Looking Forward To Tomorrow's Adventures!

 Although we may be sodden with rain by day's end tomorrow, I am really looking forward to a day out of town!  My husband is taking the service at one of our former parish homes, so we will be surrounded by old friends, he is having a meeting with some soon to be ordained younger folk, while I enjoy a fabulous Japanese lunch with a friend. Then we are going to spend the rest of the afternoon with yet more friends.  I think a whole day away from here, rain or no rain but with lower temperatures at last, will be very refreshing for us both.  I can tell my husband is excited too. He already has his sermon completed and ready to print.  Since he has been able to take on so few commitments as he heals from this latest round of CFS etc., he had lots of time to start writing it earlier on, finish it with lots of time to spare and have time this afternoon to start preparing good sized plant pots for transplanting the newly purchased herbs from their teensy hot house pots.  I believe he doesn't have another commitment after tomorrow's until August 2nd.  YAY!

We have been so housebound for so long. What a treat it will be to see somewhere else, somewhere familiar but definitely "other".  So grateful for this opportunity! 

Big Drama In Our Small Court Tonight!

 It finally happened.  This evening Moh, our court's biggest trouble maker, pushed the envelope too far and beat up a smaller boy rather badly after stealing his toy right out of the poor kid's hand.  My husband heard sobbing outside, a rarely heard sound in all the years we have lived here, so he went out on the deck and saw a very small boy who he didn't recognize being helped to his feet by one of the older girls in the court.  My husband came back inside and we assumed things would get sorted out.  Well, there was certainly an attempt: the small boy's dad and Moh's dad met together right outside our back deck and a very loud argument ensued.  Our next door neighvour, who speaks the same language as both the other dads came out of his suite and tried to make peace, but to no avail. About fifteen minutes later the police arrived, and there was a meeting of those 3 men, Moh and I don't know who all else because we closed our doors and blinds at that point because from there it was none of our business.  It was nearly an hour before the police left and the three men involved in the initial set to continued to meet together for some time after that before we heard our neighbour return home.  Our hope and prayer is that peace between the dads was reached and that peace will prevail in our court, that Moh got the hint that he can't keep beating up other kids for no reason, but I admit I have little trust in that actually happening.  I can only join my husband in the prayers that Moh will get whatever help he is going to need to stop being an aggressive and violent bully.  As summer holidays come on and there are even more hours spent at home here by the younger kids with little else to do and parents who don't seem to be able to find things for them to do other than hang out as a big, bored gang on the back lawn with few amusements.  At this point all the African kids' bikes have been stolen by other kids who live around our court, never to be seen again I am guessing.  The poor parents have their own issues to deal with and all are struggling immigrants, here against their own wills but forced to leave their home countries due to war.  There is little I can do for Moh and his family BUT I can pray and wait on the Lord and hope that Moh can experience some kind of transformation before he gets any older and the violence escalates into something even more serious.  He is a brilliant, brilliant 8 year old and could have an amazing future if he can be redirected soon into a more positive direction in life.

Apart from that occurrence this evening, it has been a good day.  Despite the heat I was able to knuckle down and continue on with my deep cleaning of this suite.  Now I only have the bathroom fixtures to wash down again tomorrow afternoon and then once my husband is able to move the giant tomato plant pots out of the dining room and outside onto the deck....far too windy today....I will vacuum that small room and be done for a week!  YAY!!

We were supposed to go to a club this evening to hear a friend's band playing and we had every intention but by late afternoon we were so tired, we just wanted peace and serenity. So my husband decided to reward me for all my work around here this week and took me out to a very quiet restaurant....even the dark blue painted walls are serene in there....and we ate so early there were few others in the place.  We had a quiet conversation and then came home to relax and read books and visit some more.

 Tomorrow and the next day are to be unbearably hot so we have an extra curtain rod up bearing blankets to cover the curtains on the east facing windows to keep the hot sun out in the early morning, and have implemented our annual system of blind and curtain closing at various times of the night and day so we can survive in here.  It is all good and if we can survive about five more days of heat, next week will bring us much more reasonable weather apparently. Yay! 

More Dribs And Drabs Of Good News!

We finally received confirmation of our NYC accommodation for our upcoming vacation this summer. All is well. 

A play our daughter in law is producing for a playwright friend of hers opens this week and that will be a big stress relief for her. We are praying it has a successful run. 

Our complex is now able to take all recyclable materials accepted by the city, not just paper and cardboard, so we are about to start hauling everything recyclable out to the bin in our parking lot that we have been storing in our basement. This is going to save us a tremendous amount of driving around the city today. We will only need to make one other trip out with our bottles and cans and milk jugs to get our recycling fees back on those items. One trip to our nearest SARCAN outlet will take care of that. My husband even feels well enough to help me with these recycling tasks this very day! Yay! 

Good news today from my financial advisor, so that is always encouraging after some of the runarounds we have had with banking institutions of late. 

The sun is shining, the breeze is just that: a breeze, not a howling gale and the temperature is above zero.  

My husband today is feeling the best he has felt in several months.

Time to report and meditate on the good things, however small they be after such a depressing winter and start to spring! Mentally and emotionally we both feel like we are finally emerging from a dark cave.

Completed, Paid, Sent.....DONE!!!!!! HALLELUJAH!!

The annual tax debacle hath been completed.  We have returned from the post office and are taking ourselves off soon to Silvia's for Italian food.  Our table is reserved and I am so excited for my husband that all his work has been finished at last.  I will be in touch before the end of this year with the tax accountant we want to use next tax season and set up an appointment several weeks prior to the tax deadline.

Thus endeth the saga for this year.  Amen!!!!! 

Dissa And Datta:

 While my husband didn’t have any big tummy episodes yesterday, for which we are both grateful, his stomach was slightly irritated all day so now he will begin journaling symptoms each time he adds a food and drink back into his currently rather barren list of agreeable menu items. He has been living on yogurt, prunes, chicken, peanut butter, carbonated water and the occasional pancake with raspberries for the past three weeks. My tea granny husband has not had a cup of tea in about two weeks now, so soon he will try adding in each variety a few days apart to see if any of those are bothering him. It is always like looking for a needle in a haystack but eventually we discover the culprit and permanently eliminate it from his diet. At this point we are both exhausted from this latest round. I was so tired last night that my own stomach was upset so neither myself nor my exhausted husband made it out to the music recitals last night we had been so excited about attending. Sigh…..

