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

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

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

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

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

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

HOT HOT HOT!!!!

This  font is named "Lobster" and it is appropriate for today.  It is +36C this afternoon and my sweaty face is as red as a lobster from just the "exertion" of going up and down the stairs at home a couple of times this afternoon.  With no AC it gets pretty warm in this place at this temperature.  Our area is under an Orange Level heat warning  for the next two days, indicating that the overnight temperature will not get any chillier than about +20C before heading back up to at least +35C again tomorrow.  I do hope the forecast for the weekend is correct: highs of (only)  +27C with overnight rain.  We really need that rain....although this afternoon I watched a Nova tv programme talking about rain bombs, something I had never heard of before and something I hope we never get here!!!  Having to park our vehicle outside leaves me in a state of constant concern when hail could be on the horizon. ("Rain Bombs": look-them-up-on-Mother-Google!)

I am grateful that I purchased a very soft, baggy, light cotton knit summer dress a few weeks ago that was also inexpensive and perfect for hot days like this.  It is definitely going to be crammed into my little packing case to go to NYC in August.  It can be worn for a few days and easily washed out by hand. LOVE IT!!   I don't think I have ever been so comfortably dressed for this kind of heat wave.  I have three or four very light dresses for hot weather that will easily roll into that packing case for the trip.  

Even though my daughter in law is still in Montreal we have already made a tentative plan to take the 90 minute train ride out of NYC to see the artworks at the Dea Beacon during our visit. They currently have an Agnes Martin exhibition on until 2028 and, as she is an iconic Saskatchewan artist whose paintings we all love, it will be a wonderful opportunity to see more of her work.  How exciting!!!  My daughter in law is a planner.....it is what she does much of the time in her position with the theatre as a producer, so we are enjoying her excitement at showing us some more sights in NY.  Our son as yet has no idea we are starting to make all these plans, but I think he will be very happy with our choices, hahahahaha.  

My coffee buddy was here this morning.  We had such a good visit.  With both of us moving here "from away" we have many mutual newcomer experiences to share.  I have been here about 8 years longer than she has, but her experiences mirror my own from my arrival here.  It is so interesting how each place I have lived has its own social customs and cultural expectations...from town to town, from province to province. Fascinating stuff. 

I have to go and make dinner now....blecch!  I barely have the energy to eat dinner let alone have to make it first, hahaha.  However, I better get to it before dinner time creeps up on me and my blood sugar drops low enough to make me as crabby as a bear in autumn!! (And spring....and summer.....ooh I am TERRIFIED of bears all year round!!) 

 

A Beeeeaaaaauuuuuutiful Day!!!!

The sun is shining, there are a few puffy white clouds in the sky, there is barely a breeze and although that breeze is a bit chilly still, the temperature is heading toward +20C and there is true warmth in the sun's rays.  Just walking back to my car after the ladies' breakfast this morning I had to take my sweater off so I could enjoy the warmth on my bare arms and through the open neck of my blouse.  Oh how long we have waited for days like this one to arrive.

The breakfast was so much fun.  There were seventeen of us visiting together and munching on two varieties of home made mini quiches, hot cross buns, sausage rounds, cheeses, several varieties of fresh fruit and yoghurts, dessert loaves....oh it was quite a spectacular feast.  Carol, our guest of honour, was completely exhausted by the time it was over, but she had a wonderful time, visited with everyone, we took group photos, we shared scriptures that are meaningful to us, we prayed together....it was really a lovely time.  I am so grateful I could be a part of it today.  

Now I am home enjoying the silence as my husband is mentoring the newly ordained priests in our diocese.  His part of the mentoring programme today is talking about how to try to avoid burnout in ministry, signs to look for that it may be immanent, how to deal with it when it happens, etc. Since he suffered severe burnout on two different occasions in the course of his ministry he has learned many valuable lessons to share in hopes they will help some of our newbies not to fall into the same traps that he did. I am grateful he gets to share his experiences and how he had to learn it all the hardest way.  He still suffers from the consequences of that last major burnout back in 2009.  So, he knows whereof he speaks when he tries to impress upon them the dangers of ignoring the first signs and thinking those signs will go away if "I just work a little harder."  Nope..... 

I now have about 5 hours to fill happily on my own.  I am not certain how best to spend them. There is so much housework I am behind on that needs doing, but it seems like too nice of a day to spend picking up dust and washing floors. Besides I have those chores all planned out for next week. I think I will just enjoy the rest of my day reading, playing silly computer games, preparing a decent lunch for myself, perhaps a walk and dinner for the two of us when my husband gets home later on. Being at home alone is kind of a luxury these days and with my husband being well enough again now to fulfill his duties and go out for the day without worry that I will have to suddenly drive out to pick him up early because he is ill, I think I have "earned"  the right to putz around here as I please today. hahaha  

Happy Mother's Day To Moi!

