I was at the Cranbrook Chamber office by 8:45. Kyle Chris and Stacey who work there led myself, Leanne, Galen and John through the process of evaluating all the applicants. 3.5 hours later we had scored them all and the results will be tabulated for the Awards in late October. Shame I won’t be here for it. It was an interesting process.
I took some time to research and book my tour in Barcelona. I don’t want to miss the Familia Sagarda.
I picked up my Rybelsus pills and will start tomorrow morning.
I took time to go to Rotary lunch where the speaker was Mike Paugh about the restoration of the Kinsmen water park. They have done such a great job
Nancy is a new Sargent at Arms and is doing a great job handing out ‘fines’
Back at the office I got busy working on the Rotary newsletter. It was my suggestion and I actually loved working with chatGPT to personalize it and get it sent out to all members. So far the feedback has been great.
I worked a little once I was done that and then headed to St Eugene Resort for the Gran Fondo volunteer celebration and orientation. I am the parking coordinator and look forward to working with Robyn, Paul, Walter and Jason early Saturday morning.
Today was full and mostly fun and I even got exercise in. I was up around six so at the office before nine, which shocked everyone. Ashley and I walked over to the Heid-out for the Rotary board meeting, and I had delicious mac & cheese. Back at the office I got a call from my doctor about my mammogram which initially scared me until he clearly said that the results are fine. I wouldn’t need one for another two years, but that I have what they consider pretty high density breast tissue and they could easily be hiding something which would require an MRI to show so I am to take seriously any tenderness or lumps that I find that are unusual. I really appreciated the follow up. And on the density scale of ABCD, mine are C so that’s interesting
I stayed and worked and got a lot done, including a three hour client call. I then took the time to send an email to all of my clients about my upcoming vacation and realized that it is 36 sleeps until I am away for 36 sleeps! How cool is that to have figured out on the day
I also worked with chatGPT and my own find tuning to create the framework for the first Rotary newsletter to come out by the end of the month. I still want to look at options before I send it to everyone, but it was a good start.
At 6:15 I had a Chiro appointment and Kevin is always funny too chat with and be manipulated by I will see him again on Monday for my foot scan
On my way home I just decided to stop for wing night at Fenwick & Baker. There was one seat left in the middle of the bar, and it turned out that I sat beside a guy who I had chatted with before, and we had some pretty funny conversations. I also met the woman beside me, Bejea, who is highly amusing and we had some great conversations. It was just what I needed and now I’m home watching season three of good girls before I tuck into bed.
It was a very interesting day as far as being able to talk to my doctor about going on Rybelsus. He said Ozempic has had more studies than that, but the pill format would work best for me and he is willing for me to give it a try because I am so healthy. I have been maintaining my weight up and down 3 pounds but at a level that I am not comfortable with. I called the pharmacy after he faxed over the prescription and they have to order it in so I probably won’t get it to start it until Friday. That is only a month before I leave, but I hope there is some results right away that keep me maintaining and as my doctor agreed, it will help me not come home after the cruise with a greater weight gain.
One of my photos was used in the newspaper. Funny thing is Barry got my first name right but my last one wrong lol
I’m at Leanne and Lallah at the arena just after five as we were going to be working the 50-50 for a preseason game for the bucks. Only two of us were needed and Leanne had other things she needed to do so Lallah and I did it and the winner took home 317.50 which was pretty good considering the Low attendance. I like the new system. It’s just one machine instead of three different ones through raffle box.
Once home, for the second time this week, Missy curled up in my lap and sat for over half an hour, which is most unusual.
I was at the chiropractor this morning and we worked on my vertigo again and then he booked me in for 415 as well for a follow up. It was good that he did and he gave me some exercises to try before I see him on Wednesday night.
I got a call from Rick Jensen this morning asking if I was going to go to the district assembly in Roslin the first Saturday in October as he was driving and Joe was joining and I was welcome to join as well for just a day trip. I got to the office and read up about it and it was only $35 and I can ride with them leave at 7 AM and back by six so I signed up.