On the positive front: my husband was well enough to attend his weekly Zoom meeting and also managed to overcome the CFS exhaustion long enough to come out grocery shopping with me after lunch. We got to three stores so I got lots of non-cane walking done and he survived the trip, even did the driving. Bless him.

Also, my CRA code finally arrived in the mail…well, actually it ended up in our neighbour’s mailbox and she kindly delivered it to me. (Whose mailbox ALL my utility bills ended up in this month I have no idea, but whoever received them has not brought them to me, so I will be busy on the phone this morning getting the amounts due….I am so fed up with Canada Post for more reasons than this.)

I got my physio done yesterday and plan to do another round today.  I enjoyed getting out to do so much walking yesterday. We park in the farthest away spots from the entrances to the grocery stores to give me a few extra steps. The sunshine was a huge blessing and seeing the snow from the last storm melting away so quickly made me happy….more flurries on the way, but they shouldn’t last too many days on the ground. 

Well, we shall see what today brings, but I have resigned myself to sticking close to home for a few more weeks until my husband is better again….at least as “better” as he ever is with this wretched CFS. My own upset last night was likely from the stress of subconsciously worrying about him. My prayer today is that he can rally long enough this week and next to work with me on figuring out the doing of our taxes online before the looming deadline passes us by.

Such Sweet Hopes For Us Regarding Housing...But The Biggest Problem I Have Won't Necessarily Be Solved By Moving...Sigh....

Today various friends have told me how much they are praying for us to find a better quality place to live in.  One of the things motivating their prayers is that having neighbours on the other side of the wall has, in a few cases over the past 11 years, been a struggle.  The only issue these days with the neighbours next door is that their youngest boy thumps up and down the stairs at all hours of the day and night. Tonight they have company who also have a little boy about the same age and they are banging and crashing about on the stairs so much that they sound like they are coming right through the walls. Even putting my ear plugs in is not deadening the noise enough to sleep right now...at 11:10pm. My friends are concerned about such things because they know I have "bionic hearing" when I go to bed at night, particularly  when the outside noise has subsided for the overnight hours.  If the kids next door were still going to school during the weekdays they wouldn't be thumping about so late at night, but since they all stopped attending, for whatever reason, Sunday nights are like all the other nights and worse when these particular visitors come over and stay on into the wee hours of the morning.  I suspect that since no one is working and no kids are in school they feel free to live on Middle Eastern time. Sigh... I will be fine and eventually I will be tired enough to fall asleep, plus I have no commitments other than physiotherapy tomorrow.  So, all will be well.

Since some of my friends have been here when the stair thumping is going on during the day and they have heard it with their own ears, they are appalled to think that we have to listen to that late at night...that we have to listen to it at all. This is motivating quite a movement among them to pray us into a better, quieter place. God bless them richly for caring so much, BUT I think what I have not been able to communicate clearly is that no matter where I move I will likely experience noise related sleep issues.  Moving out of here is no guarantee I will not end up living close to someone who leaves their dog out all night, tethered and barking in their backyard. Someone in a nearby residence may be prone to playing very loud music until all hours of the early morning.  There may be neighbours who are truckers and leave their semi cabs running all night long in preparation for the next day's long haul.  There may be people with kids who make as much noise outside after I have gone to bed as the little guys next door are making inside right now.  There may be people having back yard bbq guests for half the night.  Etc. etc. etc. etc....let your imagination run wild.  

The problem is not with the noisemakers as much as it is with my low level OCD and my nighttime Super Hearing. Moving won't solve that.  Even living in the country wouldn't help.  My past experiences with that are that someone's cows are constantly mooing or their horses whinnying or the half tons are back firing coming home after midnight from a visit to town, or farmers are starting their farm machinery at 5am.  It isn't possible to get away from the noises, SO I am extremely grateful that God is helping me, answering my friends' prayers that I can learn to cope with the little peoples' nocturnal activities next door without it being my own anger and frustration that are keeping me awake as much as the noise.

I am super grateful for all the people praying we can move to a better place. There are other pertinent reasons why we are needing to move out of here as soon as it is possible, but the noise factor isn't all that relevant with me being the way I am. Don't stop praying friends, don't stop praying. Perhaps God is helping me deal with some of my mental health issues by keeping me right here for awhile longer. Ya' never know.....

PS my daughter in law will be flying home tomorrow and thus avoided the bad weather around Dallas today, so I am most relieved about that. There is another happy answer to prayer!

 

 

One Down, Two Down!! YAY!! One To Go!

 So, all is well now with my husband's ability to access his CRA account online and I had the most helpful chat with a very nice agent regarding my sales tax rebate re-payments!  Thank goodness I spent all that time on hold waiting to talk to him.  He discovered kind of a mess regarding my last re-payment, confirmed I do not owe the amount I was just billed for AND I will be receiving some money back because it turns out that because of the mix up the CRA now actually owes ME some money. hahaha  What a merry-go-round of an afternoon.  We are taking a break now, but in an hour, while all these tax type things are still floating around in our minds, we will set up MY online tax account. Next week will now be taxes week and FINALLY we feel prepared to start.

(Silver lining?: if this mess with my rebate repayments had not occurred we would still be dithering around putting off setting up my CRA account to get our taxes done.  After today we will have no excuse not to get them done by next week! The taxes brain fog hath cleared at last!)   

Not Letting The OCD Take Over! YAY!!!

 I am most grateful to God this morning for helping prevent my OCD from taking over and guiding my emotional reaction in the wrong direction after a session this morning with our financial advisor where we learned how many thousand dollars we lost due to the stupidity of the advisor at another bank when we transferred a TFSA out of there and into the new bank we are dealing with.  We can't get the money back and no, it is not tens of thousands of dollars and yes, in the long run, in the overarching scheme of things we will not suffer unduly as a result of this unnecessary error.  As I made the discovery of our lost funds and the reason for it, my stomach started to roil, but almost as immediately I remembered that God has our lives in his hands and that he has always cared for us.  In that sense how much money we gain or lose through banking systems is kind of unimportant.  In less than a minute I calmed right down and I thank God for helping me. This is most encouraging.  Now, I am waiting for a call from our son in regard to his birthday today. YAY!  My husband ate breakfast a half hour ago and so far has only the mildest tummy distress happening. He has time to get it under control before we go to his medical appointment.  Thus far the day has been quite encouraging on many small fronts.  So thankful.....

