FINISHING FRIDAY

[Lynlee]

hugs and prayers to all

Harmony - you have a beautiful caring soul. You are doing so much more than I would or could do, but no one can tell you not to do it. I only wish there was 'an apprentice or a young fit and eager labourer/ companion/ trainee' I could magic up to give you a break and assist your dh. Prayers for your family situation.

Storms are forecast today to follow up those that affected the SE yesterday. Lots of places without power. Radar shows 'weather' to the south already today.
I hate to travel into who knows what, but I have no certainty that tomorrow will be any better.

I need to get my day started. I'm dressed and tmeds taken. I'm that much started.

[Kathryn-in-Canada]

Elizabeth: There was one scary scene and the scene that scared me (not the same!) The scary scene is when Michael causes the run on the bank and the children flee and get lost in the back alleys and a beggar woman and dog jump out at them before they run into Bert.

I'm afraid of heights so the scene that took me from the theatre were the chimney sweeps dancing on the roof tops. I was convinced they were going to fall!

[Nancy]

My sister wants to see that MP movie.
I painted some rocks this afternoon the back ground is done I am trying to decide on detail work, trying to not be seasonal with these bc they are for the Easter season rock hunt.
H is off the next five days.
Watched the vid. How to make of fudge, it could be in various flavors from other vids .
Cold weather is heading our way next week.
Fudge was a success.
Got several pairs of slacks new to me from the neighbor not free but a good price and they are in the wash now yea.

[Kathryn-in-Canada]

Dd would like us to take dgs away for part of the day. I don't like the museum she suggested and it is likely to be crowded because of school holidays but the agriculture museum will not be crowded. It is winter (which is actually a good time because the animals are in the barns) and it is really small. We'll buy the grandparent's pass which gets us into that plus the plane and train museums. It also gets us over 100 other museums, including Perth (Australia), Montreal and Halifax. I'm already thinking of a train/museum adventure in Montreal.

Speaking of trains, the town where ds is moving is the closest train station to Ottawa. For dh and I plus dgs (who is no longer free), it is $113 for us to take the train to visit ds for the day. That sounds like a good adventure as well.

I've promised dd that during the 6 weeks when dgs can't go to playgroups I'll do Nana Adventures (TM) so I'm starting to make up a list of them. Toddler Tuesday at the NAC is already added to the list and rides on the double decker buses. He loves trains so much I thought a train ride would be great and since ds lives next to the rail yards we could go and watch the freight trains as well as ride on a passenger train (and have a nice place to eat and use the potty.)

I'm on the treadmill now so was using the computer here to do research.

[lucylee]

Progressing here... not exactly FINISHING... but progressing, slowly but surely.
Took dmom to PT again today, then back to ass't living to get another load of stuff to bring home, including the wheelchair, which dmom said later she was glad I got, b/c he foot (OTHER foot, not the one from recent surgery) is now bothering her soooo much.
OH. MY. GOODNESS. I just don't think I can deal with another surgery... and recovery... and her not driving for 6 weeks, etc...
I won't think about that now...

So -- progress --
* got her back home and settled in again, movers will get her furniture back to her tomorrow morning so dbro will have a bed to sleep in tomorrow night!
* got hand-painted Christmas ornament for dnephew, which a friend here in town did for me
* one of dnephew's gifts arrived by UPS, so now I am only waiting on one thing for him, and I FINALLY found the company I ordered from and they promise it WILL arrive in time. (It is only a pair of socks, but I need it b/c he isn't getting all that much anyway.) NOTE TO SELF -- NEXT YEAR: print every order I make online immediately so as not to forget what is coming and when!
* dmom's DVD arrived -- the one shipping from GREECE -- and wonder of wonders, it does play on my dvd player -- so that's going to be a big surprise for her, I think. Just an old movie, but apparently one that is extremely hard to find.

I also took a long nap and then cooked supper. DH and I are both finally beginning to feel a little more human, so maybe tomorrow will go well. (We're taking dgs with us to the Grand Ole Opry, remember? DDIL and dgd were welcome to go also, but they didn't want to go without ds, and he can't go.)

The frustrations for today...
* DH has ordered a parking pass for the bowl game that the men in the family are attending on the 28th. It was supposed to arrive today and requires a signature for delivery. Today we got an email that says estimated shipping will be the 26th, with arrival likely the 27th. Y'all see the problem here... if it does NOT arrive promptly on the 27th, it will be useless, b/c dh will be on the road by 7:00 or 8:00 a.m. on the 28th, and will need the parking pass in hand. * sheesh * DH is soooo upset. And it was very expensive, considering it may be useless. It also cannot be cancelled. We're just stuck.
* Also... still waiting on ds's poster frame and dgs's ornament, in addition to dnephew's socks...

[Kathryn-in-Canada]

I just fell down the rabbit hole of watching Mary P. Returns background videos on YouTube. I appear to be besotted with the film.

