Hallowe'en Again? Already??

I confess I completely forgot about Hallowe'en today.  When a large group of kids started pounding on our back door at 5pm I was completely taken aback, but fortunately I realized why they were there before I got to the back door.  I was able to sneak away from the kitchen before they saw me and get out of sight until they left.  Have you ever tried to explain to a group of eager, excited, expectant children that you have absolutely nothing in stock to give them on their special "Gimme Gimme" day?  I couldn't face them.  They stood on our back porch for what seemed like hours between waiting for me to answer and comparing what each of them already had in their collection baskets before they finally sauntered back off the deck and on to the next door neighbour's place.

As soon as I was certain they were gone, I called to my husband to shut off the basement lights where he was trying to work, so the light wouldn't shine out through the two windows onto the back lawn, thereby attracting more trick-or-treat'ers.   He complied and less than five minutes later we sneaked out to our car and drove off to a pub where we put in nearly two hours of time sitting over our nachos and drinks until we thought it would be safe to go home again.  We knew all the wee kiddies would be back at home by 7:30pm and only a few of the older kids would still be wandering about.  Once home we managed to sneak back into the house unseen by a couple of groups of young teens, kept the lights turned out for another hour and then we finally relaxed, put the lights back on and resumed the tasks we had been in the midst of prior to the unexpected arrival of Group One.  Whew!  Dodged a huge bullet tonight. What a pair of wimps we are, scared to death of disappointing little kids over a handful of cheap, yukky candy. Sigh......

The pub was nearly deserted so we had great service and there was absolutely no call for us to rush away when we finished our small meal.  The music was playing over the speaker system at a bearable sound level and we quite enjoyed ourselves conversing with our bored and chatty waiter.  It was a very unexpectedly happy evening.

I wasn't feeling well most of the day today.  My tummy was not happy after lunch for some reason and it kept on roiling away all afternoon.  Not sure what caused the upset, but I knew having a fair number of jalapeno pepper rounds with my half of the nachos at dinner would settle it right down.  Yay, much better now!!  My tummy is calm again.

The only housework I managed to get to this afternoon was washing floors, bu t that is better than nothing. I will just have to work harder on Monday to get the vacuuming and dusting accomplished. No biggie..... Once that is done we will start phoning friends from the small group we used to attend and invite them over. There were  confused feelings among some of the other attenders when we had to leave, so assurances of continued happy relationship is required.  We have met with one couple already and it went well.  They are all lovely people but our other necessary commitments happen to coincide with the meeting day each month.

Looking forward to the rain overnight if it occurs because the overnight low is only going to be +4C apparently, meaning the moisture won't freeze.  No icy roads in the morning.  Amen!

 

 

Thirty Thousand Dollars In Fees Later….

 ….and our son’s card is good for ten years with the option to renew at that point if he doesn’t apply for citizenship. His wife has the same kind of card so that is most handy. I am figuring that after nearly ten years of past visas and renewals and appointments with immigration lawyers he has spent close to thirty thousand dollars to be able to live in a country where his career can thrive. Fortunately it is doing just that. 

I confess to being somewhat envious of him knowing from a fairly young age that he wanted to be an artist living in New York City. He has worked like a crazy person to make his dream come true. Doing his MFA upstate cemented his commitment to try to succeed there, and he never wavered in his attempts to hang in and keep trying no matter how difficult the first few years were.

Yes, I am a proud mama. It doesn’t matter how old the child, a mama is not afraid to admit she is proud of him. 

Since I Have At Least 5 Months Of Winter Ahead......

....I opted for going out this afternoon instead of doing housework!  YAY!  There is the entire winter season to be utilized for house cleaning indoors.  My husband agreed that I should make the most of every day I can get out of here before the snow and ice arrive in earnest.

I am very happy about my choice.  This morning my husband and I had a good visit and I did do some work in the kitchen  after breakfast....which wasn't until just after 10am because I fell asleep sometime after 7am and slept until after 9:30am.  I awoke surprisingly refreshed and full of energy.

When it was time for my husband to meet his friend for coffee he dropped me at a neighbouring shopping mall where I had a bite of lunch at a Montana's restaurant because their combo lunch specials are a great deal.  I have stopped taking my cane in the car so I got a fabulous walking workout after lunch as a stumped around in the mall after I ate.  I have not been in  a mall without a time pressure to leave in probably about 5 years. There were no other errands that had to be run.  I needed a few groceries, but there is a grocery store in the mall, so purchasing those was just a part of the whole excursion.  I lollygagged in I don't know how many ladies' wear stores, purchased two cardigan sweaters to go with my many sleeveless winter turtlenecked tops....when I downsized my winter wardrobe I got rid of a number of long sleeved, heavy fabric blazers I have been wearing since the Ark it seems. Even though all of them looked almost like new after several years of wear because they were good quality jackets, I am not comfortable with those styles any more and it felt good today to be able to replace them with a couple of lighter weight cardigans.  The other day as I looked at my winter tops I realized how many of them are sleeveless and needing to go under a long sleeved "something" to keep me warm.  

My husband texted me that he had arrived at the grocery store just before I was about to walk in there myself, so that was marvellous timing.  We pothered about in there for a long time, picking up  what we needed along with some unexpected sale items.  So, our fridge freezer is now packed!  It is going to be awhile before we have to purchase any more goods needing to be frozen until use.  

By the time we drove from the grocery store half way across the city to take advantage of the 15 cent per litre reduction in gasoline price at the northern reserve station, sat in the long lineup there and made it home again it was nearly time for dinner already!!  Over dinner we looked at a couple of mindless tv programmes that we mostly talked over top of. haha  We are bad for that if we are not particularly engaged in whatever is on the screen. That is okay if it is just the two of us but if there is anyone else there....well.....the poor dear folks tend to lose patience with us. hahahaha

Tomorrow my husband will be at an all day seminar, so I have another day to ponder on what to do.  With a mix of snow and rain possible overnight perhaps tomorrow is the day to stay home and begin cleaning house.  If I start tomorrow and finish up on Monday, we could easily invite some of our church acquaintances over for afternoon tea next week.  That would be fun.  We actually have a couple of afternoons free for visiting.   

A Day With No Out Of Home Commitments

Today is one of those rare days when I have no commitments away from 🏡 home and as usual it has meant waking up shortly after 4am all bright eyed, alert and ready for the day to begin. 😂 hahaha! So, also as is usual, I will likely be too tired to enjoy my day off from grocery shopping, bill paying, coffee partying, general errands, running about madly to medical appointments, house chores and church related activities. Oh well, it is good to know I can still get excited about a day of possible total relaxation. 

The past couple of days have been busy with laundry and ironing, running around town for various commitments and enjoying visits with friends. My coffee buddy and I met at the new Denny’s, which for all its small faults as it continues to work on getting organized and repairing the bathrooms, definitely has more comfortable seating for us “older gals” than our usual haunt at Creme.  Creme is rather more “gourmet” in its offerings though so we will not abandon the place, just trade off between the two locations. 

I could start cleaning house today and perhaps I will, but perhaps I won’t either. Having the choice of making my own plans feels like a luxury after a week with many appointments and necessary errands. 

I love days like this occasionally but am grateful most of my days are filled with activities, however plebeian they may be.

The snow has already melted, the temperature is set to rise a few degrees over the next few days and thus far predicted rain and snow amounts look to be relatively minor. November is nearly upon us, so that delights me. The lack of frozen rain thus far has been a treat….although I confess I would not object to a brief but violent snowstorm between 4pm and 9pm on Halloween night. No offence intended  to the kids wanting to dress up and go out for treats, but it is also a bad night for vandalism in our area so….

I am praying that a new contract proposition brought recently before members of the CUPE unionized health care workers will be accepted and ratified to prevent any more extended waits for upcoming surgeries and recovery physiotherapy protocols like my own. They have been working without a contract since  2023…not good!

