Frankie

Life had been quiet so no blogging. Same old, same old, doesn’t make for interesting writing.

I decided a few months ago that I wanted another dog – mostly to keep Willow company and to give her some exercise. Just after we got Willow, I had contacted a kennel in the States but the lady said that she didn’t believe that having two puppies of a similar age was not good because they would bond with each other rather than with their people. That made sense to me so I put that idea to bed for the time being.

The time had come to explore the idea again so I contacted the kennel again. As it happened, she had two young adult dogs that were available for adoption. We had a few weeks of e-mail contact and finally decided on Frankie. Anyway, he arrived on December 8th. He is an absolute sweetheart but has been very expensive. You would think that I had learned about not taking insurance after the fiasco of Cuba earlier this year but apparently I am not that smart.

Frankie coughed a few times but we simply put that down to the really dry air we have here. He was really quiet but we thought that it was a getting to know us. He didn’t like stairs and he wanted to be carried – cute but he weighs almost 40 lbs…. I called the breeder and she thought the same thing – new home, dry air, etc. She also said that they don’t allow their dogs to use the stairs because her staircase is under construction.

On Thursday, Frankie’s eye was weeping and the discharge was not the usual clear or black colour but was yellow so we made an appointment at the vet. They checked him out and took blood work and x-rays and decided he probably has pneumonia. We left him there for 36 hours so he could be watched and get intravenous antibiotics. Twelve hundred dollars later, we picked him up yesterday morning and he was like a new dog – alert, active, and funny. He spent most of the first hour home trying to convince Willow of his undying love and affection – she allowed it for the most part but every so often, she moved and he just followed her. He needs to be on antibiotics for the next 2 weeks and I have eye ointment to use 8 hours a day for the next week.

I am quite worried this morning because I am questioning his eyesight – he seems to be following my voice rather than looking at me. I guess we will see what happens as that day goes.

Julie's Wrist

Julie had her surgery yesterday. Ryan phoned at supper time to say she was doing well and glaring at him. They hadn't seen the surgeon yet but the anesthetist said they were pleased.

Julie had a nerve block rather than a full general anesthetic. She was told that it should last for 24+ hours but apparently after about 10 or so hours, it was wearing off. This made for a rather unpleasant evening for her.

She phoned last night about 8:30 to say they were back at the hospital because her dressings were soaked through. This morning she said that she was going back to the hospital today to get them changed again. Apparently the bones in the graft were bleeding - I didn't know that bones could bleed.

Happy Birthday to Me

I don't know where the years go. I don't feel as old realizing I am 55 today as I do realizing that David will be 30 on Christmas Day! How did I get old enough to have a 30year old?

I remember the day I turned 30. I had to go to a local hardware store and I have David (who was almost 5), John (who as almost 3) and Melissa (who was about 7 months old) with me. This particular store was a family run business. The staff were mostly ladies in their 50s and 60s.

David, in a VERY loud voice (as only a child can do), exclaimed to one of them, "Guess what, my mom is 30 today - isn't that OLD!" The ladies all laughed - I think it made their day.

Gee, now I can get a Humpty's Senior's Club discount card - there have to be some advantages to getting older. Double Nickles, here I come.

Julie

Julie is scheduled for surgery on her wrist on Thursday. When she was the doctor in late September, they decided that her wrist had not healed so she was supposed to have the surgery in October but it didn't happen. She heard last week that she is finally booked in on the 26th.

She will be off work for probably 2 weeks. Not a great time of year to be off work but at least this will be out of the way before the wedding.

We went out last Thursday evening and she ordered her wedding dress. It is quite pretty and will suit her well for a Tuesday morning wedding.

Julie got me to try on a dress and jacket combo but I while I sort of liked it, it didn't jump off the hangar and demand that I take it home. I think I will have to continue searching. Besides the like factor, the price was a turn-off - $599 on sale plus alterations - it's a bit hard to swallow when I am used to buying at Costco!

Lessons Learned

When James was 16, seven years ago, I took him to Toronto with me to visit my Mom. After our visit, he spent a week with my friend Ellie and her three kids. The idea was that the kids would show James around Toronto and they would all have a good time.

James had met Ellie’s daughter, Jay, a year earlier and had fallen madly and passionately in love! Every time he talked about her over the next year, his voice would soften and change!

After a day in Toronto, Jay told James that she had a boyfriend and while he was very nice, he lived far away and she wasn’t interested.

James was devastated! He told Jay’s older brother, Norm, about Jay turning him down and said he would like to get drunk. Norm was more than willing to help. He told James that they had a well supplied supply of liquor so they both headed there.

Ellie was upstairs doing whatever so the first she knew about their plan was when they crawled up the stairs to Norm’s room. They were incapable of walking up the stairs and she knew they would feel very sorry in the morning so she sent them off to bed to sleep it off.

She went downstairs to get dinner ready. A short time later, she heard a terrible bang, crash, smash sound so she rushed outside to see what had happened. What she found was Norm lying on the concrete patio. He had fallen out of his window, landed on the roof of the porch, hit the fence then landed on the patio. She called Emergency and they arrived shortly thereafter. They checked out Norm and decided to take him to the hospital.

They asked Ellie if she thought that it was possible that James might have pushed Norm out of the window. When the EMS checked James, they realized he was so drunk that he wasn’t able to push a finger on the floor, let alone a 180 lb friend out a window. Both of them had blood alcohol levels far higher than they ever should be – they were more than just legally drunk but somewhere below dead.

Norm ended up in the hospital for a few days and had his stomach pumped. James ended up being a very sick puppy for a few days. After seeing Norm and suffering a really bad hangover, James vowed to never get that drunk ever again.

Anyway, to make a very long story shorter, at Halloween, James went to a friend’s party/get together. It was a BYOB party so he had taken something with him. When I asked how the party was, he said he felt old – I laughed because he is only 23 but he said most of the people there were only 18 or 19.

He says that some of the 17 year olds wanted to get some liquor from him. Unless they could prove that they were over 18, he refused - basically he was carding them! He said he was not willing to contribute to the delinquency of minors.

I had brought some cigarillos back from Cuba in April. James took some of those with him as well. He refused to give any cigarillos to the underagers. He said he has learned that smoking is a bad habit and he didn’t want to contribute to that either. Apparently he gave them lectures about not getting into bad habits at their age!

It has taken a long time for the lessons of 7 years ago to sink in but apparently there is hope.

The World According to Americans

I found this on a friend's post on Facebook. While it is somewhat anti-American, (although the poster is an American), I think it reflects what a lot of us think we know about the rest of the world.

A funny thing happened on the way...

Last night, Steve said he would meet me downtown and we would go for supper rather than me driving home then us driving downtown. It seemed like a really good idea so I stayed at work a bit longer then he came to get me.

We went for dinner at a nice little Hungarian restaurant then discussed getting milk on the way home. We decided if we were going to be going out on Saturday morning, as we usually do, we would get milk in the morning.

After 5 minutes from home, I said “I know what we did forget to get”. Steve asked what. My reply “My car”. Sure enough, we had left it downtown in the parkade!

This morning, after breakfast, we headed downtown and got the car – otherwise I would be challenged getting to work next week!

This “part-timers” disease is getting to me.

Early Morning Exercise

Just after I got into work last Friday morning, the fire alarm went off about 7:00 and it announced an immediate evacuation was required.

Daniel, my next-door office mate and I swept the floor because we are both fire wardens, and about 7:05 proceeded to walk down the 21 flights.

The stairwell was fairly quiet but we assumed there simply weren’t many people in the building yet who needed to evacuate at that early hour. The lights on several floors weren’t even on yet which furthered our belief it was a building wide evacuation.

When we exited the building, there was no one to greet us and check that our floor had been cleared so we walked over to our gathering place.

We arrived there about 7:15-7:20 and we announced where we were from and they asked what we wanted. We explained we were part of a fire evacuation but they knew nothing about it. The security guard requested another guard for crown control.

