Foggy Dew And Diet Cola...Which Is Worse??

We had an hour's drive out of town this morning to attend the installation of a new priest for one of our former congregations.  There is warm air aloft as a new, kinder sort of weather system tries to move in. That meant a bit of a slow drive along the highway in thick fog.  Why so many drivers of  cars around here drive through fog that impairs  visibility without using their tail lights is beyond us.  It was extremely dangerous in the thickest patches of fog when a car would pass us already going too fast, then disappear only 50-60 feet in front of us, becoming completely invisible to us.  All we could do was try to peer through the gloom and pray that no one ahead of us in our lane was either stopped or going so slowly that we had to try to get around them as they wouldn't be able to be seen until the last second.  Eek!  I am so very grateful my husband volunteered to drive while I played look out.  While it was still foggy on the way home early this afternoon, at least the fog was well above ground level and it was quite easy to see all the surrounding traffic.  Remnants of two, two vehicle accidents along the highway proved us right to have been cautious on the drive.

I have been experimenting with various sorts of food and drink over the past six weeks to try to pin down what is giving me a scratchy, phlegm filled throat every time I consume it.  Over this past week I have finally discovered a growing negative reaction to diet cola....the only drink other than water that I can have, for one medical reason and another.....so, I guess now if I eat out somewhere I will be drinking water only, the same as at home. Sigh....yes, I know diet colas have their own issues as far as being less than healthy to drink, but when I can't have tea or coffee or juice or hot chocolate and "flavoured" carbonated waters make me nauseous, I am kind of out of options for variety.  Dang it....oh well....it is really good to know what has been causing this ever since a few weeks before we went to NYC in August.  I only drink diet cola when we eat out, never at home, so at least I don't have a cupboard full of the stuff I would have to get rid of to avoid temptation or have to waste product.

The sky has been dreary now for almost a week.  I will be glad when the sunshine arrives a couple of days from now, along with warmer day time high temperatures. I don't care that as of tomorrow night the over night temperatures will be consistently below zero finally, as long as the predicted day time highs of between +6C and +10C happen.  Here's to a lifting of the fog and dark clouds for at least a few more days before serious winter weather occurs. 

The Weather Chose Snowing As Its Option Tonight!

There are about three centimetres of snow on our lawn and back deck. The soggy mist that fell first is starting to freeze, so I am thanking God we don’t have to leave the house tomorrow, as far as we know. I need a day to adjust to even the idea of winter, let alone the onset! 

My walking partner is coming for a visit in the morning. Unfortunately we won’t be going for a walk in the icy snow, but I am grateful we did get our walk around the lake accomplished once in between my trips this summer and fall. 

Tomorrow I will begin a giant batch of laundry. 🧺 I have not done laundry since just before we left for Alberta, two weeks ago yesterday! Yikes! 😱 We have been too busy dealing with other things, mostly time consuming and sometimes labour intensive frustrations since returning home, to get to the laundry. My husband made me promise him I would split this task into two days instead of attempting to do it all tomorrow afternoon because he saw how exhausted I made myself doing laundry after our New York trip. Sigh…..he is correct about that so I will behave myself tomorrow and only wash and dry the amount of laundry I can cope with comfortably. I will, I will, I will! (I will, won’t I???)

I heard a cute joke tonight from a friend and if you attend an evangelical church it will give you a chuckle: 

A teacher asked her young students to bring their most meaningful token or artifact from their religion to school for Show and Tell the following day. The little Roman Catholic student brought a crucifix. The little Jewish student brought a menorah. The little Baptist student brought…….a casserole!! 🥘 hahaha…love this one.

Thank You To Our Local Mazda Dealership!

While we have had good servicing experiences for each vehicle we have owned since our arrival here in Regina, we are very much taken with the service we receive from the Mazda dealership.  

