No More UPS Or Canada Post Ground Service Either....Yay Tariffs!! Gleep!!!

 My husband is disassembling the  box of goodies he planned to sent to our son south of the border.  After finding out that FedEx was no longer an option for us, our son suggested we try using UPS as he has had to send many paintings to Canada for art exhibitions in the past year.  Weeeelllll....that is no longer an option for sending personal items south.  We rolled up to their office this afternoon and my husband carried his box of stuff inside.  Less than one minute later he emerged, still carrying the box after being told that UPS no longer sends packages via ground transport to the USA.  Too much hassle with paperwork, brokers etc.  He told us to try Canada Post, so although we had little hope of getting the parcel sent that way we took the time to go to an outlet and ask.  Weeeelllll, we COULD use Canada Post....IF we create an online account and then send them the info as to what is in the box, then they will assess what tariffs and other customs costs we will owe and whether or not they will allow us to send it at all, then we pay any costs with our credit card and they email us a special certificate of sending that we print off (thankfully we do have a printer), and take to the post office here to prove that we have permission to send the parcel across the border.  How long this process takes we have no idea and having our credit card on yet another website is not appealing so we will likely never have to find out. Hence, our son will just have to do without the items we wanted to send. One of them should fit nicely into my husband's luggage for our summer trip....a used item that our son once had a great deal of fun with and would enjoy having back again.  

How can you tell we haven't mailed anything stateside since last August when all these new rules and regulations came into effect? hahaha We knew and assumed and are not surprised things have changed drastically, but gosh darn it, what a hassle to send a small box to our own son.  Well, guess he will only be getting new items that we can send through American Amazon from now on. For now at least......

AND gosh darn it all over again....if it isn't going to rain could the steel grey clouds and chilly wind gusts of the past three days just go away so we can enjoy some sunshine???   

My husband went to the doctor this afternoon to hear the test results from his annual physical examination.  Everything is A-OK other than, as usual, his iffy cholesterol count.  The doctor wants him to try one more experiment with his present statin  and then if the new experiment also fails like the last two did and the debilitating headaches return, all he has to do is call and leave a message for the doctor and a new med will be prescribed.  He will run the experiment next week when he returns from his upcoming camping trip. The doctor pronounced him, apart from the cholesterol, "healthy as a horse"!!  So happy for him. It is great news; even greater news at his age!

As is usual for me when he is at the doctor's office, I go along for the ride and shop at the store next to the clinic.  Today I found not one, but two replacement summer dresses for one I had to get rid of. They will be perfect for bopping around in NYC in the heat in August. So inexpensive....so happy....so easy to pack them in my carry on bag....so relieved!! A good day. 

For Our Farming Relatives

 Hello farming family: I am disappointed to report that other than a very brief shower of raindrops around midnight the other night, no true rainfall materialized all weekend. Sigh….it is already scarily dry here. While it is helping local farmers catch up on their late snowfall induced seeding season, the seed isn’t going to germinate properly now if we don’t get some serious rain soon. Over the weekend we were forecast to have anywhere from 30% to 60% chance of rainfall three days in a row but what we received was a big fat nada! Happily no thunderstorms or hail, but….

Sorry about the group post but it saves sending the same report to all of you individually. Happy farming season you guys!

Pleasant Family News!

My husband had a nice long phone chat with our son today. He has many happy bits of news to report that encouraged all of us.  I spent nearly an hour in the prayer room at church praying for him this morning over some concerns he is facing right now, so it was nice to get some good news about his life.

Last week a gallery where he had a show last fall sold two more of those paintings and to a huge international financial investment house to add to their art collection.  So happy for him.  He also got a surprise raise in pay at his job, so that was a wonderful surprise.  He had some medical tests that came back with better than expected results so we are all rejoicing in those.  He and his wife have some very belated honeymoon plans they are putting together for after our visit there.  The play his wife produced opened last week and a critic from the New York Times who both she and my son greatly respect was in attendance. Whether or not it gets a printed review, unlikely as it is a new play by a lesser known playwright, at least a major critic came to see it; good advertising in itself as word gets out.  

My husband spent a long time researching "alternative to flying from here to NYC" travel possibilities for our upcoming trip just in case the Strait of Hormuz remains closed indefinitely and more international flights end up being cancelled at the last minute.  They now include us getting a ride to Saskatoon and taking the train across Canada to Toronto and then transferring to the Amtrak for the rest of the trip across the border, driving to Minot to catch a flight the rest of the way across the States, driving the entire way and back, (the least possible option due to our concern that we don't have the oomph to do that even one way, let alone two), taking a few extra days at the beginning to fly to Vancouver for those days and then taking the five hour overnight red eye flight from there to NYC....oh there are many alternates, we just need to settle soon on one of them and start making those arrangements.  Who knows how all this will work out...but we are having fun dreaming and planning in the meantime.  Actually my husband is doing all the research and making the suggestions as planning trips is right down there near the bottom of my list of fun things to do, along with slapping myself across the face with a board!! Thank goodness for my husband or we would never go anywhere at all!!!

The thunderstorm warning for overnight has been replaced with a 60% chance of showers, so that is a good thing, although we do desperately need those showers here in the city.  While I spend the upcoming hot days giving this suite a good cleaning, my husband will be getting the trellis and heavy plastic wrapping ready for the two tomato plants to go outside at last, as well as getting the rest of his herbs purchased and planted out on the deck.  Ruddy plants...l love the produce they give us, but oh my it has been so nice not having spiders and wasps all over the deck and back door area yet this year.  I have seen exactly one spider outside spinning webs anywhere near the deck so far and that has been a huge treat. Oh well....

We are realizing how noisy it is going to be this summer, right into the wee hours of the morning, once the kids in our court get out of school.  Most of the new immigrant kids come from hot, hot countries where daytime is for sleep and nighttime is for coming outside where the kids can play and the adults can sit and visit on back decks and stairs.  My husband and I are not going to play "noise police" this summer. The rest of the complex has been defaulting to us and letting us be the only ones, as of the end of last summer at least, who come outside at 2am to ask the neighbours' kids to please go inside and stop hollering and kicking soccer balls against the side of the building so everyone else can get some sleep.  Nope, this year we will put the white noise in our room at a higher level and be prepared to wear our earplugs all summer. It is someone else's turn to explain to the new families about the local noise bylaws and being considerate of the other tenants.  The kids are always so very good and respond well to getting direction. We don't have to be angry, mean or rude to them and since none of their parents speak English at this point it is the kids with their own versions of newly learned English that we have to chat with about noise. There are times when we so wish we could speak Arabic and Swahili so we could communicate with the new people here more effectively.  If the other adults in here continue to complain about kid noise in the wee hours of the morning they can be the ones that figure out a way to deal with it.  Overnight noise control used to be a group effort taken on by most all of the other long term tenants in our court until last summer when we suddenly became the only ones who wanted to help the kids understand the rules here.  The sense of community really began falling apart last summer and that is kind of a shame.

Here's to a week of extreme warmth and if we are tempted to complain even a teensy bit about the heat, we will remember the snow that continued from the end of last October until the middle of May!!! That should shut us up! 

 

 

Life Is Finally Getting Back To Normal Again!! YAY!!

