, can seem different depending on the time of day. 

Between the hours of approximately 7am and 10pm life seems generally pretty good: there is hope for the future as each day begins, hope that perhaps today will be the day we find that new place to live that we are seeking, joy even on the hottest of summer days because, well, it’s summer and +35C is far superior to -35C, trust that my health issues will see some resolve in the coming months and we will get moved before the growing pain while waiting for a hip replacement completely incapacitates me, genuine belief that a miracle will occur and my husband’s downsizing project will speed up so he can be ready to move when the time comes.

Then there are the hours between about 2am and 5 am where life, and my feelings about it, become the opposite! Should I happen to be awake at any point during those hours, there is scant hope for the future on any level from my own personal life to the state of the whole world, I suddenly understand with frightening clarity that not only will today not be the day we find that necessary new and more suitable place to live, but we will be stuck in this miserable townhouse until my hip point degeneration prevents me from being able to move out of here until after surgery that is going to fer shur take a full two years to get and thus I will be a hydromorphone addict by then, when we do move it will be the middle of the coldest, stormiest winter in Canadian history….again…. but what difference will it actually make because my husband will never actually be ready to move from here because the supply of old family “stuff” and now unnecessary old tools and sports equipment and books and papers that he is emotionally attached to will never actually reach an end point, so my feelings become frantic, agitated and bordering on the bitter. 

I lead a double life!!

Now you know.

PS it is currently 4:20am…..

A Perfect Way To Spend An Overly Hot Day!

 I admit I was dreading going out today in the extreme heat. 😡 I have been dreading today's away from home ventures for the past three or four days, if I am being completely honest.  Extreme heat exhausts me and leaves me dehydrated despite my best attempts to "stay watered". Thus it also makes me rather crabby....BUT NOT TODAY!  Yay!! 😁

I had another decent sleep last night despite the pain in my hip and with my husband's guidance I got the box fan set up just right to blow cooler night air through the upstairs rooms 💨 from one side to the other. It was marvellous. 😄

At 10am I headed to the pharmacy to see if my injection meds had arrived for tomorrow's medical appointment 🔍 and they had....sometimes that is not the case as these particular meds are becoming more difficult to find and have to be occasionally ordered in from another province altogether.  Whew!  They are now residing safely in my refrigerator.  So, my day began in an encouraging manner.

Later in the morning I picked up my Thursday coffee/lunch buddy and we decided to go downtown to Memories for today's meal extravaganza.  🍴Parking was a bit difficult to start with, but we eventually found a spot only two blocks away. 🚗 It had a two hour parking meter so we had lots of time to sit in the restaurant enjoying our meal, plus it gave me a manageable walk to and from the car....the walk afterward 🏃 was very much needed too: burp, slurp, urp....yummy meal!

We enjoyed our wraps. 🍖  The chef at Memories knows how to use them properly. They were heated and grilled!!!  None of your cold, pasty, tasteless gummy wraps here.  At least now I know there is at least one restaurant in this town that knows how to use the darned things!  My friend had the chicken wrap and I thorougly enjoyed my beef shawarma wrap.  My friend had a nice looking side salad with hers and I ordered the fries, which I boxed promptly at their arrival tableside for my husband to reheat with his chicken burger dinner tonight here at home.  Pricewise it was about standard for the fare, perhaps a dollar or two more than other places for the amount on our plates.  Where we blew our budget was with dessert. 🍮  Standard dessert prices have nearly doubled in the past three or four years, but today we didn't care.  We ordered a custard pie slice topped with saskatoon berries in a light syrup....no corn starch by the look of it, so my husband could probably eat it as well.  Finally we have found a place that is more what we have been seeking over the past year: table service rather than cafeteria style, decent QUIET music 🎵, subdued lighting, excellent use of space for seating that affords a bit of privacy between many of the tables and a nice clientele of mostly business people who are not hollering or laughing uproariously.  The ambience there tends to steer people clear of being overly loud.  I think we will return there more than once. They do also have a take out service menu. On a cooler day than today we shall order that and drive it over to a picnic table in the park near my house to enjoy an outdoor meal....at least I will make an attempt at, but more likely a pretense of, enjoying it for my friend's sake. She loves eating out of doors, while I most certainly do not, but I would like to do that at least once for her.

The heat 🌞  hit us rather quickly as we left the air conditioned restaurant, but it was good to walk that couple of blocks back to the car to wear off 6 of the approximately one million calories and carb units we ingested, teehee.  We enjoyed the air conditioner in my car on the way back to her place. 😓

Then I stopped at the Coop store for a few groceries I can only find there....such as 60% whole wheat bread and sugar free Skinny Syrup to add to my morning glass of milk, so I can swallow it without gagging.  Oh, how I detest milk. I stopped drinking it and eating dairy products when I was ten years old for reasons I now forget. That likely contributed strongly to my osteoporosis situation that I discovered at the age of 46!!  Had I and my family only known at that time that we have a family history of osteoporosis, I may have been able to delay the onset for another ten years, but who knows? No point second guessing what I can't go back and change!

The car was A/C'd, the restaurant was A/C'd, the grocery store was A/C'd and when I arrived home my husband's judicious use of the fan and shutting windows and blinds at the correct times resulted in me walking into a still relatively cool house.

Often on these very hot days I get up in the morning already feeling "pessy" and it gets worse as I hide indoors, but today I got up, got out and got into as many A/C'd places as possible.  The temperature is reaching its predicted peak of +35C right now, so it is going to get slightly cooler for the rest of the day and evening and overnight.  For us, +35C is extreme heat, but I realize in other parts of the world the extreme heat reaches up into the mid +40C's and even higher. Our son has been living summer after summer in daily summer temperatures between +32C and +40C and he has survived.  Certainly I can acclimatize to this, even with us not having any A/C in our unit.  

Thank you God for this day, that I have been dreading due to the heat, turning out so well. The only "disaster" thus far has been opening the refrigerator freezer door and having the entire uncovered tray of fresh raspberries my husband was freezing (before putting into bags) come tumbling out of the freezer and fall onto the kitchen floor before I could drop the bags of bread I was holding in both hands and grabbing it.  Sigh....  Eight dollars worth of raspberries smashed into micro pieces ALL over the kitchen floor and through the archway onto the dining room carpet. HOPEFULLY I have managed to find and retrieve them all for the garbage bin.  Sigh....  Well, if this is the worst thing to have happen today, I am blessed indeed. 👏