....I am heading off to bed after a very good day indeed!
The grounds crew here left work at 5pm with all the sprinklers in front of our building still running. Water is pooling in the grass now that the hoses have been spewing it everywhere for the past 14 straight hours. There is water flowing down the street in both directions, so every passing car is getting a drenching. Hopefully as it pools it will NOT pool directly in front of some of the main cracks in our basement!
The odor of the forest fire smoke dissipated about mid morning, returned briefly just after dinner and is now not the least bit noticeable. So, my asthma settled down quickly after that first exposure when I woke up this morning. I was able to cruise around the city running errands and posting parcels before lunch with nary a gasp nor croak. What a huge blessing.
My husband accomplished a lot with his job today and in between those tasks took part of his day off to relax and watch boxing with me. We went out for a most delicious dinner with some friends over at Wild Sage. My 6oz. steak was perfectly medium rare and there wasn't any tough gristle anywhere on it. O my, I wish I could cook a steak that well. Our friends are a lot of fun to visit with and we spent a lot of time amusing each other with tales of crazy things our sons have done in their lives. haha
Since I had some dessert tonight, we decided to walk home from the restaurant. With the temperature and wind conditions being perfect for me to go walking, we were home in less than half an hour. I was able to pick up the pace this evening without worrying about heat exhaustion. It was good for both of us. My husband is supposed to be training for his canoe trip later in August but has been so involved with work he is far behind on the process.
Yup, it has been a good day. The office work my husband has done on both his days off this week are translating into another day off owed to him to add into the days he has all ready accumulated. O how I am looking forward to those consecutive days....now, if he can just be careful to remember when those days are going to be and get them marked on his calendar before that time gets filled up with work committments, we will both be very happy!
My husband is schedule to do a baptism in one of our former parishes in mid-August. That is going to be a LOT of fun! I am looking forward to seeing those folk again and the little gal being baptized is such a sweetie. She has been born into one wonderful family, that is for sure. This is the kind of good news I love getting from church.
Monday, July 17, 2017
The Start of a New Day
This morning I woke up to much cooler temperatures, gasping for breath because the smoke from the BC forest fires blew into our city overnight, BUT I also woke up to this lovely prayer my friend sent to me. I felt good after reading it, then praying it. Hope you enjoy it as well:
Morning Blessing: May God Himself overwhelm you with His goodness
and His grace. May He open doors NO man can close! May your steps be so
ordered by the Lord that you’re always in the right place at the right
time. May the power of the Holy Spirit compel you to live by faith, to
take great risks, and to believe for GREAT things. May that same Holy
Spirit constrain you to trust God’s timing, to obey Him when it doesn’t
suit you, and to refuse to take matters into your own hands. He's a
wonderful Father and you can trust Him. Shared from Susie Larson.
Sunday, July 16, 2017
'Bye 'Bye Horsies!
So tonight marked the end of the Calgary Rangeland Derby for another year. As usual the Dash For Cash final heat was plagued by penalties and judging controversies, but it was still a fine race to watch. I thoroughly enjoyed watching it on television, but every year I remember the "good old days" of knowing some of the cowboys through old family connections and being able to watch the races live from the infield instead of from the crowded public bleachers....good times, good memories......... My husband and I found it interesting that as we sat and looked at the night sky over Calgary we both felt like we were looking at "home", as if we had never left there all those years ago.
And now I eagerly await some cooler temperatures to arrive for the night. Hopefully the forecast for +12C will hold true, but it is taking its sweet time coming down that direction! It is nearly 10:30pm and we are still over +20C. There is no way I will be falling asleep any time soon. I have all the upstairs windows open wide and have taped the pulls for the blinds to the walls so they don't slap against the window frame during the night and wake me up. Once I actually fall asleep I intend to remain in that state until the alarm wakes me up at 7:30am.
Today was a lot of fun. We were greeters at the door this morning at church, along with some others from the other congregations that enjoyed our blended service. It is always interesting to hear the differences in belief between the three groups as to who God and Christ and the Church really are. As Anglicans, my husband and I are not really supposed to receive the elements of the Eucharist the way they were presented today, but our Bishop had a great idea: go ahead and receive it based on what it means to the presiding leadership, not based on what our own denomination believes it to represent. That freed me up to take it with minimal spiritual reservations. My husband was so appalled at some of the things that were said in the service today that, although he went forward, instead of actually taking and consuming the elements, he simply made the sign of the cross and returned to his seat. To each according to his or her own conscience. I had great peace about returning to my church family and received a warm welcome. Whatever is going on there I sense that God is definitely working on something that I get to be a part of. Time will tell and in the meantime I am just going to get out of my own analytical head and enjoy the ride.