Daniel and I sat alone, except for the crowd control security guard, for about 10 minutes then we headed back to our building where everything was business as usual.
The crowd control guard was funny. He said that he thinks that people only “really” live from ages 5 to 50 – either side of that they are just surviving. I asked how old he was and he said 23 – I have no problem believing that.

As soon as we got back, I immediately went to talk to building security manager and advised what had happened. We were told it was a false alarm (The fire alarm was set off by accident by a contractor who was working in the building. He was drilling into metal that created enough heat to set off the sensor above him) and we could have exited on the 18th floor. I said there was no one to tell us that so we simply followed the protocol for dealing with a fire evacuation.

Daniel and I got back to the building and up to our desks about 7:40 after having our aerobic exercise for the day!!

Sad Week

It has been a week with some very sad news.

James has a friend, Kendra, who had a baby, Trystan, almost 3 years ago, when she was 20.

Due to a whole variety of medical complications at birth, she was extremely ill and so was the baby. They both survived but Trystan had quite severe development disabilities. Kendra says the doctors said he had the mental ability of a 6 month old but I think even that was optimistic – he couldn’t follow movement reliably, couldn’t roll over by himself, his only way of expressing frustration was to cry or arch his back, etc.

To make a long story short, Trystan died last weekend, in his sleep and his funeral is today so I have taken the afternoon off to attend. Kendra is a very sweet young lady and none of this seems quite fair. After spending the last three years of her life with her sole focus being the baby, she has lost her child. She now needs to reinvent her life.

The second sad news was another death. One of the families at our church have 2 adult children who are about the same ages as Melissa and James. About 2 weeks ago, the kids were both feeling under the weather on Friday so they went to the clinic. Laura was prescribed some antibiotics and Jon was told he probably had a mild flu but would be fine. Jon wasn’t getting better so on Wednesday he went back – they gave some antibiotics because of his asthma but nothing further was done.

That weekend, his parents helped him move into his new apartment but on the Monday, apparently he fainted at work so they brought him home for a few days. On Wednesday, he started to be delusional so they took him to the hospital. By Friday, he was on oxygen and a ventilator but he was given drugs to make him unconscious and paralized so that his body could work on repairing his lungs. The doctors were testing for H1N1. They did diagnose Influenza A.

On Saturday, they took him off the paralytic meds to see how he would react trying to breathe on his own as opposed to forced air into his lungs. He was better for a while but then seemed uncomfortable so they put him back on the meds. He had a reaction to another drug he was given so that was stopped. On Monday, he seemed stable in the morning but the afternoon was not good. Tuesday was a reasonable day but then he died on Thursday morning.

“They” say that children should not have to bury their children – that is so right!

Basic Training

John and Carley were in town on the weekend so we met them for breakfast on Sunday.

He appears to be quite looking forward to heading out to Montreal. Not acutally Montreal, but St. Jean-sur-Richelieu, but close enough from this distance.

Steve and I were talking about it and maybe he will do well. He has always liked things to be predictable and for rules to be followed. From what I understand, Basic is very orderly and that will suit him. I don't know what will happen after that but all we can do is keep him in our prayers.

He was talking about maybe continuing on to Officer Training School after he has done his basic training then his armoured vehicle training and whatever else needs to be done. All we can do is wait and see.

The Five Point Chaos Scale

I received this in an e-mail from my partner in crime Ellie - otherwise known as Louise as in Thelma & Louise - I can't improve on this!

LEVEL ONE the house is relatively tidy ( dust bunnies are resting quietly) there is enough food in the fridge to cobble together the next three meals, husband is lurking..but not offensively so, kids are healthy enough, pets are fed and happy, job is tolerable.

LEVEL TWO the house is tidy-ish ( understanding friends could come over, all others not-so-much) there is food enough for dinner as long as the family doesn't mind a 45 minute wait for you to defrost last month's turkey from the bottom of the freezer, husband is still lurking but he is now muttering that life would be better if (insert stupid male proviso here, i.e. had a thinner wife, had a wife that made more money, had no wife, if he WAS the wife), kids are quiet...never a good sign..this usually means that they are keeping something from you...something that is going to cost you mentally, emotionally,physically,financially. pets have come up with a new way to throw a kink into your day (chewed something, gotten sick on something, broken out in some pet-ish rash), job is a pisser-today was just not a good day.

LEVEL THREE the house is disordered, nothing that a good sweep through wouldn't bring back to a level one, but mucky enough that you can't find your purse.( the dust bunnies are unionizing) food...there has to be cans of something in the cupboard,right? Husband is an ass-hole...why the hell did you marry numb-nuts anyway? Kids have been texting you from the emergency ward of the local hospital. Pets have run away and that chip they have in their neck that is supposed to be a fool-proof way to find them seems to be experiencing a meltdown. Job is @*$&@()*$ awful, and that gay freakazoid who has the cubicle next to yours is driving you crazy with his constant whining.

LEVEL FOUR the house is a disaster (the dust bunnies are now actively leading a revolt, their leader "Che" is calling for social change)Food; scrabbling for forgotten change in the bottom purse you pray that there is enough accrued wealth so that you can order something on your cell phone on the way home from work. Husband has packed his bags and is threatening to move out, you offer to help him bring his luggage to the car, shit head! Kids are now calling for bail, something about a grow-op in the basement ( well, you did tell them to be a little more ambitious!) Pets bit the child of a local lawyer known for his litigious nature when it comes to everything, you disavow ever owning "Spot". Lawyer says he'll see you in court. You freaked out at work and told them all where to shove it, shit heads.

LEVEL FIVE the house is now being looked at as a potential training ground for Emergency Disaster Response Teams. ( The dust bunnies have all left citing mental cruelty, they leave behind dust elephants) there is no food anywhere in the house..in point of fact you are looking at the dog kibble wondering if Jaimie Oliver has a recipe that you can adapt for dinner. You have hired a contract killer to take out the husband, got a bulk discount as the guy is going to do the lawyer as a freebie. Kids have left the country but left your three grandchildren who are all delinquents in your care. Pets are now rabid, something they picked up from the lawyer's kid. Work, what work....!

Sleep Apnea

About 2 weeks ago, Steve saw the sleep apnea doctor again. Based on his hospital study, he does not have classic sleep apnea but the doctor is concerned.



Because Steve slept better with an oxygen he suggested that Steve rent an oxygen machine for a month. Here is what it looks like.

I don't mind the looks - not great but so it goes, it is the sound that is driving me insane. I don't think the sound comes through on this clip but I can only try. It is about 15 seconds but if you listen carefully, you might hear the sound it makes. And it repeats the bu bup sound every 8 or so seconds. He has to wear a piece in his nose through which the oxygen flows.

Poor Steve. On Friday night I was exhausted and not in the mood to listen to it. I went to bed early but after about 5 minutes, I stormed into the living room and demanded he IMMEDIATELY clear the guest bedroom so I could sleep in there. All the empty boxes from the telescope are in there so there is very little room to move. He decided it was easier to go one night without than it was to clear the room. We also slept without it on Saturday night but there is no point in having it if he is not using it.

I guess we will try again tonight - I hope I am tired enough that the sound will simply be white noise and I manage to fall asleep quickly.

Which of these things is not like the other?

I have had a number of watches over the years. When I turned 21, my parents bought me a special present and I chose a very nice dressy Seiko watch. Because it is a wind-up watch and has a metal bracelet, I only wear it on special occasions.

I have had Timex watches and a few better quality watches. I have a Timex watch with a very narrow band but the bands kept breaking and each time I replace one, it costs me about $20, which is kind of silly for a $35 watch. One day I was in a mall and needed a new band so I wandered into a nice jewellery store – they said they had one – something like a Dolce & Gabanna, for the mere sum of $125.00. Needless to say, I kept going. I even contacted Timex about ordering a band but they never responded.

