Music and my Aging Ears

I asked for, and received an MP3 player for Christmas. It holds about 120 songs and can receive FM signals.

I thought it would be good to have at the gym as the music there is TERRIBLE! I know I sound like my mother but did my music, when I was a teenager sound that bad to her? It couldn't have. At least there were lyrics and melodies and you could sing along. With the music they play at my gym, either I can't hear the words or they're so bad, they make me blush. What's more is that very few people are younger than 30 when I am at the gym. I'd guess that most of them don't like the music either.

So, I thought having my own music would be good.

There are a few problems though. I don't know very many songs or musicians. I downloaded 10 songs yesterday but I gotta tell you that Bach's "Air on a G String" or Debussy's "Claire de Lune" don't really help me get my heart rate up. They tend to slow me down. I need something fast and peppy.

There are televisions at the gym too. I guess they are supposed to help us pass the time. If you tune into a certain spot on the FM dial, you can hear what's on TV. Did that this morning too with little success. The headphones don't block out sound very well so I was listening to the TV while the "music" was pounding loud. My heart rate was going up alright, along with my blood pressure.

I think I sound like my dad.

Maybe I'm just too old for an MP3 player. They say that as you age, it becomes more difficult for you to block out and ignore background sounds. I'm finding that's true for me. It's no wonder that the older people complain about noise more than the younger ones. I'm beginning to understand. I hear the music on my player but I also hear all the other sounds too and it can drive me nuts!

I haven't given up on the MP3 player yet. I'll try to download some of my kind of music that will help me get movin'. I filled in and submitted one of those suggestion cards at the gym so we'll see if we get anywhere with that.

I'll keep going though. It's been almost a year since I joined Shapes and it has been good for my physical and mental health. I guess I'll just have to work out a little harder to get the stress of being at the gym out of my system.

A Great Sport

There is nothing more Canadian than lacing up your skates and going out to the pond. When I skate, I just glide around the ice and don't bother to play hockey because it has never really caught my interest. I don’t care to watch it unless it’s the Olympics or the Stanley Cup playoffs

However, last week, I actually played hockey. Twice.

I have skated since I was a little girl but never did I play hockey. In the opinion of many people in the 60’s and 70’s, hockey was for boys. In more recent years, we have gone skating with friends and what tends to happen is that the men and children (boys and girls) play hockey while the women skate around. This has suited me just fine because it seems to me that playing hockey with men and boys over the age of 10 can be very dangerous.

The first time I played the game was at Pinewood Lodge. This is a lovely place in Whiteshell Provincial Park on the shores of Dorothy Lake. In addition to the indoor pool, hot tub and steam room, there are lots of outdoor winter activities to be enjoyed. There is a pond which is available for skating and ice hockey, a small tobogganing hill, trails for walking, snowshoeing, cross country skiing and snowmobiling. One afternoon, a number of our group decided to play a game of hockey. Last year when we played, a goalie was needed, so Chelsea and I volunteered. Because we didn’t have sticks, we used snow shovels to protect the goal. We only let a few in. I had such a good time that this year I decided that I would join in the game with a real hockey stick. It was pretty dangerous but I managed to remain uninjured and even scored a couple of goals and assists.

The second time I played hockey was Friday night when a friend of mine organized an informal game of hockey for women only. What a blast we had! We were not very good. We’d miss a perfect pass; we’d be 2 feet in front of the goal and miss; some of us had trouble stopping so we’d just glide into the boards. We cheered for every save and every goal as well as any good pass that happened. We made a lot of noise. There was a group of people (all male) playing around with pucks and sticks. When there was a break in our play, all we could hear was the swish of skates on the ice and the sound of wood hitting the puck from the other group. When we started playing, there was laughter, cheering and all sorts of noise. There was also a lot of good natured competition.

We all agreed that we’d like to do it again. We also realized that our skating improved while we were playing. By focusing less on our skating, our bodies began to do what felt natural. What a great sport. I think I’ll start watching “Hockey Night in Canada” for pointers.

Here is our group photo:

Happy New Year!

