Walking Four Blocks....WHOOPEE....(And Whoopee?)

Yesterday I was able to get outside in the warmer air and do my four block walk again....the first time in several weeks that it has been warm enough and the sidewalks immediately surrounding our place have been dry and clear enough to try it.

I have to confess that even though it has only been a couple months (or less??) since my last foray into the wonderful world of walking outside, yesterday's four block snail crawl nearly did me in. My husband came with me and I think even he was shocked by how slowly I was moving and by how much discomfort my hip was giving me and by how completely exhausted I was afterward!  YIKES!!!  Today I made sure I did my 30 physio reps as usual, but they weren't as much fun.  I am having actual pain again at times, despite the anti-inflammatories.  Thankfully they are still MOSTLY working, so I have some time yet before they become useless and I am praying the surgery can happen before they do.  Next week I will add in the ankle weights when I do the exercises, so that will be a good muscle strengthener....IF I can get my legs actually moving when I put the weights on.  In some ways, I know from past experience, once the weights go on it is almost like starting the regime all over again from the beginning.  That new resistance is difficult to get moving for the first week.  However, I am determined to do the full physio plan!!  

The warmer weather is an amazing mental boost to both my husband and myself.  The doldrums certainly start to leave quickly as soon as the hope of spring arrives.  Yes, it is only the last week of February and we still have March to face with its threatening big snowfalls and freezing rain possiblities, but hopefully the horribly cold temperatures have left us until at least December!!  Snow and ice and puddles we will manage to deal with as always.  The geese will arrive in another month and I am already preparing myself emotionally for their (and their poop) to return.  After ten years of it I am getting to be a pro at not freaking out over the mess they make, but it has taken me most of that ten years to arrive at the sense of peace I started to be conscious of last spring.  YAY!  Personal growth is good, right??  My only nagging concern about the onset of March is that it appears to be coming "in like a lamb" and the old adage that then it will "go out like a lion" has proven true often in my lifetime. End of March storms can really mess up the month of April.

My husband had his appointment with the skin specialist this afternoon after an 8 month wait after his referral.  The office called late yesterday afternoon with a cancellation space, so away he went.  I am glad he did.  He is continuing to do all the right things to treat his skin condition but got some wonderful new ideas from the specialist today. He will return for a follow up in six months' time and see what else may be possible. It is all good news for now.  Tomorrow he has a follow up with his GP for some other conditions and I so like his doctor.  The man is amazing, so competent and so caring and not afraid to run whatever tests are necessary to assist my husband's health, to refer to specialists when necessary.  As far as medical care, we feel like we have "fallen with our noses in the butter" here. My GP is a bit more iffy in terms of competence, but I have learned better what questions to ask her to ensure a more accurate diagnosis and treatment plan when I have small health issues. She too is very good about getting me referrals to specialists if she feels I could have a larger issue than she thinks she can deal with.  What a blessing for us both that, despite the very serious collapse of our provincial health care system, we have been here long enough to have GP's and to have our medical coverage set up.  We are both intensely grateful for every doctor we have been able to see in the past ten years. .... well in the past twenty years when I think about it.  How blessed are we?  Incredible.

Our son got a lot of good news yesterday at his own doctor's appointment.  He has been concerned about osteoporosis and arthritis due to an ongoing pain problem, but it appears more likely he is going to have to do some physiotherapy exercises and significantly change his posture when he is painting, so we are all very relieved that his issue appears very treatable over time.

Grocery shopping went well this morning.  We had a short list compared to other supply runs in the past month.  I was able to use fifty dollars in PC points as well.  I have to say that while not every week's offers for points nets me a lot of savings, if I pay attention and shop at a PC points giving store fairly often, I can end up saving several hundred dollars a year.  It is a simple plan thus far and easy to use.  It is like being able to collect coupons, but without all that hassle. The offers arrive on my computer each week right here at home.  I have had minimal problems with the plan over the years.  So thankful for it!

I am going to enjoy my couple of hours alone tomorrow while my husband attends a weekly men's discussion group.  I don't generally do anything really spectacular or interesting while he is gone, but it is nice to have a couple of hours to do or not do anything I wish.  I will go with him to his medical appointment tomorrow because the clinic is attached to a shopping mall, so I can look for some new books, gawp about at a few cheap clothes I don't need to purchase and just have fun toddling up and down the aisles in the stores on my own.  I haven't done any window shopping in a very long time and I do enjoy it, plus I get a bit of exercise wandering around.

Today's Mantra: Only 5 More Days...Only 5 More Days...Only 5 More Days..........

I have severe "cabin fever" today!  It is because of the weather forecast for the next five days: overnight lows between -36C and -40C between tonight and next Wednesday night.  Aaaaargh!!  This means that barring an emergency we will not be leaving the house, at least not in our own vehicle,  until next Thursday or Friday morning.  Seeing the incredible warming up that will begin at the end of next week should be encouraging me that I can make it through just fine until then, but instead it is making me increasingly antsy to get up and out of this suite AS  SOON  AS  POSSIBLE!!!  My goodness, I didn't feel this strength of cabin fever during a nearly one year COVID lockdown back in 2020. Whatever is wrong with me??  At the least, I am grateful I don't have to be concerned with starting up the car and burning gasoline for a half hour in an attempt to get the temperature gauge to register even a tiny bit on the dashboard monitor. There aren't any groceries needing to be purchased or appointments currently scheduled this coming week, plus I won't be having to stagger around on the fresh snowfall that came down overnight and likely won't be cleared away  until next Tuesday, since Monday is the Family Day holiday in our province.  There are many good things about remaining inside for another 5 days, but wow, I haven't been feeling that happy about it.  As the day has worn on I have accepted it and am over the worst throes of feeling contained and restrained.  YAY!  This morning was the worst.  Glad the feeling is passing.

It is warming up a bit in the area of Alberta where we used to live. Friends there are going for a walk around a lovely wooded park area where my husband and I used to enjoy wandering about and camping there with his various family members years ago.  The trees, the view of the foothills and mountains, the water in the river.....it is really a beautiful spot, off the beaten pathway a little bit, but close enough to towns and secondary highways as to not be overly remote.  I miss that park.  I hope our friends have a great time there.