I have another Seiko watch that hasn’t worked in years. I have replaced the batteries but no go. Finally, a few weeks ago, I asked Steve to take it into the watchmaker when he was out and about. He did and it has been fixed so I can wear it again. He also bought a new band for the skinny watch so I have that one in my desk drawer at work for days when I forgot to wear my watch.

Steve was online a few weeks ago and decided I needed a new watch. The watch he ordered for himself is a Rolex lookalike. The family of a friend of ours has been in the jewellery for several generations. Fred had a look and said the only way it is possible to tell that Steve’s watch is not genuine is the fact that it is possible to hear the automatic movement inside the watch. My watch is not quite the same size as we expected. I have worn it a few times but I find it bigger than I am accustomed to wearing so now I have my nice discreet Seiko back and working, it is back on my wrist.

Wild Wind and Missing Heads

Melissa’s attempts to clear the front yard came true. While I was home 2 weeks ago on a flex day, the man from the City came and talked to Steve about moving the art in the front yard. On the Tuesday, they came out and off went the pieces. They even took a huge steel storage vault that has been sitting in the yard since the summer of the carved head. We still have a few rocks that need to be moved but they will be a bit easier to locate.

Tuesday night there was a huge wind storm. I was watching our Russian Olive tree blowing in the wind. A few seconds later I heard a loud cracking sound and realized the tree was no longer there.

This past summer, we realized that a large part of the top was not looking healthy. James and I had cut a fair amount off but we thought a part of it might grow back next year. Now it won’t!

It was too late to really see anything and I figured there was nothing I could do anyway. I decided to simply wait to the next day to see the damage. Fortunately the tree fell primarily between the van and the car so there was no damage to either. We were also lucky it didn’t hit the windows on the house or it might have been quite costly.

Our formerly 20 foot tall tree is now about 8 feet tall. Steve says that because the head was protecting the house and is now gone, we lost the tree.

We did lose some shingles on the roof in the wind but when we called out a roofer, he said we can replace just a few shingles so it will cost us less than $150. It’s nice that is it a fairly cheap fix.

The Fury is going to hit the Fan

The kids, particularly Melissa and John, are tired of Steve’s “art” in the front yard, as am I but I have given up doing anything about them.

One of the pieces is a head that was supposed to be an Aztec type head. It stands about 3 feet high and about 2 ½ to 3 feet wide. He didn’t finish it the summer he was working on it so he had it brought home to complete. At some point, the nose got knocked off so he started to recarve the face but that never got finished. The other two smaller pieces are, if I remember correctly, trilobytes.

Anyway, Mel decided to do something about it so she called the City art department and asked them if they were missing any pieces. To make a long story short, apparently the City is coming on Monday with a crane to pick up their missing pieces.

Mel is planning to take Steve for lunch tomorrow to break the news to him – I do not want to be anywhere nearby when she tells him.

Mel is not having a good day!

She got into the doctor today for a follow-up concerning her wrist. The last ex-rays she had showed her wrist was doing well – unfortunately this set said something quite different. Apparently her wrist has not healed at all and so she is essentially where she was back in June when she fell.

She needs to have surgery in October and they will screw her wrist in place then she will have to wear a cast then graduate into a removable cast. She will likely be off work for 3-4 weeks.

She recently found out that she needs to do 3 courses to graduate in February with the rest of her class – she had forgotten about one she didn’t pass early on that needs to be completed.

So, between her wrist, full time work (or not!), 3 courses and planning for a May wedding, she is a bit stressed out and I don’t blame her a bit.

Steve took my mom’s car in for an out-of-province inspection so we could give it to Mel. He found out it needs about $1,600 of work – new rotors, brakes, gas tank (there is a leak from rust in the current one!) and I don’t know what else. Mel had planned to pay for whatever it needed but I don’t think that will happen now. I guess this might be our wedding present to her now – just a bit early but there you go.

Welcome to the newest Member of our Family:

Do you remember Kojak with Telly Savalas. Well, the newest addition to this family is called Tele Scope!


Steve has always been interested in astronomy – he likes reading about them and we have been to the Planetarium a few times but not all that often. A few years ago I brought home a UK magazine called Sky & Telescope that he read every time.

About 2 weeks ago, he went up to Didsbury, a small town about 45 minutes north of Calgary, to look at some telescopes. He came home with a little one for $75 and I thought that was that. WRONG! BIG TIME WRONG! He got bitten by the telescope bug.

Apparently he came home and ordered a telescope from the States. It arrived a few days later – the case itself is about 3 feet by 1 ½ feet by 1 ½ feet. It looks like a small steamer trunk. On Friday, he and his friend Bert drove to Didsbury again and brought home the mount. I don’t yet know how much the scope itself cost but apparently the mount cost about $1,600 so I guess the scope itself was at least the much if not more. And this is from the man who can’t stand the cold – it is supposed to snow this weekend so I don’t think he will get much use out of it in the near future.

I wanted it out of the living room so I could vacuum so it got moved to the guest room. We now have to keep the blind in the guest room closed so it doesn’t harm the scope! I hope none of our guests suffer from being in the dark.

The entire thing now needs a power source so the GPS can follow the stars or some such thing – I am afraid that my mind glazes over after I hear the words “and now I need”.

Because it weights quite a bit (the mount is about 40-50 pounds without the scope), Steve can’t move it himself so he has to rely on James to help. I asked what will happen with James moves out – apparently by then he will have a small observatory in the backyard – does it never end.

The pink stick in the photos if my yard/meter stick so you can see just how big this silly thing is.

Oh, apparently one of the greatest thing about this scope is that you can attach a camera directly to it!

Vanity Plates

While I have a cat and at our most catful (is so a word!) house, we had 3 but I still found this license plate holder to be amusing. In case you can’t read it easily, it says “Cats Flattened While You Wait”.

The second plate was on a nice black Corvette in front of me being driven by a middle-aged blonde woman. Steve says he thinks she chose that plate to let people know she paid for the car herself. I think she got it in a divorce settlement and is quite proud to have acquired it.

Pizza???!!!

The doorbell rang at 2:00 this morning - needless to say Willow was not impressed and ran around madly barking.

I went to the door and asked who was there. It was a pizza delivery but not for us, just a house with a similar address.

I ask you - who orders Pizza at 2 am?

I have to think about this one

Got word that John has been accepted into the Army and will start Basic Training on November 2 in Quebec. Apparently the only area that they had room was in the armoured vehicle unit - whatever that means - I guess we will find out.

I want to be in hot water!

Back in July we had purchased a new washer, dryer and fridge and we thought we were done for a while – it turned out to be a short while! About 10 days ago, the dishwasher died – needless to say with a full load of dirty dishes and dirty water. We ended up taking out the dishes and washing them by hand then I started to bail out the water. With only about 5 containers of water left, it occurred to me to get Steve to get out the wet-dry shop vac to suck out the rest of the water. As a heads-up, the shop vac works really well and much faster than margarine containers!



Last weekend we went to Home Depot and bought a new dishwasher that was delivered on Thursday. It is quite pretty but not yet installed. The guys who delivered it first unpacked the wrong unit – I almost got a stainless steel and black model but I think the people who ordered it might have noticed a problem when they received my white unit. Fortunately Steve caught it before they brought it up the stairs so we did end up with the right unit.

Steve unhooked the old unit so it could be taken away when they delivered the new dishwasher. He had had to turn off the water to the dishwasher while it was out. We seemed to be missing a part that was needed to install the new dishwasher so he thought he would get it on Friday while he was out and about.

On Friday morning he realized that there was a bit of water leaking so he decided to turn off the water to the hot water tank. When he got downstairs he realized that the tank was bulging and has rusted down the seam and around the bottom. He tried to turn off the shut-off valve but it didn’t close completely so he decided to turn off the water to the entire house. This was fine in theory but…. He called Home Depot and ordered a new hot water tank and they said it would be delivered on Saturday.

