Why O Why Did I Bother To Ask???? Hahahaha....

We were "up 'n' at 'em" by 8am today; breakfasted and dressed and ready to go by 9am.  We wanted to get to our nearest post office branch before it got busy and we were successful in that.  It took just over five minutes to arrange for our mail to be held while we are away and then we were on our way home again.  

The plumbers are supposed to come today to suss out our leakage issues but we knew they likely wouldn't get here until later in the day. So at nearly 3pm we are still waiting, but that is just fine.  It is highly likely they got held up on another job, so if they don't get here today they will be here tomorrow and one of us should be home most all day to explain the problem to them.  Who knows when arrangements will be made for the issue to actually be repaired, right?  We know from our years in construction how the best laid plans in the trades can come apart within seconds, leaving the next customer waiting longer than arranged for originally. That is just how it goes sometimes.

Once we arrived home from the post office my husband headed over to our friends' house to complete the building of canoe racks for their and our canoes, so I stupidly asked myself, "Hmmm, I wasn't expecting to be done with the post office this early so what shall I do for the rest of today?"  Dumb, dumb, dumb.....I barely got the question asked when things began to happen.  I realized it was time to put a load of my husband's clothes into the laundry and some of it needed stain spray...that man never remembers to put on his chef's sized apron when he is stir frying with hot, spattering oil.....and I wanted to get that finished before the plumbers might arrive and have to turn off the main water valve.  Just got that in when my next door neighbour arrived with a giant tote bag filled with more bags of rice and rolled oats that, when added to what she has already brought us since the end of June, could combine to feed a lumber camp crew for an entire summer.  In the top of the bag were two large bunches of carrots and a giant head of broccoli, both veggies needing immediate attention.  So, I spent the next hour cutting off carrot tops and peeling and bagging them for my husband to make soup out of, perhaps tomorrow.  Then I chopped the heavy, tough stem off the head of broccoli, removed a section for our dinner tonight then cut the rest of it into somewhat smaller pieces, blanched the whole works, cooled all the pieces and bagged them for the freezer.  Originally I had hoped to have the freezer and most of the refrigerator free of any food items before we left town, but that isn't going to happen, so all we can do is pray our refrigerator, poor ancient scratched stained ugly old thing that it is, doesn't break down while we are gone. So thankful our friend is checking in several times a week to water plants and check things like basement flooding and dead refrigerators. God bless her!!  

After lunch I got the load of clothes dried and sorted, but I think I will wait and iron them tomorrow.  For some reason our lunch preparations resulted in more than the usual amount of dirty dishes, so I spent a fair bit of time tidying up the kitchen and washing plates and glasses and bowls and pots and and and and....

Now as I write this I am waiting for my son to call in regard to some mutual banking arrangements we need to make together in regard to our trip.  Those arrangements will dictate how I spend the rest of the next ten days in preparing to go. 

Tomorrow morning if I am looking at a chunk of free time after I iron the laundry I washed today I think I will just keep my questions about further chores for the day to myself!  Hohoho!!! I certainly can't whine today about not getting enough exercise.  I have lost count of how many times I have been up and down both flights of stairs and how long I spent standing in the kitchen doing various chores.  

That part is ALL good!!!  My hip muscles on the operated leg are finally beginning to strengthen up to cover up the fact that the tendon has not returned to full operation.  YAY!  I thought I was done with all of the healing and restoration process, but no!  That 18 month time frame for complete or nearly complete healing is still in effect for me for the next 5 months apparently. I am delighted and relieved as I see the limp finally beginning to lessen even when I am walking farther than usual without my cane.  Thank you God.

And....Now We've Sprung A Leak!!!! Aaaargh!!!

 This day just gets better and better!  NOT! hahahahahahahahahahahaha...the number of ha's denotes my current level of hysteria,hahahaha!

I had a shower at about 11am. After doing a bit of grocery shopping I came home to prepare a late lunch due to the late start of our day.  After lunch I was washing dishes when my husband noticed there were some drips of water on the outside of one of the cupboard doors.  He opened the door and saw a few more drops of water on the inside of the door, along the edge of the shelves and inside a few of the dishes closest to those edges. Wah???  He then looked up, waaaaaay up, (thank you CBC and the Friendly Giant children's show from long ago), and there, inside the 2 year old patching square from a plumbing problem that was fixed more than 2 years ago, was a lovely little crack with drops of water forming slowly and equally slowly dripping down onto the open cupboard top below. From there the water was coming over the edge of that top and making its way slowly, drip by drip, down the cupboard doors and onto the counter behind the toaster oven. It is all wiped up now, towels are down on top of the cupboards to absorb whatever water continues to drip out of the ceiling, all the dishes have been moved off the cupboard top and out of the cabinets and those in contact with the dripping water thoroughly washed. The maintenance request has been submitted and accepted by whoever accepts those things so...now we wait until whenever. 

BIG FAT SIGH!!!  Here we go again.  NOW what part of the ancient plumbing has failed?  

