A Day Of Domesticity For Me

After another excellent church service this morning at Church Of The Incarnation, which our son joined us for, the men took off for the ferry over to Green Point where they enjoyed a Polish lunch, a Japanese tea tasting, watching part of a community baseball game and shopping at a hardware store for our son’s new Swiss Army knife, I headed over to Tipsy Shanghai for what will be my final feed of orange beef and fried green beans. Yum! 

I sauntered home afterward and did a huge load of clothes washing and ironing, finally got last night’s tea and snack dishes washed along with the breakfast dishes, watched our church service from home online, ate a simple supper here at home and walked to the grocery store for a batch of my favourite yogurt that should last me until we leave next week. It was a quiet and relaxed day for me with some walking but no deadlines to meet once church was over. After being on my feet so much last evening it was nice to have the energy to go up and down to the basement laundry room here, and I was on my own time schedule, accountable to no one. I arrived home tonight from the grocery store only steps ahead of my husband and we have had a relaxing evening chatting and watching a tv show together.

Tomorrow….Lord willing…..we meet our daughter-in-law’s aunt way up north west of here at the far end of Manhattan Island. The Cloisters is filled with all things medieval and is situated in lovely Fort Tryon Park. We are taking a long scenic bus ride, no transfers,  rather than fiddling about with two subway transfers and risking getting ourselves lost. Our plan is to arrive an hour before meeting up with Auntie and possibly our son, so we can enjoy the park for a while first. Hoping it works out ok. I’ll let you know……

On The Other Hand…

…..we COULD pay the equivalent of $13.48cad or $9.99usd for 10 slices of precooked bacon, full sodium count.  NOT when I can get 8 slices at home for $7.99 with reduced sodium. The expensive bacon packs are sold at D’agostino’s….a very high priced grocery store that seems to be empty of customers most of the time. There are always many more staff visible than customers.  In fact we see so few customers inside either of the two D’ag stores near us that I am starting to wonder if they are a front for some other sort of more nefarious activity! Hahaha…..If they just sold reduced sodium potato chips they would have a regular customer in my husband….who is currently online desperately seeking a retailer who carries either the Cape Cod brand of lower sodium chips, or someone who carries Hal’s brand. Hal’s doesn’t banner their bags as having lower sodium chips inside, but reading the nutritional values listed on the packaging confirms that they are indeed more amenable to my husband’s allowed daily sodium intake allowance. I wish him well in his search. Now that he is reacting to rice the same way he reacts to corn products we have had to strike one more of his own personal major food groups from his list of yummy possibilities. Sigh…..hopefully potatoes will not be next! 

Different Shopping Choices For Groceries

 I am having a bit of fun looking at the differences in grocery products and costs here compared to home. One huge difference is in the size and price of a loaf of bread. The number of slices of bread per loaf 🍞 here for what I would call the regular lower cost grocery store loaf, is 18-20 slices for $1.39usd ($1.93cad) compared to 12-14 slices in the equivalent quality Canadian bread loaves costing $2.79cad ($2.01usd). On the other hand a six ounce jar of Japanese yuzu marmalade here is a high $10.45usd so in Canada the same jar could be $14.48cad, also known as, “NO WAY ON GOD’S LITTLE GREEN EARTH AM I GOING TO PAY THAT MUCH FOR MARMALADE!!!” Hahaha….so in cases like that I stop mentally figuring the exchange rates; I just purchase the product and enjoy it! What is shocking to me is how many grocery products, even figuring in the exchange rate, are substantially lower in price than in Canada…at least in our part of Canada…far more products than I thought. Grocery prices for many items we found in the Hannaford’s grocery near Red Hook were so good that before we came home from the cabin our kids stocked up on groceries for themselves and ferried them home to NYC. 

This morning we have been graced with light rain. Just as it began falling I took a short walk to Duane Reade pharmacy for some meds. It was lovely striding along with the tiny drops cooling me off. When I arrived at the pharmacy the clerks were determined I was going to have my annual ‘flu shot because, “the kids go back to school next week and they gonna be spreading’ that stuff everywhere!” The one sweet girl took me by the arm and started leading into the back of the pharmacy to the injection site before I understood what was happening and managed to avoid a poke in the arm that I didn’t want. I explained I was from Canada and my ‘flu shots are up to date. Then my arm was released from her determined death grip and I was allowed to make my purchases. We are finding many pharmacies in our neighborhood are aggressively promoting all manner of vaccines and we wonder if it is an attempt to counteract the misinformation and scare tactics presently being spread around this country and our own. You certainly could not accuse the staff at our local Duane Reade of being lackadaisical about ensuring every customer coming in had every opportunity to be vaccinated! 

We may or may not follow through with our plan to wander over to the Morgan. It feels like it should be a lazy day today; a stay home to read books and hand wash some undies kind of day. Traffic is gridlocked here more than usual so there are many more impatient drivers, car horns blaring at other drivers who can’t move anyway. 