On Saturday, when the hot water tank had not arrived by 3:00 we called Home Depot again. We were then told that the plumbers DON’T do hot water tanks on Saturdays! I told them that I am tired to getting buckets of water from the neighbours outside tap in order to flush the toilet. The girl agreed that was not reasonable so she called a manager and they managed to contact the plumbers who are willing to do this as a emergency call. The plumber called about 5:30 and said he could be here about 10 tonight or early tomorrow morning. We have decided that we can wait until tomorrow morning.

While I won’t kiss the plumber when he arrives, I will be anxiously waiting for a shower and running water to brush my teeth. It can be done with bottled water (while Calgary has good water, I am not willing to use the outside water after it has run through the hose) but it is a slow process. We also have a load of dishes that need washing that I can’t do until I have running water or the dishwasher. James suggested that we use the hose water then boil it and add cold hose water and wash the dishes that way. Quite frankly, I am not that averse to eating out for a few more meals (I think I will pass up McDonald’s Sausage & Egg McMuffin tomorrow though) until we get real water. You really don’t realize how much you take things like running water for granted until you are without. I have been to camps without running water but that was a planned adventure, not trying to live in the regular world.

I don’t dare say “what else can go wrong” because I know that is simply tempting the gods. I am thankful for a credit card with a good limit as well as a great job so I can pay it off. G-d is definitely looking after me and my family.

Speaking about family, my Mom phones on Friday evenings but we weren’t home last night and it was too late when we got in for me to phone her. She called again this morning all worried because she was afraid that I might have been at the hospital with Steve but he was able to reassure he that he is as fine as he is likely to be right now. I did call her this afternoon after I got back from a presentation I gave this morning and reassured her again that we are all fine.

My dinner on Saturday night:

Steve

A friend was asking how Steve is. My normal answer is “alive”.

Back in April, when he ended up in hospital, they decided after his angiogram and umpteen other tests, that he had had 11 heart attacks. His diabetes was out of control and there really wasn’t much good news except that he was treatable.

Except for the night where we had a false alarm and he apparently had chest wall pain, his heart has not been causing any problems that he has told me about.

Months ago, I told him I was worried because his breathing while he is sleeping was not regular. He ended up wearing a monitor for a night. He finally got to see the sleep specialist last week. That doctor said that while Steve is not suffering from typical sleep apnea, his sleep patterns are not normal so they will be booking him into the hospital for a one night stay to do further research. The doctor is hoping he will get in sometime this month or at least by early October. He may end up needing oxygen at night or to wear a continuous positive airway pressure (CPAP) machine at night. His lack of quality sleep is impacting his getting better. He is tired most of the day so he has catnaps then he is not really tired at night so he has very restless sleep so he is tired most of the day and so on and so on.

Since he has been on insulin for his diabetes, our doctor is pleased with his blood sugar levels. He is still not testing as often as suggested but the testing that is done every few months and that shows the average sugar levels over the previous three months has been good.

He is still doing his art work. This is one of his acrylic sculptures that is currently in our living room. It stands about 2 ½ feet high and about 18 inches across the bottom.


He was talking to owner of the foundry that is producing the next piece and apparently they are quite excited about the new piece. I know he is rather anxious to see the finished piece too.

A Different Kind of Homecoming

I had to go out on Thursday evening after supper. On my return home, just before turning into my cul-de-sac, there were several police cruisers and a few cops with their bullet-proof vests on looking into the townhouses that back onto my yard. I thought it looked interesting (what can I say, I was tired!) and briefly contemplated taking Willow out for a walk to see what the excitement was about. I immediately rethought that and decided to stay in.

When I pulled into the driveway, I realized that Steve had gone to pickup James from soccer tryouts because the van wasn’t home. When I opened the front door, it seemed strange that Willow didn’t come barreling out but I realized that Steve had put her in her kennel which we aren’t doing these days usually but I thought, Oh Well.

Then I saw this note:

Sure enough, I went and had a look through our bedroom window and could just barely make out the sniper, hiding under/next to the tree. Our backyard is a 2 level yard – we call the area that is lower and next to the fence “the moat”.

Steve found out about him because he let Willow out into the yard and she went running to the edge of the moat and started to bark and wouldn’t quit. Steve thought that maybe a dog or cat got into our yard so he went over to grab her and found the sniper in the yard. The sniper said he had a clear shot to the house they were watching and he was able to stay moderately hidden.

Apparently a gun had been shot and the bullet had entered the next townhouse unit. It was reported to the police so they turned up. About 9:30 at night, they had managed to get their robot into the unit and realized that whoever had shot the gun was no longer in the unit. For quite a while, we had a "Hawks" police helicopter cruising overhead. At one point, Steve called me and suggested I turn off our security motion-sensors so the cop would not set them off.

According to the radio report the next day the individuals who lived in the unit where the shot originated “were known to the police”.

Men!

Earlier this week, my co-worker, Bart, who took us to the Extractor Plant a few weeks ago, was in with his daughter, Torie, who is about 8. He looked rather disheveled and was wearing a baseball cap. This is not his normal attire and Torie should have been in school.

When I asked what was happening, he said he had been up since 1 am. I asked why and he said that his wife, Sue, had been out on their deck trying to make noise to scare some coyotes who were bothering the horses. She made a misstep and fell off the deck about 10 feet, landing on gravel. Emergency Services were there in less than 10 minutes and took her to the hospital.

I talked to Torie for a few minutes and she said she is trying to convince her parents to get her a dog like Willow. They already have a Great Pyrenees named Gwen. We briefly discussed bringing Willow to meet Gwen and Torie and they could play together.

I asked Bart on Friday how Sue was doing and apparently she has a fractured wrist.

Steve and I were talking yesterday about what we wanted to do today. We had already arranged to meet some friends for breakfast and we needed to go out and buy a new dishwasher – my appliances must be in cahoots – the dishwasher was missing the old fridge so it decided to die! Steve said he also wanted to go for a drive to nowhere in particular, taking some back roads and maybe taking his camera.

I thought we could kill two birds (or maybe even more) with one stone. I called Bart and sort of invited ourselves over to their place for Monday dinner. I figured we could bring the food (and save Sue making one meal) and the dog. They could supply the child, the other dog, a trip down back roads (to get to their place) and a place to take pictures – from their deck that overlooks the Rockies.

Bart said that should work and he would be seeing Sue in the afternoon and would tell her then. I asked where she was and apparently she is still in the hospital and would be discharged today! I immediately rescinded our self-invitation and said we would consider it next weekend. The fact that Bart was even willing to consider it is mind-boggling! As I said - Men!

Smart Cars

We had fun day. I own a yellow Smart Car and there was a Smart Car Meet & Greet today. We met down in the south end of town then all 5 cars drove to Banff. Most of the group went river rafting but Steve was not up to it so we went into the town site and meandered around. We stopped a few times for photo shoots as you can see – aren’t we cute (or geeks!)?

Steve found a fur lined hat and mitts so he bought them. We later found a nice wooden walking stick then he went back and bought some winter boots. At least we know he will be warm this winter.

Wedding Stress Already??

Melissa phoned me this evening and told me that she & Ryan have put down the deposit on the restaurant and they have booked the photographer. I did remind her to book a marriage commissioner. There is little point in having a reception and a photographer if there is nobody to actually marry them!

She then told me that she had a weird dream last night. Their wedding ended up being at our church but it had a circus theme that apparently I had arranged. As she went down the hallway, she met her previous boyfriend (it was a good thing he is very previous!) with his mother.

Anyway, I told her that a circus theme is probably not what I would have chosen but there you go. Maybe I just needed some more inspiration - look what I found at Favor Ideas:

"Clowning Around

And for the little kid in each of us ... a circus theme wedding! This would be a great outdoor event and would be entertaining for adults and kids alike. Picture your yard with loads of balloons under colorful canopies. Strolling clowns making balloon characters, a face painter and a magician that would go to each table dazzling guests with tricks and illusions. Rent a popcorn and cotton candy cart to complete the theme.

