A Quick Prayer For My Dear Friend?

For you prayer partners out there, my friend Nan could use a prayer or two today.  She is preparing to list her house for sale and the realtors are coming this afternoon.  She has some concerns which may or may not be valid in regard to what else needs to be done to the house before she can best list it. She has found the place to purchase that she has wanted for many years and the sellers are willing, but it does need some renos and they want to sell it sooner than she was counting on.  So, as seems to be par for all moves, there is quite a bit of stress with this one. Also, since Cee's passing a couple of years ago she is on her own dealing with these matters.

I guess what we need to be praying for mostly is that God will give her a deep peace about what he wants her to do, the strength to do it and the courage to face this entire situation on her own....she remembers the story of the little girl being stressed and being told to put her trust in our invisible God, but the little girl wanted someone with "skin on".   I am very proud of her for tackling this project and I am praying her other family and friends who actually live in her city can be a huge source of support for her.

Thanks everybody. 

You Know What I Resent??

 (I am guessing you don’t know and likely don’t care, but here it is anyway!)

I resent being eaten alive by mosquitoes at the very end of September! THAT is what I resent! 

Mosquitoes are supposed to be done with their season of torture by or before the end of August, but teeming rains here early in September reawakened the now booming population and in the past two weeks my body has been stabbed by the little demons so often it is shocking that I have enough blood left to function! My arms and legs are so covered in swollen red bites that I look like a five year old at the end of her first day at summer camp by the lake! Itch, scratch, itch, scratch, itch, scratch…..on and on it goes. They hover outside the front and back doors. They invade our car interior when we can’t avoid opening the hatchback to load and unload grocery bags.  Every time we open our back door, even for a few seconds, these mini vampires flood into our suite. Last evening while attempting to watch tv we were so busy slapping down the half dozen or more mosquitoes who appeared in order to torment us that we had to rewind the programme after slaying these tiny dragons and start again. We were so busy slapping and squashing bugs we weren’t able to pay much attention to the tv screen, so by the time we dispatched all of them we had to admit to each other we had no idea what had happened onscreen for at least the last twenty minutes of the show. Sigh…. I never ever thought I would look forward this much to a hard overnight, mosquito killing, freeze up as I am right now!

WOW! Thank You Canada Post...Truly, Thank You Very Much!

 I checked our mail box just now and found a delightful treat that I wasn't sure we could really expect from Canada Post: the reimbursement cheque for the Hold Mail service we prepaid for did not receive while we were away.  What a nice surprise....I don't mean to sound surprised because personally we have had very few issues with Canada Post over the past twenty years, but since the "lower echelon" workers closed our file, we didn't have any idea if there would be a response in our favour from the "upper echelon" workers our case was passed on to.  How lovely to get that reimbursement.

A huge thank you to Canada Post for dealing with this problem so thoroughly and satisfactorily.  Kudos to you!!!

Welcome Happy Happy Morning!

The sun continues to shine, although the outside temperatures now require the wearing of long sleeved shirts or sweaters or light jackets for most any amount of outdoor activity.  The sky is losing its deep summer blue hue and becoming paler.  The breezes are downright chilly now. Summer weather is officially at an end as of the end of last week, in my opinion.  Brrrrrr.......

We were up 'n' at 'em this morning.   We delivered the car to the dealership mechanics before 8:30am and then enjoyed a lovely walk for just over a kilometre down a deserted street to a restaurant that serves pretty decent breakfasts for a wonderful price....$15 for two eggs any style, toast of your choice, shredded hash browns and a drink of your choice.  If you want to add bacon, ham or sausage it is another $2, big deal.  Eating such a huge breakfast for two people for such a small amount of money is quite a luxury any more.  We really enjoyed it!  A small glass of milk before we left home kept my blood sugar up enough for me to enjoy the little walk to the restaurant.  It was great to have to walk the same route back to the dealership after eating a big meal like that....okay, I didn't actually eat my toast, but I had a good look at its yummy, buttery self before turning it over to my husband to consume.  

After we retrieved the car we decided to get the winter tires ordered, along with a set of rims and studding.  We ordered good quality Michelins and will return to the dealership to have them installed toward the end of October after, (Hopefully, pullleeze God let the weather be sufficiently amenable to travelling still.), a trip to AB for a family funeral and to see some beloved friends. 

The last of my winter clothes are ironed and most of the summer clothes binned for storage. After I do the laundry tomorrow the rest of the summer clothes can go into the bins and be returned to the basement until next spring.