From The Sublime To The Ridiculous To The Sublimely Ridiculous!

This has been a most memorable Good Friday!

We began our day at an Anglican church with a dear friend and her parents who are visiting from the Northwest Territories. It was an excellent Good Friday service at the church:  the reading of the Passion of Christ scriptures from John 18 and 19, two solemn hymns, the stripped altar, a reminder in the priest's sermon as to why Jesus had to be sacrificed for the sake of all of us, and a tribute to the black draped cross at the front of the church.  It was very spiritually moving and we enjoyed it very much...the spiritual and emotional weight of what happened to our Lord on our behalf sat heavily upon us as we made our way silently out of the church afterwards.  

My husband and I travelled in our car in near silence as we went to the designated restaurant to meet the same friends there along with the rest of their family.  The restaurant was Fuddruckers, a place my husband and I have never been to before.  It was jarring, in a happy sort of way, to walk into the restaurant bubbling over with people and noise and music and the smell of yummy food wafting through the air.  We lined up and placed our order, (my husband and I had salads that were most delicious, huge and with a good variety of ingredients), obediently carried to our table the flashing alarm beepers that would let us know when our order was ready to be picked up at the counter, lined up to get our cold drinks while we waited and began animated conversations with our friends around the table.  To me it was like walking from a graveyard into a bustling market and I enjoyed that sensation.  It was like walking into the hope of the coming resurrection which we will celebrate with our own church congregation on Sunday morning....although I kind of doubt we will make it to the 6:30am sunrise service....for some odd reason. hahaha

After a restful afternoon of napping and physiotherapy my husband went online to find us some kind of interesting movie to watch this evening. He picked The Annihilation of Fisher, starring James Earl Jones, Margot Robbie and Lynn Redgrave, released back in 1999.  For any of you older adults reading this blog, do check it out if you are not aware of it. It is funny, quirky and an amazingly accurate commentary on what happens to people whose hopes and dreams and sense of purpose are taken away from them, particularly as they age.  It isn't a kids' movie, it is for adults who will be able to look through and past the oddness of the characters to understand what can happen to us in light of loss of ideals in our lives. We thoroughly enjoyed it. The script is so well written and the acting is marvellous.  Lynn Redgrave was such a good actress and she excels in her role here.

Tomorrow is a day of no commitments away from home...at least not thus far and I do hope it may remain that way as my husband is still struggling with exhaustion and resulting tummy issues.  We do have to come up with a dessert or two for Easter Dinner on Sunday evening, but that can be done at any time of the day. I will do physio again and then take Sunday off.  The weather should be very fine tomorrow so that will add to the joy (hopefully) of the day. Although the start of the week is considerably chillier than tomorrow will be, there is no snow or freezing rain forecast until mid week. YAY! 

No Out Of Town Trip Tomorrow After All....Shucks!

I am disappointed that weather reports for the morning have effectively scotched our trip out of town tomorrow, but also relieved that the people we were going to meet with made that decision on their own...one of them is ill and the other of them decided it wasn't wise for the ill person to miss the meeting, plus apparently two old codgers should not be out drift busting on the highway in the blowing snowfall.  Another day.....

Today was a great day around here!  My husband got a couple of hours to himself while I went out for coffee with my weekly coffee buddy.  Usually she comes over here but today we decided it was time to go to a coffee bar of some kind. Wow, did we ever have a great time...my London Fog was such a treat and during the hour and a half we were there not one other customer entered the premises...we had the entire place to ourselves!  Incredible.  That has never ever happened to us in that particular venue in all the times we have been there and for about six months last year we went there every week.  We were sure with the sudden temperature rise to above zero status the place would be filled to overflowing, but nope! YAY!

We had friends in this afternoon for a Bible study. The leader is amazingly gifted and a very experienced Bible teacher....no, it isn't my husband, although he also qualifies on both counts, so it is nice for him to sit under someone else' teaching for a change.  While I rustled up the snacks my husband drove down the street to the nearest coffee shop so the staff could fill our coffee carafe.  We still have never purchased a coffee maker despite several years in full time pastoral ministry in towns where the ONLY drink of choice was, is, and will be forever: coffee! hahaha

As soon as our company left we hurried out to the CAA to straighten out a glitch in our payment plan. What a comedy of errors: first of all we unwittingly planned this venture during the start of the evening rush hour, dumb, dumb, dumb; then when we got to the CAA building we realized it had closed several month ago, but we had both forgotten; so away we went to the farthest away end of the same street, blocks and blocks and blocks, to the other still existing location, but now in the midst of the heavy rush hour traffic NOT knowing that only a few blocks from the CAA our trip would be stopped dead for a full ten minutes at a level RR crossing while we sat on pins and needles while what seemed like the longest train in the country crawled past at snail's pace, then came to a dead stop for a full minute.....sigh.....( yes, a run on sentence...but its pace describes the way things were going and how we were feeling at the time).  We could see the CAA sign ahead of us as we sat and waited impatiently, not knowing for certain if we were going to get there before closing time and trying not to fret.  FINALLY the last train car passed, then we had to wait for a slew of pedestrians to cross before our conga line of cars was able to start moving forward.  Thankfully we did get there prior to closing time and straightened out the issue with our payment.  Hallelujah!!  We will not find ourselves without coverage when our annual plan expires tomorrow!!

As we were leaving CAA my husband confessed that the reason he too had been a bit crabby while waiting for the train to pass was that he had forgotten to eat lunch and was absolutely ravenous.  I suppose I hadn't noticed at the time because I was eating enough for the both of us.  Anyway, I know that look and that attitude and decided we should stop at the first restaurant we came across to get him a meal.

The first place we came across was a somewhat sketchy mini mall pub: Chappys Restaurant and Lounge.  It has been there for a long time apparently but we had not noticed it before as we rarely go into that area of the city.  I admit, we didn't find it at all appealing, but in sympathy for my husband's obviously low blood sugar, in we went.  It was a nice surprise actually. Despite the decor being right out of the 1990's the place was clean and didn't appear to be falling apart at the seams.  Our "seater" and also the server were very pleasant and efficient, always a little bit of icing on the cake.  We received prompt service and chose their new menu item: a prime rib burger.  Okay, we had low expectations, but we were pleasantly surprised. That burger is the best one we have eaten in a very long time. It as very simply dressed with lettuce, tomato, mayo, a melted white cheddar slice and sauteed mushrooms.  The onion rings and "fries from a bag" were kind of standard diner fare, BUT the burgers were delicious....AND the price was amazing:  $16.99 per plate.  Yes, it was basic and simple, but the flavour was so good.  My husband isn't one to think something dreadful is good enough only due to his supreme hunger, so when he also enjoyed it, I felt justified in my own assessment of the meal. It was a lot of fun. Again, when we first arrived the main floor booths were already full, so we were seated in an upper portion of the restaurant where we sat completely alone for the first hour and a quarter before other dinner seekers began filling "our" area of the restaurant.  Two very private spaces for visiting in the same day...what are the odds, right?  I could see it on a bitterly cold Monday, but late on a Thursday afternoon in sunny sky-ed,  +6C weather??  WOW!

