Two Huge Answers To Prayer!

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

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

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

The Weather Chose Snowing As Its Option Tonight!

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

 

Catch Up Thanksgiving Dinner! Yum!!

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

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

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

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

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

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

The Bad, Sadly, With The Good

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

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

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

An Apparently Answered Prayer! Yay!

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

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

SLOOOOOOOWWWWLY Goes the Refrigerator Replacement, Hohoho!!

 In honour of the Cherry Cream Soda font I MUST use pink for this post!!

The saga of getting another fridge continues.  By 1pm today we realized we likely were not going to hear from the refrigeration technician, so my husband hiked across the parking lot to the office to ask what was going on.  As we suspected, the employee from the management company struggled with his English comprehension and didn't understand why we still had food in the refrigerator portion of the unit if it wasn't working, didn't realize that my husband was NOT telling him that unit was still working and didn't understand why there was over twenty dollars worth of ice slabs in plastic bins in there keeping the food sufficiently cold as to keep it all from being wasted.  He apparently told the tech that our fridge was still working so there was no rush on the order.  Sigh....why are we not surprised. Even the staff for whom English IS their first language don't seem to comprehend what we are telling them a good deal of the time. hahaha

So the office staff worker called the warehouse to see if there are any fridges in stock that are in working order. She finally got a response around 4:30pm and the response is there is a fridge and the tech will try to get it to us sometime tomorrow.  In the meantime we had to purchase another ten dollars worth of ice ($31 and counting...) after dinner tonight to get our food through safely until tomorrow until hopefully at least noon. The office staff worker begins her shift at 10:30am and will call to let us know, if she can find out that is, when the tech and the fridge will be arriving.

Unfortunately my husband has an eye appointment at 11am and will be leaving at 10:30am to be there on time. So, he will have to leave me to deal with this call, or with the tech should he arrive before or without said call. Tomorrow will mark my third day in a row of having to stay home all day waiting for assistance with the fridge.  Sigh.....I was really looking forward to going to his appointment with my husband so I could look longingly at all the expensive eye glass frames while he is in with the doctor and start thinking about what kind of frame I want to purchase after my own annual eye examination later this fall.  After accidentally sitting on my present very delicate frames that I've had only one year, they were so bent and took so much work for the frame techs to straighten out, it is unlikely I will be able to put new lenses into them safely ever again.  At present one of the original lenses is remaining in place "just kinda barely", so....guess it will be an expensive experience since I only get coverage for frames once every two years and then only if my prescription changes, which I suspect it may this time. Whatever....eyes are so important, so they are worth spending money on.

Tonight we had a wonderful time.  We met a now retired former colleague of my husband's and she treated us to a meal at DarBar.  Yum, yum! I decided to have a simpler meal tonight so ordered off the appetizer list: a chana curry with fried bread....basically a fluffy puffed up pillow of thin bread dough that was able to be dipped into their home made tamarind sauce...to die for....and then one of the best green salads I have ever had there, plus a helping of raita.  Gosh, it was a full meal even without eating both rounds of fried bread.  It was unexpectedly delicious...not a great fan of chana as a rule...and I was not expecting that amount of food from the Appetizer list. WOW!  I will order that again.

The conversation was wonderful and contrary to the last time we saw our friend, her face is smoothed of all the "worry wrinkles" from her last position in her career, she has lost weight; she looked so happy after her first year of retirement. She was cheerful and talkative.  Gosh, it was a wonderful time together.  We all look forward to getting together once again.  ( have been trying to think about what else it was that was different about her this time and it just struck me that this is the first time I have seen her without her clergy collar. She was completely clad in "civilian dress" and I can't believe how different she looks.  Incredible.)

Although it is well before 11pm I am more tired than usual tonight so am going to get to bed right away.  I think the stress over the mix up with the fridge has gotten to me, plus being stuck inside for 3 days in a row has precluded going for any long walks, so I am craving exercise.  Maybe tomorrow after the ruddy fridge arrives?  Stay tuned to the never ending saga of refrigeration!  

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. 

