The Case Of The Missing Ear Plug!!

The first night out on our recent AB trip found me searching through my suitcase for my ear plugs so I could get some sleep in the hotel, but I realized finally that I had forgotten to bring any, so off to the nearest pharmacy we went.  I was delighted to find a package of small foam ear plugs in a jazzy neon pink!! I absolutely HAD to have them, being such a fun loving person and all.....😏

Today I finally did all 8 loads of washing from that trip and the nearly two weeks of subsequently amassed laundry, so the ear plugs came out of the dryer all clean and refreshed for my next travels.  I took them out of the washer and upstairs to the bedroom, where  I pulled them out of their mesh bag to dry on my desktop, but one of them fell to the floor and bounced.  I looked all around and couldn't see it anywhere so I assumed it bounced under my bed. Since I can't get down on my hands and knees at the moment to look under there I called my long suffering spouse to come take a gander.  He looked and looked, used a flashlight, felt around the bottom of the legs on the frame, while I searched every other inch of the bedroom just in case it had bounced out of sight elsewhere in the room. We both came up with nothing at all....no sign of the ear plug.  The thing is neon pink so it should have been easy to find but there was no sign of it.  A frustrating mystery.....

As I was pulling the last load out of the dryer in the laundry room, my husband came to find me, chuckling.  He told me to guess what he had just found under his desk, in his office:  yup, the ear plug!  How on earth could it have managed to bounce itself across the hallway from the bedroom to his office and around a corner to hide itself under his desk.  It didn't take long to solve the mystery as he picked up one bare foot and waggled it at me.  The answer has to be that when he came into the bedroom to look for the ear plug he must have stepped on it and it stuck to the bottom of his bare foot long enough to survive the few steps across the hallway to his desk, where he went back to work after finding nothing during his search  under the bed.  hahahahahaha  Mystery solved.

NOW, where am I going to find a bathroom hand towel that has been missing for a few days??  Did my husand inadvertently move it elsewhere because he didn't notice it stuck to the back of his shirt or adhered to the velcro on the side pocket of his hiking pants, or what???? hahahaha  I can't wait to find out where the heck that towel has disappeared to!!!

We are having a typical September Long with live outdoor music from three different parks all blasting away at us from three different directions, each having a turn taking the lead for loudest noise over top of the others depending on what direction the breezes are blowing.  Today it is particularly deafening as the nearest venue is right across the street from us on the other side of the park there.  Oh well, we survived Shake the Lake, we survived a Sunday afternoon of a private party with live music happening in the same park, we will survive this weekend's "music" and next Sunday morning we will suck it up and bear with the Queen City Marathon taking over our streets when we need to find a way to drive to church and park somewhere near the place.  Then we will be just fine until next summer's live music extravaganzas.  It is all good.  At least this year all the groups have been adhering to the city bylaws and shutting the music down at 11pm. Other years we have been less fortunate.

I am sitting here looking at the cold water/no dryer clothes hanging up to dry and counting the number of items I am going to have to iron tomorrow....the one downside of having to wait to do laundry for 3 full weeks.  

As I sit here I am reminded of a personality/career assessment test I took MANY years ago. One of the pictures I was given to look at was of an outdoor clothes line with many colourful items of clothing pinned to it. The photo showed the laundry being blown about by a breeze and the backdrop was of a summer blue sky with thin clouds and bright sunlight.  The question for the photo was, "What do you see when you look at this picture and how does it make you feel?"  I wonder if my live examiner was expecting me to respond with something like, "I see beautiful skies that bring back thrilling memories of a holiday in Ibiza.", or "I see bright colours wafting in the lazy breeze and I feel like I want to paint them on the side of a giant modern architectural wonder", or "I see the juxtaposition of the robin's egg blue against the flame red and it fills my heart with joy at the thought of life's mysteries". What I said was, "I see ironing and it makes me feel tired."  Sigh....the poor examiner lost her ability to have a poker face and for a fleeing second looked completely bewildered.  What can I say?  I am a very practical person who doesn't think in philosophical or esoteric terms as a rule and questions about how something makes me "feel" are an anathema to me.  To me it is a ridiculous question to ask about a picture of someone else's laundry!! Why does a picture of a clothes line full of laundry have to make me feel something worth sharing with any one else?  Or feel anything at all, really?  It is mere laundry and my main thought is that it is going to be well and truly wrinkled drying outside without benefit of an electric clothes dryer and an anti-static sheet!  Good grief......how does a clothes line covered in laundry make me feel?? What a stupid question......  Is it possible to fail a personality test? 

Nabisco Has Discontinued Our Favourite Stoned Wheat Thins....WAAAAAAAHHHHHHH!!!!

 For the past couple of months my husband and I have been haunting the cracker aisles of every grocery store in town trying to track down the only crackers we have ever liked....Nabisco's Stoned Wheat Thins.  Nada, nil, nothing at all in any of the stores.  It seemed odd to us so finally tonight I got online and tracked down the reason: the are no longer being made!!!  The last of the stock in any of our local stores was nearly gone when we made our last purchase, but we didn't know they wouldn't be on the shelves again or we would have bought a few more boxes. Sigh....first Tong Peanuts and now Stoned Wheat Thins....GONE FOREVER!!!!  We are so sad.  At other peoples' homes we have already sampled the newer versions of wheat thins produced by other companies and there is no comparison.  The Stoned Wheat Thins were far superior in quality and crispness and flavour to any of the attempts to mimic them.  I made the mistake of trying a box of another brand last week and 3/4 of them are now in the garbage....SO BAD in comparison: tasteless and crumbly. Trying to spread butter or cream cheese on them resulted in them falling completely apart, unlike the Stoned Wheat Thins that held together wonderfully when spread with various toppings. Sigh....cry.....weep and wail.  We will miss you Stoned Wheat Thins.  Our wonderful cracker eating days are over after several decades of enjoyment.  Sob......

This morning while I was shopping I discovered something I have looked for for many years and never found: an inexpensive, nearly ankle length casual long winter dress with long sleeves and a turtle neck.....like an overgrown, thick cotton winter teeshirt.  I bought two of them!  I can wear them as in the house dresses when it is bitterly cold outside instead of wearing one of my long summer in the house sleeveless, vee necked dresses with a ratty old cardigan sweater over top to try to keep my arms and neck warm.  The ones I bought are nice enough to wear out casually with a pair of skinny pants underneath to keep my ankles warm.  Just because I am stuck inside this cold suite for days at a time in the winter doesn't mean I have to look like I crawled out from under a rock in the attempt to keep warm!!  Mentally I think these warm, oversized dresses will give me quite a boost on the -40C days!!  YAY! I am going to go through my winter wardrobe totes this weekend and sort through what is there. I am certain there must be some older items I can take to the thrift store.  I have new warm sweaters to replace the old ones that didn't really stand up to last winter's cold due to their age, but now I have no other needs for winter wear and I should be warm enough for a change this time around. YAY!

Finally....ACTIVITY!!! GOING WALK ABOUT!!

 It's a 😀😉 happy day today!!!!  Yesterday I nearly lost my mind from inactivity.  It wasn't a bad day, it is just so boring when I can't get out at least for a little while and see something other than this suite I live in and the surrounding area!   I am sick to death of reading and tv and gazing out the windows.

Despite my assumption that I would just sleep in this morning 😏 and leave the grocery shopping until after the long weekend, I found myself wide awake at 5:50am after only 4 hours of sleep. 😫 

I tried and tried to just fall off again into a nice relaxing slumber but gave it up at 6:30am, tossed on some clothes and headed out to the 7am opening at my store of choice.  It was wonderful to be outside early in the morning, the traffic was still light as the rush hour heading in that direction hadn't quite hit yet.  YAY!  I took my sweet time shopping, plodded up and down every  aisle in the store and had a marvellous time to myself.  I arrived home before 8:30am and enjoyed my breakfast.  

My walking partner arrived promptly at 10am and we enjoyed two hours of fun and interesting conversation as we caught up on each other's lives.  She is younger than I am by quite some years, thank God, so it is always refreshing to hear about her life and activities.  Thank you Lord for  a wonderful morning.