The possibility of heavier rain and winds this afternoon and evening has prompted yet another possible flash food watch, as well as possible tornado activity closer to the upstate areas and over east closer to Boston. Weather watches seem to be issued well in advance of any and all possible problems, hours and even days ahead of the arrival of forecast storms. Good to be prepared, of course, but the dire possibilities seem to actually occur so rarely that New York City dwellers seem to pretty much ignore them and continue on about their daily business until the last possible second when the direst of events are already in progress. It will be interesting to see what really does happen with the weather today.

The Benefits Of Getting Lost!

 We managed to find our way yesterday around the bus and subway systems to meet Aunty J for a tasty lunch at L’Ami Pierre….tasty Caesar salad and baguette chicken and brie sandwiches. We arrived a few minutes before she did, so sat on a bench outside people watching. The noon hour brought out hordes of younger up and coming business men dressed nearly identically in shirts of white or pale blue and dark navy suit pants and jackets, brown shoes. I guess individuality in suit and shirt colour is not encouraged here. It was most interesting watching this blue suited army. The women tended more toward blacks and greys, their feet shod in dark coloured flats with at least some variety of styles.

After lunch we headed to the Museum of Modern Art where we enjoyed looking at the small exhibition of older Diego Rivera sketches and coloured drawings and paintings. Many of his works paid tribute of course to Frida Kahlo, fellow artist and romantic partner. I had forgotten that she died at the age of 47. The humour Rivera injected into his small drawings about man vs the machine was amusing while still making his point. One large painting paid tribute to those who overthrew dictator Diaz during the 1910 Mexican revolution. Apparently it lasted until 1917 and it took another three years for the country to stabilize. After the Rivera exhibition we stopped at an expansive exhibition of works by Marcel DuChamps. I had seen most of his newer paintings and modern sculptures such as his “Fountain” urinal collection, but what I had not seen before were his earlier published cartoons. They are hilarious! After we saw these two exhibits we sat for an hour outside in the lovely sculpture garden sipping proper iced tea (cold tea with ice cubes, no sugar) and chatting. It was a lovely afternoon.

At 4:30pm as we were leaving the MoMA my husband told me we were within walking distance of Barnes and Noble in case I wanted to pick up a couple of books to take to the cabin this weekend. It would save us having to get up early this morning to race off to the Strand bookshop. Seemed like a good idea at the time, so we confidently headed to 5th Avenue. 

Here we made our first mistake. My husband, the intrepid mountaineer path finder was looking at the street map on his phone and for some reason became directionally challenged. Instead of walking toward the Barnes and Noble outlet we were ten blocks away from starting point before he realized we were walking in the opposite direction! Groan…..we were going to have to retrace the same ten blocks, then start our hike to Barnes and Noble all over again. Nooooo….after two hours of walking, sauntering and standing at MoMA my hips were already tired. Oh well….

There were some lovely surprises though due to our misdirection. We came upon St. Thomas Church which my husband has been hoping to view since his first trip to NYC in 2018, we passed by the famous Plaza Hotel, fronted by gorgeous Pulitzer Fountain, the huge bronzed statue of General Sherman, and lo and behold, a street-side pop up from Strand Bookshop! Oh wow, how cool! Right there in plain sight was the Emily Wilson translation of the Odyssey that J recommended only an hour earlier. I snapped it up! Finding the Strand street side meant we wouldn’t have to go to Barnes and Noble, so could retrace the ten block error and head to the subway station to catch the train that would take us home.

Along that part of the route I realized how exhausted I was getting, but walking along beside the south end of Central Park was a gorgeous visual distraction. Until……hey, wait a minute…to get to the subway we should have turned away from the park at the exact point of having retraced our ten block mistake! Wha? My sheepish husband rechecked the route on his map and realized he had made the same mistake in orientating us to the route on the map. This time we were “only” six blocks out of harmony, but oooh my, such long blocks! Another retracing of our steps to our original starting point, we covered the four block walk to the subway, finally arriving to catch an immediate train as I was about to collapse from exhaustion. (Please note, I was also very ill with the respiratory reaction to sleeping with the AC on overnight three nights in a row.) I must have looked pretty ill by then because two women on the rush hour jammed train cleared seats for me to sit down. Fortunately when we disembarked we were only three blocks from home. I staggered into our suite, dropping my cane into the middle of the living room floor and collapsed on the sofa. By this time it was over six hours since I had eaten and after so much exercise my blood sugar was too low. My sweetly penitent husband, feeling humiliated by his route mistakes, made me a sandwich, forfeited his last slice of Japanese green tea cake roll to me and pampered me like crazy. The poor guy was so upset, I felt badly for him. There were so many nice surprises by us taking incorrect routes that there was no reason to be upset.

We were both in bed with the lights out by 8:45pm and we didn’t get up and going until 7:30 this morning. It is about 10:30 am now and I have made a trip to the nearest pharmacy a couple of blocks away for a small jar of my favourite respiratory healer: Vick’s VapoRub, at my husband’s insistence. Now I am at home resting while he makes a long loop to a few organic markets and  a computer store for a new mouse. He forgot to bring his and that is why we had so much trouble completing our government forms. Using the little roll pad on the laptop was frustrating and slow. It is nice to now be familiar enough with our neighbourhood to each be able to get out on our own. 

