Boom Boom Diddy Boom Boom Boom Diddy And My OCD...Sigh....

 It is early Saturday evening and the pounding bass of the next door neighbour's music is coming through the walls just a little too loudly for me to cope well. So, I am asking God for forbearance this evening.  Although I can hear it in every room in our suite it isn't actually that loud, or even particularly annoying to anyone who doesn't have the OCD sharpened focus when it comes to even the tiniest of annoyances.  This music "thang" happens only about once each weekend and sometimes only every second weekend depending on who happens to be staying there at those times.  Don't know if it is the boyfriend of the woman who is the full time tenant or who else it could be because the fellow who only stays there on the weekends is not there tonight.  My husband has prayed for me, has given me all kinds of counsel that calms my nerves when these types of issues occur and I am feeling somewhat better.  He assures me that if this noise is still happening after 11pm he will pound on the walls and ask that the music be turned off or at least down a few notches.  My biggest problem is that even if it is turned off when I go to bed, my brain will still be seeking for that same boom boom boom,  just in case the music may still be playing.  My ears will be straining through the white noise of my floor fan just in case the booming is still occurring. When I get up to use the bathroom in the middle of the night my ears will still be straining to discover if the boom boom boom I can still hear is actually real or just a figment of my overactive OCD inspired imagination. Aaaargh!  If I could just turn off my brain when these actually very mild annoyances are going on all would be well.  I am so grateful for my husband's calmness when I struggle with these sorts of things.  He doesn't like the noise either, but he is correct that, all things considered, it isn't that big a deal when it happens so rarely and all times but once the music was shut off by 11pm.  We ARE very blessed with these new neighbours. They are extremely quiet almost all of the time. The music "offenses" are few and far between and for that are both very grateful.

Dang it, I am writing this post to replace the boom boom boom of next door's music with the tap tap tap of my fingers on the keyboard but I am conscious of continuing to strain to hear the music.  AAAAARGH!!  This is so embarrassing.  Well, I will just keep praying and asking God for peace of mind and the ability to ignore what to most other people would be the slightest of upsets. 

Yet Another Plant I Have Managed To Keep Alive For The Past Few Months!

 For my birthday earlier this year a number of friends gave me living, growing potted plants. I don't know why. I just know that as soon as I saw each one as it arrived my heart was heavy because I knew it was likely just a matter of a few weeks before I managed to kill them off somehow.  However, for whatever reason, they have all but one managed to SURVIVE and THRIVE under my rather lackadaisical care!!  The aloe vera didn't make it, but as my husband was looking at the soil it appears there was some kind of issue that caused it to damp off and turn yellow despite the proper watering and light conditions.  The succulents are transplanted now into a large pot. I thought one of them had died, but my husband found a small "starter" living under one of the dying bottom leaves and now it is happily ensconced in the big pot with the other two larger plants I have also managed to keep alive. The Christmas cactus is extremely happy apparently with the light conditions and my somewhat neglectful watering practises and is covered with buds at the moment.  My husband's two pots of herbs, one basil and one tarragon, are growing like crazy in the dining room window....no surprise as he is excellent at growing such things.....Apart from the Christmas cactus buds I also have a red flowered begonia that has been blooming like crazy since it went out on the back deck back in July and has been in the house for the past month.  The red blossoms are SO cheery on dreary skied not quite winter yet days.  See?

 

Dang It....Missed The Visitors This Afternoon!!! BUT At Least I Was Out Having Fun Of My Own....

 It has been a good day after a bit of a rocky start.  Our landline rang at 6:23am....yet another creditor looking for a fellow whose family had this phone number before it became ours over eleven years ago now.  This fellow is apparently the youngest in that family of most interesting folk and he is still giving out this phone number to various credit card companies and businesses as he racks up debts and other criminal behaviours that result in our house getting many calls every few weeks when he has pulled some new financial prank. Sigh....oh well, my husband was not sleeping that well anyway, and I recover quickly from being suddenly awakened, so all is okay.  We ate a very early breakfast this morning.  haha

After breakfast I made a banana loaf and this one actually turned out better than the last disaster loaf I made using too many bananas in an attempt to avoid having to freeze any of them for later baking use. Never again...I learned my lesson when that loaf turned into a soggy, tough, tasteless mess that ended up in the garbage after the first two or three slices were suffered through by my husband and I. Yuck!  SO thankful this one has redeemed me at least somewhat.  

 After lunch I went to the hospital to visit my friend who is going to be there long term.  We started off with a great visit, but unfortunately she has a new roommate who is a lovely person but a real chatterbox.  After she inserted herself into our conversation and obviously wasn't going to leave us to visit on our own,  my friend feigned exhaustion and I excused myself to go and run errands.  It is a shame, but I will try again in a few days. This new roomie will not be there for very many days.  Aiii yiiiii.....

I completed my errands rather quickly, but as I was driving away from the final place where conducting business was necessary, I realized I was right beside a clothing store that was having a clearance sale!  Oooh...

Sweaters and pants and shirts oh my......

I came home with two sweaters, a jacket sweater and a pair of pants.  That makes a total of 6 brand new items in replacement of some of the over 20 items I recently bagged up and delivered to the thrift store.  That will be all the replacement items I need, so I am still down about 2 dozen items over all from the past few years.  YAY! Slowly I am whittling down the size of my winter wardrobe, the same way I did with my spring and summer wardrobe earlier this year.  It was so much fun having a spontaneous shopping trip.  The sunshine today has given my spirits a boost after several days in a row of grey clouds and bitter winds.  YAY!! AND there are a few more days of  warmish weather on the way!  YIppee!

