Senior's Moments

I have a respect for the older crowd. I've volunteered with seniors and took a health care aid course which required working hours in a nursing home. I couldn't hack the nursing home scene, I'm not fast enough in feeding people and had a hard time lifting them on and off of the bed and toilet (and this was over 20 years ago and a 100 pounds ago)! But I couldn't think of a better title for capturing the transitional times for my family as we move an older member back into the home with lots of safety iniatives and changes to actitivites of daily living. The "senior's moments" aren't hers nearly so much as mine. People nod their heads and go "oh yeah, my grandmother does that too".

Boxes. If it comes in a box, then the box must be kept. That's great if you have a storage room or a basement, otherwise its a huge waste of space. And trust me, when we move her stuff we are never going to try to put that tv back into that tv box. That's okay though because the huge box from one her items was able to hold everyplastic bag that has ever come into the apartment. Even bags that things came in. I don't know when the last time was that she visited "La Vie en Rose" but she has their bag.

Plastic containers. Any plastic container that has ever come into the house must remain. You never know when you need one. Usually we are good about and we recycled a lot of stuff but I gave up trying to figure out which ones could and could not. And with a garbage shute just down the hall.

Huge tubs. The huge tubs that cream cheese comes in at the local bagel shop. I think we took about ten of them downstairs (don't fit in the shute!). Apparently they were on hold for people who might want them. If I had dogs the size of ponies I might keep their dog food in their or use it to scoop the yard but other than that I have no idea what they could be used for. Apparently no one else knew what they would be used for either.

She also has an old rusty ironing board. On her balcony. I have a feeling that it might be there for plants but I just don't know. Better check before I hump it down to the garbage!

The Missing Shoes

Have you ever heard of the phenomenon of the missing shoe? When you are driving around town or on the highway you may see a shoe lying in the road. But there is only one shoe, the mate is nowhere to be found. Some cultural pundits have suggested many reasons for this but the mystery remains.

We have the same mystery in W's apartment. While she is in Rehab we are getting ready for her return. I noticed that the old pair of boots do not seem to be anywhere. These boots piss me off because we went to a lot of effort to get W a nice pair of safe, well fitting boots that she approved of. Now she isn't wearing them because "they are too heavy" (we made sure they were light!) so she is wearing these cast offs from who knows where. She has the habit of ensuring nothing ends up in the garbage and we continually catch her wearing sneakers too big for her feet. Very dangerous when using a walker!

Anyhow, not only can I not find the newer boots that she refuses to wear, I can't find her donated ones. Nor can I find the matching shoe to two of her pairs of sneakers. Now these sneakers were chosen by her sister who is an expert in shoes (having been a purchaser years ago) and they were very safe! Part of the mystery might be solved as W may have been admitted to hospital with only one shoe on. Another thing to add to our list before she gets discharged is to figure out if she has any shoes!

Mice with Wings

I have never had birds, never knew anyone with birds. I had a relative with a heavy Yorkshire accent that had a bird -my mom and dad visited her and my father could not figure out why this women kept talking about her "board".

Anyhow, my relative has two birds. I've never spent much time with them until recently. Yuck. I'm not sure what the attraction is. Apart from having to clean out their tray they molt feathers everywhere. I don't know if these ones are more nervous then most but when I made a loud sound moving something there was a flurry of activity and a pouf of feathers flying out the cage everywhere. We just vacuumed all these feathers yesterday!

One of them doesn't seem to do much - I think he's oxygen starved from the smoke in the apartment (I know I am) but the other one obviously has the memory of 2 seconds. He grabs his ladder and looks in the mirror and pecks at it then goes back to his perch. Then he grabs his ladder and looks in the mirror and pecks at it then goes back to his perch. Sometimes he pecks at this little bird head that springs around. Very OCD.

I also now know why people drape things over their cage to let them think its time to sleep. Once sundown hit they are chirping and freaking out. And they don't respond to "shut up". Hey, I didn't stand at the cage screaming shut up - only from the couch and in a speaking voice.

Anyhow, after this introduction to birds I think I'm quite content to remain with cats.

What Do I Have to Hide?