Yesterday was a perfect example of the treatment we, along with our vehicle, have received over the past few months since our purchase from them.  When we dropped our car off for a tire change and new tire and rim purchase, despite the place being off the charts busy the mechanic we checked in with took plenty of time to answer questions my husband had about some unrelated issues.  We forgot to pre-book our Courtesy Car ride home, but that was no problem.  We were even allowed to take our long walk to the nearest restaurant for breakfast before returning to the dealership and THEN asking for a ride.  We had a choice: we could wait for about 20 minutes until their own driver returned from dropping off someone else back at home, or they could call an Uber for us and pick up our cost for that if we needed to leave within the next five minutes or less.   We opted to wait for their own driver and that was just fine. Magazines and newpapers were brought to us while we waited.  When the call came in mid afternoon that the car was ready, we were given another option: did we want to wait until the car had been washed there before coming to pick it up or would we prefer to be given a ticket for a free car wash at any Co-op car wash so we could wash the car at a more convenient time for us?  We opted for the ticket because of today's weather report likely making an immediate wash a waste of time and effort, the dealership called an  Uber for my husband and he was back an hour before the exterminators showed up to help us deal with the mice. (3 mornings in a row now with no creatures in the traps, yay!)

This dealership, and I am assuming they represent most major Mazda dealerships, knows the meaning of "valued customers" and we have never felt more that way.  Not to knock any of the other vehicle dealerships we have dealt with here as they have been excellent as well, but Mazda has their own special touches we have not experienced before to this degree.  Congratulations Mazda for knowing how to build a reliable customer base! 

Thus far today, at nearly 11am, the only sign of our freezing drizzle and snow forecast is a sky full of very dark clouds and a bite to the air and breeze, but obviously the weather IS going to change at some point today.  So we have decided to go visit our hospitalized friend just after noon in an attempt to beat the freezing drizzle.  If we interrupt her lunch I think she will forgive us. 

The Demise Of Poor Wee Mousie

It always saddens me to wake up and find a mouse dead in a trap.  Overnight we captured our tiny intruder in a trap under the stove and even though it has to be done, I still feel badly about taking another creature's life. Sigh....such is the way of our fallen world.  Me vs the possibility of contracting hantavirus from a field mouse...I don't like it one bit.

The winter weather is pending today. While we are on the far edge of a system that could drop up to 50cm of snow in other parts of the north and central areas of the prairies, we will still get some freezing rain along with a bit of snow, but the worst part is going to be the wind I suspect.

Due to the bad weather supposedly arriving later this afternoon and my husband not feeling quite up to par this morning after last evening's excitement and work setting up traps and moving some heavy items out of the kitchen right before bed, we decided to skip the huge grocery shop we planned to take this morning.  If we had been up and out the door by around 7am we could have done it, but with things being the way they were when we finally did wake up closer to 8:30am, I decided to just make a run on my own to the nearest store and pick up the essentials that we can't live happily without until next week. My husband is currently loading up the water jugs into the car so he can pick up the refills right after lunch now that he is feeling at least somewhat better after spending the morning resting.  

He is really enjoying our new tv channel line up, particularly the Turner Classic Movies and Silver Screen channels.  There are so few tv programmes he enjoys watching, so it is fun to see him laughing so heartily at the old jokes from the 1930's and 1940's and enjoying all the old sets and cinematography in the black and white films.  

The pest control folk just contacted us to say they can't get here until next Monday afternoon, so it is a good thing we have our own traps set.  We will leave them up and preserve the mousie corpse until then so we have proof that we actually caught a mouse and so they can see we are being responsible tenants with our traps set up so well around the house.  Pretty sure this mouse ran in yesterday morning when my husband had to leave the back door open for a few minutes. That is how the last one gained entry in the early spring of 2024.  

I have washed and disinfected under the stove, as well as taken out the under stove drawer to disinfect it and all the bake ware that it stores.  What a task, but glad to have it done.  Later this afternoon we will pull the refrigerator out and vacuum and disinfect under there as well.  The next task will be to clean out the entire food storage cupboard....a gargantuan task as it is completely full of cans and boxes...give the interior shelves a good rinse out just because they probably need it...then pull it away from the wall and disinfect underneath it as well.  We are fairly certain the mouse would have been in behind it at some point if it was here all day yesterday.  Never hurts to pull out free standing cupboards and appliances every few months to clean  under and behind them even without the presence of a mouse spurring a person on. 