My husband is meeting a friend for coffee this afternoon so I am wondering if I will choose to remain at home flopped out in front of the tv watching home renovation programmes or drop him off at the coffee bar and drive to a nearby mall for some window shopping. 🛒 Ahhhh, to have the choice feels good. A spontaneous sort of day is a treat as I am watching our calendar 📆 fill up ⬆️ once again with appointments for next week and the week after that.

I am going to enjoy my “little bit of this and a little bit of that” kind of day.

Two Huge Answers To Prayer!

 1. Nan finalized the sale of her house today! Lots of last minute glitches as seems usual in real estate dealings, but by late today everything solidified and the deal is done! Amen!

2.  Our son was notified last night that his card has been “Approved. Case Closed.” Our relief is now being overcome by excitement. Our son is so shocked by the speed at which he was notified that when he talked to us he still wasn’t sure how he felt, haha. It could still be several months before the card arrives in the mail but finally, after a year or more of stress and collecting various forms of documentation, he has been given a wonderful answer for his immediate future at least. 

Thanks everybody for your interest, concern and prayers for these two precious ones.

The Weather Chose Snowing As Its Option Tonight!

There are about three centimetres of snow on our lawn and back deck. The soggy mist that fell first is starting to freeze, so I am thanking God we don’t have to leave the house tomorrow, as far as we know. I need a day to adjust to even the idea of winter, let alone the onset! 

My walking partner is coming for a visit in the morning. Unfortunately we won’t be going for a walk in the icy snow, but I am grateful we did get our walk around the lake accomplished once in between my trips this summer and fall. 

Tomorrow I will begin a giant batch of laundry. 🧺 I have not done laundry since just before we left for Alberta, two weeks ago yesterday! Yikes! 😱 We have been too busy dealing with other things, mostly time consuming and sometimes labour intensive frustrations since returning home, to get to the laundry. My husband made me promise him I would split this task into two days instead of attempting to do it all tomorrow afternoon because he saw how exhausted I made myself doing laundry after our New York trip. Sigh…..he is correct about that so I will behave myself tomorrow and only wash and dry the amount of laundry I can cope with comfortably. I will, I will, I will! (I will, won’t I???)

I heard a cute joke tonight from a friend and if you attend an evangelical church it will give you a chuckle: 

A teacher asked her young students to bring their most meaningful token or artifact from their religion to school for Show and Tell the following day. The little Roman Catholic student brought a crucifix. The little Jewish student brought a menorah. The little Baptist student brought…….a casserole!! 🥘 hahaha…love this one.

Raining, Snowing, Raining, Snowing...Make Up Your Mind Already!!

It has been rather cold today. The light breeze was biting and the temperature didn't rise above +2-+3C all day.  After an overcast morning the damp mist began sometime after 1pm and by 3:30pm the first flakes of snow were coming down, only to be washed away by more mist.  Mist and rain and snow have been vying for first place for the past couple of hours.  I am guessing the mist and bit of rain we had earlier today are going to be frozen into a thin cover of  ice all over everything before much longer. More snow is forecast to come down between tonight and sometime tomorrow, so I am guessing either we will wake up to an invisible icy coating on deck, sidewalk and street, or ice patches covered in at least a couple of cm of snow.  Winter is here...YUCK!

I am in complete denial.  Although I know in my rational mind that the lovely autumn weather has come to an end, my "wishing mechanism" is expecting this moisture and chilliness to be over in a day or two and the  lovely autumn weather will return until next spring.  Yeah right...unfortunately winter cannot be avoided here on the prairies and we are now in for it. Sigh....

At least we did get some chores done around the house this morning after a relaxed, non-alarm induced, wake up.  Right after lunch we finally managed to get to the hospital to see our friend.  She was pretty perky for someone suffering severe mobility issues and now that the infection that originally hospitalized her is gone and she is off the strong antibiotics  she is rational once again...no more hallucinations.  Whew!  Our friend has returned to us!  

We ran one more errand after the hospital visit, then came home and crashed in our tv chairs, ate an early dinner and now are preparing to wash dishes and catch up on some writing and research projects.  

When we were watching tv while we ate our dinner, we came across an ancient film on Silver Screen, "The King of Jazz" from 1930, so we watched part of it.  It is typical of the era that there is no story line, just a collection of song and dance numbers directed by the aforementioned "King of Jazz", band director and musician Paul Whiteman...for you old timers like myself, think of his recordings of "Three O'clock in the Morning" and "In a Little Spanish Town".  While his era was before my time, my parents and grandparents were big fans of his recordings so I grew up listening to them regularly.   This little movie was not a hit despite its overwhelmingly expensive 1930's price tag of two million dollars and the film was eventually lost. It was rediscovered in 1970.  The film makers were playing with special effects such as over dubbing one film track on top of a second track to create ghostly effects.  Unfortunately some of the lyrics of the singers are difficult to hear. We are guessing the sound was picked up on the same strip of film as the video track using magnetic tape.  There are songs, dances, comedy routines, animations...a real olio of typical 1930's productions. Bing Crosby made his screen debut in this movie.  It is fascinating.  I recorded the rest of it so we can watch the over 2 hour production in segments as it suits us.

We are grateful we have no outside the house chores tomorrow.  It is time to get ourselves into winter hibernation mode over the next few days, only going out when we need or want to.....unless my wishful thinking turns out to be more than just a wish and the snow and ice do disappear before the weekend.  Wouldn't that be "loverly"??!!!

Thank You To Our Local Mazda Dealership!

While we have had good servicing experiences for each vehicle we have owned since our arrival here in Regina, we are very much taken with the service we receive from the Mazda dealership.  

Yesterday was a perfect example of the treatment we, along with our vehicle, have received over the past few months since our purchase from them.  When we dropped our car off for a tire change and new tire and rim purchase, despite the place being off the charts busy the mechanic we checked in with took plenty of time to answer questions my husband had about some unrelated issues.  We forgot to pre-book our Courtesy Car ride home, but that was no problem.  We were even allowed to take our long walk to the nearest restaurant for breakfast before returning to the dealership and THEN asking for a ride.  We had a choice: we could wait for about 20 minutes until their own driver returned from dropping off someone else back at home, or they could call an Uber for us and pick up our cost for that if we needed to leave within the next five minutes or less.   We opted to wait for their own driver and that was just fine. Magazines and newpapers were brought to us while we waited.  When the call came in mid afternoon that the car was ready, we were given another option: did we want to wait until the car had been washed there before coming to pick it up or would we prefer to be given a ticket for a free car wash at any Co-op car wash so we could wash the car at a more convenient time for us?  We opted for the ticket because of today's weather report likely making an immediate wash a waste of time and effort, the dealership called an  Uber for my husband and he was back an hour before the exterminators showed up to help us deal with the mice. (3 mornings in a row now with no creatures in the traps, yay!)

This dealership, and I am assuming they represent most major Mazda dealerships, knows the meaning of "valued customers" and we have never felt more that way.  Not to knock any of the other vehicle dealerships we have dealt with here as they have been excellent as well, but Mazda has their own special touches we have not experienced before to this degree.  Congratulations Mazda for knowing how to build a reliable customer base! 

Thus far today, at nearly 11am, the only sign of our freezing drizzle and snow forecast is a sky full of very dark clouds and a bite to the air and breeze, but obviously the weather IS going to change at some point today.  So we have decided to go visit our hospitalized friend just after noon in an attempt to beat the freezing drizzle.  If we interrupt her lunch I think she will forgive us. 

Up 'N' At 'Em, Morning Number 2....YAWN.........

The past two mornings we have set the alarm to be certain we would be up in time for morning commitments.  How spoiled are we that now in retirement we don't have a great many of those mornings most weeks.  Since I am currently in my pattern of sleeping for about 4 hours and then being awake for about 2 more hours before falling asleep again, I have had to be awakened by the alarm yesterday for church and today to get our car to the garage for winter tire change.  Oooh, groggy headed moi!  I have been awake now since 7:30am, shaken from a sound sleep, so I am grateful for the gentle sounds my iPad alarm makes after enduring for several years the BLAAATTTT sound from my last alarm clock that took away any wonder as to why so many people have heart attacks when waking up in the morning!!

