Changing Roles

Isn’t life a strange? I was thinking about the different phases and changes in my life from childhood to the present. I remember many years ago when my parents were responsible and made decisions on many of the things I wanted to do, where I went, etc.

Now that my dad has passed on and my mom is in her mid-eighties and on her own, I find the tables have turned. She now calls me regularly for guidance and asks what I think with respect to most things in her day to day life. She is still capable of making her own decisions, but she doesn’t always consider the consequences of her actions and there are times when I have to come to her rescue and soothe some ruffled feathers. It is a lot harder now than when my sons were growing up or maybe it just seems like a lot more work. Who really knows.

Life is short and if it is within our power to make a difference in the quality of someone’s life and peace of mind, I feel it is our responsibility to step up to the plate and do whatever we can.

Eva Dennis
Silent River Kung Fu, Stony Plain, Alberta, Canada

Rest and Relaxation

I can’t believe how excited I was for the long weekend to come as I had great thoughts of taking time out and doing absolutely nothing but enjoy the peace and quiet. I have been feeling extremely drained for the past while and thought this might be a step in the right direction.

I visualized the weekend starting with one of my favorite things – Tai Chi and do whatever I felt like after that. No matter how I am feeling when I get to the Tai Chi class on Saturday, I always feel energized and ready to tackle anything at the end of it.

Well, my day started on track but after class I received a call and found out that I needed to do spring cleaning where my mom lives, so that covered Saturday. Oh well, I thought, no big deal as I have Sunday and Monday.

Early Sunday morning I was awakened with a wonderful surprise … Porcupine Quills!!! Our Irish Wolfhound, Misty, had found a porcupine or maybe it was the other way round, I am not sure. We have already had one encounter with a porcupine this year, but it was with one of our other dogs. I truly hope this is not a trend for the rest of the summer.

All I could think of was, I hope Misty doesn’t give us a hard time as there is no way we would be able to hold her down while pulling out the quills. She is almost three feet at the shoulders and weighs around 176 pounds, so she could certainly give us major grief if she wanted to. All I can say is she was absolutely amazing. Although she didn’t like what was happening, she laid quietly the whole time.

After that, there wasn’t any point in going back to bed so I went outside for the rest of the day and worked around the acreage. I must say, I really enjoyed the time out in the fresh air as it was a lovely day. That was until later when the weather turned nasty. First the rain and then the lovely snow. My, I love our unpredictable Alberta weather.

All in all, although it was not as uneventful as I had hoped, it still turned out to be a nice break.

Sifu Eva Dennis
Silent River Kung Fu
Stony Plain, Alberta, Canada

vacation

Taking a Break

I am so excited! I am just now finishing my packing as my son and I are leaving for the airport at 9:00 p.m. tonight and flying to Florida for a holiday. We will be going on a short cruise to the Bahamas and returning to Orlando, Florida where we will be spending several days before returning home.

My ride just arrived an hour early so I must run.

Sifu Dennis
Silent River Kung Fu
Stony Plain, Alberta, Canada

VACATION

Taking a Break

I am so excited! I am just now finishing my packing as my son and I are leaving for the airport at 9:00 p.m. tonight and flying to Florida for a holiday. We will be going on a short cruise to the Bahamas and returning to Orlando, Florida where we will be spending several days before returning home.

My ride just arrived an hour early so I must run.

Sifu Dennis
Silent River Kung Fu
Stony Plain, Alberta, Canada

Time Passing Quickly

Life certainly seems to be changing before my eyes and the years are passing by rapidly. There seems to be too many things I would like to do and not enough time to do them in.

It doesn’t seem like it was that many years ago that I was run off my feet trying to balance getting the boys to whatever sport or event they needed to be at, attending school meetings, keeping the household functioning and working full time. Well, the guys no longer need me to get around, but I still don’t have a lot of extra time. It seems like other things just seem to fill in the gap. I now have elderly parents to shuttle here and there and ensure their needs are being met.

I realize my injuries don’t heal as quickly as they used to and some of the injuries I had years ago are coming back to haunt me now. I am trying to stay positive and keep trying to work out a way to better manage my days so I can include some of those things that I really what to try before I am too old or no longer have the energy to enjoy them.

What a Start

April 1st started out very interesting. I am normally up by 4:00 a.m. and this morning started out no different than any other morning. My routine starts with letting the dogs out and around 4:30 they usually want back in. When I let them in the Irish Wolfhound cross who prefers to stay outside was the first one in the house and that should have been my first clue that something was up. My son, who gets up around the same time I do, asked me what the dog had on her face and when I looked, what a surprise .... she had had an encounter with a porcupine.

As we recently adopted her, I had no idea how she was going to react when we started pulling out the quills. She is not fully grown but is about 29 inches at the shoulders and weighs over 100 pounds so she could be a real handful if she put her mind to it. I was just hoping she was not like our border collie, who is a real sweetheart but when it comes to removing porcupine quills .... watch out. Although she certainly didn't like it, she didn't give us too much trouble.

I am keeping my fingers crossed that dogs keep away from the porcupines.

Filling In

Very interesting work experience this week. One of the largest senior facility sites where I work undertook a full day training for all their staff. Normally staff training takes place in smaller groups settings due to staff coverage. This site alone has close to 50 staff and to try a full day training with skeleton staff covering and I might add, some of the staff (me included) have not worked or used some of the large kitchen equipment used in these kitchens.

Strange enough, I was really looking forward to seeing and doing first hand what some of the staff do and experience on a daily basis. We had to show up at the site for 8:00 a.m. for an orientation and training on the various equipment, depending on where we would be working. I chose to work in the kitchen so I had to have a clear understanding of the health and safety issues, proper food handling, equipment use, which sanitizing chemicals to use where and How to use the equipment. I was instructed that at 10:00 a.m. after the breakfast cleaning rush was over, I needed to drain the dishwasher and take it apart and give it a thorough cleaning. As instructed, at the appointed time, I started to take the dishwasher apart and one of my co-w0rkers was totally amazed that I appeared to know what I was doing. I must say there is an awful lot that one must know and practices and procedures that must be followed for each and every position.

It was an extremely hectic and very physically demanding day. I found out first hand that one needs to be extremely organized and constantly on the move when working in the area I was in. I wish I would have had a pedometer as I bet I walked many, many miles that day.

I must say that the staff are totally amazing and very caring people and I now have a new insight and appreciation for how hard they truly work.

The experimental training day turned out to be very successful and who knows, maybe I will have another opportunity to walk a mile in someone else's shoes.

Sifu Dennis

Silent River Kung Fu, Stony Plain, Alberta