Under A Tokyo Sun....

The rising sun was glowing red early this morning with the onset of fairly intense low altitude smoke arriving overnight from the northern fires.  I was reminded of our time living in Tokyo where, if you didn't get up and going prior to about 7am, red is the only colour of sun you would see because by that time of the morning it was already glowing red through the layer of smog.  It was a beautiful red, then and again today, but unfortunately the rich colour is due to pollution of one kind and another.  Again, today's smoke kept the radiant heat down a bit, so tooling around town for several hours today was quite pleasant despite my wearing a mask to protect my lungs.

My husband surprised me today!  After breakfast I got all duded up for the day and he announced it was time to go to the pharmacy to pick up his prescription.  I didn't understand why he was so eager for me to accompany him on a two minute drive away from our house, but he was insistent.  Sighing mightily I agreed to come along.  As we turned onto the street I noticed we were heading in the wrong direction if he was going to the pharmacy. When I questioned him about it he responded that he had some plans for some fun for us first!  Wha'???  FUN plans? US??  He was so right!  (Keep in mind we prefer quiet sorts of fun.) He took me on a tour of all but 3 of the city library branches so I could choose books off their Pop Up Book Sale carts. He wanted me to have plenty of reading material for when I come home from the hospital after my surgery.  What a fun time we had!!!  It was a hoot.  We drove all over the place, I saw libraries I have never been into after 10 years here in the city, we had a yummy lunch near one of the branches where guests at another table were loudly discussing the unfairness of who from their bowling league had been chosen for an out of town tournament...."It is the SAME people ALL THE TIME and THAT'S NOT FAIR....yeah, but then again I never claimed to be one of the best bowlers....actually I consistently have some of the lowest scores....but all the same, IT ISN'T FAIR that the rest of us don't get to go....well, actually we can go if we just want to watch.  Yeah...we can go now that I think of it.  Could be a lot of fun, don't you think?  Do you want to go to the tournament in Saskatoon??  You do? Okay, I'll pick you up.  BUT IT STILL ISN'T FAIR THAT SO AND SO ALWAYS GETS TO BE ON THE TOURNAMENT TEAMS.  It MUST be because of her blonde hair.  Oh yes, it is beautiful indeed, but that is not a reason to be chosen every time.  No, I guess I don't know that that is why.  Well yes, she does have the highest scores every time our team plays together.  Guess that is really why she gets picked?  Yeah, you are right, that is probably why. BUT IT STILL ISN'T FAIR!!"  All this conversation was going on at top volume and there was nowhere in the small restaurant to avoid it, so we decided to just buckle down and learn all we could learn about the unfairness of tournament bowling team decisions made by an unfortunately coach who was being raked over the coals for over an hour...along with the gal who has the beautiful blonde hair.  hahahaha  

Our last library stop was beside a small greenhouse where my husband was able to find a couple of the herb plants he hasn't been able to find elsewhere.  Repotting them will be a nice job he can do tonight or later tomorrow after the worst of the heat is over for the day. He is SO happy to be covering our little back deck with herb pots once again...and he also picked up a small pot of yellow and purple faced pansies....his most favourite flower.

And then finally we made our last stop at the pharmacy for the prescription.  In the process of going there we tried to drive through Wascana Park but we got trapped by closed roads all around the lake.  The roads were closed due to a giant Sikh event happening on the grounds there.  It was a slow moving lane of traffic we found ourselves in as we wended our way around the available open roads to get back out onto the main street, but what fun we had!  There were so many gorgeous saris, colourful turbans, and little open cartons of Indian street foods being carried by pedestrians walking beside and all around us as we crawled past them.  There were so many people we almost felt that we had been attending the event and it was worth every long, slow minute it took us to drive back out of there. Glad we had that little adventure.  Now I have to go online and see if I can find out what the event was all about.  It was a really big deal today.  Had there been so much as a single parking space available we would have stopped and done some exploring, trying to learn more about some of the Indian cultures that have cropped up here since the arrival of many east Asian folk.  

I think I will just enjoy vegging for the rest of the day and evening.  I enjoyed a giant chicken caesar salad at lunchtime with a small slice of garlic toast.  My random A1C yesterday was a little too high for my liking, considering it was taken 2.5 hours after finishing my breakfast, but with the surgery coming up....yes, I am trusting this other little medical issue that has cropped up since all the same tests were taken 2 weeks ago will not stop me from having the surgery next week, at least until I am told otherwise....I feel the stress and worry lifting, so I started going back to a very strict diabetic diet last night and am carrying that forward today and onward with a sense of relief that I am still capable of that discipline.  Too many deaths and other personal stresses over the past few years have assisted me in slowly derailing my diet and it is time to get back in line. A little scare does it every time....but hopefully I won't need to be scared again to comply with the reality of what I am allowed to eat and how much of it. Oh happy day!     

Well, It Figures, But I Am Okay.

 Hahaha....so, I had a repeat of some lab work that I had a couple of weeks ago at the request of the surgeon.  AND, there is something not great going on in my test results....oh how things can change in a couple of weeks' time.  This could postpone my surgery next week, but I won't find out until after the weekend.

Of course I freaked out for about an hour, BUT, then I stopped and got a grip...(told you in the last post I am doing better, right?)...and remembered that IF taking some meds will be insufficient to proceed with next week's surgery then I just have to trust that God has a reason for all of this.  I may never know if there was any other, deeper reason for the delay and that is okay. God knows, and people end up having surgeries delayed all the time for any number of reasons.  Nothing is truly confirmed until the patient meets the anaesthetist and ends up being wheeled unconscious into the OR.  Such is life in the wonderful world of strained health care systems.

It is a great relief to be able to confess that after my initial upset, I am at peace and prepared for a delay if that is what has to happen.  I am in His Good Hands. Thank you for caring and praying.

 

Lo I-it Co-omes Wi-ith Clouds Of Smoke De-ee-sce-en-ding! (Hi Lili, Hi Lili Hi Lo!)

We have been extremely fortunate here to have not had forest fire smoke blowing into the city, despite the raging out of control fires burning in northern Saskatchewan and Manitoba...that is, until today around noon.  Now the sky is white with smoke and it is drifting and swirling right down to the ground. The odour is not as bad as it often is when there is a lot of non-tree/ plant material being burned, but I am grateful to be finished with today's errands and appointments so I can sit in my suite with the windows shut.  Fortunately that amount of smoke blocks the hottest rays of the sun from creating the stiflingly warm temperatures that were predicted for today.  It is warm outside of course, but not unbearably so.  So grateful I had my mask to wear as we raced around all morning to 3 of my 5 outstanding pre-op appointments, (and all went smoothly with waiting times reduced significantly for some reason, yay), as I do tend to cough incessantly once that smoke hits my sinuses and lungs.

My patient husband spent about 90 minutes waiting for me in the car outside medical facilities this morning. Fortunately he had an interesting book to read and can tilt the seat back for a nap.  He drove me all over the place, then treated me to lunch at DarBar.  Yes, I kept my mask on everywhere I went, even in the restaurant when I wasn't gorging myself on fab Indian food.  That man deserves a special blessing for his patience, his calming presence and his "Well, of course I am going to look after you at all times!" attitude.  How did I get so very blessed??  Whatever his other foibles may be, believe me I am grateful to have him.