It has been a busy and productive couple of days around here.  My husband is nearly back to fully functional, no more issues with his tummy and even the CFS exhaustion seems to be dissipating rapidly.  He hasn't had to nap in either morning or afternoon for most of this week and this morning he was able to go to the lab for some fasting blood work after not eating for over twelve hours, with just a few sips of water to keep his tummy feeling full.  I am so grateful to God for helping him get back on his feet again.  He is teaching tomorrow for the Anglicans and has no stress at all about it, is looking forward to it and did not crash and burn today as he was completing some notes for his talk.  Thank you Lord and prayer warriors!!  What a blessing.

Enjoyed my weekly visit with my coffee buddy yesterday as planned and we had a very nice time this week at Creme drinking London Fogs.  In the afternoon we attended a Bible study that was so good. It has taken us since last September to get about half way through the Sermon On The Mount and will continue on this coming September after the summer break. 

Today was very positive. My husband picked up a camping refrigerator at Princess Auto that he ordered about a week ago.  After it sits for the required number of hours he will test it out both here in the house and, when the rain finally stops tonight and the parking lot is dry tomorrow, using the plug in attachment in the rear compartment of our car.  He splurged big time to ensure he could get a unit with a super duper cold compartment with sufficient voltage to keep things cold for over 24 hours.  When he goes camping next month he and his friend will be able to get pretty much anything needing to be refrigerated into this unit.  It is really easy to move. Not only does it have handles on the sides for picking it up, it also has a retractable handle and is on wheels for rolling along.  I don't know how much use he will actually get out of it over the next couple of years, but I am happy he felt free to buy something expensive for himself for a change!!!  YAY HUSBAND! You too deserve a real treat occasionally!! 

We spent the afternoon at the bank where the mess up happened in regard to the monthly credit limit for our American credit card.  We got some other things straightened out and taken care of for our upcoming vacation AND the woman we deal with there told us that just  yesterday she finally got a response to the email she sent nearly three weeks ago now when we first applied for the card and everything went south.  Apparently there is still a CHANCE that sometime in the next two to three weeks we will get the final answer on our request to have the credit limit changed to what was automatically approved in the first place before the screw up.  So, there is hope.  In the meantime we have come up with another plan that will help us pay for the larger expenses down south that will work if absolutely necessary but does require a lot of fiddling about with finances in the meantime. For now we are content to wait to see what happens.  Either way I think we will be covered now. Hallelujah!

Did a bit of grocery shopping after the bank appointment at SaveOn and discovered some 0 sugar snacks for me to try that aren't so high in fat as some of the other snacks I have seen.  We'll see if the flavour is worth the price. 

After a nice morning the rain appeared once again in the late afternoon and only about 35 minutes from here a tornado touched down in a farmer's field.  Still waiting to find out if it did any damage but looking at the photo the farmer took of it from a couple of fields away it had a substantially sized funnel. Hopefully it disappeared soon after it touched down before it could damage any of his newly planted crop or outbuildings.  This tornado season we may actually have some real tornadoes in the area.  Since our temperature highs next week are going to climb suddenly from the plus mid teens Centigrade to the mid plus 30's in less than 48 hours, I expect we are in for some good storms as a result.  Hopefully no one will be hurt or have any damage from strong winds next week. And please Lord, let there be no hail...please, please, please.....

Tomorrow morning there is a special church ladies' breakfast at the home of Carol!!  We are going to share that time and a meal together in her building's party room.  I am taking a selection of cheeses.  It will be a large group who gathers to celebrate her miraculous recovery.  She is still weak and outside the home uses a walker to support herself, but around home she walks very well on her own.  She has been at the church service for the past three Sundays looking, apart from the walker, as if nothing ever happened to her. Amazing...how grateful to God we all are.

We are praying for Bret again as he is falling into deep depression once again after seeing a lot of improvement for a couple of months.  Please, should the Lord so remind you, pray that he will stop resisting the offered supports and medical help. He is paranoid about going for treatment after a not great experience YEARS ago, but without that medical intervention he isn't likely to improve much.  Praying very much for him and for his worried extended family.  So far he has not been talking about suicide again, but you never know what a person is really thinking when so distressed and afraid.  

Looking forward to church on Sunday. Our pastor and another fellow are going to be talking about heaven and hell over the next two weeks. Looking forward to it. Since I will be out of town for the second talk I am grateful for ZOOM recordings so I can watch and hear the class when I get home.

I have discovered that when I carry a heavy bag of groceries in the hand that is on the same side as my operated hip, I barely limp at all. Why the heck is that???  No bag, super limp; bag, hardly any limp.  I have to figure out why that is and try to adjust my foot and leg placement once again so I can do as well without the bag as with. Always learning new things this old woman....now if I could just learn as many new things about technology I would be SO MUCH better off!! hahahaha  BUT, I have no real interest in putting my entire life on my mobile phone....just can't quite get into it, even though I do envy people who pay for their groceries by holding their phones up to the debit machines.  Maybe one day......sigh......

Sunshine, sunshine, sunshine!!!!

Oh how grand to see the sun coming out and shining brilliantly after another damp and dreary start to the day.  A family of geese came over to our complex this morning....FIFTEEN goslings, still in the "cute" stage, partook of the water in the parking lot puddles and and the new green shoots of grass in the front yard.  Thus far we have barely any piles of poop between our back deck and the car, but I suppose that will soon change.  By late afternoon our gaggle of three to four regulars had grown to about a dozen lollygagging about in the puddles and on the grass behind our place.  Now that the wee ones have been born, the childless couples have been driven out of their usual feeding areas at the park and our complex is the next closest thing to park like with plenty of grass and deep puddles every time it rains.  Well, any reduction at all from the vast numbers we had here over the past two summers is much appreciated.

My husband had a good appointment with his GP this afternoon. The fellow actually listened to him and has proposed a series of tests to check if one of his medications is causing his daily headaches of the past year and if these tests show that a new recommended protocol with this med is also not going to keep the headaches at bay, the doctor has another series of meds lined up to try instead. I am so grateful.  The headaches were becoming debilitating until my husband's nurse friend suggested he try not taking the meds for at least 10 days to see what would happen. By day 3 the headaches had stopped completely. When he went back on them the headaches returned on the second and third days of ingestion, so he stopped them again and made his doctor's appointment.  On day 3 after quitting again the headaches stopped again. Thanking God this doctor has a listening ear and an understanding mind. He rarely if ever makes assumptions and that is very much appreciated. 

Today after the appointment we ran a bunch of errands, stopping for an early dinner at a place that is new to us: The Paddy Wagon. It began a number of years ago as a food truck and now has a couple of brick and mortar locations in the city.  Usually at meal times it is packed out and we haven't felt like bucking the crowds just to get a burger. Today though we were early enough to miss the dinner crowd and had the place almost to ourselves.  Our smash burgers were delicious, hamburgers that actually tasted like real beef, excellent veggies and sauces on the burgers, reasonably sized locally made buns that have a lower carb count than most of the burger buns/breads at other restaurants here, so I was able to eat the bun. The fries were to salty for my husband's tastes but we can ask for no extra salt next time. My husband enjoyed his Greek burger that had a ton of feta cheese and lettuce and tomato slices on it. I particularly enjoyed the crunchy onions on mine...and there was no problem at all requesting that none of the bbq style sauces be added to my burger.  It isn't particularly inexpensive, but it is still less money than the burgers at most other restaurants here, so we were very happy with what we got for our money.  We found out when their slowest times usually are in the course of a week and next time we have the chance to go there we will bear those times in mind.  From what I can figure out, the meal cost us about ten dollars more than combos from, say, A&W and the quality of meat and what is put on the burgers is higher.  That is our opinion anyway. The only "almost a complaint" is that the metal chairs are not comfortable and if your behind size is larger than a woman's size 10-12 or a mans' Medium there could be trouble fitting into them at all.  Takeout may be preferable in that case.  It was fun to try somewhere different.  We almost always go out for a meal after my husband's medical appointments, usually rejoicing in him receiving fairly good news.  As he gets over the other physical issues associated with this latest round of CFS, the mental stresses also are decreasing, fortunately.  

