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elders…

14 Thursday Nov 2013

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a few folks I know are going through tough times with their elders… I’ve been thinking of them a lot… I remember how hard those times were… hours in hospitals where conversation seems to run out…

this morning at an event we had, we used playing cards…

brought to mind the hours and hours that our family played cards while sitting with my mother in hospital as she was in her final months of life….

the girls remember too I think… we would play rummy for hours at a time… there isn’t a whole lot you can do in the hospital and it helped pass the time… also gave us some fun – including mom as we took turns winning and losing…

over the years we’ve played cards in many a hospital room as well as in living rooms of our loved ones…

not sure if my little boys even know how to play cards… will have to work on that with them…

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the leaking pond…

13 Wednesday Nov 2013

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on Friday I wrote the email that had been sitting waiting for me to make a decision about…

I had been asked to provide a reference to the people who built my new pond…

pump out...

pump out…

the pond is still leaking and I finally took the pump out of the water as I didn’t want it to freeze…

wasn’t sure how to respond to this request, so spent nearly a month thinking about it… finally wrote to the owner mentioning the things that hadn’t gone well, beside the fact that the pond was still leaking…

I copied the person who had sent the reference request, as well as the person who has been trying diligently to fix the leak…

both the owner and the worker were back in touch with me in about half an hour and we set up a meeting…

this afternoon I met with the owner and the person who has been doing most of the work trying to sort out the leakiness…

area where swail will be built...

area where swail will be built…

they plan to put a swail in so that rain water will run toward the cedar and away from the pond… they will over seed the low spots and put in additional pieces of slate if necessary to make sure the path is flat… they are coming tomorrow to get this done…

waterfall in pieces...

waterfall in pieces…

they are hoping to re-position the waterfall and add water tomorrow and check the leak… if they can’t do proper testing because of the cold, they will come back in the spring to open the pond and make sure the fix has worked…

I am feeling much more hopeful and sorry that I wasn’t in touch with them sooner so the weather would have been better for them to get the work done… that water is very cold, and quite hard in some places…

this pond is supposed to be a bit of a memorial to my beloved… I will be happy when it is fixed…

one call down…

12 Tuesday Nov 2013

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on Friday, I left work a bit early and when I got home made the first of the difficult calls… this one was about health/dental benefits…

house phone...

house phone…

called the number of the person that I had spoken with right after George died… the message was that the phone was no longer in service… that didn’t seem like a good sign…

then I called the local place and asked for the Human Resources person I had spoken with previously… she wasn’t in that position so they put me through to the person who was now doing that work…

I didn’t recognize her name, so was thinking I was going to have to give a big long story about his death, the fact that they were providing coverage for two years, yada, yada, yada…

she knew who I was and who George was and we had a very productive call… she gave me a number to call but then suggested I wait to hear back from her as she would check with another person to be sure I got the right person at the head office, as the organization had been restructured recently…

she is going to call me back… I am feeling hopeful…

Remembrance Day…

11 Monday Nov 2013

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slept poorly last night and did not feel at all well for most of today…

so, I did very little… watched the live ceremony from Ottawa, and think I may have seen my son-in-law marching by… spent some time in the hot tub, remembering…

reminded me of George’s dad, who had served in the military… he had a heart attack on November 11, 32 years ago… he died shortly after that and I remember making fancy sandwiches with my mom and dad for the family gathering following his funeral… it was the first time I rode in a limo and I will always remember that… I think George always thought about his dad especially around Remembrance Day…

I remember how George’s mom was so worried about me as I was pregnant with Crystal and Isabel hovered over me the whole time, worried that something was going to happen to the baby…

I think of my dad’s health… he was a great athlete, but after the war his lungs didn’t work very well, something to do with sleeping in wet foxholes the entire time he was overseas, which moved to emphysema… from the time I was young he struggled with his lungs and his health… of course smoking didn’t help…

