Taking An Electronic Break

I was planning to use my iPad while recovering in hospital, but I am rethinking that. I think instead I will just take a break and spend time resting and reading a book. 📕 I am remembering how wiped out I always am after any surgery and don’t want to stress myself out thinking I have to keep up my usual pattern of communication. I will compile a list of the friends and family who requested an email right after the surgery to see if it was successful so that my husband can sent out a brief group notice. 

Thanks for understanding. I will post and send out personal emails again next week after I get home.

Again, many many many thanks for all of you for caring, praying, hoping for the best for me. The Lord be with you and grant you good health, joy and peace.

Help, There Is Something Wrong With My New Computer Mouse!!!

Before I tell you this embarrassing little tale, please keep in mind that not only am I getting elderly on top of never being able to be accused of being overly technologically intelligent, I have never owned a wireless keyboard or mouse before...all my computer components have been of the wired in variety ever since I purchased my first computer in the early 1990's.   

Bearing those things in mind, try not to laugh yourself right off your chair when I tell you that this evening I had a complete freak out over my computer mouse seemingly getting itself completely confused. Earlier today my husband removed my old computer from my desk to take it to recycling and when I went to use my new computer for the first time today since he removed that old computer, I discovered that the new mouse had lost its mind and was working "backward", working in the opposite direction to what it was supposed to.....when I moved the mouse forward instead of it moving the cursor upward on my screen, the cursor moved downward and when I moved the mouse to the right the cursor headed off to the left.  WTH?????  I couldn't believe it!  Such a ridiculous occurrence had never happened to me ever before.  I screeched at my husband that my mouse had a problem and asked if he could come and check it out.  He entered my office and looked at me with a most unreadable expression on his face, walked over to my desk and turned the mouse around top to bottom  so that it was pointing in the opposite direction than it had been when I tried to use it.  I looked at him with wide eyes, a bit shocked and said, "You mean the problem is that I had the mouse upside down on the desk???"  God bless my husband because he was able to tell me that was indeed the problem without a so much as a smirk on his face, although as I thanked him most shame facedly as he walked out of my office I could see his shoulders heaving with barely contained laughter at my ignorance. hahahahaha  I know I will never hear the end of this little mistake I made, hahahaha. 

Can you believe anyone in this day and age could be so out of touch as I obviously am about these things? hahahaha   

And it had been such a good day up until that point......hahahahaha

The Beneficiary Of Someone Else's Birthday Celebration!! WOW!!

 As of two hours ago I am the owner of a brand new computer!!!  I can't believe it and I am SO EXCITED!! Soon I will have left the comfortable old world of Windows 7 behind me...I am being upgraded at last to Windows 11 Pro!  YIPPEE!!

When I woke up this morning I had no idea I was going to be receiving  such a wonderful gift from my husband on HIS birthday, hahahaha. But that is just the kind of considerate man he is.  He has nothing he particularly wants or needs as he celebrates today, so he chose (without any wheedling whatsover from me...honestly it is true), to purchase me a new computer system.  I was flabbergasted when he told me and I think I am only now coming out of shock.  YIPPEE (again)!!!!!  Right now he is checking out the new equipment to make sure it is all in working order and then later on today or tomorrow he will move everything from my current computer onto the new one.  WOW!!  Then he will show me the changes I need to learn so I can operate the Windows 11 programmes.  Thank you precious husband for this amazing surprise!!

The only other thing he wanted for his birthday was fish and chips for lunch, so off we went to London Belle!  I had the chicken Caesar wrap with a few fries and he so enjoyed his battered fish. Thus far London Belle has not had to downgrade the amount of fish inside the batter like some other restaurants here have done....we call those meals batter and chips with a small side of fish....little skinny filets that are almost unnoticeable inside the thickly battered outside covering. Yuck! We shared a sticky toffee pudding with iced cream for dessert. Yum! He really enjoyed himself and I had a wonderful time too.  What a great mood he is in today, feeling celebratory this birthday for the first time in a number of years.

Tomorrow is our 48th wedding anniversary and all he wants to do for that is take me to lunch at Memories restaurant where we can listen to the oldies on their speaker system while we relax over our lunch.  I am laughing because we have never needed a celebratory reason to eat in a restaurant, but he is acting like it is a really big deal. hahaha I gave him his anniversary gift some time ago now, more computer related "stuff" as it was on sale, so he is very happy.  Our son also received his 45th birthday computer monitors 3 weeks early because of a sale we found.  Now he will be able to have two monitors both on his home system and in his art studio.  That completes our celebratory family giving for this year.  There are no other family members having birthdays or anniversaries after the first week in April.  It is nice to have that gap before Christmas shopping starts closer to the end of the year.

It is a gorgeous day outside today. Once again the sun is shining, the temperature is working its way up to +3C, the wind is only a breeze....quite lovely and I may go for a SHORT walk later this afternoon.  Now that I know my limits I will be sensible about how much ground I cover...I promise!

