Surgery done

Had surgery yesterday-am doing pretty well-no crutches! Knee still makes me limp as it's swollen and not used to straightening, but feeling happy to have it over. I was anxious right before-my pulse when she took it was high-113. And BP was up. But private clinic was actually quite nice-though really hospital type stuff looks medical, no matter what you do with it. I asked the anesthetist what drugs I was getting they give lots in surgery-no nausea or anything this time which was nice, and not very much discomfort.
OR had all these huge windows with a nice view-weird, but attractive.
Have not had to take many pain killers-have codiene and tylenol tabs-but only need 1 once in a while.
Allison left today-we were sad to see her go-but looking forward to Golden soon where we will get to see everyone!
Weather continues to be hot, hot hot. 36 or 37 today. Air conditioning what did we do without you?
Nick lays in front of sliding doors which face south-in a patch of sun, but right beside air conditioning vent-best of both worlds. Really, he is clever. Which is why we keep him despite his continued reluctance to use litter box.
Mom had a polymyalgia flare up-it has been acting up lately for her-I don't think heat is supposed to bother it, but it seems to be related in her case. I am happy that she has that air conditioner as I think it helps with this heat wave.

Visit

Here is picture from visit also picture of creek flash flooding across street after crazy rain/thunderstorm will update more later, we are going tubing in Penticton river channel today:

Extreme sheep

This is what sheep herders do to combat boredom.

bad neighbours

We have some bad neighbours. They moved in there in January and I was willing to give them the benefit of the doubt, but no more. It is a young couple (look like they are 15) with a toddler.
The guy was in court around then for spousal abuse, but people change and maybe something like being charged makes a person think twice about how they are living. Not him, apparently. He is always yelling at his girlfriend and kid (his favourite descriptive word starts with f). Anyway today they had a lot of people over, blaring music, drinking all day. Then we heard them say they were going to load up and go floating down the river. So I called the cops. No cops yet, but suddenly it is quiet over there. I don't think I will take as long to call next time.

Vine

I was at Jones St yesterday weeding. How weeds can florish that well when it is 35 degrees out is beyond me. I got to the Virginia Creeper. When we had the nasty Siberian Elm hedge it grew and grew despite the fact that it kept getting trimmed with the hedge-including a couple times when we drastically cut the hedge down to about 2 feet. Richard of course, tore out the hedge a few years ago. Creeper disappeared, then reappeared, but not for long as a couple times Richard added a bunch of soil. However, a couple years ago it reappeared.
As I was weeding around it I looked closer and noticed berries on it. But they didn't look like the berries on the Virginia Creeper growing on our deck here. I compare it to the neighbours vines. The Virginia Creeper is a grape vine!

summer

I have been living for these few weeks of summer we get. To be able to get the vegetables from the garden for supper. To sit on my lounge chair with my book and glance up once in a while at the beautiful blooming flower garden. I must try to appreciate it and not keep thinking that fall isn't really all that far away.

Surgery date

Phone call from surgeon's office-July 30th is surgery date.
That day for sure I will win knee competition.

eating

So, should I post a schedule for cooking etc while in Golden?

Nice to have Company

The Rocky people arrived about noon. It was great to see Grace again, seems as though she has been gone from Edmonton longer than 2.5 months. She brought our new nephew Scott and Theresa is always a good guest, and visiting with her is fun. We did not do too much in the afternoon, I went over to get my hair cut, and we both had naps, and sat on the balcony and visited. Saturday night we went to Doans for Vietnamese food, Grace and Scott had never had it before, and they seemed to enjoy it.

Sunday morning Theresa and I were up early and had coffee on the balcony, before going to visit the other Sivak’s. Haley is moving out of home, to live closer to University. She was asked to move right into he PHD, and not finish her masters so that was quite a compliment to her work. Marylynne and Ali are touring around Australia, and will be home next weekend. Nathan is taking some night classes, but Kay was not sure what exactly he was taking. He is still operating the backhoe during the day. Cooper is apprenticing to be a welder. Deanna and Rod are looking for a new house, all on one level, because of Deanna’s bad knees.