After church we joined a few members of the United Church congregation and their minister for lunch out at a nice restaurant. It was a lot of fun getting to know some of them better. Since their minister is my husband's cousin and we have all been too busy to get together socially of late, it was fun to get caught up on personal and family news. We dawdled over our meal, chatting and laughing, thoroughly enjoying ourselves. It was an unexpected outing and that made it all the more fun. I will definitely eat another garden side salad with an added chicken breast at Cravings Restaurant. It is a pretty run of the mill sort of place, but the salad was fresh and clean and crisp. The chicken breast was huge and served on a separate plate which made it easier than trying to get it organized in the small salad bowl. Although it was water chilled chicken, the chef knew how to prepare it properly so it actually retained the basic texture of chicken meat and didn't look, act or taste like pencil top erasers! YAY!
We enjoyed a quiet afternoon at home doing home chores, watching the Calgary Stampede final rodeo action and getting some emails written. I played a video game for a little while. Supper was a light meal of a few leftovers. It was too hot to even consider cooking anything, even on the stove top. One good thing about the heatwave is that our appetites are generally down. The toaster oven and microwave have been getting a tremendous amount of use over the past couple of overly warm weeks.
I was hoping for an email tonight from a friend in BC who was to become a grandmother today....hopefully there won't be too much longer to wait and all will go well for mamma and baby...and anxious grandma and grandpa! Such an exciting time for them all!
We spoke to our son on the phone again today. It gives us such joy to hear the lilt in his voice as he describes his adventures in New York with such joy. Some of the issues of settling into a new country could be much more upsetting to him than they are. It seems he is finally turning a corner in getting past some of the horrible things that have happened to him in the past 4 or 5 years. He has so many friends where he is now, almost as many as he has in Vancouver, and it seems those friends are knocking themselves out helping him look for permanent work for September, keeping their eyes peeled for an even better place to live, helping him get the subway system figured out even better than he had in previous visits. He has a great relationship with the local Hasidic butcher and is getting great deals on meat and now he has located a Chinese owned pet shop that has gotten him all kind of new plants for the aquarium plus some ideas of how to better assist 1-2-3 adjust to the afternoon heat that raises the temperature of his water a bit too high these days. The pet shop owners also own a tea shop a couple of doors away from the pet shop, so now he has a good source and selection of imported Asian teas to choose from.
We have to set the alarm for my husband's day off tomorrow, since he has to work part of the morning and I am guessing it will translate into all of the morning. He has to be in line at Service Canada when they open at 8:30am to get some information that is needed immediately regarding a sick leave/EI conflict for an employee. He spent part of this afternoon with the Chancellor dealing with some legal issues and part of this evening helping the CFO with some problems. It is all okay because this extra work time of late is translating into him penciling another 4 days off in a row very soon. He is away an awful lot over the next 6 weeks so I am kind of at loose ends as making plans for myself has proven to be more difficult than anticipated. O well.....
Well, I guess I will sit on top of my bed and read until the air temperature cools sufficiently for me to fall asleep. Today made up for yesterday's confusion about what to do all day. I DID get every last itsy bitsy piece of dried fruit out of the granola mixture...it took me TWO HOURS! There was a lot of fruit and much of it was cut into extremely tiny pieces. Glad to have a task on a day that was too hot for going out anywhere meaningful. Tomorrow evening is dinner out with friends at Wild Sage. Really looking forward to our time together.
Aaaahhhh, here comes the cooling evening wind! It is flapping the blinds and drapes and blowing wonderful chilly air on me! Maybe I will get some sleep soon after all! YAY!!
And now I eagerly await some cooler temperatures to arrive for the night. Hopefully the forecast for +12C will hold true, but it is taking its sweet time coming down that direction! It is nearly 10:30pm and we are still over +20C. There is no way I will be falling asleep any time soon. I have all the upstairs windows open wide and have taped the pulls for the blinds to the walls so they don't slap against the window frame during the night and wake me up. Once I actually fall asleep I intend to remain in that state until the alarm wakes me up at 7:30am.