I realized that this winter, at least for the first part of it, depending on a date for hip upcoming likely hip surgery, I have only one more or less suitable dress for going to "events" but it isn't really suitable for the funeral next month.  I also have no dress shoes or indoor boots and if we are travelling in a couple of weeks again I won't have any proper shoes to wear for the funeral and the family dinner afterwards. SO, my treat to myself over the next week is to go shopping for shoes and a dress.  The only purchase I made in NYC to bring home wasn't even for me, it was a gift for the wonderful friends who took care of our mail and house and plants while we were away.  I am going to splurge!  I just went through the remains of my winter wardrobe and pared it back some more, so I don't feel badly about needing one dress and one pair of shoes that I should have purchased at least two years ago...or more!  I am so tired of wearing pants to any and very event all winter long.  I can't bear it any more. 

Now all I have to do this afternoon is figure out what we are going to have for dinner tonight.  I think we have enough leftovers to cobble one meal together for the pair of us.  Our breakfasts left us so stuffed we ate rather minimal lunches well after 1pm. 

Tomorrow is a Federal Holiday for Truth and Reconciliation acknowledgement. The banks and Canada Post and other federal businesses and offices will be closed, but our province, while acknowledging the day in various ways, has yet to turn it into a statutory holiday, so their employees will be hard at work as usual.  I hope that changes in the near future.  

My husband and I will don our orange shirts and see if there are any activities related to the day happening near us that we can attend for a while.  Apart from that it will be my laundry day, so it should be a busy enough day for me.  I am still jazzed from our short walk this morning and want to spend time away from here tomorrow walking some more!! 

Just Get It Done Already!!!

I woke up this morning at odds with myself...you know, one of those days when you wake up without a clear plan for the day. That tends to make me crabby.  I want to wake up with a clear path in mind, errands and housework set up in my mind, ready to execute each task as best as I can.  That was not the case this morning!

Perhaps being awake in the night again contributed.  I found myself firing up my large PC just after 4am because I remembered I had been wanting to make a donation for the local Ovarian Cancer walk this weekend, but it happened yesterday and I completely forgot until 4am today. NO matter! I discovered an email from another friend with a link to the donation sight of the cancer survivor friend I wanted to support and I got the money sent in right away, then printed off the e-mailed receipt. Done and done!  After that I did go back to sleep for a couple of hours.  YAY!

My husband has an online meeting every Monday morning so I dipsy doodled about eating breakfast and cleaning up the kitchen while he was doing that, printed off some more paperwork, then pretty much waited until he was done with his meeting before asking him if he had any ideas of what should be done today. He had none whatsoever and was just as crabby about it as myself. hahaha

He wasn't feeling great overall.  He had been very ill on Saturday, to the point where he went to bed that night wondering if he would even be able to get to the next morning's out of town service.  As you know already, he did and was just fine, but of course today he was tired and in recovery.  Finally I decided to go out by myself to do some banking and buy some fruit while he got on the phone to make an appointment for the regular 6 month servicing for our car. (YAY, the service department squeezed us in early tomorrow morning, so after we drop it off we will walk a short km over to a breakfast restaurant we like so we can munchy crunch and wait to pick the car up when the work is done.)  Looking forward to the walk along streets we have never traversed on foot before. Something NEW to see for a change.

Now it is late afternoon. My husband has been alternately dozing and watching tv while he recovers from the weekend stresses and I have been ironing for the last couple of hours.  This morning when I was trying to figure out what to do with myself, I decided to go ahead and open up the rest of the winter clothing bins and set up the ironing board for this afternoon.  Since I downsized my winter wardrobe this past spring (and recently downsized my summer wardrobe, yay me), the bins are less full so the clothes coming out of storage are less wrinkled.  Makes the ironing project so much easier and quicker.  There are a few autumn outfits left in the closet since we will have temperatures in the mid +teen C's for the next couple of weeks and then when the first snow or ice storm arrives they can go into the last now empty bin. I downsized a bit more on the winter wear this morning so now I have a huge bag of clean, well preserved clothes items to take to the thrift store. I will finish ironing the last 4 pair of winter pants later this evening and that will be the end of it.   SO glad I found something constructive to do today!!

Here are some photos of an exhibition we enjoyed at the Bard College located in upstate New York, where my son did his MFA degree. 

Schultz Weaving from the exhibit at Bard College NY

 

Aren't they all just beeeeaaaauuuutiiiiiful??  Wow!

A Sunday The Way I Like 'Em!!

 Today we are experiencing the first day that truly feels like autumn around here.  I didn't take a coat with me for our drive out of town this morning and when we stopped along the way to fill the car with gasoline I nearly froze standing outside at the pump.  Brrrrr....the wind was winter cold and continues to be as the day goes on.