We were able to unload all our recycling items today.  That leaves a considerable amount of space free in the basement for my husband as he works on other clearing out projects.  So, we had a productive morning before the computer gifting and fish 'n' chips lunching began.

My husband as started bringing my spring/summer clothing tubs up from the basement.  It is too soon to get rid of all the fall/winter items from the clothing racks I am using, but it is time to start sifting through everything, trying things on to decide if they are wearable for "just one more year" or not, plus I have pulled the heaviest winter pants and sweaters from the bedroom closet for re-tubbing.  The past couple of Sundays in church and even here at home lately, I have been absolutely sweltering hot with heavy sweaters and turtlenecked shirts.  Time to start transitioning the wardrobe!

This is a very happy week for us. My husband is using my computer updating as his "time out" project for the next couple of days as he continues readying himself for his teaching sessions over the next couple of days and on the weekend.  Lucky me is all I can say! God bless him!!!

Sometimes Techology Is A Little Bit Of The All Right!

The past couple of days we have enjoyed receving Christmas greetings from friends all over the country and beyond via e-mail letters. Since the Canada Post workers' strike began prior to optimum card sending time and only ended by government decree a couple of days ago, what with the backlog of things that were already in the system prior to the strike, sending cards via snail mail isn't the best option this Christmas.  So, I am enjoying having the email option for communicating seasonal greetings.  Thanking God for this particular technology that is keeping us in touch with those we rarely see or hear from otherwise, mostly due to the geographical distances involved.

The other happy tech news I have to report is that the new tv remote is all set up and working well.  It took some unnecessary "doing" to get it set up to control both the tv and the PVR system and that was pretty hilarious.  My husband decided late in the afternoon yesterday to set it up.  He read through both pages of instructions and located a couple of different ways it might be done.  The easiest way he found didn't work at all....I'd say it didn't work "remotely", but that would be a terrible pun, wouldn't it? teehee.  So, he called me to come and help him.  He pushed the buttons on the remote while I read him the codes that our particular brand of tv uses to connect it to the remotes our communications company uses.  For our brand of tv there were about 15 different codes.  Not one of them worked. So, we tried them all again with no better success. My husband was very upset that his tech savvyness seemed to have deserted him and I was upset because I had three tv programme season finales showing last night that I dearly wanted to watch.  However, before we gave up in despair....it was now too late to call the company because they were closed for the day....I noticed a small section of the instructions my husband had missed.  It had to do with the number of times the set up button blinked before it was ready to receive the appropriate tv code.  I asked my husband if it had been blinking twice before he punched in the codes. "Oh yes.", he said. "In fact it is blinking five times every time."  I started laughing and told him that before he entered the code it was only supposed to blink twice....he had assumed the instructions meant it had to blink at LEAST twice.  I asked him if it had been blinking five times consistently as he tried the different codes and he said it had been. So, I laughed again and explained to him that if it blinks five times instead of twice it means the batteries are too low.  The company had included two brand new batteries with the remote and I was not thrilled that they were already dying, but my husband looked a tad sheepish and admitted that he hadn't actually put the new ones in. He had salvaged the old ones from the remote we had just returned, hoping to get a bit more use from them.  I took them out of the remote, put the brand new batteries in, located an even easier connect method he had also missed in the instructions that didn't require using multiple code attempts and in less than thirty seconds all was working well and has continued to work ever since. hahahahaha  We wasted 30 minutes on a 30 second installation. hahahaha  Typical of us at this point in our lives, hahaha.  My poor husband felt SO stupid. He is the King of instruction readers, Mr. Fixit for most all of our communications tech issues, but yesterday he just wasn't up to snuff...I think it was because in the back of his mind he was still focused on writing Sunday's sermon, hahaha.  Anyway, all is well now.

I got thinking about our grocery shopping trip yesterday; how we noticed the Salvation Army collection pot at the exit door to the one store only because it was being manned by a harmonica playing volunteer!  Again...is it one of those "only in Regina" scenarios?  The fellow was playing "I'll Fly Away" on the harmonica and he was doing an excellent job.  I told him I would enjoy paying him busking money as well as giving the Sally Ann my donation and he had a good laugh over that.  It seemed so incongruous to me: a grocery store with a little red and white Salvation Army money collection pot hanging by a chain from a blue tripod and being looked after by an elderly man playing gospel songs, not even Christmas carols, on a harmonica against a backdrop of wilting lettuce, stale buns and frantic shoppers wrestling with squeaky shopping carts, the automatic exit doors opening and closing every few seconds, blasting the volunteer and his jingle pot with gusts of freezing air....is it just me or does this seem a bit unusual?  Would it have seemed less odd to me if he had been playing "The First  Noel" or "Away In A Manger"?? Some of the things I see in this city leave me incredulous to the point of sometimes wondering if I am actually hallucinating!  My husband confirmed my jingle pot sighting though...and the harmonica music... oh wow....

 

Waiting On Technology Can Be Frustrating, eh?

Last night our mobile phone e-bill arrived right on time from SaskTel. As usual I tried to download it so I could pay it right away and all went well until I was time to put in the access passcode they sent to my email and mobile. 