Church went well yesterday.  We have been mostly absent from the services since the middle of August due to the travels taken to see family and friends elsewhere, so it was nice to be "back in the fold" with no more plans to travel now, Lord willing, until sometime next spring. The sermon was very good and after hearing a series of sermons on Romans (Thankful for Zoom!) over the past couple of months, where our minister has concentrated very much on the concept of God's transformation of our lives, I realize that detailed sermons on transformation of our characters and lifestyles post salvation have been somewhat missing in my past church experiences.  This series, while also spending sufficient time detailing why as Christians we must undergo these transformations, has brought out more of the positive aspects of the changes God tries to make in us and that has been so appreciated.

After the service we both felt like we should ask someone out for lunch but no one was able to come out with us.  We felt kind of odd that we both felt that so strongly, yet no one was available.  As we got into our car to pull away from the church, out of the side door came a friend we had not seen during our time of asking for lunch buddies. She and her roommate were very happy to come for lunch and afterwards my husband was able to help them figure out some yard work jobs they are working on, so it was mutually beneficial. What a nice time we had together.

This morning when the alarm rang at 7:30am I was so sound asleep I almost missed it entirely.  Ten minutes after it started to ring I finally awoke sufficiently to understand what I was hearing and process what it meant. hahahaha  Fortunately, despite my being late getting going, we did make it to the service garage right on time and got our car registered.  We had a nice long walk to the nearest restaurant for breakfast, then walked back to the garage in time to be able to get a Courtesy Car ride home. Now we wait for the call that the new studded tires have been installed and get another ride back to pick the car up.  Since our first "real" snowfall is to happen tomorrow we are very grateful for the timing on this tire change.  I will feel less grateful when we get our bill today for the four new tires, studding and rims. hahaha  No complaints though. It has been a number of years since we have had to purchase a full set of brand new tires for our vehicle.

This afternoon the exterminator will be here to assist us with our "mouse in the house" issues. We are most grateful that we have gotten up to unsnapped traps two mornings in a row now. Perhaps that is the end of it for another few months?  Let's hope.  The exterminator usually helps us pull out the refrigerator and stove to such up the mouse droppings with his big ShopVac type of cleaner, then we can disinfect the floors and push everything back into place.  My husband and I will empty the rest of the large storage cupboard ourselves and jockey it away from the walls to do the disinfecting under it.  It is a huge job and if we mask up and wear disposable gloves we can easily do our own cleanup there. It has to be moved somewhat gently from its crammed corner in order to avoid damaging the walls surrounding it.  

I am praying that I will finally be able to get myself over to the hospital tomorrow afternoon, despite the predicted snowfall, to see my friend who I have been trying to visit since last Friday!  Between mice and a severe allergy attack I thought was a cold coming on, I have not made it yet. She is going to be wondering where I have gotten to as she used the triage desk phone to call me several nights ago now asking me to visit. Sigh....so many things got in the way.  I hate when that happens as I know what it is like to be sitting in a hospital room for weeks thinking some days that even my best friends have forgotten me.  

At least tomorrow, as far as I know, we don't have to wake up to an alarm.  We have two days this week where we can wake up at our own pace so that is a relief.  We have errands to run in the snow in the morning, but any time before 1pm will be just fine to do those things.  If the predicted snow does arrive it will be a good test for our new snow tires!!  I can easily believe the forecast is correct because the 16 block round trip we took between the service garage and the restaurant was very windy...a biting wind of the type that announces the oncoming winter.  Brrrrrr...so grateful for a hood on my puffer coat and warm gloves! 

 

A Reminder Of Me Mum And Dad!

 When we were in Calgary last week we visited the two long term friends of my parents' who were present for our small time of remembrance just prior to our taking their ashes out to the mountains for burial. This photo was given to me when we visited this time, but since  I was not present for the Friends Event where this picture was taken and their friend couldn't remember the date, I assume it is sometime in the 1990's.  The visits and the photo have had me thinking often in this past few days about all the fun times our families had together.

My parents and I enjoyed many, many entertaining evenings in this particular home, where close friends, members of their 14 years long dinner club, lived for several decades.  When I was growing up I had fun in this house as the oldest of the up to five children present for birthday celebrations and dinner parties...good times and wonderful memories of my childhood.  In this photo both my parents are still fairly healthy, happy and up for having a grand time with their friends.

Catch Up Thanksgiving Dinner! Yum!!

Our church has a number of middle aged and older single women who love to get together a couple of times a year to celebrate festive seasons like Thanksgiving. They are an enthusiastic and fun bunch to spend time with. Occasionally a visiting male relative is invited to participate and at those times my husband and I are also included in the invitation so that the visiting man has a peer to chat with. Last night was one of those dinners but the visiting male relative baled at the last minute. My husband found himself to be the lone male presence at last night’s Thanksgiving dinner….a delayed celebration as a couple of the women had been travelling on the actual Thanksgiving weekend. My husband, being one of the original feminist supporters from way back in the 1970’s, gets along well in groups of women so he was undaunted finding himself in a group of a dozen women last night. 

I hadn’t realized how much I missed having a traditional turkey and ham Thanksgiving meal this year. At the time we were busy packing for our AB trip, making plans for get togethers there with friends and relatives; we didn’t even make it to church on Thanksgiving Sunday. 

So the turkey and baked ham were especially delicious last night. Instead of partaking of the sweet desserts I had a second helping of turkey, stuffing and gravy….oh my goodness, it was a delicious meal. Someone brought a hot potato salad that was fantastic. There was a casserole dish filled with my favourite old fashioned mix of buttered peas and carrots. Growing up that was THE standard veggie mix every Thanksgiving and Christmas, without fail, world without end, amen! 

The food was delicious, the fellowship sweet. Leftovers were sent home with anyone who wanted to take them and the remaining desserts were plated and labelled for use at coffee hour after church this morning. 

We arrived home late in the evening, checked the mouse traps and found no more mouse carcasses, so we are hopeful the traps will still be vacant this morning. Once the exterminator has arrived tomorrow we can get his help to move the fridge and food storage cupboard away from the walls so he can use his large vacuum to clean up the mouse droppings and then we can sanitize the floor underneath. New traps will be set and the exterminator will come back the following week to check things out. Maybe the end of this latest mouse infestation is in sight. 

Oh dear Lord, I just gotta ask,”Why oh why have we not been able to find a different place to move to yet?” We started looking again as soon as we got home from NYC, but the results of our search have not yielded an answer. Trying to weigh out the options for which new set of problems we are willing to take on in the places we can afford to rent is proving difficult. It is a trade off between continuing to cope with the problems here just because we are used to them and exchanging those problems for the new problems we have discovered when viewing alternative accommodations. Thus far moving will not solve the problem of having to park out of doors in the winter, nor of having an extra half 🛁 bath, nor of finding accommodation on one floor with either or both solutions to the parking and bathroom issues. Trades grade finishes do not offend us. Apartment living we can get used to. Well, we will keep praying and looking. I have even been willing to make a move right away, in the winter, before the next hip surgery, but…. Interesting times for us, that’s for sure.

One Messy Mousie!

About two hours after my last post we discovered where mouse number two had been hiding before it got itself trapped during the night: on the bottom shelf of our large kitchen food storage cupboard. Oooooh and didn’t it have the most lovely time chewing labels off cans and starting a nest building project with the soggy bits and pieces! What a mess my husband found in there. It was actually kind of interesting to see how busy and focused the little mouse had been. However it was less interesting to have to haul out all the tins of tomato sauce, beans and chickpeas, a huge box of falafel the mouse had chewed right through, cardboard outer and plastic inner linings….at least we know what it was eating….and I don’t know how many bottles of olive and sesame oils, canola oil, balsamic vinegars, rose water….it took me the better part of an hour to examine the packaged products in order to sort out which products needed to be thrown out due to a mousie breach and which ones had not been compromised, then disinfect absolutely every box, tin and bottle remaining. While I was doing that my husband was busy eliminating the evidence of the 🐭 mouse’s presence, throwing out the nesting materials and disinfecting the space. We checked all the other shelves in the huge cabinet but fortunately the mouse was satisfied to stay where the food and nesting materials were in abundance. The hours between now and Monday afternoon when the exterminator arrives are going to seem interminable! Hopefully we won’t have any more four pawed paper chewing visitors between now and then. From my mouth to God’s ear! All the bottom shelves of our lower cupboards have now been emptied. 