I also got a text from Leanne Jensen confirming that she needs me to help with 50-50 at tomorrow nights Bucks preseason game. I’m happy to do it, especially since I will be away for probably quite a few of games.
I am making a good dent in work and still having time to get things done towards my extracurriculars.
I feel that I have been grieving since the day I got back into Canada from Ecuador. That was the day I found out there was to be no more MusicFest. And then I broke my ankle. And then I lost my Jackie. I started gaining weight and drinking too much and having trouble sleeping and fighting the urge to withdraw. With all the things I have accomplished in the past month I do feel that I’m coming out of it all. I guess it really does just take time to process. I let myself feel the feels so that they would warp into joyful memories. Now I am taking the time to do some personal care and that includes the list of things around my home and at work. It feels good to start ticking them off.
I had lots of thoughts of going to the office and working on the Rotary newsletter, etc. but instead, I decided to tackle some of the random things that needed to get done at home while I watched season two of Good Girls I finished sorting all of my earrings and packaged a bunch into little Ziploc jewellery bags to take to the thrift store. Then I sorted out both freezers and threw away any of the very old freezer burned meat and the bananas that I will never turn into bread. I did find a wonderful array of fruit that I had put up and pork chops, scallops, and prawns. Also so much bacon lol that I clearly bought every time it was on sale. I am going to offer to bring pie for Thanksgiving. I did give some beef and elk sausages to Tracy and thawed some beef garlic ones out for my dinner. From the cherry tomatoes and cucumber that I bought at the market yesterday I made a delicious salad with feta cheese and a homemade dressing to go with the sausages and pierogies. A good comfort meal and I am using up the food that is in my house instead of paying for HelloFresh at the moment. Not only did it save money, but I have a good lunch for tomorrow ready to go.
Once I was done with the small freezer in my den, I moved the totes out of the living room that still needed to be sorted. Most of them were just keepsake paperwork, memento things, and I will work on that over the winter. My thought is, I will probably take pictures of things and make myself a scrapbook rather than keep all the bins of odds and sods.
It really was just the perfect amount of accomplishment and relaxation and now I’m even happy to look around my living room.
I was awake without an alarm at a decent time after a good sleep. Got myself ready and headed down to the park. I wandered the farmers market and the park, making connections with kids of all ages, giving out little elephant stickers and enjoying the vibe.
The day was full of great entertainment, Maddisun, Ethan Askey and the Elevators, aerial artists, and many booths with face, painting, elephant painting and wares. The vibe was amazing and the weather was perfect.
The Groundfloor coworker space did an awesome job, supplying hotdog, etc. for the volunteers.
I popped off to get my nails done at 2:30 and then came back to hang out before my security shift at five
Miesha and the Spanks from Calgary were awesome
At 7:30 I headed to Encore to have a meal and catch Rockinomix. It’s really a shame. It was the same night as Ed Fest because they are in incredible. Eli is an amazing guitar player and they would’ve had the place hopping with dancers if they have been more than a dozen of us there.
I headed back to the park to catch the last song of Shred Kelly and stay to help take down lights and dismantle. It actually went quite quickly.
I started at the day at the chiropractor. Kevin Roberge seems to work wonders for me but today I feel like it came away worse than how I went there in the first place. It’s not to be unexpected because I should’ve had treatment right after my fall in December. I am grateful though to be seeing him again Monday and Wednesday and hopefully we can get on top of all the vertigo and pain issues before I go away.
Back at the office, I got a fair amount done before it was time to head for my mammogram. Good to look after the girls; don’t love it.
Stopped at home to get my art installation and headed to the park where with the assistance of Kars and Sven, brothers from JCI, I got Angel and hung up
The Crozier’s and most of the Guedes’ came down to the park and we staked our spot before Rae, Dee and I went over to fire Hall for a beverage and update on the leaving work situation. We ordered some food to go and headed back over to the park.