Home, Freezing, Soaked, BRRRRR....First Time Our Furnace Has Been Turned On In Mid September!!!!

What a day, what a day, what a day this has been!!  A good day, but we are completely zonked. It is currently about 7:30pm and my husband has been in bed for the night since 6:10pm, that is how zonked he is!

We were both asleep last night just before 10pm. I woke up at 3:30am, half an hour before the alarm went off and my husband just beat the alarm by seconds....it would have been 1:30am Regina time.  So, I have now been up for 18 hours, but I am still too wired to sleep, so might as well end this trip blog for the present until the photos get moved off my husband's and son's phones for publication here in the hopefully very near future.

We did take time for a decent breakfast even at that early hour to use up some of the leftovers.  Fortunately we had very little food that had to be thrown away.  At 4:50am we were down at the desk checking out and waiting for our taxi to arrive by 5am, the one the front desk staff had booked for us the previous evening. They HAD booked it!  We were there and heard the conversation between the desk clerk and the establishment's regular driver. When the driver was not there by 5:10am and no sign of any cars on the street at all, the front desk clerk told us he would call a Yellow Cab, which was there in about 6 minutes. The clerk was most upset and said it is very weird that this driver was not only not there early, but apparently wasn't going to show up at all.  The Yellow Cab driver, as we drove at breakneck speed toward La Guardia Airport, told us what had likely delayed to the other driver. There was a huge accident on the main freeway coming into our place that had traffic backed up for miles.  As our driver swung down another side street to avoid the pile up, we could see hundreds of cars stranded at a complete standstill and many, many flashing red and blue lights attached to police cars and ambulances.  It is quite possible that if our original driver was also trapped in the slowdown and had he shown up to take us to the airport WE could have been trapped in that horrible traffic mess and possibly been so delayed we might have missed our flight to Toronto.  Bonus #1.

Bonus #2 is that when we got our boarding passes printed up and headed into the LONG lineup to get through security, my dear husband, who pays all kinds of attention to details in airports and such places, noticed as we coiled around and around the pathway set up for the lineup of passengers, a sign that said the passengers were to take TWO different paths to security.  No one else seemed to be seeing the sign and there were only a handful of people waiting to go into that area of security.  My husband told me we were going to take that secondary path.  We ended up behind only ten people waiting to go through security there, rather than a couple of hundred others who remained in the original line up.  Bonus, we got into security quickly and another bonus is that we just happened to have wandered into the section of security that uses the wonderful newer machines that can see and interpret everything in the luggage, only the liquids in their separate bag needed to be removed from our carry ons. We were able to leave our shoes on. While we were waiting our turn to go into this area we glanced over the the folk going into the other security area and noticed they were opening luggage to dump computers and prescriptions along with the liquids into the trays going through x-ray AND they had to take their shoes off, which we didn't have to do.  Definitely a bonus for us, me in particular as I absolutely have to sit down to get my shoes on and there wasn't exactly a plethora of benches once we got our bags back.  Oh, and also part of this airport area bonus is that when we arrived at the airport we had no idea where to go to get our passes printed up.  We just headed for a sign that said Air Canada and had several people sitting at a long counter there, just like any area of an airline that weighs luggage and receives luggage and prints up passes.  There were surprisingly few people there and that was because, as the woman we walked up to told us in no uncertain terms, this was the place where people who are part of a particular Air Canada special elite programme go to check in. It was not for us mere peons. She was not kind. My husband told her that he was very sorry, but that as a visitor to the airport he had no idea whatsoever where else to go for a pass, that there were no visible signs directing us anywhere else, but that he would be happy to go wherever she directed us. She harumphed quite a lot, asked for our passports, printed up our passes and waved us on our way to the departure gates. teehee