There was no water anywhere to be found on the bathroom floor, or around the toilet or under the bathroom sink....although when I was checking the cabinet under that sink and my hand made contact with the bottom of the sink, large shards of rust came off in my hands and fell into the box of cleaning products I store there.  BIGGER FATTER SIGH!!! Guess when the maintenance workers arrive on Tuesday...of course this is a long weekend with no one on duty between now and Tuesday to deal with anything other than dire emergencies, so we won't be able to bath or shower from now until whenever the maintenance plumber arrives...I will have to show him the bathroom sink and request a replacement.  Then what new issue is that going to create?  Oh Lord....why oh why will you not bring us a new place to live yet?  I am discouraged today on the one hand, on the other hand I am accepting the fact that once again we have reached "Ludicrous Speed", (thank you Spaceballs script writers), and that is just how life is right now. hahahahahahahaha!

Well, as the saying goes, "It never rains but it pours!"  Oops, I hope in this case the saying is not prophetic!!! hahahahahahahahaha! 

Thankful For All The Energy We Both Seem To Have Today!

 I woke up after a very good sleep last night, feeling pretty healthy, but also feeling somewhat at loose ends.  I had no plans for today.  My husband had his weekly Zoom meeting with his scientist/philosopher/theologian friends early in the morning, but I just sat around reading a book wondering if I was motivated enough to so much as get dressed.  Just about 11am something finally clicked in my brain, I got cleaned up and dressed and before my 1pm lunch got all the dusting accomplished!  My husband was inspired to finally do a proper cleaning on his little library and his office, after finding no end of excuses not to over the past couple of weeks, YAY!! DONE!  After lunch HE inspired ME to keep working so now the kitchen, bathroom and entryway floors are washed. YES...a productive HOME day.  Tomorrow it will be time to vacuum...I may even do the bedroom and upstairs hallway this afternoon....and then the house cleaning is done for the week and I can move on to other chores like taking in the recycling and thrift store items.  My husband also sent an email to the kids today with some ideas for the spiritual component of their wedding reception they asked him to attend to, so he is waiting to hear back from them about those details.  

It feels good to have a productive day after waking up feeling so totally MEH!!! 

The weather has been very nice today thus far, but we are now gearing up for the next set of showers and/or thunderstorms between dinner and overnight.  The sun was shining in a bright blue sky until just after 3pm when the clouds once again began to form in all their depressing greyness.  We have been blessed though that even with last evening's teeming deluge of rain continuing over night, only a gallon of water was found in the collection system my husband invented for our leaking basement.  That water was poured into the plant pots on our deck so at least it will have some actual  use! Yay! 

So Which Is It Then?????

Today I read two conflicting (?) reports by two different cities in two different provinces about how each of their individual current weather conditions create perfect breeding grounds for the nasty mosquitoes that make outdoor living in Canada in the summer....along with the hideous ticks of course.....itchy, annoying and potentially disease causing.

A report I read from Lethbridge Alberta told me that their rainy spring along with its WARM weather made for the perfect breeding grounds for mosquitoes. In the same news feed was a similar article from our own city of Regina telling me that the rainy spring along with its COLD weather made for the perfect breeding ground for mosquitoes.  

So, which is it? AND does it really matter?  Apparently the air temperature has little effect on these little bloodsucking insects. As long as there is standing water anywhere at all in this country, we will continue to be plagued with the little monsters.  Yucko!!!  I am not encouraged that the number of mosquitoes this year, all across the west at least, has risen substantially over previous years. Oooooh, as someone who is well loved by mosquitoes I am not at all impressed. Swat! Slap! Squish!

I just keep telling myself that it is all worth it because so many of the northern Alberta and Saskatchewan forest fire hubs are also getting a lot of rain thus far this summer, helping keep the surge of large fires in check.

Today I finally tackled some small chores I have been putting off because I have found the thought of doing them more stressful than those chores warranted.  I checked finally to see if our last credit card payment went though after my first attempt to pay in person at the bank and if Amazon did indeed refund the card for non-delivery of an item we ordered for the kids.  Everything was tickety boo.  So, why was I stressed over something so simple?  Easy: I have experienced so many mistakes by the bank and credit card company in the past few months that I hold my breath just looking up my account online.  Aaargh!!  I printed off paper copies of our flight and accommodation reservation for our upcoming trip.  We have run into some minor issues in the past when trying to use my husband's phone to bring up email confirmations in our own airports and across the border, so this time I am fully prepared with the information we may need and can whip it out of my suitcase in its bright red plastic folder if required. hohoho!! Gotcha' downed internet issues, this time I gotcha'!!

The bathroom walls needed a washing down and I should have done it two weeks ago, but was feeling so punky with my sore sinuses and ear infection that it seemed like far too much work to be bothered with. So, I did that today!  There is still cigarette smoke residue trickling out of the overhead fan system from the last tenants before us who smoked, as well as the various smoking neighbours next door since the smoke rises up into the ceiling fans for distribution throughout the open shared attic space.  All the bathrooms in the suites here have the tobacco residues streaking the walls unless the walls get washed down regularly.  I have never washed bathroom walls as often as I have since we moved in here.  