My husband is having a kind of lousy day health-wise today. I am not sure if it is a bit of CFS, or if he is fighting some kind of "bug", (I suspect the former), but he is going to stay home from church tomorrow and watch the adult learning class and the service on Zoom.  Since I don't want to have to go out and start the car with a windchill of predicted -40C or colder, I will stay here with him.  Gosh, I miss the friends there when we have to remain at home on Sunday mornings.  Mind you, some of them will likely also be absent due to the bitter weather.

It has been a good day to distract my mind by doing some more outstanding home chores:  when I washed the dining room tablecloth last weekend and realized how much ironing it was going to need to get it looking at all decent, I stashed it on the ironing board in the closet and tried to forget about it, which I did quite successfully until today. SO, perfect day to iron that miserable, but pretty item and return it to the tabletop where it belongs.  Other small tasks are now done as well and it feels good to have the motivation to do them rather than just sit here feeling depressed.  

Now I am hoping I can relax between now and when I call the surgical "hotline" at the end of next week to find out how many more months I will be awaiting surgery.  Even if it is going to be a longer wait than hoped for, at least I will know how to make plans for the near future.

What is the weather like where you live?

Commiserating With Family Is Reassuring!

 I didn't go to church this morning.  It was bitterly cold and I was tired and intensely sore after having to navigate my tension induced aching self over every conceivable manner of icy patches on sidewalks and streets all last week, hoping and praying I wouldn't take a tumble on the slippery surfaces. I was sorry to miss the service in person, but admit it was kind of fun watching my husband bobbing onto and off of the Zoom cameras while I watched the service online. He always sits in the second row of pews from the front, so gets picked up on video fairly often. hahaha I felt like a private detective spying on him. hahaha  Next week I will go to the adult Sunday School class as my husband is teaching it and I always enjoy listening to him.  I can still learn lots of good theological "stuff" from his talks.

My dear husband arrived home from church with crispy chicken and chips and onion rings for lunch, so we gorged ourselves on fatty, greasy food and had a wonderful time. hohoho!!!  Thankfully he brought home small portions of each thing so we won't be eating soggy, greasy leftovers all week long.  For dinner tonight I finished off my wonderful leftovers from yesterday's Indian meal at DarBar....wonderful.  Guess I will have to start cooking again tomorrow....awwwww.....

The highlight of the day was a happy phone call with our son.  He was thinking about us and taking a full day off work today, so he wanted to check in.  It was delightful talking  to him and hearing his determination not to let the current politics in his country of choice spoil his mood and frighten him.  He is coping much better than he would have been even a couple of years ago in this type of politically unstable situation.  He and his lady friend are hoping to come to visit us in May or June and that would be lovely if it actually happens.  However, if there is any doubt about either of them being able to get back into their chosen country, we will go and visit them instead, Lord willing and my hip is up for it.  As it is several months into the future none of us are making any huge travel plans nor securing flight and accommodation on either side of the border at this time.  Best to wait awhile and see how things shake out politically and work-wise for "the kids".  Trying not to hope too hard that we will be able to get together, just in case things go sour between now and then.  But it is hard not to be overly hopeful when I want it so badly.....sigh.... Anyway, it was encouraging to talk to our son about how happy his life down south continues to be for now.  He sounds encouraged by what he is learning about life and Spirit and work. 

It has been a great day to do laundry.  The freezing cold outside makes the inside of this suite unbearably dry, so with having the washing machine going and the warm, moist air from the dryer, it has been quite nice in here this afternoon and evening.  I refrained though from washing the "hang to dry" clothing this evening.  If we have wet clothes near the bedroom and offices overnight, as they cool down, so will the air temperature.  I made that mistake a few times in the past and we couldn't get ourselves warm enough to sleep comfortably as the water on the clothes evaporated into the air around us.  Brrrrrrrrr.....shiver, shiver!!!! I will wash them tomorrow.

It has been completely nerve wracking over the past several days to have to go walking over icy bumps in parking lots and on sidewalks and intersections as I have had to navigate around town running errands and doing hospital visits, etc.  My hip is stiff and sore, more so than usual, and my back and arms are aching a bit from being so tense while trying to stay on my feet when waddling about on the humps of ice outside.  This coming week all I have planned for myself away from home is one trip to the grocery store and a hospital visit or two.  The past two weeks were so busy with errands and social events that I need this week to relax at home and focus on my pre-surgical physiotherapy. Yes, I have been doing my reps every day, but my mind has been on other things and I have been awakened by the clock alarm too many mornings in a row in order to go racing off somewhere early in the day.  The less often I have to to tottering and teetering across the ice these days the more relaxed and less achy my old body will be!  It is only 11 days now until my surgical consult and I am getting rather excited about that.  Yay!!!  I never knew a pending, invasive surgery could be something to get so excited about!

All We Can Do Is Laugh, Right?

Soooooo, yesterday the maintenance crew arrived to replace the kitchen wall and ceiling drywall where the plumbers had to cut into it earlier this week. We arrived home from our afternoon away to find a fairly decent patching job all done. Naively we assumed that today, or at least soon, they would return to sand and repaint the patch. Stupid us…..after living here for ten years why did we not realize that is not going to happen???? This morning we received email notification that the maintenance request for patching has been officially completed. hahaha 😂 Well, that much is true at least. That crew apparently is not responsible for painting. They did not apparently submit a request to the painting crew the way the plumbers submitted a request for the drywall patching crew. 

So, the question is whether or not WE submit a request, but I am guessing we will not bother. Since the suite was last painted ten years ago and the interior paint colours in use now are not the same, painting that patch will require repainting the entire kitchen. I doubt management is going to agree to that because we have no lease so if we were to give notice in the next few months the entire suite would have to be repainted anyway, AND since I hope to be moving in another year’s time after my hip surgeries, Lord willing, I frankly couldn’t care less about one more ugly spot in this crumbling suite. A bit of patching paint does not improve the ruined kitchen linoleum, the rotting carpets, the unrepaired gouges on the baseboards that had been painted over before we moved in, the drain issues, the dying appliances, the basement cracks, etc., etc.  There will be great rejoicing I am certain by the management when we finally do leave and they can give the whole suite a cheap facelift and start charging premium rent to an unsuspecting tenant. The ability to “make a silk purse out of a sow’s ear” is getting to be beyond us, but we have tried hard for a long time with at least some success. Yay!! Our future is so uncertain right now, so better to hang in a bit longer in this complex until the way forward becomes more clear. In the meantime we can giggle at this crazy accommodation’s foibles rather than make a panicked move that puts us in another less than tolerable rental situation. 