I remember the work my mom did to ensure that there was a statue by the Legislature to commemorate all of the women in the Armed Forces who went to war, but were rather invisible… she spent the war in England touching up photos of ships before they went to the media, so that it wasn’t possible to see where they were, or exactly what they looked like… not the kind of work anyone would do today, lol…

so many people, who have gone, to be thankful for…

poppies in the garden...

poppies in the garden…

 

the poppies in our garden always reminded us of these and so many other special people… wondering if there will be any next summer after all the pond construction that took place this June…

productivity…

10 Sunday Nov 2013

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got lots done today…

finally got working in the computer room… spent the morning there sorting, filing and shredding…

lots of shredding done

still looks a mess, but there is no paper hanging around that has to be dealt with… tomorrow I will continue by filling up some boxes to give away…

still messy but no papers n sight...

still messy but no papers in sight…

I keep telling myself that I will deal with the mail immediately as it comes into the house and shred things right away, but can’t seem to do it… thinking about how I can get the shredder down by the front door… hopefully that will make it much easier to open, review and then shred all in one step…

thought the kids were coming for dinner tonight, but one of them has the flu so they didn’t make it… the plan is they will come tomorrow, but we will see how they are all feeling… luckily I hadn’t got the meat sauce ready yet, so will do that tomorrow…

am writing this as my potatoes cook and my steak broils… looking forward to a lovely quiet supper… the potatoes are going to be mashed with cauliflower and onion and I am warming up some corn to go with…

had George been here, he would have faced the cold and barbecued the steak… decided broiling would be fine tonight, lol…

chickadees…

09 Saturday Nov 2013

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watered some plants, tidied the kitchen, made myself something to eat… that’s about all I accomplished today…

had big plans to spend some time in the computer room cleaning it up, but never made it… did go through old mail, tossed some and put some aside for shredding…

spent some time sitting in the living room looking out at the wet landscape… last night it snowed a bit, but it melted this morning and throughout the day snow/sleet fell off and on…

chickadee in the middle of the feeder...

chickadee in the middle of the feeder…

watched a chickadee family come to the feeders for some dinner….

chickadee working to get the seed...

chickadee working to get the seed…

in one of the pictures you can see the wind blowing the bird’s feathers…

hope the sun comes out tomorrow…

sunrise…

08 Friday Nov 2013

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this morning I was stopped in my tracks when I saw a beautiful sky… had to run, get the camera and take some pictures, because it was just sooooo beautiful…

sunrise...

sunrise…

within five minutes the beauty was gone and as I drove to work it was just a dull overcast sky… amazing that I had that moment to enjoy…

tonight I went shopping with Crystal, who starts a new job on Tuesday and needs more business-office outfits.. we had success at three stores and stopped for a bite in the Food Court…

while I was sitting at a table waiting for her, I watched a couple, maybe ten years younger than me, finish up their supper together and then get up and move on with their evening…

reminded me of George and I having supper out and discussing whatever… then heading off to do the next thing on our list…

I miss him so much… it would have been nice to have him there to see that lovely sky…

 

 

crusts…

07 Thursday Nov 2013

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recently was part of a conversation about crusts… someone mentioned asking for some crusts before a family event where there were fancy sandwiches… seemed rather sad that they had to eat crusts…

then she explained that when she and her sisters made fancy sandwiches their mother had taught them to spread the filling generously all the way to the edges and then when the crusts were cut off there were lots of leftover bits of deliciousness for them to share… too funny… didn’t feel so bad for her after that…

brought to mind my parents… they made the best fancy sandwiches and I learned to make them by working with mom and dad as they prepared for special events such as showers, and often, funerals… they had done catering early on in their life together and were both good cooks… my dad made the world’s best fudge and I still think about it…

over the years I, often with a group of my women friends, have made many a fancy sandwich… it is always an enjoyable undertaking as we gather in the kitchen and around the table to mix fillings, spread them onto the bread, cut off the crusts and package them to go into the fridge, wrapped in tea towels, to wait for their final cutting and distribution… all the while sharing laughter and conversation… haven’t done it in a long time…

when we made the sandwiches, we would go to the edges, but not leave much filling on them so the crusts would be just that… and often they would be saved to share with the birds… in those days we didn’t know that bread wasn’t really good for birds… dad always wanted to be sure we buttered to the edge of the bread…

dinner, eggs and crust=less bread fingers...