Right after lunch the shoe shop called to let me know the sandals I ordered from the USA had arrived, so off I went with my husband for a little drive to the shoe store.  They are just right, the very ones I ordered, they fit perfectly and are identical to the pair that I have been wearing every summer since 2017....7 years. SAS still makes good quality shoes.  I am ever so grateful for them and for our local store that sends in orders a few times a year to SAS for their loyal customers.  My main enjoyment about going out to get the shoes was that my husband parked us at the neighbourhood grocery store and went inside to do a bit of shopping while I walked the 4 block round trip to pick up my shoes SANS CANE!  It felt so freeing!  Nearly an hour on my feet to start the day and then a relatively brisk and caneless walk right after lunch.  Wow, it felt incredible to be striding down the street unaided even for that few blocks!

The sunny sky has clouded over in the past half hour and I am wondering if we are going to get some more rain after all.  I don't think the local farmers need any more rain this week after the dowsing they got mid week!  Personally I am grateful for any day that the rain comes and cools off the air temperature.  It is going to be hot once again next week!  Yikes...mind you, now that September is looming, any day without snow or freezing rain is a HAPPY DAY!!!  😁

Roger, Over, And ON!!

Yesterday's brief power outage is the only outage we had as it turns out.  The letter we all received at our housing complex regarding the 2 days of power outages meant that various parts of the complex would have one outage at some point during that two days, not that we would all have 2 days of outages.  hahaha  Considering how written communications have gone around here with the management company over the past few months I should not have been surprised!  The last notice we received a few weeks ago was to move all our vehicles out of the parking lot on a particular day so that the lot could be cleaned out and new lines delineating each stall could be repainted.  Well, the crew  showed up the day before and that didn't work out too well. Those of us who were actually home when the crew arrived and realized what they were doing out in the lot were able to run out and move our cars so that the lines marking our stalls could both be repainted properly. Some of the other tenants who didn't run out and move their cars out of the lot didn't fare so well....either they had a fine spray of dark yellow paint adorning one or both sides of their vehicles or else their stall lines weren't repainted at all.  Aiii yiiii....what a hoot!  The happiest part of this power line repair situation is that in the 2 days we were expecting a total of 16 hours of outage, we had only 2 and a half hours. YAY!!

I had a really good visit today with my regular Thursday morning coffee friend.  We have been sitting outside in a common area to drink our coffees but today it was too cold, so we had just as much fun sitting inside the coffee shop.  It was a bit busy today but not too noisy for us to visit well for a long time.  We share a great deal in common in regard to what goes on at church and with our husbands and life in general.  It has been refreshing chatting with someone my own age who is so very honest and transparent. Our generation isn't really known for that.

I had planned to get up early and go shopping at my usual hour of 7am, but my husband and I opted to stay up until midnight watching the season finale of "Alone" instead.  We are thrilled to pieces that the person we kind of hoped would win actually did win.  We so enjoy that programme and hope the series continues for more years to come.  Now I will get to sleep in a bit later instead of getting up at 6:15am to grocery shop and racing about in the semi darkness that we now have at that time of the morning.....oooh, autumn is upon us I guess despite the predicted very warm temperatures next week.

Losing the shopping trip means I will be in far better condition to enjoy and participate in another wonderful visit with my walking partner tomorrow morning.  I feel so guilty that we can't go walking with my stupid hip being the way it is right now.  I am trying not to worry about my blood sugar with this lack of exercise and I am concerned that my limitations for walking are going to start interfering with some of my friendships....but I am not worried about that with my walking partner....a faithful friend and true.  She informed us of a rental property possibility recently and while that didn't work out, I thought it was so kind of her to let us know and track down a phone number we needed to contact the person arranging for the rental.  Bless her heart!!

The weekend will bring many hours of laundry chores that desperately need doing. Had I known the power outage would be so short I could have started our 3 weeks' worth of laundry yesterday afternoon and finished it up today, but....actually I don't mind doing it this weekend because it is the "September Long" and since we don't have to join the thousands of other people in our city who are making their final trip to their lakeside cabins to get them cleaned out and locked down for the winter, it will be a pretty quiet time. Best to keep busy doing household chores. That's what bugs me the most about this crazy hip of mine....the inability to keep as physically busy as I like to be.  Mentally it is very bad for me to not be busy "doing" as often as possible. It is going to be an interesting few months until I hear from the surgeon's office, that's for sure.

From 8 Hours To 2.5 Hours! YAY!!!

We are very glad we didn't feel the urge to go away for the day today due to the planned power outage for our complex!  We were to be without power from 8am to 4pm, but the power didn't go out until about 10am and was back on around 12:30pm.  YIPPEE!!!  I did get up at 6:30am so I could eat a hot breakfast at 7am.....gotta have that bowl of piping hot unflavoured oatmeal for the sake of my cholesterol reduction.....which was difficult as I slept so poorly during the small hours of the morning, but it was worth it because had the power gone out at 8am as predicted it would have made my breakfast routine difficult.  I will do the same thing tomorrow morning because I do that every Thursday anyway.  My friend and I go out for steamed milk on Thursday mornings and I need to have sufficient time between when my breakfast is ingested and that large cup of deliciously hot no sugar caramel flavoured 2% milk to keep my blood sugar stable.  It was a nice treat today to have such a short time without electrical power.

My husband had kind of a miserable day today.  He had to fast for about 13 hours overnight for his quarterly cholesterol test this morning at 9am.  He fought with stomach acid for part of the night since he was unable to have his bedtime tummy settling snack, but he managed to keep things under control and get to his appointment on time....albeit driving the car the short distance to the lab rather than going for his usual highly anticipated walk.  Well, that is overwith for another four months! YAY and RELIEF for him!!  😅

It has cooled off considerably today and rain has been tumbling down for the past couple of hours.  It is the first day in the past couple of months that at least one of us has been home during the daytime hours with all the windows firmly shut.  REALLY enjoying the cool air and breezes for a change. Tomorrow will be similar and then the temperatures begin heating up again, but hopefully they won't quite get to +30C and above any more now that the peak of summer has ended and we are heading into September this coming weekend.

My old PC is showing a few initial signs that it isn't going to be with me for much longer.  I have still been running Windows 7 on it, but as more websites and systems upgrades don't support the programme any more I need to accept the fact that this poor old machine needs to be replaced with a new computer with a Windows 11 installation. My husband has been using that for awhile now on one of his computers and he has Ubuntu on the other. Since he is already very familiar with the differences between W7 and W11 he will be a great guide for me as I work through the frustrations I always experience when trying to learn any sort of new technology.  Bless his patience with me.  When we get back from our trip south we will purchase my new machine.  I love having a desktop PC!!  So many more things I can do on it than on my wee iPad.

Speaking of new purchases, my husband was able to purchase a new mobile phone yesterday with a very handy stylus to help his large finger pads when he texts and writes emails.  I am delighted for him. His old phone was purchased in 2017 and didn't have the VOLTE communication system he needed to do more than text message when he was in NYC in June.  My phone also has that capacity I discovered even though it is not a 5G, so we will put the US coverage plan in place before our trip. We are both going to need to phone home occasionally to see if we have received any outstanding calls from specialists who have had referrals for us for some weeks now.  For me that is kind of unlikely, but my husband can't afford to miss any calls from his own specialist that could be coming in by then. I am praying he hears from her before we go south so that will be one less stress for him to carry when he is supposed to be enjoying fun with family.

