Beaver:

Loss of a child is a parent's worst nightmare! My warmest caring thoughts to the mom!

MY other reaction is the preventability of asthma - SO environmentally induced; research is clear. Food/air/water must all be cleaned up.

No signal for a couple days.

Robin and I lost one of our dearest long time friends on Saturday night. Phone call on Sunday from the son was a total shock. (I thought he was telling me his mom had died; my darn auditory discrimination problem!) Cause unknown- after three weeks in hospital! Yes, he was in early 80s but he was still very active, working on health projects/religious ethicist for the Montreal Breast cancer clinic/ Anglican priest at the Cathedral and involved in so much. Leaving wife of about 60 years - my friend with Parkinson's. I have been close to whole family for almost 50 years and grasping for how to be supportive. Will go back to Montreal in a couple days and stand by - visit wife, listen to daughter (I made her confirmation dress!) I detected tears in R's eyes Sunday while we were dining at our fav resto. Contacted a couple close people to let them know.

On the home front, R has almost finished installing the cook stove - converting it from Natural gas to propane was more of a chore than expected - mostly figuring out the "instructions" in very poor English. He arrived on Saturday at 5, just in time to go to supper at our friends - a fun eve.

He brought the Knechtel cupboard, now a perfect fit in the K, repaired by himself, with a nice stained glass panel in the middle door! The sofa is in place but the legs are still at the mill; I shall have to look fir them next trip. Two extra K wall cabinets can be used to good advantage in the BR above the desk. Once the stove is in place, the K will be wonderful. We are considering a larger frig- not a big one - but the space is adequate. We are happy!

We washed the K windows yesterday! Worked well with one of us outside and one inside! But I can see we ned to try harder. They are sliders so we had to keep sliding them back and forth - still not perfect but better by far.

We went out to the hardware store this am and my credit card was declined??? Scary! I had a voice mail on phone from earlier today that it had a hold on but I rarely hear the phone ring. I phoned and it was a recording and inconclusive. So I phoned the usual number and waited -"patiently"?? Apparently someone had tried to use it several times yesterday - to no avail but the man thought it best to change my number so they are sending me a new one. It took a while to determine where to send it as I need to go back to Montreal but this is now my address so we finally agreed to send it to a not too inconvenient branch in Montreal. Sensible but a nuisance.

An ancient cupboard now in the BR has allowed me to stash almost everything current. A bit more time and the BR will be civilized! More shelves in the kitchen cabinets will be helpful. The Knechtel cupboard is still mostly empty - lots of room for storage! Planning a tea station - an outlet handy for kettle - and herbs - it has lots of specific herb niches. We are thrilled with it.

Only one TV table still in use; the rest are nicely stashed. accessible if needed. The studio needs some closing up work before he snow flies. Hope our friends have time!

Next trip will be desk and whatever else fits in car. This house WILL be nicely uncluttered, she says with determination.