triumphgal

May 29, 2026

At midnight I was moved to check out the noise outside

The aftermath was big this morning. I tidiest up what I could before climbing into the tub

I was nose down at work and was grateful when Kerstin and Brooklyn also wanted to get take away. Sushi for the win!!

I finally got everything done that was necessary and headed to see Mom. Her Dr had called to say she was applying for Palliative Care funding that would assist with hospices rental, etc.

That was the moment I accepted the phrase ‘terminal cancer’

Mom is very sad today

I met Greg at Heidout and handed over the necklace of Mons that she thought he wanted, the nugget. I told him to give it to Kym. It seemed important to Mom that he have it.

Bill and his friend Elmer joined us and we had a good visit, even inviting Will out of the kitchen to say hi.

Elmer drove us safely to Rae’s for an amazing dinner. she then drove us to drop off Greg, grabbed my car which River drove and then dropped off Sawyer and me and picked up all the Lego.

Sawyer has a school project we will work on but tonight we played some Little Big Planet and off he went to bed while I watched a couple episodes of season two of Four Seasons.

May 28, 2026

Rotary lunch was fun as Rylan gave his bio and it turns out he mentioned a well loved Homestay student whom he played ball with, Tatsuki. Tatsuki and Mai helped me at my place when I moved back to Cranbrook.

I helped Mary Ann access our storage as there is a heavy door that she struggles with and we were looking for a couple missing rented items. It was a nice little visit.

Once I finished and filed a client, I headed over to the Sam Steele Hotel. My new friend Tammy owns it. She inherited it when her brother died and she is interested in becoming a Rotarian. I am working towards that with her. At the moment, the concern is that HA hangs there when in town. Some feel it could risk our Gaming licence if she is a member. I am doing my due diligence. We shall see. I’m n the mean time it was a nice place to hang out. I’m peaceful and not overstimulating.

I went to visit Mom and Greg had arrived. I drove him to check in to his hotel and then we went the Heidout for dinner. What a great visit we had and we discussed all the things. It was so great. I miss him so much. We spent so much bonding time over the years as adults.

I did get my plaque back, spelled correctly, today

It has been another complicated strata council day but I am stepping out for a moment. Did I mention that the sky is gorgeous?

May 28, 2026

Today was hot and sunny and I spent most of it on site at a client’s. On the way there I dropped off my plaque to have it redone without the spelling mistake. The guy seemed very cavalier about how many mistakes he makes, lol. Maybe I should offer to be hired as his editor.

I had to return to the office to run a payroll and work on personal taxes for my late peeps. After that I stopped at Moms apartment to check her mail and water her plants. I also gather some more of her jewelry, mostly earrings to look at and sort with her. We had a good long visit

Once home I turned the heat back on in the hot tub so it will be ready for the morning. The forecast for tomorrow is up to 30 so I think it would be most comfortable in the morning.

I am very much enjoying watching The Boroughs!

May 26, 2026

I woke up around 6:30 so I hopped in the hot tub with a cup of coffee. It was a lovely Spring morning and I was showered and at work by 8:30 in time for coffee klatch. I was still overwhelmed by last nights win but boy did this day try to burst that joy bubble.

I had to come back to meet the electrician as power had partially gone out at a trailer on the other side of the park. It turns out it was Bob’s daughter’s place. He was on the council previously and we have not always seen eye to eye. I think today fixed that bridge

I returned to the office and arranged to meet Jim to discuss backfilling the curb stop hole from last week. I had just gotten paid out for winning the Survivor pool so I gave him $20 to take away my garden waste and old cat tree. He was happy to

The afternoon at the office was filled with finishing scanning Judy’s commemorative Rotary magazine and putting some photos from CDs not a thumb drive for her. I did get a little paid work done between increasingly annoying text about the work to be done on that electric situation and how WCB would not cover casual labour. I was getting really pissed off that they were not hearing me that this is an area. I am very familiar with. I finally just came down to meet with Bob gave him full authority to contract the job that I would take care of the WCB if he got me all the details for the workers so that we could be sure they were paid properly and requested that he get a second opinion as the first Electrician said we needed to dig up the underground line because it had a break in it. Neither of us felt like that was likely so he took on that job. We did have a nice talk and he said that even though he’s not on the council anymore, he cares about this part and he’s lived here for a lot of years and we agreed that we would work together to get this thing fixed.