The Rockies To The West

When we first arrived in Calgary the mountains to the west of us were covered in a fresh dump of clean, bright new snow. Now, as we look out the windows of our hotel room, the peaks have lost that pristine white gleam and have returned to their brown jaggedness. The sky above is light autumn blue and this morning there are few clouds in sight. It is another lovely day near the foothills. We have no visiting commitments until later this afternoon and will watch our home church service online this morning. Speaking of which, I had best get going if I am going to get connected on time! 

Such A Beautiful October Day!

The weather in Calgary this week has been absolutely gorgeous!  What a blessing for all of us who are visiting from across Canada for Aunty’s funeral and ongoing celebration of her life! This is the nicest mid October weather we have experienced in a number of years. Back home it has been rainy, windy and rather miserable according to the friend who is caring for our house while we are away. This is the second trip in a row where we have been experiencing glorious weather during heavy rainfall and wind at home. Yay! 

We enjoyed our shopping trip today, and had plenty of chances for long walks through the Inglewood shopping district as we picked up several orders of tea at Tea Traders, herbs and spices at Silk Road, two new outfits for me at Twitchin’ Threads, a book and brand new pair of gloves for my husband at a wonderfully clean and well organized thrift store and then a drive across the city for leather repair supplies at Tandy Leather. Now my husband can repair his favourite moccasins, so he is very happy…and so am I! 

We located our favourite old 1970’s pizza joint, used to be Karuso’s, but is now one of the SpotOn restaurants that inherited the Karuso family pizza recipes. So the pizza is just as good, my husband says. I opted for the far less carby, less fatty chicken pot pie and it was delicious! 

After a late afternoon rest we took a decently long walk through the neighbourhood around our hotel, discovering a lovely Indian restaurant: Hyderabad Biryani House. It is tucked away among an entire development of big box stores and light industrial businesses. My expectations were low, but the food was really, really tasty. My medium spiced Chana masala curry was spicy hot in my mouth and there were sautéed onions adding to the flavour. My husband’s chicken methi was so yummy with thick spiced gravy. Jeera rice and butter naan rounded out our meal. The portions were huge, (good thing we had the long walk back to the hotel afterwards!),  and we have enough leftovers in our refrigerator for another full meal each for lunch on Sunday. (Won’t be eating leftovers tomorrow because of a cousin’s lunch and then a special dinner with one of my husband’s lifelong friends and former mountain climbing buddy.) 

Received the wonderful news today that a dear friend who has been struggling with cancer for the past several years is now fully in remission. So grateful for this encouraging news! It is the best way to top off a very happy day!

Sleep Cycles

 Here I am awake at 2:45am, my mind racing on about a meeting I recently attended that was unsatisfactory on every level. Unfortunately this is not the best time of day to be trying to come up with solutions to the problems arising from that meeting so I will take some time to think happy thoughts instead while waiting for drowsiness to come over me once again. 

It has been a happily busy week of walking, housework, walking, cooking, walking, having two sets of company and walking both with and without my cane accompanying me. I MAY just be able to handle the recovery period after my upcoming second hip surgery after all. 

I am happy that I will have my consultation with the surgeon sometime in the next six weeks or so. After reading my x-ray 🩻 report I realize I am going to have to accept the necessity of having the other hip replaced.

Over the past week I have been rehearsing some of the many incredible answers to prayer I (we) have received over the past forty years and feeling a confidence in God’s working in and on my life that had gradually over the past number of years.  The short Bible study my friend sent me has been reawakening my spirit. I (we) have been freed to make a few decisions in regard to our church connection.  The past week of meditation, prayer and spiritual conversation with several friends has been like coming out from under a dark cloud. Not sure what exactly has been causing my spirit to droop over the past few years so badly! My joyful expectation of seeing God at work every day is being restored.