We came home for a pleasant evening here: my husband worked on a presentation for some postulants he has to give next month and I caught up on some tv shows I recorded some time ago....FINALLY watched the last of the most recent "Father Brown" series...at least the most recent one being shown here....from early 2025 I believe.

Now my husband is staying up late to watch a Science Fiction movie while I do a bit of keyboarding.  Since we don't have to be on the road by 7:30am now, we can just act like a couple of college kids and stay up as late as we want to.  There is only one errand to run tomorrow and we can accomplish that at our leisure.  

What a busy and happy day...more than worth doing 3 days of physio in a row on top of a thorough house cleaning so I can take two consecutive days off.  Unfortunately today's +6C was the pinnacle of our high temperatures for some time to come with a high of only -8C tomorrow and that being about average for the next few days. NOT looking forward to another day of swirling snow tomorrow!!

A Sky Covered In Wool Batting!

The pale blue sky is peeking out between cloud formations that look like rows of wool batting: curvy fluffy puffy sorts of clouds in neat rows.  Makes me want to pull all that cloud cover down and wrap myself up in it to stay warm on another cold day.  At least there is also a bit of sun shining through the gaps in the woolly loveliness.

It has been a happy weekend.  I kept up with my physiotherapy so I could take my Sunday off as usual, I had a great time yesterday ironing, playing a silly old video game that has brightly coloured graphics which amuse me greatly, making decent meals and just enjoying my day.  Today I had a good time at church. We started our adult class on meditative poetry with a short selection each from George Herbert (The Windows), John Donne (Batter My Heart, Three-Personed God) and John Milton (When I Consider How My Light Is Spent).  I confess I have not spent a lot of time on any of these three poets as I tend to go in for the more obscure types of poems, BUT really did enjoy the class today. I learned more about the spiritual and circumstantial state of each of those three poets at the time when they wrote these poems.  The one I identified with most was John Donne's.  The very real struggle so many of us go through, knowing there is a better way to believe and live that only God can give to us, but knowing we are completely and not that unhappily trapped in the endemic evil of the world we live in.....so much truth in that brief French sonnet. The author wants and even feels a need for God to violently wrench him away from the world that has taken over his life, yet he is dealing with a god who doesn't force change, only knocks quietly at the door of our hearts.  The sonnet is from about 1633.  Love how the definitions of some of the words in these poems  have changed in our day...for example our "gladly" appears at the word "fain".  The word "fondly" in Milton's poem, circa 1652, actually meant "foolishly".   It was a fun class and I learned quite a bit about how these men struggled with their faith.  Looking forward very much to next week's class! Next week we will be tackling Gerard Manley Hopkins "Pied Beauty", T.S. Eliot's "Journey of the Magi", and Robert Frost's "The Silken Tent".

Coffee hour was fun after the service today: I had a chance to visit with an 85 year old friend who discovered competitive swim meets when she was 65 and is still competing.  She was at the local pool this morning before church where she swam her daily 150 laps. I feel like I am 100 years old compared to her and her incredible energy.  I think I am doing well to complete 90 minutes of physio a few mornings a week without collapsing. hahaha  Wow....she is an incredible inspiration!  NOT sure though just how inspired I myself will end up being in terms of my own fitness once the physio finally comes to an end! hahaha  

We decided to go to Fancy Fork for lunch after church.  We each decided to order the Forest Feast crepes stuffed with chicken and mushroom and onions and covered in a delicious arugula pesto sauce.  There was also an over easy egg on each plate and we were supposed to order two sides. My husband ordered the Greek herbed cubed potatoes and bacon for his sides and I chose the fruit selection and bacon with mine.  WEEEEEELLLLLL....my fruit selection was wonderful: a slice of jack fruit, a quarter of an orange, a large slice of pineapple, 4 black grapes, a strawberry, a small slice of watermelon....yummy!!  What we didn't understand from the menu and never considered possible was that we would each receive three of the crepes...THREE!!!  Okay, the crepes were not gigantic, but they weren't pint sized either.  Oh my goodness....all this yummyness for only twenty dollars a plate!!  Yes, they were gigantic plates. They had to be to hold all the food!  How on earth could we bring home pesto covered crepes? They would never last. So we just ate them and brought home the fruit and the bacon. My husband managed to eat all three of his crepes plus his potatoes.  I was very grateful for the giant sized glass of soda to wash all those crepes down.  Fortunately we had to take a little walk after lunch to get back to our car and then after a short drive I had an errand to run that used up a few steps.  Slurp, urp, burp....wow, we are both still full four hours later and will be eating dinner very late this evening....a teeny tiny dinner after the huge luncheon.  

We received word this morning that my walking partner's father in law passed away very unexpectedly last evening.  We are praying for her husband as he is in shock and for all of the family.  I know that shock. It is not good.  If you feel so led, could you offer up a prayer that all the family can come together to support the surviving spouse and assist in making arrangements to assist her in the future? Thank you so much.

I am kind of happy that the televised Olympic coverage is over for another couple of years because most of my favourite TV shows take a hiatus during that two weeks. Since I only watch the occasional bit of Olympic coverage, (I am not the biggest supporter of those games due to the doping issues, the politicized voting, the lack of good sportsmanship among the various world teams, the cheating scandals), it has been kind of a dry week for televised entertainment.  Fortunately I don't have that many programmes each week that I truly enjoy, but still I have missed that handful of shows.  In the meantime I tried to get into "The Copenhagen Test" as much as my husband is, but when I watched episode seven, thinking it was the last one, only to discover there is one more that Crave has not yet put out for public viewing and I have no idea if it will ever show up or not, my last bit of interest departed.  There were some pretty wierd gaps in logic that suddenly cropped up in episode seven...yes even more so than in the other six episodes....so even if the last episode appears I don't know if I will bother seeing how the season ends.  Meh.....