Dissa And Datta To Welcome In New Year Thoughts

 It has been a nicely quiet New Years Day for us.  There were no outside disturbances overnight and as a result of that, plus getting my diet back on track after holiday indulgences, I slept for nearly nine hours, as did my husband.  We didn't get up to make breakfast until 9am.  When I got to the kitchen I looked at my cereal bowl sitting on the counter with a serving of ready to be cooked oatmeal sitting in it and decided that was a tasteless and miserable way to welcome in a new year, tucked the bowl away in a cupboard for tomorrow and instead enjoyed part of an onion-cheese bun, heated up with butter slathered all over it and then putting a slice of low fat Swiss cheese on one half and sugar free blueberry spread on the other. Voila: Happy New Years Day to moi!! Oatmeal: healthy blecch food!

Our son remembered to send us a photo of the new coffee table and brilliantly red chair purchased for his living room to bring out the colours in the Turkish rug.  I think between the chair and the entertainment centre he achieved his goal! The clear glass table top shows off the carpet too.

I love the bright colours and wish I could be so bold myself!

 We spent the day binge watching an older British detective/crime mini-series: Collision.  It was most enjoyable and one of the morals of the story is how the most seemingly significant incident can unleash an ongoing chain of events that may create all manner of chaos in any number of "innocent bystanders'" lives.  To start the day we assumed we would binge watch season one of Luther that we began last night, BUT we gave it up part way through only episode three.  As good as the acting and the creativity of the script are, the programme gave way quickly to gratuitous bloodshed and violence.  I am prepared to suspend reality to some extent for the sake of an interesting story, but I stopped watching The Blacklist on tv a few years ago for having the same level of overly descriptive violence.  Not entertaining at all. Fortunately we are accessing these series through the public library Kanopy website, so we can watch them or not as we want with no financial penalty.  It is a great service. Yes, a lot of the programmes are 10 or 15 years old, but they are still interesting and the stories are pretty much timeless.

In between episodes of Collision we did manage to complete a few home chores, so that made us feel better about spending so much time in front of the tv.  hahaha Speaking of which, I am realizing that we are not going to miss any of the channels we eliminated from the line up yesterday.  I thought we would have to reinstall FX to get season three of The Old Man, but discovered today that it has been cancelled due to the expense of filming for such a small percentage of audience. Too bad. It was good fun, highly suspenseful every week and with amazing acting.  Not sure that the health of the lead actor didn't also play into the decision to cancel.  Anyway, it is good to know we were right to discontinue the station from coming into our tv system.

Today has been incredibly overcast and most unedifying.  The dark, cloudy sky, a few scattered snowflakes early in the morning and the lack of appearance of the sun for so much as a minute all day were not conducive to feeling like a new year has landed, that's for sure.  It will be quite cold again for the next week as well, so my coffee buddy and I will once again miss going out tomorrow morning. We will try again next week. Hopefully the current forecast for next week at this time will be at least somewhere close to the truth as it will be more fun to go out then. 

We received an email from friends today asking us what our thanksgivings are for 2024 and what our hopes are for 2025. Those answers took some thinking, I must say.

One prayer request before I post this entry: please continue to pray for Nan as she looks ahead into a new year that will not include Cee.  She knows how to grieve and how to cry and how to utilize the memories of their good times toward her own healing, but it is very rough now that the distractions of the holiday season are coming to a close and the chilly, depressing January weather is just beginning. Thank you to those of you who have asked about how she is doing and thank you for praying for her as she looks into the future and a whole new life for herself.  Bless you.....

Merry(?) Christmas!

I don’t know how many of you are having a happy Christmas/holiday season and how many of you are simply gritting your teeth and waiting for all the seasonal folderol to be over with, but regardless I wish you a relaxing and peaceful December 25th!  

We are likely going to be very tired today from a short sleep. 😴 

Last night we enjoyed our own church’s Christmas Eve service via Zoom at 6pm. At 8pm my husband suited up to walk the over three kilometres to his colleague’s Anglican 9pm mass. There is nowhere to park anywhere near that old neighborhood church and the streets are often so treacherous for driving that my husband usually walks over there on Christmas Eve, but I was leery of him being out there alone, in the dark, on an abnormally warm December evening in the Transition Area of our city, right by the night time eerie Wascana Park. I made him promise he would contact me upon his arrival and as he was leaving to come home after the service. About twenty minutes after he left the phone rang, and it was him. He decided at the half way mark to turn around and come home. At that point he realized he was only a quarter way through the round trip, that his legs were tired, that the wind would be in his face coming home, that he is helping cook for and host today’s dinner  guests and that it could be after 11pm before he got home. As much as I wanted him to be able to worship at an Anglican Church for Christmas, I admit I am proud of him for being so sensible.

However, our plans for a subsequently earlier bedtime to prepare for today’s food extravaganza were scuttled when our son awakened his dad from a sound sleep shortly before midnight to ask if he and his partner could share a Zoom call Christmas conversation with us at 8:30 am today! We both had a terrible time getting back to sleep and soon I will have to awaken my husband to chat with our “kids”. Hohoho! Meeeeerrry Christmas! I just pray my sweetheart can get through today sans his usual lack of sleep induced headache or he will be excusing himself to go for a nap shortly after our guests arrive this afternoon! At least we are having that precious family Zoom call.

If our day is less than perfect because we are overly tired, rather than complaining I will think of a dear friend here who spent her birthday having painful pre-op testing for a lifesaving surgery on Christmas Eve Day. Today, instead of celebrating with her extended family she is at home recovering, and it won’t be easy. As I  think of her right now my own exhaustion is fading and I owe it to her not to whine about being a little lacking in sleep. 

Well, time to get the computer running for our incoming call with our family.

Do look for any possible joys that could come your way today as we look forward to a happy(ier) New Year!

A Truly Beautiful Winter Day Today!