Bonus #3 is the most amazing one to me:  We got through getting our boarding passes and security so quickly that we had far more time to wait for our flight than we thought we would. As we sat waiting and wondering how best to fill the time, I got looking at our connecting flight in Toronto.  My husband and I started thinking about how long it might take in Customs in Toronto with the crowds headed that way....so many passengers on several flights early in the morning.  He started remembering how very, very far we would have to walk to even get to Canadian Customs after we landed and then how we had to walk almost as far back the way we had come to get to the national flight departure gates.  It hit us suddenly that, particularly if our flight from New York left even a few minutes late, we were most likely going to miss our connecting flight by quite some time.  We looked at each other in horror, realizing then our booking mistake when we first made plans to travel.  At that exact moment, I looked up and saw another departure gate across the room and the screen behind the desk appeared to be showing yet another flight to Toronto that was leaving 90 minutes ahead of the one we had booked.  I told me weary husband to get over there and find out how full it was and if there was ANY chance at all we could get on that flight instead; to get moving to ask because they were going to start boarding in about fifteen minutes.  Off he went with missionary zeal to talk to the woman at the desk. He returned a few minutes later to tell me that she had agreed to put us on standby and page us if such a thing turned out to be possible.  Not thirty seconds later she paged us, we grabbed our luggage and passports, raced over to her and within seconds she had taken our old boarding passes and printed us new ones for the earlier flight. WOW!!!!  She was even able to seat us together near the back of the plane and there was lots of room in the overhead bins back there for our luggage.

Bonus #4 is that due to our arriving in Toronto so much sooner, we could have lunch at 9:30am at the airport!!  I have to admit that after we got off the plane from La Guardia and realized how heavy our carry ons actually were as we trudged slowly along the incredibly long route to Canadian Customs, we kind of folded energy wise. haha.  We were SO slow that by the time we got there no one from our flight was anywhere in sight! They had all cleared already.  However, that meant we had no line up at all.  Since we had filled out our Declarations online the night before all we had to do was walk right up to a Customs officer's window in the otherwise now completely deserted room, declare two bags of green tea leaves and a bottle of  Yuzu juice, both of which are allowed and very quickly we were trudging back again to find our departure gate for the Regina flight.  We had LOTS of time to stop and eat lunch just after 7:30am Regina time and we found a kind of nice little place with a very tasty breakfast!  Bacon and scrambled eggs and toast and tater tots....my husband was too tired to eat so he wanted a small plate of parmesan fries. Unfortunately they are not on the breakfast menu, but the server took great pity on him when he was so very disappointed and brought him a bowl of tater tots covered in parmesan instead, hahahaha. He really enjoyed it along with 2 Corona Cera! I can't imagine drinking even his no alcohol beer at that time or the morning, but he had helped me carry my very heavy luggage along with his own for the seemingly miles we had walked after our flight, so he deserved a relaxing time and a treat to drink.  He was SO HAPPY to be able to sit down in a comfy booth and have a ton of time to enjoy his food and drink.  It was a lovely surprise.  AND for my blood sugar a big relief. If we had kept on our originally scheduled flight from La Guardia I wouldn't have had time to eat anything between our breakfast at 2am Regina time and our arrival home at 1:30pm other than a small cookie provided on the plane from Toronto.  I would have been in a coma by then because I didn't realize at the time I still had a nut bar in my purse! hahaha That and the cookie would have carried me most of the way, but it would have been pushing it.

Bonus #5: our flight to Regina was absolutely packed full.  We knew from looking at the sheer number of people and their full sized carry ons that there wasn't going to be room for all that luggage in the small sized bins of the Airbus 319. We have flown in those before and it is a nightmare of tiny bins. SO when the inevitable call came offering people free under the plane storage for their carry ons and no one stepped up, my husband and I decided we would do that.  We were flying directly home so the chances of our two bags going missing were pretty slim.  The bonus was that for those of us, all four people whoopee, who stepped up and let our baggage be moved under the plane, we were allowed to board immediately after the business class passengers. We had lots of time to get comfy and watch the rest of the passengers struggling to find space somewhere, anywhere for their bags in those wee overhead bins. In the end the plane was delayed leaving by ten or more minutes because there simply was no way to get everyone's luggage overhead. So, the last ten people to board had nowhere for their bags so one of the flight attendants got a cart and loaded those ten bags on it for transport to the under carriage of the plane.  When we got to Regina to debark it was kind of cool not to have to wrestle heaving carry ons down from the luggage bins.  