Today was a lot of fun. We were greeters at the door this morning at church, along with some others from the other congregations that enjoyed our blended service. It is always interesting to hear the differences in belief between the three groups as to who God and Christ and the Church really are. As Anglicans, my husband and I are not really supposed to receive the elements of the Eucharist the way they were presented today, but our Bishop had a great idea: go ahead and receive it based on what it means to the presiding leadership, not based on what our own denomination believes it to represent. That freed me up to take it with minimal spiritual reservations. My husband was so appalled at some of the things that were said in the service today that, although he went forward, instead of actually taking and consuming the elements, he simply made the sign of the cross and returned to his seat. To each according to his or her own conscience. I had great peace about returning to my church family and received a warm welcome. Whatever is going on there I sense that God is definitely working on something that I get to be a part of. Time will tell and in the meantime I am just going to get out of my own analytical head and enjoy the ride.
After church we joined a few members of the United Church congregation and their minister for lunch out at a nice restaurant. It was a lot of fun getting to know some of them better. Since their minister is my husband's cousin and we have all been too busy to get together socially of late, it was fun to get caught up on personal and family news. We dawdled over our meal, chatting and laughing, thoroughly enjoying ourselves. It was an unexpected outing and that made it all the more fun. I will definitely eat another garden side salad with an added chicken breast at Cravings Restaurant. It is a pretty run of the mill sort of place, but the salad was fresh and clean and crisp. The chicken breast was huge and served on a separate plate which made it easier than trying to get it organized in the small salad bowl. Although it was water chilled chicken, the chef knew how to prepare it properly so it actually retained the basic texture of chicken meat and didn't look, act or taste like pencil top erasers! YAY!
We enjoyed a quiet afternoon at home doing home chores, watching the Calgary Stampede final rodeo action and getting some emails written. I played a video game for a little while. Supper was a light meal of a few leftovers. It was too hot to even consider cooking anything, even on the stove top. One good thing about the heatwave is that our appetites are generally down. The toaster oven and microwave have been getting a tremendous amount of use over the past couple of overly warm weeks.
I was hoping for an email tonight from a friend in BC who was to become a grandmother today....hopefully there won't be too much longer to wait and all will go well for mamma and baby...and anxious grandma and grandpa! Such an exciting time for them all!
We spoke to our son on the phone again today. It gives us such joy to hear the lilt in his voice as he describes his adventures in New York with such joy. Some of the issues of settling into a new country could be much more upsetting to him than they are. It seems he is finally turning a corner in getting past some of the horrible things that have happened to him in the past 4 or 5 years. He has so many friends where he is now, almost as many as he has in Vancouver, and it seems those friends are knocking themselves out helping him look for permanent work for September, keeping their eyes peeled for an even better place to live, helping him get the subway system figured out even better than he had in previous visits. He has a great relationship with the local Hasidic butcher and is getting great deals on meat and now he has located a Chinese owned pet shop that has gotten him all kind of new plants for the aquarium plus some ideas of how to better assist 1-2-3 adjust to the afternoon heat that raises the temperature of his water a bit too high these days. The pet shop owners also own a tea shop a couple of doors away from the pet shop, so now he has a good source and selection of imported Asian teas to choose from.
We have to set the alarm for my husband's day off tomorrow, since he has to work part of the morning and I am guessing it will translate into all of the morning. He has to be in line at Service Canada when they open at 8:30am to get some information that is needed immediately regarding a sick leave/EI conflict for an employee. He spent part of this afternoon with the Chancellor dealing with some legal issues and part of this evening helping the CFO with some problems. It is all okay because this extra work time of late is translating into him penciling another 4 days off in a row very soon. He is away an awful lot over the next 6 weeks so I am kind of at loose ends as making plans for myself has proven to be more difficult than anticipated. O well.....
Well, I guess I will sit on top of my bed and read until the air temperature cools sufficiently for me to fall asleep. Today made up for yesterday's confusion about what to do all day. I DID get every last itsy bitsy piece of dried fruit out of the granola mixture...it took me TWO HOURS! There was a lot of fruit and much of it was cut into extremely tiny pieces. Glad to have a task on a day that was too hot for going out anywhere meaningful. Tomorrow evening is dinner out with friends at Wild Sage. Really looking forward to our time together.
Aaaahhhh, here comes the cooling evening wind! It is flapping the blinds and drapes and blowing wonderful chilly air on me! Maybe I will get some sleep soon after all! YAY!!
Saturday, July 15, 2017
Betwixt 'n' Between...Ugh!
I am having one of those very rare days when I am not sure what to do with myself, how to spend the next 12 hours of awake time. It is a rare and most unwelcome occurrence!