This morning our son is picking up the car from an in-law that we are borrowing for our trip to the cabin tomorrow. Once he finds a place to park it near his home he will come here for lunch and an afternoon visit. We may go to the Morgan, or I will send the guys on their own. I want to be as healed as possible before we go upstate tomorrow.

Yesterday was the hottest day yet at only +31C and today is a lovely +27C, with rain possible tonight and tomorrow. Love this weather. It is cooler than usual for August in NYC, but perfect for us.

Fun With Phones!

My husband had a struggle yesterday getting my mobile phone set up to keep a copy of my I-94 available for quick download in case I ever need to present it. The struggle lasted all morning and then into the late night hours when the Google Play he was forced to put onto my phone in order to get Firefox in order to get Document File in order to get the I-94 “in the hole in the bottom of the sea”, started sending out message after message at 11pm before I had my phone shut off for the night. We couldn’t get the Incoming Text notification volume turned down for some reason but finally succeeded after freaking out about the tenants right around us possibly being awakened by the noise. What a nightmare! My phone then needed charging so I couldn’t shut it off overnight, but we finally got the Do Not Disturb to work. We were so tired when the first 25 notifications started arriving that we were completely bamboozled by how to make it stop! As soon as we get home I will have my phone scrubbed, purged of the whole works and return to my usual Phone Calls And Texts Only format. What an hilarious time we are having here with our technology, hahaha…

We did get out for the afternoon to explore our immediate neighbourhood a bit more. Completed our list of small purchases needed for food and kitchen comforts, found another discount grocery, a nice Japanese grocery and a great hardware store. 

We ate lunch at an Italian restaurant as the deli we wanted to go to still had a lineup at our late lunch time of 2pm. The Italian place wasn’t fantastic but it was packed with regulars who know every cook and server so the atmosphere was relaxed and fun. There was enough food to feed four people so we skipped cooking dinner last night and traded leftovers. I ate the last couple of slices of my husband’s chicken parm pizza…his so called personal sized pizza was 12 inches…and he finished up my giant plate of veal parmigiana and mountain of spaghetti. The spaghetti sauce was quite bland, but each table had a shaker of mixed Italian herbs to use “to taste”. We were rather liberal with our use of it and here at home my husband shook some Tabasco onto the remains to spice it up a bit more. The huge side salad that came with my meal was delicious and we both enjoyed sharing it. Today it is back to cooking for ourselves. 

Best grocery find of the day: no sugar added Kind bars. Not available in Canada. Also they are very low fat, as in less than a third of the fat content of the ones we get at home that I can eat only occasionally. Wish I had room in my luggage and a heart to fill in declaration forms so I could bring a few boxes back with me.

Why We Can Still Cope With Living Here

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

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

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

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

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

Feeling More Motivated And Productive As The Weather Cools A Bit!

 Yesterday was a better day than usual.  As soon as I woke up, after a fairly decent sleep, I forced myself to get out of bed, get fed and cleaned up and out to the store to find the last of the clothing items I need for our trip.  

Finally I had better success at locating an appropriate wedding reception outfit: black wider legged pants with a transparent black panel around the outside of each leg that is open along the inseam, so the pants seem to flow as I walk.  I will pair them with either an emerald green top I found that has short sleeves and a bit of a collar, or, more likely with a beige cowl necked sleeveless top because I have good jewellery pieces to pull the top and pants together and give me the appearance of colour in my pale face.   I am finally satisfied.  Out of my next three stores of interest only one of them was a waste of time and I quickly located my other needs in the last two stores. YES! 

Shopping completed for vacation trip: check!!✔

It was great fun getting out of doors once again, mosquitoes and all. (Apparently our fair city has one of the largest populations of mosquitoes in the province right now and I can attest to that!!)  So I was very happy to be able to go back out after lunch for a hair cut and a couple of bags of groceries.  My husband and I were hoping to run a few errands today as well, after rain showers overnight cooled things down just enough to be comfortable outside, but he is feeling kind of dizzy and out of sorts, so I guess we will have to remain at home.  I suspect he wore the wrong glasses this morning to clean our old box fan that started rattling and gasping when I put it on last night for white noise at bedtime.  Hopefully a big glass of water and a lie down for an hour sans glasses will help him to feel better.  I am hoping our trip out of town tomorrow will not give him heat stroke and I am hoping that the evening tour of the badlands south of here will not result in us both being eaten alive by mosquitoes.  I found a bottle of mosquito repellent in the basement this morning I didn't know we had and it appears to be full enough to do us well on tomorrow's foray out of town.

So....since we are likely not going out today after all, how shall I productively fill my time?  So many little indoor projects to tackle, so it is just a matter of choice.  I am enjoying the overcast skies as it keeps the heat down, but I know the UV index is still quite high so maybe being inside today is the wisest thing after all. Summer is half over and we have done very little away from home due to the heat....if we didn't have this trip upcoming next month I would be terribly discouraged.  However....we DO have the trip coming up and that will suffice as my own personal summer season.