And now, it is time to watch the last couple of days of the present Sumo Tournament!!  It has been quite a tournament for injuries, with all but two of the top tier fighters out of the tournament...the number of injury withdrawals has been terrifying.  Both Yokozuna are out and there is only one Ozeki left, along with two Sekiwake, one of which is hoping for a promotion back to Ozeki at the end of this tournament.  It will be really something if a rank and filer Maegashira fighter takes the Emperor's cup this time, although I suspect the Sekiwake bucking for promotion who won the last cup will likely take it again for back to back wins.  Fun to see what happens.

Hope your day has been happy too. 

 

C'est Pour Ma Famille: Final Weather Report!

This morning we woke up to a skiff of icy snow on the lawn and just a bit more of a buildup on car hoods and windshields.  By 8am it was +1C and the frozen slush was pretty much melted on the streets and our back deck and steps.  Whew!  The highways here are reported to be either bare and wet or bare and dry.  Thankfully we got very little moisture much worse than heavy rain.  Tonight we drop back to -2C overnight, but then tomorrow begins a lovely warming trend for the most part with highs in the low to mid +20'sC.  Yippee!!!  Thus endeth the weather reporting of our miserable pseudo spring. Thank you family and out of province/country friends who are as fascinated by weather as I am.  For the rest of you, yes, barring some unexpected weather disaster, I am done with the daily and twice daily weather reports. (Heave sigh of relief here.)

The plan for this morning, while my husband was attending his weekly Zoom theology meeting, was to clean the kitchen thoroughly. It is in dire need of doing.  However, I slept very poorly last night because I couldn't shut my mind off. I gave up trying to sleep after an hour of tossing and turning, started reading and fell asleep about an hour later, but I only regained the two hours I lost, nothing more.  I feel like a punctured balloon again today, so it will be this afternoon before I get started on any sort of proper cleaning binge.  Yawn.....  With everywhere I need to call for information and appointment making being closed today for the holiday, I will have to roll that into tomorrow morning so we can get to medical appointments in the afternoon.  SO....more cleaning the day after that?  All these little details of varying importance are tiring me out after a run of poor sleeps over the past week or so.  I suspect part of the exhaustion is releasing the underlying stress over my husband's latest CFS issues now that he is improving so well and so quickly.  I am grateful for his return to health.

Maybe I will just go and have a little nap before lunch...... 

Maintenance Physio Only

 I have decided it is time to drop my daily physio exercising and begin twice a week maintenance physio. There has been zero improvement in two of the range of motion exercises in over a month now, so I have accepted that the tendon is too damaged to fully heal and get on with living my life. In the past three days I have walked longer distances without my cane and am seeing improvement with my walking gait, so I am replacing the constant physiotherapy exercises with paying closer attention to foot placement and stance. This change of routine is giving me great peace and a bonus is that the soreness from the three previously ruptured tendons is abating due to not being exacerbated by the constant exercise. So, after nearly 11 months of workouts, what will be will be. Life is good.

My first board meeting for the non-profit went well last night: good, caring, intelligent, informed people. It was a positive experience. 

We received some much needed rain last evening and there are more showers forecast in the coming days. What a relief, but we need SO much moisture to start edging away from drought conditions. 

We ran a bunch of errands yesterday morning and found ourselves near a favourite pub at lunchtime, a pub that has coupons in our recently purchased coupon book from Mohammad as part of his school’s fundraiser. The saving from that coupon alone was half the cost of the coupon book. Another meal there on a second coupon and we will have been repaid full cost, yay! 

We are still sorting out details for the New York trip later this summer. Still waiting to hear from the bank employee who messed up our American credit card purchase limit. If we don’t hear anything today we will have to contact her tomorrow I suppose. No expectations of any resolve in our favour. Sigh. 

As my husband’s health continues to improve once again, the sense of dread I have been nursing in my subconscious is beginning to lift. This afternoon he and his buddy will be discussing the details of their mountain hiking trip in June. Now that he feels almost himself again he is becoming more excited about the trip. Looks as if it is actually going to happen now. Yay! He has booked the use of our former Honda CRV for the trip so I will have our car while he is away. So grateful as that has rarely been the case while he has been enjoying hiking and canoeing over the past few years. 

I am looking forward to achieving a few household chores this morning, depending on interruptions. Last week was ludicrous: I had a tight schedule created for myself to get these chores underway and hopefully completed in two days. So, guess which two days I was inundated with unexpected calls from friends needing a shoulder, prayers, advice, comfort? You guessed it…hahaha…figures. So often that is the pattern around here. It is hilarious how many times it happens. I am though, so very grateful to be retired and therefore more often than not available to talk and pray with dear friends. It is a privilege. The work will always be there waiting to be done and for me life is about people. Most of these same people have been there for me as well when I have needed a shoulder, prayers, advice and comfort. 

I think I will get up and eat breakfast this morning a little earlier than usual. I really do have to get this work done around here.

The Son's Art Works At Esther lll At Estonia House In NYC May 12-16

The works were curated today in the European styled space at Estonia House on East 34th street.  Esther lll is a small art fair but growing in importance each year.  So happy our son is able to be an exhibitor this year. He sent some photos from the installation today, so not professional exhibition photos, but it gave us an idea of what he prepared for this fair.  

 

His first attempt at doing a work on an an 8' aluminum tube, above the door.

Ooh, Goody, I DID IT!!!

This afternoon I finally got brave and walked to the grocery store and back sans cane....first time I have walked more than about a block and a half without having to use the cane or at least hanging it over my arm "just in case".  This was my first attempt at walking that far on my own....about 7 blocks round trip, plus a tour around the store, up and down the aisles without sitting down anywhere in the midst of the trek.  I am realizing I am slamming my non-operated leg down onto the pavement with more force than necessary so the injured knee on that leg is kind of hurting now...just another adjustment I need to make to my walking gait now that I am determined to use the cane as rarely as I can get away with.  I will rest my knee for the rest of the day and for at least part of tomorrow.  IF the weather is good on Sunday I am going to take the cane with me and walk the happy route I take to church. It is less than 3km I believe.  I was doing over 6km with the cane, leaning on it heavily of course, back in November when I was in Vancouver, so surely 6 months later, now that all the snow and ice have disappeared here, I can make it to church fairly easily, take the break of sitting for the adult class and service and walk home again.  If not the bus that takes me home stops right outside the church doors.  HAPPINESS AND JOY!!! It will be worth trying.

The weather has been very nice today, although now in the later afternoon rain with a possible thunderstorm is pending.  I can't help but hope and pray we do get rain.  Already a patch of bare earth outside our front step is cracked wide open from the dryness.  After a very sunny, bright morning, we took our post luncheon walk under cloudy skies with a breeze, but the air was nice and warm...about +16C.  We enjoyed getting out and about very much.