Bonus #6: Two friends surprised us by meeting us at the airport to drive us home. We felt loved and not bereft this time when we got to the baggage carousel. They not only drove us home, they stopped at the grocery store for us along the way so we could grab some basics until we get ourselves together over the next couple of days and organize a proper list. How kind and caring is THAT?  And even more so when they themselves are trying to get ready for a big trip to the Maritimes, flying out tomorrow morning at the same ungodly hour we flew out when we started our own trip.  We felt very welcomed home, that's for sure. It took a bit of the edge off missing our kids already and realizing we will not be waking up in Manhattan in the morning.

The one non-bonus in all of this is the crappy weather.  In Manhattan it was between 78F and 86F every day we were there, even when it was raining. When we landed in Regina today it was 59F, pouring, teeming rain and just starting to blow like crazy.  It is September 15 and we actually had to put our furnace on when we got home...THE FURNACE....in mid SEPTEMBER!!! What kind of a crazy place is this, anyway??

My husband was very upset right after we arrived home and he discovered that in his attempt to disconnect some electronics before we left on our trip he had managed to disconnect the television, so not one programme we had set to record actually did.  He was so very upset, but I told him that his bad news had nothing to do with a flood or mice in the basement, so it was no big deal. It is only tv, right?  If you want to know how a programme turns out you go online and look it up. AI has to be good for something, right??  hahaha

It is almost good to be home in some respects, but have to admit it helped a lot that both kids texted us  this evening..... 

It Isn't Always Easy To Say Goodbye For A Long Trip

After racing about madly this morning picking up different items needed for our last minute packing up and having a grand visit in the park with my coffee buddy, I wolfed down my deliciously hot Indian food leftovers from last night and collected my husband so we could go for a visit with some dear very elderly friends who wanted to see us before we go.  It was lovely to see them, but we have come away wondering if she is still going to be with us by the time we return.

Our beloved friend has gone downhill noticeably since my last visit with her three weeks ago. Sigh....  She could barely make it to the table to enjoy the snacks her husband had prepared in honour of our visit, was slurring her words noticeably and fell asleep for awhile in the middle.  My heart is hurting for her and her husband.  She is not doing well.  Yes, she is in her middle 80's, but has been such a vibrant presence in our lives. She and her husband were among the first to not only welcome us at our current church, but adopted us as if we had been friends for decades, right from the first visit.  Her husband is declining as well, slowly but surely and it is so depressing for us to see the inevitable start happening.  However we did have a good time together and I promised her I will send her an email after we have been away for a few days, just to say "hi" and assure her we are having fun with family. 

This evening my husband is attending the installation service of a new priest here in the city.  I planned to go but realized there are a couple of things on my tomorrow's To Do list for the trip that could actually be done this evening and take some of the stress off for tomorrow. I need to polish my walking shoes for one thing and I need to call a friend in Alberta who recently lost her husband, to check in and see how she is doing before we go.  There are three tv programmes beginning shortly after we leave that we want to see so I will set that up and hope for the best: that the system won't go down while we are away, or at least that it won't go down for long enough to cut off our hoped for programmes to see when we get home. It won't be the end of the world if we don't have them, it would just be nice to have something relaxing to see as we get over the exhaustion after a long trip.

Tomorrow evening will be full on packing up. I still haven't decided what two outfits to leave out so that my carry on is not stuffed to capacity and too awkward and heavy for me to carry by myself. We are trying to decide how best to handle having to leave for the airport at 3:30am...sleep or no sleep prior to leaving?  hahaha  When it comes to needing sleep before travelling, old age is definitely a hindrance when it comes to getting up at 3am!

Maman's Update

My friend has returned home after leaving her dear Maman in the capable hands of another sibling. Her reports are very positive and she is happy to share them with such faithful prayer warriors.

