Our son turned 38 years old today. I can't believe it! 38 years ago, a teensy, premature bundle was put into my arms and I fell completely in love. So did my husband. The three of us have maintained a fairly close relationship through the intensely good and equally intensely bad times in our lives. There have been a few bumps in the road, but the older we all get, the more we appreciate each other and enjoy communicating and sharing our lives with each other. Tonight we SKYPE'd for almost an hour, planning our trip to NYC in a couple of months' time. Neither my husband nor myself are all that interested in NYC and the many amazing sights it has to offer, we just want to see our son. If we can get a few museum and art gallery visits in, a kosher lunch and a meal at Bushwick's one amazing French cuisine restaurant, plus a trip to Central Park just to say we have been there and seen it, that will be good enough for us. It is rather nice to be able to plan a trip where the focus of the trip is simply family, without it being a time competition to cram in as many tourist attractions as possible. It always felt that way to us when our son lived in Vancouver. There were so many things we wanted to see and do there, but we don't have the same attitude about New York City, for whatever reason. Maybe this is simply the reconnaisance trip where we will discover the things we want to return to see next time.
This has been a peaceful Sunday. My husband enjoyed his visit to the church he attended this morning and I hung out with my friends at a Baptist Church. Of all the churches I have attended in this province in the past 15 years, churches of all denominations, this particular congregation is the friendliest, most welcoming one I have been to yet. People actually came up and talked to me during the coffee hour. They not only told me about themselves and their church, they asked me sincere and interested questions about myself and my own church background. The conversation went both ways...something I have only occasionally experienced in all this time of living here on the prairies. The congregational singing in the service was very good, hearty and heart felt. The little choir did a pretty good job. There were two special times of remembrance within the service for the families of the hockey players and coaches who were killed in Friday's horrendous crash. Today's service was like a little oasis in the desert of daily stress I have been experiencing for the past few months with my husband's health and uncertainty about our future. It was a time out, a time away from all things Anglican and I desperately needed that today. Sometimes it is difficult being the wife of the person who is referred to too often as "The Bishop's Rottweiler" because a large component of my husband's work consists of mediation, "boom lowering" and attempting to help people who are at odds with each other become reconciled. It is difficult to break into the church and social circles of my own denomination when people don't know if they can trust me to keep what I hear at church to myself, not certain of what I will tell my husband about them. I have been confronted with that a couple of times in recent weeks and today I decided to just step aside from it. It was very, very good for a change. Next Sunday we will be travelling, but I feel better equipped to return to my own congregation the following week and utilize a couple of things I learned today from my Baptist brothers and sisters during that coffee time.
After our respective services, a few blocks away from each other, my husband and I "met in the middle" at Leopold's Tavern downtown for a wonderful lunch. As always, my taco salad was superb. My husband ordered his first ever poutine and did he ever enjoy it. He asked that the gravy be left off it as it is a cornstarch filled gravy, so the french fries were crispy instead of turned to mush. The huge fried egg on the top added delicious protein to anotherwise very carbohyrate filled plate of food. The cheese curds were firm and tasty. He so enjoyed it. We ate a pretty light supper tonight as our lunches were very filling. I am always shocked by just how big the taco salads are there, how much beef tops the greens, corn niblets and black beans, how many sauces and dressings come with it and how fresh everything on my plate is, EVERY time. I have never left so much as a lettuce leaf in my bowl because I have never found one yet that is wilted, brown or stale. How do they do that when it seems to be such a problem in so many other restaurants here? Bless them!
After lunch we drove to Staples and purchased a new filing cabinet to take to my parents. They have been limping along for the past six months with an old one with a broken lock and having their personal papers in drawers that cannot be locked has been bothering them both quite a lot.
Back at home my husband spent some time getting the camera up and running on his new laptop so we could SKYPE with our son. I phoned my parents and we had a grand chat. They were flying pretty high from the birthday phone chat with their grandson, so were rather jolly today. haha Then I began the long task of ironing my spring and summer clothes and getting them hung up, more winter clothes folded and put away in the bins and making decisions as to what to take on our trip to Calgary coming up soon.