As a result of visitor number two, instead of doing hospital visitation in the afternoon we spent the time giving the basement a thorough going over but could find no )evidence of mice being down there either. We reset the main floor and basement traps and will see what we find between bedtime tonight and tomorrow morning. Sigh….two small mice, one huge disinfecting and baiting project. Blecch!

More Mice….Ugh!

We are less than impressed to have found another mouse trapped beside the refrigerator this morning. Drat! We were so hopeful after catching the first one yesterday that it was a case of “one and done”. Unfortunately not.

My dear husband decided to get his ladder and open the attic access from our hallway ceiling to see if there was any evidence of mice there. Nary a sign of them, but he put two baited traps up there and scattered fresh mouse bait pellets as well. (These are things I am so grateful he is knowledgeable about and capable of doing after growing up on a farm.) He searched the basement diligently and found no evidence of mouse activity or obvious entry point anywhere down there. Surely we couldn’t have had two mice in two days run inside right under our feet while entering or exiting our suite? It is puzzling. 

We will have to remain vigilant and also keep the under the stove drawer up on the kitchen counter now until the mouse issue is resolved. I don’t want to have to disinfect all that bake ware a third time! 

Tonight we will be at a dinner at church so the suite may be quiet and deserted enough to bring any more hidden mice to the traps. 🪤 Perhaps we will make another overnight capture, or while we are at church tomorrow. Looks like we may have to purchase more traps this weekend as the exterminator cannot come until Monday afternoon. Rarely having to deal with mice in my house until a few years ago I find it difficult to relax wondering when the next trap may be sprung on a new victim.

One huge relief here today is the weather! While Central and Southern AB suffered horrific winds, significant snowfall, freezing rain and slush, all we had was a bit of rainfall in the late evening and overnight that was mostly dried up by the gusty winds that continue to howl this morning. We have no ice to deal with thus far on our streets and sidewalks…looks like another few days of reprieve from true winter weather until mid week next week. Yay! 

So...Who Exactly Are Angels Anyway? Prof. Jason Gayoway To The Rescue!

 I find more people than ever these days talking about angels using expressions like:  "my guardian angel" or "my angels must be watching over me" or "I need help from the angels", or "my recently deceased mother is now an angel in heaven".  Some of these people are also church goers and I have found their concepts of angels to be somewhat different than what I see in the Scriptures.  

Recently I read a short article in the PRBI biblical college quarterly magazine "Trumpet" Fall 2026 edition, written by one of their faculty, Jason Gayoway and I have his permission to reprint it here.  It is a succinct, easy to read and understand article explaining what is actually written in the Christian Scriptures about these somewhat mysterious beings:

 "Ministering Spirits: What The Bible Teaches About Angels

One of the students' favourite sections in first-year theology is the study of angels.  This year, I had to expand the section to three classes from two because of all their stories and questions on the topic. They are not alone.  When I searched "angels" in the popular online course-sharing site Udemy, I found a vast number of classes either directly or indirectly on the subject. Many promised a path to communication with one's angel or directions on how to receive guidance from the angelic host.  Our fascination with angels is understandable. But the angels people are looking for are often quite different from the angels we actually find in Scripture.

Angels appear throughout Scripture at some of the most dramatic moments in redemptive history. They announce births, deliver messages, protect God's people, execute judgment, worship before the throne of God, and accompany some of the great events surrounding the life of Jesus Christ. Yet the Bible never encourages us to become fascinated with angels for their own sake. That distinction is important.  Our culture is quite willing to believe in angels, provided we can remake them according to our own preferences.  Angels become comforting spiritual companions, departed loved ones watching over us, or mysterious beings whom we can contact for guidance. Biblical angels are something quite different. They are servants of God.

WHAT ARE ANGELS?

The basic Hebrew and Greek words translated angel mean "messenger." Angels are created spiritual beings who serve God and carry out His purposes. Hebrews 1:14 describes them as "ministering spirits sent out to serve for the sake of those who are to inherit salvation." That one verse tells us much. Angels are spirits, but they are not divine. They belong to the created order.  Colossians 1:16 tells us that all things in heaven and on earth, "visible and invisible," were created through Christ and for Christ.  Angels therefore owe their existence to the Son of God, just as we do.

They are also personal beings. Scripture portrays angels speaking, worshipping, observing, rejoicing, and obeying.  They possess intelligence and tremendous power, but neither is unlimited.  Angels are not omniscient, omnipotent, or omnipresent.  Those attributes belong to God alone. Even the greatest angel remains infinitely beneath their Creator. 

This protects us from two opposite errors.  We should not dismiss angels as primitive superstition, because Scripture plainly teaches their existence.  But neither should we attribute divine abilities to them. Biblical angelology begins with the Creator-creature distinction. 

 WHAT DO ANGELS DO?

The work of angels is similarly focused on God and His will rather than on their wills.  This becomes especially apparent in the earthly ministry of Christ. An angel announced his conception to Mary (Lk  1:26-38).  Angels ministered to Him following His temptation  (Mt  4:11). Angels appeared at the empty tomb and announced His resurrection (Mt  28:2-7).  At His ascension, heavenly messengers declared that Jesus would return           (Ac 1:1-11).

Angels also work in our lives, such as when an angel freed Peter from prison, or as in Psalm 91, which speaks of God commanding His angels concerning His people.  In Hebrews 1, they are broadly described as spirits that minister to God's people.  Yet this is never spoken of as actions done by their own volition or because we persuade them to do so directly.  Instead, they do so out of the will of God and respond to His direction alone.

This is an important point to make because the question people have is how they can find an angel to help or protect them.  I think this desire explains the many Udemy courses mentioned above.  People wish to have their deep questions answered, to be freed from pain or poverty, and more. I think there is a longing in all of us to access a secret knowledge known only to us.  We yearn for a knowledge that will allow us riches or happiness not yet attained. Yet angels are focused on doing God's will, not answering our questions.  They may protect us, but they do so at God's command, and not because we have persuaded them through some special technique.

Scripture has many examples of God sending an angel but none of people seeking an angel and being rewarded.  God is the one who directs their actions.  Searching for answers from angels is not merely misguided.  Indeed, Scripture forbids God's people from pursuing supernatural guidance through the spirit world.  God's people are to seek Him through prayer and His Word. (De 18:10-12;  Is 8:19-20;  Cl  2:18-19). 

WHAT ANGELS TEACH US

If we are not to seek angels, why has God told us so much about them?   In part, angels teach us something about worship.  The mighty creatures surrounding God's throne do not draw attention to themselves but cry, "Holy, holy, holy" before their Creator (Is  6:3).  Angels remind us, first, that there is more to God's creation than what our eyes can see.  We inhabit a universe filled with the works of God, visible and invisible (Cl  1:16).

They also remind us of God's care.  The "ministering spirits" whom God sends to serve those who will inherit salvation  (He  1:14) show His love for us.    We do not need to identify our guardian angel or determine whether an angel intervened in some specific event. Our confidence is far better placed:  the God who rules heaven's armies watches over His people and commands His servants according to His perfect wisdom.

And that brings us to the greatest lesson angels teach us:  look to Christ.  Hebrews begins by placing the glory of the Son beside the majesty of the angels, and there is no comparison.  Angels are servants; Jesus is the Son. Angels are sent; Jesus reigns.  Angels worship Jesus; Jesus receives their worship.  Angels are creatures; Jesus is their Creator.

We are to study the angels. Believe what Scripture says about them. Marvel at their power, their service, and their worship.  But then direct our attention to the Lord.  The faithful angels have never wanted us to stop with them.  They point beyond themselves to the One seated upon the throne. The proper study of angels should leave us not fascinated with angels, but more captivated by Christ."