The passcode was marked invalid or expired. I had the passcode changed and re-sent six times before my account was frozen for too many failed attempts. So, I tried again this morning and again received the “invalid or expired” passcode message. My husband managed to log on to the main website for the company and went through the online chatbot connection process, during which he received an answer that there is no record of our account. There certainly was last night when we got the email notification that our bill is ready and the amount. 

So, who knows what the issue is, but hopefully it can be resolved today. We have approximately 15 more minutes before the chatbot responds. It is easier to just sit here and wait than to call them directly, go through the same information exchange process as for the chatbot, then have to sit around with the phone pressed to my husband’s ear waiting to talk to someone. At least this way he can spend the time making himself a bit of brunch after his luxurious sleep in this morning, yay!

From 8 Hours To 2.5 Hours! YAY!!!

We are very glad we didn't feel the urge to go away for the day today due to the planned power outage for our complex!  We were to be without power from 8am to 4pm, but the power didn't go out until about 10am and was back on around 12:30pm.  YIPPEE!!!  I did get up at 6:30am so I could eat a hot breakfast at 7am.....gotta have that bowl of piping hot unflavoured oatmeal for the sake of my cholesterol reduction.....which was difficult as I slept so poorly during the small hours of the morning, but it was worth it because had the power gone out at 8am as predicted it would have made my breakfast routine difficult.  I will do the same thing tomorrow morning because I do that every Thursday anyway.  My friend and I go out for steamed milk on Thursday mornings and I need to have sufficient time between when my breakfast is ingested and that large cup of deliciously hot no sugar caramel flavoured 2% milk to keep my blood sugar stable.  It was a nice treat today to have such a short time without electrical power.

My husband had kind of a miserable day today.  He had to fast for about 13 hours overnight for his quarterly cholesterol test this morning at 9am.  He fought with stomach acid for part of the night since he was unable to have his bedtime tummy settling snack, but he managed to keep things under control and get to his appointment on time....albeit driving the car the short distance to the lab rather than going for his usual highly anticipated walk.  Well, that is overwith for another four months! YAY and RELIEF for him!!  😅

It has cooled off considerably today and rain has been tumbling down for the past couple of hours.  It is the first day in the past couple of months that at least one of us has been home during the daytime hours with all the windows firmly shut.  REALLY enjoying the cool air and breezes for a change. Tomorrow will be similar and then the temperatures begin heating up again, but hopefully they won't quite get to +30C and above any more now that the peak of summer has ended and we are heading into September this coming weekend.

My old PC is showing a few initial signs that it isn't going to be with me for much longer.  I have still been running Windows 7 on it, but as more websites and systems upgrades don't support the programme any more I need to accept the fact that this poor old machine needs to be replaced with a new computer with a Windows 11 installation. My husband has been using that for awhile now on one of his computers and he has Ubuntu on the other. Since he is already very familiar with the differences between W7 and W11 he will be a great guide for me as I work through the frustrations I always experience when trying to learn any sort of new technology.  Bless his patience with me.  When we get back from our trip south we will purchase my new machine.  I love having a desktop PC!!  So many more things I can do on it than on my wee iPad.

Speaking of new purchases, my husband was able to purchase a new mobile phone yesterday with a very handy stylus to help his large finger pads when he texts and writes emails.  I am delighted for him. His old phone was purchased in 2017 and didn't have the VOLTE communication system he needed to do more than text message when he was in NYC in June.  My phone also has that capacity I discovered even though it is not a 5G, so we will put the US coverage plan in place before our trip. We are both going to need to phone home occasionally to see if we have received any outstanding calls from specialists who have had referrals for us for some weeks now.  For me that is kind of unlikely, but my husband can't afford to miss any calls from his own specialist that could be coming in by then. I am praying he hears from her before we go south so that will be one less stress for him to carry when he is supposed to be enjoying fun with family.

All these purchases we have had to make recently and the upcoming purchases for me of a computer and a couple of other things have us rethinking......AGAIN.....the idea of moving in the near future.  Hmmm....since we are still here in the lowest rent in town divy place, we have a substantially larger amount of money to spend on other things like computers and phones and travel and lunches out and giftings to charitable organizations than we are going to have if we end up in the next least expensive sorts of places which will cost us at least seven hundred dollars a month more in rent and utilities than we are paying here....even with the rent here going up one hundred dollars a month in January.  We admit that after forty years of struggling along making ends meet "through many dangers, toils and snares", it feels pretty wonderful to be able to have some fun in retirement.  Perhaps it will be worth spending the winter here and then reassessing rents and available places come early spring.....perhaps.....God may have other plans.....again......  Today we went over the numbers for the umpteenth time, talked about my lack of physical ability to pull off a move before the hip surgery with any ease at all and how much more it will cost to hire movers to do what I can do myself when I am not struggling with decreased mobility and increased pain, how much more time my husband could use to complete ALL of his downsizing tasks....AND....hmmmmm.....depending on what God might lead us to after the NYC trip, we may just be spending a few more months rather than weeks right here in our own personal lal la land of a suite.  Tradeoffs....which ones are we willing to make in the near future???  Lots to think and pray about, that's for sure.  We continue to get confirmation that now is not the time to move after all....not just yet....maybe soon.....maybe not......