Apart from the cold wind though it was a lovely Sunday for a drive out of the city.  Although the scenery is changing from ripe crops and green trees and plants to the browns and pale golds of harvest and more barren tree limbs with piles of dead leaves alongside the highway, it was still a pretty sight with the lovely blue sky above.  I enjoyed driving today in both directions.

The church service went very well, but I got a bit of a shock when my husband informed me that this very well may be the last service he takes for anyone.  Preaching and teaching he will still do occasionally, but taking the entire service is no longer comfortable for him, he is getting stressed out by it....well no guff Buff, after the neck pain and misery he experienced all day yesterday that was brought on mostly by stress. And how do I know stress played such a huge factor?  It is because once the service got going I could see the change in him...the positive, "Oh gosh the pain in my head is finally gone!" change in him.  I am so impressed he has finally been able to admit that since he doesn't take services regularly any more he feels uncomfortable and not in control the odd time that he agrees to do it.  In fact he also said that after yesterday he has a new feeling of freedom to say "no" to a few invitations to teach.  I am so proud of him.  It was a big admission for him to make out loud.  Bless his heart.

Coffee hour was a lot of fun after church; so many old friends and acquaintances to meet and greet.  The friends I sat with are long time besties and the way they talk to each other made me feel like I was at a comedy show. SO MUCH FUN!!!! 

One of those dear friends had set up a reservation for us at a local restaurant for lunch as well.  Great conversation, delicious food and the restaurant wasn't overly crowded so we were able to talk above other "people and music noise" in our regular "inside voices". 

After lunch we went over to Nan's house where she had an offering to make to my dear husband: several of Cee's jackets he had worn before he passed away. What an honour for my husband to receive these beautiful coats and outdoor vests at a time when the old coats he has been wearing for years are as worn out as it is possible to be.  Every time he wears one it will remind him of our wonderful friend Cee and it will certainly keep his memory alive for us both.  What a lovely, thoughtful gift from Nan.  Bless her heart.  It isn't easy finally passing on Cee's clothing to others.  She is very brave these days despite the ongoing grief.   I am learning a great deal about grieving processes from Nan and from my husband.  It is good for me as I tend to allow practicality to overcome my emotions sometimes and I am wondering these days what kind of griefs I have tucked away, repressed, tamped down and waiting to emerge to be dealt with at last in my life.

Tonight there is a murder mystery series on tv that we will watch together, along with last night's Sumo highlights.  The likely winner is pretty obvious at this point, but you just never know with sumo. Sometimes what is seemingly obvious is completely overturned in the last two days of the competition.  Supper will be light after our large lunches of fish and chips with salad for my husband and my huge, yummy taco salad.  The amount of taco chips in the salad was minimal, so just perfect for my carb count.

Tomorrow will be a busy day....my husband will have his usual Monday Zoom meeting with his retired pastor friends and then we have to call the car dealership for the winter check up on the car and to purchase studded tires for the winter. Then we have to contact our tv service provider as all the theme packs are changing as of tomorrow and we want to get things changed over immediately in case I have to revamp taping schedules for the handful of programmes we watch each day/week.  Lots of changes lately with that service provider and we suspect they may be struggling to continue to carry the channels we like due to the number of people able to use the new streaming services.  It will be interesting to see how it goes this coming year.  Our complex has an agreement with that provider that gives us a price discount for our monthly tv bill, so we are unable to utilize streaming services...and we don't want to as everyone we know who uses them has no end of issues with them blipping out every so often and creating problems in the midst of being watched.  Whatever....maybe when we move out of here...she says in her never ending Pollyanna style of faith that one of these days we WILL actually move.....we will be able to modernize our tv viewing. 

Good To Be Together As A Family Once Again!

One of the most special things about staying in manhattan on our holiday was being able to walk the 22 blocks to our son's place.  We were able to spend more time with him and his wife than we dared to hope for and he certainly knocked himself out to visit us in our apartment as well.  It was incredible and we are very happy things went so well.

The proud papa!

  

On The Grounds At The Cloisters

If you're happy and you know it Mama, grin like an idjit!

Well, Dang And Blast! Hahaha…..

I woke up just before 6am here in Regina and discovered that no matter how many times I dozed off and reawakened between then and 8am I was not going to wake up in Manhattan! Hahaha….so I hauled my lazy self out of bed and got on with my day! 