--written by Jason Gayoway 

The Demise Of Poor Wee Mousie

It always saddens me to wake up and find a mouse dead in a trap.  Overnight we captured our tiny intruder in a trap under the stove and even though it has to be done, I still feel badly about taking another creature's life. Sigh....such is the way of our fallen world.  Me vs the possibility of contracting hantavirus from a field mouse...I don't like it one bit.

The winter weather is pending today. While we are on the far edge of a system that could drop up to 50cm of snow in other parts of the north and central areas of the prairies, we will still get some freezing rain along with a bit of snow, but the worst part is going to be the wind I suspect.

Due to the bad weather supposedly arriving later this afternoon and my husband not feeling quite up to par this morning after last evening's excitement and work setting up traps and moving some heavy items out of the kitchen right before bed, we decided to skip the huge grocery shop we planned to take this morning.  If we had been up and out the door by around 7am we could have done it, but with things being the way they were when we finally did wake up closer to 8:30am, I decided to just make a run on my own to the nearest store and pick up the essentials that we can't live happily without until next week. My husband is currently loading up the water jugs into the car so he can pick up the refills right after lunch now that he is feeling at least somewhat better after spending the morning resting.  

He is really enjoying our new tv channel line up, particularly the Turner Classic Movies and Silver Screen channels.  There are so few tv programmes he enjoys watching, so it is fun to see him laughing so heartily at the old jokes from the 1930's and 1940's and enjoying all the old sets and cinematography in the black and white films.  

The pest control folk just contacted us to say they can't get here until next Monday afternoon, so it is a good thing we have our own traps set.  We will leave them up and preserve the mousie corpse until then so we have proof that we actually caught a mouse and so they can see we are being responsible tenants with our traps set up so well around the house.  Pretty sure this mouse ran in yesterday morning when my husband had to leave the back door open for a few minutes. That is how the last one gained entry in the early spring of 2024.  

I have washed and disinfected under the stove, as well as taken out the under stove drawer to disinfect it and all the bake ware that it stores.  What a task, but glad to have it done.  Later this afternoon we will pull the refrigerator out and vacuum and disinfect under there as well.  The next task will be to clean out the entire food storage cupboard....a gargantuan task as it is completely full of cans and boxes...give the interior shelves a good rinse out just because they probably need it...then pull it away from the wall and disinfect underneath it as well.  We are fairly certain the mouse would have been in behind it at some point if it was here all day yesterday.  Never hurts to pull out free standing cupboards and appliances every few months to clean  under and behind them even without the presence of a mouse spurring a person on. 

No Tear In My Beer, Just A Mouse In My House!!!!!! EEK!!!!!!!

 It has been over a year since we last had a mouse invade our premises, so I was very disappointed tonight as I was starting to wash dishes at my kitchen sink, turned around for a second and saw the brown furry streak of Mouse flying across the Kitchen and under the new fridge!  Sigh....  We are quite certain it entered this morning when my husband forgot to push the back door shut behind him when he took the compost out to the back deck.  Winter is imminent now, the exact time of year these wee nuisances are seeking indoor warmth for their winter accommodation.  

My husband was in the basement when I hollered the news of our little visitor to him, so he took the tray containing the last of our traps and bait down from a shelf and proceeded to load and place traps around the basement and upstairs in the kitchen and living room.  

Fortunately we found scant "evidence" of the mouse's presence anywhere visible and only a bit of same in the drawer of baking dishes under the stove. Those few things will be easy to disinfect tomorrow after the mouse has (hopefully) been caught in one of the traps.  

I sent in a Pest Request to our property management team who will find it in the morning and I suspect will not waste too much time coming over with more traps.  We are going grocery shopping in the morning, so will stop in at the office across the parking lot on the way out to confirm they got the request and let them know they are more than welcome to come in to set traps up in our absence.  

Dang it!  We have been doing so well for not getting mice in here the past few years.  Tonight's discovery is most disappointing.

Apart from that bit of upset it has been quite a wonderful day!  The 3km walk yesterday was exhausting after losing a whole week of exercise during our AB driving trip, but today we got to reprise our route to the optometrist's office because the lenses in one of the two pair of new glasses my husband picked up yesterday had been incorrectly ground.  So back we went today to turn them back in and have the mistake corrected.  The tech is not allowed to change prescriptions to the lens grinders without input from the optometrist, but it "just happened" that she came wandering out of her exam room after her last patient just as the tech was wondering how long it would take for my husband to get another appointment to see her. He flagged her down and she immediately took care of my husband's new exam needs.  The glasses have been turned in and are on their way back to the company that ground the lenses in order to correct a rather serious mistake. YAY!  BY this time next week he should have them back again and working for him.  

The weather for our walk was so warm and NOT windy for once that we had to remove our coats and carry them while only about 3 blocks into the walk. Blue skies smiled on us as well.

We were an hour late leaving to get the glasses taken care of because just as we were about to leave our son called.  We had a great chat with him and we were able to pray together about his card approval.  It will be at least two weeks before he receives the letter of acceptance....or, please Lord NO....rejection of his application.  All we can do is pray and trust for the right outcome and he is calming down a little bit during this period of waiting, so that is a positive thing.

We didn't even look at the time when we left home, but on the way downtown my husband admitted he was feeling extremely hungry. I admitted that I was as well. Finally we checked the time and discovered it was well after 1pm after a very light breakfast for him and my own breakfast which I had eaten over 5 hours previously. No wonder we were famished.  By the time we got to a reasonably priced restaurant, thank you Fancy Fork for your lunch specials, and finished our meal it was after 2pm.  Yikes. So grateful we managed okay and that I wasn't crabby from low blood sugar between all the walking and the lateness of the hour.  Extremely grateful we eventually thought of checking the time as we walked along with our stomachs growling. Then tonight I got busy and forgot to eat dinner. My husband reminded me after 8pm that perhaps my blood sugar would appreciate a wee boost.

Had a nice email tonight from our son's wife and we may have a phone chat with her sometime soon as well.  What a treat that our family keep in touch with us regularly across a few thousand kilometres, (2598 to be more exact...or 1615 miles if you prefer), of geographical distance. 

Looks like a touch of winter weather will be upon us from late tomorrow afternoon until sometime into the next day....rain, possible thundershowers, below zero temps over night and some snow. Hopefully we are on the light side of the snow forecast. We are grateful we didn't expand the length our trip to AB like we originally hoped to into the rest of this week. A great swath of AB is forecast to receive anywhere from 20 to 50cm of snow tomorrow and the next day. Whew...may have dodged a bullet there....hopefully. Grateful our appointment to have show tires put on the car is this coming Monday!

The Bad, Sadly, With The Good

 I tend to think of life as a series of balances and counterbalances, good and evil, clarity and confusion,  joy and sorrow, and any other opposites you can think of that apply to life in general, all working for and against each other, leaving us in a constant state of flux. We certainly experienced that  emotionally today late in the afternoon when some bad news from friends arrived in our Inbox to counterbalance the wonderful good news we had this morning.

We went for a wind blown 3km walk this afternoon so my husband could get his new glasses. It seemed like a lovely way to cap off our earlier good news day.

However when we arrived home we received messages from two different women we are very close to, letting us know their husbands are both heading off to various labs and hospitals for medical testing for situations that on first thought don't seem particularly positive.  One fellow is needing testing for some ongoing symptoms and the other has already been tested, only to be told he has "spots", possible lesions, on his liver after several miserable years of intense treatments and scary drug injections to control his skin cancer.   We are rather upset to say the least.  These couples have been dear friends for several decades and as we all are reaching "that age" where longer term medical "stuff" begins to happen, we are all examining our mortality more closely.  Sheesh...we just returned from seeing a handful of friends in AB who are, like us, also showing signs of advancing age.  Here we go, heading into this final phase of life.  It is quite a feeling!

A Good News (We Think Anyway) Kind Of Day Thus Far!