My husband thus far has had the best day with his health since the twenty-ninth of March!!!  He slept until 6am as usual, but when he woke up then he had no inkling of the start of a tummy upset, so he didn't eat the snack beside the bed, he slept then until nearly 8am when he still had no symptoms, he made a pancake for breakfast and had a cup of light tea, worked at the computer all morning, had lunch with me and our walk to the store. Now he is watching some tv....no stomach or CFS symptoms at all today.   Oh dear God, long may it last.  He went to bed last night knowing he has zero commitments of his own of any kind until next Monday morning's usual Zoom meeting with his retired pastor friends....hardly an onerous task.  He relaxed completely for the first time in weeks.  So thankful he is getting over this episode apparently and that he has been reminded once again that pacing himself with teaching and preaching and other commitments keeps his health more on track even with the CFS.  Thank you to those who have been praying for him.  He is so appreciative and feels less alone in these struggles because you are there for him.

We are still awaiting an update from our bank as to whether or not they have been able to solve the credit card purchase limit that they screwed up so royally for us. However, we have found a couple of ways around the mess if they are unable to fix it before we head south, so if there is no fixing it, we have decided to receive it as God's will for this card.  If nothing else, this fiasco has stimulated my problem solving skills again and I have come up with two very workable scenarios to get around not having sufficient credit card purchase power on our very expensive trip.   Thanks to those of you who told us you are praying this can be sorted out. I think it is all going to be okay and I still haven't lost any sleep from worrying about it...because I'm not actually worrying about it...wow...progress!

Hoping for a quiet weekend, particularly for my husband's sake. Tomorrow we may go out and purchase an inexpensive lawn chair so that he can start sitting out on the back deck to read on sunny days.....he is welcome to the company of both the inordinate number of spiders out there AND the wasps that will be arriving soon and in abundance once our tomato plants arrive next month.  Ick!  We have decided to turn those plants and their produce over to our Syrian neighbours if our trip away actually happens and they are welcome to water the plants and eat all the tomatoes while we are gone.  My dear husband will be sitting out there on his own as I can't handle all the insects....I can't accuse SK of having too few insects, that's for sure, even in the city. Blecch! I am such a wuss..... 

I suppose whatever mental and emotional strength I have, instead of being funnelled into coping with insects, is going to have to be funnelled instead into coping with the price of groceries.  We walked home this afternoon with two small cloth carry bags of items....7 items in total....$101  Sigh..... 

We Are Sorry Local Friends And Family If It Does Indeed Rain Tonight! Our Bad.......

 My husband washed the car yesterday when he had a sudden burst of energy late in the morning. Sigh....so OF COURSE our 30% chance of rain tonight appears to be turning into a 100% certainty. Dang it...he did such a marvellous job washing the outside and painstakingly detailing the inside.  It wore him right out so after lunch he slept for 6 hours. Good old CFS, but at least he had the joy of knowing he accomplished something between naps yesterday. Oh gosh, it was fun for me to drive it to church this morning. It looked great.  He can be proud of the work he did on it.

Church went well today.  Our adult class was led by the associate minister and she went through many Scriptures in the Bible that talk about peace and how deeply meaningful the word Shalom actually is.  My husband stayed home to sleep but woke up just in time to take in the class on Zoom. YAY!  He accidentally activated his translator, so the words being spoken appeared at the bottom of the computer screen. hahaha  There were some real lulus, thanks in part to a bit of fuzz coming through the mic being used in the classroom. When the minister told us that we cannot force peace upon other people the words that appeared onscreen were, "We cannot force pizza upon other people." hahaha That one was a true gem of a mistake. Love it.

In the sermon the minister told us how much it bothers him when people, himself included, use the word "Just" so much in spontaneous prayers.  So often we say things like "If you could Just heal so and so....", or "If you could Just make this or that happen....".  To our minister it sounds like God's own children think they are bothering him or are afraid of being presumptuous with their requests; either that or trying to manipulate the Lord by sounding insincerely humble.  One of the examples he gave of how much God wants us to interact with him, how we are not bothering him, was how Jesus, when John the Baptist was beheaded and he was grieving, still issued the invitation to his followers to come to be with him.  He didn't just walk away to grieve alone for some long period of time.  Out of that time frame came the miracle of the loaves and fishes.  I have some thinking to do about my own prayer life.  I couldn't resist after that sermon: when I went forward during the communion to receive the elements from the minister I whispered, "I Just thank you for these elements." hahaha  He nearly lost it right then and there, trying to keep a straight face while his shoulders were heaving with laughter. Bad me....teehee.

A friend and I went out to DarBar for yummy lunch after church.  We had a deeply personal talk, one of those types of conversations I rarely have a chance to participate in because of course it isn't always appropriate with everyone a person knows. It was very meaningful and I think we were able to help each other at least a little bit with some personal issues we both struggle with.  It was an unexpected and incredible blessing. 

I came home to find my husband having a much better day today.  He woke up at 5am but realized he didn't need to eat or drink anything and went back to sleep until just before 8am.  By 8:45am he was back asleep, but he slept less than 45 minutes and has been awake ever since.  Yes, he is very tired and that exhaustion is going to take at least a couple of weeks to be back under control if things go the way they usually go for him with this miserable disease, but to see his face a normal colour after five or six weeks of ashy grey is most encouraging.  The graph line rarely goes in a straight line during recovery from such a heavy and long episode of CFS symptoms, but even one or two days of improvement in a row usually signals that he is starting to recover to some extent.  I am encouraged AND still praying constantly for relief for him.

Tomorrow morning I have to call my surgeon to set up my one year checkup in June.  Oh how I pray that the surgeon won't be too terribly shocked and disappointed that I am still limping around, still trying to strengthen the muscles in my thigh. I think at this point I have to accept the fact that the tendon is too damaged to fully recover, but I am okay with that. Them's the breaks kid.  (Or, should I say the RESULT of the breaks? hahaha)   

It is going to be a busy week, just the kind I enjoy most and I am grateful for that!   

Moving Slowly But Steadily Through The Day!

 I don't enjoy Saturdays very much.  Most of our younger friends are working all week long and have family and chore commitments of course that are confined to the weekends.  There are lots of things we could be doing to entertain ourselves, even around home, but it seems that on Saturdays we both lose all ability for creative thought and all motivation to take action.  Why it has always been that way I have no idea, but today was still a good Saturday, for me at least.

My husband had full blown CFS exhaustion ALL day, but still managed to remain awake long enough to run an errand across town in the very late morning. He also pulled out enough energy to take the car to the car wash and do a thorough cleaning before he came home.  About the time we thought we would be having lunch, he decided on a certain sandwich filling he was desperate to have, so we walked over to the grocery store and back. I am pleased to say that I only used my cane for part of the distance, hanging it over my arm when not in use. (Sadly, as we entered the lot at the store, we encountered a middle aged fellow in the throes of a reaction to Fentanyl or Oxycontin. He was shaking and jigging about in his own little world, absolutely tormented about whatever it was he was seeing in his mind. He had a lilac terry towel bathrobe pulled over his ragged jeans, lumber jack shirt and torn hoodie.  When we came out of the store he was lying on the ground not far from where we had encountered him, either unconscious or dead from an overdose, with the store security agent hovering over him while calling for an ambulance.  It was like a mini picture of riding the bus up and down north Main Street in Vancouver....a tiny microcosm of the despair that permeates that part of our otherwise favourite city.  To see someone suffering that kind of distress 4 blocks from our home just made me tear up and pray that somehow there will one day be an answer for these dear people who are so lost in their addictions, to the point of death far too often.)