All these purchases we have had to make recently and the upcoming purchases for me of a computer and a couple of other things have us rethinking......AGAIN.....the idea of moving in the near future.  Hmmm....since we are still here in the lowest rent in town divy place, we have a substantially larger amount of money to spend on other things like computers and phones and travel and lunches out and giftings to charitable organizations than we are going to have if we end up in the next least expensive sorts of places which will cost us at least seven hundred dollars a month more in rent and utilities than we are paying here....even with the rent here going up one hundred dollars a month in January.  We admit that after forty years of struggling along making ends meet "through many dangers, toils and snares", it feels pretty wonderful to be able to have some fun in retirement.  Perhaps it will be worth spending the winter here and then reassessing rents and available places come early spring.....perhaps.....God may have other plans.....again......  Today we went over the numbers for the umpteenth time, talked about my lack of physical ability to pull off a move before the hip surgery with any ease at all and how much more it will cost to hire movers to do what I can do myself when I am not struggling with decreased mobility and increased pain, how much more time my husband could use to complete ALL of his downsizing tasks....AND....hmmmmm.....depending on what God might lead us to after the NYC trip, we may just be spending a few more months rather than weeks right here in our own personal lal la land of a suite.  Tradeoffs....which ones are we willing to make in the near future???  Lots to think and pray about, that's for sure.  We continue to get confirmation that now is not the time to move after all....not just yet....maybe soon.....maybe not......

Spiders Unlimited!

(This font is "covered by your grace" and I use it this morning because I NEED God's grace today!)

I don't remember any of the other nine summers we have lived in this suite being seasons of indoor spider encounters like this summer has been.  Nearly every day for the past month I have discovered at least one spider scuttling across floors, carpets, walls, ceilings, countertops....I am getting somewhat paranoid about how many there are this summer invading MY space!!  Ugh and Yuck and Eeeeewwww........

This morning, after a really really good night of sleep, I got into the shower at 6:30am, soaped up my hair, looked down (minus my glasses of course) and "saw" through the sans lenses foggy vision, a big black ball floating in the water beside one of my big toes.  What the heck??!!  I had just finished soaping my hair and figured there was no way I could have lost a hair ball that size that quickly after only a couple of minutes in the shower, so I bent down to look more closely and OH YUKKO it was a large black spider!  I looked up and saw a bit of web attached in a soggy mass on the ceiling above, so I suppose the poor spider had lost its footing in the clouds of steam arising from the hot water I love to shower in.  The spider appeared to have drowned already so, since I was hardly "dressed" to jump out of the shower, find a paper to scoop it up in and deposit it outside,. I stood aside from the waterfall above my head and let the big black carcass disappear down the drain.  A few minutes ago I was ironing a shirt for my husband, turned around to pick up the hanger for it and there on the wall inches from my backside was another, smaller version of the spider species that lost its life in the shower earlier this morning.  Sigh.....out its little butt went into the grass outside....until it finds its way back in I should be safe enough from it. 

All this spider activity began back in early spring when I was bringing up our old packing boxes from the basement under the mistaken idea that we would be moving by early summertime.  I assume that has contributed to the indoor population making itself more known to me than usual.  However, every time we open an outside door here it seems more spiders slip inside unseen and unannounced.  I truly truly detest this spider invasion, but there is little I can do.  When we are closing the blinds and drapes as the sun goes down in the evenings we see so many spiders stringing new webs that are attached to the outside window frames, the deck railings, the outside light fixtures......it is just crazy!  I can't keep ahead of them.  Each time I sweep away the old webs outside on the windows and deck and around the door frames, it is an invitation for more spiders to appear and spin new webs in all the same places.  The other day I was out removing webs and noticed that an industrious spider had completely covered the outside opening of the dryer vent with thick webbing.  

I don't know what to do other than to just grin and bear it and know that in another couple of months the cold autumn and winter temperatures will be upon us once again, driving more spiders indoors, but keeping many of them hidden in their winter hibernating spots before they emerge in my kitchen, living room and bedroom next spring.  

I HATE SPIDERS.....yes, I am grateful that they eat many other even more disgusting insects, but I just wish they would stay out of sight the rest of this summer as well as they have in summers past!!

Yawn....A Little TOO Productive Of A Day Today!!

Today has been most enjoyable and productive.  I had two long phone calls with friends from out of town, some needed to be sent emails written and sent away, plus my husband and I spent several hours running errands all over the city....so many small tasks and it was great to get them all done in one day, but we are tired out now.  The weather was warm and sunny today but not too hot to enjoy being out and about, for which we are most appreciative.  We accomplished every errand on our long list and a couple of extras as well. YES!!

The second of three mailings from my husband's recent Amazon order arrived at our back door today while we were out, but our sharp eyed next door neighbour went out right away and collected it to give to us when we got home.  How kind!  

My neighbour who had a damage inducing car accident the other day received word from the insurance assessors that the video of the incident she included in her claim proved that the accident was not her fault, so she is most relieved and happy.  When we were talking the other day she revealed that about a year ago she was wondering if there are better ways to pray that she didn't know about. That very day she discovered a YouTube video of a Christian pastor talking about Jesus and why he is so important in the whole prayer event. She turned her life over to Christ immediately, but has struggled to grow spiritually in the right direction. She doesn't know any other Christians here. Perhaps it is no accident that we have not been able to find alternate accommodation in recent months. Perhaps we can answer some of her questions as we get to know her better and encourage her how to cling to God when she suffers from debilitating anxiety episodes, how to let him help her through each one that she suffers.  There are at least some possiblities for a deeper relationship with her in the coming months and we have some ideas of how to pray for her even if nothing else develops in our budding friendship.  I am most encouraged that we are not still sitting in this broken down old wreck of a suite for no remotely understandable purpose.  Now we know of at least one possible reason we are still here.  Thank you Lord!!!  Perhaps our neighbour and I can help each other with our mutual anxiety issues. Ya' never know, right??

Tomorrow my husband will be getting his new mobile phone and I am excited for him....and for us since we need a 5G capacity phone in order to be able to use it in NYC when we go next month. Now that things seem to be straightened out with the airline and the accommdation situation is apparently solved, I am starting to allow myself to get just the teensiest bit excited about traveling south.

Divine Theft Protection? I Think SO!!!

 Yesterday afternoon our next door neighbour was hanging pictures on her wall and we heard the tap tap tap of her little hammer a number of times.  Somewhere in there one of the tap tap tappings turned out to actually be at our backdoor, but we didn't clue in.  We didn't go outside all day yesterday and never once looked out to see if all those taps had anything to do with us.

Overnight we had another light thunderstorm and rain so everything outside was soaking wet when we left for church this morning.  When we walked out the door to head for the car, there propped up on the porch beside the door was the first of several Purolater deliveries of some items my husband ordered two days ago.  The paper on the outside was soaking wet of course, but the plastic bubble wrap inside the envelope kept the purchased items completely dry.

The near miracle for us is that the package was sitting out there in plain view for at least 15 hours and it didn't get stolen!!!!  If you also happen to live in a high crime area like ours you will understand our amazement opening the door this morning and finding the package in tact after all that time!!  Had it been stolen it could have been weeks before we realized that part of our order hadn't arrived.  At least that would have been our assumption. Perhaps the rain kept some of the area thieves away from their usual nightly casing of our complex's suites.  We were shocked to find the package, grateful to God for perserving it for us and from now on, should there be any tap tap tapping that we think is coming from next door, we will open up our own door and check outside, just in case!!!  I believe there is another package to come, possibly two, so best to keep an eye out. Yay and thank you Lord!!!  May we be at home when the next deliveries are made and may we have the presence of mind to actually respond to any tap tap tapping!!!

We Survived Another “Shake The Lake” Weekend!!

Another Shake The Lake weekend has come and gone and we survived it well this year.  The annual outdoor rock concert extravaganza that occurs mere blocks from our place is sometimes hard to tolerate if the winds are blowing the sound our way. Friday we were “treated” from about 3:30pm until 10:30pm to thumping bass guitar and drums. No problem. There were only occasional bursts of sound so loud that our ears felt assaulted. Yesterday there were long windless periods where we heard nothing at all, or at least very little. The air was so still when we went to bed last night that I have no idea what time the music stopped. This has been the easiest to bear Shake The Lake weekend in the past 10 summers!!

Now we just have to survive the annual Queen City Marathon in early September. Our route to church goes right through the middle of the runners’ route so finding a driving route around it is sometimes impossible and I am unable to walk all the way to church despite being able to manoeuvre around the runners along what has been my regular route. Maybe we will attend The Church of Zoom that weekend!! If the route changes the planners implemented last year are still in place we won’t have to make quite so circuitous a route in the car. I think the REAL reason I detest the annual marathon, even though it is a marvellous athletic event for the runners and long distance walkers in our fair city, is that it signals the end of the summer season and I know the days of sunshine, warmth and dry ground are coming to an end. So thankful we have a trip planned this autumn to give us new, happy memories to talk about when winter hits. Yay!!

