We had our first blizzard of the year last night.  My husband and I decided to go out for dinner. The restaurant we chose was only 4 miles from our house. When we left for dinner at 5:50 PM it was snowing lightly and blowing a bit but it was nothing to be overly concerned about. After a very enjoyable evening, we left the restaurant at 8:00 PM.  To say we were shocked when we got outside is an understatement. It took us forever to drive the four miles back home.  The visibility was practically zero.

By 11:00 PM last night the highways leading out of town and the Trans Canada Highway were closed by the RCMP.  Apparently there were 60 cars in the ditch along a 12 mile stretch of the highway.

The highways were opened by noon today. We  had to make a trip to the airport in Winnipeg.   On the way home we decided to stop at a mall and do some shopping. I had the energy to actually enjoy shopping.  I left my husband at Chapters with a paper and a latte and headed to Gap Kids. The Gap was having a great sale so I bought Grandson enough clothes to last the winter and then some.  Chapters was my next stop.  I spent an hour browsing through the books and drinking a vanilla espresso latte.  One of my Christmas presents was a gift certificate for Chapters.  Since Chapters also had a sale I ended up buying more books than I had planned.  Grandson is intrigued with my mystery book preferences o I bought him two books; the first book in the Hardy Boy series and “The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes” written for 9-12 year olds.

The bone pain seems to have subsided somewhat which I am very grateful for. The pain was particularly bad on Christmas Eve and Christmas Day. I must make an appointment with No Name in the next week and insist that he at least make an attempt to find out why I am experiencing these high levels of pain.

My 89 year old aunt became very ill at the beginning of November. She went to see her doctor at the Communist Clinic and was told that she had a growth in her colon. The doctor told her that this was why she was sick and that the growth had to be removed as quickly as possible. Her surgery was scheduled to take place three weeks later; the day before her granddaughter’s wedding.

During those three weeks before her scheduled surgery, my aunt became sicker and sicker.  Her sons finally insisted on taking her in to emergency.  The emergency doctor diagnosed a very severe bladder infection.  The poor woman never had a growth in her colon; what seemed like a growth was a result of her very severe infection.  The emergency doctor gave her antibiotics and assured her that surgery would no longer be necessary.  She improved so quickly that she was able to attend her granddaughter’s wedding a week later.

Needless to say, her sons cancelled the surgery for the imaginary growth in her colon. I wonder what the outcome of the surgery would have been if her sons had not intervened? Would the surgeon have come out of surgery to inform the family that the surgery had been difficult but the removal of the imaginary growth had been a great success?  I cannot imagine a medical professional who would schedule surgery on an 89 year old woman for an imaginary growth when in fact all she had was a severe bladder infection? Wonders never cease!