Tonight we are meeting up with a newly retired colleague of my husband's. She is selling her house and returning to live in her native Caribbean country. We are happy for her and she is very excited to leave the drabness of the prairies and our unique prairie culture behind her.  I don't blame her.....hmmm....I wonder if she knows of any rental units in her home country that would be interested in having some elderly Canadians rent the space for a few years....hmmmmm.....hahahaha. Yes, yes, unlikely and not sure my husband would go for the idea, but I can dream right?  A former parishioner of ours who was widowed over ten years ago started travelling solo to the Caribbean a few years ago and is now remarried to a local fellow there. She is very, very happy and we are happy for her.  Let's see how I feel about such a move: Caribbean--Regina; Caribbean--Regina; Caribbean--Regina....hmmmm...people who know me will know exactly how I would feel about such a move, teehee. We are going for Indian food tonight.  It will be yummy and we are excited to be able to have one last visit with our friend before she leaves in a couple of weeks' time.

Tomorrow I am picking up my coffee buddy and we are going to a coffee bar for our visit.  It has been several weeks since we last did that so I am looking forward to it.  Tomorrow was originally forecast for warm and dry, but I see now that there is a 40% chance of rain again.  No surprise there, right? hahaha At the moment the thunder is booming here, but it has arrived two hours after our last bit of drizzly rain and at the moment there is nary a drop falling from the sky.  Interesting weather, that's for sure. 

Could My Thought Process Possibly Be LESS Creative??? Nope, I Don't Think So! Duh........

 I have been putting off cleaning out the vegetable crisper drawer in my refrigerator for almost a week now because it is always such a chore to clean such a small compartment.  This afternoon I knew it was time to stop putting it off.  Yuck!!  Little bits of vegetable detritus and possible liquid stains from who knows what are what I thought I saw in there and was dreading having to spend the time and energy involved on cleaning it all out, as well as removing the drawer and cleaning the bits of food crumbs and stuck on liquid from spills that have happened in the past few weeks that would be all over the ledge the drawer sits on.  Yuck again.

Today, being particularly tired and the air here being particularly muggy, I was dreading it even more.  I had a great visit with my walking partner this morning, even though the rain showers kept us from doing any actual walking out of doors, I got my ironing finished, made a decent lunch, got all the dishes done....but now it was time to tackle the crisper. No more flimsy excuses!!

When I pulled out the drawer and looked at the bottom ledge where the drawer sits, it appeared that most of the little crumbs were loose and there was no evidence of any hardened puddles of spilt milk or juice anywhere.  As I pondered how on earth I was going to manage to get down low enough to wipe those crumbs out with a wet cloth, due to my aching, mobilization compromised hips, the lights FINALLY went on...after HOW MANY years????  Feeling so stupid for all the hours previously spent with wet cloths sometimes doing little more than pushing the crumbs about before accidentally whisking them out of the fridge and onto the kitchen floor, when I COULD have simply put the crevice tool attachment on the vacuum cleaner to remove them....well, again with the DUH!!!  So that is what I did. In about 5 seconds all the crumbs under the drawer were vacuumed up and since there were no hardened puddles of anything to gum up a wet cloth, that part of the task was done.  So, I emptied the vegetables in the crisper drawer, checked the veggie "crumbs" in there and proceeded to vacuum those out as well. There were a few crumblies stuck onto the bottom of the drawer that I was able to wipe out with a wet cloth in about 5 seconds, gave the drawer a good drying with a clean cloth, put the veggies back in the drawer and replaced it in the fridge.  In less than 5 minutes the whole task was completed.  WHY O WHY have I never once thought of doing the crisper cleaning this way??  At my age, how could I have so thoroughly missed this possibility as a better, less physically demanding way to clean that part of the refrigerator????  I also realized that the yard stick I have hanging on the side of the fridge is a great length for attaching a wet/dry cloth to the end of it to push it around on the ledge the drawer sits on if there are any removable stains from spilled liquids.  I think I have just been so used to doing things the exact same way for the past five or six decades that it hasn't dawned on me to quit griping about how hard it is on my body to have to crouch or bend over to clean certain things and find a better way.  Aiii yiii....talk about silly, right???

We received an email from our daughter in law this morning regarding spending a few days upstate with her and our son when we are visiting them later this summer.  She is booking a family friend's beautiful cabin for three nights near Germantown, about a 2 or so hour drive out of the city.  Her brother is loaning her his car so we can make the trip.  We will stop in Beacon, about half way along the route, to see the Dia Beacon art museum and enjoy their current large display of paintings by Saskatchewan's very own Agnes Martin.  This is very exciting. Our "kids" are eager to escape the heat of the city with a short trip to the more rural area surrounding this beautiful cabin with a screened in porch, beautiful bbq pad and right next to some lovely hiking trails.  It is their "thank you for coming all this way" gift to us before the wedding reception rolls around. How grateful we are to be able to enjoy the beauty of an area of the state that only my husband has seen before. It will all be completely new to me.  I am SO excited!  Our daughter in law has been talking about spending a few days out of the city ever since the idea of us going down for the wedding reception was floated a couple of months ago and she is getting her wish. Bless her for setting this up for the 4 of us.  It is going to be so much fun.  We are so grateful as well to have a few days away from the intense summer heat. So many happy times to look forward to after two very physically difficult  years for both my husband and myself.  We are blessed.