A Short Walk In The Spitting Rain Does A Body Good!!

What a nice morning for a little walk in the warm spitting rain!  The nearest post box is only about three or four blocks away and it is close to the nearest grocery store as well, so I was able to step out of the rain long enough  to pick up a couple of needed items. The sidewalks were wet, but under the overhanging tree branches the pavement was still dry, so when the drops came down thicker and harder for part of my walk, I was able to stand under the trees to prevent becoming soaked and just enjoy the fresh, clean air.  What a nice mid morning refresher to start a new week!  Later on we are to get 10-15mm of rain and some thunder showers, all going on until sometime tomorrow morning, so I am very grateful for the chance to get outside for a few minutes before the downpour begins. 

One less stress for me this past week was finding out that my recent eye tests went very well and I have been released as a patient from my ophthalmologist after five years of treatment and followup testing. YAY!!!!  When I require cataract surgery in the future my optometrist is to contact him and he will make the arrangments and do my surgery, so all I have to do now is my regular annual eye testing with the optometrist and continue to take good care of my eyes. Thank you Lord for this good news.

Slowly my plans are taking shape for the time my husband will be away.  I want to take a couple of days and concentrate on some house chores so I can enjoy a clean house for as many days as possible before he gets home and his sorting and tossing project begins again.  I still have a number of friends I want to get in touch with and try to see while he is gone and take a trip or two out of town to see friends in other places not too far away.  The MacKenzie Art Gallery is having its annual artisan fair one weekend, so I will try to go and have a look at what is offered this year.

This week I will spend most of my time helping my husband prepare for his journey southward.  There is a lot to do and he has two doctors' appointments this week as well to work around.  Aaaaargh!  I have  list of all the things he has to remember to take with him and it is getting longer and longer, but I know it will all come together in time. It always does.  Thus far the pilots for his airline are not on strike and I can only pray that remains the case for the next couple of weeks....also for the sake of friends who left on a trip today using the same airline.  I pray for all travellers this summer that their plans will not be scuttled by labour disputes with the various airline employees.

Well, I can't put off doing some computer updates any longer, so better grit my teeth and get started. Fortunately my husband is home this morning so he can help me if I make a muck of it.  I fail to understand WHY he and I can do exactly the same computer procedures and it never works for me, but always works for him.  I have in the past forced him to sit with me and watch me do what is supposed to be done, to see how it doesn't work for me, and then how it works immediately thereafter when he does exactly the same things!!  Sigh....

This iPad…..

 …..likes to change font sizes mid way through my posts sometimes, but those changes do not appear on my screen until I have already posted. Sorry about that….

Thinking About The "Good Old Days" In Our "Twilight Years"! REALLY???

 I am still reeling from hearing my son talk to me and his dad about our living in our "twilight years", but even worse than that is how I find myself giving in to the temptation to look backward sometimes and think longing thoughts about how things used to be in my now far distant past....oh my word!  What is happening to me???  

When I was much younger I secretly mocked my parents' older friends when they "waxed eloquent" about how things were so much simpler in "their day".  While I had a polite smile pasted onto my face, in my mind my eyes were rolling back and I was gagging and wishing they would just "get with the programme".  

And NOW that temptation to look back with fondness on the past hath come to elderly moi as well! HUGE sigh.....

It hit me hard yesterday as a younger friend was telling me all about her family's trip to a well known theme park a few weeks ago.  She was explaining how in order to get through the crowds lined up to get onto the rides you either had to book your time onto the ride well in advance and at a certain time of day using your phone apps, or else pay more and book yourself into the special queue jumping line...also using your phone apps.  While it is a great way to handle the burgeoning crowds at the park, I immediately thought about how easy it was thirty years ago when we were at a similar park with our thirteen year old son.  

At that time there were actual off seasons at the park, where there was rarely more than a 15 minute line up to board any of the rides, even at peak times of day.  We didn't need to, well in advance, pre-book our place in line, we didn't need to pre-book a time to board the ride and we certainly didn't have to spend hours and hours choosing a ride that if we pre-booked first thing in the day for late in the day would mean that we couldn't book entrance to any other rides prior to that later time of day.  My friend and her family are most tech savvy, so they handled the booking details with aplomb, but to me it sounded like my worst nightmare in the making!!  WOW!!!! When does a person ever just get to relax and mosey around a theme park in today's world? I am very grateful we were able to go to large popular theme parks like that before the crowds became the enormous size they are now. I am very glad we were able to see everything our family wanted to see at the park without having to worry about booking our rides in advance, without having to fight with technology to end up in a more expensive queue jumping lineup, without having to worry about much of anything other than wandering around pretty much anywhere in the park we wanted to go at our own whim.  I am happy we could just stop in at any of the restaurants, even at peak meal times, with very little if any wait times to be seated.  Whew!  By the time my friend was finished explaining today's requirements for making sure a person has fun at these parks and sees at least most of what they want to see over the course of a week, I felt worn out and I wasn't even there with her going through the plotting, planning and technological processes required to access rides and restaurants and tours and and and and....thank the dear Lord she and her husband are so up to date with phone technology because they did have a fabulous time. For my husband and I to visit such a place now, we would have to take a pre-travel tech course on phone apps and how to apply them in such a circumstance and place.

