Decision

I've made a decision. I am going to take a job in Thompson doing the same work as I used to do in Winnipeg. I will be staying at a friends house until I know that this job will work out and then I'll look for a place. Art will stay here until his bowling is over and then take holidays and look for a job up there. This is only a temperary situation. I told my Doctor that I want to keep her and she said she has patients who live in the US and come home for checkups etc. so she didn't think this is too weird. It will get me out of this moldy house which is affecting my health. It will give us a chance to catch up on some finances. There is also a lesson in here for me about making MY OWN choices. SO off I go in the next week. I'll blog from there. Bless you all my blogging friends.

Mmmmmm a GOOD book!!

I just finished a very good book!! As Rebecca says "Delicious". It is John Grisham's "The Broker" I think this is his best book since "The Firm" There is something so satisfying about loosing yourself in a good book!! I remember when my kids were very little I didn't even try to read anything longer than a magazine length story as it was SOooo annoying to get interupted by the neccesary things it takes to keep kids happy. But seasons of life change and as long as I can find my glasses I can read.

Multiculturalism in Canada

I've always understood that the basic difference between Canada and the U.S. was that Canada welcomed people of other cultures and said, "Be yourself, add to the variety of Canada", while the U.S. said, "We're a melting pot--- come and melt into our image". If this has been true, what has changed?? Traditional values of Thanksgiving and Christmas should NOT be challenged here in CANADA. If someone has DIFFERENT and NEW traditions, these should be valued and celebrated. BUT values of the past need NOT be taken away to have this happen IN CANADA. We need not be of ONE MIND to have cultural acceptance in Canada. Is this just another way that the standards of our Southern Neighbor has influenced Canadian thinking. Soooo I wish you a MERRY CHRISTMAS and not "happy holidays". I want to give thanks on THANKSGIVING --not turkey day!! Enough of this caving to "melting pot" thought processes!!! I'm a Canadian and I'm allowed my TRADITIONS without SHAME!!

Packaging

One of the things that has bugged me about buying cable tv is the packaging. I only use about 4 or 5 channels but to get them, I need to buy the whole BUNDLE. The same concept seems to be true in politics more and more. We can listen to an INDIVIDUAL politician and like HIS or HER values and beliefs. We even trust that they LIVE by their values and beliefs. When they are elected, we discover, they come in a BUNDLE and must vote with their BUNDLE. Is this person now representing ME and his voters or are they now REPRESENTING their bundle. They may come from the "grass roots" of home but alas they do not belong to us anymore but only to the BUNDLE to which they are attached. Since there are only 4 or 5 bundles to choose from, it is discouraging to try to find one which best suits my values and beliefs. A SINGLE person is easier to narrow down THEIR values and beliefs ......but who knows where a BUNDLE will go next!!

Taking it easy

I've been going to the chiropractor since the role over. The first week back in town I tried church but those CHAIRS are impossible unless you have a great back. At home the reclining couch is good and my bed. Unfortunately my computer chair is a hard staight back chair so I can only manage about 10 minutes at a time. Cars have different degrees of difficulty getting in and out. Vans are the best. Theatre seats are pretty good. It is funny to decided WHERE you can go because of the availability of proper chairs. I went to Gails last week and ended up laying on her couch! How strange!! But that's life right now.

Did I win??

Tetris is a game that I never win. Yes I can go up levels and get faster but I like games I can win. Spider Solitare, for instants, gives me ballons and confetti when I win. Tetris just gives me more and faster game pieces so I eventually can't keep up. Do I like a challenge YES, but with a positive reinforcement at the end. Mahjong tells me if I won or how many tiles that I lost by ---but it ends!! Perpetual falling shapes of diffent sizes do NOT encourage me to continue. If the phone rings when I'm on a roll, I automatically loose. What a dumb game --and yet I'll try again tomorrow. How sick is that!!

Tetris

Dwight put the game tetris on my computer when he fixed it. I have never ever played it before and I really didn't pay that much attention when the kids played it. So I was sitting here trying to figure out the point of the game and slowly figured somethings out. Then Dwight came over and played it ---now I know it will take a long long time to aquire the skills for this game but it IS fun so here I go back to see if I'm any better today than yesterday.

Family First

In the ambulance ride to the hospital last week, Patsy's blood pressure was low (101 over 60). When that number showed up on the screen it was like time stood still. Everything that we had just experienced was GONE !! All I could think of was Brookie's little prayer "Better in Jesus name", so I put my hand on Patsy and said "Better in Jesus name". Patsy started to cry.
It's true what they play in the movies --you could be half dead and if you see something is wrong with your KID everything else is Wiped out of your mind and body. Thankfully there were no internal injuries, shock was causing the low blood pressue. Such relief everything was OK. By the time we left the hospital blood pressure had returned to normal!! Once I KNEW she was OK then I felt my OWN body again.

Family

I have a computer again!!

Yeah for Dwight!! He has fixed my computer!! I can be a LURKER and commentor on blogs. My right hand still needs some mending but I can type (sort of) . IT is Freezing here in Winnipeg today. We lit the second advent candle in church so I quess it is OK for the weather to let us know Winter has come.

Home Sweet Home

Dwight arrived safely in South Dakota and rescued us from the motel where we were waiting car-lessly. It is weird to be some place you have never been, without any mode of transportation to leave. Thanks to all who prayed for us and a SPECIAL thanks to Sean who volunteered to come and rescue us!!

When we reviewed all the things that COULD have happened to us, we were very thankful for our safe exit from the vehicle. We purchased 6 -70 pound tube-shaped bags of sand for weight in the back of the van in Grand Forks. These could have been killer missiles as we were slamming into snow and rolling over. My address book with a steel binding was bent and filled with glass from shattered windows but we did not have glass in our eyes or under our skin. Our rescuers thought they would need the "jaws of life" to get us out but we were not pinned AT ALL -- just closed in tightly -- but we could crawl out.

I never want a repeat performance of this incident but I am THANKFUL to have walked away with only minor scrapes.