For centerpieces, consider confetti, clown shoes filled with candy or balloon-animal arrangements. For invitations, make circus posters of flyers inviting your guests to "The Greatest Show on Earth." Or have a friend dress like a clown and hand deliver your invitations, enclosed in a clear balloon with plenty of streamers, to your guests front door."

We are tentatively planning to go to Toronto in November to go wedding dress shopping. Mel needs to book time off work (and considering she was off for almost 3 months with her broken arms...) so until she has the okay to be away for a few days, we will have to wait. I think that once a date is chosen, she can start to make appointments at the shops she wants to look at so we aren’t wasting time.

I can see that the next 9 months are going to be interesting. At least I know that I don’t have to plan a circus theme wedding because apparently I have already done but it was not a success.

Healthy or Not?

My leg is much better but it is still a bit discoloured however there is no sign of infection so that is good. The antibiotics leave a dreadful taste in my mouth so I will be happy to take the last of them on Friday.

I did something to my shoulder a few months ago – it is fine most of the time but if I move suddenly in the wrong direction, it hurts. My GP gave me a note to go to physio. The last time I went, a few years ago for osteoarthritis in my knee, I never really felt they did anything for me. After several weeks of visits, my knee was no better but no worse. Anyway, this time I got busy and hadn’t made an appointment.

Both Steve and James have been suggesting I see their chiropractor. Neither of my parents believed in chiropractors so I did not hold them in high esteem. On the basis that my shoulder was not getting better with me being careful to rest it and not wanting to go to physio again, I thought I would take a chance.

I went in on Monday and he did an exam and a set of ex-rays. While running his hands over my neck and back I got a few “oh, dear”, one “Oh Man” and a “WOW”. I assumed that was not a good sign. Sure enough, when I went back on Tuesday for a follow-up, Dr. Sandy doesn’t seem to think that I had any neck or spine areas that are working as they should. He showed me my ex-rays and even to my untrained eye, they did not look like the nice pictures on the wall!

He has used an interesting machine on my back and neck. It feels like a very gentle pneumatic drill – very strange but not uncomfortable. Apparently it vibrates at 12 revolutions per second because, Dr. Sandy says, 12 is the “magic” number.

With luck, after the proposed treatment plan, I won’t have shoulder pain and the muscles in my neck won’t be as tight. As this will all take 2-3 months, I guess I will just have to be patient and wait.

Family Stories

On April 13, 1918 my maternal grandparents Ethel (Granny) and James (Poppy) got married.

In April 1920 their first child, Gordon was born.

On October 16, 1920, the miners in Lancashire went on strike. Both Granny and Poppy’s families had been miners for several generations. The strike ended by November 3, 1920, but it made my grandparents to believe that they needed to move. Three weeks of no income long before the days of employment insurance, and with a new baby, would not have been easy. Granny’s brother, Jim, had come to Canada a few years earlier and had a good job with the Harbour Board in Montreal. Uncle Jim told Poppy that he would help him get a job in Canada if he decided to come.

As a complete aside, A.A. Milne’s son, Christopher Robin, was born in 1920.

My mom, Doreen, was born in July 1922.

In April 1923, Poppy decided to cross the ocean and take his chances on Canada. While I was at my mom’s in July, I found a photocopy of Poppy’s letter to Granny from the ship. Unfortunately, it did not scan well but it was so enjoyable to read.





Poppy also sang on the ship on the way over.


Finding these odd pieces of paper made me so glad that I actually went through everything while we were clearing paper rather than just throwing everything out.

More will follow!

I don't like spiders

On Thursday afternoon, my leg was really itchy. I thought I had a bad mosquito bite although it had a black head rather than the regular red top. I was pretty sure I hadn’t scratched enough to make it bleed but it was possible.

Friday morning, at work, I realized that the itchy spot, rather than being the size of a loonie like Thursday evening, was now about 4” by 6”. I was showing a co-worker and she suggested that it might be a spider bite so we Googled it and it did look somewhat similar.

I called my GP but he is away for a few days so I decided to go to the walk-in clinic. The doctor there said that it did look like a spider bite but apparently they usually take about 48 hours to show up. Because I take Willow for a walk each morning up our back field, I probably got it there.

Anyway, the doctor couldn’t decide if I had an infection or an allergic reaction so I am on antibiotics as well as antihistamines. Now that I have 2 days of antibiotics and about 6 doses of Benadryl cream on me, I feel much better - my leg is not as itchy, it doesn’t feel as hot and it is not as swollen as it was but it does still look awful.

Roses

I have a lovely bowl of roses on my desk this morning. When I took Willow out for her morning stretch, I realized that my rose bushes have only a few flowers on them now and I decided that leaving them on the bush at home when I spend most of my waking hours at work made no sense so I quickly cut them off, wrapped them up and brought them in with me. They have a wonderful scent so maybe that will inspire me to excel today.

Happy Wednesday.

Whatever was he thinking?? and Wedding Plans

Steve and I went out on our weekly breakfast date this morning. Because it was almost 11 before we got there, he decided to have soup and a bun while I had a breakfast favourite – Eggs Benedict.

On the way home, we passed a bakery so we went inside. Steve got some Russian Rye bread, a pretzel and 2 vanilla slices/Napoleon/milles feuilles.

After we got home, I started to clean house but I decided to start in the laundry room because it needed it. When I came upstairs , Steve said he wasn’t feeling well because he thought he had too many carbs – Ya think!! He ate 2 slices of bread and an entire vanilla slice himself! That doesn’t sound like much but when you are diabetic, this will never be found on any recommended diet plan.

I am beginning to wonder if he even wants to be able to attend Melissa’s wedding!

Speaking of the wedding, I met with Mel for lunch yesterday. Lake Louise is now out and a downtown restaurant is the current choice. She and Ryan are hoping to keep the attendance down to 60 people but that may prove to be rather challenging. Ryan’s dad has a whole list of people/relatives he thinks need to be invited so….

Mel is planning to order her table centre pieces online from Die Blume. I think it is a great idea because she can order now so they can be paid for long before the wedding and that is just one more thing out of the way. The prices seem quite reasonable and apparently she is willing to do custom orders. Mel has decided she wants peonies, hydrangeas, and dogwood so her colours, at least this week, will be light pink, light green, ivory and chocolate brown.

She is currently thinking about getting a “tea length” gown rather than a full gown. With having a breakfast wedding and planning to have pictures taken downtown around lunch time, I think that is a good idea because trying to get around with a full length gown is a challenge at the best of times, let alone when you are trying to avoid the lunch crowd.

Because of her accident, she was not able to get much, or any, exercise this summer so her goal to lose a bit of weight and trim up was not met. She is hoping that this fall she will be more successful. Unfortunately she has to do four courses before February in order to graduate with her class – three new classes and one she failed. She’s not quite sure where she will fit in wedding fittings until that is over so her selection might be limited – she simply won’t have time for a 6 month wait.

It is hard to admit that I have a double standard but this week, for no particular reason, I realized that I do. One of the things I find charming about Melissa is her HUGE plans for anything. A few years ago, she kept saying she wanted to rule the world from Saskatchewan – we had great discussions about how she could go about that. Now there is a wedding to plan and once again, she has huge plans – many of which will never come to fruition. I just nod my head and go along with it. But, when Steve does the same thing (at least I know she comes by it honestly!), it just aggravates me. When he talks about redoing the back yard or painting the house or making a million dollars (well, I don’t quite believe that one), I have great hopes that he will then I am disappointed that it gets started and never finished. For example, we have a partially done mural on the kitchen wall that he started about 10 years ago but has not finished. When he partially repainted the kitchen 4 years ago, he painted around it but he still hasn’t finished it.