 It has been a happy Sunday here with lovely warm temperatures, sunshine and only a very mild breeze.  My husband is still extremely tired, but decided that my idea of walking to church was a good idea for us both.  So, I took my cane along, used it only slightly for the last kilometre of the just under 3km distance and didn't suffer much in the way of muscle discomfort.  YAY! Coming home it was my long ago operated on ankle that bothered me for the last 8 blocks or so....the pin through the "balance bone" is starting to slowly work its way out, 15 years post surgery, and the rounded end is pushing hard on the skin covering that bone.  Now I have to adjust my gait AGAIN to keep from irritating it further when I walk.  (I have decided that when and if it reaches the point of needing to be removed I will ask for a referral to the surgeon in Saskatoon who was the originating surgeon.  He was fantastic, still has a fantastic reputation and told me that if I needed it removed in twenty years I should ask to return to him so he can view how his handiwork with that pin, and the two plates he put my ankle back together with, is holding up long term.  Yup, I just may take him up on that at some point.

We had such good teaching today in our adult class by one of our parishioners about "Covenant" and how the Hebrew and Greek words used to describe covenant are so rich in various meanings.  It was a good learning experience.  My husband was of course already familiar with the material, but he and I haven't discussed it much, so I really enjoyed learning more about it all.

In church we welcomed back one of our university students who spent his first year at McGill in Montreal studying mathematics and is now doing a summer internship at the church.  He is a fine, compassionate and intelligent young fellow who grew up in that congregation and is very well liked.  It will be a pleasure to have him on staff over the holiday months.  

 We decided to walk home a different route after church and we were hungry, but where to go on a busy Mother's Day for lunch that would not be an overcrowded, noisy buffet...reservations only please....  We settled on a little Trifon's Pizza restaurant along our route, with low expectations of the fare, but we were pleasantly surprised.  Simple food yes, but much more delicious than we were expecting.  There were only a few folk dining there as it is off the main path of Sunday downtown traffic, our server was very friendly and helpful, so we had a great time having a Mother's Day date!!

Walking home we were rather slower paced as we had very full tummies!!!  I had to stop and rest my ankle a couple of times...hmmmm....hoping that doesn't become the norm. The hip revision arthroscopy has thrown my entire body into a flap after having two years now of not walking in my normal fashion, both before and after surgery.  This too shall pass as I get readjusted to the new normal I am sure.  

One thing I appreciate about our church is that no mention is made of Mothers' and Fathers' Days or any other "greeting card" observances.  However, I was aware that there would be at least a few women asking me if I was going to hear from our son today....how on earth would I know, right??? hahaha  Well, as it turned out I did wake up at 8am to an email from him...the message had zero to do with Mothers' Day as he had other things on his mind and obviously had no idea it even is Mothers' Day, BUT when there ladies started twittering on about their contact with their kids upcoming this afternoon and evening and of course couldn't refrain from asking me about my son, I was able to tell them that I personally had ALREADY heard from him. hahaha Oh, they were so impressed, hahahaha. Bless their hearts. They are in my age group and older, so these sorts of remembrances are still very important to them. I am grateful that many of the younger generations are not so tied to celebrating such silly greeting card days.  When I got home from church I had another email from my son waiting. He confessed he had forgotten it is Mothers' Day and if he had time would it be okay to call me tonight.  hahaha I emailed him back and said if he didn't get around to it, that was no problem, not worth taking stress over. Today he is installing his latest works for the Esther lll  art fair, so has rather a lot else on his mind.  

Soon my husband will be going over to the home of friends to help them design some kind of wood working project they want to do in their home and while he is away I will copy off the by-laws and familiarize myself better with the financial statements for the board meeting I am attending tomorrow evening.

It has been a very happy Mothers' Day thus far and I am grateful. 

Ooh, Goody, I DID IT!!!

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

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

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

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

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

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

Moving Slowly But Steadily Through The Day!

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

A blessed Sunday to you all.   

My Incredible Husband Has Taken Over The Taxes!!

 I am blessed beyond measure this afternoon.  My husband took one look at me trying to figure out how or even if a particular tax credit applies to me, saw the stress on my face and has now taken over doing all the rest of the tax forms for us both.  This is almost a miracle because of his health holding up today to do all this work, research, straightening out of things, printing off worksheets and such to fill out by hand as it is easier for both of us to not have a computer screen ruining our eyes day after day....my dry eye just can't take doing much more than a half hour of screen time at a time with a couple of hours of break in between, so no online filing after all.  When my husband has the rough copies completed, hopefully by this evening, I will put the numbers in my good copy, write up a cheque for what I am going to owe and get it mailed away on Monday.  Last year of doing our taxes on our own.  Things have changed too much, both for our finances and in terms of new things in the annual tax forms. Done, over and out for this woman!!!  I am done talkin' bout it, bloggin' bout it, thinkin' bout it!  Amen!!!  For those of you who have been asking and praying for our sanity during this process and for my husband's health to hold up through this otherwise possibly not so complicated event, yes, I will quickly blog to let you know when they have been mailed.