Today is truly lovely. The weather has warmed up to just below zero and we will be sitting just at or slightly above the freezing mark for the next few days.  The sun has been shining since before lunch time and the wind is a mere breeze.  I am most grateful for this good break before the next weeks of January Cold and Snowfall arrive sometime in the new year.  The encouraging thing to me is that once we reach January 1st, we will only have another approximately 10 weeks of real winter left.  By mid March, although it will still be somewhat chilly and snowy, we will be close enough to spring coming that my hope will be restored that I can manage to continue living here on the prairies.

I had a terrible time sleeping last night, so just for fun I got looking online at rental units back in my old hometown of Calgary.  I got quite a pleasant shock:  in my old and still beloved neighbourhood we could rent a three bedroom, two bathroom condo in a very nice building with very low condo fees for the same price we could rent an apartment or townhouse right here...BUT the Calgary condo's monthly rent include all 3 basic utilities, which rentals here usually do not, plus there is both an underground parking stall and an outdoor stall for a guest, neither of which are guaranteed at most of the comparable units here.  To be quite frank if we were not sitting here for the next year or more awaiting my hip replacement surgeries we would soon be on our way to Calgary to seek a place to live closer to the mountains for my husband and closer to the chinook belt for me!  (and closer to our remaining Alberta friends as well)  That was our winter doldrums  flight of fancy at 4am today, hahaha. Yup, my husband wasn't sleeping well either.  The surgery is definitely being used by God to help us to stay put. hahaha  Fun to day dream though when the dreams of sleep elude us.

My husband preached at church this morning and did a grand job.  He used Mary's Magnificat and her relationship with Elizabeth as he discussed God's use of women to bring about many of his important historical moves.  He tends to come at various Scriptures with a little different twist sometimes so he certainly has the gift of keeping peoples' attention.  hahaha  He is very good at getting people to think about what they have "always" known and see if they can expand their thoughts just a bit.  He is a very popular guest preacher at our church, so I am happy for him.

Tomorrow we will head out for one last shopping trip just for a couple of fresh items for Christmas dinner that are not likely to be sold outs, do some banking and then come home for me to do some house work prior to Christmas guests arriving.  The next day we will begin cooking various items for Christmas dinner that can easily be made a day in advance, so that on Christmas Day we will be able to take some time to visit with our guests instead of being in the kitchen for hours, leaving our guests to fend for themselves.  It is one of the few occasions when a more open concept arrangement would be of benefit as it is the only day of the year we ever prepare this much food all at once. Boxing Day we will flop out for the day and live on leftovers, then the following day some friends are coming over for lunch. We want to prepare something completely NOT Christmas dinner leftover-ish to give them a dietary break from the usual Christmas week meals.  We are looking fowrard to Christmas week this year, much more than in previous years when we were either completely alone, just the two of us, or else invited to join with another family or families for their celebrations where, despite the good intentions of our hosts, we always felt just a bit like we were intruding on their kids and grandkids....not that anyone has ever made a point of making us feel that way, but, well, ya' know........hope YOUR Christmas plans are taking shape for a happy celebration....and if not, well the season will be over in a matter of days and life can go on as usual.  When we have had some yukky Christmases in years past, that is the reminder that keeps me from falling into a deep depression.  This too shall pass...

Seven Pastoral Visits........And A Partridge In A Pear Tree?

 What a crazy, wonderful week.  Since he retired my husband has been asked to do only a handful of pastoral visits compared to how many he did during full time ministry, but this week we had seven of them to field.  It was a lot of fun to spend so many hours spreading encouragement, (hopefully), to so many people and having so many deep and meaningful conversations.  We are both most grateful to discover we haven't completely lost our ability to do pastoral visits. Thank you Lord!!

There was only one downfall for me:  too much caffeine.  I know I can only tolerate coffee about once every four or five months and tea isn't something I have ever liked all that much, but when the people we were visiting had already prepared one or the other or both to extend hospitality and thank us for coming, weeeeeelllll, what'cha gonna do? Right? Since I was so thoughtless yesterday I ended up drinking a huge cup of coffee at one visit and an equally gigantic cup of tea at the next visit.  DUH!!! SO, last night I had the worst GERD attack I have had since being diagnosed a year ago!  My evening was horrendous and I ended up taking a proton pump inhibitor so I would be able to sleep. Yikes, it was a bad attack.  Thankfully I have not had to take a PPI for about two months now, so that is a mercy.  Oh my....what was I thinking yesterday?  Answer: I obviously wasn't thinking at all, not even a wee bit!  Well, I am unlikely to repeat that mistake again....any time soon at least.  

We have been enjoying some warmer temperatures for the past day or two.  So grateful that while the temperatures have been in the low to mid range minus Centigrade degrees, they have not gone above zero, so since we are getting some kind of moisture tomorrow, I dare to hope that it will be snow and not freezing rain....from my mouth to God's ear, right??

Tomorrow is the third Sunday of Advent. It is a short Advent season this year because the Fourth Sunday of Advent is only three days before Christmas.  I LOVE Christmas....at least I love it in the Anglican church, because the season and its seasonally appropriate carols begin then and last for 12 days.  Of course at the evangelical church where we regularly attend only lip service is paid to the way Advent is practised, despite the best and ongoing efforts of the pastor, so our church has been decorated for Christmas for over a week now already and a few Christmas carols have been sung. God bless the pastor because he has managed to inject some true Advent hymns into the mix, more than any other year to date and his sermons have totally promoted the spirit of Advent.  While the decorations are jarring in Advent, there are more Anglicans decamping to this church all the time, so there is bright hope for the future of Advent at our church, teehee, giggle.  Cue old pop music: Sooner or later, Advent's gonna get 'cha, sooner or later, you're all gonna give in......(memba THAT oldie moldie??), haha.

This week I am looking forward to a visit with my walking partner, as well as some serious shopping for Christmas dinner items.  Trying to keep the stress down as much as possible by decorating the tree today instead of waiting until Christmas Eve this year and have a couple of Christmas meal dishes I can make ahead of time.  I am very grateful my husband is retired as Christmas and Easter are absolute nightmares for clergy: all those extra services, extra sermons, extra this and extra that, usually all expected by their congregations, but rarely any extra help to accomplish them!!  I am praying our own minister will get to have the chance to finally take the week between Christmas and New Year off from ministry. That was one huge blessing when my husband was an active Anglican priest, as having that week off and also the week after Easter is mandatory.  Our present minister mentioned the other day that he may be able to do that this year and oh how hard we are praying he will do it!