I then went to visit Mom and wasn’t there long when the surgeon came to visit and we had a good long talk and she explained very clearly where the tuber is why it wasn’t as critical as it could be and that she was not recommending surgery. I asked lots of questions so that I would know and Mom would know what the signs were that things needed to be dealt with in the future and I think we are both much more relieved when all was said and done

I waited until her dinner arrived and then popped over to Fenwick and Baker for an order of mussels.

I think I’m manifested Tammy showing up to talk to me because I hadn’t that opportunity yet to address the fact that she may not be welcome at Rotary but that I want her to still try if she is interested. I agreed to go to her business on Thursday late afternoon and see it for myself. I like her as a human and I know that she is well liked by the people around her.

I did get a phone call message from David Keyes our district governor, saying lovely lovely things about me and my award. I had messaged his wife, Marlisa and also told her about my concerns about Tammy and her business or should I say my lack of concern about it. They both feel it’s a legitimate business and that there are many Rotarians who own bars. I am encouraging Tammy to apply.

At 6:30 for an hour, I was at a clients board meeting to explain the reports that come out of the software and have fun accounting in accrual accounting work and he went very well and I will be taking it all over going forward. Prior to this I was only doing the payroll and reconciling for year end but the previous person kind of left a mess.

The sky has been opening up off and on with thunder and lots of rain which it’s supposed to be like this often on all the way till next week. I was up early so I’m already feeling tired at only 20 after nine. I think I shall head to bed soon as I enjoy the kid up early and I do have a client who needs me on site in the morning.

May 25, 2026

It started off as a regular kind of day. Physio seems to really be helping. I got quite a bit done at the office and then I headed off to the Rotary installation dinner at the Cranbrook golf club. This is the night each year, where the current president hands-off in advance of the new president’s term beginning July 1. The new Rotarians are celebrated, and the board is recognized as well as some awards are given out. I enjoyed very much who I was sitting with, the dinner was fantastic, and the conversation was very good. Derek, Lucy, Jim, and Leslie and I were all musing over the fact that the cover for the hundred year time capsule in Sandpoint had it spelled Sandpont. I felt bad for whoever had created it and for the district governor, whose name was going to be on it forever as well

After a great deal of entertaining presentations and awards, imagine my complete surprise to find myself named Rotarian of the Year! The first thing I checked was that my name was spelt right and almost missed the missing ‘n’. Lucy called it kismet and it makes me laugh. At first, though I did cry. I was completely choked up when I went up to receive the award. At the end of the evening, when I had opportunity I stood up and gave Happy Bucks in order to say that I was completely honoured to be recognized amongst such an incredible crowd of servant hearted people.

I then went to visit Mom for a while and Rae-Anne was there so we all had a nice visit

I was just leaving Mom when I also got confirmation that I won the survivor pool by a landslide. What a great great night.

May 24, 2026

Sawyer and I met my friend Bear in Rotary Park to supervise a visit with his two youngest. Divorce is ugly but Coda and Milo were sure happy to see their Dad. They are good little guys and Sawyer played well with them. It was longer than we thought it was going to be so we didn’t have a lot of time to play Little Big Planet after eating lunch and finishing packing up the Lego.

He is such a gentle soul and I enjoy having him visit. I dropped him at home and headed for The Stage Door for the matinee of Deathtrap. It was very well cast with a good balance of talent. A most enjoyable way to spend an afternoon and I really enjoyed having g a beverage with Dave and Trudy Prinn after. He was in the show and we hadn’t had a visit since they went to the Ecuador.

I stopped for a good visit with Mom. She is clearly still processing everything and is surprised that neither Dr believes she is up to having surgery.

I drove thru Arby’s for a chicken burger and came home to watch the Boroughs, an amusing new series on Netflix. I shall be going to bed soon, although I may pop into the hot tub for a bit first.

May 23, 2026

Sawyer was dropped off and we sorted Lego into his new bins until it was time for his swim lesson.