Maman continues to become stronger each day.  She is positive in outlook and is preparing for the TAVI team to get together to prepare for her aortic valve replacement sometime in the next few months. Fortunately that is not an emergency surgery that must be done immediately, so there will be time to get the proper TAVI team in place ahead of time.  For a woman who died twice in the ER when she initially arrived at the hospital she has come along way. As I told my friend, "An amazing woman has received an amazing piece of medical technology."  Thanks again for your prayers. When it is time for the aortic valve replacement I will be soliciting your prayers once again. Bless you all.

Today's Events Began Happening Before I Even Had A Chance To Ask.....Hahahahaha.....

I didn't sleep too badly last night. Lights out at 12:20am, awake for an hour of reading at 4:30am then a great sleep from 5:30am until 8:45am. I yawned and stretched for a minute and then the phone rang. It was a dear friend from another province, so I happily delayed getting breakfast and getting ready for my day so we could chat.  Then just as we were wrapping up our call a text message came in from out of town friends to let me know they were coming to our house and would be arriving in about 2 minutes.  I had to excuse myself from my phone call friend to run upstairs and throw on some clothes, barely making it down to the back door as they began knocking.  My husband was staggering about all through my phone call, trying to get ready for a morning meeting in his still sleepy state after he also slept in unexpectedly, but fortunately it was a breakfast meeting so he didn't have to try to make breakfast before he left.  Just as I got downstairs with day wear on, our friends arrived, exchanged greetings with my husband as he was leaving and then were very patient with me as I prepared my own breakfast along with their pot of tea.  What a crazy, delightful start to the day.

When my husband finally arrived home close to 1pm I had to hop into the car and race to the bank where we have had SO MANY issues and glitches and set up some financial "stuff" for our upcoming trip. This time there was only one glitch and THIS time I was actually prepared for it!  The teller was very experienced, has been at that branch for some time and was most helpful in straightening out the issue. Bless her!  Since I got home she has emailed me with some more information and has offered more help with something that may come up with our account while we are out of the country and is going to solve that possible problem for us.  The more unavoidable contact we have with this bank the more we are realizing it is only rarely the employees at the local branch who are making a mess of things, it is mostly the third party investment and credit card companies etc. that are screwing us over time after time.  Well,  we will be shut of that bank altogether once we get home.  We are done with it.  Hallelujah!!

We ran a few errands before I ate lunch at 3pm.   

Oh yay!!  We just received a dinner invitation to the home of friends this evening.  Curried chicken veggie pot pie!!  Our absolute favourite and these two women can COOK, yeah you betcha'!!  How wonderful. How blessed are we, right?  They get home late enough from work that I won't be eating that much too soon after my late lunch.  Ooh, I am so excited.

Wonder what I can cram into the next two and a half hours before we go out for dinner?  Who is going to call or show up next?  I LOVE days like this because I LOVE happy surprises like long distance phone calls and long distance company!  It is a good day today.  I COULD do the ironing, but it might be wiser to bury my nose in a book instead for an hour and leave the ironing as my tomorrow afternoon's chore. 

Maman Is One Tough Cookie!

 Today, 93 year old Maman is going home! She will be able to have the valve replacement in a few months, so that is great news. Maman is a journalist and along with being able to walk and eat properly again, she has also begun writing up the details of her brush with death.  My friend is amazed by how well she is doing and is grateful for such positively answered prayers.  I am very happy for all of them. ⛪️

We had our first lower atmosphere forest fire smoke overnight, so this morning my eyelids are swollen and my lungs feel irritated. What a blessing that we made it through June and July with only a few overnight hours of higher altitude smoke that didn’t even rate a Smoke Warning from the weather forecasters. The sun this morning is a giant, flaming orange red ball, similar to the sunrise suns we used to see in Tokyo on a typical smoggy morning. I was so exhausted overnight that only once was I vaguely aware of smelling smoke and I was so groggy I couldn’t wake up sufficiently to get up and close the windows. What a trade off: breathing in poisonous particulate matter with the windows open or sweltering, sweating, headaching heat. Happy summer night to you too! 😉

I haven’t been able to force myself to get up and check the leaking spot in the kitchen ceiling. My husband is preaching at our own church this morning so he hasn’t the luxury to staying home to babysit that dripping crack and I have no intention of missing his sermon, so hopefully the large catch basin we have on top of the cupboards will hold however many more drips drip! 💧 