The weather this week has been spectacular! It has been comfortably warm, the wind has not been gale force, despite the sudden yellowing, then dead browning, of the tree leaves near our place there are still a few plants blooming with leaves still green and even a smattering of flowers persist here and there in the parks and in peoples’ gardens. Both our tomato plants are continuing to produce fruit! It seems we were away during the worst of the end of summer wasp season. Even standing in the grocery store parking lot the other afternoon bagging my groceries with the car trunk open, only two wasps arrived to inspect my produce and only showed mild curiosity as to what all I was putting into my carry bags. I have only been buzzed once when dropping household garbage into the disposal bin out in our parking lot and then only by a lone wasp, not an entire hostile mob. Trust me, this is a big deal! For the first summer in eleven years we have not had wasp nests near our back door or under the deck. What a blessing! 

My surety that I will be able to have my surgery by this winter sometime and that after that we will finally find a place to move is growing. 

I see my husband battling successfully through the medical issues that have being trying to reassert themselves after disappearing entirely during our vacation.  He has had a couple of poor nights of sleep and going to the dentist always upsets his system for a few days afterwards, but instead of despairing he has been going out walking and otherwise staying active despite feeling the old exhaustion physically.  He has been cleaning his office and library, walking out to do errands and making batches of 🌶️ chili when feeling his worst, so his worst is passing! How very encouraging for us both that our energy is staying high now that we are home again. 

We had two sets of company this week, both of which were delightful and encouraging, my husband organized an impromptu men’s breakfast with some of his buddies, today we are picking up friends from the airport and visiting a friend in hospital. So, we are keeping busier with social commitments and that is healthy for us both.

This coming weekend my husband is taking a church service out of town in a congregation who are always very welcoming, plus he has dropped one of his teaching commitments that was coming up soon and would have required a lot of research and writing. I am proud of him as I know he finds dropping any such commitments of his own volition difficult to do. 

Our son has been experiencing good things in the midst of a tumultuous time in his life, seeing God’s help in several different arenas so that encourages us all.

These small, often seemingly insignificant details of daily life are infusing my soul with encouragement this past few days. For that I am grateful.

Remember The Crazy Intense Struggle I Had To Find A Wedding Reception Dress But The Reception Was Cancelled?

And remember also the racing around our fair home city I did to locate a brooch for the first dress I bought and then changed my mind about when I found the side panelled black dress pants to wear instead?

So here is how that whole fiasco has turned out: I left the pants at home in Regina because they were too bulky for my carry on and too dressy for anything else we would be doing here on our holiday, the dress I did bring and have worn four times, discovering in the process that it doesn’t look as good on me as I hoped it did, isn’t a style I like as much as I thought it did when I purchased it in desperation, my husband who pays no attention to my clothes telling me after I wore it out for sushi dinner last night that he doesn’t care for it on me and my son’s unusual complete lack of any comment at all about the dress, landed that dress and the brooch I purchased to wear with it in a recyclable bag this morning and now they reside in a thrift store ten blocks from our apartment! Buh Bye…….👋 

The thrift store on 3rd Ave and E 29th Street was our first stop along our daily walk. (4 miles today) After depositing my wee bag of goodies there we headed west along E29th up Lexington to stop #2, lunch at Anjappar Indian restaurant, South Indian cuisine, for chicken curry, rice, chicken tikka masala and garlic naan. The prices were too high because of the location, but oh yummy, the food was excellent and the service wonderful for such an unassuming looking establishment.

From there we walked a couple of more blocks south across Park Avenue to Madison Avenue to Madison Square Park, taking photos of the nearby golden spired New York Life Insurance and the landmark Flatiron buildings. Photos will follow when we get home. The park had so many big arbutus and other trees, a dog park, lots of benches lining the paths that were filled with business people eating their lunches, a company setting up large screens and speakers to livestream part of the U.S. Open competition and a beautiful fountain in the centre of a large pool where people have been tossing loose change. Our useless small change joined the rest of the pennies, dimes and nickels already in residence under the shimmering water.

We walked most of the way back straight down Madison Avenue past Fendi and Versace and Issey Miyake and other designer stores. Jammed in between between some of these upscale clothing establishments we stumbled across elderly Madison Avenue Baptist Church, looking a tad lost in the midst of the overpowering retail ridiculousness. Hahaha….