I am grateful for this good Sunday. I am grateful for church and for my husband and our son and the rest of our extended family members. I am grateful that the temperatures outside will begin a slow rising trend starting tomorrow. I am grateful there are forecasts for a few days of snow "SHOWERS" over the next couple of weeks, instead of the stark prediction of "SNOW!" I am grateful for new friends and old friends. I am grateful for the fun of eating out while we still can and for our plans to go and visit our son. I am not so grateful that we have to stay home all day tomorrow to finally do our income tax, BUT you can't have everything you want, right? hahahahahaha Thank you God for this good day!
Sunday, April 8, 2018
Saturday, April 7, 2018
Spring Clothes Shopping
I have just gone through my three bins of spring and summer clothes and have discovered I truly DON'T have to buy anything other than 1 pair of pink jeans. I have tops and sweaters and jackets up the wahzoo, dresses galore and even my summer footwear needs no replacing after the outlay last summer. How delightful!! The only other purchase I need to make this year is one more bin so I can store my winter clothes better than I did last year. They were so jammed up in the present bins I could barely shut the lids.
I feel great knowing there will be no expenditures of significance required for a summer wardrobe. All the money I spent after I lost weight has done me well. Most of those items are still in use and still looking good. I padded those out last year with some more up to date things and that is all I am going to need for a good long time.
YES!!
I feel great knowing there will be no expenditures of significance required for a summer wardrobe. All the money I spent after I lost weight has done me well. Most of those items are still in use and still looking good. I padded those out last year with some more up to date things and that is all I am going to need for a good long time.
YES!!
No Wonder We Couldn't Sleep Last Night! Sigh......
Weeellll....we found out this morning why we struggled to sleep last night, spent the whole night praying and agitated, after hearing the air ambulances and police helicopters flying overhead in the late evening.
This morning the news came out that there was an horrendous bus/semi rig collision near Nipiwan. FOURTEEN members of the Humboldt Broncos hockey team and associates were killed in the crash. A community of only 6000 souls has lost 14 of their members, most of them young hockey players.
I feel ill.
Everytime I hear of such things I remember the bus trips and the first highway drives my own son took in his middle to older teenaged years and how close he may have come to suffering the same fate.
Please remember the families of the victims in your prayers. What exactly happened has not been released to the news media yet, but what has been released is the news of so much pain being suffered by the families and the hockey community in the area. O Lord, stand with them.
This morning the news came out that there was an horrendous bus/semi rig collision near Nipiwan. FOURTEEN members of the Humboldt Broncos hockey team and associates were killed in the crash. A community of only 6000 souls has lost 14 of their members, most of them young hockey players.
I feel ill.
Everytime I hear of such things I remember the bus trips and the first highway drives my own son took in his middle to older teenaged years and how close he may have come to suffering the same fate.
Please remember the families of the victims in your prayers. What exactly happened has not been released to the news media yet, but what has been released is the news of so much pain being suffered by the families and the hockey community in the area. O Lord, stand with them.