I feel the weight lifting as things continue to be worked out.  My OCD is settling down now...(I call it emotional "out of control disorder")....and I have even stopped the counting thing that happens when I am having a bad run with it.  (eg shampoo hair, count to 90 when scrubbing it in, count to 100 when rinsing it out, apply conditioner, count to 50 when rubbing it into my hair and then count to 500 before washing it out....aarrrgh!!) Gosh that stupid condition makes it so hard to FEEL the trust I place in God to handle things.  I know deep inside I do trust Him because after the life I have lived how could I not, but on top of that trust there is always another shallow level of stress that irritates me so much. However, other people, even Christians, have to deal with conditions far worse than that, so I consider myself most fortunate.  It keeps our humanity out in front of our faces if we are tempted to ever feel "holier than thou" around people who do not share our particular brand of theology or worldview.  Jesus helps us be transformed, BUT that transformation is not complete while we are still on this earth and we need to keep that in mind. No, we DON'T actually have it all together quite yet, so be let's be patient with each other.

I had some trepidation about going to two different medical labs today for testing.  The requisitions were faxed from the surgeon's office yesterday afternoon but that doesn't always mean things run smoothly. Today, hallelujah, they did.

Well, time to go and spray stain remover on my dress that is now the proud recipient of a splatter of pepper chicken curry....what a slob, eh?  hahaha  Oh well, the lunch was fantastic and my dress will recover. Have a great weekend one and all. 

Clickety Click, Clickety Click...NOW We're "Cookin' With Gas"!

 Well, I thought I was done with the phone calls, but have had a couple more since I posted earlier to day and it is all very exciting info!

I received a call from the hip and joint clinic to check on what equipment I already have, (praise the Lord I have it all and don't need anything else), to arrange to send me a PDF file of the post-op book that should have been mailed to me but wasn't, AND to let me know that a request for a 6 months Handicapped Parking card had been sent to SaskAbilities for me to use after the surgery while I recover.  THEN only a few minutes after that call SaskAbilities called to tell me the pass is ready for me to pick up after my lab and x-ray appointments tomorrow.  Wow...that is SERVICE!  I don't have to drive to the SKAB's building, quite far from here, to be met with a questioning gaze and the comment, "What parking pass?  We don't know anything about a parking pass!"  YAY!

SO unless something really is screwed up from the testing I am having done tomorrow or my ECG next week, everything is a GO.  I feel so much better now.  It took awhile for things to get going on getting pre-op info to me, but all my questions have been answered now and I will enjoy watching the instructional videos I received via email in the course of my conversations with the various medical folk.  Whew!!! 

Call Count Is Reducing!

As of this morning my calls to be waiting for have been reduced to two....as far as I know, hahaha!  This apparent obsession with posting about my pre-op phone calls is due to reporting to various family members for who reading a blog post is more convenient (for them AND me) than blithering on the phone day after day. There are too many for me to report to than is reasonable for making phone calls.  So, the rest of you, please bear with me. Thank you for your patience.

It is a golden day outside....heat, blue skies, minimal wind....love days like this. Would love them even more if I could be outside walking all over the place, but that is a good goal to set for much later in the summer.  Something to look forward to.

Our son sent his airline confirmation schedule this morning and now the visit is becoming VERY REAL and very exciting and I am going to try my very best to not worry about our kids recrossing at the border when they go home. I am NOT going to ruin this visit for myself.  We will have our son here on his own for a day or two while his wife (ooooh, how I love that word) is visiting with extended family and friends in Ontario before flying on to our place.  Oh how grateful I am to have something so amazing as an in person visit to look forward to....with our son....and his WIFE!!!  Wow!

As the possible  hindrances to having my surgery next week continue to fall, my attitude is improving, I am feeling lighter inside, being able to look beyond the surgery and immediate recovery experience is healing to my frazzled mind and spirit, the weather is most encouraging after the long and miserable winter, my walking partner came to see me yesterday for a masked visit and that boosted my mood big time, I have a table covered with plants to cheer me, my husband is being a total mensch about my situation so I am most blessed.  

My prayers today are for travelling friends and family and for friends who have lost beloved spouses and elderly parents in the past few months.  We are in that age group where saying goodbye is becoming the norm.   

Now, off to iron clothes after a practise session with my crutches...it has been awhile!!  

 

 

I Have Been Blessed With GIFTS This Week! WOW!

The other night friends arrived with a beautiful bouquet of flowers for me. Since all my vases have been packed away since this time last year, my husband was able to locate a giant pickle jar in the basement and so here they are all bright and spring-like sitting on the dining room table.

 

Thank you ladies...I LOVE them!!

Then this morning my walking partner came for a visit and brought me this precious little pink blossomed plant.  I was so blown away that I forgot to ask her what kind of plant it is, but maybe, like the last unknown plant photo I posted, one of you readers will be able to tell me exactly what it is. I have seen these plants before, usually sporting white or yellow blossoms and occasionally red ones, but I LOVE this deep pink colour. 

 

How did you know I LOVE the pink ones?? Bless you friend!

Thanks to all you amazing flower bearing friends!  After being quite free of indoor plants for a number of years I now have two Christmas cacti, a blooming succulent, plus the latest editions....all so very lovely. I am thoroughly enjoying each of them. Just looking at them perks me up!

Out on our deck my husband's herbs are thriving and the tomato plant is still wrapped and protected on our windy back deck as it grows large enough to survive the extreme winds that accompany our late spring weather.   We usually receive the tomato plant from our amazing gardener friend, but the wind took out her greenhouse the other day, so we rescued it and brought it home early. 

Photos of my husband's back deck herb garden will appear in another post once he gets them all transplanted into proper, larger pots. 

And just like that, we be plant people!!  😉 

Where Is The Former Doggie Tenant From Next Door When I Need Him???? Geese Are Everywhere!

After a slow, happy beginning to the goose population hanging out on our back lawns, the absence this spring of any terrifying dogs has encouraged the numbers to grow. Oh how I wish that big, nasty sounding, goose chasing mongrel was still in residence here! Last summer was close to perfection in terms of rarely having to scoop poop.

In the past week our goose on the lawns numbers have nearly tripled over previous weeks. My husband just went outside to the car and there is so much poop he had trouble stepping around the piles. It is so disgusting that I wish I had the energy to cry my heart out. There is no way I can be out there ten times a day again, like I was three summers ago, when I foolishly thought I could keep ahead of it and nearly lost my mind as a result. 

I am guessing this was a culling year, when many of the eggs were deliberately punctured by wildlife staff soon after being laid so that the embryos would not survive. Most of the lawn is covered by mated pairs of geese with no goslings who have been driven out of the parklands across the street by the couples wanting to preserve the grasses there for their wee ones. 

There are also daily visits from the pair looking after about twenty goslings who are now at the pre-teen stage, still not flying, but growing larger and beginning to moult their baby down. 

As disgusting as the mess is, I realized today I just don’t care any more. 11 summers now of varying amounts of poop to be avoiding, scooping, cursing and crying over with embarrassment when company comes to visit have left me feeling kind of numb about the situation. Like many other aspects of our life here it is just one more thing that seems hopeless in terms of finding a solution. 

I might as well be completely honest and admit that despite having a plethora of friends and acquaintances here who make life on these dismal prairies bearable and often very enjoyable indeed, well, the truth is that Saskatchewan has defeated me. 

You win miserable prairies. I have reached the point where, like so many people I have met here, I have simply ceased to care about striving for excellence. I am starting to understand why “Good Enough!” could be the provincial motto. 

There are a number of understandable historical reasons for attitudes here that, as a lifelong Albertan prior to moving to SK, it has taken me all this time to truly understand. Trust me, I am finally getting it, I truly am. People here have been treated like they aren’t worth much consideration for decades…by governments, major business interests, even the weather during the depression decades ago…..generally speaking I am living among three generations of people who have experienced defeat by having their hopes stomped on over and over again. It appears I am joining their ranks….

So, the question I have for God and for myself is how do I pull myself out of this defeatist attitude  this unmotivated “yeah, whatever….” mentality that is threatening to overtake me? 