Sometimes A Little Complaining Goes A Long Way....Sad That Complaining Is Occasionally Necessary Isn't It?

 My husband just received a phone call from the bank where we have had SO much grief over the past few years.  It was to set up an appointment for him next week.  Seems that since I sent in a poor review to a questionnaire that bank sent out a few weeks ago asking how we find their service to be for us, some things have changed!  YAY!  My review was not scathing, but it was negative enough to warrant an in person chat with me a couple of days after it was received.  I explained in more detail what the issues have been and oh my goodness.....all of a sudden we have a new financial advisor there, after not hearing from the one we thought we had for nearly three years, we are getting calls about things we should have been contacted about many times over the past 3 years and heard absolutely zero about. Suddenly the new FA wants to review what we have left in that bank that has not been moved to another institution, wants to give us information we have been needing for more than four years that due to us not having it messed me up badly with the CRA last year that it took hours of phone calls and repayments of sales tax rebates I had received that year to fix the mess.

This is all good news....we hope. We shall see how things go at that appointment and in the future. 

In other news it has been another lovely warm day today.  There was a return of the rain and thunder last night overnight after a couple of gloriously dry days, but by morning the puddles were nearly dry already.  Unfortunately the thunder woke me up at 3am, but since the rain was tap, tap, tapping on the eaves and I love that sound, I got up and threw the bedroom window wide open so I could enjoy it. What's a bit of water on the windowsill after all, right?  I fell asleep again at about 5:30am and slept deeply for another two hours.  Then it was up for breakfast and a visit with my coffee buddy.

My coffee buddy and I have decided we are tired of paying big bucks for small cups of tea and coffee at the coffee bar nearest her place, so today we took a short drive around her new neighbourhood. Only two blocks away we discovered a fairly large park with not only playground equipment but several iron benches and a couple of wooden picnic tables to sit at. We sat outside at one of the tables in the glorious sunshine, chattering away like two old magpies and it was so much fun being out of the crowded coffee bar, away from all building construction noise and enjoying a couple of daycare groups who came to utilize the playground equipment.  Fortunately for us, despite the hot sunshine after more rain, we encountered only a couple of mosquitoes and one tiny brown spider that went racing across the brim of my friend's sunhat. We came away feeling energized, less broke, haha, and very pleased to have a new place to enjoy our weekly visits during the summer and autumn months. What a blessing to have only a couple of blocks to go for our time together. Next time I will try to find a visitor parking spot open at her apartment and we can walk to the park.  

This afternoon we ran errands, my husband and I.  He is rotating back onto a diet mostly of cooked vegetables, protein and unleavened bread to keep his CFS food sensitivities in check.  We now have a crisper filled with cabbages and purple turnips, radishes for his beloved potato salad, carrots and cauliflowers and a freezer full of frozen peas and Brussels Sprouts. I was able to purchase quite a few packages of free range ground turkey and chicken and some extra lean ground beef that is actually extra lean over at SaveOn Foods....the difference in the fat and transfat contents in those poultry packs and the ones with meat from farm fed/ big production farm birds is phenomenal. SO MUCH lower in the free range poultry.  

The horrific swollen glands (from the CFS) in the back of my husband's head are much better today and far less painful after being completely debilitating yesterday so he decided to take advantage of feeling considerably better to pick up his food items.  Tomorrow he has no out of the house commitments so he can rest again AND have a good long talk with our son and his wife when they call to confirm the plans for the spiritual portion of their wedding reception programme.  All I have to do tomorrow is return to the doctor for my osteoporosis meds injection and then I am done with all things medical for this week, yay!  I spent so much time in the waiting room earlier on that I think I could draw a diagram of very paint chip and black mark on the walls in there! hahaha  

We caved in and watched the chuckwagon races from the Calgary Stampede grounds all this week and even picked up some of the bull riding, kids' teams working to get one of their members on the backs of wild ponies, the womens' barrel races and free roping.....it has been a fun way to spend our evenings at home when my husband has been feeling lousy.  I am adjusting to having only 3 wagons per chuckwagon race but oh my....we very much miss the commentary from Tommy Glass who passed away, somewhat unexpectedly I believe, the week prior to the Stampede.  I can't imagine his son having to perform in those races the very next week, but he is doing his dad proud with his times and skills.  I know darned well I will also cave and watch the entire rodeo the afternoon of the last day to see the winners pick up their cheques and their gorgeous bronze castings of bucking broncs, bulls, cowboys and other ranching related scenes.  I am not really a big rural ranch scene fan, (although I have a great admiration for the hard work cowboys and ranchers have to do...very, very hard, dirty, physically taxing and often discouraging work), because I grew up in the city and, only knowing personally one rancher in my life,  have not had the opportunity to develop a lot of appreciation for that lifestyle and geographical scenery, but those bronzes take such artistry and skill to create. (How's that for a run on sentence, right???) They are lovely. So, I am learning that once a Calgarian who grew up loving the Stampede as a kid, always a Calgarian who still loves watching the Stampede events as an adult and is not ashamed to admit it.

