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Stores here in Vancouver are only taking cash or credit. I heard one clerk say the only debit that was working was TD debit.
I heard the same here in Southern Ontario. My cell is with Koodo and we have Shaw Direct satellite so it’s was just internet not working at home as TekSavvy uses Rogers lines.
MQ, it sucks to be bedridden. Has your bf tried listening to audiobooks? All the best sellers seem to be available in that format and the readers are usually very good, some with professional acting experience. I always have a few audiobooks downloaded in case of power failure. Podcasts would work too. I have a portable BT speaker which I can also connect to a portable charger so my iPad won’t drain much when I listen.
If your bf has a local library card, he should be able to download audiobooks for free. They all have a time limit though. I’ve been a member of audible.com/.ca for several years. There’s no time limit on purchases and a subscription now includes access to hundreds of free books.
MQ, it sucks to be bedridden. Has your bf tried listening to audiobooks? All the best sellers seem to be available in that format and the readers are usually very good, some with professional acting experience. I always have a few audiobooks downloaded in case of power failure. Podcasts would work too. I have a portable BT speaker which I can also connect to a portable charger so my iPad won’t drain much when I listen.
If your bf has a local library card, he should be able to download audiobooks for free. They all have a time limit though. I’ve been a member of audible.com/.ca for several years. There’s no time limit on purchases and a subscription now includes access to hundreds of free books.
Thanks, that is what I have been thinking. Want to do more of that. I have Audible. We have listened to a couple of things together, and last year I read an actual paper book to him. Just got another book to read to him.
I listen to podcasts when I go for my daily walk. True crime, which doesn't thrill him, but we should be able to find something he likes.
I don't think he has a library card here anymore, if he ever did. He hasn't actually lived here for about nine years, having moved to his lake house back then. (The house where we are now is the house in where he raised his sons, who still live here, and I need their help.) It doesn't matter, because he cannot actually download or play anything himself anyway. I would have to do that for him, since he cannot control/coordinate his hands. But listening is something we could do.
Great idea to download some books in advance of power outages.
MQ, Several years ago I suddenly landed up totally bedridden in hospital for several days due to a medication side effect. It was incredibly boring there with nothing to do and also a bit disconcerting to be completely cut off from what was going on in the world. So I can relate a tiny bit to your boyfriend’s situation.
MQ, Several years ago I suddenly landed up totally bedridden in hospital for several days due to a medication side effect. It was incredibly boring there with nothing to do and also a bit disconcerting to be completely cut off from what was going on in the world. So I can relate a tiny bit to your boyfriend’s situation.
Thank you. That is scary that this happened to you! Thank God it was temporary.
Yes, a bit more than a year ago, he was a big, strong healthy man, even though he was nearing 70, who could carry heavy bags of bird seed (we fed a lot of critters at the lake house), shoveled snow, wrote on the computer, fished, did yard work, etc. Then one day last May he had double vision, then his legs stopped going where he told them to go, his speech began to slur, and he could no longer write his name and developed a tremor in one arm. We thought it was a stroke, but in retrospect, a stroke would have been a wonderful diagnosis because with a stroke, rehabilitation is possible. This is paraneoplastic cerebellar degeneration, an immune reaction to a rare type of lung cancer we still wouldn't even know was there except for the neurological symptoms. It destroys cells in the cerebellum responsible for coordination. Within three months he was bedridden, hard to understand, had difficulty swallowing, and could no longer feed himself without food flying all over the place or do simple things like use a remote. He has lost half his body weight. The damage is permanent, but his mind is still sound. The cancer is incurable, but so far, he feels no effects of it, no cough, no pain. You never know what life will throw at you.
I am determined to get him back to his lake house for the duration of the summer and the fall. It is beautiful there, and it was his dream to retire on a lake, so he bought the house on the lake about nine years ago and moved there. We probably cannot do another winter there, but I am going to get him back there while the weather is good. He can't fish or write or use his camera or play guitar anymore, but he can watch the wildlife and the light change over the lake and we can sit and listen to music together, which is another one of his loves. (He's the guy you'd want as you your phone-a-friend if you were in a trivia game show and the question had to do with music.)
Thank you. That is scary that this happened to you! Thank God it was temporary.