It rained again overnight and cooled the air nicely. Although I was semi-conscious a couple of times due to booming thunder, I knew I remembered to put towels along the open upstairs window ledges to soak up any rain that might blow in, so I rolled over, pulled the duvet over my head to block the noise and continued to sleep well. Double yay!!

This morning at church marks the final Sunday that we will have the organ system at our church for at least a year. The poor old thing has many worn out stops and pipes and has been the bane of both our organists’ musical lives for the past more than a year as it has wheezed and whistled at inappropriate times, sometimes leaving the organists with the disappearance of several key notes as they are playing hymns and postludes. This coming week the console is being dismantled, the decorative pipes removed and all operating parts are heading to a master organ repair in Calgary. An organ from a recently deconsecrated Anglican Church that is the same make as ours has already been dismantled and sent west. All the parts from both organs will be cleaned, assessed and then rebuilt together to create a repaired, functional organ for our church. I don’t mind at all that we will be using the piano instead every Sunday for a year or more, but I know there are some senior congregation members who are very upset to lose that organ for so long. Many of them have been listening to it for four or five decades and hearing it reminds them of our church’s former musical Glory Days when there were dozens of people in the professional sounding choir and much more classical music than we use now. I confess that guitars and today’s choruses don’t excite me that much either, but our minister and choir director are quite good at picking modern songs that have good theology and mostly aren’t too monotonous for congregational singing, so that is a blessing. The times they are a-changing and we need to keep up. 

I am feeling badly  for our next door neighbour.  A three quarter ton truck slammed into her vehicle the other day and destroyed the passenger side of her recently paid off car. She arrived at our back door afterward, shaking and needing help pulling herself together so she could phone the insurance company and report it. Having had my own less serious fender bender a few months ago I was able to help her explain the circumstances to the insurance assessor. My neighbour had the wherewithal at the time of the accident to go into the store nearby to see if its security camera happened to have the incident on tape and thankfully the footage was there. The store manager willingly sent the recording to her phone and that recording should prove that the accident was not her fault. Despite her loss of composure by the time she arrived at my place, she’d had the clear headed thought to ask the store about a possible recording. I would never have had the presence of mind to think of such a thing. Her quick thinking is a lesson to me should I have another accident. 

Our complex will be without power for eight hours this coming Wednesday and Thursday while necessary upgrades and repairs will be undertaken by city electricians. No power from 8am to 4pm…..two days in a row. I asked my husband if perhaps we could go out of town for a couple of days, but he was less than enthused. I think I will be able to get him excited to go out for a main meal at noon both days and we should be able to cook dinner once the power comes back on for the evening, but two days with no computers, no tv, no phones and no fans to cool things off….I am kind of dreading it! Fortunately our current weather forecast is for a chillier, possibly rainier weather system to blow in for that two days, but I don’t know how I will fill the electricity free hours!! I won’t even be able to vacuum or do laundry. Ugh!! Guess we’ll see how it goes. We so appreciate receiving notice of the event so far on advance so plans of some kind can be made. Maybe I can still convince my husband to go on a couple of day trips out of town instead of sitting around here bored and miserable two days on a row.

So After The Usual Mis-Adventures.......

 .....we apparently have our flights booked.  Dear old WestJet's website had the usual glitches that we often encounter when trying to book at peak times of day, but between phoning and dealing with the online Chatline helper, things were eventually straightened out. Thankfully, since between our initial attempt to book and our second attempt after the glitch raised our combined fare by two hundred dollars, the agent Dell eventually contacted was able to find us and confirm the first booking at the lower price. Whew!  Not that two hundred dollars would prevent us from going, but a price change in such a short amount of time would have been extremely annoying.  Thank you WestJet for having an efficient Chatline contact to straighten out issues when the phone lines are so backed up. To the best of our knowledge, all is well.  Lord willing.....hahaha....??

Looks like I can take my cane with me inflight and my husband is just checking out if I can either get a wheelchair or if there are little "tutty cars" available in Minneapolis to get me back and forth from the Gates to the Customs and Immigration.  At least if my cane gets confiscated for some reason I can't predict, there is a WalGreen's pharmacy a block from our son's place where I can pick up a replacement for a very reasonable cost.  Oh my....the extra questions needing answers when one is travelling as a somewhat disabled senior!!!!

My husband is in need of a new cell phone. In order to access messages from home while we are away and to make calls in the USA rather than only being able to text, he needs a 5G system.  I am glad he is able to get an upgraded phone as his old one is getting very elderly indeed and has seen better days.  My phone is not a 5G as far as we know, but I rarely use my phone apart from texting anyway so it doesn't matter.  As long as one of us can call back to Canada all will be well.  Neither of us expects to hear from either of our specialists whose referral lists we are on as early as when we go south, but it would be good to be able to call back and just check...just in case.....you know how it goes.....

Now I need to get my travel insurance. My husband purchased a one year plan from CAA when he went to NYC in June, so I think I will get the same policy.  I doubt I will need it again in the next year, but you never know and it is less expensive to just purchase the one year plan than to buy separately for each trip.  Perhaps these policies will inspire us to return to NYC in the next year....or some other USA destination that appeals to us.

We are SUCH babes in arms when it comes to air travel any more.  We are so out of practise, so unaware of some of the changes and issues from our own personal experiences, so for me it has become emotionally challenging to travel anywhere by plane.  Thanks for your patience as I vent on these blog posts.  I think this is the end of my ranting and raving about plans for this trip. Lucky you!! hahaha

Planning Our Next Trip! YIPPEE!!!

We just received confirmation from our kids that they are able to book the 6th floor walkup not too far from their place in Manhattan for the dates we all want, so we will be able to stay in their apartment and my husband is about to start the process booking our flights.  I am very excited to be thinking about another trip to New York.  I haven't been there since 2018....six years ago...a long time.  The kids are at JFK right now waiting to board their flight to San Diego for a week of visiting her extended family so I hope and pray it is a wonderful week for them.  Once they get back they both have some difficult work to accomplish for their careers and then they will have the week we are there free to spend time with us.  I am very happy that we just had a little trip to Alberta to pull me out of the doldrums and help me get excited about making some plans for another getaway.  If that had not happened I am pretty sure, to be honest, that I would be less than thrilled to be trying to head south. It would just seem like too much work.  So very glad to have a family trip to look forward to and get excited about.  Lord, we commit these plans to you and ask you to continue helping us set everything up for flights, that the kids' accommodation wouldn't fall through at the last minute for some reason, that I can get some handicapped assistance in Minneapolis to get me from the plane to customs and back to the plane in time to reboard during the layover there, (my husband says it is about a 1km round trip and I will never make it in time to reboard during the very short layover time with the sore hip),  etc. etc. etc.  Wow....the very idea of being able to see the kids' new apartment for myself and be in the big city again....yes, I am pretty excited alright!  Thank you Lord.

Got out grocery shopping this morning. I was there early enough to coincide with a number of women in a desperate hurry to get around the store and finish stocking up for their next trip to "The Lake". 

Nice to get out even for a short walk. It is not feeling that hot today, (although we are nearly at our predicted high of +31C), due to the overhanging forest fire smoke, but it is kind of muggy....not the usual for dry Regina, but we have had a bit of rain the past couple of nights that is taking a long time to dry up.  At this point any chance at all for some outside air, even with the higher altitude smoke, is a welcome thing.  In another couple of months or less we will be bundling up in winter sweaters again and battling snow and ice.  Oh my....what a depressing thought!  I think I will start thinking about NYC again!!

Ya' Gotta Be Episcopalian.......

 

Cough Hack Splutter

I have discovered one downside to the marvellous sleeps I have been having every night since the third night of our little holiday: sleeping through horrific invasions of overnight forest fire smoke. 