Friday, April 6, 2018
And Other Stuff
Last week my husband and I began a process of discernment in regard to our more or less immediate future and it seems that almost every day since, God has shown up in some kind of obvious way such has he has not in quite some time. We think he is once again reminding us that everything we do, everywhere we go, how we survive from day to day is still truly, only, up to himself, even though my husband has been gainfully employed now for several years with sufficient income to cover our expenses. That may change sooner than we had hoped when we moved here, or it may not, but whatever happens God has been showing himself to us again in ways that we understand are meant to revive our trust in him at that deep level we had when he was the only hope we had of even groceries for daily consumption. His sudden interjection of himself in our lives again in these particular ways is both a bit unsettling AND reassuring at the same time. Who knows what is coming next? Well......HE does! hahaha
Tonight my husband arrived home from work to find me laying on the sofa, sound asleep. Usually the second day after dental work finds me exhausted as my kidneys eliminate the remains of the freezing and the nerves in the teeth surrounding the one being worked on settle down again. Neither of us felt up to cooking. Neither of us wanted to go out to eat. So, at LONG last we set up an account at the local Skip the Dishes and ordered our dinner from Afghan Cuisine. Oooh, it was most delicious. We ordered the platter for two and so we received most of the dishes we would find on their daily buffet, minus the desserts and chai. It cost about fifteen dollars more all total, with taxes, 15% gratuity and a tip for the delivery driver, than if we had driven ourselves up to the restaurant itself, BUT it was more than worth the extra cost to be able to just stay at home. Also, we ended up with enough food for 3 complete single meals instead of just the 2 we would have eaten at the buffet, plus on top of that enough rice is left over for 3 more single servings! We feel that we got our money's worth after all. I was grousing about the expense until the food actually arrived, but then I realized we did A-OK! It was fun watching the depiction of the car arriving at the restaurant to pick up our order and then driving to your house, all on my iPad screen. hahaha I love being able to track our order and how long it is going to take to receive it. I love knowing exactly how long it takes the driver to get to the restaurant, to pick up our order and drive it here. Thanks to the GPS and iPad we were able to meet him at the door before he had a chance to ring the bell. Yes, I think we are going to have to make use of this service a bit more often! Hang the extra expense. hahaha
I'm not sure I want to check our local news tonight. We were sitting on the sofa after dinner, watching an episode of The Blacklist, when the air was filled with the sound of the STARS air ambulance and two police choppers flying overhead. Another serious car accident on the highway? Another gang related murder? O dear...NOW what? This city is "interesting" shall we say.....
Our son's belongings were supposed to arrive in NYC from Vancouver today. We haven't heard anything from our son...never know with him if his silence is because everything has gone so well, or if it has gone so badly he doesn't want to tell us just how upsetting things turned out at Customs. Silence usually indicates one extreme or the other. Well, I guess we will just keep praying until we hear something from him.
My husband and I just brought up my three tubs of spring/summer clothes from the basement storage. Considering the temperature is to drop to -22C again overnight, I realize it seems a tad early to be making a seasonal clothing exchange, BUT I need to do something that is fun as well as useful tomorrow as I won't have the energy to tackle anything serious like housework. I forced myself to be rather brutal last fall when I packed the summer things away. There were too many items I was clinging onto because I felt guilty about getting rid of so many things and then having to replace them this spring, but they didn't fit or were worn out. There are so many great places to get discount clothing here in Regina that it doesn't make sense to keep things that aren't in good shape or are too big. I don't think I even need to replace anything. The one thing I do need/want to buy this spring is a pair of pink jeans that are not skinny jeans. Eventually I will find a pair. Apart from that there certainly isn't anything I need to buy. I cleaned up on new cotton tops a month ago at Dot's on the $2.99 rack. I tried on a couple of tops this morning at Winners, just to see if the particular styles that are so popular this year would suit me and they don't, so I won't waste any more time on such things. Right now my bedroom floor is covered with small stacks of "dead of winter only" clothes that I won't wear again after this bitterly cold weekend gives way to somewhat more springlike temperatures. My flannel, long sleeved winter nightgowns are all ready too warm, so I located my summer short sleeved ones and will start wearing those tomorrow night.
I have a new habit forming: waking up almost an hour before I really need to get up in the morning and spending that hour reading! I had no idea how relaxing it is to start the day that way. Speaking of reading....it is after 10pm and I think I will go and do some of that right now!