Perhaps once I have recovered from this upcoming surgery I will be able to pull myself out of this defeated, who cares mentality that started setting in over the past winter. Yup, I bet that will help. I will try once again to focus on prayer about the possibilities coming in the future instead of dwelling on immediate discouragements! I won’t give up so easily!! I will keep people like my friend Nan as an example right in the forefront of my thoughts and hopes. She is a woman who never settles for the mediocre! It is possible here! I DO have examples to follow.

And just like that….these musings are already returning me to the positive! 

I need to go now, get the goose poop shovel from the back deck and get to work!!!! Amen!

The Expected Phone Call Finally Came....It Wasn't What I Expected!!

 After being on pins and needles for the past week and a half, wondering when I would get my phone call about a pre-op appointment, torn between feeling frazzled, wondering if I should call the clinic in case I had been passed over, and the complete peace that comes during the moments of being aware of completely trusting God that the call would come, the call came earlier this afternoon...at last....but it is not THE last!!  haha

The nurse that I spoke to told me that my pre-op appointment is going to be over the phone after all, (wait for another call Part 2), that I will also be hearing from Physiotherapy, (wait for another call part 3), that I will be receiving a call to have an ECG due to my heart murmur in the next few days prior to my surgery, (wait for another call part 4), and that I needed to call my osteoporosis specialist to find out if it will be safe to take my regular osteo meds injection in July, which I have done and am now sitting here expecting......wait for it.....the specialist's office to call me with that information hopefully today, (wait for another call Part 5)!!!!!  In other words I cannot leave the house on the remaining weekdays during the hours of 8am to 5pm between now and my surgery.  Guess for the next 10.5 days I will be sitting here at home, with evenings and weekends off.  I was going to give the medical people my new cell phone number now that a mess with that has finally been straightened out since the confirmation of my surgical date arrived, but then it was decided that would just add confusion as my present landline number is the one all the medical offices involved already have. hahaha

So, here I sit waiting for the phone to ring once again.  To quote the infamous movie "Space Balls", "We have reached ludicrous speed." hahahahaha  

I have my check list sitting here in front of me as to who I still need to hear from in the next week, so as they come in I can check them off.  I also am waiting for my physiotherapy booklet to arrive in the mail and I highly suspect it is not the fault of Canada Post that such a thing has not arrived for me. There seems to be a hitch in somebody's getalong lately in this process for me.  

The good news is....the process IS progressing at last.  I am grateful to God and to prayer warriors and caring friends for that! AMEN! 

The Best News This Year....All Being Well....

Plans are afoot for our kids to come to visit us in July.  We just had a wonderful chat on the phone with them, they have tentatively booked their BnB and now are getting flights lined up.  There are still a few things to firm up, but Lord willing we will see them in a few weeks' time.  I am already praying they don't have any trouble getting home again and am hoping I won't spend the entire time between now and their return home fretting over dire possibilities....stupid OCD.  Anyway, I have my surgery to distract me in the meantime....I think....still no call from the clinic for the pre-op.  Looks like I will be on the phone tomorrow afternoon trying to track them down, barring a call from them in the next 24 hours. Sigh....well, I just continue to pray that it all works out okay over this next ten days or so.  

The GREAT news is that the kids are planning to come to see us very soon.  I realize how desperately I miss seeing them when the plans for a visit start to gel.  Why o why do we have to live so very far away from each other, eh?  At least we live on the same continent, unlike some of our friends and their adult children.  We are blessed indeed when I think of the distance others have to travel to see their families, while we are only  a few hours away by plane.

I am very grateful to God for this encouragement.  By the time they arrive I will be several weeks post surgery and hope to be off the walker and onto a cane by then so I can get around with everyone to do a few activities.

Thank you for your prayers, faithful friends and family members, that our kids will be able to be here, spend some time with us and then return home without any hassles.  

Okay clinic...I am ready to hear from YOU now....hahaha.  I do have peace that this appointment business will work out in the end, I am just tired of being stuck waiting...the older I get the more I seem to be losing my ability to wait...shucks!

Another Friend Is Gone....Sigh.....

 A dear dear friend just contacted us to let us know that her husband, who has been in hospital for some time, passed away yesterday afternoon.  Please pray for Krissy as she adjusts to the loss of her beloved Scotty.  Thank you so much.  So grateful to God that there are family members fairly close to her to assist her with the legalities accompanying the death of a spouse.  My husband and I are very sad indeed to lose this faithful friend.  At one point Scotty was trying to purchase a condo in their town for us to come and live in when things were not going well with our circumstances at the time.  He and Krissy didn't sell their last house, they gave it away to a family in desperate need of a home to call their own.  They are not wealthy people at all.  That is the kind of people they are.  Even now, in the midst of her own grief, Krissy has decided to make contact with a disabled and financially down and out fellow in her town who may need Scotty's electric wheel chair...she doesn't even know the fellow, just has seen him struggling often to make his way around the streets.  May God bless both of them for their generosity, for their love of helping people in the midst of their own ongoing and extreme health issues over the years.  Thank you for your prayers for Krissy.  

Can't believe we have already lost Scotty. May he rest in peace and rise in glory. Amen!

Beautiful Spring Blossoms!

Today was my first day out of the house after 8 full days indoors trying to remain healthy. Hopefully today's outings didn't blow that up for me, but I did wear a mask and wash my hands a lot.....and groceries are something I needed to get so....

My husband also had a few errands to accomplish and while we were at a shopping complex we parked beside a row of GORGEOUS blooming artificial cherry (?) trees. Just have to share them as so many of my pictures are focused on the monotonous muddy brownness of this place we call home.

 

Oooh, so purty!!!  Unfortunately those blossoms will all fall off in the first major windstorm or even before. They don't last more than a week it seems.  So, I am glad my husband recorded their existence for me.  Next winter I can pull them up and remind myself that this prairie place does have some incredible beauty...at least it does in the late spring and early summer.  These are just a few of the many stands of pink and white blooming trees around the city.  Welcome to Prairie Spring at its best!!

Only Took 6 Days To Finish 3 Days' Worth of Work! YAY!

I am delighted to report that this afternoon I completed the spring cleaning of this suite and it only took me twice as long as it normally would if I was healthy!  Yippee!! DONE! FINISHED!  I am VERY HAPPY and RELIEVED that I got it all done at all!! 

I am not so happy that I have not received my phone call to set up the pre-op appointment I was assuming I would receive today, as today is exactly 2 weeks prior to the surgery and the final day for the clinic personnel to contact me within their own time frame. Sigh....  Okay, well, I will give them until noon on Monday and then I will start tracking things down myself.  Perhaps the long weekend Victoria Day Monday holiday put things on the clinic call list a day behind?  Well, that's the way it goes sometimes.  I did request prayers from all of you praying readers about this situation and it appears that for today the answer remains "No!". That is okay.  Next week I will get it sorted out, hopefully. While I am at peace about not receiving the call today,  I am feeling a bit anxious about starting the process myself to find out what is going on due to the horrendous stress I experienced a couple of years ago doing the interprovincial probate for my mom's estate.  That really did in my nerves, so the idea of having to chase people around via the phone, even for this very good reason, makes me feel antsy to some degree.  Silly, I know, but there it is....thanks again for prayers that I will be brave and just do what I know I need to do next week. Thanks you guys, bless you.  Is it getting older that is making me quail at the thought of doing something that for years I was good at? Made my living at?  Good grief, how did I get to be so wussy and unsure of myself??? 

Today, although it has been overcast outside and still a bit cool, there has been some bright sun this afternoon and I have a few windows open just a bit, to let the fresh air into this place.  The sun feels so nice on my face right now.  The blessed warmth is amazing after the extreme cold temperatures for so much of the past winter.