This morning as I was brushing my teeth I began to wonder how much longer I should wait to hear from the surgeon's office about setting up a pre-op consultation.  I hate pestering the office manager about these things, but then I thought maybe I should just let her know we are back from our trip and she can now reach me on both phone numbers again once the schedule for November is being set up, but then I thought maybe I could wait a couple of more days, or even into next week just in case she called me as we had agreed upon originally....but THEN I was overwhelmed with a feeling that I should put my toothbrush down and make the call IMMEDIATELY!  It was such a strong feeling that I did just that.

Sputtering toothpaste foam all over the phone as I dialed in, I managed to clear my mouth of toothpaste sufficiently to speak coherently when the office manager answered.  I explained who I was and that I was back in Regina so could now be reached on our landline as well as my mobile.  The manager told me she was glad I was back and that she could actually book my pre-op consult right then and there.  A few seconds later I was off the phone and now I am very excited that I have an appointment the second week of November!  YIPPEE!!!!  AND since all his afternoon appointments at the usual space in the cast clinic at the hospital are booked up until the end of the year, she has made an appointment for me to see him for an early morning appointment in his own office instead. Glory be and Hallelujah and Yippee and Wahoo and all other expressions of happy excitement.

Thank you friends and prayer partners who have been praying with me about this since this past summer. It is is delightful news. I am so grateful.

In other HOPEFULLY, POSSIBLY, EXPECTING IT TO BE good news:  our son had his final huge interview for his card this morning. The woman who interviewed him was very kind and told him she wants to approve his card for certain, BUT the one glitch...of course there is always one of those in bureaucratic dealings isn't there.....is that he has a special government issued permission to have overstayed the end of his last visa and required a special letter from his immigration lawyer confirming the validity of his current status in their country.  That he has, but now of course the supervisor of the interviewer has to see this documentation and give final approval. Sigh....there is always SOMETHING ELSE isn't there? So my stressed out son and his wife are once again sweating it out, with my son trying to trust God for the outcome but struggling because he is human like the rest of us and can't help wondering what God is really going to do.  

He is most grateful for our little band of prayer warriors in THIS country and Mama Bear here is equally grateful for all the support our family has received over the years from all of you. Bless you "real good"! 

 

 

Home!🏠

We were awake at 5:30am, on the road at 7am. The drive dragged on for what seemed like hours, although we arrived home in our usual time of 8 hours. Since we had eaten breakfast in the hotel at 6am we were ready for lunch around 10am, so we stopped in Medicine Hat, got turned around trying to find a breakfast restaurant we KNEW still existed, finally found it, ate quickly and found our way back to the highway where we soon found ourselves trapped temporarily behind a huge, wide house being moved across the province. In the process of stopping for gasoline, a drink from a fast food restaurant, bathroom breaks and changing drivers, we ended up behind that crazy wide load FOUR times. Hahaha….if you have never played cat and mouse with a wide load on a major highway before I would not recommend it! 

Driving for eight hours through flat prairie with variegated shades of brown in the fields and medians, broken only occasionally by small stands of trees still covered in deep yellow leaves, the lack of sleep, the dread of oncoming winter, and the realization this will be our last trip for months to come all combined to leave us feeling worn completely out by the time we drove into our parking spot at home. BUT: the sky was blue with incredible cloud formations, the weather was unseasonably warm, the breezes under control for a change, not one threat of snow, so unusual for this time of year. It was lovely to be able to be free to be at peace instead of fretting about driving onto an invisible 🫥 patch of black ice on the highway. What a blessing.

We ate a light dinner tonight…at 4pm….and my husband was in bed for the night at 5:30pm. I always struggle with “road buzz” when riding along the highway for that many hours and now, just before 10pm, my head has finally stopped buzzing and the light headedness has disappeared. Guess I too should get to sleep now. 

Grateful for our amazing trip, being able to honour Aunty, visit with so many relatives and friends and experience the amazing weather and driving conditions. 

Unlike Our Return From Most Other Out Trips…..

 ….I am actually ready and happy to go home this time. Over the month we were in NYC I realized I was starting to miss my friends as the weeks went by and it was good to see them again. Then it was time to travel again, so soon after our initial return that, while we have only been gone for a week, I am missing them all over again! Hahaha…..

It has been good to have this extra trip worked into our schedule before winter arrives because it is taking the edge off the stress impending winter strikes us with every year, even though the reason for the trip was a family funeral! Unfortunately we were not able to see all our old friends in this area, but we have a list of their names written out and they will be our priority visits next time we are out, hopefully late next spring.

We are grateful for the great amount of “Cousin Time” we had, for the beautiful memorial tributes to Aunty’s life and for the handful of friends we did have time to see. 

Looks like we are going to have decent weather for our drive home as well. That is a near miracle for this time of year and for that we are extremely grateful!

An Apparently Answered Prayer! Yay!

Dear prayer warrior friends: a number of posts ago I asked if you would pray for Nan who has been dealing on a new residence she has had her eye on for several years, purchase being contingent on her being able to sell her house by the end of this month. Her offer has been accepted because after only two days on the market she got an offer at over asking; this happening in a smaller city with over 80 houses listed in a market that is barely moving right now. The buyers have asked only for an appraisal to be completed so that is in the works. If you could keep her in mind for a few more days while she and her realtor await the appraisal results, she would appreciate it. Selling her house in the ridiculously short  time the sellers of the new place gave her seemed next to impossible, but it seems God has his plans for her to move into her long hoped for home. Hallelujah! It is so encouraging to receive a YES isn’t it? Noes and Yes Buts are ok too, because God has his own ways, but a clear YES is a special joy.

Bless you all. I will let you know the final outcome when it happens.

The Joy Of Seeing Friends From Home Here In Their New Place!

We had a lovely visit last night with Regina friends who moved here a couple of years ago. Mobility issues prevent them from returning to Regina very often, so it was quite a treat to visit and share a meal together. It made this now over crowded, too bustling city feel like a friendly place again; as did dinner the previous evening with one of my husband’s most long term friends and former mountain climbing buddy. In the midst of the insane city the little old Calgary of my childhood has become there have been warm spots.

Today is our final day of visiting old friends here before we head home tomorrow. Thus far the weather has been fantastic and if the forecast holds for tomorrow the trip will be one of the only return trips in recent years where we have not been driving back to SK in some kind of ice blizzard…..(but don’t stop praying for good weather because this close to the mountains things can change in a matter of a couple of hours! Thanks!)

The Rockies To The West

When we first arrived in Calgary the mountains to the west of us were covered in a fresh dump of clean, bright new snow. Now, as we look out the windows of our hotel room, the peaks have lost that pristine white gleam and have returned to their brown jaggedness. The sky above is light autumn blue and this morning there are few clouds in sight. It is another lovely day near the foothills. We have no visiting commitments until later this afternoon and will watch our home church service online this morning. Speaking of which, I had best get going if I am going to get connected on time! 

Such A Beautiful October Day!

The weather in Calgary this week has been absolutely gorgeous!  What a blessing for all of us who are visiting from across Canada for Aunty’s funeral and ongoing celebration of her life! This is the nicest mid October weather we have experienced in a number of years. Back home it has been rainy, windy and rather miserable according to the friend who is caring for our house while we are away. This is the second trip in a row where we have been experiencing glorious weather during heavy rainfall and wind at home. Yay! 

We enjoyed our shopping trip today, and had plenty of chances for long walks through the Inglewood shopping district as we picked up several orders of tea at Tea Traders, herbs and spices at Silk Road, two new outfits for me at Twitchin’ Threads, a book and brand new pair of gloves for my husband at a wonderfully clean and well organized thrift store and then a drive across the city for leather repair supplies at Tandy Leather. Now my husband can repair his favourite moccasins, so he is very happy…and so am I! 

We located our favourite old 1970’s pizza joint, used to be Karuso’s, but is now one of the SpotOn restaurants that inherited the Karuso family pizza recipes. So the pizza is just as good, my husband says. I opted for the far less carby, less fatty chicken pot pie and it was delicious! 