A New Christmas Tradition

For all of my life, our big family Christmas event happened on Christmas eve. My dad would come home early, we'd play games and then eat a massive turkey with all the fixings. As a matter of fact, one year the turkey was so big that it didn't fit into the oven (this is the absolute truth) so my mom asked the local baker, who happened to be a friend of ours if she could cook the bird in one of his ovens. He graciously complied.

There was another time when mom had put the bird into the oven and a little later, we went to church. We came home after 1 1/2 hours only to realize that the oven wasn't working. I think we still had "the old stove" which still had a working oven which cooked the turkey nicely. I seem to recall eating around 11:00 PM that day.

We have kept the Christmas eve tradition for our family here in Winnipeg too. It has always worked well, until this year. We decided to have a church service on Christmas eve rather than Christmas day. This made it difficult for us (there are about 20 of us who are part of our family group) to find a day to "do the turkey thing." We'll be having our turkey dinner tomorrow evening, on January 1. But for Christmas, we decided to have brunch, rather than a dinner. This way those of our family who had other Christmas dinners to attend could spend some time with us all on Christmas day.

It was a lovely brunch and we ended up staying the whole day at George and Yvonne's. We agreed that the brunch was a great idea and I think it won't be too hard for us to agree to begin a new tradition.

I am so grateful for the family I have. I can hang out with them for a whole day and then look forward to seeing them all again the next day. I really don't tire of them. And I don't think they tire of me either. At least I've never been sent home.

Yet another reason why I don't do christmas baking...

This is my rather pathetic attempt at shortbread cookies with chocolate drizzle. However, I must say that they do taste pretty good.

I Know What I'm Getting

I know what I'm getting for Christmas. Wes and I are going out this afternoon to pick it out. We have decided that we will purchase bikes for ourselves. There are some great sales on now. Stores are getting rid of their 2006 inventory. That doesn't matter much to us because Wes used his bike for 27 years and I've had mine for about 20 years. After a couple of bike rides, it won't matter if we have an '06 or '07 model. These bikes will probably last us 20+ years too.

The main reason for purchasing the bikes is the fact that we are finally going to take our 25th anniversary trip this fall. That anniversary was 2 years ago and it just didn't work out for us to go away for a couple of weeks but it looks like it will work for us in 2007.

So what do bikes have to do with our anniversary?

We plan to take a 7 day bicycle trip in Tuscany. (Every time I say that sentence I get all weak kneed and butterflyish in my stomach. I cannot believe how excited I am about this trip! It is honestly, a dream come true.) We need bikes so that we can train and be prepared for the trip.

This is no back pack kind of trip. The tour organizers send our bags to our daily destination so all we need is what is required for the day. I am looking forward to seeing a beautiful part of the world and also meeting people from other countries on this tour.

We have talked about this trip for several years but I was afraid it would never happen. It really sounds like it is almost too good to be true. For us, this will be a trip of a lifetime.

Until I go to Africa with Heather.

Freezies

Michele mentioned freezies in her post the other day and that reminded me of a cute kid story.

I too had those freezies in my freezer and frequently doled out quite a large number to the neighbourhood kids.

One day I had been out for the morning when I came home and realized that I had forgotten to lock the door. I entered slowly and saw that everything seemed in place and it looked like nothing was stolen. But when I got into the kitchen, I saw a chair right in front of the frig, scissors on the counter and the ends of two freezies. I was puzzled. The chair, scissors and freezie ends were not there when I left. Had Ben grabbed a couple just before we left? That was impossible because I had been with him all the time.

The answer suddenly dawned on me. I went outside to talk to David, Ben's little friend who was probably 4 years old at the time. I asked him if he had eaten a freezie that morning and he said he had. I then asked him where he got the freezie and he replied matter of factly that he had gotten it from my house. Apparently he knocked and when no one answered, he tried the door which was unlocked and proceeded to help himself and his sister to a freezie. He knew where I kept the freezies and the scissors which I used to cut the tops off.

I found it all hilarious and very clever. David's responses to my questions were straightforward and I believe that he felt he didn't do anything wrong. I guess any other time he asked me for a freezie, I would give him one. If I wasn't home, he would just help himself.