Sometime after 2am, according to my online weather alerts, the smoke descended into the city and has been at a health endangering level. I woke up at 6:30am with dry, aching eyes, plugged sinuses and lung congestion because I had not awakened to close the windows. Yukko!!! How can my eyes be dry and aching when they were closed all night???? Stupid smoke! 

So now I am sitting here praying once again for rain intervention, sans lightning strikes, to help firefighters get control of these monstrous, terrifying forest fires that are destroying property and businesses and lives. When will these fires end? What can we do to better control conditions that result in these sorts of huge burns?? 🥵 

There is so much more to pray about than simply my own adverse health reaction to the smoke.

All Is As It Should Be This Morning!

 My husband kept close tabs on me overnight and there was apparently no wandering about during my sleep last night.  He was aware of me sleeping through the night and there were no lights on or other indications that I was up and about instead of sleeping peacefully. Whew!  He will track me for another week or so and hopefully my sleeping walking episodes will have stopped again.....yet another reason to be seeking an accommodation all on one floor when we resume our search.

This morning I got a decent walk in...well, decent for the condition my hip is in nowadays.  I picked up my friend and we drove over to the Cathedral district to look around and have some lunch.  Between the number of blocks we covered looking for interesting stores....and many of the ones I used to frequent have closed out in the past year....plus shopping and the standing around at the cash registers in various stores, well, I walked nearly ten blocks in total.  Ummmm....yeah....a bit of owie by the time we got back to the car.  That zinging pain of what feels like pinched nerves was starting to get to me about every second step, so it is good we returned to the vehicle when we did. That was over an hour ago and I am still hurting just a bit.  It is good to push my limits occasionally so I can find out what they actually are!  The gift of centrally located accommodation from the kids for our upcoming NYC trip is becoming more meaningful with every step!!  hahaha

My friend and I ordered chicken salad wraps at the 13th Avenue Coffee House.  They were well stuffed with chicken and salad, but as seems to be usual in this city, the wraps were not heated so once again I "enjoyed" a cold and gummy whole wheat wrap....ugh!!!  I have to start asking in advance if the wraps are waved over a heat source before they are filled.  Anyway, the filling was delicious and I thoroughly enjoyed it.  We were planning to sit outside, but the umbrellas were not up over the tables and the wasps were heavy in number, so we sat on terribly uncomfortable chairs at a wee table for two and had the line of people placing orders standing RIGHT beside us as they snaked their way to the order counter.  There is something particularly unappetizing about trying to eat a meal with some complete stranger's butt hanging itself over the edge of the teeny, tiny table while someone else's tummy is brushing against the back of my head.  7 points for the wrap filling and 8 for the lack of loud obnoxious music so many other small cafes have thumping about, 8 points for the table spacing, 2 points for the chairs, 2 points for the "flow" of the space.....so, we decided we likely won't go there again for a meal.  There is nothing left in Cathedral that interests us in particular for shopping or browsing other than the wonderful Umbrella paper and card shop, Cuppa Tea and Traditions Hand Craft Gallery that features the work of some excellent Saskatchewan pottery crafters.  Parking is at a premium despite the many closed up shops, but we found a lovely shady spot just south of the main shopping area....in the shade of a huge tree.  Lovely!!

Now I am off to peel and boil potatoes for tonight's dinner of potato salad, yellow beans that we bought freshly picked at the Farmers' Market in Lethbridge last weekend and some chicken burgers with cole slaw topping.  Yum!

Dang It, Not Again!!

The past couple of mornings we have awakened to some mysterious things going on in our suite.  Two mornings ago I woke up to the bathroom light being on, shining right in my face. This morning when I woke up and went into the living room the floor fan that I shut off before bed last night was whirring away merrily at top speed....we never run that fan at top speed. My cane, rather than being right beside my bed was neatly hung over the bedroom doorhandle.  Sigh....I suspect I am sleep walking again for the first time in several decades.

Sleepwalking was a regular occurrence for me when I was a kid.  I had periodic episodes in my pre-school days, then after a break of several years I started again as a pre-teen, then it became an almost nightly occurrence for awhile in my later teens.  My parents used to wake up to find me going through the house turning on all the lights, returning to bed for an hour or so and then getting up again to shut them all off again.  I unlocked and relocked the house doors, took dishes out of the cupboard and set them on the counters....it was just wierd.  According to my husband I have only put on similar performances a couple of times through the course of our marriage and only for a night or two each time.  Now it appears to be happening again.  With my hip condition and with having two flights of stairs to navigate I can only pray with hope that I do not lose my precarious sense of balance and take a tumble down any of those stairways if these nightly forays through the suite are going to continue.  Lord, may they stop now.

Prayer request.  

Thank you so much for your prayers for my safety.

A Gift From Our "Kids"

 We just had a wonderful phone call with our son.  He and his girlfriend are determined that we ARE going to NYC this fall to see them, but they want to be mindful of my deteriorating hip joint and arthritis, so they came up with a most wonderful plan:  they are going to try to book a six floor walk up suite owned by some friends of theirs later on in September.  The rate for one week is most reasonable. They will move in there while we are visiting and allow us to stay in their own suite.  WOW!!  They will be only ten minutes away and can spend as much time as they want to in their own apartment with us, just heading over to the other little suite to sleep at night.  The cost of an entire week at this second suite is less than the cost of one night's hotel for us anywhere within reasonable travel distance to their place.  There are no properly equipped hotel rooms in the fall available in suitable areas of NYC for us under about $700CAD a night, whereas the cost for the kids at their friends' short term rental is just over $500CAD for the entire week.  WOW again!!  We were mentally preparing ourselves for this upcoming trip to be one giant financial blowout, the last we would likely ever have but with the kids' idea, if it works out, we could maybe do something like this again next year.  This plan also leaves us free to spend a bit more on our airfares so we can take our carry on bags and fly at times more suitable for us.  Anyway, it is all yet to be worked out and confirmed, but we have possible specific plans to pray about now rather than some sort of "nebulous possiblity sometime soon".  Whew!  So, hopefully these things can actually happen.  It will be interesting to see how everything works out.  Since there is more talk of another strike with Air Canada in the coming weeks, we will likely try to book on WestJet....also because they fly through Minneapolis and that breaks the flight into two more or less equal segments, plus we can avoid Pearson Airport in Toronto.

Another joy of being in NYC at a time that works so well for the kids is that it looks like we may be able to remain there long enough to celebrate Rosh Hashanna together and meet our son's girlfriend's relatives at that time.  Really looking forward to meeting some of her family members at long last.

It is SO WONDERFUL to have more travel plans to think about...plans that mean we get to see the kids.

This morning we decided not to return to AB at the end of this week. We need to reserve what is left of our energy after last week's fun and games across the border.   On the one hand it is disappointing, but on the other hand I am glad we don't have to race around here in the +32C temperatures this week, heating up our suite by using the washer and dryer for an entire afternoon and then preparing our suitcases and personal accoutrements once again so very soon after coming back from the last foray west.  The blessing is that we saw the bride and groom and the extended family members while we were there last week and had far superior visits with each of them than we would ever have on the actual wedding day. AND I delivered their wedding gift then....perhaps that little mix up regarding whose wedding gifts I took to AB with me was not really a "mistake" after all in the grand scheme of things.  Maybe that mis-adventure actually wasn't!

I looked at the rental situation here this morning and not much has changed, so I am just as happy not to have to be fretting about getting "application to view" forms together and spreading our personal financial information to any more landlords and rental companies in an attempt to get a viewing for all these places that are actually more or less the same floor plans that aren't going to work for us anyway.  If we end up here for a few more months there is one box of kitchen supplies I will have to unpack.  Everything else can remain in the boxes for now.

Off to run a few errands this afternoon.

Helpful Friends!! Helpful City Roadworks Department!!