Hahahahaha....now I KNOW I am offically old because all that tech learning and having to fight through the crowds that visit these parks at all times of the year now, just seem like too much trouble to be bothered with!  Could we do it? Yup, we could.  Do we want to be bothered to do it?  No we don't.  We admit it!!

The worst thing that happened to us during our visit thirty years ago in regard to crowds and access to the park and its amazing rides and restaurants was on our last day there when it was announced at noon that the entire park had been rented for the weekend by the Southern Baptists for their family camp weekend and would be closing to the public at 5pm, not reopening until after the weekend.  I remember the parking lots around the park filling up with camping trailers and RV's and that by 3pm it was getting a bit more crowded as the SB's began to arrive. Wait lines gradually lengthened from ten minutes to forty-five. That was it, no other concerns regarding space and access.  Now I realize how very blessed we were during our visit!! Things have changed!!!  But WE have not, so we'd best get ourselves better prepared for the future by learning more about phone techology, apps, etc. etc. etc.  Aiiii yiiiii!

NOW I get why my parents' friends looked back with such nostalgic joy!!!  NOW, I AM THEM!!!!

Kinda freakin' out here, people!!!  Twilight years, it is!  Aaaaaaargh!!!

Updating The "Machinery"!

 A day of updates around here:  my husband was able to update some of the programmes on my old iPad this morning so he can enjoy reading e-books available from the public library.  He is delighted as one book he has been particularly anxious to read was recently taken out by someone else in its hard copy version, so tonight he is happily reading the e-version he was able to get instead.

Our old Brother brand printer pooped out on us today....it was second hand when we purchased it in Calgary in about 2007 or 2008 and other than having to replace the ink cartridge a couple of times it has served us very well.   Although we are unable to get new drums and ink cartridges any more, a few years ago my husband discovered a woman here in town who had a little side business selling parts for out of date equipment such as our old printer and he was able to purchase the last ink cartridge and drum she had in stock.  Today, we assumed the poor old printer was dead, but my husband replaced the old drum and away it went once again.  hahaha  Guess we are not going to have to purchase a new laser printer right now after all!  Might as well get full use of the old ink printer with its new drum and ink cartridge for as long as we can.

Tonight I realized I could update my new iPad's operating system to the OS17.1 from its previous OS16 system, so that is in process right now.  I have to stay awake until it is finished installing and that could take awhile, hence another inane blog post because I need to fill up time with an activity that will keep me awake!! hahaha

I am so much happier now that I am using my otherwise dreary Saturdays for house chores while my husband continues to spend his Saturdays researching and writing.  Today I got the laundry completely done, all the clothes folded and put away and even the ironing has been completed.  What a great feeling!  I think I am going to enjoy Saturdays now that they have some planned direction, instead of being blank, blah days where I sit around waiting for something fun to fall out of the sky at my feet simply because it is "The Weekend".  YAY!!

My husband made the executive decision tonight that we will once again remain at home in the morning and watch our church service on Zoom.  He is feeling a tad paranoid about exposing ourselves to the many head colds and possible COVID positive folk in the congregation as more reports are coming our way each day from friends who are unwell.  Since we have our COVID and 'FLU shots the following day it will be better to protect ourselves between now and then.  hopefully this will be our last Sunday to have to stay home from church.  we were away for two Sundays in a row and then unable to attend the past two Sundays for other reasons.  Here's hoping for in person attendance next week!!  

An Apple A Day

 My husband bought me a new ipad today!  I am thrilled.  He is not a big gift giver, but occasionally there is something he knows I need or soon will be needing and then he immediately steps forward and buys whatever it is.  I am thrilled to pieces with this new ipad.  It was incredibly easy to transfer all the information from the old one to the new one.  With my husband standing watch ready to jump in if necessary, I completed the task all by myself!!!  Miracle of miracles, is all I can say!!!  Soooo, NOT a techie this woman.....  The only glitch came when we tried to sync the google calendar to all the "aliases" my husband has used for different google accounts that put different types of events onto the calendar.  He spent about 40 minutes online getting the information he needed and a few more minutes of trial and error, but eventually he got that problem sorted out.  This is very exciting.  My other ipad is 9 years old and amazingly has given me very little trouble until very recently when its harddrive was no longer capable of downloading the latest operating systems.  So thankful tonight for my dear husband wanting to help me with this by giving me such a wonderful gift!