Tonight my husband arrived home from work to find me laying on the sofa, sound asleep. Usually the second day after dental work finds me exhausted as my kidneys eliminate the remains of the freezing and the nerves in the teeth surrounding the one being worked on settle down again. Neither of us felt up to cooking. Neither of us wanted to go out to eat. So, at LONG last we set up an account at the local Skip the Dishes and ordered our dinner from Afghan Cuisine. Oooh, it was most delicious. We ordered the platter for two and so we received most of the dishes we would find on their daily buffet, minus the desserts and chai. It cost about fifteen dollars more all total, with taxes, 15% gratuity and a tip for the delivery driver, than if we had driven ourselves up to the restaurant itself, BUT it was more than worth the extra cost to be able to just stay at home. Also, we ended up with enough food for 3 complete single meals instead of just the 2 we would have eaten at the buffet, plus on top of that enough rice is left over for 3 more single servings! We feel that we got our money's worth after all. I was grousing about the expense until the food actually arrived, but then I realized we did A-OK! It was fun watching the depiction of the car arriving at the restaurant to pick up our order and then driving to your house, all on my iPad screen. hahaha I love being able to track our order and how long it is going to take to receive it. I love knowing exactly how long it takes the driver to get to the restaurant, to pick up our order and drive it here. Thanks to the GPS and iPad we were able to meet him at the door before he had a chance to ring the bell. Yes, I think we are going to have to make use of this service a bit more often! Hang the extra expense. hahaha
I'm not sure I want to check our local news tonight. We were sitting on the sofa after dinner, watching an episode of The Blacklist, when the air was filled with the sound of the STARS air ambulance and two police choppers flying overhead. Another serious car accident on the highway? Another gang related murder? O dear...NOW what? This city is "interesting" shall we say.....
Our son's belongings were supposed to arrive in NYC from Vancouver today. We haven't heard anything from our son...never know with him if his silence is because everything has gone so well, or if it has gone so badly he doesn't want to tell us just how upsetting things turned out at Customs. Silence usually indicates one extreme or the other. Well, I guess we will just keep praying until we hear something from him.
My husband and I just brought up my three tubs of spring/summer clothes from the basement storage. Considering the temperature is to drop to -22C again overnight, I realize it seems a tad early to be making a seasonal clothing exchange, BUT I need to do something that is fun as well as useful tomorrow as I won't have the energy to tackle anything serious like housework. I forced myself to be rather brutal last fall when I packed the summer things away. There were too many items I was clinging onto because I felt guilty about getting rid of so many things and then having to replace them this spring, but they didn't fit or were worn out. There are so many great places to get discount clothing here in Regina that it doesn't make sense to keep things that aren't in good shape or are too big. I don't think I even need to replace anything. The one thing I do need/want to buy this spring is a pair of pink jeans that are not skinny jeans. Eventually I will find a pair. Apart from that there certainly isn't anything I need to buy. I cleaned up on new cotton tops a month ago at Dot's on the $2.99 rack. I tried on a couple of tops this morning at Winners, just to see if the particular styles that are so popular this year would suit me and they don't, so I won't waste any more time on such things. Right now my bedroom floor is covered with small stacks of "dead of winter only" clothes that I won't wear again after this bitterly cold weekend gives way to somewhat more springlike temperatures. My flannel, long sleeved winter nightgowns are all ready too warm, so I located my summer short sleeved ones and will start wearing those tomorrow night.
I have a new habit forming: waking up almost an hour before I really need to get up in the morning and spending that hour reading! I had no idea how relaxing it is to start the day that way. Speaking of reading....it is after 10pm and I think I will go and do some of that right now!
A Godly Encounter
I spent the morning banking and grocery shopping. As I headed into the last store on my list I was feeling phyiscally sore and mentally listless from the ache in that bothersome thigh muscle that hit me only a half hour into my errands.
I headed for the cleaning supply department in the last store and there were a clerk and a customer standing right in front of the product I needed to purchase. There seemed to be some sort of argument going on between them...at least the customer was being argumentative, while the clerk, a sturdy young fellow, was maintaining his composure rather well in the midst of the customer's verbal assault. They stepped to one side for a second, just long enough for me to grab one of the last boxes of the product I had been searching for over the course of several weeks and in several other stores, but without success.