Tomorrow I am going to mask up and get out of this place for a wild hour of grocery shopping!  (I know, I know...whoopee....sigh....)  It will be fun because I have not been outside of this place for a whole week, have seen no one else but my dear husband all this time and am champing at the bit to get the heck out of here for a little while. Yes, yes, I will mask and take precautions, but I can't spend another two full weeks sitting inside just waiting for the time to pass until my surgery.  My walking partner is coming for a visit early next week and that will be a joy for me.  If the weather is as nice as predicted we can sit outside and stay healthy, but if not I will mask for an indoor visit.  A visitor...another person....here....to visit with ME!  YES, YES, YES!!!  Something fun to look forward to because I will be watching church on ZOOM again this Sunday and the next as so many in the congregation are ill right now.

It has been a productive week, somewhat reminiscent of our weeks of COVID isolation back in 2020 and knowing I survived that very well has given me the ability to deal with being indoors alone all this week.  A good thing to come out of that whole experience....I am more content with my own company than I had been for some time previously. A little loneliness is not so terrible actually.

My husband is over at a friend's place painting linseed oil on her wooden outdoor planters that he built for her last year.  They have been outside all through the past winter so need a touch up to protect the wood. He loves doing jobs like that, so I am very happy for him to be able to be outdoors puttering joyfully.  He was at the wood shop yesterday putting the finishing lacquer coats on our son's wedding gift, my favourite cane and some of our kitchen knife handles.  Tomorrow they should all be dry and he can bring them home.  

I am grateful that Canada Post has delayed their probable total strike action until after the weekend as we received some important mail in our box today.  What a blessing!

The weather prediction appears to be quite good for the whole weekend, so if I can't go to church or visit a ton of friends, perhaps I can take a short walk outside and enjoy the fresh air now that my work is done.  Here's hoping.

Do Any Of You Know What Kind Of Plant I Am Growing In My Dining Room?

I took these photos the day before my husband transplanted it into a far larger pot, where it is thriving and continuing to bloom, but I don't know what kind of plant it actually is.  When I bought it in December of 2023 at the hair salon where the proprietor had a small flat of teeny weeny plants in equally teeny weeny pots, it was barely 3cm tall and since I have a great proclivity for killing plants, I am shocked that not only has it grown and started spreading out in the new pot, it is also blooming....has been blooming for weeks and the blossoms even survived the transplant.  I love this plant...may my stumble bum plant growing skills work out this time!!  What is this thing?

 

 

This Week's Outdoor Entertainment!

 

It began with a small group of goslings!

The group began to grow!

 

                          The little munchkins have the full meal deal on our back lawn area.

Reduce, Reuse, Reduce, Recycle, Reduce!!

After a rather late start this morning...thank you God that I had a half way decent sleep last night and a bit of a sleep in....I got started on cleaning up the kitchen properly.  I decided to begin with the two jobs I detest the most: cleaning both the food storage cabinet and the spice rack. 

Wow....without the pressure of having to accomplish too much in a day, without feeling like I had to push myself, I thoroughly enjoyed the two tasks I had been dreading. The four shelf storage unit has been vacuumed out, washed and dried, a few items thrown out as we aren't using them and the rest of the items completely reorganized.  YES!!!  Felt so good to get that done as it has been a few months since the last proper cleaning out.

Next I tackled the spice rack...it is a huge open set of shelving my husband set up for us when we moved in here and realized the tiny kitchen lacked enough cupboard space.  There are a total of 8 short shelves that are filled with bottles and jars of herbs and spices. My husband helped me consolidate a few things, decide if some of the herbs were close enough to the expiry dates to warrant tossing them out, eliminate a few of the more exotic herbs and spices we have only used occasionally and need to be replaced AND by the time we were done we had reduced the number of jars and bottles to a mere 76!!  YES!  There were more than 10 that were eliminated, but I didn't take an exact count. Needless to say that the newly washed shelves and wiped off bottles and jars have left the spice rack looking shiny and interesting once again.  YES!!

As much as I would like to spend the rest of the afternoon washing the stove top and cleaning the burners, I am going to abide by my own "rules" and take the rest of the day off.  I may or may not get a boost of energy after dinner this evening to at least wash the burners, but my hip is sore enough from standing on the kitchen floor for a few hours that it is likely wisdom to just wait until tomorrow now to start Kitchen Deep Clean Phase Two.  Looks now like there will have to be a Phase Three as well, but that is okay.  What else am I doing for the next couple of days, anyway? Nothing else, as usual, so it is wonderful to have a focus and a goal to achieve.  I cannot handle just sitting around reading or watching tv for more than an hour or two per day...although I know I will be spending a fair amount of my surgical recovery time doing just that. Perhaps that is why I am so loathe to be doing it ahead of time.

The weather is improving slowly but surely! YAY!  The last of the rain....hopefully for a few days at least....came down last evening and now there are breaks in the clouds that reveal blue skies and sunshine.  It is still a bit chilly for the time of year, but looks like we will be returning to more seasonal temperatures next week!  OK!!

Got 'Er Done Despite The Cutie Patooties Outside!

I DO realize that my housework is not actually of any interest to anyone, but it makes me feel good to be able to track my activities, particularly when I am stuck at home, trying to keep away from  the respiratory viruses so many of our friends are fighting with right now.

The geese and goslings finally wandered far enough away that I was able to get on with my work and I am thrilled that I got the entire living room deep cleaned....hahaha, makes it sound like I live in a grand palace for room size, doesn't it? hahaha  The reason our small living room is such a big deal to clean is because there are just so many "things" to wipe and move, plus  rolling up the 9x12 foot carpet to turn it end for end while dealing with this miserable disintegrating hip is quite the performance!  It all just takes a long time to accomplish when I am moving at snail's pace and trying to protect one socket joint.

You know, I actually have been enjoying this deep spring cleaning process.  I have limited myself to one room per day and just knowing that as I begin each room helps me to relax and take my time.  So what if it takes me all morning to clean an 8x8 foot dining room?  So what if it takes me half the afternoon to remove all the shoes and coats and hats and mitts and scarves and shoe racks and mats and boot trays out of our minuscule front entryway and wipe down every surface and wash the floors and front door?  So what? Have I got anything better to do when I am not going anywhere very much these days?  The answer is that no, I don't, so I might as well enjoy cleaning what is still left of our possessions before we complete the downsizing process.  Having the excuse of a very sore hip gives me permission to stop pushing myself to accomplish a certain number of inside chores each day.  It is a grand relief!  YAY! Once I am fully recovered from the surgery I need to maintain this same attitude toward my housework and stop fussing and acting like I am still working full time without proper time to spare for getting housework done.  I am too much like my workaholic mother that way, even though I do not clean house nearly as often as she did.

So, all that is left is the kitchen now. I will spend two days on that room. It too is small....ridiculously so....but there are appliances that need to be wiped down properly, cupboards that should be emptied and washed out properly, an open spice rack arrangement that will require me to remove every spice and herb jar and wash them down with a wet cloth, soap and then towel them dry.  At least we removed the old slatted blind in there a few months ago and replaced it with some curtains.  Between the kitchen and dining room replacement curtains and my husband taking over the blinds cleaning in his library and office now,  I am down to only cleaning 4 slatted blinds instead of  10. Bless that man!!!  If he doesn't do quite as thorough a job as I used to do on each slat, well, no longer my circus, no longer my monkeys!

What a wonderfully productive week I am having!  Thank you Lord for strength and determination that I don't always have. 

Now,  if I can just get my phone call from the medical folk to tell me when my final pre-op appointment is going to be. They have 2.5 more days to do that before I have to start trying to figure out who exactly to contact to ask why I haven't heard from them less than 2 weeks prior to the confirmed surgery date.  I guess for those of you praying friends and family that is a prayer request. Thanks so very much.  Trying not to stress, but today am finding it difficult to be kept waiting until the last possible moment for the call.