It was another day of running errands and what a relief to have them done.  Mostly we were able to get to and from the car and various businesses between downpours of rain that started again overnight and kept it up all day....it is 10:30pm, still raining and this drenching is not supposed to end until sometime tomorrow afternoon.  I only got caught in the actual rainfall once, so that was a relief.  It is so chilly that my husband insisted we HAD to turn the furnace on for the first time since the end of March or early April even though in a couple of days we will have highs in the low +20C's.  I didn't even wear a coat today and the poor man was bundled up in a long sleeved turtleneck shirt with a flannel shirt over top of that, a wool sweater over top of both of them and a jacket over the whole works.  He had thick woolly socks on as well and a hat. Still he was freezing cold so on went the furnace.  I have never met anyone who gets cold and stays cold as easily as he does.  He can't go swimmimg with any enjoyment even on the hottest days of summer in warm water. After five minutes he emerges from the water shivering and pale and it takes him until the next day to warm up properly.  Poor guy.

Had a haircut today.  My stylist is getting the cut back on track now and I am so happy.  Instead of waiting five weeks between cuts (and sometimes even longer because I lose track of the time) I am now booked in advance for appointments with four weeks between cuts.  With the style I am returning to it is simply a necessity.  I feel great this evening knowing my hair is getting back to a style I can handle well here at home on my own.

Tomorrow will be a busy day.  My friend and I are going out for our weekly coffee and conversation, then I have to race around a bit doing some errands, cram my lunch down and be ready to go to our Bible study and fellowship group that meets every two weeks.  It is a necessity to be on time this time because the leader contacted my husband tonight to say he is ill and to ask my husband to please lead the group.  We are watching and discussing an N.T. Wright video about salvation, so that will be a lot of fun and generate some interesting conversation.

Computer Settings 'n' Me: Watashi Wa Mondai Ga Arimasu

 Yup, I am dumber than a bag of hammers, as the old saw goes, when it comes to learning anything about computer technology.  I seem to have to learn these things, if I learn them at all, in the most difficult manner: always the mistakes come before the learning and sometimes the mistakes are as far as I actually get.  A few days ago I got fiddling with some of my blog settings and managed to "BIN" two posts.  Where this mysterious BLOG BIN is I never did find out! No matter, the posts were not important, I don't need to find them and I have resolved to never mess about with my blog settings ever, ever, ever again!!!!  No, those of you who are well versed in these tech skills, don't bother trying to help me locate the BIN and restore the posts. I am too fed up and have decided to simply accept my lack of skills and lack of ability, apparently, to figure those skills out.  One of these days, once the humiliation of this latest tech debacle is over, I will find myself some help and try once again.  I will, I will, I truly will.....I promise.

If I Have Not Responded To Your Email This Week.....

 .....it is likely because I have not yet received it. 

This past week has been a bit of a nightmare with several emails not arriving until one or two days after they were sent. A time sensitive email that was sent two days ago arrived this morning. The late arrival has created quite a problem that will now be difficult to resolve. 

This is not the first issue I have had with late arriving emails. It is beyond frustrating. The late arrivals were sent from a variety of servers, so it seems our Sasktel server is the problem. Drat!

Perhaps, if you need a response to something time sensitive, just call me instead. I apologize for any late or non-existent responses to your email queries. I am usually a quick responder to emails, so if I don’t respond within a reasonable amount of time after sending, let me know by phone.

The Notorious Hack

 Our church online directory was hacked yesterday afternoon. Right about dinnertime I received a spam email supposedly from our minister and fortunately my security programme picked it up and I was able to delete it. It was a fairly well written scam with only one letter difference on the return email addie than the one our minister actually uses. About an hour later a distraught sounding email arrived from our minister warning us about the hack job. Another hour after that one of the associate pastors, also understandably upset, phoned to let us know about the hack. Aaaah, the joy of breached security in the wonderful world of technology. 

So, family and friends, check the email address closely should you receive any emails from me in the next few weeks. I will not be sending out any emergency distress emails, making no requests for pre-paid gift cards, requesting personal or password information, informing you that a member of your family is in trouble with the police and requires your help, etc. etc. etc. Hopefully you won’t receive any spam from my email address or any address resembling it.

Meanwhile our pastoral team is scrambling to contact 150 or so congregants and whoever else they send emails to from the church computers, to warn people about the security breach. What a pain!!

TaTa Little iPad

After 8 years of intensive daily use, my beloved iPad battery is finally showing signs of its coming demise. It is losing charge much more quickly and taking longer to re-charge, a few odd glitches have begun to occur with emails and search engines, so by next week I suspect I will be shopping for a new one. The little thing doesn’t do everything my big old hulking PC does, I haven’t invested in a bunch of apps or additional systems or an attachable keyboard for it, but it is handy to carry around the house and to take on holidays. It instantly opens PDF files that I have to “play with” to open on the PC. Sooooo, guess I will invest in another one. Aaaah, computer shopping...NOT my favourite play date! I will take my husband with me because he has at least a clue or two about computer technology. 

The charge has dropped 4% in the two minutes it took me to write this post so.....it is time to go shopping I suppose. I can’t believe my iPad has lasted this long with no maintenance, hallelujah!! It has been a great little helper. A huge thanks to the congregations of our first parish who purchased it for us. 