 

Beautiful Summer Colors Abound In Our Complex!

No, the colours of summer around here are not from the few pots of blooming flowers on our and some of the neighbours' back decks, but from the colourful clothing some of the immigrant women are wearing.  The African and Caribbean women are dressed in brilliant yellows and greens and reds, while the Muslim woman are wearing less brilliantly coloured hijabs, but still in beautiful shades of light maroon and deep blues.  

One of our African neighbours is on her back porch, washing her kids' clothes in a Tweety Bird yellow plastic pail that exactly matches the yellow in her head wrapping and of the flower pattern on her black skirt.  So lovely....her deck railings and covered in tiny baby blue, neon green and pale yellow items belonging to her youngest son, 4 year old Jonson.  We suspect that either the dryer in their unit doesn't work well or she has decided she cannot afford the electricity it costs to run. She is a resourceful woman: took some job training and got some kind of job, has sublet the basement to another younger couple who also assist her in baby sitting the five kids when they are off work and no longer has to receive food from the immigrant food service providers here in the city.  She is an amazing woman accomplishing all of this in the 18 months they have lived in our complex.  I admire her stamina and her resourcefulness.  We are praying with her kids that their dad will be able to get to Canada very soon. It has been nearly 2 years since he had to return to his home country to sort out some extended family issues and was refused re-entry to Canada.  

Well, it is now time to iron my own colourful summer clothing that I washed a couple of days ago.  Ironing is most relaxing and I quite enjoy it.  It is the kind of task that gives instant reward: wrinkles to no wrinkles in a matter of a few minutes and, unlike dusting and vacuuming whose results last anywhere from a matter of only hours, to a couple of days at most,  the results of ironing last for days or even weeks before the clothing is worn and becomes wrinkled again.

Good to have the blue sky and sunshine today.  There are some possible thunderheads forming now, mid afternoon and there is a possibility of more rain and thunder tonight, but who knows?  All I know is that our basement didn't flood in yesterday's deluge! (And my husband is feeling so much better today after I prayed for him last evening.  He isn't 100% back on his feet after what we think was an extreme food sensitivity reaction that seems to be forming now when he eats his favourite bread, but what a difference between him being nearly immobilized from headache last night and only a slight tummy gurgling today.)  

Thank you Lord! It is a good day!

The Usual Working Around the House Saturday!

 Gosh, but I find Saturdays difficult!  It seems to be a really great day for my husband to work on sermons and articles he is writing, but I nearly lose my mind every Saturday.  Yes, I could get out and shop or look about at some little art galleries, but Saturday is the day working folk and school children are off and so of course it gets rather crowded at most venues and restaurants.  With it being Father's Day weekend, some places are even more crowded than usual today from what I can gather.

So today I did the laundry. hahaha Happy Saturday!!  Good to get it done and I can iron tomorrow or Monday afternoon.  Great to get the exercise going up and down the two flights of stairs as well, although that second hip is giving me grief over it.  Dang it, but I really am going to have to get a prescription for Naproxin to get me through our US trip this summer. Oh well...I was on it for hip number 1 the last time we visited our kids there.

Our kids wrote to us today about the possibility of spending 3 nights in upstate New York with them the first week of our holiday. They know how much we are NOT going to pay for three nights of cabin accommodation there when we have already paid for our apartment in the city, BUT they want to cover that cost.  It is a beautiful cabin with a lovely outdoor barbeque area, which greatly appeals to our BBQ King son and our daughter in law has been talking about this sort of possibility ever since we told them back the end of April that we were coming for a whole month.  The cost of the cabin they want to rent for 3 days made us gasp, so we told them if they truly want to pay for that, okay, their choice, BUT we are paying for the food, train transportation and event entry fees.  Just waiting to hear back from them as to whether or not this is going to happen.  I know they both want to get out of the beastly hot city for a few days and I can't blame them as I too would love that!  Guess we shall see what their decision is. They are nothing if not full of interesting ideas!!

It has been a lovely warm day with only a bit of a breeze wafting through the tree tops.  Not great to be stuck in the house all day, but I have been enjoying the unusual quietness outside on the lawns.  Over the past week all the African kids have found other friends in a different area of the complex to play with, so they are gone over there right after school during the week and took off across the parking lot once again early this morning, not returning for more than a few minutes at lunch time.  Moh and his brother have barely been outside playing in the past week and it seems their family has had a serious falling out with our next door neighbours, so Moh and his brother are not playing with the two boys next door now.  The indigenous kids in our part of the complex have been packing up trucks and vans with camping gear, either heading out before school ends this coming Tuesday or getting ready to go as soon as they are free at that time.  They are too busy packing to play outside.  The other slightly older kids are heavily involved in baseball and soccer now and so by 8am every weekend day they and their parents are gone to practises and tournaments. Wow, it is so quiet around here lately it is downright eerie!! We miss the kids playing outside, yelling and kicking balls and riding bikes and fighting. haha