How Can I Get Any Work Done With All The Entertainment Outside?????

At present there are six adult geese and 52 goslings, grazing, scattering, running, following, scrambling and tumbling across our back lawn. We have never had this many newborns on the property all at once. They are still tiny enough to be so adorable that it is proving nearly impossible to draw my gaze away from the windows when I should be tearing down, cleaning and resetting the living room. Just SO danged cute! The amount of goose poo shovelling I am going to have to accomplish when our several days of rain finally draw to a close is something I don’t really care to contemplate, so for now I will put that thought aside and simply enjoy their antics. I watched with great trepidation earlier this morning as the adults led the wee ones across four lanes of very busy street to get to our complex, my heart in my mouth, but drivers here are quite used to dealing with them. Still, there seems to always be that one driver who doesn’t bother to figure out why the traffic around him has slowed or completely stopped and doesn’t bother slowing down while ripping past the other cars. 

Both families and the “childless” pair have now moved across the full span of lawn and around the corner onto another street, so I must, MUST get back to my housework. Pictures will follow, but I will have to post them later.

Back to work, back to work….NOW!

Here Is A Poet Who Understands Deep Grief

 

Time does not bring relief; you all have lied

Time does not bring relief; you all have lied   

Who told me time would ease me of my pain!   

I miss him in the weeping of the rain;   

I want him at the shrinking of the tide;

The old snows melt from every mountain-side,   

And last year’s leaves are smoke in every lane;   

But last year’s bitter loving must remain

Heaped on my heart, and my old thoughts abide.   

There are a hundred places where I fear   

To go,—so with his memory they brim.   

And entering with relief some quiet place   

Where never fell his foot or shone his face   

I say, “There is no memory of him here!”   

And so stand stricken, so remembering him.

 

---by Edna St. Vincent Millay

Turtle-ing!

 My husband found out yesterday that while he was at the wood-shop on Friday he was exposed to the latest brutal respiratory illness running rampant through our city. Adding that exposure to two exposures I had last week and knowing how virulent it can be, we are opting out of in person church events and other public gatherings we planned to attend over the next couple of weeks. We can only hope and pray that neither of us becomes ill after the exposures we already had. I feel badly for my husband because his own activities prior to my surgery also have to be curtailed to keep me healthy. It seems most unfair to him and I am so very grateful for his good attitude about it and his willingness. We are trying to strike a realistic balance between wisdom and paranoia…not always easy!

So Much For Last Night's Post! Haha....

Yes, family and friends who emailed me earlier this morning, my final post last night DID disappear in the early hours today. hahaha  I am struggling with a couple of things on my newer, smaller style keyboard and in the process of attempting to edit and update that post I managed to erase it and not be able to bring it back.  Since it is too much trouble to rewrite it, well....that's life!  I have been doing the same thing with various emails the past few days, but in every case but one was able to restore them and get them sent.  Pushing Control, then Z has been very helpful when my fat fingers hit things that erase my email content mid stream.  It is the easiest and quickest way to restore my vanished emails.  Although my computer does save the email content every few paragraphs, I have lost a few things over the past few months until I remembered the Control, Z solution.

Overcast today and a high of only about +13C. I like this temperature.  I was talking with a friend yesterday and she said she is most content with summer temperatures between +24C and +27C. ME TOO!!!!  Those are the best days for me and also for my husband who has never coped well with more extreme heat.  My husband forgot to cover his deck herbs with a blanket last night, but it didn't get quite as cold as predicted and the wooden plank over their little nesting place against the side of the building managed to keep them from freezing. Tonight it will be around 0 again, so the blanket is already sitting out by the kitchen door to remind him to cover them properly tonight.

My Thursday coffee buddy texted me in a panic this morning to let me  know she woke up this morning with symptoms of the respiratory illness that is currently making the rounds in our city.  She was so upset that she had inadvertently exposed me to it, but I can only pray and trust that I will remain healthy and be able to go forward with my surgery. I have been masking again and avoiding group get togethers.  For the next three Sundays I will likely attend the church services on Zoom instead of in person, as much as it makes me feel so isolated from everyone, but hopefully I can just stick to my guns and force myself to avoid any more crowds for the next three weeks.  

Enjoying the sun and blue skies that are peeping out around the clouds.  Possibly more rain on Tuesday and that will be A-OK! 

It Pays To Have An Appointment In The Later Afternoon....

 ....or maybe the lab was nearly deserted because people had already left the city to go to "the lake" for the long weekend??  

I arrived nearly a half hour early for my scheduled lab work this afternoon, thinking I would be sitting for at least a while for walk ins and the scheduled patients ahead of my appointed time were called.  Nope!  As soon as I gave the office receptionist my name and handed her my referral and told her my appointment time, she smiled and sent me back to the "blood letting" booth.  There were patients in two of the other three booths and I waited less than two minutes for a tech to arrive and draw blood.  He was a wonderful tech:  brought my rolling vein to a halt very quickly and got his job done!!  I walked out of the lab twenty over twenty minutes prior to my scheduled appointment time. YAY!!!! Yup, it pays to have an appointment scheduled....AND DID I TELL YOU I SET UP THE ONLINE APPOINTMENT THE OTHER DAY ALL BY MYSELF???  I did????  Ooops....my bad.....

So, since I was parked close to a discount grocery store near the lab, I decided to pick up three or four items to make my long weekend cooking more fun.  The store didn't seem all that crowded for a long weekend Friday afternoon and I had my handful of items collected in under five minutes.  THEN I discovered the incredible lineup of people waiting at the cashiers' tills...I mean it was completely ridiculous.  There were exactly three cashiers open and the line up for the self-checkout...which I was tempted to use in the interest of time, boredom for waiting and my sore hip....was just as long.  I took another tour through the store, weighing the option of just dumping my items and high tailing it home, but no...didn't want to admit defeat.  So, back into the lineup of well over 30 people (I know because I counted on my way back to the end of the lineup.).  There were carts and customers jockeying willy nilly for space at the three available cashier' tills, pushing each other around, people trying to cut in on other customers who had already been waiting an age for service.  It was a ZOO!!!!!  There are ten cashier stations available and only three of them were open??  On Friday of a long weekend????  WOW.....  It will be a frosty Friday in the winter before I shop there again.  I got chatting to a young fellow who was picking up the empty baskets and collecting empty carts and he said in all the time he has worked there....over 5 years....he has never seen such a mess as this afternoon.  It was truly dreadful.  Finally a couple of other cashiers showed up, neither with much experience as they are older, have been doing other jobs at the store and haven't worked the tills since the new computer system was installed. So, while it was moderately helpful, it still took a long time to get us all through.  I had two people ahead of me when I was able to push my cart into the lineup for the particular till I found myself prodded into by others more impatient than myself. The first lady had the most huge order I have seen in many a day and she stood there chatting with the cashier...more like AT the harried cashier....until her entire order was put through and THEN she started packing everything. Her order took up both sides of the packing line so the woman in front of me had to wait to have her order put through until there was enough room for her items.  This same woman was coughing like she was going to regurgitate a long, so on went my mask and I pray, pray, pray I haven't picked up whatever illness she is fighting.  When she got to the till finally and had her order processed she tried to use her phone to pay and her bank/credit card was rejected.  She tried three times and it wasn't accepted.  Aiii yiiii.....so then she told the cashier that if she could just get her bill she would take the order over to Customer Service around the corner from the tills and see if she could arrange payment with another card....or whatever.  Nope, the cashier was not about to be duped.  She called someone else to come and accompany the customer over the Customer Service.  Good on her!  When I was finished with my own order and leaving the store I passed Customer Service as an angry clerk was starting to unload that cart. The customer was long gone.  Wow....I am so grateful I only had two issues with people ahead of me in line.  SO GRATEFUL!

