Reality as I know it

Well now it’s back to the reality of the domestic life after all the ‘gallivanting around’ I’ve done during the month of April. From vacation, to teaching to conference it’s been quite a whirlwind of (albeit very positive but hectic) activity. It’s always a professional and personal boost to meet with others in your practice area as OHNs work for the most part in isolation. And it’s always nice to get to Halifax - great to discover some Thai food on Wed. and try out the Soho on Argyle Street on Thursday - both would be worth repeating. Now after a bit of recharging this weekend it will be straight ahead as I’m off to Yarmouth on Monday etc.

It was wonderful to see my former boss (best one I’ve ever had in the past 30 yrs) who was a presenter at the conference and get caught up a bit on all the changes - she has a new partner (blended family) in her life and this has meant a move to a new (his) home. She was describing the challenges in transition to entering his space - he’s self employed so occupying the space all/most of the time, he has definite ideas about the design/décor and absolute veto power about what goes where etc. There was an instant rush of recognition as I described my exact feelings over the past year as we’ve moved to this new house. Now granted we have lived together 30 years as of June 4th but… the as I described the feeling of moving into HIS house, the approval required for what would could be moved in, where it would go and the need (after at least four months) to have an extreme fit to have the aforementioned approved pictures hung on the walls just got my blood boiling even in remembering it. I explained that it was really only over the Christmas holidays when I was home for the 10 days that I even got to the point of liking the new house let alone feeling settled in it. It is difficult to live in a space with men with definite design ideas. One of the drawbacks of them making such great choices on the colors, set up etc. Sigh.

My next projects are getting my head wrapped around all the changes in the first aid curriculum as I have a course to teach next week for the local hardware store and…..a memoir writing workshop which is being held next weekend. The yard work will have to wait. My excuse is that it’s been too wet and the ground is too soggy - not entirely untrue - but the birds are singing, the spring bulbs are flowering, it’s very mild (sweatshirt only) to walk the dog and the lawn on the old place is a nice green. Still can’t believe that we managed to miss the 8 inches of snow which the Easter blizzard dumped locally while we applying sunscreen in Miami. I have contacted a local neighborhood boy (who doesn’t drive that - this being a prerequisite to catch one) to dig the remaining space in front of the house for the flowerbed. The left hand side was done last fall by the two in-house males but it will be next spring and I’ll still be nagging about that flowerbed if I leave it to them.

The boat was launched last week just after I returned from vacation. It was a huge relief to see the empty boat shop through the open front door when I was on my way home from work and find that once it was launched they just steamed her over to the plant in Smithsville. There are still lots of odds and ends to finish up but over ¾ of the traps are in the water, so getting there. This means that whatever time is left over in HRHs day goes towards overhauling gear or working on the ‘newly modified’ boat. The price per pound of lobster has fallen to a more usual price of $8 with talk of it falling to $7 on Monday (from an unprecedented high of $15 per lb. just a few weeks ago) as supply / demand balance. I see lots of pacing and arm waving as I look up towards the stack of gear by the barn - apparently the man of the house (insulated coveralls) and one of the neighbours (insulated shirt) who has dropped by are catching lobsters or dealing with some new issues in the regulatory aspect of the fishery as is the usual practice. At least with better weather coming these loud (most commercial fishermen have some % of noise induced hearing loss due to NOT wearing hearing protection) recycled conversations don’t have to be held inside the house. They can solve the problems of the world without me as an audience.

Must run, the man of the house has decided that since the April showers have cleared it's now barbeque weather so I must find some vittles. Later.