His mom did not find it quite as funny as I did and told David that he was never to do that again. I don't believe he ever did and besides, I was not in the habit of keeping my door unlocked when I went out so there was no opportunity for him to do it.

David is 24 by now I think. I wonder if he remembers?

All Cleaned Up

Heather was talking about being blessed. I am feeling so blessed today and I'd like to share some of my blessings with you. Several months ago a couple friends of mine (Keith and Stephanie) moved to St. Lucia to work for a Baha'i mission. They decided that they would give away most of their possessions before they left as they are making steps to simplify their lives.

Keith is an artist and he generously allowed me to go through his stack of art. I chose several watercolour pieces and here are 2 of them. They look like angels to me. I just got them framed and picked them up yesterday. I feel like I've been given a wonderful gift from them. I will remember them everytime I look at the paintings.

Today Kristen and I started and almost finished my Christmas shopping. We had a lot of fun. That is a blessing. As some of you may recall, we had some real challenges last spring. We are enjoying one another's company a lot these days as she is only working part time these days.

I had coffee with a friend last Friday. It's been a while since I've done that but somehow, after we parted ways, I was left feeling so blessed and honoured to have a friend like her. I heard the loving voice of God coming out of her mouth.

Sarah McLachlan CD. Beautiful.

There are so many more things I'm thankful for but these are the ones that come to my mind right now.

I'll leave you all with a parting blessing from God himself:

"The LORD bless you and keep you;
the LORD make his face shine upon you and be gracious to you;
the LORD turn his face toward you and give you peace."

Numbers 6:24-26

Our Christmas Tree

There are several people in my life who have said/written lately that they just don't feel like putting up a Christmas tree. Everyone has different reasons and I respect them.


I however, love to have a Christmas tree in my house although I don't particularly like putting it up or decorating it. We purchased ours on Friday night and by 3:30 Saturday afternoon, it was up and decorated. I had two meetings on Saturday so I had nothing to do with it. Wes did it all, the sweetie.



It's beautiful, with a straight trunk and very tall. Tall enough for our high ceilings.



Unfortunately, while it's been looking just lovely for several days, this morning, this happened. I can't blame it on anything. I was talking on the phone and heard the crash. That's all. Nobody, not even Sammy was close by.


I will post the "fixed up" tree when it's fixed up (when Wes gets home).

Random Thoughts

• I just bought a new CD. It's Sarah McLachlan's Wintersong CD. What a beautiful CD. And it doesn't have "Oh Holy Night" on it. Thank goodness.
• We bought our Christmas tree yesterday. I was away today until about 3:30 so Wes ended up decorating the whole thing. It looks lovely and smells divine. I think we'll stick to real trees.
• Right now, I'm listening to my new CD while Wes is cooking supper, Kristen is sitting next to me working on a gift for CJ and Tim's around somewhere. It is a very peaceful, sweet Saturday afternoon. I am blessed.
• Tonight we are going to the symphony with some friends of ours and out for late night snacks afterwards. It will be a lovely evening.
• I had a music team practise this afternoon. It was wonderful. It amazes me how a bunch of amateurs can sound so good when they all work together.
• I want to memorize the music to "The Christmas Song" this year.
• I took Sammy to the vet yesterday. He has some skin problems-rashes and such. Apparently, rashes are fairly common in Cocker Spaniels. Taking him to the vet is no problem but when they refer to him as "Sammy Postma," I feel really weird.
• Sammy seems to be feeling more comfortable today than he has been for the last week.
• This past week Michele and I did a fairly big catering job. It was such fun! The recipients of our cooking were very encouraging with their comments. What was especially good was that Kristen and Chelsea (my neice) helped out. I am impressed with how well they worked and with how much fun we all had.

NaBloPoMo

I'm kind of sorry that National Blog Posting Month is over. Not for me because I was finding it hard to post every day. I miss it because everytime I check for new posts, there are none. You bloggers who I love to read are not posting every day anymore and I miss that. So, I'm going to keep trying, just so that you have a new blog to look forward to from me.

I will not post every day. That's just too tough. And this week especially, there won't be a lot of time. Michele and I are catering a few jobs this week and we'll be pretty busy shopping, cooking and serving. It will be lots of fun though.