He gets mad at me because I do the planning in my head so by the time I say what I want to do, I am going to do it – I am not looking for input, I am ready to go ahead. He likes to discuss matters which drives me insane because I see it as a waste of time if you aren’t going to do it anyway. They say that opposites attract, and at least in this case, that is really true.

Good News Day

Melissa went to see the specialist yesterday about her wrist. He said it has healed well so she doesn’t have to have surgery on it – Thank goodness. He took off the cast, gave her a removable splint and sent her on her way. She is due back at work on Monday. I am not sure they will know what to do with her – she had only been at her new job for a few weeks when she got hurt on June 2nd so this will be like starting all over again.

Last night Steve and I went out to Cochrane to see the extractor plant. One of my co-workers lives near the plant and said they were having an open house of sorts so off we went. The tour guide had his wife, daughter and her three children on the bus as well. His grandson, who was about 4 kept asking if they could go and see the fire engines but Grandpa kept having to say no so he was rather disappointed.

I was glad that I had taken an Oil and Gas introductory course earlier this year because the lingo was somewhat familiar to me. NGL doesn’t mean much by itself but I knew it meant Natural Gas Liquids which are Methane, Ethane, Propane, Butane and Pentane. This particular plant extracts the Methane from the NGLs and then sends it down the pipeline to the next processor. Obviously there is a whole lot more to the process than that but it was fascinating.

Steve enjoyed taking some pictures and he is planning to return to take some more. It was good to get him out of the house and doing something different. By the time we got home, even though it was only 9:00, we both fell into bed and were fast asleep by the time our heads hit the pillows - too much fresh air, I guess!

I'm a member of the MOB

While I was busy travelling across the country, I became a member of an elite group – MOB – otherwise known as the Mother of the Bride. Melissa and Ryan are officially engaged! I knew that they had ordered a ring about the time I left on my adventures but it arrived while I was gone but it now nicely sitting on her finger. When I asked why they didn’t have an “official” engagement date, she said that after all the personal care (cutting food, helping her dress, toileting etc) that Ryan had to provide while she was in her two casts, she didn’t feel they needed to do something extra in order to celebrate. Besides that, she has never been able to keep a secret so when the package arrived, she had to open it. If they have made it this far, I believe they are set for life.

She has decided she wanted to get married at Chateau Lake Louise next May – probably the long weekend. It will be cheaper if they choose a weekday rather than a weekend so that is probably the route they are going.

While John was living in Vancouver, was doing a gemology course and he recommended Blue Nile as having good prices for the quality so they followed his recommendations.

Her ring is quite pretty – she got a cushion cut diamond about ½ carat on a platinum band. It suits her hand nicely. I had never heard about cushion cut until she and Ryan showed me the website where they bought the ring but I think they made an excellent choice.

I guess the next few months are going to be rather chaotic. Appararently she already has her spreadsheets and plans. Wish me luck!

Minot to Home

We were more than ready to leave Minot on Sunday morning. The hotel had a nice breakfast room and a continental breakfast was included in our room so we had a good start to the day. They even had a self-serve waffle maker! I was laughing at the local newspaper with their photo on the front cover of the arm wrestling championship until I remembered that Calgary is the same during Stampede. People who live in glass houses shouldn’t throw rocks.

The closest we came to adventure was when we were crossing the border into Canada. There were no cars in site as we approached but we stopped at the window and had to wait for the guard. We told him we had nothing to declare then he asked if we were using a GPS because he says the only people who come through Estevan are those who have a GPS that is trying to get them lost! We had planned to go through Estevan quite deliberately so we were amused. The crossing guard when we entered the US was a character – we weren’t sure if he was trying to be funny or not so we tried to cooperate but it was weird. I was driving at the time and explained that my mother has lost her license so I was driving her car back to Calgary. I said that Ellie was from Toronto and I was from Calgary so he wanted to know how she was going to get home. I said by plane then he asked if we were employed. I said who I worked for and Ellie said that she was self-employed. He said “Legal or not?” Needless to say, we replied “legal”. His comment then was “It’s okay if you don’t want to tell me what you do”. Ellie said she is an interior designer and that seemed to satisfy him so off we went. Maybe we should have known at that point that our trip would be interesting.

We arrived in Saskatoon mid-afternoon and had a lovely visit with John and Carley. Their new house is quite cute. We had a nice supper then were on our way early Monday morning.

We drove home through Drumheller – the Dinosaur Capital of the World and home of the Royal Tyrrell Museum. The scenery in the area is spectacular. When you drive through the Badlands, it is like being on another planet.

Steve, James and Willow were all quite enthused to see me again. Within a hour of getting home, Melissa and Ryan arrived as well as David and Maria so we had a great return. Poor Willow was so excited that she hasn’t left my side yet. I guess they missed me!

Now that my vacation is over, it is back to the real world.


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Hudson, Wisconsin to Minot, North Dakota

After our eventful Thursday and Friday, Saturday was relatively quiet. We left Hudson early in the morning on our third trip through Minneapolis-St. Paul. What we didn’t know was that a part of I-94 through Minneapolis was closed for road work. While their regular road signs were great, their detour signs were not. I guess because the road was only closed sometime between 8:30 pm when we last went through and 7:30 am on a Saturday morning, they thought there wouldn’t be many people affected so the need for signs was not as great.

TomTom, our GPS, didn’t like Minnesota at all – he lost his satellite signal upon entry into Minnesota and didn’t find it again until we got to North Dakota. Every so often he would pipe up and say “Turn left, Turn left, Turn left” when there was no left turn anywhere in site.

We had no idea which way to turn until we spotted a mini-van that was from Minnesota and that seemed to know where to go. Like sheep, we followed the van and sure enough, the driver did know where he/she was going. A few miles north of where we started, the construction workers were pulling aside the barriers so the van was number one and we were number two on a nice newly paved road.

Instead of taking a diagonal path across North Dakota, we decided to go to Bismarck, then north to Minot. About ½ way between Bismarck and Minot we went path the Falkirk Mines in Underwood, ND. We saw huge earthmovers and other equipment but nowhere did we see any signs about what they were mining. I finally had a chance to look it up and found out that they do a form of coal mining.

My maternal grandparents’ families were coal miners in Lancashire, England, so I tend to think of coal mining as being in England, not in the USA. It’s funny how we develop thoughts that may have no basis in reality but rather, their basis is in our history.

When we finally pulled into Minot, we located a Days Inn and went to check in. The clerk asked if we were in town for “The Fair”. We had no idea what she was talking about but apparently we got the last room available. She seemed quite enthusiastic that our room was near the pool and hot tub and I too thought that sounded good. The room was a bit larger than we expected and had 2 queen beds, a desk and couch which was nice.

I went into the bathroom and when I came out I told Ellie that we were in a disability accessible room. When she asked why I said that, I told her that once she saw the toilet she would understand – the toilet was about 6 inches higher than usual. We later found out that our room was usually the last one rented out in case someone needed the larger space as well as the grab bars and a higher seat.

It turned out that “The Fair” was the annual State Fair. Ellie and I believe that EVERY 14 year old in the entire state was staying at our hotel and they all were in the swimming pool outside our door. Fortunately, at 11 pm, the night security staff came by and pulled up the tarp over the pool and kicked out the kids – Quiet at Last!

Sunday was scheduled for the Minot to Saskatoon, Saskatchewan leg.


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Thelma and Louise do Illinois, Wisconsin and Minnesota

From Rockford, Illinois we were hoping to make it to hoping to make it to Fargo , North Dakota in one day but the Fates decided to intervene. It should have been a 9 hour drive but with two people sharing the driving and with starting out by 7 am, we thought we were all set.

The morning started off with a realization that there were probably toll roads between Rockford and Fargo – we were alerted to this by TomTom, the GPS system we had. We said that we needed to avoid toll roads because neither of us had any US money on us and the banks would be closed until, we assumed, 10 am so we had to rely on my handy-dandy credit cards.