"Look, LOOK!!", screeched the customer! "That is the last of the product I am trying to buy and now that woman has taken it! Why didn't you hurry faster to contact the manager and get me my deal before SHE took my box of product???!!!!" I was going to ignore her and nurse my immediate thought of, "Tough luck for you sister, there are other boxes there for you and this one's MINE!", but then I noticed the sad and harried look on the young clerk's face and I couldn't stand to see him being treated that way. Rather than further escalate the tense situation by pointing out to her that there were three other boxes of "her" product toward the back of the shelf, I offered her the box I had just put into my cart.
"Excuse me madam." I said, causing her to be quiet long enough to turn around and look at me. "Please, take my box of product. I can live without it."
Her response was an angry, "HMMPH!" as she grabbed the box out of my hands and marched angrily away bearing the two boxes of product she was getting at a nearly steal of a price that she didn't actually qualify for as it turned out. In reality she had misread the pricing stickers and threw a fit when she had originally attempted to go through the cashier's line to pay for her boxes. and was charged full price. So, she had returned to the aisle, just in time to catch the poor shelf clerk completely unaware. Before I arrived she had apparently blasted that poor kid to Kingdom Come as he tried and tried to get the department manager to come to his aid.
Finally the manager had appeared and given his consent to let her have the discount she didn't qualify for, although the product actually on sale and the product she was buying were not the same, they were just situated next to each other on the shelf. The manager certainly didn't have to do that, but this fellow is BIG on customer service apparently and I hope his good will is not being taken advantage of by too many people!
The manager walked away and then the lady harangued the beleagured clerk all over again about how stupid he was, how long it had taken him to locate the manager and on and on. This is what I arrived in the middle of as I took what I thought was going to be my box of product and ended up giving it to her. I was so shocked at her uncalled for outrage at ME, that instead of high tailing it out of that aisle, I just stood there with my mouth gaping open.
After the lady, (O sorry, WOMAN. She was not acting like any sort of lady!), marched away in a huff, the clerk stood there and stared at me, big tears welling in his eyes. I felt terrible for him and very badly that my simple act of taking a box of product off the shelf had opened up an even worse verbal attack on him.
I told him I was very, very sorry he had experienced that and apologized for my inadvertent part in the disaster. He thanked me and then told me he is a Christian and that only Jesus is able to give him strength to deal with things like that. He told me it was very difficult to keep his temper, to not cry in frustration, but that he was silently praying the whole time so he could maintain control. I then identified myself as a Christian as well and told him there is no way I could keep a job like his because even though I have been a Christian many decades longer than he has been alive, my temper, as expressed too often in my big mouth and cutting sarcasm, is still a stumbling block for me. We talked for a short minute and then he returned to his job and I continued to shop.
When I went out to the parking lot, there he was again collecting abandoned carts that were rolling through the parking lot in the high wind. We had another short chat and we both came away feeling rather buoyed up by the unexpected chance to share what our common beliefs are doing to help us deal with the curves we get thrown in life. We are from different church traditions, but his present denomination is my former denomination, so we have lots in common.
This young man was quite an encouragement to me today. Lately I have been fighting with myself about a few things and just the act of running into a fellow believer in distress that I could talk to and encourage and be encouraged by seemed to lighten the load today.
Thank you Lord for that godly encounter in the middle of the grocery store! Your people are everywhere it seems, and meeting one of them today was a wonderful blessing. Please bless that young man for the way he lives out what he believes. It is so easy to lose track of your life commands when we are faced with opposition and anger from others. This fellow did not lose track of his spiritual values and provided a wonderful lesson to me!
I headed for the cleaning supply department in the last store and there were a clerk and a customer standing right in front of the product I needed to purchase. There seemed to be some sort of argument going on between them...at least the customer was being argumentative, while the clerk, a sturdy young fellow, was maintaining his composure rather well in the midst of the customer's verbal assault. They stepped to one side for a second, just long enough for me to grab one of the last boxes of the product I had been searching for over the course of several weeks and in several other stores, but without success.