Last week I was in the local library using the computer since my phone line was fried. The only available computer was one that has large print on the keyboard and the screen is twice the size of mine at home with large print. I was very embarassed using it because everything I was typing could be seen for miles. Which is ridiculous. Its a blog for crying out loud. But there is something distant and impersonal about a blog. Its like a bumper sticker - I want you to know what I think but not hold me accountable. BTW my favourite bumper sticker that I have put on a car "Fat People Are Harder To Kidnap". I used to see people reading it and laughing when I looked in my rearview. My favourite bumper sticker that I will never put on a car "P.E.T.A. - People Eating Tasty Animals". I have enough dings and scratches on my car without asking to be keyed!

Lent - Eating for Cheap

So for Lent this year we are giving up eating out. So far we haven't managed to keep to this as we were behind in getting groceries, but tomorrow we start. Except if we go out with friends or if we are severely behind in getting a meal - then we'll do something like Subway. So today grocery shopping was a real event - not just picking up a few items but actually planned meals. We got great deals on meat - only because we filled up on the discounted items - you know the ones that have the little sticker with a buck or two savings. I don't care - we freeze it right away (and sniff it before we freeze it just in case!). But it does feel weird going through the cash with all this discounted meat. Years ago we used to shop with my parents and this was when "no name" items were still a newer idea. My father marvelled at how my cart was filled with black and yellow boxes - all no name. His cart is top of the line, tried and true brands that they stuck with for 20 years. I tried to tell him that its mostly the same brands anyway but he couldn't bring himself to buy the generic!

The other thing I am going to try to give up is tv - I'm too embarassed to say how much time I spend in front of it - part of it is because I'm addicted to my Nintendo DS spider solitaire game - since I'm playing the game whatever crappy show is one is fine until a better one comes on. I have run out of mainstream shows so I am not watching channels I normally would not watch!

As for the picture - not mine but I swear that the person who posted it on flicker must have been in the same "grocery store" as I was in up in cottage country - frightening!

Starbucks - No Decaf at 2:00 p.m.

Went to Chapters to mooch around with a friend and stopped for a coffee. Well I was going to have a coffee - she came back from ordering and said "Don't ask, but they don't brew decaf after 2:00 p.m.". Hmm, its 7:30 p.m. This seems totally ridiculous - I could understand if they didn't serve it in the morning but not at night? Apparently, this has become a well known thing as I noticed a few blogs noting that Starbucks has stopped selling decaf at noon. Apparently demand goes down in the afternoon so keeping fresh brewed decaf on tap with a 30 minutes shelf life is costing them money. Is it that they sell less decaf or just less coffee overall? Who are the people who switch to caf in the afternoon - I'm sure they sell less cups but not necessarily a smaller percentage.

Now apparently if I ask for decaf they will make a fresh batch if I wait four minutes. I am one of those people - I will wait four minutes, I'll actually wait ten minutes. And I enjoy a fresh cup this way. I also go through the drive through at McDonald's and order Big Macs with half sauce no lettuce, or cheeseburgers just ketchup and onions. My favourite question when I order a cheeseburger with just ketchup and onions is whether I want the cheese. Uh, yeah, I do.

Medley, Or How to Ruin Two Songs

For the older crowd you may remember the "Hooked On" series of cassette tapes - basically they take the best bits of memorable songs and blend them into a long play medley of familiar tunes - very catchy. Very fast food too - who wants to listen to a whole album when you can listen to a few verses of all the best songs. With the advent of the CD with the availability to play tracks in any order and to a much larger extent, iTunes where you can put any group of songs in any order, medleys are a thing of the past. Except in a church I know.

Imagine the hauntingly moving "When I Survey the Wondrous Cross" chopped into pieces with verses sung in twos with another song blended in. Now if you hate this hymn 0r don't know it - it cannot be improved by trying to sing it without another song. If you love the hymn and relate it to specific times in the church calendar, emotions or just like it because you know the words enough to think about it when you sing it, then you are stuck with a jarring experience of a whole new song. As I stood trying to pick up the tune each time we went back to the other song I got more frustrated and wondered why in the H someone would want to mess with a classic. The alternate song was a song about mercy. As my husband pointed out, who is no more musical then I am, there are already two well known songs, one contemporary and one hymn quality that were written to evoke the sorrow/joy of Christ's sacrifice by having a mournful tune in one part and a lively response in another. We don't need to reinvent the wheel.