 I could not be more grateful for friends in other places when it comes to travelling!  All our friends contributed to our  joy on this past trip in one way or another....remembering today the friends who planned a picnic with their extended family after church last sunday in a beautiful park and who insisted on bringing dietarily (is that even a word??) appropriate food and drink for us.  Remembering also a friend who passed on a gorgeous skort and matching top that she isn't able to wear and, as it happened, turned out to be a necessary addition to my wardrobe when unexpected outdoor muck ruined the possibility of my wearing the last of my almost clean clothes for our trip home yesterday. I am grateful to other friends who watermelon marguarita'd us and fed us mediterranean food and took us to concerts, still others who just made time to see us at OUR convenience for visits and prayer and heart to heart one on one talks, friend who weren't afraid to ask us for help in various ways and made us feel our friendship to them is still helpful and close despite years of geographical distance between us.  

The jury is out apparently on whether or not we are actually going to return to Alberta in a few days for another wedding....as grateful as I am for my husband's health holding up better during this past week's travels than it has in the past nearly 30 years of travelling, he is quite worn out today and by mid week will have to make a decision regarding either cancelling out of the wedding attendance OR expanding that trip by a few days to visit other friends and family in order to justify the expense of another trip already...in his mind it needs to be justified and I understand that, even though I am so much a "the money is in the bank so let's throw caution to the wind and just spend it on another week away." kind of person. In about 48 hours the decision will have to be made in time to cancel our current hotel accommodation if necessary, but I surely do hope we can get away for a few more days, even if it is just a quick trip to the wedding and home again.

The break from church has been good for me. I have felt for awhile like I am just "going through the motions" for some reason, so am looking forward to being more a part of things there this autumn.  

In a couple of weeks it will be time to be in touch with our kids regarding our hoped for trip to NYC this fall. They are currently in San Diego meeting their 5 month old nephew for the first time, so that will be fun for all of them.  Aunties and cousins and uncles and brothers and babies and sisters in law.....glad our son is able to relate to and enjoy so many in his girlfriend's family.  The weather there is always so good too...much more moderate than the heat waves in NYC so I think that break from the heat will be good for them.

I am grateful to a point for the upper atmosphere forest fire smoke in the air today here.  It is keeping the full impact of the high temperatures down just enough to make being outdoors bearable.  We were out banking this morning and it was quite pleasant to be out. Fortunately the smoky smell is must less obvious today, but I am still being careful about how much time I spend out of doors.  

I am thrilled to report that at the corner of our block, the one where there have been so many pedestrian/vehicle accidents, some of them fatal due to the configuration of the corner making it impossible for pedestrians and cars to see each other sometimes, (to say nothing of the idiot drivers here to don't bother to check to see why the cars in the lanes beside them are stopping), is today getting a full set of traffic lights installed! this may not completely cure the problem due to the aforementioned idiot drivers, BUT it should cut down not only on the number of injuries and fatalities happening 100 feet from my front door, as well as slow down some of the night time street racers revving past my bedroom window at 3am.  I have already sent my email of gratitude to the appropriate city department.  

So now it is time for lunch....oh yeah lunch....I am home now...meaning I am the one who has to prepare the lunch....and clean up the mess....and wash the dishes afterward....hmmmm....hey sweet husband, did you say we COULD leave in a few days on another holiday????

The Final Misadventure!

We were both awake shortly after 4:30am today, so by 5:15am we gave up trying to get back to sleep and started packing up.  A quick breakfast in the hotel dining room and we were on the road by 6:20 am.  What a perfect time to be travelling on a secondary highway, particularly when part of that highway between Lethbridge and Medicine Hat has only 2 lanes.  There was so little traffic that we didn't have to pass anyone at all and no one had to pass us either.  We watched the sun coming up....due to the smoke in the upper atmosphere it was bright red and appeared to be so huge that it could be about to crash into the earth.  Gorgeous!!!  We stopped once to clean the incredible amount of bug guts off the windshield after less than an hour of travel, stopped for gasoline and then stopped at noon for lunch in Moose Jaw. Although we were less than an hour from home at that point, it had been six hours since breakfast and I was getting kind of crabby from low blood sugar.  My husband loves the chicken at Deja Vu there, so we enjoyed several strips and wings, caesar salad and onion rings with spicy Caribbean Jerk dip...not the healthiest of meals, but hey, at least there was salad....oh, and cole slaw as well...tons of it!  We arrived home at 1:30pm so had a leisurely time unpacking and reliving the memories of our trip.

Our final misadventure of this trip was when we realized, a good hour after leaving Medicine Hat, that we had forgotten to stop in at the hotel there where we spent our first night out....the one where my husband left his good iPad charging cord that the hotel promised to hold for him....sigh....duh....double duh....Well, if we return to Alberta as we are supposed to in a few days' time we wil stop and get it then.  Aiiii yiiiiii....fortunately that is the only blunder we made today....that we know of....

Our two days in Lethbridge were so much fun.  Beside having great visits with our friends there, we were able to enjoy some fun activities together. 

The first night we went to a fundraiser for the local community theatre group and were treated to an evening of mostly professional singers and dancers and musicians.  It was SO MUCH FUN!!!!  The next morning my husband made us all an apple pfankuchen with apples freshly picked from our hosts' back yard trees. Then we went together to the Farmers' Market. There were an impressive number of vendors, plenty of product variety and we came home with a trunk filled with potatoes and peaches!!!  Yup, there will be a peach pfankuchen in the very near future here!

Last night was such a hoot!!  Friends of our friends in Lethbridge are in a blues band.  Once a year everyone on the block where a couple of the musicians live gets together for an outdoor, backyard, live concert at one of their homes.  Everyone in the area attends and what a fabulous time we had!  It was a wonderful way to end our holiday!!  With great gratitude to The Dufferin Street Band for an incredible evening of blues music and laid back fun!

 

 

Here are a few mountain meadow flower photos from Sunshine Meadows that I promised to post as well:

Can you spot a little furry friend in the photo below, snacking on one of the plants?  You might need to enlarge it, but he is there, really he is:

Lastly, here is MY mountain friend! (also somewhat furry) haha

 

It is good to be home....I suppose...trying to feel good about it at least, but wow, after 10 days of reasonable temperatures, no huge winds or storms and a low wasp count, it was kind of a shock to drive home into the +30C's again and have to remove a wasp from inside the kitchen less than 30 minutes after arriving home!!!  I do have an epi-pen now, thanks to a good friend who helped me get one so it is less intimidating for me now if I am in a waspy situation I can't immediately get away from.  Yeah...."home"....interesting word and concept.....anyway, if this is home we are here again and looking forward to this week's plans.

The Latest Misadventures!!

Well, in the past three days we have gotten ourselves lost four times in two cities we are familiar with!! I wish these cities would stop growing and changing and moving familiar intersections and closing the old traffic routes! How dare they, right??? Hahaha….

More Visits, More Fun!

After a light lunch with extended family in Calgary yesterday, (the bride’s exhausted parents and siblings), we enjoyed our next highway drive to Lethbridge. A small shower of rain just as we arrived in town cooled the air and freshened things up outside. 

The friends we are visiting here prepared a delicious Mediterranean dinner….the meatballs made with ground turkey and grated zucchini were fabulous! Then we all went off to a fundraising concert for a local theatre company, where the results of the local university’s former music and theater programmes were joyfully apparent!! Tragically those well taught arts programmes have had to be dropped as their government funding was cut recently!!!! It is another travesty due to government leaders refusing to understand the importance of culture in society…just heartbreaking!

This morning my husband took over the ingredients for pfankuchen to our friends’ kitchen and, using their own freshly picked apples, prepared us a fabulous breakfast. Then we all went to the city’s large and well attended farmers’ market. We are bringing home a trunk load of farm fresh potatoes and orchard fresh peaches.  Yum!!

We followed the farmers’ market with trips to an organic grocery for a large jug of kombucha and a trip to a specialty cheese store. What a yummy lunch we had with the new cheese, spicy cassava chips, tabouleh salad, za’atar herbed bread, stuffed grape leaves….oooh, everything was so fresh!! It is incredibly difficult to get so many freshly prepared middle eastern and Mediterranean foods at home in Regina.  So many of those items in the few such stores we have are stale to the point of being nearly inedible.  Insufficient sales I presume. Disappointing….