After the company left, I did not do too much, had to go down town and return some library books. Bought some new frames so I can hang some art

Bad weather all around

That is an amazing picture, Lisa. It reminds me of the big fire a few years ago.
We had our own run-in with weather last night. Grace and I were in Edmonton so she and Scott could go to the Lion King (tickets were her birthday present). About 9:30 p.m. or so the wind started blowing very hard, you could hear things blowing around outside. In the morning there were broken tree branches all over the place.
Grace and Scott said the play was really good. We went for Vietnamese food for supper.
Jude, Allison and I went over to see George and Kay this morning. Auntie Kay doesn't look too good, she is all bruised but she and Jude assured me that she was much worse a week ago. I can't imagine how bad that would be. Anyway she is starting to feel better. Uncle George is as good as usual. Now that I think of it I don't recall him saying "How green was the valley of my youth" once.
Scott had to be back to work in the early afternoon so after Jude's wonderful breakfast we drove home, I had a nap and went outside to putter in the yard. Things are good there. We have peapods! And are going to have a Caesar salad from our own lettuce for supper. I think next week I could start thinning carrots. It appears that a cool spring and summer are good for the flowers too, they look really good.
Lisa, you may the short-term leader in the knee competition but I think overall I will be worse.

Forest Fire

They have 17,000 evacuated-about 1/2 of the Westside. And a bunch more on alert, though don't think they have evacuated anymore since during the night/early morning. The Glenrosa fire started somewhere around where I used to live before Richard and I got married. A little strange.
I went down to Jones St as we are catsitting for old neighbours there. You can see the fire at Rose Valley from there-the smoke plumes from it and see the helicopters flying in and out. That part of the fire they are only using air support as it is too dangerous to put in ground crews.
Weather unfortunately not cooperative as will be hot and dry, in the 30's the rest of the week, but today only 27, so that's better and much less wind,which caused lots of problems yesterday. A cold front blew in-with slightly cooler weather today-but that caused all the wind-gusts up to 60 kms/hr.
Pretty smokey as Mom said-I could smell it this morning when we got up-smells like campfire.

Done Shrieking

WCB finally approved my claim! So, will get paid for the last month off work and seeing that I have run out of sick time this cheque-good timing. I went so far as to apply for medical EI on-line because I thought how long can I wait?
It is a big relief just to have an answer.
Had my evaluation yesterday-they like me-so that's good. Ahem-frontline leader-ahem.

Anne Elizabeth Ferrey, B. Sc. M.Sc

I can't believe that I'm doing two posts in a row. I guess I have the most exciting life at the moment. Anyway, I arrived in Wales last night, just in time for Anne's grad. I had to miss the gala dinner that was the end to my course, but it was the only way to get here at a decent hour. I arrived in a rainstorm that ended up lasting most the next twenty four hours (made me a bit homesick for Vancouver!). Anne had a busy night planned, going around and seeing different friends, so Del and I tagged along- Del as chauffeur, and me as curiosity, being her brother and all. It was quite a nice evening, and finished up at someone's house, where they fed us a very nice fish pie.
This morning it was up bright and early, and into town for the graduation ceremony. The ceremony was in both Welsh and English, which worried me at first, as I thought it would take forever. Happily, they proceeded quickly, and names are apparently the same in both, so they only said those once. They had undergrads first, then a nice harp solo, then the masters, then the Ph. d. students. We clapped for every single person though, which got a bit old after a while. There are some pictures, but will have to wait till I'm back in Canada. After the ceremony was a nice little reception with some lovely cheeses, of which I ate far too many. We stopped back at the place we were staying for a bit of a rest, and then off to the grad party which Anne's friend had organized. Quite a lovely party as well, with supper and dancing, and then finally home, a quick update, and then to bed.
All in all, a great day, and I was glad that I was able to be there on behalf of the family for Anne!

