Forging New Trails

One year ago today I posted  Tumultuous Tuesday. As per my usual I often

Not Your Average One

I’m never going to turn this blog into a food blog as I’m not a good enough

Today’s Gratitude List

I’ve had a long day physically (my back went into spasm first thing today at work) and I’ve been a little testy around the edges. I had to ask for

An “ordinary” day

It started out like an ordinary day. It ended like an ordinary day but in between something strange happened that I wasn’t even aware of.

It is the “stuff” that

Final advent act

I am significantly late posting the final advent calendar activity. The one that said be kind to yourself and enjoy your Christmas Day.

Now my Christmas Day involved being

Soul soothing stroll (not)

The ocean waves have a particular sound they make as they come crashing in. It’s hard to imagine but that is what the

Slacking off or simple math

I can’t decide if I am slacking off or if the simple math I’ve done while thinking about this blog post allows me some leeway.

Simple math equation. 

Roy’s War Story

…. and in the setting of the sun we will remember them….

As a youngster he seemed like a quiet reserved man who went about his own business. His family always sat in the same row at church and his children were well behaved. His demeanor, in the eyes of my childhood, hid his real story which you can hear at Roy’s story. It’s long but very well done and worth the view.

This is a different end to the

11 days — 11 stories 

Acts of Remembrance 

than I had planned but felt it was a good last minute pinch hit. Impressive work that one of my childhood friends has done to capture this story.

Bernie

Scheduled Tour of Duty

… and in the setting of the sun we will remember them…

Today is Wednesday which for me came before the part that this is

Senility or S.A.D.

Given a choice I would take Seasonal Affective Disorder and not senility but perhaps I have a touch of both! It’s a rather embarrassing new story to go along with an “old story” although it is rather amusing now that the mystery is solved.

The old story — I grew up in southern Saskatchewan and loved the bright open spaces and blue skies. I took my nurses training in Calgary and wasn’t super fond of chinooks but coped all right with the rest of the weather there. Then I followed my heart to my man and he was in Vancouver. I always say that if we had stayed there I would have been the first test patient for Prozac. I did not do well in that weather region as there just was not enough sun and too much rain and cloud cover. It’s a lovely place to visit and I still miss the ocean but I don’t miss living there one iota. So that’s how we came to end up in Saskatchewan. It was only supposed to be for a couple of years but that is an entirely different blog post.

So now to the new story.  Even here in Saskatchewan the winter months can drag on with so few hours of sunlight during the day; especially as I work in an area with no windows (heavy sigh).  I find in October that I start to struggle with rising and “shining” in the morning so a couple of years ago I purchased a “blue” light. They are used to treat S.A.D. and thought it was worth a try. I usually pack it away about March as the days are so much longer than I find I don’t need it.

I went looking for it one evening last week but probably got sidetracked to something else without being successful. Yesterday’s stellar weather left and today it was rainy or snowy for most of the day without a single stitch of sunshine. These are the days that I dread and it was worse actually because I had the day off. I’m used to being home in my house with 31 windows and always finding something to do in the sunniest room. But today was dull and so overcast that I thought perhaps I should find the light and turn it on. So I went searching and then searching and then thinking. I looked in all the same obvious spots I looked in last week and then I looked in a few less logical spots. Then I tried to trace back to where I had last seen it and for some reason I thought about the charger being in the kitchen “catch all” drawer. So I looked there which made me spot the Vitamin D (which I should be taking but I can’t seem to remember in the morning) which made me remember telling my mom that she should start taking Vitamin D. Bingo in my head and a quick phone call confirmed that I had leant the light to my mom in the spring.  We had even talked about her using it at Thanksgiving when she was up but it wasn’t until the Vitamin D that I remembered the conversation. My mom remembered the conversation about the light but had forgotten who she had received it from! She can be forgiven as she is 88 and actually as sharp as a tack! She remembers me knitting in the 80’s while lying down icing my sore back! Hell I hardly remembered that I used to knit!!

So maybe I need to worry just a bit about keeping the old noggin sharp! In the meantime my mom will use the light till we meet up again and I will buy flowers to keep my house bright on dull days. I haven’t solved the rise and shine issue but then perhaps I never will as some of us are just not morning people.

Bernie

 

 

Today’s only ray of “sunshine”