Our one truly beautiful day this week, today, is apparently a one off, unfortunately.  According to the forecast we have very heavy rain on the way tomorrow, followed by another two days of showers.  The poor tomatoes are so far behind I am not sure how much of a harvest we will get before we leave for our vacation this summer.  We assumed we could pick and freeze a fair crop and that we would have already picked a fair number of our wee cherry tomatoes, but nope.  There are only three tomatoes that formed nearly two weeks ago but are still dark green with not a hint of ripening. I noticed two more blossoms this morning....TWO!!  That will make a total of five tomatoes in the first three weeks of this month...that is assuming they fill out and ripen sufficiently to be eaten.  Sigh.... We need sunshine and heat for our plants now! The bonus of the rain in our province is that the forest fires are not starting and getting out of control because the rain in that area of the north has not had the accompanying lightning strikes....yet anyway.

We made a big decision yesterday to drop out of the one Bible study group we have been attending twice a month regularly for the past three years. There seem to be other things coming up for us this fall that will leave us unable to keep that commitment regularly.  That is disappointing on the one hand, but on the other hand it will be nice to have some new things to do. It will also leave us more time to invest in our small care group that began meeting some months ago and that has proven to be not only a good spiritual learning time, but also a time of deep and personal fellowship with a few folk who are significantly younger than we are and who help us restore our flagging energy levels. We don't meet nearly as often as the Bible study group does, but we enjoy everything from Bible studies to movie nights to group dinners....it is so much fun!  

My husband is doing the scripture readings at church tomorrow, so it is nice for him to have a service task that is super easy, much easier than teaching and preaching.  Next weekend we will be out of town to attend the ordination of two of the deaconal candidates he has been mentoring, so that will be really fun. AND it is on Saturday!  A GOOD Saturday for me for a change! hahaha

Well, if we survive the heavy rain that is supposed to fall tomorrow, it will be a nice relaxing Father's Day.  My husband is a great father!  Another of his many gifts!! 

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

C'est Pour Ma Famille: Final Weather Report!

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

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

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

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.

 

Thick Snowflakes Falling…….Thickly!!

 I am truly unimpressed by the present evening snowfall! The curtain of snow in our neighbourhood is so thick I can barely see the buildings across the street. Freezing drizzle is expected overnight, so all we can do is ask God to give us wisdom in the morning if there is any doubt about being able to travel at least somewhat safely on the highway. This new vehicle has only the All Season Tires instead of the studs that are on the Honda. This is not the predicted snow flurry activity, it is a full on winter snowfall. Dang it! Well, no doubt the Lord will make our decision clear to us in the morning…..

My day was not a total waste! Yay! Slow moving as I am today, six loads of laundry are done, folded, and either put away, or hanging up to be ironed. Felt good to make use of my Saturday while my husband was teaching all day.

The winner of the March sumo basho was determined on day 14, but I will still enjoy watching the final day of the tournament once NHK  in Japan has it online and ready for download. Kirishima won his third Emperor’s Cup and I am happy for him, but feeling badly for my favourite Yokozuna, Hoshoryu, who has yet to win a basho since his promotion to his present rank. The last winner and presumed possible winner once again following his promotion to Ozeki, Aonishiki, shockingly ended up with fewer wins than losses for the first time and, after looking as though he might finally have a chance of winning, after coming in second time after time in the past, but having a strong showing on his first week, Takayaso fell apart in week two and failed in the end to come close. My favourite sumo wrestler, Midorifuji, had a heart attack…aged 24? ….prior to the tournament. He of course had to withdraw and I suspect his career could be over. Poor young man…. Crowd favourite and Osaka home town boy, Ura, did poorly as well. There is going to be a huge shakeup in the rankings I expect after so many of the strongest wrestlers did not meet their usual standard at this basho….known as the Stormy Spring Tournament. This year it was indeed! I am already looking forward to the next tourney in May.

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........

 

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! 

Ka-BOOM! Ohhhh Nooooo…….Our Bathroom!!!

We just finished eating dinner tonight when my husband went upstairs to wash his hands.  As soon as he turned on the bathroom light he saw water and black "gunk" from our sink drainpipe all over the floor, the walls, the toilet and toilet paper....on the hanging towels....pretty much everywhere.  The sink had literally "exploded" the contents of the pipe below it.  What an horrendous disastrous mess!!  From what we know about the shared stack between our place and the next door neighbours' suite, we can make an educated guess that their sink was plugging, so they decided to use some kind of plunger, likely a compressed air plunger by the look of the wide spread mess in our bathroom, to get their sink draining again.  So, we are guessing that the blockage had/still has to be in the shared part of the plumbing stack where our two separate sink drainage pipes combine into the main stack.  Since our neighbours don't speak English, there is no point trying to explain to them about the shared pipe situation. Under the circumstance we really can't ask them not to do any more plunging while a plumber has been requested. Aiiii yiiiii.....Oh dear, dear Lord, please let their sink continue to drain well enough until we get professional help in here.