It was a lovely evening and I invited Dave and Deb to join us as well. Brett also showed up with Morgan and Riley. It turned out to be a lovely gathering of friends and family. The only problem was the music didn’t start till eight, which was a shame because everyone was ready to go earlier.
The lantern parade was lovely and Long and so creative
Rotary lunch was very interesting as the presentation was about the new project in Cranbrook for a Hospice House.
I was quite surprised when I got a text from my daughter that she’d given notice at her work. It will be strange when she is gone as of Oct 15. I met her at Encore where she was visiting with her husband and a friend and she was white girl drunk.
Today was not especially profitable, but it is setting me up for a success. Sanjay, who works for the IT company helping at the Groundfloor, showed up to finally set up the brand new desktop computer and connect my laptop and my Mac to it remotely. It took quite a long time to ensure all things worked on the network and still I can’t scan from the big printer, but I am so excited that my Mac works perfect for travelling now and we even set up my extra screen so it will work with it. It gives me great confidence to take it on my trip.
It’s funny that we had three portable and two desktop computers all working at the same time to accomplish this.
This is the singular thing that takes away the stress for me now. Not all heroes wear capes
A little burst of happiness in my evening was a younger lady picking up some Tupperware that I sold on marketplace. I threw in some extra ones that I knew would work good for her kids for school and she was so happy. She complimented me on my beautiful garden and gave me a big hug, as well as the money. 
Today’s stayed pretty relaxed in spite of all the work I did. At a certain point there was a knock on my outside window at the office and I went out the door to find Sawyer, Will and their auntie Ashlée with them. She had come down from Edmonton and was just here for three nights leaving tomorrow. I invited her to join me for a dinner at Encore and she picked me up when she was done her things. We had a really nice visit. It was good to catch up. She seems really happy having moved away and is shutting herself up there in a rental in October instead of in her friends space. I guess that means she’s going to stay. I’m glad for her. She needed to get away.
I slept till just after nine which felt good got up and did a few chores and then headed to the office again. It feels so good to have the uninterrupted time to get a great deal done
While I was there, I received an email that I did get a booking for the Drach caves! Yay I am really looking forward to spending the day with Wendy alone seeing such an amazing space
Once home, I made my last for quite some time HelloFresh meal. It is one of my favourites so a good one to go out on. I have decided that I need to sort my freezer get to the bottom of it, start eating the food out of it, etc., and save money.
After dinner, I FaceTime with Mark as we played three rounds of outsmarted the first two I whooped him and then the third one he managed to beat me. Honestly, it’s usually the other way around lol. It was nice to find him in a good mood and with better energy.
Now I am doing laundry as I watch my shows and plan to get a decent sleep to kick off this week
I slept only as long as I needed and was up at a decent time. I relaxed over coffee and then got myself ready and headed for a visit with mom before heading to work. Of course your feet are down when I got there although she swears she has them up whenever she sits in her chair. I have never gone in her door and seen her with her feet up. Her feet swell and she has issues walking, but I cannot seem to make it clear what a difference it will make to sit with her feet up.
We did have a nice little visit and she was heading to bingo so I headed to the office and took care of some payments for her before buckling down on a file that I have been trying to catch up since it’s July 31, 2019 year end. I actually got a great deal done in the last couple weeks, all the way through to Oct 2022 which is very satisfying. I really do hope to get it completed before I leave on my trip
Speaking of my trip, unfortunately I hesitated too long on the Drach caves trip in Mallorca as I didn’t realize something that makes a lot of sense. It is a timed entry with only a certain number of people, and I am now on a waitlist. Fingers crossed.
I am now sipping blackberry crown, gifted to me by the lovely Nesta and watching the current season of upload. It amuses me immensely.
I woke up sometime after eight and was heading to make a coffee when I got a text from Rae to call her when I woke up so Idid right away FaceTime her. It seems they had planned to head to Creston to get fruits and vegetables, but remember that Sawyer had a party for the afternoon and could I have him dropped off just after 10 and bring him to his party for 130?