Correction To Last Post!

 This iPad is interesting to say the least. It needs a time out for bad behaviour! 

The last paragraph of the previous post was supposed to be about meeting up with an Olds friend tomorrow for a Didsbury lunch at the Bistro there, after seeing the Royal Purple Parade, and before heading west to Cowboy Trail Market at Harmattan, but after the word “Tomorrow” at the beginning of the sentence, it proceeded to erase the rest of that paragraph and fill it with the paragraph that followed about Sunday church attendance!! I didn’t see that before I published the post, hahaha, so I guess I need a time out too!! 

While I am back, I will just say the weather has been FABULOUS!! It has been sunny and warm, but only up to +30C, so that is most tolerable and even enjoyable. There is always the slightest bit of breeze from the mountains, so I am loving it all. Maybe rain tomorrow afternoon and the following day, which is newly forecast. Hopefully it will not interfere with tomorrow’s plans! 

Master Of Modern Technology, That’s Me!! (Day 4)

 Hohoho! 

Yesterday I enjoyed taking myself out for lunch. It was also a learning experience! My booth was close to the ATM where the people using the gaming machines in the bar were emerging every so often, clutching their bank cards and frantically pushing buttons on the ATM to get more good money to throw away after bad! 

Hmmmm....I had never used an ATM before, not even once. Not exactly the GOAT in the wonderful world of banking technology, right? Well....I gave all the cash I had in my purse to my husband before he left on his trip, not so much as a nickel did I have in my purse.....in fact I had to use my bank card the day before for a one dollar purchase, how embarrassing....I forgot, in my hurry to avoid the rain after church on Sunday, to go to my bank branch near there for some money....I would need to spend $6.50 to take a round trip on the bus to get to my nearest branch....$6.50 I didn’t have of course.....SO: I sucked up my terror of trying anything technologically new to me without a helper standing by in case I messed up and with trembling, sweaty hand inserted my bank card into the slot. Unfortunately it was the wrong slot and I had quite a battle pulling it out again. Aiiii yiiiii, not an auspicious start. However, I battled on. No one was watching me, so I bravely tried again. This time I found the proper slot for my card. All the bells and whistles chimed from the machine and a series of questions for identifying my card appeared on the screen. Push correct buttons to answer, easy peasey!!! I must have answered correctly because the last question was whether or not I wanted to continue the withdrawal since it would include a three dollar fee. Hmmmm....did I??? Hmmmmm....$6.50 for the transit bus vs $3.00 for the fee. Even I could figure out the answer to that question! I punched the YES button and with a loud sputter and more chimes ringing the ATM dispensed my money and popped my card back out of its appropriate slot!! Yippee! I did it!!! I was shaking so hard from the stress I nearly fainted trying to walk the three steps back to the booth to sit down!! I did something new (to me) involving technology without needing help! A red letter day!! 

Now I am sitting here with all the windows open enjoying a cool breeze and once again waiting for the rain. I think we might actually get some here today, finally. Now the thunderstorms are supposed to arrive this afternoon after light rain sometime this morning. If I was younger I would love to be a storm chaser! As terrifying a task as that would be, weather events fascinate me. I really enjoy a good storm, sans tornadoes, as they are amazing!! Since I have no other plans for the day I will relax and read books and watch the weather. 

A Change In Technology And I Didn't Even Freak Out!!!

 This morning I received an email from Google letting me know that next week there is going to be a mandatory two step security sign in process associated with my account.  What a headache, but on the other hand, better to be safe than sorry as I actually was hacked a couple of months ago. Fortunately nothing terrible came of it, but it was rather upsetting at the time.  

The problem is that the second security code is delivered via cell phone and since both my husband and I access the account we needed to have both our numbers attached to the new system.  We decided not to wait for next week when this all becomes mandatory.  We switched over to the two code system this morning and gave it a try.  Happily it worked just fine.  It is a little inconvenient and could create problems with access in certain situations, but for now I think it will be okay.

My husband is very proud of me for keeping my emotions under control in light of yet another change to what used to be an easy peasy gmail account and blog posting site.  I am proud of me too....and happy that the Lord gave me the grace to stay calm.  Usually I am so angry when technological changes occur with my own computers but without my permission. Today, all was well.  Instead of freaking out first, I tried the new system first.  A bit time consuming, but it is safer than just having the one password.  

I will accept this change with at least a bit more grace than usual. Thank you Lord and thank yo to my dear patient husband!