Maman's Continuing Health Journey Update

 I have another update in regard to Maman's recovery.  She is still in hospital after all because it has been discovered that she requires a new aortic valve.  While there is no huge rush for the surgery itself, she will need to have an angiogram to ensure the valve will be able to be installed through a vein in the groin.  If the angiogram shows otherwise she could be in need of open heart surgery.  Her angiogram should happen next Tuesday.  Hopefully it will be possible to insert the new valve using the usual method and once that is established she will likely be sent home to await the surgery.  So, more to pray about, but overall things are so much more positive than they appeared they would be, particularly after her actually dying for a bit before the temporary pace maker was put in. Whew....Thanks for praying for her and for her family.  It is very much appreciated.

It is another very warm day here, the forecast is for +32C; not the hottest we have had, but today there isn't a hint of a breeze anywhere near our area of the city, so even though it is currently only +25C it feels too hot to be comfortable outside.  I had to drive to the nearest grocery store instead of taking my intended walk due to a late start to my now overly warm day. I DID manage to fall asleep again after the 5:30am "Fight Club" on the front lawn and I slept for over 90 minutes.  It was worth getting a late start on the day just to feel better for the rest of the day.

My husband is meeting a friend for coffee this afternoon so I think I will tackle the needed executor's package updates.  I never want to go away without all that information being immediately available to one of our executors.  I learned from my parents' well organized banking and other financial records how important it is to have all the required information ready for the executor, as well as a list of where to start and in what order to do things like getting death certificates, adding up the monies in accounts and investments to take to the lawyer for access to the wills and to find out if probate will be necessary.  There are so many steps and each time something is attempted out of order it slows everything else down sometimes by several weeks.  Mom and Dad made things very smooth going for me in terms of available information that I needed. The financial institutions were the main hold up as probation was completed sooner than expected and caught them unawares.  I learned so much so we want to make everything as easy as possible for any executors when it is our turn to go. 

I Wish I Could Share A Photo Of This!

 My husband is currently sitting on his plastic lawn chair on the back porch.  At his feet are a clutch of tiny Arabic speaking refugee boys and they are talking a blue streak in Arabic, English attempts and lisps while helping my husband pull weeds from our herb and tomato pots, touching and smelling leaves and flowers and enjoying life in the shade on the porch. They are each eating one of our almost ripened cherry tomatoes in the midst of all their blather.  My husband, who always wanted more children but was stoic when that didn't turn out to be possible and who has no grandchildren, is loving every minute of this. hahaha  He is so very patient and quiet spoken with the boys, admonishing them in no uncertain terms when they kick their soccer balls against the side of our suite and put holes and cracks in the siding, but also making sure they know he cares about them and is not angry and freaked out by their All Boy behaviour. hahaha  Watching these antics and overhearing his conversations with them gives me great joy.  I can't post a photo because I don't have permission to put pictures of the boys online of course, but just imagine, those of you who know us, what a kick my husband is getting from these interactions with the wee fellows.

Positive Update On Maman!

 This morning I received the report that Maman was able to have a permanent pacemaker maker installed yesterday and she has done incredibly well in her initial recovery. In fact she may be released in the next day or two. My friend is thrilled by these results and thanks you all profusely for praying. God must have intervened because the situation was dire, with these positive results not really expected. My friend and her husband will be staying with Maman at her home while she completes her recovery there. My friend is a wonderful daughter!

Thanks everyone and thank you God!

Why We Can Still Cope With Living Here

 As I gaze out the windows, front and back, at the sea of goose poo covering lawns and sidewalks from the three groups of between 20 and 30 geese each who hang around here all day, it is so easy to become disgusted by the mess, sickened by watching the kids running through the poo to play soccer and sometimes physically upset by fighting a rising tide of vomit in my throat that my life has come to this.

HOWEVER:  just being able to listen to the various woes of the kids who have begun hanging out on our deck and steps, helping out our neighbours wherever possible and therefore seeing at least some reason from God as to why we might still be living in this tenement is giving us some ability to hang on a bit longer.