We are about to embark on our own heatwave here on the prairies over the next three days at least. By Sunday we are forecast to reach +37C and overnight lows of a big +16C...not cool enough to help prior to the following day's heat. Church is going to be very difficult to sit through, but it will be a good break from our not air conditioned suite!! If it is only for three days before we get below +30C again we will survive. My husband will disappear for three days into the cool of the basement and I will have an opportunity upstairs to train for our trip to NYC during some of its hottest summer weather!!  There is good in almost everything, right?

Hmmmm...summer heat wave or winter ice....SUMMER HEAT WAVE all the way!!! hahahahaha 

Cuteness Personified!!

My husband had a hoot yesterday afternoon finally transplanting all the herbs he purchased from their teensie greenhouse boxes into the large pots and railing plant boxes out on our back porch.  The reason it was such a hoot and not only a darned lot of hard work was because little Moh saw him and came running over to visit.  One of Moh's personal strengths is that he can talk the hind leg off a goat and he was quite delightful to listen to.  I could hear their conversation through the open kitchen window but didn't step outside because I didn't want to spoil this man to man chat!  After some general conversation about school and family, Moh asked my husband how old he is and so my husband asked him how old Moh thought he was. Moh thought and thought and decided my husband, being so old, could be as old as 50 years!  hahaha  When my husband replied that indeed he had ONCE been 50 years old but was older now, he made Moh keep guessing his way through the numbers north of 50 until he hit on the right age.  Moh seemed quite amazed that anyone could be that old and still be standing and talking, let along squatting on the back deck transplanting herbs! hahaha  He even helped my husband do some of the transplanting before being drawn away by the arrival of some friends who wanted to play soccer....one of Moh's other talents.  Moh's little brother arrived at about this time...around the age of 4 or 5 at most I think.  He chattered away to my husband in an incomprehensible mix of English and Arabic but eventually my husband clued in that the little guy was asking him a question. hahaha He was pointing at our house number and asking if my husband would like to hear him read the numbers in English. Of course my husband was happy to listen. Then my husband pointed at the house numbers on little guy's unit and he proudly said them all correctly as well.  Receiving such praise as was heaped upon him by my husband for rehearsing and showing off his new knowledge of English numbers, little guy toddled off back home grinning from ear to ear.  Cutie patooties indeed.  Moh has been noticeably more well behaved around the other children after his confrontation with the police the other night and we are very pleased about that. Praying this will be a permanent change for his sake and for the sake of all the other kids in our court.

We are grateful to have had some rain today. There was some very early this morning, followed by an hour of misting, then a break for a few hours before more rain arrived early this afternoon.  Those showers didn't last long, but there are still rain clouds looming overhead so I am hopeful we will get more of this blessed moisture today!  Oops, guess we will: it has started teeming now.

A morning of errands was productive for finding some specialty groceries my husband wants to take on his camping trip. His special dietary needs are different from his camping buddy's special dietary needs, hence the other need of purchasing a proper camping fridge for this and subsequent trips with this same friend over the summer.  My husband has resisted spending that money for a long time, but is so glad he finally did it. It won't take that many trips to make the cost worthwhile!  

The banana loaf I made yesterday for him to take on his trip is nearly gone already, so I will be making another one tonight.  hahaha  I should have known better than to think I could make it a whole day and a half in advance, hahaha.  Ok, I admit, I ate a couple of slices of it myself.  Just so yummy......

Well, off to iron clothes after yesterday's laundry.  The washing machine in here is starting to fail, so many of the clothes I normally never have to iron are coming out with deeply scored wrinkles requiring a very hot iron to remove them. Blecch!  I actually enjoy ironing, but tend to feel somewhat hard done by when the machine creates more work for me to do.  Spoiled me, right? hahaha  

My special treat to myself while my husband is away is going to be spending a good long time seeking an outfit to wear at our son's wedding reception party in NYC.  I want something that will help me look at least a tad more sophisticated than my usual prairie inspired "go to meetin'" clothes I wear to church and local dress up events.  There is no way I will ever look as sophisticated as I did eons ago when I was a single city based career gal with my mega bucks salary and drive to look marvellous at all times.....yup, those of you who know me NOW, I really did have a different life before I eventually got married and moved to the country.  I should scare up some photos of those days just in case I need to prove it. hahahaha  I don't have to look as sophisticated as the New Yorkers who will be there....it isn't possible so no point in trying and failing. I would just so much like to NOT look like the country bumpkin some of them will be expecting.  Ego? Maybe....but mostly I don't want to embarrass my son and his new wife and her family. Anyway, whether or not I find a suitable outfit, I plan to have a marvellous time searching for it!  No time limits, no deadlines for being home to make meals, no sharing of the tv or reading nooks...there are some small benefits to having a few days to myself.  teehee

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. 

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Miserable Weather For The Long Weekend Here!