It is cold today and getting colder as the afternoon wears on. The snow that was melting in the sun on our deck and front porch earlier this afternoon is now frozen back into an icy coating that is dangerous to try to walk on.  The wind gusts are kind of strong at times so the snow is blowing straight across the back lawn from south to north. It looks like someone has taken a thick paintbrush of white paint and dragged a line of it between the ground and about a foot upward....just a solid white line of blowing snow right across the back yard. Talk about a late spring.  

Not sure how much the weather is playing into my inability to understand my tax forms, but I was kind of worried earlier today. Apparently the loss of ability with numbers is one of the first signs of dementia, BUT as my husband kindly pointed out, it isn't the numbers or the adding and multiplying of them that are hindering me, it is understanding exactly where they are to go on some of the not quite so well explained forms.  I remember when my parents had to start taking their taxes to an accountant each year. It was like it was the end of the world for them to have to admit they were struggling to understand the "new ways" of the time and now I understand exactly how they felt.

Tomorrow morning there is a women's breakfast at our church. I think I will go as a good friend is talking about her experiences walking the Camino in Italy....or is it Portugal?  It was some time ago now and I forget, so I am looking forward to hearing of her adventures. She was supposed to be sharing the speaking time with our wonderful Carol who has also done a Camino walk or two in recent years, but of course Carol is not yet strong enough to even attend, let alone speak to the group.  After lunch my husband will go for a wee drive around with me to pick up a prescription and also a book he has had on reserve at the public library that has become available.  He needs to finish final preparations for the adult class he is teaching at church on Sunday morning and is feeling more confident now that he has some useful protocols in place for keeping his tummy issues at bay. He won't be so stressed about having that commitment to fulfill.  YAY!

I am reading the Scriptures at church on Sunday: excerpts from the first Chapter of Isaiah, Psalm 103 and Matthew 18. (the parable of the unforgiving servant, which always grabs my attention and makes me think about how I am treating people in my own life)  It is always nice to have something to do at church during the service so I feel less generally useless there.  So grateful and honoured to be included in anything they want to throw my way.....being a newbie on their seniors' residences  board is another way I can feel useful for one term at least.  Waiting for more information from the board chairman before our first meeting together coming up in several week's time. 

I think this evening I am going to rest up with a book I am reading about three generations of women in China.  There is a ton of interesting history there from the years prior to the Communist party formation, the previous Kuomintang leadership,  the invasion by Japan....and how these various events effected the author's family members living there at that time.  I am finding the history incredibly interesting. The book is called "Wild Swans: Three Daughters of China" and it was written by Jung Chang.  The print is small and I can only read for about an hour a day....or right before falling asleep at night, so it is slow going, but at least that way I remember more of the details.

Okay, my eyes have had enough screen for now.  Hope all of you have a truly wonderful weekend and that the weather, wherever you are right now is warm and wonderful. 

Tax Time....Takin' A Short Break! Again!!

 Oooh my head is spinning after spending the last few hours doing taxes.  I am so poor at the details and this morning I made a few stupid mistakes that took me longer than it should have to figure out.  Things went along well until a few minutes ago when I found myself owing federal taxes in a ridiculous amount that cannot possibly be correct. Dang it. I was doing so well, cruising along without a hitch since just after lunch.  I think I have added somewhere where I should have subtracted, but my dry eye is so bad after staring at the forms for so long today, that my husband told me to go and do something else for awhile until he has progressed a bit farther with his own tax forms, at which point he will go over mine from page 1 to try to discover what I have done wrong this time. Shoot....I thought I was doing so well.  THE BRIGHT SIDE of this is that he has finally agreed with me that next year we will simply hire an accountant and let that person worry about it.  It is worth the money at this point and we need to stop being so cheap!!!  My husband's refund always more than covers however many hundred dollars the accountant will cost.  Even being dirt poor years ago and running a business on the verge of bankruptcy at that time, a horrendously stressful and frightening time, made our taxes very easy to do compared to having more stable income and investments now. I miss the straightforwardness of tax times during those otherwise horrible days, hahahaha.  (How on earth can near bankruptcy be the other side's "greener grass"? Right??)

Okay, okay....I am supposed to be taking a half hour break on my taxes to rest my eyes and here I am burning them out some more with my computer screen, hahaha.  They do actually feel better now that there is more distance between them and what I am looking at. When I do taxes I tend to hunch over the table where I am working and put my face about three inches away from the paperwork. Why, you ask? I have no earthly idea to be honest.  When I eat meals at that same table I don't hunch over and put my face three inches away from the plates of food, so why.....???  Silly me!