Yesterday my husband finally had a reason to answer the request of the Syrian woman next door for him and I to bring her any sewing we needed doing.  He took over a pair of beautiful new black dress pants he wants to wear at our son's wedding reception. The legs needed hemming and he didn't want to do it on his sewing machine because he isn't sure how to use the hemming attachment.  Since sewing at home in Syria was our neighbour's regular source of income, he decided to let her try them.  WOW! She pinned up the hems for him and took the pants to her place.  About 30 minutes later she returned them, beautifully hand stitched and just the right length...absolutely perfect.  Thank you dear new friend. 

She refused to take any money for her work because she and her family want to do something tangible to thank us for all the things we have tried to help them with, plus she was most apologetic that she doesn't have an iron yet and we would have to iron the newly hemmed legs ourselves.  Since we had to go to Canadian Tire later in the day for some items, I picked her up a decent so-called "professional" iron...yeah, aren't they all now for good advertising....but I know it is a good brand.  There was a sale on ironing boards as well, so I added in one of those.  It wasn't a huge cost to help her out as she tries to take in more sewing in the coming weeks.  Once I convinced her that we didn't buy her the iron and board because my husband thought she was asking him to buy one for her when she apologized for not having such things yet and that they were outright gifts, she relaxed and thanked us profusely.  I also have a couple of items I would like fixed up a bit before our trip so will take them to her this weekend.  How marvellous to have a seamstress right on the other side of the adjoining wall!  It will be worth whatever subsequent repair costs turn out to be!

She told me something really sweet: when she told her youngest son, 8 years old, that she is expecting another baby she was expecting a negative reaction from him, BUT he threw his arms around her, hugged her and exulted that he would no longer be the youngest and littlest kid in the family. hahahaha  Love that story. 

Already An Update On Maman!

 Just in the past few minutes since I posted the request for prayer for Maman, I have received an update that her permanent pace maker surgery is likely going to be pushed up to tomorrow instead of Friday. The situation for her is very serious indeed.  Thank you for praying.

A Lovely Evening!

 After a lovely outdoor coffee time with my friend this morning....despite heavy rain very early in the morning, the mosquitoes barely bothered us at the park table we were sitting at because there was enough of a breeze to keep them at bay....I came home to the news that my husband had invited two of our closest friends to meet us for dinner tonight at a newly discovered and loved Indian restaurant.  The visit was fantastic and the food was as good as always, but the best part was that my husband had not only the idea, but the oomph to take the initiative to formulate and execute the plan!  He has been feeling so much more cheery over the past few days and has been making things happen most every day for the past nearly a week!  Amazing!  I am as grateful as he is that the funk he has been in for so long seems to be lifting.  Thank you Lord for this answer to prayer.

I am wondering if he will continue his journey to feeling even happier about life as we grow closer to our departure date.  He had the paper map of New York City out on the dining room table this morning, tracing out routes from our apartment to various museums and art galleries and restaurants and parks that we want to visit while we are there.  He nearly completed the blessings and prayers format for the wedding reception and will send those off tomorrow for editing and approval from our "kids".  Each morning he has been up and moving in good time to accomplish a lot during the day. All this is in spite of ongoing tummy issues as he now cannot eat Bell Peppers or peanuts/peanut butter.  The last go round we had with new deletions from his diet was about 3 years ago now when both beets and pears became no-no's.  It is most disturbing when things he has eaten all his life and truly enjoyed start joining the "DO NOT EAT ANYMORE EVER!" list, but that has been the way of things since 1985 when the whole CFS/dietary upsets thing started.  Every few years new items must be eliminated from his diet and a few items he has not eaten in a decade or more can then be added back in with no apparent bad effects.  Sigh....it is a constant merry-go-round trying to feed this man properly.  After over 40 years of this I am well used to it, but it never fails to hurt me as well as him each time we begin the process of discovery to find whatever new foods can no longer be tolerated. God bless him. He is stoic about it and never complains or feels particularly sorry for himself.  What an example HE is to wimpy whiny ME!!