Now, I don't normally like bashing the church when it comes to how we worship but this approach has appeared twice in a row now. Don't get me wrong - I have no problem with singing an entry from one song, singing a complete second song, then ending with the ending of the first selection. But interspering verses drives me crazy - unless we sing this particular version a number of times I will never be free to just sing and reflect, instead I am listening hard to the second unknown tune and trying to figure out the link in between the sound, tone, message and what I am supposing to expressing to God. At one point I was so frustrated I almost started laughing because it just reminded me of some horrible lounge singer - taking bits and pieces of other people's work and throwing it out there to see if something sticks. "Really, you've been a great crowd, I'm back on at 9:00 if you want to hear more."

But what to do? Does one register a "no vote" and let the Worship group know you don't like what they do? That seems wrong - maybe everyone else likes it. Do you just suffer through it? I've been praying before worship because I just can't connect. I can see why people change churches over worship - but that is definitely not the answer either. So, in this too there needs to be grace. I am going to remember this for the future though - openly discussing feedback allows for different opinions to be heard - the good and the bad. If I am the only one that doesn't like this style then I can live with for the sake of others, but I'm selfish enough to assume that lots of people don't like it!

I'm so confused....

I have finally figured out how to add a feed to my homepage. Sort of - I actually usually operate without a home page and now have one so I have my feeds accessible.

Technology has totally gotten ahead of me. I no longer know more than my friends and find myself totally confused outside of my safe zones on the Internet. I have also determined that my capacity for memorizing passwords and user ID's has been reached. I had to go into Yahoo to subscribe to flicker and realized that I didn't have a clue what my sign on was though I used to used to go into the church admin group all the time. I was able to pull it up - along with another username I have used in the past. Yahoo was trying to give me a Yahoo email address - what! I can't possibly take on another, I already can't keep up with the few that I have.

I have purchased a router to go wireless and a new printer/scanner. I haven't hooked either up yet and I have a vague feeling of panick at the thought. I'm sure something won't be compatible and I will face the frustration of trying to figure it all out.

Meanwhile, I really want to be able to create a very simple website - I'm thinking of taking a course with the TDSB but really, do I want to commit the time?

Ministry Update

I went to a church that is related to our church who is also searching for a pastor. They are smaller and much more diverse and could probably due with some help. I have offered to help behind the scenes somewhere - as long as its not with children or youth.

They were very quick to take my offer and I have already helped them go through a grant application for a summer student. I am hoping to get to sit in on a few meetings to give them an outsiders point of view - this will work well for both of us as I can do this with the understanding that I am a student so I can ask obvious questions without offending anyone and point out confusion again without offending. So I am looking forward to this and will see how it plays out.

I am still working in my role at my home church. I have to say I am concerned that the church is not going to continue in the vein they started in - the worship has already become dated in a short time and one of the rumoured offers to apply for the pastor's position is offered to someone who will not be able to continue the process that has been started. We will likely go backwards a bit of distance before we move forwards. I've also noted some of the younger more innovative people are gone.

I'll do my best on my end to keep us moving outwards and being salt and light!

What's Up

My phone line has an annoying crackling noise that comes in wet weather so it is a very time consuming and patience requiring process to get onto the Internet - if I get on I have to cross my fingers that I can be on long enough to get my messages downloaded before I lose the connection again.

So I am enjoying my half hour free access at the library! And enjoying free magazines - ooh, I miss subscribing to half a dozen magazines like I used to. My favourites are also expensive - like Harpers and the New Yorker (they keep cutting the price hoping I'll come back but I just can't justifiy it.

Also had my first mammogram today - at the insistence of a friend - I was going to wait for the 50 year mark. I guess being fuller has its advantages because I've had more painful moments sitting in front of the TV! It was a very good process - I got there a bit early and was actually out 3 minutes after my appointment time.

We started looking into those alarm buttons for people who risk falling. My mother-in-law insists she doesn't need one. We have a few weeks with her in Rehab to convince her - there is no way she should be living without one - she has fallen at least four times that we know of - twice breaking a hip.

I'll stick my ministry updates in a later post so people not interested can skip those - I will say that I think my sermon on Wednesday in class went well - we'll see what the prof says!