Walking Weather? Maybe Not!

So far this winter, we've had snow - then warmer weather - then freezing rain.

Yesterday was a sunny day - but as I looked outdoors in the early dawn, I noticed icy patches on the driveway and on the road. I guess my outdoor walking days are done for a while.

At least I can walk indoors... I'm thankful to have Bayshore Shopping Centre - with its indoor parking lot - a 15-minute drive away.

That's where I'll be heading several times a week for exercise until spring arrives! It's much more interesting walking there than on a treadmill at the gym!

Blanket Gift: A Travel Souvenir

It's fun to get Christmas gifts that bring back travel memories.

One such gift that I received this past Christmas was a soft blanket.

The design on the blanket is a map of  Grand Canyon National Park, which I visited in September.

Looking for the names of the places we visited on the map, I realize that we only saw a small part of this large national park.

Just the part on the bottom right of the map..

It would be wonderful to go back and drive through as much of the rest of the park as possible... It would take a week at least - and some parts are inaccessible by car.

Calcium Supplements

For quite a few years now, I've had "osteopenia" - but since it isn't "osteoporosis" I've tended to ignore it., though I do take calcium supplements.

Just how much calcium should be taken in supplement form?

Not more than 500 mg a day, I was told after my cancer operation a year and a half ago...

500 mg at a time because the body can't absorb more than that, a doctor recently told me. Take up to 500 mg twice a day with food, but not with any other medication.

Then in the brochure she gave me, I read that TUMS is one kind of supplement one can take. It even seems to have more elemental calcium than my supplements: 1000 mg per tablet.

Really?!

I have TUMS on hand because I occasionally use it as an ant-acid...

I see the doctor again in February - after another bone-density test. I have a host of questions to ask her... I'd better write them down...

This is another medical journey I'll need to educate myself in.

Looking Back...

It's always interesting to go through old photos...

Last Christmas I was looking through old family photos and found this one from Christmas 1960.

The newlyweds in the picture are my mother's brother Ron and his new wife Evelyn, who got married in June, 1960.

They're still as active as ever - though these days, they often spend their Christmases in Palm Springs!

Merry Christmas!

Best wishes for a merry Christmas...

Like many, we expect to see more family members today via Skype / Facetime than in person...

Thankful for the technology that makes all that possible!

Have a wonderful day!

Christmas Trees

When I was a child, our family would drive out into the country to look for our Christmas tree. There were no tree farms back in those days. We usually found ours growing wild in a country ditch. My parents even had some clip-on decorations with real candles... Were we less worried about fires in those days?!

Over the years, we've come a long way in Christmas trees!

For the minimalist, there are "Charlie Brown Christmas trees," like this one I recently saw at a restaurant in Guelph.

A perfect tree for cats! No climbing possibilities - but still a decoration to play with!

Then, at my son's home, there was a "high tech" Christmas tree - with built in lights which can be changed from white to colored, flashing or not, via remote control...

I confess it has some appeal for me! But I think we'll be sticking with our "traditional" artificial tree - one we've had since our kids were young!

The tree - and the decorations - bring back lots of memories!

Christmas (Camel) Memory

The Christmas card we received last year from my nephew Adam showed his family sitting on a camel... in Texas, I presume.

It reminded me that my mother, on a visit to Israel years ago, rode a camel up Mount Sinai in the pre-dawn dark... The tour guide's plan was to take them to the top of the mountain to see the sun rise.

The camel walked on the very edge of the path, my mother later told me. In the dark, I could hear rocks tumbling down the mountain side. It was so scary... Sitting up so high on the camel I had to remind myself again and again: The camel is the most sure-footed beast, the camel is the most sure-footed beast...

She made it to the top in time to see the sunrise. But, looking back, the camel ride was much more exciting than the sun rise on the top of that historic mountain.