Today, Wes and I finally, almost, finished one of the chairs that I started reupholstering last spring. The chair is actually looking pretty good. Next week we'll start the second one. By January, we'll have all kinds of chairs to sit in.

Making up for not posting every day in November...

In my last post I mentioned that I am trying to create a place in my home where I (and others) can pray and meditate. I have a chair, table and a blanket to keep me warm. I hope to have some candles in there as well as a fish aquarium to help create a mood of peace and serenity.

Any other ideas about what I can include in my spot? What are things that help you to focus on God and your spirituality?

Thrift Store Shopping

I do not usually go to thrift stores unless I am dropping something off. It's not that I don't like them, it's just that I so seldom find anything that works for me. One of the last times I shopped at a thrift store, I found 2 shirts for sale that I already owned, were hanging in my closet and I still wore. That was so depressing I vowed never to go in again.

I do go on occassion. On Tuesday, I had something to drop off and thought I'd go in and have a look. We have a lovely little room in our house that I call the turret room. It is octagonal in shape with 5 huge windows. When we bought the house, I said that I wanted to turn it into a prayer room or meditation room. Alas, we had to put the TV in there.

Today, the room is empty, the TV is tucked away in a room upstairs and I can finally create my oasis. Hence the visit to the thrift store. I found a round table that with a table cloth will be perfect for a candle or something. $15.00. And the thrift store is run by MCC with a lot of people volunteering their time so even my $15.00 will be put to good use.

I also found 2 prints. Having just had some paintings framed, I know the value of a frame and mat. The prints themselves were not something that I would choose but I could see that they had been professionally framed. I decided to buy the pair ($15.00) and just replace the print. When I got home and looked at them again, I realized that they would look perfect in my living room-as is. They are botanical prints with colours that are just right. So, I'll hang them up without changing anything.

I think I'll shop at thrift stores more often.

Headline in the Free Press today: "Billion pounds recycled."

Wow! That's good. Something to cheer about. We Manitobans have now recycled one billion pounds (467 million kilograms) since 1995. The increase is approximately 3.4 percent over last year.

As I read this I thought that Manitobans have finally jumped on the recycling bandwagon. We've been slower than other provinces. Finally, we have our act together.

"The jump is probably due to a solid economy, as people toss more containers into blue boxes when they buy more goods, MPSC (Manitoba Product Stewardship Corporation) general manager Jim Fogg surmised.

"The economy has been strong, and that means people consume more," said Fogg."

Suddenly, I don't feel like cheering quite so loudly.

The Neighbours

Our neighbours have lived in the house next door for about 3 years. When the previous owners told us they sold their house to an exotic dancer, we were a little concerned, although her occupation was just a rumour. I met her briefly that first summer and grew more concerned when I realized that her brother, who she had left in charge while she was in Toronto working, did nothing to curb the weeds or the grass. The house was looking run down and in disrepair.

By the end of the summer, the brother had been kicked out and Angela invited 2 friends of hers to live in the house and care for it while she was away. One of the men lives on the 3rd floor, in his own suite and the other in the basement. The main and second floors are designated for Andrea and her son.

I was a little concerned about this turn of events too. There were always all kinds of people coming and going, men mostly. But I began to notice that when they came, they worked. Slowly, the house began to look like a home. They painted the trim, opened the pool, planted flowers, mowed the lawn and fixed and painted the garage.

Another thing I noticed was that these people were friendly. If I was outside, they would often come over and we'd talk gardening or weather or dogs. They were hard workers. When Andrea was home, we'd often chat about the challenges of owning a home, the behaviour of our dogs and all kinds of things people talk about. Another thing I noticed was that these men LOVED Andrea. They adore her and this summer, I asked her how she did it. She just smiled and proceeded to tell me about how wonderful her friends are.

Andrea is down to earth and friendly. Somehow, she has created a home for John, a chubby bartender with bad teeth and Ted, the manager of a video game store. A couple of men who have had some hard times and their friend, the construction worker who is there almost every day doing construction work.

Before she moved in, I worried about what kind of neighbour this would be-an exotic dancer of all things. Now, I can say that these are some of the best neighbours we have ever had. Certainly more friendly and approachable than the previous owners who, on the outside seem more "normal." And far better than the neighbours in the house we lived in before this one.