From there we stopped to pick up bananas and Hawkins Cheezies for him to bring to GG. We had a short but lovely visit and then hit the big three box stores checking for a shelter for my hot tub. Finally went back to Canadian Tire for the one we found there. Back at the house we spent the rest of the afternoon building it. There was a break for dinner which was Sawyer’s choice. He loves when I make Mac and Cheese with tuna and peas and we began watching Despicable Me 4 as we ate.

After dinner we finished the build and Tracy stopped over just as we needed her to put the cover on.

We decorated and were finally ready to climb in and watch another hour of the movie while we soaked.

May 22, 2026

I hadn’t been at work very long when I got a message that there was a problem with a trailer four dollars down for me and their water again. I connected with the owner who is out of town and then headed over to meet with the plumber. He had called who was dealing with the issues under the trailer. The city had shown up and dug a hole down to the valve at the bottom of the curb stop because they couldn’t get it to turn off. They then realized they weren’t supposed to be working on it as it is our Strata private property and left. That turned out to be a huge blessing as Bob and I were able to solve the problem. He called in the parts and I went up to Emco to get them.We work together to put the new curb stop in, and I will coordinate with Jim to backfill it in the near future. In the meantime the trailer has water again. It was very satisfying. I miss construction world.

I went back to the office and worked until nearly 430 when I headed up to see mom. She had received beautiful flowers and chocolates from Rosie, Uncle Bryan & Auntie Lynne. we had a good visit and I was able to step her through her options and impress on her how risky surgery could be.

I left the hospital and headed up to visit with Judy who needed help registering the Rotary group for the participaction day. We had charcuterie and white organic wine and a lovely lovely visit.

Once again, it was an all over the place day but was pretty good and I have arranged for Sawyer to come hang out with me tomorrow and overnight

May 21, 2026

Found a nice surprise when I got to the office. Rae is sweet

It’s official. tests will be done to see if there is spread to lungs and brain. I got the call while I was at Rotary lunch and went and spent a couple hours with her. the speaker was interesting, all about the ambulance service

After work I met Brett at BP for food before the movie. I used my app to get my free birthday dessert to bring home

I enjoyed The Mandalorian and Grogu.

May 20, 2026

Today was full of interactions.

Work

Strata council

Mom visit (she’s a little more with it)

Gala debrief: Was wonderful to learn we netted 112k for our senior’s residence project. I pitched my 80’s Under the Sea Prom idea for next year

I wore my compression socks and had a lot less fidget and pain today.

Am still up late watching Survivor Finale to see if I won the pool. two of the three finalists are on my team so highly likely 🙂

May 19, 2026

I started the morning at my doctors office, discussing all the things that could be wrong with my ankle and the treatment and the options for dealing with chronic pain. He encouraged me to continue doing what I’m doing and start taking gabapentin again.

From there, I went to the office and got a bunch of work done before going to my Physio appointment. Cynthia massaged the ankle and lower leg and then applied heat before sending me on my way. We discussed the compartment syndrome and that we would continue to work on getting it flexible and resolved.

From there, it was off to see mom who had come out of the colonoscopy, bewildered that she had to have it. It made me worry about her cognitive when she thought the only thing she had to do was have the prep was surprised to go down for it. Her surgeon for me to say that it definitely looks like cancer, but they don’t know what kind until the biopsy results come back later this week or early next week. Had a good long visit with Mom, but she definitely was off in weird ways. Hopefully they will do a baseline on her cognitive soon.

I came home and even though it was cold and windy outside, I climbed into the hot tub that was measuring 105° before I took the lid off. I stayed in for a good half an hour or more and it felt great just really cold to get out of. I’m very happy with it. It’s also nice and big and will be good if Emmy or Sawyer are here to visit. A friend suggested I get a canopy for over it and use pretty shower curtains to give some privacy. I think canopy with bug screens would be a good start for the summer and it would also keep the leaves, etc. out. I could hang pretty lights and make it a special place. I still have some tapestries and hangings from when I had my Airbnb that I could use.

May 18, 2026

Today was fairly well rounded and relaxed.