Tonight we are going to a backyard blues concert so that will be great fun….professional musicians….YES!!!!! We will have heard more excellent music in the past week than we have in the past couple of years!! We need to take better advantage of some of the classical music concerts and visiting professional entertainers back at home than we have been. Glad for this week’s reminders that we definitely need to get out more…..

Home tomorrow for a few days….then hopefully back on the road for a few more!!

A Busy Day Of Hurry Up And Wait

I have a bad case of Restless Leg Syndrome tonight after spending far too much time sitting on hard church pews at a family wedding and nearly as hard community center chairs at the reception. We had to get up and moving quite early in the morning so I could iron my husband’s clericals and make certain we got him to the church in time to robe and receive instructions from the presiding Roman Catholic priest about my husband’s role in the ceremony ….. basically processing in and out of the side altar seats along with his Anglican compatriot. For this we had to arrive at the church one hour prior to the wedding mass. So I sat on a hard pew for nearly three hours. Ouch!!! 😓 The mass was quite long, but oh how we enjoyed the classical singing of the cathedral choir and the brilliant organist. Marvellous! 

Between the wedding and reception we drove to a lovely boutique shopping area of the city to purchase a new Japanese teapot. After three hours of sitting it felt SO good to be out walking about for awhile. Being on my feet instead of sitting on my behind was wonderful!!

Then it was off to the reception. We became somewhat lost trying to drive to the reception venue, so there was a bit of frantic racing about in rush hour traffic so we wouldn’t be late. Once we arrived we sat for another 90 minutes waiting for the meal to be served as we were the next to last table called to join the buffet line. The food though was worth the wait and we enjoyed it very much. We also enjoyed meeting the other people at our table. Everyone was friendly and talkative to that was a bonus. After the meal we sat for another hour’s worth of the usual speeches by all and sundry, but they were lovely speeches, wonderful tributes to the bride and groom and their families. 

Now I am trying to get my leg muscles to stop aching so I can sleep. A quick walk across the street for a light night tour of an interesting Asian grocery store gave me a bit more exercise…most helpful. Perhaps I can read myself to sleep now.

The Yummiest Side Dish ever!!

I ordered what turned out to be the most delicious side dish I have eaten in a chain restaurant in many a year when I ordered the fresh broccoli side at The Old Spaghetti Factory last evening. 

The broccoli was indeed fresh, well trimmed and cooked just the way I like it: not al dente, but not mushy either. I could use my fork to cut the bigger bits but without the individual florets crumbling apart. It was flavoured with a bit of brown butter sauce and a liberal sprinkling of grated, salty, Mizithra cheese. Oh my, it was delicious! The All Inclusive meals are too much food for me, so I ordered two sides instead of an entree. The other one I ordered was three meatballs in marinara sauce, which was a tasty enough dish, lots of sauce. I wasn’t very excited when our friends wanted to go to this restaurant, but the food was better than I expected….that broccoli side dish made my tummy the happiest it has been since leaving home! 

Joy Despite The Craziness!!

Despite the goofy mistakes we have been making along our merry way this past week, some very happy events have taken place. 

Yesterday my husband and his friend drove west of Calgary to the Sunshine Meadows. My husband has been there many times in the past to ski in the winters, but has never had the opportunity to be there in the summer to view the spectacular wild flowers. The guys took the gondola 🚠 up the 1600 or so feet of gain to the meadows and that was an experience in itself, particularly on the way back to the parking lot when a sudden rainstorm produced lightning at close enough range to shut down the gondola operations part way down the mountain and leave the passengers hanging in mid air until the operators deemed conditions safe enough again to restart….only about 20 minutes, fortunately, but the guys were scrambling about trying to get the windows closed on their gondola car before the teeming rain blew in sufficiently to completely drench them and their day packs. I will post a few photos of the flowers and views from their trip when we get home. 

While the menfolk were touring the meadows, my friend and I were in the little foothills town of Sundre touring the museum there. It is quite a comprehensive collection of artifacts and historical documents outlining the history of the town’s first Norwegian settlers and their many descendants. The most fascinating part for me though was their Wildlife Museum. A descendant of the original settling families was a big game hunter. At some point in recent time, the museum became the recipient of his massive collection of taxidermy’d animals from Africa, the Arctic and North America. A mind boggling number of animals and birds were posed cheek by jowl in a room the size of a medium Quonset hut. A local artist painted a mural backdrop and there were all manner of plastic plants and trees jammed in among the throng. At one end of the display a rocky arch has been crafted to display a collection of mountain goats and mountain sheep. I admit it was a bit eerie walking under the arch. Anyway, we saw artfully and at least somewhat realistically posed lions, hyena, water buffalo, elephant, alligator, hippopotamus, elands, black bears, deer, grizzly bears, martens, walrus, weasels, wolverines, polar bear, fox, tusked boars, giraffe, arctic foxes, snowshoe hare, hawks, song birds, lynx, cougars, on and on and on. I know I have forgotten many of them at the moment, but you get my drift. On the one hand I am no fan, no fan at all, of big game trophy hunting and think it should be outlawed!! On the other hand, since all these animals had been slaughtered years, decades, previously, the collection could certainly be used as an educational tool to teach the rest of us respect for the various species on display and serve as a warning about what we stand to lose as many of these species are threatened with extinction. My heart was both sad at the unnecessary deaths of these beautiful animals and encouraged about teaching possibilities, both at the same time.

Today we headed to Calgary to prepare for a big family wedding tomorrow. This afternoon we were able to take time to visit a couple who had us housesitting for them during my husband’s first year in seminary. That was in 2002 and we have seen them only once since. What a marvellous reconnection. They were good friends with my husband’s sister, so they gratefully received some old photos of times she spent with them both in Canada and overseas. My husband was able to purchase a few hundred dollars worth of his favourite teas at Tea Traders and I picked up some unique winter sweaters at Twitchin’ Threads, one of my most favourite boutiques. We met up with my husband’s longest term mountaineering buddy and his wife for a nostalgic dinner at The Old Spaghetti Factory. Although it has moved miles away across the city from its original downtown location, the meals on the menu have not changed that much. Gourmet? Not on your life, but tasty, reasonably priced and perfect for the sharing of our mutual old memories. Again, old photos (of mountain trips past) were delivered to their new owners….and out of my basement!! 

By this time tomorrow the wedding will have occurred and the reception…at least for us…..will be over and we will be exhausted, but happily so. Lunch with the family of the bride on Friday before heading to Lethbridge for a couple of days. Apparently, according to our mail collector back home, most of our monthly bills have arrived, so we will have a few days to pay them, then get ready to hit the road again for Summer Holidays Part 2.

A Misdemeanour Of My Own!

Tonight my husband went looking in our food box for his evening snacks: unsalted peanuts and veggie chips. They were nowhere to be found. So, just guess where they are! Yup, I left them in the cupboard where I stored them in our last hotel. Double duuuuuhhhh!!!! Hahahahaha….we are realizing the extent of our stress level back home before we left on this trip….over the top and if we hadn’t gotten away for a few days to commit stupid mistake after stupid mistake, we still wouldn’t realize how ridiculously and unnecessarily stressed we have been over a multitude of issues….so many of which, (I am sorry family), cannot be shared on this blog, but there has been a lot more going on than house hunting and hip replacement surgery wait lists, sigh…. Anyway, it is good to finally clue in so we can take steps to combat stress as we return home in a few days. Good grief!!!! 

Today’s Special Adventure!

This morning my husband managed to lock himself out of his bank issued debit card….oh dear Lord above, here we go again!!!!! I cannot believe it….except I actually can. My dear husband is the epitome of the absent minded professor. Sigh…..no time to fix this latest debacle until we get home next week. Aiii…

A Relaxing Day Just For Us…For A Change!!

We had a relaxing breakfast here at the hotel yesterday, sharing the meal time with other friends who also stayed here for a night. What a nice way to start the day. Then we went to see a condo other friends recently purchased so my husband could give them a couple of recommendations for some renovation upgrades they want to do on their unit. After that we had plans for a trip out of town to see more friends, but they had to cancel, so we found ourselves completely free to spend the rest of the day on our own….I admit that it was quite lovely, despite the disappointment of missing the afternoon visit. 