Tomorrow will be another good day I think: physio in the morning while my husband attends a couple of meetings, one on Zoom and then before it quite ends, racing off across the city for an in person meeting.  After lunch we are going to visit a cousin of my husband's that we only see once every couple of years. Even though we all live here in the city, she is gone to Arizona most winters for about 5 months and has a lakeside cabin for the summer months that is many miles away.  Occasionally there is a cousins' reunion for the handful of cousins who all live here but never seem to cross paths in the routine of regular daily events.  We have  visitors coming a couple of times this week, my husband is out for breakfast with a friend one morning, we are going out of town for part of a day weather permitting....yes, after being stuck at home so much last week due to snowfall and cold temperatures, it feels wonderful to have a few things to look forward to!

On The Wrong Side Of The Arch Once Again!

 I am looking out my window and seeing that there is what I call a "reverse" chinook arch going on outside.  When I lived in Calgary area I lived for those sky signs of an impending chinook warm up because I knew that when I looked to the west from under the cloud cover over the city and saw deep blue cloudlessness out there, the temperatures by the afternoon were going to rise by as many as 20 degrees and last for a couple or three days, almost all of the snow would met away so that when it got cold again there wouldn't be very much ice to deal with.  Not so here....today we are under the blue sky and there is a perfect arch of CLOUDS to the west, so that means our temperatures are going to stay very cold for a few more days, whether or not we get any more snow.  I just checked the weather forecast to confirm, and sure enough we have overnight lows between -24C and -28C coming up this weekend. Blecch!!!  My husband just told me he watched a sun dog form around the sun earlier this morning, confirming what I suspected is going to happen when I saw the reverse arch. Dang it....WHY do I detest winter so much??  Well, there are obvious answers I suppose. Perhaps the question is better phrased as, "Why can't I seem to adjust to these miserable winters the way I used to be able to?"  I suppose THAT is the real question!

Even though the cold entering our suite through the single and double paned windows is rather intense today, we have all the blinds and drapes open so we can soak up the sun for however long it lasts.  Gosh, even on such a miserable day for temperature, the sunshine can't help but make us cheerier than we are on overcast, grey days. We can put on extra sweaters if it gets too cold in here with the curtains open. 

My energy is up:  cooking and dishes and 6 loads of laundry have been happening, I got showered and dressed bright and early this morning and am just taking a break between loads of laundry.  I had a decent sleep last night as our next door neighbours went out with one of their sponsoring families last evening to share the first night of the Ramadan season together. They didn't come home until mid morning, so we got a great sleep last night with no banging about next door until 3am for a change.  

It feels good to feel good today!!  Long may it last!

My Turn To Get Dinged By The CRA

I have heard and read about how far behind the CRA is these days in sending out rebates and assessments for the previous tax year etc. Today I discovered it is my turn to pay the price for their being so far behind. I got a notice today telling me that my final assessment for the 2024 tax year has resulted in my having to repay an assessed over payment of the Harmonized Sales Tax rebate. Their reassessment of what I should have received over this past year means I have to repay the CRA for their over payment, BUT fortunately I only owe them one hundred and forty-eight dollars. Whew! As PO’d as I am that it has taken them this long to figure it out, I do consider myself fortunate to have such a small tax bill. I will go to the bank tomorrow and make my payment. I also have to figure out how to do my 2025 income taxes online at long last….finally forced into it because I received the notice recently that paper copies of my tax forms will no longer be delivered in the mail. Rats…..I have to get with the programme and learn more new technological methods instead of being so technologically lazy. Poop! Hahaha….

As We Get Old And Forgetful We Might As Well Enjoy Our Serendipitous Mistakes!!

What a laugh we had at ourselves earlier this morning!  My husband was supposed to be getting his regular police check done to confirm his Anglican License to Officiate for another year, and he was pleased that he could get in today, even though he only tried to make the appointment a couple of days ago.  It usually takes a lot longer than that to secure an appointment.  We were thrilled to get to the visitor parking at the police station just as someone else was pulling out of their space in the midst of the woefully inadequately sized lot.  YAY!!  We were right on time. Things were working out very well.  My husband went into the station and I opened the first pages of a brand new book.  In about four minutes my husband returned to the car, looking sheepish and obviously very embarrassed. hahaha Poor guy....yup, he was indeed booked in for a Friday morning appointment....for NEXT Friday!  hahaha  He completely misread the calendar and when his texted confirmation of date and time arrived on his phone right after he booked in the other day, he didn't bother to look at it because he was so sure he knew what he was doing.  hahahaha WRONG AGAIN! hahaha  Oh how we laughed when he got back in the car and explained to me what had happened.  

So, there we sat....were there any other errands we could run since we were out and about anyway?  I told him we were not far from the eye-wear store where I bought my newest glasses and that I needed them tightened,  so off we went into the downtown.  He was most fortunate to find a parking space open only a few yards from the store I needed to go to, so this time it was himself reading a book while I went to have my frames reset.  I was only gone about twenty minutes.  My husband put 30 minutes worth of parking time into the meter, so we had time to spare.  Well, while I was in there cars had  pulled in very closely both in front and back of him and getting our car out of the spot was going to be nearly impossible. Our car was completely hemmed in.  We sat in the car for a few minutes with no sign of either of the other drivers reappearing to move their vehicles and give us the space we needed to pull out of the spot. What to do?  

We decided that since we were only less than a block from a busy little downtown pub, Lancasters, we would go over there and eat lunch.  We shared a 10 inch spinach, feta and chicken pizza and quite enjoyed ourselves.  Since we arrived a few minutes before noon we were able to snag our favourite front of house table, a large semi-booth right in the front window and away from the loudest of the music speakers.  It was quite lovely.  With it being a Friday we didn't plan to hang around after we ate because we knew the place would be filling up quickly with downtown office workers.  Our pizza was quite delicious and just the right size for us.  As we were eating our last three or four bites a friend from church arrived with her five office staff to celebrate a birthday lunch for one of them. The place was packed out and there were no other tables available that would hold that many people.  She was starting to check her phone to see if there were other restaurants in the immediate area that had room for a party of six, so we got her attention and told her we would be done in two minutes or less so her party could have our booth.  They were so sweet and didn't want us to rush, but we were done anyway. While my husband downed his last couple of mouthfuls of pizza, (actually the correct word is more like "mouthsfull", but the spell checker goes insane when I try to key that word in, so....), I went to the cashier and paid our tab, explaining that a large party needed our spot.  My goodness the staff were so very grateful not to lose a party of six because of two oldsters doddling over a small, shared pizza. hahaha  It worked out very well for us all.   