Later in the morning, after eating breakfast while we enjoyed watching Day 13 of the current Sumo tournament from Tokyo, (God bless NHK Broadcasting for carrying the highlight videos each basho), we got cleaned up and went to pick up a fresh jug of drinking water before having a small, inexpensive lunch at Bonzzini's.  Their 11am to 2pm specials menu is quite wonderful for us:$14.99 for each of the items on it. We had our usual 6 inch pizza and salad.  Even with tax and tip and a drink lunch comes in at just over $40.  YAY!  We never feel guilty about spending money on a meal when the prices are that low and the food fine enough.  

After lunch my husband dropped me off to visit my friend in the hospital.  Her medical issues sometimes leave her in a hallucinatory state, but today she was extremely lucid for the first half of our 45 minute visit before she began to drift into her other world; her "dream world" as she calls it. She does recognize that she is sometimes experiencing hallucinations but can't always tell if she is in that state or not. So, the last half of our visit was interesting for a whole lot of other reasons than the first half was. hahaha She will be okay as soon as the infections and treatment meds have done their jobs.  When my mother was dying and sinking into a coma, she was aware that her mind was changing and I am so grateful she didn't panic and try to fight it and so set herself up for a whole new world of fear and grief. Her acceptance of what was happening to her mind and the possibility that it was signalling the end of her life amazed me then and continues to give me peace about her passing.

The rains that teemed down here a few days before we came home and after we arrived have bred a whole new season of mosquitoes.  I walked home from the hospital through beautiful treed and flowering parks and private garden areas and I was eaten alive.  Ouchy and itchy!! That's me!!  It began earlier this morning when my husband opened the rear compartment of our car to load up some empty water jugs and dozens of mosquitoes flew inside.  He spent most of the time when I was driving over to the refill station batting the mosquitoes that flew into the front seat and  inner windshield area with his cap.  Yikes!!  I have been rejoicing that there are so few wasps around now since the first freeze prior to our arrival home, but they have been replaced by an unseasonal number of of horrible mosquitoes....NOT impressed!  My arms and legs are once again covered in small red bumps that I generally associate with June through early August.  

My husband is tightening up his sermon for tomorrow's service, our friend from that church has set up reservations for us for lunch afterwards and it is going to be a very happy day, Lord willing. 

For the rest of the day I am going to enjoy the brilliant sunshine, reasonable outdoor temperatures, having the windows open a bit to let the rather strong, but not unpleasant, breeze blow through our suite.  The temperatures are starting to drop to more usual late September highs and lows, but the weather is still looking wonderful for the next week or so. Possible rain and thunderstorms forecast for earlier today didn't come about and I am grateful for that. The mosquito population needs no further help to establish itself this late in the year!! The next overnight freeze up is apparently not going to happen any time soon, so we are stuck with the little monsters for a while yet it seems.

Family Is The Best These Days!

 After being awake for a couple of hours in the night I finally fell asleep for three more hours and slept in a bit.  My plan was to down a bite of breakfast and then wash up some pots and pans and other things that have been in need of a refreshing cleanse for some time so we can use them for making stews and soups during the upcoming winter.

However, at 8:30am the phone rang.  It was our son. He wanted to report that he has his new art studio up and running and organized. His first painting in the new space has begun with a canvas all prepped and the hand drawn transfer of his latest sketch onto the canvas completed.  He sounded so joyful and excited.  He is meeting with his immigration attorney in a couple of weeks regarding his status application and will have an interview about it, along with his wife, later in October.  It is very important that he do well in the interview, so if you are the praying type, could you send up a prayer for him to be ready with ALL the necessary documentation and be at peace both now and during the interview.  His wife will also be interviewed and there will be many personal questions asked to ascertain the possibility of changing his legal status in his newly adopted country.  Oh dear Lord, help him not to be overly anxious. Amen!

By the time we finished the long conversation I only had time to eat and get dressed before it was time to head to the airport to pick up the same friends who picked us up there when we returned from our recent holiday.  As it turned out their plane had already landed by the time I got parked in the lot and the first few folks had debarked. Fortunately my friends were seated at the back of the plane and were among the last to depart. Whew!!  Made it on time!! Me AND the plane.

After stopping off at a restaurant so my hungry buddies, who had been up since midnight our time in order to catch an early flight from the "far east", could eat a very belated breakfast, I dropped them off and headed home.  I paid the rent for next month on my way back into the complex and intended to scrub down the abandoned pots and pans then.  

Nope!  hahaha  I was barely in the door when I received a series of text messages from an arts and crafts retailer on the east side of the city letting me know that an order for materials, recently placed by an out of town friend, had arrived for pick up.  Since I will be seeing that friend on Sunday when my husband performs a church service in her city, she had arranged with me to pick up her order this weekend.  I decided to put my shoes back on immediately and head out to the store to avoid the worst of the Friday afternoon traffic and am so glad I did.  Getting there was so easy, the traffic was still light and I was home well before the early weekend rush hour had a chance to start.  It was fun going to that store. Since I am not the crafty type, well at least not in that sense teehee, I enjoyed taking a quick gander around all the supplies for people who have creative talents that have escaped me.  It was a lot of fun.  