Well, I have just received a text from a friend who wants to take me out for dinner, so I must away....a wonderful reward after a half hour wait to get to a cashier and then watching the rest of the circus unfolding ahead of me.  It has been a most interesting day!!!! hahaha 

PS Excuse any errors. I am not taking time to proof this.

I Know Spring Has Officially Arrived In SK Because…..

 …..yesterday, May 15, my furnace turned itself on and ran for most of the day. 

Furnace coming on in mid May, along with freezing gales and gusts, cold rain everywhere except for the areas where the grass and forest fires are burning, plus overnight low temps just below freezing again….yup, must be spring on the prairies, yup, yup, yup….

Armed To The Teeth And Ready For Action!!

 I have been awaiting my phone call to receive the date for my final pre-surgical consult, the one my husband aka "support person" also has to attend, as well as the packet of pre and post surgical information that is usually not sent out until a couple of weeks prior to the surgery itself.  

Not being the most patient of patients...who me???...I got tired of waiting, (and also worrying that another impending Canada Post strike could see my information packet stuck in the mail instead of my postbox), and  as I am in quite a bit of pain today I am subsequently rather miserable to one and all, so I went online to find the website for the hip and joint clinic. There, after a bit of searching, is a copy of the very information that they are supposed to be sending to me. YAY!!  

I found the list of equipment I am supposed to have waiting for use once I get home and which of those pieces of equipment I am supposed to bring to the hospital WITH me when I arrive for the procedure.  My husband decided there was no point in waiting to get it, so off we went to Jolly's medical supply and I am now the proud owner of a proper recovery walker, a claw grabber and a raised toilet seat.  The other things deemed necessary by the clinic are things I already have or know I can manage without because I have for prior hip surgeries.  God bless my husband.  He knew that my Victoria Long Weekend would be less stressful for us both if I had that equipment along with having my lab work done Friday afternoon.  He knows me so well.......  

I did something BAD yesterday apparently when I did my final reps for physiotherapy and today I can hardly walk from the pain in the muscles all around that miserable hip.  Thanking God that I have a second cane while my preferred cane is still drying its new stain in the wood shop and also awaiting its final coat of varathane.  Doing laundry today has been a bit of a trial, since I absolutely have to use my cane inside the house today. Balancing the laundry baskets filled with clothes, myself and the cane while going up and down the stairs has made the process slower than usual and more tiring, BUT the laundry has one more load to be washed and two to be dried and I will be done!  My husband has been a big help to me as he has done some of the moving of clothes up and down the stairs.  I am SO grateful for him.

This will be the first major surgery I have had since we have been married where he is not going to have to be going to work every day as I am recovering.  I find myself subconsciously planning how to accomplish all the things that will need to be done around here during that first couple of weeks of recovery as if he wasn't going to be around....guess it is good to do that anyway, but wow...once it sinks in that I won't be alone during recovery this time, I am going to be feeling quite spoiled rotten over the amount of help I will be getting.  Wow!  Bonus!! 

It has been a bit chilly today and we have had several bouts of gentle rain.  Really enjoying the rain and the greening grass and budding trees!  The forecast of snow has changed to only rain for the next few days, but you never know if it will end up snowing anyway, despite the best forecasting attempts.  I truly do enjoy the weather upheavals around here, to be honest. Hate the ice, enjoy everything else.  

My husband has put a wooden plank over the small herb pots on the deck and has a heavy blanket to cover the whole works with for the below zero temperatures predicted for a couple of overnights this coming weekend.  Fresh  herbs again this summer...YES!

Open And Shut

 My husband and I have reached the age group where more doors are closing than opening. I have mentioned previously the friends who are becoming age incapacitated, moving away to be closer to their families and those who have left this earth altogether to be with Jesus. 

Yesterday my husband received word that one of his closest colleagues and ministry friends has decided it is time to resign from her position in the diocese and will be leaving by summer’s end. They worked together in the office and she is his last close tie there. Everyone else he worked with has also moved on or retired. There is now a different bishop, office manager, financial officer and executive archdeacon…all lovely people, but not formerly close “workmates”. It will be more difficult now, as a retired priest, to enjoy the sense of connection to the staff he has experienced since his ordination. Rumour has it that his one remaining active priestly buddy will also be moving on soon, so he is feeling somewhat bereft. 

Gosh, no wonder old people can get so crabby and needy….I am starting to catch on! 

A Balanced Life???

I am chuckling tonight about how life balances itself out in various little ways:  as one thing improves another thing begins the deteriorate.

It has been delightful having so few geese around our place so far this spring.  There are only a couple that seem to be attracted to our back lawn and therefore there has been very little goose poo to contend with as we travel back and forth to our vehicle.  In this case of plus and minus, the lack of geese is being balanced out by the early onset of later evening forest and grass fire smoke drifting through town.  Tonight it has been particularly bad, resulting in my having to close all the windows around 8:30pm. It is now on the way to midnight and I still can't open them.  The smoke infiltrated our suite so quickly and completely this evening that as I was heading upstairs to close bedroom windows I noticed just the slightest bit of smoke hovering under the hallway light fixture.  So I have been sneezing on and off for the past three hours, but it seems to be dissipating at last....at least on the inside of the suite. Outside the smoke is swirling lightly under the street lights....WAY TOO EARLY FOR THIS TO BE HAPPENING!  It is apparently going to be a long and smoky summer around here.

 

Last evening we had a teeming downpour of rain for about a half hour, but thankfully our place was not included in the band of hail that hit to the south of us.  Other friends in that area had huge hail stones for about five minutes.  I am so grateful my husband's new little herb plants got a good watering in their sheltered spot up against the side of the building without being battered to death by hail.  Unfortunately we are going to have to cover them with a wooden plank and a heavy blanket a couple of nights from now. Why, in mid May would we have to do that you ask?  Well, it is because we are going to have a day or two of snow falling from the skies toward the end of the week....welcome to the prairies in springtime!  From +32C yesterday to below zero overnight temperatures and snow by the end of the week...what's new, right?  Perhaps the smell of spring will finally be wafting on the air once that storm is over.  The Victoria Day long weekend has been moved up to this coming weekend this year, yet as is always the case no matter with weekend is chosen to celebrate Victoria Day, the weather will be bad, bad, bad for travellers and campers.    Glad we will be staying home!

Saw my doctor today and she gave me the referral I need to take to the lab for my pre-op blood work.  Since none of the testing requires fasting, I thought perhaps I could do a walk in at the lab this afternoon or tomorrow. However, when I looked online at wait times I gave up that idea rather quickly.  47-72 minutes was too long after sitting in the doctor's waiting room for nearly an hour already waiting to see her.  Then I had the brilliant idea that I should call the main switch board for the lab services here and make an appointment.  NOT so brilliant! They are only booking appointments online now.  So, onto their website I went.  ALL BY MYSELF WITH NO HELP FROM MY NOT AT HOME HUSBAND, I managed to create an online account with the lab then get an appointment time booked and confirmed!!  ALL BY MYSELF....me. Mrs. Tech Stupid!!  I am delighted and proud of myself for finally entering this century in this way!! (ALL BY MYSELF!!!)  I have to wait about three days for the appointment as the labs were completely booked for the rest of this week, but it "don't make no never mind" to me!!  I am in! Yahoo!!  Did I mention that I managed to do this ALL BY MYSELF????  I DID? Oh...sorry...

Tomorrow is laundry day. Once again something needing to be done more or less immediately has to take precedence over my house cleaning project, BUT I have set aside every afternoon next week to work on that.  There is a time for everything under the sun...I have learned that over the years but I so easily forget it and start fretting.