It is difficult to realize that Christmas Day is only about a week and a half away....wha'?????  Already???? Where has 2024 disappeared to???? 

The Small Joys Of Aging.....

 A friend of mine recently communicated with me about her upset on the state of her "old lady" hair. She is my age and, like most of us hitting "that stage of life" is struggling to accept the changes that naturally occur.  She got me thinking about whether or not there is anything I am actually grateful for in regard to my current age....some little thing even, nothing major, just some teensy weensy joy. I did come up with a few small things that have been happening to me lately that I admit I am kind of enjoying.  Here is my response to her:

My hair has gone limp and impossible to style properly despite an excellent cut. It is partly due to the terrible water here. When I go to Vancouver and NYC I can wash it, blow it dry with no product and it looks fine. However, it is still limp and grey. Coupled with the latest addition of my mom’s Uber facial wrinkles I look like Methuselah!!  Now I have a cane added into the look so….. I kind of enjoy looking so old as no one pays any attention to me in public. Being invisible means I get away with a lot!! I get to be “eccentric “ when it suits my own purposes. I am embracing the aging! haha People call me “dearie” and give me their seats on public transport and let me butt into the front of long lineups, bus drivers tell me to keep my fare and use it to buy myself a cup of coffee; I get extra discounts , “sweetheart”, at retail store sales. What’s not to like, right??  Hahaha…..I will never travel by air again without a cane: preboarding with guaranteed space for my luggage in the overhead bins! Miraculous!!  So, at least until I get my hips replaced, this is my life! God is good.

I managed to encourage myself and gave my friend a good laugh, so I am kind of glad we had our little "discussion" on aging.  haha I just thought of another joy of aging and that is that I can now wear my old Harley Davidson motorcycle jacket (a fantastic pre-snow windbreaker) and lots of people seem to think that I look "soooo cute that she's trying to look so tough". hahaha  I create my own fun a great deal of the time.....

Yesterday was an excellent day. I had my annual appointment with my osteoporosis specialist and he was most encouraging about my bone density situation.  He gave me my prescriptions for my two injections of meds for next year and away I went.  Next year I will see him again on the same date at the same time.  He has moved out of the downtown to a beautiful new clinic building on a major thoroughfare that is very easy for me to drive to. There is plenty of parking on his lot and it is a much safer area to be wandering about than the downtown where he was previously.  One of his kids has joined him in his practice and soon a second child will be completing the same training and also joining the practise.  What a lovely family legacy that will stand our city, as it loses specialist after specialist, in good stead for the future.  

Our Covid boosters went just fine.  We arrived at the pharmacy far too early since my osteo appointment had taken far less time than I scheduled, so we purchased sandwiches at a nearby deli and enjoyed a leisurely lunch.  Even at that we arrived 25 minutes early for the vaccinations, but the pharmacist had just finished filling the morning prescriptions and took us right away. Bonus: time to run a couple of other errands before we came home.  Other than very sore arms today, we are not suffering any sort of reaction to the shots. Yay!  I did learn something from the pharmacist that I hadn't known before: to fully relax my arm and make the injection sting less I need to hang it straight down, limply, from my shoulder rather than bend it at the elbow.  I was amazed to discover this simple posture resulted in almost no sensation at all of the meds being injected.  Good to know for future injections of all kinds.

Today will be our first freezing rain and proper snowfall apparently.  I am so disappointed that we will, after all, have a freezing rain to start the winter.  Although some warmer temps are forecast for during the daytime hours over the next few days that may melt everything off the streets again, I was really hoping we could avoid the freezing rain altogether this year. Yes, yes, I know there was little hope of my dream being realized, but I am allowed to hope and cope with the disappointment I set myself up for.  At least we are not living in south eastern AB and southwestern SK. They are forecast to receive between 15 and 25cm of snow with stormy winds that will reduce the visibility for travelling and make any kind of travel extremely unsafe.  How grateful I am that we are not out on the roads today, that the autumn weather held for Cee's funeral on the weekend and that our groceries will be sufficient for a week or two.  

My husband walked to the postbox this morning to mail an important letter since the rain had not yet arrived and thus far Canada Post has not posted noticed of a date for their impending annual pre-Christmas Rush strike.  They could issue it as soon as this coming Sunday, so wanted to get anything needing to be sent via Snail Mail out by today. 

So, here I sit waiting for the rain to start falling. Should be any minute now...or later....or not at all (best case scenario, teehee).  I am neither showered nor dressed yet this morning but I don't care.  If I want to sit here and perform my annual First Freezing Rain Of The Winter Pout, I just darned well will. teehee  Actually, I have to be completely honest and admit that I am still filled with gratitude that our autumn has extended into the first week of November.  How can I not be happy and joyful about that, right?  Of course right!!

We Survived Another “Shake The Lake” Weekend!!

Another Shake The Lake weekend has come and gone and we survived it well this year.  The annual outdoor rock concert extravaganza that occurs mere blocks from our place is sometimes hard to tolerate if the winds are blowing the sound our way. Friday we were “treated” from about 3:30pm until 10:30pm to thumping bass guitar and drums. No problem. There were only occasional bursts of sound so loud that our ears felt assaulted. Yesterday there were long windless periods where we heard nothing at all, or at least very little. The air was so still when we went to bed last night that I have no idea what time the music stopped. This has been the easiest to bear Shake The Lake weekend in the past 10 summers!!

Now we just have to survive the annual Queen City Marathon in early September. Our route to church goes right through the middle of the runners’ route so finding a driving route around it is sometimes impossible and I am unable to walk all the way to church despite being able to manoeuvre around the runners along what has been my regular route. Maybe we will attend The Church of Zoom that weekend!! If the route changes the planners implemented last year are still in place we won’t have to make quite so circuitous a route in the car. I think the REAL reason I detest the annual marathon, even though it is a marvellous athletic event for the runners and long distance walkers in our fair city, is that it signals the end of the summer season and I know the days of sunshine, warmth and dry ground are coming to an end. So thankful we have a trip planned this autumn to give us new, happy memories to talk about when winter hits. Yay!!

It rained again overnight and cooled the air nicely. Although I was semi-conscious a couple of times due to booming thunder, I knew I remembered to put towels along the open upstairs window ledges to soak up any rain that might blow in, so I rolled over, pulled the duvet over my head to block the noise and continued to sleep well. Double yay!!