We were able to locate the old style charger cable my husband needs for his elderly iPad, we went to a grocery store to pick up a few tasty items to enjoy lunch in our room, we window shopped, had a nap, read books, chatted, enjoyed getting caught outside during a brief rain shower, ate an elegant roast beef dinner and were asleep by 9pm so my husband could get up at 6am today to meet a friend for a day in the mountains. 

Thus far today the only (mis)adventure has been my husband’s! (however, the day is young….) After he left I discovered his bag of snacks in the refrigerator and his mug of hot milk tea sitting on the counter. Sigh….hopefully he remembered his bagels and cream cheese. I both texted and phoned him but received no response….because….he will have forgotten to turn the ringer on this morning….oh well…..nothing else I can do….aiiiiyiiii….hopefully his climbing buddy has a bit of extra food to share…..sigh….

I am heading out of town with my friend to see a museum out west in the foothills where there should also be a fun place to eat lunch together!! The weather is warm and calm, a perfect driving, sight seeing kind of day.

Looks like I will miss my annual August winter clothes shopping spree in this area this year….waaaaahh!! However, I did purchase a couple of winter pullover sweaters at Mark’s, so that is something at least. I will now have the courage to toss out two old sweaters I should have gotten rid of at the end of last winter, so that is something I guess. 

Things Are Going Well (?) Thus Far

 Yup, welcome to our typical holiday of fun filled events. 

To date, my husband messed up when using his credit card booking into our first two hotels, causing it to be locked down,  so we spent a lovely afternoon on the phone with the credit card company trying to prove his identity when the answers to  their many questions regarding past purchases and the like are all locked in a file cabinet back at home. There ensued a mad dash around the area looking for a branch of the particular bank that sponsors his card so that he could change his security settings, followed by a small shopping spree for things we didn’t actually need in order to reactivate his card within the very short time frame given to accomplish these things. He accomplished everything in time and we breathed a sigh of relief! 

We decided to have dinner at one of the spiffier local restaurants, where it was my turn for a somewhat less stressful adventure. The waitress keyed the wrong order into her machine and I ended up with a meal that did not remotely resemble what I had asked for. Sigh…. Since it had taken over 45 minutes to receive the food after waiting over fifteen minutes to be able to place the order and the restaurant was closing in a half hour when our meals arrived, I just ate what I could manage from the assortment of deep fried and heavily salted items on the plate. So much for spiffy…..

When we returned to our hotel my husband began searching for the charger cord for his iPad. A “turn the room upside down and the duffel bag inside out” search did not result in locating it. Where on earth could it be?? He finally figured out where on earth it likely was: still plugged into the charging station at the hotel we were in the previous night. Noooooooo!!!!!! Fortunately for him, he was able to communicate with the hotel, found out the cleaning staff found it and turned it in, so he has arranged to pick it up next weekend on the way home. Our task today is to find a local tech business that may have a charger cord he can purchase for his old iPad so he can use it in the meantime. 

Next on our holiday adventure list is our attempt to return to our present hotel room ver late last evening after an incredible day meeting with old friends at church, a fabulous picnic with our long time extended Almost Family, (where there were no wasps!!!!!), a reunion with our former church congregation at an anniversary celebration for one of the couples we were close to when we all lived in this area, and a delicious dinner with our very first Anglican priest and his family. (Same restaurant but the wait staff got my order right this time, yay!)

We were exhausted by then so happily toddled off back to our hotel, only to discover that both our room keys had demagnetized and we couldn’t get in. Sigh….back  to the reception desk where we stood in line behind several groups of people with late night check ins before we could have our turn, have the keys magnetized again. By the time we staggered back to our room my hip was more painful than it has ever been and I was tempted to fall into bed fully clothed and doze off immediately. 

A good night’s sleep has restored our energy for whatever adventures come our way today, beginning with purchasing a new wedding card for the family wedding this week, and finding an ATM so I can put gift money into the card…..since I managed to leave the original card and money back at home and instead brought along the card and gift money for a different wedding we are attending here later this month!! Yup, another adventure of our own making….we are SO GOOD at creating these kinds of (mis)adventures, aren’t we? Fortunately however, we did have a visit yesterday with the couple from wedding number two and I decided to just give them their card and gift right away….since I did have it with me….and they were right there visiting….and if I take it hone with me I will likely forget to bring it back for their wedding anyway…..

Yup, we getting good at this holiday adventure thing….stay tuned…..

A Lovely Day For A Drive Around The Countryside! (Day 1)

We are happily ensconced in our hotel in The Hat, about three hours away from our weekend destination. It was a lovely five hour drive with a tailwind today that kept our gasoline consumption lower than usual. We stopped once for lunch in Speedy Creek at Original Joe’s and it was a delicious break away from driving. The sun has been shining but it isn’t too hot to enjoy driving. It hasn’t quite hit us yet that we are not turning around tomorrow to return home, so our joy at being on a trip has not yet begun to overflow, but when we pull into the next hotel and start seeing our friends in the area I am sure we will start relaxing and enjoying ourselves. For now I need to hoof it over to the nearest automotive store for a new pair of earplugs….the one thing I forgot to bring. I am hoping we can find a restaurant that serves soup for dinner….a nice tomato bisque perhaps?? I stuck to my resolve at lunch to have a green salad with grilled chicken, so….may the rest of my holiday be this disciplined!

PS Cee is on his way home from hospital today and within the next couple of months should be seeing a respirologist to try to discover why he continues to experience bouts of pneumonia. For now, he and Nan are just happy he can be at home, thank the Lord!!

I THINK We Will Be Ready To Go When The Time Comes????

Today my husband finally grasped that we are soon going on a bit of a trip away!  He had a surge of energy that he used up washing and detailing the car in hopes that it doesn't rain again and dot the vehicle with small dusty dots before we go, he also purchased some new summer floor mats to try to make the poor old car look more presentable on the inside.  We both got some possible travel outfits hung up around the bedrooms and my husband prepared the incredible amount of clergy gear he has to take with him....along with hiking clothes for the one day hike he is taking with a friend of his.  He has to take dress clothes for wedding and anniversary receptions as well as his regular travel clothes.  Aiiii yiiiii....our car is going to be packed out with his attire.

No, he is not presiding at his cousin's wedding, BUT the other Anglican clergy attending decided that since they will be sitting up in the choir loft facing the bride and groom for all the congregation to see, they should gear up to the hilt to make themselves appear more interesting! hahahaha Little clergy boys and their liturgical toys, right?  So, my husband had to prepare his big black cassock, the overlying chasuble, find the correct stole and eventually locate his academic hood as well. Oh my....the church this wedding is happening in is notorious for being too hot inside in the summer.  I think what the congregation will actually see is my husband passing out and falling out of the choir loft onto the floor!  Praying, praying, praying he can handle all those robes.  Sigh.....showing off, that is what these dudes are doing, showing off in their liturgical fashions! hahahahaha

I have changed ideas for trip clothing a dozen times this week.  Finally, in frustration, I picked outfits that will go with black shoes and purses as my black shoes are actually more comfortable than my brown ones and my black purse cradles my mobile phone more easily. There....decisions made, ready to pack up...it is all good.  I will have only one carry on sized suitcase and a small overnight bag. My poor husband on the other hand.....I am going to be doing SO MUCH ironing in every hotel so that the many dressy event outfits and clergy wear will not be wrinkled beyond all belief.  Wardrobes are the one downside to a trip away that has so many public events requiring dressing up!!

Hopefully I get some decent sleep between now and when we leave. I tried to go to bed early last night, but after shutting out my bedside lamp at 11pm and tossing and turning most uncomfortably for twenty minutes, I gave up, got up and read until 1:15am.  Then I slept until 6:45am, so at least I got a few consecutive hours of shut eye. YAY!

Today I started to get a teensy weensy bit excited about being away. Finally......now, if my hip just holds out until we get back...today was not a good day, but I wonder how much stress plays into keeping the surrounding muscles from relaxing. Getting ready for a trip is stressful...not in a bad way, but it isn't relaxing! Well, I am not going to worry about it in advance...one day at a time, right? Amen!