After a late afternoon rest we took a decently long walk through the neighbourhood around our hotel, discovering a lovely Indian restaurant: Hyderabad Biryani House. It is tucked away among an entire development of big box stores and light industrial businesses. My expectations were low, but the food was really, really tasty. My medium spiced Chana masala curry was spicy hot in my mouth and there were sautéed onions adding to the flavour. My husband’s chicken methi was so yummy with thick spiced gravy. Jeera rice and butter naan rounded out our meal. The portions were huge, (good thing we had the long walk back to the hotel afterwards!),  and we have enough leftovers in our refrigerator for another full meal each for lunch on Sunday. (Won’t be eating leftovers tomorrow because of a cousin’s lunch and then a special dinner with one of my husband’s lifelong friends and former mountain climbing buddy.) 

Received the wonderful news today that a dear friend who has been struggling with cancer for the past several years is now fully in remission. So grateful for this encouraging news! It is the best way to top off a very happy day!

Calgary’s Horrible Crash!

Just after lunch hour today there was an horrendous crash not far to the northeast of our hotel. Eight vehicles were involved, including two city transit buses, one of which was propane fueled and it caught fire. Three people were killed, nineteen were injured and at least one of those nineteen may not survive. Details of what exactly happened are still sketchy, but apparently the disaster began when a bus collided with a small car and that began a series of crashes, the last one being into the rear of the parked bus that burst into flames. The main thoroughfare running past our hotel is an access road into where the accident occurred and I wondered why so many emergency vehicles, sirens blaring, were racing by early in the afternoon. It is a sad situation. I cannot imagine how many families of the dead and injured will be devastated by this crash. Sigh….😮‍💨 

In happier news, my husband arrived home late this afternoon, smiling and grinning, face reddened from the cold mountain air after the family hiking excursion at Heart Creek near Lac des Arcs. What a marvellous time they had. It was a particularly nice experience for the cousins who live in other parts of Canada where there are no mountains to climb. He is so happy. We celebrated with a lovely dinner at a cozy Italian restaurant. 

These days we find ourselves in bed reading by 9pm or even earlier, lights out before 10pm and we are generally sleeping well. Perhaps our Night Owl Days have finally come to an end? 

A Very Quiet Day For Me Today!

On this beautiful fall day my husband has taken a group of the cousins to the mountains for a short hike. The time frame is abbreviated due to one of the visiting cousins needing to get back to the airport for her flight home early this evening, but it will still be sufficient time for my husband to be able to experience a day in his beloved Rocky Mountains west of the city while I have a needed down day at our hotel. The weather here in Calgary is lovely so I am looking forward to taking a short walk to a nearby restaurant for lunch and a visit to the large neighbourhood ethnic grocery store. If I can just refrain from purchasing too many grocery items to comfortably transport home, all will be well. Hahaha! Tomorrow will be our main shopping day for teas ☕️ and fresh spices and herbs. 🪴 I am hoping to stop in for a quick visit to my favourite teensy boutique to see if there might be just one unique winter clothing item to purchase. After purging my summer and winter wardrobes so thoroughly in late September, there is plenty of space open on my clothing rack for one new sweater. 

The family dinner last evening was complete chaos; the kind of chaos only large families can create and tolerate. (I am from a small and well organized family. Nuff said!) Although I enjoyed a handful of meaningful visits with several of those in attendance, as we hollered at each other over the noise, after the meal I found myself hiding out briefly in a small study, looking at the paintings and blown glass vases and large marble sculptures of Northern Territory walruses and seals and other animals native to Canada’s north where our host grew up. It was very peaceful until some of the grandchildren found me, haha. I did enjoy hearing them as they told me about their lives: school, best friends, sports activities…it was such fun to hear their enthusiasm for life. At least I was able to hear them speaking! The rest of the living and dining areas in the large house were pure bedlam with the approximately 50 other people all chattering at once. For me it was sensory overload so I was grateful to stumble upon my little hiding place for awhile. 

I have decided that driving in certain areas of Calgary is no longer fun. Admittedly most of our driving last night took place during the rush hour, but still….there are many more traffic circles now in areas with too much traffic to handle them and too many drivers still unsure as to how they are to be navigated. Fortunately when we were returning to our hotel in the dark my husband was driving. He negotiated the traffic circle chaos very well. 

Still waiting for the call from my surgeon’s office with a scheduled time for my pre-op consult. I so hope it can be in November so I can have the surgery this winter, from my mouth to God’s ear. I so do not want my husband’s whole summer to be tied up caring for me like it was after my revision arthroscopy two summers ago. I have seen the architects circling our housing complex once again so am fairly certain the now long awaited eviction for tear down will be coming for this spring.  I am trusting God to get us through my surgery and a move somehow in the coming months. 

Time to get online and check out the restaurants near this hotel so I can figure out where to have lunch….or maybe I will go to the ethnic grocery store first to check out what interesting meal I could purchase there and bring back to our suite to eat! Yum!

Family Funeral Reunions

The weather has been beautiful the past two days after Thanksgiving Monday’s rain, sleet and heavy snow flurries. The sun is shining. There is a stiff breeze, but not a very chilly one. Today when out walking a sweater is just barely needed. I love this weather in mid October! Long may it last. 

Today my husband was reunited with cousins and second cousins he has not seen for years as all were in attendance at their mother’s funeral this morning. It was a lovely service with professional singers and instrumentalists, some of whom are those same cousins. The songs they performed were in Auntie’s four known languages: German, English, Latin and Zulu. (A number of years living in Tanzania is responsible for that last one, German was her language of childhood, followed by English, with Latin being the predominant language of her beloved church until a few years ago.) She and her husband raised nine children in Whitehorse Yukon Territories in the 1960’s and ‘70’s. 

Tonight there is a family dinner at the home of one of the daughters so that will be a better venue for visiting than the noise carrying church hall where the post funeral lunch was held. Tomorrow there will be a family mountain hike, but I will forego the “pleasure” and take advantage of a day alone to read and blog and stay in my jammies all day. YES!

A funeral is a sad reason for getting together but it is lovely to have everyone together again, the last time being for a family wedding in our own city of residence! 

We have many weekend plans, hopefully a day on our own to do some tea leaf shopping at my husband’s favourite tea shop, another family meal and visiting with four sets of long term friends, none of whom we have seen in at least two years. Lots of happy days ahead! 

Total Cuteness!

Cutest thing ever heard by me in a hotel: 🏨 

One thing I cannot handle in any hotel is being stuck in a room with adjoining doors to the next room. As far as noise between rooms go we and our neighbours might as well be sharing one room. There is close to zero soundproofing with the adjoining doors between us. However, sometimes it is worth it if there is a cute five year old girl in the next room. Our latest experience was having a five year old girl open her and her family’s section of the adjoining door and hearing her say: “What’s in here? Potatoes?” 🥔 

Hahahaha…I nearly fell over I was giggling so hard and I haven’t heard my husband laugh like that for a long time! 

Not An Auspicious Start To The Day!

 I went to bed last night with possible symptoms of a cold which I treated with a few OTC meds but woke up this morning with more vague symptoms. So, I popped a Claritin and within a couple of hours or so I began feeling better. Now, at 4pm I have fewer symptoms and am continuing to feel better. Yay! I will continue the Claritin for a few more days, as allergies hit me hard every year at the serious onset of autumn. 

Today has been cold and rainy in our little city, with freezing slush needing to be shovelled from our back deck. The morning was filled with deep grey clouds overhead, rain, sleet and snowfall. Thankfully things will clear up over the next day or so……at least the forecast tells us so…so who knows?

After breakfast I decided to water all the plants in my dining room. The Christmas cactus sits on two plastic placemats at one end of the dining room table. Somehow I also managed to soak not only the placemats with water, but the water also ran under the mats and all over my teak table! Noooooo….I was fortunate to be able to move the pot of cactus easily and pick the mats up in time to remove the table water quickly. 