When we returned to our car, the car that had been behind us was gone and we had all the room we needed to get back out onto the street to go home.  There was a fair amount of time left on our parking meter, so I was delighted that as we were pulling out, another car was about to pull into our spot. Someone received nearly an hour of free parking today.  YAY!!  I love when that happens....to me and to others.

SO, no police check today, but my glasses were unexpectedly tightened. we had lunch out and were able to end up being table savers for our friend and her colleagues, we were able to unexpectedly help out someone who needed a parking meter....hahaha...what a great time this morning turned into after all....and just because of one mistake my husband made over his scheduling!  You never know when cool little things are going to happen to make an ordinary day kind of special.

Then I arrived home to the news that my walking partner is coming over for a visit early next week. She has been very ill with a respiratory virus and I am so relieved she is feeling better at last.  Having had a similar illness a few weeks ago, I can relate to how miserable she felt and how long it has taken for her to get better.  

I feel like doing physio today again and then taking both weekend days off, but I also realize I MUST rest the damaged foot on the non-operated leg.  The ruptured tendon, (yes, it is ruptured, but only about a level 1 to 2 at worst, so I have been doing all the right things to help it along during its 12 -16 week healing period), let me know by last night that it needed another day of rest after unexpectedly doing physio two days in a row midweek, so I am going to obey its commands.  It is feeling quite good today.  I can tackle the physio again tomorrow as is usual for my weekly schedule.  Eventually all my little aches and pains associated with the fallout from the hip revision surgery will heal up and then I will be all set to have the other hip replaced....Oh dear Lord, will the need for recovery and physiotherapy ever stop???  At this point my non-operated leg has sustained more injuries than my operated leg...more annoying and only temporarily debilitating compared to the surgery, but so very irritating!!!  Okay, okay, this too shall pass.....

Now I just need the horrific icy covering on the snow buildup on our way out to our car to also pass.  The thin coating of ice that was melted yesterday and re-froze overnight means it isn't possible to break through to the snow for boots to get a grip.  I slipped and slid my way out to the car this morning, gripping my cane in one hand and my husband's arm with the other.  I wasn't able to step down from the ice on the lawn onto the icy patch beside our car, so my husband had me stand on the bare edge of the concrete ledge between the edge of the grass and the step down into the lot, then he backed the car out of our parking space and pulled around sideways so I could step down onto one tiny patch of bare asphalt and fling myself into the passenger side. hahaha Quite a spectacle I am sure. Well, we are nothing if not an entertaining sight for our neighbours, hahaha.  It isn't going above zero today, so who knows when our current "ice age" will come to an end with more snow to cover the remaining ice prior to the BIG "ice age" of spring. Aiii yiiiii......

It's A Beautiful Day In OUR Neighbourhood, How About Yours?

The temperature is currently +5C and the snow is slowly melting. The large piles along our parking lot that have been stacked during parking lot snow removal efforts have shrunk somewhat and are muddy looking, no longer bright, pristine white.  The sky is winter blue and the sun is shining...o glorious day!!

It has been a good day thus far: my coffee buddy came over this morning and we had a great chat.  While we had breakfast my husband and I cleared off a couple of tv programmes we had recorded previously.  After lunch I felt compelled to take advantage of feeling so very well and energetic today, so I didn't take today off from physio exercises.  I just completed the full repertoire and it feels good!  It means I won't have to do the exercises tomorrow and can accompany my husband on some late morning errands.  YAY!  So that is three sessions out of four already accomplished this week. Only Saturday physio to complete the commitment for the week.  I am going to go outside and wander about for a few minutes on our currently snow free sidewalks, because by Monday we are back to rain that will freeze overnight and leave the sidewalks and streets nearly impossible for me to navigate as the temperatures after that predicted rainfall will remain below zero for several days....IF the forecast is actually correct.  Gosh, I so hope that rain prediction is dead wrong.  

Last evening we went out and had a really great time!  Friends from church and some of their musical acquaintances have a fun band, Narrow Gate, that was playing at Bushwakker's Brew Pub, so my husband and I met up there with two other friends to spend the evening.  We had a wonderful dinner, followed by 90 minutes of listening to our friends singing and playing their hearts out.  It was so much fun. Quite a few other people from the church were there to support them as well, so that made the whole evening extra special.  We rarely go out to such things of a winter evening, so it was quite a treat. That is twice now in the past couple of months that we have enjoyed an evening event, the first being our trip to the Globe Theatre in December.

I am going to try to enjoy each and every warm day for the next few days by getting outside either in the car or for a short walk or both.  Once it gets icy and cold again my wings will be clipped until the next melt occurs. 

More Snow To Cover The Ice On The Back Lawn....YAY!!

 I am happy that we had more snow this morning because it gives my winter boot soles something to grip as I crab walk my way out to the car later this afternoon. The ice underneath is still curling rink quality, but at least if I scuttle sideways across the lawn it will reduce my chances of my boots sliding on that icy under layer.  Been there, done that, many a prairie winter now.

Thought about some silly old sayings this morning for some reason, such as: I don't know how many cookies it takes to make a person happy, but so far I know it is not 27! hahaha  For a cookie addict like myself, this is a great saying!! hahaha Then there is the oldie but goodie:  Hello, this is the Urology department. Can you hold?  hahaha  Talk about silly, eh? 

The freezing drizzle yesterday morning meant once again we could not go to church in person. Well, my husband was originally prepared to go without me, but he had a bad sleep the night before, so just remained at home watching on Zoom with me.  Turns out it is a good thing we didn't try to go. Reports from other friends who braved the trip made us aware of how slippery and dangerous the residential streets around the church were and how some of them almost turned around to slide back to their cars and return home.  Our poor verger strained something in his back when he was opening the church early in the morning and then made it worse when he turned around inside to pull the door closed again.  Apparently he spent the service in his office waiting for the pain killers to kick in so he could get home again.  As of yesterday afternoon he was back home lying on the sofa and feeling quite fine....as long as he made no attempt to move!!  Back pain....one of the worst.  We pray he heals up quickly and can get on with life and work.