As we wandered up Madison Avenue we came across one of Amazon’s Whole Foods stores. We have been looking all over Midtown and downtown for a pomegranate to take to our Rosh Hashanah dinner hostess on Friday night, with zero success. We had been wondering if we would have to take the long subway ride to crowded Zabar’s for a pomegranate to include with the rest of our typical Rosh Hashanah gifts of honey and apples, but today came across an outlet of Amazon’s Whole Food serendipitously and there were the elusive pomegranates: only a half dozen remaining in the bin, but all in good condition. What an unexpected blessing. Now we feel prepared to greet our dinner hostess.

So it is 3:30pm, we are having a bit of a rest, we have leftover curry and tikka masala for dinner tonight, but I know we will be craving another little walk after dinner, so we may walk back up to the library and sit in the park for half an hour.

It is one of the hotter, more humid days we have experienced since we arrived, so we have both air conditioners running in the suite and are lazing around in our jammies. How very lovely! 

To think: when we arrived here nearly a month ago I could barely walk the five blocks to Trader Joe’s and back carting a small bag of groceries and now I can walk 22 consecutive blocks before feeling the need to sit down. I LOVE 💕 NYC!

Good Thing We Rested All Day!

 By the time we had to get the bus to meet the kids for dinner we were recovered and raring to go once again. We went to the bus stop extra early due to the usual rush hour delays, so we arrived twenty minutes ahead of the reservation time. We spent that waiting time sitting in a small corner lot park with twenty bicycle riding food delivery men waiting to begin their shift for the evening. 

Dinner with our kids was fabulous. We started off with soft tofu in tuna broth and a delicious whole mackerel baked in sea salt. Sushi for two turned out to be a marvellous selection of sushi: mackerel, tuna, salmon, hamachi, uni, roe, inari sushi combo’s, etc. all served in a sushi boat. I enjoyed my own orders of chicken karaage and a small tempura sweet potato hand roll. The restaurant was packed and noisy and the servers bustled about at light speed; the kind of establishment I find invigorating. The energy in this restaurant and the packed pub we went to after our day at The Cloisters filled me with delight. Thank you Kanoyama restaurant for the happy evening!

After dinner we walked back to the kids’ apartment so that gave us a better overview of their East Side neighbourhood, including a number of large rats checking out myriad bags of garbage set along the curbs for overnight pickup. I haven’t seen a rat in years so found that interesting. My son expertly put the run on a few that appeared along our route. You really need to keep a sharp eye open when walking along the sidewalks here between garbage rats and the seemingly thousands of pet dogs in this city. BUT compared to the horrendous mess left daily by the Canada Geese at home, the rats and dogs here are easier to deal with. 

We spent a happy hour drinking soba cha with the kids before busing back home.

It is going to be weather shock next week when we arrive back in Regina. Here, while it is not quite as hot as expected, it is still summery with warm, walkable evenings in sleeveless tops. Back in Regina it was summer when we left, but with the onset of the autumn there the temperatures are already ten degrees or more lower than here. We are going to notice the chill.

Caught In The Drenching Deluge

After a relaxing morning at home yesterday we went back to 2nd Avenue Deli for a late lunch. I couldn’t wait another day for my next hot brisket sandwich and gravy. This time I removed the bread to our takeout box, pushed the brisket into the centre of the plate and poured the steaming hot gravy over it! Ooooh yummy! My husband had excellent matzah ball soup with carrots and noodles in a specially requested salt free broth.  He ordered a half corned beef sandwich with it so he also enjoyed his lunch.

We were going to return after lunch to the East River esplanade, but it began to rain lightly, so we went to Fairway Market in Kips Bay first to pick up a bottle of kosher honey, apples and a thank you card for our hosts at the upcoming family and friends Rosh Hashanah dinner next weekend. Our hope was that the rain would stop at least temporarily by the time we wandered through the store and completed our purchases. Not so! We ran a few yards from the store to a cinema roof overhang to stand for a while watching the teeming rain and wondering why we had stupidly left our umbrella back at the suite! hahaha We stood for nearly ten minutes, realized the rain wasn’t letting up much, so we bravely joined the rest of the umbrellaless pedestrians, walked the ten blocks back to our place and arrived sporting our best drowned rat styles. Seriously it was refreshing being able to walk outside in fairly heavy rain that was warm, falling straight down and not in bone chilling prairie rain lashing us from all directions due to gale force winds! We quite enjoyed ourselves and we can walk the esplanade another day.