St. Swithun

July 15 is St. Swithun's day; I can't figure out if you in Canada are just about to start it, or if it was yesterday for you. Anyway. July 15, which is ending as I type for me, is St. Swithun's day, and St. Swithun is the patron saint of Winchester Cathedral. Because of this, we had a field trip today, and took a coach down to Winchester (about an hour's drive). We got to tour the close (the precinct of the Cathedral) which was very interesting, and we got to tour the Cathedral, which was even more interesting. Lots of good tombs, including some very interesting bishop's tombs. A couple of the bishops had effigies in full episcopal gear, reminding posterity what they did for a living. A couple of them had effigies of them as corpses- reminding posterity just how humble they were. Or something. I also saw the site where the second Norman king (William the Conqueror's son, William Rufus) was originally buried, although he's been moved now. St. Swithun is no longer at the Cathedral, having been scattered to the four winds, as our guide put it. A church in Norway has one of his limbs, and a church in France has his skull.
Swithun was a 9th century bishop, who asked to be buried in an ordinary place- no big shrine. This was done, but then they built a new Cathedral, and the old saint was quite a money maker, thanks to all the pilgrims who were healed as they came to his tomb. They moved his bones inside the cathedral on July 15, in the midst of a terrible rainstorm- understood to be Swithun expressing displeasure at the ornate new shrine. It is said that if it rains on St. Swithun's day, it will rain for 40 days later. It did rain today, so we shall see what happens!

The main part of the day was Choral Evensong. This is the kind of service where the choir sings most of it, and you just get to follow along and listen. Since it's St. Swithun's day, the BBC was broadcasting it live, and if you want to listen, go to http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b00lk91l . It was a good service, but to keep it at an hour long, they had to cut out the hymn- one of the only parts the congregation is allowed to sing! Still, if you listen carefully, you might hear me during the creed- there were only about 300 people there, so it shouldn't be too hard!

The course ends tomorrow, and it's off to Wales to see Anne for a couple nights.

Drumheller

A group from church planned a weekend at Drumheller to go see the Passion Play and go to Rosebud. We didn't sign up for it, we just never feel like going anywhere. But just before we left for Ontario one of the group had to travel for work so asked us if we wanted the tickets he had bought. We said yes but when the weekend came, we really really didn't feel like going. But it turned out to be a great time.
We stayed at a bed and breakfast on a place outside of Carbon. They also have an RV park so the members of our group who had trailers stayed there. The b and b was very nice and it was so quiet out there. We got to visit with our friends and then go over to our nice comfy bed in the house. On Saturday we went to Rosebud to see Man of La Mancha. I was pretty sure it would be boring. I was wrong. It was so good. I didn't want it to end. Rosebud is a cool little town. The theatre and theatre school have revitalized the place.
On Sunday we went to the Badlands Passion Play. It was very good too, much much better than I expected. It was amazing how they told the story in this natural ampitheatre in the hills. Very well done.
Then off home last night. Have to go and pay bills etc, haven't done anything like that for a long time.

Some Bad News

I had a call from Kay on Friday night, she was walking across a crosswalk on Tuesday, when she was hit by a car. the car was in the wrong though that doesn't help Kay much. She has a lot of bruising, and had to get stiches around her eye. she said the emergency vehicles were there pretty quickly, and they took her off to the Royal Alex. George was at home and the police came over to tell him about the accident, and let him know what hospital they had taken Kay to. She did not have to stay over night, and came home on Tuesday. I walked over to visit with her a little this afternoon, and instead of some flowers I brought her some books, and fresh fruit from the market. She goes to see her Dr tomorrow, so will know better about any physio etc. she has a broken rib, and it really hurts her to walk very much. I will check in again sometime next week, so will let you all know how she is doing. George seemed pretty shaken up, though he tried to not show it. Maylynn is away in Australia, so Deanna is the lone helper. I don't think those kids should take any more vacations, this year, it seems to be an invitation for something bad to happen.

Not too much going on with me, work is busy (what else is new), the weather not very good, and I an looking forward to my two weeks off in August.

