This past weekend I got busy and started Christmas baking.  Got two batches of nuts'n'bolts made - did not have all the 'preferred' ingredients - found out that Bugles are no longer available in Canada - I was shocked - what a lot of nerve these people have - but we made do - and of course we are unable to get Rice Chex and Corn Chex here either.  When I lived here I would always make a trip south over Thanksgiving and get them - or ask my personal shopper to keep any eye open for them if they should ever go on sale.  I will be spending Christmas in Sherwood Park with Marian, Gloria (her second eldest daughter), Elias (Goria's 2 year old son), Mom and Dad and of course me.  So I asked if there was any baking Gloria would like - and I got a list - so now I need to get off my duff and start baking - and of course wouldn't you know it - I am working more hours at the Post Office.

This has been an eventful week - so far.

Monday waited until after 8 to go for my walk - figured it was safe then - because all the routes should have been covered - got home around 8:30 or so - to two phone messages - both from the Post Office - both asking me go come into work.  Phoned Fay first - she is the head supervisor - she asked me to come in and cover two portions of LC13 - which is the first route I was trained on - said sure.  Then phoned Rick - who also offered me the same thing - told him I had called Fay already and accepted the two portions.  So, off I head to work.  Get there at 9:30 and have to wait until 11:00 for the mail to be sorted - new girl doing it and she did not have a clue what she was doing - not a good start.  So off I went at 11 - delivered the mail that I carried and then had to wait for 20 minutes for someone to deliver the bags to the relay box - day is getting better.  It is now starting to snow - making walking treacherous - glad I had the good sense to put on my long johns - skiff of snow is covering the ice on sidewalks and driveways.  And then I trip over a little 'step' - boom down I go - and of course my left knee (which is still recovering but doing nicely) takes the brunt of the fall - put out my right hand and end up with a bruise and a tiny cut on the heel of my hand.  My left knee is now very sore again - back to living on muscle relaxants and pain pills - DANG.  Even managed to scrape the knee through my pants and the long johns and to add insult to injury - put a tiny tear in the long johns.  SIGH.  Kept on snowing.  I managed to get the route done in the allotted time though - just kept on trucking.  The adage at the post office is to follow the mail and when you run out look for a relay box - I did that - and the girl who pulled it left two bundles in a relay box and did not take me back there with the mail to deliver it - and she also left me with no mail and no relay box.  So there I am standing with no mail - no relay box and the snow just coming down - so I had to 'dead walk' (when you are walking with no mail to deliver) back to the relay box to get the mail - needless to say I was not favourably impressed.  Oh well - managed to get it done and head back to the office - then I made my way to the other office to do my RTS - only to not be allowed on the computer - kept telling me 'User is not active' - ARGH.  So I sorted through two boxes of mail getting them in order - makes it faster to label them.  And of course ended up getting thoroughly chilled - was warm enough while I was walking - but once I stopped - I got chilled - not wearing heavy enough clothes - plus add to that the fact that my clothes were damp from sweat - yes hard to believe that while walking in freezing temps I sweat - gotta love it.  Anyhow - left at 5:30 - since I started at 9:30 - and figured I would catch the 5:45 bus - only problem is - it did not show up - so had to wait for the 6:15 bus - standing outside - already chilled - getting even colder.  Got home - warmed up some soup and Marian had cooked up some sauerkraut and ham sausage - so we ate that - then I had a hot shower and crawled into bed - did not have the brains to take any muscle relaxants or pain killers - so had a very restless night - woke up with a headache on Tuesday.

Tuesday I figured I would have a nice relaxing day - cook up some pork tenderloin that I had been marinating since Sunday, cook up some sweet potato and parsnip and a squash that was sitting on the counter.  Did up the dishes from Monday - and talked with my buddy Margaret - she is currently in Vancouver for a couple of months to spend some time with her daughter and grandkids who are going through a rough time right now.  Got off the phone - two messages from the Post Office - called in - could I come in and do a portion of LC13 - the portion that did not get done yesterday - the walk is divided into 3 walk portions - I had done two of them the day before and someone else was supposed to do the third - but did not have time - so I went in at 11:30 and did that - and then back over to the other Post Office to do the RTS - this time the computer worked - thank goodness.  Have now figured out that I will be doing the RTS - it is considered my 'position' - but will hopefully be getting two portions of walking routes to do as well - so I can get more hours in - had been hoping to be able to get to working days - but I think my 'fate' is to be working the 2-6 shift no matter what - not thrilled - but I will continue to take it.  Was a bit better dressed yesterday - no falling - but the same girl had pulled the mail - so I was left doing a lot of back tracking - did not walk nearly as farm as on Monday - Monday I walked 7.349 miles and Tuesday only 3.99 - my hips and glutes are letting me know they are not really thrilled with all this extra activity - but that is just tough.  I am really hoping to be working and walking a lot more between now and Christmas.  Finished the route and was back at the office by 1:30 - divested myself of the keys and the RTS mail - and then took a taxi to the other office for my 2nd portion of work - RTS.  My feet were cold - I am out walking in my runners - nice and airy for the summer - but not very good at keeping the damp out in the winter - and I am too cheap to go out and get a pair of good boots - would cost too much - because I would have to make sure they were good enough for walking in - so I took my shoes off - and put them in the storage room right beside the computer - really nice and warm in there - sat on the chair with my stocking feet - and did a box of mail - takes about 1.5 hours or so - and after I finished I went and put them back on - and they were nice and dry and warm - and my feet were warm again.  Finished work at 6 - left to get the 6:15 bus and - guess what - it did not show up until the 6:45 bus was there - and he would not take any passengers because he was late - so we had to wait another 10 minutes to leave - at least we were sitting on a relatively warm bus - but it is most frustrating - did not get home until after 7:00.  Marian was getting concerned about me.  Had a bowl of soup and some of the charred remains of the supper I had made - Marian had gone shopping after she dropped me off at work and had forgotten the food was in the oven cooking - meat is very crunchy, vegetables were all right - but the squash seeds are cinders.  Oh well - such is life. 

Tiger - one of the cats - has a growth on one of her back paws - keeps coming back - Marian took her to the vet before she went to Calgary for the birth of her latest grandchild - March sometime - because the growth was back - she asked the vet to excise the growth and biopsy it - when she got back she had a whopping $1100 bill and all they had done was two stitches and cleaned the cat's teeth and taken out a tooth - no biopsy.  When I got home last night the paw had burst - she was leaving bloody prints all over the place - so I held her while Marian 'bandaged' it.  She put the bandage on too tight and ended up making a real mess - poor Tiger was walking around shaking her paw trying to get this thing off of it - and she was by herself at the front door growling and hissing at her foot.  I went and got her and that is when we saw that the situation had been made worse - so I held her while Marian got the bandage off - I then carried her to her kennel to put her in it - and she was shaking the afflicted paw all the while - needless to say I was covered in blood and she managed to dislodge the growth on the way - so Marian picked it up once we noticed it and put it in a bag in the fridge - she is wanting to take it to the vet to get it biopsied.  Will see what transpires.

After all that excitement - still with my headache that I woke up with - I had a hot shower and crashed.    Woke up this morning at 5:45 - got up and showered and dressed.  I need to eat and do some dishes - not sure what is going to happen for the rest of the day - time will tell.