Much better now I have that first sip of caffeine trickling down into my system.....awwwwwww. Onto my "yesterday", if I can clear the yawn tears from my eyes and eventually stop with the yawning!
Once I got going, I started with lots of telephone calls to Newfoundland trying to get in touch with any and every volunteer service I can think of in hopes of getting volunteer drivers for my brother-in-law, Cecil, in hopes of giving his nephew and niece a much needed break I am sure....could I have gotten much more frustrated? I don't think I could, however I kept myself quite "calm" and "collected", which I am very proud of.
Miller Centre - St. John's, Nfld : Left Message
When I called back I spoke to a Maureen, who was very helpful, kind, and compassionate with my general inquiries about the the Rehab portion of the Centre, and I might add just about to return my phone call. She even called me back afterwards with a Contact name for the Heart & Stroke Foundation. Bless her heart.
Heart & Stroke Foundation : Dialed their number wrong, will call them back today, as they were closed by the time I returned back home with the 1 1/2 hour time difference.
VON : No answer from two messages I left from last week.
Spoke to my VON Caregiver Support Contact in Owen Sound, Jessica, who was sending off an email on my behalf. Bless her heart. If I do not hear back from anyone by 3:00 p.m., today I am to give her a call back.
The problem is trying to find someone for volunteer driving, and also to finding a Caregiver to go in for Cecil to help with a bit of meal preparing, tidying up, and so forth, but there is nobody to be found willing to do 4 hours a day. *Sigh*
My next thing is to try and get a telephone number for a Minister, who Jeanne has referred to a few times, to see if he could help me brainstorm any solutions to these problems...... Our friend, Elsie, has been more then helpful with giving me support and ideas as well, which has been more then appreciated, which even is more helpful as Elsie is from the same town Jeanne and Cecil live in, so she knows everyone....bonus.
Hopefully today will be more productive then yesterday in the Contacting People Department ! I pray it is anyway....
After I made what phone calls I could, it was a mad dash to get going since I was attending a VON SMART Program (Seniors Maintaining Active Roles Together) session in Owen Sound at 9:30 a.m.. What is a SMART Program....well, it is a wonderful program designed for women and men for them to go out once a week and take part in an exercise program geared for persons 55 plus, at a reasonable fee.
I had been invited by VON SMART Program`s Coordinator for Grey-Bruce, Dorothy Embacher, to come check out a class to see if I would be interested in being a volunteer or an instructor, since there is such a program being run right here in Wiarton !
I made it to where the Summer program in Owen Sound was being held in good time. Once there I had many pleasant greetings from the people in attendance, as well as from all the volunteers. Dorothy is just `wonderful`, and I might add I am sure they could not have found a more involved and enthusiastic person to run the program as I found Dorothy to be.
I sat and observed the class for just over a half of hour, then had a chance to talk to Dorothy before I took my leave for back home. Dorothy will be contacting me with more instructor and volunteer information, as I was quite impressed and think it would be a wonderful program for me to participate in to do something for myself as well as give back to the community.
This program is available throughout Ontario, and across Canada, I believe, but if not maybe it would be something a person could look into starting in their own area, as it sure would be worth the try. Here are the a two VON links with regards to the VON SMART Program and its contact phone numbers:
http://www.von.ca/en/special_projects/senior_exercise.aspx
http://thehealthline.ca/displayService.aspx?id=10873
By the way, my observations from watching the class I attended were first off the number of person in attendance, the wonderful enthusiasm displayed by both volunteers and participates, and there was no pressure to keep a certain pace, enabling a person to step out into the sidelines to rest and go back in at any given time. I did not see one unhappy face on any one person participating !
I am having obviously a difficult time with the blog font changing on me despite all my efforts to correct it; I give up and it will be how it is.....lol.
By the time I got back home from Owen Sound, it was late in the morning and Rob was waiting patiently, as we had yet to go to Port Elgin on some business, where Rob also took me out for lunch and to a couple places shopping.
On our way home from Port Elgin, he had to take us back to the Cow Path Adventure we had last Thursday, since we hadn`t gotten to see the tractor we were going there in the first place to see......trust me, Rob went very slow while driving our car down that Cow Path......
``....and so the down the beaten trail of the Cow Path we go.``
``Until we finally arrive to our destination where we take leave of the safety of our vehicle...``
``....low and behold we come upon the hidden treasure from within the bowels of the bush.``
Rob just thought this little Ferguson Tractor was the sweetest little thing going at the moment....lol, you can take the boy off the farm but not the farm out of the boy, is that how it goes?
What a day ! By the time we got home, took Bandit and Lexus out, received a phone call from my sister, Donna, it was 5:00 p.m., and we were both "pooped". I was planning on going for a walk, but it certainly didn't happen last night.
I have promises from Rob to take me out to the Keady Market this morning, so I am not going to miss out on such an opportunity since we haven't been there together in years, and I would like some peaches to freeze for the Winter months.
Here it is almost 7:30 a.m. with Bandit & Lexus still needing out, Rob needing to bet out of bed, and me needing to get dressed and push for all this to get started so I can get going to the Keady Market ! Oops, I had better check in with the Wiarton weatherman before I do anything....