Saturday the 11th of July

Our visitors just left a little while ago. We had a really good visit with Bill and Kathy. Richard took them on lots of hikes-Bear Creek, Mission Greenway, Paul's Tomb and Knox Mtn. We went to Summerland and Penticton one day and also went to Summerhill Winery for supper-mmmm. They also got to spend some time at the beach and looking around, and Kathy and I went for a pedicure so I think it was a well rounded visit. weather was OK, mostly cooler-but that was when they were doing hikes and it finally heated up yesterday-32. Today 33.
Bill and Richard are strangely different in personality. Bill does things at hyperspeed-talking fast like he can't get the words out fast enough, unable to sit still for any length of time. Richard talks slower, moves slower. They are alike in certain ways though. We were talking about how they will both drink coffee rather than offend someone by not having it. Though this leads to in Bill's case, warp speed conversation. In Richard's case, feelings of nausea and shakiness.
I am still waiting around. WCB will hopefully look at my file next week-hmmpphh. I called 2X and left messages. Finally got a call back saying that my file had been transferred to another agent, who was on holidays, so someone else would be taking his/her file. That will make 4 adjustors looking at my claim so far. Does not seem to be timely service to say the least, though they did want to let me know they hadn't forgotten about me. I don't know who has done what on my file, other than to know that apparently all the paperwork is in and they still have not decided what they are doing regarding my claim. As I keep reminding myself-surgeon is away anyway, so couldn't have surgery until at least week of the 20th. I suspect will be later than that.
On more positive notes-flower pots doing well, cats are happy-currently both are laying in patches of sun napping, am almost finished Guggenheim book. And we got a digital camera! Now I will post pictures. After battery is charged. And I take a picture of something.

If anyone goes to Ontario for a holiday I recommend going to Niagara-on-the-Lake. It's gorgeous. We booked a bed and breakfast at Queenston near there for Saturday night, so stopped at Niagara Falls on our way from Guelph. The falls were great, but there were so many people there, and the streets around were so tacky. By the end of the day we were in sensory overload so when we got to our beautiful peaceful b and b it felt like such a relief. On Sunday we parked at N on the L and just walked around for hours. The main street is charming with some really good shops, and the rest of the town is all old well kept houses with beautiful gardens. They have a drama festival there all summer so if you spent a few days you could see some plays, go to Niagara Falls, lots of historical stuff around. Caught our flight back from Hamilton and were home around midnight. Sam and Grace said they did not miss us.
Grace's birthday yesterday so Tim came over for supper. It is her last year as a teenager and our last year having teenagers.

Ripon College at Cuddesdon

Well, it was a long, long day of travel, but I have arrived at the theological college near Oxford where I am doing a summer school course (The Bible in the Modern World) for the next two weeks. I drove from Wells to Quesnel (one hour) then a ten hour bus ride through the night to Vancouver, a ten and a half hour flight to England, and a two hour train ride to Oxford, followed by fifteen minutes in a cab. All in all it went quite well - I slept on the bus, though not on the plane. The only problem was that my luggage didn't arrive. Obviously, this is quite annoying, and very inconvenient, although I'm saving my anger just in case they don't manage to get me my bag before I leave the country. They've promised to courier it to me, but we'll see. I stopped in Oxford before I came here, so I at least have the basics.

The school itself is very cool. Lots of dark wood and stone. I'm not sure how old the building is- I would guess 'fairly'. Everyone here seems nice- several other Canadians, a couple Americans, an Australian, people from Hong Kong, England Scotland and Northern Ireland. A mix of people studying for ordination, people who are already ordained, and people who are just interested. So far we've had tea, then drinks, and then dinner, and it's all been great. The actual course begins tomorrow morning, with Morning Prayer at 8. I hope I can wake up in time, as my alarm clock is in my other bag.

Ducks

Last night as Richard and I were driving home from supper on the beach (me-Wendy's Mandarin Chicken Salad, Richard Chicken nuggets, both of us-Frosties), we saw a mother duck and her 1/2 grown offspring walking down the road. We pull in to the driveway and notice that the teenage ducks have waddled onto our property and are making their way up our lawn to the fence, seeing the pond maybe? if there were no fences, they would only have to walk through 3 backyards to get to the pond. Mother duck didn't know where they had gone and was quacking furiously, trying to find them. Teenage ducks walking back and forth at the fence, unable to reach pond. Richard went over to ducks to herd teenage ducklings towards mother. Mother and ducklings reunited-but all of them seem confused about what to do next. I go to move sprinkler at other end of house. A few minutes later, Richard crosses my path slowly and puts his finger up to his mouth-shushingly. He makes his way to the corner of the property, ducks following all in a row. I watch as he slowly makes his way to the duckpond, with a small line of ducks following him. Mother and ducklings reach pond and hop in. It was one of the cutest things I have ever seen.