A dear friend decided to pick up our charitable receipt at the church and bring it to us yesterday afternoon.  How incredibly kind.  I watched her slowly wending her way across the ice to get to our door and felt even more gratitude that she would do such a thing.  The other benefit for me was that she stayed for a nice long visit....a real boon on an otherwise lonely weekend.

We have confirmed that while my husband is at his doctor's appointment today, he will drop me at the front door of WallyWorld to pick up a few groceries and a few cheap novels to read as I am completely out of books!  There MAY be some kind of biography or truly interesting detective novel on the shelves, but I suspect I will end up with something less than stellar to peruse once again.  I have not shopped for food products at WallyWorld for many a year, apart from an occasional item here and there, so it will be interesting to see if I can find the things we really need there.

My husband made challa bread yesterday...three beautifully braided loaves.  We have three neighbours we want to give the loaves to once they return home from work tonight....our Ukrainian friends, our Nigerian friends and, if they are at home tonight, our new next door neighbours.  Food has been delivered to them in the past several days from their faith community, so hopefully they will be open to some bread from us.  I would take them a casserole, but have no halal meat at the moment.  I need to pick up another couple of packages of Halal for just such "emergencies". 

My schedule for physio is working out well now. I should have started this schedule long ago.  Having a day off between bouts is working well as far as being motivational on exercise days, and also gives my hip a good rest between sessions.  Mentally and physically it provides a good time to regroup after every session.  So thankful to have FINALLY figured this out. I have a vague memory of my post-surgical physiotherapist recommending this, but like most things I was told while still in my anaesthetic haze, I completely forgot about it until a couple of weeks ago. Duh... 

My walking partner who has been terribly ill with a respiratory infection let me know today that she is sufficiently mended to have a visit sometime in the next week or so. YAY!  I LOVE having company. The lack of medical appointments we have to go to after today is also most pleasant and makes me all the more eager to see people as I gaze at the almost empty calendar thus far for this month.

 

Finally....We Have Our New Neighours!

 After waiting for a full month, there are finally neighbours once again on the other side of the adjoining wall.  It is being rented by the family we thought it was rented by, BUT it is not for the two newly adult sons.  It is for the 30 something aged married son/daughter and their two, I think two, small children.  It seems the main adjustment we will have to make will be to get used once again to having two young, shrieking, slamming about the place little ones, but they are young enough that they should be in bed by 9pm or before most nights.  We have previously survived some pretty horrendous, day long, day after day, groups of 6 to 8 children pounding up and down the stairs and hollering all day long, so once we get used to having Kid Noise beside us again, I think we will be just fine.  If that is the worst noise we have to suffer, it is no big deal for the most part.  The family moved in around dinner time this evening with grandpa's help, hauling large suitcases with clothing spilling out around the edges and boxes of kitchen and bathroom utensils.  Some mattresses have been taken in and the family is staying there overnight. Hopefully they will have some furniture arriving tomorrow.  Grandpa doesn't speak English apparently and I don't know how long our neighbours have been in this country.  I hope we can be wonderful neighbours to them and that we can learn more about their culture as time goes on. In the spring and summer when we can all be outside it will be easier to connect.  Here's hoping.  We feel quite peaceful about these neighbours and hopefully the extra sealant my husband put on the adjoining basement wall will continue to work well because the husband smokes.  Thus far no evidence of any dogs, so that is a plus.  Thanks all of you who have been praying for this situation for the past month. We appreciate it very much.

It has been a good week here.  Each day my sprained foot gets a little bit better and I am learning how much time I can safely spend doing chores and running errands before it starts to feel a bit more tender.  I have been able to get out several times this week and have gotten some laundry and house chores completed that there was no way I could have accomplished prior to this week without incurring excruciating pain in that foot.  

Doing physio on this new schedule is going to work well for me I think.  Going at it every second day makes me more motivated and less lazy to get started in the mornings.  Doing two days together at the end of the week seems less onerous because that happens now only once a week.  It is extremely tiring, but as I see more progress happening I am coping better with being tired after my workouts.

Last night was had a ton of fun:  we planned to meet up with a friend for dinner at the Fancy Fork as her husband has been overseas tending to his extended family duties after a death in the family.   We knew he was scheduled to get home late last night and thought it would be fun to distract our friend for at least part of the evening so she wasn't champing at the bit and pacing at home waiting to go to the airport to pick him up.  Well, when he arrived back in Toronto he was able to sweet talk his way onto a much earlier flight that originated in Ottawa, but got held up in Toronto for some reason. All he had to do was agree he would return to our airport at 11:30pm to pick up his luggage that would be coming in on his originally scheduled flight.  SO, he was back here one hour before our scheduled dinner with his wife.  We assumed dinner would be cancelled, but no!  He was very excited about the idea of joining us, jet lag and all, so the four of us had a splendid time visiting and feasting and hearing about his adventures.  The evening turned out to be even more special than we thought it would be.  

I overate last night as the meal was so delicious (bourbon infused shrimp and chicken with a vegetable medley of carrots, asparagus, cauliflower,  peas, onions and mushrooms, plus the daily risotto that was delightfully  creamy and delicious AND only two carb units worth, so I was free to eat my carrots and peas.  I pigged out on the amazing amount of protein, so that left me very tired by the time I got home and I spent half of today trying to stay awake after a poor sleep overnight, but it was worth it. YUMMM!

After missing the last two Bible studies we were able to attend the meeting today and it was wonderful to get going again with the study and get caught up with the other members of the group. We have not been able to meet with them since our last meeting in early December!  (Thanks to me and all my ills...sigh....)

My coffee buddy was here this morning and we had a most wonderful visit.  It has been three weeks or more since our last visit as well, so we had a lot to catch up on.  

Tomorrow I will do physio and iron some clothes that I managed to get washed earlier in the week, That will feel good!  I hope to do a couple of loads of laundry for my husband as well since I had the most dirty clothes to wash and didn't have the oomph the other day to do his clothes too.  Saturday will be physio and whatever else comes our way....and if nothing does it should be warm enough to get out for a short walk up and down the street in front of our place.....IF we don't have the freezing rain possibility that was just forecast a few hours ago.  Sunday we are going to make a sincere attempt to get to church in person for the first time in a month.  

We have just enough to look forward to this weekend but without being overly busy.  My husband will start looking over his seminar on Forgiveness as he is going to be teaching it at a local church over the five weeks of Lent.  He hasn't had a chance to do a Lenten study for a year or two and this one is pretty well put together since he has presented it a few other times to other groups. He is so looking forward to doing it again. 