As soon as we finished our lunch my husband had another sleep for about 4 hours, stumbled downstairs still in a fog, decided he would wake up more easily in the cool of the basement, went down and promptly fell asleep on an old bed we have stored there.  He slept for another two hours, got up and ate dinner in front of the tv and is now dozing in the recliner in the living room.  Sigh....this episode of CFS is going to be prolonged I'm afraid. It could take a couple of months to get past this, which will ruin his plans for mountain hiking next month. Oh how hard I am praying he will be well enough to go by then as it would encourage him so much. He needs that desperately right now as he is so upset this miserable disease has stopped him in his tracks once again.  Poor guy....

My own day went well, aside from being very concerned about my husband and feeling so sad about our parking lot friend.  Although it took me all day to accomplish my personal checklist of tasks for today, by the time I was ready for dinner at 6pm I managed to get my household chores done, plus two sessions of physiotherapy, the walk of course and a short nap of my own in the late afternoon.  Normally I would have been able to do everything on my list in about three hours worth of time this morning, but when my husband is suffering with CFS sleep symptoms I have to slow myself down to keep from becoming impatient about having to work around someone who shouldn't be awakened by noise or excess activity around him when he is sleeping so soundly.  Hours later than it would have normally taken me, all my tasks were completed! YAY!

The weather today has been just great.  By 10am I had all the windows open to let the breeze take the staleness out of the suite.  The sun shone brightly and although there were the usual prairie wind gusts for a lot of the day, it was most pleasant being outside for our walk to the store. Tonight I stood out on the back porch for a half hour after dinner and enjoyed watching a neighbour on the other side of the parking lot teaching our two youngest Syrian boy neighbours how to safely approach and pet his rather large puppy, how to hold their hands when giving the puppy treats and how to stay calm in the puppy's presence.  He took so much time with them.  It was very sweet to watch. The little boys responded well and the puppy now has two new friends.  

Not much of a day perhaps for most of you, but when CFS symptoms enter our home, everything has to slow to a crawl so that my husband can cope.  Plans have to be cancelled often at the last minute, hopes of going here and there put on hold sometimes for weeks at a time, chores have to be juggled around attacks of sleepiness.  This has been going on for the past 40 years now, with some blessedly long breaks between serious attacks, so since my husband has done remarkably well for the most part over the past five years, I can't really complain that this chronic condition has once again raised its ugly head.

Not sure if I will be on my own going to church tomorrow or if I will need to remain at home on Zoom in order to ferry food and drink to my husband if he isn't able to get out of bed, or if he will wake up feeling wonderful and be able to come with me to the service....there certainly are such surprisingly good days now and then even in the midst of the worst episodes.

The friend I spent yesterday afternoon with called me today to say how much she enjoyed herself visiting together. She also let me know her husband was on the way home from his out of province medical appointment and as I look at the time right now I am guessing he has been home for a couple of hours.   So I can relax now knowing she is not alone any more and will be okay.

The good weather is supposed to last for a few more days before cooling down to more seasonal temperatures, but those are good temps too. NO complaints! 

We shall see what tomorrow brings around here....... 

Talk About A GOOD Friday!

 No, sorry, nothing really spectacular happened, BUT my husband had one of the best days with his health that he has experienced in the past five or six weeks.  YIPPEE!!  His 6am possible tummy episodes have now been staved off with a simple glass of water rather than a snack as well, then back to bed for another couple of hours or more of sleep.  NO ATTACKS AT ALL DURING THE DAY OR AFTER ANY MEALS!!  YIPPEE!!  

This morning he came bounding downstairs at 8:30am, all dressed up and happy, (as one does on a warm and sunny spring day!),  good colour in his face and a teasing voice when he told me that if I still planned to grocery shop and run errands this morning I had better get a move on as he would be ready to accompany me by 9am!  I hopped to it and just before 9am we were driving away.  We shopped for various food and other items in 5 different stores around the city. Our last stop was in Cathedral at Cuppa'T for some roiboos.  (Of course I just HAD to go into Paper Umbrella a few doors down to pick up a pack of greeting cards, teehee)

By this time we had been shopping for over two hours and the light snack my husband had wolfed down for breakfast wasn't holding up. We were parked right in front of Orange Cafe (Izakaya), a Japanese/Korean fusion, heavy on the Korean dishes which tend to be smothered in dark, sticky, sugary sauces that I cannot eat, BUT I found a couple of yummy appetizers to make my meal with: the pork spring rolls and the chicken karaage. The spring rolls were hot and delicious with the sweetened chili pepper dipping sauce, but the karaage, tasty as it was, consisted of overly deep fried chicken.  Upon further inspection it appeared the chicken was similar to what I call  the "ground chicken lips" that make up chicken nuggets....BUT it was tasty none the less. I won't order it again because mystery meat has never appealed to me, but my husband's beef and veggie udon was a huge and tasty order. The agadashi dofu in ginger sauce was also a large portion for the money and he said it was very, very tasty.  So far the Japanese style food we are most enamoured with in this area is Mitsu in Moose Jaw, but today's meal was still pretty good.  The prices per portion were fairly reasonable, plus it is restaurant we haven't been to in many, many years so the change of pace was nice.  I am glad we went even though elements of my own meal were only passable to good.

My husband had a bit of a rest when we got home while I put groceries away, then I headed over to a disabled friend's house and spent the afternoon helping her with some minor chores and sharing coffee and conversation.  We had fun looking at an architectural trades magazine of her husband's that had articles on the latest trends in bathroom designs.....oooh, those crazy wet rooms where the soaking tub is in the shower space.  It looks lovely, but those oval shaped tubs are too often NOT comfortable for a person's back and every time someone has a shower they have to clean the bathtub as well so it doesn't get all water marked from the shower head splash.  I have lived in places with that same concept in the past and o wow, not something I would ever have because the amount of cleaning doubles over the more traditional separation of tub and shower, or even the much older fashion of having the shower inside the tub. We had a great time criticizing and commenting on the various new trends in designs and building materials as if we actually knew what we were talking about, hahaha.  It was great fun and I got my 1/3 cup of strong Italian coffee to enjoy...my one indulgence in coffee is when I visit this friend....good thing I am not with her every day, or even every week or I would be on full buzz all the time.

We picked up fresh whole wheat pitas in our travels today so for dinner we had our home made pita pizzas...our go to comfort food after the more salty farmer sausage and mashed potatoes with Brussels Sprouts. 

We both felt well today.  After a miserable sleep the night before, I slept for over 7 straight hours last night, not even awakening to use the washroom; out like the proverbial light and I woke up feeling refreshed and healthy and happy.  My husband observed me walking around the grocery store today and told me another change I need to make to my walking gait. I made the adjustment and with practise it should help the limp more.  Since I no longer have access to my best physiotherapist from another town, my husband has taken it upon himself to watch me walking and offer me suggestions in changing how I move my feet. God bless him. He is a huge help.