Yes, a bit more than a year ago, he was a big, strong healthy man, even though he was nearing 70, who could carry heavy bags of bird seed (we fed a lot of critters at the lake house), shoveled snow, wrote on the computer, fished, did yard work, etc. Then one day last May he had double vision, then his legs stopped going where he told them to go, his speech began to slur, and he could no longer write his name and developed a tremor in one arm. We thought it was a stroke, but in retrospect, a stroke would have been a wonderful diagnosis because with a stroke, rehabilitation is possible. This is paraneoplastic cerebellar degeneration, an immune reaction to a rare type of lung cancer we still wouldn't even know was there except for the neurological symptoms. It destroys cells in the cerebellum responsible for coordination. Within three months he was bedridden, hard to understand, had difficulty swallowing, and could no longer feed himself without food flying all over the place or do simple things like use a remote. He has lost half his body weight. The damage is permanent, but his mind is still sound. The cancer is incurable, but so far, he feels no effects of it, no cough, no pain. You never know what life will throw at you.
I am determined to get him back to his lake house for the duration of the summer and the fall. It is beautiful there, and it was his dream to retire on a lake, so he bought the house on the lake about nine years ago and moved there. We probably cannot do another winter there, but I am going to get him back there while the weather is good. He can't fish or write or use his camera or play guitar anymore, but he can watch the wildlife and the light change over the lake and we can sit and listen to music together, which is another one of his loves. (He's the guy you'd want as you your phone-a-friend if you were in a trivia game show and the question had to do with music.)
Thank you. That is scary that this happened to you! Thank God it was temporary.
Yes, a bit more than a year ago, he was a big, strong healthy man, even though he was nearing 70 .... <snipped for brevity>
MQ, thank you for the facts; they are a little more than you've shared before, and I completely sympathize. My father was much like your SO.
I am unsure what is possible as far as allowing you into Canada beyond your six-month visa (plus humanitarian extensions), but if I can help in any way, I would be happy to. I'm not sure what I could do, but if I can, I will. You would make a great addition to the Canadian body politic, and I would be happy to have you as a permanent resident of Canada. As I'm sure most if not all on the Canada forum would.
MQ, thank you for the facts; they are a little more than you've shared before, and I completely sympathize. My father was much like your SO.
I am unsure what is possible as far as allowing you into Canada beyond your six-month visa (plus humanitarian extensions), but if I can help in any way, I would be happy to. I'm not sure what I could do, but if I can, I will. You would make a great addition to the Canadian body politic, and I would be happy to have you as a permanent resident of Canada. As I'm sure most if not all on the Canada forum would.
Thank you, Chevy. Right now life is a one-day/week-at-a-time thing, so I'm not looking too far ahead just yet.
The plan, when I left an apparently healthy man in March 2021 to go home and settle my mother's/sell her house, was for us to marry upon my return and for him to sponsor me for permanent residency. However, while I'm not sure about the laws in Canada for what happens when old people get married, we expected we'd have to first do a pre-nup since we both have adult children and separate assets that should go to our respective offspring upon our deaths. (I am divorced, he was widowed.) That never happened because he got sick and we spent last year traveling to hospitals and places that do scans and MRIs while they tried to figure out what this was. Now there doesn't seem to be a point in doing that, although we have no idea what his life expectancy is.
It is funny, I have always been drawn to colder places, and a few years ago before I met him, I'd watched the three Millennium Series movies (Girl With The Dragon Tattoo, etc.) in Swedish with English subtitles, and I became interested in Sweden and mulled over the idea of moving there when life allowed. But to my surprise, I discovered that there was a northern country only 500 miles away on the same continent where they even speak English!
I think that no matter what, I will likely spend time here in the future, even if it's on a visitor basis. There's a lot to see from "coast-to-coast-to-coast", as I hear them say on the news, although I do believe that a lake in the woods in Ontario will always hold a place in my heart. I have spent time in my life near the ocean and at other lakes in the mountains of Pennsylvania where I spent summers as a kid, and of course way too much time in New York City, but that spot is where I felt most content and had sense of belonging. I am so grateful to Canada for their decision in October of 2020 to include committed partners of Canadians in the extended family category who would be allowed to enter the country during the pandemic. That last winter from November to March of 2021 that I spent up there was simply wonderful. Better than Sweden, I'm sure.
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