"Look, LOOK!!", screeched the customer! "That is the last of the product I am trying to buy and now that woman has taken it! Why didn't you hurry faster to contact the manager and get me my deal before SHE took my box of product???!!!!" I was going to ignore her and nurse my immediate thought of, "Tough luck for you sister, there are other boxes there for you and this one's MINE!", but then I noticed the sad and harried look on the young clerk's face and I couldn't stand to see him being treated that way. Rather than further escalate the tense situation by pointing out to her that there were three other boxes of "her" product toward the back of the shelf, I offered her the box I had just put into my cart.
"Excuse me madam." I said, causing her to be quiet long enough to turn around and look at me. "Please, take my box of product. I can live without it."
Her response was an angry, "HMMPH!" as she grabbed the box out of my hands and marched angrily away bearing the two boxes of product she was getting at a nearly steal of a price that she didn't actually qualify for as it turned out. In reality she had misread the pricing stickers and threw a fit when she had originally attempted to go through the cashier's line to pay for her boxes. and was charged full price. So, she had returned to the aisle, just in time to catch the poor shelf clerk completely unaware. Before I arrived she had apparently blasted that poor kid to Kingdom Come as he tried and tried to get the department manager to come to his aid.
Finally the manager had appeared and given his consent to let her have the discount she didn't qualify for, although the product actually on sale and the product she was buying were not the same, they were just situated next to each other on the shelf. The manager certainly didn't have to do that, but this fellow is BIG on customer service apparently and I hope his good will is not being taken advantage of by too many people!
The manager walked away and then the lady harangued the beleagured clerk all over again about how stupid he was, how long it had taken him to locate the manager and on and on. This is what I arrived in the middle of as I took what I thought was going to be my box of product and ended up giving it to her. I was so shocked at her uncalled for outrage at ME, that instead of high tailing it out of that aisle, I just stood there with my mouth gaping open.
After the lady, (O sorry, WOMAN. She was not acting like any sort of lady!), marched away in a huff, the clerk stood there and stared at me, big tears welling in his eyes. I felt terrible for him and very badly that my simple act of taking a box of product off the shelf had opened up an even worse verbal attack on him.
I told him I was very, very sorry he had experienced that and apologized for my inadvertent part in the disaster. He thanked me and then told me he is a Christian and that only Jesus is able to give him strength to deal with things like that. He told me it was very difficult to keep his temper, to not cry in frustration, but that he was silently praying the whole time so he could maintain control. I then identified myself as a Christian as well and told him there is no way I could keep a job like his because even though I have been a Christian many decades longer than he has been alive, my temper, as expressed too often in my big mouth and cutting sarcasm, is still a stumbling block for me. We talked for a short minute and then he returned to his job and I continued to shop.
When I went out to the parking lot, there he was again collecting abandoned carts that were rolling through the parking lot in the high wind. We had another short chat and we both came away feeling rather buoyed up by the unexpected chance to share what our common beliefs are doing to help us deal with the curves we get thrown in life. We are from different church traditions, but his present denomination is my former denomination, so we have lots in common.
This young man was quite an encouragement to me today. Lately I have been fighting with myself about a few things and just the act of running into a fellow believer in distress that I could talk to and encourage and be encouraged by seemed to lighten the load today.
Thank you Lord for that godly encounter in the middle of the grocery store! Your people are everywhere it seems, and meeting one of them today was a wonderful blessing. Please bless that young man for the way he lives out what he believes. It is so easy to lose track of your life commands when we are faced with opposition and anger from others. This fellow did not lose track of his spiritual values and provided a wonderful lesson to me!
Thursday, April 5, 2018
Wow! What A Person Doesn't Realize!
At around 2:30pm today we had the first of a series of three short lived falls of large snow flakes and a bit of wind between about 2pm and 5pm. It wasn't serious at all, in fact most of the snow didn't even stay on the ground.