Today, after doing a lot of online research last night, my husband came to me with a proposal: he discovered that since in Manhattan short term rentals, other than hotels of course, are not allowed to rent out for a period less than 30 days. The cost for that is not that much more than the cost of 10-14 days in a hotel, plus the BnB places have refrigerators and cooking appliances, etc.  He has sent off a message to our son and his wife to see what they think of this idea. One benefit to them is that if we are there they will not feel obligated to find time almost every day to spend with us the way they do when we are only there for 7-10 days.  We could have a more natural flow for getting together. It could also mean a chance for us all to get into the more northern part of the state for a day or two so at least the three of them could go hiking in the Adirondacks.  I could always hold down the fort back in the city and give my husband a chance to share that kind of outdoor fun they have in common but that I am not as physically capable of doing any more.  Our son was lamenting that we would have to miss celebrating Rosh Hashanah with them as it takes place more than 2 weeks after their wedding party. This way we wouldn't have to miss it at all.  If this trip was to go down this way it would be our last big blowout of a trip.  We are looking at health issues that are starting to accrue for us and realizing that between that and the state of the world in general, which may worsen before it improves, we had best take a good long expensive trip now and not be waiting around missing out.  So this idea may be shot down rather quickly, either by our son, or by some other factor we aren't aware of yet, but it has been fun considering it. My husband will continue to research accommodation if he gets the OK from our son and we are guessing that our more experienced world travelling "kids" will want to assist the old folks in finding the best places and deals on air fare in the coming weeks.  Making plans may just pull us out of the doldrums we have been experiencing since winter started last November.  If this doesn't happen, no biggie, but it is fun to dream. 

I think I will sleep well again tonight....once the caffeine hangover from my 1/3 of a cup of strong Italian coffee finally wears off, haha. 

When A Situation Reaches Ludicrous Speed, All You Can Do Is Laugh, Right? Of Course Right!

In my husband's attempts to straighten out a mistake one of our banks made on already submitted information to the CRA, he had to wait nearly 3 weeks to get a phone call appointment with our financial advisor and that call appointment was this morning. hahahaha  I HAVE to start laughing right away to deal with the craziness.  Well, news flash: he discovered that our financial advisor there is no longer our financial advisor, nor  financial advisor to anyone else. He has been removed from the role and has been demoted. SO he told my husband that for the past few months we have actually had a new financial advisor and her name is......!  He has left a message for her to call my husband, but there is no guarantee he will hear from her before Thursday, the absolutely last day that taxes can be submitted.  hahahaha  This is not the first time this has happened to us at this bank and is one of the reasons I pulled all my own RRIF's, TSFA's and what have you out of there a couple of years ago.  I guess if my husband doesn't hear from the new FA by late this afternoon he is just going to have to go ahead and muddle along with the CRA info he has, incorrect or not, and get things submitted on time. hahahahaha 

In other news: I have been waiting for a text from our dental office regarding paying the amount for my crown that is not covered by our dental plan.  I have been waiting for a few weeks now.  I did get a notice last week as to how much the insurance company was going to contribute to the cost of the crown, but what I didn't know until this morning is that they, instead of sending that amount directly to the dental office....direct billing is what we have always done there....they deposited the amount covered into MY bank account the other day.  Hahahahahahaha again, right? hahahahaha.....  So, I called the dental office and spoke to the employee there who has to deal with these crazy dental plan folk and she was so grateful that I let her know!!  She said this is not the first time this particular company has pulled that stunt, and if I had not called her it would have taken several weeks to several months for her to be calling them more than a few times trying to straighten it out before the dental office received their payment.  Usually the clients don't bother to call, assuming the dental office and the insurance company have worked this out themselves.  HAH!  I however have dealt with this insurance company for many years and am on to a lot of their tricks, so I knew I had to call the dental office. Thank goodness.  My crown is now paid for, the dental office has been paid, the insurance company is not going to be hounded for weeks by calls from the dental office and everyone is more or less happy at this point. hahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahah....sigh.

Good news: the pensions came in on time today so our rent is paid.  As far as today's news, that's about as good as it gets folks! hahaha....

MORE GOOD NEWS:  I am really enjoying doing physio steadily now, 6 days a week, but only half of the full roster of exercises each time.  If I can get each session done in the mornings I am no longer too exhausted to do other housework and shopping and go for walks in the afternoons. I am also not as tempted to "cheat" on how I am doing each exercise, so each rep is getting more attention to detail. As I have had more healing of late I am free to make that adjustment, yay!

The weather is warming up now and that is also good news.  I was able to walk over to the office to pay rent this morning with just a light sweater on over my shirt. The sun is shining today, more of the latest snowfall has melted, leaving only a few small piles of snow in the more shaded areas around our deck and under the trees in the park across the street.  Maybe, just maybe Spring is finally in the beginning stages of its arrival.  Dare we hope??? 

Looks like my coffee buddy and I will be able to get together this week after having to miss last week's chit chat once again due to weather issues.  At the end of the week I am going to spend a full afternoon with another friend with disabilities who is filling up her time friends during her couple of days alone while her husband has to be out of town.  It is always a fun time as we have so much to talk about and we enjoy sharing a coffee, snack, books and magazines when we get together.  Looking forward to these small social events this week...nice to have some celebrations after taxes are done.  My husband may be up to going out for chicken dinner once he has that stress over and done with.  He has been a bit better once again the past two days, needing only some carbonated water to settle his stomach between 5am and 6am instead of also needing a snack.  Then he can last until about 8am to have his breakfast.  Slowly he is improving, but we still haven't figured out what the dietary culprit is this time.  It may take weeks yet, but we will continue to write his food journal each day, and also research and experiment with his diet.  There is always some particular food that he can no longer tolerate, it is just a matter if figuring out what it is and sometimes, even with the diet diary, it is very difficult to pin down.  Onward and upward and we will continue seeking.

Had a really nice chat with our son yesterday.  He was getting ready for the annual fundraising gala last night that his wife organizes for her theatre company. It is a huge affair and this is only her second or third year of being in charge of all the details, but apparently it went well according to a text she sent me this morning.  Thrilled for her.  Our son had a studio visit the other night with the organizer of the Esther III art fair he has some works in next month. Fortunately she liked what she saw, so he is preparing to ship the works to the venue in the next few days.  Our "kids" are having their first year wedding anniversary later this week and have happy plans for a special dinner out.  They are prepared now to nail down a date toward the end of the summer/early autumn to rent the venue they want for this very much delayed celebration.  We get such a mental boost hearing about their busy and generally happy lives.

Well, time for lunch.  I was up so early this morning that I am going to be eating before noon today and that will leave me free to grocery shop this afternoon if I feel like it.   Aaaah, a joy of retirement: setting my own shopping schedules up each week! hahaha

Cold On The Outside, Warm On the Inside! YAY!

 It has been a very happy Sunday thus far.  My husband had not even a hint of any stomach issues before he ate breakfast and we headed off to church this morning. He did well teaching his class and he enjoyed the church service.  For the first time in a number of weeks, he was happy to hang around afterwards and chat with quite a number of people. Mrs. Social Butterfly here just loved that!!  I managed to stumble through the Scripture readings in the church service....quite hilarious and I will share another time what a bozo I was today....and then after a promising start weather wise to the day, (sunny and not very breezy), we left the church building to discover a very cold wind blowing and another grey sky awaiting. I didn't even wear a coat to church this morning, just a longer sleeved top, BUT no matter, we still walked to the library outlet a block from the church to pick up a book my husband had on hold. I was so pleased that my new, better way of walking resulted not only in less limp, but also didn't make the big thigh muscles on the front of my operated leg ache like they did the other day walking to the area community library box. YAY!

