Routine....

I'm a sucker for routine.  When I go on vacation, where I really think I'll be away from routine, I end up having one anyway.....same only different!

What is it then that makes us feel refreshed?  When we go from one routine to another...the same routine only different surroundings what is it that allows us to be invigorated.  Is it our visual senses, or hearing...feeling???  Perhaps a combination of things surrounding the same routine makes us feel like we have experienced something new.  I find it all very interesting...how our senses and inner thoughts, spirits and mind can make us feel like we've been on a vacation...how does that work anyway?  You read stuff about 'virtual reality' and I think it must be something like that.

 Whether it's home....

 or work.....

or vacation...

it's always good to get into some kind of routine.

I think it keeps us human:)

Tickle, tickle, tickle.....

Sleeping away peacefully, I am awakened by a fluttering of sorts on my back.

My hand goes towards it and it stops.

I fall back to sleep.

Awakened again by a tickling on my lower back.

This time I shoot straight up...slide over to the outer regions of this enormous king-size bed, pull the sheet up over the bottom sheet and whack the daylights out of whatever is between those sheets and fall back down onto the bed and back into an oblivious sleep.

Waking up in the morning I go about my usual morning routine....but before getting dressed, I remember the episode that took place in the night.  Must have been a dream, I'm thinking.  But just to make sure, I  pull back the top sheet and begin a sweeping motion with my hands on the bottom sheet.

Yep, there had been a spider in my bed.  There was a viewing of the body...but no funeral.

I got an A+...

Yep.  My physiotherapist returned from two wonderful weeks at Waskesiu and gave me the once over.  Measuring my injured knee, making me do stairs, walking straight lines, etc. etc. seeing how hard I worked in her absence.

She was very pleased with my progress so I got an A+ !

That made me very happy!

A few more intense sessions to go at the centre and she will leave me to my own devices. 
I shall miss all the folks I've met there, too....Dorothy, Shelley, Jim, Nicole, Lisa, Travis, Halecia....

I will be getting a program of various exercises to bring home with me.  Perhaps I will learn to make these a habit...and a priority! 

Lord help me to make it so.......for my own good health, of course.

"The Help"...

The girls and I went to the movie "The Help", this afternoon.  A story of courage, determination and the old south.  The south when "the help" (African American women) raised and cared for their employers children, cooked, cleaned, laundered and in general, ran the home while the privileged "white folk" played bridge, learned how to be condescending from their mothers, and neglected to treat "the help" as fellow citizens in the human race....the '50's and '60's in the U.S. of A.

In some respects, we have come a long way.  But I suppose as long as there is bigotry and intolerance, injustices will continue long into the future and will become a part of history that no one really wants to talk about or take responsibility for.  I believe the same things apply here in Canada!!!!  We have a problem.  A real honest problem with inequality...in every sector of our economy and culture.  When one group of people get treated differently...better or worse.....then we have injustice and inequality.  Who will address these issues?  Who will have the courage to stand up and say that "no, we are all in this country together...we need to live...together, not some of us off into little portions all sectioned off where we live in poverty, misery and ignorance".  There is inequality amongst white people.  There is inequality amongst First Nations people and everyone else that isn't "like us"!  That shouldn't be.  It doesn't have to be.  It needs to be addressed.  Will politicians take on this task.  Hardly.  Will we go about in our own little groups complaining and watching from the outside and not making any decisive decisions about anything at all?  Probably.  But we know that doesn't change anything.

Yes, Canada has a problem...and Saskatchewan....and Prince Albert....just like the U.S. and probably 90% of the the earth's population.

It takes a great deal of courage to change the world....even the world right around our neighborhoods.  I like to think I could be one of those people and perhaps if my attitude changes, I could be.

The movie today made me at least revisit our current situation...right here in P.A.  How can I be different from what I am currently?  How can I be a positive influence instead of a negative one?  I think I know the answers...I just need those answers to find their place deeply in my heart.  Then I will know that I can make a difference.

I think it was a terrific movie!  Should you get the opportunity to see it, please do.