Wow, it is very cold and windy outside still today and now we are forecast to have possibly up to 2cm of snow.  For my husband and I it doesn't matter because we are not going away this Victoria Day weekend, but for friends and neighbours who planned camping and "first weekend of the season at the lake" trips it sounds like they won't have as great a time as hoped for.  That is really too bad.  This year the holiday is incredibly early. Even if it could have happened next weekend there likely would have been better weather for our outdoors loving friends.  I feel badly for all of them.  My husband was able to get over to Kat's in the wind and rain showers this afternoon to pick up some of our herb growing pots we left in her yard last autumn and she kindly gave him a bag of potting soil. Bless her.  Tomorrow morning we have to go over to the house of friends who have once again started our tomato plant for us.  The plant has to be picked up right away from their greenhouse despite the ongoing cold weather because said friends are on their way out of town on a holiday in a couple of days.  Unfortunately we are going to have to put the plant inside at our place and hope there aren't too many spiders and other insects crawling around among its leaves....yukko!!!!  It is way too cold yet to put it outside, even in its plastic wrapping cone.  Now I just need to find somewhere to put it where it will get as much sunlight and warmth as possible until at least next weekend when it will hopefully be warm enough to put it out on the deck even if the wrapping has to remain in place for another week after that.  The weather is so weird and wild and woolly this "spring??"!  

Personally I had a very good day today!  I never did get dressed after I cleaned up for the day because I had nary a commitment away from home for a change, not so much as a trek over to the grocery store was needed.  I felt kind of like a happily punctured balloon all day.  The walking outdoors I have been doing is restoring my overall strength and that is wonderful.  Today I looked at the stack of ironing from Tuesday's laundry and after counting the number of items I realized it was a project that would have to be done over two days as I haven't been able to stand long enough since my surgery to do that many items in one go.  Nope....I did the whole stack and my leg and hip were not the least bit tired. Overall my body wasn't tired. My mind wasn't tired.  FINALLY life is starting a return to my new, limping but still active, normal!  What a relief....and it has only taken ELEVEN months to get to this point, hahahaha.  I am very grateful that my overall strength is indeed being restored.  

Looks like it will be too cold and likely rainy to be walking to church on Sunday, but I will get some walking in at the grocery stores tomorrow and by Monday it should be warm enough to walk longer distances outside again. YAY!  I am adopting a slightly more European concept of grocery shopping, purchasing much smaller loads that I can carry home on foot, therefore walking to the store more often each week.  

My next door neighbour got her weekly ride to the food bank today with her sponsor. Shortly after she arrived home she knocked on my door and handed me a loaf of white bread because there had been extra bread in her box that she doesn't want, a bag of shredded mixed cabbage salad with an enclosed carton of soy sauce dressing, another huge handful of cilantro and a pack of celery which they cannot tolerate eating.  She has to take what she is given of course at the food bank, but neither of her other friends like the flavour of the items she brought to me.  As she handed me each of the items a look of horror crossed her face at the idea that we actually enjoy those things. hahaha  My husband looked at the pack of celery and knew instantly how he would be able to use up the now FOUR bundle of cilantro we have received from her: cream of celery soup!  A goodly sized handful of chopped cilantro on a bowl of that soup is fabulously delicious! God bless my neighbour for her generosity.  At least the food so lovingly donated to the food bank will not go to waste.  Once the soup is made we have a couple of people in need that will enjoy receiving it, along with half a loaf each of that bread, so we will not be the only unexpected recipients of the food items.  Tomorrow when I go to the grocery store I am going to pick up a couple of packages of halal chicken to give to our neighbour.  They get very little meat to eat and I know they like chicken, so I would enjoy getting them a treat.  She gives me food several times a month now, either in grocery form or plates of her marvellous cooking. It is really fun slowly getting to know this woman and her children. If my husband can ever lure her husband out of their place to offer him some simple English language help, we will get to know the whole family better.  Praying for all the right things to happen with our dear neighbours.

 

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..... 

Talk About A GOOD Friday!

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

How QUICKLY Things Change With CFS Attacks!!

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

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

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

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

Another Excellent Update From Caro's Family

  On this glorious, sort of warm, sunny skies with forming white thunderhead clouds kind of day, I am delighted to have another report about Carol's progress.  Her family is thrilled and you prayer warriors have certainly made a difference to her recovery.  Here is the latest:

So far as Carol and I can tell there are no deficits or lasting injury to her brain. She is as sharp as I’ve ever known her and likely ready to get her word game streak back up and running.

Her heart tests are all showing no damage and no lingering weakness! What a relief and huge answered prayer!

Her persistent cough is also gone! I’m delighted about this one!

No news (good news) about the kidneys.

Now for the muscles. She had the weekend and today off of formal/attended physio therapy. However, as we know that doesn’t mean she took those days off. In fact she has excelled at the “homework” her PT gave on Friday and is stretching even hose goals! Also she is noting improved finger strength. Previously her fingers were not strong enough to do her routine inhaler. Today they were!!!!
She is up to the bathroom without assist (except a watchful eye from the nurse)!!! Her goal tomorrow is to be able to brush her teeth standing without leaning! Such great incredible progress.

Tuesday we hope she will be seen by Physio again and given the clearance to walk with watchful assist of family and/or friends.