Thank you praying folk for your concern for me over the past few weeks. I think I am finally coming out the other side of this annoying series of trials. 

Cold, But Oh That Sunshine Is The BEST!!!

It is -35C again this morning, but I don't care since I don't have to go outside for anything!  What I do care about and appreciate very  much is the cloudless blue sky and brilliant sunshine we have right now.  It is glorious to see. Despite the cold radiating off the single and double pane windows, I have thrown open the curtains and raised the blinds to let the beautiful sunlight in.  So very pretty to watch it glinting off the freshly fallen snow on the lawns.  My bigger concern is what is going to happen in NYC with the predicted huge snowfall and winds there this weekend as it coincides with the opening of our daughter-in-law's theatre production!  Praying hard that it will not turn into a total disaster and that the trains will be running that night.

I completed the first half of my physiotherapy a few minutes ago and am taking a few minutes to rest the sprained foot on the other leg before tackling Part Deux!  This morning, with my walking shoes tied securely, I was able to complete all 30 repetitions of the first part of the programme, so that is encouraging.  I will do a full week of exercises before returning to using the resistance band so I don't risk another injury!  It feels so good to be back into my morning exercise routine. 

My husband's cold is looking more and more like it was a one day allergy attack as he has had no more symptoms over the past three days. We are both so grateful for that!

Yesterday I was able to stagger about vacuuming and dusting the bedroom, hallway and stairwell without further irritating the sprained foot, so that was a bonus accomplished around some other tasks.  This afternoon's self-imposed assignment is to scrub down the bathroom, walls and all.  Then tomorrow I will start cleaning the kitchen, dining and living rooms...and if I have to slop some of that into the next day, no problem. The point is that I have healed enough from sprain and cold to start catching up on all manner of past due needs around this house! Yes, I am being careful okay? Don't worry friends and family.

The wonder of friends has hit me very hard the past few days: from emails of support to phone calls from friends across Canada, to unexpected food deliveries, to books dropped off in my mailbox, the love and encouragement I have received is amazing. Thank you everyone. I love you too!!

This has been a happy week for my husband in terms of cooking:  first of all I was able to return to my kitchen duties a couple of days ago, prior to that good friends from Bible Study dropped off the most delicious soup and biscuits, then last night our Nigerian neighbour stopped in to pick up some things I had for his children and his wife sent over a carton of chicken legs and spicy rice.....Oh wow, can't wait to eat that meal for lunch today.   What a lovely surprise.  He and my husband had a good conversation about who they think is going to win the present Sumo Basho in Tokyo and they are in agreement that it COULD be Aonishiki...the rookie Ozeki.  We shall see what happens at the final event on Sunday evening.

Again....new friends from Africa have been added into the mix of our relationships here.  

One development in our eventual move out of here....IF it ever happens, hahaha....this morning my husband and I had a long talk about how God uses even our mistakes to teach us good things.  I talked about feeling rather foolish that I began packing nearly two years ago now, BUT in that two years we have discovered that in all of those 16 boxes, there is maybe the equivalent of three of those boxes that contain items we have struggled without and know we need to move with us when the time comes.  SO, starting next week I am going to slowly start the unpacking process for the things in those boxes and reclaim what is ours to keep using until the actual move, then one box at a time I will go through everything and eliminate many, many things I thoughtlessly assumed would be coming with us on a move and filling our thrift store box to overflowing once again.  I don't want to take all the boxes of now unnecessary things to the thrift store without salvaging all the packing materials each item is wrapped in as it is very expensive to replace.  I feel like a huge weight has lifted off my shoulders with this decision to do more of my own downsizing on this side of a move. I am realizing there are many things that, even if we moved into another space this large, I simply do not need and will not use again. Thank you Lord for this somewhat embarrassing, but badly needed lesson.

Even my husband confessed this morning that he is losing his interest in preparing various items for mailing that he could send to museums to the west who have expressed a POSSIBLE interest in some of his collected family items.  The amount of work and expense it is going to take is no longer appealing to him and he realizes as time goes on the importance of what happens to them in his own mind has gone way down.  I am so proud of him.  

One of the friends I talked to on the phone this week had the responsibility of eliminating over one thousand pounds worth of her late husband's collection of CD's, comic books and science fiction books.  After doing her research in regard to selling them, discovering none of the bookstores in this country want most of them and none of the thrift stores are interested in being inundated with so many of each item, she loaded up the car umpteen times and deposited every last one of each item in the local dump.  What would have sold for some good money even a few years ago....it is all worthless now as most of even the second hand specialty retail stores dealing in those items are already too full of them and they are not selling.  Good on her!  What a marvellous example she is to us.

Generally the fog is lifting from my addled, sinus infected brain as the infection is pretty much gone now and life seems like it could, just maybe, be worth living again.

Here's to the oncoming spring!!! AMEN! 

No New Neighbours Yet After All

 Apparently we had a squatter for a couple of days in the next door suite. What I thought was a new neighbour was actually a “temporary resident”.  Aiiii yiiii…not a comfortable feeling. Maintenance came in after the squatter left, cleaned up whatever mess was left, fixed a door lock and have now showed the suite to three prospective tenants. So I still have time to pray for mercy in regard to who eventually moves in. Now we have squatters! If I ever get mobile again I GOTTA get outta this place! 

We Must Be Getting New “Other Side Of The Wall” Neighbours Today!

We awoke a few minutes ago to the sound of the complex maintenance personnel chipping the several inches build up of snow and ice off the back steps and deck of the suite next door. That means the new tenants will be arriving today or tomorrow. We are guessing today based upon the fervency with which the personnel attacked the project.

Now the prayers and hopes for quiet, non-smoking, yappy-dog-free tenants begin for the day. There is always anxiety when new tenants are coming due to the lack of adequate sound proofing in this old building. 

We have been so blessed in our coming up to 11 years of tenancy in here with only one set of truly horrible circumstances next door, so do we have the right after all the changes in tenants during that time to ask God for one more set of good neighbours? Is it asking too much? Is it too much to expect? Or do we just assume God will take care of this once again? 

When you are older and retired like we are and spend so much time at home in your suite, noise is a far greater issue than when you are young, away at work all day, going to events most evenings and falling into a deep sleep at night. 

Well, it will be an interesting couple of days around here. I hope WE can also be good neighbours to the new tenants.