Three months and a half

I have abandoned my blog for almost three weeks. Without trying to look for excuses, I should say that it's been quite a difficult time for me and my family. One reason--it was apparent that the last two weeks of summer Irina and Dmitri had been especially struggling to cope with the situation and it was very painful to watch that, not being able to offer any kind of light at the end of the tunnel except a hope that the things should turn around. Another reason--these recent three weeks were packed with events. On September 1, Member of Parliament from NDP Hon. Peter Julian had a press conference in the First Lutheran Church regarding delays in releasing my personal files from RCMP, CBSA and CSIS. Also, we had been working on preparing the church for the benefit concert scheduled for September 12, which had to be cancelled just five days before it due to the flooding in the basement after a thirty minute waterfall-like rain that happened early evening on Labour Day. That rain overwhelmed the city's drainage system and about two hundred homes in the area were flooded. All last week several volunteers including me had been moving furniture and various stuff from the basement to the main floor, trying to organize things and make the best use of the space. On September 10, there was a hearing in the Federal Court of my application for Judicial Review of the decision made by the Minister of Public Safety. From several people who were able to attend the hearing I heard that the lawyer representing the Minister reportedly said that the Government didn't have an issue with me as a security risk which I find an extremely important statement. Starting this Monday, life at the First Lutheran began coming back to a more or less normal routine making it possible for me to return to my blog. The story of the two cats, Santosh and Onni, has a sudden ending and I am going to finish it in my next post.