In an hour we are meeting our son at the main branch of the New York Public Library to view all the museum and art exhibits there, take a look at the new lights our son installed there, then go for lunch before heading our separate ways again. He spent yesterday sweeping out his old studio and napping as he continues to get over his cold. It will be another happy day as far as we know, AND since more rain is threatening we will remember to take our umbrella this time! It is lovely being only a few blocks from the many wonderful sights along Lexington, Park and Madison Avenues, Grand Central Station, the United Nations buildings and the East River ferries. Location, location, location! 

Different Shopping Choices For Groceries

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

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

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

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

Ponding And Flash Flooding!

Rain is teeming down outside during this dinner hour. There is intense ponding (I love this word) on the sidewalks and in the curb gutters and the city is under a flash flood warning….mind you most rain/thunder storms here tend to trigger this warning and sometimes it is indeed justified. My husband is currently out there in the rain on his way to Dagostino’s grocery to pick up a bottle of soy sauce for the fried rice dinner he is creating for himself out of our fridge full of leftovers. He is trying out the new umbrella I purchased this morning for our trip to the cabin tomorrow as it is supposed to rain there as well on Saturday. Rather than spending a lot of time hiking along the tree lined trails surrounding the cabin we will likely spend much of the time curled up with various new books we bought for the trip. 

Well, Mr. Soggy has just arrived home and is dripping water all over the floor, hahaha. I had such a huge lunch at Sarge’s Deli with our son today that a cheese sandwich will be all I need for dinner. 

The Benefits Of Getting Lost!

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Thankful For A Chilly Day!!

Today was a very enjoyable day weather-wise!  Overnight a cold front blew in and when I woke up this morning I was wrapped up tightly in my duvet and there was a very chilly breeze blowing through from all the open windows. The sky was darkly clouded and remained overcast for most of the day.  The daytime high was only +17C. What a welcome break from our very warm July.  The rest of this week isn't supposed to become much warmer than about +25C and it is going to cool down to around +7C for several nights. Yippee!  I am grateful and delighted...elated even...to have a time out from hot weather, particularly as I expect the weather where we are headed later this month to be extremely humid and scorching hot!  

This morning we hauled out all the possibilities for clothes for the trip and did a preliminary packing up.  I have pulled two outfits I thought I was going to take and opted for my newest favourite summer dress instead.  I wore the dress to church  yesterday and decided it is more useful than the other two outfits put together.  It is difficult to know how much to pack for a whole month because, although there is laundry access at the apartment, it isn't in the suite and I don't know how many other guests will be jockeying for laundry time. We want to take a good ten days worth of clothes with us.  I also removed several pair of socks because they are just so bulky and are easy enough to wash out by hand in the kitchen sink in the evenings. Even with the high humidity each pair should be dry within a couple of days hanging over the bathroom the shower rod. My husband went through all his shirts and pants and made some tough decisions as well.  I am so happy we decided to do this preliminary pack.  It is causing us to be more realistic about our choices.  If the city we are going to wasn't so dirty I would be wearing my sandals most days, but for walking on the streets there it is safer to wear socks and walking shoes regardless of my outfit of the day.  I am becoming more excited now about the trip after feeling very unsure until very recently that I was up to the task of early morning airport arrivals, jockeying for overhead rack space, hauling my cane with me through security, lining up for boarding, fretting about possible flight delays and line ups at Customs and Immigration....on and on and on....I am not a relaxed flyer.  I enjoy the actual flying part, but the rest of the possible disasters awaiting do not thrill me.  