I came home and FINALLY got the pot clean up done, then realized I was kind of tired....not exhausted and miserable tired, but tired because of happy busyness all week long.  The wind by this time was gusting to over 60km so I decided I would add that factor into being tired and go to visit my hospitalized friend tomorrow instead.  I admit to putting on the tv and falling asleep less than five minutes later. I slept for over half an hour, tv blaring....sorry neighbours who apparently are home all day every day....and felt much better for having napped for a while.  Not too much longer it was time for dinner and I was so grateful for the large pot of chili my husband cooked up yesterday.  

I cleaned up the kitchen after dinner and am now relaxing with this blog post. I plan to go to bed early...like perhaps by 9pm....and read myself to sleep.  Tomorrow in the morning I need to drive across town before noon to have our drinking water bottles filled, then plan the best time in the early afternoon to go and visit my friend in hospital.The day will likely fly by and then it will be time to head off to our out of town church service early the next morning.  

Gosh this has been a great week!

Me feeling dwarfed in Grand Central Station!!

 

He has a sale for it, but it is hard for my son to give this one up !  Wish I could afford to buy it myself.

 Welcome to "our" neighbourhood in Manhattan

Cruisin' down the river on a Sunday afternoon..... 

My Attitude Toward Housework!

DUST IF YOU MUST BY ROSE MILLIGAN

Dust if you must, but wouldn't it be better
To paint a picture, or write a letter,
Bake a cake, or plant a seed;
Ponder the difference between want and need?

Dust if you must, but there's not much time,
With rivers to swim, and mountains to climb;
Music to hear, and books to read;
Friends to cherish, and life to lead.

Dust if you must, but the world's out there
With the sun in your eyes, and the wind in your hair;
A flutter of snow, a shower of rain,
This day will not come around again.

Dust if you must, but bear in mind,
Old age will come and it's not kind.
And when you go (and go you must)
You, yourself, will make more dust.

Rose Milligan lives in Lancaster, Lancashire, England.

Sleep Cycles

 Here I am awake at 2:45am, my mind racing on about a meeting I recently attended that was unsatisfactory on every level. Unfortunately this is not the best time of day to be trying to come up with solutions to the problems arising from that meeting so I will take some time to think happy thoughts instead while waiting for drowsiness to come over me once again. 

It has been a happily busy week of walking, housework, walking, cooking, walking, having two sets of company and walking both with and without my cane accompanying me. I MAY just be able to handle the recovery period after my upcoming second hip surgery after all. 

I am happy that I will have my consultation with the surgeon sometime in the next six weeks or so. After reading my x-ray 🩻 report I realize I am going to have to accept the necessity of having the other hip replaced.

Over the past week I have been rehearsing some of the many incredible answers to prayer I (we) have received over the past forty years and feeling a confidence in God’s working in and on my life that had gradually over the past number of years.  The short Bible study my friend sent me has been reawakening my spirit. I (we) have been freed to make a few decisions in regard to our church connection.  The past week of meditation, prayer and spiritual conversation with several friends has been like coming out from under a dark cloud. Not sure what exactly has been causing my spirit to droop over the past few years so badly! My joyful expectation of seeing God at work every day is being restored.

The weather this week has been spectacular! It has been comfortably warm, the wind has not been gale force, despite the sudden yellowing, then dead browning, of the tree leaves near our place there are still a few plants blooming with leaves still green and even a smattering of flowers persist here and there in the parks and in peoples’ gardens. Both our tomato plants are continuing to produce fruit! It seems we were away during the worst of the end of summer wasp season. Even standing in the grocery store parking lot the other afternoon bagging my groceries with the car trunk open, only two wasps arrived to inspect my produce and only showed mild curiosity as to what all I was putting into my carry bags. I have only been buzzed once when dropping household garbage into the disposal bin out in our parking lot and then only by a lone wasp, not an entire hostile mob. Trust me, this is a big deal! For the first summer in eleven years we have not had wasp nests near our back door or under the deck. What a blessing! 

My surety that I will be able to have my surgery by this winter sometime and that after that we will finally find a place to move is growing. 