This day has thrown me for another loop as well.  We are having more winter...MORE BLASTED WINTER WEATHER. It began last evening with our first thunderstorm of the spring (????) season.  It was the weirdest thing to hear thunder and splashes of rain drops on the windows and roof only a day or so after the last big snow melt during our two or three warm days. This morning I woke up to wind dried streets but the temperature was beginning to drop.  I checked the forecast and there it was: a yellow zone wind warning and a forecast of rain turning to snow before noon.  Yup, that is exactly what happened.  Brrrr and hold onto your hat and put on your ice walking cleats if you need to go outside.  We have a about 5cm of snow accumulated on the lawns, and a sheen of thin ice under the snowy back decks and sidewalks, BUT apparently the snowfall forecast for west and north of here is for anywhere from 30 to 50cm by tomorrow afternoon!!!!!  Unreal!!!!  According to the weather map our city is on the edge of this large system so hopefully we won't get much more snow than we have already, but who knows? Right?  God knows I realize, but he isn't saying.....

My husband is doing so much better with his health today!  He got about 9 hours of sleep, with a 6am snack break prior to his last couple of hours of shut eye; no real issue at 6am, more of a preventative measure that seems to have worked.  He hasn't even needed a nap this afternoon despite being so focused on all this tax nonsense.  I am pleased for him, so very pleased and hoping this improvement in his health lasts into tomorrow and the weekend as well. 

We are rejoicing with all you prayer warriors over Carol's return home.  We will try to go and visit her next week when things have settled down here in our own home. Even the medical staff are calling it a miracle of survival.  So thrilled for her family.  They are so grateful for being drenched in your prayers. 

Okay, back to work.  I might as well go and sit with my husband while he works on discovering my tax form mistake.  Surely I have made one somewhere along the line....surely....I couldn't possibly have to pay the sizable amount presently written on my forms with my own hand.....could I??????  I am so finished with doing our own taxes just to save money....time to end that silliness.

 

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

And The Taxes Go Round And Round....Aiiii Yiiiii....HaHa!

What an afternoon we are having here.  I feel like never checking the mailbox ever again after opening a letter today from the CRA in regard to the over payment by their department of my sales tax rebate last year.  

After spending nearly an hour locating the phone number that will actually connect me to the department I need to talk to at the tax department without having a personal identification number, I am now on hold....possibly for the best part of an hour to talk to an agent but I don't care.  Since the letter I got seems to indicate that the payment I made earlier this year was only partially accepted and the rest of it is now being re-billed....huh???....I want to get it straightened out today...particularly if I truly do owe them this amount of money again after all so that I don't have a payment arrears notification on my tax account.  

My husband spent the better part of an hour trying to get into his own tax account and kept getting error messages. Turns out one of his browser settings was to blame, but that took a while to discover. Thankfully he is now into his account and getting things sorted out so that once he helps me get an online tax account set up, at last, we can get our 2025 tax forms submitted.  

As I sit here waiting there is a lovely variety of classical music playing over my phone on the wait line.  Are you old enough to remember the days before there was lovely music playing while you were on hold on the phone and it was just either an odd kind of muted buzzing sound or completely dead air, so you never knew if you were truly still on hold or if the phone had glitched on their end and you weren't actually connected to them any more, but the line hadn't actually disconnected?  Remember those good old days? hahahaha  Oy, what good times every April, eh? hahahaha

Well, the music currently playing is familiar to me, so I am going to stop writing this post for now and hum along.  

(Two JOYS today are: a really encouraging physiotherapy session AND a day of mostly sunshine and warming temperatures with more warm days to come over the next week!  The silver linings...) 

Early Morning Communications!

 I sat up reading until well after 1am but woke up just after 6:30am and couldn't get back to sleep.  No worries.  Anytime I get more than 4 hours of sleep overnight it is a good night.  

I woke up to a message from our daughter in law. It came in at about 3am our time. She was at the airport already gearing up for her flight to Texas...by the time she arrives at her destination she will be as exhausted as our son is today after his incredible journey yesterday.  They are both completely exhausted from lack of sleep, so I do hope and pray they will be okay over the coming days.  Then our son sent a message a few minutes ago to confirm that he did get home VERY late last night after a 2 hour flight delay, so he will be resting this morning, possibly going into the office for the rest of the day and so it may be difficult to find a time that works for us both to have a phone chat. No matter.  He is home and safe, his wife is on her way to her interviews....it is all good.  We pray she will be safe travelling to a place that is new to her and that she enjoys her time there. 

Now, if I can just get my husband through his rescheduled appointment with the specialist later this morning....sigh....he is fighting discouragement that his basement clearing out project has been seriously delayed due to his health and I felt very badly reminding him that we haven't even started our income tax forms yet. They are a much bigger priority than the basement.  Hopefully that has not added to his stress, but he did agree with me that in the next few days we must get going on using this new system of doing taxes online and get over the dread of having to learn something new in the midst of other stressors.