She is awaiting word on rehab placement. It may be as far away as 150km. In that case she will instead look more into home health options. Especially as she is improving so quickly.

Oh how effective this groups prayers have been. 

I am hoping Carol can get into a rehab facility MUCH closer than 150km away, if her improvements continue at this rate of speed with no unexpected set backs.  So grateful her physiotherapy is helping her so much each and every day!

My husband began his day with a tummy episode threatening, partly because he fell asleep last evening without his usual small snack. He woke up too early....6:30am....because the tummy ache was threatening to hit him pretty hard.  BUT he had a small bowl of yogurt and some water, then decided to go back to bed. He slept for another nearly 90 minutes and woke up just in time to pick up his friend for a men's breakfast meeting.  He looked absolutely horrible when he left and I had a feeling he MAY arrive home in someone else's car before being gone more than a half hour, but he not only survived the meeting, he was able to stop at the wood shop afterwards and pick up his soldering gun for a small home repair he wants to do this week. Whew...he dodged a bullet again today after a kind of miserable weekend, particularly on the Saturday....yikes.  So grateful this latest round of attacks seems to be lessening and I pray he will soon be back to as full health as he ever is capable of being.

Our daughter in law must have arrived home safely last evening as we haven't heard anything yet and if she had not arrived our son would have been calling us. So happy she seems to have had a good week away.  Our son has to balance his home life, job and finalizing a couple of art works for the Esther 3 art fair in May. What a busy pair. I am guessing our daughter in law may not have had today off  from her usual full time job today, but it would be wonderful if she had the day to regroup and rest a bit.

Day two of this week's physiotherapy went as well as Day one did yesterday.  I am hoping to get Day three and four done prior to the weekend as I would really like to take two days off in a row.  Walking more correctly now is helping my full weight bearing balance exercises and vice versa.  It has been a good week thus far for small bits of progress once again.  It is most disappointing that the tendon on the operated leg will likely never fully heal due to the amount of damage it sustained previously, but as long as I can fully weight bear soon for the full required 30 seconds, I will consider myself sufficiently healed.  The "hitch in my getalong" is far less pronounced since I started rolling my foot forward properly when walking without my cane. Praise the Lord for that! 

Finally did the ironing that has been sitting draped over my husband's favourite reading chair in his little library room for the past few days.  It doesn't usually take me this long to get ironing completed after doing a day of laundry, but wow, for some reason there seemed to be so many other things to do each day that I didn't get to it until now.  Oh well....

It is a beautiful day here and I am going to enjoy every moment of the good weather before we will apparently be hit with quite a bit of freezing rain overnight tomorrow, turning to snowfall the following morning.  Sigh....SPRING, WHERE THE HECK ARE YA'???

I am hoping like ten bears my husband will be well enough tomorrow before the weather turns rotten again to come out shopping for a few items with me.  I have GOT to find some brown and navy blue socks. The usual "cheapsy" retail stores are only carrying black, white and grey socks along with some horrific patterned ones, so maybe I will just be content to pay more for the colours I want that can't be found at the places I already looked.  

Are You Also Appalled By The Cost Of Groceries??

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

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

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

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

Nearly Over At Last!

 I have had a glorious morning running around town doing errands and treating myself to four new books from Indigo.  I decided that since our wedding anniversary is coming up one of these fine days and we have no plans whatsoever as to what to do to celebrate 49 years of wedded-ness, I would buy myself a handful of newbies and hang the cost.  The one I am most looking forward to reading is "Summers in Squids Tickle: A Newfoundland Odyssey" by Robert Finch.  How that relates to our anniversary is that my husband also spent a few summers in Newfoundland on volunteer work projects with a charity called Operation Beaver and being in Newfoundland provided him with some of the happiest summers of his young adult life.  To my husband:  happy upcoming anniversary!  (What we are going to do for his birthday, the day prior to the anniversary, is also anyone's guess at this point.  He has been too busy to think about either event and I am plum out of ideas after all these years together.  Perhaps if we put our heads together when he gets some time later this week we can come up with something more original than eating dinner out, hahaha.)

I am pleased that as I drove around the city doing my errands I was able to avoid driving through any puddles.  Only the heavy dirt and dust particles blowing past on the strong gales of wind coated the exterior of the car, but it still looks pretty clean and nice after its washing yesterday.  We found some streets to drive on last night when we went to care group that were puddle and pot hole free, so that also kept the car looking good by the time we arrived home.  If we can just get through the next three days of dropping temperatures and highly possible snow flurries and freezing rain, the weather will take an uptick toward spring by the weekend...lookin' good by then. YAY!

This afternoon I think I will work in a physio routine after doing a bit of ironing...hmmmm....maybe best to do the exercising before the ironing so I don't use length of ironing time as an excuse to let the physio go.  Yup...that is the best plan.  More physio tomorrow, then a day off while we have various meetings both in the morning and afternoon. Back to physio on Friday...it is all good. 

