Fall in the Park

We were at the park again this afternoon and there is a noticeable change from two weeks ago with the leaves starting to get their fall colours.   We had a sunny hot day with high of 29C but by late afternoon when we went to the park it started to cloud over and was a very pleasant 23C.

      Driving through the park across from the legislature

 

The lake near the legislature looking toward downtown

(If you click on it you can see the Rider logos on the twin towers)

 

View from the walkway under the Pine Island "waterfall" 

As I mentioned when I posted two weeks ago about being at the park, Pine Island is our favourite place to go for a view of the lake.  I hadn't walked around to the side of the island along the walkway under the waterfall before.  We also walked around to the upper lookout above this waterfall.  I am so glad to be able to do some walking without getting out of breath.  I carry my oxygen tank but just use it at 1.5 litres/min while walking compared to the 4 litres/min I used to need.    And there are a lot of benches around the island that we can sit on when we want to for a while.  We had a very nice time in the park.
   
Update: Here is a link with more information and pictures for the waterfall on Pine Island on the old Broad Street Bridge.   

Getting Our Hopes Up

The weather forecast for the next 6 days is getting our hopes up for some nice sunny warm days.  IF it turns out as forecast (big IF)  the start of fall will be better than most of summer.

Update:  So far the actual temperatures are better than forecast.
Friday  19C    Saturday  23C    Sunday  29C

Aunt Helen

I called my Aunt Helen and had a nice conversation by telephone.  She lives in the US in Delaware and was married to my father's youngest brother George who passed away in 2004.   Aunt Helen is the only one living of aunts or uncles on my Dad's side of the family (and none on my Mom's side.)    She will be 89 in November and still active, driving to get groceries and to appointments.  But she is careful to only drive in her own local area and not when traffic is busy.   She told me she had some surgery a while ago but it was "a piece of cake" and she was up and around again in no time.

In the picture behind Aunt Helen is her daughter Carol and her sons George and Roy (and Tara the dog.)   The picture was taken when we were visiting in 2004  at the time of Uncle George's memorial service.   Then Aunt Helen had 5 grandchildren and 1 great grandchild.   Now she has 9 great grandchildren with 1 more on the way.   It is nice that some live in a nearby area. 

It was very nice to talk to Aunt Helen by phone. And Elaine heard from Carol via Facebook that she was very happy to hear from me.  I will have to remember to call Aunt Helen more often.

Soccer Final

Elaine and I were out this evening to watch Mike play in the city soccer final game.  His team had won the quarter final and semi final and were up against the top team in the final tonight.  Unfortunately they lost tonight but they played a good game.  

The temperature was about 10C with light rain so it was quite cool out watching at Mosaic stadium/ Taylor field. There were about 35 - 40 fans in the stands watching the game in the rain and cold weather. A temperature of 10C may not sound that cold but with the rain and some wind it is cold enough.  We had warm jackets with hoods up and gloves, and with a quilt across us and an umbrella.  Quite a few of the others had umbrellas as well.  We fared reasonably well watching the game for 1 and  1/2 hours,  but we did not hang around for the team pictures and awards.        

Now we are at home having hot drinks of tea and warming up.

Sunday Afternoon at the Park

Elaine and I went to the park this afternoon since it was a nice day mostly sunny and high of 18C.  We first went to our favourite place to look at Wascana Lake  from the outlook on Pine Island.

 Elaine on the bridge to Pine Island with the Legislature in the background

  Looking across the lake from Pine Island past Spruce Island toward the Legislature

Looking north from Pine Island toward the marina with downtown in the background

Kayakers sharing the lake with the birds near the Legislature

After spending some time in the park Elaine showed me where the end of the bike path is near the park.  She has gone for bike rides several times along the bike paths and wanted to show me where she rides.   So she took me to different points across the city where there is a view of the bike paths that follow the creek, and then up to the northwest of the city where the path starts.  The path follows the creek through a series of parks that intersect the city.  All these parks and scenic areas are pretty amazing for a city that started as nothing but flat prairie.

It was a very enjoyable afternoon out in the sunshine after is seems like quite a while of rainy weather.        

Updates

The sun is finally shining this morning.  It was another rainy day yesterday bringing us another 25mm ( 1") on top of all the rain we got earlier in the week.  At our place we  had over 4'' of rain in the last week.  The amount in different areas was quite variable. At the airport where the weather is reported  they got about half that.  The next week is supposed to be mostly sunny which will be a nice change.

After the noisy ventilator problems  on Tuesday and Wednesday nights, it was quiet the last two nights.  It was nice to be able to sleep without that disturbance.  Hopefully whatever was causing the noise has worked out of its system and we are good to go now for a while with this machine.

Noises in the Night

I am still using a ventilator at night to help my breathing since I was in hospital in 2007.    The ventilator I use is called a Respironics PLV-100 as shown in the picture.  Once a year the respiratory therapist brings a replacement ventilator so the one I have been using can be sent away for servicing.   On Tuesday  I got my ventilator changed and used it that night.  I had tried it out  for a while during the day and it sounded and felt fine.  It has a moderate rhythmic breathing sound when operating.  But 15 minutes after I went to bed the machine started making strange noises, kind of a scraping and rattle and intermittent knocking.  I tried to ignore the sounds and get some sleep but was mostly awake until after 4 AM.

Then Wednesday morning I called the respiratory therapist and he brought me another replacement ventilator.  I tested it for over half an hour  before supper to make sure it was working normally.  I went to bed that night and all seemed well.    I woke up at 2 AM to the ventilator making sounds like a cricket chirping.  This time I shut it off and turned it back on and it quieted down to normal sound.  After a while I got back to sleep but at 4 AM the cricket sounds were back in the machine.    I got it quieted down again and got some sleep before the cricket sounds were back at 6 AM.  I fell back to sleep then until 8AM and awoke to a quiet ventilator.  

I emailed the respiratory therapist to report the latest in the noisy ventilators saga.  He still has the one I was using for the last year and will bring it back if I continue to have trouble with the replacement machines.  We will see what happens tonight.   I hope all is quiet in the machine so we can get a good nights sleep.  
 

The rain came down and the floods came up

Yesterday evening I posted that we had a downpour of 38mm of rain in about 20 minutes. Well that was just the start. By this morning the rain gauge at our house showed 81mm (3.2") of rain since yesterday afternoon. A lot of streets were flooded and likely many basements. We came out fine. We did not get any more water in our basement, just the small wet spot in the corner we already had yesterday.

It sounds like this rain was fairly general over the south central prairies. This will not be good for the farmers trying to harvest crops. Prior to this rain the news reports were that  the harvest was already behind due to wet weather.  This much rain will put the harvest farther behind.   And the forecast is for more to come in the next week. 

If it rains it pours

We watched the Riders beat the Winnipeg Blue Bombers 27-23 in the Labour Day Classic on TV this afternoon.   This makes it 6 times in a row the Riders have beaten the Bombers in the Labour Day Classic.     Let's hope they beat them again in next week's rematch  in the Banjo Bowl in Winnipeg.

At least the rain downpour held off until after the game.  We got about 38mm (1 1/2") of rain within about 20 minutes.  We checked downstairs in one corner of the basement floor that gets wet sometimes when we get a lot of rain.  We are keeping an eye on it to see if the water seeps in at floor level or is coming down the wall.  The floor was a little wet along the edge of the wall in the corner but nothing major.

There is not much else new around here.   I am looking forward to having Monday off before going back to work on Tuesday.

Update 8PM:  Just after I published this another rain downpour started.