I am sitting here looking at iron grey skies and a good inch of snow on the ground and wondering if we are going to have one of those years again where we move from winter straight into summer heat with no spring season of note. It is rather jarring when that happens.  Grateful for the moisture, but I do hope the ground is starting to thaw so that the moisture actually soaks into the ground rather than be dried up at surface level by the howling winds.  Last night I wondered if the roof was going to blow off right around 12:30am. The whole building was creaking and rocking in the wind. Hmmm....okay, I will blame THAT for why I stayed up until after 1am.  teehee

Carol is still making small but progressive steps forward. The catheter for dialysis was removed yesterday as her kidneys are functioning well on their own now. Her mind is clear, BUT she is still waiting to get into physiotherapy for recovering her strength and roommate health issues continue to keep her awake for hours at a time overnight.  So those are the two prayer requests for today.  She will have her other cardio tests this week and hopefully the results will be very good!

Guess I should pull myself away from the computer and get some breakfast.  I hope my energy level will remain as high today, despite the short sleep, as it was yesterday.  I went to my hair appointment, followed by a good walk around the grocery store, followed by all the stair climbing involved for the six loads of laundry I managed to get done, I got all the meals prepared and cleaned up after, physiotherapy went well....yup, a truly good day for accomplishing chores and getting exercise. The snow and grey clouds do not lend themselves today to much mental motivation to keep the activity going, but I will do my best. I will accompany my husband to his appointment, and will take along an insulated bag with a freezer pack and a cold can of carbonated water for him.  If he knows the immediate help he requires when these attacks hit him is available....a cold pack applied to his tummy really helps....he will likely relax enough to get through the appointment. Then there is always the possibility that this series of attacks has come to an end.  We never know from one day to the next during these times.....sigh......never a dull moment around here when it comes to our health issues, hahaha.

Winter Is Hanging On...In Other Words A Typical March For Us!

We had some heavy snow this morning that left us with our back deck covered in about 5cm of snow, which our neighbour shovelled off for us, after borrowing our shovel and push broom to do both his place and ours, then he shovelled a pathway out to our car as well.  He wanted to thank us for shovelling for his family when he was out of town working for a few weeks.  At least that is what we are assuming as he doesn't yet speak any English at all.  That is our prayer for him and for his family: that the English language will come easily enough to them not to have them frustrated all the time with communications struggles.  Mom is doing fairly well in a short period of time and the kids are learning at school, but Dad dad has not had the opportunities to be in English classes or to be surrounded by native English speakers since the family arrived here nearly three months ago.  Glad we have an excellent shovel and broom to share with them.

This afternoon's heavier traffic melted the snow on the streets, turning them to a slush covered mess and now, late in the afternoon we have more teensy snowflakes falling.  This system is to pass by tomorrow morning, so I hope we have seen the bulk of this system's snowfall.  

We received another encouraging update about Carol this afternoon from her family, so here is part of that information for you prayer warriors out there:

(Monday) Today’s update includes a lot!
The first time they were able to have her sitting up in a supported chair with the ventilator! It continues to be doing minimal work to support her own efforts of breathing.

Her lungs continue to be improving! The fungus that they found they believe is non-troublesome, but they are going to grow and test it as well.

Her kidneys have continued to not improve as hoped so they are doing dialysis today (currently probably actually as we speak!). Tomorrow they will reevaluate and possibly do a second round which they expect is all that she will need.

She is starting to show more alertness, which is so encouraging but we expect this to actually improve most after the dialysis.

Thank you all so much for being with us in this time. The prayers are being so effective and are so appreciated each one! 

My husband is having a nap this afternoon. Neither of us slept well last night and I can put my issue down to having ingested a full cup of caffeinated coffee at my friends' house yesterday afternoon. Duh....I have been saying with boring regularity that I am not going to do that again when I visit these dear friends, but I caved again yesterday because, dang it, the flavour of that coffee was just so GOOD!!!!  I am paying for it today: insufficient sleep, wired up emotions overnight and now I can hardly keep my eyes open long enough to post this blog entry!

Tomorrow my husband will participate in the annual Blessing of the Oils ceremony with the Bishop and all his colleagues. Their vials of healing oil will be duly blessed and consecrated for use over the coming year. He always enjoys that service, plus it is a chance to see colleagues from around the city and diocese that he rarely has a chance to connect with any more now that he is "fully retired" (yeah...like church ministers are ever that, right?).  I will use the time he is there to do another good round of physiotherapy like I did today and to get something decent cooked for us to have for dinner in the evening.  We have lived mostly on spaghetti sauce and curly noodles and left over beef tenderloin roast for the past few days and it will all be gone by tonight.  I also need to get moving on ironing my spring and summer clothes that I unpacked last week and are still lying around on the ironing board waiting to be dealt with. Somehow the last couple of spring snowfalls have dampened my enthusiasm at least somewhat for the task.

So, Guess What My Lunch Appetizer Was Today: A Temporary Crown!

 What a great morning!  I got to sleep in a bit, the sun was shining brightly, so even though the temperature outside was a chilly -18C, I felt pretty darned good.