Well, TomTom decided we need to track all over Illinois in order to avoid toll roads, so, not knowing where they did and did not have toll roads, we needed to follow his instructions. Instead of going northwest, we realized we were heading east. About 10 am, we decided to call it quits, find a bank, and get back on the road. Lake Geneva had a very nice US National Bank so we stopped there.

Ellie said to the teller that she needed money from her credit card. The teller tried the first card and said it didn’t work. Ellie handed over the 2nd card and that didn’t work either. Now, you need to understand that Ellie’s husband is a high up mucky muck at his bank and he deals in international credit cards. She had asked him specifically if she could use any of her cards in the US and he had said “Yes”. Well, he lied! It turned out that card 1 had been cancelled and superseded by card 2, then card 2 was cancelled and superseded by card 3 but Ellie has never seen card 3. Also, the credit card that was taken by the cashier yesterday and cut up – well hubby had lost his card a few weeks ago so had called it in as lost or stolen so Ellie’s card had been cancelled too – but he forgot to tell her that! We were thankful that we didn’t get arrested for using a stolen card. I won’t reveal what she is planning for his cards on his next trip!

I gave the teller my card and once again, it worked so we had cash and we were good to go. We headed back on the road and aimed TomTom towards Minneapolis-St. Paul. We also made sure that we got 2 rolls of quarters! We decided that we liked Minnesota for, among other things, their traffic signs – all the roads were very clearly marked and it was easy to figure out where to go.

On our way to Minneapolis-St. Paul, we stopped in Hudson, Wisconsin, to get gas and stretch our legs and grab a coffee at the MacDonald’s next door to the gas station. We sat out on the patio for a bit and talked to a mom with her 2 children, Madison and Hunter. Mom and the kids went into the restaurant for a potty break and we headed to the car. There was an elderly lady in the parking lot who wanted to go to St. Paul but the person who was explaining was not getting through to her at all, even though we could see the road and the turns required to get back on I-94. We said we were heading that way and to follow us so she did. We lost her about St. Paul so we assumed she found her exit and was okay to get home or wherever she was going.

We had decided to head towards Fargo, North Dakota and see how far we got. When we reached St. Cloud, Wisconsin, we had had it so we pulled into the first motel we saw. We went to get out of the car but when I went to grab my purse, I couldn’t find it. I moved everything from the back seat, checked the trunk, and looked under the seats but no purse. I almost had a melt down at this point. I had the only money, the only credit cards that worked, as well as all the registration and insurance for the car! My heart was in my mouth.

We headed into the hotel and approached the desk. There was a lovely young woman named Amelia on the desk. We told her what had happened and she very thoughtfully found the McDonalds near the Minnesota/Wisconsin border and started to call each one. At the third one, they said they had a patio. When she asked about the purse, they confirmed that someone had turned in a purse. Thankfully, we had enough gas to get back to Hudson. We arrived at the McDonalds and got my purse. The person who turned it in hadn’t left their name or number so I don’t know who my guardian angel was but I am most appreciative of their honesty. I like Wisconsin. Ellie and decided we weren’t in any condition to drive any further so we found the nearest motel, checked in and crashed.


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Rockford, Illinois

Friday, July 31

We are currently in the thriving metropolis of Rockford, Illinois.

I thought we were going via Thunder Bay to drive across Canada because Ellie had said she has always wanted to drive across Canada but I took the second shift of driving and just followed what Ellie told me to do. My geographic knowledge of Ontario is more than slightly lacking so following signs saying Windsor did not twig me that we were going south. When I saw signs that said American border, I started to wonder. Yup, we had decided to drive across the US of A.

We needed to stop and stretch our legs and Ellie wanted some water so we got off the road and stopped at a small convenience store. They wouldn’t take Canadian money so she tried her credit cards. It rejected the first two and the clerk was told to keep the third card! When Ellie talked to her husband last night, he said that last week he had reported the card as stolen but had forgotten to tell her! Fortunately, I got an American Express card from Costco a little while ago so that one worked and we were on the road again.

We drove the ring road around Chicago and stopped in Rockford for the night. Today, we are aiming for Fargo, North Dakota then either Regina or Saskatoon for Saturday night. I would really like to see John and Carley and their new house. He was actually in Calgary again last weekend – there was supposed to be a 10 year high school reunion but it fizzled out however he did get together with some friends so it wasn’t a complete loss. Carley’s family had something going on in Canmore so she was out there.

Ellie and I are good travelling companions. We can talk or drive in silence without feeling put upon. Yesterday we covered quite a bit about our kids as well as a few friends. We laughed, problem solved, gave each other advice.

James is continuing to paint Dave’s house so when we arrive, Ellie and I can see what progress has been made.

On to bigger and better things.


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I made it here!

I arrived safe and sound on Monday and Ellie was there to pick me up. The flight was on time and there was no extraordinary construction on the 401 so I was at Mom’s by about 2:00. She was thrilled to see me.

For the most part, she seems fine – there were odd moments here and there where I noticed lapses but overall, she was fairly competent. There are definite deficits in the problem solving realm, however.

I have decided we need to sort out her filing cabinet so she has room to file the stuff that is taking over the other surfaces in her den. She is quite reluctant to get rid of old condo board meeting minutes and stuff about pot lucks that she organized 10 years ago. She also has a 2 inch thick file about the garage sales the building used to have. I am trying to throw the stuff out in bits and pieces so it isn’t too obvious. Some she is okay with getting rid of but other stuff … When she is not in the room, I have been quickly adding to the shredding pile and getting rid of some of this. I am keeping far more than I think is necessary but in order to keep her happy, it is necessary.

On Tuesday, I opened the door to the laundry room and just about fell over – the smell was awful. I asked Mom is she had any food in there but she said no. I kept looking around and finally found a bag of liquefied potatoes! She then remembered that she had put them in there a while ago but because she doesn’t use potatoes very often, she forgot about them. I have Febreezed the room several times and it is getting better but there is still a smell. Mom hasn’t had any sense of smell for years and apparently one of her workers doesn’t either and I guess the others didn’t want to comment.

On Thursday, Mom got her bad news. We phoned Motor Vehicles and they confirmed that her license has been revoked for medical reasons. Apparently it was done on the 21st so she should have her letter within a day or so. She is still very angry that the doctors, who have never seen her drive, are allowed to determine that she is not fit to drive. From talking to the person at the Medical Review Board, it appears that the concerns are for her cognitive skills.

We saw her family doctor on Wednesday and Dr. G. said that she is not willing to speculate on why the other doctors decided she is not fit to drive. Dr. G. did, however, give her the name of a company who will do driver testing – we called there and they want $495 to do the test but there are obviously no guarantees that she would pass. Apparently there is a 1-1½ hour computer test (you don’t need computer knowledge to do it) then a ½ hour driving test in a car with dual controls. After a week or so, they let you know if you have passed.

Susan, Mom’s personal support worker, who comes in 5 days a week – in the morning and again just after supper, noticed a dripping sound yesterday. I had heard it but did not think about where it might be coming from. She checked the air conditioner and said that was what she heard. I have never had apartment style air conditioning so I didn’t really know that it should not have a dripping sound. On Wednesday afternoon, while I was clearing out boxes and piles of paper, I found that there was damp spot on the carpet. I realized it was probably related to the dripping sound from the air conditioner. On our way out on Thursday, we talked to the building office manager and she and a cleaning lady came up. They found that the water hose was blocked and was causing the whole thing to overflow. It is all cleaned out now but the blower is not sounding right so the building superintendent, who is on holidays, will need to have a look at it on Monday when he is back. Mom figures this will cost her money and it is necessary to have the work done because she is in a condo apartment so if she doesn’t do it, it could cost her lots of money if anyone else’s apartment suffers damage.

In some ways, this was the deciding factor about the car – sounds convoluted but true. She is very conscious about her budget and refuses to spend unnecessary money on anything. She accidently bought the wrong toothpaste and while she dislikes what she bought, she refuses to buy another tube of what she likes because that will cost her. While this seems like a nonsense issue, because she has to spend money on the air conditioner, she has decided she doesn’t want to risk money on the driving test so she has agreed to give up driving. This is going to be so hard mentally for her because she is not ready to admit she is having problems with her independence.