This morning at church marks the final Sunday that we will have the organ system at our church for at least a year. The poor old thing has many worn out stops and pipes and has been the bane of both our organists’ musical lives for the past more than a year as it has wheezed and whistled at inappropriate times, sometimes leaving the organists with the disappearance of several key notes as they are playing hymns and postludes. This coming week the console is being dismantled, the decorative pipes removed and all operating parts are heading to a master organ repair in Calgary. An organ from a recently deconsecrated Anglican Church that is the same make as ours has already been dismantled and sent west. All the parts from both organs will be cleaned, assessed and then rebuilt together to create a repaired, functional organ for our church. I don’t mind at all that we will be using the piano instead every Sunday for a year or more, but I know there are some senior congregation members who are very upset to lose that organ for so long. Many of them have been listening to it for four or five decades and hearing it reminds them of our church’s former musical Glory Days when there were dozens of people in the professional sounding choir and much more classical music than we use now. I confess that guitars and today’s choruses don’t excite me that much either, but our minister and choir director are quite good at picking modern songs that have good theology and mostly aren’t too monotonous for congregational singing, so that is a blessing. The times they are a-changing and we need to keep up. 

I am feeling badly  for our next door neighbour.  A three quarter ton truck slammed into her vehicle the other day and destroyed the passenger side of her recently paid off car. She arrived at our back door afterward, shaking and needing help pulling herself together so she could phone the insurance company and report it. Having had my own less serious fender bender a few months ago I was able to help her explain the circumstances to the insurance assessor. My neighbour had the wherewithal at the time of the accident to go into the store nearby to see if its security camera happened to have the incident on tape and thankfully the footage was there. The store manager willingly sent the recording to her phone and that recording should prove that the accident was not her fault. Despite her loss of composure by the time she arrived at my place, she’d had the clear headed thought to ask the store about a possible recording. I would never have had the presence of mind to think of such a thing. Her quick thinking is a lesson to me should I have another accident. 

Our complex will be without power for eight hours this coming Wednesday and Thursday while necessary upgrades and repairs will be undertaken by city electricians. No power from 8am to 4pm…..two days in a row. I asked my husband if perhaps we could go out of town for a couple of days, but he was less than enthused. I think I will be able to get him excited to go out for a main meal at noon both days and we should be able to cook dinner once the power comes back on for the evening, but two days with no computers, no tv, no phones and no fans to cool things off….I am kind of dreading it! Fortunately our current weather forecast is for a chillier, possibly rainier weather system to blow in for that two days, but I don’t know how I will fill the electricity free hours!! I won’t even be able to vacuum or do laundry. Ugh!! Guess we’ll see how it goes. We so appreciate receiving notice of the event so far on advance so plans of some kind can be made. Maybe I can still convince my husband to go on a couple of day trips out of town instead of sitting around here bored and miserable two days on a row.

Pleased By The Parade Route Today!

Today is Regina’s annual Pride Parade. For the past two years I have had to be driving through the general downtown area for appointments and ended up trapped going in circles, along with many other angry drivers, all of us hemmed in by parade road closures, as well as regularly scheduled downtown summer road construction. It was possible earlier in the morning to access the downtown, but by the time we were ready to leave, our escape routes had been cut off. Last year I had so much trouble getting home from an appointment that I was in tears as I sought a way out of the downtown core. 

This year the parade organizers and the city appear to have come up with a much more reasonable route. It has been published in advance so that people can plan ahead. It has reduced the amount of transition and downtown areas affected by closures, and on the three main routes there will be lanes remaining open for traffic. Yes, that will mean delays, but no one will be trapped completely, totally unable to access and return from necessary appointments.

Way to go Regina and Pride Parade organizers. The city residents spoke and were listened to on this issue. My most sincere thanks.

I WON Something!!!!

At least I have if I answered the skill testing question correctly on the release form my husband is currently scanning to send back to Loblaw Company to receive my one thousand dollar gift card for answering a customer satisfaction survey after a recent shopping experience at one of their stores.  

We checked everything out before printing off the forms to fill out and scan, I talked for a long time with the Loblaw employee who called me to let me know; neither she nor the forms she emailed to me at the addie I had registered with Loblaws previously are asking for any personal info other than my mailing address as she already had my email and both phone numbers.  Looks legit, so I will return the forms via email in a few minutes and wait for my card to arrive in the mail soon.   I could have just been given the same value on my PC point system, but I love gift cards and will enjoy using it....wow....3 months of free groceries!

Thank you Loblaws and PC Points!  Thank you God for this unexpected gift. I am so excited!!

Well....If That Don't Beat Awwwwwl!

Today I found a notice from our property management company in our mailbox.  It contained a terse notice that "proper" blinds and/or drapes must be hung on our windows.  The only thing approaching a definition of "proper" is that if there are any flags, sheets, blankets or posters they must be taken down and replaced with the so called "proper" window coverings because: we want to keep our community looking good."

HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA! 

I have news for our property management company: in order to KEEP a community looking good it first has to GET looking good! First you GET, THEN you KEEP!

As I look around the exterior areas of our buildings I see chronically peeling paint on the deck railings and around the doors, great holes in some of the parking lots, siding with cuts and small holes and rusty spots and remants of elderly spiderwebs, disgustingly filthy windows and cracked, broken cement sidwalks.  However, apparently this "community" will not look good if every tenant doesn't have "proper" window dressings.  This notice is one of the most ludicrous pieces of communication I have ever read. 

I look at the number of foreign students and immigrants from many different nations who live in our complex and wonder how many of them who have NO window coverings whatsoever have open sightings into their suites because they simply haven't a penny left in their budgets to purchase any.  I look at the thick cotton blanket my husband has on the bedroom window, peeping out from behind the "proper" blind that has been there since the days, (up until about 6 years ago), that the management company itself provided "proper" blinds for every tenant's suite.  That blanket is up on the window because it is a single pane of glass and without the blanket the bedroom is too freezing cold to sleep in during the winter and too boiling hot in the summer as the early morning sun heats up the room even with that blind down in place.  

I am going to check the Landlord Tenant Act for this province, just out of curiosity, to see if the management company has the legal right to enforce this demand for tenants who have no mention of window coverings in their existing leases.  It makes little difference to me as we are moving in less than 5 months now, but I am really wondering about this issue.  