Today, they just did the greatest thing. John, Ted, the construction worker guy and another person I don't know, just cleared 10-15 cm of snow off our whole driveway! They must have spent almost 2 hours at it. First snowblowing and then cleaning it up with shovels. Wes said they did a better job than he'd ever do.

Can't ask for better neighbours than that, don't you think?

I think I'll bake them some cookies tonight.

Piano Tuned

Oh sweet music.

I just got my piano tuned and I just love it. It's a little like washing your sheets and then getting into bed and feeling like the sheets are new.

I will go and play my piano now.

November 26

So, I gotta post something today. I've failed at Noblopomo or whatever it is. I had every intention of posting every day but then my life got boring.

I could give you a short synopsis of a typical day but you'd be rolling your eyes by the time I got to 11:00 AM. While I am quite content with how my life is playing out these days, to write about it would be boring.

As some of you may have noticed, Wes, my husband read my Thursday Thirteen blog and left a comment suggesting that he would like to look at the chair I loved. We did that yesterday and... we bought the chair! I can't post a picture of it yet because it has been ordered and will get here in several weeks. Maybe I should post my Christmas list on line and Wes will read it...

Today, we put new hardware on our freshly painted dressers. They look great, don'tcha think? For less than $200.00 we got what looks like brand new dressers. I am thrilled and very thankful to my BIL George who sprayed them for us.

Thursday Thirteen

1. I have attended a centering prayer time at the University of Winnipeg several times over the last few weeks. It is a good time to slow down my mind and think about God and other things holy.
2. Thursday is my "big gym" day. I do a power class with barbells and weights and then a class called "centergy" which is a combination of pilates and yoga. I am amazed that I can actually get through them.
3. Tim didn't have classes this afternoon so he's home. You can always tell when Tim's home because he is either whistling, singing, listening to music or playing the guitar. Guess what Tim is passionate about.
4. Supper times are becoming fun again. For much of the summer, Wes and I ate alone. Now, we have 2 international high school students living with us and Tim and Kristen are frequently home for supper too. I love the conversation that we have around the table.
5. While the weather has gotten a lot colder, today was still a beautiful day. Cold, crisp and sunny.
6. I planted about 120 tulip, narcissus, anemone and other assorted bulbs yesterday, November 22. I didn't think I'd get any of them planted.
7. I bought a large metal star the other day, spray painted it white, added some glitter and garland and will be putting it on my front door. I am very pleased with my creation. I am also a little surprised because I am not very crafty.
8. Sammy, our cocker spaniel had a bath yesterday. He doesn't stink today so I don't mind if he comes up to me and rubs my leg.
9. I went shopping with Kristen yesterday, at Osborne Village. It was a gorgeous day to be outside and we had a good time together. I also saw a chair that I LOVED! Sigh. I am usually more content when I don't shop.
10. Thursdays we run a food bank at our church. I just love working with the people there and serving the clients who come. We serve soup, coffee and cookies because it starts at 6:00 PM and several of the clients come directly from work or school. We have made some good friends and good soup.
11. I started knitting myself a scarf out of silk yarn. The colours are just beautiful.
12. Today, I'm going to help friends with some painting. They are moving this weekend and want to get the painting done.
13. When I am home on Thursday nights, I watch Grey's Academy and ER. I will miss them both tonight.

Welcome Lurkers

I would like to welcome a couple of lurkers that I have just learned about.

They are not particularly computer savy although one of them has taken a computer course. They probably didn't know what a blog was until they started reading mine. Together they make a pretty good team. One of them knits while the other reads the blogs out loud. One of them has a few useless fingers but is quite able to use the good fingers to turn on the computer and find his way around the keyboard, albeit slowly, in the hunt and peck manner.

Their computer isn't particularly powerful and they are still on dial-up so if you try to call them and their line is busy, they're probably on-line.

I never thought they'd ever read my blog. I didn't think that people in their 70's, who have never been into technology (you should see their TV) would actually read blogs.

I guess you CAN teach an old dog new tricks.

Welcome to the blogging world mom and dad!