The Expense of Convenient Communication

 I checked our mobile phone accounts this morning and realized that in the past 16 days we have spent nearly two hundred dollars on long distance calls and SO MANY texts as we have been travelling back and forth to Alberta.  We have good phone plans, but I have noticed a huge rise in the cost of my plan since PC sold out to Virgin Mobile.  Yikes!  Balanced against the convenience of being able to contact all the relatives involved in Ruth's illness and Mom's need for a daily phone call from wherever we happen to be when we are travelling, it is certainly worth the expense, but wow....there won't be any savings going into the bank this month, that is for sure!  The phones are only one of the many added expenses to our budget with all the travelling we have had to do and will continue to have to do over this summer, so I am very grateful that the pandemic lowered our monthly expenses so much for the past year.  It is going to be a shock when my husband's church reopens for in person services in a couple of weeks' time and he has to start filling the car with gasoline a LOT more often to make the trips out there.  Once the pandemic ends the expenses will start to rise again and as wonderful as it will be to have a return to some places of business we have had to forego over the past months, it does put the cost of living up.  We have had to do without some things, some uninsured medical treatments for example, and it will be in our best interests to return to them, but o wow, the toll on our budget is going to be quite a shock. hahahaha  The phones are just one item, soon there will be many others. So, I can thank the pandemic for helping us get through the past year financially....glad it has been good for SOMETHING! hahaha

Where Do The Days Disappear To??

 We have been home from our trip for 3 days now, but it still seems like just yesterday that we arrived back to our odd little suite here in Regina.  The weather has been quite good, but this afternoon a period of about 12 hours of rain will begin.  I want to get cleaned up and dressed for a walk downtown and back before that happens.

 

Since arriving home and taking a full day to relax and do nothing the day after we arrived back here, our energy seems to have come up and we have both slept incredibly well the past couple of nights.  My husband has been scurrying around getting a few ideas together for sermons, social distancing and hygiene routines to be set in place for the parish re-opening in a couple of weeks' time, going on a brief sojourn with me to Canadian Tire yesterday morning for stain for the occasional tables and getting the plants on the back deck ready for either wintering over or putting in the compost for replacement next year.  Friends are taking my non-edible "only flowers" pots for the winter and keeping them going indoors so I can put them back out on my deck next year if we still live here.  I have been catching up on banking and grocery shopping and laundry.

We picked up some food from DarBar yesterday at noon after picking up a proper face shield for my husband to wear to his upcoming church services.  He also purchased a very reasonably priced new video camera and headphones to be able to better record his online sermons and services for those who will not be returning to church yet.  He is delighted not only with the equipment but also by the fact that the camera bottom bolt threading is exactly right to attach to a camera tripod he was given years ago and has never been able to use.  YIPPEE! He can now record his sermons from other rooms in the suite, not just from his office.  He was so exhilarated after that purchase and so proud of his research paying off that I had to treat him to some Indian food as a congratulatory gesture.  Actually we both thought of it at the same time, hahaha.  It seems we cannot go anywhere near DarBar without stopping in to pick up a meal or two.

I am putting together another Care Package for Mom.  There are a couple of items she needs that we had no time to look for when we were with her this week. I knew exactly where to find them here, so Monday I will send them to her.  During our final visit with her, her calculator died a permanent death, so that is one of the things that will be in the care package. There will be some more tiny freezer cartons to complement the ones I took to her on our trip for her approval, a novel I think she will enjoy and now I am looking for one more unexpected treat to fill up the box before I mail it away.  Mom's taste buds are pretty much gone now, so she told me not to bother sending her any more food items as she cannot taste them anyway unless they have a sharp citrus twang to them. I do have some candies that would fit that bill, so perhaps they could be included.

 

 

Before lunch this morning I walked downtown to The Bay looking for a pair of slippers Mom wants, but unfortunately they are summer stock and just a few days ago The Bay returned their remaining summer stock of this particular brand of slipper and replaced them with the winter slippers that are not at all what Mom can wear.  I think her present slippers will be okay until the early spring when the stock changes again, but I was disappointed not to be able to get what she wanted. Mom has some foot issues that require certain styles of footwear and nothing else will work for her.  Oh well...I tried.

The teeming rain made its first appearance a few minutes ago then backed off, but the sky is so filled with black clouds I know we are going to get the predicted late afternoon/overnight rain.  The clouds look like they could be snow clouds and if it wasn't as warm outside as it is right now I would be half expecting to see snow on the ground in the morning.  That is one benefit of the pandemic: being forced to stay inside for the winter will not feel like the hardship it has in the past!  The possible catching of the virus is another good reason not to go outside nuch this winter!!

My husband is at his friend's workshop staining our occasional tables.  Sometime next week he will return to varnish them and soon they will be back in the living room and I can stop using my tiny piano bench as a coffee table!  hahaha I am SO excited about this project!  I wonder what "hands on" project my husband will tackle next!!!??!  Now that the canoe project is finished and he is arranging storage for the boat, now that the tables are nearing completion, I am wondering if it is too much to hope for that tackling the "stuff" sorting and cleaning in the basement will continue uninterrupted.  Here's hoping......it is something we can do together.  We need to get all the recycleable bottles and cans out of there first and surely we will be able to do that this week sometime.  The lineups are pretty bad right now at the recycling depots, but I think if we get there 15 minutes before our nearest one opens one morning we will have a good chance of getting rid of all the cans and bottles we have right now.

Time to start making dinner....rice and hamburgers I think, along with some vegetables.  After our ghee filled Indian food yesterday it is time for something very plain and low fat tonight.