 If our property management company is so convinced that having "proper" drapes and or blinds is so necessary that they have to send out strongly worded letters about it to their tenants, then they had better be prepared to go back to providing those window treatments themselves to ensure uniformity. If not, then they had better write that requirement into the new leases coming up.  They could also replace the single pane windows in the bedrooms with double paned windows that don't require extra coverings for year round temperature control.  

There are any number of steps they as property managers could be doing if all of a sudden having a nice looking community is such a high priority.  However, since these things would cost them money, of course they are going to try to download the responsiblity for outward appearances onto the tenants.  

Thank you Lord that we are (hopefully) getting out of here as the attitude of this company began changing a couple of years ago and we don't want to be stuck with this kind of silliness.

I have been rejoicing that the weather has remained so warm and wonderful, as I have two weeks of medical appointments and tests starting next week. So...the long term forcast starting toward the middle of next week is for day time highs of -24C and that is to last for some time. hahahahaha  Does that figure or what?  hahaha 'Twas ever thus, right? hahaha 

Happily my walking partner is coming over tomorrow for a visit.  It will be too chilly to walk, but it will be a treat just to get together and chatter for awhile.  

For those of you asking, there hasn't been another update on Cee yet, so I assume things have been going more or less as planned..hopefully....continued thanks for continued prayer! 

Avoiding the Crowds Of Last Minute Holiday Shoppers?

We woke up in time this morning to get going fairly quickly on our errand run, hoping we were early enough to avoid the throngs of last minute holiday shoppers! I don't remember the last time my husband rose so early and was so eager to go on errands immediately after a quick breakfast.  I could hardly keep up with him so he was waiting a few extra minutes for me to find my coat and boots.  Off we tore!

We completed our errands rather rapidly!  The "crowds" at the various stores we went to were actually non-existent!  It was like shopping on a typical Monday morning....where the heck were all the people we were expecting to see?  Have they emerged later in the day and we lucked out by being so much earlier in getting ourselves out there?  Quite a surprise!  Hopefully, for the sake of the retail stores we were in, their business picked up as the day progressed.  Mind, you we were home by 10:15am, so the time of day may have given us a false sense of how many or how few shoppers were wending their way storeward.  I wish all the shoppers well.

I am sitting here writing this post with a musical Christmas card beside me.  We received it a few years ago from friends in Tokyo.  It has snippets of 16 songs and carols, from Ave Maria to Santa Clause Is Coming To Town, to Silver Bells to Amazing Grace!  As each one ends I press the button for the next little ditty. It is quite relaxing.  The pop up houses on the front of the card light up with each note played and the window on the front of each little cardboard house shows a Christmas scene: Santa coming down the chimney, families enjoying a Christmas meal together, wrappers of presents, children tucked up snugly in their beds, fireplaces decorated by hanging stockings...very cute and fun to see and listen to from year to year.

While no snow is forecast, the sky this afternoon is becoming increasingly cloudy, but those clouds do not appear to be holding any snow flakes.  We shall see how Christmas presents itself over the next couple of days.

I am REALLY enjoying having a few days off from dealing with the realtor and the frantic rushing about to view houses and condos that thus far have ended up NOT being "the one" for us. Thank you Lord for the Christmas Break!

And Again......Ha Ha Ha....'Twas Ever Thus, Right?

 I was excited to have the platform for my new mattress to be delivered to the door right on time yesterday morning.  One little problem: the salesman at the store arranged for delivery of the wrong size of platform. Sigh....so, I signed some forms and the delivery men returned it to the truck, sighing mightily because "that salesman did it to us AGAIN!"  hahaha  HOPEFULLY I will get a call tomorrow morning that they are delivering the correctly sized platform to me tomorrow. All I can think of is, "Please God, let the delivery NOT be Sunday morning this time, like it was when my mattress arrived!"  I don't want to miss going to church because I am waiting for furniture delivery a second time in less than a month. hahaha

Also yesterday....we received a letter from the head office of our property management company asking for a THIRD time since February for a copy of our tenant insurance package and proof that we do indeed have this required policy.  Apparently the management is preparing a new tracking system to keep better track for themselves of when tenant insurance needs to be renewed for each of their suites.  Unbelievable that they are not just looking at the currently existng records.  This year I have already taken over a paper copy of these documents, and several months later emailed another copy to the leasing office as requested. Here we go again.  The letter I received seemed to imply that the management thinks our tenant insurance has expired and so they are not angry, but they do need us to renew immediately. Sigh....living here is becoming more annoying in many new ways and that is prompting me to be more excited about our upcoming search for a new residence for next spring. 

My Li'l Buddy

 My buddy Milo looking pensive: 

How cute is this buddy, right? I am enjoying other peoples' pets these days!

 

Well, the verdict seems to be in on our mattresses:  YES!  POSITIVE!  Great sleep!!  We will test them out for a few more days to be certain, but if last night's good sleep is any indication, all will be well with those mattresses for some time to come!  YAY!

Luxury!

 Fortunately I woke up at 8am today because the phone rang at 8:11am.  It was the Sleep Country delivery driver to let me know my new mattress would be delivered in about 45 minutes time.  YAY!!!!!  Sure enough, 45 minutes later the truck pulled up in the parking lot and the mattress was delivered to our door.  Wow, I am so excited!!  It is so nice....a proper box spring with a nice quilted top but NO two inch pillow top stuffed with memory foam.  Just sitting on it feels wonderful and it will give my back and my leg hardware some support.  With another mattress for my hardware to adjust to, I am fairly certain I will not sleep well for the next two or three nights because my muscles in that leg do not adapt well to any sort of change in posture, weight, footwear....at least I know that is a good possibility so it won't  throw me for a loop if it happens.  After spending the last year feeling like I was sinking into a pit on the memory foam in my now former mattress, the support is going to be so wonderful. The clerk at Sleep Country (the last woman employed in the local franchises, FYI) really took me through my paces while choosing this mattress.  I tried four different types with different levels of softness and support and she knew just what questions to ask to get me thinking about how each mattress might feel longer term.  She is very good at her job, efficient and friendly, a bit of a character actually, hahaha.  I do have 100 days in which to return it if I have not chosen wisely, so that is a bonus. All I have to do is hang onto the sales receipt and the plastic wrapping the mattress arrived in.  