While my husband mopped, wiped, and disinfected  every surface of the bathroom, I put in a maintenance request online and I can only pray the plumber arrives tomorrow morning before a major snow storm arrives in the afternoon.  I also have to pray that the neighbour's sink doesn't plug again before the plumber arrives because I don't know if my husband is up to crawling around on the bathroom floor again trying to clean every nook and cranny like he had to do tonight.  Between my hip and my foot and my knee issues I cannot join him down there to help out with that part. Once I have cleaned the sink and top of the toilet, replaced towels and other Standing Only chores, that is the end of my ability to assist. Sigh....

We have to get our old car moved over tomorrow morning to our friends' driveway.  We can't leave it on the street because we are to get 25-35cm of blowing snow starting sometime in the early afternoon and it will keep snowing and blowing for about 24 hours.  If our car gets snowed in out on the side street it will be nearly impossible to dig out and move to our friends' place.  So, I am praying we can work that out as soon as possible in the morning, then hunker down safely at home for a few days. YUCK!!!!  That much snow will take forever to clear with the city ploughs. The side streets around here likely won't get ploughed at all because the main thoroughfares will have to be done first and that is going to take a week or more to do properly.  

Dear Lord, I am so looking forward to the end of winter....are ya' with me?? 

Warmer And Not Warmer!

 Despite the air temperature of only -11C this afternoon, the wind chill must be at least -20C!!  We have just returned home from an abbreviated walk outside....wow, it turned out to be only a four block round trip because it was absolutely freezing out there with the strong wind.  Oh wow.....brrrrrr.  Even with my warm, fuzzy gloves my hands were frozen after even that short distance.  Tonight and tomorrow morning the forecast is for freezing rain and snow, so we shall see what actually transpires.  Glad we got out despite the cold because once there is freezing rain again it will be several days before I will be able to get out of here safely.  Hope this doesn't ruin our chances of going to church in person this coming Sunday!  

Successful physiotherapy today; saw more progress on my weight bearing, so am not as upset now about the lack of progress on my lying side abductions.  I had my husband cup my ankle on that foot in his hands and slowly raise my leg as high as it would go.....hmmmm....not very high, but now I have a better idea of where else to do the pressure point exercises to continue stimulating that still somewhat unresponsive tendon.  My husband is going to help me raise that leg for several reps each physio day before I try doing the abductions. My tendon and brain need to be communicating better about what is supposed to happen for that exercise.  I am guessing I will never truly accomplish full tendon recovery, BUT if I can weight bear fully from a standing position for at least 30 seconds at a time by this June, I will consider myself sufficiently healed to carry on.

Now I am off to do my bit of ironing for the week.  It won't take more than 30 or 40 minutes and after being out in the freezing wind I need to do something while standing on my feet in order to stay awake.  Walking outside in the cold makes me very tired. 

I am out of books again. Turns out one of the books I grabbed the other day from my closest neighbourhood library box is one I read not that long ago. The jacket cover is completely different so I didn't recognize it.  I was parked on a snowdrift on the street in front of the box and standing on a patch of bare black ice, so instead of taking time to peruse the two books I took, I just made a blind grab and hoped for the best before tottering back over the ice and snow into my car.  So, I will continue reading the next section of the most boring biography, the longest, most unnecessarily detailed biography ever written!!!  The subject of the book is long dead and I won't bother naming the person or the author as other people may find it a fascinating read. Presently it is my go to "read until I fall asleep at night" book when there is nothing else to enjoy. This book definitely accomplishes my falling asleep mission in jig time every night!

 

No New Neighbours Yet After All??

We have been reconciling ourselves to the idea that we are going to have two college aged boy-men living on the other side of the wall as of moving in day next weekend, but perhaps not?  Today the suite was shown again to another older couple.  Unfortunately they were there for only a very few minutes and did not stop at the office afterwards as they drove out of the parking lot, so perhaps they will not be our new neighbours either.  There is a possibility that this couple was being shows the suite beside us because it is empty already, but they would be moving into the same style suite in a different building that is presently occupied and the boy-men will still be moving in next weekend.  Gosh, I hope this all works out with quiet neighbours living next to us and who keep their cigarette smoke to themselves...hope, hope, hope...

I am feeling good about re-entering life this week.  This afternoon my husband had to help me roll up and turn our 9x13 foot area rug in the living room and help me push the furniture around to accomplish the feat, and it meant I did get all the vacuuming done downstairs today and the kitchen floor washed.  Good start to this new week is the completion of some needed household tasks over the past few days.

Tomorrow I will accompany my husband on some out of the house chores, Lord and sore foot willing.  My foot is so close to being all better again so I am treating it gently in between tasks.  While he is in a meeting in the morning I will do my phusio, so I will be ready to go as soon as his meeting ends.

I have set up my weekly physiotherapy schedule the way my physiotherapist suggested some time ago with a four times a week schedule:  Monday, Wednesday, Friday and Saturday mornings.  Should work well most weeks.  With the resistance band, four days a week takes up all the energy I have, plus knowing it is only four days instead of five gives me the motivation to take my time and do each exercise well.