I did deep clean chores, built my two Lego botanical sets for my pottery vase, visited with Mom, and went to the office for a few hours to run payroll and work on a file as well as prep for two meetings on Wednesday

May 17, 2026

I’m mowed my lawn and scabbed together a fence to hold my raspberries back.

Rae encouraged me to enquire about the new inflatable hot tub on Marketplace. I had said it couldn’t afford it right now but she sent me the cash and I picked it up. I got chemicals and insulated underlay at Home Depot and after a nice visit with Mom came home and got to the task of creating a level spot. I used the pavers I had, some left over flooring, the insulated layer, and then the thin ground sheet included. I got it filled and this currently heating.

It was comfort food when I was done, perogi casserole.

I am achy so it is time for a hot bath before bed. I have been spoiled

May 17, 2026

This morning started with a decent sleep in. I watched a press release on the news with Dr. Bonnie Henry talking about the Hantavirus outbreak on a small cruise ship that has involved for people in BC. She is assuring all that is nothing like a pandemic very difficult to get but one of the people in quarantine has tested positive.

Sometime just afternoon it started to hail. Great big stones. It left a lot of fresh snow on the mountains, which is good for when it melts and protects us for the summer.

I went a little bit early to the heritage so I could read my Rotary magazine and enjoy a lunch before the mosaic lamp making session. I took pictures of the pieces that I already have so that I could make something similar to match

I really enjoyed doing it and it was lovely to visit with Christi, Erin and Dee-Anne two of the other three ladies at our table were very nice. The third one just ran down Cranbrook and even told us that she tells people not to come here. I tried to point out to her that it was mostly her experience specifically with her neighbour that she was talking about that made her not like it here, but she has been here two years and really doesn’t like it. The funny thing was that she talked about needing to make friends, but she wasn’t making any at our table.

The next step for my lamp is to let it dry for a couple days and then do the grouting before assembling it together and hanging it

I went for a nice visit with Mom. I enjoy our chats much more when her mind is back.

I stopped at Save-on and picked up a few things before putting together what I called my 1970s charcuterie tray, complete with toothpicks and Ritz crackers. it was a hit at Poker league finale night at Landon’s house. There were 20 of us to start and I managed to play all the way to 10th position before going out on only $20. It was nice to see some of the faces that I haven’t seen in a while and I even took the time to have a discussion with Landon about what happened with Mom as he is in management of the company who owns where she lives. I told him I was still concerned about whether the emergency buttons worked properly and easily. He assured me he was going to look into it.

May 15, 2026

I was lucky to get a nail appointment for 1 pm when I called this morning. It has been well over a month. Minh did an awesome job as usual. I love that he doesn’t put pressure on me to decide what I want. He knows me well enough to just be creative and it’s one less decision I have to make.

I did stop at Warehouse One in the mall as they are closing out and they got two pairs of jeans for $100. I am down to one pair so I am considering this a win

I saw weird lights reflecting in my computer screen and there was a dump truck backing up and unloading a pike of gravel outside my window

I stopped for a short visit with Mom to confirm her understanding that she will have a colonoscopy on Tuesday as her surgeon called me today. I am relieved that it will happen that soon. She still can’t get out of bed on her own.

I made my way out to Jon Bissets place in Meadowbrook. It was lovely to drive through Kimberley as it’s been a while. It was the annual Lobsterfest and meeting of musical friends. For $30 I got a fresh flown in from NL lobster, melted butter and a selection of salads and desserts. I sat with Doug and Patti and Wally. Had great chats with Percy Davis, and a few others. There were many great hugs but my leg was bothering me the colder it got so I decided to leave around 9.

I decided to turn left instead of right at the highway to see if I could see Brian Taggarts new home build from the road. As far was passing back along his road to head out due to being unsure which driveway, he pulled out and saw me. I followed him and had a lovely long visit and tour of the house. It is so lovely and I am so happy for him and the family. We talked about how bittersweet it is as he wished his mom, Jeanne, had lived to see it done.

The saying around here is you plant your garden May long or when the snow is gone off the ski hill… crappy dash photo but that is still some snow on the hill

I got home and made a CBD/THC bath bomb bath and watched Younger. It made my ankle move better.