Well, it is time to set up my Zoom to watch the church service.  We have so many friends with COVID among the congregation that even though the mattress has already arrived, we decided to avoid the in person services for today.  

The weather is quite beautiful today. By mid afteroon the temperature is suppoed to be up to +6C, so perhaps a little walk around the block would be in order for my husband and I.  Enough snow and ice has melted off the sidewalk of our complex for that to be a safe route for us both.

One Advantage To Living In A Higher Crime Neighbourhood, I Suppose....

I am pleased to discover there is one huge bonus to living in this kind of scuzzy area of our fair city: hardly any trick or treaters on Halloween! I say this not because I dislike children, because I love children, but because of the money it is saving me compared to some aquaintances living in a very popular, up and coming, high density area of our city that is just close enough to the highway to attract many of the out of town families who want to bring their kids into the city, but not too far into the city, for Hallween candy collection.  This newer subdivision has not only a plethora of large family homes, but also of townhouses and condominiums that cater to families rather than to singles and seniors.  Our aquaintances had, and I kid you not, over 800 trick or treaters on October 31st.  EIGHT HUNDRED!!!!!!  I didn't have the courage to ask them how much they spent on candy and other treats for that many wee ones.....oh my goodness.  I remember years ago several new subdivisions in Calgary when I last lived there getting that many Hallweeners and more, but hadn't heard of anything like that here in our tiny town of a city.  YIKES!!!!!  Well, when we move next spring I know where I DON'T want to move......hahahahahahaha....( just kidding, I wish I could as it is a lovely area)

Halloween Date Night! I Can See!! I Can See!!!

My husband and I had a wonderful date night tonight!  We escaped from our place just as the littlest trick 'r' treaters were beginning to make their rounds...very few in our complex, but we could see them staggering about on short, unsteady, spindly legs across the street, hanging onto mom or dad with one hand and a plastic pumpkin candy collector in the other.  Oh my...some of them are so small it seems impossible that they should be able to walk yet. hahaha Princesses, monsters, gladiators, ghosts and hobgoblins....such precious little folk.

We went all out tonight at the restaurant, partly to just have a riotous feast and also partly to keep us away from home until after the older trick 'r' treaters were done their rounds.  We noshed on Irish nachos (huge skinny hot potato chips slathered in melted cheese, jalapeno peppers, red onions and yellow peppers) for appetizer.  Then we ordered a pizza with corned beef, onions and Bell peppers. For dessert we had sticky toffee pudding.  Of course half of the appetizer and main course, plus all of the desserts came home with us in takeout boxes for tomorrow, but we ate and drank our fill and thoroughly enjoyed ourselves. The strangers sitting in the booth beside us were friendly, they too were hanging out for the evening to avoid having to be blackmailed into purchasing expensive junk to pawn off on kids, and we experienced the true pub atmostphere.  It was a lot of fun! Happy Halloween!

My husband got up early this morning so he was able to accompany me to several grocery stores for a major load of groceries.  It was so much fun and so much easier having him there to seek out some of the items and do the packing up and loading of the heavy bags into and out of the car.  YAY!  Thanks my dear for your assistance.  We will have to do that again next time we need this many items all at once.

I received a phone call from the eye clinic just before lunch today. My new glasses had already arrived, so off I went to pick them up.  I love, love, love them!  The frames are barely noticeably different from the last ones, so that is nice...no big shock when I look in the mirror.  It is marvellous to no longer be looking through all the scratches and peeling coating that were a result of my tumble onto a cement sidewalk a few months ago.  I also paid a considerable amount extra for the kind of progressive lens grinding that gives me a nearly 20% expansion of my side to side range of vision. Worth every penny!!  This is the clearest my vision has been, particularly my more peripheral vision, with any set of lenses since I began wearing progressives nearly twenty years ago.  Incredible.  

It has been a good day and now I pray for a good sleep tonight!!!

My L'il Buddy!

Friends of ours have an adorable Shih Tzu puppy.  His name is Milo and he is everyone's friend.  I take an antihistamine every time I get the chance to visit him so that I can pick him up for the cuddles he loves and not have me end up with a rashy skinned, sneezing fit.  Milo and I had a chance to have a visit the other day.  I loved every second of it.  Fer shur if I wasn't such an allergic mess I would have a dog or a cat!

Milo is a good listener!

Awaiting permission.....

.....to cuddle up!

Have had some fun grocery shopping over the past couple of mornings.  Good grief though, the prices continue to rise and it seems I am bringing home fewer items for the size of the bill every time I shop.  Sigh....it is getting really crazy just trying to get staples for some kind of semi-reasonable price!  Yikes!!  Scary times.

This is a nice week for me. My husband is deeply involved in completing his seminar presentation for this weekend, so I am free to bop about on my own.  Today I am taking it easy since I was up at 6:45am to go grocery shopping and unusually, I was NOT awake when the alarm rang.  I will, I WILL do something useful and active for the rest of the day.  I WILL, I WILL!!!  (I think.)

Tomorrow the fun begins again: my weekly coffee "date", ladies' prayer meeting, walking with my walking partner on the weekend, etc. etc. etc.  I LOVE keeping up with my buddies. It is health and life for me.  

The weather is certainly cooperating for me to have good times, walking here and there, driving across the city for errands.  Apparently we will be snow free for awhile yet, and may that turn out to actually be true!  The earliest appointment we can get for putting the snow tires on our vehicle is over two weeks away!! 

I am also excited to have my annual eye examination in a couple of weeks' time.  New lenses to replace these poor old things that got scratched badly a few months ago after a trip and fall landed them on a cement sidewalk.  The one lens is particularly bad and I know it is starting to interfere with the comfort of my eye.  I may get new frames as well and then have prescription sunglasses made from my present ones.  I have never done that before but have always wanted to be able to do it. The time has come.....

Apart from being overweight and struggling to lose a few more pounds...okay, quite a few more pounds....I am pretty happy these days.  Stresses of long standing have been lifting one by one, God has reminded me again that he is bigger than any OCD issues I have dealt with in recent months so I am doing much better again. Hallelujah!  Thanks prayer warriors, you are helping me a lot.

So.....time to go and do some work around this suite!!