A sure sign of Spring on the Great Canadian Prairies in the return of the Canada Geese. On Friday (which happened to be April Fool’s Day, but this was no joke), I saw five of them! When we were driving into Edmonton, two of them were perched majestically on a snowbank right on the corner of Wye Road and Range Road 222, while another 3 flew over us. Oh, and when we arrived home on Thursday evening, we were greeted by one flying overhead, squawking away as if to stay, “We’re back, we’re back!!”
This is a picture of some Canada Geese feeding just outside my window in the Spring of 2007.
I went for a walk this afternoon hoping to see some more but I had no such luck. In fact, I did not see any animal life except for the neighbour’s horses in their corrals, enjoying the sun and munching away on their hay. I could hear the playful chirp of sparrows in the distance, but I did not see them. What I did see was lots of water sitting in puddles. The snow is melting quickly in the beautiful sunshine today. The ground is still frozen so the water sits on top waiting for the wind to lick it away. There was a bit of a breeze so I am sure that much of the moisture is evaporating. But, there is so much more snow yet to go. The forecast for the new week is for lots of sunshine but there is so much snow and as much as I would like to see it all melt, I would just as soon see it go slowly so we can avoid possible flooding. Our house is high so that would not apply to us, but that is not the case for everyone. I remember one spring we had about three years ago when we had a lot of melting and then hard spring rains. Highways were flooded over as well as farmers’ fields and our power was out for three days because of power lines that went down in the winds and crews not being able to get to them because of all the water everywhere. That was not fun and so I will be patient this year.
Mucky road leading to the house. Lots of snow still to go!
Well, one week of my Spring Break is over and it sure went by fast. But then, there was a lot of running around to do. I try to get as many appointments done and over with during this week so I do not have to miss work. So, on Monday, I went with Clarence for his follow up appointment with his doctor. He had his yearly physical two weeks prior to that and did all his tests. Also, during his physical, his doctor discovered he had very high blood pressure. He put Clarence on medication immediately. He also told him that he has to change his diet and get much more exercise. Now, if you know my husband, his reaction would come as no surprise. Basically, he took it as a death sentence, looking to lay blame wherever he could. But, once he got over the initial shock, he took it to heart to take the doctor’s advice. He went on the medication and started exercising on our elliptical trainer thirty minutes a day. We (because I do the cooking) also looked closely at our eating habits and are cutting out as much sodium from our diet as we can. Unfortunately, this means no more pizza once a week and much more emphasis on fresh foods. I know that this will be good for me too but we get home so late every night. My food preparation habits were practically nil. I would usually stuff something frozen in the oven for 20 - 30 minutes so we could eat quickly and get on with our evening. I knew this wasn’t good for us, but my time and sanity had to count for something. Well, now time and sanity is going to have to come after health. Without that you really don’t have anything. So, we are (I am) going to have to re-prioritize a few things. The few changes that we have made are working well so far. At Clarence’s follow up appointment, his doctor took his blood pressure again. It went from 176/97 (at his physical appointment) to 134/86 at this appointment. Dr. Toal was pleased. He said that he had visions of doubling Clarence’s medication this visit. But he said that as long as he continues on this track, that won’t have to happen. Clarence has to go back for another follow up appointment in a month, so we will see what happens. As a fringe benefit, Clarence weighed himself last weekend and he had already lost 6 pounds! Why do men always lose it so fast? I wish I could say that, but then the elliptical trainer and I are not very good friends.
That evening, we all (Clarence, Jonny, Benj, and I) went to see Jackson Browne sing at the Jubilee Auditorium. I really enjoyed his performance. It was almost exactly what I was expecting. After all, he is not a young man anymore. I knew we would not see him with his band (because that wasn’t ever really his style anyway) and a lot of the artists of his time are coming back out of the wood work to do one man shows. So, that’s what I was expecting to see. What I was surprised to see was that on stage with him were 18 guitars (yes, 18) and his keyboard. He looked much like I remembered him (from where I was sitting) and he sounded great. His voice was a little deeper (I detected a bit of a growl) and not quite as smooth as it used to be, but he still did a great job. He sang many of his old songs, like “Running on Empty” and “Take It Easy” (but not “The Load Up and Stay” which I really wanted to hear) and he sang until 11:00 p.m. and came back for one encore.
Picture from March 29, 2011 Edmonton Journal
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