I am doing all my outside walking without my cane now that the ice is pretty well gone.  As I go along I have to watch my posture and discipline myself to stand as straight as possible instead of caving in to the weak hip tendon and muscles as doing so causes me to have quite a lean. It isn't necessary and is a lazy, bad habit I want to avoid!  There is a cane in the car at all times just in case I get too tired to hold my back straight on my own.  While the walks around the sidewalks are not usually more than a couple of blocks, at least I can also stand now as well while walking in the retail stores and waiting in line at the cashier tills.  Progress to be sure.  Now, I just have to convince my tired mind and body that I will be able to handle the other hip replacement surgery later this year....I WILL be able, I WILL be able, I WILL be able to handle it. Amen!!!   Unfortunately my "good" hip that has never been operated on, thank the Lord, is starting to ache while doing physio on the operated hip, so I know I will not be able to avoid that second hip surgery. Sigh... Well, old age happens and bodies break down....one day closer to heaven is my motto these days and I find that thought no end of comforting.

Wow....Such A Great Day, My Head Is Still Spinning!

After running an errand late this morning we decided it was finally time to start our search for a "new to us" vehicle, after waiting a good two years longer than originally planned.  We assumed it would be the usual arduous process of going from dealership to dealership, arguing about what we should get, both of us disappointed and/or in tears with the frustration of trying to find something both of us would be comfortable with in terms of ease of driving, condition of vehicle and price point.

Well, it certainly didn't turn out that way....glory to God!!  We got to the first dealership, had a marvellous salesman, experienced great customer service all around, took a car for an extensive test drive and an hour later left the dealership, bill of sale in hand, to head off to the bank and the insurance company to complete the legalities.  Unbelievable! I think we are both still in shock!  Such a thing has never happened to us before when purchasing a car of any kind.  Now we will get the handful of repairs done on our old vehicle so it will be ready to be passed on to some friends who are in desperate need of a second vehicle that is roadworthy for their summer trips to their favourite cabin at "the lake" and for doing their separate errands around town!  

The shock is starting to wear off now, but wow...what was predicted by us both to be a discouraging, frustrating, unhappy time looking at previously owned vehicles ended up netting us a car that is 8 years newer than our present vehicle, only 67,000k on it and owned by an elderly fellow who treated it so well that both exterior and interior look like brand new....I have the same sense of inner peace about purchasing this vehicle that I had when I gave away my piano:  all the expected stress and disappointment never surfaced. It was simply time and I knew it in my  heart, just like what happened today.  The car has four brand new all season tires on it, so that was a bonus!  It also has more electronic  "bells and whistles" than we have ever had, so will spend this long weekend studying the manual and trying to remember the tutorial our salesman gave us before we drove it off the lot. 

Wow....I am eternally grateful not only for today's purchase, but for the restoration of a long missing peace about any upcoming move out of this suite....when the Lord deems the time and circumstance to be right, it will happen without so much upset and worry as we had when we thought we were moving two years ago.  I am ever so thankful for the example of that peace we experienced  today.   

 

First Foray Out Without My Cane!

 Since so much snow has melted from the sidewalks and some of the parking lots around town, when we went out this afternoon I tossed my cane into the car and didn't use it at all.  The first walk was short: parked the car downtown and walked across the street into a building where there were only about fifty steps in total to walk before returning to the car.  Then we drove to the bank where I walked across the parking lot, did my banking business and walked back.  I realize that doesn't sound like much of an accomplishment, but I am thrilled that I was able to mentally let go of the dependence on the cane for a feeling of security.  Yes, I was limping very noticeably, which I don't when I carry the cane, even though I am not putting weight on the cane and sometimes even forget to put it down on the ground when my operated leg takes a step now, BUT I was brave enough to risk tripping over potholes on the street and in the lot and over broken bits of sidewalk.  Thank you Lord. The bravery to start the next phase of returning to a more normal life finally happened today.  

Next time I go out....tomorrow actually....I will once again try leaving the cane in the car, just in case I am on my feet too long or have to walk farther than is comfortable as we tour around.....are ya' ready for this.....the parking lots at a few used CAR DEALERSHIPS!!!  At long last my husband has decided he can manage to detach himself emotionally from our current vehicle...long story....and begin the search for a different, slightly newer, "new to us" vehicle.  By noon tomorrow we will be on the hunt. Don't know how long it will take us, but it is time to begin.  We want to have a different vehicle up and running properly before mid April if possible so we can pass our current vehicle on to friends who need a second vehicle so they can stop having to share one car every day and who could use one like ours to transport all their summer gear to the cabin they rent at "the lake" every summer.  There are some repairs that need to be made to the electrical system and the emergency brake before we turn it over, but it should work well for them for some time to come.  Lord willing, this plan will happen and our present vehicle will have another life to live.  Here's hoping we can find ourselves a decent used car very soon and make the switch over by early spring.  

As I assumed, lower temperatures and snow are supposed to hit us again next week. The good part of that is the fresh snow will cover what remains of the icy sea across the back lawn and perhaps I will have enough traction then to get to the car in the parking lot on my own.  Looking at highs of only -10C at that point, but it surely has been great to get out and about so often this week on this string of above zero days.