Now that this long weekend holiday is coming to an end, the other details for preparation to travel will begin.  All I can do is pray that the banking part of the pre-expedition goes well and that there are no more glitches with the bank we are forced to deal with for this trip.  Praying for mercy, that is all we can do.

 

No Wonder It Is Hot In Here!

 It is currently +40C outside on my back deck! Whew!

Surviving The Heat Thanks To Friends With A/C In Their House!

Last night was the first time this summer that I have removed all the covers from my bed and slept on top of the bottom sheet, thanking God for light summer overnight wear.  I will be doing the same thing tonight.  Today we got up to almost +34C, with not much of a breeze so it was like a sauna outside by mid afternoon.  Tomorrow the temperature is aiming for a high of about +37C and then slowly we will get back to more seasonal mid to upper +20C's.  Can't wait!!

I caught quite a magnificent break this afternoon. Two good friends contacted me and invited me to come to their house for the hottest part of the afternoon. Their house has wonderful A/C, so it was quite a treat!  An icy cold cola and a  fruit flavoured "frozen on a stick like a Creamsicle"  snack lowered my core temperature nicely.  I survived the afternoon well thanks to friends!!  God bless them for their invitation.  My husband was also invited but opted for a long nap in our basement instead after spending a few hours working on our kids' wedding reception programme.  

I must be finally getting into holiday mode because after I visited my friends this afternoon I stopped at the grocery store to pick up a couple of food items, noticed their rack containing travel sized shampoos and toothpastes and such was full of excellent product, so I picked up everything that I need to pack in my carry on for our upcoming trip. Tonight I hard copied all our flight and rental apartment information so I have it immediately at hand if required at US Customs and Immigration instead of having to fiddle about on mobile phones trying to find what we need amongst our email files.  I cleaned out my carry on bag yesterday and started making a few difficult decisions about what clothing items I am going to take with me.  It always takes me awhile to get my head around the details of preparing for a trip. Fortunately I have had a lot of lead time for this one. Final clothes shopping trip here will happen either at the end of next week if it cools down enough or the following week.  My second last haircut is scheduled for next week, I have the dates for refilling my necessary prescriptions all juggled around so I won't run out of them before we get home and I have decided not to take my vitamin supplements.  I can purchase a month's worth once we get there and use them up before we board the plane to come home.  I made a list of what else has to be done at the end of this month: setting up our American mobile phone plans, getting our health insurance figured out and paid for, arranging to have the post office hold our mail while we are gone, setting up arrangements with our local utility companies to pay our September bills in advance of the trip, and figuring out how much actual cash we need to carry with us.  I have been putting off even thinking about any of these things because I didn't have the mental or emotional energy available.  Now, my brain is starting to compute the details and I feel motivated to get with it and prepare. YAY! I think my sudden enthusiasm to do these things was triggered yesterday when I paid the bill for our flights and the hold deposit on the rental apartment.  Once that much money is actually invested it is far more motivating to carry through with the rest of the arrangements.

I have not seen many mosquitoes here since all the rain stopped and the heat began, but they have apparently seen me!!  At the moment I have four wrist bites, a back of the arm bite, a back of the leg bit and three bites on my shins that are currently sending me nuts with itching! Fortunately this kind of bad itching usually only lasts for about a day when I get these miserable bites. By tomorrow I will have angry red little welts, but the horrible itch that tempts me with the urge to scratch at them should be gone. 

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Once A Calgarian Always A Calgarian I Guess......