Tuesday afternoon I have a hair appointment which I am REALLY looking forward to.  I am gettin' kinda shaggy lookin'! 

Wednesday evening we are meeting a younger, vibrant friend at a restaurant for dinner. That will be a lot of fun.

Thursday morning the weather (and my health) will be improved sufficiently for my coffee buddy to return to our regular weekly schedule and that afternoon we have a Bible Study to attend.  

Since I have been completely inactive and housebound for the past two weeks, I am torn between feeling very excited about getting going again and just a touch of that old agoraphobia leftover from days of yore.  The best approach is to put my head down, so to speak and JUST GO AND DO whatever it is that is scheduled each day. It won't take me more than a couple of outings to get over it and the first two are "gentle" with only my husband and the hair stylist to personally contend with in public spaces. 

It is all good!  Time to get a move on and restore the good life. 

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Making A Plan! (But Sticking To It??? Hmmmmm…..)

 My dear husband, after an excellent start at clearing our basement of assorted “stuff”, mostly his own, a year and a half ago, has reached an impasse. After a six month auspicious start, over the past year he has made minimal progress due to a number of factors, some of them legitimate and the other a bad case of sentimentality. Yesterday I was able to pin him down for a little chat and hopefully progress will soon be made once again. He decided he needs to take a week or two in early December to set aside and “just git ‘er done”! Between now and then he has some teaching commitments that are quite legitimately time consuming and as soon as this month is over he will choose not to take on any outside commitments for that designated two week period. 

Now….will this plan actually come to fruition? It SHOULD, but…(isn’t there always a “but”?)….the success of the plan is going to depend very much on the state of his health. Covid shut him down rather effectively a year ago. He was ill for four months so it took the starch out of him for another couple of months after that. He deals with CFS episodes when he gets too busy and/or stressed. 

So, my prayer is that he will stay healthy enough to get this admittedly onerous task completed, or at least close to completed during the two weeks he has now set aside. He is determined to do his best. He has even said he will allow me to help him with the project and that is a first! He is realizing that until this project is far closer to completion it is useless to seek a new accommodation. 

There is hope!

Things Have Surely Improved Over The Past Two Days, Thankfully!

 I am feeling ever so much better than I was on Sunday morning when I had to make a trip to Urgent Care. Thank you Lord!  Thus far the meds seem to be working and I am most grateful for that.

Yesterday was a very fun day!  We went over to the home of some friends from what I call our TEENY fellowship group where we enjoyed not only an amazing soup and sandwich lunch, but an entire afternoon of laughing and talking and just sharing presence together.  Oh what a blessing to have some friends in the "younger than us" category with all the amazing stories about their lives and careers and families.  We spent the entire afternoon together and even after those several hours, we were all loathe to leave. I don't remember the last time I had that much fun with a group in someone's home just "being". I slept well last night after such a satisfyingly tiring day.  

Now that my physio is mostly all able to be done in the mornings as part of my weekly routine, I am certainly enjoying being able to use the rest of my day times for going for walks and visiting friends.  I am really hoping the weather will be warm and dry enough in a couple of days' time to be able to walk to a meeting of our larger fellowship group.  It is 2.2 km away on foot, but there is a scenic shortcut through the park near here that cuts the distance to 1.7 km, so with a 90 minute break between going there and coming home, the distance will be more than manageable. Please Lord, can you hold off the rain for a few hours that day?  I GOTTA walk!!!  Before I know it there is going to be ice all over everything and the true winter season will be upon us. (speaking of weather, the teeming rain on Sunday opened up a wider crack in the foundation of our place and a good half gallon of water ended up in the collection tubing and pail my husband set up down there a couple of years ago....so grateful for his ability to find and fix these issues that keep the floor of our suite dry. The snow out on the lawn is nearly all melted now.)

 Today we were at an appointment downtown and the person we were meeting with asked us what we knew about a major fire that broke out only a few blocks away, burning to the ground a brand new nearly all constructed low cost housing apartment, ruining the houses on each side AND as we found out later on today, destroying the garage at our lead minister's house!!!!  We hadn't realized it was RIGHT beside his place. SO grateful his family and main house are fine, but hoping he hasn't lost the vehicle or other major items that may have been in the garage.  Oh my....there is so much arson in this city that of course that is where one's mind immediately goes, particularly in that rather rough area.  We arrived home to an email from our pastor letting everyone know that as traumatic as it was, at least their house and family are safe. He requested prayer for the contractor of the apartment building that burned down and for families renting in the houses on each side of that building who are now without housing.  Hopefully we as a church can come together to help those people get reestablished.  What a shocking bit of news.  