Back in Guelph. We were going to go the John McCrae house (in Flanders Fields guy) but Anne just informed us she has to get to Kitchener before 5 p.m. because she hasn't yet signed up for Ontario health care and needs it before she leaves for Wales on Monday.
Yesterday was another long day of driving but we had a nice visit with Tony and Ruth Ferrey, they are such good people and seemed really glad to see us. They have two houses so we visited with them in both! It was 4 or so hours drive after that. Geoff broke his glasses while we were there so had to wear sunglasses all the way back. But he got his prescription faxed from Rocky to a Lens Crafters so we will pick up his new glasses after we get back from Kitchener I guess.
I think our holidays are always too short, there never seems time to just do nothing. Well, maybe we can have some quiet time tomorrow. We go to Niagara Falls, are staying in a B&B in Queenston, right by Niagara-on-the-Lake. Flight on Sunday doesn't leave till around 7 p.m. so will have time to look around.
The weather in Ottawa was nice but it has been rainy here most of the time. Still warm though.

Summer with Crutch

We went camping this week for a couple days. Figured I could sit at home limping around, or sit around on the beach. Richard was agreeable to loading etc. so we went to the Forestry site just past Fintry. Cheaper, site right on the beach, lovely. Sites are a bit closer together than at a provincial site-but less people and quieter-unless I suppose that you end up beside drunken hunters or something. There was a site host though and she ran a tight ship. Did not allow people to 'reserve' meaning put up a chair, pay and then come back 2 days later to claim it. as she said, "I'm Irish and menopausal".
They lost my report of injury due to implementing a new computer system-so am quite sure that i will not be getting surgery this week as they haven't approved my claim yet. (does this bring up thoughts of your work Judith?) I made several calls a couple days ago to facilitate this approval process as it is one large bureaucratic nest of people who need to be sharing information with one another. However, I remained pleasant and congenial with all of them as they were all trying to sort this out too. Right now am waiting to make sure claim is approved, guy at WCB seemed to think there would be no problem, once Persons' X,Y, and Z gave him the correct information. Unfortunately, i think the surgeon is on holidays starting next week for 2 weeks, so don't know how that will impact things. They had better not schedule it during my vacation.Mother of Pearl, this process takes a long time.
It is supposed to get to 33 this week, starting today, but we have air conditioning! This will not help as I go to Jones to weed. Pushing myself along in the dirt.
Terasen Gas continues to send us gas bills in the wrong name-Richard Winsink, despite me telling them several times. I feel that I cannot manage anymore phone calls correcting things that are wrong.
Bill and Kathy will be here next week. We have come up with a list of things to do, all of them are basically not involving me very much due to being on crutches. I can walk quite a bit further in them now that i have calluses forming under my armpits, but still limited. So either, I go someplace, and then plunk myself down somewhere with a book to wait until Richard, Bill, and Kathy come back, or I send them out and stay at home with a book.
We went to the fireworks last night, they were well done. We got a close parking spot and exited the downtown quickly, knowing the North End routes to take.

Our Nation's Capital

It was a long drive to Ottawa yesterday. On the famous 401 highway that headlines the national news when it is snowy in the winter because it is so important. But we made it to our hotel with the generous help of our GPS lady.
The hotel is nice and in a great location. We walked to Parliament Hill last night. The only tour that was available was a French one so we signed up for it then walked around the Parliament Buildings. There is a big stage set up there for the Canada Day program and Sarah McLaughlin was on the stage doing a rehearsal for tomorrow! We sat on the grass and listened until it was time for our tour. It felt like Folkfest except there were only a few people there.
A French tour is interesting. Anne got most of what the guide said, but I gave up concentrating after a while and just looked around. Once in a while the guide would say something in English. It was great, though. And the library - I wanted to hide from the tour and stay all night in the library looking around.
There's lots going on today, all the museums are free. We are meeting a friend from Rocky who is here visiting family. Looking forward to the Museum of Civilization. Big fireworks tonight.