dinner, eggs and crustless bread fingers…

tonight I was exhausted from a couple of busy workdays and was craving something comforting… so I made soft boiled eggs and crustless fingers for my dinner…

I do miss my mom and dad, although they have been gone for 25 years…

Chihuly Gardens…

06 Wednesday Nov 2013

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recently my daughter made a day trip to Montreal to see Dale Chihuly’s art installations at the Museum of Fine Arts in Montreal, the first major Canadian museum show of his work…

she enjoyed the trip and the amazing art… she had introduced me to his work years ago, and I have read books and watched a number of TV shows about him and the amazing installations he has produced over the years… so, it was a must for us to see some of his work when we had the opportunity…

made me look back at the pictures we took when we went to Chihuly Garden and Glass in Seattle following our cruise to Alaska… seeing it in person made all the previous things I’d seen and read about pale by comparison…

my favourite piece of all the ones in the exhibition...

my favourite piece of all the ones in the exhibition…

we spent an entire morning wandering around the space… must give kudos to Ron, who wasn’t nearly as taken by it all as we were, but he patiently followed us as we went back and forth throughout the space, lol… we were so awed by the beauty and magnitude of the work he and his many colleagues put into the installations…

one small area of the garden...

one small area of the garden…

it was a beautiful day and we spent as much time in the garden as we did in the building…

Dale Chihuly taken by me...

Dale Chihuly taken by me…

the most exciting thing was that we got to meet him, get our pictures taken with him and talk a bit about his work… he was in town for a surprise birthday visit to one of his collectors and stopped by to speak with some school kids who were taking a tour…

he answered questions and then agreed to having his photo taken with individuals and chat with them… we were ecstatic to have the opportunity to see and speak with him in person… felt like meeting a rock star…

Cyndi and I with Dale Chihuly taken by one of their photographers...

Cyndi and I with Dale Chihuly taken by one of their photographers…

one of the great things they do is have photographers walking around the building and garden who take your picture and give you a little card… you take the card to a machine, enter your email address and the picture goes directly to you… and it is all free… this was particularly wonderful as we had paid dearly for any photos taken on the ship, lol…

Seattle Space Needle through one of the installations...

Seattle Space Needle through one of the installations… this picture gives you a sense of the magnitude of the installations…

if you are in Seattle, make the time to visit Chihuly Garden and Glass… it is located at the base of the Space Needle and will absolutely blow your mind…

massage…

05 Tuesday Nov 2013

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was talking with someone about Reiki and it brought to mind massage…

George was great at giving massages… he got as much enjoyment out of giving someone a neck rub, back rub or complete massage as the person receiving it… he was gentle but was able to melt away all the knots that were hiding…

he didn’t have any formal training, although he took a few short courses and read a lot on the subject…

for a while he was considering taking one of the few programs that were available at the time but the cost was prohibitive in those days…

it was a gift and he was always happy to share… still have the massage table he used… guess I should get rid of that…

we also talked about people who do healing touch and what a gift that is… again, it feels like one of those things where someone has a gift and then it is enhanced by training… one of my friends has saved me a couple of times from debilitating migraines…

April 2011 fun in the hot tub...

April 2011 fun in the hot tub…

tonight, as I was sitting in the hot tub, I was thinking about what fun it was when we would go in together… another person always adds to the water level and it was a game to be the first one in and then have the water rise when the other climbed in… we did some of our best talking in the dark while we sat enjoying the steamy water… of course I don’t have any pictures of the two of us in the hot tub, lol…

I miss that..