Unfortunately, while I was having all this personal fun, I missed a visit my husband got to have with our Syrian former next door neighbours who dropped in to show him their car that was finally purchased recently after a loooooooong search!  They stayed long enough to have tea and my husband really enjoyed seeing them. I am disappointed to have missed them and I hope they will come over again some time. 

 

The Card Arrived!

Hello again praying friends and relatives: our son just called to let us know his card already arrived in the mail!  Incredible that it came so very quickly after the approval notification.  We are all incredibly grateful.  He and his wife are already discussing plans for travel to Canada to visit us, the parental unit sometime in the next three or four months.  Once his lawyer has seen the card and confirmed that all the information included on it is completely correct it will be safe to make travel plans.   A HUGE thank you to everyone who has been caring and concerned and praying for our son about this very stressful process.

This Weather….Hallelujah!

 Oh wow! What a great day to go walking! It is +11C on November 5th! Unbelievable! I was able to walk to my hair appointment and back at noon, oh wonderful gloriousness! My husband walked me there and then took off on the rest of his own walk.  The good walk gave me the justification I wanted to be able to excuse myself for spending the afternoon reading a book. 📕 hahaha

Tomorrow my coffee ☕️ buddy and I will return to our new once per week visiting haunt at Denny’s. The seats are comfortable and the other guests are not so close as to be in our faces like they are in most of the local coffee bars. Soft seats and more privacy for conversations are appealing. Plus, since my husband got to go out for breakfast yesterday, I can have my breakfast 🍳 out tomorrow if I so desire. Teehee 🤭! 

My husband is working hard to complete the PowerPoint presentation for his class on the books of Jonah and Nahum at the adult church class on Sunday. Then he gets a Sunday off prior to teaching a four week course to the same class on Advent: a season in the church calendar year that many evangelical churches here do not practice or even know much about. He doubts our own church congregation will want to change their current pre-Christmas rites and rituals to accommodate Advent, but at least they will know more about the season and its possibilities for deepening our worship times together. 

Luxuriating In The "Done-ness"!

 My house cleaning that I started on Monday is FINALLY finished.  While there is something good to be said about taking my time and not doing too much in a day, the idea of spreading full house cleaning over a span of 3 days is not very encouraging! I am drawing joy though from knowing that by taking my time and only doing housework for a half day each of those 3 days I did a thorough job that will last for awhile. After moving all the living room furniture to roll, turn and clean the 9'X13' carpet in the living room this morning I admit I am rather tired now.  

Fortunately I have no commitments out of the house this afternoon so I may take advantage of that to watch an old movie, The Lavender Hill Mob. Oh how I am enjoying the Silver Screen, Turner Classic Movies and One channels.  Some of those old movies are pretty corny and cliche, many certainly FAR from "woke", but it is relaxing not having to prepare my mind to hear a string of gross expletives in the scripts and to not have to brace my brain for a visual onslaught of gory violence.  Many of those old movies actually relied on well written dialogue, actual story lines/plots, subtlety and excellent acting!  Rather different in all those ways from too many of the movies of today; only my own opinion of course, but that is how I feel, so there ya' go.....

Tomorrow I am going for a haircut...oh bliss.  I love getting my hair cut. I love the busyness of the salon, the hilarious conversations with the stylist, the bright lights and glitter, nearly breaking my neck bending my head backwards over the sinks...the totality of the whole experience appeals to me.  It makes me feel more "citified" and less like a rural prairie-ite. 

My husband made a huge pot of his delicious celery soup yesterday and today he is making a giant casserole of beef stew.  He is a wonderful cook and I certainly enjoy the foods he prepares.  Our usual arrangement holds: he cooks and I do the clean up.  Fortunately he doesn't make the kind of huge mess our son makes when he is chef'ing, so it isn't so bad washing up afterwards.  

After waking up to fog and the remnants of freezing drizzle overnight, the sun has broken through, the fog has dissipated and the sky is a beautiful shade of light blue.  Apparently we are going to enjoy warmer, sunnier days for the next week or so. It means I will be able to get out and walk starting tomorrow.  This afternoon will be taken up by the return of the exterminators to check the traps they and we set and I am pleased that no mice have been trapped nor evidence of mousies seen around the house for the past week.  Thank you Lord!!!! 

Gasoline Prices Here: What The Heck?

 I am bamboozled by the range of gasoline prices in our area over this past weekend. Within the city we saw gasoline prices per litre of $1.78, $1.66, $1.54 and at the reserve station we got in line to fill at $1.49. As we drove the highway heading west yesterday we saw gasoline priced at $1.78 and $1.88 and $1.99 and $1.68. 

I don’t know what changes in price per litre are happening today, but that kind of price range in this area is quite unusual. There doesn’t tend to be more than a two cent spread, along with a couple of discount stations priced between five and eight cents per litre cheaper than the rest. 

As I watched prices along the highway climbing to that $1.99 top end, I was ever so grateful we lined up the day before for the least expensive gasoline. It wasn’t a huge lineup, maybe a five minute wait and there was only a lineup at all because just 1/2 of the pumps dispensing Regular rather than Premium were operational. With a highway trip looming the day after we filled our car’s tank we are even more grateful to have found such a great price.