What I didn't know is that out on the highways around Regina those same little snowfalls were wreaking havoc!! For only about the third time since winter began last October, the TransCanada highway between Regina and Moose Jaw had to be closed! The huge wet flakes of snow falling onto the traffic-warmed roadway as the temperature was quickly dropping, created a layer of ice, topped with slush topped with thick snowfall. Half way between here and Moose Jaw there was a 15+ car pileup, there were over 30 cars in the ditch....good grief!!! I saw the photos on the evening news or I wouldn't have believed it! Visibility in sections was nearly zero due to the wind whipping up the fresh snow. Yikes!! GROSS!! Talk about a "freak" storm. This was no spring storm, this was a storm straight out of the pits of winter!! The highway didn't reopen until after 7pm, even though that pileup happened closer to 3pm.
While all this highway drama and trauma was occurring, I was sprawled comfortably across my living room sofa chatting amiably to a good friend in Welland Ontario! I remember commenting on the snow and she began telling me how, even though their winter has also been colder and wetter than usual, my husband and I would enjoy moving out that way after he retires. We blithered on very happily, planning a future post retirement for my husband and I for quite some time and then I started getting the food prepared for dinner tonight, never giving the snow, which by then had quit coming down, another thought.
I can only hope that any storms that may come up during our trip to Alberta in a couple of weeks' time, will be true SPRING storms!
You know those kind of storms, right Lord? They are the ones where the snow comes down, gets blown about by WARM winds and MELTS completely on the pavement on the roads and sidewalks instead of staying on the ground and turning to ice! You remember those SPRING storms you created, right Lord? It is, after all, nearly the end of the first week in April. Remember April Lord? Remember the spring season that is supposed to arrive with it?? You DO remember, don't you Lord? April and spring are, after all, YOUR creations. So....how 'bout if you give us a little bit better glimpse of those creations. Could you do that Lord?? For the sake of all the travellers out there on the roads? Wouldn't that be kind of cool to surprise them with the REAL spring? Huh? Huh? Wouldn't it? Wouldn't it??? AMEN!!
Drive safely everyone out here on the bald prairies! Please stay home if you don't absolutely need to be travelling!
What I didn't know is that out on the highways around Regina those same little snowfalls were wreaking havoc!! For only about the third time since winter began last October, the TransCanada highway between Regina and Moose Jaw had to be closed! The huge wet flakes of snow falling onto the traffic-warmed roadway as the temperature was quickly dropping, created a layer of ice, topped with slush topped with thick snowfall. Half way between here and Moose Jaw there was a 15+ car pileup, there were over 30 cars in the ditch....good grief!!! I saw the photos on the evening news or I wouldn't have believed it! Visibility in sections was nearly zero due to the wind whipping up the fresh snow. Yikes!! GROSS!! Talk about a "freak" storm. This was no spring storm, this was a storm straight out of the pits of winter!! The highway didn't reopen until after 7pm, even though that pileup happened closer to 3pm.
While all this highway drama and trauma was occurring, I was sprawled comfortably across my living room sofa chatting amiably to a good friend in Welland Ontario! I remember commenting on the snow and she began telling me how, even though their winter has also been colder and wetter than usual, my husband and I would enjoy moving out that way after he retires. We blithered on very happily, planning a future post retirement for my husband and I for quite some time and then I started getting the food prepared for dinner tonight, never giving the snow, which by then had quit coming down, another thought.
I can only hope that any storms that may come up during our trip to Alberta in a couple of weeks' time, will be true SPRING storms!
You know those kind of storms, right Lord? They are the ones where the snow comes down, gets blown about by WARM winds and MELTS completely on the pavement on the roads and sidewalks instead of staying on the ground and turning to ice! You remember those SPRING storms you created, right Lord? It is, after all, nearly the end of the first week in April. Remember April Lord? Remember the spring season that is supposed to arrive with it?? You DO remember, don't you Lord? April and spring are, after all, YOUR creations. So....how 'bout if you give us a little bit better glimpse of those creations. Could you do that Lord?? For the sake of all the travellers out there on the roads? Wouldn't that be kind of cool to surprise them with the REAL spring? Huh? Huh? Wouldn't it? Wouldn't it??? AMEN!!
Drive safely everyone out here on the bald prairies! Please stay home if you don't absolutely need to be travelling!
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