It is 11:15am, another hour and 45 minutes until I can eat lunch. I have all ready had my morning walk to the grocery for a new phone card and some cereal, as well as to the post office to mail my parents an anniversary card. I have driven up to the new Public Market in the former Sears Outlet space and found it a rather disappointing display of mostly jewellery, home knit dish cloths and towels, hair care products and cleaning solutions, with a side of local spice mixes and baking thrown in. Nothing there to interest me. One section specialized in antiques, but there wasn't anything there I need and I certainly do not need any of the old Playboy Magazines and related photos and drawings, some of which were beyond foul...blecch! I purchased a couple of tattered and very overpriced used books from the most crowded and filthy second hand book store you can ever imagine, but since it is one of only 2 used book venues in the city, well......
Now I am out of reasonable options. The housework and laundry are all caught up to date. It is too hot outside to cook much of anything in the oven, plus I have lots of leftovers for lunch and dinner today.
My husband suggested I spend some time just sitting still and reading a book, but I can't face that option. Reading is what I do at bedtime when all other options for activity are pretty much exhausted for the day. I detest sitting around all day when I have energy and feel so well.
There is certainly nothing on tv worth watching, although I did record a movie last week that I could watch while lifting a few weights after lunch. Yes....I will do that. AND....I just thought of something else....my husband started making a big batch of granola the other day and after he was finished putting the mix together he realized he had unthinkingly put in the bits of fruit all ready, prior to cooking it in the oven. It has been far too hot to be cooking batches of granola this past week, so it is all still sitting in its huge covered bowl. I know what I will go and do right now: start separating the granola grains from the fruit bits. My husband will be delighted. It is just the tedious sort of task that matches up well with a hot, muggy day that precludes any more strenuous activities! PERFECT!
There...a plan for the next few hours of the day. YES!! I can stand up to sort granola instead of sitting down, I can lift weights while watching the movie. That should take me happily and easily up until mid afternoon. YES!! Thank you blog for being available for me to sort out my thoughts and get ready for action! Physical activity of any kind is what keeps my blood sugar in line and makes me feel motivated and happy.
It is 11:15am, another hour and 45 minutes until I can eat lunch. I have all ready had my morning walk to the grocery for a new phone card and some cereal, as well as to the post office to mail my parents an anniversary card. I have driven up to the new Public Market in the former Sears Outlet space and found it a rather disappointing display of mostly jewellery, home knit dish cloths and towels, hair care products and cleaning solutions, with a side of local spice mixes and baking thrown in. Nothing there to interest me. One section specialized in antiques, but there wasn't anything there I need and I certainly do not need any of the old Playboy Magazines and related photos and drawings, some of which were beyond foul...blecch! I purchased a couple of tattered and very overpriced used books from the most crowded and filthy second hand book store you can ever imagine, but since it is one of only 2 used book venues in the city, well......
Now I am out of reasonable options. The housework and laundry are all caught up to date. It is too hot outside to cook much of anything in the oven, plus I have lots of leftovers for lunch and dinner today.
My husband suggested I spend some time just sitting still and reading a book, but I can't face that option. Reading is what I do at bedtime when all other options for activity are pretty much exhausted for the day. I detest sitting around all day when I have energy and feel so well.
There is certainly nothing on tv worth watching, although I did record a movie last week that I could watch while lifting a few weights after lunch. Yes....I will do that. AND....I just thought of something else....my husband started making a big batch of granola the other day and after he was finished putting the mix together he realized he had unthinkingly put in the bits of fruit all ready, prior to cooking it in the oven. It has been far too hot to be cooking batches of granola this past week, so it is all still sitting in its huge covered bowl. I know what I will go and do right now: start separating the granola grains from the fruit bits. My husband will be delighted. It is just the tedious sort of task that matches up well with a hot, muggy day that precludes any more strenuous activities! PERFECT!
There...a plan for the next few hours of the day. YES!! I can stand up to sort granola instead of sitting down, I can lift weights while watching the movie. That should take me happily and easily up until mid afternoon. YES!! Thank you blog for being available for me to sort out my thoughts and get ready for action! Physical activity of any kind is what keeps my blood sugar in line and makes me feel motivated and happy.
Good News For Another Year!
My husband and his colleagues at the office are in the process of completing next year's budget and the good news is that there will be sufficient funding to keep him on next year! YAY!! Every summer, come budget negotiations, I hold my breath, but now it is safe to exhale once again. I can relax now until next June when budgeting for 2019 begins. Thank you Lord my husband can stay on at the office for another year!