It should happen to you.....

Just watched this movie.  Staring Judy Holliday, Peter Lawford (of the Rat Pack) and a new, rising star, Jack Lemmon.

A perfectly good, decent, funny, romantic comedy.  No murder.  No swearing. No sex (other than kissing and a few racy innuendos.

Just about an ordinary girl who gets what she wants!

It's really worth watching!  Of course, you'd have to catch it on Turner Classic Movies or rent it "somewhere" as it was filmed in black and white in 1954!

If you copy and paste this into google, it should come up.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/It_Should_Happen_to_You

Or copy and paste this one - I'm no good at this kind of stuff!!!!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oCJ0fJX1i8Q

From above...

There are glorious scenes when one looks down from above.  You get a very different perspective.  New shadows and shades.

The top three are looking down into Canmore, Alberta from atop the Rockies. (Matt Kent)

The fourth one is in Nepal, looking down into a valley. (Matt Kent)

The last one is from a height of land around Waskesiu.

The world is really an amazing place...

How's the view from where you sit this warm summer's eve?

A storm...

In black and white...

 

 The way a storm should look.

Hope you have a serene night...

Ice cream...

Besides having a ball game, afterward there was an ice cream social.  Good stuff.  We didn't make the ball game but we surely made our appearance for the ice cream!  Linea and Leo opened up their home and offered many flavors of ice cream while everyone else brought various toppings.

Mine had maple walnut and strawberry ice cream with almonds, pineapple, fudge bits, home made chocolate sauce, plus chocolate/raspberry sauce, blueberries and bananas.  A few calories...

It ended with a beautiful sunset which I captured across from their home.

'Nite all.

Wheeeewwwwww...

Conversations with son are always stimulating as well as provocative.  Sometimes we come at things from different perspectives. When we discuss philosophy or religion I feel like we are in different spheres...or kind of like I am a grizzly bear and he is an eagle....I see things from the ground while he flies above it and sees far beyond the mountains....having some things in common like eating and loving fish but....we just go about fishing in a different manner.  Make sense?!

Ya.  I'm beginning to understand a bit about how he is thinking and it challenges me to think "outside the box".  New philosophical thoughts are always difficult for me to grasp.

So, it was two hours of dialogue to varying degrees.

Interesting....so interesting....

He's out to be a source of light and change in the world.  May God be that Source, as he goes.

Dragonfly....

I like the looks of this fellow.

Very delicate and quite amazing!


I wonder where they go when it pours rain?

Two years ago...

We enjoyed Brittney being with us at Waskesiu this year while she worked at the ice cream place.  But it was two years ago she had with some of her friends stay with us as well....two, in particular.

Every time I think about all the laughter, fun, bike riding, tubing, swimming, beaching and the like, I smile.  These three have journeyed through their 17 years of life, mostly together, and that makes me smile too:)

Brittney and J are 17 now and both have worked for most of this summer, 2011.

The pictures below were taken in 2009 and they were much younger....then.  Now, they are mature young women who, at times, still find time to see one another.  No matter which direction their lives will go after next year when they graduate, I will look back on these pictures and remember the fun they had and their friendship .

This one was taken in 2010...still together....still having fun.

I pray these three will always find time for their friendship....even when they go their separate ways in life.  They are three beautiful young women!

Trees...

We live in a city with an abundance of many types of trees.  I think that makes us very fortunate people.  The summer time is so much more beautiful with the varying species and their hues of green.

But when winter comes along and all the deciduous trees have shed their leaves, leaving all the many coniferous trees to take over to add color to a drab winter, it is good to have pictures to remind us of what we do have in the summer.

Not only that, they give off the all-important oxygen, leaving us healthy and breathing right.

There are no trees around our apartment complex but the neighbor's yard makes up for it.  He has many elm, ash, poplar and birch and just enough pine, spruce and fir to keep us happy during the winter months.  So, birds abound!  I like that!

So plant trees.  A great legacy to the next generations. And if you don't like raking, hire a summer student to do it for you!