I see my husband battling successfully through the medical issues that have being trying to reassert themselves after disappearing entirely during our vacation.  He has had a couple of poor nights of sleep and going to the dentist always upsets his system for a few days afterwards, but instead of despairing he has been going out walking and otherwise staying active despite feeling the old exhaustion physically.  He has been cleaning his office and library, walking out to do errands and making batches of 🌶️ chili when feeling his worst, so his worst is passing! How very encouraging for us both that our energy is staying high now that we are home again. 

We had two sets of company this week, both of which were delightful and encouraging, my husband organized an impromptu men’s breakfast with some of his buddies, today we are picking up friends from the airport and visiting a friend in hospital. So, we are keeping busier with social commitments and that is healthy for us both.

This coming weekend my husband is taking a church service out of town in a congregation who are always very welcoming, plus he has dropped one of his teaching commitments that was coming up soon and would have required a lot of research and writing. I am proud of him as I know he finds dropping any such commitments of his own volition difficult to do. 

Our son has been experiencing good things in the midst of a tumultuous time in his life, seeing God’s help in several different arenas so that encourages us all.

These small, often seemingly insignificant details of daily life are infusing my soul with encouragement this past few days. For that I am grateful.

Cook Cook Cook Cook Some More!

 It is a very busy day and I need to sit down for a few minutes before I start making lunch.  Was up at a decent time for breakfast today, got ready and started the prep for our company who are coming for dinner tonight.  I find cooking very frustrating and difficult because my creativity sometimes deserts me, or I discover I can't get the ingredients I need for what I was hoping to make.  Today I am dealing with some special dietary needs: corn product intolerance, lactose intolerance and diabetes.  Oh joy, hahahaha.  However, I was able to substitute olive oil for butter in my veggie dish and change my wonderfully forgiving Poor Man's Pudding recipe to remove both of the dairy products and replace them with other things.  Whew!! The fresh raspberries in the pudding will cover a multitude of culinary "sins", hopefully. I will know in about 45 minutes when it comes out of the oven.  The potato salad turned out great, so that is a bonus.  I have discovered that tossing in a quarter cup of either dill pickle or sweet pickle juice into the mix adds wonderful flavour to it and I had fresh dill to chop into it as well.  

I finally discovered why, after decades of frustration, the hard boiled eggs are always so hard for me to get the shells off of without gouging the egg.  I have been letting them get too cold before shelling.  Today I was in a hurry so poured off the boiling water, dowsed them in very cold water for only about five minutes, then peeled them. The shells came off wonderfully well, leaving a smooth egg behind, no gouges. Why was I unaware of this prior to today?  hahaha  Okay, so cooking is not my gift. I admit it. It is a good thing I grew up on the prairies and am living there again right now because my simple supper of panko chicken, potato salad and a fresh veggie mix with a dessert will be acceptable.  I may even go Full Prairie and put out a plate with a stack of bread slices on it, hahahaha.  You don't get any more prairie meal than a stack of bread on a plate.  

Now it is time to make lunch, re-tidy and shine up the bathroom and get the table set for tonight.  Having another couple over for dinner seems to take several days of preparation....guess I am my mother's daughter after all, but hopefully I can NOT spend half my day crying because my house isn't going to be clean enough nor the food delicious enough to suit me.  Please Lord, spare me that! Amen!  Poor Mom. We had company at least once most weeks and she went through agony every single time.  I felt so badly for her and don't want to repeat that part of her personality in myself as I get older. She truly suffered from severe performance anxiety and as hard as my father tried, he was unable to help rid her of that inherited family tendency.  Spare me O Lord, thank you.

The Good Kind Of Tired!

You know the kind: it’s the kind that happens after a day of hard work and productivity. I lazed around a bit this morning, only making breakfast and washing dishes after before heading to my dental appointment. That went well and as soon as I got home I got ready to go for a haircut that I badly needed. 

I decided to walk the five blocks to the salon without my cane because of the encouragement I got from walking cane-less about the same distance for lunch after church on Sunday. Today it was beautiful weather and I enjoyed staggering along under the clear blue sky, comfortable +22C degrees, and well past the worst of the end of summer surge of wasps. As I walked, limped, hobbled along I realized my main issue in walking farther than I have been without my cane is mental nervousness rather than only slight physical discomfort. I am terrified of tripping, falling, running out of energy to get where I am going with no cane to support me, so I need to keep slowly expanding the distance I can go sans cane. My breathing is not relaxed like it is when I have that extra support, I am unnecessarily tense all over, so these factors combined to make me feel exhausted by the time I got home.

