Presence and Presents

Another hot week has passed on the shore of Lake Wascana in the centre of the prairies. We were hit with temperatures in the 30s all week, peaking at 37° on Friday. Today was the first day with some relief as we held below 30°. We began the week with a family gathering at Erin's condo. Eric & Erica were down from Prince Albert, while Liam & Mercedes came over from Caronport. I have always admired generosity, and in this case, the family were generous with their time. We enjoyed a wonderful afternoon on Erin's patio including ice cream cake to celebrate my birthday. Thank you all for your presence, and they were generous with presents as well—thank you! I most love receiving gifts of things that I wouldn't buy for myself. This year, I got green fee money—I am loathe to spend such on myself. I also got driving range money—again, I usually refuse to buy a bucket, and count on collecting spare balls left by others! And I got a dozen Pro V1s—I never afford myself such a luxury! I feel very blessed indeed. Wendy and I continue to suffer with our colds; the illness and discomfort are holding on tenaciously. Wendy has pushed forward with the painting project and is now at the primer stage.

Patio lit!

Beautiful Setting!

I have puttered away at a few jobs, including hanging the new patio lights today. Kristian and I harvested a pallet this afternoon as I needed some firring material for the closet install. The markets were crazy this week. We started with some good green days leading up to the FED announcement on Wednesday. Investors went wild over Powell's comments, but then they sent out more FED talkers to walk back the talk of a rate cut, and that precipitated a massive sell off to leave us in the red for the week. Blue Jays sent off several veteran players at the deadline, collecting a batch of what they hope will develop into performers in the future. It's never a wise strategy to bet on a winless horse because you think he's due, but, Riders put up a stinker at home this afternoon, and dropped a surprising game to the previously winless Edmonton Elks. 

Erica writes, "Life is back to normal this week. It was Eric’s first full week in July and it was partly in August! We started our week in Regina, celebrating another birthday with Dad. We’ve been in discussion with Liam and Mercedes. Mercedes is planning on working full time with RU for kids Ministry. Haaken is doing well in BC and Greg and Kiersten celebrate 3 years as a couple! Our big event this weekend is picking up a carrier for our kayaks! Maybe we will try it out next weekend."

Erin continues to amass the data for her month-end. If all the data gets in, she should get those reports done next week. Kristian keeps playing the role of chauffeur, and assistant handiman. He has succeeded in five of his last six parallel parking attempts—that's the biggest challenge in his driving test. He has also prepared his resume and will be applying for jobs next week. 

Joanna has been moved to full-time at work as they're short-staffed. Travis is suffering with impingement in his right shoulder. He's been getting therapy and drugs, so we're expecting some relief soon. The boys are doing just fine. Rosie is off to Toronto to enter training as a massage therapist. Andrew expects to transfer his personal care worker (PSW) training down there later in the month. 

And that's enough for this week.