strange day

I so enjoy hearing about how you find beauty, Beth,  I, too, sometimes see something that strikes a chord with me, but it's often something more simple. On Sunday, my friend Gail showed me her garden.  The two of us were out in the middle of what could only be called prairie, flat in all directions, dried up corn stalks, a couple of rotting gourds, and geese overhead.  My thoughts were not on the muted colours or almost barren land, but rather that this is my "home".  This flat dry prairie, is where I've spent most of my life and where I feel " at home".

Yesterday I was  at a friend's 3rd floor condo,overlooking the Red River.  I sat facing the picture window, with the trees along the river bank and on the right side, a view around a curve in the river (so, essentially, I could see both directly across the river, and along the length of the river for a distance).  Our conversation tended to go back to the weather, as while we sat there, over less than two hours,  we had a snow squall, fog that obscured everything, then gradually giving way so that pieces of the view gradually came back, and then bright sunny blue sky.  And this went around at least twice.  Typical Manitoba weather.

Today was to have been my day at home.  But first we went grocery shopping.  Occasionally our superstore will give you a $25.00 gift card if you buy $250.00 of groceries.  We don't do that often,but today I happened to have two cards in my purse and we ended up with $48.74 what were essentially "free" groceries.  I felt as though I had won the lottery.  Then a trouble light went on  in the car, so David dropped me off, with the groceries, and headed for the dealership to have it looked at.  Shortly after he had left, I got a phone call from my surgeon's office, at 7-Oaks, telling me that, unless my lab results, chest x-ray and EKG results were at their office today, my surgery would be cancelled.  Now we had received a call from my Dr.'s office, late yesterday asking me to drop in sometime and pick up papers to have the work done, but she conveyed no sense of urgency at all.  I had been planning to do it tomorrow while David is having a Urology follow-up at HSC.. So I got on the cell and called David, who turned around and came home to pick me up.  The lady who called me today, had told me that I had the option of going in to 7-Oaks and having the work done there.  So off we went, and were in and out in about 1/2 hour. Got home and discovered a phone message from the pre-surgery assessment unit at 7-Oaks, wanting me to go in there sometime soon.  I finally got her on the phone and arranged to go in next Monday, but I had visions of having to turn around and head back again--paying through the nose for parking each time.

Today I started to paint the gourds I got from Gail on Sunday. I did two, and got most of the colours right, but one was off a fair bit. while I struggles with it, I realized that my heart just wasn't in it.  So I gave myself permission to stop.  cleaned everythign up, and moved on.   Did that ever feel good!