However there was no time to rest, as my body was screaming for the lunch I had no time to eat between appointments. I threw a tuna salad together, gulped it down too quickly due to hunger, then started cleaning the three downstairs rooms to be ready for tomorrow night’s company. There was a lot to deep clean, floors to wash,  I had to move all the living room furniture so I could roll up and wrestle the 9 foot by 13 foot carpet and get it turned end for end, then vacuum and move all the furniture back into place. Yes, I could have asked my husband to help me, and he was less than impressed that I didn’t, but he was forcing himself to push through extreme tiredness and a reaction to his own dental work this morning to deep clean his little library and his office. No way was I going to add lifting furniture and hauling that carpet around to his list. We managed to make dinner and clean up afterward then relaxed with the most recent broadcast of the current Sumo Basho. 

I was about to head upstairs to get ready for bed well before 7:30pm because my tail feathers were definitely dragging, but the phone rang right about then. It was the dear friends who picked us up at the airport when we got home from New York. They are currently out of the province themselves, are flying back in a couple of days, their previously arranged ride home from the airport had fallen through, so we arranged for me to go and collect them when they arrive,  yay! I love picking people up at the airport! Maybe I will be able to take them grocery shopping before taking them home. They did that for us and it was wonderful! 

Yup, a tiring day in all the best ways! Tomorrow I cook!

A Few More Cool Spots In The City

 Finally got a few more photos in, so will share a few more random sights in NYC along with a couple of videos of the ferries that run around the East River from midtown over to Williamsburg, the Bronx and Green Point and other awesome parts of the city on the other side of the river.

The New York Life Insurance Building

The Flatiron Building

The Incredibly Difficult Puzzle We Put Together At The Cabin

 

 

 

 

Some Of My Favourite Agnes Martin Paintings!

Agnes Martin was born in Macklin SK in 1912 and died in 2004. She was a well known Abstract Expressionist and created many of her works here in SK.  When we drove through Beacon NY on our way to the cabin during our holiday, we stopped at a huge gallery, the Dia Beacon and looked at their large permanent collection of her works.  Here are a handful of my many favourites.  Seeing  all these large paintings hanging in one room gave the space a feeling of serenity due to the subdued colours and simple line and grid designs.

 

 

Success!!

 I am most grateful to have finally been able to walk around the lake again this morning with my walking partner after a two year hip issue hiatus! It is only about 2.2 to 2.6 miles depending on which path we choose. Easy peasy now after my month of longer distance walks, so it is great news for me. As the operated leg continues to strengthen I will be in better condition to recover from the next surgery on the other hip, so I am thrilled. 

An Unexpectedly Marvellous Day!

 I use the word "unexpected" because when we first woke up this morning the day seemed destined to be less than satisfactory for both of us.  The sky was losing an overnight fog, the clouds were grey, it was cold and my husband admitted to me that he simply wasn't up to walking to church and back in a chilly wind because he had not slept well during the night.  He had a foot cramp that wouldn't go away, he ran out of water from his bottle beside the bed, he had dreams that kept waking him....it as quite a tale of woe and I felt badly for him as I have been the victim of many a sleepless night, but it is rare for him.  He was as "white as a sheet", but insisted on going to the adult Sunday school class as it was going to be the introduction to a series of which he has a class to teach in a couple of weeks.  He felt so lousy he couldn't even eat breakfast so barely managed to force down a very small banana and half cup of tea to prevent him from passing out.  

As I suspected and hoped would happen, the class material and the socialization restored his good humour and he decided that we could stay for church after all.  I am glad we did because we were warmly welcomed back by quite a number of people who hadn't known we were on holidays, but wondered why we weren't there. That was a nice surprise.  

I assumed that as soon as the service ended we would be on our way home to get my husband some lunch, but shucky darn if he wasn't feeling extremely hungry and preferred lunch out at Fancy Fork instead, despite it being a longer wait for the meal to arrive in front of him.  He even looked about the congregation for someone to issue a spontaneous invitation to join us, although that didn't pan out this time.  Our meal was delicious and not expensive.  My husband had the 3 paper thin crepes stuffed with chicken and mushrooms and sliced onions, covered in a yummy pesto sauce and the plate had a large number of hash browns as well. He was delighted.  I ordered the Greek Bowl: a base of hash browns with fresh spinach leaves, sliced chicken, cubes of feta cheese and blackened red and green peppers and tomato slices.  It included a side dish of a delicious take on Hollandaise sauce. on  My meal was equally yummy.  We took our time, relaxed, chatted. For the first hour we were the only customers in the place and usually it is teeming with people. Don't know if a special event in the city took the customers away, but we certainly got specialized service as a result.  The server even managed to change the music line up on their Spotify system at our hopeful request. hahaha  We were able to change the twang, twang a deedilang country music to some more classical pieces.  Cool!!