Today, I need to finish the shredding, vacuum and tidy the den, water plants and a few other odds and ends.

Goodbye Calgary, Hello Toronto

Well, I am in the Calgary airport waiting for my flight to Toronto to visit my mother, and hopefully, leave with her car for my cross-Canada trip with Ellie.

I was in to see Jerry, my G.P. last week to renew some prescriptions and we were talking about this “field trip”. He is about my age and he and his siblings had the same problem with their mother. She did finally accept the decision that she wasn’t able to drive but she too was not happy.

I think I will try to get Mom in to see her family doctor while I am visiting. When I had called the hospital earlier this month to alert them to the fact that she did not believe her license had been rescinded, the nurse said they would send a copy of the letter to the family doctor so maybe if Mom hears it from her G.P., maybe she will believe. The other thing I am hoping is that the letter from Motor Vehicles arrives while I am there – that way she won’t be able to deny it as easily.

I was also talking to Jerry about Steve’s lack of appetite and the fact that he is losing weight – which makes sense as he is not eating. I also told him that I think Steve is depressed. His comment was that it is not surprising considering his view of his health and medicine has been proven wrong. I hadn’t thought about it that way but it does make sense to me. Uncle Billy-Bob's Mountain Men Medicine Blog might not be right - surely you jest!

On a happier note, James is going gung-ho on Dave’s housepainting. Dave was telling Melissa that they are amazed each day when they come home and see how far he has progressed. Dave also told Mel that James is a bit anal about getting it right – this suits Dave perfectly because it means his house will be well done rather than a half-hearted job. The downstairs is almost finished and James is planning to do the wall up the stairwell – this will be a “feature wall” so a different colour than the main colour. I am looking forward to seeing it all done by the time I get home in 2 weeks.

I decided to bring all of the receipts and bank statements that need to be reconciled, with me. With Mom having several naps a day, I am planning to go swimming each day (planning – whether it happens or not remains to be seen) and then get my bookkeeping up to date – the last few months have been a real gong-show and I just haven’t had the energy to even start – this will be my opportunity to get caught up. I bought a cute little receipt scanner that I am hoping to put to good use.

Well, my internet access for the next 2 weeks is going to be questionable – it depends on which of Mom’s neighbours have unsecured access but at least I can keep my thoughts up to date.

False Alarm 2

We have invited the kids over for supper for Sunday to have turkey – the one that I discovered when we cleared out the freezer on Canada Day! Mel referred to it as Christmas in July.

James had a soccer game – they lost 7-2 unfortunately – so I took him while Steve stayed home to take care of the food.

We have always put bacon on the turkey – no one knows why – we just always do it. It is a very well loved tradition and there is always a fight over who gets to eat more. Anyway, Steve says the bacon was ready to come off the turkey and James and I weren’t home yet from his game, so he decided to take the turkey out of the oven. This would have been fine with a 5 lb turkey but this one was 15 lbs plus stuffing, pan, etc – probably about 20 lbs. He hasn’t been doing any exercise since his heart attacks and he had been told to not lift anything heavier than about 5 lbs so this was not a good thing.

After supper, his shoulder and back were hurting and his chest was bothering him so he decided to take his nitro-glycerine. He took 2 shots, waited 15 minutes and took another shot but it didn’t help, so off the hospital we went.

After running a bunch of tests – heart reading and blood work, etc – they decided that he had chest wall pain and there was nothing serious to worry about. We were actually in and out of the hospital in under 4 hours which is pretty remarkable.

I hope he learns that there are some things that he needs to be more careful about – not lifting heavy things is certainly one of them.

False Alarm

I decided to go in to work today for a few hours because with going away for 2 weeks, I need to do a bit of catching up before I leave.

Before I left, I was out taking Willow for her morning leg stretch, there was a phone call from the agency that provides Mom’s homecare workers. They simply said that an ambulance had been called for Mom and they were taking her to the hospital but no details other than that.

On that basis that I might have to leave for Toronto earlier than I expected, I headed into the office and waited a bit until I called the hospital. All they would say was that she hadn’t been seen by a doctor yet so to call back later. When I bought a long-distance calling card about 2 months ago, I certainly didn’t expect to get this much use out of it.

I called to Mom’s friends, Eleanor, to let her know that Mom was at the hospital because she is one who checks up on her regularly and was one of the ones who found her back in early June.

I called the hospital again and the nurse I talked to said that they had run some tests but would be releasing Mom home shortly. She wouldn’t tell me why Mom was there but said there was nothing serious.

A short while later, James called to say that Mom had called the house and for me to call her back. I did and she wanted to know who had called me because she hadn’t given permission to anyone to call me. I said that the agency knows I am her nearest next of kin so if she was taken to hospital, it made sense that they would call me. She was still quite perturbed that I had been called.

Her story is that she was feeling wobbly when she got up so she lay down on the couch in the den. When the phone rang when her homecare worker arrived, she got up to answer the call and she tripped and fell, hitting the sewing machine desk drawers. She says she went to the hospital by taxi, not by ambulance so I don’t know what to believe. I will have to talk to the agency on Monday and find out what really happened. Mom says she got a cut on her shoulder and is badly bruised – I guess I will find out how badly bruised next week when I arrive.

Ellie said she was talking to her mother about my Mom and looking for suggestions on how to get buy-in from Mom about moving. Ellie’s mom took the problem to her ladies’ group and one of the ladies suggested I get one of Mom’s friends to come with us when we go looking. When I was talking to Eleanor, I asked if she was willing to come and she said she would.

This next week should be interesting.

When does it get better?

A friend gave me a book a few years ago called “Managing to be Free”. It was about getting organized and setting priorities as a Christian woman. I think the time has come to read it again!

One of the concepts that really stood out in my mind was the question of whether I am a thermostat or a thermometer – Do I set the atmosphere in my home or do I simply react? These days I am really a thermometer - and I really need to work on that.

Steve is still not feeling well – the doctor has given him something for the tingling sensations but it isn’t as effective as he wants. He is not sleeping well so he was also given a prescription for amitriptyline – which used to be called Elavil. It is actually an anti-depressant but can be used as a sleeping aid. He is supposed to start by taking one pill a night and he can keep adding pills – as soon as it helps, he is supposed to stop at that dosage, until he reaches a max of 15 a night. After about 4 nights he decided it wasn’t working! What this means is that he doesn’t sleep at night so he is napping on and off all day.

On Sunday, I decided my goal was to keep him up all day – I think he has got his days and nights mixed up – like the kids did as babies! I did succeed by going to the Farmer’s Market then Ikea. We had a good day, all in all.

I am really frustrated with him and while I realize some of what is going on is not under his control, that doesn’t stop me from getting short-tempered. He decided far too soon, at least in my opinion, to stop taking the pills so I guess I am blaming him for not sleeping.

I think he may be suffering from depression so I talked to him about it. Since then, things almost seem to be getting a bit better – maybe just realizing what is happening to him has helped.

He attended the Cardiac Centre’s exercise program’s information session today. He says he didn’t learn anything new but at least he went. Now he has to call them tomorrow to set up a time that will work for him to actually attend the classes.

Mel arranged for flowers to my Mom today for her birthday tomorrow. Mom called me tonight to tell me they had arrived and they are lovely. BUT, then she told me that she called Motor Vehicles and they have no record of her license being cancelled so she is planning to drive to the drug store and the grocery store tomorrow because she was really missing not having a car. I have called the hospital to ask them to look into this but now that she isn’t a patient, they may not be able to do anything. I told the nurse I talked to that there is nothing I can do from a distance and if she has an accident, they will have to deal with the fallout, not me.

My visit in 10 days time should be interesting! Wish me luck.