As I was trying to get the water mopped off the table my husband wandered into the dining room with a peanut butter sandwich that proceeded to drip oily peanut butter onto my winter coat I had just hung on a chair, as well as onto the dining room carpet. Aiii yiiii what a mess…again with a mess, one each! My coat was easy to clean and we eventually got the peanut butter scraped and washed out of the carpet. Aiiii yiiii…

Later this morning we were in Moose Jaw so my husband decided to take advantage of the low price at a discount gasoline station and fill our car’s tank. At $1.69/litre compared to $1.83/litre at home, it was a GREAT price. Unfortunately my husband got the numbers of the avenues mixed up, drove over the wrong bridge to get to the gas station and ended up driving us back and forth, up and down the streets all around the north end of the town before finding the station at last! Thankfully he eventually figured out what he had done wrong, haha. So, not the most encouraging start to the day, but things could only get better from there….and they have. They have!! Yay!

From shovelling freezing slush off our back porch this morning to losing our way in a town that is familiar to us, we can only be thankful all our “messes” were so easily cleaned up and corrected!

Canoeing In October On The Saskatchewan Prairies

While I spent today doing laundry and grocery shopping my husband and his friend decided, "Hang the lousy weather, we are going canoeing today!"  So, that is what they did.

It is the end of the canoeing season, past the end actually, with low temperatures arriving today and for the next several days, the wind was blowing from all directions as they paddled about on the narrow river south west of here, gloves and toques were a must, but they had the most wonderful few hours in the canoe looking at the fall colours.  I am happy for my husband who has struggled the past two summers and autumns to find someone willing to go for so much as a couple of hours of "lolly paddling" with him.  Today was a triumph, chilly weather and all:

 

My husband brought me an autumn "bouquet"! from the river bank. 

So "purty"!!

 

Yes, I DO Know It Seems Like An Unneccessary Fuss Over A Refrigerator!

However, people who have known me for the better part of my adult life understand exactly why a cheap fridge, economy model, no added extras, is a thrill for me; why simply having a shelf to divide the freezer compartment in two is a huge deal.  When you have lived in as many dumps, dives, tenements and church manses, (which are sometimes interchangeable with the first 3 types of housing listed) as we have over the past 50 years, a refrigerator that arrives with the packing tape still wrapped around the doors, a refrigerator that is new and clean and has never before been used by anyone other than myself is an amazing blessing indeed.

We have lived in places with carpets so old they were not only fraying at the edges, but had huge spots of rust, animal defecation stains and open holes in the centre of them.  We have had stoves that only had one out of four burners that worked, ovens that allowed us to play the "let's guess what temperature I am actually set at" game, dishwashers that didn't have access to sufficient water pressure to clean the dishes and had to be abandoned, mouse infestations, cockroach infestations, moth infestations, buckling linoleum, holes in the walls, broken kitchen cabinet doors and handles, chronically leaking pipes, rusted out sinks, stained cracked toilets, torn curtains, shattered window blinds, broken windows and tub faucets, torn siding and roof shingles, missing eavestroughs, counter tops that were so stained that no amount of bleach or scrubbing would clean them properly, furnace ducts filled with all manner of things people had dropped down into them in, those things catching and hanging onto huge batts of dust, dangerously broken wooden steps and decking, rusted out clothes washers and a dryer that gave us electric shocks upon using due to electrical insulation problems in the house, and my favourite of all....a connecting passageway between a manse and our church that had a giant hole in the roof where the rain fell through in such huge gushing torrents and the snow formed such deep drifts under that hole that we had to wear our coats, hoods up,and boots to race through the passageway between the buildings, (even a shovel needed to be used on occasion to clear the way), if we had some good reason not to take the long way around the outside of both buildings. Most all of these places were considered acceptable accommodation for us either due to chronic illness induced financial issues making rent next to impossible to come up with for any better sort of accommodation, or "in the name of ministry", which made those places a lot easier to take.

This list is NOT a complaints list, we made the best of each place and we did have a break for a few years after we built our own house before illness struck again. We are quite good at making the best of such situations and have become fairly skillful at it, thankfully. This post is simply a statement of facts to explain why I am so apparently unreasonably ecstatic with yesterday's delivery to our kitchen. 

Yeah....a brand new fridge, no matter how basic it may be, IS a huge thrill for me and I don't mind admitting it. I am DELIGHTED to have it and am grateful, grateful, grateful!!  I know most of you who have known me over the past few decades totally understand. And may the rest of you never, Lord willing, experience reasons of your own to understand.  Amen!

Playing With My BRAND NEW Refrigerator!

My husband just got into his beddy-bye for an afternoon nap after a very busy day of walking a few kilometres to doctor's appointments, cleaning hundreds of dead mosquitoes off our car after our Sunday trip out of town, (yes, the little turkeys are still hanging on, invading house and car, biting like crazy while we await a good hard overnight freeze to finish them off), hauling ice packs out of the old broken down fridge and helping haul it across the kitchen so our new one could be pushed into place.

Yup, we have a brand new, never before used by anyone fridge/freezer, so new the tapes were still in place to keep the veggie and cheese drawers and outside doors closed for transport.  WE ARE DELIGHTED!  

While it was having its initial hour of emptiness to cool down properly, we headed to Chuck's Roadhouse for a VERY late lunch...about 2:30pm.  (The food is good pub grub type food and their 11am to 5pm lunch menu features excellent prices for just the right sized portions of food....the Baja tacos and Cuban sandwich were delicious, although my husband said the fries could have been crispier! While we waited for our food we had a good look at the 2010 Harley Davidson bike on display....the front disc brakes were kind of new to us....fascinating to look at.)

As soon as we got home and checked that the cold level inside the fridge was correct I started removing all the frozen foods from the camper freezer so I could organize them properly. This new freezer compartment has a SHELF so it was much easier to arrange the foods and separate the meats from the breads and veggies while the small bags of frozen herbs and fruit fit easily into the two shelves in the door.  The main refrigerator unit is just slightly smaller than our old fridge, BUT the two inside the door shelves are twice as wide. They held what the old door shelves held, plus all the other condiments and jams and sauces that didn't fit in the door of the old fridge. So, plenty of space even with the cheese saver drawer tucked into the shelving in the centre of the unit.  A quick wipe off of the exterior to remove a bit of dust and another quick wipe inside the fridge before it got cold, then the joy of having a NEW REFRIGERATOR had me laughing and crying at the same time.  I do not remember the last time we had a brand new fridge in any of our previous rental homes and we started renting in 2001!!  Twenty-five years of well used fridges and freezers. What a blessing this new unit is. 

Yesterday I had a long distance chat with an Island friend who told me she knew "it was a long shot and an unlikely possibility" that we would get a brand new fridge in our dilapidated unit and I agreed with her.  Well Penn....the Lord answered your prayer for us with a resounding "YES!"  And here is how it happened:  when the office manager called this morning assure us that a refrigerator had been secured she explained to me why it had not shown up yesterday when we expected it.  Turns out there was indeed a used one sitting in the warehouse that she earmarked for us and it actually was delivered: to the WRONG UNIT!!!  Since there are tenants in this unit....who no doubt wondered upon returning from work last evening why there was a different refrigerator in their home, (and what happened to the food in their old one I have no idea).....the refrigerator wasn't able to be removed from there and then re-delivered to our place, SO since it had been the only used one in the warehouse, there was no other option but to order a brand new refrigerator from their usual supplier of such newness.  THAT Is how WE ended up with a brand new refrigerator.  Penn, thank you for encouraging me yesterday to feel free to at least ask God if it was possible to receive a new fridge, even if still being prepared to accept an older one.  I didn't truly believe you and I would see that kind of answer.  (I realize there are a couple of other friends and family who also told me they were  praying for a new unit and I thank you so much and hope this answer encourages you in your prayers as much as it did me in mine.)

Oh happy day!!  We have leftovers from last night's meal at DarBar thawing for a late dinner.  It has been a blessed day.  Tomorrow the blessings continue with coffee hour with my Thursday buddy and Friday we are having friends in for dinner.  That will be a lovely start to the Thanksgiving holiday weekend! 

The weather is supposed to be less than wonderful between here and southern Alberta on Sunday into Monday of the coming week but then things should dry out and warm up a bit for our quick trip west.