We arrived home early in the afternoon, my husband was feeling much better but had a short nap while downloading Day 6 of the current Sumo Basho from NHK Broadcasting Network.  After we watched that I headed upstairs to start part 2 of my huge pile of ironing.  Half way through my husband called to me that company had arrived.

It was our former next door neighbour who had come to pick up her post-move mail...my beloved Afaf!!!  She and her family are very, very happy to be living in their new digs...twice the size of the place they were crammed into next door to us and they are saving nine hundred dollars a month in rent. The federal portion of their refugee status has now ended and they are living on provincial social services until Salim is able to find work. The kids love their new school and the two youngest are able to walk as the school is so close to their residence.  The oldest boy entered high school this year and is getting at least 3 hours a day of English instruction, as are his two younger siblings.  Afaf's English classes are paying off.  She has improved leaps and bounds since the spring. The great news is that after searching for months for a decent car, a friend from Edmonton found them exactly what they are looking for and delivered it to them a few days ago. Salim passed his driver's test and once the car is insured on Monday afternoon he will bring it by to show us.  Getting the license and now the car has kick started Salim mentally after a wretched year of fighting with the emotional trauma of having to flee for their lives a year ago from Lebanon.  He not only passed his driver's test, he is now signed up for English lessons starting in one week's time at the same school his wife has been attending.  We are thrilled for them and thrilled that they want to keep in touch at least somewhat.  

While we were visiting with Afaf, there was another knock at the door. It was the mother of "our little trouble maker", come to tell us that they too are moving out today....the last of our Syrian connections here in the complex.  After eleven years in Canada spent scrimping and saving, they have been able to purchase their first Canadian home in another part of the city, a brand new house in a brand new housing development.  How happy we are for them, but we are going to miss their boys and their constant invitations to play football and soccer. hahaha  (You haven't lived until you have seen moi attempting to keep up with those kids and their sports! hahaha BUT they continue to ask both of us to play with them, so what the heck, right? If nothing else I am able to give all of them a good case of the giggles with my fumbling attempts!)

I also finished my ironing after the break for visiting.

So, it has been a wonderful day after all.  Good things.

I also heard from our daughter in law as she was on her way to the Kol Nidrei service at Synagogue for Yom Kippur.  That was a special treat. We had an email from her aunt today as well and an email from our son to let us know he has an interview about his next set of green card requirements in a few weeks' time, so we are surely praying hard about that.  He is enjoying his new painting studio and is keeping busy at work as well.

What a marvellous day it has been after a rocky start.  

Tomorrow morning my walking partner and I are going to actually go for a real walk, for the first time in about a year and a half or so and I am so looking forward to that.  Rain, rain, stay away!!! Come again another day.  For today the weather has warmed up nicely and the threat of possible rain has ended.  We DID get a bit of a walk in as we walked a few blocks to the restaurant and back....a total of 10 blocks without my cane!  YAY!!! A new first....thank you NYC for all the enforced walking.

Good thing tomorrow is going to be great as well because the next morning is our next dental cleaning and annual check up. Blecch!!  However, I have a haircut that afternoon to look forward to.  I have to somehow work a thorough housecleaning into our schedule because we are having another couple over for dinner the following evening...and then it will be time to see my coffee buddy again. This week is going to fly by, all going to plan. Here's hoping!

Incredible NY Buildings From Then and Now

 Everywhere we looked in NYC there were amazing buildings, incredible architecture....we so enjoyed seeing the mass of concrete, steel, brick and architectural creativity!

 

The Chrysler Building

 

The Chrysler Building

Grand Central Station Main Entrance

 

The Constellation depictions on the ceiling inside

The Main Terminal Lobby; a child's red balloon floated away to the ceiling

AKC Museum Of The Dog

Porcelain figures from China

Child's Dog Cart from the late 1800's early 1900's

Mexican Statue

Paintings as well!  Who knew such a place existed two blocks from our suite?

Looking at from afar but otherwise avoiding the Empire State Building

The United Nations Buildings

The old and the mid century and the new.

The Smithsonian Museum of the American Indian

Looks like some architect had one too many.......

The most iconic building of all....ya' knew it was coming, right? hahaha

"Our" New York Church

My husband got onto my computer today and was able to restore a few of the fonts that went missing some months ago thanks to a link in one of the posts that overrode something or other. Don't ask me what happened, I just know he figured out how to restore at least some of my former "funner" fonts.

Somehow we missed getting a photo of the exterior of the old Gothic building housing the Church of the Incarnation that we attended in New York, but my husband did get a couple of photos of the lovely interior. Just gorgeous in all the ornateness.