We walked back to the car and drove down the street to DarBar for lunch.  It had been nearly six hours for us both since breakfast, but my husband's beginnings of a tummy attack began only about one minute before the food arrived, so he ate well and the attack had no chance to get a hold.  YAY AGAIN!

He was exhausted when we got home,  but he usually is after teaching a lesson....he has done SO well today with his health. I am so very grateful and pleased for him 

He had a wee nap in the car while I went next to the pharmacy to pick up a prescription....that I called in last Wednesday and that no one could find. hahaha  The pharmacist finally got fed up with the amount of time it was taking....nearly 20 minutes and still no sign of it even though it showed up on the computer as "filled", so he refilled it and apologized that someone had misfiled it, but he wasn't prepared to go through all of the over 500 filled prescriptions to find it. hahaha  It is SUCH a busy pharmacy. I am very grateful to him for doing that...it made life easier for us all. hahaha

We finally got my tired husband home for his nap, but as we were coming up our back stairs, one of the neighbourhood kids....Bully Boy no less...appeared from somewhere and said, "Are you rich?"  Huh???  We assured him that we most certainly are not and got no further conversation from him.  My husband pursued it and asked him why he wanted to know that, so he confessed he is trying to sell coupon books put together by local businesses as a fundraiser for his school....he is, as we discovered, in Grade 3. He had just been told by another neighbour that they couldn't buy one of his books because they are not rich. hahaha Hence his question to us. Being suckers for helping kids with school fundraisers over the years in every town we have lived in, we asked if he had one of the books for us to look at. He took off at the speed of light back to his own unit to get the book for us to see.  As it turned out there are quite a few coupons we will be able to use between now and the fall, so we filled out the sales form and handed over the $30, knowing that we will enjoy using the coupons, that we are helping out a neighbour kid who is going to have a very difficult time selling coupon books for that price in our complex filled with immigrants who are barely able to pay rent each month, PLUS we want to get to know Bully Boy to see if we can create a good relationship with him in case we have to intervene in future when he is beating up other kids just below our back porch! hahaha Perhaps we can meet his parents eventually.  We now know that his name is Mohammad, so we don't have to call him Bully Boy any more.  He is more of a fellow human now that we know his name and less of a caricature of the typical bully.  Great transaction all around.  Now...have we opened the flood gates to every school represented in our complex that is having a spring fundraiser??? Word will get out that we purchased this book, just you wait and see, hahaha.  No worries...as long as we don't get multiple kids all from one family wanting to make sales, I think we will be able to cope with the costs of helping at least some of the kids out with their fundraising. hahaha  We shall see how many more kids approach us over the next month.

We arrived home to a message from our son, hoping to chat after not having a chance to contact us over the past couple of weeks, but by the time we found the message he was off having studio visits to show off some of his works to whoever.  At least he is wanting to chat and he will call us back at some point in the next week hopefully. He is just completing and preparing to transport a couple of works to the Esther 3 Art Fair....a much smaller fair than he is used to, but it was far less pressure getting a couple of works ready than it would have been to prepare 5-7 works for the larger fair going on at the same time in NYC. He has shown in that one before and done well, but he has been too busy with work and with making decisions on changing his artistic style, that he was grateful to opt for the smaller fair this year.  It is all good.

I think I am going to go now, while my husband is having a decent nap, and play an old computer game, Fishdom 3.  If I ever get lonely I can always play this game where the cartoon fish "talk" to me in between rounds.  It is a very cute game for old codgers like me who don't want to be too intellectually or strategically challenged. hahaha  

A blessed Sunday to you all.   

Grey Skies But Glorious Warmth!!! YAY!!!!

 Time to take a break between copying off tax forms, doing a full physio routine, getting some necessary small chores done around the house this morning while my husband recovered from a slight tummy upset, and getting a 4 block round trip cane-less walk in right after lunch to take advantage of the warm day before the rain arrives later tonight.  The rest of today and all day tomorrow are going to be super busy, so I am going to use this little blog to force me to take a break this afternoon for a few minutes.

My husband did really well last night compared to the nights of the past several weeks.  He followed his bedtime dietary protocol again and slept for 8 hours in a row before waking up around 6am with the start of an episode. (his longest consecutive sleep before starting the protocols was 4.5 hours, he worked it up to 6 within a couple of days of adding in the larger bedtime and middle of the night snacks and the dietary enzymes, so he is headed in the right direction). Quickly down to the kitchen he went for a bit more of a snack, but he ate less than he should have and after sleeping for another 90 minutes afterwards, woke up at 8am with the start of daily episode number two.  Fortunately he knew what to do and his tummy was just fine again about thirty minutes later. Of course he is tired out as usual, BUT he has pushed through with me to get our tax forms printed off and we have begun the annual tax process.  

The icing on the Yukky Cake of attempting to do our taxes online over the past couple of days is that now he is getting all manner of texting spam on his phone from fake CRA sites and we did make a direct tie in to one of the tax programme sites we tried to use.  SO, back to the drawing board this morning and we now have our tax forms printed off and started by hand.  We are both taking this short break before doing a bit more and then hopefully finishing them up by tomorrow afternoon so we can pop them into the mail before week's end.

As horrific looking as the dark grey clouds in the sky are and how brutal the howling winds are at the moment, supposedly we are going to remain well above zero overnight, so the rain, even if it is heavy, should not be freezing as it comes down. The temperature will start to drop in the afternoon, the rain will then turn to snow and we may be iced in once again by Friday after having minus temperatures overnight Thursday, but I am not going to care much if that is the case.  There is nothing we need to go out for at that point as far as we know.

Weeeeellllll....back to the taxes!  Will be so glad when our tax forms are completed.  If my husband was feeling better we would be done in another couple of hours, but.....at least the CRA security code arrived nearly a week earlier than I expected so we could get started. That has been a blessing.  

Oh....more kind of cool, if itsy bitsy news here:  I watched the postman circling through the complex dropping off mail again today and of course there was nothing for us.  My monthly utility bills were truly missing into someone else's mailbox and whoever it was didn't bring them over to our box.  HOWEVER, all of a sudden I saw the postman sprinting back across the complex lots and he arrived at my door with all three utility bills. They had indeed been delivered some days ago to another unit and today the person who had received them turned them back over to the postman.  He very kindly ran all the way over to our place with them.  Kudos to this wonderful man who went above and beyond because technically he is supposed to return them to the post office to be destroyed.  He didn't do that and I am so very grateful.  I was able to confirm with the actual paper bill that the amounts I paid on the phone the other day were correct.  Whew....in the end the receiver of my mail turned out to be a good egg and did the right thing, then the postman was so very kind.  

It has been a productive and happy day pretty much this far. OKAY, back to work! 

Cautiously Optimistic!

 My husband had a better health day yesterday after implementing some dietary protocols and taking naps when needed. Overall it was his best day in over a week, hallelujah! 