My husband was at the wood shop today and is now nearly finished creating the mezuzah he is making for our newly married kids.  He also got the first coat of stain onto my favourite cane to repair the damage it sustained from being put through security scanners at multiple airports when we went to the States last autumn.  He is very happy to have a space once again to set up shop and do some hobby "stuff".

I am finding that my physiotherapy exercises are causing more muscle aches by the end of each session, but my doctor thinks it is because the muscle relaxants are not working as well as they were. As the hips continue to deteriorate the muscles are getting more tired of having to work so hard to support the hip joints, hence the stronger awareness of discomfort.  Oh well...only a little over three weeks to go until Surgery Numero Uno!  YAY!!

More Hurting People!

I am surrounded by the walking wounded these days.  Mother's Day was particularly painful for several friends who have either lost mother or children in the past year or two.  One friend is currently on his way out of surgery where stents were put into arteries in his leg....he has severe diabetes complications so once the stents are in it will be determined if he will be losing a toe or two, a foot or an entire leg.  All his wife can do is wait and pray and try to cope as best she can.)  Just now we received  a message that a decades long close friend has had a third stroke and is being sent to hospital by ambulance...we heard the news from her brother who is currently on his way out of town to attend the funeral tomorrow of his last remaining auntie to whom he was very close...his family trip to the west coast had to be cancelled to accommodate his attendance and I don't know for sure how much money he lost in cancelled airfares and hotels.  Val and Kat are both extremely ill with a combo of bacterial and viral infections.  Several other friends are in the process of being hit again with waves of nearly inconsolable grief after being in churches on Sunday that make a huge deal out of Mother's Day celebrations and they are reminded that the spouse with whom they raised their children has now passed on.  I am so grateful for our church where Mother's and Father's Day barely rate more than a brief mention so everyone sans the happiest of family circumstances in relation to these "special remembrances" can relax and just enjoy church as usual.  

Each passing day seems to bring more hurting folk across my path it seems.  O Lord, be merciful to them and heal their hurts and give them peace and comfort. Amen!

It was very hot again today.  There is absolutely zero breeze outside today so it seems even hotter than yesterday even though the actual high temperature is the same.  I was able to get away early this morning to get my glasses tightened and have some minor repairs, followed by a quick trip to the grocery store to take advantage of a few sales. With the ever rising cost of groceries the only way I can justify continuing to purchase a few of our most favourite items is if they go on sale.  This morning I was able to save ten dollars on four small bags of low sodium shredded cheese, so that was wonderful.  Buying precooked low sodium bacon has been the occasional treat, but with the price rising from $6.49 a package only a month or so ago to $9.69 today, it is a treat we will now live without.  I only get my particular brand of diabetic friendly snack bars once in awhile but now the price has risen from $4.49 per box of 4 to $6.49 for same.  Nope, not going to pay that price. I can live without them again.  Ground chicken doubled in price last week, so my presently frozen two packs of that will be the last ones I will be buying.  We eat quite a bit of it, so now I will be purchasing family sized packs of chicken breasts, hauling out my meat grinder and grinding my own.  Gag...sterilizing the grinder after it has had raw chicken it quite a pain, BUT it only costs a few cents for the bleach!  Oh how I hate having to be SO very price conscious....to be real it isn't that I can't afford to pay the prices, it is the principle of the thing....we CAN eat more simply and so with prices being what they are currently and rising, we just WILL.

I had fun after lunch today making chicken vegetable soup for some of our housebound by illness friends and dropping it by their houses.

My husband received his income tax rebate today. He celebrated by picking up some of our old plant pots we gave to a friend, but that she isn't using this year, then drove us out to a wonderful greenhouse set up out of town where he bought 9 pots of herbs and some fertilizer.  He will be growing peppermint and spearmint, oregano, parsley, thyme, sage, basil, chives and cilantro.  He is going to have a lot of fun out there and once we get our tomato plant from our grower friend toward the end of the month, he will have his hands full caring for all the little plants on the back deck.  Every time he gets a tax rebate my husband purchases a treat for himself, as so he should, and this year it is herbs to grow on our back deck after taking last summer off because he thought we were moving out of here.  SURPRISE!!  hahaha

A Very Happy and Encouraging Day!

I feel blessed today.  The events of the day seemed even sweeter after my discovery this morning as to the root of my upsets and confusion lately.  I am very grateful for such days.

Church meetings this morning were edifying and that also helped me.  There were a couple of visits happening there around the services with people we rarely get to chat with and that was a bonus to the morning. After the early morning adult class, where the teacher quoted my husband's writings rather often, bless him, there were several people who pulled my husband aside and asked him some questions.  They were all so deep in discussion they barely made it to the main service in time, haha.  That was nice for him.

I had no intention of even attempting to go out for lunch on this Mother's Day as the restaurants are always crowded and noisy.  Without a reservation it is difficult to get in anywhere spur of the moment and I prefer to just go home to eat. However, my husband had other ideas.  From the church we were able to travel a few short blocks to downtown to a favourite pizza restaurant of his....it was closed despite the hours being posted that showed it should be open.  We tried another couple of places that are always open by noon on Sundays....both closed.  Wha??? Anyway, we ended up at O'Hanlon's pub, a place we haven't eaten at in a few years as we are downtown so rarely.  Talk about perfect!!  They generally take the overflow from their sister restaurant next door on busy days like Mother's Day, but today that restaurant was less than half full. It was as empty as the rest of the downtown area for whatever reason.  So, we had the entire pub to ourselves.  No one else came in while we were there, so our food was fresh and hot.  My Greek chicken burger had a huge chicken breast and excellent slab of feta cheese on it, the fries were not overly salty and my husband enjoyed his small pizza.  Gourmet food? Nope, but very tasty pub grub and well prepared.  AND we were all alone in there.  It was WONDERFUL!!!

From there we went over to the house of a church friend who had come into a bushel of freshly grown asparagus from grower friends of hers who didn't make it to the Farmer's Market this weekend.  I have never seen such fresh, beautiful asparagus in my life and tomorrow we will feast on it!  Our friend gave us an extra bag to take to another set of friends who had invited us over for the rest of the afternoon.  They were as thrilled as we were to receive it.  We sat on their front porch in the shade for a couple of hours, enjoying the +32C day from the heavily treed shelter of the porch on a beautiful crescent road not that far from our home.

Today I was relaxed enough to completely enjoy church, our lunch experience and visiting with our friends.  It was lovely.  I want to feel this relaxed and at peace again every day.

My son and his wife called from NYC as well to wish me a happy  Mothers' Day. That was a special treat.  I have never wanted my son to feel obligated to call me on what I call "Hallmark Holidays"....no offence to the Hallmark Company as I have purchased hundreds of their beautiful cards over the years....and my son told me that there is something nice about having a special day set aside to tell his mom he loves her!   Our relationship has healed so much in the past few years and I am forever grateful to God and to my son for that.

A good day...I feel prepared now to face the challenges of the coming week, one of which will be saying farewell to a couple of friends here who sold their homes very quickly and rather unexpectedly and are moving on elsewhere.  As sad as I am tempted to be about those moves, I am also encouraged that at some point in the next year that will be US....if not moving out of town, at least moving to the right place that is just not THIS place. Amen!  My little revelation this morning has me realizing I need to look forward to what is coming up AFTER my hip surgeries and not get so bogged down in this limbo time of waiting for the restoration of mobility.

Visionless?

 I have been trying to figure out why I have been sleeping poorly, feeling kind of blah and meh during waking hours, being generally unmotivated to get excited about much of anything. Those feelings have been growing over the last two or three weeks. There is a deeper reason I think than merely waiting around for surgery.