We had time left on our parking meter after our initial appointment this morning but we are tired of eating at our usual downtown haunts, so we tried a little Italian cafe recommended by friends just yesterday. It is called "Silvia's Italian Cafe" and it is in the bottom of the Canadian Legion building.  We arrived only 45 minutes prior to them closing. The lunch crowd was long gone and so the proprietress was about to close early.  We said we would return another time, but oh no, she wouldn't hear of it.  She ushered us in to a lovely little table for two and quite happily took our order after sending the regular server home.  The food, (spaghetti and meatballs and a meatball sandwich on a toasted whole wheat ciabatta bun), was very simple and extremely tasty as well as reasonably priced.  Oh yum, yum, yum!!!  Her husband stopped in so we had a great visit with him as well.  We met his mother who is visiting from the Maritimes. She herself spent over 50 years in the food industry so on her visits she comes to work each day in the restaurant here. hahahaha  By the time we left we felt like we were almost part of that family!!  I am guessing they have a lot of "regulars" who enjoy the ambience of the red checkered tablecloths, below ground view of the street above, the little table lights and the authentic Italian dishes. It is a limited menu that probably hasn't changed in years, but if it works then that is a good thing. We will definitely return.  We want to go for brunch one day, just as they are opening and spend a couple of hours sampling their appetizer menu.  Finally, some place here that is new to us, but with a well established menu and clientele.  We noticed a couple of new places in the downtown area we will have to try as well one of these days.

Now it is time to be making supper, but we are still so satisfied from our late lunch that it is going to be 7pm I am sure before I even begin cooking another meal.  

Tomorrow is wide open for me while my husband attends some meetings, so after morning physio I think it will be a wonderful day to do the laundry. My husband finished drying the rest of our home grown herbs today and got them bottled, so that means the dryer and other accoutrements can be moved off my laundry table! 

PS for those of you who have been asking about my physio, yes there is minimal progress, but I am guessing there won't be any updates worth mentioning for another two or three weeks at least. It is just going to be a very long process to heal the main tendon.  It just is. 

An Encouraging Visit With the Surgeon!

It has been a banner day for me!  I am more encouraged today than I have been for quite awhile after meeting with the surgeon this morning.

While he admits I am slow in recovering, yes I am, considering all the factors involved he is actually quite pleased with my progress.  I was shocked by how happy he is!!  He is impressed by how much less listing is involved when walking without my cane and by the speed I can move on foot now.  

He is pleased that I have added some more difficult exercises to my daily PT routine and that I purchased the athletic quality resistance band.  The weak tendon and the weakness in the muscles where he found the unexpected scarring during the surgery will heal, as the PT told me, but they will take a long time, as in several more months.

The best part is that I do not have to see him again, unless I experience a set back, until the one year date of my surgery, so the first week of next June will be our next meeting.  I can drive again. I can restart a number of activities that have been put on hold for the past four months.  Today he handed me back my life.  He trusts me to continue doing my regular physiotherapy exercises, thus feels no need to check up on me before next year and I will not let him down.

Until he sees me next June  and I can prove I can fully weight bear etc. on the operated leg, there will be no talk, not even a thought about doing the other hip.   The arthritis in that joint has not progressed one iota since the initial x-ray in this process back in July of 2024.  What a relief. The upcoming months of physio will assist that hip in remaining strong.  YAY!!

So, once we are home from our upcoming trip to the west coast, we will be able to start looking in earnest once again for a new place to live and our kids Stateside can plan their wedding reception dinner extravaganza....or NOT so extravaganza.....whenever they like next year.   These things can be planned without having to worry about surgical wait time for me, or about recovery schedules on the other leg.  

I feel like today my life was handed back to me.  I was so excited after the appointment I didn't bother to phone my husband to ask him to pick me up. I enjoyed the 8 or 9 block walk home from the hospital on the tree lined streets, under the blue, cloudless sky in the gentle breeze.  It took me a full 15 minutes to walk that distance, but that is okay. I was really enjoying myself and I didn't have to lean heavily on my cane to do it. What fun!

Maybe tomorrow afternoon or the next day I will have my husband come along as my passenger and make sure I am not too giddy with the excitement and stress of getting behind the wheel of the car again.  It has been over 4 months since my last foray out on the streets as the driver of the vehicle.....aiii yiiii....will I remember anything at all???

Thanks everyone for your care and prayers and encouragement. They are appreciated more than you know. 

The icing on the cake is that friends from out of town just called and asked us to meet them at a restaurant that is really a great one....lots of organic veggies and other locally grown food products....for dinner tonight. I kind of hemmed and hawed as it is the same night as my beloved Taize healing service, but how do you say no to beloved friends you don't get to see nearly often enought, right?  Taize will be there again next week but my out of town friends will not.  So excited to see them!  Praise the Lord....it is like a special celebration of my news from the surgeon before these friends even find out about it. hahaha 

And now to go and iron the first half of the rest of the winter clothes I unpacked a couple of days ago.  No, it isn't too soon to complete the wardrobe switch out: by this coming weekend the true autumn weather will begin...rain, sleet, overnight temperatures in the freezing zone each night and highs averaging only about -8C during the day times. Blecch!  Oh Lordy....how on earth am I going to tie up my own shoes now that sandal weather is coming to an end?? That is one thing the surgeon cannot help me with!  Aiii yiiii.....