[lucylee]

I understand totally, Kathryn! I could easily have just sat there and enjoyed watching it again last night. Although I still like the original better, LOL. I've got to watch the original again, actually, b/c I didn't remember exactly how the run on the bank came about and what all the trouble was about with Michael at the bank.

I may have told y'all this last night, but dgs said the new one was "darker" than the old one, and he was talking about the mean people -- the wolf from the pottery bowl and the banker -- Colin Frith. But he was glad that "that old man" came in and -- I'll just say solved that problem, so as not to give away a spoiler. I just loved watching "that old man." I think I have loved Dick Van Dyke ever since he was falling over the ottoman coming home to Laura and Richey....

[Harriet]

Hey.

Each day is so overwhelming that I can't seem to post. Typing now, I have this look-over-your-shoulder feeling that something will interrupt. (update - I was eventually interrupted twice)

A dear young friend called Wed and asked me to be a character reference for a law enforcement job position. The three-typed-page form arrived yesterday and took hours to complete, then took HRH helping me in order to return it to the investigator today, in the tech manner requested. I would not have missed helping for the world, because I care a great deal that this is done well and feel honored. But it was just that much more time taken from any normal activities of the season.

HRH had 2 doctor's appts today, both rather hastily decided through calls to us from nurses. The two were 40 minutes away from each other through nutso traffic because of an interstate accident that rerouted traffic onto state roads, etc. To both of them he felt he had to be early/on time or bust. At both of them we had to wait and wait. I'm glad he got in to these people at the last minute of this week, but it was exhausting to us. The difficult doctor was nicer today and forthcoming with info (after calls to him from kidney doctor) but now that we get home and look at the online info, he seems to have forgotten requests we made as soon as he walked out of the room, and he's now gone for Christmas.

We tried to pay a bill for the church which wasn't too far out of the way but the office that was supposed to close only next week was closed today, too. We went to the grocery.

There was not much left of the day.

We have given up on receiving mail during the day. Long after dark, the poor mail carrier reaches our road. We've asked the boys, but neither knows what time he comes any more, just that in the morning we all have mail. That's pretty bad! HRH noticed a mail carrier on our trip who had boxes piled up so high beside her in her mail vehicle that her head was only visible from nose up. yipes.

Harmony, it's up to Mr. Harmony to inform his dr of all the facts. You're not the police, and you're also not supposed to be living up to some expectations of communication. But I will admit that I'd have been tempted to tell the doctor he was off-base. When a doctor's statement is so optimistic, Mr. Harmony needs to question whether the doctor is remembering (or has been told) everything. One thing he can be SURE the doctor assumes is that during the time to the 80th birthday, every bit of diet advice will be followed to a T, and health will be ideal.

Can't he choose projects that are small and indoors now? Maybe choose to do more exacting work in these years that follow a serious health event (years when you are becoming weary of it all and deserve to be heard). Custom furniture or beautiful millwork/mouldings, in which the profit margin is still satisfying but worksites are level! Something where he could call you and say please bring me supplies and you could walk out to his workspace, not drive a truck across the county. There could be great appreciation for smaller scale work, too, and a reputation built for work he could continue longer.

Although I truly loved Mary Poppins, and consider it "the one to beat" among all cinema, I was worried as a child, that people were plunging down onto/through tiny chimneys during the rooftop scenes. The movie may have been my first encounter with special effects.

I absolutely have to do some more laundry tonight, tired or not. And need to think about managing to look okay tomorrow, as dd38 drives in tomorrow and probably wants me to have supper out with her family at least.

[Kathryn-in-Canada]

It is the end of the year. One of the things we wanted to do is support the websites we use all the time.

I just gave some money to Reddit because I'm on it daily and use it as my local news source since the local subreddit covers a lot of news from store openings to traffic issues to neighbourhood news.

We also subscribed to a daily investigative news organization because we read a lot of articles from that website. All through the process it said it would be US$19.99 per month. Fine. Entered all our information including our US credit card. But the confirmation page said they'll be charging me in C$ so I'll end up paying 3 exchange rates instead of 1. And their 'pick up the phone number and solve a problem' isn't any good until Monday morning, and I don't imagine they'll be open Monday morning. I've tried to cancel by email but even if I do, I'll get hit with a loss since the way exchange rates work, credits are worth a different amount than debits, by about 8 - 10%.

My loss will be less than their's. We were going to give them US$240 per year. Now I'm going to give them nothing because they lied to me and ended up causing me stress. No, I'm not understanding or patient. If I'm screwed over by a large corporation, I'll take my money elsewhere if possible.

We subscribe to The Economist so guilt-free use all their content. After all, we pay a lot of money to them ($$$/year.) We just wanted to support another company as well.

[Lynlee]

I'll need to read back. turning off laptop now.
I hope to see you all later.