This morning I think I have figured it out. A year ago we were starting to pack in preparation for a move somewhere, anywhere really with more adequate accommodation than at present. Then for various reasons it didn’t happen right away, then the disintegration of my hips became a “thing” and we realized our hoped for move was not going to be able to happen until they are surgically replaced. From that point I think I lost sight of anything to look forward to in the future once I am properly mobile again. I can’t seem to grasp a vision for the future, can’t figure out what I should be planning for, working toward post surgeries. Previously, even in the worst, most confusing of times, I have been able to carry some sort of vision in my head as to where I am trying to go, what I should be working to achieve, but right now all such thoughts have deserted me. There seems to be no specific direction for the future and that is a new experience for me. I don’t like it! 

However, now that I have apparently diagnosed the problem I am already feeling more positive about life. I think I will be able to look back in a year’s time and put parentheses around this visionless, surgery dictated period of life from a different place, a busier more directed place, a place of knowing once again that there is specific purpose to my life, a clearer direction. 

Whew! Something to look forward to when this time out for surgeries is done! I was starting to worry that this malaise would become permanent.

Increasing Reps!

Now that I have my surgery confirmation date I have changed my approach to the physiotherapy exercises somewhat.  I have removed the weights and instead doubled the number of reps for each exercise at each of my three per day sessions.  The weights certainly prepared the muscles for the increase. If I hadn't used them there is no way I could, even now after three months of physio, make this suggested increase.  Feelin' happy about how the physio is going.  This coming week I will dig my crutches out of the hidey hole in the basement and start practising my stair ascending and descending so I can ace physio at the hospital and get home as quickly as possible....REALLY hopeful the surgery goes as planned without any unexpected glitches for the surgeon so that I don't have to spend more than a few days in the hospital. I don't want to have to be moved to a rehab facility, which is what could happen if he discovers more of a mess with the unexpected bone spurs in the joint than he is expecting once the surgery begins.  I should be hearing in the next couple of weeks about required equipment here at home that I will have to either borrow from SaskAbilities or just pay for at our local mobility aids retail establishment.  Aaaaah, May is turning into a very busy month as I add these needed tasks into an already full schedule of deep cleaning this suite before I go into the hospital.  I am already behind on that as other, more urgent and unplanned events intrude on what was once my carefully crafted cleaning schedule.  

Spent this morning on the phone with a ministry buddy who has decided it is time to resign from the position and move onto other things.  I am very proud of my friend because the decision has been over a year in the making and there has been a great deal of prayer and thoughtful consideration put into the process.  Way to go my friend! May all the best be yet to come in your ministry life!!

It is a very warm day today!  It is the first of several days of temperatures hovering around the +30C - +32C range.  Too hot for us, but we will cope just fine.  I have reinstated my daily summer schedule for the opening and shutting of blinds and drapes and windows at various times of the day to retain the overnight coolness for as long as possible and then opening the windows on the coolest side of the building in the late afternoon once the sun has moved past them and around the side of the building.  It is a tricky balance, but on days like today when I haven't got a great plan of how to spend the day, it gives me something to do. hahaha  Housework will wait now to start again on  Monday so I can enjoy resting up this weekend.  There are papers to shred and garbage bags to walk out to the bin in the parking lot, there are emails I need to send...it is already time to go and make my lunch. Even on less fully planned days the time seems to pass happily enough and there are always simple, daily tasks like preparing meals and washing dishes to fill up the time.

I am happy for my husband, who wilts instantly in the summertime heat, because he is at an all day conference in an air conditioned building.  The temperatures are unseasonably hot this weekend and there is heavy smoke drifting down to the east of our fair city from the grass and forest fires already blazing in the northern and central areas of our province that is giving us a bit of cover from the intensity of the sun.  So, we go from snow and ice season to gale force wind season to thick smoke season around here.....unfortunately there is nowhere else in Canada to move to that is not suffering just as much from drought, fires, floods and what have you.  Global warming is upon us and I personally believe that while we humans have mucked things up pretty badly over the past few hundred years, I also believe there is a certain amount of natural long term environmental change that our bad behaviour may have speeded up, but may not have actually caused....it is an interesting time to be alive and not always in a good way, hohoho! Enjoy your weekend people, wherever you may be.

 

Yesterday's Activites Were Like A Dose Of Healing Medicine!

 Yesterday was a most wonderful day for me and I am forever grateful to Nan for asking me to come shopping with her.  I have not had a "girl" day since I can't remember when, a day when all the cares of this life evaporate from my mind and I just relax into having FUN with a friend!  Oooh, what a blessed day it was.  It has been so long that I actually forgot how much I enjoy days like that and that such days used to be a part of my every week existence until only about fifteen years ago.  Thank you EVER SO MUCH Nan for taking me along for the ride.  We looked at grad gifts for her family, grad dresses to wear for her grandchild's ceremony....and she found the most beautiful dress at the very first place we looked, which is amazing.  We looked at sun dresses and blue jeans....and got our ears nearly talked off the sides of our heads by a salesperson who, while extremely knowledgeable, didn't know when to just stop talking!  Fortunately we managed to escape her clutches just in time to return to the car two minutes prior to our parking meter expiration time!  Whew!  I got the giggles in a public washroom when toilets were flushing over and over regardless of whether or not they needed to, when soap dispensers refused to dispense, when water taps went from gushing to a mere trickle in a split second, when we were about to move from one unusable sink to another only to have another person cut in front of us and spend what seemed like ten minutes washing her own hands! Yup, who knew there could be so many hilarious moments in a public washroom...so much DRAMA! hahahaha  Two women on the loose shopping, laughing over very little and enjoying the day; oh how I have missed that and didn't even realize it.

We ended our day at DarBar and my husband joined us for dinner. The food was delicious and we were happy to introduce yet another friend to their menu.  So grateful to God for friends and for good food and for FUN!  Thank you, thank you Nan for providing me with a healing day in the midst of much worry about our family, some very ill friends and other personal circumstances that weigh on us an awful lot of the time.

My husband had a great morning yesterday cutting down a tree for a friend and he will return there later this week to trim some bushes.  It was good physical exercise for him.  Today he is at the woodworking shop doing a few personal projects. One of them is stripping down the damaged finish on my summer walking cane.  It was badly damaged going through the various airport security scanners and being handled roughly by security airport staff last time we were in NYC, so he is going to refinish it for me. It was my father's cane and I quite like it, so I am grateful he is helping it to look better again.  I will just use my winter cane for a few days until he is done with the project.  He is also working on crafting a mezuzah for our newlyweds.  It is going to be rather elegant. He has some lovely parchment paper to write the Scripture on to put inside it.

Today has gone well for me right here at home.  This morning I was able to finally up the number of reps again for my physiotherapy exercises, I made a decent lunch and was able to get a doctor's appointment made for early next week.  This morning I received my government health line confirmation of my upcoming surgery date so need to get some lab work done before then. I also realized that my prescription for muscle relaxants is going to run out over two weeks before the surgery so I need to get a refill prescription to tide me over.  Now I am awaiting a contact from the hip and joint clinic to let me know what home aids I will require for my recovery and to tell me when the educational classes are since my husband, as my chief care giver,  and I need to sign up for one.

The sun is shining but it isn't too hot outside....looking at +27C tomorrow and a weekend averaging +29C....and the breeze is minimal compared to what it has been for the past few weeks, so I may take a quick tour around the block a bit later on this afternoon.

Tomorrow is Coffee Buddy Morning and then my husband and I have a Bible Study in the afternoon.  For the next couple of sessions we are rounding out our last two studies before the summer break with short videos by N.T. Wright...always enjoyable. He is very easy to listen to.

On Friday it will be time to begin a proper spring cleaning.  If I don't have too much going on next week other than a doctor's appointment and some lab work I should be able to have it done by that weekend....praying it will be so!