My husband drove me to the dentist for 11am so that my dentist could take a look at the broken tooth and we could set up a date for a possible new crown.  After the photos and x-rays of the tooth were taken by  a most wonderfully fast and efficient hygienist, the dentist came in and asked me if I wanted her to just coat the whole mess in filling. I asked her for her assessment as to whether or not I should apply for a crown right away or wait for a few months and she advised me that the next step would definitely be a crown, but if that wasn't a possibility for insurance coverage she could try filling it and it could last for a few months that way.  I decided not to bother with the extra work and cost and time required to fill a break that would require a crown soon anyway, plus as I thought about it I realized that with the extra appointment today we have used up most of our annual dental coverage this year anyway, so I decided to just make an appointment to start on a new crown as soon as possible.  

As I suspected would happen, my dentist looked at her watch, checked the time the hygienist was to get off work for the morning and asked me if we could do the crown prep at that moment!  Yup, you betcha. What a relief not to have to nurse that broken tooth for the next two to three weeks until an appointment with my own dentist would become available.  An hour and ten minutes after I sat down in the dental chair I was on my way out again with a nicely fitted temporary crown in place.  YAY!!!!  I wasn't able to get an appointment for the next over two weeks, but was told that if there is a cancellation sometime prior to that date they will call and offer the time to me.  YAY~~what a great start to my day.

My husband patiently waited in the car out in the dentist office parking lot while I was having the work done. He enjoyed reading his book, listening to the radio and dozing in the warm sun coming in his driver side window.  The temperature outside began a fast climb into the near 0 degree range while he sat there, so he had a very nice time away from the phones at home.  He realized though that he had not eaten any breakfast of note so by the time I left the office it was just after noon and his tummy was starting to bother him considerably.  When he has tummy troubles he gets kind of picky about what he wants to eat so that he doesn't exacerbate the issue and he was craving Indian food.  My dentist is not that far from DarBar....it is on the same avenue in fact, so that is where we stopped for lunch.  Despite my frozen mouth I managed to eat about half of my lunch plate without dribbling food or gravy down my shirt front. hahaha  It's a miracle!!!!  hahaha  The rest of my meal is tucked away in our refrigerator for tonight's dinner or tomorrow's lunch.  We decided to call it an extra anniversary treat.  

This afternoon after I rest for another hour I am going to make a large batch of spaghetti sauce.  I have a couple of green peppers that are not in prime condition and some onions I want to use up so I can justify taking advantage of a sale on white onions at my neighbourhood grocery store. We have a few more garlic buds than we are going to be able to use up on other things in a reasonable amount of time, so this will be a nicely garlicky sauce.  I will cook up a carton's worth of spaghetti noodles as well because I have some senior friends with a need for some simple home cooking.  It is always fun to share meals with them.  

I have no further updates about Carol as yet, so we can only assume she continues to be sufficiently stable until or unless we hear otherwise.  Our whole church continues to be in shock at what has happened to this until recently healthy, Spain's Camino de Santiago Trail walker, long distance cyclist into her 70's...... I cannot imagine what her husband and children are going through right now....lots of prayers accompany her along her journey, that's for sure.

So, lovely people, if you get any kind of respiratory infection and it seems to be headed into your lungs, even a little bit, get medical assistance immediately!!!  This particular infection that is going around, at least on the prairies, is deadly and too many people have been dying from it since the new year began.  I had no idea how many until I got looking at news articles online....well over 100 people just in Alberta and Saskatchewan have died from this particular type of pneumonia because Sepsis sets in so quickly.  Scary stuff.... so GO TO THE DOCTOR IF YOU GET A BAD COLD THAT SEEMS TO BE HEADING SOUTHBOUND INTO YOUR LUNGS!! 

Feeling And Looking More Like Spring Is On The Way...Oh Happy Day!

 Today is certainly an early spring type of day: sunshine with scattered clouds in the blue sky, a bit of a breeze and the typical early spring combo of wet 'n' soggy grass and curb lanes with dry, dry tree branches and the shattered remains of last autumn's fallen leaves kicking up dust every time they are disturbed.  We washed our car this morning, thankfully as it was completely covered in dried mud, but the dust blowing in the air on the way home meant my husband had to take a spray bottle of water and a roll of paper towels out to our parking lot when we got home so he could finish the job.  It is wonderful to see him so involved in keeping the new vehicle looking clean and tidy.  The floor mats were barely dirty, but he gave them a good cleaning as well. I LOVE it when my husband is feeling well enough to care about those kinds of details.  As his his wont, he left a toonie on the ledge of the car wash coin/choice panel for the next person in line to use.  He is a good man. 

Tonight we meet with our small group and we are very much looking forward to that.  Meeting with a small group with members all significantly younger than ourselves is such a blessing to us and they seem to welcome us completely into the fold.  Thank you Lord for them all.

I have decided that tomorrow morning, now that the ice has pretty much melted, after I do some banking I will head over to the Chapters/Indigo and look for a couple of brand new books. It has been a thought for awhile, but the path from the parking area I prefer over to the store has been terribly dangerous for me with its constant ice cover.  Now it will be safer and I can just go on my own and relax, take my time and browse all over the store before making my choices.  Aaaaaahhhhh.....a couple of new books that MAY actually have some substance to them for a change.  Maybe a biography as well??  I am so looking forward to getting out on my own and enjoying not having to be in a rush.  This spring, much like last year, I am going to try very hard to find one reason or more to go out of the suite each day or at least every second day.  It will keep me from becoming lazy and unmotivated about leaving the house after being stuck inside for so much of the winter.  I need to pep myself up.

