Modem

 An interesting and remarkably busy time whilst the Modem was not working. Absolutely efficient the Rogers agent who came and replaced my modem. Working perfectly. Thank you Rogers. I need to buy a new phone though as my phone is over five years old now almost six years old. It is really my first phone as I just used his hand me downs as I seldom use the phone except for texting. I expect they are considerably more complicated now. 

Only read one chapter of Joshua yesterday but continued reading today and I have reached Chapter 14. This is a story of conquest, God's conquest for His chosen people. After the error made at the time of the taking of Jericho by one family the Israelites once again are obeying without question the rules that God has laid down for them to live by so that He can remain in the midst of their lives.  Still I do not see any comment that would lead me to think that a Messiah will come from God. The rules are the most important part of the daily lives of the Israeli and must be kept 100% at all times. 

Other than that it was simply a day to contemplate how to organize the house to best suit the work that we are both doing - me all the year and my daughter when she is here being my in person caregiver instead of being my caregiver at a distance. But she has a lot of projects on the go and her students are very busy doing a lot of work for her as well. 

I now have a large bin of paper to go through and shred if I do not need it for anything. I do find it hard to let go of paper even when it is no longer logical to retain it. But go it must as I will be drowning in paper otherwise. Being over 80 is rather lucky in some ways as one knows the days ahead are considerably shorter than the days that have already passed in my life.

What a change in life since I was a young child. We did have a family car as well as my father's trucks for his business. But most travel was by car for a family. It took almost twice as long to get to the cottage as it does now as speed limits were lower and roads less direct mostly passing through many many small towns and villages on the way anywhere. I remember when the St Lawrence Seaway was completed and my father wanted to drive and see it. He was like that. Mostly he just drove around the area but something new and spectacular was something that he wanted to see with his own eyes. 

My father traveled to Canada when he was just nine years of age with his mother. His father had already come six months earlier to take up a job with the now Canadian National Railway as a blacksmith. Grandpa loved his work although he only intended to stay ten years and then return to England - the railway had sent out a call for trained people and he answered that call. He had come in February and they could not land in Halifax as it was blocked by ice at their time of arrival so they landed in Maine. Grandpa was very nervous about that he said and the people headed for Canada were kept together and put on a train to Montreal which was where he was headed anyway. He had cousins in Montreal that he stayed with before he moved on to his job in southwestern Ontario.  

When we visited Ireland we went to see the Blarney Stone and I too kissed the Blarney Stone as my father had as a child when their boat stopped to take on water in Ireland on their way to Canada. He was surprised he always said when they stopped at Quebec where everyone who was not a British subject had to get off the boat and go through the usual investigation for arrival in a foreign country but being British Canada was generally thought of as an extension of Britain. Funny really when you think about it. But in 1947 Grandpa became a Canadian - he decided to be Canadian after all. When the time came to return to England after the ten years he had decided on the First World War was then over and the need for people to work was huge due to the tremendous loss of life that Canada underwent in the First World War. 

Must do my solitaire puzzles and then the basement to clean.