His new routine is eating a small bowl of yogurt, a couple of tablespoons of peanut butter and a small glass of carbonated water when he awakes with the rumblings of an episode starting….usually between 4am and 4:30am. Shortly after ingesting his middle of the night snack he falls peacefully asleep for another three hours. As soon as he wakes up for the day he has a bagel with melted cheese and another glass of carbonated water and gets active right away. Mid morning is a short nap. A light lunch is followed an hour later by another short nap. After dinner at about 6pm he relaxes with tv or computer research, gets into bed shortly after 9pm with a peanut butter sandwich and is asleep by 10pm. Strictly enforced snack and sleep times seem to be helping. Yesterday he was able to attend the adult class at church plus the worship service, then home for a twenty minute snooze before we went for lunch at a friend’s house and an hour of watching sports on tv there. As soon as we got home he had another short nap, followed by tv time, dinner and some work on his adult class presentation for next Sunday morning. We kept the day calm and he obeyed the daily protocols that are working for him at the moment, so we pray and hope for another decent day today.  He is hoping to participate in his regular Monday morning Zoom meeting and assist me in picking up a few grocery items, but we shall see….

Every day is an adventure around here……

How Very Odd it is….

 ….sitting at my desk and swivelling my head to the right where I am looking at the rack of summer clothes recently salvaged from the basement, then swivelling my head to the left to look out the window and look at nearly eight inches of snow cover on the ground! Where the wind has swirled in under the eaves and across the porches of the various suites there are between ten inches and a foot of snow blown up on top of the plethora of bbq grills belonging to our neighbours! Our high of -7C was reached already before 8am and we are slowly dropping to -10C. What a difference a day makes during a prairie spring. 

On the opposite end of the weather spectrum our kids in New York are experiencing an “abnormal anomaly” of heat today. They are forecast for a possible 32F, only one degree lower than the last record set for this day of 33F in 2002. Yikes….to be honest, after being in NYC for a couple of days of 30F back in 2018, I will take our weekend snowfall over  their one day heatwave any time! 

My husband is starting to get a grip on his health issues again since his bout yesterday morning so we are hoping he has reached the turnaround point. He obediently ate his protein snack at bedtime and prepared a light breakfast for himself as soon as he woke up at 8am. His stomach did not have a chance get too empty and upset itself. He ate lunch at a decent time and felt well and happy enough to go out this afternoon to have tea with a friend, while I enjoyed being alone long enough to do a decent physio workout. 🏋️ I am getting twinges of feeling back around the cut tendon, so that is hopeful. Yup, still a long way to go, but the end goal is creeping ever closer. Where there is muscle and nerve response there is hope! 

How QUICKLY Things Change With CFS Attacks!!

 I did indeed end up going out alone to do my part of the shopping expedition my husband planned to join me for this morning, before he woke up between 4am and 5am so very ill.  While I was gone he slept for another nearly 4 hours, didn't even know I left the house and when he woke up it was like sunshine after the rain.  Again with the sudden about face after an episode comes to an end.  I am so grateful the rest of the day has been quite wonderful! (For both of us!)

He decided that since he had been craving greasy fried chicken for the past few days we would go to Beaks for a late lunch.  He certainly got his wish: HUGE portions of everything fatty and greasy and he loved every bite. (When I had an ulcer decades ago the only thing I could eat without becoming ill for most of the first six months was good old greasy KFC!) Yup, all that grease does indeed make the chicken taste fantastic.  hahaha  Giant bowls of gravy and cole slaw. his big plate of fries and a double portion of dill mayo made his world go round. He did bring half of it home.  I had a smaller portion so ate all of mine, but if I had any extra carbs, those and the fat got a good walking off right after lunch because he wanted to go to the liquidation store, Bianca Amors, to pick up a couple of cheap items.  We deliberately walked down every aisle for the exercise. Hopefully it did help with the wearing off of lunch. hahaha

Then he announced that, since I had two large bags of books in the car I finished reading over the past few months, we should stop by a neighbourhood filled with community library boxes.  I was able to drop off all 25 books and brought 24 new to me editions home to keep me busy with bedtime reading for the next couple of months or more.

The sun is still shining in defiance of the Special Weather Report for another QUICK change overnight that will usher in the freezing rain and likely between 10cm and 20cm of snow by sometime on Friday when it is predicted to end and give us a nice warm weekend. Aiii yiiiii....I can't keep up with all these fast turnarounds! A high of a dry and breeze +15C today and then a high of -6C or colder tomorrow....NOOOOOO!!!  Oh well...

Guess I Spoke Too Soon!

 It is currently 5:30am and we have been up for about an hour already. My husband is having an even worse tummy issue than he had on Saturday, after not having a snack at bedtime for the second night in a row. Having an empty tummy for too many consecutive hours is one of the triggers for these episodes. He has started a daily food diary…again, sigh….to figure out what he can no longer eat…again, sigh…. Over the past two rounds of these episodes he had to cut pears and beets from his diet and now it seems that cucumbers are the latest food needing to be eliminated. His CFS has always had a strong component of food sensitivities and the addition of the problem with the intestinal valve adds to the misery. Add in stress factors that disturb his overall digestion and my poor husband is not a happy camper. 

He has just crawled into bed to rest, read and eat the snack I made for him….please Lord, let it help his stomach to be calm so he can go back to sleep. I am guessing our shopping trip today will be a solo trip for me while my husband rests. He is supposed to be teaching an adult class on Sunday morning. Why he took that on at the end of the last round of teaching when he was already experiencing the first signs of impending health issues I don’t know, but I had better find a way to help him between now and Sunday. His next gig isn’t until the end of May, but I may suggest he let it go. There are others who can take it for him.

Thanks to those of you who are praying for my husband’s health. He and I appreciate the caring support very much.

Are You Also Appalled By The Cost Of Groceries??

 I just returned home from our closest "discount" grocery store with two bags, each filled about 2/3 with groceries...you know the type of bags, right? The usual regular sized cloth totes like you get at stores like Safeway?  Only two bags.....$110.43.  Only one item that I purchased, a medical item, was expensive at $22.99.  The other items were produce and some sale bread and a couple of canned items....$110.43.  Gosh....I am kind of sorry I looked at the receipt to be honest.  Are the rest of you finding it more and more demoralizing to purchase groceries?  This is the month I could have used the harmonized sales tax rebate that got all messed up by the CRA and that I am still waiting to receive.  Sigh....okay, enough whining and complaining! (for now...teehee...)

Although it is overcast with deep grey clouds that may be bringing rain overnight and into tomorrow, it isn't very chilly out and I enjoyed getting out to the post office and the store.  I didn't even take my cane in the car today because since my husband pointed out to me that part of my limping has been my own fault for not monitoring my foot placement properly,  the limp is far less pronounced and it isn't as difficult for me to cover distances.  YAY, I am so pleased.  

My husband felt well enough this morning both before and after breakfast to participate in his weekly theological and scientific discussion group after being quite certain he would have to miss it because of feeling rotten, but he didn't feel rotten.  Has the Indian food from yesterday successfully aided his recovery once again?  No headache today either, so that is wonderful.

Our son got a report from his boss today about the work he did for her in Florida last week and apparently he did well despite not having much of a clue as to what part of the job entailed.  He is like his father....he knew just enough to figure out the rest of it on his own.  I am happy for him.  His wife is now scheduled to return sometime today, so that is also very good news. She is a brave solo traveller and that gives ME forty fits. I think I have seen too many movies of young women getting in trouble driving long distances on their own...or maybe I am more stressed about the world situation in general than I realize.  Anyway, just glad she is on her way home.