May 14, 2026

Work was a lot. Rotary was interesting as we learned a lot about our college volleyball teams

Met with Mom and discussed all her jewelry and treasures and I suggested she not wait to leave people things but give them while they can have them and enjoy her knowing they loved them. Also spoke with surgeon again and made a plan for next steps.

Trivia was… interesting. New host is very different. Brett, JD and I won by a landslide. We each took home $65 which pays for my poker finale on Saturday night.

Brett joined me at F&B to chat and see my Ducks get knocked out of playoffs on home ice BOO

May 13, 2026

I really hope that statement is true because if not, my leg is getting worse after getting treatments on it. Bad enough that I made an appointment with my family doctor for Tuesday morning before my next Physio so I have some oversight on all of what is happening. Compartment syndrome is no joke and if that is what I have I need to be sure that there’s no permanent damage already and that the right things are being done.

I worked most of the day with one of my clients auditors and then went up and spent a couple hours visiting with Mom. Greg hasn’t made it yet and she is anxious that he comes for a visit soon. It is complicated by the fact that he is awaiting surgery on his knee.



May 12, 2026

Today was a lot. I got to work and remember to try to make a Physio appointment as prescribed by Dr. Webber in Invermere. Turns out they had had a cancellation and I managed to get an 11 AM appointment with Cynthia.

Just as I was about to head out the door, I got a call from Mom’s assigned health person at the hospital. she wanted to let me know that they would be keeping an eye on things to see what level of care Mom needed next. She felt strongly that she would be able to go home with support.

As soon as I finish that call, I went to my Physio appointment and I didn’t take her long to say that I had compartment syndrome. I know this I’ve seen it before on people. She worked on my leg front and back and then had me lay with my knees over a pillow and had heat packs on. There are three small exercises. I am to do and soak in a hot tub or a hot tub every day, preferably with Epsom salt I am to see her again once a week for the next few weeks.

I had just made it back to the office when I got the call from the hospital doctor that’s been looking after Mom and it seems she has a 7 cm tumour in her larger intestine that is near the appendix irritating it causing her to have appendicitis. She said she would have the surgeon call me or meet with me later.

I had to push aside any thoughts about myself which was difficult because for some reason after the treatment, my lower back hurt a lot

I finished when I had to at the office then I stopped at the Fenwick and Bakerfor a single ounce of Oban, neat

I had a visit with mom once she woke up from her nap and it wasn’t too long before the surgeon arrived. She is a general surgeon serving in the hospital and will try to fit Mom in. She gave us all the steps carefully laid out first to let the antibiotics take care of the appendicitis , and then get Mom on her feet.

In order to find out what is really going on and what the options for treatment are she needs to do a colonoscopy, but Mom needs to be able to get out of bed for the pre-treatment portion

There are many details, but at this moment, what matters as we are taking it one step at a time and Greg is going to try to come up tomorrow to visit with her. I managed to get a spare set of keys from Joseph Creek and he has permission to stay there.

I went back for a last visit with Mom after going to get the spare keys for greg in case he arrived when I was not available as I have to deal with an audit tomorrow. She seems an OK spirit so I guess we’re probably in a similar space right now we both took in a lot of information today.

I stopped at clarity and purchased some CBD bath bombs and enhanced beverages. Then I went for the muscle special at F&B because it is my favourite meal there for Tuesday special

I was waved up to the bar to sit with the others when a seat cleared and had some interesting chats while I watched the start of the Ducks versus Knights game I had been decked out in my jersey today with my matching Capris

That’s how my day started joyfully thinking about the game tonight

I feel very supported by family, but seriously, I could use just a wee stretch of no stress at all. I may have to go on a little road trip soon.

May 11, 2026

Got an amber alert at 1:58 am. Startled awake and hard to get back to sleep.

A lot done today and then a visit with Mom. Her levels are off still. More tests being done.

I went to her place to clear out old food etc and while I was there she asked me to grab a bag from beside her chair that held all her jewelry. I may just go put it in my safe deposit box

Came home and filled out her census which made me laugh as she got the travel one. Figures.