One thing that will inspire me will be bringing up the totes from the basement that contain my spring and summer clothes.  I am finding already that my winter sweaters are too hot, even though the daytime highs have been mostly only in the single plus digits the past few days. However, the 14 day forecast shows only one day in the next two weeks forecast to be at all below zero, so it is time to get out the totes, the ironing board and start to making the between seasons switch out.  That is always a fun time. It really cheers me up to discover the "new" wardrobe I had forgotten about over the winter months.

Bye Bye To Our Beloved Honda

 Yesterday we completed the sale of our 2011 Honda CRV. It wasn’t as emotional as it could have been after ten years of good service for us because we can still borrow it for the occasional canoe trip this summer, but still it felt kind of odd to see it driving away with our good friend at the wheel. 🛞 Now we pray that it gives our buyers many years of great service! We all went out for dinner at Bonzzini’s to celebrate the transaction, so that was lots of fun. 

We are experiencing a couple of days of bitter cold before the arrival of a Pineapple Express that is set to hit the west coast. Parts of the western USA are going to be hit with extremely high temperatures and the residual effects will stretch all the way east to our little corner of Saskatchewan. If it lasts for at least four days it will go a long way to melting the ice buildup here. That would be a treat! 

Another poetry class this morning at church. Then the service, followed by some kind of lunch….think we will come home today to eat as we were out last evening and will be out again tomorrow evening. We have all the required meat and vegetables for making a large pot of stew, so that will be a good afternoon project for us! 

Crazy busy week coming up. Hopefully our energy levels will remain high until everything is completed.

Shredded!!!

I feel as shredded mentally as the huge stack of papers I just finished shredding physically....wow, I feel like I have been run over by a semi rig today.  So does my husband!

Although we both slept long and well last night, we are still recovering from the lack of sleep the previous night.  It seems the sloggy, groggy, foggy feelings due to lack of rest hit us the day after, instead of the day of.  

However, the day was not a complete waste!  YAY!  I spent nearly two hours shredding old paperwork and then vacuuming up the mess I made when I didn't realize one edge of the bag I was emptying the shredded papers into had not covered the bin holding the shreds....sigh....well, it gave me something else to do this afternoon, hahaha.  

I got my physio done today and saw a bit more improvement in how many seconds I can stand now on the operated leg and my husband is seeing other signs of improvement in how badly I limp when I walk, so it has been an encouraging day today. Wow, only 9 months to be able to stand on that leg unassisted for a full 8 seconds, (hear the sarcasm along with a groan and a grimace). I know that sounds horrible, ridiculous even, but if I can hold it for 8 seconds now, maybe 3 months from now if I work hard I will be able to stand for the required 30 seconds.  Right?  Of course right! I can DO this!!!!

We discovered that some issues we have been having with our WiFi, particularly with getting my iPad back online after having to reset the whole system when it occasionally completely crashes, computers, iPads, tv system and all, SEEMS to be related to my husband's occasional use of his Ubuntu.  Each time he uses it, and that isn't very often, we have to reset the system and then all goes well with the PC's and the tv, but my iPad stubbornly refuses to reboot its WiFi connection, even tells me my password code for connecting to our WiFi site is incorrect...which is most certainly is not.  Shutting off the iPad, waiting for awhile before trying again to connect, does not fix the problem. Each time this has happened, including today, the iPad only comes back online after Ubuntu is shut down.....to us, not being computer wizards, this seems very strange, but at least we know what to do now when and if this hassle happens again: wait until the Ubuntu is shut down, reboot the WiFi connection and all will be well.  We hope that is the problem because it is easy to solve.  

Looking forward to church participation this coming Sunday. My husband is going to read the Scriptures and I am going to do the prayers.  I am wondering how much I need to write down ahead of time, do I even need to do that this time, or should I just wing it, charismatic style?  Maybe some crib notes so I don't miss some particular requests, but apart from that I think I may just wing it.  Spontaneous prayers from me are usually considerably shorter than when I start writing prayers down to read.  Why, I am not sure, but that is how it is most of the time. Perhaps I will give the congregation a break this Sunday and ask the Lord for the ideas to pray about as I go along.  Could be a complete disaster, right?  Well, I am in the mood for a challenge, so maybe.....I will let you know how it goes......