 After promising myself I would NOT subject myself to the stress of watching the Stampede Parade this morning and upsetting myself over the lousy tv coverage...admittedly live parade coverage is one of the most difficult tasks for any tv announcer, but please CTV did we really have to spend so much time on ridiculous interviews with parade watchers and stupid meanless questions from the obviously untrained interviewers?  Seriously??? Was that necessary?....of course I could not resist turning on my tv to see the parade. Duh?  Why do I do it?  Every year despite my own over the top criticisms of the coverage?  I do it because I was born and raised in Calgary.  I will do it until I am no longer able to watch television.  My husband, (himself a former broadcaster), always joins me,  against HIS better judgement and we watch it together, sharing not only criticisms but also the hundreds of happy memories we have of our times spent living in Calgary and watching the parade live every year...me the native Calgarian and my husband a Calgary transplant.  The parade brings back to us memories of the Calgary of my youth and his college age years, an old version of a Calgary that no longer exists of course, but one to which we still have the fondest of memories...of our families and our friends that we had there over several decades before we moved out of Alberta completely. Now all our family members that we enjoyed there have all died, apart from a cousin and her husband and one of her kids and family.  There is one family friend who was there when my father brought me home from the hospital as a newborn, but those are the last remnants of our lives there.  I think the happy nostalgia is why we put ourselves through the parade coverage every July.  I doubt I will watch the chuckwagon races this year.  They have been cleaned up for safety, smart, smart I know, but the thrilling danger of the races has been taken away and I don't find them all that fascinating now.  Hopefully there will be a tribute at tonight's first races to the recently deceased Tommy Glass, chuckwagon driver and race horse breeder extraordinaire!  

This week one of our own city's wonderful brew pubs reopened after being closed for two weeks due to a major flood that ruined the lower half of their establishment after an aging connecting pipe from the newly installed front street water/sewer system into their establishment failed and cracked.  The front street was part of a renewal of that area of the city and part of the process was relocating the water main shut off valve to the pub.  When the old pipe broke and water began flooding in the staff immediately contacted the city to have the water valve shut off....AND it took three HOURS for that to happen. Why?  Because, apparently when that valve was moved, no one in the city waterworks department seemed to have a clue as to where it has been relocated!  It took them nearly 3 hours to find the thing.  Good grief!!!  That poor pub. They have lost SO much business in the past two weeks.  I do hope they can recover as many losses as possible, both in the physical building and financially! 

I am chuckling today over the first of this coming year's new Harmonized Sales Tax Rebate that arrived in my bank this morning.  (I think it has been renamed the Canada Grocery Rebate or something similar.)  We all received a one time "Extra Payment" a few weeks ago and I received a whopping $42.  Today I found out what my quarterly payments will be between now and next July:  an even more thrilling $38!  I am not sure I can handle that giant rebate, hahahaha.  Actually I am not complaining!  It means our overall income has risen considerably since the years when we were receiving nearly three $300 per quarter. We are grateful to God for this change in rebate because it indicates we have invested wisely the past few years. Our need for the larger rebates has finally been reduced substantially. The years of saving we did after my husband left his business and became an employee again while we continued to scrimp and save has paid off.  Thank you Lord.  Amen! 

A bright, warm day awaits us, finally, as we prepare to run a few errands once again. Being retired means we don't have to race madly about for hours all in one day each week, we can space out the errands around more fun things to do! 

 

 

Both Our Kids Are Trapped By Heat!

 Our daughter in law is currently in Toronto, just in time for the first major heatwave of the summer there. Our son is in New York City as the forecast heat dome showed initial edges today. By Saturday the Big Apple, along with much of the east coast, is predicted to reach a high of 115F, (46.1C) and such highs are to last for several days. We have alerted our son as he is not a news watcher as a rule so that he will be aware that he should not plan on riding his bike to his studio this weekend. I hope and pray our daughter in law doesn’t have to return to a country another ten to fifteen degrees hotter than the one she has been visiting! I wonder if the heat on July 4th in NYC will be responsible for cancelling the huge USA birthday celebrations there as flooding was responsible for cancelling many of our country’s birthday celebrations yesterday! Oh, how we hope and pray the weather will cool down at least a smidgen south of the border by the time we arrive later this summer! 

Parts of our province, in the central area, are currently under a red level tornado watch. There is another area just south under an orange level watch and we are currently under a yellow level watch, the lowest threat of the three. The rain and thunder of the past couple of hours here seem to have moved off slightly to the east, but a second round is forecast overnight. Even a yellow level storm can result in high winds, minor flooding and hail, so we are praying that a few power outages might be the worst effects experienced. 

What ridiculous weather all over the world as earth’s weather patterns continue to change. Hopefully humans and the rest of the earth’s animals and ecosystems can adapt quickly! 

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!