You would think that after everything we have gone through with various forms of (un)employment over the past 40 years that we would be used to the uncertainties, but every year I feel somewhat uncomfortable at budget planning time, just wondering if this will be the year of mad scrambling about, seeking once again a new source of wage earnings for my (now retirement aged) husband.
I do trust God to provide for us if the worst was to happen. He always has. The part I dread when a job ends, even when the end is expected, is how much hassle and stress may be involved until the next job appears. We have never been left stranded financially, not ever, not even once, even when things looked as bleak as bleak can be. So, being able to manage if this position falls through before forced retirement 4 years from now, is not the concern. The concern is always in the details such as having to find and move into a less expensive place, or considering a change of town and city once again. Handling even temporary unemployment can be a time and energy consuming event!
We are seriously worried about friends who worked for Sears most of their lives, have been retired for some years and are now facing the possibility of losing the pensions they paid into all their working lives. There is no way there will be a return to any kind of employment. Their ages and health issues preclude any such possibility. Lord, can you please take care of them? They too have a strong faith in you, but they have not been through the kind of financial turmoil we have experienced for so much of our lives. They don't have the kind of experiences of "supernatural" provision we have had. The fear is as intense for them as it was for us when we started on this journey with you and they are facing this lesson in trust at a much MUCH older age than we were in the beginning. Lord, is there any way they can keep those pensions? If there isn't, is there any way you can do something truly spectacular for them so they don't have to add constant fear of losing their homes and everything they have worked so hard for over the past decades? This is my prayer for our friends. Help them to have a sense of trust, of peace, in knowing the mighty I AM has not forgotten them. Thank you Lord, AMEN!
You would think that after everything we have gone through with various forms of (un)employment over the past 40 years that we would be used to the uncertainties, but every year I feel somewhat uncomfortable at budget planning time, just wondering if this will be the year of mad scrambling about, seeking once again a new source of wage earnings for my (now retirement aged) husband.
I do trust God to provide for us if the worst was to happen. He always has. The part I dread when a job ends, even when the end is expected, is how much hassle and stress may be involved until the next job appears. We have never been left stranded financially, not ever, not even once, even when things looked as bleak as bleak can be. So, being able to manage if this position falls through before forced retirement 4 years from now, is not the concern. The concern is always in the details such as having to find and move into a less expensive place, or considering a change of town and city once again. Handling even temporary unemployment can be a time and energy consuming event!
We are seriously worried about friends who worked for Sears most of their lives, have been retired for some years and are now facing the possibility of losing the pensions they paid into all their working lives. There is no way there will be a return to any kind of employment. Their ages and health issues preclude any such possibility. Lord, can you please take care of them? They too have a strong faith in you, but they have not been through the kind of financial turmoil we have experienced for so much of our lives. They don't have the kind of experiences of "supernatural" provision we have had. The fear is as intense for them as it was for us when we started on this journey with you and they are facing this lesson in trust at a much MUCH older age than we were in the beginning. Lord, is there any way they can keep those pensions? If there isn't, is there any way you can do something truly spectacular for them so they don't have to add constant fear of losing their homes and everything they have worked so hard for over the past decades? This is my prayer for our friends. Help them to have a sense of trust, of peace, in knowing the mighty I AM has not forgotten them. Thank you Lord, AMEN!
Thank You Teensy "Helicopters"!
The plethora of dragon flies here this summer has resulted in a wonderful control of the mosquito population! To date I have only received three or four mosquito bites despite being outside walking so much of the time. Going for a walk means being accompanied along most of any route by two or three dragon flies of various sizes. It is like having body guards hovering about everywhere I go.
When I was a kid we only ever saw real dragon flies, of the most giant variety, on trips into the mountains. We never saw them in the city and I was properly terrified of them, to the point of tears, every time Dad got the idea to take Mom and I on short mountain hikes in around Revelstoke and Golden BC on our annual summer holidays. O how I dreaded being followed by huge insects that, to a frightened 5 year old, did indeed seem giant sized and helicopter-like.
Now I have all manner of appreciation for them and the mosquito diets! Dragon flies, you are my friends!!
When I was a kid we only ever saw real dragon flies, of the most giant variety, on trips into the mountains. We never saw them in the city and I was properly terrified of them, to the point of tears, every time Dad got the idea to take Mom and I on short mountain hikes in around Revelstoke and Golden BC on our annual summer holidays. O how I dreaded being followed by huge insects that, to a frightened 5 year old, did indeed seem giant sized and helicopter-like.
Now I have all manner of appreciation for them and the mosquito diets! Dragon flies, you are my friends!!
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