Of course, I said yes, and just adjusted my schedule for the day which had involved going into work. When he arrived, we worked together doing some pretty solid chores. We took out all the garbage, including the litter and seriously clean the litter box and surrounding area. Then he scraped the old non-skid stickers off the bottom of my bathtub I scrubbed and clean the tub, grabbed a shower and then we put the new stickers on. I think they are super cute.
Next, we emptied an entire closet of storage items and sorted all the Tupperware to make sure it had matching lids, etc. Any of the offbrand named items went into the to go box and some set aside to post for sale as they are a little lunch boxes so it is a good time of year to sell them
I made us some Annie’s shell pasta and tuna. Well he played a little bit of a little big planet and then I drove him to his party. It was up in Spruceland. I have seen the sign before but never been up in that area and it is quite lovely. The family that was hosting the party invited the entire group going into grade 5 at TM Roberts French immersion for a pre-school starting get together.
Once I dropped Mom off, I headed to the office and worked until I got a text from Rae that they were not going to make it back in time to pick him up. I picked him up and brought him back to my office where they arrived 15 minutes later or so with some peaches, corn and cherry tomatoes for me.
He is such a good little guy and there’s two weekends in a row now when he has been helping me to get motivated to do the things that weigh heavily on me. I may book him again soon.
I stayed working at the office until a zoom happiest hour with Rotarians on both sides of the border occurred. I enjoyed meeting the two people that I didn’t know and chatting with Steve and Joe. Apparently it is every Saturday night at 5 o’clock pacific time. It started back in Covid and has continued and I hope to drop in fairly regularly.
I came home and had a short visit with Tracey before settling in with a dinner of corn on the cob and cherry tomatoes, and watching How to sell drugs online (fast). It is a quirky show that I am now into season four of on Netflix.
I started the day with a reflexology appointment with Lorraine. I gained a lot of insight on what is going on with my body and am making a plan to get the Altra she’s that she recommended
Left work, raced home to get my bevies and headed to Galen and Monica’s for her 50th birthday bash. It was a lovely gathering and I had many great deeper conversations with people that I generally see when I am busy with other things. Marie even had Altra shoes and highly recommended them. Jess is going to set me up for an appointment to get orthotics and then I will go to Kimberley and get a pair of them.
Rotary lunch was very interesting as Nancy Reid (Emmy’s other grandmother) gave a great presentation about the new low barrier shelter opening Sept 8th.
Rae invited me to pick up the pizza and come watch How To Train Your Dragon with her, Lukas, Will and Sawyer. I very much enjoyed it.
Today was broken up by going to pick up Mom’s pill packs and then her to take her for her lower denture fitting. On the drive she told me that she had fallen down last week, but her brother was there and helped her up. Her feet are quite swollen, and I had to lecture her once again to have her feet up whenever she is sitting in her chair, especially during this heat. Sigh.
The best part of the day honestly was being engrossed in the books back at the office and getting a message from Rae asking me if I was home. She sent me a picture of her parked in my driveway so I shut everything down and headed out. It was long past office hours anyway.
She was there to deliver a bottle of blackberry crown from Nesta one of the owners of Encore for a thank you to my work at rock the kootenays. We ended up sitting and having a nice long visit outside planning our trip. She was very considerate that she didn’t want to take over my trip, but would I like her to help plan that five days at Walt Disney World? Of course, I said yes! I completely trust her ability to be on top of all of the apps and know all the times and etc., etc. etc. We also debriefed RTK she had a meeting with the organizer today. She would also like me to consider running the trivia for the next season. I would like to do that, but it will be hard not to actually be on a team competing.
I am actually starting to get excited about my trip, which is only 50 days away!
I would like to say that I popped out of bed and print through the day and came home and accomplished much but the reality is I dragged myself out of bed got on the treadmill, went to the office came home made some dinner and I’m watching trash TV nearly falling asleep in my chair. I only barely managed to get one chore done. At least my back doesn’t hurt as much, but I am definitely going to hit the hay early.
triumphgal 