The past couple of days have been spent inside and I am getting rather antsy to get out of this suite.  We were supposed to be picking up our old vehicle's summer tires today but they haven't arrived yet from the storage facility and to be honest it is probably just as well we didn't have to go out.  This morning we awakened to an outside covering of ice pellets and a bit of snow. The ice pellets were easy to sweep off the deck first thing in the morning because they had the consistency of large grains of salt. However by this afternoon, even with only a slight warming of temperature, they melted just enough to run together into a big, tough mass of icy snow that would have been difficult to move with the shovel.  Very grateful we got our decks and steps cleaned off with the broom before that happened.  The weather forecast for this weekend has been revised and we will be receiving much colder temperatures than originally forecast. Yes, there will be a couple of days slightly above zero, but +3C is a far cry from the original +8C we were expecting.  Oh well, we are another day closer to spring.  

Now the decision regarding what to have for dinner: I ate the rest of my portion of the beef stew last evening so I know my husband is having his stew tonight.  So....should I finish the tuna salad I made at lunch time, or make a pita pizza, or make a veggie salad with some seed toast, or thaw some baked beans.....all kind of plebeian fare, but on this day of feeling mentally miserable and physically exhausted, these are the only sorts of things I feel up to preparing for myself....yawn........

 

Paying The Price For My Own Indiscretion! DUH!!!

 Last night I slept for a whole two hours, then was awake for 3 and a half hours, then slept again for one hour and ten minutes before my alarm woke me at 7am....actually, although it started chiming at 7am it took me until 7:03am to realize it was making sounds that meant I had to wake up and get going!  YAWN.....yawn.....yawn.....zzzzzzzzzz......

It is my own fault I slept so badly.  The delicious banana and walnut loaf I baked yesterday proved to be too tempting to resist and I ate a thick slice of it as a bedtime snack....DUH, DUH, and double DUH!!!!  After 15 years as a type 2 diabetic I know better than that!!! So, it serves me right that my kidneys did a major dumping out overnight and my mind was wide awake from 2:20am until 5:45am.  Falling asleep an hour before I had to get up to help my husband deliver vehicles for repairs was also a stupid move. I would have been farther ahead forcing myself to stay awake between 6am and 7am.  So, I blew it all the way around and am adjusting to spending the entire day in a stupor with teeny doze-outs every time I sit down somewhere.  May I remember this event and learn from it....learn from it?  I shouldn't need to relearn a lesson I have had pretty much been adhering to for the past 15 years.  Sigh....

I hope I don't fall asleep at the hair dresser's this afternoon when she is washing my hair in delightfully relaxing warm water!  I made a promise to myself that I will do better this year keeping my hair trimmed up more often.  As my hair changes texture due to aging, I need to remember how much more difficult it is for me to style it myself when it gets just a bit too long.  After the haircut I will go to the nearby grocery store and pick up a few items. Hopefully by the time I get home with those few bags it will be time to go with my husband to pick up the car that is at the auto electric repair venue.  We need it to pick up its summer tires from storage tomorrow.

It is looking like my usual Thursday morning coffee date is going to have to be cancelled for tomorrow. Tonight we have a forecast of snowfall, continuing into tomorrow with a high risk of more freezing drizzle. I don't want my friend out driving in that!!  Even if she can find a safe place to park, I don't want her trying to walk down a thinly iced sidewalk to get to our place. It is far too dangerous.  The forecast over the next week has been changed somewhat to reflect colder temperatures overall than we were expecting. Oh well, let's get the early spring snowfall out of the way so we can have a nice April and onward. 

 

  

 

Life Is Slowly Getting Easier! Amen!

 I have been cleaning house this afternoon after a bit of a sleep in and a good round of physiotherapy this morning. Until recently it seemed if I didn’t get to the main housework chores until mid afternoon I had no energy left to even get started, so I am pleased with my two hours of vacuuming and dusting today. Tomorrow I will finish the vacuuming, wash the linoleum floors and the bathroom fixtures after lunch. In the morning there are errands to run and baking to do for company the following day.  Although the ruptured tendon is a bit more sore than usual after today’s workout, it is withstanding my weekly cleaning, physio  and errands schedule fairly well now. Once tomorrow’s work is done I will take my two days off physio to relax and enjoy my company and our quick trip out of town coming up. Then both hip and tendon will be ready for a physio day on the weekend. I am thrilled that suddenly housework is less challenging physically than it has been because the hip is so much stronger.  I am coming to grips with the acceptance that the tendon in that hip is likely not going to ever recover fully, and that’s ok. 

The sun is shining brightly, the sky is pretty winter blue, little cloud cover, and the temperature today is liveable at just below -10C. Snow flurries were forecast as a possibility today, but thus far there is no sign of them, so I am delighted. My husband worked hard today on coordinating his computers so they communicate properly with each other and is having a refreshing nap. It is quiet in the suite; the neighbour kids began Canadian school today, so no wonder it was so quiet in here after 10pm yesterday and all day today. I LIKE it! I also liked seeing their huge smiles and hearing their laughter as they got off the school bus and raced home across the icy snow drifts on the back lawn. Cute kids! I pray they will be able to learn English quickly and help their parents learn as well. 

After months of uncertainty and feeling defeated and saddened by the ongoing consequences of the hip revision surgery, life is becoming a bit less bleak. Hallelujah!