Just Breathe

What a day! I found out my car needs a whole lot of expensive work. I had to bum a drive home as my car is unsafe to drive. I have no way to get to work tomorrow.

In the two drives my car took while I was away, I received two serious car issues. I took it to the airport on Tuesday. My daughter drove it home from the airport on Thursday, the day she arrived from the west. My son delivered it to the airport for me the night before I was to come home three weeks later. He inadvertently opened the trunk hatch while he was getting gas and forgot to close it. There was a wind storm that night and the trunk slammed and slammed into the back window. The body shop guys showed me two spots on the window where the trunk had hit repeatedly and told me it was a miracle that it had not broken.

From the minute I picked up the car at the airport I knew there was something wrong underneath. My mechanic had just told me of an imminent problem before I went away so I thought it was that. No, a spring has been broken and two struts are leaking. It was another strut I'd had replaced just before I went away and these two weren't leaking then. I have to have all that replaced and the sway bar that he'd already mentioned. It is not safe to drive as the broken spring could blow out the tire if I hit a pothole.

My kids (or one of them) drive like maniacs it seems. Mr. Mechanic said it must have been a hard hit to break all three things. Life costs too darn much I say. It's hard to survive it with an old vehicle.

I had very good news just moments ago. One of my oldest friend had a double mastectomy today and she just called me to tell me she was alright. She said she was returning the favor because I has surprised her so much when I called her personally from my hospital bed after my kidney removal. She was expecting one of the kids and I really surprised her when I called myself. She's great and feeling lighter.

I have four songs or more I'd like to put up now in honour of my breastless and cancer-free friend. I normally do only two a day but will do all of them because I won't be here for a few days. Some extra music to see you through.

I think it will be very difficult to go to morning blogging as I had to do last year when I worked so will only blog here when I have time off or feel like it in the morning. I will still keep up the other blogs as best I can. This one takes the longest and most committment. I like to read blogs in the morning not write them so I'll still be here reading and listening.

Here's more music for Pam who is still frozen and on pain relief drugs for a time. I'm glad she's Breathin'.

• Breathe by Women In Docs
• Breathe by Alexi Murdoch
• Breathe by Sia
• Every Breath You Take by The Police
• Breathin' by The Camilo Project
  

Breathe

We are in the midst of a huge blizzard. I started snowing yesterday afternoon, took a bit of a break overnight but started up again before morning and is now ripping and roaring. We have 100 km winds and zero visibility.

Of course, my twenty something year old kids are out adventuring in it. They went searching for someone's lost dog, tried to find sleds at their dad's so that they could go sledding and are now planning to come here to see what they can find in my barn. I'm staying in where it's safe and warm.

This is probably going to feel like the longest week of my life. I want Monday to come more quickly than it really can. I want this monster out of my body. I've been obsessing all week about what I should eat and what I should not. For instance, the surgeon asked me what medications I was on. He asked if I take supplements and I told him that I take them all. He said, "Do you take vitamin E?" I told him that I did and he didn't expound on it nor did I question it further. I certainly wish I had. So all week I've been wondering why he asked about that specific vitamin and whether I should leave it out or double it. My mind needs quieting. Take a deep breath.

Today's music is two different songs with the same title; Breathe. The one by Sia had been up before but disappeared and the one by Alexi Murdoch I've put on playlists but not on the blog. Both are very nice and mellow....just what I need.

Intensely Here

I've had a strange but wonderful day. Busy, with lots of things happening. In the midst of it all, I discovered that this was Thanksgiving weekend. I thought it was a week from now. I now have settled plans. A dinner here on Saturday with an unyet determined amount of people, work on Sunday, an another turkey dinner on Monday with a friend. I am going to town tomorrow morning as I have to buy a turkey. I could have bought it yesterday but was a week behind in my knowing when Thanksgiving was happening. I'm hiking in the afternoon and cooking pumpkin pies when I get home.

I am thinking in oranges and greens today. I got a great bunch of gourds, squashes and pumpkins today and am going to make a display, probably Saturday sometime. That's my explanation for the photo and today's music. Alexi Murdoch brings us Orange Sky. I thought I had it up already. Joni Mitchell has a new album. I got a copy of Shine, the title track today, that I'll share later. Everyone else has it up now. Today I have Joni's Little Green from her album, Blue. It is supposedly written for the child she'd given up. I love the album Blue and this song.

My other favorites, The Waifs has a new album out too. You can hear small exerts from each song and a video of the title track if you visit their new and recently changed site. It's all about the music.

Which reminds me, the Putfile site has either been hacked into or they themselves have replaced our text on our personal pages. I have their text erased from Page Two though it was difficult and I'm not able to put my words back yet. I still say I wouldn't be surprised if everything disappears some day. What an intense day!

Colours

I have had quite a autumn vacation! The best and the worst has happened. The worst was that my sister-in-law who had suffered the massive stroke earlier in the week passed away. I attended her funeral yesterday on the way home. It was very sad for us all to see her children feeling so lost. It's very hard for them as their mom was everything to them.

There were several very good things that happened. I attended the 87th birthday party of the woman who was the mom next door when I was growing up. Her daughter was my best friend. It was fun seeing people who I hadn't seen for thirty plus years.

My cousin who lives next door to my dad was inducted into the country music wall of fame while I was there. I went to the big ceremony where I saw lots of relatives. The next day he had a brunch and we had a birthday party for Dad so with two parties next door to each other, we had one huge party with tons of relatives and friends. I had aunts visiting from Toronto and my cousin had aunts and cousins from away so the mixture was wonderful with lots of people seeing each other for the first time in decades. It was one of the best days I've ever had.

I was in the woods every day. With the beautiful autumn colours there was nowhere I'd rather have been. Months ago my aunt from Toronto and I had planned to spend a day in the woods and it was really nice and a special day. Supposedly there are lots of bears around as well as many moose and deer but we didn't see anything while we were out. We kept up a constant chatter and I sang to ward off bears. I knew my out-of-tune voice would come in handy some day.

For music, what else but Colours by Amos Lee. All of My Days by Alexi Murdoch is fitting on many levels of this post so that's the second choice for today